Vivian
October 8th, 2007. 5:12 p.m. Suzy’s office. Me, Yuko, and Josh are sitting in front of her desk. Yuko’s looking tired. Probably a bit hungover. Josh is looking… respectful? No. That’s the wrong word. He looks like a chihuahua cowering in front of a great dane. Suzy’s sitting at the other end of her desk stacking a small pyramid of Boss Coffee cans. “Any of you ever have this coffee?”
We all shake our heads.
“Shame.”
“Can we get on with this?” Yuko puts her phone away.
“Ssssh.” Suzy points at Yuko, finishes the pyramid, and admires it for a sec. “Beautiful… Just… beautiful. Anyway,” she swivels towards us. “I just need some people to provide the data room with some extra security. Anyone want to volunteer?”
Josh raises his hand.
“Shoot.” Suzy points at him.
“Does this job require me to stay on campus?”
“Yes. For a whole week.”
“Please. Please put me on this.” Josh begs.
“Done.” Suzy nods. “Yuko?”
Yuko checks her phone again. “Sorry. Can’t do it tonight. Got plans.”
“Pays $25 an hour.” Suzy pulls out another can of coffee and begins slurping away.
“I said I can’t.” Yuko rubs her temple. “No amount of money’s changing that.”
“Huh. Your loss. Could I offer you a coffee?”
“Thanks, but no thanks.” Yuko shakes her head.
“Very well. Vivian, how bout you? You in?”
“What do I have to do?”
“Just sit out in front of the data room and make sure no one gets in. Easy.” Suzy lets out a burp and adds yet another can to the pyramid.
“Are we the only ones on duty?”
“Hell no. I got at least four dozen other professionals and students defending the school perimeter.”
“Okay, good. Sign me up.”
“Cool. Just go to the entrance of the data room elevator. You know where that is?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “It’s the building next to the request hall right?”
“Yep.” Suzy slurps another can. “Now go. Shift starts now. Go go go.”
“Right! C’mon, Josh! I’ll race ya!” I get up and begin sprinting across campus. Josh quickly catches up to me and surpasses me. Still gotta work out more it seems… Oh god I’m even out of breath…
7:47 p.m. Been sitting outside the data door for a good while now. This thing’s just menacing. Hell, the entire wall, ceiling, and floor surrounding the data room is menacing as all hell. Bright, sturdy metal lined the walls, ceiling, and floor around the data room. Was so clean I could see my reflection in it. Damn I look good. The area around the door looks like it belongs in a fallout bunker instead of a school. Wish they could’ve given us chairs… Wish I could make a chair… That’d be a cool - but very situational - Tech. I’m sure at least one person has it. It’d be amazing if they were a wrestler. Oh god I hope they’re a wrestler… I’d watch that in a heartbeat.
“Yo, Josh.” I bop him on the head.
“Sup?”
“Uh… so… what’s the deal between you and Yuko?”
“Hm? What you mean?”
“Ya know… are you dating? Friends with benefits?”
Josh smiles. “Well that depends, who’s asking?”
“Why would it matter who’s asking?”
Josh chuckles. “It might matter to Yuko.”
“Wanna elaborate on that?”
“For $50 maybe.”
“Piss off.”
Josh howls in laughter.
We spend the next thirty minutes in silence.
“So… uh…” I break the silence. What do you talk to Yuko about when you have your little smoke breaks?”
“You got $60?”
“Dude. Come on.”
“Hey, man. That stuff is private. I’m not exactly at liberty to discuss that.” Josh smirks and shrugs like a smug little bastard.
“Fair enough…” I sigh and lean back. “I mean, Angela has told me some private stuff too, so I get it.”
Josh pauses. “What did she tell you?”
“What? Doesn’t Angela tell you everything?”
“I dunno. Does she? What did Angie tell you?”
“$80.”
“Ha… ha…” Josh’s head turns to the hallway and all emotion from his face evaporates in an instant.
“Josh? Buddy? Hello?” I wave my hand in front of his face before turning to where he’s looking. “What’re you looking at?”
I see two figures walking down the hallway. Both of them are in baggy jeans and huge jackets. One indigo, one bright pink. Both are taller than me and roughly the height and build of Josh. They look so cozy… I want one. “Hey, guys. Where’d you get the jackets?”
The one in the pink jacket takes off her hood and reveals a scarred, bald woman. “Sup, Josh.” her chapped lips and ashen eyes twist into a calm, filthy smile.
Josh immediately gets up and books it right out of the open window across from us.
The woman in the pink jacket ignores me and books it right after him.
“Great. The hell do you want?” I put my hands inside my pockets and feel around. What do I have on me tonight? A shrunken kitchen knife, another shrunken stop sign, a shrunken brick… I really should buy a gun… Dunno why I haven’t yet.
The figure doesn’t talk. It just reaches into its pocket and throws a shuriken at me. I feel it whoosh past my ear and chop off some hair before bouncing off the wall and falling to the ground. I pick it up, touch the floor, and grow the shuriken about half a meter long. I don’t know how to wield a chakram, but I guess I’m going to learn tonight. “Dude, the hell’s your problem? Get out.” I begin swinging the shuriken side to side at the figure. It’s beyond unwieldy. Damn near sliced my wrists open three times.
It doesn’t do much. The figure keeps its distance and dodges out of the way of each of my swings. Why aren’t they counter attacking? I’m sure I gave them plenty of opportunities to.
I stop swinging, but keep the shuriken between me and them. “Wanna just talk? I feel that’d be more practical than fighting.”
The figure flips me the bird and begins to throw kunai at me.
I block all of them with the shuriken and hold my stance.
The figure continues throwing knives at me.
“I can do this all day, dude. You wanna stop?”
The figure shakes their head, turns around, runs down the hall, and turns the corner.
“Weird…” I look back to the data room door, then to the hallway. My job’s to protect the data room… I’m sure any student that comes across them can take care of themselves… Though why attack me then just run away…? It doesn’t make sense. Are they trying to lure me out or some-
“What the hell?!” Yuko’s voice rings from down the hallway. “Viv! Help me out here!”
“Yuko! I’m coming!” I dash towards Yuko’s voice, but keep my distance from the corner. Upon turning the corner, I see Yuko standing there with her arms crossed. She’s wearing the same baggy jeans and the same indigo jacket, but has the hood down. She has a gross, utterly disgusting grin.
“Yuko! Are you okay?!”
“Sorry, Viv.” She blows me a kiss then waves to me.
Once again… I feel the same chill I felt at the colosseum enrapturing my body. All control and warmth withers away from me. My spine freezes and my eyes lock in place.
“Keep her busy, Junko.” Yuko walks towards the data room. “I’ll be back in no time.”
I want to yell. I want to cry. I want to hurt her so, so badly… but here I am suspended in the air… I can’t even breathe… I wish this ghost would get it over with alre-
I hear a cacophony of yells, small explosions, and clanging of metal outside… What’s going on? Why is this happening? What did I do?
Before I can ask any more questions, I get thrown across the hallway and through the boy’s restroom door. My back slams against the tile. The tile cracks and the back of my head slams against it shortly after. I slide down and plop onto the ground like an abused ragdoll. My back hurts like hell, my vision’s a little blurry… but everything’s warm again… so that’s good at least.
“The heck was that?!” A voice rings out from behind one of the stalls. I hear a flush and see Will emerge from the stall. “Oh my goodness! Vivian! Are you okay?!” he runs towards me and slowly waves his hand in front of my eyes. “Can you follow my hand?”
“I’m.. fine…” I say through pained breath. “Just protect the data room… I can call for more help…”
“Are you sure?”
“GO ALREADY!” I shove him away with what little strength I have.
“Understood.” he nods and runs away. “I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can!”
Everything hurts… but I have to get back up… My legs are shaking, my back feels ready to seperate, but I can keep going… I’m not letting that treacherous swine get away.
I trudge away from the wall and pass the large mirror over the bathroom sinks. There’s a girl floating in the reflection. Long, oily black hair that’s floating in every direction. She’s wearing a white sundress that seems to go on forever.
I look behind me, and sure enough she isn’t there; only in the mirror. I reach into my back pocket and pull out my phone. Yep… Broken in half… I throw the phone on the ground and look into the mirror. She looks so… sad? I mean I’m not sure what I expected a ghost to look like, but I wasn’t expecting sadness. It isn’t the kind of violent sadness either where tears can’t stop flowing and snot’s pouring out of everywhere. It’s the kind of sadness that comes when you’ve run out of tears and no longer have the energy to cry. A dry sadness. A tired sadness.
I pivot to the left. She follows. I pivot to the right. She follows. I peer into the mirror and am just captivated by her eyes. I feel like I’m being drawn into the mirror just by looking at her…
“Can you hear me?”
Junko nods in the reflection.
“I guess you’re going to possess me again if I leave this room, huh?”
Junko nods.
“Why don’t you just possess me now and get it over with?”
Junko shakes her head.
“I see…” Hm… maybe her Tech is restricted somehow… If the goal was to possess me, why would Yuko draw me away from the door in the first place? Maybe she can’t possess someone if they see her in a reflection. It’d be oddly specific, but it’s a Tech. It’d make sense. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to kill me. Can’t call for help. Can’t leave the room. Might as well talk, right? “I suppose you’re Junko?”
Junko pauses, then nods.
“Can you talk at all?”
Junko points at the mirror and draws letters in the air. The sentence “I can do this” oozes forth from the mirror in blood and drips into the sink.
“Whoa… That’s so cool.” I cough. “Can you draw with that?”
Junko writes, “I can’t draw.”
“I know this is probably not the best time… but I am loving your outfit. Where’d you get it?”
“Suzy.”
Huh… now that’s intriguing. “Why are you doing this? What do you and your friends want?” I’m starting to feel a little light-headed.
The building begins to shake. I can hear doors, handrails, cans, and the kitchen sink being torn out and swirl around in the hallway outside. Suzy is marching down the hallway towards the data room protected by a small cyclone of junk, objects, and weaponry. “Come back here.” She sounds ready to kill everyone in the tri-state area.
Junko writes, “Suzy killed me.”
Before she can finish writing, I blink, and I find myself in bed again. No back pain. Vision’s fine. No noise, fire, or yelling outside either. I get my phone from my nightstand and check the time. Monday, October 8th, 2007. 11:21 a.m… What the hell is going on?
I roll over in my bed and hear Yuko yell from under her covers. “Damnit damnit damnit damnit! God damnit all!” she thrashes her pillows and chucks her blanket on the floor.
“Yuko… are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m doing just peachy! Thanks for asking!” Yuko nearly punches a hole through the wall.
“You got sent back too, right?”
“Duh. Goddamn bastards….”
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I immediately get up and stand in front of the doorway. “Where were you before we got sent back?”
“None of your business.” Yuko rolls around and faces the wall.
“Yuko. Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Yuko flips me the bird.
“Yuko.” I approach her and stand before her bedside. “What were you doing?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Go away.”
“Yuko.” I sit atop her lap and poke her forehead.
“You have three seconds to get off befo-”
“Yuko.” I clench her cheeks between my thumb and index finger and turn her head to face me. She looks ready to kick my teeth in and cry, but I don’t care. It feels like my lungs are about to ooze out of my chest. I bend down and put my face mere centimeters from hers. “You don’t have to tell me what you were doing. Just tell me if you were at the school five minutes ago.”
“What? Why does that matter?”
“Yuko.” I clear my throat. My back begins to feel heavy. “Just… tell me. Please…” I can barely stand to look at her. My throat’s hot. My eyes are nearly shut. I can’t help it. I collapse into her chest to hide my tears.
“What the-?” Yuko pauses before embracing me. She slowly pats the back of my head. “I was at the mall… why? Did something happen?”
Her heart’s beating so fast… is she lying? “Yeah… the school got attacked. Someone who looked like you attacked me.”
“They looked like me? The hell do you mean?”
Her heart’s getting faster. “I mean they looked exactly like you… they even had your voice.”
“Oh… I gotcha. How did they attack?”
“Knives and shuriken.”
“Viv, if I was going to attack you, why would I use knives? I could yell at you right now and shoot you through the ceiling.”
“Yeah… good point.” I wipe my nose and look up at her. “Then who was that?”
“Well… we do know a shapeshifter, don’t we?”
My eyes widen. I jump off Yuko, bolt out the dorm, and see Sejong, Janelle, Will, and A.D. all struggling in the hallway. I hear Yuko’s footsteps following behind me.
“Where are you going, Will? I thought we were running this morning.” A.D. yanks Will off away from Sejong.
“I… forgot something in the training hall. I’ll be right back. Promise.”
“Really? What did you forget?” Janelle has her arms wrapped around Sejong’s abdomen. “I made sure to pick up anything you might have left.”
“Fantastic point.” Sejong coughs. “But can you let me go?! The art warehouse is having a sale, and I wanna ge-”
Bing Bom Bang Bom
The campus PA blares through the building. It crackles and crinkles before gracing us with Suzy’s voice. “Due to some troublemakers, the campus is now on lockdown. Team Lovers and Team Familia have five minutes to report to my office before all your asses get expelled.”
Sejong, Will, and Janelle all stop struggling at once.
Josh and Angela soon emerge from their room. Both are yawning and reek of sweat. “What the hell’s going on here?” Josh says with a cig in his mouth. “It’s too early for this.”
“Nothing. Nothing’s going o-” Before Sejong can continue, his body floats in the air. His limbs look rigid, as if he had just been frozen solid. Soon after, all of us also get suspended in midair. I’m barely able to move my eyes around.
clack clack clack clack Suzy turns a corner and looks up at us. She’s once again dressed in a pink bathrobe and fuzzy bunny slippers. “All of you are coming with me, understand? And none of you are leaving until I get some answers.” she puts her thumb to her index finger.
I feel my eyelids slam shut and my body float down the halls and through the school, but I’m not scared at all. Suzy knows what she’s doing.
A.D.
October 9th, 2007. Unsure of the time. I wake up in this barren looking facility. It kinda looks like a sci-fi torture lab from an exploitation movie, but with less breasts. Unfortunately. Me, my team, and Familia are all strapped to the wall by our ankles and wrists. It’s rather dark, so I can’t see too far. There’s a bright light illuminating the wall we’re on, but not much else. I can see Headmaster sitting in a steel folding chair just behind the light, but everything behind her is draped in darkness.
“So.” Headmaster takes a swig of coffee from a still boiling coffee mug. “Anybody want a breakfast bar before we get started? We might be here a while.”
“I would like one.” Vivian raises her hand. “You got any honey oat?”
“Coming right up.” Headmaster raises her hand.
A bar floats up from the box, unwraps itself, and gently glides into Vivian’s mouth.
“Anyone else?”
No one talks.
“Guys, if I was gonna kill you, you’d already be dead. Chill. Let’s be civil.”
Yuko raises her hand. “Can I just have one cig? Please?”
“You can have one after we’re done.”
A lit cigarette slowly slides out from Josh’s mouth.
“No.” Headmaster points at Josh and propels the cig across the room.
“Aww…” Josh and Yuko sigh in unison.
“Seriously? Nobody else?” Headmaster shakes the breakfast bar box. “I bought these just for this occasion. Look.” she takes a bite out of one and swallows. “Completely fine.”
I will need my nutrients if I am going to last… “Headmaster, do you have any choco chip bars?”
“You got it, Mr. Street Justice.” she throws one into my mouth with perfect accuracy and I begin chewing.
Dang… these are pretty good. The glaze is just right… and the texture’s crunchy, but pleasant.
“Everyone good? Last chance.” Headmaster shrugs. “Alright. Let’s start wiiiith Vivian.”
“Sup.” Vivian tries to make little finger guns, but can’t move her wrists.
“What happened back there, Vivian? I thought I could trust you.” Headmaster sounds like a disappointed, but not surprised kindergarten teacher.
“I got no excuses.” Vivian shakes her head. “I got baited super hard.”
“What happened?”
“Well, I was at the door with Josh until two people in hoodies showed up.”
“Is that true, Josh?” Headmaster asks.
“Yep.” Josh nods. “One of them was Faust and I immediately booked it out the window.”
“So you admit to fleeing from your post?”
“Hey, I took that job assuming Faust wouldn’t sneak in. Not my fault your school security sucks.
Headmaster stares daggers at Josh for a second. “You know what? That’s a fair criticism. It would be unfair of me to criticize you for running from Faust. You’re off the hook.” she snaps her fingers. The binds around Josh’s arms and legs release and he faceplants right onto the floor.
“Ow…” he groans. “sonuvabitch…”
“Nweheheha!” Angela laughs.
“Really?” Will asks. “He’s cleared just like that?”
“I saw him running from Faust outside. I just wanted to hear him admit to it.”
“Ow… I think my nose is bleeding…” Josh staggers up to his feet and pinches his nose.
“Ah, walk it off.” Headmaster dismisses Josh. “Continue, Vivian.”
“The other figure chucked some knives at me, ran away, then I heard Yuko asking for help around the corner, went to go chase her, found Yuko smirking at me, then I felt myself get possessed again like at the Colosseum, got chucked into the bathroom, turns out Will was in one of the stalls,” Vivian takes a deep breath, “and he booked it saying he was going to get help.”
All of us look to Will. He looks annoyed, but not worried in the slightest.
Headmaster smiles and takes a bite of a breakfast bar. “Ohohoho this is getting spicy. We’ll get to you eventually, Willie. Yuko goes first though.” She snaps her fingers and releases Vivian.
Vivian falls on her back and groans.
“Are you okay, Viv?” Yuko and Angela ask.
“Yeah…” Vivian rubs her head and looks towards Yuko. “The view’s great down here.”
Yuko sighs just about the hardest I’ve heard anyone sigh in my entire life. Every time I think she’s going to stop, she just keeps going. I don’t even know where she’s storing all that air.
“Sooo, Yuyu.” Headmaster takes a swig of coffee. “Can I call you Yuyu? What were you doing that fair evening?”
“At the mall.” Yuko looks like she really wants to take a vacation from living right about now.
“What were you doing at the mall?”
“Shopping.”
“Fooor?”
“That’s not relevant.”
“Every detail is relevant in a cross-examination.”
“Nope. Not telling. All that matters is that I was at the mall.” Yuko’s cheeks puff up and her eyes begin to water.
“Yuko. Tell. Me. Now.”
“Piss off.”
“Yuko!” Headmaster tightens the binds with a mere thought. I can see Yuko’s hands and feet begin to turn blue.
“Fine!” Yuko finally belts it out. Snot drips from her nose and tears stream down her cheeks. “I waited to have lunch with my parents for three hours only to have them text me saying ‘oops we forgot. We’re at Hikari’s piano recital right now. We’ll reschedule. ciao.’! There! Are you happy?! Are you satisfied?!”
Headmaster bites her lip and looks like she just accidentally chucked a puppy into a furnace. She snaps her fingers and does everything to avoid eye contact with Yuko.
Yuko falls off the wall and Vivian catches and consoles her.
“So… Angiedangie.” Headmaster points to Angela. “What were you doing last night?”
“Bruh, I was trying to hatch a shiny.”
Headmaster turns to Janelle. “I don’t know what that means, but is that true?”
“Yes.” Janelle nods. “I just got out of the hospital and was resting in the dorm room with her.”
“Were you doing anything besides resting? How are you feeling by the way?”
Janelle does a double take towards Headmaster. “I’m… fine? Head still throbs a little. Can’t lie on my left side, but I can walk and eat just fine, so I got that going for me.”
“Good to hear.” Headmaster smiles. “Were you doing anything besides resting?”
“No.”
Angela busts out the most stereotypical yee-haw root-toot cowboy accent I’ve ever heard in my entire life, and I thought Will’s was ridiculous. “She was just practicin’ her good ol’ fashion cowboy speak.”
The entire row of students erupts into laughter. Except Sejong, Will, and Janelle. Janelle looks ready to recede into her own skin and never come back out.
“Alright, alright. You two can go.” Headmaster snaps her fingers and releases Janelle and Angela. Josh catches Angela. Vivian catches Janelle.
“So before we get to prime suspects one and two.” Headmaster turns to me. “Why don’t you fill us in on what you were doing last night, A.D.?”
“I… do not understand what is going on in the slightest. I go be a vigilante for one week, and everything goes to hell. Is my team being accused of something? What’s going on? What plots are occurring? Please, Headmaster, please tell me what is going on. I am so confused.”
“Relax, relax. Just tell me what you were doing and I can avoid making you prime suspect number 3.”
“Okay…” I take a deep breath. “Are you sure? It’s a long story.”
“Take your time.” Headmaster takes a sip of coffee. “I got nothing but time here.”
“Okay…” I collect my thoughts for a moment. “Get comfy, everyone. This story’s a bit of a doozy. I was making my way downtown-”
Angela interrupts. “Walking fast?”
I sandbag Angela to the best of my ability. “Anyway, I can’t quite remember what street I was on. I was just kinda doing recon for any potential clients. Y’know. Just checking the lay of the land, any rumors, anyone who needs someone el-”
“Get on with it.” Headmaster demands.
“Yeah, get on with it.” Vivian joins in.
“Get on with it!” the rest of the freed students demand.
“Okay, okay. Geez. No need to rush me. Basically, some edgelord named Night Blood Edge Girl was following me insisting that I owed a bunch of dues to something called the ‘Anti-Hero Union’. I declined because joining an organization kinda defeats the purpose of being a vigilante.”
“Snrk.” Headmaster chuckles. “They got you on the dues, huh?”
“Yeah…” I take a deep breath. “Soon enough, every vigilante, antihero, and edgelord within a hundred mile radius was chasing me down. Just as they forced me to sign into their union, time rewound and I was back in bed like the rest of you… Satisfied?”
“Very much so.” Headmaster nods, snaps her fingers, and unleashes my binds. “There you go.”
“Really?” I stick the landing and do a little taunt to regain some meter just in case things get dicey. “You believe me just like that?”
“No.” Headmaster smiles. “Night Blood Edge Girl’s on my payroll.”
“... Oh…” I feel very small and cold.
“I got more eyes than you know.” Headmaster downs her mug.
I feel smaller and colder.
“Now onto the main courses.” Headmaster cracks every bone in her hands. “Sejong and Willy. Whoever goes first gets lighter sentencing.”
Neither Sejong or Will speak a word.
Janelle gets up and approaches Headmaster. “Ma’am… don’t you think this is a little extreme? Will would neve-”
Headmaster looks at Janelle and says nothing.
“Okay… okay…” Janelle bows her head slightly, sits down, and curls up into a neat little Blanka ball.
“What’s a matter?” Headmaster gets out of her chair and begins pacing back and forth between Sejong and Will. “You wouldn’t shut up before time got rewound. What happened? Doc not coming to get you?”
Will just closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
Sejong doesn’t break eye contact.
“I see, I see.” Headmaster spins her mug around her finger. “Say, Sejong. Why don’t you explain to me why you let Petra free? I can surmise why, but I want to hear it from you.”
Sejong still doesn’t say anything.
C’mon man… Just talk. I really, really have to pee.
“You said I was clear…” Sejong finally talks. “You saw me on the surveillance footage. There’s no way I could’ve opened that lock.”
“Oh, really?” Headmaster chucks her mug directly at Sejong’s head.
Sejong closes his eyes and splits his head into two heads, narrowly avoiding the mug.
“... Oh…” Janelle runs her palm through her hair. “That’s how…”
“Nonsense.” Both of Sejong’s heads start talking. “I can’t just split myself in half! That’s not how my Tech works!”
“I doubt that.” Headmaster pulls out a small container from her lab coat. It looks like a typical glasses case. She opens it and pulls out a translucent knife.
The knife looks like some kind of gaudy custom-made weapon. The color seems to change every second. Light makes the knife dazzle with an obnoxious amount of sparkles. It looks like it's constantly producing hitsparks.
“Ooh…” Angela licks her lips. “Where’d you get a knife like that?”
“Had it manufactured from some alien technology I snatched from the ‘99 Fiasco.”
“Aaaaaw lucky! I’d kill for some of that tech.” Angela won’t take her eyes off that thing.
Meanwhile, I feel like I’m going to go blind just looking at it.
“Lord knows I did.” Headmaster chucks the knife into the air and puts her hands in her robe pockets.
The knife floats above Sejong’s head and plunges itself into the wall like a bayonet through wet toilet paper.
“I’m telling you! My Tech doesn’t work like that!” Sejong begins to sweat.
“I don’t believe you.” Headmaster shrugs as the flat of the knife pets the top of Sejong’s head. “Now are you going to play hard to get? Or are you just going to delay showing what I already know?”
“TO HELL WITH YOU!” Sejong looks towards everyone. “DON’T LET THIS WITCH DECEIVE YOU! SHE-”
“Ow…” Headmaster rubs her head. “No need to shout.”
With that, the knife shot itself downwards and cut right through the middle of Sejong.
I looked away… I couldn’t bear to see that. Yet… I heard nothing. No yells. No struggles. No blood hitting the floor. Nothing but the gasps of Familia and Lovers. I open my eyes and see two complete, separate, healthy Sejongs hanging from the wall. Both had an arm and a leg dangling free, but were still easily restrained by the wall binds.
“Welp.” Janelle looks at the Sejongs. “That… basically confirms my theory.”
“Mine too.” Angela nods.
“What do you me-” Josh looks at Angela, then to Sejong, then back to Angela. “Ooooh… Okay, now I get it.”
“Happy?” The Sejongs ask in unison.
“Yep.” Headmaster yawns and stretches. “Man, it feels good to be right. Adieu.” She gives a small salute and the two Sejongs levitate out of the binds and become twisted, mangled, and mutilated beyond recognition. Looks like they just got stuffed into an invisible blender.
“WHOA! AAA!” Janelle, Josh, and Yuko curl up, flinch violently, and cover their eyes. Meanwhile, Angela and Vivian continue to gaze at the bodies with what I hope is just curiosity… For some reason, I feel a stronger loyalty to Headmaster.
After the bodies hit the floor, Headmaster takes a deep breath. Her leg trembles a bit, her posture begins to wane, and she is drenched in sweat.
Headmaster pours a fresh cup of coffee, downs it in two seconds flat, and wipes her mouth with her sleeve. “Now that that’s out of the way, onto Willy.”
“Headmaster! What the hell’s wrong with you?!” Janelle’s chest heaves from her just glancing at the bodies.
“Relax.” Headmaster waves her hand. “Do you really think those are the only two Sejongs running around?”
“Shoot…” Vivian nudges one of the bodies with her foot. “That’s a good point…”
“That doesn’t make it okay!” Janelle’s eyes begin to water. “Those Sejongs didn’t deserve it!”
Headmaster turns to Janelle. “Neither. Did. Petra.”
Janelle is about to speak up again, but Yuko covers her mouth and restrains her.
“You know what, Yuko?” Headmaster smiles. “I appreciate that.”
Yuko nods apprehensively.
“Now if we can finally get back to business.” Headmaster hovers the knife back into the glasses case and shoves it back into her pocket. “Good work, Willy.” She snaps her fingers and undoes the binds around him.
Will does a cool hero fall and lands perfectly before standing up. “Happy to help.”
“You got the time and the method exactly right.” Headmaster floats her mug in mid-air and claps her hands. “Even managed to help me snuff out a mole. A+, boy. A+.”
Angela starts poking the Sejong remains with a stick she keeps in her coat.
Janelle continues trying to hold back vomit.
Everyone else just looks as bewildered as I am.
“Uh…” Josh blinks. “What the hell just happened here?”
“Would you like to do the honors?” Headmaster stops clapping and snacks on a breakfast bar.
“It’d be my pleasure.” Will smirks and gives a little bow. “I basically did a little spy work for Headmaster. It was pretty fun. Got a lot of good info out of it.”
“Like what?” I scratch my cheek.
“You know that redhead named Doc we saw in San Diego? Well, she’s basically going around trying to steal data from academies and other heroes. Also, she’s harboring a person who can rewind time, was responsible for freeing Petra, and sent out the luchador we fought at the museum.”
“Good to know...” Vivian tilts her head. “What data exactly was she trying to steal?”
“Student aliases and financial data.” Headmaster yawns. “Stuff that shouldn’t be stolen.”
“Huh. Okay. Good to know.” Vivian turns to Headmaster. “But uh… mind explaining why I wasn’t invited to this sweet spy mission?”
“Will had to work alone.” Headmaster nods. “He had Doc’s trust.”
“Fair enough…” Vivian sighs and rubs her neck. “Can I please have a cool mission like that though? I’m getting antsy from being holed up in the dorm.”
“Perfect timing.” Headmaster leans back in her chair. “I have a little treat to show all of you.” She snaps her fingers.
Black goo bubbles up from the floor and slowly rises to morph into the figure of a thin, ghastly man in a black jumpsuit with an old-fashioned film camera for a head.
“What in heaven is that…?” Janelle looks up from the floor clutching her stomach.
“And is he single?” Angela wiggles her hips.
“Everyone,” Headmaster pats the figure’s boney butt. “This is Cameron. He’s the head of my intelligence division and he just infiltrated a new Elite base.”
I see Vivian’s face distort into a grin. It doesn’t look right. “Now we’re talking.”
“Roll it.” Headmaster slaps Cameron on the rear.
Cameron sits down, faces the wall, and starts turning a little crank on the side of his head. Picture projects on the wall across from us and old-timey music sprouts from his temple.