Well, after discussing among ourselves, and messaging with Ruth- for some reason, Kevin and Charlotte haven’t been online today- we come up with a rough plan. First, the five of us exiles go to New Braunfels for the evening. Anja’s cousin Lily is there, and they have business with her. She may be able to help us in some way, too. Then, the next day, we learned via Ruth’s cousin Sam that there will be a pro-LGBT protest against the recent law held outside the capitol building in Austin. This will, if nothing else, provide a convenient excuse for us to be at the capitol building to enter for our infiltration.
Traffic on I-35 is miserably slow, and none of us really feel like talking much. If you didn’t grow up here, I-35 is the most infamous road in Texas. Specifically the north part from Austin to Dallas is considered the most dangerous stretch of road in America. Thankfully, we’re on the other side of it, which is only the second most dangerous stretch of road in America. (Probably.)
Things lighten considerably when we finally make it through Austin, though. There are a few more suburbs we pass through until we make it to New Braunfels. Anja takes us to the Northwest side of town, and soon we are in the heavily wooded outskirts of the city; a welcome change in scenery from the concrete jungle.
The house we pull up to has longer grass than many around, but otherwise has a noble stature to it. A brick first story with a second story painted over white with a brown V pattern. Two impressive old oak trees guard the front entrance.
“Your cousin’s place is nice!” Zoe compliments, as we step out of the car. “This neighborhood is so pretty.”
“Where are you going?” I ask Nova, watching him start walking towards the back patio door.
“Oh, right,” he says. He stops and walks with us to the front, looking unbothered.
So we walk to the front door like normal people, and quickly get an answer to our knock. Anja’s cousin Lily has brown eyes just like Anja’s, which look at Zoe and I questioningly, eyebrows raised. Her ruffled brown hair is tied back in a tight ponytail. She has a freckled face and is both large in stature and a couple inches taller than Anja, making her close to Zoe’s height.
“Greetings, Thieves,” Lily greets, doing a slight bow. “Come to my quarters; we have much to discuss.”
Nova giggles and Anja rolls her eyes as we’re led dramatically to Lily’s “quarters,” which consist of the bedroom right next to the front door. Lily takes a seat in a computer chair, leaving us seemingly nowhere to sit but on the bed, since the only other chair is piled up with Magic the Gathering cards. Nova and Anja, unbothered by this, sit on the bed. Zoe seems unsure of what to do and simply remains standing next to me for now.
“So. It is good to finally meet the rest of you,” Lily says.
“Not the rest of us,” Nova interjects. “You haven’t met Ted, Ruth, Kevin and Charlotte yet.”
“Oh yeah! Thanks for reminding me,” Zoe says. She takes off her backpack, pulls Ted out, and places him on one of the arms of the Magic the Gathering chair.
“Ah yes. The wise old mentor,” Lily acknowledges, bowing her head. She turns to me. “And I’m guessing that you're the leader of the group?”
At the exact same time, I answer “Yes” as Anja says “We don’t really have a leader.” We make eye contact afterward, and I realize then that we’ve never really discussed the matter before.
“How do you know I’m not the leader?” Nova challenges.
“You were, no matter what way we look at it, the fourth person to join,” I say.
“So? Maybe I rose through the ranks after,” he argues.
“What ranks…?” I question.
“Oh! Do you guys have codenames?” Lily asks. “You should really have those, being rebels and all.”
“Uh… no?” I say. “What, is saying my name in a palace supposed to reveal who we are in the real world or something?”
“You’ll be Red One from now,” Lily says. “Armadillo guy can be Blue Two. Anja, you’re Brown Three.”
“Brown???” Anja says, pouting. “Can I be Green instead?”
“If you call me Black Four I’m gonna fucking punch you in the gut,” Nova threatens.
“I… I wasn’t going to!” Lily says defensively. “You can be Orange Four.”
“Thank you,” Nova says, pleased.
“I’ll be Pink Five!” Zoe offers helpfully.
“Sure,” Lily says. “Alright, now that’s sorted out. Let’s discuss the mission.”
“We know the mission,” I say. “The governor of Texas is trying to create the Fourth Reich and arrested my parents because their power level was too high for him to handle, so we have to go beat him up.”
“Right on!” Lily says. “But there’s some… inconsistencies with this story. First of all, we know that Schneider has the ability to carry out remote assassinations.”
“Uh, do we?” I question.
“Yes,” Anja says somberly. “He ordered my mom to be killed. I… I figured it out the other day.” Zoe gasps.
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Lily nods at Anja, looking impressed. “I agree completely,” she says. “But that presents the issue. Why wouldn’t he just do that to Ashley’s parents, instead of risking everything to pass this law and hastily arrest them?”
“They’re too strong. Kierstyn can’t touch them,” I say simply. “They would’ve wrecked her shit. Also, he probably wanted to pass that law anyway.”
“Given she was my mom’s sister… there’s a good chance she didn’t exactly win a fair fight against her,” Anja says, her eyes haunted.
“Damn,” Lily says. “I wasn’t expecting you guys to have an answer to that… Well, point number two then. What is his end goal? Why attack homosexuals? Why do any of this?”
“I dunno. Because everyone hates us?” I guess.
“He’s probably planning a presidential run in 2016 or something,” Anja explains. “As the highly experienced governor of one of the largest states, Schneider is well-positioned to enter as a frontrunner in the presidential race right out the gate. Especially if, during the ‘shadow campaign’ part of the election season, he starts passing attention-grabbing legislation that’ll make him famous with the conservative base.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Lily says. “Damn it, you guys aren’t making this fun!”
“Wait. If he’s going to run for president, that’s really bad,” Nova says. “Imagine him doing this shit everywhere in the country. We better stop him now so he never gets a chance.”
“Rightly said. Rightly said,” Ted comments.
“Uh, is he hungry or something?” Lily asks.
“Can you not… understand him?” Zoe asks, tilting her head.
“Sounds like animal noises to me,” says Lily, shrugging. “But I guess to you guys he just said something super profound. “
“Interesting,” I say. That is consistent with that one time at the apartments.
“Oh! It’d be so cool if, like, there was a spy who secretly knew everything, and you caught them because they heard something the armadillo said!” Lily says.
“We could’ve gotten my parents with that if we had thought of it,” I point out. “Anyway, what’s with the twenty questions, anyway?”
“Well, /x/ has been on fire,” Lily explains. “I’ve been fighting with people all week about what’s actually going on and who the baddies are. There’s this other guy, Dark_Steven, who thinks the governor is right, and that there’s some sort of conspiracy between the human traffickers, the global elite, and the LGBT community to try and ‘convert’ children to it to weaken the country.”
“That’s the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard,” I say bluntly. Anja shoots me a glare.
“I know, right?” Lily agrees. “There’s another guy, Polylith, who’s super influential in the community, and Stevie and I have been fighting to try and convince him of who’s right.”
“Ah. So you’re picking our brains to have ammo in your 4Chan flame war,” I say.
“It’s more than that!” Lily says defensively. “I wanna know what to tell people on my blog too. Oooh! You guys should help me write something!”
“That’ll have to wait until after the tournament,” Nova says. “Isn’t that supposed to start soon?”
“True that,” Lily says. “Alright. You guys coming too, Red and Pink?”
“Eh,” I say.
“Um…” Zoe says.
“They’re not really that into games,” Anja says. “They wouldn’t want to play and probably would get bored.”
“Fair enough,” Lily says. “Well, you guys can use the TV while we’re gone. Here, let me get you set up there…”
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As promised, Lily lets Zoe and I use the TV. Zoe’s been really into this show called “Steven Universe” recently. I think Anja got her into it. Zoe sits right next to the TV on an audubon, while Lily, Nova and Anja pack up the controllers and shit they need for their gaming thing.
“Hey Ashley. A word, please,” Anja says from the kitchen.
I step into the kitchen with her. “Yes?”
“I don’t mean to strong arm you into staying home, but… I’m sure you’ve noticed that Zoe has been off since yesterday.”
“Yeah, I have,” I say.
“Well… you should take this time to talk to her,” Anja suggests.
Hmm… you know, she’s right. We don’t want this to end up like Christmas break did.
“I will,” I promise.
She nods, then gives me a parting hug, which I return.
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The tournament takes place at a high school. Never been there, I moved in between eighth and ninth grade. It… doesn’t look particularly interesting. It’s just a generic building. With another one off to the side that has a bunch of garage doors. Across from a field of dead grass.
Lily, Anja and I make our way to the room for the tech club. I could tell immediately when we got to the right one, ‘cause there were computers lined from wall to wall. In the middle, a TV was wheeled in on one of those carts with a WiiU connected to it. A variety of smelly boys are all sitting in chairs chatting nearby.
“Hey… Nova?” Anja says in a whisper, as Lily walks straight in and starts greeting people. “Can I ask you something before we go in?”
“Uh, what’s that?”
“Can you make sure you don’t stray too far from me during this?” Anja requests in a low voice.
Huh. She’s not usually the clingy type. But I don’t mind. “Sure,” I agree.
“Thanks,” she says.
“Nova! How does it feel to be back in New Braunfels, man?” greets Nathan, who looks about the same as when I saw him at the mall.
“Uh, fine, I guess,” I say. “Have we started yet?”
“Nah, you’re good!” he says. “Let’s do a warm-up match while we’re waiting on Pedro to get here.
Sadly, King Dedede, my longtime main in Brawl, has been super-nerfed in this game, and he sucks now. So I’ve been trying out other characters. I decide for today I’m gonna try to lock in on Rosalina.
Nathan picks Pikachu, just like in the old days. He loves to use this “annoyer” strategy, which thankfully should be nerfed now that Pikachu’s down B is different. We’re about evenly matched in our practice match. Near the end, I keep fumbling some of Rosalina’s tecs and end up losing narrowly.
“Haha! I’m catching up to you!” Nathan gloats.
“Yeah, you did good,” I say.
Thankfully, it’s not long after that when Pedro, the organizer of the tournament, arrives. He’s a tall and wide upperclassman with square-rimmed glasses and messy black hair kinda like mine. His friend Eric comes in right after, a skinny black guy with a buzz cut. According to Lily, he was the champion when they did this last year.
“Ey! My n***a!” he says when sees me. Idk why I got that reaction, this is the first time we’ve met. Still, he puts his fist out, and I bump it in greeting.
“I’m Nova. Came here with Lily,” I explain. “You’re Eric, right?”
“My reputation precedes me!” he shouts, triumphantly pumping his fists.
“Alright… everyone who’s playing come give your names, and we’ll make the bracket,” Pedro calls, pulling out a clipboard. Excitement buzzes through the air as we all take turns putting down our names. I’m ready to Smash some motherfuckers!