I was at the point where I barely cared about school anymore. I knew that if I was going purely for education, I’d stop showing up within a week. So, I decided to return with a few goals in mind. Not too long ago, Sam drew my attention to the fact that staff and students at my school were working for our rivals. Since I was returning, I came prepared. I brought four drones and stationed them around the school with active camouflage modules enabled.
Less than ten minutes after arriving at school, I had access to every electronic device in the area. Anything my phone previously had trouble with became trivial. Even though The ECU’s systems took some time to breach, it was an inevitability. The most useful was access to their local network installed into their gear.
Eighteen. Around double the usual.
The ECU had always been blatant, and since Grim’s rampage, they had only increased their manpower. There were usually six teams of three roaming the school grounds occasionally interacting with students and that wasn’t including Abby. They were ready to deal with any threat, and keeping the peace right now was more important than ever.
Speaking of keeping the peace…
I noted just how compromised Minerva was. The Headmaster of the school had encrypted communications with Pandora. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t stupid enough to do anything on school hardware, but he had Mechatech in his office. It didn’t take long for me to break in, but considering the tech evaded ECU scanning, it was probably designed to remain undetected.
Regardless, it wasn’t advanced enough to evade my tech anymore.
It wasn’t just the principle either. The science and mathematics department heads also had encrypted communications tying them to Pandora. I briefly read what I could, but the conversation had code-speak thrown into the mix. If any of them were Supers, I couldn’t figure out who was who from messages alone.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t glean who, if anyone, had ties to The Queen’s Court. If they had a means of communication, it was either so highly advanced that my tech couldn’t pick up on it, or it wasn’t technology-based. Considering who Gaea was, I shuddered to think what she could do with her power. Could she have some implanted parasite capable of telepathic communication between her agents? Concerning her, anything seemed possible.
“Ya’know, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to go back to school,” Liam sighed, dropping his bag and sliding down the wall to my side. “Honestly, I'm surprised this place is in one piece. I actually heard Eastworth Boys got another week off ‘cause of the damage,” he tilted his head, squinting while he looked up at me. “You’ve been staring at your phone all morning. Are you watching some movie or something?”
“I’m ensuring our safety,” I idly replied, scanning the area for any onlookers. “I’ve got drones placed around the school incase things go bad. They’re feeding me information, while also providing us with an opportunity to escape should things go south for us.”
“Go south how?” Liam’s nose wrinkled. “Like Comet figuring us out or something? The soldier dudes aren’t much, I could handle them.”
“You think you can. I seem to remember what happened last time you tried to bulldoze your way through ECU soldiers,” I said, recalling how he got turned into an icicle. “You’re strong, nimble, and capable, but that doesn’t mean invincible. I’m giving us options that we hopefully never have to use. Better to be safe than sorry.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Liam shrugged. “So this Lucy girl, she cool? I dunno much about her other than what you’ve said. I’m guessing she’s cool, since you said she’s like, your best friend or something. You’ve been pretty cool, so she’s gotta be just as cool – other than the whole ‘Pandora’ thing. Hey, how are you going to—”
“Liam.”
“Ah, sorry dude. Everything used to be so simple for me. All I would do was take shit from gangs, and try to not get expelled from school, and like, I wasn’t even good at that apparently,” I didn’t miss the bitter tone in his voice. “It’s all different now. My sister was actually some kind of super soldier… spy? Jeez, I don’t even know where to start there. My uncle is actually not my uncle, and now I have to worry about whoever the hell Cyberspace is, Pandora, and everything else that’s going on. It’s all so much!”
It was a lot to come to terms with, and I would be lying if I claimed I was never overwhelmed. Strangely, I didn’t feel pressured by that notion anymore. I wasn’t even stressed. I welcomed the change. I felt like my eyes had finally opened. I saw what mattered now. It was a power struggle for survival, and everyone was trying to do it their way.
“Take it one step at a time.”
“Yeah, which one though?” Liam joked. “Everywhere I look, there’s a different step. Dunno what the fuck to do, so I guess I’ll just follow you.”
I glanced down at him.
“Follow me?” I raised a brow. “Why?”
“I dunno man. Why not? Mia’s still all new to having powers, so I’m trying to help her adjust. I’m definitely not gonna follow Sam. She’s cracked, and I don’t think I have it in me to fully trust Mentalists,” Liam said. “They fuck with your head dude. When I first got my powers, I ran into a few. Some of them can make you think up is down, left is right. Every time Sam talks, my skin crawls.”
I blinked, unsure how to respond.
“Sam means well. She has our best interests in mind. If she didn’t, I wouldn’t have stayed with her.”
“I guess. I can’t say for sure. I’m trying, but man it’s hard,” Liam picked up a loose pebble and tossed it across the pavement. “I suppose I do kinda trust her, but that’s mostly because I trust you. Overall, I think this situation kinda sucks, but honestly most situations I’ve been in were shitty, so really all of this might be better. I dunno what I’m saying, just kinda rambling.”
“You can ramble,” I shrugged. “You sound like you needed to get that off your chest.”
“Yeah! Yeah, man. I think it’s been bothering me for a while. Didn’t really know how to express it. I’m really worried about Mia. She told me she’s using her power to spy on her family and, shit… every day she seems more depressed about it. I don’t know how to help, but I wanna.”
I pursed my lips in thought.
“I don’t think you can.”
“Yeah, definitely feels like it,” Liam grumbled. “So what’re you doing out here? I thought you’d wanna go inside instead of hanging around the front of the school where everyone can see us,” he tilted his head, glancing at my phone. “You just gonna have that thing out in the open? Can’t people tell?” He leaned in a little closer and hummed. “Oh, yeah I guess it looks pretty normal. All the stuff inside is Mechatech, right?”
“I don’t think you’ve ever been this talkative before.”
“I’m bored, and well… aren’t you normally supposed to hang out with your friends?”
Something bothered me by the way he said that. I gave him a pointed look, and he shrugged.
“If you really have to know, I’m waiting for Lucy. I need to talk to her before school starts,” I anxiously tapped the back of my phone, my eyes scanning the front of the school. There were pools of students streaming in and hanging around the front. With the recent events, there were likely countless things to catch up on. “The sooner I talk to her, the better.”
“Aren’t you guys in the same home room?”
“We won’t have time before we’re shuffled for the Monday assembly, and I’d like a bit of privacy for the conversation,” I said. “You’re welcome to stay, as it involves Super business.”
“Alright,” he turned and started looking. “How urgent is this? Is it like urgent-urgent?”
“Urgent,” I frowned. “I told you how she has ties to Pandora. I didn’t tell you how I found out.”
“Uh, I just sorta assumed Sam told you,” Liam reasoned. “She pretty much knows everything about everyone.”
“Sam’s never met Lucy. I haven’t brought it up with her, but I wouldn’t put it past Gold cluing into something,” I said, lingering on the thought far longer than I needed to. If Sam knew something important, she would’ve said something. “You listened in on my conversation with Abby, so you know what we got up to. We went looking for her and found her family home. Some assumptions were made on Abby’s part and well… things turned bad. You know how that gang war started with Grim.”
“Damn,” Liam rubbed his neck. “You think she’s gonna do something crazy?”
“Crazy? Nah. Reckless?” I shook my head, uncertain what to think. All the crap with The Cains already put stress on Abby, and her killing one of Pandora’s followers wasn’t going to do her any favors. Contact with her had been sparse these last two weeks, and she claimed to be busy with ECU matters at headquarters. I hadn’t the slightest clue how she was coping with turning her attacker into mince meat. “Reckless and Abby go hand in hand.”
“Come on, it’s not like she’s going to go all Ajax on Lucy.”
“No,” I agreed. “Abby wouldn’t do that. Doesn’t mean she won’t feel compelled to make a scene about it. That’s what I’m trying to avoid. If Lucy knows what to expect, then we can both work together to diffuse the situation before someone says something they’ll regret.”
“Sounds rough,” Liam mused. “Anything I can do to help?”
I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head.
“I appreciate the concern, dude. Really, I do, but they don’t know you. I think it’ll be best if you stay out of things. Watch from the sidelines,” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Whatever happens, we cannot reveal ourselves, especially you. If Abby starts sparkling, don’t counterplay.”
Liam laughed.
“I’m not that dumb. I’m not about to go transforming in the middle of a school with hundreds of people looking. That’s like a… do or die sorta thing.”
I shared that sentiment. If the hypothetical scenario arose where the only way out was publicly revealing my identity as Upgrade, then I would have to do it. If it were a life-and-death situation, the choice would be obvious, but I struggled to think of an applicable scenario that could apply to a school environment. Abby and her ECU detail were effective at shutting down attempts to terrorize the school.
“Well, things have calmed down a bit now, so I don’t think we need to worry about something like that happening,” I said. “Not many Supers feel the need to attack schools, other than the freshly Awakened around our age that have chips on their shoulders, but that’s what Abby and The ECU are here to prevent.”
I expected that to be the reason for the increase in ECU personnel on our school grounds. Sam hadn’t texted me, so I wasn’t aware if they had upped their security at Eastworth Girls, but after terrifying events, there tended to be an influx of new Awakenings. Kids got antsy and would act out. Only a few had happened here over the last few years, and Abby was quick to deal with all of them before anyone got seriously injured.
“Calmed down… hah! Doesn’t feel like it. I feel it in the air, dude. There’s like this electricity— no, anticipation. Everyone’s waiting for the next big thing to happen.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
On cue, there was a slight tremor beneath our feet. It lasted no more than two seconds before it stopped. It was so light that I doubt I would’ve noticed it if I were back in my workshop.
“Hard to imagine that things could get much crazier than Grim. We don’t have to deal with the Nine Circles at least, and Gaea is supposedly on our side. That just leaves Pandora to worry about,” I exhaled tiredly. While they were the largest group by a wide margin, I still hadn’t forgotten about Mirage. It had been two weeks, and there hadn’t been so much as a peep from the man. Banshee had left to go north to Ashton, which surprised me, and just like Mirage, Bonesmith had vanished. “Once we deal with them, things should get easier.”
Liam gave me a strange look.
“Once we deal with them? Look man, The Cains were one thing, Hell, I still can’t get over the fact we actually took the bastard down, but Pandora is like, next-level. They’re world-wide!”
“I meant just the branch that operates in Bayside,” I clarified. “Kicking them out of the city, or whatever. I assume that’s what comes next. Knowing Sam, she’ll be cooking something up and I can imagine that Cyberspace wouldn’t object to kicking them out, unless they have something to gain by keeping them here.”
“What could they possibly have to gain?” Liam frowned. “All Pandora does is preach their shitty religion and kidnap the powerless to turn into their slaves. Honestly, it’s fuckin’ gross.”
I grimaced at the thought of Lucy being treated like a second-class citizen – some Super’s pet. It twisted my stomach and made me murderous.
“Tell me about it.”
My phone chimed, drawing my attention to the screen. One of my drones identified Lucy through the facial recognition software Cyberspace provided me with, and I frowned when I saw she wasn’t alone. Walking along beside her was a boy I wasn’t familiar with. He had dark skin with short hair and wore a shirt, jacket, trousers, and sneakers. He had a bit of an awkward look about him that didn’t quite fit his build.
“Who’s that?” I muttered, drawing Liam’s attention. He stood up and leaned over to look. “I’ve never seen that guy before. Where did Lucy meet him?”
“I dunno,” Liam replied, thinking my questions were for him. “Maybe we should go find out? You did say you needed to talk to her.”
I pocketed my phone and started toward her. Lucy arrived at the leftmost gate outside the school and lingered longer than usual, talking to the kid I’d never seen or met. I saw a range of emotions flash in her eyes when she caught sight of my approach.
“Max!” Lucy managed to get the first word after stepping away from the unfamiliar boy. “You’re okay! You look…” she paused, observing me carefully. “...different. Intense, even. That’s uh, kind of a good look for you! Not something I’m very used—”
“Lucy, we need to talk,” I interrupted her so I could cut straight to the point. “I’m glad you’re okay, but some things have happened and you need to know before school starts.”
Her mouth fell open as she processed my words. I saw her fear and trepidation reach new intensities as she turned to look at her companion. The boy looked stunned, unsure whether to speak or remain quiet. I could see that he wanted to say something but opted for silence.
“I… okay. It doesn’t look like I’ll get even five minutes of normalcy today. Why did I think school would be any different?” Lucy grumbled, rubbing her forehead. “Alright, what’s going on?”
“Private,” I said, looking around. We were surrounded by our peers, all milling about and talking. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have here. Not only that, but I still didn’t know who Lucy’s new friend was. “It’s a sensitive topic. I don’t want people I can’t trust listening in.”
“I—” Lucy’s stare landed on Liam. Standing off to my side, he offered a friendly wave. “Who’s this?”
“A friend,” I said before leaning in close to ensure only Lucy could hear. “Of the Super variety.”
“He’s… oh,” the implication landed. Awkwardly, Lucy offered a light-hearted wave. “Is he part of what you wanna talk about?”
“Yeah,” I heaved a heavy sigh, eager to get Lucy somewhere private. “And no offense to your friend here, but I don’t know him, so I can’t trust him,” I shot him a light, apologetic stare. “Don’t take it personally. It’s just… I don’t know you.”
The boy looked disheartened but shrugged.
“I get it. You guys are best friends. Lucy’s mentioned you a bit.”
I gave him a thankful nod before lightly pulling Lucy aside. She needed to know the severity of the situation, and she needed to know quickly.
“Look, I’m not going to mince my words here. I know about you – your family to be more specific,” I watched the color drain from her face. She looked like she wanted to run away and hide. “Worse still, Abby knows. When you went missing, we looked into why.”
“It was you!” Lucy breathed, the fear on her face turning to panic. “Oh, God. That’s why they told me to leave my phone behind. They knew… they knew you and Abby would look for me. Fuck,” she looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack. “Fuck… FUCK!”
“Who—” I stopped myself when the unspoken answer slapped me across the face. I turned away and covered my mouth to stop myself from blurting out something stupid. Cyberspace had contacted Lucy, for whatever reason, and instructed her to leave her phone behind so I could find it. It had all been planned. Now, I had to wonder what else they had in store. “We can’t talk about this so openly. Follow me.”
Wordlessly, the three followed.
I led them to a remote corner around the back of the school that I secured with my drones. There weren’t many private spaces, but the lack of anyone around made it secure enough. Lucy’s friend gave us space, standing deliberately out of earshot but remaining within view. While I wasn’t satisfied with that, I could accept it.
“Cyberspace talked to you.”
Lucy confirmed with a slow nod.
“I was trying to message you after I got home from school. I was pissed you missed our assignment but it all fell into place when my father mentioned that Gaea called a meeting,” Lucy explained, anxiously rubbing her arms. “The pieces sorta fit together. You were there, weren’t you?”
“Yup,” Liam casually answered for me. “The whole thing was pretty much a waste of time.”
“We were there,” I said under my breath. “Had the pleasure of meeting your Dad.”
Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat.
“You get it now, right? Why I never wanted you anywhere near my family. He’s… my Dad can be exceedingly cruel,” she explained, letting her arms fall to her sides. “I didn’t know how to bring it up with you guys, so I just avoided it whenever it was brought up. I let you guys come to your own conclusions because honestly, whatever you guys thought of would be better than what I deal with. I felt like I could live with that.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” I said, meaning every word. There was space at our hideout, and I was more than willing to make adjustments to ensure Lucy’s safety. “You can get out. I can help you now. Properly help you, in a way I never could before – you know that now.”
“Max…” Lucy slowly shook her head, looking like she was trying to hold back tears. She sniffed and steeled herself. “You said Abby knows about me,” she masterfully changed the subject. “What exactly should I be expecting? I’ve had nightmares about this kinda thing, you know. Is she going to freak out the moment she sees me? What the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t exactly avoid her, we have classes together.”
“I can’t say for certain how she’ll react, but I can say that you hiding all of it hasn’t done you any favors,” I replied, my expression grim. “Abby came up with some wild accusations when we broke into your place. I stood up for you, but I have no idea if any of those ideas have stuck, especially after what happened. We were attacked while we were there.”
“Oh my God,” Lucy’s head fell into her hands. “This can’t be happening.”
“We defended ourselves and obviously won. Can’t say the same about our attackers.”
Lucy laughed, but I could hear the despair in her voice.
“You both killed them,” Lucy shook her head. “I can’t believe this. It was you two. Oh, fuck. If Dad finds out it wasn’t The Cains, heads are going to roll. Yours, Abby’s, fuck… so many people are going to die because of this. Dad doesn’t like being made a fool of. He’ll—” she stopped, failing to find the words. “Jesus, Max. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“So, your Dad’s Wildfire, right?” Liam chimed in, drawing everyone’s attention. “Did he tell you how Grim got taken down?”
Lucy looked between us and shook her head.
“Not in detail. Something about being lured into a trap, and then Gaea dealt with him. I assume The Queen’s Court were the ones to do it?”
“Nope! Well, Gaea was the one to finish him off,” Liam dismissed with a light wave. “But we were the ones to actually bring him down. Me specifically,” I didn’t miss his boastful tone. I felt the impulsive need to remind him that initially, he was against the plan and didn’t want to go anywhere near Grim, but I supposed I could let him have this one. He was the reason for our overall success. “Took some work, but we managed it. I doubt dealing with your Dad is going to be as hard as that.”
I noted the incredulous look on Lucy’s face and decided to elaborate.
“Circumstances of that night thankfully put our group in a unique position to discover his weakness. We also had the means to exploit it, which we didn’t hesitate to take,” I explained. Her incredulous expression didn’t change. It actually got worse. “In the end, it all worked out. He’s gone, and he isn’t coming back.”
“Isn’t coming—” Lucy shook away her disbelief. “You went up against Grim? Have you lost your fucking mind? Since when do you do that!?” I saw genuine anger erupt, her face turning red. “You play games, fix computers, suck at sports… you don’t go out and fight genocidal monsters! Where the hell is your self-preservation? Why, why would you DO that!? Leave it to the professionals to solve.”
“Um, to be fair, if we did that, there probably wouldn’t be a city right now,” Liam said, jumping to my defense. “Grim’s weakness was really dumb, and obvious. Nobody would have believed us. Even our resident Mentalist was pissed about it.”
“He’s right,” I said. “We had the information and a plan. As much as I would’ve liked to shout it from the rooftops and let Grim be someone’s problem, we needed to do something. We had no choice but to act if we wanted the city to survive the night. Besides…” I looked away, trying to hide the bubbling guilt that gestated within me. “It was partly my fault everything happened anyway. The fight at your house kicked everything off. I wasn’t about to sit around and let someone else clean up my mess.”
Lucy’s head fell into her hands, her fingers rubbing every inch of her face like she was trying to wake herself up.
“God, this doesn’t feel real.”
“Ya’know, I’ve been saying the same thing to myself these last few weeks,” Liam chuckled. “Feels like the whole world’s gone mad. My whole life is upside down now,” he shot a beaming smile at Lucy, which she returned with a tired, deadpan glare. His laugh turned awkward, and he turned away to escape the glare. His eyes landed on Lucy’s companion. “So what’s his deal? Is he part of Pandora too?”
“He’s—” Lucy’s expression became pained and uncomfortable. “—processing what happened. He’s not a Super, if you were wondering. Just another normal person stuck in a shitty situation like me, except he’s got it A LOT worse.”
“Cool, he can join the club. I’m processing things all the time. I just recently learned my sister was a secret undercover Super for Cyberspace. She did heaps of jobs, and probably killed a bunch of people. Still processing that,” Liam’s nonchalance chilled me to the bone. “That, and my breakfast. You could even say I’m processing what I’m going to eat for lunch! Is the cafeteria here any good?”
Liam turned to stare at me and Lucy.
Lucy met my gaze, looking beyond horrified.
“I’ll… explain later,” was all I could offer her. “We need to figure out how to approach Abby.”
Slowly, Lucy nodded. I could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to piece together how to proceed.
“Well, no point lying. That’s going to make things worse. If she loses her temper and makes a scene, I’m screwed. She’ll tell everyone, if she hasn’t already. I can kiss my social life goodbye if that happens,” Lucy ran a hand through her hair before glancing at her distant companion. “I was really hoping things weren’t going to get more complicated. Damn it. Why does this shit have to happen to me?”
I took the opening the moment I saw it.
“Who is your friend?”
“His name is Travis,” Lucy suddenly looked like her mind was a million miles away. “He’s uh… a lot of things happened during Grim’s rampage. Dad had to do clean up. Not all of Pandora’s Supers adhere to the code. Shocking, I know,” she muttered with every ounce of sarcasm she could muster. “When that happens, well… people like me and Travis end up being taken advantage of.”
I suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable, and I could see Liam was too.
“Shit…” Liam cringed. “Is he okay?”
“No,” Lucy replied bluntly. “I don’t know if he ever will be.”
More problems to fix.
My phone chimed, and I glanced down at the screen. My drones picked up on Abby arriving on the school grounds. At the same time, the bell for homeroom rang.
“Time to go,” I mused. “Lets hope Abby doesn’t make a scene.”
Lucy sighed.
“Honestly, if she doesn’t throw me into outer space, I’ll consider it a win.”