King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (4 page)

Jeff opened his
mouth to ask what she meant, but was interrupted by the approach of a stern
looking man.

“Is this your
hoodlum?” The man’s gravelly voice raised the hair on the back of Jeff’s neck.
Or maybe it was the cocky smirk and the term “hoodlum”.

Pyro nodded,
eyeing him coolly. She said to Jeff, “Tubs oversees recruitment.”

Jeff almost
smiled at
Pyro’s
aloof attitude toward Tubs. “What
are you recruiting for?”

“Not very quick, are you?” Tubs sneered. Then he
spoke slowly and clearly as if Jeff
were
foreign.
“This is an academy. I recruit super villains for the academy.”

Jeff looked at
Pyro, then back at Tubs. “You’re trying to recruit me?”

“
Ooo
, the kid catches on.”

Jeff scoffed.
“You’re
gonna
teach me how to be a super villain?”

“That’s what we
do, kid,” Tubs said. “We want to teach you how to be bad, well.”

“Look,” Pyro
said, “here at S.V.A., you learn how to be really good at being really bad. And
after watching you all week, I suspect you’re a natural.”

Chapter 6

As Jeff watched
the kids practicing, their actions took on new meaning. They weren’t just
trying to develop their abilities to their full potential; they were doing it with
intent and malice. They wanted to know just how bad they could really be. Jeff
wasn’t a good person and didn’t fool himself by saying he was. However, he
wasn’t evil. Were these people evil? Pyro didn’t seem to be.

“What happened
to his hand?” Tubs asked Pyro.

“His fire came
on.”

“I knew he had
it. You couldn’t get to him in time?” Tubs glared at Pyro like she’d broken his
Ming vase.

Pyro answered
without expression. “I was right there with him, but he was too strong for me.”

Did Jeff
imagine Tubs salivating?

“Too strong?”
Tubs rocked back on his heels. “Wonderful.”

“I’m all right,
thanks.” Jeff waved his bandaged hand in front of Tubs. “Your concern is
touching.”

Tubs turned his
nasty sneer on Jeff. A wave of despair washed over him. He stared back at Tubs
as his self confidence crumbled. Jeff compared himself to the taller, stronger
man and realized he’d never be his equal. As a matter of fact, Jeff knew he
wasn’t worthy of standing in his presence. Jeff was nothing but a worm, a
lowly, pathetic specimen.

“Lay off him,
Tubs,” Pyro snarled.

Tubs sniffed
deeply and the doomed feeling faded, leaving Jeff mentally exhausted and
confused.

“Lesson number
one,” Tubs said. His lip curled in disgust at Jeff. “Don’t challenge an S.V.
until you know their strengths and their weaknesses.”

Tubs spun on
his heel and marched across the gym.

Jeff twined his
fingers in his hair and massaged his head, trying to ease the confusion and
vulnerability he felt.

“Sorry about
that, kid.” Pyro studied Jeff. Her eyebrows pulled together and she gnawed on
her lip. “You don’t have any barriers. Most S.V.’s come to us with low
defenses, but
some
. You’ve got nothing.”

“How can you
tell?”

“Love Bug’s
been vamping you from across the room this whole time. You can’t keep your eyes
off her.” Pyro scowled at the girl who smiled demurely and waved.

“Well, she’s
gorgeous!” Jeff ogled her openly now that his attraction was out.

“Actually,
she’s not. Her ability is psychic, like Tubs. She’s got you seeing whatever it
is that you find attractive and she’s locked a beacon on you something fierce.”
Pyro huffed. “It’s like you’re…human.”

Jeff blinked to
break the spell he felt tying him to Love Bug. “Wait a minute. Aren’t I human?”

The pull from
across the room was strong and alluring. Jeff fought the desire to be near Love
Bug, but he was running low on arguments why he should stay with Pyro.

“Bug, stop!”
Pyro’s
outburst
hushed the chaos in the room.

All of a sudden
the pull from across the room vanished. Jeff blinked. “What the…” Gone were the
wavy strawberry blonde curls and pine forest eyes. Instead Love Bug had limp,
drab, blonde hair and indistinguishable eye color. Her dress didn’t even fit
the same. What had been perky, pink ruffles framing an enticing neckline were
now child-like, floppy and sadly out of place.

“Let’s get out
of here.” Pyro yanked the gym door open. It banged against the wall and Jeff
barely scooted through behind her before it slammed shut again.

“Why are you so
mad?” Jeff had to jog to keep up with Pyro as she strode down the hall.

“It is a rule
that the students aren’t supposed to use their abilities on each other unless
directly involved in training.” Pyro opened a door, flipped on a light and led
Jeff into a small meeting room.

“What’s that
saying?” Jeff asked. “No honor among thieves.”

Pyro opened her
mouth as if to protest, but then shut it again. “Have a seat. Let’s talk about
what you are and what we can do for you.”

Uncharacteristic
nerves knotted and tensed through Jeff as he sat. He had always known that he
was different, but he hadn’t thought it meant anything special. Was being a
super villain special? Maybe not, but it gave a title or explanation to him
beyond “delinquent.” Jeff grimaced. Tubs had called him a hoodlum. So maybe
this really wasn’t special after all.

“What’s wrong?”
Pyro asked.

“I guess I’m
not comfortable being
something
. I’ve never aspired to do much of
anything and it seems like a lot of pressure to suddenly learn I’m supposedly a
super villain and that I have to learn how to do it right.”

“You don’t have to do anything, kid. You are what you
are. We are just here for you if you want to learn how to do more.” Pyro leaned
back in her chair and crossed her leg. “Let me start closer to the beginning.
Once upon a time…”

Jeff curled his lip and grunted. “You’re kidding,
right?”

“Yes, I am. This is no fairytale.”

“How many of us are there? Is this the only school or
are they everywhere? What happens if I decide not to get training?”

“Whoa, boy!
Rein in the
questions. I’ll get to them.”
Pyro’s
foot bobbed as
she studied Jeff. “I don’t usually recruit. I work in administration, a
fundraiser. They asked me to take you on because they suspected you had fire.
So let’s start there.”

Pyro explained Mr. Sims initial encounter with Jeff
and how he’d reported to Tubs. “That’s when Tubs got me involved. See, Sims
felt your S.V. energy when you blew to fan the flames. Since you were playing
with fire, Tubs suspected you had it and he knows that fire is a dangerous new
ability and best taught by someone with experience. You know, when I first saw
you, kid, I thought they were making way more of it than was needed. You were
hanging out with your friends.
Giving your sister a hard
time.
Taking out the trash like a good son, but there was nothing about
you that struck me as special.
Or even super for that matter.
But then you did something that changed my mind completely.”

Jeff sat up straight in his chair then slouched back
down again. He felt very conflicted hearing that Pyro had been shadowing him
for so long and he hadn’t even known it. “What? What did I do?”

“You blew out a match.”

Jeff frowned. “How could blowing fire out prove I
have fire in me?”

“It didn’t. You have fire in your hands, just like I
do.” Pyro raised her right hand, palm up. Her fingertips were already swollen
and throbbing. A spark emitted from each finger and flowed together in the
center of her palm. A marble sized ball of fire ebbed and crackled in the
middle of her hand. She studied it. “When you learn control, you’ll be able to
start fires whenever you want. But what is unique about you, is you will also
be able to douse them.”

Pyro held the fireball in front of Jeff.
“Blow.”

Jeff shrugged and blew on the fire as if
extinguishing birthday candles. A thin frost doused the flame and coated
Pyro’s
hand. Jeff blinked, thinking he was seeing things.
He scraped a finger through the frost on her palm and touched it to his tongue.
Cold and wet.

Pyro wiped her hand on her pants leg.
“Fire and ice.
I can’t even begin to imagine how you do
that. But, Jeff, I can tell you no one has ever had opposing elements.
Ever.”

Jeff held his hand in front of his mouth and huffed.
His breath felt warm, normal. “I don’t even know how I did that.”

Pyro smiled. “That’s normal. Most S.V.’s come to us
completely ignorant of how their abilities work. Heck, most abilities aren’t
even revealed until after training starts. You seem to have a great
understanding of your speed, but you said you got that really young so I’m
guessing that’s why. Your strength is undeveloped; your fire and ice are completely
new to you. Who knows what else you’ll discover.”

A headache seemed to take residence while Pyro listed
Jeff’s known abilities. He hoped he had no others. “But what are they for? Just
so I can commit petty crimes my whole life? What’s the sense in that?”

“Jeff, you don’t have to make that decision right
away either. Just like any normal kid, you go to school to learn what you are
best at. Then you decide how to use it in life.” Pyro leaned forward as if she
was ready to get up. “Look, it’s late. You can stay here tonight or you can go
home and think about it.”

“I think I’ll go home, thanks.” Jeff stood. “Um, but
where are we exactly?”

“New Berlin.”

“What? That means we ran like…”

“30 miles.”
Pyro stood and
smoothed the front of her pants. Except for the windblown look of her hair,
Jeff would never have guessed this woman had played with fire, administered
first aid and had run more than a marathon at full speed. He, on the other
hand, looked every bit the worse for the wear. His left hand was bandaged. His
clothes were smudged and dirty from hiding behind a dumpster and still
uncomfortably damp from his impromptu ice pack.

“How will I explain this to my parents?” Jeff stared
at his mummified hand.

“Did you see them after work today?” Pyro asked.

“No, I left before they got home.”

“Say it happened during the day. Be vague. It’ll only
take a couple days to heal.” Pyro led the way down the hall. She grinned. “I’ll
run you home.”

Chapter 7

Jeff deftly climbed the trellis and pulled himself
onto the overhang. He crept like a cat burglar to his bedroom window and
quietly slid it open. He never locked his bedroom window for this reason. One
day Mother would realize that the only consistently clean surface in his room
was the footlocker just under the window that he used to step in and out.

His bedroom door stood open. The upstairs was pitch
black, but light filtered up the staircase and he could hear the recognizable
music of
Gone
With The
Wind
. Jeff rolled his eyes. Mother always stayed up late watching romantic
movies. He switched on the lamp next to his bed and surveyed the mound of
clothes covering his bed. Good, he could easily have been lost under that pile.

He trotted down the stairs, rubbing his face with his
good hand for dramatic effect. “Darn, I guess I slept right through dinner.”

Mother gasped. “Jeffrey, you scared the living daylights
out of me. I didn’t know you were home.”

“Sorry.” Jeff went into the kitchen and stared at the
contents of the refrigerator. He called out to the living room. “What did I
miss?”

“Chicken and rice.
I saved
two separate servings for you and your sister. Yours is in the yellow
container. It’s bigger than Sandra’s.”

“Thanks, Mother.” Jeff grabbed the container and
popped the lid. He put it in the microwave to heat and went back to the fridge
to grab a sports drink.

“Where’s Sandra?” Jeff asked.

“She ended up spending the night at Tracy’s.”

The microwave beeped, so Jeff stirred the food and replaced
the lid and set it for another minute.
“Dad asleep?”

“Yep.”

Jeff heard the telltale clink of Mother’s wine glass
on the side table. He looked at the clock. 1:00 a.m.
Late
even for Mother.
“Movie almost over?”

“Yep.”

The microwave beeped again so Jeff grabbed his food
and a fork, stuffed the sports drink under his arm and was about to dash up to
his room.

“Jeffrey, what did you do to your hand?” Mother
blinked repeatedly, a habit she had when she was thinking.

“Just burned it making lunch.
It’ll be okay. Goodnight.” Jeff dashed up the first few steps before Mother stopped
him.

“Wait a minute, young man. Maybe I should look at it.
You’ve wrapped it up quite a bit there; it must be serious.”

“Oh, I just got carried away. Sorry for wasting so
much gauze. I don’t want to waste more by unwrapping it. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.
I overreacted.” Jeff smiled his most boyish smile, the only thing that seemed
to melt Mother’s ice core. “I’ll be all right.”

“Well, I’ll look at it tomorrow then.” Mother looked
genuinely concerned.

“Thanks,” Jeff said.
“Um,
goodnight.”

Back in his room, Jeff inhaled his dinner. He was
tempted to go back downstairs for Sandra’s serving, but he hadn’t heard Mother
go to bed yet.