Maury shook her head. “No.”

“Maury, come on. What if it is his weakness? I could kill him today. Hell, I could kill him right now!”

“And if it isn’t his weakness? You’ll be handing him immortality on a silver platter. No. Not until you have proof. Incontrovertible proof.”

Levi grinned. He waggled his pointer fingers at her. “Pulling out the big words, huh?”

“Complete and total proof,” she translated with a sigh. “No, Levi. No. We’re not taking that risk. Not unless we have no other option.”

Levi pouted. “Fine. Whatever. I have to beat Blasterman and the Apostles first, anyways. Isn’t that a great band name, incidentally? Blasterman and the Apostles.”

“No,” Maury deadpanned.

“Some people have no sense of taste,” Levi complained, clicking his tongue.

She ignored him, hefting the makeshift sensor once more.

Following Maury, Levi put his hands behind his back and cut his eyes at her. “What about Fira?”

“What about Fira?”

“You know. She was all broken up about me dashing off. What happened with that?”

Maury shrugged. “She took to the streets. Worked hard, frying monsters, protecting civilians. Actually, I think she got invited to some hero group.”

“Whose?” Levi asked, startled.

She rubbed her chin, thinking. “Hmm. I wasn’t close, but…I think there was a pirate?”

“And a beefy woman with furry arms?” Levi asked.

Maury nodded, brows raising in surprise. “You know them?”

“Yeah, I—kind of. They’re good people.”

Her brows raised even further. She stepped forward, putting the back of her hand to Levi’s forehead. “You think someone’s good people? Are you okay?”

Levi gave her a look. “I think you’re good people.”

“Yeah, but that’s different.” Maury backed away, lowering her hand. She nodded at him. “I know you’ve only just jumped back in the saddle, but don’t push yourself too hard. Take a break if you need it. The last thing we all need is a burned-out Levi.”

“I don’t get burned out,” Levi said, waving his hand.

Maury gave him a look.

“Okay, once. Once! But it was…there were complicating factors.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Are there not complicating factors now?”

Levi pinched his pointer and thumb together. “Fewer.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Waving him off, Maury clomped off down the road, leaving him all alone.

Levi stared after her for a few moments, then yawned dramatically. Turning his feet the opposite direction, he headed for Maury’s house, and his room on her second floor. A bed and nothing more, the sheets stained with old blood Maury hadn’t bothered to bleach out. He chuckled, plopping down in the middle. “I’m worse than a preteen girl.”

Curling up in the center of the bed, he let exhaustion drag him into the darkness.

A crackle jolted him awake. Levi jumped to his feet, reaching for his knife. His hair stood up all over his head, eyes still bleary with sleep.

Fira stood at the end of the bed, a ball of fire in her palm. She gave him a startled look, one that he directly returned. Levi jabbed his knife at her. “You were going to burn me!”

“I was not. It was dark in here, and I couldn’t find the switch,” Fira returned, clicking on the lights and dismissing the fireball.

Levi narrowed his eyes at her. “Likely story.”

Even as he did, his eyes flashed out the window. Darkness stretched beyond, the pitch of the night. His brows furrowed slightly, and he looked at the depression in the bed where his body had laid moments ago. How tired was he? It shouldn’t have been that bad. Not enough to sleep the day away.

He called up his status quietly, not wanting Fira to know.

Level: N/A

ATK: 8

DEF: 1

PWR: 0

PDEF: 0

SPD: 20

EXP: 0 | To next level: 0

AP: 0 | To next AP: 0

His lips pursed. No debug menu? Cheap.

“In any case, I was just stopping by to make sure you were still alive. Maury said you’d found something, but then she cursed a lot…” Fira’s voice drifted off, and she gave him an expectant look.

“Oh. Yeah. I found something. Maury doesn’t think I did, though.” Sighing, Levi sat down on the bed, holding his dagger in his lap. He waggled the blade idly, then looked at her. “That all?”

“Yeah. I mean… yeah.”

“Yeah?”

Fira hesitated, then sighed. “I got invited to a supers’ party.”

“What, with Crossbones and them? Nice.”

“Yeah. They said there’d be some movers and shakers from the industry there, too. Said I might even be able to get registered, and not have to worry about being ability-hunted any more, too,” Fira said proudly.

“Look at you, moving up in the world. Before I know it, you’ll be a proper hero,” Levi said distractedly. He climbed to his feet, then whirled. “Movers and shakers? Is this a big party? Like a big old…mashup, kind of party?”

“I don’t know what that means, but it is big. It’s supposed to fill up a whole conference center,” Fira said, nodding.

“Is Blasterman going?” Levi asked, suddenly paying attention.

She waggled her finger at him, pulling herself to her full height to look down on him. “Nuh-uh. Nope. You’re not going.”

“And who’s stopping me, you?” Levi asked. He grabbed his backpack and headed out the room, taking the stairs two at a time.

“Yes, me. If you can abandon me, then I can abandon you. Even when it’s super important to you. See how you feel about it,” Fira said smugly.

“Mhm. Well, it’s nice that you think that,” Levi said, heading outside. He paused, turning left, then right.

“You don’t even know where it is,” Fira said, shaking her head at him.

“Central Conference Center, right? The big one. Since you said it’s in a conference center…I mean, there’s only a few of those in Central City, and if the supers are doing something, they’re using the biggest,” Levi said confidently, setting off.

Fira followed him, frowning. “You could be wrong.”

“I could be wrong, but I’m not.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “You got your fancy dress somewhere?”

Fira sighed, then patted her hip bag. “It’s right here.”

“Good, good. Let’s go crash a party!” Levi said, throwing his hand in the air.

“I’m not crashing anything. I was invited.”

“Imagine, being invited. Yikes, man, yikes,” Levi returned.

Fira shook her head at him. “When they turn you away at the gate, I’m not helping you.”

“That’s okay. I’ve got people,” Levi replied confidently, striding off into the night.