Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls]

by VanDerHeyden, Paul C.

  ‘You don’t want to leave, you’re just being sensitive. I can tell,’ Kat sends Theo.

  ‘I’m just tired, let me go to my room.’ Theo looks at her with puppy-dog eyes.

  ‘Fine, but I’ll come and find you before I go to bed,’ Kat sends with a small frown.

  The lock clicks and Theo almost topples backward as the door flings into the dorm.

  “Weird, this is a brand new door.” Dante gets up to look at the door, trying to see what might have gotten stuck.

  “I’ll see you guys later.” Theo tosses a peace sign over his shoulder as he heads out to find his own room.

  “I feel like this is going to be a big year for all of us,” Dante posits after sitting back down. He looks at where Theo was sitting, the chocolate is still there, unopened.

  Dante goes to speak, but Kat cuts him off. “Don’t worry about Theo, I’ll get him back to normal by tomorrow. Trust me,” she licks her fingers clean of chocolate residue.

  “Nice decorations, I see you have the new Nightmare poster.”

  The poster in question shows Nightmare in her all-black tight superhero outfit, posed in front of an FSA emblem.

  “Yeah, I couldn’t help it, I had to get it when I saw that she changed her mask this time. See, the eye holes are cut at different angles than usual. Much more angular,” he says while holding out a picture for reference.

  “Wow, you’re right, they are different,” Kat says with a bit of apprehension in her voice.

  I didn’t ask for any changes to my mask, I wonder what happened with that. I mean I did get a new suit last week, but I asked for the same thing I had before, just a bit bigger in the chest. Stupid late-blooming. I’ll have to ask about that next time I go to Professor Tenzi’s lab.

  “Yeah, the fansite for her is all atwitter about it, it lends her a renewed air of mystery,” Dante says with confidence. His eyes gleam, Kat doesn’t even have to use her telepathic or empathic powers to see the lust in them.

  “Ah... I see,” Kat says as she gets up from the couch and starts toward the door. “I’m going to go and see Theo. I don’t want him to go to sleep bummed out.”

  Dante gets up and opens the door for Kat. “Good luck with Theo.”

  Kat waves and leaves Dante’s room. When she looks back at his room, Dante is staring at his Nightmare poster again.

  Chapter 4: The Letter

  Theo leaves Dante’s room and heads down the hall to his room. The door is identical to Dante’s, the only exception being the nameplate that reads “Theodore Long”. He holds up his student ID and the lock clicks open. He opens the door and looks inside the room. A blank apartment, dimensions just like Dante’s, but not personalized at all. The light grey walls lend a neutral feel to the room.

  Wait, what’s that? Theo thinks as he looks over at the mini-fridge.

  A slate grey envelope is sitting on top of it with a rainbow wax seal over the flap. Theo walks over to the mini-fridge and picks up the envelope, there is something under the rainbow wax seal. Theo grabs a knife from the silverware drawer in the kitchenette and uses it to peel up the wax seal gently.

  Under the wax seal is a Chinese character 龙, which means Long, or Dragon. Theo knows that from an anthropology class Freshman year, he had to look into his own name. The character is made of some kind of thick material, it overlaps both flaps of the envelope. It looks like it was what was originally used to keep the envelope closed.

  Under the envelope is a folded piece of paper, no bigger than an index card, 3”x5” or so. Theo’s eyes flick back to the rainbow wax seal, pressed in it is a small sentence, Read the note before opening the envelope - IS.

  Theo sets the envelope down, picks up the note, and unfolds it. Contained is a letter written in Iris’ wild handwriting. Theo grasps the letter tighter and sits down on the couch to read it.

  Dearest Teddy (I know you prefer Theo, but you’ll always be my Teddy Bear),

  You have grown into such a wonderful young man, I know you’re only 16, but you care for the children so well that they think of you as a father figure. I couldn’t be more proud of you if I had given birth to you myself.

  Teardrops streak across some of the lower words, though they remain legible.

  I made a promise 16 years ago to give you that letter, but I didn’t promise to make you read it. The contents of that letter will set you on a path of no return. I only glanced at it 16 years ago and have had to physically stop myself from opening it or destroying it for years.

  That letter was dropped off a week after we took you in at the orphanage with a note on it saying, “Take good care of Theodore Long until he turns 16, then give him this letter.” It came with a check for enough money that we would no longer need to ask for donations.

  Imagine our surprise, this was mere weeks after we brought you into our care, we had named you only days before. At the time we had only given you the name Theodore, we hadn’t decided on a last name yet.

  Tears roll down Theo’s face, joining Iris’ tear marks on the note.

  I decided to ignore the letter, but to give it to you in 16 years as requested. Over the years I have cursed my weakness in taking that money, I even tried to burn the letter once, but it wouldn’t burn, it just glowed and the fire went out, leaving the letter undamaged. With this, my conscience is clean.

  No matter what you do, you will always be my Teddy Bear.

  I love you so much,

  Your mom,

  Iris “Spectrum” Spectum (This is written in rainbow ink.)

  P.S. I hope to see you at home on Saturday for lunch.

  Chapter 5: Awakening

  Kat shivers after leaving Dante’s, more than mildly, creepy Cape den.

  I’m going to have to talk to Theo about that, his fixation on Nightmare makes me uncomfortable.

  She heads down the hall towards Theo’s room. When she gets to Theo’s door she knocks gently, which elicits no response. She knocks more firmly, still nothing. She puts her ear to the door and hears sobbing sounds that are all too familiar.

  It’s been years, but she would never forget Theo’s grief when Iris’ husband, a Cape named The Elementalist, was killed in a battle with Necro, a Cowl with necrotic powers. It was five years ago and Kat still remembers how hard Theo cried that day.

  Without a second thought, Kat reaches for the handle of the door on the inside with her powers. She finds it in a second and opens the door. Kat walks in through the partially open door and sees Theo balled up on the couch, grasping a note like it was the most precious item in the world, an envelope lying forgotten on the coffee table in front of him, seemingly unopened with a rainbow seal on it.

  Theo never called Iris “Mom”, because he didn’t think she would like it. As he lay there, crumpled into a ball on the couch, he didn’t hear his door click open.

  “You okay, Theo? I tried knocking and you didn’t say anything, so I let myself in,” Kat says as she looks at Theo with eyes full of concern.

  “Mom left me a note,” Theo sobs, extending the note toward Kat with a shaking hand.

  “Your birth mom?” Kat exclaims. “I thought you only had your name from them. Where did this come from?”

  “Just read it,” Theo says as he collects himself and makes room for Kat on the couch. “Oh, and close the door, I don’t want anyone else to see me like this.”

  Kat closes the door with a soft Click and walks over to the couch and sits down next to Theo, she puts an arm around him as she sits down. She grabs the note that Theo offers her and begins to read it. Kat tears up a bit at the end and wipes away the tears, leaving streaks in her minimal makeup.

  “You owe me for this.” Kat points at her face, streaked as it was. “I put on makeup one day a year and you somehow mess that up for me.” She gently bumps Theo in the shoulder.

  “Sorry about that,” Theo breathes, head down.

  “It’s okay, I’ll get over it... and… I’m there. So, what’s in the envelope?” She points at the forgot
ten envelope on the table.

  “I don’t know, I’m afraid to open it. I love my life as it is, even more now that I have someone to call Mom. I don’t need anything from my birth family, they’ve done nothing for me so far,” Theo stonily replies, glaring at the letter.

  “You owe it to Iris to open it, she may not have promised you would read it, but that was the spirit of the request.” Kat grabs the letter and offers it to Theo.

  “Fine, but only because I want to honor Mom’s request.” Theo tests out how “Mom” sounds, it sounds good, at least to him, and that’s what matters.

  He grabs the letter and tries to rip it open. This envelope is the toughest material he has ever messed with, he couldn’t even break the seam, let alone damage the envelope itself.

  “Well, that didn’t go as planned,” Theo mutters under his breath as he pulls the letter out of the envelope.

  The letter inside is made of the same strange material as the envelope. Written on the letter is a single Chinese character. It’s written using a strange golden ink and says which means Earth.

  Theo looks at the paper and says, “Earth?”

  Kat hears Theo say something in some language she doesn’t know.

  Yellowish-tan energy and light explodes out of the letter and Theo himself, filling the room and blinding Kat. Theo screams as the energy leaves his body through every pore and orifice, it feels like every part of his body is exploding, all at once. He Lifts off of the floor, hovering a foot off of the ground.

  “Theo! Are you okay!?” Kat scrambles to her feet in a panic.

  The only response Kat gets back is Theo’s continuous screaming. As Kat watches, Theo’s body rebuilds itself from the DNA up. The sound of muscles tearing and bones cracking is horrifying.

  As she moves to help him, the door leading to the hall bursts open and the walls and doors flash a bright blue color. Kiloton and The Wave, a local Cape with water-based abilities, stride into the room. Kiloton slams the door shut and The Wave creates a shield of blue energy around Kat, Kiloton, and herself.

  The energy exploding out of Theo bounces off of the blue energy as water does off of hot oil, violently bouncing back at him. Theo feels like he is going to explode from taking all of this energy in. After a minute, the energy stops hurting and it starts to feel like a million volts of electricity shooting through his body. The strange thing is, it doesn’t hurt, it feels like the energy is not only healing the damage from earlier, but building his body back better than before.

  After ten minutes of energy bursting out of his body, Theo flops down through the coffee table, dead asleep, and the energy recedes into his body. The coffee table lies destroyed beneath Theo’s snoring form.

  “What was that?!” Kat yells at Kiloton and The Wave.

  “Old power, older and stronger than any I have seen in my career as a Cape.” The Wave starts to fall until Kiloton catches her and eases her to the floor.

  “Let us wait a few minutes for our friend, The Wave, to catch her breath before we do anything rash,” Kiloton advises while looking over his old friend.

  Chapter 6: The Headmistress

  An hour later, around 8 p.m. or so, Theo, Kat, Kiloton, and The Wave are standing in Femme-Fatale’s office, which is located on the first floor of RSCA. Seated in the high wingback desk chair is Femme-Fatale, the headmistress of RSCA. Femme-Fatale is an old Cowl turned Cape, the rumor is that she “turned” Cape because she fell in love with Gentle-Man. Gentle-Man stands behind her right shoulder, his trademark cane gently grasped in front of him.

  Femme-Fatale is an older woman who carries her years with grace, her grey hair is pulled up into a bun, and her suit and skirt are perfectly pressed. She is the picture of a gentlewoman or lady. Gentle-Man is much the same, though he is older than his bride by a few years, they don’t show. He is dressed in a tophat and nice five piece suit in the colors of RSCA: black, silver, red, and blue. They not only act as the head administrators and founders of RSCA, they also act as security should a Cowl come and start making trouble.

  Femme-Fatale looks annoyedly at the group. “Well, was it contained?”

  “Yes, though it cost me a portal chip to get it done quickly,” Kiloton reported.

  “A small cost for containing an explosion that would have wiped out that floor, good job son.”

  “Thank you, ma'am,” Kiloton beams.

  A small Clink comes from Kiloton, where a small pin sticks out of his shoulder.

  “Ma’am…we talked about this, I adopted you, call me either Mom or Mother, though you know which of those I prefer,” Femme-Fatale clicks her tongue.

  “Sorry Mom,” an ashamed Kiloton hangs his head.

  “No matter. Who did it come from? I’m going to assume it’s the boy who is still glowing slightly and whose clothes no longer fit correctly?” Femme-Fatale indicates Theo, who is holding up his pants with a belt that extends quite a bit from its trip around his waist.

  Kat looks at Femme-Fatale. “What was the explosion?”

  Femme-Fatale looks at Kat quizzically. “That was what ancient Chinese cultivators would have called ‘Draconic Awakening’.” She frowns slightly as her gaze pans from Kat to Theo, “You were dealt a tough path boy.”

  Theo looks at the headmistress with wide eyes. “You know what happened to me? Can you explain it to me? All I saw was…”

  Femme-Fatale stops Theo mid-sentence with a glare. “It’s best if what happened in your room tonight remains something that is not spoken aloud. Suffice to say, you are going to be entering the realm of Capes and Cowls, whether you like it or not.”

  Femme-Fatale looks at Theo with something resembling pity. “I’m sorry son, this is not going to be an easy road for you, though little miss Nightmare here will be able to ease your path if you trust her to do so.”

  Kat looks at Femme-Fatale with confusion on her face. “What do you mean ‘little miss Nightmare’ headmistress? I’m no Cape, I’m just an orphan.”

  “Do you think I’m blind, girl? You’ve been coming to this school since you were five, I’ve known about your powers longer than you have!” The headmistress laughs. “Then, when you wanted to learn about your powers you went to my best friend, Professor Tenzi, to ask for a suit. Then to top it off, you showed up in the suit for training during my ‘Anonymous’ evening training sessions.”

  Kat, her face moving from confusion to horror, looks at Femme-Fatale and then at Theo, “I thought I was being so careful! I bet everyone knows and is just being nice…” Kat grumbles as her shoulders sag and she slumps against Theo.

  Theo looks at her with caring eyes. “I’m at least sure that Dante doesn’t know. He raves about

  Nightmare way too much while we’re all together. If he knew, he would be more subtle.”

  Gentle-Man nods, “I can confirm that Mr. Anton does not know of Miss Navarro’s secret identity. He asked me last week during speech prep if I knew who Nightmare was, he was convinced she was some kind of model with her... figure.” Kat blanches. “I didn’t dissuade him of that notion.”

  Kat sighs and a bit of color returns to her face. “Thank you, sir.”

  “You are most welcome dear,” says a smiling Gentle-Man.

  “Enough, I assume both of you are heading home for the rest of the weekend, correct?” Femme-Fatale asks with an eyebrow raised.

  Theo and Kat both nod slowly. “Yes, Headmistress, I have a few things to talk about with Iris, correction...Mom, about when I get home,” Theo says, starting out with a small timid voice and growing more confident as he remembers the note he read before opening the letter.

  Mom is waiting for me at home!

  “I’ll take you home, it is growing late,” Gentle-Man says as he walks toward them. “Kiloton, good work, go back to dinner. Ms. Wave, we appreciate your assistance in this matter, we would appreciate it if you would refrain from mentioning this to anyone?” Gentle-Man says with his trademark “Gentle Smile”.

  Without missing a beat, the Wave sa
ys, “I wouldn’t dream of it, I’d rather not know about it myself, to be honest. Too much responsibility.” The Wave pants. “That took quite a bit out of me, I’ll call my son to pick me up as well.”

  That kid is just too powerful, I hope he ends up on our side...

  “Thank you, Ms. Wave.” Gentle-Man doffs his hat to her. “Come, children, I will take you home.”

  As they leave Femme-Fatale’s office Theo looks over at Gentle-Man. “By the way, what’s a portal chip?”

  Chapter 7: Home Sweet RAINBOW

  The ride back to RAINBOW is quiet, not many people are willing or able to interfere with the Gentle-Van, a reinforced electric Mercedes van.

  “Have a nice weekend children and don’t be late again on Monday!” Gentle-Man chides them before he drives away from Theo and Kat.

  “Sounds good,” Theo says.“No promises,” Kat jokes, which elicits a glare from Theo.

  ‘What? I can’t promise something won’t come up, I’m a Cape you know!’ Kat thinks at Theo while laughing.

  ‘I guess,’ Theo thinks back while sighing. ‘Let’s go inside.’

  Kat saunters through the front door of “The Bow” like she doesn’t have a single care in the world, looking for all the world like nothing interesting happened today.

  Theo follows her in the door, watching her a bit more intently than usual. She did seem to be growing into her figure lately…

  Stop it! She’s your best friend. Theo shakes his head. Mind out of the gutter man.

  Kat looks back with an expression that says, “Need something?” Theo replies by shaking his head.

  “Welcome back!” Iris happily greets Theo and Kat when they enter the bustling kitchen, “Have you eaten?”

  A dozen kids are all eating at once in the background, some with obvious mutations. Those mutations include purple fur, cat eyes/ears, and one kid who has a dome on his head full of water. Other kids here have powers, but those kids’ mutations are the visible ones. A delectable scent leaks from the oven.