Raven & Josie - Chapter 10

When Raven discovers what Josie did, she realizes the gravity of her sibling's actions. She fears the outcome of her sister revealing her secret abilities to everyone, so she decides it is time for a serious conversation with her.

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"An oil leak, Josie? Serious? On your first day as a superhero?" Raven muttered under her breath, frustration written all over her face. She clattered her phone on the table.

With her arms crossed, Raven stared at her lunch with a deep musing face. She looked up when she heard footsteps approaching her table.

Mandy, one of Raven's friends, strode up to her with a plate in hand, arching a brow. "Trouble in paradise?"

Mandy took a seat across from her at the table in the university's canteen.

"What?" Raven looked up, puzzled, as Mandy's voice tore her away from her moment of contemplation. "No. Yes. Whatever. Where the hell did you get that Danish from?"

Mandy gave her a glare of pity and picked up the pastry lying on her plate, and offered it to Raven. "You want it? You clearly need it more than I do."

Raven snatched the pastry from Mandy with superhuman speed and began gobbling it up.

Mandy's jaw dropped as she stared at her hand that had held a delightful-looking Danish just moments before. "Wow! You're, like, really fast, Raven! I didn't even notice your arm moving!"

Raven cursed inwardly for being careless in using her superpowers in front of Mandy so openly and gave her an apprehensive look to see if she would question the impossible act. A barely audible sigh of relief escaped Raven's lips when she saw that Mandy's only concern seemed to be her lunch

Raven felt quite insecure about finding new friends at the university. Who knows how they would respond when they found out she possessed all kinds of powers? They would probably find her a freak.

But who am I fooling anyway? Raven reflected. Mandy will find out eventually – they all will—all thanks to my sister's carelessness. People will link Josie to me; it's only a matter of time.

"But seriously, Raven," Mandy chewed on a bite of bread. "How long are you dating this guy? You two are thousands of miles apart, right? You believe it will last?"

Raven's annoyance was evident as she looked up. She had been glad that Mandy hadn't noticed the feat of superspeed she'd accidentally exhibited a moment ago, but now her friend was snooping about her love life.

"Everything is okay with us," Raven replied curtly before quickly finishing her danish.

"Just... okay?" Mandy raised a brow.

Raven used a napkin to clean her mouth and was about to rebuke, but then Lindsey, her roommate intruded on the conversation by stomping up to them with an agitated expression on her face.

"Have you guys seen this?" Lindsey asked while brandishing her phone in Raven's face.

On the screen, Raven spotted a YouTube video that had been viewed nearly seven million times of a blond girl hoisting a cement truck above her head with one arm. Upon closer examination, Raven noticed it was Josie, her sister, flaunting her powers in front of an audience of workers.

Mandy peered over Raven's shoulder and scoffed in disbelief. "Cheap parlor tricks."

"You think?" Lindsey said. "Also, when I tell you that the remains of this very cement truck were found on that wrecked oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that's filling the front page?"

Mandy looked confused. "I thought they said it was an asteroid that hit that ship."

"Yes, that's what they first believed," Lindsey replied before pulling out a chair and sitting at the table. "But now it's confirmed that this very cement truck is responsible for drilling a hole into the oil tanker, thus causing the biggest environmental disaster in recent history."

Mandy arched a brow. "How the hell can a cement truck, a land vehicle, bore a hole in an oil tanker bobbing on the sea?"

"Like this." Lindsey pointed towards her phone, which displayed Josie receiving a face full of spit from a burly man.

Raven felt a poke in her side. "I think it's Infinity woman's daughter," Lindsey whispered in Raven's ear.

"Oh my God," Mandy gasped as she saw Josie's red eyes brimming with fury. "She's going to kill him!"

"Not quite," Lindsey said. "Watch."

Mandy and Raven looked on as Josie spoke to the burly man before swinging her gaze toward the cement truck dangling above her head.

"And there she goes." Lindsey said as Josie used one arm to cannon the truck up into the sky. "It's the same one. I swear. One guy recognized his hometown and confirmed that this footage was taken approximately fifty miles from where the oil tanker was hit."

Mandy whistled. "A throw of fifty miles - that's impressive!"

Lindsey scoffed. "Not for someone who descends from Infinity woman. That girl can do so much more than this. I bet she’s, her daughter. I mean, look at the resemblance."

Mandy turned her head. "What do you make of all of this, Raven?"

"Huh?" Startled by Mandy's voice, Raven jolted up as if waking from a deep trance. Instead of joining her friend's conversation – which was already obvious to Raven – her mind was occupied elsewhere, grappling with new problems caused by her sister's daring actions. Josie had just gone public with her superpowers, flaunting them in an extremely flashy manner at that. People would make the connection between her and their mother rapidly, which meant they'd likely link Josie to Raven too. Her once anonymous life felt like it was coming to an end, which felt like a social death sentence to her.

Raven sensed a deep pit inside her stomach as she thought of all her friends, old and new.

What would happen when they discovered she was a 'freak' gifted with superhuman powers?

Would they still invite her to hang out or sit at the same table in the university canteen? She didn't even know if she'd still be allowed to attend her classes anymore - what if the board expelled her?

What was she supposed to do? Work the rest of her days in some small grocery store back in her hometown, scraping by until she got promoted to store manager? Ugh! The very thought alone!

Raven's dreams and ambitions lay in shambles; becoming an expert in computer science, exploring new places and meeting new people. It's all not going to happen, Raven! And it was all due to Josie's recklessness. Her heart ached with despair.

"Hello? Earth to Raven." Raven shook her contemplative thought away and saw Lindsey and Mandy gaping at her quizzically.

"Where the hell were you?" Lindsey said, her voice punctuated with humor.

"On Mars," Raven said and jerked up, picking up her back.

"Where are you going?" Mandy asked. "We still have fifty minutes until the next class starts."

Raven checked the time on her phone. "Algorithms, right?"

Mandy nodded.

"Good. See you guys there." Without another word, Raven took off, leaving her friends wondering what was so urgent that Raven had to flee.

Making her way through the university's corridors, Raven sought out a secluded spot.

Though she had only been moving around here for a few weeks, she knew where to go. There was this small stripe of lawn at the back of the university, adjacent to a railway, but veiled from sight by a line of trees. To get there, one had to take the emergency exit. Barging through it would most likely trigger some silent alarm, so it would not be long before some security guard would come to check out what was happening.

But there would be no sign of Raven by then, alas, she hoped. Teleporting was a skill Raven had not fully mastered yet, let alone practicing it at a vast distance. She'd done it on occasion with her mother, but only while teleporting to a place she had a visual on.

Now, Raven was compelled to teleport while gaping a distance of several thousands of miles, which was already an immense challenge in itself. But she also had to materialize in a place she couldn't see.

She knew nothing of what or who could be there when she rematerialized. This could mean certain death for both her and whoever might be there.

So the first thing Raven did after bursting through the emergency exit was to make sure no one was watching her. Once she was certain the coast was clear, she closed her eyes and concentrated on forming a mental image of home—her bedroom. She'd locked the door, so chances were that no one was in there. Unless Josie was snooping around there, and with her, you never knew.

When Raven had envisioned a clear image of her bedroom in her head, she drew upon her mental powers and compelled it to transfer the situation in her bedroom how it currently was to her mind. And this was the hard part.

If Raven's concentration faltered, there was a chance Raven would receive an image that did not correspond with how it actually was – thus, putting her at risk of performing a feat that could end up in a disaster.

Breathing slowly and filtering all external stimuli out of her consciousness, Raven's mind received a clear image of her bedroom. It was an image that corresponded with the one she'd envisioned – apart from her bed, which wasn't made up in actuality. Raven thought she did, but she didn't.

Minor issues, though. Raven was ready to teleport.

She counted down in her head from three to one and, not a second later, materialized in the middle of her bedroom.

The first thing she'd heard was a knock on a door, not her door. It was her Dad. She'd heard him knocking on Josie's door and calling her to open it.

Raven entered the hallway.

"Raven!" Her Dad's eyes lit up, more out of relief that help had arrived than joy of seeing her. He gave her a firm hug nonetheless.

"Thank heavens you're here." her Dad said.

"Do not expect this to become a habit, Dad" Raven said, releasing her Dad. "I'm engrossed in some heavy studies."

"I know. I know." Raven's Dad patted her on the shoulder. "I just can't help but feel so inadequate sometimes when dealing with one of my superpowered daughters. I do not have these abilities and neither I or the others understand them."

A pang of sadness swept through Raven at the sound of his remark, making her realize once more that the secret was out now. The world would know that she is superpowered, and she would have to deal with the consequences. "Relax Dad, all it takes is a firm hand with brats like Josie, no need for special abilities."

Raven stepped up to Josie's door and pounded on it. "Josie! It's me. Open up this instance!"

"Go away!" Josie's voice came muffled through the door, quivering as if she was crying.

I don't have time for this. Raven thought and used her powers to crash the door off its hinges.

Josie's head, scrunched into her pillow, jerked up, her face wet with tears. "No! Don't come any closer! You'll only get mad at me!"

"I…" Raven stammered, finding the right words. True, she was angry indeed—furious even—over Josie destroying her chance at a normal life. But she knew such an approach wouldn't help here, so she needed to find another tactic instead.