Chapter 8 - Kids with Superpowers

  The ethics of whether or not I should hand strange objects to children turned out to be the least of my worries. Now I had eleven kids who all wanted to become the superhero or wizard. Since I’d already given Manuel a couple of stones, it was hard to argue that the risk was too high.

  Oops.

  I did have one thing going for me, though, and that was I simply didn’t have enough of the things. I had eight crystals left, and there were ten kids who seemed to all want one. When Emmy woke up, it would be eleven. There simply weren’t enough to go around.

  Which made for a great excuse. “I don’t have enough, guys. If more of those bugs attack us, I’ll see what I can do, okay? But until then, we need to sit tight and wait for Emmy to wake.”

  There were some grumbles, but these were all basically good kids, and they didn’t give me too much grief about it. We settled back in to wait, hoping Emmy would rouse soon.

  Not much time passed before I heard that sound I was coming to know far too well, the quiet skittering of many legs moving over sand. There were more of the things on their way.

  “Incoming, kids,” I warned. “Manuel, now would be the time to go grab that knife. Stay behind me, though. If they get past me, you’re the last line of defense, got it?”

  “Got it!”

  More than anything else I hoped I was making the right call with the kid, but there just wasn’t a lot of choice. I needed backup. He was the only one of the children who had stones implanted. His odds of landing a good blow, dodging attacks, or not being poisoned if one of the pill bugs tried to bite him were a lot better than any of the other children, so he was my guy.

  The creatures came around the corner in a wave of motion. Just like before, there were too many to count, but I was certain there were a lot more than eight of them, this time!

  They crawled along the walls and floor like a wave of carapace. Shit, I had a feeling this was going to end badly. My only real chance was that the new upgrades I’d gained would give me enough of a boost to survive this. I stepped forward, spear at the ready. One weapon simply wasn’t going to be enough to stop them.

  I turned back to the kids. “Change of plans. There’s too many of them for me to take alone. I’ve got eight crystals left. Here, take them, and do your best.”

  I scooped the stones from my pocket and laid them on top of my messenger bag. The kids closed on them with a ferocity usually restricted to free candy or cookies.

  “Easy, guys! One each. Taking two won’t help you, it’s got to be one each,” I told them.

  Then the pill bugs were almost on top of us, and it was time for me to turn back toward them and get to work. I stepped forward, squashing one with my foot while stabbing another with the spear. The wave hit. I tried my best to step on all of them that I could, but they were everywhere. The ones on the walls just raced right by; there was nothing I could do to stop them. The ones on the ground were more than enough.

  I crushed another one underfoot, but four more started climbing my legs. I kicked one away, but the others got high enough to start biting. Their mandibles ripped through my jeans, tearing up the fabric, but while I felt their pressure on my skin, I wasn’t feeling much in the way of pain.

  With a roar, I swung the spear down against my legs, sweeping them off, then snapped it back upright to stab one before it could right itself. Taking big, stomping steps, I went forward into the rush of bugs, each foot landing on a carapace and breaking it apart. One step, one bug. Another foot-fall, another dead critter.

  Finally, the rush slowed, leaving me enough attention to look behind me. I knew at least four of the creatures had gotten past me, using the walls, but when I looked they were all dead. The kids stood there, grinning at me. Manuel had the knife in his hand, the blade covered with bug guts. Mike’s shoes looked gross from all the goo, and so did Jeremy’s.

  “Any of them left?” I asked. I was surprised I wasn’t panting from all the exertion, but I supposed that was what tier three Stamina did for you.

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  Manuel shook his head. “We got the ones that got past.”

  “And you don’t need to give me a stone,” Maria added. “I didn’t get one before, but I got one from the bug Mike squished. It was for Strength.”

  “I got one, too,” Jeremy added. “Mine was Natural Armor, though.”

  “So each of you has one, now?” I asked.

  They all nodded.

  Awesome. Now I had eleven kids with superpowers. Well, it was better than eleven kids dead or unconscious from giant pill bug bites. If this was what it took to keep them all alive and safe, I figured it was worth it.

  “Good work, guys,” I told them. “Manuel, put the knife back in the bag, please? I’m going to check the ones I killed.”

  While the kids hung back, I looted all the pill bugs I’d crushed in that latest skirmish. Good news! I had fifteen new crystals now. Four of them were grey stones, the other eleven clear. That was a big haul, I figured, and maybe I could level something else up? I wasn’t sure how this stuff worked, yet, but I was learning fast.

  I held all four grey stones in my palm, and sure enough, two of them sank into my hand, merging with the existing Natural Armor crystal to bring it to rank three. Another two stones merged in, bringing my Strength to tier three as well. But best of all, I had four more merge and rank up my Stamina to tier four!

  That in turn opened up the fourth point. Since I was still holding the other five stones, I wasn’t shocked when one of the remaining clear stones sank into my palm, too. It filled that newly open fourth slot.

  This one was for Agility, flooding my mind with memories about how this new power worked. I was now much faster than I’d been before. That didn’t mean I could run at super-speed or anything like that, although I got the impression that might be possible if I ranked it up enough. I was faster, more dextrous, more agile all around, too.

  Magical Stones

  Point 1: Clear Stone (Tier 3) - Strength

  Point 2: Clear Stone (Tier 4) - Stamina

  Point 3: Grey Stone (Tier 3) - Natural Armor

  Point 4: Clear Stone (Tier 1) - Agility

  Point 5: X

  Spare Stones

  Clear x4

  Grey x2

  I felt like I was really getting a handle on this stuff, finally. I had a good pile of spare stones, a ton of embedded stones, and they all seemed to have pretty good synergy, too. Now I was stronger, faster, and I could fight longer. On top of that, my skin was also harder to punch through. I wasn’t invulnerable, but I could take some serious hits.

  It might just be enough to get these kids back home safe. I had to hope so, anyway.

  “Mmmmm…” That small sound made me turn. It was a soft noise, like someone waking up from a nap, and sure enough Emmy was finally coming around.

  I went to her side, crouching down to touch her shoulder gently. “Emmy? You okay?”

  “Where am I?” she asked.

  “Still in the tunnels. You had a run in with some bad bugs,” I told her.

  “Bugs?” She looked horrified, and I almost chuckled, but managed to hide it in time.

  “Yeah, but we took care of them. If you’re feeling up to it, I think we should get headed for home now, though,” I said. “We still have a ways to go before I can get you guys back to your parents, and I want to make sure we get there before dark.”

  “Before dark? How long was I asleep?” Emmy asked.

  I explained what happened, and the other kids chimed in with their bits of the story, especially the parts where they’d helped fight off the pill bugs. That of course led to Emmy wanting a crystal of her own, so I gave her one of mine. It turned out to be Stamina, which was probably a good thing. More Stamina would help her get over any lingering effects from the poison that much more quickly.

  Once that was taken care of, it was time to get moving. We made sure we had everything and everyone we’d come in with, and then we set off, back-tracking our way through the tunnels toward the rail line. Thankfully the bugs skittering around hadn’t obliterated our tracks, so we could still easily follow the path we used to get in there.

  No more pill bugs attacked on our way out. Maybe they’d had enough, and decided we were too big to chew on? I wasn’t sure if I was glad of that or not. After all, they’d proved pretty easy to kill, and I could always use more of those crystals.

  But I was equally anxious to get these kids back with their parents. We’d been gone a long time, and I had no idea what was happening above ground. By now surely someone had realized the train we were riding had never reached its destination, right? They should have sent in search parties to find us, but even as we got back out into the main railway tunnel, there was no sign anyone had been there.

  “Hello?” I risked calling out. “Anyone out there?”

  Nothing. Not even a whisper of reply. I shivered at that, because I’d been hoping to hear a rescue team answer. The silence made me remember that these tunnels had dangerous things living in them, now. The pill bugs might be easy to kill, but what about those rat creatures? What if there were worse things down there now, too?

  I kept my voice low as I turned to talk to the kids. “I think we need to get out of here on our own. Stay close, keep an eye on your buddy, and let’s be as quiet as we can. We’ve seen a lot of nasty surprises down here, and I don’t want to invite more trouble, so let’s move fast and silently.”

  I got a round of very serious nods in response. That made me proud of these kids. They’d been through a lot, and they were still keeping it together. I knew a lot of grownups who’d have struggled with everything we’d seen today. Hell, part of me was still struggling, but I was keeping that part locked firmly in a box at the back of my mind.

  Once I got the kids safely home, then I could become a fall apart rabbit for as long as I wanted. Until then, I had to keep it together.

  Besides, if the kids could do it, I certainly had no excuse!

  With that in mind, I set off toward the MGH stop, twelve kids following close behind me.