Superheroes Suck

by Jamie Zakian

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  She tucked the gun back in its holster. There was no way she could use the sonic blaster in this cramped hallway, not without hitting Evie. The electro-pulse darts in her vest pocket, however, were a different story.

  In one of those silent conversations only sisters could have, Shay told Evie to duck. Evie’s expression held the reply of Hell no, you’re freakin’ crazy and Shay flashed a Yep smirk.

  “Okay,” Shay said. She leaned against the wall to get a better view of Cyrus. “Just don’t hurt her.” She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a thin metal rod. It looked harmless, like a fancy pen, but it shot multiple fifty-thousand-volt pulse darts.

  Shay took a step toward Cyrus, then another. The closer she got to him, the more weak spots she found in his armor. He’d forgotten to fasten a strap on his side, which left a wide-open target for her pulse dart.

  The second Cyrus blinked, Shay raised her arm. She pressed the button on her dart gun and two pointed chips sailed down the hallway.

  Evie curved to the side, as far as she could with a hand wrapped around the back of her neck. The shiny darts flew passed her waist and stuck into Cyrus’s side.

  Cyrus locked stiff as a web of white lightning scattered from the darts in his flesh. The electric charge traveled along his body, flashing and crackling. When it rode up his arm, Evie broke free from his grip. She dropped to her hands and knees, and Shay ran to her side.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, wrapping her arms around Evie’s slightly shuddering body.

  “Yeah.” Evie’s teeth chattered, her shoulders twitching. “It shocked me a little, but I’m good.”

  A roar erupted from Cyrus’s mouth. He tore the darts from his side, tossing them to the ground beside Shay. His body shook, but his glare held firm. He reached for Shay and fell to one knee.

  “We gotta move,” Shay yelled, dragging Evie backward down the hallway.

  Cyrus rose to his feet, growling, and Shay pulled a containment grenade off the front of her vest, its pin dangling from her zipper. His eyes grew wide as she tossed the round canister at his feet.

  A bright light blasted from the grenade, and blew up to form a bubble around Cyrus. The burst of energy knocked Shay to the ground, right beside Evie.

  She sat up and her nose nearly touched the transparent containment field. Cyrus stood over her, but he couldn’t touch her. He was trapped within an orb of electromagnetic energy.

  Cyrus slammed his fists against the barrier between them, and a yelp flew from Shay’s mouth. She scurried backward on the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust as she hurried away from the raging man who beat the containment field imprisoning him.

  Shay couldn’t hear his shouts, or the thump of his fists as they crashed against the sturdy field of entwined light, but she could see his fury clearly.

  This time, her containment field didn’t falter. A supervillain pounded his extra strong fists against the field’s hazy surface, and it did nothing except spread ripples of blue light around the smoky orb.

  The smile wiped from Shay’s lips when she looked at Evie. Her sister sat on the filthy ground, covered in cobwebs, staring at Cyrus.

  Shay knelt beside Evie, caressing her sister’s back. “What did he do to you?”

  Evie reached for the forcefield in front of her and Cyrus stopped attacking it. Then, Shay saw the most unexpected thing. Love. It shined in Cyrus’s eyes as he gazed at Evie.

  “He really, really hurt me,” Evie said. She dropped both her stare and her hand to the broken tile below her knees.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Shay helped Evie to her feet. For some reason, Cyrus smiled at her. He was stuck inside her containment field, yet he held a cocky smirk.

  Shay turned from Cyrus’s smug grin, and a large hand grabbed onto the front of her vest. The shock in her eyes reflected off a plastic chest plate as her feet were lifted off the ground.

  Lucius had a firm hold on her. She could feel the chill his body emitted before she even looked up at his sinister face.

  “Release my brother, or I’ll snap it.” He gestured at his other hand, which clutched Evie by the throat.

  “I can’t,” Shay said, reaching for the sonic blaster in her leg holster. “It’s time released. Twenty minutes.”

  Lucius growled and his grip on Shay tightened. She wrapped her fingers around the sonic blaster’s handle, just as Lucius slammed her head against the wall. A flash of white cloaked her vision, then a veil of darkness covered her.

  Max stretched out, rolling onto his back. He’d just had the weirdest dream. It had to have been a dream. He wasn’t stupid enough to bring Shay to the asylum, to battle supervillains, without back-up.

  The scent of musty air filled Max’s lungs and a cold stone floor chilled the back of his head. He was at the asylum.

  “Shay,” Max called out, sitting up on the dusty floor.

  Her voice didn’t sing in his ears. He looked around the dark stairwell, but her soft brown eyes were nowhere in sight.

  Max jumped to his feet and sprinted into the hallway. Cyrus stood alone at the far end of the dark corridor. A smile spread across Cyrus’s lips. The man taunted Max with that crooked grin, and it was all he needed for his fist to burst into flames. He ran, full force, and swung his fire-encased knuckles at Cyrus.

  His punch landed on what felt like a ten-inch thick titanium wall. A vein of blue lightning spread from beneath his fist and crackled around a now misty sphere.

  He backed away from what he imagined was one of Shay’s many weapons. An itchy prickle bit at his hand, and he rubbed the split skin on his knuckles until it healed and the burn faded.

  Cyrus opened his mouth, his head tilting back. It looked as though the man were laughing, but no sound flowed in the tight hallway.

  Max lifted his middle finger, backing away from Cyrus, and Cyrus tapped the watch on his wrist.

  Lucius released his grip on Shay’s unconscious body and she thumped to the steel grate floor of his lab. The other one, Cyrus’s girlfriend, squirmed and scratched at his hand. She was such a rude woman. He didn’t know what his brother saw in her. True, he was throttling her neck; but still, her behavior was unbecoming of a guest in his secret lair. He released his grip on soft skin and the rude one dropped from his sight.

  “Shay,” Hetal yelled, hurrying across the room.

  Lucius waved his arm, using his powers to fling Hetal into the machine. “Get back to work.”

  Hetal sunk elbow-deep into a nest of jumbled wires but her attention stayed on Shay and Evie. “Is she alive?”

  “Yeah,” Evie called out, pulling Shay into her lap. “Are you okay?”

  “This is touching,” Lucius said, looking between Hetal and Evie. “Now shut up.”

  Alexie walked beside Evie and pointed at Shay. “Where did she come from?”

  “I found her in the hall. She trapped Cyrus in some kind of forcefield.”

  “If she’s here, Max and Simon won’t be far behind.”

  “Then I guess we better hurry. Hetal.” Lucius’s shout caused the girl to bump her head on the machine before she jumped to her feet.

  “Five minutes?” she said, in more of a question than an answer.

  “Lucius.” Alexie glided her hand up Lucius’s arm, leaning close enough to fill his head with vanilla musk. “Maybe we should consider a truce. I think, if we’re willing to compromise on the whole forcing people into the machine aspect, Simon and Max would get behind this plan. The five of us could accomplish much more if we banded together.”

  Lucius grabbed Alexie by the waist, bringing his lips right in front of hers. “What a disappointment. I thought you were a fighter.”

  “Fine.” Alexie pushed off Lucius’s chest. She strolled across the room to stand over Evie and Shay. “Then I guess we’ll fight.”

  Max followed the echo of voices. The hallways in this asylum twisted and turned, branching o
ff to loop back around again. He’d already hit one dead end chasing shouts from nowhere.

  Just as he considered flying through these corridors, and torching the chipped paint from the walls as he soared by, Hetal called out Shay’s name.

  Max ran down the hall on his left, slowing at the sound of Lucius’s bark. This was it. Through the open door beside him, a villain waited for a hearty beatdown.

  His fingers curled into a fist, trailing flames. He stepped into the doorway, got one glimpse of Alexie, and froze in place. The woman was no prisoner, she wasn’t even angry. In fact, she rubbed on Lucius like a cat in heat.

  Max ducked back into the hallway. He leaned against the wall, fighting to catch his runaway breath. Alexie, a villain? Sure, she had a mean streak, but the woman knew right from wrong. Alexie had always wanted to protect the innocent.

  Max gripped onto the doorway and peeked back inside the room that looked like a crazed scientist’s scrapyard. Alexie was nose to nose with Lucius, locked in what looked to be … a kiss?

  A stab of betrayal sliced into Max’s gut, cutting so deep it pushed him back against the wall in the hallway. Poor Simon. Lexie was only his cover girlfriend, but it would still be a tug to the cape. Max slipped his hand into his pocket and clutched his cell phone. This call home was going to be a doozy. Oh, hey, Simon. I did that thing you told me not to do and now Shay’s in trouble. BTW, Lexie’s evil. It would probably flow better in a text.

  Max pulled his cell phone from his pocket. When the words No Signal flashed on his screen, he almost smashed the piece of crap tech against the wall.

  There was no easy choice for him to make, no right decision. He could fight two, three, possibly four villains solo and likely get Shay killed. Or, he could go get Simon and completely miss Shay getting killed. Both options sucked. Supervillains totally sucked.

  The grind of Max’s clenched teeth became eclipsed by the sizzle of fire. He looked at his hands. Flames surged from his fingertips, rolling up his arms in waves. He had to get Simon before he made another mistake.

  Evie stroked Shay’s cheek with one hand while reaching for the sonic blaster in Shay’s leg holster with the other. Lucius stood over Hetal, shouting like a child. The hissy fit terrified Hetal but provided the perfect distraction for Evie. Her finger brushed the weapon’s handle, and Alexie knelt beside her. She froze, even her lungs seized.

  “Listen, Evie—”

  “Get, away from me,” Evie said in a whisper, keeping her eye on Lucius.

  “I just … wanna explain. I might not get another chance. You know how I dated Cyrus a long time ago. Well, I didn’t break up with him because he went darkside. I was always, really into Lucius and I thought it’d be the perfect—”

  “Oh my God. Save it for the judge, because you’re definitely getting a subpoena on this one. And, ew.”

  An angered shout echoed from the hallway and Evie cringed.

  “Sounds like the beast broke free from his cage.” Alexie took the sonic blaster from Shay’s holster and rose to her feet. “I’m so glad Cyrus is your problem now.”

  Thick gray clouds floated around Shay. Each time she waved a puff of smoke away, another would drift in to take its place. There were people in the distance, behind the billows of fog. She glimpsed tiny hints of color—an arm, a metal floor, wires—but they existed far beyond the gray haze around her. If she could just beat back these stupid clouds of smoke, she could see what was on the other side of them.

  “You’re wasting your time, and energy.”

  “Jenna?”

  It had been Jenna’s voice, ringing out clear as day, but Shay’s hands found nothing when she groped the haze in front of her.

  A finger tapped Shay on the shoulder and she turned, staring at the legendary girl that actual statues were made of.

  Shay threw her arms around Jenna, hugging tight. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” Jenna asked.

  “For helping me so much. For being here.”

  Jenna patted Shay on the back, lightly, as if she were touching a foreign substance. “No worries. Not like I have much else to do, besides swat at clouds.”

  Shay drew back from Jenna, but not far. “Where are we?”

  “My crib. Inside your consciousness, or subconsciousness. Whatever. Not a scientist.”

  “Well, I guess, technically—”

  “Not wanting a science lesson either.” Jenna held a serious expression, and Shay giggled. With that hard stare, Jenna looked exactly like the picture on the trading card Shay kept in her binder at the lab.

  “This place is horrible.” Shay looked around at the hollow void that seemed to exist for the sole purpose of collecting gray smog. “Sorry my insides are so bland.”

  “It’s not usually this foggy.” Jenna waved her hand, clearing a small space around them. “Except when you’re sleeping, but then the haze has colors so it’s cool.”

  “I got knocked out.”

  “I know. Lucius is a dick.”

  Shay gasped, turning her dropped jaw to Jenna.

  “What? It’s true.”

  “Yeah it is,” Shay said through a snicker. Jenna really was special, way cooler than she could ever be. No wonder Max spent the last ten years missing her.

  “I figured out how to remove your soul from my body.”

  “Really?” Jenna’s eyes grew wide, and a bright smile crept across her lips for a split-second.

  “Yeah, but I don’t know where you’ll go once I set you free.” Tears welled inside Shay’s eyes. It took all she had to keep them at bay, to keep herself from weeping like a baby.

  “Anywhere has gotta be better than here. You’re scared for me?” Jenna wiped a tear from Shay’s cheek. “I’m not scared. I’m ready to move on.”

  “So you want me to do it?”

  Jenna held tight to both of Shay’s hands. Her mouth opened but the words were lost under a howl of wind. White light pulsed. Every flash clouded Jenna, blurring her face in its glare.

  Shay squeezed Jenna’s hands, but they were ripped from her grasp. She flew away from Jenna, through whips of gray smog, faster and faster into a blinding light.

  Max ran into Simon’s penthouse. He barged into the bedroom, where Simon slept like a log, and flipped on the light switch. “Dude. Get up.”

  “What?” Simon sat up in bed. He didn’t look startled, then again this wasn’t the first time Max had woken his buddy in such a manner. “What’s happened?”

  Clothes fell from their hangers as Max tore through Simon’s closet, searching out yellow spandex. “I messed up.” He pulled Simon’s suit from a hanger then tossed it on the bed. “I took Shay to the asylum and now Lucius has her.”

  “Aw, hell.” Simon tossed his blanket aside and climbed out of his bed. “Can’t you act like a responsible adult for two seconds?”

  “Don’t know, never tried.”

  Max stole small glances at Simon, who wiggled into his suit, while pondering which words to use in what combination. As usual, he came up blank.

  Simon shoved his foot into his boot and bent to tie its laces. “What?”

  “It’s Lexie. She’s there too … with Lucius.”

  Max watched Simon adjust his cape. Not one hint of a reaction crossed the man’s face.

  “You don’t seem surprised.”

  A huff and a brow crinkle was the most Simon gave away. “I own a global communication conglomerate. There’s not much that gets past me.”

  “Does that mean she’s our enemy now? Are we supposed to fight her?”

  Simon rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding Max’s stare. “I asked Lexie to spend some time with Lucius and Cyrus.”

  “You want them back in the group?” Max yelled.

  Simon shook his head, but the guilt that gripped his expression told the truth. Betrayal hit Max like one of Simon’s super-powered fists. He would’ve ended this feud with the Grant brothers years ago, forgiven Lucius an
d been able to set Jenna’s soul free, but was afraid to lose Simon and Alexie.

  Flames ignited in Max’s hands. He couldn’t help it, couldn’t extinguish them. The ache left behind by his friend’s treachery burned too hot, and the fire was the only thing to soothe it.

  A look of true remorse crossed Simon’s face. “This is why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to upset you for nothing. Lexie says it’s not even working.”

  Simon reached for Max, got singed by one of his flames, then drew his hand back. “Please, Max, don’t be angry.”

  The fire that blazed between Max’s fingers fizzled out to puffs of smoke. It would be hard to hold a grudge against Simon, even though he’d like to. He hadn’t met another person as sincere, as pure as Simon. That kindness often got Simon in trouble, but not with Max. Max could see the good intentions behind his friend’s misguided actions, but that didn’t mean he had to let the guy off the hook easily.

  “Come on.” Max ran for the balcony’s sliding glass door. “We can discuss this later, the three of us.”

  Cyrus stomped down the narrow hallway. Tile shattered, shooting out to smack the walls as he stormed through the asylum. He could still smell Max. A sickening mixture of valor and high-priced cologne wafted in his hallways, tainting the air.

  Cyrus rounded the corner and hurried into his lab. Max was nowhere in sight, but there were people scattered around the room and each one of them stopped what they were doing to give him a wary look. Even the prisoners, who were supposed to have fear in their eyes, stared at him with confusion.

  “Where is he?” Cyrus balled his fists tighter, walking to the center of the lab. When spotting Shay knocked out on the floor, his nails undug from his palms. If Max had been there, his precious little Jenna vessel would be gone.

  Lucius stepped away from the quivering girl he’d been shouting at, who’d been working furiously to splice the nebula burst machine into the city’s power grid. It wouldn’t work without a regulator, or else Cyrus would’ve done it by now.