Thirty Two
Phil must think he’s winning, for him to reveal his powers like this.
Pain tears through my shoulder as I hit the stone wall. At the same time thunder crashes outside. Dark Static must have returned from fighting Materio and seen Phil fly.
Phil slams the window shut and flicks off our light.
D.S. told me he can only portal through shadows to places that he can visualize—if he’s never been in this tower and can’t see inside, he won’t be able to portal in.
Dark Static shoots lasers at the windowpanes, but the glass holds.
Laser-proof windows? Phil is seriously paranoid.
The mayor stands a few feet away from me, hands in his pockets and a smile playing on his lips. He notes the trunk full of folders.
“My, my. Look what you found.”
Dark Static’s tremendous lightning continues to flash outside, which highlights Phil’s sneer.
“Haven’t you heard what comes from being curious?” Phil asks. The mayor looks me up and down, and I try to anticipate what he’ll do. If I try to run, he’ll block me with his force-fields. Same as if I try to fight. To take him down, I’ll have to be sneaky.
I’ll only have one shot.
He steps closer and I lower my center of gravity, crouching. Waiting.
“But what’s more dangerous than curiosity?” Phil continues. “Distraction. Distraction is how I won.”
“Won?” I cough. “Won what?”
He gestures toward the lightning that flashes through the dark.
“Your boyfriend has been distracting the public for weeks now. Seems to think he can expose me and avenge his parents’ deaths.
What a pity. He’s distracted by his illusions about poor Jonathan and Elaine, and Capital City is distracted by him. ”
You’re everything I hoped you would be, Phil said to D.S. Now I see what he’d meant: we’ve been playing into Phil’s hand the whole time.
“This is why Supers should be in government,” says Phil. “Only a Super can govern other Supers. Do you want someone ordinary writing laws for you, Madeline? Someone who’s less powerful than you dictating what you can do?”
“Anyone but you.” I broach the depths of my energy and flex my muscles, folding every cell into translucency.
In the dark tower, the shadows keep me hidden as I dash to the side.
Phil lunges toward where I’d stood the moment before, but I’m ready.
My boot collides with the back of his knees and his chest thuds against the tile floor.
Dry dust covers my lips, but I’m able to gather just enough saliva to spit it hard on his face, ready to make it boil on his skin.
With my single spare second, I run to the window and try to force it open for D.S., but Bridges grabs me, yanking my shoulder and pulling me down. I land on the tile, something sharp sticking into my back.
I wince in pain, trying to hide my relief. I still have my mirror. While Phil stands, I pull it out from my secret pocket. Phil must hate his reflection vehemently for this to be his weakness.
No more force-fields for Mayor Bridges. He watches me carefully, taking a defensive stance. It’s a good thing I practiced physical fighting with Dark Static, because Phil is ready for combat. He swings at me, swiping for the mirror. I bounce into the wall, dodging him and keeping the glass aimed.
One slip and he’ll get his powers back.
Phil lunges at me again, and I meet him with a sharp spray of water. It’s strong enough to drive him backward, and will pin him to the wall if I can keep it strong enough.
Come on, I urge my powers, summoning all of my strength.
You can do this.
“Why mirrors, anyway?” I ask. “You can’t face your real self?”
“None of us can,” Phil sneers. He takes a step toward me, and I lift my hand to show that he can’t come any closer.
“I suppose I should thank you.” I blast more water at him. “I wouldn’t have these if it weren’t for you.”
“I’d say you’re welcome,” he leers, “but I had nothing to do with the car accident.”
“Bologna,” I say. “I heard the tapes.”
“Believe me.” Phil has the audacity to chuckle. “I wanted to kill them all. I would have, if they hadn’t crashed first.”
Phil must not grasp that he incited Fox’s parents to kill my mom.
BOOM.
A force-field comes out of nowhere, throwing me against Phil’s desk. I hit it hard, the mirror slipping from my hand.
Crap .
My hands had started shaking, Phil’s reflection wavering in and out of the glass, enough for him to take advantage.
CRASH. The mirror shatters on the floor, sliding into the pool of water I created. Any hope of beating Phil falls with it. The sky outside us bursts white, as D.S. angrily tries to break in. Keeping my eyes on Phil, I take the smallest step toward the window.
Another force-field smacks into me and I dive onto the floor. Phil couldn’t face himself in the mirror, needing others to like him, weaponizing his charm.
But the force-fields?
As a third force-field sends me flying against the wall, it clicks.
The guy who needed to be liked so badly he got powers, is the same guy throwing up barriers if someone gets too close.
Phil would have dominated my support group.
I meet Phil’s force-field with a hard blast of water, but he sends it right back with another invisible wall.
I push harder, then harder, until finally the water hits the window D.S.
is trying to open. He hits it with a bolt of electricity at exactly the same time.
The reaction causes the window to shatter in place, and D.S. soars through, smacking Phil down.
Despite everything, I smile. This is the first time I’ve invited D.S. to come in through a window.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like Phil can create force-fields inside other people, or we’d be dead already.
Maybe he can only create them from the open air.
Dark Static crouches near Phil, ready to pounce.
Tiny bolts spangle his gloves, which he aims at Phil, sending a glowing shockwave right at the mayor’s throat.
D.S. could attack Phil with a bolt of lightning or a searing laser, but those would risk killing him.
If we attacked together, my water could amplify Dark Static’s electricity and have the same result.
The good guys don’t kill. A small voltage shock, however, should manage to disarm Phil while keeping him alive.
Phil dodges the shockwave by diving to the floor. He grabs one of the CDs and holds it to reflect D.S.’ blast.
The shockwave hits the tower wall, sending a rumble through the ceiling. The CD shatters on the floor. D.S. hands spark with the beginnings of another wave.
“No,” I shout. Dark Static stops, realizing he’s destroyed a piece of evidence. Just one CD among dozens, but Dark Static can’t attack without risking more damage
He nods to me, on the same page. After a silent count to three, he leaps to Phil, prepared to knock him out, and I dive for the evidence.
Right before D.S. makes contact with Phil, the mayor shoots a force-field at me, which sends me flying as my momentum hits it head on. All I see next is an open window.
~
I fall through the air like a drop of rain breaks away from a cloud.
First, it squeezes its little body into the world and then accelerates downward until it hits something solid.
Then it breaks into fragments of drips and drops, which break into more drips and drops, until there is nothing left but a tiny, shattered body.
It takes about two seconds for me to fall from the third-floor tower, but instead of landing on the gravel and sleeping with the fishes, I land on something cushiony that has enough give to protect a body falling from a tower. Umph, I groan, turning over my shoulder. That’s going to leave a mark.
The platform turns out to be a spring mattress with extra padding.
“What can we do?” Someone asks when I regain my focusing capabilities. A purple figure stands beside the mattress, Materio. He must have transfigured something into the mattress to help me land.
Is he on my side?
“What does Static need?” Materio repeats.
Guess so.
“Bridges has powers,” Flare mutters, in shock.
Materio doesn’t have flight powers, but Flare does. She could have flown to the window to help us, while Materio created a trap for Phil. Apparently, they need instructions.
“Dark Static is fighting Phil upstairs,” I say once air returns to my lungs.
“We need to help without risking the evidence. And…” I try to find Arielle and my dad, who still needs a hospital, but the only figure left in the grass is Golden Ace.
Where is Arielle? Arielle must have taken my dad for help once Flare and Materio stopped fighting her.
Materio nods, but before either of them can act, a whirl of black and grey plummets from the window. Phil touches down on the grass immediately followed by Dark Static. D.S. throws a punch at the mayor, exactly like he’d taught me, but Phil deflects it with another force-field.
“Flare, Materio,” he hollers. “What are you all waiting for?” He gestures at Dark Static and me.
Flare fires sparks at Phil, which erupt into a flaming circle around his feet. He leaps to fly and escape them, but the Super with the fancy rocks intercepts him and knocks him back with a strong gust of wind.
We’ve got him. We’re going to win.
“You don’t want to do this,” Phil cries. “I have information that you don’t. Capital City will fall because of this.”
“Stuff it.” Flare flicks a flame near Phil, who abruptly shuts his mouth. She blows smoke off her finger, and the wind Super throws another rock into the air.
Dark Static delivers the shockwave he’d been building all night.
I shoot a jet of water into the shockwave, trying to form a wall behind Phil.
We can’t trap Phil in another hydro-electric vortex, because he’d be able to break through.
We can only continue to fight until authorities arrive, who will hopefully believe Flare and Materio.
As soon as anyone reported unusual activities near the mayor’s mansion, the authorities would be on their merry way.
Phil blocks D.S., Flare, and me simultaneously. He kicks a leg behind him, blasting tens of force-fields all at once, knocking each of us off balance. In the moment he’s bought himself, Phil leaps into the air and flies, bulleting away.
I unleash the rain on him, trying to hit him with anything I can. Flare shoots balls of fire and Vent tries to blow Phil back to the ground, but Phil’s air-based powers help him ride the sky.
The only Super who could fly fast enough to catch him is currently unconscious, lying in the grass. Still, Dark Static and Flare jump into the night, streaking after Phil.
The other Supers who’d been fighting off Dark Static, though nowhere near as powerful as Materio or Flare, huddle with Materio and me. They each wear masks and costumes I don’t recognize. They could be anywhere from fifteen to fifty years old, and I wonder who they are. Not that I can ask.
I push myself up from the ground. “I need to get the evidence,” I say. I need to get back into the tower.
“I can’t believe he was Super,” says Coco.
“Don’t call him that,” I snap. Phil doesn’t deserve to be termed “Super.” Coco doesn’t reply, and Materio’s already walked off. We’re lucky Phil stupidly debuted his powers and the truth came out.
Maybe that’s the only thing separating the good from the bad, anyway—whose story you believe.
I sprint into the mansion and beeline for the tower, hoping that Arielle and my dad made it to safety.
I find the tower’s doors still open. But among the chaos, find no folders or CDs that are still intact.
No no no no no no no no. Where did the evidence go?
I sprint down a level, then through the grand hallways, until I reach Arielle’s pink room. If she’s still in the mansion, she’ll be in here.
Right?
We need to find the CDs fast. If the police show up and find we’ve attacked Phil with no evidence, all of us will be locked up for using powers against a municipal servant.
The door is already cracked, and I push it open.
Arielle and my dad hunch at her computer. Arielle leans on her desk, holding herself up, while my dad coughs.
“Dad?” I run over. I steady him in his chair. “Dad, it’s okay. I’ll call an ambulance.”
“No need,” he says, but his words come unevenly.
“Dad?” I repeat. “You need to go to the hospital.” I look at my sister and she nods. I don’t have to tell her that she does too.
“I don’t need an ambulance.” He coughs and coughs.
A loud siren blares outside the window, in a red and blue whirl. A fleet of five helicopters lands on the lawn and several police cars pull up below.
In the yard, however, I see no signs of Dark Static, Flare, or Phil.
My dad sways in his chair and I finally see the screen. There’s an email pulled up, addressed to everyone he knows, including Officer Kyle. Empty CD cases scatter haphazardly on the other side of him.
“You sent the tapes?” I sit back in awe.
“Arielle c-climbed to the—the tower,” he gasps. “She brought them back down here, then something shocked her.”
Salt drips onto my lips, and I realize I’m crying.
“We did it, Madeline.” A tear falls from his chin. “I got the man who killed her.”
I hold back a sob as he hugs me. Thanks to my dad and Arielle, Phil Bridges—when he’s finally caught—will never see the outside of a maximum-security prison again. The special prison too, where the food is extra-disgusting, because that’s where they put Supervillains.
It’s there, with my family, that I finally pass out.