Guild Invites 4.6

I grinned like a fool at James when he confirmed that he also had the Bring Justice to Winslow quest. He had a mischievous look to him as he suggested we go somewhere and plan how to carry it out.

That suited me just fine. "Let's go to my place. My dad shouldn't be home for at least a few more hours. I'll even «Cook», I got a skill for it earlier."

"Nice. Well, if you want help grinding that up, I'd be happy to lend you my stomach."

It was a typical James joke, corny and lame, but I giggled anyway. A week of suspension was supposed to be a punishment, but leaving Winslow felt like being let out of prison. That place was nothing but a millstone around my neck. A bright yellow sun shone down from a blue sky. Spring had come to Brockton Bay: green grass, flowers in bloom, and bugs everywhere. I let down my mental wall and embraced all the bugs in my area. It felt good to feel my millions of minions again. I felt almost blind without them and immediately tasked bugs to establish my «Combat Mapping».

I felt like showing off. "Speaking of new skills, I got «Sprint» this morning." I said it with a teasing challenge hoping James would rise to the bait.

He took it hook, line and sinker. "Race you?"

"You're on!" I took off leaving him to catch up. I left James in my dust at first, but I might have pushed myself a little too hard earlier that morning. My legs started complaining before I'd even gone a block. I pushed through the pain at first determined not to lose, but I just couldn't maintain the pace. I slowed down to a jog for a bit as I had a lead, only for James to rapidly catch up with me. I kicked it back up to a sprint and pushed through and only barely beat him. Even better, I got «Sprint 3» out of our little impromptu race.

"We. Need. A rematch. When my. Legs aren't. Sore," I panted out. "One moment, gotta stretch. Legs already killing me." I shuffled off my backpack and hoodie and did some leg stretches while I cooled down. I also woke up my spiders in the basement and set them to work weaving and repairing my costume. After staring around cluelessly for a bit, James stretched as well.

"That will have to do. Come on in. Watch the second step."

I headed into the house to cook. James didn't follow immediately, which gave me time to browse through our fridge and pantry. We just didn't have much in the way of vegetarian friendly food. Spaghetti and a salad it would have to be. While I had always used a canned of tomato sauce as a base, I took out a pot of water and started boiling some tomatoes without really thinking about it. I knew what I was doing – making spaghetti sauce from raw ingredients, and I even knew where it came from: «Cooking» and the [Spaghetti] recipe. I should probably have been disturbed about how new skills snuck up on me. That's how I'd jumped into a fight with «Aikido» and probably why James jumped into a fight with his «Jeet Kune Do», but the coolness factor of knowing how to cook like this overrode any creepiness I felt. I considered turning on the radio to sing along, but decided that might be rude.

My tomatoes had just boiled enough when James entered the kitchen. "So, I've been thinking. We've each got a couple hundred to burn; how about we go shopping after lunch? We could both use a «First Aid» skill and «Parkour» seems like an essential skill for any cape who can't fly. And who knows what else we might find?"

I nodded my agreement as I fished the tomatoes out of the pot. That was a good idea. A bookstore trip was certainly on list for today, but before I could respond James stuck his hands into the boiling water and grabbed the last of the tomatoes. What the fuck? "What are you doing?"

"«Elemental Resistance» training?"

Oh, right brute rating and regeneration. I wanted to tell him not to scare me like that, but that sounded too much like my father lecturing me. I settled for an eyeroll. "Try not to do something like that around other people." And when exactly did he pick up «Elemental Resistance»? Probably the Lung fight by getting hit by fire. A process that I couldn't repeat.

"That's just not fair. If I trained like that, I'd be lucky to just burn my hands and put myself out of action for days." Although I cheated in my own way by training multiple skills at once whenever I could. However, speaking of skills brought up another point. "Don't forget the skill cap. We're going to have to be selective about what skills we get. Like this." I pointed to the red pulp of former tomatoes that and scraped them into a pot. "«Cooking» isn't a bad skill." In fact I rather enjoyed it. "But, I don't want all my INT going to housewife skills. No matter how useful they are."

"I've still got about ten left, but I get your point. Maybe we should take turns trying out different chores. See which chores are safe to do and which skills are worth earning? And if one of us finds anything useless, the other can just avoid it. I'll even go first."

I grinned at him. "That's not a bad idea. You can start with the dishes." After all that was the way it worked. Whoever cooked didn't have to do the dishes. I added some seasoning to the sauce, knowing it wasn't right. I should be using fresh onion and garlic instead of powdered. For best flavor it should also simmer a lot longer than I wanted to spend waiting on it. Still James and I had a lot to talk about, plus I wanted to make a salad. I put it on medium heat and started prepping a simple garden salad for us: iceberg lettuce, cucumber slices, and cherry tomatoes.

The salad didn't take much of my concentration. So, what to discuss first? How about Winslow? "Hey, speaking of skills. I had a revelation today. With your power high school has just become irrelevant to both of us."

"How's that? We still kinda need diplomas."

"Just that we can get more than a high school education in a few weeks by memorizing the right books. I already know more about «Computer Programming» by downloading that book than I'll learn in Ms. Knott's entire class. I'm sure we could find skill books to cover our other courses." As I spoke I shredded the iceberg lettuce into a serving bowl.

"Huh." When James had an opinion, he wasn't shy about sharing it. This time he seemed to consider what I said before replying. "I'm not sure about the skill books. None of my text books are skill books, and I received a quest that gave me the «Biology» skill today."

I shrugged. "But we know we can learn «Anatomy 25» from Gray's Anatomy." And I suddenly realized that I was discussing «Anatomy» and gesturing with a cucumber. I felt my cheeks heat a bit and quickly started slicing the cucumber. My hands used the knife with a surety that I've never had in the kitchen before. In seconds the cucumber was rendered into slices. The slices weren't as thin or as even as they should be, but that was still pretty cool.

"You've got a point, but «Anatomy» and «Biology» aren't exactly the same thing. And some classes might take more than one skill. Who knows how many we'd need to cover everything. Beyond that, we'd still need to go to school."

"Do we? What good is it doing us? Why don't we just drop out? Pick up the skills to cover our classes, level them up, then take our GEDs. At the rate we're increasing skills we don't need Winslow. It's not like I'm getting an education there anyway." I gave the sauce a stir. It was thickening but remained a little too watery. I also didn't seem to be convincing him. "James, Winslow is holding us back. Think of how much we learned in two days. What if we could do that every day? What kind of heroes would we become?"

"Oh yeah." James sounded like he's seen the light. "Can we even drop out? Don't we have to be seventeen?"

"Like Winslow would care. I'm sure we can find a home school program or something to cover us."

«An item has been created via [Cooking].»
«Garden Salad»
«Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item»

Alright, so it was a simple salad, but I didn't think it was that bad. I checked my sauce. Close enough. I ducked down to grab the big pot from under the counter.

"You're probably right about that. I bet the PRT could give us some options when we join the Wards."

I almost bonked my head on the cabinet when James said that. What the fuck? Luckily he couldn't see my face. I grabbed the pot I wanted, dropped it in the sink, and started filling it with water. Only then did I turn to face James. "What did you mean, when we join the Wards?"

James shrugged. "After Lung, I thought you'd be all for it. We nearly died. Hell, I was under 10 HP at one point. We'd be safer with a team backing us up."

Could have died. That's what my father had kept saying. Miss Militia got me to admit it as well, but hearing it from James hurt more. Less than 10 HP? That was less than a zombie punch from zero. Neither of us knew what happened to James at 0 HP. Would he be unconscious or dead? It was still too damn close. Maybe I was the crazy one. My pot was full of water. I took it from the sink, placed it on the stove, and cranked up the heat. "We need to be more careful, but that doesn't mean joining a team. Not necessarily. You have «ID Create». We can run from any fight that turns bad. Also if we spend a few weeks training up, we'd be better heroes. We don't need the Wards."

"We'd still have those advantages, plus teammates if we joined."

I paused to stir my sauce. I hadn't expected this. I thought he understood the danger, but he didn't seem concerned. "Have you forgotten what we talked about? Once you join the Wards, the Protectorate will learn how your powers work. They'll use you to power up their other capes."

"Probably." His lack of concern betrayed that he knew, but he didn't really understand. "We're kinda already doing that. And helping out the Wards feels like the right thing to do."

"If they let you stay here with the Wards." Like the water I had on the stove, my temperature rose, but I tried to stay calm. "James, they might take you away."

"Maybe, but it's not like they're Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB. They're the good guys. Besides, I've got my Illusion Barriers. I bet that I could get away if I really had to."

I couldn't believe we were having this discussion again. What had happened to 'You're the boss, Taylor'? "Did you forget last night already? The Protectorate is led by people like Armsmaster. He didn't listen to us at all. What makes you think it will be different. People in power – they don't really care about people like us, James. Why do you think I'm ignored at Winslow? They'll use you up." And I won't be able to save you.

James held his hands up defensively. "Honestly, I think you're overreacting a bit. They can't all be that bad. But I get it. I get it why you don't trust people in authority. So no Wards. At least not yet."

"Well. Good." Although it wasn't really good. James had conceded; he hadn't been convinced. I'd thought we were in synch, but clearly we weren't. If I didn't give in and agree to join the Wards, would I lose him as a friend? But, I didn't trust the Protectorate to do right by James. On the other hand, was I being selfish brat? Was I just using him for my benefit and didn't want to share? Under 10 HP. James had almost died. Multitasking is really the best part of my power, even better than bug control, because while I fretted another part of me tended the spaghetti, took it, drained, served and added sauce.

«An item has been created via [Cooking].»
«Spaghetti»
«Rank: Low; Type: Consumable Item»

«Your skill in [Cooking] has increased by 1.»

Rank low again. I suppose that's what I got for ignoring what my «Cooking» skill tried to tell me about adding more ingredients especially meat. Either meatballs or adding a little ground meat to the sauce would really enhance the flavor. Apparently my «Cooking» skill didn't do the vegetarian thing. Maybe I should try to pick up a vegetarian cookbook when we went shopping?

I pushed a plate toward James and forced a smile that I didn't feel. "It's simple, but I hope you like it."

"I'm sure that I will. It smells great."

We both ate in an awkward silence. This was my fault for being so anti-Wards. Maybe he was right. The quest did say we needed to join a team within two days, but right now we had the power and control. We could decide how we trained, when we went back out in costume again, everything was our choice. If we joined the Wards, then adults would be telling us what to do, and the adult in charge of the Protectorate ENE was Armsmaster. Hadn't last night proved he didn't listen? However, I'd 'won' the argument. I didn't want to open it up again. I needed to say something, anything, to change the subject and mend fences with James.

"So… I told my father about my powers." I offered it up hoping he'd take the conversational bait.

He did. "So, how did it go?"

"He freaked." Which wasn't good, but being able to talk about it with James felt good. "He basically told me we were stupid for fighting Lung. Didn't matter that we won. About the only thing he liked was that I've got the beginning of a partnership worked out with Parian. He really wants me to be a rogue rather than a hero."

James nodded a bit because he was chewing. "Ouch. At least you were able to tell one of your parents. I don't think my mom would take it well, and my dad would tell her sooner or later. So did you tell him about me?"

"I told him about Beetle Knight, but no details…" And clearly James didn't know. "It's just my dad. My mother passed away a couple of years ago. Automobile accident."

James winced. "Crap. I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"No, it's okay." And we were back in Awkwardville, population two.

He suddenly froze. "Emma."

"What about her?" Why bring her up?

"That's what the «Treacherous Bitch» meant when she said 'cry for a week'. She was talking about... fuck."

My eyes suddenly felt moist, but I wasn't going to cry again. "Yes. Like I told Blackwell, she knows all my secrets and how to use them to hurt me the most."

"Dammit, calling her a supervillain was too nice. That was… inexcusable. Like Slaughterhouse 9 inexcusable. We're going to complete that quest and see that all three of them get what's coming to them. The bitches three are going to pay."

"Good." I finally felt like James and I were back in synch. "So got any ideas?"

"A few." James then outlined some possibilities. We could buy some small recording devices. We could try to involve some of the trio's other victims. Apparently I'd been a bit blind. James knew at least three other students on the trio's shit list. One of us could pick up a law/legal skill. Or we could call a lawyer. "Hey, do you mind if I look at that journal you mentioned?"

I felt a little ashamed at how easily James came up with several possibilities. Why hadn't I tried any of those? "I'll get it, and it's okay if you read it. I meant it as a weapon against them, but I don't want to discuss it, you know?"

James nodded. "I get it. How about I put it in my inventory and look at it later? No discussion, just want to know what we've got to work with."

I nodded. "Yeah. That might be best."

"And we should make copies and keep the original. I wouldn't put it past Blackwell to 'lose' it or claim she never got it in the first place."

"I could so see that happening. For that matter the trio have a talent for stealing things from my locker and my backpack. If they knew I had a journal of all their shit, they'd try to get their hands on it. I don't know if they'd go as far as breaking into my house, but I wouldn't put it past them. I know damn sure they can't steal it from your pocket dimension." I went upstairs to my room to fetch my journal. Saying I'd let James look at it was one thing. Once I had it in my hands and remembered all the humiliating things I'd written, it wasn't so easy. Also, it had been a waste of time. Almost everything James had suggested had a better chance of actually changing my life than keeping a secret journal. I headed back downstairs and found James up to his elbows in suds washing dishes.

"I was joking about the dishes."

"I wasn't." James flicked some suds at me. "You cooked. I've got the dishes. So, as soon as these are done, you want to go shop for books?"

"Um, maybe." Before I could say anything else the phone rang. I picked it up. "Hello, Hebert residence."

"Mrs. Hebert, I'm calling on behalf of Winslow High School. Your daughter was in an altercation today with other students and has been suspended for the remainder of the week. She has brought home a paper that you need to sign for us acknowledging her suspension."

I recognized the voice. It was the school secretary, who apparently didn't know my mother was dead. "Really? Well, you can be sure I'll have a word with her about that. I'll make sure the paper is signed. Thank you for calling." I hung up on her.

James sent a questioning look at me.

"Winslow. I'll tell my father, I guess. They'll probably call your home as well."

"Crap. Mind if we swing by my house on the way to the bookstore? I need to erase that message off the answering machine."

I shrugged. "You're not going to tell them?"

"Not if I don't have to. If my mom knows I'm not in school, she'll make me come with her to the office every day. That's just a waste of a week off school. Besides, didn't you want to get more training in?"

I grinned. Now that's the James I knew! "Detour to the Barron residence approved."

"Awesome." James set the last dish aside, and then stared at it. "Looks like it was a good thing that I did the dishes. I just got a «Dishwashing» skill."

"You're joking right?"

"Nope. «A technique to wash dishes. With greater mastery, you can clean any dirty spot. 5% increase in dish washing speed.»"

I sighed. "That sucks. And I thought «Knife Throwing» was a waste of a skill slot. I wish there was a way to decline a skill or get rid of them."

James wrung out the drying cloth and left it on the counter. "I'd rather have something more... generally useful, but I kinda like it. And there might be a way to drop skills. Some games let you respec. Usually ones that have some kind of perk tree have a way to let you reassign your perks. I'll see if it says something in the book."

"Book?" What book?

"Beginner's Guide to The Gamer, I got it as a reward for completing the Tutorial."

And he was just now mentioning it? "That's…" Hey pot, this is kettle. You're black. "That's pretty important, but things have been busy. I've got a lot to fill you in on."

"Oh?" James looked interested. "Like what?"

"Let me see. My father wants to meet you – as Beetle Knight. Miss Militia wants to set up a time for both of us to meet the Wards. Tattletale wants to meet with both of us…" What else? "Oh, and I picked up some kind of earring loot from Lung and I have no clue what it does."

"Your father wants to meet… Beetle Knight?" He sounded awfully uncomfortable about that.

"Relax, we took down Lung. Surely, my father is less scary than a fire-breathing man-dragon?"

"I'm not sure about that."

I was pretty sure he was just hamming it up now. I rolled my eyes at him. Might as well have some fun. "I'll tell you about all those on the way to your house. Let me grab my costume first though." My bugs were done repairing it now. "Do you want to come see my basement workshop? Most people would probably find it creepy. I've got several thousand spiders down there spinning silk for me, and most of them are black widows."

James eyed the stairs leading down to the basement. "Sounds cool. Unless you've suddenly lost control of them." He smirked at me. "Lead the way, Lolth."

"Lolth?" I had the feeling I was missing some kind of geek-speak reference.

"Demon Queen of Spiders, Mother of the Drow, that Lolth." The smartass grin on James's face faded as he took in my workshop.

Not that I could really blame him. The basement in my house was gloomy to begin with. It's an old house and the basement was never renovated. So it was just gray concrete for walls and floors and exposed boards for a ceiling. Wires, ductwork and pipes were exposed. A washer and dryer sat up against the wall close to the bottom of the stairs. My father's abandoned workbench gathered dust beside it. In the corner an old furnace that had been converted from coal to gas slumbered. Stacks of boxes lined the walls. Many of them were filled with mom's old things that had been boxed up to be sorted out in some vague someday that had never come. However, my workshop was in full swing, which meant that I was running multiple 'production lines'. Some were making silk cords, others were making replacement skirt-nets in either orb-weaver gold or black-widow yellow-gray. I had them roughly divided among the various sides, but literally thousands of spiders were running up and down weaving at my command. In a way it was beautiful, but even with my powers I had to admit it was creepy as hell.

"Damn. This is impressive. Hail Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits."

He could be such a goof. "Yes, yes, and you're making her majesty angry. Who is this Lolth person?"

James didn't seem at all bothered. "Lolth is a spider deity in D&D, the evil goddess that the Drow worship."

"I'm going to be sorry I asked, but what are Drow? Some kind of spider people?"

"Not quite. Drow are dark elves. Sometimes Lolth turns them into spider people called Driders, which are like spider centaurs. The Drow themselves are almost like the opposite of Lord of the Rings elves. Evil, black-skinned, white-haired, and kinda BDSM-y. Oh, and they're matriarchal. Women have all the power, men exist to serve them."

"Well, at least they got something right." And I was sorry that I asked. What relevance did an evil god have to us as capes? We needed to take down villains and bring three little bitches to justice.

"So… what do you have them making?"

Okay, it was rather cool that he wasn't creeped and I could show him stuff. "Well first off all, they made me these, three replacement skirt-nets and some silken cords so I can «Entangle» zombies again. Over there." I gestured to the long maypole dance of spiders. "Is another silken cord being woven. Strands to threads, threads to cords, and eventually cords to rope. Next time we fight Legion Zombie, I plan to have a rope with us."

"Next time?" He seemed to pause and think that over. "You know, that's a good idea. The loot was awesome, and it should be much easier to kill now. We already have a strategy that works and we leveled up a LOT from beating Lung. And we won't even have to sacrifice your skirts. How long until you have the rope done?"

It wasn't exactly easy to measure. Compared to making cloth rope was a snap, it just took a lot of silk and I didn't want to kill spiders by pushing them too hard. "I already had my spiders weaving this morning, they're pretty tapped out. They need several hours of rest to build their silk supplies back up. Probably two more production runs, one later today, one tomorrow and I'll have my rope. Another day if we want to play it safe and have two ropes."

He nodded. "Good call, boss, I'm all for playing it safe. Oh, and I've got other dungeons than just Zombies now. I think beating the Legion Zombie unlocked a Ghost dungeon and beating Lung gave me a Dragon Yakuza dungeon. Now that we know there are bosses, we don't want to kill too many at once, but we could give those a try."

"Really? Cool." That was something I could get behind. Doing the illusion barriers with James and building up our skills. "We'll need to be careful scouting them. Can we even hurt a ghost? Will they be intangible? Or more like floating jello? And they'll probably be higher level, won't they?" That's the way games worked. They kept adding harder and harder levels.

"Maybe? I'm not sure, but I think we can always run away as long as the boss hasn't shown up. And yeah, but higher level means better loot."

"Okay then. Checking them out definitely goes on our to-do list. Right after getting some skill books." I honestly didn't care about the loot for myself. It was mostly skill books, but those powered James up. I got levels and skills out of it, so it was all good in the end. I felt good to be back on firm ground with James and our tiff about the Wards forgotten. "Damn, we've got a lot to do today. I'll get these guys to wrap things up and we'll get moving."

"Okay, as long as I'm not one of the things they're wrapping up."

"Not unless you keep up the puns." Weaving threads wasn't something I could instantly put on hold, at least not if I wanted to be able to resume work easily. I directed my spiders to reach stopping places, hide the work in progress, and then return to their lairs. With «Lingering Command» I had a little bit of leeway, but I wanted to let a few of the maypole dances finish. "It will be just a few minutes. Plus we have a few things we can cross off the list." I went to my costume and retrieved the stuff I'd looted from Lung. "These are for you, I guess they're «Dragon Scales» and used for crafting. I don't know what this earring does."

James took them from me. "You're right, these are «Dragon Scales». They probably are used for «Crafting», but I don't have any blueprints yet. I'll keep them for now." James tossed them into his inventory. "As for this. «Observe». Nice. It's a «Dragonfang Earring», grants +25% Fire Resistance, and... it's yours." He held it out, trying to give it back to me.

I looked at it. "What do you mean it's mine?" The fire resistance sounded nice, but I didn't wear big dangly earrings. I wore plain little studs that I changed so rarely I often forgot I was even wearing them. Still, 25% Fire Resistance would have been damned useful against Lung. I could always wear it under my costume. "Are you sure?"

"Completely. You can't use the more... exotic skill books, so you've been kinda screwed over with the loot so far. And I just made myself some stuff from the blueprints the zombies dropped. Once we get in another run or two, I'll make you a set."

"Okay." I wasn't so sure about zombie armor. I thought mine was pretty good, but the earring wasn't worth a fight. I took it from him, and decided to hell with it. 25% Fire Resistance was useful, so I swapped it out for the stud in my right ear. "How's it look?" I didn't feel any different except for a little extra weight tugging at my ear.

James gave me a critical look. "Gives you a bit of a rebel look. I like it."

"Really?" Alright then. "Right. So… I think my spiders can close up from here. Let's get going to your house. We can walk this time. Got a lot go over. Speaking of which. What did you get from the book that Lung dropped?"

James dramatically slapped his head with his palm. "Doh. The book teaches «Dragon Scales», and I haven't learned it yet! I'm going to do that now. «Inventory»." He reached into nowhere and pulled out the book. He spent a few moments playing with screens I couldn't see. Then he grabbed the book and it dissolved in the book-chomp lightshow. Phantom wind blew his hair about but didn't bother any of my spider's webs in the slightest. James picked right back up talking. "It's kinda like «Zombie's Hide», but it gives more armor and has fire resistance instead of the others. And they can't stack. Which kinda sucks, but I'm not complaining."

I shoved my costume and bat into my backpack and headed out the door with James. We chatted on the way to his house. I mentioned the cleaning effect of putting things into inventory, and he tried to describe how «Crafting» worked. James agreed to show up at my house as Beetle Knight to meet my dad later, and I agreed that we should set up the meeting with the Wards as soon as possible. As for Tattletale he wanted to read her message before replying.

James unlocked the door when we arrived at his place. "We can use my family's computer, but we'll need to be quick." He walked on in and gestured. "So this is the Barron residence, don't mind the mess. Bathroom is at the end of the hall if you need it. I'm going to go clear the answering machine. Do you want water or anything?"

"No, I'm fine." James's family hadn't noticed that he'd stayed out all night long. He hadn't said why. This was my chance to… look around a bit.

It was the first time I'd been in anyone's home other than my own or rarely Gram's since Emma dumped me. This house reminded me a little bit of Gram's, particularly the upright piano that was obviously never actually played because it was covered in family photos and little porcelain dolls of children in cute poses. My dad called those kind of figurines dustcatchers. Mom would have approved of five bookcases in the living room filled with books, but she would have mixed feelings about the contents. There were two shelves of classics, but most of the space was filled with several sets of old encyclopedias, dictionaries, self-help books, various religious books, obscure paperbacks, a large collection of photo albums, and an old stereo system. The furniture all faced an entertainment center that was closed and locked. That struck me as odd. My parents had limited my time on the boob tube, but never physically locked it away. Was that normal?

My «Combat Mapping» added more detail. They owned a cat who was watching me from underneath the couch. The bedrooms were messy, not filthy, but just a little bit too much stuff to be stored away. There was an overflowing laundry basket in the hallway, and groceries stacked up on the kitchen tables. The main areas were clean, but there was a build-up of dust and cobwebs in the nooks and crannies. Altogether it made up a confusing picture. I couldn't really complain. My home was about the same. My father was tidy. He did the laundry and didn't tolerate things left out of place, but he didn't clean up like Mom used to. Nor did he make me do it. Was that normal as well? Houses in the real world didn't shine and sparkle like on TV. My bugs also informed me that James was heading back. So I turned to face him as he entered.

"Found a message from Winslow and took care of it." He seemed pleased about it. "So, um, computer this way in Wi- the library."

I followed him, trying not to be too obvious a snoop. It felt like something was wrong here. I just didn't know what and didn't feel like I had the right to pry. The library he led me to had an older model computer, more books, and lots of boxes filling up both levels of a bunkbed.

"It's password protected, if barely," announced James as he sat down in front of it. "But I think Dad uses this password elsewhere, so I'll log on, then we can swap and you can log onto PHO."

"We don't have to swap places. I trust you to have my back against Lung, so I think I can trust you with PHO account. It's Lady_Bug: capitol L, capitol B, underscore in-between. Password is Dickens with a capitol D."

"You really didn't have to tell me that." Despite saying that James was already opening a browser window and logging into PHO. "Why Dickens?"

For my mom. "Literary reference. A Tale of Two Cities. 'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.' Seemed to fit how I felt about triggering."

"Oh. I did something similar with my user name. I should probably make a cape account later. And we're in. You've got a new message."

I leaned over James's shoulder and pushed my hair back in place as it fell forward over both of us. "Um, sorry."

"It's okay? So, Tattletale says she owes us two and wants to repay? We should take her up on it. I know she's a villain, but she's also a Thinker. She might have some ideas on paying back the bullies and a different perspective on trusting the Wards."

And James's interest had nothing to do with the fact she wore spandex. I could see a bit of blush on his face. "On the other hand, she's a Thinker. If we give her clues, she could quickly find our true identities."

"But she owes us. And if it's that easy for her to find us, she'll do it anyway. Isn't it better to keep things friendly, at least for now?"

I frowned. The problem was that Tattletale had been too damn friendly with James, but we could use the help. "Okay, go ahead and write her, but we don't give her any clues about how your powers work. Understand."

"Okay, but I'm not typing PMs for you. Swap."

"Fine." We swapped places and I dashed off quick messages to her and Miss Militia

Private message to AllSeeingEye
Subject: Proposed Meet
Repayment is not required, but we might have a few questions. Where and when did you want to meet?
LB & BK

Private message to MissMilitia"
Subject: Tomorrow?
Miss Militia,
I believe you were correct the other night. Beetle Knight and I had a lot of luck in capturing Lung. We are also both interested in meeting with the Wards. We have time available tomorrow. If you propose a time and place, we will be there. If tomorrow is too soon, let us know when would be better for you.
Best Regards,
Lady Bug (and Beetle Knight)

I was going to close out, but… "Weird. I have another message. Huh, Tattletale already replied."

Private message from AllSeeingEye
Subject: Proposed Meet
U can't dismiss a debt so easily. I'll meet you at the same spot we crossed paths last night, k? Don't have to get gussied up if you catch my drift. I'll be in casual wear. We could meet at 3. That will give you enough time to get there from your neighborhood with everything you need. Let me know.
Tt

"How the fuck does she know how long it will take us to get there?" I asked.

"That's a good fucking question," replied James. "I guess the best way to find out is to meet her."