Volume 2: Chapter 209 — School

Her name was Micaela Sanchez. She was sixteen years old, mixed Chinese and Hispanic ancestry, and her father had passed away when she was seven. Her uncle on her mother's side had occasionally helped raise her until he was killed in a robbery some four years ago. She had no close family besides her mother; certainly none in the city. Her grandparents on both sides were dead and the handful of cousins she had were scattered across the country. Her mother never remarried, and she worked long hours at a decently paying job. They fell somewhere in the lower-middle class income bracket, mostly as a consequence of having only one paycheck.

Micaela appeared in the upgrade registry on her sixteenth birthday. She'd bought the LusciousLocksPlus upgrade, which gave one control over their hair's length, consistency, and color. It was one of the most popular picks for women in her age demographic. When Dan pulled up her school ID and laid it over the grainy face of their camera footage, the profile matched almost exactly. Likewise, her height and approximate weight were both consistent with the figure they had on screen.

"This is her," Dan said, tapping the screen. "I'd bet the bank on it."

"The best match from what we've found," Carver agreed, kicking back in her chair and stretching. The two of them were still in her cramped office with its narrow walls and chipped paint. Three hours of culling names from their list had finally landed them on the person Dan had bet on from the very start. The girl from Nikolas Andeno's school. She was in the same damn grade. She probably shared classes with him!

Dan remembered the little bit of wood Senator Madison had given the younger Andeno. The corrupted, empowered bauble appeared to incarnate the young man. Did some residue carry over and infect the young girl? They'd checked, and she was the last member of her class to gain an upgrade. It was possible she'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time, passing by Nikolos fresh from his own empowerment...

No. Micaela was on record getting an upgrade. It wouldn't have taken if she'd already incarnated. Unless it only manifested in that exact moment, taking on the exact upgrade she expected to receive. Conforming to her expectations in the way Natural powers often did...

He shook his head, dismissing the thought. Down that path lay madness. The hard science behind cosmic radiation was shaky at best, which was ludicrous given its ubiquitous use across society. Nevertheless, the country forged on, reasoning a controlled series of upgrades would be better than random incarnations. Maybe they were right, or maybe not. Dan hadn't been around during those chaotic years, but he could clearly see a price had been paid for the choice.

Micaela Sanchez might be a Natural, or she might be a Mutate. She was definitely the D.C. Vigilante, which meant he had some decisions to make. He could let Anastasia know, and the poor girl would probably be monitored for the next year in the hopes the People would make contact with her. She'd probably get caught up in the crossfire too, if it ever did happen. Dan didn't much like that thought. The kid shouldn't be running around beating seven shades of crap out of random criminals, but getting caught up in a shadow war was not the sort of consequence she needed to face. Maybe like a fine, or community service. Some time in juvie, perhaps.

"You've got your answer, or at least an answer," Carver said, eyeing Dan as he mulled over his options. "We can't confirm it, but this is as close as we can get with the information at hand."

"It's her," Dan said, still distracted.

Carver seemed surprised by his certainty. "What makes you so sure?"

Dan blinked, coming out of his own mind. He pondered what to say before offering, "Facts from outside the case that I can't share."

Carver accepted that. Despite spending several days in his company, she still seemed under the delusion that he was a hyper-competent agent for whatever shadowy organization Anastasia Summers ran these days. She couldn't know better, and she was better off for it.

Honestly, her job in this was done. Involving her any deeper was just irresponsible.

Dan scooped up every document regarding the case from her desk and stuffed them into his jacket pocket. He stood up, then extended his hand across the desk. "Thanks for the help, Carver. Keep this to yourself, yeah? Now I owe you one."

Carver grinned, and they shook. "I'll hold you to that," she promised.

He was sure she would. Dan nodded to her politely, turned on his heel, and vanished into t-space. He needed some time to think. What better place than the void?

When he remerged back home, he had some semblance of a plan. Or... less a plan than a series of goals. Overall, he agreed with Anastasia that the People needed to be dealt with. Not only were they the mortal enemies of Abby's family, not to mention literal terrorists, but they also probably didn't view him very favorably after he'd punted Cannibal somewhere into the Caribbean. The People were his enemy, and he would very much like most of them to be in police custody or dead, thank you very much.

Could he accomplish that without grossly compromising his own morals?

Maybe? He certainly intended to try. He quickly made a mental list of steps to take. First, he should check on the Vigi-Busters and make sure they were still floundering for information. He'd stolen their tapes, but that would only stall them for so long. At some point, though, their investigation would have to come to an end. It was unlikely they'd be able to access the same resources as the FBI, so a search of public schools and upgrade registries was probably out of the question. Without that avenue, Dan really didn't know what they could do to track down the vigilante. Maybe a stakeout? Something stupid, probably.

Next up was Nikolos Andeno. Did he already know his classmate was a vigilante? Was he planning on recruiting her? None of Dan's surveillance had indicated such, but he hadn't been looking for social interactions. He'd only ever checked that Nikolos was physically present at school. Spying on a teenager felt awkward and creepy. He'd have to, though. There were too many questions without answers.

Finally, he would need to look deeper into Micaela herself. Nothing in her past indicated her current situation was anything other than blind chance, but Dan knew for a fact that the Evo Church and Senator Madison had conspired to empower vigilantes across the country. The young woman could very well be one of these vigilantes, though her actions and lack of support seemed to indicate otherwise. Still, it was something to look into.

So, he had a plan. It was a good one, in his estimation.

It fell apart almost immediately.

The Vigi-Busters were not difficult to find. They had a fan forum filled with people who had never once touched grass and obsessively followed the duo's movements. He was able to find out the Vigi-Busters crew had made two trips to the same Metro station, presumably to reacquire their evidence and re-film their TV segment after Dan had stolen both. In the following hours, they traveled across the city to various alleys and streets, stopped to film short segments, and then moved on.

When Dan pulled up a map of the city and plotted out the Vigi-Busters' various stops, he immediately realized it looked painfully familiar to the incident map he'd created.

"How the fuck—!?" No, calm down. If Dan could get this far, so could they. The two reality stars weren't morons, just zealots. He couldn't keep underestimating them. So, they'd had a similar idea to Dan. Now what?

He pulled out the documents he'd taken from Carver. His map was there, and he laid it out on the table in front of him. Looking between his laptop screen and the map only confirmed his thoughts. They were hitting the vigilante's reported locations. They were probably even using the same site as him, damn copycat bastards. Now he had to watch them if only to make sure they didn't do anything stupid!

Dan scrolled through the fan forum, trawling through dozens of deeply weird threads in order to find hidden treasure. When he struck out he paused only long enough to make a troll comment and incite a flame war, then he moved on. He struck gold only ten minutes later when a new thread appeared with pictures of the Vigi-Busters filming outside a boarded-up building. The younger brother was crouched down, examining the pavement, while the older posed thoughtfully above him.

Dan immediately opened a tiny door to the street corner from the picture. He used the surface of his desk as the mounting point and peeked through. The Vigi-Buster crew was packing up their cameras and equipment. The two brothers themselves were climbing into the back of their black-paneled van that very moment. They peeled out of the parking lot moments later, and Dan jumped his portal from street to street to follow. Eventually, they were forced to pause at a red light. Dan used the time to look at his map of D.C. and reference their current location.

He peered down at his incident map, brow furrowed. They didn't appear to be heading towards any of the hits he'd found. They must have found something different.

He followed as the light turned green, but it became quickly apparent just where they were traveling. It was a straight line almost directly following one of the Metro tracks. Not to any incident location. They were heading to a school. A very specific school, attended by both Nikolos Andeno and Micaela Sanchez. The so-called 'Vigi-Busters' were bee-lining towards a vigilante and an unregistered Natural.

Dan, now feeling a small amount of panic, checked the clock.

School was in session.