31 cape high healing tou.., p.19
31 Cape High Healing Touch, page 19
part #1 of Cape High Series
“No fighting right now, please,” I say, walking over to try and break it up.
“Arm-wrestling,” Sandra says, holding up a hand.
“How do you wrestle with just your arm? Can you take your arm off?” the orc asks, curiously. “That would be an interesting trick to have.”
Sandra looks away, trying not to laugh, and flicks a finger. A giant slab of rock juts out between them and she flattens the top with a hand before placing her elbow on it. “This isn’t fighting,” she tells me.
“Fine, arm wrestling,” I agree, and look at the entrance for all of a second. There’s a clear shot right to the exit in front of me—if they can distract Superior long enough—
“Where is it you want to go, anyway?” Superior asks me, once again blocking my way. “Because my granddaughter said they’ve been coming after you at every chance they get, and I’m not above using you as bait.”
“GRANDPA!” several people shout in outrage.
“She’s a lot stronger than I am,” I hear the orc-like girl complain. “Ouch.”
“But you’re not bad,” Sandra says. “Are there a lot of your, uh, species?”
“We’ve got an entire planet full of Broccostians out there. But Poj and I are living in the Cosmic Headquarters, now. You ever thought of being a space patrol officer?”
I ignore them, as well as all the people glaring at Superior. “I want to go visit my brother,” I say. “Will you take me there?”
“I’ll take you,” he says.
“Then we’re going to go, now,” I say, looking over at Reaper and Boogeyman. “I’ll be right back. I just need to make sure he’s not…” calling my parents and saying I almost got him killed again? Can I say that that’s my biggest motivation right now? Oh, sure, I’m worried about how it affected him, but he was fine by the time I left.
“We came for a reason, though,” the orc-girl says.
“What’s your name?” I ask her, because calling her “orc-girl” even if only in my mind bugs the crap out of me.
“Chi’la, and she’s Poj,” she says. “Pop and Nico saved us.”
“They do that,” I say, smiling slightly. “My name is Alyssa. It’s good to meet you. But he’s trying to use me as bait because we think the people who attacked my brother are related to the person who owns the spaceship, right?”
“Exactly,” Superior says.
“So hopefully, we’ll have this wrapped up soon,” I add, and then head for the exit, this time not getting blocked.
***
*The “Chain-Gang’s” Apartment Building*
Rylon is pacing. The rest of the group is just watching him from various places in the large den-like area. They’ve tried to get him to calm down, but gave up when he just went around them.
Harvey drops down on the couch next to where Rylon is pacing, popping open a drink and watching him for a moment. “They destroyed the control box, right?” he says, finally.
“What—” Rylon says, finally stopping.
“That suit the kid was wearing, it was powered by a box. The cape kids destroyed it, right?” Harvey says. “Without the suit, the kid’s just a punk who blames you for the screw-ups of the past. Do you honestly think he’s a match for us?”
“HE isn’t, but the guy he’s working with is!” Rylon says. “That’s the guy who saved him, and the one who most likely built those power range… you know, the funky outfits!”
“Then we’ll set up so we can see the security field and activate the evacuation protocols as soon as he comes into view,” one of the black suits say. Rylon looks at her, a bit shocked at how easily she’s dealing with this. “Do you really think a guy like Technico doesn’t have a backup for his backup plan? We have to do drills in them once a month.”
Rylon groans, only to jerk as he hears a phone ring. He doesn’t even recognize the ring tone, so he takes a few moments looking at the others before realizing it’s his phone. He pulls it out, staring at it blankly as it unlocks automatically. “Is that… safe? Shouldn’t there be a code, or something?”
“Just answer the phone,” Harvey says. “That thing’s way too loud.”
“Oh, right,” Rylon says, tapping the green button. His mom and dad appear on the screen, looking anxious. He almost curses himself for answering. He should have let it go to the voice recording.
“Rylon, we’re heading for the Hall right now,” his mom says. “We’re going to get you out of that system. I’m so sorry, honey, we should have stopped it from happening in the first place—”
“Of course we didn’t stop it in the first place,” his dad says, grimly. He’s driving, but Rylon can see him clearly. Somehow he wonders if THEY can see him. The last he remembers, his parents didn’t have a video call app that they knew how to use. “It’s really hard to tell supers no, we all realize that. First they take our daughter and we only get to see her once in a while, now they’re taking our son—”
“Honey, did they hurt you too badly? Please speak to us,” his mom says.
“Mom…” he says, slowly, feeling every eye in the room on him. There are a million thoughts rushing through his mind right now. If he tells them yes, will they get him out of this place? Will they give up on him getting a job, or kicking him out of the house? He’s been through a lot, they should take care of him—
And then he stops, wondering why that very thought doesn’t seem right to him. Just a few days ago, he would have DREAMED of this sort of situation. He would have milked it for everything he could get away with. He still has half a mind to do so, but… once again, he remembers the smile on Michael’s face as the older male punched him in the gut, sending him flying. It had been enough to almost kill him, had he been a norm, still. He could tell you EXACTLY what sort of damage that hit had done to his body, and an estimate on how long it would take to heal it.
His parents are norms. He’s not, not anymore. The only reason he’s alive right now is because of his sister, and how she’d unlocked his abilities. That… he groans, running a hand over his face as he fights this internal battle. “Mom? Dad?” he says, and he sees their expressions tighten. “I don’t want… I’m okay,” he says, lying. Well, it feels like a lie, anyway. “I mean, I’m in it up to my neck, and I really WANT to come home, but I can’t,” he says, the words spilling out. “What happened to me—you heard about it?”
“We heard you had another encounter with those mean boys you used to go to school with,” his mom says. “Did they hurt you, badly, Rylon?”
“I’m a healer,” Rylon says. “I’m not exactly proud of it, sure, but I guess it means I heal pretty quickly. I’m a… I’m a super, now, you know? I can handle it.” Everyone in the room shakes their head, several of them face-palming. “What I want you to do is get out of town, as far away as you possibly can. They’re coming after me, and they might be coming after Alyssa, but I want to keep you two out of it. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”
“He’s terrified,” his mom says to his dad. “It’s caused him to have delusions.”
“This is all the Hall’s fault,” his dad says. “No, it’s Alyssa’s—”
“It’s NOT Alyssa’s fault,” Rylon says, only to groan. “I’ve been blaming her for a long time, so… man, forget all that. Just turn around and head out of town as fast as you can, would you? I don’t want you in Missouri! In fact, hop a plane—no, he’s got some freaky machine powers, otherwise there wouldn’t be those outfits—”
The wall lights up, and Rylon jerks as his name is called. On the screen is a teenage girl with black and white hair. “Rylon, tell them to go to the Hall, we’ll use the teleportation booth to send them to Maui’s island.”
“Who is that, honey?” his mom asks. “Are they spying on your conversations?”
“They do it to Alyssa’s, too,” his dad says. “I’m starting to understand exactly where those Anti-Super guys are coming from.”
“Maui? Like the island?”
“It’s an island, yes, but it isn’t actually Maui, so to say,” she says. “It’s where a large group of supers who specialize in protecting people live. Plus, I can turn off their tech and it should keep them safe from notice from another technopath,” she says, although there’s a frown on her face.
“Okay…” Rylon says, staring at her for a long moment. “Why should I trust you to do that?”
“Because Alyssa is my friend,” she says. “I’ll do whatever I can to protect her family, because you’re important to her. Personally, I don’t particularly like you.”
He glares at her, wanting to tell her to take her help and shove it somewhere the sun doesn’t shine. The only thing that stops him is that it’s for his parents, not him. “Fine,” he says.
“Rylon, what’s going on?” his mom asks. “We heard something about sending us to Maui?”
“It’s not Maui, she says, it’s an island full of supers that’ll protect you,” Rylon says. “They WILL protect them, won’t they?”
“They’ll protect them,” Zoe says.
“Then Mom, Dad, go on to the Hall. I… think Lady Tech has a plan for your protection.”
“What about you? Shouldn’t you be coming with us?” his dad asks. “If it’s so safe, then that’s where YOU need to be—you might be some sort of super, now, but you can’t be as strong as the guys we see on TV, right?”
“Just GO, Dad,” he says, although he desperately wants to agree with that logic. “He’s not going to go after you when I’m closer.”
“Rylon—” his mom says, looking close to tears.
“I’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine. Just… get out of here, already,” he says, and then hangs up. The phone rings again, but he hits the “decline” button with an angry jab of his finger. Then he reaches up, running his hand over his face.
Harvey drops a hand on Rylon’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly before letting go. “That was pretty good of you, kid.”
“He’s turnin’ into a proper adult,” Mack says, pretending to wipe a tear away. “We thought for sure you’d skip out the first chance you got.”
“Like they’d LET me,” Rylon says.
“We would have let you,” Rosemary says.
“We wouldn’t have,” Jadyn tells her. “But if Lady Tech had said he could go, we would have let him.”
“Seriously? You mean I could have gone to the island of supers?” Rylon asks, almost jumping out of his seat.
“Too late now,” Harvey says, “she already hung up the phone.” He motions to the blank wall, shrugging. “She didn’t want to send you, otherwise she would have said so. I bet she plans on keeping you right here, right?”
“Bait?” Mack offers.
“Yeah, considering how she said she doesn’t like him, he’s absolutely being used as—”
The wall lights up again, and Rylon is stunned to see his little sister standing there with a strangely familiar looking man.
“Holy crap, I don’t believe it,” Jadyn says, sounding like a complete fanboy. “I HEARD he was alive, but I thought for sure they were lying!”
“You’ve never seen him, before?” another black suit asks. “He’s constantly showing up at the school campus.”
“Chain gang was my first assignment as soon as I got used to the leg,” Jadyn says.
“We’re not a chain gang!” most of the ex-cons yell at him.
“I dunno, it sounds kinda old school,” Mack says thoughtfully. “Can we get that on our uniforms?”
“We’ll ask Technico, he’ll probably suit you up with power suits while he’s at it,” Jadyn says.
“That sounds pretty sweet, actually,” Harvey admits. “But who IS that guy?” he asks. “He looks like Technico in negative.”
“That, ladies and gentlemen, is THE Superior,” Jadyn says. “It is, isn’t it? He’s not really a clone, like they pass him off as, is he? Please don’t kill my dreams.”
“It’s the real one,” Sarah, the black suit Harvey’s crushing on, says. “He showed up a while back, there’s an entire dramatic story about it, but only the black suits get to read the comic.”
“They made a comic out of it,” Rylon says. “Why? If they can’t sell it—”
“Dragon does it for the Deadly Darlin’s, if they ask him,” Sarah says. “The black suits keep sending them fan letters, begging for certain stories to be comics.”
“That… makes no sense,” Rylon says, even as the door opens and his sister walks in. She heads straight for him, grabbing both of his hands and staring him in the eyes. He’s sort of freaked out by this move, because for most of his life his sister has avoided touching him, and he’s avoided touching her. Plus, the last time they touched had wound up with him HERE. “What are you doing?” he asks, jerking away from her.
***
What AM I doing? I try not to look awkward, which is easy enough as I think of something else. “Did our parents call?” I ask him, tapping on my comm. “When are they going to get here to pick you up?” I expect it. I’m not HAPPY with it, but I expect it. My parents are going to be so mad if they find out what happened, and with the news following EVERYTHING supers do, they probably already have.
“They aren’t,” he says.
“What?” I say. “You’ve got everything you want right now. You have the perfect excuse to leave this system and go back to living with them… well, after we deal with the whole power suit users problem. Is that what you’re waiting for? Going to make the supers protect you until it’s over, and then…” there’s a look on his face that makes me stop. It’s stark with rage and fear. I see his fists clench at his sides, and I know he wants to punch me. Maybe I deserve it, I did go a bit far, but—
“I didn’t do that,” he says through gritted teeth. “You just…” He lets out a curse, turning away from me for a long moment. There’s a fine tremble running through his body.
“Your brother arranged for your parents to go to some Maui island that isn’t Maui,” a man says, coming forward. “He talked to the girl with the black and white hair.”
“You did?” I say.
“What, do you think I want them running into Michael?” Rylon bursts out, turning back to me. “Do you think I’m so stupid that I don’t realize how dangerous he is? And what’s worse, how dangerous that other guy he’s working with is? Do you REALLY think I’m stupid enough to want them around me right now? Just… no, I don’t even gotta ask, do I? You see me as that big of a piece of crap.”
I stare at him, because he’s right. I’m not going to feel guilty, but think it anyway, anymore. “You’re right,” I tell him. “You’re my brother, and I know I’m supposed to love you, but every memory I have of you after I turned twelve is terrible. How am I supposed to suddenly believe you’ve had a change of heart? Well, I guess it makes more sense since it’s about our parents, instead of me.”
He glares at me, and I can almost SEE his blood pressure go up. “I don’t know why I even bother to try,” he snarls.
“But…” I say. “In this case it was wrong of me, and I’ll own up to that fact. Thank you,” I tell him. “Thank you for what you did for our parents.” He calms, and lets out a heavy breath.
“I didn’t do it for you,” he mutters.
“I know you didn’t, and I’m fine with that,” I tell him. I feel a hand drop on my shoulder, and look up at Superior. I wouldn’t be able to read his expression if I didn’t know his son so well. He’s about to say something I’m pretty sure I’m going to regret.
“So this is your little brother?” he asks me.
“He’s my big brother,” I tell him. I should stop him, I know I should, but I won’t.
“So he’s only just now become a cape?” Superior asks.
“I accidentally unblocked whatever it was that was keeping his powers dormant,” I tell him.
“Want to block it, again?” he asks me, looking me straight in the eyes. “While we’re at it, we could change his name and a bit of DNA and ship him off to another branch.”
“I truly doubt that’s allowed, even under super law, sir,” a black suit says, looking slightly panicked.
“I don’t remember making a law against it,” Superior says.
“Mastermental probably did,” I say. “And if he hasn’t yet, he will after he hears about this.”
“Can you add in an untraceable back story?” one of the thugs calls out, eagerly. “I wouldn’t mind it! I’ve got a rap sheet as long as I am tall.”
“We’ll discuss it once you’re through my kid’s rehab system,” Superior says.
“Ah, this one isn’t Nico’s,” I point out. “It’s Ken and Jeanie’s.”
“The Liberties?” he asks. “Makes sense.” Then he looks at the entrance, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Technico, bring up the security system,” he says. The wall lights up, showing the streets around the apartment building.
There are people surrounding the building, one who’s wearing the remains of a power suit. He’s staring at the building with rage. “Bring up the sky,” Superior says. The camera angles change and they see clear sky all around. “Hmmm,” he says, and then looks at Rylon. “We could take this outside.”
“Superior,” I say.
“Yeah? You can stay inside if you’re worried,” he tells me kindly. I stare at him, and then put my hands on my hips when he doesn’t respond. A tiny twitch pulls at the corner of his lips, and I KNOW he’s trying not to laugh.
“I’ll go out with you,” I say, reluctantly. “Rylon should stay in here.”
“I thought we established that he was the big brother, here,” he says.
“We’re in a modern world,” I say, “girls can be strong.”
“I won’t deny that,” he says. “You’ve met my wife and daughters. They’re some of the strongest women on the planet. That doesn’t mean a big brother shouldn’t TRY to protect their little sister. If that’s your idea of ‘modern’ then you’ve been lied to. It’s just a sad excuse for big brothers to chicken out and still feel good about themselves.”
