U18 is a team of young heroes who live underground at an old Heatherfield train station and fight for justice. U18's name originated by how many feet underground they live.[1]
Members
- Ira: Technical advisor, in charge of all U18 operations. Lives underground permanently.[1]
- Stephen: It's unknown what task he has in U18
- Marcus: Part of the surveillance team. Prefers to maintain secrecy of U18 and keep their memberships exclusive.[1]
- Bob: Part of the surveillance team. Prides himself on doing "hero's work" by helping the people on upper ground.[1] Very flirtatious (though not very charming and implied to be a less-then-average student at school.[2]
- Lora: Maintains the electrical wires and fights off rats who chew on them. Has a pet mouse named Maus.[1] A graduate with a degree in physics who does not believe in magic.[2]
- Olaf: Maintains the water pipes, though mostly cleaning which leaves him very filthy. He's used to stinky places in the underground, but there are some locations too putrid even for him to visit.[1]
Unofficial members
- Zoe: Ira's friend. Does field work about Heatherfield's water pipe system for her degree paper at Technics. She taught Ira how to raise the water pressure in certain locations of Heatherfield, aiding his vigilante.[1]
- Irma Lair: Stephen's girlfriend and the member of W.I.T.C.H. most adamant to go to the group for help, mainly because she can hang out with her boyfriend there
- Taranee Cook: appreciates U18's cause and technology[3], but not fond of Bob's flirting.[1]
- Cornelia Hale: finds the boys in U18 annoying as they try to "escort" W.I.T.C.H. through the underground, thinking them too weak to go alone. Frightened by *Lora's mouse pet.[1]
- Hay Lin: thinks the boys in U18 cute for trying to be chivalrous.[1]
- Will Vandom: Least to frequent U18.
Locations
- Entry Way: the entrance into the train station, cut off from the rest of the tunnels by metals doors. You can enter multiple points of the hideout through one hallway, but each door you can't open from the outside.[1]
- Shower unit: supposedly uses "borrowed" water from the underground pipe system.[1]
- Ira's living quarters: Ira has a separated living area from the other members, supposedly because he is their leader. Includes his bed, television, armchair, dinning table, and mini fridge.[1]
- Communal living area: built in the train depot around the escalators. Several beds are located here, but each is given individual space for belongings and furniture.[1]
- Main computer terminal: connects to their surveillance systems across Heatherfield. Can also record images for later watching.[1] Holds an expert security system to reveal and block prohibited signals.[2]
- Meeting room: contains a big table in front of a projected map of the entire underground. Map can be downloaded onto a personal device for convenience.[1]
- The further tunnels: uncharted territory for U18, due to unpleasant smells.[1]
Plot
Secret past
It isn't clear when this organization was founded or by whom, though it is implied there have been many generations of U18 members throughout the years.[1]
Decades ago, a Heatherfield train station was abandoned when discovered to have been built overtop a mine, leading tracks to drop 10 meters beneath the ground. Since then, the station was abandoned but members of U18 moved into the station and made it their base of operations. Even when Heatherfield officially sealed off the entrances 15 years prior, they still managed to find their way in and continued their underground city. It's implied that there are other U18 bases in the underground, though only the base at the old train station is shown. The current group is said to be huge, with one hundred members living in the train station base. Only teenaged members are seen, so it's unknown if this is a youths-only organization.[1]
Some of the members are stated to live in the U18 base permanently (such as Ira) while others only visit (like Stephen). They enjoy living in the underground as everything in Heatherfield runs through pipes and wires which they can access including internet cables, phone networks, TV cables, electric wires, gas pipes, and water pipes. U18 borrows from these but as a way to pay back their "dues", perform good deeds for the upper world. Ira, Marcus, and Bob do surveillance to stop crime; Olaf cleans and maintains water pipes; and Lora takes care of electric wires.[1]
Arc 7: New Power
In recent months, the members noticed weird things going on in the underground (Dark Mother's activities) including strange movements and glowing eyes.[1]
On one particular day, Ira accidentally connected their computer to a bank's security system right as the bank was being robbed. He used all nearby surveillance cameras to follow the crooks, tracking them through the city while activating traffic lights to be red, slowing them down. Once he found an opportunity, Ira used remote commands to raise the water pressure in a nearby fire hydrant, dousing the crooks and stopping them. Meanwhile, Ira also set off the alarms in all nearby houses, causing police to flock to the scene and finally arrest the criminals.[1]
A week following this incident, while hanging out on a Saturday morning, Bob was playing music too loudly, sparking complaints from Marcus. This racket eventually attracted "trespassers" and while Stephen peaked to see them, he recognized one as his crush, Irma Lair, and her friends whom he was familiar with. At Bob's insistence, Stephen opened the door to greet them to U18, though this aggravated Marcus who preferred to keep their organization secret. Bob was slightly annoyed that Stephen called him "smaller" than Marcus (which he is) but immediately became interested in their "good looking" visitors". Stephen scolded Marcus that W.I.T.C.H. could be trusted, reminding him they should expand the U18 group, though Marcus was still not happy.[1]
Ignoring him, Stephen and Bob gave the girls a tour around their headquarters, explaining their mission. They ran across Ira in his shower, entertaining W.I.T.C.H. as his expense, then had him play the video of the stopping the bank robbery to showcase their vigilante operations. Following this, Olaf and Lora also came up to greet the newcomers, happy to get new members. Marcus was still not pleased about W.I.T.C.H. walking through their territory and the girls mentioned they had been underground a lot lately, leading Bob and Lora to comment on the strange goings on they had noticed. With introductions complete, Marcus was still on the fence about admitting them until Bob pointed out Stephen and Irma having a tender moment, revealing the two were in a relationship. It became obvious W.I.T.C.H. would not be removed and Marcus left the matter alone after that.[1]
In the meeting room, Stephen asked W.I.T.C.H. what they were searching for, but the girls couldn't explain it (they wanted to find the root of Irma's power). Bob gave Taranee his electronic notebook with a map of the underground; she appreciated the gift, but not his attempts to flirt with her afterwards. W.I.T.C.H. was adamant about looking for their "mystery" alone but Stephen wouldn't allow this, thus he and Bob went along with them as "protection".[1]
The journey led them farther through the tunnels then they had ever been before, which worried the boys. Part ways in, Cornelia suddenly became too afraid to continue (this was just an act), so the boys had the girls stay back while they went ahead alone. Stephen assured Irma all would be okay while Bob tried to get a farewell kiss from Taranee, which she playfully deflected. Stephen and Bob took the map and carried on the trip alone, to find the "mystery" that W.I.T.C.H. were looking for without even knowing what that was.[1]
The boys searched the underground but after finding nothing noteworthy, they returned to where they'd left W.I.T.C.H., only to find the girls gone (they'd snuck off without them). U18 searched for them for hours but the girls found their way back on their own, not explaining where they'd been. Stephen and Irma had a heartfelt reunion in which she revealed to have found the ring he'd given her, lost years ago.[1] W.I.T.C.H. were allowed to return to U18 whenever they pleased.
When a tornado threatened Heatherfield, W.I.T.C.H. turned off the city's power to lessen the impact, though Dark Mother immediately turned it back on. It's unknown how this power cut effected U18 or if they suffered any damage from the tornado.[4]
During the winter, W.I.T.C.H. made plans to visit U18 which Irma was especially happy about. Will decided not to go, so the rest went without her. On their arrival, Irma gave Stephen an enthusiastic greeting which he returned. The following day, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin returned to U18 with a problem: Will had mysteriously vanished and they hoped their surveillance network could find her. However, the reason for this was top secret with Irma asking Stephen to trust her. They agreed to help and Marcus was in charge of the search (he accidentally showed Ira sleeping through one of the cameras) and found a visual of Matt Olsen tracking Will from afar. The girls left to confront Matt on their own, hoping he would know where Will was. The four girls returned later to tell them they'd found Will safe and sound.[3]
When an unknown threat (Dark Mother) hacked into Heatherfield’s systems, U18 was protected by their own security systems, though still had a big mess to deal with. W.I.T.C.H. came to them to see the catastrophes popping up around Heatherfield and Ira was confused by the insistence of the attacker to breech their system, to the point of overheating their equipment. Lora tried her best to control the circuits but knew her efforts wouldn't hold for long. Bob, concerned about this, admit that he might flee to the surface, though Cornelia told him it was worse up top. This proved true as from their screens, they could see gas leaks in critical points from over-pressurizing. W.I.T.C.H. readied to leave the base (to stop Dark Mother) but Stephen pulled Irma aside, certain she knew the real cause of these disasters. Irma revealed to him her magic an he promised to support her, though both kept this a secret from their teams.[2]
Stephen returned to the group with only Ira having noticed he'd left. Lora grew frustrated trying to manage all of the electricity, threatening revenge on the person responsible which frightened Bob. Soon, their electrical network was completely out of control, leaving them to wait out the attack blind. A full earthquake threatened to crumble the train station and Bob began to panic, wishing he'd stayed at home studying. Loran teased him for this as well as his promises to be a model student if he got out alive, which she declared she'd remember for later. Stephen was more worried about Irma, asking Ira if he could see W.I.T.C.H., but was told all of their surveillance cameras were surely broken by now. Ira hoped the girls had remained underground where it was fairly safe compared to the danger area in ground-level Heatherfield.[2]
The chaos eventually ceased with no explanation of what had caused it, leaving Heatherfield a disaster zone. It isn't reveled how badly damage U18's base and operation systems were, or what the damages meant for those who live there permanently.[2]
U18 is never seen or mentioned again, though Stephen continued to date Irma until their off-screen break up.[5]