Ditto Ditto (3 page)

“Alright, let’s get going!” Nico calls out, still wearing his mask.  “Sorry about that,” he adds quietly as we head out the door.  I hear a small snap of a camera and see Nico hold out his hand.  “And sorry about this,” he adds to the norms still there.  Sounds of beeping echo from all around and I hear people curse as their phones blink erratically.  “Can’t risk it.”

Then we’re grabbing our things from the cubbies and boarding the bus again.  “Hey, since it was Dad that blew our cover, I think we should get a prize,” Sunny says abruptly, getting up in his chair so we can all see him.  “What do you guys say?”

“YEAH!” we bellow.

“Okay, okay, what is it?” Nico asks.  “You all have to agree on it or I get out of it!”

“We want our own pool!” Trent says.  The entire bus turns and looks at him.  “Look, I rebuild buildings all the time,” he tells them, sitting up like Sunny does.  “All of us that actually are working capes have been doing construction work for a while now--we just need to build one, and the canyon’s big enough, so why not?  I vote we enclose it so we can use it year round--plus, sooner or later we’re going to have kids that deal with water, right?”

“So let me get this straight,” Nico says, “you want a pool--but you’re volunteering to do the work, right?”

“If I have to,” Trent says, glancing at me.  Oh.  He... I feel a blush cross my face as I realize just what he’s doing.  He’s willing to build me a pool just because I said--oh, wow.  He grins slightly, although I notice his neck is a little red, as well.  I hear Jack start to laugh his head off, but I can’t even get irritated by it.  I mean, seriously, who’s got a boyfriend that will build her a pool just because a swimming trip got cut short?

This girl.

“Alright, let’s take a vote--who wants Trent to build everyone a pool?” Nico asks.

Every hand in the bus raises, except Vinny waves his.  “I don’t want to boil the water,” he says.  “Think I could get a bracelet or something for pool days?”

“Can--ah--” Lance starts out shyly, “can I use my abilities in the pool?” he asks, his voice getting quieter and quieter with each word.

“It’d have to be a form small enough to fit,” Nico says.  “So no beluga whales or anything, got it?  And we can discuss the bracelet thing.”

The group starts talking, even the zoo kids look excited.  It’s only when Ditto sits up in the seat in front of us and leans over them precariously to kiss Trent on the cheek that I realize I should say something.  I blush brightly as I get on my knees in my chair and lean up to kiss his other cheek, much to the amusement of my fellow apartment kids.  “Thank you,” I say, hearing Ditto say the exact same thing.

“Alright, now that that’s decided,” Nico says, “since we’ve cut the whole pool party day short, who wants pizza?”

“Sir, we aren’t allowed to stop--” the driver starts out, only to stop as Nico looks at him.  “Perhaps you should call Mastermental?” he offers.

“Fine,” Nico says, pulling out his cell phone and calling Double M.  I reach down, where people can’t see, and lace my fingers through Trent’s, earning a little grin from him.  “Yo, Double M, have you found out what happened with Mega yet?” I hear Nico ask.  “Yeah?  From the south?  Really?  Alright.  Oh, before I let you go, I’m taking the kids to the pizzeria since Mega totally blew our swimming trip.  Bye.”  He didn’t give Double M time to reply before hanging up.

“So what was it?” Max asks, his feet kicked up on the chair in front of him and a smoothie in his hand.  Did he get a refill before we left?  I bet he did.

“Looks like Flame stood up one of his regular villains back south,” Nico says.  “She came to get him back.”

“She can have him,” Vinny says, since Flame is here to act as his mentor at the moment, “he snores.”

“But she’s tough enough to knock out Mega?” Trent asks.  “What are her powers?”

“Not sure,” Nico says.  “Double M was too busy being yelled at by Century for me to bother asking.”

“Hey, Dad,” Zoe says abruptly, “who was that blonde lady that went up to you?  Was that Falconess?”

“She was?” Jack asks.  “Man, that uniform of hers must be really armored up, cuz--” he stops and I swear Aubrey gave him a dirty look.

“Good catch,” Nico says.  “Yeah, that was Falconess.  She was hoping to have her daughter meet everyone on neutral grounds, unfortunately that was cut a bit short.”

“Invite her to pizza,” Max offers.  “Can we go to Funhouse?”

“Good idea,” Nico says, giving directions to the frustrated looking driver before making another call. 

“I want to play the games,” Carla says, getting up in her seat and leaning over the one in front of her.  “Anyone got some money?”

“Max does,” half the bus tells her.

“When did I become the school ATM?” Max asks, taking a long drink off of his smoothie.  The bus pulls to a stop.  We hop to our feet, grabbing flip flops and swimsuit covers and tank tops quickly before racing out.  We stop, going perfectly still as Nico lets out a sharp whistle.  We turn, watching as he gets off the bus in an open shirt and his swimming trunks.

“We’ll be using the team system for this,” he says.  “No purely apartment or purely dorm groups--you have to mix it up.  Group leaders--Morgan, Max, Vinny, and... Emily,” he says, pointing at me, much to my shock.  I never get announced as a leader.  I’m one of those trouble makers that are usually assigned to someone else.  “As team leaders you will keep your group safe, out of fights, and not noticed as anything other than a normal teen.  If any problems arise, you’ll be the one being punished for it, understand?”

“I want to protest,” I say, lifting a hand.  “I would SUCK as a leader.  Can we make Trent do it instead?”

“Nope, you’re leader,” he says.  I look at him sharply, and when he doesn’t seem to get the point, storm over to him and tug on his shirt sleeve to make him lean over--I’m too short to reach his ear.

“I’m not leader material!” I whisper in his ear.  I hear Adanna let out a tiny little laugh and turn bright red, knowing her excellent hearing picked up on what I said.

“You’re not intimidating,” Nico says quietly, dropping a huge hand on my shoulder.  “You’re cute and funny, right?  Makes for a lousy team leader, I agree,” he says cheerfully--and too loudly.  “That’s why I’m trusting you with the job.”  He stands up straight, looking over at the dorm kids.  “At least half of you are going to have to pick one of the apartment kids as a leader,” he says quietly, his hand still on my shoulder.

The group looks at each other, quietly discussing among themselves.  To my shock, I see Carla and Lance step away from the group and head over to me.  Those two are like, as far as I can tell, some of the most guarded of the group.  The ones that Vinny and Morgan protect like rabid wolves, practically.  I’m still pretty stunned they let Carla go with Trent across country to help Vinny--and Trent is Kid Liberty. He’s the best bodyguard in the world, practically.

I see Morgan and Vinny grin at each other before Carla steps in front of me, grinning widely.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” I say, grinning back.

“Can we play Dance Dance Revolution?” she asks.

“Absolutely,” I say.  I blink as a tiny girl separates from the group, slipping in behind Carla and grabbing her hand.  She’s practically hiding behind the black girl, but she’s watching me with slanted ice blue eyes that gleam.  She’s actually shorter than anyone else in the room, probably barely over three feet, but she’s got to be at least thirteen, right?  I think she would qualify as a “Little Person” right?

“Malina?” Carla says, looking shocked as she turns to the girl.  “Are you sure?” she asks.  The girl nods, smiling slightly.  “Awesome!” Carla says, hugging her tightly before she can actually say something aloud.  I’ve never seen Malina before, except in classes.  She’s also one of the guarded ones--one of the ones that hardly ever come out of their rooms.  I have no idea what powers she has, now that I think about it.

She flinches slightly as Trent walks over, standing next to me, towering over her by almost three feet.  I hesitate, wondering if he makes her nervous, but then Rocco steps up to the group, just as tall as Trent.  “Mind if I join?” he asks, scratching his head and grinning a bit sheepishly at me.

Rocco is a bi-racial teenager--I think he’s about Max’s age, actually, but that’s about all I know.  He doesn’t seem mean or anything, but I’m a bit worried about the dorm kids.  I look at them, chewing on my bottom lip until I notice that they aren’t running away yet.

“Sure,” I say, pointing at him, “but you’ve got to behave, got it?”

Lance lets out a little snicker, covering it with his hand.  Rocco looked at him, a curious expression on his face.  “Hey,” he says, nudging Lance, “you gotta do it, too, you know.”  His tone is gentle and I wonder if he’s already made a few friends in the dorm as Lance starts laughing out loud.

“Yeah, but I’m not the guy that broke into Fort Knox!” Lance says, laughing his head off, “Twice!”

“Fort Knox?” Trent asks curiously.

“It’s a long story,” Rocco mutters, “and I still say the second time was absolutely Firefly’s fault--”

“Dude, shhhhh,” Lance says, his eyes widening as he shoots a look at me.

“It was!  She brought in Mari--” he grunts as Lance elbows him hard in the gut.

“I said shhh!  Firefly’s her MOM,” Lance hisses.

I lose it, starting to laugh.  Oh man, you should SEE the look on Rocco’s face!  He looks like someone just pulled the ground out from under his feet!  Now he’s stuttering, trying to take it back--

“Emily,” Trent says with a nudge, “at least tell them why you’re laughing.”

I force myself to stop, grinning still.  “You should totally see your face right now,” I tell Rocco shamelessly.  “Liz is my foster mom,” I go on, shrugging my shoulders, “and if she caught you breaking into Fort Knox, well, that’s her job, right?”

“Alright, let’s go in,” Nico calls out, leading the group inside.  My group moves to the back, where Trent casually takes place behind everyone else without a word.

“No, that’s not what happened--” Rocco says as we head into the pizza place.  It looks like a bar in front, but to the right are games and those standing rides that you put a quarter in.  Nico heads to the bar, leaning against it and turning to us to take pizza orders.

“Meat lovers okay with everyone?” I ask my group.  They nod and I pass it on before Rocco can explain what happened with Liz.  Somehow I get the feeling that this story will take a bit of time.  There’s other people in here, not many, but enough to send a slight feeling of hesitation through the crowd.  To my surprise, Malina and Carla move closer to me instead of one of the guys.  There’s a strange look on Rocco’s face as he looks at them, as if confused.

I feel Carla’s hand slip into mine and I shoot her a grin.  “So,” I say, getting their minds off of the norms, “you and Trent went on a date, huh?”

She turns bright red.  I can’t help the evil grin that pulls on my lips as her eyes widen in surprise and she shoots Trent a look that says he clearly ratted her out.  “I want to see your pony!  I still haven’t gotten over there to make my own, you know, I’m jealous.”

“Pony?” Rocco repeats.

“Carla went down to Texas with Trent,” Lance says quietly, “to help Vinny a little while ago.  She talked him into all sorts of stupid stuff.”  He looks pointedly at Trent, who shrugs shamelessly, “which is bad enough, but he’s dating her,” Lance finishes, pointing at me.

“You two get along really well,” Trent says, moving slightly as two biker type guys walk in, stepping past us.  “Does that mean you’re getting used to strangers?” he asks Lance and Carla.

“Well we’ve got Justin and Jimmi, too,” Carla says, looking around curiously.  “Although Ward still doesn’t like them, and Brandon’s still stuck in hiding mode.”

“Hiding mode?” I ask.

“He’s here,” she says, her expression changing as she starts searching the crowd of kids.  “See that empty spot over there?” she says, pointing.  “There’s a good chance that’s him.  Or maybe there...”

“Wait, what?” Trent says.

“Brandon can go invisible,” Malina says quietly--almost too quietly to hear.

The door behind us slams shut so loudly that Lance literally jumps, changing shape into a small lizard with huge eyes that look shocked.  Carla grabs him while he’s still mid-air.  She’s so fast that the norms walking past us don’t even notice what happened.  They’re laughing loudly and heading for the bar, bumping into Trent as he casually moves between them and our group.

“Ow,” the guy that bumped him says, sounding surprised as he rubs his arm.  “What the hell?”

He turns, looking at Trent curiously, confusion showing as he takes in the clean cut looking teen.  “Excuse me,” Trent says with an easy smile.  “We’re a little packed in here,” he adds blandly.

“Uh... yeah, sure,” the man says, frowning slightly as he moves on.

“Alright, here are your numbers,” Nico says, moving through the crowd and handing out the plastic pieces.  He walks around the area that Carla motioned to earlier, so I can only assume she was right about Brandon.  “We’ll head to the back, there’s more tables there, keep to the group, if you want to play games your entire team has to go with you,” he adds looking straight at me.  “Set up a guard to watch the younger ones,” he adds.  “Trent, take him to the restroom, would you?”

Carla holds out Lance to Trent, who scoops him up and slips him onto his shoulder before walking away. 

“Hey, aren’t there two of you?” Rocco asks, looking at me.  “Like a twin?”

“Ditto’s over there in Max’s group,” I say, pointing over to where Ditto’s chatting happily with Zoe.

“So you’re twins?”

“Nope.”  We start for the back, heading for one of the long tables next to another group, where we put down the number and I motion to Ditto.  “Watch our number, ‘kay?”

“Sure!” she says.

“Let’s go play some games,” I say to everyone, grabbing Carla and Malina’s hands to pull them along.  I glance back at Nico, wondering if he’s got something planned--the door opens and Jack walks into the restaurant, followed by Falconess and her mini-me.

“The shield’s up, Nico,” he calls.  There’s no illusion hiding who he is, and I see the norms look freaked out as they realize it.  “Sorry, man, but you’re not getting any new customers until we leave,” Jack tells the guy at the front.  “So switch the sign to closed, would you?”

“Are you robbing us?” the guy asks.

“Nah, we’re throwing a school pizza party,” Jack tells him, grinning to show gleaming metal teeth.  “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure Max leaves a tip.”

There’s a worried look on the norms’ faces, and I look over at Nico to see what he’s going to do.  “If your job requires you to be back within a half an hour,” he says, his mask in place, “please come and talk to me--I’ll get you out with no fuss.”

“Emily?” Carla asks.  “Did we just kidnap a building full of norms?”

“Yep, we sure did,” I say, trying to wrap my mind around it and promptly giving up.  “Eh, he’ll let the ones that need to go go,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and grinning.

“You sure?” she asks.

“Yep, it’ll be fine,” I declare.  Have I mentioned that Nico just happens to be an ex super villain?  He does some of the craziest things without blinking--and Jack just totally goes along with it.  Then again, Jack’s a super villain, too.  “Let me grab some money and we’ll go hit the games,” I tell her, letting go and heading for the richest kid in the class--Max.