The SVE Club

58. Better Off

    "He has retrograde amnesia," Joe, the nurse, explained to the SVE club. They stood at the end of the hallway, having left a confused Midas on his own in his room.

    "So he doesn't remember anything?" Sam asked.

    "Well, he remembers how to speak, how to read, his name and birth date and such," Joe said. "But nothing personal. He doesn't remember very much about himself- his family, his childhood- Anything like that. He doesn't even remember that he has powers. We see this sort of thing with patients affected by mentas. He may regain his memories eventually, but the oldest memories will be recovered first. It could be a long time before he remembers anything that happened in the past year."

"What's being done to treat this?" Evan said.

"Usually, with his type of amnesia, we hope for an instantaneous recovery. That's why you guys were called here," Joe said. "We thought that if he saw you all together, that might serve to be the spark that lights the fire, so to speak. But I'm afraid that's not the case."

    "Is there anything we can do?" Rachel asked. "Like, if we talk to him more, is there a chance he'll start to remember?"

    Joe shrugged. "To be honest, it's not likely. You six are welcome to come back at any time to visit, but be warned- In the beginning, you'll only confuse him more than anything. And there's always a chance that he'll never recover his memories."

    The SVE Club was silent as they allowed that to sink in. It was sobering to think that the Midas they had known was essentially gone.

    "Maybe we should go now," Sam said sullenly, not looking at any of the other members. "I think we've done all we could for today." Without waiting for the others, she began to walk away, trying in vain to hide the tears streaming down her face.

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    The next day, SVE Club was gathered at a long booth in Ellie's Diner. Every once in a while, one of them would glance out the window at ISH. The super school was no longer masquerading as a prep school- The break-in had drawn too much attention to the location.

"ISH is pretty dumb when you think about it," Rachel said. "So secretive about nothing. Hiding the school location, the students' real names. What for?"

Nobody had an answer. Rachel didn't mind. Perhaps she only wanted to rant.

"I mean, Phoenix couldn't even tell me his real name," Rachel went on. "How dumb is that? I'd probably totally recognize him if I saw him, say, at the grocery store."

"How is Phoenix these days?" Nate asked, smirking.

Rachel huffed. "It's not like I know. I haven't talked to him since our trials. It's like he fell off the face of the earth."

"He hasn't fallen off the face of the earth."

The team was collectively startled and glanced at the speaker who stood beside the table. Overdrive had come out of nowhere. Without her armor, it was harder to recognize her, but her voice sounded the same. She wore street clothes and a baseball cap, and smiled at the team as if she knew something they didn't.

"You kids mind if I sit with you for a second?" she asked. She took their silence as a yes and took a seat next to Taro, who stiffened slightly.