36 Cape High Sand Piper, page 1
part #1 of Cape High Series
SAND PIPER
BY
R.J. ROSS
Sand Piper
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 * Fire Spin * Crystal Clear * Sand Piper
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 Family Ties: A Side Story
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 EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER ONE
I yawn, barely bothering to cover it with a hand, and look at the wall with a slight frown. It’s not right, but it’s close. There should be more color over in this part—
The door behind me opens, and I turn, my digital paintbrush in my hand. Oh, I’m not REALLY painting—the walls in our dorm all work as computer screens, but I still feel an old guilt welling up over painting on them. I did this, once, before I was captured and put in the zoo. I’d been yelled at for an entire day, and then had to repaint the wall. I was, what, twelve? Thirteen? Somewhere around there.
Blackjack, on the other hand, looks at the wall for a moment before grinning. “Nice job, Piper. I’m glad you’re finally bringing your painting out of your room.” He pats me on the head as he walks over to one of the den chairs, dropping down and bringing up the news over his comm.
“Um… do… you think Bear will get mad?” I ask, hesitantly. I can just hide it before he gets here, but I DID steal an image from one of his dreams to paint. The painting is of Bear sitting at his woodworking desk, surrounded by puppets floating around him. It’s actually a scene that I’ve seen a million times. It still makes me smile.
“Why should he? He does that whenever he’s not in class, practically,” Blackjack says, flipping right past the news to the sports section. He’s probably betting on something, again. I should tell Ace that his dad is way too addicted to gambling.
I nod, and go back to the section that’s bothering me, looking at it for a moment before tilting my head. When that doesn’t help, I go to the nearest chair, sitting on the armrest and falling back so I’m looking at it from upside down.
“You realize,” Ward says as he walks into the room, “you could just tell Technico to flip the picture.”
“I’m good,” I say, my white hair touching the floor. The blood rushing to my head feels good, honestly. “I—“ I reach up, covering another yawn.
“Don’t fall asleep like that, you’ll hit your head on the floor, again,” Ward says, dropping down on the couch. “You’re acting like one of the elementary kids, you know.”
“I know,” I say, and then flip off of the couch, landing on my feet and heading for the spot. I tap on the wall next to it, bringing up the color wheel and picking out the right shade of yellow. I start adding the highlights to the spot, completely oblivious to the people gathering on the couches behind me. I mean, on some level I realize they’re there, but they aren’t important right now. It’s almost right.
I step back, tilting my head, and then add just a few more strokes before nodding in approval. I almost jump as a cheer comes from behind me, complete with clapping and a few whistles. Ah… THIS is why I should pay attention to my surroundings, isn’t it?
“That looks amazing, Piper,” Bear says, and I finally turn, hiding my paintbrush behind my back.
“I should have, um, asked permission… before painting it in the den,” I admit.
“Would you have painted it somewhere else if he’d said no?” Ward asks, now munching on a bag of chips.
“Um…” I say, wondering if I should answer, honestly.
“Can I send that to my family?” Bear asks, completely ignoring the conversation. “Is there an email function, or something?” he’s tapping on his comm, so I head over, showing him how to send it. He doesn’t mind that I painted his dream, that’s good. I mean, I haven’t shown them the other dreams I’ve painted, yet, so this might be a--
“She’s got others, right?” Freddy says. “Technico! Show us Piper’s art collection!”
“Wait—“ I start out, only to sigh and give up as the wall lights up with smaller versions of my many paintings. “I needed something to keep myself awake with, before I got the bracelet,” I explain, shyly. I want to hide, because every single one of them has a painting done of them. I look at the wall, just to keep from looking at them. “I didn’t… um… mean to invade your privacy—“
“Those are amazing,” Freddy says, sounding astonished. “I mean, the Bear one was great, but dude, look at the Kaden one!” He taps on his comm, and my picture of Kaden takes over the wall. He’s surfing in the wave pool. “That happened AFTER you got the power blocker, because we didn’t get the wave pool until after that,” he points out.
“Well, it started out as a way to stay awake,” I say, waving it off. “I just… found that I enjoy it. There is no shame in having a little hobby, right?”
“Nope,” they say, and soon all the walls in the den are covered with my art, and they’re going from one to the next, like it’s an art gallery.
“Wait—those are the old ones,” I say, tapping on my comm to turn off my oldest work. I don’t want them to see my failed attempts. “I thought I deleted those,” I say.
“That would not be allowed with the Technico system,” Malina says, and I look down (just slightly) as she wraps an arm around my waist. “I wish I had seen that picture of me and Mom before the adoption, I would have used it for the invitations,” she scolds me, mildly.
“But you had a REAL picture,” I say, and yawn. I’ve been doing better at staying awake during the day. I mean, I still find myself taking a few naps during lunch, and study hall, and math class, and—but the point is… actually, I think a nap sounds wonderful right now. All that painting took—
“What time is it, anyway?” I ask, realizing that I have no clue.
“Eleven o’clock,” everyone says.
“At night?”
“In the morning,” Bear tells me, grinning. “You were up all night, again.”
“Oh, well that does explain how I got it finished,” I say, and then head for the stairs, intent on making up for lost sleep. “I’ve already missed class, haven’t I?”
“It’s Saturday, Piper!” Freddy says.
“Ah, then I haven’t missed it,” I say, cheerfully.
“Do you want food before your nap?” Malina asks.
“Perhaps after,” I decide, heading to my room and looking at my bed for all of a second before heading for my gigantic teddy bear. I crawl into its lap, pulling the arm around me, and close my eyes. No one will be dreaming right now, so it’s safe. Of course it hasn’t been as bad as it used to be, but still…
I sleep.
***
*Pan’s Lab*
“So… when are you sending Piper up here?” Superior asks over the video chat. “The funeral was a week ago, which means that planet chunk has had plenty of time to warm up.”
“We still don’t have any proof that the planet core piece is in the crystal doll,” Nico says. He’s in the middle of pouring lava into ice molds. There are several chunks of q uartz in the background behind him, where Pan and Sandra are looking over holograms.
“You see these lines inside the quartz?” Sandra says to Pan. “I couldn’t figure it out, so I just left hollow tubes there. It worked well enough for the island system, so I figure it’s what he’d planned.”
“Yes, it seems to be the way he directed the energy—sort of like veins in a living creature, don’t you think?” Pan says, and brings up another hologram of a living species.
“You haven’t even asked her yet, have you,” Superior says as the lava smokes up the screen. A vent starts running and the room is cleared again, leaving Nico standing there with a molded piece of igneous rock. He looks far too satisfied with himself, right now.
“We’ve got the mold—actually, we have a lump of disfigured ice, but it worked enough,” Nico tells the other two.
“You realize that I could have just MADE those parts, right?” Sandra says.
“But it’s not the same,” Nico says. “We need to prove that a technopath could make something like this on his own.”
“Yeaaah… but that’s the easy part,” Sandra says. “Try doing the crystal work on your own and say that. Even I find it tricky.”
“Why are we just assuming that he did it on his own?” Pan asks. “If this technopath is anything like you, as you seem to think he is, then he would have had friends willing to assist him.”
“With gigantic sea monsters,” Nico says blandly.
“I’d have done it,” Sandra says, grinning. “For a price, that is. Heck, I AM doing it. But why would you be sending Piper anywhere?”
“Pop thinks—“
“There’s a sentient core piece in that doll they buried under the ice,” Superior says. “We were going to send Piper up here to see if it’s dreaming. If we can catch it dreaming, we’ll know for a fact if it’s alive or not.”
She stares at them, and then raises one huge hand, covering her face with it for a moment. “Did you think that through?” she asks.
“It made sense—“
“She has trouble with dreams from guys that aren’t even adults, how do you think she’d handle the dreams of something that’s lived as long as a planet?” she asks them, lowering her hand to glare. “I’ll go in, I’ll see if I can find the chunk or not. Leave Piper out of it.”
“She’s going to go up there sooner or later, regardless,” Superior says. “It’s not like we’re tossing her out into space, or letting her chase after a villain—“
“Unless it’s Checkmate’s core piece, then, technically she’ll be dealing with one of the villains the others have chased after… a couple different times,” Nico points out.
“Shut it, Nico,” Superior says.
“She does have a reasonable argument,” Pan says. “Sending her into the dreams of a long-lived being could turn out extremely… disturbing.”
“Then what should we do? How do we send an adult supervisor in a situation like this?” Nico asks. “And don’t say Boogey, they won’t just accept us tossing him up there with no good reason.”
“That, and Santa and Toodles have just started the courting!” Tatiana calls from Superior’s side of the chat. “They are very cute couple!”
“I’m not a dream walker,” Nico says. “Neither are you, Pop, so don’t bother volunteering. We need someone who can—“
“So in other words, he’s not giving up on Piper,” Sandra mutters.
“Of course not,” Pan agrees, going back to looking at the holograms and comparing. “He based these lines on the circulatory system of each specific living creature,” he says. “He must have done several studies on the creatures he replicated. This is extremely thorough—especially for a technopath.”
“I learned anatomy,” Nico tells him.
“Reluctantly, and only for your robots,” Pan replies, not even looking over.
“Why not do what I’d planned from the beginning?” Superior says.
“What’s that?” Nico asks.
“Bring in Sandman,” Superior says. “Put him to work as her dreamwalking trainer, and use Toothy as her adult supervisor. She’s got the guy by the—“ He pauses, looking at Sandra with a hint of amusement, “throat, metaphorically speaking.”
“She is having him by the heart, not the throat, Clifford,” Tatiana says, appearing on the screen. “He is very much in love, our Sandman!”
“But why are we even bothering to send her?” Sandra asks. “It’d take me five minutes, tops! I’ll sneak in with a teleporter, check out the doll, snatch the chunk if it’s there, and be back in time for dinner. And since I’m eating with the Liberty family, that’s an impressive feat, you know?”
“So you think they’ll give Sandman and Toothy time off from their TV show for this?” Nico asks.
Pan pats Sandra on the shoulder, since she looks like she’s about to lose her temper by this point. “They are doing this for Piper’s sake, as well, you know,” he tells her.
“They just want to figure out how to cash in on her powers,” she says.
“We need to find out if I’m doing the right thing, sending her off to be an elf,” Nico says, finally. “I know it’s the safest thing, sure, but what will she actually DO as an elf? Spend her life painting toys and making hot chocolate? It sounds boring.”
“Yeah,” Sandra says. “But is that really a bad thing?”
Superior and Nico look at each other, and then at Sandra. “Piper could easily take the place of a Legend, kid,” Superior says. “Not just work for one. If Sandman doesn’t wind up with an heir, she’d be perfect for the job.”
“You let Kaden just work for one,” Sandra points out.
“Kaden’s taking the place of Bunny’s mom, not just painting eggs,” Nico says, waving it off. “He’ll be running the place within a year or two, as well as helping with the bunny work. I’ve got no problem with that. But Piper just accepted the job without even thinking about it. It doesn’t sit right with me.”
“She’ll be safe up there,” Sandra says, looking at her hands. “Not scared of sleeping at night because other people might be having nightmares.”
“And that’s exactly where she’s going for this,” Superior says. “We’re sending her to the North Pole, where they dream of snowflakes and jingle bells, and there’s a good chance that what we’re looking for isn’t even there.”
“So… you’re sending her to the North Pole for her graduation gig?” Sandra asks. “To… sleep. You’re just risking the fact that there might be an insane planet core up there dreaming, at the moment.”
“If we find out that there’s a core shard in the doll, THEN we’ll teleport you in to steal it, how’s that sound?” Nico offers.
“And what if the core shard has nightmares?” Sandra asks.
“That’s why we’re bringing in Sandman,” Superior says. “As soon as my kid realizes that’s the best way to do it.”
“He’s still under house arrest for trespassing, using nightmare powers on the Maui Warriors, and the rest of that debacle,” Nico says. “It’d be easier to get Boogeyman—“
“Up in the North Pole,” Superior says. “I’ve played poker with the guy, he’s not a fan of jingle bells. Also, they’re both under house arrest for attempted kidnapping—if you consider going all over the world doing things house arrest.”
“Fine, I’ll call Toothy,” Nico says, sighing.
“Might I point out that Sandman attempted to kidnap Bunny, but Boogeyman DID kidnap Toothy?” Pan offers. “If we’re going into past mistakes, we should make them clear.” They just look at him for a moment before continuing the conversation.
“Why not call Piper, first? She might not even want to do this,” Sandra says. “Also, why does this entire conversation feel like we’re going in circles?”
“Because we are,” all three men say, almost at exactly the same time.
“Because it was decided from the start that they would be sending in Piper with Sandman, so Sandman can meet and train a prospective heiress,” Pan says. There’s a moment of silence in the room before Superior starts laughing.
“He caught us,” Superior says.
“I’m not saying it’s a done deal,” Nico says, “but Boogey has his heir, he’s just being greedy. Sandman’s the one that needs more family. And since we never did find another super with her powers, well… so does Piper.”
“So… finding the core shard is just an excuse,” Sandra says.
