Isaac waved at her dismissively. He had already moved on to frisk another of the five men. “I’m doing my civic duty,” he said. Again using his handkerchief, he pulled a small bag of white powder out of the pocket of the guy he was frisking. Isaac made a tsking sound. He held it up so we could see it.
“I’m guessing this isn’t baby powder,” Isaac said. He put the bag back into the man’s pocket. He moved on to frisk the other guys. In addition to the bag of white powder, he found several joints and another knife, all of which Isaac put back where he had found them.
Isaac stood back up straight. One of the guys’ cell phones was now in his hand. He said, “We can’t get these guys thrown in jail for assault. That would require us to file charges. Like you said Neha, we’re not supposed to draw attention to ourselves. But maybe we can get these knuckleheads locked up for drug and weapon possession.”
Isaac dialed a number on the phone. “Hello, police?” he said into the phone. His voice was frantic and panicked. “Five guys just jumped me! One of them had a knife. A Hero intervened and started to fight them. A really handsome black guy. He was amazing.” Isaac winked at us. “I managed to run away. Send help right away!” He gave the person on the other end of the line the address we were at, and hung up. He looked down at the unconscious guys.
“Sambo? Really?” Isaac said in amazement in his normal voice. He shook his head and looked back up at us. “Maybe these guys are time travelers from the 1800s like Dumas. Let’s get out of here before the cops show.”
We left. On the way back to the car, Isaac wiped the cell he had called the police with clean of his fingerprints. He dropped it into a trash bin.
We got into the car, and started the drive back to the camp. It wasn’t until I had settled back into the front seat that the significance of what had just happened sank in. Not only had I confronted and defeated those guys, but I had done it easily and reflexively, without using my powers and without being scared out of my wits. It was a far cry from how I had felt months ago when I had that run-in with the Three Horsemen. Back then, I had nearly pooped my pants in fear, and the Three Horsemen had manhandled me as easily as if I was a child before my powers had kicked in. Facing those five guys back there, I had not been afraid. I certainly had not felt like a child.
“Hello! Earth to Theo,” Isaac said. “Is something wrong? Did you hurt your hands back there?”
His words startled me out of my reverie. I realized he had been talking for a while. I had missed what he had said. Lost in thought, I had been staring at my hands as if I had never seen them before. They seemed bigger. Stronger. Different. As was I, I now realized.
“I’m kind of a badass,” I said. My voice was filled with wonder.
My revelation was met with silence for a few seconds.
“You’re studying to be a Hero,” Neha then said. “Duh!”
CHAPTER 18
Standing shirtless in front of the bathroom mirror in my apartment building at Camp Avatar, I looked at the nude full-body photo that had been taken of me when I had first entered the Academy. It was later the same night Isaac, Neha and I had the run-in with those five guys in Portland.
At the time the photo had been taken, I had not understood why the Academy had mandated that the picture be taken and a copy given to me. Much later it had occurred to me that maybe it was another way to humiliate us trainees, a tactic to psychologically break us down with the intention of later building us back up with a different, more Heroic, mentality. And, maybe that had been part of the reason the photo was taken. But now I thought there was a different reason: to give us trainees who made it this far a basis for comparison, to show us how far we had come.
A picture told a thousand words. What the naked picture was now telling me was that I had changed in the months I had been at Camp Avatar. I was no longer skin and bones like I was in the photo. While I hardly looked like Mr. Olympia now, I definitely was bigger and more muscular. Training as hard as I did and eating as much as I did clearly were having an effect. How much bigger and stronger would I be if I continued on the path I was on? Would I one day look like Amazing Man, who despite his age had the body of an underwear model? Also, in the picture my face was boyish. Now, my face was more rugged, more masculine.
Not only was I different looks-wise, I also had a different mentality and was capable of handling myself in a scrap. Our fight with those guys from the bar in Portland had proven that to me. I did not know if I was yet ready to tackle Iceburn. There was no doubt, though, that I was readier than I had been months ago.
I put my mask back on in case I encountered another trainee on the way back to my room. I walked back to the room I shared with Isaac. He was off chewing the fat with some of the other trainees. I put the picture of myself back into the envelope it had been in, and put the envelope into the chest containing my few possessions.
Though it was late, I was too keyed up to sleep. Still shirtless, I pulled out one of my history books. World history was by far my worst subject, mainly because I did not have much of a grounding in it. In the small-town schools I had gone to in South Carolina, if an American hadn’t done it or Jesus Christ hadn’t said it, then it wasn’t considered important. I settled in at the desk to start reading about China’s Taiping Civil War in the mid-1800s. It was fought by the Chinese government against a Christian sect led by a Chinese man who believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus, which was certainly news to me. Jesus having a Chinese brother had been left out of all of the versions of the Bible I had read.
I had been studying for about half an hour when a knock came at the door.
“Come in,” I said. The door was not locked. It did not even have a lock. Even if someone had something in his room worth stealing, we trainees lived under a strict honor code. No one wanted to wash out of the Academy by violating it after having come this far.
Neha opened the door and walked in. She closed the door behind herself. Though she now had her mask on so she would not reveal her true appearance to the other trainees, she still wore the skirt and blouse she had on when we had driven to Portland. Her long, shiny black hair was still down. When she was training, she always wore it up in a bun to keep it out of her eyes and to make it harder for opponents to grab her. Her shirt was unbuttoned enough that there was a hint of cleavage. I was suddenly even more aware than usual of the swell of her breasts and the curve of her hips, not to mention the fact I did not have a shirt on. Though Neha had been in my room countless times, Isaac had almost always been present when she had been here. For some reason, being alone here with her was making my chest tighten.
“Isaac is not here,” I said, though she had not asked. I was inexplicably very nervous.
“I know. I just left him. He’s telling everyone who’ll listen about our fight with those guys in Portland. According to him, there were ten guys, not just five.” Neha shook her head. “By the time the night is over, he’ll have us fighting off hordes of Hells Angels and Klansmen.”
I grinned. “Isaac has a flair for exaggeration,” I said.
“Isaac is a liar.” Neha smiled, taking the sting out of her words. “But, he’s our liar.” It was weird hearing Myth being called Isaac and calling him that myself, especially now that we were back on the grounds of the Academy. Even so, I liked the fact I now knew Smoke’s and Myth’s real names. Using their real names here at camp made it like we were a part of a special club that only the three of us belonged to.
“So, can I help you with something?” I asked. I was still nervous. Oddly, Neha looked nervous too. She usually never looked nervous. She normally looked calm, cool, and collected, like there was nothing that could happen she was not capable of dealing with.
“I just wanted to thank you.” She said it almost shyly.
“Thank me? For what?”
“For standing up for me.”
“Oh. Not a problem. Though I think you and I both know that if Isaac and I had not been with you tonight, you could have
handled those guys all by yourself.”
“Of course I could have.” False modesty was not one of Neha’s vices. “Even so, it’s nice to have someone stand up for me for a change. I’m so used to having to always do it myself. And, I’m not thanking you for just standing up for me tonight, but also here at camp. I know you stick up for me when people around here start talking crap about me. I just want to let you know how much I appreciate it.”
Neha seemed vulnerable, more open than usual. With a flash of sympathetic insight, I realized how hard it must have been for her, with her mother having been murdered and her father a noted supervillain. Plus, she had to fend for herself these past few years. Maybe it was that vulnerability that made me do it. Maybe it was the fact I felt more confident than I ever had before. Maybe it was the fact I was more aware than usual of just how pretty Neha was. All of the above, maybe.
Regardless of why, I stood up. I stepped up to her and took her in my arms. I lowered my head and kissed her. For one frightening and agonizing moment, Neha tensed up against me. Then, she relaxed. She kissed me back. Her mouth opened hungrily to mine. We kissed for what felt like both an eternity and just an instant.
Neha broke our kiss. She stepped back. I was afraid she was about to leave. She did not. Looking at me the way Delilah must have looked at Sampson, she reached down. She unbuttoned her shirt. A black lacy bra was revealed. She pulled her shirt off and dropped it to the floor. I watched her intently, transfixed. Neha unhooked and shrugged out of her bra. Blood roared in my ears, pounding like a jungle drum. Outside of movies and the Internet, I had never seen a woman topless before. I shook a little. I pulled Neha to me. Her bare skin pressed against mine, soft and hot.
We fell together into my bed. At some point, I’m not sure when, we pulled each other’s masks off. We saw each other clearly and intimately. At first slowly and then more frantically, we explored each other. A new sensual world of sights and sensations opened before me.
Much later, after it was over, Neha curled up against me. Her soft flesh pressed against me. “Happy birthday, Theo,” she murmured into my ear.
It was the first time she had ever called me anything other than Carolina. Though I did not know it at the time, she would never call me Carolina again.
It was the best birthday ever.
CHAPTER 19
Soaring above the flames and trying to avoid breathing in the rising plumes of smoke, I generated as large of an air-impermeable force field as I could around part of the edge of the raging wildfire. The field was not as big as I wished it was, though it was as big as the current state of my powers was capable of making it. The field was maybe the length of an eighteen wheeler, and twice as wide. It shimmered slightly in my eyes, though I knew it was invisible to everyone else. Even though it was not as big as I would like, I had come a long way thanks to my Academy training from the days where I could only generate a force field around my own person. My powers seemed to be like my muscles—the more I used them and the harder I pushed them, the stronger they got.
The part of the fire contained in my force field died in intensity and then went out, having consumed all of the oxygen within the field. I released my hold on the field, and generated another one around the fire right next to where I had just extinguished the flames. I had been at this for well over an hour. I felt like an invisible giant putting out a fire by stamping it with his huge feet. Though it was slow going, it was working. I had already created a firebreak over a large area on the perimeter of the wildfire. There was so much more to be done though. I felt like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down to the bottom so he had to start all over again.
Sisyphus? Huh. Hanging out with Myth so much clearly had rubbed off on me. With Neha, more than just mythological knowledge had rubbed off on me. I smiled to myself at the thought.
I was not working alone in fighting the fire. All of the trainees and instructors at the Academy were spread around the perimeter of the wildfire, doing our best to contain and extinguish it. The fire had started early yesterday, and had spread rapidly thanks to the unusually dry weather Oregon suffered from lately. The fire had quickly overwhelmed the efforts of firefighters, and had burned well over 200,000 acres since it had started. Many homes had been destroyed, and several people had lost their lives. When it had become clear the state and local authorities needed help, Oregon Governor Adrian Patterson had called Amazing Man. The Old Man had volunteered the assistance of all of the Hero instructors and the trainees. All of us from the Academy were split into various sectors of the wildfire. Each of us trainees was in charge of fighting the wildfire in our own sector. Since we were under the supervision of the Hero instructors who were fighting the massive blaze with us, we were authorized to use our powers here outside the confines of Camp Avatar.
There were some boulders below. With effort, I moved the massive rocks one by one until they formed a short line in front of the encroaching fire. The line of boulders should stop the fire from spreading further, at least in that small area. Months ago I would not have been strong enough to budge a single one of these rocks. I wondered what else I would be able to do in the future as my powers and I grew stronger.
As I moved the boulders into place, I heard the Old Man in my ear through the earbud there, coordinating the firefighting efforts of the trainees and Heroes. On my wrists were devices that looked like thick silver wristwatches. One was a miniature computer that also monitored each trainee’s vital signs so the Academy Heroes would know if one of us trainees got into trouble fighting the blaze. The other was a communicator so I could speak to my comrades had I the need. I had not used it since I had been fighting the blaze, nor had I seen anyone from the Academy. The blaze was too massive and those of us from the camp were spread too far apart for me to have run across anyone.
No, wait. There was someone now, flying in the air at the same altitude I was at. I could not see him or her clearly due to the smoke billowing up from the blaze below. I squinted. The figure slowly came closer towards me in the air. His form became clearer.
No.
It couldn’t be.
Yes! It was!
The figure approaching me was not a figment of my imagination, not a mirage created by heat and wishful thinking.
It was Iceburn.
He looked just the way I remembered him, just the way I saw him almost every night when I confronted him over and over again in my nightmares. He wore a pitch black costume that covered him from head to toe. Glowing lines riddled his costume like weird varicose veins. Half of his body glowed orange-red; the other half glowed light blue.
An odd combination of rage and excitement filled me. I had waited for this moment for what seemed like forever. I had rehearsed over and over in my mind what I could have done differently when I had first encountered Iceburn, and what I would do in the future once I was better trained in the use of my powers.
The future was unexpectedly now.
I immediately forgot all about the wildfire. I raised my hands up towards Iceburn. I exerting my will to attempt to form a spherical force field around him and trap him like a bug in a jar. Once formed, I would tighten the force bubble around Iceburn, squashing him like a cockroach. I would do it slowly, though. I wanted him to die agonizingly. He deserved no less.
As usual, my hands burned as I used my powers. Despite the fact my powers had been triggered, the visible-to-me-only force field I expected to form around Iceburn did not do so. I redoubled my efforts, concentrating mightily to encage Iceburn. It was not working. Iceburn continued to move towards me, slowly and upright, like he was standing on an invisible conveyor belt.
Iceburn came to a halt. Though he was still pretty far from me, I could see him shaking his black-clad head.
“You can put your hands down, kid,” he said in his gravelly voice. “Your powers won’t work on me. It’s the suit. It nullifies Meta’s powers so they can’t affect me directly.” Though I normally would not believe th
is murderer if he told me the sky was blue, he clearly was right about this at least: my powers were not working on him. I kept trying anyway. I scowled with concentration. My hands felt like they were going to explode with the intensity of my effort. Iceburn shook his head at me again. Though I could not see his face due to his costume, I could sense his disgust at my futile effort.
“I see you’re still not the brightest bulb in the store,” Iceburn said. He glanced down at the partially extinguished crackling fire below. “Even so, your ability to use your powers has come a long way since I last saw you. I’ve been watching you fight the fire the past few minutes. Actually, I’ve been watching you from afar ever since you enrolled in Hero Academy. Your face looking different than before threw me at first—you trainees use some sort of face masking technology apparently—but your powers make you easy to recognize. I thought about trying to take you out there, but not even I felt comfortable going up against a truckload of self-righteous Metas to get to you. Besides, I’m supposed to make your death look like an accident. It’s why I didn’t make a move against you when you were out with your friends in Portland last week. Too many witnesses. Then I hit upon the idea of setting this fire. I figured if I made it big enough, the state would ask the Metas in the Academy for help in putting it out. I just knew you all would jump at the chance to lend a hand.” Iceburn shook his head. “You Hero types are too predictable. It’s a weakness. And here you are, practically gift-wrapped for me. Now when you die, it’ll look like you got overwhelmed by the fire. So tragic.” The bastard sounded smug.
“You set this fire? All to lure me out of camp?” I asked. I was in disbelief. I guess I should not have been. A murderer like Iceburn would not hesitate to commit arson. “Do you have any idea how much damage you’ve caused with this fire? How many people you’ve killed?”
Omega Superhero 1: Caped Page 15