Thanos Venge - Wrath

 "Someone said I am such a foolish girl
Who cares? It's better than without a light
Sometimes I need someone to hold me tight
Explain to me what is justice, what is right"
- Someday (Sawa)

Before coming to Eastbrick Academy, Reese, Mandy, and Terrence all agreed to  make peace with the fact that they were going to be leaving their friends at their old school behind and that by the time they were at the front of the academy gates, they would attempt to start fresh with no homesickness or regrets. After all, this was a fancy school. Beautiful dorm rooms, amazing academic program, exclusive clubs and more. Not to mention the extravagant food they keep hearing about. The three of them were smart enough and had the money to come here, so they might as well enjoy their time there.
At least, that was the plan.
Considering what happened to Terrence, there was no time to prepare themselves emotionally for their arrival at the academy. They were supposed to be awed. Excited. Hungry, as Mandy once mentioned.
Instead, the moment they got to campus parking, what registered on Reese and Mandy's faces were passive, tired, even depressed expressions.
Their reasons for coming here have changed. Reese, mostly.
The moment they stepped into the administration building, they were immediately greeted by an almost too perky young woman wearing a bright yellow sash over her green sweater.
"Hi!" She practically squeaked. "I'm Victoria Mason. You must be Reese Morrison and Mandy Roe."
Reese gasped, placing a hand over his mouth. "Are you psychic?"
The girl laughed, perhaps a little too much.
Reese and Mandy exchanged looks and looked at the student guide who seems to be desperately trying to be optimistic to the cynical looking students.
"I'll be your student guide for today. We'll help you with your luggage and bring you to your dorm rooms. After that, we'll give you two the official campus tour so you can be ready for your first day on Monday."
They return to Reese's car to grab their things with Victoria skipping right behind them. They knew she means well, but her overflowing aura of sunshine annoyed the hell out of them. On their way, Reese hears a young woman complaining to a young man that looked their age.
He could barely make out what they were talking about.
"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?" the young man asked.
"You know, your thing!"
Reese didn't seem to notice he had started to slow down to listen to the conversation until Mandy pushed him forward.
"You're being nosy again."

~X~

To call the Eastbrick Academy dorms, well, dorms, was an understatement.
The building that served as the dorms looked more like a 4 star hotel. A buffet style mess hall, a cafe, a large student lounge with a lot of entertainment systems, board games, foosball, pool tables and other stuff. You name it.
That wasn't even the start of it. Leading them to the back patio, they were pleasantly surprised to find a large swimming pool and hot tub.
"Well, now that you got a look at the first floor, it's time to send you to your dorm rooms."
Victoria waved over to two people sitting around the cafe area.
A blonde, burly young man who Reese guessed was in the football team, and a brunette young woman who exuded grace in her simplicity. Mandy envied her slim shape.
"This is Scott Wills and Jeanette Mars. Scott will be Reese's roommate and Jeanette will be Mandy's"
"Remind me again why we're not roommates ?" Mandy quips.
Reese nudges her slightly. "The dorms here aren't Co-Ed."
"They will be helping you to your rooms. I will meet you at the school fountain in an hour after you've acclimated with your rooms!" With a clasp of her hands, Victoria beams one more smile to the two before taking her leave.
Reese and Mandy wave to her goodbye and give each other one last glance.
Suddenly, Mandy moves over to Jeanette and quickly turns on that radiating and friendly aura of hers. "Hi! It's nice to meet you! I'm Mandy"
The girl gives a quiet but polite response. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jeanette. I'll show you to our room."
The two slowly inched away to the elevators talking as if they've always been friends.
Reese turns his head to Scott. Huge, quiet and intimidating, Reese felt pretty unnerved.
He wasn't one to believe in stereotypes such as jocks being bullies or party heads considering he was friends with a bunch at his old school.
But that didn't stop those types from existing anyway.
The man seemed slightly uninterested and tired.
When he suddenly moved forward, Reese twitched slightly backwards but did not close his eyes to not show any of his fear.
"Oh, uh. Sorry." Scott suddenly said, picking up some of Reese's bags. "I just thought you needed help with your things."
And the tension all suddenly faded away. Sighing in relief, he smiled. "Thanks. I didn't mean to look startled."
"I get it." He says. "I'm a pretty big guy. But trust me, I don't bite. I'm Scott."
He raised his hand and Reese shook it. "Reese."
Like most of the dormitory, the dorm room looked amazing. Located at the third floor, the room had two beds at opposite ends and desks at the foot of each one.
Reese was thankful that Scott wasn't a slob as the room was well maintained and fairly clean.
Scott's side of the room seemed modest at first. Then you feast your eyes on his wall and you find sports posters mixed in with a surprising amount of horror movie posters and some video game posters as well. Bridging the gap between beds was a TV. A Playstation 4 was hooked on and a bunch of slasher dvds were located just above it too.
Wow. I really misjudged Scott. Reese thought.
"Didn't expect a Football Player to be a horror buff or a video game nerd did you?"
"Honestly, yeah." Reese stood there looking at each one of the posters on the wall. Dumbfounded still at what he's looking at. "You really like the Scream franchise, don't you?"
Scott smiled, setting down some of Reese's things, and sat on his bed.
"What's your favorite Scary Movie?" Scott asked in a near perfect Ghostface voice.
Reese paused, genuinely thinking of an answer. "Stay Alive."
"That was a terrible movie."
Reese shrugged as he continued to unpack. "I didn't say I had good taste in the horror genre." 
Just as Reese scrutinized Scott's side of the room, Scott returned the favor as Reese unpacked his things.
The huge box Reese had was a computer. It was the very first thing that he took out of his things. Scott knew pretty basic stuff about computers but he could tell that Reese had a very expensive set up that he most likely saved up for.
Decor wise, Reese was minimal with his side of the room. While Scott had stuck at least 12 posters on his wall, practically covering it even, Reese only hung up 5 things on his side.
A Mr. Robot Poster, a Final Fantasy Tactics Poster, and three photographs.
Two were family photos. The last one was a picture of him with the girl he was with in the lobby along with a tall young man with shaggy, dark hair.
Scott noticed that he looked at that picture extra long before he hung it up. Curious as he was, he tried not to bring it up.
"Ugh, are you for real?!"
Outside their window, they watched as the loud girl that Reese noticed at the parking lot start to have a nervous breakdown in front of the boy she was talking to earlier.
"That's Erika Dela Cruz." Scott returned to his bed seemingly uninterested and opened his phone. "No need to stick our nose in her business. She'll probably have her family's money deal with her problems."
The more people told him to not be nosy, the more he so badly wanted to be.

~X~

It was hard to seem excited even as Victoria gave glowing commentary on the already magnificent looking school building and its facilities.
But Reese and Mandy certainly tried to be amazed. The effort to smile seemed to at least keep Victoria's spirits up as she brought them to every nook and cranny.
Advanced science and computer labs, clean libraries, very prestigious cafeterias and multiple club spaces for extracurricular activities.
It was very impressive.
But it didn't seem to matter. Not when they weren't complete.
"Alright! Now that we've gone through the campus, let's head over to the faculty room so we can set you up with your schedules and whatnot."
Mandy didn't quite notice, but Reese somewhat perked up. His poorly veiled boredom had fizzled and his face steeled.
An opportunity to see places where he can check for clues.
"You CANNOT be serious here! I built this club from the ground up!" The shouting was ear piercing from the club room they passed that even Victoria paused to watch from the room's window. It was the girl that Reese had been seeing all day.
How the hell do we keep encountering this girl? For someone so small, she moves around so fast.
"Erika, these allegations are too serious." A girl of Chinese Decent stepped forward and pointed a finger at her "We let it slide at first because you are our president, but it has piled up and your alibis have been getting less convincing as days go by."
"But all at once? Gia, I did NOT steal tests from the records room. I did NOT put tacks in Lana Burke's purse. And I most CERTAINLY did NOT start that rumor about her being pregnant either!"
The girl, Gia, gave her a slow clap. "Or maybe you're just doing this to boost your standing since you might just actually lose your position here. Face it, your Daddy's money can't buy you out of this one. "
All of it spiralled too fast. Suddenly, Erika was on top of Gia and pulling her hair.
"Tarantado ka!" She shouted, the language unfamiliar to Reese and Mandy. "I worked my ass off to build this community without my father's help. Don't talk as if I'm just some rich bitch!"
A Japanese student pulled her off. "Stop it! Both of you! Gia, enough!"
"She started it, Azuki!"
"How about this." A Malaysian boy stepped forward. "Until this matter is resolved, Erika is suspended from the Asian Community meetings."
A loud thud to the wall breaks the trio's stupor from what they witnessed.
It was the boy that Erika was talking to earlier. "Show's over."
He was tall, rather pale. His hair was done in a buzzed undercut and he had small clock gear tattoo on spanning over his left arm. 
Victoria practically jumped. "We're so sorry."
She turned to motion the two over and started speeding off into the hall.
The boy aimed an annoyed glare at Reese and Mandy.
But his piercing green eyes met only with what his mind could only describe as tired souls in the irises of the new students.
Reese returned a look, a knowing look, as he gave the boy a once over.
After all, it didn't take much to identify another computer nerd. Not when the boy was clutching a pretty heavy laptop in his left hand.

~X~
"Collin Sanders? Oh you mean our old math teacher. We were told he was transferred somewhere else." Reese expected as much. But he had to try and see if Victoria knew something.
The guide opened the empty faculty room and went over to one of the desks. It was weird seeing the teachers so lax to leave duties to the guide.
"Ah. Here we go. " She returned with two folders and handed it over to the two.
"Neat." Mandy dangled the ID from the folder. "And it looks like our schedules are in here too."
Before they could be dismissed, Victoria stopped them. "I'm sorry, I almost forgot. I have to get your meal cards in the Records room just next door."
Reese observed carefully, watching Victoria's fingers press the password into the room's door.
1583.
This was almost too easy.
Reese knew where he was going first.
Minutes later, Victoria returns with two white cards with their names on it. "Try not to lose these."
Reese and Mandy thanked the tired guide and watched her walk off back to the administration building.
"Say Reese." Mandy looked around. "Don't you think that they're a little too relaxed here? There are no teachers. Barely any security guards. And no one to stop us from just looking around the teachers room."
Reese shook his head. "I took a look around while Victoria was looking for our documents. There are CCTVs almost everywhere and most of the cabinets are locked with a combination lock. Even if we did have the code to say the records room, there was no way we were getting in there without alerting a few people."
At least, if that were normal students trying to sneak around.
They hadn't met Reese.
Mandy had no way of knowing that Reese already noticed that some of the CCTVs were just for show and that he was mentally preparing his way around the building. Certainly, it wouldn't be that hard to find a way to disable or loop the CCTV footage. 
Some security.

~X~
Reese was thankful Scott didn't question that he was almost immediately too eager to go night exploring onto the campus. Even more so that he was more inclined to play Dead by Daylight than join Reese in his mission. Every day he thanks his peerless memory as he made himself a route that would leave very little suspicion on him.
A short trip to the cafeteria for a little chocolate. Sugary Brain food was always important. Leaving the cafeteria, the normal route would be to take the left hall towards the footpath to the dorms.
Truly, it was just a fake out. That left hall opened to a small staircase that lead to the hallway with the computer room. This way did not have a CCTV and the computer room had a dead camera.
It was a matter of finding a way to disable the cameras near the faculty room. Guards were primarily at the first floor and the Security and Records room was unguarded during the weekend night.
The computer room was the perfect place to start.
It shouldn't take long to bypass the admin locks on the school desktops. Hopefully the IT people at the school were bad.
Reese expected to be alone, yet for some reason, someone had already beat him there. For the fourth time today, Erika and her friend are there.
Reese hadn't turned on the lights, but the door did make a lot of noise.
He knew it was them because the already open computer's light beamed at the pair.
"Shit." Erika stood, ready to run. But the boy stops her.
"Hold on." He stands as well, his tall frame coming closer towards Reese. He didn't know what to do. Should he run, or should he stand his ground.
"You're that nosy kid that was with Victoria today."
Reese didn't answer, simply shutting the door behind him. "We just happened to walk by."
"What's he talking about, Paul?"
Paul looked back for a second and returned his attention to Reese. "What are you doing here, new kid? You're not here to snitch on us, are you?"
Reese crossed his arms. "I don't even know who you are. I'm just here to use a computer."
"The Computer Lab is closed."
"Obviously."
Paul laughed and pulled Reese over. "I like you. What's your name?"
"Reese Morrison.""
"Paul! Now's not the time to make friends! Life or death here!"
"Tak nuzhdayushchiysya" Paul muttered under his breath. 
Reese heard it and looked at him in confusion.
"Sorry. I'm half-Russian." He lets go of Reese. "I'm Paul Evanoff and the loud one's Erika Dela Cruz. Anyway, feel free to try using the other computers. But if you're trying to use one with admin privilages, you're going to take quite a bit of time trying to break in."
Reese had expected it and sat next to the pair. But before he could boot a computer, he noticed that the one those two were using was already using Admin controls. "How are you..."
"I'm technically the IT guy. School is bent on placing responsibility on the students." He smirked. "So let's just say that it's gonna take you more than the average time to hack into an admin's account thanks to my security."
Reese weighed his options. If he's dealing with another IT expert, confident enough to tell him outright that hacking the system would take him a while, then what choice did he have.
"Can I use it after you're done?"
Paul laughed, incredulous at this boy's boldness. "Bro, I'm not a model student, but I'm not morally corrupt enough if you think I'd let you snoop around for tests."
"I'm not here to cheat.  I came here looking for something."
Erika groaned. "Look, whatever your crisis is, can it wait? You're interrupting us trying to find answers."
Reese looked over to see what exactly Erika was dealing with.
The colorful school website was something akin to that of Facebook. Of course, students were more inclined to use this site to learn announcements and encourage support of the student body that built the website on HTML. 
On it was the rumor that Erika was being accused of. The admin should have deleted the post by now but Paul had managed to stop and preserve it to try and trace whoever posted it.
It was an anonymous account using Erika's handle. The email used was also a dummy.
"They were extra careful." Paul said.
While Erika practically pulled her hair out, Reese took over and check the site elements.
"Schooch over." Reese tapped away, performing a Cross Site Scripting Attack on the profile and forced control on the account.
While Erika seemed impressed, Paul was still unsure."That's great and all, but it's still a dummy account. We still don't have the information we need." 
"Not necessarily." Reese clicked over the emails. "To open an account at the school website, you need to connect the school email you created with your real account and send them an sms."
The email linked to the account was a ceratin nram@gmail.com.
"It doesn't quite tell us who this is, but if we request a password change, the account's number will display on the confrimation email, yes?"
And Reese does just that. As he said, a number appeared on the confirmation email.
"Let's give it a call, shall we?" Paul dialed the number on his phone.
Erika had to hold her hands to her mouth to not alert who answered.
"Hello?" It was Azuki. The Japanese girl who seemed to be on Erika's side earlier.
Paul hangs up, looking quite disturbed himself. "Uhh... I didn't expect your sweet little secretary to be stabbing your back."
"That little skank!" Erika pulls up her phone. "Oho, when I'm through with her, she's gonna wish-"
Erika gasped as Reese pulls her phone from her. "Don't act carelessly. She's just gonna erase any evidence if you confront her."
She wanted to shout at this stranger who had just abruptly butt into their business. But he did uncover the truth for her.
"And what do you suggest I do?"
"Finding out her motive is one. But what say you get even?"
In the darkness of the computer room, the smirk on Reese's mouth almost seemed evil with the computer light bouncing off of his face.

~X~
It only took them two hours to finish their compilation. After finding Azuki's email, it wasn't hard to get into her Facebook and find out that she'd been conniving with another community member to try and get Erika booted off and place Gia in control. She felt as if Gia's more head strong personality and hands on actions was a better form of leadership than Erika's careful planning. Azuki was also tired of all the important calls and paperwork that Erika entrusted to her. Surprisingly, Gia was not in on this conspiracy. She was simply a bitch. Azuki's petty attitude and extracurricular activities also uncovered a lot of ammunition for Reese and Paul's little surprise.
"She'll never see it coming." Erika grinned, watching as Reese prepared the timer site's little bomb. "I'll be sure to print the rest outside. The only problem we have will be the cameras. There's not enough dead cameras to cover my tracks"
"Leave that to me." Paul typed into the keyboard and opened up the CCTV's app on the school computer. "Those dumbasses at the security room won't know a loop if it hit them over the head. I'll copy this into my computer so I can remote control it from my room."
It was the perfect opportunity. "Paul, is there any way you can loop the footage right now?"
"Why?"
"I need to break into the Records Room."
The boy was new and was already planning on commiting a felony. He shook his head and sighed. Should he trust him? Was he just gonna let shit slide?
"30 minutes." He says. "Get what you need in that time and then explain when you get back."
There was no time for an argument. 30 minutes was enough time. Reese stood and prepared to leave.
Erika stood up. "I'll come with you."
Despite Reese's objections, the girl insisted on following. He was on the clock and he had more important stuff to deal with.
Thankfully, the records room was only two hallways away.
Erika expected another hacking session, but was disappointed to learn that Reese just remembered the code from Victoria. 
"What are we looking for?" She asked, immediately going over random files.
"Anything about Collin Sanders."
Erika looked up, confused. "What do you want with our old Math Teacher?"
Reese remained silent for a few minutes.
He furrowed his eyebrows and grit his teeth. "Revenge. Justice."
The venom was so crisp on his voice. She has never heard someone emit spite with such quiet yet such anger.
She could question him more, but she realized he'd explain to them later when they get back to the computer room.
Three cabinets in, Reese found little of note about his best friend's father.
Surely a math teacher that students still remember should still have data on here.
"Oh!" Erika squealed. "Here's a file on Mister Sanders."
Reese grabbed it with such force that Erika nearly tipped over.
Basic information, lecture plans, meetings, and attendance notes.
There was not a lot of background information on him. But this would have to do.
He hurried over to the copy machine and made copies of the file before promptly returning it to the cabinet.
The two briskly walked back to the computer room with 5 minutes to spare.
Reese never planned on involving other people with his mission. He considered lying to them and say that it was for a prank.
But Reese's determination to go after a teacher that's been gone for a while was just too strong. So he spilled his guts out, letting these strangers in.
"And I won't stop until he pays for what he did."
Understandably, the two were speechless. It almost seemed unbelievable to think that a normal looking Math Teacher could do that to his own son. But the pictures and police reports Reese produced confirmed it. Somehow the school managed to keep it hush hush, but Reese wasn't going to rest until he's found everything that can point him the right direction.
"Wow." Was all Paul could say.
Erika shrugged. "Well, if we're going to look for this guy, we're going to have to start looking for more information."
"What?" Reese backed up. "I can't involve you guys in this. "
"We're already involved. Besides, after what you did for us tonight, we're in debt. And just imagine, a vigilante group like this... Who know's who you could help around here?"
"Help? I'm not exactly going around helping people get revenge."
"Not for free, of course." Erika winked.
"Or at all. I don't want to help people get even."
"Are you sure about that?" Paul asked. "Cause I saw the look in your eyes when you helped Erika. It was borderline twisted."
Reese paused, contemplating the situation. He couldn't deny what Paul said even when he tried to. He found tremendous satisfaction upon helping Erika get even. "What would we even name ourselves?"
The trio sat and think. It was Erika that came up with the first name. "Thanos Venge!"
"What? That sounds so lame." Paul and Reese collectively graoned.
"No, it's cute and it's final."
"Don't we have a say in this?"
"I already bought the domain name."
That night, Thanos Venge emerged from the shadows. A small name that started lurking around the prestigious Eastbrick Academy. Though Reese and Paul swore they would change it at some point, they never did come up with something else. None of them ever thought that they would start the fires of something big.

~X~
The Monday morning was never pleasant for most students. It was the end of the weekend. The fun killer.
But for Azuki Sakamoto, it was the beginning of her end.
She was ruined.
The perfect image of a gentle and helpful student. Shattered.
Leaks of her conversations about overthrowing Erika spread like wildfire. Not only that, captures of her commiting small crimes that she tried to pin on Erika surfaced.
Even her little ponzi scam she had started was exposed.
Posters of her smoking around bars and pickpocketing strangers in her area were hung up. No one could find who did it since it was never caught on camera.
Gia was stunned, her mouth agape as she turned to the Asian Community's cherished Secretary.
"It's a fucking lie!" Azuki's tears made her mascara run through her cheeks.
"Get out." She wasn't just kicked out of the Asian Community. She was expelled almost immediately to preserve the campus' image.
Reese briefly wondered if they should have kept it light and get her in smaller trouble before he realized that the girl was slowly pinning each of her violations and crimes on Erika. Even with her money, Erika would have most likely been unable to save her reputation and spot at the school.
At the bottom of the posts were signed Thanos Venge. A last minute touch up by Paul. 
Students clamored at this mystery of Thanos' identity.
"'Revenge is Sweet. Almost as Sweet as Cupcakes.'" Mandy read out loud from one of the posters. "There's a QR code to a site that says it's under construction."
She turned to her friend, looking at him with incredible suspicion. "Did you stick your nose somewhere it didn't belong again?"
"Mandy, we've been here for 3 days. Do you think I have the time and energy to cause this much damage?"
"I can believe it." She teased. Still, she didn't doubt that Reese could pull something like this if given the resources. But would he really go through the effort to make such a big splash like that? She knew he was looking for Mister Sanders. This would be too much time away from his search. And so she put it at the backburner of her mind. Her friend couldn't possibly engineer this kind of crap. Could he?


Author Notes:
Thank you for reading the newest chapter of Thanos Venge.
This story has been on development hell for months and it took me time to actually sit down and force myself to finish it.
I admit that it's long and kind of a slow start, but I hope to build the story from here and proceed without a hitch.
This is the true start of the newly reborn Thanos Venge.
-MaxAxil