King of superheroes 3, p.1
King of Superheroes 3, page 1
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Cast of Characters from Book 2:
Mark Maddock: Super human. Main Character. Brown Hair. Eyes?? In a world where people have one superpower, he has multiple abilities such as pyromancy, superhuman strength, telekinesis, and mind reading. He is known as an Omega because of this.
Hannah: Super human. Mark’s love interest and part of his super team. Long blonde hair. Blue eyes. Dresses very punk rock, is snarky, and has a mind reading ability.
Rhiannon: Super human. Mark’s love interest and part of his super team. Brown hair. Green eyes. Is very timid and shy and has a flying ability.
Frank: Super human. Mark’s friend and part of his super team. Red hair. Brown eyes. Also has a fire related superpower.
Danny: Super human. Mark’s friend and part of his super team. Mousy brown hair. Gray eyes. He’s tall and slender and has a healing ability.
Somnia: Super human. Acting principal/dean of the super academy. White hair cut into a short bob. Dark eyes. Her ability is to control dreams.
Mori: Super human. Former famous super and current benefactor of the academy. Black hair. Dark eyes. His power is to astral project, and he seeks to help the Mark.
Dahlia: Super human. Mentor to Mark and his team. Straight black hair. Dark brown eyes. Is very stoic and standoffish.
Eddie: Super human. The brother of Dahlia, Mark’s mentor. Long scraggly brown hair. Brown eyes. Possesses a strong “hacking” ability over electronics and lives in a trailer off the grid because he doesn’t trust people.
Amanda: Super human. Famous fashion designer/mogul who designs super suits. Ashy blonde hair cut into an aggressive bob. Gray eyes. She dresses in crazy outfits and has a very blasé attitude.
Pyro: Super human. Famous superhero turned movie star. Jet black hair. Dark eyes. Very holier than thou attitude, and he very begrudgingly trains Mark’s academy class once.
Sim: Unknown. Sworn servant to the Omega who now serves Mark. Bald (everywhere, no eyebrows or lashes.) Colorless/gray eyes. He may look human at a glance, but his stoic mannerisms and long life span would suggest otherwise.
Former Omega (name unknown): Super human. The last Omega before Mark who went mad with power and is believed to be dead. Pale blond, almost white hair. Gray eyes. He was surprisingly charismatic, which was how he persuaded people to join his movement of suppressing non-supers.
Eve: Super human. A famous super with the power of immortality. Long white hair. Pale, almost colorless eyes. She is over 150 years old but looks to be middle-aged, and she vouches for Mark when he comes out to the world as the next Omega. She was also romantically involved with the previous Omega.
Chapter One
The days following the incident in the abandoned mine passed in a blur.
It felt like we had finally started to make headway as novice Supers, but on the other hand, we’d ended up with more questions than when we started.
Was the famous hero Pyro really the mastermind behind all the attacks my team had suffered? What was he gaining from this? What was his end goal? Could the hacker we’d captured lead us to him?
These questions were yet to be answered, but at least we still had a lead to chase for now. I also wondered if Mori had gotten any more out of the guy who was responsible for the hacking after I dumped the asshole on my benefactor’s doorstep.
This morning, I’d woken up with a sense of dread that sat heavy on my chest and hoped I could distract myself with my friends, so I headed to the kitchen area to find them.
The area was littered with other fledglings getting their morning fix of caffeine and making the most of the freshly prepared breakfast spread before the day unfolded. I looked around, and I spotted my team sitting around our usual table next to the floor-to-ceiling windows that presented panoramic views of Miami.
It was nice to see a beautifully clear day, and considering the past few days had been depressingly overcast, it was a welcome change to see a bit of sun shining over the city.
Even though the last few weeks had been an absolute rollercoaster, this place was really starting to feel like home. A large part of that was thanks to my new friends, and I felt an immense amount of gratitude fill my chest as I made my way over to join them.
I exchanged smiles with my Tempest and Dreamer girlfriends before taking a big swig of my first cup of coffee of the day.
“Morning.” Rhiannon gave my leg a loving squeeze as I flopped into a seat beside her at the head of the table, and there was a happy glint in her green eyes.
“Good mornin’.” I turned to Rhiannon and gently kissed her on the cheek, and I was rewarded with a sweet smile before she shyly tucked a strand of her brown hair behind an ear.
I still hadn’t gotten over how I’d ended up with two equally smoking hot girlfriends, and I wasn’t convinced I ever would. Rhiannon had a much more innocent and adorable look going on in contrast to Hannah, who constantly oozed sexuality, but I cared for them equally.
When she was out of her super suit, Hannah always chose to dress in fitted crop tops that plunged to her cleavage and tight leather skirts that accentuated her hourglass figure. Her blonde hair fell purposefully messy down her shoulders and cascaded over her round breasts, and her blue eyes were sultry and foxlike, which meant she was pretty much always giving fuck-me eyes.
I wasn’t complaining.
Rhiannon was on the softer end of the spectrum and opted for pastel colored summer dresses that accentuated her waist, her ample cleavage, and her lithe legs. She always tucked her chocolate-brown hair behind her ears, which gave her a pixie-like appearance, and her eyes were big and a striking green that seemed to have a permanent twinkle in them, at least every time she looked at me.
I was never one of those guys who cared about whether a girl was a blonde or a brunette, nor did I care to express a preference, but it was pretty damn cool to not have to pick.
I turned and kissed Hannah’s cheek next, and she laced her fingers through mine before shooting me a smile.
“What’s in store for us next, do you think?” my redheaded conduit friend, Frank, asked once I’d taken my seat and ripped a bite out of a buttered croissant.
“I’m tired just thinking about it,” Rhiannon said with a sigh and sipped her coffee.
“Me, too,” my healer friend, Danny, added as he ran a hand through his wispy mousy-brown hair and leaned back in his seat.
“Yeah.” I nodded in agreement.
It had been pretty uneventful since we’d located the hacker, but the uncertainty of the near future and anxiety of not knowing the full picture of what we were up against was wearing us all out.
“Looks like someone is about to enlighten us,” Hannah said as she jerked her head toward the elevators.
I swung my head around to follow what she was gesturing toward and saw Dahlia appear through the elevator’s opening chrome doors and make a beeline to our table.
Our mentor was dressed in her usual get-up, which featured a skintight white tank top that clung to her pert breasts and stopped just below her belly button. Her tank top was paired with low-rise black jeans that left a sliver of her toned stomach on display, and the contrast of the denim’s darkness against her slightly tanned skin emphasized the swaying of her hips as she walked.
Since she had regained control of her body, she’d completely transformed, and it was almost strange how different she was. She hadn’t tangibly changed anything about her appearance, but the way she held herself was magnetic as opposed to her stoic former self. She was gorgeous whether she scowled or not, but all of her features had softened and relaxed into themselves. Her deep brown, nearly black eyes were brighter, her smile was wider, and her dark hair was now artfully tousled from where she constantly ran her hands through it. Even her strides when she walked had turned from robotic to delicate yet confident.
“Morning all,” Dahlia said with a coy smile as she reached our table.
Each of us took turns returning mumbled variations of good mornings.
“I hate to interrupt the most important meal of the day.” Dahlia turned to me, and I tried to ignore the twinkle in her eyes as they met mine. “But Mori has requested to see you, Mark.”
“Just me?” I asked.
“Just you,” she said as she fiddled with her earring.
“Always getting all the action.” Danny grinned at me.
“In more ways than one,” Frank added under his breath.
“Okay, boys, enough of that… besides, I don’t think Mori swings that way,” I chucked and shot a wink at my Conduit and healer friend. “I’ll catch up with you all later.”
I nodded at my dream team, stood up from the table, and planted kisses on the tops of Hannah and Rhiannon’s heads before walking over to the elevators with Dahlia.
The chrome doors slid open, and we filed inside. Then Dahlia pressed the button marked with a ‘B,’.
“Are we not going to the penthouse?” I asked my mentor.
“No,” Dahlia said. “Mori wants to see you in the basement.”
“What’s down there?”
“Holding cells,” Dahlia said with a more serious expression.
My eyebrows rose in surprise. “We have those here?”
“Yeah,” Dahlia admitted. “They were originally built for emergencies, although they have ended up being mostly used as drunk tanks for overexcited first years.”
“Of course they have,” I laughed.
We rode the rest of the elevator ride in silence. I kept my head facing forward, but I could sense her body as she stood next to me, and I had to fight off the urge to push her up against the wall and crash my lips into hers. It was even harder to resist because I knew from our last encounter alone that she wanted it, too.
Before I could let my imagination run any further, the elevator doors squeaked open and revealed a dingy hallway with three doors along the left wall. A fluorescent light flickered above us and sent twitching shadows down the hallway, so the sight of the basement was quite a juxtaposition to the rest of the academy, which felt newly renovated throughout and was kitted out with high-tech gadgets. I supposed they would have had to have saved money somewhere, and I guess there’s no place better to scrimp than the Academy’s DIY jail.
“After you,” I said, and I gestured for Dahlia to leave before me so I could get a glimpse of her ass as she walked out.
I followed after her, and we stopped outside the first door.
“What does Mori want with me?” I asked and shoved my hair back from my face.
“I’m not sure what he wants with you…” Dahlia said and placed emphasis on the ‘he.’
I felt my cheeks heat up in reaction to her blatant flirtatious remarks, which were usually disguised and subtle, but Mori opened the door before I had the chance to flirt back with my brown-eyed mentor.
Mori sported a clean black three-piece suit, as usual, with his signature silver cufflinks. I’d really started to respect his commitment to upholding such a sharp appearance. A lot of power accompanied a well-dressed man, and Mori had nailed it.
It was funny because I would have been intimidated by a man like Mori a few months back, but now that I’d risen to the occasion that came with being an Omega, I couldn’t see myself getting intimidated by another man’s perceived status again.
That felt good.
“Mr. Maddock,” Mori said in his usual suave delivery. “Thank you for coming to see me so promptly. Nice to see you, Dahlia.”
“Dean.” Dahlia smiled sweetly and nodded at the Dreamer.
“Of course,” I said. “What’s the problem?”
“I’ll leave you guys to it,” Dahlia said, and she patted me on the shoulder as she passed by and made her way back over to the elevator.
“We have the hacker in a cell,” Mori told me as I turned back to him. “He’s not giving up any more information other than Pyro’s name. Figured you may have more luck with him. Me and Somnia have both had a go, but perhaps the Omega will have more luck.”
“I see,” I said and then absently voiced my next thought. “I didn’t know we could do that.”
“Do what?” Mori asked.
“I dunno, perform a citizen’s arrest, I guess,” I said with a shrug.
“The Academy and law enforcement have an understanding,” Mori explained. “As supers, we typically only capture criminals and then pass them along to the proper authorities, but there are exceptions to the rule. There’s a process we have to follow, but as superiors at the academy, we can exercise this power if necessary. However, we can only hold him for a further twenty-four hours before law enforcement formally takes over. Besides, after you dumped him on my doorstep, I didn’t have much choice but to detain him.”
“Understood.” I nodded. “I’ll try speaking with him.”
Mori stepped aside and gestured for me to enter the room.
The room was equally as dingy as the adjoining hallway, and it was dimly lit by a single naked bulb that casted a yellow hue and exaggerated the depressing shade of magnolia covering the walls. The carpet was a lifeless dark gray and had definitely seen better days, and it had been worn out in areas where chairs had been continuously dragged along it. The furnishings were sparse and equally as depressing. Even ‘sparse’ was probably a bit too generous when really, there were only two fold-up metal chairs that sat in front of a huge sheet of glass in the place of a wall and a water cooler that stood in the corner.
On the other side of the glass, the hacker sat hunched over on a chair and seemed to be staring right at us.
“Can he see us?” I asked over my shoulder.
“No,” Mori said as he stepped up to stand beside me. “It’s a two-way mirror. He can’t hear you, either. Not until you press the button on the mic.”
“Okay,” I said and took a deep breath. “Let me get my bearings.”
“Don’t worry, he’s not a danger to you,” Mori said as he inched closer to the door. “He’s wearing handcuffs specifically designed to block his powers.”
“Good to know.” I nodded thankfully at the Dreamer.
I wasn’t afraid of the hacker, or what he could do to me. I was more concerned with what I was going to find out. The possibility that we were up against a group of Supers who opposed my entire existence was enough to make me sweat buckets and clam up. I needed as much information as I could get, and this asshole was going to give it to me, whether he liked it or not.
“I’ll wait outside,” Mori said before he swiftly made his exit.
I took a seat and studied the man on the other side of the glass.
His demeanor was visibly disheveled, most likely from a mixture of a lack of sleep, the stress of being captured by Supers, and predicting what was going to happen to him now that he’d blown Pyro’s cover.
Pyro had probably caught wind of the bust at the mine by now. Although he probably wouldn’t have figured out it was us, and that we held his puppet captive, he would have realized someone was on to him and his plans. Which definitely moved the timeline up a bit.
From what we knew, the hacker was just an ordinary guy who’d taken a job for some cash and bit off a lot more than he could chew. But either way, Pyro was powerful, whether or not he was pulling the strings of this operation, and I’d be shitting myself, too.
I didn’t let myself sympathize with the hacker too much, though. After all, he had taken advantage of a desperate drug-addicted homeless person and ordered him to shoot us upon arrival. I didn’t care that he’d been set up to do it, anyone who lacked that much empathy was straight up not a good dude.
I assumed Somnia and Mori, being in the powerful positions they were, had more than likely intimidated the hacker, whether they meant to or not. Seeing as that hadn’t worked and gotten us any of the answers we needed, I decided to opt for a friendly neighbor routine instead.
The hacker was clearly a money-driven guy, so I figured I could use that as my initial angle before any of the big guns were brought out.
This would be fun.
But before I went in with any questions, I decided to try getting a read on him.
I locked my gaze on the hacker’s face and attempted to silence my mind so I could hone in on his, but my brain wouldn’t quiet and seemed hellbent on sifting through my own thoughts.
My efforts to read his mind felt like a physical strain, and I wasn’t picking up on anything, so I decided to give the old-fashioned way a shot and use my big boy words.
“Ready to talk?” I asked as I hit the intercom button beside the window and knocked on the glass.
The hacker shot up and was visibly startled. He attempted to regain his composure to carry on his untouchable facade but failed miserably.
“I don’t know what Pyro wants,” I continued. “And frankly, I don’t care. I care about people, their welfare, and keeping them safe.”
The hacker didn’t flinch. He just absently glared at me through the glass.
“I want to play this fair,” I said. “No powers, just two guys talking. Tell me how a guy like you wound up in a situation like this.”
He remained unfazed, and his mouth pressed into a thin line.
“Tell me your name, bud,” I said in an attempt to coax the guy into cooperation. “You look about the same age as me. You’re too young to get caught up in stupid shit.”
