by R. J. Ross
“Wait, a super villain?” the nurse asks, shocked.
Jonas shoots her a shy grin. “You can’t expect us to get a SMART hero, you know? That would be breaking a long time tradition!”
“Mastermental,” Davis says.
“Doesn’t count, you’re South,” Jonas says.
“At least I didn’t finish the machine,” Davis says, sighing heavily.
“All healers, we’re going to need you,” a voice comes from Jonas’s commlink. “The coordinates are—”
The two listen as the voice rattles off a series of coordinates, and Davis’s already pale face gets paler by the moment. When the last number is said, he looks like death warmed over. “Davis?” Jonas asks.
“That’s where my father lives,” Davis says, trying to sit up, and succeeding this time. “Jonas, you have to go.”
“You’re still weak!” Jonas protests. “I think I’ve got it all, but it did a lot of damage. I need to make sure your healing abilities kick in—”
“They will, so go already!” Davis snaps. “Those scientists were annoying, but they don’t deserve to die because of it! Just go. I’ll be fine, here.”
Jonas hesitates for all of a second before nodding and pushing him back down. “At least lay down while you’re recovering.”
“I got it, already, I won’t budge, just go,” Davis says.
“Got it,” Jonas says. He clasps forearms with Davis. “I’ll be back.”
“Just go already,” Davis says. “This is an order from your commander.”
“Sir, yes sir!” Jonas says with a laugh as he lets go and heads past Davis’s mom and out of the hospital, breaking into a run.
Lydia Monk shoves past the nurses and doctor and reaches her son’s side, wrapping her arms around him and starting to sob. The shocked look that crosses Davis’s face is completely unnoticed by her. “I almost lost you!” she says.
“Mom…” Davis says, awkwardly patting her on the back with one hand and reaching into his pocket for his phone with the other. Their machines hadn’t sensed it, since it’s a Technico. “I want to go back to Cape High South.”
She pulls away to look at him, and, to his surprise, nods vehemently. “I agree. We need to get you away from that place. I’ll pack your bags, myself,” she says. “Oh, I look a mess, don’t I? My makeup is running all over the place.”
“I don’t think… you’ve ever looked more beautiful,” Davis says. She gives him a wavering smile before bursting into tears, all over again.
“You… you really DO have friends,” she sobs.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
*The Courthouse*
Vinny is tempted to pace. He doesn’t do pacing. Pacing doesn’t get anything accomplished, and with his abilities, he sometimes winds up burning footprints into the ground if he’s too worked up. There’s a television hanging in the corner, but he ignores it, his attention on the conversation Cheval’s daughter is having in the room behind him. Oh, sure, the door is closed, and the norms around him can’t hear it, but it’s loud and clear to him, as is the sound of a second phone trying to get through to someone.
“So… yes, I see. Thank you very much, Mr. Chevaz, you’ve been very helpful. I didn’t realize that they were so happy to let parents sit in on classes.”
“Yes, they have been kind enough to let me join in on the Coyote class a few times,” a man says from the other end of the line. “It was very nice to see the children working together so well. They are all very different, but they seem to be quite close, even the Davis boy you were asking about. To be honest, I have never seen mija so happy, before.”
“Yes, it’s wonderful to hear that your daughter is doing so well.”
“She has called me many times to tell me about school. Before, she refused to talk about anything that happened. I didn’t even know she was being bullied at her last school, until she started going to this one.”
“They were bullying her?” Veronica asks, sounding stunned.
“They would not sit with her, or talk with her,” he says. “It is… very hard on a child that age.”
“I see,” she says. “And you’re satisfied with the education she’s getting, then?”
He laughs. “She is already slotted for a job in the Hall, although I have gotten a call from Santa, who is interested, as well. As long as she can read, write, and count, I’ll be happy. She is a super.”
“Like yourself?” she asks.
“Yes, like myself,” he agrees. “Although I do not mention that to my clients.”
“I’ve seen your murals. You do wonderful work.”
“It was difficult at first, keeping the art to stay still,” he says modestly.
“Just one more thing,” she says, “has your daughter said anything that would lead you to believe that her, or any of the other children’s, powers are being taken advantage of?”
“Oh, yes!” he says, eagerly. “She has been taking a lot of advantage of her powers in that game they play! She has called, showing me screenshots of their game board. Did you know that they have beaten some of the Central students? She tells me that it is mostly thanks to Davis. He’s extremely good at being their commander!”
“That… well, that’s good to hear, I suppose, and it helps verify what I’ve been told already,” she says. “Thank you for your honest report, Mr. Chevaz. I look forward to seeing your work in the future.”
“I am going to paint a mural at the school, soon. I have been speaking with Century about it. He says he has some work for me at the Hall, as well.”
“That’s wonderful!” she says. “I’ll be sure to come and see both when they’re finished.” She says her goodbyes. A second later she hangs up both phones and tries calling Lydia Monk, again. She needs to speak with her and her son. After a second he hears her put the phone on speaker and lay it down as it continuously rings. Vinny gives into his irritation, standing and opening the door, even as the guards rush forward to try and stop him.
“We need to talk,” he says.
“I’m not finished, Mr. Fire Hazard,” she says. “I still have yet to get a hold of Ms. Monk.”
“I understand that, but I have no idea why you’re calling the other parents.”
“I want to make sure that the reason she pulled Davis out of the school wasn’t because of something they did to the boy,” she says. “While he is smart, he’s still quite the underdog compared to the other students. There might be something going on that I’m not aware of.”
“He’s not being bullied. He’s the commander of their Technico game fighting unit!” Vinny says. “They love the kid, even if he is a bit smug.”
“I see, but it isn’t only the kids that—“
“As of now, we are almost certain that the explosion was super related,” a woman says from the television behind him. He jerks, turning and ignoring what Veronica was about to say. “We have a recording of the super that escaped the rubble, attacking our newest hero, Burnout. Can we play that footage, again?”
Vinny’s eyes widen as he watches Jimmi get hit with something invisible and go plummeting to the ground. The people around him move further away as the air becomes noticeably warmer, and then downright hot. A strand of his hair lights up.
“Thankfully she was saved by Technico,” the anchorwoman says. “Have we heard who the new super is? Do we know what sort of powers he has?” she asks the people off screen. “Ah, yes, it seems the story is still developing. We will make sure to keep you updated, right here, on Channel 19.”
“Fire Hazard!” Veronica says sharply. “Control your powers!” The temperature plummets as he lets out a soft sigh.
“I need to go,” he says, looking at her. “This has taken too much time.”
“Forcing a child to register just to get them into a school is a very big deal, Fire Hazard. I need to do everything I can to avoid that, and if I can’t, I need to know all of the facts about the situation. Obviously your principal is going to be biased! My only goal is
to do what’s best for the child in question, you have to understand that,” she says urgently.
“I understand where you’re coming from,” he says, lowering his voice so that only she can hear, “but if you really want to know all of the facts, find out what the Hall isn’t telling you about him. You and I both know that what happens in the super world stays in the super world. They won’t tell you unless you ask, not as a judge, but as one of us.”
“Even your principal?” she asks.
“Even my principal,” he says, looking her straight in the eye for a second before racing out of the building.
“I want you to find out where that explosion took place and if it has anything to do with my case,” she says before heading back into her office. It looks like she has been asking the wrong people the wrong questions this entire time.
***
When Papa showed up to start the clean-up, Nico and I spread out to search for the created super, since he never appeared again. We’ve been searching for half an hour and I still can’t find him. I should be able to find him, he has my energy, but all I pick up on are scattered amounts of energy that disappear almost as soon as they appear. There’s a good chance that he might not ever gain control of his form, and simply disappear. That thought makes me sick to my stomach.
“We need Skye,” I say, looking at Nico. We’re floating high in the air, and I’m really trying to look as confident up here as he is, but I keep losing my balance and almost falling. This is harder than it looks, and I’m tired.
“Skye?” he says, tapping on his earbud. “Skye, are you there?”
“She’s not with you?” I hear Ariel ask. “We haven’t seen her all day.”
“She did help at the orphanage…” I say, “do you think she’s still there?”
“She’s not,” Cheval says. “She disappeared shortly after everyone started calming down. Did she go with Maximum?”
“She’s not with me,” Max says. “Rocco? Do you know where your aunt is?”
“Give me a minute,” Rocco says. I can actually hear him moving, which means he’s doing that silly dance of his, again. I DO hear a little girl start laughing her head off. “Hey, now, no laughing at the traditional dance of finding! You’ll be learning it someday!” Rocco says. “She’s not too far from Jimmi, I think she’s been following you guys.” He rattles off coordinates. “Do you want me to go get her?”
“No, I can,” I say. At least it’s something I can do. Finding the unknown super doesn’t seem to be working.
“Do you want my help?” Rocco asks.
“We’ll see if Skye will do it, first,” Nico says as I head down. “She’s got a better chance going up against this one than you do.”
“Okay. Also, I’m pretty sure that the triplets are moving in on us.”
“Tell Reaper not to hurt them, would you?” Nico says.
I land, checking the map on my commlink to make sure I have the coordinates right. There’s no sign of her, just a large tree that looks like it’s dying. “Skye? Skye, are you here?” I call out. I hear the faintest sound of sniffles. “Skye?” I repeat, more gently.
“I… I don’t want to talk to anyone,” she says.
“I know you’re in the tree, Skye,” I say, walking up to it.
“There were… so many of them,” she whispers. “How many of them are… are like I was? With nobody to want them? That little girl was a super…”
“And her mother was right there,” I say, touching the tree.
“My mother wasn’t, and there could be other super kids that are in places like that, and—and—”
“It wasn’t that nobody wanted you, Skye,” I say, “it’s just that the ones you belonged with most in the world weren’t able to find you at that time, right?” I pull back as her face comes out of the tree, sighing as I see the tears trickling over her cheeks. “Where’s the most dangerous villain in the world, huh? The most dangerous villain in the world doesn’t hide in a tree crying, now does she?”
She comes out, wrapping her arms around me. I pat her on the back, not too surprised at this. “Even the most dangerous villain in the world needs a hug sometimes,” she says.
“I know she does,” I agree.
“I just… I hated that place,” she says, “And I wanted to help you, but I kept thinking about that place, and…”
“I understand,” I say, holding her for a moment, “but right now I need your help, Skye. This is something only you can do.”
“Is it heroic? If I do something heroic it might ruin my reputation,” she says as she pulls away, wiping her tears with her forearm. Within seconds it looks like she never shed a tear. “I have a HUGE reputation to protect, you know. I’m the most fabulous villain in the UNIVERSE!”
“I like the new title,” I say, grinning. “And it might be SLIGHTLY heroic, but we’ll make sure nobody knows about it. I need you to help me find and capture the accidental super. Can you?”
“I can find any super!” she declares. “What’s his power?”
“Well… as far as we can tell… he has my energy and… your powers,” I say. She makes a face. “Yeah,” I agree.
“That’s just a really weird combination,” she says.
“You don’t hear me arguing,” I say.
“Well… does he have a super name?”
“He’s actually, sort of… not really cognizant?” I offer, “Or solid, for that matter.”
“Got it,” she says, hopping into the air. She starts dancing, mid-air, only to stop, yet another strange look on her face. I’m almost positive she practices them. “Um, do you know WHO the person is?” she asks me.
“Not a clue, just someone that was in Walter Colleck’s lab,” I say.
“No, we know,” Nico says. “It’s someone we both know rather well, Skye.”
“Who?”
“Richard Penski.”
“How did you find that out?” I ask.
“He has a back-up of his secondary security system in a personal cloud. The first security system just showed a loop,” Nico says. “I’m almost positive that it’s not the only backup that he has, but it was the easiest one to find.”
“Penski,” Skye says. “Penski’s a super, now?”
“Penski’s a super now,” Nico agrees.
“That means I… I can beat him up?” she says, a hint of wonder in her voice.
“That means you can beat him up,” Nico agrees, “but only after he gains control of his powers. Right now he’s too unstable to beat up.”
“YES! Sure it’s not yet, but YES!” she shouts, jumping up and down excitedly before starting her ridiculous dance of finding. She pauses in the middle of the running man, looking at us. “AND we can toss him into the Cape Cells?”
“It depends on what happens,” Nico says, “but that’s not a bad idea. We’ll see if we can pull it off.”
“Penski is GOING DOWN!” she shouts, spinning in circles with her finger pointed. She stops, swaying as if she actually got dizzy, and says, “THAT WAY! Oh, but he’s pretty… I dunno, erratic, you know? If he keeps going like he is, he might die before we manage to find him. How’d he get that way, anyway?” she asks us.
“He screwed up the final parts of the atomic converter that Davis was building, and then he hooked it and an anti-grav machine up to a tank of Jimmi’s energy,” Nico sums up as we start to fly.
“Well, that was stupid,” Skye says. “Hasn’t he read any comics at all? Doing something like that is just ASKING to be turned into an accidental super!”
“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” Nico agrees.
I have the worst feeling that the two are making fun of something that shouldn’t be mentioned… and yet, somehow I’m not surprised at all that they went there. “Are you sure you two aren’t really related by blood?” I ask them.
“We’re better than blood relatives!” Skye says. “We’re CHOSEN relatives! You said yourself that I was just waiting for the people that I needed to be with m
ost in the world, right? That comes with a big brother that makes fun of tropes with me!” She jumps onto Nico’s back, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Nico, you know they’re just going to let Davis’s father go, right?” I ask as we start flying in the direction Skye pointed.
“I know,” he says, “but unfortunately, an out-of-control super is a more pressing problem at the moment. Once we’re done dealing with Penski, we’ll deal with Colleck.”
“We could send someone else after him?”
He points at the ground, and I look down, seeing several spots of strangely colored patches. A house that we fly over is dripping on one side. Houses aren’t meant to drip like that. The roof is starting to fall off. “Skye, what would happen if I hit him with a power blocker?” Nico asks.
“It’d stop him!” she says. “Of course, it could maybe kill him, right?”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Nico says. “It doesn’t go well for made supers.”
“Then how are we going to capture him?” I ask.
“We drain his energy until he faints, and only until he faints,” Nico says, looking pointedly at me.
“Got it,” I say. Oh, sure, I could go “Papa can do that,” but I won’t. A good deal of this is my fault. If I can’t take responsibility for my own actions, how will I ever be a good Hall leader? They take responsibility for EVERYONE in their branches.
***
“Lo siento, Cheval,” Voltdrain says, “but can you deliver her to the Hall?” He honestly looks sorry about this, Cheval notices. She looks at the teleporter woman, smiling slightly.
“I’ll do it,” she says, “but in exchange, I want another date, one that isn’t interrupted by drama, okay?”
He gives her a smile. “I would be more than happy to,” he says, handing the teleporter over and taking to the air. “Gracias.” He takes off, leaving the two women looking at each other.
“Come on, then, we should get you to the Hall,” Cheval says, tugging her along.
“He’s going to find me, soon,” Ms. Mace says, looking a bit numb. “I can never escape him. I thought I was done when he placed me at my last position. I would be stuck working as a secretary, but that wasn’t a problem. I just had to deal with annoying scientist fanboys. But no, they had to bring him off of his island. The only ones in trouble when he was on the island were the monkeys. The world was a safer place when he was just messing around with monkey DNA. Oh, sure, he could have set up the whole Planet of the Monkeys thing, but really, I’m a super. Who cares if norms or monkeys are in charge? They’re extremely similar, one’s just hairier than the other.”
