“Here I thought that I had the best order with a steak mole burrito, I forgot about the Nacho Experience.” Theo laughs.
A short brunette Latina, in the green and white Maria’s uniform, approaches the table.
“Hi, my name is Lupe, I’ll be your server today.” Lupe looks down at the drinks. “What’s everyone drinking?”
“Pepsi,” Kat replies.
“Tea,” Theo says after finishing his sip.
“Root Beer,” Dante chokes, having just chugged the bottom half of his glass. “I’d like another one when you get a chance.”
Lupe smiles, though it doesn’t reach her eyes. “One check?” she says with hope in her voice.
“Yep,” Theo replies, cutting off Dante. “My treat.”
Lupe smiles for real this time and takes their orders, Theo orders a Nacho Experience like Kat, who talks him into it. Dante gets a plate of three beef, three chicken, and three fish tacos, all with ghost pepper sauce. Lupe stares at Dante before writing all of that down. She replaces Dante’s Root Beer and then puts their order in.
“So, Kat, what classes do you have this year? Do we have any classes together?” Dante says as he holds out a laminated index card-sized print-out of his schedule to her.
Kat puts the card between her and Theo, grabbing a wrinkled and folded up schedule from her pocket to compare. Theo grabs his schedule from his wallet and puts it next to his two friends’.
“Looks like you and Theo have AP Chemistry together. We just have Spanish for Spanish speakers together. Theo and I have Trig and English together. Oh, and we all have Civics together at 8 a.m. each day, yuck,” Kat says as she sits back in her seat.
Theo looks at the schedules more closely and notices something, “Hey, it looks like we all have Independent Study from 1:00 to 3:00 each day. That feels pretty long. Oh! The room number is the same, at least we’ll be there together, so that’s nice.”
“What?!” Dante exclaims, he reaches over and grabs all of the schedules and pores over them, staring directly at the spots for Independent Study. “It’s real… All right, I guess I’ll see you guys in Civics first thing, don’t be late.” He stares into both Theo and Kat’s eyes when he says that. His gaze seemed to bore into their very souls.
Theo feels his scales start to flare up a bit at the stare.
That’s weird, that’s only happened when I was in danger before.
‘Do you get the feeling he’s mad?’ Theo sends to Kat.
‘Yeah, he’s radiating anger like a miniature sun,’ Kat replies. ‘We should change the subject.’
At that point, Lupe comes over with their plates, loaded high with food. “Enjoy!” she beams.
The trio digs into the food with gusto.
Around 15 minutes later, “I can’t eat another bite,” Dante says, having eaten all nine of his tacos.
“Same,” Kat says, in front of her is her plate with a napkin on top of it. She ate 90% of her Nacho Experience, leaving only the bottom layer of sodden chips behind.
“I mean, I could go for some churros or something, but seeing as I’m paying, I don’t need them,” Theo jokes, the plate his Nacho experience came on is clean of everything but the remnants of queso on the plate.
Theo catches the eye of Lupe, while she moves about her tables, and makes the head movement that says, “Hey, I need you to come over when you get a chance.”
Lupe comes over and passes the bill to Theo on her way back to the kitchen. Theo nods at her. He opens the bill and reads it. He pulls his wallet out and puts a few bills in the folder and closes it.
Okay, that’s not as bad as I thought, no one got any appetizers.
“All right, we’re good to go, guys. I left the tip in there,” Theo says.
Dante and Kat both grab their drinks and pound the rest of them, Theo finished his drink a few minutes ago and neglected to get another refill.
“I parked over here,” Dante leads Theo and Kat toward the side door.
Dante drives a matte black Firebird with red and white pinstriping. The car looks fast sitting still and Dante's street racing winnings prove it. He pops open the passenger door and pushes the seat forward.
“In the back you go, Theo, you know the rules.” Dante has a rule about girls sitting in the front seat if they were in the car.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you. It's still a stupid rule.” Theo slips into the back with no issues, which is a step up from how it used to be, losing all that weight when he Awakened is great!
“Did you lose some weight, Theo?” Dante asks as he fixes Kat’s seat.
“Yeah, almost 100 lbs, crazy right!” Theo says enthusiastically.
“Congrats,” Dante says with an odd tone in his voice.
Unbeknownst to Theo, Kat takes a peek at Dantes thoughts at this point.
His thoughts are seething with a barely contained rage: I have to work even harder now, I can't let him beat me.
Kat recoils a bit before catching herself and passing it off as a shiver.
Dante's been off lately, I hope he mellows out during the school year.
“Iris gave us cash to get him a new wardrobe too,” Kat says while rubbing her fingers together in the universal “Money” gesture. She gets into the car and closes her door.
“Nice, let's get going,” Dante says as he swings into the car, closes the door with a thud, and starts the engine.
‘CRAP, we forgot to get Mom’s suit fixed!’ Theo telepathically yells at Kat.
‘OMG! We are so busted,’ Kat sends back. A moment later, ‘Wait... I have an idea.’
“Dante, I need to drop something off at RSCU for an AP course I worked on this Summer. Can we stop there?” Kat asks sweetly, batting her long eyelashes.
Dante looks at Kat with a hint of suspicion. “Sure, I didn’t know you were taking AP courses yet, let alone over the summer...good for you, colleges like to see things like that.”
‘Nice,’ Theo sends to Kat. 'Don't lay it on so thick next time though, you want him to help you, not make out with you.
'No man can resist my feminine wiles, especially not Dante, he's so girl crazy right now that he'd date any girl who asked him out. I wish he'd notice how Maka looks at him. She's gaga over him.'
'He's a lucky guy, Maka's great. They'd be a cute couple.'
Chapter 20: Professor Tenzi
Dante pulls up to the RSCU main campus in his Firebird, stopping along the sidewalk in front of the gates. Kat gets out onto the sidewalk and pulls her seat forward, releasing Theo.
"We'll be back in a few minutes, if you want to get going, we can get home from here, it's just a 10-minute walk," Kat says as she leans back into the car.
"You and I both know RAINBOW is across the lake from here. I'll park over there," Dante points at the 1-hour parking spot across the street by the university bookstore. "I'll stay for an hour, if you're not back, I'll shoot you a text and go home. Deal?"
Kat looks over at Theo who shrugs. "That should work. Thanks, Dante. You didn't have to do that for us."
"Thanks, man, I appreciate it." Theo nods appreciatively.
"Any time, you guys are my best friends. I'll just take a nap or something," Dante says as he puts the Firebird in drive and pulls away smoothly from the curb.
Riverside City University, or RSCU as it is more commonly known, is designed to look like a medieval castle and a modern style building mated and gave birth to the building before Theo and Kat. The doors are made of glass, which is actually a form of advanced polycarbonate, giving it a feeling of welcoming people in. The floors are done in some kind of reinforced concrete in most places, polished to a mirror sheen. The building that Theo and Kat are heading toward is where Professor Tenzi's lab is located.
"I've only been here twice, hopefully, we don't get lost." Kat grins sheepishly at Theo.
"That smile breeds confidence," Theo jokes. "Don't worry, I can feel out the area and head toward the nearest person moving around in the right direction."
"
That's a useful power," Kat says appreciatively.
“The term, I’m told, is Tremorsense. If something is in contact with the ground within 100 meters, I can see it if I focus on it.” Theo pulls his bag up onto his shoulder a bit higher. “I used it the other day at the pharmacy to figure out what was going on.”
Theo and Kat head into Tenzi Hall which is the main science building for RSCU. The atrium is huge, with vaulted ceilings and hallways leading left, right, and straight ahead. This building’s style focuses more on the medieval style than the rest of the university, traditional oak doors can be seen all the way down the hall.
Kat leads Theo down the right hallway, toward Professor Tenzi’s private wing. Their footsteps ring off of the marble floors, echoing in the still air of the empty halls. Professor Tenzi is a weird dichotomy, she helps develop some of the most advanced technology on the planet, but prefers to be surrounded by traditional materials instead of her arguably superior creations.
“I’ve never been here during the day, the building always has this silent creepy feel when I come here,” Kat says as she grabs hold of Theo’s arm and pulls him to her side.
“Big scaredy Kat,” Theo jokes, but he doesn’t shake her off.
Kat snorts, “That was a terrible pun.”
“You know you love it, I haven’t used it since we were kids. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion, this seemed to fit the bill.” Theo stops. “Hold on.”
Theo focuses for a moment and then a wave of… awareness floods out of him through his feet.
“I can feel one person moving around in a big room at the end of this hallway, but there are two other people approaching quickly toward that room from outside. I think they might be trying to break into Professor Tenzi’s lab,” Theo pulls Kat into an alcove where another door is. He focuses on his Suit and it covers his body in less than a second, leaving only his head exposed.
“Two things, first, that’s not fair. It takes me so long to get into my suit in the morning when I get ready! Second, those two have no idea what they’re walking into, we should hurry up so we can watch!” Kat pulls Theo toward the end of the hall. “I hear she has so many different defense mechanisms, no one has seen the same one twice!”
“I’ll be keeping my suit on, thank you very much, and you should get into yours too, just to be safe.” Theo resists Kat’s pulls, remaining still. “I’ll look away, you can get ready here.” Theo blushes at the thought of Kat getting into her Suit behind his back, the temptation to look would be irresistible.
Kat lightly slaps Theo on the arm. “You perv! I don’t have to be able to read minds to see where your mind went just now,” she replies with a raised voice. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m already in my suit.” Kat slips off her small purse, black mini dress, and hightops, revealing the Nightmare suit, but not all of it, just a black unitard with a domino mask between the breasts.
“Where’s the rest of it? Not that I’m complaining about the unitard look, you’ve got the figure for it!” Theo jokes, not really thinking about how it might sound.
She looks amazing like that… Yeah, now that I think about it, I’m not comfortable with her looking like that in public, people might get ideas… What am I thinking about? We’re best friends...
“I’m glad to hear that you approve, perv,” Kat says as she puts the domino mask on. When she does, the sleeves and legs of the now-familiar Nightmare costume form from the unitard. “But I prefer the full coverage look. Gotta love Claw Nanotech.”
“Fair enough,” Theo laughs. “Let's head in.” Theo wills his helmet to form around his head.
Jin and Nightmare approach the door to Professor Tenzi’s lab, inside they can hear the sound of someone pacing on the marble floor. To the right of the door are a retinal scanner and an intercom with a button below it.
Nightmare walks up to the intercom and presses the button. “Hey Prof? It’s Nightmare, would you let me in please, I brought the new guy with me.” She gives Jin an odd look.
‘Well? What are you waiting for? Introduce yourself,’ Kat sends to Theo. ‘Cape name obviously.’
Jin leans into the intercom and pushes the button. “Hi...Professor Tenzi? My name is Jinlong, I’d love to meet you—” A voice from inside the room cuts Jin off.
“Come in, come in, the cocoa is getting cold,” says the voice from inside the room. The door clicks a couple of times, the locks disengaging, followed by a puff of air as the door opens on its own.
Inside the door is a massive room with the aforementioned marble floors. The floor is a gorgeous white marble with a central medallion with a symbol on it. Metal work tables make up most of the outer ring of the room, with notable exceptions being the wall of windows and the doors leading out of this massive chamber. Jin and Nightmare step into the room.
Jin stares at the central medallion, or at least the symbol on it. It is the Chinese symbol for eternity, 宙. Jin glances up and sees Professor Tenzi working at a table near the door. She is petite, with a blonde pixie cut. Her skin tone is a light bronze and anthic folds cover the corners of her brownish-golden eyes.
I don’t know why, but she feels dangerous, like some part of me deep inside is afraid and screaming “danger”. I also feel a deep desire to sit down and have tea with her for some reason… I’ll play this one by ear.
Shaking off the feeling of dread. “Hi, I’m Jinlong, Jin for short, it’s a pleasure to meet you. By the way, do you know about the two people who are coming up along those windows?” Jin offers his hand for her to shake.
Taking his hand in a surprisingly tight grip. “I am indeed aware of them. I was wondering which of my traps they would trigger, it’s not often that someone is stupid enough to try and break into MY lab. Nightmare dear, would you be a peach and figure out who these idiots are?” Professor Tenzi asks sweetly.
“Of course, Professor, let me look.” Nightmare stands still with her left hand at her temple. “It looks like it’s Slapshot and Spitfire. Huh, she’s not flying in, that’s weird... Oh gross, it looks like they’re a couple now. She was on her way to going, Hood too. Damnit!” Theo shakes his head in disappointment.
Slapshot is very tall with blonde hair and rough features. His legal name is Timothy Wheeler, he was an NHL enforcer for the Riverside Rivermen until he put another player into a coma with a dirty hit, that player eventually died. He lost his contract, his career, and his wife, Jenna, all at one time. He turned Cowl after he used the rest of his money on a black market power serum, it gave him the ability to charge items and make them explode. He chooses to use that power to make exploding hockey pucks.
Spitfire is a brunette bombshell, both in appearance and attitude. Her waist length brown hair accentuates her petite form. Her powers include flame production and manipulation, she uses those in conjunction to fly. Recently, she has been seen fighting alongside Steaming Betty, a local Cape with steam powers. Theo and Kat were rooting for her to go Cape, but they would have settled for Hood.
“It looks like they’re less stupid than I thought, they heard about my anti-air defenses. I blasted Highrise out of the sky when he tried robbing me. One good shot and he was down for the count.” Professor Tenzi laughs. “Well, what brings you here at this late hour?”
“Spectrum asked us to get you to fix this.” Nightmare pulls Iris’ suit out of her backpack, “These holes here to be specific.” She points at the holes near the Spectrum emblem.
“Ah, so it wasn’t to show off your new boy toy?” Professor Tenzi reaches out and takes the suit from Nightmare. “How disappointing.”
“Boy toy?” Jin’s helmet quirks an eyebrow, matching his face inside and giving Nightmare a questioning look. Theo glances at a nearby mirror and sees that his helmet matches his facial expressions.
Neat, I guess that will be useful so I don’t scare people when I rescue them.
“B-b-b-boy t-t-t-toy?!?! No-no-no-no!” Kat stutters over those three words worse than Theo can remember in the last de
cade. “Jin is just a comrade in arms, a potential teammate. I wanted him to meet you, that’s all. This was a huge mistake!!! Jin let’s go, we did what we promised, we dropped off Spectrum’s suit.” Nightmare stumbles toward the door before catching herself. She grabs Jin’s hand on her way by him, she tugs his hand and he comes without a fight.
“I guess this is good-bye for now, Professor,” Jin says as he’s dragged out the door behind Nightmare. He follows behind Nightmare with a big grin on his face and his helmet.
“I look forward to it Jinlong,” Professor Tenzi smiles as the door closes behind Theo and Kat.
More tea vibes here, less danger, so it seems like maybe she likes me? I don’t know.
‘You okay, Kat?’ Theo sends.
‘I’ll be fine as soon as we get home and I can hide in my room until tomorrow morning,’ Kat replies. ‘Let’s get back to Dante ASAP, Prof can take care of herself.’
‘Okay, that works for me,’ Theo replies.
They duck into the same alcove that they suited up in, Kat immediately starts putting her overclothes on. Jin smiles and dismisses his suit.
“I’m still jealous of that,” Kat says as she finishes pulling her mini-dress back over her head and getting it settled over her unitard.
“What can I say, I’m blessed,” Theo jokes. In response, Kat slugs him in the shoulder. “That hurt!” he says in surprise.
“No it didn’t, I saw Highrise hit you full force, the wall took more damage than you did,” Kat says teasingly.
“Haha, fair, you just surprised me. Two days ago, that would have hurt,” Theo lifts his arms and marvels at his newfound physique.
“Move along, Narcissus, some of us need our beauty rest,” Kat pushes Theo into the hallway.
Theo and Kat walk down the long hallway toward the entrance to Tenzi Hall. As they reach the entrance, they hear a loud *BANG* and then a lot of cursing. Looking out the door, Slapshot and Spitfire crash into the trees near the doors, groaning in pain.
Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls] Page 7
