The Hotshot Limited Series
#2 of 4
Class Reunion
by Ben Church bchurch@su.edu
I still own all these characters!
Rebecca Shenk stood outside Burlington High holding the newspaper
in her hand, looking at the headline. Her fellow students, June, Zach,
and Jasmine were still missing. The police had come today to ask her
some questions, but when she asked how the investigation was coming,
the cop had told her that was confidential. But she could tell from
the look on his face that they were coming up blank.
She hoped to God they were all right. She didn't want to lose
another friend. It was almost a year ago that her friend Will had been
killed when his apartment had blown up. They'd never found his body.
She smiled when she recalled June and Zach's comment about it. "The
band sucks now." Will truly had been the best musician they had. He'd
talked about starting a band with Zach and June, and Rebecca as lead
singer. He said they'd call it the "Freaks". Rebecca and Zach had no
trouble with that, but June was fairly normal, and was proud of it.
"Rebecca Shenk?" a voice asked.
Rebecca looked up and saw a man in a trench coat standing over
her.
WARNING, WEAPON DETECTED. Will's shades told him. He was
watching from some distance away using his shades' telescopic vision.
He quickly mounted his skate board and started down the hill.
"Maybe." Rebecca said cautiously. "What do you want?"
"I want you to come with me." the man said, pulling a gun out of
his pocket.
Rebecca backed away, ready to use her power to save herself, but
it proved unnecessary.
"Banzai!" A familiar figure crashed down on the man's head with a
skate board. He'd come up at high speed and launched himself into the
air, bringing the board down with enough force to knock the man out.
"Oh my God? Will?"
"Hi Shenk, I'll explain after we're far away from this guy."
A short bus ride later, and Rebecca and Will were in a McDonalds
on the other side of town.
"All right Will, fess up. Why are you still alive?"
"Uh a little louder please, some of the men in white coats didn't
hear you." Will said quietly.
"Oh, sorry." Rebecca said in a quieter voice. "So? What's the
story? Last anybody heard you were killed in that fire."
"Well, this is going to shock you Shenk. But I want you to
promise me, that if you feel the need to run away, please do so
quietly."
"What'd you do?"
"It's not what I did really, it's what I am. I'm a mutant Shenk."
Rebecca was indeed shocked. She had always thought Will a little
weird, but nothing like this. Should she tell him? "Let him finish
his story first." she thought.
"That was why there was an explosion at my apartment."
"You lost control of your power?"
"No, remember Joe and his gang?"
"Oh my god." she murmured.
"They killed my parents and blew up my apartment because they'd
found out I was a mutant." Will stopped for a moment. "What ever
happened to them anyway?"
"Well a couple of them disappeared around the time of the
explosion, and two weeks ago, Joe was arrested for drug possession. The
rest of the gang sort of disbanded. So go on, how did you survive?"
"Well, my mutant power protected me from the blast. After that, I
joined up with the X-Men."
"The mutant outlaws?" The story just kept getting stranger and
stranger.
"Uh, sure, whatever. Anyway, that's all over with now. I came
back up here to visit my grandparents, and then I see those headlines."
"Oh, that."
"Yes, that. What's up?"
"No one really knows what's going on. All of a sudden, Zach
doesn't show up for school-"
"That's not so unusual. He and Sarah skipped all the time."
"Yeah, except for the fact that Sarah did come, and didn't know
where he was."
"That is bad. What happened next?"
"Well, you how Zach's dad is a cop, well the investigation started
pretty quick. Next day, June doesn't show up, no call to the
attendance office or anything. Day after that, Jasmine disappears."
"And today you were to have been number four."
"The police," Rebecca said hesitatingly. "Can't find a
connection."
"But there is one." Will said softly. "You were all my friends."
"You think someone's trying to get at you?" Rebecca asked
incredulously. "For god's sake, everyone thinks you're dead. Who
hates you that has the resources to pull this off?"
"You have another theory." It was not a question.
"Yes." It was time. Rebecca activated her power and her finger
nails grew half an inch. "We were all mutants."
"Holy-" Will suddenly noticed how full the restaurant was. "Uh,
let's go somewhere a little more private."
"Sure," Rebecca smiled flirtatiously, like she had used to.
"Your place or mine?"
"You haven't changed at all have you?"
"None of us have."
"Thank God. Now let's get out of here. Your place."
Rebecca and Will strolled down the street, Rebecca filling Will in
on all that had happened since he'd left.
"So how did you guys find out about each other being mutants?"
Will asked.
"Well, one day while we were all in one place, I accidentally
activated my power and sliced up my leg pretty bad. Well, Carrie threw
caution to the wind and healed me. Then Jasmine and Zach just told us."
"Wow, that's pretty-ow!" Will slapped his hand on his leg, and
found a dart sticking out of it. "Um, bad." Will stumbled, reeling
into a nearby alley.
"Will? What's wrong?" She followed him into the alley and caught
him as he fell.
"Now will you come with me?" the trenchcoated man asked. Without
waiting for an answer, he tranquilized her as well.
Next Issue: The man behind the plot!
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