It was just past noon when Willow entered the school. Lunch period was almost over, but she dropped by the tech club room anyway.
"How's competition prep coming?" she asked as she entered. Most of the responses were positive, though a few kids were too focused on their work to even notice her.
Willow sat down at her usual spot in the back corner, reached into her pocket, and pulled out the USB drive she'd taken to the lab. As eager as she was to dig through the downloads, she didn't want to connect the drive to any of her good equipment. SCI could have added a program protecting their data that would wreck her system. She'd have to wait until she got home and dig up one of her old computers.
Willow tossed the USB into her bag, pulled out her laptop, and got to work shutting down the programs she'd been using to access SCI.
Kate approached Willow's desk, phone in hand. "Hey, Willow?" A hint of apprehension hung in her voice.
Willow glanced up. "Yes?"
"We got another email from West and Novak offering to sponsor us in the spring competition." Her gaze darted anxiously between her phone and Willow. "I know you said—"
"We're not working with them," Willow cut her off. It took everything she had to keep the ice out of her voice, and even so, the words came out harsher than she'd intended. She managed to lighten her tone as she added, "Besides, we've got enough money from the fundraiser."
"Yes, but if we could save that for later—" Kate started.
"We're not taking West's money," Willow said, her jaw clenching. "That's final."
Kate pressed her lips together, nodded, and walked away.
Willow was able to work in peace for maybe five minutes before the door opened and Adam barged in.
"Oh, come on," Willow groaned as he approached. "What else could you possibly want from me?"
Adam stopped in front of her desk. "Well, the data from SCI, for starters."
Willow lowered her voice. "You didn't seem to care about that when we were down there."
"Yeah, before I realized just how many people are after us because of—you know." He held up a hand.
Willow lifted an eyebrow.
"Listen," Adam said. "I think we're going to go meet with those Newman people and find out what the deal with Scorpion is."
"Define 'we.' Because if it includes everyone standing out front earlier—"
"I don't know. Maybe," Adam admitted. "But it'll at least be me and Eric. You don't have to stay long. Could you at least give us the information you found at SCI? I know it was mostly about that artifact, but they did mention looking for kids like us."
The desperation in his tone made Willow reconsider. She would never let it show, but she still felt a twinge of guilt over turning the search for Eric into stealing information, even though it had all worked out in the end. Granted, her suspicions that superpowers were at play did push her to say yes when Adam asked in the first place.
But part of her had genuinely wanted to help.
And despite her insistence that she wanted to stay out of all this, she couldn't resist a challenge. SCI had data that she hadn't been able to get to. Yet. And she was curious to see what kind of systems Scorpion was working with.
Adam watched her expectantly, his expression already doubtful. He didn't expect her to say yes, did he?
Willow sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Fine."
Adam's face lit up. "Really?"
Willow's mind was already miles away, working through ideas on how to get back into SCI's servers, how she might be able to unlock some of the encrypted data on the USB, ways she might begin to investigate Scorpion's equipment without being seen. "Sure," she said absentmindedly. "Let me know when the meeting is. I'll make a slideshow or something."
~
Willow hadn't been joking about the slideshow thing. She pulled images from SCI's reports, screencapped their security footage, and included relevant excerpts from files she found on the USB. There was a reason she got good grades and competition awards, after all.
But she didn't just research SCI. While she waited for documents to load and transfer, she checked up on Adam's other friends. Well, his brother's friends, by the look of things.
Eric Ackerman didn't have much of an online presence, just the occasional photo from a family gathering, or at a school function with friends. His closest friend seemed to be Summer Lu, who was more prominent online. She was a junior like Eric and a baseball player on Tyche Point's team.
Willow located another fairly average social media presence for Veronica Martinez, including a few notable science fair projects, as well as some accounts for her twin brother Sam that looked like they hadn't been touched in almost a year. The photos he posted were mostly pictures of art projects.
So, these were the kids that wanted to take on a secret organization? Willow drummed her fingers against her desk. Did she care about Scorpion? They weren't the only bad guys out there, and there were people better equipped to fight them. Despite her abilities, Willow had never been interested in jumping into the fray. She preferred to focus on coding and building equipment.
Her phone lit up. It was a text from Adam, who she'd reluctantly given her number to at the end of lunch. They'd be meeting the Newmans tomorrow afternoon at a motel on the other side of town. Along with, apparently, all of Eric's 'new friends.'
Great. The place was probably rundown and disgusting, and Willow wasn't looking forward to dealing with a bunch of other people in a tiny space. Her, Adam and Eric, Summer, Sam and Veronica...oh, and the Newmans. God, that made eight people total, didn't it?
Willow pushed her annoyance aside—as if it were junk she could just hide in a desk drawer—and went back to work. In a separate folder on her laptop, she set aside all the sales receipts from her father's tech company. That was something she could look at later, although for what purpose, she wasn't entirely sure yet.
~
The other part of the meeting Willow wasn't looking forward to was the drive. She'd told Adam she didn't have a car, and she certainly wasn't going to ask her mom to drive her to a sketchy motel at the edge of town.
So, she wound up standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, waiting for a ride.
Adam pulled up and rolled down the window. "Hey. Thanks again for coming."
"Sure," Willow said as she walked up. "Am I getting in the back?"
"Uh, passenger," Adam replied. "We're giving the others a ride too. Environment, you know? "
Well, at least she wouldn't be crammed in the back with strangers. Willow opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat. She threw a glance at the back to see Veronica, Sam, Eric, and Summer squished together.
"Oh, and here." Adam grabbed a cup from the cup holder and held it out to Willow. "I grabbed you a coffee."
Surprised, she froze a moment before gingerly accepting the drink. "Thanks."
"What, no drinks for the rest of us?" Eric asked, a smirk on his face.
Adam glared at his brother in the rear-view mirror. "You can buy your own coffee with your ice cream scooping money. I'm trying to win over the person who has valuable information."
Willow considered responding to that but decided to sip her coffee instead. It shouldn't have mattered that he was trying to get on her good side because she had information, rather than simply being nice. She did that kind of thing all the time.
But it did sting a little.
The others chatted in the back, but Willow and Adam stayed quiet. After a short drive, they pulled into the parking lot of the Desert Moon Motel. Adam parked next to the Newmans' gray van.
"You all have some degree of control over your powers, right?" Willow asked, glancing at the back seat.
"Sure!" Summer exclaimed.
"Uh..." Eric rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm good at setting things on fire?"
Sam shrugged. "Kind of, but if I use them too much, I get a headache."
"No, not at all," Veronica said plainly.
"Great." Willow threw open her door. "Let's all hope this isn't some kind of trap."
"Oh, come on," Adam said as he climbed out. "With all the people trying to hurt us, is it really so hard to believe that at least a couple would want to help?"
"Yes."
Adam sighed and led the group to a door. "Room 110, right?" he asked, throwing a glance at Eric. Eric nodded in response.
Adam had barely lifted his fist to knock when the door opened.
"Come in," Beth said. She looked the group over as they passed her and entered the room. Willow wondered if the Newmans had actually expected all six of them to show up.
Charles looked up from the laptop he was working on, at a small desk otherwise occupied by notebooks and another computer. "I was told someone has data from SCI?"
Willow held up her USB. "I've got it here."
Charles gestured to the laptop. "Go ahead. Screen's ready to project on the wall."
While Willow set up her presentation, the others found places to sit around the room. Charles stayed in the desk chair, and Beth stood next to him. Adam leaned against the wall by one of the beds. Eric sat on the bed near him, and Sam found a spot on the other side of Eric. Veronica slid to the floor by her brother, arms folded, and Summer pulled an open chair over and settled for sitting on the armrest.
Willow instinctively slipped into the persona she put on at competitions and interviews. "Twelve years ago, an accident at Delta Labs forced them to shut down and abandon the building." She tapped the laptop's space bar, and an image of the destroyed building filled the wall. "Very few details were released to the public. The government ran an initial investigation immediately after, then left the place empty.
"Now, they've sent in a special organization of theirs: SCI," Willow continued. "This is technically public knowledge, but it's hard to find, and most people don't know about it. SCI was officially founded as the 'Supernatural Control Institution' in the fifties after Earth joined the Star System Alliance. They were formed in response to the government's concerns about our lack of knowledge regarding other worlds, and debates over how to handle superpowered beings here on Earth."
"So, should we even be worried about them?" Veronica piped up. "They're not the ones who tried to kidnap Eric. Sounds like they're minding their own business."
"They are, for now." Willow rested a hand on her hip. "Their official job here is to investigate an artifact beneath the lab. But SCI knows we exist, and they've repeatedly mentioned looking for us in their communications. As much as the government parades around groups like the Defenders Alliance, they also want to be prepared if those heroes turn on them. I don't know what they plan to do if they find us, but if they think studying us will be useful, they'll find a way to justify anything."
Charles cleared his throat. "Based on what I know about SCI's work, that wouldn't surprise me either. But you mentioned something about an artifact?"
Willow nodded and changed the slide. "This was the best image I could find," she said. The next photo was a screencap of security footage from the artifact chamber. "The thing they refer to as the 'Delta Artifact' is this triangular shard of metal. They haven't been able to remove it from the earth yet. As far as I can tell from what data I could access, it's somehow stuck in there. Unfortunately, the reports they've written up on it are password-protected, and I'm still trying to get into them."
Willow glanced at the Newmans. Beth whispered something to Charles, who nodded. He looked at Willow. "Anything else?"
"A few last notes, actually," Willow replied. "First, I didn't just take SCI's files. When SCI came in, they were able to recover some original data from Delta Labs researchers. A lot of it is corrupted, unfortunately, and the data that is salvageable is heavily encrypted. I'm still working on accessing it.
"Second, this kidnapping business sent me down another rabbit hole: Tyche Point's missing children." Five photos of young kids appeared on the wall. "These aren't all of them," Willow said. "Just the ones photos were published for. But I was able to track down ten names reported as missing twelve years ago. The reports all came in weeks after the lab accident. There were also some reports filed in the following years that may be related."
"Wow, you went all out," Adam said, clearly impressed.
A slight smirk touched the corner of Willow's mouth. She always did.
"Ugh, I've seen a couple of those photos around town," Summer said. "Some of the sketchier gift shops like to encourage the theories that they were abducted by aliens."
"Gross," Veronica muttered. "Using these kids to drum up interest from tourists is horrible."
Eric straightened up. "Wait, I recognize two of those names," he said. He jumped to his feet and pointed at the slide. "Wren Cartwright and Seth Lancaster. They both work for Scorpion now."
"So, Scorpion took all the missing kids?" Summer asked. "But why right after the accident?"
"And why come back after twelve years?" Sam added.
"Not sure about why they're back now, but I think the answer to Summer's question is pretty obvious." Willow folded her arms. "The accident is related to our powers. And possibly the artifact, given the Delta Labs connection."
"Well, what about the kids who went missing and came back?" Veronica asked. "Sam also disappeared after the accident, but we found him." She glanced at Eric. "And didn't something like that happen to you, too?"
Eric nodded. "That was a while after the accident, though."
"How long after?" Willow asked.
Eric glanced at Adam, who frowned. "Almost two years, I think," Adam said.
"Not long after me, then," Willow muttered. This was getting interesting. And complicated.
Adam looked at her, eyes wide. "You went missing, too?"
"For a couple weeks, yes." Willow lifted her gaze to the ceiling. "Apparently my father made some very public threats about tracking down whoever was responsible, and I was returned pretty quickly after."
"Well, we didn't exactly have the resources to make threats," Adam said. "Eric just showed up outside our house one day."
"With no memory of where I'd been, apparently," Eric added.
"I found a few other missing reports that were also closed after the kids were found," Willow said. "So other kids were returned home too, for some reason."
Willow switched to her last slide. "This is the last thing I've found, so far." She gestured to the security footage of the boy who'd broken in before her and Adam. "Whoever this guy is, he's also interested in the artifact. He walked right into the labs, took a look at the chamber, downloaded info from SCI's computers, and left. He has the ability to put people to sleep," she explained. "Not only that, but some of the agents were mentally unstable when they woke up and had to be transferred out."
"What do you mean by unstable, exactly?" Sam asked, his nervous gaze darting between the screencaps.
"According to the report by the agent in charge, some of them were rambling about complete nonsense," Willow said. "Others seemed okay at first but became paranoid a few hours later and insisted something was after them."
Beth glanced at Charles. "The Nightmare Kid?"
"Must be," Charles replied. "But we have no idea who he works for. There could be a third party at play."
"Another group?" Veronica groaned. "How many people are we dealing with?"
"I don't know, but I'm done sharing." Willow turned to the Newmans. "Now it's your turn. Who are you, and how did you find out about us?"