Every bone in Riley's body hurt. The ones the girl in the oversized hoodie claimed to be healing hurt especially. She had introduced herself to her as Marigold, had given a quarter-assed explanation of how her powers worked, then started to do whatever healing magic she had. To her credit, Riley didn't feel as bad as she did when she woke up.

"You're lucky you only broke a few ribs" she said and continued gently waving her hands over Riley's chest. "Usually, fall from that height, you're toast."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind for the next time I fall out of the sky." Riley croaked sarcastically.

"So where are you from?" Marigold asked. "Seattle?"

"San Francisco" she mumbled as Marigold was slowly fusing her bones back into complete pieces. "But that's all you're getting."

"Suit yourself" Marigold said and sneezed. "Teleportation, you said?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah. You?"

"Phytokinesis" Marigold answered, as if Riley was supposed to know what that meant. "Control over plants. Well, life, more broadly, but it works best with plants."

"How'd you find out?"

"Made a houseplant grow twice as tall in a few seconds. Figured something was up." Marigold said and pulled her hands back. "Gotta check the bones, all right?"

Riley mumbled something in agreement, and Marigold gently pressed on her chest to feel if her ribcage had healed properly. Satisfied with her work, she nodded.

"Feel good?"

"Feel like shit" Riley said, then took a deep breath. It didn't hurt anymore. "But my bones are where they're supposed to be."

"You're welcome." Marigold took Riley's arm and let her hands hover over the cuts and abrasions. "Hold still, healing skin always burns a little."

True to Marigold's word, her power burnt as it closed up Riley's wound. It was like she welded them back together with a hot soldering iron - but it worked, her skin weaved over the cuts and gashes, leaving behind a faint green glow that faded into her normal skin tone. Not even a scar left behind.

"That's impressive" Riley said and ran her fingers over the spot where the wound had been. "Thanks."

"We're not done. Other arm." Marigold grabbed hold of Riley's left arm and started healing her wounds there too. The deeper cuts hurt a lot more, but Riley could deal if she distracted herself a little.

"So how'd you end up here?" Riley asked, if only to distract herself from the pain.

"Same as most of us. Parents found out about my powers, freaked, tried to 'fix' me." A sneeze shook her. "Spent six weeks in a specialised 'treatment facility', they called it. Ran away, ended up here."

"And nobody's found you?"

"We're better hidden than you think. Tourists are too preoccupied with the presidents to care about us, rangers ignore this part of the park, and I can grow the trees so they sort of obscure us." Marigold pulled her hands away, and Riley's wounds were completely gone. She ran her hands over where the wound was, feeling for... something, but Riley didn't know what. "There-" another sneeze. "Ugh. There you go."

"That barely took you five minutes."

"Cuts are easy. Open wounds, I mean. Superficial stuff. It's the more serious injuries that take time. I was healing your ribs for hours." Riley held her chest, expecting a sharp pain, but she felt fine.

"Thanks," she said again. "Do you know where Abby is?"

"Probably with Sadie" she said and helped Riley up. Her legs were still a little wobbly, but she managed to walk.

Riley followed Marigold out of the treehouse, and down a rope bridge to the clearing that connected them all. The forest canopy was high enough above that it didn't obscure the view of the four enormous carved faces of Mount Rushmore, but regardless, On either side of the clearing were treehouses, each unique and lovingly constructed from various kinds of lumber and rope. She could see people moving in and out of them. One of them was Abby, with a tall, muscular girl with red hair and a boy, barely a teenager, with a bright blue jacket.

"Abby!" She called over. Abigail looked down from the other rope bridge and waved at Riley and Marigold.

"Ri! Feeling better?" She asked, as if she'd lived at the camp for years. "Sadie's just giving me the tour, and-"

"Yeah, why don't you join us? Just come up that ladder and then go through the common house." Sadie called down. When Riley looked at the ladder in question - a few branches held together by some vines - she wasn't keen to test if it would hold her. Instead, she looked for a spot that had solid enough ground next to Abby, and closed her eyes to teleport there. It felt almost normal again - the tug the space around her warped to bring her to her destination was still stronger than what she was used to, but at least this time she didn't fall out of the sky.

"Or that, that works too" Sadie said and continued her tour. She led them into the biggest treehouse, the one in the middle, that most other bridges connected to. It had a red roof and a small chimney made from a metal pipe. "This is my house. But it's also our... community space. I sleep in the back."

She led the girls inside. The treehouse was homey, decorated like a cosy girl's room would be. Colourful rugs lined the floor, bean bags were piled around a metal fireplace. The entire treehouse curved around the large trunk of the spruce it was built into. There was also a large table, with enough space for at least twelve people, but Sadie had piled paper, her personal notes and a few maps on it along with a small laptop. In the back, a wooden door led to her own quarters, which were built on another platform in an adjacent tree.

"Nice place." Riley said, scanning for escape routes. Three windows, but no telling if they opened; the door to Sadie's bedroom and the door they were standing in, and a hatch in the floor, partially covered with a rug. For emergencies, Riley figured. Old habits died hard.

"Thanks. This is our... common room. We eat here, hang out, play games." Not something Riley was particularly looking forward to.

"Only if you want to, though" the boy in the blue jacket said quickly. Jean=Paul. The one that could read minds. "Nobody has to do anything. Autumn stays in her treehouse most of the time too."

"You're always welcome here." Sadie said and led them out of the common house again into another treehouse, this one on the other side of a very stable looking wooden bridge, complete with handrails. The treehouse it led to was much nicer than the others - it had two stories, and looked more like a modernist miniature mansion than a children's treehouse. Sadie knocked at the door, and another boy opened.

"Oh, hey. Are these the new girls?"

"Yes, they are." Sadie said and went inside. "Riley, Abby, this is Jacob."

"Welcome to my little abode" Jacob said, trying and failing to be humble about his creation. "Built it myself. With Sadie's help."

"You made all this?" Abby asked, her eyes glowing in awe. Jacob's treehouse had an open floor plan, with a staircase leading to his bed. On the bottom floor was what looked to be a workshop, but also a small kitchen furnished with camping equipment, and a small door that led to a bathroom under the sleeping platform.

"I did." He nodded. "So you're the teleporters from San Fran?"

Riley nodded. "We might not stay long. We were trying to go to New York, and once we're feeling a bit better, we're gonna leave."

"What's in New York?" Jacob asked and leaned against his workbench.

"We're gonna hi-" Abby wanted to say, but Riley cut her off.

"That's none of your business."

"She's afraid her dad might catch her and put her in prison." Jean-Paul explained, effortlessly reading Riley's mind.

"Ah. That." Jacob nodded, as if he knew. He looked much older than he was - his grey high-necked hoodie and black glasses complimented his dark brown skin and hair. "You came from Tahoe?"

"How do you-"

"News travels. And you two were on Good Morning America today. Abigail Louden and Riley Truman, am I right?"

Abby nodded, but Riley didn't move.

"Look, you're safe here." Sadie said. "We're all... missing persons. And we stick together."

"No offence, but the more of us are here, the greater the danger of being found out is." Riley answered. Jacob nodded.

"That's correct, but the odds that someone finds us here in the next month are six point eight five. Rounded to two decimal points."

"What?"

"And the odds that someone finds us who could mean us harm are two point two one." He looked Riley in the eyes. "But the odds that you're found and picked up by the cops in NYC are..." He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, a faint glow disappeared from his irises. "Sixty-four."

"Like you know that."

"He actually does." Sadie said, leaning against the wall. "Jacob is a walking calculator. A numbers man. His power is being incredibly good at anything involving numbers."

"Static calculations, for example. Architecture. Probabilities. I see all the paths, and how likely the universe is to take them."

"You can see the future?" Abby asked.

Jacob smiled and chuckled. "Within reason."

"Oh, and he can estimate distances and other measurements perfectly. Show her." Sadie said.

Jacob looked at Riley, top to bottom, closed his right eye. "One-hundred and sixty centimetres, fifty-five point eight kilograms. With clothes."

"Something like that" Riley replied, slightly creeped out.

"For what it's worth, I do think you should stay." Jacob continued the conversation. "We're stronger together. And I don't just say that because the math checks out."

"I'll think about it," Riley answered and made a mental note to make an entry for Jacob and all the other kids in her logbook. Wait, her log. Her bag. Where was it?

"Sadie put it in your new treehouse." Jean-Paul said, and everyone looked at him. "Oh, sorry, you didn't say that out loud. You were thinking about where your bags were."

"You really need to stop doing that" Riley said to the boy. "I don't like having my mind be broadcast to anyone in the vicinity."

"You think I'm doing that? Everyone sends out signals, whether they want to or not. Just happens that your signals are pretty strong, all things considered."

Sadie put her hands on Riley and Abby's shoulders. Her grip was strong, determined, probably tighter than she intended, and her palms were like hot stones. "I know this is all a lot right now."

"To say the least" Riley mumbled.

"Tell you what - I'll show you your treehouse, and you can think about it. If you wanna stay, I mean."

---

Riley and Abby's treehouse was one of the ones that Jacob designed. It wasn't quite as spacious as his, but it did have two separate beds, and even had its own bathroom. There was even an old manky couch someone had thrown out, and Sadie had carried with one hand over to camp. Their bags were already there, scuffed up and with a few cuts, but there nonetheless.

Riley immediately went for her bag, checking if everything was still there. Her logbook was intact, if a bit dirty from the fall. She flipped through the pages - her neat handwriting detailing every power she'd encountered, every theory about how they worked, every potential application she could think of. She'd need to add entries for everyone here, and she'd need their full names. Where they were from. What their powers were.

"Thank god your notebook survived." Abby said sarcastically.

"Look, we're going to need it. Write down what we know. Where we are. Who's around here."

"I don't think we need to worry. They saved our lives. Didn't turn us in. Doesn't count for something?" Abby sad down on one of the beds. It creaked under her weight.

"They didn't want someone dying in their little commune. Doesn't exactly scream altruism to me."

"You're impossible sometimes. They're nice!"

"They seem nice. Important distinction." Riley closed her notebook and put it back in her bag.

"They opened up to us. Revealed their powers. Marigold fixed your broken ribs, dude."

"Yeah, and what does she want in return?" Riley started pacing, the wooden floor creaking with each step. "Nothing is free, Abby. Especially not when you're on the run."

"Not everyone's out to get us, Ri. Maybe they just want to help."

Riley stopped pacing and looked out the window. From here, she could see Roosevelt's stone face clearly. Something about it made her uneasy. "My dad's definitely looking for us by now."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do." Riley sat down on the other bed, not claiming it, just testing to see how soft it was. Unfortunately for her, it was very soft and comfy. "He probably has the entire government looking for us."

A knock at the door made them both jump. Riley opened the door a tiny crack. It was Jacob.

"How are you settling in?" She opened the door all the way.

"As well as I can." Riley said. Abby hopped down from her bed and climbed down the stairs.

"Thanks for the house. It's... really nice." Abby said. It was hard to tell with his darker skin tone, but Riley could have sworn that Jacob was blushing.

"Don't mention it. I just wanted to try a new design before I started work on mine. Do the lights work?"

"...yes, they do." Riley said. "How, though?"

"Solar panels and a little electrical grid I built" he said, as if it was the most normal thing.

"And the water?"

"There's a natural spring about half a mile from here," Jacob explained, pulling a folded piece of paper from his pocket and spreading it on the nearest flat surface. It was a detailed technical drawing of what looked like plumbing schematics. "I designed a gravity-fed system that-"

"You just... have the blueprints on you?" Riley interrupted.

"I like being prepared for questions." He traced a line with his finger. "The elevation difference gives us enough pressure for basic amenities. Autumn helps sometimes, when we need an extra boost."

"Autumn?" Riley asked, making a mental note to add another name to her log.

"You'll meet her soon enough. She usually keeps to herself in the highest treehouse." Jacob pointed out the window toward a structure barely visible through the canopy. "She's our... early warning system, you could say."

"Warning system for what?"

"Rangers, tourists, whoever wanders too close to our clearing. She can pretty much see everything from up there."

"What's her powers?" Riley asked and reached reached for her bag.

"Look, I know you want to learn all you can. Believe me, I can empathise. But Sadie has a rule about not discussing other people's powers without their permission." He took the blueprint off the table again, folding it up with machine-like precision and stuffing it in his back pocket.

"All right." Riley nodded. "I can respect that."

"So how do you get supplies up here?" Abby asked and hopped down the stairs.

"Ah." Jacob's face lit up. "That might be something where you two could be very helpful. Right now, the nearest store is in Keystone, and that's really quite a hike, so-"

"No." Riley said immediately. "We're not getting involved. As soon as we can teleport, we're leaving."

"I really hope you reconsider," Jacob said and looked at Abby.

"We need to think about it." Riley acquiesced. "We can't just jump into this."

Jacob nodded, a knowing smile playing at his lips. "Of course. Take all the time you need." He started walking back toward his treehouse, then paused. "Oh, and Riley?"

"Yeah?"

"The odds of your father finding us here? They're actually zero point zero three percent." He tapped his temple. "Just thought you might want to know that."