I wasn’t sure what I expected.

Maybe some Pandora logos strewn about the place, or a bunch of small rooms with “servants” locked inside. I had heard the horror stories and read a bunch online. With Lucy’s place being right at the heart of Pandora territory, I expected something a little less… mundane.

The back door led into the laundry before continuing on into a hallway that ended when it opened out into the kitchen and dining room on either side. There were a few family photos that lined the hallway depicting Lucy with the rest of her family. At the very least we were in the right place. Along with the photos, there were some paintings and art throughout the place that you’d expect to see in the house of someone well-to-do.

The kitchen was tidy and the dining room was sparse of anything beyond a table and chairs. Everything seemed normal, with no damaged furniture or holes in the walls, it just appeared as though no one was home. That put the kidnapping theory to rest at least.

“Homey,” I commented, breaking the silence. “I wasn’t exactly expecting this.”

“Neither,” Abby agreed under her breath. “The house isn’t completely empty and there’s not dust everywhere, so someone has to be living here,” she then saw the photos on the walls. “And we’re certainly in the right house.”

Abby was looking at a family photo – at a wedding by the looks of it – of Lucy, one taken when she was much younger. Her mother was in the photo, along with three other older women, and two men. The closest man had a firm grip on her shoulder and smiled passionately.

It would be a perfect representation of familial bliss if it wasn’t for the fact that Lucy and the older woman next to her were the only ones not smiling.

“I half expected for there to be photos of them at rallies or something, I’m surprised all of these are so mundane,” I said. When I didn’t get a response from Abby, I looked to see her further down the hallway, staring at another picture. I moved to her side and my stomach twisted. It was a much older picture, it showed Liberation and Wildfire shaking hands atop a stage. Lucy was much younger, probably around three years old, and was standing next to the older woman from before. “This one not so much.”

“Her father,” Abby muttered under her breath. “Fucking Wildfire.”

I didn’t reply immediately, instead opting to examine the photo closer. While the photo was older, Wildfire and Lucy’s father did share a similar build. Seeing some of these pictures side by side, it was hard to deny it. This whole time, Lucy had wanted me to stay away because her family was a bunch of lunatics.

“She must be in trouble,” I muttered under my breath. It was clear Pandora was anticipating damage and was moving to reduce it.

“Is she?” There was a dangerous edge to Abby’s tone; a bubbling anger that I was all too familiar with. I didn’t like where she was going with this.

“Abby—”

“Think about it, Max!” She rounded on me, getting redder as her anger continued to rise. “What if she’s not in danger? What if this whole time she’s been—” Abby paused for a moment as a potentially horrifying realization struck. “I’ve told her so many things about the ECU. She spends so much time at your house as well. What if she’s a plant? Then, the moment things get bad, she pulls out and goes silent.”

I wanted to claim that her whole line of thinking was bullshit, but I couldn’t. I had no proof. Worse still, the memory of her finding out about my powers came to the forefront of my mind. In a completely different light, her reaction made more sense. Still, I had no solid proof that’s what happened, so I just had to trust that she was who I thought she was.

“We can’t be certain of any of that.”

Abby’s head fell into her hands, completely ignoring what I said. “Fuck, Max. What if she’s been grooming you and Eleanor? I’ve seen shit like this happen, it’s how Pandora gets you! They worm their way into your life and they make you think you can’t live without them!”

“Except she hates Pandora,” I countered. “She’s had nothing but horrible things to say about them. If she was grooming us, then she’s been doing a terrible job.” My words seemed to have an effect as Abby contemplated them for a few moments. “Come on, we need to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. For all our time at school, she’s made it very clear that she hates Pandora.”

“...A cover?” Abby muttered under her breath. “Misdirection maybe.”

It was like all my words went in one ear and straight out the other.

“Abby!” I snapped, losing a bit of my temper. “We did all this to see if she was okay – and we still don’t know that she is, by the way – so let's just rein in the assumptions and get the truth from her, when we find her.”

My words finally seemed to have an effect because her flustered look seemed to melt away, replaced by frustration.

“Except she isn’t here,” she said, looking from side to side. “She probably packed up and left.”

“Why?” I asked, still trying to feign ignorance. “You said it’s getting bad, but how bad is it really?”

“Enough for Pandora to evacuate, evidently,” Abby heaved a sigh. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You and your mum are safe at your place. You shouldn’t get caught in the crossfire, but we’re expecting something big. Like, Hurricane Liz kinda devastation if we’re unlucky.”

I remembered that. Abby once explained that the Hurricane Liz emergency was her first official outing as a hero. It was before she even had her name. Comet was a name given to her by the people she saved because of how her power looked when that storm besieged the city.

I inhaled sharply. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“No,” Abby replied bitterly. “General Jessamine’s transfer got delayed, but she should be arriving any day now. Apparently, she’s bringing a bunch of Sweepers and Walkers with her.”

I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

“What?”

“Yeah,” Abby scoffed, completely misjudging my horrified expression. “It’s about time too. New Elpis has some of the most dangerous Supers around. You’d think they’d give us some proper fuckin’ equipment from the get go but noooooope!” Her bitter sneer washed over me like a wave of ice water. “Gotta prove the situation is dire enough before the higher-ups sign off on those things.”

Sweepers and Walkers were mostly used in the most war-torn places on the planet. If they were going to be deployed here, that was bad news for all of us.

“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask. “That’s… surely that’s overkill, even for a situation like this. We’re not having a civil war here, it’s just Grim and the Cains.”

Abby snorted bitterly. “Dude, come on. We’ve got groups like the Nine Circles up in Ashton. Well, eight now, since Lust is dead. Still, all that effort to just get rid of that one was bad enough. We got Grim here and don’t even get me started about what's going on down around Zachary Port.”

I thought for a moment when it clicked. “The sinkholes? I thought that was just The Mountain fucking around.”

“Nah, people are going missing by the hundreds. Give it time and it’ll be thousands. Point is, something needs to change and Ionizer being Sparrow’s replacement is a step in the wrong direction,” the distaste in her voice was palpable. “Sorry to be such a debbie downer. I just really wasn’t expecting all… this,” she gestured around her at the house we occupied. “I can’t believe Lucy managed to hide all this from us.”

We all have our secrets.

“I’m willing to believe she had a good reason. It can't be easy growing up in a cult, Even if her Dad is Wildfire. Can you imagine what she’s been through if she doesn’t have powers?” I proposed the likely and hopeful alternative. “Yeah her dad’s a super, but that doesn’t guarantee she has powers.”

“It’s hard to believe,” Abby scowled but begrudgingly nodded. “But I can see your point. Damnit! I wish we could just fucking talk to her. Let’s keep looking.”

“Hold on,” I stopped her before she could even make a move. “This is Wildfire’s house. Maybe we should…” the words died in my throat as Abby stuck me with a flat stare. “...I don’t know, make sure nobody is home? I’d rather not get roasted alive.”

“As if that can happen when I’m here. Come on, dude. No one is home. There could be clues pointing to where they’ve gone. Also, if Lucy does have powers, we could find some evidence of that here.” Abby thought for a moment and our gazes met. “Let’s check her room.”

I bit my lip and relented. “Alright then.”

“Sweet,” Abby anxiously rubbed her hands together before looking toward the staircase. “I wonder if her room is down here or upstairs?”

“Up,” I answered, recalling a memory early in our friendship. “She mentioned ages ago that we both live upstairs,” I offered lamely. “It was her first time at my place and we were both kinda awkward about it. She was just trying to make conversation… badly.”

“Upstairs we go then,” Abby said, turning on her heel.

We found her room fairly quickly. It had fit the Lucy we knew to a tee. A lot of the personality of the room had been left intact; posters, books, and a cork pinboard filled with research notes for school projects. I even saw several calendars she claimed to update constantly spread out across her desk. On closer inspection, however, I noticed several things that seemed to be missing.

Her laptop was gone, along with her phone. Her dressing table was scarce with dust silhouettes left on its surface. Things had been taken – the essentials – but from the state of the room, it seemed like Lucy had time to consider what she was and wasn’t taking.

“Not much in here,” Abby walked into the center of the room and looked around. I moved toward her desk while she moved to the closet. “Some of her clothes are gone.”

I carefully picked through the books, calendars, and stray papers scattered across her desk. Old assignments – even the research notes on Cyberspace for our Social Studies assignment were here. A pang of pain throbbed in my chest, guilt that I hadn’t done anything to contribute. I wasn’t looking forward to the conversation I was going to have with Ms. Elise tomorrow.

“Just school stuff here,” I replied absently.

We took a few more minutes to keep looking but neither of us came up with anything. The room wasn’t exactly big, so there weren’t very many places to hide things.

“I’ll go check the master bedroom,” Abby said, a dark look spreading across her features. “Maybe I’ll find something interesting about Wildfire.”

“I don’t like that look you have,” I commented. “Are you sure you want to go digging through his stuff? He’s pretty high up in Pandora, you might find something you really wish you hadn’t.”

I spoke from the heart. Everyone knew what Pandora was really about. Whatever was in his bedroom wasn’t something I was interested in seeing. Abby, however, didn’t seem to care.

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“I’ve seen worse.”

“I’m not doubting that, but there’s no need to add to the pile.”

“I’ll be fine,” Abby flashed me a grin. “Just scream like a girl if you need anything.”

She left the room without so much as a glance and was off down the hall, leaving me to my own devices. I contemplated heading back downstairs to check if this place had a basement. The garage also seemed like a good place to search, but I had to wonder what I’d find.

First things first, I had to clear the room and the rest of the house.

Reaching into my pocket, I retrieved my phone. I wanted to make sure we weren’t overlooking anything here. Maybe Wildfire had secret cameras or something I could hack into. I certainly wouldn’t put it passed the guy.

Unfortunately, that theory died rather quickly when I realized that The Queen’s Court had Uplink. Assuming Grim had any sort of Mechakinetic at his disposal, they probably thought it was a safe bet to remove all electronics from the house if they were going somewhere.

To my surprise, the software pinged something in the room.

My heart didn’t jump into my throat, nor did I feel excitement at the discovery. Instead, I felt cold, almost sick to my stomach. If anything, that singular hidden device proved that something had happened.

Tentatively, I moved toward the soft signal. It was in her closet and from a quick inspection, I couldn’t see anything on the floor or the top shelf. No electronics to speak of, which left me with one option. I had to switch it on remotely and try to find it by playing a sound.

When I hacked into it, that sickening feeling worsened. The remote view showed me a home screen – her phone’s home screen. I didn’t even need to play a sound to find it. With all the clothes still hung up, there was only one place it could be. Started my search from right to left, rummaging through every jacket pocket I could get my hands on. I quickly gave up searching jeans or pants seeing as they apparently had no pockets to speak of.

Finally, I found her phone, hidden in a zipped pocket of a jacket I had never, ever seen her wear.

She placed it here deliberately. Why? There’s no way she could’ve known someone would find this, let alone me.

I might’ve told her I had powers but I never specified what kind, so why do this?

I slipped my phone into my pocket and stared at the slim device in my hand. Lucy’s phone was nothing to write home about. An older model from about four years ago. I remembered her complaining that it had taken her so long to get it and by the time she did, the model was already outdated, replaced by a newer model. She’d never leave this thing behind unless she had to.

Which means she did this to warn me… or Abby was right and she’s been playing us for fools this whole time, which means that this is a t—

A deafening boom sounded from downstairs and the entire house shuddered.

I was already moving toward the door when I went to shout Abby’s name, but I barely got the first syllable out of my mouth before something slammed into my face.

I stumbled back, black spots dancing in my vision as I struggled to remain upright. The airways in my nose were suddenly blocked as blood streamed out onto my shirt. I could taste it flowing over my lips and down my chin, but I didn’t have any time to treat it before I was tackled to the ground and a pair of hands clamped down around my throat.

“Wait—!”

“You heretic Cain fuck,” my attacker sneered with all the disdain he could muster. He straddled me and I got a good look at him. He was big, maybe around my height, and definitely stronger. “I’ve been waiting so long for this. Finally, I get to fucking kill one of you myself.”

My immediate instinct was to try and pry his hands off my throat but it was a losing battle. He was so much bigger than me, that all I was doing was struggling uselessly.

He pulled back and hit my head against the floor to stop me from struggling, the only silver lining was that we were in Lucy’s room and it was carpeted. The impact was softened and didn’t have the effect my attacker was hoping for. However, he’d get exactly what he wanted in the next minute or so if I didn’t do something.

“We’ve been waiting, watching. The boss knew you fucks would come and I’ll be more than happy to personally send you back to Grim in a body ba—”

I remembered my watch. I reached over, transformed it, placed it against his ribcage, and fired repeatedly. His body jolted with every shot. I kept shooting until the pressure on my throat lifted and he collapsed atop me.

With adrenaline pouring through my system, I pushed him off me before gasping for air. I rolled over onto my side and coughed, spluttering as fresh blood streamed out of my nose. My vision was blurred and my head spun. I reached out and grabbed the edge of Lucy’s bed, pulling myself to my feet.

As I steadied myself, I noticed a flickering light above me. I looked up to see the ceiling burning, spreading quickly, and eating away at the plaster, paint, and wood. I wouldn’t be able to stop that now. This entire place would be an inferno in minutes. I looked down at my attacker to see him lying on the floor, eyes wide open with multiple cauterized holes through his abdomen. He took several shuddering breaths and spasmed as his body went into shock.

He had seconds left at best.

I met his gaze and I waited for the guilt to come crashing down on my shoulders. The weight of his life, squeezing me tightly until I couldn’t breathe. I waited for it… right up until he slumped over and stilled. I continued to wait as the pain in my head and throbbing in my nose intensified.

That’s it?

I didn’t feel anything except my obviously broken nose.

I stood for a couple of moments before I jolted myself into action. I turned and fled toward the door. I couldn’t stay here, I had to get out while I still could.

“Abby!”

No answer.

I cleared the rest of the stairs and moved into the lounge. All seemed fine until I looked left into the kitchen – or where the kitchen used to be. There was just a hole left with exposed wires poking out of the ruined wall. Abby stood, shoulders slumped looking at the scene before her.

I hurried up to her side, transforming my weapon back into its watch form before she could notice, prepared to drag her away if I had to.

Then I saw what she was looking at.

In the yard were the dismembered remains of… someone. There was an arm, a leg, and half a head scattered across the backyard.

“We need to go, now,” I said, taking her hand. There was an ugly cut across her cheek. It was deep and was pouring blood, but Abby didn’t seem to care. She was frozen in shock, her gaze fixated on the gore before her. “HEY!”

I slapped and shook her. She turned to me in a daze and blinked, her senses coming back to her when she saw the state my face was in.

“Max, what—”

“No time,” I hissed, taking her hand and pulling her along with me. We entered the backyard and waded through the gore. I’d rather go out this way and back through the main street. If those guys had been waiting, then I wasn’t going to go back out the way we came. “We need to go.”

“I killed her.”

“Abby!”

“I… I just fucking—”

I yanked with all my might, pulling her off her feet and forcing her to catch herself. She finally understood what I was trying to do. We vaulted the fence into another property and cut through the yard before jumping another fence. We landed in a property where a couple of dogs started barking at us from behind windows. If anything, the sight of dogs gave me another shot of adrenaline and kept me going.

When we cleared the next fence I saw Abby beginning to summon her aura. I quickly snatched her arm again before she did something stupid.

“No, no flying!”

“Why!?”

“If anyone sees you fly out of here, Pandora will know it’s you.”

“They’ll know it's me anyway!”

“I don’t think anyone saw us leave – and even if they did, you don’t want the public to see you flying around right now. This way you have plausible deniability and the ECU will back you up,” I said, holding back a few additional comments I wanted to throw in there. They could sweep that death under the rug. Abby would be fine. “No flying, just keep running.”

She didn’t argue.

We pushed on, running through the streets and cutting through more properties until we were certain we were safe. The sun was starting to dip below the horizon when we finally slowed down. Our temporary refuge was a small park with some trees and a small alcove. There was a rather large pond next to us which was convenient for me, given that I’d need to clean the blood off my face.

I strolled over and fell to my knees, scooping up handfuls of the dirty water to wash my face with. It was refreshing to finally get all the dried blood off, but it sadly didn’t heal the broken nose. It still throbbed and all I wanted to do was roll over onto my back and close my eyes.

I took a shaky breath and looked towards Abby.

She was sitting down under a tree with her head between her knees, her gaze locked firmly on the ground. My eyes trailed up further, extending beyond the treeline where I could see a distant column of smoke. Given how quickly that fire spread, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lucy’s place had already burnt to the ground.

“You should probably get back,” I said softly, breaking the tense silence. “And if it’s not too much trouble, I’d like my jacket back.”

Slowly, Abby removed the jacket and handed it back to me. I was still sweating from our escape and I was enjoying the cool twilight breeze, so I wasn’t in a rush to put it back on.

Still, Abby was worryingly silent.

She looked up and met my gaze. I half expected tears by the way she was acting but instead, she just looked… hollow. My attacker’s lifeless corpse flashed through my mind and I forced down the urge to flinch. All it did was make my nose hurt more. The guy hadn’t even given me a second to explain – to do anything.

He had just tried to kill me.

“I just… that girl— fuck me,” she ran a shaky hand through her hair. “She got the jump on me. I didn’t even hear her. I-I was on edge so I just turned and… bam,” Abby pushed her hands out in front of her as if to demonstrate how she had turned the girl into mincemeat. “She went for my throat but got here instead,” she lightly touched her wound. “And I just—” she pushed her hands out again. “—I didn’t mean to!”

“It’s fine, really. It’s—” Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I looked to my right, away from Abby. She didn’t notice but I saw a shadow move. A fair distance away, I spotted one of Mia’s statues peeking out from behind a tree. I bit my lip and turned back to Abby. “It was self-defense. They tried to kill us, we did nothing wrong.”

Except for the obvious breaking and entering part…

Switching the focus to me momentarily distracted her.

“What… happened to you?”

I wasn’t in any state to be coming up with some clever lies so I blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“Similar to you, some guy hit me in the nose with something but got sloppy. I tackled him to the floor and got lucky. He knocked his head on the door frame on the way down, I’m pretty sure it knocked him out,” I lied. “I’m fine, but my nose is kinda busted though. Sucks to be me, eh? My eye’s only just healed.”

That got a weak laugh out of her.

I’d take that as a win.

“I’m such a fuck up,” Abby groaned climbing to her feet. I helped her up. “We shouldn’t have been so deep into Pandora territory. I put you in danger… Jesus, I’m no better than fucking Ionizer!”

“To be fair, I insisted and we both know I would have come here regardless,” I countered. “And the most important bit is we’re fine. But you said you were needed back at headquarters, and if you take too long, they’re going to suspect something – probably,” I paused for a moment. “I don’t really know how things go down over there.”

Abby took a breath and finally managed to calm herself down.

“Okay, okay…” she took another breath. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. It was past six. “Shit, I’m already late, but not so much that it’s outside the norm for me. They shouldn’t think twice,” she explained, shoving the device back into her pocket. “Text me when you get home, okay? I need to know that you’re okay. We can talk more about this tomorrow… somewhere secluded at school.”

“Sure, absolutely,” I said. “We’re far enough away now that it should be safe to fly.”

Abby looked up over her shoulder to see the rising smoke and nodded.

“Yeah, I should be good.”

“Don’t… don’t dwell on this, okay?” I said. “It was self-defense.”

Abby laughed bitterly.

“We’re the ones that broke into that house… fuck. Ugh, this is going to be a fucking nightmare if it ever gets back to me. Just have to hope God or whatever deity isn’t too pissed with me this week. I could really use some good fortune right now.”

You and me both.

“Fly low, just in case, yeah?”

Her aura began to shimmer as she took off from the ground.

“Yeah… I will.”

And then, she was gone.

I counted the seconds and I heard movement surrounding me. Bushes rustling and the snapping of twigs sounded from all sides. She moved fast, impossibly fast.

“Did you enjoy eavesdropping?” I asked, turning around.

Mia stood with her arms crossed, a grim expression stretched across her features.

“What the hell did you do?”

I sighed.

I wasn’t looking forward to explaining this.