by Simon Archer
No way in hell was I about to be swallowed by a building, though, and I dug deep, letting the beast surge upward through me. I put on a burst of speed that boosted Niji and me to the edge of the building. I leapt out over the street just as the front of the building started to cave in on itself.
As we plummeted to the ground, I turned to keep Niji from taking the brunt of the fall. I could handle it between the wolf’s toughness and my regenerative powers, but I wasn’t sure about Niji. Suddenly, he turned me towards him in mid-air, and I was now looking at my duplicate. He then leapt from my arms and gracefully fell beside me before he landed like a cat on all fours, with not so much as a scratch on him. Despite my surprise, I managed to land on my feet, but I was definitely jostled by the shock of abruptly stopping.
“If you land on all fours, you have more ways to distribute the shock absorption, so it’s not as stunning when you land and not nearly as painful,” he explained, still wearing my beast’s face.
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes, though I would keep that information in the back of my mind. It was useful, after all. “What are we going to do about Malik?”
A surge of heat blasted us in the face, and a giant stream of fire shot up into the sky. I saw Inferno go flying through the intersection one street over and land hard on his back, even bouncing a few times before he came to a stop in the middle of the road. Cops were still flooding in from all sides to try to take down Malik, but he seemed to have an effortless sense of his surroundings. I supposed that came with years of being caught and escaping again, but at the same time, there had to be a way to take him down, as he had been caught so many times. Unlike the joke of a villain that Nick and Kristen had described, Malik knew what he was doing.
“We can’t just sit here,” I snarled as I watched Malik make easy work of the cops. He seemed to know their every move and easily avoided them. It wasn’t just skill, he seemed to be reacting as if someone were telling him what was coming. “Niji, go look for something synthetic to apprehend him with. I’ll be back.”
With that, I started to lope towards Malik, but Niji called after me, a strange thing as it was in my own voice,
“Where are you going?” Concern was plain in his words. When I turned back around, Niji had already started to follow after me.
I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder. “You’re gonna be fine. Keep my face as a disguise and figure something out.”
Niji rolled his eyes, but I could see a glint in his eyes, the start of a plan in his head. He nodded, and I decided to check out my hunch, that Malik had a lookout. Between all the fire, destruction, and a high position, it would be hard to sniff an accomplice out, but the rooftops were the most likely position so they could see the entire playing field. More than that, there had to be something else. They had to have a way of knowing what the cops would throw at them next. A set of binoculars and a police scanner together would do the job. With all of the action going on, it would have been easy enough to swipe one from one of the vehicles pulled off to the side of the road, but one would have needed the access code.
I looked up from the street, trying to see if anything looked particularly out of place. I wasn’t in a position that I could afford to check every single rooftop in the district. If I did that, I would be too late with the way Inferno and Malik were going at it. The collateral damage was already starting to get out of hand, and if Malik pressed Inferno enough, I wouldn’t be surprised if he unleashed his full hellfire and wiped out the entire block.
“Damn it… come on. Show yourself,” I growled to myself. I looked frantically around, probably looking like some kind of lost moron, but then I saw it. It was faint, and I almost wasn’t sure if I had imagined it, but there was a flicker of light atop one of the skyscrapers across the street. Was that supposed to be there?
It wasn’t uncommon for taller buildings to have lights on top of them for air travelers to tell that they were there and not crash into their antennae, but this was different, though. I recognized it, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I’d seen something like it before.
Whatever it was, I trusted my instincts, that just wasn’t supposed to be there. I bolted across the street once again and began my monstrous ascent to the top of the skyscraper. I felt like I was in some kind of video game. How many buildings could I climb or destroy in three minutes? Maybe there was a game like that?
My claws punctured the glass windows, and I winced as the glass screeched and stabbed me, but I bit back the pain. I’d suffered far worse, and I would make it to the top and be the hero that the people needed tonight.
I made it to the roof, but by the time I had gotten there, all that remained was what looked like an antique video surveillance device that would have come from my grandfather’s time that showed nothing but static on the screen, a discarded set of headphones, and a note. My stomach dropped a little as I picked up the crisp, unassuming paper.
He’ll be back, it read, and it was signed with an upside-down triangle with a closed fist punching through it.
What in the fresh hell was that supposed to mean?
I picked up the headphones and listened, not surprised that it was tapped into the direct line from the police dispatcher to all the units around the city. Whoever was up here knew everything that was going on from the time Malik broke out and started causing havoc to the time I showed up here. They must have been giving him a play-by-play as well as the location of everyone they could see from up here.
I dropped the headphones and looked around the roof, searching for any other clues that might lead me to more answers or traces that they could still be here. Nothing corresponded to the flash that I saw, but whatever it was had to do with how the spotter escaped so quickly. Then I relied on my most powerful sense in my full werewolf shape, my nose… and that’s when it hit me.
The headset, the video gear, everything up here, was doused with a combination of the worst, most vile scents you could put before a canine nose. Everything from concentrated capsaicin to intense vinegar to hyper-intensified citrus burned through my nose and down my throat, but it was far worse than any natural source of those scents. No, I thought as I tried not to throw up, this was specially formulated to defeat the senses of someone like me, or even be used as a weapon.
And that’s when it occurred to me that this could very well have been a trap. If that were the case, I’d have been screwed. Inferno wasn’t in a position to help, and Niji was searching for a way to apprehend Malik. I would be on my own.
But it wasn’t, and I needed to focus. Trying to close down my nose and choke back my bile, I peeked over the side of the building at the sound of yelling on the streets. Thank God, the fighting had stopped, and Niji, back to his own form, had Malik face down on the ground, his knee in his back as he was wrapping him up with what looked to be shredded tires and duct tape. The geomancer was out like a light, and it was clear to me that without someone feeding the villain information, he hadn’t caught Niji coming. The Brand student had cold-cocked him from surprise.
“I’ll be damned.” I chuckled to myself. Note in hand, I descended the building again and ran over to the intersection where it was clear Inferno was in rough shape. Maybe he really meant his promise to Nick, because he hadn’t summoned his power armor, and while I was sure his costume was protective, it wasn’t enough to stop shards of concrete from piercing his suit. The medics were looking over him, but he was having none of it.
“I’m fine, guys,” he groused as he had one hand clamped around a bleeding gash in his shoulder. “All good, fit as a fiddle, indestructible badass here, am I right?”
“Oh, give it a rest, old man,” I growled. “Let the people do their jobs.”
To my surprise, he obeyed, though I doubted it was because I was the one who said it. My guess was that he thought I would tell Nick if he was being an ass. I wondered what it was like to be whipped by his own kid?
I passed the note off to one of the officers and told her what I’d
seen on the roof. She assured me they would check it out, and with that, I walked over to where Niji had Malik pinned to the ground.
“Comfy?” I asked teasingly.
Niji snorted. “This is not my style. I don’t top.”
I laughed at that and crossed my arms. “You did a good job tonight.”
“I feel… good,” Niji replied slowly. “Maybe the Young Lord was onto something after all. Saving people instead of eviscerating the bad guy was… neat.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and offered him a small smile. “He’s usually right about a lot of things, but if you ever tell him that I said that, I’ll slice you to pieces.”
“Deal,” Niji grunted as he struggled with the tedious process of wrapping Malik up. Niji was wiry and strong for his size, but Malik was a big, beefy dude.
“Let me help you with that,” I offered, and I easily flipped the groggy villain with one easy nudge of my bestial foot. That’s when I noticed that his feet were bare, which in hindsight was likely the source of his power. He had to feel whatever material he was about to manipulate to channel it into a proper attack, so the fewer clothes, the better. It also explained why Niji was so thorough in wrapping him up in synthetic material.
Too bad we hadn’t fought him near a shitty clothes store. We could have just smothered him in cheap polyester suits.
What caught my eye most of all was the tattoo on the bottom of his heel. I knelt low and focused on it to make sure I was seeing it right. Sure enough, there was that symbol that was drawn on the bottom of the note I’d given the officer. Now that I thought of it, hadn’t Nick described something like this as well? And Kara, too?
I swallowed thickly. Whatever was going on was much bigger than we thought. This was only the beginning.
19
Sitting at breakfast the next morning with the knowledge that Matt knew I’d spent the night with his twin sister was more awkward than I had imagined it being. I expected him to be angry, to pick me up by the front of my uniform and smash my face into the wall so hard I become one with the interior. At the very least, I expected him to yell, to tell me to keep my mitts off his sister.
What I was met with, however, was a relatively happy face, as happy as Matt really got anyway, and an unusually chipper greeting as he met the girls and me in the dining hall. Was he plotting something? He probably was. I’d be ready for it, though.
Kara and Kristen chatted casually as they normally did. I wondered if that would change once Andie and Aylin returned, but now that Kristen was my Aurora, I felt certain that they would all come to love one another as well. We were all so close already after all we’d been through together.
I myself was more quiet than usual, focused on observing Matt, seeing if he exhibited any strange behavior. The only thing that was worth making any note of was the occasional glances he spared for… someone across the room. I couldn’t make out who it was, but Matt would stare, smile a little, and then go back to eating his sausage like nothing ever happened.
Finally, after a good ten minutes of agonizing silence from him, he turned to me with a hard look in his eyes. Our gazes met with an intensity that nearly knocked the wind out of me. I’d seen many sides of Matthew Barbur, as well as the many faces his emotions came with, but this one was entirely new to me.
The girls were not oblivious to this sudden shift in tone, and Kristen was the first to question him as concern washed over her face.
“Matt? What is it?”
He sighed and looked from her to me, then to Kara and back to me again. As he put his fork down, he propped his elbows on the table to rest his chin upon his closed fist.
“I want to go down to the prison,” he muttered quietly.
“Why?” Kara asked as she leaned closer. “This isn’t still about Brad, Oliver, whatever his real name is, is it? Because that guy in there is just a patsy, and--”
“What?” Matt visibly flinched at the suggestion and shook his head vehemently. “No, it has nothing to do with that disgusting slime.”
“Then what is it?” I cut in, and I also leaned closer to keep this conversation between us. I was curious as to what had Matt this shaken. “Did you find something on your ride-along last night?”
Matt nodded. “The tattoo you saw on that Diamond guy, it was on the bottom of Malik’s foot.”
“Malik?” Kristen’s eyes widened a little. “The geomancer that’s infamous for breaking out of prison?”
“Am I the only one who didn’t know that?” Matt asked with exasperation, and we all nodded. I’d heard my father mention him on a few occasions, though it was mostly along the lines of ‘Why can’t he just be on my side?’ accompanied with a pout and some dramatic sigh.
“That means it’s the same tattoo that Rose has,” Kara figured aloud as she put the pieces together. “But what are you hoping to get out of visiting them?”
“Answers,” Matt replied simply. “If all of us apprehended our villains, then that means they’re all in prison right now at the same time. If we can interrogate them--”
“I’m stopping you right there,” Kristen interjected. “The last time you tried to get answers from a prisoner, he tried to psych you out and made you get violent.”
“She has a point,” I agreed. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Look,” Matt dropped his voice and leaned even further over the table, “Triton and the others are just sitting on this. As the heroes who apprehended them, we have the right to question them.”
“I don’t think so,” Kara debunked. “They’re just waiting for the right time. Maybe they know something that we don’t?”
“Kara’s right,” Kristen told him, but she was quick to add, “but you aren’t wrong either, Matt. Let’s talk to Triton and see if he knows anything more about it than we do, and we can go from there.”
Matt hesitated but sighed as he conceded. “Fine.”
We collectively sat back in our seats as we settled on the terms and finished our breakfasts in silence. I kept going over the facts in my head, but there wasn’t much to go on. Diamond, Dark Rose, and Malik were connected, that much we knew. I also knew but hadn’t yet divulged to anyone else, that there was another person in play with the same symbol. Daniel Phillips, the man that murdered Margo’s parents, somehow fit into all of this, but where?
I took out my phone and started texting rapidly.
“What’s up?” Kara asked as she leaned over to see what I was doing.
“Filling Eric in and giving him all of the details,” I told her as my thumbs clicked the touchscreen fervently. “If anyone knows the history of that symbol and can find the connection between these villains, it’s him.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Matt commented between bites of his waffle as he continued to stare off into space. “He is pretty nerdy.”
“Hopefully that nerdiness will pay off,” I replied as I sent the message.
I knew that classes started early on Inferno Island from our previous conversations, so I didn’t expect an answer right away. Today, however, our first class wasn’t until later in the morning, so it would be a good time to talk to Triton and the other heroes. Maybe it really wasn’t any of our business, but we had to try. Something bigger was going on, and they wouldn’t be able to keep it hidden much longer. If there was any way we could help, it was time that we stepped up.
The breakfast bell had come and gone, and most of the students had filed off to their first class of the day. Only a small handful of us remained, and they didn’t pay us much mind as we exited the dining hall together and made our way to Triton’s office. I knocked on the door, and when City Master answered, I knew something was up, a feeling only enhanced by the fact Judgment was there as well.
“Mr. Gateon,” City Master greeted, “Miss Johnson, Miss Barbur, Mr. Barbur, I had a feeling we would be seeing you today.”
The four of us looked between each other then back to him.
“You did, sir?�
� I asked cautiously. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but I had a feeling they were on the same page as we were, that there was something deeper connecting our three villains.
“Come in.” Triton stood from his seat behind a long, beechwood desk. It might have been a little out of style, at least in my opinion, but it somehow complimented Triton’s personality. “Make yourselves comfortable.”
One by one we filed in. Judgment stood from the coral colored leather chair he had been sitting in and offered it to Kristen in a kind gesture, which she took hesitantly. Matt chose to stand behind her next to Judgment, while Kara and I took the other two seats in front of Triton’s desk.
“Now, to what do we owe this visit?” Triton asked once we were settled in our chairs. His voice was as chipper as ever, and there was no indication that there was anything out of the ordinary going on. He treated us as though it were any other day, and we had stopped by for tea and biscuits.
After a moment of reluctant silence, Kara was the one to speak up.
“Sir, we’re concerned that we’re facing a danger that is far greater than just a few petty thefts and poor attempts to cause mayhem,” she began.
Triton smiled and folded his hands atop his desk, wringing them lightly. “I see. What is it that you’ve discovered?”
“The mark of the Triple Triad,” I chimed in with the most obvious connection. “It’s been on almost every villain the four of us have been up against for the entire semester.”
“You know the name of the mark?” Judgment inquired cooly and shot me a narrowed gaze. “How might you have come about that?”
“Easy, Efraim,” City Master interjected. “I’m sure there is a completely innocent reason for this revelation.”
“Um, there is,” I confirmed as I twisted in my chair to look between them. “I did an interview with Margo Wicker of ALX22. Her parents were murdered by someone with the same tattoo.”