Chapter 6 - Why Vanessa Can't Have Nice Things

Art by SyniaSidhe

I wandered around the castle, uncertain of what to do. As I walked through the hallways and between the many floors of Ellen's castle, I looked at one of the clocks hanging in the hallways and saw that it was nearly noon. No wonder I was starving. However, I had no clue where the kitchen was, so I kept wandering.

After about twenty minutes of wandering, I found Percy and Vanessa lounging around in a spacious office, complete with a large desk with piles of paperwork on top of it and an open window that was letting the fresh air from outside into the castle. There were three swivel chairs in the office, and Percy was spinning one of them in circles while typing on a laptop and eating a package of Red Vines. Vanessa was seated across the room, writing in a notebook.

All of a sudden, Vanessa looked up from her notebook. "Wait a second," she said. "You're Jay, right? The kid who stole Terry's soul?"

"That would be me," I said, wishing that Vanessa knew me for something other than stealing souls.

"Come take a seat," Vanessa said. I took a seat in the third swivel chair as Vanessa said, "I'm Vanessa Lyons, and that's Percy Warner. We're Ellen's apprentices."

"Not for long," Percy interjected. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to be a full time supervillain after Ellen retires."

"And how exactly are you going to make that work?" Vanessa asked. Percy shrugged, and Vanessa turned back to me and said, "I'm going to go feed the Jersey Devils. Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure," I said. There was nothing better to do in this place anyways. I followed Vanessa as she left the office and headed back down to the lab. Carmen gave me a quick wave as we passed by, but I didn't have time to wave back. Vanessa continued to walk and didn't stop until we reached a room filled with strange creatures. They looked a little bit like kangaroos, but their heads were more goat-like, and they all had leathery wings folded up on their backs.

One of the devils let out a scream, and Vanessa wandered over to it and stroked its head. "It's okay, Velvet," Vanessa said. "I know it's a little scary having a stranger here, but Jay's nice, or at least that's what Ellen said. She's usually right about these things, but he did steal Terry's soul, so maybe you're right not to trust him."

The devil stopped screaming, and I said, "You named these things?"

"Of course," Vanessa said. "They make wonderful pets once you get to know them."

"What do they eat anyways?" I asked.

"Honestly, they'll eat anything you give them," Vanessa said. "Usually we feed them excess food from the kitchen."

My stomach growled again at the mention of food. Vanessa pulled out a bucket of overripe vegetables and tossed it towards the Jersey Devils, who wolfed it down immediately. She tossed a few more buckets into the room, and when the devils were done eating, she said, "Let's go back to the office."

As we headed back towards the office, I asked Vanessa, "How did you end up as Ellen's apprentice?"

"It's a long story," Vanessa said.

"I'm kind of stuck here until Terry gets his soul back, so I have time," I said.

Vanessa sighed and said, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, since you did steal the soul of one of my closest friends..."

"It was an accident!" I exclaimed.

"Anyways, my mom is a supervillain, so when I started developing superpowers, she decided that she didn't want me to go to the Academy," Vanessa explained. "I spent most of my early teenage years traveling around constantly, and thankfully, we were able to outrun the Academy. From what I've heard, the Academy is an awful place to be, so I'm glad that Mom did that for me."

"The Academy is pretty terrible, or at least it was when I was there," I said.

"I tried to do some good while we were on the road," Vanessa said, as if she hadn't heard me at all. "There was one time when I saved a baby from drowning without even using my powers, and on the front page of the San Urbano Times the next day, they said that I acted irresponsibly and I should have waited for a superhero to come and help. That was when I decided that I had enough. Lady Quake contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be her apprentice shortly after that incident, and I said yes. Percy came along shortly afterwards, followed by Terry. You can ask Percy how he ended up here if you'd like, but I think it had something to do with him getting kicked out of the Academy. There's a reason that they call him The Gadfly, after all."

By the time Vanessa finished her story, we were back in the office. As I sat down on one of the swivel chairs, I asked, "So what powers do you have anyways?"

"I only have one power, and it might be easier if I showed you," Vanessa said.

All of a sudden, the office melted away, and I was standing on a pier, staring out at the Pacific Ocean. The ocean stretched out forever, making me feel small as I watched the waves pass by. For a moment, I thought that Vanessa had actually managed to transport me there, but the sound of Percy typing and munching on Red Vines reminded me that I hadn't left the office.

"Hey Jay?" I heard Vanessa say. I looked around, and I couldn't see her, even though a part of me knew that she was right next to me.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Do you like Harry Potter?" she asked.

"I've read the books a few times," I said. "Why do you ask?"

The ocean disappeared, and when I looked around again, I saw that I was seated in the Great Hall. The Hufflepuff banner was hanging directly above me, and I could see Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting and laughing at the Gryffindor Table.

I didn't have nearly enough time to appreciate the scene. The Great Hall disappeared, and all of a sudden, I was back in the office, but something was off. I glanced towards Percy, and instead of Red Vines, he was eating a package of Twizzlers.

I looked towards Vanessa and then back to Percy, and the Twizzlers had turned back into Red Vines. "I'm impressed, Vanessa," I said.

"Thanks," Vanessa said. "I put a lot of effort into learning to control my powers."

She continued to ramble on about something, but my growling stomach was distracting me again. I reached towards Percy's Red Vines and took a piece of candy, hoping that he wouldn't notice, but Percy gave me an angry look and said, "You'd better put that back, Jay."

He's right, I thought. I should put it back. My hand dropped the Red Vine back into the bag, but it was nothing more than a reflex. In retrospect, I had no idea where that thought came from. It was as if Percy had infiltrated my brain, and my hand still felt as if it was disconnected from my head.

"Hey, look at that, Vanessa!" Percy exclaimed. "My powers actually work on Jay!"

"His will is probably weaker than mine," Vanessa said.

"I kind of wish that I could use my powers on you," Percy said. "You're the only person that I've encountered that I can't use my powers on at all. They even work on Terry if he's in a good mood."

"Have you ever actually used your powers on him?" Vanessa asked.

"Only a handful of times," Percy said.

"Are you sure I can't have just one Red Vine, Percy?" I said. "I'm starving."

Percy was going to respond, but Vanessa interrupted him. "I have a better idea," she said. "There's a refrigerator downstairs, and we can probably heat up some leftovers for you."

"That sounds great," I said. "Thanks Vanessa."

The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and playing a rather intense game of pool. The hours seemed to pass by too quickly, and I was a little bit disappointed when my dad finally came to drive me home.

I came back to the castle the next day, and every day after that. Some days, Carmen wanted to run an experiment or test out a new method that she had found that might be able to extract Terry's soul out of me, but most days, she experimented on her own in the lab. So far, Carmen hadn't been able to give Terry his soul back, but she still had hope.

A few days after I first officially met Vanessa and Percy, I found Percy in the office, and as usual, he was busy typing on Ellen's laptop. Vanessa was watching the screen over his shoulder. "Can you please give me the computer back?" she asked.

"I'm busy, Vanessa," he said.

"What's going on?" I asked as I sat down in the swivel chair next to Percy.

"Vanessa's trying to steal my laptop," Percy complained.

"You've been on it for three hours," Vanessa argued. "It's my turn now. I'm trying to find the Elixir of Immortality, and that's hard to do without the computer."

"I'm almost done hacking into the Academy's database," Percy said. He continued to type and then exclaimed, "I've got it!"

"What is it, Percy?" Vanessa asked.

"I'm in Captain Fedora's Academy file," Percy said. "His secret identity should be in here somewhere."

I perked up when I heard that. Captain Fedora was one of my most dangerous enemies, and knowing his secret identity would make me one step closer to finally defeating him.

Percy searched through the file, and then said, "That's kind of disappointing. I think his secret identity is locked away in another file. I already know almost everything that's in this one."

Vanessa and I both leaned over to look at the screen. Percy was right. Almost everything in the file was common knowledge, from his codename to his powers. There was a picture of Captain Fedora near the bottom of the page, but even that couldn't tell us anything. His mask and fedora concealed most of his face, meaning that Captain Fedora could be anyone.

Vanessa laughed and said, "He kind of looks like my boyfriend."

"He kind of looks like every white guy in America," Percy said. He had a point. Without his mask and fedora, there was nothing distinctive about the man in the picture.

"This isn't too helpful," I said. "Is there anything else in the file?"

Percy kept scrolling, but all of a sudden, he stopped. "Wait a second," he said. He moved the mouse and highlighted a line of text. "I think this is Captain Fedora's email address."

"There you go," I said. "Now you're making some progress."

"How is that going to help?" Vanessa asked.

"I have an idea," Percy said as he added Captain Fedora into his contacts.

"What's your idea?" Vanessa asked.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," Percy said. He let out an evil laugh, while Vanessa just rolled her eyes. "I'm serious though," Percy said when he was done laughing. "It's a top secret project."

"Okay, Percy," Vanessa said as she gave Percy another disapproving look. "Can I have the laptop back?"

"Fine," Percy said as he handed Vanessa the laptop.

I moved my chair so I could be next to her, and then I asked, "What exactly are you doing?"

"I'm going to find the Elixir of Immortality," Vanessa said. "I'm trying to take down the Academy once and for all, and I need the Elixir to do that."

"What does the Elixir have to do with the Academy?" I asked.

"It's complicated," Vanessa said. "I have a forty page proposal that I submitted to Ellen that explains everything, if you'd like to see it."

"No thanks," I said. For now, I was content to simply watch Vanessa play around with Google Maps and occasionally get distracted by Twilight fanfiction.

"You're still reading that garbage?" Percy said at one point.

"I'm sorry, but The Broken Vampire's Roommate is a brilliant story," Vanessa said. "I don't even like Twilight anymore, but this is amazing."

"Why are you still reading Twilight fanfiction if you don't like Twilight anymore?" Percy asked.

"Can you please shut up?" Vanessa said.

Percy then turned to me and said, "Jay, you don't like Twilight, right?"

"It's not really my thing," I said.

"Thank goodness," Percy said. "Vanessa was obsessed with Twilight for the first few years that she was an apprentice here, and I still don't think that she's completely over it."

"I am over it," Vanessa said, but her eyes were still glued on the latest chapter of The Broken Vampire's Roommate.

Eventually, Vanessa returned to her work, and once she was done, she asked, "Jay, would you like to join us for dinner? I'm sure Ellen won't mind."

I wasn't exactly the type of person to refuse free food. "Sure," I said.

I followed Percy and Vanessa into the dining room. Ellen was already at the table, waiting for us, and there was a plate of pasta and a large helping of salad next to each seat at the table. "Oh, hello there, Jay," Ellen said. "I didn't know that you were coming to eat with us. I'll ask Dina to get some food for you."

Ellen left the table to speak with one of the cooks, and a few minutes later, a woman in her twenties placed a fourth plate on the table. "Thank you," I said.

As soon as everyone started eating, Ellen asked Percy and Vanessa about their respective projects. Percy mentioned that he had found an email address that might be Captain Fedora's, and Vanessa told her that she was making progress on finding the Elixir of Immortality. Ellen seemed pleased with their progress, so she shifted the conversation and told us about her plans for the earthquake that she was planning to start.

I listened to the three of them chatting, and I decided that I could get used to having Vanessa and Percy around. I had always been alone in life, isolated by my own powers, but spending more time in the castle could change that. For once, I didn't feel quite so lonely.