Steel Life (Cape High Series Book 25), page 6
“Five second rule?” he offers.
“Not even, mister,” she says.
“Yeah, but we’re supers! Germs don’t affect—”
“It’s covered in sand,” she says, “and there’s a tiny monkey racing out to—yep, he grabbed it,” she says, like a commentator. “He’s so cute! I didn’t realize there were monkeys on the island!”
“I… don’t think there are,” Jack says, staring at the monkey with a frown. “I came in to help with the pipes, remember? I could have sworn this was a man-made island, you know, one that Superior tossed together.”
“It’s a monkey, Jack, not a super villain,” she says, knowing that he’s thinking something sinister.
“Yeah,” he says, “but you ever hear the story of the monkey island from Sunny?”
“You mean the story about the monkeys with guns?” she asks. “They were on Colleck’s island, though,” she says. “And Colleck is still in the Cape Cells. How about this? We’ll tell Grandpa Superior when we get back to the party. I want to see the rest of the sunset, first.”
He nods, looking at the sunset, but she can feel the tension running through his body. “Jack, honey,” she says, “I want just a few minutes to not focus on work, okay?”
“Yeah, I know,” he says, letting out a sigh and relaxing. “How much do you think one of those teleportation booths would cost for the new house? We could set it up to come here for weekend getaways,” he says, cheering up, again. “My kid should get to swim at least a few times in his life before he turns into a lead ball! Hey, we’ll get Malina to teach him, whaddaya think?”
“I think she would be a wonderful swim instructor,” Aubrey agrees, already picturing a little boy in swimming trunks. “But she’s going to be in the North Pole by then.”
“Yeah, might be a bit cold to go swimming up there, huh?”
“TREE HOUSE! TREE HOUSE!” they hear people chant before Aubrey can reply. They turn, just in time to see several of the trees on the island shoot up several feet in the air.
“How in the world did it go from a luau to a tree house building party?” Aubrey says.
“Sunny,” Jack says.
“Yes, I realize it’s Sunny doing it, but—”
“Supers,” Jack says, as if THAT answers all of her questions. She thinks about it for a second, and then groans, realizing that it does. What do you expect to happen at a party with two elementalists and a handful of kids? It’s not just Pan’s boys that are here, their entire school is! “Come on, I wanna build the elevator!” Jack says, taking off as she starts laughing.
***
Nico watches his son work, having stopped his wife after the trees were all grown to the proper height. His hand goes down, pressing lightly against Summer’s belly in a move he’s done so many times that he’s not even conscious of it, anymore.
“The baby’s just fine, Nico,” she tells him, having said it just as many times as he’s done it. “Aubrey checked him this morning.”
“He’s pretty big for this trimester, though, right?” Nico asks. “Are you sure he’s not going to pop this weekend?”
“He’s not going to ‘pop’ this weekend,” Summer says, rolling her eyes.
“But we’re building him an entire tree house; he should come out to enjoy it!” Nico teases.
“Even after he’s born I won’t allow tree houses until he’s at least crawling,” she tells him. “From all the dancing he’s done, I get the feeling he’ll be rolling over practically the moment he comes out.” She smiles at that thought. Zoe and Sunny had been sturdy little babies, too. She somewhat expects this little guy to be even tougher, and she’s really glad there are four of them to help him through the toddler years, even if she does worry about Sunny falling asleep in the middle of babysitting.
“We’re going to have to work with what we have on the island, people!” Zoe calls out. “We can’t go hit up the local hardware stores this time around! So check all the supplies that Grandpa and Grandma left over—you did leave some, right?”
“We left some,” Superior says, lounging in the air next to Tatiana with a fruity drink in his hand. He seems as happy to watch the show as Nico is. “That building over there is full of parts for your grandmother’s and my love shack,” he adds.
“I did not need to hear that, Grandpa!” Zoe tells him, covering her ears with her hands.
Tatiana bursts out laughing, clearly enjoying the scandalized expression on Zoe’s face. The rest of the teenagers head into the building he’d indicated, quickly coming out with more than enough supplies.
“I’m sensing a very beach house trend here,” Zoe says as she sees the large amount of tree logs, dried grass, and ropes.
“Shack, honey, it should look like one,” Superior says, even as the next group brings out a large screen television and surround sound speaker system. “On the outside,” Superior tells her when she gives him a pointed look.
Soon all of the teenagers are working hard, “helped” by the little ones. Kim Nao’s daughter, Hana, seems quite intent on telling them what fabrics they should use—even though they’re still building the frame of the tree house.
“We want a deck!” they hear Carla call out, before she rushes past, pounding boards into place at a speed that even supers watch with admiration. And as soon as the deck is up, the Panther brothers are hanging from the railings, waving at the supers watching. Well, they are until Carla scoops them up and scolds them.
“I’ll do the roof,” Max calls out. “Ace, the walls need to be painted!”
“How do they need to be painted? We’re going for a natural feel!”
“Make it a tropical mural,” Max says.
“Oh… yeah, I could see that,” Ace says, racing off to find some paint.
The adults look at each other and Nico waves a hand. Bob Marley music starts floating through the air from the speakers hidden throughout the little jungle next to the resort, and soon the adults are dancing as the kids work in a rush to get it done by morning.
Somehow twisty slides and tire swings appear, as if by magic, turning Superior and Tatiana’s “Love shack” into a kid’s paradise. Nobody says a word.
CHAPTER FIVE
*Central Cape High*
The man staring at the tape surrounded canyon tugs his hat down a little lower, shoving his hands into his pockets and slouching, quite deliberately. He doesn’t dare try to get closer, nor does he dare to peek at the security system that he’s positive is quite complex. Now isn’t the time. Oh, sure, he’d gotten the message, loud and clear… well, sort of loud and clear. Monkeys aren’t the best of helpers, honestly. You can give them one job, and that’s all. If you stack too much into their programming, they tend to rebel. And the camera that he’d placed in his little lackey is severely lacking. He’d had to be careful, since Nico is there. If Nico DOES see the monkey, well, he’s out of luck, entirely.
But this is the best opportunity he’s come upon since he escaped the Cape Cells. Oh, sure, he’s been drawing up plans for a space ship, the sooner he’s off this planet, the better, but that’s exactly why he’s here now. This promises to be MUCH faster than putting in the effort to hunt down all the parts without being noticed, and putting it together.
Although it had been covered up quickly, there had been a recording of a space ship taking to the air over KC a few months back. The video had been up for almost an hour on YouTube before it disappeared, but that’s plenty of time for someone like him to find it. There’s a space ship around here, and he knows for a fact that if it hadn’t been shot down by the supers, then it has to belong to them.
Oh, sure, there had been some theories about aliens invading, and all that, but nothing had happened afterward. There had been no epic battle that wiped out chunks of downtown, or even the Plaza. No, this wasn’t an invasion—or, perhaps it was, he thinks. He wouldn’t put it past Nico to invade another planet. It’s what he plans to do. The presidential run here hadn’t worked out so well, but he can try again. A small planet somewhere, with a lot of technology he can play with and no other supers.
He steps back, turning and heading into the city, again. The feed covering the wedding will start soon. People have come from all over the world to experience the wedding in Kansas City. Oh, sure, it isn’t taking PLACE in KC, but the Hall has arranged for large screens all throughout the city to show it, sort of like drive-in theaters. Schools have canceled classes, businesses have closed for the day, it’s basically a holiday, here.
He can’t wait to see how they react to the little surprise he’d hired as… wedding entertainment. And best of all? All of the supers in the Central Hall and a few of the bigger names from the others are all on that tiny little island, far away from here.
***
There’s a pile of teenagers and little kids sound asleep in the main room of the newly built tree house. The sun creeps over them, and then hits Jack, reflecting just enough to wake everyone except for him up. “Dang it, Jack, put a shirt on!” Ace mutters, covering his eyes with his arm.
“Wha?” Jack asks, waking up slowly. He looks around for half a second and then his eye closes again, falling asleep, all over again.
“Cubby, Robo?” Adanna says sleepily. The two boys grin evilly at one another and launch themselves at the shiny teen, waking him up thoroughly this time. “Thank you,” she says, and then shifts into her cat form, going back to “sleep” although her ears flicker with all the noise.
Soon everyone is awake, yawning and looking around to see how it looks in the light. Most of the place had been built by starlight. “Not bad,” Ace declares. “We need to get some beds in here, though. They got Sunny good.” He points to where the teen is wrapped in vines, still sound asleep.
“We’re in a jungle,” Max says, yawning. “He should get used to that, I bet it’ll happen often in the future.” He pauses, and then groans. “We forgot,” he mutters. “Do we still have time?” he asks Rocco.
“What did you forget?” Zoe asks.
“We were going to sneak over to where Superior put Liz’s mom and read her mind,” Max tells her. “There’s definitely something shady going on.”
“Why didn’t you just read her mind when she showed up?” Malina asks from where she’s still buried in little girls. Hana and Evie both adore her after all the times she’s helped in their class and in teaching them to swim. It doesn’t hurt that she’s lined up to be a Christmas Elf.
“It’s difficult reading one mind in a crowd,” Max says, “especially when everyone in the group is overreacting to the situation. It’s sort of like trying to hear a trickle of water in a thunderstorm. It can be done, sure, but not by me.”
“I’m sure your father did it, didn’t he?” Zoe asks.
“He might have, but even if he did, I doubt he would have gotten deeper than surface thoughts,” Max admits. “How much time do we have until the wedding?”
“Twenty minutes, everyone,” Nico’s voice comes from all around. “Get dressed and get to your positions. Don’t forget to wake Sunny up in… ten, or so. We’re going to have a live feed starting, so make sure you’re wearing your masks—that means everyone, Hana,” he adds as the little girl starts to protest.
“I packed Hana’s collection of colorful masks for the little ones,” Kim calls from outside. “If you want a specific color, I would come out and get it now!”
“CHARTREUSE!” Hana yells, running for the nearest door.
“No jumping out of the tree house until you’re thirteen, you know that,” Max says, holding out a hand. The little girl starts to float in the air, looking shocked for a moment before giggling like crazy as he walks over, lowering her down to the ground with his powers.
“Me next! Me next!” Evie says, running over to him and holding up her arms. Soon he has an entire group of little kids (and Carla) floating to the ground.
“We don’t got time,” Jack sums up as everyone except for the still-sleeping Sunny starts jumping out of the tree house and Nico calls out a new time limit.
“Unfortunately, no, we don’t,” Max admits.
“Wasn’t there something…” Jack says, looking at Aubrey. “Eh, it’ll come back to me sooner or later.”
“I think it was… oh, oh no,” she says. “We forgot to tell people about the monkey, didn’t we?”
“Monkey?” Max repeats as Aubrey and Jack look at each other. “What monkey?”
“Jack says that this is a man-made island, and he’s right, Grandpa and Grandma put it together, but that doesn’t mean wildlife can’t be found, does it?” she asks.
“Not with a security system like Nico’s,” Max says. “Where did you see this monkey?”
“It was on the beach,” Jack says. “We dropped a piece of ham on the ground and it raced out and grabbed it. Little thing, a… what were they called, Capuchin? One of those little guys.”
“We need to tell Nico,” Max says, “and we HAVE to find that monkey! Everyone spread out, Zoe, you go inform your dad.”
“Got it,” she says, only to tap on her earbud. “Dad, did you hear that?” she asks.
“Loud and clear,” Nico says. “Work fast, boys and girls, because we can’t have the entire world knowing we’re going frantic trying to find a single monkey.”
They nod and head out, spreading over the island in search of the monkey. All thoughts of reading Sparky’s mind are—no, that’s a lie. Max watches them head out with a grim expression and then heads for the resort, intent on finding out if the two random things have a connection to one another.
***
“I… I don’t know if this is the right idea, after all,” Liz says as she stares at the image of herself in the mirror. She’s wearing a fluttery white dress with flowers embroidered along the hem of the skirt. It’s a little more simplistic than a traditional wedding dress, but still a dress. They had only gotten her to wear it because it doubles as a swimsuit cover. She’s not wearing shoes, instead she’s wearing no-sole sandals which are basically strands of beads that wrap around her ankle and have a loop around her middle toe. She looks absolutely stunning, but she doesn’t even seem to notice.
“Taurus is an excellent man,” Tatiana says as drapes the veil over Liz’s head.
“What does he have to do with this?” Liz asks, blankly. Marie and Summer stare at her in confusion as Tatiana starts laughing.
“Oh, is not man that has you worried!” Tatiana says. “Is something else?”
“It’s Sparky!” Liz says. “I’m perfectly happy with Taurus,” she adds. “I just don’t… I don’t know if I want her here, and that makes me feel guilty, because people are supposed to want their family at the wedding, right?”
“I brought my tennis shoes!” Skye says, running into the room with a pair of worn-out looking shoes in her hand. “They’ve lasted me an entire YEAR!”
“Skye, you’re not wearing those until the reception,” Summer says, pulling out a brightly colored pair of no-sole sandals, instead. “You and the girls will be wearing these, instead.”
“Where?” Skye asks, staring at them.
“On your feet, Skye, like this,” Liz says, holding up a foot.
“And we made sure that they glow in dark, just like you like, kitten!” Tatiana says.
“Ooooh, those are WAY better than the heels,” Skye says.
“Have you seen the girls?” Liz asks as Skye starts trying to put the sandals on.
“I think they’re looking for something,” Skye says. “Some sort of monkey, or something?”
“Monkey?” Tatiana repeats. “There are no monkeys on my island. I have not brought any here, yet!”
“Yet?” Summer asks.
“It is not summer resort without the ‘whoo whoo’ and the ‘ook ook,’” Tatiana explains. “I am also hoping to get the lemur, but I do not believe they will let me.”
“You could have Nico build you some!” Skye says. “Our Chooperic was made by him, he’s the bestest pet in the world! Well, other than our cow. Our cow is pretty nice. Except he’s getting spoiled, the last time we went to visit he had a LOT of girlfriends. I tried to lecture him on the importance of a committed relationship, but he just went—” she snorts, her nostrils flaring, showing how he had reacted.
“He’s a steer, not a cow. And what is this about being barefoot?” Doris asks, stepping into the room already wearing her pant suit. Everyone looks at it, knowingly.
“Reaper chose that, didn’t he?” Summer asks. “The man has excellent tastes.”
“He chose Ariel’s dress, too. She’s still outside having a talk with her mom,” Skye says. “I have the one that you guys chose… but I STILL refuse to shave my legs, or pluck my eyebrows, or any of that painful stuff, so you just gotta deal with it.”
They launch into “Girl talk” about clothing, then, as Skye finishes getting the sandals on and stares at her feet happily. The worry about Sparky fades to the back as they focus on the big event.
They stop as someone raps on the door. “Is everyone decent?” they hear Prisma ask. “Masks on and everything! And do you mind the world finding out that Skystep and the Darlin’s are here?”
“They’re my sisters,” Liz says. “Besides, we’re different branches, so it’s not as shocking. But Skye, it’s up to you.”
“We’re strictly SOUTH,” Skye says, “Unless we’re on vacation, so they can just deal with the fact!” They all put their masks on, straightening their clothes. Tatiana, though, taps on her watch, turning her illusion on. She now looks like an older, much smaller, nondescript woman that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, much less a group of gorgeous super females.
“That’s so freaky,” Doris says, staring at her before shaking her head.
“It is not big deal,” Tatiana says with a smile. She doesn’t go on because the door opens and Prisma walks in with a few drones floating along behind her.
