Life Light (5 page)

“This will only take a moment,” he says as he steps out of the car and turns to raise his arms. The car disassembles in front of our eyes, reforming into a--I stare at it, my jaw dropping open in shock.

“He made a spaceship,” Emily says.

“He made a spaceship,” Liz agrees.

“My Clifford enjoys giving the locals something to talk about, you see,” Tatia says proudly. The huge, discus shaped machine in front of us is textbook spaceship. It’s relatively small, actually, not much larger than the car version, but it’s probably enough to have people up in arms over alien invasions.

“I’ve been on the local news at least three times,” Superior says with a little smile as the door of the spaceship comes down, forming a ramp. “They don’t release it to the rest of the world, of course. According to the locals, we have enough people coming up here as it is.” He heads up the ramp, turning and waiting for us to follow.

Taurus is too busy taking photos. Where did he get that massive camera hanging around his neck from, anyway?

“This is hysterical,” he exclaims, grinning hugely as he finishes. “I love it.”

“Thank you, I’m rather fond of it, myself,” Superior says with a wicked little smile.

“Is it true that you once convinced my mom that you were from an alternate dimension?” Liz asks.

“Your mother was very... naive,” Superior says blandly.

“Grandpa’s a troll,” Emily declares.

“That is not true--he does not have the hair that sticks up,” Tatia says, “and he is much taller!”

“Not that kind of troll, Grandma Tatia,” I say, almost tripping over the word "Grandma," “what she means is that he goes out of his way to tease people in various ways. Often it’s a lot meaner than what Superior did, though,” I scold Emily. “He’s merely adding to the alien obsession subculture.”

“Well, there’s the fact that I am one,” Superior says blandly as he steps into the middle of the spaceship, sitting down in the same ancient looking driver seat from the car version. There’s no steering wheel. He merely stretches his legs out in front of him, resting his hands on his stomach as the spaceship launches into the sky. We find a bench quickly, and I strap in. We’re all sitting in a circle, facing outward and looking out the windows--it’s beautiful.

“Wait--so you really are an alien?” Taurus asks, turning to look over the back of his bench at Superior.

“I am,” Superior says. “Really, are you that surprised? There are several supers with alien backgrounds.”

“True,” Taurus admits.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Emily asks, her nose pressed to the window as we fly over the expanse of trees and snow. This is a lot like flying on the plane, but it seems different. Maybe it’s because I know for a fact that the pilot is just sitting there, apparently doing nothing. I don’t even know if this is using the engine from the car version. He could be making it go with his powers alone.

“How are you doing this, anyway?” I hear myself ask.

“It’s my ability--I can manipulate anything around me within a set distance,” Superior says. “Making a mass of metal fly is just another part of it. So the main reason you came was to meet Duplicitous, right?”

“I want to meet another duplicator,” Emily says excitedly. “Grandma, you know her, right?”

“Very well!” Tatia agrees with a smile. “She is a very nice woman--an excellent cook, as well.”

“Have you met her doppelgangers?”

“Some of them,” Tatia says. “If she is busy she often sends one of them to our classes in the town. They are all much alike, though.”

“So there’s no ‘problem doppelganger,’ huh?” Emily says, frowning slightly. “I was hoping she could help me with Repeat.”

“We’ve told you several times--Repeat
is you
, Emily,” I say gently, touching her hand. “You just need to keep working through the problems she shows. You’ve done really well so far!”

“She’s still a pain in the neck,” Emily mutters, “even after we dealt with the Skye thing--oh, wait,” she says, looking over her shoulder at Superior. “Um, we might have a problem in the future,” she announces.

“What’s that?” Superior asks.

“My new ‘aunt’ might be coming?” Emily says in a questioning tone, as if she doesn’t quite believe it, herself.

“Is she?”

“Yeah, probably, unless she gets distracted again,” Emily says.

“And who is this aunt?” Tatia asks curiously.

“Skystep.”

“Skystep... the crazy one from South Branch?” Tatia asks.

“Yeah.”

“That sounds very entertaining!” she exclaims.

“That’s not entertaining, that’s annoying,” Liz says. “She’s decided that she’s part of the ENTIRE family--as in she’ll probably try to claim she’s your new daughter, Tatiana. Then you’ll never be able to get rid of her.”

“It will be fun to have more visitors,” Tatia declares. “I am sure she cannot be that bad.”

“No, she’s pretty crazy,” I admit. “She jumped in on the super villain’s summer camp and Pan let her. Jack says she was acting as the camp’s ‘arts and crafts’ teacher.”

“But she has no artistic ability whatsoever, right?” Emily says, laughing. “She had them doing all sorts of stupid stuff to keep her entertained while she acted like she knew what she was doing.”

“Didn’t Ace get his hopes up, though?” I ask, starting to laugh as well.

“Of course he did! He’s an actual artist!”

Liz is the only one that doesn’t start laughing. She’s still sore over Skystep, it looks like. “She’s a pain,” she declares, giving out several dark looks at the people laughing. “She’s not even part of our branch--what was she doing following our plane?”

“Oh, she gets paranoid about me,” Emily says with a shrug. “Sometimes if I miss a call from her she runs up to our branch just to see if I’m doing something interesting--or got kidnapped.”

“How do you live with it?” Liz demands.

“Well... she was my mom’s best friend,” Emily says, “and she lost her, and then Flame moved up to our branch for Vinny, and he was her favorite sparring partner, right? So I figure she’s just lonely. I can understand lonely,” she explains.

“Awww,” I say, wrapping my arms around her in a hug, “my poor Emily.”

She blushes bright red, but she doesn’t try to squirm out of my hold that hard. “So she’s crazy, and she’s pretty dangerous in her own way, I know, but she’s not a bad person,” Emily finishes. “What happened with my parents hurt her as much as it did me, but she doesn’t have a new family to... soften the blow, I guess. She’s just got me.”

“And her new roommate,” I say.

“Yeah, that worries me,” Emily says, frowning. “Um, Grandpa Superior, will my phone work here?”

“Was it made by Nicolas?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it should work anywhere.”

Emily nods and pulls out her smartphone, dialing someone on speed-dial. I hear a deep masculine voice answer. “Why, hello, sweetie, I didn’t expect to hear from you this week.”

“Hey, Century,” she says, much to the surprise of most of the people in the spaceship. “Can I ask another favor? I had a visit from Skye on the plane--“

“Oh, did you,” he drawls.

“No, that’s not the problem. She might have freaked out some norms and all, but nobody was hurt. The problem is that she says she’s got a new roommate. The roommate broke her phone and everything, but she still seemed happy about it. I just didn’t know Skye HAD a roommate. Why would she need one?”

“A new roommate?” he repeats blankly.

“That’s what she said.”

“Well, we got her permission to use that secret base as her new place,” he says. I can literally hear the frown in his voice. “She seemed quite happy about it, too, so I don’t see her moving in with someone else... I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thanks,” Emily says.

“And how’s your vacation going?”

“We’re flying in a spaceship,” she says cheerfully. “It’s pretty cool!”

“A spaceship,” he repeats.

“Grandpa Superior transformed his car into one. He’s trolling the norms.”

“Well be careful about that--Isotonic tends to be paranoid about his upper areas,” Century says. “He’s a bit overprotective of his norms, honestly.”

“Why is he called Isotonic, anyway?” I ask. “Isn’t it a cellular term?”

“You know how some of us are,” Century says, “We pick names because they sound interesting.”

“A most admirable lie, Century,” Superior says, making Century laugh. “Isotonic has the ability to become the same as whatever he comes in contact with. There’s no osmosis because he is what he’s surrounded by. But this should be outside of his territory since we’re no longer in America.”

“It would be, if he didn't have a nice little contract with Canada and the U.N.” Century says. “I can’t say I blame him, I have a similar arrangement with Mexico--they’re extremely fond of Voltdrain.”

“That’s probably going against Hall rules, you realize,” Taurus says.

“I haven’t heard complaints so far,” Century says. “It’s actually based on the population of an area--certain places don’t have enough to warrant a Hall of their own. Other places can’t afford the upkeep of an entire set of heroes.”

“So only Central is stuck with mid-America?” Emily asks.

“Sweetie, you might not have noticed--Central has the smallest number of heroes in all of the Halls. They also have the least amount of paperwork to do to send those heroes anywhere on earth. Because the majority of those heroes are upper A to S class, no one really complains when they get sent over. I believe, honestly, the only non-flying hero they have would be you, right, Taurus?”

“True--and I was only brought in because Nico wanted me for the school,” Taurus says, “although I was originally Central, I was sent to West for the majority of my work.”

“That means Central heroes have their own mode of transportation,” Century finishes. “While Mastermental seems to keep it modest, it’s all a ruse. The rest of us are smart enough to spread out where we can. Speaking of which, word has it you’ve got a water manipulator in the school. I want her.”

“Malina?” Emily asks. “But--“

“Put in a good word for me, would you, Sweetie?” he asks with a tiny hint of wickedness in his voice. “Before Marigold and Negatia find out about her.”

“Negatia?” I repeat.

“She’s the leader of West,” Taurus says. “She can amplify and negate abilities.”

“She has no actual physical abilities--but that doesn’t matter because she’s a tactical genius and has a very good team,” Century says. “She’s going to want the water girl.”

“Of course she is,” Superior says.

“Malina wants to be a child welfare worker,” Emily says. “She’s not even sure she wants to be a hero.”

“She can be both--we let our supers take side jobs,” Century says.

“Fine, I’ll mention it,” Emily says, “but I won’t swear to anything AND you have to look into Skye’s roommate, got it? Also, you should know that Malina is a little person--if you DARE make a comment about--“

“Now wait just a moment, here,” Century says. “A hero is a hero--it doesn’t matter how tall they are, or what color they are, or even what language they speak. Honestly, she’ll probably be a crowd favorite the moment she steps onto the screen. How powerful is she?”

“Malina’s actually one of the most powerful of the zoo kids,” I say. “I’m one of them, remember? Malina can cut through anything if she has enough water. Of us all, she was the one that almost escaped the most often. Lance was second. Vinny was third.” I was last. I couldn’t do anything, back then. I still have nightmares about that time, although they’ve spread out recently.

“And this is Aubrey, right?” Century asks.

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you put in a good word for me, as well?” he asks. “I’ll be sure to take good care of her down here.”

“I’ll talk to her, but there's a chance she'll be going on tour with Justin. He asked her a while back.”

“With Justin? He’s a West Branch boy, isn’t he...” he lets out a little sigh. “It figures.”

“Wait, what?”

“Justin was the orphan that Mastermental got from the West Branch,” Taurus says. “Sure he was touring the world, but his family line comes from that branch. His father was Sonic Scream. He... didn’t make it,” he says, a grim look on his face.

“So you knew about Justin’s past and never mentioned it?” I ask.

“It wasn’t my story to tell,” Taurus says. “It’s still not--which is why I’m going to ask you not to tell the others.”

“Negatia will want him back after his training,” Century says. “It’s in our contract with your school--whoever we hand over for training is going to come back to us, save for you, Emily.”

“Well as fascinating as all this is, we’re home,” Superior says as the spaceship pulls to a hover. I unstrap from the bench and head to the window to look at the massive ice mountain in front of us. It gleams in the sunlight, sparkling beautifully. At first it looks like a regular mountain, but the closer you look the more details you see. There are windows. There’s a massive ice door at the base, as well, and a large gaping hole is opening below us. We start down, landing in the hole.

“It is a lovely little place,” Tatia assures us happily. “I’ve been redecorating!”

“Little?” Liz repeats. “It’s a mountain.”

“Yes, but it is a little mountain,” Tatia says, getting up and heading for the luggage.

“I can get that, Tatiana,” Taurus says, getting to his feet and heading to her.

“Are you saying I cannot lift a little tiny bit like this?” Tatia asks. Taurus goes red and starts stumbling over his words. I can’t exactly blame him, but I CAN laugh at him. Especially when Tatia starts laughing, patting him on the back. “You are a good son,” she tells him happily. “Please, feel free to carry whatever you wish! I will not tease you more.”

“Thank you,” Taurus says, only to have Superior reach around him and grab half of the pile without a word. He quickly grabs the rest and turns to look at us. “Shall we, ladies?” he asks.

We head to him, not even trying to get our things from the ones carrying them. Instead I move to Taurus’s side, grinning up at him. “She got you good,” I tease him.

“Well you can’t exactly tell THE Tatiana she can’t carry something,” he admits a bit sheepishly. “I looked up all the old reels,” he says silently as Tatia and Superior head down the ramp and into the mountain, “she’s amazing. Did you know that according to super history, she beat Superior in a fist fight half the time?”

“That is when he does not use his other abilities,” Tatia calls over her shoulder, showing she’s listening.

“I love a strong woman,” Superior says.

“Yeah, me too,” Taurus says. I glance over my shoulder just in time to see a blush cross Liz’s cheeks. She’s walking next to Emily, with her arm slung over my sister’s shoulder. She doesn’t say a word about that statement. Instead she looks almost too interested as we step into a hallway of ice. There are stairs ahead of us, leading up into the mountain. We follow Superior and Tatiana up the stairs and into a large room with ice ceilings and plush rugs covering the floor. It’s actually a lot warmer than I expected it to be, and there’s a fire pit in the middle of the room. Superior is starting a fire.

“There are rooms for the girls this way,” Tatia says, motioning for me, Liz and Emily to follow her. “Clifford, if you will show Taurus to his room?”

“Of course,” Superior says as the fire bursts into existence. He turns. “It’s this way,” he says, heading down a hall the exact opposite direction of ours.

“So we have a room for each of you,” Tatia says. “I hope you like them. I will admit to doing a bit of flying to get all of the pieces, but do not tell my son.”

She opens a wooden door, leading us into the first room. “This is your room, Emily! I thought a large bed would be best, in case you wish to bring out your doppelganger,” she says. In the middle of the room is a king size canopy bed with brightly colored curtains. The sheets and blankets are also brightly colored and covered with a pile of pillows. The floor is covered with fuzzy rugs, and a rocking chair big enough for two sits in the corner.

“There is a restroom through that opening,” Tatia adds, pointing out an ice opening in the back right corner.

“This is amazing,” Emily says. There’s a stunned expression on her face. “I love it!” she decides, turning and hugging Tatia tightly. “Thank you!”

“I am glad,” Tatia says, smiling down at her gently. “I have decided that the mountain is large enough to make each of our grandchildren their own room--I have already started carving out Zoe and Sunny’s! I will show you those sometime. Now, let us go to Aubrey’s room,” she says, heading out the door as we trail along. I would have been fine sharing a room with Emily, but it would seem rude to say that, right?

“Your grandfather helped with this one,” Tatia says, much to my shock. “Not that he did not want to help with Emily’s, but everything he picked... it was too mild,” she says. “I tell him, ‘Our Emily, she is a child of COLOR!’ but my Clifford, he says, ‘It looks like a rainbow threw up,’” she imitates him. Emily bursts out laughing.

“It does, but I LOVE IT!” she proclaims happily.

The door to my bedroom is opened, revealing a large room about the same size as Emily’s. The room is open and airy. In the middle of the room is a beautiful metal fire pit with a rocking chair next to it--one about the same size as Emily’s. “He did the chairs, though,” Tatia says. On my chair is a stuffed toy that looks like a pink rose and a cream knit throw blanket over the back.

The bed is a queen size, with a wooden canopy--the four posts look like trees, with branches going out and up over the bed. On the bed are more stuffed roses, as well as a beautiful crocheted cream colored throw folded at the bottom of a pastel quilt. In front of it is a wooden chest with a pillow on top, so it can be sat on. On the walls are paintings and posters from all around the world--and one large poster of Cold Steel in full uniform, framed.

“I love it,” I say, awed.

“We were worried you would get colder than the others,” Tatia says, “so we thought a fire pit would be a nice touch. Do not worry about it melting the ice, it will not be a large enough flame. There is wood over here, in this corner,” she tells me, leading me to a small nook where a pile of chopped wood sits. “And your restroom is through that opening there,” she adds. “Your grandfather did not seem happy about the Cold Steel poster,” she adds with a little smile. “I enjoyed getting the biggest one I could find for that very reason.”

“Oh!” Emily stops, blinking in surprise, “Ditto says we’ve got one of Trent!”

“Your doppelganger is examining your room?” Tatia asks.

“Well I wanted to see Aubrey’s, but I didn’t see everything in mine,” Emily explains.

“You’ve both put a lot of thought into this,” I say as I head to the bed, staring up at the entwined tree branches. They’re carved, I think--or, considering his ability--“Did Su--did Grandpa make this?” I ask her, looking over at them.

“He has found working with his hands a wonderful pastime,” Tatia says. “It is beautiful, is it not?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“I’d be fine staying with one of the girls,” Liz says as she drops down in my rocking chair. “You don’t have to--“

“Liz,” Tatia says sharply.

“I’m just saying--“

“We have made you a very nice place of your own,” Tatia says, “and it is close enough to the girls that there should be nothing to worry about,” she adds in a softer tone. “But we are very secure here, I would not worry.”

“You didn’t have to make me a room, is all I’m saying,” Liz mutters as she reluctantly follows Tatia out of my room.

“We did not,” Tatia says as she heads up a set of stairs. She steps into a huge apartment of ice, spreading out her arms, "we have made you an apartment, instead,” she finishes. “The stairs lead to the girl’s hall, as well, so it is more of a... small house. In our line of business it is important to have a place to go to, to--lie down, as they say?”