Geek Fire: A YA Superhero Adventure

29. Agent Johnson and Ice Queen at the Swim Meet

 Thursday was the first home swim meet of the season. In the medley relay, Ollie destroyed the other swimmers in the backstroke and then glared up at Emma as Emma dove over her.

No matter how fast Emma swam, the other breast strokes pulled close. Gasping, Emma climbed out of the pool. Their butterflier pulled back ahead of the other team, Emma cheered and hollered, jumping up and down

Across the pool, in his gray suit Agent Johnson stared at Emma.

Her throat went dry and she lost the joy of the race. She waved awkwardly.

He nodded and turned away.

Hunter, Summer's boyfriend was talking to him. Why were they at the meet? Was Johnson getting evidence against Emma as Geek Fire? Had he gotten her fingerprints off the letter? Crap, she hadn't thought to wear gloves or anything for that.

Emma forced her attention back to the race. Either he would arrest her or not. The freestyler was kicking hard and bringing home the race, neck and neck with the girl from the other school. Beside her, Ollie and the dripping wet butterflier cheered as their remaining teammate arched her back and reached the wall just a hair before the other girl.

Emma tried to high five Ollie, but she turned her back and stomped over to Connor and Alex on the grass. The neon colored cast on Connor's arm was a sign that Emma had failed at her stupid attempt to be a hero.

Not like Emma was happy with Ollie either. Even if Ollie'd blurred her face, she'd still gone and published the picture of Emma sans glasses and headpiece battling Ice Queen. Now, Emma in her green face paint, torn spandex, and lack of crown was there for anyone to recognize.

"You and Ollie going to patch things up soon?" Sebastian walked Emma back to his tent.

Emma climbed into it, ignoring whatever Ollie was doing now. "Don't know. You can ask her."

"That's a no then." He plopped down in front of Emma.

"Let's work on your article. I want to figure out the whole Ice Queen thing after Saturday."

Sebastian pulled a notebook out of his backpack. "I've really been working the Dragon Girl angle."

Emma winced at the name but bit her tongue. If she wasn't going to be a superhero anymore, she supposed it didn't matter if people got her name wrong.

"I think we've seen the last of her." Emma tried to sound casual. "Maybe we could try to focus on Ice Queen or Strongman. They're more the bad guy type anyway."

"Exactly. I might have a chance of talking to Dragon Girl and surviving. But Ice Queen doesn't have a problem attacking people."

"I don't have anything new on Dragon Girl." Gah, now even she was using the dumb name. "But during the fight, I saw Ice Queen's real hair."

"That's right. You were there on Saturday." He scribbled in his notebook.

"I know she's got long black hair, and she attacked Riley and Blake. So..." Emma drew out the word.

"What, you've got an actual idea of who she is?"

Emma told him.

He laughed at her. "The special ed teacher or the homecoming queen?" He shook his head. "No way."

"Why not? I admit, after a week of watching Ms. Ngo, I'm kind of starting to think it's not her." She hoped. She really did, but there were... things.

For starters, by now, Ms. Ngo probably would have done more than hint to Emma to drop stuff. That first day had to be just Emma overreacting.

"Okay, and Summer?" Sebastian asked.

"Summer fought with Riley not even an hour before Ice Queen attacked her." Emma started shuffling a deck of cards. She needed something to do with her hands.

"Riley told me about that."

"You talked to her?" Emma dropped the cards, filled with guilt.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "I mean I visited her in the hospital. She's my friend, and I am working on this article for the paper. Summer thought Hunter was cheating on her with Riley, but Riley's tutoring him in German."

"Tutoring him?" Emma tried to pick up the mess she'd made of the cards without taking her eyes from Sebastian.

"But Summer didn't believe her." He sucked in his cheek. Did he believed Riley that it was only tutoring.

"Then it's got to be her." That clenched it. It made more sense than anything else.

"Just because she has long dark hair and was mad at Riley doesn't make her Ice Queen."

Outside the tent, someone screamed. Emma poked her head outside.

Ice Queen hovered in the sky over the pool.

Not again! What was she doing here now?

Emma wanted to run and change and stop Ice Queen but couldn't fight her this time. It wasn't like she had a disguise anymore. Not to mention, showing up in a swimsuit, swimcap, and goggles would kind of give her away. Agent Johnson already had his eye on Emma after all. And Emma'd sworn off playing superhero.

That's it. Agent Johnson was at the meet. He would have to handle the Ice Queen.

Emma and Sebastian followed Ice Queen as she flew over the swim meet and out over the parking lot, their phones and notebooks at the ready. Hunter, whose car had been taken away, climbed into the passenger seat of a fancy SUV.

This time, Ice Queen didn't mince any words. She shot a blast of ice at the car.

In response to the threat, the familiar ache burbled up to the surface of Emma's jaw. Pressure demanded relief.

A gunshot deafened her. Emma's hands clapped over her ears.

Ice Queen wheeled away, but Agent Johnson had his gun braced in two hands and took aim a second time.

He wasn't messing around. Emma didn't need another hole in her head, so she scooted closer to Sebastian, who put a warm arm around her shoulders.

The gun fired again, but the bullet went wide as Ice Queen vanished.

Agent Johnson had his hand to his ear and spoke rapidly, but he was too far away for Emma to even hear what he said.

At the pool, everyone stared towards the neighborhood where Ice Queen had vanished. The same neighborhood Emma had run in earlier, with the girls names on the streets.

Emma started to run after her, but Sebastian caught her arm.

"Where are you going?" He was out of breath. Panic clear on his face.

"I..." Emma shook her head, reminding herself that this wasn't her fight anymore. "I just wanted to go somewhere safe."

"That Agent Johnson's going to want to question us when his backup gets here."

Hunter was Summer's boyfriend. Summer wouldn't attack her own boyfriend, which gutted Emma's theory that Summer was Ice Queen.

That put Emma back to Ms. Ngo, but Ms. Ngo hadn't done anything threatening since Monday. If she was Ice Queen, maybe she'd decided Emma was giving up on being Dragon Girl.

Grrr. Calling herself that again.

Of course, Summer might still think her boyfriend was cheating on her. Or else, Emma could have been completely off-base and Ice Queen could be someone else entirely.

At least it was on Agent Johnson to stop her now, and not Emma. As long as Emma kept her head down, Ice Queen would leave her alone.

Right?

Author's Note

Keeping her head down might not be very superhero of her, but it will help her stay alive. What do you think?