“No,”
the Enigma answered. “It’s Sam Griffin.”
“Why
would Sam Griffin be here?” Tania asked as she looked out the window.
“He
probably followed us here,” Dafoanairi said, “as we were going along the
ground.””
“I can
think of one reason,” Tania said.
‘That
she’s guessing that either of us is Sandi,’ Dafoanairi thought. ‘It was going
to happen sooner or later.’
“That’s
probably not it,” the Enigma responded, although her voice wavered a bit.
“We’ll
let’s see what he’s up to,” Tania said.
Sam saw
Sandi and Daria as their vigilante alter egos come down from the roof with
Tania. “You’re recruiting Tania?” he asked.
“No,”
Dafoanairi answered. “She’s an ally.”
“I don’t
want to be a vigilante,” Tania said. “I just investigate with them sometimes.”
“Sounds
like you’re into it,” Sam said.
“I’m not
into it. If I was, I would have been wearing a disguise on the roof as well,”
Tania said.
“She
isn’t a seventh vigilante,” the Enigma said.
“Oh
yeah, the Violet Force is the sixth,” Sam murmured, barely remembering to use
his mother’s moniker.
“Why are
you here?” Dafoanairi asked.
“I
wanted to ask something,” Sam answered.
“What
about?” Dafoanairi asked.
“What’s
going on. The middle school has the favorite animal fad too,” Sam replied.
“Is that
all?” the Enigma responded in an irritated tone.
“My
sister didn’t help much,” Sam said.
‘I
didn’t,’ the Enigma thought. ‘I was still being selfish. I’m still ‘Linda’s
mini me’ in that respect.’
“I’m
sure she’ll make it up somehow,” Dafoanairi said with a quick glance in the
Enigma’s direction.
Tania
caught the glance Dafoanairi made. ‘That narrows it down.’ That the Enigma was
Sandi, not one of the Morgendorffers as she originally thought, made sense. But
she still wasn’t entirely sure.
That the
fad was present at the middle school also made sense. “I was saying to these
two that I was annoyed by it too,” she said to Sam.
“But
what to do about it?” Sam asked.
“That, I
have been thinking about, but I’m still not sure,” Dafoanairi answered.
“Is that
all?” the Enigma asked.
“Not
really,” Sam said.
“No, you
can’t come along with us on a patrol. I’m sure you saw our confrontation with
that Oscorp agent?” Dafoanairi said.
“Not
even to the Historia roof?” Sam asked.
“No,”
the Enigma said. “Oscorp could be watching there.”
“Unlikely,”
Sam shot back.
“Very
likely,” Dafoanairi responded.
“Go
home,” the Enigma said.
Sam
sighed. He didn’t want to accidentally reveal his sister and Daria’s identities
to Tania. He turned around dramatically. “But what if there are more of those
agents?”
“It’s
not far to your place,” Dafoanairi said.
“Or he
could stay here,” Tania suggested.
“Up on
the roof?” Sam asked.
“Of
course not,” Tania responded. “You can wait in the rumpus room. Just don’t make
any noise.”
“Fine,”
Sam said.
Soon,
Tania, the Enigma and Dafoanairi headed downtown. “What are we looking for?”
Tania asked as they soon as they were in the laneway.
“The
usual,” Dafoanairi responded. “We find crimes in progress and intervene.”
“Rescuing
people from muggers,” Tania commented.
“And
stopping robberies,” the Enigma said.
“And
helping the other vigilantes if Oscorp agents are confronting them,” Dafoanairi
added with a twirl of her staff. Tania was sure that she was showing off.
They
scaled the Historia to find that they weren’t alone on the roof. The Shadow,
the third vigilante, was already there.
The
Shadow hadn’t expected any of the other vigilantes to show up. She turned and
saw the Enigma, Dafoanairi and Tania come towards her. “I should have known.”
“Known
what?” Dafoanairi asked.
“That
other vigilantes would come here while I was here,” the Shadow responded.
“You
wanted to be alone?” Tania asked.
“I’m
sure you’re aware of what’s happening at Lawndale High,” the Shadow groused.
“Not something that one can battle with gadgets or superpowers.”
“No,
it’s something we investigate,” Dafoanairi said.
“I know
that. It’s that I don’t know where to start. Other than that the fad probably
came from either Middlebury or the internet, and that Mr. O’Neill might have
got the idea for the failure assignment from a professional development
seminar.”
“How did
you find that out?” the Enigma asked.
“I
snooped as my secret identity.”
Earlier
Shortly
after school let out, Jane approached the Language Arts Faculty Office. She
hoped Mr. O’Neil would still be in. She knocked on the door. But there was no
response. ‘Maybe he isn’t there,’ she thought. But that was unlikely. She took
out a lock picking tool her mother had given her and quickly opened the door.
Once
inside, she carefully closed the door and went towards Mr. O’Neill’s desk. She
found a binder with the name of the professional development conference he and
the other teachers had been attending on Monday. “Maybe there’s something in
here,” she murmured before opening it.
She
quickly found a piece of paper with Mr. O’Neill’s neat handwriting.
Failure is the signpost that points the way to
success!
What if there is an Edison in one of my classes
waiting to be encouraged.
Succeed at failing.
There
were several more aphorisms written down.
“I guess
that answers that question,” she murmured as she closed the binder and placed
it exactly where she had found it.
On
the Historia rooftop
“That
makes a lot of sense,” Dafoanairi commented.
“So,
that’s how,” the Enigma said. “But there’s no way to dissuade him.”
“I
suppose he would listen to DeMartino or Barch, for different reasons,” Tania
said.
The
Shadow didn’t want to think of the reason O’Neill would listen to Barch, but
then she realized something. Both Tania and the Enigma were there. “Oh.”
“Oh,
what?” the Enigma asked.
“You’re
here, and Tania is here. Therefore, Tania is not your secret identity,” the
Shadow said.
“We have
all leapt to conclusions regarding the others’ secret identities,” Dafoanairi
said.
A while
later, Dafoanairi thought about the encounter as they headed back to the
Ashworth’s. That the Shadow had suspected Tania as the Enigma didn’t surprise
her that much. It was more what she had revealed. “I suppose someone could go
to Ms. Li about it,” she said.
“But
wouldn’t she then know that someone broke into the faculty office?” Tania
asked.
“She
wouldn’t know who did so,” Dafoanairi argued.
The
Shadow had remained watching Lawndale from the Historia rooftop. ‘There’s
something about Dafoanairi,’ she thought. She took out her sketchbook and
quickly sketched the staff wielding vigilante after turning the page from where
she had sketched the conflicted Kevin at the Strawberry.
“I know
who she is not,” she murmured when she was finished.
Who
Dafoanairi isn’t
-
Tania Ashworth
“But
still many at school.”
Sam was
playing chess against himself when Tania led the two vigilantes into the room.
“Finally,”
he said.
“We just
talked to the Shadow,” the Engima said.
“The
third vigilante,” Sam asked.
“Yes,”
Dafoanairi answered.
“Right,”
Sam said, disappointed.
Lawndale
Sun-Herald
Wednesday,
March 14, 2001
Rumors
of potential hostile takeovers of local companies by Oscorp
SpiderGirl
put the paper aside. ‘So, what Jodie said to Talon may be true,’ she thought.
She still didn’t want to think much of the implications of an Oscorp takeover
of Landon Engineering. She looked towards the Oscorp tower in the distance. ‘I
will expose what you’re up to, Osborn!’
As the
school day started, the students were less involved in the favorite animal fad
than the day before. Mostly because they had found out their friends’
favorities then and it was starting to become old hat. Even so, many were
asking those they didn’t hang out with all that often.
Daria
saw that Jane was dressing more conventionally. “Is that your response to Mr.
O’Neill’s assignment?” she asked.
“Yes. To
see if I would fail at being conventional or not.”
The old
Daria, before everything that had happened since her father passed away, would
have hated it. The new, still changing, Daria was merely uncertain. “Really?”
she asked.
“You
really have changed, haven’t you?”
“I’m
still a sarcastic cynic.”
“Yeah,
but your cynicism has changed,” Jane said.
“If it’s
change, it’s because it has been redirected.”
“To
Osborn.”
“Not
just him,” Daria responded, as they came to a door.
“To
those not holding him to account as well.”
“Exactly.”
On the
roof, Sandi sighed after changing from the Enigma. She still hadn’t chosen an
extracurricular activity after looking at the list before breakfast. “I’ll ask
Harry about it,” she decided as she headed down.
Down on
the ground floor, she found two of her classmates arguing. “What’s going on?”
she asked.
“What is
it to you, Sandi?”
“I’m
curious as to why you would be close to fighting in the corridors.”
Freya
Daniels relaxed. “We were talking about Mr. O’Neill’s assignment.”
“Oh. I’m
struggling with that myself,” Sandi said.
“And
Freya was saying it has nothing to do with the fad,” Erin Archer said.
“And you
think it does?” Sandi asked.
“It
can’t be a coincidence,” Erin said.
‘I can’t
tell them what the Shadow said without potentially revealing that I’m the
Enigma,’ Sandi thought, as she pondered telling them that. “I’m sure it is,”
she said before the bell rang.
The
juniors had Language Arts before Lunch.
“First
I’d like to ask how your assignments are going?” Mr. O”Neill said.
“I
haven’t found SpiderGirl,” Kevin answered. “Although I went to the Historia and
the Giant Strawberry.”
“Did you
wait?” O’Neill asked.
“At the
Strawberry I did.”
“Maybe
you can wait longer at the Historia tonight. I have heard that she’s often
there after the café closes on Wednesdays.”
Brittany
tensed. She had to tell Quinn!
“Are you
OK?” Jane asked nearby.
“Just
annoyed at Kevin for choosing that for his assignment,” Brittany obfuscated.
“Uh
huh,” Jane said.
