Masked (Superheros Undercover Book 1)

by J. D. Wright

  “So we’re really doing this?” Gypsy asked. “Is this the plan?”

  Everyone nodded in agreement and spent the next few minutes going over what to admit to and what to omit from the story. Whiskey and Jewel chimed into Majestic and Orion’s ears from time to time, offering alternate excuses for things that they couldn’t explain.

  After another few minutes, there was a knock on the door and it opened. A man stepped inside and called Gypsy’s name. The super forced a smile before she left the room and then the wait began until the next would be called. About ten minutes later, Orion had his turn, followed by Vortex, and finally Majestic.

  Majestic was led further down the hallway and into a room with a smaller table in the center and two chairs, one on each side. A woman in a dark gray business suit was sitting at the table and Majestic took a seat opposite her. The woman opened a folder and clicked her pen. Then she looked up and gave a small smile.

  “Can you tell us what happened tonight?”

  Majestic cleared her throat. Suddenly, her mouth felt dry and scratchy. She was about to lie and wasn’t used to the guilt that accompanied it. Sure, she’d fibbed every now and then, but this was different. This was much bigger of a lie. She wasn’t sure she could keep a straight face and hide her nerves from ratting her out.

  “Well, it started when Gypsy contacted me,” Majestic said. “I got a message from my agent that she wanted to meet.”

  “Why?”

  “Gypsy had a premonition. She’s a psychic.”

  “And you trust her visions?”

  “I do. This isn’t the first one she’s had that involved me.”

  “You’re referring to the incident yesterday, at Guillotine High School?”

  “Umm…yes.” Majestic coughed and sat up straighter. “Gypsy had a vision that mutants were going to attack the city. She saw a glimpse of the chemical plant. So we went.”

  “You, Gypsy, Orion, and Vortex?” the woman asked, looking up. “By yourselves?”

  Majestic narrowed her eyes. “We’re all registered supers, ma’am. And we’re all over eighteen. We’re allowed to work without anyone’s permission. Even yours.”

  The woman shuffled around in her seat. “Yes, that’s true. I only meant to ask because it’s rare for novice supers to take on such a big…threat.”

  “You know who my parents are, I assume?”

  “Yes, we do.”

  “Then you know that I have been training for this since I was born. And when I graduate next month, I fully intend to start working full-time. My team and I knew the danger before we acted.”

  “I see. And when you arrived, you discovered that Gypsy’s vision was correct?”

  “Yes. We were ambushed in the parking lot. If you look, you will see piles of ash all over. Those are the mutants we took down. They were made of some sort of rock material.”

  “Did the mutants talk?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “And how did the explosion come about?”

  Majestic took a deep breath and tried to recall the story that they’d come up with. “When we defeated all of the gorgs in the parking lot, and we went inside to try to catch the villain responsible. But by the time we went in, he or she had already gone. We must have tripped some sort of alarm that triggered the explosion.”

  “We found equipment inside the building. Do you know what that equipment does?”

  “No,” Majestic said. It wasn’t an entire lie. She had some idea what the equipment did after learning about the megavillain project, but she couldn’t say with certainty.

  The woman looked over her notes then stopped and jerked her head up.

  “Gorgs.”

  “Excuse me?” Majestic asked. Her stomach tightened into a giant knot.

  “You called the mutants gorgs. If you never saw who created them, how do you know what they’re called?”

  Majestic froze. Shit. This wasn’t something that they’d talked about when devising their plan. She’d have to improvise and hope like hell that none of the others said something that would contradict her. “I think someone called them that while we were fighting and we just went with it. Sounded like a good name for them, don’t you think?”

  The woman gave a small shrug and looked back down at her papers. Then she straightened her stack and stood from the table. “You’re free to go, Majestic. If we have any other questions, we’ll be in touch.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” Majestic stood and calmly walked out of the room. Once in the hallway, though, she bolted out of there as fast as she could.

  The sun was up and burning across the sky when she stepped outside. She rubbed her eyes to adjust them to the bright light. Then she felt someone watching her. She turned to see Orion leaning against the wall near the door. He pushed off and strolled toward her.

  “What are you still doing here?” she asked. “Aren’t you tired?”

  “I’m exhausted,” Orion said, stopping in front of her. “Are you okay?”

  “You’re not my keeper, Starboy. Don’t you have someone’s mind to invade somewhere?”

  Orion’s lips curled up. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. That your parents didn’t punish you for what we did.”

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Well, you’re about to find out because there they are.”

  Majestic spun around to see Comet and Siege walking toward them.

  Orion bent down and whispered, “If you want to run, I’ll cover you.”

  She elbowed him in the stomach and heard him laugh.

  “You’re still here,” Comet said, nodding to the both of them.

  “I’m Siege, Majestic’s father.” Siege held his hand out. “I assume you’re Orion. We’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Orion feigned shock and shook the super’s hand. “You have?”

  “Oh, please,” Majestic muttered, rolling her eyes. “It’s been negative. All of it.”

  “I read over your report. There’s one thing I hoped you could clarify,” Comet said, looking between her daughter and Orion. “You said you left the house before midnight and got to the plant well after 1:30. Is that correct?”

  “Yes…” Majestic had a feeling she wasn’t going to like her mother’s response.

  “So what took you so long to get to the chemical plant? What were you doing?”

  Majestic felt her face blush and she diverted her eyes to the ground. Then an idea hit her. It wouldn’t be an outright lie, but it was a fib she could live with. She looked up. “Orion took me for a ride on his bike. While we were waiting for the others to arrive.”

  Orion blinked a few times then seconded Majestic’s claim. “Yes, I did. She loved it. Said it was the most fun she’d had in years.”

  Majestic glared at Orion, but he just smiled down at her, ignoring the daggers she shot him with her gaze. Finally, she forced a smile and said, “Sure.”

  “We should get home,” Siege said. “It was nice to meet you, Orion. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you soon.”

  “Hopefully not,” Majestic grumbled, and turned to leave with her parents. She glanced back once and watched Orion disappear around the side of the building.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Four

  Vada dropped onto her bed and fell right to sleep. She didn’t even bother pulling the covers over her and the sunlight drifting into the room didn’t bother her in the slightest. She was just so tired from being up all night long and battling gorgs.

  When she finally woke, it was dinnertime. She could smell food when she started down the stairs, wincing from the pain of each step. Her legs hurt, arms hurt, and everything in between. She had a suspicion that she’d be feeling the effects of the night before for days to come. She predicted a lot of yoga in her future. Her usual workout routine would probably have to be toned down until she recovered.

  But while her body was aching, her spirit soared. Henley had survived, and even though she’d gone off with Velocious, Vada knew that her f
riend would live another day. In all, it was a good outcome. The team had come out mostly unscathed. They would also live to fight another day, and they wouldn’t stop until they brought Dr. Chem to justice.

  When Vada entered the kitchen, her parents and brothers were already fixing their plates. The table was filled with food, and if Vada had to guess, it probably came from Lucy’s. There was meatloaf, potatoes, corn, broccoli, rolls, and a pie for dessert. She plopped down and piled her plate so high that her parents gave her a look of surprise.

  “I’m hungry,” Vada said, digging in.

  “I’d say so,” Bill replied. “All of that mutant killing must have taken a toll on you. How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been hit by a bus.”

  “School or city?”

  “Both.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yep.” She took another bite and moaned. “I love food.”

  Josh pretended to attempt to steal her roll from her plate. Vada growled at him and he pulled his hand back with a laugh. “Sure you didn’t get bitten by one of those mutants? I heard you can change into one if that happens. You know, like zombies?”

  Garret dropped his fork with a clang. “What? Are you serious?”

  Josh and Vada laughed, but neither told Garret the truth. They’d let him stew on it for a while. Being older siblings did have its perks every now and then.

  When dinner was over, they cleared the table and the children helped with cleanup. After a fifteen-minute argument between Josh and Vada over the right way to load the dishwasher, the kitchen was finally clean.

  “Vada,” Michelle said. “Your father and I would like to talk to you.”

  Vada groaned aloud. Knowing this was going to happen sooner or later didn’t prevent her from dreading it. She looked to Josh for support, but he just swiped a finger across his throat in a decapitating gesture that did nothing to lessen Vada’s worry. As payback, however, she used her power to send the placemats onto the floor as she walked out. Josh shouted at her, unhappy that he had to pick them up and replace them on the table.

  Bill was already sitting in his chair in the study when his wife and daughter entered. He closed his computer and walked around the desk to stand beside Michelle. Vada took a seat and waited in silence for the lecture to begin. She was surprised when her mother finally spoke.

  “We’re proud of you,” Michelle said.

  “You are?”

  “We are,” Bill said in a tone that wasn’t entirely pleasant. “But that doesn’t mean we approve of how you handled the situation. You didn’t alert anyone. You went into a dangerous situation without knowing what you’d find—”

  “That’s my job,” Vada argued. “How many times do you go on a call not knowing what you’ll find? How many police officers respond to dangerous situations? Firefighters go into buildings knowing it won’t be safe. What we do isn’t going to be safe. That’s a guarantee.”

  Michelle and Bill looked at each other, then turned back to Vada.

  “We know,” Michelle said. “That’s why we’re proud that you used your training well and took care of yourself.” She sat on the edge of the desk and folded her hands. “We can’t and won’t stop you from working. This is your future and we want it to be. We just didn’t expect you to jump into this so…deeply. Your first jobs should be taking down petty thieves and misdemeanors. Not full-blown mutant armies.”

  “I know. But I can handle myself.”

  “That isn’t our only worry, Vada.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We want you to remember that super work is a job, but it isn’t your entire life.” Bill moved to sit across from his daughter and took her hand. “If you get too far into your super identity, you can get lost in it. You’ll spend less and less time out of suit and eventually you won’t even remember who Vada is.”

  “That won’t happen to me,” Vada said, shaking her head. “I won’t turn.”

  “Supers have turned. They always will. I don’t want you to be one of them. We love you and you will always be Vada to us, whether you’re Majestic or not. We don’t want you to get so caught up in being Majestic that you lose yourself in her. She is part of you, but she isn’t all of you. It’s important to keep your identities separate, not only for safety from the outside world, but also for you.”

  Vada knew what her father meant. Turning happened when a super stayed in suit for too long and essentially became the alter identity. They lost touch with who they had been before and usually never found it again. Supers who turned were destined to stay that way forever. It usually happened to villains more than heroes, but it did happen to both. Anyone who knew the super in their normal life would lose them entirely, especially if they didn’t know the super side.

  It was what Vada had been afraid had happened to Henley. When Eden had heard Vada’s voice in the chemical plant, Vada had felt a small bit of hope that Henley was still inside of Eden and hadn’t been entirely lost. But now that Eden was gone, Vada wasn’t sure if she’d ever get Henley back. At least she could sleep knowing the person who Henley had become wasn’t dead in a ditch after Dr. Chem’s failed experiment. But was being Eden for eternity a better outcome?

  “It’s that very reason,” Michelle said, “that we’ve come to a compromise.”

  Vada snapped back to the conversation. “Compromise for what?”

  Bill rubbed Vada’s hand in his. “A way for us to feel better about your working. A deal between us and you that will give you your freedom but us our peace of mind.”

  “I don’t like the way this sounds.”

  “It’s nothing major. Just…”

  “We want you to go to college,” Michelle finished. “Starting in the fall. At CCC, with Josh.”

  “What? Why?” Vada felt a surge of panic. This was not her plan. She wanted to work full-time. Going to college meant splitting her time between work and school, not to mention the little bit of social life that she had been able to maintain. “For how long? How long do I have to go?”

  “We thought at least two years. Long enough for you to get a simple degree. We don’t even care what you get it in. General studies, if you want. Build your own curriculum, even. We’re paying for it, so take whatever ridiculous classes you want. But you have to go over part time. It’s the only way they’ll let you live in the dorms.”

  “Wait. I have to live in the dorms too?”

  “It would be best, we think,” Bill replied. “You’ll be on campus and close to your classes. You’ll be around other students, people your age. That will be good for you.”

  “Because in order to go to class,” Vada realized, “I’ll have to come out of suit. I have to be in my normal identity.”

  “Yes. We agree that we won’t try to stop you from working, no matter where your super work takes you, as long as you agree to go to school. There will be a few smaller stipulations, but this is the big one.”

  Vada stood and walked over to the shelf behind the desk. Her parents’ super awards and medals hung in the gym in their garage. But in the study, the Lawson normal accomplishments were proudly on display. And both of her parents had gone to college. The degree certificates were framed and sitting in front of her. Granted, her mother hadn’t gone back to school until Vada was in the third grade. But still, Michelle had done it.

  It was a fair compromise, Vada knew it. However, it wasn’t what she’d planned. She’d have to talk to James about the move across the city and new work hours. This might put a kink in the team’s plan to hunt for the remaining new supers too. She’d also have to figure out how to continue her search for Dr. Chem with a new course load.

  With luck, they’d catch the mad doctor before the fall semester even began. And if they didn’t, she’d just have to take the easiest classes she could find. Did they teach cooking classes in college? Sure, she wasn’t very good at cooking as it was, but it couldn’t be difficult to learn, right? One glance at her disaster-of-a-cook mother and Vada wasn’t sur
e if culinary classes were the right fit, either. But even though this was a big change in her plan, she could do it. If it kept her parents off her ass, even better.

  Vada turned back around and gave a nod. “Okay. I agree to your terms.”

  “Good.” Michelle stood and smiled. “We already sent in your application months ago, so we’ll just go and take care of the details…”

  Vada bit her tongue to keep from saying something she’d regret. Of course, they had applied to school for her. They must have sensed this would happen and were just waiting for a reason to drop this bombshell on her. But despite her irritation, she didn’t voice it.

  “Okay,” she said simply.

  “Good.” Bill walked over and pulled her into a hug. “Hopefully, you’ll be so busy with schoolwork that you won’t have time to fight mutants on the other side of the city.”

  “Wishful thinking,” Michelle said, waving her hand. “I’m just hoping she doesn’t show up with Orion in a week and want to marry him.”

  “Oh, my God! No!” Vada screeched, then laughed, knowing her parents were just teasing her. At least, she hoped that was all it was. “I will never marry that egotistical maniac.”

  “I remember a time when your mother swore she wouldn’t marry me,” Bill said with a smirk. “She used to call me a muscle head. Said my brain was the only muscle I didn’t exercise and she’d never marry a jock who’d rather punch someone than reason with them. Now, look at us.”

  Michelle laughed. “You’re still a muscle head. But I love it when you use those muscles.” She winked at her husband.

  “Ew!” Vada shoved away from them and stalked out of the study. “I’m scarred for life.”

  Vada stopped in the hallway and leaned against the wall. Though she didn’t want to hear about her parents’ love life, she secretly did want one of her own. She wasn’t entirely innocent in that department, either. She’d lost her virginity to Jordan last year, then practiced with him a little before setting him loose. And she and her last fling, Gordon, had gotten to third base before she’d lost interest in his constant talk about baseball.