Judy made it safely back to Elysium with her mom, and I had a really nice call with her once she got back.

Denise had demanded that I “get over myself” and start talking to Judy again. I was surprised to see Denise sticking up for her, and even more surprised to hear Judy demonstrate a level of maturity, and self-awareness that I frankly did not believe she was capable of.

As painful as this was to admit, Judy really had loved Brian more than she loved me, and when Brian walked away from her, it wasn’t just another casual fling come to an end, Judy lost somebody she really cared about, and it made her do some soul-searching about who she was and who she wanted to be.

She was still Judy, still status hungry and self-obsessed, but she had a new sense of humor about it and seemed to be cutting everybody around her a lot more slack, even me.

Brian really had made her a better person, first, by providing a good example, and then by leaving her, in a way that finally made her feel the pain of others, who had loved her more than she loved them.

* * *

I didn’t see my teammates file into Randy’s office the next day before the morning briefing, to watch the video of my battle versus the Hell Cows.

I didn’t see the play by play of my interaction with Judy, up to the point I extracted her from the car and got her back to HQ.

I didn’t see Jade cross her arms and say, “He’s still got weeks of eval ahead of him, but we think it’s time to give Kovak the jacket.”

Randall looked around at the resolute faces of his team members and said, “What is this? Why is everyone suddenly sticking up for the new guy?”

“We were wrong about him,” Jade said. “He’s not just a tower kid. He gets it, Randy. The real reason we do this. He gets it. Give him the jacket.”

“He’s barely been here a month,” Randall objected. “We don’t graduate trainees in a month.”

Phil rewound the video of my artillery spell, blasting a Hell Cow up and away from the people on the bridge.

“Watch that takedown,” Phil said. “He didn’t just put himself at risk to stop the threat. That looks like a sloppy counterattack, but look how he angled the blast, to kick that thing up and back, so it would land on the street, instead of risking damage to the people behind or below.

“That’s not panic fire from a scared kid. That is a working superhero, measuring his response to minimize risk to bystanders. Watch the whole thing again. Listen to how he handles that civilian. Listen to the tone of his voice. Listen to how he calms her down.

“Then play back how he handled that first guy he healed at that first bridge, before he even got a badge. That tone is not something he learned. That’s who he is. This kid cares about people, Randy. He wants to help them and he’s gonna keep trying until he gets it right. He’s still got a lot to learn, but watch that takedown again, and tell me if that still looks like a trainee.”

Randall looked at Phil and Jade and then said, “Paul?”

“I can’t read him,” the telepath said, “but he’s rock steady with civilians, and he’s a goddamn powerhouse when he’s protecting people. I won’t know for sure until I do a personal eval, but he’s already spent months working with Hardy, and he handled that bridge like a pro, even if he was correcting his own mistake.

“The truth is, Randy, we’ve treated this kid like crap because we all thought he was just another spoiled idiot from Coleridge. We thought he would be gone in a week, first sign of trouble. We judged him too soon and we were wrong. Give him the jacket. He deserves to feel like part of a team.”

“I can’t remember the last time the three of you agreed on something,” Randy said. “Bring him to the lockers, his jacket’s been ready for weeks.”

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* * *

Randy caught me coming out of the locker room and stopped me, looking stern and pissed off. “Take off that jacket.”

“What?” I said, looking down at my soiled white jacket that had TRAINEE printed in big blue letters, front and back. The jacket was half practical, half hazing ritual, to let other heroes know to keep an eye on me, if we were ever working with another team.

It was a stained, tattered piece of shit, but it was mine, and I wore it with pride, announcing to the world that I may not be a real hero yet, but I was busting my ass to learn.

“Take the jacket off and give it to me,” Randy repeated. “Now.”

“This is bullshit!” I yelled, whipping the jacket off and throwing it at him. “The bridge was not my fault! I did exactly what you told me to do! I stayed exactly where you told me to stand, and I did not take one goddamn step toward those cows! I did not even throw a punch until after they charged me!”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Randy said. “Stop complaining and come with me.”

I shut my mouth, following Randy into the Berkeley Street break room, scowling like a petulant child.

My teammates were all there, standing around a lumpy square cake with blue frosting. The white letters on top said, “WELCOME TIM!”

I stared at it in dumb incomprehension for a minute, then I felt Randy drape something around my shoulders, a brand-new nano armor jacket in Bluestar blue with the white star logo, with B7 in big white letters on the back.

“Welcome to the team, Kovak. You’re still a temp, and you’re still the new guy, but you’re doing real work, and you deserve a real uniform. You might end up changing the team number on that jacket a few times, but I suspect you’re gonna be wearing it for a long time.”

Randy stepped back and everybody clapped. Even Paul. Paul had never said a word to me, but he was clapping like he actually gave a shit.

I could not figure out what had turned these assholes around, but I was suddenly getting their approval, and it felt pretty good. Jade even hugged me, proving that I couldn’t feel magic inside savants. Or maybe I just couldn’t feel their power through that skintight nano stuff.

Nobody seemed to be expecting a speech, and I wasn’t prepared to give one, so I just said, “Thanks, everybody,” and ate my cake.

I was sitting at the big table when I noticed how close Jade and Paul were sitting together. I must have stared at them a bit too long, because Paul made eye contact and said, “No.”

“Pardon me?” I asked. “Are you reading my mind?”

“I don’t have to. I usually go over this when we do our one-on-one, but I think you need to hear it now.” He cleared his throat and said “No, we are not related, we are not a couple, and we are not twins.”

“We’re not even friends,” Jade said, deadpan. “I actually can’t stand this smug asshole.”

“We are not even the same nationality. Ready?” Paul pointed at himself. “I’m Chinese.” He pointed at Jade. “She’s Japanese.”

He pointed back and forth between them, repeating. “Chinese, Japanese; Chinese, Japanese. Got it? Really important to never get that wrong, especially when we’re overseas.”

“How long have you guys been on the team together?”

“Too damn long,” Paul said.

“Bluestar program keeps trying to split us up,” Jade said. “Says you’re not supposed to have two Asians on the same team. They keep trying to replace me with a Hispanic, but my merch sells too good.”

They smiled at each other like this was a long-running joke, but I was afraid to laugh.

“Do you guys know when Carter’s coming back?”

“Not soon enough,” Jade said. “I really miss him. At first, I just wanted him back so I could get rid of you, but now that you’re slightly competent, I want to see you work with him.

“Carter’s not a front-line fighter, but he’s strong in a lot of areas where you’re weak. We really need somebody who can do divination and detective stuff before we get ambushed by some kind of heavy magic shit.”

“Speaking of heavy magic shit, is anybody looking into this necromancer who—”

“Drop it,” they said in stereo, like they had just been waiting for me to bring it up.

* * *

I was trying to look calm and professional in front of my team, but I ran in my front door grinning like an idiot, and found Lydia on her usual perch, still hiding her demon stuff, wearing jeans and a yellow t-shirt.

I held my arms out and turned around for her, blatantly showing off. “How do I look?”

“You look very happy, but I’m not sure why. What does that garment mean?”

“It means I’m a real member of a real Bluestar team, even if I am still on probation. This jacket… This jacket is what heroes wear. This jacket is what Captain Cobalt wore.

“This is the jacket I’ve dreamed about wearing since I was eight years old. It means I did it, Lydia. I finally did it. After a lifetime of thinking it would be impossible, I am an official superhero with Bluestar 7.”

Lydia obviously didn’t understand the context here, but she stepped off the wall and kissed me, running her hands over the bulletproof fabric.

I walked into the bathroom before I remembered the mirror was still broken from the night I got back from killing Baalphezar.

Demons like to use mirrors to communicate with their servants on Earth, so destroying it together had been a kind of declaration of independence for me and Lydia.

I looked at the dull brown corkboard and noticed there were still tiny shards of glass in it. “Remind me to clean this up,” I yelled to Lydia, “before I cut myself.”

I didn’t trust traditional mirrors anymore, so I threw up a floating camera and conjured a projection of myself, watching myself pose and turn around, while Lydia held my hand.