33 Cape High Mega Me, page 10
part #1 of Cape High Series
“Found you,” Rocco says, stepping out of the shadowy wall and grabbing my wrist as I plummet past him. I dangle there, staring down at the hole for a long moment. “You actually sat on the core for a second, there,” he tells me as I look up. “Nice job making it easy to find!”
“I’m so glad my trauma helped make things more convenient for you,” I say.
“So am I!” he says, grinning shamelessly. He pulls me up and into the shadows, leaving the hole behind. I don’t know whether I’m happy about that fact or not, actually. I’ve never liked the Shadowlands, they remind me of how I was kidnapped by his dad. “She’s going to get mad, I bet,” he says, pulling me along behind him. “She’s not exactly stable, you know, either her physical form or her mental…”
“So what would zapping do to her?” I ask. “I mean, having a gigantic hole in her side isn’t going to help her keep everything together, is it?” Okay, yes, I should probably feel guilty right now. I mean, supers should always say lines like that, show the compassionate side—but she stuck me in a dark hole deep underground with no lights, and who knows how much air. So sue me if I don’t particularly sob over the gaping hole I left behind. If I’m being honest, I’m still faintly trembling because of what had happened to me.
I try to pull away from his hold, and he looks back at me. “You’re not stable, either, right now,” he says. “You need to sit down and take a few deep breaths—you know, since you can’t smell this place.”
“How did your powers work when I was still wearing my E.P.B.?” I ask.
“Nico programmed the E.P.B.’s to recognize me,” he says, leading me to a rock. “We kept having issues of people getting hurt after I helped them travel, or people getting slammed into walls. But in order for it to NOT work with my dad, our comms sort of communicate for a second, first. That’s also how I knew you were going a bit out of control.” He taps on his comm, showing me a graph that has my name at the top. “But I can still tell that you’re unstable without this,” he admits, forcing me to sit down and walking around me. “We should abort, and head to somewhere safer. The last thing I want is for you to try and outgrow the Shadowlands.”
“Yeah… I mean, who knows what’d happen if I broke through the… you know… whatever it is that keeps us in here,” I say, starting to stand. The world seems to swirl around me, dangerously, and I stagger, falling to the ground.
“Ward!” I hear him say. It’s muffled, like he’s saying it from another room, and then I don’t hear anything at all.
CHAPTER SIX
“All of this is your fault, yours, and that boy you brought along with you!” Checkmate snaps at Reaper, still trying to support Bluster. “If you’re hunting the shard, go after the shard, don’t bother me! I have gone along with your silly little demands! I’m growing the food that the boy sent, I’m letting these non-amusing creatures work here! I was promised villagers that would do INTERESTING things, and I have yet to see anything entertaining, whatsoever! No passion, no hate, no romance—“
“Technically, they consider each other brothers,” Reaper points out, his eyes still on the hole left by Ward. He’d considered jumping in, before he’d picked up on the conversation between Rocco and Ward. Right now he has her right where they’d planned—distracted.
“Reaper,” Rocco says over the comm. “Ward just fainted. His powers are going wonky. We need to take him somewhere he won’t destroy anything if he grows to the size of a small planet.”
“Are we certain?” Reaper asks. “We have her attention, now.”
“This is more important than the shard to me, is it to you?” Rocco asks.
“Of course,” Reaper says, taking his hat off. “Why don’t I come to you,” he offers.
“Can you?”
“I think I can manage,” he says, and then touches his hat to his chest, bowing slightly to both Checkmate and the Cosmics before stepping back and dropping into the massive hole that Ward had created. He puts his hat on before summoning his scythe as he falls, twisting in a dance as he slices a portal underneath his feet. He falls through it, landing lightly in the Shadowlands.
He looks around, making sure his hat is on properly. “Rocco,” he says.
“This way,” Rocco says, only to come into view with Ward in his arms. “We need a planet without a lot of buildings on it,” he says. “He’s already grown to half the size of this one—“
“Roughly a quarter of an extremely small one, actually,” Reaper says, but he thinks about it for a moment before bringing up his special map. It floats all around them, and he walks through it with a thoughtful expression, tapping on one planet and then the next until he reaches a certain one. “No oxygen on this one,” he says, “but your E.P.B. should be able to deal with that. Shall we?”
“Do you… um… need oxygen?” Rocco asks, and then feels silly for asking it.
Reaper gives him a little smile that says nothing, and slices open a portal to the Spacelands, motioning for the boys to go first. He steps in behind them, bringing out his little tablet and tapping on it. Soon he’s wearing an E.P.B. as well. Rocco doesn’t notice.
“Should we call Carla and Mega?” Rocco asks. “You know, tell them that things didn’t work out well?”
“That does sound like a plan,” Reaper says, stopping at a point and turning slightly. “This way,” he says, and the hallway of streaking starlight veers as he waves a hand.
“How does that work?” Rocco asks. “I mean, when you go into the Shadowlands you just head through the area, the area doesn’t change to suit your needs.”
“Shadowlands are a set place,” Reaper says. “What you’re going into is something like a mirror to the planet we’re on. It runs parallel. The Mirrorlands are a lot like that, as well. Spacelands is different.”
“How, um, is it different?” Rocco asks.
“This is the pathway that the angels take to get where they’re going. Think of it as the Creator’s highway system,” Reaper says. “It’s likely that this system’s been here since before the planets were created.”
Rocco looks around, and then at Reaper, shaking his head slightly. “So… I should thank God that my old man doesn’t have access to this, like he has to the Shadowlands.”
“Exactly,” Reaper says. Ward lets out a groan, waking up. “How are you feeling, Ward?”
“Like I was squeezed by a vice,” Ward says, “and my head’s still in one. Where are we? Did we complete the mission?”
“We aborted,” Rocco says.
“Why? We already knew where the core was!” Ward says, struggling in his hold. “I can walk, now, put me down.”
“You fainted, and your powers are still going out of control,” Rocco says, not letting go. “We’re taking you to a planet where you can grow or shrink all you want and not cause mass havoc.”
“Oh,” Ward says. “I knew I would screw this up,” he says, staring blankly into the darkness. “I always do.”
“You didn’t screw it up,” Reaper says.
“How did I NOT screw it up?” Ward demands, looking over at him.
“We can’t find the shard,” Mega’s voice comes over the comm. “There’s no point in shooting the core without finding the shard. What’s happening on your side of the job?”
Ward goes still.
***
What’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening is that I screwed up everything, had a panic attack like a baby, lost control of my powers, and left a gaping hole in the side of a sentient planet! I know that, THEY know that, but how am I supposed to explain it to my dad??
Here’s the thing, I might complain about him, I might act like I don’t like him more than half of the time—and let’s be honest, he can be a really big pain, his ego is larger than he can grow—but I’ve always, ALWAYS had this inner voice trying to tell me that I want to be a good son! Okay, maybe not always, but for a really long time, now!
“Ward? Do you want to tell him?” Reaper asks far too gently for a guy that’s walking death.
“Ward? Is there a problem? Did something happen?” Dad asks, anxiously.
“I…” I say, and then stop, because I really don’t WANT to say it.
“Ward hit a little growth spurt,” Reaper says. “Well, I suppose you can’t call it that for the time he shrank a few feet.”
“Shrank?” Dad asks. “You say he… shrank?”
“He was about four feet tall, or so, for a second,” Reaper says, in a proud tone. I turn and stare at him, but that’s interrupted as Dad lets out a holler of pure joy.
“My kid’s a shrinker!” he yells, so loudly that I wince and cover my ears with my hands. “I knew Nico thought it might happen, but it’s another thing entirely when it does! Ward, we need to celebrate! How would you like to throw a party once we get back to the base? We can try more alien foods, maybe get some alien decorations—I can’t believe it!”
“DAD!” I snap. “I ruined the gig! After I shrunk, I was grabbed and lost control and now we’re sitting on a gigantic moon with no atmosphere just in case I lose control again! The only thing scarier than that is that I still have no idea how the E.P.B. stretched far enough to grow with me, and I’m really worried it won’t do it again!” Ah… that was probably a bit TMI, wasn’t it? I should definitely have stopped at the “lose control again” part.
“That’s actually a very good question… how DO these things work?” Dad says. It’s like he didn’t even register the part about losing control! I groan. Either that, or he just EXPECTED me to lose control. I don’t know which is worse.
“A mixture of power blocking and those little computers that one of the Colleck boys came up with, I believe,” Reaper says, although he has a faint frown on his face as he thinks it over. It takes me a few seconds to remember they’re talking about E.P.B.’s, I was too intent on my own line of thought. “Like I said, technology isn’t exactly my strong point. But I doubt it’ll stop working just because you grow, he built it for you, knowing you were in a growth spurt.”
I… give up. It’s either have another panic attack over something I can’t control, or just accept that Nico probably thought this out. I mean, he’s got growth charts for every kid in the school, so he’s got to have an idea of what I’m going to wind up doing, right? I mean, he’s got Dad right there to work off of. I didn’t get nearly as big as he can.
“Should we come to you?” Dad asks, as the silence seems to stretch out.
“Did you find the shard?” I ask.
“No… we’re not sure where it is, actually,” Dad says, sounding frustrated. “It could easily have gone to ground. Rocco, can you find those things?”
“I… honestly, I’ve got no idea,” Rocco says. “They’re a lot harder to find than a super is. I know Aunt Skye can, if she’s close enough, but I’m not as strong as she is. My old man might be able to find it, but I don’t feel the urge to drag him out into space. Look, since we screwed up on this side, maybe we should make a strategic retreat for the moment and figure out how to try again.”
“If I grow at the headquarters, you can shoot me, right?” I say. “I would have to turn the E.P.B. off for it to work.”
“Then that’s where we’ll all meet up again,” Dad says. “I doubt the power hunter will be a problem for now.”
“The power hunter?” I say. “Dad, what does the power hunter have to do with this?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Dad says. “Focus on staying calm. We’ll go over everything that happened to both groups when we get to headquarters.”
I want to protest, but Rocco is hauling me to my feet, now, and Reaper is slicing open a portal into the Spacelands.
***
The creature floats in space, still charred from his unexpected trip through the atmosphere. He has a scowl on his face, which isn’t usual for him. He’d woke from his decade long nap when he’d felt something he’d thought was gone, long ago. The… what had the weak ones called them? Lerres… Harris… something ending with ‘ian,’ he thinks. Well, the powerhouses that once terrorized the universe and felt a lot like a ten-course buffet to him. He’d felt them, again.
He winces as he remembers the first time he’d run into one of them. It had to have been a century ago, at least. It had seemed like such a good idea to go after them, at first. He shakes his head, forgetting about them easily. He’d woke, feeling them, but then he’d picked up on something much more edible… a shard.
He reaches into the pocket of his pants, pulling out the tiny piece of core and practically drooling. He’d captured it before it could use the little powerless being it had jumped, and now it’s all his to savor. Once he eats this, he’ll get stronger, but sleepy. He could end this right now, find a nice little planet to dig into for his hibernation and call it a good day’s work (if he know what a good day’s work was, that is.)
But… does he really want to hibernate when he’d ran into so many interesting specimens in such a short amount of time? There’d been a female with the death bringer, one who’d had an intriguing power that he’d never seen before, something that could stop the powers of others. He could use that. Oh, and then there’d been the jerk who’d tossed him into outer space. Does he really want to let the guy get away with it?
He stops, jerking slightly as he senses the death bringer in the vicinity. There are others with him, others that have intriguing powers. He reaches up, wiping at the drool that keeps trying to fall. He can’t go hunting, not with a death bringer there. Unlike with those lerras guys, he’d been born knowing what the death bringers are. The divine beings are not very fond of his type. They consider them scavengers at best, and tormentors of creation, at worst. Many of his brethren had met their ends at the blade, or scythe, of a death bringer.
He makes a run for it, promising himself that he’s not going to quit just yet. He’s just making a strategic retreat.
‘Let… me… go,’ comes a faint psychic voice from the shard in his pocket. It’s meant to control the person holding it, but it’s not working on this particular fellow. ALL of his food has the bad habit of talking in one form or another, and while he can understand just fine doesn’t mean he actually has to listen.
You don’t listen to your cheeseburgers, do you?
***
Negatia looks over the room of young intergalactic supers. Most of them are crashed out on cots, some are wide awake and watching the Cosmics or her with suspicious looks. The one whose abilities are going wild is the most blatant about watching her. She looks like she wants to make a run for it. Negatia can’t exactly blame her, but at the same time…
“Why?” the girl asks.
“Why have we brought you here?” Negatia offers, walking over and moving into a sitting position. There’s not anywhere to sit, so she floats, instead.
“Why did you stop me?” the girl demands. “The Cosmics KIDNAPPED me! They’ll turn me into the authorities, and then I’ll be shipped from planet to planet, where someone will either find a use for me or put me down.”
“Is that what the Cosmics do?” Negatia asks, looking over at the nearest one. He shakes his head, but he’s busy cleaning up a mess, so he doesn’t comment.
“What would YOU do with a freak like me?” the girl demands. She looks almost human, save for her eyes. Her eyes are far too large and change colors with her emotions. They’re absolutely beautiful.
“I would put you in a school on my home planet, where they would teach you to control your abilities,” Negatia says, “and then I would dress you up in a uniform and put you to work entertaining the people of my planet. That’s what all of the supers on our planet do—you would be paid well and treated like a star, of course. People will want your autograph. Of course, that’s all contingent on you learning to control the powers, but our principal is extremely good at what he does.”
“So you’d turn me into a freak show,” the girl says, scathingly.
“I’d go, if I wasn’t going to be a Cosmic. Earth supers are a LOT of fun,” Poj says from the doorway. “Um, we can’t get ahold of Nico, and all of the other Earthlings are still asleep, so…”
Negatia looks over. “You need my assistance?” she asks.
“We made the machine that Zoe sent us, but we have no idea how to use it. What’s, um, a ‘watch part’?”
“Ah, I see, yes, I think I can help you,” Negatia says, standing.
“So you’re just going to leave me here?” the other girl asks, looking abandoned.
“I’ve already told you what I have to offer you,” Negatia says. “If you have no desire to be a ‘freak show,’ as you say, then I’m sure the Cosmics will treat you far better than you think they will.”
“My name is Ho’pa,” the girl says.
“Then, Ho’pa, I wish you luck—“
“I’m coming with you,” Ho’pa says, getting to her feet. She is far too skinny. It could be her species, but it could also be living as an orphan. “I’ll… I’ll do anything to gain control, even become a freak show to entertain people.”
“We call ourselves superheroes, not freaks. But first, we’re going to find a replacement for watch parts,” Negatia says, not holding out her hand, even though she’s tempted. “I need to see your Cosmic uniforms, Poj, and we can go from there, I believe.”
“Wait, what planet do you come from?” Ho’pa asks, looking confused.
“She’s from Earth—you know, Terra,” Poj says.
“I heard they weren’t even part of the Intergalactic Accord because they were so backwater,” Ho’pa says, looking even more confused. “How are you even out here? Do they even KNOW about space?”
“They think we abduct cows!” Poj says, bursting out in laughter. “I have NO idea what they think we do to them, but I think we should go grab some, anyway—“
“What for? What’s a cow?”
“It’s an animal that turns into a really, REALLY tasty dinner called a cheeseburger!” Poj says.
“Then you WOULD abduct the cow!” Ho’pa accuses her.
