Kingston braced himself as he gently pulled his car off the road and onto a grassy area, killing the lights and putting it in park. Carefully, he stepped out, shutting the door as silently as he could. Despite the need for stealth, he still took a moment to stretch out his aching back, letting out a quiet groan.

The scenic drive from Ascension to Maybell was well over four hours, and there was no guarantee the results would be worth the trip. Calling his plan a long shot would’ve been putting it politely. Insane was more like it, dangerous was also quite apt.

However, considering he lied to his wife and said he’d have to work late, he was only going to get one shot at this. There was no backing down now.

If I’m lucky, I can catch the final period of Jill’s game, he thought, spurring him to set off. If I’m not killed, anyway.

Alone on the far western edge of the town, hidden by a setting sun and evergreens that lined the long, winding concrete driveway, Kingston crouched, exacerbating his sore lower back, and stalked towards the multi-million dollar mountain home in front of him. The home stood in stark contrast to the rest of the mostly impoverished town, lined with walls of grass and a thin blanket of white snow over what he guessed would’ve been a perfectly manicured yard, a rarity in a place where it hardly rained. There were no cars in the driveway, but as he moved closer Kingston noticed there was one lone light in the upstairs, which sent his heart rate spiking.

Maybe I didn’t make the trip for nothing, he thought, hope rising in his chest. Continuing forward, Kingston crept around the back of the home, peeking over the well-maintained wooden fence.

The home, situated on a slope, opened up to the wide, dry valley below, the odd sight bringing a wide smile to Kingston’s face. Where there should’ve been fresh snow, there was, instead, dozens of boulders dotting the landscape.

“Found you,” he said.

“Did you now?” a woman’s voice rang out. Kingston whipped around, his heart racing. Wearing a green, oversized Lavender Mountain hoodie and black, ripped jeans, the woman stood in front of him, arms folded tight across her chest. He tried to project confidence, but suddenly Kingston felt vulnerable, acutely aware of how isolated they were, miles away from the next house far down the road.

“I’m guessing you’re not the owner,” she said, “or else you would’ve parked in the driveway instead of poking around the backyard.”

“Astute,” Kingston confirmed, nodding. “And I’m guessing you’re the one who redecorated that valley?”

She was silent, but clenched her jaw tightly. Kingston smiled. Found her.

“You kill any cows with those things? What are there, something like ten times as many cows as people here? I’d imagine you’d have to have hit one by now, right?”

“Careful,” she warned him, looking entirely unamused. “There’s been rockslides in the area lately.”

Kingston gestured with his arms out. “On top of this hill, with the mountains miles away? It hasn’t rained in a month.”

She tilted her head, taking a few slow, confident steps towards Kingston, who suddenly felt like a mouse watching a viper close in. “All these boulders came from somewhere, and I just wonder what would happen if one of them ended up on top of your car,” she told him, her voice even. She stopped, pausing to watch the sun set, letting the silence of the vale below set in. Kingston swallowed hard. “It’s getting awfully dark out, and I’ve found there’s very little in the way of people all the way out here. How would you get home? Wouldn’t your family wonder what you’re doing all the way out here, alone?”

The smile fell from Kingston's face as he shifted uncomfortably as the evening slowly descended into blue dusk. He shivered, gesturing towards the house. “Right to it, then. Okay. Think we can take this inside? Sun’s going down, and I didn’t bring any gloves.”

He was met with silence. Sighing, he gestured for her to ask away.

“Who are you?”

“Kingston Roy, Amory’s right hand and fixer of Apex’s many mistakes.”

“How did you find me?”

He smiled widely. “Using the old Roy family special: a little bit of ingenuity mixed with a little bit of luck.”

“Is now really the time to get cute?”

“Probably not. After the Surge, Apex was required to place seismometers along the path the Surge was thought to have traveled on its way to Ascension. About a month ago, while I was on watch in the lab, I noticed a few patches of activity near Maybell, small enough to not set off any alarms, but large enough to register. Normally, this wouldn’t be anything we’d pick up on, but the concentration of the activity…surprised me. I would’ve brushed it off, but after a few weeks of activity in the same exact area, I realized…it couldn’t be a coincidence. Plus, over time, the readings began to increase in size and severity. "You,” he pointed to her now, “were very close to ringing a bell that would’ve brought the entirety of Apex’s field team, plus a low-level Protector or two, all the way out here to find what was causing this.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Now it was her turn to shift uncomfortably.

Kingston, momentarily, wondered what she might’ve done in the face of Apex’s overwhelming force bearing down on her hideout. Who, exactly, was he dealing with here? He couldn’t use a Protector for his plan, and he needed a wildcard.

“No one drives four hours out of their way to do someone a favor without asking something in return,” she told him. “So, what do you want with me?”

Kingston clicked his tongue, pacing as he remembered.

“I want,” he told her, “what you want.”

She raised an eyebrow, regarding him coolly. “Which is?”

“The Protectors Ascension has, the ones Amory employs, have no vision. They are content to keep the status quo, content to follow orders, have a flashy battle, and then go home. The biggest problem facing Ascension? Despite what Amory tells everyone, it’s not the Altered. Those guys couldn’t organize their way out of wet paper bag if you gave them knife powers, which one of them literally has!”

“Get to the point.”

Kingston narrowed his gaze, training it on the woman in front of him. “Right now, the city needs someone better, but Protectors are…in limited supply. So, I tried to make my own.”

“It was you, then?” she asked, surprised, taking a tentative step forward. “You’re the one who sent out the breach point locations?”

“Guilty,” he smiled. “Some were guesses based on data that wasn’t too promising, but I knew I just needed one success. The people that stuck with it, the people that kept searching, those people would have drive, initiative. You, I believe, are the success this city needs if it wants to survive.”

“And why do you think that’s me?”

Kingston gestured to the valley, covered with evidence of her practice and growing control. “Usually, when people get powers, they run straight to Apex, trying to establish themselves as a Protector. We only let the strongest in, mostly to ensure we can control them, and cut the weaker ones loose. Failing that, people try to strike out with one of the roving bands of Altered who play outlaws, hoping to…rob a bank, or whatever it is they do all day. You, though, are different. You stayed away, training yourself, and you clammed up the moment I mentioned Apex. You’re not like them, you do not want them, and you’re strong, powerful enough to help me fix what’s wrong with Ascension.”

She scoffed. Her eyes locked in on the mountains in the distance. Holding her palm up, her face narrowed in concentration. She flicked her wrist and ripped a boulder from the mountain, tossed it into the sky. Kingston gasped as it landed on top of another boulder, cracking it in two.

“Amazing,” he breathed.

“It’s still not enough,” her gaze shifted to the snow in front of her. “I should’ve known. I put myself through the pain of gaining powers, but mine aren’t like hers. Titan. Nobody’s are. It never will be enough. She can’t be hurt, not even by me.”

Kingston couldn’t help but grin. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“What?”

“You know, after the Surge, I was devouring the news, like everyone else was. But, nearly lost in the shuffle of people gaining powers, I caught a story: two women were hiking on the night of the Surge. When it hit, the mountain underneath them ruptured, throwing them both off the side. I believe that was you and-”

“Stop,” she growled, thunder again rolling in the distance.

Kingston took a careful step back, his hands up. “You’re not the only one with family in Ascension. For the past year, I’ve woken up almost every morning wondering if today was the day that the dam breaks and the radiation comes flooding through the city, washing over everything in its path, devouring it. But what if we could save our families instead? What if we knew exactly when the dam would break, because we set the dynamite.”

“Titan would never allow it,” she shook her head dismissively.

The smile returned to Kingston’s eyes. “Did you really think I’d drive all the way out here, and miss my daughter’s hockey game, without having a plan for that?”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you know?”

“She can bleed,” Kingston told her, folding his arms. “I’ve seen it. And, if you promise to see this through, I’ll tell you how.”

Starting imperceptibly, the rumble behind him deepened and grew. Kingston spun around as one of the boulders shattered entirely, then another, rupturing into dust. He nodded, impressed.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Call me when you’re ready to begin. I’ll walk you through my plan.” He smiled, starting to walk back to his car, then stopped just as he reached her. “Oh, I almost forgot to ask. What should I call you?”

“My name is Rainey.”

Kingston laughed. “Rainey, nobody uses their real name after they get powers. Do you think people would respect Titan nearly as much if she was called, like, Margaret?”

Rainey hated to admit it, but she did agree. Out in front of her, the sun settled firmly behind the mountains, casting the massive, jagged range of peaks in a blue-grey light that dominated the landscape. She smiled.

“Call me Slate.”

Kingston nodded. “Better. I’ll be in touch.”