Toka-Ace #1: The Re-Emergence
Chapter 23

The house was in a quiet neighborhood. It was in a heights area with lots of apartment complexes.

It was a duplex apartment. When you entered the back door you were immediately in the kitchen. A tile floor marked the boundary between the kitchen and the living room.

When everyone had entered the house, the living room was cramped. The crowding was like a bad house party. Worried chatter filled the air. Voices competed for attention wanting answers or to be heard. The only people I knew apart from Andrew were Eugene, Ivan, Sharron, Layla, and her grandmother. They were orphaned like me and now facing a major and unexpected shift in their lives and a threat to their personal wellbeing. Even sadder, these were the lucky ones.

Including me, there were eight of us that had been altered by Tovlin present.

There were Eugene, Ivan, and Layla.

Then there was a boy named Thaddeus, whose legal guardian, Jack, wanted to go to the police earlier.

There was a big hulking guy with short dirty blond hair named Ben. He was here by himself.

There was a short, wiry, and quiet black haired kid named Kirk who was here with his foster parents, Drew and Penelope.

Lastly there was a kid named Isaiah who bore a resemblance to Andrew. He had shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. While he looked like Andrew, save for some slight differences, his demeanor was very different. He was twitchy and looked nervous. He was accompanied by his foster parents Fred and Allison.

Some people sat on the chairs and two couches; everyone else was forced to stand. A television was on but the sound was drowned out by the concerned conversations.

Katherine, Yasmine, Francis, Adam, Andrew, and I stood off in a small huddle in one corner. It was the only way we could hear each other talk without the noise making too hard to hear.

“This place is packed,” I commented. “What like nineteen or twenty people in total? That’s going to be a bit of a problem.”

“Yeah, what’s the plan? How will we deal with all these people?” Andrew asked. “Keeping them safe is going to be hard.”

“Andrew makes a valid point,” Adam said. “We can’t protect them all.”

“Yet it’s our duty to do so.” Francis said.

“We should unseal their powers.” Yasmine suggested.

“What if their legal guardians don’t go along with it?” Adam asked.

“Hey what are you guys talking about over there?” Jack cut in.

We broke our huddle.

“If there’s something that needs to be talked about, then try sharing it with all of us. It’s bad enough that you’ve basically kidnapped us all.” Jack said.

“You should know that we’re coming up with a way to keep you all safe.” Katherine started to explain. “If you would just..”

’ “Sir,” Adam called out. “Where are you going?”

Fred had opened the back door. “Relax, I just need a cigarette. I’m not going to go anywhere.”

“Adam, Francis,” Katherine said. “You guys guard the front and the back door respectively. Yasmine, Troy, and I will continue our discussion upstairs where it’s quiet.”

“What about me?” Andrew asked.

“Stay down here and keep everyone occupied.” Katherine said.

Andrew looked disappointed.

“Just think of this as a house party.” I said. “A really, really, lousy house party.”

“You know, if this were a good house party, someone would have puked and passed out by now.” Andrew joked.

“I bet they’d definitely want to forget this.” I said as I followed Katherine and Yasmine upstairs to a bedroom.

“Nice place you got here.” I said facetiously.

“It’s part of the life I crafted after we betrayed Tovlin,” Yasmine said.

“You wanted to talk to me?” I asked Katherine.

“Yes.” she nodded. “I’m about to address everyone and I need your help.”

“You need my help to talk to people?” I asked skeptically.

“Actually, I’ll be using you as something of a prop,” Katherine clarified. “I’ll have you transform for everyone so that is easier for everyone to accept the reality of what’s happening and to convince the kids here and the legal guardians to allow us to unseal the kids powers.”

“The people here were attacked by Tovlin.” Yasmine added. “We managed to save them in time. But barely.”

I didn’t need to ask about the ones who weren’t saved. My mind flashed back to the scene at Nathan’s house. “Seems like a solid plan,” I said. “But I have to know, what are we going to do now?”

Katherine looked uncertain. “We do the best that we can do.” Her answer did nothing to give me any confidence. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go downstairs.”

Katherine went down the stairs. I followed with Yasmine behind me.

“Attention, everyone!” Katherine said loudly. “Attention, please!”

Gradually the conversation faded and everyone looked at Katherine who was standing in front of the T.V.

“My name is Katherine. I know you are concerned and have a lot of questions,” she began.

“Are you going to tell us who those people were who attacked us and our kids?” Jack cut her off before she could get going. He had undone his tie and wore a collared shirt and neat pants with a perfect crease. He was angry. But I could tell that his anger came from fear.

“Sir, I need you to calm down,” Katherine urged.

“Calm down?” He laughed a bitter, disbelieving laugh. “Are you kidding me? I get knocked out trying to stop some thugs from abducting my foster child and I’m supposed to be calm? Then some stranger saves us and tells me that he’s a target? How exactly do I stay calm after learning that and being dragged here?”

There came a murmur of agreement from the other grown-ups.

“Time is of the essence here,” Katherine correctly pointed out. “The fact is that each of you is being targeted by-”

That’s when he cut her off again. “I’m sorry, this is just too crazy. I mean, why aren’t we just going to the police?” He looked around for support. “Are we seriously going to put our safety in the hands of a bunch of people we don’t know?”

Adult faces turned angry and they started nodding in agreement.

Katherine looked displeased to have lost the crowd. I was beginning to feel irritated. Why couldn’t he just listen to reason and accept reality?

“You know what? I’m going to the police. I can’t believe I let myself get dragged here in the first place,” The man said. “Come on Thaddeus.” He ordered.

“That’s not the best choice to make,” I spoke up.

He turned his attention on me. “What would you know about the best choice for me?”

Katherine spoke before I could answer. “This room is full of parents who are trying to keep their children safe, just like you. Troy here happens to have very intimate knowledge of what’s happening, while you do not.”

Jack fell silent. His supporters died down too.

Katherine continued. “You can’t be helped by the police. The group that’s currently after us will get to us eventually if we don’t act carefully and they’ll be completely ruthless when they come. They don’t care about witnesses or bystanders.”

“Enough! Shut up!” He exploded. “This is…B.S!”

“No, you listen!” I transformed into Toka-Ace, white flames swirling and consuming me until they broke leaving me transformed.

Jack looked awe-struck. He stepped back slightly, in fact, the entire group did. The adults and teens looked amazed and afraid.

“Is this enough to convince you?” I asked scathingly.

He said nothing. I could see that he was sweating and his eyes were darting around my body.

Katherine took advantage of the stunned silence. “This is what each of your kids is, a living weapon. That’s what they are to Tovlin anyway, and that is why Tovlin is after them. The difference is that Troy’s powers have been unsealed. I will unseal the rest of your powers so that you can fight Tovlin.”

“Whoa,” Jack said. “Unseal their powers? Fight Tovlin?” He looked around again.

“Look, mister,” I said before he could object any further. “I know it’s hard to accept but this is how things are at the moment. The police can’t help us.”

“Troy’s right,” Katherine said. “That’s the point I was trying to make before. Even if we presented Troy in his transformed state and they began investigating immediately, they’d come up with nothing. Protective custody would not actually protect the kids. How would the police do combat with Tovlin’s androids? Or their operatives?”

“So is that what we do to keep our children safe?” Penelope asked. She was Kirk’s foster mother. He looked at the ground desponded. “Will that work?” She hugged him.

“I’m not suggesting we go out looking for a fight,” Katherine said. “But-if and when-Tovlin comes for us, don’t you want to be prepared? Don’t you want your kids to be able to defend themselves?”

“What happens if Tovlin replaces this place?” Sharron asked.

“Then we would need to run.” Katherine answered. “But hopefully that won’t be necessary since, I’ve taken measures to prevent Tovlin from replaceing this place.”

A lot of good that did us the last time, I thought to myself. I almost let the remark slip, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to undermine Katherine’s authority. Anyway, Sharron asked for me.

“What measures have you taken to prevent Tovlin from replaceing us?”

“Part of the reason Tovlin has been able to replace you is because of the nanites that your children still carry in their blood. They’re tuning into those nanites and using them to get a fix on their location. What I’ve done is created a signal that is on the same frequency as those nanites, and that signal is now being sent all over the city. Right now, to Tovlin it looks as though there are a hundred of you right now. I wish we could have gotten it working sooner. If we had it would have saved everyone or at least bought us some time,” Katherine explained.

“When can we return home?” asked Eugene.

“When we beat Tovlin,” Katherine answered.

It was at that moment I realized something. If Tovlin found us, we could fend them off, but they would keep coming for us until we cut the head off the snake, and we had no idea how to do that. I looked at Katherine. If I knew that, then there was no doubt that she did too. She probably refrained from saying it because it would cause these folks to panic.