34 Cape High Fire Spin, page 28
part #1 of Cape High Series
“Have… my eyes,” he says, and then he falls limp…
He’s dead.
I look at Negatia’s face, seeing the stark expression twist. I’m not sure what that look means, honestly, but… I am sure that I probably don’t want to know. Riddle walks over, with a hesitant look, and Negatia looks up at him.
“I had hoped—“ he starts out as she stands, dusting her uniform off.
“It would have happened, regardless. With all of the things he’s done, we would have stripped him of his powers after the trial,” she says, stiffly. “Skystep, where is my daughter?” she asks.
“I found Yester, who was heading here, and dropped her on him! But I can go get her, now! Um… but should I bring her HERE, or to your house?” Skye says.
“Take her to the bubble apartments, for now, please. Tell her that everything is fine,” Negatia says, only to stop. “Wait…” she says, reaching over and pulling a book out of Null’s pocket. “Take her this… if you can clean it, first.”
“I can totally clean it,” Skye says as she takes the book, running off into the distance. We fall silent, and I look at the body for a long moment before pulling out my phone.
“Yes, we’re going to need a body picked up and a cleanup crew,” I say as the black suit answers. “Yes… no, he’s unlisted. Does he have a grave site somewhere or will we need to arrange for one? I know several of the older supers have already buried themselves,” I ask Negatia. She turns, looking at me for a long moment before a strange, bittersweet smile crosses her face.
“Of course he does,” she says. “I’ll arrange for him to finally actually be buried there. You…” she stops, as if considering how she should put it.
I abruptly realize that this might be the wrong moment for this. Well, not WRONG, exactly, because we’re going to have to bury him—oh, but supers shouldn’t leave genetic evidence, should they? I open my mouth, but Nico shakes his head before I can say anything.
“We’ll get it taken care of,” he says. “There are other things that need to be cleaned up, as well. Why don’t you go do that, Vinny?”
I nod, feeling like I should apologize, or I should try to sympathize. It isn’t that I don’t, exactly? She lost her family, and that’s always hard, no matter how bad the relationship was, right? But even I realize that this is a complicated situation. In MY eyes, he’d been a monster that kidnapped little girls and almost got several military men killed, right? He even attacked my brother’s family. But to Negatia, he’d still been her father, right? It’s like Morgan and Mimic. He might have been a terrible father, but he was still her father.
I head back to the house, seeing Justin sitting up, now, sticking his fingers in his ears and then looking at them to check for blood, I bet. I tap on my comm, calling Aubrey. “We need a healer to check Justin and Doris out—“ I start out.
“I’m fine,” Doris says, already working on cleaning up the mess left over from the holes in the walls. “Did you get him? I would have come, but I only woke up a few minutes ago, and it sounded like it was over according to the comm.”
“He’s dead,” I say, possibly too bluntly.
“Good,” she says.
“He should have gone to trial,” I say. “But if they’d moved any slower, he would have been gone, and if they’d gone too easy on him, he would have figured out a way to turn things against us. What happened…” I shrug, and go back to my call. “Aubrey—“
There’s a poof, and Aubrey walks right past me to scan the others. I look at the hole, and then suddenly realize that Nico hadn’t been talking about that mess as I see the goo still on my arm. “I’m going to go take a shower, and then I’ll come help,” I say, heading inside.
I find myself stopping at the bathroom mirror as I’m about to get out of my uniform, confused. There’s a look on my face that I’ve never seen before, and my skin looks pale. I look down at my hand, surprised to see the faintest of tremors going through it. Is it… shock? I blink as there’s a knock on the door, about to tell them that the room’s occupied, but it opens before I can.
“Vinny,” Aubrey says, stepping into the room, “come in here and sit on the couch for a moment—well, I suppose the floor will have to do,” she says as she looks at the wreckage. I find myself following her, and sitting where she tells me to as she places her hands on my shoulders and looks me in the eye. “You’re in shock.”
“I didn’t DO anything to—“
“You’re in shock right now, and I’m going to help you get through it,” she says firmly, keeping me from standing.
“He… he died,” I hear myself whisper. “He just… he was fighting—he was more than I could have handled, but Negatia and Skye were doing well, but… then… it was like a blink of an eye,” I say. It’s so stupid of me. I’m TRAINED for this sort of thing—well, the super fighting thing, at least, but—
I feel her hug me, but I can’t react. I’m still fighting the weird urge to cry. I shake it off, trying to go back to my rational thoughts. A problem has been taken care of. There are more problems we still need to deal with. There’s still a lot of bad blood between the working supers and the Foundation, and then Riddle… I go still as I think of it from his perspective. How would I feel if I was the one that wound up in his position? If Jimmi’s dad—
“Jimmi?” I hear Aubrey say. “Vinny needs you right now.”
“I’m on my way,” she says before I can protest.
“I’m going to be fine,” I say, running a hand over my face. “I’m just being childish. I was trained to be in a position of leadership. I’ll… I’ll wind up dealing with this sort of thing in the future.” I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “The one who needs to be comforted is Negatia. I didn’t even like the man.”
“It isn’t easy seeing people die in real life, Vinny. I know for a fact that the people working in hospitals see it regularly, and they still find it difficult,” she says softly, even as the door opens and my girlfriend walks in. She drops down next to me, wrapping her arms around me.
“You’re going to get dirty,” I say. “The flower squirted me.”
“I noticed,” Jimmi says, but doesn’t move away. “I don’t care.”
I let out a sigh, leaning into her hug and relaxing. “That… really sucked. They messed up my kitchen, too,” I complain, looking over towards the holes with a frown. “I’ve got some walls to patch. Think I can talk Nico into replacing all the stuff we lost?”
“It’s Negatia’s kitchen, not yours,” Jimmi says.
“She made me move in here to be a live-in cook and babysitter,” I explain. “So I had Nico deck out her kitchen and put a digital wall in there and in my bedroom. At least they didn’t leave a hole in THAT wall. It’s bad enough we lost the kitchen one.”
“So you’re living with Negatia,” Jimmi says.
“As her unpaid cook, on top of being her unpaid intern. I get the feeling that cooking for a child that refuses to eat meat is more than she wants to deal with.”
“Okay, yeah, I can sort of see that,” Jimmi admits. “But I doubt Nico would let her get away with leaving you unpaid. You should ask him about it.”
“She’ll probably make me clean the toilets, once it occurs to her,” I admit, thoughtfully. Both girls start laughing. “That wasn’t actually a joke,” I have to point out. All that does is make them laugh more. Jimmi tightens the hug for a moment and I turn, wrapping my arms around her waist. “I’ve really missed you,” I say.
“You’ve been too busy to miss me, be honest,” she says.
“I missed you,” I say.
“I’ll order in the stuff for the patch work job while you’re recovering—or I’ll make the singer kid do it,” Doris says, jabbing a thumb at Justin.
“Where’s my sister?” Justin asks.
“Skye was going to get her,” I say. “She’s safe.”
“Thank God,” he says, relaxing. There’s a complicated expression on his face that I have no urge to question right now. I figure it’s a family thing, which is, thankfully, none of my business. Instead, I lean into Jimmi’s hug, letting their conversation fade into the background as a I take a moment just to relax. It’s not over, exactly, but for now, just for a little bit, I need this more than I can say.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
*West Hall*
Negatia slides into the seat behind her desk, staring forward with a blank expression. The black suits peek in, but no one enters, because they all realize something’s happened. She doesn’t even notice. Her mind is twisting and turning around in circles, bouncing back and forth from one thing to another as she tries to get a handle on what she’s feeling.
She should be heartbroken, right? Instead she just feels empty, and slightly… hungry. She shouldn’t feel hungry right now, should she? Her father had just died in front of her eyes. There’s a tap on the door, and she slowly looks up as it opens without her allowing entrance. Riddle steps in, looking grim.
“Riddle,” she says. She should stand, right? She should invite him to take a chair and explain that what they had asked of him was far more than he should have been asked for—
“I’ve come to submit my retirement,” he says, crossing the room and placing an envelope on her modern glass desk. “And… well, if it’s to be tossed into the Cape Cells, to ask if you would be willing to raise Addie for me. It’s asking a lot, I realize that—“
“Why would you go to the Cape Cells?” she asks blankly.
“Because… what I did wound up with… honey, you know I wouldn’t have done it that thoroughly if I could have avoided it,” he says, looking her straight in the eye. “Your father was a very dangerous man. I tried—“
“Riddle,” she interrupts him. “Of all of us, I realize that. Between Skystep and I, we were having difficulty keeping him where he was. That is not a combination that… well, honestly, it’s not a combination I ever thought I would be a part of,” she admits, looking a little thoughtful. “I had always considered her a rather silly fighter, but she is truly fantastic. Her sense of timing is quite good. I wonder if she would like to branch out…”
“Negatia,” he says, bringing her back to the subject at hand.
“Yes, of course, forgive me,” she says. “I will not hold you accountable for his death, Riddle, because you only did what was necessary. He was not going to go down without a fight. In fact, you are the reason he is not still out there, terrorizing the world, or possibly even the galaxy. I need to apologize to you, honestly. You had to clean up a mess that I should have cleaned up decades ago, all the while participating in a silly little spin-job at the same time. Now… I… I… would appreciate a moment alone.”
He nods, and then moves around the desk, turning her chair so she’s facing him. “If you hate me… you can toss me out of your Hall. I’ll be sure you never see my face again—“
She reaches up, taking his hand and looking him in the eyes. “I promise, Riddle, I will never hate you. You and the others… you were my salvation when I was young. Your silly, overblown love and support kept me…” there’s a little smile on her face as the lost look in her eyes starts to clear, “it kept me from seeing the world the way he would have had me see it. Tell me… tell me honestly, Riddle,” she stops, taking a deep, fortifying breath, “do I have his eyes?”
He blinks, clearly taken off-guard by that question. “Yours are the most clear, most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, right up there with my Addie’s, and your little girl’s. I would gladly spend the rest of my life looking into your eyes. But what’s this ‘overblown’ malarkey?” he asks. “We were only giving you the adoration you deserved,” he says, a teasing smile on his face.
“Of course you were,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I need to go see Ho’pa… I just… I don’t believe I’m ready for it, yet,” she admits.
“I’ll go down there,” he says, getting down on one knee in front of her. “I’ll make sure she knows everything is going to be fine. But… that’s another thing…” he admits.
“What?” she asks.
“The group that trained Vinny to do what he did today, they want a school down there,” he says, “and that boy did an AMAZING job. He was always aware of what was going on, even things that I had a bit of trouble noticing. I… honestly, I wouldn’t mind my little girl being trained like that. It might only be the Foundation kids, but… I vote yes.”
“To the school?” she asks. “It won’t matter unless I can get willing teachers,” she admits.
“Then I’ll do it,” he says. “I’ll get all of our gang to do it—we might have to swing-shift it, since we do have an empire to run, but my daughter’s future is more important than making a few more pockets of change.”
“Your kids might be fine, but that means the working group kids won’t be,” she says, sighing and leaning back in the chair. “I have no idea why they hate you so much. I really would like to get that fixed before I bring in the boy I plan to train as my ACTUAL second-in-command,” she admits.
“So you’ve found someone?” he asks.
“I have high hopes that I have,” she admits. “He’s a boy that will grow to be very impressive, with the right sort of direction.”
“Can’t we just keep Vinny?” he asks. “He’s got all the talent we could ask for, even for the Foundation group.”
“The boy I’m hoping for is Vinny’s zoo sibling,” she says. “He’ll be just fine once he grows up a bit more. He took on a meteor shower while he was out in space. It was quite entertaining. Although I might encourage Nico to increase his spin-job training.”
“I will… try my best to see if we can’t compromise with the working group, Honey,” Riddle says, although he doesn’t look very happy with the idea. “You do realize that it isn’t us that hate them, though.”
“I realize it,” she says, sighing. “You’ve done enough for the day, Riddle, I promise. Why don’t you just go pick up the girls. By the time they’ve shown you what’s happening down there, I should be… better. Although we might need to find a place to sleep for the night while I bring in a construction crew to fix my house.”
“I have plenty of spare rooms,” he says.
“I might take you up on that,” she says. “Vinny will be coming with us. I hope he feels up to cooking. He’s truly more skilled as a chef than he is as a prospective leader, and that is, I’ll be the first to admit, quite impressive.”
“So… why can’t we take both boys?” Riddle asks after a second of thought.
“Because he’s dating Voltdrain’s daughter, and has been for quite some time. I believe it’s rather serious,” she says, only to pause and look thoughtful. “But perhaps if the two break up, we might have a chance.” Riddle’s still laughing as he walks out the door.
***
*A Nearby City*
“So they can’t see us?” Ho’pa whispers to Yester. The two are standing about twenty feet from the main square, where people are going about their daily lives.
“Nope, not at all,” he says quietly, keeping his hand on her shoulder. Vixen had told him to go save the day, but before he’d managed to get there, Skystep had come straight to him, carrying the little girl in her arms. He’d been invisible at the time, he thinks, still wondering about that fact. She HAS to be a super finder. But that’s not important—right now he’s keeping the little girl safe and sound while the others deal with the problem. A part of him wants to go help with the fight, but the rest of him knows this is just as important.
“How do they keep from running into each other when they’re all looking at their toy thingies?” she complains, pointing at a woman glued to her phone. He almost laughs. Before he can come up with a response, the norms around them go still, looking up at the sky, even bringing out their phones.
“It’s Skystep,” he hears someone say, and looks up, seeing the super villain just floating over them with her hands on her hips. “Quick, someone give me some candy!”
“I,” Skystep says with a dramatic tone, “am NOT here to rob you! I’ll get in trouble with my partners if I do,” she says, and then drops to the ground, right in front of the invisible pair. “I’m here to collect my invisible friends!” she tells the crowd, grinning far too widely before she turns and scoops Ho’pa into a princess hold. “Hello, invisible friend!” she says.
Ho’pa starts giggling as Skye runs off with her, leaving Yester behind. He taps on his comm, scrolling a bit awkwardly through his “contact list” before tapping on Skystep’s face. “Hiiii, Yester!” Skye answers before he can say anything. “You can meet us at the beach, okay?”
“You don’t happen to have one of those fancy teleporting toys, do you?”
“Sure I do!” she says.
“Then why didn’t we just teleport out of there?” he asks.
“Because our nearest teleporting machine is an RV! I think a flying RV would be FAR more distracting than me grabbing my cute little invisible friend, don’t you?” she says, as if that makes perfect sense. He takes a moment to realize that it actually DOES. The entire world knows that supers tend to be loopy, and from what little he’s seen of her, he’s positive she’s loopier than most—or at least she acts that way.
“Fine,” he says, and starts to climb the wall of the building next to him, landing on the roof and leaping to the next one. “How much did that RV of yours cost?” he asks after a moment.
“Oh, it was free! Nico gave it to Tank for his second birthday! You know, to celebrate becoming a Superior science experiment!” she says.
“A—that sounds like a REALLY interesting story,” he admits. “Think you could tell me about it, sometime?”
“Sure! But you’re going to need a LOT of popcorn.”
“I’m looking forward to it. Skye, can I ask you a strange question?” he says after a second of thinking.
“Go for it!” she says.
“Why did you think he was my nephew, not my kid?”
