Chapter 15

“Okay… So… You can make things people ask for, happen?” Lang asked.
Cassidy sat on a folding chair, surrounded by most of the other kids in the ‘Base’. She was slowly sipping on a bottle of water to help soothe her sore throat. She began to nod her head but then stopped.
“Well… kaff…” She managed to say before the scratchiness of her throat forced a cough out of her.
“It’s a little bit more complicated than that.” She said and then took another drink of water.
“Okay yeah, so you can’t make just anything happen. What are the rules for this?” Lang asked.
“Wait, you’re not going to make more wi- ask for more stuff are you?” Cat asked him incredulously.
“Of course we are! We would be stupid not too!” Lang said back.
“It hurts her to use it! You literally just got done lecturing Gwen about the same thing!” Cat yelled.
“It’s…” Cassidy started to say.
“That’s because she uses it over and over again! We will only have to use her power once! We just need to think of the right wish!” Lang yelled back.
“Haaaa!” Cassidy straightened her back at the mention of the trigger word.
Lang looked at her and blinked. Everyone looked at her as she had tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
“What?” Lang asked.
“You said the ‘W’ word you dumbass!” Cat yelled at him.
“But I didn’t make a wi-”
“Shut the fuck up!” Cat yelled as she covered his mouth with her hand.
Lang tried to yell at her and pry her hand away from his mouth but he soon found it impossible with her strength.
“We’re sorry about that… are you okay?” Cat asked.
“Haaa….Haaa… Y-yeah… I’ll be fine.” Cassidy said as she caught her breath.
“How bad does it hurt?” Gwendolyn asked as she sat up from the mattress that she was resting on.
“Umm… kaff… Uh, well… imagine taking a deep breath, then having someone jam two lightbulbs down your throat and into your lungs. Then having someone punch you in the ribs, breaking the bulbs. Then you sort of, cough up the glass shards…Ummm.” Cassidy said looking up to see the somewhat horrified faces of everyone.
“Holy Shit…” Trilby said under his breath.
“… Okay, we won’t force you to use it. AND NO ONE ELSE USE THE ‘W’ WORD!” She said, raising her voice suddenly at the end.
“It would just be once!” Lang said as he managed to get out of Cat’s grip when she was distracted.
“Lang… No means no…” Gwen said coldly to him.
“… Fine…” He finally said sighing.
“Um… It’s okay…” Cassidy muttered.
“What? Are you sure?” Cat asked.
“Yeah. If its just once I can deal with it if it helps you all find your friends and family.” She said.
“You don’t sound sure…” Cat said.
“Well… I’m not looking forward to the pain. But it’s fine…” She said smiling a little to assure her.
“Thank you. Really! Thank you so much!” Lang said to her.
“Your welcome.” She said smiling a little more genuinely.
“Okay, so can you walk us through the rules to your ability?” Lang asked.
With a nod, Cassidy went silent to compose her thoughts. It wasn’t often that she had to explain the ins and outs of her power so she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t forget anything.
“Okay then… umm… Let’s see… Number one is that what you ask for has to already have a chance of happening. So no asking for a pet dinosaur or stuff like that… Number two…”
“We need some paper!” Dale said and motioned to everyone to find something to write with.
Once he had what he needed, Cassidy continued.
“Right so… Two, a wish can only ever be granted once. But with clever wording, you can probably get around that.”
“Are you feeling okay?” Cat asked.
“Huh? Yeah, why?” Cassidy asked.
“You said the ‘W’ word so I thought…”
“Oh! Aha, No I’m fine… I can’t use my ability myself.” She said smiling to reassure her.
“That sucks…” Dale said adding that to his notes.
“Anyway… Three, A person can only wish once.”
“Wait? So does that mean I can’t ever get another one.” Dale asked.
“Uhh, Oh no… One wish granted. If it’s denied it doesn’t count. Sorry if I confused you.” Cassidy said.
“Phew, That’s good to know. ” Dale said correcting his notes.
“Not like your going to get another. We are only doing this once.” Cat said to him.
“I-I know…”
“So four. This is more an add-on to rule one… If I deny a wish at first, I might be able to grant it later.” She said.
“Why?” Lang asked.
“Umm… well, it has to do with probability? Like if something that isn’t possible at the time, but later becomes possible.” She said.
“Okay… Is that all?” Lang said
“…Yeah, I think so.” She replied.
“Well, that doesn’t seem so bad.” Dale chimed in.
“But I can’t control my power at all, so you have to be super precise of what you wish for, and how you wish for it!” She said.
“Okay so how about… I ‘W’ word for all the kidnapped kids in the city to be released?” Lang asked.
Cassidy thought about it for a bit and shook her head.
“Released is to vague a word.” She said.
“What? How is that vague?” Lang asked.
“What if they are being stored by the waterfront? What if they throw them into the bay to get rid of them? That would be technically releasing them.” Dale said.
“Don’t say shit like that!” Cat said to him.
“N-No, he’s right. Ever heard of a monkey’s paw?” Cassidy asked.
“Is your ability really that evil?” Dale asked.
“No, but it sort of takes the path of least resistance. So you have to be really exact with your wording. I haven’t killed anyone with my ability yet, and I don’t want to start now.” She said.
“Your ability is sort of lazy?” Joe asked.
Cassidy looked over at the boy with dirty blonde hair. She blinked a bit as this was the first time she heard him say anything. She looked back down at her feet and thought about it.
“I guess that’s a good way of describing it. My power doesn’t care about people’s feelings or mine for that matter. You wish for something and there can be a billion ways where it can fulfill it… but it will always bump the most likely path up to the front, no matter how many people it hurts.” She said.
“So, moral of the story is be careful what you wi-ask for…” Dale said with a small gulp as he could see the warning stares from other people in the room at his near slip of the tongue.
He scratched the back of his head and smiled at everyone. He sighed and sat down on the ground and crossed his legs.
“Right… So, any suggestions?” Lang asked her.
“What?” Cassidy asked back.
“You know your power better than anyone here. How it likes to interprets ‘requests’… How would you ask?” He answered.
Cassidy looked at him, her eyes widening a little. She never really thought about how she would wish for something as her power would only work for everyone but her. She bit her lower lip as she thought about it. Wishing for the other kids to be released was too risky. They could be killed or hurt in the process. Even if they were to wish specifically for noone to get hurt, it would most likely end in a wish denied.
These people were kidnapping children and are probably selling them to disgusting perverts. It would be wrong to think they would just change their minds and just free them. The probability of that happening is most likely zero.
“Lang… Is your sister a Metahuman?” Cassidy asked.
“Well… Yeah, but her ability hasn’t been unlocked yet.” He said.
“What do you mean? If she doesn’t have her ability how do you know she is a Meta?” Cassidy asked.
“She has a pleonastic mutation, and only Metahumans have them. Her blood is a lime green color and her hair is also the same color.” He told her.
“Oh, Okay then… Do you think that the kidnappers knew that her powers aren’t awakened when they took her?”
“Yes…” Gwen said as she looked at Cassidy.
“I was with her when we were kidnapped.” She added.
“You were kidnapped? B-But… Did you escape?” Cassidy asked.
“No I didn’t, when they got us in the van they took out a flashlight looking thing and shined it in both of our eyes. It was connected to this large box so I guess they had to actually get us in the van first to use it. They shined it in Zoe’s eyes and I heard them say she was good. Then they shined it in mine and without saying anything they kicked me out of the van. They didn’t even untie my hands…” Gwen said as she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
Lang got up and walked over and sat beside her. He took her hand and forced her to look up at him. Gwen took a deep breath and slowly laid back down.
“I’m sorry…” Cassidy said to her.
“It’s fine… And it’s not Gwen’s fault what happened.” Lang said squeezing her hand tighter.
“Lang’s right! It’s no one’s fault but those fucking bastards! When we find them we are going to make them pay!” Cat said to Gwen.
Gwendolyn smiled weakly and raised one of her arms up and covered her eyes. Cassidy felt tears welling up looking at her.
“Why did you want to know?” Dale asked.
“Huh?” She asked rubbing her eyes a little.
“Oh! Uhh, well I wanted to know how possible it would be for them to escape… But if they are not taking people with usable abilities…” Cassidy said as she slipped back into thought.
If they are actively going after children with no abilities, then the possibility of a successful escape drops significantly. Add in the condition of no one getting hurt, then it probably drops to zero again. Cassidy sighed and then paused and then looked over at the map.
“That’s it! We just need to find them!” She said out loud, causing all eyes to fall on her.
“Did you think of something?” Cat asked her.
“Yes! We don’t need to have them be released or escape, we just need to find them, right? Then we can let the Association rescue them!” Cassidy said.
“Yeah, that would work. So we just ask for the location?” Lang asked her.
“Sort of, my power can’t give someone knowledge like that. But if we ask for, let’s say a dart to land on the location of the map where the others are being held… Then it’s all good!” She said.
“That sounds simple enough!”Cat said.
“Wait… What if they are being held in more than one place?” Trilby asked.
“Then… Uhh…” Cassidy said thinking.
“Then we widen the search. ” Gwen said as she lowered her arm and looked at the group.
“Slow down…” Lang said as Gwen began to stand.
“I’m fine… We ask for any location of the captured kids to be selected with five dart throws. I will then use my ability to narrow it down.” She said as she slapped her palm on the map hanging on the wall.
“I’m not letting you use your ability again today. ” Lang said as he stood up and walked over to her.
“…Fine… Then we can do it in a little while once I recovered.” She said.
“… Okay, Is that alright?” Lang asked Cassidy.
“Yeah! That’s fine… It will give us time to really hammer out the wording of the wish.” She said back.
“Thank you. ” Lang said to her again.
Cassidy smiled and nodded, the group began to disperse and form little cliques. Cat sat down next to the Cassidy and handed her a small bag of chips. Cassidy smiled at her and looked at it.
“… Ultra Hot Pickle flavor?” She asked.
“We don’t have a whole lot at the moment. Sorry.” Cat said to her.
“N-no… I wasn’t complaining or anything…” Cassidy said as she opened the bag.
She looked into the bag, and the chips looked back at her. She took one out and could see it was completely coated in a thick red powder that had small black specks peppered around. She took a small bite and chewed. Her eyes widened and she quickly dropped the rest of the chip back into the bag.
“Whatu! W-Whatur!” She said with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
“W-Water?” Cat asked and looked around for the bottle Cassidy had been drinking from.
She looked around and then looked under the chair Cassidy was sitting in. She could see the bottle sitting by one of its legs and quickly grabbed it. Cassidy was busy fanning her tongue with her hands when Cat handed the bottle to the suffering girl. She quickly popped the top off and began to drink deeply.
“You okay?” Cat asked
“Haaa… Haaaa…” Cassidy breathed out as she took the empty bottle from her lips.
“Y-Yeah… Why would anyone…Buy these?” She asked.
“You take what you can get… Sorry, all the food we have left is the really spicy stuff, We give most of the regular flavors to the younger kids.” Cat told her.
Cassidy sucked on her tongue to sooth it as she looked around the shelter. She could see a group of young children, the oldest looking of about 9 years of age sitting and listening to an older girl read from a paperback book. Cassidy looked to the left of her and could see Dale, Trilby, and Joe arguing with another group of boys. She was a bit too far away to hear exactly what about, but she thought she heard something about supplies.
“Did everyone here… Lose their parents?” Cassidy asked.
“…Yeah, we are all basically orphans now. No one had the resources to look after any of us.” She said.
“And the UHA really couldn’t help?” Cassidy asked as she looked around again.
“They said they don’t have the manpower to dedicate to looking after all the children in the city. They did give us some food and water… but that only lasted us a few days.” Cat told her.
“I see… How are you guys getting food now?” She asked.
“Where ever we can, at this point if you don’t have anything to bring to one of the trading posts, then you have to steal from others.” She said.
“It’s gotten really bad huh?” Cassidy said lowering her head a bit.
“It’s probably going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. ” Cat said with a sigh.
Five loud bangs came at the large metal door. Cassidy jumped to her feet and stared at it.
“It’s okay… That sounds like one of ours.” Cat said laughing a bit.
As she said that someone ran up to the door and hit it three times. After a small pause, the person on the outside hit the door back eight times. The kid began to turn the wheel that unlocked the door.
“Huh… That’s not the same code we used to get in.” Cassidy asked.
“It’s not really a code… it’s just a math problem. Person A knocks on the door any number of times, then Person B on the inside knocks back whatever number. If the second number is lower then the first, then person A knocks back the numbers added together. If it’s higher, they knock back A minus B.” She said as the door opened.
“I see, any reason why?” Cassidy asked.
“We just thought it would be harder for people to fig-” Cat stopped mid-sentence and stood up as a teenaged boy limped in.
His black hair was matted with sweat and blood. He panted heavily as he dropped two large duffle bags to the ground and then nearly collapsed himself before the kid that opened the door got his shoulder under his arm to help him walk.
“We need some help!” The kid holding the wounded boy up yelled as Lang ran up and helped him to the bed that Gwen had been resting on.
“Get whatever clean clothes we have!” Gwen yelled out.
The shelter was worked up into a frenzy, people were rushing everywhere to find whatever supplies they could.
“W-What’s going on?” Cassidy asked.
“That’s Augustus. He is one of our supply runners…” Cat said as she looked around for whatever clean rags she could find.
Lang quickly ripped open Augustus’ shirt to look at the wound. He took a cloth and began to wipe up some of the blood but was a little puzzled when he saw no wounds.
“Fuck, Help my turn him over!’ Lang yelled as they carefully flipped him over.
He quickly ripped the rest of his shirt off and began to wipe away the blood but at this point, it was just more of smearing it around his skin.
“He was limping! Check his legs!” Lang shouted at the others.
“Look…” A girl said on the other side of the bed as she pointed to a small puncture on his shoulder.
“I see it… There are one, two… Five of them.” Lang said inspecting the wounds.
“There are two more on his left thigh! I don’t see anymore!” Another boy said.
“What? Was he stabbed with an ice pick or something?” Someone asked.
“No… I think it’s buckshot… Fuck!” Lang yelled as he wiped sweat from his forehead, leaving a smear of blood on his face.
“Bring me water, any alcohol we have and… uh… Find me some tweezers or something!” Lang said out to everyone.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Gwen asked.
“No… But I don’t think we are supposed to leave the shrapnel inside of him. How is he doing?” Lang asked.
“He’s out, but he’s still breathing. If we close the wounds quickly I think he will be okay.” Gwen told him.
“Here!” Someone said as they placed a few bottles of water on the bed.
Soon after a bottle of isopropyl alcohol was placed on the bed along with some more clean-ish clothes.
“Tweezers!” Lang yelled.
“I don’t think we have any!” Trilby yelled from across the room.
“Fuck… Goddammit! Give me something!” Lang shouted.
“Dale! Your darts! Can we use them!” Someone asked.
“Fuck! Yeah, that could work!” Dale said as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small case holding three darts and rushed them over to Lang.
“…Okay… This will be hard… I need someone to open the wounds so I can try and pry this shit out!” Lang said as he opened a bottle of water and began to wash away some excess blood.
“Alright… “ Lang breathed to himself as he took the alcohol and poured it on the wound.
“Hold it open!” He yelled at the person opposite of him.
“Here! Let me do it!” Gwen said as she pushed the other person out of the way and used her thumbs and index fingers to hold the small wound open as wide as she could.
“Thank you… Okay… “ Lang said as he took a dart in each hand and brought it closer to the wound.
“Wait!” Cassidy yelled out.
“W-What?” Lang yelled back as he almost dropped one of the darts.
“Don’t you have to disinfect the darts? Like, hold them over a fire? They always do that in T.V. shows…” She said to him.
“Oh, right… Bring me a lighter or something.” Lang said.
One of the older teens immediately produced one from their pocket. Lang took it quickly and flicked it on. He held both the darts over it and waited for about ten seconds. He then threw the lighter back at the person that gave it to him and focused on the wound. Lang took a deep breath and then slowly dipped the darts into one of the holes in black haired boys shoulders. A sizzling sound, accompanied by the slight smell of what could only be described as burnt pork filled the air. Augustus’ eyes shot open and he began to yell out on pain. He immediately began to turn around and fight off whatever was stinging him.
“Fucking hell! Hold him down! Now!” Lang yelled out as Cat quickly ran around to the head of the bed and pinned him down.
“Shit…” Lang said under his breath and tried again.
He inserted the darts again and watched as they sank in up to the barrel. Lang gritted his teeth and pulled them out.
“Fuck…Fuck fuck fuck!” Lang seethed.
“What is it?” Gwen asked.
“The tips aren’t long enough! I don’t know what to do now…”
The group fell silent except the yells of the pinned Augustus.
“Umm… C-Could Cat push them out?” Cassidy asked trying not to look at all the blood.
“What?” Cat asked.
“Like, you know…” She said as she held up her hand and formed her finger into a claw, she then straightened it in a poking motion.
“You crazy? You want me to use my power to poke it out from the other side?!” Cat coughed in a half laugh.
“You mean you can’t?” Cassidy asked.
“Well… I mean… I could I guess…” She said shifting her eyes to the side.
“Can you, or can you not?!” Lang asked her.
“I… I’ve never had to be that precise with my power… I don’t know.” She told him.
“Give it a try…” Lang told her.
“… Are you serious?” Cat asked.
“You just have to nudge it forward a little, then I can pull it out with the darts. ” Lang told her.
“Uh…Wh…Bu…” Cat stuttered.
“Catalina! Just do it!” Gwen commanded her.
“Fucking fine! Shit!” She yelled and forced Augustus onto his side and got onto the bed with him to get a closer look at where the wound was relative to the front of his body.
“How far in is it?” She asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe an inch and a half?” Lang told her.
“Okay… Um, Don’t blame me if I accidentally push his lungs out his back.” She said with a small nervous laugh.
She leaned over and examined the wound and adjusted where her finger was on the front of his shoulder. She did this a few more times before she felt confident she got in the right position. She took a few deep breaths and then shoved her finger forward. Augustus screamed at the top of his lungs, and then he passed out. A large spurt of blood gushed from the small hole as Lang quickly pressed a cloth onto it to stop the blood flow.
“Whoa! Holy shit!” Lang said at seeing the amount of blood.
“W-What? Is it a lung!?” Cat asked as she raised her finger, a white mist floated from its tip.
“N-No, Just a lot of blood. Uh, let’s see.” Lang said as he was about to move the cloth to see if he could now get the lodged projectile but stopped when he saw a glint of metal on the bed.
“No fucking way… You… You pushed out the pellet completely!” Lang told her.
Cat leaned over Augustus’ unconscious body and blinked.
“And I didn’t kill him! That’s like two wins!” She said excitedly.
“Y-Yeah… Are you ready for the next one?” Lang asked.
“Okay!” She said with more confidence.
Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, they managed to remove all of the remaining pellets. Lang cleaned the wounds one last time and the then looked around.
“Do we have any needles and thread?” He asked.
“Do we really need to stitch them closed? The holes are really small…” Cat said.
“I don’t know. Haaaaa…” Lang said with a sigh and looked over to Cassidy.
“Did you ever see them stitch up shotgun shell wounds like this on T.V.?” Lang asked.
“Huh?” Cassidy asked as she sat in her chair and fanned her hand in front of her face.
“You okay?” Lang asked.
“Mmhmm… Just… Blood…” She said.
Lang looked back over to Cat and they both shrugged.
“It doesn’t look like its bleeding much anymore. I think we can just bandage it up and monitor it till he wakes up.” Gwen said.
“Sounds fine with me… Can you do it?” Lang asked as he held up his red hands.
“Sure. Go get cleaned up.” Gwen told him.
“Thanks.” He said as he stood up and took one of the half-empty water bottles that he had been using to clean Augustus’ wounds and walked over to a bone-dry sink in the corner of the shelter.
Lang stopped and watched a few of the other kids in the shelter examine the large duffle bags Augustus had been carrying. He looked over to Dale and motioned to him to secure them. Dale looked back at him and nodded, he then tapped both Joe and Trilby’s shoulders and motioned to them to follow him.
“What did he get?” A younger kid asked.
“I don’t know… Why is there a combination lock on the zipper?” Another asked as he tried to open one of the bags.
“Hey! You guys know the drill! We catalog the food first before we start calling dibs.” Dale said.
“We know that! It doesn’t matter anyway, Augustus put a lock on both bags… Dude is fucking weird.” The boy fiddling with the lock said.
“He’s not weird, he’s just… well, okay… He is a little weird but he gets us most of our food and he got shot doing it, so shut your mouth.” Dale said to him as Joe reached down and took the bag away from the boy.
Dale continued arguing with the boy as Cassidy watched. She looked over at the boy they called Augustus. He was sleeping calmly now, the mattress he laid on was now stained a deep brownish-red from all the blood he had lost.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Gwen said as she sat down next to Cassidy.
“That’s good… That was intense…” She said back to her.
“Yeah… It’s the first gunshot wound we had to deal with. Good thinking about Cat using her power like that!” Gwendolyn said to her with a smile.
“It’s nothing! I’m just glad it worked… But, why did he get shot in the first place? Did someone try to rob him of the food he was holding?” Cassidy asked.
“Uh, probably the opposite.” Gwen said under her breath.
“Can’t we just wake him and ask for the combination?” The boy Dale was arguing with said with a raised voice.
“Fuck man! Look at him! Let him sleep!” Dale said obviously getting frustrated with this boy.
Gwen sighed and began to get up when Lang came walking over with his hands dripping wet. They still had a bit of a dark tint as he didn’t have enough water to finish rinsing his hands completely. He looked over at the group arguing and sighed as well. He motioned to Gwen to sit and walked over to the group.
“What’s the problem here?” Lang asked.
“Augustus put locks on the bag. Combination locks…” Dale said.
“Ahhhh… Okay… We’ll just wait till he wakes up. We still have some food left over.” Lang said.
“But it’s all ridiculously spicy stuff though. Only Augustus and Ramsey likes that shit!” The boy said.
“I feel sorry for your pain…” Dale said.
“We wait! End of discussion!” Lang said.
“Can we just rip the bags open?” One of the other boys asked.
“They belong to Augustus, so you can if you want but you are on your own if he gets mad at you.” Lang said.
“Shut up!… It’s 4783 and 7723…” They could hear coming from the mattress.
“Augustus?!” Lang asked as he ran over to him.
“Uhh…Fuuuck… What happened?” He asked groggily as he tried to roll over only to start screaming in pain.
“Stop! Stop… You were shot, don’t move around!” Lang told him as he helped him roll back onto his stomach.
“F-Fuck!… I… Hooo… I feel so… kinda sick?” He said.
“You lost a lot of blood. You might pass out if you work yourself up too much.” Lang told him.
“Oh? Is that what this spinning feeling is?” He asked.
“Do you remember what happened? Lang asked as most of the people in the shelter began to gather around to listen.
“Uh… Let’s see… Ahem… Gather around and I shall tell you a tale! I-Is everyone gathered?” He asked not wanting to move his head and make the spinning worse.
“Haaa… Yes.” Lang said sighing.
“Okay… Its a tale of mystery, wonder and even love! It is a story foretold by soothsayers for eons! Hark thee-”
“Goddamnit Augustus Quinn! If you don’t start talking like a regular human begin so help me! I will forcibly reinsert each and every piece of shrapnel back into you. By the time I’m done with you, you will pray for the sweet release that only death can afford you.” Gwendolyn yelled.
“…So like I was saying, I had just hit this one store… you know, doing my thing. When I realized that I was close to Reeves Street. So I thought ‘Hey, Don’t they have a trading post over there?’” He said to the group.