“Earth to Spacey!”
Adam sat up quickly from slumping over the table.
“I wasn't asleep!” he exclaimed.
“I was just practicing deep meditation…”
Noel shook her head with a laugh.
“You guys might need to give it a rest on all these late nights,” she said.
“You're looking a little rough around the… everywhere….”
Lance furrowed his brows as he took a sip from his espresso.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Melody glanced up from her book over at him.
“You're visibly exhausted and still staying busy, bruises, burns, and scrapes everywhere…” she said.
“You should take a day to rest from whatever is keeping you up so late.”
“I work in a kitchen?” Adam suggested.
“Kind of comes with the territory…”
“That's like telling these guys not to breathe,” Scott chimed as he slurped his latte.
“I feel we've been over this.”
Melody looked as if she were going to retort the statement, but was interrupted when Charlie suddenly appeared at their table. She had the small remote to the cafe's TV and was gesturing at the screen as she turned up the volume.
“This just in,” said the newscaster.
“The N.A.P.D. is asking the citizens of New Atlantis to come forward with any information they may have regarding the armored individuals that have been sighted recently.”
The group went silent as they listened to the rest of the broadcast.
“There have been numerous reports of sightings of these vigilantes, typically in conjunction with many of the strange occurrences that have happened lately,” the man on screen continued.
“Most recently, last night several break-ins occurred at notable businesses around the city, one of which these two were seen fleeing the scene.”
Adam almost jumped out of his seat in frustration at the blatant misinformation, but he caught a sideways warning look from Lance that kept him rooted in place.
“N.A.P.D., alongside a new task force formed specifically for handling these threats, had a run-in with the vigilantes after the break-ins, but the two vigilantes escaped in the midst of what was likely a controlled and planned explosion that damaged a portion of the bay-side bridge between Sector Four and Sector Three. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported as a result of the blast.”
“Things have gotten rather… eventful around here lately…” commented Scott.
“I mean, whoever these vigilante guys seem to be trying to help, but leading the police on a chase like that definitely wastes valuable time and resources.”
Adam and Lance exchanged glances again then looked back around the table.
“Maybe it's not their fault?” Noel interjected.
“Don't the police know they're helping?”
“You would think they would… especially after we… I mean those guys took down the creatures that attacked Midas Towers not long ago…” Adam supplied.
“Yeah… and you guys didn't believe me when I said one of them came after me!” Noel continued.
“What was it you said? ‘Must have been a crazed man in a costume’?” she finished, looking at Scott more directly.
“Okay okay, ease up already… I apologized about that…” he said defensively.
“What I'm getting at here is that this is how people who don't have the proper training OR jurisdiction to do this get hurt… or worse…”
“So you're against them?” Lance asked.
“Hey, I love the story. Reading what that Wynters girl has been writing sounds straight out of my favorite comic books too… but I think it's kind of reckless,” Scott said with a shrug as he picked up his latte again.
“And that's all I have to say about that.”
Lance shrugged in return.
“I think it's rather brave of them…” Melody spoke up.
“Dangerous and most definitely illegal? For sure… but they're trying to help and they protected my friend…”
Charlie glanced over her shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Blue or Purple?”
“What?” asked Adam incredulously.
“Their newest gear seems to have a distinctive hue on their armor and stuff: one has some blue details and the other purple.”
Adam looked at Lance with a puzzled expression. Lance shrugged and looked at Melody.
“It's hard to choose…” Noel said thoughtfully.
“I might have to vote purple.”
Scott furrowed his brows and shook his head.
“What? It's just a game…” Charlie said.
“Blue,” said Melody.
“It's my favorite color so it's an easy one.”
Adam wiggled his eyebrows at Lance with a mischievous smirk at her comment.
“Blue is quite a dashing color and purple isn’t too bad either. Whatever color they and whoever these guys are, my guess is, maybe they are just trying to help…they’re just having a difficult time figuring out how to help without causing destruction.” queried Adam, trying to choose his words carefully.
“Destruction? What kind of destruction?” Cody’s distinctive voice suddenly piped up behind the group as if summoned magically by the very word Adam just spoke.
“Are you talking about how the Cthulhus destroyed the Firebirds in last night’s game? That was some quality hockey!”
Startled by the sudden sound of his brother’s voice, he turned around to see his brother approach the table in uniform with a tray of food and an eager smile on his face as he continued.
“Is there space at the table for one more?”
“Sure thing, Cody!” piped up Scott.
Everyone shuffled to make room for the elder Chase as Cody pulled up a chair and sat next to Adam, who was trying to maintain composure, panic starting to build up inside him. He darted a gaze at Lance as if to signal help. Lance caught the signal and answered Cody’s inquiry.
“We weren't, unfortunately, although from what I gathered from the highlights that was an impressive game. We were talking about the events that have happened recently, particularly last night. The news report we just watched said there were no casualties and they suspect the vigilantes used it as a diversion to get away. What are your thoughts on it?”
Cody gave Lance a quizzical look.
“You read the highlights instead of watching the game for your home team?”
Lance shrugged.
“I had a lot of things I was working on so I didn't have the time to do any more than that.”
Cody's expression became more serious.
“Funny thing is: from what I recall, you of all people also don't typically read the highlights…”
Lance swirled the remnants of his drink before downing it.
“I have a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence with access to every single media feed at my disposal,” he countered.
“Technically speaking, L.A.S.S.I. did the reading while I worked and gave me the highlights so I could have a rudimentary conversation about men in pads slapping each other while wearing blades on their feet with those interested in the matter.”
“Fine… you’ve got me there, Shepherd…” Cody
“Didn’t know you felt that poorly about sports…”
“Oh…. don’t even try to open that can of worms…” Scott drolled.
“You might not leave on friendly terms…”
“Now boys, no brawling in the cafe over sports teams,” Charlie stated.
“Remember rule number 2?”
Everyone glanced in the general direction of the placard listing ‘The Ten Commandments of the Cafe’ displayed on the wall near the counter.
“Wait… what happened to make the limit to be four espresso shots per customer?” asked Melody.
“Oh… we have specially roasted coffee and had to cap the amount of caffeine intake for people ever since… the incident…” noted Cody.
Everyone looked at Adam.
“Listen… mistakes were made, it was all for an experiment on my limits for caffeine intake,” Adam said sheepishly.
“You were lucky your heart didn’t stop!” exclaimed Noel.
“We had to keep every drop and source of coffee away from you for a whole day!”
“The withdrawals were pretty real that day…” Adam reminisced.
“It was a tough day for me…”
Cody was almost finished with his sandwich when he received a call on his earpiece.
“Just when I thought I was going to get a full hour…” he said with a groan.
“My lunch breaks keep getting shorter and shorter.”
He scarfed down the last few bites and stood.
“Stay out of trouble kids…” he said as he left.
“Can’t make any promises…” Adam said under his breath.
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