Alya Césaire / Lady Wifi
"I'm very please with how you all did on your last assignment," Teacher Caline Bustier reported to her students. "Some of you have really stepped up, and I do appreciate it."
Most of her students were pleased with the news, except for one.
Alya Césaire was too engrossed with a video on her phone. She had caught Paris' newest celebrities, Stormy Weather and Super Nathan, playing Heroes and Villains above the roofs of her neighborhood.
"You'll never defeat me!", taunted Stormy Weather, as she sent a huge blast of wind in Super Nathan's direction.
"Oh no, you won't!", retorted Super Nathan, who drew a pile of sandbags in front of him.
Stormy Weather tried to topple the sandbags by triggering a localized thunderstorm, but Super Nathan simply reinforced them, drawing a bunker over him. In the shadows, he drew a cage over Stormy Weather, forcing her to admit defeat.
"All right. You win," she cried, sadness obvious in her voice.
Super Nathan erased all the damage they caused, and the two competitors shook hands.
As they took off, a crowd emerged, and cheered.
She couldn't help but be proud but be proud of her footage. She caught the heroes in action, fighting so engagingly that they're sure to bring thousands of views to her blog, Superheroes from the Eyes of a Parisian Teen.
"Alya!"
Shocked, Alya immediately looked up, right into the face of Miss Bustier.
"Are you listening, Alya?"
"Oh, uh, yes, ma'am."
"Good. So, as I was saying, we're going to move on to your next assignment. Tonight I want you all to read Chapter 3 of the breathtaking France, the First Thousand Years. Then, answer this simple questionnaire."
Miss Bustier handed a sheet of paper to Alya.
"Sure, miss."
After class, Alya found herself at the locker room. As she put her things in her locker, she chanced upon Chloé Bourgeois doing the same. Except what was she stuffing was not normal school supplies.
It was a white, full-body costume, with purple stripes on the arms and legs. It looked just like one of the superheroes in the video.
Only one thought was on Alya's mind that moment. Is Chloé Super Nathan?
Suddenly, her boyfriend Nino Lahiffe entered the room. "Wassup, girl?"
"Hey!" Alya reacted. "I think I just sniffed out who the real Super Nathan is!" She put her mouth to Nino's ear and whispered. "Chloé."
Nino laughed. "Chloé? Seriously? She's a girl; Super Nathan's a boy. You are cray-cray, lady!"
"I am so not! You'll see!"
Five minutes later, the couple finished preparing a set of lines designed to get Chloé to reveal herself.
As the brat finished filling her locker, Nino suddenly pointed to the window and shouted, "Oh, uh, Super Nathan! Look over there!"
Needless to say, Chloé was not amused. "What kind of lame joke is this?"
"Uh, well, that was..." Nino stuttered. "Did you see Super Nathan yesterday? Isn't he amazing? I wonder who he really is?"
"Up too late DJ-ing, Nino? Obviously you didn't get your beauty sleep."
As Chloé babbled on, hurling insults like there's no tomorrow, Alya took photos of the open locker, hoping to act in secret.
Unfortunately, she forgot to mute her phone, as Sabrina Raincomprix, Chloé's slave in all but name, happened to notice.
"Chloé!" Sabrina called. "Alya's looking in your locker!"
Caught in the act, Alya tucked away her phone. "Uhh, that's a lie! I so was not!"
But Kim Le Chien, who was standing nearby, managed to swipe the phone from her. "Hey! Give it back!", Alya pleaded.
As usual, Chloé thought it was best for her to mock Alya. "So, who's the little liar now?"
Soon, Alya found herself in Principal Damocles' office, dragged there by Chloé.
"She's guilty of invasion of privacy!" Chloé reported. "I have proof!"
Alya pleaded innocent. "What?! Seriously?! All I did was take a measly photo!"
"I'm sorry, Chloé," Mr. Damocles stated. "But there's no school policy on invasion of privacy!"
Chloé wasn't satisfied. "Then... then... breaking and entering!"
"I didn't break into her locker!" Alya corrected. "It was open!"
"And nothing was stolen?", asked Mr. Damocles.
"Only my very soul!", Chloé retorted, as dramatic as ever. "My locker is my secret garden! He who enters uninvited bulglarizes my inner being and steals my life force!" Alya couldn't believe how much Chloé has to act just to get her suspended.
Thankfully, she wasn't... at least for now. "One hour of detention for you, Alya."
Of course, Chloé still wasn't done with Mr. Damocles. "Are my ears failing me? Did I hear you're giving one miserable hour of detention to a... a heinous criminal?! Sabrina!"
Sabrina immediately read from a pre-written script. "The school rules state that 'any student guilty of theft shall be suspended for one full week.'"
"Yes, but she hardly stole anything," retorted Mr. Damocles.
"I'm not sure my father would share your point of view!" With that, Chloé dialed her father, the Mayor of Paris, André Bourgeois.
"Uhh, well, now, Chloé, let's not bother your father, I mean, the honorable Mayor with a locker situation..."
But it was too late. "Hello? Daddy, yeah, so..."
Mr. Damocles immediately changed his mind. "Ehh, what I mean is, you're suspended for a week, Alya."
Alya was done. "What?! That is so unfair!" She angrily produced her phone. "I am so gonna protest this on the school blog!"
The principal sighed. "The school blog is hereby suspended as well. Alya, hand over your phone."
Alya threw her phone at the principal as she stomped out of the office. You're no superhero! You're a super psycho!
Alya walked by the Seine, sad.
Nothing in her life had scarred her as much as today, when her greatest passion had been taken from her.
Now without a phone, she could only wander the streets, with no way to contact her parents, sisters, or Nino.
She sat on a bench, wondering what treacherous directions her life would take from now on.
But she didn't stay long.
"Alya..."
She perked up when she heard the raspy old woman's voice call her name. "Uh, hello?"
"Over here..."
She looked down to see an old, skin-and-bones woman, dressed in faded, tattered clothes. She had a foreboding, sketchy aura.
"Uhh, who are you?" Alya questioned. "And how did you know my name?"
"I have something for you..."
With an almost corpse-like sluggishness, the woman pulled a smartphone from somewhere on her person. Its clean, shiny form was a stark contrast to the person who gave it.
Without saying a word, Alya took the phone. "Uhh, than-"
But the woman was gone.
A little confused, Alya unlocked the phone. There was no password, but there weren't many apps either. In fact, it looked more like a TV remote than a phone. Its apps were called "pause", "stop", "lock", "record" and "fast forward".
Even if she had no idea what they were, she had the perfect plan for them.
Nathaniel was in his bedroom, looking at his sketchbook... again.
But this time, he wasn't drawing. He was rereading his very first comic, the one where Stormy Weather and Super Nathan made their debut.
"Can you believe it, Sketch? Everything in this comic came to life!"
"That's what you've always wanted, right?"
"Yeah, but not like this! I mean, in my original script, Super Nathan used his powers to defeat Stormy Weather once and for all. But yesterday, I convinced her to stop on her own, and now my comic changed with it!"
"That's the power of art, Nathaniel!"
Suddenly, the lo-fi music playing on Nathaniel's laptop was interrupted.
Covering the screen was a video of Alya, which, despite all efforts, couldn't close.
"I'm Lady Wifi, revealer of the truth!" Alya announced to an invisible camera. "For our first exposé, a special someone would like to share a little tidbit with you."
She moved away from the camera, revealing herself to be in Mr. Damocles' office. She laid her arm on the principal and asked, "So, Mr. Damocles, Principal of Collège François Dupont, is it true that you wrongly suspended a student named Alya today?"
"Uh, yes, it is," the principal replied.
"So you were biased? Unfair? Totally unjust?"
The principal thought for a moment. "Yes... I guess."
"Then you deserve to be punished!"
Lady Wifi tapped the "stop" icon on her phone, pointing it at Mr. Damocles. Immediately, a pink square appeared in the air in front of him, and he was now unable to move or speak.
She turned once again to the camera. "For my next scoop, I'll be taking you to meet the girl who's been hiding behind the Super Nathan mask. Stay connected!"
She touched something on her phone, and the video finally disappeared.
"Looks like someone wants to unmask Super Nathan," commented Sketch.
"And she thinks I'm a girl," replied Nathaniel. "Whatever. There's trouble in Paris! We have to go save her!" He picked up the tablet pen and clicked the button. "Art on!"
In an instant, he was Super Nathan once again, zipping through the air on his jetpack.
Later that night, Chloé was in her hotel suite, cosplaying as Super Nathan.
She tried to imitate him flying on a jetpack, which she did by tying two bolster pillows to her back and jumping as high as she can.
Needless to say, she only flew a few feet - landing face-down on the floor.
Suddenly, her phone rang. It was still in her bag, which was quite difficult to reach if you have something heavy tied to your back. Nevertheless, she was able to reach it. "Hello?"
Instead of just a voice, Lady Wifi's entire body materialized through the call. "Well, hello there, Super Nathan."
Chloé tried to run away, only to be hit by Lady Wifi's pause icon, freezing her in place.
Lady Wifi then tapped the "record" button, summoning an invisible camera that broadcast to every screen in Paris. She spoke to it, posing around Chloé's body like it was a statue. "Well, well, well, looks like my hunch was correctamundo. Everybody thinks the girl beneath the Super Nathan costume is a little angel. Think again, people! The real Super Nathan is..."
She tore Chloé's mask off her face. "Chloé Bourgeois, everyone!"
Suddenly, the real Super Nathan appeared.
Lady Wifi looked at him and back at Chloé. "But I thought you were Super Nathan!"
"Sorry to bust your news story," said Super Nathan. "But next time, have some common sense."
"You'll be sorry!" Lady Wifi tapped the "delete" button, cancelling the pause and the recording. Chloé, now released, fell down instantly.
Super Nathan looked closer at her face. He could now see that it was one of his classmates. "Alya?"
"Alya's been disconnected. I'm Lady Wifi. News flash! Super Nathan, let's find out who you really are!"
She tried firing "pause" beams at him, but he dodged them as quick as a tablet pen in the hand of an experienced osu! player. He somersaulted into Chloé's bedroom, hiding behind a wall.
"So, what's the plan, Nathan?", asked Sketch telepathically.
"I think she gets her powers from her phone, so I wanna lead her to the basement where there's no service!"
"Great thinking, Nathan!"
Nathan left the room and led Lady Wifi down the emergency stairs.
He thought running down to the first floor was enough to weaken the villainess, but when he saw her firing her phone with full power, he realized that the only solution was to run to the basement.
It smelled like exhaust, but he didn't mind; it reminded him of all the times he travelled with his father.
After five minutes, he emerged from the abyss. But every single door had one of Lady Wifi's lock icons on them. Sure enough, nothing could shake them open.
There was an exception, though. The door to the fourth floor was unlocked; it didn't have a lock icon, and the lock itself wasn't secured.
It was too good to be true, but Nathaniel had an idea. "Get ready for an ambush on three," he whispered to Sketch. "One, two, three..."
With a mighty kick, he launched himself into the hotel's luxury restaurant.
But no one was there. "So much for the ambush."
Nathan casually strolled into the dining room. It was quiet - too quiet. There was no one at any of the tables, but each seat had a cheap smartphone on it.
Since when would a formal restaurant have this many cellphones?, he thought.
Suddenly, the phone on the table nearest to him rang, and Lady Wifi jumped out. He ducked just in time to avoid being paused.
In retaliation, he drew a rope around her. "How now, brown cow?"
She simply teleported to phone after phone, laughing. "You can't get me!"
"Yes, I can!" Nathan erased all the phones, forcing Lady Wifi to retreat into the kitchen.
He wasted no time chasing after her, but found himself locked in by a lock icon placed by her on the main door.
Before he can react, she placed two more lock icons on his hands, pinning them to the wall.
Now disabled, he can only shout, "What do you want with me?"
"It's simple, Super Nathan. I wanna take off your mask and learn your secret identity!"
"Why do you want to know that?"
"How can we trust you when we have no idea who you really are? We have the right to know!"
"You don't need to know that to trust me, Alya. Just believe that I could save Paris without doing much damage, and it will feel better."
Lady Wifi's villainous smirk seemed to soften a bit.
"So, you wanna stop obsessing about my secret identity, Alya?", offered Nathan.
Without saying a word, she nodded, bowed, then deleted all the spells she casted earlier. "I promise, Super Nathan."
"Thanks for being a good sport, Alya. Say, do you still need help?"
"Actually, yeah. My other phone got confiscated by my principal, Mr. Damocles. Without it, I couldn't talk to my parents or my sisters."
"Why was it confiscated?"
"That brat Chloé reported me to the principal's office because she thought I was snooping around her locker."
"Did you really do that?"
"No. It was open, actually. In fact, I was only supposed to get a warning but Chloé threatened to call her father, the Mayor, and now I'm suspended."
"I see. I'll see what I can do."
The next day, Alya walked up to the collège, unsure what to think.
Upon entering the courtyard, she was immediately sighted by Fred Haprèle, the janitor. "Alya, come here. The Principal would like to speak to you."
Silent, she did as asked.
Much to her surprise, Mr. Damocles was all but angry.
"Come on, have a seat," he offered.
Seemingly in shame, the principal opened his drawer and retrieved Alya's phone. "Miss Césaire, I would like you to know that I have reviewed my actions yesterday and found them to be highly unprofessonial. I hereby rescind your suspension and that of the school blog."
Alya reclaimed her phone without strong emotions. "Thanks, sir... but what made you change your mind so soon?"
"Well, you see... when I entered the office this morning, I saw a note on my desk explaining everything. I'm sorry I fell into Chloé's trap yesterday; I really should have somebody else in this office!"
"May I see it?"
"Sure." The principal retrieved the note, written on a sheet of art paper.
What caught Alya's eye was the postscript at the bottom. "Alya, if you're reading this, I'd like you to know that whenever you're feeling sad or upset, you can always come to me. If you still have your magic phone, you can play Heroes and Villains with me and Stormy Weather. Trust me, you'll have a lot of fun. Signed, Super Nathan."
