Super Villain Academy 2: Polar Opposites (14 page)

“Yeah,” Jeff said standing and looking meaningfully at Sandra and Source. “We need to get out of here.”

Immediately Pyro and the girl pressed up against him, protesting.

“You can’t leave! We haven’t even caught up yet,” Pyro slipped her hand under his jacket and ran it up his chest.

“Stop!” Jeff protested.

“But my shift ends in half an hour. Wait for me.” The girl snaked the hand not holding his coffee around his waist and pressed her full length against him.

“Er.” Jeff looked from Pyro plastered to his right side and coffee shop girl Velcro-d to his left, both looking up at him with stomach-turning, starry-eyed expressions. There was no way to detach gracefully, so he barreled forward, peeling them off as he progressed.

“Your coffee!” Coffee Shop Girl said.

“Keep it,” Jeff growled.

Sandra and Source followed, casting wary glances at the patrons of the store as their heads snapped up to watch Jeff pass, or they leaped from their seats as if to follow.

They piled into Jeff’s car and peeled out of the parking lot.

Safe and sound at the Tohler household, Jeff paced the living room. Sandra handed Source a can of soda and perched on the arm of the couch, studying her brother. “There were even men panting in your wake. I thought your charm only worked on women. And since when is it that strong?”

“It seems Polar is an equal opportunity charmer,” Source said. “Very progressive of you.”

Jeff scowled. “That was Pyro who made herself my Siamese twin. Pyro!” He shuddered.

Sandra snorted. “I’m pretty sure I smelled sulfur. I think she was going to flambé me just for being near you.”

Jeff halted with one hand on his hip, the other tangled in his hair. “What’s going on?” he asked Source.

Source shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You were the one telling me I was oozing charm, remember?” Jeff had no idea why his face was beet red and his extremities trembled with rage.

“Whoa! Save the snark for the real enemies, Polar. I know where an ability comes from, and how to make it stronger, which you obviously don’t need right now.” Source waved his hand to indicate all of Jeff. “Whatever is going on is outside my area of expertise.”

“Crap! This sucks!” Jeff stood in the middle of the room seething.

“Uh, bro, you’re overreacting. Chill.” Sandra said.

Jeff slammed his eyes closed and drew in a couple deep breaths before responding through clenched teeth. “I’m having a hard time controlling my temper.”

“Uh oh.” Source eyed Jeff critically.

“Yeah,” Jeff said, standing as still as a statue with his eyes closed, hoping to channel some tranquility.

Sandra’s eyes grew round. “Your fire?”

“Yeah,” Jeff said.

“Mom’ll kill you,” Sandra warned.

“Not helping,” Jeff said as rebellion leaped up to join the party. He drew in steady breaths in a vain attempt to quiet his turmoil. His fingers, which hung by his side, tapped out the beat of an unheard song. The muscle under his right eye twitched. His body thrummed. When he spoke, his voice was deceptively calm. “Not even Mother can scare this rage away. I’m losing control.”

“Okay, don’t panic,” Source said, jumping to his feet and looking around the room for something to help. “Um, can you tell where the anger is coming from?”

The fierceness in Jeff’s glare made Source shrink backward. “I don’t have a clue what that means, Source.”

Source held up his hands in the classic “I pose no threat” gesture. “Is the anger from your head or from your heart?”

Jeff scowled, but seemed to be considering the question. “Oh. My head. Weird.”

“Thank goodness.” Source breathed a sigh of relief. “Um, okay. Let’s see. I guess you’re mad because your abilities are raging out of control. Right?”

A hot bolt of anger lit Jeff’s brain at Source’s words. Even though he knew his reaction was ridiculous, he couldn’t control it. Logically, he wasn’t mad at Source, but emotionally he was annoyed beyond belief by him. Jeff shook and nodded his head simultaneously in a spectacular impression of a bobblehead doll.

“Good!” Source said. He looked at Sandra. “Get the largest cup of hot water you can. Use a plastic cup, or something not breakable, if possible.”

She looked confused, but scurried off to the kitchen.

“You’re not just mad about your abilities, are you?” Source asked.

Jeff thought his very core might combust from the fire wanting to escape his body and rage at Source. Only the small amount of logic he barely held onto kept him participating in the dialogue. He shook his head.

“What else? What else are you mad about?” Source asked in a soothing voice that reminded Jeff of when they used to train together, back when Jeff was just discovering his abilities.

A thump drew their attention. The couch floated about three feet in the air. It swung lazily and bumped the wall. A burst of white-hot anger momentarily blinded Jeff.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Source soothed. “Concentrate on keeping the fire in. That’s way more important than controlling other things.”

Jeff focused on his friend, but his mind was so completely saturated with rage that he was finding it difficult to remember why they were friends.

“What else are you mad about, Polar?” Source asked again.

“Oci,” Jeff spit out the name without even thinking.

“Are you mad that no one can find her?” Source asked, ducking to avoid getting hit by a lamp that rocketed across the room.

“I’m mad that they aren’t looking. I’m mad that I have to deal with out of control abilities while she’s missing. I’m mad that I have to work with Set.” Source snatched a laptop as it flew past, but wasn’t fast enough to stop the brass candlesticks from crashing through the large plate glass window. “I’m mad that I probably miss Oci more than she misses me.”

Suddenly everything that had been floating or soaring crashed to the floor. Sandra, who had just walked back into the room, squeaked like a mouse caught in a trap and froze in her tracks. Water sloshed over the side of the 64-ounce plastic cup she held in her hand.

Source looked from Jeff to Sandra and back to Jeff. “What do you mean, Polar?”

Sweat trailed down Jeff’s forehead from his efforts to control his fire. He clenched and unclenched his fists. “I think,” he panted. He slammed his eyes closed. “I think she was seeing someone else.”

“What?” Sandra breathed.

Source nodded his head toward Jeff. “He could use that water now,” he said to Sandra.

She shrugged and shook her head. “I can’t move.”

Jeff continued as if he hadn’t heard them. “The longer she’s gone, the more unstable I seem to get.”

Source blinked in surprise, then shifted his body forward, but his feet couldn’t follow. “Polar, you need to release your hold on us.”

Jeff squinted at Source. His tone dripped distain. “What hold?”

A creaking sound split the air. Source looked up at the ceiling with concern. “Gravity. You’re pinning everything down right now. I think you might pull the house down on top of us.” Another groan of wood underscored his point.

Jeff stared at Source for a long time. He shook like a marathoner after a race. “I can’t. It’s too much. There’s too much going on.”

“Okay, just Sandra. Find Sandra in the gravity.” Source’s tone was even, despite the creaks and groans of the house around them. “Found her?”

Jeff nodded.

“Good, good, good. Now think of her. Think of Sandra. Think of her smile, the way she teases you, the annoying way she always has to touch you when she passes by.”

The shadow of a smile touched Jeff’s lips.

“Good, now release the gravity that’s holding her. Just that much, no more.” Source spoke as if he was encouraging a kindergartner to try jumping rope. “Unravel the strands of gravity wrapped around her feet and ankles.”

Sandra stumbled forward. More water sloshed over the side of the cup and splattered onto the carpet.

Source looked at her. “Hold that cup in front of Polar. Fast!”

Sandra held the cup in front of him. A slight tremor in her hand betrayed her nerves.

Jeff reached for the cup.

“No! Don’t touch it.” Source reached out as if to stop him, even though he was stuck fast to the ground well out of reach. He switched back into his soothing training voice. “Polar, look at the cup. See the water inside the cup. Breathe deep and smell the water. With your abilities, you should be able to smell each molecule of water. Can you?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jeff spat.

“Just take a slow, deep breath, through your nose,” Source said.

As Jeff concentrated on the water in the cup, his anger ebbed enough to shift focus to himself. His first sniff was mostly filled with the smell of ash and scorched things. His second sniff smelled more like a doused campfire. Eventually, he gained enough concentration to smell the clean scents of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, trace levels of iron, manganese and other various minerals. He breathed in the fresh water scent like a man in the Sahara Desert.

“Polar, you need to find your ice,” Source said.

Jeff shifted his focus to his lungs. Drawing another deep breath, he expected to feel the cold draft at the very bottom of his lungs, but instead, he felt heat. His eyes popped open in panic. “It’s gone!”

Source shook his head. “I don’t think it’s gone. Keep searching.”

“You don’t think?” Anger sparked. Drywall dust showered down.

“Shush. Calm,” Source gestured like he was telling a crowd of people to sit down. His tone now suggested he spoke to an elderly person suffering from dementia. “I can still sense the cold in you. Concentrate on the water before you go looking for the cold. Smell what makes up the water. Let it fill you, and then let it find its companion way deep down inside your lungs.”

When the water finally met the ice, Jeff blasted out a thick layer of frost onto the cup and Sandra. His anger dissipated and became a dull ache of regret.

“Um, burr,” Sandra said. She set the cup on the coffee table and swiped frost off her arms onto the floor.

“Sorry, sis.” Jeff said, distracted. He crossed his arms and slumped his shoulders forward as if he were cold.

“You okay?” Source asked.

Jeff shrugged.

“Jeff,” Sandra asked, her voice just above a whisper. “What did you mean about Oceanus seeing someone else?”

Jeff sighed. Anger stirred in response to the question, but so did sorrow and pain, which were far less passionate. With a doleful expression, Jeff met his sister’s gaze and shrugged. “She was distracted. Withdrawn. M.I.A.”

Sandra shook her head. “But that’s absurd.”

Jeff stared at the wall.

“She’s crazy about you,” Sandra whispered.

The front door made a scraping noise. The three kids looked at it warily. Someone pounded against it, and then finally it popped open, and Frank stumbled into the room. “What happened to the door and the window?”

Jeff groaned.

Frank looked around the room. Nothing was in its original place, and everything was coated in a fine layer of drywall dust. His gaze swept upward to the new cracks in the walls. His head tilted when he looked at a window high up on the wall that was newly angled at fifteen degrees to the floor. He looked at Jeff. “What happened?”

Luckily for Jeff’s safety and well-being, Source answered. “It seems the balancing didn’t work on your son.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Frank frowned at Source.

Source pushed his glasses up his nose. “Only a guess, mind you, but I’ve detected a continual increase in his powers. I didn’t think anything of it until a couple of days ago, when Sandra asked me if I knew anything about it. I’ve been monitoring other supers’ abilities since then and keeping track of both old and young supers, but none of them are experiencing an increase in their abilities. It’s like Sandra said, you get your powers, discover them, develop them, but they’re the same the whole time.”

“But Polar’s keep increasing?” Frank asked, warily eyeing the damages.

“Yes, sir,” Source said.

“Have they always been?” Jeff asked.

Source shrugged. “I never monitored before, why?”

“We’ve got to find Oceanus,” Jeff said, looking at the shattered window. “Before the balancing unravels.”

“Or you do,” Sandra whispered.

Chapter 24

Set and Jeff stared up at the eerie castle-like house.

“A bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Jeff asked.

“Like the dogs weren’t,” Set scoffed.

“Good point.” Jeff wrinkled his nose against the rotten sulfur scent that hung in the air around the house. “What’s the chance she’s got a dragon in there?”

Set rolled his eyes. “There’s not much of a chance that Mystic is even here.” He climbed the stairs. “And dragons aren’t real.”

“Right.” Jeff trudged up the stone steps behind him. “Shouldn’t you gather some storm clouds or lightning before we knock?”

Set ignored him and banged the raven shaped knocker against the large wood door. The hollow sound reverberated inside the house, immediately followed by the barking of several dogs.

Jeff and Set looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

An old craggy voice yelled at the dogs on the other side of the door. “Shut your traps. Sit! Siiiit.”

The barking died away, and the door swung open, releasing the musky order of wet fur and dog food from within. An old man, stooped and shaky with age, peered up at them. His head cocked sideways in order to see, because he was bent so far forward under a hunchback. “Yes?”

“Igor, is Dr. Frankenstein home?” Jeff said and laughed.

At least a dozen dogs sat in a semi-circle around the man. A few growled through bared teeth. The largest one stood and took a couple steps forward. Jeff’s laughter died off. “Well, we found the dogs, at least.”

“May I help you?”

“Yes,” Jeff replied. “We’re looking for Mystic. She around? Or maybe she dropped off a friend, say in the dungeon, and left?”

The man frowned. Shadows settled into crags in his saggy skin, making him look a sickly gray. “Mystic?”

“Don’t play dumb, Igor. These are definitely her dogs. Where is she?” Jeff asked.