Kali stared at the computer some more. She was confused. She knew her dad hated Barron Battle but what had he ever done to their family?
This was what she saw:
'Barron Battle posed a great threat to the safety of Maxville in the late 1970s and the duration of the 1980s. During this time he had an inner circle of villains to whom he told everything and with whom he shared everything. These ten villains were:
Krekin (dead)
Dare (dead)
Agoria (incarcerated)
Aegean (whereabouts unknown)
Destructor (whereabouts unknown)
Ivan (whereabouts unknown)
Sky (whereabouts unknown)
Bellum (whereabouts unknown)
Lux (whereabouts unknown)
Nox (whereabouts unknown)'
She checked and re-checked the names she had inputted against the ones on the screen in front of her. Why? Why was her dad doing this?
She scrolled down through the article further.
'Barron Battle has been incarcerated in the Maxville Penitentiary for Villains since 1991 after the Commander received an anonymous call. There he discovered an unconscious Barron Battle alongside the body of Selena Charman, a senior at Sky High and brother of Xannon Charman.
Xannon and his family moved to California after the terrible murder but are now back in Maxville where Xannon is for no apparent reason attacking the former members of Barron Battle's inner circle. Although we are grateful for his contribution to the safety of Maxville and it's inhabitants, we at the Hero Command Centre are anxious for his well-being and urge anyone who sees him to stay away and contact us.'
Kali's jaw went slack. Barron Battle had killed her dad's sister? And now, fifteen years later her was attacking these villains for no apparent reason? This didn't make sense. She sent the article to print and glared angrily at the printer for being so slow. She marched into the kitchen where her mother was chopping vegetables and confronted her again.
'What is dad doing?' she demanded angrily.
'Kali, we already had this discussion. I don't know what he's doing, why he's doing it or when he's going to be home,' said her mother steadily not looking up from the chopping board.
'Well you're obviously not as clever as I thought. Because I just looked up some stuff on the Internet and I know what dad's doing. Why didn't you tell me dad had a sister? Or for that matter that Barron Battle killed that sister? Trying to keep me protected? From what?' she yelled.
'Kali that is enough! Yes I did know about your father's sister – how could I not? And I also knew what he was up to and whom he is capturing. But I don't know why – this move was so sudden. He didn't give a proper explanation and he asked for the transfer to here. And I didn't tell you because I didn't know what to tell you! I guess I was afraid you would do something stupid – try and find your father, I don't know but I thought it was best for all of us if you didn't know!' her mother shouted.
'Well I guess that's over now!' Kali screamed back and before she knew it she had thrown a fireball at her mother.
Her mother ducked and threw a minor fireball at Kali's feet. She was powerful enough to kill Kali but she obviously didn't want to do that, she just wanted to scare her daughter out of these hysterics. Reason wasn't going to work, water would make her more angry probably. So Kairos decided to scare her daughter and rained mini fireballs at her feet while Kali threw fireballs of her own at her mother, most of which she dodged.
They had never had a fight like this. There had been shouting sure but this time Kali didn't know what she would do next. She had always been in control of herself and her powers. She was hurt that she'd been lied to, been kept in the dark, treated as a child. She'd had to leave her friends and her boyfriend for what? So her dad could go on some revenge trip fifteen years too late?
Her mother's fireballs were scorching the sides of her boots but Kali was too angry to notice. She threw more and more fireballs until she was exhausted. She had never used her power so much all at once. She didn't know heroes got tired.
'Kali? Are you finished now?' asked her mother.
Kali nodded and sank to the floor, all her rage spent and now all she wanted to do was sleep.
'Well then you can help me to finish preparing dinner and then you can scrub these scorch marks off the floor. You're not getting out of this without punishment young lady if that's what you were thinking.'
Kali nodded glumly, knowing that she was beaten. She didn't like it but she was too tired to argue and this was her mother. No one crossed her without some sort of punishment and Kali it was grateful it wasn't cleaning out the gutters of her house and the neighbours'…all along the street. She'd had to do that once when her mom had found her with a boy in her room. That had been a pretty bad day.
-
The next day as the alarm blared Kali woke up sore and tired. She was not in the mood to go to school but dragged her legs out of bed anyway.
She was half way down the stairs when she heard her mom yell. Grumpily she sloped into the kitchen and poured herself some coffee. She hadn't finished scrubbing away the scorch marks until almost midnight.
'Now Kali, I'm asking you as your mother to please not do anything dangerous or stupid or well…' she trailed off.
'Me-like?' Kali supplied.
'Yes. Now you may know why your dad is doing what he is but please don't do anything about it.'
'Well what is someone picks on me for what dad's doing?' she asked.
'It's a school for the children of heroes, Kali. I can't imagine anyone would have a problem with your father capturing villains.'
'I can think of one,' she muttered before grabbing some toast and heading out of the door.
She scuffed her shoes on the pavement as she walked to the bus stop happily munching on her toast. Even though the day had started out badly, it seemed to be picking up. The sun was shining and she leaned on a warm wall waiting for the bus to arrive.
Will and Layla strolled up behind her discussing the latest in hero news.
'So Aegean is really dead?' asked Layla.
'Apparently,' said Will. 'It's a great achievement for the hero community. Aegean was Barron Battle's right hand man – he knew everything Barron did. They even went to school together, so Dad says.'
'But why do you think he's doing it? Going after all those villains?' queried Layla.
'I don't know – it's weird. Dad says the Command Centre can't get in touch with him – maybe he's gone rogue,' replied Will.
At this Kali spun round.
'Listen, if you're going to talk about my dad I'd rather you did it out of my hearing. Or preferably not at all,' she snapped.
They backed down and were silent pretty quickly. Strangers didn't usually intimidate them but this girl was different and seemed to exude something that they didn't want to mess with.
Luckily the bus came right at this moment and they all piled on. Kali found a seat near the back and slumped down in it. As the driver trundled round the rest of the streets picking up kids he had the radio on in the background. Then Kali heard something that made her sit upright in her seat.
'Quiet!' she yelled and all the kids fell silent, shocked by this sudden outburst and all that could be heard was the report from the newsreader on the radio.
'Breaking news on the whereabouts and activities of Desperado. We have just learned that he has killed the villain Aegean in a battle that lasted throughout the night and finished at the base of the Maxville mountain range. There is no sign of Desperado currently even though the Hero Command Centre is desperate to get in touch with him. Once again, members of the hero community are urged not to approach this hero as he may be compromised. Aegean was the right hand man of Barron Battle who is currently incarcerated in Maxville Penitentiary serving a quadruple life sentence.'
Kali sat back down in her seat, relieved that this wasn't a report of her father's capture or even worse, his death. The driver tentatively opened the doors to let the final students on the bus who had been stood outside the bus for the past five minutes. The kids got on and, in silence, the bus took off towards Sky High.
-
In Maxville Penitentiary Barron Battle sat down to eat his breakfast accompanied by his usual newspaper but this morning the headline made him throw his food across the room.
'AEGEAN DEAD – HOW MANY MORE WILL DIE IN VIGILANTI ATTACKS?' screamed the headline.
He wasn't surprised to receive a visit from one of his old friends, Destructor, that morning as soon as visiting hours began. Even though any visits made to Barron Battle were closely supervised, Barron knew he had to take a great risk. He hoped the guards couldn't decipher his code – they looked quite stupid. This was a code he had managed to set up before his arrest so that if ever the occasion arose, his plan could be put into action almost immediately without arousing suspicion.
Destructor entered the room.
'Ciao!' cried Barron.
He saw a look of recognition flit across his friend's face and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything would fall into place, just as he had hoped.