by M. R. Anglin
“Why don’t you go?”
“This is my first prototype. It can only transfer one person at a time, so I need to be here to reopen the portal once you get the gem.”
Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t explain why you don’t get it, but . . . okay. Where’s the deposit box key?”
“There is no key.”
“So it’s a digital lock?”
Stephanie wiggled her fingers. “Handprint scanner.”
“Then you need to be the one to go, Stephanie. Only you can open the box.”
Stephanie hissed in a breath. “I didn’t say I teleported it into my safety deposit box.”
Nicole gaped at her. “Stephanie!”
“I didn’t do anything terrible.” Stephanie rubbed the back of her neck. “I teleported myself into the bank vault and waited for someone to open a box then slipped it in when no one was looking. The box must be shielded because I can’t teleport it out. I need your powers to open it.”
“You want me to rob a bank?”
“You won’t be stealing anything . . . just getting back what’s ours. I’ll even give you the device I made that prevents security cameras from picking up your image. No one will even know you were there. Here.” Stephanie strapped a small gray box onto Nicole’s wrist.
Nicole raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t some scheme to get me to steal stuff for you, is it, Finch?”
Stephanie stared her straight in the eye. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Nicole.”
Nicole shrank back, feeling foolish for judging her friend. “Okay.” She stepped back. “Teleport me.”
“Push the button on the thing I put on your wrist when you’re ready for me to teleport you back. Happy trails.” Stephanie shot her device at Nicole.
Stephanie’s apartment disappeared, and Nicole reappeared in a dark vault.
“You’d better be right about this, Steph.” Nicole heaved a sigh and began her search for box #1125.
CHAPTER 41
NICOLE DISAPPEARED, and left Stephanie in the apartment alone. Silence fell—the silence of loneliness which had been Stephanie’s constant companion through the past few months. She longed for the sound of her brother’s heavy footsteps clopping through the house and echoing off the walls. She missed her brother’s overbearing yet caring presence. Most of all, she missed her brother.
“Oh, Brody, where are you?” Stephanie sighed.
“Right here,” came Brody’s voice. Stephanie swung around. He climbed in through a window and hopped into the apartment, arms open wide. “And I am starving!” He was wearing a leather cloak, a brown top hat with gears on it, and googles set around his forehead. Strange . . . and familiar outfit with no sign of the business suit he had left wearing or of the backpack of clothes he had taken with him.
“Brody!” Stephanie rushed to him and threw her arms around him. “Where have you been? I was worried about you!”
“Business trip, remember?” Brody pulled her off of him. “Trying to sell your inventions.”
“So . . . you hadn’t been kidnapped?”
“Where’d you get such an idea from?”
“You’ve been gone for three months! I haven’t heard anything from you. Then the TelePorter shows up using my tech. What else am I supposed to think?”
“That I sold your invention, maybe?” Brody ruffled her hair. “I should have called. Sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” Stephanie smacked his hand off of her hair. “I noticed you sold the one thing I told you not to . . . and to Villains.”
“Do you care who I sold it to as long as I did?” Brody crossed the house to the kitchen where he swung open the fridge and thrust his head into the refrigerator.
“I guess not.”
“Where’s all the food?”
“There is no food. I’m behind on the rent, too. The social worker’s supposed to come by next week, and these big guys have been coming around looking for you. I’ve been frantic.”
“It won’t be a problem now.” Brody crossed the room back to her. “I got one more thing to do, and then we get paid bank. All thanks to your brilliance, kiddo.” He ruffled her hair.
Stephanie smiled with a giggle. “What do you have to do?”
“I have to prove your teleporter works by completing a job. I, uh, need you to fix this first.” Brody held up his wrist. On it was Stephanie’s second portable teleporter prototype. “Broke when I was demonstrating it. It’s what took me so long. They didn’t want me to leave until they were sure the devices wouldn’t break.”
“How did it break?” Stephanie took the device off of his wrist to examine it.
“You’re asking me?” Brody shrugged. “You’re the genius, Stephie.”
“Yeah . . .” Stephanie contemplated the device. “It . . . wouldn’t happen to have broken when a certain Hero blasted it with some kind of energy, right?”
Brody halted, gaping at her.
“You’re the TelePorter, aren’t you, Brody?”
“Stephie . . .”
Stephanie clenched her hands tighter around the device. “How could you do that? Use my stuff to go run around with Villains? I thought you hated super powered people!”
“I do, but they’re the ones with the money.”
Stephanie turned away from him, crossing her arms.
“You’re one to talk about hating super-powered people when you were fraternizing with a Hero.”
Stephanie swung around to face him. “How’d you know?”
“I was watching. Do you think it was a coincidence I came in after your Hero friend left? What, are you planning on turning me in?”
“She’s helping me look for you, you jerk!” Stephanie smacked his arm. “While you’ve been off padding the pockets of Villains, I’ve been worried sick. So, yeah! I sank to the level of asking a Hero for help because you don’t care about me at all!” She swung around, her eyes smarting with tears.
“I do care about you, Stephie. I did all this for you.” Brody stood in front of her. “Once we get the money, we can go anywhere we want—leave all our bills and worries behind and go somewhere to start over. Just you and me.”
Stephanie ventured to look up at him. “Start over where?”
“Anywhere you want.” Brody gave her a smile. “Bahamas . . . Jamaica . . . French Riviera . . .”
Stephanie wiped her eyes. “Switzerland?”
“Switzerland?”
Stephanie shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to go skiing in the Alps.”
“Switzerland, it is, then. All I need is the Sapphire you took.”
Stephanie’s heart chilled. The Sapphire? The same one Nicole had gone to retrieve—all because she promised to help find Brody. Nicole was being a friend—going so far as to infiltrate a bank for Stephanie’s sake. Stephanie couldn’t betray her by handing the Sapphire to Villains.
“Why do we need the Sapphire?” Stephanie paced in a circle. “We have a portable teleporter. Let’s just go!”
“We need money, kiddo.”
“Then . . . let’s take something else. I don’t want you involved with Heroes and Villains anymore. I won’t get involved with them either. Everyone’s in an uproar about this gem, so let them have it. We can disappear.”
“We’d never be able to disappear.” Brody hung his head. “You don’t understand how awful these Villains are. If they had an inkling you stole it, they’ll track you all over the face of the earth. We’d never escape them.”
“All the more reason you shouldn’t be involved with them, Brody.” Stephanie looked in her brother’s eyes. “I don’t want you to be aligned with a Villain. Mom and Dad . . . the Villain was equally responsible for their deaths as the Hero. Don’t be like them.”
“You make a good point.” Brody lowered his eyes. “But what about the gem?” He trailed off a moment. “Tell me where the Sapphire is, Stephie, and I’ll get rid of it. Drop it off at ASH or something. Once the Heroes have it and you’re off the radar, it’s off to Swed
en. I swear.”
“Switzerland.”
“I always get them confused.” Brody chuckled to himself. “So what do you say? Will you tell me where you hid it?”
“Well . . .” Stephanie ran her hands through her hair. “It’s complicated. I’ve already got a Hero—”
A knock at the front door interrupted her—banging more like.
“It’s probably the landlord.” Stephanie turned to the door. “We’re late on rent.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Brody strode to the door, took a deep breath, and swung it open. “Mr. Dellan, hello—”
Several booted men pushed passed him and trampled through the house. All of them wore black and had masks on their faces. Three of them surrounded Brody and slammed him to the ground.
Stephanie gasped backing away, watching this with wide eyes. “Brody!”
“Stephie, run!” Brody said from the ground.
“Don’t go anywhere, Stephie.” A large man, dressed in a black suit with a white tie, stepped forward. A shadow obscured his face so she couldn’t detect his features. His eyes dropped to the device in Stephanie’s hands. “Ah, I see we found your genius inventor, after all. Your sister, is it?” He picked up a picture of her and Brody at the courthouse the day he had won custody of her. Brody kept it framed on the coffee table. “I see the resemblance.” Turning to Stephanie he snatched the teleporting device from her grasp before she could react. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll take this. Your brother and I had a deal after all. Or we did before he betrayed me.”
“I didn’t betray you, Shadowman!” Brody squirmed on the floor.
“I know what you were planning—turning the Sapphire into ASH and escaping to Switzerland?” Shadowman turned his hard eye to Brody. “Did you really think you could outwit me?”
Brody squirmed beneath the boots of those who held him down. “How’d you know where I was?”
“I tagged you with this when you weren’t looking.” The man rested his boot on Brody’s back and leaned in to pluck a small object from his hat. “I knew you weren’t as stupid as to ‘forget’ to pick up the Sapphire after you dropped it. What, do you have a secret alliance with Refraction or something?”
“What? No!” Brody clenched his teeth. “The idiot ruined my tech!”
“Hmm . . .” The shadowed man stroked his chin for a moment. “What does it matter? Lucky for me, someone with sticky fingers snatched it first.” He turned his intense gaze to Stephanie, his eyes dropping to her pocket.
Stephanie gasped, using her hands to try and hide her wig sticking out of her pocket.
The shadowed man narrowed his eyes at her. “Where is my Sapphire?”
“I . . . I don’t know.” Stephanie backed away from him.
The man removed his boot from Brody’s back and stepped toward her. “Wrong answer.” He raised his hand. It ignited with fire. “You have five seconds to tell me what I want to know.” He drew back his fist. “Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .”
“Shadowman, don’t hurt her! Please! Stephie, tell him!” Brody cried, near tears. “He’ll do it. He really will!”
Stephanie watched the fire-engulfed fist gearing up to hit her face—another Hero with powers ready to take her life. She couldn’t hold it back. “It’s in a safety deposit box. I teleported it there. You can go get it. It’s at First Alferdale Mutual. Number 1125.”
“There now.” Shadowman let the fire in his fist go out. “Not so hard, was it? You and I are going for a ride to retrieve it. If it’s not there, then . . .” He swung around and threw a fireball at Brody. The three men holding him down scrambled away as the fire engulfed him. He screeched and rolled to put out the fire igniting his clothes.
“Brody!” Stephanie tried to rush to him but Shadowman jerked her back.
“If you don’t want to share his fate,” he said in her ear, “you had better not be lying to me.”
“I’m not lying.” Stephanie tried her hardest not to burst into tears, “but it might not be there now. I sent a Hero to go get it.”
“Unfortunate.” Shadowman raised his hand again. His fists glowed with red power. “You’re going to pay.”
Stephanie squeaked and covered her head with her free arm.
“Don’t touch her!” Brody’s voice was weak with pain, but he stretched his palm on the floor and clenched his eyes shut. A golden line raced from his hands toward Stephanie where it pooled at her feet.
“What th—?” Shadowman danced backward away from the substance.
It engulfed Stephanie, and she fell through the floor.
And landed outside on a stretch of grass.
“What? Where am I? Brody?” Stephanie swung around, eyes dancing over everything. She was in a park with the sun kissing the horizon. Tall trees dotted around the expanse of green grass stood in dark contrast to the brightening sky. She recognized this park—the same one she and Brody had escaped to when she was young. Across the street she had watched her apartment burn as a Hero fought with a Villain—her parents still inside.
“Brody!” Stephanie pressed her hands to her mouth. “Ohmigosh! He has powers! Brody!” Pausing to calm her panicky breath, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She had to call Nicole. After all, true Heroes always came to the rescue, didn’t they?
Stephanie hoped Nicole hadn’t been lying about that.
CHAPTER 42
SHADOWMAN SNARLED WHEN the redheaded girl disappeared in front of his eyes. He swung on the TelePorter in a rage and launched a kick at his chin. The TelePorter’s head flew backward, and he screamed, his burned skin tender to the touch.
“You’ll regret this,” Shadowman said through his teeth. “No one betrays me.”
The TelePorter lay crumpled in the corner, shivering and wheezing in pain from being burnt all over. His quick actions—rolling around until he put the fire out—probably saved his life. If he had run around and flailed around like so many of Shadowman’s other victims, the flames would have consumed him. As it stood, the TelePorter had first degree burns covering most of his body.
Shadowman thought about letting him stew in his pain or igniting him again, but . . . darn it! He needed the boy, if only as a bargaining chip for the girl. After all, he hadn’t made his millions or rose to such power by being stupid. He’d learned the hard way that in a world full of mortal humans wielding supernatural powers, only the most advanced tech would give normal humans an edge. He’d spent the past decade . . . and even longer finding new tech and improving upon it in order to become more powerful. Between his tech giving him untold power, and the Sapphire’s ability to rob Heroes of their “gifts,” he would be invincible. It would be even better if he could use the Heroes’ powers for himself. But one step at a time. Cornering the tech market was his first step, and this girl had a brilliant mind he could exploit. All he had to do was convince her to join him.
Her brother was her weakness.
“Hey!” Shadowman jerked his head at one of his henchmen. “Get the TelePorter back to HQ and get him help. We can’t have him dying . . . yet.”
“Sure, Boss.” Two of the men hauled the TelePorter to his feet and shoved him out the door.
“You, five!” Shadowman pointed at some other henchmen. “Go to the bank and retrieve the Sapphire. If you see this Hero the girl was talking about . . .” He tossed a device at them. “Use this.”
One of the henchmen caught it. “What is it, Boss?”
“It disrupts a Hero’s power.”
“Gotcha.” The five trooped out of the apartment.
“Strip this place of all the tech we can find and get out of here.” Shadowman turned to the door. “Let’s not call any more attention to ourselves.”
“Not sure it’s possible, Boss.” One of the henchmen had a hand to his ear. “I hear sirens.”
“The police, huh?” Shadowman snorted. “Heroes won’t be far behind. I’ll leave this to you. Get the tech and get out. Confront the police if you have to.”
“Yes, sir!” The henchman saluted.
“Don’t get caught.” Shadowman jumped out of the window and disappeared into the darkness, leaving his henchmen to take the heat for him.
CHAPTER 43
NICOLE SWALLOWED HARD as she searched for box 1125 among the walls of drawers in the bank vault.
“Don’t worry, Nikki,” she said to herself. “You’re not stealing anything . . . it’s fine. Though, maybe I should have reported this to ASH and let them take care of it. That’s probably more in line with ASH protocols.” She threw her head back. “Man, Starlight is going to kill me when she finds out I did this.”
Nicole heaved a sigh and continued her search. It was too late to stop now.
Box #1125 was on the fifth row from the bottom, at Nicole’s eye level. The handprint scanner took up most of the space on the safe’s face.
If Nicole remembered ASH’s lecture on common security systems Villains used to secure their assets, handprint scanners came in two versions: optical and capacitive. Optical scanners took an optical picture of a person’s hand and converted the ridges in their skin to a code personal to the user. Capacitive scanners like this one recorded a person’s unique electrostatic signature. Those were more secure, and yet it should have been easier for Nicole to deal with given her power set.
“Like Junior Justice suggested back at the Museum,” she muttered to herself.
She held her hand to the scanner and detected the electrostatic signature stored in the safe’s database. Generating a signature as close to the original as she could, she adjusted it little by little until the lock clicked open. When she opened the door, an orange glow greeted her. The Tifuld Sapphire.
“At least Stephanie was right about this.” Nicole lifted the Sapphire out, wincing at the power it washed her with. Generating a field the exact opposite of the Sapphire’s signature should cancel the Sapphire’s power and keep anyone from tracking it.