PART 11: as told by Massie

"Mass? Mass?"

I opened my eyes slowly, revealing a heartening scene of Claire, Cam, Dempsey, and Derrick hovering over me, looking extremely concerned.

Each one of them presumably had sustained minor injuries, because they each had a least one small bandage positioned somewhere around their body.

I tried to sit up, and groaned.

"You're in a hospital," Dempsey told me slowly. "They're treating you for minor burns."

"Foster City?" I whispered.

Derrick shook his head. "No. And the doctors and nurses don't know, so be subtle." He smirked, characteristically playful, I speculated happily.

"Oh god," I moaned. My entire body, which seemed virtually unscathed, ached and hurt. "I'm not burnt anywhere but my hands, why does my entire body hurt?"

Dempsey frowned. "Don't you remember?"

Derrick giggled quietly while I thought.

"I just remember…" I trailed off, a new type of pain greeting me. Landon: dead.

"Massie," Dempsey said in a wary tone, "you saved him."

I bolted upright in my bed, clutching my blankets. "What? He's alive?"

I frantically tried to detach myself from the straps that kept me in the bed. "Where is he?"

"But if you don't remember…" Dempsey exchanged looks with the others. He turned back to me, ignoring the fact I was thrashing wildly, trying to free myself. "I held onto your aunt for nineteen seconds. Maybe that one second I spared kept her alive for a little. Though I assumed she was dead instantly. Because the only way you couldn't remember is if she controlled your mind for those few seconds."

"But why would her aunt control Massie to save Landon?" Cam pointed out. "She hated supers. And she had just been nearly killed by one."

"She wouldn't do that, especially on the verge of death," Claire agreed. "And you know how people are after they've experienced the death touch. Remember the concierge? He was acting insane."

"Maybe the temporary insanity was what drove her to do it," Dempsey said thoughtfully.

"Will you all shut up and tell me what happened, or tell me where Landon is?" I nearly shouted.

"Well, just as you were coming through the flames to meet me," Dempsey began to explain, "you suddenly went all stoic. Then you turned and ran to Landon. And you grabbed his arm. You screamed a lot at that point, I guess because of the death touch he acquired from me, and then you teleported him."

"And teleporting someone with a death touch put you in a coma for four days," Claire added softly.

I racked my brain for a memory of this heroic rescue, but it must've been mind-control that made me do it, because I had no recollection of saving Landon.

"So what happened to you, Dempsey?"

He flushed a little. "Well, uh, I just ran out of there."

"Sorry about ditching you like that. You could've died," I said meekly. Whoever was influencing my mind obviously had only the intent of saving Landon, and didn't care for Dempsey at all.

"You were under mind-control." Dempsey shrugged.

Someone burst through the door suddenly, panting—Landon. His eyes landed on me, and he practically flew across the room to my side.

"Massie, Massie," he said, still trying to catch his breath. "I'm, so, glad, you're, alive, and so glad, you, saved, me, I," he paused to swallow some air, "love you."

I smiled. "It wasn't me, you know. It was a mysterious mind-controller."

"I know," he grinned sheepishly. "I'm still grateful."

I tried to hug him, but the restraints on the bed kept me from doing so.

"Where did I teleport you, by the way?" I inquired curiously.

"To your home," Claire answered. "Then you were unconscious, so your mom took us all to the hospital."

"Did you tell her about Jose?" I asked quietly, lowering my eyes.

"Yeah," Cam said. "She didn't respond well, but she understood it had to be done."

So all was well and resolved. Granted, the founders were still scouring the country for us, and we were no longer out of their reach in Foster City, but as we always did, we'd come up with something.

Someone knocked on the door of my hospital room. Claire tentatively opened the door, and a handsome suited man holding a brief case stood in the threshold, an old fashioned pipe hanging from his mouth.

"Are you the six supers who successfully infiltrated Foster City?" he asked, removing the pipe from his mouth and grinning widely at us.

We all exchanged wary expressions.

"Um, no," Cam volunteered when no one else would.

The strange man closed the door behind him and extended his arm towards Dempsey. Dempsey shook his hand, followed by Landon, who both seemed equally as puzzled.

"Lovely gloves you two wear," he said smugly, jamming the pipe back into his mouth. "Two death touch, that's what the report reads."

"Who are you?" I demanded. "And what report?" This man was clever, and organized. He seemed authoritative, but didn't treat us as inferiors.

"My name's Josh. Dr. Josh E. Hotz." The pipe hung precariously from his red-lipped smile. "I have a proposition to make."

"Go on," Dempsey said, narrowing his eyes.

"I work for a group, located in New York City called The Violet Crusade. Everyone who works for this force is a super. And we're all working towards a common goal."

I stared at this handsome businessman type in wonder. I'd heard of organizations bent towards abolishing supers, but never one that supported them and consisted of only super members.

"The Violet Crusade helps people. Basically, we recruit powerful, brave, good supers. We set them up in normal lives in New York City, and every night they gather and work towards achieving good. Fighting crime, all that stuff." Josh leaned against the wall and chewed distractedly on his pipe. "These supers never reveal their identity to the public. We issue masks, costumes if you will. They help stifle crime."

Derrick was slack-jawed. "So basically, the Violet Crusade is a secret organization for…super heroes?"

"Exactly," Josh said. He looked up expectantly at his astounded audience. "Whad'ya think, super heroes, New York City, that work for ya?"

I looked to Landon, who shrugged. Claire and Cam were tittering nervously at the idea, and Derrick seemed merely in awe. Dempsey was stony faced, but he didn't seem to be rejecting the idea.

"Well, I'm in," I announced, and Josh stomped his foot triumphantly. "The teleporter's in! Who's next?"

It was a little miffing, the fact that this man knew way too much information about us.

Slowly, the members of the group agreed.

"Fantastic!" Josh crowed. Without even uttering a good bye, he swept out of the room.

He had left a small piece of paper on the floor. It read: to all auditioning supers, meet at the biggest statue in Central park, Friday, at midnight.

"Wow," I breathed. "No time for recovery, I suppose. We better get going."

"Recovery?" Landon scoffed playfully. "Who needs to spare time for that." He leaned in and kissed me. "Especially when we got so much adventure coming."

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THE END