Barcode: Legend of Apollo (13 page)

I shake my head, “Nothing like that, but I don’t remember much either.”

Seeming suspicious of my response, Casey says, “Let’s get home.”

I read through my text messages as we walk to the truck. The only name I don’t see is my pest, Michelle.

I feel more discouraged after reading the messages than relieved. Knowing I’ve worried everyone mortifies me to the point I can hardly stand.

At my grandad’s military truck, I lean against the door with one hand on the window and the other on my phone. Casey doesn’t get in either. He tries not to watch me, but looks over occasionally.

“Casey, can I stay at the arena for a bit?”

Expecting him to say no, I pull on the door handle and grit my teeth. I’m not ready to go home to Hayley’s yelling or Dennis’ nurses inspecting me. I want to be alone.

Casey hops into the truck and locks the door before I can open my side. With a simple smile, he drives away into the sunset.

Feeling a little less like crap, I return to the arena. Trying to find a reason for my stay on campus, I sit down in our rock garden directly next to a waterfall. Tons of students are studying, but they’re too busy to notice me.

The white noise from the small waterfall drowns out the rest of the world. It creates peace that can’t be found amongst the chaos. I use it to clear my thoughts and ignore the issues that are everywhere except in this area of campus.

Apes are constantly fighting, debating on which politicians are mightier or what gladiators influence their fighting styles. Demigods are constantly in a rush to become the first promoted to the god level classes, and gods are here. That’s all we are. Here.

My thoughts corrupt the serene place, so I decide to search for my weapons. Casey must have hidden them somewhere on campus.

I check the weapons room, Dennis’ office, and the one place I had hoped he wouldn’t leave them: Professor Gonzales’ class. As I peek my head in, monkey poop lands near my face. I decide to check the other classrooms first.

After a bit more roaming, I recall seeing a weapons cabinet in Casey’s room. Once I’m right outside of the door, I hear Kyle and Yukio walking from the opposite direction. I duck into the classroom, shut off the lights, and listen as they pass.

“Was it really that bad?” Kyle asks.

“I’m not sure. I stayed pretty close to Professor Colt, and that was too hot. It must have been like a desert where he was.”

“How bad was the quake?”

“Baaaad. A few of our classmates barely made it out. What about you though?”

“No. He hasn’t called me either.”

“And the demigods, did they get weapons?”

“Yeah, but none of us could move the golden ones. We couldn’t even get the gooey stuff off.”

“You know that goo attached itself to Leo? It was from a different area though.”

“Yeah, I saw it on his arms. Supposedly, he leaves the weapons at home because he doesn’t know how to use them.”

As their voices fade into the distance, I hear them mention something about the bodies Kode found, but I can’t make it out. Once they’re long gone, I turn the lights back on and look around. Damn. Michelle’s sitting at one of the desks, playing a game on its tablet.

Not looking away from her game, she asks, “Are they gone yet?”

Humiliated, I raise my voice, “What are you even doing here?” Michelle continues playing the game. She’s losing. I drag my feet towards her. She’s trying to hide her red cheeks. “Why are you just sitting here?”

After losing the game, Michelle rolls her eyes, and stands up. Pointing to the weapons closet, she dryly says, “Your three golden weights are locked in there.”

I’m happy to know where my weapons are, but her odd behavior is more intriguing. “How’d you know I was released from the hospital?”

“I didn’t. Can you please stop asking 
stupid
 questions?”

“Not until you tell me why you were waiting for me.”

“I never said I was waiting for you. You’re such a conceited jerk.”

With a smirk, I contest, “But you were. What’s going on?” Michelle attempts to walk towards the closet, but I stand in her path. She refuses to look me in the eyes. “You’re the only person that didn’t send me a text message. Why not?”

“Are you going to get them or not?”

“I’ll never let this go. I’ll bug you with this everyday, send text messages, and leave notes on your MeToo.” Michelle rolls her eyes. I don’t think she’s taking me seriously. “I’ll even bug you in class. I can do this all day long.” I drag out the final words, “
All-day-long
.”

 “Alright. Alright. I was worried, so I waited a while to see if you would come get the weapon. Okay?”

“But how did you know I’d be here today?”

Now, she’s blazing a frightening red. Pushing me backwards with her index finger pressed firmly on my chest, she hisses, “I didn’t know, but if you ask me one more question I’ll transmute my gun into a knife and skin the flesh off your face. Do you understand?”

Laughing in fear and unsure of why she’s so upset, I agree. I am curious to know if she waited yesterday as well, but I decide to check the cabinet.

“It’s locked.”

She pulls out her phone, hits a few buttons and says, “Okay. Try now.”

I don’t want to get in trouble with another question so I follow her instruction.

After sliding the door open, I see all three of my weights sitting on the floor. There were more shelves in this cabinet at one point, but it seems someone tried to fit the smallest ball at the top and it crashed its way to the bottom. There’s debris from the Colt Stone shelves everywhere. The weight even managed to leave a serious dent in the floor.

With great effort, I attempt to move the largest ball. It doesn’t budge. I try the others with my barcodes shining. Nothing works. Even after connecting them to my chains, I get no response.

“Daddy thought this would happen.”

“What?”

“He says that he didn’t believe you lifted these, and that you’d need a lot of training to use them. But he was surprised you could carry the chains. Actually, he was pretty impressed.”

“I did lift them! Casey saw.”

“Well, you can’t now,” she explodes while walking away.

“I can; I probably just need to figure out how to align them with my barcode, that’s all.”

“Or.” Michelle says the word as though it were a complete sentence.

“Or what?”

Annoyed by our bickering, she darts her eyes across the room and mutters, “Or you could take these and get stronger.” She removes eight marbles from her pocket, but stares at the ground with her head tilted and nose flaring.

“What are these?”

“Training weights my dad used when he was our age. They’re compressed material. Activate your barcodes and they’ll transmute into different objects of various weight. The more you add, the heavier they get.”

“What does that mean for me?”

Michelle folds the marbles in her hand. “Supposedly, the smallest ball is the weight of about eight of these.” Under her breath, she mumbles, “I knew you’d want to start right away.”

Both surprised and frustrated, I smirk and frown simultaneously. “Thank you,” I say as though the words were weights pulling against my face.

A rising anger builds in Michelle’s entire body. She clinches the marbles tightly and blares, “You don’t have to use them. I’ll leave you alone and you can work it out on your own.”

As she walks away, I force myself to say, “No. Stay. Please.”

She glances over her shoulder and mutters, “Okay, but only because you said please.”

“There’s just one thing,” I say while nervously staring at one of the desk. “I can’t shape MIBS.”

Michelle snickers before bursting into laughter. “Geez Spencer. You couldn’t control your senses or shape MIBS? You’re one of the only students at this arena with tattoos that can.”

“I know, but I never learned how to do it.” I laugh at how ridiculous I sound.

“But you wanted Shiva, and she was the weapon at the furthest end of the MIBS cave.” I don’t respond and she quickly tries to recover after realizing I don’t have the trishula. “I can help you. I used these a few times as leg weights.”

“Okay. Let’s try it.”

Michelle places two marbles on the ground and the others in her pocket.”

In a sweet tone that causes me to stare at her a bit too long, she says, “Pick those up from the ground.”

Once I grab the tiny marbles in my right hand, I see a pink flash in the corner of my eyes. Michelle’s foot connects with my ear. Though I couldn’t block the kick, I activated my barcodes to raise my defenses. A split second later and I might have waken up in the hospital again.

“What the hell?”

“Open your hands, grasshopper,” she says comically.

After peeling back my fingers, I see the two marbles merged together. They were once multicolored balls, but are now a rustic silver. They feel significantly heavier.

“How’d I do that?”

“You squeezed tightly and concentrated your power. That’s the hardest thing to teach people. I tried showing my younger cousins a million times, but they didn’t get it through their heads until I started beating the hell out of them for messing up.”

“Something’s wrong with you.”

“Meant for kicking ass Spencer,” Michelle says while flashing her lions. “Now, activate your code the same way you do in danger while imagining one-hundred and fifty pounds.”

“I don’t know how to think in weight.”

Seductively, she croons, “Just imagine holding me tightly in your strong arms like you always do,” before winking and igniting her barcodes.

My codes automatically activate and the balls turn into a kettlebell while still in my hand. The weight change surprises me, and I nearly drop it on my foot with my hand still attached to the handle.

Michelle holds her stomach tightly while laughing. Between taking deep breaths, she stutters, “Maybe there are better ways to activate the codes than to beat you up.”

Sadly, it 
was
 easier to activate the weight while thinking of her in my arms. I flash my barcodes again and the kettlebell splits into the original colorful marbles.

“Look at you!”

“You sound shocked.”

“No. I’ve seen Apes pick it up faster.” Michelle pokes out her tongue.

“Whatever. So how often can I borrow these?”

“Whenever you want.”

“Good.” I hand the marbles to Michelle while walking towards the door. “Meet me in here tomorrow. You’ll help me everyday until I’m able to use them properly.” I glance over my shoulder quickly enough to see her crack a smile. “I think I’m okay to go home now so hurry up and jump on my back. I’ll walk you to the front.”

“What?” she says sounding confused.

“You know you were going to do it anyway.”

“Yeah. It’s just not as fun if you expect it.”

***

I make it home to see Hayley sleeping on my couch. I attempt to close the door slowly, but I swear she’s half ninja. Hayley’s at my feet giving me an earful before I can place my bag on the ground. Still, I find comfort because she’s holding me tightly, complaining about how worried she was.

“You know, if you ever get that hurt again, I’ll kill you myself. I told your grandad about letting you go so deep into the cave, and go figure it wasn’t deep at all. That stupid winding road left you right next to him. He could’ve saved you himself if he’d known that.”

Hayley yammers for two minutes nonstop before saying, “Now go clean yourself up so I can make you dinner.”

“I’m not hungry, Casey bought me food from the hospital.”

“Garbage! Burritos, hamburgers, and other junk that he likes to eat, right?” I nod my head in shame. Hayley points to my room making it clear that I have to eat a salad or vegetables before I go to bed.

I grab my robe from my room and head into my new comforting man-spa. Leonardo recently made some upgrades to my shower that would stop Michelle from ever leaving. It now has a tub with hydrotherapy jets that massage my muscles in the water. He added some barcodes to analyze my tension.

The showerhead can pour water without splashing it. The water forms around my body as I wash and also takes the knots out of my back. Still, I find myself using the tub a bit more.

When I exit the shower, I smell a soup that’s almost familiar, but I know there’s something missing. I stroll into the living room in a soft white robe and slippers. We both enjoy a tiger potato stew. Once the meal is over, Hayley says, “I cooked so you clean.”

I gather our things and stuff them in the dishwasher.

I’m sure she’s ready to follow me to bed, but before the woman could tuck me in, I notice her shivering as she shuts my blinds with her tablet. Assuming she’s a bit emotional about the situation, I close the kitchen cabinets, which she always leaves open after cooking. My cabinets don’t automatically shut themselves like in the penthouse.

Behind me, I hear Hayley tremor and breathe heavily before collapsing. I rush to her aid, only to notice blood dripping from her hand. She cut herself on a display knife Casey got me for my birthday last year.

Dennis once told me she suffers from hemophobia, but I’d never seen her react with my own eyes.

I search my bathroom cabinets for a first aid kit, and return to find her fighting to crawl towards the door. But she’s lost too much blood to have the energy she needs to get anywhere. As the blood trickles down her arm, Hayley screams frantically.

Throwing peroxide on the wound, I try to seal the cut on her hand with a patch, much like the one Michelle received after fighting the behemoths. Hayley kicks and screams to keep me away.

She shouts, “John! John! John!” until I pin her down and wrap the wound. That’s not enough to soothe her hysteria. Afraid of the threat she’s become to herself, I carry Hayley, kicking and screaming, into the bathroom. Thanks to Leo, I voice activate the shower head, throw her in the tub, and pin her down.

Hayley’s a regular human. I had no clue they could have this much strength without barcodes.

The water doesn’t work as immediately as I planned, but over time she calms down. Her chest occasionally presses against my hand as though she were possessed until all the blood washes away and only tears remain.