Masked (Superheros Undercover Book 1)

by J. D. Wright

“My mother always said the best way to avoid being shot in a gunfight was to lay low.”

  Majestic took her turn next. She was much more flexible and stealthy than Orion would have predicted. Her body bent and twisted to move out of the way of the flying projectiles. Unfortunately, she was hit by one bullet because she miscounted and straightened up before the sixth bullet passed her.

  “Damn!” she said, shaking her head.

  Orion stood in the center of the simulator and took a deep breath. The simulated man lifted his hand to fire the trigger and Orion’s mind ran free. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but the simulated man’s thoughts were projected into Orion’s head. It was the most realistic simulation he’d ever seen. Just before the man fired, he thought of the body part he was aiming at. Orion instinctively dodged the bullets.

  “Whoa.” Vortex said. “How did you do that?”

  “I’m not exactly sure.”

  “Beginner’s luck,” Majestic said, crossing her arms.

  “You just can’t stand to see me win, can you?” Orion asked, copying her stance. “I’ll bet you’d like to throw something at me right now, wouldn’t you? Admit it.”

  “In more ways than one,” she replied sweetly.

  “Ha!” Vortex slapped his thigh. “She means that she wants to hit you with her hand and with her power. That’s funny.”

  Orion laughed, but only at Vortex’s strange need to explain every joke that he heard. It was annoying yet entertaining. Gypsy just giggled at them and started for the final challenge.

  This time, they were paired off for a game of friend-or-foe. Before Orion could suggest that Vortex be his partner, the man convinced Gypsy to pair with him.

  “Guess that means you’re with me, babe,” Orion said, turning to Majestic. “Try not to let your excitement cause you pain.”

  Majestic stepped toward him and lifted her head. “I wouldn’t read my mind after I beat you, Starboy. I’d hate to make you cry.”

  “I’m not much of a crier. Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “We’ll see…”

  Orion followed her over to the side of the simulator and watched Vortex and Gypsy as they shot a laser gun at targets as they appeared. If you shot a normal who wasn’t committing a crime, the buzzer would sound. A correct hit would ring a bell. Vortex and Gypsy’s three rounds set off plenty of both buzzers and bells. In the end, Gypsy missed more shots because she hesitated to shoot.

  “This game doesn’t seem very realistic,” Orion grumbled. “What are the chances that we’ll be shooting lasers at people popping out of dumpsters in the real world?”

  Majestic snickered. “It’s not meant to be realistic. It’s supposed to test your reflexes, genius. Now, shut up and get ready.”

  Orion didn’t argue. He lifted his laser gun and prepared himself. After the countdown, the first round began. Majestic beat him by one point when she was just a smidge quicker and shot the last criminal before Orion. The second round had the opposite result. Orion bested Majestic by one point, firing off the final shot this time. On the third round, things got interesting. They were both ready for the last criminal to pop up and when a figure appeared in a window, both Majestic and Orion fired their lasers at it.

  Buzz!

  The simulated person in the window happened to be an unarmed woman and earned both players a strike against them. But the game was over and their scores flashed onto the screen.

  “A tie?” Orion and Majestic said simultaneously.

  “Good try,” Vortex said, slapping them both on the shoulder.

  “We should do it again,” Orion said. “We can’t leave it as a tie.”

  “Sorry,” Angela said, walking by. “We’re about to finish up. Everyone take your seats.”

  Majestic glared at Orion as she brushed past him. Clearly, she wasn’t happy with their score either.

  “Your results will be outside of your destination once you depart,” Angela announced. “Feel free to exchange your agent’s contact info and grab some brochures before you leave. Thank you for attending the S.I.C., and good luck, everyone!”

  There was a moderate applause before the room quieted. Most people left right after, but a few groups stayed behind to chat. Majestic and Gypsy spoke for a moment before Gypsy bid farewell.

  “It was great to meet the both of you,” Vortex said. He gave Majestic and Orion each a card with his agent’s codename on it. “If you are ever in a bind, just give me a call. I’ll be happy to help.”

  “Same here,” Orion said, shaking Vortex’s hand. He watched until the blue cape disappeared through a door. Then he turned to Majestic. “I guess I’ll probably see you around.”

  Majestic gave a smile that Orion was sure was forced.

  “I sure hope not,” she said. “But if you do, you owe me a rematch.”

  And with that, Majestic strolled out of the room. Orion couldn’t stop himself from watching her leave and admiring the way her supersuit hugged her curves. I wouldn’t mind playing connect-the-stars on her ass, he mused. He could probably find his constellation among them. He wiped the thought from his mind and left out of the same door.

  When he stepped outside, he didn’t see anyone from the indoctrination. He was somehow outside of the movie theater he had used to enter the class. In front of him, on the sidewalk, was a white envelope with his super name written across the top. He picked up his results and started to open them.

  “Not here,” Jewel said through his earpiece. “Bring them home and I’ll meet you there to go over them.”

  “You got it,” he replied.

  “How did it go?”

  “Better than I thought it would, actually.”

  “Good.” She paused for a moment. “Meet anyone you’d like to work with? I forgot to give you a card to take with my codename on it. Sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine. And yeah, I met a few people I wouldn’t mind working with.”

  “Great. See you in ten.”

  Orion glanced back at the theater and smiled. He had just been to a class for superheroes. He had shown his power to a room full of people and no one called him a phony or freak. Maybe this superhero stuff is my destiny, after all…

  Henley slammed her front door and stomped down the walkway. She could still hear her mother shouting at her from inside the house, but she didn’t stop to listen. That’s all her mother had been doing for the past two hours. Shouting.

  It started when her mother discovered her new closet full of clothes that Henley couldn’t explain, then the shoes and jewelry. But the tattoo of a poisoned apple that Henley had gotten on her hip was apparently all that Julia Abernathy could take. She had gone off the handle, accusing her daughter of stealing.

  Then when Henley denied having stolen the items, Julia changed her accusation from Henley being a thief to a prostitute. What else could explain the gifts her daughter had received without paying for them?

  This was one of those times when Henley’s superpower wouldn’t work. Her mother was too riled up to be persuaded to ignore the fifteen new purses hanging in Henley’s closet. Julia just wouldn’t listen to reason, and Henley had had enough.

  At the corner of the driveway, she took her phone out of her pocket, and without hesitation, she dialed the number she had been avoiding for days.

  “Yes?” Victor’s smooth voice filled her ear.

  Henley heard her mother calling for her from the front yard, but she ignored her.

  “I agree to your promise and your terms,” Henley said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I’m sure. Whatever you can do for me, I want it. I want in.”

  Victor chuckled into the phone. “Meet me at the end of your street in three minutes.”

  The line disconnected and Henley didn’t even let the fact that she hadn’t given him her address phase her. She walked toward the end of the road and left her old life behind.

  Good riddance.

  Chapter Twelve

  The clock in th
e classroom took forever to turn to 10:30. Vada tapped her foot, getting more and more impatient as the seconds ticked by. When the minute hand finally made it around to the half-hour mark, she shot up from her seat, approached Mr. Matthews, and asked to go to the bathroom.

  “Miss Lawson,” Mr. Matthews said, shaking his head. “You seem to need to go to the bathroom at the same time almost every day.”

  Vada forced a smile. She and James met on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It wasn’t every day, but it was often enough that she thought her teacher was bound to notice. However, Mr. Matthews hadn’t said anything before now, and the semester was half over.

  “I, uh…I guess my bladder is trained to go right now,” she offered, unsure if the excuse would work.

  “Yeah, yeah. Go on.”

  Vada took the hall pass and left the room. James was already waiting in the janitor’s closet when she slipped inside. He had his holographic watch projection up and was staring at it as if it might have grown two heads and barked at him.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, walking over to stand beside him.

  “Look at this. It just popped up on a forum I frequent. Listen. ‘A phenomenon of normals somehow gaining supernatural powers has been reported by an anonymous source. The cause of the mutation is unknown. Suspected individual was spotted at—’”

  James stopped reading the screen because it became unreadable once a giant black ‘x’ plastered the hologram. He tapped on the screen to try to remove it, but it wouldn’t go away. After a few seconds, a small dialog box popped up.

  “Content removed by the S.U.C. for violating security protocol,” James said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “What the hell was that?”

  “I’ve never seen that happen before, but it looks like the S.U.C. doesn’t want this information to be spread. They just put a hush order on the whole thing. Even the forum post is gone.”

  Sure enough, the post had vanished, along with the dozens of replies that it had already received.

  “I read through some of the replies before you came in. They were mostly people taking wild guesses at who the notice was talking about. I doubt any of them had actual knowledge, though. People love their conspiracy theories, you know.”

  “I don’t understand,” Vada said, leaning against the wall. “This isn’t the first time a normal gained a superpower, right? Didn’t some chemist in the seventies create an elixir that caused people to get powers?”

  James closed the screen on his watch. “No, that wasn’t the same thing. Those people were turned into monsters with fourteen eyes and crazy stuff like that. Yes, it’s happened before that people somehow got traditional powers, but not in a very long time…like over one hundred years or something.” He scratched his head while he shook it in confusion. “I’m not sure what to think about all of this.”

  “Me either. I’ll ask my parents and see if they’ve heard something at work.”

  “Be careful, Vada. If the S.U.C. doesn’t want this to leak out, then asking questions could land you in trouble.”

  They were silent for a moment while they both thought about different angles of the same problem. James wondered if he could find more information on the other forums and Vada considered something that had plagued her for days.

  “Do you remember that man I saw in the alley behind the school?” she asked. “The one who gave me a strange feeling?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “I want to go during lunch,” she said, nodding. “I want to check out the alley and see if I can tell where he went.”

  “Vada, he could have gone anywhere. He might have walked another five miles after you saw him.”

  “And he might have stopped at the end of the street.”

  James shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Fine. Change into your suit outside of school so no one sees you. I’ll just…” he looked around the closet. “I’ll work in here while you’re in your suit.”

  “Thank you, James.” She reached up on her toes and pecked his cheek. “You’re such a good agent. The very best a girl could ask for.”

  “And you owe me a late lunch after school, since it looks like I’ll be working instead of eating today.”

  They left the closet one at a time so as to avoid suspicion and returned to class. Mr. Matthews just nodded to Vada and she reclaimed her seat, taking a pencil out for her quiz. She couldn’t wait to graduate and start working full-time. Just the idea had her adrenaline pumping.

  When the bell rang, Vada grabbed her bag and set off for the exit. She decided to go through the library since there was a small courtyard behind it that was usually empty. She could change into her suit, jump the fence, and be gone before anyone knew she was even there.

  But when Vada threw the door open to the library and headed inside, she ran right into a solid mass. Arms reached out to grab her while she instinctively clutched onto a light gray t-shirt to steady herself. She looked up to see laughing eyes peering back at her. Eyes that belonged to Nicholas Grayson.

  “I’m so sorry,” she blurted. “I was in a hurry and wasn’t—”

  “It’s fine.” Nick smiled. “I’ve been tackled by guys much larger than you.”

  “Uh…”

  “Football. I’m talking about football.”

  “Right.” Vada released him and stepped back, cringing at the wrinkled fistful of cotton in the center of his shirt.

  “You’re Vada, right? I think we had a class together last semester. With Mrs. Pierce?”

  “Yeah, uh…yes, that’s right. My name and the class. They’re both right…right.” She closed her eyes and felt a blush creeping up, both from embarrassment and possibly something else, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Nick seemed more amused than anything. His blue eyes were sparkling at her and the corner of his mouth turned up.

  “That’s good, then,” he replied. “I enjoy being right.”

  “I’m sure you do.” Shit. She regretted saying that the moment it left her lips.

  “Ha! That’s cute.”

  “Sorry again,” she said quickly. She really needed to get away before she said something else idiotic. She didn’t even like this boy, so why was her skin tingling? Something about his presence felt strange, but not in a threatening way. It was almost…familiar. But she had never spoken to Nick directly. Not since the seventh grade, at least, when he’d asked to borrow a pen.

  “Don’t mention it.” Nick smiled once more, then stepped aside and held the door open so she could enter. “See ya.”

  “Yeah, bye.”

  Vada crossed the library and eased the door to the courtyard open. With any luck, she would be gone within the next five seconds and get back in time to feed James and save herself twenty bucks worth of burgers and fries after school.

  Nick took three steps down the hallway and stopped in his tracks. He turned around and eyed the door where he had just spoken to the girl with wavy blonde hair. He remembered her name from their class together because it was unique and reminded him of Darth Vader. But for some reason, he had a feeling that he’d spoken to her before. Almost as if he should have recognized her.

  “That’s…weird.”

  He shrugged and shook off the thought. Had she still been standing there, he might have entertained the idea of sneaking a peek into her head to see if she remembered him from somewhere. But ever since he started working with Jada, he had steadily begun to block most thoughts from everyone by using a set of tiny earpieces that emitted something similar to a white-noise effect into his ears. It had taken a few days to get used to, but now he hardly noticed.

  They were temporary until he could learn to discern the thoughts from background noise and choose what to block without them. But for now, he typically didn’t hear any thoughts unless he concentrated on the person and allowed himself to make the connection. The only exception was if the thought was intense or loud, like when his teacher had gotten a paper cut earlier. He’d heard her mental curs
e in his head as if she’d shouted it to the class.

  Nick started back down the hallway and thought about Vada again. She was gorgeous and he had always had a thing for blondes, so why hadn’t he noticed her much before now? One thing he had realized in the past several weeks was how isolated he had become from people outside of his core group of friends.

  And he needed new friends. Mitchell was the only one worth keeping around from the dozen or so he usually hung out with. After dumping Scarlet, Nick decided he needed a fresh start in other areas of his life too. Friends who couldn’t be trusted would be left behind. Anyone that he wouldn’t call in an emergency would be deleted from his contacts.

  High school was almost over, and he refused to spend the last two months kissing anyone’s ass, no matter how good it looked in a miniskirt, or pretending to care about his so-called friends who wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire.

  New Nick, new life.

  Oh, damn. As if the universe was already trying to test his resolve, Scarlet spotted him the moment he walked into the cafeteria and she was heading right for him. If he turned around and slipped back out, maybe he could get something from the vending machine to tide him over. Nope. Too late.

  “Nick!” Scarlet said, grabbing his arm and leading him toward the lunch line. “I am so glad I caught you. I wanted to talk about prom. Now, I know we aren’t a couple anymore, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still go together as friends, right? I mean, we’ll definitely be crowned king and queen, so it seems only right that we go together, and since I’ve already bought my gown and—”

  “Scarlet! Stop!” Nick’s head was already hurting from the nonsense she was spewing. “When I said I was done, I didn’t just mean from the relationship. I meant for good. I don’t want to be friends, and I absolutely do not want to be your date to prom.”

  Scarlet stomped her foot, and her fake smile turned into a very real scowl. “So what? You plan to go to prom all by yourself? How pathetic is that? I won’t go alone, Nick. I will find a date, and then you’ll look like an idiot for not going with me.”