The Rise of Renegade X (27 page)

I
n tonight’s scheme, I will be playing the parts of both the Midnight Marvel—the supervillain partner to the lovely Shapeshifter—and, simultaneously, that of Renegade X, the super cool superhero, looked up to by his brilliant sidekick, the Cosine Kid.

There are several factors that are going to make this possible. I’m wearing plain black spandex, but I’ve got the holographic projector Sarah used to change her T-shirt and her facial features. She doesn’t know I borrowed it. All I have to do is press the button, and a big silver
X
appears on my chest and a mask appears on my face. If I press it again, the
X
changes into two Ms—I didn’t have time to come up with anything other than the Midnight Marvel—and my mask changes into my insect goggles.

I’ve also got a utility belt that Sarah gave me to go with my costume. It hides the holographic projector belt quite nicely, and I can also use it to hold my gun or stash my goggles in one of the pouches.

This is going to work. Even though Helen’s shop is small, it’s got a lot of stuff piled up in it, and it’ll be really dark in there. This would be so much easier if I had Kat’s power, but really all I have to do is go, “What’s that over there? I’m going to check it out, you stay here!” and run behind the junk, press a button, and voilà! I’m a new man.

Kat wants to be there at midnight. I told Sarah to meet me at the same time, in front of the bookstore down the street, so we can get organized before alerting the bad guys to our presence. It’s cold out tonight, but I’m sweating as Kat and I make our way to the store. We keep to the shadows, avoiding streetlights and being really sneaky-like. I’ve already got the projector on, making me look like the Midnight Marvel.

Kat peeks out from behind a building to see if it’s safe, and I hum “Here Comes the Bride.”

“Damien!” she whispers, her cheeks going red. “Will you quit that?”

“I’d look hot in a tux, don’t you think?”

“Listen, about the other night …” She touches her fingertips together and looks away.

“Yes?” In my mind, this is where she leaps into my arms and screams, “Marry me,
please
!” and I kiss her and pull out two fake IDs and a couple plane tickets to Vegas. In reality, I feel really embarrassed for fantasizing that, and my face gets hot. Not only have I self-proclaimed Kat off-limits, but I’m involved in a series of very important experiments with Sarah. I fidget with my utility belt and lick my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. “Let’s not talk about it.”

“That’s what I was going to say.” She breathes a sigh of relief. “So you can quit teasing me. I wasn’t myself.”

“We’re too young, anyway,” I mutter.

We’re quiet until we get to the store. Then Kat stands in front of the door and grins at me. “Tonight,” she says, “we’re real supervillains.”

“Just call me Midnight.”

The projector device around my waist makes a
zap
noise. I glance down just in time to see the Ms on my chest blink back into existence.

“Whoa.” Kat blinks and stares at my face. “Did your goggles just …
flicker?”

“That’s crazy.” Okay, so Sarah’s invention isn’t perfect, but it’s all I’ve got. “You’re imagining things, Kat. It was the streetlight that flickered.”

Kat shrugs and moves to pick the lock. With her finger. She doesn’t need tools.

I thought about stealing a copy of the key, in case we had to do any damage to break in—and because Kat shapeshifting her finger into a lockpick always creeps me out—but I didn’t want her to get suspicious.

She opens the door and I put a hand out to stop her. I point to the doorway. “Hidden lasers,” I whisper. “I did a little research earlier today. It was hard work, but I scoped out the security system for you.”

Kat laughs. “Sweet-talked the owner, I bet.”

I pretend to step over the invisible lasers and Kat follows me in. “I’m going to find a way to turn them off, so we can make a quick getaway. You go on ahead. And be careful. There’s so much junk in here, it’s an avalanche waiting to happen.”

Kat gives me a thumbs-up and moves on inside the store.

As soon as her back is turned, I slip outside and hit the holographic-projector button around my middle. It hums a little as my torso fades back to black, then to displaying a big silver X. I can’t see my face to know for sure, but I tested it enough times in the mirror to know that my goggles have changed into a mask. I take off down the street to meet Sarah at the bookstore.

“You’re a little late,” she says. “It’s almost a quarter after midnight.”

“I had trouble sneaking out. I’m here now.” I did have to sneak out to do this. Gordon doesn’t want me out past ten on the weekend, and even though he approves of superheroing in general, I get the feeling this mission doesn’t fall into any acceptable categories.

Sarah and I rush over to the shop. “Looks like they’re already here,” I whisper, pointing to the open door.

Sarah nods. “Get your gun out,” she says. “In case we have to immobilize the bad guys.”

Uh … right. I haven’t learned how to program it, and Sarah hasn’t fiddled with it since she wanted me to shoot to kill. Don’t think I’ll be using it on Kat, thanks. I slip it out of my belt anyway. “Good thinking, Cosine. And don’t forget to call me Renegade”—
because it’s the coolest name ever—“
so the bad guys don’t find out who we are.”

We go in. I hold out my gun, with no intentions of firing. I don’t see Kat anywhere. Light from the street filters in through the windows, leaving creepy, glowing streaks on the floor. I sneak down one of the aisles with Sarah a few feet behind me, my skin crawling. The projector around my waist makes a crackling noise, and when I glance down at my chest there’s no
X
, just black. Crap. I smack the side of the projector device and my
X
flickers back to life. It must have only been out for a second, or Sarah would have noticed.

There’s a noise to the left.

“Stop right there!” Sarah shouts.

I point my weapon at the sound. And then a whole shelf of superhero knickknacks topples down on us. We roll out of the way. “I’ll get them,” I say, and leap over the pile of crap before Sarah can argue with me. I skid around the corner and press the button to change clothes. I pause long enough to stuff my gun into the pouch. It doesn’t quite fit, but I manage to close the flap over it anyway, with part of it sticking out one side.

I take off down the aisle, looking for Kat.

“Psst, Damien.” She steps out from behind Dr. Doomsworth’s recliner.

“I told you, call me Midnight,” I whisper. “I don’t want these superhero freaks knowing my name.”

“Hey, did you see that guy?” Kat says, leading me toward the end of the aisle. “There’s something familiar about him. I can’t place it … I just feel like I know him.”

“Come on, Shapeshifter. Since when do
we
know any superheroes?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We creep through all the junk, keeping an eye out for the “good guys” as we turn around the corner of the
L
shape. I’m wondering how I’m going to get away again when Sarah jumps out in front of us and shouts, “Don’t move another muscle!”

I throw down some flash powder while Kat heaves the Masked Marauder’s favorite beanbag chair on top of Sarah. We take off in opposite directions. I speed around the corner, pressing the hologram button. I loop around the entire store, leaping over the avalanche again, and catch up with my sidekick.

“They got away from me!” I pant, helping push the beanbag chair off of Sarah.

“X!”
Sarah says, crawling out from underneath it. “Where’s your firepower?”

“It’s
Renegade
. Don’t call me X.” I pat my gun pouch. “It’s right here.”

Sarah narrows her eyes at me. “That’s a stupid place for it. What if you need to shoot them?”

“Good point.” I
might
want to horribly maim somebody for breaking and entering. Nothing wrong with that.

I speed up ahead of Sarah, trying to catch up with Kat. I make it around the
L
shape of the store, turning the corner to find the ring still in its display case. There’s no one else here. Then there’s a crash behind me. I turn around, and that’s when Kat jumps.

She knocks me to the floor. I wriggle away from her and scramble to my feet, pulling out my weapon. I point it at her and we’re both very still, not moving.

Kat fakes to the left. Maybe it’s because my weapon looks homemade, or maybe she can tell by my body language that I’m not going to fire on her. She moves to the right, sidestepping the gun. I think she’s going for the ring, even though the security’s still on, but then I hear the projector make another
zap
noise and Kat gasps.

She stares at me, her eyes wide, and I don’t have to look down to guess that she’s seen through my disguise.

“Oh, my God,” Kat whispers. “Dam—”

I panic. I do the first thing that comes to mind. I drop the gun and pull Kat against me, my mouth on hers. I meant for it to be quick, to stop her from saying my name, but then my tongue is in her mouth and everything feels warm and
right
and I forget where I am. And it doesn’t hurt that she kisses back.

And then Sarah says, “Renegade?”

I reach out and slap my hand against the glass case. The alarms blare and I see Kat’s face twisted in confusion. Then she’s gone and the camera flashes and I’m seeing spots. The panel on the side of the ring display opens up and sprays out villain-deterring mist.

Sarah picks up the gun. Her nostrils flare in and out. “What was that?”

“I had to stop her.” I yawn and turn away from her, waving my arm as I talk, trying too hard to look casual. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Sarah crinkles her eyebrows. She shoves the gun at me, handle first. “Here. I guess you dropped this.”

“I
had
to do something. I panicked.” It’s true.

“I suppose that’s how you’d stop any old supervillain, right?” Sarah walks ahead of me, her footsteps heavy. Never has there been a sidekick so unhappy to have stopped the bad guys. Especially on Superhero Day.

I catch up to her right outside the store. The fresh air helps clear my head. “I, um … I might. You never know with me.”

Sarah stomps her foot and glares. “You were the one who said no messing around with anybody else!”

“This doesn’t count. It wasn’t messing around—it was work.” My voice is quiet. I feel like an idiot. I try to take Sarah’s hand—I don’t know why, to make myself feel better, I guess—and she jerks it away before I can touch it. “You’re not jealous, are you?” I ask her.

“You made a rule. You have to honor that.”

“Yeah, and what about you? You said this couldn’t be more than a professional relationship, but that’s not how you’ve been acting. Look, I panicked, okay? I had to distract her. It was nothing.” I almost sound like I believe it.

“Nothing,” Sarah repeats. “It didn’t look like nothing.” But she slips her hand into mine as she says it.

Guilt sinks into my chest until I feel like I’m on fire. I’m the worst not-boyfriend and supposed superhero on the face of the planet. And to top it off, I made a pretty lousy supervillain.

I make it all the way until the next morning before I take my phone out, start to call Kat, then flip the phone closed instead. I sigh. On the one hand, it hurts to be with her. On the other? Judging from how much I’ve been thinking about us since last night, it hurts a lot more to be
without
her.

I flop down on the couch. Alex is sitting on the floor, two inches from the TV, giggling at Saturday-morning cartoons. I try to pay attention to them. It doesn’t work.

I take my phone out and stare at it. I should call Kat. She’s probably up, right? I mean, I’m up. Alex is up, Amelia is up—it’s perfectly normal to be awake at nine a.m. on a Saturday, even when you stayed up late the night before. Kat’s probably sitting by her phone, waiting for me to call. Maybe she couldn’t sleep because she was thinking about me. Like I was about her.

She probably hasn’t called because she thinks
I’ll
be asleep. I should call her.

Or she’s pissed at me and never wants to talk to me again.

If she never wanted to talk to me again, she shouldn’t have kissed back.

It doesn’t matter, because I can’t call Kat. Because Sarah and I have an agreement, and calling Kat means the kiss
wasn’t
nothing.

I sigh, again, and put the phone away.

Amelia plops Jessica down in front of the TV and tells Alex not to sit so close. He doesn’t listen to her, and Jessica immediately gets up and runs over to me. “Boy!” she says, poking me in the cheek, her whole face lighting up.

Aha. I gear up my phone so that it’s on Kat’s number. All Jessica has to do is press call. “Here, look at this!” I point to the call button. “Isn’t it pretty?”

Yes! Jessica’s outstretched finger moves slowly toward the phone.
Oh, oops, Kat, I didn’t mean to call you. A two-year-old stole my phone and pushed some buttons! Crazy, huh? But since I’ve got you on the line, how about that kiss last night?
Jessica’s almost there. I’m about to push the phone a little closer to help her out when Amelia yanks it from my hand.