“We are dangerous. Especially when we’re being ignored. Villains aren’t going away. We’re not a problem to be swept under the rug, and they need to know that.”
“Yeah, but... Look, maybe your plan tonight would work. Maybe it would make them take you more seriously.” Not in a good way, but still. “But I lost Mom, okay? I lost her, and my dad thinks I’m crazy, my sister isn’t talking to me, and... Everyone I love is here. Kat is here. And if you hurt them, if you let all this crap get in the way of seeing reason and you bring in some crazed mob, I’m not just going to lose them—I’m going to lose you, too.”
“Damien—”
“No. Just shut up! I thought Mom cared about me, but it turned out she didn’t. I wanted to protect my hero family from her, and she abandoned me at the drop of a hat. She gave me up, because she didn’t really care. And now you come along and you act like you care about me, despite me having an X and not going to Vilmore and all that. You used me. And maybe you did care, but... It’s happening again. You might not be abandoning me in the same way she did, but if you hurt my family, or my friends, then you might as well be. Because we can’t come back from that.”
My eyes are wet. Just a little. I’m torn between wiping them on the back of my hand and doing nothing in the hopes that he doesn’t notice.
“You going to let me talk now?” Grandpa says.
I nod, though I guess it depends on what he has to say.
“Damien, I’m not abandoning you. I did things that were for your own good without consulting you, and, yes, putting it plain and simple, I used you. But I’m not your mother. One disagreement isn’t going to send me packing. I love you, and nothing’s going to change that, all right? If it means that much to you, I’d call this whole thing off and take the risk. I would, but it’s too late.”
“What? What do you mean, it’s too late?”
“I told my seconds that if I wasn’t back before seven thirty to lead the attack without me. It’s seven thirty-two. They’re already on their way. They’ll be here in about fifteen minutes.”
“Can’t you call them?!”
“I can try, but there’s no guarantee they’ll pick up. It’s loud over there. And once you get an angry mob going, it’s not that easy to stop them.”
“Okay. So, we stick to my plan. We reset the machine so it goes off after they get here. It knocks everyone out, including the mob, and nobody gets hurt.”
He frowns at that. “That plan leaves my people completely defenseless. It’s one thing if they’re awake and can fight back against these lasers, or try to avoid them, but unconscious? That’s a lot of death warrants you’re signing, there.”
“Sarah can turn them off. She can. Tell me how to reprogram the machine—give us until seven fifty. Nobody has to know you helped me. You don’t even have to lose face with the Truth.”
“If I do this and that mob shows up here, only to be knocked out and murdered by the League...” He shudders. “If the Truth is still around after that, I won’t be leading it. And you’ll have a lot of angry villain families crying for blood. So you’d better be damn sure you can do this.”
“I am. I swear, Grandpa. You just have to trust me.”
Chapter 32
THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPEN, and I almost run into Amelia as I hurry inside. She was on her way out, and her forehead bonks into my chin.
“Ow!” She glares at me and puts a hand to her head.
“What the hell are you doing here? I told you to—”
“Warn Mom and Dad? I did. That only took about two seconds. Then I called Sarah, and she said you were either on the roof or in the basement. It wasn’t hard to guess which one of those you’d be in.”
“I also told you to get out of here. And since when do you have Sarah’s number?”
“Uh, since she gave it to me? We got our hair done together before we went to Zach’s house.”
I glance over at Amelia’s hair. It looks a little shinier, but otherwise exactly the same. “That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.” I get out Riley’s phone and dial Sarah’s number to tell her I did my part and that she’s got until 7:50. Er, well, she’s got until the mob of angry villains shows up, I mean, since that’s when the heroes will turn on their lasers.
“I’m here,” Amelia says, “because you don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“I told you to get out of here so you wouldn’t get hurt.”
“Yeah, like I’m completely useless.”
“Riley?” Sarah says, answering the phone after a couple rings. She sounds kind of panicked. “Where are you? Is—”
“It’s me.”
“Oh, Renegade.” Then, presumably to Kat, “It’s Rene— I mean, it’s Damien. Your boyfriend.”
“I reset the machine. You’ve got until seven fifty, but the villains are on their way.”
“That’s— Watch out!” There’s the sound of a raygun blasting, and then something exploding.
“Sarah?! What’s going on?”
“Damien?” It’s Kat this time. “You guys have to get over here! We were on our way to the control room, to turn off the lasers, and—” There’s another exploding sound.
“Kat?!”
“I’m here. Anyway, someone saw me shapeshift, and we got stopped by security, and then your crazy-ass sidekick pulled out a megaphone—”
“It wasn’t a megaphone!” Sarah shouts in the background. “It was a stupefication gun!”
“Okay, your crazy-ass sidekick pulled out a gun, and aimed it at security, and then it exploded.”
There’s a muffled noise as Sarah takes the phone back. She sounds out of breath. “I made some adjustments on this new model, but I overcompensated, and I didn’t have a chance to test it. So— Kat! The door!”
“Got it!”
“Sarah, what the hell is going on?!”
“Basically, some superheroes think I attacked them—”
“Because you did,” Kat says.
“—and they pulled actual rayguns on us, so we had to run. Now we’re barricaded in a hotel room, and I’m trying to fix the stupefication gun. We’re holding them off, but you guys need to get here, now!”
“Where are you?”
“Fourth floor. I don’t know the room number, but it’ll be obvious which one, since it’s the one all the superheroes are shooting at!”
“Okay, I’ll—”
“I have to go! Just get here!”
She hangs up. I press the button for the fourth floor. The elevator starts to ascend, and I brace myself against the railing, since I’m still not sure Riley was joking about that knocking sound. “I don’t have time to drop you off,” I tell Amelia, “but as soon as I get off this thing, you’re going to the lobby and getting out of here.”
“I’m going with you,” she says, even though her voice wavers a little and she looks kind of like going with me is the last thing she wants to do. “I’m not useless. And you don’t get to tell me what to do, because you left.”
“Amelia, I—”
“You left, and you didn’t tell anyone where you were going! You weren’t even going to tell anyone you were leaving! Everybody was worried, and they were all mad at me, because I kind of knew about it. I felt sick for days. And you lied to me. A bunch of times. You lied about what happened on our mission, and you lied about that awful red-headed kid being your brother.”
“That’s only twice. And if he was your brother, you’d lie about it, too.”
She glares at me. “But those are just the ones I know about. You’ve probably lied about a bunch more things. And then you show up here and tell everybody what to do, and you think you can just send me off to babysit and warn people. You didn’t even consider the fact that I could really do something.”
Since when is that a fact? “Warning people is important. You know you’re not exactly the best at fieldwork, and this is an emergency. I don’t have time to babysit anybody, least of all you.”
She gives
off an angry noise that makes her sound kind of like an elephant. “At least I’m here, and I’m not leaving, unlike some people.”
“I had to leave, okay? I had to! You guys could have gotten hurt. Which is why I don’t want you here now.”
“But you didn’t even ask us!”
“Because if I had, you would have told me to stay, and it was hard enough to leave as it was. But Alex almost got kidnapped, and if something else had happened, I couldn’t take it.”
“So you left because of you. Because you couldn’t take it. Don’t pretend it was for us.”
The elevator stops. There’s a ding, and then the doors open. I step into the fourth-floor hallway, and Amelia makes a big point of doing the same.
“Amelia. Get back on the elevator. I don’t have time for this.” We’re at what looks like the end of the hall, which branches off in different directions. I can hear the sounds of fighting in the distance to the right.
“Who knows how many superheroes there are? You can’t face them alone. You need me.”
I hold up my hands and make electricity wash over them. “Yes, I can. What are you going to do, throw eggnog on them? And anyway, Riley’s around somewhere. Just get back in there and call Mason”—I shove Riley’s phone into her hands—“and tell them to get over here.”
She starts to scroll through Riley’s contacts, actually listening to me for once—or half listening, since she stays put in the hallway—but then we both jump as the stairwell door next to us flies open.
Mason comes tearing out of it. He’s out of breath, like he’s been running a long time. And despite the way his face is red from exertion, he looks kind of green. Like he’s about to be sick. His eyes go wide when he sees us, and he tries to push past me into the elevator.
“Whoa.” I reach out to stop him, and Amelia moves to block the doors. “What happened? Where’s Riley?”
“They were shooting at us! They were superheroes, and they were shooting at us!”
“That doesn’t answer my question!”
“Slap him,” Amelia says. “That always works in the movies.”
I grab Mason by the collar with one hand and make the other go all electric. “Tell me what the hell happened!”
Mason lets out a whimper and tries to twist out of my grasp.
I hold my electric hand closer to his face.
His words come out all jumbled together, so that it takes me a second to realize what he said. “Ry-got-hurt-and-I-couldn’t-do-anything-and-we’re-running-out-of-time-and-I-can’t-be-here!”
“Wait, he what? And you left him?!”
“They were shooting at us!” There’s a bright flash as Mason suddenly uses his power.
I let go of him, instinctively putting my hands to my face to cover my eyes. I can’t see anything, just bright blobs of color. Amelia cries out at the same time, so I’m guessing she can’t see anything, either.
“Mason, what happened to Riley? Mason?!”
“He’s gone,” Amelia says. “He pushed past me to get into the elevator, and then I heard it start moving.”
My blood runs cold, and my stomach flops. I can’t believe this. “We have to go up there.”
“What about Kat and Sarah?”
“They can hold off those superheroes for a little longer.” I hope. But there’s no way Amelia could fight her way to them, and I can’t be in two places at once.
“What about the lasers?”
“We’ll get to them in time.”
“But—”
“Riley’s hurt. I don’t know what happened, but we’re not leaving him.”
“Okay.”
I rub my eyes, trying to make the blobs go away. My vision’s getting a little better. “Where are you? Can you hit the button?”
Amelia hesitates. “The elevator’s really slow, and Mason’s already on it. He must be going to the lobby, so he can get out of here. That means it would take forever to come back.”
Damn it. “But I can’t...”
“I’m coming over to you. Don’t zap me.”
A whole flight of stairs. And I can hardly see. But Riley’s hurt. The superheroes were shooting at them, and now he’s hurt.
Amelia’s hand reaches for me, then grabs my arm. “Come on. He didn’t get me too bad—I can mostly see stuff again.”
“I’m too slow. Slower than waiting for the elevator. I can’t—”
“You have to!” She takes a deep breath. “If I was better at fieldwork, I could go up there by myself, but you’re right—I’m not good at it.”
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
She drags me toward the stairs and opens the door. “But it’s true. I got us caught during our mission, and if I hadn’t, none of this would have happened.”
I laugh. “My Grandpa would have told me about it eventually. He wanted me to join—that’s part of why he made the Truth in the first place.”
We get to the stairs. My vision’s mostly cleared up, though there are still a few spots. I shake off Amelia’s arm and look up. The stairs spiral around with a landing at each corner. I can’t actually see the top, and it has nothing to do with the spots in my eyes. “This is impossible. The elevator will be faster, even if we have to wait.”
“Come on.” Amelia grabs my arm again.
I jerk away from her. “The last person who touched me while I was on the stairs got zapped, so hands off.”
She screws up her face and glares at me. “I know I don’t have a cool power, and I can’t, like, shoot people like you can. I’m not good at fieldwork, and I’ll probably never be good enough to join the League like Mom and Dad, but I can do this! I can make you go up these stupid stairs, and I don’t care if you zap me!” Her nostrils flare in and out, and she wraps her arms around one of mine and pulls.
I go up one step, then another. My heart’s racing, partly because of my fear of heights, but mostly because I know I don’t have time for this. I make the mistake of looking up again, and a spark of electricity runs through me.
Amelia winces, but she doesn’t lose her grip. She continues walking backwards up the stairs, as if it’s no big deal. “Just look down at the step in front of you. Pretend there’s just the one. One step up from the ground isn’t very high. Just keep imagining that each step is the first one.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“You’re not going to fall, okay? I’m not letting go, no matter what.”
“So then we’ll both fall.” But we’re halfway to the first landing already, so maybe this is working.
“Neither of us is going to do that. You’re on the ground, remember? Just one step up.”
I grit my teeth. I hate this. My best friend is hurt, and I don’t even know how badly, but Mason looked pretty freaked out, and he said it was bad enough that there was nothing he could do. Which could mean anything. It could mean something very, very bad. And I hate that Amelia’s seeing me like this. “You’re wrong, you know,” I tell her. “You have a pretty cool power.”
“Not as cool as flying. Or turning invisible. Or even having lightning.”
“Gee, thanks.” I don’t raise my foot quite high enough, and my toe scuffs against the edge of the next step, throwing me off balance a little. There’s a split second where I know I’m going to fall, and it feels like my heart stops, like everything stops, but then Amelia pulls me forward.
The ground is flat, and I realize we’re at the first landing.
“We’re almost there,” Amelia lies. She speeds up as we get to the second set of stairs, dragging me with her.
“You have a cool power, and maybe you did botch our mission, but you also managed to steal the key and get into the back room. So you can’t be as bad at fieldwork as you think.”
“Yeah, right. We both know I’m not that great at it.”
“Okay, but you’ve got potential. And... maybe if I’d been helping you instead of standing around texting, things would have gone differently.” I kind of mumble that part, and
I keep my eyes on my feet, and not just because it’s helping me not freak out too much.
“You want to know something?” Amelia says. “I don’t even know if I like fieldwork. And I’m never going to be good enough to join the League. I’ve wanted to forever, but I didn’t really think about what it would mean. And I thought I’d get flying power, and that I’d just be able to do stuff.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“You’re slowing down. Come on.” She picks up the pace, keeping her death grip on my arm and forcing me to keep up.
“I wasn’t a very good partner to you.”
“Or a good brother.”
I guess I deserve that. “I shouldn’t have lied.”
“Second landing,” Amelia says. “One more to go.”
I nod. I don’t want to think about how many stairs that means are below us, or what it would mean to fall right now. “But my grandpa asked me to keep the Truth a secret. I couldn’t betray him.”
Amelia scoffs at that. “And what about having a whole brother I didn’t know about?”
“It wasn’t really any of your business.”
“But it hurt when I found out you lied about him. Like you don’t trust me.”
I’m about to say that I don’t, but it seems kind of contradictory, what with me trusting her to lead me up the stairs and all. “Mom had him after she kicked me out. She used some weird growth formula on him, so even though he looks like he’s Alex’s age, he’s actually not even six months old. He’s all villain, and he even looks like her. She didn’t want me, and now she has a replacement. It’s not exactly something I go around telling people.”
“I only spent a couple minutes with him, but he’s really terrible. You’re way better than him, and if your mom doesn’t know that, then she must have something wrong with her.”
“Mom got married. Xavier has both his parents around, and I never thought I cared about stuff like that, but maybe I do. I only ever have one or the other. And now it’s like she has this completely new family, and I’m not part of it. She doesn’t want me to be part of it.”
“You have a family she’s not part of, too. A much bigger one, and we would never act like she does. I know I got mad when you left, but you’re still my brother, and I didn’t really mean it when I said I’d never forgive you. It just really hurt when you left. I couldn’t say anything to make you stay, and then you walked out, and—”
The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) Page 32
