Steampunk Time: Cape High Book Seven (Cape High Series 7) (3 page)

"She's a stranger," Sparky says.  "You don't even know her real name!  This isn't a daycare, kids, this is a secret base for super heroes--"

"No!" Nicolas says.  Shouldn't he be hiding or confused right now?  He seems pretty aware of what's going on for being so young!  Not that I know anything about two year olds, really... maybe his intelligence is part of his powers?  I don't know, and honestly considering what's going on, it doesn't matter.

"My name is Noelle," I say, stepping forward so I'm in front of the two little boys.  I can't let them protect me, they could be hurt, right?  And like I mentioned earlier, if Nico
las dies I'm not ever going to be born.  "I'm from the future.  I'm not here to do anything bad."

She blinks.  "Oh!  Well that makes more sense," she says, picking up the platter again.  "Come on, kids, time for a snack," she says as she heads for the small table in the corner.  Nico
las relaxes and reaches up, grabbing my skirt to tug me over to the table.  Kenny gives me a grin.

"The future?" he asks.  "What's it like?"

"Um... well this place is a lot bigger?" I offer.  It's not like that sort of information is dangerous, I hope.  I can't give him the same spiel that I gave Morgan about messing up the future.  He's five. 

"I'm a superhero," he says, sticking his chest out.

"Uh huh," I agree.  Well, I mean, he IS.  He's a great super.  Besides, I'm not sure what he'd say if I disagreed.

"And Nico
las's a superhero," he decides for me.  "And Missy!  Missy's a superhero, too!  And we wear capes and masks and save people!”

"Um..."

"We SAVE PEOPLE," he repeats, looking me in the eye and daring me to disagree.

"Nico
las doesn't wear a cape," I decide to go with.

He frowns and looks at Nico
las, like he's been betrayed.  "Why no cape?" he asks the two year old, who's busy eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich square.  Nicolas doesn't reply.  "You haveta wear a cape--it's superhero!"

"Maybe when you're older you can talk him into it," Sparky says, pulling Missy out of her playpen and giving her a bottle.

"Missy doesn't wear a cape, either," I have to say, even if it earns me a look from Kenny.

"Of course--she's got wings," he says, as if I just said something extremely stupid.  "Like her mommy."

"That's right," I agree.

"I'm gonna be big and strong like Daddy," he goes on proudly.  "And I'll be able to fly!"

"You sure will, Kenny," Sparky says, but she's looking at me with a curious expression that makes me worried.  Talking with little kids is one thing--Kenny obviously has the future plotted out already and is just using me to confirm the facts.  Sparky, on the other hand, wants to know things.

For some reason I don't think that's a very good idea.  Probably because I've never heard of her in my life, even if she DOES look exactly like Great-aunt Liz.

I grab one of the sandwiches off the platter and shove it into my mouth.

***

"It's like being put through a blender on high," Superior mutters as soon as he has his balance back.  "In reverse."

"Obviously I didn't create the watch with shocks,"
the adult Nico says, torn between getting irritated with his father for complaining and agreeing.  "How the girl handles so many jumps, I've got no idea.  Either way..."  He looks right, then left, then at his father.  "We're in the middle of downtown Kansas City and three hobos are staring at us.  How, exactly, do we explain this one?"

Superior looks at the three men sitting on the corner, raising an eyebrow.  "Don't worry about it."

"Why not?" Nico asks.

"Because obviously I'm an evil clone of Superior and you're the mad scientist that created me.  We're both in badly done disguises," Superior says.  "They won't say a word--because it could get them killed in a scene too gory NOT to be put in a comic book."  The hobos on the corner are nodding.

"That's right, we know how these things go," one particularly dirty looking fellow says.  "Give 'em hell, Anti-Superior," he adds, waving a fist in the air.

"Duly noted," Superior drawls, walking right past them.  Nico has no choice but to follow, although he does glance back a few times.

"Seriously?" he asks once they're a block away.

"In our time comic book artists tend to take liberties--and rely on clichés a lot," Superior explains.

"And that's changed, how?" Nico says.

"In this age they haven't become true cliché
s yet," Superior says.  "Working on it, sure, but not to the point people won't believe they happen."

"I see," Nico says.  "So I should have worn more black."

"No, the bell-bottoms are terrifying enough, I would say," Superior tells him.  "I hated them even when they were fashionable."

Nico snorts, looking down at the pants in question.  "We need to find Noelle--get her, get out.  The last thing we need is to change history--"  He stops, seeing a look on his father's face.  "No," he says.  He knows that look, he's seen it in the mirror a million times.  "Absolutely not."

"She's alive here," Superior says.  "You can't stop me from saving her, Nico."

"So this is why you were so intent on coming back," Nico says.  "You wanted to save Mom.  But you can't, Superior.  If you do that--"

"If I do that, you have your mother all your life, I have the woman I love, everyone's happy--"

"Liz is never born," Nico says flatly.  "I'm not letting you do that to me--to us.  You already ruined our childhood by never being around, I'm not letting you take my little sister away from me as well."

"She'll be Tatia's daughter," Superior says.

"No she won't.  You might have a daughter with her, but she won't be LIZ.  Sure, I never liked Sparky, but she gave me my little sister--I won't let you take her from me."

"I don't remember you being in the position to tell me anything," Superior says coldly before taking to the air.  Nico watches as he flies away and lets out a sharp curse.  There goes his plan to keep from being seen.  Not to mention the one to find Noelle and go back to their own time.

He really, really wishes that Superior hadn't skipped his own funeral.

This isn't doing anything for me, I think as I sit under a tree behind the Hall.  It's a playground, of sorts.  There's a giant tire swing in the middle, which Kenny is dominating, and somehow Nico
las has gotten a hold of someone's ancient looking satellite phone and has it in pieces all around him.  I'm silently counting down until Sparky notices and freaks out.  I'm just glad it isn't my phone--not that mine is of any use whatsoever in this time.  The only people I know are either out saving the country, or still getting all their teeth in.

I miss Morgan
, and Carla, and Justin, and even Vinny.  It's sad, when I only knew them for a few weeks and they're still the closest I get to friends my own age.  I wonder what they're doing right now.  Are they worried about me?  I bet not.  I sigh and lean back against the tree, closing my eyes for a moment.

This isn't doing anything for me.  I just wish I could get
a hold of the Superior of this time. I mean, I don't even know if he'd be able to build a new time machine, much less one small enough to fit around my wrist!  See, as far as I know he's got technopathic abilities, but I also know he's got a few others--there's a very good chance that Grandpa Nico has a more powerful version of technopathy, simply because he doesn't have other powers--well, other than the basic Superior powers, right?  There's only room for so much power in a body--I guess.  Honestly I have no clue. I've never really studied abilities.  I wonder if there's some sort of database here that I could look at.

"NICO
LAS!" Sparky yelps, right on time.  "My phone!" she wails.  Nicolas looks up with a guilty expression, still holding what looks like a motherboard to me.  It sparks, lighting on fire for a second before sizzling to death.  Sparky looks like she's about to cry, I think, trying not to feel amused.  What?  I hear horror stories about when Mom was a kid all the time!  Televisions, computers, a toaster oven, she exploded them all.

Sparky storms over
and snatches the dead motherboard out of his grasp, completely ignoring how he starts whining.  "This is not for babies!" she tells him sharply, grabbing the other parts off of the ground.

"You didn't have to yell at him," I say, getting up and going over to Nico
las.  "He's just doing what he was born to do--it's not his fault he hasn't figured it out yet!"

"Born to do?" she asks.  "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Nicolas is a technopath!" I say rashly.  "He's a genius!  He's going to create things that change the WORLD!"  She stares at me, and I can see her mind whirling.

"Well, he IS the son of Superior," she says slowly, coming closer to look at Nico
las.  He just stares at her in return.  "You'd expect him to grow up to greatness.  Any child of Superior would."

What... exactly is she thinking?  I can't help but feel a cold chill run down my spine.  I mean, maybe I'm biased because of how Tatia doesn't like her, but there's something in her eyes that I'm positive I don't like.  I turn, looking at Kenny, then down at Nico
las.  "Why don't we go play with Kenny, Nicolas?" I ask.  He heads for Kenny in response and I follow.

Kenny scoots over without a word and Nico
las climbs into the gigantic tire next to him.  Kenny seems to have picked up on the tension, because he looks at me with a worried expression.  I force a grin.  "Want me to push you?" I ask.

"Yeah!  Real high!" Kenny says.  "Nico
las likes going real high," he adds.

"Um, okay," I say, getting behind them and pushing on the rubber tire.  For a moment everything is fine, it swings back and forth and Kenny and Nico
las giggle--then I feel this sort of flash spark in my mind.  My vision goes white.  Something... something weird is happening--

"PUT THEM DOWN!" Sparky bellows.  It's all I hear before I faint, falling to the ground with no grace at all.

***

"Kitten."  The word seems faint, but something about the voice strikes me as familiar.  I try to wake up, but it seems impossible.  "Kitten, it is time to wake," the voice says with a gentle tone.

Tatia.  I'm safe, Tatia is here.  But she's not the voice I really, really want to hear the most.  I feel a gentle hand pushing my hair away from my face.  Slowly my eyes open.

"Tatia?" I say.  "Is it morning?"

"No, kitten.  It's the middle of the day," she says with a little smile.  "You had a very busy time while I was gone, it seems."

"She's okay, right?" I hear Sparky ask.  "Are her eyes dilated?  I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden the boys and the tire swing were floating in the air--"

"She is fine," Tatia says, still gently brushing my hair out of my face.  "She is coming into her powers."

"Power...s?" I repeat.

"Powers," she agrees.

"Wait--floating?" I say, sitting up abruptly.  "They were floating?  Like, in the air?"  That means--oh man, oh man, I never thought THAT would happen!  When I didn't have the ability as a baby, like Dad did, I figured I'd just wind up being like Mom--but--

What powers DO I have, anyway?  Or am I getting?  I--I feel a little overwhelmed right now, actually, because if I get both the technopathy and the gravity manipulation, how on earth will I be able to handle it all?  I'm only thirteen!  I'm not even in my own time period--my parents aren't here to walk me through it--and that fainting thing was scary!

"Shhh, shhh, kitten," Tatia says, pulling me into a hug against her massive chest and patting my hair.  "It will be okay, precious.  You will be just fine.  Tatia is here."  I can hear her heart beat against my ear in a steady, strong rhythm.  She smells good, I note absently as I hug her back as much as I can.  Tatiana is a very big woman, she's got to be well over six feet tall with muscles that you can see through her uniform.  For a little thing like me, it's a bit hard to hug her properly.  But I'm trying as hard as I can!

"How are you going to help her?" Sparky asks.  "She's got powers you don't have--"

"I will call in Mastermental," Tatia says, keeping her tone low, but I can hear a hint of forcefulness in it.  "And you will leave now, I need to talk to the kitten in privacy."

"I--"  Sparky growls and closes the door behind her, leaving just Tatia and me in--where are we, anyway?  I look around, taking in the small twin sized bed I'm on and the dresser in the corner.  This is someone's bedroom.  Someone that doesn't believe in pictures or personal effects, it seems.

"Kitten, I must ask," she says, catching my attention.  "Whose child are you?"

"I don't know--um--if I should tell you," I say, looking down, "because it'll affect the future, right?"  A part of me is screaming that I should tell her more firmly--but you try speaking firmly to a six foot something woman that can probably destroy warships with a punch, or something.  It’s not going to happen.