Answering her phone, Hailey Juniper Penze prepares herself for a conversation with her legal counsel. Soon as she answers, an annoyed voice bursts into her ear over the headset, “You gave your phone number to a cop?” asks an irritated Erika.
“Just Detective Anderson,” Hailey replies calmly. Motioning to Bella, she mimes writing. Comprehending her meaning, Bella begins to dig out a notebook and pen for her friend.
“Don’t do that in the future. He should be calling me, and if necessary I will forward calls to you,” cautions Erika. “Before you ask, yes this will make the process take longer, but it will prevent him from becoming an easy target or from pressuring you to do anything illegal.” As if sensing Hailey’s preparatory breath she continues, “And yes, I know you wouldn’t be tempted. But he might, and people change. Besides, this is my job, sifting through all the drivel to make sure you only have to deal with the important stuff. He shouldn’t be calling you about back alley murders, yes I know about the Bokuti Diamond, and you shouldn’t be responding to those calls.”
“But I want to help.”
“That’s fine, and you should. But you need to keep in mind that you can’t testify in a court of law without revealing your identity or going through a massive pile of legal paperwork, so pretty much anything you turn up in an investigation is going to be difficult to use at best. So for the cops and your own sake it’s far better that you only get involved when other people with powers are involved.”
Erika then pauses waiting for her client to argue. Hearing nothing, she asks, “You understand?”
Flustered, Hailey apologizes, “Sorry! I nodded. I’m used to texting, not phone calls.”
Erika sighs and complains, “Ugh, millennials.” But her complaint has a hint of mirth, and self-deprecation, behind it. When Hailey stops laughing at her joke, she continues in a serious voice, “But that’s not why I’m calling. I’m calling because he had information you need to hear. The police just got word that someone put out a bounty on your head.”
“A bounty!” Hailey squeaks in consternation. Bella, hearing her seems shocked, then, hesitantly she writes on the paper she found, “How much?”
After Hailey relays the question, Erika responds sarcastically, “How am I supposed to know? I’m not looking to collect, are you?”
Joking, Hailey answers, “Probably not, but that depends on the amount.”
“Well the amount isn’t important, what’s important is who intends to collect.”
“And who is intending to collect?” asks Hailey.
In a grim voice, Erika gives a simple answer that carries a weight of meaning with it, “Vicious.”
“Vicious?” Hailey muses aloud.
Inhaling sharply, Bella grabs her by the hand and motions for her to get off the line. Quickly, Hailey thanks Erika for the news and promises to call her back sometime soon. Then she turns to her friend, the question written across her face.
Bella explains simply, “Vicious, a mercenary who can manifest metals. His power isn’t that scary, he can’t create more than one metal at a time and it isn’t that quick or at long range but he’s scary competent at what he does. I know you can handle yourself, especially after you fought Becca, but Vicious is dangerous.”
Nodding, Hailey sighs before replying with, “Great, so another problem. I’ve got The Chauvinist, a demon, and now this Vicious guy after me too? I need a team.”
Bella wrings her hands as she answers in a nervous tone, “I could try to control the transformation…”
Hailey waves her off with a motion of her hand, “No, that’s a huge risk. Plus you can’t control Belladonna, no offense.”
“None taken,” says Bella with relief in her tone, “I don’t think I can either.”
Then inspiration strikes and Hailey speaks with confidence back in her voice as she says, “But I might know someone else who could help. You said Vicious manifests metal right?”
Bella looks at her friend as she tries to puzzle out her meaning. “Yeah, but why does that matter?”
Smiling, Hailey turns to her friend and answers with, “Because I know someone who might be helpful, if she can get past her huge ego. She’s a grade A bi-”
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In another classroom, Ginny sneezes.
“Bless you,” says Missy.
“Thanks,” replies Ginny with a smile. “Sorry, it’s just cold in here.”
“Cold? It’s still summer, for a while anyways,” Theo interjects.
Shivering, Ginny moans, “But compared to where I was, this is practically Seghulok’s domain!”
Rolling her eyes, Missy grouses, “God, I still can’t believe you just bought an island.”
“What else was I going to do? They wanted reservations over a week in advance,” says Ginny with a wounded air.
“Make them over a week in advance then?” Theo asks, bemused.
Irritated, Ginny cuts back with, “I wasn’t going to wait a week. Can you imagine? Waiting for a spontaneous getaway? Then it wouldn’t be spontaneous. It would have spoilt my entire trip.”
Incredulous, the pair simply stares at their rich compatriot. Thankfully, Mr. Memely saves them from the need to say anything further. “Alright class, worktime is over. Which group would like to present first?”
Raising her manicured hand just as Bella and Hailey slip back into the room is Ginny, preventing Missy from interrogating her friends. Confused at the pairing, Theo finds himself staring at the two. His curiosity at what he thought would be an unlikely duo has to wait however as Ginny drags her friends to the front of the room to present.
As they begin to setup a power point, their classmates turn back to their own computers to try to eke out more precious preparation time. As the hushed whispers escalate to full conversations, the din rises and the room falls back into disarray.
“Everybody quiet!” shouts Mr. Memely, restoring order to the class. Pointing to their open seats, he instructs Hailey and Bella to sit and then turns to the presenters. “Alright, it looks like everyone is back, just in time for the first of our presentations. Now which A1 did I assign your group again?”
Ginny replies with a smile, “Hana-Komyi, the Flower Girl.”
“Right, well feel free to start anytime.”
Missy steps forward to begin to speak, all while pointedly refusing to make eye contact with Hailey, “We were assigned Hana-Komyi for our presentation. Hana is considered an A1 threat due to a combination of her high lethality, widespread range, and the uncontrollable nature of her ability.”
“Which,” Theo cuts in with while he clicks through a few slides that displaying massive piles of rotting plant matter. Pausing to stare at Hailey and Bella for a moment, he loses his thread before hastily picking it up again. “Which causes the decay of all nearby organic matter.”
Ginny picks up his train of thought adding, “Without organic matter to consume, her ability turns inward, eating at her own body.” Motioning towards Theo, she prompts him to move the slides forward. When he finally does, she continues, “After the decay progresses far enough, Hana loses control of her body and begins to seek out the closest source of organic matter.”
Finishing, Theo adds in a distracted voice, “Once her decay begins to affect other things, she begins to regenerate until fully healed.” Theo stops talking, simply looking with a confused expression at Hailey and Bella. The two girls sit happily together, surprising him.
“Theo?” whispers Ginny.
“Theo?” whispers Missy.
Sharing a quick glance, Ginny rolls her eyes and steps forward tapping her necklace as she does, “Hana is now known as the Flower Girl due to the unique containment field designed by leading botanists from Japan, America, and Europe through the umbrella of the Association’s special projects division. Researchers developed a new strain of self-pollinating poppy flowers that propagate faster than her decay ability can destroy them while releasing a calming agent as a by-product. This keeps Hana, who does not retain memories when her brain decays, from accidentally killing anyone. So long as she remains within the field of flowers she is free to enjoy herself as an ordinary child, albeit one who has never interacted with another human.”
Blinking, Mr. Memely breaks the silence that follows Ginny’s finish with, “Ahem, well that was… more detailed than I expected. Right, well good job Ginny, and um, Missy, Theo please take your seats.” Turning towards Bella and Hailey he asks, “I know you’re late, but would you two feel comfortable presenting anyway? You don’t need to have any visual aids, just tell us about an A1 threat other than Becca. We’re learning about the problems that other parts of the world have to deal with.”
Bella promptly asks, “Could we present on an A2 instead?”
“Sure,” replies Mr. Memely in a magnanimous tone.
Sharing a look, Bella and Hailey nod and walk to the front of the room. Bella begins speaking first, “Today, I’d like to talk about Vicious, The Mercenary.” Pausing to survey the room, Bella meets Theo’s gaze and gives him a slight smile of reassurance. “Vicious is the only A5 threat ever increased to an A2 ranking. Another irregularity is that, unlike most villains, Vicious’ real identity, Harold Peeteeyman is widely known to law enforcement.”
“Harold comes from an upper middle class home,” adds Bella, “however he killed his parents, both engineers, and ran away at the age of ten. Harold appears to have spent the next five to ten years homeless, living on the streets. He did not use his power as a villain; however there is speculation that is behind the creation of a number of black market guns that lack serial numbers.”
Mr. Memely clears his throat slightly and gives a pointed look at Hailey, who remains unhelpful. But Bella, caught up in her monologue, misses his gesture.
In a serious tone, she continues, “Harold became a villain in relatively spectacular fashion when he executed a number of gang members and wrote his moniker, Vicious, in blood at the scene. He then began his career as a mercenary. Initially, Vicious ranked as an A5 threat because his power appears to have significant limitations that render it comparatively weak. Then Vicious decided to take the long-standing contract on Beacon.”
Pausing to collect her breath, Bella places her hand on the podium for support. Then she resumes her speech, “Vicious tangled with Beacon on several occasions, using a different tactic each time. After the second fight, Beacon personally adjusted Vicious’ ranking to A2 explaining that he demonstrates significant abilities beyond his power and training.”
Turning to Mr. Memely, Bella finishes her speech by stating, “Vicious is notorious for sticking to the letter of contracts he takes. While his activities generate a significant amount of money, he does not have any known spending trail or known associates. As a result, capture of Vicious remains an outstanding issue for law enforcement. Thank you for listening to my presentation.” Bella bows slightly to the class at the conclusion of her speech and waits for Mr. Meley’s comments.
Before Mr. Memely has the chance to say anything, Theo’s hand shoots into the air. Mr. Memely, flustered slightly by the display of interest from the usually glassy eyed classroom calls on him.
Theo takes a moment to recall his question before asking, “You never said what his power is, specifically. We were supposed to say that.” His eyes, however, clearly display that he is also asking another question as he adds, “I don’t want you to be in trouble. I mean, in case things in your presentation weren’t okay.”
Bella, responding to both questions, says, “My mistake, but everything is good,” she then continues, “Harold can slowly manifest metals in small quantities within a few inches of his skin.”
Ginny asks the next question long before anyone else has the chance to digest Bella’s words. “So like gold? Could he create gold?”
Frowning, Bella considers the question before cautiously saying, “I-I don’t know? I mean technically it’s a metal, but if he could make money like that it wouldn’t make sense for him to be a mercenary.”
Slumping back in her chair, Ginny says in voice that is simultaneously relieved and disappointed, “So that’s a big fat no.”
Mr. Memely then cuts off any further questions, saying, “Well that was a riveting discussion, I’m glad people are showing such interest in our presentations. However, I notice that young Miss Penze hardly said a word. I think it would be appropriate to ask if you would like to do a presentation of your own now Hailey.”
Giving a grim smile, Hailey steps forward and says, “Let’s talk about Malefic, shall we?”
And so we take our leave, dear reader! For while Hailey presents we turn our attention to a meeting occurring on the edge of town. There a set of figures plot vengeance on the girl who humiliated them. But they may find that all is not as they think in… “Matters of the Hearts!”