Chapter 12:
The Citadel, May 2016
"Hey boss, here to check out the teleportation device again?" Gretchen looks up to see her friend, TJ, is walking to the lab. It has been a regular day so far for her, she loves being here, working for TJ. Gretchen loves being back, hanging out with her friends, and she wouldn't trade it for all the glories or misfortunes she could've received if she had stayed in MIT.
"I figure calling it 'The Blinker' would sound cooler don't you think? One moment you're right here, and then poof! You're now at the president's oval office, then the next moment you blink to the top of Eiffel tower." TJ shrugs.
Gretchen still seems focused on her computer, so he peeks over her shoulder, where she's writing a note for today's work. "Wow, Gretcherium. Impressive." TJ mumbles in awed of her discovery of a new element.
"I'll deal with that later, it's not important right now. But sorry boss, the teleporter is nowhere near done." Gretchen frowns. "Ever since the guy who invented the teleporter from NASA died, no one has been able to replicate it. I think it's impossible for me." Don't worry, he died of old age.
"Yeah, finding a new chemical element is not important." He jokes, she has always been the one who gets her priorities straight. "But seriously Gretch, I get that you want to call me boss in front of everyone so they will respect me more, but please just call me TJ when they're not around." TJ smiles, scratching his neck awkwardly.
"Oh, and you know that I know that you know that you wouldn't work on something that's impossible, right?" He smirks, much to her dismay.
"Well this one is." She smirks back. "You can't make something impossible possible Teej."
"Said someone who just discovered faster than light travel." TJ glances over to her note, showing his devious smile. Yeah, new element, faster than light travel, today has totally been a normal day for Gretchen.
"Whatever, the teleporter isn't the important thing either." She shrugs, reaching over to her stacks of paper and picks out a white envelope. "Two more days is the ten year anniversary of our class's graduation day. I just got invited!" Gretchen smiles, holding the envelope to his face.
"Whoa, whoa, wait. Who sent you this envelope?" TJ is surprised. Sure, he forgets the reunion is today, but after years of efforts from CIA agents, seekers from NASA, Google, even assassins from countless drug lords, no one has ever been able to track Gretchen down.
"Ashley A of course, who else? She was the class president." Gretchen answers simply.
"So you're telling me somehow, someone was easily able to know where you are, at the Citadel, one of the most secretive place on Earth, and sent the envelope to you, like a pizza delivery service, to a freaking castle in the middle of a freaking desert?"
"Yes."
"Nice try Gretchen, but you have to do better than that to fool me." TJ laughs as he snatch it from her hand and open it, revealing the inside to be blank.
"You're no fun, TJ." She pouts. "Yes, the envelope is fake. Vince sent me the invitation through email. He figures you and Spinelli shouldn't come because you guys are technically dead." Gretchen remarks, but TJ still cracks out a smile.
"Don't worry, me and Spinelli will be there." He answers while focusing on what seems to be another TJ plan, she knows that for sure.
"What you have in mind, boss?" She smirks back teasingly.
"Stop calling me boss will ya?" He calls her out. "It's simple, the whole class love us, and most of them still owe me favors. I'll just tell them Spinelli and I are not dead yet. No one would believe them if they talk anyway. If anything goes South we'll just escape, easy enough. That means you and Menlo, too."
"And why would I need to escape? I'm not wanted like you and Spinelli." She asks sarcastically. Luckily for her, when Mary and Britney snitched the Justice group to Randall (ironic how the snitch now have snitches to snitch for him), they only knew TJ and Spinelli were involved, so Gretchen, Vince, and others were unharmed.
"Well sorry to break your bubble Miss Genius, but you're still hunted by universities, and companies everywhere. You think they wouldn't know which high school you're from?" TJ asks back, with equal sarcasm.
"...Good point. I'll go make preparations." Gretchen sighs, she can never win an argument against TJ, but she'll certainly try again someday.
Thaddeus High School, two days later
As expected at the celebration, the whole school was surrounded by press, fans, important figureheads around the US. Being the Commissioner of New York, Gus has made sure to make a perimeter around the school with his men so no one not from his old class could come in. There are some shady people also decide to come but was deterred by the number of police officers.
"Never in the history of high school reunion that we see so many important people who come from the same class. We're talking Lakers' star player, CEO of AAB (Francis, Hustler Kid), the genius woman with 250 IQ, our lovable actor Mikey Blumberg, and New York's youngest Commissioner in history." One of the news reporter says to the camera. "And that's not all, it is said that the deceased Arkansas legends, Theodore Detweiler and Ashley Spinelli, leaders of the Justice group, were also in this class."
Inside the building, TJ, Spinelli, Gretchen, and Menlo are walking down to the party from the roof, who have arrived from their invisible jet. Vince, Gus, and Francis will meet them there.
"Jeez, these people sure are annoying. Can't they just leave us alone?" Spinelli complains, looking outside. She's wearing a beautiful long sleeve white dress that shows all her great curves. Along with it are a silver skull necklace, a gold bracelet that spells TJxAS, and black shoes which are absolutely not high heels; they're all gifts from TJ, so she enjoys wearing them. Spinelli is not a woman of fashion, but no matter what she wears, TJ always thinks she look beautiful. She hates taking off her jacket, or combat boot, or beanie hat, but she doesn't mind trying fancy stuffs for fancy occasions.
"Well, in their defense, there are a lot of famous people in our class." Gretchen adds in. Similar to Spinelli, she also doesn't care much about what she wears, but she still opts in a gorgeous blue dress, high heels, and a purse that holds her phone and notes. Gretchen also swaps her glasses for contacts. It's not often these two girls get to go to a party, so they try their best to look nice.
"Yeah, yourself included babe." Menlo finally speaks. He decides to go with a blue suit and tie while TJ goes with a simple gray suit. Menlo and Gretchen have been dating for nearly two years now. Like Spinelli, TJ has to give up his red cap and green jacket, and seems even more irritated than her. He's not comfortable with his hat hair, despite having combed it nicely.
"Now guys, let's not get distracted. We'll have fun, but stay alert, especially with Randall, ok?" TJ tells the others before they enter the room and the other three nod.
The four walk into the gym, now covered with music, lights, snacks, and everyone in the class are either dancing or talking with one another. Gretchen and Menlo quickly step away from TJ and Spinelli, preparing for everyone to stare at this couple.
As expected, the music stops, and everyone are now staring at TJ and Spinelli. Some friends who work for or know about Robinhood6 also pretend to look surprised, except for Randall and Butch.
"...Look who's back from the dead?" TJ jokes but no one laughs. The awkward silence continue for a full minute. "I get it, dead man tells no tale, so you're all trying to be silence." He keeps on joking but the silence continues.
"The greatest speaker of our time, ladies and gentlemen." Spinelli mumbles sarcastically. "Alright everyone, we're here to party. So y'all better zip your mouth about this and get back partying, understand?" She shouts, that gets everyone back to reality. The room start chanting their names, they were the school's favorite couple after all. The music starts again and everyone go back to partying.
Vince and Ashley B, who is now his wife, are the first ones to walk up to TJ and Spinelli. Vince still lives in LA playing in the NBA instead of living in the Citadel. TJ really misses him so he goes to LA quite often. Though Ashley B is not involved in her husband's activity in any way, she has always known about Robinhood6, and that TJ and Vince are still important figures in it. While she keeps this secret for Vince, she doesn't fully support his decisions.
"Teej! Spin! Didn't expect you guys would come...being dead and all." Vince starts.
"Heh, Satan gives us a day off. It's been a long time, man. How you doing?" TJ asks, wrapping an arm over Spinelli's shoulder.
"Well, we got married last year." Vince smirks at them, also wrapping his arm over Ashley's shoulder. Spinelli rolls her eyes at her friends' petty competitiveness. "Shame that you guys weren't there, though Mr and Mrs. Johnson were. Any idea who they were?" The couple don't answer and just wink back at him.
"As for work, it's either all over the news or reported up directly to you, so you already know everything." Vince continues. "And with Lisa, I'm sure you guys know me inside and out. But I don't know about you though. How it's going?"
"Meh, just mostly work. You really don't want to hear about it." TJ shrugs.
"And we've finally had sex in every single city in Mexico." Spinelli cuts in, catching TJ by surprise. "We aren't supposed to tell anyone that!" He whispers to her, eyes widen, while Spinelli just smirks and high fives Vince.
"Anyway." Spinelli turns to Ashley B "How ya been Ashley? Still keeping contacts with the other Ashley?"
"Actually I don't talk to them much anymore, I'll try to catch up today. As for me, we're trying to have kids, and with Vince busy most of the time, I decided to become a classic housewife, can you think of that?" Ashley B giggles. "Funny enough, I heard that Ashley Q and Ashley T also settled down and became, like, traditional housewives like me. Only Ashley A is still rocking it up with her own adventure." The Ashleys are now separated, but she can never get rid of the old Ashley's traits entirely.
As time goes by, TJ and Spinelli walk around talking with their old friends. They have already known about the other three Ashleys. Guru Kid is now a monk, Swinger Girl now a pilot, Upside Down girl a circus performer. Phil, the woodchuck scout, is now a senior full time boyscout trainer, and Gordy is a Twitch streamer.
"Sam! Dave!" TJ runs over to hug the Diggers, and they hug him back with equal enthusiasm. The twin became close friends with the gang during high school, and helped TJ with many of his pranks back then.
"How ya been? Last I've heard you guys own a coal mine, right?" He asks cheerfully.
"Oh, no. We don't do that anymore." Sam waves his hand in disagreement.
"Really? Why not? I thought that was perfect for ya." TJ raises his eyebrows in surprise.
"Gretchen contacted us a few months ago, telling us about the potential of fusion energy in the future. We thought coal pollute the environment and will become obsolete soon, so we shut down the mine." Dave explains, they don't seem too bothered with this.
"And now we run a treasure hunting playground for kids. You know, to inspire their love for digging as we did." Sam continues his brother's sentence (I assume they are twin brothers in this fic), which annoys Dave. They start arguing, like they always do. TJ and Spinelli just glance at the arguing twin, then at each other, and slowly back away. They wonder how the Diggers are still together after all this time.
Suddenly, the couple was approached by Mundy. He's really grateful that the gang helped him back in high school, when he was too proud to admit he needed help. He was conflicted, his friends Skeenz and Sue Bob decides to drop out in freshman year to spend more time doing drugs, everyone in his group did, except for Kurst, Mikey was a good friend and had good influence on her. Kurst begged TJ and Mikey to help Mundy and Lazy Kid, and the gang managed to convince them to stay in school, but failed to convince Lazy Kid to quit doing drugs.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck, Lazy Kid died of drug overdose in sophomore year, Mundy would have too if he didn't quit, which strikes a huge blow to his friend. This is also a reason why TJ and his gang really hate drug. Mundy, Skeenz, and Sue Bob went to rehab afterwards, and the last two went back to school after a year of skipping, so they were one year behind.
Mundy shares that he's now a teacher at the very same high school, having experience dealing with bratty teens. Kurst is a food critic, and is still very fat, true to her passion. Mundy also mentions that Skeenz and Sue Bob are seeing each other, and is living in New York, working as tattoo artists. What he doesn't know, however, is that Skeenz and Sue Bob are now secretly soldiers for TJ.
"Wow, I'm surprised. I can't believe there are so many talented people in our class." Spinelli tells TJ after a long night, full of conversations with their old friends.
"We live in a world where the Ashleys are now the least of your problem. Crazy, huh?" TJ teases her.
"Teej, we're wanted criminals with enemies all over the world, high school dramas are the least of our problems." Spinelli smirks. "Now that I think about it, with all the intelligence technology we have from Gretch and Lisa, why didn't we bother finding out about our old friends' lives?"
"Spinelli! Those are extremely expensive tools we use to gather information from our enemies and for operations. It's used for important situations only!" TJ gives her a serious look. "...So I would have done that if you've mentioned it sooner." He bursts out laughing while Spinelli just rolls her eyes.
"Or, you could just hack into Vince's facebook account and look at your friends' profiles." Lisa speaks up from Spinelli's phone, startling her.
"LISA? SERIOUSLY? FUCK. THE FUCK. OFF." Spinelli screams.
"Have you been listening to our conversation the entire time?" TJ asks calmly, before his wife decides to smash the phone out of anger.
"Duh, it's my job." It's not.
"By the way, Robin, that guy Sid in your class, he lied. I look him up, he's super rich, his grandma left his family 2.5 million dollars inheri..." She's cut off when Spinelli turns off the phone.
They finally spot Randall and Butch talking to each other next to the punch bowl, so the couple walk over to them. Perfect timing for Spinelli, she needs some sandbags to punch out her frustration.
"Hey Randall! I heard ya trying to prove that we're alive. So here we are, and I got a hard proof for you to remember." Spinelli walks over to Randall, raising Madam Fist to his face, ready to strike.
"Easy there Spinelli, today is class reunion, why don't we have truce just for today?" Randall smiles a 'I-am-faking-to-be-your-friend' smile at her.
"We would like that, Randall. We actually would like to catch up with you guys." TJ comes over, lowers his wife's fist, and looks over to Randall and Butch.
"No way I'm telling you any of my information. It's top secret." Randall crosses his arms.
"I'm a CIA agent like him too, though we work in different departments. At the moment I'm spying on this guy called George Russo to see if he's doing any illegal activities." Unlike Randall, Butch opens up to TJ freely, they're great friends of each other.
"Oh yeah, that guy is totally a drug dealer. Super illegal if you ask me. Want us to handle it for ya?" Spinelli answers.
"Thanks for the heads up, I got it from here." Butch still has the look that he had back in elementary school, though he looks even more mysterious, maybe from his all-black outfit. He was actually the guy who gives TJ the idea of forming the Robin Hood gang back in high school, yet somehow he refused to join TJ's group when they're in college. Maybe people do change over time.
"I have heard of some good rumor, back at CIA too. A guy there once spotted a man in the wood who..." Butch begins telling them frightening stories like he did back in Third Street, then middle school, then high school.
"Com'on Butch, we're nearly in our 30s already, ya still want to do this?" Spinelli smirks.
"I SAID, a guy there once spotted a man in the wood who…" Butch continues again, TJ and Spinelli just awkwardly stand there hearing his story like the old days.
Turns out, Butch's story is one he ripped off of a creepypasta, just like he always does back then, but it is indeed scary. After TJ and Spinelli have left, Randall smiles and turns to Butch. "I lied. I have called my men. They'll be here soon to arrest TJ."
"You will never be able to do that." Butch answers, looking over to the couple.
"We'll see about that. I'll arrest the great TJ Detweiler here tonight, ahahahaha." Randall laughs pathetically.
"Do you think Butch just stands in dark alley and tells scary stories to random strangers in his free times?" TJ laughs as they walk off.
"Teej, focus. You know that Randall totally called his men to arrest us right?" Spinelli rolls her eyes again for the billionth time today and warns TJ.
"Don't worry dear, I know. We have...30 minutes. After 20 minutes, I'll get Gretchen and we'll just head for the roof." TJ nods and looks at his watch.
"Good timing. Looks who's here." Spinelli frowns, pointing over to Mikey, who is talking to Kurst at the now empty food table.
"Do you think we should go talk to him? It's been a long while." TJ scratches his head. He hasn't talked to Mikey ever since TJ failed to recruit him, which also caused Mikey to be mad at him. TJ is great leader, but he always seems worried when it comes to important things relating to Spinelli or his friends.
"You may have but I haven't talked to Mikey since high school. I want to set things right, at least." Spinelli says as she runs over to Mikey, and TJ reluctantly follows.
Seeing TJ and Spinelli approach him, Mikey says goodbye to Kurst and looks over to them. "Hello old friend, long time no see." He crosses his arms and greets in a slightly mocking tone.
"Hey there Mikester, how you doing?" TJ finger-guns at him, pretending their conversation years ago didn't happen.
"You're unbelievable TJ." Mikey shakes his head and about to turn away, this snaps both TJ and Spinelli. She takes a grip of his shirt by the collar, pulling him closer to her. Spinelli looks small, but she's stronger than anyone they know.
"Listen here big guy, I don't know what's your problem with TJ but this isn't the same Mikey that I used to know." Spinelli speaks, staring into his eyes.
"Yeah Mikey! I get that you don't want to join our group, but this is the class union for God's sake! You said you want to be friend, so why can't we be your friends?" TJ shouts. It's rare to see TJ being really angry at someone.
"Because you don't know me anymore, okay?" Mikey explains angrily. He was hurt. "Do you know what it feels like back at that night in LA? It's like your best friend in high school calls you after years not talking just to find out he works for a pyramid scheme now."
"I understand, we get that a lot. Many of Wang's old friends work for pyramid schemes nowadays." TJ remarks, turning over to Spinelli.
"How did those people manage to find Wang anyway? But bounty hunters and mercenaries couldn't? It's just ridiculous." Spinelli adds, TJ and Mikey just shrug.
"Maybe they should also join those schemes, then they'll be able to find him." TJ jokes. "But anyway, back to the point. I know and I'm sorry, okay? I was stupid back then, I thought that it would be like old times back in Senior Year, when we were the Robin Hood gang. I didn't understand that your ideals have changed. But you're still Mikey, our friend, and we still want to be friend with you. Can you forgive us?" TJ smiles and opens up for a hug.
Spinelli lets go of Mikey. He pauses for a moment, then walks up and hugs TJ. Maybe squeezes or smothers TJ are the better words. "Sure, that's what friend are for, right? Forgiving each other."
"Of course, big guy." TJ answers with his last breaths. Shortly after, Vince, Gretchen, and Gus come up to the three and Mikey begins sharing his stories since college.
"So your ex, Keith, really dumps you for a male stripper?" Gus asks and Mikey just nods sadly.
"What an idiot." Vince frowns.
"Tell us again how rich did you say he was?" Spinelli asks further, and TJ smirks understandingly.
"It's twenty minutes guys. We have to go. Gretchen, go and grab Menlo. We'll see you at the roof." TJ looks at his watch and turns to the two girls. Before running off, he turns over to Mikey. "We'll catch up soon, ok Mikey?"
"Sure, see you later friends." Mikey waves them goodbye.
"It's good to have you back Mikey." Vince smiles, looking at Mikey for the last time before each of the friend goes on their separate ways.
Soon later a few agents storm the room, approaching Randall.
"As expected, your so-called 'friend', TJ, is not here." One of the guard says.
"He escapes already? Dang it." Randall stomps his foot to the floor. "But it's okay, I have witnesses confirming TJ is alive. Tell him, Butch."
"That guys is dead, so sure, his skeleton came here for the party." Butch answers nonchalantly while drinking his soda.
"What the hell Butch? I-I-I'll get you for this." Randall angrily says, he then turns over to a few of the people in the room, asking them to verify that TJ was at the party.
"Are you insane, Randall? Do not disrespect the dead" was Gordy's answer, despite still hating TJ. The others also deny TJ's appearance completely. His agents shake their head at Randall and walk off.
Butch smirks, looking at Randall now fisting his hand to the floor in anger.
"See you around, Detweiler."