The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Sienna sat in her favorite chair, pulled a blanket over her shoulders, and wrapped it around her shoulders.

This is a small consolation, but it's still a kind of consolation.

Teddy and Athena sat on the bed.

Athena swung her legs to burn off excess energy, while Teddy... was still snoring. But that's alright.

In the center of the room, Jacob sat cross-legged, head bowed, looking extremely nervous. He was idly twirling his thumb, occasionally glancing up to see if Sienna was still watching him.

She was indeed still watching him, but she didn't seem to have any ill intentions.

At least there wasn't much malice involved.

In her opinion, it was a big no-no for a boy to barge into her room.

She cleared her throat, and the boy trembled. "About, um, those people you call the Secret Society, can you tell me about them?"

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to say their names out loud,” Jacob said, glancing around warily.

Sienna looked at Athena, guessing that it must be Athena's superpowers at work.

"Okay, let's give them a new name. Hmm, let's call them the 'Clown Gang'."

Jacob chuckled. "Alright, alright, that's fine too. Let's call them the 'Clown Gang' then. Hmm, I like that name."

“So,” Sienna continued, “what exactly happened with this ‘Clown Gang’?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Jacob immediately retorted. “I barely used my superpowers; I was just busy with my own things.”

You know, you and that bratty girl really scared me, so I've been keeping a close eye on things and trying to keep a low profile.

Then I received a letter addressed to me.

"Is this written for the real you, or for the you in your... uh, role?" Sienna asked.

She is not entirely clear about this role and identity.

She could imagine how different some people look when they put on and take off certain outfits.

Sienna shook her head, dismissing the thought.

Despite the tense situation, her day had been quite long, and now she longed to take a nap like Teddy.

“I have both identities,” Jacob said. “The recipients listed on the letters are both versions of me.”

The letter also contained a lot of information about me, and it said I should contact these people on a website.

“A website like Esbook (a fictional social platform similar to Facebook) instant messaging?” Sienna asked.

"No, not that kind. It's a very strange Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) website. The URL is just a bunch of letters and numbers."

After I logged in, a chat window popped up as soon as I opened the website. This is the only chat window on the website.

"and then?"

"Then someone started messaging me, asking me questions. I asked them who they were, and they said they were the secret—the Joker Gang."

"That's all?" Sienna asked. This was far too lacking in substance.

Jacob hugged himself tightly. "I felt the same way back then, you know? I started berating them."

But they started offering me all sorts of conditions and telling me a lot of things.

"Could you be more specific?" Athena said angrily.

"I mean, they said they could help me become the most powerful villain in history, that I could become strong and cool."

You know, some villains even have fan clubs.

And they even said they'd give me money or something, I mean, it sounds pretty good, right?

"You actually believed them?" Sienna asked.

He snorted. "Of course not," he said, "but they say they're the boss of the villains around here, and that they call the shots."

"Of course, I know you're here, so that can't be true, right?"

"Yes." Sienna couldn't think of a smarter response at the moment, so she just replied casually.

“That’s right!” Athena exclaimed enthusiastically. “Big sister Sienna is the real boss of the villains here.”

If she were a dog, she'd definitely be a really big one.

"Uh," Sienna responded.

"So, I can use my superpower to do one thing. You used it on that map, remember? It was for precise location."

I can use it to flip a coin to see if something is a good idea. But it's pretty much all about luck.

But the Joker gang had me cornered, so I figured I might as well give it a try and lose nothing.

I tossed a coin, and it was terrible. Terrible. So I left the dorm, and then I noticed someone was staring at me.

"So you came here?" Sienna asked.

What are the chances that he is being followed?

Sienna felt a chill run down her spine. There weren't many fighters in the room, and the people who could help were far away.

“I’m very careful,” he said. “I came by bus, threw away my phone, and then I got lucky and found a new jacket. You know, to disguise myself.”

"So you weren't being followed, were you?" Sienna asked.

Jacob shrugged. "I don't think so. It took a lot of luck for me to get here."

I heard people talking about you, and they came to this building, so I followed them in.

I don't think I have anything on me that would allow the Joker's gang to track me down.

Sienna shifted in the blanket, then leaned her head back in the chair. "Do you know who the Jokers really are?"

"I don't know, I really don't know. But I know they're not good people, I'm pretty sure of that."

He sat up straight, grunted, and looked around. "Well, uh, I guess I can't sleep here, can I?"

Sienna sighed as she crawled out of the blanket.

“No, you can’t sleep here,” Sienna said. “Athena, keep an eye on him. If he does anything stupid, have Teddy eat him.”

“Yes, Sienna, big sister,” Athena said.

Sienna patted her trouser leg to make sure her phone was still there, then walked to the door and left the room.

She was still wearing socks as she walked on the tiled floor of the corridor. Her feet felt cool, but it wasn't too bad.

After making sure no one was around, she walked to the end of the corridor, where there was a small window overlooking the street in front of the building.

Sienna scrolled through her contacts, finally stopping and hovering her finger over the dial button for a familiar number.

Can Melanie help?

She withdrew her hand again. The heroine was a nice person, but she had previously made Sienna forget everything about the secret society.

Another name and number appeared, making Sienna even more hesitant to dial it.

She weighed the few options she had and then pressed the dial button.

The phone rang twice, and then someone answered.

"Hello." A man's voice came from the other end of the phone.

“Mr. Handshake?” Sienna asked.

"Oh, hello there," he said. "I didn't expect you to call me. How was your evening?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Well, I... I wanted to ask you something, but I'm not sure if it's safe to ask."

“In my line of work, this kind of concern is quite common,” Mr. Handshaw said. “There are a few solutions. We can talk about it indirectly.”

You can also talk face-to-face. Or you can communicate through safer methods. There are several online systems, and most of the time they are quite secure.

“I… well, that might be best,” Sienna said.

"You have a school email address, right? I'll send you a link. You should be able to access the website on your phone. If there's nothing else, we can talk later."

"Okay, thank you." She took the phone away from her ear and hung up.

A moment later, her email client notified her that she had received an email, and then she opened the link to a strange website.

There's a button on the website that, when clicked, leads to a room occupied only by another person named 'H - Shake' (Note: H - Shake is a transliteration, possibly Mr. Handshake's code name on the website).

She clicked in.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey, here it is. It's not much better than this, but the communication is encrypted as much as possible under these circumstances."

“Okay,” Sienna said.

"Is this about the proposal I sent you through Meraton?"

“No, it’s not that,” Sienna said. “It’s about… do you know an organization called the Secret Society?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. "Where did you hear this name from?" Mr. Handshaw asked.

“So you do know something,” Sienna said. It felt good to have some confirmation, to know that something suspicious was indeed happening.

“I won’t pretend I know nothing. But I also won’t just tell them everything. I can’t do it without compensation.”

She bit her lip and shifted her body to the side.

She almost forgot that Handshaw's job was to process information.

“Okay,” she said, “what about a safe house? Do you know any places where someone can hide?”

“I know,” Handshaw said. “You said she was in trouble when you were in trouble?”

"It wasn't me. It's like this, I... I want to explain things clearly, but I'm not sure if I should tell you for free, especially to you."

"Ah, this is the old problem; background information always has a price."

Okay. How about I tell you I have a job I'd like you to do, and in exchange, I'll tell you what I know, how about that?