by R. J. Ross
Ruckus looks at her. “You’re right. Maybe it will be a good thing for all of us.”
“Now, ladies, that is NOT a good thing for anyone,” Century says, looking at them sharply. “Skye is what puts the South Branch Hall on the map, regardless of whether you think it’s serious work or not. Since you two have started fighting the Deadly Darlin’s, I’ve been getting heaps of movie producers begging to make movies based on our branch.”
“Shouldn’t Voltdrain be that reason?”
“Oh, they’re asking to do a few based on him, as well, but you’re the biggest draw. I’m not going to let a small problem ruin everything.” He frowns, barely noticing as Carla lifts a hand.
“Century?” she says, “Can I go talk to them before you do anything?”
“Darlin, as callous as it might seem, there’s no question about what I’ll do,” he says, sighing. “I should call Nico before going to see the boy. Hopefully he’ll let him into his school.”
“Wait, what?” Ruckus says, looking stunned. “You mean you’ll let Skye get away with her temper tantrum?”
“The boy isn’t a set part of our Hall,” he says, “and it isn’t as if he’s in a situation where he can’t survive without a Hall, either. So yes, I’ll let Skye have a say in this. But I would like to know why she has such a problem with mad scientists.” He frowns, and the look on his face says that it’s more important to him than he’s actually saying.
“Isn’t it because you like her?” Dolly asks.
“Of course I like her, but I’m doing this as a Hall leader. My first and only job, practically, is making sure that my supers have the best life that they can.”
“No it’s not,” Ruckus says. “Your job is to make sure that your supers don’t go out of control and hurt people. Whether they’re happy or not has absolutely nothing to do with you.”
“That’s not—” Dolly starts out, only to stop as Ruckus raises a hand.
“You shouldn’t coddle her, Century. She’s a fully grown woman, regardless of how she acts,” Ruckus says.
“I’m going to go talk to her,” Carla says, looking from one to the other before running out the door. The room goes silent.
“You’re sure about this, Century?” Ruckus says after a long moment.
“I’ve made my decision. The boy is an interesting super, sure, but I won’t throw away a prize like the Deadly Darlin’s over him. I’m not a fool.”
The two women look at each other. “We should go, as well,” Dolly says. “Goodbye, Century. We’ll talk to you later.”
“Have a good day, ladies.”
***
“Skye, would you at least TELL us?” I hear Doris say as I reach their base. “All you’ve done is tell Century we’re quitting and started packing up!”
“And I really don’t think you can pack the pool,” Ariel says. I take in a deep breath and let it out.
“Hi! Can I talk to you?” I call out. I hear a deep growl right behind me and turn, looking blankly at the ugliest looking dog I’ve ever seen. His eyes are glowing, I realize abruptly. “You’re one of Nico’s, right? Hi! I’ve always wanted to meet one of the robots! Oh, should I call you an AI, instead?” I ask, completely distracted as I race around the ugly dog. “But why did he make you so ugly?” I ask.
“He’s not ugly,” Ariel yells up at us. “He’s our precious chupacabby!”
“His name is Chooperic!” Skye says, coming up through the ground and wrapping her arms around Chooperic’s neck. “But if you came to talk us into staying while there’s a mad scientist in our Hall, it won’t work,” she tells me. “I’m not sticking around for that! No one’s going to experiment on me, or my girls, or ANYONE that I love!”
“Well… um…” I say, “Century already decided.”
“I KNEW he would sell me out—”
“He’s going to try and send the boy to Central,” I say. Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me in shock.
“What?”
“He’s going to go along with whatever you want, even if it means the boy is sent away from his family members. Even if a twelve-year-old has no chance of doing something to THE invincible Skystep, he’s still going along with what you want.”
“Well…” she stops, hugging Chooperic and burying her face in his neck. “I… AM sort of invincible,” she says quietly. “But you don’t know what they did to me, Carla! They… I was almost happy, but it was a lie,” she says. “He took advantage of my trust! He—he was supposed to be my FATHER but it was all a LIE!”
I walk over, sitting down next to her and placing a hand on her arm. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?” I ask. Doris and Ariel sit down, as well, facing us, waiting expectantly. Skye peeks up at them, and then over at me, shyly.
“It… started out when I was a child,” she says quietly. “No, it started out a lot earlier than that. I never met my parents. I was left at a church when I was a baby, and they put me in the system, and they sent me to a foster family. But… I don’t remember anything about it, since I was born with some of my powers. I mean… I guess when you’ve got a baby that sinks through the bed a bit and gets stuck, well, it’d probably freak you out a little, huh?”
“Nah, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Doris says.
“Thank you,” Skye says, sounding justified. “It seems like it would be perfectly normal to me, too!”
“But we’re pretty lax on what’s normal, you know?” Ariel points out. “Or maybe it’s the norms that have no idea what interesting is!” she decides a second later, sounding much more cheerful about that idea. “They’re way too stuck on normal to be any fun.”
“Most definitely,” Skye agrees. “But well, I didn’t use to think that way. I was handed over to this mean old lady social worker who tried to figure out what to do with me… I think she felt like I was… something shameful, I guess? She should have gone to the supers with me, but… well… I don’t think that the system even LIKES supers, or at least it didn’t when I was a kid. She would always give me this look, like, ‘Oh, there she is, again. It’s such a shame that she’s alive.’”
“You’re kidding,” Doris says, stunned. “She really said something like that to a child?”
“No, but that’s how she looked,” she says. “And she kept trying to find norm families to take me in, but… nobody wanted a girl like me. Until one day she told me she’d finally found a person that wanted to raise me. She… she introduced me to this man who seemed really happy to meet me. He was nice, so… so I started to get my hopes up. I thought I’d finally found someone that wouldn’t freak out if my powers messed up, you know? But… but he took me to this massive building and stuck me in a glass room, where they sprayed me with this gas that stopped my powers from working right, and… and…”
She’s starting to cry, so I wrap my arms around her, holding her as she tries to find the words. “Shh, it’s okay,” I whisper, rubbing her back. “It’s okay, it’s not now. There’s no room that can keep you trapped—”
“But I WAS caught again,” she says, pulling out of my hold. “There are more people out there that can do that sort of thing, and Century wants to TRAIN another of them? I thought he… I thought that he…”
“He DOES like you!” I say, urgently. “He likes you a lot! That’s why he’s so willing to let you send a kid away from his home and family!”
“Family?” she repeats.
“Yes. He’s got a mom,” I say. “I don’t know if he has anyone else, but his mom… well, she seemed a bit overprotective, I guess, but that’s a lot better than some mothers of supers. I mean, I guess she could move with him, so that would be okay…”
“Then they should do that!” she says. “They can move away from… their home…”
“I don’t want to move away from mine,” Ariel says, looking down. “We’ve only been here for a few months, but I feel the safest… and happiest I’ve ever been right here.”
“I wouldn’t mind moving,” Doris says, gettin
g sharp looks from the other two. “Let’s face it, they locked me up in the room that became our sauna, remember? But even if you’re both airheads, and you KEEP making me wear eighties style clothing—”
“She called us airheads again, Skye!” Ariel says, looking quite smug at her tattle-telling.
“Punishment AFTER I finish my point, Ariel,” Doris says. “What I was TRYING to say is that I would be willing to live in a place like this just to stay with you two… you’re my family, now, right?”
The other two nod, looking at each other and then her. “We’re S.V.B.F.F.” Skye says.
“Super villain best friends forever,” Ariel agrees.
“So… it would be sad to leave your home… or your family… or both, huh?” Skye says, looking down. “Even for a mad scientist?”
“When they’re twelve, yeah,” Doris says before I can come up with a nicer way to put it.
“But I don’t like mad scientists!” Skye says, hopping to her feet. “I don’t like them, and I never, ever, EVER WILL!”
“But you don’t even know this one, Skye,” I say. “Can you really judge an entire group of people based on your experience with one? If you do that… then… then you’re a lot like that social worker that didn’t like you because you were a super, right?”
She goes still, mid-ranting pose. “I am NOTHING like that lady!” she yells, pointing at me. “I’m NOTHING like her!”
“Then… what if you meet the boy?” I ask. “If you meet him, you’ll be able to tell right off that there’s nothing he can do to you, right? You can tell people’s power levels, right?”
“Because I’m scared,” Skye says, dropping down to the ground again and hugging her knees. “I’ve been scared since Nico’s cameras found that other camera, an-and even if I KNOW it might not be him that put it there, I’m always wondering… what if it was? What if he’s been watching me all these years, just waiting for the chance to grab me again? Or whatever it is he’s trying to do? I don’t want to ever see him again! I HAVE a daddy now! Superior is my daddy! I have a mommy and a sister and a brother and partners and if he tries to take me away from all of that again, I…”
“We’ll come and take you back,” Ariel says, throwing herself at Skye and holding her tightly. “We aren’t like in the past, Skye. We have each other. If one of us gets nabbed, the other two will come running, no matter who it is that did it! Well… unless it’s Century,” she says, a second later. “Usually if Century grabs us we get free food and glitter.”
“If Century grabs one of us, we’ll make sure he knows when we expect her back by,” Doris says, just watching them. I get the feeling she would join the hug if I wasn’t there.
“So you’re not paranoid about Century, at least?” I say.
“Century plays by rules that we all know,” Doris says. “The last time he kidnapped us we had free room service and had to decorate our villain cards for a bit. I’m still finding glitter whenever I brush my hair.”
“Max saved us!” Skye says.
“No, he didn’t. He just told Century that he could only keep us for a little while before he came back and got us,” Doris says. “There’s a difference.”
“He WOULD have saved us, but we saved ourselves?” Skye offers.
“We finished all the cards and Century let us go!” Ariel says. “But anyway… we need to meet this mad scientist boy, and we need to know that he’s not out to kidnap Skye.”
“He’s twelve,” I say. “I don’t think a twelve-year-old would try to kidnap Skye.”
“But he did grab the dollhouse that had her in it,” Doris points out.
“Maybe he’s really not smart?” Ariel offers. “I mean, can a mad scientist be not smart?”
“No, he’s smart,” I say, frowning as I start to think about it. “Century thinks he just used you as an excuse to get the Hall’s attention without his mom’s permission… I mean, that’s the only thing that makes sense, if you think about it, right? It’s his brains that would have gotten him into Cape High, at least that’s what Zoe said…”
“Oh,” Ariel says. “So we were just being used, right?”
“We were just being used,” Doris agrees.
“What a little jerk!” Skye says, going right back to her mad stage. “He could have picked someone else! I was having fun!”
“Who else would be small enough for a twelve-year-old to grab?” I ask, shrugging. “Well, unless that twelve-year-old is a tank, then he could probably grab someone bigger. Although at that age, Kaden hadn’t even come into his powers, yet, so I’m sort of wishy-washy on that. Oh! But I heard that Nico had! So he could have grabbed someone a LOT bigger! And I heard that Max had his powers from birth, so he definitely could have, too, and then—”
“Carla?” Doris asks.
“Hmm?”
“You wanna stay over for the night? We’ve got a teleportation booth. We can get you to school before it starts, if you want.”
I blink. “Yes!” I say, jumping up and down happily. “Oh, but first we need to meet the geek—er, I mean, the brainy kid!”
“She called him a geek,” Ariel says, stunned.
“She did, she did,” Skye agrees.
“We should punish her for using such foul language!” Ariel decrees happily. “Bikini of shame!”
“Since when has ‘geek’ been foul language?” I ask. “There are people that LIKE being called geeks!”
“But we don’t know if HE likes being called that, so bikini of shame!” Ariel says.
“Won’t work,” Doris says, “it won’t fit her.”
“We’ll get her her OWN bikini of shame!” Skye declares.
I groan. Well, as long as they don’t invite people to see, I guess I’m okay with that. It seemed to cheer them up a lot!
***
“What were you thinking?” Davis’s mother screams as he just sits on his bed, staring at her. “Why on earth would you do something so ridiculous? You were supposed to be shopping for clothes to take to college! You shouldn’t have been anywhere NEAR that debacle! Now we’ve got the Hall calling every ten minutes, wanting to talk to you! Do you have any idea what they could do to you?”
“Yes, Mother, I know all about the things they do to errant supers,” Davis says in a bored tone. Of course, he doesn’t FEEL bored. In fact, he’s a bit nervous about this plan, but he’s studied the South Branch supers. He has a very good idea of what they’ll do in this situation. They’ll see him interfere, come to lecture him, and he’ll play up the little kid thing. Once those idiots in tights decide that he just wanted attention, they’ll bring him under their wing—
The doorbell rings, and his mother goes still, the color of rage leaving her face. Now she looks deathly pale. There’s a hint of fear in her eyes, but he knows it isn’t for him. No, what his mother fears is the effect this sort of thing will have on her reputation. The only reason she’s so happy with him is because he makes her look good. He knows for a fact that she doesn’t really even like him. She thinks he’s a smart-mouthed brat that should be quiet unless he’s told to speak. His father had left for the exact same reason, he’s positive. In fact, he probably inherited the super genes from his dad, which is why they never could track him down to charge him child support.
“Well, aren’t you going to answer it?” he asks, since his mom is still standing there.
“We aren’t finished with this conversation, young man,” she blusters before storming off to the front door. He hears her pause before she opens it, to take a deep breath and fake a smile. He doesn’t have to see the smile to know it’s there. He’s seen it many, many times before. “How can I help you, Mr. Century?” she asks a second later.
“I do apologize for coming over without permission,” he hears the man say in a southern drawl, “but is it possible that I can speak with your son, ma’am?”
“Of course, let me just go get him,” she says, racing back to Davis’s room. “Clean yourself up, you look like a bum,” she
hisses, “and then come to the front room and be prepared to apologize on your knees, if you have to!”
She’s gone before Davis can respond, so he stands up and heads to his closet, shucking the t-shirt and shorts and digging out his “proper attire.” The dress shirt and slacks is his least favorite outfit ever, but he has never told his mother that. He makes a point of tugging at the collar once in a while, though, which she always scolds him for doing.
“Davis, honey, are you coming?” he hears her call from the front room as he slips his shoes on. He doesn’t bother with socks. Instead he runs a hand through his hair and heads for the front room, mentally practicing his spiel about being just a kid. It’s going to work. It has to work, right? Of all the Hall Leaders, Century is the most likely to fall for a line like that. He’s never been more grateful in his life that his Hall leader isn’t Mastermental.
“Hello, son,” the large man says. Davis stops in his tracks, taking in just how tough looking the man is this close up. Century is wearing a suit instead of his uniform, but the mask and his size are enough to tell him exactly who he is. It’s not going to work. He’s going to get tossed into the Cape Cells, and he’ll never see daylight again—
“Davis, why don’t you say hello to the nice Hall Leader?” his mother prompts through gritted teeth.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Davis says, falling to his knees just as quickly as that. “I just—I can’t handle the idea of being the big freak twelve-year-old at a college full of people older, and less intelligent than me. I want to be with people my own age, Century—”
Century holds up a hand, cutting him off abruptly. “I see,” he says. “Well, I think I can understand that, but I’m afraid that it just won’t work out—”
“WAIT!” someone says, rushing through the door and standing in front of Century. “Wait! We need to talk before you say anything,” the girl says. “Skye is on her way, so you just need to give her point five seconds! And… here she is!”
