Free Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition by Ian Thomas Healy Page B

chairs, his feet up on a coffee table, and watching classic rock videos on one of the big screen TVs. “Hey.” She sat in the chair next to his.
    “Hey,” he said. “I brought you coffee.”
    “Oh, uh, thanks,” Sally said. “I don’t really drink coffee, though.”
    Jason looked surprised. “You don’t? Why not?”
    “I don’t know. I just never started.” She picked up the cup and sniffed it, wrinkling her nose.
    Jason shrugged and took a deep sip from his own cup. “You will,” he said, sounding confident. “I didn’t used to drink it, but a month on night shift monitor duty cured me of it.”
    “I actually stay away from caffeine as much as I can,” said Sally. “Imagine having jitters at super-speed.”
    “I never thought of that. Must be uncomfortable.”
    “Yeah.” Sally smiled. “It was a nice thought, though. Thanks anyway.”
    “No problem. So, how was it last night?”
    “Scary. We could have all died if Stacey and Eric hadn’t been able to contain the thing.”
    “Juice said it was you who identified it as antimatter. How’d you know?”
    “Just lucky, I guess.”
    “Don’t worry about being scared. I was terrified the first time I got deployed. At least you guys got the power back on.”
    Sally laughed. “Yeah. You want to know anything about power lines, transformers, or fuses, just ask me. I’m like an expert or something now.”
    Jason smiled and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “Listen, I did want to ask you something. Do you like rock music?”
    “Sure, I guess so. Why?”
    “Well, my band is playing Friday at a club downtown and I was wondering if you’d like to come hear us?” Jason blushed.
    “You’re in a band? What do you play?”
    “Guitar.”
    “What’s it called?”
    “Velma’s Glasses.” He blushed even more. Sally thought it very, very cute.
    “Like in Scooby Doo . That’s cool. How do you find time to be in a band?”
    “Well, we’re not on duty all the time. I try to have a life outside of being a superhero.”
    It was Sally’s turn to blush. Very little went on in her life not somehow tied to her powers. Having been raised by a mother and grandmother who both had the same powers had meant much of her life had already been planned for her. She’d trained to be a superhero from early childhood and had gone from home-schooling straight to the Hero Academy. Summer “vacations” had consisted of visits to different heroes or coaches around the country with her mother. She didn’t even have a drivers’ license, never having needed a car to get from point A to point B.
    “I’d love to come hear you play,” she said.
    Their radios beeped. “ Anyone who’s not busy, come to the conference room or log into the primary feed, ” said Juice.
    Jason and Sally looked at each other and shrugged. He clicked off the TV and picked up his coffee. “We’re playing at eight o’clock. Do you want to ride over with me? Then you could meet the other guys before we do our sound checks.”
    “Sounds fun.” She wondered if that counted as a date. She’d never dated during her time at the Academy. When she wasn’t in class, she studied or trained. It occurred to her that she didn’t even know how to date.
    Jason led her to the workstation in the corner. She sat in front of the keyboard. He spun his chair around behind her to look over her shoulder. It felt almost intimate to Sally the way she could sense his presence behind her. He showed her which icon enabled the feed. The light on the workstation’s webcam brightened. Multiple camera images on the flatscreen showed Juice, Forcestar, and Sondra in the conference room, while Jack was logged in remotely from the firing range. Neither Glimmer nor Doublecharge had signed in. “We’re here, Boss, me and Sally.”
    “Good,” said Juice. “We’ve got a call from Deep Six and I wanted anyone available to listen in.” The word CONNECTED flashed on an otherwise blank window. Juice tapped a control to