Chapter 2

Moon lay in her bed, twirling her phone in the air, a meter above her head. She's a telekinetic, if you hadn't noticed. She'd been laying here for a few hours, just thinking about the news. So, the new Director went to her school, was someone in her grade. Had recruited people from her friend group, but not outsiders. No one like Moon. Only the popular kids. Figures. 

Her phone started to buzz in the air, and Moon considered just letting it buzz. She twirled it over, so the screen was facing her, and the very ugly close up photo she had saved for her best friend stared back at her. She sighed and dropped the expensive thing into her hand, sliding her finger across the bottom of the screen and putting it to her ear.

"Y'ello?" She said into the speaker.

"Did you watch the news?" Adam wasted no time getting to the point. He was always like that, he hated small talk. He preferred to get straight to the point, instead of beating around the bush. He found sugar coating to be meaner than the truth. 

"I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count," She said in response. Why did he bother asking stupid questions. 

"No, I'm not talking about our classmates being superheroes, I'm talking about what happened after." He said quickly. 

Moon sat up. "I didn't see it, I turned off the TV. What happened?" 

Adam sighed. "You need to see past your emotions. Some villains popped up. Showed up at the venue, introduced themselves as Bast and uh," he sounded like he was reading off of something, he was probably scouring the internet for more information. "Schism. They said they weren't going to let a bunch of teenagers tell them how they should live their lives, and they encourage more to join them."

Moon frowned. He sounded like he had more to say. "What is it," she asked. 

He paused. "What." She asked again.

"What if we did," he said slowly. "What if we joined them. I mean it's not fair that they get to be superheroes, they're only going to recruit their own friend group. Half of them are already up there. I want some recognition."

Moon sighed. She had heard this whole spiel over and over. Adam has a big family, he was often lost in the mix. He was the middle of seven, why someone would have so many kids in this day and age is beyond her, but she knows Adam hates it. He never gets a word in, and it was the same at school, he was always getting stepped on by the more popular kids. 

Like Roan.

Moon could understand Adam's frustration, but she also didn't quite get it. So what if it was mostly one friend group, they were doing a good job. It doesn't matter who gets recruited as long as they actually care about the people. 

"I know you do Adam, but is this really the best way to get it? By becoming a villain? What would you even do, steal candy from a baby?" Honestly, sometimes Adam was a little unreasonable. He still sometimes threw temper tantrums. 

"I'm actually with them right now." He said. 

"What?" Moon yelped. What was this idiot thinking. 

"I reached out to them, I want to do something. I want to be something." He said, his tone now stoic. 

"Adam come on this isn't the way to do things. You could hurt people!" She pleaded. 

"Then join me, Moon. Make sure I don't do anything I'll regret. Please?" That wasn't fair of him to ask her to do that. She's not responsible for him. But you could be, the little voice in her head said. You could protect him. You know you could. 

Stupid voice in her head. 

"Where are you."

Moon stared up at the building with apprehension. It didn't look like an evil lair. It didn't look like much of anything. In fact, it kind of looked like an abandoned house. Ivy was growing up the walls, and the glass was so dirty you couldn't see through it. There were no lights on, and Moon couldn't see any evidence of people being here for a long time. 

She walked up the steps slowly, and knocked on the door. Less than a minute later a tall woman opened the door and beckoned her inside. She turned around to lead the way, revealing a brown cat's tail flicking behind her. Moon guessed this was Bast. She was taller than she expected, with an angular face and a proud straight nose.

Moon followed Bast down the long hallway, into a big kitchen in the back of the house. A few lights were on, casting a warm yellow glow around the room. Adam was sitting and the table across from a short man, engaged in conversation. Bast cleared her throat, getting their attention. "We have a visitor."

"M!" Adam exclaimed, getting up out of his chair and coming over to hug the apprehensive teenager. "I'm glad you came."

"Yeah yeah," She said, waving him off. "I need to talk with Schism." She turned to the man, showing no fear despite not knowing his powers. "No killing." 

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Who are you to tell me what to do, little girl." He stood up, flexing his muscles at her, trying to intimidate the smaller girl.

She was not impressed. 

"I'm telling you, no killing, or I'll ruin your whole operation." She took a step forward, her hands balling into fists. She was not going to be pushed around by anyone, let alone a man. 

"You do that, and your little boyfriend over here loses his head." He wasn't joking. She saw the hardness in his eyes, and the fear in Adam's. 

"No killing," she said again, this time with less force. 

He advanced on her, and before she could react, he had slapped her across the face. "You're either in," he hissed down at her, "or you're out."

Moon clutched the side of her face, her lip split, tears in her eyes. She looked up at the man standing over her, and for a second she was scared. She doesn't know him, she doesn't know what his power is. She could die right now, and nobody would know. Adam wouldn't do much, he'd be too scared. And if he did try to do something, he'd probably get killed right along with her. Her decision made, she stood, her hand dropping to her side. 

"I'm in."

He smiled, a creepy smile, with ghostly light flickering across his face. He reached out a hand and grabbed hers, firmly shaking it. "Welcome to the team." He turned around and walked back to the table. While his back was turned Moon shot a glare at Adam. How could he get her involved in this? Did he understand how dangerous his actions were? He shrugged in response. Ohhh she was going to have words with him later. Some very strong words. 

Bast finally moved from the doorway, slamming her shoulder against Moon's, heading for the table. She was nice. Adam grabbed Moon's arm and dragged over to the table beside him. They sat down across from the two villains, nobody saying anything. 

"So," Adam started awkwardly. "Did you two have a plan, or are we supposed to come up with ideas together?" 

Schism's lip curled up with distaste. "Let's get one thing clear," he said. "You two, are muscle, despite how small you both are. We," he flicked a finger between him a Bast. "We're the brains. We have plans, big plans. You two are like the getaway driver. You only know parts of the plan, the parts you need to know. And all you need to know now is that you two need to be outside your school at five o'clock on Tuesday. Hide." He pushed himself up from the table and leaned over them. 

"If you tell anyone about our plans, about anything, we'll know, and we'll find you." 

With that, Bast leaned over the table quick as lightning and scratched down Adam's cheek with her claws. He let out a scream, clutching the wound. He had a hurt look in his eyes, like he didn't expect that to happen. Moon didn't expect that to happen. These guys were serious, they weren't joking around. She wondered what they had planned. 

. . .

Somewhere across the city, Roan was in a meeting with her school's principal and vice-principals, Luke, Jay, Quinn, Cole and Hestia. 

"Now that we know who you are, that changes things," Principal Monroe was saying. "All of your absences will be excused, and you automatically qualify for extensions on your assignments."

"Thank you, sir," Hestia said. 

"If you fall behind in your classes, I expect that you will go to your teachers yourselves and work something out together. You job may cause you to miss school, but your education is still very important, and all the staff here just want what's best for you." He continued, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at each of them carefully. 

"We appreciate it, sir." Cole said. "We wanted to ask you something." He nodded, signalling for her to continue. "Unmasking ourselves has drawn some attention to who we are. That means the school isn't as safe as it used to be. We were wondering if we had permission to use our powers if the need arises."

He considered it for a few minutes. "Schools have always been safe zones for powers, but I can understand where you are coming from. There's also the issue of damage during battle. We have insurance, but not a lot. And honestly, our government wouldn't be able to fix our school fast enough. So I'm going to say that you can only use your powers on school property if we are being directly attacked. But your goal should be to drive them from the grounds, not to keep the battle in one place."

Roan listened carefully, making sure she caught every word. Using powers at school has been forbidden for almost as long as powers have existed. They weren't toys you could play with, powers are dangerous. They can cause serious damage, and some schools have even taken the precaution of setting up dampeners.

"Mr. Monroe," Roan started, a thought nagging at her. "How long do you think it would take to set up power dampeners at the school?"

He looked at her. "Not as long as it would take to rebuild the school, that's for sure." He took his hands out of his pockets. "That's a good idea, I'll bring it up at the next staff meeting. Thank you," he said, the conversation coming to an end. "For doing what you do." 

"Thank you sir," they chorused, heading out of the door. Roan was the last one out, shutting the door behind her, and immediately walked into Luke's back. "Why are we stopped," she said, looking up. "Oh," she realised. Standing in the foyer was dozens of student, staring at their little group. Some of their faces were easy to read, Roan say disgust, anger, pity, worry, and some faces were blank masks.

"I'm assuming a lot pf people are looking at us right now," Roan heard Hestia say from the front of the group. "Shall I give them something to stare at?" She snarled, taking a step back. And there was that familiar anger. Roan knew it wasn't all gone, no matter how hard Hestia tried to hide it. Her eyes flickered back to the crowd, and she saw them slowly disperse. 

"Good," Hestia sniffed, hearing the sound of dozens of feet moving. "Let's get to class."