They spent the night in the van, Patrick and Sam sprawled in the back while Elena laid on her reclined chair. She awoke to a headache that was much worse than the night before, but it wasn't the headache that had awoken her. A sharp pain on her shoulder jolted her awake.

"Sorry!" Sam pulled his hand back, shaking it.

The shocks were getting worse. Elena rubbed her arm and shifted her seat into upright position. "What's up?"

"The colors."

Elena blinked a few times. The color shift from Sam's anomalies was visible now, no denying that. For the time being, everything in the van looked a little redder than it needed to be—Sam's hair was a darker red, and his lips were shifting towards black. His shirt had been blue the day before, she could have sworn, but it was green today.

She tried to imagine how she would react to it if she saw it from the perspective of an outsider. She'd consider that her eyes were playing tricks on her, then she'd think there was some kind of odd lighting in the area. Even if it kept up and she couldn't find the source of the odd light, she'd only be confused, not suspicious. Without having met Sam and collecting data herself, she wouldn't suspect he was responsible for shifting the laws of science as the universe knew them.

"I'm going to get caught, Elena," Sam whispered. "Those Tech United people—they know what to look for.

She sat up straight—her head throbbed in protest. He was right. The color distortion would act as a beacon. She'd thought they had a few more days, but they didn't. Time was up.

"Patrick?"

Patrick groaned and shifted, pulling himself into an upright position. She recognized the pain in his face. "Do we have painkillers?"

Elena winced. "No. And it's only going to get worse. Sam, are you pushing the anomalies outwards?"

"Yes, I am!"

"Are you pushing as far as you can?"

He rocked on his heels. "But they'll see! Shouldn't I pull them in, just a little more?"

"No, no!" Patrick and Elena cried at once, and Sam flinched.

"Sorry, Sam." Patrick placed a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Sam," Elena said, "Pushing outwards weakens the signal. It makes you harder to find. And pulling in is dangerous."

"I pulled them in more than this yesterday, why can't I just pull in a little?"

"Because—" Elena bit her lip. They hadn't actually told Sam that the anomalies were getting worse, hadn't wanted to scare him.

"I'm getting more powerful, aren't I?" Sam asked.

She swallowed hard.

"I can feel it," he said. "I can feel the power."

"What does it feel like?"

"It hurts, like little shocks on my skin all the time."

Emma reached forward for a water bottle and set it in front of Sam. "Run some of the water on your skin, it'll help with the static." And protect us from it, she couldn't add without scaring him.

Sam poured a little water into the cap and ran it along his arm, then rubbed it in. He passed it to Patrick, who did the same thing. Water dripped onto the floor of the van, but that was a good thing. The more water around to take in the static, the safer they were.

"Sam," she said, "can you push out any further?"

He set down the cap and closed his eyes, squinting as he concentrated. For a fleeting moment, the pain in Elena's head faded, and the colors in the van shifted almost back to where she would have expected them to be. Then it all came crashing back down.

Sam opened his eyes, and they sparkled. "I can't anymore, Miss Elena."

Elena breathed in to speak, but Patrick put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Take it easy, Sam. Just keep them pushed out as far as you can."

Sam let his breath out. The headache lessened just slightly.

"I think I can hold it here," Sam said, though his voice was a bit strained.

Patrick nodded. "Sam, we're almost at your parents' old house. Less than an hour now."

"Okay. Let's go." He sat up on his knees. "Miss Elena, are you going to keep doing superhero training with me?"

She sighed. "Not right now, Sam." She had no more tests to run. What good would it do her to measure the flux again? She didn't need the same information again. She needed new information.

"Patrick, are you ready to drive us?" Elena asked.

He nodded and made his way to the front of the van.

Elena started to get out of the car to switch to the front seat, but Sam tugged on her sleeve, his wide green eyes staring into hers. "Can you stay with me?"

She couldn't resist the look on his face, so she rode in the backseat as Patrick pulled away, the navigation on Michelle's phone still running. He pulled his knees into his chest and stared out of the window.

She couldn't imagine what he must be feeling. It didn't matter how much they'd tried to tell him his parents probably wouldn't be there. In his shoes, she'd be trying to tell herself the same things. She would never have convinced herself not to panic, any more than she could now convince an eight-year-old.

The navigation lead them off the main road and out through the hills. The grass over the hills might have been particularly dead, or its colors might have shifted because of Sam, or Sam's abilities might be killing it as they passed—she had no way of knowing.

Ten minutes at a time would pass without seeing any other cars, and it was at least five minutes between houses. The navigation on Michelle's phone popped in and out, until Elena finally memorized the last few turns and closed the app.

Finally, they pulled up to the address Jeffrey had given them.

Elena didn't know what she should have been expecting. The place looked so innocent. It was a little red house with a beaten up roof. She couldn't see any lights on from the outside, but it was daytime. But there was a car in the driveway, if you could call it a driveway—it was more like a dirt path that lead up to the garage—so she assumed someone was home.

She got out of the car and went to help Sam out of it. His legs were shaking so hard, she finally gave up and picked him up, carrying him along with her as they walked toward the front door. Had he been any heavier, she couldn't possibly have had the energy.

"This is it," she whispered as they stood in front of the front door.

Patrick nodded, and he gave Sam's hair a quick tousle and Elena a small smile before raising his hand to knock.

Footsteps sounded inside, and then the door swung open.