Life Light (12 page)

"Ooooooh," the audience says, watching as she plummets to her "death." Dramatically, mere feet from the ground, she teleports. She plans to appear right behind Ace—and for a moment she thinks he has. It's a tall figure in a dark, Gothic suit. He even has a red lined short cloak over his shoulders, and a tall, striped top hat. He turns, taking the hat off and bowing in a courtly manner for her—

The face is of a creepy looking clown. Before her very eyes, the outfit changes to an eerily glowing clown suit. "Hello, little girl," the clown says in a high-pitched giggle, "do you like magic tricks?"

Before she can answer, he waves his hand dramatically before reaching into his top hat. He reaches further and further, his arm disappearing up to his upper arm before he starts pulling something out. Emily watches wide-eyed as the carousel bear is pulled head-first out of the hat. "Lookie, lookie! It's an old friend of yours!" the clown cackles as the bear grows larger and larger. It snarls and she does the first thing to come to her mind—she turns and runs the opposite direction.

"She's supposed to win this, right?" I can't help but ask, my hands gripping the armrests of my chair, barely staying in my seat. I REALLY want to go in there and help, which is ridiculous. Emily's far more capable of dealing with this than I am—but she's my LITTLE sister! My adorable Emily and Ditto and even Repeat—

"Oh, she's just playing this up," Duplicitous says, looking quite proud. "She's good. She's actually making the audience worried."

"I'm going to have to give Ace some more debuts," Nico says, grinning as he leans back in his chair. "I haven't had to give him ideas once."

"That's because Emily spent almost a month telling me things that she'd like to do," I hear Ace say over the speakers. "This is just a combination of some of her ideas—done in my personal style."

"You should bring Alyssa in soon, or at least have her easy to find," Nico says. "Like we said earlier, we don't want to drag this out too long."

"On it," Ace says.

"So Grandma and Grandpa Superior are watching, right?" I ask Duplicitous, only just daring to glance over at her.

"Of course. We're having a huge party back home—your grandparents, Cosmic, the original me, Isotonic, and that little phaser girl that Tatia just brought home," Duplicitous says, a bowl of popcorn appearing on her lap. "I think she plans on keeping her," she adds with a sly glance over at Nico.

Nico chokes.

***

"How are you enjoying the show?" the casual question isn't blasted over the speakers, but Emily hears it, regardless. She dares to glance up to the balconies, where she sees Ace standing next to a black girl in a bright neon outfit. If her eyes weren't so good, she would have just assumed it was another of his fake "crowd." Instead, she picks up on the rolling eyes and the way the girl reaches down and messes with the neon skirt she's wearing.

"Found her," she says with a little grin. "Girls, time to wrap up the show," she calls over to her doppelgangers.

"Awww, but I like the kitties!" Repeat says, kicking one of the lions in the jaw. Even as she says that, the carousel bear tackles Emily to the ground, roaring in her face. Emily brings her knees up to her chest and shoves him off of her, sending him flying.

"Is that not enough, little girl?" the clown asks. Two more just like him appear, surrounding her with their hats in their hands. They each reach into the hats and pull out another of the carousel creatures, including the horse. Emily takes a moment to look around with faked terror—and then teleports away,

"I'm sort of stuck over here!" Ditto yells, jerking dramatically at the ropes that tie her to the spinning wheel. She lets out a yelp as a sword barely misses her face. "Can somebody PLEASE get me out?"

Emily races for her, since Repeat seems to be enjoying herself. Before she can reach the sword thrower, though, the carousel horse hits her with its side. She doesn't hesitate, she grabs the pommel and swings into the saddle, grabbing the reins and pulling on them hard. The carousel horse rears, pawing at the air.

She jerks, sending the horse plowing straight into the sword thrower. "I don't know how to make it stop, so brace yourself!" she yells at Ditto as the horse keeps careening forward and slams into the wheel that Ditto's attached to. It comes off its holder and rolls for a while before falling like a quarter—heads down.

"Ow," Ditto complains from under the wheel. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Throw up later, go get Repeat now!" Emily yells as the carousel horse starts bucking like a bronco.

"Just… need… to—got it!" Ditto says, falling off of the wheel. "All those sharp objects came in handy," she says as she shoves the wheel off of her, tugging the ropes off of her wrists and ankles. She looks at Emily, who's still holding on tight to the carousel horse, and races off to the lion cage.

"Do you know how to pick locks?" Repeat asks as she struggles to keep a lion from biting her head off.

"Not a clue!" Ditto replies cheerfully. "Think he left a key under a rock somewhere?"

"Can I get a different super hero over here?" Repeat shouts over to Emily. "This one's defective!"

"But I do have an ax," Ditto says innocently, holding up the ax in question. "Does that work for you, miss complainer?" she demands as she starts hacking at the lock on the cage door.

"Hey! Here, boys, here!" Emily shouts at the other carousel creatures, still sticking stubbornly on the back of the horse. "Come and get me!" The bear and the other two react, slamming into the carousel horse she's riding from all directions. Emily teleports right before they hit, leaving them in a broken pile of wooden pieces.

Ace almost chokes on his popcorn as she appears perched on the railing of his balcony. "Enjoying the show?" she asks with a grin before tackling him.

He disappears in a dramatic poof of smoke, revealing he was an illusion all along. "Darn it—this isn't the end of it, Dragon!" Emily yells, waving her fist at the air. "Are you an illusion, too?" she asks Alyssa.

"No, trust me, all real," Alyssa says, holding up her hands. "He probably figured I wasn't worth fighting over."

The world seems to turn sepia in color before fading away, leaving Ditto and Repeat in ridiculous poses. The warehouse is just that, now—a warehouse. "We should leave," Emily declares. "You need to be checked out."

"You saved me," Alyssa says. "Thank you, Divine Justice."

"No need for thanks," Emily says proudly, striking a pose, "I'm only doing my duty."

The feed cuts off with a close up on her masked face.

***

“And that’s a wrap,” I hear Andre say. “Good job, everyone, hopefully that will buy us some time to find the hidden capes.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Andre,” Nico says. Duplicitous hugs me goodbye and teleports, leaving us alone. “Everyone head to the school, we need to pack before we head out.”

“Are you sure I can’t go with one of the teams?” I ask. “I think it’s only right that I be in the field for this--it’s my fault.”

“We need you somewhere all the teams can get to,” Nico says.

“You’re a technopath--can’t you hook up a mobile system?” I ask. “I need to help as much as I can, Nico. I feel so guilty.”

“Hey, Nico? Can you hijack the system for me? This is too good an opening to let go,” I hear Ace say.

“Sure,” Nico says. The screen in front of us goes static for a second before Ace’s Dragon appears on the screen. “This is a message for Double Jeopardy,” he says. A toothy grin crosses his face. “First off, if there are three of you, your name doesn't work—it should be triple jeopardy! You really need to get that fixed. And secondly, one lucky fight doesn’t equal winning the war!”

I can hear Alyssa yelling from outside, "HER NAME IS DIVINE JUSTICE, YOU IDIOT!" but thankfully the camera doesn't pick it up, or someone blocks it out.

The screen went static again before turning back into norm television. “Wait--you hijacked NORM TV with that?” I demand.

“The entire thing was on Hero TV and norm television,” Nico says. “The entire reason we did it was to make norms think Ace caused the outing. So, yes, I hijacked it for that, and for everything else.”

“That CAN’T be legal,” I have to point out.

“It’s not, but so far we haven’t had any complaints--other than Double M has to warn them ahead of time.” He stands. “Now, let’s go meet Alyssa and we’ll discuss your fieldwork there.”

“So you’ll let me go?” I ask eagerly.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you called it my ‘fieldwork,’” I say as I follow him out of the room. “That implies I’m working out in the field--I really want to help with this, Nico, I need to take responsibility--”

“Aubrey,” he says, turning to look at me, “you take responsibility for way more than you’ll ever need to already. This was an accident--one that’s easily covered up by the fact that we’re supers. We do stupid stuff like this on a daily basis--on purpose. What we have now is just another dramatic plot to keep the norms entertained. They won’t take it seriously, which is exactly what we need to happen.”

“That doesn’t tell me why I can’t be in the field!” I protest.

“Great job, Em,” Nico says instead, heading for the two girls standing in the front part of the building we “borrowed” for our work. “Everyone’s going to be talking about you for months.”

“That was so fun! Duplicitous was with you, right? She just stopped by and said I did an AWESOME job!” Em says, practically bouncing. “We can do it again, right? Ace and me? Because I think I’ve got some new ideas on how to make it even more dramatic--”

“I’m planning on it. Alyssa, I don’t think I’ve introduced myself properly,” he goes on to the girl next to her. “Nico Masters, AKA Technico,” he says, holding out his hand. “Welcome to Cape High, I’ll be your principal for the foreseeable future.”

“Hi,” Alyssa says, looking at his hand for a long, long moment before taking it. I see her grit her teeth, as if expecting something to happen. Her eyes widen slightly, though, when nothing does.

“Your healing is different from Aubrey’s,” Nico tells her. “From what I've heard, though, you're having a bit of difficulty with it, right?"

“Aubrey--” she says, looking at me.

I haul her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her tightly. “I’ve always wanted to meet another,” I tell her. She’s stiff as a board, and I know she’s trying to keep her cheek from touching mine. Deliberately I lean closer, touching cheeks in the hug.

I feel my power kick in.

“What--wait--stop--” she tries to pull away, but I keep her held tightly in my arms, my powers scanning her thoroughly.

“There,” I say, seeing the problem. I can actually see the block on her self-healing ability lifting, and her self-healing start to work properly.

“What are you doing to me?” she demands.

I pull away, reaching down and taking her hands in mine. “It’s going to be easier, now,” I tell her, my heart breaking as I realize what I just fixed. “Not perfect, you’ll still feel an instance of pain, but you’ll heal it, now,” I tell her. “There’s a chance the problem would have sorted itself out in a few years, but there’s no reason to wait that long. Now! Whose team will I be on?”

“Still mine,” Nico says.

“So you’re going out--”

“Nope, I’m working from home,” he tells me. “Emily, go change--make sure you put a hat on, we’re heading back to school to assign the teams.”

“Okay!” she says, heading for an empty room.

I glare at Nico. “You don’t understand--” I start out.

“No, Aubrey, you’re the one that doesn’t understand,” Nico tells me. “They’re ALL going to want to talk to you. In order for me to make that possible, you need to stay right here and keep track of everything going on. I know Liz named you off the top of her head, but she wasn’t that far off--you’re a life light, kiddo. You give everyone hope.”

“What should I do?” Alyssa asks.

“You’re going to start training--” Nico starts out. He stops as the door opens and a rather plain looking teenage boy walks in with his hands in his pockets. For a moment I just stare at the newcomer, wondering what on Earth is happening, and then Nico goes, “Nice disguise.”

The illusion drops. “I think we should keep using her,” Ace says. “She’ll be the perfect running gag for this set-up--like I’ll kidnap her back from Em, and she’ll get her back again.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Nico says. “You’ve got more important work to do than goof off with cute girls. I’m assigning you a group and sending you north. You’re the headliner of this gig and that’s where most of the healers were outed.”

“What group?” Ace asks.

“You’ll find out when we get to school,” Nico says as Emily steps out of the other room, dressed in norm clothes. Reluctantly I follow him out, getting into the van he borrowed from the Hall. We pull to a stop in front of the canyon and head in, where the rest of the school is waiting.

“Because Sunny and Adanna are still down south, helping with clean-up duty, they won’t be joining us,” Nico says as we join the others. “Some of the teams will have less people than others--if anyone has a problem with this, speak now.”

Nobody says a word.

“Since Emily’s debuted, we now have three hero teams and three villain teams. Trent, Emily, and Vinny, stand to my right. Jack, Max, and Ace, you’re on my left,” he tells them. “When I call out your name, move to the leader I’ve assigned you.” He rattles off all the names in the group, putting them with their new leader. My name doesn’t get called until last. “Aubrey, Alyssa, you’re with me.”

“I get to work with Trent again!” Carla says, bouncing up and down. “Wait--does that mean Brandon and Ward are going to be bad guys? They’re working for Jack, right?”

“It’s okay,” I hear Brandon say. His voice is soft and slightly amused. He doesn’t sound nearly as nervous as he used to. “I don’t mind being a bad guy.”

“You’re gonna haveta show yourself, man, otherwise I might run you over,” Jack says a bit too bluntly. I let out a sigh, knowing that lecturing him on treating the zoo kids nicely is a waste of time, really. To my surprise, though, Brandon appears. He’s a thin black teenager--he’s grown since I last saw him, I noticed, and his hair has turned into an afro. I wonder if he’ll let me cut it before he leaves.