Author's note: These first five oneshots are about what would have happened if another NERD had been Simon (instead of Heathcliff) in the first book. Chapters 7-12 will be if the NERD randomly turns evil between books 2-4. Enjoy!
1.
Only a few days ago, Heathcliff had realized what she was doing. Instead of turning her in or even trying to stop her, all he did was ask why.
"Because we're being run by morons." she had said. Whether she had been referring to the mediocre culture itself, Agent Brand, or the even late Director Holiday, it didn't exactly matter. She had been displeased with the people on top , and now she was testing them. If they could pull through, good enough. If they couldn't, Ruby would take control from them.
Due to being one of the mort genre savvy people in Arlington, Ruby knew that some people should be killed right away: for example, the heroes. She had ordered them dead without ever letting them know of her betrayal.
Right now, she stood alone, watching her work. There was no time for doubts now. If there had been any reason to stop the plan, she should have thought of it before she slaughtered her team.
Purely out of force of habit, she sent out a status report: "Mission nearly complete. Confirm position." But of course nobody answered. If someone had they would become a risk.
She went over her teammates' faces and voices. It was sort of sad that they could not continue to be her team after the takeover, but Ruby was not dumb enough to believe they would come over to her side in the blink of an eye. They would have have stopped her, and she would never be one of NERDS again, let alone the leader.
The irony of killing one's team in order to not lose them only occurred to her now. Her eyes filled with tears; she was allergic to irony.
Briefly she wondered if anyone would notice the disappearances of five kids while the world was ending.
"Seven kids," she whispered. "Duncan, Heathcliff, Matilda, Julio, myself, Jackson and Mindy."
On the monitors, a tsunami the size of Australia was headed toward Virginia. Thankfully only the bullies would die in that. The good nerds were spared all that. When everything came together, either the governments would start cooperating or all was lost.
Somewhere in the background, a voice sang out some lyrics of a forgotten song:
"Everything you ever
It's so horrible to feel
We're stepping stones
And you're alone
Were you ever really real?"
"Once," Pufferfish mouthed as the tsunami hit.