Randy turned around facing him. “You are so stupid and naive. This is all such a joke!” he said coldly.
“Oh plea—”
“You’ve never been on a real mission, brother! Stop trying to pretend like you’ve actually seen anything beyond the walls of our high school. You couldn’t even stop a rogue amateur Electrolite at our dad’s power plant.” As Randy spoke, Ryan had to clamp his fists together and stop the canine aggressive part of himself from rising, ever so slowly and yet deadly, to the surface.
“Stop acting like you’re Superman because you’re a long cry away from anything real!” Randy yelled, his words stinging Ryan inside even more because of their double-edged meaning. Ryan really wasn’t anything real at all. And in this moment, if Randy only knew how he could easily let the animal inside take over. I’m stronger than that.
“Maybe, but you know what? When I do go on a ‘real mission,’ at least I’ll handle it maturely. Not like some angry child!”
Randy laughed bitterly. “When you go on a mission, you won’t ever be really handling it. You’ll just be a well-trained dog, unable to do anything but what you are commanded. You’ll get to the end without ever remembering the beginning! Don’t you get it? We are all just different acts in a sick man’s talent show!”
Randy turned around and started walking away.
“You really need help if you’re calling the government of the United States a talent show!” Ryan yelled after him, even though he and Lynn both knew who Randy was really referring to: their father.
Many hours later, Lynn suggested she and Ryan stay up late after training. She wanted to spend some time together in his dad’s giant movie theater room that he’d built for Ryan for one of his birthdays. It was two a.m. and Ryan’s body would routinely always get up at five fifteen like it did every day no matter what time he went to sleep. So as Lynn stayed up watching a boring chick flick and judging all its characters, Ryan found himself falling into a deep sleep right as the young lead male went in for his first kiss.
In Ryan’s dream, he was younger too. A lot younger; he was going on thirteen. It was a happier, freer, less complicated time, when he could pretend he was more human and less of a Biomax solider than he was now. In the dream, he was pretending to struggle as he climbed up the giant winding trees that twisted and met each other above their wood’s big lake.
“Be careful,” Donna warned him. She was sitting nervously on a big board Ryan had nailed into the joining trees. They were building a fort, a secret place only the two of them could ever know about, because Donna was his best friend back then. He handed her the supplies, pretending to struggle further as he climbed, when really his instincts were humming in a endless high as Ryan learned to use his “special body” as his dad liked to call it. Sometimes when he moved super fast it almost felt like he could soar.
Donna was about to say something as he maneuvered onto the board, but he quieted her.
“Shhh, someone’s coming.”
Two older people were swimming in the water, older than Ryan and Donna were at the time anyway. As the couple swam directly underneath them, Ryan realized they were spying on a very young and excited, more innocent version of Randy. And he was with the most beautiful girl from his class. Her name was Lea, and she was tall, almost taller than Randy, with an athletic frame that was complimented by princess long, strawberry blond, curly hair.
She and Randy were kicking and splashing each other in the lake, trying to see who could splash each other by making the biggest tidal wave. Randy won of course, but Lea was on the move, jumping onto Randy, trying to push him underneath the surface in a playful manner.
“Oh, so that’s how you’re gonna win this are you?” Randy teased her as he welcomed her presence against him. “You think you have me all figured out?”
“I know you think you’re so rough and tough, Randy Applegate,” she said as she stared into his eyes, fearless. “You make everyone think you’re such a brute, but I don’t think you’re as bad as you let on. I think deep down there’s a nice person in you.”
Randy didn’t roll his eyes like Ryan or Donna would have expected him to. Instead, his face actually looked a little nervous, as if something was being revealed as she spoke her words. Randy almost looked afraid as he started moving his face toward Lea’s. Their lips touched once, and then twice, and then they were full on kissing.
“Oh, my God!” Donna gasped in a whisper. Ryan couldn’t believe they were eavesdropping on their biggest bully’s possible first kiss. “I wonder how they move their lips like that?” Donna asked. And that’s when Donna’s own lips suddenly looked appealing in Ryan’s eyes like they never had before. He found himself staring, his body wondering something that none of the other boys his age wondered. Or at least they never admitted it. But Ryan had special DNA running through his veins, which produced hormones that were more primal and heightened. Suddenly it became obvious and clear that Ryan’s best childhood mate was a girl.
“Want to try it?” he asked.
“Try what?” she asked him as she turned back and their eyes locked.
“Try doing what they’re doing,” he said as his lips drew close to hers. Donna’s heart began beating fast, a rhythm only Ryan could hear as she shivered and went to say something. But before she could speak the words, Ryan’s lips brushed hers. Once, then twice, like his brother’s had touched Lea’s. Then Donna’s eyes fell shut and Ryan pressed his lips to hers even longer.
An eerie laugh in the forest stopped them all. Suddenly there was someone nearby Ryan could not sense, something neither human nor animal. The first original Biomax solider had found them.
Ryan turned back to Donna, but suddenly she wasn’t young anymore, she was her real age and so was he, and she was screaming. And behind the first original, crazy Biomax fiend stood the Electrolite that had broken into Ryan’s father’s power plant. He too had come to end them.
“Ryan! Ryan!” came his father’s hissing screams as Ryan’s eyes opened and a team of people surrounded him in his movie theater room. Lynn was still there, a horrified look on her face as agents blocked her from reaching him. Ryan’s dad was by his side. On the movie theater’s giant screen, instead of Lynn’s film, were vitals of Ryan’s current pulse, hormone levels, and blood work. Of course, Ryan’s dad had designed every part of his house, like his power plant, to be able to turn into a complete hospital lab in moments in case Ryan ever needed aid.
“I’m ok, I’m ok,” his voice first came out like a roar, sounding so unlike him, so inhuman, until he calmed everything inside himself down and his pulse on the screen calmed.
Everyone was looking at him, cameras were recording his every move, and nutritionists and trainers were ready to get every animalistic chemical inside him checked.
I need to get myself more together! Ryan’s mind screamed as Lynn’s harsh eyes portrayed the same thing. The intruder, the death of the boy from their own school, Donna getting hurt tonight, and the fire Randy had spawned, somehow it had produced this dream, which was really an old memory, in Ryan’s conscious to come out. And now that it had, it wasn’t going back anytime soon. Donna, the girl he had to ignore, and the first ever Biomax solider who had gone crazy and had to be locked away, were at the front of Ryan’s mind, haunting him.
Hopefully he wouldn’t go crazy himself.
Chapter Four
Two Weeks Later on Christmas Eve
Donna
Donna and Rebecca sat in silence as Rebecca’s mom drove them out of East Applegate. “It is time you two get out of this room,” she’d insisted earlier, after having confided in Donna that she was growing very worried about Rebecca’s condition. Ever since Paul’s death, Rebecca had been in a state of silence, getting her to even eat was a struggle.
“The mall will do you girls both some good,” Rebecca’s mom went on as she drove.
They parked at the only decent mall East, West, North, and South Applegate had. Not too long ago, Donna had adven
tured with Brook to an area nearby in West Applegate, her town’s biggest rival. Brook had somehow managed for her and Donna to party with the crème de la crème of West Applegate’s teens. At the time, Donna had thought this was a betrayal to her pathetic crush on Ryan, hanging out with his most fierce athletic competition. Not to mention social suicide if the popular bullies at her school ever found out. Yet now, all of those feelings and insecurities were irrelevant. Donna had almost died, everything else that used to seem like a big deal had changed.
The mall was decked out with holiday decorations. Christmas jingles blasted over the loud speakers, putting everyone in a lighthearted mood. Everyone but Rebecca, whose mom offered to buy her various things, all of which Rebecca was lifeless to. After a few hours, when Donna realized there was nothing she could do to help soothe her friend, she quickly decided to wander over to an old country watch store she had spotted. She needed to buy her dad something and perhaps the store had some kind of low cost item she could find for him. Though the first thing she spotted was a leather watch set that was over five hundred dollars. That was definitely out of her budget.
She ventured to a glass cabinet of old vintage pocket watches, spotting one with a horse on it she knew right away her dad would probably love. She looked around, hearing a store clerk in the back, and politely called out, “Excuse me,” to try to get the faceless person’s attention.
“I’ll be with you in just a minute,” the person called out as Donna continued to stare at the different watches. The old vintage ones were definitely the most beautiful. “How can I help you?”
Donna turned around and looked up right as she met the store clerk’s eyes. Cody Lighter paused when he saw Donna, the biggest smile coming to his face. His golden tan cheeks turned slightly red, and Donna felt all the water she had consumed on the way here dissolve with nervous heat. Cody was the star athlete and leading jock of West Applegate. He was tall and super cute, with bright green eyes and light blond hair. He’d been the one who had danced with Donna two weeks in a row. The fact that he had even wanted to dance with her was like a dream.
“If it isn’t Miss. East Applegate, back on my side of town,” he said as he walked up and embraced Donna in a hug, as if they were old time friends and she was worthy of him.
God, I hope I look halfway decent, she thought as she tried to relax into the causal embrace; she couldn’t. His skin was cool against her hot, pre-electric flesh. Nervous energy ran through her and she had to push herself not to turn and shock him upon impact.
“Hey,” she mumbled. “You, ah, work here?”
“Unfortunately yeah, my grandfather owns the shop. He has me working every day of winter break,” he told her as he rubbed his hand through his touchable hair.
“Oh, well, it’s nice. The shop I mean, it’s cool,” she tried to make causal conversation and failed, her mind so nervous by the scandal of his presence. Holy crap, he’s so hot.
“Yeah, it is what it is. As long as I have enough cash in my pocket to play football I’m happy.”
Donna felt herself completely melt right there and grow more squeamish at the same time.
“So, ah, what can I get for you today?” he asked her.
“Um, that one,” she pointed to the watch she had been eyeing, and he opened the case and pulled it out.
“The wanderer’s watch.” He handed it to her for her inspection.
She looked at it. It was cold and heavy in her hands. If anyone else had called it “the wanderer’s watch,” she probably would have picked another one instead. It was pretty ironic that the item that she knew her father would like was called that, but the way Cody said it made it sound so valuable.
“I bet your boyfriend will love it,” he told her next.
She smiled shyly, looking back up at his green eyes. He winked at her, and she looked back down, nervous. “It’s for my dad,” she told him. “No boyfriend.” As if I’d ever have a boyfriend anywhere. Then she remembered she was technically pretending to be dating Spencer; that was a whole other story, one she was sure Cody couldn’t know as Donna and Spencer were nobodies.
He took the watch from her and started placing it neatly in a box. “Ya know, we do this bonfire thing every Christmas night. It’s kind of a tradition at West Applegate High. You should come.”
“Um, Brook’s back in New York now,” Donna explained while he rung the watch up. She noticed that he entered in his employee discount code so the watch would cost even less, and yet it was still just on the rim of breaking her budget.
“I’m not asking Brook,” he said smoothly, looking up at her eyes. Could he really be saying this to me? Her body was about to go into electric hormonal overload. She needed to get out of there; instead, she stayed silent, not knowing what to mumble next.
“Merry Christmas, Donna Young. I hope to see you soon,” he told her as she took her purchase from him. In that moment, if only for a few precious seconds, all the monsters in her head were gone.
* * *
Lynn
Lynn and Ryan were on the roof of her house, outside her bedroom window. She had cooked him crab cakes and steamed spinach for dinner while he’d stayed after school the one day they didn’t have training to work on an extra credit assignment in woodshop. Boring. Lynn hated things that were unnecessary, like cooking when you had no intensions of ever becoming a cook. Yet she’d forced Sue from cheerleading to help her out with making dinner tonight so this evening could be perfect.
A few weeks ago as team members, she and Ryan had gotten closer and closer. For a moment, she had thought his stupid “fascination” or whatever it was with Donna Young was over. After all, anyone who would date Spencer Klingalsmith, apparently he and Donna were a couple now, clearly had to be on medication. Such losers, why would Ryan want that?
Yet now, suddenly, things seemed different between her and Ryan whenever they were alone. They were less romantic with each other, and Ryan’s mind was always somewhere else. So Lynn had decided to try and make this evening charming, one night with her boyfriend all to herself. She sat next to him, hoping he’d kiss her, instead he just stared at the stars.
“See something interesting up there?” she asked as she slipped on another jacket. God, it was freezing.
“Yeah” he told her, his perfect face and lips making her yearn for a kiss. Ryan always had the effect that made people want to pull into him. Want to be more and more a part of his life. “A dog.” he answered, suddenly killing the mood. “A very thin one, can you see it?”
She looked up, irritated at the stars, wanting to get this over with and saw … nothing. Just the same massive starscape that haunted her every night, reminding her of things she didn’t want to think about.
“Baby, all I see are a mass of night lights,” she teased him, hoping so badly he’d hold her hand. He met her eyes and she gave him her best puppy face that she only let him see. It softened him and he finally took hold of her hand.
“Look,” he lined up her fingers with his, his touch relaxing her as he pointed her index finger from star to star. Lynn looked hard, but at the most, all she saw was a broken rectangle. This finding shapes in the sky must be a weird guy thing.
“See it?” he asked her again as she scouted closer to him.
“Hmm, I see,” she paused, thinking, “that star.” She pointed his hand at a star to the left of the sky. “That’s me. And that star,” she moved his fingers over to the star next to it. “That’s you. And this star,” she pointed over to a star that was more orange in color and a little away from the first two. “Is your brother once he’s over his little phase.”
Ryan’s look darkened for a moment, and she hoped he’d let her finish her point. “And we’re going out helping all the other stars shine brightly, fighting off the clouds and ugly meteor rocks trying to block them from being viewed. Capturing the fallen light, and stopping the asteroids from crashing. We were made to do exciting things, and we need to work together, trust each other, and forget
about everything else.” It was probably the deepest thing she had said to him in two weeks, and she hoped he appreciated it. Lynn hated to let go and be the slightest bit emotional or dorky.
“I had a feeling that’s what you’d see,” he told her. She knew Ryan thought her mind was always on either making out or mission work, but she gave his hand one last squeeze before pulling away. It was way too cold to stay out here. Lynn’s skin was not tough like Ryan’s; it could freeze and ache.
“I’ll see you inside, please don’t stay out too long.”
He nodded, letting her go as he continued to stare out at the sky. She wondered where Ryan’s real thoughts were right now.
* * *
Donna
Donna stared out her window unable to get to sleep. Every night she had a gray blur of nightmares, the same kind of dreams that had haunted her as a pre-teen were now back with a vengeance ever since Paul had died. The only thing that ever calmed her was drinking water and looking at the stars. She traced them with her eyes, finding shape after shape; she’d traced a big dog, a cat, and even found star outlines that looked like people. If only life could be as simple as the stars at night. Or if only Donna knew the mystery behind what she and the others really were.
It was amazing how her mind always reverted back to childhood things that calmed her when she wasn’t a little kid anymore. Tomorrow was the day she’d have to be grown up and stronger than ever. It was Christmas Eve, which meant her dad would be taking her to the Applegate house. Tomorrow she’d face Ryan and Randy together. The knowledge made her tremble.
Chapter Five
The morning of the Applegate Christmas Eve party, Donna tied up her shoelaces, ready to go running. Her dad was sleeping. It was only six and he always slept in on Christmas Eve. They usually didn’t start visiting his family and then her mom’s parents until noontime … and then they’d go to the Applegate’s.