Dunn hall, Friday afternoon, Sept 28th, 2007

It was Friday afternoon and I was in the middle of teaching Art Appreciation, my last class of the week. Or at least, this was my last official class.

My students were all in the middle of taking a test, so I was sitting at my desk, trying to remain quiet, so that I didn’t distract them. This wasn’t easy, because I kept thinking about how funny it would be if I pulled out my air horn and made them all jump, or just used my Nerf gun to test their reflexes. However, no one had ever said that being a teacher would be easy.

I slowly looked across my classroom, with my eyes settling on Rusty, who sat in the front row. Rusty, or Iron as he was officially codenamed, had been a real pain in my tail on the first day of school, actually attacking me, not only once, but twice. Ever since then, though, he’d behaved himself in class. No more attacks, and not even a single class interruption or good heckle. Boring. Still, he occasionally gave dirty looks at me and the GSD kids in class, when he didn’t think I noticed, so I retained a little hope that he’d do something else interesting.

And as for interesting, my attention drifted to Ayla Goodkind, who was focused on her test. It was hard to believe that I actually had a Goodkind in my class, much less one who was polite, respectful, and one of my most attentive students. She hadn’t done anything exciting, except for actually showing knowledge and interest in art history, but her family connections made up for that.

Of course, some of my most interesting students were actually in other classes. Monkeywrench was always amusing and good for a chuckle or two, though he couldn’t quite match up with Dino. Who knew dinosaurs had such a good sense of humor? And then, there was Melissa, who was my apprentice and a little more.

Just then, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the timer on my desk going off. “Alright,” I called out. “Test time is over. Drop your tests on my desk on your way out the door. Starting Monday, we’re going to go into yackity schmackity, blah blah blah.”

A few seconds later, the students all began rushing out of the classroom, leaving their tests on my desk to be graded. I stared at the tests with a sigh, thinking of how unfair it was, that the kids got to take the weekend off, but I still had to work, just to grade their tests if nothing else. Of course, that was probably why teachers were allowed to drink and students weren’t.

Once all the students had cleared out, I began the boring task of cleaning up my classroom. Most of the work was pretty quick and easy, because the janitors normally took care of things like vacuuming and emptying the trash. However, there was one thing that I always made sure to take care of myself.

I began humming the Mission Impossible theme song to myself as I went into a desk drawer and pulled out a bug sweeper, a small devise, which I’d bought from one of my best contacts. Then, I continued humming as I swept the room for listening devices, finding only two of them this time. However, one of them was actually on my desk, which seemed just a little ballsy to me.

“Only two this time,” I mused. “Those meddling kids must be running low.”

With that, I went into another desk drawer and pulled out a small box, which was completely insulated and acted as a faraday cage. I opened the lid and stared at the contents, my collection of bugs and listening devices, all of which, I’d found in my classroom or on my person, in the last month. So far, my collection wasn’t very large, only consisting of a couple dozen bugs, but it was steadily growing.

“This is starting to get old,” I said as I dropped my two latest additions into the box.

But after a moment of consideration, I changed my mind. I dumped the contents into a pile in the middle of my desk, then reached into another drawer to pull out a small radio. I set it to a polka station, cranked the volume up to max, and placed it right beside the pile of bugs. If someone wanted to listen in on me, they could listen to this instead.

“And that should do it,” I commented with an evil grin. I remained there for a few seconds longer, swishing my tail back and forth in time with the music, before I turned and left my classroom, with the polka still playing.

Normally, when my last class of the day was over, I’d hang around my classroom for a bit longer, just in case any students showed up some questions. I could frequently count on a visitor or two, with Melissa being the most common. However, since Melissa had detention due to a food fight incident in Crystal Hall, I knew that she wouldn’t be making an appearance today.

I started to walk across campus, in the direction of the Village, the faculty living area, and I gave a few polite nods to students as I passed them. But then, I saw Barney in the distance, walking in the same direction. The sight of that man was enough to bring me to a complete stop.

Roland Williams, or Barney, as I preferred to call him, was a large and stocky man in his fifties, with red hair and a beard that were streaked with gray. Though Barney was currently a history teacher here at Whateley, he used to be a superhero called T Rex. That was how I met him. Years ago, the two of us had done the whole archenemy thing, but he had to ruin it all by taking it personally. I wouldn’t have minded that so much, but he crossed a line that made me take it personally as well. Very personally.

For a brief moment, I just stood there, caught between two dueling urges. One, was the temptation to run the other direction and simply try forgetting that Barney existed, which might be possible if I had enough booze. And if I wasn’t a regenerator. And then, there was the other temptation, which was to follow Bob Barker’s advice. Always spay and neuter your T Rex. Somehow, I didn’t think that Carson would approve of the second option. Instead, I decided to compromise, by flipping Barney off with both hands, then turning to go in another direction.

A few minutes later, I realized that I was nearly at Doyle. That was fortunate, because there was someone here I’d been meaning to talk to. With a grin and a swish of my tail, I rushed into the building and towards the right office. It didn’t take me long to find my destination, a door with the name Dr. Alfred Bellows on it. And to my relief, it was actually open.

Bellows was one of the Whateley shrinks, but I didn’t hold that against him. He was a pretty decent guy for a head-shrinker. In fact, if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t have come to see him. At the moment, he was sitting behind his desk, working on some kind of paperwork. The poor guy probably needed the kind of distraction that only I could provide.

“Hey, Doctor Scratchasniff,” I exclaimed as I walked right into the office.

“Imp,” Bellows responded in surprise.

I walked right past him and plopped myself down on his comfortable looking couch. A moment later, I was stretched out and laying down.

“What are you doing?” Bellows asked, sounding more curious than annoyed.

“It all started when I was a wee little Implette,” I started. “My mom was a bearded circus fat lady, and my dad was the chainsaw juggling clown…”

Bellows gave me a vaguely amused look. “Imp… You aren’t one of my patients…”

With a roll of my eyes, I sat back up and responded, “Well, not if you’re gonna treat me like that…”

“Why are you here?” he asked me patiently.

“Well, Scratchy, it’s like this,” I said, standing back up and grinning at him. “You never RSVPed for tonight…”

“RSVP?” Bellows asked, looking confused. Then I saw the understanding flash into his eyes. “Oh… I’m afraid that, I’m not particularly interested…”

“But you’ve gotta come,” I urged him with a grin. “Everyone is gonna be there. All the cool people are doing it. You don’t want to be left out. You…”

“You aren’t seriously trying to manipulate me with peer pressure, are you?” Bellows asked me with a chuckle.

I gave him my best innocent look. “Maybe.”

He gave me an amused look. “And did you really think it would work?”

“Maybe,” I repeated with a grin. “Is it working?”

Bellows hesitated for a moment, and I considered giving him my ‘puppy dog’ eyes to push him over the edge, but then he let out a sigh. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll be there.”

“Great,” I responded cheerfully, swishing my tail back and forth. “Oh, don’t tell Barney about it.”

“What is it between you and Roland?” Bellows asks me.

Pretty much the entire school faculty knew that Barney and I couldn’t stand each other, though Fubar was the only one who had any idea as to why. Even Barney himself, didn’t know why I had it out for him. But then again, he was so full of himself, he’d probably never even asked why.

“Sorry, Scratchy,” I responded, giving him a grin and a wink, “but I’m not one of your patients.”

With that, I gave Bellows a sweeping bow, before turning and walking back out his door. I was pretty sure I heard an exasperated sigh from behind me, which was a pretty familiar sound.

Then, as I was leaving Doyle, I saw a nurse running through a hallway. A grin formed, and I couldn’t resist calling out, “Helloooo nurse!” She jumped in surprise, which made me grin even more broadly. Then, as my thoughts turned back to what I’d convinced Bellows to agree to, I chuckled evilly. “Tonight is going to be fun.”

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Friday evening, Sept 28th, 2007

The Intelligence Cadet Corps, more commonly known as the Spy Kids, or more derisively as the Secret Squirrels, were gathered together in their club house. Ace, the leader of the group, stood in front of the others and tried to look serious and intimidating.

“She’s up to something,” Ace announced firmly, “and I want to know what it is.”

Ace gestured to a wall, where a dozen pictures of the Imp were taped in place. They’d been taken over the last month, in a variety of locations around campus, including as she was coming out of her apartment.

“So far,” A-Plus said, “the target of our investigation seems unaware that we’re watching her.”

“Good,” Ace said with a nod of approval. “The Imp is a professional thief and supervillain, and she’s obviously at Whateley for a reason. We just need to figure out what that reason is, so we can stop her.”

“Maybe she really is here to be a teacher,” Reach pointed out. “She wouldn’t be the first villain to retire in order to teach here.”

A-Plus snorted derisively at that. “I seriously doubt that someone like her, would stop stealing valuable pieces of art, just to become a high school art teacher.”

“Agreed,” Ace added. Then, he looked around the others and said, “I talked to Mister Williams, the history teacher. Some of you already know that he used to be a superhero, before coming to work at Whateley. What most of you probably don’t know, is that he and the Imp have a history, and he told me all about her. According to Mister Williams, she’s sneaky, completely insane, and definitely up to something. He just doesn’t know what either.”

“Why would Carson hire someone like her?” A-Plus asked with a scowl. “It makes no sense…”

Ace scowled as well. “Williams thinks that Imp has something on Carson.”

Everyone present began to share uncomfortable looks, wondering what someone like the Imp, could possibly have on their headmistress. After all, Mrs. Carson was also Lady Astarte, a famous superhero. The idea that she would have any skeletons in her closet that were blackmail worthy, was almost unimaginable.

“You’ve been keeping watch on the suspect,” Ace said to Kew. “What have you learned?”

Kew winced at that, and muttered, “That she really likes polka. She’s been playing it for a couple hours.”

“Well, keep listening,” Ace told her. “She might slip up and give something away…”

Kew let out a deep sigh, dreading the thought of listening to even more of that music. However, she knew her duty and nodded agreement. “Fine.”

Then, Ace turned his attention the most recent member of their club. Carrie Porter, also known by her codename of Geist, was a freshman girl, who was on the cute side of plain. She had shoulder-length auburn hair, and wore a pair of glasses on her nose, which was sprinkled with freckles.

“Geist,” Ace said.

Geist immediately sat up straight. “Yes?”

“Our suspect has been spending a lot of time with a girl named Mischief,” Ace explained. “I want you to tail Mischief, and see what you can find out. We don’t have the resources to set up a full surveillance routine on her yet, but that can change if we find reason to make her a higher priority.”

“I won’t let you down,” Geist promised with an eager anticipation.

“Good,” Ace responded as he began looking over the other club members. “Remember, the Imp is a professional, so we have to be on our A game if we want to find out what she’s up to, and stop her before it’s too late.”

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Flying Blue Squirrel, Friday evening, Sept 28th, 2007

I was sitting on a barstool with a large mug of beer in hand. The Flying Blue Squirrel had some pretty good beer on tap, though it wasn’t quite what I wanted. When I’d come in, I’d originally ordered a Neon Unicorn Fart, only to get a confused look from the bartender. At times like this, I really missed the Black Mask, and Carl, my favorite bartender.

Sitting on the stool beside me, was Maria Ricardo, the youngest teacher in the entire school. In fact, she’d only graduated from Whateley herself, a little over a year ago. That meant that she probably had a better understanding of the students than any other teacher, but also that she got taken less seriously as well. In fact, the only teacher who was probably given less respect than her, was me.

“I can’t believe you helped set this up,” Maria said, gesturing around the bar, which was currently packed with faculty members.

With a grin, I told her, “Well, an Imps gotta do, what an Imps gotta do…”

“Well, I think you did a wonderful job,” Maria told me.

“Well, Imps are wonderful,” I responded cheerfully.

“I thought they were fabulous,” Maria said with a chuckle.

I grinned in response, swishing my tail back and forth. “We can be both.” Then, I hoped off my barstool and began singing, “The wonderful thing about Imps, is Imps are wonderful things. We’re bouncy and we’re trouncy. Our tails are made of springs…”

By this point, Maria was laughing, as were a few other teachers who were sitting nearby. Fortunately, Barney hadn’t shown up yet, and I hoped that he wouldn’t. That party pooper would ruin everything, or at least, he’d ruin it for me.

Maria took a long sip of her drink, a glass of ginger ale. Being the youngest teacher at Whateley, she was also underage to drink. As it was, she was just lucky that she was able to get into the bar at all.

“I’m feeling kind of left out,” Maria admitted, holding up her drink, and then gesturing to everyone else who was drinking. Of course, she overlooked the fact that she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t drinking alcohol, just the only one who didn’t have the option of drinking it legally.

“I offered to hook you up with a fake ID,” I pointed out cheerfully.

Maria chuckled at that. “That doesn’t do much good when the bartender and everyone else, knows my real age.”

I just shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt to try.” Then, I told her, “The next time we’re in New York together, I’ll have to take you to one of my usual watering holes.”

Maria gave me an amused look. “Yes, I imagine that supervillain bars wouldn’t care much about carding.”

“Nope,” I responded with a grin. “If you’re old enough to rob a bank or do time, then you’re old enough to drink.”

Then, while taking a sip of my beer, I turned my attention to the ‘stage’ which had been set up in the corner of the bar. Bellows was currently there with a microphone, singing a bad rendition of ‘Stand by Me’. However, when Bellows was finished, I clapped for him, simply because someone had to.

“Ah,” Fubar said as he appeared beside me. “The highs and lows of karaoke night.”

“You know,” I said with a grin, “Karaoke Knight sounds like a cheesy hero name.”

“I thought it sounded more like a villain name,” Carson said with an amused look. I hadn’t even noticed her coming up until she’d spoken, which meant that I really needed to start paying more attention. I might be retired from my old business, but it didn’t pay to let my guard down and get sloppy.

“And sadly,” Maria added with an almost pained look. “Probably a siren.”

I nodded agreement, then glanced towards the empty stage. Then, with a broad grin, I announced, “Well, it looks like it’s my turn…”

A minute later, I was standing on stage, grinning with anticipation. Then as the music I’d selected began to play, I started singing, “Twenty-four, twenty-four hours to go, I want to be sedated. Nothing to do, no where to go, oh, I want to be sedated…”

While I sang, I danced around on stage, snapping my tail back and forth in time with the music. I loved to cut loose with a little dancing, and was having a blast. If I hadn’t been such a brilliant artist and thief, I was sure that I could have made a great rock star instead.

Once the song was over, I did a sweeping bow and enjoyed the clapping. I hopped off the stage, where I was quickly replaced by someone else who wanted to show off a bit.

“You were pretty good,” Maria told me, looking just a little smug. “But I can do better.”

I stared at Maria for a moment, remembering that she was a siren, so her power was actually based off singing. In fact, her codename was ‘Songbird’, which gave a nice clue as to her singing ability. However, that didn’t intimidate me. Instead, I grinned and told her to prove it.

While Maria was getting in line for her turn, I spotted Elyzia Grimes, who was sitting off to the side with a glass of wine. After a moment, an idea came to me, and I nearly burst out laughing. Then with an eager grin, I grabbed one of the books, which listed all the songs that were available, and rushed over to Grimes.

“You’ve got to sing this,” I told Grimes, pointing to one of the pages. “It’s perfect for you…”

Grimes just gave me a flat look. “Surely, you’re joking.”

“I’m not joking,” I told her with a grin. “And don’t call me Shirley.”

Grimes didn’t bite and continued to give me that flat look. “I. Don’t. Sing.”

“But ‘Witchy Woman’ is the perfect song choice for you,” I continued to urge, but her expression didn’t change.

I was considering what tactic I should try next, to convince Grimes, when the next singer got on stage. The voice that sang out wasn’t Maria’s, like I’d expected, but it immediately caught my attention nonetheless.

“I put a spell on you,” came the sultry voice, “and now…you’re mine…”

I snapped around to see who was singing, and was a little surprised to see that Circe was the one on stage. Circe gave me a faint nod of acknowledgement as she sang, doing so in a way that could almost have been professional. I hadn’t expected that kind of singing from THE Circe, but I probably should have. After all, she’d been around a long time, which meant that she’d probably had a lot of opportunities to practice.

When Circe finished, she got a standing ovation, and I clapped nice and loudly. Then, Maria went up and began singing a fantastic version of a Pat Benatar song. After Circe’s performance, I’d doubted if anyone present would be able to match her, but Maria managed to do so. It was no wonder her codename was Songbird.

I watched Maria perform, then made my way over to the side, where Carson was sitting down and enjoying a drink. She nodded to me, and said, “That was a nice performance.”

“Thanks,” I responded cheerfully. I remained there for half a minute, before saying, “You know, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about…”

While I talked with Carson, King, the music teacher, got on stage and sang ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ even doing some trademark Elvis dancing in the process. He was followed by Fubar, who did a classic crooner routine, and he even dressed the part, much to my approval.

Karaoke night was a rousing success, and before it was done, I’d gone up two more times, singing ‘Devil Woman’ and ‘Ooops I Did it Again’. I also learned that Quintain’s singing voice is much better than his lecture voice. When it was done and over, I was in a great mood, and determined to do this again sometime.

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Dunn Hall, Saturday late morning, Sept 29th, 2007

There is an ancient and sacred tradition, which dictates that Saturday mornings should be honored by sitting on the floor in your pajamas, while watching cartoons on TV and eating sugary cereal. Sadly, my own cartoon time had been cut short due to the necessities of my new profession, and those poor unfortunate souls, who were crying out for my expert tutoring in all things art.

I was standing in my classroom, where a dozen students were spread out, working on their individual projects. This wasn’t an official class, but the open classroom period that I tried to hold on most Saturday mornings. I opened the doors to my classroom, so that any student who wanted, could come in and work on their art projects, while I provided materials, advice, and some one on one instruction.

Three girls were huddled up together, making their own jewelry. I didn’t have any of the beads or materials that they used, and they’d brought their own, but they seemed to like working in my classroom, and I had no problem with this. Though I didn’t have much experience with making jewelry, I was still able to offer a few pieces of advice, which they seemed to appreciate.

A couple students were working with clay, which, while not my specialty, was something that I was more familiar with. They were having fun with their sculpting, so I left them to it, except for when they had questions for me.

And then, in the middle of my classroom, was Razorback, or Dino, as I preferred to call him, since he actually looked like a dinosaur. A velocirator to be specific. Dino had several large sheets of paper spread out around him and was in the middle of doing some finger painting. And toe painting. And tail painting. He was making a bit of a mess, but really seemed to be enjoying himself.

When I went over to see what Dino was working on, I caught a whiff of a rather strong scent and gave the boy a curious look. “Did you dump a whole bottle of cologne over your head?”

Dino made some weird barking and chirping noises, which I couldn’t understand, and then switched over to the voice box around his neck. “No,” he said, with the digital voice. “It’s my natural manly scent…” Then, he burst out in his strange dinosaur laugh, which made me grin.

“Then it’s a good thing your natural manly scent smells like Old Spice,” I pointed out with a smirk, “and not Chanel.” That earned me another dinosaur laugh.

Next, I went over to a couple students who were just doing a little drawing. One of them seemed to be working on some panels for a comic book page, with a fight scene between some hero and villain, both of whom, I recognized. After looking it over, I chuckled.

“Nice shading,” I said, pointing to a spot, “especially on this panel here…”

“Thank you,” the boy responded with a grin.

“I’ve met Captain Cactus though,” I said, indicating the hero in his comic piece. “His belt buckle is even bigger than this. One thing you’ve got to remember about those Texas heroes, they do everything big, even their overcompensation.” The young comic artist burst out laughing at that, while those nearby snickered along.

After this, I demonstrated a few tricks for drawing and shading, which these students paid close attention to. The comic book artist was especially interested and even asked me for more advice on how to get his characters to come out better.

Then, I went to check on the last group of students, ones who were at the easels I’d set up, and doing a bit of painting. The first one I approached was Alicia Thacker, whom I’d first met in New York, last spring. In fact, it was my encounter with her, and the lessons in painting that I’d given her at that time, which eventually led to my being recruited to teach at Whatley.

“What are you painting?” I asked, looking at what appeared to be a landscape picture.

“This is the bayou, back home,” Alicia answered proudly. “But ah’m havin a hard time gettin it quite right.”

“What exactly are you having a problem with?” I asked her curiously.

A minute later, I went to another easel that I’d reserved for myself, just so I could do demonstrations. I showed Alicia a few tricks and techniques that could help, while the other painters watched me.

“And see,” I said, channeling my inner Bob Ross as I made a few more strokes with my brush. “Here’s a happy little tree…”

“Where’d you learn how to do this stuff?” one boy asked curiously.

“College,” I answered cheerfully, which earned me a couple skeptical looks. “Yep, I took a course in art forgery. I even had my own professor and everything.”

“Bullshit,” Darquehart responded.

“It’s true,” I replied with a grin. “I apprenticed to a master art forger, and went to college to earn my art degree at the same time.” Then, I gestured to my demonstration and explained, “A forger needs to know all the tricks and techniques that the original artist uses, so they can copy the painting more accurately. And as a benefit, you can use those same techniques when making your own original pieces.”

Once I was finished with my oil paint demonstration, I went to Darqueheart, who was working with water color. Darqueheart wasn’t actually in any of my classes, but had come in this morning, to experiment a little and see if any particular type of art caught her interest. It had taken me nearly two weeks to convince her to do so.

“It’s just a smear,” Darqueheart said defensively when I looked over her painting. It was pretty obvious that she didn’t know much about this kind of painting, but that was what I was there for.

“What is it that you want to do?” I asked her gently.

Darqueheart crossed her arms and glared at the painting that she’d been working on, before admitting, “I don’t know…”

“It usually helps to have at least some idea of what you want to do,” I said. “Even if all you want to do is project a certain emotion or feeling…”

With that, I went back to my demonstration easel and changed it to a fresh sheet of paper. Then, I went to work, using water color to paint a scene, where the ocean met the shore. I mostly used shades of blue and gray, but I did throw in a few other touches of brightness for contrast. I took my time while doing this, explaining each stroke and why I was doing what I was. Darqueheart watched me carefully, as did some of the other painters.

“I can’t do that,“ Darqueheart started to say.

However, I cut her off. “Of course you can. Sure, you don’t have my experience, but you can paint, and a little practice will just make you better at it.”

“But I’ve never really painted before,” Darqueheart protested.

“Well,” I said with a smile. “You can try it this way.” I pointed to the oil paints, “or that way.” And then, with a broad grin, I pointed to the center of the room. “Or you could do it Dino’s way.” Dino waved to us, though his claws were covered with blue paint. Darqueheart giggled, though she quickly covered it back up.

Soon, Darqueheart was back at painting, this time a little more confidently. I remained close by, offering encouragement and advice when she needed it. Her painting certainly wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was a good start.

Eventually, my open classroom period ended, and I had to start ushering the students out the door so I could clean up. “You’re more than welcome to come back next week,” I told Darqueheart. “If you want, you can try your hand with oil paints…or sculpting.”

“I think I want to try this again,” Darqueheart said self-consciously, as she indicated her water color painting.

“I’ll see you Monday morning,” I told Alicia as she left, and gave nods of acknowledgement to the other students as they made their way to the door too.

Once the students were gone and my classroom was once again clean and orderly, I sat down at my desk to work on a part of my job I didn’t like, grading tests. Unlike most of my classes where art is subjective, the Art Appreciation test was a little more black and white, with clearly right and wrong answers. Still, I zoomed through that, then stuffed the tests back into my desk until Monday afternoon. It was with a deep sigh of relief that I finally dashed for the door.

I left Dunn Hall and started back towards the Village, where I could kick off my shoes and relax in my Imp Lair, but I didn’t get far before noticing that someone was following me. It was one of the kids from the Secret Squirrels, the meddling kids who’d been spying on me for the last month. I even recognized her as a girl named Rez, who wasn’t nearly as sneaky as she thought she was. And of course, like some of the others, she had a camera with her.

“How many pictures of me do they need?” I mused aloud. I’d already let her friends take a few pictures of me, even posing for a few, but it didn’t seem to be enough for them. “I know the fabulous Imp is a natural target for the paparazzi, but this is starting to get annoying…”

For a moment, I considered the idea of doing the old ‘ninja vanish’ routine, which had worked so wonderfully on countless heroes over the years. However, I quickly discounted that. After all, she knew where my classroom was, along with my apartment, so there wasn’t really any benefit to disappearing like that. Instead, I suddenly stopped where I was, turned and looked straight at her. I posed for a picture, giving her a good dose of ‘blue steel’ and a wink, which sent her running in the other direction.

“Well, what do you know?” I exclaimed with a laugh. “That worked out even better than vanishing…”

A few seconds later, I realized that I might have chased off that girl, but I still had the feeling that I was being watched. I wasn’t psychic, but I had a very well developed sense of paranoia, and had long since learned to listen to my instincts. I didn’t know if some student was watching me out of curiosity, if those meddling kids had another person tailing me, or if it was actually someone dangerous. What I did know, was that someone was there.

Normally, I was the one who hung around without being seen, and I really didn’t like this turnabout. Whoever it was, I could call them out, which would make me look like a stooge if they remained hidden. Or, more satisfying for me, I could pull my vanishing act, then simply wait until they revealed themselves. Then, I could surprise them. A faint smile formed as I decided on which option would be more fun.

However, before I could enact my brilliant and cunning plan, a figure suddenly leapt out of a tree, about thirty yards away, and then began walking straight towards me. This newcomer was an attractive woman, and most likely an exemplar, with long black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She had a black and white, fur-trimmed bustier and panty-style costume, with thigh-high boots, elbow-length gloves, and this was all topped off with a utility belt and domino mask.

And though I’d never met this woman before, I knew who she was. After all, it always paid to stay aware of who my potential professional opponents were.

“Tabby Cat,” I said in greeting, keeping my voice light and cheerful, though I was tensed and ready to act in an instant. “We’re a bit out of STAR League territory.”

“So, you’re the Imp,” Tabby Cat responded, moving towards me with a feline grace, that gave me the feeling that she was going to try pouncing on me, as if I was a mouse. However, if she did, she’d find that this little mouse wasn’t exactly helpless. As a wise mouse once said, ‘Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale!’

I flashed her my own predatory grin, then took a sweeping bow. “The one and only, genuine, original, fabulous Imp.”

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” the hero announced as she came at me. “And now I have you.”

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Arena 77, Saturday afternoon, Sept 29th, 2007

I was standing in the middle of the oldest and smallest arena on campus, laughing maniacally. At the moment, I was dressed in my working outfit, my old working outfit, which consisted of a black and red catsuit rather than the slacks and blouse that I’d been wearing for the last month.

Set up in front of me, was a large and complicated contraption, which was basically a Rube Goldberg machine. I’d made this thing as a pet project, but hadn’t expected to use it nearly this soon.

It was with a broad grin on my face that I dropped the marble down the tube and began the entire process. The marble rolled down the pipe, then came to stop by slamming into a domino. That set off the small domino chain, which triggered a lever and released a bowling ball that started to roll down some rails.

As fun as it was to watch the chain of events, I still found myself looking to the last step of the machine. There was large container which clearly had the words ‘ACID’ written on the side. And to make sure that this was clear, there were also several skulls painted onto the side of the container as well. It looked positively gruesome.

Then, my eyes lowered, to where the superhero Tabby Cat was tied-up, right beneath the container of acid. When the machine had run its course, the contents of that container would be dumped, right on top of my captive.

“Imp-ressive, isn’t it?” I called out gleefully. “In less than a minute, you’ll be done for, and your tail will be over. Escape is imp-ossible.”

“This isn’t over yet,” Tabby Cat called out. Then, a moment later she gave the line that I’d been waiting for. “You’ll never get away with this, Imp.”

Just as I was about to give my response, I heard someone call out, “Mom? Are you in here?”

I snapped around and saw a girl entering the arena. She was short and svelte, with black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. I recognized the girl as one of Maria’s theater students. If I remembered right, she was Wallflower, part of the STAR League Junior, training team.

“Oh,” I said in realization, doing a facepalm. “And here, I thought they were just ripping off the STAR League name…”

Then girl froze and stared at the contraption, gasping. “Mom?”

“Stay back, Lily,” Tabby Cat called out.

Wallflower, or Lily as her mom had called her, hesitated a moment, obviously caught between her mom’s order, and the desire to save her from certain doom. However, it looked like she took after her mom, because she began to rush forward to the rescue.

“You’ve arrived too late,” I yelled as my contraption hit the final stage and the container began to tip.

Suddenly, Tabby Cat slipped loose of her bindings and leapt out of the way, right before the green liquid poured down into the spot where she’d been. However, some of the liquid splashed on impact and got onto Tabby Cat’s leg.

“Are you all right?” Lily demanded of her mom, who stood there with an amused look on her face.

“I’m fine,” Tabby Cat assured her, while rubbing her hand against her wet leg. She licked her finger, then gave me a curious look. “Gatorade?”

“Lemon lime flavored,” I replied with a broad grin.

Lily just stood there, looking confused. “What’s going on?”

“That was great,” I exclaimed with a laugh. “I was in the business for thirty years, and not once, did I ever get to put someone into an easily escapable death trap. I mean, it’s like I was missing out on the complete supervillain experience. Thanks for humoring me.”

“That was actually kind of fun,” Tabby Cat responded with a grin of her own. Then, she turned to her daughter and explained, “The Imp and I were just doing a little training.”

“If you say so,” Lily responded, giving the contraption and then me a suspicious look. She finally looked back at her mom and said, “Fubar told me that I could find you in here, but he didn’t say anything about this.”

I smirked at that, realizing that Foobar might have been playing his own prank, though on who, I wasn’t really sure. I’d have to ask him the next time we talked.

“I can’t believe you already had this thing already built and set up,” Tabby Cat said, gesturing towards my contraption and giving me a suspicious look of her own.

With a shrug and a grin, I responded, “I was planning on using it as a training tool…and for a little fun.”

Tabby Cat shook her head at that. “I’m not sure I want to know.” Then, she gave me a serious look. “We had a deal, and I did my part…”

“We have a deal,” I agreed cheerfully, swaying my tail back and forth behind me. “Why don’t we both change and get cleaned up, then meet at the Squirrel afterwards. If I’m gonna be answering your questions, I’d prefer to do it over drinks.”

“All right then,” Tabby Cat told me. “I’ll see you there.”

With that, I gave a sweeping bow, then turned and left the arena, leaving Tabby Cat behind, to explain what was going on to her still confused daughter.

--------------------

The Flying Blue Squirrel, Saturday late afternoon, Sept 29th, 2007

“Barkeep,” I called out as I stepped into the Flying Blue Squirrel. “I’ll have a glass of penguin juice.”

The bartender gave me a blank look. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ve never heard of that one. Do you know what’s in it?”

“Um…penguin juice,” I answered with a roll of my eyes. “Fine, I’ll have a beer.”

“I’ll have one too,” Tabby Cat said as she stepped into the bar.

I was a little surprised to note that Tabby Cat was in civilian clothes, and without even so much as her mask. She obviously wasn’t worrying too much about her civilian identity, perhaps because it would be so easy to track down now that I knew who her daughter was, and what her daughter’s name was. Not that I actually cared what her real name was.

Of course, I’d shown up in my comfortable ‘day off’ clothes as well, and not even my pajamas. Still, I was wearing tight black jeans, with a hole cut out for my tail, and a long sleeved shirt. If I was just hanging out in my apartment, I might have worn a T-shirt with a snarky logo or a cute cartoon character, but I always wore long sleeves when I was out of the house.

“And we’ll have an order of nachos,” I announced as I picked a table that was a little out of the way, and out of easy eavesdropping range.

Tabby Cat sat down at the table with me and sat in silence for nearly a minute, just sipping on our drinks and watching each other without looking like we were watching each other. It wasn’t often that I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to an active hero over drinks, and I imagine that she probably didn’t get a lot of friendly conversations with criminals.

Finally, Tabby Cat broke the silence by saying, “We nearly gave my daughter a heart attack.”

“She’s young,” I responded in amusement. “She’ll recover.”

“True,” Tabby Cat said with a chuckle. “But I’m probably going to hear about this for awhile.”

I took a long drink of my beer, then said, “Okay, we had a deal. You humored me with the deathtrap, so I owe you some answers. Fire away.”

“I want to know about the Kube,” Tabby Cat stated with a surprisingly intense look. “I want to know how you pulled that job off.”

“You mentioned that earlier,” I commented. In fact, after she’d confronted me a couple hours ago, she’d practically demanded that I tell her about the Kube job, which confused me a little. “That was over ten years ago, so why are you interested in it now?”

Tabby Cat hesitated for a moment before answering, “Professional curiosity.” At my curious look, she let out a sigh. “When I was a student at Whateley, I spent most of my time here as a member of the Masterminds.”

“The Masterminds?” I asked in surprise, giving her another look. The Masterminds were supervillains in training, and Tabby Cat was a hero.

My companion gave me a wry smile and admitted, “I wasn’t always a hero. In fact, I spent a lot of time training to go into your line of work.”

“You wanted to be an art teacher?” I teased, though I knew that wasn’t what she meant.

“I pulled a few small jobs when I was still a minor,” Tabby Cat told me with a gleam in her eyes. “But if anyone else asks, I’ll deny it.”

“Of course,” I responded with a grin.

Tabby Cat took a long drink of her beer, then said, “Back in those days, I had a dream job…one that I did a lot of research on. The Kube. It was going to be the big job where I broke into the business and made my reputation, but I couldn’t find a way past the security. And then, after I went into my current line of work, I continued working on it…as a hypothetical exercise.”

I nodded in understanding. “And then I came along and pulled it off.”

“Exactly,” Tabby Cat responded. “I want to know how you did it.”

For a moment, I considered her request, trying to decide how I was going to answer. Of course she’d want to know about the Kube job. I was just amused that she wanted to know about it out of professional curiosity, rather than because she was trying to bring me in for it. Of course, she might still be playing me, but I had a feeling she wasn’t. I was pretty sure that she was being honest about her reasons.

The Kube had been a high security vault, named for the square shaped building that housed everything. Their entire business was based on leasing out vault space and safety deposit boxes for certain wealthy individuals, which included a few heroes and villains. Because of that, the security was top-notch, consisting of highly-trained personnel, cutting-edge technology, and even some magic. For nearly four decades, they bragged about being impenetrable.

“Security was pretty tough,” I admitted. “And they thought of nearly everything.”

“That was my impression,” Tabby Cat said.

“They did have one weakness though,” I pointed out with a faint smirk. “They got TOO clever with their security. The Kube itself was nothing but the front door and a decoy.”

Tabby Cat gave me a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“Their vault wasn’t actually in the Kube,” I explained with a grin. “They had some kind of wormhole gateway thingy, that you step through in the Kube, and stepped out of in the real vault, about twenty miles away.”

“And you went there?” Tabby Cat asked in surprise. “You broke into the real vault…”

I just responded with a grin, swishing my tail back and forth. Then, for the next fifteen minutes, I regaled Tabby Cat with my brilliant plan, which consisted of me sneaking a tracking devise into the vault along with someone’s prized goody, then tricking an overzealous superhero into attacking a ‘supervillain base’ at that location.

“The real vault wasn’t nearly as protected as the Kube,” I explained cheerfully. “They relied on being underground, where nobody knew about them, and with the only entrance being through the wormhole thingy…”

“But the vault would still require ventilation,” Tabby Cat mused, proving that she really did know how to think like a thief. My opinion of her went up another notch.

“Captain Blowhard,” I said, though that wasn’t the hero’s official codename, “tore through their outer security and exposed an opening in the ventilation for me.”

“But where does the Black Maestro come in?” Tabby Cat asked. “His name came up in my investigations on the heist, but he was never actually seen anywhere near the Kube.”

“Yo, barkeep,” I called out, holding up my empty mug. “Another beer.”

“Another for me, too,” Tabby Cat added.

Once I had a fresh drink in front of me, I said, “I let the Black Maestro find out where the real vault was, and when there would be an opening in security. He showed up to break in, found Captain Idiot already there, and the two of them began going at it. While those two make such a nice distraction, I slipped on in, grabbed what I wanted, and then got my tail out of there before anyone ever saw me.”

“And you left the Black Maestro holding the bag,” Tabby Cat said thoughtfully. “Along with the hero.”

“The Black Maestro once murdered a good friend of mine, who was henching for him at the time,” I explained with a deep scowl. “So, I really didn’t mind throwing him under the bus.”

Tabby Cat nodded. “I’d imagine not.” Then, she stared at me for a moment. “This answers a few questions that I’ve had for awhile.”

It was no surprise that Tabby Cat hadn’t heard much about what really went on, because Captain Moron had spun things like crazy to cover up his own part, and the people in charge of the Kube had muddied the waters even more, since they were trying to hide the location of their real vault. Officially, they blamed the Black Maestro for the break in, so the heroes went after him. It wasn’t until later that a piece of video, which showed me inside the vault, emerged. By then, the scapegoat had already been captured.

“Thank you for answering them,” Tabby Cat said. She took a sip of her beer, then mused, “Now, if I can just find someone to answer some questions about the Hauptman jewel heist.”

“The Hauptman heist?” I asked in surprise.

“It was in nineteen-eighty,” Tabby Cat explained. “Mad Cow Cowan, who you may have heard of, pulled the job with his crew. I’d like to know how they pulled that one off, but unfortunately, none of the people involved are still alive.”

I burst out laughing at that, which earned me a glare. “Frank is still alive,” I explained a few seconds later. “He’s retired, but still alive and well.”

“Mad Cow Cowan is still alive?” Tabby Cat asked, now giving me a look of surprise. “How do you know?”

“And he’s not the only one,” I responded with a smirk. “There’s still one more member of that crew running around.”

Tabby Cat’s eyes gleamed with excitement and interest. “Who?”

With that, I puffed up a little and answered, “You’re looking at her.”

For a moment, Tabby Cat stared at me, clearly trying to decide if I was telling the truth or simply stretching it. She finally asked, “You were in Mad Cow Cowan’s crew?”

“Yeah,” I responded taking a long drink of beer. “Frank was my mentor, the guy who introduced me to the business and taught me most of what I know. Hell, he’s the one who gave me my name, the first person to ever call me the Imp.”

“And you were involved in the Hauptman job?” she said, her catlike eyes gleaming with interest and questions that demanded be asked.

“Involved in it?” I said with a smirk. “I’m the one who planned the thing. It was my final exam, so I could graduate from my apprenticeship. And by the way, I passed with flying colors. Frank gave me an A on it.”

“Now, you just have to tell me all the details,” Tabby Cat insisted.

I grinned in response, swishing my tail back and forth. “On one condition.”

Tabby Cat let out a sigh. “Another death trap?”

“Nope,” I responded cheerfully. “I got that out of my system…for now. I heard about how you once snuck into Armorgeddon’s base, so what I want from you, are all those juicy details…”

For a moment, the heroine stared at me, then she broke into a broad smile. “Deal.”

--------------------

Sunday morning, Sept 30th, 2007

It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it was mid-morning, on a fairly clear day, and I was currently deep in the bowels of my new Imp Lair. The Imp Cave. The Fortress of Sol-imp-tude. Whatever name I settled on, this was the new classroom for my special topics classes, and by special topics, I meant ones that were legally questionable.

The classroom itself was subterranean, and located just off one of the main tunnels connecting to Dunn Hall. I’d recently acquired the space from campus security, and had put a lot of work into cleaning it up and getting it ready for my classes. So far, only campus security, some faculty, and a small handful of students knew that I’d set up here, and that was just the way I wanted it. After all, if everyone knew that I was teaching classes on lock picking, pickpocketing, and general larceny, they’d all want in on it.

I took a sip of my coffee, which I drank from a mug that said ‘World’s Greatest Teacher’ on the side. Melissa had given it to me as a lair warming gift, after I finally had this classroom cleaned up and ready to go. This was now my favorite coffee mug, and I liked it even more than the one I stole from the Empire City Guard’s break room. I was pretty sure that one used to belong to Captain Quantum.

With a smile, I slowly looked around my classroom, which was comparable in size to my official classroom up above, where I taught all my art classes. Of course, this one was decorated in a somewhat different manner. For one thing, I didn’t have rows of desks, because I didn’t have a lot of students signed up for this class. In fact, I currently had only one student, my apprentice Melissa.

The floor was concrete, but covered with some nice decorative rugs. One wall had my logo painted on it, in black paint. It was a large circle, with horns and a squiggly devil tail. I had the same logo painted on another wall, though I’d put eyes and a mouth inside the circle, so as to make it into a smiley face with horns and a tail. The former version was my official Imp logo, but sometimes I liked to play with it, to make it just a little more friendly looking.

Along the walls, I had a rack full of locks and handcuffs, shelves and lockers which contained various tools of the trade, and there were even a couple work benches and tables set up as well. And then, there was a teacher’s desk in the front corner. Even though I was only teaching my apprentice here at the moment, it was still a classroom and needed the basics.

Just then, the tinkling of some bells distracted me from my thoughts and drew my attention. I looked to the side, where a dummy was set up, and was covered with bells. Melissa stood back, glaring at the dummy in annoyance.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

“I can’t do it,” Melissa blurted out in frustration. “These stupid bells keep ringing…”

“That’s okay,” I told Melissa as I went to join her. “It takes awhile to learn how to pick a pocket right.”

It also took a lot of practice, but my apprentice didn’t have much patience for it. I couldn’t blame her, because I wasn’t any different at that age. And since Melissa often had the attention span of a goldfish, I’d been forced to figure out ways to keep her from getting bored with my lessons, and that often meant changing lessons in the middle of them.

“I gave you some homework last week,” I abruptly said, changing the topic. “Did you do it?”

“Oh yeah,” Melissa exclaimed, suddenly grinning excitedly. She ran to her backpack, which she’d left by the door, and pulled out some papers which she rushed over and handed to me. “I followed him around, just like you said.”

“Did he see you?” I asked.

Melissa shook her head emphatically. “No way. I can turn invisible, so he couldn’t see me, but I could see him…” The she gave me a curious look. “But why’d you want me to follow another student?”

I just grinned at that. “Because he’s up to something, and knowing what his specialty is, I thought I should find out a little more.” I looked at the pages that Melissa had given me and nodded in approval. There were a few pictures she’d taken, along with hand-written notes, and even a small map with an X drawn on it. “And this was good practice for you. Good job.”

“Thanks,” Melissa responded with a broad grin. “It was fun following him around and seeing what he was up to, but kinda hard, because I can’t stay invisible for very long…”

“So, you’ll need to practice not being seen, even when you aren’t invisible,” I told her with a grin of my own. “You can’t always count on your powers working, especially when there are so many ways around them.”

“I know,” Melissa said with a disappointed sigh, almost seeming to deflate a little as she did. Then she suddenly brightened up again. “But he didn’t see me, and that’s the important thing…”

I chuckled at that. “Yes it is.”

Melissa grinned proudly, then her expression shifted again. “I think someone has been following me around yesterday…”

“Oh?” I asked, giving her a curious look.

“Yeah,” Melissa said, nodding her head vigorously. “I did what you said to do, if I thought someone was following me and I wasn’t sure. I went around a corner, and turned invisible, and waited…” Then, in an almost conspiratorial voice, Melissa added, “And I saw her following me… Then, yesterday after dinner, I caught her doing it again…”

“Who?” I asked curiously.

“Geist,” Melissa answered, looking around as if she expected the girl to suddenly appear in my classroom. “She’s a girl from a couple of my classes, but we aren’t friends or anything. Her powers are sorta like mine, but I don’t like her, cuz she’s a total tattletale.”

I smirked at that. “And let me guess. She tattled on you.”

Melissa nodded agreement, looking annoyed. “She told Miss Devlin that I put a whoopee cushion on her chair, before she even got to sit on it. She ruined my whole joke…”

“That’s horrible,” I gasped sympathetically. That sounded like a complete waste of a good gag. Sure, whoopee cushions were old school slapstick, but they’re a classic for a reason.

“She probably wants to get me in trouble again,” Melissa grumbled, almost pouting as she added, “And I don’t want more detention…even if some of those Thornies are pretty funny. One of them, named Achoo, tried throwing a snot blast at me, but I turned intangible, so it went through me and hit Aegis instead. That was totally funny…” She burst into giggles at that.

I chuckled at Melissa’s excitement, as well as her story. I just might have to ask Fubar about what happened, since he lives in Hawthorne and would have the inside scoop.

After a few seconds, I asked, “Does Geist know that you know that she was following you?” Melissa shook her head. I just grinned at that. “Then, here’s what you do…”

For the next couple minutes, I gave Melissa some good advice, which came from my many years of experience. She giggled almost the entire time, which had me smirking and swishing my tail back and forth excitedly. Though I would have liked to get involved a little more directly, Geist had picked this fight with Melissa, so Melissa would be the one to deal with her.

“This is gonna be awesome,” Melissa exclaimed with another giggle. “I can’t wait to tell Monkeywrench.”

“Then, why don’t you tell him now?” I asked, holding out Melissa’s cell phone.

Her eyes went wide and she felt her pockets, confirming that it was gone. “How did you do that?”

“Do you want me to show you?” I asked with an evil grin.

Melissa nodded emphatically, nearly bouncing in place. “Yeah…”

I just smirked and pointed at the bell covered dummy. Commercial break was over, so it was time to get back to our regularly scheduled lessons.

--------------------

Sunday afternoon, Sept 30th, 2007

I was in the tunnel system that ran beneath Whateley Academy, crouched down in a tunnel junction, where I was hidden by my chameleon field. I’d been in that position for nearly an hour, waiting for my target to appear. Waiting was never easy, but I’d had a lot of practice at it, and had become pretty damn good.

This morning, Melissa had given me some information about another student that I’d asked her to follow. That information wasn’t anything new, since I’d already done my own snooping, but she’d needed the practice and experience. But now, after she’d confirmed everything for me, it was time to act on that information.

I didn’t have to wait much longer before my target appeared, coming out of a secret doorway that had been hidden across the hall. He was a lanky boy, with a mop of unruly sandy-brown hair.

With a grin, I waited until my target wasn’t actually looking at me, then I dropped my disguise and stood up. “Bobby Earl Fields,” I said, making him jump in surprise. “Or would you prefer Shine?”

“Either is fine,” Shine responded, giving me a wary look.

“Let me guess,” I mused, gesturing to the door he’d just come out of. “That is where you have your still set up…” Then, I quickly added, “And don’t bother to deny it, because I already know.”

“How much trouble am I in?” Shine asked in an easygoing tone, though there was a gleam of defiance in his eyes.

I just chuckled. “None, as far as I’m concerned. I just heard about your product and thought that I should check it out.”

That statement was enough to make Shine grin. “What kinda product are you lookin for?”

“I’ll tell you what,” I responded with a grin and a swish of my tail, thinking about how lucky I was to have learned about a devisor, who specializes in booze. If Shine could make booze as good as I’d heard, then he’d be a good contact to have. “Give me a bottle of your strongest hooch, and one of your best…assuming they aren’t the same.”

--------------------

Sunday afternoon, Sept 30th, 2007

“This is the door,” Geist announced. “This is where Mischief went this morning.”

Ace looked back and forth down the tunnels, then at the door in front of him. For as long as he’d been at Whateley, this door had been locked and sealed shut. But now, the lock that campus security had placed on it, was gone.

“We knew that the Imp was building a secret lair in the tunnels,” A-Plus announced. “I think we may have found it.”

Ace smiled faintly at that, then turned to Geist. “Did Mischief see you following her?”

“No way,” Geist responded with a shake of her head. “I was using my powers, so there’s no way she could have seen me…”

“Good,” Ace said, carefully trying to open the door. He wasn’t surprised to find it locked. The external lock and seal that security had placed there might be gone, but the door still had its own lock. “Geist, can you walk through the door?”

Geist hesitated for a moment before admitting, “My powers don’t work that way…” Then she quickly added, “I can send my image in if you want, but I don’t think it would do any good…”

“Of course not,” Ace responded with a sigh.

He pulled out a lock pick set, which had previously belonged to a famous magician and escape artist, then went to work on the lock. Because of his powers, he could ‘borrow’ some of the skills of the previous user, and he immediately put those skills to work on the lock. It didn’t take long before it clicked open.

“Geist, keep watch out here,” Ace instructed.

“I won’t let you down,” Geist exclaimed excitedly.

Suddenly, Geist vanished, only to reappear fifteen feet further down the hallway. But in spite of that, Ace knew that she hadn’t teleported. In fact, she was probably right where he’d last seen her. Geist’s powers, or at least one aspect of them, was to displace her image. She could bend light around herself and project her image to another location instead. As a result, the real Geist was invisible, while an illusion of her remained nearby as a decoy.

Ace carefully stepped through the door, making sure that it was clear before A-Plus, Kew, and Interface came in behind him. He paused for a moment to look around, immediately spotting Imp’s logo on the wall.

“This is it,” Ace announced. “We found her hideout.”

“Look at all those handcuffs,” A-Plus blurted out, pointing to where a dozen pairs were hanging from a rack. “Is she planning on taking prisoners?”

“Hostages,” Ace stated with a growl.

“Or maybe her plans are a little kinkier,” Interface suggested with a chuckle, earning a glare from both Ace and A-Plus, while Kew blushed and looked away.

“This isn’t very impressive for a supervillain lair,” Kew said as she looked around.

“This is probably just a temporary headquarters, for while she’s pulling this job,” Ace said thoughtfully. “She probably doesn’t intend to keep it much longer.”

A-Plus nodded agreement. “Then we need to find out what she’s up to, before it’s too late.”

“Agreed,” Ace said, gesturing around the room. “Okay everyone, search for clues. I’ll take the desk.”

Ace quickly found a rubber chicken, a carton of plastic Easter eggs, all of which were painted green, and a large container of grease. He even found several Dr. Seuss children’s books. However, he found no clues about what the Imp was planning.

But then, Kew called out, “Over here. I found a safe.”

Kew was in the far corner of the room, where she’d moved a stack of boxes and revealed the safe that had been hidden behind them. It was a large and sturdy looking safe, which rested on the floor and stood about five feet tall.

“Jackpot,” Interface announced.

“And I saw some safe cracking tools over there,” A-Plus pointed out, before adding, “What kind of an idiot keeps safe cracking tools, in the same room as their safe?”

“Mister Williams said that the Imp was insane,” Ace pointed out. “And I’ve heard she’s a total ditz in class.”

Kew held out a devise that looked like her cell phone and said, “I bet my safe cracking devise is faster…”

It only took a couple minutes to open the safe and reveal the contents, though there didn’t seem to be a lot there. There was a small stack of folders, and what appeared to be a bag of candy.

“Who puts candy in a safe?” Kew asked as she pulled out the bag and gave it a closer look.

“No one,” A-Plus said with a triumphant smile. “There must be drugs or poison in there…”

“Take it as evidence,” Ace said, pulling out the folders. “We’ll get it tested.” Then he paused, looking at the contents of the first folder, his eyes going wide. “It’s pictures. Of us.” He held out the pictures, which seemed to be of all the members of their club, including their latest recruit. “Imp has been following us and taking pictures…”

“Why?” Kew asked in surprise.

A-Plus scowled. “She knows we’re onto her…”

“She has dossiers on us,” Ace said, his expression turning into a deep scowl as he flipped through all the folders. “She has folders on all of us…”

“But how’d she know we were investigating her?” A-Plus asked.

Ace froze, staring at the last folder with his mouth dropping open. “I…I know how.”

“How?” Kew asked expectantly.

For several long seconds, Ace just sat there, silently staring at the pages inside the folder. Then, he took a deep breath and explained, “These are letters between Imp and someone she calls Morocco, where she promises to give them twenty thousand dollars, in exchange for them informing on our activities…”

“WHAT?” A-Plus exclaimed in stunned disbelief.

“We have a mole,” Ace stated in a grim tone. “One of us is working for the Imp.”

Monday morning, Oct 1st, 2007

I woke up with my alarm going off on the other side of the room, while a set of drums pounded along with it inside my head. I got up and turned off my alarm, which helped the throbbing inside my skull, though it didn’t fade entirely. It felt as though Mister Migraine had zapped me with one of his brain blasts again, which was something I hadn’t experienced in over twelve years. Still, some things, you never forgot.

“What the fahrvegnugen?” I grumbled as I rubbed my temples. Then it dawned on me.

Last night, I’d decided to sample some of Shine’s strongest, which turned out, to have a lot more kick than I’d expected. As a regenerator, alcohol normally had very little effect on me. It usually took a lot of booze to give me even a bit of a buzz, and my regeneration had always taken care of that pretty quickly. But Shine’s stuff, which was devisor booze, had completely ignored my regeneration and got me drunk, before I’d even realized it.

“I’ve got a hangover,” I said in vague surprise. This was the first time in my life that I’d experienced a hangover, and after a moment of consideration, I decided that I could have done without this particular experience.

After a few seconds, I went to my kitchen and poured myself a glass of orange juice. Now that I was up and moving, and was putting some liquids back into my body, my regeneration was finally doing its job. Within five minutes, the throbbing on my head was completely gone, and I was starting to feel like my usual self.

“Devisor booze,” I mused, considering how much was still left in the bottle. That stuff could get even a regenerator drunk and hung over, which meant that the practical joke applications were enormous. I knew a few stuffy brick heroes, who could use a little lightening up. “And now, I know what to spike the punch with.

A short time later, I was cleaned, dressed and stepping out of my apartment. Maria still hadn’t emerged from her apartment next door, so I knocked on her door, then waited patiently…for about five seconds.

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey,” I called out. “Don’t make me crow like a rooster…”

“I’m up. I’m up,” Maria’s voice came through the door. However, when she cracked the door open, her sleep filled eyes and bed-head hair, strongly suggested that she’d just crawled out of bed. “I’m running a little late…”

“I can see that,” I responded. “Rough night?”

I thought of my own night, and wondered if she’d gotten her hands on some of Shine’s booze as well. However, she shook her head. “No. Broken alarm clock. You go ahead to breakfast without me. I’m going to shower, then head straight to class.”

“Have fun,” I told her, giving a wave as she closed the door.

When I turned to start walking towards the faculty cafeteria, and my breakfast, I suddenly found someone else walking beside me. Louis, better known as Fubar, for a damn good reason, was really good at appearing out of nowhere. Then again, that shouldn’t have been any surprise, since he was just a psychic projection. His real body was in an oversized fish bowl, underneath Hawthorne Cottage.

“Good morning, Christine,” Louis greeted me. “How are you this morning?”

“Not bad,” I responded, looking him over. He was impeccably dressed, which was also no surprise, since he could make himself…and his clothes…appear however he wanted. That was one of the advantages of being a psychic projection. “You’re looking dapper as always.”

“Why, thank you,” Louis responded with a smile. Suddenly, he was wearing a bright yellow, lounge lizard suit, from the 70’s. “I do my best.”

“So, what’s up?” I asked curiously.

Louis gave me a friendly smile. “I just wanted to see how you were doing, after last night.”

“I’m doing fine,” I responded, remembering that Louis had shown up while I’d been drunk, and that we’d talked for a bit. “Why wouldn’t I be? I didn’t do anything worthy of good blackmail photos, did I?”

“Of course not,” he responded with a chuckle. “People expect you to act a little…odd. The only way anyone would have gotten pictures worth blackmailing you over, was if you’d been dressed up and behaving responsibly.”

“Naw,” I told him with a broad grin and a swish of my tail. “That will never happen…”

Then Louis grinned at me with a twinkle in his eye. A literal twinkle. “Of course, you do have a knack of surprising people. In fact, I bet most people would be absolutely shocked if they knew that one of your most prized possessions, used to be an autographed poster of Ms. Might…”

I froze at that and felt a cold chill of dread spread down my spine. With those words, I suddenly remembered exactly what Louis and I had talked about last night, while I’d been completely plastered. I’d told him a little about my childhood, from before I’d manifested, which was something I never talked to anyone about. And of course, I’d admitted something that I never would have while sober.

“That was a LONG time ago,” I said, fixing Louis with a steady gaze. “And if you ever say one word to ANYONE about that poster, especially Carson…I’ll fill your pool with a ton of Jello mix.”

Louis laughed at that, then promised, “My lips are sealed.”

Then, he ran his finger across his lips, and a zipper literally appeared and zipped his lips shut. Another advantage of being a psychic projection. For a moment, I actually felt a little jealous, as I considered all the amusing possibilities such a thing would allow.

Louis continued walking with me until we reached the cafeteria, then he said, “I’ll see you later, Christine,” and simply vanished. Since that had just been a psychic projection, and his real body received a steady diet of fish flakes, there wasn’t really any reason for him to continue.

I sat at my usual table and ate breakfast alone, though I did share a few polite words with other teachers who wandered past. However, when Barney showed up, he gave me his accustomed glare, as if trying to kill me with his looks alone. I just smiled and waved back, simply because I knew it pissed him off. Then with our usual exchange out of the way, I was able to eat the rest of my breakfast in peace.

As soon as I was done eating, I hurried to my official classroom, where I greeted my first class of the day. Since this was the class with Melissa, Monkeywrench, and Alicia, some of my very favorite students, my mood was immediately brightened up again.

“All right everyone,” I announced once the starting bell rang. “You all turned in your class projects on Friday, and I spent the weekend looking them over. Now, I imagine that you’re wondering what grades you’ve earned…”

“You can say that again,” someone muttered, sounding just a little worried.

I silently thanked the student for giving me such a great setup, and repeated, “I imagine that you’re wondering what grades you’ve earned…” That earned me some laughs from my students, as well as a couple groans.

“So, tell us already,” someone blurted impatiently.

“You get an A,” I exclaimed, pointing to the student who’d just spoken. Then, I pointed to another student at random. “And you get an A. And you get an A. And everybody gets an A…” I paused at that, to muse, “So, this is what it feels like to be Oprah.” However, I quickly became more serious as I added, “Except for the one person who didn’t turn in your project. You know who you are.”

One boy leaned over to the one beside him and said, “I told you this class would be an easy A…”

“Art is subjective,” I said, looking around the room. “As long as you turned in your projects, and made an honest effort, I gave you credit for it.”

“Mine kind of sucked,” Monkeywrench responded with a chuckle.

“Technique and style can be developed with practice,” I pointed out. “I don’t expect any of you to be experts just yet. Now, that being said, there will be other tests and projects, where you will be graded based on more objective goals. I will warn you when those come up.”

“I can’t wait to tell Dad I got an A in art,” Mischief exclaimed with a broad grin, which made me chuckle.

“For now,” I said, looking over my students with a grin on my face. “We’re going to start something new…”

--------------------

Monday Oct 1st, 2007

Stepping into the cafeteria, I looked around and quickly spotted Maria, sitting at our usual table. I grabbed a plate of food, then went to join her. When I saw the hamburger and fries on her plate, one of the gourmet ones that were being served today, I grinned.

“Robble robble,” I said in my best Hamburglar impression.

I reached for Maria’s lunch, to try swiping a couple fries, but she slapped my hand away with a, “Bad Imp.”

“Curses, foiled again,” I announced as I took my seat across from her.

“Poor Imp,” Maria told me. “It makes me wonder how you ever lasted so long as a thief.”

“Yes indeed,” a new voice said from a short distance away. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen…”

I looked up and saw Tabby Cat, or Tabby as she’d asked me to call her. She had her own tray in hand, and without waiting for an invitation sat down at our table.

Maria gave her a look of surprise, then glanced to me. “Is there going to be any trouble?”

“Do you have that game?” I asked with a grin. “I always like popping the Trouble bubble…”

“I used to play that with my daughter, when she was younger,” Tabby commented with a faintly amused smile.

Maria glanced back and forth between us again. “So, I take it that you two aren’t going to start fighting…”

“Oh no,” I corrected her. “We’re gonna fight like cats and Imps.”

Tabby gave me a curious look. “And exactly how do Imps fight?”

“With snark fu,” I answered proudly. “I have a black belt.”

“Of course you do,” Maria said with a chuckle.

I took a bite of the panini I’d grabbed, and gave Tabby a curious look. “I’m surprised you’re still hanging around here…”

Tabby looked amused at that. “I’ve been training a couple students on the hero track, and generally offering the benefit of my experience. I’ll be here at Whateley off and on.”

I just watched Tabby for a moment, still feeling just a little surprised at how well I was hitting it off with a hero. With an active hero. However, she wasn’t like most of the heroes I’d met. For one thing, she wasn’t all self-righteous and judgy. And for another, she actually appreciated everything it took to pull off a good heist.

“You know,” I mused, still watching Tabby. “It’s almost too bad that I’m retired, because I bet it would be fun to dance with you…”

“Dance?” Tabby asked, before she seemed to understand what I really meant. She gave me a strange look and nodded agreement. “We can always spar sometime.”

“Or go into the sims,” Maria offered.

“That might be fun,” I said, with my tail swishing back and forth.

Playing in the sims would offer a whole slew of new possibilities. Just because I was retired, that was no reason that I couldn’t still keep in practice. And going against a hero like Tabby would definitely keep things interesting.

While I’d been watching Tabby, she’d been watching me too. “You know,” she said with a look of amusement. “Before I approached you the other day, I talked to Carson about you. She told me that you’d already retired, before she even approached you…”

“I was in the game for a long time,” I responded with a shrug. “I got bored and decided to try a new game instead.”

I didn’t think that Tabby completely believed me, but she nodded along. “She said you were good with the kids.”

“She practically is one,” Maria pointed out.

“Look who’s talking,” I responded with a smirk. She’d been a student here herself, not that long ago. In fact, there were a lot of students around, who remembered her being one of them.

We continued chatting as we ate, and I soon found myself telling a story about one of my jobs, or at least, about the employer for the job. The guy had been really into the whole mob thing, or at least, into some weird romanticized version that he got from the movies. And in addition to that little quirk, he also wasn’t very bright.

“Well, I told him that if he stiffed me on the job,” I said, while Tabby and Maria listened attentively, “he’d end up sleeping with the fishes. Well, he stiffed me…”

“You didn’t,” Maria gasped while Tabby gave me a very serious look.

“What?” I asked, grinning at both of them. “You think I’d confess to something like a murder, to an active hero?”

“Why not?” Tabby asked. “You’ve confessed to plenty of other things.”

I just waved dismissively. “As I was saying…” I grinned evilly, and my tail swished back and forth. “Well, I promised him that he’d sleep with the fishes, so I slipped into his bedroom one night and covered his bed with sardines and mackerel.”

“You didn’t,” Maria gasped again, her look of surprise turning into a laugh.

“Of course she did,” Tabby commented wryly.

“He got the message,” I said with a smirk. “And it worked even better than a horse’s head… Much less messy…at least for me. The next day, I got my payment in full.”

Tabby just chuckled and shook her head. “Thank you for letting me vicariously live out some of my old dreams through you.”

“My pleasure,” I responded. “But unfortunately, I have to cut our lunch short. I’ve got something to take care of.”

Maria gave me a curious look. “What’s that? Putting a tack on Williams’ chair?”

“No, but that is a good one,” I told her with a grin. “I’m off to go see a girl about some real estate.”

--------------------

Monday late afternoon, Oct 1st, 2007

Roland Williams was a large and stocky man. And though he was no longer as muscular as he’d been in his youth, he compensated for this by using his size warper abilities, to increase his size just a little. Not enough to be obvious, but just enough to make him a little more imposing.

Ace and A-Plus stood in the middle of Mr. Williams’ classroom, facing the gruff teacher’s displeasure. A-Plus was clearly nervous about the situation, and though Ace was as well, he did a better job of hiding this.

“I originally contacted the Intelligence Cadet Corps,” Mr. Williams stated, “because your club is supposed to be focused on law enforcement and investigation. I’d thought that you would take this threat seriously.”

“We do take it seriously,” Ace protested. “The Imp is just sneakier than we expected.”

“But we won’t underestimate her again,” A-Plus promised.

Mr. Williams scowled as he looked back and forth between them. “Someone like the Imp, would never retire and become a teacher, and I have a hard time believing that Elizabeth Carson would fall for this act. Imp is here for a reason, and I need you to help find out what it is.”

“Of course, sir,” Ace responded. “This is what we do.”

“It galls me to rely on students for this,” Mr. Williams admitted, “but I have no choice. Carson ordered security to keep away from the Imp, and I want to know why. What does that freak villain have on Carson? What kind of leverage does she have, to make our headmistress bring her to Whateley, and protect her the way she has?”

“We’re close to breaking this open,” A-Plus stated.

Ace nodded at that. “This afternoon, she met with She-Beast, so it looks like whatever she has planned, the Bad Seeds are involved.”

“Of course,” Mr. Williams commented. “That lot would be easy to tempt.”

“We also found her lair,” Ace continued, “and gathered some important clues. We’re in the endgame now, and should complete our investigation at any time. Unfortunately, we learned that she’s onto us, so we’ll have to be quick about it…”

“And we learned that she has a mole in our club,” A-Plus spat out angrily, earning a glare from Ace, who hadn’t wanted to reveal that specific information.

With a grimace, Ace said, “We’re compartmentalizing our operations to limit any damages.”

Ace scowled even more deeply. Though he had a hard time believing that any of the Cadets was a traitor, it was hard to deny the evidence he’d seen. Someone was secretly working for the Imp, sabotaging their investigation from within, and he had no idea who. That was why he’d only brought A-Plus to that meeting, and why he was going to have to play everything else close to the vest as well.

“We’re going to find our mole,” Ace promised. “And we’re going to stop the Imp, whatever it is she’s planning.”

“Good,” Mr. Williams said, looking almost pleased. “And remember, once we stop this villain, your entire club will benefit from it. You’ll redeem your club’s reputation after the...embarrassment of last year.”

“We haven’t forgotten, sir,” Ace responded with grim determination. “And the Intelligence Cadet Corps won’t fail.”

--------------------

Tuesday, Oct 2nd, 2007

Geist felt self-conscious and uncomfortable as she looked around the table. Normally, lunch with her club, the Intelligence Cadet Corps, was interesting and exciting, but today, things were different. Today, the tension was nearly thick enough for her to choke on.

Ever since they’d learned that one of them was secretly working for the Imp, the entire mood had changed. Now, everyone kept giving each other suspicious looks, wondering which of them was the mole. And as awkward as that was, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the accusations.

“That looks pretty expensive,” Holdout observed, staring intently at Kew’s latest invention.

“All those holdouts you have must be pretty expensive too,” A-Plus pointed out.

“Where’s Reach at?” Interface asked. “He…she should be here with us.”

Holdout scowled as he responded, “Reach hasn’t been the same since that accident last year…”

“You think Harley is Morocco?” Kew asked in surprise, though her expression became thoughtful and suspicious.

“It could be the rookie,” A-Plus said, looking straight at Geist. “We didn’t have any moles until she joined…”

Geist gasped at being accused, and immediately protested, “I’m not the mole…”

“And that’s what a mole would say,” Rez pointed out.

Geist looked to Ace for support, but he seemed lost in his own thoughts. “Ace,” she called out to get his attention. “Tell them I’m not the mole…”

Interface scowled, then in what seemed to be an attempt to change the subject, he said, “Last night, when I was on Imp duty, I caught her hanging around the Homer Gallery.”

That suddenly got everyone’s attention, though Ace glared at Interface. Ace had been pretty secretive since they found out that they had a mole, so Geist figured that he hadn’t wanted Interface to spread that around.

“We shouldn’t talk about this in the open,” A-Plus said.

However, Kew shrugged and pointed to a devise that was sitting in the middle of their lunch table. “My portable cone of silence will keep anyone from overhearing,” Kew said. “And it jams bugs too…”

“So,” Holdout asked, looking to Ace. “Were you going to brief the rest of us on that?”

“I was just compartmentalizing information,” Ace said defensively, glaring at Holdout and then everyone else, as if daring them to argue with his decision. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh. “I’ve been thinking it since Interface reported in last night. I’m pretty sure that I know what she’s after now.”

“What’s that?” Rez asked.

“She’s a little too interested in the Homer Gallery for my tastes,” Ace said. Then, in a dramatic tone, he announced, “I think she’s going for the gold.”

Geist’s eyes widened as she remembered the big pile of gold that she’d seen in the Homer Gallery. A ton of gold would be a tempting target for anyone.

“You figured out what she’s after,” Geist exclaimed. “That’s brilliant…” Ace looked rather pleased at that, while A-Plus glared at Geist.

“Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on Mischief?” A-Plus asked with a note of hostility in her tone. “Who knows what the Imp’s henchgirl is up to.”

Ace nodded. “Good idea.”

“I’m on it,” Geist eagerly responded. “You can count on me.”

With that, Geist hurried away from the table and went in search of Mischief. She’d been following the blonde girl around enough to know where she usually ate, so it didn’t take long to find her.

Then, when Mischief got up and began to walk away, Geist smirked to herself. “Whatever she’s up to, I’m gonna find out, and then she’s really gonna be in trouble.”

Geist took a moment to check her energy level, making sure that she had enough of a charge. As an energizer, she could store ambient electromagnetic energy, which made her as strong, fast, and tough as an exemplar 3. If she really pushed it, she could become the equivalent of an exemplar 4. Of course, that wasn’t the aspect of her power that she needed at the moment.

A couple seconds later, Geist tapped into her energy reserve and activated her other power, displacing her image. In an instant, she was completely invisible, while an image that looked exactly like she did, appeared about five feet away. She would have preferred if it was further away, but she couldn’t always control where it appeared.

“Now, to get to work,” Geist said as she began to follow after Mischief, who had no idea she was there. “And I’ll prove I’m not the mole.”

--------------------

Tuesday afternoon, Oct 2nd, 2007

Classes were finally over for the day, much to my relief. I enjoyed teaching art to kids, but I had several projects in the works, and I needed to get to work on them. But first, I had a few details I had to take care of.

One of those meddling kids was following me around again, thinking that I didn’t know she was there. A-Plus was the one this time, and in spite of having the common sense of a gopher, she was also pretty sharp. That meant, this was going to be fun.

I palmed the tracking device that one of her friends had slipped on me earlier today, then slipped it into the pocket of a random student as I walked past. Now, to lose my tail, and not the one coming out of my backside. That would hurt.

A few seconds later, I turned the corner around the Beck Library, getting out of A-Plus’s sight long enough to pull my vanishing trick. I crouched down, remaining low and hidden as she came around the corner to follow me.

“Where’d she go?” A-Plus asked aloud.

She looked back and forth with a frustrated expression that tempted me to jump out and go ‘boo’. However, I restrained myself.

After a few seconds of looking around for me, A-Plus pulled out some doodad, which was obviously locked onto the tracking device. A moment later, this was confirmed, as she changed direction and began following the student I’d slipped the tracker onto. I wondered how long it would take for her to realize that she’d been tricked.

“Too bad I won’t be able to see the look on her face,” I mused with a grin.

I gave C-Minus time to get further away from me, then I came out of hiding and continued on my way, deciding to take a nice leisurely stroll around campus, so as not to leave a clear trail. I didn’t have any particular destination, and was actually more interested in stretching my legs and taking advantage of being able to do that out in the open, than I was in losing any tail. However, I was amused to consider, that if someone was mapping my path, it would probably end up looking like something from a Family Circle cartoon.

Then, shortly after I finally started heading back towards my apartment in the Village, I noticed two women who were walking towards the main campus parking lot. One of them was a mousey looking brunette, while the other was a tall and somewhat statuesque redhead. The redhead also happened to look quite familiar, so I moved closer and got a better look at her.

As soon as I recognized the redhead, I grinned broadly and called out, “Hey, Hamsterball.”

The redhead, whom I knew by her professional name of Pinball, turned and stared at me in surprise. “Imp? What are you doing here?”

“I’m working a job,” I answered with a broad grin and a swish of my tail.

Pinball gasped at that, then quickly looked around, to make sure no one would overhear us. Then, she turned back to me and demanded, “Why would you pull a job HERE? Do you know what the security is like? What the consequences could be? Are you insane?”

I just laughed at that. “Yeah, I thought it was pretty crazy too, but my employer made me too good an offer to pass up.”

“And who would be crazy enough to hire you for a job HERE?” Pinball asked, looking a bit concerned.

My grin just widened. “That would be Lady Astarte.”

“Lady Astarte?” the brunette asked in surprise.

“But she’s…,” Pinball started to respond, then paused as realization flashed through her eyes.

“I’m the new art teacher here,” I explained in a pleasant tone, while Pinball just stared at me as though I’d suddenly grown horns…or at least…another pair.

Pinball blinked several times, as though she couldn’t quite process that information. “You? A teacher?”

I nodded at that, enjoying her reaction. Then, with a sigh, I turned a little more serious. “I retired from the business a couple months ago…shortly after the whole Mauler thing. Then one day, Lady Astarte comes knocking on my door and asks me if I wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t have anything else going on, so…” I shrugged.

“But you…,” she started, still looking a bit confused. “A teacher…”

“I know,” I responded with a chuckle. “I certainly wouldn’t have imagined it.”

Just then, Pinball’s companion went “Ahem,” doing the whole fake cough thing.

“Oh, sorry,” Pinball said, giving the brunette an apologetic look. “Imp, this is my partner, Emily.”

I was pretty sure that when Pinball said ‘partner’, she didn’t mean the business type. But since I already knew that the statuesque redhead preferred the ladies, this wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, giving Emily a friendly smile.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Emily said, looking amused. “It’s nice to finally meet you too.”

“So,” I said, giving Pinball a curious look. “What are you doing here? No offense, but you look a little too old to be enrolling…”

Pinball chuckled at that. “Actually, I graduated from Whateley a few years back.”

“We both did,” Emily added.

I gave Pinball a look of surprise, then a look of mock hurt. “So, you knew that there was a school for mutants, and you never told me…?”

“You didn’t know about Whateley?” Pinball asked, seeming surprised by that.

I shook my head. “Not until someone came knocking on my window, begging me to come teach here…”

“Of course, she came knocking on your window,” Pinball said with a chuckle, which showed her skepticism of my claim. “Somehow, I have a hard time imagining that.”

Emily gave Pinball a look of amusement as she said, “Stranger things have happened.”

“You don’t get much stranger than the Imp,” Pinball joked.

“Thank you,” I said in my best Elvis voice, doing a quick Elvis dance move and then bowing. “Thank you very much.” Pinball and Emily both laughed at that.

“Actually,” Pinball told me a few seconds later, “The reason we’re here, is to drop off my little sister.”

I blinked at that. “Your little sister?”

Pinball and I had worked together a few times, and we got along great. In fact, I considered her a friend, and those were hard to find in my business, or at least, in my former business. However, she’d never talked much about her personal life, and especially not her family. I’d always had the feeling that there were some tender feelings regarding her family.

“She just manifested,” Pinball explained. “And unfortunately, she immediately ended up on the MCO’s radar…”

“Not good,” I said, nodding sympathetically.

“No, it isn’t,” Pinball responded with a shrug. “But it is what it is. So, I brought her here, where she’ll be safe from the MCO, and she’ll get a good education.”

“A two-fer deal,” I said, nodding my understanding. “So, does chibi Pinball have a name?”

Emily snickered at that, while Pinball just grinned. “Actually,” Pinball told me. “I’ve been calling her mini-me.”

“Good name,” I said, nodding my approval.

“Her codename is Sphere,” Emily said. “And you won’t be able to miss her. She looks like a younger version of Jackie.”

I glanced to Pinball, having noted that Emily referred to her as Jackie. When we’d been in Vegas a few years back, dressed in civvies, she’d used ‘Jackie’ as her alias. At the time, I’d assumed that it was just a made-up pseudonym, like the name I’d used, Imogen Prentiss. Apparently, it hadn’t been.

“Since you’re a teacher here,” Pinball said carefully. “I’d appreciate it if you’d keep an eye out for Dana.”

“I can do that,” I agreed.

“And don’t go dragging her into any trouble,” Pinball told me.

Before I could respond to that, Emily smirked. “She’s good enough at finding trouble on her own.”

“True,” Pinball admitted with a chuckle. “Very true.”

Gesturing towards the visitor parking area where I’d seen Pinball and Emily walking towards, I asked, “Were you two on your way out?”

“Unfortunately,” Pinball said with a sigh. “I wish I could stay long enough to get Dana settled in a bit more, but we need to get going before some pests show up.”

“The MCO?” I asked.

“Worse,” Pinball responded with a scowl. “Heroes. And one of them has a personal grudge against me.”

I gave her a sympathetic look. “Ouch. Do you at least have enough time to catch up over a beer or two? I mean, the bar here is no Black Mask, but it’s not bad.”

“I think we can spare the time,” Emily said, giving Pinball an amused look. “Besides, Jackie told me about a couple of the jobs she pulled with you, and I’d like to hear a little more about them…”

“This could take a long time,” Pinball warned. Then, she looked straight at me and grinned broadly. “You know, I’ve got a few stories I can share about you too… Now, where’s that beer at?”

--------------------

The Quad, Wednesday, Oct 3rd, 2007

The Quad was one of the most active areas on campus, at least when the weather was decent. This was probably the most popular area for students to gather and socialize, outside of the Crystal Hall itself. And unlike the Crystal Hall, which was primarily a glorified cafeteria, the Quad was outside and provided fresh air.

Since it was lunch time, and the weather was cooperating, the Quad was currently busy. Students gathered around in clusters, chatting among their friends. The luckier students had even been able to claim some of the tables and chairs, though even those without, managed to claim their own small pieces of territory, at least for the moment.

I took my time, walking around the Quad and simply enjoying all the energy and activity. I also enjoyed seeing how many students with GSD were out and in the open. Even after a month teaching at Whateley, that still managed to amaze me.

My attention was drawn to one girl, who was sitting by herself, and was assembling a large jigsaw puzzle on the ground. Between her looks and how fast she was assembling the puzzle, I assumed that she was an exemplar. However, what caught my eye wasn’t the girl herself, but the picture that was quickly coming together. I knew that picture, and I knew it well.

“That is a nice picture,” I commented to the girl, gesturing to the nearly completed puzzle.

The girl looked up at me, then down at the picture. “I just got it last weekend,” the girl said, holding up the box that the pieces had come in, so I could get a better look. “It’s from an artist named Candice Kade.”

A grin immediately spread across my face, and my tail swished back and forth, further revealing my excitement. A couple months ago, I’d licensed a few of my paintings to be made into prints, puzzles, and other things, but this was the first time that I’d actually run into someone who bought one.

“I’ve heard of that artist,” I said. “Let’s just say, I’m her biggest fan…”

“I’ve never heard of her before,” the girl admitted. “But I really liked this picture…”

Those words went straight to my ego, and I puffed up just a little. There was nothing better than a sincere compliment of my work. It was even better than chocolate, though admittedly, not by much.

“You know,” I told the girl, with barely contained glee. “I’m pretty sure that she has a few more prints and puzzles for sale…”

The girl smiled at that, looking interested. “Thanks. I’ll have to check them out.”

After that, I left the girl to her puzzle and continued wandering around the Quad. But just a couple minutes later, something else caught my attention, or more accurately, someone else.

Three girls were walking across the Quad, chatting with each other as they were obviously looking for a place to sit. I immediately recognized two of the girls, not from any of my classes, but from the times when I acted as a substitute in Anderson’s fifth period survival class. The girl with the blonde hair was Jinx, and the one with the brightly colored peacock hair was, appropriately enough, named Peacock. However, it was the third girl, who I was interested in at the moment.

The third girl was tall, athletic looking, and had the kind of build that just wasn’t quite natural for a girl that age. She practically screamed ‘exemplar’. And then, there was the fact that she had long red hair, with a golden lock in the front. This girl looked so much like Pinball, that there was no mistaking who she was.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” I asked as I approached the three girls.

“Um, hi, Ms. Imp,” Peacock greeted me.

“Hello girls,” I said, nodding to her and Jinx. Then I turned to the redhead and grinned. “And you must be Dana.”

“How’d you know?” Hamsterball Junior gasped in surprise, though her eyes quickly narrowed in suspicion.

“I’m the fabulous Imp,” I introduced myself with a grin. “Art teacher extraordinaire…” Then, still smirking, I added, “And Jackie told me about you last night.”

Dana’s eyes widened at that. “You know Jackie?”

“We’re old friends,” I assured the girl. “We used to work together, on a few occasions, until I retired from my old career.”

“Old career?” Dana asked, giving me a suspicious look. “You’re a supervillain…”

“Former supervillain,” I corrected her cheerfully. “Or as I prefer to think of it, a brilliant and daring liberator of valuable artworks.”

Jinx laughed at that, then told Dana, “Ms. Imp sometimes teaches our survival class…” She gestured to Peacock, who nodded confirmation. “She’s a pretty fun teacher…”

“Thank you,” I told the girl. “I do try.”

“Jackie never said anything about you,” Dana said, giving me a curious look.

I just shrugged at that. “She probably didn’t want to overwhelm you with stories of my magnificence…” Dana looked a little startled at that, while Jinx and Peacock both giggled. I flashed the redhead a grin. “Honestly, Hamsterball didn’t know I was at Whateley, until I ran into her yesterday. But I didn’t know she had a sister until then either, so I guess it all balances out.”

“Well, it’s…nice to meet you,” Dana said carefully.

“You too,” I responded. “But if you’ll excuse me girls, I have some other people to go bother…I mean teach.”

I nodded to the girls, making a mental note to keep an eye on Dana. If she was anything like Pinball, then she’d end up getting in trouble before long. If she did, she might need someone with my experience to help her get out of it. I owed that to Pinball, if nothing else.

Now that I’d introduced myself to Pinball’s little sister, it was time to deal with some rodents. Squirrels. Specifically, of the secret variety. Three of them had been watching me as I walked through the Quad, and they’d slowly been trying to sneak up on me. That was why I’d cut short my conversation with Dana.

The boy named Ace came up and stopped in front of me, while Kew and A-Plus positioned themselves to my sides, as if they were boxing me in. I noticed that the rest of their little club was absent at the moment, which was no surprise. I’d been keeping an eye on them, and over the last couple days, these so called Secret Squirrels had been fighting amongst themselves pretty badly. I smirked at that.

“Imp,” Ace said, standing there with the same arrogant and self-righteous body language as so many of the heroes I’d met over the years. “We know what you’re up to, and we’re going to stop you.”

“Do you?” I asked pleasantly. “And are you?”

“Yes we are,” A-Plus blurted out.

“And who are you?” I asked, pretending that I had absolutely no idea who they were. I imagined that would annoy them a little more.

“We’re the Intelligence Cadet Corps,” Kew exclaimed.

“As you well know,” A-Plus added, looking offended.

“We’re here to give you a fair warning,” Ace told me. “The Intelligence Cadet Corps are on the case, and we will take you down…”

I burst out laughing, which made all three of those kids look offended. “Threatening a teacher,” I finally said, grinning at Ace. “You’re ballsy Deuce. Stupid…but ballsy.”

“But you aren’t a real teacher,” A-Plus exclaimed. “You’re just a villain who infiltrated the school.”

“My paycheck says differently,” I pointed out, still amused by these meddling kids and their attempts to throw me off my game and intimidate me. I let out a sigh, then announced, “You know, Secret Squirrel is a great cartoon character, and you kids have proven that you don’t deserve the honor of being named after him. So from now on, you’re the Teletubbies instead.”

“Teletubbies?” Kew asked in confusion while Ace and A-Plus just looked angry and frustrated.

“And speaking of great cartoon characters,” I commented with an evil grin. “Exit, stage left even…” And with that, I threw down a smoke bomb and did my disappearing act, leaving three stupefied Teletubbies behind.

--------------------

Wednesday afternoon, Oct 3rd, 2007

Ace stepped into the Cadet’s clubhouse and paused, staring in surprise as he watched Kew run back and forth like a mad woman. Rez and Holdout were the only other two people there, and like Rez, they too were scrambling about, looking in every corner.

“What the Hell is going on?” Ace demanded.

“She got in here,” Kew blurted out frantically, holding up a bug detector. “Imp bugged our clubhouse…”

“Impossible,” Ace responded. “Our security is…”

Kew held out her hand, revealing nearly a dozen small listening devices in her palm. “I was performing our usual sweep, when I started finding them… They’re all over the place…”

“The whole clubhouse is infested with bugs,” Holdout said.

Ace stared at Kew for a moment, and then at the listening devices in her hand. His thoughts immediately turned to Morocco, Imp’s mole within their club. Whoever Morocco was, they’d probably been the one to plant these bugs. They had to find the mole and soon.

“And the worst part is,” Kew exclaimed in frustration. “These are MY bugs… These are the ones we were using on the Imp.”

“I found another one over here,” Holdout announced.

That was followed seconds later by Rez. “I’ve got another one too…”

When A-Plus arrived a short time later, and said nearly the same thing that Ace had, he was forced to admit, “Our base of operations has been compromised…”

It took nearly an hour to find and deactivate all the listening devices, and once they had, Ace could only stare at the pile they’d discovered. There had been several dozen of them, hidden all through their clubhouse. Holdout had been accurate, when he’d said that they were infested.

“I think we have them all,” Kew announced, though she didn’t sound as confident as Ace would have liked. “But just in case…” She began setting up several bug jammers, and her portable cone of silence. Finally, she announced, “We’re good now. No one can eavesdrop.”

“Like that does any good when we’ve got a mole,” Interface pointed out, looking around at the other members in suspicion.

“Where’s Reach?” Holdout asked. He was the only member of the Cadets who was still absent.

“He’s been spending too much time with his girlfriend lately,” A-Plus stated in annoyance, “and not enough helping with this investigation…”

“I’ve been doing my part,” Reach announced as she came into the room. “In case you all forgot, I was on Imp tailing duty…”

“Well, you missed her sneaking in here and bugging us,” Holdout grumbled, as though it was all Reach’s fault. “Or did you just let her in?”

Reach glared at Holdout. “I had our suspect firmly in sight, until she went to the Village. I wasn’t going to get caught sneaking around there, so I came back here instead, so we can plan our next move.”

Ace looked around the group, seeing all the suspicious looks. He suddenly realized that with all their infighting and accusations, they were doing the Imp’s work for her. As much as he didn’t like it, that meant keeping the others in the loop, at least enough to show that he trusted them. However, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be keeping a close eye on each and every member of the Cadets. Sooner or later, the mole would slip, and he’d be ready to catch them.

“Geist,” Ace said, looking at their newest member. “You’ve been on Mischief duty. Is there anything to report?”

“I keep losing her,” Geist admitted, staring down at the floor shamefully.

“We can’t expect the rookie to deal with such an important responsibility,” A-Plus said.

Geist glared at the older girl. “Mischief can teleport, and walk through walls, and turn invisible…”

“Enough,” Ace said. “Geist, did she do anything of note when you did have her in sight?”

“I saw her going into Imp’s secret hideout,” Geist said. “But most of the time, she keeps disappearing on me…”

Kew raised her hand for attention, then announced, “I got the results back on that candy we found…”

“What’s in them?” Ace asked eagerly. “Narcotics? Poison?”

“Nothing,” Kew answered reluctantly. “There’s nothing in them. It’s just…normal candy.”

“No way,” A-Plus exclaimed almost angrily. “Why would she put normal candy in a safe? There’s obviously more to it than that…”

“This is the candy you found in the safe?” Reach asked as he picked up the bag.

Ace gave him a warning look. “Careful. That’s evidence…”

“This is red herring,” Reach blurted out incredulously. “Literally.”

“What are you…?” Interface asked.

Reach held out a handful of the red gummy candies so that everyone could get a good look. “Swedish Fish. Each one is a red herring…”

“But that’s…,” A-Plus started to protest, before pausing, with her eyes going wide in realization.

Ace facepalmed, wondering how he could have possibly missed something so obvious. They’d been so intent on finding out what the candy had been made of, that they’d completely overlooked the fact that each piece of candy, was a red gummy fish. They’d missed the obvious. He’d missed the obvious.

Reach stared directly at Ace. “And this was in the same safe as the evidence about the mole?”

“Imp knew that we were coming,” Ace said, grudgingly admitting what each of them had just realized. “We’ve been played.”

--------------------

Crystal Hall, Thursday late afternoon, Oct 4th, 2007

Melissa stared down at her dinner tray, focusing intently on her dessert. Chocolate cream pie was her favorite, followed by banana cream, but apple was good too, so she wasted no time in eating it. Only when she’d finished, did she turn her attention back to her friends, who were also sitting at the table with her.

Maxine was Melissa’s roommate, a very pretty girl with long maroon hair and pointed ears like an elf. However, Maxine said that she wasn’t an elf, and that she just had some minor GSD. Melissa was disappointed by that, because she thought it would have been really cool to have an elf for a roommate. Still, Maxine wasn’t a bad roommate, even if she wasn’t really an elf.

Sitting directly across from Melissa was Trixie, a petite black girl, with her dark hair pulled back and braided into two pig tails. Trixie was a gadgeteer, but not a very powerful one. However, she specialized in making practical joke stuff, and Melissa had been able to see most of it first-hand, since the two of them had been pranking each other since they’d arrived at Whateley.

The last person sitting at the table was Jenny Merrowitz, also known as Fairy Girl. She was a cute girl with blonde hair, which had pink ribbons tied into it. Jenny was also really into the whole magical girl and fairy princess thing, but so far, didn’t seem interested in joining Wondercute.

“Have you tried it yet?” Trixie abruptly asked Melissa, with an almost maniacal grin.

“Not yet,” Melissa answered.

Trixie gave her a disapproving look. “But I gave it to you YESTERDAY. It’s my new and improved version, and I need it tested…”

“I know,” Melissa responded. “And I am gonna test it for you, but Imp told me I need to wait till just the right time, and that’s what I’m gonna do…” Then she let out a sigh, deflating a little before grumbling, “But waiting is so hard…”

“I don’t think that this is going to end well for anyone involved,” Maxine pointed out calmly.

Melissa gave her roommate a look of betrayal. Maxine was a bit of a party pooper, and wasn’t really interested in having fun like Melissa and Trixie were. However, Melissa had to admit, that Maxine was probably right. If she actually listened to Maxine more, then she probably wouldn’t get into so much trouble…or have as much fun.

“Well, it should be interesting, if nothing else,” Jenny said cheerfully.

“Totally,” Trixie agreed with a broad grin.

Melissa nodded her own enthusiastic agreement, then reluctantly announced, “I’ve gotta get going. I’ve got stuff to do.”

“Have fun,” Trixie said with a giggle. “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…”

Melissa stuck her tongue out at Trixie, then made a show of turning and walking off. However, she hadn’t gone far when she noticed that she was being followed…again. Melissa giggled at that, and tried hard not to look back at Geist. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to control herself. After all, this was totally going to be worth it.

A few minutes later, and Melissa was nearly back at Whitman, where her room was. However, in spite of living in Whitman, that wasn’t her real destination. Instead, she stopped at a tree and a cluster of small bushes beneath it, and pulled out the weapon that she’d hidden there. Geist had been following her all week, and now it was finally time to do something about it.

With her weapon in hand and a broad grin on her face, Melissa suddenly turned around and teleported, reappearing right beside Geist. “Surprise,” Melissa cried out, right before she smashed the cherry pie right into Geist’s face…or at least tried to. The pie went right through Geist’s face as though she wasn’t even there, and so did Melissa’s arm. “What the…?”

“Surprise,” Geist’s voice called out from about twenty feet away.

Melissa snapped around and glared in the direction that she’d heard Geist from, realizing what had happened. She’d forgotten about Geist’s powers, and had attacked the decoy instead of the real one. Of course, she couldn’t see the real Geist, and realized that this must be what it was like for other people when she was the one who was invisible.

“I definitely prefer being the invisible one,” Melissa muttered to herself, quickly adding, “Now, what would Imp do?”

Of course, Melissa already had a pretty good idea of what her mentor would do, since Imp had already given her some advice about it. With that in mind, Melissa stuck her tongue out in the direction she believed Geist to be in.

“Stop following me,” Melissa demanded.

Geist immediately responded, “I will if I want to, and you can’t stop me.”

“You stink,” Melissa called out. “And your clothes are totally ugly…”

“Now it’s my turn,” Geist exclaimed.

With that, Geist’s image ran away from Melissa, in a way that seemed pretty weird. Suddenly, the remains of the cherry pie were picked up from the ground and hovered in the air for just a moment before it blurred and vanished. An instant later, Geist’s image now held the pie tin, and had a nasty smile. Melissa knew what was coming, so when the pie was flung at her, reappearing from thin air, she was already intangible. The remains of the pie went right through her, just as easily as it had Geist’s image.

“You suck,” Melissa said with a grin. “My grandma can throw better than that, and she doesn’t have any arms…” Of course, her grandmother was dead, and she’d possessed both arms at the time of her passing. However, accuracy wasn’t important in this kind of thing.

“I’m gonna get you, you...henchman,” Geist snarled. “You’re gonna go to prison, and I’m gonna laugh at you…”

“I’m an apprentice,” Melissa corrected proudly. “Not a henchman, henchgirl or minion. And as for going to jail, you’ll have to catch me first…”

With that, Melissa turned and ran, knowing that Geist would follow after. When she glanced back, she saw that she was right. Geist’s image was indeed following, which meant that the real Geist was too.

“You can’t outrun me,” Geist yelled from behind.

“I can certainly try,” Melissa responded with a grin. However, she knew that Geist was right. Geist had that internal energizer thing going for her, which gave her a big advantage.

Melissa found the nearest entrance to the tunnels, then ran down into them. When she glanced back, Geist’s image was still following her. The sight made Melissa grin. As soon as they were far enough into the tunnels, Melissa reached into her pocket and pulled out her secret weapon. Hitting Geist with the pie would have been totally awesome, but Imp told her that she needed a backup plan, and this was it.

“Hey, Geist,” Melissa called out as she came to an abrupt stop. “Catch…”

Melissa threw the small canister down the hallway, towards Geist, where it hit the ground and exploded in thick smoke. An instant later, Melissa teleported further down the hall, away from Geist, and immediately began holding her nose. At the same time, Geist’s image vanished, while the real Geist suddenly reappeared, though she dropped to the her knees and began coughing and gagging.

“I told you that you stink,” Melissa exclaimed with a giggle, that she cut short as she caught just a whiff of the stench that was overwhelming her classmate. “And I warned you not to follow me…” Then, Melissa turned and ran further down the tunnels as quick as she could, eager to get away from that foul smell. She giggled as she did so, and announced, “Trixie makes the BEST stink bombs on campus…”

--------------------

The Village, Thursday evening, Oct 4th, 2007

I was outside, sitting at one of the tables near my apartment building. At the moment, I was smoking a cigarette while drawing in my sketch book, just taking the opportunity to relax in general.

The sketch I was currently working on, was a picture of Melissa. I was feeling pretty proud of my apprentice, especially since she’d managed to deal with Geist mostly on her own. Sure, I’d given her some advice, but she was the one who figured out the details and pulled it off.

“A stink bomb,” I said with a chuckle and an evil grin, wishing that I’d been there to see it myself. “In an enclosed space no less.”

There was no doubt in my mind that Geist would remember this incident, and would hold it against Melissa. I did feel a little bad about Melissa making an enemy this way, but Geist was already the type to go after her, so all Melissa really did, was give her a better reason to do so.

And of course, Melissa had begun the first steps to building her own reputation. Whether she went the hero or villain route, a reputation would be important. However, exactly what that reputation would eventually end up being, would only be revealed in time.

I took a drag of my cigarette, then went back to work on the sketch. I was pretty sure that I was capturing Melissa pretty well, especially the mischievious gleam in her eye.

“Imp,” a voice suddenly called out, making me lose my focus.

“Tabby,” I said, greeting the woman who was coming towards me. And beside her, was Louis. I nodded to him. “Hey, Foob.”

“I just heard about your game with the Secret Squirrels,” Tabby commented with an amused look.

“You sound like you approve,” I said curiously. I wouldn’t have expected a hero to approve of what I was up to.

“Back when I was a student here,” Tabby told me, “I had a few dealings with their predecessors.”

“Did you know,” Louis asked me, “that several faculty members have wagers on this?”

“Nope,” I answered cheerfully as I put out my cigarette. “But I’m not surprised.”

“So, what started this little game?” Tabby asked, taking a seat at the table.

“Just some meddling kids, who decided to challenge me,” I answered with an evil grin. “If they didn’t want to play with me, they shouldn’t have kept bugging my classroom.”

“Don’t you feel guilty though?” Tabby asked me. “They are just kids.”

With a chuckle, I pointed out, “Well, I am a teacher, and I’m in the process of teaching them a valuable lesson…”

Louis smiled at that and commented, “I imagine that it is the same lesson you recently taught Samantha Everhart.”

Tabby reached out for my sketch book and stared at it for a moment. “This is pretty good,” she said. Then she flipped through the pages. “They’re all pretty good.”

“Thank you,” I responded.

“I know you’re an art thief,” Tabby said, “but I never would have pegged you for an artist yourself.”

“Imp is full of surprises,” Louis said, giving me a knowing look and a smirk.

“I was wondering,” I asked Louis in response. “What’s your favorite flavor of Jello?”

Louis chuckled at that, then told Tabby, “Imp is quite a talented artist. If she hadn’t gone into her previous career, I believe she could have had quite a career in making art, rather than stealing it.”

“But stealing it is so much fun,” I responded with an evil grin and a swish of my tail.

“I imagine that stopping you from stealing it would be amusing as well,” Tabby added with a smirk.

“You’re just jealous because you’re not allowed to break into places and steal the shinies,” I told her smugly.

Tabby rolled her eyes at that. “Neither are you…not that this seems to have stopped you any.”

“I’m curious,” Louis said, drawing my attention again. “How much longer do you intend to play with those children?”

“As long as I need to,” I told him with a broad grin and a swish of my tail. “But the game is about to pick up the pace. Now, the real fun begins.”

Arena 99, Friday, Oct 5th, 2007

Normally at this time of day, I’d been in the cafeteria, just finishing up my lunch. However, today was different. Today, a couple students had challenged me, and I wasn’t one to simply ignore this kind of challenge.

I climbed out of the sim crèche, grinning from ear to ear. Then, while still chuckling gleefully to myself, I stripped out of my sim suit and quickly changed back into my working clothes. After all, this was still the middle of the school day, and I had a class to teach.

When I came out of the room a couple minutes later, I was surprised to find Tabby standing there. “I watched your sim match,” she said without preamble. “It was…interesting.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” I responded with a grin.

“I’ve never seen so much glitter and ribbons in my life,” she admitted wryly. “Wondercute certainly did a number on you. My daughter told me about them, but to see them in action like that…” She shook her head. “Insane.”

“They were, weren’t they?” I responded cheerfully.

Tabby gave me a curious look. “Why are you so happy? You lost.”

“Yep,” I replied with a chuckle. “But I had a blast. Sure, they beat me in the rematch. But it was a fun rematch, and those girls are a lot more entertaining to fight than most of your kind. I mean, this is the first time I’ve ever been attacked by a cute and cuddly teddy bear, who wanted to bear hug me to death. And the glitter…”

“Is that why you threw the fight?” Tabby asked. “Because you were having fun?”

I gave her a look of mock offense. “Me throw a fight? Why in the world would I do something like that?”

“I don’t know,” she told me with an amused look. “Maybe so you have an excuse to challenge them to another match.”

“You know,” I said with a broad grin. “That’s not a bad idea… In fact, that should be a lot of fun.”

Tabby made a show of rolling her eyes at that. “However, after watching your little game, I’m thinking that I might need to set you up with my daughter and her friends…and a couple students I’ve been tutoring.”

“Oh?” I asked.

This time, it was Tabby who gave me an almost evil smile. “I think they might learn a thing or two from dealing with someone of your…talents.”

“Why, thank you,” I said, matching her grin. “That definitely sounds like fun.”

After this, I went in and stuck my head in to listen to Wondercute’s debriefing for a few minutes, chuckling as I did so. Those girls had a lot of potential, at least when it came to my favorite tactics of distraction and misdirection.

“It does an Imp proud,” I mused.

Then, I finally took off, heading back to my classroom. After all, I still had a class to teach, and it wouldn’t do for the teacher to be late.

The class was Art 2, which was offered mostly to Juniors and Seniors. I enjoyed teaching this one, because I could go into somewhat more advanced techniques than I could in my Art 1 class, and the students in this one often took it a little more seriously.

“Ironic,” I mused with a chuckle, “that I of all people would ever consider being serious as a good thing.”

When class began a minute later, I looked around and my eyes settled on Razorback, or Dino as I preferred to call him. The kid had GSD that made mine look like nothing more than a small birthmark in comparison. But on the plus side, he looked like some kind of velociraptor, which was pretty damn cool.

Dino was sitting in his usual spot, but he was knawing on a bone that looked like it could have come straight out of the Flintstones. It was three feet long, and it looked like he was thoroughly enjoying it.

“Dino,” I said with a tone of disapproval, though it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. “How many times have I told you, that if you’re gonna bring food into my classroom, you’d better bring enough for everyone…”

As soon as I said this, Dino paused and gave a chagrinned look, or at least as much of one as could be expressed on a dinosaur’s face. Then, he held out the bone to the students near him, as though offering them a bite. Almost as one, they all pulled back with looks of disgust. I burst out laughing.

Since no one was taking Dino up on his generous offer, he began saying something in that usual dinosaur chirping thing he did. I couldn’t understand a word of what he said, since velociraptor wasn’t an option I’d ever been given for a foreign language class, but I nodded along as though I understood anyway.

“That’s a good point,” I said. “Very interesting. You’re absolutely right.” Dino continued to chirp, and I could tell that he was having fun playing along with me. “But why would Mister Williams borrow one of Jericho’s dresses?”

There were some good chuckles by that last bit, because Roland Williams was disliked by nearly everyone who knew him. I would have called him Barney, like I usually did, but I actually wanted the students to get the reference.

But as amusing as this exchange was, this was still a class and I still had to teach it. Since I’d gotten some of the silliness out of the way, I turned my attention to my actual job of teaching.

However, even as I taught the class, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Not because I disliked teaching this class, but because after this class was my free period, and I already had some plans for how to use that time. The Teletubbies were going to hate me.

--------------------

Friday afternoon, Oct 5th, 2007

The final bell of the school day rang, announcing that the weekend had officially begun. However, Ace didn’t have time to appreciate this fact. As soon as his last class was over, he hurried to the Cadet’s clubhouse, because as soon as they all regrouped as planned, they’d be able to plan their next move against the Imp.

Ace arrived at the clubhouse a short time later, and was surprised to find A-Plus and Holdout standing outside of it, looking frustrated and angry. As he watched, Holdout kicked the door.

“What’s going on?” Ace demanded.

“The door won’t open,” Holdout answered with a scowl. “The combination doesn’t work.”

“It isn’t just the combination,” A-Plus said, pointing to the door. “The whole combo lock has changed. Someone changed the lock on us.”

“I wonder who that could be,” Rez said as she arrived and looked at the lock. “It looks like the Imp decided to hit us in our home.”

The other Cadets soon arrived, and each of them attempted to open the door, but the lock remained sealed. Interface could connect to the system, but couldn’t open the door. Rez’ technopathy was just as ineffective. And then, Kew attempted to hack the lock with a devise, but it had no effect either.

“I’m sure I can get it,” Kew said. “I just need time to modify my devise.”

Then Geist arrived and everyone turned to glare at her. “Jeez, Carrie,” Rez exclaimed. “Go take a shower. You stink.”

A-Plus smirked. “The next time Miasma asks you to pull his finger… Don’t.”

“I did take a shower,” Geist spat out bitterly. “Several of them. It’s all Mischief’s fault…”

“Just…stand over there a little,” Ace suggested.

“A lot over there,” A-Plus added.

“I can’t believe this,” A-Plus exclaimed. “The Imp broke into our clubhouse and changed the lock on us…”

“How did she even do that?” Holdout asked. “I mean, we have a great security system…”

“Um…world famous thief,” Rez pointed out.

Kew groaned in defeat. “Can this get any worse?”

“Yes it can,” Reach said as she finally arrived. “Because, while you were all here, trying to break into our own clubhouse, Imp was pulling her job.”

“WHAT?” nearly everyone gasped at once.

Reach stood there with a deep scowl on her face. “While I was on my way here, I saw the Imp running away from the Homer Gallery with a large painting. I tried following her, but she had too large a head start, and I lost her.”

“A painting?” Geist asked in surprise. “I thought she was after the gold.”

“The painting of Lord Paramount,” Ace exclaimed in realization. “She was after the painting of Lord Paramount.”

“Why would she want some ugly painting?” Geist asked.

“Extortion,” Ace answered, his mind racing. “Lord Paramount donates an enormous amount of money to the school, on the condition that all the new students are shown that painting. If the school can’t show the painting…”

“Then Paramount won’t give the money,” A-Plus finished.

“I bet the Imp will try selling the painting back to the school,” Ace explained. “Paying the Imp will probably cost less in the long run, and it may save the school some embarrassment.”

“She’s an art thief,” Holdout reminded them. “We should have guessed that she’d go after the art.”

“So, what now?” Kew asked.

“Simple,” Ace answered. “We find where the Imp has the painting, then turn both it and her over to security. Our reputations…maybe even the future of the Cadets, depends on doing this right. Let’s go, Cadets.”

--------------------

Whitman Cottage, Saturday morning, Oct 6th, 2007

Melissa sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at the small collection of items that were spread out in front of her, trying to get some inspiration. There was her whoopie cushion, the lock picks, the super glue, the duct tape, and of course, the stink bombs that she’d got from Trixie.

“What are you doing?” Maxine asked from the other side of the room, where she was doing her homework. “Are you planning something else for Geist?”

“Naw,” Melissa responded with a grin. “Trixie. Yesterday, she tied my shoelaces together, and then when she threw a water balloon at me, and I tried to chase her, I fell flat on my face.”

Maxine gave her a wry look. “First question is, why didn’t you just teleport out of the way or turn intangible? Second question is, how did she tie your shoelaces without you even noticing?”

“I got distracted,” Melissa grumbled defensively.

“Of course you did,” Maxine responded with a faint smile.

“Maybe I’ll superglue her shoes to the floor,” Melissa said, her eyes gleaming with mischief. “Or I can dump a bunch of glitter on her, and it will be all over, and it will take forever to get rid of…”

“Are you sure you didn’t have coffee with breakfast?” Maxine asked.

Melissa gave her a curious look. “Why are you asking that?”

Just then, there was a knocking on their door, followed by Mrs. Savage’s voice asking, “Melissa, can you come out here?” Melissa opened the door and saw the housemother, Mrs. Savage, standing there with an amused expression.

“Is something wrong?” Melissa asked, feeling just a little worried. “Am I in trouble again?”

“Did you do something that you should be in trouble for?” Mrs. Savage asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Melissa lied. “No…”

“Get your shoes on and come on out front,” Mrs. Savage told her. “You have a visitor.”

“A visitor?” Mischief asked. “Who? Is it Imp?”

“Come on out and see for yourself,” Mrs. Savage told her, before walking away.

Melissa quickly put on her shoes and ran down the hallway to the entrance of Whitman Cottage. When she got there, instead of seeing the Imp, like she’d expected, there was another familiar person instead.

“DAD!” Melissa exclaimed, teleporting right to her dad and grabbing him in a hug.

“Heya, Pumpkin,” he greeted her with a broad smile and a firm hug. “It’s good to see you again…”

“But why are you here?” Melissa finally asked her dad, once she broke away from the hug. “Is something wrong? Are you gonna take me away?”

“Everything is fine,” he quickly assured her. “I was just in Boston yesterday for business, and since I was already this close, I figured that I could drive on over and say hi…”

“Ohmygod,” Melissa let out a squeal of delight. “I missed you…”

“And I missed you too,” her father assured her. “The apartment has been too quiet without you.” Then he teased, “I’ve been able to hear myself think, and I don’t know what to do with that…”

Melissa giggled. “And you really came here, just to visit me?”

“Of course,” he responded with a chuckle. “Why else would I be here?” Then he added, “Well, I thought this would be a good chance to see where you’re going to school, and maybe meet some of your friends and teachers….”

Melissa burst into giggles again. “Oh yeah. You’ve gotta meet my teachers, especially my art teacher. She’s awesome…”

--------------------

Dunn Hall, Saturday morning, Oct 6th, 2007

“One potato, two potato, three potato, more,” I sang out to the students in my Saturday morning open classroom. “Time to get your hineys, out my classroom door.”

My classroom had been open for two hours, and ten students had been there to take advantage of it this morning. However, the open classroom period had ended, so it was time to clear out the students so I could clean up and lock up.

I walked over to Darqueheart and examined the watercolor painting that she’d been working on this morning. “Good use of color,” I told her, definitely noting an improvement from last week. “You’re really starting to get the hang of this.”

“Thank you,” Darqueheart told me, looking a little self-conscious.

Putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, I told her, “You’ve got some talent there, and I’d be happy to keep working with you on it.”

Darqueheart left my classroom half a minute later, with a smile on her face. From what I knew of the girl, that was an expression she didn’t show much, and I was happy with my part in bringing it out.

Once all the students had cleared out, I began the process of cleaning up. The first step of that, was to pull out my bug detector and go over the classroom. As I expected, someone had slipped in a listening device. I was pretty sure that I knew who it had been, since the girl was a friend of one of the Teletubbies.

I took care of the bug, then went about cleaning the rest of the room. Before long, everything was clean, organized, and ready for classes on Monday.

I was just about to finish up, when I heard voices from my open classroom door. “This is where I have my art class,” Melissa said. “And my art teacher is always here on Saturday mornings… See, the doors open…”

For a moment, I looked up with a grin, ready to greet Melissa. However, a second later, I heard the other voice and froze.

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter,” a familiar voice said, reading the sign on my classroom door. He chuckled at that while I gulped.

“No,” I whispered, feeling my heart race. “Not him…”

By the time Melissa stepped into my classroom a second later, with her dad right behind her, I was already hidden. I was hidden, but watching, staring at the handsome blonde man I’d known for years, but didn’t know nearly as well as I wanted.

“Chickenhawk,” I whispered to myself, unable to take my eyes off Melissa’s father, the superhero who’d been my enemy for a long time. “Ryan…”

“It looks like there’s nobody here,” Ryan Chambers said as his eyes swept my classroom, passing right over me.

“I know you’re here,” Melissa called out with an annoyed expression.

“That’s all right,” Ryan told his daughter. “You can show me the rest of the campus, and then we can come back and try again if you like…”

They turned and began to leave, but just as Ryan was about to step through the door, I announced, “Hello…Chickenhawk.”

Ryan froze at the sound of my voice. “Imp,” he finally said, before slowly turning around. I’d dropped my chameleon field, and now sat on the edge of my desk.

For a brief moment, Ryan began to smile, and he actually looked happy to see me. However, he obviously remembered that I was a professional criminal, and one that he’d been chasing for years. The smile faded and his expression became more guarded.

“You know, Chickenhawk,” I said cheerfully. “I’m not sure what I should call you. I mean, you aren’t in costume, so should I still call you Chickenhawk, or should I use Ben…or Ryan.”

Ryan’s eyes narrowed in into guarded suspicion. “I thought you said, that you didn’t track down heroes’ real identities.”

“Unless they give me reason,” I pointed out, reminding him that there was a difference.

Then he glanced to his daughter, probably thinking that she must have told me. That could have been an easy assumption to make, but it wasn’t accurate.

“I didn’t track down your identity,” I assured him with a smirk. “And Melissa didn’t tell me. You did. Or at least, you might as well have.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I was at an art exhibit last June,” I explained, “taking a look at the new pieces...when Ryan Chambers showed up, and began introducing Melissa to everyone as his daughter. It didn’t take much to add two plus two.”

Ryan grimaced a little at that. “And what are you going to do with my name?”

“Use it?” I asked with a grin. “Unless you’d prefer I keep calling you Chickenhawk, this is.”

“Ryan will do fine,” he said.

“And don’t worry,” I told him. “I haven’t told anyone else, nor do I plan to.”

Ryan looked relieved at that, and I was surprised to realize, that he took me at my word. He really believed that I’d keep his identity to myself.

“What are you doing here?” Ryan asked. It sounded a lot less accusatory than I was used to from him.

“I’m here on a job,” I answered with a grin.

“You’re doing a job at Whateley?” Ryan responded. I could see him tensing up, preparing to fight me again.

I let out a sigh, suddenly having a sense of deja-vu. So far, this conversation was starting to sound like the one I’d had with Pinball.

“She’s my art teacher,” Melissa exclaimed, nearly bouncing with excitement.

“What?” Ryan gasped, now looking confused.

With a smirk and a chuckle, I said, “It looks like Melissa is living up to her codename. It seems that she never warned you about me.”

Ryan gave me another suspicious look. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m retired,” I answered. “I got tired of being a brilliant criminal mastermind, so I decided to retire and try a different career.” I gave him a wry smile and gestured around the classroom. “I’m an art teacher now.”

Ryan stared at me in stunned disbelief, while Melissa exclaimed, “Its true… Imp is a teacher now. An awesome one.”

For a moment, Ryan seemed to be froze, confused by the whole situation. I could imagine how shocking this whole thing must be for him, and I was tempted to burst out laughing. I might have, if I still thought of him as the lame hero Chickenhawk, rather than as someone much more important.

“I know this is hard to believe,” I commented. Then I paused to take a deep breath. “If it helps,” I said carefully. “You can call me Christine.”

“Christine,” Ryan repeated my name. “Is that your real name?”

“It’s the only other name that I truly claim as my own,” I answered.

Ryan nodded his understanding. “And you really did retire?”

“Yes,” I responded with an amused smile. “I really am retired from my old business. I have been for a couple months now.”

I didn’t mention that I’d retired immediately after our encounter with Paradigm. I didn’t want him to realize that he may actually have influenced that decision, more than I even wanted to admit to myself.

“But how in the world did you end up here?” Ryan asked me, looking more curious than anything else.

I shrugged at that. “A couple weeks after I retired, Lady Astarte showed up at my Imp Lair and offered me a job.”

Ryan blinked at that. “Why would Lady Astarte offer you a job at a school?”

Before I could answer, Melissa began giggling. “Because Lady Astarte is Mrs. Carson… She’s our headmistress…”

I nodded my confirmation at that. “It turns out, that Alicia…the girl Hexagoner kidnapped last spring, is a student here. I gave her a few painting lessons while she was a guest in my Imp Lair, and apparently, she told Carson all about it. The next thing I know, Carson decides that I’d make a good art teacher…”

“That is…amazing,” Ryan said, staring at me for a moment with an odd expression. “So, you actually work for Lady Astarte…”

“Ironic, I know,” I admitted with a chuckle.

Then Ryan began to smile. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” I said, still feeling a bit self-conscious. I wasn’t used to feeling like this, or to having my heart racing over a man. “But the downside is, I’m out of the game, so you’ll have to find a new playmate.”

“I’m sure I’ll survive,” he assured me with an amused look. Then, he gave me a thoughtful look and added, “I just have a hard time believing that you’ll be satisfied, working as a teacher. I imagine that compared to what you were doing, it would be…boring.”

That made me burst out laughing. “Melissa and Alicia are two of my students,” I told him with a grin. “I have a dinosaur, Doctor Diabolik’s daughter, and even a Goodkind in some of my classes. My coworkers include Lady Astarte, Circe, and chibi Cthulhu. Hell, I even have a group of students, who graciously volunteered to keep me amused. Trust me, this school is anything but boring.”

Ryan chuckled at that. “I’m glad to hear that, then.”

“Imp is the best teacher on campus,” Melissa offered, reminding me that she was there. I’d been so focused on Ryan, that I’d nearly forgotten my apprentice. “Her class is really fun…”

“How can I argue with that?” Ryan asked wryly. Then he stared at me for several seconds with a strange expression. “Since we are no longer…professional competitors, would you be interested in meeting for coffee sometime to talk?”

“I’d like that,” I admitted, feeling a little startled by the invitation, but in a pleasant way. “It should be interesting, to just be able to talk, without any of our…professional disagreements…or other things, getting in the way.”

“Today then?” he asked, looking just a little eager.

I let out a sigh of disappointment. “Unfortunately, today probably isn’t good. There are a group of students I need to…teach, and I expect to be busy with that all day.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ryan said, looking as disappointed as I felt. “A rain check then.”

“Of course,” I said. “And I am looking forward to it.”

We talked for a couple more minutes before Ryan and Melissa left my classroom, to continue their tour around campus. I felt an ache in my heart that I couldn’t go along with them, though there was also a strange warmth there as well. Still, regardless of whether Ryan was on campus or not, I still had to deal with the Teletubbies.

--------------------

Saturday morning, Oct 6th, 2007

Ace stifled a yawn, trying not to show how tired he felt. He wasn’t the only Cadet who hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, and unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to rest just yet.

Most of the Cadets were present, gathered together in a classroom that they’d commandeered for this purpose. Their regular clubhouse and headquarters was still unavailable, but hopefully, that situation would soon change.

“Alright Cadets,” Ace announced. “Let’s review our status. Kew, you first.”

“I still haven’t been able to bypass the lock and get into our clubhouse,” Kew admitted in frustration. “I’m pretty sure now, that the new access panel that Imp installed, isn’t even connected to the lock. The whole thing is a decoy…”

“Another red herring,” Reach pointed out wryly, earning a glare from both Kew and Ace. “Sorry.”

“The next step is to just cut through the door,” Kew said with a deep scowl. “And then replace the whole thing.”

“Do it,” Ace told her. “Reach”

“Last night,” Reach said, “we went to the Homer Gallery to collect evidence, and see what else was stolen, since it seems unlikely that our suspect would only have taken the painting. The Gallery was locked and we were unable to gain access. I checked again this morning, and it’s still locked tight.”

“A-Plus?” Ace asked.

A-Plus nodded. “Last night, we searched the Imp’s hideout again. When we arrived, she’d changed the lock, and it took over an hour to bypass it and get inside. Unfortunately, the only thing we found inside was a sign that congratulated us for getting inside. She knew that would be the first place we’d look.”

“And for my part,” Ace began. “I led a search team to try locating the missing painting, but didn’t find any leads. Then this morning, after the Imp began her open classroom, I searched her apartment in the Village.” There were some gasps of surprise at that.

“That seems a little…risky,” Reach pointed out carefully. “If you’d been caught breaking into a teacher’s private residence…”

“It was a risk,” Ace admitted. “But a necessary one. Can you think of a better place for her to hide the painting?”

“But I assume, it wasn’t actually there,” Rez pointed out. “Otherwise, you would have said something.”

“You’re right,” he agreed with a look of frustration. “I didn’t find anything except for a room full of paintings and painting supplies.”

Ace looked around the room, to see if anyone else had something to add. For a moment, his eyes settled on Geist, who currently smelled like she’d dumped a whole bottle of perfume over her head. It was potent, but still better than the lingering odor that she was trying to cover up.

Finally, Ace picked up the radio and asked, “Interface. Do you have anything to report?”

“Yes,” Interface answered from the radio. “I’ve been keeping watch on the suspect’s location. She just met with Mischief and an unidentified man. Mischief and the man left the classroom a minute ago. Now, the Imp has emerged and is going in a different direction. Instructions?”

Ace considered for a moment. “Follow the Imp, but don’t let her see you. She still might lead us to the painting.” Then he looked over to Reach and added, “Reach, I need you to see if you can find out who this man is, and why he was meeting with the Imp.”

“No problem,” Reach stated.

“Why don’t we take this to security?” Rez abruptly asked. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that they’d want to know about this robbery…”

“Because the Imp still has something on Carson,” A-Plus reminded Rez and everyone else. “And Carson told security to back off of the Imp…”

“She’s right,” Ace announced. “Security won’t listen to us on this, until we give them enough evidence that they have no choice but to do so. That means finding the painting, then turning both it and the Imp over to them at the same time.” The he paused. “And in addition, we need to make this bust ourselves. Our reputation depends on it.”

--------------------

Saturday morning, Oct 6th, 2007

I was being followed. That was no surprise though, as those meddling kids, the Teletubbies, had been following me off and on for several weeks. However, I just wished that they wouldn’t be so obvious about it. After all, an Imp of my skill and reputation deserved a much better class of opponent than these amateurs.

“They should be honored that I even agreed to play with them,” I mused with a smirk.

My current tail, the annoying one, rather than the beautiful and fabulous one which sprouted from my backside, was Interface. Interface himself, wasn’t much of a threat. In this game we were playing, he was just a small piece on the board. Of course, at this stage of the game, he could still be a useful piece.

“Hi diddle dee dee, a villain’s life for me,” I quietly sang to myself, while I walked between campus buildings.

Interface was still following, and I made sure not to look directly at him, because it was too soon to give the game away. A few seconds later, I made my way to the nearest entrance to the tunnels, then I paused to glanced around in exaggerated manner, one that would practically scream out ‘suspicious’. Once I was sure I’d made my point, I went on down into the tunnels. As expected, Interface continued to follow me, which brought an evil grin to my face.

A minute later, I found a nice spot that was out of Interface’s sight, and used my chameleon field to blend into the background. I didn’t have to wait long at all before Interface reached my hiding spot, still trying to follow me. Normally, I would have just let him go past, then I would have turned around and went in the other direction. However, this time, I had something else in mind.

“BOO!” I exclaimed as I suddenly leapt out at Interface. He let out a shriek of shock, then collapsed to the ground, courtesy of the knockout mist that I’d sprayed into his face while surprising him. I bent down, checked his pulse, and grinned evilly. “As easy as taking candy from a baby…” Not that I’d ever actually tried that. There were some lines that even the infamous and fabulous Imp wouldn’t cross.

It took me nearly twenty minutes to drag Interface’s unconscious body to where I wanted him, a large room that I’d prepared ahead of time. This was one of a countless number of rooms which had been hidden all through the Whateley tunnel complex. From what I’d been told, it had previously been used as a clubhouse for a long defunct club, a research area for a devisor, and even a love shack for some horny teenage boys. But for now, it would serve my purposes.

“And this place is worth every penny,” I mused, thinking of the money I’d paid Jadis Diabolik. Fortunately, she’d given me a nice discount on the rental, once she learned that I planned to use this space to humiliate the Teletubbies. In fact, I was pretty sure that she would have given me the room for free, if it hadn’t been for the principle of the thing.

By the time Interface woke up, everything was in place and ready to go. I’d even changed into my working outfit. My old working outfit, which was a black and red catsuit. When playing a game like this, it helped to set up the right sense of drama.

“Where am I?” Interfaced demanded in confusion, only realize that he was tied-up and helpless. “What’s going on…?” Then, he saw me and his eyes went wide. “The Imp…”

I immediately recognized my que, so with an evil grin, I held up a sign so that he could read it. ‘IMP-IS MISCH-IEV-IOUS’. An arrow pointed down at me.

Interface stared at me with an expression that seemed to flicker between fear and confusion. Then he looked around and his eyes went wide. He’d finally noticed the large contraption set up around him, and the big bold letters on the side that said ‘ACME’. And then, he looked up and noticed the large vat, with skulls painted on the side, along with the word ‘ACID’.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” Interface screamed, as he frantically struggled to get out of his bindings.

Without saying a word, I held up a second sign. ‘DEATH-IC-US TRAP-IOUS’. I gave Interface another evil grin, then held up my last sign, and pointed straight at him. ‘TEL-E-TUBBY BAIT-I-OUS’.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Interface cried out. “This is real life…NOT some cartoon… You can’t do this to me…”

I just grinned in response, swishing my tail back and forth. Then, I gave my prisoner a wink, dropped the sign, and turned to leave the room.

--------------------

Saturday late morning, Oct 6th, 2007

“I almost have it,” Kew announced, staring at the door to their clubhouse.

“Good,” Ace responded grimly. He hated having to cut open their door, since that would severely damage their security until they could replace it. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the only way to get back inside. “Damn that Imp.”

Ace and several of the others had been searching through the tunnels, trying to find any sign of the Imp or the painting, until Kew had called them over the radio and reported that she was nearly back inside. Ace had come back right away, along with A-Plus. Once they regained access, they’d have to secure their headquarters, just to make sure that none of their enemies took advantage of this opportunity. There was absolutely no way that he was going to allow the Bad Seeds or the Masterminds to step a single foot inside.

“I’ve got it,” Kew exclaimed triumphantly.

“It took long enough,” A-Plus grumbled.

“Enough of that,” Ace said. “We’re back in, and that’s the important thing.”

Ace stepped into the clubhouse, then immediately froze in horror. Not only had the Imp locked them out of their own headquarters, she’s also vandalized the inside. Everywhere he looked, there were Teletubby posters and decorations.

“It almost looks like Wondercute got in here,” Kew exclaimed.

“Not enough pink or glitter,” A-Plus responded with a grim look.

“I am really starting to hate the Imp,” Ace stated bitterly.

A-Plus nodded agreement. “You aren’t the only one.”

After taking a minute to calm down, Ace called out to the rest of the Cadets on the radio. “We’ve regained access to HQ, and are in the process of securing it. Does anyone have anything to report?”

Reach was the first to respond. “I’ve identified my target as Mischief’s father. It seems that he’s only here to visit her, but I haven’t been able to completely confirm this.”

“Keep tailing him then,” Ace said. “Anyone else?” When nobody else had anything to report, he called out, “Interface. Please respond.”

Interface had been out of contact for too long. That wasn’t surprising, because his last communications was to say that he was following the Imp into the tunnels. And as he well knew, any radio communications in the tunnels were extremely unreliable, especially the deeper they went. There were even areas, where no radio communications worked at all, even between two radios that were ten feet apart from each other.

Suddenly, Imp’s voice came over the radio. “Interface isn’t in right now, but if you leave a name and number, he’ll call you back as soon as he’s available.”

Ace gasped, then demanded, “What did you do with Interface?”

“He’s a little tied-up right now,” Imp responded in a cheerful tone. “But you might want to find him before… Well, I’ve gotta go. Bye bye.”

“She has interface,” Ace exclaimed, much to the shock and horror of Kew and A-Plus.

“We have to save him,” Kew said.

Ace nodded agreement. “Agreed. Let’s secure the clubhouse, then go look for him…”

Kew smirked faintly. “Then we may need this…” She held up a devise about the size of a cell phone, looking rather pleased with herself. “Our radios have tracking devices in them, just for this kind of situation… This will lead us straight to Interface’s radio…”

“And the Imp,” Ace finished for her with a cold smile.

--------------------

Beck Library, Saturday early afternoon, Oct 6th, 2007

I was on the roof of the library, crouched down and peering over the edge. At the moment, I was pretending that I was a gargoyle. I would have made an awesome gargoyle, if I wasn’t so darn cute and cuddly.

I’d been waiting there for a bit longer than expected, but my patience finally paid off. Three of the Teletubbies appeared down below, and I watched with some amusement, as they each snuck towards the target, coming from different directions. The target, was a brightly wrapped present, which I’d left in front of the library. After a couple minutes of sneaking, the three kids stood in front of the box.

“Here it is,” Kew said. “Interface’s radio is on the box…”

A-Plus carefully looked over the box before announcing, “It’s probably booby trapped.”

They began to carefully look over the box, without actually touching it, proving that they were a little smarter than I gave them credit for. A little. Then with a grin, I pulled out a remote control that I’d brought with me, and pushed the big red button.

Suddenly, the entire present exploded into confetti and glitter, making a nice mess all over the Teletubbies. That glitter got everywhere, and would be a pain to clean up. I’d gotten the idea from Wondercute, during our last sim match.

“What the Hell,” A-Plus demanded as she frantically tried wiping off the glitter.

I burst out laughing, and gave myself away. All three of those meddling kids stared up at me with dark looks. I just waved back, enjoying the looks on their faces.

“Well, if it isn’t Deuce, C-Minus, and Kewpie Doll,” I said in greeting. “I was expecting you kids half an hour ago…”

“Imp,” Ace spat out angrily. “Where is Interface?”

“And where’s that painting?” A-Plus demanded.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I called out in mock innocence. “And if you want to accuse me of something, I certainly hope you have some proof…”

“We have a witness who saw you steal that painting,” Ace stated, looking all smug and self-righteous. “You’re going down. You can choose to do it the easy way, or the hard way…”

I laughed at his bravado, having seen much the same attitude on countless heroes and the like. He was too full of himself to even realize when he was outmatched.

“I’m generally a lazy Imp,” I commented with a smirk. “So I like to do things the easy way…” Ace relaxed a little at that, and began to look even more smug. “And the easiest thing here is…”

I paused to blow a raspberry down at them, then turned and ran along the library roof before leaping off. I focused the energy from my PK aura into my legs, and used this to absorb much of the impact as I landed. Then, I immediately went into a roll, which took care of the rest of the impact.

“Get her,” Ace yelled.

“You can’t catch me,” I called back. “I’m the fasted Imp in all Mexico. Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale!

With that, I kicked up the speed and ran straight out across campus. I was in great shape, the physical equivalent of an exemplar 2. I wasn’t sure if this was a side effect of my GSD, or of my regeneration keeping my muscles and physical condition from ever atrophying or backsliding, even without exercise. What I did know, was that I was faster than the average person.

Unfortunately, A-Plus actually was an exemplar, and she had enough extra oomph to not only keep up with me, but to outpace me. Or at least, she would if she knew how to actually run more efficiently. She might be able to beat me in a straight out run, but not when I found obstacles like trees, tables, and benches to put between us. I was damn good at using those to my advantage, while my pursuers only found them to be obstacles.

“Good thing none of them are with the Hooligans,” I told myself with a grin.

Then, I saw Holdout come out into the open on one side of me, while Reach and Rez also appeared. It seemed like the Teletubbies had called ahead and were coordinating with their friends. It wasn’t a bad tactic, and I’d been wondering if they’d be smart enough to do something like that.

While the Teletubbies were trying to box me in, I happened to see a somewhat more friendly face, casually walking across campus. I ran up to Maria, and came to a stop.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I greeted my neighbor.

“Fine,” Maria answered, looking me over and clearly noticing my costume. Then she looked around and asked, “Are you being chased by the Squirrels?”

“Yep,” I responded cheerfully.

Maria gave me a curious look. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t have time to tell you right now,” I said, flashing her a grin. “But it will make a great story over breakfast or drinks…”

She shook her head. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

“And I can’t wait to tell it,” I said with a laugh, right before I snapped around and began running again.

I didn’t go much further before I decided to slow down and let the Teletubbies catch up to me. Once they began to do so, and started to surround me, I grinned.

“We’ve got you now, Imp,” Ace announced. “Surrender. You’re under arrest.”

I looked up. “Funny. I don’t see a rest.” Then I looked around, grinning at the Teletubbies, who were obviously a little confused about why I was doing that, when they had me surrounded. A moment later, I exclaimed, “Ninja vanish,” and threw a smoke bomb at the ground, so I could do my vanishing trick.

“Where’d she go?” Geist gasped.

“She can teleport,” Holdout answered. “Remember, Mister Williams briefed us on her powers…”

While the Teletubbies were standing around, looking frustrated and confused, I slowly crept away, at least far enough that I was outside their little circle. Only then did I drop my chameleon field and become visible again, but none of them saw me quite yet.

“Thuffering thuccotash,” I exclaimed in my best Sylvester voice. “You guyth are thtupid…”

“There she is,” A-Plus yelled, pointing right at me.

“Way to state the obvious, C-Minus,” I called out with a grin, right before I turned and ran straight to the tunnel entrance. I paused just long enough to wave at my pursuers, before going down.

Once in the tunnels, the game changed. Instead of running, this became more a game of hide and seek. I easily blended into my surroundings and let the meddling kids go past. Then, I crept back towards the way we’d come from. At this point, it would be extraordinarily easy to lose them entirely, but if I’d wanted to do that, I could have done so at any time.

“Marco,” I called out.

“IMP,” someone yelled from back in the tunnels.

“No,” I responded. “You’re supposed to yell polo...though what a horse game has to do with hide and seek, I don’t know.”

“She’s around here somewhere,” Ace snapped.

Once again, I blended into my environment and slipped away from them. Once I was far enough, I called out, “You’re getting warmer… Warmer… Oh, now you’re getting colder…”

I slipped further into the tunnels, calling out more taunts and slowly luring the Teletubbies to where I wanted them. However, there were still a lot of them, and my plans would work a little better if I thinned the ranks.

While crouched down and hidden, I watched Geist coming down the tunnel alone. Of course, the real Geist was closer than she appeared. I could actually hear her footsteps, and as soon as those passed by, I sprayed the invisible girl with my knockout mist. She collapsed to the ground, immediately becoming visible again. For a moment, I was tempted to really mess with her, but from the smell, she was still dealing with Melissa’s revenge. I actually felt kind of sorry for the girl, so I just left her there and crept away.

A minute later, I found another of the Teletubbies who’d separated from the group. I grinned evilly, then sprayed Holdout the same way I had Geist. Once he was down and out, I pulled out a permanent marker, and drew a mustache and monocle onto his face.

“I actually feel kind of bad about this,” I whispered to the unconscious boy. “It’s almost like picking on a puppy. Then again, sometimes you need to swat a puppy with a rolled up newspaper, so they’ll learn.”

Now that I’d reduced the numbers to somewhat more manageable levels, it was time to move things along. That meant that I needed to get the Teletubbies in position.

“Oh no,” I cried out. “They’re getting too close. I can’t let them find…”

“There she is,” A-Plus yelled.

The Teletubbies came running, and Kew cried out, “She got Holdout…”

“And Geist,” I pointed out cheerfully, before running down the tunnel.

“Don’t let her get away,” Ace commanded.

“I have to get away,” I exclaimed, running down the tunnel and opening the hidden door. I made sure that they saw me enter.

“She went through here,” Kew said.

However, Reach quickly followed that up with, “Careful. This may be a trap…”

In spite of Reach’s warning, they opened the door and rushed inside. Ace, A-Plus, Kew, and Reach all paused to look around the large room, and to take in the various details. The most notable one was the large deathtrap that was set up, with Interface still tied-up beneath the vat.

“Interface,” Reach exclaimed.

A-Plus pointed to the far wall and announced, “The painting…”

“Oh that,” I said, gesturing to the ugly painting of Lord Paramount, which hung on the wall. “That’s just a little something I picked up at a yard sale…”

“HELP,” Interface yelled. “Get me out of here before…”

“He’s right, you know,” I pointed out with an evil grin. “The timer is counting down, and as soon as it reaches zero…” I pointed to the big vat that clearly had ‘ACID’ painted on the side, then to the clock that was counting down from ten seconds.

Almost as one, all four of the free Teletubbies began to move. However, before they’d even moved three steps, the containers I had hidden along the ceiling, opened up and dumped a hundred gallons of liquid marshmallow fluff, right on top of them.

Reach was the only one to react fast enough to avoid getting completely doused, but she still ended up getting splashed all along one leg. The ooey, gooey, sticky marshmallow was everywhere, making it difficult to move quickly or easily.

“Eeeeew,” Kew exclaimed. “Gross…”

But in spite of the obstacle I’d put in their way, Ace continued rushing towards Interface. However, he’d been slowed down enough so that just as he reached his friend, the timer went off and the vat suddenly tipped over and dumped its contents all over Interface, and splashing Ace and A-Plus in the process.

For a moment, they all froze in horror, until Interface blurted out in surprise and relief, “Its chocolate…”

“Chocolate syrup,” A-Plus gasped in disbelief.

“Three, two, one,” I called out, and the second set of containers along the ceiling opened up, dumping graham cracker crumbs all over them. The crumbs immediately stuck to the gooey marshmallow and chocolate mess.

“Have you had enough,” I called out gleefully, “or do you want s’more…?”

“It’s over, Imp,” Ace stated, giving me a look of determination. “We found your hiding spot. We have Interface back, we’ve recovered the painting, and we have you.”

“Do you?” I asked with an evil grin.

“Look out,” Reach called out in warning, but it was already too late.

I simply reached over and flipped the light switch. The entire room plunged into darkness, though I had great night vision due to my…unique eyes, and had little problem finding my way to the door.

--------------------

Saturday afternoon, Oct 6th, 2007

Ace looked himself over in the mirror, satisfied with what he saw. It hadn’t been easy to get all that the sticky marshmallow goo out of his hair and other places, but after a long hot shower, with a LOT of scrubbing, he’d finally managed to get clean.

“I’ll never eat a s’more again,” he said, shuddering at the thought of marshmallow, chocolate, and graham crackers. “I’ve had more than enough for a lifetime.”

Then, Ace noticed several specks of glitter on the back of his hand and scowled. He quickly brushed it off, but knew that there was still more. Even with the shower, he hadn’t been able to get rid of all that glitter. It was even harder to get rid of than the marshmallow had been.

After he was done verifying that he was once again presentable, Ace left his dorm and hurried to the Cadet’s clubhouse, where he found the others already cleaned up and waiting. The only visible signs of their ordeal, were a few flecks of glitter on Kew’s cheek, and the marker which hadn’t washed off Holdout’s face.

“All right Cadets,” Ace announced. “We may not have captured the Imp, but we did recover the stolen painting. I think it’s time we go to security with this.”

“About time,” someone muttered.

A couple minutes later, all of the Cadets marched to Kane Hall with the painting. Once they stepped into the security office, Ace stood there, proudly posing with his prize.

“The Imp stole this from the Homer Gallery,” Ace announced.

“Really?” Lt. Forsyth asked, coming over for a closer look.

“Yes, sir,” Ace answered. “The Intelligence Cadet Corps recovered this from the thief, and we would like to provide our evidence and testimony about her crime.”

Forsyth stared at the painting for several long seconds. “And you think she stole this from the Homer Gallery?”

“Of course,” A-Plus responded.

“I saw the Imp leaving the Homer Gallery with it myself,” Reach offered.

Forsyth nodded, then pointed out, “This didn’t come from the Homer Gallery.” He pointed to the bottom left corner, where Ace saw a circle with little horns and a squiggly devil’s tail.

“What’s that?” Kew asked.

“This is the Imp’s signature.” Forsyth answered. He gave the Cadets a wry smile. “The Imp is a notorious art forger.”

“It’s a forgery?” Holdout gasped in surprise.

“Then where’d Imp hide the real panting?” Rez asked.

Ace glared at the painting with a scowl, wondering how he could have missed it. The Imp’s symbol wasn’t even the same color as the rest of the painting, which made it stand out rather noticeably.

“It looks like our investigation isn’t complete,” Ace grudgingly admitted.

Forsyth actually chuckled at that, much to Ace’s surprise. “We’re well aware of your investigation into the Imp’s activities,” he admitted. “The person in charge of handling that investigation is right down that hall, on the third door to the left.”

“Thank you,” Ace told Forsyth, before turning to go in the direction indicated.

However, just as Ace and the other Cadets were about to leave the main security reception room, he glanced back and saw one of the other security offers hand Forsyth some money, saying, “It looks like you won this one.” Then, Ace noticed several other people were giving each other money as well. With a scowl of curiosity and confusion, he shook his head and continued to the office that Forsyth had indicated.

The door was wide open, showing the large desk that was positioned in the middle of the room. There was a large chair on the other side of the desk, but it was facing in the other direction, so that Ace could only see the back of the chair.

“We’re the Intelligence Cadet Corps,” Ace started, “and we’re here to report on our investigation…”

Just then, the chair swiveled around, and Ace let out a loud gasp, and stared in horror. Sitting in the chair behind the desk, with an evil grin on her face, was the Imp.

--------------------

Kane Hall, Saturday afternoon, Oct 6th, 2007

I was leaning forward in the large office chair, grinning evilly, and feeling sure that I presented quite an imp-ressive sight. At the moment, I was wearing my working outfit, my new one rather than the old. It consisted of a black suit and red blouse, what I usually wore when teaching classes. In fact, I was even wearing a pair of glasses, because everyone knew that glasses made you look smarter. Technically, today was my day off, but it paid to project the right image in situations like this.

The Teletubbis all stood on the other side of the desk, staring at me with expressions of shock and confusion. Obviously, they had no idea that I’d be waiting here for them.

“Imp,” Ace spat out angrily.

“Come on in and close the door,” I said. “We have a lot to talk about…”

“We’re bringing you in,” A-Plus exclaimed

“Really?” I asked with a grin. “For what?”

“For stealing that painting, obviously,” Ace said.

I just burst out laughing, which confused the kids. “I haven’t stolen any paintings in months…”

“Reach saw you stealing it,” Kew pointed out.

I looked over to reach. “No, Stretchy here saw me walking away with a painting, but not one I stole. That was just a replica. A replica, which incidentally, you all stole from me. I never touched the original, so as far as I know, it’s still hanging right where it always has…” While they all gaped at me in shock, I just sat there, smirking and swishing my tail back and forth. “However, we do have some criminal activities to discuss.” With that, I slapped a small stack of folders down onto the desk.

“What are those?” Ace demanded suspicious.

“Why, your rap sheets of course,” I answered.

“Our WHAT?” Rez blurted out while the others just stared with their mouths dropping open.

“Dozens of charges of illegal wiretapping and listening devices,” I pointed out cheerfully. “Stalking. Several counts of breaking and entering, including into a teacher’s private residence. Breaking into a safe and stealing the contents. Theft of my painting. And of course, the most serious charge…grand theft candy.” I looked over the group with an evil smile. “You’ve all been pretty busy this last month. Even I don’t usually rack up that many charges.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” A-Plus blurted out.

“Oh, I’m not,” I assured her. “You’ve all broken enough laws, that if I press charges, a couple of you would probably be spending some time in juvie…” There were some more gasps, as well as a few very nervous looks. “But I’ve never been one to give a damn about laws or the court system, so that’s off the table…”

“We’re the good guys,” Ace stated proudly. “We’re law enforcement…”

“No you aren’t,” I pointed out with a smirk. “You have no authority or authorization from any source. You’re just a bunch of kids playing at it, private citizens who decided to ignore any laws and rules you disagreed with, in order to do whatever you want… You’re not law enforcement. You’re criminals.”

The look of shock on their faces was enough to make me laugh. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Holdout said, though I could see from the look in his eyes that he wasn’t certain of that.

“Real law enforcement has oversight, and rules they have to obey, and procedures, and warrants,” I pointed out cheerfully. “If any law enforcement individual tried doing things the way you did, all the evidence would be thrown out, and your victim would be able to sue both you and your agency for a lot of moolah…” I grinned again. “People like you, make things a lot easier for people like me.”

“We did what needed to be done,” Ace argued, glaring at me angrily.

“Oh, that is a great one,” I exclaimed. “A real classic. The ends justify the means. It’s for the greater good. You have to break some eggs if you want to make an omelet. I don’t know how many villains use that one. Doctor Diabolik, Demeter Black, Paradigm… Yep, a true classic.”

“I think it’s time we talk to Delarose,” Ace stated. “Or even Carson.”

“Sure,” I responded with a shrug. “We can bring them in. In fact, the only reason they aren’t here, is for plausible deniability…”

“What are you talking about?” A-Plus demanded.

“You think they don’t know what’s been going on?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “When you idiots decided to start following me around and spying on me, I got Carson’s permission to turn this into a teaching moment.” Then with another evil grin and a swish of my tail, I reminded them, “I am a teacher after all…”

Reach asked, “What did you mean about deniability?”

I nodded at that, pleased that at least one of them had caught that little detail. “Right now, Carson and Delarose don’t officially know about your rap sheets, or all the little no no’s you did.” I pointed out, touching the folders in front of me. “However, if they did, then they’d have no choice but to act on them.” My expression turned serious, and I was pretty sure that this had more of an impact on the Teletubbies than my ‘evil’ grin did. “As a group, you’ve all violated enough school rules that several of you could be expelled. And if Carson was forgiving enough to avoid that, well, you’re almost guaranteed to have your club charter revoked, and your club disbanded. And that isn’t even saying anything about the serious detention…”

Now, all the Teletubbies were staring at me with severely worried expressions. They knew that I wasn’t bluffing, and that they really had crossed several lines during their investigation. Now, the possible consequences were starting to dawn on them.

“But as bad as that is,” I said with a snarl. “What angers me, is how sloppy you were about it. As a professional, it hurt to see such sloppy lock picking work. The safe should have been opened in half the time, without even scratching any of the metal. Even if I hadn’t been recording everything, I still would have known the moment I saw the outside of the safe. And your tailing work… You all stick out like sore thumbs…”

Rez turned to Holdout and whispered, “Is she lecturing us for not being good crooks?”

“It’s shameful is what it is,” I said with an exaggerated sigh. “And your logic… I’m a professional of thirty years, one of the best in the business. If I was really interested in stealing something from Whateley, I would have snuck in, grabbed it, and then left before anyone realized I’d ever been here. I certainly wouldn’t have faked being a teacher to infiltrate the place.”

“Then why are you here?” Reach asked, fixing me with a flat look.

“Because I’m retired from my previous career,” I answered evenly. “Because I was looking for something else to do, and Carson offered me a job.” Then with another evil grin, I added, “Because I really am a teacher now, which is why I’ve taken time out of my busy schedule to teach you Teletubbies some valuable lessons.”

“And why should we believe you?” Ace asked. His voice was shaking a little, though he tried to keep it under control.

“I don’t care if you do or not,” I answered honestly. “But ask yourself this. Do you really think Carson and Delarose didn’t do their research on me? Do you really think Lady Astarte would have hired me, unless she knew something that you obviously don’t?” The kids nervously glanced back and forth between each other. “But if you want to bring this to Carson or Delarose’s official attention, go right ahead. It’s no skin off my tail.”

“Mister Williams warned us about you,” A-Plus started to say.

“I’m sure he did,” I responded wryly. “Barney…Williams is an asshole of unimaginable proportions. Carson told him to leave me alone, so he talked you into doing his dirty work for him…”

“Mister Williams is a hero,” Geist protested, actually sounding offended.

I snorted at that. “Barney is about as much a hero as I am.”

A couple of the Teletubbies glared at me, though several others looked embarrassed. I knew that it couldn’t be easy for them to realize that they’d been used, or that they were facing some serious trouble because of it. All of them were clearly worried.

“So, what now?” Ace asked grimly, knowing that I held the future of his entire club in my hands. He clearly didn’t like that, not one bit.

I met Ace’s gaze and answered, “Like I said, there’s no need for these to get any official attention.” I grabbed the folders and removed them from the table. “But in the future, just remember, there are some lines that you don’t cross, unless you’re willing to pay the consequences.”

The Teletubbies all gulped and let out sighs of relief, realizing that they’d just dodged a bullet. One that could easily have destroyed their entire club.

However, A-Plus cautiously asked, “Is that it then?”

I considered her question for a moment, then grinned. “You all showed a thorough willingness to ignore any rules that get in your way, and most law enforcement agencies don’t really like that kind of thing. Too much potential for lawsuits and the like. However, I do know of an organization that thoroughly appreciates that kind of initiative…”

With that, I set a small stack of papers on the table and pushed them towards the Teletubbies. A couple of them carefully picked up the papers and looked them over, then gasped.

“These are application forms,” Kew blurted out in disbelief. “For the Syndicate…”

I just grinned at that. The looks on their faces was enough to have made this whole game worth it.

“Personally, I don’t care which direction you go,” I said. “Hero or villain, cop or criminal. You have to make that decision for yourselves. What I do care about, is sloppy tradecraft. If you’re going to be picking locks or cracking safes, then you should at least do it right. I’m going to hold some special classes and workshops, to teach those kinds of skills, and you’re all invited to attend.”

After that, the Teletubbies all took the opportunity to leave the office as quickly as they could. I watched them go with a chuckle, hoping that they at least learned some valuable lessons from this game, and that they would stick. With kids that age, you couldn’t always tell. Of course, the most important lesson, was that they should never mess with the Imp.

As soon as the Teletubbies were gone, I pulled out another small stack of papers and stared at it with a smirk. These papers were the official request, to change their club name from the Intelligence Cadet Corps, to the Teletubbies. I’d even forged the correct signatures, so all I had to do was turn it in to admin, and it would be done.

“I can imagine the looks on their faces when they find out,” I said with a chuckle.

However, after a few seconds of consideration, I dropped the forms into the garbage can. It was one thing to give a puppy a light smack from a rolled up newspaper, in order to help potty train them, but it was quite another to kick him just because. They were just kids, so I could afford to be a kind and merciful Imp, at least for now.

Of course, the Teletubbies weren’t the only other players in this game we’d just played. In fact, they were pawns as much as players, and Barney was the one who’d put them into play. Barney and I were supposed to have a truce, where we left each other alone, but he’d ignored that. He’d come at me anyway, using the Teletubbies as proxies. I never thought Barney would be capable of that kind of sneakiness, but people can change a lot in fifteen years.

“Strike two, Barney,” I said grimly. The first strike was a given. He’d earned that one fifteen years ago, and then some. The fact that I was giving him two more strikes, was an act of generosity worthy of a saint. “That’s me. Saint Imp.” Then with narrowed eyes and an evil smile, I added, “And not even Lady Astarte can help you if you earn a third strike.”

--------------------

Saturday late afternoon, Oct 6th, 2007

“Mister Williams,” Geist called as she approached the stocky teacher, who was on his way to the faculty cafeteria.

“Ms. Porter,” Williams responded with a tight smile. “Do you have an update on the Cadet’s investigation on that villain?”

“Yeah,” she responded awkwardly. “Well, sorta…”

“Well,” he urged her. “Go on.”

Geist took a deep breath, giving the teacher a nervous look before she blurted out, “The Cadets aren’t gonna investigate the Imp anymore…”

Williams blinked in surprise, then glared down at the girl. “And why not?”

“She didn’t actually steal that painting,” Geist quickly tried to explain. “But she made us think she did, then she tricked us into a trap, and covered everyone with marshmallow and chocolate…”

“Yes,” Williams responded with a deep scowl and a stirring of anger. “I remember the Imp’s antics rather well.”

“Well, anyway,” Geist continued, “she made everyone look really stupid, and then, when we went to security, she made us look stupid again…”

Williams nodded, giving Geist a sympathetic look, though he clenched his fists angrily. “That demon bitch is good at that. She’s an expert in humiliating people…in ruining them…”

This time, Geist nodded agreement, though her thoughts were on Mischief, the Imp’s apprentice. Geist still had a lingering odor, because of that horrible stink bomb. Mischief was nothing but trouble, just like the Imp.

“So,” Williams said. “The Imp embarrassed you all, so you quit…”

“Not exactly,” Geist squeaked out. “She…she sorta threatened to have us expelled, and to disband our club…” She took a deep breath, then quickly tried to get the rest out. “Ace doesn’t want to get caught investigating a teacher again, because he’s afraid that we’ll all get in really big trouble. He says that we’re still gonna keep an eye on her, but that we’re gonna do more…passive surveillance.”

“Passive surveillance,” Williams said with a snort of disbelief. “So she got to the Cadets…”

“I still want to help stop her,” Geist said with a note of anger creeping into her voice. “And Mischief too.”

“Good,” Williams told her. “At least one of you Cadets isn’t so easily cowed…” He scowled for a moment, then asked, “Did your club learn anything about what the Imp has on Carson?”

“No,” Geist admitted with a sigh. Then she paused for a moment before saying, “But the Imp did say something about Mrs. Carson having something on her…”

“Really?” Williams asked in surprise. He smiled faintly. “That is…interesting.”

“Do you want me to do anything?” Geist asked eagerly.

Williams scratched his beard for a few seconds as he considered his options. “For now, just keep your ears open. And if you and your Cadet friends learn anything about the Imp…or what Carson has on her, I want to know immediately.”

Geist straightened up almost as though she was snapping to attention, and promised, “I won’t let you down.”

--------------------

Saturday late afternoon, Oct 6th, 2007

It had been a busy day, but most of that was done with and I could finally relax. I walked across campus, heading back towards the Village and my Imp Lair, where I planned to kick back with a strong drink or two, before doing a little painting.

My thoughts drifted over the various events, from my open classroom, to that shocking reunion afterwards, and then finally, to all my fun and games with the Teletubbies. I chuckled as I remembered the looks on their faces, when they realized that they’d been played. It was almost as funny as how they looked, dressed up in marshmallow, chocolate, and graham crackers.

However, as amusing as the fun and games had been, the thing that my thoughts kept going back to, and kept repeating over and over, was my reunion with Ryan. I hadn’t expected to see him, any more than he had me. Obviously, Melissa had amused herself by keeping his visit a secret, just to pull off that surprise.

“She definitely lives up to her codename,” I mused with a chuckle.

Suddenly, I saw a shadow from above, and I reacted on instinct. I leapt to the side, pulling out a throwing spike in the process. When I turned to throw it at my attacker, I paused in surprise.

Chickenhawk…Ryan was in the air, slowly coming down for a landing. He had his hands out to show that he was unarmed and not trying anything. Since I was a little jumpy, I appreciated it.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Ryan said as he landed in front of me.

“Not a problem,” I responded, slipping my spike back into its pouch.

Then, I glanced around, looking for Melissa, who was bound to be nearby, but I didn’t see any sign of her. Of course, she could be invisible, but I doubted that was the case.

“I was on my way to the parking lot,” Ryan told me, “to take off, when I saw you…”

“You were just leaving?” I asked, surprised to feel disappointed at that.

“I have to get back to New York,” he said with a faint smile. “I had a good visit with Melissa though.”

“Good,” I responded with a faint smile of my own. “I’m sure she appreciated that.”

There was an awkward silent pause as we both just stood there staring at each other. Then, Ryan cautiously said, “I know I asked you to coffee, but would you mind if we talked over dinner instead?”

“I thought you were leaving,” I pointed out.

Ryan smiled at that. “I can wait a little longer.”

“In that case,” I answered with a smile. “I’d be happy to. If you didn’t have any place in mind, I know of a good place to eat, that’s nice and close.”

“That sounds good to me,” Ryan said. “Where are we going?”

“We are going to Moose and Squirrel,” I said in a flawless Pottsylvanian accent, which just happens to sound exactly like a bad Russian accent

Ryan gave me a curious look, but didn’t say anything. Then, with a gesture for him to come along, I continued walking to the Village.

When we arrived in the Village, I saw Barney a short distance away. He saw me as well, and fixed me with a glare, as though he thought he could actually kill me by willpower alone. Fortunately for me, that wasn’t his power.

“I don’t think that man likes you,” Ryan commented in an amused tone.

“Oh, that’s just my ex,” I said in a cheerful tone.

“Your ex?” Barney blurted out in surprise.

“Not my ex-boyfriend,” I explained, losing the pleasant tone. “My ex-archenemy. We were hot and heavy for a couple years, then had a bad breakup.” Then I smiled at Ryan and added, “But don’t worry. That was a few years before you and I met.”

Ryan gave me an odd look, and I could definitely see the curiosity. “I take it that he pulled your tail…”

“And then some,” I responded grimly. Ryan’s eyes widened a little at that. I forced a smile, “But that was a long time ago, and I’d rather not talk about Barney.”

“Fair enough,” Ryan said.

A minute later, we reached the building that had the Flying Blue Squirrel and the Brown Moose, and I saw the flash of understanding in Ryan’s eyes. Without saying a word, I went to the door of the Flying Blue Squirrel and went inside. Ryan followed immediately behind.

“Barkeep,” I called out. “I’ll have a glass of Smurf blood.”

“I’ve never heard of that one,” the bartender responded.

I shook my head in disappointment and let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll have a beer.”

“I’ll have one too,” Ryan said.

“This part is the tavern,” I explained to Ryan as I led us to a table that was a little out of the way. “The café is next door, and they have some really good food. We can order here, and they’ll bring it to us.”

We settled into our table and made a little small talk until our food had been ordered. Then Ryan said, “So, why did you really retire?”

“I got bored,” I answered, taking a sip of my beer. “I was in the business for a long time, and decided that it was time to do something different.”

“I have a feeling that there’s more to it than that,” Ryan said.

I took another drink. “It was awhile in coming. I took a break for a year to focus on some other things, but I eventually got bored of that.”

Ryan nodded. “I knew you dropped out of sight for awhile.” Then he gave me a curious look. “But you don’t think you’ll be bored as a teacher?”

“Nope,” I responded with a grin. “This place has a lot of things to keep me entertained. And besides, I can actually walk around in the open, without anyone staring at me. Trust me, you don’t know how appealing that is to someone like me.”

“I think I can guess,” he said quietly. After a moment, he said, “Excuse me. I’m going to order another drink.”

Ryan got up and went to the bar, while I remained where I was. When he talked to the bartender, I strained to listen in. What can I say, I’m a nosey Imp.

“When she asks you for a drink you’ve never heard of,” Ryan was telling the bartender, “she’s actually inviting you to be creative.”

“He does understand me,” I mused, feeling inordinately pleased by that.

A minute later, Ryan came back with a Jack and Coke to go along with his beer. It was around this time that our food arrived, a couple plates of spaghetti and meatballs. I always liked food that lent itself to raunchy jokes.

“Ma’am,” the bartender said, coming over a minute later. He held out a drink, which was neon blue in color. “I have that Smurf’s blood that you ordered. The Smurfs were freshly squeezed this morning.”

“Thank you,” I told him with a grin. I took a sip and nodded my approval. “Delicious.”

After this, Ryan and I talked while we ate, and for a good hour or two afterwards. Topics ranged from what it was like being a teacher, to favorite artists. It was nice being able to talk to my old dance partner without any of the usual baggage that came from our roles as hero and criminal.

Eventually, Ryan said, “I’m afraid that I’ve stayed about as long as I can. I really do have to get going soon.”

We left the Flying Blue Squirrel together, then stopped just outside. I stared at Ryan, disappointed to see him leave so soon. It was ironic, that after all those years I’d spent running away from Chickenhawk, that at the moment, I didn’t want him to go.

“I guess this is goodbye then,” I said with a sigh.

“I guess so,” Ryan responded, looking just as disappointed as I felt.

For several seconds, we continued to stand there in an awkward silence. Then as one, we both leaned forward and our lips met in a kiss, the first one that I’d had in years. And in that instant, I suddenly felt a kind of happiness, that I hadn’t felt for a very long time.

THE END