My hand hung over the Harmony scanner. I had thought about it all weekend. There wasn’t a moment that went by that wasn’t spent contemplating my final decision. Was I ready for that? Was I truly ready to tap back into that place? Sure, I’d done it when I was younger, but that’s because when I was younger, I was desperately trying so desperately to prove I hadn’t been the reason a thousand plus people died. Nowadays, I think I’ve more or less come to terms with it. I’ve never forgiven myself. How could I really, but I’ve at least let myself continue to live. I’ve told myself all these years that the more people I help save, the more people I help bring down, the more it adds up in forgiveness regarding the thousands. Okay not thousands. One thousand. One thousand, six hundred and forty specifically. I know this number like I know my own social security and birth records.

There isn’t much left. A few standing ruins that I’ve decided the universe left in place to constantly remind me of the horrors I’ve inflicted there. In the early days of darkfire I tried to keep track of where I was on the balance scale I’d invented in my head. Huh, maybe my siblings were right. I might benefit from therapy. I’d finally gotten up from the desk. I was waiting for some IM replies from Simon in regard to the chemical we’d been researching. That warehouse bust turned out very useful, I was hoping anyway. Simon had called me saying he’d found something and wanted to send me the results, yet I waited for hours to hear from him. Something seemed off but the man did have a kid, so I assumed he’d just gotten busy and ended up distracted. I figured I’d give another couple hours before checking on him. Once more my hand held above the scanner, fidgeting with the material of my glove. My free hand slammed against the table as I shot out of my seat.

“I need tea.” I said to no one in particular. Jefferson appeared on my screen through a digital doorway.

“Ah, she speaks.” He’d said, patronizingly.

“Yeah. She does and she,” I gestured towards myself, as I’d only been wearing a hoody and panties, “Wants tea.” I nodded to Jefferson like I’d won some kind of grand argument. He simply shrugged.

“Get some. No one is stopping you.” His animation developed a ball in its hand as he threw it against a metal doorway next to him and caught it, repeating the motion again and again. I chuckled as I’d caught a glimpse of it. I slid on my socks into the kitchen. The bunker’s kitchen wasn’t big, but it worked. It looked mostly like an apartment. It had a fridge and stove; some counter space for doing prep work and things like that and atop the counters I had a coffee/tea hybrid machine and a rice cooker. I practically lived out of those two specific things.

The Tea machine hummed alive.

“Jefferson. Play my hype mix.” I searched through the large silver fridge for something to eat. Music blared from the speakers. I didn’t even bother keeping it low either, the walls were soundproofed. By my own additions as well as the original owners from beforehand. I kept the music up to drown out the scanners too. I lived on those things. They were how I do about 80 percent of the work I do. However, with that in mind, it sometimes got to be too much. Hearing Fear Patrol chatter, listening in on Melony and the others. The IPD and its military channels. There are few things in the city I don’t have direct access to. The governor and his private cabinet, being one of them and several higher-ranking officials within Fear. Jess and her office were one of the other ones. It started out of respect for our relationship but now, I’m sure she’s cleaned her offices and done full professional house cleaning. Which sucked right now because if there was something going on in Fear that was causing them to come after me as heavily as Melony’s team had been lately, Jess was sure to be someone that had intel on that. I mean, I could always swing by the department as AJ. There was nothing stopping me. One of my uncles, by marriage, worked in the secretary department of the government building. I could just casually go say hi.

Machines, I didn’t even need him. I could just go. Nothing illegal about visiting the government building and as the daughter of one of the highest-ranking officers, past tense obviously but still– I have the privilege of going to several places within the government. There is a memorial site on location of the main Fear Patrol building for fallen heroes, remembering downed veterans, that sort of thing. I visited often back in the early days. I hadn’t in a while. I could, no; probably should, go soon. Jess would be the only thing I had to worry about. I grabbed the cup from the machine as it finished and dunked the tea bag, I’d just opened into it. The tea started steeping as I poured some sugar. All the while to the rhythm of the music.

I crossed the threshold back into the living room and checked my messages again, setting the mug down onto the designated coaster. My desk was kept relatively spotless. It was messy but in an organized mess. I knew where everything was at all times. Folders stacked against the back wall in different colors. I typically used a different color to represent different things. I had files, several files in fact, on most of the dangerous game in the city. Of course, Industry was huge, and I am not a goddess, no matter how much I told people I was. There was no graveyards way that I was going to be able to keep full tabs on every single player in both the upper and under city of Industry. Not alone anyway. Luckily though I wasn’t entirely alone. I didn’t have a team or anything but, Like Stormcaller now, I had various people I worked with throughout the different districts and at the center of our grid, was the bunker. It had more or less become the epicenter of operations.

We aren’t a team. I don’t do teams. I don’t do sidekicks. I don’t do partners.

However– I don’t do the lone gunslinger thing anymore. I got my ass beat one too many times doing things that way. I enjoyed having eyes and ears in different places. I have several chat messages with various “Heroes” throughout Industry too. Some have higher or lower risk assessments from The Institution than myself, but I digress. There is a leaderboard. Somewhere within The Governor’s Cabinet there is a leaderboard with the top ten or twelve or something like that, most dangerous outlaws of Industry.

I’d only ever truly seen pictures of it once, Jess showed me as bragging right that I’d been moved lower on it once. Someone going by the name of Slipstream had beaten me. Jokes on Jess, because Slipstream and I had become mutuals and they’d joined our little brigade. Several of us referred to ourselves as the watchtower brigade, the bunker had been deemed the watchtower. Our chat was active today, jokes and memes were being sent in. Several of us spanned different parts of the city, a couple even from the undercity. I’d since added Stormcaller to the chat too. Simon was in there–etc. I noticed big activity as messages were going crazy but among the jokes and links, I found a picture thrown in from one of the farther corner districts of the city. It was a picture of an overturned truck. Which was fine, nothing special there, but the logo on the side of the truck. It was the same sigil as the other truck from the warehouse a few months ago.

Simon. More of that stuff was being sent out. I checked our messages and there was still nothing. I saw him typing and then he stopped.

(Simon. You alright?) I sent with the chime of the little bloop sound. More typing and then nothing.

(Not here.) Finally popped back.

(Ok Mr. Cryptic, where?”)

(Meet somewhere. As yourself. No mask.) Then he went offline.

“Jefferson, is there any indication that could suggest this isn’t Simon Frost typing on the other end of the internet?” I asked, a little gut feeling building in the pit of my stomach. Jefferson flickered a few different colors before returning to the screen.

“I don’t think so, no. I’ve scanned the patterns, and the typing is consistent. Everything has been normal from previous messages today. Would you like me to backdoor into his place?”

“No. Don’t bother. I would bet money he’s got measures keeping me out of his loft.” I finished my tea. If Simon wanted to meet up, then we’d meet up. He said no masks too, so I would be going out as AJ anyway. Hurray. Hopefully nothing happens while we’re out where I’d have to use powers. Kinda hard to hold back the dark part of the darkfire ability. I can do it, I have done it, it takes a lot of willpower though. I finished my drink, set the mug in the sink, got dressed in my AJ clothes, which were much different from darkfire. Typically, I donned the hoody, the torn jeans and the mask and gloves. Here, however, I slipped on a skirt that went just below the knees, a tank top with a little vintage Jefferson on it and I swapped out my usual black gloves for a more colorful pink pair. I checked the temperature outside, which wasn’t very hot, but it wasn’t exactly cool either, so the tank would be fine.

Phone in hand, I slipped my wallet into my skirt’s pocket and headed out the bunker’s doors. It hadn’t dawned on me until just then that I was going to have a massive hike into the city. Usually, I’d just take the new bike Storm-Jack, got me, but I couldn’t be seen as both AJ Green and Darkfire driving the same bike.

I sighed.

Luckily for me, I have very bad time management skills when I'm left to my own devices, and I’d forgotten how late it was. The sun had started to set which gave me plenty of shadows to play with. As soon as the sun had set enough, I slipped my way through the darkness. Tucking and weaving myself in and out of reality, like the blink of an eye. I slammed up against the wall of the city, looked around to make sure there were no guards and did my favorite thing.

I poofed out and then poofed in and landed in the city. Luckily for me, it was a shift change and the new shift guards had not yet been stationed. Any later though and there would have been several groupings of dozens of guards. Night in Industry is an entirely different animal than during the day. I slipped a little more through the cracks and popped out in the streets. Here, however, it wouldn’t matter if anyone saw me. Darkness isn’t an illegal ability, and neither is using it–and even if someone had seen me use it, who’d recognize me really. Sure, I had photos circulating on the internet because of Harmony, mom and dad etc. But really nowadays, most wouldn't know the difference. Besides, I was a boy then.

I Strolled the walkways of Industry. Each lit up different colors. Traffic lights and shop lights burned their neon heat. My hands were tucked away in my skirt as I strolled. I turned several corners, no particular direction in mind. Simon had never given me a place to meet so I figured he would just be out. Strolling Industry from the ground level wasn’t my idea of fun. By any means. I watched. I listened. Screaming, yelling and laughter, all an explosion of overwhelming sounds that managed to overstimulate my senses. It reminded me of why I did my thing though. Who’d protect them otherwise? The IPD? Fear? Fear was more focused on catching people like them. They didn’t watch out for the standard citizen, they hunted powered folks, with powered folks. Most of them hadn’t been given many choices in life though, so I understood to a degree but come on.

I turned the corner and saw someone robbing a local convenience store. A gun trembled in the kids' hand, the store clerk, who was an older gentleman, waves a nervous arm above his head. The gunman, who couldn’t have been more than 18, waved the gun nervously. Several people ducked to the sides of the street. The window looked out to the street. The business was some old hole in the wall, walk up convenience store. You told the clerk what you wanted, some drones gathered the supplies and gave them to you, you swiped your card and went on your way. I sighed. I shouldn’t get involved. I held my hands above my head when he pointed my direction.

“You. Orange haired girl! Get over here!” He yelled. Wonderful, I was not only involved, but I was also a “hostage.” I complied and strolled over.

“Kid. You are making a big mistake.” I spoke.

“FINISH THIS BRAT.” My voice chimed in. I shook my head. This was not a good time for this.

“Shut up. Shut up and stand here. If those Scared Patrol guys come, you’re my shield” He laughed with a nervous, slimy laugh. He’d clearly never done this before. My brain started assessing the situation. Was this out of desperation? It couldn’t have been because he wouldn’t have bothered with me. He’d have already killed the guy and been on his way. Why the theatrics? Why was he yelling and shouting too?

“Kid. Again. This won’t end well for you. How much do you even think is in the safe here? It’s all digital scanning. I doubt if this gentleman even has physical currency.” I whispered, my voice barely registering. I wasn’t scared, I was thinking.

“Shut up! I’m not a kid. I’m older than you brat, you can’t even be my age.” He pointed the gun at me. As if I’d never been here before.

“Okay Okay. Fine you got me. What if I told you, I was AJ Green.”

“Right, okay and I don’t have to do this. Get over here” He grabbed me by the shoulders and had me empty my pockets. Grabbing my wallet, which I casually handed to him, he checked my ID. Sure as shit the look on his face dropped.

“Right. So, here’s how this plays out, kid. You’re going to put the gun down, give me my shit back and walk away. I won't call the police, unless our friend here wants to press any charges?” I looked to the clerk, who shook his head no, muttering agreements with whatever I wanted to do– “or, I am going to add you to the thousands I killed in Harmony city. I’m sure you know about that considering your face.” I did not like using this as some kind of scare tactic, but it was one of the only things I could think of that wouldn't expose myself here and would keep everyone around safe. He shook his head, the hoody pulled up over his face had started slipping away.

“I can’t. Even so, Miss Green. You’re going to get this gentleman to swipe all the stored credits to the account I have written down here.” It was here I’d noticed the pattern. He’d been checking over his shoulders. He was being watched by someone. My eyes scanned the area, making sure I didn’t immediately look where he was even if he’d about given away our exhibitionists position. I scanned a little more and there I saw it. A red dot sight peering out from a street above us.

“What’s the game plan here then bud?” I asked, putting my hands back in my pocket.

“Hand up or, or I'll shoot!” He yelled.

“HE’S BLUFFIN’--” I was right. He was, but the kid was too afraid to not pull the trigger and hurt someone in the process.

“I know he is.” I whispered.

“Who are you talking to? Are you wired? Are you working with the cops?” He pointed the gun at me, shaking back and forth. I simply laughed.

“Yeah–totally. Dressed like this, I am working with the cops.” I took a step forward.

“Get back and get back behind me where I said to be!” He shouted. He’d never given me instructions.

“Here?” I asked, standing between him and the red dot sight.

“Yes, now stop being a stupid bitch, and let me do my–” Before he even finished, my hand had been on the barrel of the gun, a flame burning away, melting it. The kid's eyes went wide again, and he backed off several feet. I stalked, grabbing his shirt.

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“Go on, finish your sentence. What did you want this bitch to do?” I asked, burning flame in my other hand, the fire wrapping around and caressing my gloves.

“I–I-” He was speechless.

I leaned in.

“Tell your friends over there, that the next time they decide to do something like this. I won’t be so nice.” I let his shirt go as he fell onto the ground. He stammered and mumbled.

“Wha–” Was about all he could get out.

“What even was the plan here?” I asked, taking my wallet and stuff back from him.

“They, I mean I– was trying to, to lure out the darkfire.” Ironic, wasn’t it. The kid took off running before I got a good description of him, and the red dot site disappeared. That kid was, unfortunately, as good as dead at the hands of whoever was behind the sniper rifle. I thought about tracking him, but most likely he’d already be caught. I sighed, made sure everyone was okay and started in the direction he went. I walked a good way before coming to a clearing. One of those fake parks that looked all too real. I sat on the bench in the far corner, looking out at several levels of the city. I couldn’t believe the amount of shit that happened here. Like this kid. I could go after him. Sure, but honestly, I was tired and I’m no real hero. Besides, saving him may make things worse. I intervened there, maybe those other guys figured that much out and would let him live. If I caught him and saved him. They’d kill him for sure. This was best. I told myself that anyway.

"Interesting display of bravery Miss Green, though I thought I implied keeping a low profile?” Simon's voice broke from behind me. I hopped up wrapping a big hug around him. He returned it. “You alright kiddo?” He asked.

“I’m not that much younger than you, ya know and yea, I’m fine thanks. Besides that, Sir, I tried to do the low-profile thing. He brought me into it!” I said, folding my arms.

“Don’t pout, AJ.” He grinned. I leaned against the back of the bench.

“How’d you even find me?” I asked, ignoring the several other, real questions I wanted to ask, responding to his pouting comment. I brushed the spicier conversation to the side.

“Well, I just remembered which way You’d be entering the city, figured it was from the direction of your house–and simply followed along watching for you until I saw you. Didn’t take much.” He slid his hands in his navy-blue jacket pocket. He wore matching pants and shoes, and his beanie was black with a military sigil on it.

“You had a drone scan my location didn’t you.” I asked, folding my arms even harder.

“Guilty.” He smugged.

“Simon Frost. You are one of the only people in this entire city with the ability to out cyber watch, me.” I admitted.

“I know, but it is nice to hear you admit it.” He laughed. “So did you want to continue bratting, or do you want to hear what I’ve got?” His voice changed a bit.

I wasn’t bratting. I told myself.

“I’m not–Lemme hear it.” Again, I shook the thoughts out of my head. He raised his right arm, which flexed a little as he did and tossed me a small notebook. I flipped through its leather pages. Several scientific equations were doodled in it, drawings and theories. Science numbers that were quite frankly above my paygrade. “Simon, just for a minute pretend I don’t understand what some of this means. What exactly am I looking at here?” I asked.

“Okay–” Simon sighed, “This little liquid you stumbled across, is huge. Dangerous. This could possibly be one of the most dangerous things out there, right now, that isn’t directly related to a born ability.” He folded his arms.

“Dangerous in what way?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Let's just say, this shit can negate ability effects.” He said bluntly. I about fainted.

“It can, what?!?” I asked, stumbling back.

“AJ. It can negate ability effects. If you got hit with this stuff, it could fuck you up. You wouldn’t be doing pyro anymore.” He said, remembering not to mention my second ability out loud.

“No fucking way man. That kind of thing doesn’t exist. Does it?” I asked.

“It does and you found it in a warehouse.” He whispered.

“How exactly do you know what it can–” I started to ask.

“I tested it.” He said bluntly.

“On–” I motioned to continue with my hand.

“On myself. That’s why I went dark for so long. It, somehow, negates powered abilities upon touching the bloodstream. Different dosages have different levels of effect. I tried a tiny but, which caused my abilities to kind of, delay-Ish and then I tried a little more, which shut them off entirely. I don’t know how this is even possible, but it is, and you found it.” He explained in a whispered hush.

“It-negates–abilities?” I asked, trying to grasp everything.

“Yeah.” He agreed.

“Why wouldn’t Jefferson have-” I started.

“We’re talking about something that has never been seen before dude, Jefferson, even yours and mine, only have the knowledge base that’s programmed into them. If this is new, or something hidden from The Institute–” He explained.

“Then our Jeffersons are useless on this one.” I finished.

“Precisely.”

“This means also, that whatever importance this liquid has is probably tied to Mask. ERm, Woodpecker.” I explained.

“Yeah. No coincidence they started popping onto the scene right around the time you found this shit.” Simon said, riffling through his pocket. After a minute of watching him, he pulled out another sheet of paper, handing it to me. I took the paper, unfolding it. A sigil was drawn on it. The same sigil I saw on the truck in the picture from the Watchtower chat.

“This sigil seems to appear a few times lately.” I admitted.

“That it does, that it does. What it means, I don’t know yet. But what I’ll tell you is that we have some more pieces falling apart on this job you’re working.” He admitted. I agreed. I couldn’t even remember what made me take the initial leap into this case, let alone any of this now. There were way more mysteries to this case than answers. The gunman and the red dot sight could not have been coincidence either. So, there’s these guys now. Mask and their crew. The warehouse gang. This new liquid. The memory loss and the graveyard shifting.

“I gotta figure this all out honestly. So much doesn’t make sense about what's been happening lately. The only thing I know for sure though is that it's all tying back to Harmony.” I was speaking out loud to myself more than Simon, but he seemed to agree.

“Yeah. I’ve seen the name brought up a few times over the last several months.”

“Same.”

“You gonna–” He started.

“Probably eventually. I’m just not ready for it yet.”

“That's fair, though remember you got me here if you need” He hugged me.

I hugged him back. Simon, for as long as I’ve known him–we’d been at ends. We were rivals and yet here he was, hugging me, offering comfort regarding something that he once used against me. It felt right though.

“Thank you.” I whispered, hugging him back.

We parted ways. It had gotten late and a call from his daughter took precedent. I sent my regards to her and headed back out myself. I found myself strolling idly, with no real direction in mind. I shivered a bit in the new chilled winds as they picked up pace. I watched the people go by, the signs that flickered and the vehicles humming by. All the sounds accumulated as one mesh of noise. A Fear Patrol squad car hoovered by me, slowly. The tinted windows hid the driver, but I figured it wasn’t Melony or the Ice one. I waved at them as they went by, there’d be no reason for AJ Green to dislike the Fear patrol. After all, she felt the agency was protecting its people and a number of other nonsensical lies that I had to spout during the few town hall meetings I’d been to as favors for Jess. Speaking of her, I eventually found myself outside the main Fear Patrol building. I looked up.

It spiraled and weaved itself through many layers of city levels. It reminded me of something you’d see in a villain’s fantasy. The evil lair, except this wasn’t some fantasy story. This was a real monster I had to fight on a regular basis. I fought to prove we weren’t bad. Us, powered people. I fought to maintain the idea that even if our government officials were corrupt, even if the forces that swore to protect us were worthless–that someone, somewhere, was willing to help to do something about it. The building sat in its obsidian glass. Shades of color popped through from the insides occasionally, but it mostly sat as a reminder of the imminent power of The Governor, who to my knowledge, sat at the tip top looking out over the city walls. The bastard. It wasn’t my fault mom and dad, and the others were dead, it was his. What monster left a town with as great of importance as Harmony with very little protection. Who let children run rampant with no assistance when they were all discovering their abilities. Hell, most of us there had abilities. There should have been some kind of institution, outside of the military schooling, that helped with our abilities. Something to guide us when things are rough. A lot of my friends struggled at first. Being a child developing these abilities isn’t easy. You learn early on that it’s a huge responsibility to you. You have something that two thirds the population doesn't. You’ve got something that two thirds the population fears and just assumed you’re going to cause harm with. WE LEARNED THAT FROM A YOUNG AGE, WHY COULDN’T WE LEARN HOW TO HELP CONTROL IT?

My fist clenched as I felt the warmth of a black flame dancing around it. I closed my eyes, breathing in. The flame danced around me another minute before finally snuffing out.

“It wasn’t your fault. You know this. Stop blaming yourself for their incompetence.” I growled in the back of my head. I wasn’t sure if this was the voice, or my own. I started leaving when I saw them. A handful of people were leaving the front doors, and I knew three of them. They hissed open and clamped shut with high pressure. Jessica, Melony and the Cryo one walked with several others. Laughter filled the air as they slowly descended the stone stairway down towards where I stood. I waited. Everything in my gut told me I should run; I should go away and flee. I wasn’t supposed to be here. She had won and they were going to lock me away here on the spot. I started to panic but I held my ground. I wasn’t going to just run away every time I saw her and quite frankly if I was wearing that damned mask and not this skirt, I’d be firing blasts of flame at the other two and not worrying about being captured and experimented on for the rest of my life.

“If you loved me, you’d let me, take this promotion” Our last conversation rang in the back of my head. Everything began to spin as I closed my eyes. Their voices grew louder as they approached.

“Ah. Miss Green. Nice to see you out and about. I’d heard you were taking some time away for yourself for personal reasons. It’s good to see you out.” Jess said. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a professional ponytail as wore her usual letterman jacket, a similar one to what Melony was sporting. They looked like a damned sports team. The other one, the cryo, wore something a little more industrial.

“Ah yes thank you. I have been doing well. Personal issues have been squandered. I’m doing much, much better now.” I said through almost gritted teeth. Jess glared back at me. I wasn’t sure if she’d expected me to cower to her or what, but she hadn’t expected a clap back.

“That's good. That's very good. I’d hate to see one of our city’s royalties withering away in some basement when she could be out doing something useful.” She said through her own fake smile. The others around them whispered and gawked at me. Melony carried the guitar case she always had, hung loose now though.

“I see your personal affairs have been quite busy lately.” I said, glaring between the three of them. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Melony caught on, as her head tilted.

“Ah yes, well there have been increased activities lately with that darkfire vigilante and the crew they run with.” Jess admitted. My teeth were grinding now.

“Don’t forget about the murder. The fucking bitch.” Melony said, shifting the guitar case, which I assumed held her sniper rifle in it. I tilted my head.

“The murder?” I asked, genuinely confused. I hadn’t killed anybody, not murdered anyway–not recently.

“Yeah, go ahead and tell her.” Melony said. “Maybe we could sway her to join our cause on this one.” I could hear sarcasm. Did–Melony know who I was? My stomach sank a bit.

“Well, I kind of thought you were already on top of things Miss Green. I guess our department can be wrong at times.” She laughed. “Anyway. Yeah. This is a high-level priority right now, but that murderer darkfire killed someone a few months back. Left their burn marks on the body, even bragged a little bit about at the crime scene.” Jess began in a whisper. I guess she figured telling me this was some kind of power move.

“Not the only one either.” Melony added.

“Not the only–murder? Darkfire hasn’t murdered anyone. They don’t do that. Worst I’ve ever seen is some collateral deaths involved in shootouts and what not. Of course I'm only picking up what's reported.” I said, my voice must have been wavering because both of them looked at me with disgust in their eyes. Even the cryo now glared. I hadn’t killed anyone. Nowhere near in the manner they described. The worst I could think of were some of the gunmen in the warehouse, which was self-defense and various criminals. I wouldn’t murder though.

“Don’t tell us what the bitch has or hasn't done. They fucking killed a Fear Patrol.” Melony said, balling her fist. I what? Killed a Fear Patrol? I hadn’t. I know I hadn’t and to say I killed multiple people. I felt myself floating now. The world was spinning and everything was getting hot. It felt like it had before, back on that day. I felt the world spinning. I saw multiples of everyone. I saw everyone in a twisted graveyard variant of themselves. Jess and Melony appeared to have cheshire grins while the cryo looked slightly concerned. The others talked amongst themselves, but I couldn't hear anything. All I could see was Crystal blaming me again. My friends were pointing and begging. Everything all hit me at once. I flickered in and out of the graveyard and I wasn’t sure if it was a mental transition or physical. I could feel my breathing picking up.

“I don’t think–they’d do that though.” I tried to fight it. I spoke calmly though I’m sure my panic could be seen a mile away. I could feel the rage building as warmth enveloped my hand once again.

“Hey is she alright?” The cryo asked, stepping forward. Melony and Jess had now realized the flame building in my hand.

“FOCUS. ORANGE. FIRE. ORANGE. FIRE. ORANGE. FIRE.” The voice echoed in my head repeating those words, in that order. I opened my eyes to see the fire burned with a normal orange hue.

“Oh look, I think she wants to pick a fight, Mel.” Jess said, stepping up to me.

“I think you might be right.” Melony said, gesturing towards me.

“Guys, maybe we shouldn’t do this, here, ya know, in front of the courtyard?” The cryo spoke up. Melony and Jess, both composed themselves as Jess approached me, noticing now that I was fully panicking.

“You are so lucky, if you had that mask with you right now, I’d be putting you in The Basement already, if Mel didn’t kill you first.” She whispered in such a low voice that I almost barely heard her. She stood, fixed her jacket and cleared her throat. I could feel the anger building again. I watched as the group of them dispersed. Cryo looked back at me, genuine concern on her face. I tried to stand. I would normally have gone after them. I’d have torn her from limb to limb for those words, but much like they decided, it wasn’t the place. I’d have been jumped by every official officer in that building and I’d either be underground or under the ground in minutes. I don’t even remember getting home that night. I remember bits and pieces of the city flying around me. I remember crashing into several walls and stumbling a lot. The bunker doors had finally opened and I found myself tumbling down those stairs inside, hearing the hissing doors close. I found myself on the couch, slipping out of my clothes and wrapped into a blanket, crying. Tears poured from my eyes like a faucet. I wasn’t sure if I was crying from the encounter, or the way everything felt like it did that day again. I felt like I was going to explode, like there was a nuclear ticking time bomb inside me that was clawing at the chance to escape. Something, the voice maybe, clawing and impatiently waiting to release itself on the world and kill everything. I couldn’t be sure if it wanted to cause harm for real, or if that was just the trauma talking but either way. I felt like a monster. I knew, deep down, that the Fear guys were right. I’d been dangerous. I WAS dangerous and part of me agreed with Jess that I should probably be in The Basement. I was there once as a kid, and I should have been kept there. I don’t know what got me out honestly. Good behavior I’d always been told. I was also told my connection to my parents was also part of why, but who knows for sure. I didn’t then, nor did I now, want to go around finding out the truth. I currently wanted to lay there in that cold, dark bunker and cry. My ex wanted me jailed or dead. The army wanted me gone. What was I doing here trying to prove to them I wasn’t dangerous? Maybe I was.

“WE ARE.” The voice tickled the back of my throat. I coughed. That was the last thing I remember from that night before drifting off to sleep. I could have sworn I saw the faceless entity again, but everything felt like it was crushing me. I hadn’t cared. The entity tilted its head at me from the dark hallway as I swear, I saw the light on the Harmony scanner lighting up.

“Come play with us, Mother.”