A Whateley Academy Adventure
Drinking and Gambling
by
Morpheus
Part Two
Seattle Wa, Monday afternoon, Dec 24th 2007
Absinthe
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I exclaimed as I stared at the elf costume that Crucibelle wanted me to put on. “You want me to be a Christmas elf?”
“It’s for charity,” the superheroine answered pleasantly. “Those kids are really looking forward to this Santa meet and greet, and of course, Santa needs his elves.”
I glared at Collin and muttered, “She’s your aunt.”
He gave me an apologetic look as he shrugged. “It is for the kids.” Then he let out a sigh and picked up the elf costume that had been handed to him.
“An elf costume does seem to be a little on the nose,” Amy told me while her girlfriend Kara just giggled.
I glared at the costume one more time before protesting, “I can’t wear this.”
“Because it’s offensive to your people?” Kara asked, staring at my pointed ears.
“Because it’s synthetic,” I responded with an exaggerated sigh. “I’m allergic. I’d break out in some pretty bad hives.”
Amy chuckled at that. “So,” she suggested with a faint smile, “just make an illusion costume. That is your specialty.”
Kara gave me a curious look. “Illusions?”
I shrugged, then gathered my concentration and formed the spell. Fortunately, my type of magic was pretty flexible. Some types of spells required a lot of calculation and details to make illusions work, but my magic was a bit more free-form with that kind of thing. I just needed a clear picture in my head when I let the magic loose.
A few seconds later, my clothes appeared to have changed, and now everyone who looked at me would see me wearing a red and white costume that was a lot nicer looking than the ugly green and red elf costume.
I just hoped that Dana never found out about this or I would NEVER live it down. She made far too many jokes about me being a Christmas elf as it was, and I fully expected more jokes around Saint Patrick’s Day.
“Wow,” Kara exclaimed.
I smirked, then pointed out, “I hope you’re happy, because, since I’m not wearing the actual costume, there is now one more female elf costume available…”
Kara’s eyes widened at that while Amy chuckled, not saying a word. Instead, she held up her own elf costume, which her girlfriend had previously teased her about.
“Hoisted by my own petard,” Kara grumbled.
Collin chuckled, then asked, ‘What is a petard, anyway?
“Now that you ask,” Crucibelle answered, “I have no idea.”
“So, now we have enough costumes for everyone,” I said with a smirk. If I was going to be stuck dressing as an elf, so was everyone else. Of course, I was a Sidhe, a real elf, which made the situation both more appropriate and more embarrassing. I turned my attention to Crucibelle. “You don’t have an elf costume…”
“I’m already wearing my costume,” Crucibelle quickly pointed out. “I’m expected to be here as a superhero, not an elf, to help Santa pass out some presents.”
“Maybe a Rudolph nose,” I offered with an evil grin. “Just a little illusion and…”
“Don’t…you…dare,” she said firmly.
Collin tried to hide his snickers at that while Kara just openly burst out laughing. Crucibelle looked between us, shook her head and let out a sigh. What was she expecting after drafting a group of teenagers?
“Okay,” Crucibelle told us. “You can get changed in those dressing rooms, then come out with smiles on. The kids are expecting happy elves.”
I nodded at that, then whispered to Collin, “You are going to owe me big for this.”
He hesitated a moment before nodding. “Sure.”
Once everyone was dressed, we went out into the main hall which was filled with dozens of kids, probably more than a hundred of them. And then, positioned on what might as well have been a throne, holding court, was ‘Santa Clause’.
I’d half expected Santa to be Doctor Tempest or some other member of Crucibelle’s team, but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t recognize who was in the costume, but he didn’t look any different than any mall Santa that I’d ever seen, including having the obvious padding and fake beard. Still, the kids seemed happy and that was what really mattered.
“A lot of space,” Collin commented as he looked around. “You could probably fit two or three times as many kids in here.”
“Probably,” Crucibelle agreed pleasantly. “But this is the second round of this they’ve done today. Someone from the Seattle Knights was helping with that one.”
“They even have balcony seating,” Kara commented, pointing up where there was indeed a balcony.
Collin looked up and chuckled before turning his attention to me and saying, “You know, if you went up there, you could be an elf on the shelf.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “You’re the who can climb walls, so why don’t you head up there, and I’ll just make you look like one of those elves.”
Amy looked amused by the exchange. “You know, Gwen, you don’t seem bothered by the word ‘elf’. Some of the other Sidhe on campus get offended by it.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” I responded with a shrug. “But you’ve got to be careful who you use that term with, because some Sidhe consider it to be a slur.”
“Really?” Kara asked in surprise.
“Sidhe can be an odd lot,” I admitted with a shrug. “Some of them take themselves a little too seriously.”
Collin chuckled at that, then told Kara, “There’s one on campus, who even has her own fan club.”
“There are a LOT of people on campus who take themselves a little too seriously,” Amy added with a chuckle. “But for now, we should probably take our jobs a bit MORE seriously. We have an audience incoming.”
I looked up at that and saw a bunch of kids rushing towards us with looks of curiosity and excitement.
“The elves are here,” Crucibelle called out, gesturing to us. “Give them room so they can help Santa give out presents.”
There were a lot of cheers and excitement at that, but I noticed that one little girl was staring up at me with a strange expression. When she noticed that I was looking at her, she quietly asked, “Are you a real elf?”
I hesitated for a moment, then absently reached up to touch one of my pointed ears, which was not currently covered by any illusions. The other ‘elves’ had pointed ears too, but theirs were little plastic ear caps that were obviously fake whereas my ears were genuine.
“Something like that,” I told the girl with a grin. “I just came in all the way from the North Pole to provide a little Christmas magic.”
With that, I held out my hand and created an illusion so that it looked like red and green confetti exploded out into a cloud. The girl’s eyes went wide before she began to clap enthusiastically.
Crucibelle stood off a short distance away, nodding in satisfaction and musing, “I knew I made the right decision in bringing you kids.”
Seattle Wa, Monday afternoon, Dec 24th 2007
Roulette
I sat at a table in the small restaurant, fully aware of the other customers who kept looking at us. That was to be expected when we had a superhero sitting at our table, in full costume.
The whole Christmas meet and greet had gone on a bit longer than expected, so Crucibelle had offered to buy us all dinner. We’d all quickly agreed, though that was probably before any of us realized that this would mean eating in public, with all the attention that any superhero would draw.
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve been in public with a superhero,” Kara told me, obviously referring to her aunt. “But Aunt Beth always made sure we had a bit more privacy.”
“I would take care of that,” Gwen said with a wry smile, “but too many people saw us coming in. Hiding us with illusion now would just be a waste of time.”
“That would probably make things worse,” I pointed out thoughtfully. “If we all disappeared or turned into other people, while we were being watched…”
“I’m sorry about that,” Crucibelle apologized. “I normally would have found a more private location, but I was just too hungry to wait much longer.” She shook her head and admitted, “My powers come with an increased appetite.”
Gwen laughed at that. “We eat at the Whateley cafeteria… Trust me, we’ve seen bigger eaters.”
“And weirder,” Collin agreed.
I nodded at that while looking around the table, my eyes settling on the last person there, the one who’d barely spoken a word and who seemed the most uncomfortable with the attention. That was Kyle.
While Kara and I had been visiting Witchling, Kyle hadn’t gone inside with us. He’d killed time doing something else, though I still wasn’t sure what that had been. And then, when we did that Santa event, he’d remained close enough that I caught glimpses of him occasionally, but otherwise, he’d just kept his distance.
“We should probably be heading home soon,” Kyle finally said. “We’ve been out a bit longer than intended, and I don’t want your parents to worry.”
“A bit longer,” Kara insisted. “I want to hear more about Whateley.”
“It’s a strange school,” Gwen told her.
“You can say that again,” Collin muttered. “I mean, what other school has a supervillain teaching kids how to fingerpaint?”
“Supervillain?” Crucibelle asked with a scowl.
“The art teacher,” I added as I took another bite of my meal. “She’s a retired villain called the Imp.”
“The Imp?” Kyle asked, suddenly interested.
“She’s actually pretty nice,” I assured him. “Just…weird. In fact, she seems to have an interest in my training team.”
“Of course,” Gwen said with a chuckle. “Your training team is called Shenanigans and one of your members is named Mischief. Its no wonder the Imp would like you guys.”
“It probably has more to do with the fact that Mischief is her apprentice,” I added with a faint smile. “Melissa mentioned that a time or two.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Collin commented with a shake of his head.
“Are there a lot of villains teaching there?” Crucibelle asked a little suspiciously.
I didn’t know why Crucibelle was acting like this was new to her. She knew that Whateley was neutral ground and had done her research before sending Collin there. I suspected that she knew the identities of each of the former villains who worked there, though she probably didn’t want to be reminded of this detail.
“There are a couple retired ones,” Collin quickly reassured his aunt. “But most of them don’t really advertise.”
“There are a lot of villain’s kids too,” Gwen added. “I mean, my roommate’s big sister is a supervillain named Pinball.”
Kyle smiled faintly. When I gave him a curious look, he explained, “That seems like a rather harmless name for a supervillain.”
“Never take villain names for granted,” Crucibelle stated with a grim expression. “You can’t judge how dangerous someone is by their name.”
“True,” Gwen agreed. “We’ve got one kid at school named Mega-Death, who likes to go off on these big Diedrick rants, but is otherwise harmless.”
I nodded at that, wanting to get Kara’s attention back on me a little more. “My best friend at the school… Well, we became friends because we both have moms who are high level devisors with Diedricks, which gave us something to talk about.”
“That would be Ribbon,” Gwen said with a broad grin. “I loved the way she kicked Stoppable’s ass during the combat final.”
“Yeah,” I nodded again. “Well, while my mom just rants and then goes into the lab to build things, her mom tends to…get violent.”
I shook my head, realizing how lucky I was that my mom’s Diedricks wasn’t quite that destructive. She could be negligent and annoying, but she’d never gone onto a killing spree.
“Another villain,” Collin said.
“But a tragic one,” I added. “According to Alyss, her mom felt so bad about it that she turned herself in.”
“Wow,” Kara said quietly. “Are there any heroes at the school?”
I was about to answer, when a new voice loudly called out, “CRU…CI…BELLE!”
Crucibelle suddenly tensed up, her eyes widening as she looked around. “Oh no…”
I turned and looked to the door, and the source of the voice. A woman was standing in the doorway, one with a green and black bodysuit that covered most of her body. She had tanned skin and dark hair that was tied back into a bunch of braids that had metal rings tied into the ends. The very sight of her sent chills of dread running down my spine.
“Bombastic,” I gasped.
“Oh shit,” Kara blurted out. “Not that crazy bitch again…”
“You know who she is?” Crucibelle asked as she stood up and prepared for a fight.
“We ran into her last month,” I answered grimly. “In Portland.”
“Cru…ci…belle,” Bombastic repeated in a sing-song tone. “I found you.”
Bombastic grinned, her mouth spreading wider than any human mouth should, revealing lots of sharp teeth. A gleam of manic madness flickered in her eyes.
“I heard you were playing with Santa,” Bombastic commented in an almost friendly tone. “I wanted to play too, but I got lost…” She paused at that, looking embarrassed for a brief moment before she brightened up again. “But now I found you and we can play…”
“Run,” Crucibelle told us without taking her eyes off the supervillain. “Hide. Use every damn trick that school taught you to keep away from her.”
“Do as she says,” Kyle hissed. “We have to get out of here NOW.”
Bombastic stepped forward, her attention now locked on me. “I remember you, purple girl… We played before.”
I reached beneath my jacket to the holster and the only weapon I currently had on me, my needle gun. It was loaded and ready to go, though I didn’t know if it would be of any use against Bombastic. I’ve seen her shrug off far worse. Because of that, and the fact that I didn’t want to escalate any faster than necessary, I held back for the moment.
“Why don’t we play outside?” Crucibelle suggested, her eyes still locked on the villain. “There will be more room to play.”
I looked around, at the people who’d taken cover under tables and behind the counter, trying not to be noticed. Crucibelle was trying to keep them out of harms way as much as possible.
Bombastic nodded enthusiastically. “Good idea. There’s lots more room to play with your head out there….”
“Play with her…head?” Gwen whispered.
“And preferably not attached,” I added grimly.
Bombastic stared at me and her grin widened even further, though I hadn’t thought that was even possible. It already spread nearly from ear to ear, demonstrating a bit of GSD with her mouth.
“I wanna play with purple girl again too,” the insane supervillain announced. “She’s fun.”
“Shit,” Crucibelle snarled.
Bombastic suddenly charged straight at us, casually knocking aside tables, chairs, and even one customer. They all went flying to the side as she rushed forward, her clawed hands up and ready to strike. But before she could actually reach us, Crucibelle shot forward and grabbed her, then continued shooting forward until both women blasted through the restaurant window.
“Crucibelle got the psycho out of here,” Kyle said with a grim expression. “We should use the opportunity to get some distance.”
“Good idea,” I said as I drew my needle gun. I wasn’t confident that it would be useful against Bombastic, but it was better than nothing.
Gwen looked at me and nodded. Then, she unsheathed a kunai style dagger and gripped it as though ready to fight. I was currently in mage mode, so was a bit sensitive to essence and magic. Because of that, I felt something odd from the weapon. Something odd…and powerful.
Several little green pixies appeared, having been hiding among the overhead lights above us. Gwen always had at least one of those things with her, though she was good at keeping them out of sight. With the chaos that was unfolding, she’d apparently decided not to bother anymore.
“Now I wish I brought some of my holdouts,” Collin growled.
Kara just snorted. “I just wish I’d borrowed one of Liz’ disintegrator rays.”
“Mom does have a nice collection of them,” I responded with a forced smile.
We rushed out the front of the ruined restaurant and paused to look at the shattered glass and other debris that was now scattered. People were yelling and running away, though a couple idiots stood there with their phones out, taking pictures of something up above. Of course, I had to look.
Crucibelle was flying straight up with Bombastic firmly clutched in her arms. Then there was an explosion as Bombastic used her concussion blast as point-blank range. The two were violently thrown apart with Crucibelle slamming into the side of a building while the villainess began to fall.
“WHEEEE!” Bombastic cried out, right before she hit the ground and went silent.
“I guess that’s one way to end this,” Gwen commented beside me. “Suicide by gravity.”
I snorted at that. “No dice. I’ve seen her shrug off that kind of thing before.”
As I predicted, Bombastic got back to her feet, then made a show of stretching and brushing herself off. She looked around with a broad grin, lots of sharp teeth showing.
“High level regen,” I explained grimly as I remembered my previous encounter with her. “Concussion blasts. And I think she might be a mid-level exemplar, but I’m not sure.”
“And she’s looking right at us,” Kara pointed out.
“Hey, purple girl,” Bombastic called out, waving to me as if we were friends.
“GO!” Kyle ordered.
“I’ll provide cover,” Gwen announced.
Two green pixies suddenly flew straight at Bombastic, who watched them with a predatory fascination, the kind that a cat might have towards something it was about to pounce on. I shuddered a little at that comparison since I remembered exactly what it felt like to have a cat stare at me that way.
“Little green girls,” Bombastic exclaimed with delight. “With such tiny little heads.” She giggled at that then suddenly slashed her claws at one of the pixies. “I can’t wait to play with them.”
The pixies both vanished and Bombastic stood there for a moment, rubbing her eyes and then looking around with an expression of surprise and delight. She reached out as though trying to touch something that wasn’t there.
“Balloon heads,” Bombastic exclaimed she looked around. “So may cute balloon heads to play with…”
“What the fuck?” Kyle gasped.
“She’s hallucinating,” Gwen explained grimly. “One of my powers.”
“A perfect distraction,” I said with a nod of appreciation.
“One head, two head, three head, four,” Bombastic was calling out in a sing-song tone as she jumped around swatting at things that only she could see. “This is fun but I want more…”
“I’m covering us with an illusion,” Gwen said as she slowly backed further away from the insane villain.
Bombastic leapt at one of her hallucinations and swatted it, then at another. Her expression turned to one of frustration before she yelled, “BOOM!” and fired one of her concussion blasts in the air.
“Now, where is purple girl?” Bombastic asked, looking around with an intent expression, the hallucinations apparently forgotten or even gone entirely. “I know you’re here…”
“Why is she so obsessed with you?” Collin whispered as we quickly crept away.
“She’s fun to play with,” Kara responded sardonically.
“And green girl,” the villainess abruptly added. “Such pretty green hair. I bet her head would be fun to play with too. Green and purple, purple and green. I bet if I had both, Crucibelle would be SO jealous.”
Then Bombastic fired a concussion blast off to the side, for no apparent reason. A parked car was suddenly smashed in with all of its windows shattered. She barely glanced at the car before firing another blast in a different direction.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Bombastic called out in sing-song tone.
“She’s trying to lure us out,” Kyle said with a grimace.
Bombastic fired several more concussion blasts in random directions, while we tried sneaking away as quickly as we could. Gwen might be good at the whole illusion thing, but that wouldn’t do a thing if we got hit. But before we could get far enough away, one of the blasts hit close knocked us all off our feet.
“Damn,” Gwen cursed as she scrambled back to her feet, though she was holding her arm. “I got hit by a bit of shrapnel.”
“THERE YOU ARE!” Bombastic exclaimed, now staring straight at us.
“Damn,” Gwen repeated. “I dropped my illusion.”
Bombastic came rushing straight at us and I immediately opened fire with my needle gun, hitting her with at least a dozen flechettes. They were each coated in Sapphire venom, which meant that each one would cause some localized paralysis. At least in a normal person. Bombastic just staggered for a few seconds, then began moving towards us again, seeming slow and sluggish in the areas where she’d been hit, but quickly recovering.
“Tricky tricky, purple girl,” Bombastic teased. “And there’s green girl and boring girl.” Her eyes went to Gwen and then Kara. “And boring boy.” This was focused at Collin.
“I am NOT boring,” Kara protested.
Bombastic continued approaching us, taking her time about it to enjoy watching us squirm. She grinned with that far too wide smile, stretching her fingers so that her claws were all the more noticeable.
Gwen suddenly threw her dagger right at Bombastic, then began to run. The dagger hit Bombastic in the shoulder, then flew right back to Gwen. She leapt onto the roof of a parked car, then rolled off in one of those parkour moves that I’d seen her and others practicing around campus. A second later, three copies of Gwen all ran off in different directions.
The villain hesitated a moment, clearly unsure of which Gwen she should follow. Then she shrugged and turned her attention back to me, but I was already running away too. We’d all scattered as soon as Gwen provided the distraction, and were off in different directions.
“Hide and seek,” Bombastic squealed with glee, “and now tag… You bunch are fun to play with.”
She started following me again and I silently cursed, wishing that I’d brought more of my weapons than just a needle gun. My coil gun would have been perfect against Bombastic, or even better, my rail gun. Hell, I’d go for one of Mom’s implosion grenades too.
“I might as well wish for a different power set,” I grumbled, thinking of my mode changer, which I’d left back at Whateley. What I wouldn’t give for that now.
Suddenly, a loud voice called out, “STAND AND DELIVER!”
I snapped around and saw Kyle, standing on top of a car with a pair of high-tech guns in his hands, ones that looked like they could have come right out of my mom’s armory. He had a grim expression on his face as he glared at Bombastic, both weapons pointed right at her.
Bombastic glanced at him, smirked, and then charged straight at me again as if doing so just to spite him. Kyle opened fire and two beams of light shot out and hit the villainess, causing her to drop to the ground and spasm as though she was being hit with a taser.
“Oooh,” Bombastic said with the shakes stopped. “Spicy.” She stood up and looked at Kyle with an expression of interest.
Kyle opened fire with his guns again, hitting Bombastic who staggered back and spasmed, but didn’t go down a second time. Before she finished shaking, he’d leapt off the car and was racing to another location.
Bombastic just laughed. “So many people to play with. What fun.”
A moment later, a familiar voice exclaimed, “Playtime is over.”
Crucibelle hovered in the air a short distance away, her costume dirty and torn in several places. She looked a bit rough, but she was clearly still ready to fight. Bombastic’s eyes seemed to light up at the sight.
“You’re back,” Bombastic exclaimed as she actually clapped her hands. “Yay.”
“Good,” Collin said as he made a reappearance. “I can use my field to hold her in place…”
“Except she’d just blast your ass,” Gwen commented as she joined him.
Collin deflated at that. “Good point.”
Gwen stepped back, looking like she was about to turn and run again. However, her eyes remained locked on Bombastic and Crucibelle. Her dagger began growing in her hand, or at least, the handle did. It grew longer and longer until she was holding a spear instead of a dagger.
Crucibelle suddenly flew straight at Bombastic and punched her, sending the villainess flying back until she hit the wall of a building. That looked like it should have broken half of Bombastic’s bones, but the villain shook it off after only a few seconds, then began running right back at Crucibelle with a broad grin.
“Everyone back,” I announced. “We don’t want to get in the middle of that.”
We all backed up to give them more room, but by this point, we were all too invested in the fight to simply not watch. Bombastic and Crucibelle went at it, exchanging punches, slashes, and concussion blasts which tore apart half the street. The entire time, Crucibelle was clearly pissed while Bombastic just had a broad grin plastered across her face, as though she was having the time of her life.
The fight ended less than five minutes later, after Crucibelle had slammed Bombastic into the ground, then tipped a car over onto its side, right on top of her, pinning the villain in place.
“No fair,” Bombastic shouted. “Let me go…”
“She’s probably just going to use her concussion blast to get the car off her,” I said. “I’ve seen her do that kind of thing before.”
Crucibelle glanced towards me, apparently having heard what I said even though I hadn’t been talking to her. She nodded at that, went up to Bombastic, then punched her in her exposed face. THAT ended the fight.
Seattle Wa, Monday late afternoon, Dec 24th 2007
Absinthe
“What a way to spend Christmas eve,” I mused aloud.
I should be back home, curled up on the couch with a cup of cocoa in my hand, Gozer curled up on my lap, and one of those sappy Christmas movies that Mom liked on the TV. But instead, I was spending the evening surrounded by chaos, or at least, the aftermath of chaos.
After Crucibelle had taken down that crazy Bombastic, I’d thought that everything was done and over with. However, as with everything, the truly dreaded villain ‘paperwork’ made an appearance. The police, MCO, and a couple other members of the Seattle Supers all swooped in. Everyone was asking questions, demanding written statements, and so on. Because of that, none of us had been allowed to leave quite yet.
I’d already had a brief chat with the police and an MCO agent who used to work with my dad at the local office. He’d been brief and professional, especially once he saw my MCO intern ID badge.
“You know,” Collin mused, “they haven’t been paying much attention to us in awhile.”
“They’d have to notice us first,” I responded with a tone of mock innocence. A little illusion could do a lot to keep people away. “If we wait just a little longer, they might forget about us entirely.”
“That would be for the best,” Kyle said.
“Here I was,” Kara mused, “afraid that I’d get in trouble for dressing in elf face, and now we have a supervillain situation. That kind of puts things in perspective.”
“I’m just dreading when we get back to school,” Collin said with a sigh. “Between Carson and security, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”
“Not as much as we could be in,” I pointed out. “It’s not like we were out playing heroes or anything. When trouble came for us, we tried to run and hide first, just like they say we should.”
“That will make things a little better,” Amy admitted with a sigh.
“Besides,” I added with a grin. “I used a bit of illusion to help hide our involvement. We won’t be showing up online…at least not as ourselves. If anyone was stupid enough to stick around and record things, they’ll just see a group of middle-aged people running away from the villain.”
Amy stared at me for a moment before smiling. “That’s good to know.”
“The less Carson and security have to complain about,” I told her, “the happier I’ll be.”
I looked to where Bombastic had been pinned beneath the car. She was gone now, all chained up and hauled away in an armored truck. Her aura had been all over the place, a clear indication of her instability, as if her behavior hadn’t been clue enough.
“Speaking of magic,” Kara said, giving Amy a curious look. “Why didn’t you cast some spells on her? You’re in magic mode today, aren’t you?”
“I’m in magic mode,” Amy agreed with a shrug. “But my magic doesn’t work that way. I’m not the kind of mage to throw fireballs.”
“Me either,” I offered.
“I’m more of an enchanter type,” Amy continued. “I could cast a spell to make my needle gun a bit more effective, and that might have been useful…IF I’d had time to cast it. That would have taken me about ten minutes to do. Not exactly useful for short notice work.”
“That’s too bad,” Kara told her with a disappointed look. “Two magic users, and nobody threw a fireball.”
“She does have a point,” Collin teased me. “No fireballs.”
I rolled my eyes at that. He knew that I worked with illusions and a bit of nature magic, neither of which really lent themselves to fire spells.
“You’ll take illusions and be happy,” I told him.
Kara watched me with an amused look, then asked Amy, “So, do you think THAT villain could ever be a teacher at your school?”
“Not likely,” Amy answered wryly. “The Imp would probably kick her ass for intruding on her territory as the crazy teacher.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “Whateley can only handle one crazy supervillain teacher at a time.”
“And what about you?” Kara abruptly asked her uncle, who’d been standing back and was trying not to be noticed. “Where did you get those fancy guns?”
“Are you a devisor?” Amy asked him curiously.
Kyle hesitated a moment, then let out a sigh. “Gadgeteer. I’m not an especially strong one though. I mostly just work on motorcycles.”
“You’re a mutant?” Kara gasped. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
Collin and I shared a look at this unexpected bit of family drama, then by silent agreement, we remained silent.
“After Beth went to Whateley,” Kyle answered carefully, “our parents had some pretty steep school loans to pay back.” He shook his head and gave her a sad smile. “I didn’t want to add to that, so I kept silent about my own powers. Besides, it wasn’t like I needed to go to a fancy school in order to master them. Hell, I trained as an auto mechanic at this garage in Pittsburgh for a few months before I realized that I was a lot more interested in motorcycles than cars.”
“But, Aunt Beth thinks she’s the only mutant in the family,” Kara said.
Kyle chuckled at that. “Oh, Beth figured it out awhlie back, but she keeps quiet. I never got around to telling our parents, and the longer I kept the secret, the harder it was to say anything.”
Kara nodded at that, giving him a sympathetic look. Then her eyes widened and she suddenly looked excited instead. “If there are two mutants in the family, then I’ve got an even better chance of being one too.”
“You might end up as one of my classmates yet,” Amy told her, which made Kara ‘squee’.
“We could be roomies,” Kara gushed.
“You don’t want to be in my cottage,” Amy quickly assured her. “There are a lot of really nice kids there, but that’s where they put the people who have serious issues with their powers.”
I nodded along. “Yeah, that’s true. But I heard that their private chef makes the best brownies.”
Amy looked like she was about to say something when Crucibelle started walking back towards us. “Well, it looks like we’re finally done here,” she said, giving an apologetic smile. She looked at me and Collin, then added, “I’ll give you both a ride home.”
“About time,” Kara grumbled.
I just nodded at that. “Yeah, this has definitely been one eventful Christmas eve.”
Seattle Wa, Monday evening, Dec 24th 2007
A man with a scar across his face looked out through the open window of the room he was in, staring at his target through a pair of binoculars. His target was unmistakable, a green-haired girl with pointed ears, like some kind of elf. He sneered at the sight.
“The target is leaving,” he told his partner, who crouched down beside him with a rifle, the scope undoubtedly fixed on the same target.
“I don’t have a clean shot,” his partner stated with irritation. “There are too many people around, including a couple agents and that…hero.”
“We should have gotten to her sooner,” the scarred man said as he lowered his binoculars. “We missed our chance.”
“I had her in sight,” his partner responded with a deep scowl as he finally looked away from the scope. “I had her dead to rights, right in my crosshairs…and missed. And after that, she kept disappearing. That freak is slippery.”
“She’s an illusionist,” the scarred man reminded his partner. “You probably shot at one of her illusions.”
His partner hesitated a moment before nodding agreement. “You’re right. But we missed our opportunity here, so now we have to track the freak down again,”
“This is all because of that traitor, Wylann,” The scarred man complained. “Making that freak into an intern. Making us pay for her to go to that mutie school…” He shook his head. “They’re making us look like fools, and I won’t have it.” His eyes narrowed as he added, “One way or another, we have to fix this. Permanently.”
