Rivals

Weathers was waiting for Brent the next morning when he was on his usual patrol, heading towards school and another day of failing algebra. When Brent first saw the FBI man he kept walking, but Weathers just followed after him.

"Leave me alone," Brent said. He knew it wouldn't work, but what else was he going to do? Hit the guy?

It was tempting.

"I'm not here to ask you for anything today," Weathers told him.

"Are you here to apologize for using me?"

Weathers chuckled. "No. That was just part of my job. It's also part of my job to provide you with information you may find useful."

Brent scowled. "Did you find my sister again? You want me to go trick her into getting run over by a tank?"

Weathers grabbed his shoulder. Brent spun around, as angry as he'd ever been in his life. The fingers of his right hand curled into a fist. Both of them looked at it. Eventually Brent managed to relax his hand, to let it fall loose at his side.

Weathers seemed intent on pretending he hadn't seen it. That he had no idea what Brent had been thinking. "Yesterday wasn't a complete fiasco. We actually managed to gather a lot of useful data."

"What? You were - huh?"

"I wanted to know how powerful the two of you were, so I had some of our techies rig up some video equipment in the helicopter you saw. We got excellent footage of the two of you fighting and my analysts spent all night going over it."

"So now you are watching us, just like Maggie said."

Weathers shrugged. "Studying you, you could say. As long as your sister is at large my job is to know everything I can about her. Especially about her limitations and weaknesses. It turns out the two of you have similar, but not identical powers. She's about ten per cent stronger than you are - but you're faster, by the same margin."

Brent frowned. "We've got different powers? Why?"

"Who knows? I still don't have a good answer as to why teenagers can survive the green fire in the alien spaceship but adults are killed instantly. Maybe it's because you two have slightly different DNA, or maybe it was because she's a little bit older than you. Honestly, I have no clue. My analysts were very surprised by the results. They assumed that it would be the other way round. Normally, men tend to have stronger muscles while women beat us at endurance and quickness. But your sister is the tough one in the family. This is the kind of thing you should know, Brent, for next time."

"If I ever go up against her again - "

"When you do," Weathers told him. "It's inevitable you'll clash again. The police gave it their best effort but she got away from them easily. You could have caught her - if you weren't distracted. You're the only real threat to her right now. Which means she's going to want to neutralize you."

"And if I refuse to fight her?" Brent asked, fuming. "I've got better things to do."

"Like what?"

Brent looked up the street. Matt Perkins should be coming along any second now. "There's a bully, who picks on the little kids at school. I watch him. I make sure he doesn't do anything to hurt anybody. Maybe that won't save the world. But it makes life easier for somebody. It makes life better for somebody."

"Matthew Perkins was expelled from school yesterday afternoon," Weathers told Brent. "After the local police had a chat with your principal. Bullying is a crime. Did you know that? Perkins' parents agreed to remove their son from the school in exchange for a written promise from the school that no charges would be filed."

Brent stopped breathing for a second. "You did that?" he asked.

"Like I said, it was the local police. Who perhaps were acting on information I provided them. That's what I've been reduced to now - providing information."

Brent shook his head. "But that's a terrible idea. Matt's life will be ruined. And anyway, he was only a bully because his father abused him - "

"When the Perkins family got home," Weathers went on, "they found a case worker from Child Protective Services waiting for them. Most likely Matthew will be removed from his parents' custody and go live with a foster family."

Brent rubbed at his face in frustration. "Oh my God. You broke up an entire family - "

"A dysfunctional family. You really think Matthew was better off under his father's care? You really think that was a good outcome?"

"I don't know. It's not my right to judge people."

"Nor is it mine. It's up to the courts what eventually happens. Because the courts only exist to judge people. There are institutions in place, Brent, to take care of the little things. You don't need to fix all the bullies and bad parents in the world. Matthew Perkins was a distraction. I took that distraction away. You've got far more important things to do."

"Like betray my sister?"

Weathers touched his forehead as if he were doffing a non-existent hat. "Have a good day at school. And, hey, kid? Don't start rebelling just yet. The human race still needs you."

He turned around and walked away, then. Brent roared in frustration, then headed to the next block where he was meeting Lucy to walk the rest of the way to school together. "I can't believe he said that," he told her, after he'd recounted what the FBI man had said. "He knew exactly what it would do to me. That was one of the last things my dad ever said - 'When are you going to start rebelling'."

"How could he know that?" Lucy asked.

Brent shook his head. "Back when we first came out of the desert - the first time I met him - he had us tell him everything that had happened before Dad died, made us repeat every word either of us said. God! I should never have trusted him. You know what? I should start rebelling. I mean, I've got plenty to rebel against right now. You know what I should do? I should walk into the convenience store over there and take a pack of gum. And not pay for it. Just refuse to pay for it no matter what happens."

Lucy laughed. "I have some gum right here if you want it," she told him.

"That's not the point! The point is to show the world that I'm not perfect. That they can't expect these things from me all the time."

"Brent, Brent, Brent - if you tried that, you know what might happen? The owner of the store might just give you the gum. He would probably assume you needed it for some totally good reason, like, there was a dam somewhere and it was going to burst, right, and you needed the gum to seal up the crack."

"I could tell him otherwise. I could explain what I was doing."

"I've got a better idea," Lucy said. "How about you just take a day off? Blow off a little steam. There's a really good old movie on TV tonight, it's called Omega Man, have you seen it? It stars that guy who ran the NRA, and it's about the future when - well, I won't spoil it, but we could make some popcorn and you and I could turn off our phones, and just kick back, and not worry about Maggie, or Matt Perkins or Ryan Digby or Weathers or your grandma or your dad or - "

"Um."

She turned and looked at him. "What?" she asked.

"I kind of... can't. I have a date."

"A date?"

Lucy walked over to the curb and sat down. Her leg braces clanked on the concrete.

"A date," she said. "With Dana Kravitz?"

"Uh, yeah," Brent said.

Lucy put her face in her hands. He wasn't sure but he thought she was crying.

"Hey! Hey, Luce, it's okay," he said, trying to put an arm around her. She shrugged him off. "Look, I know, I know - she's friends with Jill Hennessey, who's a total ass, she's part of the popular clique and I know we've never gotten along with them, but - but Dana actually seems kind of nice, when you get to know her. I mean, she just wanted to thank me, see, for saving her the other day. It's nothing serious. Just dinner, at her family's house. That's all."

She dropped her hands into her lap and looked up at him. He'd seen the look on her face before. That night in his bedroom when he'd almost kissed her, she had that same look of despair and confusion. He had no idea what she was thinking, and he was afraid to ask.

She dried her eyes and just breathed for a while. Then she asked, "What shirt are you going to wear?"