“So,” Emily continued, “the Clowns. What happened?”

“I didn’t do nothing,” Jacob said, instantly on the defensive. “Hardly used my powers, just minding my own business. You know, you and the bear girl kinda scared me, so I was on the watch for trouble, keeping my head down. Then I get this letter addressed to me.”

“To you as you, or you as in your, uh, persona?” Emily asked. She wasn’t entirely sure about the whole persona thing yet. She could imagine some people were very different in and out of costume. She shook her head, setting the stray thought aside.

For all that the situation was a little tense, she had still been through a long day and was looking forward to doing like Teddy and going to sleep.

“Both,” Jacob said. “It was addressed to both. It had a bunch of stuff about me too. And it said that I should contact these people on a website.”

“Like Acebook Messenger?” Emily asked.

“No, no, like, this weird HTTP site. Just a bunch of letters and numbers for an address. I went, and as soon as I opened the site it opened up this chat thing. That’s all there was on the site. Just the chat.”

“Okay?”

Jacob nodded. “Then this person started writing to me, asking me questions. I asked them who they were and they said they were the Cab— Clowns.”

“That’s it?” Emily asked. That was rather underwhelming.

Jacob hugged himself. “I thought so, too, you know? Started telling them off. But they started offering me things, telling me stuff.”

“Could you be any less precise?” Athena asked with a huff.

“I mean, they said they could help me become the greatest Villain ever, that I could be strong and cool. There’s, like, fan clubs for some Villains, you know? And they offered money for stuff. I mean, it sounded kinda good?”

“You trusted them?” Emily asked.

He snorted. “Of course not,” he said. “But they said they were, like, the top dog of Villains around here, that they run the show. ’Course, I know you’re around, so that can’t be true, right?”

“Right,” Emily said for a lack of anything smarter to say.

“That’s right,” Athena said with a whole lot more enthusiasm. “Big Sister Emily’s the top dog of Villains here. If she were a dog, she’d be one of those really big ones.”

“Uh . . .” Emily said.

“So, I have this thing I can do, with my power. You used it on that map, remember? To pinpoint things. I can use it to flip a coin, see if something’s a good idea or not. It takes a lot of luck, though. But the Clowns, they have me cornered so I figured it’s no big loss. I flip, and it’s bad. Real bad. So I leave my dorm, and I see some people looking at me.”

“So you came here?” Emily asked.