Van Terra II: Overdrive [MOVING JUNE 30]

Chapter Twenty ~ Hide and Seek

Grace took a seat and idly scrolled through the news while Jax made food. Holly and Thea both joined them within the next few minutes, and before long, they were all poking at their plates of...well, Grace wasn't sure there was a name for what Jax had made, but it was probably the best they could have hoped for.

After another half an hour passed, Grace walked over to the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Jasper, debating whether or not to throw on another Dimension Five episode.

Before she made up her mind, Jasper shot upright, wide-eyed. "Don't stab me!"

"What?" Grace yelped.

Jasper stared at her. "Oh. You're not the Toasted Tots Tiger."

"You were having a nightmare about a cereal mascot trying to stab you?"

"It wasn't a nightmare. I'm fine." Jasper hopped off the couch and brushed off her coat. "Let's eat and get going. We have a lot to do."

"We all finished eating already," Holly informed her.

"Yeah, we're ready whenever you are," Jax added. He pushed the final plate he'd made toward Jasper.

Thea, who'd moved to the floor to fiddle with Poppy's android body, raised her hand to give a thumbs-up. "Yep. Ready whenever."

Jasper picked up the plate. "We'll take an hour or so to check out the Star Conquerors set again. If we still can't find anything, we'll move on to searching the rest of the town," she said. "But I want to look for anything that might give us a clue about Sarena's new stalker. We'll focus on the backstage area. Security will be tougher, but it's nothing we can't handle."

"Security?" Grace asked. Holly had mentioned shapeshifting into a security guard yesterday, but... "I didn't see any guards when I snuck back there to change."

"You must not have gone back far enough," Jasper replied. "They had some empty rooms for anyone who needed to do a quick costume change, but there's another curtain leading to the actors' private rooms."

"'Rooms' in the loosest sense of the word," Holly said. "They sectioned off parts of the cavern with giant panels." A small smirk touched her lips as she added, "I'm sure those rich actors aren't used to such a rough setup."

While Jasper began shoveling her food into her mouth, Thea rose to her feet and held up a smartsphere. "I have good news."

"Really?" Jasper said through a mouthful of food. She swallowed and lifted an eyebrow. "That's not something I hear every day."

Thea set the sphere on the table and turned on the holoscreen. "The Superangel story spread like wildfire last night. People are still talking about it this morning." She grinned. "Not even Starr himself can stop it."

Grace's face flushed. "Seriously?" What did people think of her? Did she even want to know?

"Some people are skeptical she's going to stick around for long," Thea said. "No hero has in the Janus System. And others are saying that saving a TV show prop isn't that big of a deal, but the fact that she stood up to Van Terra is promising."

Jasper choked down the rest of her breakfast and set the plate down. "It's a start," she said. "If the issue is that she did something small, then we can change that."

Grace nodded. It wasn't surprising that people didn't expect her to last long. For all of Starr's speeches about the Janus System's wealth and resources and technological advances, everyone knew the supervillains practically had free reign in lower class areas. She had no idea when the last time they'd seen a hero was. None of her history tutors had talked about it.