The wall of pain hit Rick so suddenly that he nearly passed out from the shock alone. He had never felt anything like it; he had been quite fortunate in his life to not have any major injuries.
He fell to the ground, his ineffective ice receding back to his hand. He heard Angie scream hazily as though she was screaming into a pillow at the other end of the street.
Rick couldn’t quite believe he had been shot; he couldn’t quite believe he was going to die. He looked down at his shirt. It was soaked in blood. He remembered the letter. He really wished he had the strength to read it. He could feel his life flowing out of him.
He closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness.
Rick died.
***
Angie screamed.
“Oh my God! They’ve killed Rick!” she shouted at Roger who was white with shock. Today, he thought, is not going well. He tuned back to the present in time to hear Angie’s shriek of desperation.
“Go back in time and stop him from being killed!” She was near to tears, wringing her hands and looking at Roger.
“I can’t!” gasped Roger. “Something terrible might happen if I see myself!”
Ignoring the men with guns who were hurrying towards them, Angie strode towards Roger and slapped him. Then she began to kick and punch him while shouting at him to do something.
But Roger had seen the men coming. He pushed Angie away and tried to lift Kitty. But he wasn’t strong enough. He had never been strong enough.
He had to drag her instead.
A shocked and grieving Angie grabbed Rick by the shoulders and dragged him away.
Roger stopped out of sight of the corner, behind a low wall of someone’s spotless garden. There was a pond surrounded by different gnomes.
Roger placed Kitty gently down on the well-kept lawn before running back to help Angie with Rick’s body. When he thought of Rick like this, he nearly let loose a sob. However, Angie looked as though she was on the brink of tears and even as though she might faint, so he swallowed it and helped her place Rick beside Kitty.
Angie looked at Rick and Kitty. “Oh, what are we going to do, Roger?” she wailed.
Suddenly, the sound of boots coming closer put a stop to Angie’s grief and anguish. Roger grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. He put his hand over her mouth and he held his breath. They both went utterly still.
The footsteps came closer. They sounded in front of them before becoming quieter. Angie made to get up, but Roger held her down.
A light swept the lawn. Then they heard a voice try to whisper, “They can’t have gone that far. If they’re not in these two gardens, then that kid must have teleported them away.”
“The boss won’t like this,” a second voice replied.
Footsteps approached then two sets of footsteps faded away into the distance.
The two friends stayed absolutely still for a minute before Roger let Angie go. She sat up, white as a sheet and looking terrified.
“Are you ok?” asked Roger as he sat up himself. She nodded, then shook her head and put her head in her hands. She began to sob as silently as she could.
Roger watched her, concerned but not knowing what to do.
Behind him someone gave a gasp.
Roger spun round in fright, though his brain was already telling him that it was probably Kitty.
He watched in complete shock as the gasp became a cough.
“Angie…” he whispered. “You have to see this.”
Angie looked up through her tears and gasped.
“Rick!” she exclaimed.
Rick was coughing and spluttering. Suddenly, he leaned sideways and threw up. When he finally looked up at his surroundings, he was surprised to see them in a garden. He saw Roger and Angie and smiled at them. They knelt there with their mouths open in shock.
“How did you- How did you- How did you do that!” stuttered Angie in surprise.
Rick looked around again. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe I have more than one power like Kitty has! Where is Kitty, anyhow?”
“You knocked her out!” hissed Roger, trying to keep his voice down. “She’s over there.” He gestured at Kitty’s motionless body.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Angie, beginning to wring her hands with worry.
“I don’t know,” sighed Roger. “Why don’t you pray for her?”
Angie looked at him blankly for a moment before putting her hands together. “Dear Father. Please help Kitty…”
***
Kitty woke up.
She immediately realised that she had been sitting up when she had fallen asleep; her neck was extremely sore and her head was hanging.
She groaned as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was expecting to be on her couch in front of the TV where she had probably fallen asleep. She was expecting to find that her adventure had all been a dream. A nightmare.
But that is not what she found.
She was in a room with brown walls and no other features bar the chair she was sitting on. It was dimly lit by a hanging bulb.
She tried to stand up and found she was actually tied to the chair. When she looked down, she saw that it was the classic rope and wooden chair combo. She was slightly reassured by this fact.
“Hello!” Kitty called out. “Any particular reason why I’m here?”
A door opened. A man stepped into the room.
He was balding and wearing a fading suit. His eyes were dark and narrowed, squinting in the dull light. His hands were slightly occupied by the black gloves he was putting on.
“Ah,” he said, softly. “You have rejoined us at last!”
Kitty felt a shiver of fear down her spine as he spoke. This man was evil, she thought. He could kill me. I have to be really, really careful.
“What do you want from me?” Kitty bravely asked.
“We want you to tell us where your little friends are going,” he replied, his evil expression not changing.
“No way!” exclaimed Kitty. “I would never give up their hiding place! Not even if you were to torture me!”
Straight away, Kitty knew she had said the wrong thing. When you’re dealing with someone as evil-looking as this guy, he could be capable of anything, even torture. Besides the fact that she had read too many books and watched too many films to know it was not a good idea to claim this fact to anyone who has gone slightly psycho.
The man grinned. He flexed his fingers. He swung his arm back as Kitty watched, alarmed and frightened.
He hit her.
It was a back-hander and she had never felt pain quite like it. She could taste something like iron in her mouth and knew she was bleeding. She could feel tears in her eyes but she didn’t want to show this man her pain. She bit back the tears.
Kitty turned to the guy, her hair covering her face, anger written across her hidden visage. “I will never tell you what you want to know. You will never find them. Kill me if you want, but it won’t help you find them.”
“Talk, bitch!” shouted the guy. He appeared to have lost control. He raised his hand to slap her again.
Kitty flinched.
***
Kitty felt no pain. She was rather confused. She couldn’t taste the blood. What was going on?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back, staring at a starry sky.
She sat bolt upright. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand came out of nowhere and covered her mouth. She panicked slightly and struggled against the hand. She tried to scream, but it came out muffled.
“Ssh!” whispered a voice she recognised. “It’s OK.”
The hand came away from Kitty’s mouth and she turned towards Rick. “What happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a garden with a well-kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a small pond. Surrounding the pond was three or four different gnomes, each with a small fishing rod. Behind this pond, the lawn was home to several different gnomes. One wheeled a miniature wheelbarrow, another held aloft his bounty of carrots he had proudly grown. A path travelled from the gate set in the wall she was lying behind to the steps of the front door. On either side of this path were flowers. It was too dark to name these flowers, but the wind blew a beautiful smell to Kitty’s nose.
“Sorry,” said Rick, sheepishly. “I knocked you out.”
“I kinda meant, why are we here?” she elaborated.
Roger crawled over to her, Angie following him. “Rick was shot and we had to get you out of there. We wouldn’t have got very far, so we hid here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. She turned to Rick. “You were shot?!”
“Yeah, it’s OK. I managed to heal myself somehow.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. “How?”
Rick shrugged. “Must be a secondary power, or something.”
“Come on,” said Roger. “We need to get out of here.”
Kitty nodded and they all stood up. They had lost their bikes and skateboards, so they began to walk along the street. They walked in silence, each worrying about different things. Finally, Angie broke the silence.
“Where are we going to go?”
Everyone stopped. Kitty and Rick glanced at each other, then they looked at Roger. He stared back, wide-eyed, not used to being made the leader. He thought about it for a minute, then said, “Do we have money?”
“Yeah, a bit,” answered Kitty. “Why?”
“We should get to a hotel,” was Roger’s reply. “Stay the night before figuring out what we are going to do.”
They nodded and continued to walk into the unknown.
***
Rick gratefully sank onto the bed. He was still in pain from the bullet. He had realised pretty quickly that although he could heal, he could still feel the pain. He needed to catch his breath.
Suddenly, the door to the room banged open. Opening his tired eyes, Rick glanced towards the door and saw Roger backing in, his arms full with “supplies”. He dumped these assorted food and items on the other bed.
“What’ve you got?” Rick asked.
Roger glanced up at him. “Torches, batteries, rope, pen-knives, sleeping bags and food. I still need to get a couple of tents, but I’ll get that after some sleep. I’m exhausted!”
“How are the girls?” asked Rick.
“I knocked on the door. No answer. I’m presuming they’re asleep. They’ve both had an exhausting night. And they’ve both had bad knocks to the head.”
As Roger busied himself with the sorting of the pile, Rick laboriously pushed himself onto one elbow to look at him.
“So…” he began.
Roger glanced at him again as he put the individual piles on the floor. “So what?” he asked, puzzled.
“Do you like Kitty?” blurted Rick.
Roger stared at him for a moment before saying really slowly, “Well… That is why she is my friend, Rick. I think you may need some sleep.”
Rick snorted. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “No. Not like that. She’s a great friend, and a brilliant leader, but to be perfectly honest, I like someone else.”
“Ooh!” Rick brightened up. “Who?”
Roger reddened. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s not as if we’ll be going to see them ever again, if this carries on.”
Rick decided not to comment. Roger already had a lot on his mind; there was no point in pressing the matter. It would only make him more upset.
Rick lay back on the bed. He listened to the strange noises coming from Roger’s side of the room as he drifted off to sleep.
***
Rick woke to hear voices. Two girls, one guy. Slightly disorientated, it took him a while to realise that it was Roger, Kitty and Angie.
He focussed on their voice, trying to decipher what they were saying.
Roger was saying, “… may not help us.”
“We should ask him to read it out to us,” came Kitty’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we asked politely.”
“But we can’t wait for too long. They’ll find us,” said Angie.
Rick opened his eyes and looked over to the other bed. Kitty and Angie were both sitting on the bed. Angie was picking at a loose thread on the quilt. Roger was pacing up and down. He looked rather harassed; his hair had a ruffled look, as if he had been running his hand through it.
On the bed beside Kitty was the letter his father had given him.
“Hey!” protested Rick, sitting up. “What are you doing with my letter?”
Roger jumped and turned towards him. Kitty and Angie turned their heads towards him.
“We were wondering if there would be anything in the letter to help us,” explained Kitty. “Here,” she continued as she handed him the letter, “read it out to us.”
Rick reluctantly took the letter as his anger dissipated. He slipped his finger under the flap and opened the envelope. He took out several sheets of paper.
“Dear, Richard,” he read. “Please do not be alarmed, but if you are reading this I am either dead or taken. Taken by the monsters who created you. Not that I am saying you are a monster or something equally unnatural; you are still and forever will be my son. But I must explain everything. You see, you and your three friends are the results of some risky experiments. Experiments that I was actively involved in.”
“You’re dad’s a scientist?!” exclaimed the other three.
Rick nodded. “Until my mum left him. Then he quit and took up a ‘respectable’, boring job. Anyway…
“I worked with an organisation called Sdaehgems; this stands for Scientific Development and Experiments on Heroes who are Great and Extraordinary Movement and Society. They couldn’t decide whether it was a ‘movement’ or a ‘society’ so they decided to adopt both words.
“This organisation specialised in studying superheroes who had been outlawed in the 1960s. In this country, they had been rounded up and imprisoned, simply for being alive. The government granted us access to these people to see if we could ‘cure’ them, but there was never going to be any way for us to eradicate them. Instead we decided to see if we could control who received the super powers.
“After lengthy experiments, we decided to see if children of two superhero parents could acquire super powers, having already established that one such person as a parent could give birth to a super powered child. The government would not allow the superheroes themselves to bear the child so we started searching for a couple who were already trying for a baby. However, these children would die in a miscarriage when born by the people we had captured.”
“You mean that your dad was kidnapping people?!” exclaimed Angie.
“That’s awful!” gasped Kitty.
Rick looked sadly at the shocked faces of his three companions before continuing with the letter. “Yes, son. I am afraid we resorted to kidnapping. But our experiments did not work, and we left many people distraught.
“One of our excellent scientists concluded that our experiments had not worked due to the women’s body rejecting the ‘foreign body’. We needed someone who was willing to have someone else’s baby, he decided.
“So we set up shop outside hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. Listening in to find people who were having trouble bearing children. That is how we found Kitty, Roger and Angie’s parents. They agreed to the experiment readily. I also volunteered, along with your mother, for this experiment. Of course, no-one but me knew the origin of the sperm and eggs…
“You were created and you were born. In the hospital, people inserted chips to ensure that your uncontrollable powers would not manifest when you were too young to control them. This chip was inserted into your intestines. It excreted chemicals into the blood which had a negative effect on the manifestation of your powers. They were all programmed to ‘detach’ from your intestines at the exact same time, thus controlling when you were to manifest. The scientists could come and observe you all secretly until that point in time when you would be asked to come in for scientific observation.
“However, none of the parents were told this, apart from me as I already knew what was happening. Nonetheless, one of the parents noticed that one of the children had blue eyes while both parents and their immediate family had brown eyes. Little Angie didn’t belong with them.”
Angie gave a gasp and Rick glanced up to see her beginning to tear up. Kitty put her arm around her and nodded at Rick to carry on.
“They were rather confused to say the least. They asked at the company’s office.
“When they were told they spread it round the other families. To say your mother was a bit annoyed with this arrangement would be an understatement. She left me.
“And as you already know, I gave up on that life.
“However, when the four of you were aged four and were all innocent about the world, something happened which drew me back into that world, if only for a few months.
“Angie’s powers manifested.
“You see, her mother was having an affair with her boss’ son and Angie heard her thoughts as she covered it up from her husband. She told her father about it and he was rather surprised to say the least. They brought her to the lab and I was there when they inserted a chip into her brain. This chip would prevent her reading the parents thoughts and would prevent the other chip from leaving her body at the allotted time. Thus, every one of you shall not be able to use our powers till an operation is undertaken to remove the chip.”
“And that’s what game me those fucking headaches!” exclaimed Angie.
Rick nodded and continued. “It gave the poor girl headaches and her mother made her religious by blaming Angie. Angie’s father, however, left them, disgusted that-”
Rick looked up at Angie who appeared to be listening intently. She stared at him miserably as he glanced up. “I think I’ll skip this part,” he muttered before continuing.
“A year ago, the scientist who had been heading the operation died in a tragic car accident and the attitude of the operation has changed with the change of head scientist. I have infiltrated the society to find out what day they will be taking you, for they will no longer ask permission. I will find this out and warn everyone’s parents. We have to make sure you are all out of the house on this day.
“You have a cousin in Glasgow. I have inserted her address into this envelope. Go to her; she will make sure you are safe and continue your education. Hide yourself away from the world.
“Save yourself.
“Lots of love, your Father.”
Rick glanced up at the silent room. “There’s a postscript.
“P.S. They’ve changed the day; Kitty and Roger’s parents won’t have time to escape!”
There was silence for a moment. Then Roger said, “We should go to Scotland.”
“What? Why?” exclaimed Angie.
“Well, his dad seems to have known what he was talking about…”
“But we can’t just go! We wouldn’t be able to go to school unless we told them where we came from and they would ask our school to confirm it. They’d find us!”
“Well, we’ll just not go to school, then.”
“We can’t not go to school! How will we get into university?”
“I don’t think it quite matters any more…”
While this argument was happening over her head, Kitty was watching Rick. After reading the letter, he had looked absolutely miserable. But while Angie and Roger argued, his expression had changed to anger and now it was set in determination.
“No,” he suddenly whispered. He looked up at Kitty, who nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“No,” he repeated loud enough for the other two to hear.
“No what?” asked Roger, confused.
“We’re not going to Scotland,” said Rick.
Angie was quicker on the uptake than Roger. “Oh, no. We can’t! I may not want to go to Scotland, but we just can’t! I mean, we don’t even know where they are!”
“Where who are?” asked Roger.
“We can ask Google,” said Kitty, smiling. “And we’ve got all our powers, so it’ll be easy enough to break in.”
“Oh,” said Roger, as he caught up. “But your dad wants you to go away! He doesn’t want you to rescue him!”
“I don’t care!” snapped Rick. “We’re going to get our parents out, and that’s the end of it! All we need to do now is find a computer…”
Roger sighed. “The library?” he suggested.
Kitty and Rick glanced at each other. “Excellent!” they grinned at a disapproving Roger.
He fell to the ground, his ineffective ice receding back to his hand. He heard Angie scream hazily as though she was screaming into a pillow at the other end of the street.
Rick couldn’t quite believe he had been shot; he couldn’t quite believe he was going to die. He looked down at his shirt. It was soaked in blood. He remembered the letter. He really wished he had the strength to read it. He could feel his life flowing out of him.
He closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness.
Rick died.
***
Angie screamed.
“Oh my God! They’ve killed Rick!” she shouted at Roger who was white with shock. Today, he thought, is not going well. He tuned back to the present in time to hear Angie’s shriek of desperation.
“Go back in time and stop him from being killed!” She was near to tears, wringing her hands and looking at Roger.
“I can’t!” gasped Roger. “Something terrible might happen if I see myself!”
Ignoring the men with guns who were hurrying towards them, Angie strode towards Roger and slapped him. Then she began to kick and punch him while shouting at him to do something.
But Roger had seen the men coming. He pushed Angie away and tried to lift Kitty. But he wasn’t strong enough. He had never been strong enough.
He had to drag her instead.
A shocked and grieving Angie grabbed Rick by the shoulders and dragged him away.
Roger stopped out of sight of the corner, behind a low wall of someone’s spotless garden. There was a pond surrounded by different gnomes.
Roger placed Kitty gently down on the well-kept lawn before running back to help Angie with Rick’s body. When he thought of Rick like this, he nearly let loose a sob. However, Angie looked as though she was on the brink of tears and even as though she might faint, so he swallowed it and helped her place Rick beside Kitty.
Angie looked at Rick and Kitty. “Oh, what are we going to do, Roger?” she wailed.
Suddenly, the sound of boots coming closer put a stop to Angie’s grief and anguish. Roger grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. He put his hand over her mouth and he held his breath. They both went utterly still.
The footsteps came closer. They sounded in front of them before becoming quieter. Angie made to get up, but Roger held her down.
A light swept the lawn. Then they heard a voice try to whisper, “They can’t have gone that far. If they’re not in these two gardens, then that kid must have teleported them away.”
“The boss won’t like this,” a second voice replied.
Footsteps approached then two sets of footsteps faded away into the distance.
The two friends stayed absolutely still for a minute before Roger let Angie go. She sat up, white as a sheet and looking terrified.
“Are you ok?” asked Roger as he sat up himself. She nodded, then shook her head and put her head in her hands. She began to sob as silently as she could.
Roger watched her, concerned but not knowing what to do.
Behind him someone gave a gasp.
Roger spun round in fright, though his brain was already telling him that it was probably Kitty.
He watched in complete shock as the gasp became a cough.
“Angie…” he whispered. “You have to see this.”
Angie looked up through her tears and gasped.
“Rick!” she exclaimed.
Rick was coughing and spluttering. Suddenly, he leaned sideways and threw up. When he finally looked up at his surroundings, he was surprised to see them in a garden. He saw Roger and Angie and smiled at them. They knelt there with their mouths open in shock.
“How did you- How did you- How did you do that!” stuttered Angie in surprise.
Rick looked around again. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe I have more than one power like Kitty has! Where is Kitty, anyhow?”
“You knocked her out!” hissed Roger, trying to keep his voice down. “She’s over there.” He gestured at Kitty’s motionless body.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Angie, beginning to wring her hands with worry.
“I don’t know,” sighed Roger. “Why don’t you pray for her?”
Angie looked at him blankly for a moment before putting her hands together. “Dear Father. Please help Kitty…”
***
Kitty woke up.
She immediately realised that she had been sitting up when she had fallen asleep; her neck was extremely sore and her head was hanging.
She groaned as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was expecting to be on her couch in front of the TV where she had probably fallen asleep. She was expecting to find that her adventure had all been a dream. A nightmare.
But that is not what she found.
She was in a room with brown walls and no other features bar the chair she was sitting on. It was dimly lit by a hanging bulb.
She tried to stand up and found she was actually tied to the chair. When she looked down, she saw that it was the classic rope and wooden chair combo. She was slightly reassured by this fact.
“Hello!” Kitty called out. “Any particular reason why I’m here?”
A door opened. A man stepped into the room.
He was balding and wearing a fading suit. His eyes were dark and narrowed, squinting in the dull light. His hands were slightly occupied by the black gloves he was putting on.
“Ah,” he said, softly. “You have rejoined us at last!”
Kitty felt a shiver of fear down her spine as he spoke. This man was evil, she thought. He could kill me. I have to be really, really careful.
“What do you want from me?” Kitty bravely asked.
“We want you to tell us where your little friends are going,” he replied, his evil expression not changing.
“No way!” exclaimed Kitty. “I would never give up their hiding place! Not even if you were to torture me!”
Straight away, Kitty knew she had said the wrong thing. When you’re dealing with someone as evil-looking as this guy, he could be capable of anything, even torture. Besides the fact that she had read too many books and watched too many films to know it was not a good idea to claim this fact to anyone who has gone slightly psycho.
The man grinned. He flexed his fingers. He swung his arm back as Kitty watched, alarmed and frightened.
He hit her.
It was a back-hander and she had never felt pain quite like it. She could taste something like iron in her mouth and knew she was bleeding. She could feel tears in her eyes but she didn’t want to show this man her pain. She bit back the tears.
Kitty turned to the guy, her hair covering her face, anger written across her hidden visage. “I will never tell you what you want to know. You will never find them. Kill me if you want, but it won’t help you find them.”
“Talk, bitch!” shouted the guy. He appeared to have lost control. He raised his hand to slap her again.
Kitty flinched.
***
Kitty felt no pain. She was rather confused. She couldn’t taste the blood. What was going on?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back, staring at a starry sky.
She sat bolt upright. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand came out of nowhere and covered her mouth. She panicked slightly and struggled against the hand. She tried to scream, but it came out muffled.
“Ssh!” whispered a voice she recognised. “It’s OK.”
The hand came away from Kitty’s mouth and she turned towards Rick. “What happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a garden with a well-kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a small pond. Surrounding the pond was three or four different gnomes, each with a small fishing rod. Behind this pond, the lawn was home to several different gnomes. One wheeled a miniature wheelbarrow, another held aloft his bounty of carrots he had proudly grown. A path travelled from the gate set in the wall she was lying behind to the steps of the front door. On either side of this path were flowers. It was too dark to name these flowers, but the wind blew a beautiful smell to Kitty’s nose.
“Sorry,” said Rick, sheepishly. “I knocked you out.”
“I kinda meant, why are we here?” she elaborated.
Roger crawled over to her, Angie following him. “Rick was shot and we had to get you out of there. We wouldn’t have got very far, so we hid here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. She turned to Rick. “You were shot?!”
“Yeah, it’s OK. I managed to heal myself somehow.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. “How?”
Rick shrugged. “Must be a secondary power, or something.”
“Come on,” said Roger. “We need to get out of here.”
Kitty nodded and they all stood up. They had lost their bikes and skateboards, so they began to walk along the street. They walked in silence, each worrying about different things. Finally, Angie broke the silence.
“Where are we going to go?”
Everyone stopped. Kitty and Rick glanced at each other, then they looked at Roger. He stared back, wide-eyed, not used to being made the leader. He thought about it for a minute, then said, “Do we have money?”
“Yeah, a bit,” answered Kitty. “Why?”
“We should get to a hotel,” was Roger’s reply. “Stay the night before figuring out what we are going to do.”
They nodded and continued to walk into the unknown.
***
Rick gratefully sank onto the bed. He was still in pain from the bullet. He had realised pretty quickly that although he could heal, he could still feel the pain. He needed to catch his breath.
Suddenly, the door to the room banged open. Opening his tired eyes, Rick glanced towards the door and saw Roger backing in, his arms full with “supplies”. He dumped these assorted food and items on the other bed.
“What’ve you got?” Rick asked.
Roger glanced up at him. “Torches, batteries, rope, pen-knives, sleeping bags and food. I still need to get a couple of tents, but I’ll get that after some sleep. I’m exhausted!”
“How are the girls?” asked Rick.
“I knocked on the door. No answer. I’m presuming they’re asleep. They’ve both had an exhausting night. And they’ve both had bad knocks to the head.”
As Roger busied himself with the sorting of the pile, Rick laboriously pushed himself onto one elbow to look at him.
“So…” he began.
Roger glanced at him again as he put the individual piles on the floor. “So what?” he asked, puzzled.
“Do you like Kitty?” blurted Rick.
Roger stared at him for a moment before saying really slowly, “Well… That is why she is my friend, Rick. I think you may need some sleep.”
Rick snorted. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “No. Not like that. She’s a great friend, and a brilliant leader, but to be perfectly honest, I like someone else.”
“Ooh!” Rick brightened up. “Who?”
Roger reddened. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s not as if we’ll be going to see them ever again, if this carries on.”
Rick decided not to comment. Roger already had a lot on his mind; there was no point in pressing the matter. It would only make him more upset.
Rick lay back on the bed. He listened to the strange noises coming from Roger’s side of the room as he drifted off to sleep.
***
Rick woke to hear voices. Two girls, one guy. Slightly disorientated, it took him a while to realise that it was Roger, Kitty and Angie.
He focussed on their voice, trying to decipher what they were saying.
Roger was saying, “… may not help us.”
“We should ask him to read it out to us,” came Kitty’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we asked politely.”
“But we can’t wait for too long. They’ll find us,” said Angie.
Rick opened his eyes and looked over to the other bed. Kitty and Angie were both sitting on the bed. Angie was picking at a loose thread on the quilt. Roger was pacing up and down. He looked rather harassed; his hair had a ruffled look, as if he had been running his hand through it.
On the bed beside Kitty was the letter his father had given him.
“Hey!” protested Rick, sitting up. “What are you doing with my letter?”
Roger jumped and turned towards him. Kitty and Angie turned their heads towards him.
“We were wondering if there would be anything in the letter to help us,” explained Kitty. “Here,” she continued as she handed him the letter, “read it out to us.”
Rick reluctantly took the letter as his anger dissipated. He slipped his finger under the flap and opened the envelope. He took out several sheets of paper.
“Dear, Richard,” he read. “Please do not be alarmed, but if you are reading this I am either dead or taken. Taken by the monsters who created you. Not that I am saying you are a monster or something equally unnatural; you are still and forever will be my son. But I must explain everything. You see, you and your three friends are the results of some risky experiments. Experiments that I was actively involved in.”
“You’re dad’s a scientist?!” exclaimed the other three.
Rick nodded. “Until my mum left him. Then he quit and took up a ‘respectable’, boring job. Anyway…
“I worked with an organisation called Sdaehgems; this stands for Scientific Development and Experiments on Heroes who are Great and Extraordinary Movement and Society. They couldn’t decide whether it was a ‘movement’ or a ‘society’ so they decided to adopt both words.
“This organisation specialised in studying superheroes who had been outlawed in the 1960s. In this country, they had been rounded up and imprisoned, simply for being alive. The government granted us access to these people to see if we could ‘cure’ them, but there was never going to be any way for us to eradicate them. Instead we decided to see if we could control who received the super powers.
“After lengthy experiments, we decided to see if children of two superhero parents could acquire super powers, having already established that one such person as a parent could give birth to a super powered child. The government would not allow the superheroes themselves to bear the child so we started searching for a couple who were already trying for a baby. However, these children would die in a miscarriage when born by the people we had captured.”
“You mean that your dad was kidnapping people?!” exclaimed Angie.
“That’s awful!” gasped Kitty.
Rick looked sadly at the shocked faces of his three companions before continuing with the letter. “Yes, son. I am afraid we resorted to kidnapping. But our experiments did not work, and we left many people distraught.
“One of our excellent scientists concluded that our experiments had not worked due to the women’s body rejecting the ‘foreign body’. We needed someone who was willing to have someone else’s baby, he decided.
“So we set up shop outside hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. Listening in to find people who were having trouble bearing children. That is how we found Kitty, Roger and Angie’s parents. They agreed to the experiment readily. I also volunteered, along with your mother, for this experiment. Of course, no-one but me knew the origin of the sperm and eggs…
“You were created and you were born. In the hospital, people inserted chips to ensure that your uncontrollable powers would not manifest when you were too young to control them. This chip was inserted into your intestines. It excreted chemicals into the blood which had a negative effect on the manifestation of your powers. They were all programmed to ‘detach’ from your intestines at the exact same time, thus controlling when you were to manifest. The scientists could come and observe you all secretly until that point in time when you would be asked to come in for scientific observation.
“However, none of the parents were told this, apart from me as I already knew what was happening. Nonetheless, one of the parents noticed that one of the children had blue eyes while both parents and their immediate family had brown eyes. Little Angie didn’t belong with them.”
Angie gave a gasp and Rick glanced up to see her beginning to tear up. Kitty put her arm around her and nodded at Rick to carry on.
“They were rather confused to say the least. They asked at the company’s office.
“When they were told they spread it round the other families. To say your mother was a bit annoyed with this arrangement would be an understatement. She left me.
“And as you already know, I gave up on that life.
“However, when the four of you were aged four and were all innocent about the world, something happened which drew me back into that world, if only for a few months.
“Angie’s powers manifested.
“You see, her mother was having an affair with her boss’ son and Angie heard her thoughts as she covered it up from her husband. She told her father about it and he was rather surprised to say the least. They brought her to the lab and I was there when they inserted a chip into her brain. This chip would prevent her reading the parents thoughts and would prevent the other chip from leaving her body at the allotted time. Thus, every one of you shall not be able to use our powers till an operation is undertaken to remove the chip.”
“And that’s what game me those fucking headaches!” exclaimed Angie.
Rick nodded and continued. “It gave the poor girl headaches and her mother made her religious by blaming Angie. Angie’s father, however, left them, disgusted that-”
Rick looked up at Angie who appeared to be listening intently. She stared at him miserably as he glanced up. “I think I’ll skip this part,” he muttered before continuing.
“A year ago, the scientist who had been heading the operation died in a tragic car accident and the attitude of the operation has changed with the change of head scientist. I have infiltrated the society to find out what day they will be taking you, for they will no longer ask permission. I will find this out and warn everyone’s parents. We have to make sure you are all out of the house on this day.
“You have a cousin in Glasgow. I have inserted her address into this envelope. Go to her; she will make sure you are safe and continue your education. Hide yourself away from the world.
“Save yourself.
“Lots of love, your Father.”
Rick glanced up at the silent room. “There’s a postscript.
“P.S. They’ve changed the day; Kitty and Roger’s parents won’t have time to escape!”
There was silence for a moment. Then Roger said, “We should go to Scotland.”
“What? Why?” exclaimed Angie.
“Well, his dad seems to have known what he was talking about…”
“But we can’t just go! We wouldn’t be able to go to school unless we told them where we came from and they would ask our school to confirm it. They’d find us!”
“Well, we’ll just not go to school, then.”
“We can’t not go to school! How will we get into university?”
“I don’t think it quite matters any more…”
While this argument was happening over her head, Kitty was watching Rick. After reading the letter, he had looked absolutely miserable. But while Angie and Roger argued, his expression had changed to anger and now it was set in determination.
“No,” he suddenly whispered. He looked up at Kitty, who nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“No,” he repeated loud enough for the other two to hear.
“No what?” asked Roger, confused.
“We’re not going to Scotland,” said Rick.
Angie was quicker on the uptake than Roger. “Oh, no. We can’t! I may not want to go to Scotland, but we just can’t! I mean, we don’t even know where they are!”
“Where who are?” asked Roger.
“We can ask Google,” said Kitty, smiling. “And we’ve got all our powers, so it’ll be easy enough to break in.”
“Oh,” said Roger, as he caught up. “But your dad wants you to go away! He doesn’t want you to rescue him!”
“I don’t care!” snapped Rick. “We’re going to get our parents out, and that’s the end of it! All we need to do now is find a computer…”
Roger sighed. “The library?” he suggested.
Kitty and Rick glanced at each other. “Excellent!” they grinned at a disapproving Roger.
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