King of superheroes, p.8
King of Superheroes, page 8
“Thank you for your assistance,” the general said, and the ghost of a smile flickered across his steely face. “You really took initiative, and it was a very brave thing to do. You make sure to give me a call when you graduate, you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied with a curt nod, but I couldn’t stop my own grin from spreading across my face.
The drive back to the Academy was silent. I refused to make eye contact with Pyro or any of the Zeus bros, and I was thankful for Frank’s presence, otherwise I might’ve gone mad.
I replayed what’d happened at the military base over and over in my head, and I was grateful General Hemlock had thanked me for what I’d done. My intuition had come on really strong, and he’d actually seemed really impressed with how I’d managed to control the blaze.
Pyro didn’t seem to agree, but I found that I didn’t really care about what the pompous pyromancer thought.
I managed to shake off the antsy feeling by the time we finally arrived back at the Academy, and the coolness of the lobby air conditioning engulfed me as soon as I passed through the automated doors.
I let out a long breath as I headed for the elevators to the fifteenth floor.
My mind was still completely preoccupied with what had happened that day, so I didn’t even realize that Somnia was waiting for me in the fledgling common room, and I almost walked right past her.
“Mark!” Somnia’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Oh, hey,” I said as I looked up with an automatic smile. “Sorry, my mind was totally somewhere else.”
“I heard what you did at the military base today,” Somnia said as she gave me a once-over. “General Hemlock called. I’m impressed.”
“Thank you,” I said with a modest nod. “I knew I could help, so I’d have never forgiven myself if I didn’t. Despite what Pyro was telling me.”
“Pyro is a law unto himself.” Somnia smirked wryly. “But still, I’ll be sure to let Mori know how well you’re faring. You’ll be going out with the other pillars to see how they work in the real world, too. The Dreamers are just about to head out again to a particularly interesting demonstration, if you’d care to join them?”
“Absolutely!” I said, maybe too eagerly, because Somnia raised her eyebrows in surprise.
I just knew I would get to see Hannah, so I was obviously going to say yes.
“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Somnia said.
“Do I have time for a shower?” I asked and motioned to where I was still covered in black soot and ash.
“Yes,” Somnia chuckled. “They’re due to leave in thirty minutes.”
“Perfect!” I grinned. “Tell them to wait for me?”
“Of course,” Somnia said as her lips twitched into a smile. “It’s sure to be an interesting evening for you all.”
“Wait, you’re not the Dreamers’ ride-along?” I asked.
“No.” Somnia shook her head. “My power is only interesting when people are sleeping, which as a fledgling with an affinity for all four pillars, you will probably not have much time to do. So go, explore, have fun.”
“Okay, thank you.” I nodded respectfully to her and then quickly hustled to my dorm room.
“Where are you going in a rush?” Frank asked with a surprised chuckle as he poked his head out of his own room. “Are you doing okay?”
“Never better,” I said with a grin. “I’m going out with the Dreamers.”
“Oh, with the cute blonde, too?” Frank waggled his eyebrows.
“That might’ve had something to do with it.” I smirked. “So I gotta hit the shower.”
“Hey, don’t let me stop you,” my friend said and waved me on. “You’d better hurry up.”
I quickly showered off the majority of the sweat and ash from my outing with the Conduits, and I toweled my hair dry, wrestled myself into some clean clothes, and then hit the elevators.
“Mark!” Hannah’s voice was surprised when she spotted me on the ground floor. “What’re you doing here?”
“I get to go out with you,” I said to her with a knowing smirk.
“Oh, you do, huh?” The grunge blonde girl grinned up at me. “You’re counting this as our date? That’s real cheap.”
She folded her arms across her chest, and I had to studiously ignore the way her breasts pushed together beneath the flimsy material of her white lace shirt.
“I’m still gonna take you out on a real date,” I teased. “If you’ll let me.”
“I don’t know, jury’s still out.” Hannah shrugged carelessly, but then she shot me a wicked grin over her shoulder as she headed toward the automatic double doors that led out of the academy. “Come on, the cars are waiting.”
I followed the gorgeous blonde Dreamer out into the Miami heat, and then I sighed again once I slid into the back of a sedan with even more air conditioning.
It was early evening in Florida, and yet it still felt like we were in the pit of a volcano, so I’d take any chilled air I could find.
The swampy heat was still something I needed to get used to.
Apparently, the Dreamers were being treated to an evening experience with a famous artist called Iliana. She was an illusionist, and for a shockingly high price, she provided the rich and famous with spiritual readings and out of body experiences.
Which was apparently what we were in for.
I walked beside Hannah as I filtered into a perfectly manicured park in the center of Miami along with the rest of the Dreamers, and I spotted a huge marquee made from soft blush-colored silk that flowed eerily in the breeze like rosy ghosts.
Then I suddenly heard a soft voice behind us, as light as the summer breeze and about as wispy.
Hannah and I both whirled around at the same time, and we came face to face with who I assumed was Iliana.
She had wispy white hair bundled up into a silk wrap on top of her head, creepily pale skin that looked almost translucent, and pale eyes with little to no color. She wore a silvery shimmer on her eyelids, so she looked even more ghostly, and her clothes were layers of the same floaty material as the marquee in front of us. She kept her voice purposefully low and slow as she greeted the group of fledgling Dreamers, and a serene smile spread across her pale face.
“My name is Iliana,” the ethereal-looking woman said in a voice as soft as her silk hair wrap. “I am an illusionist. My Dreamer power allows me to infiltrate your mind, make you see what I want you to see, and show you your wildest dreams as a perfect reality… Whatever your heart desires.”
“For a price,” Hannah muttered under her breath to me.
I had to clap a hand over my mouth to stop the snort of laughter that bubbled its way up my throat, and I quickly stared at my shoes when Iliana glanced over to us.
“I am pleased to welcome this year’s fledglings to my newest art installation,” Iliana continued in the same dreamy voice. “It is my playful spin on the tunnel of love. Cross through to the other side where desire and instinct rules over your mind, and see yourselves laid bare. Do not be afraid.”
“I’m afraid,” I said to Hannah in a low voice. “What if you immediately fall in love with me?”
“Yeah, right,” Hannah scoffed. “It’ll be the other way around. The more you fall for me, the easier it’ll be to read your mind, right?”
“Oh, so that’s your nefarious plan?” I teased.
“So what if it is?” she asked with a grin.
“Then you’ll know I’m a total player, and I have a black book of multiple women that I keep in rotation…” I let my voice trail off as I smirked down at the beautiful blonde girl.
She just shoved me in the arm and stifled another giggle as Iliana’s voice continued to spout wishy-washy bullshit over us.
Hannah knew I was kidding, and I was confident in that knowledge considering she could find out for herself if she really wanted to, though I wasn’t entirely sure why she couldn’t fully read my mind.
But it seemed to draw her to me even more, so I wasn’t complaining.
I hadn’t bothered with a girlfriend in California.
I hadn’t bothered with anyone, in reality. I’d been happy keeping myself to myself while living boring day to boring day and waiting impatiently for my powers to activate.
Both of my parents had been Conduits, so I’d been mostly positive I would get something, but never did I dream I’d get an affinity for almost everything.
“Do your parents know?” Hannah asked quietly. “You should tell them. They’ll worry about you otherwise.”
“Get out of my head,” I retorted playfully.
“Sorry,” the blonde sighed and shook her long hair away from her face. “That was rude of me. But that was one of the clearest thoughts I’ve heard from you, I couldn’t help but listen.”
“My bad,” I said in the same hushed voice. “I’ll have to work on emptying my brain around you, but that might end up difficult.”
“It’s fine, I’ve already learned to block you out.” Hannah’s voice was tainted with the smirk I knew was on her lips, despite the fact she hadn’t even bothered to turn and face me when she spoke.
She was a professional shit talker, a master of playful banter, and she was smoking hot anyway, but the fact that she could tease me just as much as I teased her was an even bigger turn-on.
I heard her stifle another laugh behind her hand as I purposely let my mind wander, and I just rolled my eyes with a pretend groan. Though I was willing to bet she was just picking up on body language as much as trying to read my mind.
Iliana, the art installation Dreamer, had finally finished whatever spiritual journey crap she’d been spouting about, and the fledglings and I finally got a chance to explore her installation.
We were to walk in two at a time and take as long as we needed.
“A solid three minutes should do it,” I said to Hannah as I grabbed her by the hand and guided us to the front of the line.
Her hand was soft and petite in mine, and I gave her fingers a playful squeeze as Iliana looked down at us with a mild expression on her smooth pale face.
“Your eagerness is endearing,” she said softly, and then she stepped fluidly aside while whipping her silk shawl around her shoulders so it looked like she’d encased herself in a cocoon. “Please, enjoy.”
The exhibit had a flowing drape over the entrance in a soft blush color, and it rippled past us as I pushed through and held it over Hannah’s head. We walked into the illusionist’s installation, and the two of us admittedly gasped at what we saw.
Hannah and I stood in the middle of a luscious green field, with a gentle breeze that carried the scent of springtime flowers and pollen and a completely clear blue sky with a sun beaming happily down on us. I could feel the soft grass underfoot, and I spotted a bird of prey high above us lazily drifting in the afternoon air.
“There is no way we’re still in Miami right now…” Hannah breathed, and I noticed how her fingers tightened around mine where I still held her hand.
“I-- whoa…” I glanced around at her and stared.
Hannah had been dressed in her usual grunge getup, with a tight leather skirt, fishnet stockings, chunky black boots, and an array of silver chains around her neck, but since we’d stepped into the spring meadow, she was suddenly dressed in a flowing white summer dress.
It had tiny little shoulder straps and a deep neckline that showed off the curve of her breasts, and it was cinched in at the waist while the hem of the skirt skimmed her thighs. Instead of her usual black eye makeup, she was fresh-faced, and she was completely barefoot in the grass.
“Yeah, what the hell…” Hannah rounded on me and placed both her hands on my chest.
It was only then that I realized I was wearing a white tunic, tucked into leather trousers, with elastic suspenders carelessly shucked off my shoulders so they swung around my hips.
“Why do we look like we’re in a period drama?” I asked with a giddy laugh.
“Is this your fantasy or mine?” Hannah posed another question with yet another chuckle.
“I don’t know, but it’s cool,” I admitted. “You look… Great.”
“So do you,” Hannah said with her voice still breathless from laughter.
“Iliana’s good,” I said with a lopsided grin. “This illusion is… Oh, an illusion. Right.”
The moment my brain had sleepily put two and two together, the image started to blur around the edges, like an overexposed Polaroid photograph.
I could suddenly see Hannah’s black eyeshadow and her fishnet stockings through the sheer material of the white summer dress, and the more I blinked, the more the real world started to rematerialize around us.
“You can see through it?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “Once I realized it was just an illusion… you know when you’re looking at an optical illusion, and suddenly your eyesight remembers how to work?”
“Yeah,” Hannah giggled. “I know what you mean. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
We pushed through the installation until we passed through another archway covered by a flimsy sheet of rose-colored silk, and then eventually we came face to face with Iliana.
“That was quite something,” the Dreamer commended us. “You came out far sooner than I would’ve thought.”
“It was very impressive, though,” Hannah said.
“Thank you for letting us experience your art,” I told her with a serious nod, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek when I sensed Hannah holding in yet more laughter.
“You looked good in that old-timey shirt,” Hannah commented as we left the other Dreamers to the supposedly awe-inspiring art of Iliana.
“You looked good in the dress,” I countered. “But I like your style in the real world more.”
“You do?” Hannah twirled around so the chains on her neck jingled, and I got a perfect three-sixty view of her soft grunge outfit.
“Yeah, I do.” I smiled. “So, if you’ll still have me, I’d love to take you for a drink sometime.”
“I’d like that,” Hannah agreed with an impish grin. “Let’s go.”
“What, now?” I blinked as I looked around at the Dreamer class.
“Why not?” Hannah shrugged with a mischievous grin that made her blue eyes sparkle. “I’ve seen everything I needed to see.”
“Me in a white tunic?” I snorted and then quickly turned my back so I was facing away from Iliana, who was talking to another Dreamer a little ways ahead of us.
“You did look good,” Hannah said. “But I could use a drink, couldn’t you?”
“You wanna sneak off?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, but her spontaneity was infectious, and I couldn’t help the wild smile that pulled at my mouth.
“With you?” Hannah asked as she skipped away from me and looked over her shoulder. “Absolutely.”
I couldn’t help but sidestep the Dreamer class and immediately follow her, still with the same giddy grin on my face.
Chapter Six
“So, both of your parents are Conduits?” Hannah asked as she wrapped her plump pink lips around the straw of her boba tea and sucked a couple of the tapioca pearls into her mouth.
I quickly forced my brain to focus on something else, in case she heard me admiring how it made her mouth look, and cleared my throat with a smile.
“Yep,” I said with a nod. “My mom is like a walking charge point, and my dad is kinda like a boiler light. As long as there’s fuel, he can turn stuff on, like the stove or whatever. My sister is gonna be furious when I tell her what I can do.”
“You have a sister?” my blonde date asked with a glimmer in her blue eyes.
“Younger, yeah.” I scuffed at the sidewalk with the toe of my shoe as we continued to aimlessly walk through the bustling Miami streets.
The sun had almost set completely, and the city had come alive all over again as night fell. Food trucks had sprouted like mushrooms after a storm, and everything seemed a little louder and a little more colorful in the dark, which felt completely backwards, but it was just how the Miami folk seemed to like it.
We’d ended up on the outskirts of Little Havana, and the smell of meat sizzling on a griddle somewhere, as well as the sound of a band in the distance, combined to pull us closer into the Cuban district. We’d started the evening on boba tea, but I could smell the distinctive scent of freshly muddled mint leaves coming from a truck specifically selling only mojitos, so I grabbed Hannah by the hand again and made an immediate beeline for it.
“I’ve never been a fan of rum,” Hannah said as I pulled us over.
“Mojitos in Miami,” I countered with a shrug. “Come on, it’d be rude not to.”
“Okay, fiiiiine.” Hannah pulled out another mocking pout, and she wrapped her arms around mine as we stood on our tiptoes to read the menu on the side of the truck.
I went for a normal mint and lime cocktail, but Hannah opted for strawberries and raspberries in hers. Then, before she could even pull a single cent out of her purse, I made sure I quickly paid for the drinks.
Once they were ready, I handed her the plastic cup with a satisfied grin.
“I thought I told you I was gonna pay.” Hannah huffed as she took her drink from me. “Thank you.”
“What can I say, I’m a gentleman.” I smirked and took a long sip of my cocktail. “Oh, damn, that’s pretty good.”
“Yeah, I might be swayed on mojitos already.” The blonde Dreamer chuckled lightly. “Shall we go and sit down?”
“Sure,” I said easily, but I made sure to keep her hand in mine until we had to actually physically break apart to sit down.
The mojito truck was pulled up in a small square littered with dented picnic benches that almost certainly wouldn’t have been there during the daytime, and there was a band of three Cuban guys across from us who started to play lively Latin music on battered old acoustic guitars.
It was possibly the coolest date I’d ever been on, with arguably the coolest girl I’d ever met, and I couldn’t help the lopsided grin on my face that was only worsened by the steady flow of white rum.
“So, what about you?” I asked as I fiddled with the lid on my drink. “Any siblings?”
