The Plasma Shadow

  Chapter 5

  Before he knew what had happened, the month had passed Ned by and final exams were just around the corner. He was well-enough prepared that he felt confident he could do well on them, but he still had a lot of studying to do before he could rest. The good news was that he had been accepted into the Aerospace Engineering department, so his goal of a degree seemed much closer now than it had earlier. Stepping out of the building after his last class of the day, Ned noticed that the weather was getting warmer. It had rained for the past few weeks, but the skies were starting to clear now. It was a beautiful day.

  Ned was hungry, and he still had an hour and a half before he needed to start work, so he decided to stop by his apartment. It was a nice walk; trees lined the street, and the lawn on either side was freshly cut. He walked the few blocks to where he lived, climbed the steps to the door, and took an elevator up.

  His apartment was, of course, a mess. It was not that Ned did not like being orderly; he actually preferred things to be neat. But there just hadn’t been time. He walked into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich, then sat down at the table and inhaled the food. It was no surprise that the apartment looked so bad. It had been hard enough finding time to eat.

  “Word,” called Jeff, his roommate, as he pushed open the front door and dropped his gym bag on the ground. Ned said hello as Jeff collapsed on the couch. “I talked to that blonde chick at the gym today,” Jeff said. “I was like ‘hi,’ and she was like ‘hi’, and I was like ‘I’m Jeff’, and she was like ‘congratulations!’” Ned laughed, but Jeff scowled. “And then I was all, like, what? So I said ‘Yeah,’ and I asked her her name, and she said ‘Have we met?’ and I was like ‘I’m Jeff’, and she just totally walked off! I didn’t even get a chance to ask her out!”

  Ned gave him a sympathetic smile. “She was probably a jerk,” he offered.

  “Yeah maybe, but she was like a model or something!”

  “A model of what?” Jeff had received a text message, so he didn’t respond. Ned wasn’t sure why it was so imperative to talk to someone just because she looked like she made her living standing in front of a camera. But then again, that was the nature of college – if you didn’t worry about the minute details of your life, no matter how insignificant, then you were stuck spending all your time worrying about your classes and your future, and no one wanted that. Besides, Ned’s current situation was not that much more profound than Jeff’s was.

  “So what about that girl from your history class?”

  Ned smiled again. “Yeah, a bunch of us are going out to that new Italian place tonight. You can come if you want.”

  “Nah, I’m working late.”

  Ned had managed to get a shift that didn’t include Friday nights, which on the surface was convenient, but it also meant that he had a weekly decision to make that challenged the very fiber of his character: Did he use the time to study, or did he seize the opportunity to relax and socialize? Lately the studying had won out most of the time, but a group of students he had been studying with had decided that it was time to investigate a new restaurant in the area. It was kind of a date thing, and Ned wasn’t seeing anyone, but he had spent enough time outside of class talking to a girl from his Renaissance history class named Laina that he had managed to ask her to come along without too much awkwardness. So for the first time in months, he had a date, and he was kind of looking forward to it.

  “You know what I’m going to do next time I see that girl?” Jeff asked thoughtfully.

  “What?”

  “I’m going to tell her she has nice hair.”

  “Good idea,” Ned said politely.

  “There is absolutely no justification for putting vegetables on pizza”, Frank declared emphatically. “Vegetables are healthy. And if you want to eat healthy food, you don't eat pizza. Therefore, if you are eating pizza you should not be eating vegetables.”

  “Vegetables aren't the problem,” Tracy argued. “They lend texture. The problem is this so-called ‘Hawaiian’ junk. Fruit should never be cooked.”

  “I still say we should have gotten the cesos,” Guillermo insisted. He refused to translate the word, though, and no one trusted the look of the whitish, chunky topping pictured on the menu.

  Ned had to smile. A week ago this same group had been cramming for tests, and a few days from now they would all be doing it again – but for now, the mutual (if unspoken) plan to ignore the world was working out perfectly, as evidenced by this conversation. Ned took another bite of his pizza – a politically safe pepperoni – and glanced sideways at Laina, who had been relatively silent and was now studying a decoration on the wall opposite them. Ned suspected that she was accustomed to a slightly deeper level of conversation, even on a Friday night. He quickly scanning his memory for a potential conversation to bring up again. “Have you heard from your brother?” he asked her.

  She turned and smiled. “He got the job,” she said. “They’re not paying him much until he gets more experience, but he’s happy to be in the door.”

  “That’s got to be a relief,” Ned commented, his thoughts involuntarily drifting to his own future and how nice it would be to have a real job instead of just a potential degree. None of that, he corrected himself. Time for another topic.

  “I read this article yesterday,” Ned said, and Laina smiled, clearly content to let the others argue about whether the school’s lacrosse team had a chance in its upcoming game. He found her attention flattering, and even though he was being careful to avoid anything that could be construed as a relationship – he had learned that lesson the hard way – Laina was unignorably pretty, and it was a little distracting. “He was convinced that global warming was being caused by daylight savings. He said the extra hour of daylight is obviously heating up the Earth.”

  Laina laughed, then brought her hand to her forehead, wincing as if in pain. “That is wrong on so many levels!”

  “I know! I so wish I could go explain things to that guy!”

  “It’s kind of like my grandma – my mom says she was always warning the kids of dragonflies, saying they would sew your lips shut if they got too close.”

  “Wow. How would that idea even get started?”

  “Well duh – they look like needles!”

  They both laughed as they recalled other terrible ideas they had heard of. It was somehow cathartic to know that someone else in the world had less of a grasp on it than they did, even if it was frustrating to not be able to go and set things straight.

  “That garlic chicken stuff is not pizza.” It was Jill, a computer science major and evidently not a sports fan. “Pizza by definition consists of crust and cheese with tomato sauce in the middle, and optional toppings.”

  “What would you call it?”

  “It doesn't matter; just not pizza.”

  “It's a red-deficient spiced meat pastry,” Ned offered, reaching out to grab a slice of an Eddie’s Supreme. There were peppers on it, but no one objected. “You know,” he commented to Laina, “I’m going to feel pretty old if I ever feel full after fewer than four slices of pizza.” She chuckled, although Ned did notice that she had a salad on her plate. Kind of odd for a college student, but probably not a bad idea. Jill started talking to Laina about some new music group, and conversations fragmented as everyone took advantage of the restaurant’s buffet. When he wasn’t actively talking, Ned sat back and thought about how great it was to be here, surrounded by friends who were more or less happy, facing only what his mom had often referred to as “first-world problems.” There really was nothing to complain about when you had an interesting date and unlimited pizza. Eventually the conversations lulled as the drive to gorge themselves wore off.

  “Hey, Phantom Slime Goons” is playing this week,” Maneesh mentioned, drawing excited comments from around the table, and people started getting ready to leave.

  Ned caught Laina’s eye as he was filling out the check, and it was obvious she wasn’t any more interes
ted in the movie than he was. “There’s that new ice cream place by the print shop,” he said. “That cookie dough stuff isn’t going to eat itself.”

  “Sounds good,” Laina said, looking a little relieved, and after some parting comments and polite refusals to join the group for the Slime Goon escapade, Ned and Laina were successfully out the door.

  The bus system was good enough that almost no one on campus bothered owning a car. It cost less, it bypassed the hassle of dealing with traffic, and a bit of extra walking was hardly a bad thing. The sun was already setting due to the late start to dinner, and the bus stop was several blocks away, but the air was still warm, and once they got off the bus it would be just a short walk to the ice cream place.

  “That’s a beautiful sky,” Laina remarked as they walked. Ned followed her gaze and admired the pinkish hues along the horizon, accompanied by the crescent moon that was starting to glow as the sun’s diminishing light gave room for the night sky. “Venus,” Laina said, looking at the bright dot not far from the retreating sun. “Do you think people will ever go there?”

  Ned was surprised by the question, but then Laina was pretty into science. “I don’t know,” Ned admitted. “It would be pretty expensive and really dangerous, but it would also be really cool if they did it.” He did not voice his other thought: that he himself had been tempted to explore the Solar system once, on his way back from Anacron space. He had wanted to fly past the rings of Saturn or land on Mars, just for a moment. But even then, he had felt like his experiences away from Earth had made him an outsider; he had decided that those “firsts” belonged to real explorers, people who would someday leave Earth on human ingenuity rather than random, alien-assisted circumstance.

  A cool breeze blew as the street passed between two tall buildings, and Laina took Ned’s arm, stepping close as if to keep warm. The motion drew Ned’s gaze, and she met his look with a smile. “It really is a nice night,” he said, only partially in response to her earlier comment about the sky. “Do you have any plans for after finals?”

  Laina smiled, looking up as if to draw ideas out of the stars. “My cousin’s coming up for the week, so I’m going to show her around. Not that there’s that much to see around here.” Ned helped her come up with some tourist-y ideas, but mostly he just enjoyed the sound of her voice and her hand on his arm and the fresh air.

  There was no reason to notice the two men walking down the sidewalk toward them until they were right on top of them. Then the men stopped abruptly, causing Ned’s breath to catch in his throat in sudden panic. One of the men pulled out a knife. “Give me your wallet,” he growled with a menacing glare at Ned. The other one grinned at Laina, and she looked at Ned in sudden fear. She let go of him and took a step back.

  “Okay,” Ned said, slowly reaching for his wallet. Everyone knew you weren’t supposed to resist armed robbers. Especially with other people around. And surely the meager amount of cash in his wallet was not worth revealing the Plasma over, was it? His hand closed around his wallet, but the motion felt sluggish. Was he really doing this? Was the most powerful person on Earth really willing to let himself be robbed just so he could stay hidden?

  His thoughts must have slowed him down, because abruptly the man with the knife took a step forward. “I said give me your wallet!” he shouted. At the same instant, his companion reached forward and grabbed Laina by the hair, yanking her close to the knife that suddenly appeared in his other hand. He muttered some derogatory comment about her skin color, but the only thing Ned noticed was the look in her eyes. She was in terror. All of a sudden a sick feeling formed in the pit of Ned’s stomach, and then everything inside him caught fire.

  His arms stretched out, and bolts of blue light erupted from his hands in a thundering rush of power. They caught both men in the chest and slammed them several feet backwards until they landed hard on the pavement; Laina stumbled to the ground as her attacker’s hand was wrenched out of her hair. Then Ned was surprised by the sound of gunfire. Several bullets deflected harmlessly off his body, and he turned to see an additional man who had emerged from a nearby alley, plus a fourth on a nearby rooftop. Ned looked toward Laina, who was stumbling backward toward a building wall, shock evident on her face. He extended a faint blue shield around her, then gathered the power around himself. He smiled as he attacked. An almost-casual bolt of energy knocked out the shooter on the rooftop, and the fourth man turned back to the alley. But Ned was not through with him. He sent the Plasma through the ground to erupt into a wall of fire, blocking the man’s retreat. The man stopped short of the eerie flames and turned around, only to find Ned right in his face. Ned’s hand clamped around the man’s throat, blue fire burning along it and just deep enough into his skin to hold him still. He started to shake a little, but Ned wanted him conscious. Ned’s voice came out more harshly than he had ever heard it. “If I ever hear of you trying something like this again, I will find you. I will not be so kind next time. Do you understand?” The man made a feeble attempt to nod his head as he strained against the involuntary contractions in his throat. Then Ned let the power flare a bit, and the man dropped to the ground, unconscious. The street was still.

  Blue light still surged along his arms for a moment as he took a moment to catch his breath. It had felt wonderful. Finally, after all this time, his power had meant something! Then he turned to find Laina. She was unharmed of course, but she was staring at Ned with almost as much terror as she had shown before he had rescued her. He forced the power down with some reluctance as he glanced around, almost hoping to find another attacker. When he was sure there was none, he walked over to her. “It’s okay,” he said, reaching out to put a hand on her arm. She backed up a little, and Ned stopped. He had seen that look before.

  “Are they…” she began, looking down at one of the fallen men.

  “They’re still alive,” Ned reassured her. Somehow, he knew it was true – he could feel the Plasmic ether pulsing with their life. He had never used the Plasma to stun anyone, but somehow it had been intuitive to send just the right amount of energy into their nerves to knock them out. It was a little disturbing, now that Ned thought about it.

  “Let’s go,” he said, and Laina let him take her arm and lead her in the direction of the bus stop. She didn’t say anything, and Ned was afraid of what would happen if he said the wrong thing, so he was silent too. “Are you okay?” he asked after a few minutes. Laina simply nodded.

  At last they reached the stop. A bus was already visible a few blocks away, but it was headed downtown, not back toward campus. Ned looked around, wondering what Laina was thinking, wondering what he should say. “I actually have some shopping I need to do,” she said a bit awkwardly.

  Ned took the hint. He couldn’t take much more of this mutual silence anyway. “It’s okay,” he said simply. When the bus pulled up, Laina managed a smile and patted Ned’s arm, but she didn’t maintain eye contact for more than an instant. A sense of helplessness welled up inside Ned as he watched her board the bus.

  When the bus was finally out of sight, Ned let out a long breath. Now that there was no one else to worry about, the weight of the situation started to really settle. His “cover” was pretty much blown. Laina would talk to people, maybe even the police. If paramedics found those guys, they would wonder what had happened. Eventually, someone would put the pieces together. And of course, this wasn’t the first time Ned had been associated with odd events. Between Smardwurst’s conversations with world leaders and his family’s relocation, they had managed to avoid attention about the Yendarians’ attack, but the world was still wondering when alien contact would happen again. Once the government found out Ned was connected to the alien encounter, his life would never be the same. And in any case, it was a safe bet that his friendship with Laina was over.

  The campus bus was not far behind. Ned boarded it silently, and for some reason he found himself avoiding eye contact with the driver as he swiped his pass. There were only a few peop
le on the bus, all of them absorbed in reading or texting. Ned took his seat and began trying to piece together what had happened. He had already decided that he was going to return to his Anacronian friends eventually. But this had definitely not been his exit strategy. He was so close to being done with school, and he had never wanted to alienate his friends, let alone frighten them. And his family – what would happen to them if Ned drew global attention to himself and then vanished? There might be no hiding this time. That raised the question of covering up what had happened. Maybe if he talked to Laina the next day, he could explain things just enough that she would be willing to keep quiet about the more unusual details. After all, who would believe her? But that took him back to the beginning – it would not be hard to prove her story once law enforcement got involved. Any show of force would probably result in a blue aura protecting Ned, and then everyone would know of his power.

  The bus stopped near the apartment complex, and Ned got out, no closer to an answer, still looking around, half expecting federal agents to appear and begin questioning him. He didn’t even notice the other passenger stepping off the bus behind him. He began walking the short distance to his building, but now that he was here, he was not sure he wanted to go in. His roommates might still be out, but not necessarily. And the last thing he wanted was another person to have to avoid.

  “So, what are you going to do?”

  The voice behind him caused him to jump, but when he saw who it was he had to laugh. “Mirana?”

  She smiled, sort of. “It’s been a while.”

  It had indeed. For a moment, the shock of seeing her pushed his earlier apprehensions away. To anyone else looking, Mirana would not have stood out at all. The buttoned shirt and jeans weren’t exactly in character for her, but they would have fit right in with a group of students. The steel gray eyes and long, black hair were unmistakable, though. And she was in wry smile mode rather than cold stare mode, which was probably a good sign.

  “You’re here,” Ned said, still in shock. “It’s so great to see you!”

  She took a moment to reply. “Quite an impressive display back there,” she said finally, tilting her head in the general direction of the attack.

  “You saw that?”

  “I’m a very well informed person.”

  Ned’s brow furrowed. “Wait. You mean you were there? You weren’t behind that attack, were you?”

  She shrugged, almost guiltily. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was behind it.”

  “And just how far would you go?”

  “I may have given some drug dealers the impression a wealthy guy might be walking a date down that street this evening.”

  Ned was incredulous. The stress of the attack came rushing back, and now it had a more immediate focus. “You set me up? You put Laina in danger on purpose? Why?”

  “Already with the questions,” Mirana mused. She didn’t seem bothered by Ned’s accusation; if anything, her smile seemed to be growing a bit. She looked around. “Do you really want to have this conversation here? Is there somewhere else we could go?”

  Ned gritted his teeth. As much as he hated waiting for explanations, Mirana was right. The conversation they were about to have might be just as suspicious as the lightning bolts he had cast earlier. He took a breath to calm himself.

  “My roommates might be home,” he explained.

  “Couldn’t you – you know, ‘whisk’ us somewhere? Your parents’ house, maybe?”

  He frowned. “'I’m not sure I can make it that far… Let’s walk over here.” He started walking toward the side of the building, where they would be so exposed to the street and the windows. As they walked, Ned stretched out with the Plasma, probing his ability to begin a vortex that would take them away from here. He had never been very experienced with Vortex Plasma, and he was not surprised to find that his hold over it diminished quickly with distance. “I’d have to charge up to get very far,” he explained, suddenly a bit pleased that finally he had someone he could talk about the Plasma with, even if he were more than a little frustrated with her at the moment.

  “What about the roof?”

  Ned looked up. The building did have a flat roof, and the edge was visible, which for some reason seemed like it might be helpful. There certainly wouldn’t be anyone up there. “I’ll try it,” he said. He stepped close to Mirana and put his arm around her waist in an effort to minimize the amount of volume he needed to transport. The contact made his irritation fade a bit more. Then he focused all his attention into the ethereal Plasma he was sending up to the rooftop, forming a tunnel. When he felt that the path was complete, he opened the Vortex and pulled the two of them through in a flash of blue light.

  Ned came out of the Vortex smiling. It was like it had been with the thieves – using the Plasma left Ned with an exhilarating feeling, a sense that this was what he was meant to be.

  Mirana stepped away, scanning the area. There were some vents and antennae up here, but no sign that anyone could see or hear them. Then she turned to Ned and spoke. “I’ve been looking for Dark Viper,” she said abruptly. Ned was a bit taken aback by the change in topic; the matter of the recent attack was still unresolved, and Ned wondered if Mirana were trying to capitalize on his temporarily improved mood. If so, it was working. Ned could not help but be silent and listen.

  “I’ve been searching since you left – for Viper, and also for the origin of the Plasma. I figured that if I could find the place where he found the Crystals, it might tell us something about his power, or about our own. My father never told me exactly how he came upon the Shadow Plasma either, so I hoped to learn something by tracing his past.

  “It was a long time before I had any luck; Viper didn’t seem to have kept any records of the Plasma other than what he had already made publically available. I thought about interrogating Kayleen Rax, but I don’t think Viper trusted her enough to tell her much. She certainly seemed as bewildered by it as anyone else, and if she knew anything, Koral would have known it too.

  “Then recently, I started noticing a pattern of forged data in Trelan Thendrak’s records, from when he was barely an adult. Places he was supposed to have been that didn’t make sense. I cross-checked the gaps with other associates he might have had and found a correlation with the records of Ruggles Girx, a businessman in the Skarg sector with a history of illegal activity. He and Thendrak had known each other in school, at least for a while. So recently I paid him a visit. According to Girx, Thendrak had already gained his power, but a series of dreams had told him to go to a certain spot in empty space. He had Girx take him there, and Thendrak managed to find a Plasma vortex that lead to an isolated planet. Thendrak went down alone, came back, and never went back as far as Girx could tell. I’m guessing that’s where he found the Plasma Crystals.”

  Ned was intrigued. “Do you think you can find it?”

  “No,” she said flatly. “That’s why I’m here. I’m hoping you can find it.”

  “How?”

  Mirana smirked. “Surely you don’t expect me to answer that. You’re the Plasma Master. It’s your job to figure it out.”

  There was maybe a hint of blame in her voice, and Ned again felt a twinge of guilt for being here, making Mirana do all of this alone. “So let’s say I find it,” he prompted. “Then what?”

  “I’m hoping it will tell us something about his power. Maybe a hint of where he’s hiding out now, so we can track him down before he has a chance to threaten the Empire. At the very least, it might give us some idea of what to do when he shows himself again.”

  “So there’s been no sign of him at all since I left?”

  “No. But please tell me you’re not foolish enough to think that he was killed when Venom was destroyed.”

  “No, I don’t suppose I am. It would be nice to have some proof though…”

  “… which is precisely what I’ve been looking for. Listen, Ned. Sooner or later, we’re going to run into him again. Maybe he’s hid
ing from us now, because we came so close to killing him before. But he won’t stay away forever. He could attack tomorrow, or he might plan to wait twenty years so our guard will be down and he’ll have time to acquire power. But if we don’t do something now, we definitely won’t be ready. He’ll wait until he’s sure we’re not ready. But whenever the conflict comes, I think it would be best if you are there, ready and trained.”

  Ned crossed his arms, his brow furrowed in thought. Mirana’s account certainly put his previous Earthly concerns in perspective. But still, a few things didn’t quite add up. “So you needed my help, but first you wanted to force me to use my power here, in front of other people? Why?”

  Mirana’s mouth twitched to the side and her eyes scanned the sky, apparently searching for precise wording. It was odd – Mirana looked almost defensive. “Ned, how much have you used your power since you left Anacron?”

  “I’ve never really used it. It’s protected me a few times from minor injuries, and I used it a little a few months ago, but not to accomplish anything. I couldn’t see a way to do it without throwing the whole planet into chaos, not to mention my family. I planned to come back some day, but I just wasn’t ready yet.”

  “’Not ready,’” Mirana repeated. “That’s what I was worried about. You have been burying the very skills I need you to use. You’ve been hiding who you are. I needed to see what you would do in a dangerous situation when you didn’t have any backup. Not just whether you could use the Plasma, but whether you would use it. And I needed to see how well you could control it.”

  “Well of course I wouldn’t let an innocent person be hurt!”

  Mirana gave him a challenging look. “Innocent people are hurt every day. I don’t see you running around to save them.”

  “This is alien technology! It doesn’t belong on this planet!”

  “I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just explaining why I needed to see you use the power before I asked you to.”

  “But you put Laina at risk! What if she had been shot?”

  “Your friend was never in danger. If you hadn’t protected her, I would have.”

  “I still don’t get why you needed the target to be real people. You could have just asked to see me practice.”

  “Practice blasting rocks, you mean. It’s a different thing when you’re striking down a person, don’t you think?”

  Ned frowned. It was true that it had felt different. He had been filled with a sense of justice as he had knocked those men off their feet. It had felt amazing. “You think I lost control?” he asked quietly, remembering her earlier comment.

  “Well, you didn’t kill them,” she offered. “That’s a good sign, I guess. Not that I would have mourned their loss if you had.” She was quiet for a moment, then continued. “There was one other reason. I knew that when I showed up, you would be reluctant to pick up everything and leave. I guess I hoped that if I reminded you what you were capable of, you might be more willing to let go of your life here.”

  And there it was again – his anxiety from before. Was he really ready to let go? “When would you need me to leave?”

  She looked exasperated, and immediately Ned felt guilty for asking. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said sarcastically, “I thought maybe whenever you get a break in your dating schedule…”

  “Mirana, I want to help you. I do. But I can’t help but think about what leaving right now would mean. My friends would be freaked out if I just disappear. Even if I make up some kind of excuse, it will be suspicious if I just vanish. And if the government suspects any more alien activity, my parents will never hear the end of it. It was hard enough covering up for what happened last time. And then there’s my school – if I leave now, I’ll lose credit for everything I’ve done this quarter, and I’ll probably never graduate. I hate to start something and leave it undone.”

  Mirana just stared at him for a moment. “Are you really going to make me say it?”

  Ned shook his head. “I know, there’s unfinished work with Viper too. But does it really have to be now?”

  “Ned, what did you expect to happen? Did you think I would show up and give you five years’ notice? Was I supposed to give you a task that could be completed over a convenient vacation? I’m not even sure what you had hoped to accomplish in starting school again here, but you have to understand that there’s a big difference between quitting something because you don’t want to deal with it and quitting something because you’ve found something more important. I’m not saying you shouldn’t gain education. But you have to think about what’s most important. And frankly I’m a little surprised that you haven’t decided already.”

  “I guess maybe I have. It’s just that, you know, the implications are all hitting me at once. It’s hard to just leave my family, not knowing if I’ll even be back.”

  “You can deal with ‘hard,’ Ned. I’ve seen you do it. But I need this decision to be yours. And I need you to be sure. Which is why I have to offer you one other option.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I could take the Shield Crystal from you.”

  “You mean…” Ned had to stop to think. Now that Mirana mentioned it, the idea seemed totally obvious. It was the Plasma that prevented Ned from releasing control over the Crystal, and Mirana’s power could cut through his. Surely she could sever its hold on him. It would be liberating, in a way – he could stay here on Earth if he wanted, and Mirana could find someone else to use the Crystal. But the idea was also horrifying. The duty that had come upon Ned as a result of his power had been a burden at times, but it had also shaped who he was. And the power itself was a part of him. Maybe the most important part. He had grown beyond the gifts the Crystal had directly given him, and he liked to think that he had made a better Plasma Master out of himself than the average person would have become in his place.

  “Maybe someone else would be a more effective partner for you, but I don’t want to give up the Plasma. It’s who I am. If there’s any way I can make a productive use of it, I want to do it.”

  “Good. I would have lost all respect for you if you had given it up.”

  Ned sighed, feeling the weight of the situation fall back onto him. “Well, since I can’t use the Crystal here, there’s really no sense in staying any longer. Maybe it was a waste to try to build a life here, but I guess I had to know for myself what it would be like. I almost feel guilty for ever coming home.”

  “No, I agree. You couldn’t have made this decision with a clear head if you had tried to do it while you were away from Earth. You always would have been looking back, wondering what would have happened. Now you know.”

  Ned looked at Mirana appreciatively. “Well there are a couple of things I do have to do before I go.”

  “Your family?”

  “Yes, and I have to tell Laina. She deserves to know what happened back there, and that it isn’t going to happen again.”

  “You really want to tell her the truth?”

  “I think I have to.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I put a tracking beacon on her. Call a taxi.”

  Ned made the call, and they stood together on the street while they waited. “Hey Mirana, how did you pay the bus fare? And those clothes?”

  “I didn’t steal the money, if that’s what you’re worried about. I brought some gold to trade. Pre-warp civilizations tend to put an inordinate value on dense metals.”

  Ned smiled. “You know you’re throwing off the world economy by adding gold to the market.”

  She smiled a little too. “Great, now I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

  Laina wasn’t exactly happy to see Ned when he stepped out of the taxi cab, but she didn’t run away, either. Mirana watched from the car as Ned tried to summarize how he had obtained his power and why he had kept it hidden. Laina jumped as Ned conjured some blue sparks in one hand, evidently part of his explanation, but her expression gradually shifted from showing barely-masked fear to a sense of resig
nation. She wasn’t happy with the night’s events, but Ned seemed to be convincing her that they really were over. When they said goodbye, Mirana couldn’t tell whether Laina was sad that she would never see Ned again. But it was clear she knew that she wouldn’t.

  Ned got back into the car looking a little relieved himself. “Well, she took that well. She hadn’t called the police or anything yet. I guess she’s just been wandering around this whole time, worrying what the world was coming to. It’s a good thing I told her. Whether she’ll still believe it when she wakes up in the morning is another matter, I guess.”

  “What about your other friends? Are you going to give them an explanation?”

  “Not in person. I’ll send them an e-mail or something. I can only take so many goodbyes.” It was a bit humbling to admit that he wasn’t all that close with anyone. Then again, it probably made sense that someone planning on leaving wouldn’t put down a lot of roots.

  “Back home, then?”

  “Yeah. More taxi action?”

  Mirana leaned forward and gave the driver a destination. He smirked disapprovingly, but he drove. Ned watched the city lights pass him by for the last time. Even as sure as he was that he needed to leave, it made him a little sad.

  They took the freeway out of the city, then exited onto a highway that plunged into the woods. Only a few cars passed them on that road, and then the trees gave way to an empty field. Mirana told the driver to stop, and they got out. Once she had paid him and he had driven off, the only light came from the stars. Ned looked at her curiously. “Just how did you get here, anyway?”

  “Come on.” Mirana jumped the fence and started walking into the field, Ned a few steps behind. As she walked, Mirana activated her battle armor. Ned jumped a little; the last time she had appeared to him that way, she had tried to kill him. “I’m summoning my fighter,” she explained. Ned tried to ignore the harsh, raspy distortion of her voice. “Shouldn’t take long.”

  Ned activated his own battle suit, just in case Mirana was planning to leave the atmosphere. Wearing the armor made him think of the last time he had worn it, the day he had returned to Earth. All of a sudden that seemed like a very short time ago. He looked up at the sky, and the heads-up display in his helmet pinpointed Mirana’s fighter as it descended from directly above them well before he could hear it. Only the dim running lights set the jet-black metal apart from the night sky. It slowed just before landing, its engines just a loud hum. It looked like most of the fighter craft he had seen, mostly-aerodynamic but with a bulkier form and sharper lines than an Earth aircraft. There were some angry-looking openings pointing forward, which Ned assumed were weapons that no one wanted to be on the business end of. The command seat lowered to the ground from underneath the cockpit, and Mirana sat down. “There’s a cargo area behind me,” she said. Can you make it up there, or do I have to open the storage compartment?”

  Ned probed the Plasmic ether inside the fighter and discovered an open space directly behind where the seat would be once she retracted it. He opened a vortex and teleported himself inside. It was totally dark in the compartment, and very cramped. He fiddled with his suit’s communicator and opened a channel to Mirana. “You don’t believe in passenger seats?”

  There was a slight vibration as Mirana’s command chair locked into place, and then the fighter lifted off the ground, inertial dampers kicking in to keep Mirana and Ned from being thrown around by the sudden acceleration that were sure to follow.

  “Nightsong was built for battle,” Mirana explained, her voice sounding normal again through her suit’s internal com link. “Custom built. Cargo was at the bottom of my priority list.”

  “A minute ago I was the Plasma Master,” Ned remarked. “Now I’m demoted to ‘cargo.’”

  “It won’t be long.”

  “How are you going to land? My parents don’t live near a field.”

  “I was thinking you could just teleport us to the ground,” Mirana said. “We’re invisible now, but I’ll drop the Shadow field when we get close to your house. You can teleport us to the ground, and I’ll send Nightsong back to Nemesis until we’re ready to leave again.”

  As promised, it was a short ride. When Mirana said she was ready, Ned again probed the space around him and felt the location of the ground. He teleported both of them down and found himself in his parents’ backyard. Mirana signaled her fighter again, and there was the faint rush of engines as it disappeared upward; if anyone spotted it, it would soon vanish again as it docked with Nemesis.

  Ned looked around nervously. His family had moved to a different city after the Yendarian attack on his old town, so people might be less likely to jump to conclusions at the appearance of a strange light in a neighbor’s backyard than they might have near the old place, but Ned still wanted to avoid drawing attention if possible. Mirana seemed less concerned; she powered down her armor and began walking around to the front of the house. Far above, Ned caught the sound of Nemesis’s graviton drive as the ship put some distance between itself and the neighborhood. He disengaged his own armor and ran after Mirana. “Do you want me to wait outside?” she asked when they had reached the door.

  “No, I think maybe it would help to have you there. They might be more inclined to listen if it’s not just me.” Mirana nodded.

  Ned took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

  “Ned!” His mother looked happy to see him, but at the same time a little worried, understandably. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

  “Ned?” His father’s voice called from the living room, and his mother ushered him in, Mirana trailing silently behind.

  “This is Mirana,” Ned explained. “My mom and dad.” Mirana shook their hands. His parents were waiting for an explanation, and Ned thought he saw his mom glance at Mirana’s left ring finger. “I ran into her at school,” he said, trying to ease into the topic, but then gave up. “She’s… from Anacron.” The names didn’t really mean anything to his parents, although of course he had told them the story of his previous adventure. But they knew that look on their son’s face, and they were beginning to get the picture.

  “I thought that was behind you,” Mr. Simmons declared.

  “Dark Viper…” the name sounded silly in this context, so he started again. “The man that started the previous war is still out there. He may be looking for me right now. You know, for revenge. I can’t let him find me here. Mirana has some information that might help us to track him down, and I need to go with her.”

  His mother covered most of her face with her hands, and her breathing quickened.

  “The school year’s not even done,” his father managed, but he, too, was having trouble taking this all in. Ned was not sure his parents had ever really accepted what had happened to Ned, even after everything they had seen.

  Abruptly, Ned’s mother threw her arms around him and sobbed. “Ned, I can’t risk losing you again!” Now Ned was getting emotional too. Fighting back tears, he hugged her back. “I know,” he said. Then he pulled away a little so he could look her in the eye. “But mom, I’m stronger now. And Mirana… “ He looked at her, but she remained silent. “Mirana’s power is even stronger than mine, in some ways at least. Dark Viper’s power can’t protect him from her. And nothing can hurt me! And this time, we’ll have the entire Anacronian fleet on our side! This really is a safer mission than what I was doing before.”

  His father frowned. “Please don’t tell me you’re being so rash as to leave tonight, with nothing more than a quick visit to say goodbye.”

  “Can… we sit down?”

  They moved into the living room, but Ned caught some angry looks from his parents toward Mirana. Maybe bringing her here had not been such a great idea after all.

  “Listen,” his father said to her when they were seated. “I don’t know where you come from, but around here you can’t just appear from nowhere and whisk people off to help solve your problems. Ned has a life here. He can’t just
leave.”

  “I’m not forcing Ned into anything,” Mirana said flatly. “I just came to deliver a message and find out what he wants to do about it. This is entirely up to him.” Everyone’s eyes turned back to Ned, who was a little disappointed at the lack of help. But Mirana’s response was to be expected, he supposed.

  “I have to go,” he said softly. “And it might as well be now. I just disappeared mysteriously from school; if I stick around here, I’ll just draw attention. And it would just be stalling. Every moment we spend together now is going to be about this conversation; we’re not going to be able to enjoy time together until I’m back, no matter how long I wait. And if I wait too long…”

  “You’ve done your part already! They’re not even under attack right now, and you have to leave everything?”

  “It’s… not just that. I… I’ve been thinking about this off and on. Not specifically, but things haven’t felt right since I got back. I’ve been hiding myself. I’ve been holding back what I can do because no one around me was ready to deal with it, but I want my power to mean something. I can’t just stay here and pretend I don’t have it. I… I want to leave.”

  His parents just stared at him. Even Ned was a little surprised at the admission. Always before there had been some pressing demand that had left him without excuse. But now, Ned was admitting that he was voluntarily leaving his home. His family. But it was true. “Even if Mirana didn’t have a lead, I think I’d want to leave. It’s the only way for me to make something out of the power I’ve built.”

  “You don’t have to…”

  “Mom, I didn’t come here to argue. And I know explaining things won’t help. But I needed you to know why I’m leaving. And I want you to not worry.”

  “Not worry? You are going away to some alien war zone and you expect me to not worry?”

  Ned just let his parents talk. They regaled him with reasons why he didn’t have to leave, with explanations for his feelings of obligation, with reassurance that he meant something without his power, that he could be happy here. Nothing they said added anything to the thoughts that had run through his own head a thousand times, but he just let them talk, because in the end he felt that the only consolation they would ever get from his departure was knowing that they had left nothing unsaid, that they had done everything they could to make him stay. They asked him a few questions, and he tried to answer honestly, but mostly they just talked. An hour had passed before they ran out of arguments.

  “I understand everything you’re saying,” Ned said after a moment of silence. “But I’m still going to leave. I know you don’t like it. I know it’s dangerous. But it’s important. I can do things no one else can. I can help people. And I can help protect you. I decided this a long time ago. I know the timing is unexpected, but the more I think about it, the more certain I am that I have to go.” This time, his parents had no objections left.

  For the first time, Mirana interjected. “For what it’s worth, I’ll do whatever I can to keep him safe. We’ll protect each other.”

  Ned’s mother nodded. “Thank you. If you don’t mind, could we have some time alone with Ned?”

  “Of course. Take as much time as you need.” She glanced quickly at Ned, and he thought he caught the unspoken message: Just don’t take too long. Mirana left the house, and Ned assumed she returned to Nemesis.

  Ned’s mom came over and hugged him, and the conversation started again. But this time, it wasn’t an argument. They just talked, about life since they had gotten back, about Jared, about memories from before the Shield Crystal had taken their normal lives away. Ned was glad that his parents had accepted his decision, and he understood why they still avoided the subject of the Plasma and what he could do with it, let alone what he had done with it. But it made him a little sad, too. His parents, who cared more about him than anyone, had no desire to understand the part of him that he valued the most. He kept wanting to conjure up a ball of Plasma, or teleport something, so they could see just what he could do. But he knew that would only terrify them and remind them of just how alien their son was becoming. So instead they just talked. Eventually, they all went off to bed. It had been a long evening, and Ned had no trouble falling asleep. But before he did, he found himself wondering whether his parents would be able to sleep that night. Somehow, he doubted it.