The Distort Arc: Cape High Books 1-4 (Cape High Series Omnibus) (47 page)

"You should have told me you could steal them!"

"Liz," Summer says.  "She's a teenager.  You're the adult.  Please act like one."

"She started it!"

"Yes, that's very adult-like," Summer drawls.

"Nico needs to turn the electricity back on," Liz says, heading for the laptop.  She starts tapping on the keyboard, as if Morgan's theft of her powers is forgotten entirely. 

"I'm going out," Sunny says.  I follow him out the door and down the stairs, grabbing his hand as he starts out the front door of the apartment building.

"Wait," I say.

"What?"

"Your dad said something to me while we were out earlier, he said that if you're a true super villain you take what you want, not thinking of how it'll affect others, not caring if it hurts people you know or even are related to.  Your dad--"

"What?  It's obvious that he's still a super villain--"

"He's not!" I say.  "He's not one anymore.  I don't think so, at least.  But there's some lines that once you cross them, it's easier to cross them again the second time, and easier than that the third time and the fourth and the fifth--do you know what I'm saying?"

"No, I don't."

"I'm saying I know you hate them!" I say.  "I know you hate them for what they did to your mother, but--but I don't want you to become a villain!  Not a real villain!  Not one that forgets about everything except for your hate.  I know--I know that you want revenge and that Morgan wants revenge, even I want the Collector taken out, but--"

"What right do you have to lecture me on this, Adanna?" he demands.  The world seems to shake a bit and his eyes start to glow.  "They stole my mother from me, they took two years from us!  We were forced to live in a foster home, do you have any idea what that's like?  No!  You don't!  You have a mom and a dad and a home!  You have everything you could want--"

"I don't!  I don't have friends, okay?" I say.  "The closest I have to friends are Emily and you, Sunny.  I might say that you bother me, that you're annoying and don't take things seriously, but I don't want you taking things seriously if it's going to be like this!  Yes, they need stopped.  But YOU don't need to be the one to do it.  And you don't need to rip your heart out over them getting away this time."

"I should be--"

"They captured your mother, Sunny.  Your mom is a lot stronger than you are at the same stuff, right?  If you go after them stupidly, they'll capture you.  I don't--I don't want to lose you like you lost her," I say, my hands on his shoulders as I stare him straight in the eyes.  "You can ask what happened," I say, "but don't--don't take it farther.  Please?"

"You're going to let that girl go after revenge," he says in a surly tone.

"I am," I say.

"Then why can't I?" he demands.

"Because I don't care if she gets herself killed doing it, I've just met her," I say bluntly.  "But I won't--I can't risk you.  The idea of you going up against that man--against a woman that just opened a blackhole--Sunny--" I say, dragging him into a tight hug.  "Please?  Let your dad handle this."

"You're terrible," he says.  "You really don't care if she dies?"

"It calmed her down, didn't it?  Besides, they'll find the collector man long before she ever gets the chance to go out looking for him," I say, blinking as he wraps his arms around me.  "You, though, have the ability to go out and look for them and wind up caught."  The earth has stopped shaking, I notice.  He seems a lot less tense now, too.

"You really like me that much?" he asks.

"Wh--when did I say that?" I yelp, pulling away.  He's grinning wickedly, and I groan inwardly.  "I never said I liked you!"

"You do, though," he says. 

"No I don't," I lie, not able to meet his eyes.

"Yes you do."

"No I don't!  You're annoying and lazy and--"

"You said you'd rather I stay that way," he says.  "So you wanna go out?"

"I've had way too long of a day to want to go anywhere!" I say, blushing as the door opens and Nico walks in, followed by Trent and Max.  I try to pull out of the hug, but Sunny's got me held tight.

"So you two are dating?" Max asks.

"Yes," Sunny says.

"No," I say.

"Yes we are," Sunny says.  "You just told me how much you like me, I told you how much I like you, that means we're dating!"

"No it doesn't," I say.

"It's close enough," Sunny says.  "But--why didn't you take them out?" he demands of his dad.  "They were right there!  You talked to that one guy for so long--"

"Distort..." Nico says slowly.  "I'm not sure who he is, but he's one of us, Sunny.  With the mind of a child.  He's confused, not bad."

"He does bad things," Sunny says.  "That means he's bad."

"No, I'm pretty sure he's being manipulated," Nico says.  "I think... man I sound like a hero," he complains, "but I think, if it's possible at all, that we should try to save him, too."

"Because he looks like you?" Sunny demands.

"That might be part of it," Nico admits.  "I mean, you and Zoe saved me.  Shouldn't I try to save him?  I did bad things, remember?  And I didn't even have the excuse of a child's mind.  I'm a genius."  He heads up the stairs before Sunny gets a chance to reply.

"It is NOT close enough," I tell Sunny, still stuck on the dating topic.  "We aren't dating!"

"You hugged me first," he points out before racing after his dad.

Max and Trent are just staring at me with little grins.  "We're not dating!" I tell them before storming up the stairs after Sunny.

***

Collector stands in the middle of his zoo, his hands shaking as he takes in the destruction.  All of them, he thinks, his lovely little collection of exotics--they're all gone.  He steps forward, touching the plastic walls he had spent so much money on, tracing a finger over the ragged edge of the gaping hole in front of him.  His pride and joy, his Morgan, he thinks as he stares blindly into the cell in front of him.  He had lost her.  The one that could become anything, she was gone.  And Aubrey, he goes on, turning to the next empty cage, his Aubrey is gone.

He feels like crying.

“I could have told you this would happen,” someone says from behind him.  Slowly Collector turns, staring at the tall thin man.

“You!” he says.  “You’re the reason it wound up this way!  You’re the reason I lost everything!”

Shadowman looks at him with complete disgust.  “You took everything I had first, you know,” he points out.  “So I tried to do what you wanted me to do--I went after the girl.”

“And?  Where is she?”

“I assume she’s with Technico.  I wasn’t watching after he shot me with a power stopping gun and broke my jaw,” Shadowman drawls.  “You don’t know who you’re missing with, Collector.  If I were you I’d move across the country and take up collecting baseball cards or figurines.  Otherwise he’s going to come after you.  And he won’t even need to make a gun before he breaks your jaw.”

“You coward!  You utterly spineless--“

“I’d say it was nice knowing you, Collector, but I’d be lying,” Shadowman says, walking out of the building.  He's thinking Egypt... they have a lot of interesting things to peddle, and more importantly, no Superiors.

“You’re dead, Procurer!  DEAD!”

“My name is SHADOWMAN!” Shadowman bellows.  “I’ve always hated the name Procurer.  It sounds like a stunted lawyer or something.”  He phases through a wall, leaving Collector in the past.  He has nothing now, sure, but he’s alive and he’s a super.  The world has plenty of places for a guy like him.

Besides, he hadn’t been that fond of kids to begin with.  Why would he want to work with them?

***

The smell of lasers is strangely reassuring, I think as I lie on the cot in Zoe’s room.  Summer has moved into Sunny’s room for the night, leaving him on a cot just like this one.  I know, I helped them set it up.  So now I’m in Zoe’s room, staring up at the ceiling and listening to her breathing.  I’m about to shift into cat form, actually, but I want to do some thinking first.

Morgan is staying in Liz’s apartment, since she has an extra room.  I can’t help but worry about her stealing Emily’s powers--the idea of two Morgans out for revenge seems a bit overwhelming to me.  We really should have taken her to the hospital, I know, to make sure nothing was wrong with her after her captivity, but Nico had scanned her and said she looked fine, so everyone accepted it.

Why do I care?  Like I’d told Sunny, I just met the girl, it’s got nothing to do with me--but that’s not exactly true.  She is what I could have become, had the people in my class not protected me.  Had Nico not protected me.  Sure I like to think I could have escaped sooner or later, my fighting training was good, but what if I wasn’t trained?

I roll over, staring at the wall this time.  I would have missed so much, I think, hugging my pillow.  I would have missed my papa and my mama and Cubby and Emily and Sunny--yeah, okay, I admit it.  I might have... a tiny, tiny little crush.  I might be picturing cat nap times--oh man, why do I have to notice it now?  When did it start?

I roll over again, then shift, turning into my cub form and closing my eyes.  They open again.  No, nonono, I can't even sleep in this form?  That's not right!  I should be able to close my eyes and fall asleep right then and there, simply because my body is so young in this form, but I can't.  I blame this on Sunny.  I should go in his room and wake him up just so I can bite him for it--

Absolutely not.  Summer's in there, she'll get strange ideas.

But I can't stay here, I think, hopping off of the cot and padding around the room for a second before going into the front room.  Again, there's someone sitting on the couch, I realize, but it's not Nico.  It's Summer.  She's sitting in the same chair Nico had sat in before, her face turned to the moonlight, much like Sunny does with the sun.  I start to turn back to Zoe's room.

"Wait," she says.  "Keep me company?"

I hesitate, then go forward, hopping onto the couch next to her, then blinking as she picks me up and places me on her lap, much like the first time I met her.  I look up at her curiously, wondering if she's forgotten that I'm not really a pet cat.  Really, it's like the moment I've got fur people think I'm free to be treated like a housecat.  Oh, she's petting my back again.  That feels really nice.  I yawn.

"Thank you," she says.  "Sunny came back looking a lot less tense."

"Myrr," I say.  It was nothing.

"And you calmed down that Morgan girl--although I'm not sure you should be telling her to get revenge."

I yawn again, walking in a circle on her lap before laying down.  I think I can sleep like this.

"You're just going to go to sleep now, aren't you," she says with amusement.  "I do like this kitten form," she tells me.  "So peaceful."  My eyes are drifting shut and I let out a sigh as sleep overtakes me.  She smells like summer.

***

The picture of Summer sound asleep with a panther cub curled up on her lap is now Nico's smartphone's wallpaper.  He says nothing of this as he starts cooking breakfast, waiting for everyone to wake up, including the two in the front room.  But when the phone rings, he's got it on hand.  "Yeah?" he asks.  There's only a handful of people that know how to call him--it's not like he has a usual phone number, after all.  He doesn't even know the names of the phone companies, much less try to go through them for phone services.  Why should he?

"Good morning, my friend," Pan says on the phone, making Nico break into a grin.

"Morning, Pan," he says, flipping a pancake.  "How's the cat hunting going?"

"If only it were as simple as hunting," Pan complains.  "We managed to get the contracts drawn up, we're going to get them signed today and come home tonight.  Amara is more than ready to be home."

"And now you're wondering what's going on here," Nico says.  "Well, your daughter's pretty face and abilities caught the eye of someone really annoying.  Are you surprised?"

"Not at all," Pan says with a sigh.  "I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened earlier.  But I shouldn't trust anyone else with this problem--"

"Pan," Nico says sharply.  "I've got it all under control.  I've taken out his kidnapper already, I'll be looking for the Collector, himself, today.  Your daughter's in good hands.  Or do you think I've gotten soft after the Cape Cells?"  He slides the pancake onto a plate and pours the next one into the skillet.

"To be honest," Pan says quietly, "I'm astonished that you didn't crack during that time."

They both go silent, thinking of the few others that have gotten free of the cells.  Basket cases, for the most part, driven insane from the almost complete solitariness.  If you were lucky you would get to see your handler once a week for time out in the yard, but for the most part you were left alone.  Even the food was delivered by a machine.

"The solitary thing never worked for me," Nico says quietly.  "I would have hacked their machines.  I did hack their files.  I spent most of my time studying them, at first to take them all down, one by one, then... well, just to know that I wasn't the only one on the planet.  But I'm not the type to forget a debt owed."