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Chapter 20
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“Hi, you’ve reached the office of Doctor Terrell. Sorry we cannot come to the phone right now. My people have their moments, but even they have their limits. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 9-1-1. If you are calling about an appointment, my hours are Monday through—“

The message cut off suddenly. A man with a slight lisp answered:

“Doctor Terrell’s office!”

Judy said, “Oh hi, you’re open on a Sunday?”

“It’s the holiday season. People tend to drink gallons of pumpkin spice, or overdo it at Thanksgiving, and someone thinks she’s pregnant. Plus, plenty of people like to make sure they’re extra healthy before they binge on more things than I can talk about over the phone.”

“Lovely. Is Doctor Terrell available right this moment? I have a question for her.”

“She’s seeing a patient, but you can leave a message with me. I’ll be sure she gets back to your beautiful self.”

“Um, thanks. My name is Judy Tanimoto, and I’m calling about something she asked me to stay away from for a few months, or until I, uhh . . .”

“Miss Tanimoto? Yes, hold on. I see a quick note in our system. It’s been forty-one days since your last appointment. Did you need the timer reset?”

“Please no. I’m bleeding and feel like my insides are crushing against themselves in an epic battle of evil versus evil right now. I was hoping she could lift the timer so I can get on with my life.”

“Ohh. Let me go ask her real quick.”

He walked away from the front desk. Judy felt like her personal information and the news about her period was being spread across Paragon right now. Somewhere, he was selling Judy’s secrets to the highest bidder in an auction full of villains and other shady characters.

More ideas came, each more ridiculous and equally believable than the last, no matter how much Judy told herself that the man was simply asking the doctor a question for her.

“Judy?” came a woman’s voice over the phone.

“Yes?”

“Hi, this is Trish. You had your first period, huh?”

“It’s still going. Can I go hide inside of a computer now?”

“I’m not entirely sure right now is a good idea. There’s no telling how far back the reset goes on your cycle. It could throw you back to when you first started bleeding. Or I could be wrong and you’ll be fine now that we know everything works as intended. It seems risky.”

“Somehow that just seems cruel,” Judy said.

“Oh, I know. You’ve got decades more to look forward to on that. I recommend taking care of yourself until the pain and bleeding stop, then you can start jumping in and out of computers again.”

“OK.”

“If anything goes wrong, however, then let me know. Other than that, do you have any questions for me?”

“Not unless you know anything about a Wolfram Manifest.” In truth, Judy wasn’t sure why she mentioned it just now.

“What was that?”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“I just want to be sure I heard you correctly.” Doctor Terrell’s voice was beginning to sound pained. “If you said what I think you said, then—“

“You mean the Wolfram Manifest?”

There was a pause. There, too, was a deep breath. “Do you have a pen and paper handy where you can write an address down for me, Judy? When you are able, I’d like you to meet me there.”

***

The next day at school, Judy looked for Denise and saw her. This time, she wasn’t going to let her get away. Judy navigated through the crowds without saying anything, pushing toward her friend. Then, finally, she reached out to her. Her hand grasped Denise’s shoulder.

Denise turned around with a start, and let her eyes land on Judy’s.

“Hey,” said Denise.

“Can we talk?” asked Judy.

“Well, I mean, we both have our next class in here.”

They were standing outside the locker room. If Judy had ever felt more silly before in her life, she was having trouble thinking of when. Moments later they sat together in a corner of the locker room, getting changed into their gym clothes.

“I’m sorry,” said Denise.

Judy said, “What?”

“I overreacted last week when you kissed your boyfriend. I should have known we were just friends, and it crushed me.”

“Denise.”

“Travis seems nice. I even stole, studied, and returned his wallet to see what he was about.”

“Denise.”

“Nothing shouts out ‘crazy murderer’ or anything. So I guess I approve.”

“We’re not going out. He kissed me, but I didn’t feel anything with him.”

“Oh,” Denise said, sounding sheepish.

“And of course we’re not just friends. We’re best friends. If I was going out with anyone and feeling anything for them, I’d probably tell you before I even told myself.”

They looked behind them to find that nearly everyone had left the locker room already. The coaches were nowhere in sight, and the few other girls remaining were paying them no mind.

Then Denise slid an arm across the back on Judy’s neck.

“You aren’t trying to steal anything of mine, aren't you?” Judy asked.

“Maybe your heart,” said Denise, “or at least your bra.”

“I’m probably going to need both.”

“Not if we risk detention together and ditch class.”

Before Judy could protest the idea, or even ask what her friend had in mind, she found her lips being invaded by Denise’s. Denise twisted her and leaned her back against the bench, never relenting until Judy started thinking of ways to launch counter-assaults with her own tongue and lips, despite previous inhibitions.

Every thought, no matter how wrong it was, only burned more. And the more she burned, the more Judy wanted it.

That is, until Denise broke away, bra in hand. She was slinging it around a finger.

“I’ll see you outside.” Denise grabbed her own backpack, and strutted away.

***

Pixeletta stared at the wide-berthed house, standing one story tall. Then down at a note she could barely see in the dark of night, aided only by the street light a short distance away. She looked at the nice house again, and back at the note before folding it and sliding the piece of paper down the front and side of her costume.

This was a nice house, but not at all what she expected for a meeting place.

She moved to the door, and knocked. It was only shy of nine in the evening, so Pixeletta doubted Doctor Terrell was asleep just yet. The door opened seconds later.

“Come on in,” Doctor Terrell said quietly.

Pixeletta followed, and closed the door while the doctor sat down on a plush, white couch. Or perhaps it was cream. It was hard to tell in this lighting.

“Are you alright?” Pixeletta asked.

Doctor Terrell sipped from the coffee mug she had on her table. “That depends. What I’m about to tell you must not leave this room.”

“Why the big secret? And why tell me?”

“You’re in the Dallevan League, yes? I happen to know that you were assigned to look into the events of a certain mental health facility. Everyone who goes into that place is sworn into secrecy. Some secrets rank higher than others.”

“Like the Wolfram Manifest, you mean.”

“Whoa,” said Mortar Mage’s voice. “I don’t know where you are, but keep her talking.”

“Yes, the Manifest. And there’s more to what you need to hear than even your friends in the League should hear.” Doctor Terrell looked plainly into Judy’s eyes.

“Good thing she doesn’t know about your earpie—“

Pixeletta removed the device in her left ear and presented it at a distance to her doctor. Then she searched around the room for something to put it in.

Doctor Terrell picked up a small, heavy box that was on the table. When she opened it and Pixeletta looked inside, there was only a short supply of wrapped candies. Pixeletta put the earpiece inside, and let her doctor set the closed box down on the table.

“Thank you,” Doctor Terrell said.

“Doctor Terrell . . .”

“Call me Trish.”

“Trish. One villain I’ve caught already mentioned the Manifest as being a dream.”

“A nightmare is more like it. Tell me, what do you know about Swan Diva? I mean really know?”

“She’s my idol. Swan Diva came to Paragon around fifteen years ago, joining what is now called the old guard among the greatest heroes of the city. No one has seen her face.”

“True, her first few appearances date as far back as fifteen years ago, but she wasn’t considered one of the ‘old guard’ as you put them until a couple years later, in the same incident that I will get to soon. As for her face, two people have seen her without that mask on. Perhaps more.

“Captain Patriot saw her once. The older one I mean. I bet you didn’t know that. Then there was me. No, don’t think to go looking in my records for her. She was a patient, but her true name and face are both held in confidence, now in hard copy files no one will be touching any time soon.”

Pixeletta sat down across the table from her doctor. Trish knew Swan Diva’s identity? She saw more of Swan Diva than anyone, save for Swan Diva herself. Pixeletta’s personal quest was right there, just outside of reach, and she felt like breaking down that barrier to get to it would destroy any chance of getting what she’d come here for.

Answers regarding the Wolfram Manifest. Answers that could outweigh everything else Pixeletta fought for or against thus far.

She swallowed. Pixeletta asked, “Is she safe at least?”

“As can be. She will miss helping people as she did before, but everyone has their time. And now is not that time.”

“You mentioned an incident. One that made her one of the old guard.”

“Yes. Only a handful of people still living were there, and most of us were sworn to say nothing of the little we heard. The only one who wasn’t was a man, whose name I cannot even repeat.”

“Harvey Stone?”

Trish nearly choked on whatever her drink was.

“You know that name!” Trish said.

Pixeletta responded, “It was a hard name for a friend of mine to dig up. The facility and adjoining hospital both used a John Smith alias on their official records.”

“Don’t say his name lightly.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Thirteen years ago there was a battle in Siren’s Gauntlet. Not a skirmish like that place is used to by now, but a battle. It involved several civilian hostages, more than enough property damage to be paid for over the course of several years, and a lunatic at the end who many thought was betraying his own side because of his state of mind. But it was a punishment for villains who had failed to do what they were ordered to do.

“Captain Patriot and others fought hard, but they were exhausted. Swan Diva showed up near enough to the end to save the ones who weren’t blessed with invulnerability like the good Captain. She told him to get everyone away from there while she dealt with the biggest threat the Arachne Regime could throw at the time.”

“The fight against Apocalo,” said Pixeletta. It had happened around the time that she came to Paragon with her mom, and Judy only heard pieces about it.

“The same. If the other heroes weren’t exhausted, or the Captain busy getting everyone out of there, they probably could have handled it, but Swan Diva took Apocalo down in stride. Then the dust settled, and that lunatic appeared, declaring his name for any to hear who was within earshot. Like a zealot preaching the end of days for our sins, he claimed that even a sweeping victory against the Arachne Regime wouldn’t have been enough to prevent what was coming. It was Swan Diva who took him in.”

“It just sounds like another madman making a bold claim.”

“A madman who took the lives of two soldiers, and they did nothing but bow to receive his punishment for their ineptitude. A madman related to the Arachne Regime’s own leader. A madman who was hidden away for the last thirteen years.”

“A madman who rode through town wearing a tutu while riding a unicycle?”

Trish said, “What?”

“Sorry, I’ve been spending too much time with the Dallevan League.”

“Yes, well, perhaps mocking him is the only reasonable thing to do at the moment. You’re young. You should be enjoying your life with happier things, and more cheerful missions in the name of the law. But here you are, in the middle of something that goes beyond either of us.”

“That’s pretty much been my life since I was injected with these powers.”

“True, more than you know. And it’s been my life for the last thirteen years, aside from caring for my patients, to protect what I saw and heard that day. If it gets out that I told you about any of this, no matter how plain for Paragon it might sound, I could find myself taken away. It could be men in suits aiming to silence me, or it could be the Arachne Regime looking to extract information I don’t have.”

“Wait a minute. We think the Arachne Regime has Stone now already. What information could they want?”

“If I had to guess, they’d want to know what I told you and who you are.”

“But you do know who I am.”

Trish set down her empty mug. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll hardly remember tonight at all. This stuff was truly dreadful, but it’s great for sleep and doing away with short-term memories while they’re still fresh.”

Trish’s eyes were barely holding. Her speech slowed already.

“I have a spare key in the front of my drawer by the door. Lock it when you leave?” She lied down on the sofa.

Pixeletta said, “I still have another question.”

“Oh?”

“Are you Swan Diva?”

No response. Trish was out like a light, her legs still bent over the front of the couch, but she was at least breathing and smiling. Pixeletta propped up her doctor into a more comfortable position, and put a blanket over her before grabbing her earpiece and the spare copy of the key that she would return later.

Pixeletta opened the door and turned back. She could have used this chance to go looking through the house for clues. She could have done so many things.

Instead, she walked out the front door.