The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) (2 page)

Me and Riley exchange a look, and I know we’re in agreement on this. There’s no way in hell we’re not going in there. Even if this wasn’t our final mission for Intro to Heroism and a big part of our grade, and
even if
we hadn’t just spent weeks preparing for this, we can’t let this guy get away. He’s kidnapped two kids—two kids who are locked up in this place right now, probably completely terrified—and is holding them for ransom. And after all the awful things we’ve learned about this guy and what he does to his victims, I don’t know how Brian can even think about not doing this.

“Maybe he’s right,” Brittany says, shivering as she momentarily takes off her chunky purple scarf so she can rewrap it. “This place looks dangerous.”

Brittany is a coward and an idiot. So is David, our other group member, who’s staring at his feet guiltily. Like he’s hoping we can just walk away from this, but knows it’s the wrong thing to do.

And all of them can’t wait to graduate from Heroesworth and join the League, so the citizens of Golden City can feel safe at night. Right. I bet five years from now Brittany’s either a stripper or a housewife and David manages a gas station. Or maybe one of those hero-themed diners. I’m not sure which would be worse.

Brian nods, getting this smug look on his face. “We don’t know how many villains are in there. He doesn’t always work alone.”

I glare at him. “We know how many
victims
.”

“It could be an ambush.”

Riley sighs. He pulls the edges of his hat—a blue and white knitted cap with a snowflake pattern on it—down over the tips of his ears, which are turning red from the cold. “Our mission is to save those kids.”

“And to not get killed,” Brian whines.

I’m
going to kill him if he doesn’t shut up. “What were you expecting tonight? That he was just going to hand them over? That it was going to be all sparkles and rainbows?”

“Tracking this guy is one thing, but actually taking him on... Maybe we should call the League,” he says, and I notice that, despite his smug bravado, his hands are shaking.

“
We’re
here,” Riley says. “Right now. We’re not walking away.”

“Maybe we should call them.” David glances up real quick, then stares down at his shoes again. “This is what they do, right?”

Brian nods, like this is actually a good idea. “This mission is too dangerous. We need to call the professionals.”

Unbelievable. Well, okay, not unbelievable, since it’s not like this is the first time our other group members have displayed cowardice and idiocy in the face of danger. “Fine. You guys stay out here. We’re going in.”

“But—”

“
Move
.” I hold up my hand, letting electricity spark to life at my fingertips.

Brian’s face goes pale. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

He swallows, his eyes focusing on my hand.

Riley shoves him out of the way while his guard is down—meaning, unfortunately, that I don’t get a chance to zap him—then flings open the door before any of them can try and stop us. Which is pretty unlikely, since it would mean actually doing something other than standing outside and whining.

We rush inside the building and into a hallway. It’s dark, but there’s faint light at the end of it, and sounds. A man talking, maybe some children whimpering.

There are footsteps behind us, and I’m about to turn around and tell Brian where he can shove it when Brittany whispers, “I’m coming with you.”

Maybe there’s hope for her after all. I’m upgrading her future potential to trophy wife and/or anchorwoman on the local news.

The three of us run down the hall. At the end of it is a big open room, lit up with a couple lamps and some Christmas lights. It’s freezing in here, despite one measly space heater. Two kids are tied up and gagged in the corner, a boy and a girl. The kidnapper leaps up from where he was working on a ransom note and flings a trashcan and some random machine parts onto the floor as he takes off running.

Brittany’s eyes are wide with relief. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“It’s not over yet. You untie them,” I tell her, jerking my head toward the two kids.

“We’re going after him,” Riley says.

Now Brittany’s eyes are wide with shock, like she can’t believe we’d leave her alone in a place like this, especially when there could be more bad guys lurking, but there’s no way we’re just letting him get away. Not when we’re so close to catching him. Not when we’ve seen pictures of his victims before he got a hold of them, when they were still happy kids smiling for picture day and had their whole lives ahead of them.

Me and Riley take off in the direction the kidnapper went, the junk he threw on the ground hardly getting in our way. We run through the side door and down a hallway, catching up to him in another big room. The kidnapper has a flashlight, but he quickly turns it off when we get there. Not before we catch a glimpse of him climbing into a freight elevator.

I don’t even have to think about it. The pictures of all those kids flash in my mind, and I know what I’m going to do. Because if that elevator gate closes, that’s it, we’ve lost him, and who knows how many more kids he might hurt. But I can stop him. Lightning flares in my hands, the electricity loud and crackling.

“Are you crazy?!” Riley shouts.

“He’s getting away!”

“You can’t— That’s breaking the rules! X,
don’t
—”

But I’m already doing it. The lightning streaks from my hands to the kidnapper, just as he’s closing the cage-like elevator gate. I can see his face in the glow from the electricity the moment he realizes what’s happening. He reaches for something in his pocket, but he’s too late. My electricity hits him, knocking him to the floor. It disappears, leaving us in darkness again.

Riley swears under his breath.

“Relax, Perkins. I didn’t kill him.” I just saved the day, and potentially a bunch of lives, is all. You’d think I’d get some credit for that.

“I told you not to do it!”

“He’s a kidnapper. He’s hurt
kids
. He’s
killed
them. He was going to do it again. You know he was. I couldn’t—”

“You couldn’t follow the rules. Just this once, when it really mattered!”

“I couldn’t let him get away! Is your grade really more important than people’s lives?” Because, yeah, we’re totally going to fail this assignment. Or at least I am. But it’s worth it if this guy isn’t out on the streets anymore. Getting an
F
doesn’t really compare to making sure no more happy, innocent kids’ lives get ruined because of him.

“The rules are there for a reason.” Riley picks his way through the room in the dark.

I make electricity run along my hand, casting just enough light to see by.

We head over to the elevator. The kidnapper’s lying on the floor, his limbs twitching a little. Riley opens the elevator grate and grabs the flashlight, shining it on the bad guy, who looks really sweaty and pale but is still, you know, breathing.

“You can turn that off now,” Riley mutters, meaning my electricity.

I do, but not because he told me to. I do it so I can take a closer look at the card in the kidnapper’s hand. It’s the thing he tried to get out of his pocket right as I was zapping him. Not a weapon, but a business card.

I pick it up and grab the flashlight from Riley so I can read what’s on it. As soon as I do, I feel like I’m going to be sick.

“What is it?” Riley asks.

I’m tempted to tear it up. To fry the pieces beyond recognition. Or maybe just stuff them in my mouth and swallow them. Anything so he doesn’t see what it says. But he’s going to find out anyway.

I hand him the flashlight back, along with the card. It has the Heroesworth logo on it. It says that this guy is actually part of the League, that he’s a superhero and a Heroesworth alumni, posing as a bad guy for our final.

Our apparently
staged
final.

Though, in my defense, all of our other missions this semester were real. With real-live bad guys.

At least, I’m pretty sure they were.

My mind races, thinking about how if this guy’s a plant, then that means there’s still a killer out there on the loose. But then I think about how all the research we did was through the school’s database, and how he really looks like the same guy we’ve been tracking all over town. And there were only “before” pictures of his supposed victims. I thought that was because the “after” pictures were too gruesome, but... maybe there weren’t any. Because there were no victims. Because this whole thing, from the moment Miss Monk gave us the assignment, was completely fake.

The sick feeling in my stomach gets a lot worse. I feel like the ground’s just been pulled out from under me. Like I’m falling.

“Great,” Riley says when he’s done reading the business card. “This is just great. This was only our most important project in Intro to Heroism, and you fried a freaking
superhero
!”

“I thought he was a kidnapper! I thought he’d killed kids!” Okay, so maybe I didn’t save the day. Maybe there wasn’t actually a day to be saved. But I think I showed excellent skill in bravery and pre-emptive attacks, which, in my opinion, should still count for something.

“I told you the rules are there for a reason! All we had to do was save those kids while following the League rules. That’s all. But oh no, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t just listen to me!”

I run my hands through my hair and take a deep breath. Adrenaline rushes through me and my blood runs cold. “He’s still alive. There’s that. Even if I’m dead.” So dead.

“Correction. Even if
we’re
dead. Or did you forget that this is a group project?” He shakes his head at me and gets out his cell phone to call 911.

It might be a group project, but I’m the one with the villain power. That I just used on someone from the League. I get out my phone too and contemplate calling my dad. Because if I’m going to get arrested again, I think maybe I should give him a heads up this time.

“W
hat were you thinking?” Gordon says when he comes to pick me up.

Not from the police station, though, since it turns out the fake kidnapper had to sign a waiver. Apparently this isn’t the first time a superhero volunteer has been injured while helping out with a mission for Heroesworth. Though you wouldn’t know that from the way the League members who came over to sort this out—conveniently already on their way, since Brian called them after all—were looking at me, like I was some kind of criminal. And I told Gordon I could get home on my own, but he insisted on coming down to the abandoned factory to get me.

“He was getting away.” I climb into the car and put on my seatbelt. I guess the car is as good a place as any to get yelled at, since at least here the whole family can’t hear him chewing me out.

“So you shot him.” Gordon rests his hands on the steering wheel, even though he hasn’t started the car yet.

“Zapped him. We should probably get going. This isn’t a very good neighborhood. Fake kidnappers everywhere.”

“He could have died.”

“He’s fine.”

“They took him to the
hospital
.”

“Okay, but he’s going to be fine.”

Gordon turns to look at me, a horrified expression on his face. “You don’t know that, Damien.”

“I knew what I was doing. And it’s not my fault that he wasn’t a real kidnapper. The school tricked us. I didn’t know the whole assignment was fake.”

“And if he was a real criminal, that would justify using your villain power on him?”

“Don’t say
villain power
like that.” Like it’s disgusting. “But yeah. Not to sound like Sarah or anything, but he’d killed kids. He’d tortured them. I thought he had, anyway.”

“I thought things were different since you went back to Heroesworth.” He rubs his palms against his forehead. So much for being proud of me.

“Things
are
different. Me and Riley pretty much aced all our other missions. I just didn’t have to use my power until now.”

His eyes go wide and he blinks at me. “You didn’t
have
to use it. You
never
have to use it. And on a superhero...”

A few months ago, he was mad at me for hiding my lightning power from him and trying to pretend it didn’t exist. Now he’s talking like that’s exactly what I should be doing. Like I should be pretending I only have my flying power—my
hero
power—even though I really hate it, mainly because flying means leaving the ground, which is one of my least favorite things to do. Or maybe that’s why he wants to pretend that, since he knows I never use it, which means I’m much less likely to hurt someone with it. “I told you already, I didn’t know who he really was. But you should know that being a superhero doesn’t make you automatically a good person. He could have still been a murderer while having an
H
on his thumb, and I would have still zapped him.”

“This is why the rules exist. I thought you would follow them when you went back to Heroesworth.”

I laugh. “Yeah, right. Zapping that guy was way more important than the rules.” Or at least it would have been, if the situation had been real. And I might not know the League rules that well, but I don’t think there’s anything in them that says,
Thou shalt not hurt a superhero, even if he deserves it.
They at least got that part right. “Can’t you start the car? It’s cold in here.” Freezing, actually. I can see my breath fogging in front of me. I bunch the ends of my coat sleeves down around my hands.