It turned out her father had kept all his old textbooks from college, along with a lot of other important business materials and online classes. To start, he gave Summer access to all of these things. It was a bit overwhelming but she had gotten what she had asked for. Now she had to put in the effort to match.

After binging a few online lessons, Summer felt like her brain was mush. Needing some sort of distraction that did not involve immediately bothering Ashton, Summer decided to check her email. It was something she had not done since she had met Ned, or MysteriousMaskz, or whatever his real name was. She was still a bit nervous about it.

Surprisingly, there was nothing from him in there, but there were quite a few other emails. There were the usual ads, updates from subscriptions she didn’t remember signing up for, and updates for things she did sign up for but habitually ignored. Hidden amongst all of these was one titled ‘A Special Invitation’ from theherosupportgrouphr. The address even had its own site ending with ‘org’. It seemed pretty official.

Hoping it wasn’t some kind of scam, Summer clicked on it. The email was overly customized with a light brown background and golden sparkling letters that had a shimmer animation every few seconds. Not only was it tacky, it was incredibly difficult to read. She quickly figured out why the text was colored that way.

“We hereby extend an invitation to the new Hero Support Group Society to the unfortunate abandoned hero, Golden Reign. May this message remind you of the sparkling life you were forced to leave behind.”

Was this meant to support her or make her angry? They couldn’t even seem to decide if they were a group or a society. At the very least she should finish the email to find out if they were a threat. They did have her email, after all.

“Our goal is to provide heroes burned by SI a safe place to tell their story. Not only will you feel psychologically relieved, or recordings will keep greedy reporters off your back. If you would like to know more, show up to our now weekly meetings on Wednesdays at Noon.”

Below was a location for the meetings and a picture of a circle of chairs filled with people wearing identical black masks. Noon seemed like a terrible time, especially on a Wednesday. Why would she go directly there to find out more, as well? It seemed a lot like a trap set by the very reporters they claimed to protect against.

Summer closed her email and did a quick search on the group society. A certain video popped up in the links of almost every result. It looked to be some kind of interview. Whatever it was would likely give her more answers than some vague post picked up by the search engine.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The video began by the masked interviewee introducing themselves as an ex-hero from SI. They refused to state which one, for privacy reasons, but they did tell a very detailed story. They had been one of those who had believed in SI until the very end. Betrayed, they went searching and found a new hero agency, Heroix.

Heroix was different. The work was harder, the job more dangerous, and the pay was less. However, they knew that this time they were making a real difference. They did warn that this was not the answer for everyone, and brought up a contract they had to sign in order to join. The contract was binding, and it could mean their lives if things went wrong.

Summer stopped the video for a second to process this information. What was going on? A new hero agency? A dangerous one with no real safety or benefits from the sounds of things. Yet, this interview was bound to bring people flocking despite the warning. People just like she had been. After collecting herself, Summer unpaused the video.

The topic of Heroix ended, and the interview switched to the ex-hero’s opinion on those who played the roles of villains at SI.

“Actually, I met up with my villain,” the hero admitted, “We talked things over and I realized we were both victims in all of this. Now, I would even say my villain is my best friend. We understand each other better than anyone else could.”

Summer felt a pang as she recalled her brief meeting with Shadow Phoenix when he had once again declared his intention to disappear. She had decided to give up on searching for him, but every now and then the mystery would come back to her mind and bother her.

“Would you recommend other heroes join this support group?”

“Absolutely! In times like these we need each other to lean on. Who can understand what we went through besides fellow heroes like ourselves? All of us were forced to live a lie by SI.”

It still sounded a lot like a trap, but Summer could understand where they were coming from. If she didn’t have Ashton she may have been desperate to join herself. Even with Ashton, since he was so busy, she found herself slightly tempted. She probably would have been more tempted if it weren’t for the wording of that email.

As much as she had resolved herself not to bother Ashton, Summer felt this was something he needed to know. She took a screenshot of the email, for starters, and sent it along with a message of her own.

“I just got this invitation. Do you think my identity will be leaked?”

She would ask about her greatest concern first. How had they gotten her personal email? DId they have connections with Maskz? Or was all of her personal information compromised?

“I will look into it,” Ashton promised in reply, “I heard about the interview they uploaded.”

He heard about it? That probably meant he hadn’t seen it. His new opportunity wasn’t for Heroix, was it? But he wasn’t a hero. Why would they recruit Ashton? Instead of going down a path of endless fretting, Summer decided to ask.

“Your opportunity has nothing to do with Heroix, right?”

“It does not,” Ashton assured, “It is not SuperView either.”

SuperView? There was another one? How did Ashton figure this out so quickly? Just who was his opportunity with? She was too nervous to ask outright, but Ashton told her before she could.

“Thanks to your advice the negotiation went well. I will be starting my trial period at Gale Research soon.”

Gale Research?! No wonder he knew about all of the new hero agencies! Gale Research provided the serums used to restrain powers. How had Ashton gotten himself recruited by a place like that? Were they that desperate for office workers?

“You’re welcome,” Summer sent instead, making sure to add a little smiley face at the end. She knew this was good for him, but she couldn’t help but feel left behind. If only hero power was actually useful. Even if it had evolved she could still only play with a little light.