Shadow Boy (3 page)

"Where we teach the capes of tomorrow, both hero and villain. Now accepting any bearer of this page as a student with full scholarship, food, and boarding. Just present this page to the Central Hall," the man above me says in a bland tone, as if he's memorized the sheet. "Signed by Technico, Principal of Cape High, and Mastermental, Central Hall Leader," he adds.

"But I can't go into Central--" I start out, only to stop as he flies away. "Hall," I finish a bit lamely, still staring at the paper. I wonder how long he's been carrying this, I think as I look at the worn creases in the paper. It looks like it's been through the wash a few times, and folded more times than I can count...

But...

I'm almost surprised when the first laugh escapes me. I give in, though, laughing my head off over the entire thing. That had to have been Technico--who's from Central Hall--and I must have passed my entrance exam with flying colors, even if I'd had no
clue
it was one in the first place.

Supers are weird, you know?

And me?

I'm just super.

*The Present (After a lot of other stuff happened)*

My name is Rocco Stiltz, age seventeen, son of Gwenda Stiltz and… reluctant as I am to admit it, Shadowman. I don’t know his real name, don’t care. I’m a student at Cape High—which is why I’m in the middle of trying to hold an entire sports team hostage.

No, seriously, that DOES explain it. Why does it explain it? Because I’ve been assigned to Maximum’s team and Max has a thing for sports. It started out almost two years ago, when he held the entire Super Bowl hostage during their halftime show. So now we have a professional football team in a bus, some twenty feet off the ground at the moment. It’s a bit late in the season to get the baseball team, according to Max, even though he REALLY wants to get them, too. Me? I’m in the bus, carrying a football and a bunch of sharpies from one member to the next as Max does his speech to the people below.

“So sorry about this,” I say, holding out the ball to the next guy. They all make me look like a string bean, I note idly. None of them are capes, though—there’s a testing process before they’re even allowed to play college football, much less the pros. That means skinny little me is probably a good deal stronger than any of them. Doesn’t matter, though, I have a huge amount of respect for sports players. In a way, they’re a lot tougher than capes—they don’t have the whole ‘speed healing’ thing going for them.

“So you’re all super villains?” one of the players asks, motioning to cute little Piper as she hands out gifts from the school. Max insisted that we give them something in exchange for their time—they have a game to get to in a few hours, after all.

“No, sir,” I say, “we’re acting as lackeys. We’re undeclared.”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“We’re high school students,” I say.

“Oh! Hey, they’re from Cape High!” the guy behind him says as Piper hands him a special pin with the school’s new logo on it. “Awesome—I knew they were from around here!”

“So why kidnap a football team?” another asks.

“Maximum’s a huge sports fan,” I admit, rolling my eyes. “We’re doing all of this to get an autographed football. You guys WERE told we were coming, right?”

“I was,” the coach says. “This is just a publicity stunt, boys, so relax and enjoy the ride. We should be ‘rescued’ soon, right?”

“Yes, sir,” I say, shooting him a grin. “Kid Liberty should be showing up at any moment—but actually, if you would all line up and grab hands, we should be leaving… now,” I say as Lance calls me over the com. He’s our eyes on the ground today.

“What?” the coach asks. “We’re not going to jump out of a flying bus, no matter what you tell us—”

“No, sir,” I say respectfully, heading for one of the walls. “We’re going to
walk
out of a flying bus.” My hand sinks into the shadow there, disappearing from view. “I’m a shadow walker.” The bus jerks, shaking wildly as Max and Trent start fighting. I hold out my hand and Piper grabs it first, holding out her hand to the nearest player and giving him a shy little smile. The player stands and takes her hand.

“This is crazy,” he says, “but hey, why not?” I give them a few moments to grab hands and I step into the shadows, dragging an entire football team with me. I think Max is having WAY too much fun with my freakin’ abilities, I decide darkly as I lead them through the Shadowlands. He definitely owes me for this one.

***

“And then he goes off on an entire RANT about how he could have kept the bus as a memento,” Trent says as we lounge around the pool that night. It’s too cold to swim—unless you’re Malina and Carla, apparently. The rest of us are just hanging out drinking soda as the major players talk about the little football escapade this morning. The poolside is lit up with bright, colorful lights that change color randomly, and I find myself glancing over at the pool once in a while—especially as they let out squeals of laughter.

“You already blew it,” Max says as he sees me looking.

“Blew what?” Trent asks, distracted from describing the way they delivered the new bus to the players.

“Carla had a thing for him,” Max says cheerfully. “He blew it.”

“I didn’t realize she had a thing until—” I protest, only to get blown off by a wave of Max’s hand.

“You blew it. I caught sight of her chatting up that Cisco kid the other day when he was moving in—”

“Cisco’s only twelve!” I say, feeling irritated all around. I refuse to be replaced by a twelve year old. That’s just sad.

“You broke Carla’s heart?” Trent asks. The entire group goes quiet and I see all of the zoo kids, especially, staring at me. It’s only the girls in the pool that don’t seem to realize what’s going on. I can’t help but feel relieved over that—Carla would be really embarrassed, I bet, and Malina would probably get reve—

A shot of water comes from the pool, hitting me right in the face. “Okay, now his pants!” Carla says as I wipe the water out of my eyes. A freezing stream of water lands in my lap and I yelp, jumping to my feet. It looks like I wet myself, I think as I look at the two girls. They’re both grinning evilly.

Have I mentioned that it’s winter right now? I stare at Carla, who waves—and just to put the cherry on top, blows a kiss.

“Oh, that’s it,” I say, kicking off my boots and jumping fully clothed into the pool. It’s a bit of a shock, even though I’m a super, but I ignore it as I chase after Carla. She swims almost as fast as she runs, but she’s too busy shrieking and laughing to get far enough. I grab her around the waist, hauling her up so her feet are out of the water, and fall backwards, taking us both under. Maybe she’s forgiven me? I hope so, I think as she swims out of my hold. I surface. Before I can blink, though, I’m staring into gleaming ice blue eyes as Malina grabs my shirt.

Malina is a little person—she’s barely three foot five—but if she’s surrounded by water, she’s probably one of the most dangerous kids in the school outside of the major names. “I’m going to write it off as stupidity,” she whispers silently in my ear, “do you care for Carla?” she asks.

“Of course I do!” I say, so shocked that I speak a little too loudly. “I just—I’m—” I sigh, shrugging. I don’t know what to say other than that, honestly. I feel hands on my shoulders before I have to come up with something, so I willingly let Carla dunk me under. I go deeper, hanging out at the bottom of the pool and looking up at the world. The two girls in their swimsuits, the bright colorful lights lighting up the huge pool, the chill of the water that I’ve gotten used to…

And I remember the meeting with Shadowman. His statement about turning out just like him, it’s stuck in my head. The two girls above me, as well as a good portion of the ones hanging out poolside—they were all kidnapped by Shadowman. The sins of the father, and all that stuff, my mind whispers.

She’s so freaking strong, I think as Carla glances down at me curiously. She’s strong enough to befriend strangers after all she’s gone through. She’s strong enough to like a guy with the same powers as her kidnapper. And she’s strong enough to act like nothing happened after he screwed up and broke her heart. My heart jerks slightly as I think about it. I reach up, rubbing my hand against my chest, wondering if I’ve held my breath too long. Instead of going up, though, I go down, heading for the biggest shadow in the pool and slipping through it. I can’t go off campus—Nico’s special force field keeps me from leaving, but I can go to my room. I head for it, coming through the wall and calling out for the lights to come on. They do, and I strip down, heading for my shower to wash off the chlorine.

Maybe there’s something wrong with my heart, I think as I finish my shower. I still feel weird, and off-center. I pull on some clothes and head out the door, only to stop at the sight of Carla standing outside my room. “Carla—” I say, a bit surprised.

“I uh—” she says, glancing both ways before shoving me into my room and stepping in. “I’m sorry, we can totally forget the whole crush thing because it was stupid and I’m over it now and we’ll both pretend it never happened and be happy as friends, right?” she says almost too quickly for me to follow. She gives me a hopeful look, and I find myself nodding stupidly, because that’s what she wanted.

“Yeah?” I say.

“Yeah,” she says, grinning at me. It doesn’t quite reach her eyes, but her eyes aren’t actually looking at me, anyway. They’re sort of glued to my shoulder. She jerkily sticks her hand out and I look at it for a second. She waves the hand. “Shake,” she prompts me.

I hesitantly reach up, not sure I WANT to shake on this. I’m moving too slowly for her, I can tell, because she reaches down and grabs my hand, shaking it without letting me close my hand around hers.

“Now we can NEVER mention this again, right?” she demands before racing away.

I reach up, rubbing my chest with a little frown, wondering why it just started hurting again. Maybe I swallowed a bit of water or something, I decide. I guess a visit to one of the healers wouldn’t be a bad idea. Let’s see… Aubrey would be the best choice, but she’s in the apartments, next would be Bobby, I guess, since he’s a guy. Honestly, I should be healed by now, I think with a bit of frustration. It’s one of those few things my old man actually gave me.

I blink at the sight of Max standing at the end of the hall, watching me with a hint of amusement. “What?” I ask.

“Zoe sent me a text,” he says, holding up his phone. “She says you have to go to the other dorms.”

I go still, thinking of who lives in the other dorms—the Superiors are gone, moved out to play guard to Mother. The only ones still there at the moment are the healers, that Jersey Devil woman, Doris, and— “No. Not going. Tell your girlfriend to play with someone else’s life,” I say, starting to go past him. I take another step, but I don’t feel the ground beneath my feet anymore. “Max,” I say irritably.

“If you use your power on someone in the dorms, Morgan takes them!” Lance calls as a group walks past us, heading for their rooms.

“Morgan isn’t back from North Hall, yet,” Max says, not lowering me.

“It’s still against the rules,” Lance says.

“Yeah, Max, it’s against the rules,” I parrot, glaring at him and crossing my arms over my chest. At least my chest doesn’t hurt as much, I notice. Maybe it was indigestion.

“Why does Zoe want you to talk to Skystep?” Max asks.

I stare back, just as stubbornly. We’re almost the same age, and we just got back from a month on the road together, practically. I’m not intimidated by the name “Maximum” anymore. In fact, he and I are pretty good friends—except for when he pulls tricks like this.

“I will CARRY you all the way there if you don’t explain,” he threatens me.

“You are so whipped, man,” I say, scowling at him. “Does she pick out your clothes for you, too?” I taunt him.

“Why yes, she DID pick out this outfit for me,” Max says with a smug little grin. “She says it makes me look even hotter than usual.”

I choke, barking with laughter as he poses. “You’re lying,” I accuse him.

“You’ll never know,” he says. “Who knows, I might have been reading her mind at the time,” he adds a bit blandly, still subtly crowing over the fact that his telepathy is finally working properly. “Either way, you’re changing the subject, so if you’d prefer to talk about something else—I think Carla just went to play video games with Cisco. They’ve got the den all to themselves, too,” he taunts.

I turn, wanting to go straight to the den and—and play chaperon. JUST play chaperon—

“You’re so obvious that I don’t even NEED to read your mind,” Max says, snorting as he starts for the stairs. I have no choice but to float behind him, so I kick back, lounging in the air. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to flying.

“If I’m so obvious, why don’t YOU explain?” I ask, digging through my pocket and bringing out my phone. I tap on the screen, sorting through the music I stole while out in the field. I bring up some fast dance music and streaming it through my ever-present earbud, intent on ignoring whatever he’s doing until we pass a shadow. The moment he gets me close enough to a shadow, I’m gone, I swear. And then he heads STRAIGHT through the den.

Carla starts laughing her head off as she sees me. It takes me a few seconds to recover—I mean she’s sitting RIGHT NEXT to that freaking child of the corn kid, (why yes, I did call Vinny and check up on that team,) and my mind races. “Help!” I say, “I’m being kidnapped!” ignoring my ego shouting at me that I look REALLY stupid right now. And that Cisco kid is watching with a grin—okay, that chafes. But maybe if she comes and saves me, he won’t be grinning anymore, right?

“Bye, Rocco!” Carla says, waving at me cheerfully. “Max, can I go next?”

“Sure,” Max says, “after I’m done with my kidnapping job.”

She’s about to reply, but she glances at the wall where their game is going on and lets out a yelp, instead. “No fair! I was distracted!” she says to Cisco, sitting down and focusing on the game again. Ouch.

“Hey, at least invite Elidee and Olivia to play with you,” I call over my shoulder as Max drags me out the door. “I bet they’re bored!”

“Oh! Good idea!” Carla says, racing away. I relax as we step out of the building, not sure why.

“What, not going to mention that Jennifer girl, too?” Max asks dryly as we head for the other building. “Or better yet, the rest of the dorms?”