The Trials of Renegade X (12 page)

“Yeah? And what are you going to put on it instead?”

“A picture of you, of course.” Done and done.

She sighs, tells me flattery will get me nowhere—which, if the past sixteen and a half years have taught me anything, isn’t true—and pulls a new gadget out of one of the pouches in her utility belt. She hands me what looks like a cross between a raygun and a remote control with a flying saucer attached to it. “Here, you’re going to need this. There’s suspicious activity three stores down.”

There’s a red button on top of the remote control part and the word
caution
written next to it in several languages, even though I’m the only one who’s going to be using this thing. “You want to give me the rundown first? And, not that I need to remind you, but you know how I feel about killing people. Or severing limbs.” Like I said, we villains aren’t evil. Er, not that I am one or anything.

She pushes her goggles up onto her head and rolls her eyes at me. “It’s perfectly safe.”

“So, when I push this button with all the warnings by it, nothing’s going to explode?” I’ve heard
that
before.

“Well ...” She looks away. “That depends on how you define
explode
. But before you say anything, hear me out. It’s mostly a homing device. See, you aim it at your target and press that red button. Then you pull the trigger.”

“Uh-huh. And what happens then?”

“Then ninja stars shoot out of it and track down your target. That way, all you have to do is get close enough to set your sights on them. And if they run, you won’t have to chase them. The ninja stars do all the work.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “And these ninja stars do what, exactly? Because, Cosine, these are jewel thieves we’re talking about here, not ax murderers.”

“You don’t know what they’ll do when cornered.”

“Yeah, especially when cornered with exploding ninja stars.”

“All they do is home in on the target, surround them, and then gently explode, throwing out interconnecting nets. So the bad guy gets tangled up and detained until you catch up with them.”

“Oh, yeah, just a gentle explosion. No problem. Have you tested this thing?”

“Define
test
.” She slips her goggles back on and grabs my arm. “Never mind all that. They look like they’re about to run. We’ve got to go.”

I nod, silently hoping this new gadget does what she says, and hurry toward the scene of the crime. The door to the jewelry store’s been busted open. Flashlights sweep around inside, and though it’s mostly dark, I can make out the shapes of two guys rummaging through the shop.

Sarah motions for me to point the new gadget at one of them. She mimes pressing the red button.

I take a deep breath and hold up the new ninja-star gun. I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell if I’m aiming right, but being five feet away from the bad guys in the middle of a break-in is as good a time as any to find out. I press the red button, half expecting the whole device to explode in my hand.

It doesn’t explode, but it does make a loud buzzing noise. I hear Sarah mutter, “Oops,” just as the two guys inside immediately whip around to face us, their flashlights blinding me. One of them shouts, “Freeze! This is official League business!” He holds up a hand, palm out, like it’s a weapon, and that’s when I realize they’re not bad guys.

But I’m too late. I don’t know what happens then, only that I
don’t
pull the trigger. But a wild tendril of fear flashes through me. Electricity sparks hot in my hand. It feels the same as it did the other night, when the light socket practically exploded. Except this time, I know it’s not coming from some outside source—it’s coming from
me
. I can feel the charge all the way down to my bones. But it all happens so fast, and before I really get what’s happening, sparks shoot into the gadget I’m holding, and then there are ninja stars flying. Not just at their target—who is apparently a superhero and
not
a jewel thief, which, to be fair, you can’t tell using heat vision—but in every direction. Sarah and I both hit the ground just as the ninja stars swoop toward us.

The superhero who told us to freeze really means it. He shoots out a blast of ice from his hand, and suddenly I’m so cold, my teeth are chattering and I can’t move. His partner creates some kind of energy shield just in time for the ninja stars to bounce off of it and over toward us. There are some mild exploding sounds—kind of like popcorn popping—and then a couple of nets splay over top of us.

The two superheroes rush out of the building now that we’ve been thwarted. “Just a couple of kids,” one of them mutters, sounding half disappointed, half exasperated. Like having to deal with a couple of teenagers is worse than if we’d been dangerous supervillains.

They make sure the new gadget is out of either of our reaches before pulling the nets off and helping us up.

The one with freeze powers takes out a walkie-talkie and mumbles something into it about having some villain kid in custody.

I’m still shivering so hard, I can barely talk. “I’m ... not
...
a villain,” I correct him. And why does he assume I’m a villain, but not Sarah? She’s the one who made the thing.

He gives me a skeptical look. “Riiight, kid. You want to show me your
H
?”

I close my eyes, hiding my thumb in my fist. “We thought you were robbing the place.”

“And we thought you were shooting at us. Oh, wait, you
were
. And it doesn’t matter what is or isn’t on your thumb, because we’ve got to bring you in either way. Unless,” he adds, “you can give us a real good reason not to.”

Sarah’s eyes meet mine. We both know what I have to do and that I’m not going to like it. I groan and tell them to call the Crimson Flash.

“He a friend of yours?” the shield guy asks, stifling a laugh.

“Something like that.” There’s no way I’m telling them he’s my dad. Then I’d have to watch his face get all red when he came down here and they started asking unwanted questions. Plus, think of the media backlash if this got out. I know I don’t exactly fit into his world. I don’t need any more reminders.

Freeze guy looks me up and down. “
You
know the Crimson Flash? Some villain kid like you?”

“I’m
not
a villain. And yeah, I do, so just call him already.”

Gordon stays silent until after we drop Sarah off at her house. Then he sighs, adjusts his bright red cape, which is sort of caught up in his seat belt, and says, “You want to tell me what happened?”

Electricity shot out of my hand. Even though that’s impossible. “It was a misunderstanding,” I tell him. I turn my shoulder toward him and lean my head against the window, so I don’t have to see if he’s angry or not. I stare at my hand, flexing my fingers, half expecting to see sparks. But nothing happens. Probably because I only imagined that that burst of electricity came from me. It must have been the gadget backfiring somehow. Just like how it was the wall socket that shorted out or blew a fuse or whatever. It had nothing to do with me.

Except I know I didn’t imagine that electric feeling in my hand. Or the sparks flying out of it.

“It feels like more than a misunderstanding,” Gordon says. He stops at a red light and glances over at me. “I know you’ve been having a hard time at school.”

“It’s only been a week.” Kind of early for him to be judging me. I mean, I’m still getting my bearings—clearly I don’t know how to work the system yet, as evidenced by my poster grade.

“Yes, and I’ve already heard from all five of your teachers.” Drops of rain splatter across the windshield, and he turns on the wipers.

“All good things, I’m sure.”

I watch the wipers smear water back and forth across the glass. It’s impossible to have more than one superpower, and I already have one, so whatever I think happened tonight
couldn’t
have actually happened. Especially since electricity is a villain power. I should know because it’s my grandpa’s ability, which I guess means it runs in the family. Not that that matters, since, like I said, I already have my power. I’ve never heard of anyone having two. Though, then again, I’d never heard of anyone having an
X
, either.

“You know,” Gordon says, his voice quiet compared to the rain pounding against the windows, “I’d understand if you wanted to try something else.”

I lift my head and raise my eyebrows at him. “Something else?” Like what, joining the circus?

“If you wanted to go back to your old school. It’s early enough in the year—you could still catch up.”

“You think I can’t cut it at Heroesworth.” I know that’s what Helen thinks. I can just imagine what she’d say if she knew I had a villain power. Which, thankfully, I
don’t
. Because even if controlling electricity is as much in my genes as flying, that doesn’t mean I actually have it.

“That’s not what I said. But, Damien, you’ve been acting strange all week. I can tell something’s bothering you. And I want you to know that if you’re going to Heroesworth for my sake, well ... That’s not something I expect of you.”

“Yeah? But it’s something you expect from Amelia, right? And Alex?” You know, his
real
kids.

He laughs. “I can’t see Amelia quitting Heroesworth.”

“But if she told you tomorrow she wanted to drop out, you’d be disappointed. And if Alex or Jess was old enough and told you they didn’t want to go, you wouldn’t just shrug it off like it was no big deal.” Dropping out also sounds like something a bad influence would do. It sounds like someone who’s not absolutely certain he knows where he belongs. Like someone who might have a villain power, despite not really being one, and who refuses to sever all ties with the girl he loves just because she’s a supervillain. Not that I know anyone like that.

“I don’t want any of you kids to feel like you have to do things that don’t make you happy.” He glances over at me, then back at the road. “Heroesworth might not be the right fit for you, son. I know you’ve been struggling. And I don’t want you to feel obligated to be someone you’re not. That’s all.”

“By
someone you’re not
, you mean a hero, right?” And I hope by
struggling
, he’s not talking about the poster. Because, to be struggling, I would have actually had to try first. I fold my arms across my chest and sink down in my seat. “Tonight was a misunderstanding. Sarah and I go patrolling all the time. We catch tons of bad guys.”

Gordon gives me a skeptical look.

“Okay, maybe not
tons
.” But we’ve scared off our fair share of low-lifes, mostly because of Sarah’s gadgets, which are known for causing loud explosions and occasionally lasers that slice through anything that gets in their way. “And there was only that one casualty.”

“There was
what
?” He slams on the brakes, and not to teach me a lesson in why it’s a good thing I’m wearing my seat belt.

I wave away his concern. “It was nothing. An art thief tripped over my foot and chipped a tooth. And sort of dropped the really expensive painting he was stealing in an oil slick in the parking lot. But the owners were still happy to get it back. Mostly. And nobody pressed charges.”

He actually pulls over, even though we’re only a few blocks away from home. His face goes pale. “Damien, why is this the first I’m hearing about this?”

“Because it wasn’t a big deal?” I shrug. “It happened over the summer. You were busy filming your documentary.”

“Even if I’m busy, you know you can talk to me, right?”

“There was nothing to talk about. It didn’t even make the paper.”

“That’s not the point. I think you and Sarah should cool it for a while.”

“Oh, so now I’m not supposed to see Sarah, either?” Who am I supposed to hang out with, Amelia?

“No, I mean you guys shouldn’t be out on the streets on your own. No more ... what do you call it?”

“Patrolling?”

He nods. “You need to be focusing on your school work anyway.”

Yeah, right. “But how am I supposed to get my
H
if I’m not out superheroing?”

“Damien ... there’s more to getting your
H
than prowling for bad guys at all hours of the night. You don’t have to catch criminals to be a hero. I thought you knew that.”

I glance over at him, taking a deep breath. “I do. But if we stop going on patrols, Sarah’s never going to hang out with me. She’s too busy with
Riley
.”

“Is that what’s been bothering you?”

“It’s a factor.” I flex my hand again, remembering the feel of the electricity earlier. “Riley’s a total douche and not worth her time. But he thinks he’s better than me because he has his
H
. And he’s trying to convince her to be his sidekick instead of mine.” And there
may
have been a finger-breaking incident, though my involvement in that was minimal at best.

Gordon scratches the side of his head. “Well, I can’t imagine Kat’s too crazy about you going out patrolling with Sarah, either.”

“Not exactly,” I admit, not looking at him, in case he gets the idea that he’s actually right about something. “But it’s not like anything’s going on between me and Sarah.” Just the two of us trusting each other with our lives on a regular basis. Nothing special about
that
.