Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(87)

“Who says it doesn’t? Who’s to say there aren’t other people looking for hope, looking the way we were looking when we found those people watching Star Wars?” Emma asks.

Jess and Abby stay. Victor and Li Hua are at the forefront of challenging the League from the inside and are working out a way to reach as many heroes as possible and tell them the truth. Genevieve is working on a way to counter the serum, and there’s plenty of reorganizing to do at the Guild.

The Broussards take Bells and Emma home. Summer beckons on the horizon. Bells works at the restaurant and at the farm, and Emma and her moms move into Abby’s secret house in the canyons. They haven’t figured out what that Class Five threat was about, but hiding seems like a sound idea.

*

One blustery day Bells and Emma are driving out into the canyons, talking about anything and everything. “We should put up videos and articles about the truth again,” Emma says. “Even if they get taken down after a few minutes.”

Bells agrees. “I’m sure there’s a better way to go about it, but we need better encryption. That movie-watching club had the right idea. Maybe if we ask them to spread this information to their other clubs?”

“That’s a great idea!”

It takes them some time to find their way back to the trapdoor to the tunnels, but finally they find the place again. It’s empty, but the projector is still set up. There’s an empty bowl with a few popcorn kernels in it and a notepad with some doodles.

“They’ll be back,” Bells says.

*

The hideout soon becomes as much theirs as it is the movie-watchers. Thomas thinks the idea of spreading the word through their network is great, and they put the information out and take time to enjoy a pre-Collective movie here and there.

One day in midsummer a knock sounds on the tunnel door. Thomas and Kyle look at each other, and Cal pushes their goggles up on their nose.

Bells pulls open the spyhole and looks out.

“Hi— Is this the—”

“Don’t just ask, you have to give them the password!”

“Oh, oh, yes, um… Han shot first?”

Bells raises his eyebrows and opens the door. He’ll explain that they’re not just showing banned movies.

The newcomers are young; barely older than Brendan. The girl pushes her glasses up her nose and gives Bells a wide-eyed look. “So… is this the Resistance?”

Bells sweeps his arms in a welcoming gesture. “Yes. We’re the Resistance. Come on in.”