Totally Toxic (13 page)

Well, that narrowed it down.

We drove on toward the highway. Grandpa merged into traffic and stayed in the right lane, obeying the speed limit.

We passed a sign that read
TEMPLETON HEIGHTS MALL NEXT EXIT.
I would have loved to ask Grandpa if we could stop at the mall so I could get some new barrettes to match my supersuit, but since that would be a blatant violation of my grounding, I didn't even bother to suggest it.

Ten minutes later, Grandpa flipped on the turn signal and began veering toward an exit.

“Uh, Gramps, the sign says that exit is closed due to construction.”

“Yes, it does.” He went right on veering.

“Look. The ramp is blocked. There's a flashing light at the end.”

“I see that.” He calmly drove on, slowing to a stop only when the shiny chrome grill of the car was an inch from the orange cones that closed off the road. The yellow warning light blinked, throwing us in and out of darkness. Grandpa put the car in park.

“We're here,” he announced, getting out of the car.

I got out, too, grabbed my backpack from the backseat, and followed him.

The exit ramp led to a gravel road. As far as I could tell, there wasn't a house or even a gas station for miles. Behind us, the sound of cars whipping along the highway faded away as we crossed the unpaved road toward a giant shadowy mass. After another five minutes of walking, I realized that the shadow was actually a huge rocky hill.

I looked up, up, up the side of it. The peak disappeared into the night clouds.

“Do I have to climb this?” I asked.

“Not today.”

Grandpa reached out and placed his hand on a crag jutting out from the side of the stony slope.

I heard the grinding sound of rock scraping against rock, and before my eyes a door-sized chunk of the hill slid sideways, revealing an opening.

I smiled broadly. “Way cool.”

“I've always thought so.”

Grandpa stepped aside and let me enter first. I hesitated,
expecting the inside to be a gloomy, cavernous place with stalactites and stalagmites and creepy shadows.

Not even close!

Inside that doorway, under the mountain, was a huge, brightly lit space that made the gymnasium at Sweetbriar Middle School look pretty bogus in comparison.

“Welcome to the Superhero Federation's Training and Testing Facility,” Grandpa announced proudly. “It's one of many, of course. We have facilities like this all over the world. In my opinion, this one is the best.”

“Why? Is it impenetrable to all natural forces? Undetectable by radar?”

“Well, yes, actually, it's both of those things. But I like it because it has the cleanest locker rooms.”

I followed Grandpa to the center of the enormous space.

“This part of your test measures your physical abilities. Speed, strength, balance … the basics.”

Grandpa explained the test to me. It was like an obstacle course, except that I couldn't see the obstacles… yet. That was due to the fact that in actual hero-versus-villain situations, a hero could never know what to expect and had to think on her feet. The obstacles would just pop up, appearing randomly during the test.

“By magic?” I asked.

“Magic is make-believe,” Grandpa scoffed. “We superheroes utilize the scientific properties of teleportation and molecular transport.”

“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “That was gonna be my second guess.”

“The lady heroes' locker room is to the left,” he said. “Go and suit up.”

Just wearing the supersuit made me feel unstoppable. The bright green fabric seemed to shimmer, and the pink accents were pretty and powerful at the same time. I had sleek pockets and barely-there zippers. It made me feel like I was bringing my family's past into the future. I also had a sleek belt that held all my tools. It wasn't clunky, hanging loose like a carpenter's; rather, it fit snugly around my waist, and each compact, high-tech tool was secured to it in a tidy little pouch. Emily would call it a fabulous accessory, I was sure. I skipped out of the locker room and met Grandpa in the middle of what I was beginning to think of as the Super gym. Grandpa gave me instructions while I gathered my long hair into a ponytail.

“Here's how it works,” Grandpa said. “When I say go, you jump up to that ledge there.” He pointed to one of the high walls. “Choose a tool from your belt and use it to make your way back to the ground. After that, run three laps around the interior… top speed, of course … and, applying the information you were given in the superhero manual, fight, fend off, or otherwise eliminate any obstacles that crop up along the way. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Grandpa winked at me. I took a deep breath….

“Superhero, on your mark… get set…
go!”

I jumped!

I jumped with all my supermight and shot into the air like a rocket. It felt so good to be able to use my power freely—it felt like I was born to do it. Which, of course, I was.

I landed cleanly on the ledge, sorted through the tools on my belt, and decided on a long, sturdy rope with a strong-looking clamp attached to one end. Working quickly, I fixed the clamp to the ledge.

“Good girl!” came Grandpa's encouraging shout from below.

Taking a tight hold of the rope, I lowered myself from the ledge, pushing outward. When I swung back in toward the wall, I let my feet hit first, bending my knees against the impact and pushing out again. I'd seen Lightning Girl do it a thousand times in her comic books, but it was even more fun than I expected. Especially when I super-fied the maneuver by flinging myself outward with superstrength, so that I nearly crossed to the opposite side of the enormous gym. Then, on the way back toward the wall, I let myself spin in midair, like a trapeze artist, only superfast.

When I reached the ground, I gave a tug on the rope; the clamp came down. Unfortunately, so did the ledge. It snapped off a section of the wall and crashed down to the highly polished gym floor, right at my feet. I must have used too much strength!

“That will only cost you a tenth of a point,” Grandpa hollered. “Keep going.”

I returned the rope to my belt and took off at superspeed.

I circled the gigantic room in a mere fraction of a second—once, twice, three times. I must have been just a pink and green blur!

It was amazing. I could feel the speed sizzling in my veins; sparks—actual fiery
sparks
—crackled and sputtered as they were thrown out from my heels. Sparks! How cool was
that?

But I didn't get to dwell on my fire-breathing feet too long because I could see that the floor at the far end of the gym had slid open and an enormous blast of water was shooting up from
the gap. The next thing I knew, a giant tidal wave came rolling across the gym floor in my direction.

I thought fast, struggling to remember what Gran had said about my cape. She'd said the fabric was “ultraabsorbent!” I'd assumed she'd meant it would get all soggy if I ever broke into a supersweat. But maybe …

I whipped off my cape and flung it at the wave. The pink fabric of the cape sucked up the entire wave, as though I were wiping up a grape juice spill with a paper towel. The wave was gone; my sodden cape hit the floor with a wet-sounding splat. “Nicely done!” Grandpa cheered.

I resumed running, silently congratulating myself on my quick thinking. That was when the meteor dropped in.

I heard the whistling shriek of its descent and looked up to see a big hunk of galactic stone falling at an amazing speed. Well, I figured I could catch it… but then where would I put it while I finished the test? I sure wouldn't want to be lugging a miniature planet around with me if another tidal wave showed up.

I searched my brain, staring hard at the meteor as it came closer… closer…

I felt a slight stinging in my eyes. Oh, brother … I hoped I wasn't about to start crying—that would be majorly unsuper. I clenched my fists against the frustration. I had no idea what I was going to do about the meteor. And what was up with my eyes?

“Zoe!” Grandpa cried. “You're shooting laser beams out of your eyes!”

“I am?”

I was! Two searing red shafts of light were darting out from my eyeballs, aimed directly at the meteor.

“Uh-oh… Grandpa, duck!”

He was way ahead of me—he'd already hit the deck and covered his head with his arms.

I turned my laser-shooting eyes to the meteor and concentrated as hard as I could. It kept zooming closer and closer. I gritted my teeth and stared at the center of the space rock. It worked! The lasers did it.

The explosion came like thunder! It was followed by the sound of billions of tiny meteor pieces scattering across the floor.

I wished I'd had a little warning about the laser-beam-out-of-the-eye thing. That was definitely a surprise. Then I realized that it was all part of the test—superheroes never knew what to expect in an emergency situation; the Federation was trying to find out how I'd handle surprises.

I glanced around at the smoking chunks of meteor. I thought I'd handled the surprises pretty darn well!

Grandpa was back on his feet, looking from me to the meteor rubble with an amused smile as he crossed the gym to give me a hug.

“I didn't know I could do that,” I confessed.

“Neither did I,” Grandpa said. “Zoe, that was amazing!”

“It was kinda neat, wasn't it?”

“Your powers are far more extensive than I thought they'd be at this stage.” He smiled. “In other words, kiddo, you've got it goin' on!”

“Is that good or bad?”

“It's terrific. Of course, I'll have my work cut out for me when it comes to training you to use them all! I'd better brush up on the details. I guess I'll be doing some studying of my own.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't be!” Grandpa hugged me again. “I'm going to enjoy every minute of teaching you to perfect your skills. And I just know that by the time you reach your sixteenth birthday, you'll be proficient at everything from gravitational negotiation to intergalactic mind control.”

“Great,” I said. “I feel much better now.”

“You've done a superbly admirable job so far. I'd say at this point in the test process, you're looking at a solid A.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. Suddenly, his eyes looked sympathetic, and he said, “Now comes the truly difficult, demanding portion of the test. Are you up to it?”

I hoped so. The next part sounded really tough. “Bring it on!” I said, bracing myself.

Grandpa wasn't kidding. I could feel beads of perspiration on my forehead. I'd never experienced such pressure, such tension in my life. I was drained, exhausted! The stress was almost painful.

This part of the test was taking all the supereffort I could muster.

“Easy on the grip,” Grandpa advised. “You're going to snap that thing in half.”

He was right; I eased up on the number two pencil I was clutching.

“Stuck?” he asked.

“No.” I scowled at the sheet of paper on the table before me. “It's just that I hate standardized tests. And these word problems …”

“Well, they can be tough.” Grandpa grinned. “But I seem to recall finishing my apprentice exam with forty-six minutes to spare.”

“Overachiever,” I muttered. I read the word problem, made my calculations, and colored in a little circle.

“You can do it, Zoe,” Grandpa said.

I looked up and smiled at him. “Actually, I've already done it. That was my last question.”

Grandpa checked his watch. “Forty-seven minutes to spare,” he said with a wink. While I leaned back in my chair and had a good long stretch, Grandpa took my test paper and slipped it into an envelope.

“Aren't you going to correct it?” I asked.

“The Federation handles that,” he said. “The active part of the exam was digitally recorded… hidden cameras. I didn't mention it before because I was worried you might get stage fright. Anyway, they'll look over the recording”—he tapped the envelope in his hand—“and score this baby at Super headquarters. You'll get your results in a few days.”

Oh, great, more waiting around! Between being grounded and waiting for my test scores, these next few days were going to be the longest of my entire life.