King Of Bad [Super Villian Academy Book 1] (20 page)

“Um, there have
been some changes while you’ve been away,” Sandra blushed.

“What the heck
is green laser? I’ve seen red and purple, but never green.” Jeff froze
realizing he’d just given too much information away. But Sandra didn’t look
surprised or confused.

“Well, it’s a
good guy color, moron,” Sandra said.

Jeff blinked.

Sandra chuckled
again. She pushed away from the door jam and walked into Jeff’s room, pulling
him by the shirtsleeve to the bed. “Have a seat.”

Jeff studied
Sandra and realized the heavy eyeliner was gone. The black hair dye had been
softened to a deep chestnut. She still wore mostly black clothing, but nothing
was studded or strategically torn.

“I know you’re
a villain,” Sandra started. She sighed. “I’m a hero. It really sucks that we’re
on opposite sides.”

“How do you
know? When did you…?” Jeff’s mouth hung open.

“It happened
just after that visit to your school. I think it was because of Source,
actually.” Sandra blushed again. “My feelings for him and him being a villain
and all, well I think it
jump
started my powers.”

Sandra’s eyes
grew large and she stared at Jeff. “Did you know Mom’s a white hat too?”

Jeff nodded.
Sandra sighed in relief. “Good. I didn’t want to be the one to break the news
to you. Anyway, I started levitating on a regular basis. I know, how cliché,
right? I thought I was possessed by some demonic presence, but Mom recognized
it right away. I go to academy now too. It is so much fun. I love it!”

Jeff groaned.

“You don’t like
yours?”

“Well, I’m not
actually sure. I’ve only been there about a week. I was hoping to talk to Dad
about…well…some issues I’m having before I started class this morning, but I
guessed I missed him.”

Sandra gawked
at Jeff like he’d started speaking Chinese.

Jeff closed his
eyes and scrunched his nose. “Oops.”

Sandra’s voice
sounded very small.
“Dad?”

“You didn’t
know? That means Mother still doesn’t know.”

Sandra panted
like she’d just finished a sprint.
“Dad?
Has he
always…”

Jeff shrugged
and nodded. He shared a condensed version of how he’d recently found out about
their dad. He held back the information about Dad being a big name in villainy
and how their last name wasn’t even real.

“I wondered how
you went
bad
. I guess it makes complete sense now,”
Sandra said.

“Well, lots of
the kids don’t have villains in their family. It just happens most of the
time,” Jeff said.

“Mom’s real
bummed that you’re bad because good is supposed to be really strong and passes
down easily through families. She says she feels like she failed you somehow.”

“Yeah, well,
she’ll be happy to know I’ve got all sorts of good in me too.”

“Huh?”

Jeff told
Sandra about the good stuff that had been growing stronger inside him and his
discomfort with it
. “Do you guys have
nicknames?”

Sandra shook her head.

“We do. It’s always annoyed me, but as soon
as your root ability is discovered they tag you with a nickname and that is the
only thing they ever know you as. Mine is Polar.”

“As in the bear?”

“No, as in opposite.
Each ability
I
have, I have the opposing ability to go along with it. I have fire and ice. I
can build up elements or break them down. I have bad and…”

“Good,” Sandra finished for him.

Jeff nodded.
“Exactly.
And now I don’t fit in either world because of it.”

“So what were you going to talk to Dad
about?”

“I was going to tell him that I didn’t want
to attend his school.” Jeff took Sandra’s hand in his. “Sandra, Source was
taken from our school a while ago. I’ve been trying to find out what school
took him, but I haven’t been able to figure it out. I’ve decided to focus all
my efforts on finding him.”

“Oh, I’ve got him.”

“What?” Jeff threw her hand at her like it
had stung him.

“We took him. It broke my heart to see his
awesome skills stuck working for the wrong side. So we took him. He’s much
happier now.” Sandra leaned back against the wall, tucked her feet up under her
and looked dreamily up at the ceiling.

“You took him? You mean those blue flames
were good guys? What about Detainee? She’s a bad guy, isn’t she?” Jeff ran both
hands through his hair.

“Oh, Detainee owed Mom a favor for something
that happened years back. We used her to throw your school off our trail. But
those blue flames were ours. Cool ability, huh?”

“Yeah, but it really drains you. Maybe I just
don’t know how to control the release of the magnesium, though.”

Sandra gasped. “You can do it?”

“Yeah, I figured it out.”

“Wow, Jeff. That’s high-level stuff.” She
seemed to reappraise him. “Should I be afraid?”

Jeff huffed and rolled his eyes. “No! I
couldn’t hurt you, Sandy-girl.
Even if you are a sappy good
guy.”

She raised her hand, palm directed at him,
and arched her eyebrow.
“Careful there, moron.
I may
be a good guy, but I’m still subject to sibling rivalry.”

They laughed.

“So,” Sandra said, “you should come to school
with me today.”

He looked at her like she’d just declared the sky
green. “I’m still a villain. I can’t just saunter in through the front doors.”

“Oh, maybe not.
I could call Mom. She’d be able to get it
cleared.”

“No! Then we’d have to tell her about Dad.
I’m not ready for that yet.”

“
Ew
,
neither am I. I’m not even sure how I’m
gonna
act at dinner tonight.”

Jeff stared at her. “Hey, how come you get to
live at home?”

“Mom told Dad that since the academy seemed
to be working out so well for you, that she thought I should go to one too.
Mine is nice and close. Dad doesn’t know what kind of school it is. Hey,
where’s your new school?”

“About sixty or so miles
from here.
Over in
Timarken
.”

“Wow, that’s far; can you fly too?” Sandra
asked.

“No, I ran. You can fly? No fair!”

They made arrangements for Jeff to meet
Sandra and Source after school that afternoon and Sandra left. Jeff’s stomach
rumbled and rolled with a combination of hunger after running so far and the
unsettling jitterbug dance it’d been doing since he arrived at the house. He
went downstairs and pulled the eggs out of the refrigerator. Whipping up an omelet
reminded him of Pyro and how she’d complained about the strange feeling when
she was at his house. He wondered if the feelings were the same. He’d never
felt it before he went to academy, but he’d had no defenses then.

Jeff watched some television, but by noon was
bored out of his mind. He decided to wander around downtown until it was time
to meet Sandra and Source. He hadn’t even been away from home for a year yet,
but the downtown seemed changed. Not smaller physically like he always heard
people say about visiting the place they’d grown up, but smaller mentally. It
was as if the ice cream shop, the western wear store, and the card shop all
represented how limited his knowledge of the world had been.

It wasn’t that he felt well traveled, but he
thought he had gained a broader perspective of the possibilities in life. He’d
never before suspected super powers were real. Now he knew they were and the
people wielding them were somewhat normal. And most start out ignorant to the
process. It is like handing a multi-million dollar basketball contract to a kid
from the inner city. What did he know about handling all that money and fame?
Nothing at first and it often didn’t go well.

So these academies, whether stocked full of
newbie villains or white hats, were basically responsible for taming the wild
instincts of a bunch of kids handed multi-million dollar contracts.

Jeff shivered.

Finally it was time for him to meet Sandra
and Source. They were already waiting for him at an old diner just on the
outskirts of downtown.

“I can’t believe you beat me here,” Jeff
said, sliding into the booth next to Source. They gave each other a half hug
and pounded each other on the back. “I came early ’cause I just couldn’t wait
anymore.”

“Dude, when Sandra told me you’d come home, I
wanted to leave right then and there. But good guys never skip school.” Source
beamed.

“So you really like being a good guy, huh?”
Jeff asked.

“Polar, I can’t tell you what a relief it is for
me. It’s obvious what I was meant to be all along. I’ve got all sorts of powers
now.”

Jeff raised his eyebrows.
“Really?”

“Yeah, I can throw a gnarly brick wall in
front of a speeding bad guy. I can hear conversations from miles away. I can
even levitate myself about 10 feet in the air.
Learned that
one from working with you, man.
Thanks.”

Jeff laughed. “Wow,
Source,
that
is great! Do your parents know?”

“No way, man.
They don’t even know I’m gone from the bogus
academy.”

“Does that bother you?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah, sort of.”
Source twirled the straw in his soda around
and around.

“Well, did you um…” Jeff hesitated. Source
looked up expectantly. “Did you know what your parents are?”

“Well, my mom is Japanese American. She’s not
really religious. Dad’s a stockbroker. What do you mean?”

“Dude, um…your parents are S.V’s.” Jeff
screwed up his face, waiting for Source to yell or throw something.

“Huh.” Source twirled his straw.
“Villains?
Oh, that sucks. Guess I won’t go home for the
holidays anymore. Wonder why they didn’t fess up when I was recruited. They
didn’t need to participate in that sham of a bogus academy if we were all one
big villainy family.”

Jeff shook his head and shrugged.

“How did you find out?” Source asked.

“Well, your mom recognized my mom at the
family visit. Your mom told Tubs what my mom is. Tubs told my dad and my dad
sent Mystic to S.V.A. on a reconnaissance mission.”

“Mystic was a plant?” Source said.

“Man, you missed all the fun.” Jeff told
Source what had happened up through Jeff being snatched by a look-alike team of
bad guys and spirited off to the new academy. Then he told him about the trip he
and Mystic had taken to Mexico,
looking for Source.

“Wait a minute,” Source interrupted. “You
went looking for me?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to find you since you
were taken.”

“Man, I never expected anyone at S.V.A. to
care what happened to me. I mean no one there cares about anything. But you
managed to get Mystic to go along with the trip too?”

Source and Sandra exchanged a meaningful
look.

“What’s going on?” Jeff asked.

“Well, we know there was an undercover agent
at the academy. They always have an undercover to keep an eye on the up and
coming truly bad guys so we know what abilities we’ll have to fight when they
get out on their own.”

“But Mystic was from my dad’s academy, not
S.V.A.”

“Polar, bad guys don’t go country hopping
with a friend. They don’t have friends.”

“See, dude, that’s the thing. My good side
has developed since your abduction.” Jeff glared pointedly at Sandra who smiled
back proudly. “It seems to have quite a strong power of persuasion with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Give me enough time and I can turn any
villain into a purring kitten or a sentimental sap.”

“So you think the only reason Mystic was nice
was because she was hanging around you too much?” Source asked.

“Yeah, I don’t think she had a choice.”

“I don’t know, man. She sure put up a good
fight against the intruders on the night I was abducted.”

“Well, she thought they were taking her,”
Jeff said.

“That isn’t the way it looked to me. I
thought she was trying to get away in order to defend someone. I had hoped it
was me.” Source swung a worried glance toward Sandra. “I didn’t know at the
time I would like the abduction. But it looked more like she was worried about
you.”

“I was across the room.”

“Exactly.
She wasn’t looking at me.”

Jeff dropped his head into his hands. “This
is all too confusing.”

“No, man, this is good. Now you can come to
school with Sandra and me and everything will be like it should be.”

Jeff raised his head and peaked at Source
from under his long bangs. “There is a problem with your happy ending, dude.”

“What?”

“I’m still a bad guy. A good bad guy, but a
bad guy nevertheless.”