Izzy’s mouth twitched. If that meant she was worried, I was in agreement. She didn’t deserve to get in trouble for yanking me out of the crowd like that, but I could see how she might.

We all went into the room anyway.

Lim sat down on the table. “I wanted to talk with you about a few different things, and I’m hoping you’ll pass them on to Travis and Rachel.”

“Of course,” Daniel said.

From behind me, Vaughn muttered, “If we remember.”

Isaac nodded. “Great. First off, I heard about the first year briefing, and Izzy, you were right to say something. Bullet’s a straightforward guy, and he’s mostly involved in the endgame. With his powers, there’s no reason to bring him in until shooting’s the only option. He tends to forget how much happens before then.

“So to make things clear, we don’t bother anybody who’s not causing trouble. Besides, as you heard, if we went after everyone connected with aliens we’d be going after almost everyone here. So don’t leave, okay?”

“I’m not.” Izzy stood a little bit to the right of me. “He was clear enough in the end, but I hope you’re not sitting on any more surprises.”

Isaac smiled a little. “Nothing big that we’re planning to tell you at your current security clearance.”

Cassie snorted.

“Getting a little sick of secrets, Cassie?” Isaac grinned at her. “I’ve got some good news and some bad news there. We’ve seen signs that the Nine have stepped up looking for you since what happened in D.C. They’ve been looking for you on and off for years, but they weren’t motivated to make Grand Lake a priority until recently. Watch out for them.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Wait,” Cassie said, “you don’t have people watching me yourself?”

“Of course we do, and we’re not the only ones, but we can’t watch you all the time.”

“Thanks for the part-time protection then.”

“It’s the least we can do,” Isaac said, and from his smile, I knew he was making a joke.

“You think you're funny,” Cassie said.

“Is that everything?” Jaclyn glanced toward the door. “This is our last chance to get into our rooms and unpack before supper. I know I can make it, but I’m not so sure about the rest of you…”

Isaac said, “That’s the other thing. Watch it with the powers while you’re here. That’s the official reason I’m visiting. We’ve got telepaths, but we can only erase so much of the staff’s memory before someone notices. Now, I’ve got to say, there wasn’t much of anything to see when Izzy grabbed Nick, but our alarms went off. So I’m just telling you to watch it, okay?”

He pushed himself off the table. “Well, that’s about it. Just one more thing before I let you go. You guys know a lot of people around here. Izzy’s new to all this. Would you mind introducing her around? I’d suggest you avoid people whose parents or grandparents fought Dixie Superman, but it’s too late, right?”

Captain Commando, and Jaclyn’s grandfather “C” had fought him more than anybody else. It fit—what with Captain Commando’s patriotic theme, and C being the best known black super during the 1960’s. How could either of them not end up going to head to head with a guy who wanted to end the civil rights movement, and convince the South to secede again?

Jaclyn, Cassie, and Izzy all looked at each other.

“Later,” Isaac said, and walked out the door.

“You don’t have to,” Izzy said. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

It was funny to see someone with her powers being shy, or if not shy at least nervous.

“Don’t worry about it,” Cassie grinned up at her. “I don’t know a lot of people outside the group either.”

“After last summer,” Izzy began, “I feel strange about asking you for anything.”

“We didn’t even fight each other,” Jaclyn said. “I don’t know how we managed it, but we didn’t. We’ve got nothing to forgive, nothing to forget. We’ve barely met, and never as ourselves.”

She held out her hand, “I’m Jaclyn.”

Izzy took it. “Isabel. People call me Izzy.”

“You know,” Vaughn said, “I’m feeling like someone ought to start a ‘hero descended from supervillians club.’ It seems like there are a bunch of us all of a sudden.”