Sensation: A Superhero Novel (11 page)

            **********************************

            Conversation on the drive back to League HQ was dominated by Aqua, who had a totally vivacious personality.  Herc drove a large SUV, which befitted someone of his size.  Nemesis and Rapunzel followed closely behind us in his car, an expensive import that Nemesis had received as a present on his last birthday.

            Getting into the headquarters was a bit of a trial and required going through a series of rigorous checkpoints.  As teen members of the Alpha League, everyone in the two cars (except me) had parking privileges.  The building boasted an underground parking garage, for which the only means of ingress and egress was a huge armored door that opened by sliding on horizontal tracks.  The door opened automatically as we approached and both vehicles entered.  Glancing backwards, I saw the door close surprisingly fast behind Nemesis’ car.

            Fifty yards or so ahead was another armored door; it suddenly occurred to me that between the door in front of us and the one behind, we were trapped in a small, enclosed space.  I mentioned as much to Electra.

            “Security,” she replied.  “We take it very seriously around here, and the garage is probably one of the weak points so the League has taken precautions.”  She pointed ahead of us, where  a keypad and screen sat on the wall next to the door.  As we got closer, turret guns in the upper corners of the room swiveled, barrels tracking our car.  I also noticed cameras placed strategically around the room.

            About ten feet from the door, Herc came to a stop. 

            “I’ll take care of it,” Aqua said, jumping out of the vehicle.  She ran up to the keypad and punched in some digits I couldn’t see.

            “She has to enter a code for us to get in,” Electra explained. 

            “And a print scan,” she said when Aqua placed her palm on the screen.

            “And a password,” she noted as Aqua muttered something I couldn’t hear.

            “And a retinal image,” Electra said with finality, watching Aqua lean towards the screen while a jittery light shined in her eyes.

            Aqua ran back and got into the car as the second armored door slid seamlessly open.

**********************************

            After parking, we had to pass through three more security checkpoints before we actually made it into the main building.  Following that, the rest of our party began showing me around.

            The League Headquarters was a mid-rise of about twenty-five stories.  The top five floors were designated as living quarters for the team (including teen members), but those were generally off-limits to visitors.  Likewise, most of the other floors were considered “League Eyes Only.”  In short, the tour that Electra promised me was primarily confined to the team’s museum, which occupied a good portion of the ground floor. 

            The museum essentially consisted of a long corridor known as the Hall of Heroes, with statues of all the former and current League members.  There were rooms located on both sides of this hallway, each with its own particular theme.  For instance, there was a room known as Highlight Hill, with photos and artists’ renditions of the League’s most famous battles.  There was also a memorial room, for those heroes who had fallen in combat.

            Electra and the others were good tour guides, but frankly speaking, there was nothing special about what they were showing me.  It wasn’t anything more than the regular tour that just about everybody in the city had gone on at some time or another - including me, on numerous occasions.  The only thing that got my blood pumping were the statues of my grandparents, Nightmare and Indigo, which stood facing across from each other in the Hall.  Aside from that, I didn’t really see what the big deal was - especially since I didn’t want to be here in the first place. (On a side note, although my father was here as well, on this occasion I chose to deliberately ignore any semblance of him in the museum, much as he had ignored me all my life.)

            “This has been great,” I finally said, trying to sound more interested than I felt, “but I should probably get going.”

            “Okay, but there’s something else I want to show you,” Electra said, tilting her head for me to follow her.  “Something special.”

            She led us out of the museum and through the main lobby to another door near the back of the room.  A sign next to the door read “League Members Only.”  Electra punched in a code on a keypad next to the door.  She didn’t seem to care whether I saw the code or not.  A red light flashed on the pad, accompanied by an irritating buzz.

            “Uggh,” Electra groaned, frustrated.  “They changed the code again.  Anybody remember what the new code is?”

            I turned to look at the rest of our ensemble, all of whom shook their heads. 

            “Great,” Electra muttered, “that’s just great.”

            I was suddenly curious.  I turned to Aqua, who was behind me.  “They change the codes a lot around here?”

            Aqua nodded, saying, “Every week on interior locks; every two weeks on exterior ones, like the garage.”

            “So what now?” I asked.  “Are we done?”

            “Not exactly,” Aqua said with laughter in her voice.  “Why don’t you turn around and watch your girl do her thing.”

            If the “my girl” comment affected Electra in any way, she didn’t show it.  In fact, I’m not even sure she heard it.  She was holding her hand out towards the door and frowning in deep concentration. I began to feel an ionized charge slowly building in the air.  I involuntarily took a step back, having previously been an eyewitness to the type of power Electra had. 

            There was a slight crackle of electricity and then I saw little shoots of lightning zipping across the surface of the door.  Abruptly, there was the sound of tumblers moving and the audible click of a lock changing position.  Then the door opened. 

            “Voila,” said Electra, turning to us with a flourish.

            We hustled inside quickly and found ourselves in a stairwell leading down.  As we descended, I asked Electra what she had done to the door.

            She paused in thought for a second as we walked.  “How much do you know about electronics and magnetism?” she asked.

            “Not much,” I answered truthfully.

            “Well, let’s just say it was a magnetic lock but I was able to electronically bypass the code requirement.”

            At the bottom of the stairwell we came to another locked door, which Electra opened in the same manner as the first.  She and the others then led me down a complicated series of hallways - practically a maze - before stopping at a set of elevator doors.   Electra used her powers again to get the doors to open.

            As we stepped inside, I noticed that there were no buttons to push; apparently there was only one place you could go in this elevator.  The doors closed and the elevator started descending. No one said anything, but I saw nervous glances between the others.  When I opened myself empathically, I felt nervousness and anxiety from several of them - as well as something like determination from Electra.

            Rapunzel finally spoke.  “Electra, do you really think we should–”

            “It’s fine,” Electra snapped, cutting her off.  “It’s not a problem.”

            I wondered what was going on but kept my mouth shut.  I wasn’t clear on what was happening, but I was suddenly interested.

            We rode the rest of the way down - about another ten seconds - in silence.  The elevator’s momentum slowed and, after coming to a complete stop, the doors opened with a slight hiss.

            As we stepped out of the elevator, I noticed that we were in some kind of lobby, about fifteen by twenty feet in area.  Long hallways stretched off to both the left and the right, as well as directly ahead of us.  All around us I could hear mechanized drones and hums, the sounds of large machinery in operation. 

            Electra led the way down the hallway to the right.  “Come on.”

            We all followed - the others sheepishly.  They obviously knew more about what was going on than I did.  About midway down the hall, Electra stopped and opened a doorway to her left. 

            The room we went into was large and spacious. Along one side was a huge expanse of what was obviously extremely sophisticated - and expensive - computer equipment.  There weren’t a lot of flashing lights and dials, but there were quite a few screens and monitors. Along the other wall were what appeared to be a number of huge open stalls.  The walls for each went from floor to ceiling. Looking into the nearest one, I could see a cot against one wall, a sink and a chair.  From this angle, they all looked like jail cells (albeit cells with an open front instead of bars).  Then it hit me.

            These were cells!  
Nullifier
 cells!  I was about to make a comment to that effect when someone else suddenly spoke.

            “What are you kids doing here?”  It was Mouse, quietly looking at one of the computer screens and taking notes.  He was wearing black trousers and a black t-shirt.  I wondered how I hadn’t noticed him before.

            “You  know you aren’t supposed to be here,” he continued without looking up.

            It was Electra who responded.  “We just wanted to show Jim the nullifier cells.”

            “Oh, hey,” Mouse said, looking up and seeming to notice me for the first time before becoming engrossed in his work again.  “Electra, I’m sorry; you’ll have to impress your date later. We’re in the middle of an operation.”

            “Please, Mouse,” Electra pleaded.  “We’ll just take a quick look at one of the cells and leave.”

            “Fine.” Mouse waved his hand in irritation.  “Just make it quick.”

            We all hustled over to the nearest cell.  Most people never get to see a nullifier, so it occurred to me that I needed to look somewhat awestruck.  Silently, I was counting my blessings that Mouse had spoken up earlier and kept me from blurting out that I knew what it was. 

            There was a small panel, almost like a podium, at the front of each cell.  Electra pressed a number of buttons on the panel for the cell where we had congregated, and a soft hum filled the air.  I felt a pressure building at the front of the cell - almost imperceptibly at first, then slowly growing. Looking intently, I saw a concave shape, ghostly white in color but still transparent, slowly take form at the cell entrance.  I didn’t fully realize what it was until Electra stepped over and leaned against it. 

            “A force field!” I said, almost crying out.

            “Pretty cool, huh?” Electra asked.  “Come touch it.”

            I walked over next to Electra and gently reached my hand out until I felt something.  The force field was somewhat yielding, allowing me to exert a little bit of pressure on it.  Then it pushed back, shoving my hand away like a spring under pressure.

            I’d been around force fields in the past (often in BT’s lab), but I’d never actually
seen
one before, because force fields were typically invisible.

            “Where does the color come from?” I asked.

            “It’s artificial,” she replied.  “If you work around force fields long enough, you’ll eventually run into them.  From what I understand, it’s like being hit with a punch that you never see coming.  It’s worse than an ordinary punch, because it’s completely unexpected and you don’t have time to brace yourself.  Making it visible prevents those kinds of mishaps.”

            I nodded in understanding, and Electra laughed a little.  Turning to her friends, she said, “Okay, Aqua, turn it off.”

            She must have still been leaning on it somewhat, because when the force field went off Electra stumbled a little into the cell.  I instinctively reached forward and caught her, as she reflexively extended her hand and grabbed at my arm.  She got her balance back after a second, but - much to my surprise - didn’t move away.

            “Aren’t you a gentleman,” she said, with her hand still on my arm.  She looked into my eyes, and in a moment I was completely lost as she tilted her head up and leaned towards me.  I closed my eyes and inclined my head.  I heard a sudden gasp from either Rapunzel or Aqua, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted to kiss the girl in front of me.

            And just when I thought our lips were about to touch, someone hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer.

Chapter 9

            I was momentarily dazed and struggled to get back to my feet.  I was also having a hard time catching my breath, having had the wind knocked completely out of me.  I glanced around and saw that I was at the back of the nullifier cell.  I rubbed my chest where I’d been hit and felt something warm.  Looking down, I noticed a scorch mark on the front of my shirt; it was still smoking.  It was then that I realized what had happened. 

            Electra had blasted me.  Judging from where I picked myself up off the floor, her power had blown me all the way to the back of the cell.  When I had leaned in thinking of an electri
fyin
g kiss, she’d been thinking about electro
cuting
 me.  Apparently, my mother was right. Guys 
are
 stupid, and some girls 
can’t
be trusted.  It was so comical I almost laughed.  So much for this date.

            I tried to teleport.  Nothing happened.  That’s when the full import of everything hit me.  Not only was I in the nullifier cell, it was on and in full effect!  At the front of the cell, I saw that the force field was in operation, too.  Through it, I could see Electra apparently arguing vigorously with Mouse and the other four teens.  Their voices were loud, but I couldn’t make out the words so I walked to the front of the cell until I could understand what was being said.