Dating the Villain: Star Girl, #1

By Jason Krumbine

Adopted at age 4, Rose Gardens doesn't know much about her life before her parents brought her to America. She has vague memories of her time in the small orphanage in the Hunan Province of China. But none of these memories offer any explanation as to how she can fly and bend steel pipes with her bare hands.

 

Naturally, that didn't stop Rose from becoming a superhero.

 

Life is as close to perfect as Rose could imagine. She has the greatest parents, the perfect boyfriend, and her career as Star Girl has been fairly impressive.

 

With true love in her grasp, marriage may even be on the horizon for Rose and her boyfriend. But when a new villain tears into Century City, Rose finds her heart unexpectedly torn between the good man she knows she loves and the bad boy she finds herself irresistibly attracted to.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason Krumbine
• Release date: Nov 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516385928

Jason Krumbine

Jason Krumbine loves to write! He's happily married and lives in Manhattan, NY where he enjoys reading in Central Park, going to movies and discovering new stand-up comedians. You can connect with Jason at either his website, www.jasonkrumbine.com, Facebook, Twitter (@jasonkrumbine) or good ole' fashion email [e-mail]. He's always up for a talk about the newest Star Trek movie or what's happening in the world of comic books and TV. 

Book preview

1

Ouch.

I have an unusually high threshold for pain. Higher than most. Maybe not the highest of them all. But it’s pretty high. I have fond memories of being twelve years old and freaking out the neighborhood kids when I held fire in my hands. Obviously I recognize that was weird and, well, a little wrong. But it was still kind of cool. Of course, my parents didn’t think it was nearly as cool and I was grounded for almost a month after that.

That was also the same month I learned how to fly, so being grounded took on a whole new meaning for me.

I wasn’t invulnerable. Close, but not quite. Or, close enough for government work, as my dad would say. I had no idea what that meant. It was just something he said almost everyday of my childhood and he still says it to this day. I stopped wondering about it at some point. It just became part of that background vocabulary that you develop as you get older and find yourself unconsciously using.

The technical term for me was nigh-invulnerable. Which was just a fancy way of saying that the monsters would have to beat on me for a really long time before they made me bleed. And yes, that sounds about as much fun as you think it would be, which was no fun at all.

Actually, when was the last time I bled?

I took a deep breath and my upper torso ached as I rolled over. Nigh-invulnerable also, unfortunately, meant that I still felt pain. I felt less pain than I did when I was twelve. But, beat on me long enough or hit me with a big enough stick and, yeah, I was going to feel it in the morning. Or immediately afterwards.

Ow, I said to nobody. Thankfully the store that broke my fall was empty.

Sometimes I wished I felt nothing. Right now, feeling nothing would be a sweet, sweet relief.

Okay, that wasn’t completely true. I loved feeling things. I loved the sensation of a cool breeze blowing across my arms. Or my boyfriend’s kisses. Sensations were great. Pain, though, not so great. I could definitely do without the pain.

Speaking of pleasant sensations, there was something sweet on my lips. I licked them. It was…sugary? Icing? Where had I gotten knocked into?

Silverclaw. That was the last time anybody made me bleed. He dropped that rocket on me. That really hurt. I think I was bruised for weeks afterwards. I had to pretend that I was a total klutz and had tripped, falling down a flight of stairs. Which, as cover stories went for saving your secret identity, was pretty embarrassing.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position. I ran a hand across my cheek and found more icing. Where the heck had I landed?

The store around me was an absolute wreck. I was lying in a pile of…something. I couldn’t tell what it used to be, but now it was just collateral damage. Maybe a pile of tables? The walls were a frosted pink and there was a counter behind me that probably looked super cute five seconds ago. There was something about this place that felt oddly familiar…

Oh no. I knew this place. I got to my feet. This was Sprinkles, that new cupcake store. It looked totally adorable and it literally just opened. I was pretty sure this made me, like, a horrible superhero.

Something cracked somewhere on me and I realized that it wasn’t just my emotions that were feeling like crap. Yep. Nigh-invulnerable. Sounded awesome. When I was sixteen I certainly thought it was awesome when I survived the six car pileup. Now? I just felt like I got cheated.

When a giant, ten foot robot thingie punches me six blocks away into the most adorable cupcake shop ever, I absolutely felt it.

I did a quick body check. Nothing seemed to be broken and I don’t think I was bleeding. I wasn’t a hundred percent certain, but with an outfit this white, you’d notice if you were bleeding.

I was hurting, though. Just enough pain to make me say, Ouch.

I took a step towards the massive hole in the store, the one that I probably made a few seconds ago, but then stopped when I caught my reflection in some shattered glass on the ground. The slender Asian girl with the golden starburst on her chest looking back at me somehow managed to look a lot more confident than I actually felt.

White. Why did I choose a white outfit? How did I ever think that was a good idea? It never hid anything and after every fight, I almost always looked like some kind of refugee from a dystopian future. The only color on the outfit was the yellow starburst on my chest that connected with the yellow belt that wrapped around my waist. Honestly, it looked great. I loved it. My mother helped me design it. I have zero regrets.

Except for it being white. That part I regret a smidge.

Crap, I muttered. My mask was cracked down the side, almost falling off completely.

I reached up and touched the split that ran down the side of the hardshell mask that covered the top of my face. My jet black hair spilled out from the top, knotted up with dust and debris. That was gonna be a pain to clean out later.

But my mask…

That was the second worst thing to lose in the middle of a fight. Especially in a crowded area.

The ground shook and I heard the familiar whine of gears powering up as Manifold got ready for Round Two.

I pressed the two halves of my mask together and my eyes glowed bright white as two beams shot out. The thin lances of energy bounced off the glass and zipped their way up the crack in my mask, fusing it back together. It wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t pretty. Honestly, it kind of looked like a drunken welder went to work on my mask. It also took a few seconds, precious seconds, unfortunately, judging by the chaos I heard outside. But it really wasn’t going to help anyone if I went back out there without my mask and everybody found out that Star Girl was Century City University Sophomore Rose Gardens.

Yeah, that would definitely get me in the tabloids.

My parents would be so embarrassed.

2

We called him Manifold. But, to be honest, we weren’t really sure what his name was. Or even if he was a he. Maybe he was a she or an it. Nobody knew for certain.

Jupiter coined the name Manifold. He said it had something to do with a thing on the thing that looked like another thing. I had no idea what he was talking about. I tried to listen, but whenever Jupiter tried to explain anything, it always made it worse.

Whatever.

Manifold. It was as good a name as any for a ten-foot tall robot thingie. Or maybe a person inside a robot thing. Sure it sounded a little stupid, like he was some kind of spare car part. But my best friend was named Immorta. So, you know…

Speaking of friends, I could signal for backup. I probably should. But that was pointless. It’d be over before anyone got here. Unless it was Speed. He could certainly get here fast enough, assuming he wasn’t doing sixteen other things. I didn’t know about other speedsters, but Zeke was never not doing something. It’s not that he was just constantly in motion most of the time. It’s that he was, somehow, always committed to multiple things at once. Which, I get, I guess. I mean, if you can be in two places at once without shattering all of time, why not? Speed, though, he tended to be in two places at once when he really needed to be in one place at a time. The man was horrible about purposely double booking dates. Like, really super bad. I would go so far as to say it was almost another super power for him.

It didn’t matter though. I didn’t really need any help. I’m ashamed to admit it, but all I really needed to do was run out the clock. Manifold was a problem that always solved itself.

Nobody knew anything about him, or she, or it. Other than it was a giant ten-foot tall robot thingie that showed up in Century City about three months ago. It showed up, started causing all sorts of destruction and chaos. It didn’t say anything. No threats. No ultimatums. And then, after twenty minutes of fighting it just disappeared. One minute it was there and then the next, it was just gone.

Poof.

Well, maybe not, you know, poof. But, close enough.

Everybody pretty much thought that was the end of it. He was just gone. It wasn’t an ideal solution. But…you know, problem solved.

Until he or it showed up again a week or so later. Same routine. Fight, fight. Silence, silence. Twenty minutes later, gone without so much as a You’ll never catch me alive!

A few days after that, he popped back up again. Then he disappeared for another week. Then he reappeared. Once, he was gone for a whole day before coming back.

The only thing that you could count on was that the fight would be short. We just had no clue what he wanted or when he would show up again.

It was driving me crazy. Especially since I was the one who kept running into him, or it. This was how you get stuck with a rogues gallery.

Maybe I should call in for help. If nothing else maybe I could try and pawn Manifold off to somebody else. Weird robot villain thingies were right up Jupiter’s alley. He loved dealing with them. Weird science villains for a weird super genius. That sounded about right.

I stepped through the hole in Sprinkles, trying not to think about how all the tables and chairs kind of looked like giant sprinkles themselves now.

Also, I’m not gonna lie, but I was struggling with the moral question of whether or not I could sneak a cupcake from what was left behind the counter. I mean, nobody was going to notice one little cupcake missing, right? The store was completely trashed. They’d probably just chalk it up to the battle.

Manifold stood at the other end of the street, six blocks away. Thanks to the massive thickness to almost every inch of him, or it, he looked a lot bigger. Its entire surface was covered in black metal, polished to almost a painful shine. The sunlight glinted off it in the worst way. It wasn’t perfect looking, though. There were scuffs and dents from previous fights. Wherever Manifold disappeared to, nobody bothered to give it a tuneup.

I wondered if he forgot about me? Did he even remember me from our previous encounters? I’d like to think I made some kind of impression on him, you know, after fighting him on and off for the last three months.

Oh no.

Manifold was going to become my arch villain, wasn’t he? Maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to me, but it would definitely rank up there. A mindless robot monster thingie that shows up randomly to wreak havoc? That cannot possibly end up being my arch nemesis. I would literally get laughed out of the superhero community.

There was a loud whirring noise and the two fan shaped blades set into its back started spinning. A second later there were familiar blue bolts of lightning bouncing off its metal body as it charged up or whatever.

Well, that was pretty much my answer on the cupcakes. Fine. I’ll survive. I’ll fight the bad guy and an incessant craving for sweeties for the rest of the day.

I propped a foot up on a chunk of concrete that had been torn from the ground and cupped my hands around my mouth. Hey, chrome dome! I’m not done with you yet! I cracked my knuckles for effect. It was worth it. My bones were two hundred percent denser than anyone else’s. I crack my knuckles and people are going to hear it

Although, as quips go, it was a pretty stupid one. And judging by the expressions of the bystanders nearby, I think it was safe to say they thought it was pretty stupid, too. It was probably going to get featured on the ten o’clock news: What stupid thing did Star Girl say now?

I swear, I needed to learn to become the strong silent type.

Manifold didn’t even acknowledge me, though. Maybe he didn’t hear me? Maybe he did and just didn’t care?

I leapt into the air and zipped down the street at something like ninety miles an hour. At this speed, my fists felt like fifty pound concrete bricks. Or so I was told.

Manifold spun around. It moved a lot faster than anything that size should. Blue lightning sparked off what I assumed was its head or helmet. There wasn’t anything that I, or anybody else, recognized as eyes or viewpoints or whatever. Just solid black metal that was begging to be pounded to paste.

I was happy to oblige.

Manifold’s right arm came up and it spun in circles before three different spikes extended out. Blue energy raced around the spikes, making a quickly expanding circle.

Then I was hit with a massive bolt of energy that completely knocked me off my flight path.

That was…different.

3

I think I lost consciousness.

I wasn’t totally sure, though.

One second I was flying through the air, getting blasted by the weird energy from Manifold and then I was looking up at Maggie’s unusually concerned face. I had no sense of any time passing.

It was mildly disconcerting to say the least.

Hey, Maggie said.

Hey, I groaned.

I’m sure it’s not any consolation, but you certainly look better than I’m sure you feel, she said.

No, I don’t think that’s any consolation. I closed my eyes for a second. Everything was too bright. What happened?

We were hoping you could tell us, Mags said.

That was never a good answer to hear.

Margaret Nelson. At least, that’s who I knew her as. She looked like your average twenty year old woman with bleach blonde hair and blue eyes. She was a little shorter than me, but otherwise she looked perfectly normal, despite a constant look of endless boredom on her face. Only a handful of people knew Maggie was over two thousand years old. Although her codename, Immorta, was kind of a giveaway. It was amazing how often people never really noticed the obvious.

I opened my eyes again. This time around the lighting was a little more bearable. Manifold, I started to say.

That part we know about already, Mags said.

We? I sat up. Which I immediately realized was a bad idea. The entire room swam around me. Oh…boy.

You might want to lay back down. Jupiter was standing on the other side of the bed, looking concerned and more than a little excited. It was the excited part that probably concerned me the most. You were exposed to an enormous amount of graviton radiation.

He flashed something in both of my eyes. Whatever it was it did nothing but make me squint and regret waking up. I waved him away.

Stop it, I said.

I don’t know what Doctor Jupiter’s real name was. Nobody on the team did. There was a possibility that maybe Aquatica knew. Mags thought they might have had a thing going on, but I wasn’t so certain. Even if they did, I doubted that Jupiter would divulge his secret identity to her. I don’t even know if Jupiter would tell his secret identity to a stuffed doll.

If I had to take a guess, Jupiter was probably in his late twenties, maybe even early thirties. But, like his name, his proper age was a closely guarded secret. I knew he was from India, probably from around Bangladesh based on a couple of things he had said over the years, but there was no trace of an accent.

I looked around the room. I was in the med bay back at the Clubhouse. It was just the three of us. Jupiter was in what he called his ‘lab uniform,’ which basically consisted of him dressing like a slob and throwing a lab coat over it. Maggie was in plain clothes as well.

I was still dressed in my costume. So there was that. Although, I always felt like an idiot when I was the only one dressed up.

My mask was off to the side. That was okay. Both Jupiter and Mags knew my secret identity.

Jupiter shoved three fingers into my face. How many fingers am I holding up?

You don’t actually expect me to answer that, do you?

Well, if I didn’t I don’t think I would have asked the question.

I pushed his hand out of the way. Graviton radiation? I asked, holding a hand to my head. In addition to the room spinning around me, I had the makings of an awesomely bad headache.

It’s a thing he literally just made up. Maggie always sounded like nothing ever really surprised her. Everything was practically delivered in the same almost monotone voice. It was a toss up between being amusing and annoying.

I had to call it something, Jupiter replied. He sounded irritated and he probably was. The ‘doctor’ portion of his name wasn’t honorary. According to him, he held multiple doctorates. Also, according to him, he was easily one of the five smartest people on the face of the planet. If any of that was even remotely true, I had no idea what he was doing on our team.

Calling ourselves a team, though, seemed like a little bit of a stretch. We didn’t have a proper name. Not for lack of trying. There was an ongoing group text between the six of us that was literally filled with possible team names: the Betas, the Outsiders, the Rangers, the Warrior Six, Fearless Force, the Unknowable Six and so on. All the good names, the Crusaders, the League and the Alpha Squad, were taken. Classic first world superhero problem.

We didn’t even have a proper base. The Clubhouse was Jupiter’s place. It was a series of warehouses down by the water that he had been operating out of for a couple of years. If anybody had a better place to hang out, nobody ever mentioned it.

Maybe we were more like a small community group of like minded people who hung out every so often. Which, pretty much sounds like an actual team.

A form of unknown radiation, Mags said. You could have called it that. Because that’s what it is.

That’s a mouthful. Jupiter checked the readings on the screen attached to the bed. I discovered it. I should be able to call it whatever I want to call it.

Their argument wasn’t going to help my headache.

What happened? I asked again.

You don’t remember? Mags asked.

I remember fighting Manifold. I laid back down, resting my head against a pillow that was, despite anything Jupiter said, one hundred percent uncomfortable.

Yeah, Jupiter said. We saw that on the six o’clock news.

I jolted upright. Which, again, was a really bad idea. I gripped the edge of the bed in an effort to stop the room from spinning. "The six o’clock news?"

Mags gestured to the TV on the wall across from us. They were playing amateur footage of my fight. That’s how we found out.

That was this morning, I said. How long have I been unconscious?

Well, obviously since this morning, Jupiter said, completely oblivious to my tiny emotional freak out.

Mags reached across the bed and punched him in the arm.

What? He looked up from his readings. It is what it is.

Emergency services found you buried in the rubble of some office building two hours ago, Maggie said. They contacted Jupiter. Nobody has your identity. We kept everything locked down.

"Crap. I was just lying there for hours?" I asked.

Well…

Maggie and Jupiter shared a look.

What was that? I asked.

What was what? Maggie asked, obviously trying to pretend something else wasn’t going on.

That look, I said.

There was no look.

There was definitely a look. I saw it. Between the two of you. What aren’t you telling me?

They did it again.

Oh, come on, guys, I said. Clearly something else happened.

I don’t know why we’re beating around the bush, Jupiter said.

Because- Maggie started.

You weren’t actually in the rubble, Jupiter said.

You just said I was, I replied.

"Yes, that’s where you were found. But that’s not where you were."

I looked back and forth between them. I’m confused. What are you talking about?

Emergency services had cleared the area you were found in hours prior and you weren’t there, Maggie said. Two hours ago, though, you reappeared.

I really don’t understand, I said.

Jupiter made an irritated noise. I don’t know what’s so confusing. For the better part of eight hours, you were someplace else.

Someplace else? I repeated. Where?

We weren’t there, Jupiter said. How should we know?

You’re doing a fantastic job here, Maggie said.

I’m a scientist, Jupiter said. I’m not here to provide warm, cuddly hugs and stuff.

And stuff? Maggie raised an eyebrow.

Jupiter rolled his eyes and looked at me. Look, Rose, we simply don’t know where you were after your fight with Manifold. One second you were there and the next, you were gone for eight hours. Then you just reappeared in a pile of rubble. I would say you got lucky, but we have no idea what happened. According to my readings you weren't even unconscious.

What does that mean? I asked.

Jupiter looked at Maggie. Am I speaking English? I feel like I’m speaking English. I hear myself speaking English but I know that sometimes it sounds like I'm not. Is this one of those times.

Maggie ignored him. When they found you, your eyes were wide open, but you were completely unresponsive.

Okay, well, that’s a little creepy.

Creepy. Sure.