Toka-Ace #1: The Re-Emergence
Chapter 18

We were to begin immediately. Doctor White, as it turned out was the physician for all the Tovlin test subjects when they were kids. It was his way of making sure that the experiments had no negative long term effects after he and his group took down Tovlin. Because of that, it was easy to replace out where each of the others lived.

Katherine, Adam, Francis, Yasmine, and I divided up the duty of talking to the Tovlin kids. Yasmine provided pictures of the kids and wrote their address on the back of the picture. In fact, Yasmine was able to dig up so much information on all of the test subjects that by the time she was finished, we knew where they went to school, their schedule, even what they were posting on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Remembering my own disbelief, I knew that I had to be absolutely convincing in conveying the danger, even if it meant transforming into Toka-Ace in front of who I was talking to.

Going over in my mind, I knew that I waited by the bus stop that my first target would take to get home. It was out of the way near Bradley Woods.

Thanks to the picture provided, I was able to recognize her right away as she disembarked. Of average build, Layla had red curly hair that she wore in a ponytail, a round face sprinkled with freckles, and thin lips. Her ponytail looked like a big poof ball. Her green eyes were downcast as she walked.

Not wanting to waste even one moment, I approached her.

“Layla Lowenstein?” I said stepping in her path.

She looked up at me and clutched the strap of her backpack. “Yes,” she said slowly. Her eyes scanned me carefully, nervously. “How do you know my name?” She had the caution of a prey animal.

“My name is Troy Haden.” I said. I had a careful speech ready, but it suddenly seemed wrong, so I discarded it and jumped in with both feet. “I am a friend. You have to trust me.”

Layla took a step back and clutched the strap on her backpack even more tightly. Her eyes widened.

“We don’t know each other,” she said warily.

“No we don’t know each other per se, but we do have something very important in common,” I said quickly, “You have to listen to me, this is a matter of life and death.”

Those words made her even more anxious. I cursed my clumsy handling of the situation, I was never the most graceful person in a normal conversation, and now I had to convince a wary stranger of something utterly unbelievable I took a deep breath.

Layla started to go around me, not taking her eyes off of me.

“Layla wait!” Without thinking I reached for her.

That was a mistake.

“Get away!” she shrieked and then she started to run.

Good going, I kicked myself. Troy you idiot, you creeped her out when you were supposed to be convincing her. And now, anyone watching would have thought that I was some sort of weirdo. I can’t worry about that now.

No wonder I had been so put off by Katherine! This was not easy news to break to someone. I had now choice now, I had to show her.

Bradley Woods has a spacious patch of forest across the street from the residential neighborhood, so there were plenty of places to transform and not be seen. I crossed the street and plunged into the wooded area. I headed deep enough not to be seen by people going by in their cars. I let the forest grow thicker around me until I was surrounded by tree trunks and walls of green. Beams of sunlight were blocked by the treetops and barely got through.

I transformed and flew up into the canopy. I leapt into the sky. I was over the neatly arranged neighborhood. Fortunately I knew exactly where Layla was headed. I glided over the roofs of houses and landed on her roof. I fused with the shadows and entered her house.

Layla had a simple room; painted a pale blue with dark blue carpeting Her bed had a thick, emerald-green comforter on it, with big blue and green pillows. She had a narrow book shelf by her bed. Two of the shelves were stacked with books, and the other two had a jumble of stuff-a conch shell, a piece of glittery mica, a china cat, and photographs in frames. There was a new Samsung laptop on her small desk.

What I was going to do wasn’t ideal, but it was what needed to be done. I was a shadow in her bedroom.

Layla was putting her backpack on her bed. She was still breathing hard, not quite over the scare I had given her before. She removed her jacket and ran her hands through her hair. She started to take off her shirt. Andrew’s idea about the girls’ locker room flashed through my mind and I squelched it firmly.

“Before you remove any more clothing, I need to talk to you,” I said.

Layla looked around alarmed, her eyes wide. “Who said that? Where are you?”

I really felt bad for scaring this girl. “I’m about to come out, but don’t be afraid alright, please?” I said.

Layla did not answer me.

I emerged from the shadows and became a solid figure once more. Still in my transformed state, I held my hands up to show her that I meant her no harm.

“What are you?” she asked. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“Layla, I tried talking to you earlier but I’m not that good with words,” I said. “Let me start over. My name is Troy. We met earlier although I looked quite a bit different.”

Layla nodded slowly. At least she wasn’t screaming, but her eyes were wide and her breathing was rapid.

“Would it help if I transformed back into my normal self?” I asked.

“Yes,” Layla said shakily.

A swirl of white flames washed over me and I went from being Toka-Ace to being Troy once more.

“I don’t understand. How did you do that? What’s going on?” she asked.

“Good question,” I muttered. “When we were children a group of us including you, we were experimented on by an alien terrorist group called Tovlin. That’s why I have these powers. You were adopted weren’t you? You’re grandmother became your legal guardian when you turned six didn’t she? ”

“How do you know that?” Layla asked.

“All of the Tovlin kids are orphans,” I explained. “Thanks to a small band of former operatives Tovlin was taken down twelve years ago. But they’re back now and they’re hunting us down.”

Layla’s hand went up next to her mouth. “Hunting us?” She asked nervously.

I had to give her a lot of credit. She was handling this well.

I didn’t want her to freak out but I needed to convey a lot of information and quickly. “Yes, hunting us and, believe me, you don’t want them to get you. These creatures are evil, I’ve fought them. I need you to come with me so that I can keep you safe, but before I do that I need to talk to your grandmother as well.”

“She usually gets home a few minutes after I do,” Layla said. “What do you mean creatures?”

I didn’t want any delays, but her grandmother’s safety hung in the balance too.

“They’re not human,” I said.

“Are…you human?” I knew she also meant: am I?

“Yes,” I said firmly, though I wasn’t entirely sure what the dividing line between human and whatever I was we were. Layla was full of questions, but I asked her to wait until her grandmother got home. The one thing I did tell her was that all of this was new to me too. I waited with Layla in the living room.

She sat quietly her hands folded; she was twiddling her thumbs and staring at the ground.

They were mannerisms that I was all too familiar with. I wanted to say something that would put her mind at ease. The moments of silence were uncomfortable. “So, how is your grandmother going to react to seeing a strange boy in her house?” I asked, trying to distract her from any worry about Tovlin.

“Not well,” she bristled.

Finally we heard a car pull into the driveway. “That’s my grandma now.” Layla said unnecessarily. We stood waiting for her to come in the house.

The front door opened. Layla’s grandmother had curly hair like Layla, and deep wrinkles in her face. Her cheeks were droopy and she walked with sort of a waddle, hunched over with the help of a cane. Her attention immediately was on me.

“Who is this?” Her voice sounded more angry than curious.

“Grandma, this is Troy.”

“I thought I told you no boys,” snapped her grandmother.

Layla flinched. “I know but,”

“But nothing.” the elder Lowenstein said. “Tell your friend to leave. Now.”

I looked at Layla. She looked defeated. I guessed her grandmother was a bully and Layla was used to giving in.

“I don’t know what kind of ideas you had about my granddaughter buster,” the old woman said scathingly. “I know what your generation is like. Hopping from girl to girl, pants sagging, trying to make babies with each other, doing the whole hoochie mama thing. Well no sir. Not my granddaughter. She’s a good girl. I am too young to be a great grandmother.”

I looked over at Layla. She was looking down at her feet. I felt so lucky to be raised by Mom not some old witch like this.

“You thought that you would just slick talk your way in her and get my daughter to do the hoochie things with you,” the grandmother ranted.

Hoochie? I would have laughed if the circumstances were different.

“Well you have another thing coming mister, go impregnate someone else,” she continued.

I concentrated. White flames enveloped my entire body.

“Oh. Oh my goodness.” The elder Lowenstein’s eyes widened and she stepped back in horror.

I had transformed into Toka-Ace.

“What are you?” she asked horrified.

“Trust me I am not here to impregnate Layla,” I said. “I am a friend.”

“Grandma,” Layla said quietly. “Troy is here to help. I am in danger. Please just listen to me for once.”