The Trials of Renegade X (42 page)

She grins. “Wow, for you to pass that up, you must be pretty much—” She stops herself, the grin suddenly fading, not finishing that sentence, not saying, “you must be pretty much dead.”

I’m about to tell her maybe we should have joined the circus after all—even working with lions and clowns and stuff has to be safer than this—when Sarah comes running up to me.

“I’m
so sorry
, Damien,” she says. There’s a giant bruise forming on her cheek where Kat hit her. “I don’t know how to apologize for what I did, but ...” She stops and just sort of stares at me, her jaw trembling.

“It’s okay, Sarah. All this ... it was my fault.”

She shakes her head. “I almost killed you! I almost blew up all those people!” She takes a deep breath and then looks at Kat. “I’m sorry I shot you. And that I broke into your dad’s company. I don’t hate supervillains. Not as a general rule.”

Kat’s lip curls. “Gee,
thanks
.”

“I mean it. I know we don’t really know each other, and you probably think I’m psychotic after what I’ve done, but I would never do any of those things normally.”

“Oh, you mean you
wouldn’t
try to kill my boyfriend?!”

Sarah’s eyes water. “Of course not! He’s my—”

“What? Your superhero partner or whatever?”

“He’s my best friend,” Sarah finishes.

Kat’s nostrils flare. Her hands curl into fists. “No, he’s
my
best friend.
Not
yours.”

And this would be why I never wanted them in the same room together. I put my hand on Kat’s arm, because she looks like she might try and deck Sarah again. “You know, actually, I think I
do
want to go to your room.” To, like, lie down and never get up. “Maybe we should go.”

“Don’t worry, Damien,” Kat says. “I’m not going to kill her. That’s what she—”

“Um, Sarah?!” Riley interrupts, sounding really panicked. “Is your machine
supposed
to be doing that?”

We all turn to look at the giant drill-looking thing in the middle of the roof. It’s glowing, casting a bluish-white light all over, and there are bursts of sparks coming off of it.

“Oh, no.” Sarah puts a hand to her forehead, her eyes going wide. “It must have crossed the energy threshold. I put in a failsafe, so it would still go off, if ...” She glances over at me, her face pale. “If something happened to you, or if someone tried to stop me. I made sure that as long as it had enough power, it would still go off, even if it wasn’t as much as I’d wanted.”

“So,” Riley says, backing away from the machine, “what you’re saying is, this thing is still going to shoot lightning at everyone?!”

Sarah nods. “We have to do something!”

“My dad’s down there!” Kat cries.

“Can’t you stop it?” I ask Sarah. “Isn’t there a button you can press, and it will just self-destruct?!”

“I didn’t put in anything like that! There isn’t even an off switch. And, even if there was a self-destruct button, it would still explode and cause too much damage! There’s way too much energy!”

“So, there’s no way to stop it?!”

“We have to warn everyone—we have to get them out of there!” Sarah takes off for the door to the roof.

The rest of us take off after her, though my legs don’t want to move, and it feels like I’m trying to run through water.

“How much time do we have?” Riley asks Sarah as we go inside the building and pile into the elevator.

“I don’t know.” She squeezes her eyes shut, trying to calculate. “I don’t ... It doesn’t matter. I
can’t
let anyone else get hurt!”

Kat gets out her cell phone and dials her dad’s number. He doesn’t pick up. “Damn it,” she mutters. She dials again, only to get the same result.

None of us says anything the rest of the way down. My heart pounds in the tense silence, expecting to hear an explosion any second. Then the elevator dings, and the doors open, and we’re running for the event hall.

The dance is still really crowded. Maybe more so than when we left. People look at us kind of funny, possibly recognizing us from the videos. Or possibly just noticing that we’re kind of bedraggled, and that some of us are underdressed, though at least it’s not me this time.

“We have to get everyone out of here!” Kat shouts.

“How?” I ask her.

Sarah grabs some guy’s arm and says, “You have to leave! The school’s going to blow up!”

He looks at her like she’s a freak and pulls away, backing up into the crowd and not running for the exit.

“Pull the fire alarm!” Riley says.

Which is a surprisingly good idea, especially coming from him. But before we can find an alarm to pull—before we can even
move
—a deafeningly loud blast hits the ceiling. It explodes, raining debris on everyone. Chaos erupts as people fall down and start screaming. Someone says the school’s being attacked. Nobody has any idea what’s really happening.

“You all have to run!” Sarah cries. “That was just the opening shot!”

Riley grabs her arm. “Sarah, we can’t stay here!”

“No! I have to stop this!” There are tears streaming down her face, because we all know there’s nothing she can do.

But there
is
something
I
can do.

I take off for the middle of the room, right under the giant hole in the roof. I hear Kat call out my name, but I don’t turn around. I have to push people out of the way, and it takes a lot of effort, and my muscles still don’t want to work.

There’s a flash of light and a loud crackle as a giant beam of lightning pours in through the ceiling. I throw myself forward and make my power work. I’m so drained, and I’ve lost so much energy already—energy that’s now going to zap everyone and kill them if I can’t do something—that my body resists using electricity. Like Sarah said, there’s a limit. It’s only through sheer force of will that I make it work, though it doesn’t hurt that I can’t help thinking about how horrible it would feel to get shocked again, sending a spike of adrenaline through my veins.

Sparks race along my arms, and then—

Then the giant beam of lightning hits me full on. It feels like a ton of bricks just dropped on top of me, and it almost knocks me to the floor. It’s way too much, especially all at once. And even though I’m supposed to be immune to it, I can’t absorb it all. I can’t overpower it. My muscles freeze up, and I can’t move. And at the same time, they spasm and twist in on themselves, threatening to break me. My vision goes blurry, and my bones ache, and I feel like my insides are about to explode. My heart beats way too fast.

The beam doesn’t stop. It’s a steady stream of pain pouring into me, showing no signs of letting up. My skin burns, inside and out. My nerves are screaming.

I’m aware of people shouting. Of running. Of nobody getting too close. I think I hear Kat, but I can’t tell. All I know is I don’t want her to see this.

My bones are going to split apart. My muscles feel like they’re on fire. My heart can’t possibly be beating this fast. Racing so hard, like there’s a finish line to get to.

The beam gets stronger, or maybe it just seems that way, because my body is breaking down. I’m not going to survive this. It’s not a thought or a question, just something I suddenly
know
. But I wonder how much longer I can last, and if it will be enough to save everyone.

There’s more commotion around me. Somewhere. I can’t really tell anymore. A man’s voice shouts something. It might be Kat’s dad.

I think he says, “Hold on!”

Which is easy for him to say, since he’s not the one getting electrocuted. He’s not the one who can’t breathe, whose heart is about to burst. He’s not the one who—

The beam suddenly eases up. It doesn’t stop, but it slows down a lot. Enough so that my electricity power counteracts it. I still hurt all over, but I’m no longer being shocked. I’m not frozen. My bones aren’t trying to break. I take a deep, shuddering breath. The world slowly comes back into focus.

Kat’s dad looks really freaked out. Though relief flickers in his eyes when I turn my head to look at him. “I can’t stop it,” he says. “All I can do is slow it down.”

It takes me a second to realize what he’s talking about. That he must be using his power to communicate with Sarah’s machine. That he’s the only reason I’m not dead right now.

“Damien? Can you hear me?” he asks, sounding kind of panicked when I don’t answer him. Like he thinks I’m not all here.

Which I might not be. I nod.

“You’re going to be okay.” He says that like he means it, but the worried look on his face tells me he’s not so sure.

“How’s this for a publicity opportunity?” I say, because I feel like I need to prove I can still speak, and those are the words that come out.

He shakes his head. “You’re banned for life from all company events.”

“Like that’s going to stop me.”

“I’m kind of saving your life right now. You want to at least humor me for a minute?”

“Yeah, sorry—I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

He looks at me like that doesn’t make it any better.

We don’t say anything else, and I don’t know how much time passes before the beam stops completely. It couldn’t be that long, maybe only a minute, but it feels like much longer, especially since I’m
so
ready for this to be over. When the beam finally stops, I turn my lightning power off and feel like I’m going to collapse and never get back up again.

Did I say I could sleep for a week? I think I meant more like a month.

Kat’s dad puts a hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes. “Are you okay? And,” he adds, when I immediately start to tell him I’m fine, “do
not
lie to me.”

My right arm hurts really bad. So does everything else, really, but I test my arm out a little, just to be sure. Not broken. My muscles still burn, and they’re all jumpy and twitchy, and I feel really sore all over. My heart is beating like normal, though. “I think I’m okay,” I tell him.

He nods and lets go of me. “You say something if you’re not.”

“You could have let me die.”

“No, I couldn’t.”

“Does this mean I can marry Kat?”

He sighs and puts a hand to his face, like he can’t believe I said that. “You’re lucky you’re alive. Don’t push it.”

Kat rushes past him and studies my face. “Are you—”

“I’m okay.” I start to take a step toward her, but my legs are kind of wobbly. So instead I pull her to me. “Put
this
on the evening news,” I say, and then I kiss her.

It’s a deep, intimate kiss that lasts a long time. The kind I wouldn’t normally want her dad to see, because then he might get ideas about all the
other
intimate things we do together. But I don’t think that’s exactly a secret at this point, plus I really don’t care. And even though it’s the kind of kiss that should make other people uncomfortable, I’m pretty sure they take pictures.

So all in all, not a bad evening.

Chapter 31

THE REST OF THE night is one big blur. I vaguely remember getting into Riley’s car to go home, but I must have passed out or fallen asleep after that, because I don’t remember anything else. All I know for sure is that I wake up in my bed the next day, still in my clothes, minus the jacket and tie.

I blink at the red letters on my alarm clock, which say that it’s one thirteen. Not at night, but in the afternoon, because there’s sunlight bleeding through the curtains on the window. I slept for ... I don’t know how long, but it must have been well over twelve hours.

I’m starving. And
so
thirsty. But I can’t imagine going down the stairs, or even getting out of bed anytime soon. My whole body aches, especially my arms and legs, which still feel really heavy, and all I want to do is sleep some more.

“Damien?” Gordon’s voice startles me. I had no idea anyone else was in the room.

I turn over—which is no easy feat and makes me aware of just how sore all my muscles are—and see him sitting in a dining chair next to my bed. “Don’t tell me you’ve been watching me sleep,” I mutter, “because that’s really creepy.”

His face is pale and his eyes are red, like he hasn’t slept in a long time. “I was worried. I thought ...” He takes a deep breath and rubs his eyes with his palms. “Half a dozen times last night, I thought you’d stopped breathing.”

“You were here all night?” Has he really been sitting in here for that long? In that uncomfortable wooden chair?

He nods. “And I don’t know what I would have done if ...” He runs his hands through his hair. “Do you know how dangerous that was? What you did last night?!”

I sit up, being careful not to bonk my head on the slanting wall, and stare at my knees. “I know you probably don’t care, because they were all supervillains, but I couldn’t let anybody get killed. I had the power to stop it, so I did.”

“You almost
died
.”

“But I didn’t. And, look, I know you’re pissed at me for going to Vilmore. Helen said it was okay, but it’s not like I didn’t know you’d still be mad. And you probably didn’t need all those pictures of me fighting with Tristan blasted across the internet. Or of me almost getting electrocuted while stopping that beam to save a school full of supervillains. I blew up Heroesworth, but I saved Vilmore, and that
can’t
look good. And I know you were already ashamed of me, because I ruined your career and your life and stuff. I know sorry isn’t good enough, but I am. I mean, I’d still do it. I’d still go to Vilmore all over again, even if you told me not to, because I
had
to see Kat.” And stop Sarah, though I hadn’t known that part was going to happen. “But I didn’t want to cause trouble for you or anything. It’s not like I
want
you to—” I press my lips together and don’t finish that. I can’t say out loud that he hates me. “I know all I do is cause problems for you, and that you don’t know what to do with me, and that this was probably the last straw, but ...” I squeeze my eyes shut. “Don’t send me away, okay?”

“
What?
What are you talking about?”