Secret Villain

by Dee J. Stone

  She pats my back. “Good luck with everything. If you need anything, just ask.”

  “Thanks.”

  The door opens and Danny and Kitty, along with their dad, Ben, walk into the house. When Danny sees me sitting on the couch, he rushes over. “Are you gonna kill the villain? Everyone at school’s talking about it.”

  Kitty climbs onto her mom’s lap. “Yeah. They always ask me if you’re my brother and I tell them you are.” She gives me a wide smile.

  Danny frowns. “He’s cooler when he’s Blue.”

  Samantha shoots him a look. “Danny, that’s not nice.”

  He doesn’t say anything.

  Ben holds out his fist to me for a bump. “Like usual, good work out there, Nick.” I bump him back with a thanks.

  “So,” Danny says. “Are you gonna kill the villain? He’s cool, but he’s bad. Mom said I shouldn’t look up to him.”

  “Mom’s right,” I tell him. “He’s a bad person and you need to stay away from him.”

  Danny laughs. “It’s not like he’s gonna come after me like they went after Kaylee. Mom told me everything. I mean, I overheard them talking.”

  Kitty looks at him with wide eyes. Why does the kid have to bring that up now? He’s a fun brother and all, but sometimes he says things that kind of piss me off. I get that he finds all this superhero stuff awesome, but I’m really worried something is going to happen to him. To everyone I care about.

  But they all don’t need to know that.

  “It’s cool,” I reassure them. “No one is going to come after you.” I give Samantha and Ben looks, telling them they have nothing to worry about. Though deep down, I’m freaking out. We don’t know what Jeremy wants or what he’ll do to get what he wants.

  “You’re a superhero,” Danny says. “Why can’t you defeat him? Some kids in my class think you’re weak. You don’t want to be weak, do you?”

  Without thinking, I jump to my feet. “What’s your problem, man?”

  The furniture all around me shakes. The lights flicker. Oh, man. I’m about to lose it.

  “Nick!” Samantha’s voice is pitched. All four of them shrink back.

  Sighing, I drop back down. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe it’s all the stress. I just want things to be peaceful. Want things to go back to how they used to be.

  “That was so cool!” Danny bounces on his heels. “Do it again.”

  “Maybe you should call it a night, Nick,” Ben says.

  Samantha turns to her husband. “I invited him for dinner.”

  Ben shifts his eyes to the floor, then to hers. “I don’t feel safe with him here.” He tried to say it under his breath so I wouldn’t hear. But I heard every word.

  Samantha shakes her head. “Nick is my son and I trust him.”

  Ben doesn’t say anything. Awesome. Another reason why being Blue sucks. It’s ruining my mom’s relationship with her husband. It’s putting my half siblings in danger.

  It’s ruining my life.

  I stand again. “You know what? I’m not really hungry. I’ll see you later.”

  Samantha calls after me, but I tell her I’m fine. It might be best for me not to be around people when I’m stressed like this. Like I said, things will go back to normal once Jeremy is defeated.

  “Wait.”

  I turn around and find Danny standing there. “You’re so cool when you use your powers.”

  “Let me guess,” I say. “You want powers, too.”

  He twists his nose. “Who else wants powers? Kitty? She wouldn’t be good.”

  “Don’t say that about your sister. And no, I didn’t mean her. I meant Kaylee. She wants powers to protect herself.” Why am I telling this to a nine year old?

  He laughs. “Powers to protect yourself? Why would you want that when you can use powers to blow stuff up?”

  I lift a brow. “Blow stuff up?”

  “I don’t mean people. I mean, like, cars and stuff.”

  This kid watches too much TV. “Blowing things up is not a good thing. People get hurt, things get destroyed. Remember that. Okay, little bro?”

  He nods. “Sure, Blue.”

  I guess my only worth to him is being Blue, but he’s just a kid. Maybe one day, he’ll actually see what a good brother Nick could be. “See ya, Danny.”

  “Can’t wait to see you kill the villain. It’ll be so cool!”

  I can tell him I don’t plan on killing anyone, only capturing, but I decide to let it go.

  ***

  “You’ve been weird all day,” Maddie says as we sit on my bed, waiting until eight PM hits so we can pick up the goggles from Charlie.

  I look up from the math I’m supposed to be working on but aren’t. “What do you mean?”

  She examines my face. “I’m not sure. You’re tense all the time. I haven’t seen you smile in forever. What’s up?”

  I throw my hands up. “Maybe it’s got to do with the villain we need to take down. A villain that, may I add, is super powerful. He’s got a whole army. An army that knows our weaknesses.”

  She closes her textbook and scoots closer to me. “We’ve been training like crazy. And we know their weaknesses, too. We can take them.”

  I don’t see how she can be so confident, but I need to stay positive.

  Maddie puts her hand on mine. “That’s not all that’s bothering you. Why aren’t you talking to me?”

  “You’re not talking to me.” As soon as the words are out, I wish I could take them back. I didn’t mean to get into this right now.

  “What do you mean?” she asks.

  I run my hand through my hair. “Was nothing. Just I miss you. That’s all. With all the training, we hardly talk. And it’s stupid to feel that way when there’s a villain out there, but…”

  She lets out a breath. “That’s what this is? You miss us? I thought something serious happened. Maybe to Kaylee or your family.”

  “Nope. That’s it. Well, except for the fact that my brother likes blowing things up and wants me to blow Jeremy up.”

  Her forehead wrinkles. “Matt wants you to blow things up?”

  “Not Matt. Danny. He only sees me as Blue and I know it’s lame to admit, but it bothers me. I don’t want to be Blue all the time. I want to be Nick.”

  “Give it time. He’s just a kid and he hardly knows you.”

  “That’s what I keep telling myself.”

  We’re quiet as we continue working on our homework. A few minutes pass before Maddie asks, “Are you still thinking about quitting? Being Blue, I mean. Once we stop Jeremy, are you done?”

  I don’t answer because I don’t know what to say. All my life I felt like a loser, and now I’m somebody. But if that somebody is always going to have his life and his family in danger then is it worth it?

  Maddie wraps am arm over my shoulder. “We don’t have to talk about this now. And I promise we’ll try to hang out more. It’s just hard. It feels like we’re parents, in a way.”

  I laugh. “Parents to the powered kids?”

  She laughs, too. “It’s good to see you smile. And yeah, I guess. Don’t you feel responsible for them? Many seem scared, now that their friends have been ‘taken to the dark side.’” She bites her lip. “You know there’s a chance we’ll have to hurt—possibly kill—them. I don’t want to and would do everything I can to prevent it, but we’re talking about a war.”

  “I know. But I’m trying not to think about it.”

  Maddie’s phone rings. “Hello?” She’s quiet as she listens to the person on the other end, then hangs up. “That was my mom. Chandra called her. The goggles are ready.” She’s on her feet, but I stay on the bed. “Coming?”

  I look up at her. “Maybe we don’t have to fight.”

  She lifts a brow.

  “What if we try to talk to Jeremy?”

  “Didn’t we already discuss this and decided he doesn’t want to talk?”

  I shake my h
ead. “I tried to talk to him in Central Park, but he didn’t answer me. Maybe he didn’t hear me? Maybe we can broadcast it on TV. Tell him we don’t want to fight, we just need to talk.”

  She’s about to say something, but I cut her off. “You don’t want to fight and neither do I. What if he doesn’t? What if we can get him what he wants and no one has to get hurt? We can save the powered kids.” I pause. “Maybe he’s as confused and lost as they are.”

  She thinks about it for a second. “Even if that were true, what does this have to do with the goggles?”

  “It doesn’t. I was just thinking.”

  She grabs my arm. “We can talk about this later. My mom said if we don’t pick up the goggles within an hour they will be destroyed.”

  I gape at her. “Charlie would destroy something he worked on for days?”

  She shrugs. “It’s powerful stuff.”

  I wave my hand. “Okay. Whatever. Let’s get the goggles and then decide our next move.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chandra’s even more paranoid than she was the last time. She keeps looking around, making sure no one followed us. I don’t want to tell her that an invisible villain could be right outside because I don’t want to freak her out. If Jeremy is outside, we’ll see him with the goggles. And if he attacks before we get our hands on them, then we’ll try to take him down.

  The three of us are in her kitchen, where the windows are all boarded up. The FBI hasn’t come for her or Charlie, which is great. But it sucks that she has to live in hiding like this.

  Charlie is nowhere to be found, probably in the basement. On the table before us is a dark briefcase. I’m guessing the goggles are in there.

  “Uh…” I rub the back of my neck. “Are we supposed to pay you? Because we didn’t bring any money.” Not that I have much, just about twenty bucks allowance.

  Chandra shakes her head. “I think my brother told you that he did this as a favor to Melissa. No payment is required.” She pushes the briefcase toward us.

  I sweep it off the table. “Thanks. Where’s Charlie? I want to thank him.”

  She purses her lips. “Charlie wants no further contact from the two of you.”

  “Why?” Maddie asks.

  “I suppose you can say he doesn’t trust you.”

  Maddie gives her an incredulous look. “Yet he made us the goggles.”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “It’s fine,” I say. “The guy doesn’t have to trust us. Just thank him for us and we’ll be out of here.”

  Chandra nods. “I’ll tell him. Good bye.”

  She doesn’t walk us to the door, just sits there like she’s glued to her chair. I feel bad that they have to hide like this. It’s not right.

  I swing the briefcase over my shoulder as Maddie and I exit the house. “I’m going to try to do something about their having to be in hiding.”

  Maddie looks back at the house. “Like what? He did work for JQ. Not that I want him to get arrested, but there’s no way the FBI will let him be a free man. Anyone who worked for JQ—even if they didn’t experiment on kids—was arrested.”

  “I know. But if his goggles are the reason we defeat the villain, don’t you think the FBI would change their opinion of him?”

  She holds her hands up like she’s got no clue. “Once this is over, we can try, but I have a feeling we might do more damage than good.”

  She might be right. Meddling might ruin everything. But we can’t think about this right now. We need to come up with a way to contact Jeremy. Maybe we can talk to him. Powered person to powered person.

  Anything is possible, right?

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she says as we fly toward home. We decided to keep the goggles at my place because we don’t want the Suits to find them. Also, my room’s pretty much a pigsty and my family hardly goes in there. Except for Kaylee, but she keeps out of my closet. Apparently it stinks like sweaty socks. I may or may not have lost a few pairs in there over the years.

  “What am I thinking?” I say.

  “You want to reach out to Jeremy. But I don’t think that’s a good idea. He doesn’t want to talk. He wants to fight. I saw it in his eyes at the restaurant before he ran off. He had anger in there. Talking to him will bring us nowhere. I think we should put the goggles on and fly around. Canvas the area, looking for his hideout.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t like that. It seems wrong. It’s like looking through buildings into people’s houses.”

  Her hands go to her hips. “Did you forget what he did to Central Park? To all those people? Many are still in the hospital because of him.”

  I stop flying. “Why can’t we agree on anything?”

  She stops, too. “I don’t know.”

  “Lately it seems like we’re bumping heads.”

  She turns up her nose. “I was right about the goggles, wasn’t I?”

  “So?”

  “So I’m right about this, too. Talking to someone who has so much anger would only make them angrier.”

  I hold my hands up. “You don’t know that. I think the next move is to contact him.”

  “I think we should canvas the area.”

  “His hideout could be all the way in Florida. You’re going to spend the whole night flying around?”

  “Until I find him, yes.”

  I shake my head. “That’s crazy.”

  “So is talking to a villain.”

  I hold her gaze. “Why are you so against my idea?”

  “Because many people could get hurt by the time you actually had a conversation with him. We can split up and cover more ground.”

  I think about her words for a bit. “Fine. We spend the whole night searching for his lair. If we don’t find him by tomorrow morning, we do this my way.”

  She holds out her hand. “Deal.”

  We shake on it.

  We drop to the ground and hide behind a building. Maddie opens the suitcase and pulls out something that looks like swim goggles. Except they’re nothing like regular goggles. They’re black and heavy, like they’re made out of metal. They’re not, though. I don’t know what the material is, but it’s supposed to be light when you put them on your head.

  Maddie slides hers on and I do the same. She looks like she’s ready to go for a swim. “Hold out your hand and make it invisible,” she says. “Let’s see if the goggles work.”

  I obey. My hand is completely visible. Lifting the goggles off my eyes, I check if my hand really is invisible and see that it is. Awesome. Maddie lifts her goggles, too.

  “Good.” She pulls hers down over her eyes. “Ready?” she asks.

  “Yep.”

  She flies off in one direction and I go in the other. We make sure to stay in contact in case something goes wrong. As I zoom around, I check out the area around me. So far, everything looks normal. I keep making my hand visible and invisible to make sure the goggles are still working. They are.

  Where would a villain’s lair be?

  I search through abandoned buildings, in forests, even underground and train stations. Nothing.

  “Got anything?” I ask Maddie.

  “Nope. You?”

  “No. Wherever he is, he’s hiding well. Can we make that public statement now?”

  She’s quiet for a bit. “Not yet. I still want to look around some more.”

  “Mads…”

  “I just don’t think going on TV is such a good idea. We don’t want the whole world to know we can’t find him, do we?”

  She’s got a point. If we announce to the world that we want to talk to Jeremy, the public might think we’re incompetent. That we’re not doing our job. But what else can we do?”

  “These goggles only let us see invisible things,” Maddie says like she’s thinking out loud. “They don’t let us see through things. We need to ask Charlie to add that element to it.”

  “I think we should keep our distance from Charlie. He’s not exactly a fan and he mig
ht want these goggles back. They’re all we’ve got.”

  She’s quiet again before, “It doesn’t hurt to ask. Since we don’t have a way of reaching him or Chandra, I’ll ask my mom to call her. You go home before your parents start worrying. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about the goggles. We need to make sure Jeremy doesn’t find out about them.”

  “Yep. Talk to you soon. And Mads? Be careful.”

  “Always am.”

  ***

  “You seem distracted,” Dad says to me during dinner the next day. He taps my arm. “Nick.”

  I blink. “Huh?”

  “You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

  That’s an understatement. I shrug.

  “Danny said he doesn’t think Nick is strong enough to kill the villain,” Kaylee says, her face stuffed with mashed potatoes. She swallows. “Mom took me to his house to play with him and Kitty, and he was going on and on about Nick being weak. He’s not a good brother.”

  I play around with my potatoes.

  She gives me a big smile. “But you’ll show him. Right he will, Matt?”

  Bro nods. “Of course. He’s the Blue Masked Hero.”

  Mom bends forward. “I know being Blue is a big part of Nick, but can we go one evening without discussing heroes and villains?”

  Kaylee’s eyes get big. “But being a hero is so cool! I wish I was one. I wanna fly like Nick and heal like Nick and shoot fire like Maddie—but I don’t wanna hurt anyone. Danny said if he had their powers, the villain would be long dead. I don’t like him and I don’t think he likes me. He called me crazy today.”

  “He said that?” Mom asks. “I’m going to have to talk to Samantha about that.” She pulls Kaylee into her arms. “You’re not crazy, sweetie. Don’t let anyone tell you that.”

  Tears fill her eyes. “I don’t wanna be crazy. I wanna be like Nick. I want powers.” She slams her fists on the table. “I want powers. Powers powers powers!”

  “Kaylee,” I say. “It’s better to just be you.”

  “I don’t wanna be me!”

  Mom holds Kaylee in her arms, rocking back and forth as my sister cries against her. The rest of us continue eating. Or try to. It’s hard when Kaylee’s like this.