The Distort Arc: Cape High Books 1-4 (Cape High Series Omnibus) (63 page)

"NO!" Aubrey shouts, reaching forward as he kills his other self with his bare hands, tears starting to fall at the cold-blooded murder.  The world seems to distort all around her, and she finds herself back in her body, trembling with shock as she jerks her hand away from the man still lying on the hospital bed.

"What happened?  Is he healed?" Star demands as she sees Aubrey's eyes open.

"He--" Aubrey whispers, staring blindly at the still unconscious man.  "He killed him."

"Killed who?  What happened?  Where were you?" Star demands, shaking her.  "Is Distort healed?"

"He killed him," Aubrey repeats, jerking free of the hold she's got.  "He KILLED HIM!" she bellows, stepping back once, twice.  "You never said that there were two of them!  YOU HAD ME HELP KILL SOMEONE!"  She's panicking and raging all at the same time.  Her hair starts to float and she can feel her abilities start to overwhelm her.  Her body is trembling, and her feet move slightly as she realizes that she's no longer touching the floor. 

Star is just staring at her, a look of confusion on her face.  "He's not dead--" she starts out.

The room is starting to shake.  It's like a dam has broken, and something is pouring out of her, something she can't control, Aubrey realizes--

Glass shatters and all the metal around her starts shaking before the metal door tears away from the hinges.  "GIVE ME BACK MY GIRLFRIEND!" the bellow makes Aubrey's powers hesitate, but it's not enough to make them stop.  All she can do is feel helpless as her powers threaten to overtake her, filling the room with an eerie white glow.  She feels her hand come up, pointing at Star Born.

"You--" Star says, completely oblivious to what Aubrey is doing.  "You survived?" she asks Jack.  Before he can reply, though, Star jerks and looks behind him before stepping back and touching Superior's body.

The room grows burning hot and a portal opens behind her, then closes around her and the unconscious man, leaving Jack racing to Aubrey.  "Aubrey!  Aubrey, what in the heck are you doing?"

"I can't control it," is what she wants to say.  All she can do is watch in horror as he steps in front of the finger she'd been helplessly pointing at Star.  A stream of light so blinding that her own eyes hurt shoots out of the finger, hitting Jack on the chest.  It burns through his tattered shirt--

And bounces right back, hitting her square on.

***

It's repeating over and over in my mind, the image of her attack bouncing off of my chest and slamming back into her.  I can't believe I didn't think before jumping in front of her.  I'm such a moron!  And now the only girl that's ever really liked me is lying on a hospital bed in the ER part of the Hall, in a coma.  I haven't left her side.  I can't force myself to leave her side for more than a minute, and I think it's starting to irritate the doctors.

"Jack," Nico says, making me look up.  "Can you tell us one more time exactly what you saw down there?"  He's irritated with me, too, but I don't care.  Unlike the doctors, though, he's already yelled at me for barging in without waiting for the rest of the group several times.  He seems to have given up on it.

"Aubrey was floating, her hair was flying, eyes glowing, and she was pointing at Star.  Star was standing next to the white haired guy, who was laying on a hospital bed.  She stepped back and disappeared into this black hole looking thing with--"

"Distort," he provides.

"Yeah, him.  I headed for Aubrey, Aubrey shot out this light from her finger, and..."  I look down at my chest, staring at the burn mark on the metal.  "It bounced back," I say simply.  "But she's a healer!" I go on, the numbness wearing off.  "How can a hit from a healer put anyone in a coma?  I don't get it!"

"I have a theory," Nico admits, heading to Aubrey's side.  He digs through his pockets, pulling out a strange folded hoop.  He unfolds it and slips it over her head, connecting it to his cell phone with a cord.  "Let's see what happened, then," he says.

"What are you doing?" I ask, trying not to feel hopeful.  Maybe he can knock her out of her coma or something.  It's worth a try, right?

"Reading her mind.  This is going to take a while, though, so why don't you go talk to Liz and Emily?  They're as worried as you are."

I nod, getting to my feet.  I can't help but glance at Aubrey one last time before heading out the door.  I barely reach the waiting room before half of the apartment practically attacks me, only to be pushed back by Firefly.  For a moment I swear she's going to kill me.  I'm not sure what I did (other than be a badly placed mirror,) to deserve it, but she is.  That look of rage on her face tells me that my time is limited on this earth.

When one of the most powerful supers on the planet grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you, you start trying to remember that prayer they taught you as a kid real quick.  Something about "If I die before I wake--" right?  I don't think I'll get the chance to sleep first, though, which could definitely be a problem.

"Is Aubrey conscious yet?" she demands.

"No, not yet," I admit.  "Nico's reading her mind right now, to see what happened."

"What happened to her?" Emily asks.  I glance at the little redhead, shoving my hands into my pockets.  "Who had her?"

"Star Born," I say.  "Star Born had her.  I'm not sure what she did to her, but she was... glowing," I say finally, "and floating.  And she pointed her finger, but I got in the way and whatever it was she shot bounced off of me and hit her."  I hate having to explain this over and over again.  I feel like it's my fault--it IS my fault.  If I wasn't so shiny I would have taken the hit instead of her.  I'd way rather have it be me in that bed than her.  I think everyone would.

"She's a healer, though," Summer says, stepping forward.  "She's going to recover from this far more quickly than someone else would have.  I'm sure she's going to be fine."  She comes over and hugs me.  "Don't worry, she might be gentle, but that doesn't mean she's weak."

I just stand there, feeling like I don't deserve a hug.  "I shouldn't have stood in front of her," I say.

"You had no idea it was an attack," Liz says.

"When someone is glowing and floating it's pretty obvious they're going to attack," I point out.  "I just didn't realize she even HAD an attack," I add.  "I mean, she's a healer, right?"

"Well, now we know," Liz says.  "Once she recovers, we'll have to start training her on how to control it.  I'll talk to Devon about that."

"Devon?" half the room asks.  "Who's Devon?"

"Taurus?  He DOES have a real name, you know?" Liz says.

"Really?  Devon?" Emily repeats, looking thoughtful.  "Hey, how do you know his first name, anyway?" she asks Liz.

"That--that doesn't matter right now!" Liz sputters.  "What matters is that she's got an offensive ability and needs to learn how to use it."

"So... she's going to be okay, right?" I ask, looking at the door leading into the ER and wondering if Nico's found anything out yet.

"She's going to be just fine," Summer says.  "And Ken and Jeanie will be here after they've searched one more time," she adds, placing a hand on my shoulder, as if their presence is important to me.

Why do I feel relieved?  Especially when Trent moves next to me, just standing there without saying a word.  They've got me brainwashed into that whole "we're family" bull already?  Not possible.  Absolutely not possible.  I don't care that he's there!  I don't care that any of them are there!  I am not going to rely on people that I've only known for less than a week!

"Relax," Trent says quietly.  "She's not nearly as messed up as you were."

"Yeah?  Well she doesn't have her standing over her, fixing the problem, either!" I growl.

"Sure she does," he says.  "Nico said she has self-healing abilities out the... ah... nose."

"He really used the word nose?" I ask, looking at him.

"Nope."

"Yeah, I figured."

I'm not relaxing because of this stupid conversation, okay?  Don't get some strange idea that him telling me that just made me lose a lot of tension--okay, maybe a bit of tension.  But only because Nico said it first!

Yeah... I'm going to shut up now.

***

An hour has passed.  I'm sitting here, staring at my phone because people keep trying to comfort me if I look up.  I'm tempted to pace, but it's been a very long day already.  I feel like I weigh a million pounds.  If I wasn't so wired right now, I'd be falling asleep.

The door opens and Nico steps in, a dark look on his face.  "Liz, can I talk with you?" he says.

"How's Aubrey?" I demand, getting to my feet.

"Sleeping," he says.  "She'll be perfectly fine with a bit of rest.  Liz?" he repeats, looking to his sister.  "Now?"

Liz nods and gets to her feet.  "We'll be back," she says to Emily, who's playing a card game with Ditto and Trent.

"Okay," Emily says.

That's it?  They're just going to say she's fine and walk off?  Not even explain what happened?  Like I'm going to let that happen!  I start to follow them, only to blink as I find my body completely immobile.  Nico turns, looking me straight in the eye.  "I know you want to know," he says.  "I'll tell you soon.  But right now we have family matters to discuss.  Very personal family matters."  Then he and Liz walk away, leaving me frozen where I stand.

I... didn't know he could do that.

***

Liz is silent as she follows her brother, not looking at any of the black suits that they pass.  Once upon a time she had dreamed of walking down these halls with Nico beside her, dreamed of having her only family accepted in this society, now... now she's not sure she wants to hear what he's about to tell her.  In fact, by the way he'd just completely (and literally) stiffed the boy behind them, she's positive she doesn't want to know.

He heads for one of the holding cells, a room where they place the more dangerous supers when they need to cool off, but haven't earned a term in the cape cells.  It's sound proof, with thickly padded walls and a very heavy security system.  "What happened?" she asks.

He pulls out his cell phone and hands it over, playing the girl's memories like they were a movie.  At first she's just angry, her eyes taking in what Star Born looks like as she plans the villain's capture--then it starts to get weird.

Then it gets downright terrifying.

"Fa--Father?" she whispers, the blood leaving her face as he steps onto the screen.

"Superior wasn't even kind enough to die when he should have," Nico says coldly.

Liz stays silent, watching as he talks to Aubrey, watching as he kills his other self--"I thought--" she starts out, only to stop as Aubrey starts to go out of control.  "I see," she says finally, watching as the attack comes back in a blinding light.  "So your... Distort, he's dead, now?"

"Yeah," Nico says.  "It's a shame that Star Born hasn't realized it yet."

"I'm sure she'll find out soon enough," Liz says with evil amusement.  "But... if he's back..."

"In the long run, I have no clue what's going to happen.  But in the short run... we need to call Double M," he says, taking the phone back.  "Hopefully he's not back in Iran again."

"He'll come back, regardless of where he's at when he finds out," Liz says.  "Since his job position is going to be in trouble."

***

It's a good ten minutes before I can move again.  During that time, Ken and Jeanie showed up, looked me over closely, hugged me, and kept Emily from doodling on me with lipstick.  I think.  She might have gotten a few pictures in when they weren't looking, I'll have to check later.  Either way, Nico isn't back yet and Aubrey isn't awake.  I feel more frustrated than ever, honestly.

I get to my feet, heading for the coke dispenser in the corner.  For a moment I dig through my pockets, searching for some coins.  I don't have any.  I scowl, tempted to hit the machine, then I get an idea.  A quick look around has me heading for one of the chairs and leaning down to touch a screw.  The leg falls off, but I'm holding the screw, which is what I needed--

"You know," Jeanie says, "you could just ask for some change, honey." 

"I really wanted to see what he did with the screw, though," Trent says.

"He's a metal manipulator," Summer says.  "I'm sure he's thinking of turning it into a coin shape.  It's an interesting idea, actually--"

"But it's still not a reason to break the furniture," Ken says with a sigh.  "I've got--"  He stops, patting down his uniform with a frown.  "I've got nothing.  Anyone have some change?" he asks the group.

Emily digs out a dollar, holding it out to me.  "Can you do that to any chair?" she asks me as I come over to take it.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have to touch it to do it?  Because that would be awesome--"

"Emily," Jeanie says.

"What?  Can't you just see Blackjack falling on his butt?" she asks.  "He's always leaning back really far, anyway!  It'd be great!"

"Excuse me."  The voice makes us all glance up as a nurse comes out.  "Is there a Jack here?"