I put a hand to my chest. “What? Me? We’re at Kat’s house—clearly she’s the one responsible for it. And what, you think Amelia’s going to come after you if something happens to it?”
“Yes, I do. She was really serious.” He looks around and lets his shoulders relax a little. “So, you wanted to show us something?”
I gesture to the cookies and lemonade.
“You wanted to show us some snacks?”
“Homemade snacks that I happen to know are delicious.”
He scrunches up his forehead. “That’s why you invited us over?”
“No, I invited you over because I knew it would piss off Kat’s dad.”
“You what?!” Riley’s nostrils flare and his eyes go wide. He glances behind him at the door, like Kat’s dad’s going to bust in and tell him off for being here.
“And because I knew he wouldn’t be able to complain about the door being closed if you guys were here.” Or at least I was betting on it.
“You had us come over here to annoy her dad?!” His eyes flick over to Kat’s. “I didn’t— We wouldn’t have come over if—”
“You’re my friends,” Kat says. “You’re allowed to be here.”
Sarah smiles at that. “This is great.”
Riley still looks worried. “I can’t believe you, X. You invited us over here just for that.”
“And for cookies and lemonade,” I tell him. “Geez, Perkins. It’s like you don’t hear anything I say.”
“And to watch your flying video,” Kat says.
“What?” I force a laugh. “Kat, you’re hilarious. We’re so not watching that. Everyone’s already seen it. Nobody wants to watch it again.” Especially not me.
“Yes, we do,” Riley says. “We can watch it while we have our cookies and lemonade you’re so enthusiastic about.”
Sarah nods. “I thought that’s why we came over, for the viewing party.”
“Viewing party?!” This is getting out of hand.
“Besides,” Kat says, “we haven’t all watched it together. Or with you.” She gestures for Riley and Sarah to sit on the floor while she grabs her laptop and sets it up at the end of the bed where we can all see.
I pretend to laugh again, though it sounds even more forced this time. “It’s going to be the same video everyone watched yesterday. You don’t need to watch it with me—that’s ridiculous. And you know who has a car and a license and who could totally go get you those waffles you wanted?”
“No way, Damien. You’re staying.”
“It’s not that bad, X,” Riley says. “I was really amazed. I mean, you were actually flying.”
“Whatever. It wasn’t that great.” I fold my arms across my chest.
Sarah scoots closer to Riley as they both try to get comfortable on the floor. “You showed remarkable skills for someone who’s afraid of heights and hates flying.”
“And you really passed the flying test?” Riley asks.
“Yep, and I’m retaking Advanced Heroism this summer. I’m not going to miss anything, and we can still work together.”
He exhales, looking relieved.
Sarah reaches up and grabs a cookie from the nightstand. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s watch it.”
Kat’s already got the video—the official one from Channel Five that has all the closeups—ready to go. She leans forward to hit the space bar.
“Wait.”
She sighs. “Damien, we’re watching it.”
“But before we watch anything, we should probably, um, make some plans. Just, like, before we get distracted.”
Kat squints at me. “Plans? For what?”
“Uh, fieldwork plans! For this summer. Right, Sarah?” I look over at her, hoping she’ll back me up on this. “You’re back from hiatus, and me and Riley are ready to get back to going on missions again.”
“Summer vacation isn’t for a few more weeks,” Sarah says, even though I thought she would have jumped at the chance to make fieldwork plans. She must really want to watch this stupid video. “And besides, you already said you were spending all your time with Kat.”
“Well, yeah, but maybe not all my time—”
“You said every second. You said you were going to set your phone to send out an automatic Do Not Disturb text anytime anyone tried to contact you this summer, because the two of you were going to be—”
“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Obviously that was before we decided to do fieldwork again.”
“It was this morning. It was only three hours ago. Do you want to see the email?”
“Ha ha ha, no. That won’t be necessary. And what I meant was that, um, that Kat’s joining our group, too!”
“Wait, I’m what?” Kat says.
“Really?!” Sarah says at the same time, sounding way more excited about it than Kat.
“Uh, yeah, so we should probably spend whatever time we have before we get kicked out of here going over the ground rules. Or maybe inventing some. Kat, tell Sarah your blood type.”
“I don’t know my blood type. And nice try, Damien, but we’re watching the video.”
“But you are joining the group, right?” Sarah asks.
“Yeah,” I tell Kat. “You don’t want your fieldwork skills to get rusty. Not everyone can come back from more than three months off and still be as good at it as we are.”
Riley grins at that, but then he says, “We could still probably use some practice.”
“You failed your fieldwork class,” Kat tells me.
“Gee, thanks. Way to rub it in.”
“So maybe you’re the one who needs me to help you with your fieldwork, not the other way around.”
“I failed on a technicality. I also saved your life. I mean, we all did.”
“I saved yours, too,” Kat points out.
“Okay, okay, you’re hired already. You can stop begging to join our group now.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I didn’t say I’d join.”
“You didn’t have to. That muscle in your cheek twitched that means you’re excited about something, and if you really didn’t want to do this, you would have said so by now.”
“Shut up. It did not.”
“It did. Face it, Kat, I know you too well.”
“And I know you too well. You’re not getting out of watching that video.”
“If I watch it, will you join our group?”
“If you’re good, then… then I’ll think about it.” But she’s smiling as she says it, and her cheek twitches again, and I know what her answer will be.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CITIZENS OF GOLDEN CITY
Badassa, V
Being a badass
Tasha “Explaitten” Turner, H
Explaining things
Jynx, V
Pyrokinesis
Captain Chaos, H
Makes people’s voices high and squeaky
Wynter, V
Can control cutlery with his mind
Accelerator Ray, H
Kinetic manipulation
Biblio, H
Can pull artifacts from books to use them. Unfortunately for every minute the item is held in this world, Biblio must interact and be in the world he pulled the item from, so since usually the most exciting and best items come from adventure or fantasy novels, those scenes are also the most dangerous
Kravix, V
Able to make multiple copies of himself and all gear he is wearing
Terra Firma, H
Heavily armed dragon-cyborg
Ion, H
Controls and manipulates electrons
Lamp, H
Glows
The Fangirl, H
No superpowers, just gadgets
The Shadow, V
Information manipulation
The Zapper, V
Can kill flies with the blink of one eye
Mighty Ebonstar, H
Badassery
JW, H
No power
Novastorm, V
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br /> Pyrotelekinesis
Badonkadonk, H
Levels her foes with a single clap
Pix, H
Superspeed
Alpha Dominus, V
Super strength
Astra, H
Healing light
The Clever One, H
The ability to put something clever here
SilensVigilo, H
Flight
Bookdragon, H
Hoarding ALL the books and protecting them
The Deaf Lemon, V
Can communicate with citrus fruit
Bibliotheca, H
Literary teleportation
Daimadoshi, H
Absorbs powers
The Professor, V
Can teach someone a superpower with the aid of a person with said superpower
Big Rig, H
Telekinesis
Oceanus, H
Able to manipulate and transform into water and water-like substances
Misspook, H
Time traveling trickster ghost. Low-level royalty, serving her Queen in the intelligence game, before passing away, with a skewed sense of right and wrong (perhaps an accidental villain in doing what she believes is right). Favorite course of action is to travel back in time and create a sort of butterfly effect to produce what she wants, when she wants
Arcade, V
The ability to play video games
Ponzi, V
Luck manipulation
Nature Woman, H
Able to communicate with, and control the actions of, animals
Sight, V
Laser vision
Xndria, V
Empathic manipulation
Techmage, V
Technology manipulation
Mr. Notorious, V
Evil genius
Mizumi, V
Controls water in all its states
Antifreeze, V
Complete immunity to brain freeze
Colby Holland, H
Creates an impenetrable shield around himself and one or two other people
Seraph, H
Pyrokinesis
Destructor, V
Super strength
Nagginator, V
Finely honed talent for ruining everyone’s good time of laying around, video-gaming and TV-watching 24 hours a day by butting in with ridiculous exclamations like, “We need to get something done around here!” or “Have you finished your homework/piano practice/chores?!” or “My living room carpet is not your personal garbage/laundry basket!!”
Zephyr, H
Aerokinesis
Sugar Devil, V
Convincing everyone to eat more sweets!
Wacky Woodsman, V
Tree control
The Naked Mole Rat tm, V
Invisibility
Captain Megaphone, H
Sonic boom ray
Kaz, H
Power nullifier
Crisco, V
Capable of deep frying anything with his mind
Secrets, V
Knowing the secrets of those around them
Pyro Hazards, V
Pyrokinesis
Obscure Tobin, V
Everyone recognizes her but can’t remember from where. Even if they’ve never met her in the first place. It comes in handy when a server doesn’t pay close attention to their customer and hands her food that was paid for. Since she seems so familiar
Gygax the Destroyer, V
Growing to a giant size and trampling things
The Leviathen Prince, V
Being super edgy all the time
[email protected], V
Stops time
Nayorth, H
Technopathy
Kesal Exuo, V
Technopath
Ghost Girl, H
Intangibility
Sumasuun, V
Can sleep anywhere
SuperGertjan, H
Super zijn
Mistress of Time, H
Stops time by snapping her fingers
Scantrontb, V
Teleportation
Xenocide, V
Electricity manipulation
Syncarida, V
Ability to make random objects look like spiders
The Whisper, V
The ability to control the density of matter
Moonsget, H
Shapeshifts into a wolf
Scapamouche, V
Phasing
The Stenographer, V
Supersonic hearing. Stenographs compromising conversations for blackmail
Dark Thea, H
Turning into any animal
Hot Dang Bangarang, H
Teleportation
Force, H
Gravity manipulation
Circe, V
Charmspeak
Silver Tongue, H
Omnilingual
SwordFire, H
Moves at high speed
Dark Banshee, H
Sonic scream
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHELSEA M. CAMPBELL grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains a lot. And then rains some more. She finished her first novel when she was twelve, sent it out, and promptly got rejected. Since then, she’s earned a degree in Latin and Ancient Greek, become an obsessive knitter and fiber artist, and started a collection of glass grapes.
Besides writing, studying ancient languages, and collecting useless objects, Chelsea is a pop-culture fangirl at heart and can often be found rewatching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Parks and Recreation, or dying a lot in Dark Souls. You can visit her online and sign up for her newsletter to get a free copy of Damien Locke’s Guide to Golden City at www.chelseamcampbell.com.
The Phobia of Renegade X Page 37