Chương 19: 18: Reckoning, part one

"Holy shit, you can fly now?" The question coming in stereo before I even went through the back door into the kitchens had me turning around in mid-air to see a pair of identical brunettes hopping and bouncing their way through the mist-covered school grounds with zero care for the presence of the occasional monster.

"Oh, it's you," I muttered and landed. Julia-One and Julia-Two came to greet me with wide smiles and even wider eyes, obviously impressed. I was far more ambivalent than enthusiastic about it.

"Don't be that way, Big Em," Julia-One wheedled.

"It's the end of the world; we need to stick together."

"Not that Tommy will see it like that." Julia-Two added with a cutesy pout.

"He's been furious ever since you disappeared. Always brooding, disappearing to who knows where, not speaking to anyone; you know how boys can be when they don't get what they want."

"Uhuh." Because believing anything that came out of the literally two-faced girl's mouth was totally a good idea.

"How come you're out here on your own, then?" The... three of us started walking towards the second building's back door, or rather I walked and the Julia Twins stuck on like limpets.

"Because no matter how much he grumbled and cursed he couldn't deny that you were right. Monsters are getting worse and we have to do something about it." The two of them gave me sly looks.

"Plus we can be very persuasive."

"... you literally came out as a lesbian not three months ago." I shot back angrily, because the fallout from that fell on the rest of the Cheerleader squad, yours truly included.

"How the hell did 'persuasion' still work?"

"Oh please," they said in unison as we went through the kitchens, nodding in passing at the cook working over several steaming pots that made my mouth water.

"Power's down and I can duplicate cell phone batteries. I'd barely brought up the idea before everyone was demanding I go kill more zombies so I could duplicate more stuff."

"... right." That totally wasn't awkward or anything and Julia wouldn't be rubbing it in for weeks. We lived in a magical world now; stranger things had happened. The cafeteria looked more like some doomsday prepper's base. Liz's work had been finished, both the walls and ceiling completely covered by metal. With no windows to provide natural lighting, a series of artificial lights had been stuck to the walls, giving off eerie blue and yellow illumination.

The biggest change were the huge piles of clothes, sleeping bags and blankets, food cans, water bottles, writing supplies, cell phone and car batteries, various tools and assorted odds and ends lined up against the walls or taking up most of the previously free tables and chairs. There was even a barrel full of spears made by thinner rebar rods sharpened on one end, waiting by the entrance for anyone that wanted a weapon. As usual, any new arrival became a public spectacle and mine wasn't an exception.

About half the students turned to watch since there was no other entertainment to be had - or, more accurately, hadn't been. Now the rest of them played games or watched videos on their phones, no longer limited by battery life due to Julia's contribution. Even without a working network there was a lot one could do with a smartphone and had to struggle with myself before shelving the idea of asking the annoying girl for a recharge.

"Hey Liz, Tim," I greeted the last two of the superpowered survivors as I took a seat at their table. Tim was as Goth and reclusive as ever, not even looking up from the notebook he kept scribbling on. He tore off what he'd just written, the strip of paper immediately starting to glow, growing in brightness until it matched the other lights around the room. Why waste effort trying to set up electric lights when you had superpowers?

"Hey back at you, stranger," Liz greeted me back a bit coldly. With her black hair down instead of in a braid and the glare of the Debate Team leader on her face, the senior would have been intimidating... before all my encounters with nightmarish mutant plants.

"Are you joining for good or will you disappear the moment you get guard duty again?"

"Guard duty won't do any good if none of us knows what's out there, or can handle it." I pointed at all the duplicated goods taking up half of the room.

"What you stockpiled here would be great for any mundane disaster but none of those defenses would even slow down the real real threats."

"That's not the point, Wennefer." She sat back, folded her arms over her lap and gave me a disdainful look.

"Let's say you've seen what's out there. Let's go a step further and assume you can actually fight it. Why should we trust you to help us when your own actions show you cannot be relied upon?"

"Disagreement with your decisions is not a measure of trustworthiness," I shot back, annoyed.

"If I didn't care about you I wouldn't have spoken up when I saw your actions could get you killed. If I didn't want to contribute I wouldn't have come back at all."

"As we've yet to gain the power to peer inside people's skulls, nobody can tell what you're actually thinking," Liz said and suddenly I was very happy to have gained resistance to non-physical effects.

"Words are cheap when people's lives are on the line; it's actions that matter and you will need more to convince the group we can rely on you." The group, or the few people with superpowers? Because seeing how Julia used her powers in exchange for favors, how everyone listened to Tomio because he was strong in a fight, how nobody else even spoke up when decisions were being made... no wonder Dr. Beth had warned me I was missing things. Fortunately, things with the group had actually improved over the past day.

People were no longer outright terrified, huddling in corners and talking to themselves or gulping down their food as fast as they could while trying to watch everyone and everything at once. The working smartphones, the blankets and clothes, the other supplies, all had improved morale. If Julia's account was true, people making demands on her time and efforts was several steps in the right direction too.

Even the gap given to the table everyone with powers was sitting around had narrowed and nobody averted their eyes when I caught them looking. Maybe if- This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"YOU!" a red-faced roared as he charged into the cafeteria, eyes and baseball bat glowing ominously.

"You have nerve showing your face here! Where the fuck have you been?" Never mind. xxxx xxxx"Let's see if I'm getting this right," Julia said as we all huddled in one of the storage rooms for a private discussion.

"In order to find your missing friends, you searched the main building classroom to classroom, killing every monster in your path. Then, when you got ambushed by mutated monsters that almost killed you, instead of fleeing at the first opportunity you decided to try to kill them one by one. This led to the surviving monsters developing not just new powers but actual intelligence and there's now an enemy that can coordinate and come after us with real tactics."

"I wouldn't put it exactly that way... but essentially yes." I huffed in annoyance and more than a little worry thinking of all the implications. What stopped the plant-zombies from going after other monsters to power up as we did?

"It's why I came back to warn you as soon as I could."

"Wow, girl!" Julia exclaimed.

"I'm actually impressed at the magnitude of this screw-up. Causing foes that can think and plan and trick us to be made tops everything I've seen since the portals opened." She took out the gum she'd been chewing and twisted it around her finger then pointed at me with a gum-coated finger-gun.

"Bet the monsters are even worse than you've told us. I remember how stuck up you could get during practice, always the perfectionist. No way you ran back without getting your a-""ENOUGH!" Tomio struck the table with his fist. Fortunately, it had been made with Liz's metal creation so it only dented a bit instead of shattering into fragments. Unfortunately it rang like a gong, which was way too loud for the tiny space we were in.

"Save the recriminations for later. We have a threat to deal with and given what it is we have to deal with it immediately."

"Wait, you agree-" I started to say but was immediately cut off.

"Shut up! This is still your fault and you will help fix it, or else!" His glower blossomed into a full glare, his eyes flickering between all the glows I'd ever seen his powers share and more besides.

"Afterwards we will have words." I chose not to respond. The threat was still partially my fault and I was willing to deal with quite a bit of anger, mistrust, or snide remarks if the destruction of the plant-zombies was on the table. Unfortunately, some other people could not keep their mouth shut.

"How will we go about fixing that, oh glorious leader?" Julia said with such seriousness and sincerity someone who didn't know would have actually believed in the act. Fortunately, nobody like that was among us any more.

"Depends on how smart and powerful those... plant-zombies are," Tomio said, not rising to the bait. He shot me a brief, inscrutable glance then spoke on.

"In the best case, we won't need to confront them at all. Tim! How close are you to making your scripts explosive?"

"Uh... not close at all?" the slim boy woke up from his stupor at being addressed and scratched at his thin, anemic shadow of a beard. Nobody had found any shaving machines or razors for Julia to duplicate, which was rather weird.

"I can do lights, sounds, flame, electricity, cold, combinations or variations but no actual explosions worth mentioning. Maybe in a couple of days..."

"No matter," Tomio said.

"I have something that might do. Julia, how good is your duplication?"

"If you want it for what I think you want it... two power-ups." The twin brunettes fell silent but kept communicating, either by reading each other's rapidly shifting expressions and body language or something more.

"Three on the outside if you want it done quickly."

"So unknown number of power-ups for you Tim, versus three for Julia."

"Sorry, boss," the smaller boy apologized and seemed to wilt when his power proved unsuitable... for whatever it was we'd be doing.

"We'll go for you two but no tricks, or you'll regret it," Tomio said and the Julias winked at him 'innocently'. Nobody believed that bit, of course.

"Maya, can you capture monsters without killing them?"

"Yes." Well, it depended on the monster, but even recently-mutated flayed freaks shouldn't pose a problem any more.

"Why though? What are we doing?"

"We'll be boosting Julia's power till she can do her part of the plan," he explained without giving any new information.

"I know you're fast and Julia told me you can now fly. Your powers are the best suited for gathering fodder quickly. We want to do this before the enemy is ready."

"This still doesn't tell me what it is we'll be doing," I reminded them and got frowns or scowls in response - except for the Julias who just blew me kisses.

"You will see when it's finished," Tomio told me bluntly and walked towards the door.

"We'll do it on the roof. No monsters up there to interfere." Tim followed after him and so did Liz after raising an eyebrow in wordless challenge, leaving me alone with the Twins.

"Oh, not nice being left in the dark, is it?" they both said in stereo. Their antics were beginning to annoy me.

"Maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't up and disappear on people when they're relying on you?"

"You are lecturing me on reliability?" I said with incredulity.

"After that stunt you pulled with the squad?"

"The difference is that I don't need to be reliable," they told me sweetly as they invaded my personal space.

"I know how to be useful enough or clever enough that it doesn't matter but you?" They prodded me in the ribs from both sides; it was mildly annoying.

"You should know by now people react badly when others show off how better they are."

"If you want to say something, come out and say it. You should know perfectly well how that goes." Frankly, I was getting tired of everyone's bullshit. Maybe after the plant-zombies were dealt with I'd just leave their ungrateful asses and make for the city, or something.

"Sweetie, we've said all that could be said," the two of them told me in a serious tone, then burst into giggles as they bracketed me against the wall.

"Now if you'd be interested in some show instead of tell..." I got out of there real quick, head held high as cackles echoed in my heels. Did she... they... have to make a pass every time a serious situation came up?