by Dee Benson
She'd just finished when Trojan returned.
"Ready to walk to class?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yup."
"Great. On the way, I'll show you around a little."
Chapter 9
FIRE BOWLS THAT LOOKED like mini fire pits lined the hallways, providing light. The ceiling lights were elaborate fixtures that used fire instead of bulbs.
"Time to toast a marshmallow," Trojan announced as they approached a doorway over which a stone dragon's head was mounted.
Axel reached out to push the door open. "Huh?"
There was a rustling sound as he dug into his pocket and then produced a marshmallow and a tiny toasting fork. He pulled her to his side. "Stand back."
He'd scarcely pulled her away from the doorway before fire shot out of the dragon's mouth. Trojan held his marshmallow in it.
The fire ceased and he opened the door, tossing the marshmallow into his mouth. "Oh, would you like one too?" he asked, pausing.
"No, I'm good." She looked back at the door as it swung shut. "Isn't it a bit dangerous to have statues breathing fire?"
"They only do it every so often." Trojan tucked the small toasting fork back into his pocket as they walked through a hallway full of other young people. "And you see their eyes light up before it happens so you'll know if it's about to happen."
He pushed through another door and they stepped outside. It was hot. Way too hot for so early in the day.
As she followed Trojan through the courtyard, Axel could only stare. The place had been more magnificent at night, but it was still impressive during the day. There were dragon statues everywhere. She saw the fire fall she'd seen when she'd arrived, and noticed the mountains on either side of it. Dragon heads had been carved into the mountains.
As they walked, Trojan pointed out who was a Netherling and who was a Super. Soon, Axel could guess before he told her. The Supers were all in impeccable shape. They looked bigger, fitter, stronger. And they had a darker olive, almost bronze, complexion. Not surprising considering the heat here.
The place had the feel of a college campus, and most people looked college-aged, however plaques on the sides of buildings saying things like 'Super High Kinetic Powers Department' and 'Super High ESP Department,' reminded Axel that all these people were about her age. A lot of them would even be younger than her since she was a senior.
She watched the Supers, fascinated by them. Most were just hurrying to class, but a good number were either flirting or engaging in some other kind of banter. So they were normal then—except for their powers.
Axel's mom and dad had been normal people, apart from their powers.
"Our classes will be held mostly in the Combat Department," Trojan announced as they rounded a corner and a tall building loomed before them. The large plaque said, 'Super High Combat Department'.
A small group of haggard-looking people in torn clothing loitered near the entrance to the building.
"Ignore them," Trojan whispered to Axel. "And don't make eye-contact."
Axel immediately looked away from them.
A man in ill-fitting clothes that hung off his lean body stepped into their way. "Hello, Netherlings," he said. His tone was sneering.
Trojan stepped around him and continued. Axel hurried after him.
The man appeared in front of them again. Axel stopped. How did he do that?
He grinned, revealing blackened teeth. "Super speed is the power. My Super name was Velocity in my heyday."
Axel stepped closer to Trojan.
"Happy to share for two cekels per day, up to five days."
A hunched over woman stepped forward, bringing a strong chemical smell with her. She gave them a crooked smile. "Shapeshifter." Her left hand turned into a paw. Whiskers appeared around her mouth. "Used to be able to do it much quicker," she muttered. "Happy to loan for one cekel a day, up to six days."
Axel stood, transfixed, watching as the shapeshifter's left ear turned into a pointed, furry animal's ear.
Trojan grabbed Axel by the hand and hurried to the door. She stumbled after him.
He dragged her into the building. It was nice and cool inside.
Axel sighed, wiping sweat from her brow. "Who were they?"
"Poor Supers. Some are homeless; some are drug addicts. They make money by loaning their powers to others for a fee. Power loan and all forms of merchandizing your powers are forbidden. They're a criminal offense here."
"Wow." Axel tried to shake the image of the shape-shifter woman from her mind, but it was hard.
She followed Trojan through a maze-like bunch of hallways until they came to a corridor where about twenty other people were standing around.
"These are our classmates," he told her in a lowered voice.
Axel looked around. About three quarters of them were Supers. The rest looked like Netherlings. Angelo was here. He was surrounded by girls and looked like he was enjoying the attention.
Axel's gaze landed on a tall guy with blond hair that was like spun gold. It made Axel's shade of blond look paltry in comparison. He was close enough for her to see that he had blazing blue eyes. He was surrounded by girls too.
There were other cute guys too. The standard of guys here was incredibly high. She checked out the girls. The Super girls were slightly bigger than Netherling girls, but not much. The main difference was their other…assets. They were popping with womanly curves.
Axel noticed everyone giving her discreet looks. The guys' eyes seemed to linger only momentarily before moving elsewhere. And why not? She was nowhere near as hot as the Super girls.
The girls' gazes trailed over her from head to toe. She couldn't tell what they were thinking.
An auburn-haired beauty standing with a bunch of other gorgeous girls whose faces were plastered with way too much makeup, spat gum out of her mouth. Before it hit the floor, she pointed at it. White light beamed from her fingertip and incinerated the gum into thin air.
"That's Candice Carmichael," Trojan whispered to Axel. "She was head cheerleader before she gave it up to become part of The Firemaster's elite team."
She was exactly the head cheerleader type. Miniscule skirt. Tiny, button-down shirt through which her boobs looked like they were going to burst at any minute. Most of the guys present were staring at her. Or rather, at her chest.
Axel wondered whether 'activation' would give her boobs like that.
A sudden sense of clarity hit her and she wondered why she was standing here admiring the Supers when she was only here in the first place because she'd been forced; because The Firemaster's cronies had killed her parents and kidnapped Zanda.
Anger flashed through her.
"So, how much do you know about Super stuff?" Trojan asked, leaning against the wall and digging a hand into his pocket. He produced a handful of tiny blue candies. He tossed them into his mouth.
"Very little."
He took out another handful of blue candies. "Want some?"
"No, thanks." They looked tempting but Axel didn't want to eat anything made here. It was a shame she'd already eaten that stupid bagel. She should go on a hunger strike until they released her and Zanda.
She grimaced. She suspected they'd just let her starve to death if she tried that.
"Have you met many Supers before?" Trojan asked.
"Only my parents." Axel clamped her mouth shut. What had possessed her to say that?
She'd never admitted to anybody that her parents were Supers. It'd been a secret that she and Zanda had been forbidden to share.
What does it matter now? she thought bitterly. They were dead.
"I've also met Desmond Platt," she told Trojan quickly before he asked her any questions about her parents. "And someone called Serloyd."
"Hey. We're not allowed to call teachers by their real names. We have to use their Super names. Serloyd's is Sensus. He can manipulate emotions, so we call him 'Emoticon' behind his back. He's one of the people you really want to avoid."
"I kinda gathered that," Axel replied, remembering their encounter last night.
"Seriously. Except for The Firemaster himself, Sensus is one of the most dangerous people here. He's The Firemaster's right hand man…" Trojan seemed to catch himself. He looked like he'd like to take back what he'd just said.
"What?" Axel asked.
His gaze darted away from her. "Uh, there's nobody dangerous here. I was just kidding."
"Well, I consider The Firemaster to be dangerous. And this Serloyd, Sensus, dude definitely seemed dangerous to me yesterday."
Trojan said nothing.
Axel wondered if he'd been forced to come here, just like she had and whether his jovial attitude was all a pretense. Or maybe he'd been drugged like she had. She wanted to ask, but he looked terrified all of a sudden. She figured she'd ask sometime when they were alone.
"Other people to look out for," he said so softly she could hardly hear him.
She inched closer to him.
He nodded towards the blond Super with blue eyes. "Prince Drake. He's The Firemaster's son."
Axel's jaw dropped. She stared at the blond dude. He was so attractive and was acting like such a normal guy, flirting with the girls surrounding him. She would never have thought he was the son of a madman, a maniac from whom her parents had had to flee. An evil monster who'd had her parents killed, Zanda kidnapped, and had forced her to come here.
"The third person you need to look out for is another of the teachers, Neuro. He's one of the youngest teachers, He's been The Firemaster's protégé since he was born, and is The Firemaster's personal assassin. I'll point him out to you when we see him."
"Where the hell is Dynamo?" a girl with curly, brunette hair growled.
One of her friends shrugged. "Dynamo's always late."
"Who's Dynamo?" Axel asked Trojan, whispering.
"The teacher for this class."
"What is this class? I don't have a timetable or anything? How do we even know this is where I'm supposed to be?"
"We're in all the same classes. I checked before breakfast while you were still sleeping. I'll take you to the library sometime so that you can print off your timetable."
"What about enrollment? Don't I actually have to enroll?"
Trojan gave her a look loaded with meaning.
Of course, she didn't need to enroll. That would all have been sorted out.
Just then, the double doors at the end of the hallway banged open. A small woman with big hair breezed in. "Hello, class," she sang.
"Hello, Dynamo," Prince Drake greeted her, winking.
Axel looked at Trojan. "Dynamo is a woman?"
"Yup. When I first arrived, I thought she'd be a dude, too. It'd help if they had 'girl' or 'man' after their names, you know like 'Superman' and 'Catwoman', but apparently all that got scrapped decades ago, in the interest of being inclusive and non-discriminatory." Trojan rolled his eyes.
Dynamo entered the classroom and they all trooped in after her. Axel found herself directly behind Prince Drake. He turned as he entered the room. His blue gaze lingered on her for a moment. Then he stopped and held the door open, allowing her to walk in ahead of him.
"Thank you," Axel mumbled. But she didn't want to have to thank him for anything. He was evil. She was certain of it.
Trojan was about to follow when Drake released the door and it slammed in his face. There was laughter from others around them.
Axel stopped and opened the door for Trojan. Prince Drake lifted his brows as he moved away to a desk.
"No need for that," Trojan told her cheerfully, leading the way to a table at the very back of the room. "I can open doors for myself, ya know?"
"That was just rude," Axel ground out.
"Hey, remember how I told you about the three people whose bad books you do not want to get into?" Trojan asked. "And remember how I said that Prince Drake was one of them?"
Axel said nothing. As she sat at the desk, a wave of anger flooded her. Thoughts of her parents and Zanda rushed to the front of her mind. Grief hit her hard.
What was she doing frolicking around with Trojan as though her life wasn't crumbling around her, allowing herself to be in awe of The Firemaster's territory? He was her enemy. He'd snatched her parents away from her and was using Zanda to blackmail her. She should be putting up a fight, not complying.
"Settle down, class," Dynamo said, perching on the edge of her desk. "Welcome to the combat masterclass. You have all been carefully handpicked to join The Firemaster's army. Some of you may not know why you've been chosen, but rest assured that there is a reason."
Axel felt her disgust with this place and these people increase a notch. Dynamo was talking about the whole situation like it was some kind of privilege. Around her, others in the class seemed to sit straighter. A guy a few rows to Axel's left puffed out his chest.
Were these people delusional?
"I will be teaching you Super history, but before we begin, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves. We'll go around the room. On your turn, please stand and tell everyone your name and your superpower. Please don't tell us about your weaknesses. Every Super has them, but we'll talk about weaknesses and Achilles' heels in another session."
"Some of us have superpowers," Prince Drake piped up. "Plural."
"Yes, well however many you have, we'd like to know about them." Dynamo jumped off the edge of the table and landed in an action pose. "I'll go first." She lifted her fists. Axel could almost hear dramatic music playing as Dynamo glared around the room at them all. "As many of you already know," she said in a stage whisper. "I am Dynamo. My superpower is electrokinesis."
Suddenly, Dynamo's skin began to glow an eerie yellow color.
"This has many versatile uses," she continued, still whispering. "I can create electricity, I can create force fields…"
There was a stab in Axel's heart. Dynamo said more, but she didn't hear any of it. Her mind was stuck on 'force fields'.
Her dad had been able to create force fields. Tears sprang into her eyes.
The room erupted in applause. Dynamo had finished her speech.
"Okay, that's a tough act to follow," a guy wearing nerd glasses but built like a linebacker said, rising to his feet.
Axel tried to hold back her tears as he introduced himself and began to talk about his superpower. When he finished, the next person rose to speak. She watched with unseeing eyes as student after student introduced themselves, her grief suffocating her.
"Axel?"
Axel snapped to attention. Dynamo and everyone else in the class were looking at her expectantly.
"Pass."
Dynamo frowned. "You can't pass. Introduce yourself, please."
Axel said nothing, and she didn't rise. She was dangerously close to tears.
"Axel?" Dynamo smiled, and her small elfin features took on a catlike quality. "Stand up and introduce yourself."
Axel jumped to her feet, her eyes stinging. "My name is Axel Adams," she ground out. "And I have been forced here against my will. The Firemaster killed my parents and kidnapped my cousin in order get me here. I'm here only because he threatened to amputate one limb a day from my cousin if I didn't come."
There was a collective gasp.
Dynamo looked horrified. Prince Drake looked livid. Low murmurs broke out in the room.
Axel didn't care.
Chapter 10
"EVERYONE, SETTLE DOWN," DYNAMO snapped. She forced a lighter tone. "Have you had your drugs, Axel?"
"Yes."
Dynamo slipped a cell phone out of her pocket and tapped at the screen rapidly. "I highly doubt that."
The last thing Axel wanted was more drugs. "A guy came to my room and drugged me."
"Who?" Dynamo asked, still texting.
"I don't know his name."
"How convenient."
"I'm not lying." Axel laughed shortly. "Maybe that's my superpower. I'm resistant to your evil, unethical drugs."
Everyone gasped.
"Axel, please step outside the room," Dynamo ordered.
Hot tears rushed down Axel's cheeks as she cut her way through the room. She was being stupid. She was angry, and she was grieving but she shouldn't make enemies here. She didn't have a death wish.
What is wrong with me?
Dynamo followed her out. She grabbed Axel by the arm in a grip that was painfully tight. "You're playing a very dangerous game, sweetie."
A buzzing sound from her pocket made her release Axel. She took out her cell phone. A red circle glowed on the screen along with numbers from one to ten. Dynamo tapped number eight.
No sooner had she tucked her cell phone back into her pocket than the door at the end of the corridor opened. Serloyd appeared. He wasn't alone. Axel's heart shuddered at the sight of the hottie who'd drugged her in the dorm room.
She opened her mouth to identify him as the person who'd drugged her but a powerful itch raced across her temples and she lost focus.
"I will deal with her inside the classroom," Serloyd told Dynamo. "So that others may know that rebellion will be punished, and they will fear."
Dynamo nodded once and opened the door to the classroom.
Serloyd gestured for Axel to follow as he entered the room. The sinister look in his eyes worried her.
Everyone seemed to shrink back a little at the sight of Serloyd. Everyone except Prince Drake who nodded at Serloyd. Serloyd nodded back.
Serloyd stood at the front of the class, an imposing figure in his black leather jacket and hard-soled boots. "Who drugged you this morning?" Serloyd asked.
Axel looked at the hottie. His dark eyes looked cool and aloof, but Axel thought she sensed some tension from him. She remembered that she'd been about to blow his cover when she'd felt an itch that made her lose her train of thought. Someone here was manipulating her. Was it him?
"Who drugged you?" Serloyd bellowed.
"I d-don't know his name. He had dark hair, and dark skin." That description would fit scores of guys here.
Serloyd dug into one of the pockets on his combat pants and produce a small Styrofoam cup. He held it out to her. "We'll do a urine test, right now."
Axel stared at the cup.