I didn’t see Chloe again before we left, so I replied to her test text to let her know that Megan was okay. She was happy to hear it, and after my request, she kept telling me about the student protests at Ohio State. There were enough students that were vocal about us that it did make me nervous. Ohio State was only a single school, so there were probably thousands of other protestors that were just against us in general.
Alex was the one who drove us to St. Louis, and I was pleased to report that we managed to avoid disaster. It was almost boring, really. I gave Megan my phone so she could watch some movies which kept her entertained the entire way. I used that time to myself to practice with my barriers again. I was able to get two separate barriers from my hands to my elbows. Instead of working on size, I put most of my effort into strengthening them. Their strength was something I was consciously aware of. It did frustrate me that I didn’t have a way to test out that strength on something practical in the real world.
As one would expect from a drive through the States, there wasn’t a lot of eye-catching scenery unless you were a big fan of corn. No disrespect to all the hardworking farmers in the Midwest, but man, it wasn’t exactly visually stimulating. Passing through some bigger areas like Dayton and Indianapolis livened things up a bit. Those changes of scenery didn’t last long before we were right back in rural America all over again. We made sure that no threats had been made to cities in our surrounding area before we went through them. It turned out that McLeod had been completely silent since Pittsburgh.
Our gas was just low enough to be a small concern when we started seeing exit signs for St. Louis. Alex pulled off and we found a gas station. This time, it was still the afternoon, so there weren’t any drunk students waiting in front of the building. Alex still insisted that he’d go in and pay for it, which made Lori look embarrassed. Megan needed to use the bathroom, so she followed Alex inside where he kept a watchful eye on her and waited outside the bathroom for her to finish up.
“I’m sure someone from either city would kill me if I told them this, but this looks basically the same as Columbus.” I looked out the window, trying to understand the pride people felt in certain major cities over another. Maybe there was more charm in them if you lived there. The small-town guy I was just wasn’t seeing it. “Give me little towns in the mountains any day.”
“They have a charm to them. You probably wouldn’t get bored here.” Lori was looking at her phone and sounded deep in thought. I was surprised she even answered me at all. “I didn’t get as much time at the park as I was hoping. We can either setup shop here for the rest of the day or we can keep going and get a room farther southwest.”
“Do you know anything about that part of the state?” Nothing I learned in geography was coming back to me. The class was a bore on the best of days. Learning about Southwest Missouri would have had me snoozing right through it. We learned about Oregon and other areas in the Pacific Northwest with some California and New York thrown in there, but that was about it.
“That there are caves in it and a lot of the Ozarks cover the area. So, no, not really.”
“I think it’d be smarter to set up for tonight and make a plan for tomorrow,” I said. I didn’t think it’d make sense to make any unnecessary risks to save a few hours. “If we get there tonight and we can’t find a room, that could be a problem. Well, the SUV is pretty nice, so it wouldn’t be too bad.”
“Yeah, let’s post up in St. Louis tonight.” Lori set her phone down and stretched. I looked inside the gas station and it was crowded inside, with either a very overworked or very disinterested employee behind the counter. The guy was probably both. “Maybe we can go out for dinner.”
“Want me to watch Megan so you and Alex get a nice dinner?” I asked, only half joking. If Lori really wanted that, I’d do it with no hesitation.
“Absolutely not. I appreciate what you did at the park, but I’m not going to exclude you and Megan from a full dinner because of that. You’re my friend too, you know.”
“I suppose I am pretty good at letting small kids get hit with kickballs, so I can understand the appreciation for my skills.” I sent Shelly a short text telling her that everything was going well today, touched base with Lizzy, though I made sure to leave out the part about finding Megan until a better time, and asked Chloe where she thought people with powers came from. Those three would keep me busy for a bit, no doubt. “How’d that go, by the way?”
“Really well!” Lori was excited, like she’d been waiting for me to ask about it. “I tried to make some subtle hints that I’m interested. I think him getting out of Luna for a bit has helped him loosen up. He’s better than I expected with Megan, but I think that kid could be good with anyone. Oh, and he said that we could train together once we’re back home.”
“Ah, romance,” I said, doing a poor French accent. “Nothing to spark that romantic fire quite like getting punched by your crush.”
“Not like that, dummy.” She reached back and gave me a playful punch to the knee. “I’ve wanted to try expanding my power recently. Once I could read emotions, it didn’t really grow beyond that. I need to see if I can make it more useful.”
“What were you thinking?” I asked. We weren’t fully in the downtown area, but there was still some bustling activity around us. It was Sunday, but that wasn’t stopping a few businessmen and businesswomen from entering and leaving imposing concrete structures. It was almost surreal to see people still going about their lives in such a normal way knowing we were part of a superpowered secret society and McLeod could be anywhere.
“Well, the emotions come off people as colors at its base level. It’s kind of like an aura, I guess.” She made a motion with her hands that vaguely resembled the outline of a human. “As I got older, I started to actually feel them as well, but that’s beside the point.
“Anyway, I want to try and expand on that base power. There are times where I can see it, well, sort of flare out? My goal is to find out where those emotions are directed. Sure, there are times where someone might just be in a good mood or upset at the world in general, so it’ll be hard to tell.”
“Is Alex going to help you, or are you both just going to be in the same room?” I tried to imagine what she meant. That was a struggle. Without having her power myself, it wasn’t of much help. Then again, explaining that I could put up shields and knock things over with a weird shimmer created from my mind wouldn’t go over too well either.
“He’s going to do his own practice and I’m going to try to trace his emotions. Even if I can just get the color to go in some direction, I’ll know it’s worthwhile. I’ve had no real idea how to try and grow my Anomaly. I just know I have to get my ass in gear and improve.”
“I do too,” I said, thinking on what I might be able to do with my power. At that time, it was still just barriers and the shields on my arms. “I haven’t tried anything for offense since the hockey puck test.”
“Starting with more passive or defensive things is usually the best way to get started,” Lori assured me. “Once you have a good handle on the Anomaly defensively, trying for offense comes easier. If you’re learning to box, you don’t want to get thrown in with a heavyweight champion on your first day.”
“I hope I don’t have to use it for attacking someone,” I admitted, the thought of needing to hurt someone sending a chill down my spine. Inanimate rubber pucks were one thing. Those couldn’t feel a thing. Another living person was a totally different world.
“I hate to tell you this, but you probably will,” Lori said. “At least if you plan on helping us stop McLeod. There’s...not going to be an easy nor a kind solution to that problem.”
Her words hung in the air, and I knew she was right. I took another look at the men and women who were just going about their Sundays. McLeod could be there and vaporize this city in an instant. I was sure then that the only reason he announced the Pittsburgh one was so he could show off his ability to do it. With that firmly established, there wouldn’t be a need for such a warning.
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Alex finally came back with Megan, who was holding a chocolate milk. I was glad she finally got her treat, because the bag that Lori had the night before must’ve been left behind after the gunman incident. Alex looked annoyed, probably from the long wait he dealt with inside, or maybe just from being awake that day. Couldn’t blame him there, but I wondered why he didn’t just try paying at the pump with a card. Well, no matter the choice he made, he was filling the SUV back up to full and giving us the ability to drive through more rural America. Yay!
With the gas tank full and all passengers accounted for, Lori explained the plan to both of them. Before we left, she adjusted her bracelet-detector thingy to not react to Megan’s power, which made actually searching for any other power possible. With me wondering how it worked, Lori gave a vague explanation that it could be set to not react to the same thing twice, which was apparently how we got it to work for our powers. I trusted the explanation, but I didn’t trust that Lori knew exactly how they worked.
When the detection device up and running, we hit the road to a hotel with a nice restaurant nearby. That turned out to be a hotel called the Clock Tower, which was renowned and even I knew its name before seeing it. A quick inspection of the hotel’s information declared it to be a five-star hotel with an upscale restaurant that couldn’t be missed. It also showed that a single room was five hundred dollars for a night, which nearly made my eyes pop out of my head. The massive room did have two beds and a pull-out couch to help justify the flashy price tag.
We sat in the parking lot debating if it was just a bit too much. Lori said it was fine as Luna was footing the bill, but even they couldn’t have unlimited funds. Megan was enamored with the size of beauty of the building, so her vote was clearly in favor of spending the day there. Alex was indifferent to where we slept, he just wanted to have a place to sleep at all. I shared a similar sentiment as him. Spending so many years watching Shelly struggle to make ends meet for us, the price left me with a feeling of unease.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Lori insisted. “If we got two separate rooms at just a decent hotel, we’d still be paying around two hundred fifty dollars for the night. Might as well just have a good time with it. Plus, we don’t have to drive for dinner.”
With her mind set on it, we gathered our suitcases and walked inside the gold-trimmed revolving doors. There were people who practically oozed high class and money from their pores, but we got fewer weird looks from them than I did at the park. I found that strange but didn’t dwell on it for long. As long as no one tried to pick fights with us or call the cops on us, they could look at us and think whatever they wanted for all I cared.
The lady working the check-in counter was very kind and pleasant. She was a bit older than Alex, so she was surprised to see a younger crowd asking for a room. When she was sure no one else was around, she leveled with us and told us that the attacks had made people cancel their room reservations left and right, which in turn made her job much easier. It was a bit terrifying to know that we were paying five hundred dollars for a room when they weren’t in demand.
The building had thirty floors, and our room was on the twenty-eighth, so the view was pretty awesome, even if I didn’t care for the landlocked major city skyline. It would’ve been better with a rising or setting sun on gently rolling ocean waves, yet I wasn’t going to complain when someone else was paying. All the people walking around the city looked tiny and insignificant. I imagined that’s how McLeod saw them when he was floating above cities he wanted to wipe off the map.
“This is awesome!” Megan yelled, examining every inch of the pristine room, taking in all the paintings and fake plants. She was having some trouble getting on the tall beds, finally managing it with a little effort. She gleefully started bouncing until Lori had to calm her down before she got hurt. Megan was pouting just a bit and mumbled, “No fun...”
The rest of the afternoon was used to rest, relax, and plan. We all looked up the Clock Tower restaurant menu while discussing how we would handle the following day, but there were only so many ways we could discuss walking around in caves before we circled back to the same ideas. While I thought about getting some lobster, Lori recommended that we all stick together to minimize risks when searching, which didn’t get any pushback from the rest of the group. It was the correct call, even if it made our search radius smaller.
Minutes ticked away, turning into hours, and I found it hard to relax. The last person or family there must’ve been fans of racquetball, because I found two racquets and four of the bouncy balls used for the sport. That gave me an idea for some entertainment and a bit of practice. I checked the time and we were about an hour out from our designated dinner time.
“Megan, you want to help me out?” I asked, breaking the girl’s attention away from the TV. She approached with a curious expression when I showed her the red balls and handed them off to her. “I want you to throw these at me and when they bounce back, you catch them, okay?”
“They’ll bounce to me?” she asked.
“I’ll use my power, so don’t worry about hitting me. Just make sure you aim at me. Sound good?”
She looked a bit skeptical before nodding in agreement. I sat on the floor and put up a barrier a few inches in front of my face. The shimmer seemed a bit more noticeable to me, but I still didn’t get any comments from the other three that they could see it. Being able to see it seemed useless to me. I could already tell exactly where it was because of the connection it had with my brain. Oh well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it at that moment, and it didn’t matter.
I looked at Megan and nodded. She started with a small toss. The ball gently connected with my shield, and I barely registered the impact. It was like a small tickle caused by a gentle breeze on the back of my head. Still, it bounced back to her, seemingly hitting the air. Her mouth hung open and I told her she could put more effort into it. Then she really started firing them off as strong as she could.
After about a half hour of that, it was starting to tire me out. Each consecutive hit felt stronger and stronger, even though Megan was getting tired herself. She had spent the entire time running back and forth picking up the balls that bounced past her. I could have probably carried on for another half hour before really getting winded, but I put my hand up to signal for Megan to stop. When I was sure she wouldn’t throw one at my head, I broke down my shield.
“Not exactly Alex’s punches there, but thirty minutes isn’t bad,” Lori said, giving us some small applause. “I don’t think you would have been able to hold it that long just a few days ago.”
“So, you can make shields?” Megan asked, sitting right down right in front of me.
“That’s one thing. I was able to knock over a stack of hockey pucks, but I’ve only done that one time. That’s how Lori didn’t get shot the other night. I was able to stack up a bunch of shields in front of her.”
“Cool! Show me how to do it.” She patted me on the leg and looked at me expectantly. I was happy Megan’s pats didn’t give the same antsy feeling I got when others touched me. Then again, my issue with people touching me was already diminishing.
“Your power probably isn’t like mine,” I said. There was disappointment in her eyes, but she still looked excited about having an Anomaly. “Let us get you to where we live and we can work on it there, okay?”
“It’s gonna be cool!” Megan added, nodding. Suddenly, she looked toward Lori. “When are we going to dinner? I’m starving.”
“I suppose we can go now. You boys good?” When both of us nodded, she put away the book she was reading and we took off.
The restaurant had some kind of name that I couldn’t pronounce and I didn’t even know what language it was. It was on the thirtieth floor, making the view from the restaurant just marginally better than the view from our own room. What the restaurant did have was atmosphere. Simply put, it was gorgeous. Elegant decorations that I probably couldn’t pronounce sat all around us under dim lighting. Even the smells from the kitchen felt like they belonged to a higher class. There were only two tables occupied, so it was almost eerily quiet compared to what I was used to.
Our waiter looked surprised to see four people in regular clothes, but he was kind and courteous. I was still set on the lobster, so I ordered that without looking at the menu. When I did get around to looking at the rest of the selection, I saw that it was one of those places that didn’t have the prices on the menu. I would have some explaining to do if this lobster cost, like, two hundred dollars. Lori, Alex, and Megan all ordered expensive food themselves at least. We’d all sink with the ship if we had to.
The dinner was wonderful, to be honest. Soon after our food arrived, the few other customers cleared out, leaving us to be a bit more obnoxious than we probably should have been. Our waiter saw that it was just us there and didn’t push the matter. I still got the impression that he wanted us out of there from the glances he gave us whenever one of us laughed too loud. When Megan asked for French fries and ketchup, the poor guy looked floored before he had to explain that those just weren’t things offered there. The kiddo was disappointed, so she had to find something else that sounded good to her. Just because the place was fancy didn’t mean that there wasn’t something for Megan too.
Alex ordered a fancy bottle of wine, which loosened him up a bit. He was still very much Alex, but he could finally lean back and rest his shoulders with a little help from the alcohol. Lori seemed to enjoy the more laidback mode of her crush. Megan and I played games with bits of our leftover food, careful not to let the waiter see us being gross kids. It felt good to just forget the rest of the world and splurge, even if it was only for a moment. That dinner really made a good moment of joy and escapism before everything started to snowball downhill for us.