Major Malfunction (Sequel to American Heroes)

The Murders

Joyce paces in front of the kitchen table where Will, El, and Jonathan sit, the list of phone numbers and addresses in Jonathan's hand. She stops, turns towards her kids, raises a finger, then pauses. Shaking her head, she gestures to Jonathan. "Have you called anywhere yet?"

Jonathan shakes his head. "We were going to check out the beach first to ask the lifeguards if they know what happened and look through the lost and found."

"And call Daniel," El adds.

"Daniel..." Joyce worries her lip. "That's the boy you said you went to the party with?"

Will and El nod.

"You're calling him to ask what he knows?"

"Basically," Will says.

"Is he the one you invited over for your birthday?"

"Oh. Yeah, but... I don't know if he'll even show up."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I don't know." Will shrugs. "Because of what I did."

"What time is he coming?"

"Well, I told him around five."

"And you have his number?"

Will looks to El. "The phone book's on the desk," she says. They both look back to Joyce.

"Okay, what about this?" She motions to Will. "Why don't you get Daniel's number, call him, and see what he knows, and we can figure out where to go from there."

Arms crossed, Jonathan leans on the table. "What about Lonnie? What should we tell him?"

Resting her chin on her hand and letting out a breath, Joyce glances towards the hall where the sound of the shower running echoes. She gives a shake of her head. "I'll deal with him."

El pokes Will on the arm. "Phone book."

"Oh. Right." As Joyce continues to talk with Jonathan and El, Will gets up and heads to his bedroom. He ducks over to the desk to grab the phone book but flinches when the sound of static blasts out of the ham radio. Then, a voice: "Uh, Will? You there? It's Lucas. Over."

Will's eyebrows knit together. Lucas? Setting the phone book down, he reaches for the radio. "Hello? I copy. Over."

"Oh, hey, man! What's up? How are you? Over."

"Not much, I guess. I'm – I'm a bit surprised you're calling. It's a bit early in the morning to be at Cerebro, isn't it? And... well, we haven't really talked in a while. Over."

"I know it's been too long, but since it's your birthday, I figured I'd call. I tried calling on the phone all morning, but the line's busy. Over."

"Oh, right. Sorry, our phone's broken." He leans forward on the desk. "I'm glad you called. It's good to hear from you. Over."

"How are things over there? Having a good birthday? Over."

Will sucks in a breath. "If I'm being honest, things are pretty terrible. Over."

"They are? What's going on? Over."

"It's sort of a long story. Over."

"Summarize. Over."

He sighs. "Um... well, I sort of accidentally revealed my powers to basically my entire school. Over."

"Shit. What'd you do? Over."

"I mean, I didn't mean to. It's just... these assholes have been after us, and yesterday... well, yesterday, they nearly killed Eleven. So, I wanted to show them they couldn't mess with us anymore."