Super Zero

by Rhonda Stapleton

  I nodded. “I’m fine, thanks. If I need help, I’ll go to a hospital.”

  He didn’t seem convinced but thankfully let me go. I popped the lock-picking kit into my purse and carefully made my way back up the stairs to the main floor, through the darkness of the now blacked-out night club and out onto the sidewalk. With a heavy sigh I leaned against the brick wall, desperate to stop all the thoughts swirling around in my head.

  I looked at the tips of my hair to make sure they were no longer smoking as I connected the pieces of the puzzle in my mind. I’d touched the changing crystal at the same time as I’d scanned my debit card through the swiper. That must have been why I’d electrocuted myself and had blown the power out in the building.

  I was now a superhero. A real one, like Amy, not a poser sidekick anymore.

  With my luck though, I’d probably only gained the power of unlimited debts. My bank account was not going to thank me. Or maybe I was some kind of electrical socket now? Would my power be related to the big zap I got?

  To test myself, I got into my car and touched my finger to the ignition, digging my fingernail into the key slot. Nothing happened.

  I tried touching it again, mentally willing myself to turn the car on with an electrical jolt. Still nothing.

  Great. It was a dud.

  And so was I.

  I started the car with my car key and headed back to work, strangely disappointed. It must have been a freak accident…but for one small moment, I’d almost felt a small niggle of excitement at the thought.

  I pulled into the garage, the car idling in the parking spot. A spark of an idea hit me, and I touched the ignition again, visualizing myself turning the car off.

  The power instantly shut down.

  A shudder swept though me. The crystal had worked. I had changed.

  Chapter 14

  I headed back into the office, ready to zap my way into the HR department and get the goods on Greenie.

  Carrie waved at me when I stepped off the elevator. “Jenna, will you tell Mr. Wallings that Mr. Fayette called, and that he needs that revised CompuParts estimate—”

  “You’ll have to talk to him," I interrupted her. "I have something to take care of right now.”

  I suddenly felt stronger, less freaked out by Carrie’s weird green skin thing. I was a superhero now and could handle these things. Odd villain powers wouldn’t be spooking me now. I wasn’t a helpless Joe Schmoe anymore. I could take care of myself.

  I headed to human resources, unlocking my cell. The car experiment had proven to me that me I don’t generate electricity myself, though I could apparently end it. Maybe I needed to drain it from another source in order to manipulate the power. I held the open phone in one hand and touched the tip of my finger to the door, willing the phone’s energy to flow into my hand and to the door.

  The electronic lock clicked off. My cell, however, died right in my hand.

  Well, crap. That wasn’t smart. Good thing I had a charger at my desk, especially if I was going to bleed my phone as a source of electricity. Mental note: find a better power source.

  I pushed the door open, tiptoeing through the darkened cubicles back to the storage area. The door clicked as it closed behind me. Rows of well-worn metal grey shelves packed the back wall, just ready for me to plunder them. Most of the good information I’d want would be stored in an online database, but as I had absolutely no computer hacking skills I’d have to make due with whatever paperwork I could find.

  The filing cabinet on the very end was labeled “Employee Applications”.

  Bingo.

  A little thrill of excitement shot up my skin as I opened the drawer and fingered through the papers. Carrie’s application was wedged in there, as I hoped.

  I quickly grabbed my notebook and pen, making sure to externally check which pocket was which first so I wouldn’t accidentally change my power, then scribbled down the address listed on her application.

  I put the paper back, closed the drawer and snuck out of the department. The last thing I needed was to get busted right now.

  At my desk I plugged my cell into the charger and sank into my plush fabric seat, relieved to be done with that part.

  Time to put my Google-fu to the test.

  I Googled “local maps” and came up with findyourneighborhoodmap.com, a handy little website with aerial neighborhood maps for all fifty states. I plugged in Carrie’s application address to see where her home popped up on the site.

  The computer churned for a minute as it thought, then showed an empty warehouse on the west side, abandoned when the company went out of business. I remembered because it was plastered all over the news for a while, about how it would hurt the local economy.

  Belatedly, I realized what this meant. Carrie had given a bogus address on her app.

  I smacked my forehead. Stupid! I should have realized that sooner. If she was here on nefarious business, of course she wouldn’t give a real address. She wouldn’t want to be busted, would she?

  Well, what now, genius? Obviously, these superpowers were getting me really far with things—I had a lingering headache in the back of my skull from almost cracking it open earlier, and I had a false lead on Carrie’s address.

  I grabbed a couple of aspirin from a drawer in my desk and chugged them down with a mug of half-drunk cold coffee, praying they would kick in soon.

  Okay, what would Vigilante do? At the thought of him, my lips started to tingle, and not from the super jolt I got earlier today. God, he was a fabulous, skilled kisser. He’d used his lips to caress my skin, to stroke the sensitive spots on me. I never felt like I was drowning in spit or being swallowed whole.

  Focus. What would he do to find out more information on Carrie? I mentally replayed everything that had happened in the bathroom, from her peeling up the top layer of her face, to her phone vibrating—

  Wait. Her phone. She’d gotten a call from someone while we were there. Maybe there would be a record of who’d called on her list of calls received.

  Wow, this was getting into dangerous territory. Maybe I should tell Mason and let him handle it. After all, if I were busted snooping through Carrie’s stuff, I could get canned, or arrested for illegal searching. Or Carrie herself could decide to kick my ass.

  Inner Demon: But only if you were caught. And you’d be careful, wouldn’t you?

  Inner Angel: You’d feel squicky if someone went digging through your stuff. It’s a violation of privacy, no matter who she is.

  Inner Demon: Dude, the chick peeled her face off, and she lied on her application about her residence. Something’s rotten in Denmark. Plus, you already broke the law by snooping through her HR records. Might as well finish what you started.

  Man, my inner demon was so much more logical than my angel. No wonder I continued to get myself in such messes. But in all honesty, I’d started this and was already entrenched in what was happening. I couldn’t quit now, and I had to prove Carrie was up to no good.

  I glanced at my watch. Ten to five. Mason would be leaving in a few minutes to head home. Maybe I could use him as an excuse for Carrie to leave her desk long enough for me to raid her purse.

  “Carrie!” I said, rushing over to her desk. I feigned breathlessness, as if I was eager to see her, then slumped my arms across the top of her desk like I needed to rest. “I think I heard Mason calling for you from his office. You might want to head back to see what’s going on soon—he’s leaving in just a few minutes.”

  She bounced up in her seat, her hair surprisingly immobile, and fixed those beady eyes on me. “Thanks. Can you watch the phone lines for me while I go talk to him? I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Planting her massive hands on the desk top, she hauled herself out of the seat, heading down the hall.

  I watched Carrie turn the corner toward Mason’s office. Then I ducked down and checked under her desk. Sure enough her purse was there, nestled in the darkened back corner. My heart slammed hard against my chest.
Oh, please God, let me find the phone in time.

  Careful to leave the purse in place so as to create as little suspicion as possible, I unzipped the top, reaching my hand in to feel for her phone. There were all kinds of candy bar wrappers in there, which crinkled every time my hand hit one. I cringed, hoping it wasn’t too loud.

  After an agonizing minute my hand slid across cold, curved metal. Got it.

  I grabbed the cell out of the purse and quickly peeked at the received calls list, scrolling down to the one she got when we were in the bathroom. It was a local number.

  I heard hard footsteps thundering down the hallway.

  Crap, she was coming back. With a shaky hand I scrawled the number down on my notepad then crammed the phone back in where I’d found it and zipped the bag. I crawled around on the floor, one eye squinted closed.

  Carrie hovered over me. “Mason didn’t need me. Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Oh my God, I think I lost my contact,” I quickly said, my fingers groping around the chilly tiled floor like I was a blind woman.

  This was quite possibly the most awfully executed lie in the world: one, I didn’t wear contacts; and two, I think I was hamming it up a bit too much.

  Luckily, Carrie seemed to buy it. “I think I see something over there,” she said, pointing to a spot a couple of feet away. Of course, she didn’t actually move over there, leaving it to me to shuffle.

  Which I did, grateful to be escaping. I pretended to find something then pinched the fake object between my fingers. “I think this is it. Thanks!”

  High-tailing it back to my office, I slammed the door shut and leaned back against the cool wood, closing my eyes in relief. I just needed one minute to recup from my dangerous mission.

  Plunking back down in my computer chair, I Googled an online reverse phone lookup and plugged the number in the prompt. The first database didn’t get any results, so I went back to Google’s results page and tried the second hit.

  The number on the screen was from a line at SummerTech Industries.

  * * *

  “So, I’m not sure what to do now,” I told Vigilante, who sat across from me. I nervously sipped on a glass of water.

  When Carrie’s caller had turned out to be someone from SummerTech, my stomach had hit the floor. She must be working for Dementrix. It made perfect sense. But what did they want from Mason? Could it be about the crystal?

  Why had Dementrix sent Carrie here to spy on him or me, or whatever else it was she was doing?

  Then I’d had another thought—what if Carrie had planted some kind of bug in my office so she could eavesdrop on what I was doing? What if she knew all my plans this way?

  Now that I was super paranoid, I’d waited until I got back to my apartment to call Vigilante, asking him to meet me somewhere inconspicuous.

  The League of Heroes had asked me to stay out of contact with everyone, since they didn’t know who I could trust, but maybe even they couldn’t have figured would be this bad. I needed Vigilante’s help to get to the bottom of this. He was the leading expert on Dementrix. If anyone could figure out her plan, he could.

  Which was why we were currently seated at PF Chang’s, my favorite restaurant, waiting for the waitress to come take our orders.

  Of course, I didn’t tell him about the changing crystal incident. I knew I’d get reamed for being stupid, and what was worse was he’d be right. The crystal was put in my care for me to protect, not for me to use—accidentally, or otherwise. Because I hadn’t handled the jewel properly, it had changed me forever.

  Besides, I didn’t know the full extent of my powers. There could be other things I hadn’t found out yet. No, it was best to keep that little nugget of information to myself for the time being. So when I relayed the whole story to him, I made sure to keep it vague on how I broke into HR, focusing more on Carrie’s odd actions.

  Vigilante seemed intrigued by the whole situation. He put his glass down, rubbing his index finger along the rim. “So, this Carrie…works for Dementrix. And was sent to your office to…spy on you or The Machine? Hm.” He scratched his five-o’clock shadow, making a scratching sound. His lips turned down into a frown. “I guess this means Mason probably didn’t rat you out about the changing crystal handoff after all.”

  I shrugged, as the evidence seemed to indicate it. I still wasn’t fully convinced one way or the other, though. “I guess. But what do they want with him? That’s the part I’m not getting.”

  Our waitress, a woman in her early forties, came to the table, dressed in black pants and a tight white dress shirt. When she saw Vigilante pushed her breasts out a bit and shot him a huge smile, shaking her hair oh-so slightly. Just enough for me to see her actions and be supremely irked.

  What was the deal with his effect on all women? This was getting old, fast.

  “Um, hello!” I said to her as perkily as possible to draw her attention to me and away from Vigilante. “I’m ready to order now.”

  “Oh, right,” she replied, tearing her kohl-lined eyes away from him to look at me. A blush rose up her cheeks, and she bit her lower lip. “So, what can I get you two?”

  I glanced at the menu quickly to remind myself of what I was going to eat. I’d gotten so irritated I forgot. “I’d like the sweet and sour chicken with white rice.”

  “And I’ll have the kung pao chicken,” Vigilante said, “extra spicy, with white rice as well.”

  She took our menus, shooting him a wink. “You got it, sugar.”

  After she left, I raised one eyebrow at him. “So, sugar, that’s essentially where I’m at.”

  He picked up his drink, laughing into the cup. After taking a small sip he said, “There’s no reason to be jealous. Women just have a thing for the uniform. It’s not me.”

  “What?” A rapid burn stole across my face and throat. I was so busted. “I wasn’t jealous.”

  Vigilante stared into my eyes. A deep pool of desire spread through my lower pelvis, and I swallowed.

  “Okay,” I said, suddenly wanting to be honest, “maybe I was a little jealous.”

  “I’m glad you called me,” he said, his sexy mouth curled into a small smile.

  “You are?” God, I was glad I’d called him too. I didn’t realize how much I’d wanted to see his face until he was right there in front of me. The guy had grown on me. And it was exciting, invigorating, totally petrifying. Because I was finally aware that I had fallen for him. Head-first, head-over-heels, the whole shebang.

  “Yup,” he answered. “Now, let’s figure out what to do.”

  I pushed down all my romantic feelings, trying to focus on the task at hand. He was right. Now was not the time to spill forth all my secret desires. Now was business time.

  Later this evening, after having studied him to see how he felt, I could start hinting that maybe I was feeling something more than physical for him. Besides, I needed time to remind myself I still didn’t know who he was. Technically, Vigilante was just a superhero with a pseudonym. But in my heart I knew it was more than that. He and I had grown close over the past couple of weeks, closer than most normal couples got in such a short period of time together.

  So what did that matter, then? He’d open up and trust me with his identity sooner or later, and I’d prove to him that I’d earned his trust. I just had to believe in the power of my feelings and try my best not to push him. Just create an environment in which he could be himself.

  My cell phone’s ringtone came on from my purse. Damnit, not right now! I grabbed it out of the bag to turn it off, irritation ripping through me. The screen light flared then went completely dead.

  Oh, crap. I’d killed it again. I just didn’t want to be interrupted while I was with Vigilante—I didn’t mean to make the power blow out. Well, maybe he wouldn’t have to know what happened. I just needed to play it cool.

  I sheepishly crammed it back in my purse and offered him a shaky smile, not trusting myself to speak.

  Vigilante’s eyes widene
d. Then they narrowed to small slits as he stared at me. “What happened to your phone, Jenna?”

  I gave a nervous giggle, hoping against hope I wasn’t busted. “You know how it is with technology these days. So…unstable.”

  He closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “You touched the crystal.”

  Chapter 15

  “It was an accident,” I explained. “I was trying to buy something and reached into my pants pocket, thinking it held a pen. But it had the crystal instead.”

  Vigilante groaned, shaking his head at me in disbelief. Anger flared in his eyes. “Do you realize what could have happened to you? You could have been seriously hurt. Very few people have ever dared to use the crystal because of its instability.”

  My stomach sank at his words. “I know.” God, he was right. It could have been so much worse. Here I was running around, thrilled to be a real hero, when I should have been grateful to still be alive and relatively normal.

  He leaned in close, studying my face. “What exactly has happened to you since you touched it? Tell me everything.”

  I explained the experiment with turning off my car, then how I drained the juice out of my phone to open the locked human resources door.

  Vigilante leaned back, taking a drink. “Interesting. Well, it appears you have the ability to channel and manipulate electricity. This could be useful.”

  I nodded, chewing on my thumbnail. “I don’t even know where to go with this stuff. Anyway, right now we need to figure out how Mason is connected to SummerTech, and if this is tied in with the crystal. But how?”

  “We’re just going to have to break into the labs at the company and SummerTech and find out ourselves.”

  I blinked rapidly at him. Did he say break into their building? I mean, it was one thing to open HR’s door or Mason’s lab when I was already on the floor, but another to completely bust into a guarded building.

  Especially one ran by a crazy-ass villain.

  “Okay, your food is here,” our waitress said, appearing right in front of us. She set the plates, heaped with steaming food, in front of us. “I hope you enjoy your meal.” She threw Vigilante one last longing glance before leaving.