King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (13 page)

“Whoa, Lone Ranger.
Detainee doesn’t go to academy. She’s freelance. Whoever those people were,
they hired her for that job.”

Jeff dropped her hand and plopped
back into his chair.

Oceanus scowled at Mystic. “How do
you know so much about her?”

“She was involved in a coup near
my old academy last year. It was the talk of school for days. It was some sort
of scientific theft.” Mystic shrugged. “They took the scientist.”

Oceanus still appeared suspicious,
but looked away. Then her back straightened and her shoulders stiffened.

“What are you doing?” Set snarled
at Jeff though he spoke to Oceanus.

“I’m having lunch with Mystic and
Polar. Want to join us?”

Jeff’s head whipped around and he
glared at Oceanus though she looked at neither him nor Set.

“No, I don’t want to join him.
Come with me,” Set said.

“No!”

Thunder rumbled overhead.

Jeff stood. “You heard her, Set.
Time to go now.”

Lightning cracked.

Jeff covered up the wince he’d
felt at the sharp snap of electricity next to his ear.

“Set,” he teased, “certainly you
have better control than this.”

“Who says I’m losing control?” Set
grinned. Thunder broke.

“Well, since you aren’t supposed
to use your abilities against fellow students, it must be that you’re losing control.
I’d think that would be an embarrassing thing to have to admit.” Jeff smiled
pleasantly. Inside he fought to retain control of his fire. His fingertips
itched and pulsed.

Set’s grin twisted into a grimace.
The gathering storm dispersed and Jeff felt the last trace of electric static
leave the air. His fire subsided with it.

Set growled down at Oceanus, spun
on his heel and stalked away.

Oceanus turned on Jeff as he sat
back down. “Will you
lay
off! I’ll take care of
myself. I certainly wouldn’t help you if you pissed off Set enough that he
attacked you.”

“But…” Jeff stammered.

Oceanus got up, grabbed her still
full tray of lunch and marched away.

Jeff looked at Mystic, still ready
to defend his actions though there was no reason to any longer. When he saw her
pleased expression, he snapped his mouth shut and grumbled, “I hate this place
sometimes.”

Chapter 17

“Mr. Tubs,
sir.” Jeff stood in the doorway.

Tubs looked up
and growled. “What?”

“Sir, any news
about which academy attacked us? Any leads on which ability they’ve
discovered?” Jeff saw Tubs’ expression relax a little.
“Any
more information on the blue fire, sir?”

Tubs winced and
sucked in a shaky breath. “No breaking news about which academy, Polar. We did
interview a number of students who’d been on the receiving end of the blue fire
and they all described the same static sensation when they were hit by it. But
we haven’t figured out the root source of the ‘fire’ for a lack of a better
word.”

“Thank you,
sir.” Jeff nodded and backed out the door.

As Jeff
suspected, Tubs hadn’t bothered to share any information about Source. Jeff
knew it fell to him to find Source and mount a rescue, but he didn’t know how
to go about it. No one wanted to help since it wasn’t in their make up to care
an iota for a fellow student. But they did enjoy a good fight so Jeff thought
he might be able to entice some with that.

The biggest
problem remained: that he knew very little about the world of super villains
and it would be beyond difficult for him to figure out who took Source.

Later that
evening Jeff went to the gym to experiment. The blue fire was some combination
of electricity and oxygen. Maybe he could ignite it himself. Without Source it
would be difficult figuring out where to find the origin within him, but he had
to try.

He tried
igniting from his feet, stomach and shoulders. He nearly blew a hole in the
back of his pants trying to ignite from his rear end. He tried igniting
different elements in his hands, but it always ended up fire.

“Maybe someone
with fire can’t do it,” Jeff mumbled, waving his hands through the air to cool
them down again.

“Do what?”

Jeff swung
around to find Oceanus leaning comfortably against the wall. Her left eye was
bruised and her upper lip swollen.

“
Oci
, what happened to you?” Jeff stepped forward. Blowing
cold air on his hand, he rested his chilled fingers on the bruise under her eye
and the heel of his palm on the swelling of her lip.

“Hmmm, that
feels good.” Oceanus closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.

Jeff had never
felt a more satisfying weight before. Her simple act of trust and enjoyment
felt so gratifying Jeff wanted to whoop out loud. Even swollen, her lips
bellowed their need to be kissed by him.

With eyes still
closed, Oceanus said, “Set and I had an argument.”

“He hit you!”
Jeff felt fire tingle dangerously in his hands and took a deep breath to calm
himself
. Scorching Oceanus’ face would definitely ruin his
day. However, the cold had melted from his hand and she opened her eyes and
lifted her head.

“We hit each
other actually,” Oceanus said. She squinted, stood on her tiptoes and looked
deep in his eyes. “Why, you’re mad.”

“Of course I’m
mad,” Jeff hissed. “You should never hit a girl.”

Oceanus
frowned. “Um, you’re
gonna
have to drop the chivalry
crap if you plan to be an S.V. when you grow up. First off, it is down right
creepy and uncharacteristic. And what would you do in a battle? Wouldn’t you
have hit Detainee with your fire if you’d been able to get to her?”

“What do you
mean uncharacteristic?” Jeff asked.

“Polar, S.V.’s
don’t care about anyone beyond themselves.”

“But I care
about you,” Jeff said.

Oceanus
chuckled. “Yeah, and you’re creepy.”

“Don’t you care
about me? I don’t mean anything romantic, but…I mean, at least like a friend.”

Oceanus
squirmed. Her gaze darted around the room as if she searched for an escape.
Jeff held his ground, needing to hear her answer.

She finally
said, “You and I work well together. Our abilities complement one another.
Plus, you’re good looking.”

Jeff’s heart
skipped a beat when he saw her actually shiver. “Wow, the thought of me meaning
anything to you personally really scares you, doesn’t it?”

“Look,” Oceanus
spat, “most of the time I don’t mind being around you. But when you get like
this. Or when you’re all apologetic or throw around
the
pleases
and thank
you’s
, well, that stuff makes
my skin crawl. The sisters in the orphanage used to try to push manners on me.
That is until I learned to flood their shoes.”

Oceanus crossed
her arms and turned her back to him. Her black hair fell down her straight
back, past her shoulder blades. She stood proud and defiant. Apparently this
scrap of a girl had given Set as much as he’d given her and that said a lot.
Jeff’s eyes scanned the room. He didn’t understand how so many people could
simply not care about anyone else. Nor could he stop caring about her. His eyes
settled on her tapping foot and the fingers she drummed on her arm.

“I don’t know
if it means anything or not,” Jeff said, “but before I came here, I didn’t have
any manners. Outside of the academy, I didn’t care for anyone besides my sister.
She’s cool.
Maybe my dad.
I don’t know why coming here
changed me like this. Maybe the militaristic rule brings out my best behavior,
or what you think is my worst. Maybe it’s because I’ve found someone to care
about.”

The final statement hung in the air between them.
Oceanus’ head was cocked ever so slightly in his direction. She pursed her lips
and stared at the ground, but didn’t reply.

“So,” Jeff said
to break the tension, “want to help me figure out how to make the blue fire?”

Oceanus turned
toward him with a grin. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“Count me in,”
Mystic said, stopping next to Jeff.

Oceanus rolled
her eyes.

Mystic smirked.

“I’ve tried to make fire from every part of my
body, but it hasn’t resulted in anything, let alone anything blue,” Jeff said.

“I don’t think
you should be making fire,” Oceanus said.

“Of course he
should. You saw it, didn’t you?” Mystic said.

“Yes.” Oceanus
drew each word out slowly like she spoke to a mentally incompetent person. “I
also tried to douse it and it only grew bigger and brighter.”

“Really?”
Mystic said.

“Yeah, it feeds
off of oxygen.”

“So does fire,”
Jeff and Mystic said together.

“Fire takes
oxygen out of the air, but that blue stuff took the oxygen out of the water,”
Oceanus said.

“What would
grow in intensity from water?” Jeff said.

“Magnesium,”
Mystic whispered. Jeff thought she might be thinking out loud. “Catch magnesium
on fire and you can’t fight it with water; it will make it worse.”

“Why do you
know that?” Jeff asked.

Mystic scowled.
“Let’s just say I’m no longer allowed to participate in science labs.”

Oceanus
snorted.

“Do we have
magnesium?” Jeff asked, waving a finger up and down, indicating his body.

“Muscles, I
think.” Mystic said.

They both
looked at Oceanus and she shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“I can’t catch
my muscles on fire,” Jeff said.

“No, I’d think
you’d have to siphon the magnesium off, or out, or whatever, and move it to
your hands. The intruders used their hands, right?” Mystic asked.

Oceanus and
Jeff nodded.

Jeff’s nod
swiveled into a shake. “I don’t have any idea how to do that. Where is Source
when you need him?”

“Well, you
worked with him a lot. Think
like
him,” Mystic said.

Jeff still
shook his head. “He would tell me what to do and how to do it. It isn’t as if
he ‘thought out loud.’”

Oceanus
scoffed. “Come on, Polar. Stop whining and do something. Concentrate on a
muscle, a large muscle near your hand.
Your bicep.
Think about your bicep. Imagine it stretching from the scapula to the
humerous
.”

Jeff closed his
eyes and focused his attention first on Oceanus’s instructions and second on
the muscle she described. He felt the sinew of his bicep stretch and twist. He
felt the latent strength and grace.

Oceanus
continued. “Bend your elbow and feel how the muscle contracts to pull the lower
arm up. Straighten your arm again and relax. This time when you bend your
elbow, think deep within the muscle. Feel the increase in oxygen and shift of
mineral.”

It took him a
couple of pumps before he even felt the muscle working. After a few more pumps,
he was able to really tap into the functionality of it. His back straightened
and his eyebrows arched, but he didn’t open his eyes or make a noise.

Oceanus smiled.
“There it is; does it feel blue? Cool, infused with static? Gather that. Take
it sparingly or you might end up in a mushy pile on the floor. Steer it toward
your hand. Herd it down your arm until it rests in the palm of your hand. Now,
ignite it.”

“
Ow
.” A zap of static shock jolted Jeff’s arm. He opened his
eyes and found a ball of blue flame rolling around on his palm.

“Holy blue flame, Batman.”

“Polar, you did
it!” Oceanus squealed.

“
Sssshhhh
!”
Mystic scowled at
Oceanus.

Oceanus shot a
rude gesture toward Mystic.

“Seriously, we
want to keep this to ourselves.” Mystic stood so that her tall body blocked the
view of Jeff’s hands from most of the room. “Put it out, Polar.”

“Are you crazy?
I just got it going.” Jeff rolled the ball around on his hands, marveling at
the lack of heat. The ball bumped against his thumb, sending a mild jolt up his
arm. Jeff tossed the ball lightly in the air then realized his mistake. He
caught it and pain shot up his arm and radiated across his chest. He chuckled
uncomfortably. “That was stupid.”

“Can I?”
Oceanus held out her hand.

“Are you sure?”
Jeff asked.

“Polar, put it
out. We shouldn’t be doing this here,” Mystic said.

Oceanus frowned
at her. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

Mystic sighed
and rolled her eyes. Then her eyes popped open wide. “Polar, put it out now.
Tubs
is
coming.”

Jeff closed his
palm and winced at the pain. When he opened his hand the ball was still there.
He shook his hand and then tried squashing the ball with his other hand; nothing
but pain.

“How do you
turn this off?” he hissed.

“What’s going
on here?” Tubs said from behind Jeff.

As Jeff turned
toward Tubs, he slid his hand behind his back, hoping Tubs wouldn’t see the
spinning blue flame in his palm. His arm shook from the effort of holding the
palm of his hand upward. His arm muscles were tiring.

Suddenly water
doused Tubs and Mystic.

“Oops!” Oceanus
said. “Bad luck, Tubs. Mystic was helping me with a new trick and you walked
right into the middle of it.”

Jeff winced.
Mystic’s glare should have sliced Oceanus in half.

Tubs shook the
dripping water from his hands and wiped the drench of water from his eyes. He
shot a nasty look at Oceanus, spun on his heel and marched off.

“Thanks,
clumsy!” Mystic growled.

“Well, I had to
think fast.” Oceanus almost looked innocent except for the hint of a smile she
couldn’t quite wipe from her face.