Sunny Daze (19 page)

“He likes to be a glory-hound,” Adanna says, “he sees being a super villain as the perfect opportunity to act like a ham.”

“I see.  That does sound like fun,” Grandpa admits.  I never thought I’d hear him say something like it.  It startles a laugh out of me.  “Not that I would do it, of course.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” I say, rushing forward.  Max and I start punching each other, brawling like boxers.  He hits HARD.  I’m pretty sure he puts gravity into each punch--and considering he brawls with Trent on a regular basis, it’s probably by instinct.  A particularly good uppercut catches me in the gut and sends me flying. 

For a second I seem to float in the air and then I drop to the ground, shocked by the sensation.  I don’t have time to react before Max is in front of me again, punching me just like he had before.  “Stay up there!” he says as I go flying again. “We might as well teach you to fly while I’m beating on you!” My stomach hurts a bit--second massive hit to the exact same place in a row, you know?

Unfortunately this time I don’t even float--I just keep soaring until I fall into a tree.

“Think his points are in the hole?” I hear Jack ask Ace.

“Probably.  Let’s go check it out.”

I hold out my hand and the tree roots shoot out, blocking the way for Jack and Ace.  “No you don’t,” I say.  Max takes advantage, pulling me off the ground and straight up with his powers.

“No plant powers up here,” he says as we float over the earth.  I ignore him, staring down at the world with a huge grin.  “What?” he asks, looking suspicious, “What are you grinning about?”

“Do you know the biggest part of being a Superior?” Superior asks, loudly enough that I’m certain Max can hear it.

“No, not really,” Max says.

“We operate in spheres,” Superior says.  “For me it’s a mile to a mile and a half in any direction at an atomic level detail. For my kids it’s any area within eyesight.  Now tell me, which do you think Sunny operates in?”

“Oh crap,” Max says, just as the world below me starts to burst with life.  Trees and flowers and bushes and anything that comes to mind sprouts from the ground, forming a forest below.  I’m laughing like a loon.  This feels so AMAZING!  I hear Jack and Ace yelp in shock below, but it just makes me laugh louder.  I actually feel a bit light-headed, but this is such a rush that I don’t notice until I start to black out.

Whoops.

***

“He grew a forest,” Superior hears Max say.  He can only assume the boy stole Sunny’s earbud.  “I caught him before he hit the ground, he’d be really mad if he accidentally killed one of his trees.  I hope whoever owns this place doesn’t mind, because I’m pretty sure he took out all the nearby streets, too.  It’s got to be some fifteen miles across, at least.”

“It’s fine,” Superior says, feeling a grin spread across his face.  “Actually, it’s perfect.”  He hears Max hang up, but he stays on the line.  “Your son is a wonder,” he says.

“He is, isn’t he?” Nico says, showing that he’d been listening in just like Superior had assumed.  “The kid will change the world, and nobody will even know about it.”

“Is that for the best?” Superior asks.

“It’s what he wants,” Nico says.  “You heard him--he’s a total failure at the actual fighting.  He’s not got an instinct for violence.”

“He’s got an instinct for life,” Superior finishes.

“He is his mother’s child.”

***

Nico hangs up, standing in front of a large cage.  He watches the teen inside, taking in just how beast-like the boy seems.  When the boy’s black eyes fall on him it’s only for a moment.  He can actually see the simple calculations going through Tank’s mind--
not prey, not attacking, ignore
.  He’s searching for an escape, but hasn’t realized that there are locks yet.  They’ve brought Aubrey in twice, each time they’d had to knock the boy out just to get her near him.  She says there’s a chance he’ll never be human-like again.  The boy’s now being treated by Double M--who’s working to get him thinking as a human, at least.

Nico sighs and shoves that thought aside, his eyes falling to the phone in his hand, another teen on his mind.  He leaps into the air, going high enough that he can see all of America, and most of Canada and Mexico.  The air is thin, almost non-existent here, but he ignores that fact.

A simple message appears on the phone screen.

You’ve got a son.

It blinks once and then is sent.

***

Bonus Material:

Superior: Origins

*A long, long time ago*

The ship makes strange noises.  He isn’t used to all the strange noises.  There are beeps and blips and various creaking noises that he’s almost afraid to ask about.  His home world doesn’t have all of these noises, the young boy thinks.  Nor does it have the large, hulking monsters that keep tromping past him, yelling at each other.

“You bought a little KID!”

“He’ll be worth money!  He was a real steal, too, since nobody wanted him!”

“WE don’t want him, either!  And when will he be worth money, in thirty years?  What are we going to do with a little kid?”

The little boy is positive that they are talking about him--especially when the one that had just been speaking turns, grabbing him by the arm and hauling him off of the floor.  “He’s USELESS!  Look at the bone structure--he looks a lot like one of those Terrans!”

“Now THAT is an insult,” the first says sharply.  “He’s not a Terran!  He’s nowhere near as pathetic as one of those!”

“He’s as good as one to me!  He won’t be worth anything on the black market.”  The boy is thrown aside, hitting the wall of the ship and sliding down it, hiding the fact that it had hurt a bit.  The large blue-green man heads to the computer while the second one, the one that had been fighting for him, comes over, crouching down in front of him.

“Here, boy, say ‘Masters,’” the man prompts.  “Mas--ters.”

“Mas... ters,” the boy repeats quietly, trying not to stare at the bloodshot eyes looking at him.  They were huge and yellow instead of white, with slits down the middle instead of a round spot.  It’s really unsettling to him.

“That’s good!  Did you hear that, Ahka?  He can speak!”

“Why don’t you teach him to roll over and beg, next?” Ahka replies darkly, tapping away on the keyboard of their broken down machine.  “We’re getting rid of him.”

“What?  Why?  We’re going to make a bundle off of him!”

“We aren’t going to make a thing off of that scrawny little brat--he’s going to eat us out of house and home, and I’m not going to let that happen,” Ahka says.  “We’re passing Terra soon, we’ll drop him off there.  Nobody will think a thing if we land in one of those flat stretches with the four legged creatures.  Backwater planet,” he scoffed.

“I paid good money for him!  How are you going to pay me back?”

“By keeping him from eating all of the food we put away for the rest of our trip!” Ahka snaps, pulling away from the computer and turning to glower at the boy.  “We should kill him,” he says after a long hard stare.  “Bury the body and leave.”

“We aren’t killing him!  We’ll just... we’ll just dump him off like you planned,” the other says reluctantly.  “Who knows, maybe they’ll find a use for him.  Clearly you’re not going to let me.”

“Oh quit your whining,” Ahka says as the ship lands with a thump.  There’s a loud creaking noise as if something’s going to break, and then a section of wall opens up, turning into a ramp heading to the ground.  Ahka stands, grabbing the boy and hauling him down the ramp.  The land they’re on is strange, the air feels too thin and the colors are all wrong, but the boy gets no chance to point this out as Ahka heads back in.

The ship hatch slams shut and the ship takes off, flying into the night.

For a long, long moment the boy just sits there, watching the ship fly off, knowing that he’ll never see his home world again.  Then, a bit awkwardly, he pushes himself to his feet and starts to walk.  It seems like forever before he sees a square building.  He’s so happy that he starts to run, almost tripping over himself as he realizes how much lighter the gravity is.  He makes it to the door, grabbing the handle and pulling the door open.

“Cliff, is that you?  I thought you were going into town today, honey!  You’re back--” a woman says from inside.  She steps into view, staring at him in confusion.  “Where did you come from, little boy?  What’s your name?”

So the boy says the only word he knows.  “Mas... ters.”

Dorm Daze

Justin

“So there he was, chatting away on the phone to Superior, and Max--the moron--catches his attention,” Ace says.  We’re sitting in the main room of the dorms, playing a game of
Central Hall Alliance
.  Nico built the dorm this massive gaming system where anyone can grab their phone to use as a controller and join in--the screen is an entire wall.  In fact, I’m pretty sure we can spread it to another wall if we’ve got enough people.  Right now we’ve got about half the dorm lounging on couches, playing.

“Did he have to?” I ask, grimacing as Vinny’s character catches me from behind, knocking me out.  Why is he playing a villain, anyway?  Wait, he’s not.  “I call foul play!” I yell at him.

“Friendly fire,” he says, grinning evilly.

“Of course not--Sunny’s completely oblivious to things like that,” Ace says as he taps away on his phone, shooting at Carla’s character.  “And honestly, it’s STUPID to draw his attention, because they fought for a while and then Sunny grew an entire forest.  I almost got violated by a tree because of that.”

“Violated?” I repeat.

“It poked me in the butt on the way up,” Ace explained.  The entire group starts laughing at the look on his face.  Even I can’t help but snicker, picturing it all too easily.  “So we had to climb our way out of an accidental forest and then carry Sunny home, because he was completely knocked out.  So I figured I’d stop in while he slept.  I’ve got an illusion me breaking into Jack’s place right now.”

“What are all of you doing in here?” I hear Morgan demand from behind me.  “It’s the middle of summer, people, and Trent just now finished the school’s new pool!”

“Seriously?” I ask, almost dropping my phone.  “I want to go swimming!”  I get a lot of blank looks and I abruptly realize that I was way too quick to admit that.  Okay, so I seem a bit too enthusiastic when Morgan suggests things.  So sue me.

“Let’s go swimming, then,” Ace says, getting to his feet and heading for my room.

“How did your swimming trunks get in my room?” I demand as I follow him.

“Because I didn’t feel like running home when we went to the pool,” he says.  “Nice job jumping, there,” he drawls when I close the door behind us.  “Seriously, you should just tell her already.”

“Tell her what?” I ask as I start digging through my clothes.  I really need to do laundry.

“That you like her?” he says.

“Let it die, Ace.  I’ll get over it as soon as I’m back on the road with millions of girls throwing themselves at me,” I tell him, shucking my clothes and pulling on my trunks.  “You’re the one that’s never going to get a girlfriend.”  I head out as he splutters, joining the others as they rush out to get to the pool.  Trent stands there next to a gigantic pool, looking quite satisfied with himself.  It’s concrete, and bigger than I thought it would be.  To my surprise, Malina is standing next to him.  The look of excitement on her face is bright enough to blind me.

“So she finally came out, huh?” Vinny says as he steps up beside me.

“Came out?”

“About her powers.”  I watch in stunned silence as the tiny female steps out onto the water, walking to the middle as if she were standing on ice.  She raises her arms, starting to dance happily.  Water splashes and floats around her as she twists and turns.  It’s like the water is dancing with her--it’s got to be the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.  “Pretty, huh?  Don’t let that fool you,” Vinny goes on, his hands in his pockets, “you can cut through steel with water if you know what you’re doing.  She got closer to breaking out of the zoo more times than I ever did.” 

“But she’s so--so--” I say, feeling like an idiot, “cute,” I finally say.

“She’s a little person,” Vinny says bluntly.  “Aubrey says she’ll probably only grow to three foot five.  If that’s the only reason why you’re calling her ‘cute’ I suggest you keep that thought to yourself.”  He walks away, leaving me a bit stunned.  How big of a jerk HAD I come off as at first?

I head to the pool side, dropping down on the concrete and just watching Malina.  I see Morgan from the corner of my eye, but I don’t turn to look at her.  It’s only when Ace drops down next to me that I look up.  He’s got a thoughtful look on his face as he watches the girl, and suddenly the water she’s playing with changes colors.  Pinks, blues and purples flash over her head, dancing at her finger tips.

“PARTY!!” Carla bellows from behind me.  I don’t even have time to blink before she’s jumping over our heads and cannon-balling into the pool.  For a second I worry that it will offend Malina--and then she bursts into giggles, diving in to wrestle with Carla.

“Is it true?” Ace asks.

“What, that you’ll never get a girlfriend?”

“No, that you’re planning on going back on the road,” Ace says, looking at me.

“Sure I am,” I say.  “Just like her,” I say, motioning to the pool, “I need to do what I was made to do, Ace.  I need to be on that stage, singing, making people happy.  And I need to do it soon, or people will forget who I am.”  I take a deep breath, saying what I’ve been hiding for over a week.  “My agent called me.  He talked to Mastermental--he’s trying to set up a summer tour.”

“Oh.  That sounds cool.”

“I would have jumped at it not more than a month ago,” I say, leaning back on my hands and looking at the sky.  “Now... I don’t know.  It seems sort of lonely.”

“What’s Nico say?” Trent asks, stepping into my view.  I abruptly realize that everyone’s looking at me.  “Is he going to let you go?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.  “He hasn’t brought it up yet.”  I look at the pool again, “but it’d be just a month or so, right?  I’ll be back when it’s over.”

“Says the guy who was in such a hurry to leave and never look back,” Morgan says, grinning at me.  “I’m happy for you,” she says.  “We all are, right guys?” she asks them.

“Who’s going to sing during our barbecue parties?” Carla asks, pouting.

“We’ll make Max--he comes with a mic,” Ace tells her.

“But can he sing?” she asks.

“Probably not, but it’ll be entertaining seeing him try!”

“We’ll miss you,” Carla says, looking at me, “a LOT--especially if Max can’t sing,” she adds a bit too bluntly.  I can’t help the laugh that escapes me.

“Yeah,” I say.  “I’ll miss you guys, too,” I admit, looking from one to the next.  “But hey, maybe while I’m out there I’ll find more of us.”  I look at Morgan, but all I see is excitement in her eyes at the thought.  I doubt she’ll miss me at all.

My heart breaks a little as she confirms what I’d thought all along.  It’s one-sided, and it always will be.

Maybe a month away will be good, after all.