29 cape high kittys prid.., p.9
29 Cape High Kittys Pride, page 9
part #1 of Cape High Series
“What?” Charles says. The words “Tom was right” are echoing in his head, but he shoves them down.
“They knew that the moment they used powers against norms, the Hall would have to step in,” Nico says.
“That’s a LIE!” Charles bursts out. “If that was true, my father would have NEVER been assaulted like that!”
“Your father broke the law, first,” Nico says simply, and then waves a hand at the wall. A video of kids stuck in glass-like boxes appears. The kids look familiar, but a few years younger. “These are the zoo kids. This is the zoo. According to Mastermental we’re still being investigated by the norms over exactly what happened, but those are OUR kids, Charles. So in a way, you’re right, there is one thing that would cause us to take on the government. The safety of our children will always, ALWAYS take first place.”
“You could have done it without the violence,” Charles says.
“True,” Nico says, “but he went after the wrong man’s daughter. Honestly, he went after several wrong men’s daughters, but we’re lucky that they didn’t find out about it until after it was over. Boogeyman would have done a lot worse than just rain on him like he did your buddies.”
“He kidnapped Boogeyman’s daughter?”
“One of them,” Nico says. “But the moment he knowingly kidnapped super children—and there’s plenty of proof he knew—was the moment that he bypassed the norm laws and put himself under super law. I should probably apologize for being so blunt about it, though. You must love your father quite a lot to get so angry over what happened. I can… well, I’d have to pull some strings, but I can take you to visit him in hospice, if you want.”
“Would you bring a healer along?” Charles asks.
“They refuse,” Nico says, “and I’m pretty sure they feel guilty over that fact, but it won’t change, and I won’t force them.”
“If I can fix him, will you let me?” Charles asks.
“I’d need to ask Mastermental,” Nico says. “But there’s a very good chance we’d let you. We don’t like the idea of anyone trapped in a coma, even kidnappers.”
Charles nods, although he’s not certain he believes it. It just feels like this man hasn’t lied to him once, which is ridiculous. He’s a super; he has every reason to not tell him the truth. It’s just that it’s really hard to hear blunt lines like “I’m testing you,” and think it’s an attempt to deceive him. But then again, this man is smart enough to be running around with a watch that does many, many impossible things. Well… not impossible, apparently.
He wants to get his hands on that watch so badly he can taste it.
“No,” Nico says.
“What?” Charles asks.
“No, you can’t take my watch apart, even if you do promise to put it back together,” Nico says.
“I didn’t ask,” Charles says in a surly tone.
“You didn’t have to,” Nico says. “Your uncle got one apart just the other week.”
“And what happened?” Charles asks, unable to stop himself.
“The little punk learned how to make a teleportation device of his own,” Nico says, dryly. “So every time the teachers turned away from the class they’d turn back to find him gone. It got so bad I had to go down and fix it.”
Charles says nothing, but his eyes are fully focused on the watch. He’s practically drooling.
“Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that, huh?” Nico says a bit belatedly.
***
*The Good Ship Flora*
“Really?” Robo says, staring at the binary on the wall. They’re high in the air, looking down at the planet. It’s even higher than planes fly, which kept the boys busy looking out the windows for a while, but then Flora beeped.
“What is the problem, Robo?” Oba asks, although he’s still staying RIGHT where he is, even if the safety belt has been removed. The kids might enjoy being this far up, but he’s always secretly ENJOYED the fact that he will never be a flying type super. And the fact that he’s in this strange, sentient spaceship… well, he doesn’t trust it. He’s almost positive that it will turn on him the moment he moves.
He’s also feeling weak, still. He should never have agreed to try to combat the infection. Oh, sure, had he been under the safe care of the healers as planned, it would be fine. As it is—
Robo looks over at him, and his eyes glow more brightly for a moment before nodding. “You’re right, Flora, I don’t think that’s good either. Should we… should we take him home?”
“What is the problem?” Oba asks, although he’s got a good idea already.
“Flora thinks we need to remove the icky stuff that’s inside of you,” Robo says.
“I see,” Oba says, looking at the cat creature sitting in its little basket. It’s watching him with eerily comprehensive eyes. Well, ROBO is watching him with the same, but he’s trying to ignore the fact that Robo is technically a robot. Supers can scan people in much the same manner. Just look at the healers.
Before he can say anything, the cat lets out a cry and the ship rocks wildly. A red light flashes on the wall and the safety belts come out. Unfortunately the boys aren’t near enough to the wall for them to be grabbed, so they both get tossed through the air. Oba’s arms shoot out, grabbing one and then the other and pulling them against the wall for the belt to take over.
“We were hit!” Robo says, struggling to see out the window. Instead, the wall lights up and they see a picture of a satellite sticking out of the side of their ship. The red light is flashing over and over again, and the ship staggers in the air. “She says we need to make an emergency landing! She’s heading down!”
“How did we get hit by a satellite?” Oba asks. “Did she just not see it coming?”
Both boys shrug, and the ship keeps flashing, while they drop like a box of rocks through the air. “Should we scream?” Cubby asks.
Robo looks thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe we should call Papa?” he asks.
“We should call Uncle Nico first, Papa’s busy,” Cubby says with a nod. “Flora, call Uncle Nico!” he orders.
A window opens up, showing Nico’s face—and both boys start shouting in terror.
Oba stares at them, and reluctantly shakes his head. “We wrecked, and are falling,” he says. “Do you think you could send some assistance?”
“Ah, yeah, I’ll see what I can do,” Nico says.
“Hey, is that Flora? She sent me a distress call,” they hear, and a window opens. “I’ve got the coordinates, so I’m coming!” Sunny says, “You can stop screaming now, you know,” he adds before disappearing from the screen.
The boys stop screaming, looking at each other for a moment before nodding.
“I spy with my little eye,” Robo starts out. Oba watches them a bit incredulously as they start playing travel games while free-falling from who knows how high up. He tugs at the belt he’s wearing, wondering if he’s up for saving them. His vision blurs, and the cat creature lets out a cry.
“Flora says Sunny’s almost here,” Robo tells him, only to start screaming again as the ship stops abruptly. Cubby joins in, because they both seem to find this amusing. In the image on the screen they see the teenager holding it up from below. It distracts the screaming boys and they start cheering, instead.
“Really,” Oba says to them, “you planned that.”
They both give him shameless grins. “It’s in rescue one-oh-one class!” Robo says as he squirms out of his belt. “They ALWAYS scream!”
“The girls are the worst,” Cubby agrees. “And they made the robots yell and it got really noisy, especially when the villains practice.”
“Villains… practice,” Oba repeats. “Saving people?”
“Yep!” both boys say. They’re going down slowly and land with a little thump before a door opens in the side.
“Flora, were you not paying attention again?” Sunny asks as he places one foot inside. The brothers throw themselves at him, and he catches them easily. The cat creature lets out a little meow. “Oh well, I was about to call you, anyway,” Sunny says as he pulls the boys out of the ship and places them on the ground. It leaves Oba standing there; watching the boy who everyone says will be his grandson-in-law.
“Sir,” Sunny says as he steps inside. “Let’s just get you out of here. I have some repairs to make—” he stops, abruptly, and his eyes narrow as he crosses the room in three huge steps, placing his hands on Oba’s throat. Oba brings up his hands, grabbing the teen’s wrists. It’s a shock that the boy is attacking him, but now is the perfect time to—
He starts to gag as Sunny’s hands move away. “Oh, crap, forgot, we need a waste basket, Flora!” Sunny says. “He’s about to—”
Oba falls to his hands and knees, throwing up on the ground. “Yeah, that,” Sunny says with a sigh. “Sorry, sir, it’s just that it started growing far faster than I expected it to. You’re going to be okay.”
“I assumed you were trying to kill me,” Oba says as he wipes his mouth with the back of his forearm.
“What?” Sunny says. “Oh, yeah, sorry, I guess grabbing you by the throat was a bit dramatic, huh?” he says, offering to help Oba to his feet. “But I can’t exactly kill my girlfriend’s granddad, you know? It would make for a REALLY awkward next date.”
Oba gives him a look, getting a wicked little grin in return. The boy pats him on the back as the mess falls into a hole that opens in the floor. “Ah, sorry, I need to get you out of here, Flora says she needs to disinfect,” Sunny says, tugging Oba out of the ship. “So… The reason I grabbed you by the throat,” he goes on.
“He choked Grandpa,” Cubby says to Robo. The boys both turn and stare at Sunny accusingly.
“The stuff they left in him seemed to have liked the height, or something, because it was starting to spread again,” Sunny says. “And I get that they’re trying to see if his system will fight it, but… I got rid of it.” He shrugs, looking a bit guilty.
“Where’s ‘Danna?” Cubby asks.
“Yeeeeah… I sort of left her and Liz, I guess? We were nearly to the coast,” Sunny says. “Anyway, let me just get this satellite out of Flora and patch her up and we’ll head out to join her. Marigold’s had reports of a ship that’s been calling for assistance. It’s on the list of the ships that you listed as your usual, so we’re going to head out. Um… Cubby and Robo should probably go back home, right?”
“We’re going with you!” Robo says, getting angry. “WE figured out how to sneak out without any of the adults noticing—” He stops as he sees Oba’s look. “Other than Grandpa, that is,” he adds. “But that’s not fair, he’s got SUPER, super hearing, so it doesn’t count!”
“I get that, I really do,” Sunny says as he starts pulling pieces out of the side of the ship, “but we can’t risk either of you getting sick, even if I am with you, you know? You’re still really young and you could…” he hesitates, but they’re smart enough to know what he’s thinking.
“Robots can’t get sick! I’ll be perfectly fine!” Robo says. “I can take on any baddie virus and save the day with no problems!”
“But Cubby isn’t a robot, Robo,” Sunny says as he finishes hauling the parts out of the ship. He places a hand on the side of it and they watch as it starts to glow. To their amazement, roots shoot out of the bottom, digging into the soil. “We can’t risk Cubby getting sick, and we can’t risk you getting hurt like you did when the ship started falling.”
“That is my fault,” Oba says quietly. “I should have insisted on landing sooner, before we wrecked.”
Sunny looks at him, a little smile pulling at his lips. “They’re pretty good at getting their way, sir,” he says with a shrug, “Especially when you aren’t feeling up to dealing with both of them.”
Oba nods. He’s feeling better, sure, but he’s still nowhere near how he had felt when he was younger. It doesn’t make him feel any better, though. The fact is… “Had you not come… I do not know if I would have been able to save us,” he says quietly, his shame creeping into his voice.
“You would have,” Sunny says. “You’d have ripped a hole through the wall and jumped out with the boys once you got close enough to the ground. That’s what Pan would have done, and you’re the one that trained him, right?”
Oba relaxes slightly, because he decides to accept that the boy is right. It’s just that he’s not used to feeling so weak. It’s frustrating.
“Look, we can do this,” Robo says, grabbing Cubby’s wrist and tapping on the watch he’s wearing. He brings up a hologram, tapping away quickly before nodding in satisfaction. “Space E.P.B. is a go!” he declares. “Now Cubby is safe from all the sickness stuff and we can go along with you to face the villain that’s behind all of this! I’ll put mine on, too, even though I don’t really need it!” His eyes glow and he starts tapping on the air.
“There probably isn’t a villain, though,” Sunny says.
“Of COURSE there’s a villain!” Robo says. “Any time there’s a big massive danger spreading through the world, there’s got to be a villain behind it! EVERY COMIC BOOK EVER SAYS SO!”
“Not always,” Sunny says with a sigh. “And you two know comic books are only loosely based on reality, right?”
“Not the ones that Aunt Skye draws us,” Cubby says.
“ESPECIALLY the ones that Aunt Skye draws for you,” Sunny says, trying not to laugh. His ship is healing, which is good, but he’s starting to worry about leaving Adanna and Liz. Will they run off without him? Mixing Liz with a large body of water doesn’t seem like a very good idea, you know? Couldn’t she kill a LOT of sea creatures by accident? Not to mention any boats that are around, right?
He looks at the satellite pieces on the ground and realizes that he should probably get this cleaned up, first. A tap on his watch has a hologram of his sister’s face floating over his wrist. “Hey, Zoe?”
“Yeah?” she says.
“Think you could give me a hand? Flora tried to eat a satellite.”
She stares at him for a moment before shrugging. “Sure, I’ll be right there.”
Sunny hangs up, only to look down as Cubby tugs on his shirt. “What’s up, Cub?” he asks.
“They’re watching,” the boy says, pointing. Sunny looks over and groans as he sees several news reporters filming all of this.
“Masks on, guys, we’ve got MSM,” Sunny says with a sigh.
“The stuff in Chinese food?” Robo asks, his eyes glowing as he searches the web.
“No, that’s MSG, this is Main Stream Media,” Sunny says before slapping his own mask onto his face.
Before the media can come closer, though, several black vehicles pull into the area and two dozen men dressed in military gear get out, surrounding the group. Sunny groans, loudly, and then reluctantly lifts his hands. “We come in… ah… peace?” he offers.
***
*Cape High Dorms*
“And we’re at the site of what appears to be a fallen spaceship,” the news reporter on the wall says. Every single kid in the room jerks slightly before someone enlarges the channel and mutes the others. “The ship appears to have hit one of the satellites in the area—”
The reporter is speaking from a distance of the scene, but the camera turns and zooms in on a familiar looking spaceship and even more familiar looking people. As one, everyone groans. Only Charles, who had just walked in, looks confused.
“You even have SPACESHIPS?” he asks, pointing at the wall.
“Yeah?” Freddy says. “We’ve got a couple of them, actually, since Zoe and that one don’t see eye-to-eye.”
“They don’t see eye-to-eye,” Charles repeats. “How do you see eye-to-eye with a machine?”
“Flora’s alive!” Carla says. She’s munching on an apple, what looks to be her fifth, by the apple cores lined up next to her. “She’s a thinking spaceship.”
“Sunny’s spaceship,” Freddy says. “His grandparents gave her to him. But who wants to bet he blows this little talk with the norms?”
Everyone looks around. “I WOULD,” Vinny says, “but I doubt anyone would bet against me. Sunny sleeps through diplomacy classes.”
“You’d think he would pay attention,” Morgan says. “He’s going to be hopping as many borders as I am, if not more.”
“So… there are more spaceships?” Charles asks.
“Yeah, Extra Credit’s in the back—” Freddy starts out, only to have the other kids glare at him as Charles runs out of the building.
“You just HAD to mention Extra Credit,” Vinny says before racing out after Charles.
“We should find out what he does, anyway,” Freddy says, but he’s right on Vinny’s heels—with his phone in his hand to record this. Charles is standing in the middle of a small clearing, one that’s past the tree houses. He turns, slowly, and then heads straight for the hidden panel and taps on it. It shoots up, and he starts tapping on the screen at speeds they usually only see from Zoe. Oh, sure, Nico is faster, but this is still pretty impressive, especially since he just came into his powers recently.
The ground cracks open, but it quickly becomes clear that there’s a metal door under the dirt as they see clear edges. The Good Ship Extra Credit comes up on a platform. It’s obvious at a glance that it’s been patched up from the last trip that it took. Those little run-ins with the sentient planets had done some damage. In other words, it doesn’t look like an “extra credit” project; it looks like a working machine.
