Chapter 12 - This House Is A Circus

Art by NeverCatchMe

"What is it?" Percy asked me.

"It's about Captain Fedora," I said as I sat down in the chair next to Percy's.

"Did you find out his secret identity?" Percy asked. He smiled and then said, "Finally! We'll be able to defeat him."

"Yes, I did," I said.

"So what is it?" Percy asked. "Who is Captain Fedora really?"

All of a sudden, the door creaked open. I glanced towards the door and saw Vanessa standing there. That was when I knew that I couldn't tell Percy about Captain Fedora's secret identity. Vanessa would overhear us, and she would freak out. "I'll tell you later," I said to Percy.

"Why can't you tell me now?" Percy asked.

"What in the world are you two talking about?" Vanessa asked.

"Hey Vanessa," Percy said. "I didn't see you there. How was your date?"

"It went really well," Vanessa said.

"That's nice," Percy said. "Anyways, Jay says that he's figured out who Captain Fedora is, and he was going to tell me his secret identity."

"Percy's overstating it a little bit," I lied. "I need to do a little bit more investigating to confirm Captain Fedora's secret identity."

"That's not what you said earlier," Percy said.

"Well, when you figure it out, let me know," Vanessa said. "In the meantime, I can help you look into it."

"I thought that it was my job to deal with Captain Fedora," Percy complained. "You have your own superheroes to defeat, Vanessa."

"Melisma and the Green Machine aren't real threats," Vanessa said. "I can help you two with Captain Fedora."

Percy rolled his eyes, but I said, "That sounds great, Vanessa." Perhaps Vanessa would figure out that Declan was Captain Fedora on her own, and I could always tell Percy another time.

The next day, I went to work as usual, but over breakfast, I asked Dad to drop me off at Ellen's castle. "I need to talk to one of my friends there," I explained to him. "Vanessa will probably be able to give me a ride back into the city."

Thankfully, Dad agreed to it, and he drove me to Ellen's castle without asking any questions. When we got there, I hopped out of the car and knocked on the door, and Ellen let me in. "Hi Jay," Ellen said. "You're not usually here this early."

"I need to talk to Percy," I said.

"He's in the office," Ellen said.

I ran upstairs and wandered through the corridors until I found Percy furiously typing on his computer. I was about to tell him about Captain Fedora's secret identity, but I then realized that Vanessa was sitting next to him. "Percy, can I please have the computer?" she asked. "I need to Google something really quickly."

"Can you just be patient?" Percy asked. "I got a hold of Captain Fedora's email address a while ago, and now I'm in the middle of emailing him. Apparently he thinks that I'm a coward for refusing to fight him in person."

"You kind of are, but that's beside the point," Vanessa said.

"For all of his bravado, I'll bet that he's really no more courageous than you or I," Percy said. "Ooh, look at this! He's threatening to show up at the castle now!"

"Percy, I really don't think that's a good thing," Vanessa said.

Percy looked up from his computer and said, "Hi Jay. So what's Captain Fedora's secret identity?"

"I need to investigate a little bit more to confirm it," I said, falling back on my old lie.

Percy groaned and then went back to typing. "Whatever," he said. "I'll just figure it out myself."

At this rate, I figured that Percy would figure it out himself. In retrospect, it wasn't hard to find out Captain Fedora's secret identity. Declan didn't seem to try particularly hard to conceal it. Then again, Vanessa had known him for much longer than I had, and she still didn't know.

Vanessa drove me to work that day, and when we got there, I had plenty of things to do. During our lunch break, however, Vanessa brought me over to her desk. "I don't know why you're helping Percy," Vanessa told me. "Ellen always tells us to focus on the larger picture instead of individual superheroes, and Percy isn't listening to her."

"Then why are you getting involved?" I asked.

"Because I want to teach both of you a lesson," Vanessa said. "Neither of you will figure out who Captain Fedora is, and even if you do, it won't change anything. The Academy will still be there."

Vanessa turned on her computer and opened up a website. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm opening up the archives," she said. "This will give you access to every article ever published in any of the San Urbano news outlets. If you want to search for Captain Fedora's secret identity, this would probably be a good place to start, but I have to warn you, they're very good about keeping those identities secret. I tried to figure out who the Green Machine was last year using the archives, and it didn't help at all. It's really not fair how the Academy has extensive files on all of us, but we don't know anything about their superheroes."

"Yeah, that's really not fair at all," I said as I started looking through the archives. At first, it was all very overwhelming. There was too much information clustered into the archives, and it was nearly impossible to look for all of it. I did a simple search on "Captain Fedora," hoping to fool Vanessa into thinking that I actually was doing some research. All that did was pull up hundreds of articles praising Captain Fedora's ability to keep San Urbano safe. There was no mention of Declan anywhere.

I did a few more searches, but none of them gave me any useful information. Maybe Vanessa had a point. There was no proof that Declan was Captain Fedora other than what I had seen with my own eyes, and focusing on him wasn't the best strategy if our ultimate goal was to take down the Academy. However, I wanted to help Percy in any way that I could.

Near the end of the lunch break, I searched "The Academy." As usual, hundreds of articles popped up, and I scrolled through them. Most of them were articles about individual superheroes where the Academy had been briefly mentioned. There wasn't very much of interest, but I got sidetracked by one article. It had been printed in the San Urbano Times on April 2nd, 1984, and to my surprise, it wasn't about a superhero. Instead, it appeared to be about the Academy itself. I opened the article and read it, curious about the content.

ACADEMY RECEIVES A NEW BENEFACTOR

By Christine Gonzalez

The Academy for the Research and Education of Superpowered Individuals, an academic institution located in San Urbano focused on training the superheroes of tomorrow, was surprised to receive a generous donation to help them achieve their goals. The sum, which totaled over $100 million, was kindly provided by the CEO of the San Urbano Times Company, Thomas Russell.

Russell, who began working for the San Urbano Times fifteen years ago and is now one of the richest men in San Urbano, is proud to support the Academy. He attributes San Urbano's so-called "supervillain crisis" to the lack of training that superhumans receive. "San Urbano is one of the most dangerous cities in America, and it's all because of superhumans who don't know how to use their powers and become villains," Russell claimed. "If they are trained properly and given both a factual and a moral education, then we can use our superhuman population to protect those of us who lack their unnatural abilities."

The Academy provides a variety of useful services, from new research on superhumans and their abilities to assistance for adult superheroes, but their primary purpose is training and educating teenage superhumans in accordance with the Children With Extraordinary Abilities Protection Act of 1946. In response to a public outcry over the usage of young superheroes in World War II, many nations around the world have passed similar legislation to promote the training of teenage heroes before they are used to fight local crime or participate in foreign wars as adults. However, many such institutions around the country and across the globe are currently struggling to fund their programs. Although all superhero training facilities in the United States are partially funded by the government, this funding is not enough to produce truly innovative research, discipline unruly superheroes, or implement new technology in the classroom. Generous donations such as Thomas Russell's could change how institutions like the Academy are run and bring supervillain-associated crime rates down drastically.

Russell, realizing the effects that his donation will have, plans to continue to donate to the Academy in the coming years. "I hope that my donations will change the lives of many people here in San Urbano," he said. "Both superhumans and ordinary citizens can benefit from a better Academy."

When I finished the article, I wondered if Thomas Russell was still funding the Academy. The article was rather old, and it was quite possible that Mr. Russell had long since stopped sending money to the Academy. I did a quick Google search, and the first result that popped up was the CEO of the San Urbano Times. It was apparent that he was still alive and still working at the San Urbano Times, but there was no indication of whether he was still supporting the Academy.

"Hey Vanessa!" I shouted. Vanessa ran over, and I asked her, "Did you know that the CEO of the San Urbano Times funds the Academy? At the very least, he used to."

"I actually didn't know that," Vanessa said. "This is what I'm talking about when I say that you need to focus on the root of the problem though. You're doing a good job. Where did you find this?"

"It was in a really old article from the San Urbano Times," I said.

"Interesting," Vanessa said. "Why don't you try to set up an interview with him? Maybe we can figure out if he's still funding the Academy."

"First of all, that's not my job. You're the reporter here, not me," I said. "Second, this is the CEO we're talking about. I can't just waltz into his office."

"You'd be surprised," Vanessa said. "Declan's met with him a few times, but he never mentioned that this guy funded the Academy. Speaking of Declan, I should probably go check on him."

She walked over to Declan's desk, and I followed her, since I didn't have anything better to do. "Hi Vanessa," Declan mumbled.

"Hey Declan," Vanessa said. She looked over at his computer screen and asked, "Is that Parsifal Wernher guy still trying to scam you?"

"Yes," Declan said. "He keeps asking me what my real name is."

"Just keep giving him silly fake names," Vanessa said. "Eventually he'll get bored and leave you alone."

"I thought the whole goal was to distract him so that he can't scam anyone else," Declan said.

Vanessa shrugged and then said, "Declan, you've talked to Thomas Russell before, right?" Declan nodded, and Vanessa asked, "Could you do me a favor and set up a meeting with him for Jay?"

"I think I can do that," Declan said. "Why do I need to set up a meeting though?"

"Jay and I are doing some research for an article," Vanessa said.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Declan said as he adjusted his glasses. I left to get some work done, and when I came back, Declan told me that he had scheduled a meeting for me. "You'll be interviewing him on the top floor of the San Urbano Times building this Friday," he said.

"Thanks Declan," I said, but my brain was quickly filling up with all kinds of worries. This was an important step towards taking down the Academy, but what if something went wrong? All I wanted to do was help Vanessa. However, it was becoming difficult to help both Vanessa and Percy at the same time, especially when I had to tell Percy about Captain Fedora's secret identity, and I had to hide the same information from Vanessa. I desperately wanted both of them to like and accept me - why was that so hard?