Steampunk Time: Cape High Book Seven (Cape High Series 7) (10 page)

I pick up Nico
las and kiss him on the cheek before looking back at Jason.  "Um..."  I have no idea where the showers are.  "Hey, Kenny, who's babysitting today?" I ask the blonde boy playing with blocks.

"Blackjack," he says.  "He's watching the races," he adds, pointing to the couch.  I head over to the thin man who's sound asleep draped over the couch with the races playing on the ancient looking television.  It's a wonder the television is even working, actually, I think as I glance at Nico
las.  There's a little fence around it, I notice as I get closer.  I'm not surprised.

"Blackjack," I say, reaching down and poking his shoulder.  He jerks awake, stares at me, then yawns.  "Where
are the showers?" I ask.

"Down the hall," he says, glancing over at Jason.  "I see you brought a friend.  He's got to use the guy's showers."

"Duh," I say, making a face at the suggestion it would go otherwise.  "And you're supposed to be babysitting, so babysit," I add, placing Nicolas on his lap before heading down the hall.

Jason chases after me.  "What about the other dimension thing?  Shouldn't you have told him about that?" he asks.

I look at him, and relish the chance to make him look as stupid as he'd made me look earlier.  "They've been pranked," I tell him.  "Great-grandpa Superior's came with the Nico we met earlier--the one in the funny outfit, not an alternate dimension."

"Oh," he says after a moment.  "Wow, he's good."

"Yeah, he is," I agree before heading into the girl's showers.  Thankfully there are towels and extra clothes on a shelf.  They're too big, I know it already, but I grab both and head into the shower.

***

She's singing, Jason thinks blankly as he showers, something about rum and captains.  That absolutely doesn't fit with his image of the school princess.

He's going to have to steal her mp3 player sometime, he decides.

"Move it, move it, move it!" the bellow echoes through the air as Mastermental gets back to Central Hall.  He stares blankly at the crowd of heroes gathered in full gear with backpacks on their backs, and Sparky right in the middle of it.  Really, he thinks as he lands, why did they let her join the Hall again?

Oh, right, he thinks, to keep her from doing anything stupid.  "Tell me," he says, grabbing one of the heroes by the arm, "what's going on?"

"An alternate dimension Superior came and said that his home was being destroyed.  We're going to save him," the hero replies.

"And... where is he now?"

"He disappeared back into his dimension."

"I see.  And how do you plan on getting into that dimension?"

"We've got The Scientist working on it!"

Mastermental looks over at The Scientist, whose white poofy hair is sticking out at strange angles.  He's always wondered if the man actually HAS super powers or is just an escapee from a mental ward.  It's often hard to tell with the intellectual supers.  One of these days, he decides, he's going to look into the man's brain and find out for sure.  "I see," he says again.  "Why don't you let me deal with this?"

"But--"

Mastermental turns and heads away from the Hall.
He comes back a few moments later, the broken mock-up of a Superior clone over his shoulder, which he promptly drops in front of Sparky.  “You’ve been tricked,” he says.

“Wh--what?” she asks.

“It was this clone made up by a super villain that did it,” he tells her, keeping a perfectly straight face.  “Or one like it.  Tatia’s already searching for the others and the villain.”

“But--” Sparky says, seeing all the looks the others are shooting her.  “I swear it was him--he--”

“Sparktastic does it again,” she hears someone mutter from the crowd.  “I knew it was a hoax.”

“Should we go looking for the clones?” another asks.

“Nah, Tatiana’s got it.”

Sparky looks at Mastermental, then at the clone.  “I don’t believe it,” she says.  “He disappeared into another dimension.”

“Teleportation.  He wanted you out of the way so the super villain could come in and attack the Hall.  You need to stay right here, Sparky, you might be needed in this fight.”

“Yeah... yeah, okay.”  She turns back to the Hall, clearly pouting.  “The trip to the other dimension would have been cooler.”

“Of course it would have been,” Mastermental says, patting her on the back.  “Maybe next time.”

***

We took our showers and I asked Blackjack where Tatia was--she's still out on her rounds.  I can't help but look sadly at the clock on the wall as Jason heads for the door.  "Come on," he says.  "We're going to be late for training."

"But... I wanted to see Tatia," I say, looking at the ground. 
Little Nicolas moves into my view, holding up his arms to me.  "I'm sorry, Nicolas, I've got to go," I tell him, crouching down and hugging him tightly.  He doesn't even squirm at my hold and I realize it probably feels light compared to Tatia.  I kiss him on the cheek again.  "Be a good boy, okay?" I say, pulling back to look at him--only to nearly get toppled over as Kenny rushes me for a hug.

"Bye bye, Kitten," he says.  I think he thinks my name is Kitten, I realize with a laugh as I hug him.  I get up and head over to Missy's playpen to pick her up and kiss her cheek as well.  She grins at me, showing two teeth.  It's astonishing how quickly I fell for the little guys.

"You be good, too," I say to her and Kenny as I put her back into her playpen.  "I might get to come back, but I can't promise, okay?"

Kenny nods.  "We know," he says simply.

I pat him on the head before following an impatient looking Jason out the door.  "They're just so cute at this age," I say, sighing.

He stares at me for a moment.  "Seriously?  You're a sucker for little kids?"

I give him a look.  "What's wrong with liking little kids?" I demand.

"It just doesn't... go," he says.  "You come off as this prima donna.  Not a babysitter."

"Well, that just shows how well you know me," I say irritably.

"I'm starting to," he says with a shrug.  He's leading the way back to the campground.  Neither of us mentions that fact as he start
s to jog.  "Are you nervous?"

"About what?" I ask.

"About school."

I hesitate, looking over at him.  "Why is it that you know about me even though we've never met?" I ask him, not answering that question.

"Tristan already goes to school," Jason says.  "Your picture’s been passed around.  Everyone knows that sooner or later the principal's daughter will show up and blow them out of the water.  He's talked about it a lot whenever he comes over."  He glances at me with an expression I can't quite discern.  "Don't... y'know... be shocked when he tries to flirt," he adds.

My face turns bright red and it's not because we're running.  Now you're probably wondering why I haven't met that many of the super kids, right?  Well there's this rule in the Hall in my time.  None of the non-powered kids can be in the same place at the same time for more than some twenty minutes or so.  It's to keep us safe.  Secret identities can't be crossed, too much of that might raise flags.  But... it's lonely.  Honestly, having Jason here is amazingly cool for me--not that I would ever tell him that.

Once we're in school and at a point we can somewhat protect each other (and ourselves) we can hang out together.  That's what Mom tells me, at least.  "I always expected my first cape friend from my time to be a girl," I say absently.

"Wait, what?" he says, pulling to a stop and looking at me in shock.  I slow down, rolling my eyes.

"It's not that big of a deal--we were stuck together, right?" I say.  "I'd rather be friends than enemies, right?"  Inwardly I'm trembling, wondering what he's going to say at my offer to be friends.  He's going to turn me down, isn't he?  I mean, he's going to be a villain, I'm going to be a hero--or maybe I'll be a principal, which will make me neutral--but still--

"Girls and guys can't be friends," he declares.

"That's stupid," I tell him.

"They can't!  They're either dating or they're just... I dunno, in the same place.  They can't be friends!"

"Seriously," I drawl, staring at him.  "Do you think either of us would want to date the other?"

"Well... no."

"So we can be friends," I tell him.  "Deal with it."

"Okay, fine," he says as he starts to run again.  "We can be friends--but don't tell anyone, got it?  I've got a rep to build."

"Yeah, right," I snort as I chase after him.  "You just don't want to be seen with the princess of the school."

"And if I DO find a girl I wanna date they might get some stupid idea that we're dating!" he tells me as we start to race.  "Being friends with a girl is too complicated."

"Being friends with a future super villain is more complicated!" I tell him as we reach the campground.  "People will start wondering what side I'm going to be on!  My dad is the head of Central Hall, you know," I tell him as we reach our camp.  Grandpa--the one from my time (man that's so confusing, one of them seriously needs to go back to their own time!) is sitting on a rock, doing nothing.  At least it looks like he's doing nothing until I notice pieces of metal floating in front of him.

An entire obstacle course is being built in front of our eyes, I realize as I see flashing lights and sparks.  I don't even bother to look over as Jason pulls up next to me.  "Your granddad... why did he stop working as principal?" he asks me.

"I didn't, exactly," Grandpa says, not even looking away from his work.  "I just took on the more advanced studies.  When you graduate from Cape High, you and any other kid that reaches a higher A or an S class comes to me for extended training.  Consider me your college dean."

"I didn't know that," I say, feeling left out of (or behind, as Tatia said) the loop.

"The majority of the kids that graduate are average A class or lower," Grandpa says.  "What they learn in Cape High is enough to get them into a branch, working with a team.  The ones that I train will eventually be the leaders of those teams, either the head leader or second in command.  Or, if they're super villains like Jack, one of the guys or girls we call when we've got a problem a regular hero can't handle without getting tossed out of a branch."

"Are there that many super villains that do that job?" I ask him a bit blankly.

"Jack and Ace--" he stops, frowning.  "You changed time, didn't you?" he says to me.

"Yeah, I didn't notice that one until I came back, either," Jason says.

"They watch anime together now," I add shamelessly.

"That does explain the giant robot attack at the theme
park last week," Grandpa says far too casually.  "He's still getting coverage over that one."

"He makes an AWESOME super villain," Jason says, grinning from ear to ear.  "He's my godfather," he tells me.  "Not that it means much other than he has to do something amazing for my birthdays--which might or might not have happened--man, I'm so confused right now it's not even funny."

"After this we're destroying the watch," Grandpa says.  "Shifts in reality give me a headache for days."

"We're destroying time travel because it gives you a headache," Jason repeats, staring at Grandpa.

"Is there a better reason?" he asks.  "Now, the course is in working order, so get to the starting line."

I look at the course, wondering if he's out to kill us, then head forward.  "I should have brought shorts," I say as I stare at the various walls we're supposed to climb
and objects we have to move.  "You're going first."

"Why do I have to go first?" Jason demands.  "He's your granddad!"

"I'm not giving you the chance to look at my behind!"

"Who WANTS TO?"

"Then you go first," I say.  He gives me a dark look before stepping up to the starting spot.

"Fine, just because I've got no desire whatsoever to hear you complaining about me checking out your skinny butt--even if I didn't," he says over his shoulder before racing forward.  I watch him, only glancing up as Grandpa moves to my side.

"Feeling better?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say, leaning into his side as he drapes an arm over my shoulders.  "I'm sorry," I whisper.  "I just wanted to look real quick--but... it all went wrong," I admit.

"No," he says.  "I knew it would happen."

I jerk, looking up at him in shock.  "What?"

"Certain parts of this have already happened, even if you don't remember them," he says.  "Our time, it's fluid.  I remember coming back here when I was almost forty, because of you."

"Is that why you came back again?" I ask.

He hesitates, looking down at me.  "Some things happened the first time I came that I won't allow to happen this time."

"What happened?" I ask.

“Looks like it’s your turn,” he says, pushing me forward rather than answering that question.  “Nice job with that metal ball, Jason!  You can let it fall now!” he adds to the teen at the end of the obstacle course.  There’s a massive metal ball floating in the air above Jason.