Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(23)
Captain Orion is evil.
Bells clenches and unclenches his fist. Captain Orion hurt Jess when she asked her to explain the inconsistencies about the League and the missing villains, and now he wants her to pay. He shudders, thinking about the battles being faked and how the villains in the Guild were all chosen.
And all his assignments when he pretended to be some villain for the sake of—for the sake of what, puppet theatre? They told him it was combat training and Bells… Bells believed it.
Anger swells inside him. Every single class he’s taken at the Meta-Human Training Center, all the students, are just part of this game to the League, and the whole process—the obstacle courses, the sparring classes, the trainers watching them carefully to evaluate them—are all part of an elaborate distraction for everyone in the Collective.
Captain Orion is evil, and the League kidnapped Abby’s parents.
He pulls Jess into a hug. They’re going to fix this.
“Ready to go kick some butt?” Abby asks.
Bells has never been more ready.
Bells is still processing it, but Jess has a plan, and directions. Actually, she has lots of directions, as it’s her power. He’s a little in awe at how cool it is, but tries to focus on the task at hand. The landscape is speeding past the Trans’ car as they drive into the desert to the facility where Orion is keeping Abby’s parents captive.
He stares down at himself, at his green bodysuit, the one designed for him. For Chameleon. It takes less power to shift when he’s wearing it; it’ll save him precious energy later. Bold colors, for a hero. To inspire…
Bells always loved wearing the suit, but now he’s not sure what the uniform means. He pulls on the mask. Bells studies the map and then freezes and yanks off the mask.
“The suit,” he blurts. “It was made by the League. My motorcycle, too. It’s all tracked. They’ll know we’re coming.”
“That’s easily fixed.” Abby makes a twisting motion; a piece of fabric tears away from Bells’ shoulder and wire filaments snap. A chip floats in the air and then disintegrates. “I can fix your bike later.”
She twirls a strand of her hair and taps her feet. Bells tries to reconcile the Abby he knows from school—volleyball captain, all around go-getter—with the powerful meta-human determined to rescue her parents. It’s not much of a stretch. Technopathy and telekinesis. Cool.
“Hey, Abby.” Bells nudges her with his elbow. “You ever use your telekinesis when you play volleyball?”
“During a game?” Abby looks appalled. “Of course not. That’d be cheating.”
“Uh huh,” Bells says. “Never even once? Made the ball go somewhere else?”
“I mean, if I was practicing by myself…” Abby frowns.
Bells shakes his head. “Such a waste.”
Redirecting the conversation to volleyball and the chances of a championship seems to help calm Jess. She continues to enter new coordinates, but she stops fiddling with the dash and follows Abby’s and Bells’ conversation.
The fact that Jess has meta-abilities should be surprising, but, somehow, it isn’t. Jess does have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, whether it’s the shortest line for tater tots or winning Captain Orion tickets. It could be an incredibly useful power, though Bells is sure the trainers at the center would have underestimated her as they did so many others.
Jess is getting them where they need to go.
Bells drums his fingers against the window as the city gets smaller and smaller. The smooth paved road has given way to a pre-Collective roadbed, where the concrete is cracked and broken from decades of disuse. Bells bites his lip and watches the scenery; he’s never set foot onto any Unmaintained territory. He’s passed through such areas, of course, but within the safety of a car or train.
The idea of being outside in the Unmaintained lands isn’t the only thing making him nervous. Bells isn’t worried because Abby’s parents are supposedly villains. He’s always found the Mischiefs more amusing than dangerous. No, what he’s actually nervous about is the plan to get them inside the NAC building.
He’ll have to do a full shift of himself and Jess and Abby, and it has to last long enough to fool who-knows-how-many guards. He’s been shifting his own shape all day since he forgot to do laundry and didn’t have any clean binders. He doesn’t have a whole lot of power left, and he has no time to take a nap right now.
Somehow, he shifts all three of them into NAC officials, and they make their way inside the compound. Once inside, he lets their disguises go. He doesn’t have much power left. He needs to save his energy for whatever comes next. The building creaks ominously.
We shouldn’t be here.
The exposed pipes in the ceilings and the peeling paint of the walls and the flickering lights in the hallways remind him of the season four finale of The Gentleman Detective right before Jeremiah Wells is attacked by vengeful ghosts. Bells keeps looking over his shoulder and he tries not to jump at every noise.
No one should be here.
Without hesitation, Jess leads them down corridor after corridor, deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. At least she knows where she’s going.
They encounter Powerstorm—Jess’ older sister Claudia. Bells is still getting used to that. Whatever admiration he had for her as a hero quickly evaporates as he watches her belittle Abby and Jess. She seems to be firmly behind whatever Orion is up to.