by R. J. Ross
“He’s annoying,” Superior says.
“You?” I say. “You tossed him out because he was annoying?”
He looks at me, and I glare at him, because everyone else is just shrugging it off. “You’re the ones related to him,” I point out to them. “Why haven’t you yelled at him for that?”
“Because in theory, the group up there can handle things that the Hall can’t, easily,” Nico says. “They’re literally a group of legends. It seems I underestimated her camouflage abilities. You’re sure you didn’t sense or see her?”
“I’m sure. I looked around. What sort of camouflage does she have?”
“She’s an octopus woman. She can change both her skin color and her form.”
“So… she’s a water type?” Malina asks, speaking up for the first time. I’d almost forgotten that she was there. “I want to help.”
Nico looks at her for a moment, a frown on his face. “Don’t think I haven’t thought of it,” he says.
“No!” I say, at the exact same time. “Malina, if she can do this to Superior, who knows what she could do to you? You as good as said that you weren’t in that league—”
“I’m not,” she says, “but if she’s a water type, then I should have something to do with it! I—maybe I can talk to her!”
“Technically she’s a shifter type,” Nico points out. “But she is obsessed with the preservation of our oceans and seas. Honestly, I can see where she’s coming from, but she goes about it all wrong.”
“I see,” Malina says, going quiet for a moment. “She definitely doesn’t have the right to attack people with venom,” she decides. “Of course, you could say I’m not welcome up there, as well, since I’m Hall affiliated, but I would like to go.”
Superior looks at her. “You’re a water manipulator, right?”
“Yes.”
“I have no problem with you coming, but if I can’t find her, what we really need is a cape finder.”
“We HAVE a cape finder that can freely go into that territory,” Nico says, tapping on his earbud. “Skye? Little sister, I have another job for you.”
“NICO!” I hear Skye say excitedly over the earbud. “HI! I would love to do a job—”
“But she can’t right now, because we’re in the middle of a gig,” a dry female voice says. “Call us back in an hour, would you? We’re about to get stuck in a dollhouse.”
“Got it,” Nico says, hanging up.
“I’m going with them,” I declare. “If it sinks into skin, I shouldn’t have a problem, right?”
“You need to wrap up the problem with your mom,” Nico says.
“Let the Hall do that,” I say. “I’m done with the whole blood ties thing. I’m going to be a Liberty.”
“You never talked properly with your mother,” Jeanie says, hesitantly. “I was hoping we could have an actual conversation with her before going ahead with the adoption…”
“We can arrange for the gems to be found, I’m sure,” Nico says. “And since that was her reaction, well, Sandra has every right to do what she wants.”
“We’ve got the drones ready and the rough position of where Diamond Dust left the gems,” Marigold says, stepping into the room. “Let’s go wrap this up, shall we?” I look at her, wanting to throw something.
“We’ll come,” Jeanie says, answering before I can find something sufficiently hard enough to throw. Marigold’s a tank, right? So it’d have to be something impressive. Not that throwing something at a Hall leader is a good idea… “Sandra, sweetie, it’s time,” Jeanie says, laying a hand on my shoulder. I nod, giving up on Marigold. She isn’t the real reason I’m angry right now, anyway.
“Sandra,” Superior says, making me look over. “I’m sorry… for what happened.”
I look at him and shrug. “I didn’t want to deal with her any more than I had to, anyway. This whole trip has been a waste of time, if you ask me.”
He nods. “Sometimes life works out that way.”
I walk out of the room without responding, because when a guy as old as he is says that, you pretty much have to believe him, right?
***
“How did she do it?” Superior asks quietly, once the girls are gone. Only Aubrey is still there with them, looking ready to catch him if he relapses.
“Do what?” Nico asks. He’s tapping on the air again, obviously up to something.
“How did that little rock mimic knock me out so easily? She didn’t even punch me, she just touched me. Is there something going on with her that I don’t know about?” Superior asks.
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.”
“It’s… complicated,” Nico says.
“HOW is it complicated?”
“She’s the daughter of Reaper.”
There’s a long moment of silence before Superior says, “That wasn’t complicated at all.”
“Sure it is.”
“You explained it in five words, son. Something you can explain in five words doesn’t qualify as complicated.”
“Who’s Reaper?” Aubrey asks. The two Superior males look at her with matching expressions.
“The son of Grim, the grandson of Dead Man’s Hand, the great grandson of—who was that one, again? You’re old enough to have met him, right?” Nico says to Superior.
“Not quite,” Superior says. “They tend to have long lives, as well.”
“Wait, when you say ‘Reaper’ you actually mean The Grim Reaper?” Aubrey asks. “You’re telling me that not only is she a rock mimic, but she might have grim reaper abilities, as well?”
“Reaper’s a highly-specialized cape that people call in when they want to retire,” Nico says. “He fakes their death, takes a nice sum of change, and goes on with his life. Sure, his line was a lot more dangerous back in the day, but Reaper isn’t. He’s more of a businessman.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that she’s got more dangerous powers!” Aubrey says. “She feels enough like a freak as it is, you know!”
“I’ve never even seen those powers in her scans before, so it’s new. It’s also obviously not going to be the dominant power set, as well. The real question is how it’s affected by her rock skin.”
“How does Reaper deal with it?” Superior asks.
“Gloves.”
“Makes sense. Now for an even more important question,” Superior says. “Does he know he has a daughter? A line like that is going to be extremely possessive of any heirs they might have.”
“What? Why would they be?” Aubrey asks.
They look at her, silent for the exact same amount of time before Nico looks at Superior. “How do we explain that one?”
“Well,” Superior says, “it’s probably because finding a mother for your child can be… a bit difficult when you can kill with a touch.”
“Very tactful, I’m impressed.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh,” Aubrey says, turning bright red.
***
“And you’ll find the gems buried here,” a black suit says, showing me a rough map. “Once you’ve found the gems, you’ll say she must have dropped them when she realized how close you were, and everything will be wrapped up enough for the comics.”
“That’s a good enough ending?” I say. “It sounds sort of lame, if you ask me.”
“We’ve only got permission for this gig for the rest of the day. Mastermental called, himself, saying that if we keep you any longer it’ll be considered a breach of the treaty we spent all morning arranging.”
“Thank God,” I say, relaxing. “Okay, let’s get this over with.” I put my mask on and look down at my uniform with a snort. “Did you get this dry-cleaned?”
“It’s dirt resistant, so we merely ran a brush over it,” the black suit says.
“Good to know, I guess,” I say before stepping into the field. There are drones hovering all around me, and the buzzing noise is annoying. I try to ignore it, closing my eyes and concentrating. I ope
n them again a second later, and head forward, forgetting about the job entirely.
“She’s heading the wrong direction,” I hear a black suit whisper behind me. I ignore him, just like I’m ignoring the drones. I picked up on something—it’s probably the biggest cache of gems I’ve ever felt in my life. Sure, I picked up on the stolen stuff, but it really pales in comparison to—
I stop as I reach the area that the jewels are, staring in shock at the large man standing in front of the box of gems. He’s tall—taller than Nico and Superior, probably close to eight feet, and thin, almost to the point of being bony. He’s wearing a black hooded cape that seems to whip with the wind even though it’s not that windy. His face is shadowed by the hood, and it makes his glowing eyes stand out even more. All of this is enough to make me hesitate, but the wicked looking scythe in his right hand has me turning on my heel and walking away.
“Nope. Not gonna happen,” I say, walking stiff-legged. “Not going there.”
“Sandra.”
I go still for all of a second before starting to walk again. Maybe I can pretend I didn’t hear him. “I know that you heard me,” he says, a hint of irritation in his tone. “We need to talk.”
“No thanks, mister,” I say. “Have a nice day being, you know, evil and all.”
“These are for you. A… peace offering.”
“No thanks,” I say, a sickening feeling welling in my gut.
“Had I known, I would have moved heaven and hell to find you,” he says. I trip over nothing, almost falling out of shock.
“You’re starting to sound even creepier than you look,” I say, but I can’t work up the proper tone.
“I’m your father,” he says. I finally turn, looking at him for a long, long moment. It’s bad enough that I have an unwanted mother to deal with, right? Almost fifteen years of wondering who my parents were, wondering if they could love me, and now they come out of the woodworks. Actually…
“Why should I believe you?” I ask, turning on him. “I mean, seriously, I might look like a rock, but I’m not as dumb as one. Some freaky, grim reaper looking guy shows up out of nowhere, claiming to be my dad? That’s definitely a B-rated horror flick just WAITING to happen. Next thing I know, you’ll be dressing me up in Gothic clothing and calling me something ridiculous—”
“I was thinking Angel of Death,” he says.
“EXACTLY,” I say, throwing my arms up in the air. “Plus, you lured me! That’s the same as tempting little children with candy, right? Let me guess, you’ve got a white van somewhere, but you’re underestimating me. I can take down a van or two.”
“It was a peace offering,” he says, a little grin on his lips that I really don’t understand. “Who did you think your dad would be?”
“I don’t know, a norm?” I offer.
He raises an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe that’s pushing it,” I admit. “But I would at least expect her to have better taste than a guy that runs around with antiquated farming equipment!” He starts laughing, much to my irritation. “That was an insult, you know,” I point out, since he’s not smart enough to realize it.
“It’s part of the power set,” he says, swinging the scythe through the air. It disappears. “We can also go into any sub-realm that we know of. There are many of them. Unfortunately, they usually come with problematic people.”
“So… like… if I wanted to go to the Shadowlands?”
“I haven’t been there in over half a century, and even then the smell had me turning right back around,” he admits. “Death can go anywhere—well, almost anywhere. I still haven’t been able to get into heaven or hell. You’re interested, aren’t you?”
I stare at him, and then look at my hand, imagining a disappearing, reappearing scythe on top of the rock skin. I could call him on the “Moving heaven and hell” line, now, but… “Nope,” I decide. “Not interested. I’m enough of a freak as it is.” I hear someone clear their throat and look over, seeing Jeanie floating above me. “Sorry, I’ll go back and do it again,” I say, turning and heading for the hidden gems.
“Honey, we have a slight problem,” she says. “I tried to stop it, but, well, I didn’t realize it soon enough.”
“What happened?”
“This was broad-casted live on East HTV,” she says. I groan. “They’ll edit it before allowing the norms to see, of course, but, well… the entire super world now knows Reaper believes you’re his daughter.”
I groan. “Can we just go after the villain with the venom, already? I get the feeling it’ll be WAY easier than this is.”
“Well…” she says.
“Dig up the gems and we’ll head home,” Nico says over my earbud.
“What about that guy?” I ask, looking over my shoulder. He’s gone, but he left the gems. I’m sort of tempted to go back and grab them. I didn’t think I would like jewels, you know? I’m not exactly the type to wear jewelry, but those are really tempting—
“He’s about to get in trouble for crossing borders without permission,” Nico says over my earbud. “Marigold just called up Mastermental.”
“He’s not East Hall?” I ask, surprised. “Then what Hall is he? Or is he not a Hall at all?”
“Well…” Nico says, and I can almost feel him hesitating, “Officially, on the dockets, Reaper is Central.”
I groan, again. “It figures.”
***
“Now, take two of the gem heist gig,” Nico says ten minutes later. I nod slightly, once again ignoring the drones as I look around. I’m in the same area that I met Reaper at, and I’ve got a map in my hands. This time, Malina’s in her white uniform, walking with me. Nico had said this time we aren’t taking any chances.
“So why did you come here, anyway?” Malina asks me as I lay the map on the ground.
“I can sense gems,” I say, since it’s true I don’t feel that stupid. “There aren’t many in this area, so it’s easy enough to narrow down the places where she could be hiding them. We’ve got a small deposit here, but it’s mostly quartz, a few hints here—” I point at the map and she nods with each jab of my finger. “Right here, though, there’s a nice little group of them.”
“You’d be a really good miner,” she says. I snort, trying not to laugh.
“Yeah, I guess I would. But the gems are here. I don’t know if she is, though.” I look around, peering into the shadows of the trees. Actually, I get the feeling she’s close. It’s a little different from finding gems, but I can practically sense her… no… I CAN sense her. I just hope she doesn’t do anything. She should want to avoid me as much as I want to avoid her, right?
“Why would she hide the gems here?” Malina asks.
“You can’t just go out and sell them all at once, especially not this close to the robbery,” I say. “Someone will call the cops. Instead, you either remove or reset the gems, and sell them that way on the black market. At least that’s what I’d do. Until then, you hide them. I’m betting they don’t have any gem finders in this branch, so it’s usually safe to just bury them wherever.” I pick up the map and fold it, tucking it into the bag slung over my shoulder. “Let’s go dig up some gems, Raindrop.”
“Sounds good, boss!” she says, trotting along behind me. I stop, holding up a hand as I hear a tree branch crack. I turn, looking for the source. There, standing in the shadows, is Diamond Dust. I was really hoping she would stay out of sight.
“Do you really think I’ll let you steal my treasure?” she asks, stepping into the light. “Just because you’re a little rock mimic—”
“I’m going to clear my name, Diamond Dust,” I say, trying to focus on my role. “Just because one rock mimic is a shameless thief doesn’t make all of us that way. You’re giving rock and earth types a bad name.”
“Oh, how self-righteous you are,” she says. “Do you really think people will trust you after they realize you can find gems as easily as you can breathe?”
“I don’t have to rob jewelry s
tores to get them!” I say.
“So it’s already hit you, hmm?” she says. “The love of gemstones.”
“I—”
“You should be careful,” she says, “you might start out trying to be a hero, but soon you’ll start seeing them in your dreams. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds…” She moves, casually moving to where the gems are buried and sticking her hand into the ground and pulling the bag out. “Here, Gargoyle Girl, I know you can feel all of the beautiful gems. I bet you want them.”
“You’re right,” I say, “I do want them.”
“Then take them,” she says, letting the bag dangle from her fingers. “Come to the villain side. The country is big enough for two rock mimics.”
I walk over, ignoring how Malina grabs my wrist and tries to stop me. “Gargoyle Girl, don’t fall for it!” she says dramatically. Her feet leave trails in the dirt, she’s pulling so hard. I almost laugh, but I hide it, meeting my birth mother’s eyes. Why did she come? I know she and I have issues, but here she is, looking at me with… sad eyes and a little smile that’s trembling slightly now that I’m close enough to see it. I don’t understand what she’s thinking right now, but I grab for the bag. She pulls it out of my reach.
“You’ll be the perfect villain,” she says, reaching up with her free hand and touching my face. I jerk away. “You just need a mentor to guide you. I can teach you.”
“Gargoyle Girl, don’t!” Malina says. I turn and look at her.
“Let go, Raindrop.”
“You’re better than this!” she says. “You’re—you’re a hero!”
“Let go, Raindrop,” I repeat, firmly. She looks up at me, and slowly her hands fall away from my wrist and she nods. I turn to Diamond Dust, my hand curling into a fist, and I punch her in the stomach, grabbing the bag with my other hand as she goes flying backwards. She jumped, and we both know it, but it looks dramatic. I toss the bag to Malina and bring up my fists, ready for another brawl.
Instead of getting back up, Diamond Dust starts to sink into the ground. “You’ll see, Gargoyle Girl. You’ll realize just how hard it is to be a hero. Just wait.” And then she’s gone. I could follow her, but I’ve got what I came for. I look at the bag of gems that Malina is holding.
