“I was wondering what was strange earlier.” She commented in a harsh voice. “Should’ve realised you’d never actually stab someone.”

“Thanks.” I responded, now painfully aware of how I was holding my staff. I wasn’t sure if my voice was wavering or not.

Unshaken was lying near where I’d left Sedimentary. The man-spear-power-construct hadn’t been moved, going by the fact that he looked like he was still where I left him. I wasn’t totally sure, but he was there, and that was good enough for me.

I went to share a look with Slingshot, but she was already high up and I quickly cast my gaze groundward again. But Unshaken was above so I corrected and just looked ahead. Like that, I made my way around the other Sentry and sat back in my designated spot. Unshaken wasn’t exactly lying down, but she wasn’t sitting either. She was sprawled across the steps of Eden’s construction in such a way that her back arched to let her head rest against the low but long step.

Looking at it made me worry her power would kick in and she would just fall through the ground.

It was tough looking at her because she was Unshaken, and Collage was due for another slap for how he’d changed my outlook on those two. She wasn’t even acting provocatively, nor was her costume designed with being attractive in mind. It was just that my mind was in a mood to latch onto anything at the moment.

“Where’d you and the pipsqueak run off to?” Unshaken asked, oblivious to my trappings.

“Base.” I said shortly. “For my costume.”

“And the pipsqueak?” She pressed.

“Couldn’t tell you, her reasons are her own.”

“Aww, are you defending her?”

I looked down, my chin pressing into my chest in a pointless gesture to hide my embarrassment. Of course, it would’ve been better if I hadn’t done anything at all. My face could not be perceived, but my silhouette was another matter.

“You are!” Unshaken’s voice was way too pleased.

Fuck, I didn’t want this. “Why are you even here?” I pointedly kept my voice even and pointed towards the store where the monster was slated to appear. “Your spot is closer.”

“There’ll be enough time for me to get back to my spot.” Unshaken said dismissively. “You know how my power works better than most. Nothing, not even a blast of lightning would stop me. ‘Course, the only one able to direct lightning like that is Channel.” She smirked, remembering something I wasn’t privy to. She didn’t expand on it and I wasn’t about to ask her to.

“That wasn’t an answer.” I said after letting her reminisce.

She looked at me, the movement pushing against Eden’s construct. Out of curiosity I touched the step and found that the weight of Unshaken had actually pushed the construct where she’d been resting her head. It wasn’t much, but it was there. Then I pulled my hand away because it, like Lucidity’s constructs, didn’t obey standard physics and it was jarring.

“Damn Gray Apostles keep hounding me with questions. Had enough of it, so I left instead of getting them to piss off.” She said.

“Know the feeling.” I replied, making sure to not look at her.

“Oh?” It wasn’t a polite prod. Unshaken didn’t do polite. It was a demand for more information.

Damn it, why is she acting so familiar all of a sudden? “Instinct was hounding me.” I explained. “Said she had a terrible impression of me. What were they talking about with you?”

“Orcus.” She said simply. “What do you think gave her that terrible impression?”

I fumbled through responses until I ended up with, “They aren’t the whole reason you came here, is it?”

“Play nice. We’re getting to know each other.”

I was hearing every line Unshaken said in two different ways. There was the part of me that wanted to ignore the context behind what she was saying and just enjoy the fact that she was talking to me. Then there was the part of me who was terrified at the implied subtext. I wasn’t sure what conclusions I was coming to yet, but I sure as hell didn’t trust myself right now.

There were two, no, three things potentially influencing my judgement at the moment. Collage’s pink beam, Sedimentary, and the one time Glitter Bomb had touched me at the Beastmaster’s place. That last one had been heat of the moment. I could only hope it had been fleeting enough that there weren’t any effects beyond superficial bleed.

With a heavy heart, I touched Eden’s construct and threw my attention into it, bringing the total number of things modifying my thoughts up to four.

“This is the first time I’ve been active since the warehouse.” I realised, giving Unshaken a calm glance. It was purely for show. I was actually watching her through the forces she imposed on the construct beneath her, which were much less attractive. “You have questions.”

Unshaken paused, then sat up. “What did you just do?”

“I calmed down.” That wasn’t technically the whole truth, but it was close enough for me to say it. I came back into myself enough to ensure eye contact, and was glad I did considering where I used to be staring, then went back down.

The Sentry before me waited, then gave up on staring me down. “Yeah, I’ve got questions. How long?”

“As long as I’ve known you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Collage explained it as a first impression. Those stick.”

“I’ve seen people under the effects of his beam. You’re not acting like that. Never have.”

“You’ve never seen me off of it.” I replied serenely.

That gave her approximately one split second of pause. “Who else.”

I had enough presence of mind to sigh. “Not Lucidity, if that’s what you’re wondering. Other than that, I’d like to keep that to myself.”

“It’s obviously Slingshot.” She said. I was nearly shaken from my state. “It’s Slingshot.” She said again, cementing the fact as true. I didn’t deny it because even with my place deep in my power, I didn’t trust myself to act right. Better to observe the flow of the universe, as untrue to honest forces as this construction was.

“Shame.” Unshaken leaned back, putting her hands between her head and the step this time. “Snowflake could use some love.”

“Snowflake is something of a frigid bitch.” I said before realising I shouldn’t say that kind of thing as a hero. I was even less of myself at the moment. “It’s her brand.” I followed up after a moment’s pause.

“Huh. So you can do funny.” Unshaken commented. I came back to myself to turn my gaze on her. “Alright, spill. What are you doing?”

I considered what to say. “I’m following the example of my captain and concealing aspects of my power from those around me. The only difference is, what I’m concealing doesn’t deprive us of vast amounts of firepower.”

That gave Unshaken approximately one split second of pause once again. “How did you figure that out.” Her words were phrased like a question, but spoken as a demand. That part of me that just wanted to enjoy this shifted despite the alien environment I was confining myself in.

“Broke his arm sparring.”

“Shit, you too?”

I couldn’t help it, I came back to myself and looked at Unshaken. She was leaning towards me ever so slightly, showing genuine interest. I quickly threw myself back down into the construct before saying anything.

“I swung too hard.” I said evasively as I started making the staff roll around the back of my hand. “I’m guessing there’s a story behind yours as well.”

“Mine is simpler. I caught him and didn’t let go. Tell me what you’re doing.”

I sighed. “I’m just focusing elsewhere right now. For reasons we already talked about.”

She laughed mercilessly. “It’s that strong!?”

“I wouldn’t have threatened to throw a truck if it wasn’t.” I deadpanned.

“Oh yeah, you did say that in there.” Unshaken said detachedly. “So you’re Smart, huh?”

I was really hating this conversation. “Not like you think.”

“Yeah, no shit. You’re no Queue, constantly blackmailing everyone into his employ. You’re more of a Collage brand Smart, then.”

“I’m not following.”

“Supplements the power. You know his gimmick?” She checked.

“Touch a colour, shoot a beam.” I remembered. “Different colour, different beam.”

“His power lets him touch colours.” She shrugged. “Smart 1. You’d be the same.”

Personally, I’d put myself as a number higher than one, given what I’d told Blinker. I wasn’t about to repeat that here. Regardless, I came back into myself and glanced back at the Sentry we were discussing. He was sitting behind his piece of cover with a blank expression on his face.

What I’d recently learned about the guy made it harder to hate him, but he was still unjustified doing what he did to me. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if his Smart power trumped my Ghost power or the other way around. Something for another time.

I turned my head forward again and dove back to where it was safe.

It wasn’t like splitting my attention this way made me go zen. It was more like a distraction that felt more important to focus on than whatever else might be happening. In this case it was making me feel like I was talking to Unshaken while I was watching a show that didn’t have a pause button, except there was no show, and Unshaken’s words always passed the forefront of my mind.

“Well?” She demanded.

“Cool.” I admitted. I was going to expand on that, but decided not to. Instead I tried to change the subject.

Unshaken was going to keep talking, but another character approached first. “So you’re Lock, right?”

I looked, then I looked. It was the one with the disco costume, Overlord. “That’s me.”

“Overlord.” He needlessly introduced himself and collapsed on my other side near Sedimentary. Too close for comfort. I put my staff down between the man and the spear.

Overlord put on a demeanour that I was struggling to put a finger on. He wore the flashy singlet and the baggy pants, but walked with a slouch that said he didn’t really care. There had been constant quiet discussion between the Control troopers between their various pieces of cover the entire time I’d been here, some of which had mentioned this guy by name. So far he hadn’t done anything to show why people were talking about him.

There was a lot of betting on how high he’d go. I didn’t know what he did, but that seemed power related. The most popular bet, from what I heard at least, was fifty feet. Though it went all the way up to two hundred feet. It flew over my head.

He didn’t even have a piece of cover to call his own. That being said, Common Sense had made the people with powers good for crowd control go to Overlord, so he definitely had a power along that avenue. I just wasn’t familiar with what exactly it was.

His mask shifted as I purposefully placed my staff next to the spear and took care not to touch it. “You got moved.” He told me. His voice reminded me of me. Specifically me when I wasn’t focusing on my own senses.

“Oh yeah?” I prompted.

“One row back.” He pointed with a bare shrugged shoulder. “Common Sense was wondering why you didn’t bring it up earlier.” He sounded so disinterested, and it was beginning to bother me. If he was telling me this stuff, he could sound like he was invested in it.

“I didn’t think I’d be keeping it at the time.” I explained. “I tried giving it back, but he told me to hold onto it.”

“You talking about the spear?” Unshaken butted in.

Overlord moved to look at her. He had to sit up a bit to do so, but he quickly fell back to his lying down position. “Reasonable.” He said at length.

And that was enough for him, it seemed. I looked over my shoulder at Unshaken, to see what her take on it was, but that was a mistake. She met my gaze and I had to throw myself down into the construct to prevent an obvious reaction. I looked back at Overlord. I needed something that wasn’t Unshaken to focus on.

“Do you have any stories?” I asked.

Overlord stirred. “Mwa?” Had he fallen asleep?

“I asked if you’ve got any stories about previous monsters.” I waved a hand towards the shop. “I have no clue what’s coming out of here, but anything you could tell us would be good.”

“Mmm…” Overlord chewed his cheek. “I’m not the best storyteller.”

“Yeah, but you’re here.” I pointed out. “And you have an audience of at least two.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Actually, I’m bored.” Unshaken spoke up. “Ciao, nerd.” With that, she was gone. Her footsteps sounding in my ear, but not appearing on my sixth sense.

The sudden goodbye cut deep, and part of me enjoyed it. I slit that part’s throat and dragged it back down into Eden’s construct. I intended to leave it there when I stopped touching it. “You still have an audience.” I told Overlord after watching her go more forlornly than I’d have liked.

“Still two.” Overlord agreed. He was looking up. I followed his gaze and flinched when Slingshot was right fucking there. “Heh.” Came out of Overlord’s mouth.

“You scared me.” I told Slingshot before throwing myself right back down into Eden’s construct again.

“Sorry, but I am interested.” Slingshot told me, then Overlord. She drifted around so that we were arranged in a triangle. Overlord was lying down, while I was pointedly sitting up straight. Slingshot was halfway between sitting and standing, and was drifting slightly. She had purposefully put herself in a spot where she had a lot of wiggle room. “I’ve seen so many pictures, and some videos, but that isn’t a first hand account.”

“You ever read the almanac?” He checked, his gaze skyward. Slingshot nodded. “Not much more I can give you then. All I have is my perspective, and from my perspective they were all ants.”

“People die to these things.” I spoke up after coming back, making sure not to look directly at Slingshot. “A villain recently died in Graceland, and that became a whole thing. But that isn’t going to be like this is it?”

“Mmm…” Overlord chewed his cheek. “Were you there when they died?”

Both of us shook our heads.

“Shame. That would’ve been a good warm up.”

Slingshot and I shared a look, which made my heart jump as one of the Control troopers nearby spoke up. “Careful O.V. Don’t scare ‘em like you did in Boston.” I looked to find it was the guy who had commented on me talking to Sedimentary.

“They asked for details, though.” Overlord drawled back at him, sounding like he was complaining but also not invested in it.

“No excuse for not stopping when the red one started crying.” The trooper shot back.

“Heh.” Overlord chuckled fondly. “Alright, which one do you want’a know about?”

“Floorhog.” I said as Slingshot said something else.

“Uhh…” Overlord drawled. “Jamie, what’d they say.”

“You’re closer to them.” Trooper Jamie told him, then pointed at me. “I heard him say Floorhog, and she said Ice Phoenix.”

“Floorhog, huh?” Overlord rolled the word around on his tongue. “Interesting you’d ask about that one. Control teams act nationally, and that one happened in Canada.”

I knew that, but I was forthcoming with my explanation. “I was from there originally. Left before it happened.”

Overlord paused and stilled. “Yeah, I can hear it. Anyway, you’re lucky. That was one of the ones that wiped out the original containment team so they called over borders for reinforcement, and we’re kept awake whenever a creature is on it’s way, so us. Joe Done did something with his power, and we were all there to help, so I helped with that one.”

“What did it look like?” Slingshot asked, already enraptured with this hero’s disinterested form of storytelling. I filed away the name Joe Done.

“It was one of the more human looking ones.” Overlord’s head moved forward a fraction, like he was squinting at something and that something was a memory. “It had four limbs and a head, but it was three times your size. And whatever made it decided that spiders were a good inspiration, so the limbs were all splayed out, it stood on the fours, and the limbs didn’t have fingies.” We waggled his fingers out in front of him to further the point.

“That team didn’t have Eden or an Eden sub, so they had to build their defences manually or so the story went. Turned out badly ‘cuz Floorhog had a power that Eden trumped, the Traitor. Anyway, Floorhog turned the ground into quicksand, drowned twelve men on appearance, three of which were Control, and then he started blasting.”

“Twelve people? Just like that?” Slingshot asked, very interested.

“Uh…” Overlord scratched his mask absently, like he thought he was scratching his cheek. “More like sixteen. Some got hit by it manifesting.”

“These things appear volatile.” I said, earning a sound of approval.

“Pretty much. It’s why I’m on the ground until it starts kicking up a fuss. That and I get tired.” Overlord yawned, as if to prove his point. “Why does this one gotta start so late?” He whined, kicking impotently with one foot. It was the most focused thing he said so far. “I was up early yesterday. Now I’ll be up until the end of tomorrow, and then we’ll start fighting.”

I cleared my throat. “So Floorhog.”

“Eh.” Overlord stopped whining and got back on track. “That one was fast, but that doesn’t matter to me, really. Had the power to blur itself momentarily, making power slide off as if he was the back of a duck. No limit to how many times he could do it either, and no cooldown like I have. That ant was skittering about in ways that I consider unholy.”

“You don’t believe in god.” Jamie cut in.

“I don’t believe in god.” Overlord repeating in a mocking tone. If it was a joke, it didn’t make sense to me. “Oh yeah, the sand caught fire too. Whole city block burned down, and that was before I got there to look at it.”

“My…” Slingshot trailed off. “And that’s what’s coming here? Not exactly that, I mean, but that much power?”

I gave Slingshot a glance. Her enthusiasm was making it very easy to believe that she would’ve gone to see a Calamity if she had the chance. Hopefully whatever ended up appearing here didn’t make her get starstruck.

“Eh.” Overlord shrugged. “Floorhog wasn’t that strong. I’ve had monsters try shoot me down from hundreds of feet away. That one was limited to whatever was around it. Hmm… I suppose the permanent transmutation to fire sand was pretty strong. They don’t normally do property destruction. It’s a rare commodity now from what I hear.”

“I told you that.” Jamie said.

Overlord ignored him. “If there was such a thing as normal, Floorhog was normal. He just had the right stuff for the occasion. The Enforcers it would've taken time to kill got drowned, the Lances were useless from far away and up close when it killed them. Then the rest scattered. The Control in charge was killed first, which also made things worse, or something like that. Floorhog could do more, but I forget exactly what. That one was a footnote. Ice Phoenix, on the other hand...”

Slingshot drifted forward in anticipation.

Overlord paused. “Jamie, what did Ice Phoenix do?”

Jamie sighed as I felt Slingshot wilt in disappointment. “Ice Phoenix made ice, and remade its body with special ice. It was rough to put down, but that wasn’t why you hated it.”

“Ooh…” Overlord realised. “That fucker froze powers.”

I frowned. “How would that even work?”

Overlord laughed. “I have no fucking clue! All I know is, I now know what it’s like to be a pillar man now, and I hate it.”

So Overlord’s power made him really tall. It fit the name, kind of, and explained why people were betting over his height. I looked at my fingers and wondered how my power might get frozen. My power kind of did that with things already, though my interpretation of locking was a little different from what Overlord seemed to be describing.

“What did it look like?” Slingshot asked in earnest.

“Ice Phoenix is a, uh… Jamie, what’s the word I’m looking for?”

“No clue.” Jamie replied.

“Misleading, got it. It’s a misleading title. Ice Phoenix wasn’t really an Ice Phoenix.”

“Well I knew that.” Slingshot said. “It’s not even a bird. It didn’t fly.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Overlord waved a hand in my direction. “I meant it isn’t a phoenix. It’s dead. If it were actually a phoenix, it’s still be around. See how it’s misleading?” He chuckled suddenly. “Now there is actually something deserving of the title phoenix, and they show up these sometimes, but I haven’t seen any of ‘em so far. But they’ve got a misleading title too.”

“Who’s that?” I asked when it became clear he thought that was a good stopping point.

“The City.” Overlord said.

I looked at Slingshot to find that she seemed about as confused as I was. When I looked back at Overlord he wasn’t talking. That was another good stopping point apparently.

“We won’t have to worry about ‘the City’, will we?” I asked.

Overlord shrugged helpfully.

“I’ve never heard of the City before.” Slingshot said. “When did it appear?”

“Ah, now that’s more misinformation.” Overlord suddenly became more lucid and sat up to jab a finger in Slingshot’s face. I didn’t blame her when she floated away reflexively. “The City is a monster, but it isn’t a monster. I’m of the belief that it’s an Omega level threat, but not many people believe me.”

“Because the City is a ghost.” Jamie butted in. He addressed Slingshot and me. “Listen to his drivel, there’re some real nuggets in there. But don’t for a second take anything he says without a pinch of salt.”

“Yeah, I’m wise.” Overlord told us, suddenly defencive. “I’m the longest standing member of Control in the United States, you know.”

“It’s your twenty second year this year.” Slingshot nodded.

“Ah!” Overlord pointed at her and looked at Jamie. “I have a fan!”

Slingshot lowered herself closer to the ground, embarrassed. “You were telling us about the City.”

“Oh yeah, if you ever see one of them, run. And don’t die.” Overlord told us and stopped there.

“You weren’t lying when you said you were a bad storyteller.” I commented, getting a shrug out of the superhero.

“True, but you made me talk and it passed the time.” Overlord looked at Jamie. “What’s the time now?”

“Half past two.”

“Uugh.” Overlord groaned. “Still? I hate this.”

“You got off track.” Jamie told him. “You were originally telling them about Ice Phoenix.”

“Was I? Oh yeah, it’s a misleading title.”

“You told us already.” I said evenly, doing my best to sound as though I wasn’t as done with him as I was. “How did the manifestation go?”

“Weell…” Overlord drew out the word and trailed off deep in thought. “Okay, so you know how there are bipeds that stand on two legs, and quardropeds that stand on four?”

“Yip.” Slingshot said.

“Do you know what the term for eight legs is?” He asked seriously.

I was at a loss, and so was Slingshot. So I took the initiative. “You mean it was like a spider?”

“Kind of.” Overlord wobbled his ‘fingies’. “It didn’t really have something you’d call a central nervous system. Or a body. Like, I really want that term so I can ask for some more accurate branding, because Ice Phoenix was kind of just the legs.”

I struggled to imagine that.

“I knew that, I was asking how it went.” Slingshot butted in. “Who was there? Who fought it and how? That’s the stuff I want to know.”

“Well,” Overlord put a hand over his heart. “I went up like I always do and got frozen on the way up. Then when I was up there I went kthoom, pshew, and thumped all over that thing.” He did his best to imitate something coming down and exploding with his hands for each sound effect. “Common Sense was like: ‘Don’t stand there!’ Brainstorm went: ‘zap zap zap’ but from further away than Common Sense, and she shot the turrets once they stopped being manned. Eden just made the thing everyone else stood on, and Gracious really gave Ice Phoenix the good old what for. The Traitor.”

“What did Gracious do?” I asked openly. Slingshot was a fan and Overlord had worked with them, so I wasn’t sure who would be quicker to answer. As it turned out, it was the fan.

“She had the power to change powers and make them solid.” Slingshot explained. “Then she got enforcer buffs from interacting with the solid powers.”

“Mmm…” Overlord hummed sadly. “I miss her. She did all the work back then.”

I took that to mean she handled the local heroes like he had been tasked with a few hours ago. It didn’t sound like all the much work, honestly. All it was was talking to gifted, figuring out the best power interactions, and assembling them accordingly. It hadn’t even taken a full hour.

I didn’t ask what happened to her. Instead, I looked it up on a Vphone seeing as the storytelling seemed to be coming to a close. There was an article close to the top which spelled it out. Lisa Pedding, otherwise known as Gracious, had died on the eve of christmas in 2018. There was a description of her power that used more words than Slingshot had to say the same thing, but it also described how that became her demise.

The Theta class monster at the time had been called Fragmented Hare. Its appearance was, unsurprisingly, that of a fragmented hare like creature. It’s power let it move fast, and shoot cutting rays of energy. Gracious’ power interaction made the rays solid, but they were still fast moving and thin, and she had been standing in the way. Which led to a closed casket funeral.

I didn’t say anything on the matter and put away my Vphone. Slingshot and Overlord were still talking, but I didn’t have it in me to pay attention to them anymore. Instead I turned over what I had learned in my head.

Fail had spelled it all out for me, but only now was I beginning to comprehend what exactly was coming. My experience with Quetzalcoatl had this overwhelming feeling of insignificance, where whatever I did, I was nothing. Just dust in human shape if I got caught outside at the wrong time. The scale of powers had shifted since then. I had a power now, and a pretty strong one in the right circumstances. That coupled with the fact that whatever this thing ended up being named was undoubtedly weaker than a Calamity had put me in a mindset where I thought I’d be fine.

But that wasn’t the case. I had a sneaking suspicion that Overlord’s frankly strange demeanour was a direct result of going to these things and watching people he knew die for longer than I’d been alive. For twenty two years, at that. There was a real possibility that he had seen more people die than I could call by name. If things didn’t pan out favourably in the next day, I could be one of those people.

None of that was even taking into account the fact that there was a psychopath on the loose. Bad Valentine could be keeping an eye on this situation for all I knew, or he could be tracking down Forsaken so that the hero would stop tracking him. I didn’t know, and that was terrifying. Compared to that, the whole personality bleed thing was something I didn’t even want to spare the time thinking about, and I had nothing but time in front of me.

Nothing was happening.

I stood, picking up my staff as I went. “Hey, Overlord.” I said, cutting into his and Slingshot’s conversation. “Do you know what the deal with the spear is?”

“Myeah.” He responded. Which was good enough.

I walked to the unit base Control had set up. It likely wasn’t the title Control used, but it worked for me. All that conversation had me distracted, I needed something that wasn’t that. This time, though, instead of just going for cookies, I also went for tea. I didn’t realise I’d done that until I went to pick up the paper cup and winced at how hot it was. Then I froze.

The story I told Toil had come true. Then I nearly dropped the cup when Slingshot was right behind me again.

“You’ve got to stop doing that.” I hissed as nicely as I could.

“Sorry,” Slingshot said, then she said again more loudly. “Sorry! I’ve kind of been distracted today.”

It was the middle of the night. Another time, I might have pointed that out. But considering the things she and I had said already this night, I let it pass without comment.

“So, I’ve been thinking… and I realised something that- oh god this is going to sound so corny.” Slingshot waged an internal war with herself as I waited. “It’s a love triangle isn’t it?”

I put the cup of tea down. It was too hot to drink at the moment, and that particular thought hadn’t crossed my mind in that particular way yet. It was… accurate. I also didn’t like that the term ‘love triangle’ applied to me. Romance was something that I could appreciate, but even so I felt like gouging my eyes out when movies ham fisted them into the plot.

Yet that did nothing to detract from the fact that I was in love with two girls that I worked with. Both were now in the know. One was teasing me and enjoying it, and apparently paired off with my captain, the other had just brought this up.

“Huh,” is how I summarised my thoughts.

Slingshot wilted. “Damnit, I’m so sorry about this Lock.”

Alarm bells went off in my head. “For what?”

“For all that.” She gestured at me. No, she gestured at my head. Was she talking about my face? “It’s not natural, what happened to you, and now you’ve got to live with that. I wish there was something I could do to help, but I’m worried that if I keep talking to you, you’ll just get worse.”

More alarm bells. “Uh…”

“I just- I don’t know what to do in this kind of situation.” Slingshot said.

“Nothing.” I said abruptly, cutting off whatever it was she was about to say.

“What?”

“You don’t need to do anything.” I reiterated, then sighed. “Up until now, we’ve been able to get along just fine. You looked out for me when Waterlad invited me to spy on Boss, you gave me directions when Zephyr was being difficult, and we’ve even had lunch- of sorts- together- with Lucidity- without this coming up. We worked together fine.”

“It kind of came up.” Slingshot said, visibly wincing.

“Maybe it did, but tonight? I only said that because I’m running ragged after this whole situation and parts of my past catching up to me. I think I had a delayed reaction to going through all that, but my point is: regretting this whole situation isn’t something that I’ve lost any sleep over.”

Mostly because I wasn’t sleeping anyway, but the point stands.

Slingshot drifted up an inch. “But it might. Somewhere down the track it might. If not for you, for me. Because you told me about it and I kind of feel responsible.”

I was going to respond, but some Control troopers came around the corner. I picked up my cup and stepped away from the table with the snacks, beckoning Slingshot to come with me. Only when we were a good distance away did I continue.

“This is hardly the time or the place to be talking about this kind of thing.” I told her. “Overlord’s terrible stories finally penned it in for me. There’s a one in fifty chance that one person dies, and a much larger chance that many more people die. That’s a matter of fact. This-” I gestured between the two of us, “Makes me happier than you could know. But I’ve got shadows ahead and skeletons behind that’s making it difficult for me to be honest.”

“You told you’d shut up if you slowed down.” Slingshot said, her voice showing the disappointment more than hiding it. “I didn’t realise it meant you’d talk like this as well.”

Damnit, and I’d been doing so well. “Do you want to go on a date, then?” I asked bluntly. I had no fallbacks, even this was improvisation. “You don’t need to answer n-”

“I definitely do.” Slingshot cut me off.

But she didn’t follow it up right away.