Day Four dawned hot, muggy, and overcast. Open second-story windows kept the mass of body heat from getting too oppressive, but... it was still August with no air conditioning. The grey clouds didn't make the watery early-morning light any more inviting.
Some of the other kids in our room were already awake, three of them piled up under a window sharing a book by the half-hearted light of a sunbeam while a fourth – still partially tucked into a sleeping bag – lounged with his head in the lap of a girl who looked like she could be his sister, listening to their friend read quietly aloud.
Chloe and Nicole weren't up yet. Chloe slept snugly in her sleeping bag, glasses folded neatly next to her pillow and hugging Percy like a plushie. Nicole slept like an absolute lunatic, sprawled out across her own sleeping bag and half of her sister's like a deranged starfish, one arm over her sister and one foot fighting for space with Percy's tail. It was a small mercy that she didn't always snore.
Seeing me awake, Percy fixed me with pleading eyes, and I patted my lap, giving him somewhere to extract himself to. I greeted him with head-scritches, then gently plopped him on top of my shield, since Mom was still under it.
“Any advice for Day Four?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “From the records I have, it seems that the days which are multiples of three are more important than fours, and twelves perhaps the most significant.
“In fact, given that the points grant new abilities at multiples of twelve, I daresay whoever designed this Maffiyer might be working on a base-12 math system.”
“Yikes,” I grouched, “I'm bad enough with ordinary math. How bad is weird space math gonna be?”
“Not too bad. Just remember that fractions and multiples of twelve are important to them like fractions and multiples of ten are to you.”
He paused, cleared his throat, and asked... “Have you checked your status recently?”
“Yesterday,” I said, “Why?”
“Curiosity, I suppose. Have you given any thought to your next ability?”
“Level Four is a long way off, isn't it? It feels like they get a lot bigger every time.”
He nodded. “They very definitely do. In fact, if the math bears out, you shouldn't see your fourth ability until you amass just over one thousand points. Still, it does bear thinking about in advance.”
“I really want to take Flight. I would be able to scout around faster and safer if I could fly. I'm just not sure if I have enough... whatever 'support' actually is... to take it.”
“I believe what the system calls 'support' is what you lot have been thinking of as 'synergy.' Similar powers that enhance each other past certain thresholds. With how well the three you already have work together, you may well have enough already. And if not, you surely will at your fifth stage, if your fourth treats you well.”
Around then, Mom rolled over. She snaked one arm out from under my shield... and gently pinched Percy's jaws shut, making his teeth click.
“No theorycrafting before sunrise,” she grumbled.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A while later, we were all awake. “Fresh” was becoming more and more relative by the day, but at least we were all well-rested.
Mom and I nibbled bowls of dry cereal while everybody was gathering in the War Room. That consisted of myself, Mom, the Director, and four others, which included Renee. The other three were people I had seen in passing, but this was my first time being properly introduced to.
The first was Ian Watkins; formerly head of the Sports and Games room, now head of the makeshift time-out area the kids had taken to calling “the brig.” He had two abilities so far: Shape Stone and Burden. With both sitting at 108%, they must have had every bit as little synergy as they sounded like, even if they did work well for him in his role as impromptu constable.
The second was Claire O'Shea. Formerly chief nutritionist despite looking younger than my mom, her one power so far was Cleanse.
The third was Mirabelle Williams. I was surprised to learn she was only nineteen, working as an assistant to their school nurse while she worked her way towards becoming an actual nurse. Unsurprisingly, her one ability was Healing Touch.
Once we were all settled in – some of us still eating breakfast, others done – Director Debbie called the meeting to order, such as it was.
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“Our main concern right now is still water. Someone put a note in the suggestion box last night pointing out that there is a creek just down the hill from here, through the reeds at the back of the parking lot.”
Mom smirked. “Not many urbanites are going to think to actually get water from a creek,” she said.
Debby nodded. “It's a start. We have enough buckets and such that we can bring some water up here. We'll keep giving the kids what we have stockpiled from before, but the adults will live on creek water until we're sure it's safe. If it's not clean, we'll have people use Cleanse on it.”
Renee added, “According to the census we have nine kids with some version of fire-based powers and three with something related to lightning or electricity. We could ask them to make fires and boil water, too.”
I snapped my fingers. “Distilling!”
Everyone turned to me.
“We need to figure out a way to boil off the water and collect the steam. That'll kill off anything living in it, and leave all the dirt 'n' stuff behind. Right?”
They looked at each other.
Mom shrugged. “She's not wrong. I built a solar still on the beach a couple of times after I saw a YouTube video about it, but it's slow as heck. It's not enough to do for everybody.”
But then Mom's eyes boggled and she sat up straighter. “The library! There's a public library... like five minutes from here.”
Renee nodded. “More like 20 minutes walking, but yeah, I see what you're thinking.”
Ian cleared his throat. “Clue us in?”
Mom turned to him. “An expedition to the library to gather instructional books. Urban survival manuals, Boy Scouts guides, stuff like that.”
Director Debby set her eyes on Mom, “Your idea, your project. Put together who you need, and try to pick at least a couple of the kids who haven't gotten as many points yet. Take Miri with you; she needs the points, too.”
Then she turned to me. “Same to you with the creek water. Put together who you need.”
Ian balked. “Wait why's she in charge of something?”
Debby grinned at him in a way I could only describe as fox-like. “Because she's our deadliest fighter and the only one of us so far to have led anything outside. Your deputies have their shields because of her. As far as I'm concerned, Emma has proven herself over and over again for us.”
He relented, but I still saw him giving me a side-eye through the rest of the meeting.
“That's that for now,” Debby said, turning back to Ian. “How's the situation discipline-wise?”
“We have six kids in the brig right now waiting for meetings with you. I've got eight deputies so far, but that's not enough to guard three doors round-the-clock. Two kids per shift, three shifts per day, three doors; I'd need eighteen trustworthy and... armed... deputies just to cover guard duty. And we still have no good way to raise an alarm if anything does happen.”
I raised my hand and they both looked at me. “The brig? We have our own jail now?”
Ian explained, “It used to be enough to put kids in time-out when they misbehaved, but now they have superpowers. Kids misbehave with superpowers, people get hurt. One kid almost died while you were out because he decided to bully another kid and found out the hard way that kid took Channel Lightning. If we didn't have a lot of healers he wouldn't have made it.
“So I used my Stone Shaping on the cinderblock gym walls to make little open-fronted cells as time-out areas. It's just spooky enough that nobody wants to go in there, and just close-by enough that the kids in there know they're not actually alone. Then they get a meeting with the Director, like a hearing, to see if they get released or have to do more time.
“It's not a great solution but it's all we've come up with so far.
“My deputies are kind of the opposite. Trustworthy kids who I know won't slack off or misuse their powers. They got the first round of shields and they guard the doors. They're the kids your henchmen gave a hard time on their way out.”
I bristled at his tone, but Director Debbie put her hands up at both of us, and we both backed off.
A deep breath or two later, I turned to Mom. “We should trade projects, though.”
“Why?”
“Two reasons,” I said, “One is that I already have an away team I know how to work with, whereas you'd be starting over.
“The other is that... not all the kids here know me. I'm not trying to put myself down – Director Debbie is right that I earned it – but if I'm around and in charge of things... Ian's not the only one who won't get it, and having to argue with every wannabe tough-guy who can't listen is a waste of time.
“But they see another adult here, and... as nonsense as it is... kids get taught to fall in line. Even to old people they don't know, or who haven't done anything to deserve it. You don't have to prove yourself here as hard as I do. For a lot of kids showing up and being old is enough.
“So if we trade projects, it'll be easier for both of us.”
She thought about it, long enough that Constable Ian got up, said something about sending his deputies to meet us here, and left. Claire and Miri, too.
“Alright,” she said, “But if you're going, you're wearing the armor.”
“If you get eaten by a ground mimic while I'm out there armored, I'm gonna haunt you.”
“That's backwards.”
“I'll make it work.”
“Shoo, both of you,” Director Debbie waved her hands at us, but I could see her trying not to grin.