The Super Jerk Trilogy (Now 3-in-1)

17. There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back

{Zachary}

When we get to the river, I see some other supers already there. One's swimming around in the river between two bridges, in the form of a Great White at least triple the size of a normal one. There's two more, sitting on the dock we'd already picked out as our home base. I don't recognize any of them.

   "Hey, guys," I say as we approach. Even though we've never met, Cam, who'd gotten the message out to the super community as soon as it'd come over the networks, told me they'd be willing to help. I probably wouldn't have gotten the same response, given my last name.

   "Yo," says one, in a scintillating dark blue suit that seems to change texture and color right in front of my eyes. "You're Tsunami, right?"

   "The one and only," I say, wishing it wasn't my dad causing all this trouble.

   The two supers, one a guy and the other one a girl, introduce themselves as Squidink – one word, he doesn't hesitate to clarify – and Rogue Wave.

   "Who's the shark?" Kitty asks, once they've given her a once-over and decided she's not a threat.

   "Calls himself Jaws," Squidink says. "Couldn't get more creative, being a shark and everything."

   "I'm sure Steven Spielberg and Peter Benchley would be proud, at any rate." I shrug.

   "Is he always a shark?" Kitty seems to be eyeing the giant shark a tad nervously.

   "Not always," Rogue Wave says, even though she sounds doubtful. "He prefers it, though."

   It's starting to get dusky out here, and watching the sun sink and the sky darken means that we're that much closer to Dad coming here. And God knows what'll happen then.

***

{Sarah}

The four of us camp out on the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel downtown. Kaelie and Ellis move some ways away from us, sitting down next to each other. I follow Vermillion, and she teleports us, without a word, to the top of the wall. It's a little precarious up here, but the grip she has on my hand tells me she's not about to let me plunge to my death.

   "You seem quiet," she says after a while. "There is something bothering you?"

   I nod. It's hard to keep any emotions from these supers. They were able to sense them much better than normal humans could. Zach and Cam were clear examples of that.

   "What is it?" she asks as we sit down, legs crossed. I'm wearing slip-on shoes, so I'm not about letting my feet dangle over the edge.

   "It's about what Mayor Green's doing. Why would anyone want to destroy this many people's lives?" Even just recently, over the news, Cleveland, Richmond, and Orlando surrendered to him.

   "I do not know the answer to that," she says, shaking her head. "Supers who are evil must have brains that work very differently."

   I remember what Zach told me what he'd learned in his psychology class, something about the amygdala of a super's brain and everything, but with Green I know simple psychology alone can't explain what he's doing. "But it has to be something else inside him, you know? Something not so...clinical."

   "It often is, Sarah," she says through a sigh. "Sometimes it is because they were abused as children, and therefore have the desire to have power over the people that once bullied them. I know of plenty that experienced domestic violence, or witnessed a violent crime, some even molested or raped. It all depends on how they decide to take out their anger."