I had serious problems with this chapter.
I decided to do something different and write the whole arc in a big chapter, but this not only took a lot of time but also is disrupting me with the division of the chapters. At least, I've already written about 90% of the arc, and I must post the next chapters as soon as I can divide the text in a way that pleases me.
DATE: MAY, 2, 2015, ROYAL WOODS, 08H03M
"I have to admit, this is better than my ship."
In an immense dining room, the scientist snuggles in an extremely comfortable chair, in front of an immense table with breakfast. The Loud and Santiago families act normally, although this environment was much more chic than the dining room of the Loud Tower.
"Well, I'm glad you enjoy our house." Lynn Sr. ate a bite of toast, a little flattered by the compliment. "Although we moved to New York, this is still our home, and we like to vacation here once in a while."
"I know that." Pym picked up some pancakes, then spilled syrup over it. "Do not forget that I've been stalking you for years."
The comment raised some tension, as this brought certain questions. Still, the atmosphere was really nice, and everyone felt at home (since, technically, this was also the 'Loud House').
While they savored the food, Larry would pack the supplies for the weekend in the mansion kitchen, since despite being in the family mansion, Rita and Maria agreed that it would be an offense against Pym and Larry to waste the food they had separated for the weekend.
As soon as everyone has finished eating, they went to the garden, where most sat on bamboo benches while Lana, Lola and Lily played tag. The atmosphere was pleasant, so the adults talked absently while the kids listened intently. Despite being the home of the Loud family, the region was quite quiet, since the house was the only one in the area. In addition, the size and the isolation made the luxurious mansion look as a five-star resort.
In fact, the Loud family had so much money that they had five houses around the world, though four of them were only used for holidays, vacations and special occasions. And, one of the advantages of Royal Woods' house was...
"Can we visit Pop-Pop?" Lily exclaimed excitedly, looking expectantly at the five adults.
All the Louds stared at each other with wide eyes, totally taken aback by the question.
They actually loved to visit their grandfather in his retirement home, but with everything that happened recently, they did not know what they could or could not tell to the old man.
Rita looked at the little girl and prepared to say something, but before she could, Pym lifted her into the air, gazing at the little girl with tenderness.
"I'm sorry, little one, but your grandfather is not in town right now."
Everyone was shocked to hear this, while the little girl was confused.
"What are you talking about?" Rita looked at the scientist sternly, feeling deeply offended. "My father would tell me if he was leaving the town."
"Rita, I'm sorry to sound offensive, but he's grown up. You can not expect him to say everything he does."
Rita fell silent, feeling uncomfortable. Despite his age, her father used to take his grandchildren to activities that made even Lynn and Lincoln exhausted, and both are as energetic as horses. From paintball to snowboard, there seemed to be nothing that old Pop-Pop could not do.
"And how do you know he's not in town?" Lisa dismissed the ethical issue and went straight to the point.
"Well, I'd rather not go into detail, but I asked Larry to check all the residents of Royal Woods. He discovered that your grandfather, along with other seniors, went to a convention in Las Vegas and will not return until next week."
The girl was already waiting for an answer like that, so she was not as surprised as the others. Despite being curious to know what her grandfather was doing in a city so famous, she was even more intrigued by something else.
"How do you get such information?"
"As I have full confidence of President Ross, he allowed me to build a satellite that the government is unaware of. With that and the resources he gives me, there's nothing I can not figure out if I have enough time to investigate."
The answer seemed to satisfy Lisa, but it also made Dr. Pym remember his mission. Looking at his phone, he realized it was almost 10 in the morning, and saw that he should act.
"By the way, I think it's time to start this party." Pym stood up, drawing everyone's attention. "If you will accompany me into the living room, everyone will be able to attend the meeting."
Lana, Lisa, and the young heroes stood up promptly while the others felt a little insecure.
"That will be interesting." The little genius thought, adjusting her glasses.
.
Soon...
Although the mansion was not as large as the ship, it took them a few minutes to reach the living room. Although larger, this room, as well as the living room of the Loud Tower, was decorated with a beautiful carpet, as well as sofas and comfortable armchairs. The Louds and the Santiagos were already accustomed to this environment, but something shocked them.
"What did you do with my living room?!" Rita was almost in shock, eyes wide with what she saw.
The sofas and armchairs were moved so that they were around a red and black table in the shape of an 'A'. In addition, there was an immense blue-tinted glass plate covering a wall in which the Loud children's pictures should be. To complement, there were four armchairs around the table, and just like the table, they did not match the decoration of the room.
"Do not worry, this is provisional." Pym promptly put on his helmet, assuming a posture similar to that of a teacher about to give a speech. "Since you prefer to stay here, I thought this would be the best place to be our temporary command center during the mission. Now, you all can watch a meeting of our team and see what we do."
Everyone looked at Rita with concern. If there was something she hated, it was to mess with her decoration without consulting her.
Still, she paused for a moment and took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.
"Do not worry, Rita, this is for the kids's sake." She said to herself, managing to calm down. "Well, then, we'd better sit down."
She sat in one of the armchairs, placing little Lily on her lap. Her husband sat in the next chair, and then they all sat down, the young heroes sitting at the chairs in front of the table.
With everyone seated properly, Pym decided to begin his presentation.
"As I said before, Secretary Talbot commented to me that a hacker was acting in Royal Woods. Normally, I would not bother with this, but the modus operandi piqued my interest."
"And what are we dealing with?" Lincoln was interested in the subject, curious to know what this hacker did to get the attention of his mentor. "Industrial espionage? State secrets? Codes of nuclear weapons?"
"Online RPG."
At that moment, everyone began to question his sanity.
"You mean those nerdy things Lincoln likes?" Lynn asked, earning a glare from the boy.
"Something like that." Pym smiled, while homepages of various websites appeared on the glass plate. "Our hacker used an almost imperceptible method, which can defraud bank transactions to buy upgrades in several games. Analyzing several months of data, I discovered that the hacker did this with several different accounts in several different games."
"Wow! It must be a super nerd." Lynn thought aloud, gaining several reprehensible glances.
Pym did not pay much attention to the comment, preferring to proceed. The giant screen changed, showing a huge, detailed map of Royal Woods. On the map, there were four red circles, each with a number.
"This is an up-to-date map of the city, and those red circles are the places where I detected the pattern of our hacker. They are numbered according to the number of times the hacker acted in that place."
"How do we know where he is?" Ronnie asked, taking a serious stance.
"That, Miss Marvel, is the best part of the operation." Pym smiled, taking a casual tone. "Look carefully at the locations."
A caption with the address emerged in each circle, leaving everyone present surprised. Number 1 was Royal Woods Elementary School; Number 2 was a local arcade that Lynn, Lincoln and Lana attended during their visits, Gus' Games and Grub; Number 3 was the park where Rita took her kids before they moved to New York, and number 4...
"Is this a joke?" Lynn Sr. stood up and stared at the hero, not satisfied.
"I know it sounds like a bad joke, but I mean it. This is one of the four places with the highest occurrences of our hacker's job in the last two years."
The Loud patriarch was shocked. Of so many places for the hacker to act, he chose just that?
On the screen, below the large number 4, it was a remote area of the city that read "Loud Industries, research and development division" in bold.
"How many times has this hacker been there?" Lincoln asked, still not understanding what was so serious as to leave his father worried.
"Well, the total numbers of occurrences in each place are: 168, 109, 82, and 33." Pym continued his explanation quietly, as if it were a matter of course. "In fact, the number of occurrences in your building is the smallest of them, so I was disregarding investigating there."
At that moment, Sr. Lynn was furious, while the others were jaw-dropping.
"Pym, this is a serious matter." Roberto spoke with a serious tone, but inside he was worried. "If this hacker could hack into a place like that, we could be in serious trouble."
"Wow, you guys are really slow, huh?" The hero assumed a disappointed tone, making the rest of the map disappear. In place of the map, 3D representations of the locations with several dates have appeared. "Look closely: what do these places have in common?"
Everyone followed the instruction, without much success. As much as they looked at the locations and the dates, nothing seemed to be connected, until Lisa noticed something.
At first glance, the places had nothing in common, but if she excluded the Loud Industries' building, the other three had something in common. Something that, if it combined with the majority of the dates of the fourth place, made sense.
"Kids!" The girl exclaimed, catching everyone's attention. "All these places are frequented by kids!"
The others were confused, while Pym was pleased to see that Lisa was indeed the smartest in the family.
"Exactly, Lisa! I see your perception is really sharp."
The girl blushed at the praise, momentarily averting her gaze. Despite the stoic attitude, the little genius liked to have her ego flattered, even more by someone she was beginning to consider as someone intellectually illustrious."
However, no one else realized what they both thought was as clear as the day.
"What are you talking about? The Loud patriarch asked, considering that Lisa had succumbed to madness.
The others shared their sight between the Ant-Man, Lynn Sr., and Lisa, trying to figure out what was going on. Apparently, none of them understood Lisa's statement. However, Pym saw a chance to earn Lisa's respect and trust.
"Dr. Loud, I'm really disappointed in you." He looked at Lisa tenderly, then spoke softly. "Lisa, would you come over here and tell us how you figured out what the places have in common?"
All eyes focused on the girl, who was a bit surprised to be included in the plan.
"O-Of course." With a certain embarrassment, she stood up and adjusted her glasses, assuming a posture similar to that of the scientist hero. "Stopping to analyze the data, it is evident that the hacker used it's skills in three places with high circulation of kids, and most of the dates in the fourth place occurred during Take Your Kids To Work Day, indicating that the hacker had access to the building on those occasions."
At that moment, Lynn Sr.'s jaw dropped open, totally stunned. He, like the others, stared at the screen intently, seeing that Lisa was right.
With Lisa's explanation, it seemed to make sense that the occurrences were linked to kids, but there was still something that did not make much sense.
"Wait, there's something wrong there." Lynn took a focused stance, trying to take into account the facts presented. "Why would a hacker get involved with kids and nerd games?"
Pym folded his arms, smiling smugly as he directed an arrogant stare. The answer was obvious, and he would not make it any easier.
After a few seconds, it was as if light bulbs glowed in their heads.
"You can only be kidding!" Ronnie said.
"Is that really possible?" Lynn was puzzled.
"That's a little disappointing." Lincoln said in a tone of defeat.
The scientist sighed, relieved to finally get where he wanted.
"I know it sounds like something a parental punishment resolves, but there's more to it than that." The screen changed again, this time showing the Royal Woods map with several purple dots. "These purple dots indicate homes with people who, like you (with the exception of Mrs. Santiago), have special genetic. I believe our hacker can be superhuman."
Everyone was so shocked to see so many purple dots that did not pay much attention. Although it was a city with moderate population, Royal Woods had purple spots in almost a third of the residences.
"How do you know that?" Roberto asked, more amazed than everyone else. "Not even the SHIELD has access to SPA's* superhuman census."
"These are not data from SPA, Director Santiago." Pym assumed a serious tone, feeling offended. "I just used my satellite's scanner to detect individuals with the same rare type of genetic variation. And I must admit, for a town with so few inhabitants, Royal Woods seems to be the place with the highest concentration of superhumans in the country."
"Are you serious?" Lori asked, shocked by the information. "We spent a lot of time here, and we never realized that."
"I have to agree with her on that." Rita looked thoughtful, trying to remember the past. "I was born and raised here, and it never seemed to me that there were so many superhumans in Royal Woods."
The screen changed again, this time showing a satellite view of the mansion. Because of the special equipment being turned on, it was possible to distinguish sixteen purple dots within the house.
"Well, I do not know how things were in your youth, but my equipment does not lie." Pym crossed his arms and assumed a soft tone, gazing gently at the children. "Actually, my system only detects those with special genetics, but it does not say whether or not it has powers. Although we see a total of sixteen superhumans in this residence, we know that Lisa and Lily have yet to demonstrate any kind of power."
The comment made the little genius feel bad, but it piqued Lincoln's curiosity.
"So... you think the hacker might have powers?"
"Considering the research I've done in the town, there's a very good chance that that's the case." Pym crossed his arms behind his back taking a commanding stance. "Now, here is my plan to find out the identity of this hacker."
As he spoke, the screen showed various images, from library cards to birth certificates. Somehow, the Ant-Man got the personal information of all the kids of Royal Woods, and while this impressed the kids, it left the parents deeply disturbed.
Still, none of them had time to voice their concerns, because he went on right away.
"By crossing information I have obtained in an unconventional way, I have discovered Loud Industries' employees whose children are in the age of elementary school." Most of the documents are gone, greatly reducing the amount of suspect kids. "Then I investigated and discovered how many of them have access to the internet, and how many of them have na account in any type of online service." Once again, the number of kids dropped, so there were less than a dozen. "In the end, I reduced the suspects to only four."
On the screen were only the cards of the four kids, as well as all their notes in the last three semesters.
The first kid was a boy with freckles all over his face, with tangled light orange hair. He had the appearance of someone who did not apply to his studies, but still his grades ranged between C and B.
The second kid was also a redheaded and freckled boy, but his hair was redder and he wore glasses. His notes were almost all between C+ and B, except for chemistry, in which was D-.
The third kid was a girl with light brown hair, combed in a long braid that reached the base of her neck. She looked serious, and her grades were full of A and A+, showing great academic achievement.
The last kid was a pale girl with long hair black as the night, which covered part of her face. She seemed to be even more monotonous than Lucy, but her notes were as good as those of the others, most of them being A and B.
The grades were reasonable, and the kids looked ordinary, so no one seemed to be a super genius hacker. Even so, they were the most likely, and one of them could be the hacker.
"Are these the suspects?" Ronnie took on a mocking tone, considering the case as insignificant.
Pym was ready to say something, but was interrupted by the girl's father.
"I know they look pretty ordinary, but a lot of adult criminals manage to hide themselves by avoiding drawing attention." Roberto looked at the kids seriously, wondering how he would react if his daughter was involved in something like that.
"How do you intend to find out which one is the hacker?" Lincoln asked.
Pym just smiled, seeing that he would finally reveal his great deal. The screen changed again, showing the school as well as several red and purple dots.
"The school is not only the place with the highest number of occurrences, but also the place where my plan starts. The main reason we're here today is because of an event at school, and from what I've assessed, our four suspects will attend." An image appeared next to the school at the screen, showing a strange ant. "This is a special ant that carries a tiny spy device, which we'll put on the suspects. Larry and I managed to negotiate with the creators of the RPG that practically all kids of Royal Woods is playing, and convinced them to announce a sale of rare items for this afternoon. According to our hacker's behavior pattern, it should act immediately, and at that moment the ants will tell exactly which one is the culprit."
Everyone looked at him, wondering if he had lost his mind.
"Is that your plan?" Lincoln looked at him in disbelief, disappointed with his mentor.
"That sounds very risky." Lynn looked at him wide-eyed. Although not as smart as Lincoln, Lynn realized that the plan was not perfect. "I mean, all this will be a waste of time if you have done something wrong in your search, or if the hacker does not take the bait."
"Not to mention that you are creating a chance for the hacker to act again." Rita entered the conversation, unhappy with the situation.
"Guys, I know this plan sounds very weak, but we're dealing with a young, immature mind that thinks it's smart enough not to be discovered. It is precisely the simplicity of the plan that makes it perfect for this situation."
Faced with this, none of them dared question the scientist's line of reasoning.
Still, there was a question that did not seem answered.
Leni raised her hand, then asked a clever question.
"Wait, I'm, like, super according with your plan, but I did not understand one thing. How are we going to get close to the suspects without them suspecting?"
Pym smiled, pulling on his lab coat and buttoning from the collar to the waist. He then took a small card from his pocket, which he fastened in the pocket of his lab coat.
On the card was written "Dr. Hank Pym - Guest Judge" in Golden letters.
"Who wants to go to a science fair?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
*: Agency that I created for the story, but has not yet appeared. They make files about the superhumans when they first use their powers in public or show up for registration. They have a complete record of individuals and their respective abilities, and also help superhumans find professions that make good use of their skills.
I know what you are thinking: what about the Loud house?
I even thought about putting them on Franklin Avenue, but I thought better and realized that a wealthy family would not live in a common neighborhood (especially in a house with little space).
In the next chapter, our heroes will put their leader's plan into action, as well as meet the suspects.
