In which Joe becomes the victim-finder, new players in our game are revealed and Stella has to comfort.
As they say, ignorance, to the human mind; is bliss. And ignoring the nagging voice in the back of his head worked perfectly fine for Joe.
Not that it was easy, with everyone (read: all the students and even a few teachers) all over him and the new, sappy gossip of his hospitalized brother, when he returned to Horace Mantis that Monday, but eventually even the story of eccentric Kevin finally, though unintentionally, hurting himself, got old.
Joe wanted to punch the suckers who said it, but he even succeeded in ignoring that little point of annoyance.
After all, it wasn't like Kevin would've minded. Not in the slightest, actually.
And as far as he knew, after all, it was true.
That was the hardest part, not being able to tell anyone, having to keep the secret to himself and himself only.
This backfired in the secret nagging on his mind and his mind only with all the force it had.
But Joe was able to ignore it, when he helped his mom get nutrition back into their home, rather then buy take-outs and gross stuff at the hospital.
He found himself pushing it all –Macy's hopeful laugh, the scary lifelike face of the humanoid— in the darkest corner of his mind when he would talk and laugh with Stella again, like he always did.
But mainly when he visited Kevin in the afternoons after school, was he able to completely forget.
Of course, with Joe's luck, this little period of happiness couldn't last very long.
We have to be surprised it lasted as long as Tuesday, when Stella dragged him away from Kevin to go shopping like in the good old, ignorant, times.
And he was okay with that, because it meant more distraction for him, while he was sure Kevin was nicely occupied too.
Turns out Kevin roomed next to a girl. A girl he liked, nonetheless. Her name was Anya and since Kevin was allowed to walk again, he sneaked to her room ever so often.
Everybody pretended not to notice, for everyone knew their secret wasn't so secret except for Anya and Kevin.
So, that Tuesday he leaned against a wall in front of a dressing room, waiting for Stella to come out in yet another adorable outfit for him to judge.
(He was surprised she still took him on trips like this, for he thought everything looked gorgeous on her)
It was that Tuesday afternoon when he saw the blonde ditz he recalled being Penny walking hastily through the mall, her head searchingly shooting from left to right.
This time, she wasn't alone; an equal light-haired boy (who was tall and didn't seem to know where to leave all his limbs) walked in her trail. He seemed particularly nervous, where Penny looked quite happy. Evilly happy.
A fool would've seen the danger here. And since Joe wasn't a fool and actually thought of Penny as dangerous, his uneasy feeling made him abandon Stella (she'd be safer in the dressing-room) and follow them.
He was scolding himself as he quickly hid behind a corner. For one, he was a suckish spy and secondly, because what he was doing was ridiculous. Macy (and Penny) worked for a legal, authorised corporation that was funded by the government. Macy had promised to set her supervisors ways straight and Joe was sure that nothing, in her watch, would be hurt again.
Then why in the name of all that is Mike, am I following the daughter of Macy's freaking boss?
He didn't even make sense to himself.
He was trying to convince himself (and his apparently unwilling body) to go back to Stella, to go back to ignorance, but he miserably failed.
He followed the gruesome twosome through the mall and down 2 levels. And when nothing happened as they reached the parking-area, he felt ashamed when he noticed the XXL limousine standing there. .
Of course a daughter of a rich CEO would be found in a mall with what probably was a servant or a very lame bodyguard.
Joe turned around, relieved and disappointed at the same time when he heard Penny say: "DZ, get the sedatives. She'll be here soon."
Joe froze and mentally cursed; Kevin's doctors had said that 'sedatives' had probably caused Kevin's memory-loss. This couldn't be true, it just couldn't.
He turned on his heels and saw Penny casually leaning against her limousine, glaring daggers at 'DZ' as he clumsily handed her a little silver bag.
Joe labelled the bag as 'highly dangerous' within that little second he saw how carefully the tall boy handled the thing.
She, however, snatched it from his hands and it disappeared in her Prada-Purse.
Joe decided he highly preferred the Penelope Peachpit-kind of purses.
Penny leaned against her limousine again, professionally blending with her surroundings, while the boy she'd called DZ was looking entirely out of place.
Eventually a small, dark-blue Volvo drove down into an empty parking space across from the limousine.
Joe hid behind the paying-machines so he'd get a clearer view without being noticed.
He followed the Volvo because Penny did and he saw a pretty, young and fair haired girl step out of it, while another even younger blonde wearing a '#1 HS fan' shirt jumped from the passengers seat.
HS stood for Honour Society, which was, as far as Joe knew, a boyband from the Malcolm Meckle record-label. The girl must be a fan, though he believed there to be '#1 super HS fan'-shirts too.
His thoughts were interrupted when the girl asked what he presumed to be her older sister: "Are we going to get my CD now?" as she did directing his thoughts straight back to the older woman, who was (and he mentally apologised to Stella) completely his type.
She smiled sweetly. "Of course we are, pumpkin. Right after we have our cheeseburgers."
They walked away from the car, making it harder for Joe to hear what they were saying, but he thought the younger girl said something about their mom thinking they were going to get fat-free, vegetarian sushi.
He then his attention was turned back to the limousine and he noticed both Penny and her DZ weren't lounging against it anymore. They were now straightforwardly waiting for the sisters getting cheeseburgers and a CD.
"Hello, Vanessa." Penny said and Joe was grateful for the way the parking-area echoed, though he suspected Penny not to be so fond of this.
The girl Penny called Vanessa stiffened and looked at Penny in fear. Joe didn't think he would've reacted differently, for Penny looked like she belonged in a 'scream till you die screaming' movie.
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" Vanessa questioned bravely, though her surprisingly soft voice trembled.
"Who I am does not matter and sweetheart, I know everything about you. For example, the fact that you have exactly the qualities we are searching for." Said Penny, speaking like she was involved in a conversation about the weather, rather then an obviously threatening one, as she threw her honey-blonde hair over her shoulders and laughed.
Her teeth shimmered more then they should.
She nudged D.Z. who advanced on the two girls and Joe saw the Vanessa-girl push the HS-fan behind her, trying to protect her.
"What do you want?" She demanded, slowly walking backwards until a parked car blocked her way.
"You." Penny answered simply and she pulled the silver bag from her purse. DZ was still walking forward, though he hesitated every two steps.
Penny proceeded to take a painfully large looking needle –though Joe wasn't the one to judge, he hated needles either way— filled with a purple substance from the bag.
"Or rather." She continued. "Something that that makes you who you are."
"Please, don't…" Vanessa didn't know what to beg Penny to not do and instead pulled her sister closer. "Don't hurt her."
Joe wanted to run towards them and help; he wanted very badly to protect the selfless girl named Vanessa, who looked awfully fragile in her designer close and white scarf.
Her expression screamed: 'vulnerable!' and Joe's inner gentleman couldn't stand not stepping in to help her.
But he couldn't do it. Mostly because all of his muscles were locked in place out of shock, but also because a little rational voice told him that he wouldn't win a fight against Penny and her companion.
This wasn't just because Vanessa looked like she couldn't hit a dent in a package of butter.
So he stayed and watched as Vanessa almost cried out of fear and pain when Penny casually walked closer and shoved the needle into her neck. The purple liquid flowed into the punctured flesh and the little fangirl screamed when she saw her older sister go limp.
Once more, this triggered Joe's instincts to jump to the rescue, his knuckles turning white because of how hard he was grasping the machine, but he forced himself to stay and watch.
If his assumptions were right, that purple liquid would make him forget everything if he got it in him and he really couldn't have that in order to help Vanessa in the long run.
Kevin had survived. He was trying to focus on that when DZ silenced the little girl before Penny took away her consciousness too.
"I'm not happy with this, Penns, my-girl." He was desperately trying to be tough.
"Do you want to climb higher in this business?" She asked him without looking, taking a scissor from the silver bag, throwing a knife DZ's way.
"Y-yes." He stammered, catching the knife without hurting himself, but looking at it like it was— well… a lethal weapon.
"Then don't call me Penns, or your girl for that matter and do. As you. Are told!"
Joe saw D.Z.'s Adam's apple bob as he kneeled down next to Vanessa and cut open her skin and he winced when he saw the blood run over the peach-skin before DZ caught it.
Joe hoped Vanessa didn't like her appearance that much. Because Penny didn't really pay attention when she cut off strands of the white-blonde hair.
"Should… Should I?" DZ asked after a while. His voice broke on the words.
"No, I'll do it; you're too much of a coward. You do the data-chip."
Penny took another object from the silver bag and handed another needle (which, weirdly, had a flat tip) to DZ
Penny wasn't very careful when she turned pretty-Vanessa around and Joe understood where Kevin had gotten his bruises from. (For he was 99.9% sure they were the ones, or from the same team, that had done the same to Kevin)
DZ was gentler as he carefully stuck the needle into Vanessa's pale arm and pushed. She didn't even react to it.
But then, an unconscious scream left Vanessa's lips (and I saw her sister cringe in unconsciousness too) as Penny harshly pushed the item I'd seen before into her fore-arm.
A strange scent filled the parking-lot.
"Okay, we have everything." Penny concluded as she scanned Vanessa's harassed body.
DZ was still looking slightly green.
"I don't get why we're doing this, Penns— Penny." He stared repulsed, at Vanessa's hurt body. (It felt like a tiny bit of justice to Joe) He only shortly looked at Penny, who apparently repulsed him more.
"Because D—the boss says we need back-up." She shrugged.
So there was a boss involved! Joe realised. Penny wasn't acting on her own.
But why would she betray her father like that? Why would she work for some creep that wanted to sabotage the project and her father's hard work? Trusting the fact that that was what they were doing...
They walked back to the limousine, DZ holding little tubes of blood, plastic bags filled with hair and smaller bags filled with what Joe presumed to be skin scraped off Vanessa, like it had been scraped off of Kevin.
The limo pulled up and drove out of the parking-area at a higher speed then was probably allowed, but Joe didn't care anymore.
He once again shoved everything in his head into a 'to deal with later' box. (A silver box, this time)
Only now, he didn't do this to ignore everything, he did this as he sped towards the two unconscious bodies, on his way to help. The rest would come later.
He knew the little girl was unharmed and would just have an eternal black hole in her memory, so he knelt next to Vanessa, ironically at the same spot the DZ guy had.
He had to swallow back the contents of his stomach as they tried to rise at the sight before him and he looked away with tears in his eyes.
The smell that had come from Penny's little object was the smell of burning flesh.
A familiar logo, that of the New Industrial Labs, was burned into Vanessa's fore-arm and seemed to stare at Joe in all it's painful blackness.
"Joe! Joe! What happened? You were so vague on the phone, are you hurt? What happened?" Stella's voice reached high pitches as she questioned Joe, who was once again sitting in one of the uncomfortable white chairs in the waiting-room of the hospital. She was kneeled before him on the cold linoleum floor after she had ran through the automatic doors sooner then Joe'd expected. A young man Joe did not know, once again blonde, had been following in her trail.
Joe almost laughed at the irony.
"I found a girl in the parking-lot, she was harmed just the way Kevin was." Stella would've found out about this eventually and Joe didn't feel guilty for spilling it to her now.
He felt guilty enough for not being able to tell the doctors or the police who did this to the girl he'd found (Vanessa was still being examined, though she was in better shape then Kevin had been. The doctors praised Joe for finding her so soon, joked that he was their 'victim-finder', but this only made the guilt worse).
He couldn't tell them because it would lead to Macy and the project (and thus, the Humanoid) and he refused to do that.
He also couldn't, because he promised.
"Oh…" Stella was momentarily stunned, before she slapped her hand in front of her mouth. "That's horrible."
Joe just nodded, he felt similar to how he felt after he'd woken up in the lab.
Macy had called it shock and hey, she was a doctor too, she would know…
So he was in shock. His day just got better and better.
He'd been softly humming to calm himself before Stella and the boy had barged in. Music, in every form, always helped and he'd been tempted to get Kevin's guitar from the firehouse and ask his brother to play it. He figured that wouldn't be necessary now. Stella would do just as fine.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"Did you see anything?" The boy said.
Joe nodded towards Stella before he looked at the boy suspiciously. Blondes-he-didn't-know weren't exactly in his good graces at the moment.
"Oh! Right, this is Ben." Stella said, blushing softly. "I met him at the shop where you left me." She softly, but affectionately glared at her best friend. "He offered to drive me here when I got your call."
Joe nodded and nodded at Ben in thanks, though he still didn't like the guy who drove his best friend.
Stella calmed him. Of course she did, she always did.
"I didn't see anything, I just found her there." He answered Ben's unanswered question. "I think she's going to be fine, she hasn't been lying in the park for hours, after all." He softly smiled at Stella and she smiled back, taking a seat beside him and hugging him.
Pulling her closer, he rested his head on hers. This calmed him further. Stella was better then any music.
A nurse approached them. "Are you Joe, the boy who found Vanessa Page?" She asked and continued at his nod. "She's in the clear now, but she needs to stay a few days, just like your brother, to stabilize from the blood-loss and for us to keep an eye on her. We think we covered everything, but there might be internal damage. If not she'll recover to be exactly as she was before."
"Thank you, that's good to hear." Joe said. He chose to ignore a mental image, this time of the black burned logo, knowing Vanessa would never be exactly the same and he saw Ben starting to talk to the nurse. He didn't know the guy, but he might like him in the long run. He wasn't going to discriminate blondes now; Vanessa herself and her sister were blonde. Heck, Stella was blonde.
He just had to stuff Penny and the DZ guy in the 'bad-blondes' box.
He felt his head was going to explode some day, with all the boxes and what they contained.
"Yeah, it's quite worrisome." The nurse replied to something Ben said, waking Joe up from his thoughts. "It's the third in a week."
Joe stiffened. The third?
"First Kevin, then Anya and now Vanessa. I think we have a serious problem, but that's luckily the police's department…"
The third in a week. Anya was roomed next to Kevin for a reason.
They shared the same symptoms too. There were three victims.
And this meant that Penny's mysterious boss's backup plan was probably more complicated then it seemed.
And if that was only the backup-plan, Joe mused, how bad would the actual plan be?
After all, they'd gotten Kevin's DNA to Macy, without her knowing it was taken without Kevin's approval. They were working against the NIL and got away with it. They had been able to do all that and Joe feared they were able to do much more and much worse.
There was a kink within the New Industrial Laboratories and Joe was presumably the only one who knew.
There was no denying it now. He needed to see Macy. Soon.
Very soon.
YAY JONAS la characters, hope you liked them.
Next chapter might take a little longer.
I hear that reviews are the best cure to strained fingers, though. Hope the same counts for incredible sleepyness, because I stayed up till four in the morning last night...
but it's all with love,
Silver