Renegade: The Empowered series prequel story Read online

  Renegade

  The Empowered series prequel story

  Dale Ivan Smith

  Contents

  Untitled

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Afterword

  Empowered: Agent Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2016 by Dale Ivan Smith

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Untitled

  RENEGADE

  * * *

  The Empowered series prequel story

  * * *

  Dale Ivan Smith

  Chapter 1

  The Rikards were going to freak when they woke up in the morning. I brushed my bangs away from my eyes, blinking in the bright moonlight, and smiled at the new forest of weeds I’d created on their lawn. The putting green lawn was now a weed-filled jungle of spiky crabgrass and tall stalks of Queen Anne’s lace. The crabgrass hissed in my mind while the Queen Anne’s lace hummed. The weeds were giddy with the happiness of blooming plants.

  Not a bad night’s work for a sixteen year-old girl, but there was more to do. The August night was still hot as I turned and walked down the sidewalk to the community garden at the end of our block. Sweat ran down my back and inside my cutoffs. The full moon hung low over the West Hills. It was maybe an hour before dawn.

  As I walked I stretched out my power. The walnut trees murmured in my mind, strong like mountains as my fingers brushed their bark. I was Empowered, just like the sanctioned stiffs in the Hero Council. But my power was a secret, just for me, no one else. Not ever. I hadn’t told my grandmother, Ruth, or my sisters. It was my special thing.

  I pulled my power back into me as I came up to the community garden tucked behind a tall hedge, next to Willamette boulevard and the bluff. In the distance, lights shone in Portland’s industrial area.

  The community garden kept getting dug up. Someone had snapped the bean poles and trampled the corn. I had used my power every night for the last seven nights to regrow the plants. I replaced the poles, too. I’d done my best to fix the garden.

  No one suspected there was an Empowered living next door to them. When I first became “empowered” two months ago, I kept spacing out from all the plant songs in my head and feeling what they felt. Ruth thought I was on drugs. She kept watching me when she thought I wasn’t looking, and asking me if I was all right. I had to work hard to hide that I was Empowered.

  Now I only used my power at night, when everyone was asleep.

  I took another deep breath and walked past the hedge, to where the community garden was. My eyes widened.

  I reached out with my power, to listen to the tomato plants’ songs and feel their contentment. Dying screams pounded inside me. I clenched my hands and grabbed at my temples. It was like hot spikes were being hammered into my skull. The tomatoes were dying. Some were already dead. I blinked away tears, reached out with my power to touch the corn.

  There was nothing there. The corn was dead, all of it. The lettuce was dead. The beans were dying. All the plants were dying or already dead.

  Poison. The plants must have been poisoned. The Rickards’ asshole sons and their goon friends must have done this. They had been snickering at me all week long.

  I stood up, balling my fists. I would turn their precious lawns into blackberry brambles. So what if it wasn’t just some weird thing, if they realized there was an Empowered in the neighborhood. They wouldn’t know it was me. My muscles tightened in anger, and I dug my fingernails into my palms.

  I’d cover the whole fucking neighborhood in blackberry vines, covering every lawn, right up to the windows of all of the houses. This place would look like the thorn forest from Sleeping Beauty. I ground my teeth, imagining the shock and anger, savoring it.

  My skin began to tingle, starting in my back, spreading to my neck and butt. I rubbed at my neck. The tingling crept up my scalp and down the backs of my legs.

  In those stupid shows about Empowereds my twin sisters liked to watch, like Sanctioned and Super Son, whenever one Empowered got near another one, their skin tingled. I thought it was dumb, but all the shows did it.

  I whipped around but no one was there. Maybe it was the poison. I backed away from the garden, toward Willamette Boulevard. The tingling moved to my chest and arms, grew stronger. I turned and ran across the street to the bluff. I reached out and urged the grass to grow taller, to thicken. Behind me the suddenly tall stalks swayed in the moonlight, like someone was moving through it. Shit.

  Vines. I sent vines snaking up from the ground and growing up and around a person-shaped silhoutte. Legs, arms, chest. A long-haired man in an army field jacket and cargo pants suddenly appeared in front of me, entangled in the vines. He stumbled and fell on his face.

  I ran back across Willamette. The tingling faded away. I sprinted past the dead garden and the hedge. I reached the walnut trees and slowed down. Looked back. There was no one in the field. I stopped. Sweat poured down my face. I hadn’t made plants grow that fast before.

  My face and breasts started tingling again.

  Someone stepped out from behind the walnut tree in front of me. She was short, and blonde, her hair a bunch of braided knobs. She wore cutoffs like me and tennis shoes. The tingling sensation became a thousand hot needles. My heart pounded.

  “Hold it,” she said.

  I punched at her but she twisted out of the way. She grabbed my arm and pulled me past her. I tumbled and slammed hard against the sidewalk. The breath whooshed out of me.

  “Just want to talk with you, girl,” she said.

  I kicked at her with my legs but she jumped out of the way.

  “You aren’t going to touch me,” she said, and laughed softly. She looked past me, back toward the bluff.

  “Keep clear,” she said to someone behind me. I scrambled up and pressed my back against the walnut tree. There was no one behind her.

  It had to be that creepy guy. He must be Empowered. They both must be. That was why my skin was tingling. That was why he could hide in plain sight, and why I couldn’t lay a finger on her.

  I lifted my hands, let the power flow through them and into the ground around me, down until I found seeds in the earth, blackberry seeds. They were everywhere. I made them burst forth and sprout, sending shoots to burst up and become vines.

  “Hold on. We just want to talk,” she said.

  No way. I pushed the vines to grow faster, but suddenly I felt drained, and couldn’t sense the vines. I wasn’t used to pushing my power.

  “You’ve got creepo there behind me,” I said. “How many other people do you have watching me?”

  She shook her head. It’s just me and Gus.”

  “The creep!” My eyes narrowed. “I don’t like creeps.”

  A corner of her mouth turned up in a smile. “Who does, girl? But he’s okay. He can “blend” in. He’s a creep, but because he creeps around.” She giggled at her own dumb joke.

  I jabbed my finger at her. “You going to use your power to flip me again?”

  She grinned. “That isn’t my power. That’s martial arts. And I’m older than you.”

  “How do you know? You look maybe fifteen.”
<
br />   She put her hand on her chest, rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m shorter than giant girl doesn’t mean I’m younger than giant girl. You’re sixteen,” she said. “I’m seventeen.”

  “How do you know how old I am? And I’m not giant, I’m just tall.” I was almost six foot.

  “Because we have been watching you for the last few weeks,” she said. “Mathilda Brandt.”

  Fear slithered down my spine. She knew my name. “People call me Mat,” I said through clenched teeth. “What’s your name?”

  She ignored my anger. “Tanya. And everyone calls me Tanya. But I think I’ll call you Vine. You should have an Empowered nickname.”

  What a stupid idea. “Do you have one?”

  She gave me a sly smile. “Yes.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  “Now’s not the time. We have more important stuff to talk about.” She jerked her head at the dead community garden. “Somebody has it in for you, for sure. It’s only going to be a matter of time before the Hero Council comes looking.”

  “What does this have to do with you?” I demanded. I kept glancing over my shoulder to where the creep must be.

  The mocking grin left Tanya’s face. “Because your power is a gift. Not to be wasted on messing with neighbors because they hurt your feelings. You get mad and do dumb stuff. You’re going to get caught.”

  What a crock. “You don’t know me, not one bit. You don’t know what it’s like being me. So, just take your creepo friend and fuck off.”

  Tanya stepped close to me, until she had to tilt her head back to look up at me. Her eyes were hard. “This isn’t just about you, Mat. There’s a lot at stake. Lots of people’s lives.” She didn’t blink. “You don’t want to be wearing a blue Hero Council jumpsuit, do you? Follow their orders?”

  I shook my head.

  “Didn’t think so,” she said. “I know I wouldn’t want to be a sanctioned servant.”

  That sounded like something she’d heard from someone older. “Stiffs,” I said.

  The corner-of-her-mouth grin returned. “Stiffs, huh? I like that.”

  I kept looking for Gus. “I really wish your friend Gus would stop being invisible.”

  She laughed softly. “He’s not invisible. He just blends in.” She waved a hand. “Let the girl see you, Gus.”

  He appeared behind Tanya, looking betrayed, like a puppy someone had just kicked.

  I clenched my fists.

  He flinched. “Don’t come after me.”

  “Don’t act like a creep and I won’t.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I’m not a creep!”

  Tanya put her hands on her hips. “Please, kids, let’s not have a stupid, pointless argument.”

  I relaxed my hands. “Fine,” I muttered.

  “You need to meet our friends,” Tanya said, and something about the way she said it sent a thrill shooting through me.

  “More Empowered?”

  She put a finger on her lips. “Better not to talk about it out here.”

  I nodded. Just like that, I wasn’t pissed at her any more. I was curious, wanted to know about her friends.

  “Can I meet them?”

  She got serious again. “That would be cool, but there’s a catch.”

  Figures. “What?”

  “You gotta leave home for good.”

  Leave Ruth and my twin sisters. Ruth and I seemed to be fighting all the time, but she was still my grandmother, the woman who raised me and the twins after mom and dad were killed.

  I stared at the ground. “I…I can’t.”

  “You’ll be found out if you stick around. If you’re lucky, they’ll give you a chance to foreswear your power. But if not, you’ll get put on trial.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I clenched my fingers. My power belonged to me, no one else. I wasn’t going to give up my power. No way.

  I raised my head. “I’ll think about it.”

  She shrugged. “Sure. Just don’t take too long. Not only are you risking getting found out, but things are changing soon for me and my friends. You won’t be able to find us if you wait too long.”

  “You going someplace?” I asked.

  She put her finger against the tip of her nose and winked.

  Irritation tightened my mouth. “You like your secrets, don’t you?” I glared at Gus, who shrank back. “All of you.”

  “I’m just with her,” he said. “It’s not up to me.”

  “Fine. Okay, so if I want to go with you, how do we hook up?”

  She handed me a slip of paper with a phone number printed on it. “Call this number at 8PM. It will work for the next few days.”

  “What’s it to?”

  “A payphone. Someone will be there at 8PM. They’ll tell you what to do next.”

  I nodded.

  “But don’t wait long,” she said. “I mean it.” She stepped closer until we were practically touching. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

  Chapter 2

  I got home a little while later. I came in the back door, closed it carefully behind me, trying to be as quiet as possible. I smelled coffee.

  “I’m glad you decided to come back for breakfast.” Ruth’s voice made me jump.

  “Uh,” I said. My heart pounded. “Um, what are you doing up?” I asked like an idiot. Pretty obvious that she was waiting for me.

  She sipped her coffee, pointed at the empty chair across from hers. “Why don’t you sit and stay awhile.”

  I sat. She took another sip, watching me in darkened kitchen. My eyes adjusted enough to make out the disappointed look on her face. She was dressed in slacks and a blouse, her short hair combed. Ruth didn’t wear makeup. She told me once she’d been a “tom-boy” when she’d been growing up, back before the Missiles of September and the Three Days War, back before Empowered came out in the open.

  What if she knew what I’d been doing? My heart pounded faster.

  Ruth put down her coffee cup. “Mattie, what’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing. Just went for a walk.”

  “At three in the morning? And for two hours?”

  I never could lie to Ruth. Instead, I kept my mouth shut, and stared at my hands.

  She squeezed my hand. “Talk to me.”

  I swallowed. I couldn’t tell her the truth.

  “After all these years, why can’t you talk with me anymore? You used to come to me about anything.”

  It had been a while since those days. “I can live my own life,” I said, blurting the words out.

  She stared at me. “You’re still a teenager, Mat,” she said.

  I jerked myself to my feet, knocking over my chair. It hit the floor with a loud bang.

  “I’m old enough to decide what I want to do.” Anger bubbled up inside me. She’d been bossing me around for years. No more.

  “Are you using drugs?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not stupid. I wish you’d give me more credit.” I was practically shouting now.

  Ruth raised a hand. “Calm down. I was just asking a question.”

  “It’s a stupid question!” I took a deep breath. Lowered my voice. “How can you ask me that? I’ve seen what it does to my friends.”

  She stood. “I wish you’d told me that you were using drugs.”

  My eyes widened. She actually wished I was using drugs. Worry crept into my stomach, made it clench.

  “You wish?”

  She nodded. “Yes I do.” Her voice was suddenly steel. “It would be easier.”

  “Easier than what?” I was practically shouting again. How could she know? I’d been careful. I hadn’t used my power around her, not since June. And back then I was sure she had thought I was just spacing out. I loomed over her. “What are you saying?”

  Ruth didn’t flinch at my anger. “You know what I am saying. You are Empowered.”

  I shivered. Somehow she knew, knew that I had become Empowered. “You’re going to tell the Hero Council, aren’t you?” I blurted the wo
rds.

  She blinked. “You think I’d turn you over to them? This is up to you, Mattie. You have to decide what to do about this.”

  It felt like she’d thrown ice water in my face. I blinked. “You mean that?”

  She sighed. “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t.”

  I sat down hard, slumped my shoulders. “Okay. I mean, I really appreciate it.”

  She looked disappointed. “I just wish you had come to me sooner.”

  “Why? I haven’t done anything.”

  “Really, Mattie, the neighbors lawns have just magically turned into weedy jungles overnight? And the community garden keeps growing back after being trashed.”

  My jaw tightened. “They killed it tonight. Poison. I couldn’t bring it back.”

  “What power does Mattie have?” My sister Ava asked from the doorway. Behind her was her twin sister, Ella.

  “Why are you sitting in the kitchen in the dark?” Ella asked.

  My two baby sisters. They were twelve years old.

  “Mathilda and I are talking about something that you don’t need to worry about,” Ruth said.

  Ava frowned. “We’re not five, grandma. And we can hear Mat shouting from upstairs.”

  “Is Mattie really Empowered?” Ella asked.

  Great, now everyone knew.

  I didn’t say anything. They’d just blab it all over the neighborhood. I was trapped. It wouldn’t be long before someone called the Hero Council and reported me. My power belonged to me. Me, no one else.

  “Go back to bed,” Ruth told the twins.

  “That’s not fair,” Ava said, pouting.

  Ella just look confused.

  “Now,” Ruth ordered. They turned and left, Ella still confused, and Ava with a flip of her hair, angry.

  “You should have told them,” Ruth said.

  I gave a bitter laugh. “You’re kidding, right? They’ll just blab it everywhere.”

  “You have to decide what you are going to do,” she said. She reached out and brushed my long hair away from my face. “I really wish you wouldn’t wear it like that. You have beautiful hair, but wearing it over your face like that, it’s just strange looking.”