Pushing past the next target was always a sigh of relief. The door closed behind James and he quickly ran to the alley next to the clock repair shop. They had made contact with five other powered people and it felt good to be back in the field. If he remembered right, his highest count had been seven in one day and that had been in a much bigger city. Running past a dumpster, the man felt his body rematerialize. Tabitha was supposed to be waiting for him but there was always the chance that she’d have to come back.

James ran to the extraction point, a small alcove in an even smaller garden behind an apartment building, and sat in the shade of the vines that grew above him. They were making great time. The only person that’d they really lost track of was the wind manipulator but he wouldn’t be hard to track again. The man rubbed his face were he’d been punched and felt the skin swelling. That was the worst part of the job, getting people who freak out and hit him for no reason. He had barely made contact with the wind manipulators mother before she jumped up and went into a fighting stance. James shook his head wondering how long she had lived in fear of someone finding out about her son.

A soft ‘pop’ opened a space of light beside him and a woman with a pixie cut appeared.

“Sorry about that. Are you ready to go back to base?” The woman asked giving an awkward smile with a playfulness in her eyes.

“Oh it’s fine. You know being left behind doesn’t open any old wounds or cause me emotional pain. I’m definitely ready to go back with you after a perfect day with no trauma.”

“Someone’s a little dramatic. I’d say you’re lucky I remembered you when I did. If Mapquest found out you got left again, he’d have come to get you himself. That’d have been embarrassing.”

“For you maybe.” James retorted. “I, on the other hand, have no problem being berated by a child fifteen years younger than me. I relish it!”

“Sure you do.” Tabitha said holding out her hand. “Let’s go before you glitch again and I forget.”

James grabbed the woman’s hand and felt a warmth spread through his body, as if he were a match being swallowed by a flame. A sudden ‘pop’ echoed in his ears and both people disappeared. The rush that followed was intense. Every part of him felt thrown back but moved forward at the same time. Before he knew it they were standing in a living room with old furniture and shag carpet.

“I’m getting faster.” Tabitha said checking her watch. “We got here in an eightieth of a second.”

“Super impressive.” James said rolling his eyes. He sat down on the couch, trying to get the warmth out of his body by rubbing his arms and legs. It was uncomfortable being overly hot in an already hottish room. “Can you turn on the air conditioning?” He called after Tabitha as she left the room. The sound of the central air turning on filled the house and James let out a sigh of relief. He grabbed a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and marketed off the name ‘Chris-Technopath’ and then refolded the paper. There were more names to be checked off but it was nearly time for breakfast in their city across the country from where they had been working. The sun was just rising as James stood from the couch and walked to the kitchen. Ticking came from the clock on the wall that read 6:14 and he looked at it with a frown. Working across the country or across the ocean always messed up his internal time. It felt like noon already, not dawn.

A familiar feeling pushed its way into the man’s mind as he prepared breakfast. Before it overcame him, he quickly ran to the fridge where his picture hung and wrote with a dry erase marker next to it, ‘I’m here. My name is James. We live together. I’m glitching.” and then he disappeared from the room.

He barely felt his body disappear but he knew that he did. James continued to get his breakfast ready and watched as Tabitha walked into the room in confusion. He knew she was trying to figure out how eggs were cooking on the stove when she knew she hadn’t been the one to put them there. Watching as she turned to the fridge, James relaxed watching her frown and shake her head after reading his message and seeing his picture. Being able to become invisible was a great power to have, however, not having control over it and being erased from human history temporarily everytime it happened was not.

“Don’t drink all the milk.” Tabitha said to the kitchen as the haze that had clouded her mind surrounding James faded. “I think we can make one more jump today before I need to sleep and I don’t need you puking on me again.” The woman walked out of the room without waiting for a reply.

James mouthed something sarcastic back, but no sound came from his lips. He continued to butter some toast and got his eggs on the table before he felt his body come back to the world. “Don’t take the fun out of travelling.” He yelled and heard Tabitha blow a raspberry from the living room.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, the man began to eat his breakfast. They only had a small window when he glitched to deliver the notes or make contact with others who had powers and it was impossible to tell how long each glitch would last or how many times he would do it a day. He had first glitched when he was sixteen. Having just gotten his license, he was driving to school with his siblings in the car. The glitch overcame him and the car appeared to be without a driver. Of course his siblings had forgotten he existed also and they both went into hysteria until he pulled the car over. Without being able to speak, he was unable to calm them or his parents or the paramedics when they all arrived. Touching anyone was out of the question because they thought he was a bug or something and ended up swatting at his hands whenever he made contact. No one asked about him or where he was. His siblings had been diagnosed with temporary amnesia and the open shell oysters they had had to eat the night before were to blame.

That first glitch had lasted for two weeks. No one remembered him, no one asked where he was, or even cared that he was gone. His family had pictures of him on their walls and his mother took them down and replaced them, thinking that she had forgotten to fill the frames and that his picture was a stock photo. When he had materialized again, there seemed to be some damage to his existence. People remembered him but didn’t remember how he was connected to them. His family thought he was just a neighborhood kid who had been over to their house a lot. There were no more hugs or ‘I love you’s from his parents and his siblings treated him like an outsider. He left his home after trying for a month to get them to remember him fully. The next glitch lasted a week. There were times when James glitched for a full day presently, but they mostly came and went in spurts of a couple of minutes multiple times a day now.

James finished his eggs and washed his dishes in the sink. The light from the sun filled the room and the telephone that hung on the wall rang. Letting it ring twice, he finally picked it up and spoke into the receiver.

“Hello.”

“We’ve got another one I need you to add to the list.” A young voice said over the line. “It’s a girl named Brynne. She’s manifesting for the first time now and I’m spiking. She’s got something powerful.”

“Where’s she at?” James asked pulling the paper from his pocket.

“It’s looking like Ireland. I’ll text Tabitha the coordinates, but you should leave soon.”

“I don’t know if Tab’s has enough juice to make that kind of a jump.” James protested slightly.

“She’ll be fine. We have to get to the girl before someone else does.” The person on the other line hung up and James let out a sigh. The kid didn’t understand that they weren’t all machines.

“Be ready in five!” Tabitha shouted from upstairs. James sat on the couch wondering what they could do, if anything, for a girl who was just coming into her ability. He only hoped she wouldn’t be cursed like he was.