Shadow Boy (17 page)

“You’re finished, Herold,” Nico says, grabbing him by the throat and slapping a thin collar around it. The collar glows brightly, stealing the other man’s powers.

“Do you really think you can hold me, Technico?” Herold asks, glaring angrily at him. “Could they really have kept you?”

“Guess what, Herold?” Nico says coldly. “I’m better than you are. I’m stronger than you, faster than you, and a better technopath than you—destroying is easy, the real trick is putting it all back together again. But I’m even a better PERSON than you are, because I got over my inferiority complex a long time ago. We will never be them, but you know what? You were right about one thing—this world is made for our type. We’re surrounded by things that we understand better than the old folks ever will. But you,” he says, his rage showing on his face, “you just HAD to go and screw everything up! They’ll be watching me and my kid like hawks for the rest of our lives, because YOU got some stupid idea to take over the world! I’ll always be better than you are, and I’ll prove it by making it so you NEVER escape."

He smacks him, barely refraining from killing him with the hit. He shakes the man when he gets no response, abruptly realizing that he knocked him out with the hit, and lets out a curse.

“Now, kill him,” Doris says, landing in front of him.

“I’m not going to kill him,” Nico says. “Killing him is too short and sweet an end. We’re going to do to him what he did to you,” he decides, looking up at her with ice cold eyes. “We’re going to stick him in a tube for a few decades. But I think, before that, we’ll strip him of his powers.”

“Brutal,” Century says from overhead, making them both look up, “and overkill. I think, though, that this part is our job, son,” he says, dropping to the ground and pulling the unconscious technopath out of Nico’s hold. “My vote is that we strip his powers and then stick him in a cell right next to an old, old friend of his.”

“Kunnins?” Nico asks, a hint of a grin pulling at his lips.

“Exactly.”

“Being stuck in the tube might be kinder,” Nico says, handing him a controller for the collar. “Keep him within a mile or two of this at all times until we log him into the Cape Cell's control center. Now, since half of the Hall leaders are here to oversee this—” he goes on, looking up as the others join them, “I’m going to get everyone back on clean-up duty.”

“Before that,” Century says, looking at Mastermental, “we need a clear cut agreement on two of the students.”

“Rocco and Carla, I suppose?” Mastermental asks.

“I’m willing to negotiate, but I will remind you that Rocco officially comes from my territory,” Marigold says, crossing heavily muscled arms over her chest.

“Rocco hates you,” Nico says bluntly. “And this is an agreement that will take a bit of arguing to conclude, so I’ll leave it to you brains of the business,” he adds, “and sooner or later you’ll realize that you should be talking to the kids, themselves.”

***

They don’t care about it anymore, Doris thinks, staring at the man just lying there, still unconscious. It happened, it’s over, they’ll toss Herold into some comfortable cell and move on—it’s obvious by how quickly they started talking about the kids. She wants to yell that the kids don’t matter right now—they have a murderer sitting right there! Where is the justice in this?

Where is the revenge?

"Now, this is definitely a subject to discuss--" Century says, in a tone that says "discuss" means "argue about."

She doesn’t know what they’re arguing about, she doesn’t care—her attention is on the technopath, who’s starting to wake up. The Hall Leaders don’t even notice, she thinks with rage. They’re so confident—

A part of her hates herself for relying on Nico. She should have gone faster, fought harder, made sure that SHE was the one that caught him. Another part betrays her by whispering that she went as fast as she could. She’s no match for Nico, not when he’s in the mood he was in back there. She’s tried to beat Nico in a GOOD mood—he took her down without even a punch.

Herold starts to sit up and Doris stops thinking.

The large, cavernous area deep underneath the White House was clearly once built to be a safety bunker. I see bunks against the walls and there’s the constant hum of generators in the background, since the power is still out. I don’t know when the last time a norm was down here, but it must have been a long time ago—otherwise they would have noticed the massive machines that are scattered through the huge concrete room. There are—or were, I should say, at least forty of them. All of them are destroyed, now. It’s a good thing we’re capes, because blowing them up had been pretty dangerous for a bit.

“Done here,” Max says over the com-link, rather than yell from the other side of the room. “How is everyone else doing?”

“They’re all destroyed!” Carla says. I glance over as I feel a strong breeze hit me. She just went past. “I don’t think Nico could even put these suckers back together. But maybe we should take the parts with us?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I say. “Trent, Jack, Max, can you compress the parts as much as possible? They have to go through a portal.”

“On it,” Jack says. The sound of metal screeching makes me wince slightly. I look up at the ceiling, wondering how the fight is going—or if it’s already over. A part of me feels sick to my stomach, actually, because I know for a fact that my job isn’t finished. I need to go find my father. The longer I wait, the more of a pain in the neck it’ll be finding him.

“Has anyone seen Doris?” Skye asks.

“She went up,” Max says, pointing to the right where a gaping hole is still dropping dirt.

“Oh… um… that’s probably not a good thing,” Skye says after a moment. “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t do something that’ll get her tossed into the Cape Cells.” She takes to the air, not bothering with the hole. I look at the team of supers with more experience than me, and promptly follow, jumping to the hole and pulling myself out. I chase after my aunt as she homes in on Doris within seconds. To my relief, when we get there, Doris is just standing there, staring at the man surrounded by Hall leaders. I let out a sigh of relief—too quickly.

Herold starts to move and Doris lets out a scream that shatters my eardrums. The Hall leaders jerk from their conversation. It seems like slow motion as Doris rushes forward, her clawed hand going straight for Herold’s chest.

I dive for the shadow on the ground, intent on stopping her. I come out a second later, knowing I’m too late—but the world is completely still.

“What—” I say, standing between the outreaching claw and the terrified looking Herold. He’s wearing a collar, I notice blankly. So why was Doris trying to kill him?

“Hello, son,” Century says, making me look over. He’s just standing there, as if he has all the time in the world. “You would have died, you know, or at least had a very long recovery time, at that age. But I do appreciate the gesture.”

“She was going to kill him,” I say, stunned.

“Of course she was,” Century says. “I was waiting for it. She wouldn’t try it with Nico here, but with us distracted, this was her only chance.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because he left her stranded in an entirely new world, taking away everything she knew and loved,” Century says with a slight frown. “I still can’t let her do it, not when Skye has her heart set on her.” He turns, looking at Skye, who’s frozen in the air a few steps away. “Son, I want you to do something for me,” he says, looking at me. “Grab her and take her as far away from here as you can. The last thing we want is for the other Hall Leaders to realize what almost happened.”

“If she was going to kill him, in cold blood, shouldn’t she be stuck in the Cape Cells?” I ask, grabbing her.

“Hatred does ugly things to us all,” Century says. “She’s been holding onto it so long that she doesn’t see the chance to break out right in front of her. Now go, we’ll deal with this later.”

“Century?” I say, hesitating. “My dad got away.”

“I’m not surprised. He tends to do that.”

“I’m going to find him.”

“In your own time, son, in your own time.”

I shift my hold on Doris and step down through the shadow in the ground, carrying her with me through the Shadowlands. The further away, the better, right? She jerks back to life as I get out of Century’s reach. I let go as she roars and lunges forward. It’s almost funny how she jerks to a stop and looks around in confusion.

“Wha—”

“Hi, Doris,” I say, waving to get her attention. She growls at me, but I hold up both hands. “We couldn’t let you do what you were about to do,” I explain, as gently as possible.

“He was awake! They weren’t even paying attention—he could have run away and just gotten away with it!” she yells, rushing forward and grabbing me by the throat. “How could I just stand by and let him do whatever he wanted—”

“Hey, hey, I’m just the messenger boy,” I say—although it’s a bit choked sounding. I hate getting choked, I really do. “Century didn’t want to stick you in the Cape Cells.”

“It was MY CHOICE!” she bellows, but I see a tear escape her. “And he deserves to die for what he did to me,” she says, slowly loosening her grip on my throat. “He deserves to die for all of the things he did to people today, too,” she tells me.

“If that’s what the Hall decides, you know, after they put him on trial and all that, then he will,” I tell her, placing my hands on her shoulders. “But you and Aunt Skye—you’ve got a big future ahead of you,” I tell her. “You’re going to be one of the first all-female villain teams. You’re going to go up against the big names and probably get away with winning once in a while. You’ll be famous in no time, Doris,” I say.

“I don’t CARE ABOUT BEING FAMOUS!” she bellows, making me plug my ears again and sending the shadow dinos watching us running. “I want my missing years. I want my LIFE back—and he took it from me,” she says, starting to cry. “You don’t understand—you’re still a kid. I don’t
fit
in this time, I don’t know how things work, I break things that even SKYE can get right. I have to take classes children take! And I can’t figure them out! I feel like such a moron sometimes—”

“You’re not a moron,” I say, stepping forward. “I—I don’t know how I’d handle being tossed into the future all of a sudden, either. Look,” I say, wondering if this is the right thing to do, “I can take you anywhere. You can leave all of this behind, start over, and live however you want. I’ll tell Aunt Skye that you don’t want to come back, that you’ve got something you really want to do—”

“But there isn’t anything I really want to do, other than take out Herold,” she says quietly. “I—I mean, at least with Skye, I don’t feel like that big of a freak because, honestly, she’s weirder than I am.”

“Hey now, that’s my aunt you’re talking about,” I try to scold and fail, because I’m trying to not laugh.

“Nico said dying was too quick for revenge,” she says after a moment of looking away.

“That’s pretty cold,” I admit, thinking about it.

“Century says they should strip his powers and put him in a cell next to Kunnins,” she goes on, still quietly. “Think that’s mean?”

“Kunnins is…” I try to think, “from before I came, I think. We’d have to ask the other kids how mean it is.”

“It really stinks down here.”

“Yeah, it really does.”

There’s a pause before I say, “Want to help Skye convince Ariel to join your all-girls group?”

“I’m pretty sure Ariel’s crazier than both of us combined.”

“It should make you feel even more normal, right?” I offer after looking her in the eyes. She looks perfectly serious.

“Okay, why not?”

***

Maybe she’s not the only one thinking about getting tossed into a completely different life. So much has happened today, I think as I step through a shadow in front of the Cape High Campus. I—

“So,” Shadowman says, making me jerk. He’s just standing there, as if he’s been waiting for me all this time. “Going to throw me under the bus, now?” He holds out his hands in front of him, as if expecting me to cuff him. “I had the chance to finish him off, and I should have,” he admits, looking me straight in the eye. “But I didn’t want to die. This entire thing has just made me see they were right about me. I am a coward.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Why am I a coward? Probably because my parents didn’t hold me enough, or maybe the held me too much, hell if I know. I’ve been around for a long, long time, I don’t remember that sort of crap.”

“No, why did you come HERE?” I demand. “I was going to at least give you a running start.”

“You would have done that?”

“Well you’re not exactly the only one that wanted to kill the guy,” I say dryly, looking over at Doris. “The reason I have to catch you is right behind you. And every second you stand here, right in front of almost everything and everyone I care for, is a moment closer to me forgetting the head start,” I say, images of the zoo kids flashing through my mind. “But if you go to the Cape Cells, you’ll die. Those collars cut off your powers, you know.”

“Nah,” he says. “Sure they cut you down a good deal, but they don’t wipe it out completely—at least not enough to take away your good looks. So come at me, boy. Take me down properly as you start out a life as the system’s dog. If you don’t, they’ll always question your loyalty. They’ll always wonder if you’re going to become like me, or if you’re hiding something—”

I rush forward before he can finish, slamming my fist into his face and sending him flying backwards. I almost let him fall into the laser wall, but grab him just in time, throwing him away from it. A part of me remembers that I shouldn’t be able to beat him, since he’s older and more powerful—I ignore it. “You think you’re making me make a choice,” I tell him, still standing there, “but there’s no choice to make, old man. Yes, a part of me says you’re my dad, and that I should at least go easy on you, but another part of me says exactly what you just said. Except it wouldn’t be just them questioning it, I would question it, as well,” I say, walking over to him. He kicks out when I’m not expecting it, hitting my calves and making me fall.

“Do you need help?” Doris asks, just watching from the sidelines. “Or is this a family thing?”

“It’s a family thing!” Shadowman and I both say. I jump to my feet and tackle him, slamming him to the ground, only to curse as we slide right into the Shadowlands. We roll through the land, completely ignoring the monsters in here as I try hold on to him. He grins at me before throwing me across the room. I almost swear he aimed, I think blankly as he rushes forward, slamming into me again. What is he aiming for? I don’t have time to figure it out, I realize as we trade blows. He might not have training on the Apocalypse Field, but it turns out he’s got plenty of one-on-one fighting. He definitely has more experience in fist fights than I do.

We roll through a portal, out into the light of day. I hear people yelp in shock, but I ignore them, grabbing Shadowman by the shirt and punching him in the face. He grunts and repays me with a fist straight into the solar plexus. I try to get my breath back, letting go of him and grabbing my stomach. He jumps to his feet, racing into the Shadowlands again. I look around, seeing the crowd snapping pictures of me. I glance up, seeing beautiful, classic buildings all around. The cars to the left of me are driving on the wrong side of the road, I realize, staring at them blankly. Wait, no time to guess!

“Sorry ‘bout that,” I say, diving back into the Shadowlands after my dad. I see him as he races through another shadow and give chase, diving out into the middle of a rainy day in the middle of green hills as far as the eye can see. I think I catch a glimpse of a castle in the distance. “You were the one that offered to go down,” I tell him as I chase after him.

“If I’m going to be stuck in a box for the rest of my life, I’m going to at least see a little of what I’m losing first!” he says, laughing as he waves his arms around. “Scotland,” he explains. “Earlier was England, next I’m thinking Russia and China and—”

I stare at him. “Enough,” I say. “You’re not taking me seriously—”

“No, YOU aren’t taking ME seriously,” he says, walking over. “You, of all people, should have an idea of what I’m giving up because of you. I could run, right now, and only you and Skye would ever be able to find me. Do you have any clue how frustrating this is right now?”

“Nico would find you,” I say.

“Technico wouldn’t care, as long as I stayed off of his turf,” he says bluntly. “YOU are my problem, kid. YOU make me feel guilty. Do you have any clue how long it’s been since I felt anything?” he demands. “And here you are, all justice minded and out to save the world—with my powers and my eyes. It’s—it’s--” he lets out a curse, as if he can’t come up with the right word.

“You know, you’re right,” I say, looking around again. “This is beautiful. No one should be locked in a box, away from all of this beauty, especially if they’ve done nothing wrong.”

“So—”

“That’s exactly why I’m taking you in,” I say. “My best friends in the world were locked away, kept from everything like this. They couldn’t come here, they couldn’t see England or Russia or anywhere beautiful—they couldn’t even see their family, and they were KIDS,” I say, moving into his personal space. “This guilt trip you’re trying to pull, it won’t work,” I tell him callously. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll send you pictures in the Cape Cells when I go places like this.”