Seven Steps to Becoming a Superhero

Zack was not surprised to see Icer. He knew the supervillain would turn up sooner or later, usually where he’d least expect it. It turned out, “where he least expected it” was at his kitchen table, drinking his very last beer. The rest of the house was covered in shadows, save for a tiny kitchen light in the corner.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Zack said. “If campus security…”

“Relax, no one saw me. I made sure of it,” Icer said. Zack glared at the supervillain in his kitchen, hoping the neighbors weren’t in the midst of calling the cops as they spoke. The villain had his mask pulled up, revealing a pale face adorned with a six o’clock shadow. Zack had never seen Icer without the mask, but he guessed he was in his mid-to-late twenties.

“You’re putting this operation at risk just by being here,” Zack said with his arms crossed.

“And so are you by drinking this stuff,” Icer said. “Last I checked you aren’t twenty-one yet.”

Zack didn’t like Icer one bit. He definitely didn’t like being lectured by a wanted supervillain. He needed him for this job. He had played an important role in securing the access Zack needed to begin his investigation, and he would be an important asset in the future.

“Yeah, well, the drinking age was eighteen in Tijuana,” Zack said. “No one raised an eyebrow when I was there.”

“If you haven’t noticed,” Icer said as he took another swig of the beer. “We’re a long way from Tijuana.”

Icer set the beer on the table. “Though after what I heard in the other room, you might need this more than I do.”

Zack sighed. He really didn’t want to think about anyone listening in on his conversation with Rachel, much less a supervillain.

“How much did you hear?” he asked.

“Enough to make me want to shove ice cubes in my ears,” Icer replied. Zack gave a brief chuckle.

“Good,” Zack said as he rested on the kitchen chair in front of him. “Let’s keep it that way. Now. What. Do. You. Want.”

Icer scrutinized the label on the half-empty beer bottle for a while.

“I want what you promised me. A meeting with your father,” Icer said.

Icer had some fixation with Knightbrand. Icer’s father Freeze Ray fought him back in the day. If Zack had to guess, Icer was probably pursuing some kind of revenge plot against Knightbrand, especially now that Freeze Ray was staring down a life sentence for murdering six bystanders in a robbery gone wrong.

Icer’s weird revenge quest made him the perfect mark for Zack’s investigation. Especially since Zack had the Knightbrand armor. It made it easy to string Icer along for as much time as necessary. And once Zack was done with Icer, he’d drop him back off in Highrock Penitentiary, where he could share a cell with Freeze Ray for all he cared.

“Seems like you already had a meeting with my father today. How’d that go?” Zack smirked. “And how’s your chin? My Dad hit you pretty hard.”

If Icer was enraged by Zack’s jab, he didn’t show it. Instead, he drained his beer bottle and set it down.

“You know, when I agreed to work for you and your dad, I figured it would be snitch work. Confidential informant stuff,” he said. “Not fighting wannabe supes and listening to your relationship drama.”

Zack shrugged. “Well, if you don’t like it, I’m sure there’s a nice prison cell waiting for you somewhere. But last I checked, they don’t serve beer in prison.”

Icer returned his shrug. Zack started to look away, only for Icer to wind back his arm and chuck the beer bottle right at him. Zack darted out of the way just in time to see the beer bottle land in the waste basket behind him with a small glass chink sound.

“Nice shot,” Zack said, trying to act only mildly impressed.

He turned around to see Icer standing up, clearing the space between them far quicker than Zack had anticipated. He braced himself for an attack, even though he had a feeling one wasn’t coming. A frontal attack wasn’t Icer’s style.

“You know, my old man did CI work too. It’s how he stayed out of jail,” Icer said as he pulled down his mask.

Zack wasn’t surprised that Freeze Ray was also a CI. It figured he didn’t have any honor among thieves. He was a supervillain after all.

“But he’d get a feeling when the cops were going to screw him over,” Icer said. “After a while, he’d just get a sense . . . they weren’t gonna hold their end of the bargain.”

Zack nodded. He looked Icer dead in the eyes through the mask.

“And how are you feeling now, Icer?” he asked.

“Me?” Icer shrugged. “I’m feeling fine, great even. Fighting those punks in the Promenade was the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

He drew closer to Zack. “But if I get the sense that you or your old man aren’t going to hold up your end of the bargain, you better watch out.”

Icer took a step back.

Zack gave Icer a weak smile. “As threats go, it’s kind of mid, if I’m being honest. It’s not very visual, more vague than anything else. And the follow-up, isn’t really there. I give it a C+ as far as threats go, if I’m being generous.”

Icer leaned against the hallway door. He looked out the window, towards the neighbors. Zack wondered if the neighbors could see him in the window. Night was falling. Could they see anything into the house? And if they could see something, wasn’t his pal the low-level supervillain currently terrorizing campus?

Zack looked back at Icer, and wondered if he knew what he was thinking. Icer chuckled, and Zack knew in that instance that Icer was previously aware of how much leverage he possessed.

And it was more than Zack would have liked to admit.

“I’m just a simple supervillain,” Icer shrugged. “I really don’t know what game you and your Pops are playing with this supe college. Maybe there’s some real dirt here, or maybe you’re just angry you got a bad grade.”

Icer mercifully moved out of the hallway. “I don’t care one way or the other. I’m not here for you and your little supe games. Are we clear?”

Zack kept his gaze leveled at Icer. “Crystal.”

“I’m here for your pops. Him and I have unfinished business. You get me a meeting with him and I’ll jump through whatever hoops you want,” Icer said. “That was the deal.”

Zack didn’t answer. He just kept looking forward.

“But don’t screw with me,” Icer said. “Because I’ll bet by now there’s plenty of people on campus who’d be interested in what I had to say about our working relationship.”

Zack kept looking forward. He wouldn’t give Icer the satisfaction of an answer. But he suspected Icer knew his silence was satisfactory enough.

“Thanks for the beer,” Icer said as he disappeared into the shadows.

Zack sighed as he felt the emptiness of the house return to him. So much for a quiet evening celebrating his victories today, such as they were.

His psychic ex-girlfriend was living on campus, along with several people from a life Zack had all but left behind. And if he really was honest, it was a life he wanted to have all over again.

But he couldn’t.

Someone had killed Knightbrand. Someone very good. And if they could kill his father, they could kill Perry Adams. They could kill Scott Stephens.

They could kill Rachel Ducane.

And that was a risk Zack just couldn’t take.

So he’d keep them at arms-length, just like he always had. He would be civil with him if he saw them on campus. He’d even go to the odd social event, like the party Scott had invited him to. Such outings might even prove useful in the long run. He wasn’t above using his friends for this investigation, so long as it didn’t put them in direct risk.

But he wouldn't let them in.

He couldn’t risk it. He’d put one person he loved in the ground already. He wasn’t about to put three more.

And then there was Icer, the low-level supervillain currently in his employ. Zack and the supervillain understood their relationship perfectly, but Zack knew how this would play out from the beginning.

Zack was the frog, Icer was the scorpion. Sooner or later, Icer would betray him. For all his talk of bargains, Icer was a crook, and no different from his father. Not one of them had honor. It was the one lesson he had learned from his father. The two needed one another, so Icer would play his part and Zack would let him.

But sooner or later, Icer would betray him. Supervillains always do.

And when that happened, Zack would be ready.