by R. J. Ross
Max, Trent, Emily, Jack, and Ace are with us, alongside Marigold, Century, Voltdrain, and most of the Central Hall capes—the ones that can fly, that is. Mastermental nods at me in greeting. The one that surprises me, though, is Doris. She looks ready to kill someone.
“He’s going to notice this,” I say, “especially if he talks Shadowman into working with him.”
“That’s a risk we have to take. Rocco, I’m going to ask a lot from you—”
“And me!” Skye says, racing through the air for us. Carla is standing next to me before I even realize it.
“I want to help, too,” Carla says.
“Good,” Nico says. “Skye, Rocco, find out where the machines are based. Take as many of the capes as you can. We need at least one at each of the machines. Keep one of these on you at all times,” he says, handing out the machines. “Volt, you’ve got a different job,” he says as he reaches Voltdrain.
“Si,” Voltdrain says, looking serious. “I will do what I can. You will be assisting?” he asks.
“No,” Nico says, “Zoe will from below, with the others. If Herold comes after her, Rocco will drag her into the Shadowlands. I don’t plan on letting that happen, though.”
“I want to take down Herold,” Century says abruptly, only to get Skye up in his face, poking him in the chest.
“You,” she says, poking him again, “put this on and stay where you’re put,” she orders, grabbing one of the machines and shoving it at him.
“Now, Sugar, you don’t understand how much of a help I can be,” he says, taking the machine.
“No, she’s right,” Nico says. “You need to do something more important. You need to buy them time to get where they need to be. As soon as Volt and Zoe have the power off, I want you to stop time on the surface. Can you do that?”
“And leave the underground time still running?” Century asks. “I should be able to.”
“Good,” Nico says. “There’s a chance that won’t be able to stop Herold, but it can stop everything else. I’ll be the one to stop Herold,” he says, looking so much like Superior used to in the pictures that I glance over at Superior. The similarities are blinding right now.
I almost feel sorry for Herold, honestly. I DO feel sorry for my dad. You know, if he’s still alive, that is.
***
The Shadowlands has never smelled so good, Shadowman thinks as he stands in the middle of the gritty, barren land. Well, barren except for the monsters. Can you even call it barren if it has so much bloodthirsty life in it? He looks around curiously, for the first time in a long time wondering where he actually is. He promptly shoves that thought aside as soon as it crosses his mind. He doesn’t want to know. He’d been too close to dying, he tells himself as he starts off. Now is no time to be following morbid lines of thought.
He’s about to leave completely when he hears people talking. Instinctively he moves into the darker shadows, watching his son lead a crowd through their private territory. “Okay,” Rocco says. “We’ve found what we think we’re looking for. I’m going to take you there, but as soon as you’ve gone through the portal you need to turn on your machine—”
“Machine?” Shadowman asks, stepping into sight. A miniature army of capes go on guard, surrounding him in a second. “Hey, now, wait just a moment,” he says, holding up his hands. “Actually, you, check me for some sort of bug. I checked earlier, but I couldn’t find anything,” he decides, nodding to Technico’s daughter. She steps forward, her dislike obvious on her face as she walks around him. She leans down, picking a tiny little thing off of his coat and crushing it between her fingers. “Well, looks like he’s been given a heads up,” Shadowman mutters, letting out a curse. He gets several dark looks from all around.
“I see you’re not dead, yet,” his only son (that he knows of, he thinks a bit dryly) says, coldly. "What did you agree to?”
“How do you know I’ve agreed to anything?” he asks, trying to look hurt.
“Because you’re alive and running through the Shadowlands,” Rocco says bluntly. “He wouldn’t let you be here if you weren’t on some sort of mission. What did you tell him you’d do?”
“Oh, nothing big,” Shadowman says. “I’m just supposed to kill Technico.”
“You won’t touch my dad,” Zoe says from right behind him. He holds both hands up without hesitating. She might only be sixteen, but he’s seen what she can do.
“I didn’t tell him about you,” Shadowman says. “If I was really out to help him, don’t you think I’d have mentioned the second technopath on the team?”
“How can we believe you?” Zoe asks.
“Because he didn’t tell me to kill you, look, we don’t have time for this. Go on and do what you’re planning and I won’t say a word,” he says, turning to face her. “I want him gone, done, dead. He’s mucking up the status quo, and he’s far too interested in me for my own good.”
“He’s right,” Rocco says. “If he’s seen or heard anything over that bug you just found, he’s going to become suspicious. We need to get to work, and we need to do it now. Just know,” he says to Shadowman, “if you try to kill Nico, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
“Have you ever asked why I took the panther girl into the sewers instead of bringing her to the Shadowlands?” Shadowman asks. Several startled looks answer his question. “He’s the one cape I wouldn’t put it past to find this place. I don’t want your little group to come stomping through my territory without the door being opened for them. You, Rocco, are the only other one that can open it—looking at it like that, I think it’s best for all of us if I just leave and you all work extremely quickly.”
He starts forward, expecting someone to stop him. “Let him go,” his son says. “I can always find him later. Zoe, get in position to take out the power.”
Shadowman walks away, a bitter taste lingering in his mouth.
***
Nico looks over at Voltdrain, who nods back with a slight frown on his face. He looks over at Century, on his right, who in turns looks over at Mastermental, to the right of him. At any moment Herold might notice they’ve got him surrounded. Or, Nico thinks as he hears more things explode, he might be too busy fighting the U.S. Military.
“I have to say,” he says casually over the com-link he’s closely monitoring, “the idea of using them as a distraction isn’t setting well with me. Is there any way we can get everyone out of there when I take on Herold?”
“They’re doing the job they signed up for, Nico. That it overlaps with our job is a sad reality,” Mastermental says. “I hate that it came to this—this is why we keep supers out of military and politics, you know.”
“We did offer him a choice,” Century says, holding out his hands. “Are we sure that those devices will keep my time powers from affecting you?” he asks Nico. Nico and Voltdrain look at each other before flying over and touching his shoulder.
“Just in case,” Nico says, touching his earbud. “Century, Voltdrain, Zoe, do it now. The sooner we stop time the more lives we can save.”
“Got it,” Century says. Voltdrain nods as well, holding out his hands to the scene. The lights flicker off exactly as the world in front of them goes abruptly still. Even the wind seems to stop blowing. The sounds of explosions stop and Nico is strangely torn by the urge to go in and save the ones that are about to die—
“I’ll go in and get them,” Marigold says, making them all look up. “Turns out this works against our powers, too,” she says, pointing at the machine strapped over her back. “You go and stop that madman. Usually I would argue, though,” she adds, looking in the direction of the White House. “This is my territory.”
“But it’s my fight,” Nico says. “Thank you, Marigold. Just for that I’ll let you bring in whatever kids you want. Cape High will welcome them,” he says.
“Hah,” she says. “I might take that offer up, but I’ve yet to see proof that your training is doing anything other than making them gran
dstanders of the first degree.”
“Watch the news after this is over,” Mastermental says, “I think you’ll be surprised. Now, I, too, will help get the people out of the line of fire. Nico, I can trust that you’ll at least attempt to not kill the man?”
“I can’t make any promises,” Nico says. “Some men deserve to die.” He rushes forward, leaving them behind and heading straight for the White House. Herold is there, looking around blankly.
“What have you done?” Herold asks as Nico appears in front of him. Nico doesn’t even bother to answer, he just slams a fist into Herold’s face as hard as he can. It goes straight through the electric shield, much to his satisfaction. The other technopath is sent flying backwards, slamming into the White House. Nico doesn’t hesitate before rushing forward again, grabbing the other man by the shirt and hauling him out of the wreckage.
Below them, blurs of working supers rush through the frozen chaos, pulling out norms and taking them to safe distances. They’re almost completely silent, which is good. Nico doesn’t want Herold to notice. He lets out a little grunt as Herold punches him in the gut, but stubbornly he keeps hold of the man. He pulls back a fist--
The first machine explodes below the surface—they both notice it, being technopaths. Herold jerks out of his hold, shooting straight for the ground with his fist out. Nico chases after him, grabbing the man around the waist and shifting his weight so that they both skid along the ground, ripping up the grass along the way. “Get OFF OF ME!” Herold bellows, turning to shove Nico away.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Nico says, slamming the other man through the wrought iron fence. “Other than possibly the Cape Cells if I don’t kill you first.” He grabs the fence that came with him, wrapping one of the poles tight around Herold’s throat. Herold jerks at it, his fingers warping the metal. Another machine explodes underground, and another, and another. The machines start collapsing inward, showing that time is starting to move again. He hadn’t asked Century how long he could hold the time stop, Nico realizes abruptly. He quickly grabs the power negator that Herold is wearing and crushes it in his hand.
The ground below starts to shake, and they both look down in shock as Doris in her monster form shoots out of the earth her taloned fingers reaching for Herold as her mouth opens to let out an ear-piercing scream. Both men have to stick their fingers in their ears, giving Herold the chance to run—and he does, racing away at top speed.
The Jersey Devil woman gives chase, flying as fast as she can. On some level, Nico can understand why she went off-plan, but it’s giving Herold a chance to recoup, since she’s not fast enough. And Herold recouping is the last thing they can allow him to do. “You had a job to do!” he yells back at her.
“I’m going to make sure he dies!” she screams back, speeding up. He stops arguing with her and goes faster, racing through the sky in hot pursuit of the villain. He can’t let him get away, he thinks as he grits his teeth and breaks the sound barrier. If the world doesn’t see him take out this man, they’ll always wonder if he isn’t secretly just like him. There is NO WAY he’s going to go back to the Cape Cells.
The pole that he’d wrapped around Herold’s throat comes flying back. He dodges, cursing as he realizes that it could easily kill someone at this speed. He touches his earbud, barking out a sharp, “Incoming!” and hoping that someone catches it before it spears an unwitting norm. He can see Herold, he realizes. The other man isn’t as fast as he is, not in the long run. Too many years behind a desk, he thinks scathingly before slamming into Herold from above. They both slam towards the ground, spinning as Herold tries to get free—he can’t. Nico is stronger than he is. Eventually they hit the ground so hard that it forms a crater. Earth and trees go flying as they skid to a stop.
“You’re finished, Herold,” Nico says, grabbing him by the throat and slapping a thin collar around it. The collar glows brightly, stealing the other man’s powers.
“Do you really think you can hold me, Technico?” Herold asks, glaring angrily at him. “Could they really have kept you?”
“Guess what, Herold?” Nico says coldly. “I’m better than you are. I’m stronger than you, faster than you, and a better technopath than you—destroying is easy, the real trick is putting it all back together again. But I’m even a better PERSON than you are, because I got over my inferiority complex a long time ago. We will never be them, but you know what? You were right about one thing—this world is made for our type. We’re surrounded by things that we understand better than the old folks ever will. But you,” he says, his rage showing on his face, “you just HAD to go and screw everything up! They’ll be watching me and my kid like hawks for the rest of our lives, because YOU got some stupid idea to take over the world! I’ll always be better than you are, and I’ll prove it by making it so you NEVER escape."
He smacks him, barely refraining from killing him with the hit. He shakes the man when he gets no response, abruptly realizing that he knocked him out with the hit, and lets out a curse.
“Now, kill him,” Doris says, landing in front of him.
“I’m not going to kill him,” Nico says. “Killing him is too short and sweet an end. We’re going to do to him what he did to you,” he decides, looking up at her with ice cold eyes. “We’re going to stick him in a tube for a few decades. But I think, before that, we’ll strip him of his powers.”
“Brutal,” Century says from overhead, making them both look up, “and overkill. I think, though, that this part is our job, son,” he says, dropping to the ground and pulling the unconscious technopath out of Nico’s hold. “My vote is that we strip his powers and then stick him in a cell right next to an old, old friend of his.”
“Kunnins?” Nico asks, a hint of a grin pulling at his lips.
“Exactly.”
“Being stuck in the tube might be kinder,” Nico says, handing him a controller for the collar. “Keep him within a mile or two of this at all times until we log him into the Cape Cell's control center. Now, since half of the Hall leaders are here to oversee this—” he goes on, looking up as the others join them, “I’m going to get everyone back on clean-up duty.”
“Before that,” Century says, looking at Mastermental, “we need a clear cut agreement on two of the students.”
“Rocco and Carla, I suppose?” Mastermental asks.
“I’m willing to negotiate, but I will remind you that Rocco officially comes from my territory,” Marigold says, crossing heavily muscled arms over her chest.
“Rocco hates you,” Nico says bluntly. “And this is an agreement that will take a bit of arguing to conclude, so I’ll leave it to you brains of the business,” he adds, “and sooner or later you’ll realize that you should be talking to the kids, themselves.”
***
They don’t care about it anymore, Doris thinks, staring at the man just lying there, still unconscious. It happened, it’s over, they’ll toss Herold into some comfortable cell and move on—it’s obvious by how quickly they started talking about the kids. She wants to yell that the kids don’t matter right now—they have a murderer sitting right there! Where is the justice in this?
Where is the revenge?
"Now, this is definitely a subject to discuss--" Century says, in a tone that says "discuss" means "argue about."
She doesn’t know what they’re arguing about, she doesn’t care—her attention is on the technopath, who’s starting to wake up. The Hall Leaders don’t even notice, she thinks with rage. They’re so confident—
A part of her hates herself for relying on Nico. She should have gone faster, fought harder, made sure that SHE was the one that caught him. Another part betrays her by whispering that she went as fast as she could. She’s no match for Nico, not when he’s in the mood he was in back there. She’s tried to beat Nico in a GOOD mood—he took her down without even a punch.
Herold starts to sit up and Doris stops thinking.
CHAPTER NINE
The large, caver
nous area deep underneath the White House was clearly once built to be a safety bunker. I see bunks against the walls and there’s the constant hum of generators in the background, since the power is still out. I don’t know when the last time a norm was down here, but it must have been a long time ago—otherwise they would have noticed the massive machines that are scattered through the huge concrete room. There are—or were, I should say, at least forty of them. All of them are destroyed, now. It’s a good thing we’re capes, because blowing them up had been pretty dangerous for a bit.
“Done here,” Max says over the com-link, rather than yell from the other side of the room. “How is everyone else doing?”
“They’re all destroyed!” Carla says. I glance over as I feel a strong breeze hit me. She just went past. “I don’t think Nico could even put these suckers back together. But maybe we should take the parts with us?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say. “Trent, Jack, Max, can you compress the parts as much as possible? They have to go through a portal.”
“On it,” Jack says. The sound of metal screeching makes me wince slightly. I look up at the ceiling, wondering how the fight is going—or if it’s already over. A part of me feels sick to my stomach, actually, because I know for a fact that my job isn’t finished. I need to go find my father. The longer I wait, the more of a pain in the neck it’ll be finding him.
“Has anyone seen Doris?” Skye asks.
“She went up,” Max says, pointing to the right where a gaping hole is still dropping dirt.
