I breathed in the aroma coming from my freshly brewed mug of Earl Grey, looked out of the front window, and enjoyed the early Monday sights as the city slowly woke up. My hair was still damp after the shower I had after my morning run, and I had managed to say goodbye to Dad just as he was leaving for work.
He seemed to be in a better mood after I came back home and retold the events of last night to him, of how I took down an ABB base and Lung, as well as my reunion with the Undersiders.
He was probably happy knowing that I wasn't injured.
Last night went well, I reflected, as I took another sip of my tea. With Lung captured, the ABB would already be starting to fray and fall apart, as Bakuda and Oni Lee didn't have the same brand of terror that Lung inspired. The Empire, and potentially the Merchants, would start hitting ABB territories once the news and the general public.
Which meant that Bakuda needed to be stopped before she blew up most of the city.
But my plans for her could wait, as I was currently waiting for Lisa to arrive so I could explain everything to her.
My attention was currently occupied with the normal routine I did with my swarm. I gathered every Black Widow within range, moving them into the basement and increasing my production of silk. Now that I was officially an Undersider, I wanted to make proper suits for my teammates, both as a token of trust and because spider silk was far better than any regular fabric, and only beaten by high end artificial materials and tinkertech made stuff, both of which were far too costly at this stage.
There wasn't much else going on in my current range, which was…..nice. It was nice simply being able to relax a bit and not have to worry or pay attention about every single thing happening, at every single minor, regular injustice that happens in this city.
While I waited for Lisa, I changed my thoughts to how I got here, as well as what happened to my passenger. Since I still had my six block range, as well as the other tricks I've learnt, this must have meant that it came back with me, somehow.
Was I still being manipulated by it, then? Was I doomed to become that thing at the end of the world, desperately trying to hold onto my humanity?
I couldn't handle becoming like that, not again. Not even if it meant stopping Scion.
I sighed, and put down my mug on the coffee table, and closed my eyes.
"Passenger?" I whispered.
Nothing.
I curled my hands into fists in frustration.
"Agent? Shard? Queen Administrator?" I whispered again.
Nothing happened immediately, but after a few seconds I could feel a sense of….pride, a mix of relief and comfort, brewing in my chest. It was like curling next to a warm fireplace during winter. It was like what I felt when the Undersiders believed me that I didn't betray them, when Coil used some tinkertech machine that controlled insects to make it seem like I did.
I knew that these were my emotions, and that I was feeling them.
But they weren't mine.
"So that's how you can do it," I said, thinking out loud, "You're…not human, so you can't communicate in a human way, which means you have to use my own emotions to communicate."
The flame had changed, into something more gentler, as if it was a gesture to continue.
"But you couldn't communicate like this before, because you didn't understand how humans work," I thought outloud, "Until we...fused? And we both got sent back to the past, because if it was just my memories I wouldn't have the same range as I did."
The feeling in my chest changed to giddiness, or anticipation?
I started smiling at that. It was still my own emotions, even if it was being used by an alien brain parasite.
"Passenger-"
The feeling went cold still. It didn't disappear, but morphed into something else, like cold ash, devoid of any heat.
"Ok, not passenger, then," I quickly said, licking my chapped lips, "So you don't like being called that, so I can assume you don't like being called an agent or shard then."
The flame returned, though not as strong as it was, which meant I was going in the right direction.
"So it must be Queen Administrator then, which is either your name, or title."
The flame inside me roared, and I felt a mix of pride, recognition, excitement wash over me, before it settled into something smaller, more subdued.
"...You don't want to be treated as a thing, an object, then."
The feeling didn't change, and I felt….understanding? Happiness?
God, trying to interpret these emotions was tiring.
But before I could continue my one-sided conversation, someone new entered my range walking towards my house. Someone I recognised, despite the limited senses of nearby bugs.
Lisa.
I felt that flame disappear, returning my emotions to myself. Queen Administrator must have taken that as its queue to finish our conversation, if you could even call it that.
Drinking the rest of my now lukewarm tea, I got up and put my mug into the sink and started brewing up some coffee for Lisa. As I was doing that, I willed a nearby butterfly to land on her shoulder to direct her to my house. She startled a bit, probably still not used to my bugs.
After a few minutes of waiting, I finished brewing a fresh cup of coffee with cream and sugar for her just as she knocked on the door.
"Coming!" I yelled out, carrying the coffee with me to open the front door.
Lisa was wearing a form fitting t-shirt with some Aleph band on it, only half tucked into a pair of regular blue jeans. She wore a thin, dark grey hoodie that was unzipped, perfect for the slightly chilly mornings of spring. Her dyed blond hair was a little dishevelled, framing her freckled face and piercing green eyes.
She looked tired. But not like the world weariness that permanently marked her face when I returned from being a Ward, the weariness that only left her face during the brief moments of respite we had together.
It had hurt seeing Lisa like that. I think she missed me a lot more than she let on. The younger Lisa that I was looking at just looked…regularly tired, the tired you got when you stay up too late and woke up too early.
"Lisa, you're here! I brewed you some coffee for you." I said, handing the mug to her.
She eyed me suspiciously, most likely because of her power trying to fill in the gaps as to how I knew her preferred type of coffee. She eventually took it off my hands, deducing that it wasn't poisoned, and drank a couple of large gulps before walking inside. I closed the door and followed her in.
"Thanks for that, I bought one on my way here but stumbled and dropped it." She mumbled, sitting down at the dinner table. I sat down opposite to her.
The look of suspicion never left her eyes, though, despite her faux nonchalance.
"So," she said, waving the mug at me, "How the fuck did you know how I liked my coffee, and," she paused, taking another couple of gulps before slamming her fist onto the table.
"Who the fuck are you, why do you know the Undersiders, and why do you know how my power works?" She yelled while glaring at me, her blond bangs falling onto her face.
Shit.
I didn't expect her to be this angry. She must think I'm a spy for Coil, or something.
"I'm from three years in the future." I blurted out, my composure breaking.
"What."
"So, let me repeat this so I understand everything," Lisa said, rubbing her temples in an attempt to nurse her thinker headache, "You, three years ago, fought Lung on your first night out as a cape, joined us so you spy on us for the Protectorate, but Armsmaster shrugged you off, thinking you were a villain."
"Mmhm." I replied, drinking another cup of tea while the kettle boiled so I could make Lisa another cup of coffee. I managed to scrounge up some over the counter painkillers for her, but they won't help much for her thinker headache.
"Right, so after we met up after last night, you joined the gang, we robbed a bank, we fought Bakuda. She then blew up parts of the city, there was a brief truce with all the villains in town to deal with her. Then the Empire cape's identities got outed, but a fucking Endbringer showed up, wrecked the town, killed Kaiser, which led to the Empire splitting and the Undersiders being able to take territory. Armsmaster, being a prick, betrayed the truce for a stupid shot at killing Leviathian."
"Yep." I said in reply, putting emphasis on the p.
"But you found out that fucking Shadow Stalker, the same Ward who had tried to kill Brian a couple of times, was Spohia Hess, who along with your childhood friend, bullied you for years to the point of causing your trigger event, and Armsmaster told the gang about what you were planning, but you still stuck with us because you couldn't go anywhere else."
"At that point I was still wanting to be a hero, so it was either betray the only friends I had, again, and join the Wards or continue as a villain and try to do good anyways." I murmured.
She looked at me, rubbed her eyes, and continued talking.
"And then the Slaughterhouse Nine showed up, which started a chain of events that would lead to the end of the world, of which is because Scion goes crazy and not only kills billions here, but also across several other parallel Earths."
I nodded at her analysis, as I got up and poured her another cup of coffee.
"So, after the S9 left, Coil tried to take over the city, but we managed to corner and kill him, letting us essentially rule the city instead. But Coil's monster that was in his basement gets out that creates evil clones of people, which cloned the Triumvirate, letting all of the PRT's secrets out, that you can't tell me because they have a spooky bogeyman that'll kill us both if you say anything?"
I nodded again, handing her coffee. She thanked me under her breath, before continuing.
"So, in order to prevent the world from ending, a precog, who is the niece of the mayor who was kidnapped by Coil, told you to cut ties from the Undersiders and join the Protectorate. But the Director wouldn't budge, leading to Alexandria to pressure you to surrender and get sent to the Birdcage, but you somehow you managed to kill her, one of the strongest capes on the planet and who is fucking nigh invulnerable."
I took another sip of my tea, and turned to her and shrugged.
"Despite her invincibility, her brain still needs oxygen, which requires her lungs to be able to breathe air. Although her lungs are invulnerable like the rest of her body, they can still be blocked from absorbing oxygen," I said, staring out in the distance, remembering that night that I surrendered to the PRT.
"She can't breathe if her lungs are full of spiders."
Lisa stared at me for a second, face inscrutable, before bursting into a fit of giggles, which led to her full on belly-laughing as she fell off her chair and onto the floor, desperately clutching her stomach.
I couldn't help but give a small chuckle alongside her, getting up from my chair and walking around the table.
Her laughs slowly quietened as I reached out my hand to help her up. Lisa grinned at me, face flushed and her eyes watery, her blond hair covering her face. She brushed some of her hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear before tightly grabbing my hand, letting me pull her up.
We returned to our places at the table and sat down, as Lisa drank more of her coffee.
"And, correct me if I'm wrong, that the entire reason why we have parahumans to begin with
is because these alien supercomputers connect to our brains and drive us to conflict."
She asked, looking upwards and slouching. "And all because they like obtaining information, because they're all parts of Scion himself?"
"Mhm, and he had some sort of…equal, or lover, or whatever his species equivalent is, who died." I replied.
"Riiiiight," Lisa said, rubbing her face and looking at me, "And you managed to beat him by having an impromptu brain surgery that made you fuse with your shard, letting you directly control every parahuman across every version of Earth, which let you to bully Scion into giving up with the death of his wife since his human avatar couldn't deal with human feelings?"
"That's basically the gist. After that I got shot in the back of the head by someone and woke up several years in the past, on the very day that I first went out as a cape." I replied.
My closest friend and ally, whom I trusted with my life and more, responded to this with loudly groaning and dropping her head on the dinner table.
"So, after all that life changing information that will probably get me killed for knowing," She said, her voice a little muffled, "What's our relationship? Our connection? Were we coworkers, teammates, friends, whatever?"
"What's your power telling you?"
Lisa moved her head so she could look at me, body still half lying on the table, and squinted, muttering some things I couldn't pick up to herself.
"That we were….close. Best friends maybe? It's really hard to get a read off you because my power is giving me so much contradictory information, because this should be the first time I met you, but your body language and how you're talking to me is telling me the exact opposite."
I stared out of the window in thought. This was a loaded question with a complicated answer, heavy, with a particular type of weight not unlike holding a gun with its safety off.
What was I to Lisa? I knew what she was to me; she was my closest friend, my confidant, my trusted teammate.
An anchor, some part of my brain reminded me.
But what did she see in me? What made her stick with me, even after my betrayals? She saw me at my worst, and yet, still chose to trust me. Was I a friend, a boss, a person to believe in, a reason to get back up and continue going, to continue fighting for?
Did I even deserve her, despite how I pushed her and the other Undersiders away?
How much did I hurt her, when I surrendered to the PRT and became Weaver?
Was she still somewhere out there, blaming herself for my death?
Do I even deserve this Lisa, who I was inevitably manipulating for my own goals? Was I just projecting the future-past Lisa I knew with her younger counterpart?
"I-I can't say for sure what the other Lisa thought of me," I whispered, my voice hitching, "But I can tell you what she was to me: My best friend, who stuck with me till the very end, who I hurt and betrayed so many times, and I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without her."
I suppose in the end, I became what she'd feared the most.
Someone she cared about who fell off the edge, just like Rex did.
I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them, and looked directly into the younger Lisa's eyes, who still had the same shade of brilliant green.
"...and I didn't deserve her. I didn't deserve her loyalty, and I never told her how much she meant to me." I said, attempting to make myself smaller, hugging myself tighter.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess, I-I didn't really think of how you would feel about all this. You can leave, if you want. I don't want you to feel like you're forced or have an obligation to help me."
Lisa looked at me, her face softening in a way I rarely saw on her counterpart, got up from her chair, and moved towards mine.
She unfurled my arms, pulled me to stand, and slowly enveloped me in a firm, comforting hug. She gently pushed the back of my head to her shoulder, and started stroking the back of my head. I quietly came apart in her arms, and cried into her shoulder.
After a couple of minutes my sobs quietened, she stepped back from a hug, and held my hand, leading me to the couch, and sat me down. Lisa then walked back into the kitchen, grabbed a box of tissues and filled a glass of water, and came back and sat down next to me, giving me a side hug.
It felt good, being taken care of like this.
I wondered if the other Lisa wanted to do something like this. Maybe I was never vulnerable enough to let her.
After I drank some water and cleaned my face, Lisa resumed talking.
"Well, you probably already know what happened to me, right?" She said, looking at me with the corner of her eye. I nodded in response, and waited for her to continue talking.
"After what happened to my brother, I vowed to never let something like that happen to anyone that I knew."
"And you told me that I reminded you of him. A sad, lonely girl that was teetering on the edge, just as your brother was." I croaked, voice a little sore from crying, "Or your counterpart did, rather."
She gently smiled at me, and poked my nose.
"You keep talking as if she and I are completely different people, Taylor. And no, you aren't manipulating me into helping you. And yes, I am going to help you, out of my own free will, if my future self is anything to go by."
I blinked owlishly at her, taken by surprise to what she said. Lisa took this as a chance to continue talking.
"So here I am, a girl who ran away from home, who was recruited at gunpoint by a shithead crime lord, forced to pull together a team of dysfunctional idiots who don't like each other, and we have to fucking fight Lung, one of the most dangerous capes in the city, because our base is in his territory, and who do I find?" She said, standing up from the couch and pointed at me.
"A super scary bug lady that single-handedly took down Lung with only insects and pepper spray, by herself, and one first things my power let me know when I saw you directly was that you were relieved we weren't hurt by Lung," She exclaimed, smirking at me with that vulpine grin of hers, "And every interaction since has only reinforced that. Despite your weird time-travel shit, it's been telling me nothing but how earnest you are."
I blushed into response to her statement, and tried to curl into myself to avoid the embarrassment.
She sat back down, and she turned to me with a serious look on her face.
I already knew what she was going to say, so I reached over with my hand and intertwined my fingers with hers.
"Lisa, I promise you this: I will free you, and the other Undersiders, from Coil, and I don't care if I have to burn down the city to do it." I said, looking directly into her eyes, with a quiet resolve in my voice, "We did it once, and we can do it again."
She blushed in response to what I said, with a shocked look on her face. I hoped that her power would be able to pick up everything that I subconsciously meant, of how much she means to me, how much the Undersiders mean to me.
"Well," she said, still blushing as she smiled at me, "I can understand why future-past Lisa was so loyal to you."
I gave her a small smile back.
"Do you trust me?"
"Of course." She said immediately, with no hesitation.
I let go of her hand, and we started discussing plans.
An hour or two later, we finished our various plans and contingencies. We had moved over to the lounge room, with pieces of paper, notepads and several mugs strewn all over the coffee table. I showed Lisa my current silk production setup, showing her how I used my power to force the spiders to vastly increase their silk production, as I was able to feed them with other insects to fuel them. After that, she went back to the lounge room to clean the mess up, as I went upstairs to my room to grab my thick book that detailed everything that the Trio did to me, and put it in my backpack and carried it downstairs.
"So, do you want to help me blackmail Winslow's principle into transferring me to Arcadia, before we meet up with the others?" I began saying, as I sat down next to the blonde
She stared at me, glanced at the backpack, and looked back to me, her mouth forming that all-so familiar vulpine grin that I loved.
"Why, Taylor, I never thought you'd ask."
We packed up after that, hiding all of our plans and notebooks in my room, and I locked up the house and separated my black widows, spacing them out, as Winslow wasn't within range of my house and I didn't want all of them to eat each other.
Lisa and I walked over to the bus stop that was nearby, sat down on the bench and waited.
"So what's your plan with Arcadia?" Lisa asked, while looking at her phone, "If you really wanted to, you could take the G.E.D like I did, or study online like Brian does."
I hummed non committedly, thinking of what to say.
"I want to maintain some semblance of a civilian life, both because my dad would be concerned if I dropped out entirely, despite the time-travel stuff I've told him." I said, while I checked my watch.
10:30 am. Only five-ish minutes until the bus was supposed to arrive.
"And it might give me the opportunity to gain intel on the Wards and the Dallon sisters that attend there. Maybe it'll let me convince them to help us further down the line if I befriend them."
She looked at me, one eyebrow raised. I sighed in response.
"It's also because I want to experience high school that isn't tainted by the Trio."
"Who knew that the super scary bug girl was such a nerd." She teased, already falling into familiar banter. I looked away and adjusted my glasses.
Familiar to me, at least.
With some more back and forth, the bus showed up, ten minutes late. Lisa and I climbed on, and she took the window seat while I sat next to her, taking the aisle seat. The bus was completely empty, as this wasn't a popular route and most people would be at school or work at this time of day.
The bus lurched forward. I checked my watch again.
10:45. By the time we would arrive, it would be during the midday period, which was good timing, all things considered. The Trio would all have different classes, and nowhere near the reception at the front of the school where the principal's office would be.
Lisa stared at me, before quietly whispering.
"It's really creepy when you do that."
"Do what?"
"I can tell when you're focusing on the bugs around you, as you go really, really still. Most people would think you're just in deep thought and not responding to the things that happen around you."
I could only shrug at that. I didn't need to move because I knew everything that was happening in my range. The citizens of Brockton Bay haven't invested heavily in insecticides yet, something I knew I had to use to my full advantage before I got too infamous.
"Well, even though it's a bit creepy, it's reassuring to know that I can trust you to watch out for everything. I was getting sick of having to constantly be vigilant in this shithole that's infested with nazis." The thinker said quietly, glancing at me before turning to look out of the window.
"It's a side effect of how my power works, I think." I replied, "It treats my swarm as an extension of myself, like how an arm or leg is. So it lets me mess with anything that revolves around analysing body language, like a lie detector, since I can shove all my expressions and reactions to my insects."
She nodded in response, and we sat in comfortable silence as the bus made its way to the stop near Winslow. We got off, and started walking. The school was already in my range, so I started searching out everything I needed to know.
"Give me a rundown on your plan, the principle, anyone relevant. I might be able to get something before we start." Lisa said, grabbing out a little notepad and pen from her purse.
"The principal wants to keep getting funding from the PRT. Anyone that's from the PRT and knows about what's happened probably wants to keep their job. There must be some amount of collusion to keep what happened to me quiet, I think. Emma's dad is a lawyer, which means she's able to threaten them with lawsuits if she needs to. Sophia is Shadow Stalker, and is one 'strike' away from being sent to juvie. I'm already in the PRT's database as they investigated me to see if I triggered, but they couldn't find out anything since I was unresponsive for a week straight."
"Which is why you want to keep this hidden so they don't make a link between you and Khepri." She added, still writing down notes.
I nodded in response before continuing.
"Madison's a nobody though, she won't have much to blackmail material."
Lisa stopped walking, and looked at me with a mix of concern and subdued anger.
"I could ruin all of those bitch's lives in an hour. What they did to you was…" She said, her hands clenched into fists, "Was fucking awful, they almost killed you, so why would you just let them go?"
I looked at her for a second, resisting to shove my emotions onto my swarm. I fidgeted, thinking of what I wanted to say in response.
"It's because this was three years ago, and I've mov-"
"Don't lie to me. You haven't." She hissed at me,"You can't just...move on from something like that."
I sighed. I hated, hated this feeling, of having to be vulnerable and open myself up to someone. But I had to do it, again. First with Dad, and now with Lisa.
There wasn't anything that I could, or even wanted, to hide from her. But having to say it outloud, despite her already knowing why, was scary, in a very real, human way that I wasn't used to.
I didn't let myself act like a normal human for a long time, I suppose. I reduced everything I was to a series of defensive mechanisms to protect myself from the Trio that I never really unlearnt, or really even stopped and thought about.
I wrapped my arms around myself and looked at the ground.
"I-I know. There's a small, dark part of myself that wants to hurt them, to torment them in the same way that they did to me. I want to relish in it." I stammered, blinking away tears, "But I just want to move on from them, properly. I want to stop having to think about them, and hurting them is just going to hurt me more, in the end. I know that sort of petty revenge wouldn't make me feel any better."
Lisa's eyes softened from that, and she enveloped me in a tight hug.
"Ok, ok, ok," she said, "I won't do anything to hurt them, then."
I stepped back from the hug and figited.
"I'm trying to be better this time around. A better person, a better friend, a better daughter. I feel like if I took my anger out on them I'd be crossing a line, I think."
She smirked at me, and poked my nose, again.
"So, let's go blackmail this woman and go meet up with the gang, ok? Take it easy for the rest of the day?"
I nodded, taking a second to compose myself, before we started walking towards Winslow again.
I did a quick search of the school, finding Blackwell in her office; Emma was in English, Sophia was outside with the track team and Madison was in her Maths class.
"We're clear. She's in her office."
Lisa had a look of sadistic glee on her face. She was going to tear this woman apart and I couldn't say she didn't deserve it.
I forgot how much Lisa enjoyed tearing people down. Maybe she should reserve that to people who actually deserved it.
I didn't want another repeat of what she did to Amy, and what happened because of that.
We walked through the doors of the reception, and the receptionist at the desk must have recognised me as she was about to say something, but I bit her with a fire ant. She hissed in pain from that, letting us walk past to the door to the principal's office.
Lisa and I looked at each other and nodded, before I gave a couple of loud knocks on the door.
"Come in." Blackwill said, muffled through the door.
I walked in, and Lisa quietly closed the door and locked it. I pushed all of my expressions into my swarm.
This was a situation that needed Skitter's intimidation and ruthlessness.
Blackwell still had that awful bowl-cut she had, and her suit still looked like she was attending a funeral rather than normal office attire.
"Taylor Hebert? Why are you barging into my office?" Blackwell said, with all the presumed authority of a customer talking to a retail worker, "And who is this girl, I know she doesn't attend here."
We both ignored her, as I moved to sit down on the chair in front of Blackwell's desk, and Lisa walked over to the opposite wall, closed the blinds, and casually leaned against the nearby wall, grinning at her like a hungry fox looking at a particularly juicy rabbit.
"If you are going to ignore me, Miss Herbert, I will be forced to call your fa-"
I cut her off by slamming my book of evidence on her desk, knocking over her empty thermos on the floor. I leaned and sat back on the chair, and started her directly into her eyes.
"I know Sophia is a Ward."
She responded to this by spluttering, her attempt at intimidation dying as the look on her face morphed from anger to surprise, with a little bit of fear mixed in.
"I know that you deliberately covered everything that Madison Clements, Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess did to me." I said, leaning forward, arms resting on my thighs, hands joined together with my chin resting on them. "And, unless you want me to reveal everything that they did to me, transfer me to Arcadia. Immediately."
"You are not going to bully me into transfering you, Miss Hebert." Blackwell said, managing to regain some of her composure. "And unless you want a suspension, I suggest you apolo-"
"Well!" Lisa interjected, cutting her off by clapping her hands, "Let's say, just hypothetically, that Taylor here would publicly reveal everything; do you want to know how inconceivably and utterly fucked you would be?"
The principal only glared at her, but didn't say anything.
"So, not only would it be a complete PR shitshow for the PRT, but also would lead to some really nasty charges that, even if you hired the best lawyer in the world for, that you would automatically lose to." Lisa explained, while raising a single index finger in a shushing motion.
"And the PRT would come down on you, because imagine if one of the Wards, one of the good guys, almost killed another student, deliberately, and the school's faculty turned a blind eye to it?" She continued, clicking her tongue.
"Wouldn't be pretty. You'd get a decade in prison at least, life if you hired a fucking awful lawyer."
Lisa then moved from her spot near the wall, and walked past Blackwell's chair before standing next to her. She leaned down, close to her face.
"And don't get me started on your personal life. What if your darling husband and beautiful children would think of you, knowing that you directly covered this up? Would your husband look at you the same way, knowing that his wife was a monster?" The thinker loudly whispered into the woman's ear.
"Would your children grow up to resent you, to become estranged from you, because their mother directly covered up this level of bullying, for fucking government funding?"
Blackwell's eyes darted around the room, before locking eyes at me, attempting to regain some composure, some control over the situation. I grabbed my phone from my pocket, and highlighted Armsmaster's number, without breaking eye contact with her.
"I have Armsmaster's personal phone number. All I need to do is ring him and everything you have, everything you've built, will come crashing down."
"You're bluffing. There's no way an unimportant kid like you would have the personal number of a hero like him." She hissed accusingly at me.
I stood up from my chair, and leaned down across from her desk, my face coming close to hers.
"Try me."
Blackwell's face was flushed and covered in sweat, eyes glancing between Lisa and I, gritting her teeth.
"All right! Fine! I'll fucking call some people up! I'll get you transferred!" She hissed. Lisa and I looked at each other, and smiled.
I picked up a pen and wrote down my number, not caring how important whatever was on it.
"This is my mobile phone number, if you or someone from Arcadia wants to contact me. If you don't transfer me by next week, I'll reveal everything."
"Oh, and don't even think about telling anyone about what happened here, ok?" Lisa added.
Blackwell just nodded, her eyes full of genuine fear, understanding the implications of the threat.
I picked up my notebook and started walking out, as Lisa gave her a mock salute and wink when she followed behind me. As we walked out of the school, Lisa hung her arm over my shoulder, giving me a side hug.
"With that out of the way, let's go pick up some junk food, get to the hideout and relax and hang out for the rest of the day, ok?"
"What about the others? Would we have do the dramatic unmasking to each other?" I replied. I was drained enough that I didn't want to go through more introductions that I didn't need, even though I was still a stranger to the rest of them.
"Nah, don't worry about that. I've texted them about you already, so they'll be in civvies."
With a deep breath, I let my expressions return to me, and leaned into her hug. It wasn't fun, tearing Blackwell down like that, even if she deserved it.
Well, hopefully the rest of the day will go well.
Hello again! Just here to say thank you for all of the nice comments I've gotten so far, it's greatly motivating to me that so many people are enjoying it!
