Free West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide by K.M. Johnson-Weider

else, and I wish Paradigm
Shift the best of luck in the Super Draft,” lied Cosmic Kid. Elle had dumped
him because he was ‘boring’ which was even worse than the common opinion that
she had cheated on him with Paradigm Shift.
    “Sources say that
you broke up because you were gay.”
    Cosmic Kid was
getting frustrated. He knew that Paradigm Shift was the one who had started
that rumor. “No.”
    “That’s fine, so
then why aren’t you and Neo-Mermaid, a.k.a. Danny Chase, dating?”
    “We’re just friends.
We met in 2010 when we co-chaired the Super Teen Committee on Poverty and have
been friends ever since, but nothing more,” said Cosmic Kid, who hoped Robin
would switch to something else, like his charity work. He was also nervous
talking about Danny as she
was
gay and that was sort of secret. Sure Teen Orlando knew, but they didn’t want
to broadcast it. Not that it really mattered being gay or straight, but
supposedly it did affect revenue generation.
    “In December the two
of you went to the Bahamas together?”
    “We were with a
group of friends. Seriously, Robin, I would know if I was dating Danny and
we’re not dating.” Cosmic Kid hoped to deflect the conversation as one of their
friends on the trip had actually been Danny’s girlfriend. No doubt it made
sense to the media that if he wasn’t dating Danny Chase, the All-American Girl,
then it probably meant he was gay or a eunuch after some fight with a supervillain.
But what did any of that really matter? Robin should be asking about his
charity work or heroics rather than harping on his dating life.
    She paused and
Cosmic Kid hoped the interview was over. It wasn’t going well; in fact, it was
going very poorly. He saw that Paradigm Shift was already done with Soft Ball
Becky and heading backstage. However, he wasn’t going to get off that easily it
appeared.
    “So Cosmic Kid, your
mother died nine years ago when you were ten. How do you think she would feel
about you being at the Super Draft?”
    “I don’t know. I
suspect she would be proud of me and also quite sad because she’s dead and
couldn’t be here. Anyway, I need to get moving along so I don’t hold up the
schedule.” He was done with this crap.
    She smiled but apparently
couldn’t let him have the last word. “One last question: who do you think is
going to get the top three spots of the Super Draft?”
    “I think that the
Bayou Brigade will use their #1 pick to get a heavy hitter to replace Cauldron
who is retiring at the end of this Season. Among the heavy hitters in the
Draft, I would suspect them to take Sandbar, Longhorn, or Ursa Minor. My bet is on Ursa Minor. Manhattan Supers are
a large team so they specialize more than most teams and I think Quillow is a good fit. She’s probably the smartest person
in the Draft as she has two PhDs and is also one of the best brawlers. Finally,
Tampa Bay is looking for a franchise super to take the place of Corsair when he
retires in 2015. For franchise supers they might be looking at Wonder Boy,
Flash Freeze, or they might take a chance on someone like Paradigm Shift or
myself.”
    Robin looked at him
incredulously. “So you are predicting… Ursa Minor, Quillow , and maybe yourself as the #1, #2, and #3 picks?
Besides you at #3 I don’t think I have heard anyone mentioning Ursa Minor and Quillow in the top
of the Draft.”
    “Yes, it’s a shame
the so-called experts don’t know the super teens as well as they should, but
what can you do?” said Cosmic Kid with a smile. His predictions were pretty much
garbage, but if he were selecting super teens for a team he would take his
friends Ursa Minor and Quillow over Paradigm Shift and Wonder Boy, who were projected to go #1 and #2. It
wasn’t all about the powers.
    “Well, we’ll see how
your picks hold up in a few days,” said Robin Traverse with a hint of a smirk.
“Good luck on the Super Draft, Cosmic Kid.”
    “Nice talking to
you, Robin,” he replied.
    Cosmic
Kid