Boshville

B. 12

Casper coughed out the dust that flooded his nostrils. "Hazim!" He was going to search for the body in the midst of the ripple. Moss placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "No" Casper buried his face in Moss's neck. Hazim was dead meaning that the shit just got real. Amethyst hugged her legs and rocked herself with mumbles on her lips.

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"What do you mean by almost fifty years ago? Are we stuck in a time loop? Is that even real?" The possibilities were uncountable and Natalie could not deal with it. "I will say this for the last time", Zee rolled his eyes, "calm down. You should have deduced by now that your powers are controlled by emotions. The more you feel, the more unstable you are".

Natalie closed her eyes. She remembered when she was younger and Hunter would push her off the swing. She was stronger than him so his face would always end up squished but Daisy warned her about emotions. She was very cautious about it. She never wanted Natalie to be too excited, too sad and most importantly, too angry.

Natalie counted down from twenty. Daisy gave her that method. She said, "once you begin counting, the person you're mad at looks more and more like a donkey meaning that they are too dumb to stress about". Not the best advice to give a kid but it worked.

"Better?" Zee asked. "Yeah", Natalie admitted, "I hate this". "Which part?" Zee was trying to get her to talk everything out to avoid any more outbursts. "This. Not knowing about myself. My whole life is a lie", she complained, "I don't know my real age, my real name, my real parents, my real home...I liked being normal".

"Natalie, there was nothing normal about you", Zee shrugged, "you just couldn't see it".

"Oh really? And you would know?"

"Yeah. For one, this isn't the first time you've met me. I was the one who gave you a new cone of ice cream when your parents took you to the park in Milton. Not to add that I was the cameraman for your first play in third grade. Also, I was the handyman who fixed your dollhouse when you were nine. Everywhere you went, I was there too".

His words refreshed her memory. She does remember his unique blue eyes. He had different haircuts and facial hair but the eyes never changed. "You were the one who saved me from the bus, right?" Natalie asked. Zee nodded.

"And", he added, "didn't you ever notice that your mom- I mean Daisy never let you eat outside?" "She loves cooking and she said restaurants were a disgrace to her skills or something like that". Natalie chuckled. She remembered Rogers making a joke out of it each time.

"There is a special plant that we must eat to survive Earth's atmosphere", he explained, "Daisy kept all forms of it around so that she could feed it to you. Those shots she gave you are a few of them". Natalie fetched the box from the glove compartment. She inspected the needle shots. The purplish pink liquid was swirling. "Adds up I guess". She sighed not forgetting that Daisy could be dead.

Suddenly, Zee made a sharp bend. Natalie looked out and saw that they were in the junkyard. "Don't tell me you have a hideout here like all those secret agents?" She laughed. "I warned Daisy that television was bad for you". Zee rolled his eyes. "You're missing out, gramps". She teased.

The two got down from the car. "Seriously, what are we doing here?" She asked while checking everywhere out. "You need to learn how to control your powers", Zee had a stern expression, "we also have to determine what they are". "Aren't they the same as yours?" She was really confused.

"Anomalies and Anofemales are similar. Anofemalelies are hard to place".

"Why?"

"You are born warriors. The Red Star could bestow a unique power to help protect the planet as much as possible". Natalie searched his face. Something about his face told her he wasn't saying the truth. "You're lying". She crossed her arms. "No, I'm not". Zee rushed his answer. Natalie frowned unimpressed.