“No,” Seth said. “Nothing. It’s like he’s disappeared.”
“Or he’s waiting for the perfect moment to strike,” Jazz said.
They all turned slowly to look at her.
“What?” she asked. “It’s what I would do if I were a supervillain.”
“And I thank god every day you’re not,” Gibby said, kissing her cheek. “Always remember to use your powers for good.”
Jazz rolled her eyes. “Like I could ever be evil. I’m too cute to be a bad guy.”
Maybe the current roster for their superhero backup team was actually perfect.
* * *
It was dark when Nick stepped out of the Gray house onto the street. The streetlamps were lit along the sidewalk, casting shadows on the cement. The air had a bite to it, and Nick pulled his jacket tighter around him as he took his phone from his pocket.
He’d turned it off after he’d left the hospital, knowing his dad would be calling. It was a dick move, but he had to do what was necessary in order to help Seth stop Owen. And knowing his dad, he probably would have had Nick’s phone traced to find out where he was. Nick knew all about cell tower pings.
Sure enough, as soon as he’d turned the phone on, a notification came up telling him he had seven voicemails. He ignored them, looking for a number on his phone.
It only rang twice before a breathless voice picked up. “Nick? Is that you?”
“Hey, Cap,” Nick said, looking up at the dark sky. There was too much light pollution to see even the brightest of stars.
“Oh, don’t you Hey, Cap me. Do you have any idea how worried your dad is? They had to sedate him when he tried to leave the hospital!”
Nick’s throat clicked as he swallowed. “Yeah, sorry about that. But I had to. Things are happening, Cap.”
“Where are you? I’m going to send a patrol car to come get you.”
“Can’t do that. Not yet. And I’m keeping this short, so don’t try and ping me.”
“I’m going to arrest you,” Cap growled. “And throw you in jail myself. Do you hear me? In fact, I’m going to reinstate chain gangs. Hard labor. That’s all you’re gonna get.”
“That’s a clear overreach of your position, and you should be ashamed of— Stop trying to distract me!”
“Tell me where you are, Nick.”
“Listen, okay? I’m asking you to listen. There’s going to be—”
A voice spoke behind him. “Hey, Nicky.”
Nick whirled around. There was no one there.
“Nick?” Cap asked.
Nick’s grip tightened on the phone. “Hold on. There’s—”
A streetlamp blew out, glass shattering.
Nick took a step back.
Another streetlamp exploded.
And another.
And another.
“Oh no,” Nick breathed. “Cap! You have to help Pyro Storm, you hear me? You have to help—”
The phone was ripped from his hand by a tentacle of shadows. Nick watched as his phone was twisted and crushed. The shadow relaxed its grip, and pieces of Nick’s phone clattered on the sidewalk.
“Owen?” Nick breathed.
“My name,” he said as he stepped out of the dark, “is Shadow Star.”
Nick was only able to make it a few feet before the shadows surrounded him.
Everything went black.
19
Nicholas Bell awoke, bound on the top of one of the spires on McManus Bridge.
Shadows wrapped around his legs and torso, holding him in place high above the Westfield River.
Birds flew by him, only a few feet away.
Nick discovered he had an extreme fear of heights. The timing could have been a bit better for such a realization, but supervillains apparently didn’t give two shits about that.
“Oh my god,” he said, struggling not to gag. Then, the anger of an artist whose work was plagiarized set in, and any fear of dying a terrible death by falling to the street below was shoved to the background. “Are you serious? You’re using my fanfiction against me? That’s a crappy thing to do, even for you. I didn’t even know you’d read it, much less decided to steal it. Come up with your own ideas, you dick!”
“What can I say? I’m your biggest fan.”
Nick looked down, regretting the move almost instantly. The cars on the bridge below looked so tiny, and all that was between him and an impression of a wannabe Jackson Pollock all over the pavement was a supervillain who read Nick’s online self-insert real-person fanfiction and was now incorporating it into his diabolical schemes.
All in all, Nick wasn’t having the best day. If he survived this, he was going to need to post a warning for his followers to be aware of who