Shadow

Lions Don't Have Money

"You supervillains really need new catchphrases."

Miss Isle groaned from the ground. Don't ask about the name. "Maybe you superheroes need to relax and have a little fun."

I sighed. "If it weren't for special occasions like this, we might be able to."

Miss Isle was another villain. Obviously. She'd placed a bomb outside the Cloud residency after taking out six security guards walking the perimeter. Bombs were kind of her thing. You see, I kind of liked her name, because if you say it fast enough, it sounds like "missile". Clever.

I got there in time to demand her disable to bomb and knock her down. I really needed to research this whole bomb dismantling thing. They seemed to be a common threat in the world of supervillains. See? I told you there was a villain black market.

My phone buzzed from a pocket in my cloak. I pulled it out and answered. "What?"

"Where are you?" Lauren demanded. "I'm at your house, and Cole's here saying that you're 'out'. He has no idea where you're at. I have no idea where you're at. No one has any freaking idea where you're at. So, where are you, Kiera?"

I sighed. "I had some trouble with Miss Isle. I'm at the Cloud household."

"Why did you go out on a job this morning? You knew I was coming to pick you up."

"Well, I can't exactly just tell her to come back and place her bomb later."

"Actually, you could," the villain suggested from the ground.

I nudged her with my foot. "Quiet, you. Look, Lauren, just wait a few more minutes until the police get here, then I'll be right there. I promise."

Lauren groaned dramatically. "Fine. I'm waiting." The line went dead.

I hung up and put my phone back in my cloak. Miss Isle grinned up at me in a daze. "So . . . Kiera, huh?"

Keeping your face neutral is a hard thing to do when it feels like you're trapped in a cage that's slowly filling with spiders on a boat driven by clowns in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Okay, maybe that was a tiny bit exaggerated. But if a supervillain knows your name, they know who you associate yourself with. If they know who you associate yourself with, then they use those people against you. And when they use those people against you, you're screwed. And when you're screwed like I was at that exact moment, you start sounding like one of those internet commercials.

"My name's not Kiera. It's Shadow." I whacked her upside the head with the flat side of Winter and she was out like a light. Hopefully that would make her forget my name. The temporal lobe is responsible for facial recognition, right?

The sirens of police cars brought me to reality, and I turned to see them whizzing around the corner. I waited until River Allen saw the supervillain on the ground before teleporting into my room.

Only to teleport right back out of it.

I found myself falling, then I landed on my roof. The uneven surface made me roll down the slope. I stuck my hand out and grabbed the edge before I could fall thirty feet to the concrete. Using what little upper body strength I had, I managed to pull myself up. I probably sounded like a constipated whale in the process, but I made it and sprawled across the tar roof. My breaths came in pants, but I didn't come up here for no reason.

Cole was in my room.

I mean, it wasn't unusual for him to be in my room, but that's only when I'm in there. And he wasn't even doing anything normal like dropping off my laundry, which would be completely mortifying because I wore my Captain America bra yesterday that's got two shields you-know-where. I'm a superhero that's a superhero nerd.