Rian hated the basement. It was dank. There was practically no light. It was horribly crowded. Boxes upon boxes of plastic boxes stuffed with papers and old files that Eochaid and Pyralis had stuffed down there for safekeeping were piled up, one on top of another, creating dangerously narrow corridors and a veritable labyrinth that was curiously larger than the upper floors of the house.
Worst of all was the slime. Nearly everything was also covered in a layer of dusty, toxic slime that would either melt off your skin or cause violent, terrifying hallucinations of shadow monsters coming to eat you alive; something that both Eochaid and Pyralis encouraged from Corey, claiming that it was all a good security measure. The only thing Rian liked about it was a scent that lingered in the air which reminded him of upturned leaves.
"Rian, get down here and gear up," said Spiros, from the basement.
Still inside the pantry, Rian reluctantly opened the door and began walking down the basement stairs with Lavender. At the bottom was a pile of ponchos and long rubber gloves. Both Rian and Spiros took a set.
"Is all that really necessary?" asked Lavender, who was still unfamiliar with the horrors of their basement.
"Yes," said Spiros, using a flashlight to begin navigating them like a professional through the maze of toxic slime covered file cabinets and plastic boxes. Rian held a broom out in front of himself just in case of any spiderwebs.
Not needing any light to see and immune to his own slime, Corey sped along in front of them, darting in and out of narrow, dead-end pathways.
Lavender summoned up an oversized raincoat and rubber pants, then took a pair of long gloves from the pile of PPE before following Spiros and Rian. Regarding the maze with an apprehensive look, she said, "You know, I don't think I've spent a lot of time down here. You guys have got this place pretty, well… Ehm… Fortified!"
"I know, right?" said Corey, snatching a massive black house spider off a box. It crunched as he bit off the head and half of the legs that twitched in between his lips. Instantly, Lavender recoiled. "Got all the Obsidian Assembly's little secrets pretty well guarded."
"Guys, focus. We've got to be at school in a half hour," snapped Spiros, turning around and shouting up the stairs. Rian took the opportunity to scramble out of the maze with him. "Theo- you coming with us or staying up there?"
"I'm gonna stay up here," said Theo, with a soft, meek tone, turning around and trampling back up the basement stairs. "I'm really scared of spiders,"
"Okay, go make sure you're ready for school," said Spiros, continuing to push Rian into the labyrinth. "C'mon, you fucking coward,"
Rian waved the broom. "Why does Theo get to wuss out? He's older than me!"
"Well, it doesn't matter if he's nineteen when he has the brain of a ten-year old," said Spiros, shrugging on a poncho and barreling into the dark, toxic slime covered pathways. Under his breath, Spiros whispered. "...Besides, he doesn't really fit in the walkway."
"But the spiders'll get on my face!"
"No, they won't. I was literally down here last night,"
"Orb Unseelies work fast, Spiros!"
"Yeah, and Corey eats most of them before they even have a chance to set up a web!"
Several moments later Rian, Lavender, Corey, and Spiros all arrived at a ruined fuse box. It wasn't entirely unlike the kind most houses had in their home. But this one was dead center around a post, and had thick wires running along the floor. Just above the box of switches were several plastic grocery bags wrapped around seven cylindrical objects, and sealed with duct tape. Only one of them was unwrapped and working. It cast a radioactive blue light in the dark basement.
Cold fusion battery cells. They were developed by Farkas Incorporated. They were not intended for regular household usage. The amount in front of them could power a small neighborhood for at least a decade. Rian didn't know why Eochaid had them built into the house, but he strongly suspected it had something to do with the Cave entrance that was surely hidden in the basement.
"Don't touch the bags."
"This thing is safe to be around when it's broken like this, right?" asked Lavender, inspecting one of the bags.
"Yeah. They're not dangerous unless you touch them. I even checked for radiation with a Geiger counter-,"
"You guys have a Geiger counter?"
"Yeah, it's on the work bench. It didn't detect anything we need to be worried about," said Spiros, crossing his arms in front of his chest and eyeing Rian with a serious expression. "They're cracked and need to get replaced, but so long as we don't touch them, I think they're fine."
"Why the bags?"
"There's some dusty stuff inside of them. Gave me a rash when I touched it, so I don't want to breathe it in,"
"What's the plan?" Rian pointed at the glowing battery. "Did you figure out how to move that one to the main house?"
"No. Like I've told you a million time, we don't know what it's powering. It's probably hooked up to the Cave. For all I know, Eochaid has some fucked up self destruct button rigged to go off as soon as the power shuts off." Spiros smirked, then said, "I think I know where to get some new ones. This guy I see all the time at the hardware store works on the side for this big-ass construction company. He was going on about how they're installing a bunch of these things down at the old armory."
Lavender raised her hand. "The Cave?"
"Eochaid's secret base," said Spiros, nodding. "It's where he keeps all his important shit. Banks accounts, equipment, secret plans. All the good stuff. I was supposed to learn how to get there, but…"
"The Aegis Society blew up the Moon base before Father had a chance to show him anything," said Rian, with a heaving sigh. "Do you know how to install the cells?"
"No, but…" Spiros grinned in excitement, then ran towards a large workbench near the fuse box. There was a book there, which he brought back over to them. "Eochaid and Pyralis had a book down here on how to do it. As far as I can tell, you literally just screw them in like lightbulbs. And look! Luke Farkas himself even signed it!"
"Signed?" Rian walked around to see what Spiros was so excited about. Sure enough, the book had been signed by Luke Farkas himself.
"Why the fuck…?"
"It's addressed to someone named 'Thaddeus?' I'm assuming Eochaid stole the parts from Thaddeus Quinn,"
"Whose that?" asked Lavender, "This Eochaid guy's old boyfriend?"
"So, the funny thing is that you're not wrong-,"
"Guys, focus! We need to make a plan," said Spiros, putting his hands on his hips. Suddenly, just as he was about to begin speaking again, an alarm went off. Spiros groaned. "After school. Right now, we need to get to school,"
…
School passed at the speed of a banana slug traveling under leaves to a delectable mushroom. As soon as the last bell tolled, Rian raced out of his sixth period Physics class and out of Cascade Hall, running under the covered walkway. Seconds later, he was passing Helens Hall, then Rainier Hall on the other side of the school. Bursting into Olympic hall, Rian nearly ran into Spiros, who was walking out of Algebra 1.
"Slow down, asshole," said Spiros, viciously.
Ms. Kwan frowned, sending Spiros a sharp look from her desk. "Spiros, be nice. Rian, Spiros is right. You can't be running all over the place like that. This is a school, not a playground."
"Sorry, Ms. Kwan," mumbled Rian, pulling Spiros away. "Spiros, what's wrong-?"
"We'll talk about it when we get home," said Spiros, with murderous intent. It practically evaporated when Becky walked out of Mrs. Abbott's American History class across the hall.
"Spiros! Hey!" said Becky, skipping up to him. Nervously, she played with a scrunchie on her wrist. When she tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear, Rian noticed that her cheeks were slightly pink. "Are we like, still studying in the library today?"
"Yeah," said Spiros, a flush of pink dusting the tops of his normally olive toned cheeks. "Uh, Rian?"
"Yeah, I'll make sure the roast and stew gets put on the fire,"
"On the fire?" Puzzled, Becky frowned at Spiros.
"You've never cooked things on a fire?"
"...Yeah, when I've like, gone camping," said Becky, with a slight laugh.
"Ah. Well, Eochaid is ancient. He does a lot of fire cooking," said Spiros, without any emotion. "And he makes us camp a lot. Says it builds character. Does Dr. Quinn say the same thing about your training room of death?"
"It's not a training room of death," said Becky, defensively.
"Lavender told me it shoots lasers at people,"
"Yeah- fake lasers. It's all holographic."
"Really? Because Lavender showed me a burn scar,"
"...Look, they do sting a bit- But it's no more dangerous than paintball!"
"Then why not use those?" asked Spiros, dryly. "It's how Pyralis and Eochaid were training us,"
As they argued about the Vanguard's training room, Rian spotted Stacy Turner walking out of the building and into the covered walkway outside. An impossibly high ponytail with a giant, glittery cheerleading bow in their school colors of blue, green, and white was swinging up and down as she walked at a brisk pace. On her cheer team hoodie was the Sea Wolf school mascot.
Moving so fast that he practically melted into the air, Rian sped to her side.
"Hey," said Rian, opening the door for her. Stacy stopped, nearly dropping her team water bottle in surprise.
"Rian! Oh, goodness. You scared me, you goof!" said Stacy, giggling as she stepped through the door. Looking both ways, she began whispering. "Are you really supposed to be using your powers in broad daylight like that?"
"Powers? What powers?" said Rian, striding next to Stacy as she continued towards the back of school, where the cheer team normally practiced.
"Uh, huh," said Stacy, making a zipping motion across her lips. "Right. I got it. But watch out for ORBIT, okay? Tala's cousin got picked up by them and has some really awful stories. So be careful,"
"But I don't have any powers," said Rian, not worried. Catching anything as fast as he was would be an otherworldly feat. "Hey, are you going to the Winter Formal?"
"Rian, just what the hell are you doing?" asked Spiros, grabbing the back of Rian's shirt and dragging him away from Stacy, who began laughing again. Rian's cheeks burned from embarrassment.
Walking backwards, Becky shouted, "Good luck at cheer practice, Stacy!"
"Have fun studying!" said Stacy, with a wink.
"You looking to ask Stacy out to the Winter Formal, Rian?" asked Becky, turning back around to walk facing forward. "You know freshmen can't go, right? And you're barely a freshman at that."
"They can if a Junior or Senior takes them," said Rian, shoving out of Spiros' grasp. "Spiros, you like boys, right? Can you take me?"
"No. You're barely fourteen. I'm not taking a fucking middle schooler to the Winter Formal," said Spiros, pulling Rian with him as he marched out of Olympic Hall and under the covered walkway.
"I'm not a middle schooler,"
"Only because you cheated with your super speed and skipped that unfortunate place,"
After passing Rainier Hall, Spiros suddenly stopped. His dark eyes narrowed, and he turned to look out at the parking lot just past the back field. There was a dark van there that was idling. Aside from the suspicious window tints, it looked harmless enough. Becky was not convinced.
"Becky?" asked Spiros, when Becky gasped, and her face took on a gray pallor.
Though Rian didn't think that Becky was telepathic per say, she had a terrific sense for emotions and intentions. Rian would call her a human lie detector, but lie detectors had a worse track record.
"Horizon, don't panic. And walk, don't run," said Becky, hooking an arm through the crook of Spiros' elbow. Pulling on a playful smile, Becky played with a frizzy lock of Spiros' hair. "No powers. Aether, I cannot stress that enough. Do not use your powers."
Freezing in place, Spiros gave Becky a look of both confusion and concern. "Neuro? What's wrong?"
"Sorry, I know you don't like being touched. But I don't want to talk too loudly, and I don't want to draw suspicion, mumbled Becky, fiddling with a teddy bear charm on her side-satchel backpack. "I think the guys in the van are ORBIT goons."
"Shit."
"They're either ORBIT, or they support everything that ORBIT is doing to the point that they're hunting metahumans," said Becky, calmly.
With a casual air, Spiros unhooked Becky's arm from his, then pulled it around her shoulder. "There's a path behind Rainier Hall that'll take us right behind the car. We can sneak up behind them. Let's go,"
"What do you have planned?"
"Depends. How comfortable are you with vandalism?"
Becky smirked, then hugged Spiros, pulling them around so that Spiros' back was to the van. As she looked at it, the concern in her eyes increased. Shuddering, she shook her head. "Let's try to avoid it. But I want to find out who these guys are."
"If we blow one of their tires, we'll be able to get a look at their faces,"
"Can we get them out of the car without destruction of property?"
"I can run up to them really, really fast, and knock on their door before they even see me," offered Rian, following them and trying to be helpful.
"No…" Spiros stopped talking as they entered Rainier Hall. Soon, they were back outside and walking down a path that led into a large, dense forest of shrubs and douglas firs. After tucking the bottoms of their pants into their socks, Spiros and Becky both took off from the path and into a ticket of vine maples. Rian almost followed, but when he stepped forward, a millipede rushed out from under a leaf.
"Aether, you coming?"
"Are their spiders?"
"For the love of-!" Spiros pulled down the branch of a vine maple, gesturing violently. "No! Now get your cowardly butt over here!"
Though he didn't entirely believe him, Rian followed and crowded together with Becky and Spiros under a vine maple. Are we really doing this?
The obvious answer was 'yes.' ORBIT was a threat that affected all three of them. Enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess, thought Rian, watching the black van for any sign of movement. It was barely twenty feet away from them.
"Are you able to just shake the car?" asked Becky, fidgeting with the teddy bear charm.
"I can try," said Spiros, pausing. "Aether, if it's ORBIT, you should run to the middle school and pick up Hammerspace. Be on the lookout for any more vans, got it?"
"But what if I get stopped by a teacher? They always think I'm playing hooky when I pick her up."
"Just do it," hissed Spiros, shoving Rian away. "And under no conditions should you be seen using your powers. Got it?"
"Got it…"
"Slime Slinger and Maul will probably be home late. They're checking out the fighting ring after school." Spiros took a long, deep breath, then reached out to the car with his palm. A vein in his neck began straining. The car lifted about an inch, then dropped. An alarm rang out. In moments, several uniformed men in masks exited the van.
"Fuck, that's ORBIT," said Spiros, whispering and backing away with Becky. The shrieking car alarm rang in Rian's ears. Shouting orders, the officers started spreading out over the parking lot. "We should get out of here. Neuro, want a ride to your port-site?"
"Sure," whispered Becky, shoving back through the brush with Spiros. Behind them, Rian could hear the officers. "Fuck. Guys, this is probably our fault. I'm so sorry,"
"I doubt it's your fault," said Spiros, jumping out of the brush and back onto the trail. "My control is shitty, it's a miracle Slime Slinger hasn't been found out yet, and Aether doesn't actually know how to hide his superspeed."
"Yeah, but I think one of the teachers saw Obscura transform the other day, and-," said Becky, gasping when they heard rustling in the brush, right where they had been. Becky's voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "We have to go. Now. Let's go find Conduit and Obscura."
Without another word, Spiros picked Becky up, launching off the ground and into the douglas fir canopy. Soundlessly, Rian bolted before any of the ORBIT officers managed to see him.