Just Super

“All students and faculty report immediately to the gymnasium. This is not a drill. All students and faculty report immediately to the gymnasium. This is not a drill.”

Other kids are rushing past me to get to the gym, with teachers herding them along. I blink. I must have lost a couple of seconds there. I collect my thoughts.

First, and most important, fuck whoever did whatever was just done. Mr. Berry was this close to giving me important advice! Second, and almost as important, the entire school has obviously been yoinked away from whatever secret island or pocket dimension is its usual home to who knows what horrible place.

By now all the windows will be covered by blast shields, so looking out one isn’t an option, but that’s not exactly a problem for me, especially now. Can I be hurt when I’m only sort of someplace else? There’s one way to find out.

I imagine four spots around the roof of The School and focus. I’m a little hesitant because who knows what hellscape I’m going to find out there. I put that aside and push; however bad it is, I can take that for a second or two.

This is not the literal hellscape I was expecting—you know, dark skies, barren wastes, mountains in the distance, maybe even a little sulfur. A barren wasteland would have been my next guess, sand as far as the eye can see, or cracked, dry earth. 

I was not expecting grassy plains stretching out to the horizon in all directions under a sunny sky. It’s really pretty. The only real flaw is the army of robots, mechs, and what look like animated statues gathered around The School. There are a few humans as well, who I’d guess are running the show.

The neatly mowed grass of The School’s grounds stop abruptly at the edge of a circle that surrounds the building. I think they spun a portal in a circle to bring us here, whoever ‘they’ are. I didn’t know you could do that.

“All students and faculty report immediately to—Miss Frank Doyle, please report to my office immediately— and faculty report immediately to the gymnasium. This is not a drill.”

Principal Ruehl’s voice interrupts the normal announcement. Why does she want me there? And why did she call me “Miss,” not “Ms.”? I split-flicker -- oh, that sounds terrible in my head. I project into her office instead of flickering straight there. 

Ms. Ruehl is in her normal chair, but her hands are resting on her desk and she is not alone. Kyle Green, my former fellow thorn in The School’s side, is standing a few feet away from the desk, such that he’d be standing right behind me if I flickered to the most likely place. Marie Dobbs is in the corner, eyes fixed on the principal. An adult I don’t recognize is off to one side, holding a high-tech-looking gun. It’s pointed vaguely in the principal’s direction.

The oddest thing, though, is that when I appear, Ms Ruehl is looking directly at me and gives a very small shake of her head. I wonder if she realizes how unhelpful that is. Her gaze moves to Kyle and I see her extend one finger. Then her gaze darts to gun guy and another finger comes out.

I drop back to one location. Fuck. This is so bad. I should go for help, except, that’s my first thought, and Ms. Ruehl shook her head. Think.

Marie would be the biggest threat to most people. Her telekinesis is extremely strong, even if she lacks fine control. She could smash ninety-nine out of a hundred kids in this school into a wall hard enough to knock them out, or worse. But I can flicker faster than she can react.

A gun is bad, but I’ll know where it’s pointed. If that’s his only threat, then he’s the least threat to me, but might manage to shoot Ms. Ruehl.

It’s Kyle that’s the biggest threat to me. One touch from him and I’ll be out like a light. The effect doesn’t last long, but he can keep it up as long as he touches me. So if they want me dead, they could kill me, and if they don’t, Kyle could keep me out. 

I think Ms. Ruehl was giving me instructions. I don’t know exactly what her mark does to let her know the stuff she knows, but I trust her. I have to take out three people without getting her shot. And I don’t think I have much time.

The weapons in the gym are mine as much as they are anyone else’s. I firmly believe that as I flicker a bo staff into my hand. I haven’t used one of these things in a while, but when I sparred with Emily, my muscle memory was way less out of date than I expected. Cis-adjacent girl me must have kept up with her martial arts.

Kyle’s power does have a limit that frustrates the hell out of him, but is very useful to me right now. He has to touch skin to skin. With a flicker, I’m wearing the gloves I bought for my latest goth-punk-princess look, black leggings, bright red combat boots (they were on sale and are so cute!), and a long-sleeved body-con top that I’ve been too embarrassed to wear so far.

I project into the office. Not just once, but three different places in the same room—to Kyle’s left, just out of arm's reach, to the right of and a little behind Marie, and a few feet to the right of gun-guy. In each position, I swing my staff as hard as I can in an upward arc. I can’t quite figure out how to do three separate swings, so they’re all the same.

I’m able to hold myself in four places just long enough for the staff to almost make contact with Kyle’s jaw. I flicker to the three places in sequence.

Kyle goes flying backwards before he can react. I really hope I didn’t break his neck, but I’ve already brought the same staff up under Marie’s chin. I’m not good at this yet, so it just grazes her. It better take her a second to react. Finally, the staff comes up under the gun, sending it flying into the ceiling. A second later a letter opener flies through the air and embeds itself in gun-guy’s left eye.

“Marie,” Ms. Ruehl says calmly, but she’s looking at me. Oh, right.

I flicker again, my bo staff is already in contact with her head when I appear. She goes down with a thud.

“Thank you, Ms. Doyle.” How is Ms. Ruehl so unfazed? She’s standing over gun-guy as he struggles with the letter opener. She has a syringe in her hand and injects it into his arm, then repeats the process (with fresh syringes) with Kyle and Marie.

I’m standing here with my mouth hanging open.

“I’m pleased to see that you’ve been practicing your many talents, Frank.”

“Thanks?”

“I see.”

“You see what?”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have time for the conversation we just had. I will summarize it for you later, assuming that there is a later for us.

“What’s important now is finding out what exactly their plan is, and when they will execute it.”

“Who’s ‘they?’”

“The people, and others, you saw gathered outside. Right now I want to gather as much information as I can, with as little risk as possible. Will you please agree to, for the next five minutes, do whatever I ask as quickly as you can and be one hundred percent honest with me?”

Right now there are exactly two people I’d make that promise to, and the other one is Emily. “Yes.”

“Thank you. The humans outside are mages. From your description, they’re not any of the five known in our world, so we can assume they’re from elsewhere. They can sense you when you’re projecting yourself, if you’re close enough, so keep your distance. They are placing a high priority on keeping all students alive until ‘it’s time,’ which, while exceedingly ominous, works to our favor for the moment.”

How does she know all this suddenly, and what does she mean by my description, and why is she telling me?

“I am telling you this because you are most likely my best chance of salvaging this situation, and the easiest way to get your cooperation is to tell you the truth. No, I can’t read your mind—”

I really was about to ask that. I believe her when she says she’s not reading my mind, so she must be able to see—

“—and yes, but only a very short distance. The more chaotic the situation, the shorter the distance. Involving more people complicates the situation, shortening the horizon of opportunity. I’m glad that this is sufficient, because we are wasting time. If we survive, I will tell you more, including how they were able to surprise me.”

This answers so many questions and raises so many more, but she’s right, I’m wasting time. 

“This is one of two fronts. There’s a full scale invasion taking place back home at this very moment. I know this because you can return home and find this information. Also, your ‘special’ phone works here.”

That one takes me a second. The School is the one place I haven’t been able to get a signal, so why can I now? Ah. Wherever The School usually is, there must be no cell coverage in the equivalent spot on mundane Earth. Wherever we are now, there is.

The principal continues, “Emily is fine. Please wait to check in with her until we’re done here. No, she does not yet know about what has happened here.”

This is really frustrating, but I bite my tongue. I get that it’s probably frustrating for her in a very different way. Instead I focus on the actual problem. “It’s not a coincidence that Emily isn’t here, right?” I didn’t see anything outside that she couldn’t handle, although the sheer numbers might be a problem, and I don’t know anything about the mages.

“I would be quite surprised if it were.”

Then there’s the big question. “Why did they want me here in the office?” I’m a little surprised she let me actually ask.

“I presume that they fear that you are the only person who might escape and carry word to the outside world. From what information I managed to gather from them, I believe there is more to it than that, however.”

“What other information?”

“There was indication that there are other individuals whose presence is especially important. No, I did not manage to discern the identity of those individuals.”

“Can Checkers evacuate everyone?”

“Unfortunately, Checkers is unavailable, and, in any case, lacks the ability to cross dimensional boundaries. Now, would you be so kind as to accompany me to the gymnasium?”

“Of course.”

I scout ahead, projecting myself into the outer office. The staff is mostly still there, but slumped at their desks or on the floor. I hope they’re just unconscious.

“They appear to have been subject to Mr. Green’s power. They should be awake shortly. If it’s safe, I’ll send someone to collect them once we’re in the gym.”

We make it to the gym and find the door closed and locked. Principal Ruehl turns to me. “Frank, if at any point I say so, or there is any sign that the invaders are coming in, you must leave, and not come back.”

“Why?”

“Fine. I see that I won’t be able to extract that promise from you without this, so I will tell you. Do not share this with anyone else. Do I have your word not to do so?”

I hesitate.

She sighs. “You may tell Ms. English if you extract the same promise from her first.” 

“Then yes.”

“You already know what the marks are. You are only partially correct about why that is kept secret. The other reason is to try to avoid a situation like this one.”

I only see one chain of logic that leads from there to here. “Somebody is trying to resurrect the Archmage?” It’s nice that she let me actually ask the question.

“That’s possible. More likely, I think, is that someone believes that they can achieve godhood for themself. Either way, it can not be allowed.”

“But what does that have to do with me being here?”

“To the best Tiara and I have been able to determine, you are the first to bear your mark since Dawn passed on. As you are discovering, it is much more than you thought it was at first. I don’t know if its absence will prevent ascension, but if it doesn’t, I believe the resulting being would be considerably more powerful with it than without it.”

I think there’s more to it than that, but if I ask, then she’ll probably decide she should have said it some other way, so I wouldn’t even have the hint. But this has already happened, hasn’t it? Her power makes my head hurt. I ask a different question instead.

“What about yours?”

“I will take myself out of the equation, should it come to that.”

Oh. That’s a lot. But if that would work, what would happen if she took everyone out of the equation? I don’t want to even say that out loud, but I guess the look on my face gives me away.

She puts a hand on my shoulder. “Frank, if they succeed, everyone in this building will die, whoever is behind this will become a god, and our world will be lost. It is possible that we will only be able to prevent two of those things from coming to pass.

“But I am not at that point yet. With the abilities of the students and faculty, we may be able to find a way out of our current situation—one in which most, or even all, of us survive.”

I’m trying to figure out what to say to that when a group of kids comes running down the hall, and Ms. Ruehl follows them into the gymnasium.

Not knowing what else to do, I get out my otherPhone.

Me: where r u? We need to talk

Almost a minute goes by while more kids stream by me into the gym.

Em: on my way to Death Valley. There’s an invasion. stay at school. Please

Me: its worse than you think. they’re here too. we need to talk

Em: one sec, I’ll hold out my arms

I wait two seconds, then flicker to her. I drop a couple of inches into her arms. She’s a mess. The edges of her face have patches of soot, as does her jacket. The wind rushes upwards past us as we drop rapidly toward the ground.

“Tell me,” she says.

I tell her almost everything. She doesn’t blink at the revelation of Ms. Ruehl’s power. She must have already suspected that. I don’t tell her about that last little bit of the conversation. I can’t see it affecting anything we might do, and I’m not ready to talk about it. Once I’m done, she fills me in on what she knows from here.

Emily’s danger sense went off right as she was about to leave for school. She headed downtown and got there just in time to see one of the taller office buildings burst into flame. For the next two hours she did search and rescue in the burning building. We guess that the immediacy of that emergency was probably why she didn’t get any warning of what happened next.

What happened next, about five minutes ago—pretty much at the same time that The School got yoinked—was that a huge section of Death Valley got swapped out with an equivalent chunk of land from another world. That set off her danger sense. Pictures were up on social media from people heading to the park almost immediately, which is why she knows what’s going on.

We land in the middle of a field.

“I’ll make sure and power up before I get close.” Emily is trying to make me feel better about her flying toward the biggest danger in forty years. It’s not really working. “You should go home, though.”

“I can’t. I have to go back to see if I can help. We could really use you there.”

“If you find a way to get me there…”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Be careful, okay?”

“You, too. And tell me when you get there. Please.”

She nods. We look at each other for almost a minute. She takes my face in her hands and kisses me. I lose track of everything for a moment.

Then it all comes rushing back. This may be it. This may be the last time we see each other. I know she’ll be powered up, but I can’t keep the image of her bleeding on the grass out of my mind. Nobody’s invulnerable, not even her.

“I don’t want you to go.” I’m not quite begging.

That’s not what I wanted to say, even though it’s true. I wanted to tell her that I love her. But this isn’t the time. She’s got to know as well as I do that this might be it, and I don’t want her to feel like she has to say it back.

“I don’t want you to go, either.”

I almost say “I’ll stay if you will,” but I can’t. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do against the army outside The School, or whatever they send in, but I have to try. How could I live with myself if I didn’t?

We hold each other tight, foreheads pressed gently together.

I pull away first. “Dinner?”

“Yeah, there’s a Tex-Mex place I’ve been wanting to take you to. Six o’clock, my house?”

“I’ll be there.”

She starts to drift up and backwards, slowly accelerating. When she’s too far away for me to see her face, I flicker back to the gym.

It’s not quite chaos here. I can tell at a glance that they’re trying to group kids by their abilities. They’ve got the kids with nothing that could be useful in a fight, which is probably more than half of them, off on one side of the gym. That has to be the worst. To be trapped here, and not be able to do anything at all about what’s going to happen.

The principal, one of the coaches, and a teacher whose name I’ve forgotten are near the door to the gym office. They’ve got ten kids with them. I know that eight of those have some kind of far-sensing ability, and I’m guessing the other two do as well. I won’t be needed for information gathering anymore, I guess.

The rest of the coaches are trying to organize the kids whose abilities might actually help keep us all alive. I see quite a few kids there who should probably be with the larger group, but I get it; they want to do something, to have some control over their own fate. I know the feeling.

I wrack my brain trying to think of anything useful I can do. The only targets that I might be able to harm out there are the mages, and I’d be incredibly surprised if they don’t have defenses that would keep me from damaging them. 

I flicker so that I’m in Principal Ruehl’s line of sight and am trying to figure out how to convey “Is there anything I can do?” when she shakes her head “no.” I scan the gymnasium again. Coach Lacey and Coach Hannigan are conferring with a few seniors, who are passing along directions to the rest of the kids in the “might be able to fight” group.

Coach Lacey sees me looking and waves me over. I flicker over to her.

“Anything I can do to help, Coach?”

“Is it true you can do an extradimensional teleport?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think you could do it at half strength?”

Oh, wow. I hadn’t thought of that. Coach Lacey can temporarily copy a mark from one person to another. She uses that ability in gym sometimes to let kids experiment with powers other than their own.

It’s not as awesome as it sounds at first, because it’s like each person has a certain well of power that their mark draws on, and that gets split between their own mark and the borrowed mark. She can copy a mark onto an unmarked person, she’s said, but they can’t use it. She can also only have one mark copied at a time.

Without those limits, we could probably walk over the enemy by having her share all the marks around to all the students. We’d be unstoppable.

“I have no idea,” I answer her. “It took me a long time to figure it out, though, and I think the portals I’ve traveled through might have something to do with why I can. But I’m willing to try.” Of course I am.

“Okay, let’s start with seeing if you can still do it while you’ve got another mark.”

I nod and she turns to Coach Hannigan. “Okay if I…” She gestures at his mark.

Coach Hannigan nods, and Coach Lacey puts her hand on his mark. When she lifts it, a reversed copy of his mark is on her palm. I hold out my right arm and she presses her palm to it. There’s a buzzing sensation, and now I can feel both marks.

I think about my room and focus on my own mark. I can feel what I need to do, but I don’t have the oomph to do it. That doesn’t mean I can’t, though. I keep focusing. Once the world is getting blurry, I try again. Still no go.

I open my eyes and notice that I’m floating a few feet off the floor; Coach Hannigan can fly. I drop back to the ground and hold out my arm. Coach Lacey touches my temporary mark and it vanishes. As it does, I feel a little surge from my own mark. I flicker to my bedroom and back.

“Sorry,” I say. “Want to try the other direction?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. If you can’t do it with all your practice, I don’t think it’s worth risking something going wrong for someone else. Thanks for trying, though.

Damn it. For a second there I hoped I’d be able to help.

I’m so bored that I’m going crazy. It’s been forty-five minutes, and nothing is happening. I’ve projected onto the roof a few times to see what’s happening out there, but all that’s happening is nothing. The army outside is bigger, but I haven’t happened to catch any new arrivals showing up. I might have sensed portals a couple of times, but if so, they’re too far away for me to get any real sense of their direction.

I’ve flickered home a few times to check the news, too. There are a ton of pictures on the Internet now. It’s fucking terrifying. Estimates are saying the invading forces number near a hundred thousand, if not more, and I can believe it. 

The original Invasion forces were all the kind of things you might see in a fantasy novel. Titanic armored elephant-like creatures, skeletons, armored humans, and all sorts of monsters—even dragons. Those are all here now, but there are also robots and mechs. They don’t all look the same, either. The mechs have anywhere from two to ten legs; some are super-sleek and modern looking; others look like they belong in a steampunk story. The robots are just as diverse.

And Emily is flying into all that.

I flicker back to The School.

Something is happening. Ms. Ruehl is talking animatedly to the people around her, and kids are relaying messages to other groups. She looks at me and mouths “Go.”

Fuck.

“Frank?” Emily’s voice comes over my earbud.

“I’m here.”

“Don’t be. Go home. Please.”

I guess it really is about to go down here.

“I can’t.”

“Please?”

“Will you turn around and go home?”

“You know I can’t.”

“I know.”

She pauses. I can hear her take a deep breath. “Frank, what if it had been you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“What if you’d been there? When the poltergeist chose me?”

“It wouldn't matter. I wasn’t the kind of person who would have protected it.”

“You could have been.”

“That couldn’t work. Even if it did, how would that affect you?”

Ms, Ruehl is heading my way. She looks angry.

“It won’t. You only affect yourself, right?”

“But what if—”

“I’m on the ground, I’ll be fine.”

That’s got to be outside my limits. I know it is. But what if I can expand those limits? I project twenty places around the room, looking for one person—Grace Powell, the girl whose mark amplifies others. I spot her and flicker to her side.

I’ve only stood near her once, and that was back when I was new to all this; it didn't feel like much. This time my mark practically hums. I think about the story Emily told me about her thirteenth birthday party. There’s got to be some turn of events that would have taken me there.

Where was I that day? I can feel myself sliding backwards along my own worldline. Not literally, but that’s what it feels like—like the world around me freezes while I rush backwards. It’s not linear, though. Every time I hit a point where I flickered (and there are a lot of them) I split. I keep rushing backwards, but part of me skips to the decision point—the point in time where something would have had to change to get the result I wanted.

That part of me stays there, frozen until I reach it. Most of the time that’s quick, a few hours, a day or two. At the rate time is flowing backwards, that’s a few seconds at most. Then I hit the big one—the moment I changed my body for the first time. Part of me is in a void, with no sensation, no thoughts, but I know I’m there. The rest of me continues to sail backwards. 

When I hit the point where I got my mark, things get simpler; there are only two lines that I’m on—the one I can feel and see, and the void.

I shoot past my own thirteenth birthday. There’s nothing there or later that would get me what I’m looking for. Images of my tween years flash by. Suddenly I’m there.

I’m eleven years old, and my mom is yelling at me. 

“Boy’s don’t wear make-up—”

I speak barely above a whisper. “What if I’m not a b—”

Slap!

Another memory I’d buried away, but now I know what happens next. I apologize and run to my room, where I hide under my covers while my mom tears apart the room until she’s sure there’s no more hidden make-up. Over the next few days I swear to myself I’ll never do that again. I bury myself.

But what if I didn’t? What if I stole the cash Mom hid under her dresser? What if I got as far away as I could? Sure, most of those paths would end in tragedy, but there had to be one that would lead to something else. A path that crossed with the poltergeist’s, if not at Emily’s party, then before it found her. A path where it protected me, and I protected it.

I think about feeling angry and afraid. Those are easy; an eleven-year old kid alone in the streets is going to feel a lot of both. They aren’t enough, though. I would have needed to be where the poltergeist was. The odds are infinitesimal; and even enhanced by Grace’s mark I can’t thread that needle. I can feel time advancing in the present, and it’s running out.

There’s one more thing I can try, one more thing that might boost me enough to do this. Not that long ago I fucked up and people got hurt. But that fuck-up made me strong enough to carry another person to another universe, a universe I’d never visited. And the results of that fuck-up are still there, a couple hundred feet away, hidden behind newly built walls.

 I project part of myself into the anomaly.

This is weird. The anomaly is trying to twist the meaning of my mark, but this time I can feel its efforts. This time, I fight back. I have no idea what I’m actually doing, but what it feels like is that I’m pulling energy out of it, into me. No, not energy, possibility. It can twist in so many different ways, but nobody twists my fate but me.

I return my attention to the knot I’ve created in my worldline and I spot it—the infinitely fine thread leading me where I want to go. I pull on it, or follow it, or something. I make a tiny bit of progress, but it’s still too hard; I stall out. I'm going to have to give up.

Then I sense it—energy, more than I can wrap my head around. It’s far away, in a direction I can’t begin to understand, and it reminds me of Emily. I’m connected to it by the thinnest possible thread. I pull myself along it.

Have you ever been disintegrated in a nuclear explosion? Neither have I, but it’s probably less painful, what with being instantaneous and all. This feels like it goes on for hours. I can sense every cell in my body—every organelle in each of those. Right down to my DNA. 

Suddenly the void that part of me has been waiting in forever makes sense. It’s simple, really—a single cell. It’s not really me. It’s a cell. But it’s where my worldline starts. Now I see what I did, back when I changed my life forever. The cell divides, and as it divides my attention turns to the Y chromosome—one tiny mistake and everything is different, better. It’s a one in a billion mutation, but I made it work. Good for me.

The real world rushes back into place around me.

“What are you doing, Frank? Personal space, please?” Oops, personal space; Grace apparently doesn’t like that I’m standing a couple inches from her.

“Sorry.” I pull away.

“Why are you glowing?” She narrows her eyes as she looks me up and down. “And why are you shorter?”

Now that she mentions it, she looks a little bigger. So does everyone and everything else. That realization is swamped by the sense of sheer power I feel flowing through me. It corresponds to a fizzing golden light I see shimmering across my skin. That’s odd.

“Oh my Goddess, Frank!?” Emily’s voice over my earbud grabs my attention. She sounds freaked. “What happened? Are you there? Are you okay?”

I’m hearing her through my earbud, but I’m also sort of feeling her. I know she’s near a road somewhere.

“I’m fine, I—”

“Thank goddesses. Now, why do I have your mark on my arm?”

I panic for a split second, but I can still feel my mark on my own arm, and I see it when I look.

I project part of myself to Emily.

Sure enough, she’s standing at a rest stop as a sea of cars makes slow progress on the nearby highway. Her jacket is half off, leaving her left arm bare, showing an exact copy of my mark.

“I have no fucking idea,” I answer. “Can you use it?”

She tilts her head, thinking. I feel a pulse in my mark and she flickers out of existence—at least to my projection.

She’s standing right in front of me.

I collapse back to the one of me and grab her in a hug. I’m definitely shorter than I was. Once again, no time to dwell on that. Where we’re in contact I feel energy flowing between us, mixing; it’s almost painful. We pull away from each other.

It doesn’t matter. That’s a future us problem; right now, there’s work to do.

Emily apparently agrees. She grins at me. “Want to make some assholes regret every life choice they’ve ever made?”

I rise a couple feet into the air, just because I can. “I thought you’d never ask.”