Had to keep this one simple because I am: under the weather. HEY! You can find the Johnny + Ed + Dimitri pin set RIGHT HERE! We're more than halfway to getting the pins made with only EIGHT DAYS LEFT! Consider picking up a set for yourself and helping the campaign succeed! Thank you!!

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[Transcript]

        Cody’s phone flashed in the dark of the Detention Fortress. Alone upon the shadowy precipice of a far-flung rampart, the only place where he could get a fleeting signal, Cody sent the latest text in a lengthy and top-secret correspondence.

        Good, he wrote. Send anything you find. I need leverage. Blackmail. Any weakness I can use to bring that hag DuNacht to heel.

        A special ringtone only Cody’s batlike ears could hear chimed back in swift reply.

        And if this inquiry would compromise my current operation? the new text read. There was no name from Cody’s contacts at the conversation’s apex. No name... only a cipher with no worth at all. No prying eyes would ever think to ascribe any value to the number Cody called to get results.

        I trust that you, of all my officers, are capable of executing two commands at once.

        Cody pocketed his phone without waiting for an answer, knowing that the next string of alerts would be emojis of assent: a salute, a bowing man, perhaps a ninja or detective. He could count on the obedience of the Student Council spy he had deployed with almost as much confidence as his father must have felt when giving Cody orders he could not refuse.

        Cody sighed and stared into the inky moat below, wishing on the false stars it reflected: the gleaming speartips of stalactites on the ceiling. He wished for Fauxbia’s demise, and pondered if his best bet was his father’s intervention. He wished for freedom and to run away beneath tonight’s full moon, to find his mother and to prove that he was strong enough to stay and be a monster by her side. He wished for normalcy again—to be a happy, harmless lie—and hoped beyond all else that Jeff would dream in blissful ignorance for just a little longer.

        “Nice perch ya got here, bub,” a scratchy voice purred from behind him, interrupting Cody’s melancholy reverie. “This cage’s catbird seat got room for two?”

        “...No,” came the Student Council President’s cold reply. Cody glowered back at the empty space where he could hear the Sphinx of Crime clink to a stop.

        “You sure? I think I’d fit right in crouched on a bastion like this. Always been above it all, hardheaded, and a hunky punk—ain’t much more you can ask for in a gargoyle. Heh heh heh.” The Sphinx of Crime let out a long and languid laugh, a smoky wheeze that slowly rolled in like a fog. “Then again... I spout a lotta gutter bilge, but I won’t carry water for a church or bank or any other fancy friggin’ mansion. I’d sooner spit straight on them palace walls than sling mud at the streets I’m lookin’ down on from a penthouse.”

        “Feel free to plummet to your preferred elevation, then,” Cody replied, and threw his cape out in a flourish as he left to march the walls in steely solitude.

        The sound of a swishing ball and chain, however, continued to drag in his wake.

        “But hey, this ’goyle ain’t quite set in stone just yet. Never been the type to stick with principles when there’s a better scheme to serve. Heh heh heh. Wouldn’t mind gettin’ in on the ground floor of a vampire lair...”
        
        “You’re not qualified. Gargoyles sit in silence,” Cody grumbled, disguising his discomfort and surprise with just how much this spirit seemed to know about him. “And they have wings.” 
        
        “Heyyy, you remembered that I’m flightless! Way to listen to my woes, boss,” the Sphinx of Crime grinned. She swaggered along beside Cody, undeterred by his disinterest in her company. “Guess listenin’ is all you really can do, huh? Pity you can’t see my winnin’ smile... but it’s nice to know my gripes fell on retentive ears for once.” The sphinx’s grin grew wider still. “It’s only fair a dame returns the favor... and it just so happens I’m a pretty decent listener myself. Whaddaya say? Got somethin’ locked up in that chest of yours you’re itchin’ to get off it? Judgin’ by your broodin’, bub, I’d say your heavy heart’s not free to flutter...”

        Cody stopped where he stood and shot the sphinx a lethal look.

        “Go away,” he snapped. “I was perfectly content until you barged into my solitude.”

        “Heh heh. You don’t gotta lie, y’know,” the Sphinx of Crime chuckled. “My brother’s outta range... and even if he weren’t,” laughed the spirit, “nobody’s gotta play by ANY rules when I’m around.” The spirit’s green eyes shone with a mischievous light. “You’ve seen that trick in action, Mr. President. Remember?”

        Gears turned in Cody’s head. What were the limits of this spirit’s strange ability?

        “...Of course, if you REALLY want me gone, bub, I can head back to my cell.” The Sphinx of Crime clinked a chain towards the prison yard below. “Can’t guarantee things won’t get outta hand, though, without my brother there to ruin the riot. Guess you didn’t see him go down, did ya? Heh heh heh.”

        Cody’s thumb unsheathed the first inch of his cane sword.

        “What do you think you’re going to gain by threatening me?”

        “That’s my line, pal!” laughed the sphinx. “What, you don’t want me to cause a ruckus? You still wanna play enforcer for the law that’s got you locked up in your own dang Fortress, bub?”

        “I’m the Student Council President,” Cody shot back in frustration. “No one locks me up,” he lied. “I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.”

        “Sure, boss. Like a rat in a maze. You’re the big cheese at the heart of it all, too, so ya might as well stay put!” the Sphinx of Crime chuckled. “Right where the mouser wants ya... until ya try to make a move, and then they’ll POUNCE.” The sphinx’s gold tooth glistened in the darkness. “No, no, not ME. I’m talkin’ ’bout that bobcat over there.”

        Cody followed her voice to Bobblehead, whose hungry eyes stared straight back from the opposite wall of the Detention Fortress.

        “Surveilin’ the prisoners, just like the old witch ordered,” laughed the Sphinx of Crime. “Sure would be a shame if somethin’ arrested that goon’s rapt attention... maybe even occupied a certain withered warden, too. You can get away with all sortsa crimes under cover of CHAOS, bub. Just sayin’...”

        “...Forget it. Somebody could get hurt,” Cody muttered, addressing himself more than the spirit. Temptation whispered at his racing mind’s periphery.

        “Like you care,” the Sphinx of Crime scoffed.

        The President’s only answer was silence... and the predatory irises that shone within the shadows of his mask.

        “You do all sortsa heartless stuff while playin’ puppet for your old man and his old maids, don’tcha... Junior Jones?” The sphinx flopped down with a thump and the clinking of chains to lick her fur, seemingly unfettered by her golden cone stockade. “Way I sees it, if I prove I can help you break whatever bonds, whatever stalemate, strings, and curfew’s got your hands tied, little man, and you REFUSE... then what is it that’s MISSIN’, huh, if not the opportunity? An excuse? The backbone to pick your own battles, kid? C’mon, I wanna know!”

        Cody’s gloved fist tightened on his cane.

        “...Your old man broke the rules before he wrote ’em, kid,” the cunning Sphinx of Crime sneered up at Cody. “He broke his betters. Broke the WORLD.” The sphinx purred as she stretched out on the stones at Cody’s feet. “It’s always gonna be his, little man... until ya break the mold he made for you yourself.”

        “...What exactly is it that you’re offering?” asked Cody. “What is it that you’re after in return?”

        The sphinx rolled back to her manacled feet. Both questions had one answer, which she purred out with a grin:

        “A partner in crime, of course! Heh heh heh heh...”