Super Hero Academy

by Simon Archer

  Chapter 1

  “What is a hero?” Triton said as he stood on the steps of the Valcav Academy and glared from one end of the crowd to the other, his arms carefully folded behind his back. “What is a villain? The words are often applied to many without thought. That is not the case here. No, at the Valcav Academy, each of you will be tested, and in the end, many of you will find yourselves worthy of being called a hero.” He stared at me with those steely eyes of his. “Or a villain.”

  I stared right back at the hero and tried to be confident. After all, I was the son of Lord Inferno, the world’s greatest super villain, and I’d come to his college to learn how to be a hero.

  It would have been the start of a really bad joke if Triton and his partner hadn’t saved me as a boy. So, sure, my dad might be into world domination, but all I wanted was to clear the Gateon name.

  To be more.

  To me, it seemed that Triton was desperate for a successor because his speech sounded a lot like a demand to live up to his name. It was no secret that Triton, one of the greatest heroes the world had known in quite some time, was getting old. Years of battle against my father would do that to any man... not that his partner, Amazoness, seemed to notice.

  Her real name was Gemma, and she was one of my longtime mentors. The black-haired immortal was as stunning as she’d ever been, and her gaze was a lot gentler than Triton’s when she looked upon me. I tried not to stare back, at least not with the same heat I’d given Triton.

  It was difficult. She wanted so much from me, even then. I could still remember the warmth of her embrace as the two carried me off when I was young, far away from that island where my father swam in his hatred for the universe. They hadn’t even asked if I wanted to be rescued... but I was grateful nonetheless.

  I struggled every day not to give in to what my father had, unwilling to make the same mistakes he did. Though I’ll admit, it was hard not to hate the way everyone else kept darting their glances in my direction, apparently following the ongoing trends. The initial meet-and-greet had been a mess. Someone said the name ‘Nick Gateon,’ and immediately every eyeball fixed on me like I was going to start ranting about supreme justice. I very nearly considered making light of it, doing a pale imitation of the world’s most terrifying villain in the hopes that they’d realize I was different. I hadn’t, but in my mind, it was awesome.

  No one knew what sort of test we would have to endure, but everyone had their suspicions, and rumors sailed all around the room while Triton finished his introductions.

  A blonde poked me with her elbow and jabbed a finger toward some grumpy looking douchebag who’d been glaring with rather intense heat after hearing my name. I had no idea who he was, but it was clear he knew of me and wasn’t fond.

  “Hey, careful on the tests,” the girl told me. “Word is the Barbur twins are out for blood.”

  I lifted a brow at that. Of all things I’d been expecting today, an ally wasn’t one of them. “And you are?”

  “Andie Baker. I’m stretchy.” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows in a way that suggested a lot more than a simple superpower. She held out her finger, and it twisted into a spiral shape. At my expression, she stretched her whole hand flat like a mitten, then shook it so that it returned to its original shape.

  Elasticity. Fascinating. I admit, my imagination ran a little wild when she started stretching her finger at odd angles. It didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes and the nicest person I’d spoken to in a long, long time. “Stretchy, huh?”

  “Yup. And before you ask, I think the rumors about you are bullshit. Well. Not the rumors that you completely kick ass, of course. Those are some nice muscles, Nick. Can I call you Nick?”

  “I suppose that’s better than ‘Lord Inferno’s kid.’”

  “Like I said, bullshit.” She extended a hand in offering. “Besides, if you say no, I’m going to call you Kidferno.” She winked at me. “And yes, I’ve trademarked that.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe no one came up with that years ago.”

  “That... would have been an awesome name.” We shook hands, and I couldn’t help but smile again. Her easy nature was a relief after all the tension earlier. “Thanks, Andie.”

  “No problemo, Nick.”

  Before she could continue, Triton raised his hands into the air, and behind him, the huge white wall hiding the first trial split open and parted for us.

  It was a tremendous steel and cement room with overhead windows beaming down rays of sunlight. White walls ran a maze that hid a large portion of what seemed to be an obstacle course built in Hell. There were several versions of the same woman running through it, testing various traps and gadgetry. One of the copies leaped across a chasm which released a giant fireball that roared into the air, painting Triton in a brilliant orange hue. Gemma left his side and began the course herself. She joined a copy of the woman already running, and the two chatted in friendly tones, careless of the imminent danger.

  “Shit,” Andie whispered. Her mouth was open in wonder, but her brown eyes lacked even a drop of fear. Rather, she looked hungry. Very hungry.

  I had to agree.

  Triton’s voice boomed over the excited buzz. “This course is designed to test those with physical powers.” Someone nearby whispered that they were going to die, and I rolled my eyes. “Those with mental powers will be taking a different test. If your specialty is a mental ability, please take the door on the left.” He gestured, and the crowd split as dozens of students followed his direction.

  After they’d parted, Triton held up what seemed to be a featureless black bracelet. “Attacking your future classmates is absolutely forbidden. Each of you will be wearing one of these to ensure that there is no interference.” His eyes lingered on the Barbur twins, it would seem he was aware of the rumors that had been circulating the crowd. The two, a blond boy and a girl, looked back with steady gazes. “Should any of you decide to ignore my warning, not only will the bands knock you unconscious, but you will be disqualified from the trials immediately.”

  The bracelets were passed around, and I slipped mine on without a fuss. Andie did the same without even bothering to look at it twice. I couldn’t find any hint of technology or magic in the bracelet. In fact, it looked and felt like simple black metal, and I wondered if maybe the thing was a placebo. Hell, for all I knew, it could have been a test to determine obedience. I tried taking it off again, but the bracelet suddenly tightened. I jerked in surprise and instinctively pulled on it harder, and as I did, I saw others doing the same.

  “They will be removed later on,” Triton cut in tiredly. He raised a hand for silence, and it took a moment for the crowd to follow. “You will enter the course in assigned groups. Each of you will be given a hindrance based on your abilities. You will obey the hindrance or be disqualified.”

  It seemed that Gemma left the course early because she reappeared a moment later from a hidden doorway and began fitting applicants with various gadgetry. The first group flooded into the entrance, and I noted their looks of surprise right before passing out of view. I lost sight of Andie, who was called by one of the copied women and fitted with a hindrance of her own.

  Gemma made her way to me, and she smiled in warm greeting. I bowed low to her, trying to be formal. “Amazoness. It’s an honor.”

  “You can call me Gemma here, Nick,” she scoffed, though her smile never wavered. “I’m not a stranger.”

  And indeed, she wasn’t.

  “Right.” I put my hands on my hips and looked her up and down with mock arrogance. “So what’ll it be? Hands behind my back? Am I going in one-legged? Blindfolded, maybe?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You’re not to use your powers. You’re going in mortal,
I’m afraid. Won’t be a problem, will it?”

  I could fly through the course at the speed of sound, but considering the fact that my powers were especially draining, I had trained hard not to rely on them. Gemma knew that too since she’d made it a point to keep in contact after rescuing me from that island. I smiled back and bobbed my head.

  “Of course not,” I told her as I waved a carefree hand. “I hope you brought the super glue because I’m going to smash that record to pieces.”

  Gemma grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Go get ‘em, Nick.”

  And I did. I gathered with the other applicants when my group was called and whistled at the sight that greeted me. The first part of the course was a wide chasm with a fairly steep drop.

  At the bottom, flames crackled menacingly, and I couldn’t help but think of my father’s namesake. Obviously, none of the applicants here would be burned alive, but I had memories of others suffering that fate.

  Those flames were bright, and the heat from them felt real enough. They were likely the source of that earlier fireball. An orange glow painted the whole area, and I looked from the fire to the hooks on the walls. They were set for climbing across the chasm, for those that couldn’t fly or leap long distances.

  “How the holy heck am I supposed t-to—Ohmygod, it’s you!” an incredibly perky voice cried out next to me and broke me out of my thoughts. “Lord Inferno’s son! Hey, what’s your power set? Is it fire? Ice? Just curious. I mean, you’re you, so I bet it’s something awesome. I can’t believe you’re here. With me! I’m Eric, by the way.”

  I turned toward the source of the rush of words to find that Eric had one arm was bound tightly behind his back and had thrust his only free hand at me. I took his hand, and he shook it very enthusiastically, then pulled away and looked down at his own in amazement.

  “I just shook hands with a Gateon. Wow.” He grinned from ear to ear. “That’s so cool.”

  “Uh, nice meeting you,” I said with a smile. “Good luck on the course—”

  “I’m, like, your biggest fan,” he continued. “Seriously.”

  Eric was shorter and younger than most of the others I’d seen here. He had messy blond hair streaked with blue and bounced on his feet with a strange frenetic energy.

  “My biggest fan?” I asked, a bit confused. “I haven’t even done anything yet.”

  “Yeah, but you will.” He nodded emphatically. “You’re a Gateon. Duh.” He smirked as a large number ten appeared out of thin air in front of us and began to count down. “In fact, I bet you completely ace this test.” He bounded on his heels once more. “I can’t believe I get to take it alongside you. I’ll get to witness your greatness firsthand.” He spread his arms wide. “I will get to say I was there at this moment forever.” He grinned again, and I couldn’t help but feel excited at his words.

  He was right. This was my opportunity to show the world what I was made of, and I was damned sure going to do it. I turned my attention back toward the numbers and waited. Just a few more seconds.

  The horn to start roared overhead, so I jumped for the nearest wall hook. As I swung swiftly across the chasm, a fireball zipped past me so close that the heat of it stung at my back. I could hear the others swearing and following suit, but they weren’t as fast as I was, and I could tell many of them were too nervous to cross.

  “Go, Nick!” Eric cried from the platform, and when I looked back, I saw him giving me a huge thumbs up.

  I turned my attention back to the course, spotted the next hook, and planned my next move. I swung my body so I could build up some momentum, and as my body arced through the air, I released my hold on the hook. I sailed briefly over the pit of flaming death as I reached out toward the next hook and grabbed ahold of it. The impact jerked down my arm, but I forced the pain down as my momentum pulled me forward.

  Once again, I used my body’s swaying to build up speed because the next hook was even farther away. Worse, my grip was starting to weaken from holding myself up here, so I knew I had to hurry.

  This time, when I swung myself forward with all my might and launched myself forward, I angled my body so that when I grabbed the next hook, I conserved nearly all my momentum and used it to supercharge my next swing. A moment later, I’d cleared three more hooks and was on the other side.

  I took a quick second to catch my breath before I raced through the doorway at the end of the platform only to be met with the gun barrel of some kind of killer robot. It was squat and mechanical, with a hoverjet underneath its body keeping it suspended in the air. It beeped an angry warning and then started firing lasers right at me.

  The joke was on it though. While I should have been afraid of the machine, a stupid amount of my training over the years had been with battlebots just like this.

  I moved too fast for the laser fire to catch me, and it felt good to have my years of training finally being put to real use. I took off down the hallway and vaulted over the first wall I found, and as I dropped down on the other side, I realized the wall directly in front of me was even higher than the last one.

  And the one behind it was taller still.

  That was when I realized how this obstacle worked. You had to scale each wall while the robot shot at you... or did you?

  A smirk crossed my lips as I hauled myself on top of the wall, then cat-jumped from one to the other as they rose so high in the air that I knew the fall would probably kill ordinary people on a misstep. Kill me for certain.

  Still, I had long learned to be graceful, and heights were the least of my fears at that moment. I bounced from one to the next easily until they stopped at a wall too tall to leap to the top of in a single bound.

  “Fuck it.” Since I was in the middle of the hallway, I turned and ran toward the wall on my left. The laser fire chased me, melting holes in the wall beneath me as I leapt toward the wall and kicked off it toward the next wall blocking my path.

  My hands barely reached the top, and as I held on with my fingers, a laser blast singed the spot where I’d started my leap.

  I didn’t have much time left, so, muscles screaming, I scrambled up. With the floor easily twenty to thirty feet below, part of me worried that the robot would just blow the wall to pieces to get to me, but thankfully, the other side was only a six-foot drop.

  As I dropped down behind it, I took a quick breath to recover before I looked around and saw a brick wall coming straight at me. No, not a wall... someone who looked to be made out of bricks! He saw me and jabbed a thick brick finger in my direction.

  “Stay away!” the walking brick wall warned. “You ain’t stoppin’ me with your stupid tricks. I’m onto you.”

  My first instinct was to have pity for him despite his immediate hostility. He was probably power locked into that form. Some woman made out of fog floated over the wall from behind me and brushed by the brick man with a waggle of her ghostly finger.

  “Attacking is against the rules, Jack. You’ll be disqualified.”

  “Shuddup, Elianna.”

  The fog woman floated by the two of us as she ignored the casual heat the brick man thrust in her direction. I did the same and focused on the next obstacle. It was another steep drop, this one much bigger and very deadly if I fell, and it seemed the only safe way down was a zip line.

  I didn’t have anything to use to slide down it without tearing my hands to shreds, and they hadn’t offered a hook, so I tore at the sleeve of my outfit and folded it over to create a makeshift rope. It was going to tear badly, but I only had to make it to the bottom.

  Elianna simply glided off the platform in her current fog-form and kept right on going. The man made of bricks, Jack, stepped off the platform as well and plummeted straight to the bottom with a loud crash. The impact shook the entire area and splattered brick and mortar everywhere. I looked over the edge, worried I’d just witnessed Jack’s apparent suicide, but the bricks slowly began to reform and collect back together again.

 
I let out a sigh of relief, and with a slow breath, I held the cloth over the line and leapt off. It took a lot of strength to hold on and a lot of trust that the cloth wouldn’t tear before I got to the end. It was a close thing. The weight and friction frayed it badly as I hurtled down the line, but it held together, and I landed gracefully on the other side. Elianna and Jack were behind me now. I tossed the cloth aside and raced into the third area.

  I was met with a grid of red lasers set out in complex patterns that one clearly had to avoid. I wasn’t sure the cost in touching them, but given the earlier death-bot, it was likely to be a nasty surprise. The Barbur twins were already in the middle of it and bent carefully to avoid the lines. The girl was blindfolded, and the two of them were bound together by a long, thin chain. The guy who’d glared a hole into me earlier noticed me at the entrance and grunted something to his sister. She whispered back, and the two crawled together under the last laser line.

  From what I could tell from the thin holes they peeked from, these were likely just laser tripwires, as I could see a second barrel in each hole. That attached weapon wasn’t likely to be deadly, or so I hoped. Probably tranqs. The instructors weren’t actually going to threaten anyone’s life, would they?

  But then again, real fire, real falling hazards, and real killer robots. I hadn’t heard of anyone dying in these courses, but that didn’t mean it never happened.

  The twins high-fived their victory, and then the boy waved his arm sarcastically from the other side of the grid. “Say hi to your mom for me, Inferno Boy!”

  Before I could say anything back, I heard metal groan in protest. With a loud set of snaps, something gave way inside of the walls, and the guns all turned at once. The lasers swerved in my direction, determined to kill me. Apparently, the twins had found some way to break the mountings holding the guns in place. I immediately rolled forward to dodge a majority of them and ran for the exit. A loud bang rang out in the small space, and while one bullet grazed my shoulder, I dodged the rest of the barrage and kept moving forward as I bit back the pain.