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

17. Family Affair

{Cameron}

I wake up with a pounding headache and pain in my legs and arms. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds. Briefly I can't remember what happened right before I blacked out.

   I open my eyes and find myself bound to a reclining chair, like the kinds they use in dentist offices. Except this one's got metal bands that wraps around my forehead, chest, wrists, waist, and ankles. They burn wherever they touch my skin, and I have a feeling they've got something in them that inhibits superpowers. I can't sense my lightning, usually just a fizzle under my skin. I yank against one, just experimentally, but it won't budge. I try the other, same result.

   "Hello?" I say to the plain white room. The walls and the floor are completely blank, and there doesn't even appear to be a door. There's lights coming from somewhere, but I can't move my head enough to see.

   "So, you're awake," says a voice from somewhere above.

   I blink hard. Now that I think about it, there's a throbbing bump on the back of my head. "Yeah. Looks like it."

   "You're remarkably resistant, you know. It usually takes a long time to contain powers like yours," says the voice, like we're discussing the weather.

   "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be a super, would I?" I curse inwardly, letting myself get captured like this. God knows what they want to do to me.

   "A very good point, Blue Bolt. I think we'll work well together."

   That catches me off-guard. "Wait, what?"

   A rectangle in the wall slides open, and in walk three men. Two are dressed in guard's uniforms and carrying heavy-looking guns, faces hidden by riot helmets. The third is dressed in a suit, with a tie that shifts even when I look at it. He's got Zach's hair, eyes, build, even the way his mouth pulls into an arrogant smirk. This must be Mayor Green.

   "Well, Blue Bolt, I was wondering when we'd be able to talk." He folds his hands behind his back. "You look just like him, you know. Just like Geoff."

   "What do you want, Green?" I snap.

   "Cooperation is all I ask, Blue Bolt. Or do you prefer Cam? I seem to remember that was what your parents call you."

   "Don't talk about them." My fists clench. He's the one who did this to Mom. I could kill him with my bare hands.

   "No? Well then, we'll talk about something else, how does that sound?" He adjusts the knot in his necktie, completely unaffected by the threat in my voice. "How about the fact that you've managed to thwart us at nearly every attempt to catch you? I knew you'd have help the entire time, but I never thought we'd have to do this."

   "Then why are you doing it now?" I don't like the way the guards watch me, their hands clamped tightly around their guns like I might suddenly escape and make a run for it.

   Green clicks his tongue. "Cam, don't you see, if you keep asking those kinds of questions, we won't ever get to the reason why you're here? The reason why your father's working for me?"

   "You think I care about that?" I want to come across as fearless, but something in my eyes or my manner must give it away, because he doesn't look convinced.

   "I don't think, because I know. I know you want to find out why Daddy went bad, why he left you kids and his wife, why he turned evil, as people are saying. Don't give me that look, Cam, I know what the news is saying."

   I don't stop scowling at him. "That's not why I'm glaring. I want to know what you want with me."

   "I'm glad we finally got to business," he says, nodding at one of the guards. "But first, like we do with all the supers we take in, we need a sample of your blood."