King of superheroes, p.17
King of Superheroes, page 17
Hannah just nudged me with her elbow as we walked behind the world-famous fashion designer, and then the blonde shot me a wide, excited grin as she looped her arm through mine.
Amanda suddenly came to a stop, and I realized we were at a complete dead end. Then she placed both of her hands against the concrete, and I stifled a gasp when the gray surface illuminated from within at her touch. When she pulled away, her handprints were still visible on the rock in a neon green glow, and as they dissipated, the concrete sighed heavily and sank inward.
The entire end wall of the concrete corridor was a door, and it swung slowly open with a soft pneumatic whoosh. Amanda bustled through, and the darkness that had greeted us was immediately washed away with soft lighting as soon as she passed the threshold.
The room was just as cavernous as the entry hall with the huge obsidian statue, but it was far from empty.
On the entire west wall was a row of artist’s tables littered with easels, paint pots and a thousand and one brushes, light boxes, and various other art supplies and equipment. There were also huge rolls of sketch paper, as well as electronic tablets and huge screens that catered to the digital side of Amanda’s artwork.
The eastern side of the room was almost an entire wall of fabrics in every color and style imaginable, and they were rolled into gigantic spools at least five feet long. There was even a ladder attached to little wheels on the fabric wall, like in an old library, so the tiny designer could access whatever she wanted at any time.
The most impressive part of the space was the huge machine that took up almost the entire northern part of the room. On the left side was a dashboard that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a NASA control room, with an incredible amount of dials, levers, knobs, and flashing lights. The panel of buttons then led into a large practice space, with a cushioned floor and walls, and the area was isolated by a thick sheet of glass from floor to ceiling.
“This is where the magic happens!” Amanda said and proudly spun on her heel to face us with a large smile on her face.
Then she removed her giant black sunglasses, and I could see watery gray eyes covered in far too much mascara and almost nonexistent blonde eyebrows that were arched comically high on her forehead.
“Let’s get to work, shall we?” The fashion mogul fixed us all with a wide smile that revealed teeth as tiny as she was, with a large gap in the front two.
Amanda immediately went for Rhiannon, which I found quite funny considering the brunette was the most timid of us all, and we watched the process of Amanda’s creations almost immediately take form.
She asked Rhiannon to perform her power so she could take direct inspiration from it, and we all watched and cheered loudly-- apart from Dahlia, who remained on the edges with a bored look on her face-- as Rhiannon swooped gracefully around Amanda’s design space.
“Very impressive!” the petite designer said with a clap of her hands. “Really quite something!”
“Thank you!” Rhiannon said breathlessly as her feet finally touched the ground again.
“Well, we’re going to need something aerodynamic for you.” Amanda had already hurried over to the side of the room with all the artist’s equipment, and she grabbed a sheet of paper with a flourish as she set to work on a sketch.
“I was thinking a cape could be really cool--” Rhiannon began speaking in earnest.
“No,” Amanda immediately said without looking up from her sketches.
The Tempest fledgling clamped her mouth shut with a sudden look of disappointment, and I had to stifle a giggle.
After a moment, Amanda turned back to us with a fresh sketch.
“You see?” she asked and gestured animatedly to her drawing. “This is completely aerodynamic, which is precisely why I’d advise against a cape, and I’m thinking we make it with a specialized Kevlar blend to stop weathering.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.” Rhiannon nodded excitedly. “If I fly to really high altitudes, or in adverse weather…”
“Precisely.” Amanda rolled up her design and headed over to what I thought had been a practice area.
It turns out it was actually where the suits were formed.
Amanda scanned her initial sketch into the machine and turned about a million and one different knobs, levers, and switches on the control panel, and then we watched in complete and total awe as robotic arms suddenly sprang to action behind the thick sheet of glass.
They wove and stitched at breakneck speed, and we watched in real time as Rhiannon’s supersuit was created before our very eyes.
It was a shimmery black material that appeared both hard and soft all at the same time, and it looked to be similar to a catsuit, so therefore completely skintight.
I was very much looking forward to seeing Rhiannon’s perfect body in it.
Amanda set to work on Frank next, who ended up with an all-red outfit that could create sparks with just the slightest hint of friction.
“It responds only to you,” Amanda told him sternly. “So you can’t accidentally brush into someone and set them on fire. The sparks are created by your genetic makeup, which I’ve woven into the fabric, so only you can control the fire it makes.”
“Holy shit, that’s so goddamn cool.” Frank’s voice was high-pitched, and he had to really fight off the giddy excitement as he took his suit and held it reverently. “Thank you!”
Hannah was next, and the blonde Dreamer made Amanda fall into peals of laughter as she read her mind.
“Oh, wonderful!” The fashion designer cooed and clapped her hands together. “I haven’t had anyone do that in years!”
Hannah was presented with a skintight catsuit similar to Rhiannon’s, only hers was all white and opalescent. With every movement, the material glittered and rippled, and Amanda explained that the fabric acted almost like a nineties mood ring, only a thousand times more accurate.
“So whatever you hear, whoever’s mind you’re reading, the suit will basically play it out for you to interpret.” Amanda ran a hand over the pearly material. “This is quite new technology, but I’m very fond of it. It’s patent pending, so don’t go shouting about it from the rooftops.”
“I won’t,” Hannah said in a soft voice, and it was the calmest I’d heard her speak since I’d first met her. “Thank you so much.”
“Now, you.” Amanda pointed at Danny and ushered him over. “I hear you’re the healer?”
“That’s right,” Danny said with a proud nod.
“I’ve just the thing for you, boy.” The designer tottered quickly over to the design space and pulled an old sketch out. “It’s not as shiny and new as Hannah’s here, but it does the job.”
She explained his jumpsuit was completely lined with Nomex, was fire resistant, and was fitted with state-of-the-art material. The suit somehow contained the ability to act as a defibrillator, oxygen mask, the works. Even the gloves had a built-in communications device, so he could correspond with emergency services anywhere in the world.
“It’s even got a built-in translator in the earpiece, here, look.” Amanda showed him and nodded encouragingly. “You’re a walking ambulance.”
“Incredible,” Danny muttered with wide eyes. “Wow.”
“Now.” Amanda put her hands on her hips and frowned across at me. “You, young man, I hear are quite the anomaly.”
“I, uhh… Ha, yeah, well, you could say that.” I ran my hands through my hair and shrugged apologetically. “I can sort’ve do a bit of everything, actually.”
“Show me,” Amanda demanded.
I did as I was told and gave her a brief rundown of my ever-growing list of powers. I shot a thick stream of flames right out of my hands and then curled them immediately into a rolling ball of fire I let quickly hiss and dissipate into the air around us. Then I attempted to read her mind, though I could only pick up on very small elements of her thoughts, and I sheepishly explained it was still something I was working on. My Tempest telekinesis was also still pretty wobbly, but I just about managed to knock a bunch of pens and paintbrushes off one of the artist benches– which Rhiannon, bless her heart, happily commended me for, and then I proved my Corps power of super strength by completely destroying one of the steel mannequins as though it were made of paper, with Amanda’s permission of course.
The designer looked down at the disarray of her design studio after I’d shown her my affinity for all four of the superhero pillars, and then she looked up at me with one of her nonexistent eyebrows raised.
“What to do, what to do…” she muttered thoughtfully to herself before she hurried over to one of the artist’s tables and made a beeline for the large cabinet beside it.
She quickly began to rifle through sheets and sheets of half-crumpled sketch paper, she pulled out newspaper clippings she just as quickly threw unceremoniously to the side, and she grappled with thickly rolled blueprints that were almost the same height as her, all while muttering quickly under her breath to herself.
After about a solid minute of this, I shared a look with my team who all shrugged helplessly, and Dahlia continued to loiter to the side, half in the shadows and seemingly completely uninterested.
Eventually, Amanda hurried back over to me with an armful of different sketches and ideas and an excited look in her pale gray eyes.
“Quite the conundrum you are, my boy,” she said with a sly smile. “An Omega, of all things. This’ll be one for the books, most definitely.”
“I’m not entirely sure of all that just yet.” I let out a nervous laugh as she steered me toward the wall covered in machinery.
“Nonsense.” Amanda sniffed as she got to work on the different knobs and dials. “I’ll be certain to claim I am the only superhero designer to fashion a bespoke suit for a true Omega, so you’d damn well better live up to the name.”
“I--” I grimaced and turned back to my team, who all nodded encouragingly. “Well, sure. For you, Amanda.”
“For me,” Amanda said with a wry chuckle. “You supers are all the same, all wicked with their words.”
I shared a laugh with her, and then she got to creating my supersuit after we discussed what I needed the most. I wanted something to help keep my pyromancy firmly within my control, but still wanted my suit to aid in the other three pillars despite having an affinity for the Conduit one the most.
After Amanda had fed her design into the creative scanner and twisted and turned a whole array of knobs and levers, I watched as the mechanical arms got to work behind the thick sheet of glass, and before long, my very own suit had been created.
It was a complete one-piece, with skintight material from neck to ankles, since Amanda had wanted to account for the possibility of flying in the future and made it aerodynamic like Rhiannon’s. The fabric was completely black, but it didn’t shimmer like the Tempest fledgling’s suit. It was so devoid of color it seemed to suck all the light out of the room, and Amanda excitedly explained it was made with material that could act as complete camouflage. The suit also had gloves that would aid in the control of my fire, much like Frank’s did, and the inner liner were completely electrical, which apparently would help with my current kinetic ability from the Tempest pillar.
“It’s all to do with energy, you see.” Amanda eagerly showed me the intricate mesh wiring within the inside seam of the fabric. “Once you can harness something physical, energy of the mind becomes second nature. You’d be surprised how many Tempests and Dreamers have this technology woven into their suits. It makes light work of their pillars.”
“Wow.” I whistled with appreciation. “I never really thought about it like that.”
“And as far as your mind reading ability goes, it also acts much like Hannah’s,” Amanda said as she ran a fervent hand over the outer material. “But it won’t present thoughts to you, more that it’ll open up the wavelength. Brains are just big ol’ computers anyway, this suit will allow you to fully hone in on targets and pick apart their mind as easily as though you were rifling through a magazine. With practice, of course.”
“This is incredible, Amanda.” I took the suit from her with wide eyes.
It felt like water, and air, and somehow nothing all at once.
It was completely weightless, like a second skin.
“Don’t let me down,” she said in only a half-joking warning. “In a month, once this suit is no doubt hitting the press, I’ll be sure to tell everyone how I designed for a world-famous Omega.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded, and then shot her a wicked grin. “Just for you.”
“Just for me.” Amanda echoed with a laugh. “Now, get going, put these things into practice, and let me know if there’s any kinks that need working out.”
We thanked her profusely, and she soaked up the gratitude willingly as she led us out of her compound.
Then the five of us walked back to the van on the balls of our feet, fueled by excitement with Dahlia stalking disinterestedly ahead of us.
I couldn’t wait to get back to the Academy and hit the training facility.
Chapter Twelve
“I can’t wait for Amanda to drag you along to fashion shows and galas and stuff,” Frank snickered as the five of us bade Dahlia goodbye and headed back to the fledgling living quarters.
I leaned against the inside of the elevator as it flew us up to the fifteenth floor of the complex and just rolled my eyes.
“Do you really think she’ll do that?” I asked with a grimace.
“Without a doubt,” Hannah said and poked me in the arm. “You’re gonna be the hottest piece of gossip going soon enough.”
“I thought I was that already.” I waggled my eyebrows at her and smiled when the beautiful blonde giggled.
“Just the gossip part,” Danny said.
“Yeah…” Rhiannon muttered quietly and then blushed when I looked across at her and she realized she’d talked out loud.
The brunette Tempest fledgling was adorable, and she got flustered so easily that I had to really train myself not to tease her relentlessly.
Hannah nudged me again when she saw how I smiled at Rhiannon, and I looped an arm across her shoulders and pulled her close to me.
I was yet to have any sort of conversation with Hannah about exactly what our burgeoning relationship would become, but she seemed incredibly chill about it all, even with the presence of another woman in our group, and it just attracted me to her even more.
The five of us had spent the entire day at Amanda’s sprawling designer complex, so the sun had just started to fall in the sky when we made it back to the fledglings’ dormitories. The floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the bay gave a perfect view of the sunset, and it painted both the sky and the soft swells of the sea in deep golds, oranges, and reds.
I mentioned something about ordering some pizzas, but Danny immediately took charge when he saw the kitchen area was surprisingly empty. I grinned as I watched our healer friend roll up his sleeves and tell us all to sit down before he headed to the giant chrome refrigerator and started to root around the shelves to find the ingredients he needed.
After about forty-five minutes, the Corps fledgling bustled over to our table with a stack of shallow bowls he’d pulled from one of the kitchen cupboards and a pot of something that smelled insanely good.
“Enchiladas de camarones,” he said proudly as he finally set the steel pot down.
“Enchiladas?” Frank frowned. “I thought that was an oven baked kinda situation.”
“Not enchiladas,” Danny said with a wry smile. “Enchiladas de camarones. Cuban shrimp. Here, there’s rice, too.”
He scurried back to the kitchen and brought another slightly smaller pot back with him, and the five of us piled our bowls high with fluffy white rice and the spicy shrimp stew.
“Danny,” I said as I swallowed the first bite and let out a long, gratuitous whistle. “This is insanely good.”
“Really,” Hannah said as she smashed her rice into the thick Latin flavored sauce and scooped up a spoonful. “I didn’t know what to expect, but yeah, holy crap.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Danny smiled with pride, and I could tell his healing instinct went a lot further than fixing broken bones and stitching up bleeding wounds. “It’s a family recipe, my tia’s favorite thing to make.”
“Cuban food is bomb,” Frank said as he popped another full shrimp into his mouth and chewed with his eyes closed, as though he were in the middle of a prayer. “You need to cook for us every night, Daniel.”
“It really is wonderful,” Rhiannon said with a shy smile. “Thanks, Danny.”
“My pleasure,” the healer said as he finally took a seat and grabbed his own plate. “Now, let’s eat.”
The sun eventually sank beneath the horizon, and we spent the evening talking animatedly about our new superhero suits, and different recipes we could get both Danny the Cuban and Frank the Italian to battle each other with, and our plans for when we eventually graduated the Academy’s extensive training program. As I sat back in my seat with a full belly and a smile on my face, I realized I’d finally found my people.
I’d always been a bit of a loner, but I really truly felt at home with my newfound group of friends.
The prospect of being an Omega and having things drastically change because of that status was something that continued to worry me, but I pushed the concern to the back of my consciousness and decided to focus on the good things that were in front of me.
Although, I was definitely eager to meet with Mori again and explore my proclivity for superpowers in far more depth. But the Academy’s ghostly benefactor was one of immense privacy, and I had no way of contacting him. So I just needed to wait for him to contact me, which I supposed he would do when the timing was right.
It seemed like something he’d do.
