Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Chapter Seven
"Well, you don't want to stay here with us, and you can't go home," Mrs. Stronghold said, "so Principal Powers spoke with the Council, and they have assigned you a new guardian until you are old enough to legally take care of yourself."
"Who?" I asked.
"Me," came a voice from behind me.
There, in the doorway, standing next to Principal Powers, was Bruce Wayne.
"Excuse me?" I said, blinking up at him stupidly.
"I'm to be your legal guardian," Mr. Wayne said.
"But… but… I can't leave Maxville," I said, "and you shouldn't, either. You're the only one that's ever caught him, and nobody on our side knows him better than I do. We need to stay where he is."
"And we will," he said. "Mr. and Mrs. Stronghold here sold me a wonderful house down the road, where I can live without fear of Gotham's underworld with my recently inherited goddaughter." At the last bit, he eyed me.
"So, even though everyone at school already knows who I am, the neighbors will be lead to believe that I'm your goddaughter, and you moved to Maxville for safety purposes?" I asked. Mr. Wayne nodded. "That's diabolical. But it seems sound. Now, tell me. How are we going to capture my parents?"
"We are not going to be doing anything," Mr. Wayne said. "You will focus on school, while I focus on your parents."
"No," I said. "You won't be able to catch him without me."
"What makes you think that?" Mr. Wayne asked. Everyone else except for Will, who was staring at his food, followed the conversation as one would a tennis match.
"There is nobody on this green Earth, my mother included, that knows my father as I do," I said. "He trained me to be just like him, and he trained me well. But his insanity didn't take hold on me, at least, not entirely, or else I'd be there with him. I'm your best shot at figuring out how his twisted little mind works, Mr. Wayne."
"School still comes first," Mr. Wayne said. "And call me Bruce."
"Alright," I said. "I can agree with that. So, what are we going to do with the Strongholds?"
"Don't you worry about us," Mrs. Stronghold said. "We've dealt with villains before."
"Not like him," Bruce and I said at the same time. He nodded towards me, giving me the floor.
"I know he got a good look at Will last night, and not everyone in this family is invulnerable," I said, looking pointedly at the Mrs. "You need to be on your guard now every second of every day until he's caught. I'm not saying you need to live in fear, but, when it comes to my father, paranoia is your friend. I fear I've made the three of you targets, simply from my request to Warren night before last. But I'm going to tell the others the same thing. I don't want to be seen outside of school with anyone besides Bruce, because he's already a target." The Strongholds, all three of them, nodded.
"We should be safe at school," I said, before adding as an afterthought, "unless he decides to take the whole thing down. But I can't think of any ways he can get someone up there to spy."
"What about you?" Will asked quietly, looking up from his meal for the first time.
"What about me?" I asked.
"What are you gonna do for your own safety?" he asked, his eyes shining up at me. "You've got all these plans and restrictions for everyone else's safety, but haven't once mentioned your own."
"In my father's eyes, I'm either enemy number one or two," I said. "I'm not sure there's much of anything that I can do."
Will had a pensive look on his face and, as silence descended upon the room, Bruce and Principal Powers moved to the table to get some breakfast.
"Last night, you'd said that until the day you were caught you'd always worn a wig when away from the hideout," Will said.
"Will, you're a genius!" I exclaimed, so excited that I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed, but I busied myself with going through my space pocket, searching for the right thing. "Aha!" I said, pulling a short blonde wig from the pocket. "This should work!"
I pulled a few pins out of the pocket, turned my ponytail into a tight bun, and pinned the wig into place, before taking the last bite of my breakfast. When I looked up, flipping the synthetic blonde hair out of my face, I found that everyone else was looking at me with a mixture of amazement and pity. "What?" I asked.
"How did you do that so fast?" Will asked, having recovered from his blush.
"Lots of practice," I said. Mrs. Stronghold shook her head, banishing the pity from her face.
"Alright," she said. "You kids go get ready for school. We're going to start making plans."
"But-" I began, only to be interrupted by Mr. Stronghold.
"No, Seraphim," he said, in an 'I'm a dad, and my word is law' voice. "You and your guardian have already agreed that school comes first. After that, I'm sure he'll fill you in on what he feels you need to know."
"Yes, sir," I said, pushing my chair away from the table. "Thank you… for everything."
Without waiting for a response, I left the room. A few minutes later, Will left the kitchen and found me sitting on the sofa, hugging my knees, glaring at the fake hair.
"Hey," he said, sitting next to me and wrapping his arms around my shoulders in a one-sided hug. "It's gonna be okay."
I was silent for a moment, a little shocked at the idea of someone holding me.
"I'm scared, Will," I finally said quietly. So this was what fear felt like. It wasn't the same kind of fear from the other night in the alley behind the Paper Lantern. Those men could only hurt my body. My father could tear my mind and soul apart. But there was more to it than that.
"You've got the Batman with you now," Will said. "You'll be fine."
"You don't understand," I said, the tears running down my cheeks hardly registering. "It's not me I'm worried about. At least, not so much. For the first time in my life I have people that are nice to me, people I consider friends. And now he shows up. Gods. He ruins everything!"
A crash brought me out of my ranting as the coffee table in front of me lifted itself about an inch off of the ground before falling, the glass in it shattering. The adults rushed into the room to find Will and I still sitting on the couch, his arms still around me, staring at the wreckage that had once been a coffee table.
"Are you kids okay?" Mrs. Stronghold asked.
"We're fine," I said, shaking off Will's arms to start picking up the glass. "I'm sorry about your table.
"What happened?" she asked, moving to help me.
"I… I lost control of my powers," I said.
"You weren't shaking," Will said, also moving to help as Mr. Stronghold brought us a trashcan. "You weren't moving at all. You said you always shook when you got close to losing control."
I looked up at him, shocked enough to actually stop moving. "I wasn't shaking?" I asked. He shook his head. "But there's no way. I have to move my hands to use my telekinesis."
"And I didn't have any powers when I started Sky High," he said as I once again began putting the glass into the can. "But Nurse Spex said that super kids pull off crazy stuff under stress. Maybe that revelation was all you needed."
"Hmm…" I said, thinking. "Hold on a sec. You may have something there."
Stopping what I was doing, I tried to bring forth the emotions I had been experiencing not long before. As the rage at my father came forth, the glass in my hand began to shake, before raising into the air and moving to the trashcan. As I the feeling wore out, I lost control of the glass and it fell into the can.
"That was amazing!" Will said, putting more glass into the can.
"I knew you could do it," Mrs. Stronghold said proudly. "Now, you two go get your books and head to the bus stop. I'll finish cleaning this up."
"I really am sorry about your table," I said as Will helped me stand.
"Think nothing of it," Mrs. Stronghold said. "I live with two superstrong men. You've no idea how many household items get broken on a daily basis here."
"If you're sure…" I said, letting the sentence drop off into nothing.
"I'm sure," she said. "Now get your books and head to the bus stop."
I waited at the door for Will, my own books in my space pocket. Once he was ready, we headed to the bus stop, unaware of the eyes following us.
"Are you alright?" he asked as we walked.
"I'll be fine," I said. "Moving that glass took a lot of emotion, that's all. I'm sure it'll get easier as I exercise it."
