The SVE Club

28. Brother

Willow closed the book she held, the BFG, and smiled at the child in the hospital bed. "I think that's enough Roald Dahl for today. What other books do you have?"

The boy in the bed narrowed his eyes. "I'm eight, Willow. You don't have to read to me like I'm a baby."

"But I want to hear the story too," Willow replied, digging through a nearby Spiderman backpack. She groaned with frustration. "You really don't have any books by another author, Dallas?"

"Nope!" Dallas said proudly.

Willow sighed. "I guess we can read The Twits next."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A nurse in scrubs entered the hospital room.

"Mom?" Willow said, standing up, "Are you on break yet?"

"No, not yet. I need to leave soon," the woman said. "But there's some people here to see you two. They say they're friends of yours, Willow."

Dallas looked at Willow excitedly. "Are they your teammates? Is Midas with them?" he asked.

Willow let out a long, slow breath. She nodded once. "Let them in," she said.

The woman left the room as Sam and Midas entered quietly. Sam smiled at Willow and Dallas, holding a plush penguin from the gift store.

Dallas took one look at Midas, with his mask and black uniform, and his eyes grew huge. "You're-" he gasped, pointing at Midas frantically, his IV tube flopping around, "You're Dynamidas! You're a super!"

    Willow placed a hand on Dallas' shoulder. "Calm down," she said. She turned back to Sam and Midas. "What are you two doing here?"

    "We're checking on you, of course," Sam said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I didn't know you had a brother, Willow!"

    Dallas glared playfully at Willow. "You never talk about me at school?" he asked.

    "We got this for you," Sam said to Dallas, holding up the plush penguin she still carried. "I bought it, but Midas picked it out."

    "Did not," Midas scoffed.

    "Sure you did," Sam shot back, placing the penguin on the hospital bed next to Dallas. (What had actually happened was this: Sam had agonized over every stuffed animal in the store before Midas finally grabbed a toy off of the shelf at random and shoved it towards Sam, begging her just to pick one so they could go.)

    Dallas still stared at Midas with admiration. "Did you really defeat Overdrive and stop her from destroying the school?" he asked rapidly. "Did the school bus get entirely disintegrated? And how did you guys survive a whole team of ISH kids?"

    Midas was taken aback by the child's enthusiasm. Was this what it was like to have a fan? Well, other than Sam. He glanced at Willow. "You didn't keep our run-in with my old team a secret, did you?"

    Willow bit her lip. "I only told Dallas. And he won't tell anyone."

    "I won't! I promise!" said Dallas as he held a hand to his heart.

    "Willow?" Sam asked. "Do you think we can talk to you? Alone?"

    Willow frowned. "I... can't leave Dallas by himself."

    "It's alright, Midas will keep him company," Sam said, taking Willow by the arm and escorting her out of the room. "Won't you, Midas?"

    "Wait, I-" Midas objected, but the girls were gone before he could say anything.

    "So, your mom works at the hospital?" Sam asked as they slowly walked towards a small waiting area at the end of the hall.

     "Yeah," Willow said. "She usually works in rheumatology, but she comes to check on Dallas a lot during the day." She remained silent until they reached the sitting area.

    "Is your brother alright?" Sam asked when they were settled in the chairs.

    Willow looked away. "No. I know he looks fine right now, but this morning he couldn't hold anything down, not even water. He's still pretty weak right now. But it looks like the worst has passed, so they might release him tomorrow. They never keep him for more than a few days."

    "What's wrong with him?" Sam blurted.

    "A lot," Willow answered. "His digestive system and immune system are both messed up. He's on several medications. The doctors don't know what to do for him. They say it's only a matter of time until his body just..." Willow snapped her fingers softly.

    "There's no cure?"

    Willow hesitated, tears pooling her eyes. "There's an experimental one, something the scientists at ISH made," she said, "But they won't sell it to us, no matter what. That's why..."

    Sam, noticing the tears, rubbed Willow's arm consolingly. "Hey, it's okay," she whispered.

    Suddenly, unexpectedly, Willow leaned over and began to weep silently on Sam's shoulder.

    "That's why I joined the SVE club," Willow sobbed. "I figured if Midas was sour towards ISH, he might be sympathetic and help me. And now-" Willow cut herself off with a shuddering sigh.

    Sam hugged her gently, trying to make sense of all of this. "But, Willow? Why join the club? You could have spoken to Midas about this without auditioning."

    Willow pulled away from Sam, wiping her eyes. "For Dallas," she said. "He wanted me to join a club. Make friends. He doesn't get to leave the house much, so he says it's up to me to have 'adventures' for the both of us. He always tells me I'm boring, that I never do anything."

    She laughed a little. "He's a lot like you, Sam. Loves supers. Heroes and villains."

    "I can tell," Sam said. "I've never seen anyone look at Midas that way before. Speaking of which, we should probably be heading back. I'm sure Midas is ready to scream by now."

"Are you going to tell him?" Willow asked as they stood up.

    "Only if you want me to," Sam said as they walked back towards Dallas' room. "But he'll probably want to know."

    Willow ran a hand through her hair. "I love Dallas. I don't want him to suffer anymore."

    "Trust me, I understand," Sam promised.

    As they approached the room, they heard bits of a conversation.

    "She had drones?" Dallas was asking.

    "Yeah, lots of them. And Hardwire is a techna, so controlling them was as easy as controlling her own fingers."

    Willow and Sam stood quietly in the doorway. Midas sat with his back to them, talking to Dallas, who listened in awe. He seemed unaware of the girls' return.

    "The drones were resistant to my powers," Midas recounted. "So I set a broom on fire-"

    "A broom?" Dallas laughed.

    "-and I used that to bat some of the drones away. There were too many of them though, and I got swarmed. Hardwire shocked me until I was numb, and that was it," Midas said, leaning back in his chair.

    Dallas' smile disappeared. "Wait. You mean... you lost?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

    Midas cleared his throat. "That's not the important thing," he said.

    "It's not?"

    "No. Winning's not important. What is important is to learn from your mistakes and to not give up until you can win. You understand?"

    Dallas nodded eagerly.

    Willow breathed a sigh of relief. Sam shook her head and grinned. Only Midas could go from a stoic villain to a kid's hero in five minutes.