“You said to come in if there was any more trouble. And we are way past that!”
Paula tapped her pen against her pad, adjusted her glasses, and looked at the man and woman sitting opposite her. She had dealt with many parents in her long career and was accustomed to encountering families in the strangest crises.
Mari watched the descent to Vorin IV through the viewport, stomach churning like the purple clouds frothing in their ship’s wake. Despite being Earthborn, she had quickly learned to love space-cruising. It was the closest to freedom, peace, and a few other unalienable rights she’d ever get again.
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Kae shifted in her seat as the dean of the Academy squinted at her over his spectacles. “Miss Ruve, it is highly irregular for you to request an audience instead of submitting an application form.”
Kae hesitated. “My ability is… unusual.”
“What exactly is your ability?”
“I …” Kae cleared her throat, which felt strangely tight.
Kylie burst through the door so fast that her palm stung from the impact.
The rooftop lounge was empty.
Of course it was. No one ever came up here this time of day—or at least no one was supposed to. But now, not even Tom was sleeping in his favorite Adirondack.
Late again, late again.
Andrew Ashton rushed from his parents’ two story, cookie-cutter home, his Converse sneakers scuffing the sidewalk. He struggled to hoist his backpack on, and the straps slid against the nylon of his bomber jacket. He frowned. Everything was harder since the accident that had taken half his left arm.
The building shakes, but I don’t look up from my touch display. When you live in a city with supers long enough, you stop paying attention. My coworker Ben isn’t from here though, and it shows by the way he jumps up, looking out the window.
“Ben, this customer’s name is Jezzica, spelled with Zs.”
Dex had one thing in common with his sister Fae: they both hated the monthly meetings of the National Individuals of Power Association. In Dex’s opinion, they offered unparalleled opportunities for humiliation.
His one consolation was the free food.
I lurched awake, the dream still scrabbling at my heart.
Not just a dream.
It was real, happening or about to happen. It was all I could do not to call my sister, but I knew she’d insist, as always, that nothing could catch her.
Nothing could, of course. As speedsters went, Hannah could outrun them all.
The wide training room lay behind them, mats rolled away, the monks motionless in parallel lines, eyes lowered.
“Are you certain of this choice?” the prior asked.
The Sentinel nodded curtly. “My decision stands.”
“From here, there is no turning back. You have mastered our martial arts and the theory of our powers,
I know the city has turned its back on me, but it’s still devastating when I see my face on a billboard with the words, “Why are we trusting the Blue Bullet with our lives?”
Bitterness stabs my heart as I fly by. The cloud of dust below leads me to my destination: a collapsed building.
What would they do if I stopped showing up?
“Here’s your pay, kid.” The foreman of the road crew dropped a few crumpled bills into Karl’s hand. “Now scram.”
“Come on, man.” Karl moaned. “What does it even matter? I’m sixteen. So what? I can scoop up dead raccoons better than anybody else on your crew.”
The first rule for surviving as a superhero? Optimism.
I leapt from one rooftop to the next, using my jet boots to cover the distance. I did my best to land lightly, not wanting to disturb whoever might sleep beneath me.
But that’s kind of hard when chasing a supervillain.
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