Chương 38: Quadrant

The ride home was polluted by a silence that normally finds itself at a wake or a hearing. One where obvious questions sit, chained down by social standards seeking to maintain the tone. Unfortunately, chains don't hold me down.

"Who the Hell was that Holden guy, Tancred?" I finally asked, fully expecting to be told to shut my mouth. The agent turned to me, gaze imperceptible through his shades.

"To be honest with you for once, I haven't the goddamn foggiest. Someone's getting keelhauled for letting an unknown independent into the event like that. That Enparo loser I knew, he does trade pubs, but Holden was a complete unknown." Wonderful news, now we had journalists popping out of the woodwork even the federal government couldn't identify.

"So what's the plan? You told us we're starting classes on Monday. What if he just shows up?" The agent shook his head.

"There's absolutely no way he'll be able to verify you guys are The New Sentinels. Even Jairo at his most obvious still has legal, plausible deniability. And if he approaches you guys on patrol, you avoid him. If he accosts you, you tell him you're on duty and don't have time for interviews. He keeps following you after that? You call it in and start offering your three warnings." There was an unconscious curling of my lips.

"You want us to threaten a journalist?"

"No, you idiot!" He threw his hands up.

"Do not fucking threaten a journalist! You warn him that he's impeding your patrol and that you will use force if needed to apprehend him should it hit the point of criminal violation. You shouldn't even be within five feet of him until warning three." What a completely logical, coherent approach to the problem. There was no point in arguing with the brick wall further, no good sense was gonna come from him at this point. The polluting silence returned, where we did our usual dive into a trash can.

Was there no way to get any less humiliating an entrance? Probably Sam's job. That was what compelled me to head to her lab when we arrived. The scene was an even bigger mess than the last time I was there. Multiple wheeled racks full of blinking devices, bleeding out wires into a set of different contraptions. Dr. Way sat in an office chair, half of her face buried in one hand. The other clung to her desk.

"How goes... whatever it is you're doing?" I inquired, noticing my mask was still on. I yanked the goddamn thing off like it was sucking the blood out of me. The first noise she made was a groan.

"Like trying to get every grain of sand out of a sponge," was the second noise.

"How so?" was the noise I made in response.

"So I set up a neural model to-" she started, but I interrupted.

"Head injuries, Sam." She blinked before nodding.

"Right, right. I have a program doing all the thinking for me in terms of identifying and scraping out all the crap in the system that Technofiend guy left behind. He's basically left marks everywhere. Some of it seems to 'phone home,' like it's talking to something centralized."

"And what do you mean by centralized?"

"So, while that was probably Technofiend's body you and Jairo took down, his uh...

'brain' is likely elsewhere. He might show up again. The good news is, though, now you know how to fight him. We can prepare for better countermeasures in the future, including system security." Dragging my palm across my face, I sighed.

"So we now have two separate supervillain threats. At least his clown pal got handled by Tancred." She gave me a thumbs up.

"That's still a good start. I was updated while you were recovering, apparently they had to haul him off by motorcycle." How'd they know to do that? They didn't seem to report to the press what Clowncar could do. I thought I was the only one who even saw what he was doing. Maybe Tancred just wanted me to have my moment? Would need to look into that later, since that didn't sound like him.

"We're still gonna need to figure out what's even his problem. The ADU have a clear motive. Technofiend just tried to raze a superhero event." Leaning back in her seat, Sam shrugged.

"Could be anything. Superheroes and supervillains are performative. Maybe he wanted to make his own first impression and didn't realize we already had an enemy. Maybe he just wanted to kill people. Maybe it was a distraction!" She mused, wiggling her fingers. Distraction. Could the ADU have put him up to it? Things to consider. It did keep us busy. I was comatose. Jairo was near dead. Chris and May couldn't handle multiple villains at the same time, probably.

Tancred would cut his hands off before he let any other leagues or the SIT step in. It's an obvious opportunity. But we're new, our names weren't even public until today. We had one encounter and we took everyone prisoner. We're not obvious targets. And then there's... is it motif? I think motif is the right word. Technofiend was... tech. Clowncar relies on cars. The ADU are ecoterrorists. They're all about trees. Machines, cars especially, are completely against that.

If they're really sold on their beliefs, which they should be if they're a cult, then why would they compromise them for one distraction against a super team that's brand new?

"Your head's all tilted again." Back to reality.

"Sorry. I don't think it was a distraction. Just... coincidence, I think. Bad coincidence, but coincidence nonetheless." Way held onto her chin for a moment, humming in thought.

"You're probably right. There's an argument to be made that supervillains come from superheroes. But history honestly says the opposite. The first officially-recognized superhuman was Vittorio 'Metalhead Mallone,' who was a gangster. He was a violent criminal who used his power of being made of an unbreakable metal to cause all sorts of trouble." My head tilted a second time, at this point used to my station in life of having this happen every time something moderately confused me.

I wondered how often I did that before.

"When did the superheroes show up?"

"1930. The Saint showed up, cleared out the Fontaine Crime Family in New Orleans. Did you not know he was the first?" I shook my head.

"Dropout, remember?" She rolled her eyes before nodding.

"Exactly. I don't really know much about the superheroes beyond like... reputation, really. I don't even really know what The Saint does that makes him any different from Guapo Galera or whatever. Just that he's the one everyone looks up to." The doctor raised a finger.

"For starters, The Saint is physically stronger. A lot stronger. He threw a spaceship from Earth to Mars. And he's clearly been getting stronger over time, as reports of his feats of strength have accelerated like crazy. He used to struggle to stop trains. Now he just carries kaiju into the ocean." I furrowed my brow.

"Not that much different from me then." She shook her head.

"Not at all. While we don't know the upper limit of your strength, we have no way to say yours comes close. On top of that, you're just strong and durable. The Saint's durable too, but you can't even stab or burn him. Plus, on top of that, he can fly at speeds we can't quantify."

"The perfect superhero package, then." That was met with the nod of her head.

"You got it. There are lots of superheroes who can do what he does, but none quite like him, with his experience and all that. He's the standard to meet for a lot of people. Guapo is just the fun one to people." Glad to know I had very reasonable expectations weighing upon me.

"I don't think you should try to emulate any hero, though." Convenient reassurance.

"Well, maybe some, but-" There it was.

"Like who?" I asked, sitting my hands on my hips.

"Honestly, real answer? I don't think you need to copy any hero for like... gimmick or ideals. But I bet if we got you in a room with like, Texas Tornado, he could show you some moves. I think if you just learned how to move your body more effectively, everything else would come perfectly to you. Unfortunately, athleticism isn't on my list of skills. I was born with Ehlers-Danlos. No free rides!" Head tilt. She didn't even question it.

"I have very weak joints. Before you ask, the kids don't. First thing I did was yank the responsible genes right out of the petri dish. Nothing eugenic, just keep them able to choose if they wanna play little league when they're older." Wasn't going to ask that, but I appreciated the explanation regardless. Wasn't going to say that out loud, either. Better to just nod, really.

"Maybe it'd be nice, but I think I'd have to actually earn some renown before I spoke to any big heroes." I shrugged, and she mirrored the motion.

"Could always just talk to Chris. He's a martial artist. He's gotta have some moves that are relevant for you at least. You've seen how he throws people around, imagine doing that when you're already strong enough to use buses like baseballs." That'd require having to talk to Chris for extended periods of time. I'd leave that for a time when I'm not on the precipice of nursing another headache. Those painkillers were gonna wear off soon. Could just feel it.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I'll think about it," I lied, before turning to march back up the stairs.

"Leo," she said, cutting my attempt at an exit short. Turning back to her, I didn't even bother asking what she wanted.

"Glad to see the suit fits you well." Sam gave me a thumbs up. I just nodded, heading up the stairs and trudging my way out of the lab and off to my room. That suit practically flew off me as I scrambled into normal clothes. There was no attempt at practicing stances or anything like that. Sleep was my good friend for once, and I met the following morning with soreness all throughout my body. That put a damper on any attempt at getting things done across the day.

Not much you can do when you felt like you'd just spent four hours in a tumble dryer with your only company being a couple bowling balls. I impotently limped about where I could. At some point my college schedule, in a folder with some other documents, was slipped under my door and accompanied with a knock.

HERCULES SCHEDULE TIME MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY 7: 00 AM — 9: 00 AM Open Clock (Free time, but on call) PATROL QUAD A Open Clock PATROL QUAD C Open Clock 9: 00 – 9: 50 AM PVCC: ENG 090 – Basic Writing Skills PATROL QUAD A PVCC: ENG 090 – Basic Writing Skills PATROL QUAD C PVCC: ENG 090 – Basic Writing Skills 10: 00 – 10: 50 AM PVCC: MTH 090 – Pre-Algebra PATROL QUAD A PVCC: MTH 090 – Pre-Algebra PATROL QUAD C PVCC: MTH 090 – Pre-Algebra 11: 00 AM – 12: 30 PM Break / Commute to UVA BREAK / QUAD CHANGE Break / Commute to UVA BREAK / QUAD CHANGE Break / Commute to UVA 12: 30 – 1: 45 PM UVA: DRAM 2810 – Acting I: Character Development PATROL QUAD D UVA: DRAM 2810 – Acting I: Character Development PATROL QUAD B UVA: DRAM 2810 – Acting I: Character Development 2: 00 – 3: 15 PM UVA: PLAP 1010 – Intro to American Politics PATROL QUAD D UVA: PLAP 1010 – Intro to American Politics PATROL QUAD B Open Clock 3: 15 — 7: 00 PM Open Clock PATROL QUAD D / DEBRIEF Open Clock PATROL QUAD B / DEBRIEF Open Clock Lovely.

Four classes across two colleges. Looked like I had an hour off on Fridays. The term "Quadrant Change" had me curious in the patrol column, next to lunch. Looking through the papers, it seemed to be some key information. Nothing on quadrants yet, but I finally saw my full SIN. 1247-948-158 Wondered what it meant. Probably nothing important. Flipping through some more, I found a map of the Charlottesville area. It was overlaid by a simple 2x2 grid. Each quadrant was labeled A, B, C, and D.

A and B on top, C and D on the bottom. Seems I did A and D on Tuesdays, B and C on Thursdays. The map also noted the exits we had, one in the park and one by the police station. Looked like both were our costume exits. Shit, I was supposed to suggest new exits to Sam. Gonna end up kicking myself over that. Looking back at the map, it also showed green lines marking down the routes we were to take, with red lines showing where not to go, and blue lines labeled "SHORTCUT."

Maybe in case we needed to cross distances quickly. It was a multicolor mess. Two patrol days a week wasn't bad, though. I would've preferred three or four, but I wasn't being trusted with anything I wanted it seemed. I'd have to earn it. That open time on Friday might be good patrol time. Just would have to not get caught. Did raise a question, though: What were the others' schedules? There was probably bleed-over, but there was likely at least one day where patrols were scarce. Had to find out.

And that required moving my sore ass up those stairs and into the kitchen, where everyone was excitedly chatting along.

"Dojo Stormers!" was the first thing I heard, followed by the sound of Christian and Jairo high-fiving. I glanced about until I saw May, sitting at the kitchen island with sluggish posture.

"Took 'em five minutes of guess-timating to figure out they share a patrol day. How about you, what days do you have?" Glancing down at my sheet, to reconfirm, I perked my head back up.

"Tuesday and Thursday. I might be able to do a bit in the mornings and Friday afternoon too." She stuck her tongue out, squinting at her own sheet.

"Tuesday and Thursday... Oh! We share a Tuesday. I think you're the only Thursday though. I know Chris is also soloing on Wednesday." My face scrunched.

"They gave me a solo patrol day?" May nodded.

"Probably because you have uh... experience." One way to put it.

"Well, while I do have Tuesday and Friday, and I can do a little bit of Thursday afternoon. My Criminal Law class only does Monday and Wednesday. I know Chris has those two days for his patrols, and Jairo has Monday and Friday. I don't know the specifics for them. Guys, you done gushing?" she asked, raising her voice to the two of them. Chris and Jairo glanced over at us.

"What're your patrol days, Leo?"

"Tuesday and Thursday." Chris snapped his fingers.

"Shucks!" Jairo shrugged.

"Oh well. No Brute Squad."

"Brute Squad?" I asked.

"Brute Squad! I'm still workshopping it," he explained. The redhead followed up with his own question.

"So what classes do you have?" Looking down, I reviewed the schedule.

"Basic Writing Skills and Pre-Algebra in the morning, says 'Acting I: Character Development' and 'Introduction to American Politics.' Wonderful." May piped up.

"Oh I did one like that during my first year in college. It's usually pretty fun since you basically get things like 'So the idea of this thing was introduced, and then people did a lot of crimes with it, and a new organization had to be formed, but then new crimes happened and new rules had to be made by the organization.' And it's newer, crazier stuff every time!"

"Like what?" I asked.

"The SEC, the organization that oversees investing, was made because before it, you could just buy a thousand dollars with a hundred dollars through margins. That's a really simple example. You're gonna learn a lot of crazy stuff like that!"

"Fun," I lied. I didn't care about politics, but of course now the politics were gonna care about me. From here on, I had to live a new balance: Education and clown colors. I didn't know which was worse.