by R. J. Ross
***
The dragon is flying above their heads, but it's no longer attacking people. In fact it jerks back and forth, as if fighting some sort of inner demon. "Jack! Take me up there," Morgan yells as she sees the metal coated teenager above her.
"Are you kidding? It keeps shooting randomly, you'll be roasted!" he calls back.
"I can help him!" she says. "He's my friend, too!"
"Fine, but stay behind me," he mutters, grabbing her arm and hauling her onto the metal lid behind him. "I need to get a bigger board."
"How about a surfboard?" she asks, wondering why the idea seems so right the moment she says it.
"That'd work!" he says. "Nice idea." He rushes upwards and she grabs his shirt, holding on to keep from falling. The dragon is huge. It turns, looking in their direction and opening its mouth--
"Hold on tight," Jack says as the flames rush straight for them. But something stops the flames before they hit them. It's like an invisible shield blocks the fire, sending the flames left and right as they hit the shield.
"He's fighting it," Blackjack says over the earbud. "That's my boy."
"Where is he?" Jack asks.
"See that dark spot in the middle of the dragon? You can see it when you put the sun behind him. That's Ace."
"Has this ever happened to you, Blackjack?" Morgan asks.
"Once, when I was just starting out. But I didn't have nearly the power Ace does. I was about fourteen at the time."
"What is the dragon? Really?" Morgan asks.
"Right now it's the embodiment of his worries and fears," Blackjack says. "You know that old saying, 'It's all in your head'? Well for a Loaded Deck, it never stays there. Either you gain control of it or it gains control of you."
"Yeah, but is Ace strong enough to gain control?" Jack asks.
"Of course he is!" Morgan snaps, sounding strangely offended at that question.
"We better hope he is," Blackjack says right before slamming into the dragon's head to change the course of another flame. "Otherwise Central Hall theme park is going to be in ashes."
***
This is like the ultimate video game. Yes, there's that aspect of terror going on, I'll admit it, but there's also a rush. I should be scared, I know. I was for a little bit, but now it's pretty much gone. Why am I not scared? He's terrifying, and he's trying to kill me. But at the same time... I light the fuse again, sending yet another cannonball into the dragon's chest. It sends him flying back, crashing into the trees.
"HEY!" I bellow, suddenly outraged. "Don't mess up my trees!"
Okay, technically I did it, but still! I race forward as the dragon tries to shove himself off of his back, climbing on top of him and standing there. "I said to COOL OFF!" I yell. The sky above me turns into swirling dark clouds and lightning sparks through the air. "You think you're in charge here? You're wrong." I start flying, my arms out as rain starts to pour down on the entire kingdom. Yes. This is my kingdom. It might be inside my own head, and I might not be a knight--I'm not even a king, I realize abruptly.
I'm an Ace. Higher than a king, yet lower than a two all at the same time. I am anything I want to be. Even if I worry, even if I fear something, I can overcome it. Because I know, somewhere out in the real world, there's people fighting for me, as well. I can feel it in the deepest part of my heart. Knowing that even just one person is willing to fight for me--It's something that's changed the game for me. Even if I say I don't, I know that I can trust them to catch me when I fall. Literally. The one that seems like the worst of them already has. I never thought I'd feel that way about anyone, especially people I just met.
The dragon struggles, still on his back, but I raise a hand. Lightning comes down, striking him in the head. The dragon falls unconscious and I land on his chest once more.
"Sorry, buddy," I tell him. "We'll talk about this soon, okay? Because you are freaking awesome."
What? I had to stop him, sure, but I'm not going to kill him! What other guy can honestly claim to have a dragon of his own?
***
The dragon seems to go translucent for a moment before disappearing entirely. The unconscious Ace plummets to the ground, only to get caught by his dad. The two males land gently on the ground in the park. A wave of cheering screams and clapping hands almost deafen Blackjack. He can't help but grin as he looks around at them and jumps, taking to the air again above their heads.
"We hope you've enjoyed the show, everyone!" he says, noticing a few charred signs here and there, but no obvious damage. "I would like to introduce you to my son--"
"DRAGON, DRAGON, DRAGON!" the crowd starts to chant, led by one or two of the guys in front. It looks like Hidden Ace is lost to the new name, Blackjack admits silently.
"My son, Dragon," he says gamely. The son in question slowly opens his eyes, staring at him for a second before yawning and getting out of his arms to stand up. Blackjack is positive he thinks he's standing on the ground. At least he does until he looks around.
"Dragon?" he repeats blankly. He starts to fall as soon as he looks straight down, only to grunt as Max appears next to him with the golden mic of doom and a discreet hand on his back.
"Regardless of who his father is," Max says over the mic, "Dragon is one of ours, isn't he, Cold Steel?"
"Hell yeah," Jack says with an evil grin.
***
I'm being peer pressured, I think as Jack appears above us on his sewer lid. Both Max and Jack look as if they've been roasted a bit, though, so I feel guilty. "I am..." I say, glancing at Dad before shrugging. "Sorry, Dad," I say with a shrug. I take the mic that's offered to me. "I AM DRAGON. AND I'M HERE TO ROB YOU!" I add evilly.
Max starts laughing like a lunatic. Jack is worse, he swoops down, grabs the mic, and goes, "EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"
The entire crowd waves their hands in the air, roaring their approval at the top of their lungs. You think supers are strange?
Their fans are even stranger.
***
"You're breaking my arm," Mimic complains as Nico drags him into Central High. "I'm like a norm right now, you know that--"
"Shut up," Nico snaps. "Get me an interrogation room," he yells at the nearest group of black suits. "And the scientists should have a special gift for me by now, I want it ready by the time I get to the room!"
"My own daughter," Mimic mourns. "My own daughter turns me over to you--what ever happened to family bonds?"
"You tossed them out when you stole Detriment's powers," Nico says coldly. "You left a ten year old girl all on her own because you wanted to try out a new power set. It's a wonder she can still say that she loves you. If it were me, I would have tried to kill you by now."
"You are definitely an ungrateful son," Mimic says.
"I don't care," Nico says as he reaches the interrogation room. One of the black suits is holding the door open for them, so he shoves Mimic in and looks around. There's a chair in the middle of the room that looks somewhat like an electric chair, so he pushes Mimic into it and the built-in restraints clamp closed, holding him in place.
"What... what are you doing?" Mimic asks, abruptly starting to look worried. "I thought you went good."
"I didn't go soft, though," Nico says as an older black suit comes in. He's got a needle in his hand, the syringe full of a strangely glowing pink liquid. Even Nico finds the sight disturbing, not that he's going to let Mimic see that. "Mimic, I don't know how old you are--this might kill you, but since you aren't from our time, as far as everyone knows--you aren't even here," he says.
"What is it?" Mimic asks.
"A nice little side effect of locking away mad scientists."
"Star Born," Mimic almost whispers. "You've got Star Born during this time--that's going to take away my powers, isn't it? But do you really think you can do that?" he asks.
The question makes Nico go still. "What do you mean?" he asks.
"Your little granddaughter--oh, but she's not just yours, is she? She's Masterment
al's precious princess, too, isn't she? Well, sure, she comes from the future so you might not be attached to her. Yet. But you're a hero now, aren't you? Even if she was someone else's, you'd be duty bound to find her. The problem is, the only person who knows where she is--WHEN she is--is me, now isn't it?"
Nico looks behind him. "Did you recover the time travel watch from him?" he asks one of the suits.
"Yes sir," they say.
"Then I'll use that to find out where you last went--"
"How do you know that that was the last place I went to? Time travel is tricky, Nico--I could easily have gone a hundred different places and come back in seconds. You'll never find her without my help. And if you take my powers away, well, like you said, it could kill me. I'm several hundred years old, after all."
The door slams open, falling off its hinges as Superior appears. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY TATIANA YOU SICK FREAK?" he roars, racing across the room and grabbing Mimic by the shirt. "Where is she?" he demands.
Mimic starts to laugh insanely. "You'll never know! Neither of you will ever find them! Oh, this is better than being free!" he says in an insanely joyous tone. "I can sit here and WATCH as you kill yourselves trying to find them!"
"I'm going to kill you," Superior says, bringing back one fist. It stops as Nico grabs his wrist.
"We can't," Nico says, his anger apparent in his voice. "We can't kill him. Not when there's the chance we can get it out of him. Someone get me Mastermental," he says over his shoulder.
Mimic stops laughing.
"Fine. THEN we kill him," Superior says.
***
We were run off. What? Are you seriously surprised? We were surrounded by our teachers, remember? But at least they let us go in a dramatic fashion. Now I'm lounging in the middle of Cape High's gym, exhausted. I keep thinking I'm forgetting something, though...
Wait. "What happened to Jetta?" I ask, sitting up abruptly. The entire room goes silent, all of my classmates looking at each other.
"Got no clue," Jack says, not looking very bothered by that fact. "Don't tell me you're still going to chase her. She thought some creepy ancient guy was you."
"You can't exactly blame her for that," Morgan says. "Dad is extremely good at pretending to be someone else."
"Besides, she hardly knew Ace," Max adds. "He couldn't get two words out in front of her without tripping over his own tongue." I feel a blush creep up my neck and glare at him. "For a bad boy you aren't that smooth, man, not gonna lie," he points out far too bluntly for a guy using his girlfriend's lap as a pillow. She's ignoring him, and playing on a phone.
"I'm sure she's fine," she says. "We caught Mimic, right? Most of the other super villains in the area are in the room, or--" she glances at Adanna.
"Papa is forbidden to act as a super villain until his community service is over," Adannna says with a shrug. "Although he did say there's a new female super villain around, but I doubt she'd be interested in a teenage cape."
"She'll be fine," Morgan says. "I'm exhausted," she adds, falling onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. For a second I think she's going to cry. I guess she's got reason, right? She just helped put her own father back into prison.
"Morgan?" I say after a second of hesitating.
"Huh?"
"Thanks."
She turns, looking at me with a bittersweet smile. I can see tears gleaming in her eyes and guilt hits me hard in the gut. "I still... I can't stop loving him," she says quietly. "But I can't let him get away with things like that, either. Because of him we still don't know where Noelle is. She could be anywhere."
"Or when," Justin says.
"She's just a little girl," Morgan says, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest. "She's not even fourteen yet. She doesn't even have her powers yet! Sure she can be a little annoying, but--but you don't just abandon a thirteen year old in time!" She looks angry now.
"Nico has Mimic now," Trent says quietly. He'd been out of uniform for the entire issue, playing a side part with the others. It's amazing how he can pull that off. "He'll find out where she is and go get her. She'll be okay."
"How can we know for sure?" Morgan demands.
"We can't," Emily says from where she's leaning against Trent playing with what looks like a cat toy. "We just have to hope for the best."
This group feels really small right now, I think as I look around. There's probably somewhere around twenty of us. Even sprawling we seem like a tiny group when compared to the rest of the world. Yet this is the entire student body of Cape High.
"Did I... you know," I start out slowly, "hurt anyone?"
"I think I've got a scorch mark on the steel," Jack says.
"Max and Jack did most of the fighting," Trent says. "Since they claimed you for their side I figured we should let them."
"Speaking of which, that working together thing made a huge impact on the crowd, didn't it?" Max asks thoughtfully. "What do you say, Jack, Ace? Think we should make it an official thing for a while?"
"You'd need more than just me working as a cape," Trent says. "Unless you plan on throwing off the balance."
"Hmm," Max says.
I get up. "I need to find Jetta," I declare. "I can't find Noelle--I wish I could, you know, even though I've never met her--but I need to find Jetta." I start for the door, only to stop as a hand grabs my arm. I look back to see Adanna. "What?"
She looks back at the group, then tugs me out the door, closing it behind us. "Look, I have extremely good hearing," she starts out. "Jetta--she wanted to use you to get into our school, and to eventually get into Central Hall. That she wound up being used by Mimic in a similar manner, well..." she shrugs. "I wouldn't chase her. You are a very impressive super, Ace, you need to be more careful of who you let close."
"And I'm just supposed to forget about her?" I ask. Although it does hurt a little to hear what she'd been planning. "It's still partially my fault she wound up being used as bait, anyway."
"If you keep chasing her, she will be again," Adanna says coldly. "She'll always be vulnerable--especially now that she's been seen on TV being used as bait by Mimic. And who's to say she won't turn on you when it gets too rough? Let her go, I'm sure she's fine. You can find someone that will make a better girlfriend."
"Where? Here?" I ask.
"Yes. If not now, in the future." She smiles slightly. "I've seen you watching Morgan," she points out.
"Justin likes Morgan," I mutter, not quite able to deny it. But I can't steal a bro's crush, even if I did have a chance, so it's time to change the subject. "What about you? You're dating Sunny--a short little guy that's sleeping half the time, right? I'd think he's as likely to be bait as Jetta is!" I ask her.
She lets out a laugh, startling me. "Sunny is the son of Nico and Lady Rose, Ace. I would feel sorry for anyone that tried!"
"What does it matter when you like someone?" I say finally. "My mom's a norm, you know? It never stopped my dad from marrying her. She never got attacked by super villains!"
"True," she admits. "But it's still a risk they had to take. My mama, she's an animal speaker. She has D class super strength and speed--it's barely better than a norm. That's why I can honestly say that if it's love, it's worth the risk. But do you really love someone that planned on using you?"
I stare at her for a moment, almost hoping that she'll flinch or take it back. My eyes don't seem to work on her at all, though. She stares right back.
"I at least need to apologize," I mutter, pulling out of her hold.
"Fine," she says. "Then speak with one of the teachers--you'll be on television soon, people will want to mob you once they find out. You're Dragon," she says simply. "Everyone will want to see it for themselves."
"Heh," I say. "I don't have enough energy to do something like that right now. I feel like I've been ran over by a bus." I turn, looking around the campus. I can hear the teachers in the school building, so I head for there. I probably should ask someone other than my dad. I already kno
w how Dad'll feel about me wanting to talk to Jetta. I stop at the teacher's lounge, wondering for a moment if it'll look different from my old school. I knock twice, opening the door when someone says to come in.
They've got a big screen TV on the wall, I notice, glancing at it. It's showing the kids in the gym, complete with sound. For a moment I'm so busy staring at that that I don't even notice what the teachers are really doing. They aren't watching us--they're playing a game of pool. Yes. Pool. They seem to have a bet going on, because Dad is holding a fistful of dollars and looking quite satisfied with life. Until he sees me. "Ace--" he starts out.
"Taurus, can I talk to you?" I ask, completely ignoring him and looking at the huge black male talking on the phone. He nods, holding up a finger to make me wait.
"Look, Liz, I know it's tempting to barge in there--yes. Yeah. No, you can't spy on them from the electric lines, they'll notice it, right? Has anything been broken--no, not in the room, I mean walls, ceilings, that sort of thing? No? Then they're not killing each other just from being in the same room. Just take a breath and calm down," he says. "Good. There we go. Your girls are fine. Ace is fine. Everyone's fine. Now go get something to eat. You said you skipped lunch again. Good. Bye."
He hangs up and looks at me, following as I head out the door again. "What's up?" he asks.
"I want to go find Jetta and make sure she's okay," I say. "Dad doesn't like her, so I'm not going to ask him. Can you get me out of here?"
He hesitates, looking at the door, then goes in for a moment to tell them he's taking me somewhere for a moment and come back out. I hear Dad yelling after us as we leave, but neither of us looks back. "You sure this is smart?" he asks as we head up the steps to the edge of Death Canyon. "If it's something you have to hide from your dad--"