The Legion of Nothing In the Public Eye: Part 26

I turned, expecting to see one of the Elentals. We'd just seen fire. That left air, earth, and water as possibilities, but not, as it turned out, reality. The bearded man behind us was not linked to any elent unless camouflage had been added to the list. An automatic rifle that looked larger and heavier than normal hung on his back. His belt held devices I didn't even recognize.

"I am Vengeance," he said.

Cheesy? Just a little, but it seed a lot less cheesy when you knew his reputation. He didn't have any powers worth ntioning, but he'd taken out powered people by the score.

"Tell the new Red Lightning we need to talk," he said.

Deciding that what I told Vaughn would be more of a warning than a ssage, I said, "Sure."

"I've got questions for him," he said.

"I'll let him know," I said. "Did you... want to et him sowhere?"

He laughed. "I'll find him."

In the light of the streetlight, I found that my eyes drifted toward sothing hanging from a cord around his neck. It didn't look like an ear. Not a whole one at any rate. Maybe an earlobe at most, but definitely a shrunken, dried bit of sothing.

"One more thing," he said. "Stay away from the mayor. Leave him to the big boys."

Next to , Haley said, "Isn't that a little condescending?"

"Nah, it's just true. Get a few years in and you might be ready for this. For now, stay out."

He disappeared into the dark.

We stood there for a little while, staring into the darkness. Then we got into the car.

"What a jerk," Haley said. She didn't even put the key into the ignition.

I pulled off my helt and put it on the floor. I don't mind wearing it, but it gets stuffy after a while.

"I know," I said. "I always heard he was crazy not... I don't know. Whatever that was."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to for the genuine story.

"Why did you even talk to him about Vaughn and all that?"

"I don't know. I was just hoping that he'd go away if I seed cooperative."

We sat for a few more monts without saying anything.

"So, what do we do now?" Haley asked.

"I'm not sure," I said. Within my brain ca the glimring of the bad point of asking Haley on a non-date to figure out if she'd say yes to actual date--she might not give any sign either way. Or worse, she might give quite a few and I'd miss all of them.

"We've done what we planned," I continued, "I guess we just go ho. I don't know how you handled it, but I snuck out the window. I guess I can sneak back in."

"My parents think I'm heading to Sara's to stay overnight after work."

"Does she know that?" One parental call to Sara's could open up a big can of worms.

"She knows. If she gets a call, she'll tell them that I'm asleep. She thinks I'm secretly eting a boy."

"That's believable," I said. "People really do that."

"They do," she said.

Her expression struck as sowhere between amusent and frustration.

That's the point at which I probably should have realized that she was trying to tell sothing. I didn't. I was thinking about how odd it was that even now in the the twenty-first century asking soone out still often fell to the boy. She probably assud that because I was older than she was I had so idea of what to do next, and she might even be offended if I didn't do anything.

"You know," she said, "It might be nice if we did sothing together. I'm not thinking of anything expensive. Coffee could be fun."

On the other hand, it occurred to , she might have a more realistic understanding of than I'd thought.