Ditto Ditto (16 page)

*Texas*

Home.  Texas.  It feels hollow, Skye thinks as she lands on the roof of her apartment building.  Flame’s not here, he won’t be back until that skinny twerp with fire powers is fully trained.  Melody isn’t here, she won’t be back... ever.  She feels like crying, honestly. 

She stops at the highway for a moment, watching the cars rush past crazily.  For a second she’s tempted to go down and stand in the middle of the ruckus just to mess with people’s minds.  She doesn’t.  She’s not even up for a massive car crash.  That’s definitely a sign she’s depressed.

Slowly she heads off, walking on air over their heads.  She could have gotten here much faster, but she didn’t even want to come in the first place.  What would have been the point in hurrying?  Instead she’d stolen some cash from a rich looking man and gotten a hotel room for the night.  It had been nice to sleep on a real bed, but at the same time she felt too numb to really enjoy it.

No, she thought as she stepped over a building and headed a bit further south, this day is looking to be just as grim as–

“Hola, Señorita Skystep,” a smooth Hispanic voice says, making her groan loudly.  What is with this world?  Up north they have the goody-goody America’s Son.  Down here there’s the goody-goody Voltdrain! 

“Can’t we get at least ONE Hall that isn’t out to ‘save me’?” she demands in outrage, turning on the super hero.  “You might not have noticed, but I am a SUPER VILLAIN!”

“You ran into America’s Son, no?” Voltdrain says, holding out a Starbucks cup.  “Do not worry, I will get another one,” he adds when she just stares at it.  Since she hasn’t eaten in days, her hand shoots out, grabbing it from him.  She doesn’t even blink when he offers her a donut to go with it.  “I know a very good Krispy Kreme,” he tells her as she bites into the donut.

She barely refrains from moaning–he hadn’t been lying, she thinks as she gulps his breakfast down.  When she’s done she licks her fingers and looks away from him.  “I did not expect you back so soon,” he says quietly.  “Did something happen?”

“Why do you always do this?” she demands, turning her best glare on him.  “You’re always trying to calm me down, trying to make everything seem like it’ll all turn out okay–well you know what?  It WON’T.  Melody is dead and Flint just kicked me to the curb!  You and your stupid accent can’t fix those facts, Voltdrain!”  His accent isn’t stupid, but it was the first insult she could come up with off the top of her head.

“You need a friend,” he says, looking her straight in the eye.  Those glowing orange eyes of his should be intimidating, she complains internally.  They aren’t. 

“I don’t.  Friends only hurt you more,” she says before racing away.  This time she doesn’t even dare to look back.  The image of America’s Son watching her leave is still too firmly planted in her mind.

***

I almost forgot that Falconess would be here, I think as the woman in question lands next to our group.  She puts her daughter down, who shoots us all a surly look and heads for the panel, but Falconess heads for my group.  She stops, though, looking at Adanna curiously.  Without a word, she pulls out her phone and snaps a photo.  “Good morning, everyone,” she says as she pockets the phone.  “How are you feeling, Emily?” she asks me.

“Not going to say anything about Adanna’s outfit?” I ask instead of answering.

“I go to work in one every day,” Falconess says with a shrug.  “It would be a bit hypocritical to question that sort of thing.  That doesn’t mean I don’t think she looks adorable, though.  It looks almost exactly like your father’s,” she compliments Adanna.

A bit of pink crosses Adanna’s face.  “Kim made it,” she admits.

“Of course, that explains everything–other than Sunny petting your shoulder,” Falconess says, glancing over at Sunny curiously.

“She’s my girlfriend,” Sunny says, “it comes with special privileges!”  Adanna rolls her eyes, but doesn’t bother to pull away.  I know most of the school doesn’t get the whole Adanna dating Sunny thing, but personally I think it’s adorable.

“Well, shall we head in?” Falconess asks as she sees most of the teachers lining up to enter the school.  “I wouldn’t want anyone to be late for first hour.”

“Max isn’t here yet,” Zoe says, looking around curiously.  “Oh, wait, there he is–“ she stops as we turn to watch the super villain flying towards us.  He has a coffee cup in his hand and is yawning hugely.  Sometimes I’m SO tempted to stalk him, I’m sure he’s up to all sorts of interesting things!

He drops down next to Zoe and wraps an arm around her shoulder, only to stop as he bumps into the canon.  He jerks back, looking awake all of a sudden as he stares at his girlfriend.  When she just looks at him he walks around her, examining her for a long moment.  Finally, when we’re sure he’s seen everything, he goes, “Pink?”

“Not a word about the canon?” she asks him dryly.

“Oh, sure, can I get one of those for my birthday?” he asks.  “What’s it shoot?”

“Come on, let’s get inside,” Trent says, tugging on my hand.  “You know how they get.”  I snicker, since he’s got a point.  We get in line, but I can’t help but turn and watch as Zoe explains the canon happily to one of the biggest super villains our age.  I see Max hide a yawn a few times as they speak, so I glance over at Trent.

“What’s he planning, seriously?” I ask.

“I think he’s branching into baseball,” Trent says.  “You know, since we’ve got Kaufman Stadium right next to the Chiefs, and the Royals have been doing really good lately.”

“Ooooh,” I say, cheering up.  “That’d be awesome!”

“Just wait until next year, you’ll be pulling hero duty for it, too,” he drawls, gently touching my back to urge me forward in line.  I glance up, realizing there’s several feet between us and Sunny and Adanna.  Whoops.  I head forward, pressing my hand to the panel as soon as we get to it and heading down the steps.  It’s time to practice–and if I can impress Falconess I might be able to talk Nico into arranging my debut!

The sight of Carla running around the canyon in a blur has us pausing at the bottom of the steps.  “WHO LET CARLA DRINK THEIR COFFEE?!” I hear Vinny bellow at the top of his lungs.  The teachers–the ones that are teaching us to be proper capes–look away from him with patently innocent expressions on their faces.

“Not,” Carla says as she passes him, “coffee,” she says as she passes him again.  “Chocolate,” swoosh, “covered,” swish, “coffee beans!”

I lose it, almost falling over, I’m laughing so hard.

“You’re all insane,” Keliah mutters, crossing her arms over her chest but following Carla with her eyes every time she passes in front of her.

Trent lets out a sigh and takes that last step, turning and holding out his arms.  Carla slams into him, sending him skidding back, and slightly into the earth.  She looks up at him when they’re fully stopped, grinning from ear to ear.  “I like those things!” she tells him excitedly.

“That’s good, but maybe you shouldn’t eat so many of them,” Trent says, patting her on the head.  “At least not all at once,” he adds as she starts to pout.

“Okaaay,” she says, practically vibrating, still. 

“Let her go,” Nico says, waving it off.  “It’s as good of training as any when she’s like this.  But from now on–no coffee or caffeine allowed unsupervised, people, that includes chocolate,” he calls over to the teachers before downing the last of his cup.  I know for a fact that he has a ton of coffee on a daily basis, so that’s sort of hypocritical, if you ask me.  Then again, he did say “unsupervised,” which, considering that Carla just passed me three times in this huge canyon, might be smart.  Four.  Five.  Yeah, think I’ll stop counting now.

“Well, shall we get to class?” Falconess asks me, still watching Carla run with an amused look on her face.  Obviously she isn’t the one guilty of leaving out chocolate covered coffee beans.

“I’ll be supervising today,” Nico says to her, walking over and dropping a hand on my shoulder.  “It’ll be like I’m not even there, don’t worry,” he says.

Nico is NEVER “like I’m not even there” unless he REALLY isn’t there.  Falconess doesn’t seem to realize that fact as she nods and agrees all too easily.  I look from her to him for a moment before walking over to Nico and just looking at him.  He gives me a shameless smile and messes up my hair.  “See?  I’m already unnoticeable,” he tells me.

I snort quite rudely before following Falconess into the gym.  She heads to the center, standing there and watching me curiously.  “I hear you’ve had a bit of trouble with your second doppelganger,” she says.  “We’re going to work on that today.  Try and summon her.”

I hesitate.  “She’s kind of–“

“She’s you,” Falconess says firmly.  “Don’t ever forget it–you might not always agree with parts of yourself, but they’re still parts.  Everyone has something about themself that they don’t like, or fear, Emily,” she tells me in a gentler tone.  “You can’t live for any time of length without coming upon a part of your personality that you don’t really like–that you try to hide.  If you just deny that part, you’re never going to grow stronger.”

I nod, but inwardly I’m thinking of a few people I’m SURE don’t have that problem.  Ken and Jeanie just to name a few.  Maybe.  But now isn’t the time to be thinking of other people–now is the time to try and summon my second doppelganger, who still needs a name.  “Ditto 2?  Repeat?” I mutter, trying to come up with it.  Yes, I’m wasting time.

“Repeat works,” Nico says, making me glance at him.  He motions to the area in front of me.  “Go on, Emily, you’ve got the upper hand right now, don’t forget it.”

I nod, looking at an empty space in front of me.  “Okay, Repeat, come out,” I mutter to myself, picturing my second doppelganger.  She looks a lot like me, but the streaks in her hair should have beads–yeah, okay, and let’s put her in a Ramones T-shirt–that’s good, and jeans with the knees torn out–yeah.  This works.

She stares at me, then looks down at her clothes.  “Ramones?” she asks.

“Hey, Ho, Let’s Go!” I say, trying to be cheerful.  A tiny grin pulls at her lips, which she hides quickly.  Yeah, she’s me, I think.  Obscure punk music knowledge and all.  “Hey, um–“ I start out, moving forward.

She looks around, ignoring me as she focuses on Nico and Falconess.  “Is she really gone?” she asks.  “For good?”

“For now,” Nico says before Falconess can speak.  “I’m not going to lie, I did a bit of looking into Skystep–she’s not stable, in any way.  You know as well as I do that the more powerful a cape is, the more likely they are to be a bit...”

“Off their rocker,” I finish, looking at him pointedly.  “How do you deal with it?” I ask him, getting totally sidetracked.

“I’ve got a lot of hobbies,” he drawls.  He keeps his eyes on Repeat.  “Are you still intent on your revenge?”

“She KILLED my parents!” she bellows, her hands clenched at her sides.  “She took the people I love and then she got me stuck in that house with the sisters–I HATE HER!”

“But you’re not there any–“ Falconess says, only to get shoved away.  Ditto appears without my thinking, and tackles Repeat.  I jump on the other two, trying to hold them down. 

“Calm down!” Ditto bellows.

“Especially since she’s all the way in Texas,” Nico says.

An image of the picnic table where we’d sat with Vinny pops into my head.  I know that it’s in my doppelganger’s minds, too, because we look at each other.  I hear Nico curse and move his hand–

Then we’re gone, falling as a group onto the table we’d just pictured.  “What the–“ Ditto asks, shoving me off of her and looking around.  I look around as well, stupidly.

“We just teleported,” Repeat says.  “We’re in Texas.”

“We teleported all the way to TEXAS?” I yelp, jumping to my feet.  “We need to go back–“

“I’m going to find Skystep,” Repeat declares, racing away.

“Well, crap,” Ditto mutters.

“Exactly,” I agree as we race after her.

***

“What just happened?” Falconess asks, still staring at the empty spot where Emily had just been.

“She learned how to teleport,” Nico drawls, bringing up his phone and tapping on it.  “She’s officially upgraded to potential specialized S class.  Thankfully I managed to take down the security field before frying her,” he adds before letting out a sigh.  “Go tell the others, I’m going to track her down.” 

“Did you know this was going to happen?” Falconess asks.

“I had a feeling it would,” he admits before racing away.

“What happened?”  The door bursts open a second after Nico leaves and Trent comes in.  “Where’s Emily?” he demands.

“She... apparently learned to teleport,” Falconess says.

“To where?” Trent asks.

“I have no idea.  Texas, maybe?”

Trent looks like he’s going to pop a vein.  “That IDIOT!” he growls, racing out the door.

***

Now you’re probably wondering if I’m lost–but you’ve got to remember, I grew up in this area.  I know exactly where the South Branch Hall is.  That’s where Repeat is heading.  She’s going to sneak into the private section in the back and find information on where Skystep’s base is.  How do I know this?  She’s practically screaming her thoughts, they’re so obvious.