Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(84)

She closes her eyes and concentrates.

“Abby…” Jess looks up in alarm. “Remember what happened last time… please don’t…”

“I know my limits, Jess,” Abby says, with her face scrunched up.

“Oh, hey, I got it!” Brendan exclaims, connecting two wires. “Must have bypassed it.”

Hundreds of feet above them the lift whirs to life and descends slowly. They watch in silence, and the doors automatically open.

The training center is still. Bells remembers the lonely pathways and the peaceful mornings when he ran around the track in the gym, but this is a different kind of quiet altogether.

There is no one here.

He swipes his DED at the scanner, and it opens to let “Barry” in.

“The last time I used that account,” Bells says, “The League had MonRobots after me in minutes. We need to be quick.”

“They must have had MonRobots in Andover since they knew you were from there,” Abby muses. “We’re far from Aerial City. It’ll take time for them to mobilize.”

“Let’s not waste any time, then,” Jess says.

“This is good, right?” Brendan asks, eyes wide as the follow Jess down the path. “I mean, I was hoping we wouldn’t have to fight anyone, since… I can’t…”

Abby hustles them along with a wary look. “Let’s just get the thing and get out of here.”

Jess closes her eyes and points in the direction they came. “That’s where the most danger to us is… so… we’re okay going to get the Registry for now.”

They walk among the creaking platforms and walkways. Bells tries to go as fast as he can, not looking at the ground below. He pauses. “The signs, they’re all different. The Archives used to be there, and the dorms over there, but everything has changed.”

“I’m getting the Archives in that direction,” Jess says, jerking her head to the right.

“Here we are,” Bells says. “Archives.” Bells pulls open the door. It’s dark inside and filled with files and files, but Jess brightens.

“I’ve got this,” she says, walking all the way to the end of the wall and pulling out a heavy box.

Bells takes the other side, and they shuffle to the door. “We won’t be able to hike back out with this,” he says, trying to think of another solution.

Brendan opens the box and grabs a stack of files. “We could split these up and put them in our packs?”

“There’s too much paper,” Bells says. “The point is, we don’t want the Collective or Orion to have this information, right? We don’t need this—if we take it back with us, then they can steal it. It shouldn’t exist in the first place.”

Jess nods. “It’s the only way they keep track of all the meta-humans in the Collective.”

Bells looks at the pile of paperwork and at the names on the tabs of the file folders. “Let’s burn it.”

Brendan grins. “I did bring matches!”

Pages and pages crumble and turn to ash. Bells watches as the names and powers and ratings and every little detail about every meta-human, hero and villain and otherwise, disappear in the flames. His file is in here too. He glimpsed it when they were building the file— VILLAIN stamped in bright red across the top.

Bells has been holding on to the dream of being one of the League’s heroes for so long. He was so hurt when they branded him a villain that he forgot what it felt like, how hopeful he was, when he first submitted his information. He doesn’t need this piece of paper or some organization to tell him who he is and who he’s meant to be.

Smoke tendrils wind their way up the trees, and Bells smiles.

At the hoverstation, Bells notices something odd about the crowd. “Do you think there are more assistant bots than usual?”

Abby looks around. “Those aren’t any brand I recognize… they look like a modified version of the new MonRobots, actually. What are they doing out on their own?”

The people walking through the central plaza of Aerial City Central station are almost outnumbered by the robots.

“I don’t know; I don’t like it,” Bells says.

“CHAMELEON, SURRENDER NOW.”

Bells can see their hovertrain pull into the platform.

“Run!”

He doesn’t need to say it twice; they’re already dashing for the train, dropping their datachips at the turnstile, pushing past other passengers and onto the train. Through the windows they can see the robots making their way toward them, drawing closer and closer.

“Come on, go, go, go,” Bells mutters.

The train is taking its sweet time getting started, but finally it whirs to life and heads out of the city.

The robots clamor on the platform, beeping at them.

“They found us because you scanned your Barry ID at the training center, right? But… we should be good now?” Emma asks.

“Saw us get on the train,” Bells says, folding his arms. “Let’s hope their A.I. isn’t advanced enough to follow us south.”

Abby looks out the window. “Unfortunately, they seem to be following us. And they’re fast.”

A flurry of robots flies past the window, and they watch as the robots blast at the next bridge for the hovertrack.