Life Light (18 page)

Keliah’s so red that I bet you could cook something on her forehead. Carla is completely oblivious as she drops down on the bench next to us.

“And even though you’re amazing, I still won’t let you have Jack," I tell Keliah firmly. “Let me introduce you to Lance, he’s closer to your age! Or Brandon wouldn’t be bad--he’s already lined up to be Jack’s right hand man!”

“Lance is cuter than Jack is, anyway,” Carla says, stealing a bite of Keliah’s ice cream when she’s not looking. "Actually, Brandon is pretty cute, too, don't you think?"

“Hey, that’s mine!” Keliah says, jerking her dish away.

“But I already finished mine and yours is melting!” Carla says, trying to reach around the other girl and get more.

“You eat too fast--don’t you get brain freeze?” Keliah demands. “And I can’t date an invisible boy, people would think I was crazy whenever we walked down the street.”

“She’d be talking to her invisible boyfriend!” Carla says, laughing her head off.

“That’s our brother you’re talking about,” I say.

“But it was still funny,” Carla says, another spoonful of Keliah’s ice cream in her hand. “And Brandon needs a haircut, or at least a trim,” she tells me.

“Oh, I knew I was forgetting something!” I say. “Nico, can we go to Jack’s team before going back to Grandma’s? I want to give Brandon a haircut.”

“I want to go! I’ve got more experience with his type of hair than you do,” Carla tells me. “I used to cut my brothers’ hair all the time.”

“Sure, but we’ll have to drop Carla off--” Nico stops as someone approaches our table. “Aubrey? You’ve got a visitor.”

I turn, looking at a somewhat stout teenage boy standing behind me. I know him—he was in my dream! He looks nervous, in fact I can feel the tension rolling off of him. “Are you the one?” he asks me, his voice low. He seems to have picked up on our whispered style of talking. "When it happened, I think I heard your voice. I know you."

“I’m sorry,” I say, getting up. “I didn’t mean for it to happen--” I let out a little yelp as he throws his arms around me. I feel him shaking, and to my shock I realize he’s crying silently.

“This is sudden, I know, but—" He takes a deep, shuddering breath, "please take me with you,” he begs. “I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t touch anyone in the halls, I can’t do sports, I can't join clubs, everyone treated me like a freak even BEFORE I started floating--”

Before I can reply, I see a green light flicker over him. I look at Nico, who’s staring at his phone. “We'll take you,” Nico says. “But we’ll have to go through all the paperwork and talk with your parents. I’ll send one of my teachers to do that.”

The boy pulls away from me, looking flustered. “Don’t you have to do tests before letting me in? Or at least check my IQ? It's a private school! They're supposed to be hard to get into, right?”

“IQ?” Nico repeats. “Does anyone in our community care about IQ?” he asks the group at large.

“Depends on their super powers,” Trent says. “We expect the bad guys and the leaders to be smart, the rest of us usually get by with a bright smile and a good gimmick. And bad guys like Jack can get away with just having a really shiny ability.”

“Trent, you know that’s not true!” I scold him. He looks at me, completely straight-faced for a moment before a grin pulls at his lips. “Okay, that’s not ALWAYS true,” I concede. I look at the new healer. “What’s your name?”

“Bobby,” he says. “Bobby Nett.”

“Well, Bobby, welcome to Cape High,” I say, shaking his hand. I jerk as my power kicks in. I feel my eyes start to glow and my hair try to stand under the hood of my snow suit. I feel his power, and it startles me. I can’t help but show the excitement I feel. “He’s a temporal healer!” I say, turning to the others with excitement.

“What?” most of the group says blankly.

“I’m a biological manipulator,” I say, moving closer and lowering my voice even more. “That means I can manipulate peoples’ bodies and organs to heal them. Alyssa is a wound transferal type healer, which means she transfers their problems to herself--she also has regeneration, which allows her to heal, although in theory she could transfer those wounds to someone else. But Bobby is a temporal healer--that means he can return the body to what it was BEFORE it was wounded. This is amazing!”

“She’s geeking out,” Carla says, patting me on the shoulder, “but it’s okay, we still love you, Aubrey.”

“Thank you,” I drawl.

“We need to get going,” Nico says as I hear several cameras make tiny bleeping sounds. “I can only delete so many pictures of Bob, here,” he adds as he stands. “Everyone grab on, we’re taking the short cut.”

We grab on, and teleport out of there.

***

*Texas*

“I’m not saying I don’t see your wife’s point of view,” Century says as he flies over the national forest, his eyes scanning the territory. He’d put this little visit off for too long--Emily is going to yell at him, he’s sure, but there’s more to running a business AND a Hall than the girl realizes, including dealing with other Hall leaders, like he is now, “but I sent Voltdrain’s daughter to the school, and she’s doing just fine. Why don’t you take your wife--”

“Ex-wife,” Isotonic says.

“Well you can take her, too, if you want--”

“I’m single.”

“You’re not getting any younger, son, I don’t see why you’re waiting!”

“You’re older than I am and still single,” Isotonic points out. “You’ve got no right to lecture me.”

“I can settle down any time I want—I've got time abilities. But that’s not the point of this conversation.”

“Why haven’t you married, Century?” he asks.

“Now, see, you just assume I haven’t,” Century says. “I did marry, once. It was the best twenty years of my life.” His voice is softer. “I still visit her grave every Sunday.”

“No children?”

“Unfortunately, no. It’s hard to love a norm.”

“It’s hard to love another hero, too.”

“Well, regardless--take your ex-wife and your girl down to tour the grounds,” Century says. “Just call Mastermental and tell him you’re interested. I’m sure they’ll roll out the red carpet. I’m a bit surprised you called me, though.” The unspoken fact that they didn’t always see eye to eye is thick in the air.

“I can’t call Mastermental--he’s biased in this case, Cape High is a part of his branch.”

“True,” Century says as he heads for the trap door that leads into Skye’s place. “You don’t mind me hanging up, do you? If Skye catches me breaking into her place, I’ll need my complete focus.”

“Isn’t she still up in the Arctic Circle?”

“She is? That girl,” Century mutters, “she never DOES tell me where she’s going.” He opens the trap door and heads inside, not bothering to be cautious. “Sorry about the territory intrusion--if it were any of my others, I would have an excuse.”

“I met her--she’s intent on calling me a drink.”

“Gin and Tonic?”

“Exactly.”

Century starts to laugh, only to stop as something jumps out of the shadows, tackling him to the ground. “Well, found the roommate,” he says almost casually, even though sharp claws are pressed hard against his throat. “Hello, little Devil, I’ve been wondering if you would show up.”

The beast-like woman opens her mouth, about to scream. She stops completely as he touches her hand and stops her physical time.

“Doris! Doris!! Want to help me look for dinosaur bones? Liz says it's my part of the job—she's setting up the robot parts!” he hears Skye yell from the surface. A second later Skye slides through the ceiling with a brilliant grin of excitement. That grin turns into a dark look as she sees what he did. “Century! Get your hands off of my roommate! And turn her time back on right this instance, mister!”

“Doris?” he hears Isotonic say a bit blankly. He ignores it, pushing the still-transformed Jersey Devil off of him. His attention is fully focused on the enraged looking Skye.

“Now honey--”

“Don’t call me honey!” Skye says.

“Now, sugar,” he says, getting to his feet and holding up his hands, “I was just following Emily’s orders!” Because if there’s one person Skye will do ANYTHING for, it’s Emily, and he’s shameless enough to take advantage of it. “She was worried about you living with a complete stranger, so she asked me to check up on you.”

Skye scowls, and then pouts, and then looks cynical. After all he’s done to keep her out of the cells, he thinks with reluctant amusement, she’s STILL a conspiracy theorist when it comes to him. Well, okay, some of what he does could be considered a conspiracy from her point of view--but this one isn’t! Well... it isn’t exactly.

“I’m perfectly fine with my new roommate! She’s adorable!”

Century looks down at the rather vicious looking beast woman, raising an eyebrow. “Well...” he says, letting it linger too long. He knows he has when she gets right up in his face. “Regardless of how she looks, she’s dangerous--” wrong word, his brain shouts, abort! Abort! “No, dangerous isn’t the right word--”

“I’M MORE DANGEROUS!” Skye bellows, clearly offended.

“Of course you are,” he agrees quickly. He hears Isotonic trying not to laugh. He turns the com-link off. “I just mean she’s an unknown--she needs to be brought up to code in the system. How about this,” he offers, “we take her in for just a little bit, we get her evaluated, and trained to be your fellow super villain. A pair of dangerous female super villains will be a real crowd pleaser!”

“Like partners?” Skye asks in that little voice that tells him he’s found a weak point.

“Exactly like partners,” he agrees, knowing he’ll regret it.

“I can train her!” she declares.

“But weren’t you going to go find dinosaur bones?” he asks.

“Oh... That’s true, it might take me a while to find a triceratops,” she says, frowning slightly. “And if I make Liz wait too long, she might find someone else to make her dinosaur with...”

Liz? His face is blank for a moment before he remembers--”Firefly is helping you make a dinosaur?” he asks. Somehow her getting along with Firefly is more worrying than that time he heard about Firefly almost killing her.

“But I CAN’T!” Skye abruptly wails. “You’re just going to toss her into the Cape Cells and then I would have to break her out, and my new family will get mad at me for it, and--”

“She’s done nothing to get tossed into the Cape Cells,” he says almost blankly. She just automatically jumps to the Cape Cells, he thinks with an inward sigh. “In fact, only you, me, and a few others know about her.”

“What others?” Skye demands, her eyes narrowing.

“Well... Technico, for one,” he admits, foreseeing a giant blow-up any second.

“He does?” she asks, her eyes widening. “That’s PERFECT!” she declares with delight. “HE can train her! He’s a big-wig super trainer!”

He stares at her, his jaw dropping slightly. He’d thought it’d be a knock-down, drag-out fight-- “Sugar, how exactly do you know Technico?” he asks, instead. He idly notes that she hasn’t protested being called “Sugar” at all.

“He’s my new brother! But enough changing the subject, let Doris go!” she says. “I want to tell her she’s going to meet my big brother!”

He wonders if he should call Nico first and make him deal with this decision. No, he decides, Nico deserves it after all the crap he’s put him through. He moves to Doris, crouching down next to her and looking her in the eyes. They’re black where they should be white, with glowing blue for irises. He really wonders if he should just stop Skye’s time and drag the girl away--she’s a possible threat, and he can’t always be here, guarding Skye. But Skye IS dangerous, he reluctantly admits. Very few capes can even touch her if she doesn’t want them to, and apparently she’s adopted the Superior family and gotten away with it. Both factors make her almost impossible to mess with. He sighs and touches the girl’s shoulder, stepping back as she jerks back to life.

“Doris, it’s okay!” Skye stops as Doris lunges at him again. “He’s not here officially, he’s just being nosy.”

“He’s an intruder,” Doris snarls as Skye grabs her.

“He is, but it’s not a work day,” Skye says with a shrug. “I’m back! Did you miss me?” she asks.

The Jersey Devil girl looks at him for a moment before shifting into a woman’s form. She’s wearing Skye’s uniform, he notices--it looks too tight in several areas, since Skye is skinny and this girl is muscular. It’s also pretty tattered. In fact, he thinks as he turns away politely, it’s got a few holes in inappropriate places.

“We’ll get her an outfit that shifts better with her form,” he says as Skye drags her down the hall. “Don’t forget to tell her about Technico--”

“Century, we’ve got a problem,” Isotonic says, over the com link.

“What’s that?”

“Find a television, you’re going to want to see this.”

He starts after the girls, only to hear a scream that could shatter glass.

“Doris, you killed the television!” Skye complains.

“HEROLD!” Doris roars. “I’LL KILL YOU!”

*Missouri*

There's only one person that knows how to find him like he did, Shadowman thinks. Only one person that would even bother, actually… at least, that's the only thing he can think of. The question is, why now? He steps through the shadows, appearing on the street corner of downtown Kansas City. A son. The very idea is messing with his head, and honestly he wonders how it happened. Well, not the basics, of course, but—

If someone had a super kid, wouldn't they just hand the kid over to the Hall the moment they got the chance? He would have! Well, okay, no he wouldn't, but if he wasn't a wanted super villain he would have! Super kids are nothing but trouble! And if the kid has HIS powers (which is most likely, since he never did like super women,) then he is way too much for a norm to handle. Who knows where the kid gets to when the mom isn't looking?

"Excuse me," a man says, making him glance up. While he'd been thinking, he'd been surrounded by people. "Are you—" there's a look of confusion on the man's face, because he doesn't recognize him. Not many people do, Shadowman thinks.

"Sorry, you don't know me," he says, starting to walk through the group.

"Shadowman," the man says. Shadowman goes completely still, a bit shocked at hearing that name from a complete stranger. "Mother wants to speak to you," the man goes on.

"Who?" Shadowman asks.

"Mother. She's got an… offer you can't refuse."

***

“So how long will you be on the road?” I ask Jack and Jeanie. We’re in one of the hotel rooms they rented for the night, sitting on one of the two beds. To the right Brandon is sitting on a chair, a towel draped over his shoulders as Carla cuts his hair. She’s really good at it. The biggest problem is keeping Brandon visible--she keeps having to scold him over that.

“Well, we’re not sure where our target really is,” Jeanie admits. “We know he was at a mall in Kentucky, so we’re going to start in that general area and branch out. But don’t worry, I make sure they get their class assignments! That online system you set up is great, Nico! They can talk with their teachers over their arm panels and everything.”

“I set up what?” Nico asks.

“You didn’t?” she asks.

“Must have been Zoe,” he admits. “She’s been playing with website design during her self-study time lately, she probably thought it’d be good to keep everyone on track.”

“Yet another reason to find her annoying,” Jack says, flipping on the television.

“Zoe isn’t annoying, she’s looking out for our greater good,” I say, although I haven’t even thought of homework since all of this started. Whoops.

“This is an outrage,” the man on the screen says. He’s clearly a politician, since he’s standing at a podium. “Supers have their place, I agree--” I grab Jack’s wrist before he changes the channel, “and that place is NOT in our schools. There’s no reason for battles to take place anywhere near our children. They have clearly overstepped their boundaries, and I, for one, am willing to make sure it never happens again!”

“It wasn’t a battle! We just shot out a tire, for crying out loud!” Carla bellows at the television.

“Senator Herold! Senator Herold!” a news reporter calls, “Isn’t it true that it was merely a publicity stunt so Kid Liberty could talk about treating others fairly?”

“Do you really think a talk like that calls for violence right in front of the school?” he demands. “We deserve to know that our children are safe there! We deserve to know that the supers and their drama is something they’ll only see on television. I love the supers as much as you do, but this time they have gone too far.”

There’s silence from the reporters--which lasts all of a second before a million questions start coming. I look over at Nico, who’s oddly silent. He’s just watching the senator with a thoughtful expression.

“This could make our mission a bit difficult,” Jeanie finally says with a sigh. “Should we call Frank?”

“I’m sure he already knows,” Nico says. “We’re going to have to have a school conference. Carla, do you mind if Jeanie flies you home when you’re done? I need to get back to the new base.”

“You could do it from here, though, right?” I ask.

“I could, but we need to go back, anyway. We’re still going through with the mission, but we’ll have to be a bit stealthier about it.”

“There’s more to it than that, Nico,” Jeanie says as I reluctantly get up and grab my things. “If we’re banned from schools, what happens when someone attacks one? We can’t allow this to go through.”

“We’ll deal with it,” Nico says. “That’s what we have Mastermental for, right?”

“I know... I just worry about all those poor healers,” Jeanie admits. “What you told me about Bobby--how many of them feel the same way? And how many of them saw Senator Herold make that announcement?”

“How come they never called the Hall?” Carla asks.

“We never did,” I point out. “Maybe some of them didn’t even KNOW they were healers until--until I did what I did.” Had I awoken some? It’s a possibility, especially for the younger ones. Even I don’t know what all that beam of light I sent off did. It’s possible that it activated powers. 

“But they could call now,” she says.

“Maybe some will... I hope so, at least,” I admit.

“Are we ready?” Nico asks. I head to the bed, leaning over and kissing Jack on the cheek.

“Be safe, okay?” I tell him.

“I’m a walking tank,” he says, grinning at me. “I’ll be--no, WE’LL be fine, right, guys?”

I look at Brandon, who gives me a little grin, and then at Ward. He’s been oddly quiet this entire time, sitting at the little table next to the window playing on his phone.

“I’m not going super villain,” Ward says. “But as long as Mega’s not bugging me about being his mini-me, I’m good.”

Jack starts laughing. “Oh, man, I can see it!” he says, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, Ward, you and Brandon will be awesome minions--we could terrorize Central! And best of all, no mini-me outfits and photo-shoots!”

“No luring my brothers to the dark side, Jack,” I tell him firmly, “unless they already want to go.” I tell each of them goodbye and grab onto Nico. We teleport out, appearing in his room in Grandma and Grandpa’s place. I’m not even surprised to see Grandpa Superior standing in front of us.

“Senator Herold was in the military back in the seventies,” Grandpa starts out. “He was an architect, one involved in building the new bases, the ones in preparation for the Cold War getting hot.”

“How do you know this?” Nico asks.

“I told him,” Grandma says, stepping into the room. “My mother land, she was very careful to keep track of such bases. When we saw him on the television, I recalled the list of people I was to keep the eye on.”

“I see. So there’s a chance he knew, or possibly even helped, Kunnins,” Nico says. “These old men,” he complains, “they’re really starting to bug me.” He heads for the platform he placed me on, stepping onto it. Images of every single student in the field pop up all around him.

“Attention, Cape High,” he says. I see several of them jerk. I can almost picture him popping up in front of them. “We need to have a little discussion, so take fifteen seconds to find a private place where we can talk.” He waits, and I can practically see him watching his mental clock, because fifteen seconds later he goes, “Is everyone ready?”

A chorus of positive answers greet him. I move closer, standing behind him to see everyone. The images are of their faces, clustered into their groups. I can’t help but wonder how Morgan is doing, paired with Ace and Jimmi like she is. I am absolutely going to call her after this little meeting. “What’s the problem?” Vinny asks.

“We have a senator on our tail,” Nico says bluntly. “We’re going to have to plain suit this job as much as possible. That means turning these little trips into field trips--complete with a teacher leader, understand? Where it’s possible, make contact with the targets, but don’t do it up big unless you can come up with a legitimate reason. That means contacting the local Hall and setting up a gig. Justin,” he says, making the musician look up, “when does your tour start?”

“In a week,” he says. “Is it possible to get this over with before I leave?”

“Nope, the exact opposite,” Nico says. “You once asked Malina to tour with you, right? Well, you’re about to get your request--along with Emily and Freddy as a bonus. Put them to work, Emily can make three stage hands in one, and she’s stronger than any adult norm. Freddy should be useful, as well. This way we can check all the towns you sing in.”

“Shouldn’t we ASK Malina if she wants to be in the shows first?” Emily asks.

“That would be special treatment,” Nico says. “This is part of the mission. We’ve already established that I’m not giving her any, right, Malina?”

“Right,” Malina says firmly. I’m so proud of her right now.

“Jack,” Nico says, “come up with something.”

“Hey! How come you give Justin and them a full-out cover and I get stuck with ‘Come up with something’?” Jack demands. “Y’might not have noticed, but I’m not exactly built to fit in!”

“I know what he should do,” I say, stepping forward. “But we’re going to need your help, Nico, so no abandoning him just because you think it’s funny,” I add, giving him a scolding look.

“Okay, what is it?” Nico asks.

“A super villain tour. He can meet the villains around the world, show up in random places to cause a scene, maybe even do some debuts,” I say. Both of them jerk, looking surprised. “We’ve already met Aunt Skye, right? And we know Pan! So why not have him go around and introduce himself to the other super villains? They can react however they want, but they’re supers--they should want to make a spectacle of it, right?” I have to add, though, “You had better keep my little brothers safe while you’re doing it, got it?”

“I know, I know,” Jack says, glancing to the left and right. “They’re tougher than you think, Aub, they’ll do just fine.”

“That works for me. I’ll make some calls and get you a schedule,” Nico says. “Ace, you can go the spectacle route, too--Aubrey’s already gotten you permission to enter North Hall territory, right?” he says to me. I nod. “So we’re going to hand you and your team over to Isotonic for a bit. We’ll offer you up for debuts and hero highlighting, and have them arranged near the areas the healers were spotted. You’ve got the most outed heroes in your area, so make sure you spread out.”

“I can do the same,” Max offers. “Meeting other super villains and offering up my debut services sounds entertaining.”

“That works,” Nico agrees. “Vinny, you’re going south again. We’ll offer you up to Century for the most part, shake hands, kiss babies, and most importantly, get into the schools to give ‘everyone is special’ speeches.  Trent, you do the same. We’ve found one already in Central, but there’s a good chance there are more. Just remember, the senator is wrong. We’re not out to endanger norms--”

“We’re out to save supers,” I finish. “We can’t risk another collector showing up, guys, I couldn’t--I couldn’t live with myself if one of my healers was caught because of something I did,” I say, my voice breaking slightly. That nightmare is still lingering in my mind. “Please, offer them safety.”

“We will,” Jack says, looking me straight in the eye. “Right guys?”

“We’ll get all of them somewhere safe,” Ward says seriously.

“Can I do some ‘everyone is special’ speeches too?” Emily asks.

“We could put you in uniform at the beginning of the shows,” Justin offers. “You and Malina can both talk, as far as I’m concerned.”

"We'll also see about getting you into schools," Nico says.

“Score!” she says. “I’m going to do everything possible to make sure your healers are safe, sis. I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t,” I say. I feel a little sick as I see the looks on their faces. Each one looks determined. Even Carla is completely serious. I’ve caused the entire school to go to war. “Be safe, everyone,” I say, reaching up and wishing I could hug them. “I love you guys. You’re the best school a girl could ever have.”

“We’re Cape High,” Max says. “We stick together, regardless of what side we’re on.” He’s got two of our zoo kids--Lance and Piper. I see the looks of surprise on their faces. They don’t know Max like the group that live in the apartment building does. This will be good for them, I think.

“If there is another collector,” Vinny says, “we’ll take care of that, too.”

“Stay in plain clothes until you’re on official business,” Nico orders. “Keep from blowing anything up unless it’s part of a gig, and keep your heads down when you’re not on stage. Do I make myself clear?”

They nod.

“And make sure to check for homework on your arm plate,” Zoe says abruptly. “Just hit A B A on the controller and a hologram of the teachers will pop up with your assignments. Just because we’re on missions doesn’t mean we can miss out on our schooling, got it?”

“Can we fire her?” Jack demands.

“At least you’re not on her team,” Vinny drawls. “She’s already got us doing extra credit.”

“I do not!” Zoe says.

“I’ll trade you for her, if you want,” Max offers. “My team is just fine, but she IS my girlfriend.”