33 Cape High Mega Me, page 1
part #1 of Cape High Series
MEGA ME
BY
R.J. ROSS
Mega Me
Amazon Edition
Published by Book Candy Publishing
Copyright © 2022 by R. J. Ross
All Rights Reserved
Cover art and design by Leslie Zielinski
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
~Other works by R.J. Ross~
The Winstead Files Series
Courting the Beast * Snow White, Snow White
Seasons of the Fae Series
Raven's Return * Death of a Dryad * Water Wielder
Cape High Series
Super Villain Dad * America's Grandson * Hello Kitty * Don't Know Jack * Daddy's Girl * Aces Wild * Steampunk Time * Fire Hazard * Ditto Ditto * Sunny Daze * Life Light * Guitar Hero * Super Girls * Shadow Boy * Super Villain Grandpa * Mic Drop * Coyote’s Howl * Rocky Road * Rainbow Rush * Rise and Shine * Burn Out * Stringless Puppeteer *America’s Firewall * Mimic You * Steel Life * Aloha Boy * Boogey Blitz * Deadly Road Trip * Kitty’s Pride * Sons of Lerrestia * Healing Touch * Beach Bunny * Mega Me
Cape High Side Stories
Cape High Christmas: A Side Story
Cape High Villainy: A Side Story
Reaper’s Darlin’: A Cape High Side Story
Cape High Kindergarten: A Side Story
Cape of Cheer: Cape High Christmas II
Cape High: Days Past
Ringmaster (Toodles)
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
I stare blankly at the man standing in my doorway. He’s grinning widely and has a gigantic duffel bag over his shoulder. “So! Who’s ready for our first family vacation?” he asks.
“You, apparently,” I say, trying not to groan. “Um… Dad… you DO know we’re going out to space, right?” I ask. “We’re not going there for a vacation, either. We’re supposed to see what all they plan on teaching the students of Cape High and probably find out just WHY they suddenly want to do a student exchange program in the first place. Look, I’ve got a list of things I’ve been assigned to find out while we’re out there.” I tap on my comm and bring up a hologram—yeah, a hologram.
I guess I should start out by explaining just what the heck we’re talking about… and maybe I should even say who I am. This sort of thing is taught in Comics 101, you know? My name is Ward. I’m a super teen, one who goes to a school for super teens called Cape High. The guy in front of me is a full-fledged super who goes by the name “Mega” whenever he’s running around in tights. I was sort of a “Surprise! You have a teenage kid!” to him a few years ago. Does that have a more succinct saying? I should check out that website for slang sometime, because I REALLY bet it does. Dad, though, didn’t seem to mind. In fact, more often than not, he’s OVERLY enthusiastic about this.
Oh, and yeah, we’re going to space on a student exchange thing tomorrow. Space cops, you know? I guess they’ve gotten a lot of “Surprise! You have a teenage kid!” lately, too. (No, seriously, there should be a quicker way of saying that…) And now we’re all caught up! Or, you know, as caught up as I plan to get. I have NO plans of turning this into a comic book, anyway.
“You’re the one who’s supposed to find out if they’re using our super teenagers as free manpower?” Dad asks, jerking me back to the present. He’s been reading my list all during this time. “Isn’t that a job for an adult?” he asks. “I’m going to have a little conversation with Nico—“
“Nah, I can find that one out easily enough,” I say, grabbing his arm before he runs off to confront my principal.
“And how do you expect to find these things out?”
“When they put one of the three of us to work,” I say, shrugging. “From all I’ve heard of the Cosmics, they’re about as sly as cheese.”
“Cheese,” he repeats.
“Yeah, they’re not exactly good at being shifty,” I say, waving it off. “And if they are planning to put the kids to work, and I find out, I can probably use it as my graduation gig.” The Cosmics might not be shifty, but I’ve got no problem with turning this into an opportunity. Nico’s the one that dropped the job on me in the first place, so he might as well pay me back for it. I turn and head into my room, showing that I’m still in the middle of packing.
“So… this could be a useful thing for you?” Mega asks.
“Yeah,” I say, starting to shove stuff into my bag. It’s got the school logo on the side. “And honestly, I’d rather go to space than over to Great Britain. I’ve heard ALL about Knight.”
“Oh, yeah, I can see that,” Mega says, following me into the room and opening random drawers and pulling clothes out. “What about this suit? You could make quite the impression on them—“
“I outgrew it,” I say. I used to be a bit scrawny, but I’m not anymore. “And I’m not wearing a suit to meet them—OR a uniform, before you offer,” I say, finishing up my packing. “You’re here early, though. Is there a reason?”
“I thought we could go shopping for all the last little necessities before we go,” he says. “You know, those little bottles of shampoo and deodorant—“
“You want to go to the grocery store,” I say, blandly, “for our trip into outer space. Do we even know if they use showers?”
“Why would they not use showers?” Dad asks, looking disturbed at the thought.
“I want to go!” Carla yells from the floor above us.
“You want to go to the grocery store?” I call back to her. “Why?”
“Because I want to see this big, beautiful world before we leave it behind,” she says. “Who knows how long it will be before we see our hometown again?”
“At the grocery store,” I say blandly.
“AT THE GROCERY STORE!” she agrees far too enthusiastically. “The heart of life! Also, I want to get candy for the trip! Do you know what sort of weird things they eat out in space?” She appears at my door as she asks this, posing dramatically. “I need LOTS of calories, you know! My metabolism is extremely fast!”
“It’s not the only thing that’s fast,” I say, dryly. “Fine, but you’d better pay for your own candy, got it?”
“I know!” she says cheerfully before racing away.
“She does eat quite a lot, doesn’t she? Can she afford to pay for it all?” Dad asks, still looking out the door she’d just left.
“That’s why she has two Hall leaders!” comes from several different directions in the dorms.
“And I’m open to the idea of more!” Carla calls out, shamelessly. The laughter this gets comes from all around. Even I can’t help the twitch of my lips.
“She’s definitely got… her priorities sorted out, then,” Dad says, with a look that says he’s torn between trying to act like a parent and laughing.
“She’s not wrong, though,” I admit, thinking about it. “We should probably pack some food just in case they DO expect us to eat the inedible. Fine, let’s go to the grocery store.”
“Do you really think they’ll starve us?” he asks, abruptly worried. “I’m not Ken, by any means, but I do have a daily caloric intake that—“
“We’ll see if we can get a kitchen on the ship we take?” I offer, tapping on my comm and calling Nico. I start down the hall as a new hologram pops up over my wrist, and the list of chores closes. “Nico, what about food?” I ask as the call goes through. “Can we get a stockpile of food and a kitchen unit or something? What all sorts of things do they EAT in space?”
“We’ll get you something set up on the ship,” Nico says. “You’ve definitely got a point. I’ve seen the videos of Ken’s eating spree.”
“Then we’re going to the grocery store, so if you could set up a fridge along with the kitchen, we’ll get it stocked and ready to go,” I say, already bringing up another hologram and writing down what all we’ll need to feed everyone. “Uh… maybe we should invite Vinny,” I say, a bit belatedly.
“To cook?” Nico asks with amusement.
“Can we?” I ask eagerly.
“I made arrangements for three kids and an adult, kid. You’ll just have to learn not to burn your food,” Nico says. “Mega should know how to cook, he’s a bachelor man in his forties.”
“Ah… well… that’s… probably expected, yes,” Dad says, looking a bit awkward.
“You don’t know how to cook, do you,” I say.
“We can stockpile frozen family meals?” he offers.
r /> I groan, wondering why I feel like laughing. “Can we get a nanny bot?” I ask, almost desperately. “You made one for when the baby was born, right? It can do the cooking!”
“Interesting thought,” Nico says, “unfortunately that didn’t work out very well. The nanny bot started demanding an hourly wage and weekends off.”
I stare at him. I hear my dad let out a choked laugh behind me, and turn to stare at him, instead. “And?” I finally say.
“It’s when it got into planning out its 401k that I decided it was just too high maintenance,” Nico says blandly.
I groan.
“That’s a shame, it sounds like it would have been useful,” Dad says. “Did you program it to cook? I might be able to arrange for a decent wage—“
“You want to hire my nanny bot?” Nico asks, looking interested. “I’ll see what I can do. But for now, just learn to make peanut butter and jelly—a LOT of it, and you’ll be just fine.”
I stare at him, seeing a little smile trying to pull at his lips. “You’re trolling us, now, aren’t you?”
“I might have been since the beginning,” he says.
I groan, and then give up, letting out a laugh. “We’re still going shopping,” I say. “Carla can get grouchy when she’s hungry.”
“Smart idea,” Nico says. “Send the bill to the Hall, we’ll have the Cosmics recompense us in one way or another.”
“Got it,” I say. “Carla! You coming?”
“I’m coming!” she calls back from the girl’s floor, and then taps me on the shoulder a second later. “What’s taking so long?” she asks.
“Bring your wallet,” I tell her, and head out the door. “Vinny! Come with us, would you? I have NO idea what to buy!”
“Shouldn’t you be learning this sort of thing for when you graduate?” Vinny says, even as he joins us. “Nico, we need a class on common sense.”
“Sure, you can teach it,” Nico says, and the hologram closes as he hangs up.
“He’s been plotting out moving my brothers into the dorms,” Carla explains. “Toby’s a technopath! I bet Nico’s super excited about that.”
“Yeah, but what about our epic trip into space?” I ask.
“Hardly epic,” Vinny says. “You’re just going there for a few days, right? Maybe a week?”
“A LOT of weird things can happen in a week, you know,” I point out as we leave the dorms and head for the steps to the top of the canyon. I’m still not flying. I’m supposed to be coming into that power at any moment, according to Nico, but so far, nothing. Personally, I’m not exactly looking forward to it. The moment I start flying is the moment that Dad expects me to start following him around as a sidekick.
“Ah, did you bring a big enough car?” I ask Dad, realizing a bit belatedly that he might not have planned for this.
“I’ll just… call a black suit van, then,” he says, bringing out his phone.
***
*Cosmic HQ*
“So the children will be coming soon,” Meteor says. He’s sitting at his desk in the office that he shares with Vo’ka, looking at several different files. Vo’ka looks over from where he’s lining up the training and deployment schedules on the wall.
“Yeah, and what’s the logic behind that, anyway?” Vo’ka asks. “You’re planning to send BOTH of my daughters to that backwater planet, don’t think I ain’t figured that out.”
“It will only be for a short amount of time,” Meteor says. “We need to be on the good side of the Earthlings, Vo’ka, you realize that just as much as I do. If we are willing to show good will by entrusting our most precious children to them, they will return the sentiments—“
“You want to lure their kids into joining the new Cosmic partner program, don’t try to spin it,” Vo’ka says. “You’ve also been sitting on that little Cosmic Creator tool we found the other month, wondering if you should try it out on people.”
“Ah, well, you see—“ Meteor starts out.
“You’re NOT changin’ a bunch of teenagers into brand new Cosmics,” Vo’ka says, his eyes narrowed dangerously. “That ain’t a decision they’re equipped to make, regardless of who their principal is—“
“This is NOT what I was planning by any means!” Meteor says, offended. “The mantle of Cosmic is one that should not be handed out lightly. This is something that will impact both the person chosen for the job and their future generations. I thought you knew me better, Vo’ka.”
Vo’ka looks a bit sheepish. “I know, I know, but we all know that even with the kids that are being trained, we’re short-handed. If we COULD get some new blood, it would make things a lot easier on all of us. If we could get a group with amazing powers to begin with, then it’s… well, it’s tempting, that’s all I’m sayin’.”
Meteor looks at him for a long moment, his expression impossible to read. “We must not compromise our values for convenience sake. You know this as well as I do, but… it is true that finding the method does open up new possibilities. And, as you said, having the super children join in on the partner program is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be a temporary thing, or, if they enjoy it, a permanent position. I would not say no to children as capable as the ones Nico are teaching.”
“Yeeeah, I figured you were tryin’ to be sneaky,” Vo’ka says with amusement.
“We must, at all costs, be on good terms with the supers of that small planet,” Meteor says. They look at each other, their expressions perfectly mirrored, even though they’re two different species. “That is why I would like our children to know them, and for them to know our children. That is the very reason I proposed this program. I would hope that they became very good friends and be willing to cooperate in difficult situations.”
“What if they hate each others’ guts?” Vo’ka asks.
“I would never even consider that!” Meteor says. “Both our children and the Cape High students are all wonderful, kind-hearted people!”
Vo’ka just stares at him for a moment, and then shakes his head with reluctant amusement. “You can think that all you want, Meteor,” he says. “But even good people can clash.”
“If you’re speaking of the ongoing… scuffle between Cosmic Blacks and Cosmic Reds—“
“They’ve been fighting ever since the Cosmic Blacks called Black,” Vo’ka says bluntly. “You should warn them not to try and attack each other while we have guests.”
“They haven’t been—“
“They take potshots at each other the moment your back is turned,” Vo’ka says. “Everyone knows it, you’re the only one who’s still in denial. It ain’t that they hate each other, so to say, but there is definitely a rivalry going on. Oh, they’re still brothers, but ain’t nothin’ worse than brothers at war.”
Meteor sighs, leaning back in his chair. “We should give them more important things to do with their time, then.”
“That’s what I was thinkin’,” Vo’ka says, grinning evilly. “I got the jobs all planned out, and everything.”
***
Dad wound up sleeping in one of the empty apartments after we got back from shopping. Now we’re all gathered outside of the apartment, our bags at hand. The rest of the school is hanging out with us, chatting about random things or saying their goodbyes—mostly to Carla. I’ve gotten a few claps on the back, sure, and one or two hugs, but it’s not the same. They’re acting like they’re sending their only child off to summer school for the first time, when it comes to Carla—
“You gotta know she’s the favorite,” Rocco says, coming over and draping an arm over my shoulders. I shoot him a dry look. “What? You were thinking it, right?”
“Of course I was thinking it,” I say with a snort. “But it’s fine. She’s Carla.” It’s not like I want to be the school’s darling, in fact the very term is making my skin crawl. I would appreciate them at least pretending that they’ll miss me—
“WARD!” Jack yells, running out of the apartment building with a cup of coffee in his hand. “Man, don’t leave me!” he says, heading straight for me and hauling me into a bone bruising hug. “You got no idea how much I’m gonna miss you, man!”
I choke, trying not to start laughing. “I’m still not going to be your lackey,” I tell him, although my feet are dangling off of the ground at this point.
“Just give me another chance, bro! I’ll make sure you’re the best paid lackey in the Hall!” he says, holding me out from him by about a foot and grinning. “You, me, and Brandon, we’re the best team, and you know it! Just think about it while you’re out in space, got it? We’ll set you up with a nice little apartment on my base, and some special size-changing ratty jeans—“
