Hero (8 page)

I looked at Ssnake, trying with his appendages to drive the bus and fight the Man in Black at the same time. I saw him mouth "Screw it" to himself, and he took his remaining hand off the wheel and wriggled it back to Snaggletooth and smacked him hard in the face to wake up.

Snaggletooth opened his eyes and jumped up as the Man in Black took Ssnake's hand and foot and tied them in a knot. He threw the knotted limbs around Snaggletooth as the beast leaped for him.

"Snaggletooth, no!" Ssnake screamed, but it was too late. The Man in Black ducked, and Snaggletooth sailed above him out the back window, yanking Ssnake out of the driver's seat by his knotted limbs and carrying him with him. Ssnake's free hand caught the back of the bus, and the two villains flew up into the air, attached to the bus like a kid's balloon that had been tied there after a carnival.

A dark cape flashed past me, and before I could blink, the Man in Black was back in the driver's seat fighting with the gears to regain control of the swerving bus. He looked up into the mirror and his piercing eyes bounced from me to the young mother. I met his eyes and nodded urgently, like I was doing the best I could. My hands burned and I felt like I could drop from exhaustion at any moment, but I couldn't seem to make them any hotter. I was already reaching my limit.

"We have to get her to a hospital!" All that first-aid training really paid off.

The Man in Black pointed forward to the bridge in front of us, and beyond that to the city. We'd be there in just a few min¬utes if I could keep her alive until then, stretch my powers just a little further. The Man in Black leaned forward, determined, and pushed the bus to go faster.

We could make it—we were almost at the top of the bridge, the city hospital just seconds away once we were on the other side.

Suddenly a blast of energy ripped through the floorboards; crackling and spitting sparks, it began to slice the bus in two from rear to front. Transvision Vamp, undeterred by the blood dripping from her eyelids, was back in business, her eyes aim¬ing a blast down the center of the aisle.

The Man in Black looked up at me in the mirror, his eyes pleading.

I looked down at my hands, blood from the wound seeping up between my fingertips. The young mother's eyes were rolling back into her head, so I pressed harder. The extra effort made me feel like my head was going to explode. The crack in the aisle from the Vamp's eye blast was getting closer and closer to us.

"Help me!" I shouted.

The Man in Black's eyes look down in resignation for a split second before he bounded out of his seat and threw himself back at Vamp. He backhanded her before she could finish ripping the bus in two, but not before Ssnake and Snaggletooth had pulled themselves back on board. Ssnake spit a glob of venom at the Man in Black, who leaped above it. The venom landed in a splat on the floor, and partially on top of the old man's steel-tipped shoe. It burned and dissolved the matter underneath it like acid. The old man screamed; his shoe hissed with smoke.

I reached over to him, one hand still firmly attached to the young mother, and I covered his burning foot with my palm. I clenched my teeth in pain as my hand burned.

Snaggletooth took a swipe at the Man in Black, and the vigilante flipped up into the air, landing far up the aisle. The puddle of Ssnake's spit had burned another hole through the floorboard. Snaggletooth lurched forward, and one of his legs dropped through the hole. He screamed in pain as his femur snapped. I squeezed the old man's foot tighter, determined not to let his foot dissolve.

"Ssnake, get us off this thing!" Vamp rubbed her chin.

"I'm trying!" He caught a deep punch to the kidney from the Man in Black.

The Vamp rubbed her temples and aimed her vision at the apex of the bridge the bus had begun to climb. In an instant, she sent a shock blast that rippled fissures into the pavement. The bridge began to crumble.

We all looked forward in horror as the bus sped toward a gaping hole in the bridge.

The Man in Black swiftly struck Vamp in the windpipe with the side of his hand and jumped back into the driver's seat. He navigated the bus through the holes in the bridge like we were speeding through an obstacle course in a minefield.

I struggled to hold on to both the young mother's bleeding side and the old man's dissolving foot. Below me, the middle of the bus was splitting in two, and it slowly began to stretch me apart like saltwater taffy. In a few seconds I was going to lose one of them, or drop in through the split in the floor, or both. I thought about what my dad would do in this situation, but I couldn't think fast enough. I didn't know how much longer I could hold on. I looked up at the Man in Black's eyes in the rearview mirror. I couldn't see an expression under his cowl, but I knew his eyes were telling me to hold on, the holes in the pavement ahead of us didn't matter, we were almost there, I could do it.

Beneath me the two halves of the bus parted.

"Look!" The little girl pointed out the window. At first they looked like a flock of giant birds.

Suddenly, a rainbow of colors lit up the night outside of the bus. Sparks of light reflected off the little girl's face, and a fireworks display of bright colors exploded around us.

The birds swooped down closer, and I realized they weren't birds at all.

It was the League.

CHAPTER FIVE

UBERMAN DOVE DOWN from the stars ready for battle, his body aimed, his muscles poised and rippling under his costume. His cape and long hair moved in silky waves behind him as he flew.

The Spectrum, who was the League's most easily recognizable hero next to Uberman, emitted a tangible rainbow bridge of color from his fingertips that let the bus glide smoothly over the last deadly holes in the bridge.

Then Uberman landed on the front of the bus with a grace¬ful plink, lifted us, and suddenly we were airborne. The passen¬gers on the bus cheered. The Man in Black, now useless in the driver's seat, looked at me through the rearview mirror. I caught myself looking up at Uberman with sheer awe.

The Man in Black sprang from the driver's seat and went after the villains in the back. Ssnake was the only one who looked like he could put up a decent fight at this point; Snaggletooth and Vamp were down for the count. When he reached them, the Man in Black hesitated for a moment before he threw a punch and looked back in my direction, just enough time for Ssnake to wrap his protective arms around his partners and pry open an emergency window exit.

The Man in Black didn't try to stop them, and suddenly he was beside me. I could feel the heat of his breath on my neck. He grabbed my hand, hard, like you would discipline a child.

I'd been so busy staring at Uberman that I'd taken my hand off the young mother's wound. The Man in Black looked deep in my eyes. I was so mortified that I'd let my attention wander, I wanted him to pull off his cowl and say something. Instead he placed my hand back on the mother's side. She was now unconscious. My powers had been more effective than I'd expected, but as soon as I'd taken my hand off, the wound had begun to gush again. Now I kept my hand firmly on it. I couldn't look the Man in Black in the eye after that.

Ssnake enveloped his partners in one single swipe, bundled them to his chest, and spread out his back, king cobra—style, like a parachute. The bottom half of his body morphed into a coil, and he bounced from the bus like a loaded spring. The Man in Black came within a millimeter of snatching Snaggletooth's paw as they floated away and disappeared into the darkness.

Another slight jolt to the bus, and we looked down through the gaping split in the floor and saw the river below us as we flew through the air. The lady in the muumuu held her hand to her chest and crouched down by the wall, like she was afraid she might fall through. Then we saw Warrior Woman piecing the floor back together like a zipper, one chunk at a time, and all the passengers began to applaud.

Uberman opened the door politely.

"You're safe now, folks, back on good ol' terra firma."

There was a flash of silver, and suddenly Silver Bullet stood above me.

"I'll take it from here, young man." He scooped the bleeding young mother into his arms and whisked her off, presumably to the nearest hospital.

In the seat next to us, her little girl pulled on one of the tangles in her hair. Tears began to well in her eyes.

"Where's he taking my mama?"

"Wait," I called out. "You forgot about her—"

Another whirr of light, this time golden, and suddenly Golden Boy, Silver Bullet's longtime sidekick, appeared in front of me.

"We never forget," he said without an expression. In a flash he'd cradled the little girl and was off, kicking up some dirt and grime from the floorboard in my face. As I rubbed a tiny piece of gravel out of the corner of my eye, I wondered if he'd done it on purpose.

I stood and dusted myself off and saw that the lady in the muumuu was already deep in the thrall of Uberman, who was unwedging her from one of the seats.

On the street outside, reporters, cameramen, and adoring fans swarmed the League. The lights lit up Uberman, Warrior Woman, the Spectrum—aka Dr. Roy G. Biv—and then the sea of media parted to make room for the longstanding leader of the League.

Justice raised his hands high, a command to listen, and the crowd obeyed.

"Nothing to see here, folks. Just doing our jobs."

He spoke plainly in the voice of the common man, but with just enough grave authority to give his words weight.

Justice had been the League's leader ever since I was alive, but the guy was in better shape than I'd ever be. He had to be only a few years younger than my dad, and I wondered about the secret to his longevity in a business that seemed to spit out a new, rabidly popular teen superhero group every year or two.

The mob of reporters was shouting questions on top of each other. It was bedlam.

"We'll comment on all that and we'll answer all your questions at the proper time. Right now you'll have to please let us go about our job protecting you, the people."

Justice was a real pro with the press. His voice remained calm and reassuring. Despite the pandemonium, he never got testy, never raised his voice. I thought I heard a few reporters shout out some questions about his feelings on "the death," but I couldn't figure out what that was all about, since as far as I could (tell there were no casualties on the bus.

Then I remembered the young mother and my heart sank. I couldn't believe how dumb I'd been to take my hand off her, even for a second. If she died, it would be my fault.

I saw Uberman over by the police barricade lines as he signed autographs for throngs of women who screamed for his attention. He was in the process of asking a woman with fake lips how to spell her name.

"Is that 'Bambi' with one T or two?"

I looked down at my hands and saw them shaking with leftover energy. My heart was still pounding, the adrenaline still pumping through my veins, and I wanted to run a few laps around the block to burn it off. There were no reporters around me, so I actually dropped to the ground to do push-ups.

"Nice job back there, kid."

I looked up, and Uberman was standing above me. My heart leaped into my throat and I hopped to my feet.

"Uberman. It's an honor to meet you." He was going to let me touch his hand. I couldn't believe it.

I wiped the gravel off my palms and shook his hand. I stood there awed and speechless.

"This is the part where you're supposed to tell me your name."

"Oh," I said. "Thom, my name's Thorn. I was just, you know, taking the bus because my car broke down and—"

"Some pretty nifty powers you have there, Thom. You'd better be careful or you might put me out of business one day." He gave me a big chuckle and a mock punch to the shoulder. Humor wasn't his strong suit—he should stick with earnest. Still, who cared—God, he was touching me. My hand was buzzing from the contact with his skin.

He wiped a long strand of luscious platinum hair out of his face and smoothed it back over his ear. An eternity passed as I stood there studying his face, trying to memorize every detail, every perfect feature. He didn't seem to mind. He let my eyes wander over his face. I was like a kid watching a Disney cartoon for the very first time, absolutely mesmerized by the wonder of it all.

The lights from the camera crews lit up his face. Okay, so maybe his eyes were a little too far apart, and maybe that nose had been shaped so perfectly with a little help from the right nose doctor, using the old "deviated septum" excuse. I was still about to pass out from his beauty. My eyes worked him from his chin to his chest, from one ear to the other, and he soaked up the adulation like you'd bask in front of a sunlamp.

My eyes ended up right above his left ear, where I spotted the Man in Black standing far behind him in the shadows by a piling underneath the freeway overpass. He was far away, small in the distance, but I could tell he was looking right at me, and even with his mouth covered by his dark cowl, I could tell he was frowning at me. His eyes worked like a mirror, and I could suddenly see myself standing there, my mouth open, gawking at Uberman with a dull grin plastered on my face, drool practically spilling off my lower lip.

My eyes darted back and forth, distracted, between Uberman's bright face and the Man in Black's burning stare.

"What is it?" Uberman whipped his head around to see what could possibly interrupt a fan's dream chance to worship him.

But the Man in Black was gone, vanished into the shadows. Uberman turned back to me, and I felt guilty for not asking this sooner.

"Is she okay?"

Silver Bullet suddenly appeared next to us. "Is who okay?"

"The woman you took to the hospital."

Golden Boy suddenly materialized at Silver Bullet's side,

his voice like an echo. "Of course she's okay. We took care of it."

I didn't like the way this Golden Boy said we, as in not you. Even though he was wearing a mask, I could tell by his voice and attitude that he wasn't all that much older than I was. He stood with a strong, rigid posture, arms folded across his chest.