Encrypted

by Weaver, Nicole

  "What are you thinking? You need to put those away before someone sees them." Lucky paused. "That blood isn’t from a cop or a Hero, is it?"

  Samantha thought it for a moment, then shook her head no. Dried blood flaked off as the claws began slowly retracting into her fingers. "Sorry, I forgot."

  "Don't worry about it kid. The mob definitely wants a piece of you, but I don't think the police care at all. They're after someone else, and I'd be shocked if they had more than a vague idea that you exist, other than what the Heroes tell them," Lucky said.

  "Oh. Then why did—" The young Villain trailed off, slumping forward to drop her head in her hands against the table.

  "More importantly, what's up with the bruises and torn clothes?" Lucky asked. "If someone is smacking you around, I can break their legs." Why does she look so nervous at that? "Though from the blood, I’d say you already dealt with whoever attacked you."

  Snatching up one of the cups of water, Samantha sipped it, failing to hide her nervousness. "Um, so yeah, some security guys kicked my butt last night after I left you that message. It wasn't a complete loss though. I picked up a cool stun club they dropped. It's in my bag."

  "Sounds like you've had quite an adventure. You must be pretty good if you fought off a couple of adult men without any training; exactly the kind of girl we want on our team." Lucky dumped the rest of the fries into one hand, scattering them wildly this time.

  Samantha watched the squirrels split into a free-for-all over the bits of food. "You shouldn’t do that. The salt is bad for them."

  Lucky laughed. "I know, right? Do you think I'd make a good Villain?"

  A wan smile ghosted across the girls' face. "Probably."

  "I hate to make a big deal about it, but our time is short. Anyone who saw you walking over probably called the cops. They are busy looking for a wanted Villain right now, but there's no guarantee they won't be here soon. Have you thought about my offer? My agreement with my team is that I can't help unless you join us, and I think you need some serious help." Lucky tapped the girl’s fingertips. "I kind of assume the blood and bags means it's a yes, but I need to hear you say it. If it helps, I have a green light to answer your questions too."

  "Tell me what you do first. I don't want to kill people." The girl didn't smile this time.

  Lucky set a steady hand on Samantha's trembling arm. "Whoa there, honey. Technically we operate outside the law, but we aren't stick-em-up bank robbers or hired killers. We gather and sell information to the highest bidder. Sometimes that means we work for the government, usually not, but our best missions happen when no one knows we were there."

  "Wait, so you're spies?" Samantha asked.

  "Shh, don't shout it to the world," Lucky said. "We like to think of ourselves as modern-day Robin Hoods, except we steal information, not money. We have a policy against working for anyone preparing for war, but otherwise most jobs are fair game. Usually no one gets hurt at all. We are Villains, but we aren't comic book monsters like Tlaloc and his buddies."

  Shifting uncomfortably in the metal chair, Samantha stared at her fingertips as they finished shrinking down to their regular shapes. When they were normal again, she swept the bits of dried blood onto the ground and whispered, "How do you know I'm not a monster already?"

  "Easy, remember when you let me put my number in your phone?" Lucky winked. "I downloaded a virus too. We read all your saved messages after that. Your phone went dark last week, but it was enough to know you aren't likely to betray us, and you are a pretty cool kid."

  Samantha choked on her water. "You bugged my phone?"

  Lucky sighed. "I’m sorry, but it was the best way to make sure you are who you appear to be."

  A middle-aged man leaving the store glanced over, flinched as he noticed Samantha’s smudged face, then hurried into the parking lot without looking back.

  Samantha continued in a quieter tone, "Then you know a little of what's going on with me. Why didn't you call me sooner?"

  "Your phone stopped working and we weren't actively listening while we were on a mission. We'd planned to scout things out and come back, but the setup was so perfect, we stayed to finish the job. It was an easy payday." Lucky shook her head. "I didn't know you were in trouble until I had time to check out the data. Then I saw the news that Scorch escaped custody, and found out the Heroes are asking about you."

  "Oh. Sorry," Samantha mumbled.

  "Don't worry about it. We have been looking for you ever since, but you dropped off the grid. Still, it worked and now we can coast for a bit while we get you situated." Lucky glanced around. Hurry up kid, we are exposed here. I know better than to give you an ultimatum, but we can't leave until you officially agree to join the team.

  "You seem awfully sure I am going to say yes, even after admitting you spied on me." Samantha crossed her arms.

  "I am." Lucky said. "We promise not to spy on you anymore, at least any more than Battlestar spies on all of us. Besides, we pulled in some favors with the Feds and found out some stuff about your brother. I am allowed to share it, if you decide to join the team."

  "Eddie? You found him?" Samantha splayed both hands out on the table, still shaking slightly. "Please tell me?"

  "Samantha, this isn't a game. We can train you, give you the information about your brother, and most importantly we can keep you safe, but I can't help you at all until you are part of the team," Lucky stopped expectantly.

  "You are my best chance to save Eddie. I'm in." Samantha eagerly held out her hand.

  Lucky grinned and they shook on it. "Just like that? Do you have a code name yet? Maybe we can think of one on the way to the hideout."

  "I have some ideas, but first I need to tell you what happened at my lair this morning." The kid said in a whisper.

  "Lair, huh? Cute." Lucky hesitated. "Tell me about it on the drive. We're too exposed out here."

  "Sure." Samantha slung her smaller knapsack over one shoulder and reached for the other bags.

  No way I'm letting her carry everything again. Poor kid's been through hell. Hefting the duffle bag, Lucky frowned. "Wow, this thing is heavy. Are they all this full?" She pushed her foot against the backpack. Metal clanked against metal inside.

  "That one has the soup and water. I'll grab it." Samantha hefted it easily with one hand.

  "Honey, we need to talk about how you are using your powers. Even something as simple as stronger muscles needs to be an on-purpose thing," Lucky look the bag back. She cheated and made it lighter with her power.

  Samantha didn't even fight to keep the duffel bag.

  Not good. "Let’s get you somewhere safe," Lucky continued, picking up the extra cup of water and leading the way to their ride.

  The team's spare vehicle, a tiny blue truck, waited around the corner where she'd left it. It wasn't fast but it did its job well. Namely, it was easily ignored, and the plates were covered in a polarized filter of Battlestar's design that gave off different license numbers as needed. He was still working on a way to change the color without repainting it.

  They dumped Samantha's bags in the back, then crawled into the cab. Lucky didn't start the engine right away. "Are you sure you are okay?"

  The young woman pressed her hand against the passenger window, closed her eyes and squeezed the words out. "Screamdream. Offered. Me. A. Job. I. Said. No." She gingerly popped the lid off Lucky's water with her free hand and took a big drink. "She attacked me."

  "You fought Screamdream? The Screamdream? The one who tangled with Starstuff a few days ago and left two Heroes with stitches? Why didn't you start with that? We thought she was in hiding." Lucky realized her mouth was hanging open, closed it, opened it again. "How?"

  "Something about my power, I can see through hers. She wouldn't stop, so I knocked her into the basement of the building where I met you. That was her blood and I think..." her voice trailed off before she continued again, "…I think she's dead." Samantha shivered, staring off into empty space.

&
nbsp; Lucky snapped her fingers in the kid's face. "Hey. Let’s get you back to base and get you checked out. Phalanx is a registered nurse and I want him to make sure you don't have a concussion."

  Samantha flinched a second after she should have, blinking rapidly. "Sure."

  Clicking her seat belt into place, Lucky pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Arbor City's central island.

  The small truck fit easily on the narrow bridge leading over this side of the Arbor River. On the other side, she squeezed around the hillside's sharp turns like the truck was made for them. They passed the largest hill on Arbor City Central Island soon after. It wasn't a huge island, but it housed a beautiful waterfall piped through the interior and released back into the raging Arbor River.

  It's a shame waterfall bases are stupid. This would be the perfect place for one. So pretty, but dumb. It’s too obvious if you shut off the water every time you use it as an entrance, and you leave water everywhere you go if you don’t. It wasn't long before she noticed muddy tire tracks coming from the general direction of the waterfall. See? Amateurs.

  The island offered a few perks but also plenty of drawbacks. The team was already searching for a new base but finding a good one always took time. The biggest problem with staying was the same reason they had moved there to begin with; GG owned the private half of the island.

  The idea of being in close proximity, and compromising a few phone lines, would make the team invaluable as an under-the-table resource for the PCA. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked out. Transience had shown up with Screamdream and used their Manifestation to examine every line for taps. Almost every compromised line had been found and disconnected. It was only a matter of time until they started searching the rest of the island for the perpetrators.

  Maneuvering the truck expertly through the winding neighborhood, she pulled into the driveway of a large, nondescript suburban house. One story above ground, blue walls, white trim, and a white picket fence. Almost like it's designed to be forgettable. Oh wait, it is.

  "We're here, honey. You can leave your bags for the guys to pick up, but take your time coming in." She didn't get a response from the teenager. "I'll go ahead and let them know we made it home safely."

  Samantha nodded, never taking her hand off the window. She'd stopped shaking, almost as if the cool glass soothed her.

  The guys were in the kitchen.

  "I don't know what they did to her, I haven't been able to tap back into the basement systems yet. All I know is Mnemonic's power doesn't normally work on memories older than a few hours, and Good Touch just heals people. None of us knew they had this kind of synergy," Battlestar huffed.

  Phalanx's soft reply was too low to hear from the living room.

  Battlestar's voice cracked as he went on, "Don't look at me that way. You know I'd have stepped in, if I could have."

  "Stepped into what?" Lucky put a fake grin on her face as she marched into the kitchen. They can't tell between the fake ones and the real ones anyway, and I don’t want to panic them about how bad Samantha is doing. "Why are you guys in costume?"

  Shoulders drooping, Battlestar shook his head. "Something we will have to discuss after we get the girl situated." Shaking it off and lowering his visor, he tapped a button on his gauntlet. "There she is on the doorstep. She looks like a stray cat that isn't sure if it's allowed inside. A beat-up alley cat. What the hell happened to her?"

  "Poor kid." Lucky sighed. "She says she was attacked, and she thinks Screamdream is dead. She seems pretty traumatized and I don't want to leave her alone for long."

  Battlestar choked off a laugh. "Wait, you are serious? The Ouroboros enforcer? The queen bitch herself?"

  Phalanx stared. "How?"

  "We can swap stories later. Phalanx, I want you to give her a full checkup as soon as possible. Hopefully it's just stress, but she might have a concussion." Lucky paused. "I think she needs a hug more than anything else right now, but make sure she's okay with it before you touch her."

  Back at the door, Samantha waited on the porch, head bowed against the wooden rail.

  "Honey, it's okay." Lucky said as she went to meet her.

  A light touch on her arm brought the girl's head up, her honey brown eyes liquid with tears. "You guys are all so nice to each other. I would love a hug."

  Hmm, I didn't realize we were that loud. "We're a team, of course we are nice to each other." Lucky wrapped a warm arm around her. "Please come in, we want to welcome you to our home."

  Phalanx was in the living room, his helmet off and dark hair combed for once. A rare smile was plastered across his craggy face. He snatched up her hand and shook it vigorously. "Welcome."

  Smiling wanly, Samantha pulled her hand back and then held out her arms to Battlestar. Despite his shell of tech and armor, he pulled the thin girl in for a careful hug. "Samantha, it's so nice to finally meet you!"

  His armor popped when she squeezed back, then she burst into tears.

  "Shh, you're safe now." He rocked her back and forth. "Hey there, everything is going to be okay."

  "Even if I'm a murderer?" Samantha sniffled.

  Battlestar shot a pleading look Lucky's way, and she stepped into the hug as well. Phalanx joined a moment later.

  Poor guy doesn't do nurturing, but he's pretty good at it when he tries.

  Lucky broke free first. "Screamdream is a vicious killer who sold kidnapped children, and she works for Ouroboros. If anyone deserves to die, it's her. Unfortunately, she's a survivor and a fast healer, so she's probably still alive."

  Samantha looked over, searching Lucky's face.

  "But, even if you killed her, we still want you on our team," Lucky added. "Will you stay?"

  Hiccupping, Samantha sniffled again. "You still haven't told me the name of the team."

  Lucky smiled. "That's fair, but you never told me your code name either."

  "I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours." Samantha smiled her first real smile in days. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

  "Good, because we need you." Lucky said. "We like to think we are hard to find and impossible to catch, so we call ourselves The Cryptids."

  "I love it," Samantha said after a moment's thought. "I've decided to call myself Phase Shift because life is all about phases and I can change my shape. I would very much like to join your team, if you will still have me."

  "It's official then." Battlestar gestured for her to follow him further into the house. "By unanimous agreement, Phase Shift is a Cryptid."

  Chapter 35

  Thursday June 3rd, 2010

  Hmm. Warm and fluffy. I wonder if Jon is going to let me sleep in this morning. She bolted to her feet at the thought and immediately whacked her head against the low ceiling. The blanket flew away in her rush and floated lightly to the floor.

  Laughing softly, she plopped back down among the fluffy pillows. I had no idea how much a person can change in such a short time, though I suppose The Elric Brothers would wonder how I didn't know.

  A nightlight kept the room from being too dark. There were thin slits of basement windows along one wall, but each was carefully papered over with a photo of an empty concrete room. Lucky had explained their cover story as a group of college students last night as she tucked Samantha into bed, so the basement had to look empty. The room itself couldn't have been further from that spartan photo. A nice bed, soft and done up with pink sheets, covered half of the small room. Fluffy brown carpet covered the other half. The closet, mostly empty, was across from her bed, its mirror moved to the inside of the door at her request.

  "Samantha, are you awake?" Lucky called out from the top of the upstairs. "Battlestar is cooking flapjacks for breakfast, you gotta have some!"

  She smiled to herself, listening in on the teasing going around the table as Lucky rejoined them. It had been a long time since anyone was excited to talk to her in the morning. "I'll be up in a few minutes," she called back.

  Luxuriating in the softness of clean paj
amas against her skin, she reached under her pillow for her still mildly grimy belt pouch and extracted some of her most precious possessions...two pages of rumpled paper. One was handwritten, filled with her brother's spidery cursive, the other a torn page of printed text.

  Salty tears slid down her cheeks as she read the handwritten letter first. I miss you, big brother.

  Reverently, she folded the paper and slid it safely into her pouch. The other page nearly fell apart in her hands, damp and smudged from tears through many readings in her lair.

  Samantha placed the letters safely back in the waterproof pocket of her belt pouch and left it under her pillow. I don't know what it all means, big brother, but I forgive you, and I can ask you about it when we find you.

  "There she is." Battlestar waved from the stove, wearing a frilly purple apron over a black bodysuit that hugged his trim waist tightly. It still sported a few choice bits of his ever-present tech and a series of pouches slung low around his hips. His helmet was in reach on the counter, leaving his buzzed brown hair visible and his lightly tanned face exposed. Intense blue eyes met her own with a smile. "How many flapjacks do you want?"

  "Two please, if that's okay." Samantha took a seat between Phalanx and Lucky at the table.

  Phalanx, an athletic Hispanic man with kind brown eyes, was wearing a pair of grey shorts and a blue t-shirt. He clapped her lightly on the shoulder before diving back into his breakfast.

  On the other side, Lucky had traded her grey armored bodysuit for a pair of pink pajamas, fluffy and covered in bunnies. She held up a bit of flapjack she’d speared with her fork in order to flick a strand of her own long blonde hair off it, then attacked it with gusto.

  A plate, courtesy of Battlestar, slid across the table and slowed to a stop in front of Samantha. Two flapjacks, a pair of sausages, and a mound of butter, rested atop the lightly chipped plate. "I insist you eat as many as you want," he said. "We don't allow anyone on the team to go hungry, and you look like you've skipped a few meals lately."