Fandango 1.6

I woke up at the crack of dawn, and immediately jolted awake, greeted by an unfamiliar room, a strange bed, and a distinct lack of an alarm clock to shut off. One of my earbuds had fallen out, so I put it back in as the events of yesterday slowly seeped through the grogginess of my sleepy brain.

Right. I'd nope'd out of school, decided to join a group of thieves with hearts of gold, lied to my dad about my new employer, and slept over. I facepalmed. Great job, past me. My hand slid down to cover my mouth, stifling a yawn. I didn't want to get out of the bed; it was one of those really plush foam mattresses that just envelops you, and it was cozy as heck. I yawned again, bit the bullet, and got out of the warm cocoon of blankets into the chill air of the room.

Oof, it was colder than I thought. I grabbed a blanket, and swept it over myself like a cape, dragging it behind myself as I gathered my mp3 player and tote of costume-holding, and made my way out to the kitchen in search of tea. I winced as the door closed a little hard, rousing the sleeping form of Lisa over in the entertainment area.

She rolled over, groaned in pain, and got up. I waved sheepishly as she looked at me from across the room, rubbing her eyes.

"Really? Why are you… you get up for a run every morning? Ugh. Fitness nuts." She gave me another look of confusion. "I guess I'll get up. You mind fixing some bacon for me? Shower might take a minute, with the bandages and all." I nodded to her, then made my way to the kitchen to cook up a quick breakfast.

Philistines. They had one teabag, and it was a cheap store brand. I grudgingly put a mug of water in their microwave, resolving to fix this problem another day as I heated it.

Breakfast was made, and the others began to stir in their rooms. I flipped the bacon as Rachel's dogs whined at the door to her room. I felt kind of awkward, working in an unfamiliar kitchen, cooking for a group of supervillains, but then again, I was a part of their team now. This loft was as much my base as theirs.

Rachel got up, and made her way out. I steeled myself, then called out. "Hey, Rachel… can we talk?"

She walked past, scowling, giving little more than a huff of indignation. I pressed on. "Are you taking your dogs on a walk?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"If you wait a few minutes, I was gonna go for a run. I could use some company, and we could eat first."

She huffed again, but sat down. "Fine, but I'm not gonna wait for you if you fall behind." I nodded, turned back to the skillet, fished out the bacon onto a plate.

Lisa finished her shower, and Alec came out. I grabbed my tea, drinking the boring, bland, cheap leaf juice down. Coffee might have been better.

Rachel and I walked in silence for a while, just letting the dogs get some exercise, enjoying the fact that that classic rock station apparently covered the northern half of the city pretty well. I used the time to think about some things.

I had school in an hour or so, but while I could make excuses, I just really didn't want to bother with it. I didn't have my homework assignments, I would have to go home and change, and I needed to meet some of my teachers to buy new textbooks after school, anyway. Emma could go fuck herself, because she wasn't getting to fuck with me today.

"You got a problem?"

I looked at Rachel. She clarified. "You're pissed off, anyone could tell."

"It's nothing. Personal stuff."

She grunted, and lapsed back into silence.

The rottweiler sniffed at a fire hydrant.

"What are their names?"

She pointed to the rottweiler. "Brutus," the german shepherd, "Judas," and the terrier, "Angelica."

"Lisa told me part of the reason you don't like me is that the take will be split." It spilled out, uncontrolled. I rallied, using the feeling of thousands of dancing creatures to help center my thoughts. She was glaring at me, staring me right in the eyes.

"I- I wanted to say, I'd like to help out somehow. Make it up to you." I paused. "My powers let me feel life around me, maybe I could check for parasites? Help you train them, or something? I don't kn-"

"Stop talking. It's annoying." I opened my mouth to protest, then thought better of it. She was rude, but I could see how my awkward chatter could be messing things up. We walked on, quiet, an advertising jingle playing on the radio.

"You feel any problems with Judas?"

I checked, paying closer attention to him. "He's got a few half-dead fleas, some skin mites. Nothing internal, and I'm getting the fleas off now."

"Good. You busy today?" I shook my head. "Then we'll go check on my other dogs. Don't trust the pounds to check them right."

I nodded. "Okay, sounds like a plan. Thanks."

She grunted her acceptance, and we lapsed back into silence for the rest of the walk.

Plans were all well and good, but they rarely survive contact with unforeseen circumstances. In this case, I failed to predict how Lisa expected to spend the day.

"But I don't want a phone!"

"Too bad! We need a good way to contact you, and a landline won't come close to doing that!"

Lisa dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the electronics store.

"I'd get you burners, like me, but those suck for music storage-"

"-I have an mp3 player!"

"-Yeah, a crappy one. No Bluetooth, barely a half a gigabyte of storage, bought off a shelf in a gas station! The thing uses an actual triple-A battery, for Pete's sake!"

I managed to break her grip on my hoodie, struggling away from the villain before me. "I don't like phones," I stated flatly, recovering and giving her a look. If her power was worth its salt, she'd understand.

"Look, I get it, but it's the only way. Just pretend it's an mp3 player that you can make calls on!" She pulled my sleeve, bringing me over to a display. "Look, this one has a good battery and great audio quality. C'mon, it's an upgrade over that little player you use!"

Okay, she had a point. I didn't like it, but she did. I sighed, mumbled acquiescence, and nodded. She smiled. "Great!"

We picked out a phone, paid using Lisa's carbon-black debit card, and stepped out into the mall.

"Now, about your wardrobe…"

I groaned. Why did I join a group of supervillains?

We finally exited the mall, laden with purchases both necessary and begrudged. I was pretty sure I wouldn't wear two-thirds of the stuff she bought me, but I had to admit, it had improved my mood. Lisa seemed genuinely interested in being my friend, and I was the first to admit that it was nice to feel that again.

Crap. Now I was thinking of Emma again, and it was killing my mood. I focused on the music on my soon-to-be-replaced radio, immersing myself in the electronic tones for a bit, to take my mind off things. I opened my eyes again as I sensed Lisa's head turn to me, but she turned back towards the sidewalk, so I shrugged and kept walking.

"So, why do you want to be on our team?"

The question came out of nowhere, surprising me. I noted how we were basically alone on our walk, with no one around to overhear us. Was this a trap?

"It's not a trap, just a genuine question. Why us? Why are you joining a big bad group of villains?" She kept walking, gesturing like she was talking about normal things. "I can tell you want to be a hero, and I can get your basic reasoning for not doing that, but it's hard to square away your motivation for being a villain, you know?"

I gave her a look, then replied, "If Super-Mycroft can't figure it out, why do you think I would? I need a way to burn off steam, I guess." I shrugged. "Your team was a good choice? I'd already got an in, with the other night? I really don't have an answer, there."

"Sorry, should have figured. Stupid codeine is messing with my judgement and impulse control." She paused, then awkwardly tried to change the subject. "So, you managed to patch things up with Rachel?"

"I hope so. She really does care about her dogs, and I offered to be a pest remover, so, you know, that's a thing." I adjusted the massive bags so they didn't dig into my fingers, and continued. "My powers really made me more aware of pets. Never had one, but when you can literally sense how often others interact with their pets, it really gives you some appreciation for the impact they have on people."

"Hmm. Never really considered it that way. No wonder you got along with her."

"So, about this game company I'm a tester for…"

She facepalmed. "Right, I need to call the boss and set that up."

"Boss? Who's that?"

"Oh, right. We have a 'mysterious boss' who apparently likes having a group of villains on retainer. Can't tell you much more than that; he made me swear to keep his other information secret, I'm sure you understand."

I didn't exactly like that; mysterious authority figures were one of my least-liked things in life, after all; but there was little I could do about that now.

"You mind if I duck into an alleyway for a minute, get you set up? I'll also see about ordering some basic combat stuff."

"Sure." She did exactly that, and I stood on the sidewalk to pretend to be on lookout, in case someone was watching.

"Hey boss, need you to pull some strings…" I tuned her out, enjoying a particularly nice bass drop. A small group of people stepped into range on the sidewalk on the far side of the buildings we faced, then walked out of range again. I made some rats do pirouettes. In short, I killed my boredom for a few minutes.

"Hey Taylor? Yo, Taylor!" I turned my head, and Lisa continued, "Do you want anything special? Nothing crazy, but anything you wish you could have bought for yourself?"

I thought about it for a minute, then said, "Maybe a speaker? Something I can wear, make it less obvious that they don't need to hear the music?"

She nodded, and repeated the request. A few moments later, she finished up the call.

"Okay, let's go get some food. I'll fill you in on your employment details on the way."

We walked into a hole-in-the-wall Greek restaurant, ordered enough falafel and gyros to feed five hungry teenagers, and walked out a few minutes later, now with Lisa's good arm similarly laden with bags o' stuff. I set off in the direction of the old welding building, running over the new information aloud.

"So, I work for Deep Facet Games, a rhythm game studio based in Brockton Bay? And I'm working on testing their next game, 'Project S'?"

"Yes… why are you repeating this?"

"Just making sure I have my facts straight. So, this is an actual company, and he's arranging for them to actually get feedback from 'me'?"

"Yup. And you actually can play their games, if you want. It's legal employment. Congrats on being a professional alpha tester."

"How the heck did the 'mysterious boss' set that up over a few minutes? That seems like something that would take a few days to do."

"Everyone has a price, and he has money to burn. He set Brian up as a gainfully employed private fitness instructor, and any government check finds several of the less insular clients do indeed attend classes with him. It's actually pretty easy to set up a fake job, as long as you have money to set it up with."

It kind of hurt to know that I was employed thanks to bribery, but at least it was fairly harmless bribery. Still… "I should probably get a new computer, to sell the idea to my dad, right?"

"Uhuh, and you can explain your new phone that way too. Need access to a phone if you have a job." She shot me a look as I opened the door to the base. "Oh, stop grumbling internally. You have to join us in the realm of modern technology eventually!"

"I wasn't grumbling internally!"

"Yeah, right," she said sarcastically, "Of course you weren't. And no, your powers do not include giving me headaches by glaring at me, so stop wishing they did."

I pouted a little for show, doing my best to hide a smile. It really was nice to have a friend again. Speaking of which…

"We've got lunch!" A chorus of acknowledgements came from around the loft. I set down the bags, resolving to leave most of it here, and made my way over to the kitchen to claim my share of the food.