Hegemon

Surveillance

The wood was still rotting, but no one had made any attempt to fix that. Jasper walked up the creaking stairs and the third one cracked as he stepped onto the porch. There was yellow police tape strung on the railing, not attached to any other point, just flapping noiselessly in the wind. He didn’t dare go inside.

The porch chairs were still there, in the same places they used to be, and when he sat in the old black iron one it creaked against the floorboards. He sighed, trying to calm down, but as he clenched his hands together he still felt the warmth of fire pulsing under his skin. Slivers of powdery smoke curled up from his balled fists, and he stood up, realizing how tense and angry he was. He stepped off the porch; afraid he would burn it down if he couldn’t calm down.

On the front lawn, he uncurled his hands to see the liquid looking fire pulse under his skin; dull, but still there. He sighed, sitting down in the snow, which melted instantly on contact. He was still angry, despite his efforts.

He sat there, thinking for a moment, then decided to do something he hadn’t done in a long time. Flipping over his left hand to see the back of it, he brushed his fingers against the skin and waited for the Insignia to appear. Moments later, the black mark for “Control” appeared on his skin, a series of lines and circles. Only a few moments later, a few short pulses of calmness seemed to go through him, and he felt himself cooling down, both figuratively and literally.

The Insignia did more than he expected, though. It made him relax more than he thought he could, control his feelings more than he thought he hadn’t been. Maybe whatever instincts Slade said he had were really impacting him. He clenched and unclenched his hands again, the heat-liquid disappearing from view.

He stood up and realized that he was thinking clearly for the first time in a while. The argument with his dad seemed a little unfair now, but despite his new calmness, it wasn’t enough to make up for the lie. Thinking on other things, though, was something he could do easily now. He stayed at the house for a few hours, going through all the things that had been happening in the past few weeks, and the latest breakthrough with Slade. He was sure Cecil had already told the Leaders.

He stood up from the ground, realizing how cold it was for the first time since he sat down, and rubbed his arms quickly, then started to walk back to the Library. He needed to get back, not for his dad’s sake, but because the others would be either worried or in need of his help with all the things that would be soon to happen once the Leaders heard of what had happened. He went back to the small shop where Dee was, knowing the car wouldn’t be there, and started to walk uptown with the company of random strangers brushing up against him.

The Library doors creaked when he opened them, announcing that he was back louder than he had wanted. Cecil was the first to see who it was, and a look of relief washed over his face as Jasper was closing the doors. He saw the black mark on the back of Jaspers palm and gave him a quizzical look.

“It helped,” Jasper said. “With everything that’s happened... really, it helped.” When he said it like that, it sounded like the Control mark was a drug, but judging from how much it affected him, it probably could have been. Cecil nodded as Kira, Leah and Alex came around from the den, he assumed.

“They’ve finally given us surveillance jobs,” Leah said, sighing. “It should’ve been long ago, considering that we’re right at the center of everything that’s happening.”

“We’re going on Runs again?” Jasper asked, walking back to the den with them. Leah nodded, smiling.

“I never thought I would be so excited, but I really am. It’s been so boring trying to figure things out ourselves and just reporting back. It will be nice to get back into the grove of kicking some Bones’ ass.” Leah was such a small girl that it always was one of the funniest things Alex could think of when she cursed. He chuckled, sitting down in the armchair.

“We’ve got a run,” Alex said.

“Who?” Jasper asked.

“All of us, minus Cecil and Daniel of course,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be a Run, actually. They said that we were supposed to get them talking as much as we could, that we should try to get information if we were “able,”” Alex explained, scratching his head. “I think it’s more of an interrogation that a Bone Run, if you ask me, but as Leah said, it’s nice to have a job again.” Jasper nodded.

“Since we’re near the center of what all’s happening around here, they want us to try to figure thing out as best we can since we’ll hear about it first. When Cecil told them everything Kira figured out, with the prompting of Slade, they got all excited, if that’s actually possible of the Leaders,” Leah said.

“They think I’m some kind of genius... it’s actually really embarrassing,” Kira said. “Cecil didn’t mention much about Slade, so they just thought I figured it all out, but I didn’t know anything other than what Slade made me realize,” she sighed.

“And that’s why they want us to get more information?” Jasper asked. “We’re supposed to be the ones who analyze it?” Kira nodded, sighing again.

“It’s getting a little more complicated out there with the other groups. They’ve been experiencing the same things as us, people getting their forms taken and the Others leading whole armies of Bones on a march to the hideouts. We don’t even know how they’re finding us,” Alex said. “The Leaders suspect the Shifters for being the traitors, but they haven’t found anything that would prove that yet. It’s more of a hunch, but something tells me it wasn’t them.”

“The Others probably got their hands on the form of one of the Leaders,” Jasper said. Alex nodded, and he realized what that might mean. “Oh... so... they have access to everything... if that’s the case.” Alex nodded again, sighing.

“The good thing, or the bad thing, depending on how you want to take it,” Alex said, “Is that they can’t really do anything to fix that since they don’t know who it is, and the Others tend to keep themselves hidden.” Jasper nodded.

“What’s the job?” he asked after a moment.

“Surveillance; we go out, with the intention to kill Bones, of course, but we’re really supposed to look out for anything that could help us, anything we didn’t already know,” Leah explained.

“Why do they need all of us?” Jasper asked, confused as to why four people needed to go on what would usually be a one man Bone Run.

“They don’t want... what happened last time... to happen again. Safety in numbers, right?” Kira said, shrugging. Jasper nodded, not letting his mind linger on that reason. He knew it wasn’t because of him, and that the same type of situations had been happening elsewhere, so it wasn’t so hard ignore what had happened anymore. No one really forgot, though.

“When are we leaving?”

“As soon as we’re ready; as they said, it’s not a formal Bone Run this time,” Leah said, standing up from the chair she had formerly been planted in. They all went upstairs to get their usual attire on, black clothes, sweatshirts, cargo pants; anything with pockets big enough to hold a knife or a gun would suffice.