King of Superheroes, page 7
“Of course I will,” she replied with another coy grin. “Just to make the other girls jealous, though.”
Chapter Five
I had another huge smile on my face as I fell asleep that night in my Academy dorm room.
As far as first days went, it had been pretty damn cool. I’d showcased my Conduit ability, made a little headway with the other three pillars, and scored a date with arguably one of the hottest girls in the place. A lot of the fledglings still seemed wary around me, but aside from the Zeus bros, very few people seemed to outright hate me.
When I woke up and went into the common room the next morning, Frank had already commandeered the same table as the day before, and he made as many jokes as he could muster about me asking out a Dreamer mind-reader while we scarfed down a mountain of pancakes and had probably one too many coffees.
Then I learned that instead of basic training, we got to go out into the real world for our second day, and I was damn well chomping at the bit. Liam the Conduit trainer had explained that not all people with powers were necessarily deemed superheroes, so I wanted to put my ability into any kind of real-world setting in order to try and prove to both myself, as well as the Academy, that I absolutely had what it took.
Especially if I was going to end up as a proper Omega, though I made a mental note to take one of our weekend days and do some more research with Frank, because I wanted to know exactly what that entailed.
I also wanted to know when I’d be meeting with Mori again, but I was sure if I impressed on our superhero-themed ride-along, I’d see him sooner rather than later.
The other three pillars were picked up good and early for their first field practice day, but the Conduit fledglings were left waiting in the common room abusing the espresso machine and trying not to act like we were a little nervous at having to wait. Eventually, the elevator doors whooshed open one last time, and a huge fucking celebrity came waltzing into the common room as though he owned the place.
“Conduit fledglings?” he asked bluntly and just nodded before any of us could answer.
“Holy shit, that’s Pyro…” Frank muttered in awe.
Pyro was a world-famous hero and fire Conduit, and it was like looking at a magazine cover come to life.
He was tall and dressed in a very obviously tailored black suit, with a tie that looked almost exactly like coal embers and cufflinks made of yellow gold and shaped like flames. He had jet-black hair slicked back away from a tanned face, a gold ring in one earlobe, and a gold watch that probably cost more than literally everything I owned and then some.
Pyro stood there for a brief moment, as if giving us all the opportunity to openly gawk, and then he just nodded his head again, this time back toward the elevators.
Like a pin had dropped, the Conduit fledglings sprang into action.
We hurriedly followed Pyro into the row of elevators and piled in.
“Can you believe this?” Frank hissed excitedly at me as we got down to the ground floor. “Pyro’s our ride-along?”
“Isn’t Pyro just basically a film star now?” I asked with a chuckle. “I wasn’t aware he even did superhero stuff anymore.”
“I’m pretty sure most supers have a clause in every contract they’ve ever signed, that if shit really goes south, they’re ready to jump in and literally save the country,” my fellow fire Conduit explained. “That’s what happened when the Antis decided to wage war on everyone and everything. Though… Yeah, I suppose you’re right, I’ve seen all his movies. Did you know he does all of his own stunts?”
“The man’s fireproof and can produce fire exactly like me, except he can manipulate it, too.” I huffed out another disbelieving laugh. “It doesn’t surprise me that he does all his own stunts.”
There was a sleek black limousine waiting for us just outside of the gates, and Pyro motioned wordlessly for us to follow him into it. Each pillar only had about ten fledglings per class, but the Conduits were one of the smallest. It was me, Frank, the three Zeus bros, and a couple others that I hadn’t met properly, so our class was maybe only seven strong.
But it meant we got to ride in a limousine, and once we were all situated, Pyro pulled a shelf out of the car wall, where there was a perfectly chilled whiskey glass waiting for him, and then he filled it with probably more ridiculously expensive Scotch.
We watched in silence as he took a long sip of his drink, smacked his lips together, and then crossed his legs as he looked at us all with dark, disinterested eyes.
“Uhh, Mr. Pyro, sir…” Frank was the first to speak up. “W-What are we, like, where are we going today? What’s on the agenda?”
“You’re a smart one, hmm?” Pyro grunted and took another long draught of whiskey. “God, remind me to fire my PR girl, I don’t know why I agreed to this…”
“To what, exactly?” I asked before Frank could stumble over his words.
Pyro fixed me with a long, knowing stare and then just smirked.
“The literal point of the Federation’s Academy is to ascertain which of you little fledglings has the balls to make it in this world,” Pyro said in a bored voice. “When you activate your powers, you’re not automatically a superhero. That title is earned, through hard work and perseverance, which is mostly what people tend to lack nowadays. So, the Academy decides where you fall within the super society, and each pillar is assigned a superhero to act as a mentor. That’s me. Your mentor.”
“Oh, wow…” Frank said in an awestruck voice.
“It’s an honor, sir,” Zach the Zeus bro interjected loudly.
“Sure,” Pyro said, and he fixed Zach with a blank stare before he went back to his whiskey with another shake of his head.
“Frank’s question still stands, though,” I reminded him. “What are we doing today?”
“Most Conduits are hired by the military for their powers,” Pyro said with a bored wave of his hand. “Given that we’re on… Quite the offensive side of the spectrum. I started my career in the military, but if you’ve got the drive, you’d get outta there as quick as you can. But we’re off to a military base somewhere in the asscrack of nowhere today, just to see what the hired Conduits there are up to.”
“Sounds like a very beneficial exercise,” Frank said with a solemn nod.
“It’s a bunch of bullshit,” Pyro said in the same monotone voice. “But I promised a fledgling ride-along, an interview with US Weekly about it, and maybe a spot on Timmy Falcon’s late show, if I decide I can be bothered.”
The rest of the Conduit fledglings murmured amongst themselves as Pyro went back to his whiskey-- at ten o’clock in the morning-- and I just shared a pointed look with Frank.
Pyro was everything I’d expected a world famous superhero to be.
A pompous dick.
“Make me a promise,” I muttered to my fellow fire friend with the red hair.
“What?” Frank whispered.
“If either one of us ever get even half as douchey as him, we get a swift punch in the side of the head,” I said.
Frank immediately fell into a bout of laughter and then hurriedly swallowed it when Pyro glanced over the rim of his crystal whiskey tumbler.
“Yeah, okay,” my friend grumbled. “Deal.”
The rest of the limousine ride was relatively uneventful, and most of the Conduit fledglings were far too nervous to speak up with Pyro steadily downing several glasses of amber-colored liquor.
We eventually arrived at a very plain, very beige military base, and there was an odd disconnect between the luscious green grass and swaying palm trees outside, to the sea of concrete the moment we passed the gates.
There were a couple huge metal silos on the western side, long rows of barracks to the west, and in the center was a ginormous compound surrounded by thick metal fencing that was topped with rows upon rows of deadly-looking barbed wire.
As we exited the limousine, a stout and very broad-shouldered man with a salt-and-pepper buzzcut and a leathery but clean shaven face stood at attention to greet us.
He was dressed in the usual camouflage of the military, with his epaulets stating his high rank.
“Good morning, General Hemlock.” Pyro sighed as he straightened his tie.
“Hello, Pyro, sir.” The general saluted and then fixed his beady eyes on the group of fledglings.
“A new cohort of Conduits,” Pyro said with a careless wave of his hand. “We’re here for the tour.”
“Certainly,” the general said with an air of importance. “Follow me.”
We did as told, and Hemlock showed us around Camp Harrod, which was about as eventful as its beige coloring.
“And just here, we have our state-of-the-art training ground,” General Hemlock said as we came to the center of the compound. “Most of our hired Conduits are immediately promoted to ‘Captain’ status, and many of them climb to ‘Major’ within a few years.”
“That’s impressive,” Zach said, and he puffed out his chest even further than normal. “It would be an honor to serve my country.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, lad.” The general studied the blond Zeus bro from beneath his bushy gray eyebrows and huffed. “Perhaps I’ll see you back here one day soon.”
“I’m sure that you will,” Zach said proudly.
I just shared an eye roll with Frank, and Pyro stifled his own laughter beneath the guise of clearing his throat.
I maybe liked the pro hero a little more after that.
Then General Hemlock motioned for us to follow him, and he led us into an outdoor space in the shape of a huge hexagon. There was a central sparring ring, with charred and blackened dummies and rows of fire retardant suits, and then on each of the six flat sides was a different training module.
On the far side of the hexagon was a makeshift building made of red brick that had been burned many times already, of which the thick coating of black soot over the front-facing side was a testament. It was at least three stories high, with a decrepit-looking fire escape and several blown-out windows.
“We’ll now demonstrate how our Conduits deal with an inferno.” Hemlock’s voice became gruff and businesslike, and he held up a hand to keep us from crossing over a white line drawn in the dirt just as a loud voice rang around the training yard.
“Attention!” The new guy’s voice was so loud it sounded almost amplified, and I noticed how he had one more embroidered ‘v’ insignia on his shoulder than the rest of the military personnel around him had on theirs.
It explained the strength of his voice, at least.
“Conduits!” he screamed again as he clapped his feet sharply together and stared forward. “Right shoulder, present arms!”
There was a group of at least five military Conduits in the training yard, and they all snapped to attention at the behest of their superior.
Present arms seemed like an obvious command, only these guys weren’t wielding guns.
They had powers.
Many of them created balls of fire within their hands, which they then, quite ironically, presented by holding out their arms. There were also some who could create orbs of crackling electricity, and a few others that could only go through motions, so I figured they had powers that were more of a one-shot kind of deal.
They all had that steely look of military trained focus, though, and I found myself watching them intently as their superior guided them toward the makeshift building and then set the damn thing ablaze.
The moment they were given the order, the military Conduits sent everything they had at the building.
Balls of fire and crackling bolts of lightning set the thing completely alight, and the towers of flame rocketed up the front of the building, out of the empty window frames, until eventually every damn brick was red hot and burning.
I could feel the heat from the flames even from behind the safety line, and General Hemlock surveyed the situation with a cool, almost unimpressed look in his dark eyes.
Pyro was somewhere to our right, and he paid little to no attention and kept his eyes glued to his cell phone instead.
The Conduit fledglings watched in silent awe as the military personnel carried out their drill, and I found my eyes drawn to the roaring flames like a moth. The entire building was still completely engulfed in an almost uncontrollable fire at this point, but General Hemlock still surveyed the goings on with a steely look in his eyes.
I could feel the pang of panic start in the base of my skull as the heat from the fire continued to warm our faces, and after a minute or two of watching the flames build and build, the sensation I experienced transformed into a very real intuitive feeling.
These guys didn’t have it under control.
“General Hemlock!” I had to half-shout above the roar of the fire.
The Conduit general spun on his heel a full forty-five degrees to face me, and his bushy gray eyebrows were pulled down into a stern frown.
“Yes?” he asked bluntly.
“Are they safe doing this?” I asked.
“Of course,” the General said dismissively, and he’d already turned back before the two syllable answer had left his thin lips.
I wasn’t convinced, though, and I shared an uneasy look with Frank.
The military Conduits were using their abilities to try and control the raging inferno, and there was one guy standing directly in front of the building with both of his arms outstretched and his feet planted in the dirt, as if he were physically holding the fire back.
There was another Conduit inside the building itself, and I figured he was another pyromancer because anyone else would’ve been burned to a crisp by now.
But the Conduit standing outside, the one trying to control the fire, seemed to be getting tired, so whenever he moved, more fire billowed out of the empty window frames.
The electrical Conduits had little to no control over the fire itself, they were just going about their drill with looks of determination on their sweating faces, and the other fire Conduits were struggling just as much as the man in front of us.
“General Hemlock…” I started to speak again, but that’s when all hell broke loose.
The brick building suddenly gave a long, tired sigh, and the brickwork caved in on itself with a thunderous clap that echoed around the training yard. The flames roared hungrily, and I watched in horror as they clawed their way out of the charred brickwork.
“General Hemlock, there’s still men inside there!” I yelled. “They’re trapped!”
“They are trained for this, son!” the general shouted back at me above the madness.
“But those guys can’t get out!” Frank said as he bounced nervously on his toes. “They’re trapped in there!”
“Corporal Gainsman can control fire itself,” the general insisted.
“Is Gainsman the one trapped inside the building?” I demanded.
General Hemlock was silent for a moment, Pyro hadn’t said a damn word, and the rest of the fledglings were keeping to the white chalk line as if their lives depended on it.
Which in fairness, it probably did.
But then a pained cry echoed out from the burning building, and before Hemlock could reply, before I could even think about what I was doing, I darted across the line and headed straight for the out-of-control fire.
I heard Pyro suddenly yell something, I heard Frank’s shout of fear, and the Zeus bros were all screaming, but I pressed forward until I was almost level with the captain who’d failed in holding the fire back.
He’d tried to stop the barrage of flames, but his arms were shaking, and he could barely hold his position for much longer. So I copied his stance, planted my feet in the dry dirt, and extended both of my arms until they locked at the elbows.
Instead of focusing on pushing the energy outward, I focused on pulling it toward me instead. But the bigger the fire, the stronger the energy, and I could feel its resistance.
It wanted to burn, it wanted to eat away at every flammable surface it could find, and it was hellbent on growing.
I yanked even harder still, until suddenly I felt a burst of energy fill me like a lightbulb turning on. I dragged it back, and I had to use every single drop of focus in my mind to continue pulling the roiling mess of flames toward me, until eventually, I held the entire damn thing in my hands.
My arms shook, sweat beaded on my skin, and there was no saliva left in my mouth.
I couldn’t see the building, I couldn’t see anything other than fire and destruction, and I could feel sweat pouring down my face and my neck as the heat consumed me.
Then I took a wobbly step backward and directed my hands toward the sky with a guttural shout.
I released the massive fireball into the air, where it consumed itself in a thick mushroom cloud, and then suddenly, there was silence.
Only for a moment, because as I released the fireball, I suddenly heard the screams and shouts of numerous different people around me.
General Hemlock was calling for medical assistance, the captains were pulling Corporal Gainsman out of the wrecked building, and both Frank and Pyro were barreling toward me at full speed.
Frank reached me first, and he skidded to a halt in the dirt and grabbed my arm.
“Mark!” my friend yelled, and he tugged on my wrist so I looked down at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I insisted breathlessly. “I’m fine.”
“What in god’s name was that?” Pyro finally reached me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and he definitely didn’t sound bored now. He sounded pissed. “You fledglings are under my care, and you’re a damn liability, what were you thinking? You could’ve died, you could’ve been consumed, you could’ve lit this entire fucking military base on fire!”
“Well, you’d have been around to save the day in the end,” I retorted without thinking. “Right?”
“Everyone to the car,” Pyro snapped as his lips twisted into a scowl. “Now.”
“Before you go…” I suddenly heard the general’s gruff voice, and I turned on my heels to face him.
“Yes, sir?” I asked but was cautious at the prospect of getting reprimanded again.
