Statistically, a psychopath is more likely to end up as a CEO than a serial killer212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PF1o42F0y
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrpizbq11n
The steel door flies like a bullet, slamming into the wall and colliding with one of the room’s occupants en route. The thunderous, loud noise of metal scratching on brick resonates into my eardrums, banging like the beat of a drum in disharmonic notes. I cringe.
Puma accelerates from behind Scorpio, surprising the occupants as she rams into two of them at full speed, like a green comet. Leaving her to deal with those the both of them, I glance to my left, extending my hand to grip the remainder occupants in a levitating chokehold. At once, the two women suspended in mid-air behind to gasp and wheeze as all the oxygen is sucked out of their lungs. When I notice one of them coughing out blood, I ease my hold, just a little. Before I stop them from breathing completely, I slam them into the wall, knocking them out cold.
All five of them are down. But the fight isn’t over. Not yet.
The man fighting Puma, slowly rises to his feet and slams his bloody fist into the red panic button against the wall. He falls down in an unconscious heap just as alarms blare.
Between the ringing in my ears and the flashing of neon lights, I catch the roar of multiple footsteps slapping against the concrete.
“There’s more coming!” Hawk points out.
“No kidding,” Scorpio groans as he’s attacked by a stocky built man dressed head to toe in black.
“Not the time!” Puma calls and jumps into the fray.
Several more armed men and women flood into the room, wearing black militia uniforms, holding dangerous rifles and pistols in their hands. They’re coming from what looks like a vertical opening door, cut not the wall, and paint to blend in. To the naked eye, it appears there’s nothing there, unless you inspect closely.
Or see people emerge from there with your own eyes.
“Still more?” Puma exclaims, slamming her fist into a woman holding a wickedly sharp knife.
Who are these people? How are they so well equipped with weapon? Clearly, they have had soe sort of combat training, and a proper one too. They’re not just guarding weapons in storage. No, this is something bigger and–
I barely miss the first kick to my face, ducking out of the way just as my opponent rallies up for a second throw.
No time to think. Gotta act fast, Move fast.
A man holding a gun that spurts electric blue surges, takes aim at me. I teleport myself behind him, my foot connecting with his temple in a roundhouse kick. He passes out instantly. Spinning around, I’m moving quick on my feet as I punch another woman, making her stumble back from the blow. She whips out two curved blades from her belt, her eyes murderous as she brandishes the deadly weapons. I watch her flourish them with impressive skill for a short time before flicking my fingers lazily. The curved blades instantly shoot out of her hands, following the projectile I’ve created in my mind.
The slam into the wall, digging into brick.
That could’ve been me.
I lock into a hand-to-hand combat with the woman. She’s heavy on her feet, whereas I’m much lighter but her movements are stronger, Her hits, harder. I take a blow to the torso and in exchange slam my fist to her skull. I ignore the sharp pain extending from by abdomen right to my ribs. Twisting out of the way from a powerful kick, I almost collide with a body as it sails over my head. Instead, I watch with grim satisfaction as the woman’s eyes widen just as the body crashes into her, dropping them both to the ground.
“Sorry!” Scorpio calls out, and I glare at him.
The woman on the floor struggles to remove her colleague from above her, the weight holding her down. Using that to my advantage, I sit by her head, grabbing her by the front of her high collar. She glowers at me malevolently, teeth gritting, and jaw clenched.
“Who are you people?” I question. “Who are you working for?”
She spots at my face. “I’ll never tell you”
“Then you will suffer the same fate as your friends,” I state, my voice like iron. “Prison”
“I’d rather die,” She snarls.
“Tell me then. Who are you working for?” I repeat my question, removing my hand from her collar.
“This is just a furniture store, were only workers”
I scoff. “Furniture store workers don’t carry around such state-of-the-art weapons. You’re supplying someone. Someone big and dangerous. Who? Who needs these weapons and for what purpose? How are they connected to the supervillains to this city?”
I don’t mention Chasm’s name. They don’t need to know where I got my information from. Else, they’ll try to break him out specifically – or kill him for his treachery.
When the woman doesn’t respond, her mouth straightening into a thin line, I sigh. Rising to my feet, I look around, noticing how quiet it’s gotten. Several knocked out men and women lay on the floor, surrounding my team, their weapons lay next to them, as limp and cold as their owners are. The strange metallic door the criminals entered from is shut and no one else enters for the longest time.
“I think that’s the last of em,” Princess Puma voices, her hands on her hips as she lets out a heavy breath.
Scorpio nods, his gloved hands running across the door. “I could break it? See where it leads”
“Nah. We’ll leave the investigating to the Lighters,” I shake my head. “Blue Hawk, what’s the damage assessment?”
He looks much better in condition compared to the other two. I guess that’s the perks of commanding someone to go to fall into a coma with a mere stare.
“All occupants are unconscious, no causalities,” Blue states, hands clasped behind his back like a dutiful soldier. “Unarmed and weapons have been disabled. Several crates of weapons are located in this very room which is why they attacked us. They were protecting their stuff”
“So, Chasm was right,” I mumble to myself. “Anything else?”
“Scorpio might have broken a wrist and Puma has several bruises on her arms,” He says in monotone.
I look at them in horror and worry. Scorpio simply waves his hand. I have to fist my hand to stop myself from reaching out and touching him. Check if he’s okay. We’re only teammates, he doesn’t even know my identity. I can’t show that I care. Not when he’ll run away the moment, he knows who I really am.
“I’m good,” He winces.
“Get that checked out,” I tell him strictly, eyeing the wrist he’s massaging. “And Puma? You good?”
“Yeah, all except my feet,” She grimaces. “I’m pretty sure I have blisters”
“Okay,” I look around one more time. “We’ll leave everything as is, maybe just handcuff anyone who might be waking up. I’ll send an address to Dex to come with some forensics, they’ll search into this stuff, have a look at the crates”
“Should we take some weapons as evidence?” Blue suggests.
“No. We can’t contaminate the scene of the crime”
“This stuff are very advanced,” He muses. “How do you think they got their sticky hands on it?”
“Black market,” Scorpio says immediately.
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re not still on that, are you?”
He crosses his arms. “The next time we break into a criminal warehouse, and we find shipments of kidneys, you’ll know I’m right”
“Uh huh,” I say dully. “I’m counting on that”
*** 212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2ZIqALNDC
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuPCKo5qOyd
Dex stares at me, his jaw ticking. I swallow hard.
“I don’t understand,” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Why must you do this?”
I look down at my lap, my fingers twisting at the hem of my shirt. I should have known I would be in trouble when Dex summoned me to his office. He rarely ever does. To anybody. No one was allowed in without his permission. Ever. And now, here I was sitting. Looking everywhere but at him. Too scared to see the anger, the disappointment of his face. I squirm in the plush office chair, training my gaze ahead at the mahogany desk Dex stands behind.
“I thought I could help,” My voice is meeker than usual, cracking at the end but I can’t help it. Dex rarely scolds me the way he is now, and I hate it.
“You can’t just ambush a weaponry warehouse without informing me first. It’s protocol for a reason, dammit!” He slams his hands on the desk angrily and I wince. “What would you do if those kids got hurt? Huh? You could have been in serious danger, one of you could’ve been hurt! Then what?! How would I tell the other’s parents that their kid on injured, busting into a criminal gang’s warehouse!”
I twist my lips to the side scowling. “Glad to see you care about the others so much. And their parents’ concerns”
I know that’s a low blow. But Dex doesn’t get it, he won’t – those kids have parents to go home to at the end of the day. I have an empty penthouse and as much as I’m grateful for all the Lighters did for me, it doesn’t fill the hollowness in my chest where a family’s love should be.
“You know that’s not what this is about,” Dex collapses into his chair, looking across the desk at me, his gaze softening.
“Isn’t it?” I retort. “Isn’t this what this is always about? I’m different from the others. Heck, I’m not just a super powered teen, no I have two powers. That just makes me twice the freak!”
“You’re not a freak Kourt”
I am. An abomination. A weirdo. An orphan.
An outcast.
I would never fit in. Not even as the leader of my own superhero team. I’m still too strange.
“I care about you,” Dex says quietly.
I scoff. “Yeah right”
“You know it’s true,” He gives me a look. “I have to worry about you guys. Putting a bunch of teenagers at risk everyday was not my intention”
“We chose to do this,” I say, recalling all those months ago when Dex offered me the job.
You have a gift, Kourtney. You can save lives, He’d said.
I believed him then and I still believe him now.
“You did. But it doesn’t mean you can do your own missions like that. You’re not ready”
“But –”
“I’m serious! I know it’s hard following orders all the time, but you can’t run off like that. Next time tell me what you’re up to, okay?”
I nod, my throat dry and my eyes wet. “Okay”
“Hey,” Dex leans forward, eyebrows scrunched up in a brotherly concern. “What’s wrong?”
I hesitate, curling and uncurling my fingers, internally debating whether to ell Dex what’s been bothering me.
“Would I … Would I be able to stay here if I stopped be a superhero,” I bite the inside of my cheek “Would you have to send me back to the home?”
Dex raises his eyebrows, affronted. “Kourtney, I would never do that to you. The penthouse isn’t even Lighters property, its mine You’re welcome here as long as you like”
I don’t say anything. I had no idea. All this time I thought the Lighters owed the penthouse. That’s why I never asked Dex this question – I was too afraid to hear the answer. That I’d have to return to the children’s home if I stopped working for them. And there was no way in hell I was going back to that awful place. Not again.
The children’s home was the beginning of my nightmares. Fighting supervillains has nothing on that.
I push the chair back and stand, tucking my hands in my pockets. I want to say more but the words are lodged in my throat. How do I do it? How do I thank Dex for helping me when I hit rock bottom. And that despite everything, I love being a protector of this city.
“Kourtney,” Dex stands up to and I turn my shoulder back just a little.
“Yeah?”
“If you want to quit, I won’t stop you. You know that right? This choice, of being a hero is your own”
“It’s not, it’s not that. I just, I wish things were different, you know?” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry, for the trouble. I should have thought about what was happening ad told you first”
Dex smiles. “Yeah, you should have. You’re a great leader Kourtney especially for someone so young. You accomplished more than most people have done in their entire lifetimes. But you have to have self-discipline. You can’t just act on impulse”
He holds out his hands and I lean into the warmth of his hug. My mission with the others wasn’t warrantied, I hadn’t told anyone else the information Chasm supplied me with. Not even Dex. Mostly however, because of how dangerous it was to trust a supervillain’s word. He could’ve lead us into a trap for all I knew, and if the Lighters had known they would’ve only come after us, thus also being lured into the trap. But that wasn’t the case. So as much as I understand Dex’s worries, I had reasons for doing what I thought was right.
“So,” He says. “Tell me about this warehouse”
I manage a small smile and we head to the elevator. Dex pushes the button that will take us to the strategy floor. Where all the rooms for planning and well, strategizing is carried out. It’s in these rooms that we cart our suspects and villains, their motives, and their attacks. This is how we get to the bottom of investigations and find our criminals. Dex walks into the room first, switching the light on. I close the door. There’s a big oval table in the centre, covered in an orthographic map of the city, and the walls are lined with corkboards for sticking notes. The room we’re in is specific to Chasm and the gang he’s working for because face it, he’s the one of the worst villains of this city.
“Every crate has a red stamp on it,” I note as Dex opens up a folder and I hear a pen clicking. “It has the same symbol as the marking we found on Cham’s gloves, so unless this is some sort of elaborate trap –”
“– which is quite a high possibility –”
“Yes, so unless that variable is considered, we can very well assume Cham and these criminals are working together. Or at least, they are the retailers supplying him”
“Retailers?” Dex echoes sceptically.
“Yes retailer,” I cross my arms. “The main boss is the export distributer, and these are his henchmen doing the dirty work”
“Alright, that makes sense. What else?”
“With the possession of so many weapons, I think it’s fair to say their underground network is secure and runs deep. How else would they be able to operate on such a large scale without getting caught?”
“Hold on,” Dex walks over to one of the corkboards where we’ve already pinned up several pictures from recent attacks. Including the scene Chasm was arrested at. Newspaper articles, black and white with narratives from eyewitnesses are labelled with red markings, post its are stick in squares of neon colour. They’re all connected by strings of red thread, twisting between statistical graphs and expert sketches of our suspects.
“Their main storage facility must not be in the city,” Dex staples a small note to the picture of Chasm. “So even if their weapons comes in here and is distributed, this isn’t their home base”
“No, but this is where they’re actively working. How many supervillains have shown up this past year? The sudden increase is alarming,” I lean beside the table, out of breath. My torso is throbbing from where that lady punched me and even with all that bandages and painkillers, I’m still a bit sore.
“They’re after something,” Dex says grimly.
“But what? What could be so important in Skylight City that they’re only targeting us? Why not go bigger? Assault other cities? With those kinds of weapons, they could take over a few States”
Dex looks down at his notes, frowning in thought. His pen taps against his chin as he reads over what we’ve discussed. I Go over to the corkboard, looking between the picture of Chasm’s gloves to the red symbol. The villain in question grins back at me, his smile absolutely malicious, exactly how he is in real life. Those horrid brown eyes stare back defiantly, his electric suit of black and green wires, tabled like the circuit of a motherboard.
“You”
I twist around at Dex’s sudden outburst, and my abdomen yells at me.
“What?”
“You Kourtney,” He repeats, and I blink. “The independent variable. Th entire Alpha squad actually”
Dex glances at me worriedly and my heart rate speeds up. My throat clamps down, and I choke. This can’t be what he thinks it is.
“Ever since you started protecting Skylight City, criminals have gotten worse, out of hand. They are showing up in larger numbers, with suped up gear and advanced tech suits,” He continues. “This is a recent development; this only came about –”
“When I showed up,” I finish, catching on. “But I only stepped up to the role because the attacks have gotten worse”
Dex nods. “Its all in the same time frame. They show up, you show up. They are after something, you stop them”
“It’s a cycle”
“But if there’s a start, there’s a finish,” He hands me a photo. “What is their end goal? Why attack us when they know we have super-powered heroes to stop them? Why waste all those resources, only to be caught?”
“Say your theory is correct,” I swallow hard. “Let’s assume they are after us. Maybe they knew about me, about one of our powers before we became superheroes. The question is, why not capture us? Why send one villain at a time?”
“I have no idea,” Dex consults his watch. “We should close up. Come back tomorrow, fresh, and well-rested. We’ll be able to think better”
I drop my hands to my sides resignedly. “Alright”
“Oh and one more thing,” Dex says, his fingers hovering on the door. “You have an interview tomorrow”
“What?” I moan. “Why would you … Dex! You know how much I hate the pap”
He shrugs but there’s a teasing smirk on his face. “Consider it a punishment for the stunt you pulled today”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I said I was sorry. And when did you even decide to do this?”
“This morning. Laura Martinez called in. She said she wanted an exclusive with you”
“Why on Earth would you agree to that?”
“Miss Tydal said it was a good idea”
“You need to break up with her,” I mutter, pushing passed Dex as I walk out. 212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8E2Sse9SNU
