by R. J. Ross
“Grandpa?” I hear Malina repeat from behind us, and then we’re too far away to hear anything.
“This isn’t good,” he says, holding me like a princess as he rushes over several islands. “My two days' estimate was too generous—how did they find us, though? We destroyed your phone, we don’t have anything Technico could track—”
“That was Rocco,” I say against his chest. “I think Rocco doesn’t need anything to find someone.”
“And how did they come up from the ocean? A Falconess isn’t a water type super—”
“Malina is,” I say. “The little person that was standing on the water—she’s a water manipulator.”
“And what is Rocco?”
“A shadow walker,” I say, not even blinking as he lets out a swearword. “Exactly,” I agree. “But—but it’s too early,” I say, listening to his heartbeat. “I didn’t—I haven’t gotten to know you well enough yet.”
“Maybe that’s for the best, princess,” he says, the wind tugging the words away as soon as he says them. “We should stop.”
“What?” I ask as he lands on an island. “We can’t stop now—they’ll catch up to us!”
“That’s what I expect,” he says, putting me down and touching my chin. “I want you to grow up, Keliah, and become a great woman like your grandma and your mom are. But don’t just pick some random guy to provide the next Falconess. Fall in love. Tattoo your wedding rings under a gigantic moon. Live, little one, live for me.”
He takes to the air, turning in the direction we’d just left, and waiting.
Nothing happens.
“You know… that would have been a lot more dramatic if they actually followed us,” I point out after some ten minutes of waiting.
“It really would have,” he agrees.
***
*Back with Rocco’s Group*
“Mom?” Falconess says to the woman blocking their way. “What are you doing? He just KIDNAPPED KELIAH!” she snarls, her hands fisting tightly.
“He’s your father,” Angela says. She’d had to step in—they were going to catch him far too soon. “Just give him a few days, Missy, please,” she pleads. “He hasn’t hurt her.”
“You KNEW he had her?” Falconess asks, pulling back in shock. The betrayal is stunning. “Why didn’t you take her from him?”
“For thirty-eight years he’s been stuck in a small room, unable to speak to anyone that—that he loves, or that loves him,” Angela says. “Even in the norm system they get visits from their families. This is too much.”
“It’s how the system works,” Falconess says. “We can’t—”
“The system is wrong,” Angela says. “I’ve stayed silent too long. The system is wrong and this is our opportunity to prove it—”
“No,” Malina says. Everyone turns and looks at her. “Maybe it’s wrong for Bombastic, but it’s not wrong in other cases. Justin’s father was killed by Deathblow. He doesn’t deserve to be—”
“Justin’s dad wasn’t the only one,” Rocco says. “The others—I heard about all of them. Maybe the mermaid should be given a chance, except she hurt a lot of buildings and people, too. But Deathblow killed six supers and who knows how many norms. Honestly, he makes my dad look like a Boy Scout,” he says darkly, “and Shadowman’s a kidnapping mercenary for hire. Can we at least move to land for this conversation? I can’t fly and it’s a bit awkward hanging onto Malina like this. No offense, it’s not that I don’t like you—” he says quickly as she looks at him. “It’s just… awkward.”
Falconess goes down, picking him up like he weighs nothing. “And this isn’t awkward at all,” he says with a hint of sarcasm. Angela scoops up Malina and they take off, heading for the nearest island. “But we shouldn’t have let him run,” he goes on a bit blithely. “Nico got the council to promise to give him a hearing if he came willingly.”
“WHAT!?” Angela demands in shock.
“Yeah, if he came after I asked him they would be open to a hearing—he could have gotten out. But… technically I haven’t asked him,” Rocco says thoughtfully. “So there’s still a chance, right? Him running isn’t the same thing as fighting.”
“But he did have Keliah with him,” Malina points out. “Won’t that add to the problem?”
“We’ll go after him,” Angela says. “I’ll talk to him; he’ll understand—”
“I’m pretty sure that it has to be me,” Rocco says. “I mean, no offense, um, Mrs. Falconess, but Nico said if he agreed to come in when I asked him, he’d at least get a hearing. I think he likes the guy, which honestly made it easier on me, since I have to hunt him down—except all of this is being recorded,” he adds, pointing to a drone.
Both Falconesses turn and look at the drone with dawning horror.
“So the entire Central Hall is watching this?” Melissa asks slowly.
“Them, yeah, and all of West, too,” Rocco says. “Negatia wants to see how Malina handles it.”
Angela lets out a curse that definitely deserves to be bleeped out.
***
The theater is empty--well, almost empty. Sure it's a horror movie marathon, but it's the middle of the day and the middle of the week--plus, a lot of these movies are so old that you can watch them on TV. In fact, the theater had almost thought of cancelling it until the strange little man showed up and said he wanted a ticket. The poor lady at the counter had sold it to him, wondering if this was the kind of guy that had large holes dug in his basement and an endless supply of lotion. It was no wonder he got his ticket without paying for it. In fact, they'd even given him a complimentary bucket of popcorn, just hoping he didn't go crazy and kill them all, or something. That skin tight uniform and the crazy, glowing eyes all shouted that he was a super. Who knew what kind of powers he had?
So now here he is, sitting in a dark theater, watching TERROR II and munching on popcorn happily. As far as scary movies go, this isn't that impressive, he admits, but it's better than that fifties' crap that he'd had to watch in the Cells.
The door of the theater opens, but he ignores it, figuring it to be one of the people working there. He doesn't pay any attention at all as the person walks into the theater. In fact, he only gets irritated when the large man sits directly in front of him, blocking the screen.
"You're blocking my view," he says, leaning forward and starting to focus his ability. At least he does until the man turns and looks at him.
"Hello, Massteria," Deathblow says, "fancy meeting you here."
Massteria swallows, almost choking on a piece of popcorn. "Dea--"
"You have to know why I'm here," Deathblow says.
"No--no I don't," Massteria says. "We finished our business when we got out--"
"You're at the top of my 'most annoying' list," Deathblow interrupts him. "And we all know what that means."
"What, no Christmas card?" Massteria asks, trying, and for the first time in a long while, failing to put a sarcastic tone to the smart alec comment.
"I'm going to kill you, first," Deathblow says with a predatory smile. "So how would you like it. Slow, or fast? I was thinking I'd pull your head off--"
"Who's second on the list?" Massteria asks.
"What?"
"Who's second?" Massteria asks. "I might be able to give you a hand--the others won't be as easy to find as I am, you know. With two of us working together we'll be able to hunt them down--"
"What part of 'most annoying' do you not understand?" Deathblow asks.
"Why isn't Boombastic first? He's really annoying, if you ask me. He tried to stop you from killing that guard, right?" Massteria asks.
Deathblow goes silent, frowning as if he only just now remembered that. "I'm listening," he says after a moment. "But if you don't know anything, you're dead," he says.
"I know more than you do," Massteria says. "I was already a working villain when he was caught, remember?"
Deathblow stares at him for a moment and Massteria's gaze travels to the large ha
nd on the armrest of the chair. It's gripping the top of the seat so tightly that the tough plastic shatters under his fingertips. "I know where he called his home base," Massteria says, only half lying. "If he's going anywhere, it'll be there."
"If you're lying, I kill you," Deathblow says.
"That seems fair," Massteria says, his sarcasm rising again.
"I thought so," Deathblow agrees. "Now let's go find Boombastic."
“And what about Mimic?” Massteria asks as they head out of the theater.
“Mimic? He’s long gone by now,” Deathblow says. “I’ll go after him after I kill you.” He walks right past a pimple faced teen sweeping the floor.
“Come back soon,” the teen says, grinning a bit too widely. They ignore him completely.
***
“Keep that new drone on Bombastic—the one Nico added a cloaking device to,” Andre says, watching over one of his operator’s shoulder. “I want to see what happens—and if I want to see, everyone else does, too.”
“Yes sir,” the drone operator says, following the escaped convict from a distance. At any moment Bombastic might notice, so he needs to get as much good footage as he can. “Sir, he has a child with him—should we be sending someone in?”
Andre watches the pair for a moment, frowning. “Get Nico on the phone and send over the coordinates. It’s the best thing we can do at the moment.”
“Yes sir,” one says.
***
“We’ll go even further!” I declare. “We’ll head for Antarctica and live with the penguins and then they’ll never… find us…” I slow down because even I know that’s stupid. We’re sitting on the beach, and I’m pretty sure he’s just waiting for Rocco to show up again. “You can beat Rocco without killing him, you know,” I say.
“How old is he?”
“Really old, like, I think he’s almost old enough to graduate. I shouldn’t even be in the same classes as him, you know? But they haven’t sorted us out by years yet. I think they plan to, though…”
“Almost old enough to graduate high school is really old to you, huh?” he asks me.
“Well he’s older than me,” I mutter, pouting slightly.
“But to me, he’s just a kid,” he says, getting to his feet. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Grandpa, are we just going to wait until they come and find us again?”
He hesitates for a moment and I can literally see him thinking. “Well… we might as well continue your training if they’re going to take their time about it,” he says. “So come on, I’m going to throw you up a tree for some bananas.”
“Is this all we’re going to do?” I ask.
“What?”
“We might… we might never see each other ever again, and all you want to do is eat bananas and wait for them to capture you? My training isn’t that important, it’ll happen sooner or later—what do you want to do, Grandpa? What have you been dreaming of doing while you were in there? Well, you know, other than revenge and destruction.”
He looks at me for a moment. “I… could really go for a cheeseburger,” he admits finally. “Maybe go see a movie in the theater for once. Sure Technico set a few of us up with television after he got out, but you can’t beat the feeling of seeing a movie in a theater,” he says, smiling slightly.
“Then let’s do it,” I say. “We’ll have to get some sort of disguise, but I bet they won’t notice! And some money,” I add, frowning. Even if I did have my phone I couldn’t have paid for all of it—they would have noticed. So we’ll need cash to do it. “Where are the best burgers?” I ask.
“Back on the mainland,” he says.
“Then… we’re going to have to be careful,” I say. “Which Hall Leader hates you least?”
He chokes for a second before letting out a laugh. “What a thing to ask,” he says. “Mastermental’s done a few mental evaluations on me. He doesn’t seem to hate me that much.”
“If he’s done that, why hasn’t he let you out?” I demand.
“Because I’m still a dangerous cape, sweetheart,” he says, looking me in the eyes. For a second I feel a chill run down my spine.
“Nico’s a dangerous cape!” I protest. “They let him out!”
“He’s your principal now, right? But it’s a Hall controlled school, and he’s guarded by an entire staff of powerful capes, isn’t he? They couldn’t guard him with machines in the Cape Cells, anyway,” he says. “But enough of that—let’s go break into the states.”
I grin at him, knowing that this is stupid and not caring. If he plans on getting caught and thrown back into the Cape Cells anyway, why not let him enjoy the little time he has? I hold up my arms, feeling like a child, and he grabs me, taking to the air. I can’t help but let out a laugh as we race through the sky. “I can’t WAIT to fly,” I tell him, since he’s not going as fast as he had before. I can breathe this time. “I’m going to tour the world!” I decide.
“You do that, sweetie,” he says. “Travel the world, see everything you can, and then write me about it. Maybe they’ll let me read them when I’m too old to fly, myself.”
My happy mood is gone that easily, I think as I look at him. I cuddle closer, leaning my head against his chest and feeling helpless. “That’ll be too long,” I say quietly.
“It’ll be fine,” he says. “It’s how it goes.” I see the shores of America in the distance and suddenly realize that it’s the middle of the morning. Anyone could see us coming.
“How are we going to get there without being noticed, Grandpa?” I ask. “I mean, us flying in is definitely going to attract some talk.”
“How good are you at swimming?” Grandpa asks.
“I’m um, not that great,” I admit. “I mean, we live in Missouri, it’s not like we do much other than go to the pool once in a while.”
“Then we’ll find an empty beach before getting close enough that the norms might be able to see us,” he says, changing direction and going higher. We scan the beaches for a while before finding an empty, rather ugly spot down south. He goes in low, landing in the water several miles out. “Okay, Keliah, we’re going to swim in, but I’m with you, got it?” he says as I grab onto him.
“I got it,” I say. I start swimming, heading for the beach. This is actually pretty cool, I realize after a bit. Once I learn to fly, I’m totally going to hit the beaches more often! But the water is freezing. I’m shivering by the time we get to the beach and my teeth are clattering uncontrollably.
Grandpa lets out a curse as he realizes it, picking me up and running onto the land. “I completely forgot it was winter,” he says, hugging me tightly. He’s as warm as a fire, practically. He puts me down and races off, collecting twigs and wood. Soon he’s got a small fire pit set up. He grabs one of the twigs and it lights up with a tiny FWUMP! He shoves it into the stack of wood and sits down next to me. I grab his arm and wrap it around me, much to his surprise.
“You’re warm,” I say, blushing slightly. “And I want to see your tattoo,” I add, bringing his hand up and looking at the golden pair of wings wrapped around the base of his ring finger. “Does Grandma’s ring look like this?” I ask him.
“She’s got fireworks,” he says, looking at his hand, as well. “Or she did. I wouldn’t blame her if she got it removed.”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I don’t see Grandma all that often, and I’ve never looked at her ring finger.”
“That’s a shame,” he says. “You’re a lot like her.”
“I’m not,” I say. “Grandpa—I’m not who you think I am,” I declare, dreading his reaction. “I’m not a good girl—I’m not a picture perfect super hero, either. I don’t even WANT to be Falconess. I want to be a super villain! I want to—” He’s just looking at me. Shouldn’t he be shocked by this point? For that matter, why is no one EVER shocked when I tell them this? Even my own mother had just groaned like I gave her a headache! “You’re supposed to be shocked now,” I point ou
t.
“Nah,” he says. “I bet your mom went through the same thing. You’ve got super villainy in the blood, sweetheart,” he teases, grinning at me. “And I can’t swear that all of it comes from me, either. I did tell you that Falconesses were anti-heroes, didn’t I?”
“But—but Mom’s a member of Central Hall! You don’t get more heroic than that!”
“You dry, yet?” he asks instead of arguing with me.
“Um, yeah, I guess I am,” I say, looking down at my still damp pants. “Should we get going?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m going to need some sunglasses,” he adds, looking inland. “Let’s go find a cheap souvenir joint.”
“We need money, first!” I say.
“You said you wanted to be a super villain, right? Well, consider this your first job,” he says.
***
There are super heroes and black suits sitting in the large meeting room of the Central Hall. HTV is playing on the wall, with Nico lounging casually in the air over their heads with his feet crossed at the ankles and a bucket of popcorn on his stomach. “See?” he says to the ones below him. “How can we say a guy that spoils his grandkid—one that he had no clue about—is such a bad guy?”
“Aren’t you at least a little worried about Keliah?” Mega asks. “I admit he’s putting on a good show for the cameras—”
“This is a drone I built for Andre,” Nico says. “No, that’s a lie—I built it for the hell of it and realized I didn’t need it. Andre paid top dollar for it—it’s got a cloaking device.”
“You ripped off science fiction movies again, huh?” Ken asks, smiling slightly. The smile doesn’t change the fact that his eyes are as sharp as a hawk on the screen. “What he said about your evaluation, Double M, is it true?”
“Of course,” Mastermental says. More than half of the Hall is out searching for Deathblow, but Ken and Jeanie just finished their shift. Now Liz and Taurus are out on the job. “Bombastic has several triggers that can set him off, still. I did an evaluation a few years ago to make sure.”
