by R. J. Ross
“I don’t like her, so I’m not going,” Treble says.
“Oh, right, she did kick your butt, didn’t she?” Cisco says. “We’ve seen that video a couple of times, already.”
“I’d rather not remember.”
“But it’s what got you into this school, right?” Jimmi says. “Even my dad has a hard time against Skye, so you really shouldn’t take it so personally.”
“Voltdrain does?” Treble asks.
“Sure he does, that’s why he just brings her food most of the time and it calms her down,” she says. “We keep inviting her and the girls to dinner over at our house, too. Speaking of which, Carla, would you like to come over tomorrow night to eat?”
“Sure!” I say, fighting the urge to run to the entrance. I’m feeling much better about this trip, since going to class. I think everyone will be really nice! I can’t wait to start working, too! I hardly ever get to go out on shows, back home. Sure, I got to do the debut against Bombastic, but that was FOREVER ago. Oh, and then I got to foil Max’s attempt to take over the Hall, but that was a long time ago, too, so I think I’m getting rusty.
“CARLA!” I hear Skye shout through the security field. “Carla, Carla! We got you the entire set of Deadly Darlin’s ACTION FIGURES!”
I stop, my mouth dropping down before I let out a little squeal and race for the entrance. I have practice entering and exiting the system at top speed, so I blur through it, throwing myself at the super villain waiting for me expectantly.
“SKYE!” I yell excitedly as she picks me up and swings me around.
“CARLA!” she says, putting me down and striking her forties boxer pose. “My NEMESIS!”
“Come to the light side, Skye!” I say, striking a dramatic pose of my own. I hear a roar of laughter from inside the security field and I fight the grin that’s threatening. “You’re better than this!”
“Of course I am!” she says, striking a tragic pose, “but I can’t seem to stop.”
I fall to the ground, stomach down. “Your logic has defeated me,” I say.
“DOG PILE!” Skye decrees, jumping on top of me. Ariel shrugs and then sits on her back, while Doris just rolls her eyes. “Hi,” Skye says, grinning at me. “We went shopping!” She phases through Ariel, leaving the water mimic sitting on my back. “Also, Nico’s on the phone with Century about tomorrow’s gig, you want to be in it?”
“Do I!” I say, hopping to my feet as Ariel floats aside. “Where’s it at?”
“An ice cream store!”
“I am SO IN,” I say. “Oh, um, can my new classmates and probably the teachers come out and get your signatures?”
“Yes! I can do their debuts!” Skye says.
“No you can’t,” Doris says.
“Why can’t I?”
“Because Century said you’re banned from doing debuts. Ariel or I could do them, but you can’t,” Doris tells her.
“But I WANT to debut people! Max debuts people!”
“Max plays along with being beaten by a newbie, and you have to be distracted just to be beaten by our nemeses,” Ariel says. “Carla, how’s Malina? Is she going to be lonely without you there?”
“She’s tough! And she’s got all of the other zoo kids there, AND I promised to call her a lot,” I say. “Everyone! You can come out, now!”
A group of people come out of the security field. “That’s sort of freaky looking,” Ariel says.
“I told Skye we shouldn’t watch that horror movie,” Doris says.
“Everyone, this is Skye, Ariel, and Doris!” I say, introducing them. “They’re the Deadly Darlin’s, and someday some of you will be going up against them!” The girls are surrounded by people a second later, with only the older teachers standing back and watching this with amusement. “Probably not any time soon, but someday! Well, except for you, Jimmi, I bet you could go up against them with no problems.”
“As soon as I get a better grasp on flying,” Jimmi says. “Papa says it shouldn’t be long. I’m picking up on it faster than he did!”
“You’re learning to fly?” I ask, excitedly. “I was wondering if you would!”
“Papa says he didn’t learn to fly until he was almost twenty. It isn’t like other capes, we’re actively channeling the energy that we’ve absorbed. Er, I would go on, but Papa wouldn’t appreciate me explaining it in front of them, I think,” she says, glancing at the Deadly Darlin’s.
“Oh, I knew how he flew YEARS ago,” Skye says, waving a hand. “I specialize in understanding powers, remember? It’s all good, It’d be a pain to fight until he’s out of energy, anyway. It’d probably take a few days, at least.”
“And she barely has the attention span for half an hour,” Doris says.
“That’s why they invented commercials!” Ariel says with a wide smile. She looks over at the teachers, curiously. “Um, are we going to have to fight any of them?”
“Nope! But it would be lots of fun, especially… her, and her!” Skye says, pointing at Angel and Cheval. She floats over to them, smiling eagerly. “You two can come out of retirement to play with me, right?”
“You’re adorable, but no,” Cheval says, patting her on the cheek. “But I’m sure when Whitney gets a little older, she’ll love to play with you, right, sweetie?”
“WHITNEY!” Skye says, as if just noticing the girl. “Hi! Let’s go on another adventure!”
“We’re skipping class for this, already, though,” Whitney says. “Um, can you sign Marisol’s autograph book?” She points to the young teenager who’s just standing there, shaking slightly, with the book held in white-knuckled hands.
“A new one!” Skye says excitedly, running over to her. “Ooooh, you’re interesting!” She pinches the poor girl’s cheeks, and then makes her do a fish face before grabbing both of her arms and lifting them over her head.
“Are you checking my power levels?” Marisol asks eagerly.
“Nope!” Skye says with a brilliant smile.
“Carla?” Doris says from right next to me. I look up, distracted from watching Skye. “Can we talk for a little bit?”
“Sure!” I say, looking around. “Will over there work?” I ask, pointing to a distant spot. She nods and we head there. All the while, I’m wondering what’s going on. I haven’t spoken to Doris much, at all. I look at her curiously as we stop, waiting for her to say something.
“Something’s off about Skye,” she says.
“What?”
“It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? She’s always a little bit off, but it just got worse. She went to see Nico, over at Ruckus and Dolly’s place, and ever since she came back, she’s been a bit…”
“Frantic,” Ariel says from behind me. I almost jump. I didn’t realize she had followed us.
“I didn’t notice,” I admit, “but I believe you, I promise. You’re her partners, you know her best. I can ask Nico what happened?”
“Yeah,” Doris says. “Thanks.”
“It started before she went there, though,” Ariel says. “Ever since the cameras found that thing in the woods, she’s been acting weird… er.”
“We’re pretty lax on weirdness, you know?” Doris says, looking over at Skye. “But whenever I shift, I can smell fear coming off of her. It’s not quite to where I can smell it in this form, but it’s definitely there.”
“What could Skye be afraid of?” I ask, blankly. “I’ve seen her face down dinosaurs and an entire field of super haters without even blinking. Not to mention, she’s a Superior, right?”
“But she wasn’t always one,” Doris says. “Plus, we’re all wondering why they brought you down here.”
“Umm…” I say as I ponder how to put it. “Ruckus wanted a third partner for your fights, but I’m just doing it for a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah? Makes sense,” Doris says, thoughtfully. “We have them outpowered and outnumbered. Not that it matters with these two airhea—darlin’s,” she says.
“SKYYYYEEE!” Ariel call
s out, “she almost called us airheads again!”
“BIKINI OF SHAME!” Skye bellows, pointing at Doris.
“I didn’t finish the word!” Doris yells back. “For crying out loud, shouldn’t we at least get a NEW one? I’m really sick of the yellow polka dots. Yellow isn’t even my color.”
“You’ve got a bikini of shame?” I ask.
“It’s a teeny tiny itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini,” Ariel says. “But it only works on Doris because I don’t like clothing in the first place.”
“So how do they punish you?” I ask her.
“We make her do homework,” Doris says. “She’s reading at a fifth grade level, already, though, so it’s a good thing.”
“And how do you punish Skye?” I ask, trying not to laugh.
“We take away her video game system,” Ariel says. “She whines about it for about twenty minutes and then starts drawing another of her ‘comics.’”
“Which is more punishment for us than for her,” Doris mutters.
“Whatcha talking about?” Skye asks, coming over.
“Everyone, grab some of the things that they brought and we’ll take it all in,” Horizon calls out. We all look over, thankful for the distraction. “It’s almost time for your next class.”
“You’re going to sleep over at our place, right?” Skye asks me. “We can have a sleepover and do our makeup and have a pillow fight!”
“Maybe this weekend?” I say. “But I’m taking classes here, so I have to be back for training by Monday!”
“We can do that!” Skye says.
“I’ve got to go, now,” I say. “Thank you for shopping for me! I’m sure you brought LOTS of cool stuff!”
“We did!” Skye says.
I look at her for a second, Doris’s words playing through my mind, and I wrap my arms around her waist. “It’s okay, Skye,” I say, hugging her tightly. “It’s all going to be okay.”
“Well, of course it is, silly!” she says, but I hear a hint of something in her voice. Maybe Doris wasn’t imagining things, after all.
CHAPTER FIVE
*Skye’s “Secret” Base*
It’s well past midnight, and she’s almost positive that Doris and Ariel are asleep. Skye isn’t. She’s lying on her massive bed, staring up at the concrete ceiling, memories from long ago replaying over and over again in her mind. She grips the sheets, her knuckles turning white, only to let go when she hears the cloth start to rip. She takes a deep breath, sitting up and letting it out slowly.
“I have to get out of here,” she whispers to herself, standing on the bed and then going straight up through the ceiling. She takes another deep breath as soon as she reaches the surface. The moon is high above her, the grass and trees are rustling with the breeze, and—
She sits on the grass, hugging her knees to her chest. It hadn’t all been just in her head. He’s still watching her. Her… dad.
“No,” she says. “No, that’s not my dad. My dad is Superior. My dad is Superior,” she repeats, more firmly. “That was just a crazy jerk that liked to experiment on helpless little girls. He’s NOT my dad. He’s not.”
She falls onto her back, staring up at the moon with a mix of feelings. Maybe she should teleport up there to the Arctic Circle and make Tatiana wake up and make her cookies and hot chocolate, and then she’ll bug Superior until he offers her money to go shopping, again, and make him swear that he’ll never, ever lock her up and experiment on her… well, Superior wouldn’t NEED to do that, she realizes, starting to smile. If Superior wanted to know something about her, he’d just stare at her for a little while before patting her on the head and telling her to go bug her mother. He was the first one to realize that she wasn’t crazy, that she was smart. Sure, Nico and he fight all the time, but they never, ever turn on her. They spoil her.
That’s her family, not Richard Penski.
She digs out her phone, the one that she hasn’t broken simply because Nico made it for her. She taps on the screen, and Superior’s face appears on the screen. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asks.
“Just wanted to say hi,” she says, giving him a wide grin and waving at the screen. “Hi.”
“Hi, Skye,” he says, looking amused. “Have you started playing the boy’s game, yet?”
“That Technico game?” she asks. “But I don’t WANT to take down Nico, so there’s nothing for me to do in it, right?”
“There are a lot of other things to do,” he says. “Your mother’s got an entire string of vacation islands for you to visit, for one.”
“Vacation islands?” she asks. “That sounds fun!”
“We’ve got a real one that we’re building, as well, if you want to bring the girls up for a week,” he says.
“That sounds like fun, too, but we’ve got work for the next two weeks,” she says, “and Carla’s down here just so she can play with us.”
“That sounds fun, too,” he says, looking intrigued. “Maybe I should come visit.”
“Yes!” she says. “Oh, but you can’t just leave Mom up there with the crazy-eye lady, that would be mean.”
“Nah, they get along fine.” He looks at her for a second, thoughtfully. “Why did you really call?”
“Why shouldn’t I call my only dad?” she asks, trying to sound innocent.
“In the middle of the night?”
She chews on her bottom lip, looking away from the screen. “I was… just reminding myself who I am,” she says.
“A Superior,” he says, watching her closely, “not by birth, but by merit, which is even more impressive. Plus, it’s a lot less likely to get Tatiana angry at me.”
“Um…”
“What?”
“If… if…” she stops, trying to figure out what to say. “I can… come visit anytime I want, right?”
“Middle of the night doesn’t mean a thing up here,” he agrees. “You’ve got the teleportation booth, right? Drop in whenever you’ve got the urge. Nico does it, and I don’t even invite him.”
“You don’t have to invite him, he’s your son!” she says.
“Exactly,” he says. “And you’re my daughter, right? If anything, I like you better than him.”
“That’s not fair, you’re supposed to love your children equally,” she lectures him, even though it does make her feel good.
“I love him, sure, but liking and loving are completely different things.”
“It’s because we’re too much alike,” Nico says, interrupting the call. “If it makes you feel better, Skye, I like you better than him, as well. Now go get some sleep. Carla needs you at the top of your game for tomorrow’s gig.”
“Okay!” she says, yawning. “I’ll go do that.” She hangs up and sinks down through the ground, falling into the bed. She’s asleep within seconds.
***
“What’s wrong with her?” Superior asks his son, the call still on for the other two.
“She’s got a stalker,” Nico says, “and I think she might know who it is.”
“A stalker,” Superior repeats, almost blandly.
“I’ve got it in hand,” Nico says. “You’re also forgetting what you just told her. She’s a Superior by merit. She could handle this, if she needed to.” There’s a stretch of silence as they look at each other over the monitor. There’s the exact same expression on each face.
“How long has it been going on?”
“I’m starting to think longer than we’ve known her,” Nico admits. “All her paranoia about being watched, well, I don’t think it was paranoia at all.”
“I’m going down there,” Superior says, starting to stand.
“I’m almost positive it’s a norm,” Nico says.
“Her stalker’s a norm? Wait a second, you let Carla go down there, knowing that she had a stalker problem?” Superior demands.
“I wanted to distract her,” Nico says, “and Carla is a perfect distraction.”
“That… makes sense,” Superior admits. “So you want her
distracted while you hunt down and take care of her stalker?”
“She’s my little sister,” Nico says.
“She’s adopted, or to put it more bluntly, she adopted herself, and you’ll still go that far?”
“I wasn’t lying when I said I like her better than you. If she wants to be my little sister, I’m going to treat her exactly like that.”
“And how do you know about her stalker?” Superior asks.
“Someone’s been filming her.”
“And you haven’t followed the feed?”
“It led to an old computer set up in an empty warehouse in England,” Nico says irritably. “I’ve got the capes over there watching to see who collects the data, but they weren’t really interested in doing it for free. I set up a camera, though, so we’ll see how that goes.”
“So you think whoever is stalking her set up a drop-off point of sorts overseas?”
“And has someone collecting the film and sending it to him through another channel, either physically, or digitally, but I’m leaning towards physically. I would be able to find it if it was digital.”
“How DID Knight take you entering his territory without permission?” Superior asks, looking amused.
“He’s trying to blackmail me,” Nico says. His father laughs outright. “He says that just because America is bigger doesn’t mean we should have a better education system for our capes. And now that I owe him a favor, he plans on putting me to work. Joke’s on him, though, since I have no clue what sort of education they have in England.”
“Don’t lie, son, you don’t have a clue about the education here, either,” Superior says dryly. Nico starts to laugh, shamelessly.
“That’s the truth,” he says. “Thankfully, we can hire people that do that part of the job. But I don’t particularly plan on starting a Cape High England. I might send over the blueprints, though, and let them work it out themselves. Knight seems like a decent enough guy.”
“I knew his father,” Superior says.
“Yeah?”
“He was one of those capes that your mother thought was… attractive,” Superior says darkly. “I never did like the guy, because of that.”