“Are those kicks going to be a fair match against The Drone? Can they pierce his suit of armor?”
Mae lowers her leg and hovers before me.
“Not as it stands right now,” she says. “But, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” She suddenly motions for me to follow her as she glides back down towards earth. “How about I just show you?”
It seems like I don’t have a choice, so I hurry to soar after her. She can’t help but let out a giddy laugh as every time I get within a foot of her, she boosts herself further ahead. I grit my teeth, trying not to grin too much.
“Come on!” she calls back. “Try to keep up!”
___
“No peeking!” Mae demands as I sit on the love seat in her family room. It’s relatively private with glass doors that block out our chatter - and the secretive nature of our Aberrant powers - from the rest of the house.
I press my lips together and squeeze my eyes shut as the temptation to look at what she’s doing gets worse and worse.
“I’m not peeking!” I say.
“Good.”
There’s a sound of rustling cardboard, like some shoe box is being set down on the coffee table between us and the wood stove which crackles gently with a warm fire. Then even more rustling as I assume she’s opening the box and takes something out.
“This has to be one of your inventions, right?” I ask.
“You’ll see in a moment. Just keep your eyes closed.”
I obey, squeezing my hands into balls at my side.
“This better be worth it for all the hype.”
There’s some snapping sounds, making me think of someone putting on a helmet or some other sort of clip. Then the stretching of leather.
My mind goes wild with ideas. Is she putting on a set of gauntlets? Or a crazy leather-style piece of armor like in an RPG?
I feel my cheeks go red a bit at the image that pops into my head of Mae in a leather bodice with long, black gloves holding a sledge hammer that pops into my head. Am I really thinking about my superhero partner that way? I hope she doesn’t notice.
“Alright,” she says, startling me out of my comfortable seat a bit. “You can open your eyes now.”
My eyes snap open and it takes a split second for them to readjust to the light, but when they finally do adjust they focus on a sight that is not sexy at all. In fact, it’s downright terrifying. My eyes widen and I jump back in my seat.
Mae is standing in front of me in an attack pose, the same one she did in the air a little while earlier, except this time she is standing on solid ground like some sort of karate warrior. And instead of a regular shoe on her feet, she’s wearing a heavy-looking set of black leather boots - one of which is aimed directly at my face, mere inches from my nose, and out of the sole of that boot protrudes a grid of tiny, silver metal spikes.
“Get away from me with that!” I say, scrambling up onto the back of the love seat.
Mae can’t control her laughter. With the same metal click that I heard with my eyes closed, the spikes in her boot retract and disappear into the rubber sole. Mae straightens up and holds out her hands to either side of herself.
“Ta-da!” she says. “You just met my newest weapon. I can tell by your reaction that these babies just scared the crap out of you.”
“Yeah…” I say, settling uneasily back onto the seat cushions. One hand pressed down into said cushions, and the other reaches up to my stomach and rubs it as if I have just been impaled by the tiny, incredibly sharp spikes. “Thank-goodness I didn’t try to lunge forward when I had my eyes shut as a joke.”
“I’d have to agree,” says Mae as she crouches down by the coffee table and unlaces one of the boots, sliding her foot out, which looks like it fits snugly inside. Now free, she hands the boot over to me. “Check it out.”
I roll the boot in my hands, marveling at the weight. How in the world is Mae going to be able to sprint in something like this? We’re both used to using our modified sneakers with flaps in the soles for the puffs of energy that allow us to levitate. These boots feel like they weigh a ton in comparison.
“How did you get the spikes to retract like that?” I ask, glancing up at her.
“There’s a little button in the toe of the boots that I can trigger pretty easily,” she answers. “Spring-loaded. I use the same trigger to get them back inside. I decided that I don’t want to end up like the Hawkeye of our team. I’d much rather be the Batman instead. Or Batwoman. You have to admit, these are pretty impressive, right?”
“Impressive…” I mutter. “And terrifying. Do you know how much damage you would do to someone if you smashed them in the face with those?”
“That’s the idea,” Mae replies. “Maximum damage hidden in a small and stylish package.”
“And you wonder why I don’t play sports…” I glance up at her. “So this is your solution to having no weaponized powers?”
Mae nods. She reaches out and takes the shoe back.
“I might have gone a little too crazy and sharpened the points as well. I’ve been working on these since we put the Vestige away in the basement. Of course, if we’re going to bring the medallion out of retirement, these are logically going to become a staple of my costume, hence the black. I might add some purple highlights here and there to go with the rest.”
“Are we officially bringing the Vestige out of retirement?” I ask. “You haven’t seen something in the news that I missed, have you?”
Mae holds up her hand as I go to check my phone.
“No - it’s nothing like that. I only thought that now with the public aware of Bill Flagrant’s escape, we might as well be ready for anything. That means practicing and arming ourselves.”
“Thinking ahead…”
Looking at things logically, Mae has a point - or several of them, where her boots are concerned. It’s been a nice little vacation from fighting off my mortal enemies, but no matter how much I want to pretend that The Drone and The Cloak are gone for good, the truth is that they are only temporarily out of sight. Eventually those two will emerge, and this time I believe our battle will be to the death.
I shake my head.
“It can’t hurt to plan ahead,” I say as Mae returns her boots to their box. “Who knows what Bill and Austin are doing to prepare on their end?”
10
Overheard in the Lab
After the convention, Kimberly helped take down the booth and transported it back to the Virtual Solutions’ offices. It was a tight fit in her car, but Barrett helped to get all the pieces inside safely.
Without his own car, Barrett joined her and the two of them chatted about games and their college goals as they drove to the shiny glass Virtual Solutions building.
Kimberly was thankful for the help and the new friend as it turned out that Barrett was also going to be joining Boston University the following fall.
It would be nice to have a friend before classes started.
From there, her mind wandered to Shaun. She wondered if she would see him during the year.
Those thoughts continued to stick with her as the two of them unloaded the convention supplies and brought them into the Virtual Solutions building.
Kimberly was very hot from all the lifting, so she peeled off her jacket and set it down on a nearby chair outside John’s office.
John was waiting for them and thanked them for everything. He would have joined them for the convention, but he and the rest of the team were working on getting the latest version of the app ready for the big push.
He would get in touch with them over email in the coming weeks.
Barrett followed Kimberly back to the front entrance, bidding her farewell as they exchanged numbers.
She was about to step outside when she realized that she had left her coat on one of the seats near John’s office.
With her jacket in hand, she turned to leave.
But something stopped her.
She paused by the do
orway to John’s office at the sound of her name.
“What about Kimberly?” said a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. “What happens when she finds out that there is no internship? That it was a ruse?”
John’s voice replied.
“We will be long gone before that happens. By then, Shaun Boding might already be dead with us flying around with the Vestige.”
Kimberly’s heart nearly stopped.
Shaun? The men running this company were talking about Shaun? Possibly killing him?
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing - didn’t want to believe what she was hearing.
But, it went on.
“He doesn’t work alone, you know. He has a sidekick.”
John - if that was even his real name, considering he was talking about possibly killing Shaun - laughed.
“Don’t worry. It will all be handled.”
Her heart thudded in her chest. In the pocket of her coat she felt the hard outline of her cell phone. She needed to get out of here and contact Shaun. He needed to know that these men - whoever they were - were after him.
She went to dart past the open door when a very strong, very cold hand lashed out and grabbed her by the back of the shirt. Her hand lost its grip on the jacket and it, along with her phone, went flying across the glossy floor, out of reach.
“Look at this,” said the deeper voiced man. “We have ourselves a spy, if I’m not mistaken.”
Kimberly struggled to get free, but the hand was like a vise, holding her in place.
She craned her neck to see what the man who held her looked like and let out a strangled gasp.
“Bill Flagrant!” she managed.
Bill grunted. “I see you remember me from Chinatown.”
He turned and dragged her into the office while she kicked and screamed. But it was no use.
If only she hadn’t forgotten her jacket!
“What are we going to do with her?” asked Bill.
Stepping in front of Kimberly was the man she thought was John - a kind game developer. However, now his features became fuzzy and morphed into another face she recognized.
“No,” she said, wrapping her hands around Bill’s gauntleted hand. “It can’t be you.”
Austin Spencer, the young, attractive artist who was supposed to work with Shaun on his Super Guy books, grinned at her.
What in the world was going on? How had he disguised himself like that?
He brought a hand to his chin and stroked it for a moment.
“We can’t let her go blabbing about our plan, that’s for sure,” he said. “It could ruin everything.”
“Why do you want to kill Shaun Boding?” Kimberly demanded, kicking her feet but getting nowhere.
Austin laughed.
“You are stupid if you think I will just tell you that information,” he replied, stepping closer to her. “I thought you were smart.”
“You can’t keep me here!” Kimberly cried. “My father is expecting me home tonight. When I don’t show up -”
“He will think that you were held up with your work,” Austin finished over her. He picked up her coat and removed her phone. Then he motioned for Bill to take one of her hands and press her thumb against the fingerprint sensor, unlocking the device. Austin tapped out a text message to her father and sent it off. “There we go. Now you’re on our time.”
She gritted her teeth.
“I won’t be kept here against my will!” she spat at him.
Austin simply waved a hand dismissively.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
He reached up and gripped her by the hair, tilting her head back as she let out a terrified gasp. Her eyes met his, and they were filled with a dark glee that spread to the rest of his face. That glee sent chills down her already exhausted legs, and she could feel some sort of energy pulsing through Austin’s hand, manipulating her body in the same way he had manipulated her mind before.
Austin smiled once more as his face came forward until it was only an inch away from hers. She could smell the sweat on his forehead and the worn-out mint of his breath.
He took in a breath, and finished, “You’ve done your job well. Now you’re staying right here with us. In fact, I think you’re going to take a nice, long nap. You’ve earned it.”
Kimberly tried to cry out - to scream, for whoever was near enough that could help her, if there was anyone - but her eyes suddenly became very heavy and her mind swirled as if it were filled with liquid.
Then her vision went cloudy and a dark curtain descended over her consciousness.
11
Tucker Bates
School is exactly what you would expect it to be: Very uneventful. At least, for me. I’m not concerned with filling out scholarship applications or applying for prestigious colleges like most of my classmates. Instead I have loaded on a bunch of elective classes to fill out my core schedule so that at least if I have to be here, I can make it worth my while and learn something related to my career.
The creative writing classes help me to develop my storytelling, while the art classes give me some valuable practice drawing and controlling my line work. Considering that I currently pencil at least two pages of Super Guy per day, any practice outside of my comic work is refreshing and essential. There is nothing that lingers over my shoulders more than the idea of burning out unexpectedly because I am working too much and not playing around with my craft.
Some classmates get excited to see me studying alongside them, but most do what they normally do, which is ignore me. I just become another brick in the wall, which is actually pretty nice. Without my old, now-defunct video channel, which is growing weeds, I am completely uninteresting.
If only they knew I have a target painted on my back by The Cloak and The Drone. I half expect The Cloak to materialize around a corner one of these days and knock me out, dragging me off to who knows where?
So, I do the only thing that gives my mind some rest, which is to stay late after school and work out.
At least, I try to work out.
I hate to say that it’s not exactly like in the movies when it comes to having superpowers. I didn’t wake up overnight with muscles and washboard abs. I am still the same as I was, only I can shoot pulse blasts and fly. Both are cool, but I’m a weakling when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.
Mae is obviously taking some sort of martial arts classes, and I don’t really want to crash those. So, using the free weight room just off the gymnasium is my go-to for body building.
It’s slow moving.
I’ve only been weight lifting for about a month, so I can’t lift very much. Sweat pours down the back of my neck and soaks my T-shirt as I lift the barbell up to my chest, straining to keep my arms steady, and do a few squats. Boy, do my legs feel horrible afterwards!
It’s a good thing that I get to mix up my routine because I don’t know how these powerhouse football players do it. My arms are ready to collapse by the end of my session, and my ear-buds practically slip out of my ears because of all the sweat pouring off my body along with the steam.
I collapse onto a nearby bench while other more muscular guys continue to work out, egging each other on. Next to me is a water fountain and I turn towards it to grab a drink. Water dribbles down my chin and neck, but I don’t care. It takes away some of the heat and pain in my muscles.
I’m supposed to do a cool-down walk (whatever that means), but I skip that and hit the locker room instead. The hot water of the shower feels soothing to my body, and I wish I could just stay in there forever.
Sadly, I do have work to get done on the comic, so I wrap things up, pull on some dry clothes and sweat shirt, and head back out through the weight room.
There’s a bulletin board by the exit that is filled with flyers and advertisements for different programs that students can sign up for. Looking at my own body mass, I feel like I need some help, so I scan the papers for some sort of training program. It looks like there’s o
ne a few nights a week with one of the gym teachers, so I rip off one of the tabs with the information and stuff it into my pocket.
I’m about to head out when a light-blue paper catches my eye. On closer inspection, it’s an invitation - or at least it’s designed to look that way. The flyer is advertising the Winter Ball, a dance that the school puts on in December. Admission is free, and there will be food and drinks along with a local DJ.
“The Winter Ball…” I mutter under my breath.
If only the world were so simple that I could worry about something so trivial as going to a school dance. I could plan to dress up in a suit and ask a pretty girl to go with me.
But, who would I ask?
My mind starts to wander as I stand before the flyer when a voice speaks out, breaking me from my musings.
“Are you going to ask her to go with you?”
“Huh?” I say, turning around to see a very toned, red-haired boy stretching out his arms as he watches me. His tank-top practically hugs his chest and torso like a second skin, and judging by how muscular his legs are, he must go jogging quite a bit. He grins at me for a moment then motions to the Winter Ball flyer.
“Mae Williams,” he reiterates. “You’re going to ask her to the ball, right?”
I blink a few times and shake my head slightly.
“How would you know that?” I ask.
The guy chuckles.
“You’re Shaun Boding, aren’t you? I mean, come on. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain and a set of eyes that you’ve got the hots for Mae. I mean, so don’t a handful of other guys at school. But, you’re the most obvious about it.”
I go to fold my arms, but it’s too painful so I wince and let them fall back to my sides.
“Maybe,” I say. “I didn’t know I was being observed like that by so many people.”
The boy shrugs.
“Not everyone is interested in comic books,” he says. “No offense. But, guys usually have one thing on their minds. I’m Tucker Bates, by the way. Didn’t mean to be all creepy or anything.”
The Aberrant Series (Book 3): Super Villain Page 5