Supervillainess (Part One) (17 page)

Gary and Anna were smiling at him as if they
truly believed he had saved them. Kimber wanted to dissuade them
with the truth but couldn’t muster the will to reveal how he’d been
responsible.

“What’re they doing with the staff while the
ER is rebuilt?” he asked instead.

“We’re all on admin leave for a week. We’re
supposed to heal up and attend a group counseling session,” Anna
answered. “I think they’re trying to figure out what to do with
everyone.”

“Tish?”

“She’s on admin leave, too,” Gary answered.
“The explosion took out the offices on the fourth floor.”

There goes any shot I have
at a place to sleep,
Kimber thought. “This
has been an awful couple of weeks,” he murmured, eyes across the
street on the bombed out ER.

“Oh, that’s right. You’ve been living at the
hospital since your apartment building burned down,” Gary
remarked.

“Do you need a place to stay?” Anna
asked.

Embarrassed, Kimber attempted to formulate a
response. His hesitation was answer enough to his new friends.

“You’re staying with us!” Gary said.

“No, I couldn’t –”

“Do you have anywhere else to go?” Anna
asked.

“I don’t even have shoes,” Kimber said,
releasing the breath he had been holding. “But I really don’t want
to impose.”

“We won’t hear of you refusing,” Gary
replied firmly.

Kimber studied him, torn as always by the
attempts of those around him to get to know him better and his
innate fear of disappointing everyone who mattered to him.

What other option did he have? Keladry’s
townhouse?

“Maybe for a day or two,” he allowed. “I’ll
have to find a new place.”

“And shoes,” Anna teased with a smile.

“Come on!” Gary motioned for him to follow.
Anna slid her hand into his, and the couple walked down the street,
towards one of the cars parked alongside the road.

Kimber followed, unable to shake the feeling
it was wrong of him to accept help from anyone. He didn’t deserve
their kindness, and they didn’t deserve the supervillain messes he
attracted.

But he went, because he had no other choice.
He didn’t even have his wallet or any belongings. How long would it
take to re-establish his identity so he could access his bank
account?

Anger trickled through him. This time, it
wasn’t directed at members of the Savage family but at himself. How
did he continually end up in such dire straits? Would he flee Sand
City as he had Chicago? If so, where would he go?

Pensive, he managed to make small talk with
Gary and Anna as they drove to their apartment downtown. They lived
a few buildings over from Kimber’s former apartment, in an area
noticeably nicer than the run down street he had chosen.

It was with some relief he stepped into
their flat. His feet were almost numb from the wet and cold. His
toes sank into the thick carpet, and he glanced around, beginning
to understand just how horrible his place had been. The carpet at
Gary’s appeared new, and his walls showed neither cracks nor water
damage. Anna led him to the guestroom, which contained a day bed
and chest of drawers, on top of which sat a television and aging
pink DVD player.

“It’s not much. I hope it’s okay,” Anna
said.

“It’s perfect. More than I’ve had the past
week and a half.” Kimber saw no flaws with the warm, dry, pleasant
room.

“Gary has some spare clothes in the bottom
two drawers. You’re welcome to them.”

“Thanks.”

“There are tons of shampoos and shower gels
in the guest bathroom, too.”

“She buys them then uses them for two days
and buys more,” Gary complained.

“I’ll eventually use them! I alternate!” she
retorted.

“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes with a smile.
“We’re grilling out on the patio for dinner. Hamburgers okay?”

“I’m vegetarian,” Kimber replied.

“So am I!” Anna said. “Don’t worry. I have a
killer recipe for grilled veggies. I’ve got you covered.”

Kimber glanced between the happy nurses.
“You have no idea how grateful I am,” he said with more feeling
than he intended. “I promise to pay you back for everything.”

“No worries,” Gary said. “We’ll leave you
alone to settle in. Dinner in an hour?”

“Sounds great.”

“If you need us to look at your head, just
let one of us know. Anna is a nurse practioner.”

Kimber nodded.

The couple exited and closed the door behind
them. Kimber’s gaze lingered on the door, and he found himself
almost smiling, despite the uncertainty of his feelings. He had
missed friendship far more than he thought he would.

The quiet, clean, small guestroom was an
oasis from the nightmare his life was rapidly becoming. He changed
out of his damp clothing and took a hot shower before digging
through Gary’s clothing for a pair of sweatpants and long t-shirt.
He flipped on the television to help distract his thoughts.

Returning to the bathroom, once the mirror
had de-fogged, he shifted to see the bandage on the back of his
head. Kimber peeled it off, prepared to assess the damage and
grateful the local anesthesia had managed to keep the pain numbed
for a few hours. After his talk with General Savage, he didn’t feel
up to dealing with pain yet.

Setting the used bandage down, he leaned
forward with a frown.

The hair around the wound had been shaved.
The wound itself was nothing more than a scar.

Kimber touched it gently. The stitches he
had felt earlier were gone, leaving behind a ridge of scar tissue
where none had been before.

It was the second time in as many days where
his wound had disappeared.

“Weird,” he breathed. He straightened and
tossed the bandage, not sure what to think of the wound that wasn’t
there. It wasn’t the strangest thing that had happened the past two
weeks, so he shook his head and returned to his temporary bedroom
to rest before dinner.

The news was on, and he found himself
watching for any mention of Keladry. The local station was
reporting on several more explosions that rocked the city at
various times during the past twenty four hours, including those he
was aware of and about four more he hadn’t heard about. Jermaine
was blamed for two and Keladry for the remaining two. Their
involvement reaffirmed his conviction not to have anything to do
with either.

The city was being terrorized by the
Savages. The same question he’d been wrestling with since shortly
after arriving to the city circulated through his mind. Why didn’t
any of the five million residents of the metro area try to stop the
Savage family?

He reached for the remote to change the
channel, tired of being frustrated by the twins, when his attention
was caught by the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the
screen.

Hero doctor applies for the position of Sand
City superhero. More at 10.

Kimber’s brow furrowed.
He’d been referred to as the
hero
doctor
in the newspapers, but he hadn’t
applied to anyone for anything.

“Please let that be someone else,” he
growled and clicked the television off.

Unease slid through him. He rose and
stretched his stiff body, trying to relieve the wired tension he’d
experienced since losing his apartment.

A tap at the door distracted him from his
light calisthenics.

“Hey, Doc,” Gary said, cracking the door
open.

“It’s Kimber,” he replied with a smile. “You
took me in like a stray. It’s only right for you to call me by my
first name.”

“Alrighty. Hey, Kimber.” Gary smiled. He
slid into the room and closed the door behind him. “You have a
visitor.”

Kimber’s smile faded. “Visitor?”

“Think you can get her to autograph my
cards?” Gary whispered and handed him a set of what appeared to be
five baseball cards. Kimber peered at them more closely. Each of
the cards depicted beautiful Keladry Savage in a different pose and
attire.

Fuck.
Kimber accepted them numbly. The moment he thought he was done
with the Savages, one of them pulled him back into their twisted
web. Hardening himself for the confrontation to come, he lifted his
gaze to meet Gary’s eyes.

“I can’t believe you know her!” The nurse
was grinning, excitement on his features. “But I guess it makes
sense.”

“Not to me,” Kimber replied.

“You’re going to be a superhero. Of course
you know her.”

“How … oh. The news.”

Gary nodded. “Ask her if she’ll make them
out to Gary,” he added. “Is that cool? Do you think she’ll
mind?”

“I’ll ask,” Kimber forced himself to say,
not about to insult his host.

Gary opened the door and left, moving into
the hallway. His expression turned adoring as he smiled wildly and
stared at the leather-clad frame of Keladry in the hallway.

Kimber was far less pleased to see her. He
motioned for her to enter and closed the door, irritated yet unable
to stop his eyes from traveling down her body. She carried the
backpack he had left in the hospital hallway with Igor before
confronting her brother. With some relief, he realized his wallet
was in there. He wouldn’t have to wait weeks to recreate his
identity or intrude into Gary’s life by staying too long.

“This is an improvement,” she said with a
look around the room.

“What do you want?” he demanded quietly.

Keladry set down his backpack on the bed
before facing him. “We lost track of you for almost an entire
day.”

He waited.

She gazed at him expectantly.

“It’s none of your business where I was,” he
said finally. He held out the cards to her.

She snatched them and pulled a pen from her
tool belt. “What’s his name?”

“Gary.”

He watched her sign the cards and place them
on the dresser. The air between them held a familiar tension, one
he wanted to assume was purely physical attraction. It wasn’t
possible to be immune to someone as gorgeous as Keladry, until she
murdered someone in front of him. That tended to change his outlook
of the beauty.

“You didn’t come here for autographs,” he
said.

“I came to make sure you’re safe.”

Kimber blinked, not expecting the response.
“Because suddenly you care about something other than becoming a
supervillain?”

Keladry gazed up at him. She pulled
something from a pocket and handed it to him.

He accepted the folded up paper and opened
it.

Superhero Application

She had completed most of
the fields on the form, and his jaw went slack as he read the
titles of each section. Aside from basic biographical details, the
form asked for such information as
Superpower(s) Claimed; Weaknesses;
and
Arch-nemesis(es)

Keladry had identified his
superpower as
the ability to block a
villain’s powers
, his weaknesses as
caring too much for everyone (even
strangers),
and enemies as
the entire Savage family.

“Is this real?” he asked, lowering the
paper.

She nodded. “Until your application is
approved or denied by the city commissioner and Supervillain
Council, you’re provided special privileges that should help you
stay alive the next time my brother comes looking for you.”

“Aside from the bizarre factor of applying
to become a superhero, you did this to protect me?” he asked,
startled.

It was moments like this,
when she seemed almost
kind
, that he forgot how many people
she had murdered before his eyes. In her own way, Keladry sometimes
tried to do good, or more accurately, to be less evil.

“I didn’t know the answer to the last
question,” she said. It was the first time she hadn’t been direct
with him.

Kimber studied her briefly and read the
question whose answer was blank.

“Source of
Superpowers
,” he read aloud.
“
Check all that apply
.” The options included:
radioactivity, bitten by wild animal/insect, nuclear
explosion,
and
other (please explain).

It was the craziest application he’d ever
seen. If not for Keladry’s grave expression, he would have laughed
at the absurdity of it all. General Savage’s questions made more
sense now that Kimber understood why the supervillain suspected he
wanted to become a superhero.

“A drug overdose seems mild compared to a
nuclear incident.” Hearing his words, he cursed himself
silently.

“Drugs,” she repeated, a light going off in
her face. “Morphine. That’s why you kept staring at the bottle
under the bed.”

Kimber turned away. “Forget I said it.”

“It all makes sense now. You became addicted
after your father’s accident. It ruined your career, almost killed
you, and you moved here.”

He tensed, hating to hear the truth aloud.
Rehab had been rough enough, when he’d been faced with his mental
frailty and failure at life daily. For reasons he couldn’t
identify, he hadn’t wanted Keladry to know and definitely didn’t
want her to judge him for it.

Why did he care at all what she thought?

“You keep the morphine to torture yourself,
right? Or maybe, one day you plan on suicide?” she pressed.

“Stop, Keladry. I don’t want to talk to you
about this!”

“Why not?”

His chest felt tight, and he crumpled the
application in his hand.

“It’ll take a month for everyone to evaluate
your application,” she said when he didn’t speak. “The city favors
you. It should be approved easily.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m no hero.”

“Look at how many people you saved.”