Steampunk Time: Cape High Book Seven (Cape High Series 7) (18 page)

***

The man that fainted in front of the building was taken to the hospital.  A doctor pulls to a stop in front of his door and checks his files before heading inside.  He expects the man to still be unconscious, but he’s not.  “Hello, sir,” the armored truck driver says as he buttons up his shirt.  “Sorry for the inconvenience.  I think it was a bit of anemia.”

“You should still be lying down--” the Doctor starts out, only to stop.  There’s something different about the man standing in front of him
, something off.  As he’s trying to figure that out the man walks past him, patting him on the shoulder.

“I’ve got work to do,” the man says.  “I’ve got an extremely important job to
do.”  He heads out, leaving the hospital behind--and the unconscious body of the armored truck driver hidden in the laundry room.

***

“I do NOT look good as a blonde,” I say as we walk past a large glass window and I catch sight of myself in the mirror.  “And these jeans are scratchy.”

“Quit whining,” Jason says. He’s got an ugly gray hoodie on, with the hood up, and a pair of sunglasses so big that you can barely see his face behind them.  They’re this ugly brownish orange color with black splotches.  He doesn’t even seem to realize how much more horrible his outfit is than mine.  At least my t-shirt is okay.  It says “Good Day Sunshine,” which I honestly have no idea where it comes from, but I think I’ll start using the term when I get home.
.. or not.  Actually, I think I’ll just ignore the clothing thing entirely for the moment.

“So we’re going to save Tatia, right?” I ask Grandpa.

“Yeah.”

“Then where is she?”

“Up,” he says blandly.  I look up automatically, seeing Tatia flying overhead.  “We don’t want her to see us--she might get angry about what we’re going to do next.”

“Where is Mimic?” Jason asks.

“There,” he says as a man dressed in ragged looking clothes walks into the bank.  I see a gun sticking out of his waistband.  “Looks like he’s robbing a bank--or already has.”

“What’s going to happen?” I ask, fascinated.  “Why is he robbing a bank this soon after everything’s happened?”

“Mimic has never been normal, Noelle,” Grandpa says as he heads for a hotdog stand across the street from the bank.  “What do you like on your dog, Jason?” he asks.

“Um, everything--can I get two?” Jason asks.

“Sure.”

“I want ketchup and mustard, and only one,” I order, still watching the man that is Mimic.  “Are we going to stop him?” I ask.

“No.  We’re going to make sure he does it,” Grandpa says as he hands out the hotdogs.  I stare at him in shock.

“What?”

“Eat your hotdog, Noelle.”

“Nico?  Is that you?”  The question comes out of the blue and all three of us look to the right where a large black man is standing.

“Taurus?  When did you get an afro?” I ask blankly.

“This isn’t Taurus--this is his dad,” Grandpa says, starting to frown.  “And he could possibly be a problem in this situation,” he adds silently, making me look at him in surprise.

Oh, right.  Mimic is robbing a bank and we want to help him... or something.  And Taurus Sr. is probably a hero, right?  I mean, it’s not for granted-- “Are you a hero?” Jason asks the black man bluntly.

“Uh...” Taurus Sr. says.

“He’s an independent hero,” Grandpa says, not even looking at the bank.  “Who I owe a meal, if I remember correctly--come on Taurus Sr., let me buy you a cheeseburger.”  He drops a hand on the other man’s shoulders, turning him just as the alarm goes off in the bank.  Grandpa curses.

“I need to--” Taurus Sr. says, starting forward.  Grandpa’s hand tightens on his shoulder, stopping him.  “Let go--what are you doing, Nico?” Taurus Sr. demands.

“We need a different hero for this job,” Grandpa says.  “I’m afraid I can’t let you do what you’re planning.”

“
SOMEONE IS ROBBING THE BANK!” Taurus Sr. bellows.

“And we need Tatiana to stop them,” Grandpa tells him calmly.  “The last thing I want is for you to get knocked out by Mimic.”

“I can’t just stand here while--”

I see Grandpa sigh before his hand flashes.  Taurus Sr. looks stunned, his head turned with the hit I didn’t even properly see.  “I was hoping that would knock you out,” Grandpa admits.  Taurus Sr. punches him, only to be grabbed by Grandpa, who hauls him into a sleeper hold.  “You two make sure Mimic takes Tatiana’s powers,” he says to us before racing away with the large black man in tow.
  “Be careful not to get caught!”

I look at Jason.  Jason looks at me.  “How?” he asks finally.

“I have no idea,” I admit.

***

Everything is properly in place.  Mimic had spent an hour picking up bags of real money from various companies and delivering bags of fake to the bank, now he just has to steal
more
money from the bank in his new form--and get caught.  Frankly, it’s a bit of work to gain a woman’s attention, but this time it will be worth it.  He wants to see her again.  No, he HAS to see her again.  Even knowing that she’s married to Superior and that Superior wants him dead, he still finds himself drawn to her.

Plus, there’s that little thought he’d gained from Will that is bugging him.  Who would Kunnins hire if he doesn’t do his job?  Will hadn’t known, but something tells
Mimic that it won’t be good.  Of course he could just be imagining things.  Tatiana is an S class hero--a tank.  How could someone take her out, other than him?

Of course, he thinks as he bursts into the bank, pulling his gun out of his belt and waving it around, there
could easily be more dangerous capes than him.  The little fog girl was proof of it.  Supers, while a definite minority, exist.  There are more powers out there than he can imagine, he’s positive.  It would just be a matter of finding the right one.

“THIS IS A STICK UP!” he bellows, grabbing a woman at random and hauling her close.  “Put all the money in a bag or I’ll blow her brains out,” he adds, pressing the barrel to her temple.  He hears the alarm pushed, the silent call for the police and heroes to come running.  He ignores it, they don’t need to know he can hear pitches not meant for norm’s hearing. 

The people behind the counter start shoving money into a bag and he glances at the door, wondering--the door bursts open and a pink blur rushes in. The woman is pulled out of his hold and a hand slaps him across the face, sending him flying.

She’s faster than he’d imagined.  It’s proven when he realizes he’s being held a foot off the ground.  He hadn’t even realize
d he’d been grabbed.  “I see that you are still conscious.  That is good.  Sometimes even my lightest hits are dangerous for norms,” Tatiana says coldly.

Mimic stares at her, stunned into silence by how fierce she seems right now.  That focus is distracted as he feels his arm lift--the gun he’s holding coming up on its own.  He can’t seem to pu
ll it down again, either, he thinks as he sees it aiming at Tatiana.  She grabs his hand, squeezing it until the gun falls from his grip.  It’s only then that he realizes that Tatiana doesn’t wear gloves.

He can feel the power rushing into him.  He tries to pull free of her hold, but he can’t.  She’s far stronger than him--he doubts she even notices what’s going on.  Then, abruptly, her eyes widen, right before she collapses to the floor.  He feels his body shift automatically, assuming her form and her powers.

Without a second of hesitation he scoops the unconscious woman off of the ground and flies away, leaving everyone in the bank wondering what had just happened.

Across the street two teenage kids look at each other guiltily, lowering their hands.  The girl wipes away a tear.  “Grandpa had better know what he’s doing.”

***

*The Present*

Their steps are practically silent as they walk down the halls of the Cape Cells.  The tension between Nico and Superior is thick enough to cut with a knife, but Mastermental still looks perfectly comfortable walking between the two.  In fact he’s making small talk.  “I’d like to come to one of your classes, Nico,” he says.  “Max has interesting things to say about your bomb creation and disarming techniques.”

“It’s a bit old school,” Nico admits, his facial expression bland.  “I just like to make sure they have all of the basics.”

“I agree.  It’ll also help those that have to deal with norm villains.”

“So what else has Max told you about the classes?” Nico asks.

“Oh, not much, I’m afraid.  I’ve been thinking--for the older ones, perhaps you might think about mentors?  I know we don’t want them learning
the old way, but a bit of hands on experience won’t hurt to supplement the classes.”  He pulls to a stop in the same room they’d been in earlier, watching as Star Born types away on her computer.  “I sometimes wonder if we didn’t do her a favor by bringing her here,” he says with a slight frown.

“We did,” Nico admits, frowning as well.  “She’s perfectly content having her room, board, and necessities supplied on our dime as she works.”

“You should take her computer away from her,” Superior says, speaking for the first time since they got there.  “She’s going to create more problems just by doing this.”

“Most likely,” Nico agrees.  “But that’s the price we have to pay for the information in her head.  Of course there’s always the question of how trustworthy the scientists in the Hall are,” he adds as he looks at Double M.

“It’s closely overseen,” he says as he pushes a button on the wall.  “Star Born, if we might talk with you?”

She keeps typing for a few moments, as if she didn’t hear him.  Finally, though, she taps one key before pushing away from her desk and turning to face them.  She crosses one long leg over the other, raising an eyebrow slightly.  “Yes?”

“Where is Kunnins?” Superior demands.

“I don’t know.”

“Why do you think he’s alive?” Nico asks.

“Because there were more of the manufactured supers created and released
right before I came back to Earth,” she says calmly.  “Not many and none more advanced than the work I did twenty years ago.  The only one I can think of that might have had access to that information was Kunnins.”

“But that happened before you returned,” Double M says.  “Which was how long ago?”

“Perhaps three, four years ago.  When I had my little change it sent me and Superior into space--by the time we returned several years had passed.”  She looks straight at Superior, a cold expression on her face.  “Distort would have told you that much, had you bothered to talk to him before killing him.”

“As I have said several times already, you do not ‘kill’--never mind.  Regardless of what happened, is there any evidence of Kunnins being alive right now?” Superior demands.  “By this point he should be in his eighties, perhaps even his nineties.  Humans don’t tend to live much past that.”

“I don’t know,” she admits.  “I tried to find him, but I couldn’t.  I tried to lure him out with my own experiments, but that was a failure as well.  Honestly he very well could be dead, but it’s only been a few years since the last failed experiment was released.  I can’t risk it.  Even if he is dead, there could be someone else with my old information out there.”

“What does it matter to you?” Nico asks.  “You’ve killed several norms, yourself.”

“It matters because not all of my work resulted in failure,” she says.  “Just look at me.  The idea of that man having a super in his control is disturbing--or worse, the idea of that man being a super.  I need to know.”

“Which is also why you created a power stripping formula,” Nico says.

“Yes, it is.”

“Have you come up with a way to circumvent that formula?” Double M asks.

“For the two girls you keep bugging me about?  Your scientists have it already,” she says.  “If you find Kunnins, make sure you find everything he has of my old stuff.  I want it back.”

“We’ll discuss it,” Double M says.  “So you have no information on where he is?”

“No, unfortunately I don’t,” she says.

“Well that was useless,” Superior says.

“But you do have access to the failed experiments that he released, don’t you,” she goes on, looking at Double M pointedly.

“Yes... we do,” he says.  “Thank you for your assistance.”

*The Past*

“Let me go!” Taurus Sr. snarls, trying to jerk out of
Technico’s hold.  “What were you thinking, man?  I thought you weren’t that bad of a guy, but I’m obviously wrong--”

“If Tatiana doesn’t get her powers stolen they’ll keep sending stronger and more deadly supers after her,”
Technico says, dropping Taurus Sr. onto the ground.  They’re hundreds of miles away from the bank, which worries him.  Have the kids taken care of the problem?  He can only hope so.

“Now that you’ve told me, I can protect her!” Taurus Sr. says, throwing a punch as soon as Nico gets close enough.  “You just swoop back in time and determine that this has got to happen this way!  Why didn’t you just ASK us--”