58. Better Off

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    "He has retrograde amnesia," Joe, the nurse, explained to the SVE club. They stood at the end of the hallway, having left a confused Midas on his own in his room.

    "So he doesn't remember anything?" Sam asked.

    "Well, he remembers how to speak, how to read, his name and birth date and such," Joe said. "But nothing personal. He doesn't remember very much about himself- his family, his childhood- Anything like that. He doesn't even remember that he has powers. We see this sort of thing with patients affected by mentas. He may regain his memories eventually, but the oldest memories will be recovered first. It could be a long time before he remembers anything that happened in the past year."

"What's being done to treat this?" Evan said.

"Usually, with his type of amnesia, we hope for an instantaneous recovery. That's why you guys were called here," Joe said. "We thought that if he saw you all together, that might serve to be the spark that lights the fire, so to speak. But I'm afraid that's not the case."

    "Is there anything we can do?" Rachel asked. "Like, if we talk to him more, is there a chance he'll start to remember?"

    Joe shrugged. "To be honest, it's not likely. You six are welcome to come back at any time to visit, but be warned- In the beginning, you'll only confuse him more than anything. And there's always a chance that he'll never recover his memories."

    The SVE Club was silent as they allowed that to sink in. It was sobering to think that the Midas they had known was essentially gone.

    "Maybe we should go now," Sam said sullenly, not looking at any of the other members. "I think we've done all we could for today." Without waiting for the others, she began to walk away, trying in vain to hide the tears streaming down her face.

<><><><><><>

    The next day, SVE Club was gathered at a long booth in Ellie's Diner. Every once in a while, one of them would glance out the window at ISH. The super school was no longer masquerading as a prep school- The break-in had drawn too much attention to the location.

"ISH is pretty dumb when you think about it," Rachel said. "So secretive about nothing. Hiding the school location, the students' real names. What for?"

Nobody had an answer. Rachel didn't mind. Perhaps she only wanted to rant.

"I mean, Phoenix couldn't even tell me his real name," Rachel went on. "How dumb is that? I'd probably totally recognize him if I saw him, say, at the grocery store."

"How is Phoenix these days?" Nate asked, smirking.

Rachel huffed. "It's not like I know. I haven't talked to him since our trials. It's like he fell off the face of the earth."

"He hasn't fallen off the face of the earth."

The team was collectively startled and glanced at the speaker who stood beside the table. Overdrive had come out of nowhere. Without her armor, it was harder to recognize her, but her voice sounded the same. She wore street clothes and a baseball cap, and smiled at the team as if she knew something they didn't.

"You kids mind if I sit with you for a second?" she asked. She took their silence as a yes and took a seat next to Taro, who stiffened slightly.

"Why do you call us kids?" Nate complained. "You're- What, eighteen?"

"Nineteen," Overdrive scoffed. "Whatever."

Sam looked a bit cross, but not as much as she would have been a few months ago. "So. Overdrive. What brings you here?"

Overdrive shrugged. "I eat too. Believe it or not, this really is just a coincidence."

Taro turned his nearly finished plate towards her. "French fry?" he offered.

"No thanks. I'll be brief," Overdrive said. "First of all, I'll put Rachel over here out of her misery."

"What misery?" Rachel snorted.

"I've been keeping tabs on several supers from ISH. Been practicing for my new job. I happen to know that Red Phoenix was sent on a temporary, out-of-state training sort of deal," Overdrive said. "ISH does that sometimes. Completely 'confidential'. Not to mention completely normal. He'll be back soon. Does that satisfy you?" She looked at Rachel.

    "What would I care?" Rachel muttered, looking away and taking a drink of her soda.

    "And also, I figured you guys might as well know," Overdrive said, "That I'm quitting the villain game."

    Everyone stared at Overdrive, unable to tell if she was serious.

    "Don't give me that look," Overdrive said. "I'm not about to go all nicey-nice on the straight and narrow. Still gotta pay the bills. I'm thinking of going into bounty hunting. But it's going to take me away from home a lot. That's why I'm enrolling my brother in your school. The new, inclusive hero program will provide a room for him on the campus- Even though he doesn't have powers."

"Your brother's going to join the hero program?" Sam asked.

"Mhm," Overdrive said. "His name's Peter Steele. He'll be a freshman. I'm expecting you guys to look out for him. This is nonnegotiable."

    Taro began to smile, but tried to hide it. Overdrive caught him.

    "What's with the face?" she asked him.

    Taro shook his head. "It's nothing... Just... Wouldn't that mean your last name is Steele?"

    Overdrive looked surprised for half a second but then tried to play it cool. "You don't know that. Maybe we don't share last names."

    "Steele, huh?" Rachel asked. "Suits you."

    Overdrive harrumphed and stood up. "Anyway, I should get going now."

    "You aren't going to eat?" Taro asked, raising an eyebrow.

    Overdrive didn't answer and left the building in a hurry. The SVE Club glanced at each other in confusion.

    "Well," Evan said, "That was weird."

    "No kidding," Sam said, glancing at the time on her phone. "We should be getting out of here ourselves."

    "Did you bring all the stuff?" Willow asked Sam.

    Sam nodded. "It's all in my backpack in the car. I have his mask, two fliers, a cup of mints, some green duct tape and both of my autograph books. I brought a broom, too. Did I miss anything?"

"How about a picture of Insomnium?" Nate suggested. "If anything will bring back memories, the face of that psycho will."

"Good idea," Sam said. "I'll pull up a picture on my phone."

Evan rested his chin on his fist. "You guys don't think that this is kind of... cruel?"

Sam frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we all know what Midas went through before all of this," Evan said. "Insomnium was torturing him. And we know now that Midas was a very... well, broken person when we first met him. But now that he doesn't have those memories weighing him down, doesn't he seem happier?"

They were silent. Evan was right, of course. The heaviness in Midas' demeanor had vanished. He seemed freer and calmer than they'd ever seen him.

"Evan has a point," Willow said. "Do we really want to put Midas through remembering everything again? Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that he lost his memory."

Sam shook her head. "Even so... even so, we should still try. If Midas wants to remember, we need to help him."

"Yeah. We should let Midas decide," Nate agreed. "If it was me, I would want to remember. I think not knowing is worse than knowing."

"And he might get his memories back anyway, without our help," Rachel said.

Evan nodded. "I hadn't thought of that. Still, I can't shake the feeling that we're going about this the wrong way."

    "Then what would you suggest we do?" Sam asked in confusion.

    Evan shrugged. "Look, don't take this the wrong way, but maybe we should just leave him alone."

    "How can you say that?" Sam argued, shaking her head in disbelief. "He needs our help."

    "Does he?" Evan asked.

    Sam opened her mouth to answer but then stopped. She winced and looked away, resting her chin on her fist.

    "Maybe," Willow said slowly, "Midas doesn't need us anymore. Maybe we'll only be hurting him if we do this."

    This put everyone at the table in a suddenly grim mood. There was an awkward silence that lasted so long that a waitress came to refill their drinks, noticed their faces and decided to come back later. Taro set to finishing his fries while the others aimlessly stirred their drinks and glanced at their phones. His plate was empty by the time the silence was broken.

"Well," Sam finally said. "I don't know it it's the right thing. But I'm going today, either way." She looked at her teammates, pleading. "Now who's coming with me?"

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