by R. J. Ross
“So how are we going to spread the rumor that Mother—that Marie’s dead?” I ask, looking at the three of them.
“You’re the one that filmed it, you tell us,” Dad says, grinning a bit evilly.
“Oh. I’ll let it leak on YouTube, sound good?” I hesitate, “With some editing, that is.”
“Get to it.”
***
The heavily armored black bus goes down the street, heading for Kansas City. They don’t notice the man hovering high above their heads, watching them go for a long, long moment. They don’t notice the lights in the back of the bus, either, or the way the collar around Shadowman’s neck flicks off for all of a second—but he does.
He’s gone the next moment, leaving both the black power blocking uniform and collar sitting where he’d just been. He just slides into the Shadowlands, intent on never coming back.
He doesn’t receive the text from Herold until he’s somewhere in Canada, looking for a bar.
If you say anything, I’ll make sure the body is never found. Meet me at Mom’s last base.
He stares at it for a moment, his escape suddenly makes a lot more sense than it had earlier. A part of him wants to throw the phone against the wall, but a bigger part has him sliding the phone back into his pocket and heading into the shadows.
He needs to know how this ends, first.
***
After we set up a grid around the mountain, one that will cause the collar to go off if Marie tries to escape, Dad, Rocco and I teleport home. Dad heads off to report to Mastermental. That leaves me to head into the school to take it out of lock-down and inform everyone that they’re safe—I have no idea why Rocco’s following me, though.
“This shouldn’t take long—but aren’t you supposed to be heading back to your team?” I ask him as I bring up a hologram, typing quickly to adjust the force field settings back to normal. “Max needs you for his dramatic exits, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I just made myself a promise before I died—well, almost died,” Rocco says, following along behind me as I head for the dorms. I start to swing the door open, only to get tackled by a blur of bright colors.
“YOU WON’T TAKE US AL—ohhiZoe!” Carla says, sitting on top of me. Yes, I’m flat on my back from that. She’s gotten faster since we last checked her levels. “You’re alive!” she says, hugging me tightly before pulling back and blushing slightly. “Er, not that I expected you to die, but it was scary and I thought for sure that it was Mother and I was going to stop her before she got to the rest of the group and—”
I look up at her, a bit stunned for a moment. “So you were just going to attack before anyone else?” I demand. “Even with Liz and Ken outside—which means that Mother would have gone through them first?”
“Um, well, when you put it that way—” she says sheepishly, “yes?”
“I am going to lecture you SO MUCH, you--you crazy-head!” I tell her, moving her off of me and standing.
She looks down, guilt on her face and the hint of tears in her huge gold eyes. I sigh, giving up, and reach up to touch her chin. “You’re really brave, though,” I tell her as she meets my eyes. “I like that. You do the Cape High name proud. We’re not that big on brains, here, anyway.”
It startles a laugh out of her and she hops to her feet. “So did you catch her?” she asks excitedly. “Nico helped, right?”
“Actually,” I say, bringing out my phone, “this one was handled by Grandma Tatiana. We’re going to watch it ALL—just as soon as I finish taking the school out of lock-down.”
“AWESOME!” she says, bouncing. “Rocco! You’re alive!” she adds as she sees him, throwing herself into his arms. The stunned look on his face makes me hesitate, even when she jerks away quickly, blushing slightly and grinning sheepishly. “Um, not that I thought you’d die, or anything.” And then she appears next to me again.
“Ah, well—um—” he says, looking really awkward. “I—”
“Isn’t there something you need to do?” I ask. “You promised yourself something, right?”
“It can wait?” he says questioningly, “Yeah, it can definitely wait.”
“Ooookay,” I say slowly. “Oh! But you WILL tell her about our plans for her birthday, right?” I ask. I mean, I am definitely getting in on this shopping trip!
“Oh, right, um, Carla, since I don’t know what to get you for your birthday, would you like to go shopping with me and Zoe, and, ah, maybe Max?” he asks, glancing at me.
“Definitely Max,” I say.
“So it’d be a DOUBLE DATE?” Carla asks, excitedly. “And you’re my date—” she looks at Rocco for a second before grabbing my arm, “Zoe!” she decides.
“Wait—I’m not going on a date with Max!” Rocco says.
“It’s my birthday, I choose who I’m dating!” Carla tells him, sticking her tongue out. “Zoe and I are going to go on a date! And eat ice cream and play the crane game and you can use your powers to get the BEST toys, Zoe! And—”
“We can do it Friday,” I agree, giving into her easy familiarity with a grin. I should have known this would happen—it reminds me of Skye, actually.
“Then I’ll just be going—you know, back to my team,” Rocco says, disappearing through the nearest shadow.
“Ohmygosh, I just—” Carla says, taking in a deep breath as her face turns BRIGHT red. “I could have gotten a date!” she says to me with a hint of a wail. “With ROCCO—and I—I—”
I blink. “Oh, wow,” I say, my eyes widening. “You’ve got a crush on Rocco?”
“Noooyeeeeeesssss,” she says, throwing herself in my arms. “He’s just so cute and nice and--and I’ve never been on a date before—and then—”
“But you went on a date with Trent!” I say.
“Oh that wasn’t a date,” she says, waving it off. “That was me teasing him because he doesn’t react to anything like he should—it’s like teasing a sortta amused rock. It was funny. Besides, Emily is AWESOME and I’d never try to take her boy, right? But I just totally chickened out—I’m never going to get a boyfriend, especially not with Elidee here, now—she can manipulate boys’ BRAINS, Zoe!” she says pathetically.
“Well that isn’t really that hard to do,” I have to say. “But Rocco’s--well, he's kind of too old for you,” I admit, frowning. “Not that I’m one to talk, Max is about the same age difference from me, isn’t he? Maybe a year or so less at the moment, but he's turning eighteen next month…” And Rocco described her as “The little sister I never had,” or something like that. If I tell her that she’ll get REALLY depressed, though, so I’ll keep it to myself. “But it’s fine!” I say, grabbing her hands and giving her a grin, “We’re still going on a group date—you’ll have ALL of our attention because we’ll be shopping for your birthday present, right?”
“Oh, but I was going to ask you for a computer,” she says, looking up at me with those big gold eyes. “Which is really greedy of me—”
“It’ll have to be SERIOUSLY fast to keep up with your speed, wouldn’t it?” I say, a thrill of challenge hitting me. “I will take this challenge! Dad didn’t, so it’s all mine!” I declare, dramatically. “But I’m still going shopping with you,” I tell her. “We’ll clean that crane game OUT!”
“YAY!” she says.
“Now, let’s go watch this video. I want you guys to see an S-class brawl for yourselves,” I say, heading inside.
***
“Voltdrain—he’s a good babysitter?” Rochester asks as he tries to avoid looking out the plane window. “Cause my kid, he’s a bit of a handful—”
“He’ll be fine,” Century says, flipping through more paperwork. The personal plane they’re on is heading for the Arctic Circle—the site of the ‘supposed’ death of Mother. He’s going to see for himself what happened to her. Of course it’s possible that they finished her off, but he’s a cynical guy. He’s even bringing Rochester to make sure.
“I thought I was just gonna be a te
acher,” Rochester says, daring to look out the window for all of a second before jerking away. “I can’t fly, y’know?”
“You’re flying right now.”
“I’m trying t’ignore that fact,” Rochester mutters, looking around. He reaches over to the case on the couch next to him, pulling out his guitar just to give him something to do.
“Also, I’ve arranged for you to return to your band,” Century says. Rochester goes perfectly still, shocked. “You’re close enough to Louisiana to run over for a few hours. You might not fly, but you ARE capable of speed running, right?"
“Ah, yeah, but—”
“When we get our school set up, we’ll place both of you in the dorms. For now, I want you to consider sending Cisco up to Central’s Cape High,” Century says, closing his folder. “It shouldn’t take more than a few months to finish and staff our school. Either way, you don’t risk getting outed and your son is safe from repercussions. Unless you don’t trust Nico’s set-up to keep him safe—”
“No, it’ll do,” Rochester says, thinking wryly of the laser force field. “Is that thing even LEGAL?” he asks after a second.
“Probably not,” Century says, “but we’re a bit over-protective of our youngest ones.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” They stop talking as Rochester keeps playing his guitar, and Century does paperwork. A voice comes over the loudspeaker, interrupting what was rapidly becoming a relaxed mood.
“Sir, we’re flying over the Arctic Circle now. Do you need a parachute?”
“No, we should be fine,” Century says, standing up and starting for the back.
“Wait, what do we need a parachute for?” Rochester asks as he automatically gets to his feet. “Century—”
“I just said we didn’t need one,” Century says, reaching over and grabbing the back of Rochester’s jacket once he gets close enough. “Just try not to look down,” he says as they head through a door and out the back.
Rochester doesn’t have enough breath to scream as they plummet towards the ground. Instead he grabs onto Century with everything he has, and tries not to look down. “Really, son, you’re a super hero,” Century says dryly as he lands. “I’m used to this from norms, but honestly!”
“I can’t fly!”
“Maybe you’ve never tried,” Century says, looking at him a bit thoughtfully. “With that fear of heights, I bet—”
“Century,” Superior says, heading for them. “What brings you to our humble abode?”
“Did you really just call a mountain a ‘humble abode’?” Rochester asks, letting go of Century with the distraction.
“As my wife constantly reminds me, it’s a SMALL mountain,” Superior drawls with a hint of amusement. “What do you want?”
“What did you REALLY do with Mother?” Century asks, giving up on the “Maybe he CAN fly” line of thought—for now.
“Didn’t you see?”
“I’m cynical. I want to see the body.”
Superior stares at them for a moment before sighing. “Fine, come with me,” he says, heading for the mountain. “This was Tatiana’s idea.” He leads them through a large room full of machine parts into a house made of ice. They hear metal clanking as they reach a massive kitchen full of the most technically advanced cooking supplies either of them have seen. Two women are inside, cooking. One is Tatiana, the other is—
“You turned her into a house slave?” Century asks. “Nice collar she’s sporting.”
“It’s the power stripping serum that Star Born came up with. I still hate that woman passionately, but she did come up with some interesting things,” Superior says.
Mother looks over at them, her face turning pale. “So this is the real plan?” she asks, going still. “You tell them I’m going to stay here and then bring in Century to finish me off?”
“Will this keep her?” Century asks Superior, ignoring her. “The traditional way includes lack of contact with others—in case she weasels her way out through smooth talking.”
“Oh, she will behave herself,” Tatiana says cheerfully. “She is wearing special collar, one that our granddaughter designed just for her!”
“Rochester?” Century says, motioning him forward.
“They know what I can do, Boss, but I’m on it,” Rochester says, walking over to Mother and taking her hand. His eyes glow for a moment before nodding. “They’ve got her trapped. Even put up a field around the mountain that’ll trigger the green stuff to release if she crosses it. Whether she dies from freezin’ or old age first is her biggest question. Either way it’s a nasty way t’go.”
“Then I’ll accept it,” Century says. “But you’ll have to explain it to the rest of the board.”
“Can you not tell them for a week?” Superior asks. “There’s something the three of us need to settle.”
“One week,” Century says, looking at them curiously. “If you haven’t settled it before then, I won’t cut you slack.”
“We’ll have it settled,” Superior says, holding out his hand. Rochester looks at the hand before taking it a bit hesitantly. He frowns slightly, looking closely at Superior.
“What ARE your powers?” he asks, finally.
“Atomic level manipulation,” Superior says blandly. Rochester jerks his hand back and looks at Century.
“I can’t read him,” he admits. “In fact, what I CAN read is probably him just messin’ with me,” he adds a bit dryly. “But he’s Superior. If y’can’t trust Superior, who can you trust?”
“I can think of a ton of them,” Century says dryly. “But for now, we’ll trust you both,” he says. “Don’t make me regret it.” He turns and holds out his hand to Tatiana. “A pleasure to see you again, Tatiana,” he says.
“You as well, Century!” she says cheerfully as they shake hands. “You are looking very good!”
“Not nearly as good as you are,” Century says, grinning wickedly.
“You can leave now,” Superior drawls.
“We should invite them to dinner, first! They have come very long way, Clifford,” Tatiana says. “You will enjoy this, boys, Marie is excellent cook!”
“She’s not going to poison us, is she?” Rochester asks Century silently.
“Oh, there is no poison that works on us—I do not know if the same is true for you, though,” Tatiana says, frowning thoughtfully as she looks at him.
“Time t’go!” Rochester says, heading for the door. “Pleasure seein’ you again, everyone! But we really must be leavin’. I left my kid with a complete stranger—who knows what he’s done to the poor guy?”
“Thank you for the invitation,” Century says. “But since he’s my first psychic type, there’s a bit of indulging I suppose I must do,” he adds dryly, heading for the door. He stops, turning to look at Mother. “You brainwashed someone very important to me, and I will not forget it. If, by chance, you get free of this, I won’t be nearly as forgiving as the Superior family.” And then he’s gone, leaving them standing there alone.
Superior waits until he’s certain they’re out of range and sits down at the table. “We’ll go see what happened to the planet, next.”
“Wh—what?” Marie asks, shocked.
“If it’s fixable, I’ll help you fix it—and then we’ll leave you there to rebuild,” he says calmly, “alone. If you come back to our planet, though, we will finish you. I get the feeling my son has several plans for how to do it without getting caught.”
“Clifford—” Tatiana starts out.
“I see,” Mother says, getting started on making the plates.
***
The trip had been astonishingly quick once they fixed the ship and made sure it wasn’t infected as Zoe had suspected. Superior hides his surprise about the fact, although he doesn’t hide his relief. “This thing is far too small for three people,” he says as the small ship hovers outside Lerrestia. He looks out the window, staring at the pitch black planet.
“How does it look?” Tatiana asks,
peeking around him. “Oh.”
“Pretty dead,” Superior says bluntly. He brings up the info on the computer screen. “Toxic air, no signs of life. It looks like the planet is collapsing in on itself slowly. Once it’s fully collapsed we’re looking at the possibility of a black hole.” He looks back at Marie, seeing the devastated expression on her face. “It’s not worth fixing.”
“But—you haven’t even tried—”
“My range is a mile and a half,” Superior says, “it would take way too long to fix that amount of damage. And we can't be sure the infection isn't still lingering on the planet remains.”
Marie stares at the planet, her eyes gleaming with tears. “All those years,” she whispers. “All those years I felt guilty for—for everything—for being happy, when I should have been saving the planet—”
“It was past saving,” Superior says. “You didn’t waste anything—at least not the time you spent living a happy life. These last few months, on the other hand, you’ve screwed up a lot.” He looks at her. “We can drop you off on the nearest habitable planet, if you prefer. Or if you want to return to Earth, I suggest you plan out how to apologize to my youngest on the way home. Otherwise I’ll make you DREAM of going to the Cape Cells.”
“I understand,” Marie says, still looking a bit pale from the view. “She is a sweet little thing, isn’t she?”
“She is very sweet! A little eccentric, yes, but very sweet!” Tatiana agrees. “If you try to hurt her again, my friend, you will not have TIME to dream of Cape Cells,” she adds in a menacing tone.
“Or that,” Superior says dryly. “What’s your decision?”
Marie looks out the window again, her fingers coming up to touch the window. “I... I’ll go back.” There’s nothing for her, anywhere, she realizes numbly. But at least back on Earth she’ll get to see her son take over the free world.
***
I bring up the schematics for Cape High South, only to stop as a light flashes. I wave my hand, answering the call—only to blink at the sight of Isotonic on the line.
