Thursday, February 11
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“Thank you all for…coming. Or for your less…personal…attendance,” Mindstorm said. “I know it’s…early…in Tokyexico, and I appreciate your wakefulness.”
She wasn’t here, of course. She, McHammer, and all the other heavy hitters were still in Yorkston. But even so, the Pro-Earth League’s members had assembled in her lair to hear the next part of the plan.
“Phase Two is simple. All we need to do is break into a Hot Zone, defeat whatever…defenders the Ilneats have, and checkmate the studio producers there. If we do that, we can negotiate with them from a position of strength and convince them to either reform their…studio system…or to leave us alone. However, a simple plan like this has many moving parts, and we’re temporarily a few key elements down,” Mindstorm’s massive eyes closed for a moment on the screen.
I looked around the room. Lady Lockless was here, of course; I hadn’t let her out of my sight since last night except when I dropped her off at her lair in the Roth Arena stands. Lairs seemed pretty safe so far, last semester’s 3V1L assault notwithstanding. I’d even picked her up—unthinkable for a villain less than two weeks ago—and flown with her out to Mindstorm’s this morning.
Most of the other heroes were here, including four of the five other Magical Girls on our side. Candi Crush, Foamy Flash, Sugar, and Chili Powder stood in a tight knot near the door. They weren’t essential to anything, though.
More importantly, Magical Girl Honeycomb was missing. So was Vigilant Vow. Mrs. N hadn’t made an appearance either. I filed that away; it was odd for the three of them to miss not one, but two important Pro-Earth operations. And Mindstorm was both aware and not furious. I didn’t think it was because Mrs. N could mop the floor with her, either.
Mrs. N absolutely could. But that wasn’t the point.
“Even without those supers, though, we need to start this plan…soon. To all outside observers, we appear to have overextended. We currently control hero buildings in Tokyexico City, Yorkston, Tortuga West, Seoul, Mumbai, Sidney, and a half-dozen smaller cities. Against a determined pro-galaxy…assault…we can currently defend none of them, and their probing attacks learned something of value last night. McHammer, please continue,” Mindstorm said as her phone beeped.
The parachute-pants-wearing supervillain nodded. “You got it, boss. Okay, details. First, we’re abandoning all but three towers this afternoon. Yorkston, Tortuga West, and Tokyexico City. That’ll let us concentrate our forces there, and if we evacuate the others without letting anyone know, the Ilneat sympathizers will have to spread their forces. That’ll buy up more time while their teleporters move people around.
“While that’s happening, our own teleporters will move our ace in the hole to each of those cities. Lady Lockless will open the doors between the towers and Hot Zones. We’ll start in Yorkston, where most of our firepower is concentrated. That should overtax their own mobility as they move people around to defend that door. After that, we’ll swing for Tortuga West. It’s the least likely target of the three, with no ultra-powerful local supers on their side, so hopefully, we’ll be able to break through there.”
“And what do we do once we’re in there?” A familiar—and terrifying—voice said from the television. The conference call flicked over to a man with a massive handlebar mustache and mullet, holding a beer can in one hand and a bent golf club in the other. His chest was bare except for a tattoo of the state he got his name from.
McHammer nodded slowly. “That’s a good question, Florida Man, and the answer is ‘your worst.’”
“Excellent!”
Gourmet’s hand was up, but when she didn’t get called on, she lowered it and interrupted instead. “And what about Tokyexico City?”
“You’re the backup plan. If we can’t break through in Yorkston, and Florida Man loses control—“
“Hey! I resemble that remark!” Florida Man shouted.
“—then the Tokyexico supers are our best shot. When Lady Lockless opens the door, you pour through and head straight for the studios. We need to capture as many executives as we can if we want them to listen to us. If you get one, don’t head back to the Council of Heroes building. That’ll be abandoned. Get to Mindstorm’s lair, then call her. We’ll turn on the defenses remotely, but you’ll be fine in the central rooms.”
A few more questions flew, but there was one pressing one no one else was asking. I slowly raised my hand. “And what if Mays shows up?”
Mindstorm’s hand reached into the camera’s frame, taking the mic from McHammer. She cleared her throat. “If Dr. Mays shows up on any of your battlefields, you’re not getting any help. Your best bet’s going to be waiting him out. Without Dr. Jackson, he’s missing the half of the combo that made them…unbeatable. He’ll knock out all the other supers around him, too, so the best he can do is stall.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
McHammer took a step forward, and Mindstorm nodded to him as she handed the mic back. “If you see him and manage to get clear before he starts an ad, tell us where he is. We’ll reposition people to try and deal with him. That’s the best we can do with the missing links in our chain.”
“And who’s missing?” someone from Sidney asked.
Mindstorm paused, composure breaking for the first time since she’d fought on campus last semester. She looked to the floor. “The Narrator.”
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It wasn’t surprising to me that the Tottgergarten heroes were missing in action. What did shock me was that Mindstorm was not only okay with it but willing to make it known. But even more worrying was that she wouldn’t tell us why. It seemed like she was content to keep the mystery just that—a mystery.
Well, Honeycomb was a friend, and Vigilant Vow was…something. We had almost six hours before we needed to be at the Council of Heroes building. And, most importantly, Bee and I were veterans of a half-dozen Investigative Episodes. If we couldn’t solve this puzzle and figure out what had happened to Mrs. N and the Tottergarten heroes, I’d have been shocked. So, after some debate back at the Green Room, Bianca and I came up with a foolproof plan.
I finished dialing the number, and my phone connected to Magical Girl Honeycomb’s.
She didn’t pick up on the first several rings, and I looked at Bee meaningfully. “This was your plan.”
“Well, it’s not like we have a better—“
“Hello! Magical Girl Honeycomb here, sticking it to evil!” Honeycomb’s voice came over the speakerphone. Bee looked at me, her face a vision of arrogant victory. I waited for the message to continue, for us to get sent to her voicemail—anything to wipe the smug smile off her face.
Instead, there was a pause that drew out just a touch too long before Honeycomb continued. “Hello?”
“Uh, hi,” I said. “How’s it going? Missed you at the Pro-Earth League planning session today.”
“Yeah, um…about that,” Honeycomb said. “We’re, um, not going to be at any of the PEL stuff for the next…” she trailed off. I could hear a couple of voices talking in the background; it looked like we had all three of them.
Whatever they were discussing, it got more and more animated as I raised an eyebrow at Bee. Her victory was long since forgotten now that we’d made contact. Instead, I was a little worried. Honeycomb’s power had made her a total mess the first time we’d run across her, and even after—finally—beating her rival and finding her place at Tottergarten, I couldn’t help but remember that girl.
The one on the phone sounded a lot like her.
“Look, ladies, Mrs. N’s dealing with some stuff right now. Some things are more important than PEL.” Honeycomb’s voice felt a little more confident, but still fragile. And exhausted; the closest comparison I could think of was Tele-Portal after a long Episode. Or Fursona post-Full-Kaiju.
Still, we had to push a little. “Well, we thought you guys should know that Mindstorm’s—“
“Having us all-in the Hot Zones today. She told us already,” Honeycomb interrupted, her voice low. “Look, we already talked to her. She knows what’s up, and she fully supports our decision to back out of the attack.”
“She does?” Bee interrupted. “That doesn’t sound like her. When she’s serious, she gets single-minded.”
“Yeah, well, Mrs. N is persuasive,” Honeycomb shot back.
She sure was. I remembered when she’d used her powers on us; it had felt like mind control, but she’d just been rewinding the Episode with certain new conditions in place. Still, Mindstorm was…Mindstorm, and even with Mrs. N throwing her full weight around to eject Stella-Lunar from our tower assault, I couldn’t see a world where Mrs. N had persuaded the supervillain that their dropping out of the PEL’s plan wasn’t a betrayal.
“Can you put Mrs. N on the phone?” Bianca asked. She must’ve been having the same thought I was. “We get that you can’t talk about whatever it is that’s got you all worried, but we deserve to know why you weren’t there last night.”
The other end of the line went silent. I glanced at my girlfriend. “Hopefully, you didn’t piss them off.”
“If I did, I did. We do deserve to know,” she replied. “And Mindstorm’s not going to tell us. Neither is Honeycomb, but she’s obviously stressing about something. So, I figure we go to the source, and either The Narrator throws us back in time by a half-hour so she doesn’t have to answer, or we get some answers from the person in charge.”
“Mindstorm’s in charge,” I said.
“I know that! But not in this situation, obviously.”
“Hi, girls. I don’t have long. You want to know what’s going on, why we left you out to dry last night?” Mrs. N’s voice came over the phone. She didn’t sound any better. In fact, there was raw anger in her voice. “Alright, but before I tell you, you need to promise not to get involved. Honeycomb, Vigilant Vow, and I are dealing with it.”
“Got it,” Bee said before I could say anything to the contrary.
She shot me a look, and I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Great. Last night, after the Playpen Patrol went home, someone showed up at the daycare. They didn’t take anything, and the kids were gone. They didn’t even get inside, so we didn’t treat it like an emergency until one of the parents called. Their kid had gone missing right out of her bedroom window, along with her super-suit. So we’ve been out all night looking.”
“You couldn’t narrate her back to bed?” I asked. I had a bad feeling I knew which one; at least it couldn’t be The Cloud.
“No, because she’d have to be in hearing range. We’ve been all over the city, and she’s not anywhere,” Vigilant Vow said, speaking up for the first time. If anything, he sounded more scared than the other two. “I keep telling Mrs. N that I know who did it. The rest of the kids’ powers aren’t anything special, but hers? Hers is unique. There’s only one other person who can turn into a gigantic dinosaur, and Fursona’s not trading that power to The Agent anytime soon.”
Mrs. N interrupted. “And that, Understudy, is why you have to let us handle this. It’s probably bait, but I can handle anything The Agent throws at me. I’m not as sure you can, especially if he ready for me and gets you instead.” Her voice cracked with fury. “I’m going to tear him apart, but promise me, girls, that you won’t go after Kaiju Kid. Just focus on your job, and I’ll take care of my kids.”