Chapter 31 #2
“What the fuck is he going to do next?” Ellison asks. “He’s going to ruin my life. I have to move. I have to… go to some deserted island where he can’t touch anyone. I think if I’m far enough away, he won’t be able to harass people.”
“While a vacation sounds fantastic, I think that we should just iron out a few things here and now,” I tell him.
“Do you know how to incapacitate someone without hurting them?” Ellison asks me.
“Of course I do.”
Ellison looks hopeful. “Knock me out. If I’m unconscious, he can’t do anything.”
“I don’t think that’s the best of our ideas. Sometimes we have good ideas and that’s not one of them,” Lex says. “I never thought I’d be telling Ellison that he has bad ideas.”
“Do you think we can figure out how to force El to meet up with me?” I ask. “Like can you do like mental snail mail or something? Send him this: ‘What’s up, bro, it’s Asmodeus Death…’ What’s your last name? Just toss that at the end of my name. Anyway, ‘Meet me at seven PM in a cemetery.’”
“Why a cemetery?” Landon asks.
“Because if I don’t make it, you can just roll me into a grave,” I explain.
Ellison does not appreciate my joke in the slightest.
“Ellison, my dear. It was a joke. But now I’m being serious; can you tell him to meet me?”
“No, and I wouldn’t want to even if I could. I want him to stay as far away from you as he possibly can. I don’t want him around any of us. I want him to fucking go away,” Ellison snaps before storming up the stairs.
Pocket Lint gallops after him as I lean back against the wall.
“This… El is going after people in Ellison’s life, right?” I ask.
“Yeah. But I’m not quite sure what to do about it. Like… how do you fight someone you can’t hurt?” Landon asks. “I could throw an entire building on him, but it’s not like it’d hurt him.”
“We have to assume that the next person El would be going after is Ellison’s father, right?” I ask.
“It’s possible,” Nolan says. “Honestly, highly likely.”
“I guess maybe we should find his father?” Landon suggests.
“But we all already know who he is, right?” I ask.
Everyone stares at me blankly.
“Like how do you guys stay alive without me? It’s Calvin Somerset, the preachy asshole from the mall who was on that video. The ‘Let’s destroy all supers’ dude. How did you not realize? They have the same last name!”
“You think I actually pay attention to the last names of my friends? I barely pay any attention to them, let alone their last name!” Landon says.
“Maybe you should.”
“You knew that all along?” Landon asks.
“I know everything about all of you,” I assure him.
“That’s kind of scary, but I guess you have your uses,” Landon says. “Why didn’t Ellison say anything?”
“I mean… do you blame him?” August asks. “Would you have looked over at the guy wanting to murder and control supers and said, ‘Hey! That’s my dad!’”
“If I was El, I’d totally go murder that guy,” I say. “I have an idea that could fix everything.”
Landon looks at me. “Let’s hear it.”
“What if I go murder Ellison’s father now to show El that we can be bros? I could even ask him if he wanted me to help him murder him.”
“How did I end up in prison but you didn’t?” Nolan asks me.
“You gotta be sneakier… and useful,” I say, which makes Nolan’s face scrunch up.
“If the law can’t catch you, you will never get caught.
Anyway, I’d like to do a few experiments.
Come upstairs.” I wave them after me and as they get up to follow me, I notice something around Nolan’s ankles.
“You have very fancy anklets on, Nolan.”
“Thank you. They are set to incapacitate me if I try to break them or run away. A stipulation of being ‘free.’”
“Like they snap your ankle?”
He gives me an incredulous look. “What kind of barbarian place do you think I just came from? They inject me with a tranquilizer.”
“That is significantly less fun,” I say.
“Is it?” Nolan asks. “Landon, the more I’m around your friends, the more I’m concerned for you. I know you had trouble making friends growing up, but I assumed it was because you never looked up from your books to notice that they existed.”
“Right? I also thought they were weird, but I kind of like them,” Landon says before holding his hands out. “Deus… up the stairs, please.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I reply as I pick him up and lift him above my head.
“Why are you so strong when you look so average?” Landon asks while I take a step up.
“He was wounded! Landon, don’t make him carry you!” Nolan snaps.
“Oh, right, I forgot,” Landon says as he squirms down. “August, carry Deus up the stairs.”
“Of course,” August agrees before lifting me in a bridal carry. I feel very pretty as I’m hefted up to the second floor and carried into Ellison’s room. He’s sitting in front of his suitcase but hasn’t added anything to it since I saw it last.
“Let’s talk,” I say once August sets me down.
Ellison sighs before glancing up at me. “You ready to knock me out?”
“Not quite. So… if we think about things, we know that El likely has three targets: me, your mother, and your father,” I say.
“I have to assume.”
“I think we should have Valerie place eyes on both of them,” Nolan says. “I understand there’s nothing they can do if El attacks, but we’ll know where to show up.”
“And do what?” Ellison asks. I sink down into the desk chair and begin to twirl while I think.
“We’re going to find out. August, can you text Valerie for us and get that set up? Now, Ellison, when Nolan controls you, can he stop your illusions?” I ask.
“I’m more than happy to try, but we’ve tried before when Valerie and I were hoping to figure this out, and it didn’t seem to work.”
“Then can Nolan control the illusions?” Landon asks.
“Aspen, help us find out,” Ellison says.
Aspen hurries into the room and plops down on my lap. “Of course. I’m happy to help.” He smiles and strokes my cheek before kissing it.
“Nolan’s going to try to control you,” Ellison tells him.
“All ready for you, big boy,” Aspen says as he hangs on me.
Nolan stares at him but nothing seems to happen. “I think because he’s a part of you, I just can’t even feel him.”
“You can hear his thoughts?”
“I can hear a jumble of thoughts, but I think they’re connected to Ellison. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s like multiple strings of thoughts coming from one person. Let me try with more of a focus on Ellison while separating out just Aspen to see what I can do.”
He closes his eyes and concentrates for a few minutes before Aspen quickly stands up.
Nolan opens his eyes. “That’s… not easy but I can kind of do it. It’s like I have to sort through the streams of thought to latch on to Aspen. I’m not sure it’ll be the answer to everything, but it seems like I can have limited control over them.”
Ellison looks thrilled. “It’s better than nothing. This is… this could change things. If you could just… control him long enough, maybe I can force him away. Can you feel him now?”
“No, but I bet if I was in the room with him, I could.”
I ask, “So we have one possible way to control El; what about August? A while ago we learned that when August freezes time, they freeze too. But can you unfreeze them?”
“Why would you want to do that?” Ellison asks.
“Let’s just say I’m curious.”
August looks back at me merely seconds later. “When I unfroze Aspen, it unfroze Ellison too.”
“It gains us nothing. None of this gains us anything,” Ellison says.
“You don’t know that,” I soothe him.
“I want to work on this some more, if it’s okay,” Nolan requests.
“Please, it’s more than I’ve ever gotten,” Ellison says, looking hopeful.
Aspen clings to me while Nolan concentrates and after about a minute, Aspen stands up.
“It’s taking too long to do anything,” Nolan complains.
“You were faster than the first time,” Landon says.
“Also… this just means I have to keep him distracted for one minute. I can distract someone for a minute. I am a phenomenal distraction,” I assure Nolan.
“That’s true… as long as I’m feeling him, there’s hope.”
“I think this could actually work,” Ellison says, and I can see him feeling relief over this mess for the first time in days.