The Distort Arc: Cape High Books 1-4 (Cape High Series Omnibus)

by R. J. Ross

  "It's kind of small, isn't it?" Noelle says, looking around.

  "It's not like we spend a lot of time in here," I say as I drop down at the desk and bring up the internet.

  "Hey, was that Justin?" Noelle asks. "He's so cute at this age!"

  "He's a pain in the neck at this age," I mutter, typing in my search. Carla is bouncing around the room looking at everything--and in Carla's case, looking has to include touching. "Carla, I found some," I say, getting out of my chair and motioning for her to sit down. "All you have to do is click here and you'll get to watch it," I add as she bounces over and sits down.

  "Thanks, Morgan!" she says, intent on the screen as she starts watching the interviews. I head for my bed, fixing the stuffed animals she's messed up before dropping down on it.

  "That's a lot of toys," Noelle says.

  I look at the small pile, wondering if I should explain. It's not any of her business, right? "I like them," I say simply, picking up a stuffed black cat and looking at it for a long moment. It reminds me of Adanna. A knock on the door makes me glance up, watching as Justin steps in.

  "We need to talk," he says.

  "About what?"

  "About Ward."

  I feel a headache coming on. I knew this was coming, I mean, you'd have to be blind not to, but really, did it have to be now? "Not in here," I say as I get to my feet.

  "Ward didn't do anything bad!" Carla says, jerking away from the laptop to glower at Justin. "He was trying to help me!"

  "Not now, Carla," Justin says.

  "You can't say that to me--you're an outsider! You've got no right to--"

  "Carla," I say. "Stop."

  I'm sixteen years old. Did I mention that? I'm only sixteen years old, but I'm the leader of this group of super-powered, trouble ridden teenagers that have more issues than I can count. Sometimes I think a laptop isn't nearly enough pay for this job. I head out the door and down the hall to Justin's room, waiting impatiently for him to invite me in.

  He opens the door, motioning me in and closing it behind him. "Look," he says slowly, "I didn't want to bring this up, but it's gotten out of hand, Morgan."

  "Since when did you care?" I ask. "I thought you were trying to get kicked out."

  "I was," he says bluntly. "I've got more important things to do than jumping through hoops to make Nico happy. But I've got to live here, just like the rest of you, and I'm starting to think I'm the only one that's actually paying attention to what's going on. Ward isn't stable, Morgan--"

  "NONE of us are stable, Justin," I say, something finally giving inside of me. "Not a single one of us is stable in this group. All of us have something that sends us over the edge or takes us back to the zoo! But you don't get it because you weren't there! It was just us in there, for months, maybe years for the ones like Ward and Aubrey. So don't go judging--"

  "I don't want to judge, I just want to not have to worry about waking up and finding Vinny killed by accident," Justin says bluntly.

  "He wouldn't do that!"

  "Or the dorms burnt down," Justin goes on. "Vinny's got that lighter with him everwhere he goes."

  "Nico says when he's older he won't need it," I have to point out.

  "That's so reassuring," Justin drawls. "Look, you can only do so much, Morgan. You need to bring in someone from the outside--and I'm not talking Banshee. You need to bring in a psychologist."

  "An adult," I say.

  "Yeah, an adult. Banshee tries, I've seen it, but Banshee doesn't know half of the things that happen around here. Look, I'm sure there's some cape somewhere that's got training for this--or maybe one of the black coats--"

  "Where do you get off telling me how to run my group?" I demand, stepping forward and staring him straight in the eyes. "You have nothing to do with this!"

  "I live here, too, Morgan! And until I learn to control my abilities, they aren't going to let me leave. That means if your group winds up killing themselves, I'll go down with them, understand?" he says. "I've tried ignoring it, it doesn't work. And if you don't want to go to the adults about this, I will."

  "You have no right!"

  "I have every right," he says as his door is burst down. Ward comes in, towering over us all and heading straight for Justin.

  "You don't yell at Morgan!" Ward snarls.

  "THAT WASN'T YELLING!" Justin bellows so loudly that the building starts to shake and Ward goes slamming backwards, out of the room and through the wall of the hallway. Justin follows him, staring through the hole at the large boy that's starting to sit up on the ground floor below. This is getting ugly, quickly. I shove past Justin and jump through the hole, landing on the ground next to Ward. I press my hand against his forehead.

  Ward starts to shrink, turning into the small fourteen year old boy that he really is. I start to grow, soon towering over everything in the room. "Enough!" I bellow. "Do you hear me? I said it's enough! Everyone in the main room, right this instant! Including you, Justin."

  I hear doors opening throughout the dorms and the entire group filters into the room reluctantly, even the ones that try to avoid crowds. I do a quick headcount before speaking. "I'm sick and tired of all the fighting. So I'm going to implement a new rule."

  "It's Justin's fault!" Ward says angrily.

  "Ward," I say. "I'm not finished talking."

  "But--"

  "Let me finish talking," I say. "There will be no use of powers against each other. None. If you use your powers to harm someone else in the dorms or the school, I'll take those powers away."

  "What about during sparring?" Lance asks.

  "In class, sure, out of class, I don't think so," I say. How much water is this going to hold? I can only take one power at a time and that's only for fifteen minutes! They know that! But I have nothing else to threaten them with--

  The sound of clapping makes me glance up, watching as Banshee walks in. She's clapping? "Very nice idea," she says, making me feel a bit stunned. "I'll get Nico to build a few toys to help enforce it."

  "Banshee," I say, shrinking abruptly. "This--um--" I glance at the hole above my head, feeling guilty. "We ah... had a little disagreement, but nobody got seriously hurt or anything--"

  "I heard we've got a new tenant," she says, looking around. "You?" she adds as she sees Noelle. Noelle is pale as paper and staring up at the hole. She barely glances at Banshee before nodding silently. "I've never met a time traveler before. This should be interesting."

  "I don't think it's enough," Justin says, making me glance over at him. "Banshee, they need a psychologist."

  The cry of outrage that comes with that is almost deafening. I reach up and stick my fingers in my ears to wait it out. Banshee lifts one hand after a second, gaining silence. "I think," she says after a moment, "that that might be a bit too much for the group to handle--having a norm come in here is probably a bad idea--BUT," she goes on before he can reply, "America's Son is a preacher. That means he's got some training for this sort of thing, I think."

  The group goes silent, looking at each other. I have to speak up, I think. I'm the leader--

  "I... I'd talk to America's Son," Carla says quietly. "He's my favorite super hero."

  "We don't need to talk to anyone," Lance says. "He won't understand."

  "Lance, no one will until you tell them," Banshee says. "But I won't expect you to trust him straight off--I know most of you don't trust me yet, either. I just thought you'd like to meet one of the most famous capes in the area--you do want to meet him, don't you?"

  That has the group nodding and starting to get excited. I glance over at Ward, taking in his dark expression, then over at Vinny, who's been surprisingly quiet through this--oh, he's still watching TV. Yeah, that explains it. He probably doesn't even care. Of the entire group, Vinny seems the least traumatized by what happened to us.

  Thing is, though, I'm not sure I want to talk to America's Son, myself. America's Son's been around for a while, right? He's been an acting cape since before I was bor
n. That means there's a chance that if I talk with him for too long he might figure some things out. Like where, exactly, I got my abilities from. I've been avoiding Mastermental for that exact same reason.

  The last thing I need is for them to find out who I really am.

  ***

  ~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, where she works as a secretary for the family business and spends all of her free time writing. If you would like to see more of her work, you can find several short stories at http://amazon.com/author/rjross!

  Like her on Facebook for bonus material such as character profiles, unpublished information, and status updates at http://www.facebook.com/capehigh! Or check out her blog for free Cape High short stories at http://capehigh.wordpress.com/

  And for other super hero novels check out the Pen and Cape Society at http://penandcapesociety.com/wp/!