Guitar Hero (Cape High Series Book 12) (6 page)

“Maximum is a super villain, and as far as we can tell, Justin isn’t,” her dad says. “There’s no way he can be your debut partner. Honestly, do you even realize how many strings Negatia had to pull to get him to come here? His tour was already lined up by Central Hall weeks ago. You’re a last minute addition.”

“Then I’ll go super villain!” she says rashly. “Don’t you understand--this is fate!” she turns and runs off before they can reply, racing out of her house and across town. For a long moment she looks around, wondering where she is. Her phone rings. She pulls it out, checking the caller ID before answering.

“I think we should do something,” Kirsten says without bothering to announce who it is.

“What?”

“Justin is coming in concert this weekend, Rach! We need to get his attention!”

“I know, but I’ve got my stupid debut planned for this weekend--I can’t get out of it, even if I DID tell my parents I was going super villain and that Justin would be my debut--” Rachel starts ranting.

“Wait, stop, calm down,” Kirsten says. “Now breathe. Are you breathing?”

“Yes, I’m breathing,” Rachel says, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. “They just don’t understand how much this means to me, Kirsten. Justin’s music got me through--through my powers coming.”

“I know, it did for me, too,” Kirsten says, “which is why you might have something with your super villain idea...”

“But how can I get out of fighting Maximum?” Rachel asks. “I’m one of the few B-class capes that he’s even willing to take on--and I think that’s only because Negatia did some sort of deal with him!”

“We’ll just call him up and see about rescheduling. Tell him you’re sick or something. He’s got a website, it comes with an email and everything. This is way more important than becoming a super hero, Rachel!”

“What, exactly, are we going to do?”

“We’re going to the concert, and we’re going to get his attention--one way or another.”

“But what if Maximum doesn’t agree?”

“Then we deal with him, first.”

***

*Kansas City*

"You were supposed to keep him from this!" the man bellows in Tom Macow's face, waving a hand in the direction of the television on the wall. The room is empty, save for the two of them. It's an old building that most people assume is abandoned. All of the windows are boarded up and covered in graffiti, the water doesn't work—it'd been cut off months ago, and the electricity is shoddy. Whenever you plug something in, the outlet sparks. It's the meeting hall of the Anti-Super Society. Of course they make sure to say the name properly rather than shortening it, Tom thinks dryly. He still isn't sure how he got mixed up in this. Every time he tries to remember, his head starts to hurt.

"This what?" he finally asks when he notices the man just staring at him.

"Your EX client is now officially out as a super hero! He's running around, right now, showing off just what a freak he is!" he pushes a button on the TV controller and a video starts playing. Tom watches for a second before pointing at the little water girl.

"Her! I know her name!" he says. "We can do something with that, right? If we know her name, we can track her down, right?"

"FINALLY you do something useful! What's her name?"

"Ma… something. Mal…" Tom frowns, trying to remember what it was, exactly. "Malina!" he says. "She had a weird name—and she was short! One of those little people!"

"Did you get her LAST name?" the tall man asks.

"No… I mean, I didn't even think—"

"You IDIOT!" the tall man says, raising a hand to slap him.

"Now, now," a familiar voice says as a man steps out of the shadows, "really, Sam, we should treat our help better than that, don't you think?"

"Senator Herold," Sam says, jerking his arm back down as if he hadn't just threatened Tom. "Sir, we had clear instructions for Tom, here, and he failed on every count! He's useless! We need to put him back in the box."

"Box?" Tom repeats. His head starts screaming in pain and he grabs it with both hands. It's like something is trying to drill through his cerebral cortex. He's not even sure WHICH part of his brain is the cerebral cortex, but he's positive that the drilling is hitting it, too.

"That is not an option right now, Sam," Senator Herold says. "Tom, my friend, thank you for all of your hard work," he goes on, walking over and holding out a hand. Tom stares at it for a moment before shaking, wondering why something looks wrong about that hand. He can't seem to put a finger on it…

"Thank you," Tom says instead of dwelling on the hand issue. "I just—I'm sorry, I don't know how I wound up failing so badly. I just couldn't seem to keep my feelings to myself all of a sudden." Something seems wrong about that, too, he thinks with a frown. He'd always been—

"He needs the box," Sam repeats, looking over at the senator.

"We can't DO the box right now, Sam. We're going to have to find out what all he knows and work from there," Herold says a bit sharply.

"You have beautiful hands," Tom blurts out, only to wonder where it comes from. But it's true, he realizes as he looks at them again. "For your age, especially—do you use some sort of special cream?"

"Thank you," Herold says with a smile. "I try to take good care of my appearance. Now, why don't you tell me about who else was with your ex-client?"

"Well… Falconess was there! She's a real babe. And there was this strange kid with a lizard haircut—" he starts rattling off whatever he can remember. The idea of being "stuck in the box" sends a chill down his spine. He's almost grateful that he can't remember why.

***

"That was pretty amazing," Cole says, still laughing as we go past the Colorado/Utah border sign. I ignore him, my eyes glued to the sign as it disappears behind us. We're here. I can't help but feel nervous, even though we've already had a run-in with Negatia. Now we're in HER territory. There's no Mastermental to hide behind, nothing to keep us on our mission except for her willingness to let it happen. Even if Nico's the son of Superior, I still can't expect him to force her to do anything she doesn't want to. There's a good chance we'll be visiting the Hall before we even get to our next gig. I look over at Falconess, who's playing a video game on the wall. "So he's built this into all of the dorm building?" she asks Malina, who's right next to her.

"Yep," Malina says. "Every once in a while we wake up and Nico's in the middle of the main room and things are floating everywhere."

"But why?" Falconess asks. I think she borrowed Malina's phone for the game, since I really doubt teal is her color.

"Um…" Malina frowns for a long moment. "I have no clue," she finally admits. "But that's how I finally got my own laptop! I just sat there in the room while he was tweaking all the stuff and suddenly there's this little laptop sitting on the table next to me—it glows!"

"Nico is just like that," Emily says. "Are we going to West Hall next?" she asks curiously.

"We should be stopping there next," Falconess says. "Do you think I could get him to upgrade my work tools sometime?" she asks, going right back to the Nico talk.

"Hey, is Nico Technico?" Cole asks me, making me look over.

"Yeah," I say.

"What's he like?"

I frown as I try to figure out how to explain Nico. "Well… Emily knows him better than I do—" I start out, trying to pass the buck. I look over at the girl in question, only to inwardly groan as I realize she's playing the game now. There's no chance of her explaining anything unless one of her doppelgangers come out to do it. "Or Ditto?" I offer a bit louder, trying to get her attention.

"I've been using Ditto and Repeat to do little delivery jobs," Emily says, not looking back at me. "It's part of my training. She even took Skye and her roommate up to the Arctic Circle not that long ago."

"Dang it," I mutter. "Okay… well… first of all, he was in the Cape Cells for fifteen years, right? I think it totally messed up his social skills, or something, because he never bothers to ask anyone anything—"

"That's just his nature," Emily says over her shoulder, grinning evilly. She lets out a yelp a second later. "You killed me!"

"That's what you get for looking away," Falconess says shamelessly.

"Seriously?" I say, only to shake my head. "Well, anyway, picture a group of some twenty two or three kids with super powers. One is Maximum, one is Dragon, one is Cold Steel, toss in us, and a bunch of other high-powered kids ranging from thirteen to eighteen. There’s even a speedster with a serious case of ADHD. Would YOU take them into a Wal-Mart for a shopping trip?"

"He did?"

"Yep. He set us up in groups and sent us each our own way."

"Did you burn the place down?"

"Did Cold Steel freak everyone out?"

"Can you get banned from Wal-Mart?"

"We went shopping," I say simply.

"He once kidnapped an entire Funhouse just so we could have a pizza party!" Malina says happily.

"He didn't kidnap them, he just terrorized them a little," Emily corrects her.

"He doesn't yell at anyone—but he doesn't exactly… care, either," I admit. "He tells us he'll only put in as much effort into our schooling as we do. He basically ignored my existence for the first few months."

"We'll be arriving at West Branch Hall in two minutes, everyone," the bus driver, Alphonse, says over his shoulder. "As protocol, I would suggest changing into full uniform now. You want to present a professional, united front." The girls head to the bathroom to change, leaving the rest of us to shuck our clothes and pull on the white and gold uniforms.

"How did you get this job?" Cole asks, standing next to Alphonse.

"Bus driving, or black suit?" Alphonse asks.

"Both."

"I'll tell you after we deal with the Hall," Alphonse says as we pull to a stop in front of a massive building—one that's all too familiar to me. The West Branch Hall is done in modern style, a tower of shining windows that curve in the front. The statue in front of the building is an abstract sculpture that doubles as a fountain. Those that don't know it's the Hall would never recognize it for one. Obviously Alphonse has been here before, I think as he pulls the door open and straightens his suit. He looks over at us, his eyes landing on Emily and Falconess. "Permission to go first?" he asks.

"Of course," Falconess says. "Have you worked in this branch before?"

"I've done business with them," Alphonse says, smiling slightly as he heads out. We head to the window, watching as he greets another black suit with a manly hug, complete with back slapping. They talk for a few minutes, asking about each others' families and jobs, and then Alphonse casually mentions we're on the bus and ready to talk. The second man checks in with security and Alphonse looks at the bus, motioning us out.

Falconess steps out first, heading to the other black suit and shaking hands. Emily goes next, with me following, and so on. Soon everyone but the band is standing out in front of the Hall. We're surrounded by black suits. "It's a pleasure to meet you," the black suit that'd been talking with Alphonse says, looking at each of us. "Is this everyone?"

"My bandmates are norms," I say. "They're still on the bus."

"I see. I'll send someone to make sure they're comfortable while we have this meeting," he says. "I am Paul Desdon, head of West Hall Security, the ones you refer to as the 'Black Suits,'" he finishes with a slight smile. "It's a pleasure to meet the heroes of tomorrow—especially you," he says, heading for me and offering his hand. "I knew your father, he was a great hero."

"Thanks," I say simply, shaking the hand offered.

"If you would follow me," he says, turning and heading into the building. I see a few of the camera drones floating around us.

"Is it okay if we record this for Hero TV?" I ask.

"It's fine—they're your sponsor for this, right?"

"Yeah, thanks to E—Divine Justice," I say, glancing over at Emily, who has a slight frown on her face as she stares at the abstract fountain.

"This doesn't feel like a Hall," she says quietly. "It's more like a business."

"That's because a Hall IS a business," Negatia says as we step into the building. "Unlike the other Hall Leaders I don't feel the urge to make us out to be anything but hard-working citizens with a few extra abilities. Welcome to my Hall," she says, walking down the towering glass and metal stairs.

"Thank you for your assistance," Falconess says. "We really appreciate your willingness to accommodate us."

"Now tell me, what was it that offended you so much, Divine Justice?" Negatia asks Emily.

"I'm used to a more traditional statue in front," Emily says as she looks around, "and inside, too. The South Branch Hall has a—"

"Is this the South Branch Hall?"

"No."

"That explains it, then," Negatia says. She doesn't look happy. I wonder how often she gets complaints about the Hall's appearance. "If you would follow me, we have a few papers to sign before I send you on your way. I also have a few things to discuss with you," she adds as we follow her up the stairway and down a hall into her office. It's so modern that it's almost stark. The glass desk is curved—in fact there are no sharp corners anywhere in the room. It has a cold feel to it. I expected it to be like this. From the look on the other's faces, though, they don't know what to think. We watch as she goes around her desk, picking up one of the folders and opening it. "This is a contract that states the length of time you'll be able to operate in my territory," she tells us. "Once that time is up, I expect you to return to Central until your educations are complete. The offer to join my Hall might be extended to a few of you, depending on how you conduct yourselves during this mission." She looks straight at Malina, who doesn't look her in the eyes.