by R. J. Ross
"Right!" I say, throwing an arm over her shoulders and then dragging Doris over for a group hug. "Let's go meet boys!"
"And rob them!" the two agree.
***
Century casually gets up, packing up the little picnic. "You can step out, now," he says. A form detaches from the shadows, heading for him. "Hello, Ruckus," he says to the uniformed woman. She's tall, taunt, and beautiful in a sharp, dangerous way. Her skin is the color of dark cocoa and her hair is cut short, accentuating her high cheekbones and glowing bronze eyes. "You've gotten your glimpse, so what do you think?"
"They're strangely adorable, aren't they?" she asks, frowning slightly.
"That's why I've called you," Century says. "My three deadly darlin's need some serious competition. The world is slowly starting to realize that girls can run the show. I want to take advantage of that. I have their contract. They're signed up for two gigs a month, minimum. I want you and Dollface to be the ones that face them for at least a third of those gigs."
Ruckus hesitates. "Can we take them?" she asks.
"Power-wise?" Century asks. "The two of you would have trouble taking Skye on her own, much less all three of them. But Skye plays by the rules if she's kept happy. Right now she's the happiest I've ever seen her," he admits, looking in the direction the girls went. "The other two you have a decent chance against," he goes on. "You two are some of the most impressive capes I've seen outside of Central, and I am, frankly, proud to have you on our team."
"Not as impressive as Skye, though," Ruckus says bluntly.
"Skye is an S-class," Century says. "She's adopted into the Superior line. They didn't even blink at the idea of her carrying the name."
"Then why do you let her act as a villain?" Ruckus asks. "She should be a hero, if heroes can't beat her."
"Oh, she can be beaten," Century says, "just not by you two."
"You can beat her, then?"
"Of course I can. But why would I want to? Skye is one of the most loved capes in the South Branch. I'm just betting on the fact that Ruckus and Dollface will be loved, as well," he says, looking at her pointedly.
"How do you plan on that happening?" Ruckus asks. She looks as if she doubts it'll happen, herself.
"By throwing you two at them," he says. "Don't hide who you are, sugar. Be bold and strong, because that's a big part of you, but don't be afraid to show the rest of you, as well. And remember that they have their problems, we all do, but they're just trying to make a place for themselves in this messed up, crazy world of ours." He looks at her, smiling slightly. "I'm going to make that place, for all of you."
"So what do we do now?" she asks.
"Go to the bar," he says. "And make sure that Rochester doesn't hit on my Sky e. I like the boy. I wouldn't want her punching him. It could easily get him killed."
"By her or by you?" she asks dryly. He gives her a little smile that's hard to read. "Do we go in uniform?" she asks.
"Keep it under your civvies."
"Understood," she says.
"Unless you see a good chance to make a dramatic moment," he adds. "Try not to crash the bar, though. I've got an investment in it." He walks away, leaving her standing there with a strange look on her face.
***
"Is it just me or are people staring at us?" Ariel asks as we walk down the streets of New Orleans' French Quarter. I can't help but stare at the beautiful old buildings and all the colorfully dressed people walking around us. Music fills the air thanks to the amazing street musicians. This place is SO COOL!
"Well, if either of you would actually walk on the ground we might get less looks," Doris says dryly.
"I am walking on the ground!" I declare, only to look down and discreetly drop down a few inches. "Well, NOW I am," I say.
"I never really understood the point of walking," Ariel admits, still floating along beside us.
"Me neither!" I say, grabbing her hand. "Great minds think alike!" I say happily. We'd flown (or in my case, ran on air) here, since it was fastest, but now it's still daylight. I don't know if Rochester will even be at his club. Speaking of which, "Um, do either of you know where he works?" I ask them.
"YOU were the one that was supposed to know that," Doris says after they both stare at me for a moment.
"Yo, Skye!" I hear someone shout from behind us. I turn, seeing Rochester standing about a block away with his guitar slung over his shoulders. "You're goin' the wrong way. You came t'see me tonight, right?"
"Rochester!" I say, running over to him happily, dragging Ariel behind me. "We've come to party! Doris graduated! And this is our official spring break!"
"Spring break, huh?" he asks, not mentioning that it's just barely January. "Sounds like quite the party. Nice t'see ya again, Doris, um..." he looks at Ariel a bit vaguely, "water lady," he finishes.
"Ariel," I provide. "Her name is Ariel, like the little mermaid!"
"Ah, makes sense," he says. "Nice t'meetcha, Ariel," he says, holding out his hand with a tiny, wicked little smile.
"Oh no you don't," Doris says, grabbing Ariel's hand before he can touch it. "Skye might like you, but we all know you're going to be one of the guys we go up against. No inside information for you."
He gives her a shameless grin. "Can't blame a guy for tryin'," he says, only to drape an arm over my shoulders. "This way t'my work," he says, tugging me along. "The boss called me up on my way here an' said you'd be along. I think you'll really like it!" I blink as my feet touch the ground again. "But y'might want to keep closer to floor level."
I blush, feeling a bit awkward, but forget about it quickly as he leads us into a bar. The place is ancient looking, but beautiful in its own way. Posters of bands and musicians hang in frames on the wall and the tables are made of heavy, ornately carved wood. The only people in the building other than us are a group of older men sitting on the stage with instruments, and another man behind the bar.
"We been tellin' the boy to bring us a pretty lady, an' here he brings us three!" one of the men say, wiping away a fake tear. "I'm so proud, so very proud!"
"These are jus' FRIENDS, Sam," Rochester says dryly, leading us to the stage. "This here is Skye, Doris, an' Ariel," he introduces us. "Skye's big brother is the one teachin' my kid up north."
"Hi!" I say, waving a hand furiously. "We've come to party!"
"Any friend of Rochester's is a friend of ours," the bass player says, getting up and holding out a hand. I shake it, trying not to grip too tightly. I don't want to hurt his hand! "How would you ladies like to hear us warm up? Buford, make the ladies some drinks!" he calls to the man cleaning glasses. "What's your pleasure, pretty ladies?" he asks us.
"Anything is fine," Doris says before I can. "In fact just a beer would be fine, right, Skye?" she asks me.
"I dunno, I've never had alcohol before," I say innocently. The entire room other than Ariel turns and stares at me. "What's it taste like?"
"How'd you find such an innocent one, Rochester?" Sam asks after a second of silence.
Rochester hesitates, thinking long and hard. "I'm thinkin," he says after a long moment, "that there ain't no point in tryin' t'get her drunk, but you can if y'want," he says after a second.
"Rochester, we're supposed to keep--" Doris says.
"Ariel's floatin', Skye's feet ain't touchin' the ground, and I would trust these gents with my life," Rochester sums up with a little smile. "Gentlemen, these three are--"
"We already know, son," the bass player says. "I am Clovis James, ma' petites, and we are the Sundown Blues Boys. That ornery coot on the drums is Sam, the pianist is Charlie, and our horn man goes by Beau. A pleasure to meet Rochester's fellow super heroes--"
"Villains," Rochester corrects him.
"Villains?" Clovis repeats, looking confused.
"These three are the boss's 'Deadly Darlin's'," Rochester says.
"We're the Femme Fatales!" I declare, giving him a sharp look. "NOT the Deadly Darlings!"
"I don't know, Femme
Fatale's pretty overdone," Doris says. "And all that new talk about feminism makes me think we'd irritate a lot of people by calling ourselves Deadly Darlin's." She doesn't sound as if she thinks that's a bad thing.
"Deadly Darlin's and Femme Fatales mean roughly the same thing, right?" Rocco says.
"Now, I've always seen a femme fatale as more..." Clovis starts out, only to get a sharp look from Rochester, "cold-blooded," he says, not missing a beat. "Personally, I think Deadly Darlin's would be an amazin' band name."
"Why does the 'ing' sound keep changing?" Ariel asks.
"Because they're southern," Doris says.
"Aren't we southern, too? I made an X," Ariel says. "So we're the Deadly Darlin's."
"I like the deadly part, but 'darlin's' is NOT powerful!" I declare. "I'm powerful! I'm the most powerful super villain in the WORLD!"
"Of course you are," Rochester says.
"She is?" Sam asks with a look of unbelief.
"I am!" I say, giving him a dark look.
"She is," Doris agrees in a dry tone. "She's not the most evil, or bloodthirsty, or violent, or even ... well, villainous, but she's probably the most powerful."
"Then it be an ironic name," Sam says, starting to grin. "Like us old folk calling ourselves boys."
I blink. "I like ironic!" I decide.
"Then we're the Deadly Darlin's," Doris says. "You're Skystep, I'm Jersey Devil, and Ariel is..." she looks at Ariel, blankly. "What do we call Ariel?"
"Raindance!" I decide.
"Okay, Raindance," Doris says when Ariel smiles and shrugs. "Now, are we taking a break or what? Someone mentioned drinks, right?" she asks, heading for the bar.
"It fits them, doesn't it?" I hear Clovis whisper to Rochester.
"Like a freakin' glove," Rochester whispers back. I give them a dirty look, but before I can say anything Doris shoves a bottle into my hand.
"Your very first beer," she says, tapping her beer to mine and handing Ariel a third. "Also, you have free reign to yell at Century every time he leaves off the 'deadly' and calls one of us darlin'," she adds with a cheerfully evil grin.
"But it's our name," Ariel says.
"WE can call ourselves darlin', but him saying it is too sexist not to take advantage of it," Doris says.
"So--so the NAME is a TRAP?" I ask, my eyes widening excitedly. "Best name ever!"
"Only if he forgets the 'deadly' part, though," Doris admits, drinking her beer.
***
"This is it?" Dollface asks as she and Ruckus approach the little bar. "Where Century's favorite plays? It's a bit... small." A strong wind blows and Dollface reaches up, patting her pinned up black hair to make sure it doesn't mess it up too much. "And I dressed up for this," she complains, motioning down to the retro red and white dress she's wearing. Her polka dot wedges are so high that she's almost as tall as Ruckus is.
"You realize that we're likely to get into a brawl, don't you?" Ruckus asks, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with Voltdrain's symbol on the front. "We're not coming to meet boys." She still isn't sure why Century teamed her up with Dollface--they're almost exactly opposite. The only things they have in common are their skin color and the fact they have powers. But maybe when this goes wrong (like it's BOUND to) he'll just have to split them up and give them new partners! If she's REALLY lucky, she'll be able to talk him into letting her work with Voltdrain!
"You have no sense of style," Dollface tells her, looking over Ruckus's outfit with a judgmental expression.
"You have no COMMON sense," Ruckus says. "You're wearing heels to a bar fight!"
"He didn't SAY we were supposed to fight," Dollface says. "We're just here to meet our future nemesis... nemesi? What's the plural for nemesis, anyway?" she asks, frowning.
"Nemeses," Ruckus says, idly. "It's nemeses. You're a super hero, Dolly, you should at least know that much. But there are three of them and only two of us, so you had BETTER bring your A-game, regardless of whether it's a fight or not."
"Did you see that press release for Hypersonic Rainbow?" Dollface asks. "She's so adorable. Isn't she supposed to be coming to our branch? Think we could get her as our third?"
"A hyperactive speedster?" Ruckus asks, suddenly interested. "That's not actually a bad idea," she admits. "She's still really young, though--she's one of the Cape High kids, right?"
"Yeah, but she's working! Of course her uniform will need to be changed." They step into the bar and everyone turns to look at them.
"Bar's still closed, chères," the bartender calls to them. "We'll be opening soon, though."
"How soon?" Ruckus asks.
"Let them stay, Buford," one of the men says. "It's almost opening time. A few more pretty faces don't hurt anything, no?"
The youngest in the band heads forward, holding out a hand to them. Ruckus looks into the silver eyes of Century's psychic and wonders if she can get away with not touching him somehow. Before she can say anything, though, Dollface takes the offered hand. Ruckus almost lets out a curse as Rochester's eyes gleam faintly.
"A pleasure t'meetcha, Dollface," he says with a little bow over her hand. Dollface stares at him in stunned silence, a blush creeping over her cheeks.
"How did you--" she starts out. Ruckus reaches over, pulling her hand out of his.
"Don't touch the psychometric," she says silently.
"But he's so cute!" Dollface replies, equally silently. A positively wicked grin crosses Rochester's face at that.
"Ooooh!" Skye shouts happily from the table, where she's got a massive glass full of unnaturally pink liquid in her hands. "You can't call random ladies doll face, either!" she declares.
"You caught on quick to that one, eh, chère?" the drummer says to her. She grins at him.
"Cheers!" she says, waving the massive cup in his direction and then chugging it down.
"You'd best be layin' off that, Skye," Rochester says, turning back to the most dangerous villain around. "Your big brother would kill me if you actually got drunk."
"I'm a full grown woman!" Skye declares. "Gimme another, Buford!"
"You just HAD to introduce her to the frufru drinks," the long haired woman says to the pale one.
"I liked the colors," the pale one says.
"My name is--" Dollface starts out.
"Dolly," Ruckus supplies before she can go on. "Her name is Dolly. Isn't that right, Dolly?" she says pointedly to her partner.
"That's right, you can call me Dolly," Dollface says, sitting on one of the tables and crossing her legs to show off her long, perfectly shaped calves. "So, what's your name, Mr. Handsome?" she asks Rochester with a flutter of her eyelashes.
***
This stuff is SO GOOD! I wave the massive cup in the air, planning on going for a refill, only to blink as I hear one of the two girls call Rochester "Mr. Handsome." Does he get girls flirting with him a lot? I look up as more people come in. The bar is rapidly filling up and the band moves to the stage, warming up. Ariel comes over, sitting on the table next to me.
"It's crowded," she says, and I can feel her tension. "What do we do in a crowd this big?"
I hesitate, wondering the same thing. I'm not even surprised when Doris sits with us, so we're all back to back on the little round table. It suddenly doesn't seem like such a great idea to go out where we're surrounded by norms. And Rochester is flirting with some stranger, so it's just us three in a crowd of strangers--and we can't even rob them.
"We are the Deadly Darlin's!" I say in a bolstering tone. "We can deal with anything! We can sure as heck learn to party like a norm!"
That Dolly lady's friend saunters over to us, sitting on one of the chairs that belong to our table. "Are you three okay?" she asks quietly.
"We're perfectly fine," Doris says. "We just need another drink."
We all look up as someone taps on the mic. Clovis gives us a brilliant grin. "We are the Sundown Blues Boys," he announces, getting a cheer from the crowd. "And tonight we're celebrating some friends of ours c
oming to see us. Isn't that right, Darlin's?" he asks us.
"Do we get angry if he calls us that?" Ariel asks.
"I think we'll allow it," Doris says, swinging a leg over the other and leaning back against us. I wave at Clovis, completely forgetting that I felt uncomfortable a second ago, and then, since I can, I blow him a kiss. He laughs, reaching up and pretending to catch it.
"And someone, who will remain nameless, put in a request for you three; this is called 'Darlin'," Rochester says into his own mic before he starts to play. Clovis starts singing and the bar is suddenly full of dancing people.
I hop off the table, grabbing Ariel and Doris's hand and pulling them out onto the dance floor. The music is good, the atmosphere is awesome, and everything's going fine--until Ariel goes perfectly still, a look of shock on her face.
"What?" Doris asks.
"Someone just grabbed my bottom," Ariel says, looking stunned.
"They did what?" I ask. "Who would be that stupid?" I look behind her, seeing a drunk with a beer in one hand and a leer on his face. "Hey! Hey, you!" I say, pushing past Ariel. "Did you just GROPE my friend's butt?"
The man looks at me, taking another swig of his beer. "So what if I did? That's what people come to bars for, isn't it?"
I make a fist, pulling it back, only to blink as someone grabs my wrist. I look at Dolly's friend blankly, wondering why she would stop me. "Let me," she says before punching the guy for me. "From what Century says, you'd kill him," she explains as Rochester rushes to catch the jerk before he slams into Clovis. Clovis keeps singing, shockingly enough, as Rochester tosses the drunk to a large man, who calmly drags him out of the bar.
"Who are you?" I demand.
"Ruckus," she says, tugging her shirt down just enough to show a uniform, "one of your new nemeses."
"Nemeses? Doris, what's a nemeses?" I ask, completely thrown off guard. I don't even notice as a woman approaches Ruckus, grabbing her arm and getting in her face.
"You just hit my man!" the drunk woman says, slurring slightly.
"He just groped my—my…" Ruckus stops, obviously trying to come up with a word. "Oh forget it," she says as the woman throws a drunken punch at her. She dodges it easily and grabs the woman's wrist, pulling it behind her.
