by R. J. Ross
“Not in this case,” I say boldly. “I want to help the healers--they’re mine,” I insist, looking from one to the other. “I’m the one that’s going to train them, for the most part. And we all know that whoever comes from a branch goes back to that branch after training. I have the perfect way to get him to turn this territory over to you and Cosmic, Grandpa, and for us to have more healers in the school, Nico." And I could argue that I'm a Superior by foster-hood, but it doesn't work when you're standing in front of TRUE Superiors.
“Double M will want to keep them,” Nico says.
“You’re underestimating his political savvy,” I say. "Healers will be a great source of leverage."
“Very true,” Superior says with a thoughtful look on his face.
“And Skye is family now, so we can't toss her under the bus just to get rid of him,” I go on. “Whether you two like it or not, Grandma’s already decided she's ours. Of course, she’s already got Century to keep an eye on her. Century seems to do well with her--she’s not in the Cape Cells, after all. It’s obvious that he keeps her calm most of the time, otherwise we all know what would happen.”
“She did knock Mega out when she went on that little rampage,” Nico says.
“She did?” Grandpa says, looking a bit surprised.
“As well as most of the South Branch and half of ours,” I say, sighing as I remember the mess THAT had been. “I was working triple shifts for weeks thanks to that. That’s a very good reason to keep her happy!”
“Really? Mega?” Grandpa asks Nico.
“He was completely unconscious--and it happened so fast that he’s still not sure how she did it,” Nico tells him proudly.
“That’s my girl,” Grandpa says, equally proudly.
“Oh for crying out loud,” I mutter, shaking my head. “NOW you’re on board?” They shoot me identical wicked grins.
“Mega’s a prat,” Nico says.
“You’ve been spying on Jack and the others, haven’t you?” I say.
“They’re funny. Now come here, Aubrey, let’s see if we can get this to work,” Nico says, motioning me over. “After we do this you can convince Isotonic to do whatever you want him to.” I shoot him a dark look but walk over, stepping on the small platform. Lights flash, scanning me as tiny robots float around me. A few feet away a perfect copy of me appears. I lift a hand, she lifts a hand.
“Hello?” I say. The echo almost makes me jump.
“We’re good,” Nico says. “Computer, bring up the Six Dwarves,” he says.
“Aren’t there seven?” I ask.
“We need to debut another one, don’t we?” he says as holographic images of windows appear all around him. Each one is of a different group leader. “Hey, guys, we’ve set up the holographic transmission,” he tells them. “There’s a com-link cuff on your non-dominant forearms--I added it even to the official uniforms. Flip it open and tap on the A button twice.”
“It looks like a game controller,” Trent says.
“I might have gone the cheap route,” Nico says shamelessly. “These are also in the generic uniforms, so pass it on to your teams. Have you all tapped the A button twice?”
“It’s Aubrey!” Emily says happily. A screen pops up in front of me, so we’re looking at each other. “Hi, Aub!”
“Hi, Em!” I say. “How’s it going?”
“We’re thinking of starting a band,” Emily says. “We just need to get Malina a drum set and Freddy a guitar.”
“She’s joking,” I hear Malina say from behind her. "We're all on video duty at the moment—so we're watching all the videos and looking for stuff that sticks out. We think we've found one already!"
“It's not a joke if you really do it!" Emily protests, looking over her shoulder. “I can play the bass!”
“Hey, Aub,” Jack says, popping up in another window in front of me. “You doing okay up there?”
“I’m fine,” I say, giving him a smile. “How are Ward and Brandon?”
“They’re good," he says, glancing over his shoulder. “Call me tonight?”
“Yeah,” I say, reaching up. My fingers go through his hologram.
Vinny pops up next to him, looking a bit irritated. “Hey, Aub,” he says. “Are they feeding you up there?”
“Only you would think of food right now,” I tease him.
“Oh, wait—I'm starving. Think we could take a break and rob a McDonald's?” Jack says, making my last words a lie. “I could seriously go for a quarter pounder.”
“I vote Wendy’s,” I hear Brandon say. "But you can stay outside and Ward and I will go buy it."
“It's this button, right?” Morgan says before she appears in a window in front of me. “Don't worry, Aub, we’ll find all of them,” she promises. The others repeat the promise, appearing in little hologram windows all around me. I can’t help but feel extremely loved right now.
“Thank you, guys,” I say. “I know you will.”
“Aubrey, Aubrey, AUBREY!” Carla bellows as she pops up in her own window, “I miss you! But this is amazing—we get to go after the first found target! Trent and me and Keliah are RUNNING there!” she says, looking extremely excited.
“We’ve got the Central area, so there’s no point in bringing a car--not when we’re all decent runners. We’re going to check in with Mega every few hours by phone, since he’s close enough to come running,” Trent explains.
“Be safe,” I tell them. “All of you be safe.”
“You too,” everyone says before hanging up.
I look over at Nico. “This is what you wanted me to do?”
“Yeah.”
“I guess it’ll work,” I say, still feeling a little left behind.
“First, you need to get rid of an annoyance,” Grandpa Superior says, motioning me to come. “Then we’ll get back to your training—we can pause when you get a call.”
“I’d rather not,” I admit as I walk over, “the last attempt wound up pretty disastrous.”
“Only for the moment,” he says as we head out of the room. “Soon we’ll have more healers and your job will be much easier, even if only a handful of them decide to take up the mask.” We head down the hall, stopping in the front room.
“Superior,” Isotonic says, starting to stand. “I think we need to have a discussion--”
“In a moment,” Superior says, waving him off easily as he sees Cosmic and Duplicitous pulling their coats on. “Cosmic, are you two heading home for the night?”
“We thought we’d leave you to your work,” the large retired super says, crossing over to shake hands. “Tell your sister that she’s growing into an amazing cape, Aubrey,” he adds as we shake hands as well.
Duplicitous pulls me into a hug. “I’ll come see both of you after the healer situation is over,” she says.
“I’m looking forward to it,” I say, hugging her back. She walks over to her husband, takes his hand, and they’re gone.
“Now,” Superior says, turning to face Isotonic, “let’s have this little conversation.”
“Do you know who’s creating the spaceship problem?” Isotonic asks. “Do we have unwanted visitors in the area?”
“No, it’s just me,” Superior says. “It’s the easiest way to travel with family members that can’t fly.”
“Like Aubrey, here?” Isotonic asks, his tone calming.
“And my daughter’s boyfriend, yes.”
“Daughter?”
“Firefly’s my foster mother--and Superior’s daughter,” I tell him. “She’s sort of dating Taurus, not that she’ll ever admit to it.”
“That does explain a few things,” Isotonic says, his shoulders visibly relaxing. “Can I ask that you fly higher next time? You’re unnecessarily bothering my cattle farmers up here.”
“That can be arranged, if you refrain from coming up every time one of their cows fart,” Superior says dryly. “I think, between Cosmic, Tatiana and myself, they’re perfectly safe.”
The look on Isotonic’s
face tells me he doesn’t like that comment. I step forward, intent on calming things down. “Excuse me, Isotonic,” I say. “I’d like to speak to you about a few things--since you’re here, you probably haven’t been alerted to the fact that Ace is heading into your territory.”
“Ace?”
“Dragon,” I say. “Before you panic, I need to explain,” I say quickly. I launch into a full explanation of what happened, feeling a bit worried as his expression becomes more and more unreadable. “So what we want is to try and bring the teenage healers to Cape High--that will allow Nico and me to set them up with a training program. Once they’ve been trained, according to the arrangement between the Halls, they’ll be coming back to your branch--unless they want to arrange to go to another one,” I say.
“So you’re saying the five or six sightings of norms acting strangely--”
“Are healers,” Alyssa says from behind him, “like me.”
“And they’re in my branch?”
“Not all of them, but the ones that live here will be,” I say, giving Alyssa a little smile.
“That means I would have the majority of healers,” he says. “In exchange for letting Dragon run rampant for--is there a time limit?”
“He should head back home as soon as he’s found his targets,” I say.
“I see. And tell me, just how certain are you that your principal can keep him from breaking Hall laws?”
“Ace?” I repeat, honestly shocked. “He’s Blackjack’s son, sir. He’s also a Specialized S-class super, he could easily take out any of the heroes he goes up against, but he takes the fall every time.”
“I've heard that Maximum is Mastermental's son, as well. Why you let both Blackjack’s son and Mastermental’s boy to go villain, I have no idea,” he says, scowling. “They obviously should be inheriting their father’s positions--”
“They find this more entertaining,” I say honestly. “You need to meet the three sometime--you’ll understand much better.”
“The three? You mean Maximum, Dragon, and Cold Steel?” he asks. “Of the three, Cold Steel is the most worrisome--where did he REALLY come from?”
“A group home for orphans,” I say. “He was experimented on by Star Born and I worked with Nico to bring him to working ability. He’s a Liberty boy, even if he does act as a super villain.”
“An adopted Liberty, right?”
“That means they chose him,” I say, trying to not get defensive.
“Hey, don’t go making her boyfriend out to be a bad guy!” Alyssa says. “Sure, he comes off as rough, and a bit strange--but he’s got a ton of pictures of her on his phone! She was the first thing he mentioned when he was trying to kidnap me!”
Isotonic turns, looking at her. “Boyfriend? Wait, more importantly, you just admitted he tried to kidnap you--how is that not bad?”
“I--I needed to know that it was really the Hall,” she says, blushing and looking away. “People are jerks, you know?”
“Why send Cold Steel?”
“I actually sent Kid Liberty,” I admit, “Jack just likes to be helpful.”
“Helpful,” they repeat dryly.
I can only shrug at that, because I know exactly where they’re coming from.
“We have a slight problem,” I blink as Liz comes through the front door. “Someone from your old school caught the eye of the news,” she says to Alyssa, waving at the television. It turns on, changing to what should only be a local channel in KC. A teenage boy is being interviewed.
“She’s NOT normal,” he says urgently. “Everyone here knows it--she’s a--I don’t know what she is, but when she touches people strange stuff happens.”
“Yeah, it’s freaky,” a kid says from behind him. “She’s NOT a normal person.”
“She scares me,” a girl says. “She’s got to be some sort of super--or something worse.”
The interview cuts off, because this is clearly not politically correct, but it’s enough. Liz looks at us, a scowl on her face. “This was actually shown earlier, right after we did Em’s debut. I would have stopped it, but it’s already gone viral online.”
“Michael,” Alyssa says. “That--that JERK! I can’t believe he’s such a dirty, no-good--no, I’m lying, I can absolutely believe it,” she says, her hands fisting at her sides. “Oh, if I could only get my hands on him I would hurt him SO bad!”
“This is bad for all of the healers that were outed,” Liz says. “We need to work faster--Nico, are you here?”
“I’m here, and I saw it,” Nico says, coming into the room. “This is no time to panic, though, we’ve already started cleaning it up, we’ll just have to work faster.” He looks at me and Alyssa. “We'll need your help, girls.”
“For what? Now I’ve made this mess even worse than it already was,” Alyssa mutters.
“No, you did what we asked you to do--the one that made it worse was that kid,” Nico says. “What’s the story with him, anyway?”
“He’s a friend of my brother’s,” she says, looking at the floor, “they’re both on the football team. They used to use me as--as a way of getting over accidents on the field, or even when they went out drinking.”
“Oh Alyssa,” I say, my heart breaking for her. I rush over, pulling her into a hug. “My poor Alyssa!” I say, automatically reacting the way I would with Emily. Her face turns bright red and she tries to pull free. I let her go and turn to Nico. “I want to meet these boys,” I say.
“I really doubt unleashing an angry healer on them is safe,” Nico drawls with amusement. “Actually, I need to scan you, Alyssa--there’s a very good chance you’ve got more offensive abilities than Aubrey does.”
“What, like burping?”
“No, like attacks.”
“We’ll get Aubrey’s attack working sooner or later,” Liz says. “It’s just a matter of her learning how to access it.”
“Regardless, what we need from you both now isn’t an attack,” Nico says. “What we need is support for our teams. You two are the perfect pep talk.”
“Maybe she is, but they don’t even know me,” Alyssa says. “It probably wouldn’t even work if they DID know me,” she mutters under her breath.
Nico turns, looking at her for a long moment. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and a familiar green light scans her. For a moment he stares at the screen, tapping it once in a while. She looks at me in confusion. “Didn’t he do this already?” she asks me.
“You’ve changed since Aubrey fixed your problem,” he answers before I can. He turns the phone, showing her an image of herself. I look at it, curious as well. Light yellow lines make up seventy percent of the line replica of her. “You’re a B class healer,” he says bluntly. “If you were a regular super, you’d be considered an extremely decent addition to most of the Halls. I won’t lie, Double M wouldn’t accept you--but he’s an elitist jerk. But you’re not a regular super, you’re a healer. Do you know how many healers the Hall has today?”
“Um, a handful?”
“Two. They’re standing right in front of me,” he says bluntly, pointing to me and to her. “If you want the most powerful super in the universe to clap his hands and do a jig, all you would have to do is ask--he’s right there,” he says, pointing at Grandpa. Grandpa lifts his hands, clapping twice.
She looks shocked. I watch as she looks at me, feeling a bit embarrassed, myself. “I try not to,” I admit, “but sometimes I find myself lecturing them. It’s for their own good!”
“But--” she starts out, “if I’m so important, why did no one find me?” she demands. “Nobody even cared that my own brother was using me as a tool! Nobody cared that my parents thought I started drinking at fifteen! Nobody cared that I was sent to shrink after shrink, trying to figure out what was wrong with my head!”
To my shock, Nico steps forward and pulls her into a hug before I can. “I’m sorry,” he says as she starts to cry. “We didn’t find you, you found us--but we’re not going to let that happen again, righ
t?” he asks her, stroking her hair. She nods slightly. “That’s why it’s so important that the groups find the outed healers. You know that better than almost anyone, both of you do. They could easily be living lives similar to the one you just left,” he tells her.
She nods again, wiping angrily at the tears. “We have to save them,” she says, looking at me.
“We’ve got the best group in the world on it,” I tell her. “We’ll save all of them, I promise.” Nico steps away, pocketing his phone and looking at Liz.
“Are you going back, or are you staying here?” he asks her curiously.
“I’m staying,” she says.
“Then go keep Skye occupied,” he says, “she’s going to get bored sooner or later.”
“Why am I the one that has to do it?” Liz demands.
“Because you’re her new big sister, little sis,” Nico says with an evil grin. “She’s adopted us.”
“I don’t remember any paperwork being signed,” Liz complains, walking over and hugging me. “You can do it,” she tells me. “Don’t tell your sisters, but you’re my favorite.”
I burst out laughing. “You told Ditto that just last week, and you told Emily that the week before--it’s my week of being favorite, isn’t it?”
She grins at me. “I’ve got a schedule to keep! I have to talk Emily into bringing out Repeat next week, so she can be included,” she adds.
“Good luck with that,” I say, shaking my head. Technically that gives Em a lot more time as favorite, since they’re doppelgangers, but I don’t care. Liz loves me and that’s the only thing that matters.
“Before we start," Nico says, looking at us, "we all need to get some rest. Get to bed, girls, we have work in the morning."
***
“This is all your fault,” Michael says, turning on Rylon. The locker room is full of bruised up teenage boys, all recovering from early morning practice. “You just had to let her go off and join the Hall--we NEED her, Rylon!”
“I didn’t know she was doing it! She probably sent them a note when I wasn’t home. But this is as much your fault as it is mine,” Rylon says. “They caught you jerking her around in the middle of class, you moron!” She’s his sister, a voice whispers in the back of his mind. No, he tells the voice, she’s a freak. She was probably secretly adopted or traded for his REAL sister at birth. There’s no way they're related by blood.