The photographer said, "Not happening. I took those pictures. They're mine. End of story."
He pulled his cara with one hand, and held his left a little away from his body as if he intended to block with it. It didn't look like he'd had any kind of martial arts training. The way he held his arm, it would co up too slowly.
Hunter asked , "Isn't there so kind of law against taking pictures of people like us?"
I glanced over at Haley, and she shrugged.
Turning away from her, I said, "I don't know. I think there might be so kind of law that allows people to seek damages if a photo of an unmasked person results in soone getting killed, but I'm not sure. I think photos might be a freedom of speech thing."
Gifford looked at and then at Keon. "Can't either of you do sothing?"
We both said, "No," simultaneously.
And what could we have done? I might have been able to cause an EMP and take out most of the cell phones and computers in the building. It would have been a solution, but not a smart one.
The bouncers each took one of the photographer's arms, and escorted him out.
He tried to talk to them. I couldn't hear his words over the noise of the club, but the bouncers kept on walking, and neither let go.
Gifford exhaled, slumping a little as he stood on the dance floor. "This is fucked. He's got our faces."
I shook my head. "It'll probably be fine. My understanding is that most publications simply don't print superhero identities unless the person's been convicted of a cri. Aside from which, they handed out photo blurring dust, so assuming we all used it, we're all okay. Besides, you don't have a secret identity, right?"
Gifford shook his head.
"Um... What do you an? Are you saying that you don't have a public identity or that you didn't put the dust on?"
His mouth moved, but I didn't understand his reply. He must have realized that because he tried again, this ti making his voice heard over the music. "Both."
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Keon blinked. "Are you kidding ? That was not smart."
Camille's jaw dropped. "Oh... That's awful."
Next to , Haley said, "That explains why his heart has been beating so quickly."
Courtney didn't say anything, looking in the direction that the bouncers had taken the man.
Hunter spoke after a mont. "No. Don't worry about it. I've got this."
Then he broke out into a grin. "My mom showed how to handle this once. I didn't think I'd ever have to use it."
Courtney raised an eyebrow. "How did you handle it?"
Hunter looked around, and I followed his eyes. No one stood near us. The dancers were further away from us on the floor.
Coming to the sa conclusion I had, Hunter said, "You probably guessed I've got the sa power as my mom. Well, we can't do much with small particles, but once our creatures are big enough, we can do a lot with them. I grew a couple guys before we went into the club in case sothing happened. On the photographer's way out, one of them bumped into him. Then he extended little tentacles into the cara, and damaged the mory cards."
Gifford laughed. "That is aweso. You just saved our asses."
Hunter shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I brought people here.I figure I've got to handle it."
"Still," Gifford said, "that doesn't change what you've done. It just keeps it aweso."
Adam broke into the conversation. "I hate to be a party pooper but if we want to talk about this any more, we need to talk about it sowhere safer."
"A good point," I said.
It was. Anybody could show up at the club at any ti.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movent, and turned to find that Keith and Zoey had left the dance floor, and joined the group.
Keith tapped on the shoulder. "I saw the guy with the bouncers. What's going on?"
* * *
Later that night, I drove the van back to Castle Rock. It wasn't a bad drive. Construction had closed for the day, and there wasn't much traffic. I liked driving at night in any case.
With all the other cars reduced to headlights, and the landscape little more than darkness, it felt a little like flying.
Of course, with all of us sitting there and nothing to do but look out the window, it was inevitable that we'd talk over the night.
Camille had swapped seats with Courtney for the ride back. Her voice ca from the distant far end of the van. "Hey Haley, is this what it's always been like for you? Green rooms and paparazzi?"
Haley twisted around in her chair. "No. The only ti we got into costu was to fight, and if we were sohow in costu without fighting, it was because we were still inside the Heroes League's base, and you know what that's like."
"I don't," Keon said. "What is that like?"
Camille giggled. "Not a green room. It's more like a musty basent with forty year old carpet."
Keon laughed. "That's more than I had to work with when I started. I was stuck with my room for a lab. I would have killed for a musty basent. It would have been nice to not have people walking in on all the ti. My mom freaked out when she found taking my wheelchair apart. Crazy."
He went silent for a mont, and then said, "Are any of you worried about what happens when the guy discovers he's got no pictures?"
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