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Dear Nobody,
Nate is forcing me to write in this journal for an unknown number of days because he thinks it will help with my “anger issues,” which are totally reasonable attacks on Hardison or Eliot when they ask about personal questions or try to steal my secret stash of taffy in the back of the office (they are absolutely terrible thieves). But Nate doesn’t want swift and final punishments for them, because we “need them for business” or whatever, so I’m stuck writing to nobody in this dumb journal until I can convince Nate that I don’t need to do it anymore.
The only reason I’m writing in it right now is because Nate is staring me down, and we have some downtime in the office while Hardison is doing research on this supervillain named Syndrome, or some stupid crap like that. He’s really crazy, from the noises of concern Hardison is making. Stealing money to buy a private island, career in engineering, giant robot roaming the island judging by satellite photos, the works.
I hate that we’re going to have to go into there to do something about it. If there were still superheroes around, then maybe there would be less supervillains. As is, I’m stuck here waiting to have a game plan on stopping this crazy guy from destroying the world, because some guy with ice powers realized he was being stalked and this is where we ended up.
He doesn’t know I know he has powers, but he had to. The cooler full of water never has ice in it, and he placed his hand on the top of it for a second too long for it to just be normal. Hardison gave me a look that told me he knew something was up, too.
Anyway. Ice Guy is being stalked, we traced the stalkers back to Syndrome. He’s absolutely crazy, and we’re gonna have to go after him. Hardison’s ever-increasing concern stopped being funny about half an hour ago, and now he’s making pained squeaks every time he opens a new tab. I think Eliot is going to rip his arms off at this rate. Maybe I can convince Nate to give this journal to him to solve some issues.
…After I destroy this page, of course.
I’m not saying sincerely or anything to a nobody. But I guess I put my name at the end of this.
-Parker
Dear Nobody,
We’re on a boat heading to the island now. Initially we were going to take a plane, but Eliot said it was too risky, and for some reason Hardison agreed with him, though he wouldn’t say why.
That means there’s going to be a lot of weapons around to steal or neutralize. It’s a toss up between excitement and worry for me. Hopefully it’s more stealing than neutralizing, otherwise I’m going to be bored. And I worry when I get bored, if only because then I could wind up stealing something that’s important later when everything inevitably blows up in all of our faces. Hopefully metaphorically this time.
…Hopefully. With the weapons, it’s hard to say for sure.
Syndrome really is crazy. He had a case of hero worship for this man named Mr. Incredible, who is the whole reason superheroes went into hiding. It’s crazy that as a kid he was stalking this guy and caused an entire train track to blow up.
This guy seems to have created a whole vendetta against superheroes. Hardison said that along with the weapons and the robotics, he’s managed to find a shell company that was paying people who were all suspected of being superheroes and they all went mysteriously missing after receiving these funds. It was never a whole lot of money, but Nate said that anyone would be itching to relive the glory days and that the money was likely a bonus.
I guess I understand that, a bit, but if they really wanted to relive the glory days, why wouldn’t they just do things in secret around where they live? It made no sense to me. Everyone else tried to explain it as if I wasn’t allowed to steal anything anymore, which…I know that I’m not supposed to steal, but I do it anyway, so it doesn’t really make all that much sense.
Anyway, I have to get in there and steal the schematics of the island and if possible, the robot that rampages across it. We want to make sure that their crazy rampage doesn’t go across the entire world, because who knows where that thing could end up whenever it’s perfected.
I see the island in the distance and Nate’s been trying to catch my attention for three minutes, so I guess I’ve made my point. If this were actually useful, I’d thank you for listening, but I’m just talking to nobody. So I won’t.
-Parker
Dear Nobody,
This might be my last entry for a while. We’re on the island so I have plausible excuses to “lose” it as I go, but that’s not what I’m focused on right now.
A plane blew up as we snuck up on shore. We’ve been trying to find the survivors because there were three figures that snuck off and fell right before it crashed overhead. When we saw them in the distance, Nate told us to stop. They were wearing uniforms, like the old superheroes. The boy looked like he was about to take off running, and the woman was stretching into some difficult positions to get in and out of without showing she was looking for people.
But there was a girl who could turn invisible, which is so not fair, because if I could do that, I would do it in a heartbeat, but she was trying very hard to stay visible for the other two. It seems like such a waste if she only does it when scared or flustered. She could do so much more with it.
I could do so much more with it.
It would be nice to have been born with powers. Even if I did know where I came from, figuring out how to use those to help me would be incredibly useful. The girl could make a good thief, given time and training, and I would do just about anything to teach her, to have her on our side, to show her what it’s like to be a good guy for real while still doing things most people might consider bad, or find illegal. If anyone understood, it had to be her. Her family, her people. They had to figure it out by now, surely? That you can be a good person while technically doing the wrong thing?
I can only hope, I guess. There’s not much else to do sitting in a vent waiting for Syndrome to get over himself in his lab and I can get in to steal some vital components and figure out what exactly he’s going to do.
There’s quite a few people sneaking around on this island, it’s very weird to not be the only person running a con on the same person at the same time.
Well, Syndrome is leaving, I need to get to business and lose this journal.
And I know just who I’m going to give it to in order to do that.
Dear Invisible Girl,
If you ever tire of hiding in the shadows for no good reason, let me and my team give you a good reason to do it. You can find us at Leverage Incorporated. Or, you can look us up and we’ll find you because Hardison pings our searches. Don’t be scared if we come to grab you, we just can’t have too many people knowing about us.
You and your family could be useful to us. I think you’d be a good secondary team member in a pinch.
Let us know what you think after you’ve considered it.
And do me a favor—stay alive after Syndrome goes off the rails. It wouldn’t do to write this for nobody to read it.
-Parker