“Now what?” Lulu muttered. “Our ace in the hole just literally went down into a hole.”
“Now you go back up the tunnel,” I whispered. “Hopefully, the Fearless Five are done cleaning up that interstate accident by now. You have to get them over here as soon as possible. And take Rascal with you.”
I passed the puppy’s leash over to Lulu, who stared at me.
“And what are you going to do?”
I let out a breath. “At best, save Kyle and Sabrina from Frost.”
“And at worst?”
I winced. I didn’t want to think about it.
Lulu chewed her lip, obviously not wanting to leave me.
“Go,” I whispered. “Somebody has to tell the Fearless Five what’s going on. They know you, which means that you have a better chance of getting through to them in time than I do. Besides, I’m not leaving Kyle and Sabrina down here.”
Lulu didn’t like it, but she nodded. “Good luck,” she whispered. “I’ll be back with help as soon as I can.”
I nodded back. Lulu got to her feet and headed out of the factory, taking Rascal along with her. The puppy gave me a worried look, but he turned and went with Lulu. In a few seconds, they both disappeared from sight.
I patted down all the pockets and items hanging off my vest, doing a mental inventory and wondering how I could best use my supplies to save Kyle. Then I started unzipping the pockets, ripping open all those chemical packs I’d bought, and stuffing them back inside my vest.
Doubt filled me the whole time I worked. Cold, horrible, terrible doubt. Frost was one of the worst of the worst. He had his freezoray gun, a whole bunch of stolen superpowers, and who knew what else down here in his lab. Did I really think that I could go up against him and win? Me, Piper Perez, an ordinary woman with absolutely no superpowers whatsoever? Even my inner fandemic knew exactly how badly this was probably going to turn out.
But all my doubts and fears didn’t matter. If I didn’t do this, if I didn’t at least try, Kyle was dead, and Sabrina along with him. I wasn’t about to let Frost hurt them, much less drain them of their blood and powers. Not as long as I still had breath left to fight.
So I thought about Frost, his freezoray gun, and everything I knew about all the other people that he’d killed. Radio Randall. Musclular Mila. Catwalk. Bustling Blue. Their powers. Their strengths. And especially their weaknesses.
With all that information churning and churning in my mind, I let out a breath. Then I made sure my sunglasses were still on tight, got to my feet, and stepped out into the middle of the lab.
“Step away from the control panel,” I ordered in the loudest, toughest voice I could.
“Piper!” Kyle yelled and started struggling against his shackles again. “What are you doing? Get out of here! Run! Now!”
“I’m here to save you,” I said. “And I’m not going anywhere until I do.”
Frost glanced over his shoulder. After a moment, he sighed. “You again. I would have thought that once would have been enough, but apparently, some people are agonizingly slow learners. You know, Ms. Perez, I was going to let you live, since you don’t have any powers worth taking. No powers at all, as a matter of fact. But this will work out even better. It will be so much more fun to kill you first, then listen to Swifte scream when he realizes that he’s the reason you’re dead.”
Frost waved his hand, just like he had with Wynter a few minutes before, and that intense burst of light filled the lab. After a few seconds, the light faded away, with me still in the same position as before. Frost frowned as he realized why I was still standing and not writhing on the floor and screaming in pain.
“Sunglasses?” he asked. “Really?”
I shrugged. “Maybe you should have read up some on Catwalk. Sunglasses block the worst effects of her light power. All the photographers would wear them whenever they had to shoot one of her fashion shows to keep their eyes from getting fried.”
“Well, look at the big brain on you,” Frost said. “Good thing I don’t need anyone else’s power to get rid of you. I have plenty of my own.”
He whipped out his freezoray gun from the holster on his belt and blasted me with a cold ray, but I was ready for that too. I hit a button, and warm air blasted over me, thanks to the miniature heater I’d hooked to my vest and all those chemical packets that I’d ripped open and stuffed into the pockets earlier. The heater and the packets didn’t quite nullify the bitter, brutal chill of Frost’s freezoray gun, but enough heat was radiating off my body to keep the cold ray from freezing me in place like an icicle hanging off a roof.
Frost lowered his gun, his eyes bulging wide at the fact that I wasn’t subzero by now. Then he looked down at his weapon, as if he thought something was wrong with it. I doubted that it ever occurred to him that a lowly mortal like me had simply found a way to outsmart him, the oh-so-brilliant scientist.
Ubervillains. Always so overconfident.
Frost shoved his freezoray gun back into his holster. “No matter. I don’t need my gun to kill you either. I can always just tear you apart with my bare hands.”
He pulled off one glove, then the other, throwing them both down onto the floor. He held up his hands, and long, black talons shot out of his fingertips like spikes. I remembered Blue’s horrible wounds, how it had looked like some animal had clawed him, along with the other victims.
Not an animal—Frost.
My chest tightened, but I didn’t let him see my fear. “And who did you steal that power from?” I sniped.
“No one,” he muttered. “It was a consequence of one of my experiments the last time I was here at this factory. When a dozen or so radioactive, genetically altered creatures bite and scratch you enough times, then your body absorbs some of those creatures’ mutations. Lucky me, I got their talons. I haven’t much cared for this particular side effect up until now, but I think it will be rather fun to carve you up with my new nails. Just like I did to your friend Blue.”
Kyle struggled and struggled against his shackles, harder than ever before. “Run, Piper! Run!”
Frost let out a low, evil laugh. “Oh, yes, Piper. Go ahead and run. It’ll make the chase so much more fun.”
He headed across the lab, moving closer and closer to me. Kyle kept screaming and screaming, telling me to forget about him, telling me to run-run-run, but I tuned him out. We’d already wasted too much time being apart, and I wasn’t about to leave him now.
Still, as Frost neared me, I wondered if I had made the right decision—or if being an overeager, know-it-all fandemic was finally going to get me killed.
I backed up, thinking about all the powers that Frost had collected. I still had on my sunglasses, so he couldn’t blind me, and I was warm enough to melt the polar ice caps, thanks to my heater and all those chemical packets. In fact, I was uncomfortably warm, with sweat beading on my temples, but I didn’t dare turn off the heater or rip off the vest for fear that Frost would reach for his freezoray gun again.
Frost let out a loud battle cry and charged forward, his talon-tipped fingernails arcing out as though he wanted to swipe them across my face and give me the same horrid scars that he had.
Only one thing to do.
I waited for him to get into range.
Then I stepped up and punched him in the jaw.
I’d never punched anyone or anything before, except the bag in my kickboxing class, and it hurt like you wouldn’t believe. Pain exploded across my knuckles and roared up into my elbow and shoulder. But apparently, Frost wasn’t used to being punched either because my blow, weak as it was, caused him to stop and stagger back. He blinked a few times, as though I’d walloped him harder than either one of us had realized.
But he got over it quickly—far too quickly.
Frost growled and charged at me again. This time, he used Blue’s speed, and I barely managed to lunge out of the way of his vicious strike. Frost’s fingers slammed into the vat behind where I had been standing a moment befo
re. He growled again and ripped his talons through the metal like it was paper.
I winced at the terrible screech-screech-screech. I didn’t know what kind of mutated animals might have bitten and scratched him, but I couldn’t let Frost sink his talons into me. He would rip me apart with them, just like he’d promised.
Kyle realized that I wasn’t going to leave him behind, and he kept yelling, this time shouting encouragements to me. “Get him! Kick his ass! Go, Piper! Go!”
Even though I was fighting for my life against an evil ubervillain, a big, happy, goofy grin stretched across my face. For the first time in a long time, Kyle and I were on the same side, and it was a terrific feeling. In that moment, I felt strong, powerful, invincible, like I could do absolutely anything, even take on Frost and win.
So Frost and I went around and around the lab, with him trying to tear me into bloody pieces with his talons, and me avoiding him and landing what punches I could.
I ducked, and Frost rammed his talons into another vat, but this time, his hand got stuck. He cursed, trying to pull free. I used the opportunity to race over to the control panel, looking at all the buttons, levers, and switches, and trying to figure out which one would open Kyle’s cuffs.
Screech-screech-screech.
Frost was tearing through the metal, which meant that I was almost out of time. So I just started hitting random buttons.
Every button I punched and every switch I threw definitely made stuff happen—all the wrong stuff.
The burners flared brighter and hotter, causing the neon-colored liquids in the beakers to bubble up. Some of the glass containers shattered outright under the intense heat, splattering fluid everywhere. Lights dimmed and brightened, and another trapdoor caved in right below Kyle’s feet. But nothing opened his shackles.
“You clueless idiot!” Frost yelled. “Stop hitting buttons! You’re wrecking my lab!”
I glanced over my shoulder to find him charging at me again. I managed to hit a few more buttons before I lunged out of the way of his latest strike. Frost stopped just short of slamming his talons into his own control panel. Too bad.
Wynter was still stuck in that pit in the floor, but by this point, she’d shaken off the effects of Frost’s blinding light and the hard fall. Her snowballs-snowballs-snowballs! curses drifted up to me. From the sound of things, the walls of the pit were too slick for her to climb up, which meant I still had to find some way to stop Frost for good—
Frost came at me again, but I darted behind one of the metal tables, out of reach of his swiping talons. He still had Blue’s speed, and it was just a matter of time before he managed to catch me with it. I needed to find a way to beat him—right now—or I was dead.
“Stand still!” Frost snarled.
“Dream on!” I yelled back.
Around and around the lab we went, both of us knocking over tables, beakers, binders, and more. Paper fluttered through the air like snow, while liquids splashed all over the floor, bubbling, burning, and oozing everywhere. I made sure to stay out of the bright, glowing pools. As much as I longed for a superpower, I didn’t want to get turned into a monster either, which seemed to be what Frost specialized in.
I ducked his latest blow and ended up slamming my entire body up against one of the metal vats. Something dug into my stomach, and I realized that there was one trick I hadn’t used yet.
The bullhorn.
Frost came at me again, but I ducked out of the way and ran to the other side of the lab. I whipped around, but he was still several feet behind me. My fingers dropped to the bullhorn, and I struggled to unhook it from the mesh of my vest.
I had just managed to free it when Frost charged at me again. I ducked, the way I had so many times before, but my boot slipped in one of the smoking puddles of ice-blue goo on the floor.
“Piper!” Kyle screamed, but there was nothing he could do to help me.
My arms windmilled, and my feet flew out from under me. I slammed into the control panel, hard enough to punch several more buttons there and make the lights flicker again. I bounced off, and my ass hit the floor a second later. The sharp blow dazed me, and I blinked and blinked, trying to get the world to stop spinning around and around like a crazy carnival ride.
I looked up to find Frost advancing on me, his eyes glowing a cold, sinister blue behind his jagged, icicle-shaped mask. I tried to curl my fingers into a fist to fight him off, but my hand was already wrapped around something hard and plastic. I glanced down and realized that I had managed to hang on to the bullhorn. New hope surged through me. This wasn’t over yet.
“Piper! Piper!” Kyle kept screaming. “Leave her alone!”
Frost looked over at him and sneered. “I will—just as soon as I kill her.”
Kyle’s face paled with fear, and he strained and strained against his shackles, but he couldn’t free himself. Kyle screamed again with rage, his muscles standing out in his neck, arms, chest, and legs, but he just wasn’t strong enough to break those solidium cuffs.
Frost laughed and pulled his freezoray gun out of the holster on his belt, ready to finish me off with it at close range.
Kyle fixed his agonized gaze on me. “Piper,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry for everything. I love you so much—”
His voice choked off, but I smiled back at him.
“I love you too,” I said. “And don’t you forget it.”
“Oh, enough with the mushy stuff,” Frost sneered. “You’ve been more than enough trouble already, Ms. Perez. Time for you to die!”
He snapped up his freezoray gun, and I lifted the bullhorn, pointing it straight at him. Instead of being concerned, Frost planted a hand on his thin hip and chuckled.
“And what do you think you’re going to do with that?” he sneered.
I grinned. “This.”
I pulled the trigger on the bullhorn, blasting static directly at the ubervillain. The sharp sound shrieked through the entire lab. Most folks say that nails on a chalkboard is the most horrible sound they’ve ever heard, but I’ve always thought that static was much, much worse. Or maybe that was because I’d spent so many nights wincing at the staticky feedback of the amps and speakers at The Blues, the karaoke bar that Abby and I frequented. And, more specifically, watching Abby grimace in pain as the screechy sound assaulted her supersenses and gave her an instant migraine.
Just like it was doing to Frost right now.
He had supersenses too, thanks to the powers he’d stolen from Radio Randall, and the static seemed to bother him even more than it did Abby. Maybe he hadn’t had his abilities long enough to be able to fully control them yet. Frost screamed, dropped his freezoray gun, clapped his hands over his ears, and doubled over in front of me. But he didn’t go down, so I cranked up the volume on the bullhorn another notch, then another one, until it was making even my ears hurt, despite the earplugs that Lulu had given me to block out the noise.
The bullhorn’s static pushed Frost over the edge. The villain’s head snapped up, and he suddenly seemed more animal than human, his face twisting and twisting, the jagged red scars there standing out in sharp relief against his pale skin. Spittle flew out of his lips as he screamed and screamed at me, even though the bullhorn drowned out all his many curses. But instead of coming at me again, he turned and ran, desperately trying to get away from the screeching static.
But he didn’t remember the trapdoor he’d left open in the floor, and he ran right over it. For a moment, Frost’s skinny legs seemed to churn in mid-air, like a cartoon character’s would. Then he dropped down into the dark hole.
Thud.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn that I actually heard his body hit the bottom of the pit despite the staticky blare of the bullhorn. I turned off the device and tried to shake off the horrible ringing in my own ears.
I didn’t know what was happening down in the hole, but all that mattered right now was freeing Kyle, so I got back up onto my feet and hit every single but
ton on the control panel. I finally found the right one, and the cuffs on his wrists and ankles clanked open.
He staggered off the slab, sidestepping the second open trapdoor in the floor, and I was there to catch and steady him.
“Easy,” I said. “Just take it easy for a minute.”
Kyle stared at me. “You saved me, Piper.”
I grinned. “What kind of Fandemic would I be if I let the love of my life die at the hands of an evil ubervillain? That wouldn’t make for a very happy ending, now would it?”
Kyle chuckled, reached up, and gently pushed my sunglasses on top of my head. Then he cupped my cheek in his hand. “I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m sorry that I’ve been such an idiot—about everything.”
I leaned into his touch just like I had in the park, just like I always did, just like I always would. “Me too. But I love you, and you love me, and that’s all that matters now. Right?”
“Right.” Kyle leaned closer to me, his voice dropping to a low, husky whisper. “And going back to your apartment, like we’d planned earlier.”
“Absolutely.” I stood on my tiptoes, ready to kiss him—
“You! You get away from me!” a panicked voice rose up out of the pit.
Kyle and I broke apart and rushed over to the edge of the hole. Fifteen feet below, Frost was lying on the floor, his body sprawled at an awkward angle.
“Hello, Frost,” Wynter purred, looming over him and cracking her knuckles. “Long time, no see. Let me reintroduce you to my fists.”
Punch-punch-punch-punch.
Within seconds, Frost was curled into a ball on the floor, screaming that he surrendered already. Wynter hit him one more time for good measure, knocking him out cold, then peered up at me.
“Nice job, Piper,” she said. “You can be my sidekick any time.”
“Sidekick?” Kyle called out. “Forget that. She’s a superhero, and she’s all mine.”
He pulled me close. I grinned, wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him.
Chapter Thirteen
Among the debris in the lab, I found a long piece of rope that I threw down to Wynter so she could climb up out of the pit. Wynter hauled Frost up as well and shackled him to his own metal slab. The villain was still unconscious, but we weren’t taking any chances.
Fandemic Page 12
