The Library of Powers

Chapter 10: Green Hard Hats

Footsteps flooded Jackson's ears, a constant backdrop behind the electronic tune playing through his phone. He was trying to drought the cityscape through music, but it was always just ever so slightly there. As he turned the corner and Vera City Public Library came into view, he conceded his fruitless crusade against the noise, removing his earbuds in frustration.

His reason for coming to the Writing Well on a Saturday was twofold. For one, the message he had received from the well yesterday specifically told him to come back for more of... something. Secondly (but equally important), he had promised Melanie he would meet her here this morning to talk about her apparent success with Chase and Samantha last night. While he was interested to hear how it went, finding Melanie completely left his mind when he saw the Writing Well.

A chain link fence was being constructed around it, as a small team of city construction workers started to set up construction equipment. From the man-high crates that were scattered within the enclosure, Jackson guessed they were installing something new. Perhaps benches, or lamp-posts? Either way, Jackson had no idea it was going to happen. He was at the Well every weekday, so if there was notice he would have, well, noticed.

He quickly searched "The Writing Well", and no results came up for it being closed. adding in "under renovations" with a dozen question marks lead him to a local news site which had an op-ed positing that the Writing Well needed to be better marketed as a Vera City Landmark to drive more tourism to the southern quadrant of Downtown. The article never said that such a thing would happen, but did suggest some minor touchups of the tiling to make it look fresh. They were unsure if that would mess with Jin Takeshi's magic, but Jackson assumed it wouldn't. The tiles that were there now had far too modern a style to be over a hundred years old.

As he pondered the renovations, Melanie had arrived in her bright blue Jeep and was trying to wave at Jackson. Jackson, being even more oblivious than usual, did not notice, so Melanie yelled "Hey, Reil!" to catch his attention. That worked.

Jackson headed over to meet Melanie, which brought him closer to the construction. As he passed by he recognized the distinct forest green hard hats the construction workers were wearing, which pegged them as part of the Altered Human Bureau's Containment division. The same branch Jackson's parents worked for. That struck Jackson as odd. Sure, it was an extremely powerful magical artifact, but it wasn't necessarily top priority right now. Almost all of the cleaners should be in Del Alto after the major supervillain brawl there, or in Miami with his mom and dad. Not doing some small project in the middle of Vera City. If some disaster was to happen here, supers would be swarming within the minute.

"Well this is something," Melanie said, gesturing at the construction as if there could have been anything else that constituted 'something'.

Jackson took a deep breath. "This is strange."

"yeah, aren't those the guys that work for Selina's dad? Don't they have better thin--"

Jackson cut her off. "No, I mean us meeting up. You could have just called me."

"Oh," Melanie said, keeping her poise. "I mean, I guess, but they might have tapped our phones."

"Really? High School students?"

"Whatever. The point is, they're planning something big, and they want my help."

This didn't surprise Jackson, but did bring up some questions. "What kind of plan? A heist?"

"Probably, they seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Like it was already covered," she explained. She then looked away, as if she was ashamed of what she was about to say. "And they were way too nice."

Jackson said nothing. His expression, however, said enough.

Melanie started walking clockwise around the fountain, Jackson then matching her steps. "I mean, like, we're just kids, you know? They didn't seem like the type to kill people."

Jackson snorted, giving Melanie the side eye. "Why would they kill anyone? I guess I forgot you grew up with major league heroes."

"Huh?"

"Supervillains aren't evil. At least, for the most part. Amoral, sure. Evil? These two will probably try and avoid even hurting people."

Jackson had done a lot of reading in the Library on superheroes and villains. The real books, without the romanticized bias that came with so many, subtly told a story that made Jackson's ears ring. Not because of the content, but because he felt ashamed he didn't realize it sooner.

Melanie's brow furled, and she took an argumentative stance before shifting to a slightly more benign one. "They're already committing one crime, what's a murder going to do?"

"Did you hear about the break out this morning? From Sun River Pen?"

"Of course, my parents rushed over to help quarantine the area."

"Did you know not a single real villain escaped? These break-outs are common, but the ones who kill hundreds are not among those. Crossadii? Escaped. Only ever injured a few security guards. Phoebe Winter? No way in hell."

"What, you're saying they let them out?"

"No, they just didn't care as much. For those villains, it's just a job. You need to understand this if you want to work undercover, or they will be able to tell you're a rat. You know, those types of villains, they're not so different from your uncle."

"My uncle is not a villain."

"Only because he's able to market himself as something else, a vigilante, a renegade. He still breaks the law. He's not really a bad person. Neither are they. Probably."

Her shoulders slumped, and her voice went to the flat that had revealed itself to him a few times prior. "So then why are we trying to take them down?"

Jackson started to speak before realizing he didn't have an answer. Stopping himself, he moved his gaze from the ground to the Writing Well. "I don't know," he dejectedly answered.

Before they could continue, Jackson ran towards the well, sliding between an opening where the chain link fence segments had yet to be connected. Most of the workers were on the other side of the rather large fountain, so Jackson was not stopped when he ran to its edge and pushed his hand in.

He did not, however, go unnoticed. A large glove wrapped around his wrist as he unsubmerged his arm. It was a tall, gruff man, with an unmistakable green hard hat. The construction worker twisted his hand to read the writing, but found only wet skin. "All that for a missed cooldown? C'mon kid, I gotta take you to the boss."