Meta (Book 3): Rise of The Circle (24 page)

I'm still a few feet away from the group I was hanging out with, but none of them are looking in my direction. If I'm going to make it in time, I'd better beat feet. There’s no time for goodbyes, especially when they'd just bring questions that I wouldn't be quick enough to come up with answers for. A few will wonder where I’ve disappeared to, maybe even worry a little bit, but it'll be fine. I'll text Winston after I'm with Midnight. Keep the details vague, but let him know that I'm fine.

Working my way through the crowded backyard and through the sliding glass door leading into the house, I can see that the party has started growing exponentially in just the short time since I’ve arrived. There are tons of people I don't recognize. I'm not even sure anymore if most of the people here go to the academy.

As I move through the crowd, I'm feeling grateful that there are so many new people here and so many eyes that don't recognize me. It’s fewer people to think about where I’ve gone. If the other metas here don't know where I went, then they won't have to lie when anyone else asks them.
If
anyone else asks them, of course. I think I'm probably overestimating just how missed I'm going to be at a party this big.

Right before I make it to the door, a second before my hand reaches out for the knob, I'm recognized.

"Connor?" Sarah asks from my right.

I hadn't seen her standing there. I didn't even know that she was at this party, but of course she's at this party. Everyone's at this party. And of course she would see me now, when I'm trying to sneak out the door.

"I thought that was you," she says as she makes her way toward me.

She reaches out and gives me a hug, a friendly hug. No different than any of the others she's given me in the past on the surface, but there's something different about it. I can just feel it.

"You're not leaving, are you?" she asks.

"Yeah, unfortunately."

"You've got to be joking. I feel like this party just got started."

She's been drinking. Not a lot, but enough to be feeling good right about now, the same way I was feeling before Midnight called me away. Now I just feel kinda dizzy and uncoordinated. "I was kinda hoping when I saw you that we'd maybe have a chance to catch up ..."

"With me?"

"Yes, with you, dummy," she says in a tone that reminds me of how things used to be. "It's silly that we're both here in Skyville and barely even hang out. I know things didn't exactly end ideally, but things were also kinda crazy at the time."

That may be the biggest understatement anyone has ever made in the history of humanity. Even if I wasn't a metahuman and she wasn't working at The Agency, it would have been an insane time. It was an insane time for everyone in Bay View City. Throw in both of our secrets, me knowing hers, her being in the dark about mine, and you have maybe the most complicated situation a new relationship could ever run up against.

"I've just been thinking about everything a lot lately."

"And?" I ask hopefully.

No. I can't ask any questions right now. A crowded party where we're both a little drunk, isn't the place to have this type of conversation under normal circumstances, let alone when I've got an angry vigilante waiting for me on a roof somewhere, scowling at his watch, I'm sure. Well, not his watch. He doesn't wear a watch, but I assume he's got a little clock in that cowl somewhere, considering everything else it's stuffed with.

"And ... I don't know. I guess that's probably why I wanted to talk in the first place. Try to figure a few things out. Maybe I'm just being stupid ..."

"No, you're not being stupid. It's just ..." I say.

Dammit. Think. I've got to come up with an excuse. Say my stomach isn't feeling well? Then she's gonna think that I'm leaving just so I can go poop. That's never a good idea, especially when it's a conversation with your ex-girlfriend that you kinda never really got over.

Don't start thinking about how you're not over her.

Just say something, anything, so this stops being so weird and awkward.

"I'm meeting up with a friend," I finally blurt out.

Not a lie at all really, but I'm certainly leaving out some of the more interesting details.

For a second, she looks a little confused. If I wasn't preoccupied or drunk, I'd make a joke here like, “Y
es, I actually have a friend. Don't look so surprised.”
Before I have the chance to think of anything more clever, her eyes widen and her expression changes to something resembling disappointment.

"Oh, I see.
That
kind of friend," she says.

"What?" I ask, genuinely confused.

I hear my own voice rise an octave and realize it's because I think she somehow knows about Midnight, that she somehow knows who I really am and that she somehow knows where I'm heading.

"It's fine, Connor. We broke up. You're allowed to see other people."

"Huh? No! No, that's not ... no," I stammer out.

She thinks I'm already seeing someone else when nothing could be further from the truth. Suddenly I realize that, as bad of an idea as having a conversation about us and what happened between us might be tonight, having her think I've already moved on is even worse.

But what else can I tell her? I start trying to convince myself that flat out denying it is the best idea since there's a chance that if she thinks I'm seeing someone, she might try to follow me to see who it is. But I know that she's not going to do that. That's just me trying to justify it to myself. She's not going to follow me. She's not like that.

"Seriously, Connor. It's fine. You don't have to explain anything to me. You don't owe me anything," she says. I can tell that she doesn't fully mean it, but she feels embarrassed now and isn't sure what else to say.

"It's not like that," I say as I take a quick glance at my watch. Damn, I'm already late. Midnight is not going to be happy. "I'm sorry, but I actually really have to run."

Sarah gives a tight-lipped smile and nods to me.

"We'll talk, though?" I say, meaning for it to sound like an invitation but having it come out sounding more like a plea.

"Sure."

I smile back at her, forcing it myself somewhat too, and turn to head out the door and out of this situation. The front porch of the house is filled with even more people, most of whom are sitting on the tall steps leading to the front door. I curse them under my breath as I contort my feet to fit into the tiny slivers of open space as I descend the stairs.

Suddenly I'm angry at everything. I'm angry at how all of these circumstances have colluded to ruin what started off as such a great night. My initial eagerness to use my powers again has given way to feelings of anger and disappointment. The one thing that makes me stand out from everyone else in a good way is now compromising my regular life.

The crowd continues along the stairs and into the front yard with even more people spilling into the street. I stop for a moment to get my bearings and figure out the direction I need to head toward to meet Midnight. It's so loud out here that I can barely hear myself think. Cars are pulled up along the curb with their doors open as their stereo systems compete with each other, forming a loud, mangled mass of noise. If Winston isn't careful and doesn't ask some of these people to leave, he's going to have the cops show up.

Right as I'm thinking this, the cops show up.

They've obviously been lying in wait nearby until they had enough backup. A dozen cop cars come screeching from around every corner on the block. If you're going to try to wrangle this many people, you'd better come prepared, and that's exactly what they did.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I see this, because I'm already across the street and clear of the party. If I'd left a few seconds later, I would be stuck in that house with no way out in time. I start to pull my phone out of my pocket to check the time again, jogging to make up the lost seconds, but before I have a chance to hit the home button on my phone, I hear someone yelling in my direction.

"Hey! You! Freeze!"

At first I'm sure they aren't talking to me. They must be yelling at someone else, someone trying to make a run for it from the party.

"Are you deaf? I said freeze!"

The second shout is louder and closer. There's no one else near me that he could be talking to. Instinctively, I turn in the direction of the yelling. I lock eyes with a police officer for an instant before I'm blinded by his flashlight.

Any doubt about whether or not he was talking to me is instantly removed.

"On the ground, now!"

There's only two choices I can make. I can do as he says, stop my jog, and get on the ground. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to explain to him that I was leaving the party already, and I wasn't trying to run from him.

The other option is to turn this jog into a sprint and hope I can outrun him. My reaction time is slower right now, and I'm taking way too long to figure out what I should do. That's when I remember the drinks I had. He'll smell them on me. I'm sure of it. And even if he didn't, he'd still make me do that test where you have to say the alphabet backwards or something. One way or another, he's not going to let me go just because I tell him I was already leaving.

In the distance something in the sky catches my eye. At first I assume it must be a metahuman, but as I focus my attention on it, I can see it isn't a metahuman at all. It's a reflection in an otherwise dark night sky. The reflection changes, catching moonlight as it turns. For just a fraction of a second, when the moon hits it just right, I can see its entire outline and tell what it is: a jet.

There are only a few people in the world who would have their own jet with some kind of advanced cloaking technology, and only one that I know personally.

It's Midnight, and he's leaving without me. No choice now, I think, as my jog becomes a full-on sprint. Behind me I can hear the jangling of handcuffs on the police officer’s belt as he chases after me. It hasn't even occurred to me what I would do if I were caught, which is why I can't get caught.

The footsteps behind me are growing closer. I underestimated how quick the cop could run, and I realize that the chances of me putting more distance between him and myself are slim. It's time to pull the emergency cord.

With a thought, my metabands appear around my wrists again. I chance one last glance over my shoulder to see where the cop is, hoping that he’s far enough away still to have not had the chance to get a good look at my face. In the second that I take my eyes off the road in front of me, my right foot catches a crack in the road. I'm airborne, but not in the way I'm used to.

Instinctively, I put my hands out in front of me, not even thinking about the metabands I'm wearing. Luckily for me, once they're active, they don't require much more thought to turn on. The metabands just barely graze each other as I put my hands up in front of me just inches before I'm about to slam into the ground. Not exactly the most graceful powering up sequence, but it still counts.

Time around me slows. The metabands sense the imminent danger I'm in and adjust to give me time to get myself out of it. As the suit leaks out of the bands and wraps itself around me, I pull up, and my nose just barely kisses the asphalt as I swoop into the air.

I take another look over my shoulder now that I don't have to worry about falling and breaking my face. The cop chasing me slows his running to a halt. He’s doubled over, trying to catch his breath.

I made it. Now I just have to catch Midnight.

S
canning the cloudy nighttime horizon
, it's difficult to spot him at first, but within a few seconds I'm able to make out the heat trail coming from the jet's engine about a mile in front of me. Head down, I push myself hard to catch up with him. Within seconds, I reach the jet and realize I have another problem I didn't anticipate: getting inside. The jet is all black and appears completely seamless. I can't even find where the door would be on this thing, so I move around to approach the cockpit, or at least what I assume is the cockpit. The reason I can't tell for sure is that the windows, if you can even call them that, are completely tinted over.

I hang in front of the jet for a few seconds, figuring Midnight has to see me inside. I consider knocking politely on the window, but ultimately decide against it, knowing that Midnight's likely already mad at me for being late. After a few seconds, I hear the sound of hissing pistons and moving mechanical parts coming from the rear of the plane.

A previously hidden cargo bay door reveals itself, and I waste no time finding my way to it and enter the plane. Once inside, the door snaps shut, and I can feel the area re-pressurizing before a door at the front of the bay area slides open.

"You're late," Midnight says from beyond the door.

I head toward his voice, through the sliding door, and into the cockpit area. It's a tight squeeze and there's only one seat, which Midnight is currently occupying as he stares ahead at the starless night sky in front of him. The tinted cockpit window is not only crystal clear from this side, but also filled with information overlays showing a three-dimensional, textured map of the ground beneath us hidden below the clouds.

"Sorry about that. Ran into a little trouble with the local law enforcement," I say. He turns his head to give me a stern look. "Don't worry. They didn't get a look at my face."

I consider suggesting to Midnight that he should have had me fly him wherever it is that we're going. Even with dragging him along behind me, I can easily fly at least twice as fast as this jet. Then I remember the last time I suggested flying the both of us somewhere. It didn't end well. Apparently Midnight doesn't like people picking him up.

"So, where are we off to in such a hurry?" I ask.

Without a word or taking his eyes off the night sky in front of him, Midnight hits a couple of buttons, and a screen behind him blinks on. Displayed on it is a large white man whose face looks pulled and distorted. His mouth is three times larger than it should be.

"The street name he goes by is Chomp. He was one of the escapees from Silver Island that hasn't been caught yet," Midnight says. "In case you haven't guessed it already by his name, his metahuman abilities give him a nearly indestructible jawbone and teeth. He can bite through any material known to man. He's used his talent to break into stores, homes, bank vaults, you name it. He wasn't a high priority recapture until this was found last night on the streets of Seattle."