“Smart kids,” Sunstroke said. “But just kids, in the weirdest-looking robot car I’ve seen, or whatever the hell that is. The Cowl had this place in her files. She sent me to scope it out. She doesn’t need you.”
“Justine Hammer’s dead,” Chase said. “So I’m gonna assume this Crimson Cowl is someone else. But if you think—”
Gert whacked him in the leg to shush him, then leaned forward so Sunstroke could see her through the windshield. “We know this base better than anyone. You’ve already done enough damage, and you’re going to need to repair it if you want to avoid pissing her off. We could help.”
“Or I could just kill you,” Sunstroke said, taking another step toward the Frog. “This is no kid’s game. And if the Cowl’s going to use this base, it’s a bad way to start if people already know she’s here.”
“Yet you’re still talking,” Gert said. “Which I’m gonna guess means you’re not thrilled by the idea of killing kids. So our friends upstairs are still alive?”
Sunstroke tilted his head. Even through the mask, she could see the confusion in his expression. “I saw one girl. You’re saying there are more?”
Gert smiled. Chase bent over the controls, ready to fire the lasers.
“Definitely more than one girl,” Gert said.
Behind Sunstroke, rainbow fireworks showered down through the hole he’d left in the ceiling—the reason for Gert’s smile—and then Karolina appeared, flying through the scorched, melted hole. She had Molly dangling from one hand and Nico from the other, straining to carry them but managing. The claxons kept clanging as Karolina released their hands and the girls dropped to the concrete floor, landing on their feet. Nico stumbled a bit, but Molly seemed to be running even before she touched ground.
Sunstroke started to turn in their direction, concerned now about how many of them might have been upstairs.
“All right, dumbass,” Chase said. “You don’t wanna team up, I guess we have to finish this.”
He fired the lasers. Sunstroke dodged and leaped, sailing aloft on waves of heat, even as a fresh swirl of fire began to manifest in his hands. In the midst of it all, he didn’t see Karolina until she had flown right by him. She reached out one hand and hit him with a blast of solar radiation that made him cry out in pain and surprise. Sunstroke went tumbling through the air like a discarded rag doll, but when he struck the ground he was already in motion. He rolled, got to his knees, started to rise—
Molly reached him in three more strides. Sunstroke just had time to look at her, to see an eleven-year-old girl in an oversize T-shirt and gym shorts running at him. He had enough time for a dismissive scowl to form on his lips, and then Molly hammered him in the chest. She struck the supernova symbol on his costume as if it’d been her target all along, and he toppled backward, arms out-flung, and went sprawling on the concrete.
“Stay down, jerkface!” Molly declared, as if it were her battle cry.
In the Leapfrog, Chase cackled. “Oh my God, how awesome is she?”
“She drives you crazy,” Gert reminded him.
“Yeah, but come on. ‘Stay down, jerkface’ is adorable.”
“Don’t tell her that, or you’ll be the next jerkface she’s knocking out.”
But Gert was grinning, too. At least until she saw Sunstroke getting up, saw the fire reigniting in his hands. Then she hit the switch for the external speakers again and started to shout a warning, before she saw there was no need.
Nico stepped into the space between Sunstroke and Molly, cool and calm as a shadow. She raised the Staff of One and barked a single word. Not just a word, but a magical spell.
“Blackout!”
The fire churning in Sunstroke’s hands vanished. The air around him seemed to dim; he took a single staggering step toward Nico, and passed out. He’d have fallen into her arms, but Nico stepped aside and let him hit the floor. The whoomp of impact could be heard even inside the Leapfrog.
Nico stared down at the unconscious man. Her spell hadn’t just snuffed out his powers—temporarily, she assumed—it had made him black out. A happy side effect, considering it meant he wouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of Molly smashing him through a wall.
She glanced up at Karolina. “You still charged up? I was a little worried my spell would turn out your lights, too.”
Karolina smiled and made a swirl of colorful light dance around her fingers as she and Molly approached. “I’m good.”
With a hiss, the hatch on the Leapfrog opened and Gert jumped down, followed by Chase.
Nico crouched by their intruder. “Anybody recognize the costume?”
“Sunstroke,” Gert said. “Chase says he’s one of the new ‘Masters of Evil.’”
You could practically hear the mocking air quotes around the phrase. Nico smiled thinly.
“Masters of Evil might be totally goofy—”
“Oh, yeah,” Molly said. “That’s just dumb. It might work on Doctor Who.”
“—but that doesn’t make these guys any less dangerous,” Nico continued. “He could’ve killed any one of us. Or all of us.”
“I don’t think he actually wanted to kill us,” Gert said. “He might’ve, but I got the idea maybe he was reluctant to torch a bunch of teenagers.”
Nico stared down at Sunstroke. He looked sort of pitiful now, lying there like a puppet with its strings cut. “Still,” she said, “Masters of Evil. Or a wannabe Master of Evil. Either way, let’s get him out of here before he regains consciousness.”
Chase scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. Even if we tie him up, what if he comes around while we’re jumping him over to the police station? If his powers aren’t still blacked out, he could get away easily, possibly toasting us all on the way out.”
“If he wakes up,” Molly said, “I’ll pummel him.”
Nico huffed in frustration. She glanced at the hole Sunstroke had burned through the ceiling, then at the scorch marks on the Leapfrog.
“New plan,” she said, scanning her friends, her gaze landing on Molly. “We’ll call it in. Tell the police where to find him.”
“But it’s our secret base,” Molly protested, yawning. Using her powers always made her sleepy. If she exerted herself enough, she’d been known to just pass out.
“It was our secret base,” Nico said. “And it was nice to find it after sleeping in empty warehouses and that abandoned movie theater with all the rats. But we’ve crashed in rough places before, and we can do it again. This guy burned his way through the hospital walls upstairs and then down here. Our base isn’t secret anymore.”
“Plus, apparently the Crimson Cowl knows about this place and wants it for herself,” Chase added.
Molly sighed and looked up at Karolina, taking her hand. “Why can’t anyplace be home, just for a little while?”
Karolina’s colorful lights faded, and she was just a teenager again. “We’ll find our way, Molly. We always do.”
Nico felt a pang in her heart, but she had to ignore it. If she was supposed to lead, she couldn’t let her emotions get in the way. She didn’t have time to comfort Molly—or anyone else—right now.
“Okay,” she said. “Pack up your stuff. Get whatever food’s in the kitchen and load it into the Frog. Pillows and blankets, whatever we can salvage in five minutes. Chase, I’ll stay with Sunstroke till you’ve got your things together, and then you can watch him while I—”
“Go on and get your stuff, Nico,” Chase said. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’m actually already packed up and ready to go.”
Nico caught the hurt glance Gert gave him. Confused and worried.
“You want to explain that?”
This time, Chase smiled. He glanced around the tight little circle of Runaways—tighter than they’d been before Alex had left them, bonded by the ugliness they’d endured together.
“I don’t, actually,” Chase replied. “Why don’t you and Gert and Karolina change? The three of you get the night off. On
ce we make sure this guy is taken care of, you can go dancing at Howl, blow off some steam, and then later tonight I’ll have a surprise for you all.”
Nico narrowed her eyes. Karolina tilted her head, studying Chase like he was some new species of boy they hadn’t seen before. But it was Gert who took a step closer to him.
“Don’t you know by now?” Gert said. “We don’t like surprises.”
“Yeah!” Molly said, hands on hips as she moved up next to Gert. “Plus, you didn’t say me. If these guys deserve a fun night, then why don’t I?”
Chase bent so he and Molly were eye to eye, ignoring the others. “Two reasons. Number one, Howl’s an under-twenty-one dance club, yeah, but you’ve got to be at least fifteen, and that’s not you. Number two, and much more importantly…I’m going on a secret mission, and I need you with me.”
Molly’s glare turned suspicious. “Really?”
“Really.”
She turned and faced the rest of them. “He needs me, you guys. Sorry I can’t come with you. Secret mission stuff.”
Nico glanced from Molly to Chase.
“What about Old Lace?” Gert asked.
“She can come on the secret mission, too,” Chase promised.
Karolina knelt and prodded Sunstroke to make sure he wasn’t getting up anytime soon. Then she glanced up at Nico.
“I do like to dance.”
Nico exhaled. “Me too.”
This time, she let herself smile.
Karolina Let the music flow through her body. The beat thrummed in her chest as if it had replaced the rhythm of her heart. She swung her head, hair flying, and surrendered herself to the current of energy rushing from body to body on the dance floor. A delicious pressure built inside her, the solar energies that powered her yearning for release. She wished she could truly give herself over to the music, let the vibrant palette of colors spill from her so that she could take flight. She imagined herself lighting up the pulsing club, flying over the heads of the dancers, and painting the air. It seemed more than likely they’d be terrified and she’d never be allowed inside Howl again, which would be far too high a price to pay for a little self-indulgence.
For now, she could only dance, but she found that dancing was enough.
Whipping her head, twisting her hips, raising her hands in the air, Karolina felt the eyes on her. Not all of them—she wasn’t that vain. But there were definitely guys and girls in the club who’d found themselves intrigued by her. She’d experienced such attentions often enough that she could almost ignore them. A quick glance around and she spotted a trio of nerdy-looking kids—two guys and a girl—who were barely dancing at all. They stood in a corner near a group of shabby, faux-velvet couches, all three of them awkward and skittish like forest animals about to bolt into the brush.
Karolina danced over to them. Over the pulse of the music, she spoke up. “You guys want to dance?”
They exchanged surprised looks. “All of us?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not about romance out here. It’s about feeling the music!”
The girl glanced shyly at the two boys and then stepped onto the dance floor. She reached back for the nearest one, so Karolina reached for the other. Seconds later, all four of them were dancing and waving their hands in the air. The DJ shouted a string of unintelligible words, and then the music shifted to something much older, some kind of ’90s hip-hop anthem, complete with vinyl scratching. Most of the kids went nuts. Even one of the geeky boys seemed to know it, shouting the words, lost in his own world now. Karolina beamed, soaking up their joy.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see Gert dancing there. Jubilant, Karolina grabbed her hands and spun her around. Gert laughed—such a strange sight, Gert laughing—and the two of them moved across the floor in tandem. Karolina did not feel bad about hastily abandoning her adopted geek trio—they were dancing now, they were fine without her. And the marvel of a dancing, laughing Gert fascinated her. Karolina wore a slim black dress that showed off miles of leg, while Gert looked, as always, like some kind of grunge Alice in Wonderland. Her purple hair changed colors under Howl’s strobing lights, her glasses gleamed. Her tights were striped purple and white, her shorts and T-shirt ragged enough to have been dragged off a punk-rock queen, circa 1982. She was herself, always, and Karolina admired her for it.
“Why were you dancing with those three? Do you know them?” Gert shouted to be heard over the music. Even shouting, the words were mostly obliterated by the thumping sound, but Karolina got the gist.
“They looked super nervous. I wanted them to have fun.”
Gert cocked her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever get you.”
Karolina felt a twinge in her chest, not insulted but hurt. “What do you mean?”
“You like people! I don’t get it!”
Karolina only smiled. Around them the whole crowd started jumping straight up, hands in the air, and the two girls joined them. In all the time they’d known each other, she’d never seen Gert like this, and it did her heart good. Karolina wondered if the new relationship with Chase might be part of the reason. Maybe some of Gert’s natural emotional shielding had started to come down.
Jumping again, Karolina nearly came down on top of Nico, who had rushed in between them. In her usual goth garb, she didn’t look like anyone else in the place, but somehow also didn’t seem out of place. At Howl, nobody blinked when they spotted someone different.
“Why aren’t you—” Karolina began. She would’ve finished the sentence with dancing, but Nico didn’t give her the chance.
“We need to talk!” Nico grabbed each of them by a hand, hauled them through the club, and worked her way toward the back, where a gloomy corridor had been lit with dim blue light and a red exit sign. The bathrooms were back here, along with some cases of soda that everyone knew were mainly used for chasing vodka brought in by underage girls who stuffed flasks in their bras.
“Hey!” Gert snapped, and yanked her hand free. “My legs are short, remember? Slow it down a second.”
Nico stopped just past the bathrooms, glancing around as if worried they’d be overheard.
“What’s going on?” Karolina asked. Her ears were fuzzed with static, the aftereffect of the loud music, now that they were in a quieter spot. The music kept thumping, but the volume had been cut in half back here.
“I was just out front talking to this guy—”
Gert crossed her arms. “We agreed we’d leave together. You can’t just take off with some guy.”
“This is so not about that,” Nico huffed. “I wasn’t leaving. He’s cute, but he smokes. I told him I’d go outside with him. There are people on the street. It’s nine thirty, not three a.m. Nobody’s going to drag me off the sidewalk in front of a club that has a busy Starbucks right across the street.”
Gert nodded. “Okay, and…?”
“It’s like the smokers’ club out there. These kids were gossiping, talking about some guy they knew who went missing out of this club last week. They claim they’ve heard about other kids our age going missing, and the rumors are that the Pride is taking them.”
Karolina felt her blood go cold.
“That’s crazy,” Gert said. “There is no Pride. Our parents are dead. We—”
The women’s bathroom door opened ten feet away, and the three of them paused long enough for two girls to come giggling out, then shuffle back into the main club.
Gert lowered her voice and they all drew close together. “The Pride is gone. That’s all I’m saying.”
“I know that,” Nico said. “We all do. But what if one or two of them survived? Or if…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but what if the Gibborim brought them back?”
Karolina pushed her hair behind her ears, not wanting any of this to be true. “So you think the Gibborim can resurrect people?”
Nico threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Do you?”
“You’re the one who can do magic,” Gert point
ed out.
Nico narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s not how it works. My parents knew some weird magic, yeah. But I haven’t exactly had spare time to study up on the art of witchcraft. The only magic I can do is with the Staff of One.”
Karolina knew she was right. With the staff, all Nico needed to do was to speak something with the intent of it being a spell, and her words would do whatever she wanted them to do, provided she’d formulated it right in her head, and as long as she’d never used that particular spell before.
“Beyond that,” she went on, “you know as much about magic and the Elder Gods of the Earth as I do.”
They fell silent. The DJ switched up the music again, this time to an electronic melody with soaring voices, almost alien. Karolina’s joy had been dimmed by Nico’s news, and this new song dampened her spirits even further. She might be able to dance, but she feared she would never really feel as if she belonged here. Or anywhere. Howl seemed to welcome everyone, but she wondered how the club kids would react if they knew they had an alien among them.
“You okay?” Gert asked her.
“Yeah,” Karolina said. “But we should go. Whatever Chase’s ‘secret mission’ is with Molly—”
“He’s going to want to hear this,” Nico finished for her.
Karolina led the way, and the three of them threaded a line through the dancing crowd. Once they were outside, Gert would call Chase. He had a surprise for them, apparently, but he’d have to come and get them or at least tell them where he and Molly had gone after they’d all bugged out of the old S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
They got a few looks as they left, mostly strange glances. Karolina figured they were from kids who didn’t understand how the three of them fit together. Teenagers seemed to run in packs of guys and girls who tried their best to look alike, but that wasn’t the Runaways’ MO.
Outside, a blast of cool air hit them. Not cold, but a little chilly for Los Angeles. Karolina shivered as she thought of the fire Sunstroke had at his command. The Runaways had called the police and waited on a roof across the street until the cops showed up at the Rancho Los Hermanos Hospital. As far as they knew, the firebug was in custody, and that was the best they could do, considering they were essentially fugitives themselves.
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