Chapter 5
After I got home, I quickly made a new plan. While all I had to do was send them a text, I knew that I should cover my trail better than that. If someone found this phone, just texting my friends would be highly suspicious.
So, I texted myself from my other phone so (in case my one of my friends saw my phone) they wouldn't suspect my identity. Then I finally made contact.
Me: meet me at Spatny Pond at 7:00 PM
Ember: all of us?
I replied “yes” and got ready to meet them. After shoving several items in my backpack, I realized I was going to have a problem once I showed up.
The “riends” rich had written on my bag was still bright as when he wrote it in September. I didn’t have time to erase it, so I’d have to go without a bag for now.
In reality, it was probably better without equipment at first. Once I brought out actual supplies to train them with, they’d be in more danger of getting hurt. Just sparring against each other and learning basic control over their powers would be enough for now.
Pulling on my super suit, I said goodbye to my moms and carefully made my way through the woods.
The pond was empty when I arrived. I took a moment for myself, just enjoying the quiet. From this point going forward, I was directly lying to my friends.
And honestly? I was okay with that. Everyone would be safer this way.
If someone knew that they were aware of my identity, they’d be huge targets. It was one thing to be a part of a new group of superheroes running around protecting New York and New Jersey. It was another thing entirely to be a part of the most renowned group of superheroes in the world.
My friends had stopped a couple of robberies and people were already after them. The Legion of Victory had been involved in multiple international events and stopped large scale terrorist attacks. It isn’t hard to imagine the number of people who would love to have a way to hurt me.
Plus, it was kind of fun to know something they didn’t.
Shortly before 7, the SQUIP squad finally arrived. They were dressed in their full costumes, but only Rich brought a bag. I stood in the dark watching them for a moment.
“None of us saw the text besides you, Rich. How do we know you’re not lying?” Chloe asked, holding out her hand. “Give me your phone.”
“No! He texted me. Just trust me,” Rich said.
Jenna reached out and took Rich’s phone out of his bag’s pocket.
“Holy crap. He didn’t want us to see the text because he and Dustin were texting. Chloe look at this!” Jenna announced.
Chloe laughed, harsh and cruel.
“Dude, I wouldn’t even have noticed that text if you weren’t so suspicious about it!”
“Chloe. Be quiet. Someone could hear us,” Christine whispered.
“Wait, what does the text say?” Brooke asked.
Rich’s face was bright red. He was staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group.
“Just that he and Dustin are totally hooking up,” Chloe said, her voice just shy of a shout.
I rolled my eyes and decided they’d embarrassed Rich enough.
“Invisigirl is right,” I said, stepping out of the shadows, “you should be quiet, someone could hear you.”
Chloe’s face fell as I faced her.
“Frankly, you should be embarrassed. If y’all are going to be a team, you need to act like it. Harassing a teammate because he has a better sex life than you is not the way to do that.”
“I have a great sex life,” Chloe replied, voice indignant.
“I don’t give a shit.” I turned to the rest of the group. “Furthermore, y’all should not be having conversations about people you know while you’re in costume. That’s just asking for trouble. Understand?”
They nodded, looking like scolded children.
“Great. First: we’re clearly going to need some rules. One: I do not care about your personal lives. At all. Leave me out of it. Two: we are going to start exactly at 7:00 every night. If you don’t show up or text by 7:05, I’ll assume you’re not coming. You should do the same for me. Three: always come in full uniform. You won’t be using your powers for a while, but just in case, it’ll be good to have a disguise.”
Jake looked up in surprise.
“What do you mean we won’t be using our powers. Isn’t the whole point of this to learn how to use our powers?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“No. The whole point is to learn how to not die. Using your powers will be a part of it, but there are other things to learn too. Actually, that brings me to rule four: trust me. When I ask you to do something, just do it. You can ask questions, but don’t waste too much of
Chloe snorted.
“Because your time is so valuable.”
I ignored her interruption.
“Rule five: when I ask you a question, answer honestly. Unless you’re asking about something confidential I’ll do the same. Got it?”
Everyone except Chloe nodded.
“Alright. Let’s get started.”
First, I figured out the fighting experience they had. Rich had wrestled for a season, and Brooke had taken a personal defense class, but no one else had formal training.
With help from Brooke, I got them started with basic defensive positions. Sure, knowing how to disarm someone would be useful, but not dying was the first step.
No one had trouble with the positions, but everyone seemed bored.
I sighed.
“Is there a problem?” I tried to keep my voice steady, but annoyance crept through.
“This is stupid,” Jake said, “we can already fight. We don’t need to be trained by a teacher. I bet we could take anything you threw at us!”
When they were training me, Astrolass and Trey would often describe training other young superheroes. Usually, they were overconfident and too bold for their own good. The definition of cocky. That was what got them killed. The ones that survived quickly learned that they had a lot to learn.
Trey had said: “Superheroes are like electricians. That sounds dumb, but it’s true. There are old electricians and there are bold electricians, there are no old bold electricians. The same goes for superheroes.”
I’d taken that lesson to heart, but it was hard to learn it on your own.
“Okay.” I moved into a defensive stance. “Come at me.”
Jake’s eyes widened.
“Come on. If you think you don’t need this, then prove me wrong. Come at me,” I said.
He took a few steps back and then ran at me. I braced myself. He reached out, trying to hit me. From my stance, I grabbed his extended arm and used it to flip him.
“Right. Let's get back to learning how to defend ourselves, yeah?” I turned to face the others.
Jake jumped up from his spot on the ground. Crunching leaves underfoot, he ran at me again. Before he could touch me, I grabbed him and pulled him over my shoulder, knocking him back onto the ground.
“Slow down, Wolverine. You won’t be sneaking up on anyone anytime soon. Just get back to work.”
We worked through a few more positions. Everyone was still bored, but no one stepped out of line. I was going to introduce a quick defensive move when my burner phone started ringing. I recognized the number as Blue Nixie.
“Oh hey, Ma. What do you need.”
Someone gasped. Probably Christine.
“There’s been an incident out near you. In wakefield. El Fuego and I are on our way there now. I’ll text you the address. Meet us there,” Blue Nixie said before hanging up.
I sighed and turned toward the SQUIP squad.
“I have to go. Practice is over for the day. Practice at home, we’ll meet back here tomorrow.”
“Was that Blue Nixie?” Christine asked, practically jumping up and down.
I laughed and nodded, smiling at the wild grin that spread across her face.
“Are we allowed to practice with our powers?” Jeremy asked.
That made me pause for a second. They definitely needed practice, but some of their powers were very dangerous. I wouldn’t be able to cover for them if they burned their houses down.
“Yes, but you and Ember should be especially careful. Practice turning things off or extinguishing flames more than summoning energy. Don’t set anything on fire.”
They smiled at me and began making their way back through the woods. I sighed and started walking to the address Blue Nixie had sent. It looked like I’d be out for a while longer.
The good thing about being a superhero was that I could function on less sleep. So these long nights affected me less. Sleep was still nice, though.
Blue Nixie and El Fuego were waiting outside when I arrived at the abandoned office building.
“We got an anonymous tip that there’s something happening in this building. Something to do with your friends. We don’t know what it is, but Astrolass sent us to investigate.”
I nodded and we started exploring the building.
Missions with just El Fuego and Blue Nixie weren’t common. Normally Captain Clear or Kid Comet came along, but on rare occasions, I was sent on missions alone with the two of them.
Which was incredibly awkward.
Everyone in the Legion knew that El Fuego was my father. Trey had even done a DNA test to confirm it, but my parents both refused to acknowledge it. Which made working together incredibly difficult.
The old office corridors creaked as we searched for anything out of the ordinary. By the time we were climbing the stairs to the 5th and final level, I was tired and annoyed.
“I think the tip you got was just some kind of distraction,” I said.
El Fuego sighed.
“I’m getting that too.”
“Stop whining, boys. We still have more rooms to check,” Blue Nixie replied.
We trooped on. Blue Nixie and El Fuego took the rooms on one side of the hallway, while I took the other. Even though there were two of them, I was clearing rooms much faster than they were. I was at the end of the hallway while they were still in their second room.
Deciding not to think about the implications that had, I opened the door to the final office. Like the other rooms, there was a desk with a computer and a few pictures. The building had been abandoned last year after a fire revealed serious structural issues, so anything in the building was abandoned.
Unlike the other rooms, though, the computer in this office was still running. Electricity had been shut off to this building a while ago, so this computer had to have been running off of a generator.
“Hey,” I called down the hall, “I think I found something.”
They came running in, faces red and their hair messed up.
“Sorry, we were just-”
I interrupted Blue Nixie. “I don’t want to know.”
She nodded sheepishly and walked around the desk to get a good look at the computer.
“There’s a lot on here, you better come get a better look.”
The desktop was covered in folders, each given a name. Jeremy Heere, Brook Lohst, Rich Goranski, etc. The entire SQUIP squad (including me) had a folder, plus the Legion of Victory. I actually had two folders, one titled Micheal Mell and one titled Nix.
Blue Nixie clicked on the Nix folder several dozen documents popped up, including one called “DNA test results confirm - Nix is the child of El Fuego.” This caused both of my parents to look away.
“How would they have that information?” El Fuego asked.
I stifled a laugh. It was only a matter of time before we were faced to address the issue, but he was still beating around the bush.
“Trey ran the test. They must have hacked our computer system.”
“That’s not possible. Trey said only a quantum supercomputer could do that,” Blue Nixie said as I clicked through the folder some more.
The folder was full of information obviously taken from the Legion databases. There was no answer besides us being hacked, but Blue Nixie had a point. This 2011 dell desktop was not a quantum computer.
When I opened the “downloads” tab, the answer became abundantly clear. The tab was full of video, taken from several different angles, of me. At the bridge, at the warehouse, and in the woods. The problem was obvious.
“SQUIPs,” I said, “I should’ve known.”
“What are SQUIPs?” El Fuego asked.
“I briefed the Legion on them back in November. They’re incredibly powerful computers that implant in people’s brains. Super Quantum Unit Intel Processors. They’ve been around since at least 1988. I didn’t think they were actually Quantum, but here we are.”
The floor creaked below us and the building shook a little.
“We’d better go. Let’s get this computer to Trey.”
When we arrived at Legion Headquarters, the air was tense.
Our computers were full of confidential information, and information about the legion. The only remaining recipe for Brooklynite (our one weakness) was stored in our system. A hacker with malicious intent could bring the whole country to its knees. Maybe even all of human civilization.
And I would be willing to bet this hacker wasn’t benevolent.
The night dragged on as Trey started analyzing the computer. For a while we all sat there in silence, waiting for others to answer our emergency call. Once Astrolass and Kid Comet came back from their mission, the air of tension broke some.
“If this is really a quantum supercomputer, then there’s no way we’re the only place they’ve hacked. All the confidential stuff is not our problem. The Brooklynite formula is concerning, but if Trey was able to figure it out on his own, so could a supercomputer,” Astrolass said, sitting down in the debriefing room with us.
“The only truly troubling thing,” she continued, “is that they could figure out your identity. Between you being here all the time and receiving a paycheck from us, more than any intern would, you're suspicious. Plus, we don’t have other interns your age. But I think I have a cover for that: Social Media Manager. What do you think?”
On one hand: it could be a fun job that provided a decent alibi. It would be a better excuse than just “I’m an intern” and I could actually put that on college apps.
On the other hand: I knew nothing about running a social media account and it would be one more thing to fit into my schedule.
Before I could answer, Trey slammed open the door.
“Nix, I need you in here.”
Four hours later, I was finally walking out of Legion Headquarters. The hackers had not figured out my identity, and I was officially Social Media Manager, so now they never would.
The hackers had figured out my friend's identities, but they all had SQUIPs, so that wasn’t surprising.
What was surprising was that the hackers were following another group of vigilantes. Since they were just operating out of Wakefield and hadn’t come into the city, I hadn’t been interested in them. But if the SQUIP was tracking them, then I should be too.
Which left me with two tasks: find the new vigilantes and keep both groups alive.
Piece of cake.