Super Powereds: Year 1 (12 page)

The song finished, and the man stood from his stool and took a wide bow. There was blatantly more applause than there had been for the girl, yet as the man walked down from the small platform that was serving as a stage and tipped his hat at the blonde as way of introduction, it seemed like she neither noticed nor cared.

For her part, Alice felt a bit better. Watching a gorgeous man sing had really done nothing for her, except that it had pulled her mind out of its funk and forced her to focus on something else for a while. Settling back in, she felt her problems were somewhat less pressing than they had been before, as is usually the case, and decided she would take a cue from the singing cowboy. This was an event to meet people and make connections: in other words, a social activity. That made it Alice’s home turf. She might not be able to beat everyone in combat, but there were few who could work a room like Alice Adair.

Alice rose from her seat and set off.

18.

Vince had some trouble finding Hughes Hall the next morning. In his defense, Lander was a very large campus, and he had hardly had free time to explore it. He might have gotten up a bit earlier if he had been thinking ahead, but Casino Night had gone on a lot longer than he expected, and it turned out being frozen solid had left him drained by the day’s end. On the plus side, he had won enough chips to put his name in a few raffles. He had even managed to win a clock radio. It wasn’t quite as nice as the two hundred dollar gift card Nick had won, but it was something to be happy about.

If Vince had been a bit pettier, he might have accused Nick of rigging the raffle, but given the amount of chips his sunglasses-wearing friend had turned in, it didn’t really surprise anyone when Nick’s name was drawn. That boy was either cheating up a storm or really knew how to play blackjack. Since he was one of Vince’s few friends, Vince was opting to give him the benefit of the doubt. Had Vince been a bit more experienced in the ways of the world, it might have dawned on him that the two options were not mutually exclusive.

Vince was in a good mood, even as he scrambled to find Sasha’s dormitory. It was his second day attending Lander and the first day of real classes. He had basic math and literature classes in the morning, followed by gym and Ethics of Heroism in the afternoon. He still wasn’t sure why gym was ascribed a three-hour chunk of his time every day, but he assumed there would be a logical explanation when he got there. Besides, he and Sasha were getting breakfast before their morning classes together, which made him just a bit happier than he would admit to anyone who was asking. He did enjoy women with multi-colored hair.

Vince had been polite enough to invite his fellow dorm mates to come along. Nick had said no due to an early class, Mary had politely declined without explanation, and Alice had informed him that she would be avoiding the dorm food as much as was humanly possible. Vince had looked for Hershel as well, but to no avail. It seemed their friend hadn’t even come home last night. Vince was beginning to get worried, but he was trying to hope for the best. If he didn’t see his portly dorm mate soon, though, Vince was planning on finding Mr. Numbers or Mr. Transport.

Vince saw the bell tower and finally got a sense of where he was. With its lush foliage, sprawling campus, and large buildings, Lander was one of the largest and most scenic colleges in California. All of which sounded great on the brochure, but was somewhat less charming when trying to hustle between locations across campus. Vince was really hoping he didn’t have any classes that were too far apart when he finally saw a sign on a multistoried building that read “Hughes.”

He walked into the lobby quickly, checking the wall clock and realizing with a twinge that he was late. It wasn’t by much, but it was enough to irk him. He had been taught that punctuality was one of the most important virtues to have. He made his way through the white-tiled entryway and past the door leading into the dorm area itself. Some of the dorms were segregated into male and female, his own being one of them, but Hughes had alternating floors. The rooms were done in suites, with two rooms sharing a common living room area. It engendered a sense of community, or so Sasha had told him, since people could leave their living room doors open and still preserve a getaway in their bedroom. It occurred to Vince that whoever had built Melbrook for him and the others had clearly taken some cues from the Hughes dormitory set up.

In fact, Vince was right. Alice had toured the Lander campus (along with several others) before talking with the architects who would ultimately design Melbrook. She had found the Hughes design an excellent integration of privacy and community, though her original designs had her room set off in a separate area. Specifically, it was in an entirely separate building on the opposite campus and utterly unaffiliated with Melbrook in anyway. That attempt had failed, but she’d considered it something of a long shot anyway.

Vince bounded up the stairs to the second floor and began moving down the hallway. Since the rooms were arranged sequentially, it didn’t take him much time at all to find Sasha’s room: 216. He was about to knock when he heard shouting from the other side of the door. Vince couldn’t quite make out the words, but they definitely sounded angry. There were several voices, at least two female with one probably male. Vince was still standing there, debating on whether he should knock or wait a few moments for things to calm down, when he heard an object land heavily against the door. All thoughts of tact aside, Vince jerked the doorknob, which was fortunately unlocked, and burst into the room.

“Is everyone okay?” Vince yelled before he could take in the scene around him. As the sights the room held registered into his mind one by one, it became clear that things were undoubtedly not okay.

There were two girls and a boy here, all right. The most attention-grabbing one was the blonde that Sasha had pointed out as her roommate yesterday, Julia, who was a few steps outside of her bedroom and into the living room. She was rearing back a large black pump, clearing intending to send it flying. If Vince had bothered to look down he would have noticed its twin resting by his feet, the obvious culprit in the case of the mysterious thudding noise against the door. Julia was wearing a sizable plaid shirt, though with her arm reared back and pulling the fabric up, it was evident that the shirt wasn’t quite sizable enough.

Standing between Julia and the guy, looking haggard and unhappy but playing the referee, was Sasha, wearing a tight pink shirt and grey sleep shorts. Ordinarily Vince would have savored this image a bit more than he did. Unfortunately, his attention couldn’t help but be captured somewhat by the other male in the room. He was a heavy guy, wrapped poorly in a towel, and was hunched over in a submissive position. He was clearly trying to defend himself verbally, but from the look on Julia’s face, Vince had a feeling the boy hadn’t gotten that far.

Leaping into this chaotic scene, as all three pairs of eyes turned on him in surprise, Vince tried to look on the bright side. At least he had found Hershel.

19.

“Who the fuck are you?!” Julia screeched at Vince.

“Um, I’m Vince,” he said lamely. “Sasha and I were meeting to go get breakfast.”

“Vince, thank God,” Hershel cried, dashing over to his dorm mate’s side and all but cowering. “This woman has gone mad, she won’t listen to anything.”

“Why are you in a blanket?” Vince asked.

“Why do you know this guy?” Sasha asked.

“WHY WERE YOU IN MY BED?” Julia thundered. Vince was impressed, he would have never thought a girl her size would have pipes like that.

“I keep trying to tell you that. You fell asleep with me,” Hershel said with as much projection as he had. It turns out that wasn’t much, but Julia’s eruption had silenced the room pretty effectively.

“Bullshit I did,” Julia denied. “I was... with... Roy last night. You know, the tall, hard-bodied man that you definitely are not!”

“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Vince tossed out, hoping to get some sense of what was happening around him.

“I’ve been listening to them for a while,” Sasha said. “I think I understand the gist of it. If you two don’t mind, I’ll recap and we can see where the disagreement is.” Both Hershel and Julia nodded their agreement, though Hershel with gratitude and Julia with barely-suppressed rage.

“Thanks,” Sasha continued. “So, Julia met Roy last night at the karaoke part of Casino Night. They came home and got busy-”

“Get busy? That’s presumptuous,” Julia butted in.

“There was a tie on the door, I slept on the living room couch, and these walls are a lot thinner than you seem to think they are,” Sasha replied succinctly.

“Oh,” Julia said, a bit of the wind leaking out of her sails.

“Whatever, I don’t give a damn, I was just recapping,” Sasha said. “So they were at it for a few hours, kudos to Roy, by the way, then finally passed out and we all got some sleep. I wake up this morning to her throwing a hissy fit and beating the shit out of the guy in the towel. It seems she and sex-man passed out last night but she and that guy were the ones that woke up together.”

“Which I can explain,” Hershel interjected before Julia could build up to another tirade. “If Vince would please shut the door.” Vince complied and Hershel continued. “I am Roy... technically. He’s the version of me with powers.”

“I thought you were a shifter,” Vince said.

“I am. I shift into Roy. He’s the part of me with abilities. Also charm and confidence,” Hershel admitted a bit sadly.

“And looks,” Julia spat out.

“Hey, now,” Vince said. “There’s no need for that. Hershel didn’t sneak into your room and crawl into your bed. You took him home and he turned back in his sleep.”

“So he couldn’t have warned me?” Julia asked.

“Roy was a bit... preoccupied,” Hershel said, blushing freely.

“Wait, so Roy is a hot, Super version of you?” Sasha asked. “I’m just trying to get a grip on this.”

“Yes and no,” Hershel said. “Same body, with the obvious alterations, but we have entirely different personalities. Roy tends to be... easily distracted.”

“So I was a distraction? Well, why the hell isn’t Roy here explaining all of this?” Julia asked.

“Roy is rarely inclined toward dealing with the morning after,” Hershel said. Without warning, Julia whipped the shoe in a straight path for his head. Sasha knocked it away faster than Vince could see, literally, and Hershel desperately tried to cool the blonde. “It wasn’t just that! There’s a certain trigger that brings Roy out and when it wears off I go back to being me. It was an unavoidable change. I know that Roy liked you very much!”

“He did?” Julia suddenly seemed to calm exponentially. “How do you know? What did he say about me?”

“Well, we don’t talk... not really. But we have access to each other’s memories and what we were thinking or feeling at any given time,” Hershel explained.

“Oh,” Julia said. “Wait, does that mean you remember everything from last night?”

“Well... yes,” Hershel said, bracing himself for assault. This time though, it was Julia’s turn to go red.

“Ummmmm, well, this clearly seems like just a giant misunderstanding,” Julia said quickly. “Hershel, I’m sorry I threw things at you why don’t you grab your pants I’m going to be in the shower I’ll see you all later.” Without a pause or a breath Julia snatched up a towel from inside her room and bolted out of the living room, on a beeline toward the showers and away from the remaining three.

“Huh,” Sasha said. “That must have been some kinky shit.”

“I’d really like not to comment,” Hershel said as he gathered up the clothes from Sasha and Julia’s bedroom floor.

“Hershel, it doesn’t look like those really fit you,” Vince pointed out.

“They don’t,” he said. “I’ll be able to get home in them, though. Besides, we make it a rule to take care of the other’s clothing whenever possible. It’s a consideration that keeps both of our wardrobes intact.”

“So... still haven’t told me how you know each other,” Sasha pointed out.

“Remember when we saw the name Roy on the boards yesterday and I told you about my dorm mate, Hershel?” Vince asked.

“Ohhh,” Sasha said. “Well, that explains why Hershel wasn’t up there at least.”

Hershel had shut the door to the bedroom and was presumably getting dressed.

“Poor guy,” Vince said. “I can’t imagine this was how he wanted to start his career at Lander.”

“I wouldn’t feel too bad for them. I got a front audio seat for last night’s show and I have a feeling the memories of that experience were worth it,” Sasha said.

“You think your roommate is that good?” Vince asked.

“Maybe, but I also know something you don’t,” Sasha said.

“Do tell.”

“I know that Julia’s power is to make duplicates of herself,” Sasha said.

“Like, illusions or dummies?” Vince asked.

“Like real live, walking, talking, capable of independent action duplicates,” Sasha elaborated.

“Well... imagine that,” Vince said.

“No need,” Hershel replied as he stepped out of the bedroom. It was an awkward ensemble that adorned his body since Roy was clearly taller and leaner, but nothing was bursting so it seemed Hershel was right and he would be able to get back to Melbrook. “I’m afraid I’ll have to apologize, but knowing she has that ability means I’m almost positive Roy will be calling on her again.”

“Just spare me the morning fiasco next time,” Sasha said. “And if possible keep Silver here awake instead of me. Melbrook is probably just as nice a place to get it on.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but sadly I can make no promises,” Hershel said. “I’ll see you at Melbrook, Vince. Sasha, thank you for your understanding.”

“No worries,” Sasha said with a wave. “I sort of expected this. It is college, after all.”

With a nod Hershel stepped out the door, keeping his eyes peeled for fear of running into Julia, leaving Vince and Sasha alone in the living room area.

“So,” Sasha said after a moment, “you wishing you had talked to the girl that’s a walking orgy instead of the chick with the colored hair?”