As it turned out, the team of junior heroes had been waiting for him to exit the room. At least, some of them had. Vindex, the captain. The armored Echelon. And surprisingly Tress at the far end of the hall, fidgeting nervously.

  He had been sensing them the entire time, of course, but he offered a token sign of surprise in the form of a raised eyebrow. Vindex straightened as Finn stepped into the hallway, arms crossed over his chest in the way that clearly meant we’re going to talk whether you like it or not. Interesting, considering how thoroughly the boy had been trounced earlier.

  Absent those teal energy constructs, Vindex wore a plain teal bodysuit with everything except the upper part of his face covered, revealing sharp, dark eyes and an expression that bordered on expectant.

  Echelon seemed to be vibrating with excitement, clearly doing his level best to let his leader speak first.

  Tress, meanwhile, looked like she was trying to disappear into the wall, her fingers twined together as if she’d folded and refolded them a dozen times while waiting.

  Finn slowed to a halt, arms loose at his sides, gaze passing over each of them without any real urgency. “Was it a good show?”

  “No idea,” Vindex replied. “Didn’t bug the room. But you were in there a while, so either you were spilling your secrets or confessing your love.”

  “Bit of both,” Finn joked in a flat tone, brushing past him.

  Vindex didn’t stop him—at least not with words. He fell into step beside him, Echelon clanking along behind. Tress trailed at a distance, like she wasn’t sure she was even allowed to be there.

  “So. Dead man turns up alive on another continent? What’s that about?” came the expected question.

  “I told your boss everything already.”

  “And you don’t feel like giving us anything? Not the smallest tidbit?” asked the boy with a sideways glance.

  “Not particularly.”

  Vindex twitched. Echelon intervened. “Shade, listen. Can I ah, have your autograph? Be great if I could brag about getting an Unbound to sign something. I’ve never seen one up close and personal before. I’ll make Zyph see your greatness too, eventually. She’s pretty sour on you right now, but she’ll come around.”

  He honestly could not care less what the speedster girl thought of him, but the autograph sounded like an odd coincidence. Assuming it was one. Paloma had just asked for one yesterday, and now this kid too? He sighed. Whatever. “I’m not an Unbound.”

  Echelon’s head reared back, slowing his pace. “No shit?”

  Finn gave no response, continuing his stride unabated.

  “Well, if that’s true, I mean. Does it matter? It just means you’ll be stronger when you do, right?” The armored boy pulled out a palm-sized pane of glass and a stylus. It took Finn a moment to register that it was actually a phone, going by the internal circuitry he could sense with his power. American tech really was different.

  “Alright,” Finn said, giving him the same autograph he’d given out before. Outwardly, Echelon gave no reaction, but in the color sense, that grin was undeniable. So was the radiating excitement in the aura.

  “You know you’re supposed to stay on base until further notice?” Vindex said. “Unless you have someplace else to sleep?”

  “I’m not sleeping.” They were almost at the door now, and Finn was quite sure it would open from the inside and he didn’t need any sort of security clearance to leave. Or perhaps that was the reason the others were with him.

  Confusion rippled out beside him. “Wha…?”

  An outline of a hand shot out in the future to grab his arm, though Finn didn’t bother to dodge it. It was just Vindex’s arm attempting to grab ahold of his, and of the situation too.

  “You’re not sleeping,” the teal-clad hero echoed. “How many powers do you have?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Will this door open on its own?”

  “It… won’t, actually. I can help. Maybe ask you something as well?” Tress tried in a small voice.

  “Sure.”

  The black-and-white gloves punched a combination into the touchpad, and she leaned down to give the retina scanner an eyeful. With a hiss, the door opened smoothly, exposing them to the warm afternoon air.

  Their eyes met, but she quickly looked back at the ground. Fear wafted off the girl, on top of… something much more affectionate that he wasn’t going to address. Had he made a mistake with the fake facial design? Should he just keep his mask up at all times? Something to figure out later.

  “I was wondering. Do you have any tips for me? Your power countered my spatial enclosure, but I mean from a strategic standpoint, what could I do better? You moved like an expert,” Tress confessed.

  “Don’t immediately try to box in your opponent,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Consider how mobile they are, narrow down the number of escape routes before you close them all off. Try to zone them if you’re with a team. In one-on-one scenarios, start with the ground, limit the footing options before you go high. Force a reaction instead of assuming you’ll land the first move. That sort of thing.”

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  Tress nodded rapidly, hanging onto his words with the kind of nervous reverence that made Finn feel older than he was, or maybe just more tired. She didn’t reply, but he felt the gratitude roll off her like a slow, quiet wave. Genuine.

  He stepped through the threshold and into the sun, letting the dry air wash over him. The brightness was a lot, even if he appreciated the easy access to light for his nanites.

  “You planning on coming back?” Vindex called.

  Finn looked back at him. “We agreed I’d be back here in two days.”

  “You sure you don’t want someone to tag along? If we’re on the same side now…” the boy suggested.

  “Yeah,” Echelon added. “That is, if you’re feeling up for a new partner after the last one went villain.”

  The entire world stood still for a second.

  “...What did you say?” Finn said, despite understanding exactly what the words meant.

  The power armor somehow managed to convey the younger hero going white as a sheet through body language. “You didn’t know? Calliope’s a villain now. I thought you’d checked the news and stuff. Seen what’s going on back home.”

  Finn didn’t answer right away.

  He stood there, half-turned, his shadow stretching long across the pavement behind him as the door hissed shut. The sun beat down on his back, but all he could feel was a creeping cold under his skin. Like light was a thing that only pretended to offer warmth.

  Lyra. A villain.

  It felt as if someone had punched him in the gut.

  Throughout his journey from war-torn South America to here, he hadn’t had access to the internet until he crossed the border, and held no intention of actively looking up news. Because of things like this. The fear that something had gone horribly wrong before he was there to stop it from occurring.

  “You’re serious?” The question was quiet, almost a whisper.

  “Y-yeah, man,” Echelon replied, shrinking in on himself. “It’s all over your local news. Big city, or district as you guys call it? Over in Central I mean. Started small-time as a gang leader. Then she escalated. Now it’s mostly strikes against corporate labs, databanks, resource convoys. She’s targeted, precise. Like she’s trying to send a message. Oh, and she has a trail of bodies. Sorry.”

  When Finn gave no response, he continued, “Do you want me to show you? I can—”

  Finn held up a hand, hanging his head. “I believe it.”

  “You seem less surprised than I thought you would be,” Vindex remarked.

  He didn’t grace that with a response, going invisible and running away at top speed.

  The rooftops seemed too small to hold him. He kept running into the distance, not realizing where he was going at first. Clarity returned to him upon spotting his bag coming closer into range. His jumps were much smoother than they’d been initially. He wasn’t used to having the raw physical power necessary to hop from rooftop to rooftop with nothing but his own muscle strength, yet here he was.

  There wasn’t an elated bone in his body right now, however. All he could think about was his entire world crashing down on him. Lyra was running a gang. How could she? No, he knew how. She was under the influence of her power. She was like Omega, he had established this when he first returned to Earth.

  So why did it still hurt this much?

  He didn’t have an answer when he eventually returned to the spot where he'd left his bag in. Nothing of value had been left here, simply some clothes and seeds, but for some reason he felt the need to hold onto anything he had that he could call his, at the moment. It was weird. He didn’t understand the emotional cocktail wreaking havoc on his mental state.

  Sometimes, he forgot that for all his power increases, he had never gained the ability to glean insight into his own aura. While he was aware of the hormonal balances, they weren’t the same as the metaphysical aspect of someone’s feelings being projected outward. And that was something he lacked for himself. For a reason he wasn’t privy to. He couldn’t very well ask his power. It had never responded to his conscious input from the moment he first manifested it.

  Bending his knees, he sat on the ledge, not caring how dangerously close to falling he was.

  Down on the streets, the city was buzzing with activity. Fleets of drones flew by, some cleaning, some displaying the news, some enforcing the law. People traveled every which way in sleek, futuristic vehicles of various shapes and sizes. Coming back from work or school probably, unconcerned with the public narrative spun by heroes and villains. Trying to make it from one day to the next.

  His eyes drifted to the blue sky. “Was I too late?” he murmured.

  What would their meeting be like, once he got back? He didn’t have the faintest clue how to answer that. How far gone would she be? There was nothing he wanted more than to make sure he knew she still had a chance. He couldn’t live with this ambiguity. But he would have to; contacting her right this minute would be a terrible idea, assuming he even could. They would have to reunite face to face, and he would confront her, apologize, plead with her to come back. Or something entirely different. Things were up in the air.

  And wasn’t that an awful thought. It was funny, in a twisted way. In the early days, when she was with him all the time, she was so loyal that he took her for granted. Today, over a year later and with an ocean between them, he had learned what it was like to be tested in the worst ways when she was nowhere near him. It was difficult. Her memory had done more for him than he was ready to admit out loud.

  He missed her.

  “If you can reciprocate even a fraction of that, I’ll be happy.”

  Her words rang through his mind, flashes of what he had come to realize was a better time. It made him wonder if she would have held on longer if he’d given her more of what she wanted, if he’d addressed her feelings sooner. Intellectually, he was aware that thinking in what-ifs was pointless, but he couldn’t help it.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Finn heaved a sigh. In the end, it would all come down to what happened after his return. A level-headed approach was the move here. He couldn’t rush in blindly and hope for the best. One wrong turn could turn the situation from bad to irreparable.

  Bad, because he wasn’t living in the worst timeline imaginable yet. Omega hadn’t gotten to Lyra. He couldn’t fathom what would happen if those two powers interacted, and he didn’t plan to find out.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t go there straight away and bring her back to her right mind. No teleportation powers in his arsenal, and no heroes available to transport him in an instant. The fastest way was two days out, minimum. That meant he had to make that time count.

  Miami had plenty of supervillain activity, and Finn was ready to blow off some steam.

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