Encrypted

by Weaver, Nicole

  Suckerpunch startled them both by reaching out and seizing Trevor's wrist. "Hold it there, kid. She's my witness, and I have seniority. I'm going to finish interviewing her," Connor winked at Samantha and deftly twisted the other Hero’s hand off of her, "then we can discuss whether she goes back to the base for more questioning. Now, run along and tattle to Scaleface."

  Trevor drew himself up to his full height and glared down at Connor, "Damn it, Suckerpunch! She's my friend too, but this is important. If she joined GG's crew, we might be able to find out where they are based." He got to his feet and made his way to the door where he stopped to look back at them. "I know you won't listen, but don't let her leave."

  "Connor, I—" She stopped talking when she saw his expression.

  He held a finger to his lips until the door shut behind Trevor.

  "It's okay. I'm sticking my neck out for you, again, but next time I expect you to give me the full story." He pointed towards the exit, opposite the door Trevor had used. "When he steps out of sight in the alley, you can go use the bathroom."

  "You are incredible—but why are you doing this?" she asked.

  "I grew up with an abusive dad and I saw the look on your face when Trevor said you had to come with us. It was the same one I had when my teacher said she was calling my parents." He squeezed her hand with both of his. "Make sure you message me back; I want to know why I got myself in trouble for you, again."

  She pulled free and kissed him on the cheek. "You are better than any Hero. They don't deserve you."

  "I know." He smiled at her.

  She looked back from the half-open door. "I promise I'm not on their side, no matter what you hear."

  Chapter 27

  Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

  Samantha stumbled into her lair just before dark and snuggled into her sleeping bag. He likes me back. Holy monkeys, he knows about me, and he likes me back! She wrapped her arms around herself and hugged tightly...

  ...and promptly bolted to her feet.

  The wolves were howling.

  The noise came from the southwest side of The Pit, the furthest section from Samantha's failed attempt at mud surfing. The howling harmony quickly broke into individual barks and yips that spread out until they came from all around her lair.

  The ferocious creatures backed our Villain into a corner. Her only hope, that mere wood and stone would see her through the night.

  Samantha flicked on her flashlight and moved everything she owned into the sturdiest corner next to her bed, then swiftly wedged pieces of brick and loose boards under the doors to keep them shut. Once everything felt solid, she returned to her sleeping bag—and froze.

  Starting at the wall opposite her bed, something rubbed against the floorboards from below. It came closer, huffing and scraping at the wood.

  Heart skipping every other beat, she shone her flashlight around the floor until she found it.

  In the center of the room now, bright eyes reflected between the boards as something wormed its way through the dirt. It stopped when the light touched it, blinking in the brightness and dust.

  Jumping into her sleeping bag, safe on the layer of brick she'd laid down, she flicked off the light.

  More animals pawed at the walls for a while, but none of the rest crawled as far under her lair as the first one had. That animal made it about three quarters of the way across before giving up and struggling back the way it had come.

  The pack harassed her for hours. Every time she relaxed, something would sniff at the door, or knock up clouds of dust digging at the walls around her. The worst moment came after midnight when the one under the floor came back and crawled directly beneath her, sniffing up through the layers of wood and brick.

  Wedged in her corner, Samantha silently clutched her only source of light, turned off to preserve the batteries.

  She finally decided secrecy wasn't worth it, and began slamming two bricks together. "Go away!"

  Yelping and barking, the animals scrambled free and raced away from her lair. This time, they didn't come back.

  Three things happened at dawn. The sun rose, the barking stopped, and Samantha passed out.

  ****

  Hours later she woke to a stifling nightmare of heat and darkness. All of her greatest fears had come true in a few short days. Alone, in a strange place, no family, no friends, and nowhere safe to sleep.

  This is how defeat tastes; splinters and dust. Always before there had been a chance things would be better someday. Eddie would return, or she would move out on her own, but as part of a plan. Not in a wild attempt to escape evil Primes and kidnapping felons.

  I need to get into my voicemail, somehow, and see if Susan or Lucky left a message. Lucky wanted me to have a code name next time I talked to her though. I don't feel like a star or a phoenix anymore. Shifting Shadow maybe?

  She set about reinforcing her lair while mouthing code names to herself.

  Outside, under the burning sun of a cloudless day, there were few signs of the wolves. Either they had left, or more likely, were hidden in one of the other buildings around The Pit. Their tracks backed up this theory; the dirt trails among the thin grass led to the other side of the old quarry where the last unexplored building stood alone.

  Shifting Shadow wouldn't be sleeping out under the stars anytime soon. She shivered, despite the heat.

  With an eye on the other buildings, Samantha gathered wood and loose bricks as quickly and silently as possible.

  Most of the bricks came from the collapsed two-story building. There was enough debris to rebuild her lair twice over.

  Sadly, much of it had landed in the basement. Shattered chunks of concrete dotted the area below, broken rebar threatening a bloody fate to anyone coming too close. Even the slope of the ground was too steep and dangerous to risk a climb down, being covered in broken boards and rusty nails. A partially buried stairwell, probably from a cellar entrance, offered a path, if she decided to go down there later.

  The front door was still mostly intact and had fallen loose when the building had finished collapsing, so she dragged it back to her base.

  A careful inspection of the small back room attached to her bedroom revealed the ground behind it sloped away from the window, leaving it a few extra feet off the ground and effectively out of reach of any curious animals. Perfect as a new, semi-secret, entrance.

  She dragged the loose door in through the sagging front doorway and wedged it into place over the window in the back room as a cover for her new secret exit. Returning to the original front door, she braced it with bricks and wood, filling in the cracks with debris. Last, she stuffed leftover branches and bricks into the newly dug holes dotting the foundation. It wouldn't stop the animals from digging new holes, but she had an idea about how to keep them away.

  The window entrance, when the door was pulled out of the way, allowed her to see the sun and the sloping quarry wall. A cobbled together seat, made out of wood, brick, and a sweater for padding, gave her a place to sit. A throne for Shifting Shadow to survey her realm.

  There she collapsed, completely done caring, and dug into the leftovers from the night before. Wilted, warm, and far beyond soggy, the salad had thoroughly mixed with her pizza. She tore into it anyway and licked the box clean when she was finished.

  Belly full and relatively safe, she practiced pushing her fingers into jagged talons while considering her next move. Claws won't do me any good right now. I need to be able go out without getting arrested. Changing my face shouldn't be all that hard and won't require affecting my brain at all. Totally safe, I'm sure of it. Kinda.

  An inspection with her compact mirror revealed the bruises on both sides of her head had faded almost entirely and only a faint brown outline remained. In fact, all of her minor wounds were absent, or nearly healed. She tried to remember where the bruises came from, but all she got were flashes of light and the sound of rain.

  Check it out, I do heal fast. Bruises, cuts, whatever. I wonder how
I do with bullets? She stopped to consider the thought. Let’s not test that one any time soon.

  Setting aside the mirror, she pushed cold needles into her nose. Skin crawled across her face, bulging out of her nose; every nerve and muscle twitching wildly, as if she'd grabbed a live wire. Her nose twitched so hard it pulled her mouth partly open.

  Scrambling through the dust covering the floor, she found her dropped mirror and crawled back into her makeshift throne where the light was better.

  She screamed.

  The soft skin had reacted quickly, turning the area above her mouth pink and pushing it flat against her face. Long clear hairs grew out around her twitching nose. A nose that wasn't even remotely human. A feline nose. With whiskers.

  Lucky's words echoed unpleasantly. It isn't my first transformation that's the most dangerous, it's the last, and it didn’t even hurt. She stared until the tears on her cheeks dried, then pushed and pulled with her fingers to guide her skin as she Manifested her pulsing power. It tickled.

  What's up with my nose. That's the second time I've screwed it up in as many attempts.

  This time she kept an eye on her mirror and visualized a perky human nose before putting any power behind the thought. Within minutes hers roughly matched the one in her mind's eye, not perfectly, but smaller and thinner than her own.

  Her hair took longer as it slid into a solid blonde. A few minutes after that, and it cascaded down to her shoulders.

  The face staring back in the mirror wasn't her own. Perfect.

  "Hello?" The call was followed by a light knock below her window.

  What the actual hell?

  At the window stood a middle-aged dark-haired woman, dressed in a smudged blue dress. She smiled as she fingered a small whistle hanging on a leather strap around her neck. She craned her neck through the window to see inside, hungrily taking in every detail.

  "Um, hello?"

  "Oh, there you are dear. My babies are all stirred up at the screaming, so I thought I would check on the neighborhood. I didn't know we had new neighbors, so I want to say hello, too." The woman licked her lips.

  "Your babies? You mean the wolves?" Samantha said.

  "Oh honey, you must not have seen them. Just a pack of stray puppies I've collected over the years. They won't hurt a fly, but they sure are curious little babies. Not like me, I don't have a curious bone in my body." She craned her neck even further as she spoke, pushing up on her tiptoes to see better. "Where did your friend go? The red head?"

  Samantha heaved the loose door up to cover the empty frame leading into her sleeping room. "She's sleeping. Your dogs kept us up all night. Do you think you could keep them away from us?"

  "Of course, my dear, of course. Now they know you are here; everything should be nice and quiet again." Her chapped lips twitched into a sly smile. "You girls aren't alone, are you, honey?"

  "I thought you said you aren't the curious type. It's just the two of us but we can take care of ourselves."

  "We all like to think so dear, we sure do." She held out her hand, just outside the window. "I go by Jackie these days, yes I do."

  Samantha hesitated, then shook the offered hand. It was dry and scaly. "I'm Cathy." Sketchy lady needs my real name like I need a bus ride.

  Jackie's fingers wiggled faintly in Samantha's grip, as if trying to escape, and the woman backed up a few steps as soon as they let go of each other's hands. "Always nice to meet new friends. Been just me and my babies for a long time. Welcome to the neighborhood. I don't like to pry and expect the same. If you can stay in your place, then I will stay in mine, and we can keep things friendly. That sound nice to you, honey?"

  Happy to be free of the sandpaper grip, Samantha sized up her new neighbor. The woman was a little on the plump side and would have been taller if she wasn't perpetually stooped over. She was surprisingly clean for someone who lived alone with a pack of dogs in a place like the Pit. Don't like to pry? I believe that as much as I believe your dogs are going to stay inside all night. They sounded like wolves. Hopefully the piles of wood and stone blocking the front door would keep her out, and crawling in the back window wouldn't be appealing to the older woman. "I'm leaving here in a bit, but my friend is staying in. Please don't let your dogs wake her up."

  "I wouldn't dream of it dear. I always try to be the best neighbor I can be." She glanced around, as if afraid of being overheard. "Be careful dear, the shopping center isn't kind to the homeless. They will throw you out if they notice you."

  "Uh, thanks." Samantha glanced to the side where a few dogs milled about.

  They seemed to be various breeds, as the old woman had said. One, a shaggy brown mix with a long snout, stared back stiff legged and bristling. The smallest of the pack, a Chihuahua, bared its teeth and scooted forward to growl up at Samantha from beneath the window.

  Grinning at the little war beast, Samantha kicked the wall. The tiny dog yelped and darted behind its shaggy friend, barking the whole way. "Sounds great to me. I'm not here to make friends, this is just a phase. We won't be here long." She made it a statement.

  "Yes, of course it's temporary, it always is, dear. I just know we are going to be the best of neighbors." Jackie worked her way through her pack of dogs, then continued out of sight towards the building to the south, smiling and muttering to her pets the whole way.

  Most of them followed her, but the Chihuahua bounced closer to Samantha's lair, sniffing in a familiar way. A few of the other dogs milled around in the scrub brush, scraping at chunks of dirt, then turned and hurried after the woman. Reluctantly, the Chihuahua did the same.

  Just like that, her lair went from well-hidden to terribly exposed. Maybe I should go with Phases of Catastrophe. It would certainly fit my day.

  She went inside to dig out some fresh clothes. It's time to go shopping.

  Chapter 28

  Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

  "Please? I just need to check my voicemail and then I'll be out of your way, I promise." Samantha squeezed a tear out of one eye. Overdoing it? Not possible!

  She'd tried three stores already, but no one was willing to let her use their phone. The last one had muttered vaguely about Primes using the phones to hack their systems, then demanded she leave. She had gone behind the strip mall and cried real tears...then come up with a new plan. I might be a Villain, but I think it's fitting that people earn their punishments, and nasty people should know better.

  The pasty-faced manager of the final store, tall and lanky, glared down at her through his horn rimmed glasses. "It's for company use only. They monitor this kind of stuff and I am not going to get in trouble for some girl I've never seen before."

  "Fine. Can I at least use the bathroom?"

  He smirked. "Sure, but it’s for customers only."

  Snagging a candy bar at random and dropping it into her otherwise empty carry basket, she called over her shoulder. "I'm buying this, but I have to go pee first. Is that okay?"

  "That is fine, but I will be checking your fanny pack, and your backpack, before you leave the store." He watched her all the way to the end of the aisle.

  It is not a fanny pack! It is a belt pouch.

  The store, an Idaho-based Fredersons, was barely functioning at this hour. Three cashiers, two men and a woman, ran the registers while a fourth woman puttered around in the bakery. About twice that number of customers browsed the food aisles, all watched over by the bored manager.

  Perfect. Not too busy, but not so slow that everyone is watching me.

  The restroom was in a back storage room. A left turn led to the break room; the right took her past tall stacks of boxes to a grimy single occupant restroom.

  Afterwards, she wandered through the store, filling her basket with necessities. Bottled water, trail mix, chips, emergency candles, and the prize of the day...a small package of toilet paper. Forever useful, and often forgotten, toilet paper will sell for twice its weight in gold if we ever have a zombie apocalypse.

  Samantha p
aused at a display of pepper spray, then moved on, two cans of oven cleaner already nestled in her basket. Pepper spray doesn't work on dogs, or some people.

  Stopping near the front of the store, and pretending to look at more candy, she waited until no one seemed to be watching her in particular. A display of French bread allowed her to break line of sight with the cashiers. Quickly, before anyone could think to check on her, she dumped everything from her basket into her backpack. Zipping it up, she scrambled back to her feet…and flinched as someone cleared their throat behind her.

  "Are you going to pay for all that?" The guy from earlier came around the side of the bread rack, already reaching for her pack.

  "Sure am, right after I—" She bolted.

  "Hey! Stop her!" He yelled, racing after her.

  Muscles thrumming coldly, Samantha leapt over a woman's cart and dashed down an empty checkout line.

  Another woman, this one in a cashier's apron, skidded to a stop at the other end of the lane, both hands out to block Samantha's escape. Everyone was yelling.

  There are days for subtlety, but apparently this is not one of them. Samantha hopped from the floor to the conveyor belt and dove directly over the flustered woman. She rolled to her feet and kept running without slowing down.

  Instant silence. No one else moved to stop her from going through the double doors.

  "I've never seen someone run that fast. Greg, call the Heroes," the female cashier called out, just before the door shut behind Samantha.

  Well, crap. The parking lot was over half full, with people coming and going around the other stores in the strip mall. An especially large crowd milled around outside the small cinema which nestled in the center of the shopping center.

  Samantha dodged slow moving cars and raced past the indifferent crowd.

  Line of sight broken among the cars, she dropped behind an ugly green truck and pushed her hair to jet black, then slung her backpack on her front. As soon as the blondest parts were dark, she headed north along the sidewalk, not even looking towards her lair to the east.