Dreams of the Golden Age (Golden Age 2)

“Yeah. Okay. But Sa—Blaster’s ready to take off. We gotta go.”

“Give me a sec.”

He regarded her, uncertain.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll scream if I’m not. Then you can practice rescuing me, right?”

Her confidence was possibly not well founded, but Teddy backed away and left her alone with the guy. She was sure he hadn’t gone far.

“Rose?” the man asked. “That’s not your real name, is it?”

“I’m Compass Rose,” she said. She felt ridiculous, but she stood tall, refusing to let it show.

“Your superhero name.”

“That’s right.”

“What’s your power, then? Perfect sense of direction?”

She blushed, because it was hard to explain, and compared to people like Teddy or Sam, hers wasn’t a real power anyway. “I find people. I know where they are.”

“That’s handy.”

“Sometimes.” Her sour expression told otherwise. Her power worked only on people she knew well, friends and family. But she didn’t have to tell him that.

A car horn honked half a block over, where Sam had parked. “I have to go. See you around?”

“Probably.”

“Okay—” She’d been about to say good-bye when he jumped, straight up, muscles in his thighs rippling as they launched him a hundred or more feet into the air. He didn’t fly but sailed over an arc that would carry him to the other side of the park.

Hell of a power.

“He’s gonna get pissed off when the blogs start calling him Frogman,” she murmured.

* * *

She’d been fourteen years old when her power awakened. The books and biographies about superhumans and their powers said they often manifested at puberty. It had for her grandmother and father. Anna had started to assume she wouldn’t get powers at all, like her mother. But she woke up one morning, and her brain ached. Aspirin didn’t help. It was like her entire mind cramped—she’d had her first period the year before, and this felt like that, only in her head instead of her gut. Then she seemed to fill up. Her mind expanded, taking on an extra sense. Because of who she was, who her family was, she’d known exactly what was happening. Her awakening power was probably mental, like her father’s. Was she developing telepathy? Telekinesis? Clairvoyance?

But no, after a couple of months of testing, trying, and thinking way too hard, the cramps settled, the extra sense lodging firmly in her hindbrain. Her mind felt full, but the information was limited. Shortly after the cramps faded, she came home from school, started for her mother’s office like she always did after school, and realized before she got there that Mom wasn’t there. She was in a meeting at the West Corp offices ten floors down. It felt like a light in her mind, bright as a flashlight turned on in a dark room. And her father was in his office, and her grandmother was in the lobby, coming home from a lunch outing. Without calling, without checking, she just knew. Their presences were glowing spots in her mind. She was a human radar. A homing device.

She didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t want to have to explain it, and she didn’t want to hear what they’d have to say about it. Time passed, she grew firmly into adolescence, and her family stopped watching for what power she’d develop. She began to move furtively through the world, because she didn’t want anyone to guess.

Her power—any power—had to be good for something, she’d thought then. She still thought. Otherwise, why have power at all? She just had to figure out how to use hers.

And then her best friend, Teia, came to her with a secret, and Anna began to hope.

* * *

Teddy and Sam had another argument about getting paint all over the inside of his car, until Teddy finally stripped to his boxers and stuffed his outfit and Lew’s paintball gun into a couple of grocery bags and put them in the trunk. Teddy sat in the front seat, arms crossed, pretending he wasn’t shivering. Blushing red the whole time, with Anna trying not to stare at the curve of his bare shoulders. The three of them piled into the backseat, practically in each other’s laps. She thought about offering to sit in Teddy’s lap to warm him up, but that would embarrass them both, and they’d all had enough embarrassment for one night.

Fortunately the drive wasn’t too long.

“Who was that guy?” Teddy finally said. They’d all seen the stranger make that epic leap out of the park.

“I don’t know.”

“Was he checking us out?” Teia asked.