Chapter 4
On Monday at school, Jeremy seemed on edge. The whole SQUIP squad was, but especially Jeremy. They were having a hushed conversation at lunch and were so preoccupied that they didn’t even notice me approaching.
“Do you think he’ll try and contact us here?” Chloe asked.
“It seems unlikely. Why wouldn’t he have done it already?” Rich responded.
“Maybe they’re just fucking with us?” Jeremy said.
I sat down next to him.
“Who’s fucking with y’all?” I asked, making the seven of them jump.
“No one,” Brooke said.
The rest of the group frantically agreed.
It hurt that they didn’t trust me, but I guess I could understand. In all fairness: I hadn’t told any of them that I was Nix. Still stung, though.
“I’m sure,” I said, not wanting to push an unimportant issue. “You guys learned the audition song yet?”
Chloe huffed.
“Well I started, but there isn’t accompaniment online. I can learn it acapella, but since we’re not singing it that way, it’s pointless to keep practicing.”
“I’ll record the accompaniment later if you really need it,” I said.
The conversation quickly moved on from auditions to the musical itself. I jumped into the discussion when relevant, but mostly I just sat there lost in thought.
Sometime this week, I’d have to figure out how to get my friends a message, without them figuring out I was Nix. There was also no time in my schedule, so I’d have to fit training, working, practicing for the musical, and setting up the tech for the musical in every day.
Junior year was going to be harder than I thought.
After lunch, Jeremy and I had Physics together. We had a lab to teach us about motion, so we’d have the whole period to talk.
“I’m sorry about Friday. And Thursday, I shouldn’t have lied to you,” Jeremy said.
“It’s cool,” I started, “just… don’t lie to me in the future. If you want to hang out with Jake and Chloe over me, that’s fine. Just be honest.”
He looked taken aback.
“It’s not that I wanted to hang out with them over you. It’s just… never mind.”
“Okay, whatever Jer.” My voice was unintentionally tinged with sadness. I hadn’t realized how upset I was about him lying to me until he kept lying.
“Mikey…” He glanced around before pulling me into a quick hug.
“Let’s just get back to work,” I said, hiding my blush.
The atmosphere between us had lifted a little, and we actually had fun doing the lab. About a half-hour before the bell was going to ring for dismissal, the principal came on the loudspeaker.
“Attention. There is an ongoing supervillain attack nearby. We have been told by the school board to go into lockdown mode. Thank you for your cooperation.”
I groaned. Not only would I be stuck probably after school, but I wouldn’t be able to help the legion.
Once the class setup for the lockdown, Jeremy and I sat together under our lab table. After a few minutes, I ended up leaning against him.
When I checked, the news said that it was an explosion-controlling supervillain lighting up a warehouse. The whole thing gave me a really bad vibe, plus the Legion of Victory could definitely benefit from another water-based hero. But I was stuck at school. I was about to give up and just relax against Jeremy when I got an idea.
“Miss Barker? May I go to the bathroom?” I asked.
“Are you just going to go home?”
I looked her dead in the eye. She valued honesty and was a pretty chill teacher. There was no way she’d mind.
“Yes.”
She sighed.
“Don’t get caught. Say you’re from Mr. Thompson's class if you do.”
I smiled and said “thank you” as I grabbed my bag and left the room. Jeremy seemed offended, but I didn’t really care. Once I got to my car, I changed into my suit and texted Kid Comet.
When I got to the warehouse, I realized what gave me the bad vibe. It was the same place my friends had been practicing using their powers just Friday night. Clearly, Fever Storm was not the only villain who had an issue with them.
Blue Nixie’s voice pulled me out of my shock.
“Nix! We need help subduing this guy. Most of the water in here has evaporated, I need you to find a way to douse the building. Kid Comet and Astrolass have a plan from there,” she said through the coms.
“Gotcha.”
Looking around the street, I spotted a fire hydrant down the road and got to work. Once I summoned a large enough quantity of water, I began extinguishing the larger flames.
“I’ve put out a lot of fire, I’m about to just drench the whole building.”
“Got that,” Kid Comet said.
I let the water gush into the building and saw a blur as Kid Comet came zooming by. Most supervillains were super easy to get rid of once the full legion was assembled and Crimson Bomb was no different.
Another way he was like other villains: we’d have to do an incredibly boring follow up on him.
“I hope you were planning on training those kids here,” Astrolass said, landing next to me.
“I’m not that dumb. If Fever Storm could find this place, I knew other badies could,” I said, “I just don’t know why they would, though. It’s not like these guys are particularly interesting…”
She looked at me.
“I’ll see what I can find out. Do you have any idea how you’re going to train them? I kind of sprung that on you at the last second.”
“Uh… almost.”
Astrolass knew me pretty well. There was no way in hell she thought I had anything planned out.
“These guys are your friends right?” I nodded. “Then I’d suggest two things. One: Get a burner phone so that you can text them. And two: give the message to them yourself. Not through a note or as Nix, but as you. If they know you're in on it, they’ll trust you more. Just say you're an intern at headquarters or something. I’ll back you up if anyone doesn’t believe you.”
I smiled.
“Will do. Thanks.”
Kid Comet brought me back to school before the rest of the students were dismissed. Once I changed back into my civilian clothes I made a plan.
Target would sell a temporary cell phone that I could renew a plan for every month. Jeremy would probably come over if I asked him to, so I could talk to him then and pretend to be my own boss. He’d communicate to the rest of the SQUIP squad and then lunch wouldn’t be awkward anymore and I’d done what Astrolass asked!
My plan went downhill once I bumped into Jeremy and Rich at Target.
“Where’d you go during physics?” Jeremy asked.
“I felt like it,” I said.
Rich looked at Jeremy and laughed.
“Your car stayed in the parking lot, and you weren’t in it,” Rich said, “so what the fuck were you doing?”
I looked at him. He had this smirk on his face that just screamed “I know what you were doing.”
There was no way he actually knew, but I was curious and whatever he said would give me an out.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked sarcastically.
His smirk grew into a shit-eating grin.
“Dustin Kropp left my English class at around the same time you left. Since his car was gone, but yours wasn’t, I just figured.”
I shook my head.
“You are worse than Chloe, Goranski. That being said, I will neither confirm nor deny that Dustin and I were together,” I said.
Jeremy made a face.
“Gross. I didn’t need to know that.”
What an asshole. He told me everything about his (largely nonexistent) sex life, but the second I imply I have one, he gets upset. Dick move.
“Whatever, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a piano song to record?” Rich broke the awkward silence.
“I’m just picking something up for my boss,” I said, getting an idea.
Rich furrowed his brows.
“I didn’t know you had a job. Where do you work? And how the fuck do you have time for it on top of everything else?”
“I’m an intern at the Legion of Victories headquarters.”
Their eyes widened. Jeremy’s jaw dropped.
“Uh… What do you do there? Like who do you work under?” Rich asked, fidgeting with his sleeve.
“I work with Nix. He needs a burner phone to train the new superheroes, so I’m just picking it up for him. I better go. Catch ya later,” I said, walking towards the back of the store.
Jeremy whispered “fuck” as I walked off.
Once I got to the tech section, I grabbed the most basic phone I could find and set up a temp plan with the assistant there. Step one was done.
After getting home, I quickly recorded the audition accompaniment and sent it in the group chat. I also spent two seconds searching for it online, found a video, and sent that in the group chat as well.
Since Jeremy was out with Rich, he probably wouldn’t drop everything and come over, so step two was going to require more thought.
In school the following morning, Jeremy gave me an awkward “hello” before walking past me. Since we usually talked before homeroom, that was weird.
He made his way to Christine and turned his back towards me, sending a sharp pang of pain through my body. I hid my hurt and began heading to my homeroom class.
I’d thought Jeremy was being an asshole about the whole superhero shit, but maybe not. Maybe he was genuinely mad at me. We still hadn’t talked about anything that happened on Friday, and incidents were starting to pile up now.
Shaking away the thought, I got ready for the day ahead. I could tell already, it was going to be a long one.
At lunch, the entire table grew quiet as I approached. Madeline was leaning against Jake and her face was bright red from laughing. Dustin looked away when I sat down.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Madeline stopped giggling for a second and turned to me.
“Well Rich mentioned what you and Dustin were doing yesterday, and Dustin confirmed it. I didn’t think you were zat kind of guy, Michael,” she said, breaking back out into giggles.
“What, you didn’t think I was gay?” I snorted before continuing. “I absolutely am, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t sleep with Dustin if my life depended on it.”
There was a scoff from next to me as Dustin registered my statement.
“What about somebody else’s life, emo? What if Jeremy’s life depended on it? Would you then?”
It was weird for him to press the issue, but that really just solidified my position in my mind.
“Jeremy can handle that himself. No fucking way am I sleeping with you. Like ever, dude,” I responded.
There were very few things I wouldn’t do for Jer, but sleeping with Dustin was one of them. I would literally crawl through hell for him, but I would get close to Dustin's dick for no one.
“That’s harsh.” Dustin wiped fake tears from his eyes.
The conversation at the table gradually picked up, but I mostly stayed out of it. Even though he was sitting next to me, Jeremy didn’t speak to me the entire lunch.
By the time the last bell rang, I knew that my original plan of alerting the “legion of triumph” had no hope of working. I’d have to restructure it, and quickly. The longer I waited to start training, the closer they got to going back out and getting themselves killed.
After the final bell, I took a moment in the bathroom. The student parking lot would be crazy for a while, plus I hadn’t had a moment to just think for a while.
Since Jeremy was clearly avoiding me, talking to him wouldn’t work. Jake and Rich were possibilities, but they didn’t trust me all that much, so they’d probably ignore me. I could pass a note, but there's a good chance they’d track it back to me.
Before I could come up with another plan, two other people entered the bathroom.
“Look, Rich. I’ve got basketball practice in a half hour. I don’t have time to hear some conspiracy theory,” Jake said.
“It’s not a conspiracy. Micheal told me and Jeremy that he works for the Legion. Nix has a phone, so we should probably expect a text or something. We should listen to the Legion, not break their trust before they’ve given it to us!” Rich replied.
Jake crossed his arms.
“If people are getting hurt, it’s our responsibility to help. I’m not just going to sit by while the Legion of Victory strings us along.”
“That’s not what’s happening! They’ll contact us soon. Just wait a little while longer. If Michael trusts them, they can’t be messing with us. Don’t be stupid!” Rich’s voice was high and desperate. His lisp, which he worked hard to hide, was slipping through on every word.
“Of course. Because Michael trusts them, we all have to. Do you think Michael understands this situation? Do you think he knows?-”
“Knows what?” I interrupted, stepping out of my stall to wash my hands.
Both their jaws dropped. After drying off my hands, I looked at them expectantly. They stayed quiet, eyes wide in shock.
“See you later, I guess,” I said I walked out.
Once I made it down the hall, I broke down laughing. The look on their faces was not something I was going to forget easily. Plus, they’d given me the perfect solution to my problem.