by R. J. Ross
“I don’t like this, I don’t like this at all,” Tom mutters as he gets on the tour bus.
I make sure Malina gets on before looking up at Central Hall. This isn’t my hall, but... “Are you coming, Justin, or are we leaving you behind?” Falconess asks.
I get on the bus.
***
This is the part where I introduce myself. My name is Justin Gregory, better known as just Justin. I am seventeen years old, and I was a famous teenage singer for a while before I lost control of my powers in the middle of a concert. That landed me in a school for teenage supers, called Cape High. I was moved into a dorm full of kids recovering from “the zoo.” They were kidnapped by a norm and stuck in glass rooms like displays for anywhere from a few months to a year. Central Hall saved them, but they still have issues. I’ve spent the last half a year or so living with them. It took me nearly that long to become accepted by half of them--Freddy is one of the ones still on the fence. At least Ward isn’t on my team, Ward HATES me.
Now that bit is pretty common knowledge in the Cape High crowd. It’s the rest of my story that I’ve been keeping to myself. My name is Justin, and I’m from the Sonic Family Line, which is from the West Branch. My mother died when I was five--she was a norm. My father died when I was twelve, his name was Sonic Scream. I’m a super orphan, tossed into a foster family for all of a year before I skipped out on my foster mother and became a professional singer. I haven’t spoken to her since. The problem with that? Her name is Negatia, and she’s the West Branch Hall Leader.
We’re heading west right now.
It gets more awkward, okay? After Dad lost Mom, he and Negatia started up this little on-again, off-again relationship, and had he not died, there’s a good chance she would have been my step-mom. So coming from the point where she’s pretty much BOTH my foster mom AND my step-mom, and I’m encroaching on her territory without even calling her... Well, I’m in some deep kaka, and I know it.
Okay, now I need to mention that there’s nothing wrong with Negatia--she’s nice enough, got it? The problem was me. I’m always the problem, really. I couldn’t handle being suited up to take my dad’s spot on the team--not back then. I hadn’t even come into my powers at the time, and they were already plotting out my debut and all that crap. So I did the only thing I could think of. I went to Tom, and told him I was the son of Sonic Scream, and that I wanted to become a famous singer. It got his attention at least. I don’t think he actually believed me, they only pushed the vague chance I MIGHT be a super at the beginning of my career. Mostly, they pushed the fact that I’m good looking and can sing.
I have a LOT of teenage girl fans, none of whom go to our school, thankfully.
“So,” Falconess says as she makes herself comfortable on a bench in the bus, “everyone have their com bracelets on?”
“What is a com bracelet? What is this mission? Why has no one explained what in the world is going on right now?” Tom demands, looking close to pulling his hair out. “Do you know how difficult it was just getting you back into this work? And then you just go in and change everything! How am I supposed to do my job when things keep changing on me?” he demands, pointing at me.
“Sir, if you would sit down and calm down, we could explain all of that to you,” Falconess says with slightly narrowed eyes. Tom promptly sits down. “We’re Cape High,” she goes on. “Well, technically I’m not--I’m Central Hall, but I’m Divine Justice’s mentor and the adult supervision for this mission. We will be going in plain clothes. If you out us as heroes, you will be dealing with a very irritated Mastermental, do you understand?”
“I--”
“Do you understand?” she repeats.
“Yes.” How she manages to terrorize a man while lounging on a couch and not even raising her voice, I have no idea. I really need to learn that trick.
Emily’s the first to react, showing a clunky gold bracelet on her left wrist. “I’ve got my com bracelet!”
“Mine’s still on my uniform,” I admit, “is there a way to take it off?”
“You just tap the button on the inside, it comes unhooked,” Emily tells me. I head off to get my com rather than deal with Tom. The com bracelets are new--we have phones and we have earbuds, but neither of them do holograms. With a technopath for a principal, you tend to rack up a lot of hi-tech toys like that.
“Now that everyone has their coms on, don’t take them off unless you absolutely have to,” Falconess says as we each find a place to sit. I grab a chair at the little table, with Malina on the other side. Freddy’s already perched on one of the bunks above our heads. “The coms have trackers built into them--we can find you easiest by tracking those. If, by chance, you are captured, don’t worry, I will track down the person that did it and make them regret it severely,” Falconess goes on, looking from Malina to Freddy. “No one touches one of our kids.”
“Can we get to the mission part?” Tom asks.
“We’re on a mission to find and hopefully recruit the healers that were outed on mass media,” Falconess says, “either through them coming to one of Justin’s concerts, or hearing from someone that does. We’ve also arranged for Emily to speak at some of the local schools in full uniform. We’re working with the West Branch,” she says, looking straight at me, “I spoke briefly with Negatia. She would like to hear from you, Justin.”
I wince, but nod. I saw that coming.
“Malina’s going to be my opening act,” I tell Tom.
“We’ve already got a band--” he starts out.
“Then she’ll be dancing with my opening song,” I say. “You don’t know what she can do, Tom. She’s amazing.”
He looks at me as if I was crazy. I just stare back at him, wondering why I was so willing to come back in the first place. Well, at least it’s a Technico tour bus, I think as I see a tablet come out of the wall next to Emily. Technico things come with free WiFi--for life.
“What did--” Tom starts out, looking at Emily. “Where did that come from?”
“It’s a Technico,” Malina says quietly, bringing up a computer screen on the table between us. A hologram of a checkers game appears. “He came back for a day and rebuilt a black suit bus for us, right?” she says to me.
“Yeah,” I say, reaching up and moving a checker piece. “This is probably light-years ahead of my old bus.”
“And what type of fuel does it take?” Tom asks.
“It’s running off of our energy, right?” I ask Falconess. “If it’s like Vinny’s bike, it can also charge if you plug it in.”
“I want Vinny’s bike,” Freddy says, hanging over the edge of his bunk. “Can we get one of those for the mission?”
“We’ve got a tour bus,” I say as Malina hops over a few of my pieces. “This isn’t a bike type mission.”
“Zoe pimped their RV, didn’t she? Can we make this go two hundred miles an hour?” he asks.
“No, because Zoe’s a technopath and none of us are,” I tell him as I move my checker piece.
“I want to learn to fight, too,” Malina says. “Falconess, can you teach us?”
“Of course, I’d love to,” Falconess says.
“I can’t do this. I thought I could, but I can’t. You’re all crazy,” Tom announces. “I didn’t actually BELIEVE you were the son of a super hero!” he tells me. “And that moment--it was just a mic malfunction, right? These are all insane people that just think they’re heroes or whatever, and the climbing up the wall thing was a delusion--”
Ditto pops into existence, standing right in front of him. “Hey, hey, breathe, Mister,” she says placing her hands on his shoulders. “Look, it’s not that big of a deal--”
He screams, stumbling back and falling onto his butt. “She--where--I--”
“Doppelganger,” I say.
“I QUIT!” he bellows. “Pull over the bus, I’m getting off!”
~About the Author~
R.J. Ross has been writing since junior high, when she discovered that
it could help her keep an A in English Class. She lives in Missouri, and spends most of her time reading, writing, and teaching Sunday School. If you would like to see more of her work, you can find several short stories at amazon.com/author/rjross!
Like her on Facebook for bonus material such as character profiles, unpublished information, and status updates at https://www.facebook.com/capehigh! Or check out her blog for free Cape High short stories at https://capehigh.wordpress.com or follow her on twitter @nosidekickhere
