Masked (Superheros Undercover Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Epilogue

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  Masked

  Superheroes UnderCover

  Book 1

  J.D. Wright

  Masked

  Copyright © 2017 by J.D. Wright.

  All rights reserved.

  First Print Edition: August 2017

  Limitless Publishing, LLC

  Kailua, HI 96734

  www.limitlesspublishing.com

  Formatting: Limitless Publishing

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-178-4

  ISBN-10: 1-64034-178-1

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  To my daughters, who were excited and supportive while I was writing this book.

  Even though they aren’t old enough to read it yet…

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Epilogue

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  Preface

  I started writing this book without being entirely sure where I wanted it to go. The idea came from my daughter’s obsession with a television show that featured superheroes. I started to think about the lack of superhero representation in books, other than comics. Even with the many TV shows in this theme, there aren’t nearly the same number of books, especially with female readers in mind, so I decided to write one.

  Once I had a couple of the characters figured out and an idea of the plot, I began to write. This is entirely different from my usual writing method in which I heavily outline before writing a single sentence, but the characters practically wrote themselves into this story. Coming up with things for them to do was the easy part. Keeping them from strangling each other was a bit harder.

  After it was finished, I read through my book twice and sent it to my proofreader. For the first time ever, I thought I’d try my hand at something other than self-publishing. I submitted the first few chapters of the manuscript to only two publishers and was prepared to self-publish if they turned me down. Imagine my surprise when I receive a response from one of them two weeks later. A couple of weeks after that, I had my first contract in hand. It all happened so quickly, it was like being stuck inside of one of Vortex’s whirlwinds.

  I absolutely have to thank Limitless Publishing for taking a chance on me and my strange collection of superheroes and villains. They have been a pleasure to work with and I am grateful for their help in bringing Cyper City to life. Also, many thanks to my editor, Toni, for catching my blunders and showing me just how much I overuse commas and the word ‘that.’ I promise to do better in the future.

  Also, a quick thanks to my proofreader, Kellie, who looked over my manuscript before I submitted it the publisher. She has literally read over every single thing that I’ve written. She catches all of the Southern twang I accidentally interject into my writing. What can I say, it’s hard to take the country out of the girl!

  Chapter One

  Early morning light poured into the bedroom when Vada opened her eyes. The first thing her gaze fell on was the One Direction poster that hung on the opposite wall. She had meant to take it down for months now but just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Sure, the music group was no longer together, but even a superhero could cross her fingers and wish for the best, right?

  The moment she began to stretch her legs, she heard a slight noise coming from the corner of her room. She froze in place and darted her eyes to the area in question. It was empty. The only thing there was her bookshelf, filled to maximum capacity, and her computer desk with the chair neatly tucked under it. Everything looked as it should be.

  But Vada knew better. She might not have the ability to read minds or see heat signatures like some other supers, but she could tell when her younger brother was attempting to scare her. You could call it a hunch or just years of practice. And she knew just what to do about it too.

  Without moving anything other than her eyes, Vada focused her power on the clothes hamper beside the door. All it took was a single thought and in one swift movement, the hamper rose into the air and flipped upside down. Dirty shirts, pants, and socks tumbled toward the floor, but some of the clothes stopped halfway down as they rested on the invisible figure standing there.

  “Vada!” Garret whined as he materialized and found a pair of his sister’s shorts hanging over his face. “You cheated somehow! I didn’t make any noise this time.”

  “Nice try, buddy.” She smiled and slid out of bed, dodging the shorts that her brother threw in her direction. “What have I said about coming into my room?”

  Garret’s cheeks and ears turned red. He looked at the floor and shuffled his feet as he murmured, “Don’t come in your room unless the house is on fire or I’m being abducted…”

  “That’s right. And is the house on fire?”

  “No.”

  “Are you being abducted?” she asked, while slipping a blue fitted t-shirt over her head.

  “Not right this minute, but—”

  “Then why are you—”

  Vada stopped when she heard her name being called from downstairs. Her mother must be home, which was strange considering both of her parents usually left for work long before Vada’s alarm clock, or brother, ever woke her.

  “It’s Friday. Why is Mom home?”

  Garret just grinned and turned toward the door. Vada changed into a pair of jeans and started to follow, but paused in the doorway and turned back to the mess she was about to leave behind. She called her power and used her mind to quickly pick up the scattered clothes, returning them to the hamper.

  Once everything was back in order, she strolled out of the room and down the stairs of thei
r family’s two-story suburban home. From the outside, you’d never know that a family of supers lived in these walls. Even most of the inside was unsuspecting to anyone without a trained eye.

  Garret had just taken a seat at the kitchen table when Vada rounded the corner and stopped in her tracks. Her parents, dressed in business suits that they wore on the commute each morning, looked up and smiled at her. Both of her parents were home? Why?

  Then Vada noticed the cake on the table, frosted in white with colorful balloons and sprinkles piped on it. It answered her question and put a smile on her face. They’d stayed because it was her birthday, something even a super couldn’t get out of celebrating.

  Sure, she was happy to turn eighteen, but not for the reasons most teenagers were. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that they might get her a cake because that was such a typical thing for a normal family to do. Her family wasn’t exactly normal.

  “There she is!”

  Michelle Lawson, a.k.a. Comet, hurried around the kitchen island, short heels clicking on the tile floor. She ignored her perfectly pressed jacket and scooped her daughter into a tight hug that left Vada’s feet hovering above the ground. It might be hard to believe that her mother didn’t have super strength from this show of affection. But Michelle’s focus power was actually flying. And she was really good at it too.

  Her husband, however, did have super strength. William Lawson, known in the super world as Siege and most others as Bill, stepped forward next. Vada’s feet had barely hit the floor when her father lifted her for a hug while squeezing her a little too hard.

  “Dad!” Vada wheezed and chuckled when he dropped her like a sack of potatoes.

  “Oh, sorry,” Bill said, laughing. “I just can’t believe our little muffin is no longer a baby.”

  “When are you going to stop calling her that? She’s an adult now. Isn’t that right?” Michelle flashed her daughter a smile and a wink, then turned toward the table to pick up the cake.

  Vada started to answer, but words slipped from her mind when she saw the frosting inscription. Happy Birthday, Majestic. Vada’s chosen superhero name. She’d taken the name from her favorite all-girl rock band from long ago, but it also reminded her of the fantasy books she liked to read. There was just something whimsical about the word. It was a little fanciful and a little quirky. Just like her.

  “Aww! You used my super name!”

  “We thought it was fitting since you can now use the name yourself.” Bill leaned forward and kissed Vada’s forehead. “Your mother and I will register it in the system as soon as we get to work.”

  Vada ignored the snorting laugh that came from Garret while he zipped up his backpack at the table. He liked to tease her about her name, but she knew that her brother was just as anxious to pick his own super name. That wouldn’t happen for another seven years, because he was only eleven.

  Choosing a name for your super identity was something that most supers reflected on from the moment they learned what they were. And most powers manifested before a super’s fifth birthday, so there was plenty of time to brainstorm and eliminate names before their eighteenth birthday arrived.

  A hero or villain’s name wasn’t just a second identity, it was the title that would be attached to all of a super’s accomplishments—and failures—until they drew their last breath. It would become a part of history of the supernaturals and live on for eternity.

  Of course, normals—people with no superhuman powers—would never know half of what happened in their own world. Supers would make headlines several times each year, but the majority of fighting happened behind the scenes, unbeknownst to most normals. They simply lived in their little bubbles and only cared about the battles between supers when it affected them directly.

  Luckily for them, there was a worldwide organization dedicated to preventing super occurrences from spilling over into the public and causing mass chaos. The S.U.C., Superheroes UnderCover, monitored the comings and goings of villains and heroes, limited the exposure to the public, and cleaned up the harrowing messes left behind.

  Bill and Michelle Lawson worked for the S.U.C. as Defenders, active supers who battled criminals of all shapes and sizes. That included offenders without superhuman powers and villains who did possess menacing abilities.

  “We’ve got to get going,” Michelle said, glancing down at her watch. “Crime doesn’t sleep when the sun comes up, you know.”

  Vada used her power to lift and float her mother’s briefcase across the room and right into the waiting woman’s arms.

  “Thank you, pudding,” Michelle said before turning toward the door.

  “And you lectured me for calling her muffin,” Bill murmured. He ruffled Garret’s hair as he passed and followed his wife out of the house.

  “Need a ride?” Vada finished off her brother’s orange juice and carried it to the sink.

  “With you and Red Hen?” Garret scoffed. “No, thanks. I’ll walk.”

  Garret had called Henley, Vada’s best friend, that pet name for months now. Henley had stayed over and caught Garret playing on her phone, draining the battery. She’d gotten angry and her face turned red as an apple. Garret penned her as the Red Hen and had enjoyed pestering her ever since, clucking every time he walked by her. So it was probably for the best that he walk or hitch a ride with someone else. His school was only two blocks down the street, anyway.

  “See ya!” Garret chirped, slamming the door behind him.

  The house was silent while Vada cleared the table. She gathered her jacket and phone, placing them by the door. Then just like every morning, she grabbed a frosted honey bun from the pantry and scarfed it down while waiting for her ride to pick her up. The sweet and gooey goodness made her moan out loud.

  Sugar was Vada’s weakness, in the guilty pleasure sense. Well, one of them. She also had a thing for cheesy action films, motorcycles, and gummy bears. All together? They were like Vada’s own kryptonite, if that were a real thing instead of comic book lore.

  She’d just polished off her honey bun when a car horn sounded. She grabbed her stuff, locked the door behind her, and bounced down the porch steps.

  “Hey!” Henley Abernathy leaned across the center console of her green four-door Nissan and shouted out of the passenger window. “I need to stop for gas, so we gotta go!”

  “You’re always running on empty.”

  “Yeah well, I had to wait until my Dad stopped by to drop off my allowance.”

  Vada rolled her eyes as she slid into the car and closed the door. “You mean your second allowance?”

  “Whatever.”

  Henley’s parents were in the middle of a pretty awful divorce, and their idea of helping their daughter cope with the separation of their family was to bribe her with lavish gifts and cash. Henley even quit her weekend job at a burger joint because she no longer needed the spending money. Though, she would have more of it if she stopped spending every penny on new purses. It was her current obsession. She always seemed to have one.

  They made small talk on the short drive to school, discussing gossip and graduation. When they pulled into the busy parking lot, Vada hopped out and leaned on the door while she applied a fresh layer of lip gloss and waited for Henley to get out.

  “Do you like this dress?”

  Henley spun around to show off the turquoise sheath that was a little too short for school. She would likely get sent home for wearing it. But Vada didn’t dare say what she really thought. This was just another of Henley’s antics of late. The girl was always trying to push the boundaries. Vada loved her rambunctious friend, but had noticed Henley’s behavior had become more outrageous since her parents announced their divorce.

  “It looks nice. I like that color on you,” Vada replied, guessing that it was a safe response.

  “Ugh…I don’t want nice. I want hot. Smoking hot. Hot enough to melt loverboy’s gorgeous face off!”

  Vada chuckled, then noticed the familiar black jeep pulling into the
lot. She nodded toward it. “Speaking of loverboy…”

  They both turned and watched the jeep stop in its spot with a lurch. The door opened and a blond-headed teen jumped out wearing dark jeans and a bright white t-shirt. He slammed the door behind him just before he was surrounded by several of his fellow teammates. They slapped hands and backs in an informal male greeting while laughing about something Vada and Henley couldn’t hear from this distance.

  Nicholas Grayson was a force to be reckoned with. Or admired, in Henley’s case. His father was Cyper City’s elected district attorney for the third time running, and his mother had been a well-liked singer before her untimely death several years ago. Nick excelled in sports, nearly every one of them, and with his athleticism came automatic popularity.

  His charm and family name were only two of the reasons Nick Grayson was destined for greatness, however. His tall, trim frame was not that of your average lanky teenage boy. He was an avid kickboxer, according to rumors, and his toned arms and chest definitely supported that piece of gossip. To add to his devastatingly ridiculous handsomeness, Nick had inherited his mother’s bright blue eyes and thick golden blonde hair. He was almost too damn pretty to be a boy.

  Unfortunately for Henley, Nick wasn’t available for the taking. His girlfriend of two years, Scarlet Linux, was just as prominent on the social ladder. She was the daughter of a former Miss Cyper City and destined to attain the title herself, according to her.

  But whereas Nick had a mostly pleasant personality, Scarlet was a viper in heels.

  Vada had experienced the snake’s fangs when she stole Winter Princess right out from under Scarlet’s grasp at the eighth-grade winter dance. Sure, it had been a meaningless title, and years had passed since that night, but Scarlet’s hatred for her had only grown throughout their high school years. These days, Vada had more important things to worry about than a ridiculous feud with a poisonous teenage girl.