Page 105 of No Capes

Her Super debut fell on the night of Phil Bridges’ escape. Wearing a sparkling blue suit, our new Super fought with Dark Static, Golden Ace, and other Supers to bring justice to our city. According to Materio and Flare, her powers include water manipulation and invisibility. Sources also show that she has yet to release her own Super name. We owe her our gratitude. A classy, crime-fighting female is what Capital City needed.

I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

“When you put it that way, I suppose I’m pretty awesome.”

“And you looked great,” says Kristen. “If I say so myself.”

There aren’t any pictures of me included with the article, but Molly included a sketch, which features the costume Kristen designed. Reading about something that I did—to help people—makes it seem more real.

The next page reveals what happened to Phil.

“Bridges Burned”

“Impeached, Indicted, Irrelevant”

“Supers Stop Mayor from Super Takeover”

When he is captured, Phil will be convicted of corruption and tried for the murder of my mom, but the prosecution doubts they will have enough evidence.

“Who’s mayor now?” I ask.

“The City Council is searching for someone,” Arielle answers. “Everyone in Phil’s office can be connected to his crimes, so the list of potential replacements is essentially nonexistent. Even Claudia Jane, the woman who ran against Phil, was apparently on his payroll. Why be mayor of a major city when you can have a third vacation home?”

“The mayor was more of a figurehead,” Damian comments.

“True,” says Kristen. Golden Ace has been who the city turned to in times of trouble since he wastwelve.Now it’s almost official.

“Alright,” says Fox. Other than a few minor scratches, Fox has come out unscathed from the battle against Phil.That makes one of us.Fox presses down on the table. “You gotta turn to page nine.”

Damian claps and Kristen groans.

“Stupid,” she says.

“What?” I flip through the pages.

Fox points to the headline when I get to page nine. “There it is.” He reminds me of eight-year-old Fox after we had started a super-soaker fight with Arielle, beaming like the greatest prank in the history of pranks had just been pulled off.

“Olympic Fraud—Former Olympian Joins High School Swim Team.” Right below the headline is a picture of Aaron Ryans.

Our Aaron Ryans.

“Behold, our third member of Lane Awesome.” Fox applauds.

My mouth falls open. “What?” I hold the newspaper up to my face to make sure I’ve read it correctly.

“Apparently he joined our team with a fake name.” Kristen laughs.

Amidst the herd of talented high school athletes swims a wolf in sheep’s clothing: Patrick Adams.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Seriously? Where do they find these journalists? Patrick Adams… That name sounds familiar.

“You may recognize him from being one of the youngest swimmers to qualify for the Olympics,” Arielle says to jog my memory.

“Patrick Adams…” I muse. Then I place him in my memories. “You’re right. That’s where I recognized him from.” Patrick hadbeen booted out of the Olympics for using steroids before he ever got to swim there. I’d read all the coverage of him before and after, and had been mystified that someone my age could swim so fast.

“I knew he looked familiar.” I turn to Fox. “And you thought he was a Super.”

“Hey,” Fox teases. “He was faster than both of us, wasn’t he?”