Burn Out (Cape High Series Book 21)

by R. J. Ross

  “I want to go!” Skye says, jumping in the air.

  “If you go, he’ll put you to work,” I say. “I thought you didn’t want to cook.”

  “Awww,” she pouts before running over to Nico and grinning up at him. “Hey, hey, we taught Chooperic a new trick!” she says.

  “Let’s go while she’s distracted,” I whisper, only to hear Doris snort with amusement. Cheval smiles and makes a break for it, dragging Papa along. I can’t help but laugh at the look on his face. I have no idea if this is going to work, but I actually think his shyness is a good sign. He’s never shy around the women he sees as children.

  “Señora Cheval,” he says at the end of the hall, “There is one tiny problem.”

  “Yes?” she says, stopping.

  “The kitchen is that way,” he says, pointing behind us. The shocked look on Cheval’s face has me hiding a laugh.

  “Well, I guess it’s time to come clean,” Cheval says, regaining her composure as she stage whispers, “I’ve never actually been inside the Hall before.”

  “Papa could show you around!” I say. “He’s been in this Hall since it opened, right?”

  “I am one of the founders,” Papa says modestly. “Century recruited me at the same time señora Falconess was helping him start. But I have been following your career since you were working for equal rights, señora.”

  “You remember that?” Cheval asks, looking stunned.

  “I was a very big fan,” Papa says with a smile. “But I do not think it is right to dump all of the work on Vinny, mija,” he says to me. “The tour can wait until after our meal.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Cheval says. “If you would be so kind?”

  “I would be happy to,” Papa says, offering his arm again. She takes it, patting his sleeve. “And you can tell me of your nieta as we work! Mija is quite fond of her.”

  “Nieta?” Cheval asks.

  “Your granddaughter,” Papa says.

  “Oh! Sure! Whitney is a chip off of the old block,” Cheval says, happily. “She promises to be quite the little villainess, as well. She’s also a huge fan of yours, so perhaps next time I could host the party? I’m sure my daughter and her husband would be stunned to meet such great heroes!”

  “We would love to meet them, as well,” Papa says, glancing at me.

  “I want to meet them!” I agree. “Does your daughter have your powers, too?”

  “Oh, she does, but she focuses on her work and her family, instead,” Cheval says. “I can’t complain, of course, she’s a wonderful judge. They’ve been trying to get her court on television for years, but she refuses.”

  “A judge? They allow supers to be judges?” I ask, stunned.

  “While she’s registered with the Hall, the registry list that’s seen by norms has her as ‘permanently inactive,’ instead of the usual super name and what Hall she’s affiliated with. There are probably two pages or more worth of supers listed as permanently inactive. They’re the capes that work for Santa, or the Easter Bunny, or have extremely important jobs in the real world. They have to be fully grown, have special circumstances, and either be working for, or in a position where the Hall can check in on them at any time, of course, but she doesn’t mind,” Cheval says. “Her work makes her happy… and frustrated, and angry, as well.”

  “I understand how she feels,” Papa says. “It is very emotional, helping the world.”

  “Papa has a job assisting the EPA,” I explain. “He goes into places that might be leaking radiation and helps clean them up.”

  “Oh, that’s… it sounds messy,” Cheval says.

  “It is,” Papa agrees. “I brought Dolly and Ruckus to my last job. It was very entertaining!”

  Cheval bursts out laughing. “Oh, that’s terrible! Ruckus, I could see, but Dolly? I can’t even begin to imagine how it must have traumatized her!”

  “She still avoids me in the cafeteria,” Papa admits. “She will let out a little squeak and suddenly find something very important that she has to do.”

  “But because of that, Ruckus has gotten a job helping the norms stop trafficking!” I say. “She seems much happier, now.”

  We reach the kitchen and Papa knocks on the door before entering. “Vinny! We have come to assist, mijo.”

  Vinny almost lights up with surprise. “Wasn’t this supposed to be a date?” he asks, looking from Papa to Cheval, and then at me.

  “It was, but then Century showed up, and Nico, and the Darlin’s,” I list off. “Who knows who’s showed up since then?”

  “And I adore cooking,” Cheval says, strolling into the kitchen in heels and a little black dress. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Only if you wear an apron,” Vinny says.

  Before I know it, we’re all decked out in aprons, helping cook. The nervous tension Papa had been giving off is gone, completely, and he’s making jokes. Cheval sidles over to me, a little grin on her face. “Your papa and Vinny seem to get along really well,” she teases me silently. I roll my eyes.

  “They’re a lot alike,” I admit, “they both love cooking and wrestling.”

  “And you?” she asks.

  “No, not that,” I say. “We’re just… friends. Oh, look they’re getting the stuff out to make a cake!”

  “Oooh, step aside, gentlemen, and let me show you my skills,” she says, heading over with a smile.

  “I heard from Lance that you bake all the time,” Vinny says as he moves out of the way.

  “Oh, you know Lance?” she asks. “How is he doing? I haven’t seen him since last week, and that was only for a moment.”

  “Lance?” Papa asks.

  “Coyote’s grandson,” Cheval says. “He’s quite the little cutie, too.”

  “He probably wouldn’t appreciate being called that,” Vinny says with amusement as he pulls food out of the oven. “He’s grown almost half a foot taller since he lost his other forms, and according to Nico, he’s going to be taller than I am.”

  “Ohh, I can imagine it!” she says. “I tried to set Whitney up with him, but she had a boyfriend at the time.”

  “She has a boyfriend?” I ask, stunned.

  “Oh, they broke up after a week,” Cheval says, waving it off. “At that age they never last. Plus, well, with me putting her into Cape High it didn’t help her social life among the norms. Alonso, do you think you could whip up the frosting?” she asks, almost absently as she tosses together a cake mix from scratch.

  “I would be happy to,” Papa says, getting the things out of the fridge. “I think I have seen Lance’s file,” he says as he gets to work. “He is going to be one of ours.”

  “Yeah, he traded for a fish tank,” Vinny says with a hint of amusement.

  “I heard that you talked him into it, though,” I point out, defensively, “And we’ll make sure that he’s happy with his choice.”

  “That response is exactly why I talked him into it. I know you will,” Vinny says, shooting me a little smile. “He was already thinking about it before then.”

  “Ah, señora,” Papa says as he puts the bowl of frosting in the fridge and walks over to Cheval, “you have something on your cheek.” He pulls an embroidered handkerchief out of his pocket and reaches up, wiping a bit of flour off of Cheval’s cheek with it. She looks startled, but it turns into a smile.

  “Thank you,” she says. “Now! We need a pan.” she turns and looks around, almost a bit too quickly. If I didn’t know better, I would think that she’s getting flustered.

  “We have a nice assortment here, it looks like,” Vinny says. “For a second kitchen, this is pretty nice. Did you have a say in it, Voltdrain?”

  “Do you think I would let an improperly equipped kitchen into my Hall?” Papa asks. “But it is not as nice as the one at your school, mijo.”

  “Oh, I think they might be contenders,” Vinny says as he starts sorting through the pans with Cheval. “Are we going single layer or more?” he asks.

  “We
ll, one layer should be fine with the group we have,” Cheval says. “A full sheet cake, of course.”

  Just as they’re starting to put the cake together, I hear a scream of rage, and turn just in time to see Skye running straight through the wall. “HOW DARE YOU COME INTO MY HALL?” she yells, knocking over the cake batter as she launches herself at the wall behind it. It’s almost like it’s slow-motion, how Papa races over, grabbing the bowl before it goes flying, and how I see just the slightest movement from the shadow under the upper cabinets. Skye runs into the wall, leaving us with no explanation, whatsoever.

  “You didn’t let too much of that spill, did you?” Vinny asks. “If we’re doing a full sheet cake, we’re going to need all of it.”

  “What just happened?” Cheval asks, confusedly.

  “It appears we have an unwanted visitor,” Papa says, his eyes glued to the shadows.

  “Rocco?” I ask.

  “If it was Rocco she’d be screaming in joy, not anger,” Vinny says as he preps the pan. “But if it’s Shadowman…” His expression goes cold.

  “Why would Shadowman be breaking into a Hall?” I ask, blankly. “Isn’t he supposed to be up in North Hall?”

  “Is everyone okay in there?” Nico asks, his face appearing on the wall. “Jimmi?”

  “We’re fine…” I say, looking around, “Well, except for a few drops of cake batter. I’ll clean it up.”

  “Nico,” Papa says.

  “Yeah… she picked up on him as soon as he was in the building,” Nico admits. “It looks like Isotonic isn’t doing that great of a job as a babysitter.”

  “He is far too bold,” Papa says, his tone dark and angry.

  “In some ways,” Nico agrees. “Unfortunately, I can’t place the same sort of security field around this building that I do at the schools.”

  “What am I missing, here?” I ask, looking from one to the other. “Why is Shadowman here? Why was Skye so mad?”

  “Well, kiddo…” Nico says, looking thoughtfully at me, “according to Pan, the word has gotten out about what happened with Phoebe.”

  “What?” I say, a cold ball building in my gut. “What does that have to do with Shadowman?”

  “It has everything to do with him,” he admits. “This is just me guessing, of course, but from his regular M.O. we know he’ll be after two things, at least. One, he wants a backup plan in case he gets his powers stripped, and two, he probably plans on making a profit out of it, somehow.”

  “But it was just plain stupid to come here,” Vinny points out. “Skye can find him.”

  “Only when he’s close,” Nico says. “When he’s in the Shadowlands she can’t pick up on him until he’s within a mile, or so. I’m betting he never expected her to be in here, considering how paranoid she is. He’s tried this trick before, back home.”

  “But… isn’t he working for the Hall, now?” I ask, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

  “Oh, sugar,” Cheval says, pulling me into a hug and gently pressing the side of my head until I’m leaning on her shoulder. She doesn’t have to press at all, honestly, because I am definitely in need of a hug right now. “Don’t worry, he won’t come near you,” she tells me.

  “Well… Jimmi could wipe him out in a fair fight, at least to where he was running with his tail between his legs,” Nico says a bit hesitantly. We all turn and look at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop, “but he never does fight fair. Even Pan had trouble taking him on one-on-one. I’ll call Rocco in.”

  “I’m not some weak princesa that needs big strong boys to come and protect me,” I say, pulling away from Cheval as I start to get irritated. “If he has Rocco’s powers, I can figure out how to deal with him! I’ve fought Rocco before in the Technico game.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t recall you ever winning. I don’t like it. I don’t want you anywhere near that guy,” Vinny says. “I can take him down, if I know he’s coming, but it’d be easiest for everyone if you just stay at school for now. He can’t get through the security field, Rocco’s checked.”

  “And that just makes me the princesa en la torre!” I say. “I don’t have time for this! I have actual work to do! I will not cower in a corner waiting for the boogeyman to try and get me!”

  “Shadowman,” Nico corrects me.

  “He is a boogeyman, regardless of what he calls himself,” I snap.

  “Her accent is showing,” Vinny says, and I whirl on him, planning on yelling. “Nico, what are you thinking?”

  “Well, since she’s so willing, I say… why not?” Nico says. “Jimmi, I think you can handle this with no trouble. Shadowman can be tricky, he killed my mother in an alternate reality, but we have several things she didn’t have back then.”

  “Tatiana?” I say, stunned.

  “She was sleeping,” Nico says, “But unlike her, we know he’s coming. We also know that he’s looking to make money off of this. It’s usually his biggest motivator, after all.”

  “And?” Papa says.

  “And when you look at the big picture, this isn’t bad at all,” Nico goes on, “if there’s one thing that Shadowman is good for, it’s fishing.”

  “Fishing,” I repeat.

  “You take a little fish on a line, toss it into the water, and bigger fish try to eat it,” Nico says. “It worked that way with Marie and Herold, too. So, on top of watching over Pheobe’s reintegration into the super world, you’ll be doing a bit of… fishing.”

  “By letting him use me?” I ask.

  “By letting him think he can,” Nico says, “but this is your decision to make. We can bring in Rocco, have him catch him, and toss him into the Cape Cells, or we can see who’s willing to pay because they’re doing something that might get their powers stripped in the first place. Of course, most villains are paranoid, and even if they aren’t doing anything they might be interested…”

  “I want a tube!” Skye says, coming through the wall again and launching herself at me and Cheval. “Please, Jimmi? I don’t want to lose my powers! Oh, oh, I need THREE tubes! No, Rocco’s a villain, so there needs to be four! What sort of tubes do you need? I can go shopping, even if it ISN’T shopping day!”

  I look at her, look at Papa, and then sigh, “Skye, we’re not going to take your powers away, or the girl’s, or Rocco’s.”

  “But what if there’s another mad scientist that tries to capture me and strips my powers and uses his knowledge to turn a robot into a monstrosity that can change the atomic structure of everything into something else?” she demands, like this is something that could happen at ANY moment. “Don’t you know how attractive my powers are to mad scientists? And you’re RAISING one at the school! AND he has a daddy! Daddy mad scientists are the MOST EVIL THING IN THE WORLD!” she declares dramatically. She pauses to pant for a few seconds for effect. “Do you know how vulnerable I am??” she finishes.

  We stare at her. I walk over, pulling her into a hug, since it worked for me, and patting her on the back. “It’s okay, Skye,” I tell her, “we’ll make sure that the mad scientists don’t get you.”

  “And I’ll make sure… is something burning?” she asks, sniffing the air.

  Vinny runs for the oven. “Either way, he knows we’re not going to let him get close to you, here,” he tells me as he gets back to work. “He’ll pick a time when you’re not surrounded. Most likely he didn’t think we would notice him just looking in, now. We wouldn’t have, if Skye hadn’t been here.”

  “But if we’re going fishing… then he needs to get close enough to talk to me,” I say, looking at the group. “I can take him down if I have to, right?”

  “You will be sleeping at the school,” Papa says.

  “What about you?” I ask. “If I can do it, you can do it, right?”

  “Sí, princesa,” he says, an expression that I’m not used to seeing crossing his face. “I can only hope that he is that cocky.”

  “That just gave me a little chill,” Cheval says. “I have to say, I’m not sure wheth
er I would have wanted to go up against you as a villain, or not.”

  “Oh, he never fights seriously,” Skye complains, waving it off. “He usually bribes us with food, instead.”

  “And it works!” Ariel says, appearing behind Nico on the screen. “He brings the best food!”

  “Since none of us can cook worth beans, we don’t have very high expectations,” Doris points out.

  “But Papa LIKES you three,” I say, defensively.

  “Thank God, because I’m pretty sure he’d give Skye a hard time, much less us,” Doris says, glancing at Ariel. “We all saw how you caught Skye’s leg, Jimmi.”

  “Voltdrain’s a softy!” Ariel says happily. “Hey, hey, Vinny! Where’s the food? I’m starving!”

  “I’m working on it,” Vinny says.

  “I should be helping,” Papa says, going to plate the food. He keeps glancing at the shadows, though, and I know he hasn’t agreed to the “fishing” idea. Or, no, that’s not right, I think as I remember the thoughtful look on his face from earlier, he probably plans on doing the fishing, himself. He would be better than I am, of course, but that’s why it probably won’t work.

  I look at Vinny, memories of the videos I’d seen about the zoo kids flashing through my mind. Shadowman targets kids. He never goes after the adults, he’s not out to show his strength, like most supers. I’ve even heard that he once tried to talk Rocco into getting surgery to look average, so he wouldn’t stick out in a crowd. That is NOT a normal super.

  “We know Shadowman,” Vinny says as he looks at me, almost as if he’s reading my mind. “We know what to expect, and we know how to deal with him. This isn’t something you need to freak out about.” I think he’s trying to reassure me.

  “But he kidnapped you!” I blurt out.

  “And during the time I was in the zoo, he talked a LOT,” Vinny says. “He’s annoying, but he’s not an unknown. We know how to deal with him.”

  “And we know how to use him,” I say, a little smile pulling at my lips as his words calm me down.

  CHAPTER SIX