The Super Jerk Trilogy (Now 3-in-1)

10. When I Get There

{Zachary}

We convene with the others when we're finished recovering, exactly twenty-four hours after the mission went sideways. We all end up in the hotel room in New York, looking much the worse for wear. It's already crowded, according to Sarah, with her, Hank, and Trevor all squished into one room.

   "Look at what the cat dragged in," Hank — or as I knew him when I was a kid, Supernova — says when he answers the door. His face is unshaven and haggard, and it looks like he hasn't slept for a few nights.

   "Hello to you too, Hank," Kaelie says, sounding too tired to give him a sass back. She's not fully recovered just yet, and wears a makeshift sling to restrict movement to her injured shoulder.

   "Zach, there you are!" Sarah's voice comes from behind Hank, and suddenly she's hugging me tightly, her face buried in the front of my shirt. I return it, resting my cheek on top of her head. I've never realized how good it feels to be holding her again. I'd missed it.

   "All right, you can get all romantic later," Hank says gruffly, clapping my shoulder so hard I stumble sideways into the door, still with a tight hold on Sarah. "We have business to get to."

   I grin at him over Sarah's head. "Whatever you say, man."

   We sit down on the bed opposite Trevor, his girlfriend Kitty, and Kaelie, and I can see Vermillion pacing around by the window, dressed in pedestrian clothes. She's got a big bruise on her cheek, a slight limp, and a black eye. Can't say I don't feel the same.

   "So the plan went astray," she says finally, when Hank's alerted her to our presence.

   "By no fault of our own," I'm quick to point out. "Dad's up to his old tricks again."

   "Yes. Green wants to wreak havoc all over the country." She leans against the dresser, rubbing her non-bruised cheek slowly with her palm. "And there is no feasible way to stop him."

   "What else is new?" Trevor grumbles and then winces, and I notice he leans a little heavier on Kitty.

   "Well, this means we need a new plan." Hank rubs his leg, the fake one. "Any great ideas, kids?"

   "Hank, you must not be so hard on them," Vermillion says, her gaze stern. "They could not have known this would happen. I could not have known, and I have been doing this for over twenty years now."

   "So what do you suggest then, Ulla?" Hank glares over at her, using her non-super name. "It's not like we have the manpower to go up against Green."

   "I do not know what exactly to do," she admits. "But I do see how this could work in our favor."

   "How?" Kaelie finally says, sounding doubtful. "Green has literally caused a nationwide state of emergency."

   "I believe his goal was to draw other supers out." Vermillion swipes the pad of her thumb across her bottom lip, wincing when a fairly fresh split reopens. "I have seen this sort of tactic before, when I first became a super. It would appear, like you said, that he is up to old tricks."

   "Why would he want to do that en masse?" Sarah, probably unconsciously, moves closer to me. "He seems to have gotten all the super blood he could ever want through other methods."

   "That is not clear at the moment. But there is always a chance we could use this to pinpoint his location." She rubs her temple, like she's got a headache. "Somewhere, this series of attacks has an origin point."

   "Every city got attacked," says Hank, his subtext clearly saying You've missed the point. "There's no way we can possibly eliminate any one place."