Kara's veins froze.
For a second all she could hear was her heart thudding loudly. Cold water pooled around her boots. Her hands tingled with electricity.
A few things happened at the same time.
Superheroes materialized around the entrance, gathering in a tight knot.
Ice-woman lifted her hand and blasted ice at the crowd. Kara grabbed Zadia's hand and yanked them out of the way. Ice smashed into her arm. Her skin was burning and she reflexively reached for a force-field.
Then Xavier was in the middle of it all, striding towards the supers, his hand raised.
"There's no need for this," he shouted. "We can talk this through."
There is no way in the skies that is going to work, Kara thought, her heart racing, but as she watched, Ice-lady seemed to hesitate. Ice stretching from her palms spindled into nothing and shattered on the ground. The supers surrounding her paused, crouched and snarling.
Zadia grabbed Kara's jacket and pulled her back. "Your arm!" she hissed.
Kara looked down. Her arm was encased in solid ice. She blinked.
"We will turn ourselves in," Xavier declared. "Fighting will only result in unnecessary casualties."
"Let's go!" Zadia whisper-shrieked into Kara's ear, yanking at her jacket. "I can't be here! I can't!"
They stumbled back, and the crowd started moving around them, pulling forward. Several people moved towards the supers, surrounding them.
"You!" Ice-lady pointed straight at Kara. Zadia ducked away and ran behind the crowd.
Kara felt ice dripping down her arm, her hands burning with force-field energy.
"Me," she said numbly.
Xavier stepped in front of Ice-lady, blocking her path to Kara. "We can hand her over," he said coolly. "The supers are the supreme law."
The crowd kept edging in on the supers, forming a tight knot.
Kara wanted to scream, but the words stuck in her throat. Sickly dread mounted in her chest. If the Council caught her now, everything she'd ever dreamed of was over. The image froze in her brain, getting kicked out of the Academy, convicted by the Council.
She'd be a supervillain.
Ice-lady faltered again. Some of the supers around her moved forward, but she held up her hand. "Hold."
At that second, the crowd dashed forward and several people plunged what looked like syringes into the supers' arms. Security guards appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the supers by the arms, dragging them back.
Ice-lady blinked, staring at her outstretched hand. Suddenly a scream erupted from her throat. She thrust out her hands, and Kara threw up her arms, flinching, but no ice came crashing down the room. Instead, water dripped from the super's fingers.
Security guards surrounded the supers and dragged writhing, shouting supers through the door, blocking off Kara's sight.
Before Kara could blink, they were out of the room. The crowd trickled back to the center of the room.
Xavier walked away. As if nothing had happened, he said, "Apologies for the interruption. There is no need to worry; this will be taken care of. I promise each and every one of you-- your identity will not be compromised." Light glinted off the metal on his suit. "We will need to enact the evacuation procedure."
He said it like he was giving them a homework assignment. He said it like he hadn't just knocked out a group of experienced supers. By talking to them. Can talking be a superpower?
Kara could only stare, water trickling down the crumpled red of her ice-encrusted jacket sleeve. She felt a chill for something that had nothing to do with the ice melting from her arm. The first thing she thought was, Good thing this guy is on my side.
Then: Is he? He'd just taken down multiple superheroes like it was nothing. He'd just dragged them away into an underground lair and went back to planning crime.
Am I on the right side?
"Get me out of here!" Zadia hissed in her ear.
Kara started. She snapped back to her normal self, flashing a rude gesture. "You ran away as soon as ice- queen pointed at me!"
"Sorry we're not all reckless rule-breakers!"
"You're here, aren't you?"
Zadia didn't seem to have a response to that.
Xavier's voice rose again over the loudly arguing crowd, his voice hard. "We still need to proceed with the factory plan. We cannot let the superheroes dictate our missions. You know the procedure and our new meeting place, so move." He nodded, and the crowd started moving again, going towards the door and other passageways.
Xavier stopped by Kara and tapped her shoulder. "I'm sorry for saying I would turn you in," he said with a wry smile. "You understand, I had to tell the superheroes what they wanted to hear so they would hesitate."
"Uh-huh." She took a step back away from him.
"Fortunately, we have security measures installed for just this situation. You don't need to worry about it," he said, and Kara frowned, feeling a pull at the back of her mind, and she wanted to believe him, really.
Zadia, on the other hand, just whimpered.
"I really am sorry," Xavier said, his forehead creasing in concern. "The superheroes must have trailed someone to the base. Rest assured that your information and identity is in no danger." He nodded towards the crowd rushing out of the room and tapped a button on his wrist. "Follow the others for the evac procedure."
A question itched at the back of Kara's mind and suddenly she remembered. "What's your superpower?" she blurted.
Xavier laughed. "That is what you want to know right now? Very well. It's levitation-- see?" He pointed down at his shoes. Above the shimmer of the water, his feet floated a couple inches off the ground.
Then bony woman with bright green hair shoved her way out of the crowd. "You called for me, X?" She flashed a grin, her teeth extremely white and filed sharp. Hearing implants flashed behind her ears.
"Kian! Excellent. Show these two to the new location; they'll be joining you and Ezra for your next mission."
Kian scowled, crossing her arms, which were steeled in metal gauntlets. "Newbies? They'll only slow me down."
"It's not a request. They need to be supervised on their first mission."
Kian mock-saluted. "Yes sir." She turned to Kara and Zadia and eyed them distrustfully. "Guess you're coming with me. Lucky you. Try to keep up." She turned and spun away into the crowd.
"I really don't think I want to do this--" Zadia tried to say into Kara's ear, clutching her arm.
"We don't have that many options. And stop grabbing my arm!"
They were nearly alone now in the giant dripping chamber, dark and cold and glittering rock. No choice but to follow, they hurried after the glimpse of green in the crowd.
* * * * *
The evac procedure just turned out to be a hike through a tight, slimy cave tunnel, then boarding an underground train.
If Kara didn't die by Council trial, she was going to die by hurtling into rock along a pitch-black underground tunnel at two hundred miles per hour. The bullet trains above-ground glided, silent except for the whoosh of air, but this train rattled and screeched the whole time.
Every so often the train would make a sharp turn, and Kara would get flung from her seat, barely holding on by the ice-cold railing, her stomach turning.
"Are trains supposed to be making this much noise?" she said, loudly to make herself heard over the noise, holding her stomach.
In the seat across from her, Zadia shrugged. "Some of the old models in the sublevels do. But let me guess, you've probably never even been in the sublevels, have you?"
Some of the more experienced superheroes went down to the sublevels for missions, but not Kara. They said the farther down you got, the more it deteriorated into junkyards and slums. She wondered about the sublevels, sometimes. Vague memories floated through her brain, of staring down at the hazy city below her as a kid, wondering how far down the clashing metal and flashing lights went.
"I guess not," she said. "Have you?"
"Are you kidding? I grew up in the sublevels."
"Really?" Kara clung to the railing as the train jerked to the side.
"Yeah." Zadia smiled wryly. "Funny, I've never seen a superhero down their before. Do you supers just stay up in your shiny upper sectors?"
"Lots of supers go down there," Kara snapped back, her skin cold against the metal railing, the window clattering loudly next to her. "I don't just 'cause I'm less experienced. . . . Ugh, I feel like I'm about to throw up."
Zadia snorted and scooted away from her a little.
Glimmers of light flashed by in the window, breaking up the otherwise same pitch-black view. Suddenly curious, Kara looked up at Zadia and asked, "So, do your parents know that you're a super?"
"They're the ones that hid it from the Recruiters," she said like it was obvious. "I got in trouble once when I was six and a teacher saw me play with illusions, but my parents convinced her she was seeing things." She rested her head against the railing, strands of her red hair sticking up all over her head.
"You were never curious about what you could do?" Kara couldn't imagine having that power at her fingertips and never being tempted to reach for it. Energy for her force-fields constantly tingled at her fingers and burned in her chest when she thought about it. She was nearly always itching to use it.
"Once, when I was a kid. I was trying to show off for this girl . . ." A giggle bubbled from her throat. "It didn't end well. She found out that I have superpowers, but I made her swear not to tell. Mostly because I didn't want my parents mad at me." She shrugged. "The girl was my best friend later."
"Was?" Kara said.
"She got a job in a factory." Zadia looked away. "They're not really safe to work in. The Smog got in her lungs. She died."
Zadia's voice was too quiet, some of her speech snatched away by the train's not-exactly-reassuring screeching. But Kara read her lips and heard fragments of her sentences enough to piece it all together. Somehow it felt like the rush of noise and the darkness made everything easier to say.
"Oh." Kara looked down awkwardly. What do I say? "I'm sorry."
Zadia shrugged.
"What was her name?" Kara said softly.
Zadia's voice was barely audible. "Em." She paused, and they listened to the rush and rattle of the train for a few moments. Then she looked back at Kara, cocking her head to the side. "So, what's it like, being a superhero?"
"Fun," Kara said immediately. "I mean, I'm not technically a superhero, just a trainee. But it's everything I've ever wanted."
Zadia played with the ends of her hair, staring out in front of her with a thoughtful look. "Do you remember your parents?"
Kara paused. "Huh? No . . . I guess I was really young when they found out I have superpowers. It doesn't matter," she added defensively.
"Hey, I answered all your questions," Zadia pointed out. "Did you ever try to look for them?"
Just then the train shuddered to a halt. Kara felt a jolt in her stomach and clutched the railing harder. The people around them started standing up and crowding to the exits.
Kian appeared out of nowhere, her hair the brightest thing in the cart. She crossed her arms and sighed dramatically. "Well, come on then," she said, motioning her hand.
Kara and Zadia followed her green hair as she bobbed and weaved through the crowd. Kara started wondering if anyone back at the Academy had noticed her gone yet. Or worse, if they'd somehow find out where she really was. But Xavier had promised they wouldn't know, and she couldn't worry about that now.
As they filed out of the train, she shook the remaining bits of ice off her jacket.