Bianca would be back any minute. I couldn’t let her catch me mid-villainous breakdown. Who knew how she’d react? So I did the only thing I could do; I took off Mom’s suit, hung it back up, and pushed a few outfits I never wore in front of it so she wouldn’t be able to see it. Then, I walked slowly toward the Green Room and slipped inside.
The moment I did, I started a Transformation Sequence, then slowly transformed into Lab Assistant Panic. I’d definitely snapped. Something was wrong here. But just because something was wrong with Snowball didn’t mean I could just barrel into the Hot Zone as Dark Girl Shock and Awe. I needed a plan, and Lab Assistant Panic was probably my smartest build—if I could resist the breakdown.
And I did need to resist the breakdown.
The whiteboard called. But I couldn’t use it; Bee might see. I needed to go somewhere else. Somewhere that Bee would never find my plans. I looked around, but nowhere in the Green Room would work. Neither would my apartment unless I got weird about stuff. Since she’d moved in, Bianca spent almost all her time there, and I hadn’t established a ‘me’ space. So where could I go?
My keyring jingled in TA-1LZ’s mouth, and I stared at it—and at the one key that we hadn’t used since Christmas.
“TA-1LZ, you’re a genius.” Bianca’s secret base—the Outback Stakeout House—would be perfect. I packed a bag with the supplies Lab Assistant Panic thought I’d need. The Shock and Awe costume, a few markers, some red string, and a map of Tokyexico went into it, along with some instant coffee packets that Ramsey Fieri almost vomited from. Then I stowed it by the door and sent a quick text.
As I waited for a response, I couldn’t help but think about the poor kid who’d become Golden Goose. How could Snowball have messed Jasmine up so much? And in the name of a little—okay, a lot—of profit? And what was I going to do about it? I had some ideas, but without a plan, nothing concrete.
APPEAL was in my thoughts, too, and I couldn’t clear them. For months now, I’d been starting to wonder about whether they were right. Not about everything. Superheroes and supervillains were a fact of life now, and nothing was changing that. But about whether superhero shows were safe for other people. All the way from our first class period in Superpower Ethics, we’d been exposed to villains—and heroes—putting Extras in harm’s way in the name of their shows. That couldn’t be right.
Everywhere I looked, I kept finding examples. Stella-Lunar’s attack on the Thanksgiving dinner. Tele-Portal’s nonchalance about calling people Extras—and how I’d just done it, too. My Episodes on campus that had destroyed buildings in the name of ratings. And especially my therapist, Dr. Ayers, who’d suggested that kills happened and that Extras dying sometimes was just business as usual.
Perfect. I transformed back to Anika DuPont, grabbed the backpack, and hit the regular old elevator for the first floor. It stopped a few floors down, only for Avan to get on. “Hey,” I said politely, making sure my backpack was secure. It wouldn’t do to let him see what was in it.
“Hey. Are we ever going to get that coffee?” Avan asked.
“I don’t know. Not right now. I’m heading to a friend’s place for some studying,” I lied smoothly. “I’m drowning in classes right now.”
“Yeah, I get that. Me too.”
The elevator crept down slower than I’d have liked until, at last, it dinged on the first floor. I headed for the door, but Avan cleared his throat. “Where are you heading? I could walk you over.”
“Thanks.” I accepted Avan’s offer. “I’m heading over to Bee’s—Bianca’s.”
“Great. Lead the way.”
As I wove my way across campus, Avan and I caught up. His radio show, Smooth Talk with DJ Smooth, was midway through its second year running, and he was feeling pretty good about his choice to major in telecommunications. He was still—unfortunately, from his perspective—single, but there were a few people who might be possibilities. I rolled my eyes at that; he’d tried to get a coffee date with me for over a year, so if I was one of the people on his list, he had no chance.
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I told him about Su-Bin leaving campus, and he nodded slowly. “Yeah, Cam’s a workout buddy. I figure he’s pretty down about it, but he doesn’t say much. We mostly just lift.”
“I bet.”
Eventually, we arrived at Bee’s building, and I slipped inside. “Thanks for the talk and walk. How about Monday at four for coffee? I’ll make sure Bee’s cool with it and text you.”
He nodded again. “Sure. Let me see your phone.” I handed it over, and he punched in his number. With a wave, he disappeared into the cold January night.
I shed my jacket as I hurried toward Bee’s room, the backpack hanging from one hand, then the other. The Outback Stakeout House was so close. I unlocked Bee’s door, then slipped through her maintenance door and into the Stakeout House.
Dust coated everything. Bee and I hadn’t bothered cleaning it for our parents’ visit since her mom and dad knew she was a mess, and mine knew enough to respect her secret identity—at least a little, at least while other people were around. But it was obvious that Fursona hadn’t operated out of here in…a while. Probably since last spring semester, when we’d gone through that rocky patch after the window incident.
But other than the dust, it was exactly what I needed. A quiet space no one would expect Dark Girl Shock and Awe and Lab Assistant Panic to collaborate in. It had wide open walls I could use to make my plans and a space where another whiteboard could go if I wanted to risk Mindstorm’s wrath by stealing it. There was only one problem.
At some point, I’d have to tell Bianca. She’d get it, but I couldn’t just hide it from her—not even if she decided to fight against me. I had to tell her. But when?
I took a deep breath.
What if I just…didn’t?
No, that’d be the wrong call. I’d tell her before Shock and Awe did anything. I’d tell her as soon as I had a plan. That’d be best; maybe she’d talk me down from it, or maybe by then, Bee would have read The Diary of Golden Goose. Then she’d understand. She’d get it. I could even incorporate her into my plans. That’d make her happy.
“I know.” I started scribbling in the book, putting together a plan. The next two days would be busy, but if I made the right contacts, they’d work out exactly how I needed them to, freeing Shock and Awe to make a play.
After almost twenty minutes, I had the rough outlines of a plan. There was just one step to take.
I got my phone out and sent a quick text.
There was no way he’d text me back tonight, so I didn’t even bother waiting—
My phone buzzed.
Haha! The plan was coming together!
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The Outback Stakeout House’s painted landscape walls were covered in red string, notes, and a few sketches I’d made. The notepad sat on a table in the room’s center. And, most damningly, my vil Costumes’ names were all over everything. If Bee were to check here any time in the next day, I’d be so busted, but I doubted that’d happen. She never came here anymore. It really was the perfect evil lair for my villainous Costumes—especially since I was planning villainy!
I changed into Magical Girl Understudy and took the elevator down into the tunnel network under Tokyexico University. If I hurried, I could make it home before Bee and set the next stage of my trap. If not, I’d have to come up with an explanation for where I’d been.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried.
I was half-asleep when Bee came home, changed into a nightie, and looked at the book on her pillow. She picked it up and skimmed the back. “Interesting.”
The smile on my face had to look predatory, but I was facing the wall, not her, and I waited while she read the first page, then set it on her nightstand. I had her! She was as good as on board for my plan.
The bed creaked a little as she climbed under the covers and wrapped her freezing hands around me. I shivered and rolled over to look at her. “Hi.”
She pulled me in for a sleepy cuddle. Her body felt cold, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long she’d been out and about. I also couldn’t help but smell the booze on her breath, but I sleepily kissed her anyway.
“Hey, babe,” she whispered in my ear.
“Theseus texted while you were out,” I mumbled back. It wasn’t quite a lie.
She stiffened a little. “Really?”
“Yeah. He wants to fight tomorrow. I guess Alkirk’s on the move again, and he needs a couple of heroes to put on a good show. He figured we were the most qualified.”
“Great. Super Girl and Kaiju? Actually, no. I’m too tired and too drinky-drunk for this. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.” Bee’s arms tightened around me, and I let her start drifting off.
The next hour was a whirlwind of thoughts as I struggled to get the rest of the way to sleep. Phase One was up and running. And, honestly, it was the perfect Phase One, because if I decided to abandon Lab Assistant Panic’s plan and stop trying to set up Shock and Awe, it’d still line up perfectly with my other goal: beating The Agent. We needed to fight some other rogues and let 3V1L relax for a bit. That way, he’d become complacent, and we could catch him off-guard.
I didn’t want to abandon the plan, though. I wanted to let my villains run loose for a little bit, and to put pressure on the Networks to deal with…everything. Rocko and the others…especially Snowball, but all of them…they all had to know that what they were doing was hurting people. The man in the diary’s forward was right. Something had to change. The other heroes just needed a wake-up call. Maybe the diary could be it. Or maybe my plan would be.
What did I really want? What were my goals after my little snap earlier? I’d let Lab Assistant Panic take the reins, but without any oversight from the rest of me, she could cause a lot of unfocused chaos.
And how did APPEAL fit into this? How could I use them, and what did I owe Su-Bin? After all, The Diary of Golden Goose showed just how right she’d been about so much. I definitely needed to make things up to her, but I couldn’t. She didn’t know I was Understudy. She couldn’t ever know I was Understudy.
This whole mess was way too complicated, but eventually, Bee’s arms loosened as she drifted off, and I let myself sleep a moment later.