Super Girls (Cape High Book 13) (36 page)

“WHAT?” Nico and Superior demand.

“Nicolas, you are the one that built the Cape Cells, yes? You will set it up so she cannot leave without permission. If she oversteps boundaries, we will take her powers, but as long as she is behaving, she will be part of family!”

“She’s crazy!” Nico says. “We can’t allow her that much freedom—”

“Are you saying that I and your father are not capable guards?”

“She’s after Dad to make Superior clones!” Nico accuses, tightening his hold.

“Oh, that is nothing, it is not as if she will succeed!”

“We can put her in the Cape Cells,” Superior says.

“They have very good guards, yes, but they are not us. We will let it out that ‘Mother’ has lost her powers and died of old age, and she will stay here and help with cooking and cleaning! And if she behaves, we will allow her to brawl with us! And if her son DOES find out and come after her, well, it has become wonderful bait, yes?” There's a wicked gleam in her eyes and the smile she gives him has one slowly crossing his own face.

"You'll call me as soon as he comes," he says, earning a cheerful agreement.

“Help?” Marie whispers pathetically at that offer. Tatiana moves between her and Superior, reaching up and patting her cheek.

“Oh, you will find it quite enjoyable! If you behave for long enough, I will allow you to come to beading classes! We have gotten to intricate designs lately! We will be very good friends, you and I,” Tatiana says with a hint of steel in her voice.

***

We’re letting her live? Now, don’t get me wrong—it’s general practice to put out of control capes into the Cape Cells—but this is a woman that can go toe to toe with Grandma Tatiana! That can hack televisions and brainwash the masses with them! That kidnapped my Aunt Skye—

I grit my teeth, finishing up the collar with extra explosive power. She has to have at least a touch of her abilities or she’ll freeze to death if we keep her up here, but if she’s at the level I think she is, I’m not sure I can STOP her from having at least that much. Dad once mentioned he spent a lot of his time breaking into the Hall computers while he was in the Cape Cells, and he wore both the collar AND the uniform! I grab the collar out of the air and head outside, seeing that Dad still has Mother held tight, with Grandpa and Grandma right there. Rocco is sitting on the snow below, looking at the time travel watch curiously.

“We can’t let her stay here!” I burst out as I head for them. “What will you tell Skye when she comes to visit? That you’ve forgiven her kidnapper and brainwasher? Do you know what that’ll do to her?” I demand, handing over the collar when Dad holds out his hand.

“Oh, Skye will forgive her,” Grandma says, waving it off. “We will work through that. Skye is good girl.”

“But it’ll hurt her knowing you’ve taken her in!”

“We’re the most secure place for her, as much as I hate to admit it,” Grandpa says, scowling at her. “Besides, by playing it off as if she’s dead, we might get Herold to trip up.”

“He won’t,” Mother says quietly. “He hates me. I keep trying to connect with him, but it’s obvious that he’s just indulging me. He treats me like a selfish child.”

“Marie, do not lie,” Grandma says, “you ACT as spoiled child. I have seen firsthand.”

Dad hands Mother over to Grandpa, inserting just enough green liquid to take her powers into the slots with a slight scowl. I don’t think he likes handling the stuff—I can’t blame him for that, either. He has the collar clasped around her neck a second later. “There,” he says as she starts to fall. Grandpa catches her and hands her over to Grandma. “This should work—if you try to use enough power to fly, manipulate machines, or run over thirty miles per hour, the needles will automatically deploy. If a technopath, or you, try to take it off it'll inject and THEN explode. Nice touch there, Zoe,” he adds with a nod to me.

“How will we brawl?” Grandma asks me.

“Call either me or Dad and we’ll come up and adjust the collar for the fights,” I say, inwardly sighing. “But you can only do that when you’re certain she isn’t going to run—so it should probably be Dad coming up. The three of you should be enough to stop her with no problem.”

“So how are we going to spread the rumor that Mother—that Marie’s dead?” I ask, looking at the three of them.

“You’re the one that filmed it, you tell us,” Dad says, grinning a bit evilly.

“Oh. I’ll let it leak on YouTube, sound good?” I hesitate, “With some editing, that is.”

“Get to it.”

***

The heavily armored black bus goes down the street, heading for Kansas City. They don’t notice the man hovering high above their heads, watching them go for a long, long moment. They don’t notice the lights in the back of the bus, either, or the way the collar around Shadowman’s neck flicks off for all of a second—but he does.

He’s gone the next moment, leaving both the black power blocking uniform and collar sitting where he’d just been. He just slides into the Shadowlands, intent on never coming back.

He doesn’t receive the text from Herold until he’s somewhere in Canada, looking for a bar.

If you say anything, I’ll make sure the body is never found. Meet me at Mom’s last base.

He stares at it for a moment, his escape suddenly makes a lot more sense than it had earlier. A part of him wants to throw the phone against the wall, but a bigger part has him sliding the phone back into his pocket and heading into the shadows.

He needs to know how this ends, first.

***

After we set up a grid around the mountain, one that will cause the collar to go off if Marie tries to escape, Dad, Rocco and I teleport home. Dad heads off to report to Mastermental. That leaves me to head into the school to take it out of lock-down and inform everyone that they’re safe—I have no idea why Rocco’s following me, though.

“This shouldn’t take long—but aren’t you supposed to be heading back to your team?” I ask him as I bring up a hologram, typing quickly to adjust the force field settings back to normal. “Max needs you for his dramatic exits, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I just made myself a promise before I died—well, almost died,” Rocco says, following along behind me as I head for the dorms. I start to swing the door open, only to get tackled by a blur of bright colors.

“YOU WON’T TAKE US AL—ohhiZoe!” Carla says, sitting on top of me. Yes, I’m flat on my back from that. She’s gotten faster since we last checked her levels. “You’re alive!” she says, hugging me tightly before pulling back and blushing slightly. “Er, not that I expected you to die, but it was scary and I thought for sure that it was Mother and I was going to stop her before she got to the rest of the group and—”

I look up at her, a bit stunned for a moment. “So you were just going to attack before anyone else?” I demand. “Even with Liz and Ken outside—which means that Mother would have gone through them first?”

“Um, well, when you put it that way—” she says sheepishly, “yes?”

“I am going to lecture you SO MUCH, you--you crazy-head!” I tell her, moving her off of me and standing.

She looks down, guilt on her face and the hint of tears in her huge gold eyes. I sigh, giving up, and reach up to touch her chin. “You’re really brave, though,” I tell her as she meets my eyes. “I like that. You do the Cape High name proud. We’re not that big on brains, here, anyway.”

It startles a laugh out of her and she hops to her feet. “So did you catch her?” she asks excitedly. “Nico helped, right?”

“Actually,” I say, bringing out my phone, “this one was handled by Grandma Tatiana. We’re going to watch it ALL—just as soon as I finish taking the school out of lock-down.”

“AWESOME!” she says, bouncing. “Rocco! You’re alive!” she adds as she sees him, throwing herself into his arms. The stunned look on his face makes me hesitate, even when she jerks away quickly, blushing slightly and grinning sheepishly. “Um, not that I thought you’d die, or anything.” And then she appears next to me again.

“Ah, well—um—” he says, looking really awkward. “I—”

“Isn’t there something you need to do?” I ask. “You promised yourself something, right?”

“It can wait?” he says questioningly, “Yeah, it can definitely wait.”

“Ooookay,” I say slowly. “Oh! But you WILL tell her about our plans for her birthday, right?” I ask. I mean, I am definitely getting in on this shopping trip!

“Oh, right, um, Carla, since I don’t know what to get you for your birthday, would you like to go shopping with me and Zoe, and, ah, maybe Max?” he asks, glancing at me.

“Definitely Max,” I say.

“So it’d be a DOUBLE DATE?” Carla asks, excitedly. “And you’re my date—” she looks at Rocco for a second before grabbing my arm, “Zoe!” she decides.

“Wait—I’m not going on a date with Max!” Rocco says.

“It’s my birthday, I choose who I’m dating!” Carla tells him, sticking her tongue out. “Zoe and I are going to go on a date! And eat ice cream and play the crane game and you can use your powers to get the BEST toys, Zoe! And—”

“We can do it Friday,” I agree, giving into her easy familiarity with a grin. I should have known this would happen—it reminds me of Skye, actually.

“Then I’ll just be going—you know, back to my team,” Rocco says, disappearing through the nearest shadow.

“Ohmygosh, I just—” Carla says, taking in a deep breath as her face turns BRIGHT red. “I could have gotten a date!” she says to me with a hint of a wail. “With ROCCO—and I—I—”

I blink. “Oh, wow,” I say, my eyes widening. “You’ve got a crush on Rocco?”

“Noooyeeeeeesssss,” she says, throwing herself in my arms. “He’s just so cute and nice and--and I’ve never been on a date before—and then—”

“But you went on a date with Trent!” I say.

“Oh that wasn’t a date,” she says, waving it off. “That was me teasing him because he doesn’t react to anything like he should—it’s like teasing a sortta amused rock. It was funny. Besides, Emily is AWESOME and I’d never try to take her boy, right? But I just totally chickened out—I’m never going to get a boyfriend, especially not with Elidee here, now—she can manipulate boys’ BRAINS, Zoe!” she says pathetically.

“Well that isn’t really that hard to do,” I have to say. “But Rocco’s--well, he's kind of too old for you,” I admit, frowning. “Not that I’m one to talk, Max is about the same age difference from me, isn’t he? Maybe a year or so less at the moment, but he's turning eighteen next month…” And Rocco described her as “The little sister I never had,” or something like that. If I tell her that she’ll get REALLY depressed, though, so I’ll keep it to myself. “But it’s fine!” I say, grabbing her hands and giving her a grin, “We’re still going on a group date—you’ll have ALL of our attention because we’ll be shopping for your birthday present, right?”

“Oh, but I was going to ask you for a computer,” she says, looking up at me with those big gold eyes. “Which is really greedy of me—”

“It’ll have to be SERIOUSLY fast to keep up with your speed, wouldn’t it?” I say, a thrill of challenge hitting me. “I will take this challenge! Dad didn’t, so it’s all mine!” I declare, dramatically. “But I’m still going shopping with you,” I tell her. “We’ll clean that crane game OUT!”

“YAY!” she says.

“Now, let’s go watch this video. I want you guys to see an S-class brawl for yourselves,” I say, heading inside.

***

“Voltdrain—he’s a good babysitter?” Rochester asks as he tries to avoid looking out the plane window. “Cause my kid, he’s a bit of a handful—”

“He’ll be fine,” Century says, flipping through more paperwork. The personal plane they’re on is heading for the Arctic Circle—the site of the ‘supposed’ death of Mother. He’s going to see for himself what happened to her. Of course it’s possible that they finished her off, but he’s a cynical guy. He’s even bringing Rochester to make sure.

“I thought I was just gonna be a teacher,” Rochester says, daring to look out the window for all of a second before jerking away. “I can’t fly, y’know?”

“You’re flying right now.”

“I’m trying t’ignore that fact,” Rochester mutters, looking around. He reaches over to the case on the couch next to him, pulling out his guitar just to give him something to do.

“Also, I’ve arranged for you to return to your band,” Century says. Rochester goes perfectly still, shocked. “You’re close enough to Louisiana to run over for a few hours. You might not fly, but you ARE capable of speed running, right?"

“Ah, yeah, but—”

“When we get our school set up, we’ll place both of you in the dorms. For now, I want you to consider sending Cisco up to Central’s Cape High,” Century says, closing his folder. “It shouldn’t take more than a few months to finish and staff our school. Either way, you don’t risk getting outed and your son is safe from repercussions. Unless you don’t trust Nico’s set-up to keep him safe—”

“No, it’ll do,” Rochester says, thinking wryly of the laser force field. “Is that thing even LEGAL?” he asks after a second.

“Probably not,” Century says, “but we’re a bit over-protective of our youngest ones.”