Daddy's Girl: Cape High Book Five

by R. J. Ross

  "I knew it," she says. "He had to be somewhere like that."

  They reach the dorm and Superior heads in, walking over to the table where Nico is lying before looking around. Nico is too large to share a table, so he heads for the couch, putting the body down there. He steps back as Aubrey steps forward, crouching down next to the couch and touching the body. Her hair starts to float and her eyes change color.

  This, he thinks, is one of the most valuable supers there will ever be. It seems almost a shame that she's stuck in this tiny school. Idly he makes a mental note to discuss her future with Mastermental. He'll have to work around Nico, of course. Nico probably thinks this is good for the girl, being stuck in a group of heroes in the making, but there's so many greater uses--

  Mega jerks, his eyes widening and his hand shooting out straight for Aubrey. Superior starts forward, but Mega's hand has already been grabbed by the Liberty boy. Surprisingly, Mega actually winces.

  "No attacking my brother's girl," Trent says. "Take a deep breath and relax, Uncle Rob. You're fine, whoever did this to you isn't here right now."

  "Trent?" Mega says.

  "Yeah," Trent says. "You got taken down--we're not sure when or who did it, but we got Aubrey to fix you."

  A hint of confusion crosses Mega's face, before (much to the entire room's shock) he pulls Aubrey into a hug. "Thank you," he says. She's blushing brightly, but she pats him on the back rather than shoving him away. "I've heard stories about the ones Mimic has gotten, they never wake up."

  "You did," she says. "But--Mimic?" she repeats. "Who's Mimic?"

  "I see," Superior says, making them look back at him. He gets the feeling that they forgot he was there. "Mimic is the problem. He often is."

  "You know who Mimic is?" Aubrey asks him.

  "Mimic is one of the oldest super villains around," Superior says. "He's difficult to pin down, even for me, and often goes into hiding for years, even decades at a time."

  "How powerful is he?" Max asks.

  "Powerful enough to take down my son, apparently."

  Everyone looks at the body on the table, even Mega. "He took out Technico?"

  "Not very well," Banshee says, drawing their eyes. "You noticed how strange he was acting. What was with all the zeroes and ones? Binary?"

  Sunny is silent until his phone rings. He pulls it out and answers it as everyone shoots him a dirty look for interrupting a serious conversation. "Yo! Papa's Piz--Wait... Dad?"

  ***

  *The Future*

  "There!" I say, pointing to a flickering sign. No, it's not the lights that are flickering, it's the entire sign. After a second the sign disappears and the building changes, aging and falling apart in an instant. "That's where they are, isn't it?"

  "It's gone," Jack says. "This is definitely not good--Trent, I know this will look bad on your record, but I'm going to need your help."

  "You know him well," Trent says, glancing at Jack curiously. "How?"

  "I have a couple of guys I fight on a regular basis, you and Max included, but of all of them, Ace is my only REAL fight. It'd be stupid not to know all about him," Jack says, landing on a building almost a mile away. "Morgan, you need to stay here," he says, turning to look at me.

  "No," I say stubbornly. "I'm going to help."

  "If she knocks him out, it'll be a lot easier," Trent says.

  "That's the thing," Jack says. "He's already knocked out." He turns and looks at the rickety building with a frown. "Somehow he actually fell asleep--a deep sleep."

  "And what's the problem with that?" Trent asks, just as the roof of the building bursts open and a gigantic dragon lets out a roar.

  "As far as I can tell, when he's deepest asleep is when he's his most powerful," Jack drawls as the dragon shoots out fire. It hits a sign, burning it to cinder. "Like I said--Specialized S class. His most powerful hits? Actually hit."

  "Wow," I say, watching as the dragon starts to flap his wings. It takes to the air, semi-transparent when the light hits it. Inside the dragon I see a form--a body. "Is that Justin?" I ask, thinking he's being held captive.

  "No, that's Ace," Jack says. "Morgan, we'll draw him away from the building, you sneak in and grab Justin while we take care of Ace."

  "What are you going to do to him?" I demand.

  "If we can get through the dragon, I can wake him up," Jack says. "Which will cut his power in half. I can handle him when he's awake."

  "But he hates you, right? You doing this to him will just make him hate you more," I say. "What if I go in and steal his powers. That's what he wants, right?" I watch as Trent and Jack look at each other. "What?" I demand.

  "That would just encourage him to go after the you in this time," Jack says, moving closer and dropping a hand on my head. "If he'd been trained at the school--if his head wasn't so full of darkness that it leaks out--if... there's a lot of ifs, and nothing concrete, Morg, but it comes down to this. We won't let him get any big ideas, especially when it comes to one of our own. And don't go off on a women's lib rant, or about how you're tough enough to deal with him, not when you're sixteen years old at the moment."

  "What changed you?" I ask him, abruptly.

  "I found God, family, and the Liberty way," he says with a grin. Before I can reply, a shot of fire heads straight for us and I find myself pushed behind his body. I can feel the heat hitting him, see his clothes start to burn. For a moment I'm terrified that he's going to die. I have no idea if Jack is fireproof--

  "Get going already," Jack says, holding his hands forward and forming a shield with his metal. "We've got to do this quickly!"

  I nod and run in the opposite direction, looking for a fire exit to the ground. I find one, sliding down the sides and jumping the last few feet to the ground. I have no time to look up, I tell myself as I race through the streets, pulling to a stop in front of the building the dragon had come out of.

  "Justin!" I call, climbing over some of the rubble. "Justin, are you here?" The place is a mess, with broken concrete covering the floor in a small mountain. For a second I'm certain that he's dead. He's probably buried under the rubble--

  A piece of concrete slides down the hill of rubble and a hand comes out, waving a bit pathetically. Oh, right, Justin's a super. I finally let out the breath I hadn't realized I've been holding and start forward, digging at the rubble. It seems like forever before I see his head. "What happened?" I demand once he coughs up a lung or two.

  "Dust," he mutters, coughing more. "My lungs."

  "You're a cape," I say. "You're perfectly fine. Now tell me what you did!" Because I'm positive this is his fault. It's unfair, I know, thinking he's the one at fault without proof, but I know Justin. "Jack says this is because Ace fell asleep--really fell asleep. You did it, didn't you?" I demand, still digging.

  "I thought it'd help," he says in a surly tone. "He's insane because he doesn't get enough sleep, right?"

  "Probably, but when he's really asleep he's at his strongest," I say as another part of the ceiling crashes to the floor about two feet away. I glance up through the hole and watch as Jack and Trent attack the dragon, wincing as fire flares through the sky. "Come on, we need to help them," I say, pulling him out of the last bit of rubble. "Anything broke?"

  "I don't think so," he says after a long second. He heads for the door and I chase after him. "What are they trying to do?" he asks. "They can't knock him out, he's already asleep, right? So how are they going to stop him?"

  "They need to wake him up," I say as he heads for the nearest building's fire exit. He jumps, pulling the ladder down and starting up.

  "I can do that," he says, turning and offering me a hand. I stare at it, then grab the ladder and help myself up. Why? I mean, they've already told me that I wind up as the single heroes poster child. It's not like accepting his help will wind up with us dating or anything. But I just can't seem to. Is it like Jack called it, a women's lib thing? I mean, I ABSOLUTELY believe that women are strong--in fact look at Liz. She's an
S class. So is Star Spangled! That means that ninety seven or more percent of the cape world would get wiped out by either of them! Plus, there's more than just physical strength there, right? I also fully believe that there's nothing weak about accepting a helping hand--male or female. That's why I'm free from Collector.

  I just... you know... don't want to hold his hand right now.

  Wow, how childish is that? Wait, seriously, is this the time to even be thinking about that? We've got a dragon to fight! "I don't want him killed," I say to Justin.

  "I don't want him killed, either--or even stuck in the Cape Cells," Justin says as we get on the roof of the building. "I want to change history, Morgan. Will you help me?"

  "Our history?" I ask.

  "No," he says, looking at the fight. "His. Now plug your ears, this is going to hurt," he adds.

  I barely manage to stick my fingers in my ears before he lets out a scream. The dragon is thrown back, slamming into one of the taller buildings before it disappears. Ace starts to fall, only to get caught by Trent.

  I let out a deep breath, certain that it's over. There's no way that Ace, awake, can get free of Trent--

  But somehow he does just that. He disappears from Trent's hold, racing straight for me. He doesn't look solid. He looks like a ghost or a demon, his hands stretched out, grasping. I start to run, but I'm not fast enough. He wraps around me, holding on tightly.

  "Please, Morgan," he says against my neck. "Please take me out. I can't stand it anymore."

  His hold doesn't hurt, but I find myself frozen solid where I stand. That plea--I can almost feel my heart breaking for him. "I--I can't," I say, bringing up my arm slowly and tugging off my bracelet. "But I can do something better." He goes still, pulling away and looking at the bracelet as I slip it off and turn. "Take this," I tell him, undoing it and putting it on his wrist. I set it up for the strongest setting. "It's not going to be like this, Ace," I tell him, looking up at him. He has a stunned expression on his face. "I'm going to go back to my own time. I'm going to find you. I'm going to save you."

  "I can't be saved," he says.

  "You can," Jack says from behind me. "Either now or in the past."

  "You--"

  "Thank Morgan for her bracelet, Ace," Trent says as he lands beside us. "You have no idea how important that is to her."

  He looks at the bracelet again, a hint of confusion on his face. "I feel strange," he admits.

  "It's a power blocker," I tell him. "Nico made it for me, so you can adjust how much power it blocks by pushing the glowing stone. When all the charms are lit up, it's at top power, okay? You can learn how to use your abilities with this, right? So you don't need the me of now, which means I can go out and help all the other capes that need me, understand?"

  He nods, hesitantly, but looks at me with a strange expression--one that has Jack stepping between the two of us. "One," he says, holding up a finger, "Morgan's as good as my sister. Two, this one's only sixteen. Now you go find someplace to hide, the Hall just called me. I've got to fight Zoe," he mutters darkly.

  "Zoe?" Trent almost yelps. "They're sending out ZOE?"

  "I'm about to get my--" Jack stops, glancing at me, and (amusingly) censors himself, "butt handed to me."

  "I want to see Zoe!" I say, forgetting for a moment that we probably have more important things to worry about than watching Jack get a smack down from a girl. "Is she a super villain or a super hero?"

  "Neither," Trent says. "She's the new principal of Cape High. That means she's a neutral nowadays."

  I start to ask more when I feel someone watching us from above. Slowly I turn and look up, staring at the woman sitting casually on thin air, watching us with amusement. She's got a silver outfit on, with long black and white hair that hangs down to the middle of her back, fluttering slightly with the wind--

  "Morgan," she says as she notices me noticing her. "Look at you! You've shrunk!"

  "Time travel," Trent says.

  "I've come here to make this look good," she says, hopping down to the rooftop. "We're writing this off as some of my kids escaped the school to break into the Cape Cells, and Jack broke in to capture them and turn them into lackeys. Once I get them back with a lot of dramatics, the Cells will get fixed and Jack will be written off as almost having gotten away with it."

  "That's convoluted," Jack mutters.

  "That's photo-op and school advertising," she says. "Having the principal take out a Specialized S is just perfect to get kids begging their parents to come. But I need to ask before we start, Morgan, how's my daughter? She's not gotten herself into too much trouble, has she?"

  Wait... what? Noelle, maybe?

  I can see it, now, honestly. "She's fine, or at least she was when I last saw her," I say. "But I sort of lost the watch."

  "I see," she says. "We'll discuss this after I deal with Jack."

  I hear Jack--the same Jack that stood over a pile of unconscious capes smoking a cigarette--let out a whimper. "Can't I ask for a different cape? Vinny and I have a pretty good thing put together--"

  Vinny? Vinny fights Jack in this time? "Vinny?" I repeat, since my mind isn't giving me any good answers.

  "Vinny turned out to be an A class," Jack tells me with a grin. "He's got a pretty decent fan following, you should be proud."

  "Now, kids to the ground, if you would," Zoe says. "I'll pick you up when this is over, okay?" She seems different from my time, I think. More confident. I guess by the way that Jack's responding that she probably has some serious skills. I wonder if she's an S class.

  "She's as tough as Liz is," Trent says, grabbing both me and Justin and jumping off of the roof. He lands lightly on the ground and starts running for cover as we hear a loud BOOM echoing behind us. "Some say tougher," he admits as we reach a decent distance and stand back to watch. "With her technopathy, she's almost as tough as her dad. Almost. But that's her favorite excuse to avoid the photo-op game and stick to the school. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised she chose to take this job. Probably because Double M asked her."

  "And what about my gang?" I ask. "Carla and Ward and--"

  He looks at me, reaching up and messing up my hair. "They're doing what they want to do," he says simply. "Listen, Morgan, whatever happens in this time, it's not set in stone for you, I think. I mean, I'm not sure, or anything, but the future is always something you can change, understand?"

  "Nope."

  "I'm confused, too," Justin admits, watching as Jack goes slamming through a building at a hundred miles or something. He snaps a shot with his cell phone. "It seems pretty set right now."

  "Sure it is, for us. But hey, I've seen enough cartoons and read enough books to know that this might just be one of several futures that could happen to you guys, right? Maybe something you do when you go back changes your end results to a different one--one that--well, you know what I mean, right? It's like a pair of trous--er, pants."

  "Trousers?" Justin asks, looking at him.

  "Terry Pratchett, English author," Trent says, wincing as another building is wiped out by Jack. "I wonder if we really should have let Ace go like we did," he adds almost to himself.

  I look at Justin, who's snapping more shots of Jack getting his head slammed into things. He's enjoying this far too much, I have to admit. "I don't know," I admit, rubbing my now bare wrist. I feel like I'm naked.

  Okay, okay, I know you're just sitting there, staring at me because I'm whining over a stupid bracelet I can get replaced when I get back home while a fight is happening right in front of me. So I'm going to break the fourth wall for a second and let you change POV's for the moment. Er... point of view is called a POV, isn't it? Well, either way, here. I'll be back in a bit, okay?

  CHAPTER TEN

  She would be lying if she said she hadn't wanted to do this at least once, Zoe admits as she floats above the rubble, waiting for Jack to stand up again. It's been a long time since she hated the man, of course, but she still dislikes the messes he tends to leave beh
ind. What, with her dad missing for the past few months, she's going to be the one stuck cleaning up the Cape Cells. She doesn't have TIME to rebuild the Cape Cells!

  "You could have called!" she says as he takes to the air again, coming up to face her on that silly surfboard of his. "I would have gotten them out a lot more discreetly."

  "Where's the fun in that?" he asks, grinning shamelessly.

  "Seriously, how is Aubrey still married to you?" she demands, rushing forward and slamming a fist into his gut. It throws him off of his board and sends him flying, but the board chases after him.

  "She thinks I'm cute," he replies, catching onto the board and hauling himself back onto it. The sound of a helicopter heading for them shows that their little brawl has caught the norms' attention. It's time to play it up, and they both know it. A tiny nod of the head from Jack has Zoe bringing up one hand in a cheesy pose (one that she blatantly ripped off from his mother.)

  "I can't allow you to take them, Cold Steel," she says. "They're students of Cape High and the future of our world!" Lie, but only a technical one, she tells herself. They're the PRESENT of this world, but letting out that the whole time travel thing is real is a step she's not about to take.

  "That's why I want them," Jack says, grinning evilly. Why is he still so good at looking like a no-good punk? He's thirty five! He should have outgrown the punk thing a long time-- she stops her inward rant as he rushes her, his steel coming out of his hand to form a lance. It's like he's mocking her, she thinks as she grabs the lance, twisting and throwing him in the direction of the helicopter. She hopes it makes for good footage, she thinks as he twists to avoid hitting it and grabs his board. "Can you imagine what I'd do with an army of capes?" he asks. "I'd RULE this world!"

  The idea of Jack ruling anything has her rolling her eyes. "I pride myself on being a peaceful woman," she says as he rushes her again. A twist and a grab send him flying. It's likely that he's stronger than she is, but she's faster. Neither of them are going to mention her ability to lock his entire body with a wave of her hand. That's definitely not photo-op material. "But you see, I will NOT allow anyone to have my precious students. As far as their sneaking into the Cape Cells, well, that will be dealt with." She can feel the cameras coming in for a close up and she tilts her head for the best angle.