Daddy's Girl: Cape High Book Five

by R. J. Ross

  No one responds. I run my hands over the walls, searching for something--a door handle--when all of a sudden a form appears in the restroom in front of me. "Little girl, you shouldn't be here," Ace says. He's all I can see, his pale white face almost glowing in the darkness. His expression is changing, though. At first it's a dangerous, intimidating expression, but now--now he looks plain stunned.

  "I--" I start out.

  "Morgan," he says, much to my shock. His arms wrap around me, but all I feel is a cold brush of air as he hugs me. "Morgan--"

  The door bursts open and Trent (I think it's Trent? He's wearing the same outfit, or something like it) grabs my arm. "Let her go, Ace," he says. "She's not from this time, she's off limits."

  Ace disappears in a flash of smoke, leaving me staring up at Trent. "Who is Ace, really?" I ask. "How does he know me?"

  "He's..." Trent hesitates a second too long before someone slams into him, sending them both flying into the wall. For a second I think it's Jack attacking him, but it's a funny way of attacking, since his back is to the other man. They both look a bit dazed after hitting, before Jack curses and gets to his feet.

  "Ace!" he bellows. "You need to calm down, man! CALM DOWN!"

  "You have Morgan! You have her and I need her!" Ace's face appears all around us, large, small, floating in the air in a creepy manner. It's like being in a house of mirrors. "She was gone, but now she's here--"

  "MORGAN ISN'T GOING TO TAKE YOUR POWERS, ACE!" Jack bellows. The entire building starts to shake again, but this time the walls are rattling, pulling apart. "I'm sick and tired of you trying to chicken out! Trying to take the easy way out! Man up, Ace! You can still be saved." That last line has a tinge of sadness to it, and I find myself looking at Jack's face. He's honestly hurting right now. "You can still be saved," he repeats. "It isn't your powers that are out of control--"

  "Jack," Trent says, touching Jack's arm.

  "It isn't your powers," Jack repeats, shrugging off the hand. "It's your mind."

  An eerie laugh echoes all around us. "You're one to talk, Jack. You're the one destroying everything--the Cape Cells, your own home--"

  "Ace," Trent says, stepping forward. "You need help. I'll call the Hall--"

  "No!" It's like a hurricane sweeps through the room and I can literally feel him leaving. The room is suddenly lit again and I can see where all the walls have been distorted by Jack's powers.

  "He left," Trent mutters, running a hand over his face. "Why does he keep coming after you, anyway?" he demands of Jack. "What did you do to him?"

  Jack looks at the walls, sighing and holding out a hand. They flatten again, returning to their original places. "It's a long story," he mutters, glancing around. "Where's Justin?"

  "What?" I ask, looking around as well. "He was just here--" I start for the front room, looking for him. "Justin? Justin, it's over now, he's gone!" I call.

  "He's gone," Trent says.

  "That's what I just said--"

  "No. Justin. He's gone. Ace must have taken him."

  "How do you know that?" I demand, turning on him. "How can you possibly know that he's not just hiding somewhere--"

  "I would hear him," Trent says. "I've got decent hearing and this place tends to echo even the smallest of noises. Don't worry, though, we'll get him back--and get both of you back to your own time."

  "How do you know that?" I demand, feeling the faintest bit of hope and quickly shoving it back down.

  "Because if you get stuck in the future you can't be here as an adult, right? Morgan's in Africa right now, right?" Trent asks Jack.

  "Yeah, she's helping out with the schooling situation and working with a special case that came up down there," Jack says. He pulls out his phone, typing in a short message and waiting impatiently for a reply.

  "Morgan, I want you to stay here with Jack, I'll go get Justin back--" Trent starts out.

  "No," I say. "It's my fault that he's here, all of this is my fault. I'm the one that needs to go get Justin."

  "Got my reply, she's still there," Jack says, pocketing the phone. "And Morgan, you can't go after Justin." We both turn and look at him as he lets out a sigh and runs a hand over his face. "I should probably start from the beginning, huh?" he says, looking at us both. "Why Ace hates me and why he's intent on getting Morgan--either of her."

  ***

  *The Present*

  He can't keep this form for much longer, Mimic thinks as he lands in the abandoned building in the zoo. Nico's power is great, sure, and the shape is close enough that he isn't having a problem with it, but the memories--he can't handle the memories. It's like being in a tornado.

  "Let me go!"

  It doesn't help his headache that the little girl's voice is so high pitched, he thinks darkly as he looks over at his hostage. This empty part of the zoo had seemed the perfect choice for keeping her until he came up with a use for her, but she's more annoying than he'd thought. "Shut up," he growls, crossing the room and glowering down at her.

  "I have to use the restroom," she says in a surly tone. "And I'm freezing. You might not have noticed, but it's not exactly spring out there and this place doesn't have a heater." Her teeth are chattering and she looks a bit blue.

  "Aren't you a cape brat?" he demands. "You're supposed to be tougher than that."

  "I am! I'm just--I don't have my powers yet," she says, shivering almost violently. "I'm harmless, so let me go!"

  "I don't think so," he says. His head is killing him. Every time he wants to say something he has two versions of it running through his head, along with a diagram of any and all machinery that he might pass by. The watch, especially, is practically shouting at him because he's still carrying it around.

  "Who are you?" she demands. "Who are you, really? I know you're not Technico!"

  Yeah, he thinks, letting the shift fall, he can't pull off Technico. He doesn't even notice the girl staring at him as he drops down on a rock, taking a deep breath and trying to get his mind straight. "What IS he?" he mutters, rubbing his temple.

  "Who--who are you?" she asks again, her eyes wide. "You're--you're--"

  He looks at her finally. "Do I look like someone you know?" he asks.

  She swallows loudly and looks worried. "Are you... um... are you Morgan's dad?"

  "You know my daughter?" he asks. Then he frowns. "I should have brought her with me," he admits, shaking his head. "I'll just have to go back and get her later--after I've fixed the problem in this time."

  "She's my--this time?" Noelle asks, turning pale. "Aren't you FROM this time?"

  "I'm from the future," he says, as if that should intimidate her.

  "My watch," she says, struggling against her ropes as hard as she can. "You've got my watch, don't you? GIVE IT BACK!"

  "I see," he says, things clicking into place. "If you don't have powers yet, you got this from someone that does, didn't you?" he asks, pulling the watch out. "And the only ones that could make something like this are the Superiors, right? So which is it? Nico? Or I heard he has a daughter--what was her name... starts with a Z..." he says. "Well, whatever, if you're important to one you're important to the other, now aren't you? That makes you useful to me."

  "My grandfather will SLAUGHTER you," Noelle snarls, jerking at the ropes that bind her.

  "I've already taken care of Nico, little girl--"

  "I'm not talking Nico," she says. "I'm talking Mastermental. You are SO DEAD--" Her rant is ignored as he stares at her, taking in just how dangerous a bloodline she comes from. The child of Nico's daughter and Mastermental's son--

  "I see," he says, standing abruptly and walking over to place a hand on her head. "You need to be dealt with more carefully," he finishes, holding up the watch and pressing the button.

  It's like they were never there.

  A few seconds later a man appears in the middle of the abandoned area. He looks around, curses, and kicks the rock that Mimic had been sitting on. It shatters. The man looks at his watch and
pushes a button.

  He disappears as well.

  ***

  "It happened about a month or two after I woke up," Jack says slowly. We're sitting in the front room as if Ace doesn't have Justin. A part of me wants to say that the story can wait until we get Justin back, but another knows I need to know what I'm dealing with. "I started as a working cape the same week I woke up, practically--I had no choice--but people started calling the Hall about me, parents of up and coming heroes in training."

  "They wanted to get their kids' names out there," Trent says. "Jack was the perfect super villain to go up against, since the entire community knew that he was actually under the Hall's control. He was a Cape High kid."

  "I did a few of those, faked a few falls for the tougher ones, wiped the floors with the kids that had no business being in uniform," Jack says, grinning slightly at the memory. "Nico told me I could," he adds. "He had it all lined up and charted. It was fun. Plus he oversaw it like he used to oversee you and Max's battles, at least on my side. We figured nothing big would come of it, really... except there was this one chick that wanted to fight in a club. We tried talking her out of it but she cheated, dragging me into this night club to show off her powers to a bigger group. Thing is, Ace was there."

  "I have a theory who Ace is, but I'm not sure," Trent admits. "You know, don't you?"

  "Yeah," Jack says. I found out after he started launching attacks on me. Look," he says, glancing at me, "I terrified the guy at the time. He was going through a rough time, and... well, you almost get killed when a metal coated teenager bursts into your club and try not to have nightmares. And when an illusionist has nightmares, so does everyone around him."

  "Blackjack," I whisper, my mind flashing back to that little talk we had on the way to the apartments. "He's Blackjack's son." I knew he reminded me of someone!

  "Yeah, he is," Jack says. "But nobody knew Blackjack even HAD a kid back then--"

  "I did," I say. "I mean, I do. But Blackjack swore he was a norm--they're going through a divorce right now, and he's going to leave his son with his wife, I think--"

  "He's not a norm," Trent says. "He's a Specialized S class. More powerful than Blackjack ever was, actually."

  The room is silent for a moment as I let that fact soak in. "But if this happened already and I didn't go find him--why won't I go find him?" I ask them both. "It's what I WANT to do with my life! I don't care about fame or a costume or anything like that--I want to save kids!"

  "I don't know," Trent admits. "Maybe it didn't happen in our past... or maybe you forget?"

  "I doubt it," I say. "I mean, this is definitely not something that's going to be forgotten any time soon."

  "You never mention it, though," Jack says. "Maybe... there's a chance Double M wipes your memory. I mean, since you knowing the future probably isn't that great an idea, right?"

  I stare at him. "You got a permanent magic marker?" I ask, getting to my feet.

  "What? Why?"

  "Just get me the marker."

  ***

  "We ready?" Jack asks as I step out of the steel palace and into the light. "I had to call Aubrey and tell her to take Jason to your place," he adds to Trent. "Hope you don't mind."

  "It's fine," Trent says.

  I look at him, wondering if I'm right in thinking he's married to Emily. He probably has kids, too. Blackjack's words flash back into my mind and I wonder if just assuming that both of them are happy in their marriages is naive. Then again--

  "Emily's there," Trent says, seeing me looking at him. "But you saw that coming, didn't you?"

  "Is it easy?" I ask, flushing as I hear the question even though I'm the one that asked it. "I mean, being married and a cape... Blackjack said that only a few capes can manage it. Like how nobody knows what happened to Max's mom or--"

  "It's not easy," Jack says as he steps onto his metal surfboard. "I want to send you over to Aubrey and Emily, but I doubt you'll stay there, will you?"

  "If it's not easy then how do you make it work?" I ask, stepping onto the board behind him. "I mean, even norms get divorced all the time because they have other things that--that make it hard to stay together, right? But you're both super heroes. Doesn't that mean you have to put your jobs first?"

  "Morgan," Jack says with a hint of amusement, "you grow up to be the poster child for single heroes, and in some fifteen years of living in what could conceivably be called our basement, you never once asked either one of us this, so why are you asking now?"

  I grab hold of his shirt, not knowing what to say about that. He glances back at me. "Everyone makes their own decisions in life. It's up to them to find a way to live with them, and if you can't live with the decisions you make, you probably shouldn't have made them in the first place, right? My biggest decision was to go to Star Born--it almost got me killed. Everything since then? Well, I see that stuff more like... opportunities to prove I'm alive and I'm dealing with my choice."

  "So being married is..."

  "The best opportunity I've had," he tells me. "Sure we got problems, she's working for the Hall, I'm a super villain, our kid is starting to develop metal spots, and I can't exactly go out and do the shopping, but we work through it. You help," he adds, much to my surprise. "When you're home you help out with a lot of things, on top of everything else you do. Far as I'm concerned, you're family. Like a sister. So even if you DO get your memory wiped, try and remember one thing."

  "What thing?" I ask when he goes quiet for a moment.

  "That regardless of how much you might hate me in your time, I NEVER hated you. And after I got used to you, I always had your back. I never told anyone about your dad, you know? I even beat a few guys after the school got larger when they started talking about it."

  I'm dumbfounded, even as he goes on, "Sure it was annoying when you kept giving me crap about dating Aubrey, but you were still her best friend. That meant, to me, you were someone I had to watch out for--as in 'avoid when you were on the rampage', sure, but also seriously watch out for."

  I feel guilty. I never thought of Jack like that, I was certain that the entire school would learn about my dad from him--but they hadn't, had they? He hadn't said a word. They found out from me. So... had he really been hiding my secret? It'd happened so quick that I never even thought about it.

  "You never told us why Ace is obsessed with Morgan," Trent says. He's flying alongside us.

  "Ace, far as I can tell, ran into her one time and she took his abilities in self defense. Thing is, that let him sleep. I don't think the guy gets much sleep at all if you consider how intent he is on getting her."

  "Why doesn't he just take a sleeping pill?" I mutter. "I'm not a night light, you know!"

  "If an illusionist has a nightmare, it tends to come real," Jack says. "Did Blackjack ever have nightmares when he was living in the dorms?"

  "Not that I know of," I say, picturing what could have happened.

  "That's because Blackjack was trained from childhood, I bet. He should have trained his kid, but like you said, he thought he was a norm. Another factor is what's IN the mind," he says. "Dad always says that what's in the heart comes out in one way or another. In Ace's case it's a literal fact."

  "So how do we find him?" I ask, looking around.

  "Look for something that doesn't seem quite right," Trent says. "He's an illusionist but he's an exhausted one. He's probably hiding in plain sight."

  "What does he need Justin for?" I demand. "Justin isn't responsible for any of this and he can't help him sleep, either!"

  "I would say... bait," Jack decides.

  "For what?"

  "You."

  ***

  Justin stares blankly at the run down club's stage, wondering why he's there. "Hello?" he says, looking around. The place is falling apart. There's a massive hole in the wall and scattered pieces of tables and trash all over the floor. The stage itself can barely be called a stage anymore, with holes in the wooden floor and fallen lights and speakers
. It's a complete wreck. "Anyone here?" he calls again. "Anyone at all?"

  He doesn't know how he got here. One moment he's pounding on Morgan's door, the next he's in this place. It's creepy, and he's almost certain that it has something to do with the guy they picked up on the way to Jack's place. WHY had he just watched as they took the guy with them? Seriously, it's so easy to get dragged into Morgan's pace--even Jack had said they were going to leave the guy one moment then picked him up the next! All because Morgan wanted to bring him along!

  "I absolutely do NOT have a thing for her," Justin mutters, stepping over a piece of rubble and heading for the kitchen. Maybe if that guy does live here there might be food in the fridge, right? Right now Justin's feeling the fact that he hasn't eaten in some eighteen years. Okay, sure he should be panicking right about now, but honestly, it's WAY past the panic point.

  "For who?" a voice asks from behind him, making him turn. Ace stands there, a crazed gleam in his eyes.

  "Who?" Justin repeats. "For Morgan. Everyone seems to think I like her, but they're wrong. She's annoying. You should stop trying to grab her or whatever, you'll just make your life more difficult. Not only does she make everything harder than it should be, she comes with a whole pack of guys that are annoying, too."

  "Who are you?" Ace asks. "You look familiar..."

  "Justin," Justin says, turning back to the fridge and opening it. "I'm Justin. And since you kidnapped me you've got to feed me, right?"

  "Why... why are you so short?" Ace asks after staring at him for a long moment. "And scrawny?"

  Justin grits his teeth at the question, pulling out a half gallon of milk before replying. "I'm from the past," he says finally, starting to search for cereal and bowls. He finds something that looks like a bowl in the cabinets. "I'm seventeen, okay? I'm going to get taller." He hopes. It's alright to be 5'10, he admits, but being surrounded by adult capes over the past few months has made him feel exactly how Ace described him--short and scrawny.

  "You shouldn't be in this time," Ace says. "If you run into yourself from this time it could destroy both of you, taking out the town--"