The Normals

Chapter Fifteen: Double-Crossing

“It’s finished,” Roger breathed.

Marianne paused in her work. “Is it really?”

“As soon as you finish tightening that lug nut, yes.”

Marianne’s hands trembled with excitement. She fumbled with the wrench, tightening the last superfluous bit of metal on. It had been barely a month since she’d joined the Stuffed Cloud, but it felt like her entire life. And this moment was the longest moment of any of it. There was a fluttery feeling in her stomach. It was hard to accept it when it was finally done. But as the anticlimactic finality assured itself, she stepped back and looked up at the Machine.

“Now,” said Roger, “it is done.”

“I can’t believe it.” Marianne almost squealed. “I’m gonna be a Super!”

“Just go and bring your powers up here, and you will.” They had started referring to the Supers Marianne knew as “her powers.” She had spent many hours sorting them in her mind and deciding which ones she wanted to get first. James and Nicole's first, of course, because they were the easiest to trick and because she'd had a long time to grow well and properly jealous of them. But after that would come a full cast of powerful characters.

“That won’t be any trouble,” she laughed. “They’ve been impatient to get up here for weeks!”

“It wouldn’t be any trouble anyway,” Roger said. “Not for you.”

Marianne smiled at him. “I know,” she said, “but thanks for reminding me anyway.”

“I’ve done it,” she announced to the Shark. “It only took me a few hours. I overpowered one of the robo-guards, snuck into the main Control Room, and found the switch. The anti-Super shields will be down for three hours at least, if I’ve calculated the shifts right, which I have.” 

“Excellent.” The Shark clapped his hands. “We’ll attack at once.”

“Sir, that won’t be a good idea,” Marianne said. “A full-scale attack, now, when everything’s so uncertain?”

“You knew it was what we were planning.”

“Yes, eventually. For now, I think Supers should be introduced to the area in small groups. I’ll take James and—I mean, the Soaring Angel and the Dust Devil right now.”

“You are not in charge of this mission, Miss Averrige, and they are not your sidekicks.” Shark turned to look at the twins, who did their best to look like respectable sidekicks who had not been making conspirational faces to Marianne from behind his back seconds earlier. “Your Normal friend brings up a point,” he told them. “It would be a good idea to introduce Supers to the territory in small groups. I’ll take you two up there immediately.”

“Wait,” Marianne interrupted. “You’ll take those two up?”

“Yes,” he said over his shoulder. “Thank you for your help, but with the anti-Super shields down, we should be able to handle it.”

“But I’m the one who knows the Stuffed Cloud.”

“We can manage,” said the Shark. “We are, after all Supers. I’ll meet you two at the helicopter in ten minutes,” he added to the twins, and strode out of the room.

Nicole sighed and stepped up to her friend. “Ignore him,” she said comfortingly. “It’s been hard on him, seeing a Normal doing his job. And doing it a million times better than he ever could, too. Of course he'd be jealous.”

Marianne snorted. “I know I can do it better than him,” she said. “Which is why you need to have me along right now!"

“Honestly,” said James, “I’ve been a little bit jealous recently, too.”

It struck Marianne that her friends seemed to be a lot less comforting than they used to be.

“Besides,” said Nicole, “there’s another reason he doesn’t want you up there. And it’s a bit more personal.” She lowered her voice. “It’s Cindy Cyan, you see. I think he wants to confront her, but he’s really touchy about the subject, so it’s not something he would want any outsider to see.”

“Nevertheless,” said Marianne.

“Look,” said James. “It’s all right. You don’t have to listen to the Shark any more than we ever do. Right, Nicole?”

“Right.”

“Just get on the next regular helicopter you can find. Catch up to us. Nicole and I, we’ll think of an excuse.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” said a voice from the doorway. The three of them jumped and spun around. Shark was there, arms crossed, filling the space completely. “I don’t need Mr B around to tell me that you two are always conspiring against me. You too, Miss Averrige—this is precisely the sort of reason Normals don’t become Supers.” He snapped his fingers. “Angel. Devil. Come here.”

James and Nicole hurried over, their colored costumes blurring through the air as they shamefacedly joined him in the hallway.

“Your Normal friend isn’t following us to the Stuffed Cloud,” he said to them, but he was looking at Marianne. “She isn’t going to leave Headquarters. In fact, she isn’t even going to leave this room.”

He looked over at a control panel to his right. Marianne knew what he was going to do before he did it, and already she tensed to run and fight. But she couldn’t even open her mouth before the door slammed shut, tight and locked, inches away from her face. 

Marianne sat in the center of the room. She knew it was no use getting out. The rooms of the Fantastic City Supers Headquarters were built to withstand supervillain attacks; a normalvillain like Marianne wouldn’t have a chance. 

She remembered how excited she had been when she had first stepped into this place. She had been imagining wonderful futures for herself in these rooms, imagined herself walking in and out and belonging there as much as any Super. She realized now that she didn’t know anything about Headquarters. Not nearly as much as she did about the Stuffed Cloud.

Roger would figure out she wasn’t there and find a way to get her. The only question was, when would he realize he needed to send help? Marianne thought about calling him, but cell phone signals didn’t reach the Stuffed Cloud.  She thought about calling her mother, but the result would be even worse than the times she had gotten arrested. Roger could easily hold his own against three Supers, with all the technology on the Cloud, but when would he have time to fetch Marianne?

She got her answer when she heard a familiar scurrying sound out in the hallway. The door whooshed open.

“How did you get in?”

Pet put a finger to her lips. “There’s an entrance on Dark Street that has no Super shield,” she whispered in her harshly grating voice as she grabbed Marianne’s hand and hurried her back in the other direction.

“How did you know that? And how did you get here so fast?”

“Same way we’ll get back so fast,” said Pet. “Jet packs.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Good to practice flying before you get your powers!” said Pet with a thoroughly uncomforting laugh.

Marianne laughed back. It seemed the only appropriate thing to do.