by R. J. Ross
“Am I going to get to meet him?” Allen asks. “Can we like, lay down my sentence face to face? Also, do you have a boyfriend?”
“Just get in the car,” she says, sighing.
Pan heads into the convention, silently wondering what’s so impressive about this DDR game. He jumps again, heading through the rafters to the DDR booth and looking down at where Liz is talking to the crowd. Honestly, in all his years as a villain, he’s never actually gone up against her in a fight. She doesn’t DO fights. She does this sort of thing. Truthfully, he prefers it that way. He dislikes being shocked, it makes his fur in cat form stand on end for days.
“And I’m going to show you just how much rhythm I have, everyone!” Liz says over the mic. “You’re going to swear you’ve seen an angel in action, got it? I’ll be accepting love letters afterwards, so please, refrain yourself for now.” The crowd starts laughing and she grins at them. “So I arranged for an epic showdown between me and the new guy—where IS the new guy, you ask?”
Pan drops down from the rafters, landing behind her. “Here,” he says, tapping her on the shoulder. She turns, staring at him.
“You’re as silent as a cat,” she complains. “Everyone, this is the newest temporary member of Central Hall, BLACK CAT! And all of you here get to see me show him who’s got the best game in the Hall,” she brags, posing ridiculously. “Now let’s get started!” She hops onto the first platform and Pan reluctantly steps onto the second, looking it over curiously. “Where were you?” she asks silently.
“Getting the car back from the black suit impersonator,” he says.
“Say what?”
“LET’S DANCE!” the machine says. It takes a few seconds for him to figure out how it works, but as soon as he does, the crowd starts cheering their heads off. It doesn’t hurt that it distracts Liz from asking questions, he thinks. Within a blink of an eye, they’re tied and their time at the booth is over.
“This isn’t the end of it,” Liz says, pointing at him. “As soon as this is over, we’re going to set up a game at my place and fight it out until one of us is the clear winner!”
“Mmhmm,” he says, amused.
“So who stole the car?”
“I think I’ll get one of those for my place, as well,” he says, turning on his heel and starting back for the booth. “My children will love it.”
“Oh, no you don’t! I want to hear the whole story!” she says, grabbing his arm as he starts laughing. “This time I’LL be the one to have the story to tell! I know for a fact that Nico told you all sorts of stupid stories about me!”
“Do you think he would set up the speaker system for me?” he asks. “We have to be extremely careful about Cubby’s hearing.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“Of course I am,” Pan says, making her laugh.
***
*That Night*
“So he really ditched you in the middle of the show?” Amara asks as she carries a tray laden with snacks into the play room. She and Liz are chatting happily as the others take turns playing on the DDR machine. “I’m actually extremely surprised—“
“Nah, you shouldn’t be. Your husband is notoriously bad with massive crowds like that,” Liz says, sneaking a piece of pineapple off of the tray. “It was pretty loud, even for me, and I’m used to that sort of thing. But it wasn’t the middle, it was the beginning. SOMETHING happened that he’s not telling me about.”
“Go Cubby! Go Cubby!” Aubrey chants as she watches the two battling on the DDR machine.
“Hey! You’re my sister! Shouldn’t you be cheering for me?” Emily demands. “I’m getting beaten by a three-year-old here!”
“I’m not going to tell him to take it easy on you,” Adanna says from where she’s watching. “Good job, Cubby! Show her who’s boss!”
The silent boy is grinning from ear to ear as he rapidly hits each of the glowing panels.
“You really do need to come over more often, Liz,” Amara says, smiling at the sight of the kids playing.
“I know, I know, it’s just our schedules are terrible,” Liz says, grabbing her cup from the table and sitting down on the couch. “Also, it felt a little awkward when Nico was in prison,” she admits honestly.
“It would have been fine,” Pan says.
“I was a hero,” Liz points out. “I’ve felt guilty over that since… well, it happened.”
“You were young, and you had a very big decision to make,” Amara says. “I think you made the right one. You make an excellent heroine.”
“Awww, man, he won again,” Emily says, dramatically. “Okay, Aubrey, your turn!”
“Cubby, do you want a snack and a drink?” Amara calls over to her son. “Adanna can play for a little while, right?”
The boy looks over at her, pouting. “Oh, he can do one more round,” Adanna says. “I enjoy seeing them beaten by a three-year-old. I’m recording it for posterity.”
“She means blackmail material,” Emily says dryly before going to the couch and sitting down near Pan. “So how was working with Liz?” she asks eagerly.
“Loud,” Pan sums up, making everyone laugh.
Black Cat and the Mecha-man
“What sort of strings did you pull for this?” Pan asks as Technico stops beside him, looking smug. The smug look falls, and is replaced by what most would fear to call a “sheepish” look. Pan had no such fear. “You didn’t pull anything, did you?”
“You have to realize there are less than a dozen supers in Central Hall,” Nico says. “Of course you’re going to wind up working with the Liberties sooner or later, but they’re off tonight, so you get to work with me.”
“What do you DO at night?” Pan asks. “I was certain that you don’t have patrol duty…”
“I have cleanup duty,” Nico says. “It turns out that Mega ran into two of the triplets this morning.”
“The triplets?” Pan says, surprised. “I was under the impression that they weren’t speaking to one another again.”
“No, two of them aren’t speaking to the third. North and West are in the middle of a truce, which Mega threatened by flirting with them both,” Nico says. “They took out a few miles of a small Kansas town with his face after they found out. Had he stuck to one, he would have been fine, but you know how it is with the triplets. Their weather manipulation abilities overlap.”
Pan chokes, turning away as his shoulders start to shake. “I shouldn’t find this—“ he starts out.
“It would be funnier if I wasn’t the one that had to clean up,” Nico says. Pan gives into his laughter. “Laugh on the way there, cat-boy, we’ve got to run if we’re going to get it fixed before morning.”
Pan pulls his cowl on and gets to his feet, stretching for a second. “Okay, let’s get going. Is there a chance of running into the two?”
“The triplets? Nah, according to Mega they left after the sirens started going off. He’s really got to learn to pick his timing, you know?”
“Like you know much about timing,” Pan says.
“I know better than to flirt with two of a set of triplets at the same time. It takes a special kind of ego to be that dumb,” Nico says as they head out the back part of the Hall and down the street. Oh, sure, they could drive, or take a plane, or whatever, but a bit of a run on a beautiful night is nice once in a while, especially since Kansas is so close. Soon they pull to a stop in front of the devastated town. There are people sorting through the wreckage with frustrated looks on their faces, and Nico sighs before taking to the air.
“Ladies, Gentlemen, and everyone else, I have to apologize for the actions that took place here,” he says, his voice picking up on anything electronic in the area. It echoes from all around, reaching those that aren’t close enough to hear him speak first-hand. “My name is Technico, I’m here to clean up this mess.”
He turns as a rather large drone approaches them, watching as it lands nearby and opens up. Smaller robots come pouring out of it. �
��Black Cat? Can you listen for any living beings that might have been caught up in the wreckage? I’m sure they got the norms out, but there’s always the chance of animals.”
“I would be happy to,” Pan says, heading into the rubble. He goes in far enough that the norms can’t see him and pulls the cowl off.
“I should have known,” a woman says, making him stop. He turns, looking at the rather delicate looking female, his eyes widening slightly.
“South!” he says, grinning at her. “It has been a while, my friend! How have you been?”
“You’re a traitor to our side!” she accuses him. The third of the triplets, she’s always been the most hot-headed. “Working as a hero, I disown you! I disown you, and I disown your family! Except the girl, I like the girl,” she says.
“No, no, you do not understand, South, I am being punished,” Pan says. “I attacked a norm, and in repayment, they are making me work as a generic hero for a few months.”
“You attacked a norm?” she asks, hopping down from the pile of rubble she’s sitting on. “What did they do to deserve it?”
“He tried to have my daughter kidnapped,” he says. “I was showing him just who he was messing with. But this is no reason to disinherit me! Amara would be heartbroken if she knew, you know.”
“Oh,” South says, frowning. “I see.” She’s about to say something when suddenly robots surround them, starting to clean up the rubble. “Wait, wait, wait! I was looking through that! Who’s doing that?” she demands.
“Hello, South,” Nico says from above. She looks up slowly, her eyes widening with surprise.
“NICO!” she says, jumping into the air and throwing her arms around him. “When did you get out of the Cape Cells?”
“About half a year ago, more or less,” he says, hugging her back. “How’ve you been? How’s East?”
“We don’t speak about East,” South says, pulling back and glaring at him. “You should know better. The ‘Quadruplets of Terror’ sounds terrible, so we’ve disowned him.”
“Again?”
“ALWAYS,” she says firmly. “Besides, three sexy female triplets are a better combination than three girls and their brother.”
“So what are you looking for, South? Maybe I can find it while we clean this mess up,” Nico says as the robots keep working.
“The reason they fought,” she says. “They’ve been on remarkably disgustingly good terms for three whole days. Something interesting must have happened.”
“Mega,” Pan says. “Mega happened.”
“That pompous man?” she says. “No, there’s got to be something more interesting than a man.”
“Well, if we see anything, we’ll tell you,” Nico says. “Pan, we’ve got a bunch of black suits coming in with their special supplies. If you want, you can go help them patch up the buildings that my robots are putting together. I’m going to start redoing the machines that were destroyed, unless you’ve found any animals?”
“Ah, I haven’t heard anything,” he says. “I’ll keep an ear out for them while I work. South—“
“I’ll keep a low profile,” she says, heading off.
“Do you think there’s more to this than a fight over a man?” Nico asks Pan over their com-link. “You know how the triplets are; they’re constantly fighting over everything.”
“I do,” Pan says, “and truthfully I prefer it that way. When you put the three together you get quite the storm.”
“Literally,” Nico says. “The story is that their father could call down the storms all on his own, right? I never met him, since he retired before I donned the mask.”
“That’s correct. He was a very impressive cape, as well as a rival of my father’s. But all of his children range around B-class, if not slightly lower.”
“So it wasn’t genetic, then. He must have had some sort of power source, or catalyst, you think?” Nico asks. “Do you think that’s what they were fighting over?” There’s a curious look on his face as he looks around, flying higher, and Pan sees him scanning the rubble.
“It’s very possible,” Pan agrees. “Of course it could be something much more shallow with these three… I think they enjoy fighting each other more than they enjoy fighting super heroes.”
“Hmm,” Nico says. “If there was such a thing… hypothetically speaking, of course, do you think it would glow?”
“Hypothetically speaking?” Pan repeats.
“Roughly five by ten inches, rectangular object with glowing marking and a docking bay of sorts on the side,” Nico sums up.
“You found it, didn’t you.” It wasn’t a question, Pan knew better than that.
“It’s possible,” Nico says.
“And what will you do with this hypothetical catalyst?” Pan asks.
“I’m thinking it needs to be kept far out of sight of the triplets,” Nico says. “Go find her and keep her occupied while I discreetly run off with it, would you?”
“I will try my best,” Pan says, listening for the woman in question before pulling his cowl on and heading towards her. She’s gotten closer to the civilians, who are watching her warily. She’s not the strongest cape around, but it’s still enough to make norms feel wary. The only reason they’re not really freaking out is because her sisters were wearing their uniforms, and she’s dressed in civilian clothing. They must not recognize her as being one of them. He suddenly wonders what name she goes by when in civvies. He’s never actually asked before.
“South,” he says quietly. She looks over at him, raising an eyebrow as he waves her over. Casually she starts for him, ignoring the curious glances from the norms.
“What is it? I’m out of uniform right now, you know,” South says, glancing over at the black suits that are spreading through the crowd. Vans full of helpful civilians and news reporters are starting to show up even as they speak.
“Do you have any idea where your sisters went?” he asks, mentally calculating how long it will take Nico to get away. He should be gone by now, right? But he’s also controlling all of the robots…
“Who knows? Who cares?” she says, waving it off. “Unless you think they found something—“ she stops, her eyes widening. “What… is that?”
“What is what?” Pan asks, suddenly worrying.
“I can feel something really powerful moving… east,” she says, starting to walk in that direction.
“South, I’m sure you’re imagining something—“
“He found something, didn’t he?” she asks him, her eyes lighting up with excitement. She starts to run, but he moves quickly to block her way. Unfortunately, although she’s a B-class cape, she can fly. He can’t. She takes to the air and goes right over his head, leaving him to silently groan. What’s worse, he thinks, is that if she picked up on it, there’s a chance that her sisters picked up on it as well.
“Nico? We have a problem,” he says before racing after the flying cape.
***
Nico turns, looking at the three females that have him surrounded. He’s already at Central Hall, and he’s already handed over the weapon, but that might be a bad thing, he realizes belatedly. There’s a really easy way for these three to get inside the Hall, even with his security measures. “First of all, it’s been a long time. It’s good to see you all,” he says.
“Hello, Nico,” South says. “Hand it over.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says.
“Daddy’s device,” West says. “You have it, we want it.”
“How about Mega? I’ll give you Mega, instead, and you can do whatever you want to the guy. I’ll be happy to look the other way—“
“Give me the DEVICE!” North bellows, her hands clenched at her sides. “If I get that device, I won’t ever need to work with these two idiots again!”
“Who says YOU get it?” South demands.
“I’m the oldest!”
“By five minutes!” West says. “That doesn’t count!”
“La
dies, ladies, do you really need some hyped up mechanical tool to do your best as a villainess?” Nico asks, still trying and failing to cool them down.
“YES!” they all say. “So hand it over or we’ll take down your precious Central Hall!” North adds.
“What if I don’t feel like taking down the Hall?” South demands. “I don’t have to go along with every stupid little thing that you decide, North!”
“If we don’t take down the Hall, we won’t get Daddy’s weapon!” North says, her irritation clear in her voice.
“Can’t we all just get along for once?” West says. “You know that we’re stronger together! We’re as strong as Daddy was with his weapon when all FOUR of us get together! But you two keep FIGHTING and East—“
“Not with HER leading! We’ll never work together with her leading!” South says.
“Oh, and who’s supposed to be the leader, then, you?” North asks. “You can’t even lead a conversation! And don’t bring up East, West! We’ve all decided to let him do his stupid show instead of joining in, and everyone’s happier for it!”
“Show?” Nico asks.
“He’s doing…” North starts out, only to shudder.
“He’s doing stage magic, okay? He’s a Las Vegas magician, and there’s no shame in that!” South says. “If you ask me, that attitude is really hypocritical coming from a woman in tights and a mask!”
“Mother would kill him if she was still alive,” North says. “You know exactly how she felt about that place!”
“She just didn’t get along with the mobsters in the area, and you know it,” South says. “She always said that they were gaudy and lacking class compared to the family she came from! But that was seventy years ago.”
“As understandable as your hang-ups are, this is hardly a reason to argue. Your brother chose to do what he’s doing. He probably makes really good money, too,” Nico says. He’s got them preoccupied, he thinks, now he can only hope that Pan knows what to do.
***
