Chapter 59

             Third Block starts on Monday and Zoey walks into the locker room among the others. She hears a commotion going on and realizes it’s coming from in front of her locker. Gina and her friends snicker as Zoey pushes her way through. Zoey gets to the front and sees her locker is oozing with mud, rotting food and who knows what else. The stench is especially awful for her, as her sense of smell has grown stronger since becoming Catgirl.

“What in the world?!” Ms. Tingley blurts out when she sees it.

“Are you serious?” Zoey manages to say without gagging. “Are you serious!?”

“What’re you glaring at me for?” Gina says with a smug smirk.

“Uh, maybe because you literally trashed my locker,” Zoey says.

“Can you prove it?” Gina says. “Maybe someone trashed that locker because of the person from Second Block.”

“That’s… No! That’s stupid!” Zoey says.

“This locker has stuff leaking through the grate,” Cyndi says, “and yet you’re the one full of crap.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Gina says, glaring at Cyndi.

“Yes, because you are,” Cyndi says. “Everyone knows you and your friends don’t like Zoey, all because she rightfully doesn’t like Hardwire.”

“Wow, you really think it’s okay to hate on a hero?” Gina says.

“He’s not a hero, he’s a moron who got powers!” Cyndi counters.

“Well the same goes for the morons you all like,” Gina says.

“Catgirl and The Spektrum are actual heroes,” Cyndi says. “They aren’t showing off in front of everyone like a peacock.”

Gina notices the emphasis and gets even angrier.

“Enough,” Ms. Tingley says. “Just get dressed and get outside. Zoey, just store your things with someone else.”

“Zoey, use my locker for your backpack,” Cyndi says.

“Thanks,” Zoey says.

The crowd disperses and Zoey stands near Cyndi’s locker as they dress for PE. Cyndi keeps her street clothes in the tiny locker so that Zoey can use the main locker.

After getting dressed and heading outside, Zoey tells Simon what happened to her locker.

“Seriously?” he says. “What did Ms. Tingley do?”

“Nothing,” Zoey grumbles. “Well, she stopped us from getting into a fight but nothing to Gina since there isn’t any proof.”

“I think she called a janitor to clean it up,” Cyndi says. “But yeah, nothing to Gina.”

“How did they even sneak in that much garbage into the locker room?” Simon says.

“They probably had help from friends who have PE in Second Block,” Zoey says. “Probably other stupid Craig Foster fangirls.”

The teachers walk out from the locker rooms and they have their classes gather for role call.

“The field is muddy from the rain, so be careful making the full lap,” Ms. Tingley tells her class.

Zoey, Cyndi and their class heads out to start on the lap around the field. The path on the left is sandy and damp, but running on the gravel track at the back of the field helps rid everyone’s shoes of what clings to the soles. However, the next leg of the lap leads to grass and dirt, and a big dip. The students all slow down before either jumping over the dip or carefully running down the curved slope.

Zoey and Cyndi slow down as they approach the slope behind a few others. They wait patiently as the other students go one at a time.

“Yuck,” one of the students says as he shakes mud off his shoes.

“That’s why you gotta jump,” another says.

Gina and her friends are almost off the gravel track, and they spot Zoey and Cyndi up ahead. Gina chuckles as she gets an idea.

“Watch this,” she mutters to her friends.

Gina picks up speed and practically sprints at Zoey! But then Zoey pushes Cyndi out of the way at the same time she steps to the side! Gina misses completely and she stumbles over the edge and belly flops into mud!

Cyndi looks down at Gina sputtering in the mud, laughing with her mouth in an O shape and eyes wide.

“Did you know she was coming?” Cyndi asks Zoey.

“I heard her say ‘watch this,’” Zoey says.

“Oh, right,” Cyndi says. “Cats have really good hearing.”

Gina’s friends storm up, obviously upset with what just happened. Zoey ushers Cyndi over to the fence to stay away from the ledge. Meanwhile, Gina gets herself up off the mud, and screams in anger.

“What happened here?” Coach Ashby asks angrily as he and the Weight Training class walk up.

“Who pushed my sister?!” Robby says as he steps forward.

“They did!” Gina shouts as she points at Zoey and Cyndi.

“Like Hell!” Cyndi shouts back. “You tried to push us!”

“We saw them push her!” Gina’s friends shout right away.

“And you’re on Gina’s side so your word doesn’t mean anything!” Zoey snaps back.

“Stop with the blame game,” Coach Ashby says. “Just come on down.”

Gina’s friends glare at Zoey and Cyndi before going down the slope.

“And you,” Ashby tells Gina. “Go wash up.”

Gina grumbles as she and her friends start walking.

“What in the world?!” Ms. Tingley says as she walks up.

“That one ended up in the mud, but each side accuses the other,” Ashby tells her.

“You five again,” Tingley sighs. “You need to knock this off or you’re going to detention. No, that’s not good enough. If you five have another incident, it’s suspension!”

Gina and her friends scowl at Zoey and Cyndi before continuing to the locker room.

“Hold on, you two,” Tingley says to Zoey and Cyndi as they hop down from the ledge. “To make sure there are no more incidents for today, you two will stay with Coach Ashby’s class for the rest of the block.”

“Really?” Zoey, Cyndi and Ashby all say at the same time; Zoey is the most excited to hear that, Ashby is the least.

“Well, it’s a good thing today is mat room,” Ashby says. “But you owe me.”

Ms. Tingley follows Gina and the other two back to the gym while Coach Ashby opens the door to the mat room.

“You two stick together,” he tells Cyndi and Zoey. “Everyone’s going to pair up and work with the medicine balls.”

Zoey and Cyndi stick close to Simon and his medicine ball partner as everyone sits down on the mats. The class starts with the back-to-back exercise. Simon and his partner move quickly like before, but it’s a bit trickier for Zoey and Cyndi. Zoey pouts because as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, there are two large obstacles she has to pass the ball around.

“Alright, let’s move to a standing exercise,” Coach Ashby says. “We’re going to do lateral lunging with a small throw. Stand facing each other, three feet apart, and off set by a step to your right.”

The students spread out to fill more of the mat room.

“Hold the ball to your chest then lunge to your right,” Ashby continues.

“Lunge?” Cyndi asks.

“Like this,” Simon says as he demonstrates.

“Oh, it’s a lot like what you- your new favorite, Code Green, did,” Zoey says, barely catching herself in time.

“When you come back up out of the lunge, you will gently pass it to your partner,” Ashby continues again. “Do a couple test lunges first. Don’t rush, either. You might strain something.”

Everyone lunges to the right, bending and standing up straight, then passing. Zoey didn’t think the weight of the medicine ball would be so bad just from a toss, but it does surprise her.

“We’ll do six lunges to the right, then stop to switch to the left,” Ashby wraps up. “Again, don’t rush. If you happen to finish early, just wait for the others. We’ll all switch at the same time.”

“I wish our class got to do exercises in the mat room,” Zoey says after the set of twelve. “I kinda like working with the medicine ball.”

“Speak for yourself,” Cyndi says. “My legs are sore.”

“I think you need to be more active,” Zoey says. “This isn’t any more than what we were doing training together.”

“Actually, yeah, this feels about the same,” Simon says as he assesses how his legs feel.

“By the way,” Cyndi asks. “Are you going to be training again with what’s coming up?”

“Yes,” Zoey says. “But not in Alameda. My cousins are going to be too busy because Seth has to worry about midterms.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Cyndi asks.

“We’ve been alternating between our houses,” Simon says. “We both have good backyards, so we just use those.”

“Oh, you’ve already been training,” Cyndi says. “That’s good. Obviously, that’s good, duh.”

Cyndi nervously laughs and feels really dumb about it.

“So, whose turn is it today?” she asks.

“Mine,” Zoey says. “It’ll be my second turn already, actually. We started Saturday, did a little at his on Sunday, and so we’re back to my house.”

“Wow,” Cyndi says. “That’s… a lot of time you’re spending together.”

Cyndi again feels dumb for saying anything.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Simon says. “But it’s not really that big of a deal, right?”

“No, not really,” Zoey says. “Actually, we’ll be spending even more time together on Wednesday because of Youth Group.”

“It even works out because we’ll be back at your house that day,” Simon says.

“Oh yeah!”

As Third Block comes to a close, the classes head back to the locker rooms.

“You probably don’t need to wait for me before going to Mr. Del’s,” Zoey says to Simon. “I might take a little longer getting dressed.”

“I’ll let him know about the locker mess then,” Simon says.

“Thank you,” Zoey says with a light touch on Simon’s arm before going off with Cyndi to the girls’ locker room.

“What’s the little hottie doing touching you?” Robby grumbles.

“Seems you jinxed something,” Simon says with a smirk. “She and I are going to the Valentine’s Day Dance next week.”

“What? Why would she want to go with a loser?”

“Um, I think if she wanted to go with a loser, she would’ve asked you or one of your friends,” Simon says.

“How’d you get her to say yes?”

“Actually, she asked me, and I said yes.”

“What? You didn’t even have the balls to ask her first?”

“I think her asking me first shows how much she’s into me,” Simon says with a much smugger smirk. “She didn’t want to leave anything to chance and she snatched me up.”

“So, you’re okay being some kinda weak little beta male?” Robby says with a sneer.

“Wow, ‘beta.’ What an advanced word!” Simon says with strong sarcasm. “I’m impressed! But ‘beta’, ‘alpha’, none of that matters. Because I’ll point this out again, she asked me out. I’m only a Sophomore and I’ve won high school. And all you can do is be jealous and look stupid. But mostly look stupid.”

Simon finishes putting on his shirt, a big smile on his face. What he doesn’t notice is his eyes flashing yellow.

“There it is,” he says, pointing at Robby for a moment. “There’s that stupid look.”

Simon picks up his things and leaves the locker room to go to Mr. Del’s portable. Students around them stifle laughs but Robby is seething.

“Okay,” Simon says as he and Zoey go to the back door of her house. “How do you want to start?”

“Just go Green,” she says as she smirks at him.

As they go down the stairs, Zoey brings out her cat ears and tail. Simon does as Zoey told him, turning his hair green and eyes yellow.

“Do the tights have to come out, too?” she asks.

“Well I’m not capable of partial transformation like you are,” he says. “There’s no dimmer switch. It’s on or off for me.”

“Fine,” she sighs.

The two start with fighting stances. Catgirl stands just as Haruka does in the game, left foot forward and knee slightly bent, and both hands up around waist to chest level. The Spektrum’s stance is similar but arms slightly higher and hands facing forward, ready to grab.

A breeze blows as the two start to circle each other. Catgirl’s ear flicks because a gnat touched it, and The Spektrum lunges forward! He grabs her hand and pulls her forward. The ropes appear and she bounces off them for The Spektrum to slip an arm between her legs and roll her backwards, “schoolboy” style. But the moment her shoulders hit the ground, Catgirl pushes up with just her core strength and slips away. She stays low to the ground so The Spektrum crouches low to match. The two stare each other down as Catgirl crouches even lower.

“Wait,” he says. “Are you wiggling your butt?”

She suddenly pounces! The Spektrum leans back to avoid her hands, but he can’t avoid her body! She still topples him over and has a pinfall cover of her own. He bridges up to get his shoulders off the ground, she sits up on his stomach and chops him in the chest! He falls to the ground and she pins him down again. He slaps her hands off his shoulders and pushes himself up to a seated position. She falls back because of this, and he wraps her legs up in his arms.

“Wait,” he says again. “Inappropriate pin position.”

He scoots back and sets her legs down on the grass. She sits up in a huff, gets back to a crouched position and kicks from the right! The Spektrum blocks and goes to grab the leg but Catgirl anticipates that. She puts her right foot down and kicks straight forward with her left! She gets him in the shoulder, but he rolls with the impact to get back to his feet. She rolls back and they’re both standing up again.

“I wasn’t really joking earlier,” she says as she brushes herself off. “Green does seem to be your new favorite.”

“Well he’s just my newest, so I need to figure him out. He might be a key to beating evil twin since he only has the original Color Codes. Let’s go again.”

Catgirl nods, and the two reset to their starting stances.

 

Third Block on Tuesday comes around, and Zoey’s locker is clean of all the refuse that was put in it, but the smell lingers.

“Cyndi, can I put my things in your locker again?” Zoey asks. “I don’t want the smell to get all over it.”

“Yeah,” Cyndi says reluctantly, “okay.”

“Thank you so much,” Zoey says sweetly.

As classes gather for role call, Zoey and Gina glare at each other. Robby glares at Simon but Simon ignores Robby completely. The classes go through warm-ups of arm circles, hip circles and jumping jacks. The Weight Training class moves to walking exercises. They go in waves across one of the blacktop basketball courts, walking with “Frankenstein legs” locked at the knees. The point is to touch your toes as your leg comes up, but most everyone is just attempting to.

After Frankenstein walking comes high knee jumping. It ends up looking like skipping and frolicking, and both Cyndi and Zoey giggle as they watch Simon take his turn. But Robby comes up fast on Simon’s left and bumps into him!

“Hey!” Zoey shouts as Simon falls to a knee.

“Sorry about that,” Robby says with an exaggerated shrug.

Simon sits up to check his knee, to see it all scraped up and even bleeding.

“You’ve got your girl fighting your battles now?” Robby taunts as Zoey storms over.

“Zoey,” Simon says as he starts getting off the ground. “It’s fine.”

Zoey sees Simon’s knee bleeding and seethes as she glares at Robby. But her attention turns to Simon as he hobbles. She helps him get to the bench and he takes a seat.

“We need to disinfect that,” she says as she looks at his knee.

“No, it just needs a Band-Aid,” he says. “A big Band-Aid.”

“You at least need to wash it with water,” Cyndi says.

“Alright,” he says.

Simon gets back up and hobbles his way around the corner to the door. He goes inside, to the bathroom, and to a sink. He wets paper towels and dabs them on the bloody scrape. He throws the paper towels away and exits the bathroom, where Coach Ashby has a first aid kit.

“Luckily, we have these,” Coach Ashby says as he pulls out big patch Band-Aids.

“Thanks, Coach,” Simon says as he takes one.

Simon leans against a wall as he peels open the wrapper and pulls out the bandage. He gets the wax paper tabs off and sticks it on.

As Coach Ashby opens the door, sounds of an argument can be heard. Both he and Simon hurry outside, though Simon still hobbles.

“He did not!” Gina shouts at Zoey.

“He did!” Zoey shouts back. “That was as on purpose as you trying to push me and Cyndi into the mud just yesterday! And as on purpose as you putting trash in my locker!”

“None of which you can prove!” Gina snaps back.

“Enough!” Ms. Tingley says. “If this keeps up, we’re bringing in the school counselor and your families.”

No one wants that, so Gina and Zoey back down.

“Alright,” Ms. Tingley says. “Now, just like yesterday, we’re-”

“No,” Coach Ashby says. “We can’t have someone spend time with my class today. We’re in the weight room this time. But Simon can join your class. It’s leg day but with that knee-”

“No,” Simon says. “My knee is fine. I’ll just skip squats.”

“But,” Zoey says, reaching a hand for his shoulder.

“I said it’s fine,” he says, his right eye flickering red.

Zoey’s hand lingers in the air as Simon heads for the weight room already.

Coach Ashby sends the rest of the Weight Training students on their lap around the field before going to the weight room.

“You don’t have to push yourself,” he tells Simon while unlocking the door. “Do what you can, then go sit somewhere.”

Simon doesn’t answer, he just heads for the kickback machine. He puts it in thrust position and hooks up all fifteen 10-pound weights. His right eye flickers red again as he pushes the arm up all the way. He thrusts his knee again and again and again and again and again. His aggression fuels him, and his eyes flicker between Code Blue’s ice blue and Code Black’s heterochromia.

After going as hard as he can with his right leg, Simon steps down, changes the positioning of the machine’s arm, and uses his left leg. The only hard part about this is standing on the right leg because of the throbbing in his knee from the scrape. But that pain adds to the anger and he pushes through.

The other students come in and Simon is still working the left leg. He doesn’t stop to even look back at any of them.

“How’s the leg?” Robby asks mockingly. “It’d be a shame if you can’t make it to the dance.”

Simon doesn’t respond, but simply finishes up on the machine. He steps off the machine and shakes out the bad leg.

“Y’know,” Robby continues, “if little what’s her name still wants to go to the dance, we’ve got a line forming.”

Some of the guys chuckle but Simon focuses on testing the leg. His lack of response confuses and annoys them.

“So what?” Robby says. “You don’t care about your girl missing out on Valentine’s-”

“Are you still running your damn mouth?” Simon says. “Why don’t you focus on your workout, ya one man sweat lodge.”

Robby gets heated but Coach Ashby steps in.

“He has a point,” Coach Ashby says to Robby. “About working out. As for you-”

Ashby looks over to where Simon was, but he’s already hobbled his way around to the door.

“I’m leaving,” Simon says as he exits the weight room.

Simon walks down the path, but every step adds pain. He makes it to the gate around the pool and leans against it to rest.

Ms. Tingley’s class jogs up and the top placing runners pass by him. Then a few more pass by, and Simon sees Zoey and Cyndi coming up with a handful of others.

Simon stands up as Zoey approaches, and both she and Cyndi pull over while slowing to a stop.

“What’re you doing out here?” Zoey asks. “Does your knee still hurt?”

“It does still hurt,” he says, “but that’s not why I’m out here. Robby was talking crap about us and the dance.”

“Us as in us?” Zoey says while motioning between her and Simon.

“Yes,” he says. “I called him a garbage can and left the room.”

Cyndi and Zoey laugh, though Zoey feels a little bad that she did.

“You didn’t need to call him a garbage can,” Zoey says.

“Yeah, but it fits,” Simon says. “He’s round and smells bad.”

“Even so,” Zoey says while suppressing laughter.

“Zoey,” Cyndi says, “you called Robby’s sister, Gina, a pig and said she tripped over her own hooves.”

Simon laughs so hard that he leans against the gate again.

“Don’t laugh at that,” Zoey says, feeling a little embarrassed. “I shouldn’t have said that. We should be better than that.”

Simon purses his lips and grumbles as he stands up straight again. To which Zoey gives him a flat expression on her face, with the smallest hint of a smirk.

“I’ll try and be better,” he says with a shrug.

“You do have a lot more attitude than I thought you did,” Cyndi says. “More than someone who goes to church probably should.”

Simon grumbles more and Zoey has an exaggerated expression of wide eyes and dropped jaw.

“Oh, we should get going,” Zoey says.

“Right,” Cyndi says.

“I’ll make my way to the bench,” Simon says.

The girls jog away while he hobbles after them as quickly as he can.

“This is gonna suck to walk home with,” he says, getting both girls to laugh.

 

As Third Block ends and Phys Ed classes get dressed, Robby stops in the restroom first. He takes sheet after sheet after sheet of paper towels from the dispenser, then twists them together like a rope. He soaks the towels in the toilet and brings them into the locker room. Some of the guys take notice and move out of the way as Robby makes his way through.

“You really broke a sweat in there,” Robby sarcastically says at Simon. “Maybe you need to cool off.”

Robby brings the dripping wet paper towels up and whips it at Simon! Simon does his best to dodge, but it still hits him in the shoulder. The soaking wet paper also hits the person behind Simon and that guy gets upset.

“Hey man, don’t throw stuff!” he shouts at Robby.

“Ugh, are you kidding me?” Simon says as he starts to smell the water. “Is that toilet water?”

“You hit me with toilet water?” the other guy shouts at Robby.

“Uh…” Robby hesitates.

Simon crouches slightly to grab his things from his locker, then slips away while Robby deals with the other guy.

 

Simon and Zoey meet up for Fourth Block and Zoey makes a face.

“What am I smelling coming off your shirt?” she asks.

Others hear this as they pass by and both Zoey and Simon feel awkard.

“Robby was throwing paper towels soaked in toilet water,” Simon says quietly as they head inside.

“Gross.”

“No kidding.”

“Well, can I sit on the other side then?” she asks him. “That smell’s going to distract me.”

“I know it’s right on my shoulder, but is it that bad?”

“No, my sense of smell is just that good now.”

“Oh, right, right. Um, hold on.”

Simon goes to Mr. Del’s desk while Zoey sits in Simon’s seat.

“Mr. Del,” Simon says. “Just for today, Zoey and I are switching seats.”

“Why?” he asks.

“Well, long story short, something got on my shirt in P.E. and it kinda smells, so if Zoey and I switch seats, it’ll be away from her.”

“You got something on this shirt?” Mr. Del asks, pointing at Simon’s body.

“Yes, in the locker room,” Simon says. “And it’ll just be for today, as long as nothing gets on my shirt tomorrow.”

“Well, alright,” Mr. Del says. “Just this once. You know I’m very particular.”

“Oh, I do know that,” Simon chuckles. “Thanks, Mr. Del.”

Simon walks back to the table and sits in Zoey’s seat.

 

After school, Simon and Zoey start on an arduous walk home, going to his house per their agreed alternating schedule.

“Is it really that bad?” she asks as Simon hobbles along.

“Well, you can try falling on your knee if you want,” he says.

Zoey scoffs at his snappy attitude.

“Sorry,” he apologizes. “That’s just how bad it hurts still.”

“We should get you some ice when we get to your place,” she says. “And change-”

“Change the shirt, I know,” he says. “I’m starting to smell it, too. Stupid Robby.”

They arrive at Simon’s house a little later than normal and he unlocks the door. Being that it’s a Tuesday, Simon’s brothers are already home from Bancroft Middle School.

“Hey,” they say to Simon while still looking at the television and the video games they’re playing.

“Hey,” Simon says as he hobbles to the hallway.

“Hi,” Zoey says while she stands by the door.

James pauses the game and both brothers look over. They clearly didn’t realize Zoey was with Simon when he walked through the door.

“H-Hi,” they both say nervously before returning to the game.

Simon goes to his room, puts his things down, pulls off the stinking shirt and opens a drawer to look for a new one. He chooses a Star Wars shirt handed down from his dad and puts that on.

I should probably get out of these pants so I can put an ice pack on my knee, he thinks.

He takes off his denim jeans and puts them on the bed to put on a pair of blue basketball shorts. He grabs the stinky shirt and goes to the hallway. He uses the shortcut to the laundry room to throw the shirt in the laundry basket.

“Okay,” he says as he hobbles back out to the living room. “Time for that ice pack.”

He walks through the dining room to the kitchen and to the refrigerator.

“Y’know, I didn’t really think about it before,” Zoey says, “but your house is kinda on the smaller side.”

“Yep,” he says as he opens the freezer. “Um, do you want anything? Maybe something to drink?”

“It is a bit muggy today,” Zoey says as she flaps her shirt collar to cool herself. “Maybe just some water?”

Simon opens the fridge and looks around.

“Here we go,” he says as he brings out a bottle of Crystal Geyser.

“Thanks,” Zoey says as he hands it to her.

While Simon sits with the pack on his knee, Zoey twists open the bottle and takes a few good gulps.

“Well, I just realized something about hurting my knee,” he says as he bends then unbends it.

“What’s that?” Zoey asks as she puts the cap back on the bottle.

“If I transform into The Spektrum for today’s training, my knee will be all better.”

“Isn’t that actually a great thing?” Zoey asks.

“Well, yes, for my knee,” Simon says as he takes the ice pack off it. “But not when you consider a lot of people saw me fall down and hobble around during PE. I can’t literally walk in there tomorrow, perfectly fine.”

“Oh, no, you’re right!” she says. “Robby, especially, since he’s the jerk who knocked you over and kept messing with you about it. Man…”

Zoey pouts while she thinks.

“Well, we did a lot of early training as just ourselves,” she says. “I guess we can try that today.”

“Alright. It’s gonna feel like we’re in slow motion or something, though.”

Simon puts the ice pack back in the freezer and heads to the back of the kitchen. It connects to the laundry room, which leads to the back door that is more of a side door.

“Don’t look at the dirty laundry,” he says as he motions to it. “You might see things you shouldn’t.”

Zoey giggles but does quickly glance. Thankfully, no underwear of any kind is visible.

“Watch your step here, too,” Simon says as he opens the back door to reveal a screen door.

He opens the screen door walks onto the concrete steps, a big rectangle with not a lot of room at the top before having to step down on either side. Simon steps back to hold the door open for Zoey to exit. As he closes the screen door, he notices Freckles walking into the laundry room. She looks up at him and the door with a bit of surprise.

“Oh, hey there,” he says. “I’ll leave the main door open so you can look outside, okay?”

Freckles doesn’t respond while he does as he said. But as he steps down, she does walk up to the screen door to look outside and smell the fresh winter air.

Simon follows the path to the back of the house, where Zoey has already walked onto the grass.

“Not a bad backyard,” she says. “A lot more plants than mine, obviously.”

“Yeah, that one is a Birds of Paradise, actually,” he says as he points to the one in the middle with the paddle-like leaves.

“Oh, wow!” she says. “Those look so pretty. I can’t wait to see them in bloom.”

Simon joins Zoey on the grass and again bends and unbends the bad knee to keep it from feeling stiff.

“Okay,” he says as he and Zoey face each other. “Let’s go.”

Simon shakes out his arms while Zoey takes her stance. Simon puts weight on the bad knee but it’s still tender. He drops down and rolls, Zoey steps back quickly, he reaches for a leg, but she moves to the side. Simon gets up but the bad knee bugs him again.

Zoey tries this time, throwing a right hand. Simon grabs the wrist and pushes on the elbow to bend it around behind Zoey for a form of the “hammer lock.” He doesn’t wrench it, though, as he is still reluctant to hurt her. But she brings her right foot behind and to the left, sticks her butt out to that side, and pivots to her right. With the pressure of the arm lock gone, she grabs the wrist of his left arm and continues the spinning momentum to wrench his arm. She copies the hammer lock, but he mirrors the escape.

“Ow…” he says as he pivots on the bad knee.

He continues with the counter to wrench the arm, but because of the bad knee, he hesitates before stepping through. He then slowly brings the arm up to swing it down.

“Boom, shoulder breaker,” he says flatly as he slowly brings his shoulder up into Zoey’s armpit.

“Oh, ow, oh…!” she says before giggling.

“And then back to this,” he says as he slowly spins to get back to pushing on Zoey’s elbow. “But instead of hammerlock, I bring my arm up to here.”

He goes from her elbow to her tricep then to the shoulder he “attacked,” for a more traditional armlock. He pushes down on the shoulder to force Zoey to bend at the waist. She tucks and rolls, spins on the ground, gets back to her feet, and has control of the wrist back. She pulls him forward, he instinctively digs his heels in to stop that, but the bad knee doesn’t last long at all.

“Okay, okay, okay,” he says quickly as he hobbles and hops to a stop.

“Maybe we should try something other than full-on sparring,” Zoey says.

“Well, then we’d basically be doing more PE stuff,” he says. “Push-ups, sit-ups, stuff like that.”

The two think for a moment.

“Oh!” Zoey says. “Handstands!”

“Really?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Well, no. But I’m not really good at handstands.”

“Then just be up against the fence here,” she says as she moves towards the back fence.

Simon walks over to the back fence with Zoey and checks his arms. He puts his hands in the grass and pushes up with his legs. He clunks his feet against the wood and looks forward, upside-down.

“Oh, your shirt’s kinda falling,” Zoey says. “And, your shorts, too.”

“It’s alright,” he says, grunting as the blood rushes to his head. “Though, I am a little chilly now.”

Zoey makes sure her shirt is secure before smoothly transitioning to the handstand. She walks up to the fence to gently rest her feet against it.

“Okay, that was impressive,” he says.

“Thank you,” she says with a smile.

The two quietly handstand side-by-side. A gentle but chilly breeze blows and Simon shivers. He almost loses his balance, but he manages to kick a leg and he clunks against the fence again.

“You okay?” she asks.

“Yeah. That was a close one.”

The two are quiet again and Simon stares straight ahead. Until his head feels really heavy.

“Okay, that’s enough,” he says as he goes back to standing on his feet.

Zoey also goes back to her feet while Simon wobbles. She also feels the blood rush back, and she leans against the fence to steady herself. Simon dusts off his hands and puts his shirt back down.

“So,” Simon says as the world stops spinning, “should we get to homework?”

“Do we have to?” Zoey says as she also wipes the dirt off her hands. “I’m sure there’s something else we can do in training.”

“Well, the only thing left would be to train you up.”

“Train me? In what?”

“Well, you’re doing really great as a ‘striker’ with the martial arts, but you got lucky that you’re all, uh, y’know. Bendy.”

Zoey sees him blush a little and it makes her smile.

“Bendy, huh?” she teases.

“Don’t make fun of that,” he says. “I thought you were going to be snapped in half.”

“But I wasn’t,” she points out.

“Well duh. But I think you still need to learn more wrestling counters.”

“Oh, really?” she says, hands on her hips. “I think I did pretty good against what’s his name in the black.”

“I think Siro called him Lima. It’s Tagalog for the number five. And yeah, you won, but you could’ve done better.”

“Okay, how?” she says, shifting weight from one foot to the other.

He thinks on that a moment.

“Let’s start where he had you in a headlock,” he says while motioning for her to step forward. “I won’t hold on too tight, it’s just for the practice.”

Zoey steps forward as Simon has his right arm in a circle.

“So obviously, my head goes in there, right?” she says, pointing to the arm.

“Yes,” he says. “But before you put your head in there, here’s what you’ll do to get out. Your right hand will go into my elbow. Your left hand will find its way to the grip I have.”

He moves his arm to show how his left hand holds the right hand’s wrist.

“Put your head in the hold,” he says.

Zoey steps forward and leans over to stick her head under Simon’s armpit.

“At least this doesn’t smell so bad,” she says.

“Well I do use deodorant,” he defends. “Now, I’m going to tighten just a little bit.”

He pulls his right hand across his stomach to close the gap around her head.

“Now slip your hands in just like I said.”

Zoey wedges her fingers into the inside of Simon’s elbow while also feeling around to find his wrist.

“Don’t just go after my wrist,” he says. “You gotta get inside my grip to break it.”

Zoey pushes her fingers between his hand and wrist, and he lets his grip loosen.

“Now grab my wrist, push on the elbow and back out of the hold.”

Zoey does just that, and as she exits the headlock, she brings Simon’s arm back.

“And now you have me in position for the hammerlock,” he says.

“Oh yeah,” she says as she puts Simon’s elbow behind his back. “Cool.”

“Okay, let’s try that again but a little faster,” he says.

“Right, repitition for muscle memory,” she says. “Gymnastics taught me that.”

Zoey lets go of Simon’s arm, she leans forward, and he puts the headlock back on.

“You can go a little tighter, y’know,” she says.

“I just didn’t want to hurt you,” he says.

He puts the squeeze on her head, and she starts her escape attempt. This time, he puts up a fight with his gripping hand, but she still manages to get her fingers in between. She then pushes the elbow away and moves back to get the arm. But she surprises Simon by leaping up to put him in a headlock of her own!

“Your turn,” she laughs as she squeezes her left arm around his head.

But as he works to get his hand in on the inside, they both realize there’s a very big and very soft obstacle in the way. She lets him go and he puts his hands down as he stands up straight.

“So,” Zoey says, “should we get to homework?”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” he says.

The two head back to the side door, trying to stop the blushing in their cheeks.

 

“And then I kicked a pirate through a doorway into another guy,” Hardwire says to the Reciprocity recruits. “Then I threw a frag in, walked away and let it explode behind me like a badass.”

            “Sweet,” Tommy says while the group seems to be enjoying the story.

            “Yeah, but that was after you got yourself outnumbered and had to fight your way out,” Smart Mouth says as he walks into the mess hall.

            “And?” Hardwire says with a shrug. “We got out of it just fine.”

            “You only ended up in that situation because you weren’t patient,” Smart Mouth adds as he takes a seat nearby. “You made Metalhead transform in an area too fragile for his full weight and you basically fell into the lion’s den.”

 

            “There’s too many!” Hayden shouted as he, Alan and Hardwire were taking cover around the corner of a hallway in a dingy apartment complex.

            “Transform!” Hardwire shouted at Alan.

            “Are you kidding me?” Alan shouted back. “This entire place looks like it’s made out of cardboard!”

            “Just do it!” Hardwire shouted. “We need the firepower!”

            Alan grumbled but he still changed into Metalhead as quickly as he could. When he finished, he stepped out from behind the corner and aimed at the pirates bearing down on them. Metalhead brought out the forearm gatling guns and opened fire! He hit some and made others fall back, but then the floor started to crack. Hardwire and Hayden stepped up behind Metalhead, and the floor fell through! The three young men fell the ten feet to the next floor below and got up with soreness in their backs. Metalhead turned on the new flashlight attachment he Unlocked, to reveal about two dozen more pirates still loading weapons.

 

            “Well, then we should’ve gone in from the ground floor and gone up,” Hardwire defends. “Then we could’ve had everyone at full power.”

            “It was a tactical advantage to come in from above,” Hayden says.

            “And you were all excited about the skydiving part,” Alan says.

 

            The plane’s cargo hold was bathed in red light as Hardwire, Hayden and Alan lined up with Smart Mouth and the Reciprocity Spec Ops. Final checks were made on everyone’s parachutes, breathing apparatuses, and communicators. All the gear passed the test and the green light was given. The door opened and a gust of wind came in as the hold depressurized.

            Hayden took a deep breath to calm his nerves but Hardwire rushed forward! Hardwire even did a flip as he jumped out!

            “Go, go!” Smart Mouth shouted as he ushered the others forward.

            Hayden and Alan went next, followed by the Spec Ops members, Wruck, Turek, and Dullberg. Smart Mouth went out last so he could keep an eye on everyone.

            “Hardwire, slow down,” Smart Mouth said. “You went too soon and you’re out of sync.”

            “I think that means you guys need to speed up!” Hardwire said.

            “You’re going in too hot for the chute window,” Dullberg said sternly.

            “No way,” Hardwire said. “Watch this!”

            Hardwire opened his chute at the threshold then swooped down and knocked a rooftop guard right into the door of the stairwell.

 

            “I will say that was an impressive move, though,” Smart Mouth says. “But the only reason you don’t have dislocated shoulders and torn-up muscles is because of those fancy wires. And even then, you pushed the output during that moment. You need to watch yourself.”

            “How do you know about the output?” Hardwire asks.

            “Uh, maybe you forget who introduced those things to you,” Smart Mouth says. “Project Hardwire was my idea and my creation, so I don’t want you ruining them. You can dial it down a notch and still be ahead of the curve, alright?”

            Hardwire grumbles but has nothing to counter that.

            “Yeah, we’re all part of the same team,” Hayden says. “You don’t need to do so much.”

            “Or boss us around so much,” Alan mumbles while sticking a fork into his salad.

            “Well somebody had to take charge,” Hardwire defends.

 

            “Hit ’em!” Hardwire shouted as he raised his side arm.

            He and Metalhead opened fire on the pirates while Hayden started his transformation into Tyranno-Shark.

            “Reloading!” they both shouted as they moved aside to obviously reload.

            Hayden was only partially transformed but he had the tail, claws and extra sharp shark teeth. He rushed forward and attacked the pirates, who were all in a panic seeing the mutant he had become.

            “Ready!” Metalhead said as he took aim again.

            Metalhead opened fire on the right side of the room, Tyranno-Shark was up the middle, but Hardwire was taking too long on his side. He got rushed by a couple pirates brandishing knives but used the savate training Reciprocity gave him to defend himself with kicks.

            Tyranno-Shark focused on getting to the door as he used his tail to smack pirates out of the way.

            “Let’s get moving!” Tyranno-Shark shouted with his partially transformed voice.

            Metalhead stopped shooting and body checked a pirate out of the way as he followed behind Tyranno-Shark. Hardwire threw one pirate into the wall, threw an elbow into another, and then up ended a pirate rushing him with a lead pipe. He and the pirate struggled over the pipe, he took it for his own, and used it to crack the pirate in the knee.

            “Keep going!” Hardwire shouted back at the others. “I’ve got this!”

            “What’re you talking about?” Tyranno-Shark shouted. “Leave them!”

            Tyranno-Shark and Metalhead had already made it out of the room and to the hallway but Hardwire kept fighting the pirates. He threw one onto a chair, breaking it, then kicked the broken pieces at another. A pirate from a few seconds ago got back up and rushed him again, but Hardwire used a spinning back kick to disarm him of a knife to jump and headbutt the pirate down.

 

            “Oh I get it now,” Hayden says. “You’ve been trying to level up.”

            “Riiight…!” Alan says, seeing it for himself. “Tiger was the same way on a few of the missions he went with us on.”

            “What’re you talking about?” Hardwire says. “Level up? Like some stupid video game?”

            “Yeah, though, they’re not stupid,” Hayden says. “You were trying to beat up as many guys as you could for the E-X-P.”

            “Wait, would it be E-X-P or just X-P?” Alan wonders.

            “Either or, I guess,” Hayden says with a shrug.

            “I’m not a geek like you two,” Hardwire sneers. “I don’t ‘level up.’ I just get better.”

            “We didn’t mean anything by it, man,” Alan says. “Just saying, it makes sense.”

            “What makes sense?” Hardwire says, getting a bit defensive again.

            “Well, I mean,” Alan says, “you… kinda got owned by that Spektrum clone. Like, twice.”

            “Whoa, dude, back off,” Joey says in defense of Hardwire.

            “But it’s true,” Alan says. “There’s no getting around it. Siro showed up, put Hardwire in a coma, then busted into our base and tried to do it again. I’d be mad, too.”

            “Everyone take a deep breath,” Smart Mouth says. “Metalhead and T-Shark have a point. We all need to ‘level up’ if Siro and his alien pals try a stunt like that again, or if we happen to encounter them elsewhere. Got it?”

            “Yes, sir,” the Surgers say first, followed by more reluctant responses from the recruits.

            “Bocca,” Babel calls to Smart Mouth in Italian. “È pronto a parlare. <He’s ready to talk.>”

            Smart Mouth smirks as he gets up.

            “Wrap up here and run some drills,” he tells the youth before he leaves the mess hall.

            Once the Surgers finish eating, they head out together, leaving Hardwire behind.

            “I don’t get why Hardwire’s acting like it’s a big deal,” Alan says. “Or maybe that it isn’t?”

            “And his friends who joined with him don’t really help,” Hayden says. “They just seem to accept how he boasts without being honest.”

            “Yeah, they’re so annoying,” Alan says. “They don’t even have powers, so why’re they acting like they’re better than us?”

            Hayden can’t help but remember back to Siro’s words during the raid.

            “Do you think,” he starts with hesitation. “Do you think Hardwire likes us? As friends, that is.”

            “Why’re you asking?” Alan asks back.

            “Well, I dunno,” Hayden shrugs. “It just seems like he wouldn’t care if it was us out there with him or some other high-powered Power Surger.”

            “I mean, the feeling’s kinda mutual,” Alan says with a shrug. “We don’t need him out there. He was more like a liability on this last one.”

            “Maybe, maybe not,” Hayden says. “But… I thought being on a team was all about, like, becoming friends, y’know?”

            Alan thinks about that for a moment as they continue down the hall.

            “Well you and I are friends, right?” he says.

            “Yeah,” Hayden says with a light chuckle. “We’re friends.”

            The two fist-bump then do finger guns as they walk like bow-legged cowboys for a couple steps. They even make gun noises with their mouths.

 

            Smart Mouth followed Babel into a cell. Upat the bronze-headed alien sits strapped to a chair while a chaotic mix of polka, freeform jazz and teen pop stars.

            “Please…” Upat pleads. “Turn it off…”

            Babel signals to a camera, and it all stops.

            “No…” Upat says. “Leave the one… with the… the…”

            Upat then does his best to yodel and it sounds like a goose being strangled.

            “The alien likes polka,” Smart Mouth says. “But are you ready to talk?”

            “Yes,” Upat says. “Our ship hides behind your planet’s moon.”

            “We already figured that out,” Smart Mouth says. “How about giving us new information?”

            “The ship’s teleportation machine,” Upat says. “It’s limited. Not just range, but the number of times it can be used. It needs to recharge.”

            “Okay, that’s a bit more helpful,” Smart Mouth says. “How many times can it be used?”

            “Three times,” Upat says. “If all three times are used, it takes a very long time to recharge back to full.”

            “How long is that?”

            “Um… More than a single day on Earth.”

            “That can be considered a long time,” Smart Mouth says. “Thank you for telling us.”

            Smart Mouth unstraps Upat from the chair, much to Upat’s surprise.

            “Ecco qui <Here you go>,” Babel says, sticking with Italian.

            She hands Upat buttered toast and a juice box of apple juice.

            “E questo <And this>,” she says.

            She gives him an mp3 player with big headphones plugged in.

            “<Now you can listen to all the polka music you want.>”

            She puts the headphones on him while he eats his small meal. He listens to the same accordion and yodeling he’d been listening to for hours as he’s accompanied to the elevator. They go up to the first subfloor then walk out to the surface. Upat’s almost done with his toast by the time they exit the hangar. Upat is left alone in the middle of the field, wearing the headphones and munching on toast.

Upat looks back at the Reciprocity hangar but they close the doors. He looks down at the simple meal they gave him. He swallows the toast and sips the apple juice through the bendy straw. He then looks up at the sky as the sun sets. Upat knows he isn’t as intelligent as the others, but he also knows you don’t have to be brilliant to love the mix of colors that happens during this time of day. Then a twinkling gets his attention, and *WHOOMF*, he’s brought back to the ship.

“Upat, are you alright?” Taktikk asks.

“Careful,” Zorb says. “They might’ve done something to him.”

Upat takes a bite of toast.

“He seems fine to me,” Tulo says.

“They gave you headphones?” Siro says.

Upat steps off the teleporter and sips more apple juice. Siro walks over and can hear the music.

“Are you listening to polka?” Siro says angrily.

“What’s polka?” Zita asks.

“Why did they let you go?” Zorb asks.

Upat can’t hide the guilt on his face.

“Upat…” Zorb says, already disappointed. “What did you do for them to let you free?”

“I told them about our teleporter’s limitations,” he says, starting to shrink into his shoulders.

“You told them that?!” Zorb says. “Why would you tell them that!?”

“They tortured me until I talked!” Upat defends.

“Tortured!?” Zita says. “That’s awful!”

“It was,” Upat says. “It was all… Uh… Oh baby, baby~. Oh baby, baby. Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed, to know… That something wasn’t~ right~ here? And then something about, ‘Hit me baby, one more time!’”

While everyone else is deeply confused, laughter builds inside Siro and escapes. This confuses the others even more, but then Siro’s laughter shifts right into aggravated groaning. He goes over to the couch and sighs as he takes a seat.

“Britney broke Upat,” he says with a chuckle. “Britney broke Upat…”

“Who?” both Zita and Zorb say.