The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) (4 page)

The door on the other side of the room opened, and Samantha walked in. I greeted her with a smile, and she reciprocated.

“How you feeling, Kane?” she asked as she walked across the room, which was empty save for a handful of chairs.

“Could be better,” I said as I sat up in my chair.

Samantha sat down in the one closest to her and pushed herself backwards, rolling across the room towards me. She pushed her glasses up. “We should really get a table to put in here, you know. Or move to a room with one already in it. There’s a great one on the first floor.”

I smiled at her millionth attempt to get me to move the meeting room. “Everybody voted on this room. They like it. Besides, all the conference rooms are being used now. This hotel isn’t
that
big.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like there are plenty of other hotels we could be using in a
deserted city
,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t like having to take that elevator all the time. It’s only a matter of time before it breaks down and I go plummeting to the bottom.”

“If only you lived somewhere that was crawling with superheroes who could save you,” I said with a smirk, looking at her out of the corner of my eye.

“‘Crawling’ with superheroes? You’re being pretty generous,” she said, snark dripping from her words.

I huffed in frustration. I had to bite my tongue to keep from jabbing back. “Just take the stairs. It’s not that far.”

Samantha couldn’t argue with my point. “I’m just saying. I come up and down all day. Taking the stairs would take up valuable time. If we just met on the first floor—problem solved.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” I said. I could hear footsteps coming down the hall.

Doug walked into the room carrying a laptop under his arm. He scanned the room, searching for something.

“What’re you looking for, Doug?” I asked him.

He scanned for a few moments more before he shook his head and sighed. “We should really get a table or something.”

Samantha turned to look at me, a smirk on her face and satisfaction in her eyes. “Great minds,” she said.

Doug plopped down into one of the computer chairs scattered around the room and opened up his laptop. Moments later, the sound of his typing filled the room as Samantha and I waited in silence.

It wasn’t long before everybody was in the room with me: Samantha, Doug, Drew, Selena. I trusted the four of them more than anybody, save for my parents, who were too busy running the civilian side of things to join our meetings. Nep would usually join in on the meetings too, but he was busy getting stitched up and recovering. Unfortunately, he couldn’t heal quite as fast as I could. The only other Super who wasn’t there was Eddie, who preferred to spend his time in the maintenance room alone. As long as he used his power of electricity to keep the power running, I was okay with that.

I cleared my throat and began. “Alright, we need to get a game plan together. This is the fourth attack in the month we’ve been here, and the worst one so far. Two people died today. Two innocent people. People are going to get scared, think we can’t protect them, and then leave Dallas. If that happens, they’re as good as dead. It’s only a matter of time before Atlas and the Legion turn their attention south.” I turned to look at Selena. Her face was pale, and she was staring out the window. “Everything alright, Selene?”

She snapped back to reality and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m alright.”

I knew she wasn’t. For one thing, she wasn’t getting mad at me for calling her Selene, which she always did. Second, she looked like she’d just seen a ghost. I knew what it really was, though. I could tell she felt guilty for not being able to get back to Dallas in time. It wasn’t like what she’d been doing wasn’t important. She’d been out gathering intel on the Legion and their movements, which was vital for us if we ever wanted to mount an offensive.

“The attacks—the latest one, especially—are troubling,” Samantha said. “They’re not going to stop, either. They’re going to keep on until we’re no longer a problem for Atlas,” she added, trying to dance around what she really meant. They weren’t going to stop until we were all dead.

“If they want to wipe us out, why haven’t they done it already?” Drew asked, leaning forward in his seat. “Ever since we fought that army a month ago, it’s just been small attacks here and there. They have the numbers for another large-scale attack. Why haven’t they done it?”

Everybody turned to look at Selena. She looked at us, confused. “What?”

“Well?” I said. “You learn anything on your latest outing that might shine some light on all of this?”

She took a moment to collect her thoughts. “Right now, it looks like they’re holed up in Boston. They’ve got a pretty constant patrol around their portion of the city, so I couldn’t get close enough to get an idea of their exact numbers. I mean, it’s an army; we know that much. They’re making their way through the city, searching for anyone who’s a Super to join their Legion. Anyone who’s not either joins as an Eximus soldier or is killed.”

Everybody took that in for a moment. Every day, the Legion’s numbers were growing. On the flip side, we were lucky to grow our numbers by one a week, and so far for this week we were net negative.

“As far as why they haven’t wiped us out yet, I don’t know. They definitely have the numbers. There could be something logistically that’s keeping them from getting down here,” Selena said.

“I have a theory,” Doug said, looking up from his laptop.

We all turned to him as he sat up in his chair.

“I don’t think they’re interested in killing us all, at least not right now. They’re just trying to keep us afraid.” Doug sat back in his chair.

I was beginning to put together the pieces. “I think I’m seeing what you’re saying,” I said.

“You do?” he asked, excited.

I nodded. “Yeah. We’ve been thinking about this all wrong. We thought that they were growing their numbers, or waiting until they’ve made their way south, but that’s not it at all.”

“They’re keeping us distracted,” Samantha said.

I nodded. “Exactly. They think if they can just send a couple Supers here and there to keep us in check and out of their hair, they won’t have to worry about us. At least, not until they’re ready.”

“Okay, but what does that mean?” Drew asked. “We have a solid theory on their motives. I know I don’t have to tell you that it’s working. We have no idea when they’re going to attack next, how big or small it’ll be, nothing.”

We all sat there in silence, each waiting for the person next to us to offer up a solution. It seemed that nobody had one, until finally, Doug spoke up. “I think I’ve got something,” he said.

“What is it?” Samantha asked.

“I’ve been talking with some of my contacts around the world, getting a sense of what’s happening outside of our borders. The problem here is that most of the Supers are joining Atlas, and those who aren’t, are too afraid to stand up to him and join us. So, they’re either fleeing the country or just lying low. Overseas, however, the Supers who can are leaving to come here and join Atlas. Things are nowhere near as bad over in places like Europe or Australia, where all the bad Supers are leaving to come here. That allows the good ones to rise up and protect their countries. The good outnumber the bad.” Doug paused.

“So, what are you saying? That we just abandon the States and flee to Australia?” Drew asked.

Doug shook his head. “No, of course not. What I’m saying is that if two people, say Kane and Selena, can go overseas and convince the Supers to join forces with us, we may be able to grow our numbers enough to be able to stand a fighting chance against Atlas and the Legion.”

Everybody let that sink in, each of us going over the idea in our heads. There were a lot of pros and cons, but it was nice to actually have a plan in mind.

“So, what you’re saying is that you want us to go on a recruiting mission?” I asked.

Doug nodded. “Yes, exactly. I have a list of countries that would be the most viable options.”

Sarah raised her hands in disbelief. “You want our two most powerful Supers to go all the way to the other side of the world, leaving us here defenseless? What if something happens? What if the Legion decides to attack? We’d be screwed!”

“We’re screwed if we sit here and do nothing,” Doug argued. “We can’t do this alone. We need all the help we can get. Besides, if something’s happening, you can just brain-message Kane or whatever.”

Samantha huffed in frustration. “It’s not that easy, and you know it, Doug. Sending a message when he’s on the other side of the country is hard enough. On the other side of the world? That’s going to take all the energy I have.”

“Well, just drink a Red Bull or something before you have to do it,” I said.

Everyone turned to look at me.

“You aren’t really considering this, are you?” Samantha asked.

“Of course I am. Doug’s right. We can’t do this on our own. We’re going to need help, and we aren’t going to find it here in the States. Selena and I are going to go as soon as we can.”

“I’ll get in touch with my contacts and see what they can tell me about the Supers in their countries. I’ll get you a list of the top three options,” Doug said. He began typing away on his keyboard.

“So, you’re just going to leave us here to die?” Samantha said, crossing her arms.

“You’re being dramatic, Samantha.”

“
I’m
being dramatic?” she said, tapping her index finger against her chest. “Forgive me for not loving the idea that our two most powerful Supers are about to leave us here, right after the most devastating attack we’ve had in a month. There’s an army of Supers, Eximus soldiers, and their psychotic leader right on our doorstep.”

“They aren’t on our doorstep!” I shot back. “You heard Selena—they’re all the way out in Massachusetts. The entire army isn’t going to come all the way to Dallas without you noticing. You’ll have plenty of time to get a message to us in time.”

Samantha stood up from her seat. “You need to think about this, Kane. Don’t make some emotional decision that’s going to affect all of us here. You had a long day. Just give it some time before you decide to go off globetrotting.”

With that, Samantha stormed out of the room, not letting me get another word in.

Nobody said a thing. The only sound to be heard was Doug typing away on his keyboard.

“Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but she is a little bit right,” Drew said. “It’s been a long day. Maybe we shouldn’t make a decision right now. The Legion just attacked, which means we have a while before they do so again. Let’s at least sleep on it for one night before we make any major decisions, alright?”

I looked to Selena. She nodded.

“Alright, I can agree with that,” I said. I stood up from my chair, ready for this meeting to be over. “Keep working your contacts, Doug. We need to know as much as we can before we jump into anything.”

Doug nodded. “Already on it.”

“I guess we’ll meet back here tomorrow morning?”

Everybody nodded as they stood from their chairs, save for Doug.

“I should be ready by then,” Doug said.

“Alright then,” I said. “It’s settled. We’ll make our decision tomorrow.”

A NEW ASSIGNMENT

“Hey, I need you for a sec,” Selena said from behind me.

I stopped in the hallway and turned. She walked out of our meeting room and made her way towards me. “What’s up?” I asked her.

“I brought someone back with me,” she said with a knowing smile.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, perking up. “Please tell me it’s a new Super.”

Her shoulders slumped a bit. “Well, not really. I mean, he is a Super, just not the good kind. I was able to grab one of the Legion’s Supers and bring him back with me. I’ve got him locked up in room 306—it’s one of the rooms we cleared out. I thought maybe we could pop down there and ask him a few questions. He’s pretty harmless, just has the ability to fly. Very slowly, I might add. I was able to chase him down easily.”

“Yeah, that sounds great. I’ll take all the answers I can get. I’ll grab Drew and we’ll go see what this Super knows,” I said, sounding as definitive as I could.

I began to turn around, ending the conversation.

“Why Drew? I figured you and I could do it,” she said.

I guessed I hadn’t sounded definitive enough. I’d known she’d get upset. “You’re just really tired, Selena. You need to get some rest, especially if this plan Doug has is going to happen. Don’t worry about it. Drew and I can handle it.”

“I’m not tired, Kane. If anybody needs rest, it should be you. I’m the one who brought him in. I’m the one who’s going to be asking the questions,” Selena said.

“Come on, Selene—”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Whatever. It’s going to be fine. He’s probably not going to answer our questions, anyway. It’ll only take two seconds. Go get some rest, please.”

Selena rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. I don’t have time for this. I’ll see you before dinner for training.”

I smiled. “See you then, Selene.”

She didn’t smile back.

I walked towards the elevators as Selena blew past me in full Holocene mode. I chuckled to myself and shook my head. If I were asked why I didn’t want Selena there, I wasn’t sure I could’ve given a definitive answer. I suspected it had something to do with my getting carried away. I was so angry at Atlas and the Legion, I was happy to take my feelings out on one of the Legion’s members, especially after the attack we’d experienced earlier that day.

So I really did know why; I just didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want Selena to be there to see me if I got carried away. Which was exactly why Drew
had
to be there. He could use his Eximus energy to keep me in check. Just in case.

Or to keep up appearances, at least.

I rounded the corner and saw Drew and Samantha waiting by the elevator.

“I wonder how far you could run in the time it’s taking the elevator to get here,” Drew said.

“Ah, probably not as far as you think,” I said as I walked up to them.

“I swear Eddie is making this damn thing go so slow on purpose. He’s trying to mess with me,” Samantha said, frustrated.