King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (15 page)

Tubs nodded,
seemingly satisfied.

Jeff swallowed
his sigh of relief.

“Did you ever
have any indication that Mystic was good?”

“Seriously
dude, she scared me. I thought she was strange. I didn’t trust her. But I
didn’t suspect she was good.”

“Any idea why you would have been her target?”

Jeff gawked.
“Me? Doubt it, dude. Set, more likely. Maybe even Source.
But
not me.”

“Maybe.”
Squinting at Jeff, Tubs pursed his lips like he was
sucking on a sourball. They locked eyes for so long that Jeff squirmed in his
seat. When Tubs spoke, Jeff wished he hadn’t. “Tell me about your family.”

“Why?”

“I’m curious.”

“Um, there’s
Dad, Mother, and my sister. You’ve met them. You know this.”

“No, tell me
what your home life is like.”

Jeff grimaced.
“I’ve got no sob story to share, man.
Nothing to complain
about.
It was all pretty standard.”

“Then why are
you here? Kids with standard lives don’t end up here.”

“You tell me.
You’re the one who recruited me, remember?”

“Yes, I
remember. You had so much untapped
ability,
an untrained
S.V. felt it from across a parking lot.” Tubs scoffed. “Look at you now. No
great abilities, hanging out with a good kid. Maybe we weren’t the ones who
should have recruited you.”

Jeff’s stomach
flopped like a fish out of water. “What does that mean?”

“Maybe you’re a
good guy.” Tubs leaned in close. His breath smelled of the patty melt that had
been on that day’s lunch menu.

Jeff fought to
retain control of his facial expression as all the blood rushed to his feet.
With all the effort he could muster Jeff affected a calm demeanor and snorted,
“Right.”

Tubs smirked.

Jeff relaxed,
but only a bit. He didn’t like the direction the conversation had turned. It
rubbed against his suspicions about himself. What if he was a good guy after
all?

“Polar, I think your only defense in this
situation is your immense ignorance.” Tubs gathered his papers. “You can go.”

Jeff left
without saying another word. If it
ain’t
broke, don’t
fix it, right?

* * * *

The next
afternoon, Jeff left his last class and bee-lined toward the library, a new
habit due to his loner status. Jeff rounded a corner and headed down a long,
deserted corridor. Set stepped out of a doorway and stood in the middle of the
hallway, directly in Jeff’s path.

Jeff sighed and
slowed. “What do you want, man?”

Though he was
inches shorter than Jeff, Set managed to look down his perfect Grecian nose at
him. “We don’t take kindly to traitors.”

“Well,
good
then. We’re in agreement.” Jeff pushed past Set and
four other boys stepped into the hall. With Set behind him and the four boys in
front of him Jeff felt properly surrounded. “What’s this all about, Set?”

“I told you
already.”

Jeff backed
against the wall as the four boys crowded in around him. Two of the kids were
graduating at the end of the year, which meant they were as trained as they
needed to be to go out on their own. Set was villain Valedictorian material.
Jeff was in trouble.

He planted his
feet and gathered gravity and then sent it in four different directions,
intending to glue Set’s friends to the floor, but the gravity hit an invisible
barrier and started piling up against it. Jeff dispersed the gravity quickly so
as not to end up glued by his own ability.

He tried to
spark the fire in his hands, but instead it shorted and zipped haphazardly up
Jeff’s arms.

Panic deflated
Jeff’s lungs before he had a chance to try to draw a deep cold breath.

Set chuckled.
He nodded to one of the kids who lifted his arms as though to hug Jeff. Then he
wrapped his arms around his own body while staring intently at Jeff. The
squeezing sensation was so subtle, Jeff wasn’t sure he felt it at first until
he’d drawn three or four short breaths trying to fill his lungs. By then his
lungs were squeezed thin.

“
Ahhhh
!”
Jeff scrambled back
against the wall, wishing he could climb it. Thousands of scorpions scuttled
across the floor and over each other, racing to get to Jeff first. Their tails
raised in sting position. Jeff’s head slammed against the wall and the kid with
the scarred cheek laughed.

“Works every time!”
Scarface said.

“What did he
see?” the short, stocky guy asked.

“Scorpions.”

Jeff shook his
head to clear his vision. The floor was completely scorpion free. His head
slammed against the wall, again accompanied by a loud crack. Stars, or were
they fireworks, burst skyward and for a moment were the only things Jeff saw.
Then Jeff’s body pulled away from the wall and slammed back against it again.
Drywall crumbled and fell to the floor. Dust floated into the air, making Jeff
sneeze. Again his body slammed against the wall without his help. He felt no
force pushing or pulling him. He had no idea what to defend against.

“Set, this is
like taking candy from a big fat baby,” stocky guy said and laughed.

Set crossed his
arms and leaned against the wall. “I know there’s no challenge to it, but
remember he’s a traitor.”

The expressions
on both tormentors’ faces darkened as they turned back to Jeff.

Jeff felt the
telltale tingle in his fingers; a welcome feeling that he let flood in. His
hands erupted into flames. Jeff raised both hands and aimed the palms at the
two closest attackers. Flame licked out, and then rebounded on Jeff. He
extinguished his hands immediately and breathed cold air down the front of his
body.

The younger boy
held up a hand and made a pinching motion. Jeff’s cold air pinched off with
only half his smoldering clothing squelched. His throat constricted and he
gasped for air. The kid smiled, waggling his pinching fingers in the air in
front of him. Jeff felt faint.

Stocky guy
grunted just before Jeff was pile-
drived
in the
stomach by an invisible force. Jeff coughed and sputtered, but he was hit a
second time, doubling him over. What felt like a metal bar slammed against the
side of Jeff’s head, scattering his wits around him. He sat hard and the taste
of iron flooded his mouth. His skin stung from the scorching heat of his
smoldering jeans when he sat. He blew more cold air until it was again cut off.

Jeff battled
against unconsciousness. He tried to stand again, but his head swam and he
needed his oxygen replenished. Oxygen!

Jeff pulled
himself up and leaned against the wall. He was barely aware of Set’s wise
cracks regarding his lack of abilities. Jeff concentrated deeply in order to
pool magnesium from his swollen and bruised muscles, into his hands. With the last
of his energy, he ignited it and
arced
it at Set,
simultaneously. With a huff of effort, he split the blue flame and sent bolts
of it at the other boys. Blessedly, this attack didn’t get blocked and
returned. He didn’t have enough fuel stored up for the attack to do serious
damage, but the surprise of it was enough to throw off his attackers. Jeff
hated himself for doing it, but he saw no other solution. While his attackers
were distracted by the ultra-static shock, Jeff ran.

Back in his
room he took stock of his injuries. He was a bruised and battered mess. Pain
lanced through his chest when he inhaled, making him suspect a cracked rib or
two. His head hurt so much it made him nauseous. He hoped that didn’t indicate
a concussion. Bruises were just beginning to blossom across his face and down
his neck. His lip was fat and there was a gash under his eye. But there were no
missing teeth or any other permanent damage. He looked worse than he felt.

“A traitor,”
Jeff scoffed to
Pucker
who swam back and forth and
back and forth, staring up at Jeff with one eye. “That’s classic, a traitor to
whom? Super villains have no loyalty, until it’s convenient, it seems.”

Jeff sighed
deeply then hissed against the shooting pain from taking a deep breath.

“Relax, Pucker,
I’ll be all right.” Jeff gingerly poked a developing bruise on his arm and
watched the yellow tint under his skin expand and contract.

Pucker’s
frantic pace slowed, but she never took her eye off Jeff.

* * * *

Nobody seemed
concerned about Jeff’s appearance the next day except Oceanus.

She stopped
short in the hall when she saw him. He tried to nod casually and keep walking,
but she pushed through kids to get to him. “What happened?”

Jeff shrugged
and looked everywhere, but at her. “I ran into something.”

“Who did this?”
Oceanus frowned. She held her hand in front of his mouth. “Here, blow.”

Jeff blew on
her hand.

“No, with your ice.”

“Oh.” Drawing a
deep breath made him wince, but he blew a thin layer of frost on her hand. She
placed the makeshift cold compress alongside his swollen jaw. “That feels good.
Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you are obviously stupid.”
Oceanus smiled.

“Hey,” Jeff
argued half-heartedly.

“Was it
Set
?”

Jeff nodded.
Then frowned and shook his head. “Actually, I don’t think he raised a finger
against me. I think he just watched. They were all
psychs
.
They blocked everything I threw at them, beat me up, choked me and never laid a
hand on me.”

“Breathe.”
Oceanus held her other hand in front of him.

He carefully
sipped in enough air to fill the deep reservoir in his lungs before breathing
onto her hand.

She reached up
under his shirt and placed that hand on his ribs.

Jeff arched his
brow. “Really,
Oci
, is this appropriate? And right
here in the hallway? What would your boyfriend say? Oh wait, he already said
it.”

Oceanus’ eyes
blazed. “Did they just leave you in a heap when they were done with you?”

“No, I had one
weapon they weren’t aware of. You
know,
the element of
surprise. The only thing they couldn’t block was the blue fire,” Jeff said.

“Oh no, you
used it on them?”

Jeff studied
the perfect arch of her upper lip as her mouth hung agape.

“Polar, what if
they tell Tubs you’ve got blue flame?”

“Then they’d
have to tell Tubs they attacked me in a deserted hallway.”

Her touch felt
wonderful and Jeff didn’t want it to stop, but it was just the passing period
between classes so she pulled her hands away all too quickly.

“Hey, it was
good to see you,” Jeff said. He wrapped his warmer than usual hands around her
cold ones. “Thanks.”

Oceanus rolled
her eyes, but grinned. A blush blossomed on her cheeks.
“You
and your manners.”

Chapter 20

Despite
Oceanus’ display of what appeared to Jeff as concern, she continued to stay
away from him. His exiled status persisted and Jeff wondered why he attended
the academy at all. He considered going back to his old high school, but the
thought of a mundane existence without the use of super powers no longer
appealed to him. Actually, he was pretty sure it had never appealed to him.
Stuck at S.V.A., he concentrated on his classes and spent a lot of time in his
room outside of class, working on homework and refining his skills.
Unfortunately, he had to eat and the academy didn’t allow food in the rooms so
he had to spend time in the cafeteria. Kids taunted him, mumbling accusations under
their breath as they passed. Saying he’d been harboring a fugitive, accusing
him of being a spy and calling him names like Captain America and
Freakazoid
.

Jeff spent a
lot of time trying to figure out what it was all about. He hadn’t wanted to
come; he’d been recruited to the place. He didn’t like any of the kids except
Source and Oceanus. Source was gone and Oceanus wasn’t speaking to him. Jeff
liked developing his abilities, but questioned what he would do with them once
he was out of school. He’d always thought he’d get a job and be a working stiff
like his dad. He wasn’t sure he could buy into the image of himself as a badass
S.V.
Was
the academy really the right place for him?

One rainy
afternoon, Jeff sat in the cafeteria, staring out at a sea of kids who’d
perfected the art of ignoring him. He’d already shoveled his meal into his
mouth and could leave, but he really wasn’t in the mood to spend another night
sitting alone in his room, so for the time being he sat and watched.

Jeff stared
intently at a fat blond boy because each time he bent forward to stuff his
mouth with food, Jeff got a view of Oceanus. She sat with kids Jeff didn’t
know, mostly upper classmen. Jeff shifted his gaze two tables over to
Set
who glared at Oceanus while he ate his meal. Set always
glared at Oceanus now. Though she wasn’t speaking with Jeff, neither was she
hanging out with Set anymore. Jeff smirked at the thought that at least Set
didn’t get what he wanted either.

A commotion
broke out at the entrance to the cafeteria. Jeff was surprised to see a number
of teachers flashing abilities at a crowd clustered in the door. Kids from
nearby tables scurried in different directions, some to join the melee and
others to get away from it. Then the teachers, who’d surrounded the crowd,
backed away. Blue flames licked toward them, falling just short in warning
only. One teacher bravely forged forward, hand in the air, drawing utensils
from around the room to fly toward the crowd of flame-wielding intruders. A
static-charged bolt hit him directly in the chest. He convulsed and fell to the
floor.