by Jamie Zakian
A gust of wind blew around Shay, spreading out to tear through the room. Every loose object on top of each rusted metal table took to flight. Glass beakers crashed against each other, shattering. Tools and broken metal lodged into walls and machines.
The blistery air swirled faster. Its heat scorched Max from the inside out, no matter how far back he stumbled from Shay. He was Firestorm, the unburnable man of flames, but this heat was different. It wasn’t the fuzzy warmth of a fiery blaze that attacked him. The burn he felt was sheer radiation, like standing atop the sun, and it pulsed from an orange orb that surrounded Shay.
Max lifted his arm in a measly attempt to block the torrent of super-heated gusts as Shay landed in front of him. Then, it all stopped. The floor didn’t quake under a thunderous growl, a sweltering breeze didn’t cook his skin, but he wasn’t ready to look at Shay. He didn’t know which girl, which love he’d find when staring into her eyes.
“Dude.” Alexie jabbed her elbow into Max’s ribcage then pushed him forward. “Say something. She’s your girl.”
Slowly, Max lifted his gaze to Shay’s face. The glow of her crimson eyes stunned him. It was Shay’s face, Jenna’s power, and the eyes of a demon. He didn’t know what or who he was looking at.
“Jenna?”
She tilted her head to one side, and that was as much as her stiff body moved.
“Shay? Is that you?”
“I am no human,” she said, in the strangest voice that echoed in both high and low tones. “I am the power that dwelled within, given speech. I am pure energy pushed forward and animated to life.”
Her stare turned harsh. “And I want more.”
“Do something,” Alexie said in a panic, shoving Max closer to Shay.
Max had battled with the alien powers inside himself, once, when they’d first manifested. He would’ve lost his battle, been consumed by energy if not for Lucius. But, Max couldn’t bring himself to deploy the tactic Lucius had used on him.
A surge of red flared through Shay’s already glowing eyes. She reached for Max and he cringed. Shay shouldn’t have powers clouding her mind, but she did and he had to stop them before they devoured her.
Max drew back his fist and clocked Shay square on the jaw. A sharp ache pierced his heart as his punch dropped Shay to the floor, knocking her out like a light.
“I could’ve done that,” Alexie said.
Sorrow filled the new crack in Max’s heart as he stared down at Shay lying unconscious on the ground. Power could no longer infect her mind, because her mind was out cold. He could only hope Jenna’s power returned to whatever void it’d slithered out from before Shay awoke.
Shay groaned. There it was again. A tap, tap, tap struck her on the cheek, and it ripped her from puffy gray clouds then dropped her onto a cold floor.
“Stop hitting me,” she said, swatting at the hand tapping her cheek.
“Shay,” Max cried out.
The quiver in Max’s voice told Shay something was wrong. Jenna’s wild card must have lived up to its title, and someone must’ve slugged her in the face because her jaw throbbed.
Shay sat up, too fast, and bashed her forehead against Max’s nose.
“Ow.” Max rubbed his face as he scooted back from Shay. “Slow down, slugger.”
“What’d she do?” Shay looked around the lab; the metal strewn, hole in the floor, everything scattered everywhere lab.
“Who?” Max asked.
“Jenna.”
“That wasn’t Jenna.” Max climbed to his feet and stood between Simon and Alexie.
Three superheroes stared at Shay with suspicion, as if anticipating her to jump up off the floor and attack.
Simon lunged toward Shay and yelled, “Boo.”
Shay yelped with a start, and then whacked Simon on the arm. “What the hell?”
“Fear triggers superpowers,” Simon said, plainly, as though that would explain why he’d scared her.
“I don’t have superpowers.”
“Jenna does.” Max offered Shay his hand, helping her off the floor. “She pushed her powers to the front, and they didn’t want to let go. I had to …”
He frowned as he glided his fingers along her jaw. It had been the lightest touch, yet it stung like a million tiny pinpricks.
“… put the smack-down on you.”
“I gave Jenna permission.” Shay hadn’t been left with a choice. Lucius was going to kill her, and she had to—
Panic struck Shay in waves. There were many people staring at her with concern, and none of them were Evie.
Shay ran toward the nebula burst generator, despite the quake in her knees. As she reached its wide-open door, Hetal walked out of the machine with one arm around Evie. Her sister walked, blinked, looked at her.
A giggle burst from Shay’s mouth. Evie was alive. She looked pretty angry, but alive.
Shay wrapped Evie in a big hug. “Sorry.” She held tight, but couldn’t stop the shake of her sister’s bones.
“Why are you sorry?” Evie pulled back from the snug embrace just long enough to wipe away Shay’s tears.
“I let Cyrus take you, put you in that machine.”
Evie’s body grew stiff. She stepped back from Shay, glancing around the room. “Where is that bastard?”
Once spotting Cyrus face down under a pile of rubble, a groan trickled from Evie’s mouth. “Are they … dead?” she asked, nudging Lucius with the tip of her foot.
“No,” Simon said. “Just out cold.”
Shay could’ve swore she saw a smile on Evie’s lips but it flittered away as quickly as it appeared.
“You guys got them,” Evie said, her gaze lingering on Cyrus.
“No. Shay got them,” Hetal said with a bit too much excitement. “It was awesome! She shot badass weapons, her eyes glowed. There was orange fire. I got the whole thing on vid.”
Hetal held up her cell phone, showing a shaky video of Shay floating midair on its screen.
“Can I borrow that?” Evie seized Hetal’s cell phone, without bothering to wait for an answer. “I’ve got to call this in, get an SPU team over here.”
Alexie slapped her hand on top of the phone in Evie’s grasp. “Why?”
Evie smacked Alexie’s hand away. “Aren’t you supposed to be evil?”
“I was undercover.”
“Yeah right.” Evie glanced at Simon. She was obviously unsatisfied with his nod, because she looked at Shay. Since Shay had no idea what was going on, all she could do was shrug.
“I would’ve told you,” Simon said, ushering Alexie back from Evie’s face. “But you weren’t you.”
Shay eyed everyone in the room, looking for anything unusual. “Where is that shapeshifter?”
“I knocked its ass out on the front lawn,” Max said with a smile.
Although cute, Shay was not amused with Max’s display.
“Superheroes aren’t supposed to knock the villains out and leave them behind. They’re supposed to escort the bad guys to a real prison, not the basement of Ling Enterprises.”
The grin on Max’s lips dropped. He took a step back from Shay, pointing at the door. “I guess I should go check on that.”
Alexie pushed past Max and headed for the door. “I’ll go. Need to earn some good guy points back, apparently.”
“My team will be here in five minutes.” Evie clicked off Hetal’s cell phone and tucked it into her own pocket. She stood tall despite her tattered clothes, scraped wrists, and horribly messy hair, and yelled, “Hetal.”
Hetal jumped at the sound of her name. She dropped the armful of circuit boards she’d begun to ransack, jumping aside as they crashed to the floor at her feet.
“Are there any tranquilizers over there? I’d like to make sure these guys stay down until I get them secured.”
“There’s no need for that, Ms. Sinclair.” A tall man in a black suit hurried into the room. He knelt beside Cyrus, flipped open hi
s briefcase, and Shay smirked. It was so Evie. The guy just needed some shades and a little alien to chase and he’d be set.
“The team’s right behind me,” he said, jabbing a needle into Cyrus’s neck. “I was right down the street when the message came through. We’ve been tearing the city apart looking for you.”
After the man in black hit Lucius with a dose of whatever drug was in his case, he hurried to Evie’s side. “Do you need medical attention, Ms. Sinclair?”
“No. Thank you, Trey.”
Before Shay could demand answers, a line of men and women—all dressed in black—filed into the room. Within seconds, the bodies of knocked-out supervillains were carted away. Evie’s people started to pack everything they could lift into crates, working around Shay and the two superheroes who stood stunned in the center of the room.
“I want that machine disassembled, carefully,” Evie said while typing on Hetal’s cell phone. “As well as all the large equipment in here. Everything gets inventoried, twice, before it leaves this room.”
Shay grabbed Evie by the arm and pulled her to the other side of the lab, far from the platoon of SPU agents. “What’s going on?”
Alexie pushed her way into the room, grumbling at every person who stumbled across her path. “What the f—”
“Where did you take them?” Simon bumped Shay aside to stand in front of Evie. “Lucius and Cyrus are extremely dangerous. They need to be contained properly.”
“And they will be.” Evie delivered Simon one of her signature I mean business smiles. “Incident scene cleanup is what I do. Trust me.”
Evie turned toward Alexie, yet kept her gaze on the floor. “The shifter?”
“Gone. I circled the perimeter twice. I’m sorry, Evie.”
“We’ll find it.”
“Not about that.” Alexie tried to catch Evie’s stare, but Evie was a pro when it came to evasiveness. “About everything that happened here, to you. I should have helped you escape when I found out Cyrus had you in the holding cell, but I really thought I could sway them back to our side.”
“That’s what you’ve all been up to?”
“Not me.” Max held up his hands, as if to plead innocence.
Evie took a deep breath as she massaged her temples. “I’ve got a scene to sweep. Why don’t you guys head home? We can regroup and you can all debrief me, properly, once I’ve wrapped this up.”
Simon raised his finger. He opened his mouth, probably to complain, and Evie took Shay by the arm and walked away from him.
“I want you to go with them,” Evie said to Shay, gesturing at the three superheroes who stood in a tight circle across the room.
“But, I always hang out at incident scenes with you.”
“I don’t want you knowing where I take Antiserum and Dr. Mayhem. It’s safer this way.”
The urge to protest came on strong, but Shay held back. It was no big deal, really. She’d only risked her life to save Evie, and her sister didn’t even want to hang. That was just fine. She had important things to do anyway, things she didn’t want Evie to know about.
“Whatever. I’ll see you later.” A heaviness took Shay’s head down. It must have affected her boots too, because they thumped as she headed for the door.
“Hey, wait.”
When Shay looked back at Evie, Evie hugged her tight.
“Thanks for saving me.” Evie kissed Shay on the cheek. “I love you.”
“How sweet,” Alexie said on her way to the door.
Simon followed Alexie into the hallway and Max leaned against the wall beside the door.
“Love you too.” Shay took one last look at Evie, just in case, then trailed Hetal and Max out of the room.
Reporters flanked the front of Ling Enterprises. Shay could see their cameras flash as she clung to Max, high above the skyline. They landed on the roof of Ling Enterprises and Shay hurried out of Max’s grasp. She hadn’t forgotten about the no flirting rule, which she’d imposed on herself. Having her arms wrapped around Max’s neck was acceptable when flying, but she was on solid ground now.
Bolts of lightning struck the rooftop as Alexie set down beside Shay.
“We need to talk,” she said, grabbing onto Shay’s hand.
“Hey.” Max took a firm hold on Shay’s other arm and yanked, but Alexie held tight.
A hint of panic spawned in Shay’s chest. She’d just become the chew toy for two superheroes, and they were both pulling on her arms pretty hard.
“Let her go,” Simon barked. He set down beside Shay with a thump that vibrated throughout the rooftop.
Hetal staggered from Simon’s arms, dropped to her knees, and actually kissed the ground. “I love you, and I’ll never leave you again,” she said to the rooftop.
“What’s going on?” Simon swatted Alexie and Max away from Shay.
“I was trying to find out what she remembers,” Alexie said. “About the thing that happened at the asylum.”
“Umm, guys.”
“You were there,” Max said in a shout. “You saw what happened.”
“I saw a superhero’s power. Don’t you wanna know where it is now?”
“Hello.” Shay raised her hand, but just like in school nobody noticed her.
Simon pushed Shay’s arm down. “Shay said she didn’t remember anything, and Jenna’s power is back inside Jenna where it belongs.”
“You don’t have to be so rough,” Max said to Alexie in a sneer, which caused her to gasp.
“Rough?” Alexie’s voice echoed on the breeze, circling around the building to pipe a second time. “I was just trying to get a second with Shay before you pulled her into a corner to make out.”
The deepest shade of red colored Max’s cheeks and he poked Alexie on the shoulder. “I don’t do that.”
“Hey,” Shay shouted.
She stepped between Max and Alexie, smack-dab in the superpower line of fire. “I really don’t remember anything. I go somewhere else when I’m unconscious, like … an inter-dimensional holding plain. Jenna told me it would be a wild card. I knew there’d be risks, but I had to do something. Don’t worry. I won’t let it happen again.”
“You can talk to Jenna?” Hetal asked, tapping her chin. “Interesting. I wish I would have known Evie was gonna steal my cell phone. I would have emailed myself that vid. She’ll probably erase it to keep it from going viral.”
Shay nudged Hetal with her elbow. “Come on. We have stuff to do.”
“We do?” Hetal squealed, gluing herself to Shay’s side.
Shay got maybe five steps before she realized a pack of superheroes shadowed her every move. She turned toward them, and they stopped short.
“It’s girl stuff.”
Alexie shrugged, stepping forward, and Shay strong-armed her back.
“Scientist girl stuff.” Shay took Hetal by the hand, pulled her close, and made a beeline for the roof’s door.
“The lab,” Hetal said in a chuckle. “It smells so clean and safe.”
“You can’t smell safe.” Shay wiggled out of her heavy tactical vest and dropped it on a workbench.
“I hope Evie lets us have Dr. Mayhem’s equipment. He was building some pretty wicked things and we’re running low on parts.”
“This might be our last day in the lab,” Shay said softly, sadly. She looked around the room at the magnificent equipment, most of which she’d dismantled and repurposed. This wide-open space of metal tables, shining machines, and unfinished projects gave off more of a homely vibe than any other place she’d ever stepped foot. It would be hard for her to leave this lab behind.
“Why would you say that?” Hetal asked, her voice trembling in fright.
“We kinda put ourselves out of business tonight. The villains are captured. There’s really no need for us to make fighting safer. The fighting’s over.”
“Are we here to give the lab an amazing send-off?” Hetal asked slyly. “Pull an all-nigh
ter, do something incredible to earn our place in the history books?”
“Actually. Yes, we are.”
Hetal smiled as she lightly bounced in place. Shay strained to keep from chuckling at Hetal’s happy dance. She had to look strong, commanding. This would most likely be her last night as anyone’s boss, and she’d need to use the full authority her fake title bestowed to get Hetal onboard with her next scheme.
“We’re going to inject nanobots into my body.”
“What?” Hetal tried to sit on the stool behind her, but she was too busy gawking at Shay and her butt missed the seat twice. “Why are we preforming this very experimental and incredibly dangerous procedure on you?”
“I’ve programmed the nanobots to collect Jenna’s energy signature. They can absorb her soul.”
Hetal slumped on her stool, letting out a little huff. “You’ve already spawned them?”
“Yeah. It took six hours for the machine to cook them up.”
“I can’t believe you made nanobots without me.”
A pang of guilt shot through Shay’s stomach as Hetal’s pout hit maximum capacity.
“Sorry. I got bored waiting for Simon to fall asleep so I could sneak out and rescue you and Evie.”
The deep crease anger created on Hetal’s brow smoothed, and a hint of her smile returned. “Right. Thank you.”
“You can thank me by helping me.” Shay walked to the closet, pulling out a heart monitor and portable defibrillator. “I have no idea what type of state I’ll be in when the nanobots hit my brainstem, so I probably won’t be able to short ‘em out. That’s where you come in. Eight minutes after I inject myself, I need you to fry the little suckers with the defibrillator.”
Hetal’s jaw dropped and her body locked stiff, as if stunned solid. She didn’t even flinch when Shay shoved the defibrillator in her arms.
“There’s a magnet on my workbench,” Shay said, careful to avoid Hetal’s stare. “I’m sure you know how to harvest nanobots, right?”
“Shay.” Hetal placed the defibrillator on the table beside her. “Nobody’s ever done anything like this before. There’s no way to predict what’ll happen to you, what you’ll be like afterward.”