Superfreaks -CHAP.04-

  "Just leave me alone already. I have no idea what you're talking about!"

  Once again, Sidney found herself being pursued by her exuberant class president. Whereas before, it had just been a nuisance - now it was a concern. Sidney had told Cody and Tessa everything at the first chance she'd got, even bypassing her rule of never using her power at school, by utilising it to drop them identical notes whilst they were in class without being seen. They'd chastised her for downplaying how serious the incident had been, but of course, Presley was now the bigger problem.

  Cody had agreed that he'd never heard anything of the sort before - powers passing between two completely unrelated people and just via physical contact. But he'd also said that the idea could be feasible. Nobody really even knew that much about bio-powers, since it had become such a taboo subject. It was now all treated more like a bad myth - one that was never to be spoken of. The stories of 'superheroes', that had spawned from all the so-called superstitions and folklore, were still strictly abhorred in this day and age.

  "We don't know everything about bio-powers. We probably don't even know half of it," Cody had said. "But scientifically speaking, electricity could work as an accelerant to cause the transfer of power between two people. It's still strange that Presley's power doesn't seem to be anything like yours, but the electricity could have caused whatever DNA inside you that holds your power to mutate and become something completely different when mixed with hers..."

  It had all been a lot of mumbo-jumbo to both Sidney and Tessa, but all three of them had agreed on one thing: they couldn't let on to Presley that they knew anything. It was bad enough that they'd caused somebody else to be running round with powers of their own - they couldn't let it be known that they had powers too. Sidney felt guilty for not telling Presley anything, especially considering her classmate's desperate outburst the other day, but giving that knowledge out could risk their entire family's safety.

  Of course, she didn't feel so guilty after several days of being constantly badgered by Presley again. She would have been relieved to see that the blonde had all of her gusto back, but it was very tedious when that gusto was being aimed at her. Again. It was probably even harder to withhold information when Presley was being annoying than when she was guilt tripping.

  But the fact was that Presley was determined. More determined than ever. Sidney may have made out that she didn't know anything, but her face when Presley had confronted her had betrayed her and given it all away. Sidney was lying. What a surprise.

  It didn't matter though, because Presley had a lot more to go on this time. She knew that Sidney had seen what she'd done - she'd started referring to it as 'glitching' in her head - and, somehow, had weirdly seemed to know something about it. Yet then she'd turned around and tried to deny all knowledge of it, almost instantly. It was definitely a fishy situation.

  The most curious thing was that she'd mentioned the generator. Presley had already put two and two together that the glitching had started the same day that she'd ripped Sidney away from the generator. She could still vividly remember the feeling of the electricity almost sinking into her. She'd put it down to adrenaline at the time, but had she somehow siphoned power from the generator? Or had it actually been from Sidney?

  That was another theory she'd had. Sidney had given off the vibe that she'd been in the know of what Presley could now inexplicably do. So did that mean that maybe she could do it too? Or something similar? That would certainly start shedding some light on her poor performance in class and her weird absences. If she had a similar skill, then maybe she'd found a good use for it outside of school... Or a bad use. Again, something else that she'd have to ask. The bigger question was what the hell was this glitching and what was she supposed to do about it?

  So once again, Presley kick-started her badgering process in full force. If Sidney so much as went to the bathroom, then Presley was there. It was an even bigger obsession than before, but that just didn't matter. Sidney knew why she was being hassled, so she was in no place to complain. Instead, it became a race as to how quickly she could escape each time.

  In the process, Presley also picked up on something else. Not only was Sidney always eager to get away, she never seemed to want anybody else to overhear even a tidbit of their exchanges. Presley had lost count of how many times she'd been hastily shushed and, in that instance when she'd first glitched, Sidney had been very keen in getting her out of sight. That told Presley something important: however deeply involved in this... whatever it was, Sidney didn't want anybody to know about it. Now that was something that could be used.

  Presley caught Sidney during the one recess, much in the same way as the redhead had done to her before. She even staged it on an empty corridor so that if Sidney did finally decide to spill the beans, then they'd be away from prying eyes, just like she seemed to prefer. She was really being very considerate.

  "Hey!"

  Sidney turned automatically and groaned when she saw who it was. She should have known. "For crying out loud... Listen, I don't have time for you right now!"

  "Just hear me out for two minutes," Presley insisted. "Then I promise I'll leave you alone for good."

  Sidney raised her eyebrows. Not once had Presley ever conceded to leave her alone. She'd always had to physically escape from her. This change of heart made her instantly suspicious. "What's the catch?"

  "No catch," Presley promised. "I just need to know once and for all what's happening to me."

  "And I'm telling you again that I have no idea what you're talking about," Sidney replied routinely. "Unless you mean your constant following me around, in which case, I think it's that you're just crazy."

  "So you really don't know?"

  "I really don't."

  "Oh. Okay... I guess you can go then."

  Sidney faltered, confusion throwing her off track. "Err, really?"

  "Really," Presley confirmed. "If you say you don't know, then you don't know. So I guess I'll just have to find someone else who does know."

  Sidney felt a horrible swooping sensation in her stomach, like she'd missed a step going down the stairs. "Wait a second, what do you mean?"

  "Well, you can't help me, because you don't know what I'm talking about," said Presley innocently. "But I've been having these weird... 'episodes' lately and I want to know what's going on with me. So I might ask one of the teachers for advice. Or even a doctor. Yeah, I think it would probably be better to talk to a professional..."

  "You can't," Sidney blurted out. This was so, so not good.

  "Why not? Unless you do know something that you're not telling me?" Presley pressed, meeting her gaze steadily.

  Sidney clenched her fists at her sides. Presley was backing her into a corner and she had no means of escaping it. They'd been stupid to think they could just leave her to it and she'd eventually forget about the whole thing. They'd gone the completely wrong way about this. They'd been so concerned about Presley blabbing to someone about their powers, that they hadn't even thought about what she might do with her own.

  All Presley would have to do was show somebody else her power and that would be it. Even if she didn't let on her suspicions about the Crichton kids, the appearance of one bio-human would raise a high red flag and likely still throw them all into danger either way. They couldn't let that happen. It would endanger their entire family. Even their older brother, Jackson - the only one who'd never shown any signs of bearing powers - likely wouldn't be trusted as the only non-bio in the family.

  Presley grew impatient with Sidney's silence. "Why won't you tell me! And why can't I tell anybody else about it?"

  Sidney finally snapped. There was no Tessa or Cody around to ask for advice - she had to make a decision herself. So she chose the one that she thought would be best for her family and for her annoying classmate. "Because if you do, then you'll either be put into containment for the rest of your life or you'll be executed."

  Presley's eyes widened. The look on her face suggested that was definitely not the answer she'd been expecting. "Wait, </i>what</i>?"

  Sidney struggled internally with herself. Presley was going to have to be her responsibility - there was no doubt about it now. She'd gotten her into this mess, so she was going to have to carry her through it. The class president had the right to know everything about what she'd been thrown into, especially considering how dangerous it was. It was just hard when it had been so ingrained into her to never talk about it...

  "I can't talk about it here," she finally forced herself to say. "I'll tell you everything; I promise. But not here. Not right now."

  "No, please!" Presley grabbed her arm. "You have to give me something! You can't just tell me that there's a possibility I could be executed and then leave it at that!"

  Sidney clenched her fists tighter, her nails irritating the blisters across her palm that still hadn't healed yet. Presley was right - that would be cruel. She cast her gaze left and right. The corridor was completely empty, besides the two of them, but it still didn't feel safe enough. "Fine." She gritted her teeth and steered Presley towards one of the doors. "In here."

  Where did she even start? She didn't know half of the history of bio-powers herself. Cody would have been so much better for this kind of thing, but since she owed Presley an explanation, she had to do something. Presley would just have to make do with a summarised version for now.

  Even in the cramped, dark janitor's cupboard, she still lowered her voice. "You've heard of bio-humans, right?"

  She could just about see Presley's confused frown by the dim light of the bulb hanging overhead. Why didn't this school have any proper light fittings? "Bio-humans? I always thought that was just a myth?"

  "That's the idea," said Sidney. "The whole thing was covered up, made out to be just a story... But bio-humans really existed. They do still exist. Only nobody can know about that part."

  "Why not?" Presley questioned sceptically. After the last several days she'd had, the part about bio-humans existing didn't even feel like news to her. It was half the answer she'd been looking for.

  "Bio-humans only really became known widespread about sixty years ago," Sidney explained. "But regular people lived in fear of them, believing that they'd use their powers to overthrow society. After not even a decade, they staged a revolution and tried to take down any bio-humans they could find. There were riots and ambushes. It became like the witch trials in Salem. The bio-humans they caught were hung or beheaded. People wanted to see if they'd used their powers to save themselves. Most of them couldn't and died. Then those who did have powers that they could actually use to save themselves were only gunned down afterwards. It was intended as a complete extermination."

  When Presley spoke this time, her voice was more hushed. She seemed horrified by the idea, as most people would be. "So if they were all hunted down, then how can they still exist now?"

  "Because not all of them were," Sidney replied simply. "Think about it... If you knew people were after you and everyone else like you, then what would you do? You'd conceal your powers and make a run for it, right? Well, that's what some bio-humans did and they managed to escape. Nobody really knows how many, but I know of at least several that survived the Revolution. They always reckoned that others probably made it too, only nobody knows for definite, because after that, anyone with powers had to keep them a secret from then on, for fear of being found out and kick-starting the entire thing again.

  "There are probably other bio-humans out there who are our age. Bio-powers are inherited, so there's a good chance that if any other bio-humans were lucky enough to escape and that they had children of their own, then they probably would have passed their powers along. It doesn't always continue with each generation, but I know of at least one two out of three case where bio-powers were inherited from the generation before them."

  "You're talking about yourself, aren't you?" Presley realised. "You and your brother and sister. Does that mean only one of them inherited your parents' powers?"

  Sidney shook her head. "We have an older brother who's in college - he doesn't have any powers. I gained the same power as my mom and Tessa and Cody both got our dad's power. I'm guessing because they're twins, they both inherited the same gene from him."

  Presley's mind was boggling with all of this information. "So what about me? I definitely didn't inherit anything from anyone. Was it... was it because of the generator?"

  "We think so," Sidney confirmed.

  "So you can do the same as what I can do?"

  "Well... not exactly," Sidney hedged. In truth, she felt a little like Presley's power was the opposite of hers. Her power was to not be seen, whereas Presley's power seemed to be having people see too many of her. To put it simply. "Cody said that the electricity from the generator might have, err... accelerated? Yeah, accelerated my DNA so that the power changed when it then mixed with yours... I think." It had sounded so much smarter coming from Cody. "But it's just a theory; we don't know for sure."

  "Oh." Presley was disappointed. This strange glitching couldn't even be explained like everyone else's powers could?

  "Sorry; it's just that nobody really knows much about bio-powers," Sidney confessed. "People tried so badly to cover it up that it's really hard to find information on it at all - let alone information that's actually reliable. Even on the internet."

  Presley had to concede on that one. After all, like she'd said, she hadn't even known that bio-humans had really existed. Though now it was starting to make much more sense why it was treated as such a taboo subject. She remembered when she'd been in middle school and one of the boys had brought a superhero based comic book into class. The boy had been severely reprimanded, his parents had been called in and the teacher had shredded the comic in front of everyone. It had seemed so unusually extreme that it had always stuck in Presley's mind.

  "That's why you freaked out so much when I glitched in the hallway last week," she realised. "You didn't want anyone else to see."

  Sidney nodded. "If the wrong people found out, it could risk the whole Revolution happening again. We can't let anybody know that bio-humans are still around."

  Sidney didn't have to worry about her telling anyone, Presley decided. She certainly didn't want to risk execution - for herself or for anyone else either. "I won't tell anybody about it. And I won't tell anyone about you and your family either. I promise."

  "Thank you," said Sidney gratefully. Somehow, she believed her. She guessed they were in the same boat now, after all. It almost seemed silly that they hadn't just told her everything in the first place, but again, it was just so hard to talk about. "So, your... glitching, did you say?"

  "Oh. Yeah, I don't know if there's a technical name for it or anything. That's just what I've been calling it in my head," Presley confessed.

  "Can you control it?" That was now the question foremost on Sidney's mind. "Because that time in the corridor..."

  "Won't happen again," Presley promised quickly. "I can control it now; I swear. It only happens now if I want it to - I haven't had any more mishaps."

  "Good. Because those are the two rules we go by," said Sidney. "Don't tell anyone and don't ever use your powers in public. Especially somewhere like school, where everyone knows who you are." She decided not to mention what exactly they did with their powers outside of school just yet. She'd wait and discuss that one with Tessa and Cody first.

  "Right," Presley agreed. After what she'd heard, there was no argument that both rules made a lot of sense. "So what can you guys do then? What are your powers?"

  But Sidney didn't get to answer, because the door was suddenly pulled open from the outside, making them both jump and momentarily dazzling them with the much brighter strip lights of the corridor. Facing them, looking just as surprised as they were, was one of the football jocks that Sidney couldn't remember the name of, holding hands with a dark-haired girl whose name she definitely remembered. Anastacia Hall. Same year as them, a well-known reputation and easily one of the biggest bitches in the school. Well, this wasn't going to turn out good.

  As expected, they completely got the wrong end of the stick. The guy grinned at them. "Looks like this spot's already taken. Way to go, girls."

  Sidney felt her face grow hot. "No! That wasn't what we were..."

  But Presley cut across her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah?" she dared the popular teens. "What's it to you?"

  Sidney's cheeks burned even more. She had got to be kidding... Anastacia made a face. "Gross," was her only contribution.

  "Then take your homophobic ass somewhere else," Presley ordered, waving her along. "Go on. Mind your business."

  Anastacia threw them both a dirty look, but amazingly, she did as she was told. "Come on," she told the guy, tugging at his hand. "Let's go and find somewhere clean."

  Like a typical guy, the jock was still grinning. He winked at Sidney and Presley. "Hey, I still think it's pretty hot," he commented quietly, before letting himself get dragged away.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Sidney wriggled out from underneath Presley's arm. "Urgh. I can't believe you said that to them. Especially Anastacia Hall."

  "Well, it's better for them to think that than know what we were really doing, right?" Presley pointed out, completely nonplussed. "Besides, what's so scary about her? She's just all talk and fake hair."

  Sidney just shook her head. "I'm amazed you could even talk to her like that." Anastacia was a well-known bully. Sidney was far from being a victim of bullying, but she still knew better than to back-talk someone who could probably turn the entire school against you if she wanted to.

  Presley shrugged. "I'd talk to anyone else the same if they were being prejudiced like that. You can't let girls like her think you fear them or they'll think it's the same of everyone and they'll use it to their advantage. It doesn't matter how popular someone is or how much money they have, you still have to put them in their place if they need taking down a notch or two."

  Wow. Presley really didn't take crap from anybody. No wonder she was class president. "Still, you don't really want to be on someone like Anastacia's shit list. Especially when you now have a big secret to keep."

  Presley just smiled indifferently. "She can try and dig up dirt on me if she wants. I happen to be very good at keeping secrets."

  They heard footsteps along the corridor and both jerked their heads to see who it was, but it wasn't Anastacia this time - it was just a harassed looking substitute teacher. One of the elbow patches on his blazer was beginning to peel off at the seams, flapping loosely as he bustled along the corridor, his arms crammed with textbooks. Sidney wondered absently if he knew he was basically a walking stereotype.

  Presley glanced up at the clock on the wall. "We should probably start heading back to class. The bell will be ringing any minute," she said reluctantly. "But I still want to know more about... y'know, all of this."

  "We'll tell you everything we know," Sidney promised, looking up and down the corridor. More people were starting to file inside. "Meet us by the back gates at the end of school. We'll go and find somewhere we can talk in private without risking anyone else overhearing."

  Presley smiled again. "I think I actually know just the place."