Super Crush (BxB)

Getting the Deets (S2)

"Come on, fellas," Dad calls to Abe and Clay. "Let's catch Noah up."

He directs me to what I now understand is both the conference and dinner table. As Dad turns his attention to a set of keyboards and a half-dozen monitors, I grab the first seat I come to which is the head of the table. On each side of me, Clay and Abe take a seat. They are debating who has the better cereal.

"Fruity Booties are the best," Abe says as he crunches into a spoonful of colorful peach-shaped puffs.

"Nah, man. These Cherry Poppers taste like dessert," Clay counters.

Beyond my concern for the decisions that the cereal industry is making these days, I smile because it is the middle of the night and these two chuckleheads have gone full breakfast time. Okay, maybe I am just jealous. Cereal sounds awesome right now.

"Did Abe get you hooked on late-night snacking, Clay?" I ask.

He lets out a chuckle. "Cereal, for sure. I get why it's his go-to. It's like limbo food for a limbo time. But I don't trust his food opinion about anything else."

"Hey!" Abe says, tossing a few pieces of his Booties at Clay. "I resent that! I am a foodie."

"Riiight," Clay and I say at the same time, and all three of us burst into laughter.

Across the room, Dad clears his throat and pivots the largest of the scenes our way. A part of me wonders if he feels he has three sons now.

Dad points to a tree map of headshots before us—some of the people I have seen before and some I haven't.

"So, we know two things as of right now. Someone is out to take down Abe. And there is somebody new behind the movement of Cloud 10."

"Yeah, I saw the report by Secretary Mangrove." I turn to Abe. "I thought you told me you were going to cooperate."

He slowly nods. "I did. At first, they weren't holding me on anything. Just asked I lay low and work with their agents. But then Secretary Manboobs got involved, and I was moved right to the world's most wanted list. He said he had evidence that I was knowingly in cahoots with Matriach."

The anger blooms in his cheeks. I want to kiss them.

Fuck, Noah. Pull it together.

"When he said I was under arrest and I would be put in a secret prison designed for holders, it seemed too fishy. Not the holder jail, I've seen enough movies to know that exists but the total flip-flop. My lawyer stepped in and got me temporary immunity as more evidence was being collected. She told me to go somewhere safe until she could get it handled. Which seemed like a bad idea until she disappeared the next day and I got the hell outta town. The immunity filing was thrown out within 36 hours of it going into effect and I became a criminal on the run."

"So that's what this list is all about," Dad says, pointing to the people pictured on the left side of the screen. "These four folks are people of interest in the Crimson Kid legal battle."

"So, we have to do what we can to get Abe's name clear, I assume?" I say to the group.

"Exactly," Dad replies. "Many of the clips that show Abe being heroic have been taken down from the internet. The washing is definitely a trademark of The Fleet. This leads me to believe, the old showrunners may still be around."

Dad circles a man and a woman on the screen–Donald Downs and Tina Maguire. That's probably why they look vaguely familiar. I am sure I have seen them in The Fleet-related media.

Abe gets to his feet as Clay continues to munch away on his treat. Three things happen in the brief window of time it takes Abe to move to the computer screen: