So, this chapter practically wrote itself and continues on from the last chapter of Miscreants. Joy and her family have arrived during the night and this takes up the next morning.
I hope you all enjoy this.
The hotel koi room
Almost mid-morning
Tommy walked slowly into the Koi room with Maverick in the sling; he was letting Kim and their daughter sleep in. Kayla had played hard the night before and slept even harder. He'd briefly checked on her before walking out the door, bottle in hand.
One of the perks of the decision to wean their son was that he could participate more in taking care of their son. There was a good chance that soon, they'd start introducing Mav to soft foods.
"Early morning feeding?" Skull asked softly.
Tommy looked up and nodded. "Yeah, I'm letting the ladies sleep in a little this morning. She was up last night helping the Macintyre's settle in. They got in a little later than we were expecting."
"It's going to be Hell when we return to Angel Grove." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Yeah. I know that our fair city is a breeding ground for trouble, this time it's not a 50-story monster. This one is a human surrounded by toxic fire breathing dragon."
"Is it that bad?" asked a worried voice. Both men turned to see Darius Macintyre standing in the doorway.
"It could be." Tommy answered. "We don't have all the answers yet."
"Skullovitch. I didn't know you were part of this."
"It's Skull when I'm not in the shop. I have a stake in this too. I've got kids at the school too and I witnessed some stuff go down."
"What stuff?"
Enough stuff to justify bringing you guys out here. We don't believe the hazing was just for the sake of bullying. We think there's a lot more happening than what we're seeing.
This is a safe place to gather thoughts. It's off the beaten path and you're surrounded by friends here. The bullies can't find Joy or anyone here."
When Darius opened his mouth again. Skull added. "I mean it, you can relax and maybe get a swim or a bite to eat while we wait for the ladies to come down. The ladies are leading the charge on this. We're just providing back up and insight where we can."
"And free childcare?"
Tommy chuckled. "I love being able to help with the kids." He paused and blew out his breath. "If our suspicions are correct, things are about to get heavy."
"You're being very cryptic."
Tommy nodded. "I know. The stuff we're about to talk about in the conference room is heavy and pretty dark. I don't want to talk about it where kids could hear. Even Kayla doesn't know the whole story."
"Please don't ask us to say more out here. We really do want to wait till we're behind closed doors."
Darius sighed. "Okay, but I want to know everything."
Up in the hotel room
Kim sat up in bed when her cellphone went off.
Picking it up, she saw that Kat was calling her.
"Hey Kat, what's up?"
"I'm sorry for bothering you so early, but there's been some development. I didn't want to blindside you with it during the conference."
"Ok, I'm all ears."
"I've done a bit of reconnaissance after doing some searching on the internet. I didn't want to say anything till now, but I went on the road to confirm my suspicions."
"Is it them?"
"Not all of them. Pauline settled down with her daughter. I had a chat with her and she hasn't even spoken to her former friends in years."
"Do you trust her?"
"Yeah. She's really changed after her time in lockup. When she spoke of Veronica and Andi, she was practically cringing. She's a single mom now and the only thing on her mind is her daughter's upcoming birthday party."
"Okay, so I guess we can rule her out."
"Yeah, but she did say that the last time they spoke, they tried to recruit her to help them out, but she flatly refused. She also said that Veronica and Andi really changed. Andi was wearing a strange perfume, and Veronica is sporting new mystical looking tattoos."
"Crap. Pheromone."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Even back in the day, she was as much of a Cosmo girl as I was. If it was a name brand, she'd know it. That she called it 'strange' tells me she's go no idea what it is."
"Ok. I'll take your word for it."
"So, where you able to get an eye on Veronica?"
"Yeah. I saw her…with him.
"Shawn?"
"Yeah, but he looked way different. More Alien."
Double crap."
"Get with Andros or Ashely. They might be able to give us some kind of insight."
"Ok. I'll let you know what we come up with."
"Thanks Kat."
In the conference room a few hours later
Everyone sat around the conference room having had a very filling breakfast.
All the kids were with the Miscreants and were having an epic swim party to be followed up with a Disney marathon.
"So, what's the big secret?" Helen asked. "Why did you have us sneak out in the middle of the night?"
Kim sat at the head of the table.
"Because we suspected Joy's hazing wasn't planned by Jezebel completely. We think she's being manipulated by an adult…one that was previously after me."
"She hazed you too?"
Kim took a deep breath. "It's hard for me to talk about it because it was more than just a simple hazing. I have friends doing some reconnaissance back in Angel Grove right now to see if our suspicion has any bearing.
I don't know if you guys were anywhere near our city back in the nineties. But I was just a junior and I was already living with Tommy. We were active.
She paused to see if the newcomers were following her.
When she saw that they were nodding she continued. After I walked away from the Angel Girls club, they started targeting me. It started with a rivalry when I tried to run for student council, and it got worse afterwards."
"They dragged my name through the mud every chance they got and even vandalized the RV we were living in at the time. It all came to a head when they attacked me in the bathroom." Kimberly paused and swallowed hard. "At the time, I didn't know I was pregnant. But I found out later, that their attack caused me to miscarry."
"They were arrested soon after and they went to juvie. We sued them as well for damages and all of them settled out of court. The mansion was part of the reparations we got. We all moved on and the three girls and their families moved out of Angel Grove."
"You think they've come back?"
"We've done some checking and its only two of them. One of the girls is reformed and is now a single mom. The two others, we don't know a whole lot about."
"I'm sure you've seen the new video Jezebel put out."
"Yeah, we both did." Darius said stonily. "Something was off about her. She looked either drunk or stoned."
"Or pheromone induced." Kim said.
"What does that mean?"
"Keep in mind that we know now that we're not alone in the universe." When the parents nodded, Kim continued. There was a substance that was present, and we don't know if it was making the rounds or not. We didn't have a name for it at the time, but it's a perfume or inhalant that rids the user or in our case, victim of all inhibitions. It was used on a friend of ours back in the day and most recently on Katsume."
"The Asian kid."
"Yeah. We'd forgotten all about it till he came into our lives a few months ago."
"We believe that he and a few other foster kids were sprayed with it and forced to perform sexual acts. That's a whole other thing. The point is that if that pheromone is being used on Jezebel, it could be tied to the bullies that targeted me back in the day."
"We know that she's just the newest bully to target her classmates, but if she's got that kind of backup, and we think she has, it could put all the teenagers at AGHS at risk."
When Kim looked at Helen and Darius, they looked pale.
"You guys are safe with us. We have all kinds of backup." Tommy said softly.
"Joy was 'knocked up' by some guy at a northern California shelter. She said she had no memory of the act and the cops suspected she was drugged. By the time she reported it, they couldn't find any evidence of GHB."
"You guys can interview her if she's up to it."
A moment later, the portable com went off and Kim gave the parents a look as she activated it. A moment later, Kat's hologram face appeared in the middle of the table.
"Kat, you're on the com. It's just us and McIntyres."
"Kimberly, she's here in the city."
"She is?"
"Yeah, Billy, Fabian and I were at lunch and she strutted by like she owns the city and showing way too much skin. Billy was so uncomfortable."
"Did she smell like Pheromone?"
"It smelled like fancy perfume, but Fabian really started acting up.
Kimberly understood immediately. "Ok, thanks Kat."
"Be safe, Kim."
When the portable com went off, Kimberly took a deep breath and looked up to see the wide-eyed parents.
"What are you guys? I've never seen that kind of tech before." Damian wanted to know.
"Billy is really into all kinds of technology and has been all his life. He made his first hologram back in high school and when the first cellphones came out, he perfected and custom-built better ones for us. He's the genius and we're his beta testers."
"As for what we are, let's just say that we're parents with kids, just like you guys and we don't want them to suffer like we did."
"So, you guys are vigilantes?" Helen asked.
Kimberly paused, choosing her words carefully. "Were you guys around when the old cops were running the city?
The parents nodded.
"Well, my nephew Kyle was attacked by a thug and had bad and nasty symbols cut into his arm and nearly bled out because those same assholes were blocking the EMTs from getting to the high school. He almost died because no one was around to step in. We have better cops now, but they can't be everywhere.
If we're going to call it vigilantism, it's only temporary. This is a real threat in our city, and we need to eliminate it." Tommy added.
"Like I said before, I don't know if this is merely an intimidation thing or if I'm the target. If those girls are around, I'm betting it's me and hazing Joy is just a ploy to get my attention."
"I don't want my daughter and her baby to be collateral damage." Helena said in an agitated voice. She's been through enough already!"
"Yes, and that's why I brought you guys out here." Kim said with a grimace. "I don't want you guys to be in her crosshairs when I take their asses down."
Tommy felt the Pink Death Warrior just below his mate's calm surface. He could feel the power in her and it was stirring his inner warrior too. She would need to leave the room soon; before her eyes started glowing.
He gently put an arm around her shoulder and slowly pushed some calming vibes through their connection. A minute later, Kim relaxed her stance.
"I brought you guys here so you could take some time to rest. Whatever you choose to do next is up to you, but I suggest avoiding Angel Grove till we handle business."
"What about Joy and this pheromone you talked about?" Damian asked. "How do we know there won't be any lingering effects to her system. Could it have any side effects for Joy Lynn? What about her daughter, Hannah?"
Tommy shook his head. "This substance is foreign to Earth, but we have friends that could tell us more about it. We just need to call them in from whatever planet their on.
"You can do that?"
"We have resources. When this meeting is adjourned, I can go make the calls."
Kimberly sat down in her chair. "Yeah, let's end here for now. I could use a nap."
Tommy grimaced, feeling her weariness. "Ok, let's get you to the room. Then I'll check in with the teens."
Helen stood up. "Are you ok?"
Tommy stood up. "Yeah, opening the past up like this is draining for both of us, but even more for Kim."
Darius nodded. "Thanks for filling us in. We've got a lot to talk about."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tommy and Kim's suite
Kim curled up to Tommy and let him just hold her. After many minutes of quiet, she spoke to him in a soft voice.
"My eyes were glowing, weren't they?"
"They were about to. I could feel it, that's why I ended the meeting. I don't know if they suspect us as being more than concerned parents."
"Thank you for that."
"I've got your back, Beautiful."
They were quiet again and then Tommy spoke again. "There's something I need to tell you and I better do it now before things escalate more."
Kimberly nodded. "I'm listening."
"Back on the train, when I had my…episode, I spoke with The Falcon. I let him merge with me and I saw our baby; the one we lost."
Kimberly sucked in a small breath. "What did you see?"
"He's at peace. He wasn't far enough along to feel the pain. He's playing with the spirits of other children, he's not even aware of what happened."
"Small mercy." Kim said softly.
Tommy kissed the top of her head and held her closer.
"Kim, I know we buried the memorial box, and we mourned, but we need to make peace with what happened. When we go back home, I want us to seek justice and not revenge."
"I'm not sure I can do that. I would have been fine if they had stayed gone."
"Absolutely, but now that they're back to stirring the pot again, we need to end the threat to our kids."
I'm worried about what will happen if there's retaliation with Joy Lyn being out of reach. They may try something else if they don't think I'm reacting appropriately."
"Then I'll go make some calls once you're asleep. We'll get a plan of action together. I won't let Angel Grove be destroyed by these bitches."
They were quiet again. Within moments, they were asleep.
Invisible, Ghost wings floated just on the other side of the door. He'd heard their conversation and knew it was time to act.
"Are they ok, Spirit?" Diesel said with a look of concern.
Ghost Wings showed himself to the Shaman. "They're mourning their child, but they're finding comfort in each other. I think we need to act before this escalates.
"And what are you planning to do?"
"I won't overstep you, Shaman. But, we can at least keep an eye on things. I'll do what I can to keep them from victimizing more."
"I want my son and his mate to have closure. They should be able to confront those who hunt them."
"I understand Shaman." Then the spirit vanished and Diesel took a deep breath. He had calls of his own to make.
I want thank everyone who has stuck around while i got my act together. I'm not sure which part will come next as I seem to have created more subplots than I realized. LOL. Please leave some encouragment in your reviews and I'll see you guys next story.