by R. J. Ross
“There’s a board?” Davis asks, looking up from the image of himself that just appeared on the screen.
“There’s ALWAYS a board,” Jimmi says. “This one’s just not official, yet.”
***
*The Arctic Circle*
Skye floats above the ice, staring at the large ice mountain in front of her. She got all the way up here, only to hesitate, she thinks with irritation. She’s about to turn around when she sees someone come out the door. “Skye! Hello, darling!”
“Oh, great,” Skye says to herself. “I don’t want to talk to you, crazy-eye-lady!”
“Now is that any way to speak to your aunt?” Marie demands as she places her hands on her hips.
“You’re not my aunt!” Skye says, pointing at her.
“I’m close enough. Now come in, darling, we’ve got hot chocolate on the stove, and cookies in the oven!”
“Chocolate chip?” Skye asks, after a long pause of deliberation.
“Sugar cookies. Tatiana got the recipe from Santa’s workshop.” Marie waves her over before sauntering into the ice castle.
“Santa cookies?” Skye says, heading inside without even registering it. “I want Santa cookies…”
“We will frost them together!” Tatiana says from the kitchen. “Come in here, kitten, they are almost done.”
Skye heads down the hall to the kitchen, throwing herself into the arms of the large woman standing by the stove. “M-mommy?” she says, bursting into tears. “I don’t know what to do.”
Tatiana wraps her arms around her, smoothing down Skye’s usually wild brown hair. “It is okay, my child,” she says. “It will all be okay. The family is on the luggage!”
“Luggage?” Marie asks as a bell dings. She opens the oven and pulls out the cookies. “Tatiana, I believe you mean ‘case.’ The family is on the case.”
“Luggage, case, it is same difference!”
“I like ‘The family is on the luggage’ better, anyway,” Skye mutters from where her face is buried in Tatiana’s chest.
“Of course you would,” Marie says, a bit indulgently.
“I’ve been acting… really childishly, though…” Skye admits, guiltily. “And it’s making it hard for Carla to feel happy, and I HATE that, but-but I can’t seem to stop, because he’s OUT there, and all I can do is just sit around and do nothing because I can’t track down a norm, and I don’t know what to do with a norm, even if I COULD find him, because I don’t want to risk the Cape Cells and—”
“Shh, shh, you are ambling, kitten,” Tatiana says.
“Rambling,” Marie corrects her.
“I prefer ‘ambling,’ too,” Skye says, daring to pull away just long enough to glare at Marie. “Hey, Mom? How do you tarry? Is it knitting?” She hears Marie choke on a laugh, but she ignores it.
“I am sure that if it is, I will learn how!” Tatiana says. Marie starts laughing, outright, at that.
“Darling, ‘tarry’ just means to stay, delay, or to wait in one place,” Marie says.
“Ah, then I am very good at it, already!” Tatiana says, proudly. “I am constantly doing the tarry.”
“Huh…” Skye says, frowning slightly as she thinks it over. “I’m terrible at it,” she decides.
“Yes, but you are good at many other things!” Tatiana says encouragingly. Skye starts to giggle, shocked that she can even do that, but the huge, encouraging smile on Tatiana’s face is enough to make the world seem right, again.
“So you don’t think I’ll ever learn how, huh?” she says, faking a pout.
“No, kitten, you are many things, but that is not one of them,” Tatiana says. “I do not tell my children that they are things that they are not! It is bad for business!”
“You mean—” Marie starts out, only to stop and shake her head. “Never mind, I’m going to leave that one as it is. Now who wants to frost cookies? We have an entire double rainbow of colors, here, since we can never agree which green should be considered green. We also have five different versions of red,” she says, pulling out an entire spinning rack of bottled frosting. “If you want different nozzles, we have a nice little variety, right here,” she adds, pulling out a large box and setting it next to the rack.
“Do you have any edible glitter?” Skye asks, eagerly.
“We were thinking you would never ask!” Tatiana says, pulling out another spinning rack.
“I should have brought the girls… oh well, more cookies for me!” Skye says happily, grabbing an armful of glitter and icing bottles. “Let’s do this! Is Dad going to come help?”
“Oh, Superior does not do frosting art,” Tatiana says, waving it off. “He is off on one of his fishing trips, again.”
“He’s looking into a better type of bait,” Marie adds with a little smile before she grabs her own frosting.
***
Dinner was nice, and it calmed me down a lot, just talking with Volt and Jimmi. Jimmi seemed a little surprised when he asked her, but I think she’s excited about it. She kept looking at me, as if she was stealing my job, which is silly. I’m just a temp! Plus, I have TWO branches to work for, which is more than enough, even for me. But since she hasn’t decided for sure, yet, I shouldn’t tell the Nemeses or the Darlin’s.
I got home around bedtime and fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow. Now that it’s morning, I find myself relaxing and wishing I could sleep in for all of five whole seconds before I jump to my feet and go to take a shower. We’re supposed to have a new gig today, to make up for the botched one, yesterday, right? I haven’t heard anything about it, yet, but I’m sure it’ll be fun! I hope that Skye’s calmed down, though. I mean, she seems to do fine, even when she’s not calm, now that I think about it. She’d pulled off that gig perfectly. I… have honestly never thought the words “Skye” and “professional” would ever belong in the same sentence, before, but they sort of do! I mean, for what we do, she’s an expert, right? She entertains the crowd, never hurts any of the norms, and she always shows up to her gigs. I would have heard about her being missing for a caper, I’m sure.
I’m dressed and ready in a few minutes, so I take the time to send a quick text home and check in on everyone as I’m heading for the cafeteria. I almost run into an unmoving object on the way. I look up, curiously, seeing Cisco’s dad just standing there, grinning down at me with his hands in his pockets. “Hi,” he says.
“You’re Cisco’s dad!” I say, excited. “Nice to meet you! You know, officially. I think I’ve seen you a few times before.”
“And you’re Cisco’s pal, Carla,” he agrees, holding out his hand. I know what he can do, trust me, but I guess it doesn’t matter. He probably knows all about our time in the zoo, right? I take the hand, shaking it. His eyes glow faintly and I wonder what he’s peeking at in my past. How deep can he get? Is he like Max, who only reads what’s on the surface—
He pulls away. “I should have known better,” he says, shaking his head.
“What happened? Did I break your brain somehow?” I ask, worried.
“Nah, but it’s like watchin’ a video in fast forward,” he says. “Don’t worry, I don’t know nothin’ about your crush on Nightstep,” he promises.
“Oh goo—” I stop as he laughs, and glare at him, my arms crossed. “That wasn’t funny,” I scold him.
“It’s even funnier with y’ makin’ that face,” he says. “Don’t worry, I really won’t say a word.”
“ESPECIALLY to Rocco, got it?” I tell him, pointing a finger at him. “I’m getting over it!”
“Of course y’ are,” he says, in what I think is supposed to be a placating tone. “An’ if y’ do, Cisco could use a girl like you!”
“Cisco and I are just friends,” I say, waving it off. “Oh, but I’m sorry that I ran into you. I should have been watching where I was going instead of texting and walking at the same time.”
“Nah, I was standin’ there on purpose,” he says.
“So you MEANT for
me to run into you?” I ask.
“Yup,” he says with a grin, “I wanted t’ see how you reacted.”
“Because you’re a psycho… something?”
“Psychometric,” he says. “So you knew what I can do, right?”
“Yes, but you already know everything about the zoo kids, right?” I say. “So there’s no point in trying to hide it.” I shake off the darker thoughts trying to creep into my mind. Ken says that I need to make sure that I take every thought I have captive, which means saying, “yes, that happened, but it has no power over me, anymore. I have more important things to focus on.” That was REALLY hard when I was first starting out, but it’s gotten easier with practice! Then again, I usually wind up thinking about things like my crush on Rocco, or food… My stomach grumbles almost on cue.
“I do,” Rochester says.
“Do what?” I ask blankly. He looks at me, before shaking his head with amusement.
“Do know about what happened t’ you,” he clarifies. “Would y’ care t’ eat breakfast with me?” he asks, holding out his arm.
I take the arm without even thinking about it. “You’re picking up bad habits from Century, aren’t you?” I say as we walk down the hall to the cafeteria. “Oooor… there’s something you want to know!”
“Ya got me,” he admits. “I am a bit curious.”
“About what?” I ask as we head for a long table covered in… “Cereal and fruit?” I hadn’t paid attention last time, since I was in a hurry, but the muffins in a pile makes more sense, now.
“It’s a Continental Breakfast,” Jimmi says from where she’s putting out bowls. “Once we start doing things like Apocalypse Field, I’ll begin cooking larger breakfasts, but for now, this will do… except for you,” she corrects herself, looking at me for a moment. “Come on, I’ll make you something filling.”
I follow after her, forgetting all about Rochester with the promise of food in front of me. I’m actually a bit surprised when he follows me through the kitchen door. Jimmi starts digging things out of cabinets. “Papa was very impressed with your egg beating,” she tells me with a smile.
“He taught me how to not splatter it everywhere!” I brag.
“I noticed,” she says. “So, Rochester, why are you grilling my very good friend?” she asks, almost casually. I blink before looking over at him.
“You definitely sound like my boss’s daughter,” Rochester says, heading for one of the stools in the corner and sitting on it. “I was j’st wantin’ t’ hear how the ladies are gettin’ along.”
“The ladies?” I repeat. “You mean Ruckus and Dolly?”
“And the Darlin’s,” he agrees. “How are they?”
I hesitate. Before I can figure out what to say, Jimmi speaks. “Nico found cameras at the farmhouse. Whoever is stalking Skye has been stalking the Nemeses, as well. Carla, you need to be very careful.” Something makes me look over at Rochester, I’m not even sure what, but the look on his face is scary. He covers it up quickly when he sees me looking over, but not quickly enough. I’m extremely good at noticing little details like that, thanks to my processing speed.
“Y’ll be fine, Carla,” he says, looking at me with a smile that almost seems sincere.
“Um… but…” I say with a frown, “if Nico found that, why didn’t he tell me? Or why didn’t Voltdrain tell me last night?” I ask.
“They think it’s better to keep all of you in the dark,” Jimmi says, her irritation showing. “I tried to tell them that to be forewarned is to be ready, but noooo, they are playing the big bad heroes. And yes, I KNOW that they are capable of it, but it is still very offensive to me as a super!”
“Your accent’s showin’,” Rochester says mildly. She turns a glare so sharp on him that I’m surprised a laser doesn’t shoot out from her eyes.
“I do NOT have an accent,” Jimmi says through gritted teeth.
“No, you sort of do, right now,” I have to admit. “But I can yell at Nico if it makes you feel better. Did they at least tell you?”
She blushes, looking guilty for all of a second before admitting, “I sort of overheard it.”
“Would ya look at the time,” Rochester says, glancing at his watch. “I should get goin’, I got some stuff I need t’ do.”
“What about breakfast?” I ask.
“I’ll pick up a sausage biscuit,” he says, running out of the kitchen.
“He’s acting stranger than usual,” Jimmi says.
“He stood in front of me so I’d bump into him, and then he tested to see if I would shake his hand,” I sum up, my attention going to the food that she’s making. Yes, I know there are more serious problems to deal with, in theory, but I can’t operate on empty. I’m not quite as bad as Lance was before he lost his forms, but I AM pretty focused on getting my calories. I have to be. My metabolism is ridiculously fast.
“It’s almost ready,” she says, stirring the scrambled eggs. “But he actually did that? That doesn’t sound like him…”
“It’s because the new boy avoided shaking his hand,” Cheval says, walking into the kitchen. “Don’t mind me, darlings, I just prefer to make my own coffee. The sludge in the teacher’s office is terrible.”
“He did? He seemed pretty decent… well, from what little I saw of him yesterday,” Jimmi says with a frown.
“He refused to shake hands with Rochester, but he said it was because he was a janitor, and most likely had germs on his hands.”
“A super,” Jimmi says flatly, “worried about germs.”
“I think it hurt Rochester’s feelings,” Cheval says. “I mean, I went through something like that when I was younger. It never gets easier.”
“But you can’t read people’s pasts with a touch, right?” I ask, confused.
“No, honey, but I am black,” Cheval says. The room goes silent as we let that blunt statement process. “Things have changed a lot since I was young, and I couldn’t be happier, especially for you two and Whitney,” she goes on, smiling. “I’m especially proud of you, Carla.”
“For what?” I ask.
“For several things; you’re on the way to becoming the South Branch’s darling—well, one of them. Century is quite fond of showcasing powerful female capes. But I’m also proud of you for not shoving Rochester away, even knowing what he can do. You did know, didn’t you?”
“Cisco can do it, too,” I say with a shrug. “Cisco and I are friends.”
“Cisco is… not nearly as dangerous as his daddy,” Cheval says. “I’m not sure how to compare it…”
“He’s the Sunny in the Superior family,” Jimmi says. “Sure, one day that cute kid will become as big and dangerous as his daddy and grandpappy, but for now, he’s sort of… adorable? Don’t tell him I called him that.”
“Oh, I can definitely see that,” I say. “But I was never told that Rochester is that dangerous.”
They look at each other. “He wouldn’t be thought of that way in the Central branch, would he?” Cheval says.
“Not at all,” Jimmi agrees. “I never thought of him that way until I came down here. I mean, when you’re surrounded by those O. P.—”
“Hey! Don’t call my principal that,” I say, irritably.
“He’s O. P.,” Jimmi says. “But a lot of people would think Papa is, as well.”
“Because he IS,” Cheval says. “He’s one of the most overpowered capes in the world.”
“Oh,” I say. They look at me. “What? You didn’t say what it meant!”
“What did you THINK it meant?” Jimmi asks, curiously.
“Over priced?” I offer. They start to laugh. “Nico is definitely overpowered, though. I heard from Sandra that he took on Santa and Cosmic in the same day, and won both fights. He slept for a few days after that, though. But what does that have to do with Rochester?”
“Rochester can pick up any skill, EVER,” Jimmi says, “skill, not power. So if someone good at something that took a lifetime to learn touches him, he pi
cks up everything they know, and he’s got the physical abilities to do it, no matter what it is.”
“So if he shook hands with an Olympic medalist, he would be as good as that person is,” Cheval says, “actually, far better in that case. He’s a very decent cape in his own right.”
“Huh…” I say. “So… why did he run off?”
CHAPTER TEN
If he could fly, this would be easier, Rochester thinks for the very first time in his life. He’s afraid of heights, so he’s never once thought it was a problem before. All he’d wanted to do was find out more about the girl that his son is head over heels for, but something much more important has come up. “Nico,” he says, not bothering to dial as he pulls to a stop in a few miles from the school and gets his phone out. He’s calmed down enough to think rationally… sort of… at least enough to not run in public. “Where are you right now?”
“Huh?” Nico says. “Rochester, what’s up?”
“Why didn’t you TELL me that the ladies were bein’ watched?” Rochester almost roars. “Did y’ at least keep one of the cameras?” There’s silence on the other end of the phone, telling him that the other man hadn’t even considered telling him. “You’re the one that brought me into this in the first place, remember?” he demands.
“Yeah, sorry, I was just following the electric trail,” Nico says. “Look, I’ll come to you.”
“Where are you, right now?”
“Keeping my old man from barging in,” Nico says. “He keeps forgetting that he’s supposed to be DEAD.”
“I’m only dead when you feel it benefits you, and we all know it,” Rochester hears Superior say. “Is that the psychometric boy?”
“Yessir, that’s me,” Rochester says, not that bothered by being called a “boy” by a man that’s definitely over a hundred years old.
“Then we’ll start with him,” Superior says. Rochester hears a tiny beep, and then a rush of air makes him pull to a stop and turn to look at the two men who had just appeared on the street corner. People around them stare in shock, some jaws dropping, but more phones rising to take a picture.
