The sound of Archie's wheelchair wheels squeaking against the polished floor grated Oscar's ears. He hated the noise. He also hated the sight of the fifteen-year-old's chair. He hated everything about it.
The wheels were too big, and they made too much noise. And it couldn't even move on its own. The least they could have done was give the kid an electric wheelchair.
For the past couple of days, Oscar and Theo had been taking turns wheeling Archie around The Acropolis. It had been Oscar's day to babysit him; the two of them were currently on their way to the boy's lab.
Ever since the doctors let him out of the hospital, after letting him know he may never walk again, he had been spending most of his time cooped up in his lab. He worked on old schematics he hadn't touched in years. He developed dozens of prototypes for devices he had no plans on using.
He did anything to keep his mind from wandering.
Oscar hated what happened to him—and to Holly. They didn't deserve it. They didn't deserve any of it. His fingers tightened around the wheelchair's handles, his knuckles turning white.
"Hey, can you speed it up?" Archie urged from in front of him. "I've got something printing in my 3D printer and I wanna be there before it finishes."
"You're a bossy lil' dude, you know that," Oscar quipped. Shaking his head, he continued pushing down the hall.
The boy pulled his cellphone from his pocket and started tinkering with a line of code meant for his latest invention—a toy for Emily's brother. For the past year, he had been making Emerson Yumiko small battle robots. If Archie kept it up, Emerson could've started plotting to take over the world with his army of violent droids.
As Oscar watched Archie work, he couldn't help but wonder how he hadn't completely lost himself. How was he still functioning? How could he just act like something terrible hadn't happened to him?
He lost his legs. During the explosion, he even suffered a major concussion that nearly dealt permanent damage to his brain.
How had he bounced back so quickly? Had Oscar been in his shoes, he wouldn't have known what to do. But he knew himself well enough that he wouldn't have had the strength to keep carrying on as Archie had done.
While he would never admit it, the kid was stronger than he was—in more ways than one.
With a sigh, he turned the corner into the corridor that led to Archie's workshop.
Memories from that fateful day popped into his head. He faltered, his mouth drying. His tongue felt like a paperweight inside his mouth. The potent scent of sulfur and heated metal returned to his nostrils. He could still feel the electricity creeping up his skin.
He swallowed hard, desperately trying to gather himself before Archie noticed.
But then Holly's still body surfaced in his head. Her green eyes, once full of life and attitude, were dull. Empty. Dead.
He saw Archie run out of the truck again. His throat tightened like someone had tied a tourniquet around it. In the depths of his own head, he watched helplessly as Archie and Holly charged straight into danger. They hadn't even thought twice about it. They just went.
They were the heroes.
Unfortunately, being a hero was costly. Oscar wasn't sure if it was worth the price of admission.
"You alright back there?' Archie twisted in his seat with his nose scrunched and his eyes narrowed. "We can't move if you don't push. That's how this works."
He flashed the boy a sheepish smile while pulling at the curls at the base of his neck. "Yeah, I know. Sorry. I'm just...a bit out of it today."
"I can tell," he replied. "Anything you want to talk about?"
He thought for a second, his fingers still tugging at his black curls. His gaze instinctively shot to the ground, which suddenly looked a lot more interesting than before.
Ever since Crane's rally, he couldn't stop thinking about his role in the entire thing. And he didn't mean his inability to protect his team, which was already slowly eating away at him. No, what he was hung up on was how he was being forced to help Ghost hurt his friends.
He never thought any of this would have happened. If he knew, he might have done things differently.
But it was too late now. And he was way too deep to back out. If Ghost caught wind of him telling Atlas about their deal, she would hurt his family. At the same time, if he told Atlas about what he had been doing, he risked losing his friends. More importantly, he would be risking his freedom. If they decided to arrest him for his deceit, he would lose his family.
There was no scenario where he could win.
A frown pulled at the corners of his lips. His forehead creased as he sunk into his thoughts.
"Earth to Oscar? Anyone home?"
"What?"
"I asked did you want to talk about it."
He quickly shook his head and grinned at Archie. "Nah, I'm good, man. There's nothing to talk about. I'm just a bit tired, you know?"
"Whatever you say, Oz." Archie pointed at the end of the hall. "Now, onward mule!"
Rolling his eyes, Oscar continued to push the boy's wheelchair toward his lab.
#
"How'd you get so smart?" Oscar asked while tossing one of Archie's solved Rubix cubes into the air. He leaned back into one of the many swivel chairs laying around the cluttered room. "You're, like, the smartest kid I know."
"I don't think that's saying much," Archie replied while typing something on his keyboard.
Oscar simply laughed. "No, but seriously. How'd a kid get a job with Atlas? How'd Director Shaw even find you?"
Archie wheeled his chair around to face him. He stared down at his hands, which were now resting in his lap. "My dad was friends with Mr. Shaw and Kane."
Kane...
Just hearing the man's name sent a pang of fear into his heart. Even though he had been dead for a year, he still had the occasional nightmare taking place during the battle on Adak Island.
Oscar arched an eyebrow at Archie upon realizing what he had said. "Wait, your dad was friends with Kane? Who's your dad?"
"Dr. Archimedes Hamilton," Archie replied proudly. "One of the greatest minds of his generation."
"I bet he's real proud of you."
"I'll never know."
"Huh?"
Archie exhaled and wheeled himself over to one of his workstations. "He died of brain cancer a few years back. I was nine, I think. He and my mom were divorced, and she was in no position to take care of me. So, Mr. Shaw—who was good friends with my dad—took me in. That's how I got involved with Atlas."
Oscar blinked twice. He felt all the wind leave his chest. "Oh, man... I'm sorry, dude."
He waved his friend's sympathies off. "It was a long time ago. I used to get sad about it. But I found out that making stuff is what brings me closer to him." He smiled while pushing his glasses up his button nose. "He'd always be building something or tweaking some code or drafting up a formula. I guess he passed it on to me."
"Being a genius must run in the family then," Oscar said, being careful to watch his tone. He didn't want to make it seem like he's making a joke out of the situation, even if Archie didn't seem to mind.
He knew all too well what it was like to have a dead parent. In fact, he had two of them.
Rubbing his arm, he looked around Archie's lab. The kid truly was a genius. He was certain there was no one else on the planet who could match his intellect—which was crazy to think about, considering the boy had only turned fifteen a few months back.
He grinned at Archie. "When are you gonna upgrade my PyroBands?"
Archie frowned at him. "I just gave you the 3.0 version last month. What could you possibly need an upgrade for?"
Oscar shrugged. "I dunno. I've been practicing this new technique, but I can't get the fire to concentrate long enough to execute it."
"Fine," Archie groaned. "I'll start working on a new one." After picking up a mechanical pencil from his desk, he pointed the end of it at him. "You better not ask me for anything else."
He held his hands up innocently, a goofy smile on his face. "Alright, alright. Thanks, Glitch."
To tell the truth, he didn't actually need the upgrade. The move he had been practicing, which involved him generating a compact ball of fire that would explode seconds after being thrown, had already been perfected—for the most part at least. The only reason he asked for a new set of PyroBands was to give Archie something to do.
While the boy got to typing away on his keyboard, the smile on Oscar's face slowly melted away. His eyes darkened as he watched him work.
Archie shouldn't have even been on that mission. He was just a kid. But he insisted on coming. Everything would have been fine if he would have just stayed behind.
He felt the tears springing in his eyes and he quickly wiped them away. Coughing awkwardly, he turned his head and pretended to be entranced by the comic box poster lazily taped to one of the walls.
A question burned in the base of Oscar's throat like hot bile. He wasn't sure if he should ask it, but it was gnawing away at him. He needed an answer. He needed to know why.
He cleared his throat and Archie turned around from his computer screen.
"What's up?"
Rubbing the back of his warm neck, he dropped his gaze to the floor.
"Spit it out, Oz. I'm a little busy h—"
"Why didn't you stay in the truck?"
Archie paused. His jaw clenched and his lips pursed. Oscar could see the vein in his temple pulsing. He hadn't meant to upset the boy, but he needed an answer. He had to know why he didn't just stay in the truck like he told him to.
"I just...I need to know, Archie."
"I don't like feeling useless."
"What are you talking about?"
The boy sighed and raked his hands through his mop of sandy brown hair. "I see you and the other Primes roaming around this place all the time. I've seen what you all can do. You're the best of us—literally. You're the best the human race has to offer. Even though some people have decided to use their gifts for evil, you all are fighting to protect people. You risk your lives all the time for people who don't even know your names. For people who don't even like you. I want to be that. I want to be a hero. I want to help people, make a difference.
He gestured around his lab.
"I can't do that from in here. I'm useless in this room." As Archie's eyes watered, he slammed a hand down onto his wheelchair's armrest. A dry laugh from his throat. "I thought I was useless before but look at me now. I can't even walk." He hung his head.
"Hey, you're not useless." Oscar knelt in front of him, his hands resting the wheels of his chair. "You charged after Circuit without hesitating. You tried to stop him, and you did the best you could. In my book, you are a hero." His expression darkened. "You're more of a hero than I'll ever be."
He scoffed. "You're just saying that to make me feel better. I'll never be like you."
"Trust me, Glitch," Oscar said. He dropped his hand onto the boy's shoulder, his expression deathly serious. "You don't want to be like me."
And he meant every word he said.
He didn't want Archie to be like him. He was a coward and a traitor. Had he not aided Ghost, things might have happened differently. It was all his fault. All of it. And he couldn't take it back. He couldn't rectify his mistakes or make up for what he had done.
He was no hero.
He was the villain of his own story.
Sniffling, Archie lifted his head and stared at Oscar. "Why do you look like you're about to cry? I'm the one who's paralyzed."
The two of them chuckled at his joke. Eventually, they burst out laughing at nothing in particular. Soon, they were wiping tears of joy from their eyes. Oscar nodded at Archie and stood back up.
"I'm glad you're okay, man," he told him. "I don't know what I would've done if we lost you too."
Archie offered him a small smile. "Well, for starters, you wouldn't be getting any more gear upgrades."
Oscar brought his hand to his forehead. "Ah, yes. Where would we be without the wonderful Archie and his magnificent inventions."
"Nowhere. That's where you'd be."
Laughing, he sat back down in a nearby chair. "No arguments there."
Archie grunted out a reply before turning back around to work on whatever he was tinkering with. As his fingers flew across his keyboard, Oscar smiled. Everything might have been going to shit, but at least he still had a friend.
For now, at least.
It was only a matter of time until things went up in flames—just like everything else in his life up until that point.
But, until then, he would cherish these moments. Because he never knew when one would be his last.
#
Later that day, Oscar found himself sitting alone outside the compound. There was a spot near the waterfall that he liked to visit whenever he had a lot on his mind. At the moment, there was a piano with ten elephants on top of it sitting on his head.
He sat on the grass of the hill as he looked out at the hills ahead of him. The sun was beginning to set. Its colors bled onto the horizon like a god who had been slain.
No one would know he was there. It was his own special place. Only one person knew about it, and he was fairly certain she wouldn't show up.
Someone cleared their throat behind him, nearly making him jump out of his skin.
He had been wrong. The one person who did know about his secret apparently had shown up.
"What're you doing here, Victoria?"
The girl sat down beside him. She sported athletic shorts and a sports bra. Her pale skin was slick with sweat. She must have just come from the training grounds.
"I came to check on you. A lot has been going on. I wanted to make sure you're okay."
"Why?"
"Because we're friends, Oscar. That's what friends do."
He arched an eyebrow at her. "You know, when I first got her, you hated me. I still remember that. You used to think I was so annoying—"
"Correction. I still think you're annoying."
Her comment made him roll his eyes. "Anyways, you used to hate me. But now we're friends? I don't get it."
She shrugged. "You grew on me."
"I seem to have that effect on people."
Laughing, she playfully punched his shoulder. Her smile faded from her lips, only to be replaced by a worried frown. "Seriously, though. Are you okay?"
He looked down and began pulling strands of grass out the ground. Was he okay? He didn't think he was. Holly had died while on his squad. He gave the order for her to go after Circuit. She had been ahead of him even though he gave the command.
"It should've been me. I should've been the one to die. Not her. It should've never been her."
"Don't say that," Victoria scolded. "No one should've died and it's not your fault. Circuit killed her. Not you."
But, in a way, he did get her killed. If he never gave Ghost information about the rally and his team's strategy, they might not have shown up at all.
Holly might have still been with them.
He couldn't tell Victoria that, though. Especially with how she felt about the mole without knowing it was him. If he told her he was the one feeding Ghost and her crew information, she would probably kill him herself.
Victoria placed her hand on top of his. Her blue eyes stared into his own. "It wasn't your fault."
Even though he was nodding, he didn't believe a word she was saying.
As he stared into her brilliant irises, he had a strong urge to kiss her. He didn't act on it, though. He wasn't brave enough. Instead, he coughed awkwardly and averted his gaze back to the rolling hills in the distance.
After a while, Victoria stood up and offered him her hand. "Come on. It's almost time for dinner. They're serving pasta and I want to get there before Andre eats it all."
Andre did love his pasta.
Faking a smile, took her hand.
He was glad to have her as a friend. He was glad to have all his friends. But nothing lasted for everyone. His friendships had expiration dates and he knew those dates were getting closer.
He wished he could remain on that hill staring off into the sunset forever. But he couldn't. It didn't hurt to hope, though.