The Story So Far

Welcome to the Academy. Seven students, Connor Ellis, Bart Allen, Cissie Jones, Donna Troy, Roy Harper, Duela Dent, and Charlie Parker have had their lives changed after all of them began dreaming of a mysterious man named Danny who warned them of an unknown danger that threatened them all.  After narrowly escaping an investigation of an off-limits lab building, Merlyn, the Academy’s head of security, began separating the students from each other by moving Bart out of Connor’s room.

To make things more confusing, each of the students has begun exhibiting new powers. Connor is invulnerable, strong, and can fly. Bart has super-speed. Donna is also extremely strong and almost invulnerable.

And now Connor’s new roommate, Billy has begun trying to attack the students to gain power from a dark god. As we return to the story, he’s attacking Charlie and Duela…

UNMASKED

By David Brashear

“Charlie!” Duela Dent screamed.  As he plummeted off the roof of the Academy’s administration building, Billy, Connor’s roommate, turned to her.  A knife was in his hand and he wore a deranged grin on his face.  His long hair blew in the wind and sweat glistened on his forehead.

“One down,” Billy said.  He softly giggled as he started toward her.  “Time to complete the sacrifice.”

Below, Charlie was tearing his white button-up shirt off as he fell.  As the cloth fluttered toward the ground, wings folded out from his back and caught the air.  He stabilized his flight and started back toward the roof.

“Come here!” Billy ordered while grabbing for Duela.  Duela backed away and grabbed one of the Soder colas from her backpack.  She smashed the end off of the glass bottle and held it up as a weapon.

“Stay back,” Duela ordered.  Her eyes never left Billy and her hand gripped the broken bottle tightly.  “I’m not afraid of you.”

Billy’s grin grew wider.  “Fear does not matter,” he said.  “Only the master does.”  He began to threateningly advance toward her.

“Get away from her!” a voice called from behind him.  Billy turned and went white when he saw an angry Charlie hovering there.

“You’re dead!” Billy screamed.  “You were a sacrifice!  You can’t be there!”

Duela took advantage of the opportunity to smash her bottle over Billy’s head.  He went down with a cry.  His knife fell to the ground as he grabbed his head.

Duela looked up and saw Charlie for the first time.  “You’re an angel,” she said.  Duela slowly walked across the roof and extended her hand to Charlie, who gently clasped it. Their eyes were locked on each other.

Behind them, the whimpering Billy grabbed his knife from the roof and ran toward the ladder with one hand covering the bloody wound on his head.

“How?” Duela asked.  “Are you dead?”

Charlie chuckled.  “Not yet,” he said.  He scooped Duela up in his arms.  “Come fly with me,” he said.  The two flew across the campus and Duela laid her head against Charlie’s chest, completely content.

They landed in the courtyard outside the dorms and Duela reached up.  Her fingers touched one of Charlie’s wings, which trembled in response.  “How?” she asked again.

Charlie smiled.  “I guess you know what my special power is now.  I’ve had them as long as I can remember.  They only grew out from being little nubs a year or two ago.”

“But how do you keep them hidden?” Duela asked.

“It’s not easy,” Charlie said.  He looked around the courtyard.  “I need to get out of here.  I don’t want Merlyn to know about this.”

“Go,” Duela said.  As he turned to go, she grabbed his arm and kissed him passionately on the lips.  “Tell Connor,” she whispered before she turned to run toward her dorm.

Charlie smiled and hurried into his dorm, hoping everyone else was already in bed.

Connor Ellis threw his pencil aside.  “Why am I even trying to get this?” he asked.

Bart Allen appeared at his side less than a second later with the pencil in his hand.  “What do you mean?” he asked.  He studied the book on Connor’s desk.  “Trouble with calculus?”

Connor snatched the pencil from Bart’s hand and dropped it onto the desk.  “Why do I care what X is with everything else going on around here?” he asked.  “I can fly, I’m really strong, and can’t be hurt – not to mention how I blew that wacko Billy across the room when he tried to kill me.  You can run faster than the speed of sound and can heal incredibly fast, and Donna’s got some sort of freaky strength.  Add in the fact that Cheshire’s got the hots for me, and math just doesn’t seem really important right now.”

Bart pulled a chair beside Connor and sat down.  “Well, first off, remember that I’m not supposed to be rooming in here anymore thanks to Merlyn.  That’s why I’m supposed to be helping you with your homework.  So…”  Bart tapped the book and Connor lowered his head.  Bart leaned in closer to pretend that the two were studying.  When he spoke again, his voice was much quieter.  “You need to talk to Roy about Cheshire.  I had a talk with him yesterday.”

“Jealous?” Connor asked with a smirk.  “I’m just having trouble figuring out how to keep the hottest girl on campus interested in me.”

Bart exhaled a deep breath.  “There’s more to her than you’re seeing.  She’s trouble.  You need to talk to Roy.”

Connor turned and gave Bart a strange look.  “I don’t need to do anything,” he said.  He slammed the book closed and stood, glaring toward Bart.  An uneasy Bart stood as well and took a step back.

“Looks like we’ve got a fight going down,” a technician reported.  His supervisor walked over and leaned over his shoulder.

“Who is it?” the supervisor asked.

“Ellis and Allen,” the technician reported.  He quickly consulted a database.  “Both are classified as Class Bs.”

“Better be safe than sorry,” the supervisor said.  “Alert Merlyn.  He’ll make the call on how to proceed.”  The technician picked up a telephone and quickly dialed Merlyn’s cell phone.

The staredown between Connor and Bart was broken by a knock at the door.

“What is it?” Connor growled.

Charlie, once more wearing an Academy shirt, stepped inside.  “Is now a bad time?” he asked.  “Duela said I should talk to you.”

“Seems like everybody wants to do some talking tonight,” Connor said without turning his glare from Bart.  He finally turned to face Charlie.  “What’s going on?”

“I think I need to tell you what my power is,” Charlie said.  He started unbuttoning his shirt.

“Hang on,” Connor said while raising a hand.  “If you’re the Amazing Naked Man, I really can’t deal with that right now.”

Charlie wordlessly finished opening the shirt and let it fall to the ground.  His wings expanded to their full spread.

“Sir!” the technician shouted.  The supervisor ran back over and the technician pointed at the screen that monitored Connor’s room.  The supervisor bent over to see Charlie’s wings.

“Well, well, well,” the supervisor said with a sly smirk on his face.  “It looks like Mr. Parker’s been a bad boy that keeps secrets from us.  Do you have Merlyn yet?”

“Not yet,” the technician admitted.

“Keep at it.  He needs to know about this.”  The supervisor straightened back up.  “And change Mr. Parker’s rating from Class C to Class B.”

That done, the supervisor walked away.  He fought to keep from smiling with relief that this mess wasn’t going to wind up in his lap.

“That’s incredible!” Bart said.  “Can I touch them?”  When Charlie nodded his permission, Bart reached out and gently touched the wings.  “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said to Bart.  “Just don’t pinch.”  He turned back to Connor.  “What do you think?”

“What do you mean?” Connor asked.

“Well, it’s obvious that you’re our leader,” Charlie said.  “Everybody else thinks so.”

“Slow down, Wings,” Connor said.  “I’m nobody’s leader.  I’m just somebody who’s gotten dumped in the middle of this mess like the rest of you.  I’m out of here.  Turn off the lights when you leave.”  Connor stormed out of the room.  Maybe he could find Cheshire.  Cheshire could help him.  She always made everything better.

Connor rubbed his forehead.  Why was he sweating?  He paused at a water fountain to take a quick drink to take care of his dry mouth and started searching for Cheshire again. She was what he needed.

Cheshire was standing in a darkened chemistry lab, carefully measuring chemicals.  “I thought you’d be here,” a voice said from behind her.  She turned to see Roy Harper standing in the doorway.

Cheshire smiled the smile that she’d been nicknamed for.  “Well, well, well,” she said as she brushed her long black hair back out of her face.  “If it isn’t yesterday’s trash.”

Roy swallowed hard.  His mouth had suddenly gone dry – just like it always had when he was around Cheshire.  His mind started trying to race back to the good times they’d had.  He fought to keep it on the present.  “I don’t know what you’re doing with Connor,” he said.  “I want you to leave him alone.”

Cheshire switched off the burner under a beaker of bubbling chemicals and turned to Roy.  “Really,” she said as she draped her arms around his neck.  “And why is that?  Are you jealous?” she asked with a playful flick to the tip of his nose.

Roy felt his resolve weakening.  He had to get out of there.  “I’m serious,” he said, freeing himself from her loose embrace.  “I don’t know what game you’re playing but I’m not going to let you play with his head like you did mine.”

Cheshire smiled and seductively leaned against a table.  She laughed.  “You’re nothing,” she said.  “Nothing but a confused little boy who wants what he can’t have.”

“Stay away from him,” Roy warned.  Cheshire’s mocking laughter followed him as he left the room and walked down the hallway toward the building’s exit.

“What was that about?” Charlie asked as he picked up his shirt and slowly began folding his wings back into place so they could be hidden.  “He always seems so together.  I’m surprised to see him fly off the handle like that.”

“That’s my fault,” Bart confessed.  “He’s got a thing for Cheshire and I called him on it.  He didn’t take having his girl insulted very well.”

Charlie whistled as he started buttoning his shirt closed again.  “Connor and Cheshire?  She’s bad news.”  He paused a moment.  “But we’ve got more problems than that.  Nutso Billy attacked Duela and me.  She fought him off, but I don’t have any idea where he might be now.”

“Wonderful,” Bart muttered.  He thought for a second – an eternity for him.  “I think we might need to meet up again,” Bart finally said.  “All of us.  We need to talk about what’s going on.  I’m really concerned with what Billy’s up to, and Cheshire getting the hots for Connor all of a sudden smells fishy to me, too.”

“You think there’s somebody pulling some strings somewhere?” Charlie asked.  “Merl maybe?”

“I don’t know,” Bart said with a determined look on his face.  “But if there is, we need to find out who.”

Merlyn’s lips curled upward in a cruel smile as he watched the exchange from the command center.  “You have no idea of your true situation, Mr. Allen,” he murmured as he continued to watch.  The rest of the staff left him alone as he sat at his private station where Bart Allen and Charlie Parker occupied the central screen of his console.

Next Issue: Another dream encounter with the mysterious Danny alerts the team of Merlyn’s intentions! And what role will Cheshire play in the dangerous game that unfolds?