Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(34)

“But the rivalry was all fake, though, right?” Bells asked. “I mean, it’s not that weird that they would become fast friends.”

“Plus, they have a united goal: finding Abby’s dad and…”

Emma coughs and taps the gavel lightly on the side of the coffee table-slash-holo projector. “Okay, speaking of goals, I’ve called the meeting to order. Present, we have—”

“Oh, oh, I’ve got it,” Brendan says. “I hope you guys like it.” He swipes his hand on his control pad. Sidekick Squad disappears and new lines of text appear, hovering in front of them like a movie title.

The room erupts into a chaos of noise.

“Mischief Girl? That’s so derivative, and I don’t want to have the same name as my parents!”

“Why does Brendan get to name us anyway?” asks Bells.

“Compass?” Jess says.

“The Pretentious Chameleon, haha, thanks, you remembered that.”

“Compass, really?”

“Wait, who’s Mastermind?” Abby wants to know.

“That would be me,” Emma says smugly. “Because I’m the brains of this outfit.”

Brendan coughs.

Emma knocks his shoulder with hers. “Look, I don’t deny that you’re brilliant and a genius, but I am clearly the mastermind of this operation. I came up with the name for the team and I’ve got the whole big-picture thing going on—”

“I’m Mastermind!” Brendan says.

“You are fourteen.” Emma sticks her tongue out at him.

“Compass sounds ridiculous, Bren-Bren,” Jess says, frowning.

“I think it sounds cool,” Abby says. “Think of how it would look on your own comic book.”

Jess leans back and scrunches up her face.

“Well, if I’m not Mastermind, where’s my name?” Emma asks pointedly.

Brendan fidgets, tugging at his collar. “Uh, I didn’t think you would want a codename, since you know—”

“I know what?” Emma says icily.

“Everyone on this team is important,” Jess says, leveling Brendan with a look. “Powers aren’t what make us heroes.”

“Yeah, and you don’t—” Emma starts.

Jess turns The Look at Emma. “Brendan is on this team too. He made a mistake.”

“I’m sorry,” Brendan says, looking at his feet.

Abby takes the keyboard from him. “Emma, you’re Mastermind.” She types quickly, and Mischief Girl is erased. She types Abby instead, and then after Mastermind, Compass, and The Pretentious Chameleon, she adds: Shortstack.

“Hey!” Brendan crosses his arms.

“You’re the shortest and the youngest,” Abby says. “You don’t get to complain about the names, since you thought Emma wouldn’t want one.”

“Okay, can we start now?” Emma asks, rolling her eyes.

“All right, let’s go.”

“Okay, today’s agenda. Locating Phillip Monroe, also known as Master Mischief, also known as Abby’s dad.”

Brendan taps at his control pad and a number of documents and images of Master Mischief and Phillip are projected into the air, looking larger than life. With Abby sitting behind the profile of her father, it’s easy to see the resemblance: the same heavy eyebrows and strong jaw. Abby flicks her hands through the pixels and enlarges the holo of the map.

“Phillip Monroe disappeared sometime last year—sorry, I don’t know when,” Emma says apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Abby says. “It was at the end of the summer, right before school started. He and my mom told me they were going to a robotics conference in New Bright City for two weeks, and two weeks came and went and they… just stopped responding to my messages. At first, I wasn’t suspicious. Sometimes they would disappear for a while, especially if they were doing stuff with the United Villain’s Guild. That’s always off the grid: no connection to the Net, no communication. But they’d always give me a timeframe and contact me when they said they would.”

Jess takes Abby’s hand, interlacing their fingers.

“I was already working at Monroe Industries. I started that summer as an intern, and I wanted to do research and development, but my dad wanted me close. I think he didn’t want anyone to realize that I was his daughter.” Abby closes her eyes. “He said it was too risky, even though only my dad and a few members of the board of directors knew any details about the experimental division, let alone that Dad was actually Master Mischief.”

Brendan brings up several sketches of MonRobots.

Abby squints. “How did you… Ah. This isn’t the latest version. This one was leaked to the board before my parents disappeared. But still, this is Monroe Industries property…”

Brendan clicks his tongue. “I stole it to help find your dad. You’re welcome.”

Abby rolls her eyes, smiling. She gestures for Brendan to continue.

“So, in 2123 Monroe starts working on features for the new line of MonRobots that include home security, defense, the works,” Brendan says, going over the sketches.

Bells narrows his eyes at what look like prongs. “What would be the point of these? Defense from what?”