Act 12: Heroes, Secrets, and Jon Whitaker

--- Josh ---

“You alright?” He asked, noticing his brother sort of just staring off into the distance at the kitchen table.

“W-what?” Chris blinked before noticing him and shaking his head. “No, uh, yeah. Sorry, I was uh, I was just lost in thought for a second there.”

“What about?” As far as he knew Chris had never really been the daydreaming type, more focused on getting things done when he could.

“Just… things.”

He gave his brother a look as he poured himself a bowl of cereal. “That was a very poor side-step there.”

Chris sighed, rubbing at his eyes. “Look it’s not something you need to be worrying about.”

“Is this the, ‘the bar is in trouble’ kind of worrying or the ‘Chris got a girl pregnant’ kind of worrying?” He pressed with a touch of amusement.

“W-what?!” Chris sputtered, before shaking his head. “No, no, it’s… it’s a Deviant thing.”

“Oh…” (Right, Chris doesn’t know I’m a Deviant now…)

He had no intention of telling his brother that he was Deviant -at least not while he was working for the Malice Doctor- but it was still a splash of cold water, to remember that he now had to keep a secret from his brother.

(I wonder if this is how all Masks feel when they realize they have to keep it a secret?) He’d found out Chris was a Mask fairly early on, but that was more because his brother had been a bit sloppy at keeping that secret as a teen.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to his former Mask of a brother. “Is there like a new supervillain on the block? Should I be watching the whole curfew thing a little more strictly?”

“Uh, no, nothing like that.” His brother assured him before eventually sighing. “I think there’s a new madness user in town.”

If his brother’s last answer was a splash, this one was a flood of cold water.

“What do you mean?” He asked, hoping to find a way to direct any possible attention away from himself.

“Like I said it’s nothing serious, just been feeling a few flexes of madness in the neighborhood every so often.” Chris finally admitted. “It’s not really our problem, but I can’t help but wonder who they are.”

“Um, could it be the Gamer’s Guild?” He offered, remembering how the Malice Doctor had mentioned their leader as being the other major Madness user in town. “I’ve heard their boss is like a Wonderlander or something handing out toys to everyone.”

“Mm, maybe.” Chris hedged, before shaking his head. “But this doesn’t feel like the GM’s usual brand of Madness.”

“Different people’s Madnesses feel different?” He frowned, not having noticed that.

“It takes a while to start parsing it all but yeah every Madness user has a slightly different feel to their Madness, the GM’s for instance feels kind of… like a mix of staticy and pixely.” Chris tried to explain, before frowning as something occurred to him. “Sorry.”

He blinked. “Uh, what for?”

“No, I know you don’t like hearing about my powers ever since we found out about… your situation.” His brother tried to apologize, as Josh remembered another revelation that he knew he’d had before.

(Chris doesn’t think I can develop powers at all.) He knew that -given the context and his situation- his brother’s lack of suspicion about his powers should’ve relieved him, but really all it did was leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Don’t worry about it.” He told himself as much as his brother. (I’ll be a star soon enough, and then you’ll quit doubting me.)

---

“So we’re going over the whole Sanctuary vs Heroes’ Guild thing again?” He asked, taking a seat at their usual library table, while still feeling… something after his conversation with his brother several hours prior.

“Right, I feel like we’ve almost got everything wrapped up but I wanted to give it another go over before we have to turn everything in.” Annette told him, as she spread out several papers.

“Uh-huh.” He sighed, before looking at his project partner. “So, what are we starting with this time?”

“How about the whole law and order vs hope and good will thing?” Annette offered. “That’s the main subject of our project after all.”

“Fine by me.” He was honestly more concerned with the Deviant side of his life than a random school project, even if the situation wasn’t the same for Annette.

“Okay.” Annette nodded, turning to her notes. “So starting with Sanctuary, the organization focuses on Deviant crimes, and interdimensional threats. Prioritizing the evacuation of civilians and establishment of a perimeter around a target, before subduing said target with extreme firepower and efficiency so as to minimize casualties and property damage. From there while Sanctuary does hold PR meetings and press conferences the majority of theirs revolve around providing information about their investigations as well as proving the Deviants they interact with are in fact being treated fairly.”

“That’s about right if we ignore their kill warrant squads, and the fact that they’re a remnant of a genocidal organization.” He confirmed, knowing that he’d provided a fair portion of the information due to this project.

“Even if that stuff is probably true, it’s not something the schools teach and I’d rather not be labeled a conspiracy nut, thank you.” Annette told him, her abrasiveness of her personality pushing through whatever friendship they had and whatever gratitude she’d build up over this project.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged, not forcing her to take the red pill or the blue pill.

“Moving on… In contrast the Heroes’ Guild, primarily focuses on dealing either with non-Deviant crime, or handling Villainous Masks in public settings, while both working with the police and allowing civilians to remain and watch their less dangerous encounters. The reasoning being to allow civilians to see the guild beating back crime and evil, thus establishing a hopeful narrative that inspires civilians while discouraging criminals. And seeing as this narrative is their focus in maintaining the peace the majority of their PR work goes into maintaining a positive and active image in the public mind, as seen with the various games, books, and stories using the IPs of the Heroes’ Guild to both better fund the Guild and underline the idea that heroes are always there.” Annette finished reading from their paper before giving him a questioning look.

“Ignoring the corruption they tend to sweep under the rug and privately deal with, that was a fairly solid report.” He nodded in approval.

Annette just stared at him for a moment. “You’re a very cynical person aren’t you.”

“No more than you.” He argued half-heartedly.

“Right…” Annette sighed, before sorting her papers out. “Still aside from a bit of filler text to pad it out, that covers the broad strokes of our project.”

“Uh-huh.” He agreed, before his lack of filter voiced a question he probably should’ve kept to himself. “Why are you taking this project so seriously?”

“What do you mean?” Annette frowned, her tone taking just a hint of hostility.

“I mean this is just a single project, it’s not like it’s going to decide your grade for the year.” He tried to explain. “So why’ve you been so… aggressive about this whole thing.”

“Because while it may not decide your grade, it might decide mine.” Annette scoffed before stuffing her papers in her bag and storming off.

“Well… that was a bit extreme…”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Street Smarts

--Currently: Lv. 3 (1/8)

-Grown a bit closer to Annette.

---

Arriving at the warehouse he couldn’t help but look around when he received no biting remarks upon his entrance.

(Where’s Zylah? Maybe she’s running late.) He figured not seeing the Shadow Dancer as he took a seat at the warehouse table. (Guess I’m the one stuck waiting today…)

He was there for nearly fifteen minute before Zylah finally burst through the warehouse doors, her eyes quickly locking onto him and relaxing.

“Running late?” He asked, feeling like giving her a taste of her own medicine.

“Not quite.” Zylah sighed, before giving him a look as she got closer. “I’m guessing you didn’t get the memo yesterday.”

“Memo?” He repeated with a frown.

“Our lessons are over.” She told him bluntly, crossing her arms. “I was only supposed to make sure you could run, fight, and hide. The last lesson was to round out any glaring holes I saw.”

“Fuck.” He groaned leaning back in his seat as he realized he might not be getting as much training as he’d been hoping for. (Meaning this heist thing might be a little harder than I initially thought…)

Running a hand down his face he turned back to Zylah. “If our training thing is over then why are you here exactly?”

“I got an alert that someone was in the warehouse and came by in case someone was snooping where they shouldn’t.” She explained, looking around the warehouse empty save the two of them before eventually giving him a considering look. “Hey, do you know how to pick a lock?”

“Uh, no?” He frowned in confusion. “Wasn’t that what you were planning on teaching me today, I mean last time before you put me through all of that, uh, stamina training.”

“Yeah. You’d be surprised how important that is for this gig, regardless of what powers you can throw around.” Zylah explained tapping her foot as she thought about something before nodding to herself. “Which is why I’ll go ahead and show you how to do it today.”

“Really?” He blinked, not expecting her to go the extra mile like that.

“Yes, I’m that nice of a person.” Zylah nodded humbly, before reaching into her dress and pulling out a lock and a set of thin sticks with right hooks at the end.

“You uh, you just carry a lock and lock picks on you?” He couldn’t help but ask as she set the supplies on the table.

“Never know when a bit of practice can help you.” The other teen shrugged. “Besides a fair number of us gain access to a small pocket dimension eventually, so it’s not like it’s that hard to carry.”

(A pocket dimension?) He repeated to himself, before remembering the fact that he had an entire dimension to himself as well as the fact that, (the storage basement is probably how I learn to summon and store things in the Cabaret.)

“Now then first things first, the anatomy of a lock.” Zylah began her lesson.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Zylah gained new skill: Thievery at Lv. 1 (0/4).

--Thanks to overlap with Slyness and Street Smart skills gained an additional 5XP.

---*Skill Level Up* Thievery Lv. 2 (1/6).

---

“So, any idea what’s with all the cops tonight?” He asked Maddie, grabbing a tray of food as she grabbed a tray full of drinks for the patrons and a cookie for herself off of a plate behind the bar. (And since when do we have cookies?)

“There’s some kind of celebration going on after a big gang bust.” The waitress explained, as they moved between the bar tables.

“That’s right, not one but two gang warehouses in a single weekend.” One of the officers laughed, already looking a little tipsy. “And over two dozen gang arrests on top of that!”

“Too bad that one big fuck got away.” Another chimed in. “Wasn’t expecting the Dealers to have a Deviant there.”

“Eh, every gang ‘s got one or two nowadays.” The first dismissed. “Hell, I’ve heard a couple of stations have their own Deviant now.”

“Josh!”

His eyes snapped to Maddie, as he made his way over. “Sorry, got distracted.”

“Yeah… we’ve been at this for a couple of hours now.” She nodded giving him a concerned look. “If you want I can cover the rest of this.”

“I’m not that out of it yet.” He told her, moving to an empty table and clearing away the empty glasses.

“Still don’t feel right making you help like this.” Maddie sighed, grabbing the other half of the table’s dishes.

“And I’ve told you before you’re not making me help.” He assured her as they made their way to the bar. “Besides odds are this is what I’m going to be doing when I graduate high school anyway.”

“Come on, don’t talk like that.” The closest thing he had to a sister scolded him lightly. “You’ve got a whole world of possibilities, and I’m sure you can be anything you want to be.”

“Yeah…” (But do you really want me to be who I want to be?) He knew Maddie had been his brother’s main support during his Mask days, and while she had been hit by the same stuff that forced his brother into retirement, he very much doubted she’d appreciate his goals on that front. (Then again there’s nothing wrong with being a star just so long as we remember the people who got us there.)

He blinked wondering where that bit of wisdom came from.

Rather than continuing their conversation Maddie looked at one of the nearby tables and said, “Hey, isn’t that your friend Jon over there?”

“Jon?” He frowned, before following Maddie’s gaze to a brown haired teen in a white t-shirt and jeans sitting next to a similar looking woman in a brown jacket at a table full of female cops.

Of course he picked most of that up in the peripheral since the majority of his attention was locked onto the fact that his instincts were screaming to (stay the fuck away from him!)

“Uh, you okay Josh?” Maddie asked with a concerned tone. “You’re looking a little pale there.”

“W-what?” He blinked, before shaking his head. “Uh, yeah, it’s just… there was this kid bullying someone at school and Jon, he uh… he’s apparently really good with a knife.” (Admittedly that happened a few weeks ago but the point stands.)

“Huh, I knew Ms. Whitaker used to be in the military, maybe she taught him a thing or two about defending himself.” Maddie suggested with a frown. “Still he’s a nice kid I doubt there’s anything you have to worry about with him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” (If it wasn’t for the little voice in my head screaming threat, scary ass fucking threat!)

Scene Consequences

-Gained (3D6 = 13) Dollars.

-Grown a bit closer to Maddie.