I waved to Sam as she took off down the road.

I still wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about her driving around without a license. She could easily get the car impounded if she wasn’t careful, but she was more than capable of shaking any cops who tried to chase her down. I supposed it wasn’t a big deal and I could hassle her about it later. For now, I had groceries to get inside.

With both hands straining to carry the bags, I made my way to the front door, only to see it open. Habit almost had me calling Lucy’s name, but the figure that stepped through wasn’t her. I slowed to a stop, a look of puzzlement adorning my face.

“Abby?”

She inclined her head and offered an easy smile.

“Sup.”

She was dressed in ripped jeans, boots, and a hooded black jacket. The hood was pulled up to conceal her face like she normally had it when we were out in public. Aside from that, she looked horrible; exhaustion dripped from her features and she looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. It wasn’t uncommon for Abby to have a late night because of heroing, but I couldn’t recall a time she looked this zombified.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked.

Her telekinetic bubble formed around her and I flinched as it extended toward me. I tensed, ready for her to shake the life out of me, demanding to know why I had hidden my powers and joined a villain team. Instead, I was relieved when she just took the groceries from my hands.

“I needed to get away for a bit. Chris and Jackson are inside,” she thumbed behind her. “We’re just playing some board games. Your mom said you were out and wouldn’t be back for a while, so we decided to kill some time.”

At my house, apparently.

“Jackson and Chris are here?” I asked, my brow raising. I was confused as to what brought this on. I was used to impromptu visits but not with this many. “What’s the occasion?”

Abby shrugged, looking sheepish.

“You texted me last weekend and I kinda blew you off. There’s a lot of shit going down right now and I’m being dragged into it, so I’ve been pretty busy. I found some free time today though,” she said, looking a little guilty. “Well, I… may have just dipped when they weren’t looking. I couldn’t be bothered listening to more corporate B.S. So I texted you guys to see if you were busy. Naturally, you didn’t respond.”

Naturally?

I always made a habit of responding when I saw text messages.

I pulled out my phone and checked to see if I had any unreads. When I couldn’t find anything, I opened the thread I had with Abby and sure enough, she had messaged me a couple of times. I had just dismissed the notifications and marked them as read without even looking.

“Sorry, I read them but forgot to reply.”

“You’ve been doing that a lot lately,” Abby crossed her arms. She then shrugged before I could come up with an excuse. “It’s cool though. Lucy didn’t say anything either. I just assumed you guys were sick or something. If I knew where she lived, I’d go visit her after this.”

I could get Lucy giving me the cold shoulder after royally screwing up, but her not replying to Abby was a little concerning. The longest she went without responding to me had been a few days.

“She hasn’t been at school?”

“She came in on Monday. She was in a mood all day and barely said a word at lunch,” Abby narrowed her eyes at me a little and I suddenly felt like I was being blamed for it. “She got even more sour when Chris mentioned you weren’t in either.”

“The assignment,” I grumbled. “I fucked up. I didn’t finish it in time or bring it in. We probably failed because of me.”

Abby didn’t say anything. I could see that she wanted to, probably something rude but she held back. Maybe she was too tired or didn’t have the heart to really push it today. If she’s been through the kind of shit I suspected she has, then I doubted she wanted to cause any problems in her personal life. She’d have more than enough going on back at base.

“It’s just an assignment,” Abby shrugged. “I know she really cares about her grades but there’ll be catch up stuff you two can do later in the year. It’s no big deal. Come on,” she stepped to the side and gestured for me to hurry up. “I’ll help you pack this away. Your mom got a call, work stuff. She’s busy with something.”

I nodded and walked in. Abby floated the groceries to the kitchen table and I began opening the cupboards to put things away. Just as we were starting, Jackson and Chris strolled into the kitchen. Both of them were dressed how I’d usually expect.

Jackson towered over all of us and wore a plain white t-shirt with cargo pants. His hair was tied up in a small ponytail, which meant it wouldn’t be long before he would get it cut.

“Holy shit, he lives!” He cried. “How have you been? You don’t text, you don’t call. We were starting to wonder if you had been abducted by aliens or something.”

I forced out a smile. “Aliens would’ve been interesting. No, I’ve just been sick.”

“Sick?” Chris pulled up a chair at the table. From the looks of it, he had brought his own food. Chips, coke, and some chocolate fish. He was wearing one of his many hoodies as usual. “That’s unlike you. Can’t even remember the last time you were sick, you do look pretty tired though.”

“Not as bad as sparkles over there,” Jackson laughed.

Abby grunted. “Sparkles will fold your clothes with you still inside them if you call her that again.”

“Moody too,” Chris added with a smile. Abby just rolled her eyes. “Can’t blame you though. Shit’s been going down recently, the whole city’s tense. Dad said they were hiring extra security at the garage just to try and make everyone feel safer. Doesn’t help that they’re only a few blocks away from the quarantine.”

“What’s extra security going to do?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Supers will just go right through them.”

Chris just shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it just makes people feel safer when you’ve got someone watching your back.”

Won’t do much against someone like Grim. Extra security wouldn’t even hold off someone like Gold Rush or even me. The only way you’d have any sort of protection would be by hiring other supers.

Something clicked in my head. I knew where that garage was. It wasn’t that far from Groves Den and was technically in our territory now. Sam talked about enforcing laws and protecting the people you watched over – maybe that could be a part of it. Being that extra security.

I could supply those people with the gear they’d need to protect themselves.

Not for free though. Even if I wanted to, which I didn’t. Sam wouldn’t let me. Security was a business. Even I was smart enough to know that people didn’t offer services out of the kindness of their hearts. Hell, the people would probably prefer to pay, so that they aren’t waiting for the penny to drop.

“You guys wouldn’t believe the kinda shit I’ve seen,” Abby muttered. “The Cains are the fucking scum of the Earth.”

”So you’ve been saying – and yet you won’t give us any details!” Jackson whined like a child on the edge of his seat. “You can’t keep teasing us like this. You gotta spill something. At least catch Max up here, he’s been out of commission all week. I bet he doesn’t even know what we’re talking about.”

“I know some things,” I said. “Grim’s been active.”

I didn’t miss the way Abby flinched at the name.

“Oh, so you do watch the news!” Jackson covered his mouth in mock shock. “Well, there can’t have been much to do while you were home all week. Video games and anime could probably only keep you interested for so long. So whaddya think about all this? The big ol’ Reaper got people running scared.”

I was about to reply but Abby beat me to it.

“For good fucking reason,” her voice had a bit more bite to it than usual and it caught Jackson off-guard. “The guy butchered two entire units. Everyone at base has been really tense,” she rubbed the back of her neck, her exhausted look appearing to compound and weigh her down. “I needed to get away from all that. It’s too much.”

Jackson scratched his chin awkwardly. “Shit, sorry Abs… I didn’t know. They aren’t spreading that one around.”

“Of course they aren’t,” she shook her head. “There would be riots in the streets and wide scale panic. It’s bad enough that people know he’s in the city in the first place, but his recent dormancy sorta put people’s worries at ease. Like… the guy’s old now. Everyone thought he’d basically retired or something.”

It was one of the reasons people didn’t run for the hills when he moved into town. Grim was one of the oldest supers around, he got his power when Awakenings first started. He was pretty much a fossil by this point, pushing his late seventies.

“Retired from being a mass murderer?” Chris scoffed. “Nah man, it's always a matter of time with them. Doesn’t matter how close they are to kicking the bucket, they could be pushing triple digits and they’d still go for the kill. That’s just how they are. Psych 101.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Oh, like you know shit about psychology,” Abby said.

“Well, hasn’t he just proved my point?” Chris crossed his arms. “I’ve read what people have been saying online. They all agree. This was always going to happen – I saw that video by the way, where he attacked that Pandora church. Fucked up shit.”

Fucked up was putting it lightly. There are very few people powerful enough to walk right into the middle of a Pandora church and just massacre the place, let alone get away with it.

Maybe he’s just insane?

“Delete that video,” Abby said suddenly. “I’m serious. If you downloaded it, fucking delete it.”

“Relax, I didn’t download shit. I know it’s illegal,” Chris raised his hands. “Plus, it was gross. I don’t need to see it more than once.”

“Damn, now I’m kinda feeling left out,” Jackson said. “What video is this?”

“The kind that isn’t safe for work,” I said, chiming in. I remembered seeing what Grim had done to those people at the Church. At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was seeing, but then I had the pleasure of seeing it up close and personal with the ECU squadron that almost captured me. Melted into shadow… eaten alive. “Trust me, you don’t want to see it.”

“You’ve watched it too?” Chris asked.

I lied, shaking my head. “I don’t need to have seen it to know that it's NSFL. Anything involving Grim is bound to be all kinds of fucked up.”

My gaze met Abby’s.

There was a haunted look in her eyes. She had seen what I had, down in that Bunker. At the time, it hadn’t really registered. It took a while to really sink in – to realize that what I had seen was the real deal and not some fake conspiracy shit created to stir up drama. Mia was irreversibly changed, her life turned upside down. She seemed to be taking it rather well but there was no doubt in my mind that the real trauma was buried deep.

Pete was down there too. I had seen him floating in that tank, missing an arm. I doubted he’d recovered. Chances are he’s receiving treatment at the ECU’s headquarters. He wouldn’t be back at school for a while. That didn’t bother me as much as it should’ve. In fact, it annoyed me that I didn’t care in the slightest.

He could’ve died for all I knew. If he was alive… Well, he certainly wouldn’t be playing rugby anymore.

“I wish I could share all the grisly details,” Abby said. “I’ll spill when I’m allowed – well, when the details aren’t considered top secret or whatever. Things are pretty touchy right now. I only know because I—” she stopped herself, her gaze flickering between the three of us. “—I’m sort of involved.”

“Shit…” Chris breathed.

Jackson grimaced. “You didn’t mention that.”

“I was trying to keep my mouth shut for once,” Abby explained. “It’s crazy bad.”

“If it’s that bad, then I can’t blame you for wanting some time for yourself,” I said sympathetically. “How’s the change in management going? Is Ionizer our grand savior?”

The apprehensive look on Abby’s face shifted. The mere mention of the senior hero’s name sent a cascade of emotions across her features. It was interesting to see her reaction to him when he wasn’t standing next to her. The impression I got from the two of them – while brief – was that they didn’t get along at all.

“Savior?” Abby scoffed in disdain. “The guy’s cracked. I don’t know what’s going through management’s heads, but that idiot isn’t going to change anything except our mortality rate.”

Harsh, but accurate.

I had no idea what they were thinking, sending Prosperity out on a patrol like that when she hadn’t even been announced. In fact, she still hadn’t been announced, and from the looks of it, she wouldn’t be until this mess with the Cains was sorted out.

“Really?” Chris sounded surprised. “That guy’s had people singing his praises wherever he’s been. Didn’t he even win an award or something?”

Abby shrugged and Jackson looked clueless. Chris looked around for any sign of agreement before slumping when he realized none of us knew what he was talking about.

“I could’ve sworn…”

“You’re probably thinking of someone else,” Abby said. “If he’s won any awards, it's for incompetence. Seriously, you guys have no idea what the guy’s like. Zero social skills. Talks to us like… like—” she shook her head, unable to come up with any sort of comparison. “—like we’re corporate drones. God, I don’t know. At least Sparrow treats us like human beings.”

I could see that, given Ionizer’s absolute refusal to even negotiate with Sam.

“Speaking of Sparrow, she showed up here last weekend,” I said, catching everyone in the room off-guard. Jackson’s jaw almost hit the floor while Chris looked dumbfounded. There was a flash of confusion on Abby’s face before annoyance took over. “She was asking about my missing car, and said she was doing an investigation all by herself.”

“She does that sometimes,” Abby explained. “the higher-ups hate it though.”

That threw me for a loop. “They do?”

“Something-something it’s unofficial and the ECU could get into legal trouble, blah-blah,” Abby waved off. “Just more PR bullshit, the suits throw around some jargon that I can’t be bothered to remember. All that I know is that she likes to do her own thing outside of official direction and that certain people take issue with it.”

In other words, she’s a bit of a free spirit and it’s probably why they’re bringing in Ionizer. He’s more of a ‘by the books’ kinda guy.

Now it made more sense. They were overcorrecting.

“Sparrow was here?” Jackson breathed, staring at me. “Did you get her to sign anything? I’ll buy it off you. I still only got the one shirt she signed.”

I snorted. “No.”

Abby groaned. “Is that all you care about?”

“Hey, I’ve lived in this city for almost a decade and I’ve only ever met her once,” Jackson grinned. “Plus, short-stacks? Yes please.”

Abby scrunched up her nose but slowly started to come around after she lingered on the thought a little longer.

“Ew. Understandable, but still, ew.”

Jackson threw up his hands. “Oh, come on!”

“She’s my senior and co-worker dude,” Abby defended hotly. “I’m not going to think about my colleagues like that. Plus, she’s got like twenty years on me, and she’s getting married.”

“No harm in dreaming.”

“If there was one thing my mom taught me about life, it’s that you should never date your colleagues,” Abby said sagely. “Love and our type of work just don’t mix.”

My first thought went directly to Sam.

Could I end up with her like that?

We were still in the early stages of our friendship and she was attractive. I had known her for less than a month by now and she had already established herself as a necessity in my life – someone I’d need to stay around to survive, at least for now. Given the way my powers were, I’d eventually reach a point where no one would be able to touch me. That’s just how limitless growth worked, but the only question was if I’d survive that long to even get to that point.

Right now, I needed her. I needed Liam, and Mia too. The four of us together would be able to stand against whatever threatened us, just so long as we didn’t sabotage each other in the process. I trusted them not to do that.

Sam though… I trusted her, I really did, but I couldn’t ignore that her top priority was herself. She even confirmed as much the morning after rescuing Mia. There were no hard feelings there and I couldn’t find it in myself to blame her. But romance… I just couldn’t see it. She was too focused on the life of a super.

That’s not even mentioning her other personalities. It all just seemed like a nightmare to deal with.

No, I don’t think I could.

“People do that sorta stuff all the time though,” Chris intervened. “Mom and Dad met at work. It’s how a lot of people get together.”

“It gets ugly, especially when you throw powers in the mix,” Abby argued.

Chris shrugged. “Powers or no powers, breakups are never pretty. Nothing really changes. Things would still be awkward and heated, depending on the people.”

Abby shook her head. “Dude, you’re not getting it. It’s totally different in a work environment. At any other job you can just go work somewhere else or get transferred to a different department, but for us? The ECU is it, it’s basically the only place that’ll take us and getting transferred means moving cities. That’s not even getting into the fact that you have to trust each other with your lives. That plus all the normal petty breakup shit with powers thrown into the mix? Entire ECU branches have fallen apart because of it.”

“I’d argue that’s because of poor management,” Chris retorted, adjusting his glasses. “I don’t mean to dismiss your point. It’s valid, I’m just pointing out that it should be a choice, not a rule to follow. By your logic, we shouldn’t date anyone at school because we’re all forced to go there and interact with each other every day.”

“What? No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Work and school are not the same thing.”

Jackson yawned, clearly bored with the direction this conversion had gone.

“Jeez, I hope not. I might as well go jump off the nearest bridge if I have to deal with all that crap until retirement,” he said, putting enough emphasis on his words to imply that we needed to move onto a different topic. “Anyway, moving past all the real-world stuff, why don’t we talk about the other thing we were planning?”

Abby looked just as confused as I was.

“The DnD campaign,” Chris clarified, looking toward Abby. “You said you were going to DM it.”

“Shit, did I?” Abby frowned, trying to recall the moment. “Sorry, I completely forgot. I also think I’m not going to have much time for it for a while. Wish I could guys but things are hot right now. I shouldn’t even be here,” she quickly checked her phone before sliding it back into her pocket. “I’ll need to get back soon and I kinda just wanted to chill for a bit.”

“Lucy isn’t here either, so we can’t exactly roll characters,” Chris said with a shrug. “We’ll have to postpone.”

I heaved a sigh. “I’m pretty busy too. I’ve got some catching up to do after being sick and all. Last thing I want to do is miss out on more credits and have to resit the year.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over us.

“Damn,” Jackson said. “Guess we’re postponing for a while then.”

Abby shrugged. “Sorry. I guess it’s just not the best time.”

“I’m sure we’ll get to it eventually,” Chris said. “There’s no rush. I can even homebrew up a campaign in the meantime if you don’t want to DM Abby. We can start whenever things start to clear up again. Maybe… sometime around Christmas after all our exams are done.”

“Six months,” Jackson said wistfully. “That’s gonna be hard. I guess it's back to the DOTA mines for me.”

And for me, it’s brainstorming weapons, machines, and other tech to keep me and the rest of Madhouse alive.

“You’ll be fine,” Abby smiled. “DnD might be out for us but I think I can fit in a one shot every now and then,” she reached out with her powers and snagged one of the board games from a shelf in the living room. “Anyone up for a game of Sultan's Reign?”

I suppressed the urge to chuckle.

The brainstorming can wait an hour or two.