Vanguard: The Complete Second Season: A Superhero Serial (Vanguard: The Collected Seasons Book 2) (6 page)

“Yeah, yeah,” said Erin with an eye-roll. “And you had to walk ten miles uphill—both ways—in a blizzard just to get to school every day…”

“Don’t exaggerate,” said Victoria. “It was
nine
miles.”

“The dreaded peaks of the Great Plains.”

Victoria laughed. “Anyway, I’m thinking of ordering out tonight for dinner. I have to fly to Houston tomorrow for a conference and don’t want to cook. What are you in the mood for?”

“Hmm…” Erin glanced up at the domed light on the ceiling, tapping a finger to her chin. “Thai?”

“Really? I was hoping you’d say pizza.”

“Nah, some of the girls wanna go out for pizza this weekend,” said Erin. “Come on, I haven’t had Thai food since I went to Atlas!”

Victoria sighed. “Okay, Thai it is. Why don’t you go upstairs, get changed, and make the call?”

“I can save a trip right now.”

Right before her mother’s eyes, Erin’s long, blond hair retreated into her scalp. Her pinkish complexion became a pale green and her eyes turned yellow. Victoria raised her glasses and turned back to her laptop, beginning to type. “Thought you meant you were gonna change clothes…”

“Nah, these are fine.” Erin gestured to her sweater and jeans. “Just making myself look the way I used to, it takes a toll.”

“And here I thought you were learning to get better at that…” muttered Victoria. She could feel her daughter’s eyes burning a hole into the back of her head and she huffed. “It’s not like that. I love you no matter
what
you look like, you know that.”

“Really?” asked Erin, still staring at her mother. “So why can’t you look me in the eye when you say it?”

Victoria’s typing came to a halt. She stayed fixed on the glow of the monitor for a few seconds, seconds that were filled with an extremely uncomfortable silence for both mother and daughter. Finally she looked at Erin again. “I’m sorry. This just…it takes some getting used to.”

Erin moved away from the desk and went back to the kitchen. “Forget about Thai. Don’t think I have much of an appetite any more.”

Victoria placed her face in the palm of her open hand. Trying to relate to your teenage daughter was a near-impossible task in and of itself. How does one relate to a teenage daughter who also happens to be a superhero?

***

Erin gnawed on her straw, staring down at the pepperoni pizza resting in the middle of the table. The three teenage girls she shared the booth with chattered almost non-stop, while Erin felt the conversation fading into the background, becoming white noise.
 

Everything seemed so surreal to her now. After spending months with Vanguard, living at the Atlas, her life back in Madison felt completely mundane. Julie, the redhead who sat next to her, kept prattling on about her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ted. Across from her, two other girls—Maria, who had straight, long dark hair and Patty whose short blond hair reached down to her chin—hung onto Julie’s every word.
 

But Erin just smiled and nodded, putting up the facade of listening. She took a fresh slice of pizza and bit into it, chewing slowly. What she wouldn’t give for some kind of a crisis right now. A rogue special attack seemed pretty unlikely, but maybe a robbery or even a fight between some of the guys who sat at the bar.
 

“Hey!” Julie snapped her fingers in front of Erin’s face.

She blinked her blue eyes and looked at her friend. “Sorry, did you say something?”

“I asked you what’s going on with you and Chris,” said Julie. “Didn’t you have a thing?”

Erin shook her head. “Not really.”

“Oh come on,” said Julie. “You were
so
into him. Now he and Kelly broke up and it’s like you couldn’t care less.”

Last year, Erin would’ve given anything to go out with Chris Powell. But now she had trouble even picturing his face. She gave Julie a shrug. “He’s not really my type.”

“Not your type?” asked Maria. “What about him isn’t your type? He’s cute, he’s funny, he’s got a nice car.”

“And from I’ve heard, he’s got some
other
attributes,” said Patty with a knowing smile.
 

The three girls let out a genuine laugh, but Erin faked hers to fit in with them. “I just don’t think I’m really into him any more. I mean, knowing he dated Kelly Grayson of all people.”

Her friends laughed. “You’re such a bitch!” said Julie, playfully smacking Erin’s arm. In reality, Erin didn’t have any opinion about Kelly Grayson. But it felt like the right thing to say in order to shut Julie up.
 

“So tell us his name,” said Julie.

So much for that.
 

“What do you mean?” asked Erin.

“You met someone when you were away, didn’t you? Some sexy French guy?”

“Oh…” To account for the time she was with Vanguard, Erin had been provided with a cover story, saying she had been studying abroad in Europe. “No, it was nothing like that.”

“Bull!” said Patty, pointing at Erin’s face. “Look at her, she’s blushing!”

“I am not!” said Erin. “There wasn’t anyone, okay? I spent pretty much the whole time studying.”

“Whatever,” said Julie. “Y’know Hastings, you’re really disappointing. Only you could go to Europe and come back with the lamest stories ever.”

***

“Sounds like a nightmare,” said Koji Asano after Erin finished relating the story about her night out with her friends.

Erin leaned against her bed’s headboard, the tablet that she spoke to Koji through resting on her thighs and a pair of earphones plugged into the side.

“Just feels so weird being back here. Nothing seems right,” said Erin.

“It takes some getting used to, that’s all. You keep in touch with the others?”

“I hear from Anita every now and then, but she’s pretty busy with her new job. I used to get a postcard from Dom whenever he wound up somewhere new, but nothing in a few weeks. And since Jim went to work for Cerberus, no word from him. Which I guess is understandable.”

“What about Lee or Zen?”

Erin frowned and shook her head. “Not since the funeral.”

Koji sighed. The funeral she referred to was for Colonel Leonard Thorne, the man who had been put in charge of Vanguard by the late President Hayworth. But after the incoming President Lawson had made the decision to cease the government’s sponsorship of the team, Thorne was offered the opportunity to head up Cerberus, an international organization designed to police specials. When he went to Washington to accept the position, he was killed in an explosion.

Atlas was officially closed to them from that point. Zenith, the team’s artificial intelligence, had been left trapped in the body of one of Vanguard’s enemies. And Lee Parker, a new addition to the team, had promised to help restore Zenith to his own body. But they both vanished after the funeral and hadn’t been seen since.

Erin made the decision to change the subject. “How are things out there in paradise?”

Koji smirked. “Pretty nice. The job pays decently enough, plus I get to be in the water almost all day. Sometimes after work, I’ll dive underwater and transform into my Sharkskin form and just swim for hours.”

Erin’s smile was half-hearted. Koji had found a way to embrace his abilities. But her mother didn’t like seeing her use her shapeshifting powers and she certainly couldn’t do it anywhere else. That meant her room was the one place she could show her true face.

“Sounds great.”

Koji’s smirk faded into a grown. “Doesn’t seem like you really feel that way.”

Erin sighed. “I’m sorry, Koj. I’m just feeling a little sorry for myself.”

“Don’t sweat it. Hey listen, maybe you could come out here for a visit some time. I could show you around the island.”

“Yeah, that sounds fun,” said Erin.
 

She could hear the sound of a ringtone on Koji’s end. He looked down from the screen and she saw a cell phone in his hand. Koji turned back to the camera. “Sorry Erin, I gotta go. That’s my parents calling.”

“Sure thing, I’ll talk to you later.” Erin ended the call and Koji’s face vanished from her screen. She sighed and opened up the tablet’s web browser.
 

She first started going to the special-related forums about a week or two ago, when she was feeling really separated from who she was. Hundreds of online communities had sprung up in regards to the specials, especially since the United Nations introduced the world to Cerberus.
 

There were even extreme conspiracy theories regarding the specials. On one side, you had those who believed specials were some kind of demons here to bring about the new world order. On the other, there were those who felt that Cerberus was actually murdering specials in secret, trying to contain their population and that Vanguard had been their first targets.

Obviously Erin knew that wasn’t true, but she never participated in the discussions. She didn’t want to risk accidentally revealing something about Vanguard that could compromise her identity. In these days, Internet anonymity wasn’t quite as anonymous as many people thought. She had learned that from Zenith.

As she scrolled through the posts, one of the topic threads caught her attention—labeled, “FREAK ISLAND?!”
 

Erin clicked the link. As she read the post, she started to doubt the veracity, like most things she’d read on these forums. But then another thought entered her mind—what if it were true? A place where specials could be themselves, free from persecution?

CHAPTER 2

Koji swam beneath the waves of the Pacific Ocean, his body shifting and gaining bulk as he moved through the water. His skin turned to a shade of gray and his hair retreated into his head. His eyes transformed into pitch-black orbs and the teeth lining his jaw elongated and sharpened.

One of the perks to his Sharkskin form was his ability to breathe underwater without any difficulty. His speed and strength increased and his senses heightened to a superhuman level. Koji enjoyed this part of the day most of all, the time when he could just relish in his special abilities.
 

As he swam through the water, Koji blinked twice, catching sight of something off in the distance. He kicked his legs fiercely, realizing it looked like a person floating there above the sandy floor. But once he got within range, he saw the person change form, becoming a green-skinned woman with no hair and bright, yellow eyes, smiling at him. Koji shook his head and grabbed her arm, pulling her up to the surface.

He changed back into his human form just an instant before his head broke through the water. When he pulled the girl up, she had changed as well, now sporting long, blond hair and fair skin.

“The hell were you thinking, Erin?” he asked.

Erin splashed water in his face. “Nice to see you, too. Dick.”

Koji wiped the water from his face, a frown still present on his face. He then smiled and splashed her back. Erin squealed and retaliated, the two quickly escalating into a war of water, laughter coming from both of them.
 

Erin, at a loss of breath from laughter and the exertion, held up her arms. “Okay, okay! Truce?”

Koji gave a nod. “All right. So you gonna tell me what you’re doing out here?”

“Should we head in first?”

Koji nodded. The two swam back to shore, walking out onto the dry sand. Koji had a beach towel spread out on the sand next to a backpack. He picked up the towel and started drying himself off. When he finished, he held the towel out to Erin, but found that she already appeared dry.

“Huh?”

“Shapeshifting, remember?”

Koji frowned and tossed the towel onto his bag. “How come I can’t do that?”

“Because I’m better than you?”

Koji made a face at her before sitting on the sand. “Okay, so what’s going on? Why are you in Hawaii?”

“Taking you up on your offer,” said Erin, sitting beside him. “Remember you said I could come out here and visit you?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d come down a few days later without notice.”

Erin smirked. “I stole my mom’s credit card.”

Koji’s eyes bulged. “You
what?
”

Erin put a hand on his. “Relax, I had a good reason.”

Koji was dumbfounded, looking away from her. “This isn’t like you.”

“It’s fine, my mom’s out of town on business any way,” said Erin. “I’ve got my phone so I can easily make up some story if she calls.”

“Not the point. You shouldn’t just run off like that.”

“I
said
I had a good reason.”

Koji sighed, running a hand through his quickly-drying short hair. “Okay, let’s hear this ‘good’ reason.”

“I’ve been keeping up with a bunch of communities and blogs about specials online over the past few months. And I’ve discovered some pretty weird stuff.”
 

“Like what?”

“Usual conspiracy theory stuff. Some people say Cerberus is killing specials who get out of line.”

Koji waved her off with his hand. “Oh come on. We both know Jim wouldn’t involve himself with anything like that.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “I
know
it’s not like Jim. Maybe there’s more to Cerberus than he knows.”

“Or maybe it’s a bunch of nutbags with tinfoil hats.”

“Okay, maybe. But I also found out something new. Have you ever heard of Arcadia?”

Koji cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t think so.”

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff about it lately on the web. A hidden island for specials. A place we can go where we can be ourselves, away from the rest of the world.”

Koji scoffed. “Oh come on.”

Erin gently bit her lower lip. “What? It’s worth looking into, isn’t it?”

“For what? You gonna go live there or something?”

Erin shrugged, looking away. She brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Maybe.”

Koji studied her face. “You okay?”

Erin shut her eyes and shook her head. “Things…they’ve been better.”

Koji put a gentle hand on her back.
 

“Y’know, when I first got to Atlas, all I wanted was to go back to Madison. Go back to being a normal girl. And now, I can’t stand being back in that world.” Erin opened her eyes and snickered. “God, talk about first-world problems, right? Poor white girl, she can’t be a superhero any more.”