Ditto Ditto (4 page)

Max is sitting at a table next to Zoe, drawing on a napkin.  He’s got a few of the zoo kids watching curiously, but it’s Ace that’s right in front of him, leaned over the paper with a thoughtful expression.  “Yeah, what we need are some massive speakers,” Ace says, pointing at the picture.  “Here, here, and here.  That way we can get the whole echo thing going on--”

“Kind of hard to do when it’s the Super Bowl,” Max says.

“You’re really going to crash the super bowl?” a zoo kid girl asks, looking shocked that she spoke up.  She covers her mouth with her hand, squeaking slightly.

“Sure,” Max and Ace say, as if it’s perfectly normal.

“Max, can I borrow some money?” I ask, holding out a hand with a wide grin.  “My group wants to play some games, but I’ve got no cash.”

“Shouldn’t you be borrowing from your boyfriend?” Max asks, digging out his wallet and handing over a couple of twenties.

“I will when we’ve finished with yours!”  He shakes his head as I run off for the quarter machine, then goes back to plotting the next super bowl.  I call the others over to scoop up all the quarters and we head into the games, joined soon by Trent and a sheepish looking Lance.

“Did you hit up Max again?” Trent asks as he moves to my side, watching as Carla and I do a round of DDR.  She’s kicking my butt thoroughly, by the way.

“Yep,” I say shamelessly as the game ends. 

“You could have waited until I got back, you know,” he says quietly, only to turn as Jack approaches us.

“Do we know anything new about Mega?” Jack asks him, moving so he’s casually standing at the entrance of the game room next to Trent.

“Not yet, but Aubrey healed him, right?” Trent says.  “Think we should call Dad when we get a chance?  He’s probably heard by now.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

I pop another couple of quarters into the game and let Carla pick the next song, not saying a word.  Somehow that quiet statement about waiting for him makes me feel extremely guilty.  I just don’t know why.

***

“So what you’re saying,” Mastermental says, leaning back in his chair casually as he stares at the large Texan standing on the other side of his desk, “is that one of your capes--the super villain side, but regardless--got stood up and is taking it out on my team, and it just happens to be my fault.”

“Yes,” Century says bluntly.  “Skystep was never informed that Flame was coming up here--she’s hard enough to handle when her favorite sparring buddy is on call twenty-four seven.  You take him away and she takes out half of my team before someone finally gets the chance to tell her!”

“Who told her?”

“Voltdrain bought her a smoothie,” Century mutters, shaking his head as he recalls the embarrassing scene on television.  “It calmed her down long enough to listen--but if you’d followed the proper procedures, we wouldn’t be having this problem!”

“So, before we go passing the blame on this, why don’t you make a list of villains that interact with Flameblaster on a regular basis,” Mastermental says, “along with what powers they have, so I can give my team a heads up?”

“The rest of them are willing to go from hero to hero,” Century says a bit reluctantly, “I’ve already passed on the news to them.  It’s just Skystep that’s unreasonable.”  There’s a hint of frustration in his normally calm southern tone.  “She’s not completely stable, y’see.  She’s a good enough girl when everything’s going like she wants, but the moment we change things up...”

“What, exactly, is the personal relationship between the two?” Mastermental asks.  He’d have never thought to ask before he found out that Technico and Lady Rose had teenage twins.

“I... honestly have no idea,” Century admits.  “Now in exchange for the trouble you caused me, I think it’s only reasonable that you loan me that little healer of yours for a few days.  You know, the one they call Life Light.”

Mastermental twitches.  “You’ll have to talk to Technico about that one,” he says.

***

Twenty minutes of DDR with me and Malina taking turns stops when Ditto walks over with a grin on her face.  “Pizza’s here!” she announces as the game finishes--with me losing again.  “Want me to get Trent?” she asks as I step off the game.

“Nah, I’ll get him.  You should go back to your team,” I tell her, heading for the two brothers playing a fighting game.  “Hey, guys, pizza’s here,” I say, glancing over at where Rocco and Lance are playing air hockey.  I grab Jack’s arm, trying to mess up his game, but he doesn’t even budge with it.  “Aww, c’mon, die already,” I mutter, peering at the game.  “How long have you two been playing this one round, anyway?”

“Since the start,” Trent says, tapping away at the controls.

“Dad got us an ancient game station and this game to teach us how to not break the controllers,” Jack says, not looking at me.  “So we got good at it after replacing the controllers a few dozen times.”

“Well, whatever,” I say, “I’d rather everyone else ate before you two came, anyway,” I add.  “C’mon, guys, let’s leave them to their game otherwise everyone’ll starve!”  Rocco hesitates before shrugging.

“You sure?  I mean... missing a meal can really suck,” he says with a slightly vulnerable look on his face as he follows along.

“We’ll order them their own pizzas after we eat,” I tell him, looking at him for a moment.  “You, too?” I ask quietly as the others race forward.

“Wh--what?” he asks, jerking away instinctively.

I hesitate.  This isn’t the place to bring it up, is it?  “Nothing,” I say simply, sliding into my spot at the table, a bit surprised that Lance is sitting across from me and already digging in.  Other than the shape shifting surprise earlier, he doesn’t seem too worried, does he?  He grins at me as he grabs another slice. 

Now don’t get me wrong--I think Trent’s the best looking guy in the entire school, and I’m only slightly biased, right?  But Lance is adorably cute.  Like the kid you put in commercials, or something.  That could be extremely useful in his future job.  “Hey,” I say, grabbing a slice for myself, “is it true that you’re going to be part of Vinny’s team?”

“We both are,” Carla says, practically bouncing where she sits.  She moves her hand and a blob of meat goes flying off of her slice towards the group next to us.  “Whoops,” she says, flushing brightly as it hits Justin.  “Sorry, Justin,” she says as he slowly reaches up and picks the piece of hamburger off of his shirt.

“Yeah,” he says, then gets up on one knee on his bench, looking around for a second before sending the piece flying again.  It hits Ace smack dab in the middle of his forehead.  “No problem,” he adds with a grin for Carla, slipping back into his seat as if nothing happened.  I can’t help but watch Ace, who pulls the meat off of his face and looks at it for a long moment.

“FOOD FIGHT!” Ace yells, picking up a huge slice of pizza and throwing it.  It comes flying straight at us, only to get grabbed out of the air by Trent.

“Don’t waste food, man,” Jack says--simply because Trent’s mouth is full.  I will admit I’m a bit disappointed--a food fight sounds like a lot of fun!  But when you’ve got two Liberty boys around it never happens.  All of the food ends up eaten.

Trent drops down next to me and grabs another slice of the nearest pizza.  “So who won?” I ask.

“Me,” he mutters around a mouthful.  Look, Trent’s a great boyfriend--unless he’s eating.  Then you’re lucky to get even that one word out of him.

“Hey, Emily,” Carla says, jumping to her feet.  “There’s music--wanna dance?  Malina wants to dance, right?” she asks the girl sitting next to her.  A hesitant look crosses Malina’s face before she nods.

“Hey,” I hear someone say as I’m about to reply.  “Are you going to make any demands?”  I look over at Nico, who’s lounging at a table across from Falconess and her daughter.  There’s a group of norms surrounding them, looking a bit angry.

“Not planning on it,” Nico says.  “If you’re ready to leave just hand over your phone and I’ll check it before giving it back.  I can’t have pictures of my students getting out to the public, you see.”

“That’s against my rights to privacy,” the man snarls, his hands fisting.

“No, what would be against your rights is if I blew up your phone while it’s still in your pocket,” Nico says, taking a drink of his pop.  “Do you know who I am?”

“Do I need to?  You’re using us as hostages!”

“No, I’m just letting my kids have a pizza party--that you came in while we were here was just your bad luck.”

“Trent?” I say, only to groan as he holds up a finger.  His other hand holds three slices stacked on top of one another.  “Fine,” I say, letting out a sigh.  “Let me do something real quick, first, girls.”  I get up, heading across the room to sit down next to Nico.  “Nico?” I ask.

“Yeah?”

“I figure it’s my duty as the girlfriend of a preacher’s son to say this.  You can’t terrorize people just to eat pizza, y’know?” I tell him silently.  “Ken’s gonna yell at you for it.  So why don’t you check their phones without them knowing and let them go?  Nobody’s done anything, after all.”

He looks at me, a tiny smile pulling at the corner of his lips.  “Fine,” he says, reaching up and patting me on the head.  “You can go,” he says to the irate looking norm, “sorry for the inconvenience.  Melissa, I’d like you to meet Emily Dreyton,” he says, turning to Falconess.  “She’s the one I wanted to talk to you about.”

The irate looking man starts to say something, only to give up as he checks his watch, walking away while muttering under his breath.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Falconess says, smiling slightly as she holds out a hand. 

I blink at the hand and look at Nico.  “What sort of lie did you tell her?” I ask him bluntly.

“Not a thing,” he says before waving over my head.  “Ditto, c’mere, kid,” he calls.  “Technically there’s only one of her, but you’ll be dealing with more, obviously,” he adds as Ditto drapes herself over my shoulder.  Then she sees the mini-me blonde.

‘Aw, man,’ I hear her think darkly.

I try not to snort as I scoot over so she can sit down next to me.  “This is Ditto,” I say.  “Ditto, this is--”

“Melissa,” Falconess says, “and my daughter, Keliah,” she adds, motioning to the sour looking girl sitting next to her.  Keliah barely glances at me before looking over at the group again.  “Technico has been talking to me about being your mentor,” she says, looking from me to Ditto and back.

I blink, forgetting about Keliah entirely as I take in the idea of having Falconess as a mentor.  “Um... I...” I hesitate, wondering how best to put this, “thought that... Jeanie would be?” I ask Nico.

“She offered,” he says, “but Jeanie’s a heavy hitter--I’m not saying that you won’t have a decent punch, but you’ll never be a tank,” Nico says.  “You need someone that’s got creation abilities, Em.  Melissa here is the best choice, and trust me, I looked into it.  I even checked the other branches.”

“I had to go through an intense interview from Liz, as well,” Melissa says with an amused smile.  “She’s very protective of you and your sisters.”  She looks at Ditto, pointedly, who blushes slightly since her swimsuit top is still showing.  “Plus, when I’ve been asked to train a future Liberty, and an adopted Superior, there’s no question that I have to bring my A game.  I expect you to, as well,” she finishes pointedly.

“We know what we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Ditto says boldly, making me glance over at her with a tiny smile.  “We’re punks and troublemakers once in a while, but we know what we’re in for--it’s hard not to when Liz comes home in the middle of the night looking exhausted.  If she gets tired, we’ll probably get ran over--”

“Liz gets tired because she relies on her wiretripping too much,” Nico says.

“Regardless,” Melissa says, “it’s good to see you’ve got an idea of what’s going to happen when you’re working.”

Keliah lets out a scoffing sound.  “I’m going to go play some games,” she says, getting up from her bench and walking away.  Melissa turns, watching her for a moment before turning back to me.

“We’ll be working together three days a week,” she says.  “Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  I expect you to be there on time and behave properly.  Have you discussed her first debut?” she asks Nico.

“Yeah,” Nico says, motioning over to the group.  “Ace, get over here,” he says.

The tall, pale goth boy stands, shoving his black hair out of his face as he walks over.  “Yeah?” he asks.  I like Ace.  He agreed to go along with me for this, after all.

“Ace has agreed to the debut,” Nico says as Ditto shoots Ace a brilliant grin.  “Jack offered, though, right?” he asks me.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Em chose Ace.”

“I have to admit, being able to choose your debut villain is a nice aspect of your school,” Falconess says.  “I look forward to working with you, as well, Ace,” she says, holding out a hand.  He takes it, and I swear there’s a faint blush on his face as they shake.

“Melissa will be mentoring Em,” Nico explains.

“So ah, when do I get a super sexy mentor?” Ace asks Nico, making Melissa laugh.

“You’re stuck with your dad for now--although I’ve heard he still has a decent sized fan club, so who knows, someone might consider him super sexy.”  By the look on both Nico and Ace’s faces, neither of them do.