Stolen Powers

Chapter Sixteen: Quentin's Secret

"Hey, Q."

Quentin rubbed his eyes and tried to fix them on whoever was talking to him.

"Huh?" He mumbled sleepily.

"It's Bri," she said. "Welch said that we're needed in the commons in ten minutes. It's about the break-in last night, so be prepared for a chew-out."

After Mason and his team walked into the trap, Quentin secretly knew that it wasn't going to go well. The spiders, or the NGZ's spies, have been stalking the Powerclan for a while, even when Mason was a little kid.

Quentin slowly crawled out of the bed and slipped some decent clothes on that Kaylie had bought him a few weeks ago. He knew that she liked him, but his heart was really with Brianna. His head hurt some after Mason knocking him down, but some Advil did the trick. Quentin put his brown sandals that he loved and fixed his hair to where it didn't look like he just woke up.
Meeting Brianna at the door, she smiled at him kindly, and he noticed a tiny bruise on her jaw.

"What's that from?" He asked.

"What do you think? Mason. His electricity is a lot more powerful than I thought it was."

"How's Dr. Lin? Still pissed?"

Brianna's mouth formed a thin line and nodded slowly. "He threatened to execute Welch, so he's obviously pretty pissed."

"Oh..."

Little did anyone else knew, Quentin looked at Welch as a father to him. What's bad about that is Lin made a law that the Captain's couldn't make friends with the Falcons. He never understood why, but Welch apparently didn't like it either. He'd take Quentin out to get dinner and spend some time with him; they'd often go see a movie or go bowling just to escape Lin. So seeing that Lin was already getting close to executing him sent shivers down his spine.

As they reached the commons, he met all of the other Falcons there. Once everyone saw him, all of them stood up and gave the NGZ salute. Three fingers touching your right temple. It was required to do so, and even Michelle had to do it.

Quentin returned the favor, as required. "Thank you. You may be seated."

Everyone quietly sat down and eyed him expectantly. Quentin took a deep breath, since Lin had asked him to give a speech about how badly they fought yesterday. Even though this wasn't the first time, he still always got nervous. He looked around, and Lin was nowhere to be seen. Quentin sighed in relief. He hated when he had to do it in front of him.

"Dr. Lin asked me to give you a speech about yesterday," he started, eyeing each of them individually. "He is disappointed in us, which is why he is not here when he typically is."

Trevor looked down in shame. From what he had heard, Lin had grounded him from free time for only two weeks for not frying Landon's brain. Everyone then knew the girl's power.

"He wants us to be more aggressive the next time we see them, which will be fairly soon," said Quentin.

Michelle raised her hand. "When is that?"

He paused for a moment before answering that. "Which leads me to my next point. We're leaving for Mexico City tomorrow."

Kaylie frowned and raised her hand. "Why?"

Quentin prepared for their reactions. "So we can fight Mason Powell. Once he's gone, Lin can start to send troops to B-"

"Fight Mason? Why can't the soldiers take care of him?" Brianna interrupted, which usually leads to punishment when that happens, but the Falcons typically bended the rules some. Including Quentin.