Arch Rivals (Super Hero Academy Book 2)

by Simon Archer

  I shrugged, then rubbed Andie’s shoulder again in comfort. Without saying anything, I led her away from the counter and back outside. I had considered possibly eating at the Palace, but knowing he’d be watching had made me sick to my stomach, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Kara burst through the door carrying two bags in either hand. The remote was probably in her pocket, now.

  “Well, that was fun.” Her smile was a bit more persistent than ours, and she looked chipper to have food. “He’s completely and utterly fascinated by how lucky you are, Nick.”

  “I mean… same, to be honest.”

  Kara laughed, and instead of kissing me, she darted in to kiss Andie on the cheek. “I’m going to take good care of you,” she whispered. “Assuming Nick allows it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” No, I don’t want to watch the two beautiful women in my life enjoy each other’s company, said no man ever. I rubbed Andie’s shoulder, and she nuzzled my neck. “Sounds like a good time to me.”

  Once we were back at the apartment, I immediately fished through the bags for my burger and began to eat it rather enthusiastically. Apparently, this did no favors to Andie, who started squirming again in frustration. Kara led her into the bedroom, and my burger stayed behind, forgotten as the two of them locked eyes.

  One set blue, the other brown. They were both athletic women, curvy in all the right places but muscular too. Andie’s definition was a bit more subtle than Kara’s, and I suspected that was due to the nature of her elasticity powers. Kara was quite muscular by contrast. To the point of distracting from her beauty, but enough that when she took off her shirt, one had to admire the muscle in her arms and legs.

  Knowing her morality to be a weakness in the group, Kara went through much of the same training I had to make up for it. The last few months had been largely dedicated to various combat principles and techniques, as well as advanced cardio workouts. I still had an edge on her for strength, but Kara nearly had me beat for speed at this point.

  Strangely, we were probably some of the more deadly aspects of the group now, because we both knew how to kill someone efficiently unarmed and unpowered. Not that Kara would ever stay unarmed for long. While she couldn’t create matter out of thin air, get her a cell phone, and she’d turn it into a gun all the same. It wasn’t quite the flair of one of Eric’s impressive lightning attacks, but a gun was a gun all the same. They never lacked for deadliness.

  Kara crawled over Andie’s body with a sinister expression, and then she slowly and methodically began to remove her clothes. Once Andie’s breasts were free, Kara dipped down to suck and nibble them in earnest. Andie whined, her hands grabbing desperately at the sheets. A moment later, they were in Kara’s hair. Kara dipped tower, freed Andie from her pants, and then began to torment her with a tongue around the egg vibrator.

  To say that it was incredibly hot was an understatement. It was clear Kara turned on the vibrator when Andie gasped in shock. I settled down beside her head and pulled it into my lap. Combing through Andie’s hair, I whispered, “I love you.”

  She tried to answer, but all that came out was gibberish.

  “You can come when you like, you know. I was only kidding about making you beg.”

  Gibberish answered me again, and then she whined, low and desperate. Kara turned the vibrator all the way up, and then nibbled at her like Andie was a delicious cookie she wanted to savor.

  “C’mon, Andie,” I encouraged with a soft smile. “You can do it.”

  “I-I--”

  I settled my hands at either side of her face, thumbs caressing her cheeks.

  “Do it,” I ordered quietly.

  She did with a scream. Her back arched into a pretty bow, and she shuddered around Kara’s tongue, utterly helpless to refuse. Kara encouraged every last bit of climax and didn’t relent until Andie was boneless in the sheets.

  When she produced the pink egg, she held it like a trophy and grinned at me. “That was nice. I enjoyed that.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I enjoyed that too.”

  I kissed her, tasting Andie, and then kissed Andie in turn. The three of us ended up snuggling after that, and I pressed my face into Andie’s neck in a reversed image of before. “I love you,” I repeated for the third time that night. “I love you both. You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  They chuckled and hugged me tightly. “You keep saying like we’ll forget about it,” Andie observed. “Not gonna happen.”

  “Yeah,” Kara yawned, resting her head on my back shoulder. “Hell would freeze over first.”

  “Well, I love you,” I repeated. “Can’t help it. It feels good to say.”

  “I love you too,” they both said in unison. Then they giggled and kissed each other.

  8

  The first day of the World’s Finest had finally arrived, and we were all packed before the massive gate that would take us from the locker room area onto the center stage of Alexandria’s Orion Arena. Several large monitors on the wall showed the live camera feed for the event as it was introduced to nations all over the world. Students from every race, size, and creed were gathered around the monitors, chittering excitedly in many different languages.

  The Orion Arena was a tremendous feat of engineering and one of the largest of its kind in the entire world. It could house over a hundred fifty thousand people, and it was currently covered by a tremendous glistening faint blue forcefield that created a dome over its current residents. Seated not far outside the city limits, it was a shining beacon that shone clear on the horizon whenever it was active.

  The entire arena was egg-shaped and bathed in various shades of blue light. Alexandria’s favorite color used to be red, but after my father’s fall, they’d taken on Triton’s example in the hope of a better symbol. If patterns of the past were anything to go by, the opening ceremony was going to involve some sort of water spectacle in his honor.

  Eric, Andie, and Kara had gotten lost in the swirling mass of students. Aylin stayed close to me, fascination plain on her face as she gazed upon the foreign students, her eyes wide and glistening with a near-magical quality.

  “Starlight, your people come in many different colors?” She paused and listened to the others speak. “And languages?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, smiling gently. “You didn’t know?”

  She shook her head and glanced down at her pretty violet hand. The patterns that wrapped around it glowed the pale white they always did.

  “We sometimes glow different colors… and our patterns always differ… but my people do not have such variation. Not like yours.” She gestured towards some darker-skinned students currently enthralled with the fireworks going on outside. “Are they very different from you?”

  The innocence in that question gave me pause. If only she knew the history behind it.

  “No,” I said after a moment. “We’re all human, really. What differences we do have come down to our cultures. You’re saying your people only have one of those?”

  “We do not separate into nations and city-states like you do.” She sighed and glanced out over the clustered students again. “Our kingdom ruled the entirety of New Sahana. It always has, I believe.”

  “That must be convenient,” I said without thinking.

  “What?” She lifted a dark brow at that and looked troubled. “Why would you say so?”

  I’d forgotten that she’d fled her world due to the war that had taken it completely. I didn’t know the details, as she’d yet to share them, but I suspected she’d left behind a lot of tragedy. She had to have if she was so willing to traverse the galaxy just to run from her people.

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t think.”

  Aylin’s expression softened. “It is alright. Please explain.”

  “Well…” I shrugged uncomfortably and gestured towards the monitors, where people from all over the world were screaming in the stands, excited for the World’s Finest to start.
“One nation would make achieving peace a lot easier, wouldn’t it? We’ve been at war for so long that the ceasefire and a promise of peace has everyone on edge.”

  “My people are at war too, Starlight,” Aylin explained, her eyes downcast. “They were fighting when I was born, they were fighting when I left, and they will be fighting if I ever choose to return.”

  It was such a jaded view of her home, and I frowned in sympathy. I knew what it was like to be so determined that war would be all you ever knew. Still, even I had moments of reprieve.

  I closed the distance between us and took Aylin’s hand gently. I looked deep into those glowing white eyes and wondered what it would take to make them happy. Truly happy. There were moments of joy to be certain, but sadness seemed to linger in her. Her upbringing had left behind a vicious mark.

  That pain was something I was all too familiar with… which meant that I might be one of the few people who understood and could help.

  “You deserve a home just like anyone else,” I whispered. “If your people couldn’t give it to you, we’ll do everything we can to give you a better home here.”

  Aylin’s eyes glistened with emotion, and she froze in place. Although we were good friends who’d saved the city together, she couldn’t seem to process what I’d said. She looked down at the floor, and I gently took her chin. I encouraged her to look into my eyes again.

  “Hey.” I smiled. “It’s going to be alright.” Deciding to change the subject, I gestured at the monitors again. “Does your home do competitions like this?”

  Her cheeks colored a gentle shade of violet, and she nodded slowly. “Oh, yes, there are many. My favorite is… It’s a flying tournament that circles the entire world. Not everyone who competes finishes the course, but even competing is considered an honor. I… I always wanted to try it.”

  “Oh?” The mental image of a thousand floating Aylins racing around the globe was a pretty one. Her powers didn’t seem to be limited in duration like mine, but she did suffer exhaustion just like anyone else. I wasn’t sure how big her planet was compared to ours. In any case, that must have been quite the race to witness.

  “I wasn’t able to,” she said. “Not before…” Her attention drifted off into some distant memory. Then she shook her head, and dark bangs spilled in front of her eyes. “Re--regardless, this will be the first time I’ve ever done something on this scale.”

  “Good.” I gently combed her bangs back over the shell of her ear and smiled. “That makes two of us.”

  Gemma emerged from the entrance into the arena itself. She would have been lost in the masses if she didn’t use her powers to grow to twice her usual height so that she could be seen and heard clearly over the babbling crowd of students excited to participate and prove themselves in the tournament.

  “All of you will be called by academy name,” she announced. “You will march around the arena once, following your respective flag-bearer. As is tradition, the hosting academy will enter last.”

  She granted me a quick smile, then gestured with an enlarged hand to get the attention of an Asian team from the city-state of Kai-lao. They were an-all girl’s heroic academy, each dressed in crisp uniforms in a rainbow of colors. Extremely excited to be first on the field, they shared their excitement in their native tongue and squealed for joy.

  I smiled at them before finding a seat near the wall to rest a bit. The Valcav team was going to be waiting a bit to enter with the size of this crowd. Aylin joined me a moment later, and the two of us watched the Kai-lao team enter the field to be greeted with the screams of an excited audience ready to witness the tournament of a lifetime.

  Her knee bounced in nervousness beside me, and I gently moved my palm there to reassure her.

  “Easy.” I chuckled. “It’s just a march today.”

  She bit her lip, and then looked at me with such intense worry that I couldn’t help but chuckle again.

  “Aylin, seriously, everything is going to be fine.”

  “But what if I fall?” she asked almost breathlessly.

  “You’re one of the most graceful people I’ve ever met,” I countered. While it had taken here a few weeks to curb her habit of floating everywhere, she wasn’t going to trip over her own two feet. “You won’t fall.”

  “But what if I--”

  I wrapped a careful arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Playfully kissing her temple, I whispered, “If you do fall, blame Matt. He can take it.”

  She laughed, and that was all I wanted. She pulled back to give me a sour look when I seemed just a bit too pleased with myself, but that too was soon lightened by an easy smile.

  “I will not blame Matt for my troubles,” she admonished.

  “Damn right, you’re not,” Matt grumbled. He and Kristen made their way through another group of excited students, and the twins both looked overwhelmed at all the crowds. “This is nuts. There are too many people, I want to call it off.”

  I snorted, a little amused. “Okay, I’ll go tell Triton you’re intimidated. Everybody can go home. Tournament canceled.”

  “Good!” Matt’s chipper smile was entirely fake, but it still made me laugh. He was a little terrifying when he pretended to be happy. “He might actually listen to you.”

  “He might,” I conceded. I glanced around the staging room again, lifting a brow. “Have you seen the girls? Or Eric, for that matter?”

  Matt jerked his thumb in the general direction of where I’d seen a snacks table set up hours ago. “Yeah, Andie found chocolates. I think she’s still enjoying them.”

  Kristen finally decided to stop hiding behind her brother and took a seat on the bench next to Aylin. She glanced over at the two of us, then at the crowd with a grim twist of her lips.

  Matt sighed. “I know,” he said in response to the weird voodoo twin thing the two of them were doing. “I don’t like it either.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that bad. We’re gonna be famous! Well, famouser,” I added with some chagrin.

  Kristen seemed insulted at that butchering of the English language. “Famouser?”

  “Um. Yeah,” I chuckled and waved towards the monitor where the next team was marching out of the gate. “The World’s Finest is the biggest stage in the entire world. If we prove ourselves here, we’re officially the greatest.”

  “You’re already on the path to being the greatest, Nick,” Matt grumbled. “You don’t have to prove anything.”

  “You’re a real cynic, you know that?”

  Sure, I’d earned the Delacruz and had the attention of the world’s greatest heroes ever known, but one moment, one action doesn’t make you the best, or the greatest. It was the long haul, how I acted as a hero for years to come, that would make me worthy of being Triton’s successor. This wasn’t even about my family name or history anymore, I just wanted to be the best.

  “So I’m told,” Matt said. He leaned against the wall next to his sister and glared out at the crowd again. They were finally starting to thin out. Many of the teams were out in the arena already, lined up and waiting for the finale.

  I heard a shriek for joy from behind me and immediately thought of my girls… but it was a far different girl that greeted me as I turned around. She was dressed in black and red, her chest adorned with the symbol of my father. Her hair was a pretty braid of bright red and black that tumbled down her back. She bounced like a giddy child as she marched towards me, flocked by several other students of the Brand, all dressed in the same outfits.

  “Oh my God,” she cried and reached for my hand. I was too shocked by the actual sight of the Brand team in the flesh to do anything but let her take my hand. She shook it eagerly, and I tried hard not to grimace. “It’s Junior! We’re like, your biggest fans, future Lord.”

  “I’m not your--” I tried to protest, but I didn’t have the chance to finish as another of the Brand girls ran colorful fingernails through my hair.

  “Oh, he’s so cute!”

 
I huffed with irritation as I swatted her hand away. “I’m not--”

  “Oh my, that expression! He’s definitely our future lord,” the red-haired girl told another. “It’s such an honor!”

  “We can’t wait to fight you!” A boy shoved past the girls and offered a hand of his own. He was wearing black cut-off gloves and had dark, twisting tattoos that curled along his neck.

  I took the hand with a frown, wanting the world to swallow me up, just this once.

  “Lord Inferno will be watching,” he said with a grin as we shook hands.

  The red-haired girl elbowed him gently, and then the two once again bounced on their feet like children half their age. “You betcha! Gotta make a good impression on our beloved Inferno, blessed be his name.”

  “Blessed be his name,” the rest of their group repeated.

  “Holy shit,” Matt whispered. He sounded pissed, and I suppose from a certain perspective, I couldn’t blame him. “Is your dad some kind of god over there?”

  “Some kind,” I heard Kristen mutter.

  Aylin shifted uncomfortably beside me, so I stood up. The only way to get rid of them was to play the part. I spread my arms wide and then bowed low.

  “The honor is mine,” I said. “I serve Alexandria now, and I’m glad the ceasefire is in effect. I hope the future events are fair and honor both our capitals equally.”

  “Oh, he’s even cuter when he’s being diplomatic!” One of the girls actually reached to pinch my cheek, and I swerved out of the way just in time.

  “Uh, thank you.” I grimaced. “Maybe you guys should get ready? Your march is up soon.”

  “He’s totally right,” the red-haired girl piped up and then gestured towards the gate. “Let’s go! Our Lord is eager to see us at our best.”

  “Blessed be his name,” they all repeated.

  I sat back down with a grumpy sigh as I watched them head for the entrance. They were a colorful bunch to be certain. One of them even looked to be made out of metal.