Of friends and allies

Waking the next day, I gloried in the sensation of having slept through the entire night undisturbed by pain and nightmares, while going through all I had accomplished last night in my head. Desus introduction to Brockton Bay had been a smashing success, not even the police or other unpowered forces had interfered, let alone any capes. It went so perfect that I could barely believe it myself, for whatever reason I had been left alone to do whatever I wanted and no one had been hurt, so I would sooner than imagined be able to go a step further and challenge the Wards. Which meant I would soon be able to interact with my sister on an equal playing field. I loved my power and how it had changed my life for the better.

Spending the morning relaxing in bed had been a glorious start in the day, but I had to attend to my duties eventually. First on the agenda was to order Amelia and the guardian snakes to sort through everything they had collected yesterday. Even with doubled working speed I couldn't do that myself and the snakes could do the work inside the Wardrobe's hallway leading to my resource tomb. There wasn't a risk of discovery and the sooner I knew what I had to work with the sooner I could get started on compiling the information and allocating potential resources gained.

I decided to take my time at breakfast, which was lucky because after around 30 minutes of a leisurely breakfast in a very empty cafeteria Ms. Norberg arrived. I didn't fell all that guilty when she complained:

"There you are Benjamin, I looked for you in your room and I didn't know where you had gone when I found your rooms empty. Ms. Johansen had told me you would be an early bird the last time we spoke, but I didn't really believe her, what kind of teenager doesn't sleep in every opportunity they get."

I was tempted to show my amusement, but I felt like hiding my good mode would serve me well right now, so I answered in a morose tone:

"The kind of preteen forced to wake up by military discipline, Ms. Johansen made it clear that I was to be present in the cafeteria at such ungodly hours, not like anyone else is here." I glared at the empty tables all around me.

Ms. Norberg gave an awkward half-smile half-shrug and replied in a unsure voice:

"I am certain Ms. Johansen has only the best in mind for you. A little discipline can help greatly in times of mental stress."

She continued: " Anyway I have been brought up to date with your placement test results, you did very well, being allowed to go to high school at your age is not something just anyone could do. Ms. Johansen seemed very impressed, she even used her own connections to expedite the process of enrollment. You will start at Acadia the day after tomorrow, I have never managed to get someone tested and enrolled this fast, I still have so much to learn from Ms. Johansen. Are you excited to got to school?"

My facial expression must have already told her the answer but just in case she didn't get the message I retorted forcefully:

"Yes, I am positively brimming with joy, not. I haven't been able to get any news about my sister in days, you didn't even tell me how she is doing or if I would be able to see her in school. If she isn't there school is the last thing I care about. Where are those phones Ms. Johansen promised me, and while we are at it, what is going on in the city that has everyone going up in arms?"

Now Ms. Norbergs experience shone through, she wasn't even all that flustered in the face of my questions and answered:

"Calm Benjamin, there is no need to get emotional right now. I didn't tell you about your sister because I don't know much, Ms. Johansen is tight lipped about her progress, last I hears she had determined that the two of you would share classes as much as possible, but I haven't heard anything new since yesterday. As for the situation in the city, it is merely renewed conflict between the ABB and the Empire 88, there is no need to worry, this happens quite often and the police and PRT are quite capable of containing the situation. Now, I have left your books and school supplies on your kitchen table, so please look through them and tell me if there is anything missing."

I might be young, but I wasn't daft, there was no way this was a usual occurrence, the police and PRT had been to rushed, to unorganized with their shifts, evidenced by the fact that not a single trooper was in sight. I didn't appreciate being feed lies by the person who should be one my side in this whole thing, but I wasn't surprised, from the beginning it had been clear that I was only a chip in a much larger game. Despite knowing that I spend the rest of our conversation giving monosyllabic or sarcastic answers to any questions to voice my displeasure in the most subtle way I could. This might hinder todays process, but in the long run she would learn not to treat me like a toddler, at least I could hope for that outcome, Ms. Norberg was a stubborn woman and my monosyllabic replies only spurned her on more in trying to get me to open up to her. I didn't budge, but it was hard.

After an exhausting hour of conversation, I was left with the eerie feeling that I had just started something I would regret in the future. I didn't know how or why, but Ms. Norberg had a lot more influence over me than I was comfortable with.

I was still a little disturbed when I returned to my room only to find a note on my kitchen table, atop of the school supplies Ms. Norberg had dropped there. It read:

'Little empress,

good show but keep panic to a minimum. Skyeyes have been dealt with, secure base in the future. Make sure to check your lights for loose connections. If you need a place to be or simple advise, leave a message with the location of my stack on the door. I will write again. Keep of the line and we will be peachy.

Your Captain Jack

Ps. watch the slither dancing challenge on PHO'

Fuck, this could only mean one thing. Someone new I was Desu, someone had searched my rooms and apparently disabled the cameras placed there, if I could believe him or her and decided to contact me in my civilian persona. So much for hiding myself, the whole show had been for nothing. The only good thing, was that he or she hadn't informed anyone, trough that could backfire on me faster than I could say the word 'blackmail'. At least form the tone of the note it didn't seem like the person had disliked what I had been doing, more like he or she was a fan, but disapproved because the panic I caused could have ended in a stampede and actually hurt innocent bystanders. I would have to be extra careful next time and start wearing defenses in case I was attacked in my civilian persona. One person knowing was already to much and this could become a disaster if I didn't take precautions.

I took the note and rushed to my Wardrobe, startling Amanda in the process. She and the stuff from yesterday could wait, I needed additional protections now. Passive defenses might now even be enough. An all encompassing shockwave of pure force mixed with aura would be enough to get rid of most restraints, while an immediate teleport to my futuristic tech room, which I still didn't know the use of, would allow me to flee at any time. I needed something quick and I needed it in a form that wouldn't attract unnecessary attention. An invisible, woven bracelet, made from the hide of the dimensional snake, which had given me Amanda's base material, would allow me to write a lot of runes on a very small piece of skin. But I needed a desk to actually carve something this delicate, which meant working outside the Wardrobe, I could only pray that my mysterious pen pal had spoke the truth and been thorough in searching for surveillance devices. If this was just a trick or he or she had missed one I had already lost before I could even start making headway with my plans.

Because my chopstick carver was already on his last leg, I hadn't given it enough time to recharge between used I made a new one from the branches of a tree I found in the tomb. The branch almost had as much aura as some of the snake hide I had used for my army and with the light turning it into a tool was trivial. Testing it, the new laser carver had a phenomenal performance, it wasn't even in the same league anymore and combined with my doubled working speed I made great progress despite not being able to use light to carve some of the arrays. The carver really worked like a charm and by noon I was sure I could finish it in a few minutes, when a knock on the front door disrupted my concentration. Forcing Amanda to shallow everything indiscriminatingly I went to open the door, it was Mr. Rodriguez in casual clothes, I immediately knew I wouldn't like what was coming.

"Hey kid, your rep, Ms. Norberg asked me to make sure you got something to eat and out of your hole for a few hours. My daughters are coming to visit and I thought you could tutor them for a bit, " he said in a voice that made it clear to me that it wasn't a suggestion and probably not his own idea, Ms. Norberg had pulled some strings to punish me for my petulance at breakfast. She probably even thought she was doing me a favor, by allowing me to spend time with people only a little older than me. I hate adult who think they know best, without actually consulting those most affected. I didn't know how and when, but she would pay for this, dearly.

I merely nodded to Mr. Rodriguez to signal my acceptance, it wouldn't do to show weakness now. Checking my clothes I decided that I was as presentable as I would get and closing the door behind me I signaled Mr. Rodriguez to lead the way. Amanda would have cleaned up and hidden herself in the Wardrobe by now, but there was no need to risk it. If Mr. Rodriguez found my behavior suspicious he didn't show, merely leading me up a flight of stairs to another apartment, this one was clearly more lived in than my own. Besides the plague with the name of the resident, Mr. Carlos Rodriguez , the door was adorned with a timber panel with the slogan 'Every wall is a door!', something I couldn't really picture Mr. Rodriguez buying himself, but his daughters must have come from somewhere so it wasn't unlikely that Ms. Rodriguez had given it to him. My quizzically raised eyebrow was ignored nonchalantly, he probably was used to people remarking on this piece of decoration.

Getting to know Mr. Rodriguez daughters, Luna and Stella, wasn't half as embarrassing as I imagined, they were similar to my sister, straight forward, full of energy and not well suited to book learning. Because they reminded me so much of my sister it was hard to not fall into the same routines. Spending time teaching them was child's play and utterly impossible at the same time. Dead easy because I knew how to act and which phrases to use to get them to actually concentrate on doing the work, Math mostly and completely impossible because they constantly reminded me of the good times with my sister. If I hadn't spend last night releasing all my pent up emotions, if it wasn't for the still lingering feeling of great progress I wouldn't have been able to endure it. Even like this I had to bite my tongue constantly while fighting against my tears. Mr. Rodriguez must have told them about me beforehand, otherwise they probably wouldn't have dealt with my constantly switching emotions so calmly. They had the same hard shells and soft inner core which made my sister into the person I loved the most in the world.

After 2 hours I couldn't pretend anymore so I left for the kitchen, where Mr. Rodriguez took one look at me and decided to return me to my room. I didn't protest, even when he followed me into the bedroom and made sure I was comfortable in the much too big for my size bed that the previous inhabitant had left behind. After that roller-coaster of emotions I wasn't ready to deal with anything more today so I cuddled Coil and went to sleep before 5 pm. Crafting, the school supplies and even the gains from my first crime could wait until tomorrow. Of course this was when I got the double whammy of two powers simultaneously cramming years of knowledge and experience into my brain. No matter how cool sentient robots, magic swords or super hacking skills might be, they could wait until tomorrow.