Not Your Sidekick (4 page)

“Right,” Jess says. “Here, help me with this.”

The television is a small, unwieldy block made of different types of plastic. The three of them pull it out from the hiding spot, and Jess pulls out the box with the DVD player and all the assorted cables. It's been a while since they last used it, but finally it's all set up, and they flop back on the couch. Jess leans back, and Bells slings his arm around her shoulders as Emma puts her feet up in her lap. Jess pokes at Emma's socks, and they laugh when Bells tries to get the DVD player to accept a voice command.

“It's not my fault this stuff is ancient,” Bells says.

Jess laughs, gets up, and, amused at the flimsy plastic, puts the colorful disc in the player. An old-fashioned menu pops up, and Jess has to use the arrows on the primitive machine to start the movie.

“It's not
that
old,” Emma says. “My nana still remembers what it was like.”

“Really?” It always seemed like ancient history to Jess.
In 2028, the solar flares that would ignite the events known later as the Disasters and throw the population into a time of social and economic peril and great food insecurity…
any student could recite a version of the events that changed the world forever, and it always started with “in 2028.” “How old is your great-grandmother?”

“A hundred and seven,” Emma says. “She was born during the Disasters. She was old enough to remember when they formed the Collective after the war. She doesn't really like to talk about it, though.”

“I bet. Everything must have been so chaotic,” Jess muses. “I mean, people springing up with powers for the first time?”

Emma nods. “Can you imagine making something like this today?” Bells asks. He holds up the DVD. On the case, a luridly costumed male superhero holds a swooning woman. “Captain Orion would have a fit.”

Jess laughs. “Yeah, if the Collective made movies with superheroes.” All the official entertainment is so boring. That's one of the reasons Jess likes twenty-first century movies: people seemed to have free reign to be creative. Still, rules against fictional media about superheroes makes sense; the lives of the actual heroes provide enough interest. “I bet Captain Orion would be the one holding the swooning—”

“Ooh, Starscream?” Emma says with interest. “I heard they were on again.”

Jess shakes her head. “Nope, broke up, according to yesterday's
Gazette.
” She never reads the entire newsholo, but Orion's love life always makes headlines.

They gossip about Captain Orion's romantic life and then get into a silly discussion about the most attractive heroes in the League. The movie is playing but they aren't paying much attention. Jess lost track of the plot a few minutes in. She's enjoying her time with her friends as they argue about who is hotter: Starscream or Copycat.

Emma and Bells are waving their DEDs at each other, flicking through their favorite holos. Bells' projection of the official League holo of Copycat and Emma's holo of Starscream keep bumping into each other, causing both holos to flicker.

“It has to be Copycat,” Bells says. “She's got those stunning green eyes, you know?”

“Yeah, but Starscream's jaw!” Emma says. “No, this holo isn't a great one, no, I need a better—Jess! Help!”

Jess laughs, throwing up her hands. “I refuse to get in the middle of this. I'm a Captain Orion gal myself, but I will bring my desktop down so you can find all the pictures you want.”

Beeping as it wheels back and forth, Chả is still trying to clean the holoscreen. Shaking her head, Jess picks up the robot. She carries it up to the main floor and sets it down in the living room. “You can clean here,” Jess says. “I'll do the holoscreen later.”

Chả cheeps in affirmation and starts vacuuming. It promptly gets stuck under the coffee table, meeping until Jess picks it up and turns it around. Chả chirps and heads down its new, clear path. Jess trudges upstairs, lingering outside Brendan's room. She hears a few beeping noises, but that's normal.

She grabs her desktop projector and goes downstairs, where Emma grabs it and syncs her own DED to it, to look up photos of Starscream. She gets distracted checking her notifications and then she gasps.

“Oh my God, there's a new superhero over in Devonport.”

Jess looks over her shoulder at the projection. Emma waves at the air, closing all her open windows: various messages, homework documents, and photos of Starscream and Lilliputian. She enlarges the newsfeed holo from the official Heroes' League of Heroes. “Oh, wow! He's our age. The bio says sixteen.”

Emma pokes Bells in the shoulder, but he just shrugs and gets up to manually turn up the television's volume.

Emma faces the holo toward them, grinning as she waves her hand to play a featured clip from a news segment.

“And what do we call you?” On the holo, Wilton Lysander, the most popular newscaster of all the latest superhero news, stands in downtown Devonport in front of its iconic fountain. With a broad smile, he holds his microphone out to the brightly clad hero next to him.

“I'm Chameleon!” Like most meta-humans in the public eye, Chameleon wears a mask; it matches his brightly colored rainbow-hued bodysuit and sits high on his face. A shock of dark hair spills over the forehead. The tight outfit shows off his broad shoulders and tapered waist, and Emma sighs and reaches out to trace the air around the projection.

Chameleon stands with a hand on his hip and points to the reporter. Then, in the blink of an eye, Chameleon turns into a duplicate copy of Lysander, from his coiffed blonde hair to his navy suit, complete with the matching pocket square.

“Amazing!” Lysander gasps. He turns to the camera and winks, gesturing theatrically. “Welcome, Chameleon, the newest and
youngest
member of the Heroes' League of Heroes!”

Chameleon hands the pocket square to Lysander, who compares it to his own. The camera zooms in on the pocket squares; they match. Lysander is examining them when the second pocket square disappears. The cameras pan back to Chameleon, who is back to his own look. He winks at the camera.

Emma stops the holo. Leaning back on the couch, she grabs a pillow, clutches it to her chest, and squeals, “Isn't he cute?”

“Can't see half his face,” Jess says. “No idea.” She turns to Bells for his opinion, but Bells is staring at the television. “Bells? What do you think?”

“Like you said, we can't see half his face. I can't tell if he's cute or not,” Bells says in a monotone.

“But it's an incredible power,” Emma says. “I've never seen anything like that. Do you think he's A-class? I mean, he's working with the League already.”

“Well, they do like to introduce their younger members before they start on their own,” Jess says. “Remember Powerstorm? She was like, fifteen when she first started.”

Jess remembers it well; it was her sister's introduction as a new superhero. For a time, Claudia had tailed along after the League and they had helped get her name out as she handled minor search and rescues and a few reconnaissance missions on the Villain's Guild. Jess is pretty sure she was mostly fetching coffee for the members of the League, but Claudia played it up as a huge educational experience. Claudia was still in her training program when the League started introducing her to the public, but they always hand-pick the most promising to join the League. “He's probably still in Meta-Human Training,” Jess says thoughtfully. “And if he's a teenager, he probably hasn't had a lot of time to practice control.”

“Well, the League doesn't accept just anybody,” Emma says. “Bells, come on, back me up. Isn't Chameleon amazing?”

“Do you seriously like him just because he has powers?” Bells blurts out, his voice sharp with annoyance.

“What?” Emma frowns. “No, I just think he's cute and really cool, you know.”

“Like Jess said, you can't see his face,” Bells points out. “So all you know about him is what's listed on the League's holo and this video. Kinda soon for a crush, don't you think?”

Emma huffs. “How is this different than what we've talked about with any of the other heroes we find attractive?”

Bells gets up and grabs his backpack. “Whatever. I just realized I have to finish my history essay. I'll see you in school.”

“Do you need a ride?” Emma calls, but he's already at the top of the stairs.

The basement door shuts with a thud, and they can hear Bells' footsteps echo through the house and then the front door open and close.

“I guess he's walking.” Jess bites her lip; it's not that far to the nearest bus stop.

Emma's mouth is still open, and she's frozen, staring up the stairs. She shakes herself. Her eyebrows knit and she turns to Jess. “What was that about?”

Jess and Emma finish the
movie, but the mood has changed. Emma keeps biting her lip and looking toward the stairs.

“I'm gonna go see if he's okay,” Emma says. “I feel like I should apologize, but I'm not really sure what for. Like how is me finding Chameleon cute different than Starscream or Copycat?”

Jess brushes through her hair as she thinks. She ties her hair in a ponytail as Emma watches her. Great, Emma knows all her tells; she probably thinks Jess knows something.

Jess has suspected for a while that Bells has feelings for Emma, who crushes on a new person almost every week. Her focus is intense but fleeting, and she always wants to talk about them. It's only lately that Jess has noticed that Bells gets a withdrawn, resigned look whenever Emma talks about a crush, except a crush on celebrities or superheroes. Maybe Bells doesn't care about Starscream and Copycat because they are older and unattainable, but he's upset because Chameleon is their age?

“Maybe you guys should just hang out and talk about it,” Jess suggests.

Emma nods. “That's a good idea. See you around, Jess.”

Jess cleans up in the living room and heads upstairs to charge her phone. She runs into Brendan at the top of the stairs.

“Mom and Dad are doing hero-stuff with Clauds,” Brendan says. A pair of goggles dangles around his neck, and he smells like burnt rubber. Jess isn't sure she wants to know about the scuff marks on his face. “Mom said we can order food.”

“Cool, you want pizza?”

“Oooh, can you pick up a mushroom and cheese from Lenny's? And also I need a few more parts from the hardware shop.” Brendan hands Jess a list.

Jess scowls. “I'm not running your errands for you, and we can just order delivery from Pizza Joe's. Lenny's doesn't deliver, and I'm not supposed to leave you here alone.”

“I'm thirteen, not three. Look, I know they left the Smashmobile at home and I won't tell them you took it out. You know, if you wanted to drive it instead of taking the minivan.”

Jess narrows her eyes, but the temptation of driving the sports car is too much. Besides, she can park in an alley across the street from Lenny's. No one would notice her getting in and out of the car.

And she could get Thai tea from the shop next door.

“Fine,” Jess says, and strides to her parents' office. When she finds the drawer with the Smashmobile keycard, a thrill of exhilaration runs through her. She grabs her backpack.

The modified sports car drives like a dream. Her mom's logo is painted on the side, and inside there's a complicated dashboard with a communication relay to League headquarters. Grinning, Jess runs her fingers over the console. She takes the car for a spin around the block, and then on a whim zips out of the suburbs. She laughs as the wind catches in her hair as she drives down the highway past the gleaming solar fields.

The desert landscape opens out in front of her; but she doesn't want to risk running the car out of charge or worse, having someone mistake her for her mother and ask for help with hero stuff.

Jess zips around the outskirts of Andover, taking twenty minutes to herself. She imagines she's flying. It's thrilling, and then it's too easy to remember she's just driving a car. There's nothing special about that, even if she's controlling the vehicle instead of the computer.

She turns back into town and drives to the hardware shop to get Brendan his things. At least he knows what he wants, knows what he's doing in his life, and he's only thirteen. He doesn't have any powers and it doesn't bother him.

Then again, he's also a super-genius.

* * *

Jess is grateful when Monday
rolls around; she's impatient to hear back from Monroe Industries, and Bells and Emma were both busy on Sunday. Being around both her parents is exhausting. She always feels like a disappointment, even if they don't say anything about her lack of powers.

And they're around a lot more now ever since the Mischiefs went missing.

The resident villains of Andover, Master and Mistress Mischief, have been her parents' archenemies as long as Jess can remember. They've had countless confrontations over the years, all of them well-documented in the
Andover Gazette
, the local news holo.

The Mischiefs haven't been around the past few weeks—no ridiculous electronic shenanigans, nothing flying through the air, no chaos whatsoever. It's been strange, and while the rumors are that Smasher and Shockwave caught them and sent them to Meta-Human Corrections at last, Jess knows better.

Her parents have no idea where the villains are.

Even the usual sort of hero-work has declined since Chameleon was introduced, and with the lack of pranks from the Mischiefs, there's been woefully little for Jess' parents to do. Her father in particular has been using his extra time at home to focus uncomfortably on Jess' future.

At least there were only a few awkward conversations over the weekend. Jess can't say she's looked forward to a lot of Mondays, but this is definitely one of them. She hopes, whatever the Mischiefs are up to, that things get back to normal soon.