Ditto Ditto (6 page)

“I’m sure she’ll get in touch with Dad,” Max says as Adanna and Sunny go through the security system.  We head in one by one, going down the steps that line the inner wall of the canyon and step onto the campus that’s set in the bottom part.

“Emily, you’ll be training in the gym,” Nico says.  “Show Falconess how to get there, would you?”

“And what about me?” Keliah demands.  “What am I supposed to do?”

“You’ve got some catching up to do,” Nico says.  “Banshee will be tutoring you for now.”

“Oh,” Keliah says, looking a bit stunned.  Then she looks over at Jack again before trying to cover it up by looking at the rest of us.  “What about classes?” she asks.  “Do we have special years or something?”

“We’re still not quite big enough for that,” Nico admits.  “We’re getting there--but for now we set the homework for each student based on their capabilities.  A lot of the kids missed a year or more of school, anyway,” he adds as we start for our various areas.

“What?” she asks.  “Why?”

“We were kidnapped,” Vinny says as he steps out of the small house next to the dorms, carrying his own cup of coffee.  The wind brushes his hair, sending it floating to show off the shaved side.  I gotta admit, he looks really cool with that haircut.  I can see why he’s got a fanclub already--not as big as Trent’s is, of course, but they’ve got a website and everything.

“Who are you?” Keliah asks.

“Vinny,” Vinny says before looking over at me.  “You’re staying for lunch today, right, Em?”

“Yeah!” I say excitedly.  “I actually managed to cook something edible last night,” I add in a brag.

“She did,” Trent says.  “So... why are you staying for lunch?” he asks me blankly.

“Vinny’s offered to help me with my cooking,” I tell him.

“Is Flame in, or is he on the docket?” Nico asks Vinny.

Vinny makes a face and takes a drink of his coffee before answering.  “If it’s about that one chick, he heard,” he says.  “He’s been gone since last night.  I heard about Century snatching Aubrey--you’re going to get her back, right?” he asks, looking at me and Trent again.

“We’ll get her back,” Nico says.  “I only loaned her to them for three days.”

“That’s good,” Trent says, “because Jack is already getting irritable.”

“What, um, does Jack have to do with this Aubrey girl?” Keliah asks.

“You didn’t know?” Trent asks.  “They’re dating.  They have been practically since she saved his life when he got changed into a cape.”

There’s a shocked look on Keliah’s face that she tries to hide quickly.  “Oh,” she says finally.

There, I think, that’s one problem taken care of!  Now I need to get Falconess to the gym--I look around for the super, only to blink as I catch sight of her chatting it up with Taurus.  My mind instantly jumps to the wrong conclusion.  Is she flirting?  If she’s flirting, she absolutely needs to know that we’ve (me and Ditto AND Aubrey) have already picked Taurus for Liz!  The whole man-stealing thing seems to run in the family!

“So then she stops and stares at me,” Falconess says as I get closer, “and says ‘Well they said the wifi was free!’”

Taurus starts to laugh.  “Oh, man, I wish I’d been there!” he says.

“The entire town was down for a few days after that, Liz had to wear the cone of shame for the entire time--Mastermental made her swear not to go to Burger King ever again,” Falconess goes on, smiling.  Taurus is grinning so widely that I’m positive his cheeks hurt.  “She was such a cute kid--she’s still a serious handful,” Falconess finishes up, smiling as she sees me coming.  “Are we ready to start?”

“Um, yeah,” I say, blushing slightly and feeling extremely guilty for the man-stealing thought.  I think I’m being overly paranoid right now, especially when Taurus walks over to me, draping a massive arm over my shoulders in a familiar way.

“Be careful about her,” he says to Falconess.  “She’s pulled more pranks on me than I can count.”

“It’s just cuz you’re a big target,” I tell him, grinning up at him shamelessly.

“And NEVER fall asleep with her near--you’ll wake up with Mickey Mouse ears,” he adds, giving me a dry look.

“His hair is perfect for it,” I admit, “plus, Adanna paid me for the pictures.”

“Father has them hanging up in his office,” Adanna calls all the way from across campus.  “He still laughs whenever he sees them!  And Cubby thinks that’s how you usually look!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in panther form?” Taurus yells back.  “Cat’s can’t talk!”

“I would be if my instructor was here!”

“She has her father’s sense of hearing, doesn’t she?” Falconess says, looking amused.  “Are you her mentor?” she asks Taurus.

“Yeah,” he says.  “I think that’s why they brought me into the school in the first place.  They brought Blackjack in for Emily, but he’s taken over Ace’s training--plus--“ he looks at me and I shrug.

“Blackjack and I never really clicked, I guess,” I say.

“She keeps falling asleep in his class,” Taurus says.

“Well it’s right at nap time!” I protest.

“See?” he says.  “Blackjack doesn’t take it very seriously in the first place, but he still finds it a bit annoying when she snores during his attempt of teaching the kids how to count cards.”

“Gambling is a sin,” I say smugly, crossing my arms over my chest.  “Cheating is, too!”

“And she’s been playing the ‘dating a preacher’s son’ card too often lately,” Taurus finishes.  “Even Trent doesn’t play that one, and he IS the preacher’s son.”

“You seem quite proud of her,” Falconess says.  Taurus laughs and ruffles my hair.

“I need to get to work--you behave for Falconess, Em,” he says, heading for Adanna’s playground rather than replying to that.  I feel a little red from that statement, myself, so it’s no wonder he ran.

“He’s dating Liz,” I say, “not that she’ll ever admit it without a fight.”

“I know,” Falconess says.  “They’re adorable.”

“It’s this way,” I say, not sure how to respond to that.  Aubrey would know, she’d probably gush over how she “ships it” or whatever. 

“Do you have a problem with the idea of Liz and Devon getting together?” Falconess asks quietly, making me glance over.

“No!  I mean, I think I’m even more for it than Liz is half the time--but Liz is...” I wonder how I should put it.  I touch my chin, thinking hard on the subject of my foster mom.  “She’s... not... exactly straight-forward when it comes to stuff like this,” I admit finally.

“As in she’d deny it up until the marriage is over and the first kid’s in kindergarten?” Falconess drawls.

“I want to name her Adora,” I say, grinning now that she’s proven her understanding of the situation.  I hesitate, frowning as a thought occurs to me.  “Hey, have you run into that villain that knocked Mega out yet?”

“No, actually, why?”

“They said she was from the south, right?” I say, something nudging my brain hard.  “Do you know what powers she has?”

“Well, from the reports Central got from South, he has the ability to phase through objects,” she says.  “She’s called Skystep.”

I go still, the blood rushing from my face as it all comes rushing back to me.  “Why?” I whisper.

“Why what?”

“Why does it have to be her?”

“What?  Emily, is there a problem with Skystep?” she asks.  I stare at the ground, trying to get my bearings back before I shake my head.

“No... it’s fine,” I lie, faking a smile.  “If we don’t start our training we’ll be out of time, right?  Let’s get started,” I say as I head into the gym.  I summon Ditto, who looks at me with a serious expression before striking a pose from Sailor Moon.

“Ditto, reporting for duty!”

Falconess walks around her, looking her over closely for a long moment, even touching certain parts.  For a moment she twirls a piece of red hair between her fingers, a strangely fascinated expression on her face.  She moves on, touching Ditto’s throat.  “An actual pulse,” she says, “impressive.”

“Nico forced me to watch a million videos on human biology,” I admit, scratching the back of my head.  “The girl part was fine, I sort of expected all that, but I’m still trying to wash the guy part out of my memory.”

“Is there a reason he made you study male physiology?” she asks me curiously.

“We want to try and shapeshift Ditto,” I say.  “So I can make her look like someone else.”

“It’s an interesting concept,” Falconess says after looking at Ditto for a long moment, “but I think, instead, that you should consider trying to create more than one doppelganger at a time.  The more of you there are, the more you can accomplish, right?  And with this level of detail, I have a good feeling that you’ll have the strength.”

“More than Ditto?” I ask, looking at Ditto in shock.  I was looking for something to distract me from Skystep being in town--she definitely accomplished that.  “Like a third me?”

“Or more.  Can you teleport?” Falconess asks.

“I can,” Ditto says.

“I wonder if you can’t, as well, Emily,” she says, looking at me.  “There’s not many duplicators recorded in our history, but I just happen to have brought a file of one.”

“What?  Nico said he couldn’t really find that much information.”

“That’s because Nico relies far too heavily on computer files,” she says, pulling out a manila folder from a simple bag.  “He never thinks to look for hard copies.”

I stare at it, crossing over to her without thinking and bumping into Ditto as we try and get a look.  “Who is it?” I ask.

“Duplicitous,” she says, “She was a super villain from the eighties.”

“A super villain?” Ditto asks.

“You don’t really think everyone with your abilities is going to be aboveboard, do you?” Falconess asks, looking amused.  “You have a built in alibi, the ability to erase or not even leave evidence, and teleportation.  Now sit, we’ve got a lot of news reports to read--and watch, if I can get a VHS player around here.”

“VHS?”

“It’s from the eighties,” she says simply.  We sit and she opens the thick manila folder, handing out various newspaper clippings and white paper reports stapled at the corner.  “The world thought she only had two duplicates at most,” she says as she spreads out more of the notes, “but Mastermental says she had to have had at least five to do all the things she did.”

“He knew her?” I ask eagerly.

“Of course,” Falconess says.  “She wasn’t as big of a name as many of the male villains--back then they tended to focus on male heroes and villains a lot more than they do females.  To a point they still do, but people like Liz and Jeanie are starting to change that fact.”

“And you,” I say.

She gives me a slight smile.  “And me,” she agrees.  “Soon, you will, too.  Are you certain you want to partner up with Trent, though?” she asks, showing me a picture of Duplicitous and two of her doppelgangers holding up a bank.  “It seems to me that you could do just fine as a solo act.”

I hesitate, staring at the image.  I can practically picture myself in that position, with Ditto on my right and another on my left--I blink as something flickers in the corner of my eye, and I jerk, just in time to see a faint shadow of someone disappearing.

“I was right,” Falconess says with a satisfied expression.  “You can do it if you try.  Then, after we get you used to creating two of them, we’ll start with small changes--you can change Ditto’s clothes, can’t you?” she asks.  “I see she’s not wearing the swimsuit from yesterday.”

“Yeah, we change her clothes all the time,” I admit.

“Then we’ll work on hair and eye color later, but first focus on the big things--you’re going up against Dragon, remember?” she says.  “You need every trick you can think of if you’re going to make it look good.”

I nod, focusing on the idea of a second Ditto.  Just think of all the stuff I could do with three of us!  I would never have to stay awake in class ever again!

***

“So for just a moment I can bring up a third one!” I tell Trent excitedly as I get to our first official class.  “I don’t know what she’ll be called, probably Repeat or something, but there’s going to be three of me!”

“Three of you,” he says, not looking nearly as excited as I feel.  “Okay...”

“Is there a problem with three of me?” I ask, giving him a dirty look.

“Well, it seems a bit...”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Jack asks as he heads for us.  “ANOTHER one of you?”

I grin at him shamelessly, knowing he’s not going to like that idea one bit and not caring.  It’s only Trent’s less-than-happy reaction that bothers me.  What’s wrong with there being more of me?

Well, other than the urge to fight with myself for stuff like hand-holding privilege... I mean, I’ve gotten jealous over Ditto before, and I’m pretty sure she gets jealous of me once in a while, too--which is ridiculous, since we’re the same person.  Sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it, though.

“Hey, Ace!” Jack calls across the room.  “Em’s working on a second Ditto!”

“What?” Ace asks, looking shocked.  “You mean there’d be three of her for the debut?”