Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(33)
Bells trips over his own feet, which sends him sprawling into the dirt. Right, because I'm so dangerous.
The message disappears, and Bells continues on his run. He’s heading toward Emma’s neighborhood when his DED vibrates with an oncoming call from an unknown citizen ID number. Bells can hazard a guess who it is, though.
He clicks accept and watches the pixels form into a round face with floppy hair. “Hey, Brendan,” Bells says. Jess’ little genius brother is what, fourteen now?
“This message will self-destruct after it is completed—why are you running, Bells?”
“Just starting to get back in the habit,” Bells says. “Why’d you delete our group chat? Twice?”
“What part of not secure do you imbeciles not understand? Inter-communications, especially text, are easily compromised. We’re going to meet at a location to be disclosed at oh-nine-hundred hours to discuss the next steps. B—out!”
Bells shakes his head, but he can’t help the grin that’s starting to pull at his lips. Any plans are better than worrying about what’s coming next.
The basement in the Trans’ home has always been their domain, where they hang out after school and eat junk food and lounge about and have movie marathons. Jess decorated it with posters of The Hay Hays, her favorite band, which Bells admits to liking too, however cheesy their music is, and of the cast members of Vindicated. There are dozens of holos of Jess and Emma and Bells together, and he’s pleased to see new holos of Jess and Abby giggling and laughing with their MonRobots.
“This meeting is coming to order!” Emma bangs the gavel on the table. Where did she get a gavel?
Emma beams at them and asks for team name suggestions. Bells looks at Jess, who looks at Abby, who looks back at Bells, and the three of them stare at Emma as she rattles off possible team names, ending with, “And my favorite, the Sidekick Squad.”
Abby raises her hand. “I’m not a sidekick. I don’t think any of us are.”
Emma laughs. “I know we aren’t; it’s ironic.” She points at the title and nods enthusiastically. “It’s funny. Like we’re owning it, because some people would call us sidekicks, but we’re not.”
“I like it!” pipes up a voice from the door. Brendan carries in a tray of what looks like the inner workings of many different devices. Brendan sets up a desktop projector and hooks up, not a DED, but a large, square console.
“Wait, what’s Shorty doing here?” Emma asks.
“I’m part of the Sidekick Squad too!” Brendan doesn’t look up from his strange-looking console. “I organized this meeting—”
“Uh uh, no kid brothers,” Emma starts. “When did you even—”
“He figured it out.” Jess shrugs.
Hands on her hips, Emma glares at Brendan. “You didn’t organize this; I did. You just complained about how insecure our communications were. And your huge ‘secret to be disclosed location’ was so obvious—”
“Right, like you’re so great at running a covert operation, talking openly in messages—”
Jess sighs. “Look, you know Brendan’s a genius. He’s a brilliant engineer, not to mention a bunch of other things.”
“Explosions, Jess—” Emma folds her arms together.
“I don’t think he’s made anything explode by accident in the last year,” Bells says, which earns him a pleased smile from Brendan.
“If anything explodes, that’s on purpose,” Brendan says, blushing. He nudges aside the main projector with Emma’s datachip in it and gets to work on an entirely new system. His hands fly as he sets up a desktop projector and an old-school keyboard, which has actual buttons.
Abby chuckles. “Neat.”
“I like the clickety-clack noise they make,” Brendan says.
“Yeah, totally vintage,” Abby says. “Not as convenient as typing on a projector-board, but very cool. Your little bro’s got style, Jess.”
The holo projector gleams to life, and a cool blue light illuminates a stylized text that reads: Sidekick Squad. The words hover above the projector.
Brendan beams. “See? I organized too.”
Abby, Jess, and Bells groan in unison.
“We don’t need a name!” Bells says. “This is just… a group. A secret group that’s dedicated to—”
“Even though our parents say we should just focus on school, we can definitely contribute—” Brendan butts in.
“They don’t know everything,” Jess says. “I mean, my mom says they’re taking care of it, but I haven’t seen them do anything other than hang out with your mom and eat. I’m kinda surprised at how well my parents get on with your mom, considering they were sworn enemies.”
Bells chuckles. “That would make a hilarious story: Smasher and Shockwave now best friends with Mistress Mischief! Putting their famed rivalry finally to rest, the dynamic duo sets their sights on a new goal: brunch.”
Abby laughs. “I think they just like having friends they can talk with about meta-human stuff. They already have in-jokes. Something about the giant silver cup that they kept stealing from each other. Last week I think my mom asked your mom how to make dumplings, because she made some for me.”