Oversight

Chapter 5 Sweet, Sweet Revenge

The man kept shutting his eyes, but he kept seeing the same thing. A bright light, his surprised face, and the end of himself. He hugged his own legs in a small room with rock walls. The heat was almost unbearable, but that was normal. Yet today, it was starting to get to him. 

His master entered through a hole just big enough for a large man. The cowering man stood up and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He tried to speak, to gather what little dignity and respect he had left. "I..."

"Silence. I have only left my chambers as a formality to make sure you were not dead yet. You have a job to do, and you will do it until your last breath."

"But...what about..."

"SILENCE! I have no cares for your worries. I know your concerns and I can assure you that you have done enough. Often knowing your future can bring your downfall. You may have already killed yourself."

"But..." there was silence as the man stared at his master. "May have? Wouldn't you...like...wouldn't you know?"

"I..." For the first time, he didn't know. "Something is not as it seems. I have seen your vision, seen the young man that will bring your downfall, but of everything I see... I do not see him now. I saw him as a child, he is the proper age now. But he has vanished. I can not even reach into my own memories to search his past anymore. I hope for a traitor."

"Why? Why would you hope that someone has turned on us?"

"Because if I can't reach my own memories and its not because of betrayal, than you are not the only one in danger."

...

Days later, Noah was at Wade's house. Wade hovered a few feet above the floor while Noah sat on a platform of energy, both reading comic books they found in Wade's attic. "This is so cool!" Wade was saying as he raised a few more inches off the floor. 

"I know right! I could do this all day." Noah put his foot out and the energy platform dissipated. 
"But first, I could use a pick-me-up."

"OK, but not here again. My parents think I'm leaving the TV on all night or something. How about we run down to Derek's house. Take the power from him."

Derek, being the bully that picked on the two of them, definitely deserved a power outage, but Noah wasn't sure at first. On one hand, he didn't want to steal something that wasn't his. But on the other hand,  he wanted revenge on Derek for all those times he took something from him and called him names or cheated on a test with his paper and get away with everything. 

It wasn't even a full minute before he agreed to it. Wade flew, not literally, to his parents who were in the kitchen and told them that they were going to Derek's house. They knew about Derek though, and they weren't gonna allow the bully any more chances to pick on them than he already had. After a short argument, the boys went back to Wade's room, defeated. 

"What do we do now?" Wade asked. 

"Well." Noah said, as if the answer was obvious. "We have powers, why don't we use them?"

"But they said..."

"I heard what they said, but we don't need to listen. We can be there and back before they know we're gone." Noah was determined now. What was once a small task he had doubts about was now an unavoidable quest. "Come on. I need you to help me get there. I can't do it without you." Noah was already at the open window, staring back at Wade.

"Fine." Wade said as he stepped to the window, a gust of wind sweeping them away. 

Wade flew high, carrying Noah with the a right beside him. They arrived at Derek's house after a few minutes of fast flying and landed softly in his backyard. "How are we gonna do this?" Noah had thought of a plan on his way over. He walked straight to the backdoor and peered inside the small window beside it. "Dude! What are you doing? Can't we just go to the electrical box or something?"

"We could" Noah admitted, opening the unlocked door. "Or we could take a look inside." He stepped through the door and motioned for Wade to follow. Noah made his way through the house, the thrill of his plan building in his stomach. What was building in Wade's stomach was fear though, which made him alert. 

The house seemed empty, except the noise of shooting coming from a room in the basement and the cheers of an obnoxious boy.  Noah immediately knew that he was playing his stupid video games that he bragged about all the time. Noah put one foot forward on the wooden steps that went down to the basement and heard a loud squeak. He quickly retracted his foot and the two stayed perfectly still.

The noises from downstairs continued and Noah turned towards Wade. "Can I have some help?" he whispered. Wade made a hand motion and Noah was lifted silently down the stairs, but Wade did not follow. 

"I'm gonna stay up here." He whispered just loud enough for Noah to hear. Noah turned and saw a mostly open door that revealed the tall boy sitting on a coach with a soda on the floor and lights dancing around the room from the TV. It was so loud that Derek wouldn't be able to hear anything Noah did so he relaxed a little bit, making his way behind a couch in the outer room where he could still see the open doorway with Derek inside. 

He felt around, occasionally managing to make a spark for a little light, so he could see in this dark room, until he found an outlet. Smiling, he laid his palm over it. Focusing on the room across the basement, he started pulling the energy from anything plugged into a wall. He heard the noise stop and the lights in the other room went out.

Derek cussed loudly, making his way to the room Noah was in and stubbing his toe, which made him cuss louder. He felt around for a light switch and as he turned it on Noah took the energy from that to. Still angry, Derek felt around for the fuse box, which just so happened to be next to the couch Noah was behind. 

Derek reached up above the fuse box for a flashlight and clicked it on, bathing not only the fuse box in light, but also Noah. Derek saw him out of the corner of his eye and yelled, which made Noah jump. 

Derek reached out and grabbed Noah by the collar of his shirt. "You been touchin' my fuse box? Made me mess up my game. I gotta reputation on that system you friggen twerp."

Noah stared back at Derek, his feet an inch off the ground and the pressure on his neck increasing. He wanted to zap Derek. He had the energy now, but he couldn't reveal his powers. Fear built up in his stomach, or was it anger. "Well," Derek continued. "Now that we have a little power situation, I guess I'll just have to entertain you now, my new and uninvited guest." He threw Noah out from behind the couch. 

He landed on the cold floor and slid. Derek laughed when Noah scrambled to his feet. Derek lunged for him, but Noah ducked out of the way and raised his fists, which made Derek laugh. Before he knew it, Noah was being lifted off the ground. Knowing he was about to be thrown, he clutched Derek's arm in an attempt to prevent it. 

He heard a quick gasp, felt a surge of energy, and then he was being lowered to the ground. He let go of Derek's arm and looked down at him. The boy looked sick and tired. He was passed out on the ground in front of Noah, the flashlight beside him, revealing his pale features. 

Noah, a little panicked, but also filled with pride, dragged Derek over to his gaming room, left him on the floor, and glided up the stairs and out of the house, Wade following once he reached the outside. 

"What happened down there?" Wade asked as they flew back to Wade's house. "I heard a yell, I thought you got caught. His dad was home, abusive bastard. Almost caught me. I kept him distracted with some moving things so he wouldn't catch you, but ten more minutes and he would've walked downstairs."

"I don't need to hear your excuses man, I had it handled."

"What handled? I thought you had a plan. What did you do down there?"

Noah smiled, looking off at the open sky. "Remind me to tell you some other time, it'll make quite a story." He wasn't fully serious of course. He didn't know exactly what he had done, but he didn't know if it was pride, happiness...or fear...that was filling his stomach. "All you need to know is that Derek shouldn't be bothering us anymore."