“That thing’s not on, is it?” I groaned.
Drew laughed. “No, not unless you do something stupid.”
I grabbed his hand, and he lifted me up. I leaned against the wall for balance, and slowly felt my powers returning to me.
“You were getting a little carried away in there,” he said.
“I had it under control,” I said, trying my best not to sound as frustrated as I felt. I thought I did have it under control. Yeah, Rob was making me a little angry, but I was using that anger to our advantage. “He was this close to telling me, Drew.” I looked up at him, his face telling me he wasn’t convinced. “I’m telling you. This close.”
“Kane, stop it. He wasn’t close, and you know it. If you would’ve kept going, you would have killed him,” Drew said, his voice stern.
I wasn’t sure what to say. I knew Drew wasn’t right. He couldn’t have been. I wasn’t going to just kill somebody who was defenseless—I couldn’t have. Yet I couldn’t find the words to defend myself.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” he said, more to himself than anything. “It’s been a long day. We were attacked this morning, for crying out loud. We’re not in the right state to be questioning a prisoner,” Drew told me, as if it was the most ludicrous idea ever, and he’d been saying so from the beginning.
“Time isn’t a luxury we have, Drew. The attack this morning was the biggest one yet. We can’t just sit around and wait until we’re in the ‘right state of mind’ before we try to get some information that can save lives.”
Drew cocked his head to the side. “Okay, just so I’m clear, you’re admitting that you’re not thinking straight.”
I rubbed my face with my hands. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just—” I stopped, giving up in frustration. “Fine. Whatever. You win, Drew. I’m sorry for doing what I need to do to keep people safe.” I turned to walk away.
“Just because bad things happen to us doesn’t give us the right to do worse,” Drew said as I was walking away. “Do unto others, Golden Rule, you know, that stuff.”
I turned and raised my hands. “I didn’t go and blow up a camp of innocent civilians, but look where that got us.”
“So, you’re saying you want to go blow up a camp of civilians?” Drew asked.
I grunted in frustration and stopped walking. “You know that’s not what I said, Drew. Stop twisting my words.”
“Alright, whatever,” Drew said, waving me off. “You go get some rest or whatever, and I’ll stay here and watch Rob. That’ll give me some time to think about what you really mean.”
I didn’t even give Drew the satisfaction of a response. I just disappeared in a blur, running away as fast as I could.
* * *
I walked into my room on the fourth floor of the hotel. I wanted to throw myself on my bed first thing, but I needed a shower.
I walked over to the open door that led to my parents’ room, adjoining this one. I was about to shut it, then I saw that my parents were in their room on their break. I walked in, letting out a sigh to announce my arrival. I sat down on the bed next to Mom, who was reading a book.
“Getting some rest before training with Selena?” Dad said from his spot at the table next to the window. He was writing something down on a notepad.
“Yeah, gonna take a shower and try to get a nap,” I said.
“I don’t think you’re going to have to try very hard,” Mom said with a comforting smile.
“I agree with you there. It’s been a long day,” I said as I rubbed my face, trying to scrub the tiredness from it. “What are you writing down, Dad?”
He looked at me above his reading glasses. “Just working on a schedule for the kitchen. We’ve got a lot of great people volunteering.”
“That’s great,” I said. “Thanks for taking care of the civilians while the rest of us focus on this whole Atlas thing.”
Dad smiled, and Mom patted me on the back. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “We know you’ve got it under control. But if you ever need any help with anything, you know where to find us.”
I nodded. “I’m gonna go take a shower. I’ll talk to you guys later.” I stood to leave, but Mom stopped me.
“Don’t think we haven’t forgotten about tomorrow. What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?” she asked.
I stopped and slowly turned, groaning. “Come on, Mom. We don’t have time for any birthday stuff.”
“Nonsense!” she said. “It’s your eighteenth birthday! You deserve a cake.”
I hesitated before telling them about tomorrow. I knew Mom was really looking forward to my birthday, so telling her I wasn’t even going to be on this continent in 24 hours would upset her. “I’m actually not going to be here tomorrow,” I said.
They both looked at me with puzzled faces. I explained the whole thing to them, how Doug had been in contact with some people overseas and how Selena and I were planning to go tomorrow. “They want to put it to a vote tomorrow morning, but I’m sure it’ll go through,” I said at the end.
Mom got up from her spot on the bed and gave me a hug, her eyes misty. “I guess her son saving the world is the best thing a mother could ask for on her child’s eighteenth birthday.”
I laughed, as did Dad. “I’ll be sure to stop by and say goodbye before I leave,” I told them. With that, I left the room to go get some rest, having not given them a proper goodbye.
7
STREET FIGHT
A knock at the door woke me from my sleep. I got up and walked over to look through the peephole. Selena was standing there, waiting for me to answer.
“There you are,” she said as I opened the door. “Drew told me you’d be here.”
I rubbed my head and turned around, then walked over to my bed. Selena followed me in.
“He didn’t seem too pleased with you,” she said.
I sat down on the edge of my bed and put my shoes on. “Yeah, we had a bit of a disagreement. At least I think that’s what it was. I don’t know—it’s been a long day. Everybody’s on edge. I’m ready to punch something.”
“By something, you mean me?” Selena said with a smirk, crossing her arms.
“Hey, this whole training thing was your idea.” I stood, ready to go.
The two of us walked out of the room and began making our way to our sparring location. “So, what was this whole disagreement—or whatever it was—all about?”
I shrugged. “I got a little aggressive with that guy you brought in earlier. Drew had to pull me off him. We got into a bit of a fight, but our emotions were running high and my adrenaline was pumping. I was just being stupid.”
“So, what you really mean is that you were pissed that Drew brought you down a peg?”
I rolled my eyes. “You can call it whatever you want, Selene.”
“You really want me to punch you hard, don’t you?” she asked.
I smirked. “I don’t know, Selene. You tell me.”
“Call me that one more time and you’ll see just how hard I can hit,” she said.
“Well if it’s anything like how you’ve punched me in the past, it won’t be too bad.”
Selena and I spent the rest of our time walking, talking to and teasing each other. When we reached the parking lot at the edge of our camp, we cleaned it out and used it to practice fighting each other, the craters and cracks all over the concrete evidence of our sparring.
“You’re probably already warmed up after this morning,” Selena said as she stretched.
“Unfortunately. Those Supers were no joke. Just ask Nep,” I said with a chuckle.
“How bad was he hurt?” Selena asked.
“Not too bad, obviously, or else I wouldn’t be joking about it. He definitely got his bell rung, though.” I nodded towards Selena as she finished her stretches. “You seem warmed up as well. Run into any trouble while you were scouting?”
Selena shook her head. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. I wasn’t even spotted whil
e I was flying around Boston.” She shook her head. “It’s not looking pretty. They’re going through the city like a plague. They’re destroying everything, forcing people to join the Legion or die. Most are joining gladly, though. Anybody smart enough is long gone from the city. The only ones left behind are those asking for trouble or wanting to join.”
“What about Atlas? You see him at all?” I asked, nervous about her answer.
Selena shook her head. “Nobody’s seen him, or if they have, they aren’t saying a word. Apparently he’s staying hidden, ‘ruling from his throne’ or some such shit.”
I nodded. “I’ve heard the same thing. I can’t help but feel something’s not right.”
“Of course it’s not,” she said with a scoff.
“You know what I mean. Relatively speaking, something’s not right. Atlas doesn’t seem like the type of guy to not constantly be in the limelight. He didn’t even come to Dallas when the Legion atta—”
My sentence was interrupted by Selena slamming her fist against my chest. My body was launched backwards and slammed through a convenience store across the street before being stopped by the front counter.
Selena appeared in front of me, offering her hand. “Don’t let your guard down, Kane.”
I rolled my eyes and grimaced as my body healed itself. I grabbed her hand and jerked down on it, trying to bring her down to the ground with me. She didn’t budge, having expected my move and bracing herself. I let go and fell back.
“Also, don’t be predictable,” she said with a laugh.
I grunted in annoyance as I grabbed her hand once more to pull myself up. Once I was up, I could tell she had relaxed her muscles and was no longer bracing herself. I jerked her in close and, using her momentum against her, slammed my hand against her chest. I knocked her off her feet and slammed her to the floor, causing the ground to crack underneath her from the force of my blow.
Selena placed her left hand on my right shoulder and in one fluid motion, flipped me off her. Now I was the one being slammed to the floor, as she flipped me to her right and pressed her knee against my chest.
I went to hit her with my right hand, but she grabbed my wrist. I tried to hit with my left hand, and she did the same.
My legs, however, were still free.
I pulled them up and kneed her hard in the back. She fell forward, inches from my face. I head-butted her as hard as I could, and she went flying backwards through the counter of the convenience store.
I shot up from the floor and flew out into the open. I hovered above the parking lot, waiting for Selena to come flying out.
Right on cue, a few seconds later, Selena flew at me fast and hard, just like I’d predicted. I dodged her fist by a few inches, and she went soaring behind me. I reached out and grabbed her foot as she flew by. I redirected her momentum and slammed her to the ground.
I flew down to where she lay. She jumped up from the ground and charged at me. Now she was really angry.
She launched a punch at me, but I blocked it. She punched again, and I swooped my head out of the way. Her next punch came a little faster, as did the next. Both I dodged with ease. Our speed increased, and so did the power behind her punches. For one punch, however, her speed faltered. I parried that blow, and punched her in the gut during the opening she gave me.
This left my body open for attack, however. She grabbed my shoulders and brought my body in for a knee to the gut.
The air shot from my lungs like a bullet, and for a split second my head grew light. I shook the stars away as I breathed in a quick lungful air. From the corner of my eye I saw Selena’s fist coming in fast. I stood up straight, and her fist swooped through the air where I had been leaning over seconds earlier.
Her missed punch caused her to falter, and I launched a volley of attacks at her exposed side. Selena stumbled backwards, the perfect distance away for a solid kick.
And give her a solid kick I did. I slammed the bottom of my foot against her chest, and Selena went flying backwards, skidding across the ground before coming to a halt at the edge of the parking lot.
I ran to her side in a split second. She was lying on the ground, catching her breath. “You good?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“I think I won this one,” I said, reaching down to help her up. I made sure to brace myself for what I knew was coming.
Selena grabbed my hand and jerked down on it. I didn’t budge. “It was worth a shot,” she said with an eye roll. She let go of my hand and stood up on her own.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
8
TABLE TALK
With my plate of macaroni and cheese and garlic bread and a bottle of water in hand, I walked over and sat down between Samantha and Doug. Selena sat across from us, next to Drew.
“How’d your fighting go?” Drew asked casually, as if we hadn’t fought earlier. This was typical, and one of the things I liked about Drew. When something was over, it was over. He wasn’t going to stay mad at me or hold anything over my head, even if maybe he should’ve.
“It was good,” I said with a smirk as I glanced at Selena. She wasn’t as happy as I was; she just rolled her eyes and scoffed.
“Kane thinks he beat me, when really I was just hungry and didn’t feel like fighting anyways,” she explained.
Everybody at the table saw through her bullshit, and we all let out a sarcastic, “Ohhh!”
“We did get outside our parking lot, though,” I said.
“I punched Kane through the front of a convenience store,” Selena said.
“Wow, the way you said that so nonchalantly…” Doug began. He couldn’t even finish his sentence.
“Okay, Doug, bring the creep meter down a bit,” I said with a laugh. I took a bite of my food, the cheesiness comforting me to my core.
“No—I’m not—I’m just saying,” Doug said, unable to find the words.
Everybody at the table laughed as he turned red. “We know what you mean,” Drew said. “We’ve just gotta have someone to tease.”
Doug shoveled a bite of mac & cheese into his mouth. “When you all have trouble with your computers and need help with them, don’t come to me,” he said through his mouthful of food.
“Doug, none of us use computers. I didn’t even think the internet worked anymore,” I said with a laugh.
“Certain satellite networks and peer-to-peer networks are still up and running. Plus, when you have hacking superpowers, that helps too,” Doug said with a satisfied look on his face.
“Doug,” Samantha said, leaning forward over the table so she could look past me and right at Doug. “You don’t have superpowers.”
“That’s B.S., Samantha. I do have hacking superpowers,” he said, pointing a finger at her.
The way he exuded confidence and certainty when he said that didn’t match with his scrawny teenaged appearance, causing some of us at the table to chuckle. “Just because you can do something none of the rest of us can, doesn’t make it a superpower,” Selena said as she took a bite of her garlic bread.
I took a sip of my water, and as I set the bottle back down, came to Doug’s defense. “Alright, enough picking on him. If it weren’t for Doug, we wouldn’t know the situation overseas.”
“Yeah, unless we just flew there and saw for ourselves,” Selena said.
I shot her a look, and she shrugged in defense as she picked up her water. “So, what’s it like over there?” I asked Doug. “What are your contacts telling you?”
“Well, Kane,” Doug said, turning to face me, pretending I was the only one there, intentionally ignoring the rest of the group, “I’m glad you asked. It’s actually not that bad over there. Most countries’ entire governments haven’t been overthrown.”
“Most?” I asked.
Doug shrugged. “Okay, none, although Johannesburg has been taken over by a crazy Super named Raven. But as far as the governments go, no, they’re mostly stil
l intact. England actually has a group of Supers working with the government to keep the country safe from evil Supers, which—relatively speaking—there aren’t many of them.”
“Why aren’t there as many evil Supers overseas?” Selena asked.
“I’m sorry, Kane, did you hear something?” Doug said, cocking his head to the side.
I gave him a smile that said the shtick was cute, but now we needed to get serious. “Come on, why aren’t there?” I asked.
“Well,” he began, glancing over at Selena before turning his attention back to me. “I mean, the USA has turned into an evil-Super Mecca. They’re flocking here any way they can.”
“Well, that’s quite the double-edged sword,” Samantha said.
“Yeah,” Drew said. “Good news in the short run for Selena and Kane. Bad news for us all in the long run.”
I nodded. “What you’re saying is that most things overseas are business as usual?”
“As usual as business can be when arguably the most powerful nation in the world has fallen to a supervillain and his Legion,” Doug said. “From a political, economical, and just about every other viewpoint, the world is in chaos. But would you be able to tell if you were walking down the street? I mean, you don’t have to worry about someone coming up to you and making you pledge to the Legion or die, or a building coming down on top of you, or anything like that. So, yeah, compared to how things are here, it’s business as usual.”
* * *
We changed the topic soon after, and did our best to eat without bringing up the situation overseas, or the Legion razing the northeastern United States. When that’s your world, it’s difficult to do. Still, I found a way to spend my last dinner with them for a while as normally as I could.
When the giant ballroom we were eating in had started to clear out, I stood to leave. “Well, I’m going to go get some rest,” I announced as I grabbed my plate.
“I’ll walk with you to your room,” Samantha said. “I’m going to bed too.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I had a split-second decision to make. On one hand, I wanted to walk with Samantha back to my room, but on the other hand I wasn’t actually going to go to my room. It was just a lie to excuse myself and not have anyone come looking for me later. “Well, I was actually going to use the bathroom first.”
The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) Page 4