Treasure is found by those who never stop digging...
And now to not be so cryptic, enjoy the chapter!
CYBER // JOSIE
"Was that her?" North asked, clearly too terrified to say Amy's name. Perhaps it'd summon the girl.
"Yeah. I asked her for another hour. With you," I answered softly, eyeing the redhead up and down.
I sat down across from her at the kitchen table and slumped into my chair. I quickly picked up my Uno cards before raising a dangerous eyebrow at North.
"You didn't fucking look at my cards?"
A twinge of a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as her eyes narrowed. Slowly her head moved side-to-side, telling me no.
I didn't know if I believed her, so I kept the incredulous look on my face.
"Take my word for it," she said simply.
"You do know you're a super villain right?"
"I don't have any powers," she subsequently answered.
"You can store electricity in your veins."
"That's a side effect, Josie-Jos. Now," North picked at a card from her deck and laid down a black one. "Draw four."
-later
"How's Domino's?" I asked with a scrunched expression. Hopefully North will protest the pizza place because I'm in the mood for donuts. Or just seven boxes of sugar. That'd be perfect.
"Sounds good."
Of course it does. She's a fiend for fruit juice-smeared bread, littered with old milk. Or what most normos like to call la pizza.
"Great," I clicked out.
I reached for my phone which was currently playing d4vd. Just my amazing karma for being a super villain, my phone was dead.
"Northie, let me use your phone."
Her eyes snapped up into mine and she immediately handed it over. There wasn't a password on her phone, so I just took it.
However, when I tried pressing the power button, it didn't budge.
"Dead, just like mine," I said with a forced smile.
North only shrugged. "Maybe it isn't meant to be."
But part of restoring our friendship was me going out of my way to do things for her that she liked. For example, getting up when I'm comfortable on the couch.
"No," I seethed. I pushed her legs off my lap and stood up. "There's a charger upstairs."
North snickered and shook her head. "Geez, okay."
Even if she didn't get it, I did. So I stalked over to the staircase and began ascending it.
That's when I heard the shower coming from the bathroom. Knowing Jepito and Renee were out doing grocery shopping or whatever, it was obviously Jaxon in the shower. It's a little late, but hey, something is better than nothing.
I opened the bathroom door, and since the shower was behind the corner, further back into the bathroom, I knew he couldn't see me when I reached for his phone on the bathroom sink. It was sitting next to a pile of folded clean clothes.
I held the power button. "Risi, call Domino's Pizza," I hush whispered into the phone, leaning into it while keeping my hand on the doorframe for support. My eyes glanced over at the bathroom corner every other moment as if to check on Jaxon's attention span.
That's when the call was interrupted by a message coming in.
I narrowed my eyes before pressing accept.
"Bring the family members to me?" I read out quietly in confusion.
Holy shit!
Is he trying to turn us in to Onyx?!
The anger boiled over in me and I stomped over to the shower. My hands didn't warn my eyes before I tore the shower curtain over to the side.
Jaxon's brown, yet sudsy body tensed while his hands stilled, hovering over his soapy hair. "What the fuck, Josie!" he yelled.
Then, with his hands still occupied, the curtain sloppily flung back to its original place.
I clenched my jaw in anger before ripping it back away from the tub.
"Damn, you must really like what you see. Is there something Amy should know?"
My face immediately refluxed in disgust. "Ew, not when she thinks you're my brother!"
"Can I have my shower back, this is a huge invasion of privacy."
It was probably the only time I'd ever agree with him. But I was too angry to oblige him. "What the hell is this?"
I jammed the phone in his face.
His brown eyes immediately widened, and he swiped at it, but I drew my hand back.
"Josie, put my phone down," he seethed slowly. I could see the anger growing on his face as he reached forward while simultaneously using the shower curtain to hide his body.
But I was backing away as he did so.
"I don't know what you saw on there, but I— I can explain."
So he really was just about like every other teenage boy, then.
"You can explain somebody ordering you to turn us in? Alright go ahead."
His widened eyes slowly closed as his hands raised to his forehead. "Wait... okay... you have to let me dry off first."
"And you don't even deny it," I cried out. "This is great. You know what, if you're trying to ruin our lives, I should at least make it a little harder for you," I said as I held his phone up.
"Josie!" he tried.
Just as his fingers went to his temple and his other arm outstretched, I tightened my grip on the phone. Then I peered hard at it, manipulating the circuitry before it started smoking and eventually exploded in my hand.
I gasped and released the now blistered phone from my hand.
"No!" Jaxon yelled. The towel was around his lower body now as he ran for the phone, just as I stumbled back out of his way.
"What the hell did you just do?! You have no idea what you just did!"
"I saved my family's life!" I yelled through my teeth. "I can't believe you would do something like this, what were you thinking?!"
"Josie, get the fuck out of here!"
I clenched my teeth so hard that they might fall out. My fingers circled my bloodied hand, probably riddled with glass shards and burns.
"Fuck you, Jaxon," I said to the boy sunken to the floor, holding his useless phone in his hands.
I watched him for a moment longer before finally turning and leaving. I slammed the bathroom door behind me.
Then I just stood there, hands clenched into fists and my head low, my curly hair curtailing my face.
"Hey, I heard a lot of yelling," North's concerned voice drifted in.
I looked up to find her red hair in the bun like how it was downstairs. The only change was her mood. She was no longer carefree and laid back.
Her hand reached out cautiously as she rounded on me to get to the door.
"Careful, he's nude," I warned once her hand wrapped on the knob.
She immediately drew it back with a frown. "Thanks," she said slowly. Then her friend grew deeper in confusion. "You guys argued while he was naked?"
I sighed and looked down. "It's a long story."
"And genuinely one I don't want to hear about. Are you alright?" she asked me cautiously, concern etched on her face as she looked down at me.
I knew that she just wanted to check on Jaxon. I could tell by how her hand hovered in front of the door, how her chest was practically pressed against the door. How she was giving her full attention to someone she couldn't even see, rather than to me.
I couldn't blame her. It wasn't like North to just completely drop someone she cared about. And in the time we weren't talking, that's all she and Jaxon did. If I was a jealous person, this would be very hard for me.
It also helped that North would soon want to rip Jaxon's head off when I eventually tell her about the text he received. So I let her talk to him. I nodded and crossed my arms.
She gave me a tender look before turning back to the door. "Hey... Jaxon, it's North. Is everything alright?"
I heard grunting from the other side, like he was scrambling or something. "Uh," he must have yelled through the door. The door swung open from the inside, and then it was Jaxon dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt. His hair was still stringy and wet on his forehead. "Yeah. Everything's fine. Why?"
His response was terse for him talking to North. Ever since they've grown closer at least.
He was clenching his jaw and avoiding my eye contact, because I was making sure that my eyes weren't leaving his.
"With respect, North, you're not our mom or Onyx. Josie's a crybaby, but she's not your responsibility."
Now I really want to rip his head off. "North, there's something you should know about Jaxon—"
"Josie, wait—" Jaxon cut me off.
I turned to him slowly, just as his panic set in. Finally. I was getting under his skin. A smile spread over my face.
"What is it, Josie?" North asked anyway, largely ignoring Jaxon like she should've been doing in the first place.
"Jaxon's been working with the Superheroes—"
"I'm getting messages from Onyx!"
My eyes snapped over to Jaxon. North's mouth was agape as her attention turned to me. And Jaxon's helpless eyes stared at North.
"Wait, what?" North said. Her hands were suddenly circling the sides of her face.
I was confused now too, if the flies catching in my mouth meant anything. "Onyx?" I asked.
"What are you guys talking about?" North asked with clear disgust. Her lip curled as she stared between the two of us.
Finally she grabbed both our shoulders with each hand and shoved us into the humid bathroom. She shut the door with her foot and stared at us once more.
"Explain!"
Shit. I really miss five minutes ago when North was calm and bored and unbothered. Because interim Lawmaker was even more unpredictable than the original herself.
"Why do we have to be in here?"
"In case somebody comes home, and neither of us can explain what was just said. So fucking explain, or so help me—"
"It started a while ago. Onyx messaged me, thinking—"
"What's 'a while ago'?"
"A month. Almost two. Onyx messaged me thinking I was Renee. Then I just never told her because I didn't think it was a big deal. You know, he was just telling us to hang tight, which we were already doing—"
"He's lying." My eyes were dead as I stared at the phony in front of me.
He didn't turn to me, only keeping his eyes on North. I wonder why. It couldn't possibly be because she was just eating up his bullshit instead of calling him out on it.
"Why is she here?"
"Tell her about Onyx's message telling you to 'turn us in.'"
"Show it to me," North said quietly. Her arms rose to hug herself as her eyebrows furrowed.
"I can't, because this software-snowflake exploded my phone."
"So, that is what the message said?" North's voice rose along with her eyebrows.
"I don't know what it even said, because, this!" Jaxon said and held up the expanded device.
North's head turned slightly to me and I only shrugged. Oh whatever! What am I supposed to do, just let him ruin things between Amy and I? I have a relationship to maintain, I don't need prison splitting us up.
Now that I think about it, it kind of doesn't make sense at all... Not the turning us in part. That's exactly on par with Jaxon. Well, not Jepito. And I guess not North either. And why would Onyx want 'to bring us in' either?
"Onyx wouldn't ask something like that. Renee is the best team leader in the League. This doesn't make any sense. If he said jump she'd ask how high," North reasoned out loud. Her voice was steady as she worked it out. "What's the whole story here?"
"Truthfully..." Jaxon began. His eyes drifted over to me and softened. I saw his shoulders drop slightly, and then he was looking back at North. "He just wants us to find a way out of Valley View. Sending anyone else from the League would draw too much attention. And like I said, Onyx thinks he's talking to Renee."
Now North was staring me down. I shrunk under her gaze and lifted my shoulders, hoping I could hide between them like a turtle in its shell. "Okay, in my defense, the wording in that message gave off very different vibes."
"So, we good here? Josie's gonna buy me a new phone, and Renee doesn't have to know about this?"
"No? Why wouldn't we tell her? We need to start packing now."
Jaxon's eyes widened when North said that. He looked ready to protest, but she was already turning to leave.
For once, I felt like Jaxon and I were on the same side. I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave her, the same way he couldn't leave his team.
"North, wait," I commanded and reached out to touch her arm. So she did, looking back at us. "Jaxon, were you able to communicate both ways with Onyx?"
"No," he answered quickly. "I haven't seen a single one of these messages as far as he can tell."
"See, that's good," I said, now that my attention was back on North. "Look, there's no way for Onyx to know that we know about his code. Can't we just stay here? For a little while."
"Josie, you know the only reason you want to stay here is for Amy Madden. And Jaxon, you're devoted to the hockey team and Jake."
My eyebrows frowned. But looking at Jaxon, he seemed unfazed by it all.
"Does it really matter?" I asked.
"Of course it does! It does, one-hundred percent matter, Josie. The fact that you both are this attached to this town puts all our futures as villains in jeopardy. It's not right."
"I can leave whenever I want, I'm just saying that we don't have to go just yet," I bit out sharply. I was sick of North reading me like a book all the time, as if it's her one power or something. "Look, we just got over our thing, and I don't want to go back down that road with my best friend. So please, just let me and Jaxon have this one."
"You're talking about abandoning your people."
"It's just a vacation," I said lightly, hoping that my joking manner might somehow convince her. "And Onyx doesn't have to know."
"What if there's an emergency. It's not like Onyx has a way of warning us now that you destroyed Jaxon's phone. The only way to know about it is if we're right there at the base."
"Hey, that's not true!" I said quickly.
The thing about supes like me is that everything's hardwired to associate with technology. In short, if a computer is dead, I'll still be able to tell when it gets an email.
"Hey, she's—" Jaxon said cheerfully, his eyes shining and his hand eventually settling on my forehead. I immediately shook it off with a sneer, but his giddy expression remained unchanged. "—Not wrong. North, text my phone. And don't tell Josie what you send."
"Great, I love being the middle man," I droned.
"Guys—" North started. "Think about this, please. What you're trying to do—"
"Just text me something."
North's lips were parted. Her eyes shifted between the two of us before she finally caved. A sigh escaped her lips before she pulled her phone out sweatpants pocket. She held it up and made a face, clearly showing how annoyed she was despite neither me nor Jaxon caring.
Then she got to typing, the clicks filling the air, before a whoosh was heard, signaling the text had been sent.
"Josie," Jaxon prompted.
"I'm still mad at you," I revealed, eyes narrowed on Jaxon for being a goddamn liar and hiding this whole thing from us. Then I focused on the blistered phone he was holding up. I took it from him and closed my eyes while I held it in front of my forehead.
"That's not what I sent—"
"Looks like we're staying," I said, translating the blue, digital binary code that appeared in my head. "Was that it?"
North clenched her jaw before reluctantly showing us the screen. Among other messages was the newest one she'd sent to Jaxon, reading exactly what I'd read aloud.
LOOK AT ME UPDATING WOW GUYS
I'M QUITE IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF
if this were on tv it'd be considered a bottle episode 100%
And we're scrolling
And we're still scrolling
No, I don't blame you... really
Okay, fine, for making it this far, you deserve it:
// CYBER ~ JUSTICE //
The halls were unusually dark for this time of day. The trial only ended two hours ago, and I already received a promotion. I guess loyalty goes a long way.
My large backpack was killing my right shoulder as the single strap wrapped around it. Still, I was almost at the Juniors' quarters, so I didn't mind the pain as much as I should.
Finally, I got there. In faded and tattered white letters simply read "The Juniors", so if this wasn't them then I don't know what was.
Since I was holding my bag in place with both of my hands, I couldn't exactly use my hands to push the intercom button, even though it was right in front of me, next to the sliding doors. So, just once, my eyes squinted and I tilted my head. The buzzer rung immediately, and my first smile in a while tugged at the corner of my mouth.
It can be annoying when you repeatedly do something to get someone's attention. I had to keep that in mind being the new girl and all. First impressions were make or break, and you had to get used to me before you could handle my 'break'.
Finally, someone came to the door. I could tell by the inhuman heavy footsteps. Since when did we start letting sumo wrestlers into the league.
The doors slid apart with a whoosh. There was no black smoke at the bottom like I expected. But my mouth fell open at the creature in front of me. My body shook so much that I felt my bag slip off my shoulder.
"Shit," I squeaked out and backed away from the door.
I've seen the Juniors before. Obscured mostly, and on tv footage. They never once owned a 700-lb, 9-foot tall troll.
I felt the frown on my face grow before I used my powers to trigger the door sensor, making them shut once more, tapping the salivating thing inside with the rest of my new team. Maybe not, now! But if they're running around with that thing, I don't want to be with them anyway!
Suddenly the doors flew apart once again.
"Ah!" I screamed and quickly turned to run away.
But my legs weren't taking me anywhere.
That's when I heard the most annoying and terrible laugh. I hesitantly looked back and my terrified expression changed into one of pure anger.
Suddenly the 9 foot thing was a glorified toddler. The brown-headed boy was probably like eight years old!
"Oh my Onyx! Sandie, did you see that?! She ran away like a little baby! Wow."
Justice.
He's a thirteen-year-old, and he's so full of himself. Yet, he's in my combat training class.
He was still laughing when I finally approached him at the door. But his laughter fell more and more and suddenly he was staring down at me, smugly, with his arms crossed and a little smile.
"Congratulations, wittle one. Baby make a poopie?"
I was obviously taken aback, and my jaw fell to the ground. "Fuck. You. Justice."
"Aw, clearwy, potty mouf."
"What are you, illiterate?" I sneered angrily.
"Well, if I am, you might want to, derrrr, stop with the big words."
He was still smiling like an asshole. Then suddenly his head turned past his shoulder. "Lawmaker, she's here!" Then he looked down at me in disgust. "Can't believe they're replacing CrackCoder with you."
I stared him down, obviously having to look up, and watched with narrowed eyes as he turned to further enter their quarters.
That's when I saw a tall woman, Lawmaker, coming toward me. I heard Justice grumble, "I'm gonna go help CrackCoder pack."
The woman barely acknowledged him before coming to me with a smile. "Welcome to the team, Cyber."
I smiled a little and picked up my bag before going inside. It was a nice I guess, but I was too upset to think like that.
"He's a little upset. CrackCoder's his best friend."