Meta (Book 3): Rise of The Circle (4 page)

“They thought that by appealing to the patriotic nature of some, they'd be able to have them in their back pockets if push ever came to shove."

"How would a training facility have done that?"

"Many people underestimate the human need for feeling as though they're part of something. Skyville Academy would have given metas that opportunity, to feel that they weren't just people with extraordinary abilities and little else to offer. The facility would have given those who felt confused or alone the opportunity to learn about their powers, hone them, and better control them.

“In the years since metabands were first discovered, more people have been killed as the result of collateral damage than anything else. Someone like Jones? Yes, obviously he was very, very dangerous. He killed more people than any other meta, but the average person was still a hundred times more likely to be killed by a gargoyle falling from a building because one meta just threw another one into it than they were of getting their head twisted off by Jones."

"Yeah, but people knew that," I say.

"People
think
they knew that. Everyone knows that you're more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash, but you're still a lot more likely to find someone praying before takeoff than you are every time they stick the key in the ignition. Same thing. It wasn't given as much media attention, but the government wanted it to stop. They knew that it was just a matter of time before an event like The Battle. They feared that an event like that would cause an escalation in metahuman violence that could ultimately lead to all-out war. If they couldn't confiscate every metaband out there and destroy them, then trying to help the good ones beat the bad ones while minimizing collateral damage was the next best thing.

“They knew that the general population wouldn't go for it, nor would most metas if it meant revealing their identities, hence the need for a secret facility. Adolescents and young adults were often those with the rawest abilities, and the most impressionable. No offense. If Skyville Academy worked, then the plan was to expand into other facilities. Plans had already been developed for other types of places, office buildings, factories that would have acted as fronts for underground training facilities."

"Okay, so there are training facilities underneath this old school that they never finished building. I'm still not sure how this helps me," I say.

"Tomorrow, the governor is going to announce that the school will be opened to accommodate the influx of Bay View City refugees. The plan is to offer curriculums for kindergarten through high school to any new resident of the city."

"That's going to be chaos, though. That has to be thousands and thousands of students."

"Exactly. The alternative is either trying to integrate all the new students into existing schools, which are already overcrowded, or simply doing nothing and ignoring the educational needs of all of these people. By offering this as a solution, the governor looks like he's being proactive. He's taking a beating in the polls for his response to Alpha Team's coup and with his eyes on running for president in a few years, he needs to do something big. Setting up an empty campus as a makeshift school for displaced voters' families will cost him next to nothing and make him look like a hero, and he doesn’t lose anything.

“It also means that the training facilities located under the campus can be activated without any flags being raised. There will suddenly be thousands of confused students crawling all over the place, so the comings and goings of a few metas won't raise a single eyebrow, as long as we do it right."

"So if I agree to go along with this, and that's still a big if, when would we be moving?" I ask.

Michelle and Derrick exchange glances again, a sure sign that there's something I'm missing or that they're not telling me and neither wants to be the one to do it.

"Um, there's no we, Connor. You'd be moving there on your own," Derrick says.

"Seriously?"

"It would lower suspicions. Derrick is in charge of one of the biggest meta news sites in the world. His deciding to suddenly move out of the city where the most important meta-related story is happening would look strange, to say the least," Michelle says.

"And what about you?" I ask her.

"My cover already implies a lot of travel. It would make sense for me to leave Bay View City since I only spend less than half of my time here as it is. Remember, we want to keep all of this as quiet as possible. No one should be doing anything out of the norm unless there is a significant upside."

"So nothing out of the norm like, um, I don't know, moving to another city randomly, like you want me to do?"

"Is it really so random, Connor? Your school was destroyed. Fellow students of yours were injured and killed. Meanwhile, you're also the younger brother of a prominent journalist who can easily afford to send you wherever he'd like. Would it really be so strange that you would be leaving a city in chaos to go to a different school? One of the dorm buildings that is actually finished on campus will be opened for refugee students in need of housing. I've seen to it that your housing will be provided by the school as well as the housing of the other metas who will be training alongside you."

"Let me get this straight then: you two are staying in Bay View City, but I'm moving to Skyville, where I'll have a place to live, on my own?" I ask, barely able to hide the smile starting to creep across my face.

"Yeah, but don't start getting any ideas about being able to lead some kind of swinging bachelor-slash-superhero lifestyle. You'll be taking a full class load so you can actually graduate on time next year, along with metahuman training at night and in the mornings before classes," Derrick explains.

"Who uses the term 'swinging bachelor' anymore, Derrick?" I ask.

"I think that means he'll go," Derrick says to Michelle.

E
ven with the
city nearly empty, it's still not very safe to be out this late at night. Under normal circumstances, Derrick would never allow it, especially since he just caught me sneaking out against his wishes literally about an hour ago. These aren't normal circumstances, though. Derrick and Michelle are shipping me off to Skyville tomorrow morning, first thing.

At first, he wouldn't budge on letting me go back out tonight. Then I reminded him that in twenty-four hours I'd be living in a different city, away from him, and that he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on me all the time anymore. If he was going to start trusting my judgment, now would be a good time, since he's basically going to be forced to starting tomorrow.

Growing up, you would think that I would have had more freedom than most kids my age. Aside from the grim reality of what not having parents actually means, most kids would think it was a dream come true. There isn't an American kid alive today who didn't at one time wish their parents would disappear, leaving them to their own devices. On paper, having a legal guardian in his twenties sounds great, nothing but video games and pizza every night. Well, that last part is actually true. Derrick couldn't cook his way out of a paper bag, which means I've probably eaten my bodyweight in pizza a hundred times over.

But there are parts of growing up with my brother as my legal guardian that a lot of people never think about, or realize. When our mom and dad died, Derrick barely had time or space to grieve. It just wasn't possible for him to be sad and take care of me at the same time. There wasn't any family to help. The city itself was in ruins, so outside help wasn't available either. As bad as we had it, there were others who had it much worse. Many looked at the two of us and thought we were lucky to at least have each other. They weren't wrong.

Derrick had no idea how to raise a kid. By the time he got stuck with me, he'd just spent the previous four years away at college. I'm sure he probably felt like he hardly knew this six- year-old kid who was basically still a baby when he'd first left for school.

Since he didn't really know what he was doing, Derrick made up for it by rarely ever letting me out of his sight when I was young. He didn't always know the right thing to say or do, but if he kept a constant eye on me, I think he figured that he could at least make sure I didn't stick my finger in an electrical socket or fall down a well. It might have made me seem cool to be the kid on a field trip who had his big brother there instead of a parent, but the reality is he only did it because he didn't want to let me out of his sight. The only difference between him and a helicopter soccer mom was that at least the helicopter soccer mom knew what the hell she was doing.

Luckily for Derrick, I turned out perfect despite his attempts to raise me to the contrary.

I got him to agree to let me go out on my own tonight partially because I promised that I wouldn't be gone long. I also had to leave my metabands at home, something that I normally would be safer
with
than without, but that was before Alpha Team started hunting down metas for sport. Promising not to power them up wasn't enough. Derrick had insisted that I leave them behind if I wanted to leave the apartment tonight.

There's really only one thing I want to accomplish during my last night in Bay View City. Well, technically, there are two, except I know that only one of them has any chance of happening, and that's finding Jim and saying goodbye to him. It's been a while since we've talked, and even longer since I've seen him without both of us having our respective masks on. He still has no idea that I’m Omni, and considering that he's taken sides with the Blanks, I can't imagine that he'd take the news too well if he ever found out.

It was only a few hours ago that I heard him at Sarah's house. Of course, he didn't know I was hiding under the floorboards at the time, and I don't think he would have appreciated the surprise. It's a long shot that he'd be back home already, but I really don't have any other idea where I could find him. I especially don't have any ideas that seem safe enough to try without a pair of metabands wrapped around my wrists.

His house is close to the old one that Derrick and I lived in, but that's pretty far from where I live now. Derrick offered to let me borrow his car, which was a huge relief considering the amount of walking I've had to do tonight. You don't realize just how tiring walking can be until you get used to flying everywhere and then get quarantined to your home for days. Part of me worries that this training in Skyville is going to involve preparing for situations like this, the non-meta kind, and I'm already dreading it.

Derrick would have never, ever let me borrow his car under normal circumstances, which means he must have really wanted me to be safe tonight. This car is his baby. Even I've only seen him drive it a few times. I actually suspect he goes down to the garage underneath our apartment complex late at night just to sit and admire it while it's there in its parking space. It's not a Lamborghini or anything, but it is a very nice luxury car. Black exterior and light brown leather interior that I’m constantly told I’m not allowed to eat inside of, even if this is only the third time I've actually been in the car. It was one of Derrick's first purchases once his blog really started taking off, which is part of why it's so important to him. Besides the superficial nature of having a nice car, to him it's proof that he was right all along to keep going down the path he was on, even when pretty much everyone else told him he was crazy and that no one was interested in metahumans anymore.

Fifteen minutes after pulling out of the garage, I'm back in my old neighborhood, scanning street signs to find Jim's block. It's amazing that in a few short months I've already forgotten little things like which streets Jim's house is between. It's been a while since I've been to this part of town, and I'm surprised at just how dead it is. Sure, it's late at night, but it's eerily quiet here. On the way, I occasionally see a lone stranger or two standing on a corner. Their eyes watch me suspiciously as I drive past. It doesn't take too long to figure out that anyone in this neighborhood who is out on the street this late at night is probably not up to anything good.

There's a light on inside Jim's room. It's faint since curtains cover the window, but it's still bright enough for me to see it from the road. I pull out my phone to text Jim and see if he's inside, but find that there's no signal at all. I shouldn't be surprised; there have been reports on the news of cell phone towers still being down all over the city from the Silver Island fallout. I'm not the least bit shocked that this area of town isn't at the top of the repairs list. I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way I guess and just hope that Jim doesn't freak out.

I walk up to the window quietly, careful not to wake whoever else might be in the house. Jim's family's house is ranch-style, just one floor, with a brick exterior. It's by no means rundown, but not exactly luxurious either. Utilitarian would probably be the most accurate way to put it. The neighbors' houses are situated very close, practically on top of one another. I carefully creep in between Jim's house and the neighbor's to knock on his window. At first I tap so quietly that even I can't hear it. After a few seconds, I tap again. Still nothing. Finally, I decide to just knock. Almost instantly the curtains are thrown open, and I'm practically face to face with Jim. The look on his face when he opens the curtains, before he can see my face, isn't one of fear, though. It's one of anger. It's a look I don't know if I've seen on his face before.

The look changes shape once Jim recognizes me through the reflection on the window, and now he just looks confused. I motion for him to stay quiet while waving for him to come outside. He holds up a finger to indicate to me to wait for a minute, before he closes the curtains.

A minute later, I can hear the screen door opening on the front porch. I slowly start walking in that direction to meet Jim halfway. He rounds the corner of the house and approaches with his hands tucked deep into a beige jacket. His shoulders are up in an effort to keep himself warm in the cool fall evening air.

"What are you doing here?" Jim asks.

"I'm heading out of the city for a while. I wanted to come by before I left."

"Giving up on this city like all the others, huh?"

"No, I'm not giving up."

"Then why are you leaving?"

"It's ... complicated."

"I'm sure it is. Things always get complicated once money starts getting involved."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. It's good, I guess. It's fine. Things have just changed with you ever since Derrick became a billionaire and you guys moved to that penthouse."

"Derrick's not a billionaire."

"It's a figure of speech. But I'm sure I'm not off by too many zeroes. It's fine. I'm glad someone's life improved once the metas started coming back at least."

"That's not really being too fair, Jim."

"It's not? All I know is that last school year Connor Connelly wasn't exactly likely to get voted prom king. Now you're loaded, you get a girlfriend, move into a million-dollar apartment, and that's pretty much the last I see or hear of you. I'm surprised you actually came to this side of the tracks. Am I safe to assume your chauffeur is waiting down the street?"

"Where is all this coming from?"

"It's been there, man. You just haven't been around for me to say any of it."

"First off, me and Sarah aren't even dating anymore. And second, Derrick doing well has nothing to with why I haven't been around as much."

"No? What does then?"

It was stupid of me to lead the line of questioning toward this. I know that I've been a crap friend lately. It's part of the whole reason I came down here tonight to say goodbye in the first place. The guilt from not being around, along with keeping huge secrets from him, has been eating me up inside.

In the beginning, I told myself that Jim couldn't know my secret because it would put him in danger. That's all out the window now because everyone is in danger. Jim knowing my secret would put me in danger, not the other way around. I know how he's been spending his nights, and I can venture a guess as to how he feels lately about metahumans. Telling him that I'm one of them would sever our friendship forever, and I'd be lucky if that was the only fallout.

"It's personal stuff, Jim. I don't really want to talk about it. I'm sorry I haven't been around, but you have to trust me that it has nothing to do with any of the things you think it does."

There's silence, which I think is about as close as I'm going to get to Jim agreeing with me and offering a truce. I'll take it.

"So, how are things with you?" I ask Jim, realizing the second after the words have come out of my mouth that there might have been a more delicate way to ask.

"Oh, you know, kinda terrible."

"Yeah, I heard a little bit. I'm sorry about your dad."

"Don't be. He'll bounce back from this," Jim says. "Now that the Alphas are kicking all of the metas out of Bay View City, he should be back at work in no time. He's expecting to get a call next week from his old job since the meta they hired turned tail and ran off, but he's not gonna take it. He's gonna tell them where they can stick his old job."

I don't ask, but I have a few ideas about where he might be talking about.

"Do you really think that this is such a good thing? All of the metas leaving the city?"

"Are you serious? I can't believe that you of all people are asking me that question.
Is it a good thing that God-like people who have the ability to kill us, destroy our homes, and ruin our lives are being told that they aren't welcome here anymore?
Of course it is. We'll all be better off without them. Well, I guess you won't since you're leaving town, but we will. The ones who stay."

"But what happens when some meta decides to try to take advantage of the fact that all the metas of Bay View City are gone and comes here to cause trouble?"

"That's what the Alphas are there for. Any metahuman stupid enough to risk losing their bands forever isn't going to pose much of a threat to them."

"And who watches the Alphas? What about that? How is anyone supposed to keep them in check when they're the only metahumans left?"

"Actions speak louder than words, Connor. We've already seen what the Alphas’ true intentions are. They just want to cut through all the bull and face facts. Metahumans are dangerous and have caused more harm than good. Sooner or later they all fail, and they all fall. The Alphas aren't concerned with trying to be heroes or villains. They just want things to go back to what they were like before, when you could walk down the street and not worry about a metahuman turning you into a pancake because they felt like taking a joyride.

“They're not above the law, but all of them act like it. I'd rather have four metas keeping all the others out than a city full of them doing whatever they feel like, whenever they feel like it."

"I just think-" I begin to say, but before I can finish my thought, I notice something strange next to Jim.

We're both standing on the patch of land between Jim's house and the neighbors', where the grass hasn't been mowed in a while. The taller blades sway slightly in the breeze. It's this breeze that catches my attention.

It's almost subconscious. My eyes notice it before my brain does, holding my gaze there almost as if to say, “Pay attention over here, dummy. Something isn't right.” Something most definitely isn't right. Five feet behind Jim, over his right shoulder, there's a tiny bit of tall grass that didn't move when an especially strong gust of wind came through. It seems almost as though something was blocking the wind from reaching these particular blades of grass. In front of those blades, the grass is strange too. At first I thought it was a bare spot where no grass had grown. There are plenty of those around us, but this isn't one of them.

Now that I focus on it, I can see that it's not bare at all; the blades of grass have instead just been pushed down flat against the ground. I notice other small areas very slowly flattening out now too. The areas are moving backward toward the street.