by R. J. Ross
“Now I’m going to explain a few of the jobs you might think about pursuing in the future, and then I’ll open it up for questions,” he says, launching into his speech. He tells them all about the various workers, cameramen, script writers, and so on. The hour goes by in a blink, complete with more questions about various heroes, including Mastermental and other branches of HTV. It’s only when the bell rings in the middle of an explanation that he realizes he’s forgotten to keep track of time. He also realizes that Alyssa hasn’t said a word.
The kids reluctantly start to leave. He moves to the door, shaking hands whenever one is offered. That’s why he can stop Alyssa as she tries to sneak out. “Can I speak to you?” he asks silently. She can’t help the slight jerk that reveals she hears him, he notices. She nods and steps aside, letting the rest of the class leave. She gets several strange looks for doing that.
“Is there a problem, Alyssa?” Ms. Vine asks.
“No, Miss Vine,” Alyssa says. “I just--um--“
“I asked her if I could speak with her privately,” Andre says. “Of course you can stand outside, Ms. Vine, I don’t want anything to seem less than above-board.”
“Um--but--“ Ms. Vine looks from him to the girl and back, obvious confusion on her face. “I would have sworn you were here for one of our more... athletic students?”
“Are you saying I’m out of shape?” Alyssa demands, her expression going sharp and dangerous.
“It’s not that--it’s--well--with him being what he is--“ Ms. Vine stutters, blushing brightly.
“If you could step out here, Miss,” Andre says, gently touching her back and escorting her out of the room. “We’ll stand right here where you can see us,” he goes on, leading Alyssa to the other side of the room, still in view of the door.
“I--“ Ms. Vine says. She looks like she wants to protest, but Andre ignores her, stepping a good two feet away from Alyssa.
“I’ve come on behalf of the Hall,” he says silently. “Are you the one that sent the email?”
“How--how did you find me so quickly?” Alyssa asks in a tiny whisper.
“The Hall has a technopath,” he says simply. “Now, since you can hear me from this distance, I think I’m right--but tell me truthfully, are you a healer?”
She looks down, staring at the gloves and long sleeves she’s sporting. It’s the end of summer, and close to ninety degrees outside. School only just recently started for their district. “I want to talk to the healer,” she says instead, “the alien girl that looked like a normal person at first.”
“Unfortunately Life Light is out of town at the moment,” he says.
“Then I have no reason to talk to you,” she says, turning and walking away.
***
The plane lands and I jerk awake as Emily pokes me. “We’re here! I can see Grandpa and Grandma from here--they don’t exactly blend in,” she drawls with amusement. I glance out our window, looking at the tiny airport next to the plane. Just as she said, the two ex-super heroes are standing right at the window, watching us. They’re both tall, muscular, and white-headed. One alone tends to stand out. When you put them together, you tend to attract a crowd of curious side-glances and flat-out gawkers.
“Let’s get going, shall we?” Taurus says, starting to stand.
“I think I’ll go out the back and fly home, if it’s all the same to you,” Liz says, her hands wrapped tightly around the armrests. “Yes, that’s definitely the right plan. You guys have fun with your grandparents, okay? Tell them I got a call--pressing business--“
Taurus leans down, looking her straight in the eye. “Liz?” he says.
“I’ll be home in an hour or two--I might stop and see a few sights--“
“Liz, you’re not going home,” Taurus says as Emily and I get up, grabbing our things from the overhead compartment. “You just spent ten hours in a crowded plane for this--you’re not going to waste all that time by running home like a chicken. Besides, they WANT to see you!”
“But I don’t really want to see them,” Liz says childishly.
“Mom?” Emily asks.
“Yeah?” Liz asks, looking over at us.
“I really want to meet Duplicitous.”
“Oh... you’re right, that is going to be awesome, isn’t it?” Liz says in a milder tone.
“And if you don’t come, you won’t get to meet her, right?” I say. “That’d be a shame, since we’ve been looking at everything we can find on her for the past week, right?”
“Well, yeah...”
“You even called Prisma to help us find things, since she’s a reporter, right?”
“Yeah...”
“Then we need to get off this plane before the people behind us start getting angry,” Taurus says, grabbing all our bags and heading for the door.
Liz follows, sighing loudly in an obvious sign that she’s only doing this for our sake. I can’t exactly blame her--she’s never had that good of a relationship with her dad, and she only recently met Tatiana. Tatiana was Superior’s wife a long time ago, but she was taken out by Mimic, and then brought to the present by a future version of Nico. Yeah, another one of those long stories that I’d rather not get into. Regardless, Tatiana isn’t really Liz’s mom.
We head into the airport and through the waiting room to the baggage claim. This airport is so tiny that they don’t even really have set perimeters for the two areas. It doesn’t matter, because in front of us are Superior and Tatiana--who promptly holds out her arms, waiting for a hug. Emily races forward, accepting the hug happily. I think of all of us, she’s the most thrilled with calling Tatia family. I understand, don’t get me wrong, Tatia is amazing even if she WAS originally a U.S.S.R. spy, but she's not my problem with this visit.
“Well?” Superior says, stepping right in front of me. I stare up at him, trying to hide my surprise. “You ARE my granddaughter now,” he tells me softly, “as well as my own personal hero.”
“I still don’t think you should have killed Distort,” I tell him, still irritated over that.
“I know, I know, I hear that from my son all the time, as well--but as I consistently say, ridding myself of a useless multiple personality is not murder, it’s just cleaning house.”
I just stare at him, crossing my arms over my chest and tapping a toe to exaggerate my reaction to that. A tiny little twitch of his lips says he’s fighting the urge to laugh.
“Fine,” he says, “will you forgive me for doing it in front of you?” he asks.
I sigh, giving up--because he’s still certain he wasn’t in the wrong. I’ve talked with him enough to know that there’s no changing his mind on this. I hug him, a bit gingerly, only to get pulled off my feet in a massive bear hug. “Welcome to my home, Aubrey,” he says.
“We will be trading now,” Tatia says, plucking me from Superior’s arms and handing him Emily as if she were a baby. I find myself hugged just as tightly by Tatia, almost smothered by her impressive chest. At least this is a hug I can happily return. I’m still a bit irritated with Superior. What happened back then--when I healed him--had shocked me and angered me so much that I used my only attack on my boyfriend. The only thing that saved him was his metal skin. The attack bounced off of him and hit me, instead. Thankfully I heal amazingly fast.
I’m still irritated by the fact that it happened in the first place. I blame it on Superior, of course, but it was easier to do that when he wasn’t stealing a hug. Tatia puts me down, grabbing Liz next. I hear Liz let out a tiny yelp of shock. Okay, that’s sort of funny, I admit, especially when I see her kiss Liz on the forehead before dragging Taurus into a group hug. The look on Liz’s face is downright hysterical. Emily sidles up to me, grinning like a cat as she snaps a picture with her phone. “Trent’s going to want to see this,” she whispers.
“Don’t you dare,” Liz says.
“Too late!” Emily says with a wicked laugh.
“When we found out that Taurus was coming, we changed our plan
s slightly,” Superior says when the hugs are finished. “There’s no reason to force him to be carried or run, not when I am who I am. So if you’ll get your luggage, we can get going.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Taurus says as we head for the luggage. He grabs all of our things, including his massive backpack. “I thought, though, that we could do a bit of hiking while we were out here,” he says to Superior, dropping the massive pack next to him. “I’d love to see more of your land.”
“I’d love to show it to you,” Superior says, looking slightly surprised. “It’s a beautiful place, if you can handle it.”
“I think I’ll be able to,” Taurus says with a slight smile.
“So, have you met Santa?” Emily asks as we get the rest of our things and start for the door. Superior looks at her sharply, one eyebrow rising. I jump forward to his other side, touching his arm and shaking my head sharply. Look, a lot of people argue over whether Santa is real or not--if a super hero can live over a hundred years and still look young, why can’t there be a man living in the North Pole that does the same? There’s the theory that Santa is a long line of supers that have passed down the mantle over the years. Others--the more cynical in the world--say he’s just a myth. Superior strikes me as extremely cynical.
“That is not something we discuss among norms, young lady,” Tatia says in a faintly scolding tone.
“Oh, right,” Emily says, blushing brightly. There’s a grin on her face, though, that I see as I glance around Superior. I’m so busy worrying that they’ll burst her “Santa bubble” that I don’t notice Superior dropping a hand on the small of my back until he presses me forward.
“This way,” he says, leading us to the parking lot. There’s a massive beast of a machine taking up two parking spaces. It’s somewhat like a Hummer, but I’m pretty sure Superior built it. It looks patched together. “Try not to compare it to what Nicolas can do, please,” Superior says dryly. “We all know that he’s much better at this sort of thing--on my behalf, though, I’m not actually a technopath,” he added as a door swung open on the monstrous machine. “Well, come on, we need to drive out of norm sight before I can transform it.”
“Clifford has found the movies about the robots very fascinating,” Tatia says as we load out things in the back and climb into the car. “They have sparked his latest hobby!”
“Creating Frankenstein cars?” Liz asks. There’s a bit of curiosity in her voice, rather than disapproval. I see her looking around as we sit down on the long bench seats inside. It’s a lot like a full sized van on the inside. Superior gets in the driver seat and pulls out of the parking lot. We drive for a while. It drives surprisingly smooth for such a weird looking vehicle. He pulls to a stop outside of town, motioning everyone out.
“This will only take a moment,” he says as he steps out of the car and turns to raise his arms. The car disassembles in front of our eyes, reforming into a--I stare at it, my jaw dropping open in shock.
“He made a spaceship,” Emily says.
“He made a spaceship,” Liz agrees.
“My Clifford enjoys giving the locals something to talk about, you see,” Tatia says proudly. The huge, discus shaped machine in front of us is textbook spaceship. It’s relatively small, actually, not much larger than the car version, but it’s probably enough to have people up in arms over alien invasions.
“I’ve been on the local news at least three times,” Superior says with a little smile as the door of the spaceship comes down, forming a ramp. “They don’t release it to the rest of the world, of course. According to the locals, we have enough people coming up here as it is.” He heads up the ramp, turning and waiting for us to follow.
Taurus is too busy taking photos. Where did he get that massive camera hanging around his neck from, anyway?
“This is hysterical,” he exclaims, grinning hugely as he finishes. “I love it.”
“Thank you, I’m rather fond of it, myself,” Superior says with a wicked little smile.
“Is it true that you once convinced my mom that you were from an alternate dimension?” Liz asks.
“Your mother was very... naive,” Superior says blandly.
“Grandpa’s a troll,” Emily declares.
“That is not true--he does not have the hair that sticks up,” Tatia says, “and he is much taller!”
“Not that kind of troll, Grandma Tatia,” I say, almost tripping over the word "Grandma," “what she means is that he goes out of his way to tease people in various ways. Often it’s a lot meaner than what Superior did, though,” I scold Emily. “He’s merely adding to the alien obsession subculture.”
“Well, there’s the fact that I am one,” Superior says blandly as he steps into the middle of the spaceship, sitting down in the same ancient looking driver seat from the car version. There’s no steering wheel. He merely stretches his legs out in front of him, resting his hands on his stomach as the spaceship launches into the sky. We find a bench quickly, and I strap in. We’re all sitting in a circle, facing outward and looking out the windows--it’s beautiful.
“Wait--so you really are an alien?” Taurus asks, turning to look over the back of his bench at Superior.
“I am,” Superior says. “Really, are you that surprised? There are several supers with alien backgrounds.”
“True,” Taurus admits.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Emily asks, her nose pressed to the window as we fly over the expanse of trees and snow. This is a lot like flying on the plane, but it seems different. Maybe it’s because I know for a fact that the pilot is just sitting there, apparently doing nothing. I don’t even know if this is using the engine from the car version. He could be making it go with his powers alone.
“How are you doing this, anyway?” I hear myself ask.
“It’s my ability--I can manipulate anything around me within a set distance,” Superior says. “Making a mass of metal fly is just another part of it. So the main reason you came was to meet Duplicitous, right?”
“I want to meet another duplicator,” Emily says excitedly. “Grandma, you know her, right?”
“Very well!” Tatia agrees with a smile. “She is a very nice woman--an excellent cook, as well.”
“Have you met her doppelgangers?”
“Some of them,” Tatia says. “If she is busy she often sends one of them to our classes in the town. They are all much alike, though.”
“So there’s no ‘problem doppelganger,’ huh?” Emily says, frowning slightly. “I was hoping she could help me with Repeat.”
“We’ve told you several times--Repeat is you, Emily,” I say gently, touching her hand. “You just need to keep working through the problems she shows. You’ve done really well so far!”
“She’s still a pain in the neck,” Emily mutters, “even after we dealt with the Skye thing--oh, wait,” she says, looking over her shoulder at Superior. “Um, we might have a problem in the future,” she announces.
“What’s that?” Superior asks.
“My new ‘aunt’ might be coming?” Emily says in a questioning tone, as if she doesn’t quite believe it, herself.
“Is she?”
“Yeah, probably, unless she gets distracted again,” Emily says.
“And who is this aunt?” Tatia asks curiously.
“Skystep.”
“Skystep... the crazy one from South Branch?” Tatia asks.
“Yeah.”
“That sounds very entertaining!” she exclaims.
“That’s not entertaining, that’s annoying,” Liz says. “She’s decided that she’s part of the ENTIRE family--as in she’ll probably try to claim she’s your new daughter, Tatiana. Then you’ll never be able to get rid of her.”
“It will be fun to have more visitors,” Tatia declares. “I am sure she cannot be that bad.”
“No, she’s pretty crazy,” I admit. “She jumped in on the super villain’s summer camp and Pan let her. Jack says she was acting as the camp’s ‘arts and c
rafts’ teacher.”
“But she has no artistic ability whatsoever, right?” Emily says, laughing. “She had them doing all sorts of stupid stuff to keep her entertained while she acted like she knew what she was doing.”
“Didn’t Ace get his hopes up, though?” I ask, starting to laugh as well.
“Of course he did! He’s an actual artist!”
Liz is the only one that doesn’t start laughing. She’s still sore over Skystep, it looks like. “She’s a pain,” she declares, giving out several dark looks at the people laughing. “She’s not even part of our branch--what was she doing following our plane?”
“Oh, she gets paranoid about me,” Emily says with a shrug. “Sometimes if I miss a call from her she runs up to our branch just to see if I’m doing something interesting--or got kidnapped.”
“How do you live with it?” Liz demands.
“Well... she was my mom’s best friend,” Emily says, “and she lost her, and then Flame moved up to our branch for Vinny, and he was her favorite sparring partner, right? So I figure she’s just lonely. I can understand lonely,” she explains.
“Awww,” I say, wrapping my arms around her in a hug, “my poor Emily.”
She blushes bright red, but she doesn’t try to squirm out of my hold that hard. “So she’s crazy, and she’s pretty dangerous in her own way, I know, but she’s not a bad person,” Emily finishes. “What happened with my parents hurt her as much as it did me, but she doesn’t have a new family to... soften the blow, I guess. She’s just got me.”
“And her new roommate,” I say.
“Yeah, that worries me,” Emily says, frowning. “Um, Grandpa Superior, will my phone work here?”
“Was it made by Nicolas?”
“Yeah.”
“Then it should work anywhere.”
CHAPTER THREE
Emily nods and pulls out her smartphone, dialing someone on speed-dial. I hear a deep masculine voice answer. “Why, hello, sweetie, I didn’t expect to hear from you this week.”
“Hey, Century,” she says, much to the surprise of most of the people in the spaceship. “Can I ask another favor? I had a visit from Skye on the plane--“