“What did Spook say to you?” Casey asked.
Tori let her gaze rest on a crow cawing loudly in a distant tree. She didn’t want to remember. I’d think a guy with a gun would be enough that you could use your powers before someone gets shot. Nice, thank you, brain. She wished she could forget it again.
“I don’t really remember,” she lied. “It all happened so fast.”
Tori wouldn’t look at them. They were the police. They could probably tell she was lying. She focused on breathing, on not throwing up, on not saying anything crazy.
“He’s a lunatic!” Tori jumped up from the bench. “He-he was shot and lost blood and doesn’t know what he’s saying!”
So much for not acting crazy. Her heart raced like it was going to spring from her chest. What was wrong with her? She really, really didn’t want to go back to Dr. Huntington. That part of her life was over.
She paced in front of the bench. “Honestly, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and–”
“Actually, you were in the right place at the right time,” Art interrupted. “If you hadn’t used your – skills – to stop that guy, he would’ve shot more people. The police were waiting outside for an opportunity and you provided them with one. If it wasn’t for you, someone might have died.”
Tori stared at Art, weighing what he’d said. He obviously believed it. Was it possible? Did she have a…skill that saved the day?
No.
Casey shifted on the bench, leaning forward like one girlfriend talking to another. Tori braced herself for a story, a sales job.
“Let me tell you about what we do. Art and I established the Superhero Liaison Unit – or SLU – to make contact with both licensed and private superheroes, gathering information that we can use to catch criminals and reduce crime in the city.” Casey’s expression showed her excitement and passion for her job.
Exactly the sort of thing Tori found hard to resist. Great.
Art pushed away from the tree and moved in closer again. “More and more superheroes are willing to help here in Double Bay because we protect their identities if they want us to. We’re even trying to get the city to pass statutes that protect superheroes against lawsuits.”
Lawsuits? For heaven’s sake, why would you sue someone for trying to help you?
“The city’s overall crime rate has stopped climbing the last couple of months,” Art continued, “and Casey and I are convinced it’s because more superheroes are coming forward and helping us out.”
Tori listened and tried to figure out how this affected her, how it all fit into the events of yesterday. Sure, it was great to hear about a drop in crime rates, especially if it was in her neighborhood. But...
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” she said. “I understand what you’re saying – I think – but I’m not really following you. You work with Spook and other superheroes. I get it. But what do you want from me?”
Casey smiled at her, a really big smile. Tori got the feeling she was supposed to be making a connection here. She looked at Art. He grinned, too.
She jumped away from them. “No no no no–”
Absolutely not. Ridiculous! Outrageous!
Tori kept backing up, sliding on the snow, tripping as she backed into a snow bank. Art rushed to her side. His arm around her waist kept her from toppling over into the snow. He worked his charm, obviously trying to do the reassuring bit again, moving her back to the bench. Tori wrenched herself away from him.
A superhero? They thought she was a superhero?
Tori’s knees buckled. Art grabbed her again, guiding her so that she plopped onto the bench and not onto the ground.
He pressed her head between her knees, and she let him, paranoid she’d pass out again. She remembered that from yesterday, too. Twice in two days, in front of police, not something she could take. One of them patted her back again. Someone told her to breathe. Again.
She had to think.
Think.
Is that really what they were saying? Because neither detective had said the words, had they? What did it mean?
No, they were wrong. If she were a superhero–
The gears in her brain smoked with the effort to make sense of this.
How could she be a superhero and not know it?
She tried to sit up. “How?” she asked. Her voice sounded more like a croak.
Casey cleared her throat. “We don’t really know. You haven’t experienced anything like this before?”
Tori hesitated and shook her head. The last few weeks had been a blur of activity – getting engaged, getting married, moving into Joe’s house, the honeymoon. She’d been so excited, so happy that nothing else really stood out.
Something tugged at the edges of her memory. She struggled to dig it out. Last night…in the kitchen…she was crying…and talking to herself–
“Holy crap.” She looked up at Casey in astonishment. “I can even do it to myself?”
CHAPTER 4
“PHASE four testing is complete. I’ve done it.”
Kane Curtis stared at the intercom phone on his mahogany desk. He’d been waiting for this call for almost five years. He inhaled deeply and held it, trying to calm his racing heart.
“Which one?” he said into the intercom.
“Teddy, Lab Two.” Jade Mantis’ voice came through high-pitched, breathless. She was the senior research scientist at Curtis Enterprises and head of the Genesis Project. Kane had high hopes for what she could help him do, and today she might prove his faith well-founded.
Kane pressed a button and a live feed from Lab Two appeared on one of the six monitors built into the paneled walls of his office. He walked over to watch the screen closely. In the middle of the sterile white room stood a stainless steel table and two chairs. An assortment of toys covered the table, and a cherubic blonde boy, maybe four or five years old, sat on a chair. He played with a stuffed tiger and an army action figure.
A door opened and Jade walked into the lab. Her rich red hair glowed in the florescent lights. Though she arranged it on top of her head when she worked, Kane liked it better down, in long red curls to the middle of her back. Sometimes he forced her to wear it down, whether it got in her way or not. He watched as Jade made notes on a clipboard then walked over to the child.
“Hello, Teddy,” she said. “Are you having fun with your toys?”
The little boy gave her a shy smile and kept playing.
Jade sat down in the other chair, positioned so it was not in the way of the camera. “Can I play?” She waited but the little boy said nothing.
Picking up a yellow dump truck, Jade pretended to drive it around the table in front of her. Teddy ignored her. Jade picked up a stuffed bear and walked it over to the tiger Teddy held. Teddy pretended to have the tiger talk to the bear. Jade played along.
Just as Kane became impatient, Jade looked into the camera. Her lips curled up in a terrible smile and she winked into the camera. Kane leaned forward, his shoulders hunched toward the monitor.
Jade turned back to Teddy, dropped the bear, and grabbed the stuffed tiger from the child’s hand. “This looks like a fun toy. I’d like to play with this one.” She danced the tiger on the far edge of the table, out of Teddy’s reach.
Kane watched the child. Surprise, then anger, contorted his cherubic features. “Mine,” he yelled.
Jade ignored him and kept the tiger out of reach.
“Mine!” Teddy screamed. “Mine! Mine!” As he screamed, he reached out his hand and the tiger shot into it.
Kane blinked and squinted at the monitor. Jade looked into the camera again and raised her eyebrows. Kane stared at Teddy. He looked like any other child who had just thrown a fit, breathing heavily, watching Jade suspiciously, clutching the tiger to his chest.
Jade wrote something on her clipboard and left the lab.
Kane leaned back on his heels and blew out a breath. He continued to watch the monitor, but the child played quietly alone. Nothing els
e happened. Kane hit a button on the console, and the recording – everything was recorded – played again. He played it at regular speed and in slow motion, studying the boy and the tiger. The tiger flew to the boy’s hand like a paper clip to a magnet.
Kane folded his arms, his right hand stroking his chin, and paced the large room. Excited energy pumped through his body. His plans were finally coming to fruition. The Nine would have to accept him now. Accept him? He’d be leading them before long. Teddy was the first child to have survived the genetic engineering intact and come out with a controllable power. But he was only the beginning.
Kane would create dozens of powerful children. His father’s bitter accusations would be proved false. Just because his two daughters had no powers didn’t mean Kane couldn’t father an impressive force of sons. Jade used Kane’s blood in her experiments – he’d call them The Sons of Kane. They would help him gain control over The Nine. After that, he could control anything, anywhere.
He stood at his office window, his breathing sounding like he’d run up a flight of stairs. He chuckled to himself. When was the last time he’d been this excited? Outside, the wind moved through the leafless branches of maples and oaks and pine trees. A pristine white blanket covered the lawn and garden below. By the time the grounds were green and in bloom, his Sons would be ready.
Kane loved this view. Just outside Double Bay, the Curtis family enjoyed a genteel country estate, beautiful in every season. He could see the roof of his house from this window. The other two buildings in the research segment of the family business stood at nine o’clock and twelve o’clock with a cobblestone circular drive in the middle. A forest of trees stood sentry around the property.
It occurred to him suddenly that no one had bothered to put up Christmas lights. His mother loved Christmas more than any other time of year, and made sure that their home as well as the businesses were lavishly decorated. But she died last spring – had it been so long already? – and Kane hadn’t bothered with Christmas this year. Perhaps next year he’d order the decorations again, for the children.
Kane smiled as he felt the energy spill out around him. The late afternoon shadows in his office shifted and blended. Outside, a worker shoveling snow paused and looked up toward Kane’s third floor office window. Just for fun, Kane let his excitement build until his body merged with the shadows. In this amorphous form, he moved along the wall in front of the window. Below, the man’s eyes grew round. He crossed himself and hurried away.
The darkness shook when Kane laughed. He’d enjoyed scaring people ever since he was a boy. The tales told around the estate, tales of ghosts and the devil, heightened his delight in his power.
But enough fun for now. He went through the mental exercise that quickly coalesced his form and he sat down at his desk. Now it was time to implement the next part of his plan.
Time to meet his grandson.
HOW could this happen?
Tori sat in her car staring sightlessly out the windshield into the dark. The engine rattled as it warmed up and Tori tucked her mittened hands under her arms.
The afternoon had been difficult bordering on impossible. She’d wanted to go home and think about the sudden craziness in her life. But her new boss Evan insisted she work overtime, even though he didn’t seem impressed with her work so far. Hardly surprising since she couldn’t remember half of what she’d done since her meeting with the police. But she remembered every word of that conversation.
She sighed. She couldn’t go home now either, because she’d promised to meet Lexie and Hayley for dinner. How much thinking could she do without them noticing the worried look on her face? And how could she explain the conversation she had with the SLU to Joe? She hadn’t known him long enough yet to guess how he would take the news. Would his manly-man feelings be hurt? Would he think less of himself because his wife was a superhero and he wasn’t? Worse, would he think less of her?
If only she could understand exactly why Dixie hated superheroes, why she’d always insisted they weren’t real, Tori would have a better way to gauge her own feelings. If her mother had a good reason, Tori wanted to learn from her mother’s mistakes, not the hard way. But if her mother’s reason was personal… Maybe that meant superheroes weren’t the awful people Dixie believed them to be. Trying to sort it all out alone, Tori didn’t know what to think. Even right this second, was she excited? Scared? Disbelieving?
Yes, yes, and yes! All those and more!
She smiled a little and shook her head. Okay, let’s just say for one tiny minute that God said to himself, “Let’s make, oh, a hairless cat, a duck-billed platypus, and give Tori Lewis a super power. That’ll be fun.” Okay, so… Her smile gained width even as she tried to reign in a growing sense of excitement. That meant she had a purpose in life. Something she’d always wanted but had never really found.
But did that mean she had to be a superhero? How would she know what to do? What would she wear? Did she keep her day job? She didn’t even know how she did whatever it was she did. Somehow, people listened to her, did what she asked. Could that be some kind of “super power”?
Images of Tobey Maguire flashed through Tori’s mind. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he figured it out. And Hugh Jackman, too. He didn’t even know who the X-Men were and then he met them and everything worked out great. Well, not great, but better than being alone.
Tori put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. She’d watch the movies again later tonight and see what she could glean from them. There, she had a plan.
Turning right onto Michigan Avenue, Tori’s glance fell onto a brightly papered window beckoning from a strip mall. Of course! A comic book store! Perhaps the answers to some of her questions could be found there. She swung into the parking lot, tires sliding a bit in the slush, and pulled into a tight spot near the store. Her heart beat erratically as she got out of her car.
A bell tinkled overhead as she walked in. A young man with a scraggly goatee and a wrinkled black T-shirt nodded absently at her. “’S’up,” he said, turning from the books he was shelving. Tori nodded to him and read his shirt, Jesus Saves. Cool. He turned to help someone and Tori noticed there was more on the back: And Only Takes Half Damage.
Uh, okay, don’t know what that means.
She tried not to look conspicuous as she wandered. Another world. That’s where she’d landed. Not just the comic book store, though that was certainly the outward manifestation of the changes she couldn’t see. It was like she went on her honeymoon and when she came back, the plane flew down the rabbit hole. Only things looked pretty much the same. Was that scary or comforting?
Tori walked around, looking at comics and books. Comic book stores had books? And toys. And T-shirts. Who knew? Well, maybe something here would help her find her footing, give her some kind of foundation from which to begin to understand what was happening.
Where to start? She felt a bit like a foreigner without a guidebook. Walking down the aisles, she stopped and stared at the shelves on both sides. What exactly was she looking at? Turning her head sideways, she perused the titles. Ah, Manga. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew it was Japanese and popular. Maybe she should buy one. They were thicker than the other comic books, so maybe she’d learn more.
Tori continued to read the titles, sort of, while she surreptitiously checked out the other customers. A couple of teenage boys, a large man with a full beard and a fuller waistline, a couple about her age – the woman looked bored to tears. The front bell chimed as the door opened to a tall man in a suit, tie loosened around his neck. He wandered to the wall behind Tori where she noticed dozens of comic books were arranged. He looked fairly normal. Maybe she should follow him and see what he looked at.
About to turn away, Tori spied the title Read or Die. Curious, she picked it up and opened it, getting it right on the second try. She forgot the Japanese read from back to front. For a few minutes, Tori got lost in the story. The big bearded man bumped i
nto her as he passed down her aisle and Tori looked up. She felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. Wasn’t she too old to be enjoying comic books?
She took the book with her and tried to amble as if she didn’t care where she was going. Near the businessman, she read the titles on the wall – Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Supergirl, Captain America, Batman, Wonder Woman.
Some, like Hellblazer, looked too gruesome when she flipped through the comic. Some – Sin City, for instance – were too violent or sexual. Tori shoved Preacher back on the shelf with some embarrassment. Definitely not what she thought it’d be.
She spied an Amazing Spider-Man with relief. She’d seen the movies. She liked Spider-Man. In fact, the more she thought about it, Spider-Man was probably the perfect comic for her. A young person suddenly gets powers he didn’t ask for and does his best to save the world while staying true to good old-fashioned values.
Tori bit her lip as she thumbed through the comic book. She wondered if Peter Parker was still trying to hang onto Aunt May’s values. Or did being a superhero mean you had to kill people, even if they were the bad guys? She glanced at the businessman out of the corner of her eye. If she asked him what comics he liked, would he take it as a come-on? When he reached for another book, she saw his ring finger was empty. No point in taking a chance. Before Joe, she’d never been good with men. No reason to think it’d be easier now that she was married.
She looked around for Geek-boy. He was putting books away near the front of the store now. She rehearsed how to ask her question in an intelligent manner as she walked toward him.
“Hi,” she said when she approached. Nice. Good opening. Intelligent.
This was so embarrassing.
“Hey,” he said. The word came out very long. The boy’s shoulders were slumped, his eyes heavy as if he could barely keep them open. Tori wondered if he was high.
She cleared her throat, her eyes falling on a T-shirt nearby. Your village called. Their idiot is missing. She grinned – yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too – then tried to school her features into a pleasant mask.
Unexpected Superhero (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke Book 1) Page 5