“Well, it is,” Jenna said.
“Yeah,” Sparky said. “Loser.”
Jack went for him. A dig in the thigh gave Sparky a dead leg, but as Jack tried to get him in a headlock, Sparky twisted and reversed the position. His arm closed around Jack's throat, and he rubbed the top of his head with his knuckles. It hurt, but Jack felt wonderful. For a moment it was as if nothing had changed.
“Use your deadly powers against me if you will, but I will always triumph!” Sparky said. He ran his knuckles across Jack's scalp again.
“Ow!” Jack said, his voice muffled. “You bastard, that—”
“Resistance is futile!”
“Yeah, right,” Jack said, and he relaxed, then drove his fist into Sparky's thigh again. They tumbled to the floor together, wrestling, laughing, and catching sight of Jenna rolling her eyes only made Jack laugh some more.
“Kids,” she said. As Jack and Sparky's laughter died down and they sat up, Jenna looked at Jack softly and asked, “So. Your dad?”
Jack breathed heavily, catching his breath. He felt tears threaten, and a surprising rush of emotions flooded through him. His friends watched expectantly, and they were the good friends they'd always been, no matter what was happening to him. He knew that they feared him. But he was also starting to fear himself.
“He's still there,” Jack said. “I did something to him. Forced some memories onto him, good times we had as a family. I sort of…pressed them in while we were talking.”
“And?” Jenna asked.
“And for a moment, he looked like my dad again.” Jack didn't feel as pleased as he should have.
“But you want him to be your dad without you doing anything,” Sparky said.
“Yeah,” Jack said, nodding. Sparky had it in one. “Yeah, course I do.”
“Well, we're mixed up with him again now,” Jenna said. “Maybe when he sees your mum.”
“Or Emily,” Sparky said. “How could he fail to love Emily?”
“It's all so shit,” Jack said softly. “Who'd have thought it would have come to this?”
“We knew what we were doing when we came in,” Jenna said.
“No,” Sparky said. “We didn't. Not a clue. We came because we were desperate.”
The three of them fell silent at that, because Sparky was right. Jack had been desperate to discover the fate of his parents, Sparky his brother, and Jenna had come because of what the Choppers had done to her father—arrested because of his investigations into Doomsday, and returned a changed, lesser man.
That's why we came, Jack thought. We had no intention of leading a crusade.
“So you're going to ask Breezer and his people to help your dad,” Jenna said.
“Between Breezer and Reaper and their people, they should be able to discover the location of Camp H,” Jack said.
“So how do we do that and avoid detection by the Choppers?” Sparky asked.
Jack smiled. This was where it got interesting.
Dawn across a silent London, and a glorious sunrise gave the cityscape the look of an expressionist painting. Clouds boiled pink, looking beautiful and promising rain, and the city was sheened with promise. If I didn't know any better I might take it as a sign, Jack thought. But in these strange times, perhaps that was exactly what it was.
“Gorgeous,” Sparky said.
“Girl,” Jenna said. He nudged her in the ribs, she pinched his arm. Then they leaned in together, keeping contact and taking comfort. Jack experienced a fleeting memory of him and Lucy-Anne when they had still been close. He didn't think whatever had been between them had been anything like this.
“What?” Jenna asked self-consciously.
“You two,” Jack said. His friends glanced at each other.
“I took pity on her,” Sparky said. “Someone had to love her.”