Keene made no mention of Keon to Liana, nor did she notice him.
Blyke did share the video to the group chat, though.
Blyke
Arlo missed out
Liana
I GOT PAPER CUTS BECAUSE OF THIS
HOLDENNNN
Holden
You win some
You lose some
Just go to the eox
Or Elaibe
Reading that out loud was so lwroth it
Liana
Like I needed more stuff about my past tevealed
Remi
Wut
Liana
Isen probably snoops into all our backgroubds
Remi
ISEN
GET ONLIBE
Blyke
Wtf
Creepy af
Liana
Lol
Inside, after lunch, the school was only gossiping. Apparently, Seraphina wasn't using her ability, so they were assuming she lost it. Also, she went to the infirmary.
Liana
U okay?
Seraphina
Yeah
Don't worry about it
She didn't go to check on her, since she had classes.
After school, Liana went to Remi's dorm. Did Remi always have more than one window?
"What did you want to talk about?" Liana asked, sitting on Remi's bed.
Remi sat down next to her in casual clothes, seeming tense. "Remember I left for a family emergency a while ago? Did you ever figure out why?"
"Umm?"
She took in a deep breath, her fists on her lap. "Remember Rei?"
"Mhm." Liana knew where it was going. Remi never told her personally, after all, nor did anyone else. So, by everyone's expectations, she wasn't supposed to know.
"He died, a while ago.."
"... Oh."
What did she do? How was Liana supposed to react? She wasn't sure. That was why, she kept herself quiet. But would respond to show she was listening.
"Lia. Don't push us away anymore, okay?" Remi pulled her in for a hug, which she returned. "You blocked us for a while, and ignored us... You know, Rei told me something. He cared about you too, and he told us to look after you." Her blue eyes widened.
But...
"Watch out for them, okay?"
That's what he said to me, too...
"That's why... me and Arlo will keep you safe. Don't be afraid to tell us anything."
Remi closed her eyes, still hugging her. She remembered, what Rei told her and Arlo that day.
"Watch out for that girl, okay?"
Liana, however, pursed her lips. It was too confusing. Who did she trust? Who told the truth?
Remi was here, telling her to trust her and Arlo. But, Seraphina was telling her not to trust Arlo...
Conflicting interests. Therefore, Liana would continue to trust them, and see what happened.
. . .
The school was serving chocolate cake this week.
Liana managed to get Evie and Roland a slice, because Keene pushed her into the kitchen again to make extras. Since last time, they only made one cake, which sent several kids at once to Darren, and he obviously complained to Keene.
So she had to help them make four extras. There were probably 40 slices or so available, since she was pretty sure they cut the cakes into eighths.
There should be less, or more, fighting then! Because more people get it, or because there's more slices available.
Anyway, she was on friendly terms with the elite-tiers and up, yeah. But she couldn't ignore Evie and Roland, so she spent time with whoever she found first. Or if she got called mid-way, where both sides understood.
"So good.." Evie cried, a slice of cake in front of her.
As mid-tiers, especially lower ones, these two rarely ever got to have cake. Even if they got there first, they would have to hand it over. So this was probably the second time they got it, since she did it before.
Liana reserved them for them. Did lunch ladies approve? Not really, she hid them. She wasn't even supposed to be in the kitchen to begin with, Keene just put her there and they accepted cuz Keene is strong and threatening. Only threatening because he's a high-tier, but he's still a high-tier!
Liana smiled, watching with an apple in her hand.
"Don't you want any?" Roland asked her.
"No. I got an apple. It's yours, so enjoy it."
Plus, she knew how to make it, so she could enjoy it whenever she wanted.
Blyke
Hey
Did you go to Remi's dorm recently?
Liana
Ye
Why
Blyke
Acting weird
Anything off inside?
Liana
She's got an extra window installed for some reason
Gonna break in?
Blyke
Wth
No!
Liana
Mhm
Okay
While they ate their cake, Liana worked on making changes around the parts Isen circled.
. . .
It was pretty late, and Liana was starting to prepare dinner, since she didn't want Keene living on apples and take out alone.
While she was mixing some mixture of beef, potatoes, tiny sausages, chopped onions, and sauce, Blyke called her.
She picked up, mixing with one hand.
"Yep?"
"Hey. Isen said you're really strong, so-"
"What did you find?" Liana asked cautiously.
"I didn't look! We just need your help, and Isen said that he'd be much more assured if you were with us!"
"Even after the Polish Jerry?" She turned off the stove, done stirring. Holding the phone between her ear and shoulder, she quickly poked the spoon and tasted the sauce.
Finding it okay, she put the spoon down.
"Yeah. Can you help us? It's honestly risky, so if you don't want to-"
"Who's involved?"
"Me, Isen, and Remi. Will you help, just so Isen stops bugging us for you?"
Brows furrowed, she stood for a moment. Remembering what Rei told her, she agreed.
"I'll do it."
. . .
She was originally planning on spending her weekend sneaking in and out of Arlo's apartment to bug him, and return the sweater at one point.
But Blyke said it might take her whole weekend, so she cancelled on Arlo.
Tiny Blue Coffee
Hey
Gotta cancel on the weekend plans to hang out
Stff came up
I'll give you the sweater back next week
Blond boi regular
What plans???
Guppie
Give me back my clothes
What were you planning to do?
Tiny Blue Coffee
Break into your apartment and bug you till school started
You fired me after all
So much free time!
But gotta cancel on u
He sent a picture of her painted pastel yellow, with a rainbow strip in the middle, friendship mug, dangling over his balcony.
Blond boi regular
I threaten this
Tiny Blue Coffee
YOU YELLOW CUSTARD THING
So that was fun.
Meanwhile, Arlo got his entertainment from that brief conversation. And, since they needed her tomorrow, she still biked to his apartment and threw rocks at Arlo, who was on his balcony.
He only rolled his eyes at her, mocking her from above. Then she ran inside with a copy of his keys, so he basically leaned against his door and kept her from entering.
Very casually. Just leaning back, on his phone and drinking from his mug, while Liana continued trying to force the door open.
She stopped. He thought she left, and continued leaning on the door, as a safety precaution.
But, no. She got in through his open balcony door, floating, ran inside, and chaos ensued.
"ASSLO!"
"WHAT THE FU-"
When she panicked, she clambered onto his couch and basically made it float to the ceiling with her stuck in between.
"Don't you dare steal that again!"
Basically, over the summer break, before that incident with the police, she stole his couch and pandemonium ensued.
It was fun. It included a Superhero on a break, near heart attacks, suspicious equipment, a crushed couch that Arlo watched the destruction of, a Karen named Levani, Isen making dolphin noises, and a trip to Akea later that was full expenses paid for, by Liana, where even more fun stuff happened.
The morning after, she met Blyke and Isen in front of Remi's dorm, wearing the beige sweater out of spite. It was the weekend.
Did they tell Liana what she was getting herself into? No. But she did want to help on whatever it was that they had to bring her in for.
Blyke and Isen had eyebags, and Blyke was holding some gym bag of clothes. Isen was relieved she was joining, though she already knew that he looked up her ability.
They knocked on the door, Remi answering.
"Uhh. You two look terrible."
"Take this." Blyke pushed the bag into her arms. "You wanna be a Superhero, right? You gotta do it right!"
. . .
A while back, there was a book published, called Unordinary.
This book sparked a lot of controversy, and high-tiers felt encouraged to use their abilities for the lower tiers.
The Authorities weren't happy with this. As those high-tiers acted out from the hierarchy they were supposed to be at the top of, they were displeased with these new "Vigilantes," and "Superheroes."
They were originally portrayed as good, and the public liked them. But, as they began to die, the news started discouraging others, and they got a bad rep.
There were still Superheroes running around. A few months ago, a shadow organization named EMBER, started targetting and killing these Superheroes.
The Authorities haven't done much to stop them. The news only repeats the same thing.
Remi, believing her brother, Rei, who acted as one of these Superheroes, was killed by EMBER, was now seeking out revenge.
That was why Liana, Blyke, and Isen were now sitting in Remi's room, waiting for Remi to change into whatever Vigilante outfit Blyke got her.
Isen showed his phone to Blyke. "Here's what a Superhero is supposed to look like."
It was a picture of Rei, blue lightning coursing around him in his skin-tight clothes. There was a mask, a pouch, and the colors all seemed to match well.
"X-Static."
Remi came out, in a black hoodie that was a size too big, with duct tape slapped on to make an X on the front. She wore a beanie that hid her hair, and a face mask for hospitals.
"What do you think?"
They all sweatdropped. She looks like a sick kid.
"I think the X is good." Remi pulled down her mask. "But it needs more personality to it."
With a sharpie, she drew... the lower half of a dog face? A cat? Bunny? Uhh.
"Ta-dah!" Remi winked. "Completes the homemade look, doesn't it?"
They sweatdropped even more.
. . .
Isen and Blyke sat on the floor with their laptops. Remi was on the bed.
Liana missed the memo and didn't have a laptop. She just laid on the bed, next to Remi's legs.
After a few clicking keys, Isen finally spoke, "What about this?"
Remi looked over, sitting up more, while Liana only turned her head.
"Waldo, age 35."
On his screen was the picture of a middle-aged man, with short purple hair, and the face of a privileged slacker.
Name: Waldo
Age: 35
Reported LVL: 2.8
Ability: Shockwave
Last seen:
Branish, Low-Tier District. Causing trouble in the area.
"Well, what kind of trouble?" Liana asked.
"Trouble," Remi responded. "It's pretty far from here, so they probably won't recognize our abilities."
"Seems this guy's been going at it for a couple of days. Authorities are leaving this alone."
"Of course," Liana muttered, crinkling her nose.
"In a Low-Tier District like Branish, even a 2.8 is pretty threatening."
"It's so threatening, that's higher than my level!" Liana squawked, ultimately being ignored.
"It's a good place to start. We can get our name out there. What do you think, Blyke?"
When they looked over at him, they saw him dozing off.
They stared. Then looked at each other. And held up a sharpie, grinning.
. . .
Thanks to their cheap way of redoing Blyke's face with marker, he now had: a bushy unibrow, a teardrop, stubble, and a mustache.
"What?" Blyke asked them when he woke up, seeing them shaking like they just saw something funny.
"Nothing." Isen immediately pulled a straight face, which didn't help with containing their laughter. "While you were snoozing away, we found our first target."
"Really? Lemme see." Blyke came over to see, all of them smiling. "A mid-tier? Isn't that a bit low? No offense, Lia." He held up a palm to her face, just as she was about to retort.
"Can't find anything higher. It's all been handled by the Authorities."
"Ehh. Alright."
"Great," Liana rolled onto her back, "let's go now."
"What?!"
"Now?!"
"Sure, what's wrong with that?" Remi agreed easily.
"Huh!?"
"EMBER won't wait on us to catch them. The longer we wait, the more victims there'll be," Remi told them.
"Great." Liana sat on the edge of the bed. "You guys are strong enough to keep yourselves safe, though."
Bruh, Isen stared at her, closing his laptop.
"I told you, Lia," Remi reminded. "I'll keep your safe."
Did we... Blyke and Isen stared at the two, squinting. Miss a girl promise they made?
"Our real reason here is to catch EMBER's attention," Remi stated. "All we know about them, is that they can take a person's ability. They'll probably attack when we least expect it."
They looked to Remi, who seemed to have planned it out already.
"Superheroes act alone, so they can't cover their own backs. We'll use that to our advantage. There's four of us, but only one of us- and I mean me, Blyke, and Isen- is needed to bait out EMBER. So, we'll split into two groups. Lia's with me."
"Why?" Liana asked.
"To keep my promise of making sure you're safe. Isen really needs you here, for some reason, but I wouldn't want you here..."
"We need her!" Isen cried. "You don't get it!"
"I swear to God, man-!"
"I can't show my face though, can I?" Liana interrupted.
They stared at each other.
"Got another weird costume idea?"