Hero Reborn (Keepers of Justice, Book 3) (5 page)

“Probably,” Kale agrees.
“But how likely is it for the shapeshifters to have telepathy and telekinesis?”

X
says, “The only thing that makes sense is that the ones on camera were shapeshifters while the ones with telekinesis and telepathy were on the sidelines.
They
were killing the normies, not the fake Samson and Cindy.”

“But who’s doing it?”
I ask.

Kale
and X shrug.

“
Hey, guys?” I say. “If their telepaths are probing the minds of all the Keepers that were captured, won’t they learn that those aren’t the real Samson and Cindy?”

They’re both quiet for a bit before X says, “
Not necessarily. They’d probably assume a Keeper telepath is playing mind games on them. What they know is what they saw. And what they saw was Samson and Cindy killing those people. They don’t care about anything else, only finding the perpetrators.”

“But they’ve got to know
it wasn’t Samson and Cindy,” I say. “They’ve trusted them for years.”

“They know about the Weaponry now,” X says. “Probably think the Keepers were planning a war against the humans. Of course they don’t trust us anymore.”

“Won’t they assume we use the weapons to fight villains?”

X shakes his head. “Having all those weapons was illegal. Samson knew the risks, but we needed to have them.”

Quiet.

“
I wish we would have fought back,” I say. “We’re superheroes. We should have defended ourselves. Our powers are so much stronger than their weapons. Why did we run?”

“Don’t know,” X says.

Kale’s been quiet. I turn to him. “What’s up? You okay?”

His eyes are hollow as he stares at the TV. “
I…I know it’s not them, but seeing my parents do that stuff…and Lindsay…where is she? She ran away right before the League was attacked. I can’t contact her telepathically. You think she’s…involved in this somehow?”

“Lindsay wouldn’t betray us,” X says.

“How do you know?” Kale asks.

X doesn’t answer. I don’t think he’s sure himself.

“I’m with X,” I tell Kale. “Lindsay wouldn’t betray us.”

Kale gets up and paces around. “Then where is she? I can’t sense her. Or my parents. What the hell? My telepathy’s working fine, so what’s going on?”

We’ve got so many questions, but no answers.

“We’ll find her,” X promises. “Her and the others.”

We
continue watching the news. The reporters are still talking about what happened, but aren’t updating the public on what’s going on behind government doors. I wonder if they’ll let the rest of the world know what they’re discovering about us.

“General Higgins has assured us that locating Samson and Cindy Zenith is the
nation’s top priority,” the news anchor says. “If anyone has any information on this, please contact the number on the screen, or call 911. Officials are unsure what prompted this attack. We ask everyone to stay indoors, if possible. Do not let your children walk freely. Stay tuned for more updates on this horrifying story.”

A commercial break comes on and X mutes the TV. We just stare at each other. X’s lips are pressed in a firm line. Kale sinks down to the carpet.

“It’s good, right?” I let my arms roam around the room. It’s so relaxing to not have to control them all the time and let some of this stress loose. “That they’re still looking for your parents. Means they haven’t been captured.”

Kale twists his mouth. “Guess so…if you look at it that way.” I nod encouragingly, but I know it doesn’t help much.
“I’ll try to contact them again,” Kale says.

While he does that, I look around the room. Just so I won’t think about my own parents.
They can’t be dead. I can’t imagine life without them.

“No luck,” Kale says after a few minutes. He exhales a long breath he must have been holding. “Why can’t I contact them?
If they’re in hiding, why won’t they come get us?”

We don’t
answer. None of this makes any sense. Why would someone go through so much trouble to take us down like this? If they’re villains, why not attack us? “Guys?” I say. “What if the government is behind this? They’ve got people with powers working for them. What if they dressed up as Samson and Cindy? What if they want us gone, you know, maybe they feel threatened or something?”

X shakes his head. “
All of the sudden? And they wouldn’t kill forty innocent people.”

I rest my palms against my face. “Yeah, you’re right. It must be villains. But why wouldn’t they just try to kill us? They’re so much stronger than the military. Why did they have to kill all those people in the park?”

X shrugs. “There’s a lot we don’t know.”

We
sit in silence. Kale tries to reach out to his parents a few more times, but fails. We watch more news, but there aren’t many updates. Experts don’t stop analyzing the story, though.

“What do we do now?
” I ask. “Do we search for Samson, Cindy, and the others? Do we try to clear our names?”

“We’re probably not the only ones who know to come here,” X says. “We’ll wait for the others to
come.”

I swallow. “
I don’t think anyone else, other than my parents, know about this house.”

“They’ll come
.”

He doesn’t look confident at all.

“Great,” Kale mutters as he rummages through the fridge. “Empty.”

My stomach gurgles. I’m craving nachos. It’s been over ten hours since I’ve had any. My hunger won’t let me focus. Like X said earlier, who can
think about food right now? But the three of us are starving.

“We need to steal,” X says, pushing off the wall he was leaning on.

“S-steal?” I stammer.

He shrugs. “Unless you want to go through other people’s garbage…trust me, I’ve been there, and you don’t want to do that.”

“But stealing…it’s not right,” I say.

X shakes his head. “
It’s not. But what other choice do we have? They...” He points to the door. “Put us in this position. If we want to find the others and clear the League’s name, we need to do whatever it takes to survive.”

He knows what he’s talking about. He’s a survivor. If anyone’s going to make sure we’re okay, it’s X. I trust him.

“I can always control their minds…” Kale offers.

“Nah,” I say. “That feels worse.”

“Most stores are empty, anyway,” X says. “Many people are hiding in their houses. I’ll sweep the area for security cameras and alarms. We’ll raid the ones without.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kale says.
“I’ll check if anyone’s around, just in case.”

“What about me?”
I ask.

“You,” X answers, “will unlock the stores.”

“Cool.”

“We need to be careful,” X
warns. “Make sure we don’t expose ourselves or our powers.”

Kale and I nod.

“All right.” X heads for the door. “Let’s go.”

***

Back at the house, Kale and I unload the carts while X rushes to turn on the TV. He returns to help us, informing us that there are no updates. The hot topic is still the KOJ incident, but the reporters are also talking about other news going around in the world. Life continues, I guess.

“Still no word on Samson and Cindy,” I say to encourage Kale. And myself, too. “That’s good.”

Kale shrugs as he pulls some bananas out of the cart. “Unless they’re keeping it from the public.”

“Oh, yeah.”
My shoulders droop.

We work silently and efficiently. Soon, all the food is packed away in the fridge and cabinets. X dumps the carts far away from the house
.

“So…” Kale plops down on the couch. “Who’s cooking?”

All three of us exchange glances. I raise my index finger. “I can make spaghetti. My mom used to make it.”

Back in
the League, we had a chef who cooked our meals. Most moms know how to cook, but they hardly did. A few, like mine, took over the kitchen sometimes. You know, for special occasions and stuff. Cindy cooked a lot, too. When I was ten, I was in this spaghetti and pasta sauce phase, and I only wanted my mom’s. So she cooked it for me like every night. I stayed in the kitchen with her and learned a thing or two.

I look at the guys. “Never made it myself, but I’ve watched her.”

Kale smiles crookedly at X. “What do you say? Ready for some food poisoning?”

“Hey!”

Kale laughs.

X shrugs, his eyes glued to the TV. “Not hungry. You guys go ahead.”

Kale gives me a sad look. X will never be the same. Heck, we’ll all never be the same. Even if we manage to locate our lost League mates, will the Keepers of Justice return? Or will we have to live in fear? What if we can’t clear our names?

“You gotta eat, X,” Kale says.

“I’m fine.”

We don’t say anything as he passes us to go to the bedrooms.
He’ll be okay,
Kale tells me. I hope he’s right. I wish he wouldn’t shut us out.

X
comes back just as the water boils for the spaghetti. “Only two bedrooms. I’ll take the couch.”

“The master bedroom has
a huge bed, if anyone wants to share,” I offer.

X waves his hand. “I don’t mind the couch.”

“Okay,” I say. “But you’re eating.”

He doesn’t
answer, just clenches his jaw. I know he hates when people tell him what to do, but someone needs to take care of him. He won’t take care of himself. “You’ll see. Once you taste this spaghetti, you won’t want to stop eating.”

The food
comes out good. Not great like Mom’s, but good enough. The three of us are sitting on the couch, watching sports. None of us wants to turn back to the news. We’ve heard enough. X is actually eating my food. We’re all starving and take seconds.

I tap his arm. “Told ya. You can’t stop.”

He laughs a little.

The
next morning, I forget for a second where I am and what happened. I’m in my parents’ huge bed. Kale let me have it because my limbs tend to move around and stretch all over the place during the night.

Last night was no different—worse actually.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to the League. I tossed and turned, my body shaking so badly I’m pretty sure X heard my legs banging against the wall next door. All I saw before me was my parents with longing looks on their faces. Like they were begging me to come save them.

Not only did I think about my parents, I dreamed about them. About us taking walks in the park and going to
a water park we went to when I was ten. We have pools at the Tower, but I wanted more. We ended up staying longer than we planned. They had an awesome time, too.

But unlike the memory, my dream was a little different. My parents were on a slide together
, Dad’s arms wrapped around Mom’s waist. When they slid into the pool, their bodies were covered in blood, their eyes lifeless.

I woke up sweating.

I know it was just a dream, but it felt so real. Like it was actually happening. I hope it’s not some sort of message telling me they’re dead.

I get into the shower
and try not to think too much, but I do. I quickly rush out so I won’t linger on it. After dressing into some of Dad’s clothes I find in the drawers, I go downstairs. Kale and X are watching the news. Seems like people are protesting. They don’t like the government hunting down the Keepers. Others are supporting the government. Fights start. Cops try to stop them.

Kale i
s eating cereal on the couch. X is sitting on the floor, legs crossed. He doesn’t take his eyes off the TV.

I sit down near
Kale. “Any updates?”

“
Nope. Nothing from my parents, either.” He rubs his temples.

I grab a bowl of cereal from the kitchen and join the others in the living room.
“What’s the plan for today?”

“
We search for the others,” X says.

I walk to the window and peek through the blinds. It’s basically empty outside.
A few people walk around, some running to their cars.

That’s when I see them.
Three soldiers walking up the block. My breathing stops, making me choke. “G-g-guys!” My hand shakes as I point to the window. “S-soldiers.”

X
and Kale leap to the window. X yanks the blinds apart. “Crap.”

“
What do we do?” I squeak.

It doesn’t take X two seconds to come up with a plan. “Kale, control them to get the hell out of here. Have them report to their bosses that they didn’t find anything.”

“What if they have telepaths protecting their minds?” Kale asks. “I won’t be able to invade their thoughts.”