Dirty Little Freaks

Chapter One

Adrian walked into the Renegades lounge and pumped both hands into the air. "Gue-ss what we're doing?"
"Eating salad?" Oscar guessed, mouth full. Spittle flew out and hit Ruby's face.
"You're disgusting," Ruby told him, purposefully spraying him with her mouth off mac and cheese.
Nova cringed. "Please tell me it's something that does not involve my appetite."
Adrian sighed."Research!" He sing-songed.
Danna groaned. "Hours of sitting in an old library, reading some musty books on some history or some theory. Great. My very idea of a good time."
"As long as the subject's interesting enough, I'm good." Nova shrugged. "Honestly, they probably chose us for efficiency. I can stay up all night to read or whatever," Nova shrugged.
"Wrong!" Adrian plopped a crate onto the table. "I volunteered!"
Oscar let out a long groan, resting his head in his arms.
"Why do I have a feeling this involves Nightmare," Ruby mumbled.
"Because it is!" Adrian took the lid off the crate. "We're looking through her stuff!"
"Please stop talking in exclamation points," Nova said, rubbing her ear. "It hurts my brain." She froze. "Wait, what did you just say?"
Adrian patted the crate, and against her will, Nova leaned over to look with the rest of the team. The box was filled with stuff from Nightmare's train car. Nightmare's stuff. Her stuff.
"Wait-" Nova said. "Should we really-"
"Be doing this right here in the lounge?" Adrian interrupted. "I thought of that. So I booked us a conference room!"
Danna winced. "Gonna have to agree with Nova on the exclamations, buddy."
"Here's a tip," Oscar fake-whispered. "Pretend you're normal."
Adrian made a face at Oscar. "Come on, it's this way."
On the way through HQ to the conference rooms, Nova's mind raced. Did she have anything directly incriminating in there? No, just weapons and personal items. Damnit. There might have been a photo or something in there, but only from when she was much younger. She hadn't been in her train car for a while, too engrossed in training to even consider the semblance of rest. Idiot. There were a lot if mementos. Her first weapon, her old Dolly Bear. None of that would make any difference in the grand scheme of things. Still, it gave her a weird, uncomfortable feeling to have people going up through her stuff. Especially these people. Going through her childhood with the cold, arrogant disconnect they used for jobs.
They sat down in the room, Adrian finally winding down on one of his speeches on why Nightmare was evil and needed to be caught. Or it might have been why the Sentinel was the best and deserved appreciation. Or any combination of the aforementioned two subjects.
The sterile metal table in the white room reminded Nova far too much of an interrogation room.
"Are you guys sure you don't want to do this in the library?" Nova asked nervously. Ruby let the door fall closed, letting out an echoing clang. Nova flinched. Her eyes skipped to the blinking camera, then the door. Did it have a remote lock feature? "Or somewhere with a window?"
"If I didn't know better, Nova, I'd say you were trying to stall." Adrian smiled while he said it, but Nova could see the warning in his eyes. When it came to Nightmare, Nova had to tread carefully. One misstep, and the entire mountain of lies and deceit would come crashing down beneath her.
Nova let out a laugh. It sounded high and tinny and fake to her own ears. Nova sat down, though she couldn't stop looking to and from the camera in the corner, and drumming her fingers. Why didn't she have her tranquilizer pen on her? Stupid, stupid.
Ruby was the first to reach in. She twirled one of Nova's throwing stars on her fingers, a scowl on her face. "Wicked little things."
Nova cringed. These were her enemies. Of course they'd hate her.
Then why did she feel so hurt?
Oscar grabbed something. A tube shaped holder, with a thick metal spring sticking out of it. Nova felt a touch of embarrassment, quickly overridden by a wave of anger. Here they were, making fun of her very first working gadget.
Adrian looked in the box, rummaging for something. He finally took out a poster of Captian Chromium, with bullet holes riddling the paper near his head. The spot at the corner of his eye was completely blown through.
"Wow," Adrian said as Oscar whistled. "That's disturbing."
"What the fuck happened to her? Ruby whispered.
Nova's fingers were tapping so quickly she could barely see them now.
Adrian put down the poster and continued looking through the box. He pulled out a charm bracelet and inspected it. " Tacky."
Nova had forgotten about that bracelet, but the memories came flooding back now. Honey had given her that during her seventh birthday, when they were still in the Cathedral. It had a single charm then, a bead in the shape of Ace's helmet. The next year, Honey gave Nova a bee shaped bead she had painted herself. Over the years, Nova had gotten a beaker, a scythe, a bomb, and a puppet. When she turned thirteen, and was finally old enough to go on minor missions, she got a lime green Anarchist A. At the time, she was upset she didn't get anything that represented herself, but even now, she struggled to come up with what the bead would even look like. Nova didn't think she'd given the bracelet thought in a year or two.
"Wait, what's in there?" Ruby asked, pointing at what looked like an old shoe box.
Adrian shoved the rest of the crate away, delicately taking out the box. Nova's breath caught as he opened it.
A couple bits and bobs rested inside. Some bits of wire.
Nova's heart kept to her throat. She fought to keep her face neutral. Her old Dolly bear. One eye was missing, the fabric rotting.
Oscar and Ruby shared a snicker, but Danna and Adrian looked astonished. Taken a back.
"How long was she down there?" Adrian asked.
"What else is in the box?" Nova asked gruffly. Everyone looked at her, and Nova realized that was the first time she had spoken since they began going through the crate."What? I'm not as interested in Nightmare's old toys as you are."
"Is that a video recorder?" Adrian asked.
A sinking feeling sunk to the bottom of Nova's stomach. The video recorder.
Sweet rot, how had she forgotten the video recorder?
When had she last used it? Not recently, sure but there could still be a video, A video from when she was older.
"Guys, I dunno," Nova tried in vain. "This seems like an invasion of privacy."
"She's a villain," Adrian said, without looking up at her. "She doesn't deserve privacy."
Nova gulped as the Renegades crowded around the tiny screen.