by R. J. Ross
Matkins takes a deep breath as the heat cools. He's covered in sweat and his heart is pounding against his chest. "I--I didn't--"
"You can come in now," Star says mildly. The door opens and a man steps in.
"Tech--Technico?" Matkins gasps out only to scream as the world starts to rip apart.
***
"Well," Frank says the next morning. We're back in Nico's apartment, where I sit where I usually do--although, a bit surprisingly, Emily has decided to sit down just a few feet away from me. Last time she was closer to where my Mom sat on the chairs brought in from the dining table. "When my agents went to the school they were surprised to find a little... problem."
"What little problem?" Nico asks.
"The Principal was laid out on the floor, incoherent," Frank says bluntly. "They brought me in, but I'm afraid his mind is quite a mess. I did get a bit of information from him, though, but it doesn't make sense."
"Why's that?" Dad asks.
"Because his mind is telling me that the one who did it to him was Nico."
"What?" Nico demands. "I don't--no I CAN'T mess with people's minds! It's impossible, trust me, I would have done it had I been able to!" We stare at him for that one and he has the grace to look sheepish. "Not that badly, or anything, but if you've got a talent like that you should use it!" he says.
"I'll strike that from the records, shall I?" Frank says mildly. "But the problem is we have no true leads--"
"We do," Zoe says, making me glance over at her. "We have a lead. It's just... not much of one."
"What's the lead?" Frank asks.
"There's a man out there--he's a super. He looks exactly like my Dad, except where Dad's hair is black the man's hair is white, and where it's white, it's black. I ran into him once."
"I remember that," my dad says. "Nico, you were looking for him, right?"
"Yeah. But I've found absolutely nothing on him. It's like he doesn't even exist," Nico says darkly.
"Well, it seems he does," Frank says. "Until we have more of a lead I suggest you all stay either here or at the school--"
"I should be looking for him!" Nico says sharply. "If he is a Superior, I'm the one that needs to deal with him!"
"No. We need you here more," Frank says. "They're after the children, Nico. You, the four of you," he looks to my Dad, Mom, Liz and back to Nico, "are our greatest defense."
"What about the kids we haven't brought here?" Mom asks. "Who defends them?"
"Their families. Those that don't have families, well, I'm working as fast as I can." He looks at Emily. "I'm afraid that today is the day the daughters of that family come, it was arranged by the head of the South Branch. They're here for a quick tour of the school grounds, which, honestly, I feel it's time for all of you to have as well. Especially since Liz and Jeanie have volunteered to teach a class once a week."
"They have?" Nico asks blankly.
"I sent you a ledger of teachers," Frank says. "And an email yesterday. You did read it, didn't you?"
"Unfortunately Zoe killed the laptop," Nico admits. "Again. But welcome to the staff, ladies, I hope you know more about grammar than I do."
"We're teaching girl power," Liz says from where she's raiding the fridge.
"So a fighting class?" Nico asks.
"Oh, there's MUCH more than just fighting to girl power," Mom says. "It's all about attitude!" Emily's bright red by this point, but Zoe looks enthusiastic.
"I want to take it!" Zoe exclaims. "Emily, you'll take it too, right? It's for girls only, right?"
"We were planning on it," Mom says.
"We do have normal teachers, don't we?" Nico asks Frank, glancing at his sister a bit pointedly. I look away, trying to keep from laughing, only to see a strange expression on Emily's face as she looks at--Max? Is she looking at Max? I glance at the couch, trying to follow her line of sight.
Seriously, don't tell me she's fallen for Max. Max hasn't even said anything! In fact he's writing in a notebook. I jerk as Emily scoots over quickly. Is she going to ask about Max?
"Hey," she says, cupping her hands around her mouth and tugging me down so she can whisper into my ear. "Is Zoe really nice or is she just pretending?" she asks silently.
Oh. Well that makes more sense. I can't help but feel a bit relieved, actually. I turn, mimicking her cupped hand thing and whisper back, "She kills TVs and computers accidentally. And she's really mothering, sortta bossy, but not mean."
"Hey," Sunny says, "what are you two talking about?"
"You," I say.
"We are not," Emily says.
"You can ask me--I probably have better answers," Sunny says. Emily frowns at him.
"No I can't, you're probably biased."
"How can I say if I'm biased if I don't know the question?" Sunny asks.
"Okay," she says, standing up and cupping her hand around his ear. I watch his face for a second as she whispers--then grin as he snorts.
"Sure she is," he says. "She started using that freaking blowhorn on me every morning and every time I try and take a nap on the job she does it again," he says, not bothering to whisper. "And she's constantly telling me to put on my seatbelt--"
"Are you guys talking about me?" Zoe demands.
"Yep," I say. Emily's as red as her hair now.
"What exactly are you telling her?" Zoe asks, looking like she's going to beat both of us.
"How mean you are," Sunny says cheerfully.
"I was--they were--uh--" Emily stutters, only to glare at me (hey, it's Sunny that let it out!) and kick me in the thigh. "Ow! I stubbed my toe on your stupid leg," she says accusingly.
"Well I keep trying to tell you," I say.
"Don't joke about stuff like that, you two!" Zoe says, getting up and looming over me and Sunny. "It's not funny. This is the first girl I've met my own age that might be my friend, you know!" Now she's the one turning bright red. Then she promptly sits down next to Max, who pats her on the back a few times.
"It's okay, it's okay," he says in a placating tone. "Breathe."
"I'm disowning both of you," she says, looking around him to glare at Sunny and me.
"This is totally your fault, you know," I point out to Sunny.
"Eh, she does that once a week or so," he says, waving it off. "More for Dad."
"It's true," Nico agrees. "She's constantly disowning us then making sure we eat about five minutes later."
"I'm the only one in the family with common sense!" Zoe declares. "Dad would forget to eat entirely half the time, and live off of junkfood the rest! And Sunny's brain doesn't kick in until nine," she adds.
I start laughing. "It's so true!"
Sunny slaps me on the back of my head. "I still haven't seen your brain kick in," he tells me.
"It's waiting for a special occasion," I say seriously. The entire room starts to laugh, even Emily smiles a little. It's broken the tenseness that came with Frank's announcements, thankfully. I look at Frank. "So when's the tour, anyway?"
"Noon," he says. "I expect you to lead it, Nico."
"Yeah, sure," Nico says. "Emily, you've got a doppelganger, right? I'm going to need both of your information. Full bios, fingerprints, everything."
"Can't you just take mine? The doppelganger is exactly like me."
"Might be, but better safe than sorry,"
"You've got a doppelganger?" Zoe asks. "Can you make her do chores and stuff?"
"Um, yeah," Emily says a bit shyly.
"I would LOVE to have that."
"We can hire you a maid," Max says. "If you want we'll get her a wig to look like your hair!"
"Max?" Zoe says. "Shut up."
"What? It sounded like a perfectly decent idea to me," he mutters.
"What are you writing, anyway?" I ask Max, since it's pretty clear by now that his mind isn't really with us.
"A plot to get rid of Cinderella's wicked step sisters," Max says cheerfully.
"I'm not Cinderella!" Emily says. "And I can take care of th
is myself." But Zoe's looking at the paper curiously.
"How did you get so much information on them, anyway?" she asks abruptly. "Did you hack the Hall computers again?"
"I don't need to hack, I just go on Dad's computer," Max says. "It's downstairs."
"What are their powers?" I ask, reaching out to stop Emily from getting up.
"Basic enhanced strength and speed, they're C class, possibly B with training," Max says. "They're popular at their school, so I'm not sure why they want to come in the first place--unless..." he looks at Emily, "they're coming after you," he says finally.
"I don't know why," Emily mutters. "They hate me."
“Revenge is always a reason.”
"What happened, exactly?" Zoe asks. "You can tell us."
"I--I fought back!" Emily says. "I fought them! Don't make me out to be an innocent victim, okay? I bit them. A lot. But it just kept happening, over and over again, and I got sick of it," she mutters, hugging her knees to her chest. "They never stopped. Even when I had nothing to give, they kept attacking me over stupid things." She looks around, looking at the entire room of people watching her.
"And I heal--I heal really quick," she goes on, "so I never had any evidence, but they did. They made me out to be the bad one, and their parents accepted it. You probably would have thought the same thing, if you were there."
"They sound like jerks," Zoe says.
"They sound jealous, to me," Mom says.
"Of what?" Emily asks. "When it first started I could barely summon my doppelganger. She disappeared every time someone distracted me. They were already faster and stronger than me."
"But I bet you're cuter," Mom says.
"She is," Max says, but it’s in such a casual tone that it's like he's saying the weather is good. "Oh, but Zoe's cuter," he adds abruptly.
"You're biased," Zoe says dryly. "I'm your girlfriend. Besides, who cares about that? It's not a good enough reason to hurt someone!" She gets up abruptly, walks right over my legs and drops down next to Emily. "I think what we need to do, instead of just trying to get rid of them, is show them that Emily's got friends and they can't go after her anymore." She wraps an arm around Emily's waist. "Right?"
"I'd rather stick with the torture plot," Max says. "I have the designs all drawn up--they should be strong enough to hold a C class with no problem."
"Really Max, please restrain from mentioning those things when I'm in the room," Frank says dryly.
"Ah, right, sorry Dad," Max says. "I'll wait till you step out."
"I agree with Zoe," Mom says. "The best way to get rid of bullies is to stand up to them and show them they don't have any power over you anymore. Plus, fighting back doesn't seem to work--"
"It would if I did it," I say.
"Trent," Dad says.
"What? It would," I say. "I might not be as cool as the others, no special unique powers, or anything, but I have my purposes."
"It'd be overkill," Max says bluntly.
"I think you're very cool!" Mom says.
"Mom, seriously, it doesn't count when it comes from you," I mutter.
"Trent's not cool," Max says. "He's going to be the posterboy for Cape High, the guy that every aspiring hero wants to be like, he's more of a... prospective school legend--how do you not have an ego the size of a mac truck, man?"
"Actually I thought I'd put you on the posters," Nico says. "It'd save me a lot of trouble and time, since only super villain wannabes will show up!"
"You're using Trent," Frank says. "We're bringing the tailor in tonight. The battle will go on tomorrow. Closely watched, of course."
"Tomorrow?" Max asks.
"School opens officially on Monday. You're both going to be our poster boys. Except I find that using the media is far faster than posting posters everywhere. So do make it nice and flashy."
Nico digs through his pockets, pulling out a handful of tiny metallic items which float in the air as soon as he opens his hand, forming into three tiny earbuds. "Here we go," he says. "These will work as three way walkie talkies," he says, tossing one to Max and one to me. "That way we can plot it out."
"It's almost time," Frank says. "Shall we head to the school grounds? I'm almost positive that the sisters are waiting for us already."
"Do I have to go?" Emily asks in a tiny voice.
"You can do it," Zoe encourages her. She's still half hugging the other girl and I wonder why Emily hasn't shoved her off yet. Maybe Zoe's gotten to her, too. It's the mothering aspect, I think. Or maybe she has brain controlling powers that we don't know about. Or, I admit, it could have been how Zoe got so mad and started talking about being the only girl friend she might get. I could see that.
"Yeah," Emily says, standing. "But Trent has to pretend to be my boyfriend," she declares, pointing at me. "They won't realize he's a doofus with just a tour."
"What?" I say. "Uh, I mean--"
"I'll do it," Sunny offers.
"Oka--"
"She said me," I say quickly, grabbing her hand.
"Posterboy," Sunny mutters.
"Planthead," I say back. "Why aren't the twins the poster kids, anyway?" I ask as we head out of the apartment and down the stairs. I'm not about to let go of Emily's hand, I can already feel her trying to hang back.
"Because the average student will never become an elementalist," Frank says. "Or a technopath, for that matter. You two are more... traditional, I suppose we could say. Also, neither of the twins have enough control of their powers to do a good showing."
"Basically he can't use them now, he can use us," Max says, walking hand in hand down the stairs with Zoe--who is trying to maneuver closer to Emily. I can almost see what she's thinking, too. One to the left, one to the right, one behind and one in front. But it's not going to work if the sisters wind up coming here to school--
We're out the door. I have to let go of Emily's hand to take the steps through the defense field, but as soon as we step out of range I turn back, only to sigh at the sight of her going as slowly as she possibly can.
"Emily," I say. "Come on, let's get it over with. What happened to all that talk about girl power, huh?"
"If you go too slow the computer might get confused," Nico calls over his shoulder. That seems to affect her better than I do, and she comes out of the field a few seconds later.
"I was doing just fine," she says, flushing brightly. "I was coming, right? You don't gotta bully me over it."
"You were barely moving," I say. "Plus, Nico's still an ex super villain, I wouldn't put it past him to have the security program respond to little things like that." I grab her hand again, noticing how clammy it feels. "Do you want your doppelganger?" I ask.
"What?"
"If there's two of you to begin with, you're definitely going to be more intimidating, right?" I explain.
"I'd like to see it," Max says. "I've never heard of a duplicator cape except in history books once or twice. I wonder, actually, if you're as good as you seem at fourteen... there's a possibility of you becoming S class, isn't there? Or at least an A."
"Probably an A--simply because her strength and defense, while good, will never be great," Nico says from the front of the group. "Rapid healing is an amazing talent to have, but it doesn't beat not getting hurt in the first place. I'll be honest, of all of you, Trent is the most well rounded, I believe. I'll need to do a few tests to be certain, but--"
We're to the yellow tape that surrounds Death Canyon. In front of it stand two girls about my age, talking on cell phones.
"They're wearing high heels," Max says, sounding a bit incredulous. "And miniskirts. What do they think this is, a trip to the mall?"
I look at Emily then tug her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist and resting my hand on her hip. "Breathe," I whisper, leaning down slightly to say it. She's not looking at me, though, she's looking at the sisters--and she's suddenly looking very, very angry.
This might not be a good thing.
CHAPTER FOUR
We'll be taking that. She can almost hear them saying it aloud, she's heard it said so many times before. They just walk in, assuming that anything Emily has is theirs, ultimately, and there's nothing Emily can do about it--
I don't think so, Emily thinks so sharply that Mastermental turns and looks at her with a hint of surprise. He covers it up easily enough, approaching the two with a hand held out.
"Thank you for coming," he says mildly, shaking hands with Allie and Kelly. "I'm afraid that I personally have very little knowledge of the school building, so we'll have Nico lead the tour--Nico," he says sharply, looking at the super villain who's in the middle of playing with the earbud he created for himself. Somehow between then and now it's become a full headset, complete with a screen. "Nico, if you would," Frank repeats sharply.
"Ah, right," Nico says, handing the strange machine to Sunny. "Hold onto this for me--and keep it away from your sister," he adds quietly. He steps to the front of the group, looking a bit bored. "My name is Nico Masters, my old cape name was Technico, I'm recently released from the high security Cape Cells--"
"Wait, that means you're a super villain, right? Why are you leading the tour?" Allie asks.
"Because I'm the principal," Nico says, smirking slightly. "Make sure you pass that fact on to your parents. Now if we can continue," he drawls, snapping his fingers. The security system blinks into view. Lasers crisscross in a dome that covers the entire Death Canyon. A bird flies a little too close to the dome and one of the lasers turns, shooting it out of the air. "Usually these can't be seen. The lasers crisscross randomly, and shoot anything that goes within a ten foot radius of the dome without permission. This isn't all of the security measures, by the way, there are several I don't feel like showing you."