12 Years Ago - Before the Silent Scream, months away

  “Pa, what are you doing?”

  Rockwell hesitated, arms hovering over the trash bin, shotgun in hand. “I heard your interview. We’d be better off without these.”

  Pinn watched in shock as Rockwell simply plopped the gun into the bin. Despite his father’s aversion to guns, he possessed a deep-seated commitment to ensuring the safety and security of his family. Pinn knew he as Lightcrown was more than enough to protect his parents, but his father was one for contingencies or doing the job for oneself.

  Pinn felt a pit appear in his gut. “Pa, were you manipulated into thinking that when you watched my interview? Did I accidentally use the mind control power on you?”

  Rockwell scoffed. “Of course not.” Blinking, he looked more thoughtful, eyebrows descending. “Actually… I don’t know, son. Did you feel anything?”

  “I felt it was weird when she agreed to stop interviewing me when I asked.” Pinn shrugged.

  “Interesting. That interview wasn’t half bad. Kept your answers short and didn’t indulge her too much. You did well.”

  Serena walked out of the house with a briefcase under her arm. The bag she normally stored her handgun in case of emergencies. Without hesitation, she tossed it in the bin along with the shotgun.

  “That does it. No more guns.” She dusted her hands. “You know, Pinny. That interview of yours got 10 million views in just a few hours! You’re really making a difference and people see it!”

  “The comments are… pretty cool,” Pinn admitted, smiling slightly.

  “No. They go way too far. Don’t read any of those, Pinny. You aren’t special, you’re just blessed with gifts that no one else has.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “You should never see yourself as better than any regular person. Some people are blessed with health. Others with wealth. And one particular Pinny, with power. Everyone’s special in their own way.”

  Rockwell grunted in confirmation.

  “Okay, but… I have powers no one else has. Doesn’t that mean something?”

  “Only in how you use them. Just like a man with a gun can use it to protect or hurt others.”

  Pinn gave the trash bin with firearms a side glance.

  Thinking about the comments and videos he saw discussing the videos and interviews, some people venerated Pinn as a god. If his parents didn’t constantly remind him to remain level-headed, there was a good chance he would have at least considered the hype. Despite feeling like his powers meant something, he was still grateful for his parents being there every step of the way.

  “Training?” Rockwell asked, more a suggestion than a question.

  “Yeah, only six days left. I wanna get a power that’ll tell me where Boli’s at.”

  * * *

  “Today’s the day, Pinny!” Serena clapped her hands together. “You know what to do, and I trust you to be safe!”

  Pinn looked to his dad. “Pa, what do you think?”

  Scrutinizing, he watched his father's expression for the subtlest hint of disapproval. The slightest arch of the eyebrow would be enough for Pinn to fall into a state of gloom after all the training they’d gone through.

  Rockwell grunted.

  That was all the assurance Pinn needed. He gave his mom a kiss, gave his dad an unreturned hug, and headed out the back door.

  Gathering himself, Pinn took a minute to assess his state of mind. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. Some semblance of control was making itself known in his early powers, but he could never be certain when a new one would cause mayhem. He could only truly rely on the Lightcrown. But it was too limited, he needed to use the other powers as well to save lives.

  Ducking into the backyard, Pinn crouched behind the tall bushes to provide himself a private takeoff zone. Igniting his head in radiant flame, he Enhanced and launched to the skies. As he did so, he saw the nearby hedge wilt a little. He frowned behind his mask of fire as he soared higher and higher, hoping to reach an elevation that would render him a dot in the sky to anyone accidentally looking in his direction. Once he reached a comfortable height, he scanned the ground to search for calamities. He had to Enhance his eyesight in order to make out any details below.

  Spinning in the air, he got to try out his new favorite power. Flight. Not only was it incredible to float in the sky, but random energy bursting from him had a place in the air, far beyond the civilians below.

  Boli never told him where the next location would be, so he had to keep a sharp eye out, looking for any disturbances. With his Lightcrown ignited, he couldn’t keep his parents in his ears for their extra eyes and comfort. Totally on his own. But he was confident.

  Enhanced eyes zooming in, he could barely make out the smoke arising from a building about two miles from him. Rolling forward, he tucked down and made a beeline for the fire.

  As he approached, bright flashing red and blue lights caught his attention, police assessing the situation. Giving a passing scan to two officers, he made sure neither of them were McNaulty. Satisfied, he landed softly next to one and cleared his throat to gently alert the officers to his presence.

  “Freeze!” yelled one of the two officers, a taser pointed in Pinn’s direction. His badge read “Officer Gray.”

  Pinn smiled to de-escalate things with a raise of open palms, but remembered his head was alight, so they couldn’t read his facial expressions. To them, he was a flaming monster. Pinn attempted to address them more directly.

  “Hello, Officer Gray. I’m here—”

  “How do you know my name?” Officer Gray yelled, sweat streaming down his nose. Pinn did his best to remain poised and professional.

  “Your badge has your nam—”

  “Don’t speak unless I give you permission!” Officer Gray interrupted. “Now… Who are you and what do you want?”

  “I’m here to help. I saw the signs of a fire and headed over to see how I could assist. Are there any threats in the area that you need taken care of?”

  “No threats yet,” Officer Gray said wearily, “but there’s a fire going on in that building.” Gray’s eyes not so subtly flitted up to Pinn’s head. “You might be familiar with how it started.”

  At this, his partner finally chimed in. His badge read Riley. “Come off it, Gray. I’m pretty sure this is the same guy with the ‘crown of light’ who helped at the park the other day. Or the construction site, not long before. Not many people who fit the description of ‘head that looks like it’s on fire.’”

  Officer Gray slowly lowered his weapon, finger still primed on the trigger. “Okay, so you’re here to help,” he said skeptically. “Let’s see you help. Come here.”

  Pinn approached cautiously, keeping a respectable distance so as to not unintentionally threaten him with the heat of his head.

  “We were following a lead to this warehouse.” Officer Gray explained, pointing to the smoldering building. “But it seems our culprit was a step ahead of us and blew up the evidence.”

  “Did you get everyone out?” Pinn primed himself to rush inside.

  “There was no one in there to begin with.” Officer Riley shrugged.

  “Who’s the culprit?” Pinn asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to make the police feel like they had more information than he did.

  “Classified,” Office Gray said matter-of-factly.

  Officer Riley let out a guffaw. “Classified? More like, ‘We have no idea!’”

  “That was classified information!” yelled Officer Gray.

  “You don’t know anything about him?” Pinn asked.

  “All we know for sure is two things,” Officer Riley began. “First, he’s the source of all these random robot attacks we’ve been seeing around Hammerton. Second, he goes by the online user name @H8rBoiL8rBoi, with an 8 in ‘hate’ and ‘late.’”

  “Really? @H8rBoi—”

  “That was confidential, too!” yelled Officer Gray.

  Pinn awkwardly stood there, not knowing if he had permission to ask other questions. He gathered up the courage and asked, anyway. “So, you guys have a motive? I think this is the guy I’ve been after. Goes by Boli, but I don’t know if it’s a fake name.”

  “We wish we knew the motive! We think it’s money, but this is insane! At first it was small, petty, one-off crimes that made it hard to track. But now we have news of them coordinating an attack across the city. You see these dots here?” He had pulled out a tablet and was gesturing to the graphics moving on it.

  Pinn looked down and frowned uncomfortably, a small pit in his stomach.

  “Every dot you see represents a civilian or a bot,” Officer Gray explained. “We’ve identified the locations of both the victims and the robots on this pad by using their cell phone location services and the signal emitted from them, respectively. See here? We marked drones robbing people en masse in red and known civilians in green.” He pointed to two different dots on screen.

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  Pinn blinked, squinting close to the screen. The frown spread.

  “Ummm.” The two dots looked almost identical to Pinn. “Are there any other colors? Is there like a settings bar I can change them with?”

  “Are you kidding me right now? We don’t have time to fiddle with colors! I don’t care if you think there’s something more ‘aesthetic.’”

  “I think I just went color blind…” Pinn murmured.

  “You don’t go colorblind, kid. You’re either CB or you're not,” Riley said.

  “Then I guess I’m CB,” Pinn said, feeling weird about claiming to be a part of a group when he only just discovered the sensation. Plus, he knew it was only temporary. A side effect that would wear off soon enough.

  “It’s a good name,” Gray said, his attention on the dots on screen.

  “Oh, that’s not my name, it’s—”

  “You think I’m an idiot?” Officer Gray snapped.

  Pinn opened his mouth to clarify, but Officer Gray cut him off for the umpteenth time. “Not the time. Lives are at stake!”

  Pinn closed his mouth. The explanation wasn’t worth the effort.

  “All right, go-time.” Officer Gray slapped the tablet into his chest. “Lives are at stake and the robots are getting more aggressive.”

  “But I really can’t—”

  “Go! How many times do I have to say there are lives on the line! We’ll make sure the fire doesn’t spread! If you’re really here to help, then go, Sea Bee!” he shooed Pinn away like an unwanted bird on a balcony.

  Sputtering under his flame, he flew off, too annoyed and embarrassed to argue his point any further. As he took to the skies, one headlamp of the police car cracked and went out.

  Squinting, Pinn peered closely at the screen to differentiate the dozens of dots of seemingly the same hue. Wincing, he strained his eyes to the point of pain. Even Enhancing his eyesight did him no good. The colors were just too close.

  Hovering over Hammerton Central, he saw dozens of bodies running, but he couldn’t tell who were running toward and away from danger. He was just going to have to visit every dot on the screen and determine for himself whether they were a civilian or in on the massive plot.

  Pinn dove to the nearest dot, and found himself in front of a woman pinned down by a fallen telephone pole.

  “Lightcrown! I mean… Sea Bee! Use your bee powers to get this off me, please!” she pleaded.

  “Who told you my name was Sea Bee? I don’t have… Fine, whatever,” he sighed, using his Strength to pull the telephone pole up, allowing her to get up and gratefully run off.

  Pinn checked the tablet and flew to the next destination, where a bot was holding a teen upside down and shaking them with one arm. With the other arm, it captured anything that fell — whether a wallet, trash, or lint — from the screaming victim.

  Its head twisted toward Pinn and it tossed the teen aside.

  “Would you like to donate to the Cause?” it asked monotonously, reaching out to Pinn with a rusty arm.

  “Don’t look into the red eye! It shoots blinding light! The green one is safe!” the kid warned him from the floor.

  Scanning quickly, Pinn was dismayed to realize the colorblindness had yet to wear off. Was this a permanent side effect? How was he supposed to turn it off?

  “Which one is the— agh!” Pinn shielded his eyes as he was blinded by a flash from the bot’s left eye. It placed its arms on him.

  “Please remain still to donate to the Cause,” it informed him, simultaneously attempting to lift him.

  “No, thank you!” Pinn said, tearing off its arms and searing his head through its core.

  “Whoa, nice one-liner,” the teen said, taking a picture of Pinn as he flew off. Unfortunately for the kid, Pinn using Flight unintentionally caused the phone camera to burst.

  Racing to everything he could see on the pad, Pinn saved person after person in odd scenarios. Someone hiding behind a fire hydrant, which a bot wouldn’t approach. A handful of people drawing away some bots with music. Even a bot trying to rob a smaller, more helpless bot. Each rescue went smoothly, no one having anything more serious than cuts and bruises when Pinn rushed to the next victim. And he was grateful that the side effects remained under control. Except color blindness. His eyes refused to correct.

  When he finally confronted the last bot, instead of it asking for him to join the Cause, another voice cracked from a speaker within it.

  “Careful, Sea Bee!” a voice cackled. Boli.

  Pinn squinted, his power-infused fist hesitating before crashing through it. “You too? How come everyone is calling me…”

  “You wouldn’t want to destroy this one before I tell you about the bomb riddle!”

  Pinn hesitated, holding the robot in place with one arm as he listened intently.

  “What’s the bomb riddle?” he reluctantly asked.

  “Beneath the house of green in a flower of red, the bomb rests gently in the bed. Cut the wire of blue, the green, then red too, and the bomb won’t then go off on you!” Boli laughed with glee as Pinn stared.

  Frowning, Pinn glanced at the pad with its similar colored dots, then back up to the bot which started subtly reaching its arms out.

  “Is there like a captcha version of the riddle?” Pinn asked.

  The robot was writhing in hand, extending its arms as far as they would go to pick his pockets. Jumbled noises sounded off on the other end like the scientist was scrambling to get back to the communication table.

  “What? Are you still here? The bomb is going to go off!” Boli warned.

  “Look, I don’t have an easy time with colors.”

  “Did you forget your contacts or something?” Boli asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

  Pinn didn’t want to reveal any more information than he had to. “No, I just can’t really see the colors.”

  “What, do you have protanopia and deuteranopia?” Boli asked patiently.

  “Ummm, yeah, exactly that!” Pinn’s flamelight bounced pleasantly, surprised to meet someone who understood his colorblindness immediately.

  “Ah, umm…” Boli stammered on the other end. “Sea Bee… C. B. I get it now. Though, I’ve never heard anyone shorten ‘Colorblind’ to ‘CB.’ CVD, maybe, but… This is a shock. Wow. Did you have a hard time playing board games growing up? Moved the wrong piece or played the wrong color card?”

  Taking a page from his father’s book, Pinn thought the best answer was silence.

  Boli continued. “Weird. Well, have you ever checked out the card game called HEATED? It’s colorblind friendly, you know.”

  “Didn’t you say there was a bomb?”

  “Well, in case you ever think you want it, you should get it through my bio @H8rBoiL8rBoi. Like the Latreen song!”

  “What, are you sponsored by HEATED?” Pinn asked in disbelief.

  Taking a page from Pinn’s father, Boli answered with silence, the servos of the robot arm continuing to wiggle to locate loose change in Pinn’s pockets. The awkward silence stretched.

  “Is the bomb on a timer?” Pinn asked.

  “You’ve got time.”

  More silence.

  “How come you called me ‘Sea Bee’ when you saw me? How did that name spread so fast?”

  “I bugged all the police cars. Some officer put out an alert saying, ‘Sea Bee is coming to save everyone. Please report if he does anything to the opposite effect.’ I assumed that was you. Especially since I listened to the interview from last time and you mentioned I don’t know your name. Though I did think Sea Bee was odd when Lightcrown is much more fitting.”

  “Fine. Lightcrown stays. And your handle is too much of a mouthful. Boli works better. Or Evil Boli, since you’re an idiot that needs a title.”

  With a yank, Pinn tore off the bot’s arm that kept trying to reach for him. Crumpling it like paper in his hand, he tossed it aside.

  “Can you try to find the bomb? I spent a lot of time planting the bomb and writing a riddle that rhymed and everything,” Boli explained.

  “I really can’t. Physically,” Pinn answered, waving a hand over his eyes.

  The robot reached for his hair with its remaining hand, melting away in Pinn’s flame before it could search for any wealth between follicles. Pinn knew he was being recorded, and he wondered how much of the conversation Boli would release.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll give you a pass this time. It’s on Stevenson Drive and 23rd. Wires should be cut as two, then three, then one,” Boli sighed.

  “Got it, thanks.” Pinn nodded his flame gratefully.

  “Next time I’m going to have more colorblind-friendly death machines, so don’t expect any answers. I don’t want to waste my time,” he said seriously.

  “Right, totally understandable, thanks again,” Pinn said, crushing the robot and flying off to disarm the explosive.

  Previously, Pinn had a gnawing suspicion about Boli, but the most recent interaction confirmed it. Boli wasn’t interested in killing anyone. Robbing them, sure, and injury wasn’t off the table, but he didn’t want the bomb to go off. Something about recording the spectacle was enough for Boli. He didn’t want widespread death along with his destructive antics. Like he had an end goal and didn’t want to get his hands too dirty on the way there. If it wasn’t so annoying, it might have brought comfort to know he had limits.

  Pinn sped for his destination, humming the rhyme in his head. Cut the wire of blue, the green, then red too, and the bomb won’t then go off on you! It was catchy. He repeated it a few more times before finally arriving at the bomb site. It seemed “the house of green” was a greenhouse. Clever.

  Pinn opened the door vigilant of his surroundings lest he be surprised by a trap. Feeling a bit self-conscious, Pinn clicked his tongue loudly. The room erupted into view in his mind, Echolocation making shape everything that the sound touched. To his relief, there was no one else in the building. Glass popped above him, his side effects shattering cameras that were set up in corners of the greenhouse. Boli lost his financial incentive to play these games. Hopefully that would reduce antics in the future. Eyes peeled, Pinn started exploring the area.

  Digging for the next part of the riddle in his mind he searched for a “flower of red.” He looked around, reading the labels of what he could see. None of the plots were set for cosmetic flowers, everything was for vegetables. Nothing had grown to maturity yet, just flower buds yet to be pollinated. None of them looked particularly red.

  He turned his attention instead to the signs at the head of the planters. Cucumbers, pickles, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers… Tomatoes!

  Pinn hurried over quickly and scanned the planter. Enhancing several senses, he could hear the faintest ticking noise. Carefully, Pinn shoveled through the mulch until he located the source of the impending doom. He lifted up what must have been the bomb, a series of dynamite sticks strapped together and wired to a timer that was counting down. Atop a more complicated electrical setup were three colored wires.

  To his annoyance, he found that Boli had exaggerated the remaining time. There were less than 80 seconds. Fortunately, all that was left was to cut the wires in the correct order… The order he was just told…

  The order he’d completely forgotten.

  Pinn’s heart sank. Instead of repeating the answer to the riddle, he had wasted his time humming the actual riddle! The rhyme played in his head mockingly, Cut the wire of blue, the green, then red too, and the bomb won’t then go off on you! He was still colorblind! The timer read one minute.

  Sweat evaporated under his head of flame. He couldn’t cut a random wire, he needed a new plan.

  Should he take the bomb and fly up as high as he could before tossing it? Would he get high enough in one minute? And what if Flight caused a side-effect that caused the bomb to go off prematurely? Any use of powers and he risked a side-effect triggering the explosion! As soon as he registered the fact, the fire on his head shut off like a lighter being released.

  Standing immobilized with indecision, his anxiety fueled sweat to come out in pools. But his eyesight wouldn’t return to normal, the side effect outlasting all his powers.

  50 seconds remaining.

  He flicked his flame power on and off, willing something to happen.

  40 seconds.

  Staring at the three wires, he silently prayed for a solution. Their blue, green, and red colors stared back at him, challenging him to cut them.

  30 seconds remaining.

  Pinn blinked. Then blinked again. Pinn could see color again!

  Before taking the time to rejoice, he cut them rapidly with a pair of plant shears — the second, then third, then first. To his relief, the bomb did not explode in his face. More confirmation that Boli was an honest thief.

  Holding the bomb away from his body, Pinn stared at it curiously as he considered how to dispose of it. He’d taken some hits from bots before and lasted against them pretty well. Whenever he returned home the worst discomfort was the lack of energy he had after using his powers for extended periods. Blood hadn’t left his skin since the initial mugging. The question he knew he shouldn’t have been considering bubbled its way to the surface of his mind.

  Could he survive an explosion if he was at the epicenter of it?

  WAIT A MINUTE