Super Hot (a Superlovin' novella)

by Andrews, Vivi

  “I’m supposed to just relax and have a beer, huh? Knowing that alcohol brings the fire closer to the surface and any time I lose my temper or get startled by a loud noise or, hell, even get too excited by the score of a ballgame, I could incinerate innocent people who care about me and just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yeah, that sounds relaxing.”

  “Is it really as dangerous as that?”

  “Yes. And I’m not the only one. There are dozens of prisoners in Area Nine who killed people they loved because their powers were too instinctive to be suppressed. Most of them are mad, of course. That’s what knowledge like that does to you. But some are holding onto sanity by their fingernails, praying I can come up with something to get rid of their abilities for good.”

  “You would do that? Get rid of them permanently? Most supers talk about losing their powers like it’s losing a limb.”

  “When the flesh is diseased, sometimes amputation is necessary to save a life.” He removed the needle from her arm, pressing a gauze pad over the puncture. “Keep pressure on that.” His hands stayed busy as he disposed of the needle and organized the samples. “Six months ago I would have been horrified by the idea of removing powers too. It seemed barbaric to even discuss it. I wanted a power of my own so desperately.”

  It hadn’t occurred to her that he wasn’t always super. He had that larger-than-life invulnerability all the natural born supers possessed. “Did you do it to yourself?”

  “No. Demon Wroth kidnapped me and injected me with some kind of mutating agent.”

  “You’re kidding. Why didn’t I hear about that? I keep up on all the super news.”

  “They kept it out of the papers—Captain Justice, Mirage and Kim Carruthers. Mirage is having a hard enough time convincing people she’s using her powers for good without the world knowing her father is still running around kidnapping people.”

  “Demon Wroth…” Tandy blinked. “I know that story. Darla told me. I just didn’t realize you were there.” It was hard to picture him—held hostage at the mercy of a supervillain. “I’m sorry he changed you against your will.”

  He snorted. “That’s the worst part. It wasn’t against my will. I wanted this. If he’d given me a choice, I would have said yes. If I’d known how, I probably would have done it myself. Which would have made me double the fool. Doing this to myself. But I wanted it. God, I wanted it bad.” His lips curved up in a wry smile. “But you’d understand that better than anyone.”

  She stiffened, recoiling. “No. I don’t.”

  From the time she could talk, people would ask her what power she wanted to have when she grew up. Telekinesis like her father? The ability to manipulate electrical energy like her mother? It was never what do you want to be when you grow up, Tandy? Always which power will you have? And she’d never really cared. Never really wanted one until she was fourteen and still displaying no signs of an emerging power and suddenly everyone in her life was frantic to figure out why not.

  Something had to be wrong with her. Her brothers had developed right on time. Her best friend Darla was already flying and accidentally punching holes through walls when she forgot to control her strength. So why wasn’t Tandy?

  Sure, she’d always expected to have a superpower someday, but she’d never really longed for one. Until it was suddenly vital to everyone around her that she develop one. Until there was something wrong with her for the lack and her mother was crying in the Trident office as a nice doctor calmly explained that Tandy might never be super.

  Tandy had never wanted a power so desperately she would try to give herself one. She’d just wanted to be enough without one. And she never had been. The Nightwing Dud.

  Eisenmann frowned, studying her. “You really don’t want to have a superpower? You don’t just say that so no one will feel sorry for you?”

  Apparently the fire had burned away his verbal filters. Most people didn’t tell her to her face that she was an object of pity. Though, she had to admit, the honesty was nice. “I really never wanted one. I just wanted to be accepted as I was.”

  His eyes went distant, as they seemed to do when his brain was wandering off into Science Land. “If you actively didn’t want powers, it’s possible you subconsciously suppress your natural abilities. That could explain how you contained the fire—”

  “I’m not suppressing anything. I don’t have any powers. Get that through your head, Eisenmann.”

  “Right. Sorry. My social skills are a little rusty.”

  “A little?” she teased, by way of accepting the apology. And the change of subject.

  He shrugged sheepishly and carried the samples across to a refrigerator, sliding them carefully onto the rack.

  “Darla really would like to see you. I bet your other friends would too.”

  He turned back to face her, his smile more of a grimace. “They probably wouldn’t recognize me.” He folded his arms across his chest, biceps straining against his skin. “I never used to work out. Could never spare the time from my work to bother, but now it seems like it’s the only time the fire shuts up and gives me my own brain.”

  She tried to picture him without the hulk physique and couldn’t do it. “I can’t imagine you as a stereotypical science nerd.”

  “I wasn’t a total science nerd,” he protested. “I had a motorcycle.”

  “Oh yeah?” That she could picture.

  “It’s your brother’s fault, actually. I wanted to be a superhero, remember, and Frost’s sonic bike was sick. The Nightwing boys always have the coolest toys.”

  Her smile was smug. “Who do you think designs them?”

  “You? I thought you were a CEO, not an engineer.”

  “CEOs can’t have hobbies?” Though she had to admit, lately she hadn’t had much time for designing new tech. “Chance comes up with most of the ideas, but he’s not very strong on follow-through or logistics. I’m the one who takes his crazy ideas and makes them real—with the help of the Nightwing R&D department. It helps to have some of the finest engineering minds in the country on your payroll.”

  “I don’t suppose you have a spare sonic bike lying around you’d like someone to test drive for you?”

  She laughed. “Afraid not.”

  He grinned—and she stood, rolling down her sleeve. He had his blood, nothing had caught on fire in the last half hour, and they were actually both smiling. She knew her cue to leave.

  Eisenmann made no move to stop her as she gathered up her things. “Thank you. For coming back. For helping.”

  “Hey, it’s what we Nightwings do, right?” She hitched up her briefcase. “Let me know how your research turns out, all right? And call your friends, Eric. You can’t burn them to a cinder through the phone.”

  The words felt odd coming out of her mouth. So final. Like she was saying goodbye to him forever. Strange. She hadn’t realized she wanted to see him again until she was walking out of his life for good. Tandy hitched up her case, heels clicking on the floor as she walked away.

  Chapter Seven – The Super Ladies Who Lunch

  “I need your help.” Tandy slid into the usual booth at the usual hole in the wall restaurant, stacking her briefcase and purse next to her hip.

  “Done. Whose ass are we kicking? Is it Anthony? Please?” Across the table, Darla perked up, her eyes brightening at the idea of impending ass kicking.

  “Not Anthony.” She’d almost forgotten Anthony. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “And not an ass kicking. An intervention.” Tandy thought about it for a second. “Which I guess is sort of related.”

  “Okay, whose ass are we intervening?”

  “Eric Eisenmann.”

  Darla’s eyebrows flew up in perfect arches. “Oh really?”

  “It isn’t like that.” Except it was exactly like that.

  It had been six days. Six days without a word from Eisenmann. Six days of thinking about him constantly. Six days of wondering how he was doing. Wonde
ring if he’d set himself on fire again. If he’d found a cure yet. If he was happy. It was enough to drive a girl mad.

  And that was leaving out all of the thoroughly erotic dreams her subconscious had seen fit to provide for her every time she fell asleep.

  She slid the upside down coffee cup out of her way and leaned across the table. “He’s shut himself up in his bunker, in this self-induced solitary confinement. He’s going to make himself crazy. You’re his friend. So you’re going to help me figure out how to cheer him up. Convince him he’s not alone. That it doesn’t have to be Eisenmann against the impossible fates all by himself.”

  She’d thought about going back a dozen times a day, but so far she hadn’t been able to fabricate an excuse that held any weight. But if Darla were going, on some sort of mission to save Eisenmann from his martyrdom, she could tag along. See him again. Reassure her stupid heart that he was fine, damn it.

  “I don’t know, Tandy. Eisenmann doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would appreciate a surprise party.”

  “It wouldn’t be a party. Just some friends popping in. Only a couple of us…”

  “Us, huh? So you two are friends now?”

  The waitress arrived with their usuals and Tandy leaned back, waiting until Darla had finished asking after her family and the waitress had left to continue. “I’m just concerned about him. Anyone would be.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “So will you come with me?”

  “When he invites me, I’ll go.” Darla popped a fry into her mouth.

  “I thought you wanted to see him.”

  “I do. But showing up uninvited sounds like a really good way to get a fireball to the face.”

  “Friends don’t abandon one another.”

  “No one’s abandoning anyone, Tandy. With pyros, the best thing you can do is respect their wishes. Anything that upsets them could kill them—and you along with them. Sometimes the best thing to do is give someone space to work through their shit without presuming to know what’s right for them. Didn’t you ever wish people would’ve left you alone when you were a teen?”

  “That isn’t the same thing at all. He needs us.”

  “How’d he look when you saw him? Wasting away from lack of human contact?”

  “He looked great,” she admitted grudgingly. “He said you wouldn’t even recognize him. He’s been working out constantly. I guess it helps him control things.”

  “Great, huh? As in studly, hunky, break me off a piece of that, great?”

  “You’re in love with Lucien, remember?”

  “Oh, I remember. Eisenmann is for you. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you actually worry about a guy. Your boyfriends are always low maintenance to the point of being walking sedatives. And if you’re worried, then you actually care.” Darla pulled a face. “Shame about him being a scary human flame thrower without an off switch.”

  “I’m not afraid of him.”

  “You should be.” For once, Darla wasn’t quipping. Unsmiling, she stared Tandy down.

  “He wouldn’t hurt me. His powers flared up twice when we were together and both times the fire vanished before it could touch me. Somehow, subconsciously, he’s protecting me. He just doesn’t trust himself to do it all the time.”

  “At least he has the sense God gave a walnut. Which is more than I can say for you. Do you know how quickly your brothers would lock you in your room if they found out you were hanging out with a pyro?”

  “I’m a little big to be locked in my room, since I moved out of my parents’ house about a decade ago, but nice try, Madame Double Standard. How is it safe for you to pal around with him—if he invites you—and not for me? Besides, you’re the one who encouraged me to go see him in the first place.”

  “I didn’t think you’d go by yourself. Even I wouldn’t tangle with a pryo without back-up and I can fly. No offense, Tandy, but you don’t exactly have my history of taking out super villains. And Lucien has superspeed and superstrength. He could get us out of there like that.” She snapped her fingers.

  “Lucien knows Eisenmann too?”

  “Eric was the doctor helping Mirage when her brain was all scrambled from that mindbender.”

  “Does that have something to do with why Demon Wroth kidnapped him?”

  Darla’s heavily lined eyes widened. “He told you about that? That is a surprise. He barely ever talks about it with us and we already know. Very hush-hush, the whole business. You should have seen the expression on Kim’s face when Justice told her she couldn’t put it in the papers. Of course, she hasn’t had time to write many front page superhero stories lately. Busy with her own powers these days. Wroth didn’t dose only Eisenmann.”

  “Is she a pyro too?”

  “No, nothing like that. TK. Pretty strong one too, as telekinetics go. She’s gone a little nuts with it, honestly. Though what do you expect, right? The girl who was always tied to the train tracks suddenly has powers of her own. It’ll go straight to your head.”

  “Yeah, unless you’re accidentally lighting yourself on fire a couple times a day.”

  Darla grimaced. “Yeah, Eisenmann really did get the worst possible draw. Though I heard about a super once whose touch was poisonous. That would suck too—if you could never touch someone ever again. Though I guess you could wear gloves. Still, there are a surprising number of crap powers out there. Some telepaths lose it big time when they start hearing other people’s thoughts. I don’t think I would want to know, you know? What everyone around me really thought of me? Though, obviously I’m awesome, so I’m sure they only think good things, but still. I’d probably punch random strangers if I overheard them thinking my ass looked fat in my jeans and then where would we be?”

  Tandy let Darla ramble, preoccupied wondering how many supers out there had gifts that were really curses. How many people would benefit from Eric’s work if he was successful?

  She couldn’t wait to hear what he’d found so far. Had her blood really held the key? Or was the reason he hadn’t called because she was a dead end and he’d lost hope completely? If her DNA didn’t have the magic bullet locked inside, what other options did he have? She wanted to help, but science had never been her strongest subject. Still, she knew design, knew troubleshooting. And she had the full resources of Nightwing Industries behind her. She could put her R&D people on it. The more brains at work on the problem, the quicker it would get solved.

  Though some scientists were protective of their patents. Would Eric be upset if she brought in her Nightwing resources? Or would he just be grateful to have his powers curbed? And what if they couldn’t be curbed? What if they could only be removed entirely? Would he want that? A man who had longed to be super his entire life?

  “Did you always want to be super?” she asked Darla, when the flying, superstrength DynaGirl took a breath.

  Darla shrugged. “It’s who I am.” She poked at her fries. “Admittedly, sometimes being a girl with superstrength sucked. A girl who can bench press an SUV isn’t most guys’ definition of femininity. But then I met Lucien. Now I’m happy to be exactly who I am.”

  Tandy swallowed thickly, wondering what that felt like. Happy to be exactly who she was.

  She glanced at her watch. “I’d better get back to work.”

  * * * * *

  The email was waiting for her when she got back to her office.

  Tandy,

  Please come to my lab at your earliest convenience. I would like to discuss my findings and perform some additional tests, if you are willing. Just let yourself in.

  E.

  It was hardly an effusive invitation, but she could almost hear his voice speaking the words, including the teasing edge to his request that she use her override on his locks again. She should contact Darla. Her friend hadn’t let her leave the restaurant until she promised she wouldn’t go see him alone again. But Tandy didn’t want back up. She would rather see Eisenmann alone, just the two of them. And she didn’t wan
t to wait to gather up a bunch of unnecessary bodyguards. Supers were busy people. Who knew when they’d have the free time to visit Eisenmann with her?

  Tandy called her assistant into her office and asked him to clear her schedule for the rest of the afternoon. He looked at her like she’d grown a second head and started speaking Swahili, but he didn’t argue.

  Fifteen minutes later she was in her car on her way to Trident Labs, and this time what she felt at the idea of entering the dreaded facility was far from dread.

  Chapter Eight – Noble Gases

  What about a ray gun?

  Eisenmann snorted. The good thing about crowd-sourcing the problem was he had access to some brilliant ideas that would never occur to him. The downside was the random-ass shit that found its way into the brainstorming mix. Like ray guns.

  He’d been in the lab near constantly for the last six days, stopping work only when he collapsed from exhaustion or the fire started to get out of control and he needed to run to burn it off.

  The results were more important than who got the credit, so he’d put all his findings up on the forum, welcoming other scientists who wanted to try to tease some hope from the data—and they’d all come to much the same conclusion. Tandy was the key. Just not in the way he’d originally thought.

  He hoped she didn’t freak out when he told her. He still needed her help.

  Eisenmann squinted at his computer screen, his tired eyes making the data blur. Hell, maybe a ray gun wasn’t such a bad idea after all. If DocDavid wanted to develop one, he was welcome to. Eisenmann was focused on a more injection-based route.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have much margin for error. They didn’t exactly have an abundance of test subjects lining up to have their super powers removed. He’d known from the start he would be his own guinea pig—and if his first attempt killed him, at least the other scientists on the forum would have access to all his data. Hopefully one of them would take up his research and find a cure before it was too late for Diana.