“Before we go in, everyone be sure to take their gas pill.” Hermit passed out the medication to each of us. “Remember, it only lasts about twenty minutes, so we need to get in and take down Siren and Intelligal as quickly as possible.”
“And we’re sticking together this time,” Mr. Sage said. “I don’t want anybody being ambushed by the ubervillains or Angel, if he decides to make an appearance. We all go in together. We all come out together. Agreed?”
Hermit and I nodded.
“Then, let’s go.”
Lulu outfitted us with the usual cameras and transmitters, and the three of us left the van.
“Be safe,” she called after us, looking at Hermit.
“Always,” I replied, pressing my fist to my heart.
We tiptoed through the dark shadows, the bay a pool of black ink on our right. A few lights bobbed up and down on the water, and a foghorn sounded in the distance. A steady breeze blew the smell of salt to us. It made me want some pretzels.
“According to Lulu’s calculations, Siren and Intelligal are holed up in that building over there.” Hermit pointed to one of the frozen-fish-stick-processing plants.
I wrinkled my nose. Fish sticks. I hated fish sticks. They were just about the only food I wouldn’t eat. The stench alone was enough to make me gag. Why did ubervillains always have to pick the dingiest, dirtiest, most disgusting places imaginable for their supersecret, diabolically evil lairs? You’d think that, every once in a while, they’d spring for a nice room at the Bigtime Plaza or something. Most of them stole enough jewelry and other pricey baubles to stay anywhere they wanted to, anytime they wanted to. But no. Ubervillains skulked about in the shadows, and we always ended up saving the world in some abandoned, out-of-the-way dive.
A loud rumble cut through the air, and my heart sank like a cement block tossed in the bay. I knew that sound. A pair of halogen headlights popped into view down the street, and Johnny Bulluci aka Johnny Angel slid his motorcycle to a halt in front of us. His eyes warmed at the sight of me, and he shot me a crooked grin. My heart sped up, and I found myself smiling back. Then, I remembered why Angel was here—to kill the ubervillains who had murdered his father. My smile faded.
Still, I had to give him a chance, no matter how farfetched it might be. “What are you doing here, Angel?”
“Just looking after things, including my girl. Is that a crime?” he asked, his green eyes bright.
“Not as long as that’s all you’re doing. Is it?”
Angel shrugged. He drew his lighter out of his pocket and fired up a cigarette. “I spoke with Grandfather and Bella. The three of us decided that I should work with you, instead of against you. For now.”
Meaning he’d play nice until we had Siren and Intelligal right where he wanted them. I opened my mouth to protest, but my father cut me off.
“All right, Angel,” Mr. Sage said. “We’re a couple of hands short, so you can join us if you wish. But you follow our lead.”
Angel nodded his head. “Of course.”
I stared at my father. What was he thinking? He was psychic; he had to know that Johnny Angel had no intention of letting us turn Siren and Intelligal over to the Bigtime police. Hell, I wasn’t a psychic, and I could see it.
Johnny parked his bike, and the four of us headed for the fish-stick plant. It was a short, squat building that jutted up against the side of the bay. We faced the back part of the building, where the docks were that the fisherman used to drop off their daily hauls of tuna, flounder, and shrimp. The front of the building faced one of the downtown streets a couple of blocks over.
“Don’t you guys think this is sort of odd?” Lulu said in my ear.
“What’s that?” my father asked.
“Well, in my somewhat limited experience, ubervillains usually choose abandoned buildings to set up their headquarters. According to my information, Fred’s Fried Flounder Fish Sticks is the main supplier of fish sticks in Bigtime.”
“Who cares?” Angel asked. “All that matters is that they’re in there, and we’re going to get them. One way or another. I’m tired of waiting. Let’s go.”
Angel headed for the plant. I looked at my father, then Hermit. They shrugged. I shook my head and followed Angel.
I not-so-gently wrenched open one of the loading-dock doors, and we stepped inside. The four of us formed a line and searched the area. Lulu was right. Fred’s Fried Flounder Fish Sticks was very much a working operation. Everything was neat and orderly and clean, from the rows of forklifts to the stacks of cardboard boxes to the few workstations and desks that we passed.
We did a complete sweep of the facility. Other than a couple dozen industrial-size freezers full of frozen fish sticks and your usual assembly-line setup, there was nothing inside. No power cords. No radio-like device. No wires. No tools. No blueprints. No ubervillains. Nothing.
We backtracked to the center of the factory, hoping to find something we’d overlooked. Still nothing. Angel cursed and lit another cigarette. Hermit typed on his handheld computer and murmured to Lulu. My father laced his fingers together, deep in thought. I put my hands on my hips.
A chill swept over me that had nothing to do with the freezers. My nose twitched. I smelled something rotten, and it wasn’t fish sticks.
“This doesn’t feel right,” my father murmured.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I think it’s about time you got here,” a sultry voice drawled out.
The four of us turned. Siren stood behind us, holding a curious-looking microphone in her manicured hands. Diamonds gleamed on the black metal surface. Intelligal floated high above. She flipped a couple of switches on a device that looked like an oversized boom box. It, too, was studded with diamonds.
Angel’s hands clenched into tight fists. He started forward, but I caught his arm. He took a half a step forward. I tightened my grip, stopping him.
“Not yet,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth.
For a second, I thought Johnny would shake me off and launch himself at Siren. But he paused. I nodded my head at him. Maybe I had finally gotten through to him.
Because no matter what happened, Johnny wasn’t going to kill the ubervillains. I wasn’t going to let him. It wasn’t the Fearless Five way. It wasn’t my way, and I didn’t want it to be his way either.
And I hated to admit it, but Lulu was right. This was a little too pat, a little too rehearsed for my liking. The ubervillains were up to something. Well, more so than usual.
“You’re probably wondering why we’re here tonight,” Siren said.
Her soft, breathy voice curled around me like a rope. I reached for my inner fire and burned the coils away.
“Intelligal told me about Angel and Fiera’s tussle the other night, and I had an idea. Instead of trying to fight you off, I should bend you to my will, make you all my little puppets. Intelligal and I are going to need some help to fully implement our scheme.”
“And what scheme would that be?” I said.
“Oh, the usual,” Siren said. “Take over Bigtime, then the world.”
That was our cue to move. I loosened my grip on Johnny’s arm and tensed my muscles, ready to strike. He did the same. My father’s fingers fluttered, and Hermit fixed his computer on Intelligal’s chair. But before we could move, Siren held the strange microphone up to her lips.
“Now, now, I don’t want to fight. Why do the four of you?” she purred.
The microphone amplified the sultry, hypnotic pull of Siren’s voice a hundred times. A thousand times. I stopped cold. Maybe even a hundred thousand times. My brain screamed at my muscles to move, to attack, to lash out at Siren, but I couldn’t quite make myself do it. The others stood frozen beside me.
“I don’t want to fight, do you? Why don’t you clasp your hands behind your backs and stand there like good superheroes?” Siren lowered the zipper on her neon blue costume, exposing cleavage that would have put the Great Wall of China to shame.
Since Siren??
?s voice had more effect on men than women, the others did as she asked without question. Even my father, the great psychic, couldn’t resist Siren’s command with her new toy firmly in hand. The men had their hands behind their backs before she’d even finished speaking.
Not me.
Maybe I was just too much of a hothead to be easily controlled. Maybe my will was just a tad stronger than the others’. Or maybe I just hated the ubervillains more for what they’d done to the Bullucis, to James, to Johnny.
So, I didn’t succumb to Siren’s sultry song. Instead, I reached for my inner fire, concentrating on the searing, pulsing flames deep within me. I grabbed them and held on tight, focusing my energy on my fire, my anger, my will. The sweet, gauzy haze of Siren’s voice melted away like snow in a firestorm. My arms twitched.
The microphone. I had to destroy that damned microphone. Then the others would be free, and they could help me.
“What’s going on?” Lulu squawked in my ear. “Hermit, Mr. Sage, what are you doing? Why are you listening to her? Hermit, can you hear me?”
I blocked the computer hacker’s voice out of my mind. I couldn’t answer her and fight off Siren at the same time.
Siren noticed that I hadn’t done as she’d asked. She frowned and raised the microphone to her pouty lips again. “Siren says, put your hands behind your back, Fiera.”
I took a step forward. Sparks flew from my fingertips. Then another step. My hair hissed with fire. Another step. My body started to glow like a liquefied ruby. One more step.
Every step got a little easier, a little faster. The bitch wasn’t going to control my mind. I didn’t care what kind of souped-up karaoke machine she had. No way, no how. I was Fiera, for crying out loud. Protector of the innocent. Superhero du jour.
“Go to hell, Siren,” I muttered through gritted teeth.
“Gas her! Now!” Siren roared.
Intelligal hit a button on her chair, and that sickly sweet blue gas floated over me. I must have burned away Hermit’s antigas pill, because the feeling immediately went out of my arms and legs. The fire inside me snuffed out. I fell to the cold, slick floor, my arms and legs flopping around like a fish trying to breathe in the bottom of a boat.
“Now, Siren says, lie still.”
I growled at the silky, hypnotic purr. I couldn’t move my arms or legs, and I didn’t have my fire to sustain me. So I did the only other thing I could think of. I bit down on my tongue. Hard. Blood filled my mouth. The coppery taste washed away some of the sugary sweet gas and grounded me.
“Never.”
Siren stared up at her sister. “What’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she a puppet like the others? You told me this thing was foolproof.” She tapped her long nail against the top of the microphone.
Intelligal shrugged. “I never said it was foolproof. Only that ninety-seven percent of the population could be put under your control by using it. As for Fiera, she seems to have a stronger will than the others. And she’s female. You know you’ve never been able to get along with other women, even when you use your power to its fullest extent.”
“You’re right, of course. Oh well. Three superheroes will be more than enough to help us carry out our plan.”
The ubervillain leaned over me, giving me a closeup view of her overinflated breasts. They matched her ego perfectly.
“Sorry, Fiera, but Intelligal’s right. I’m just not into chicks. Since you won’t play nicely, you won’t play at all.” Siren laughed. “Siren says, throw her in one of the freezers, Angel. Now.”
“What? Don’t be a fool, Siren. Let me blast her with my explodium missiles,” Intelligal said, flipping switches on her chair. “Let’s kill her. Immediately.”
Lulu let out a loud shriek of dismay in my ear. I winced.
“Hold on, Fiera. I’m leaving the van! I’m getting out right now!” the computer hacker screamed.
Through my earpiece, I heard the hydraulic lift hiss to life on the van. But it was too little, too late. Lulu wouldn’t get here in time to save me. There wasn’t anything she could do against two ubervillains anyway. And there wasn’t any radioactive goo around that could turn her into Super Lulu.
“Come on, Siren,” Intelligal said. “Enough of this nonsense. One missile and Fiera will be history. Forever.”
“Calm down,” Siren snapped. “Look at her. She’s as helpless as a baby. She’s no threat to us now.”
Siren dug her pointed boot into my ribs. I couldn’t even feel it.
“Besides, you just finished calibrating the machine. I don’t want the shockwaves from the explosion throwing it off. Otherwise, we’ll have three pissed-off superheroes to deal with. I don’t think they’d take too kindly to the brutal demise of their comrade. That just might be enough to snap them out of my trance. And your missiles make such a mess of everything.” Siren fluffed out her black curls. “You know how I hate to have bad hair.”
Intelligal scowled, but her hands dropped from the switches. I let out a quiet sigh. Thank heavens for ubervillains and their vanity.
But my relief was short-lived. Angel jerked forward like a robot. He put his hands under my arms and hauled me to my feet. I dangled against him like a wet noodle. Limp and completely lifeless.
“Please, Angel. Please don’t do this. Fight her. I know you can.” My tongue felt thick and heavy in my bloody mouth.
Angel’s eyes remained blank and expressionless as a piece of paper.
“Mr. Sage? Hermit? Snap out of it, guys! She’s an ubervillain! Fight it! Fight her commands!”
My two fellow superheroes didn’t respond. They didn’t even seem to hear me. Instead, they stared at their new mistress, eager for another task.
Siren laughed. “Tearful pleas won’t do you any good, Fiera. Your friends are now under my control. If you haven’t figured it out by now, this device that Intelligal rigged up amplifies my power incredibly. With it, I’m going to enslave the people of Bigtime, then the rest of the world...”
I tuned out her long-winded, self-congratulatory explanation. Ubervillains always thought they had to explain every single, tiny, minute detail of their schemes. When you’ve heard one plan to take over the world, you’ve heard them all. It doesn’t really matter what the brilliant plan is—as long as you figure out a way to stop it.
But one thing Siren said did catch my attention.
“...And if city officials don’t believe I’m serious, well, I’ll just have to remind them about our demonstration at the sports complex a few days ago.”
“What? You used your karaoke thingy to bring down the sports complex?” I asked. “That’s why it collapsed?”
“Of course,” Intelligal answered. “That was our dry run, so to speak, to test the maximum power of the device, as well as its effect on solid matter. It was very effective, exceeding all of my calculations.”
Siren preened. “All it took was a couple of throaty whispers set to the right frequency to make the whole thing come tumbling down.”
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but the ubervillains were ready to wrap up their gloating. Siren snapped her fingers. Angel, Mr. Sage, and Hermit stiffened to attention at the sound.
“Siren says, take her to the freezer, Angel. Now.”
The superhero dragged me back toward one of the many freezers that lay inside the plant and threw me down. Siren, being ever-so-helpful, opened the door. Cold air blasted out. If my arms and legs hadn’t felt like soggy tissue paper, the frigid chill would have made even me wince. I focused my eyes on Angel.
“Come on, Angel. Fight her. Fight Siren. Do it. For me. Remember that night by the lake? When we made love? Our time together in the kitchen?” I pleaded, trying to spark some sort of memory. A super-duper memory.
“You two are an item? Well, isn’t that sweet? Superheroes in love. Or at least lust.” Siren slithered up to Angel, and her eyes roamed over his hard body. She leaned in and slid her manicured nails down Angel’s chest to his crotch.
“I
f you can inspire such devotion from Fiera, I just might have to give you a ride once this is over with.” She cupped him, and her face lit up. “Oh my, what a nice package.”
I wanted to rip the bitch limb from limb for touching my man like that. My hands jerked and spasmed. If only the gas would wear off, I would fireball her trashy ass. Hell, I’d boil the whole bay with her in it.
Siren snapped her fingers again, and Angel dragged me inside the freezer. It was one of those large, walk-in freezers favored by restaurants and, evidently, fish-stick factories. Boxes and boxes of fish sticks lined the walls. Blowers set into the ceiling churned out a steady stream of air, and a thick layer of ice covered everything. Frost gathered in Angel’s tawny hair, making it gleam like pure silver.
As a superhero, I’d been in plenty of tight spots before. I’d been thrown through walls, slammed through floors, dropped off high-rise buildings. So I wasn’t ready to panic just yet.
“Angel, please. I know you care about me. Don’t you know how much I care about you? Don’t you know how much I love you?”
I hadn’t planned on saying the words. Hadn’t really thought about them before. But as soon as they came out, I knew they were true. I did love Johnny Angel aka Johnny Bulluci. Somewhere, in the middle of this craziness, I’d fallen for the rich biker playboy. I loved him for his crooked grin, his devotion to his family, the way he could always make me laugh.
So I said it again. “I love you, Angel.”
Nothing.
Angel didn’t smile. Didn’t look at me. Didn’t even blink.
I poured my heart out to him, and he didn’t even care.
He didn’t respond to my desperate, heartfelt plea, and that hurt me worse than anything Siren had in mind.
I’d appealed to Johnny’s feelings for me. Evidently, he didn’t have any because it hadn’t worked. It always worked in the movies. I’d seen it work for Carmen and Sam. What was wrong with Johnny and me?
I shoved that painful thought aside and focused. I knew Johnny pretty well. What else did he care about? What else was important to him? What would snap him out of his trance? Finally, the answer hit me.