Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(28)

“Let’s let her get some rest.” Bells squeezes Emma’s hand and leads her back to her own bedroom.

Emma doesn’t let go of his hand—not the entire time he’s recounting everything: his powers, the training center, Jess and Abby and their powers, the attempt to rescue the Mischiefs, Orion, and everything about the hero-villain system being a lie.

She listens intently, gasps and clutches her hands to her face when Bells tells her Orion attacked Jess with lightning, asks endless questions about Bells and his powers, and, by the end, she is nodding, and her eyebrows are knitted together.

“We’re going to need help,” she muses. “Jess’ parents—they don’t know? Or they do know?”

“I’m not sure what Jess has told them… I’m not sure where Jess is, actually.” Bells hopes she and Abby are okay. Part of him is worried, but he remembers her confidence at the base. Jess can handle this. “I told her to meet us in town, so we should go to her house and wait for her.”

“Hmm… that’s a good idea, but, if you haven’t noticed, you’re kinda the Collective’s most wanted right now.” Emma draws the curtains shut.

“Well, Barry Carmichael is. I should be fine,” Bells says. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have led the Authorities to your door.”

“Barry…” Emma raises her eyebrows.

“I made up an identity when I registered as a meta-human,” Bells explains. “I didn’t want the League poking their noses in my family’s businesses, you know. And since I don’t have any relatives who were registered, I’d be—”

Emma’s eyes widen. “You’re the first…”

“Mutant, yeah. I know.” Bells sighs. “It’s weird.”

“No, no, no, this is the coolest! It’s a game-changer! Everything we thought about the meta-gene and how it expresses itself and gets passed on…”

Bells can already see the ideas churning in Emma’s head. She’s zipping through a long train of thought, and he’s only hearing a fraction of it.

“… that means the amount of people with the gene we thought X29 catalyzed isn’t finite, and maybe it was latent and can be expressed after…”

He shakes his head fondly. “All right, all right, it’s cool.”

He should be safe, but remembering the words of Lysander’s broadcast sends a chill through him; Chameleon is wanted now. What if they somehow know that Bells is Barry? What if Jess’ parents, superheroes who have always sought to protect their city, won’t give Bells a chance to explain and will capture him at first sight?

Emma snorts. “Oh really? However are we going to disguise your face if we go outside; how in the world are we going to do that?”

It takes Bells a minute, looking at Emma’s serious scowl, at how she’s just about to roll her eyes, at the way her arms are crossed. The desperation of the situation rolls away, and Bells breaks into helpless laughter. “Okay, okay. But it’s not like Jess has invited a lot of people to her house; her parents really only know you and me. Who can turn up there and not be suspicious?”

“Ah! Denise Ho! She and Jess used to be really good friends, and Jess is always saying how her parents bug her about not talking to her Chinese school friends anymore.”

“Right,” Bells says. “I don’t have any classes with her… don’t really remember exactly…”

“Got you covered.” Emma grins and pulls up a yearbook holo on her DED. After a few quick searches, she’s pulled up several pictures of Denise, and the plan begins to form.

Emma heats up leftovers, and they eat. Bells’ strength begins to return as he finishes his third plate of pasta.

Emma twirls a long string of spaghetti on her fork. “You said you hit your time limit. That’s after what, a full day at school and then at the base?”

Bells shakes more cheese onto his pasta. “Eh, I can do a full school day—seven hours—shifted, if I want to. The more complicated the change, the harder it is; and I always exert more energy shifting something or someone I’m touching, but…”

“You’re stronger than A-class,” Emma says, grinning.

“I know.” Bells tries to ignore his embarrassed pride.

“All right, I have a lot of theories on the evolution of your abilities, but it sounds like you still are limited to the usual constraints of meta-human biology. You need to get some rest. Let’s go.”

It seems different, though Bells has slept here many times. It was always comfortable before. The three of them are used to being in each other’s space, whether they’re huddled in sleeping bags in the Robledo family room, or sprawled out over Jess’ huge bed, or telling jokes in the bunk beds at Bell’s house.

Bells and Emma often had sleepovers—just the two of them. They used to fall asleep inches apart and talk and laugh through the night. Now, Emma keeps blushing while asking him questions about being Chameleon, what the League is like, what he thinks about Captain Orion, and how she can’t believe Captain Orion turned out to be so cruel.

“The whole system, too,” Bells says, shaking his head. “I had no idea. I mean, I thought strange things happened during Meta-Human Training, but I didn’t realize the NAC picked out people to be villains—and then told them what to do.”