Steel Life (Cape High Series Book 25), page 19
“I’m not hirin’ him,” Jack says. “He made his choices. You’ve made yours.” He turns as Maximum appears on the ground below with a file in his hand.
“Is he at least a D-class?” Max asks, waving the papers.
“Complete norm,” Jack says, dropping to the ground. Chris almost lets out a surprised squeak as they do so. “But I want him off of the streets and in training for a while. Since he’s my first official lackey, I want him at a decent level.”
“We can do that training,” a black suit calls out from where he’s been lounging around in jeans and a Cold Steel t-shirt, watching Sandra do the heavy lifting. “I’m a bit disappointed,” he admits. “I was told I’d get to use the heavy machinery.”
“Aren’t those guys your lackeys?” Chris asks, motioning to the group.
“Nah, they’re borrowed,” Jack says, much to the black suit’s amusement. “They’ll be going to work once she’s done excavating, though, since their boss says their pay is coming out of my wallet for as long as they’re working for me,” he adds a bit louder. The black suits jump to their feet, trying not to laugh as they head into the construction area.
Max walks over to Chris, looking at him for a long, long moment. Chris looks surprised. “Hey, are you… are you reading my mind?” he demands.
“You sure about this?” Max asks Jack.
“Is he gonna try and stab me in the back?” Jack asks.
“No, he’s just coming from a bad background,” Max says. “He doesn’t understand how we work.”
“Sounds just like how I was,” Jack says. “Unless he plans to sell me out, I think it’ll be fine.”
Chris looks away, feeling a strange sensation. “It’s hope,” Max says, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Do you want the job?”
“I… I want the job,” Chris says quietly. “I feel like I’m selling him out, though.”
“It’s your life, not his,” Max says. “Not everyone gets an opportunity like this. Cold Steel’s an idiot, sure, but he won’t be a bad boss.”
“Thanks, Maximum,” Jack says sarcastically.
“I think there’s still metal in his brain!” Sandra calls from where she’s playing with the dirt she’s dug up. “We’ve got several power lines over here, and I’ve found the sewer lines. We can hook in from here, if you want.”
“Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” Jack says.
“I’ll arrange for the permits,” Max says, sighing. “Remind me to get you signed up for your trade school.”
“Trade school?” Jack repeats.
“You’re going to be a plumber, remember?” Nico says, his eyes scanning the area. “Is it just me or is your pile of metal smaller than it was the other day?” he asks.
Jack looks over, his eyes widening. “Someone stole from me?” he asks, shocked.
“I didn’t do it!” Chris says quickly.
“I’ll check the feed,” Nico says.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
*Superior Island*
“You know,” Taurus says as he and Liz look at the teleportation booth. “We could stay a few more nights.”
Liz rolls her eyes, elbowing him. “We’ll come back with the girls,” she says firmly. “I miss them. Besides, we can always get one of those teleportation watches from Nico and come back any time we want.” He laughs, hugging her from behind.
“So… call your--OUR niece and have the other end set up?” he asks.
“Devon…” she says, turning in his arms, “what do we do about my mother?”
“Mastermental wiped her memories, right?” Taurus says. “She won’t remember what happened. Your brother sent her somewhere far away, too.”
“Since when has distance been an issue for supers? And the wedding is probably being shown all over the world. She’s going to remember, and she’s going to show up again. She was after something.” He holds her, staying silent as she works through her thoughts. “It’s wrong to hate your own mother, isn’t it?” she asks.
“Do you?” he asks. She gives him a look, the corner of her lips pulling back in a wry expression.
“She was never kind to Nico. It was so obvious that she hated him that I noticed it when I was a little kid. I didn’t even realize there was something wrong with that fact; I grew up with it for so long, but looking back… I… how can you hate a CHILD, Devon? I mean, sure, Nico was always a smart aleck, but it wasn’t out of anger, or meanness, he was just…”
“Nico,” he provides.
“Exactly. No, he did get angry when he was older. He was really angry at Dad, but I don’t think it was because of how Dad treated him,” she says.
“It was because of you, wasn’t it?” Taurus offers softly. He’s seen the siblings for long enough to know a bit of what’s going on. Their parents had been neglectful, leaving Nico to practically raise Liz on his own, even though he’d only been eight years older.
“Yeah, I think it was,” she says. “How can I feel like some big bad hero when I was so… sheltered by my brother? And when he was gone, I was sheltered by Jeanie and Ken. I’ve never had to go through what Nico went through.”
“You went through too much, even then,” he says. “I have never been more thankful for Nico being Nico than I am right now, Liz. He was the one that showed you that you were worth protecting. I’m not saying he’s perfect. He shouldn’t have gotten himself tossed in the cape cells, for one, but I’m still grateful.”
She looks like she wants to protest, but finally snorts with reluctant amusement. “You’re not lyin’, there,” she says.
“But you are a big, bad hero,” he says. “You’re my hero. You brought two strangers into your home and turned them into daughters. You fight yourself every time you have to choose between protecting yourself and helping someone else, and you always win. I know that what she did to you in the past is still in here,” he says, touching her temple, “and here,” he says, touching her heart.
She looks away, wanting to argue, but remembering the moment her mother had showed up far too clearly. “I don’t want it to be,” she whispers.
“I know,” he says, “but it is, and yet you still open your heart, knowing that even those closest to you might betray you.”
“Will you?” she asks.
“Never,” he swears. “And neither will any of your present family. Let’s face it, your mom’s a… well…”
“Self-centered witch?” she offers.
“Yeah,” he admits.
“Let’s ship her out to space,” she says, pulling out her phone. “Zoe, kid, do you think we could get a pick-up?”
“On my way, Aunt Liz,” Zoe says. “I’ll bring you your wedding gift while I’m at it.”
“We can’t just ship her off to space, Liz,” he says, trying not to laugh.
“I’ll use that favor Dad offered Reaper, we’ll have her several galaxies away by dinner time!” Liz says. “I’m not so open-hearted that I’ll just let her do what she wants, not when she attacked my chosen family right in front of me AT my wedding.”
“Well… Jack WAS wearing his watch at the time,” Taurus points out.
“She didn’t know that,” she says. “She could have hurt children, as well. They weren’t wearing watches. And then there’s Aubrey’s norm grandfather. He could have been killed. That makes what she did absolutely unforgivable.”
There’s a poof, and they look over as Zoe appears, holding a small box in her hands. She pulls a watch out of it, heading for Liz, first and putting it on her. “Teleportation, illusion, E.P.B. and all the extras I could think of,” she says before reaching into the box and pulling out a pendent. “This one’s for you, Taurus,” she says, taking his hand and placing the pendent on his wrist. Living metal spreads out from the pendent, wrapping around his wrist. “We wanted it to not fall off when you changed sizes,” she explains. “It’s the old stuff, so it’s not as… organic, I guess you could say, but it’ll do the job.”
“Thank you,” he says, staring at it with a hint of wonder.
“Oooh, did you make this?” Liz asks.
“I stole Dad’s blueprints,” Zoe says. “Now, as for tossing your mom onto another planet,” she says, clapping her hands together and pulling them apart. “We would have to go through our connections with the Cosmic group. We’re trying to keep on somewhat good terms with them—and, well, they are a bit scared of you now.”
“I thought the Cosmic group was now led by Nico’s pal, Meteor,” Liz says, looking at the hologram Zoe brought up.
“They are, but they all saw what you did to their strongest,” Zoe admits. “Now, let’s program your illusions—”
“Zoe,” Nico says, appearing in a small square in the corner of her hologram, “I’m going to get started on the security system you set up for Jack.”
“Oh no… did he get grabbed again?”
“Jack got grabbed?” Liz asks, “When did that happen? How does he attract so many problems all at once?”
“He’s Jack?” Taurus offers.
“He’s Jack,” Zoe agrees.
“Not fair,” they hear Jack call from behind Nico. “He was after the living metal! And now someone ELSE is after my new metal collection!” he complains. “I’m missing almost two tons of steel, here. How did they do it in one night, anyway?”
“Wait, people are stealing your crappy metal offerings?” Zoe says, looking confused. “WHY?”
“I had some pretty cool stuff here!” he says. “They even took my old John Deere, dang it,” he complains. “I had plans for that thing. Wait… how DID they take that? I took the tires off of it. Did some super rip me off?”
“I’m looking into it,” Nico says. “But we can start the plans for the security system now, anyway.”
“We’ll do the illusions later,” Zoe says. “For now, tap on the map icon and bring up the lists of destinations. Home should be the first one listed.”
They do so, looking like little kids with brand new toys, and disappear, leaving Zoe standing there, looking around. She should have told Liz about their suspicions. That monkey was probably brought onto this island by Sparky, which means she had been working with, or possibly for, Herold.
If Sparky does remember what happened, and the two paired up…
She frowns, not very happy with this at all. Sparky is Liz’s MOM. Sure, she hadn’t been the best mom in the world, but… but selling out her own daughter to work for a jerk like Herold…
She sighs, looking at the beautiful ocean in front of her, wishing that Sparky hadn’t shown up at all. But of course she did, she thinks a second later. The past ALWAYS comes back to bite you when you’re a super. That’s one of the first lessons you learn in Supering 101. There’s a very good chance that someone ELSE’S bad back-story is plotting out a villainous escapade even as she stands there.
“Zoe,” her dad says over the earbud. “You coming?”
“I didn’t tell her,” she says softly, blocking this conversation from everyone but her father. “I should have told her.”
“Tell her what?”
“About how we think there’s a connection between Sparky and…”
“Yeah, kid, I know,” he says as she lets it trail off. “Even I don’t want to think that she sold us out like that.”
“But you do.”
“Yeah, I do,” he says. “A long time ago I asked Mastermental why Dad had picked a woman so different from Mom. He said it was BECAUSE she was so different.”
There’s a long moment of silence before Zoe says, “That’s really stupid.”
“I know, right?” Nico agrees. “He could have at least TRIED a bit harder, Banshee’s single now!” She starts laughing, even though the conversation is terrible. “But he made a stupid choice, and… well, even if I could have changed it, I didn’t, because the outcome was Liz. For Liz, I would put up with an entire planet full of self-centered witches, if I have to.”
“I know,” she says softly.
“I’d put up with even more for you, kid,” he says.
“But thankfully MY mom is amazing,” she says.
“She is, isn’t she?” he says. “Now get back here and help me set up Jack’s security system. You really threw in all the bells and whistles, didn’t you?”
“I was planning on redoing the Darlin’s base with some of the ideas, as well,” she says. “Hey, Dad?” she says, “You don’t have any terrible back story just waiting to bite us, do you?”
“Nothing outside of the Cape Cells,” he says, “you do recall I spent the vast majority of my adult life there, right?”
“Oh… well, that’s good,” she says after thinking about it for a moment.
“Yeah, a handful of psychos stuck in cells pretty much wraps up my part of the bad back-story curse. But hey, I’m sure there’s plenty more just waiting to show up. Supers live VERY long lives,” he says.
“You say that like it’s a good thing,” she points out.
“How else will we make comic books?” he asks. She shakes her head and taps on the watch, bringing up a list and going home.
***
*The Warehouse*
“Bring it in,” Herold says, pressing a button and raising a garage door for an eighteen wheeler loaded down with steel. This little group of thugs has turned out to be extremely useful, indeed. As soon as he’d established his dominance, they had gotten to work helping him out. He realizes that they’re only doing it in hopes of getting him to leave faster, but he doesn’t care. It’s gotten him plenty of materials to start the production of the living metal.
Behind him is a conveyor system hooked to several space-aged looking machines. He’d had a bit of fun with the first delivery of metal, and finally got to try out some of Colleck’s old designs. None of it is plugged in. Everything in here is running off of small boxes that are glowing slightly. The little pendent on his chest (he has clothing now, so he’d been more than happy to put it back where it belongs) needs to be… well, put bluntly, charged down on a regular basis. He could have made it larger, but the portability is one of the best aspects of it. When he gets his living metal spaceship put together he plans on charging it with the built up energy of the pendent. But for now, it makes for a good generator that can’t be picked up by other technopaths.
“Wow,” the head thug, Tony, says, looking at all the machines. “You really are impressive.”
“Yes, I am,” Herold says, getting irritated with how long it’s taking to unload all of the metal. He heads over, picking up the John Deer tractor with his powers and floating it over to the start of the conveyor set up. “This looks familiar…” he says, frowning.
“Yeah, but don’t they all look alike?” Tony asks.
“It has no tires,” Herold says, remembering exactly where he’d seen it before. “You stole this from Cold Steel?”
“That no-good punk has been a thorn in my side since the day he showed up!” Tony says, rage erupting to the surface. “He destroyed my home! He ruined a perfectly good deal, and he got the cops on my back! I was in prison for an entire year because of that guy! This is the LEAST he owes me for what he did!”
“Did they get you on film?” Herold asks.
“Not me,” Tony says, even as a few of the boys look a bit pale at the thought. “But they’ve wiped out every junkyard in the area for his stupid base. Even if he hadn’t been a problem, I still would have had to rob him.”
“I don’t care,” Herold says. “If you want to rob him, do so, but don’t bring the Hall back here, do you understand? I need more time to get this reverse-engineered. This doesn’t have Technico’s trademark touch to it.” He heads back to a table covered in machines now that the largest item is moved, and returns to studying the living metal sample. He hasn’t even started looking at the skin metal sample that he got from Cold Steel, and he’s been working on it all night long. He would almost swear that it has Colleck’s touch to it, but… he knows for a fact that Colleck never worked with Technico.
These nanobytes that they’ve combined with the metal are brilliant pieces of work. Someone had spent a lot of time and effort on their design, and then Nico had stepped in and improved them, he believes. He taps on the air, typing up another program to see if he can break through the firewall—there, he thinks as the screen next to him lights up. “Got it,” he says, taking a moment to admire the detailed programming. “Now, let’s get started.” But even starting now, he won’t have much time to create more, and he knows it.
There’s a little tick in his jaw as he takes to the air, holding his hands out towards his system. The metal begins to be fed into it. Soon all of the machines are running, tearing down the base materials as he turns to the metal he’d pulled off of Jack. “Fascinating,” he breathes out.
“What is?” Tony asks. “And are you gonna answer that? It’s been ringing for a while…” he’s looking at the phone that Herold had “borrowed” from him and rebuilt, but Herold ignores his question completely.
Herold waves a hand at the screen and a diagram of regular skin appears. There are three layers, the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. Then he brings up a diagram of the steel he’d ripped off of Jack. The metal has three obvious layers when you look at it closely. “It IS skin,” he says. “There are three different layers of metal, with different densities and cellular structure. I didn’t expect that.”
“And that means… what?” Tony asks.
“That means the boy IS the true living metal. He might have started out with it as a coating, but his body has adapted and changed. This fancy combination is merely an imitation of him.” He stares at the image for a very long moment, his mind examining the new knowledge from all directions. Finally, though, he shakes his head. “No, I would rather not, although it might be interesting to try with someone else,” he says.
The phone stops ringing, and Herold finally waves a hand at it. A woman’s voice comes over the speakers. “Herold,” she says, “I’m getting sick and tired of being ignored like this! You OWE me! I always get paid, you know, and if you think you can hide behind that stupid threat Nicolas made about shipping me out to space, you’ve got another thought coming! Everyone knows they don’t know how to get into space! So either you wire me the money or I come and get it, personally!”
