Inferno Island Read online

  Inferno Island

  Super Hero Academy Book 3

  Simon Archer

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  3. Andie

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  10. Inferno

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  15. Aylin

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  18. Matt

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  22. Gemma

  Chapter 23

  24. Ice Bringer

  A Note from the Author

  1

  Upon our arrival in Alexandria, I was still riding the high of victory in the World’s Finest Tournament. The feeling it left tingled in my veins, and I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face even if I wanted to, and why would I? My friends and I did our best, and our best saw us through to the end.

  To top things off, I had settled things with my dad, Lord Inferno, or at least laid down the groundwork to rekindle our relationship, no pun intended.

  Surprisingly, it felt good. I’d spent so many years away from Dad and having minimal correspondence with him in order to distance myself from his legacy, but admittedly, it was nice to have him be present in my life.

  That said, it was nice to be home. The Brand wasn’t home, despite spending a bit of my life there. Home was here in Alexandria with Gemma and Triton. They were the people who looked after me after they took me from Inferno Island. Home was where my friends were, and more importantly, where my girls were waiting for me with open arms at all times.

  As I walked into Andie’s apartment in the Stacks with Kara, Andie, and now Aylin in tow, I was glad for the comfort of being in my own space again. While we stayed on campus, this little home away from home was as familiar and cozy as our dorm rooms. The girls chattered amongst themselves, though about what, I had no clue, but whatever it was, Andie was more than excited about it, and she practically galloped into the kitchen and slammed both her hands on the counter.

  “Are you listening?” she asked, and I flicked my gaze to her as I plopped onto the couch. I looked to Kara and Aylin, who shared similar excited looks of excitement.

  “I can assure you that he has not heard our conversation.” Aylin giggled behind her hand, and I laughed sheepishly along with her.

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized with a sincere smile, “I must have spaced out.”

  “Nick!” Andie smacked her hands on the counter again to draw my attention back to her. “The party! Aren’t you super stoked about it?”

  I racked my brain for a moment before I snapped my fingers. “Oh, right!” My dad had apparently arranged for a huge party in celebration of our win at World’s Finest. Initially, he had wanted to hold it there in the Brand, but I convinced him that it would be a good show of camaraderie if he had the party in Alexandria. After all, we did beat his team in the final round. It would be weird to celebrate amongst them when our support was back across the water on the mainland.

  “He’s not excited.” Kara rolled her eyes with a smirk as she settled closely beside Andie.

  “I am too,” I countered as I sunk deeper into the couch cushions.

  “Do you not enjoy celebratory festivities?” Aylin questioned as she came to sit beside me. She rested her head on my shoulder, and I couldn’t resist placing a kiss to the top of her head as our fingers twined together.

  “He used to,” Kara interjected. Her red hair fell into her eyes, and Andie tucked it behind her ear for her. “He was all the rage at birthday parties.”

  Andie sniggered at that. “He looks like the type that would slaughter a good piñata.”

  I saw the question form on Aylin’s face before she could ask it. “A piñata is like a decorated box of candy.”

  “You hang it from a tree, and then you’re blindfolded while you try to hit it and break the candy out,” Andie finished for me, “and when it does, it explodes everywhere, and candy rains from the sky!”

  “So you commence a beating of an inanimate decorative, and it produces candy from the heavens?” Aylin looked thoughtful. “That sounds oddly delightful.”

  “It is,” I confirmed with a giant grin.

  “Too bad Nick doesn’t like parties anymore,” Kara continued to tease, and I rolled my eyes at her insistence.

  “I do like parties,” I pressed. “I just know how my dad is. It’s going to be over the top and ridiculous.”

  “It’s a party.” Andie nodded. “That’s kind of the point.”

  I shrugged. “I guess it is.” It had been a while since I’d been to a party of any kind. I couldn’t remember the last birthday party I’d really had, but it was a long while ago. Gemma used to set them up, but as I got older, it was less of a party and more of a gift drop off. She did always try to make time for me, though. I was thankful for that.

  I allowed myself the pleasure of running my fingertips along the spirals that decorated the back of Aylin’s hand. It was comforting in a way that I couldn’t describe and also subtlety intimate.

  Aylin seemed to agree if her soft, relaxed purr was any indication. My Stars nuzzled closer, and our hearts seemed to fall into syncopated beats, rhythmic and tempting me with slumber as my eyelids began to droop with exhaustion.

  “What are we to do with them?” I heard Kara ask Andie with a slight giggle to her voice.

  “They do seem to be pretty comfortable,” Andie countered. “Let’s leave them be. We can figure out more permanent arrangements in the morning.”

  The sound of quietly shuffling reached my ears, but I couldn’t bring myself to react, even as the distinct scent of Kara’s fruity shampoo reached my nose, and the weight of a cozy fleece blanket fell across my lap. Had Aylin fallen asleep as well? She must have. There was no movement beside me as Andie and Kara tucked us in for the night on the couch.

  Kara’s lips touched my temple, followed by the tender press of Andie’s against my cheek. I thought I might have heard them kiss Aylin as well, and the thought warmed my heart. My Sun and Moon were perfect in every way. They amazed me with how encouraging they had been about Aylin joining us, and how they welcomed her with open arms.

  Their feet pattered away to the bedroom we all shared. At least, that’s where I assumed they had gotten off to. I was too far gone to track where the sound of their footsteps had dissipated. All that mattered to me as I took a long, content breath was that when I woke up, I would be able to hold my own little galaxy in my arms.

  Morning came, and with it, the crick in my neck from having slept on the couch as opposed to an actual bed. I cursed mentally as I sat up and noticed that I had to sit up. I looked around and found that my prop had disappeared and I was curled up on the couch where Aylin had been when I fell asleep.

  I jolted and looked around in a panic, but it was short-lived as my eyes landed on the girls gathered around the television on the other side of the room. On the screen was a video game that I recognized from my childhood. Where the heck that had dug that old relic of a system up would have been a surprise if not for Kara’s technopathic powers.

  The point of the game was to collect all the pieces of a shattered relic that was scattered in different dungeons so that the character could gain the power to defeat the evil pig-boss that captured the princess of the land.

  The girls were on a particularly tricky part of what looked to be like one of the last dungeons of the game. Blue armored knights paced back and forth, guarding a secret staircase that no doubt led to a treasure that would aid them on their quest, and
they were running out of health.

  “Why do they hit so hard?” Andie huffed. She smashed the buttons on the grey and red controller as she narrowly dodged a sword aimed at her torso.

  “Because swords are heavy,” Kara replied with an amused smile. She was sitting with her legs spread and had Andie pulled into her chest as she rested her chin on her shoulder.

  “I do not understand why you are given bombs if you cannot simply detonate them and blow your enemies limb from limb?” Aylin pondered. Her beautiful eyes were filled with wonder and fascination. I doubted there were such things as video games where she came from.

  “Because armor is heavy,” Kara answered again, and she turned her head to kiss the top of Aylin’s forehead.

  “Damn it,” Andie growled as she took a pretty nasty hit from the knight. She was so close to beating the room and gaining access to the secret staircase.

  With a stroke of brilliance, she charged head-on, putting everything on the line, and she came out victorious as she ran her sword through the knight’s chest. The girls cheered in unison as the passageway to the secret staircase opened, then quietly hushed themselves when they thought I was still asleep.

  “That was a ballsy move,” I finally commented to signal to them that I was awake. They turned in unison, all of them with excited, adoring eyes.

  “What’s life without a little risk?” Andie beamed at me as her head tipped backward over Kara’s shoulder so that she was upside down. Her neck stretched to accommodate the weird positioning, but she looked no less endearing.

  “Touché,” I laughed.

  Aylin left Kara and Andie on the floor in favor of snuggling back on the couch with me. She pressed herself into my side and peppered kisses along my jaw. I had to admit, being the center of her attention was surreal, and my stomach fluttered with excitable butterflies with each feather-soft touch of her lips on my skin. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled the blanket over us as we settled back into the couch to continue watching Andie play.

  “We do not have games such as this at home,” Aylin started, “I find that they are rather impressive, if not a bit primitive in their technology.”

  “This game is pretty old,” I explained with a chuckle as I ran my fingers through her long hair. “I’m pretty sure that my dad was playing it at my age.”

  “I never would have taken your dad to be a gamer,” Andie commented as she picked up a magic book that now allowed her to shoot fire from her wand.

  I never liked picking it up myself. It was a known fact that the added fire magic wasn’t as much of a bonus as the game developers had intended. The base stats of the wand by itself were far superior. However, picking up the book was part of the completion, so I supposed it came down to a matter of how the player wanted to experience the game, which was how anything should be.

  “It makes sense to me,” Kara chimed in quietly. “Games have been used in studies for years. It’s a proven fact that those with experience playing games are forced to think critically to solve problems. It certainly explains his imagination when it comes to his empire. Some of his plans were quite clever. They sometimes remind me of those times we would watch him play those RTS games when we were little.”

  There was a hanging silence for a moment as I processed Kara’s words. To put it in those terms wasn’t something I would have considered before, but overall, she was right. It wasn’t that I thought my dad’s interest in playing video games was some kind of tell that he would turn evil one day. That was his own decision. Still, there was quite a bit of truth to Kara’s statement.

  “I’m sorry, Nick,” I heard her say. There was a soft pout on her lips, probably afraid that she had said something wrong.

  “Don’t be,” I assured with a gentle smile. “There isn’t anything to be sorry for.”

  “I do not understand.” Aylin frowned. “Is playing video games considered a bad thing?”

  I shook my head. I could tell that she was concerned, though she wasn’t sure what she should be concerned about.

  “Nah,” Andie cut in as she sprinted through a few rooms in the dungeon that she had already cleared out. “They aren’t bad. Any negative connotations derived from people who don’t play games themselves is bullshit. People can tell right from wrong, they just want to blame their behavior on something to make them feel justified for being a shitty person.”

  The room was silent again before I snorted with amusement.

  “Uh, yeah, what she said,” I told Aylin, who looked even more confused than she had before.

  “It still looks primitive,” she countered having given up on trying to understand the logic behind our discussion.

  “Like I said, this is an older game,” I told her. “Our technology has advanced significantly since this one came out, but it’s fun to revisit some classics once in a while. I’ll show you a newer game later.”

  Aylin smiled at that. “I would very much like that, Starlight.”

  I kissed the top of her head, and my eyes flicked from watching Andie traverse the overworld map to Kara running her fingers through Andie’s hair lovingly. It brought a smile to my face to see that the two of them had become so close in such a relatively short time. They genuinely seemed to enjoy one another’s company, especially with the added benefits of being in a relationship with one another by proxy.

  The four of us spent the better part of the afternoon exactly as we were, and we all cheered when Andie rescued the princess and beat the final boss. It was exactly the type of day I needed to decompress from the excitement of World’s Finest before we attended the party tonight, which I was still hesitant about attending in the first place. The girls, however, were already getting themselves put together.

  I was more than content to remain a lazy lump on the couch. At least, I was until there was a knock at the door that sounded more like tiny fireworks exploding against the wood.

  When Kara opened it, Eric nearly leapt through, bouncing on his heels so much that he looked like he was going to vibrate himself right back out.

  “Why aren’t you dressed yet?” he questioned me excitedly as he literally sparked from the ends of his hair.

  Eric cleaned up rather nicely. He’d donned a black and yellow pinstripe button-up and tight dress pants that made me cock my head to the side. He looked like he’d jumped straight out of an anime with how closely they clung to him. His legs really stood out in length, though I was positive that they weren’t actually that long… were they?

  “Keep your pants on, zappy,” Andie said as she came out of the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her body. “We’re getting ready now.”

  “Do we have to go?” I sank back into the couch that I hadn’t really moved from since waking up. I was content in my blanket nest.

  Eric gawked at me incredulously. “Yes! Of course, you do!”

  Kara finally shut the door and moved carefully around Eric to avoid being shocked. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to, Nick,” she said with a smile. “It’s a show of good faith on Lord Inferno’s part.”

  “Besides, it sounds like you need to loosen up a little,” Andie said to me with a matter-of-fact tone.

  “I heard there’s going to be fire spinners and an elephant you can ride!” Eric buzzed. “Oh, and that there’s going to be all kinds of finger foods and a bar! Not that I can drink, but I think you’d like that, right? I bet there’s going to be some awesome entertainment! How are you not completely jazzed over this?”

  I laughed as he rambled on and on, and Andie offered her hand to me to pull me off the couch.

  “Okay, fine,” I relented and took her hand in mine. I briefly thought about switching the roles and pulling her down on top of me before I nestled both of us into my blanket nest, but I thought better of it. I stood crossed the room to kiss her sweetly.

  “Thatta boy,” she cooed with a grin against my lips. I stole another kiss from her before I moved to the bedroom, and I made sure to kiss Kara as well before sli
pping into the bedroom to change.

  There wasn’t much to choose from in the closet as far as dressy clothes were concerned, but I could make do with something sharp looking. After all, this was supposed to be a semi-formal event. It wouldn’t do well to show up underdressed. I settled on a crisp, mint green button-down that Gemma had gotten me a while back and standard black dress slacks before I closed the closet again.

  I slipped into my outfit after I showered, and by the time I had emerged again, I saw that the girls and Eric had gathered in the living room. The girls were circled around the small coffee table doing one another’s makeup and had somehow convinced Eric to put on some guyliner.

  “You look like you just walked out of an emo band music video,” I snorted as I rolled up one of my sleeves.

  Eric grinned and shrugged as he sat back. Honestly, he looked good. He wore the look well.

  “We can put some on you, too,” Kara teased.

  I put my hands up as I finished with my sleeve. “No thanks, I’m good.”

  “It is a shame,” Aylin said from the other side of Eric. “I think you would wear the makeup well, Starlight.”

  Admittedly, I blushed at that, but I shook it off with a lighthearted chuckle. “I’ll pass this time.”

  “You hear that? ‘This time,’” Andie quoted as she looked up from fixing her lashes. “Don’t be surprised when we hold you to that.”

  Kara rolled her eyes with a soft smile. “We’re just about ready.”

  I nodded, and I had been about to respond when Andie closed the cap of the mascara, and the three of them stood. To say I was awestruck was an understatement. My Sun, Moon, and Stars looked absolutely incredible, and I made sure I drank in each of them equally.