ASBO-Boy - And a new day begins... Part 1

Saturday 12th November 2016

The second Vue jumped them all into the garden of Malady’s house Squeeze shouted himself hoarse demanding to be taken back. They’d left Nia with the Elementals, this was unacceptable. He was forced to watch the others reunited with their families while he pleaded with Vue to take him back. Nobody listened, they were too busy hugging and kissing and promising each other that they’d never let each other out of their sight. He knew it was useless, but the person he most wanted to be sharing these sentiments with was in the hands of the authorities. Bark had his brother; Malady had her parents; Vue had the Other known as Core – once a girl, now a mountain of stone. They could hear her quaking footfalls in the distance. Vue hung around for as long as he needed to recover from the last enormous jump, then he was gone. He just sat without a word on top of the garden shed watching the police helicopters as they circled her head uselessly and then vanished.

That night Squeeze went to bed early, foregoing the celebrations. After the ordeal in the bunker he was spent. That night he dreamed of the sea, and for the first time the feeling of having a blanket of water around him was a comfort. The following morning should have been filled with dread and anger but all of his frustration seemed to have gone. Things were different now. He was going to get Nia back and he was going to put his abilities to practical use.

He swung his feet off the bed and stood up. Around him the others were spread happily across their bunks, all apart from one curtained corner of the room around Flicker’s bed. Squeeze drifted over and pulled back the curtain. Within he found Flicker asleep. It was the first time he’d seen her totally still. Lying next to her, torso on the bed with the rest in a chair was Gwen.

In the garden he found Bark, who, while looking more like a man than ever before was also looking more like a tree. Small branches were poking out of his skin-suit and were beginning to sprout leaves. Squeeze tested himself by stretching his arm out as far as it would go. It touched the far end of the garden. Was it Nia? Malady? The radiation or a combination of the three, he couldn’t know, but they had all changed, one way or the other. They were more powerful, it was as if something within them had been turned on, like a tap twisted all the way.

“Good morning,” Bark muttered, his voice like a rasp against wood. He sounded surprisingly chipper, all things considered.

“Isn’t it?” Squeeze replied with a cheeriness he hadn’t realised he was capable of.

“Someone’s changed his tune. You feeling alright?” Bark said with a forced chuckle.

Squeeze smiled. “Yeah, I’ve just come to a conclusion about things. I know what I want now and it took seeing her again for me to figure that out.”

“The girl in the purple? Is she, like, ‘The One’?”

“She’s a friend. The first girl I kissed. And only, in fact.”

“I’d rather forget the first girl I kissed. Blue light disco at Cinders. Grim stuff mate.”

They laughed together. It felt bright and clear. “Well. Flicker’s still asleep, Malady didn’t stop crying, Arc-Light has stopped talking and Gwen has gone all maternal. Quite a turbulent twenty-hours all in all.”

Bark nodded. “And yeah – Vue and The Colossus of Pati have swanned off somewhere. I think he said he was going to keep her in Singleton Park until he figures out what to do with her. What do you do with a girl who’s ‘filled out’ and turned to stone, eh? Imagine that conversation; ‘Do I look fat in this?’, ‘Er, well, um – look over there! A squirrel!’.” He paused and they both laughed. “I was thinking of going back to the Sandfields and working stuff out there. I could help people. My brother needs an extra pair of hands to get things done.”

“Looking like that?”

“What? Black? What are you trying to say?” They laughed again.

“Nah – I’m thinking you should stick around, that’s all, with people who accept you for who you are.” Squeeze smiled. “You know, a tree.”

Bark nodded. “And do what?”

“Well, the way I see it, there’s a balance that needs addressing. Everyone thinks we’re the bad guys. That’s wrong. If the Elementals can help people, then so can we.”

“We’ll be like a modern-day gang of outlaws. Robbing from the rich and all that.”

“I’m sure you’d love that but we can’t just start stealing things. We want to build a reputation.”

“Sounds good. Only one problem – we’re wanted criminals.”

“You’re really going to let that stop you?”

“No – but it might put off the others, bearing in mind the palava that went on at Dyfatty. Malady’s just a kid, we’re living in someone’s basement, Flicker’s out for the count. It’s a bit too soon.”

“It’s never too soon to do the right thing.” There was a pause before they both burst into peals of laughter. “You know what I mean.” Bark nodded, he did know what Squeeze meant and as cheesy as it sounded, he was right.