Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.
Jenna left Dan at his door with a quiet goodbye and a little smile. He couldn't say anything in reply due to his mind reeling over the conversation he just heard. It was all too confusing to work out. Dan heard Jenna say that Charlie was teaching them incorrectly, that he shouldn't be helping them learn to use their powers. He should be teaching them how to not use them. Dan agreed with Charlie- what a waste. Besides, the whole reason Dan's bitterness was edging away was because he was excited about getting better at containing the heat.
Dan turned the handle to his room. He pushed on the door with his shoulder. It was locked. He dug deep into his pockets and his wallet. He found no key. Great, Dan thought, I forgot my key inside. He sat on the floor and leaned his back against the cool door. Dan hoped Phil came back soon. He had an aching desire to tell his roommate what he overheard.
Footsteps echoed down the hall before someone else turned the corner into view. It was another boy; he looked around Dan's age, whistling happily as he walked. He paused when he noticed Dan sitting on the floor.
"Locked out?" he said. Dan nodded solemnly. The boy looked over Dan's head. "Ah, you must be Phil's new roommate," he said, "I'm PJ."
"I'm Dan," he sighed, giving a little wave.
PJ continued down the corridor and paused in front of the door with the number 520 on it. He pulled a silver key ring out of his pocket. "Lucky for you I live across the hall. Come on in."
Dan got to his feet and followed PJ into the room. It looked just like his own place, but even shinier. Every wall was covered in some sort of machinery. On one wall was a huge flat screen television, the thing that Dan was most excited about. He didn't know how much he missed TV until it was taken from him.
"Wow," he muttered, looking around.
"Sorry, I know this looks a little strange to other people," said PJ, sitting on the sofa stuffed underneath a smattering of monitors and circuit boards, "I'm a technopath. I make technology."
Dan raised an eyebrow in confusion and took a seat in an armchair. "You made all this yourself?" he asked.
"Well, not literally. I can't just shoot memory cards out of my fingertips, although that would be quite helpful. I just know how to build things, make things work. I don't even have to know what it is." said PJ with a shrug.
"Wicked," commented Dan.
PJ grinned. "It is pretty cool. I don't even have to touch them. Here," he said and got to his feet. He rummaged through one the cabinets for a moment before producing a wrench. He handed it to Dan. "Smash something."
Dan stared at the tool. "What?"
"Smash something, go on."
Dan looked around for a moment. He walked up to a monitor on the wall and held up the wrench. He cringed as he smashed it through the screen. He moved carefully away from the splintering glass.
"Now watch," said PJ. He waved his hand in the direction of the smashed screen. Dan watched, his jaw dropping, as the tiny pieces of glass followed PJ's palm and glided right into their places. The cracks repaired themselves. It was like watching it break in slow motion.
"You have the coolest power ever," Dan said, turning to PJ.
He shrugged. "Thanks. Chris used to think it was annoying, but he likes having TV too much to complain anymore," he said, "And Chris is my roommate, by the way."
Dan nodded and placed the wrench on the counter. "So you're allowed to have all this in here?" he asked.
PJ laughed. "This isn't a college, Dan. We don't have room checks. And besides, we're adults; we can do whatever we want," he said, "Except leave. But between you and me, we do that anyway."
"We do?" Dan asked, surprised.
"Of course. We're human, we're going to get stir crazy. On weekends, a lot of the officials watching the security cameras go home, so we've never been caught." said PJ with a grin.
Dan sat and thought about that for a moment. He hadn't had time to think about the fact they he was practically locked up in here. It made sense that the students would have secret missions to get themselves out for some fun every once in a while. And the truth of the matter was, Dan thought, they had powers and the officials didn't.
"You should come with us sometime. Phil usually comes too," PJ added.
Dan nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'm sure it's better than wasting away in here all weekend," he said, although that's probably what he would rather do. He's never been one to go out, even in secondary school with his friends. One time he went to a party and drank a lot more than he should have, resulting in him trying to sleep in a bed that already had his friend's parents in it. That didn't go over well for anybody, and Dan was so mortified he never went to another house party.
"That's the spirit," said PJ as he fiddled with a circuit board by the bathroom door.
Dan looked out the still open door when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Phil was there, leaning against the doorframe. PJ hadn't noticed yet. Dan raised his eyebrows, but Phil held a finger to his lips. Dan didn't say anything as he crept into the room and stood behind PJ. Phil took a breath and blew on the back of PJ's neck. The other boy erupted into a fit of shivers and spun around. Phil leaned his head back, laughing.
"Stop it!" PJ exclaimed and smacked Phil on the arm, "That's like being thrown into a cold shower. Jesus Christ."
Phil crossed his arms. "Couldn't resist," he said. He glanced over at Dan. "Are you corrupting my friend?"
"I wouldn't call it corrupting, per say. More like informing him of our debauchery," said the technopath as he fitted his circuits back to the wall.
"Uh huh," Phil rolled his eyes and winked at Dan quickly. The latter's eyes widened a bit.
"Besides, I've shown him all this," PJ said, waving his arms around to gesture to his room, "So now he's my friend too."
Phil chuckled and walked over to hold his hand out to Dan. He took it and stood before he quickly let go. "I suppose it's too late now," sighed Phil.
"Ha ha, you git," PJ mocked.
"Well, see you later, Peej," said Phil. He turned to Dan and nodded out the door. Dan followed Phil into their room, which was already unlocked. Dan opened his bedroom door and through his book onto his bed. "So, how did you end up in PJ's room?" asked Phil from the sofa.
"I was locked out and he happened to be passing by," said Dan as he sat on the other end of the couch.
Phil nodded. "Sorry I was gone this afternoon. Usually I come back here right after lunch, but I had a meeting with, uh, Jenna," he said with a grin, "You know Jenna, right?"
"Yeah, she's my case manager, or whatever," said Dan. He thought back to what he heard earlier again. It involved him and Phil- shouldn't Phil know?
"She gets a lot of the natural powers. She was mine too," he said, "We're pretty good friends now."
Dan nodded and played with a thread on his pants. He glanced up at Phil, who was looking at him intently, looking a little concerned. Dan and Phil haven't known each other very long, but Dan felt like his roommate was easier to get along with than anyone else. He was sure Phil wouldn't be upset if he told him he had eavesdropped on Jenna.
"So, I got lost trying to get out of the library," Dan began.
"That used to happen to me all the time. That requited reading thing is extremely dumb," said Phil.
"Right but, the thing is, when I was lost, I heard a conversation I probably wasn't supposed to," Dan said, looking down at his hands, "It was Jenna and Charlie."
Phil's expression changed. It became darker, but more interested. "What did you hear?"
Dan folded his hands nervously. "They were, uh, talking about me. Jenna was upset that Charlie told me to try and burn the punching bag this morning. She said that he wasn't supposed to be teaching me to use my powers, even though that's what I came here to do, right?" he said.
"Right," Phil agreed distantly, turning his gaze to the floor, "Anything else?"
"Charlie said it was a waste to teach me not to use my powers, and that he would have to retrain me or something," he continued, "And your name came up as well."
Phil's eyebrows shot up, and he asked the floor, "What did they say?"
"Charlie said something about training us together, because our powers-"
"Complement each other," Phil finished.
"Yeah," sighed Dan, "Do you have any idea what that means? I mean it kind of freaked me out… why would Jenna be upset that I might be able to do something with myself? She seemed to think my abilities were cool yesterday when we met."
"She does think they're cool, I promise," said Phil, "but the Jenna you met was the one who has to be polite to keep her place around here. When Jenna isn't working, she's actually quite crass, but still a great girl."
Dan nodded, although he wasn't sure that changed his opinion on the entire encounter. "Oh, and Charlie called her 'Shutter'." he added.
Phil's head snapped back up. "Did he really?" he wondered.
"Does that sound like something I would make up?" said Dan, rolling his eyes. Why was this getting so serious? Why was Phil acting so different since he brought this up? Was he really that surprised that Dan eavesdropped?
"Well, alright then," said Phil, ruffling his hair absently, "That's really strange, Dan. Maybe Jenna is just impressed by what you can do? She was impressed with me… then I proved not to be very good at the whole powers thing."
"Maybe," he replied.
Phil reached over and patted Dan on the knee, probably trying to be comforting, but he really just came off as awkward. At least he tried. "Don't worry too much. The guys with higher-up jobs have a lot to deal with around here." he said.
Dan nodded but decided to still worry about it. He couldn't get the conversation out of his head. Phil said it was nothing, but it sure sounded serious, and he kind of hoped it was more exciting than it seemed to be.
The next day in practice, Charlie didn't want to Dan to burn the punching bag anymore. He didn't even tell him to focus on not burning it. In fact, Charlie told Dan to try and actually punch it.
"What?" said Dan once Charlie had walked away. He stared at the offending nylon sack before him, slowly squinting his eyes into a glare.
"You alright?" Phil asked.
"No! I'm to actually practice hitting this thing," he exclaimed, "I thought this was a state of the art facility for freaky people with freaky powers and I'm supposed actually use it for what it was meant for?"
Phil held in his laughter. "I think that was the longest statement I've ever heard."
"Oh, shut up," Dan rolled his eyes, but grinned anyway, "And it was a question, you turnip."
So Dan tried to actually punch the punching bag. And it was hard. Phil laughed several times while he watched, especially when Dan came reeling backwards after his knuckles exploded in pain. This was the last thing he wanted to be doing. He didn't have enough upper body strength for it to actually help his punching skill (or whatever this was meant to be doing) nor did he have thick enough skin to be punching nylon. Plus, this wasn't helping him at all.
He had just broken skin on his right hand when he looked around, distracted, and noticed Jenna had appeared. She was standing with Charlie at the front of the room. She looked away deliberately when she and Dan made eye contact. He didn't understand. She didn't want him using his powers and she didn't want him not using his powers. This school was getting more and more confusing by the day.
Phil noticed Dan rubbing his hand over his split knuckles. "You alright?" he asked again, sincerely.
"Yeah," Dan replied, "It's just this stupid thing. I don't know how to throw a punch. What's the point of practicing what I don't know?"
"Let me see," said Phil, holding out his own hand. Dan placed his in the other's palm, watching in interest as again a tiny cloud of steam and a faint hissing noise issued from the contact. "It looks painful, but at least you aren't bleeding."
"I will be if I have to do any more of this," said Dan.
"Here," Phil muttered. He placed his other hand over the top of Dan's, and Dan felt the odd sensation as if he's dunked his hand in bucket of ice water. He's never had the sensation of being cold before. He almost pulled away, especially when the scraped on his knuckles started to sting, but Phil let go first.
Dan's hand wasn't scraped up anymore. It was still red and irritated, but the skin was no longer split. Dan stared at it. "What the fuck did you do?" he asked Phil, more curious than anything.
"I have no idea," Phil replied quickly, shaking his head, "I thought it would just take the pain away. I used to ice my brother's scrapes and bumps all the time. I didn't know I could… heal you."
"Have you done it before?" Dan asked, holding up his hand and studying it from different angles.
"No. I'm just as baffled as you are," Phil replied, stepping closer to look at Dan's hand as well.
Suddenly Charlie's words flooded back into his head. Dan and Phil were opposites when it came to powers. If they trained together, they could work off each other pretty well. "Maybe it has something to do with our powers," Dan mused, "I'm hot to the touch, and you're cold. Maybe we cancel each other out, in a way."
Phil nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that could make sense."
"I wonder if I could heal you…" Dan trailed off. He heard the familiar sound of clacking heels and looked just in time to see Jenna and Charlie approaching them.
Jenna folded her hands in front of her. "I'd like to ask you to meet us outside the library after your lunch," she said, "I'd like to have a small meeting."
"We just met yesterday," said Phil, looking panicked at the idea.
"I know. I was talking to Dan," said Jenna as she looked between the boys, "Please. I promise there won't be another one like this."
Dan and Phil nodded. Jenna turned and left, but Charlie lingered for a moment. "For the record, Dan, you suck at fighting," he said before turning to follow Jenna. Dan made a face but couldn't argue.
"Rude," he muttered.
"Well, that was cryptic," said Phil, rubbing his arm, "Are you going?"
Dan nodded right away. "Of course I am. After what I overheard yesterday, I hope this meeting is Jenna telling me that I don't have to do these silly training sessions anymore. Or that I don't have to read the history books anymore. Maybe she's the one who's going to teach me," he said.
"Maybe," said Phil, "but I doubt it. Jenna has all the offensive power she needs without fists."