he doesn’t notice. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll try my best not to mistakenly step into any more unforeseeable traps.” Teddy sighs, and up ahead I spot a familiar face: Bridgette, leaning against a wall, looking lost in her own little world. I never actually saw her during the fight and am relieved she made it out okay, except…is that a cast on her right hand?
“Bridgette?” I cautiously approach, forcing Teddy to stop for a second. She blinks several times, like she’s waking up from a weird, intense dream, then looks to her left, searching for something that’s not there.
“Um, yeah?” She turns my way, confused.
“Hey, I’m Claire. The girl you were tied to a chair with?”
“Oh…hey.” I shift in my sneakers, unsure of what to say. I’m so used to seeing her picture with drawn-on devil’s horns, I’m surprised to see her eyes are green, not red.
“Claire, we need to go,” Teddy nags. “You too, Bridgette. The debriefing is about to begin.”
Bridgette begrudgingly pushes herself off the wall.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I whisper to her as we make our way to a small conference room. It feels like being sent to the principal’s office, although truth be told I’ve never actually been there.
“It’s just a recap of what went down,” Bridgette sighs, wiping smudged mascara from under her eyes. Even though she seemed tough during the kidnapping, she clearly broke down afterward, her face puffy and red. “They want to make sure you don’t say anything dumb to the press.”
“It’s more than that,” Teddy clucks, eavesdropping. “It’s important to get everyone from the scene in the same room to make sure we have the full story. It’s about solving crimes.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Bridgette grumbles.
Everything is happening so fast. “Do I have time to call my mom?”
“No.”
“Will Joy be there?” I ask. The second we got back to HQ, we were whisked away to separate spaces, and I haven’t seen her since.
“Yes….” Teddy eyes me. “Why do you keep asking about her?”
Luckily, we arrive at the meeting before I have to answer, and it looks like everyone’s waiting on us. Sitting at a long rectangular table are Earthquake, Aqua Maiden, Vaporizer, a bunch of corporate suits I don’t recognize, and Joy, still wearing her new Girl Power suit. She sits up straight upon seeing me, and I happily choose a chair directly across from her, though I can’t help but notice how Bridgette takes a seat on the opposite side of the table, as far away from Vaporizer as possible. Dark, swollen eyes follow her, and for a second, he turns invisible, reappearing slouched down in his chair.
We sit for a beat, an empty podium waiting for someone to take the lead. Millie huffs in her seat, repeatedly swinging her head toward the door, until finally popping up in frustration and taking a place at the front of the room, a step stool at the podium giving her three extra inches in height. Teddy rushes to be at her side, taking notes on his tablet.
“Let’s talk about what happened today, yes?” Millie doesn’t wait for us to respond. Clearly this is not a time for questions.
“Last night between six p.m. and eleven p.m., Miss Rice and Miss Rey were kidnapped by a group of men as part of the recent crime wave known as the siege. While we originally assumed the siege was against the city as a whole, we now have reason to believe these villains are aiming attacks specifically at Warrior Nation.”
“What else is new?” Earthquake asks, rubbing a bandage on his head. “Bad guys always have it out for us.”
“What’s new is all of the criminals we’ve identified as part of the siege so far all have superpowers, several having been dismissed from previous chapter auditions,” Millie says. “They are being called the Anti-Heroes.”
Aqua Maiden laughs, tossing back her long red hair. “Jealous much?” Earthquake gives her an annoyed look. “What? Some lame-ass wannabes are mad they don’t have what it takes, and now they’re taking it out on us? They sound like total losers.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous,” Earthquake spits back. “That resentment makes them reckless. Thank goodness we got to Claire and Bridgette in time. What if they had taken Anna, or Houston?”
“Whatever.” Aqua Maiden purses her red lips, and her attitude reminds me why I’ve never been a big fan of hers. She’s been trying to get reassigned from the Chicago chapter for years, saying her ability to breathe underwater would be much