Summer looked up at the well polished sign marking her destination with mixed feelings. After living as Golden Reign for two years, it almost felt as if the club was named after her, but she knew it had been around far longer than she had been a hero. She was now confident that MysteriousMaskz had chosen it because of his twisted sense of humor.

Still, it made her wonder why MysteriousMaskz would need her help if he could meet her at somewhere like the Golden Club with ease. Unless, of course, it wasn’t money that he was after. The problem was, Summer had no idea what he was after, and that thought made her more and more nervous as she approached the club.

Just like he had said, she had no problems entering the club, and once inside she was guided right over to a private room where a young man was waiting for her. He looked a lot more ordinary than Summer had expected, though perhaps that was a bit rude. All he had on him was a casual tee, shorts, and a laptop bag. Nothing that looked like it would let him into an exclusive club, unless his riches were hidden in the shoes she could not see.

The young man seemed to recognize her immediately, and gave her a welcoming smile. “Summer, you came,” he welcomed, and pulled out a chair.

Summer sat down, feeling the weight of what she was doing really start to sink in. Once the employee left his attitude changed to a more serious one.

“I needed to meet you in person to get some answers from you,” he told her, “I can’t help you find Shadow Phoenix until I am sure you mean him no harm.”

“I already told you, I need to meet him to know the truth. I need answers,” Summer replied, “You are MysteriousMaskz. Surely you understand.”

“When we meet in person, call me Ned,” he said, wincing at his online handle, “And I understand wanting answers, but I need to know what you intend to do once you have them.”

This caught Summer by surprise. What would she do once she knew? “I… don’t know,” she admitted, “If everything really was a lie then everything I did to him makes me the villain, just like you said.”

Ned observed her for a moment before nodding. “I will trust you, but getting him to show himself won’t be easy. You’ll need to step up quite a bit to make things happen.”

“What kinds of things?”

Ned smiled. “If we want answers, we need to stir the pot, and that pot is SI,” he answered, “If he isn’t really a villain, he is definitely connected to them.”

This was going in a direction Summer didn’t like, but she asked just in case. “How would I do that?”

“Don’t you want to be a real hero?”

Again, she was surprised. She had expected him to force her to use her connections to SI and put Ashton in danger, but this was a whole new angle.

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“I can’t. My powers are pathetic. I wouldn’t stand a chance against anyone else,” she immediately denied.

“How do you know? Have you tried? Did you ever think that SI might be lying to you as well?” Ned pressed.

She had tried plenty, but only before her powers were retested. She hadn’t bothered to try using her power in any other way because she hadn’t needed to. “Can you give me some time to think about it?”

“Of course,” Ned agreed, “I’ll set the stage for you, but I will leave it up to you if you take it.”

“How do I contact you?” Summer asked.

“The same way you did before,” Ned told her, “It’s not good to have too many forms of communication in case SI looks into you.”

This was really starting to sound like something illegal. Was it too late to back out? Ned had said it was fine not to take the stage. There was one major part of the plan that Summer didn’t understand as well.

“What if we do all this, and I put myself at risk, and SI gets rid of me before Shadow Phoenix can do anything.”

“They won’t,” Ned assured, “They can’t stop you from being a real hero without denying everything they have told us for years and proving they are liars. SI will have no choice but to support you from behind the scenes.”

“What does that have to do with Shadow Pheonix?”

“If my theory is right, he is the only one they can send to rescue you. Heroes are incompetent, and the other villains are still villains. Shadow Pheonix quit being a villain.”

“That doesn’t mean he can just be a hero.”

“Perhaps not, but he still isn’t a villain,” Ned pointed out.

He seemed very set in his ideas, but Summer supposed she should have known that. If nothing else, this gave her a lot to think about. She took a breath and tried to think of any other questions she needed to ask in person.

“If I was to make a statement and become a real hero, how should I make it?” she asked.

“Watch SI,” Ned advised, “After everything that has happened, I am certain someone is going to take it out on them. If you stop an attack on SI, they can’t afford to turn against you.”

All of her father’s warnings about the danger of hero work flooded her mind. Whatever she had done the last two years was just a cozy dream. This felt real. This felt different. This felt dangerous.

“Thank you for helping me,” Summer said, deciding it was best to stay on Ned’s good side just in case. Every move felt like the wrong choice, “I should leave. We need to limit contact as much as possible.”

“That’s definitely a good idea,” Ned agreed.

Shady! Everything was so shady! Summer quickly left before Ned could change his mind or she got dragged into anything else. The moment she made it back to her car she whipped out her phone and drafted a somewhat panicked text to Ashton before thinking better of it and deleting it before it sent.

What should she do? Should she wait to see what Ned did? Should she confess everything to Ashton and hide like a coward? What if this was her chance to really become a hero? What if Ned was just using her dream to manipulate her? She hated secrets. This was why she had been so excited to chat with Ashton, but now she had a secret she had to keep, even from him.

It was time for her to make a decision. If she went through with this and chased Shadow Phoenix, she could be ruining everything. Her relationship with Ashton, the trust of her parents, and possibly even her future. On the other hand, if she ignored this opportunity she might regret it forever.

The entire drive home, Summer was torn between the two options, but once she pulled into the driveway, her decision was made. She couldn’t throw everything away for this, but she didn’t have to give up on finding Shadow Phoenix. She just had to ignore Ned’s plan.

Reassured by her decision, Summer sent a different, calmer text to Ashton.

“You should be careful. There are a bunch of creeps taking advantage of the drama around SI.”

Even though it was more of a warning for Ashton, it felt good to be able to hint at what had happened. The moment things went bad, Summer was ready to throw Ned under the bus, but she somehow doubted that was even his real name.

A text came back from Ashton.

“You should be careful too. If anyone finds out you are Golden Reign you might get targeted.”

A chill went down her spine at that text. Summer hadn’t even considered her own reputation if she appeared in public. If all of those hate comments came from real people, how would those people react when she reappeared? She was glad she had decided against Ned’s plan, and silently thanked Ashton for his warning.