Before the Silent Scream

  Pinn sat casually at a cafe across the street of an empty diner for sale. Chewing his lip slowly, he scanned the streets through sunglasses, watching closely for the mysterious bot creator. He was a block away from the intersection of Westin and Main, but had a perfect view of the area from his seat outside. Six minutes left until noon, Pinn was impatient for the man despite being early. Disguised, he was wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a trench coat, wary of the creator noticing him first.

  “Anything new?” Serena’s voice came through an earbud.

  Pinn looked across the area, barely able to make out his parents sitting on the other end, two blocks away to get a full view of the area.

  “Nothing. Ma, you gotta stop putting your finger to your ear when you talk. You look obvious,” Pinn reminded her.

  “But how will the Bluetooth know to activate?”

  “It’s already on. It’s not a walkie-talkie, it just stays on and keeps us connected.”

  Hesitating, Serena half lowered her hand in the distance. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Sometimes I think you’re stuck in the last century, Ma.”

  “Your father says to stop making fun of your mother,” Serena said, though Pinn could tell she was joking through her light tone. Also because Rockwell was also on the call with them and he hadn’t said a word.

  Five more minutes.

  “You gotta buy something if you wanna sit out here.”

  Pinn started, shocked that another voice appeared next to him. A tall girl his age stood with a green apron and arms folded. She wore a mildly annoyed expression, appearing to have invested more energy than she cared to.

  “Sorry. I’ll take a coffee. With… Three creams and three sugars?”

  “Pinny, that’s way too much!” Serena said panicked into his ear.

  “You have to order inside,” the barista told him.

  “I have to go inside to have permission to sit outside?” Pinn challenged.

  She looked at him with narrowed, judgemental eyes. “Yeah. That’s literally how outdoor seating works. Was that supposed to be a gotcha or something?”

  Pinn wasn’t embarrassed until he heard Rockwell grunt in amusement through his earpiece. He checked his phone anxiously. Three minutes.

  “Sorry, what’s the fastest thing I can order? I really need to be out here.” Pinn looked back to the street to check for newcomers. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  “We have a French Toast someone ordered, but left before it was prepared.”

  “Sure, toast sounds great.” Pinn’s eyes remained on the street.

  “French Toast. You know the difference, right?”

  Pinn really didn’t care what the French did with their bread.

  “Yeah, sure. Here.” Pinn dug into his pocket and produced a debit card.

  Rolling her eyes, the barista took the card inside.

  “Pinny!” Serena hissed, her palm smashed against her ear.

  Pinn stood abruptly, ready for action. “Where?”

  “No, not the scientist! You can’t just give someone your card and let them walk off with it! You’re supposed to go inside and make sure they don’t take all your money!”

  “Ma, seriously?”

  “Yes! Get in there!”

  Sighing in frustration, Pinn turned to the door.

  “Stop putting your hand to your ear when you talk,” he muttered as he followed the barista inside.

  The cafe was a small operation, with only three tables near the entrance and a modest counter with a handful of pastries on display. The cashier had just swiped Pinn’s card and looked up, seeming somewhat surprised to see him enter the building.

  “I thought you needed to keep an eye on Hammerton traffic,” the barista said.

  “I was kinda rude. Shouldn’t have sent you inside like that. I wanted to say sorry in person.”

  Rockwell grunted again, this time in approval.

  “We all have bad days,” she said, sliding a paper plate with a piece of soggy bread on it, topped with a strawberry across the counter, along with his card.

  Pinn held up the plate. “French Toast?”

  “I knew you had never tried it before. My manager doesn’t care what you do with the food once you buy it, so you can sit outside and toss it for all I care.”

  “I’m not wasting food,” Pinn said immediately.

  “Pinny! It’s time!” Serena said, the urgency in her voice meant she could see something.

  “Bathroom?” Pinn asked the barista urgently.

  “In the back. Eww, don’t take the French Toast with you!”

  Pinn was already in the bathroom, tearing off the cheap trench coat, hat, and glasses, then head bursting into flame. He had chosen this cafe specifically because it had a ventilation hole cut inside the top of the bathroom. Tossing the clothes out the window, followed by the French Toast, Pinn lifted himself onto the sink. Balancing himself, he reached up to the window.

  The door to the bathroom creaked open and a spectacled old man walked through the door, stopping short and staring in shock at Pinn, the beating pulse of the light from the flame flashing on his face. Blinking, the man pulled off his glasses, rubbed them furiously and placed them back on his face. Pinn’s head was still on fire.

  “You’re the one from the news?” he asked like it was a conversation over a water cooler at work.

  “Yeah. Unless there’s someone else out there like me.”

  The old man looked Pinn up and down. “Poor kid. You forgot how to use a door?”

  Pinn looked up at the window, his arms still outstretched to the exit.

  “Supposed to be stealthier this way.”

  “I see. Smart for your age. Keep it up, sonny, we’re proud of you.”

  Pinn smiled despite himself, immediately gratified by the compliment. Wondering what his parents thought, he suddenly felt an oozing sensation in his ears.

  Fantastic. He’d destroyed his earbuds, melting them with his white flames. It was no wonder why Serena stopped relaying what was happening.

  Shaking his head to himself, he launched himself out the window, hearing the porcelain of the sink crack as he emerged. He landed in a roll, just around the corner from the street. He took his clothes and tucked them under a bush. Then he tried to take a rapid bite from the French Toast, only for it to puff into ashes before it could touch his face. Closing his eyes in frustration, he reminded himself he needed better awareness of when the hot flames surrounded his head. So much for not wasting food.

  Pulling out his phone, he turned off Bluetooth and set it to speaker, keeping his phone away from his face. It was a minute after noon.

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  “Ma! Pa! Burned out my earbuds! What did I miss!?”

  “Get over here!” Serena yelled.

  The phone line died. She wouldn’t have hung up, it was deliberately cut.

  Energy spiking, Pinn put extra power into his movements. Eyes widening, he realized he’d activated a new power. Enhancing aspects of himself. His speed improved, each stride sending him several feet in the air. His eyes were keener, feeling like they could zoom in and out like a camera. And his ears could distinctly pick out the sounds of metallic legs walking in the street just around the corner. He rushed from behind the alley, weeds in the sidewalk withering dry when he passed by them.

  As soon as he hit the street, he saw three bots in the intersection between himself and his parents. One of them was dancing atop a car, crushing it further into the ground with every step. It already looked like a bumpy metal pancake, but the bot must have wanted perfectly flat sheet metal.

  One bot was standing in front of his parents, holding an arm out toward them. Pinn Enhanced every fiber of muscle and launched forward, flying like a rocket. With his Enhanced hearing, he just made out the last words of the bot before he crashed into it.

  “...like to donate to The Cause?”

  Pinn bashed against it, obliterating it into dozens of pieces scattering across the road. Rolling smoothly onto his feet, Pinn hopped up and down, feeling confident and athletic. Flexing his forearms, he looked around to take on the next machine.

  Another bot approached him, looking much more put together than the other bots he’d seen. Its structure incorporated denser materials, such as iron and steel, for reinforcement. The head was less flat and slightly more humanoid, with a semblance of eyes on its face.

  “Oh! It’s you, I wasn’t sure you’d show up!” The scientist had arrived. Kinda.

  Despite the chipper tone coming from a speaker within the bot, it raised its dense fists for a fight.

  “I thought you would be here in person.” Pinn narrowly dodged a punch, surprised to see the bot attack while it felt like they were still talking.

  “Some other time. I need to work out the kinks in these things before I can make a mech I operate from the inside,” the scientist explained.

  Pinn ducked under a jab and drove his whole weight up for an uppercut under the bot’s chin. Instead of flying clean off like he expected, the metal dented into itself, leaving a crushed soda can for a jaw.

  “Impressive! I didn’t think you’d be able to scratch this one without using the crown!” the voice sang from the bot, amused.

  A scream called for Pinn’s attention to his left. The other bot was tearing off the roof of a car occupied by four family members. The distraction threw off his focus, and he took a haymaker to the side of his head, throwing him clean off his feet and slamming him into the window behind him. Glass cut into him, but Pinn was pleasantly surprised not to be knocked out by such a powerful blow. Thunderous adrenaline pumping through him, he couldn’t tell if it was a power or sheer will keeping him up. The glass melted around him and shattered further from energies he wasn’t in control of.

  Launching himself, he blew past the reinforced bot and grabbed onto the other bot before it could touch any of the civilians. Latching onto its head, Pinn tore the torso clean off with his momentum, landing on the shoulders and crushing it beneath his feet.

  “Shame,” the voice coughed out of a broken speaker beneath him. “I thought this one would at least get a good fight in with you.”

  “What is it you want?” Pinn demanded, shaking the bot.

  “It wouldn’t… good riddle if I just… gave… answer.” The speaker was splitting out, before fuzzing in death.

  “I don’t care about the riddle!” Pinn said, crushing what was left of the machine and spinning around in place to handle the last one.

  Frowning in surprise, the bot had left the area. It took him a moment to catch the eyes of his parents who were both pointing to a woodworking shop with a door sheared off its hinges.

  Pinn took two impressive strides toward the store, then stopped short when he caught his father’s wave.

  “Turn down the flame! You’ll burn the whole place down!”

  Frozen, Pinn hesitated. All his training with the flame had been about turning it on and off, not adjusting its intensity. Squeezing his face tightly, he attempted to turn it down. Lightning danced out of him and beams of light shined from his eyes, melting a nearby parking meter. Grimacing, he looked back at his parents who both nodded in encouragement, silently asking for him to try it again. Inside, the bot was rifling through the cash register, collecting hundreds of dollars and depositing them into a built-in money counter.

  Gritting his teeth, Pinn tried again to lower his hot head. It wavered, feeling like it was ready to go out, but holding on just enough to continue shrouding his face. The glass around the building exploded inward, blown away by Pinn by yet another power he was unfamiliar with. Breathing in slight disappointment, he marched inside.

  The cashier plastered against the wall of wooden trinkets, bowls, and utensils, looking at the bot with eyes wide enough to swallow the entire shop. With panic, her eyes went even wider when the body with a flaming white head walked in with purpose.

  “Please, he already took all the money!” she pleaded.

  Pinn frowned. She thought they were working together. Or maybe that she was being hit with two improbable robbers at the same time. The cafe barista was right. Everybody had rough days.

  “I’m here to help!”

  “Then why did you break my windows, you idiot!?” she screamed.

  Pinn frowned, feeling like the insult was a little rude when he was only trying to help. Rushing forward, he yanked the bot away from the cash register easily, lifting it over his head and tossing it toward the open window. The bot flailed as it flew, striking several pieces of handmade work before landing with a screech outside. Pinn rushed after it.

  “You better pay for all that!” the owner demanded.

  Pinn hesitated, then kept running. The damage was hardly his fault. No, it definitely wasn’t his fault. He wouldn’t even be at the shop if it wasn’t for the bots being there. Reparations definitely weren’t on him.

  The bot held up a hand as Pinn brought down a lightning-imbued fist upon it. Several motors within its body spasmed, and the bot collapsed into a twitching mess. Pinn held two palms up defensively, ready to take any surprise swings. The spasms became slight movements and the light in the bot’s eyes dimmed.

  Sighing in relief that it was over, Pinn reached down to burn the remains. Suddenly, its legs exploded to life, launching like rockets and flailing around the intersection wildly. The same intersection his parents stood in.

  Without thinking, Pinn launched himself into the air with Enhanced strength and grabbed one rocket, but it propelled him away from the area, launching him two blocks over before he crushed it in his palms and fell to the road below. Crashing, Pinn rolled up to his feet to witness a Pinn-shaped crack in the asphalt. Not something adrenaline could walk off. Definitely a power reinforcing his body.

  Thinking quickly, Pinn smashed the hole larger with a powerful blow from his foot, making sure no one could take time to measure and identify features of his body.

  “Hey, what are you doing breaking the roads, Lightcrown?” a man demanded from the sidelines.

  Pinn opened his mouth, then just leaped away, certain anything he said would make things worse.

  But with his Enhanced hearing, he heard the man mutter confused as he sped away, “I thought he was supposed to be good?”

  Sailing through the air toward the second leg flying around the intersection, Pinn reached out to snatch it from the air. It spun wildly, just missing his grip. Reaching with every fiber of his being, Pinn was just able to double back in the air, catch it, and crush it in hand in a moment. Blinking to himself, Pinn realized that he shouldn’t have been able to ‘double back’ while in the air. Looking down, he realized he was floating above the ground. Flight?

  The traffic light closest to him collapsed over like it turned into string and the roof closest to him developed a crack. Pinn deactivated everything that wasn’t his flaming head quickly, desperate to turn off the errant side effects of his powers. To his dismay, things around him kept breaking as he fell to the ground. Car windows, traffic lights, coffee mugs, even backpacks and bags shredded apart in a chaotic display of power anarchy. People screamed and fell back, cuts and bruises appearing on them as Pinn finally hit the floor.

  “What do you think of ‘Wild Boli’?” the legless bot asked him, its neck twitching.

  Pinn was lost staring at the horrified masses running away from him. Darting around, his eyes searched for his parents. Finally catching them huddled behind a table, Pinn saw they were safe. And more importantly, unharmed.

  “Is the speaker off?” the voice asked.

  “What?” Pinn asked, refocusing with a hint of rage.

  “Oh, good, you can hear me. Maybe ‘Evil Boli?’” the voice asked.

  “Your name is Boli?”

  “I told you, it’s a work in progress.”

  “Boli, if you pull anything like this again,” Pinn leaned in. “I’ll use all of my power to kill you.”

  “All of your power?” Boli sounded like he had just received an invitation. “That’ll be fun. I’ll meet you in two days in front of Ranger Park at noon.”

  “No!” Pinn said desperately.

  “Wait, you’re right, Anvil Latreen drops another album in two days. Better delay. See you… Thursday? Yeah, that works.”

  “I’m saying don’t send anything! Stop this!” Pinn demanded.

  The bot stopped twitching, the faint light in its eyes dying. In rage, Pinn shouted at the bot and it tore apart from the force of his scream alone, metal peeling and burning through the material so thoroughly that nothing was left but iron filings. Heaving in anger, Pinn stared at the remains. A firm hand came on his shoulder.

  “Breathe,” Rockwell said, his voice strangely paternal.

  Pinn’s shoulders slouched, his eyes burning hot with tears. “He tried to hurt you. And he’s coming back in a few days.”

  “We’ll be ready.”

  Pinn turned his head around to analyze the area. Remorse ate at his heart. Windows shattered, streets torn, cars broken apart, and bots allowed to reign free enough to scare people because he was too stubborn to pay for something at the cafe earlier.

  “We’re going back after him? After I did more damage than them?”

  “You’ll do better next time.” Serena placed a hand on his other shoulder.

  The energy in Pinn came to an equilibrium, fueled by the support of his parents. Two constant beams of balance and compassion. His mother’s endless love and his father’s incorruptible steadfastness. Both were so important to keep him steady. He wondered what kind of person he’d become without them constantly there to help. Nodding to them both, he stepped away, preparing to flee the scene so he could turn off his flaming head.

  “Hey! Wait!” The woodworking owner peeked out of her building. “The bot took money from the cash register! Did you get it back for me?”

  Pinn stared in embarrassment, realizing he shredded both the bot and its contents to nothing. The money would have been easily recoverable.

  “Thank you, Lightcrown! See you around!” His mother waved to him, her eyes signaling it was best to leave without another word.

  Spinning in place, Pinn ran, thoughts focused entirely on how he was going to take on Boli without things going so badly in just a few days.