TFS: Burnt Earth

Connor

Earthquake. That’s my new gift tag. Tracks, what with my shaking the shit out of things recently. I’m tamping down on releasing it for now. Last thing I want is these guys on unsteady feet while they’re practicing. Although, strategic implementation will definitely be a level two training challenge I can get on board with.

I had misgivings about Sheyla choosing Seán to lead the water-gliders. Fuck, I was way off. He’s a natural leader, using humour as a means to gain favour with his new recruits, who he calls Miscreants. He’s charged with Brenden, Liam, Shila, and Takoda.

Brenden and Liam are blood brothers. They don’t get along, in case you didn’t pick up on that previously. There’s a pretty broad age range between them, but they were inducted into the Sentry at the same time. Brenden can speed things up around him—bleeding, sickness, etc. Liam, on the other hand, has the ability to slow things down around him. They opted for the gift tags Tortoise and Hare.

“I don’t know why you got the fast gift,” Liam grumbles.

“Probably because he needs it more than you,” Seán mediates. “He needs to hurry his slow ass up, whereas you could stand to slow yours down.”

Shila has an unfortunately black thumb. The things he touches are sorry he did. Gift tag: Wither. “This is terrible,” he snipes, watching hanging vines turn brown in his hand. He can’t find his on and off switch.

“You just have to learn control,” Seán recommends. “Until then, we’ll get you some gardening gloves.”

“Gardening gloves?”

“Would you prefer ballroom gloves?” he clips.

Shila scowls.

“I’ll get you some leather driving gloves,” I offer.

“No,” Seán interjects. “Go woo your own ingrates. Leave mine to me.”

Seán’s final Miscreant is Takoda. He’s friendly, though not in a forced pleasantries way. Outside his gossip whoring, the boy is just genuinely happy and appreciative of everything. He can liquefy objects, but the result isn’t permanent. When he touches things, they simply pool into a puddle at his feet that reforms moments later.

“What are you calling it?” Seán pokes, watching him work.

“Snotify.”

“Excellent.”

“Better get that one some gloves too,” I add.

“Industrial strength rubber gloves would probably be best,” Seán proposes.

Yeah, Seán’s kicking ass with his team. Same with Molly. Me? I’m having a fairly hard time getting used to the leader role. I’m in charge of Machk, Len, Keme, and Collin.

Same as Brenden and Liam, Machk and Len are brothers. Twins no longer synchronized. Machk’s ability works like a magnet. It’s akin to telekinesis, but he can’t actually move objects. He draws things toward him. Len, conversely, pushes things away from him. They’re originally from Grand Lake, Oklahoma. Bass fishing wasn’t so much a hobby as a rite of passage for them growing up. They’ve decided to title their powers Cast and Reel. Fuckers are super disappointed not to be water-gliders, what with the fishing and synchronized swim facets.

“Wouldn’t you rather be the one on the land fishing?” I petition.

They gape at me, undeterred my placating attempt.

“You’d rather be Bait and Hooked?” I persist.

They both smile, giving each other a high five. Whew. Crisis averted.

Keme’s probably the youngest of the group at no more than a physical seventeen years old. Just as Takoda can liquefy things temporarily, Keme’s ability is temporary too. He disintegrates things by touching them.

“Ashes to ashes,” Keme chants. “Dust to dust.”

“What are you calling it?” Seán presses.

“Implosion,” he declares, “because when I touch things, they blow up from the inside.”

“It doesn’t blow up though,” Seán argues.

“It blows up on the inside,” Keme repeats. “That’s why I said Implosion.”

Collin laughs. “Mine literally blows apart.”

Collin can do something similar, except the pieces explode instead of disintegrating. He has a small rock in his palm. It explodes, impaling his hand. Ryan comes running.

“So, you’re calling it Explosion?” Seán guesses.

“Exactly.”

Keme frowns. “Yeah, maybe I’ll go with Dust Mite.”

I slap him on the back. “Good gift tag.”

“Gloves for everyone,” Seán broadcasts. “No piss breaks until we find some gloves.”

I decide to take a break of my own, sitting down next to Sheyla. “I’m not sure about this.”

“Tad too late to pull out now,” she advises me.

“I know.”

“You know what I do when things feel too overwhelming for me?”

“Take a nap,” I tut.

“That’s fair.” She does have a tendency to do that lately. “I also try to think about one thing at a time. Stop trying to focus on the whole team. Just focus on your group.”

“I can’t help worrying about everyone,” I admit.

“I feel that feel, Connor,” she soothes me. “It’s my trademark move.”

I half-smile.

“How are they doing?” she checks in.

“Best they could be this early in the change,” I report. “They’re still a way off so far as control goes. In the next hour, we’ll see marked improvement. Right now, it’s too new for them to do any good with what they have going on.”

“At least they seem to be having fun,” she redirects.

“Parenting is hard,” I complain.

“It’s hard being responsible for people, but you’ll be great at it,” she claims. “You’re already doing good. They all respect your authority. They listen to you.”

“No idea why,” I note. “Being that I look so much younger than them.”

“Do you feel younger?”

“Oldest kid I know,” I clap back.

“Growing more and more every day.” Molly comes up behind me, locks an arm around my neck, then rubs knuckles against my skull. She pinches me on the cheek for good measure before releasing me. “So precious.”

“Knock it off, Punk,” I reprimand her. “You’re making me look bad.”

“I’m taking another perimeter run. Last check set them about two hours away. Should have another hour to get ready, if they stayed their course,” she announces.

As Molly flies up toward the tree line again, I head back to my team, relaying orders to them and the rest. Fuck, filling Phelan’s shoes is no small feat. Truth is, those things were ragged and needed thrown away anyway. I’m doing this differently, with transparency and my whole heart. The only thing Phelan’s heart was ever concerned about was control.

Speaking of control, I have good news and better news. That berserk bus? Sheyla straight up blew the bitch right off the road. Turns out, Tyler’s tethers were the driver. How do I know? Well, for one thing she shifted my line placement when I supplemented from her, but that’s not the deal sealer here. Collin and Rowtag, who had concerns previously, are free as fuck now too. Unshackling us saved us from going berserk. Everything is coming up bullseyes. Fuck, we were due.