Super Villain Academy 2: Polar Opposites (17 page)

Chapter 29

About halfway through the trip, they stopped at a McDonald’s in Boise, Idaho. Set and Jeff unfolded from the Mustang. Jeff twisted from side to side, trying to limber his achy muscles, and Set weaved his fingers together and stretched his arms high above his head. They trudged into the restaurant and up to the counter. A guy, only a couple years older than them, leveled an annoyed look at them as they approached. It was only ten minutes before the restaurant closed for the day, and the place was empty of customers. Set ordered first and then headed for the bathroom. Jeff frowned at the female manager and employee who both leaned forward to watch Set until he disappeared around the corner. Jeff ordered his food and filled his soda cup while he waited.

Their orders were finished quickly and were, thankfully, piping hot. Jeff and Set sat at a booth in the lobby, and Jeff didn’t waste any time digging into his three large sandwiches.

“Here’s your pie,” the female manager said, sliding it onto the table in front of Jeff.

“Thanks,” he said around a mouthful of hamburger.

“Do you guys go to BSU?” she asked. She had a bubbly personality that Jeff suspected he’d like if it weren’t one o’clock in the morning and he hadn’t just spent four hours stuffed into a car.

“No, we’re just passing through,” Jeff answered, having just swallowed his food.

“Where are you headed?” she asked, looking at Set hopefully.

“South.” Set’s tone left no doubt the conversation was closed.

The girl looked like her princess crown had just shattered on the floor in a million pieces. She turned away. “Well, have a safe trip.”

“You’re a jerk,” Jeff said around a fresh bite of food.

“Who cares, she’s human.” Set shrugged and stuffed another bite into his own mouth.

On the way out of the restaurant, Jeff said, “I’ll be right there. I’m gonna use the bathroom.”

Set heaved a dramatic sigh like it was the most inconvenient thing in the world to have to wait for him.

After he’d done his thing and washed his hands, he swung open the bathroom door and sucked in a breath of surprise when he found the female manager standing in front of him. The door swung closed against him, but Jeff couldn’t step forward because the girl was standing right there.

“Um,” she said, wringing her hands. “You may already know this, but there’s some big riot going on in Mountain Home.”

Jeff frowned.

“Well, that’s south of here,” she said. “They’ve got the freeway closed and they aren’t letting anyone through there. The news said there are detours.” She half turned and then looked back at Jeff. “Your friend’s a jerk.”

Jeff chuckled. “He’s not my friend.”

The girl smiled in relief. “Well, I thought you should know.”

“That he’s a jerk? I figured that out on my own.”

Her laugh sparkled in her golden eyes. “No, about Mountain Home.”

“Oh, yeah, that. Thanks.”

Jeff was finally able to slide past her. She followed him to the door, which he thought was odd, until she locked it behind him. The restaurant was closed. Jeff gave an awkward half wave and was rewarded with a stunning smile.

“Did your girlfriend threaten to lock you in with her?” Set asked when Jeff climbed into the passenger seat. The car smelled like ‘boy,’ as Mother always said. The bitter smell of sweat from too many hours with two big guys cooped up inside had permeated the interior and threatened to curl Jeff’s nose hairs.

“No, but she says you’re a jerk.”

“Breaks my heart. An average, powerless human is disappointed by me. How will I get on with life?” Set said, pulling out of the parking lot.

“She also said the freeway is closed down near Mountain Home because of a riot.”

“Great.” Set fiddled with the radio until he found a news station reporting about the riot. It was obvious the situation wouldn’t resolve anytime soon, since there was a tipped over oil tanker truck fully engulfed in flames on an overpass, so Set punched buttons on his GPS until he had an alternate route dialed in. “Your girlfriend was handy after all.”

Jeff plugged his ear buds into his ears and turned his music up nice and loud. They were only halfway there, and who knew how much time the detour would add to their trip.

Next thing Jeff knew, Set punched him hard on the arm, startling him out of sleep. He’d been dreaming about Oceanus wading into the shallows of an ebony colored sea. The deeper she got in the water, the more surreal it looked. The opaque black swallowing up her feet and calves made it look like her incomplete body floated in the sea breeze. Jeff was not sorry to see that dream shatter. He wiped the drool from his chin and growled “What?”

Set just nodded ahead of him.

A spire of flame that seemed one hundred feet high blazed against the inky night sky. Red and blue lights twirled and spun, lending the feel of a macabre disco. The detour had only taken them to the outskirts of the small town. They were winding along a country road, passing an occasional farmhouse. The effects of the riot emanated like a beacon across the flat land for miles in all directions. Jeff frowned at a second and third fire further south of the huge engulfed tanker. They appeared to be buildings just off the main highway.

“All this because the supers are too apathetic to get involved,” Jeff mumbled.

Set glanced at him with raised eyebrows. “Do you want to stop to help, hero?”

Annoyance surged through Jeff as he glared at Set’s unconcerned profile. “I’m not a god-damned hero.”

Set raised his eyebrows again. “Temper, temper, Polar.”

Jeff clutched his knees as he quickly lost the ability to rein in his anger. The screech of bending metal made Set look around in concern. Seeing an outward bow forming in the door beside him, he said, “Okay, okay, never mind that. You’re not a hero.”

The only thing that could have doused Jeff’s rage at that moment was Set’s fear. He could almost taste it on the air, bitter and sour, and, at that moment, delectable. Jeff reclined in his seat and closed his eyes, feigning rest, but really just trying to get his emotions in control again.

During his sophomore year at his old high school, back before he learned he was a villain, they’d had a segment on Tai Chi in their gym class. The teacher thought a pack of hormonal teens could benefit from learning the calm, controlled movements of the martial art. Jeff felt incredibly stupid waving his arms back and forth and standing in a half squat in front of his classmates, but secretly had really enjoyed the inner calm the goofy motions gave him. As Set sped past the chaos of the small town, Jeff concentrated on finding his chi—his center of light—inside his body, centering it and then expanding it until he felt the tranquil warmth spread through his body. His inner tranquility felt an awful lot like waves lapping on a shore, which reminded Jeff of Oci. There she was, walking out of the depths of the ocean toward where Jeff watched from the flat sandy beach. Why was his ocean always dipped in nighttime? It made Oceanus seem like a pretty creature from the black lagoon.

Jeff looked up the beach and saw a figure approaching. He squinted, but couldn’t tell who it was. He glanced at Oci, who continued toward him, yet seemed further away than before. This scene seemed familiar to Jeff. He looked back and forth between Oci and the approaching person. When had this really happened? Or was this a déjà vu thing that would happen in the future? The person was closer, but it was too dark for him to see who it was. From the curvy silhouette, he knew it was a female. He looked back toward Oceanus. She was still walking out of the gentle surf, still impossibly far away, even though she’d never stopped walking.

“So what’s the deal with your powers?” Set asked.

Jeff jerked out of the dream or vision or daydream he’d been having. The sense of loss from realizing that the girl had never reached him drenched Jeff like a sudden downpour of rain. Jeff rubbed his face, but left it buried in his hands while he tried to get a hold of the strange sense of grief. It wasn’t Oceanus he’d hoped to see and hold. It was the other person. Finally, he raked his hands through his hair and growled, “What?”

“Your powers. They seem really unstable. What’s the deal with them?” Set asked.

Jeff shrugged.

“I’ve known a lot of new villains over the years. Newbies often have power surges when they are using their powers. They activate them and then can’t control them. However, yours seem to activate themselves, like that aggravating attraction that you pulse out. You weren’t even aware you were doing it.”

Jeff just stared out the passenger window.

“It’s like they are from so deep down inside you that you aren’t even the one in control.”

Jeff snapped his head and stared at Set.

“What?” Set asked, clearly unnerved. “Don’t make a pretzel of my car or anything. I’m not making fun of you.”

“No, I’m not mad.” Jeff stared at Set, but wasn’t really seeing him. He was replaying his words again and again in his head. There was something there that Jeff was missing, or maybe it just wasn’t connecting. He shook his head and stared out the passenger window again. He felt like he should know how to solve his problem, but he couldn’t figure it out. “Dude, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m thinking that it might be that Oceanus isn’t with me. I think she was the one balancing me.”

Set frowned as he stared at the road ahead.

“But, in all honesty, I think it was starting before she was taken. I feel like I’m unraveling.”

“Unbalancing?” Set asked.

Jeff stared into the dark night. “I was never balanced.”

“How long before…?”

Jeff glanced at Set and frowned. He didn’t think the pretty boy’s sculpted features could crease like that. Why was he so worried all of a sudden? Jeff tried to pinpoint the first time his emotions spun out of control. He remembered getting more and more mad each time he caught Oceanus with a faraway look. He had felt it whenever she had an excuse not to go out or let him walk her home. Thinking of it all at one time made Jeff’s heart heavy in his chest. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Awhile.”

The road stretched endlessly until it was swallowed up by the darkness. Jeff smirked at the irony. He felt like darkness consumed him in some leisurely months-long meal. He doubted there was much of him left. Soon, he’d lose control completely, and, without any supers to care, what would he unleash on the world? He hoped finding Oceanus would put an end to his path toward destruction, but would they find her in time?

Chapter 30

Jeff offered to drive a couple times, but gave up after Set refused repeatedly. Mumbling, “Just don’t kill us,” Jeff dropped into a light sleep again. The tanker fire took center stage in his dream, combined with an odd assortment of supers who had all flown in to save the day. Oceanus pulled water from a fire hydrant to douse the blaze. Desert Storm, a kid from Super Villain Academy who had the power to create sandstorms, kept thwarting her efforts by drying up her water supply. In the most awkward pairing Jeff could imagine, Source yelled coordinates at Set as they tried to pull a storm system closer in order to rain on the fire, but instead, Set brought in deafening thunder claps and bolt after bolt of lightning that managed to set nearby buildings ablaze instead of tamping down existing flames. Jeff had breathed so much ice over the fire that his head spun, and he had to grab onto someone to keep from collapsing. When he turned to the person to thank them, he found himself staring into Mystic’s eyes. He let go and staggered before finding solid ground.

“Hey there, polar bear.” Mystic slid the back of her pointer finger down his cheek and pressed up against him.

He had thought she was wearing clothes, but his hand slid along silky smooth skin when he pushed against her hip to get her away.

“What’s wrong, bear cub? Shy? With an intimate history like ours, you shouldn’t be ashamed. You’ve seen it all already,” she purred in his ear.

Jeff tried to close out her intoxicating scent. It was like freshly baked rosemary bread dipped in olive oil. He really wanted to sink his teeth into her shoulder or run a tongue along the inside of her wrist. “We don’t have a history, Mystic,” he growled through clenched teeth. “All my memories of us as a couple were implanted by you.”

“It’s the same thing.” She pressed her lips against his ear and he wondered when she’d slid closer. “Trust me.”

“That’s never going to happen.”

He felt her rumbling chuckle against his throat and he pushed her to an arm’s length away, but she kept trying to press back toward him. Though she was suddenly fully clothed, the implanted memories betrayed him as he remembered the curve of her shoulder and the dip in the small of her back. He longed to run his palm down the buttery skin of her thigh. He bit the inside of his cheek to refocus his thoughts. “What have you done with her?”

“She’s fine. So am I, thanks for asking. I’ve missed you though.”

“Have you hurt her?”

“I haven’t, no.”

He saw the smirk on her lips. “What does that mean?”

“I’m not currently with her.” Mystic opened her mouth like she was about to accept a bite off of Jeff’s spoon. She leaned toward him. When he straight-armed her to keep her at a distance, she snapped her teeth together and growled like a playful puppy. “You know how to find me.”

Jeff frowned at the sudden change in subject. “It’s not you I want to find.”

Mystic scowled like a petulant child. “Fine, I’ll go hang with your ex-girlfriend, but you have to find me.”

“Why are you doing this? It’s not ransom.”

Mystic’s expression heated up again and she pressed against him. When had she slid so close? “The thrill of the chase, Polar. Eventually, you’ll be begging me to be yours.”

“Not going to happen, Mysty.”

She jerked away and glared at him. “Don’t call me that.”

He raised his eyebrows and one side of his mouth curved into a smile. “Mysty.”

Her eyes sparked with anger. Her cheeks flushed and her shoulders rose and fell with each angry breath she panted.

“Mysty,” Jeff said again.

“Don’t call me that,” Mystic snarled. Her usually exotic features were pinched with anger.