Aces Wild: Cape High Book Six (5 page)

BOOK: Aces Wild: Cape High Book Six
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"Why don't I get a say in this?" I demand, jerking away from her.  "Why do I never get a say in anything?  All I get is things shoved down my throat!  First the divorce, now this!  You know what?  I am SICK AND TIRED of being told what's going to happen to me!"  The room seems a little darker, but I don't care right now.  "I'm not a child anymore, got it?  I deserve to have a say in my own freaking life!"

A part of me feels guilty right now.  I mean, even if the place is insane, I don't think I would really mind it.  It's just... I wish, just once, someone would ASK me before deciding, okay?  I take a step back, looking from Dad to Mom, then back again.  I can't think of anything to say, though, so I turn and run as fast as I possibly can, leaving all of this in the dust behind me.

I have a sick feeling in my gut that says it won't stay there for long.

 

***

 

"Did you see that?" Blackjack asks quietly, looking up at the ceiling of the large building.  "Those were definitely storm clouds."

"Don't change the subject, mister!" Vivian snaps, poking him.  "Go after our son!"

"No," a female says, stepping out of the shadows.  Everyone turns to look at the black girl standing there.  "I will."

"Adanna?" Blackjack asks blankly.

"She's cleared for this part of the building," one of the black suits explains.  "She's a Cape High student."

"Yeah, I know, but when did she get in here?  Shouldn't you be in school?" he asks her.

"I'm on a mission from Nico," she says.  "And your son is getting away," she adds before racing out the door after Ace.

 

***

 

I still hate running.  It isn't because of the usual reasons people hate running, sure after a while I
bet I'll be a little winded, and sure I might feel a bit sore.  I don't know about other super kids, I bet the tanks can just keep going and going, but me, I'm just the basics.  But I still hate running.  It's so... not cool. I pull to a stop way before I'm winded, not wanting to get that way.  Besides, I don't recognize the area I'm in.  There's cows.  I turn, staring blankly at the field beside me.  Yeah, those are obviously cows.

Now, see, you're probably laughing at me right now, but I've never gone on a run before.  I knew I COULD run, sure, but I've never been on one.  Like I said, nothing about it appeals to me, and until today I hadn't ever planned on announcing that I'm a cape.  I wanted... actually I don't know what I wanted.  Maybe I wanted for Dad to realize on his own that I'm just like him.  That I'm a super.  Instead I always got the faint feeling he was disappointed whenever he looked at me--like I didn't live up to his grand expectations and he'd have to start over again.  Maybe, I'd thought, that's why he was so fine with the whole divorce thing.  This marriage had failed to give him what he wanted, or something.

It's not my fault.  Sure it's not.

I walk over to the fence, leaning against it and watching the cows for a long moment, trying to get my thoughts together.  Am I lost?  Probably.  I figure I'm still in either Missouri or Kansas.  It's flat, starting to turn green, and has lots of cows but not many buildings.  Even if I'm not in one of those two, I'm still pretty sure I'm in the Bible Belt.

The sun is starting to go down.  It makes the world seem a little warmer as pink light covers the field, but it's a lie.  There's a sharp wind tugging at my hair.

"Hey, Ace."

The words make me jerk and look around blankly.  "Ace, you've got Trent's earbud, it's in a pocket or something, right?" the rough voice finally fits a face.  Jack.  That's Jack--oh.  I reach into my pocket, pulling out the earbud and slipping it in.

"I'm here," I say quietly.

"Good.  Look, we've got an hour before I'm set up to face off with pink girl.  You know how to get back?"

"Oh.  Um..."  I look around.  "I've got no idea," I admit.

"Freakin' speeders," Jack mutters.

"What, you can't run fast?" I ask, seeing a weakness.

"I'm still getting used to balancing, honestly.  You can take advantage of that tonight.  But either way, turn around.  See a dust trail or anything that shows where you ran?" he asks.

"Uh... no," I admit.  "But I see Adanna," I add as I see the black girl sitting on the fence, watching me.  She hops off of it and looks at me before starting to run.

"Good, follow her back."

"Hey, why would you need to get used to balancing, anyway?" I ask, starting after Adanna.  I wonder if she's who I think she is.  Panther's daughter?  If she is, I bet she can hear Jack over my earbud.  That would be seriously impressive.

"Because I'm a mad scientist's experiment on a norm," he says.  "Only reason we're even talking right now is because my girlfriend happens to be the only healer around.  Look, Max said he's trying to talk you into being a villain, right?  Well you don't gotta if you don't wanna.  You've got it set up to follow in your old man's footprints, take on the hero title and save the world if you want.  Don't go getting pulled into something you don't know all about."

"What's it like?" I ask.

"Fun," he admits.  "Playing the villain, that is.  You gotta be careful about destroying things, and more often than not they make me go back in the middle of the night with the suits to fix the damage, but it's fun.  Only thing that really sucks is having to take the fall all the time."

"Why do you have to?" I ask him, falling into an easy pace as Adanna slows down.  I can see the reflection of his skin ahead of me, so I know we're back to Death Canyon.

"Because the world needs to know their heroes aren't wimps.  But don't worry, I don't have to work that hard to fail when it's Trent."

"Or at all," Trent says as I reach the crowd of teens standing by the yellow tape.  It looks like the entire school is here, I realize.  They're all dressed in jeans and coats, except for one girl, who's wearing a frilly looking skirt instead of pant
s.  She must have noticed me looking at her, because she turns and looks me straight in the eye.

Why do I feel a chill go down my spine?  She doesn't even look that old!  But I can't seem to look away from her, fighting the urge to take a step back.  I mean, I've had moments where I've felt awkward around girls before, and she IS cute, but--

"We're going with you," a new guy says, stepping forward.  I stare at him blankly.  Actually I'm staring at the seriously ugly plastic rimmed glasses that he's wearing.  Don't get me wrong, I've seen plastic rimmed glasses that look cool before, these are not them.  In fact I have to glance down and make sure he's not wearing a pocket protector--not that I'm sure what one of those actually looks like, but with his outfit it calls for that elusive piece of epic nerd-ery.  Nerdiness?  Whatever.

"Who are you?" I ask bluntly.

"He's Justin.  THE Justin.  Hysterical, right?" a shorter male says for him.  He's got a streak of white in his bangs, sort of like Nico.  He's the one that Adanna stops next to.  "I'm Sunny," he adds, holding out his hand.  "This is Adanna, that's Zoe, that's Emily, and the girl you were staring at is Noelle, and that's--"  I go back to looking at Noelle, who looks patently bored.

I don't have that same
urge to back up.  Maybe I imagined it or something.  I really don't know.  I mean, I'm surrounded by supers, right?  One of them has got to have noticed something off about the girl, right?  Yeah.  It's all in my head.

"You just totally stopped listening, didn't you?" Justin asks.  What's so big about this guy, anyway?  THE--oh.  Wait.  Waaaait.

"Are you the pop singer that sent a handful of girls into the hospital?" I ask him.  The entire group goes quiet and I wonder if I just went somewhere I shouldn't have.

"Yeah," he says.  "I am.  And now you know why," he adds a bit dryly, motioning to the canyon.  The rest of the group looks at him and I see a few hints of surprise.  I wonder why.

"I just broke some guy's fist," I tell him, since it feels awkward.  Why not just add to that awkwardness?  "With my face."

I hear Jack choke and look over as he bursts out laughing.  "I gotta try that sometime!" he says.

"Nobody's stupid enough to do it to you," Sunny says.

"I bet there are," Jack says.

"Okay, okay enough talking," Nico says as he steps through the group of teens.  "What's going to happen is this, the fight is scheduled to take place at the local park--not many people, but you can make it showy enough to bring in the media," he says to Jack.  "This one might be problematic, so try and keep her in the park."

"Problematic, how?" Jack asks.

"As in she really wanted to do this at a local club.  I convinced her parents that it's too high of a risk for norms, considering this is her debut and you're still working on your steel control.  They agreed, but she hasn't.  So in order to appease her ego, we're bringing a couple dozen teens out slumming.  That means you guys have to pretend to be partying, got it?" he adds to the group at large.  "I've even rigged a cheap sound system to make it more like a party.  As far as anyone getting hurt--well, you shoulda dodged better," he says bluntly.

"So basically, we're just props," Max says.  He's standing with a black haired girl who I figure is his girlfriend.  Have to admit, she is pretty cute.  Not as cute as Jetta, sure, but cute.

"Remember," Nico says, "Mimic's still out there somewhere, so be careful.  Keep in groups, and don't wander off to do something stupid.  You might be capes, but you're not that tough yet.  Other than that, have fun and take notes on Jack's work--if you see any obvious screw ups, you get to point them out to him tomorrow."

"Thanks," Jack mutters.

"And no powers, unless you absolutely have to.  Keep it from being flashy, even if that happens.  This isn't your debut, it's the blonde chick's."

"Jetta," I say.

"Yeah, her."  I get the feeling he's not very impressed by her. 

"Why hasn't she and her sister been brought into the school?" Morgan asks.

"For certain capes the idea of having their precious children taught by an ex super villain is more than they can handle," Nico says bluntly.  "Sure they'll use us to provide villains that make their kids look good, but they wouldn't dream of sending their up and coming brats over here for actual training."

"What branch are their parents?" Max asks.

"East."

"Then why is one of them in Jack's school?"

"As far as I can tell, she moved in with an aunt or someone when they began training her sister seriously," Nico says.  "As if having her around will cause problems in her sister's training," he drawls almost to himself.  We start to walk as he does, and I find myself sucked back into the crowd, with Justin--THE Justin--walking next to me, his hands in his pockets.

Why?  I've got no idea.  It's sort of creeping me out, until he speaks.

"I remember," he says quietly.  "Something about you, at least."

"Where from?" I ask.

He looks at me, a little grin on his face.  "As far as we can tell?  The future."  Then he walks on past me as I stop and stare at him in shock.

What?

I get bumped into and glance at the little black girl that did it.  She grins at me widely.  "You're gonna get left behind," she tells me, grabbing my jacket arm and tugging me along behind her.  "Carla," she says.

"Uh," I say.  Nice, right?  But I'm not used to strangers willingly touching me.  Even my own mother isn't very touchy feely, okay? 

"No, it's Ace," she provides, as if I've forgotten my own name.  "Remember?  Your name is Ace, mine is Carla.  I'm not used to strangers, either," she admits.  "But Morgan says you're like us, right?  And... you look lost," she adds, flushing slightly.

I feel lost.  "Yeah," I say quietly.

"Carla," one of the guys says.

"Oh... um... but--" she says, looking to the other male and back to me.  "I have to go," she says.  "Vinny's a jerk, but--" she shrugs and runs forward.  "Don't get left behind!" she adds back to me.

We pull to a stop at an empty park.  The moon is starting to get higher in the sky, lighting the metal playground in an almost pretty light.  It's abandoned, with only the creaking of metal chains filling the air.  The wind is gently swaying one of the swings.

"Now," I hear Nico say.  We all watch the tall man as he steps onto one of the swings.  Music fills the air, a fast paced song about a party.  I think I know the band, not that I would ever admit to listening to them.  The supers around me look at each other in surprise, breaking into grins.  Sure it's a few years old, but nobody seems to care.  "Time to do your jobs as future capes.  So get started, kids, make it look like a party."

You've never seen a dance until you've seen supers dancing.  It's ridiculous and sometimes hysterical, but a handful of them actually have some good moves.  Like Vinny?  Vinny can dance, I think, watching the guy starts flipping and twisting in the middle of the group.

I glance over as Max steps up beside me.  He holds out a water bottle with a silent move and I take it, following his eyes.  "Do you usually do this?" I ask.

"Nope, first time.  But not the last, I bet," he says as he finishes his own water and heads into the group.

BOOK: Aces Wild: Cape High Book Six
8.54Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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