Sunny Daze (13 page)

“Is that why you kidnapped a geneticist and her twins?” Century demands.  “To find a way to kill us?”

“Me, kill YOU?  No, it’s the exact opposite.  My
grandson
,” Kunnins snarls, “is almost dead because of your type.”

“You mean Tank?” Nico asks.  “Tank did that to himself.”

“He was protecting himself from one of your monsters,” Kunnins says. His hands clench in their cuffs.  “A normal man has no chance against one of you beasts.  You shouldn’t EXIST!” he bellows.

“Too bad,” Nico says coldly, “we do.  And Vinny isn’t a monster, he’s a hero.”

“A title slapped onto your type to keep the masses blinded,” Kunnins says.  “Don’t think I don’t know what Superior really was.  He took out an entire base all on his own--one of our OWN bases.  He was the biggest monster of them all.”

“You tried to kill his wife,” Nico snarls.

“What?”

“Tatiana.  She was his wife,” Nico says.  “Don’t think we don’t know what you did to her--does the name Mimic mean anything to you?” he goes on, seeing the old man’s look of confusion.

“He was married to that?” Kunnins asks.

“Don’t you DARE call my mom ‘that,’” Nico says.  “What made you start up again, Kunnins?  Either tell us everything, or we make a special little room for you in the Cape Cells.  It’s not for norms, but I’m sure we can make an exception,” he says.  “We’ll stick you in a tiny little room with only a single window and a pot in the corner.  If you’re lucky, they’ll remember to clean it once a week, or so.”

“Technico,” Century starts out, forcing Nico to look at him, “maybe we should take a different approach.”

“If we try being kind, I know someone that’s going to make a whole lot of holes in your walls to take over,” Nico says.

“He’ll have to fix them later,” Century says, stepping forward and showing a picture to the old man.  “These two people, they’re important enough that you didn’t leave them behind.”

Kunnins doesn’t say anything, but his eyes are glued to the picture.

“We have a healer,” Century says.  “No, I should say that HE has a healer,” he goes on, jabbing a thumb in Nico’s direction, “one that can accomplish miracles.  If you tell us everything, we just might have her help them.”

“And what about him?” Nico asks.

“His fate’s already sealed, he knows that.  This is for the kid and the man,” Century says, turning to Kunnins.  “What do you say?”

“Mimic... Mimic took his soul,” Kunnins says.  “He’s the biggest monster of you all.”

“The healer can bring it back,” Century says in a tempting tone.

“I did it... I did it all for the boy,” Kunnins says, his entire demeanor falling.  “He’s all I’ve got left, and it failed.  It failed.  It was all a waste.”

“What failed?” Nico asks.  The old man turns and looks at him--or through him, it seems.  All the life seems to leave him.

“The shot failed.”

***

“So we’ve got to find someplace in Kansas City--” Jack says, looking at the map that’s on each of our screens, “and build a base?”

“The Central Hall area covers all the central states,” Pan says dryly.  “But since we have only a week and a half now, I would suggest keeping it close to home.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to set up base right next to one another,” Max says, moving the screen up with a flick of his finger so a hologram floats in front of all of us.  He waves his hand, sending it spinning.  “Each person gets the area that stops in front of them,” he says.

“That makes no sense,” Ace says.  “Each of us is suited for a different type of area--Sunny should have plants, Jack needs steel, I need the city.”

“And what does Max need?  A freaking bus station?” Jack jokes.

“I’d prefer a car factory,” Max says, leaving us all staring at him.  He DOES realize it’d been a joke, right?  But the thoughtful look on his face says he was taking it seriously.  That rather worries me, honestly.

“Too bad we don’t have--wait--” Ace says, waving a hand and bringing up a section of the map.  “The old air base.  There’s a good chance they still have old equipment.”

“I call it!” Max says.  “Thanks Ace!”

“Yeah,” I drawl, shooting Ace a dark look, “thanks, Ace.”

“Sorry?” Ace says sheepishly.

“That just means you gotta find his spot, Max,” Jack says.  “I’m taking right in the middle of downtown.  Pan, can we get one of the abandoned office buildings?”

“Sure, I think the Hall actually owns a few of them,” Pan says.  “You’ll have to go through Mastermental, for the formal paperwork.”

“I’ll go through his son,” Jack says, lounging back in his chair and giving Max a shiny evil grin.

They turn to me.  I’m staring at the largely wooded areas, a frown on my face.  “I can’t,” I say finally.

“What?”

“I’m not setting up a base near trees, not for this,” I say, looking at them.  “I’m not going to risk them on a game.  I still feel like a murderer for all those trees back in Texas,” I say quietly, looking down at my lap.  “And I think I should go back there after camp and keep helping clean up--maybe I can help.”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Pan says when the rest of them go silent.  “Of you all, Sunny’s the only one that won’t be considering keeping his base after the game.  The only thing you DO need to consider is what resources you’ll need in order to defend an attack,” he says, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.  “What will you need?”

“Access to earth,” I say.  “I can do some decent things that way.”

“I’m sure we can find something,” Pan says.

“HEYYY!” the shout made all of us jerk and poor Cubby jump out of his seat, only to get jerked back by his seatbelt.  We all look up with a hint of doom as two boot-clad feet came through the car roof.  Soon Skystep is standing in the middle of us--and the map.  She puts her hands on her hips and turns in a circle just so she can glare at each of us.  “I’m part of this super villain summer camp!  And you just LEFT ME!” she wails, looking close to tears.

“We thought you’d want to work on your new base, Skystep,” Max says when the rest of us just look at each other blankly.  “Weren’t you thinking of all the shiny weapons you could put down there?” he adds in a cajoling tone.

“I can do that any time!” she declares.  “Who knows when I’ll get to go to summer camp again?”

“How old is she, anyway?” Ace asks in a whisper.

“I am all of twenty five!” she declares proudly.  We look at each other, daring one another to laugh first.  Then again, I could totally see Aunt Liz shoving her way into something like this, and she’s thirty.

“I did say she could participate,” Pan says with a shrug, “as a camp leader assistant--which means you’re going to be an overseer, Skystep.  Do you think you can do that?”

“I can do ANYTHING!” she declares.  “Now where’s my chair?” she asks, pouting slightly.  Silently we point at a button.  She doesn’t notice--she’s too busy looking around with a fascinated expression.  “What IS this thing?  A van of evil?  What does this button do?” she asks, pushing one.  Jack barely manages to jump out of his chair before it folds up into the floor.

“It closes my chair,” Jack says dryly.  “And it’s not a van of evil, it’s an RV.”

“RV, van of evil, same difference,” she says, pushing the button again.  “Hey, do any of you know Flameblaster?” she asks, changing the subject.  “Is he doing okay in Central?  How’s his nephew?”

I stand and head over to the button pad, bringing up another chair.  Then, since she’s still trying to grill the others, I walk over and pat her on the shoulder.  “Skystep?” I say.

“Yeah?”

“You can sit over here,” I tell her, tugging her over to the chair.  “It’s got a built in computer.”

“Awesome!” she says, distracted as easily as that.  Then she stops, seeing the guinea pig in the cage next to my chair.  Century had let me keep him.  “Does that rat look weird to you?” she asks, pointing at it.

“It’s a guinea pig, not a ra--” I turn as I hear metal screeching.  To my surprise (well, sort of--I might have slightly been hoping for something cool to happen) the guinea pig has tripled in size, growing rapidly bigger than the cage I had put him in--

“Are those wings?” Ace asks, looking just as fascinated as me as the top of the cage brakes off completely and gets thrown across the RV.  The guinea pig is now the size of a Pitbull with gigantic bat-like wings sprouting from its back.  The thick red fur it once had is gone.  Now it looks a little like a naked mole rat with gigantic teeth and claws.

“Can I keep him?” I ask.

“The shot didn’t work,” Superior says as he and Nico race through the sky.  Trees are getting bent behind them thanks to their speed, but neither seems to care.  “They just sent him to MY Hall, completely unaware of what that--”

“It’s no longer your hall, Father,” Nico says, having heard this rant several times already, “it’s Mastermental’s Hall.  We’ve already called ahead and warned them that there might be something off about the boy.  Besides, if it didn’t work instantly, how can we know if it’ll work at all?”

They fly right over the RV that held the boys heading home from Summer Camp without a thought.

“Did you warn Aubrey?” Superior demands.  “Aubrey is the most important of the kids you’re raising, if she gets hurt--”

“Most important?  I know she’s important, but that’s going too far,” Nico says.  “What about my kids?” 

“For personal reasons, they’re important--power-wise they’re important as well, but Aubrey is the difference between life and death, Nicolas, and you of all people should realize that.  I should have made Charles keep both of them,” Superior growls, crossing over yet another large town.

“We’re flying too low,” Nico says rather than reply.  He heads straight up, ignoring the sensation of phones snapping pictures of them.  For a moment he tries to lose his father, but that’s an exercise in futility and they both know it.  Instead, he winds up flying right next to the man and avoiding planes instead of people.  Why, he thinks a bit dryly, he keeps getting stuck working with the man he hated more than half of his life, he’s got no clue.  Although, he reluctantly admits, Superior has been a lot more tolerable since they went back to the past.

“Call Aubrey,” Superior says, touching his ear.  Nico almost groans as Aubrey’s voice comes over the com link.

“Hello?  I’m afraid I can’t speak right now, I’ve just gotten two new cases--”

“Aubrey, this is Superior,” Superior says.  “If there’s a boy--what did he look like, Nico?” he asks, glancing over.

“His name is Wes Will,” Nico says with an inward sigh.  Although he hates to admit Superior is right, he’ll do it for Aubrey’s sake.  “He’s the one that fought Vinny down in Texas--he should look pretty messed up, veins bulging and pale.  Do you have him already?”

“I don’t know,” she admits.  “They just brought in the first one.  It looks like a Mimic job,” she says.

“That’s not him,” Superior says.  “If they bring in the boy, we want you to stay away from him until they’re certain whatever Kunnins had him shot with didn’t do anything.”

“But if--”

“That’s an order, Aubrey,” Superior says sharply.  “And while you’re at it, bring in my daughter.  She’ll be able to handle whatever the problem is.”

“Sir, I’m in the middle of the Central Hall.  I highly doubt whatever happens will be a problem--” Aubrey starts out.

“I’ll call her for you, if you insist,” Superior says.

“Father, would you PLEASE stop scaring Aubrey?  She happens to be my niece, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, your granddaughter,” Nico says.

“Which is why I think she should leave the Central Hall entirely, but since that probably won’t happen, I’m sending in my daughter.”

“You’re over-reacting.”

“I’m being cautious.”

“I’ll call Liz,” Aubrey says in a tone that says she’s just trying to get them to stop fighting.

“Good,” Superior says.

***

The mutant guinea pig seems stunned for a moment, and we just stare at it blankly as it slowly twitches the new wings coming out of its back.  “Pan?” Ace asks.  We’re still driving down the street as if nothing is happening.  “The guinea pig mutated.”

“Try to keep it from causing a ruckus,” Pan says, merely glancing at it in the rearview mirror.  “It’s an ugly thing, isn’t it?”

“It’d make a good evil minion,” Jack says.

“No way, you got the dog!” I say--only to jerk as the guinea pig flaps its wings hard several times before taking to the air.  It shoots forward, straight at Cubby, so I tackle it to the ground before he can get there.  If my girlfriend’s little brother gets eaten by a mutant guinea pig, I will be kicked to the curb so hard--and
then
she’d dump me.

The guinea pig twists in my arms, biting me hard on the arm.  It doesn’t quite pierce the skin, but it hurts!  I jerk away automatically.  The guinea pig races through the air and crashes straight through the window behind me, leaving a massive hole.  Pan pulls the RV to a screeching stop, pulling over to the side of the road and getting out.  “We can’t let that fly free,” he says to us.  “Everyone after him!”

We don’t stop to think, we just race out, chasing after the flying mutant guinea pig.  Even Skystep is racing--okay, that’s not racing.  She’s sort of skipping through the air with a huge grin on her face.  “THIS IS EXACTLY HOW SUPER VILLAIN SUMMER CAMP SHOULD BE!” she bellows excitedly, practically dancing with excitement.  “Unleashing massive mutants on the unsuspecting public, finding secret bases in the middle of a forest--I want to do this EVERY year!”

“We’ll invite you next year,” Pan says, “IF you catch that guinea pig for us.”

“But it hasn’t terrorized the locals yet,” Skystep says a bit blankly.

“Found him,” I hear Max say over the com link.  “It’d be easy just to take him out--”

“Don’t kill him!” I say.  “He can be tamed, I swear he can!”

“We’re getting really close to civilization, guys,” Jack says.  “If we don’t catch him soon, he’s going to reach a gas station--”

I race forward, seeing the guinea pig flapping wildly through the sky and Max and Jack hot on its heels.  “Try herding it back this way,” I say over the com, wishing once again that I knew how to fly.  I swear it’s going to happen any day now--it did for Trent!  Well, okay, Trent’s like a year older than me--

The guinea pig turns and I barely realize it’s heading straight for me before I hear Max shout my name over the com.  “Wake up, you moron!  He’s heading your way!”

I jump, tackling the guinea pig to the ground.  It seems stunned, jerking under my grasp as its eyes turn cloudy.  For a moment it seems like it’ll just faint--It explodes all over me.  “EWWWW!” I yell, jerking away and looking at the mess covering my shirt.  “NOT cool!  Definitely NOT COOL!”

“Just picture the mess they’ll have in the South Branch Hall,” Max says, landing a good four feet away from me.  “Also, you smell really bad, Sunny.”

“Thanks,” I drawl sarcastically, wiping a bit of goo off of my face, “I hadn’t noticed that.”

“Think we could get him a shower somewhere?”

“No, but we can attach a hose to the side of the RV,” Pan says, looking at the leftover parts of the guinea pig with a scowl.  “That’s going to cause problems,” he adds almost to himself.

“You think?” Jack says.  “I figure it’ll get eaten by crows or something.  Nobody needs to know, right?”

“What happens to the crows that eat it?” Ace says.  “Do they mutate, too?  Will there be massive flocks of mutated birds flying through the sky thanks to this?”

We all look at him.  “Ace,” Max says abruptly, “leave the dramatic end lines for when you’re being filmed.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Ace says, looking a bit sheepish.  “Next time, on Super Villain Summer Camp,” his voice added from out of no-where, just like the voice-over at the end of a cartoon.  “Sorry, sorry, couldn’t help it!” Ace says, holding up both hands.  “It just sort of slipped.”

“He can do his own voice-overs,” Jack says, staring at Ace with a mix of shock and admiration.

“Don’t sound so impressed!  If you do that, he’ll never stop,” Max admonishes him.

“Says the guy that brings his own mic to a fight,” the voice-over says.

“Turn it off, Ace!” we all yell, even though Cubby is giggling his head off.  He must not be too traumatized by the exploding guinea pig.  I think I might be, though.

“Can I get that hose now?” I ask, still dripping with gunk.

“Ace is right,” Pan says.  “While I wash Sunny down, you three clean up the gunk.  There’s an extra ice chest in the back of the RV, make sure you get every last bit of it, got it?  Including the stuff that washes off of Sunny.”

The others look at each other, then around for Skystep--who slipped away while they weren’t looking.  “Fine,” Jack mutters.  “We’re going to need a mop.”

***

“So when is Jack getting back?” Liz asks Aubrey as they just sit there, watching the unconscious teenager in the bed.  Aubrey is starting to get frustrated--they won’t let her DO anything!  This poor kid is obviously suffering right in front of her, and was brought here BECAUSE she’s here, but she can’t even touch him because Superior is a--a superior PAIN!  She looks over at Liz, only now realizing her foster mom had spoken.

“What?”

“Jack,” Liz says, “and Sunny, and the others.  When are they coming back?  I know Nico and Dad will be back pretty soon, but are the boys coming in the RV?”

“Yeah,” Aubrey says, her fingers literally twitching as she fights the urge to move forward and just do what she was meant to do.  It’s impossible for her to sit by idly when there’s something that can be done!  She gets up, reaching out and touching the teen before Liz realizes what she’s doing--almost.  Her wrist is grabbed in a firm, but gentle hold.

“Not yet,” Liz says.

“I have to do it, Liz--Mom,” Aubrey says, tears threatening to fall.  “I can’t just stand here and do nothing!”

Liz hesitates, glancing at the door for a second before letting go.  “Go on,” she says, “but make it quick, if Superior finds out he’ll try to ground me.”

Aubrey doesn’t wait for her to finish, she just presses her hand to the unconscious teen’s forehead, her eyes changing to white, her hair starting to float.  She’s like that as the door slams open and Superior and Nico walk in.

“Why is she healing him?” Superior demands.

“Because she can’t stand to see him like this,” Liz says.  “She’s a healer, Dad, that’s what she does--” she stops as Aubrey pulls her hand away and her hair stops floating.  “What happened?” she asks Aubrey.

“This is going to take a few sessions,” Aubrey admits, starting to sway.  Nico grabs her before she falls over.  “They did something to him,” she tells Nico, leaning against him.  “He should be dead already.”

Nico’s about to say something when his phone rings, instead of pulling it out, he simply says “Answer.”  For a second the room goes perfectly still, waiting to hear what’s happening.

“Nico, we’ve got a slight problem,” Pan says.  “Your son wanted a guinea pig--one of the ones left over from the Kunnins raid.  Century let him have it.”

“And?” Nico asks.

“It mutated on the way here--it grew larger and a pair of bat-like wings.  It crashed through the RV window.”

“Well crap, I’ll fix it when you get back--where are you and what happened to the pig?”

“We chased it down before it got to civilization.  The problem is that it exploded,” Pan says in an almost bland tone.  “I had the boys put all the parts in an ice chest.  It’ll have to be destroyed, there’s no way I’m keeping my cold cuts in that thing now.  Oh, and I think your boy’s a bit traumatized by guinea pigs now.”

“Because it exploded?”

“All over him,” Pan says dryly.

“Well, can’t exactly blame him.  It’s always a bit traumatic the first time.  So this guinea pig came from the Kunnins raid, right?”

“Yeah.  It looked perfectly normal until we were halfway home.  It didn’t show any sign of mutating at all.”

“Thanks for the information, Pan.  I’ll see you when you get home,” Nico says, hanging up with a flick of his finger and looking at the boy on the bed.  “Aubrey?  Is there any way you can speed it up?”

“I’ll do my best,” Aubrey says, straightening and going back to the bed.  The look on Liz’s face says she wants to protest, but she doesn’t say a word.  A guinea pig exploding is one thing--a human exploding is something entirely different.

***

“I swear he still stinks,” Jack says as we continue along.  There’s a plastic bag taped over the window the guinea pig slammed through.  It’s flapping annoyingly right behind my head.  It doesn’t help that Jack is tormenting me over the smell.

“I took a shower,” I say for the tenth time, practically.  “AFTER getting hosed down!  It’s all in your head.”  I can’t even turn away and look out the window--the black trashbag is blocking the way.  I reach up, touching my ear piece instead.  “Call Adanna--I can at least have a decent conversation that way,” I add with a dark look at the other three.  They’re holding their noses, the jerks.

“What is it?” Adanna answers.  “It had better be important, Sunny, I’m in the middle of class.”

“A gigantic mutant guinea pig exploded on me,” I tell her.

“Is that all?”

“Is that all?” I repeat incredulously. “That was a pretty big deal in my book!”

“Oh man up, Sunny, you should get used to those sorts of things now,” she says.  The sound of the entire RV choking on laughter has me turning bright red with embarrassment.