Chapter 3
It was almost midnight, and I wanted to fall asleep as soon as I laid down, but instead, I got a call from Astrolass.
“Nix, we have work to do! The Police want us to investigate the attack on the bridge. Kid Comet’s on his way,” she said before hanging up.
I groaned and changed into my suit. Follow up investigations were pretty common, but they were arguably the worst part of the job. Vigilantes like the Legion of Triumph might not get paid, but at least they didn’t have to do these.
Astrolass and the rest of the LoV were just arriving when Kid Comet and I got to the bridge.
“Alright,” Astrolass started, “let's review what we know now that Nix is here. Captain Clear, you can start.”
“Fever Storm was a nuclear engineer at the Indian Point Energy Center. He was bitten by a radioactive fire and woke up with pyrokinesis. His real name was Dylan Chapman. No connection to any other known supervillain that family and friends know about.”
The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t think why.
“El Fuego and I were able to hunt down the guy's car,” Blue Nixie said, “There was a creepy note to his ex-girlfriend and directions to a building in New Jersey. It looks like a warehouse, but I have no idea what's inside.”
“Great. Nix? You were hunting down the other heroes that were on the bridge. Any leads on them?” Astrolass asked.
“There from Middleborough, New Jersey, and based off of a bracelet one of them was wearing, they go to the high school. Beyond that, the only evidence I have to suggest identities is circumstantial.”
She nodded and then we began making a plan to infiltrate the warehouse. Odds are, it would just be a personal storage unit, or some old merchandise from a business, but maybe something interesting would come up. Interesting like a missing person or an evil lair, not like an affair or tax fraud. Affairs and tax fraud were surprisingly common among supervillains.
Eventually, we made our way to the warehouse and Captain Clear went in first. There was not much of a chance I’d be needed inside, so I pulled out my phone and checked Snapchat. After checking streaks and sending my own back I accidentally opened the map.
I clicked out almost immediately, but I did get a glimpse of several other bitmojis standing next to mine. When I checked the map again, I saw that it was the rest of the SQUIP squad.
There were just office buildings and other warehouses surrounding this building. A ways down, There was a Costco, but that didn’t seem like their kind of Friday night (it was absolutely mine though). That meant they'd have to be in the warehouse.
Which might have given me a few answers but mostly left me with more questions.
For example: What the fuck were they doing? Why did this grown man have directions to where a bunch of kids hang out? Why did this have to be done at one am? How did they think they wouldn’t get caught? Did they have any plan if the LoV crashed their midnight party?
“Ma,” I said, turning to Blue Nixie, “look at this.”
I called Blue Nixie “ma” for a number of reasons. I already had two moms, so mom and mama were taken. Blue Nixie had spent a while in the south and hated being reminded of it. And finally, It made everyone (or just El Fuego, Blue Nixie, and Captain Clear) uncomfortable when I did so.
That was probably because while Blue Nixie had officially told me that she was mom, El Fuego had never mentioned anything. Which was also why I didn’t call El Fuego dad.
Anyway, Blue Nixie looked at my phone before turning back to me.
“You think that’s the Legion of Triumph?”
Maybe that’s what the fuck they were doing. I hadn’t considered it before, but all of the evidence I had didn’t disprove it.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Looks like we better be ready to give Captain Clear some backup,” Astrolass said.
The radio buzzed, giving us the signal to move in.
At first, the inside seemed boring and plain. There were several large wooden crates, random boxes, and some weird retail items like shelves, but nothing of interest.
The middle of the warehouse, behind a group of several crates, was strange though. The light above this area was broken like it had shorted out. The ground was covered in scorch marks and several objects were moved into awkward positions.
“Were the vigilantes practicing?” Blue Nixie asked.
“I can only assume,” Captain Clear said from behind me, making me jump. “No one was here when I got here, but the burn marks on the ground were still warm. They must have jumped out a window when they heard me come in.”
That wasn’t likely, considering that I’d seen their bitmojis placing them in the building while Captain Clear was in here. I opened Snapchat again and checked the map. Chloe, Christine, Brooke, and Jenna were now across the street, but Rich, Jake, and Jeremy were still inside.
I showed my phone to Blue Nixie and she nodded.
“We know you three are still in here,” she said
No one moved. Snapchat could be misreading their GPS signal, but I doubted it. They were probably hiding behind a crate hoping we’d give up and leave.
I nudged Kid Comet.
“Dude. I’m pretty sure that’s your cousin,” I said quietly.
He sighed, and groaned, before checking his own phone.
“Richard! Stand up, I know you’re fucking in here. I can see your location!”
There was a soft “Fuck” from behind a crate and then Rich stood up. Jake and Jeremy followed soon after. Their masks were off and the three of their faces were red. They stared at the ground, unable to meet our eyes.
“Damn, they really are just teenagers. Good intel Nix.” Astrolass patted me on the back before turning to my friends. “Look. We don’t want teenaged vigilantes running around trying to fight dangerous supervillains. So, it is my responsibility to tell you to stop. Go home and pretend to be normal kids. Believe me, it will make your life easier.”
The three of them nodded. They still hadn’t looked at us. Jeremy opened his mouth to speak but Astrolass cut him off.
“Still, something tells me you aren’t going to listen. You seven are going to go out there and get yourselves killed fighting a superhuman who is way stronger than you, or knows your weaknesses, or knows your secret identities or something. So it is also my responsibility to make sure that if I know you're gonna fight, that at least you know how to do it.”
Finally, my friends looked up, eyes wide.
“Nix will train you. No crime fighting until he says you can.”
That was news to me. Regardless, I kept my face neutral. The more I emoted, spoke, or moved, the more of my identity I revealed.
“Whe-Where should we meet you?” Jeremy asked.
I thought for a moment. I’d have to scout for buildings that don’t have security systems, I’d have to find a way for them to get there without being spotted, I’d have to get there without being spotted. Not to mention the extra precautions I’d have to take to hide my identity.
“I’ll contact you,” I said finally.
Astrolass spoke to them a little more before she dismissed all of us. Which left me with no clue of how to get in touch with them.
After Kid Comet dropped me off, I started working. It was almost 4 am, but now I couldn’t sleep. I ended up choosing a secluded area in the woods near the school. There was a pond there, which would help me greatly. Plus, The warehouse they’d been using clearly wasn’t an option - Fever Storm could find them.
Speaking of Fever Storm, I couldn’t figure out why his name sounded familiar, or why he’d been chasing the Legion of Triumph. I searched for hours before conceding and passing out on my bed.
My mom woke me up after what seemed like no time at all.
“You have a church group meeting in half an hour! Michael! I told you to set your alarm!” She yelled through my door.
I pulled on some jeans and my hoodie before opening the door.
“Sorry, mom.” I kissed her on the cheek and made my way downstairs to finish getting ready before Madeline came to pick me up.
Church group barely counted as a “church” group. It was usually a couple people meeting up at a Denny’s. Madeline and I would meet up with some Wakefield kids and cause havoc for the poor waitress.
It was fine though, because one girl Zoe Murphy, was super-rich. She tipped for the entire group at about 35%.
“Hey Zoe,” I said as Madeline and I sat down at the table. “Where’s Alana?”
Alana Beck was a really sweet, but socially anxious girl. She’s had the most obvious crush on Zoe since like 7th grade, but Zoe’s remained oblivious.
“Picking up Jared.”
Jared Kleinman was Jewish. He just liked free Denny’s, so he was part of our Catholic church group.
“God, I hate that kid. How are you doing, Zoe?” Madeline asked.
“Just fine.”
Zoe’s brother had killed himself. He hadn’t even left a note, instead, he had a stolen letter from a kid who had a crush on Zoe.
Connor was a dick, but it clearly still affected Zoe. She only acted like her old self when Alana was around.
“Sup fuckers,” Jared said as he and Alana sat down. “Or should I say ‘bonjour mademoiselle?’”
“Hon Hon Hon, fuck you,” Madeline responded, putting on an overexaggerated french accent.
“May I take your order?” Poppy, our usual waitress, asked.
The five of us looked at each other. Poppy was so nice, she wouldn’t mind our shenanigans.
“Actually yes,” I said, opening my menu. “What would you recommend? This is our first time eating here.”
“Pancakes and Hot Chocolates for everyone. Got it.” She didn’t mind, but some days she wouldn’t humor us.
She took our menus away but came back to our table before heading to the kitchen.
“Sir, this is for you,” she said as she set a kids menu and crayons in front of Jared.
“Jokes on you. I’m using this.”
She patted him on the head and walked away.
We talked about a lot of pointless Wakefield drama and about how some ladies in our parish haven’t been kneeling for the entire Eucharistic Prayer. Eventually, someone brought up superheroes.
“I can’t believe the Legion of Triumph goes to our school! This is proof that Middleborough is better than Wakefield!” Madeline said.
I snorted. Wakefield had better test scores, higher musical assessment scores, and their sports teams usually destroyed ours.
“You know, Wakefield has a team of superheroes too,” Zoe said.
Madeline threw her head to face her.
“I haven’t heard anything about that.”
“Because Michael or Jenna haven’t sent you anything. But these guys are cooler than the Legion of Triumph - which is a stupid name by the way. These guys stopped Fever Storm several days before any Middleborough folks had heard of him. Oh! And they didn’t need help from professionals,” Zoe replied.
Madeline dramatically gasped and picked up her phone to scour the internet for proof.
“Damn. You really came for the Legion of Triumph. And I agree, it’s a stupid name,” I said.
“You’re a traitor!” Madeline declared.
I made a mental note to look for these other vigilantes. There were a couple of news articles I’d read Thursday night about them, but they didn’t seem all that interesting. It was worth keeping an eye out, but not worth putting energy in.
“Pancakes!” Poppy said as she set down our plates, shaking any thoughts of superheroes from my mind.