Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 8.2: When Girl Heroes Collide

Mirai security escorted Amy to her guest room. Dr. Urant had left her a message, saying that her uniform would be ready in a day and a half, and that some of his students had some ideas on how to improve it for future use.

Amy called her mom, assuring her that everything was fine, and then flipped through the channels on the TV. The news said nothing about problems in Boston, for which she was glad. She sprawled out on the bed, hoping to a good night's sleep, while running through the lines to her "be honest and help people" speech in her head, which she had given before at the occasional graduation or charity fundraiser.

She heard a knock, but it wasn't coming from the door, but a tap on the glass on the window on the other side of the room. A tall, thin, blonde teenage girl in a cheerleader outfit and cape was right outside the window.

Amy slid open the window. "Future Girl?"

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Want to go flying?"

"Always."

It took only a few seconds for Amy to throw on her spare uniform – she had become an expert at changing in a hurry. Also, it never felt right flying without it.

The guest room window was a little too small to fly through. So it was down the hallway, down the stairwell, and outside. Under the night sky, Amy took a deep breath and flew upward.

Amy caught up to Future Girl on the dorm roof.

"I've seen you on TV," Future Girl said. "Pretty cool."

"I do more than just commercials," Amy said. "I'm..."

"Not that, silly," Future Girl said. "I mean all the people you've saved and all the psycho killers you've captured. You're awesome."

"Thanks. What's your deal? You're a cheerleader?"

"No, not at all. I just thought this would be a cute look. Stupid, huh?"

"No way. You should wear whatever you want."

"Thanks. I like your flag cape. That's a fun idea."

"Some people give me crap about it. They say it's not appropriate."

Awkward silence.

"Let's fly" Future Girl said.

She blasted off into the night. Amy followed.

Future Girl zipped around and between the buildings that surround the Mirai campus, with Amy following. The blonde then flitted up higher and higher, out over the national park forest adjacent to the campus. Amy pursued, enjoying the visual of the dark green trees lit only by the moon overhead. Future Girl appeared as a yellow and pink blur in front of her, and then a yellow and pink dot. No matter how hard Amy concentrated, she couldn't catch up to Future Girl.

The two of them flew over some of the towns in the area, as well as the stretches of highway that connected them.

Future Girl did a quick 180-degree turn in midair and flew past Amy. "Come on, slowpoke," she said, laughing. Amy did her own 180 and followed.

Future Girl flew to the tip of the nearest mountain – an overgrown hill, more like – where she landed on a building with a domed section of its roof. Amy landed a minute later, letting gravity take hold of her again.

"How'd you get so fast?" Amy said. "That's totally not fair that you can fly faster than me."

"I don't know," Future Girl said. "I've never really clocked myself."

"Yeah, me neither," Amy said. "But I'm surprised you haven't. I mean, this is the big science school, right? Aren't your powers part of some experiment?"

"That would make sense, but no." Future Girl held out her hand. "Here, feel."

Amy pressed her fingertips against Future Girl's palm. There was a small, rocklike object just under her skin.

"This device is where I get my powers from," Future Girl said. "It takes all the raw energy of the universe collapsing into itself and changes that into my powers."

"OK..."

"What about you? What sort of technology gives you your powers?"

"Technology isn't really the right word for it," Amy said. "Except in maybe an abstract sense."

Future Girl shrugged at Amy.

"I'm, like, tied into the emotions of all Americans," Amy said. "The more that Americans believe in their own country, the more powerful I get."

"Geez, I'm surprised you have any powers at all," Future Girl said.

"Tell me about it," Amy said, "but people still vote, and little kids still say the pledge of allegiance in school every morning, and everybody still loves hot dogs at baseball games. Whenever Americans are kind, caring, and respectful instead of hateful and ugly, that fuels my powers."

"But how? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I don't know how that could be scientifically possible."

"It's... complicated," Amy said. "I was in the desert, and I almost died. But then there was this group of scholars, and they did these rituals... when it was all over, I was alive, and I had my powers."

"Yeah, but how..."

"It's kind of difficult for me to talk about."

"I understand."

Future Girl walked over to the domed portion of the building's roof.

"This is Mirai's observatory," she said. "They say the telescope is so advanced that it can see all the way into the Oort Cloud."

"That what cloud?"

"Doesn't matter. There's only a few of these telescopes in the world. One was just destroyed in London, and you were at the British Museum..."

"Yeah, turns out there's one of us in London. A superhero."

"Really?"

"He's an American, too. He calls himself Dreamsmith. He's just starting out, but he seems nice. Kind of cute, too, in a nerdy sort of way."

Future Girl laughed. "Kind of nerdy? Describes everyone that goes here."

"Just what is the deal with you and this school?"

"I wanted to come here because I've always been good at science and math. It didn't take me long to see that something's seriously wrong with this school."

"Like what?"

"Millions of dollars – maybe billions – get dumped into this place so that we can use tech that's more advanced beyond what most scientists will ever see in their lifetimes. Where's that money coming from? It had to be more than just tuition."

"Maybe big businesses help out, for some kind of tax write-off?" Amy said. "Or maybe the government's in on it?"

"Yeah, maybe," Future Girl said. "But there's more. You wouldn't believe how many accidents this place has. Experiments are always going wrong, the tech is always going screwy, and lives are in danger all the time. Before I came along, the hospital and injury rate was through the roof."

"What about all those security guards?"

"They do an awesome job when it comes to enforcing curfews and no-smoking rules, but I've never seen them perform first aid or rush someone to the hospital."

Amy saw where this was going. "And Miss Kahror?"

"I can't say. I mean, her reputation speaks for itself. She's advanced the science and art of education farther than anyone else. She's done so much to help young people..."

"And yet?"

"Like I said, there's something very wrong with this school."

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Next: Trouble.