Free Marrow by Preston Norton

eyebrow. “Immune? Is that even possible?”
    “In very few instances, yes. A Telepath more powerful than myself would have the ability to block me. However, I have my doubts that a telepath could have accumulated so much power and gone unnoticed until now.”
    “How else can someone be immune to telepathy?” I asked.
    Oracle shrugged beneath her shawl. “It depends. Certain powers have unexpected side-effects when it comes to mind powers. For example, I think you’d be interested to know that your trainer is immune to my power.”
    “My trainer?” I repeated questioningly. “Flex?”
    Oracle simply smiled and nodded.
    “But . . . how?” I asked. “He’s rubber. How does that make him immune?”
    “Well, saying he’s rubber is not quite accurate,” she said. “Flex’s body is composed of purely-biological particles that have a natural elasticity. Not just his flesh and bones, but his organs as well. That includes his brain. Somehow, because his brain is made of a different material than ours, my telepathic senses literally bounce right off it. I couldn’t read his mind any more than I could read an animal’s. And heaven knows I would pay big money to read Maximus’s mind.”
    Oracle chuckled to herself. I was having a difficult time sharing her sense of humor.
    “What if it’s Flex?” I asked.
    “Flex?” Oracle repeated. “Snooping around my place? Oh, I highly doubt that.”
    “But he fits the description, right? And he only lives like ten blocks away.”
    “He fits the qualifications, I suppose. But heaven help that boy if he had a single motivation left in the world. He has no reason to spy on me. He may be a bit of a bum, but he has a good heart.”
    I snorted my irritation at this response. “Well he sure seems to have a thing against Superheroes.”
    “Flex wasn’t always like that,” said Oracle. “Once upon a time, he was one of the best. His grades at FIST were some of the highest the school had ever seen. He achieved top scores in the Sidekick Internship Program as well. And when he became a full-fledged Superhero, he was one of the best.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Right.”
    “Oh, you don’t believe me?” asked Oracle. “I’ll have you know that Flex single-handedly intercepted twenty-nine armed robberies. He defeated seven powerful Supervillains. He even saved one hundred and thirty-one passengers from a train on an elevated railway that nearly derailed, stretching across the front like a bungee cord. In all my days, I’ve never ever heard of anything like that.”
    I couldn’t tell if Oracle was telling the truth, or if she was just senile. The Flex she was describing certainly wasn’t the sorry excuse for a hero that I was teamed up with.
    “So what happened?” I asked, almost challengingly.
    Oracle’s expression became solemn. “Someone he cared for turned on him.”
    “Turned on him?”
    “Went evil,” said Oracle. “Became a full-fledged villain.”
    I was speechless. “Oh,” was the only word that escaped my mouth. Suddenly, Flex’s Superheroes-gone-bad rant made a lot more sense. He had seen it happen firsthand. I didn’t want to know who it was. I knew too much already.
    Flex was not so different than me.
    “So if it’s not Flex, do you have any other idea who the snoop might be?” I asked.
    I detected the slightest hint of fear in her wavering milky eyes. “There’s only one other living being I know who had a natural immunity to my telepathy.”
    “Who?”
    Oracle pursed her lips in a straight line. “Your father. Spine.”

CHAPTER 10
 
    Oracle’s words pierced my gut and twisted my insides like a fork in spaghetti.
    “My father?” I said, breathless.
    Leaning forward, the withered old woman set her cup on the coffee table. She interlocked her knobby fingers, contemplating her next words.
    “You haven’t seen him,” said Oracle. This was not a question. Then again, she didn’t need to ask questions. She could see straight into my