Chapter 6
This piece of cake may have been bigger than I expected.
By the time Thursday rolled around, I had made no progress on finding the identities of the Wakefield heroes and the SQUIP squad had their heads so far up their own asses they wouldn’t listen to me when I gave advice.
To add insult to injury, they completely ignore Madeline, Dustin, and I at lunch.
So, as I was walking to auditions, I was fuming. It was not a good idea to piss off your pianist before an audition, especially when he knew your weaknesses as a singer.
But rather than be a bad friend I just sucked it up and played well.
Christine and Jeremy both nailed their auditions, to no one’s surprise. The rest of the SQUIP squad (bar Chloe) were decent, about what you’d expect for a school play. Chloe didn’t care, and it was very... evident in her singing and monologue.
Everyone else was… pretty bad. There were lots of choir girls who couldn’t act and lots of theatre girls who couldn’t sing. And to be fair to the girls, there were lots of guys from both groups who couldn’t do either.
I just kept playing and tried not to react to anyone’s performance.
By the time auditions got out, it was well past 7 and the entire SQUIP squad was still at school. Once Mr. Reyes had asked me for my opinion, I started walking to my car to go home.
Jeremy stopped me right as I unlocked the door.
“Hey, Mikey!”
Taking a deep breath, I looked at him.
“Whatcha need?” I asked.
“Do we…do we have practice today?”
He awkwardly smiled.
“You tell me. Is it after 7:05?” I said, “besides, I’m pretty sure Nix is trying to get out of training y’all, after what you did yesterday.”
They’d been acting like a bunch of teenagers, which they were. But still, they’re superheroes too, and should at least try to act like it. I, as Nix, had told them to be more careful and that they were in danger, and they hadn't cared. They just kept fucking around and not listening to me.
To top it all off, Rich set me on fire at the end because Jake and Chloe were teasing him about sleeping with Dustin. He’d gotten upset and tried to hit Chloe, I stepped in, and before I knew it, we were both on fire.
That was the exact reason I’d picked a spot next to a pond. But, he should have controlled his temper and they shouldn’t have been talking about their personal lives in costume.
“Fair point…” He sighed. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll catch you later.”
He turned on his heel and started walking away.
“Wait, Jer-bear! Do you need a ride home?”
He gave me a wide grin.
“Put your stuff in the back, come on!” I opened my car door for him.
The ride home was really comfortable. The awkward tension that had been following us for the past few days seemed to be gone.
When I stopped at his house, he even gave me a hug before getting out, which left me with a strange warmth in my stomach as I drove away.
There was a light blue VW Buggy in front of my house as I pulled up, meaning that Madeline had decided to stop by.
She was waiting for me in my room, dramatically draped over the bed.
“Jake broke up with me,” she said.
When she looked up at me, her eyes were red and her nose was running. I grabbed tissues and sat down next to her.
“What happened? Did he say why?” I asked, helping her gently wipe her face.
“He did.” She sniffled. “He said ‘it’s for your own safety’ whatever the fuck that means. I’m pretty sure he’s been cheating on me with Chloe anyway, but that just makes it hurt more!”
I pulled her against me and let her sob into my shirt. I’d been dealing with this exact situation every other month for the past year and a half. It’d usually be best if I just let her cry and waited, he’d be back with her in another month.
This time though, I’d have to actually be a good friend. Jake had let the whole superhero thing go to his head and might be able to not hook up with girls willy nilly. That’d be an amazing turn of events for Madeline, she might be able to get a boyfriend that treated her like a human being. I’d just have to convince her of that.
“Hey, It’s okay... You’re better off without him. He’s a jerk.”
That made her sob harder.
“And only jerks like me! I’m never gonna find anyone better. The only other guy who likes me is you, and you’re gay.”
To be fair, Jared liked her too, but he was also gay, so that wasn’t going to help much.
“Lots of other guys like you. Besides, it’s not like the friends you have now are the only friends you’re gonna have for the rest of your life! It’ll be okay,” I said.
She sobbed against my chest for several more minutes. Eventually, she sat up and wiped her nose with a tissue again.
“I don’t want to talk about my life anymore. What’s happening in yours? Maybe your lack of one will make me feel better.”
Madeline was a good person. She’d cry to me and talk about her life, but she wasn’t completely self-centered. To some degree, she cared.
“I have a life.” I laughed. “I gave Jeremy a ride home after auditions, that’s two lifey things in one day.”
A mischievous smile spread across her face.
“Jeremy huh? Anything happen there?” She asked.
Not realizing what she meant, I answered:
“He gave me a hug… wait a second. No, nothing happened there.”
She winked at me.
“A hug is something, but if you don’t want to admit it, I’ll pretend it’s nothing.”
Madeline had been trying to get me to ask Jeremy out since November. After Halloween, we’d gotten pretty close, and once she’d told me she really liked Jake, she weaseled the name of my crush out of me.
“It’s not something!” I said, “two guys can hug and it can be just friendly. I hug Rich all the time. Besides, Jeremy’s the straightest guy I know.”
“Actually? You’re such an idiot! Jeremy’s like the GAYEST guy I know, besides you, and Rich… and Dustin… and Jared, but that’s not important. He’s at least bi, probably gay,” She said.
“Just because... what? He’s feminine? Mads, he’s had, several girlfriends. Including you!”
In December, after Jeremy and Christine had decided to stay friends, Madeline and Jeremy had dated for a solid two weeks. It was really uncomfortable to have my two best friends dating, especially since they both said they were doing it out of pity.
Madeline rolled her eyes. “Because that was the epitome of a relationship. We only had sex like three times, that doesn’t mean anything,” She said.
“That's actually a lot for a two-week relationship…”
“It’s not.” She scoffed. “Every other relationship I’ve been in has been a lot busier than that one. But still, he’s totally bi even if ‘having sex with girls’ doesn’t fit into your criteria of a gay guy.”
“I’m pretty sure ‘having sex with girls’ fits into very few people’s criteria of a gay guy.”
Before she could give me a snarky remark back, her phone buzzed.
“I’ve gotta go, it’s my mom. Catch you later, Mikey.”
She kissed me on the cheek before leaving.
As soon as she pulled away, I grabbed my laptop.
Running off of about 3 hours of sleep and a half a cup of coffee, all I wanted to do was take a nap. But I had a job, and that meant I had responsibilities, which was annoying, to say the least.
The Wakefield superheroes were better at keeping things under the radar than the SQUIP Squad had been. There were only a handful of news stories about them, all of them recent.
I printed out the articles and as many grainy CCTV camera pictures of these guys, I could find and had started pinning them up to my board. When I mapped their area of activity, I found that they didn’t have a real central neighborhood they focused on. Maybe it was just the fact that I had seven data points, or maybe they were deliberately covering their tracks.
They stuck to the Wakefield area, but they hit all over it. They’d stopped crime at 3 Starbucks and both of the Walmarts! Now that is range.
Deciding that the internet wasn’t going to provide me more answers, I pulled out my notebook and wrote down all the information I had on each of them.
After I added a quick mock-up of each hero’s suit and the information I could find about them online, I called it a day. To figure out anything else, I'd probably have to hack some security cameras and maybe even set up a wifi detector.
Of course, as soon as I had a second to rest, someone had to come along and ruin it. My phone buzzed with a notification.
“Hey Trey,” I said, as I picked up my phone. “What do you need?”
“Astrolass & I have to go deal with the situation in Russia, but someone should keep analyzing what we got from the SQUIP. Are you up for it?”
I groaned. It’s something that I really wanted to do, but it was already late and I knew it’d be a several hour investments. But if I didn’t analyze it, the only information I would get about it would be Trey's summary a few weeks from now.
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Fantastic. See you then,” He said.
“Hey, wait a second, what’s the situation in Russia?”
He hung up before I could get an answer.
Astrolass and he were long gone by the time my uber dropped me off at Headquarters. Kid Comet was waiting for me next to the secure computer we’d transferred the hacker’s files to.
“What the fuck is the situation in Russia?” He asked me.
I laughed. It was a very Trey move to just leave and not give anyone any real information. At least I wasn’t the only clueless one.
Kid Comet sat down with me and we started looking through files and programs. There was a lot of video taken from the SQUIP Squad, up until Tuesday night, of course. A handful of pictures from their social media, and one picture of Jeremy sleeping in the hospital. Weird, and a little concerning, but not all that dangerous.
There were also several files in the squad’s folders that were encrypted beyond all hope of ever reading them. They just required a passcode, but it’d take even our computers a while to crack them all through brute force.
Luckily, most of the files were accessible so looking through them would be easy. Well, not easy - there was a ton of material to look through - but possible.
A couple of hours and a bunch of paperwork later, I didn’t have much new information besidesa more complete understanding of the scope of this hack. What they had from our computers was scattered among hundreds of folders, making it next to impossible to see if they had what we were worried about - the recipe for Brooklynite.
Eventually, Kid Comet forced me to go home, which was probably for the best. I barely made it to my bed before passing out.
Friday passed quickly, and before I knew it it was time for band practice. The cast list would be out next week, so we practiced the songs that we’d cover with our first actor - Astrolass.
Even though the musical was cheesy (and left out the best legion member) the songs were total bops. Key to the City was one of my top three songs, but all Astrolass songs were great, so it made rehearsal largely unpainful. We were just putting away our instruments when Jake came rushing in.
“Micheal, Jer said you know how to work the gym’s sound system?” I nodded in response. “Great, cause the guy who was doing it- Ryan -disappeared during JV half-time.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me away.
Basketball games were not my thing, and sitting courtside next to a speaker definitely wasn’t. I quietly weighed the pros and cons of being a good friend before deciding just to go with it.
“I’m blasting High School Musical, just so you know,” I said, sighing as Jake and I walked into the gym.
The stands were absolutely full, which wasn’t shocking for rival week, but still sucked. Wakefield’s student section seemed to have already started a fight with our’s and the JV game hadn’t even finished yet. It was going to be a long night.
The volunteer scorekeepers sat on the bench next to me, and to my surprise, Zoe was one of them.
“Since when do you care about Basketball?” I asked her.
“I don’t, which is why your team was okay with me helping.”
I nodded and started fiddling with the sound to get it right.
Our JV team ended up getting absolutely obliterated with a score of 79-1. They made one free throw, and the other team seemed to be running new plays against them. It was another tragic and embarrassing showing, but no one expected much better, anyone good was bumped up to varsity.
As the team walked off, I started playing some Post Malone song and just sat back. Making a Spotify playlist, and plugging a phone into an aux cord was not as hard as the other sound guide made it seem.
The first half of the game was decent. Jake was a strong post and made a ton of 3-pointers, but Wakefield was playing dirty. Our team might have been pushing a bit much, but the Wakefield boys were tripping our players and flopping, and the ref didn’t care. By the time the clock rang at the end of the second quarter, I was seething.
Our team went back to the locker room, but Wakefield had their huddle right in front of me.
“Their super tall post, the one that keeps blocking me, he’s limping a little. If something were to happen to his left leg, I’d bet he’d be out of the game for the night,” their point guard said.
“Bro, I ain't fucking with him, he literally looks like a superhero.” Zoe sat up at that and the Wakefield player continued, “plus, he only hurt his leg cuz he was pulling his friend out of a fire, you’re just a dipshit, David.”
The rest of the team agreed, and I felt bad for judging them before another chimed in with “we should go for the other post, he’s got some sort of medical thing on his arm, I bet if we bumped it, it would hurt like hell,” and all of a sudden my guilt was gone.
Jerks are gonna be jerks.
I quickly texted Jake that his bud should get his device wrapped, and queued up the team’s re-entrance song. I’d searched the entire first half but I found something I liked for it - a bass boosted version of Get Your Head in the Game. No one in the crowd would notice, but it’d be a small payback at Jake for breaking up with Madeline.
I glanced at Zoe’s phone for a second while waiting for our team to get back. She was looking at the Vigilante activity map some dude in New York made. It was a pseudo live map that showed where possible vigilante activity was happening. It had never been successfully used to track someone down, but I knew many groups used it to avoid suspicion.
It was a little strange that she was looking at it, especially since she’d seemed so uninterested in superheroes in the past, but everyone has their hobbies.
Wakefield played dirty the second half of the game too, but at the end of the third quarter David the Dip tripped and hurt his arm, so he had to sit out. He was their team’s strongest scorer, so it was smooth sailing from there. We finished 43-36.
The SQUIP Squad went to go meet him by the locker room. I decided to just go home and not make things awkward, plus Zoe needed a ride.
We stopped by the theatre to make sure all the tech stuff had been put away correctly on Thursday, but before we could make it to the booth we heard a crash from the dressing room.
Zoe and I frowned at each other before going to investigate.
The dressing rooms were the sketchiest part of the school. There was a long hallway separating them from the stage that's only purpose appeared to be collecting mold. One dim light caused creepy shadows on the wall.
It was honestly a place of nightmares.
When we finally made it to the end of the hall, Zoe swung open the girl’s room and gasped. Ryan and Madeline were standing in the middle of the room, half-dressed and making out.
“Gross,” I said, closing the door.
I heard Madeline scream as Zoe and I walked away.
I guessed that solved the mystery of the missing sound guy.