Free Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 2): The Negative Man [Stormfall] by Jeremy Croston

comic book store on Salt Water Cove we first met at.  Becky gave the glass door a few solid knocks.  The sign read operating hours of eleven to seven so I wasn’t sure why we were here.  I think she picked up on that.  “Diana gets here early.  She’ll open in just a second.”
    I still felt exposed, out in the open like this.  He could be anywhere, anybody.  I know it was only a matter of seconds, but Diana didn’t open the door fast enough.  She let us in before she asked any questions, locking it behind us.  “Becky, it’s a little early in the day for gaming.”
    “We’ve got a lot of problems Diana.  It might be best if we talked about this in the back.”
    I was cool with talking to Becky, but I wasn’t sure about Diana.  “No offense, but how can we be sure she’s trustworthy?”
    A very strange and ominous feeling came over the room.  That feeling put me under the impression that every part of my body was under some sort of extreme examination.  Nothing was hidden from anyone; all my secrets were available to whoever was doing this!  Could this be him?  Did The Negative Man have this strange power too?
    As quickly as it came, the feeling was gone.  The world was no longer invading my body, my mind.  Across from me Becky looked on with eagle like eyes.  “The reason you can trust her is no one can hide a secret from me.  My power is psychic in nature.”
    “Whoa.”  I was dumbfounded.  I’d encountered a few powered people in my life, but most of them had some physical gift.  What she’d just displayed was on another level.  “You know everything?”
    She nodded her head.  “I don’t use it often, as it takes a lot out of me to do it and it invades people’s privacy.  I hope that little display tells you both of us are trustworthy.”
    This definitely wasn’t the first time Diana had experienced this.  She was just standing there smiling like nothing had happened.  “Trust me when I say this; everything that happens here is for the betterment of the city.  There aren’t many safe havens, but this store is one of them.”
    For whatever reason, that actually made me feel more at peace than being probed by Becky’s lie detector power.  Either way, I was here and I needed help.  “As I told Becky already, I ran into The Negative Man this morning.”
    Diana threw her hand over her mouth.  “My God, how did you survive?  He’s not known for letting people get away!”
    Becky encouraged me with a look to tell the truth.  “My name is Kyle Wonderton, son of the late John Wonderton.”
    “The guy that owned Wonder-Tech downtown, right?”
    “Yeah, the same guy Diana.”  I took in a deep breath, not only revealing who I truly was but my dad’s legacy.  “You also know him as The Dark Lion.”
    The nice blonde lady fell back into a chair beside her.  “I can’t believe it, you’re really his son?”
    “He is Diana.”  She put her hand on the confused woman’s shoulder.  “This makes the situation that much more dire.”
    If only that was the only part of the bad news.  “The Negative Man, he figured it out.”  And then for my biggest blunder, “The only reason he found me was because I was doing something stupid.”
    “What were you doing at Mr. Staley’s house?”
    Apparently nothing escaped her power.  I very much needed to remember that.  “Let me start at the beginning.”  It would just save a bunch of questions.  “Right before my mom died, a family friend told me who my dad was and the reason he wasn’t with us.  That day, I learned so much about who I was and why I had these abilities.”
    Like an experiment, Becky knocked what looked to be a high priced figurine off the stand beside her.  Diana looked mortified, but it was no problem.  I caught it before it even started its descent.  My new friend looked on impressed.  “You do have your father’s powers.  Plus you just saved me from having to shell out two hundred dollars