“Can’t you see that meteor?” Dylan asked. “Over there. See? The flame is almost, like, greenish… . Whoa! It’s getting bigger — man, how can you not see that?”

Iggy snickered. “Dude, even I know that shooting stars last for like, less than a second.”

“Oooh!” Angel cried, just as the flaming tail appeared in the sky, fast as a flash of lightning.

“Nice one!” Nudge cheered. “How’d you know it was coming, Dylan?”

“I could just see it. I don’t know how you guys missed — ooh, there’s another one coming! Right over there!” Dylan pointed left with conviction. Everyone was quiet.

Iggy broke the silence. “I can see the International Space Station too,” he said.

Seconds later, they all drew in their breaths as another flash exploded in the sky. “Must be a meteor shower,” Jeb speculated.

Dylan nodded. “Yep — yeah, I see one — no, two, three more coming! Look!”

Jeb slid the door open and took a step out onto the deck, fascinated.

“One,” he counted as they appeared several moments later. “Two, three.”

Gazzy gave a low whistle.

“Dylan,” Angel asked very quietly. “Can you see the future?”

Dylan paused. “I … I don’t know,” he answered. “I guess I just see really well.” He squinted. “And I hate to say this, Iggy, but … I actually can see the International Space Station.”

“Cool, man,” Iggy said. “Hey, by the way, can you spare one of your superhero eyeballs for me, Dyl?”

Dylan laughed. “All yours, Iggy.”

“If you can see so well, Dylan,” Angel asked curiously, “why didn’t you see those Erasers coming?”

For that, Dylan had no answer.

Chapter 53

53

“THERE IS NO WAY those people aren’t genetically modified,” I said, taking another handful of popcorn. In the other city that never sleeps, we weren’t sleeping. In fact, we were at one of the Cirque du Soleils, watching some little Chinese girls fold themselves into knots while spinning plates on their feet and balancing balls on their heads.

“It’s completely unnatural,” Fang agreed.

“So they’re mutants, they’re weird, and here they are, holding down jobs. There is hope after all.” I ate more popcorn, unable to tear my eyes away from people doing stuff that I just couldn’t believe they could do.

We’d just come from the MGM resort, where it had happened to be Cub Day — they’d had two super-cute lion cubs playing in a huge glassed-in area.

“Now, why couldn’t they have put just a smidge of lion DNA into our mix?” I’d asked. “That would be so cool.”

Fang had groaned. “That’s all we need. Another two percent of something else in our genes. Excellent.”

“Still, just a touch of lion — we’d be even stronger, faster,” I had said wistfully. “And more graceful.”

“You’re already strong, fast, and … somewhat graceful, sometimes,” Fang had said. “You want fuzzy ears?”