Secret Super (Book 1)

29. The Supervillain Test

When Kara walked through the door, she was greeted with cheers.

"Good luck, Kara!" a trainee screamed.

"Kick her ass!" another voice shouted.

There was a block of ice in Kara's chest. Cold sweat pricked the back of her neck. She smiled, and waved at the crowd.

"Are you ready?" Jace appeared beside her, her normally bushy orange hair slicked back and knotted into a bun. Resolve gleamed in her eyes.

"Yeah, 'course I'm ready," Kara snapped. She reached up to her ear to touch the earring. With a shock she realized there was nothing there, and she let her hand drop. She folded her arms across her chest.

Jace touched her arm. "We have to do this. I'm right behind you."

Kara just stared at her for a moment. At this point, it wasn't even worth it trying to convince Jace that Zadia was innocent.

"You know," she said to Jace, feeling reckless, "I went to see my family earlier."

Jace stumbled and nearly fell. She grabbed Kara's jacket sleeve for balance and stared at her, eyes wide. "You can't tell me that!" she hissed. "You . . . you know I have to report you!"

Kara shrugged. "If you gotta."

Jace opened and closed her mouth. She bit her lip. "I . . . Well, what happened?"

"They didn't want me. They hate superheroes, no shit."

"Oh."

"Zadia has a family, you know," Kara added suddenly. "They don't hate her."

"We're better off without families," Jace recited, but half-heartedly, without her usual conviction.

Kara rolled her eyes. "Eva can't hear you, you don't have to kiss her ass still."

Jace frowned. Then she jerked her head towards the exit. "Let's just go."

Eva was waiting by the door, her expression blank.

That should've been Harrison waiting for Kara. And it should've been an actual supervillain waiting for her on the other side of the door, not a friend. This was wrong, all wrong, so different from how she had imagined it over years and years of daydreaming about this very moment.

Kara jutted up her chin and walked towards the door. The cheering of crowds began to swell in the distance.

"You know the rules," Eva said. "Win the fight and you'll graduate from trainee to a full-fledged superhero with all the honors. Fail . . . and I need not remind you of the consequences."

Kara barely spared her a glance before stalking out the door.

The screaming of the crowds drowned out her own heartbeat.

A NewsNet was flashing holograms at her. Images of superheroes everywhere. Golden, gleaming. Everything she'd ever wanted.

An announcer's voice boomed in the distance. "She failed against a super-villain once before. Can she prove herself now, against the deadly murderer, rising new super-villain Smokescreen?"

Kara's own terrified face blinked back at her from a billboard.

Wind and grimy Smog blurred her eyesight. Energy burned in her chest. She ripped off her gloves, purple energy burning her palms. Sparks flew at the concrete.

All around her rose the city buildings. Glittering rosy Smog-blurred skytrains and buildings spiraling into the sky, but now she knew they hid a filthy underbelly.