“Bella! How lovely to see you again!” Joanne said, presenting her cheek for the usual air kiss.
I obliged her. “You too, Joanne. Berkley.”
The older billionaire nodded at me.
My eyes went to the sapphire resting on its pedestal. The glass case didn’t look any different than the one it had been under before, but I trusted the Fearless Five. Henry and Lulu knew exactly what to do when it came to gadgets—especially those designed to stop ubervillains.
By midnight I was ready for the event to end so I could head to the security room with the Fearless Five and wait for Prism and Hangman to show up and try to steal the gem. Then, this nightmare would be over, and I could get on with my life—hopefully with Devlin.
My power flared, the first time it had acted up all day, and my feet turned of their own volition toward the sapphire. Berkley and Joanne stood next to the gem, talking with Hannah. A man in a wheelchair sat next to them, his back to me. Something about the hard set of Joanne’s lips and the way she clutched Berkley’s hand bothered me. She almost looked worried, and Joanne James never worried about anything.
“What’s wrong?” Devlin asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, moving toward the sapphire.
Across the room, I saw Carmen do the same, drawn by the same bad feeling.
“I said no, Hannah,” Berkley Brighton’s baritone reverberated through the room. “I have no interest in what you’re proposing.”
“But Berkley, think of all the power we could have,” Hannah wheedled. “The money, the position, the influence.”
Berkley’s hand tightened around Joanne’s. “I happen to be very happy with my current situation—professionally and personally. I’m sorry.”
All conversation stopped. Hannah’s eyes flicked around. Everyone had heard Berkley turn her down. They all stared at her, mouths slightly agape. Then, the whispers began. A few people snickered with amusement. Something red and angry sparked in the depths of her eyes at the soft sounds.
“Fine, Berkley, if that’s the way you want it. Nobody move!” Hannah Harmon screamed, pulling what looked like a laser pointer out of her evening bag. “This is a robbery!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Everybody froze.
My eyes went to the device in her hands, and my mouth dropped open. It was the same laserama she’d pointed at me last night. Hannah Harmon was Prism? It didn’t seem possible.
But things got even more bizarre. The man in the wheelchair sprang to his feet, kicked the contraption away, and turned to face me. I realized who he was—Nathan Nichols, the financial guru who’d bilked Devlin’s company out of millions and now worked for Hannah. Nichols ripped off his tuxedo, revealing a gray, spandex suit and a silver utility belt. Prism and Hangman were both here. And they were going to steal the Star Sapphire right now—no matter who got in the way.
I looked around to see where Carmen was, but she’d melted into the frightened crowd, along with the other members of the Fearless Five. So had Devlin. One moment, he was by my side, the next he was gone.
Hannah commanded everyone’s attention, holding her laserama on Berkley and Joanne.
“Why are you doing this, Hannah?” Berkley asked, his voice remarkably calm. “Surely my turning down your business and other proposal hasn’t upset you this much?”
Hannah threw back her head and laughed. “Don’t you understand, you fool?”
She jerked her head at Hangman. He stepped forward and ripped away the dress from her body, revealing a familiar yellow costume with a triangle on the front of it.
Joanne hissed. “You’re an ubervillain!”
“Right you are, Joanne. Right you are.” Hannah addressed the rest of the crowd. “My name is Prism. Learn my name, know it well, because you’ll be hearing a lot more of me. Very, very soon. In a couple of hours, I’m going to be the one running this town.”
Hannah, Prism, pointed her laserama up and pulled the trigger. A red beam shot out from the end of the barrel, shattering the restored glass ceiling with a tremendous roar. With one thought, people screamed and stampeded toward the exits even as glass rained down and the alarms started blaring. The crowd rushed past me, sweeping me back, and I lost sight of the ubervillains.
I stayed in the room, looking for Grandfather. I didn’t see Bobby among the panicked crowd, but I did spot Grace Caleb, half-hidden behind one of the statues. She whipped something out of her purse and snapped it down beside her leg. I squinted through the mad dash of people. It looked like a cane. A diamond-topped cane. Grace drew a mask out of her bag and slipped it over her head. Then, she draped an angora sweater across her shoulders. I recognized her at once.
My eyes threatened to pop out of my head. Grace Caleb was actually Granny Cane? The little old lady who went around Bigtime suckering thieves into mugging her? No wonder she’d had a family emergency the other night. I wondered if Bobby knew what Grace did when she wasn’t playing bridge or drinking tea. He’d definitely approve.
Hannah continued with her rant, brandishing her laser at Berkley and Joanne. “You all think you’re so clever, so smart with your little cliques and groups and inner circles. You’re nothing but a bunch of phonies. I’ve tried to fit in. I’ve tried to play your little popularity games. Well, I’m sick of it. Instead of pretending to be like the rest of you, I’m going to take what I want and damn the consequences.”
“People don’t like you enough so you decided to become an ubervillain?” Joanne snapped. “How pathetic.”
Hannah glared at the other woman. “No more pathetic than you marrying every other man in Bigtime, you tramp.”
“Sugar, I’m not a tramp. I’m not the one wearing yellow leather.” Joanne’s eyes flicked down the other woman’s form. “Without the figure to pull it off.”
Hannah held the laserama up to Joanne’s face.
“Stop!” another voice called out.
Striker strode into the room, followed by Karma Girl, Mr. Sage, and Hermit. Seeing the superheroes in their bright costumes reminded me of the last time I’d been here, when Hangman and Debonair had been fighting. I had the strangest sense of déjà vu.
“Come any closer, and I’ll blow her away,” Hannah warned, her finger hovering over the button.
Hangman eased off to one side, giving the superheroes two targets instead of just one. Striker’s eyes flicked around the room, analyzing the situation. His gaze cut to Karma Girl, who shook her head. Hermit did the same. Striker’s hand twitched, as though he was signaling one of the members of the team.
Mr. Sage’s eyes began to glow. A moment later, something yanked down on Hannah’s arm, pulling the laserama away from Joanne’s face.
“What—what are you doing?” Hannah screamed. “Nobody messes with me! Nobody messes with Prism!”
Hannah raised the laserama and pressed the button.
Joanne stood in front of the ubervillain, but somehow, Berkley shoved her out of the way at the last possible moment. Joanne crashed into Mr. Sage, who caught her. The laser slammed into the billionaire’s chest, and the stench of burning flesh filled the room. For an instant, Berkley’s eyes flashed as scarlet as Prism’s. A black, smoking hole appeared over his heart. Berkley stumbled back from the impact of the laser. He looked at his burning chest, then at Joanne. Then, he smiled once and crumpled to the floor.
Dead. I knew he was dead. No one could survive something like that. No one.
I clapped my hands over my mouth, horrified by what I’d just seen. Joanne wrenched herself free from Mr. Sage’s restraining hands.
“Berkley! Berkley! No, no, nooo!” Joanne screamed, throwing herself on top of Berkley’s lifeless body.
Hannah took aim at Joanne, who did something I never would have expected her to—she launched herself at the ubervillain.
Joanne might have been one of the richest women in Bigtime, but she certainly knew how to fight. She caught Prism around the ankles, and the two women hit the ground. They rolled around on t
he marble floor, shrieking and kicking and clawing among the shards of broken glass. Prism might have had superstrength, but it didn’t faze Joanne a bit. She fought like a woman possessed—like a woman who’d just lost her husband.
The Fearless Five started forward to break up the fight, but a grenade slid across the floor and landed at Striker’s feet. The sight snapped me out of my horrified daze.
“Grenade!” I screamed. “Grenade!”
Karma Girl grabbed Striker’s suit and yanked him back with a strength I didn’t know she had. The grenade exploded, and the room went orange, then black, then gray. The shock and fire from the blast knocked me to my knees. My power pulsed, and my feet slid out from under me just as a knife-like piece of shrapnel zipped through the space where my head had been. I landed hard on the floor. Smoke filled the air, making me cough and wheeze.
Through the billowing clouds, I felt something sticky plop onto my head. I reached up and brought my fingers back down. White foam from the sprinklers covered my whole hand. More bits sputtered through the air. I definitely had déjà vu now. And an intense desire to be somewhere other than here. I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the pain shooting through my knees and back where I’d hit the floor.
The gray haze started to clear. Hannah stood next to the sapphire, holding the laserama against Joanne’s temple and using her as a human shield against the Fearless Five. I didn’t see Hangman or Grace or Bobby through the dissipating smoke.
Or Devlin. Where was he?
“Stay back or she dies!” Hannah screamed at the Fearless Five.
Joanne twisted and struggled in the ubervillain’s grasp, mindless of the device pressed against her head. “Kill her! Kill her now, you fools!”
The superheroes froze. There was nothing they could do. If they moved an inch, Joanne would be just as dead as Berkley. From the tears streaming down her face, I didn’t think Joanne would mind that much.
But Hannah had her back to me. I looked at the ubervillain, then over my shoulder. The path to the door was clear this time, with no villains standing in my way. I could slip out of the room to safety, and no one would be the wiser. No one would know I’d even been in here. No one would know I hadn’t tried to save Joanne. No one but me.
I stepped back toward the door.
Joanne sobbed again and started cursing, struggling with all her might against Prism. My eyes went to Berkley’s body, lying on the marble floor. If not for the smoke rising from his chest, I would have almost thought he was sleeping. But he wasn’t. Berkley was dead. And Joanne would be too, if someone didn’t stop Prism.
If I didn’t stop Prism.
My foot hovered in mid-air. It would be so easy for me to put it down, turn, and run away. So, so easy. But I didn’t do that. I put my foot down, but this time, I stepped toward danger instead of away from it. For once in my life, I was willingly going to get involved in a hero-villain battle.
If I could use my power to get really, really lucky, I just might be able to get the laserama away from Prism before she could use it on Joanne. If I had any sense, I’d turn and run away. If I did, though, Joanne would die.
If, if, if.
Sensing my warring emotions, my power flared to life, going from a low drone to a rising hum. My fingers itched, my hair frizzed, and I eased forward, willing my luck to work, praying it would, just this once.
Karma Girl saw me out of the corner of her eye and gave me the tiniest nod. Go for it, I could almost hear her whisper in my mind. We’re out of options and almost out of time.
My hand went to my wrist, and I fingered the bracelet Jasper had given me. But there was no way I could use it in here without killing us all. So, I picked up a small bronze statue shaped like a pencil from one of the pedestals. A good smack across the back of the head should be enough to distract Hannah from lasering Joanne. Then, the Fearless Five could move in and capture the ubervillain—
Beefy fingers latched onto my arm and jerked me back.
“Going somewhere?” Hangman asked, his hand tightening around my arm.
My fingers went numb, and the statue slid from my grasp, clanking against the floor. Any tighter and he’d break my wrist with his grip. At the clanging noise, Hannah looked over her shoulder and forced Joanne to turn around so she could keep an eye on all of us at the same time.
WHACK!
Something smashed into the back of Hangman’s head. He let go of my arm and staggered away. Granny Cane stood behind the ubervillain, already bringing her cane around for another blow. But Hangman recovered quickly. He grabbed the cane and swung it and Granny up, around, over his head. The ubervillain let go and sent her flying through the room. Granny hit a wall on the opposite side of the museum and slumped to the floor. Another figure darted through the smoke and foam. Grandfather. Bobby dropped to a knee beside Granny Cane’s limp body. I started toward them.
“Forget the old woman! Get her! Get Bulluci!” Hannah screamed, her eyes fixed on me.
Hangman reached out—
POP!
And Debonair teleported right in front of me, protecting me from the advancing ubervillain yet again.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” he snarled at the taller man.
Hangman just laughed and swatted at Debonair like he was no more bothersome than a buzzing fly. But instead of teleporting out of the way, Debonair took the blow. He couldn’t move or I would have been the one getting my face smashed in.
Hangman’s fist hit Debonair’s nose, and the bones popped like cereal. Blood spewed out from his face. The blow stunned Debonair, and Hangman used the opportunity to grab his left arm. The ubervillain snapped the limb like it was a brittle piece of biscotti. Debonair groaned and slumped to the floor in agony, his face white with pain underneath all the blood.
“Debonair!” I screamed, reaching for him.
But Hangman was too quick. He grabbed me around the waist and hauled me toward the center of the room where Prism stood with Joanne. The Fearless Five started forward, but Prism pressed the laserama to Joanne’s temple.
“One more move by anyone and she dies, along with Bulluci!”
The superheroes stood there. Helpless.
“Get the sapphire and get us out of here! Now!” Prism barked at her henchman.
Hangman wrenched the glass case containing the sapphire off the pedestal. He shoved it at me.
“Hold it or die,” he hissed.
I didn’t have much choice in the matter, so I wrapped my shaking arms around the square box as best I could. Prism snapped some sort of cable onto the utility belt around Hangman’s waist and fastened it to a hidden hook in her own costume.
“Let’s go,” Prism commanded her henchman. “Now.”
“No!”
“Stop!”
“Bella!”
Everyone started screaming and shouting and rushing forward at once. But I only had eyes for Debonair. His bloody, pain-filled face was the last thing I saw before Hangman flew us up through the museum’s shattered ceiling.
PART THREE
I HEART DEBONAIR
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Flying in Hangman’s arms was nothing like teleporting around the city with Debonair. Joanne, Prism, and I hung off his belt like keys on a life-size ring, rattling and bumping and smacking together. The world zipped by in a haze of blue and white and black. The glass case felt heavy and slick in my sweaty, aching hands, but somehow I managed to hold on to it.
I wasn’t even aware I was screaming until Hangman yanked on my tangled hair.
“Shut up or I’ll knock out your teeth,” he snarled.
Since I wanted to keep my teeth right where they were, I shut up. Joanne wasn’t quite so sensible. As we soared through the cool, misty clouds, she kept punching and kicking Prism and screaming curses at the other woman. I would have helped if I hadn’t been afraid of dropping the sapphire into the middle of Bigtime Bay—and following it a second later when Hangman realized what I’d done. Finally, Prism clipped the side
of Joanne’s temple with the laserama, and she went limp and still.
“What did you do to her?” I yelled above the rushing wind. “What did you do?”
“The bitch will be fine. I just knocked her out. Now quit talking!” Prism screamed back.
We flew for what seemed like hours, although it could only have been a few minutes. Hangman rocketed through the sky faster than any missile ever could. I had no sense of direction, only of color passing by me much, much faster than normal.
Hangman glided to a stop on top of a large yacht in the middle of the bay. He let go of me the second his booted feet touched the deck. I slumped on the slick wood, along with Joanne, who was still unconscious. My legs wouldn’t have supported a feather, much less me. I was just glad I was back on solid ground again. So to speak.
“Are we clear?” Hangman asked, unbuckling Prism from his utility belt.
Prism pulled some sort of small computer out of another pouch on Hangman’s belt and starting hitting buttons. “Yes. The cops are on the scene, but they don’t have a clue, like usual. No sign of the Fearless Five, but there’s no way they could have tracked us here. Besides, the cloaking shield went up as soon as we touched down. We’re fine.”
Cloaking shield? I didn’t like the sound of that. Somehow, I made my aching, shaking hands let go of the glass case, and I crawled over to Joanne. The other woman was a mess. Her hair hung in black strands around her face, which was bruised and bloody from her altercation with Prism. Her knuckles were scraped and her perfect nails broken beyond all repair. I checked Joanne’s pulse and watched her breathing. Both were strong and steady. Well, that was something to be grateful for.
My eyes flicked around, looking for a way off the yacht. But instead of a dinghy or life jacket, my gaze locked onto something far less useful—and far more horrifying.