by R. J. Ross
“It’s not a ghost,” he says, struggling, “it’s HER.”
The old woman turns, smacking him upside the head with her cane. “You were supposed to catch the ghost!” she declares in a crazy voice. “Why didn’t you catch the ghost?”
The cane breaks against his head, but she doesn’t even notice. Thankfully Rochester is a pretty decent cape, because that should have done a lot of damage. “Get my kid and get out of here!” Rochester yells at us, still struggling as the old lady smacks him again with the broken cane. “She’s a super strong telekinetic! An’ she’s totally off her—OW!” he snarls at the lady, who’s shoving the broken cane up his nose now. “Tell Century!” he yells at us.
“We can’t just run,” Vinny says, his hair and hands lighting up. I dig through my pocket, pulling out the light bulb that I threatened Rochester with. I pull out a handful of parts, my mind jumping to the power blocking schematics—and something grabs all of my nuts and bolts from the air, pulling them away from me.
Vinny’s fire is literally pulled away from him. It flames in the air for a second before dying. He starts to gasp for air, falling to his knees and grabbing desperately at his shirt. Kaden charges forward, his hands clenched angrily—but the world goes still as Flame casually reaches down, grabs a cat by the scruff and drapes over one arm.
“Let the boy go or the cat gets it,” he says, reaching up and patting the cat with his free hand.
Vinny falls to the ground, gasping in huge gulps of air. The old woman stares at Flame as if he were the biggest villain of all time. “Put Buttons down,” she says, starting forward. Kaden moves, blocking her way. She doesn’t even hesitate to swing the broken cane at him, hitting him in the side. “PUT BUTTONS DOWN!” she screams at the top of her voice. The wind kicks up and a strange howling sound fills the air. The screen door of her house starts rattling, as do the storm shutters, even though they’re bolted to the siding. The cats race away, shooting past or even through our legs to get away from the rampaging old woman. I see shingles on her roof start to move, ripping away from the roof and flying in circles over our head. Larger things, like a gnome statue, take to the air, creating a dangerous looking cyclone right over our heads.
The cat Flame’s holding jumps out of his arms and races away as if its tail were on fire, but the old lady is too angry to notice. She starts floating, her eyes glowing eerily, her arms out at her sides.
“We have to calm her down,” Flame says. “Keep her distracted—don’t do any damage unless you have to, and don’t get caught. Zoe! Do you have a way to stop her like your dad does?”
“She took my parts,” I say.
“Get new parts.”
“I’ll have to find them—the house is closest,” I say, grimly.
“Make it quick,” he says, lighting up his entire body and taking to the air. “She’s got an oxygen stopping trick, it’s not good for any of us here.”
I nod, turning and racing away from the entire thing. I need to get in through the back—if I try for the front door, it’ll distract her too much. “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” she bellows after me.
“Please! I—I don’t want to die!” I cry. “I’m leaving!” I feel something wrap around me, hauling me off the ground for a bit and turning me towards her. Something inside of me snaps when I squirm and nothing happens. “Oh that is ENOUGH,” I snarl, my hands clenching where they’re pressed against my sides. Every light in the house behind her flickers before coming on. I literally FEEL wires pulling out of the walls, ripping through the plaster and wood. Ruthlessly I jerk them out until they’re sprouting out of the roof like vines. She doesn’t even notice until they start to wrap around her.
“Wh—AAAAHHH!” she screams. “THE GHOST! THE GHOST HAS COME FOR ME!”
All of the floating objects drop to the ground abruptly. The woman is sobbing, jerking erratically against her bounds. I didn’t electrocute her, don’t worry. I might have gotten angry, but she’s still a very old woman. If she’s a cape, I can’t even imagine just how old she must be.
“Don’t kill me—don’t kill me,” she sobs, still struggling. “I’ll give it back—I promise I’ll give it back.”
“If I take her powers,” I say, realizing something terrible, “she might die.”
“What?” Kaden asks.
“I don’t know how old she is, but she looks really old. If she loses her powers, she’ll go the same way Mimic did,” I say, my heart breaking as I see her crying. She’s all alone out here, with no one that seems to care. She’s clearly not right in the head, but that’s not her fault. I just—
“Give what back?” Vinny asks, walking over to her.
“The—the ship,” she whispers. “I’ll give it back. Tell the ghost to not kill me,” she says.
“Let her down,” Vinny says to me. “Let’s see this ship of hers.”
CHAPTER THREE
She was once one of the greats. The sentence is echoing in Nico’s head as he reluctantly heads onto the school campus, walking past the school building and to the second set of dorms. “Hey, Mom?” he says as he walks in. “You here?”
“I am in the kitchen!” Tatiana calls back. “Are you hungry, Nicolas?” she asks, sticking her head out the door. “I am making pancakes!”
“Yeah, I could go for that,” he says, heading for the table where his father is already sitting. The older male has a newspaper. The only way he could have gotten today’s newspaper is by leaving the campus and buying (or stealing) it, but Nico doesn’t mention it. Keeping Superior locked up is like trying to restrain the wind. It isn’t going to happen, not for long.
“You usually don’t stop by here,” Superior says, flipping the page.
“We have a little… issue down south,” Nico says, frowning slightly. “Do either of you remember a woman called The Angel?”
Superior lowers the newspaper and looks at Tatiana. Tatiana looks back.
“Yes, we are knowing of her,” Tatiana says. “It is a very sad tale, that one.”
“What happened to her?” Nico asks.
“What issue?” Superior asks, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Zoe’s in the south. Does this have something to do with her?”
“It might, but I need to know exactly what happened with The Angel.”
“She went insane,” Tatiana says, “just as she was starting to make a name as the first strong female heroine in the thirties. She would have been one of the greatest advances for our kind. She was very, very powerful telekinetic.”
“What made her go insane?” Nico asks.
“No one could ever figure that out,” Superior says. “One moment she was headlining the news, the next she disappeared. A few of that day’s heroes went looking for her, but when they came back all they could say was that she wasn’t… right, anymore.”
“I’m going to the South Branch,” Nico says. “Call Mastermental and tell him I’m already gone.” And then he IS gone, leaving his parents to clean up the territorial mess he’s about to create.
“Really, what part of ‘I’m supposed to be dead’ doesn't he remember?” Superior drawls.
“Oh that one is obvious!” Tatiana says cheerfully. “The part where it is not convenient for him. He IS your son, Clifford.”
***
He’d seen it. Cisco’s heart is pounding hard against his chest as he runs as fast as he can. He’s going to go to the South Hall and YELL at Century for getting his dad captured—and then he’s going to MAKE him come in and fix all of this. There’s no way he’s going to become part of a Hall that lets freaky old ladies with super powers just run around without supervision—or whatever.
He’s only made it about a mile and a half before he has to pause and take a deep breath. Sure, his powers are coming in, but they happen in short bursts, okay? It’s not his fault that he doesn’t have super endurance yet! It’s coming!
“Hola,” someone says from over his head. “Is there a problem?” Cisco looks up, taking in the sight of Vo
ltdrain dropping down in front of him. Voltdrain—the ultimate hero. Cisco’s read his comics, has his T-shirt, and was even DREAMING of the day he’d get to meet the Hispanic hero when they first thought of coming to this Hall, but now—
“Dad was captured,” he pants, “by the crazy old lady. And she started a twister of lawn gnomes and all the cats went running and—and she’s going to kill them all! And it’s ALL YOUR FAULT!” he bellows, throwing himself at the hero. He starts crying. “Dad was never supposed to be a hero! He’s a MUSICIAN!”
To his surprise, even as he’s futilely trying to hit the guy, Voltdrain wraps his arms around him in a hug. “It is okay, little man,” Voltdrain says gently. “I will save them.” That simple promise makes Cisco go limp, resting his head against Voltdrain’s chest.
“It’s not your fault,” he says. “It’s mine.”
“It is no one’s fault,” Voltdrain says, picking him up and taking to the air. “It is just life. It is difficult, coming into your power, no?” he asks, flying through the sky at speeds so fast Cisco has to turn towards him to breathe. “My daughter, she had a hard time, too.”
“You’ve got a daughter?” Cisco asks.
“Sí, she is my princesa,” he says. “It is there?” he asks Cisco as they get to the house. “Did she pull the wires out, the old woman?”
“No—no,” Cisco says, staring at the wires sprouting out of the roof blankly. “Where did they all go?” he asks, looking around.
“We will find out,” Voltdrain says, landing in front of the house and putting the boy down. “I am sure it will be very interesting.”
Cisco nods, looking around before heading to one of the wires lying on the ground. He picks it up slowly, and promptly falls on his butt. “They caught her,” he says, his worry turning to excitement. “With this,” he says, holding it up.
“Zoe,” Voltdrain says, a little smile pulling at his lips. “She is very impressive for her age.”
“The girl?” Cisco asks, looking shocked. “The GIRL did it? But that was Flameblaster with them and—”
“The girl is of the Superior line,” Voltdrain says, heading into the house. “You should not underestimate her because she is pretty.”
Cisco turns bright red.
“But since they have it in hand, perhaps we should not interfere?” Voltdrain offers. “It IS their mission, no?”
“Oh, um... Okay?” Cisco says, looking at the house. “Can we go flying again while we wait?” he asks, getting excited.
“Sí, of course!” He glances over as he picks up on a familiar electric signal. He hopes that they don't mind being filmed by S-HTV for this, he thinks with a sigh as the recording drones hover around the house. He would do something, but they don't appreciate when he messes up their toys. They make him replace them.
***
“It’s down this way,” the woman says, slowly making her way down the stairs. She had to uncover a trap door in the front room floor to get us here. Getting through the house itself STILL has my nose burning from the smell. “I kept it. She said not to keep it, but I kept it. She said to bury it—but I couldn’t. It—it’s alive. It attacks me every night--psychically,” she whispers, her tone creeping me out even more. The entire basement doesn’t feel right. In fact there’s this humming of unfamiliar energy that keeps trying to get my attention. I almost feel like I’d be pulled down the stairs if Kaden wasn’t walking in front of me. His broad back is enough to stop it.
“Look at the walls,” Vinny says from in front of Kaden. I look up to where he is, my eyes widening as I see glowing green—I’m not even sure WHAT it is, really. It looks like some sort of alien plant life growing over the walls. It pulses slightly, reminding me of a heartbeat. It must have had plenty of time to grow, because it’s well up the walls and covering parts of the ceiling. I bump into Kaden’s back as he stops abruptly, and try to peer around him.
There, in the center of the overgrown basement, is an egg shaped spaceship, with walls made of the same glowing green plant life as the stuff that covers the wall.
I jerk as a full-out attack hits my mind. No—no, it’s not an attack, I realize abruptly. It’s a set of schematics. In the blueprints I see several flashing red lights signifying damage—and pain. I shove past Kaden, rushing for the ship. “You poor thing,” I say, running my hands over the side as if it were a pet.
“Zoe, step away from the space ship,” Flame says, lighting up.
“No! Don’t,” I say, raising one hand to him. “It’s okay. It just wants to go home,” I tell them, looking back at the ship. The schematics are so perfect, I think as they swirl through my mind. “This ship—it’s both a machine and a living thing. I’ve never seen such a thing before! It’s amazing! But it’s really badly hurt.”
“It tries to get into my head,” the woman whispers with a mix of hatred and obsession. “I won’t let it! My head is my own! It's trying to make me crazy!” I can imagine what that did—the ship desperately trying to get her to help, her desperately trying to keep it out of her mind. It makes sense, now, I think as I look over at her. Being "attacked" mentally every night for who knows how long, it's no wonder she thinks her own powers are a ghost out to get her. She's probably well past crazy by now.
“I need to get it out of here,” I say, looking to my team, instead. “I can fix it—but I need time and space.”
“The ghost—”
“The ghost is you, Ma’am,” I tell her. “YOU are the ghost.”
“But—she said—”
“Who said?” Vinny asks.
“The woman with the kaleidoscope eyes, she looked me straight in the eyes an' said a ghost would haunt me as long as the ship was around—but I couldn’t bury it—what if it grew?” she asks, staring with terror at the egg—no, I realize abruptly—the SEED shaped ship. I look around, seeing the green growth slowly trying to crack through the dense concrete of her basement, and realize.
“She’s right,” I say. "Not the lady that talked about the ghost--I think that was Mother brainwashing her, or something. But she--" I motion to the woman, not sure what her name is, "is right."
“What?” Flame asks.
“If she had buried it, what do you think would have happened?” I ask, motioning to the growth that surrounds us. “How far would this have spread? It feeds off of energy and nutrients. So far it’s been living off of her electricity—which it’s actually forcing to run even after they shut it off, but can you picture what would happen if it had unlimited access?” I ask. “It wouldn’t MEAN to create a blackout, but it would.”
“How do you know all of this?” Flame asks.
“It showed me its schematics,” I say, shrugging. “I think it thinks I’m… related to it somehow.” I reach up, placing my hand on the egg. “I think it’s… well… Grandpa’s an alien,” I say. “That means somewhere out there in the universe is his home planet. I think that’s where this ship came from, and it thinks I did, as—” I yelp as a hole opens in the side of the ship and it sucks me inside.
“ZOE!” Kaden shouts, racing for the ship and slamming his fists on the side. I feel the ship shudder at the hit. I peer through the translucent green windows at him as the ship starts jerking wildly. It throws me back and I slam into the inner wall—which reaches out and wraps around my waist like a seatbelt, a seat forming quickly under my thighs. It’s kidnapping me.
“I DON’T WANT TO GO TO SPACE!” I shout, finally realizing what it plans a bit too late. The ship takes off, slamming through the house and roof, leaving the ground below.
***
“Bring it down,” Flame says to Vinny as they both light up. Kaden grabs the old woman and jumps out of the wreckage, gently putting her down at a distance before slamming one fist into his opposite hand. For a long time he hadn’t been able to bring up enough power from this move, but he’d gotten stronger when he hit fifteen—his powers had really kicked in. Now he can work up a decent amount—enough to jump, at least. He does so, aiming for
the flying seed and grabbing onto the green tendrils hanging from the bottom. He hauls himself up, hand over hand.
Vinny appears to his right and Flame to his left, both fully lit up. Kaden would tug on his collar if he actually had one. Suddenly, though, the ship starts squirting a strange, slimy green liquid that coats it and them.
Vinny yelps slightly as his flames go out and he starts to plummet to the ground. Flame manages to dodge the goo, barely. Kaden almost falls off, but he digs his fingers deep into the side of the ship, not about to let go. “Give. Me. Back. ZOE!” he roars, trying to rip into the ship and failing. It keeps regrowing, even around where his fingers are.
A flower blooms right in front of his face. It’s strangely beautiful, and he finds himself staring at it for a second too long. A fine mist spouts out, hitting him straight in the face.
The world starts to spin as he falls to the ground. He vaguely hears Zoe scream. The guilt hits him hard as he slams into the ground, creating a tiny crater with his weight. He’d failed someone he cares for again, he thinks. The first person outside of the zoo group that he considers a friend—and the stupid alien plant is going to take her.
“Not if I have any say in it,” he snarls, getting to his feet. The impact from the ground rushes through him and he feels himself grow larger—and more powerful than he’s ever been.
Sure, Ward gets larger, too, WAY larger than he ever could, he thinks as he crouches, but every wrestling match he’d had with his brother had ended the same way—with him winning. Ward might have the size, but he doesn’t gain more strength the longer they wrestle.
He jumps, grabbing the ship again and punching that smug drugging flower straight in the face—you know, if flowers had faces, that is.
The ship is jerking, floating erratically and he almost falls off again as it starts plummeting to the ground. Something is going on inside, he realizes as he looks through the window.
