Shadow Boy (4 page)

“What?” I ask.

“You’re so obvious, man.”

“Elidee and Olivia still have that lost look—I haven’t actually talked to them, sure, but it’s pretty obvious,” I say. “That Jennifer girl has a lot more self confidence. She’s around our age, right?”

“Mmhmm,” he says, heading into the second dorm building. I turn the music off, realizing I totally lost my chance to run thanks to his distraction technique. Before I know it, there’s a face right in front of mine. I jump slightly, shocked.

“Hiiiii,” Skystep says, waving at me with a curious grin. “Is there a problem?”

“Um—” I say a bit stupidly. “I—”

“Hi, Skye,” Max says as she steps onto his shoulder. “We just wanted to come and visit!”

“Visitors!” Skye says excitedly, pushing off of his shoulder and going through the ceiling. I can hear her from here, still, as she says, “Doris! We have visitors! And one’s a super villain, too! Maybe they can help you with your homework!”

“I really doubt a kid super villain will know how to plot out a major bank heist,” I hear Doris say.

“I figured it out when I was thirteen,” Max calls up at them. “I’d be happy to give you a hand—if Skye keeps Rocco company while I do it, that is,” he adds as I start to look for another shadow.

“Deal!” Skye says, coming through the ceiling again with a cheerful smile.

“Who IS he?” Doris demands, heading for the stairs and looking down at us.

“Maximum, at your service,” Max says with a little bow.

“Um… okay, fine, but you’re going to have to help me with the computer first,” she says slowly.

“What’s wrong with it?” Max asks.

“I’m not sure how to turn it on,” she admits.

“This might take a while,” Max says to me. “Have fun with Skye!” he adds, heading up the stairs. I look at Skye, who’s watching me expectantly, a huge grin on her face.

“Hi?” I offer, holding up a hand. What DO I say? “Hey, check this out, turns out we’re related?” or maybe, “I’m not sure but my jerk of a dad thinks you might be my cousin, maybe a few times removed?” Yeah, that’d go over well—I drop to the ground like a pound of bricks as Max lets me go.

“You can’t fly?” she asks, hovering over me curiously.

“Nope,” I say, hopping to my feet and dusting my pants off. “I’m strictly ground—er, and shadow, I guess, based.”

“Shadow?” she repeats, her eyes narrowing. “Like Shadowman shadow?”

“Um, well… I guess?” I say, scratching the back of my head just for something to do with my hand. “He’s my dad—but I only met him like a week ago, or something. My ma raised me.”

“You aren’t going to kidnap anyone, are you?” she demands. “Because I’m a super villain but I don’t like kidnapping!”

“Nope, don’t plan to kidnap anyone—especially you,” I say, holding up both hands innocently. “Look, this was a stupid idea—I’ll tell Zoe that—”

“Zoe?” she asks, getting excited again. “What did Zoe say?” she asks, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the den. She’s walking on air, but she doesn’t seem to notice. I bet she doesn’t even realize that she’s sort of short. Maybe Zoe’s comment about height and being able to fly is truer than I thought.

“Ah, well—” In for a dollar, I think darkly, giving up. “Look, do you have a family line?” I ask, having heard a bit about the big family lines from our classes.

“I’m a Superior!” she says.

“You are NOW, sure, but what about before you were adopted?” I prompt. “Like, before you met Nico and them?”

“Of course not, I’m one of a kind!”

“Well, actually—according to my dad, you aren’t—not exactly,” I say, sighing and shoving my hands into my pockets. “You’re from the same line as I am—like, Shadowman thinks you’re his great, great niece or something—which makes us—”

“Family?” she offers.

“Yeah,” I say, shrugging, my hands clenched in my pockets. I feel like running right now, no lie.

“But--but I don’t want to be related to Shadowman!” she wails after thinking for a long moment.

“That makes two of us,” I say.

“So can we toss him out of the family line?” she asks hesitantly.

“Sure?” I offer. “I mean, the only reason I even admit to it is because it’s pretty obvious by my powers, but I’m ignoring it other than that.”

“OKAY!” she says, hugging me happily. “We can be family! I LIKE family! And I’ll be the super good aunt that listens to EVERYTHING! I’ve got lots of practice being an aunt!” she tells me happily. “And I want to meet your mom and any siblings you have—”

“No siblings,” I say, shrugging. “I was too much of a handful for Ma to want more. And you don’t have to be too worried about the whole aunt thing—I’m pretty much a pain in the neck—” she’s walking around me, and now she’s poking my hair. “Um, Skye?” I say as she gets in my face, grabs my chin and turns my head so she can see me from different angles. “Is there a problem?” I ask awkwardly, because she’s keeping me from opening my jaw enough.

“You’re cute!” she says happily. “I like having cute nephews!”

“Uh… thanks?” I say.

“Oh, but Sunny’s a little bit ‘cute’ cuter—you’re more ‘handsome’ cute,” she decides. “It’s good either way!” she decides, hugging me again. “What was your name again?” she asks after a few seconds.

“Rocco,” I say. “Rocco Stiltz. It’s my mom’s last name—I don’t even know Shadowman’s real name.”

“I like it!” she declares. “So now you need to tell me EVERYTHING! That’s what you do with aunts, right? Like if you have a girlfriend and if she’s cute and if you want to be a hero or a villain and all sorts of interesting things!” she says, pulling away and looking at me expectantly.

“Uhhh,” I say, my hands brushing against my phone as I desperately search for something to say. I mean, I’m perfectly fine hearing about everyone ELSE’S lives—oh! There is one thing I like to tell! “Well, I’m not decided yet—but I did break into Fort Knox! Twice!”

“Oooooh,” she says. “I like Fort Knox. All the gold is so shiny and pretty!”

Wait, what?

I stare at her for a moment. “You’ve been there?”

“Oh, sure! When I was about your age!” she says. “It was kind of boring after a while, though, and all the shooting was loud. I didn’t steal anything--I thought about it, though! But it’s not like I could do anything with a gold bar—I mean, I was going to be a villain, right? So it’s not like I’d actually BUY things! That’s just silly!”

“Um… what DO you do, then?” I ask blankly. Think Marigold chased her around as much as she did me? Why isn’t SHE in the Cape Cells?

“Oh, I stole a credit card from Century a long time ago,” she says, waving it off. “I buy all my stuff with HIS money! It’s the perfect crime!”

Unless you know that credit cards can be canceled, I think, just staring at her. Slowly, though, I feel a little grin crossing my face. I mean, she’s actually pretty cute, isn’t she? And that explains why Marigold hasn’t caught her—Century likes her enough to fund her.

“Absolute perfect crime,” I tell her, holding up a fist for her to bump. She looks at it curiously for a second before getting excited.

“Oh! The fist bump thing!” she says, bumping her knuckles against mine. It almost breaks my fist, but I shake it off. “Oh, hey, hey, can you help me with something SERIOUSLY important?” she asks. “I want to talk to someone, but she keeps avoiding me every time, so I want you to distract her while I grab her, okay? Or maybe I’ll distract her and YOU grab her, okay? But be careful, ‘cause she might melt on you if you startle her too much. She did that to me, once, and then she turned into a cloud.”

“A cloud,” I repeat.

“Uh huh, a cloud, and then she floated away, and even though I followed her, she wouldn’t talk, so it was pretty frustrating,” she explains. “But she’s PERFECT for my super villain girls group—er, unless YOU want to be in the group, that is, then it won’t be all girls,” she adds, frowning. “But you’re welcome to join! You can be our dashing getaway driver!”

“Yeah? Who all’s in the group?” I ask curiously.

“Me and Doris! And maybe Ariel if I can get her to listen! And I’d LIKE to have Sandra, but she’s being chased around by all the Hall leaders.”

“But… can’t all of you fly?” I ask after a second of thought. Well, other than Sandra, but she’s already written her off. Wait, when did Sandra come out? I miss so many things when out on mission, seriously!

“So?”

“Why would you need a getaway car if you can all fly away?” I ask.

“Because if we fly away, we won’t have a cute getaway driver waiting for us!” she says as if that makes perfect sense.

“Yeah, but I can’t drive, anyway,” I admit. “I never learned.”

“I could—” she stops, as if abruptly realizing something, “I never learned, either,” she admits, frowning. “We’ll make Nico teach us!”

“But I travel a LOT farther without a car,” I have to point out. “A lot faster, too.”

“Well, yeah,” she says, pouting. I think she’s just intent on learning to drive, now—but can you imagine her behind a wheel? Wait—

“Can you make other things phase through stuff?” I ask.

“Sure!”

“That WOULD be fun, wouldn’t it?” I say, just picturing it. “But I can’t,” I admit, sighing. “Technically, Max still has a few jobs left, and I’m still on his team.”

“But someday?” she asks.

“Definitely,” I say, trying not to laugh. “Now I should get going—I haven’t slept in a while, I need to crash,” I say. To my surprise, she drags me into a hug, holding on tight for a long moment.

“Don’t tell people you’re a pain to deal with,” she says, softly, pressing my head against her shoulder. “Don’t even think it. We’re different, but—but we’re not pains. We just need… stronger people than most, see? It’s not scary when they’re around.”

I’m feeling a bit awkward, but I nod. “Yeah, I guess so,” I say as she lets go. “Night, Skye,” I say, stepping back a few times before heading through the nearest shadow and back to my room.

***

I can’t sleep. Look, I spent the time between thirteen and seventeen on the run. I just knew that the moment I stayed too long in one place, Marigold would find me. She was like a massive bloodhound, intent on tracking me down. It’s a bit of a miracle that I wound up here instead of in the Cape Cells, if you ask me. I kept stumbling into things I shouldn’t be involved in—and a lot of it was my own fault.

I want to be a hero—no, not the type that runs around in tights and has movies based on them. I want to be the guy that goes in and saves kids out of bad situations. I want them to feel safe because
I
never felt safe… I mean, even in the Shadowlands, where only two people in the world can go, I STILL don’t feel safe. There are things down there—living things. I’ve never seen one up close, but I’m positive they have sharp, pointy teeth and a lust for blood.

I just got distracted. Whoops. Well, anyway, I think I might be a bit light-headed over having so many people around me now—people that NOTICE me, that don’t think I’m a freak when I go through a shadow, that I actually see on a daily basis. I LOVE being in Cape High. I’ve made it my goal to get to know everyone, to be the “big brother” figure, or just “brother” to everyone around. I want them to—

I want them to need me, I think, staring at the ceiling. Like, if I disappeared one day, they would go searching for me, even if they AREN’T really worried. And, a little voice whispers, Carla is definitely in the top five of that list—as a little sister, or whatever. She was part of the group that accepted me first. Right now, though, the reminder of her fake smile and the hand held out is haunting me. What will I do if she keeps pulling away?

I let out a curse, rolling over and getting to my feet. I need a midnight snack. No, I NEED sleep, but that one’s already out the window, so a snack will have to do. I pull to a stop at the bottom of the stairs when I see flashing lights. Someone’s in there, I think, sinking into the shadows and heading for the den. I peek through, only to let out a sigh of relief as I see Nico. He’s floating in the middle of the room, his hands out to the walls. I step out of the shadow, and he looks at me, not even surprised.

“Can’t sleep?” he asks.

“Yea—I mean, no, I can’t,” I say, looking at the walls. An image of him is floating there. “What’re you doing?” I ask, motioning to it.

“Building a new game,” he says.

“What?”

“It’s a strategy game. You’ll find your character programmed into your phone—he’s based on your abilities.”

“What’s the strategy?” I ask.

“How to take me down,” he says, much to my shock. I stare at him for a long moment, until he gives me a crooked grin. “Don’t look so shocked, Rocco—you’re one of the ones that could probably do it with the smallest team.”

“So you want us—the dorm kids—to put together a strategy to take YOU down?” I say, still trying to wrap my mind around it. “Why?”

“Because while we have Mother taken care of, we still have Herold out there,” he says. “I want to see what you, as a group, have learned from my training. It’s not a challenge if you already know the answer.”

“You’re going to send half-trained capes that haven’t even grown into their powers after an S-class super?” I demand. “It’s one thing to send ME in to get a watch when your mom is taking care of the fighting, man, but THIS is insane!”