MIRA

"So you have a friend that can help me?"

"Yeah, but first, you should borrow these, from my mom," Henry handed me a change of clothes, a loose pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt that dwarfed me. "Can't do much about the boots, but you can put that on over the suit."

I quickly did so—and Henry turned his back, even though I wasn't removing anything. Except for my mask, that is.

"I don't know where to put this," I admitted, as I pulled the sleeves so that they covered the gauntlets.

"I'll carry it for you." He stuffed the mask in his backpack.

I fiddled with the hem of my shirt as I looked Henry up and down.

Of course I knew the independent heroes were civilians and people, and weren't always in the costumes, just like we Sentinels weren't. But it was also strange to see him in just a set of baggy black sweats advertising the North Kingsbury High's theatre department.

"Thanks." I joined him as we departed from the rooftop, taking the fire escape down.

"It's no problem, really," he assured me. "I'd do this to help anyone."

"That does track with your record."

"You checked my records, then?" He sounded surprised—and a little winded, but that was probably from climbing down the surprisingly rickety ladder.

"Of course I did." I'd used the terminal of files back at the compound earlier this morning to do some research on Warlock and the records Atomic Energy had compiled on him and his heroism. "I try to know as much as I can about who I'm working with."

"That's fair, I can't say I blame you." He paused, while we continued to climb down. "Decided that I'm still worth working with, then?"

"You're my only choice," I admitted. "You're the only other person who cares about Verity."

He went quiet for a long time. I even glanced down, once or twice as we continued to climb, to make sure that he was still there.

I mean, he probably would've been fine if he fell off.

Henry had a wide array of powers—likely a result of what had happened to him as a child at the hands of Dr. Electra.

It was interesting, however, that the article had said that the child never did get superpowers, that Heretic had stopped her before it went that far.

Obviously, that had been a lie.

But why?

Why would they cover up that Henry had gotten powers?

"You care, so of course I care," Henry finally said. "You loved her—so of course I want to help you."

His naïveté and empathy, I'd learned it as a weakness, first saw it as one because of that battle with Heretic.

But I wondered if maybe I'd had the same, if I would've been able to stop Verity from leaving, if I could have saved her before Kade killed her.

Furthermore, it was admirable, heroic. We'd been trained all our lives, to regard our job as the Sentinels as a sacred duty.

But here was a kid who wasn't even born with some lucky Mutations who did the same job just because it was right, because he wanted to.

Part of the reason I did it, I realized, was because that was all I knew, it was what I had to do.

My motives weren't nearly as pure as his were. And I had no idea what to do with that realization.

Before long, we made it to the ground, safe and sound, and we took the tram to Riverview Heights, one of the suburbs of New Kingsbury.

There weren't many people on the tram at this hour, and no one really paid attention to me or Henry.

And I'd never really had to sit and wait like this. Sure, there was sitting and waiting on patrol, to protect the city. But this felt different.

I was alert, restless—but it felt wrong. There was nothing to watch out for, nothing to do but wait.

Henry eventually offered me an earbud from his phone.

"Helps the time pass a little faster," he said. "Hope you don't mind show tunes."

"Show tunes?" I accepted the earbud.

"Like musicals." Henry frowned. "Do you know what musicals are?"

"I'm familiar with the concept," I mumbled. "Not that I ever really listened to any. Never any time, far more important things to do."

"Well, then I consider it a duty of mine to introduce you." He grinned as I put in the earbud, and turned up the music.

All of it was so different from each other, and so strange compared to what I'd heard before.

Of course I'd heard music. Mainly classical, on the orders of Director Pemberly and the doctors of the Sentinel Project, since it was supposed to help us be smarter. Occasionally I'd heard 80s pop and movie soundtracks, courtesy of Dr. Banning's personal CDs.

But musical education had never been deemed relevant to our development as the saviors of the city.

It surprised me, the intense emotions in the music. The way the singers put their heart and soul into it.

I met Henry's eyes, and I knew that had to be part of why he was like that.

After all, how could you not be more empathetic, more emotional, with music and stories like this?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"You like it then?" Henry asked after a while.

I nodded.

"I like to listen while I'm on patrol duty." He looked about, at the blurred buildings passing us by. "You'll be hearing plenty of Broadway if you're sticking with me."

"Can't say I mind." I shrugged.

Still, I couldn't help but think, there were things like that, art and culture and more things I had no idea about, that I wasn't supposed to experience. It was because it was frivolous, to enjoy things, and they were distractions from our mission and purpose.

I'd been opened up to a whole new world, one I'd never dreamed I'd get to step into.

I was supposed to be outside of this, better than this.

And yet, it awakened a little kernel of hunger inside me. Not for food or water, but to hear more music. To learn more, to see more.

I frowned—I had to shut that kernel up, had to get rid of that curiosity, that hunger.

Was that part of why Verity left, why she sided with Heretic? Had she experienced all of these things, too?

I felt a pang in my heart, like a sonar trying to reach out for her.

But she wasn't there to ping back.

It wasn't too much longer before we finally hit the station near Riverview Heights.

"Don't worry, my friend doesn't live too far from here." Henry took my hand, helping me out of the tram car and onto the station platform. Never mind that I hardly needed help with such things.

He then glanced around, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Your family won't be looking for you?"

"Not for another hour."

I'd told them that I wanted to patrol the city, to be more efficient. Ryder just nodded, allowing it and not saying anything to me. As long as I didn't miss anything important and I didn't forget to check in every now and then, I would be free to run around the city.

That was more than enough to get to work on solving the mystery.

The Sentinels weren't needed as often in the suburbs, for some reason or another. So I'd never gotten to see them in-person.

There was something just as nice, as peaceful as sitting on the tram, about walking through the lazy streets after dark, with only the glow of the street lamps and the moon above.

Henry glanced at his phone, then squinted at one of the mailboxes in front of us.

"This one." He pointed at the door. "Claire will be waiting for us, or at least her step-mom will."

"Oh." I worked on memorizing the name. It was just good courtesy, after all.

The door opened to a fit woman in her early forties, or perhaps late thirties, with blonde hair who was dressed like she was late for her yoga class.

"Hi, you must be Henry and his friend, Claire said you were coming." She looked me up and down, and then gave me a pitying smile. "She mentioned your situation. If you ever need help with that, I have a friend who's an emancipation lawyer—"

Emancipation? Is that what you told her?

I avoided looking at Henry and instead tried to put on my practiced heroic smile.

"I appreciate that, ma'am, but everything is under control." Now I looked to Henry, wishing I'd been given laser vision instead of super speed. "Henry is helping me out, for the most part."

"It's just important that she gets her own clothes now, we'll go shopping later in the week—"

"I see." The stepmother shifted, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Where are your parents, by the way, Henry?"

"Mom and Dad are both working at the hospital, had roughly the same shifts this week."

The way he said it, I suspected it was actually the truth.

I should take notes—I don't know how to lie, after all.

It would be useful, to have the skill. It wouldn't be long before Ryder or Dr. Banning knew and suspected the truth about what I was up to.

Not that I intended to hide it forever—just until I found my conclusion and revenge.

"I see." The stepmother shifted again, suddenly bubbly and perky once more. "Well, Claire's up in the attic, she left the trapdoor down."

"Alright then, thank you Ms—" Henry paused, lifting his eyebrows in question.

"Ward-Browning." The stepmother's smile softened. "Polite boy."

"I try, ma'am." He nodded, his expression very serious.

"Well, I won't get in your way, just holler if you need me!" With that, she hurried off into the living room, and Henry took my hand, ushering me up the stairs, down the hallway, and to the ladder with the trap door.

"Ladies first."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the chivalry. After all, I'd been trained from birth to fight evil.

That said, I still climbed up the ladder.

Inside was an absolute nerd den, with all sorts of posters and memorabilia for various fantasy video game franchises. Sitting at a large computer desk with massive monitors was a girl about my height, with blue-green streaks in her long, caramel-brown hair, dressed in black and white checked pants, and a black t-shirt with a white long-sleeved undershirt peeking out.

She kicked her desk so she swiveled around and looked up from her phone.

"Henry, it's good to see you." She sat up as we approached. "Glad to see you found Holly's house okay. It's too bad we don't live in the Spires anymore, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Henry shoved his hands in his pockets, his face turning a little pink. "I'll tell Tristan you said 'hi.'"

"You don't need to." She waved her phone emphatically. "But I appreciate the thought."

Henry nodded. "That's good, that explains. . . Never mind. This is my friend, Mira."

"Hello." I tried the tiny finger-wave that I saw in training simulators.

"I'm Claire." She thrust her hand out and gave a sunny smile that would make Ryder or Saige envious.

I accepted it and shook her hand. "Thank you, Claire, for giving me some clothes."

"It's no problem, sounds like you have enough of those as is." Claire stood up, and looked me up and down. "Henry's right, we are about the same height and build, so you shouldn't have to try any of it on, unless you want to—"

"I should be good, but thanks." I found myself smiling again, but this time, in a more genuine way.

"Alright, so I laid the stuff here on the bed, you can take whatever you want," Claire said. She picked up some beat-up purple sneakers off the floor. "I've been meaning to find a new place for these, or paint them—but I thought you might want them."

I looked them over. They definitely were lived-in, but I could get some use out of them.

At least, for now.

"Thanks."

"And then here's a good jacket, you need that for the cold here." She lifted up a color-blocked windbreaker in pink, purple and green.

"Hey, isn't that the same one that Mood Ring wears?" Henry asked.

"I bought it before they debuted, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered." There was something grim in her eyes for a moment. But as soon as it came, it was gone, and Claire shrugged. "Besides, it's not really my style anymore, anyway."

I ran my hand over the plastic material. I'd never gotten to pick things like my costumes or what I ate—but I'd developed preferences all the same. Purple was my favorite color, even though I'd never gotten to wear it.

Maybe because I knew I'd never have to wear it every day.

Seeing the little color block patches of lime green made me think of Verity again.

She'd gotten to wear green when she became Heretic's apprentice.

Was this how she felt, getting such a small joy like this?

I shook my head slightly, to clear it.

"Everything okay?" Claire tilted her head.

"I'm fine." I looked the the rest of the clothes. Black sweatpants with a closer fit, a few pairs of socks, some different t-shirts, a blue-gray knitted cap, and a tank top with a pair of shorts in some red and yellow fruit theme.

"This is a lot, thank you," Henry said. "I really appreciate it."

Claire shrugged. "It's no problem. Is this enough?"

"More than enough, thank you." I surprised myself with how warm and sunny that sounded. I gathered up the clothes and shoes into my arms. "That should get me by, for a while. Thank you, Claire."

"You really don't have to thank me so much." Claire laughed. Then her smile quickly dropped. "I hope things go well. Y'know, with your family."

"Me too," I admitted. "Me too."

"Well, sorry to be in and out so quick, but Mira and I have more we've got to do." Henry put a hand on my shoulder. "I'll see you at esports practice?"

"You know it, feel free to come around again." Claire folded her arms over her chest, in the kind of way that made it look like she was giving herself a hug. "It's been a long time."

"It has." Henry nodded, as if that were that. "Come on, let's go."

Once we were outside and heading back to the tram station, we discussed tactics.

"We'll meet again tomorrow," Henry promised."I've got a hero backpack I use for notes and my own stuff—I keep it on the top of my apartment building, in the barrel labeled 'pigeon food.' I'll put your stuff in there. There's an old pigeon roost up there, too, but no one uses it."

He turned pink. "That's where I change."

I nodded. "Noted."

I then glanced around. "I'll at least get you home before I switch back and meet up with my team. It's the least I can do, after all that you're doing for me."

Who knew, maybe it was the giving spirit rubbing off on me. Or maybe it was that I really did feel like I owed him.

Little did I know how much more I'd owe him in the future.