Reborn (Supervillain Rehabilitation Project Book 3)

by H. L. Burke

  “No, it’s not that.” Fade chose his words carefully. “You’re right. I was in the life just as deep as you were at one point, and I got out. Maybe that means I should cut you some slack, but if Prism’s father had gone easy on me, I wouldn’t have made it. So when I say I want to spar with you, there’s two reasons. First, I want to see if I have what it takes to beat you because if this goes wrong, I need to know that I’ll be able to bring you down before you hurt my family. More than that, though, I need to see what sort of fight you’re capable of, because this path is a fight. It’s a battle every step of the way, and if you don’t have what it takes to face me and take some hard hits, you won’t make it.”

  The frown melted from Wildfyre’s face to be replaced with a pensive look. “Nine it is.” He returned to his bedroom.

  As soon as the door shut behind Wildfyre, Fade allowed his shoulders to slump.

  Where’s the rewind button so I can take tonight back to rubbing Lucia’s feet and planning shower escapades?

  Uncertain he could sleep any time soon, he took it upon himself to do a quick circuit of the floor, checking for anything out of place. All seemed quiet.

  Finally deciding he was better off seeing to his wife than aimlessly pacing the halls of HQ, he entered his room and stopped short. Prism lay on their bed, eyes closed, her pillow squeezed to her chest. In spite of the warm night, she’d changed into a familiar sweatshirt, the one with the EMT logo over the heart that had once belonged to her brother. His heart twisted.

  There are some things I can’t fix. Damn, I hate this.

  He sat beside her on the bed and rested his hand on her cheek. She didn’t stir, either already asleep or just preferring to pretend to be. Kissing her cheek he lay down and draped one arm over her waist. Maybe he couldn’t stop her from hurting, but he could be there.

  Being there is half the battle.

  Chapter Five

  When Fade woke the next morning, Prism was already gone.

  He checked his phone. Almost eight thirty. He didn’t have a lot of time before his appointment with Wildfyre, and he needed to be sure Lucia was all right first. Thankfully, she was a creature of habit.

  After brushing his teeth, he jogged down to the break room where the team usually had breakfast. As he’d suspected, Prism was there, nursing a presumably decaf coffee which wasn’t doing much for the dark circles under her eyes. She looked up at him and gave a half-hearted smile.

  He smiled back and poured his own coffee from the old fashioned, multi-cup coffee pot rather than her fancy single use one.

  “You feeling any better?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I managed to get a little more sleep last night, so physically I’m all right. Emotionally? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling like someone dropped a load of bricks on my soul.”

  He sat beside her and placed his hand on top of hers. “You want to talk about it?”

  “I guess. I just wish I knew what was going on.” She massaged her forehead. “I woke up at six this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I decided not to waste the time, so I looked into what Wildfyre said, about the sable he encountered with the hallucination powers. I figured those were unique enough abilities that DOSA might have records.”

  “And?” Fade took a sip, gazing at her over the rim of his mug.

  “They did. His name is Jack the Tripper of all things.” She rolled her eyes. “Some people shouldn’t be allowed to pick their own sable handles.”

  He chuckled then immediately sobered. “So do you think he’s our guy?”

  “No. According to DOSA, he’s been in custody for over a year. I sent an email to the warden of the holding facility he’s supposedly kept at, but if he’d escaped, it would’ve been news.” Her shoulders sank. “I knew it wasn’t him anyway. It didn’t feel like a hallucination. It’s ... hard to explain. I guess there’s a remote possibility that someone else has the same powers and is out there, but mind-based powers are unusual. When he was alive, Aiden was the only known mind reader on either side of the law, at least since my dad. DOSA actually made attempts to activate the genes in other subjects via lab intervention, and my father was the only one it ‘took’ with. I guess it’s specific to something in my family’s genetic makeup. There are a handful of sables with telekinetic or persuasion abilities, but the ability to fully enter another person’s head and mess with them? It’s super rare. We always speculated that was why so few sables had a natural defense against Aiden’s powers. You were the only sable he ever met who could deflect his attacks—not that it helped him much in the end.” Her voice dropped to a murmur.

  He squeezed her wrist. “There might be another explanation. I know it feels like a big coincidence, but dreams are weird. Is it possible something happened during the day that had you and Tanvi thinking about Aiden and you coincidentally dreamed about him at the same time?”

  “Possible? Sure, in a one in a million chance sort of way.” She stirred her coffee. “I guess maybe slightly more likely than that an unknown villain with long range telepathic powers randomly deciding to give me a nightmare about my dead brother for no real reason—which is what really bothers me. Even assuming that this was some sort of villain attack instead of an extremely coincidental nightmare, what purpose does it serve?”

  “Potentially? To throw you off balance?”

  Seems to have worked pretty well, Fade thought, though he didn’t dare voice it.

  She laughed bitterly. “I’m not important enough for anyone to spend that amount of effort messing with me.”

  He smiled wryly. “Just important enough that you were able to turn down a committee seat.”

  “You turned down a committee seat?” Both Prism and Fade recoiled as Wildfyre walked into the kitchen. Fade’s jaw clenched. He considered barking at the new recruit about knocking, but in fairness they were in a shared area.

  “It’s not public knowledge, but yes, Talon offered me the committee seat Cosmic vacated,” Prism said. “Don’t say anything about it, though.”

  “My lips are sealed.” Wildfyre’s focus switched to Fade. “It’s almost nine, and I still don’t know where our sparring session is taking place. I asked Tanvi and she thought you probably meant the gym, but if so, I have to warn you, my powers aren’t exactly interior friendly.” He flexed his fingers which glowed at the tips.

  Prism blinked. “You and Fade are sparring?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Fade stood. “We set it up after you went to bed last night.” He cast Wildfyre a glance he hoped said, “Shut up” clearly enough. “Meet me out front. I have a place in mind.”

  Wildfyre peered from Fade to Prism and back again before exiting the break room.

  Prism considered her husband. “What are you up to?”

  “Training exercises have always been part of our program.” He dumped the last of his coffee into the sink.

  “Yes, but you’ve never been the one to set them up.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you have an issue with Wildfyre I need to know about?”

  “Not exactly.” He put his cup in the dishwasher. “I don’t know the guy. For all I know, he could be completely sincere in his desire to go straight. However, it’s awful convenient how he just turned himself in.”

  “He wants to change. He’s had a lot of upheaval in his life in the last year, and he’s reaching out for meaning and purpose.” She stood and put her hand on his chest. “You of all people should understand that.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust him. Don’t worry. I’m not going to run the guy out of here. I want to figure out what he’s up to and also how to take him down if it goes pear shaped, is all.”

  Prism’s lips quirked in a sad smile. “You know you are kind of acting like Aiden acted when you joined the team.”

  A pang of grief cut through Fade. “As I’ve said before, Aiden wasn’t wrong to not trust me immediately. He was looking out for you, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do, Luce.”


  “I know,” she whispered. Her hand slid up to his cheek before she caressed his ear. “Don’t be too hard on Wildfyre, though. His reasons for joining us were very personal, so I didn’t share them with the team, but I do believe he’s trying to change. Just like I believed you were capable of being a hero in spite of everything everyone said about you.”

  “I’ll be good.” He bent down and kissed her lips before a sly smile spread across his face. “Well, as good as a villain can be.”

  She gave an exaggerated sigh. “Ah, yes, you evil old villain, you.” She released him. “If you’re serious about sparring with Wildfyre, you’re going to need the remote that controls his anklet. He won’t be much of a challenge with the disruptor on. Follow me.” She led him upstairs to their room and brought out a lockbox from the bedside table. After entering a keycode, she popped the lid open and withdrew the device. “I kind of wish I could come watch. Sounds like this will be a flashy fight, but I need to finish the paperwork for his plea deal.” As she handed the remote to Fade, her face contorted, and she drew back. “Look, like I said, I trust Wildfyre and really believe that he’s in this for the right reasons, but ... you and him, alone, with him having full access to his powers—” She swallowed. “If his plan is to do damage to our team then escape, this is providing him ample opportunity. Be careful.”

  He laughed. “You’re worried about me? That’s kind of sweet.”

  “I would prefer not to raise this baby as a single mother, is all.” She clicked her tongue at him. “I researched Wildfyre’s powers after he asked to join the team. He’s a super powerful sable. Like he does have a reputation for avoiding casualties, but even so he once combusted a government office building—on a holiday weekend after setting off the fire alarms to make doubly sure it was empty, but literally the whole thing went up in flames like it were made of paper.” She shuddered. “He’s not something you want to take lightly.”

  “First off, I also researched his powers when he joined, and yeah, he’s impressive, but come on, Luce.” Accessing his powers, Fade stepped right through her then solidified, turned, and pulled her into an embrace. “You can’t burn what you can’t touch,” he breathed into her ear.

  She tsked him. “Okay, Mr. Invulnerable Tough Guy. Have fun showing off to the newbie.”

  Fade hurried downstairs and found Wildfyre leaning against the reception desk in the lobby. Fade eyed the sable’s flashy red jacket.

  “You really going to keep wearing that?” he asked.

  Wildfyre pushed off the desk and straightened his jacket. “If we’re going to train, I kind of have to.” He tugged at the close fitting black shirt he wore beneath it. “My powers don’t extend to my clothing, so I had to get all this specially engineered to be able to withstand the heat I can put out. I’m honestly not even sure what the polymer the guy used is, and he only works with villains, not DOSA. Pay issues. He’s not cheap.”

  “Huh. I guess that makes sense for the shirt and pants, but that jacket is kind of ridiculous.”

  Wildfyre stood a little straighter. “I like it. Besides, not all of us want to sport the ‘look at me I’m a cynical badass who’s too cool to wear a uniform’ look. Some of us like to play a little with the branding.”

  “Suit yourself. Now about where we do this, how much control do you have over your powers?”

  Wildfyre let out a long breath. “Enough, generally speaking. I can expel heat, but I can also draw it back in, so if I catch something on fire, I can put it out just as fast. However, I can’t ‘unburn’ things, if that makes sense. With how dry things are in this state, I don’t want to risk me losing concentration for a minute and having my name take on a very literal meaning.”

  “Got it. There’s a beach near here the Marines use to practice amphibious landings. I’ll make a call and see if we can use it today. Should be fine as long as the Corp isn’t running any exercises.” Fade stepped around the reception desk and looked beneath it for some of the supplies the team used on training missions. He found what he was looking for, a beat up duffle bag marked ‘MacGuffin,’ and returned to Wildfyre.

  “What’s that?” Wildfyre gestured towards the bag.

  “Show you when we get there. Come on. It’s a bit of a drive, and I want to be home by lunch.”

  Sometime later, Fade and Wildfyre strode down a path lined with tall, sharp-edged beach grass towards the foam-capped waves of the Pacific Ocean. As soon as they were in the center of the sand, well away from anything flammable, Fade set down the duffle bag and took in the area.

  “This look all right to you?” he asked.

  Wildfyre did a slow turn. “Good as it’s going to get. I’m not going to be able to do much with this on, though.” He stuck out his leg, revealing the disruptor anklet.

  “Got it.” Fade reached into his pocket and clicked the button on the remote. The anklet fell from Wildfyre’s leg onto the sand.

  Wildfyre raised one hand above his head and sent out a burst of flame. The air heated around him.

  “Ah, feels good to be whole again.” He shot off a few more random flames then focused on Fade. “How does this work, though? Villains don’t really do training exercises. Target casing. Dry runs for actual missions, sure, but practice fights? Not really. How do we do this without some sort of objective? Are we just going to play tag?”

  “That’s where this comes in—and don’t blame me for the design, I didn’t pick it.” Fade set the duffle bag on the sand, unzipped it, and pulled out a silver pineapple decorated with rhinestones.

  “What the—” Wildfyre’s gaze snapped from the gaudy fake fruit to Fade and back again. “You’re messing with me.”

  “Nope. This thing has been with the team longer than I have, believe it or not.” Fade turned it in his hands. Several of the rhinestone settings were now empty, and scratches and dents marred its surface. “We don’t use it for every training exercise, of course. We do one-on-one sparring bouts, capture/incapacitate runs, and sometimes simulated rescue or bomb defusal runs, but we’ve found a lot of our actual missions involve some sort of high-tech gadget or secret files on a thumb drive that we have to capture and transport while under fire, you know, a MacGuffin.” He indicated the writing on the duffle bag. “So the team uses this as our all purpose ‘shiny object that we must acquire, protect, and deliver.’ We’ll put it somewhere and try to stop the opposing team from capturing it and delivering it to an agreed upon drop point—” He pointed up the beach. “Let’s say that stand of cactus.”

  “So we’re essentially playing capture the flag?” Wildfyre frowned.

  “Sure, if that’s how you want to look at it.” Fade tucked the disruptor anklet into his pocket and kicked the empty duffle bag to the side.

  “Huh, somehow I expected DOSA sables to take this heroing business a little more seriously,” Wildfyre commented.

  Fade shot him a skeptical look. “Have you met my team?”

  Wildfyre’s posture loosened, and he laughed quietly. “Point taken. So are we just going to go for it?”

  “Yep.” Fade let the pineapple fly football style.

  Wildfyre whistled as it crashed into the sand down the beach. “Nice arm. So, am I the one trying to get it to the cactus or the one trying to stop you from getting it to the cactus?”

  “Try and stop me.” Fade smirked. “Bonus points if you can take your opponent down—non-lethally of course.” His powers shimmered to the surface before he sprinted away, in the direction of the pineapple MacGuffin.

  A wall of fire raced before him. Fade burst through it, feeling a light sensation of heat but no pain. Missiles of pure flame hit the beach around him. Sand burst from the ground, spraying into his face. The super-heated sand passed through his ghosted body. Smoke flavored the air he breathed. He increased his pace. While Fade had no specific speed or strength abilities, like most sables he was both a little faster and a little stronger than non-sables—perhaps with the exception of Olympian types.

  He skidded
to a halt next to the pineapple. He snatched it to his chest and spun around.

  Down the beach Wildfyre threw his hands towards the ground. Great bursts of fire exploded from him. A wave of hot air sent him flying forward, arms back, head down, rocketing towards Fade.

  Fade dodged and rolled to the side. Wildfyre landed in a crouch beside him, his hand swiping through Fade’s body.

  “Neat trick, but you missed,” Fade shouted. Leaping to his feet, he took off towards the designated goal posts.

  Flames whooshed around him. Even in a full fade, the temperature singed his skin and forced his eyes shut. He swerved to the side, towards the ocean.

  A slap of cold water crashed through him bringing with it a tang of salt he could taste in his skin. He slid into knee-deep water. Wildfyre flew to land before him in another explosion of flame. The water hissed, bubbled, and steamed.

  Fade snarled in pain. Accessing the full extent of his powers, he lightened himself to where he could hover a few feet above the ground. White sheets of steam surrounded him, blinding him.

  Okay, enough games. I’ve got to stop playing and just take this guy down.

  From his research, he knew that while Wildfyre’s powers were impressive offensively, he didn’t have any real defensive abilities. Comparatively, Fade’s fighting style was all defense—but Fade had one major advantage over Wildfyre, an advantage of about a foot in height and easily 75 pounds. He’d have to drop his fade to take the shot, but if he moved fast enough and hit hard enough, it wouldn’t be a problem.

  First to find him, though.

  Tucking the MacGuffin under one arm, he dropped into the water long enough to push off the bottom. He vaulted over the waves and crashed on the beach beyond the steam cover. Fire blasted towards him, but the shots were wild.

  The steam blinds him just as much as it blinds me.

  He tracked the flame bursts. They all radiated from a single point in the haze. Not moving.