by R. J. Ross
"But the Cape Cells aren't finished," she says. "So they CAN'T toss him back in. And he hasn't hurt anyone yet, right? So--so maybe I can talk to Century, and ask him to give him a little more time."
"You'd do that?" I ask, my heart jumping into my throat.
"He's your grandpa. I've never met my grandpa--either of them," she says sadly as the ride pulls to a halt. "Go find him and ask him," she says as she gets out.
I nod, feeling stunned at the offer. All he has to do is one little show and he'll have more time.
Any little bit of time I can have with him is worth it, isn't it?
***
"So I think she's going to talk him into it," Carla says. The group in Century's office watches her closely.
"Are you okay with this?" Century asks. "He's a full grown and extremely dangerous cape, sugar. We don't want you accidentally getting hurt--"
"I'm going to do it! He won't hurt me and I'll do my very best not to hurt him, too," she says.
"You won't--" Angela starts out, only to blink as Century motions her to silence.
"Okay, I'll go with it, but where's Nico?" he asks Carla.
"He bought himself a turkey leg and is sitting on the roof of the main building," she says, pointing in the direction. "He's probably listening in on this conversation--he's really nosy like that."
"Of course I am," they hear Nico say. "What's the point of being a technopath if you can't eavesdrop on anything you want?"
"Be careful, Carla," Rocco says. "He's got the ability to blow things up, so make sure nobody gets hit by debris, got it?"
"Of course!" she says. "I can't let my adoring public get hurt!"
"Adoring public," Falconess repeats with dry amusement.
"From what we've seen of their reactions, she's not wrong," Century points out. "They could very well grow to love her as much as they love Skystep."
"That would be awesome!" Carla says, her eyes widening with excitement. "And then me and Skye can have a great big battle and everyone would be all 'oh, no, don't hurt her! But don't hurt her, either!'" She moves to the right and left, changing her voice with each sentence and acting anxious. Then she grins, hugely. "It would be EPIC!"
"I'm sure she'd love to do that," Century says, indulgently.
"Carla--" Malina says, her tone serious. The entire room turns to her, expecting something like a warning, "did you know that Rocco has you as his wall--" Rocco jumps, covering her mouth with a hand before she can finish the sentence.
"Be safe, Carla," he says. "If it gets too dangerous I'll grab you, okay?"
"What was Malina about to say?" Carla asks.
"Nothing important!" Rocco says quickly, only to grunt as Malina steps hard on his foot.
"Be careful and have fun," Malina says, shoving Rocco's hand away. "I love you!"
"I love you, too, Malina!" Carla says before waving cheerfully and hanging up.
"Did you get that recorded?" Malina asks evilly. "I'm sure Rocco would like to make it his ringtone."
"That she loves you?" Rocco asks. "No thanks. But it'd work for you."
Malina rolls her eyes before laughing.
***
"It's a trap," Grandpa says a few minutes later. I left Carla to deal with her fans and finally found him waiting for me near the nearest bathrooms. "It's time for us to leave," he adds, grabbing my hand.
"What if it's NOT," I say, not letting him pull me. "What if doing this stupid little show--where no one gets hurt and you take the stupid fall at the end, can get them off your backs until the Cells are finished? They'll go 'Oh look, he's playing nice with a kid, he must be reformed!' and we won't have to worry every time someone takes a snap with their stupid camera phones!"
"That's a lot of stupid," he points out, making me blush.
"Because you're being--" I stop it just before it comes out of my mouth. "I’m sorry," I say with a sigh. "I just finally got a little bit of hope, and you--you won't even listen to me," I tell him.
He looks me in the eye for a long moment. "So this Carla's your friend?"
"I--I think so," I say. "She's always been nice to me, even when I was being a total brat. I've never heard of her lying to someone before, either. I think she wants to do a big, showy, action-packed debut, and I think you can pull it off."
He looks at me. "They already know we're here, don't they?"
"Yeah," I say.
He looks in the direction of the nearest wall. "There's a good chance they've got the place surrounded, too, isn't there?"
"Probably," I admit.
"And even if they don't, Century can stop time."
"Yeah."
"So basically I have no choice," he finishes, running a hand over his face and groaning. "I want you to stay out of sight during the fight," he tells me, reaching up and tugging off the mask I'm wearing. "Blend in with the crowd. If this goes wrong, you need to get out of here and head back to your hall. Tell them that I kidnapped you."
"If you just play to the crowd and make sure no one gets hurt, we'll be back to how things have been going," I say stubbornly. "I trust Carla." Do I? Maybe this is a trap, like he said, and I'm just throwing him back into the Cape Cells. Do you have ANY clue how guilty I would feel if that happened? I would probably never forgive myself!
"Fine," he says. "But I'm going to need more than just this cheap mask--"
"No, the whole grungy civvies is a big deal in villain clothing nowadays. Cold Steel wears them all the time," I say.
He looks at me, raising an eyebrow. "So you don't even take your uniforms seriously?"
"Some do, some don't," I say with a shrug. "Try not to burn your pants off and it'll be fine."
He lets out a surprised laugh at that before looking around. "So... where's this big showdown supposed to happen, anyway?" he asks.
"Well, she's a speedster," I say, thinking about it. "So all you really need to do is cause a little explosion--she'll come running. But it can't be anything that'll hurt people when it explodes, so we need to find some props, or something."
"This is what all your super villains do?" he asks me, sounding suspicious.
"All the ones that are secretly affiliated with the Hall," I agree. "There are a few that don't work with them, but they risk--"
"The Cape Cells, I get it, but it still makes no sense."
"It makes good entertainment," I say, remembering several classes. "If it's entertaining, it doesn't HAVE to make sense--or better yet, it makes dollars and cents!"
He lets out a little laugh and tugs me along with him. "Come on, if they do shows like this all the time here, there have to be some props somewhere."
***
"It's a lot easier to find capes now-a-days, isn't it?" Massteria says as he types away on the keyboard. To the right of the pair a norm sits duct taped to a support beam. They're in the basement of this old woman's home, where her son has set up a nice little base. Massteria had found this one, and actually managed to keep Deathblow from jumping him until they got into the house. It was worth the wait, not that Deathblow would ever admit it to his "partner." They're now sitting firmly in the middle of the South Branch, where Boombastic is.
"Have you managed to find the HTV South channel?" Deathblow asks impatiently.
"I don't need to," Massteria says, smugly tapping on a key and bringing up a news station. "Looks like the entire world knows where Boombastic is at the moment."
The two stare blankly at their ex-cell mate facing down against a delicate looking girl with two poofy pigtails and a mask with sequins on it.
"You're kidding me," Deathblow says after a long, stunned moment. "He's doing a SHOW?"
"Maybe she actually caught him?" Massteria says.
"I doubt it. I mean, it's AT the South Branch Amusement Park," Deathblow says, reading the location off the bottom of the screen. "What sort of idiot goes to an amusement park OWNED by the Hall? That's it. No offers for him, I'm just going to kill him."
"If they know where he is, though
, why did they send a little girl after him?" Massteria asks. "That's more stupid than going to an amusement park."
"Only one answer, Massteria," Deathblow says. "He's switched sides, just like Technico did. Come on, let's get going. We don't want to miss our Boombastic's big debut, now do we?"
***
There's an entire area of the park dedicated to being exploded. As soon as he'd started looking, Austin had been approached by a man in a black suit with a badge pinned to his coat. He'd been directed to the "playground" and told briefly which part was meant to be destroyed dramatically. It turns out they're well equipped for fires and explosions thanks to Flameblaster.
So now he's standing in the middle of the empty area of the park, with several drones floating overhead and probably the second most adorable kid he's ever seen posing dramatically in front of him.
"You're going down, Boom!" she says, pointing at him. "I won't stand for you ruining the beautiful, family friendly fun that everyone is having here!"
"You won't, will you?" he says, lighting up one hand. "And you think you can stop me?" Cheesy fight talk isn't something you have to memorize, thank God. As long as you get a good quip in here and there, the audience seems happy. He blinks, though, as she rushes forward--and apparently misses him. He looks down at his hand, where a tiny piece of plastic had appeared.
"Put it in your ear," a familiar voice says from the earbud. Austin almost drops it in surprise. "Don't react, Boombastic, you're on camera right now, remember? Just put the earbud in your ear casually."
Austin slowly turns, his hand sneaking up to his ear and slipping the earbud in. "There we go," Technico says. "That's Carla--she carries the ridiculously long name of Hypersonic Rainbow. She's one of mine."
"So why did you send her up against me?" Austin asks, trying not to move his lips. "I could hurt her."
"I'm betting on you NOT doing that," Technico says. Austin sees another blur race towards him and jerks, reacting to the punch the girl throws almost instinctively. He blocks it and throws a hit a good five seconds after she’s gone. "She's fast, huh?" Technico says with pride.
"She's terrifying," Austin admits, diving towards the nearest building and blowing up a small portion of it. It's Styrofoam, he realizes, trying not to laugh, or something along the same lines. He sees Carla dodge dramatically, as if some of it almost hit her. "Why are you doing this, Technico?" he asks, pulling a chunk off the ground and throwing it at where she just was.
"We have our reasons," Nico says. "Mostly I'm trying to get you out of the cells. It won't be easy--you just had to go and blow up most of it, didn't you?"
"I just--" Austin dodges another hit as she appears in front of him, throwing a hit of his own that he KNOWS is slow enough for her to run circles around. She catches it in her hands, grins at him, and jumps back as if it hit her. Had he been a norm, he wouldn't have seen the grin, she moved so fast. She crumples to the ground dramatically, looking stunned.
The crowd gasps, obviously worried about the girl. He steps forward, laughing maniacally, because this is the time for it. "Not so fast, after all, are you, little Hy-Bo?" he asks--only to get slammed into from behind almost as soon as she disappears from the ground.
He turns, grabbing for her but missing.
"Hold your breath," he hears her say over his earbud. He takes a deep breath just in time. She starts racing circles around him, sucking all of the air out of the vicinity.
"Pretend to--" Technico says, but Austin has already figured it out. His arm goes back to normal and he grabs his throat, falling to his knees as if he's suffocating.
He falls dramatically to the ground and she pulls to a stop, standing over him with a victorious pose.
"I will never let the bad guys ruin the fun found at South Branch Amusement Park!" Carla says, her voice echoing over the speakers all around them. The crowd cheers, waving their arms in the air as she throws kisses at them.
"Now, since she's distracted it's time for you to make your getaway," Nico says over the earbud. "All you need--"
Austin starts to get to his feet, only to stop as Nico lets out a curse. The crowd's reaction is changing. The screens over their heads shoot to various parts of the park, where it looks like the visitors are freaking out.
People are literally running over one another, trying to get out of the park. "What's going on?" Carla asks, her grin falling as she looks at the screens.
"I'm not sure," Technico says. "But I'm going to find out."
Austin looks around. "Where's Keliah?" he asks, racing away before anyone can answer. "Keliah!" he yells, taking to the air as the norms start to stampede like animals. He sees her, finally, clinging to a wall of a building and trying to stay out of the wave of humans.
"Keliah!" he yells, starting for her. Before he can make it, though, he sees someone standing in the shadows not far from her. His eyes widen as Massteria waves cheerfully at him, and then points at his granddaughter. How? How had he known? Austin's heart stops for a moment before pounding harder. He starts forward, but before he can get there, Massteria is standing right next to Keliah.
"Hello, Boombastic's granddaughter," Massteria says. It's quiet, and shouldn't possibly carry over the screams of terror and pain, but it echoes like a microphone in Austin's ears. "Don't move, otherwise I'll have to kill you. Your Granddaddy wouldn't like that, now would he?"
Keliah looks at him, her eyes narrowing. "Who are you?" she demands.
"You can call me Uncle Massteria," Massteria says, grabbing her. "Isn't that right, Boombastic?" Massteria asks him, a smirk on his weaselly face.
"You don't have a chance against me, Massteria, and you know it. Let the girl go," Austin says, dropping down in front of them. The norms try running him over, but he doesn't budge. They wind up going around him. He strides forward, reaching for the two.
"Why are you even doing this?" he asks Massteria. "What's in it for you? You have to know that the Hall watches this place like a hawk."
"Then why are YOU here?" Massteria asks him. "I didn't want to believe D.B. but I think he might be right. You've betrayed us."
"Are you the reason everyone's going crazy?" Austin demands.
"I am!" Massteria says, his eyes gleaming with pride. "Turns out all those years cooped up inside my own head were good for my abilities. I can come up with all SORTS of terrors that would have never occurred to me before. Every single one of these poor, pathetic norms is under my influence, or being ran over by someone that is. And do you know what else?" Massteria asks, looking almost drunk with power. "This world is filled with people terrified of their own shadows! It's so beautiful!'
"You're sick and depraved, Massteria," Austin says.
"Am I? Who's the one living out their greatest fear right now?" Massteria asks him. "Or do you really think I'm here?"
Austin blinks. There's no one in front of him, not even his granddaughter.
CHAPTER SIX
“What’s that?” Skye asks, jerking from where she’s standing in the middle of the mall. She’s got a pink plastic water gun in her hand and is in the middle of robbing the joint with her new partners.
“You said your money or your wives,” Ariel says, floating over their heads and looking a bit misty. “But I think it caused a lot of the guys in the audience to have a problem.”
“They’re still trying to decide which to give us,” Doris says dryly, holding her own water gun which looks even sillier than Skye’s, since she’s in her monster form.
“I said wives?” Skye says, blinking. “What was I thinking? I meant GIVE US YOUR MONEY OR YOUR CANDY!” she bellows at the crowd, waving the plastic gun over her head. The strange sensation that a stranger is in her territory disappears completely as she goes back to work. Voltdrain is due to show up at any moment, after all! She needs to get her fun in now!
***
"What is going on?" Angela demands as Century races out of the Hall building. While the others had gone with Rocco through the shadows, she’s com
e with Century, intent on getting there when he does. This is the worst time to be caught in one of his time stops, and she’s not going to risk it.
"I don't know," Century says, his eyes narrowed as he speeds up. He's going so fast that she has trouble keeping up with him. "Nico! What's going on?" he demands, touching his earbud.
"It seems like a psychic assault on the norms," Nico says. "I'm searching the recordings for any sign of a possible attacker. I think it's Massteria."
"Will it affect you?" Century demands.
"No, it shouldn't," Nico says. "I'm my mother's son, Century, I'm impervious to most things like that, at least once I realize what it is."
"Good," Century says, only to realize, "will it affect Bombastic?"
"It could," Nico says reluctantly. "We're going to need some backup if it does."
"I'm on my way," Century says grimly.
***
I'm surrounded by strangers. I look around, trying to find a way out, but no matter which way I turn, there are more of them. I try to sludge through the mess, but it's like trying to swim through molasses, it doesn't work. I'm being dragged along with the crowd.
I have no idea what's going on. I just know that my heart is beating hard against my chest and I'm certain that I'm going to die. Why? I mean, this can't kill me--I've taken classes for--
I see a little girl stumble to the right of me and I race for her, covering her body with mine before she gets stomped to death. People are stepping on me, kicking me as they trip, but I grit my teeth and bear it, looking into terrified brown eyes.
"It's okay," I tell her. "I won't let them hurt you."
"I'm scared," she says, starting to cry. It isn't a sweet little whimper--it's a top of her lungs wailing that makes my ears hurt. I wrap my arms around her, shoving myself to my feet and other norms off of me. I have to get both of us out of this crowd, I think, looking around wildly. There's a building a few feet away, but too many people between me and it to make it.