by R. J. Ross
“Um… yeah, okay,” I say. “I’m going to plug the other holes, now. Jonas, do you have everything you need?” I look over, just in time to see him reach his hand into the laser eye’s chest and pull out a ball of clear liquid. “Wow, that is…”
“SO COOL!” Skye says.
“What is going on, here?” Diamond Dust asks. “Why was Technico fighting Santa Claus? And why does it look like a bomb went off in here?”
“The nasty octopus lady did this, right?” Skye says, running over the heads of the elves to get in Diamond Dust’s face. “Hey, hey, I know you! You’re a villain!”
“And you’re Skystep,” she says. “I would say it was a pleasure to meet you, but I’d be lying.”
The look of hurt on Skye’s face makes me take a step forward, my hands clenching. “Don’t you dare talk to Skye like that,” I growl.
“I’m not pleased to meet ANYONE in this situation,” Diamond Dust says. “You almost burnt down the North Pole!”
“It wasn’t—okay, well, that was half my fault, but don’t talk about things you don’t understand!” I say, angrily. “The octopus lady is the problem!”
“Can I get a bowl or something over here?” Jonas asks, almost too quietly for me to hear.
“Someone give Jonas a bowl!” I say, looking at the elves. They’re all staring at me and Diamond Dust. The sound of the bowl being placed on the table next to him seems to echo in the room, thanks to that. “Thank you. Now we need to start cleaning up,” I prompt, wondering how I became the one in charge, here.
“Well—I—I don’t like you, either!” Skye says to Diamond Dust, turning her back on her. I groan, especially as Skye runs over to me. She’s older than I am, right? So why is SHE the one acting like the child in this situation?
“Skye, can you check to see if there are any other water streams leading in the building?” I ask her. “I would, if I could, but there’s not enough rock in the water.”
“Okay,” she says, phasing through the floor.
“Um, Sand… it’s Sandra, right?” Jonas says, making me look over. “I’ve finished.”
“Good,” I say. “What was the bowl for?”
“The venom,” he says. I look over, seeing the liquid. “We might want to keep it.” He looks down, only to glance over at the elves worriedly. “They probably are freaking out now, aren’t they?” he whispers.
“Don’t seem to be,” I say.
“But I just reached into their chests—”
“Anyone freaked out about what just happened?” I ask.
“Not really?” one elf says. “Should we be?”
“I’ve always wanted to see a healer work up close!”
“Would you like to become an elf?”
“We have great benefits and vacation hours!”
“Help?” Jonas says to me.
“Do you wanna be an elf?” I ask him. He shakes his head rapidly, so I turn to the crowd. “He doesn’t want to.”
“How about you? You’d be a great elf!” the translucent girl calls to me.
“I can’t feel the ground beneath my feet, except for concrete, so thanks, but no,” I explain. “Has anyone heard from Nico about how things are going, yet?”
“Alyssa just finished healing Santa,” Nico says.
“How’s Alyssa?” Jonas asks. “Did it affect her? This is some really nasty stuff—I can come up there and help, if you need it, the elves were fine after Sandra yelled at them a little.”
“Yeah, why don’t you do that? We need to head over to Cosmic’s place, after this, so why don’t all of you come on up?”
“Skye’s looking to see if Octo-lady caused any more water holes in the walls,” I say. “Does she have an earbud?”
“I’m coming! I didn’t find any,” she says over the com-link. “I think we should leave Diamond Dust here, though. She needs to get some Christmas spirit.”
“Do you see what you’ve done, now?” I say to my birth mother, irritably. “She’s going to be pouting for the rest of the day.”
“What happened between Skye and Diamond Dust?” Nico asks.
“She offended Skye,” I say. “She seems to be really good at that sort of thing.”
“I wouldn’t have offended her if Technico hadn’t been using CHILDREN as soldiers!”
I look at her, and then pointedly wave an arm at the room. “One, that makes no sense, and two, we’re in Santa’s Workshop.”
“Which is a mess, thanks to the fight!” she says. “You’re just a fifteen-year-old girl, and there are some very powerful capes up here that were going out of control—”
I groan, throwing up my hands. “What do you care? You’ve already abandoned me, AND framed me! Also, you might not have realized this, but you’re out of your territory, and the last I recall, Superior never invited you to his. So go home, Diamond Dust. We’ve got this all under control.”
“Ho ho ho, how is everyone doing?” Santa asks, walking into the room.
“I’m starting to see why Century uses ‘Ho ho ho’ as a curse word,” I say as Skye stares in shock at the red-clad man. She touches a finger to her chin and then walks around him, looking him over with a strange expression—right before she tugs on his beard, hard. When that does nothing, she puts her feet on his chest and tugs harder. “Wait, wait--Skye, my dear, that isn’t going to work. It’s attached,” Santa says, trying to get free of her hold without actually hurting her. At least that’s what it looks like to me.
“You’re supposed to be—” she says, tugging again, “in Texas!”
“Skye? That’s not Century,” Nico says over our com-link.
“Yes it—”
“Check his power.”
Skye stops, her head tilting slightly before she drops to the ground. “Oh. But it’s ALMOST the same!” Apparently that fact justifies trying to pull Santa’s beard out.
“Your Century is my younger brother,” Santa explains, fixing his beard. “We come from a very long line, my dear, although at the moment I’m wondering if it will be continued,” he adds, looking at her a bit too pointedly. She just looks back in confusion for a second before poking him.
“Aren’t you the one that’s supposed to do something about that?” she asks. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me!”
I hear Nico choke on a laugh and wonder what the joke is.
“Santa, are you okay?” Diamond Dust asks, walking past me and Skye. “We have a healer boy that can look at you—”
“Oh, no, dear, I’ve already been checked out with a clean bill of health, thanks to Technico and Alyssa. She does wonderful work. But it’s quite amazing how many healers he’s found!”
“Didn’t you know who the healers were before he did?” Skye asks. “You know all sorts of things, right? Like who’s naughty?” She looks at me, and I look away, trying not to laugh. We never did get rid of the list. I should apologize to all the naughty kids in the world for that.
“Actually, I have a few elves that specialize in reconnaissance,” Santa says. “I send them out to do a bit of… checking in on a regular basis. If your Lance would be interested in a job—”
“Lance is South Branch,” I say.
“True, I doubt my brother would be willing to loan him out once a month, as well,” Santa says a bit sadly. “Has Brandon chosen a Hall, yet?”
“Brandon’s got an arrangement with a few of the Hall leaders in the making,” Nico says. “Kids, are you ready?”
“I’m coming,” I say.
“Can you give me a hand getting to the surface?” Jonas asks as he follows me to the hole.
“Sure, grab on,” I say, motioning to my back. Should I feel awkward letting a guy cling to me while jumping out of a hole? The question only occurs to me as he wraps his arms around my shoulders. He doesn’t weigh anything, I think as I leap. “Skye? Are you coming?” I call down when she doesn’t follow quickly enough. I stop at the sight of Diamond Dust getting ready to jump out. “You can stay here,” I tell her, rudely.
> “Better yet, YOU stay here, and I’ll deal with the problem,” she says, landing next to me. I manage to dodge before she can push me back in.
“Nico, where’s Jeanie?” I ask as I see him coming towards us. “She can fly this lady back to her branch.”
“Jeanie is…” he stops and frowns slightly, “on the phone in my room at the mountain.”
“She’s on the phone?” I say, shocked. “What’s she doing on the phone?”
“Calling Ken,” he says. “It looks like she might be calling in reinforcements.”
“Oh,” I say, relaxing. “That makes sense.”
***
“So you need me to go up north, and—” Ken says, glancing at his sons. They’re all in uniform at the moment because of a special family training, but none of them care that they’ve been working all day.
“I’ll head over to the Hall—” Trent says.
“No,” Jeanie says, “I have a different job for you, Ken. Trent can come up here and help, Jack, you need to go over to the East Branch and talk with Diamond Dust. I hope she might listen to you—do NOT use force. I’m trusting you for this, son, show me that you can do it. Ken, I want you to go speak with Reaper. We need to openly discuss options for Sandra’s future.”
“Why can’t I come up there and Trent go talk with Diamond Dust?” Jack asks. “You might not have noticed, Ma, but I’m not that good with delicate crap.”
“You’ll do fine,” she says. “You just need to open up and tell her the truth!”
She stops as the wall next to her call to home lights up. “That would work, except Diamond Dust is up here,” Nico tells her. “Have both of the boys come up.”
“She’s here?” Jeanie asks. “Why is she here?”
“You’ll have to ask her,” Nico says.
“Well… um… change in plans, then,” Jeanie says. “Trent, Jack, you both come up here and help clean up, Ken, you go talk with Reaper—”
“Why don’t I go with Dad?” Jack says. “I want to see what a grim reaper is like.”
“Okay, that will work, too,” Jeanie says. “Be nice, he IS Sandra’s father, after all. Now go.”
“Mom?” Trent says, stopping her from hanging up. “Are you okay?”
She looks at him, and honestly thinks about shrugging it off. “I… I’m a little worried about how Sandra will react to her being here,” she admits. “But things will work out.”
“We’re heading over to Cosmic’s, now,” Nico says. “Can you tell Malina for me? She might start worrying, but everyone is fine.”
“Of course,” Jeanie says. “I love you, boys,” she adds before hanging up on her family as Nico’s screen turns off on its own. She heads for the main room, looking around for a moment. “How is everyone doing?” she asks.
“I am awake, now,” Tatiana says. “That octopus woman, she is not very polite. She did not even offer dinner before taking bite.”
“I managed to get Marie’s collar off without blowing up the mountain,” Superior says. “Her healing powers are kicking in, now that Aubrey’s removed the venom. The other two are recovering quickly, as well.”
“Duplicitous was the first to recover,” Aubrey says as Jeanie looks over. “Toodles is going to be fine, but she hasn’t woken up, yet.” Aubrey is still sitting with Duplicitous, her hand on the woman’s shoulder, her hair floating.
“I’m sorry, I’m borrowing your healer for something personal,” Duplicitous admits. “It shouldn’t take too long, though, right?”
“It might take a second visit, actually,” Aubrey says, but there’s a little smile on her face. “But when the baby is born, there’s always the chance that he or she will be a norm until puberty, you realize that, right?”
“Well, if they are that way, we’ll just… have to find someplace warmer to live until their powers come in, I guess,” Duplicitous says.
Tatiana lets out a happy little squeal. “You have taken my advice!” she says. “I am so very excited!”
“We have an apartment already set up and ready, if you’d like!” Aubrey says, eagerly. “It’s at the apartments where we all live. It’d be the perfect place to raise a child! You’d have a ton of willing babysitters!”
“That does sound nice,” Duplicitous says. “I—I’m sorry, I just—” she wipes away a tear. “I still can’t believe that you think it’ll work. I mean—we’ve been trying for so long—”
“I’m so happy for you,” Jeanie says. “I can’t wait to meet the little one! Oh, but—” she looks around. “Has anyone seen Malina?”
The room goes quiet as everyone else looks around.
“I sent her to clean out the water,” Superior says, “but she should have been back by now…”
“I’ll go look,” Jeanie says, a knot developing in her stomach as she rushes for the door. She steps into the air as soon as she’s outside and looks around. Malina is nowhere to be found. There aren’t even footsteps. She fights the urge to race out and start searching blindly. “Nico? We need Skye.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Water splashes in her face and Malina wakes. Most people would splutter and wipe at the water, especially since it’s freezing cold, but Malina does neither. She just looks at the person that splashed her. “Who are you?” she asks.
“My name is Atlanti, little water girl,” the woman says. She’s wearing norm clothing, including a rather bulky looking coat, but there’s something off about her. Possibly her smell, Malina decides. This woman smells like the ocean and fish, not like a norm fisherman, but like she’s actually part of the ocean. A part of her rather likes the smell, but she ignores it. She knows who this woman is.
“You’re the one that poisoned Superior and Toodles and the others!” Malina says, jerking and trying to stand. She staggers, falling onto her bottom again. The world swirls in front of her eyes for a moment before going still again. “I dislike kidnappers,” she says, trying to hide her moment of weakness.
“We shouldn’t be enemies,” Atlanti says. “You, of all people, should know just what sort of havoc the norms are causing to our precious oceans. They are killing our waters, and melting our ice caps!”
“Yes, but the Antarctic ice cap is—” Malina starts out, only to stop as Atlanti reveals fangs that are over an inch long, hissing at her.
“That’s what they tell you,” she says, “but politicians lie.”
Malina closes her mouth and very calmly, very carefully, considers her next words. From her reaction to trying to stand, she’s been poisoned. She doesn’t think it’s as powerful as what hit the women, or possibly she has an in-built resistance, but it’s still strong enough to affect her. She’s out here in the middle of the ice and snow with a crazy woman. There’s a very reasonable chance that they’re far away from Superior’s mountain. Even if she tries to run, in this state she won’t get far. “I know,” she says, instead.
“Know?” Atlanti prompts.
“I know how terrible it is,” Malina says. “I hate it. The state of the coral reefs, the sea life, everything. It’s heartbreaking.”
“I knew you would see things my way! And have you seen what the supers are doing to the already depleting ice up here?” Atlanti asks, her eyes filling with tears. “They’ve hollowed out the ice—the old ice—I can’t believe them! Of course they had to die for what they did,” she says. “The chance of the old ice being replaced is impossible with the warming trend. It’s been there for so long that the salt has been washed out, you know, which kept it from melting as quickly, but now it’s gone! They had no respect for Mother Nature!”
There’s a chill running down Malina’s spine that has nothing to do with the ice-cold water still dripping off of her face. That easy way that Atlanti had said “they had to die” is something that’s going to haunt her long after this, and she knows it. It makes her feel even sicker to her stomach than the venom running through her veins does. Life is precious. ALL life is precious, whether it be the life in the ocean, or the live
s of norms and supers.
Apparently Atlanti doesn’t agree.
“So will you?” Atlanti asks.
“Will I…?” Malina says, knowing she missed the question.
“Refill the ice—not with the salt water, no, I want you to filter out the salt. You can do that, can’t you? You’re a water manipulator,” Atlanti says.
“I… um… I would need some help,” Malina says, searching for a way out.
“From who?”
“An earth manipulator,” Malina says. “I would need them to pull the minerals, like the salt, out of the water.”
“If I can find you one, will you do it?” Atlanti asks.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Then I’ll find you an earth manipulator,” Atlanti promises. “Don’t go anywhere—not that you can,” she says, laughing as if Malina being poisoned is a grand joke. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
Malina waits until she’s out of sight and slowly, gingerly, pushes herself to her feet. Once there, she sways a bit, almost falling over again. She needs to go. She’s almost positive that someone will come looking for her soon, but until then she has to do what she can. If she’s going to become a professional hero, the first person she should be able to save is herself. Otherwise what good is being a super?
But just in case, she thinks as she reaches up and touches her ear—no, it’s gone. She looks around, not seeing the earbud anywhere, and then in the direction that Atlanti went. The octopus lady stole her earbud. She looks at her wrist. The com-bracelet is gone, as well.
***
Nico looks at me with a frown on his face that says he’s conflicted. We just found out that Malina is missing. “Skye,” he says abruptly, turning to his little sister, “I need you to find Malina. Take Diamond Dust—”
“No!” Skye says.
“Skye, this isn’t a suggestion,” he says. “We need to go to Cosmic’s place, and if she’s hit him like she has Santa, I’m not going to let just anyone go up against him. But Malina is missing. We need to find her.”
“I’ll go,” I say, stepping forward. “I’m not going to let some crazy lady take my friend.”