Super Girls (Cape High Book 13)

by R. J. Ross

  "Not just Dragon," Nico says. "Dragon and a few of his new lackies. Ace, dress them up in your colors. Jen, Freddy, you're going to help him in any way that you can, understand? If you can knock Hard Knocks out for a little while, we might be able to fix him without the world finding out. Where are you aiming to catch him?"

  "One of the empty buildings a few miles from school," Ace says. "They're Hall property, right?"

  "Yeah. Okay, I'll get Dad moving out, you distract Hard Knocks. Whatever you do, don't make it look like you suspect Mother's behind it--and if she's with them, do NOT confront her until Dad gets there."

  "We don't think she is. What are you going to do?" Ace asks him.

  "I'm going to get the press," Nico says. "Andre is Jen's sponsor, it's only right that he gets first crack at a showing like this promises to be."

  He hangs up, leaving us silent for a moment, before Freddy says, "Andre Harrison is your sponsor?"

  "Um, yeah, is that a problem?" I ask, feeling oddly defensive.

  "I didn't even realize we HAD sponsors," Ace says. "Now get ready, guys, I'm going to drop you off before I make my entrance."

  That's all the warning I get before my outfit changes and I'm tossed off the board--several miles above the ground. "Oh, and spread your arms!" he yells after me.

  I'm grateful I have such good hearing--otherwise I would have never heard him over my screaming like a little girl.

  ***

  "Dude, that was cruel!" Freddy says to Ace. "She could die!"

  "Not if my theory is right," Ace says. He looks down, watching as Jen spreads her arms, catching the wind. She seems a bit unsteady at first, but soon it looks like she was born to fly. "Yeah, I'm actually jealous--she caught onto it a lot faster than I did. Oh well, your turn!" he says, shoving Freddy off the board.

  "WHERE ARE MY WINGS?" Freddy screams as he falls.

  "Whoops--I almost forgot," Ace says, snapping his fingers.

  ***

  "Did you hear that?" Mitchell asked from the back seat. "Someone screamed."

  "Well we are getting close to Cape High," Hard Knocks says. "I'm sure they're doing some serious training." His voice is monotone, like he seriously doesn't care that a girl was screaming in terror just now. Jules looks back at his brother, the same worried expression mirrored on their faces. They're so busy looking at each other that they yelp when the car pulls to an abrupt stop.

  Jules turns quickly, staring in shock at the black clad teenager on a surfboard right in front of their car. The surfboard shifts to a small disk in front of his eyes. "I know you," Dragon says, looking down at them with a maniacal grin.

  "Dragon," Hard Knocks says, his expression changing slightly. There's a hint of confusion in his eyes, the first emotion that's shown ever since they got in the car. "Weren't you--"

  "FACE ME!" Dragon bellows. The car twists and splits, leaving them exposed. Jules struggles with his seatbelt, barely getting it undone before jumping over the back seat to save his brother. They manage to get free and make a run for it.

  "How did he know?" Mitchell asks as they race for the nearest building. "We didn't even get close enough to be heard!"

  "I don't know, but he did!" Jules says excitedly.

  "Jules, Mitchell," they hear someone say, "get to the school campus."

  They look around, seeing no one. "Who--" Jules starts out.

  "Are you brainwashed by Mother?"

  "No! She's got our dad, though."

  "Then go to the school. Tell them you're willing to take the test to prove it," she says.

  "Yeah, okay," Mitchell says, grabbing his brother's arm and dragging him along. Jules looks like he wants to ask more questions. They don't have time for that.

  ***

  This is AMAZING. I never even imagined being able to fly this easily! As soon as I send the boys off to the campus I jump off the roof, spreading my arms and legs and calling up the wind. I twist, daring a flip before catching the wind again. "If you're done playing, Jen, you can get down here and help me out," I hear Ace say over the earbud that I don't remember putting in.

  "Oh, right, sorry," I say, twisting and heading down by bringing my arms in. This is a wing suit, right? It's a bit different, because the flaps automatically withdrew when I landed on the roof--but it's an illusion, so I guess convenience is built in, right? I wonder if Nico can make one that does the same thing!

  I land several feet from the fight, watching in shock as the car that Ace had split starts shifting, turning into a massive robot. Hard Knocks is standing in full uniform on its shoulder, his eyes glowing brightly as a massive fist slams down on Ace's head.

  "A--DRAGON!" I shout, racing forward. I see the fist being shoved up, and realize he managed to catch it. It's still heavy, though, and I can see him strain to lift it for a moment before he sends it flying. Hard Knocks jumps off of the machine, racing forward to slam a massive fist into Ace's face. Ace goes flying back.

  "Arrows on your back, bow at your waist, just click the button on the staff," Ace says over the earbud. I grab a tiny staff from my belt, fumbling for the button. It clicks and I have a bow in my hand. I reach over my back, grabbing one of the arrows, only to stare at the bundle where the arrowhead should be.

  "You're as bad as Nico," I complain as I line up my shot. "Freddy, where are you?" I ask as I let the arrow fly.

  "Making sure the kids get to school," Freddy says. "The taller one keeps trying to look over his shoulder."

  The arrow bursts as it hits Hard Knock's chest and fine powder clouds over him. "Now, snap your fingers," Ace says. "When you're doing it on your own, you'll have to change the amount of oxygen in the air, got it?"

  "Yeah, I think so." I snap my fingers, wondering how he managed this--and why he isn't doing it, himself. The cloud catches on fire, covering Hard Knocks for a second before dying. The robot he'd created turns on him, slamming into him from behind. Hard Knocks is the one that goes flying this time, falling to the ground several feet away and rolling to his feet in a practiced move. One of the dying trees that scatter the sidewalk starts creaking, twisting out of the ground. The trunk splits down the middle, forming legs.

  "I see," someone says. I jerk, looking to my right, where Superior is standing like he's been there for the past twenty minutes. When did he get here? He drops a hand on my shoulder when he sees me looking at him. "Can you cut off his oxygen from here?" he asks me.

  "Are you being recorded?" I ask, glancing up and searching for the camera drones that should be showing up soon. "Nico said he was going to call Mr. Harrison--"

  "Keep your eyes on Hard Knocks. I can manipulate cameras so they won't see me," he says, "don't worry about that. Can you render him unconscious?"

  "It depends, I've heard some of the higher class capes don't need air--at least not for a while," I say, hesitantly. "But you could do it--"

  "We don't want them to realize I'm interfering, remember?" he says. "We need an obvious explanation--which is why you're going to show off your own special talents. You've done well so far, I'd say."

  "I'm not wearing the power boosting suit," I say. "But I've got the wind suit--"

  "We'll put the two together," Nico says over my earbud. "Take him down, Jen, and we'll let you call yourself Phoenix, if you want."

  "I'm NOT going to call myself Phoenix," I say, bringing up both arms and focusing on the wind. I can almost see it moving around Hard Knocks, I realize.

  "Blackbird?" he offers.

  "I'll consider that one," I agree, pulling the air away from Hard Knocks and to me. He starts clawing at his throat as he falls to his knees.

  "Good," Superior says, holding out his hand. I have no idea what he's doing, but he lowers his hand a second later, looking satisfied. "Fixed. Dragon, time to throw the fight--that is how you do it, right?"

  "That's how we do it," I hear Ace say over the earbud. "But Jen's going to have to take the fall, too. Hard Knocks, can you hear me?" he asks.

  I look over at Hard Knock
s, who's sucking in air now that I've stopped pulling it away. He coughs, but he recovers quickly. "What just happened?" he asks quietly. "Why can I suddenly hear you?"

  "Illusion of an earbud," Ace says. "You were under Mother's control, so we had to attack you--but now you're back to normal. You need to save the day now, like a proper hero."

  "Where are my sons?" Hard Knocks demands.

  "We sent them to Cape High," Freddy says. "They're safely inside the dome."

  "You saved me, I can't--"

  "Play it up for the camera, Hard Knocks, or this was a waste of an intervention," Nico says sharply. "This is what I train my villains for--are you going to let it go to waste?"

  "No, I get it," Hard Knocks says. "When did I put my uniform on? Never mind, I'll ask that later," he says, holding out his hand to the fallen robot made of his rental car.

  "Once he takes me out, you're welcome to run in fear, Jen," Ace says, going up higher in the air. The sky starts to grow dark, heavy clouds appearing out of nowhere and spreading. A shock of lightning shoots down, dramatically almost hitting the North Hall hero. "You think you can just come into MY territory and not expect me to get offended?" Ace demands loudly.

  The wooden puppet tree, which had been just sitting there, forgotten about, jerks back into motion. I glance over in shock as the rest of the trees in the area start copying its form, large branches becoming arms, trunks splitting into legs. Before I can even yelp, one of them grabs me, hauling me tightly into the branches as a prisoner.

  The rest jump along with the robot, reaching for Ace in the air. I can barely see them through the thick branch prison. I jerk, trying to get free. This isn't enough to take out Dragon, though, and I think Hard Knocks realizes it.

  I hear a heavy groaning noise from the building behind me. I twist as much as I can to see what's going on. The entire abandoned building is starting to move, I realize in shock. A large slab of concrete goes flying, slamming into Ace as he's trying to dodge the trees. I watch in shock as it hits him straight on and he starts to fall.

  "DRAGON!" I bellow.

  The tree limbs move and a hand grabs me, pulling me free. "Dragon, he's--" I start out, barely looking at Freddy.

  "Eh, he's fine," he says. "He saw that coming from a mile away."

  "Yeah, once the trees started moving I traded places," I hear Ace say over the earbud. I look over at the concrete pinning him to the ground, watching as Hard Knocks heads to it, pulling it off of his fallen body.

  The body turns into smoke and blows away.

  "This isn't the end of this!" Hard Knocks bellows for the cameras. The sound of Ace laughing echoes from all around.

  "Time for us to make a strategic retreat," Freddy says, racing away. I hesitate for a second, wondering if it'll work from the ground, and spread my arms and legs, activating the wing suit.

  I call up the strongest wind I can manage, and fly away.

  CHAPTER NINE

  "THAT WAS AMAZING!" Elidee screeches as soon as I walk through the force field. She throws herself into my arms, only to go still. "I mean, you know, for your first time," she adds, pulling back and fixing her hair.

  "You're amazing," Jules says, standing a few feet away on the platform and staring at her in awe. "I mean--yeah..."

  "Amazing," Mitchell agrees, sighing happily.

  "Did you brainwash them again?" I demand.

  "I did NOT! I haven't even talked to the little rugrats," she says, shooting them a scowl. "They're doing this all on their own!"

  "How's our dad?" Mitchell asks me, snapping out of it slightly. "We saw it all on that wall over there, but did you fix his brainwashing?"

  "Yeah, Superior did it," I say, looking around. He had left right after fixing Hard Knocks and I hadn't even realized it until just now. I blink as a pair of arms wrap around my waist and look down at Olivia, who's sneaking a hug.

  "It was scary," she says, pressing her face against my shoulder. "Hard Knocks is a lot stronger than you are, right? So why'd you fight him? You should have left it to Dragon!" She looks close to tears, so I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

  "I was safe, I swear," I tell her. "Heck, half of the time Superior was standing right next to me. And it's not like I actually got into the fist fight part of it!"

  "The tree grabbed you, though!"

  "Eh, I was just stuck there when the concrete started to be tossed," I say. "I think it was how Hard Knocks planned to keep me from getting hit." We've only known each other for a short amount of time, so it's really nice to feel so loved, I think.

  "But you flew, which is awesome," Freddy says as he walks in behind me. I turn, giving him a little grin.

  "Yeah? Well so did you," I say. "It's not exactly the biggest show of power, considering norms can do it, right?"

  "Not from the ground, they can't," he says. "I jumped as high as I could and I still couldn't get air born, so I'm guessing that's a Blackbird specialty, right there."

  Blackbird. It's not nearly as hardcore sounding as Falconess. In fact, it's sort of ordinary sounding. You see blackbirds everywhere. I mean, I guess I could go by Crow, or Raven, but... "Think I should dye my hair?" I ask, thoughtfully.

  "Ace could make it look like a bird!" Freddy offers.

  "NO!" most of the people around us say.

  "I don't plan on any hair sculpting," I tell him. "It might work for you, but I'm just not cut out for it."

  Olivia groans. "That was a terrible pun," she complains.

  "Yeah, yeah," I say, only to frown. "Mother's still out there. We didn't capture her, we didn't do anything, really, except put on a show--"

  "You did do something," I hear someone say from behind me. I turn, watching as Hard Knocks walks into the campus. "You saved me. And you did it without exposing my problem to the super world, much less the norms. If the norms knew that we could be brainwashed and used as weapons, the entire push of the Anti-Supers would gain far more momentum than we could handle," he says as a boy that looks a lot like his son steps out from behind him. He turns to the boy, smiling and holding out his hand. "Thank you."

  The boy seems to morph as the illusion drops and Ace takes the offered hand. "Not a problem," he says. "It's what I do."

  "I can see that," Hard Knocks says, frowning slightly. "You know, I thought it was a joke, when he started talking about the villains during the tour, but there might be something to it. I really don't think that what just happened would have worked out so well if a hero faced me."

  "Your rep would have been a little tarnished, but nothing too bad," Nico says as he heads for us. "We would have wrote it off as a misunderstanding. But it was still easier to use Ace for the job. Now, I know Superior said he fixed your brainwashing, but I'm paranoid, so you, you and you," he says, motioning to the Hard Knocks family. "Come here and watch this video, we'll see if there's anything left. Also, did you tell her our coordinates?" he asks as he leads them away.

  "No. I would never tell anyone that hasn't been given them by you--it goes against my code, since this is a Hall facility. I don't think she could make me do anything I wouldn't have done normally."

  "Good."

  I step back, watching the three stare intently at the video that Nico shows them, and jerk slightly as my phone rings. I did not expect that, I think as I gently free myself of Elidee and Olivia. I walk down the steps as I answer the phone. It can only be someone that Nico knows, so I'm not worried, but a little privacy is always nice.

  "Hello?" I say.

  "Are you okay?" Andre Harrison asks. I hear another line trying to ring through. I bet it's Aunt Barb. I'll call her back.

  "I'm fine," I say, letting out a laugh. "It was actually a lot of fun," I admit. "We saved the day by being villains, Mr. Harrison--I never actually believed that could happen!"

  "Nico has a strange way of looking at the world," he says, his tone turning amused. "You looked amazing, by the way. Was it all illusion?"

  "Well, a lot of it was--the stuff I used, at
least. But I think we're going to add it to the uniform that Nico's building me. I was the one that made me fly at the end--with the help of the wing suit. And I'm really getting fond of the bow and arrow, but Nico said something about rockets, so I have no idea what my final weapon will be. Maybe I'll just stick with trick arrows, you know?" I drop down on the steps, still running on adrenaline. "I just acted like a working cape, Mr. Harrison!" I say excitedly.

  "You did," he agrees. "Do you want to give up on the reporter part?"

  "No way--I actually interviewed Ace right before we did this--just for the school, sure, but I did it! If there was a way to combine the two--you know, like acting as a villain and getting scoops on the other villains, that would be the perfect job!"

  "That's actually what I had in mind," he says. "It's to be assumed that not all villains will willingly sit down for a chat--that's why we only have a small amount of villain interviews on HTV. We try to get more, but more often we get second-hand ones, or none at all. With you, and any of the others we get, we can send you in to spy on them. And if you get caught, well, you're just the competition, not an actual threat."

  "And by going to Cape High, I get the chance to become friends with the up and coming big three, right?" I say. "Or, in some cases, their girlfriends, right?" I grin, leaning back and crossing my legs as I admire the plan.

  "We won't mind," Ace says. I literally jump, turning to look at him. He's just sitting a few steps up from me, and I'm pretty sure he's been there for a while. "I mean, seriously, the latest trend in villainy around here is personalized mics. In fact, if I called Max he'd be stoked to hear we're getting our own personal reporter."

  "Really?" I say. "So... I can call you guys up and say I want an interview, and then we can make it LOOK really dramatic, like I'm spying on your latest plans?"

  "Sounds fun," he says, grinning.

  "How about your love life?" I ask evilly.

  "Keep your nose out of that," he says.

  "But I really want to meet Morgan now!" I say. "Oh, Mr. Harrison, Aunt Barb has been trying to call me for a while. Can I call you back after I tell her I'm okay?"