Jack walked down the stairs, morning coffee in hand. It was nice having this place to himself. Such things were becoming exceedingly pricey, as some people liked to complain about. But he could afford it. With his network of contacts, quite a few doors had opened for him.

  Not the least of which being a more advanced group of tech-based heroes here in Central exchanging ideas and resources. He still had Aegis, of course, but there was a limit to what could reasonably be sold on there. Never mind the fact that he wasn’t exactly living in the foremost tech frontier of the world, which created a layer of separation that his associates had to go through in order to acquire better materials and plans.

  The best way to reach that higher stage of power, ultimately, was to find something robust enough that it could actually withstand skirmishes with top of the line superhumans and Unbound.

  Unfortunately, he was still bottom of the totem pole in this place. Not even close to making front page headlines like Nar or any of the other bigshots. Even in his own group of contacts, he was the only one crazy enough to go on patrol and even missions for credit without a power of his own.

  But he wouldn’t cower and hide away. Because if he did, he would be nothing. He would be going back on his own word. And that was worse than any physical suffering he could imagine. No, he didn’t wanna be that kind of person in a million years.

  There were ways for him to get to the next level; probably not the peak, but at least to a point where he didn’t have to worry about even the most basic thugs from the stronger gangs. If he was lucky, he would get something to separate him from the masses. As it stood, the street identity of “Gridlock” was held together by glue, prayers, and countless hours of maintenance.

  Though even if he achieved all of that, odds were he would still feel like an imposter. That was just how his brain worked. Always reminding him how much he didn’t belong, how everything could go wrong one night and then he would be another statistic, obscure and forgotten.

  His stomach churned at the thought. Nothing would be worse than…

  A buzz in his pocket alerted him to a phone notification. Fishing it out with one hand, he unlocked it and swiped to see that it was apparently Aegis sending him something.

  Some kinda profile update for one of his contacts? He wasn't following anyone who still used the app, so what was going on here.

  Bold letters stared him in the face, mocking and irrefutable.

  The mug fell from his hands and shattered on the floor.

  No way. No fucking way. It couldn’t be real.

  But it was right there.

  He fell to his knees, not caring about the stains or shards.

  His best friend was coming back.

  He blinked a dozen times, slapped himself, pinched his skin as hard as he could. After confirming he was not dreaming, he looked again. Blessedly, the screen was unchanged. It was real.

  Finn was alive.

  ********

  “Warp was telling me about it earlier,” Voyager was saying to Cerese. “One of our own Apexians all the way across the ocean, shaking things up. Miami is talking about it too. We have a knack for producing the greats, don't we? I can hardly believe it. We should make the pitch to him. Giving Nar easy access to his power again so he can rotate it out would be convenient for us too. Unless the guy is unbound like us? What do you think?”

  Cerese started saying something in the negative, though Aiden was no longer listening, curiously checking the news feed to see what was going on.

  That was when he saw it, the article about an extremely familiar name he never thought he would hear about again. It had been his greatest failure, the culmination of his own hubris costing the life of not only his mentor but the son of one of the people he respected most in this world. These thoughts had haunted him even as he strived to never make the same mistakes again. To get so strong that such judgments weren’t mistakes to begin with.

  He swapped his cloud generation power for color manipulation, catching every single detail of what he was seeing. The sparse bits of footage that had been caught of the estranged young hero painted a staggering picture too. A clean, simple-yet-fitting aesthetic that he noted with some amusement was vaguely reminiscent of Shiftseeker.

  “You truly survived,” he said out loud, as though that would cement the reality of the situation.

  Aiden watched. And stared.

  Then he began to laugh uproariously.

  *******

  Cipher ran into the conference room, laptop balanced on one arm. “Boss, did you see…”

  Seated behind the table, an unmasked Calliope caressed her phone screen, breathing hard while her wide eyes were fixed in a hungry stare. Tears rolled down her face, a hopeful, desperate smile that bordered on a grimace stretching her mouth from ear to ear.

  Walking around the table carefully, Cipher saw that the boss was indeed looking at an image of her old teammate jumping out of a building, white costume painting a stark contrast against the night.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” asked Calliope.

  Sweat beaded on his forehead. Cipher fumbled for a way to save himself from the wrath he knew she could inflict on him. “I was about to—”

  “I should’ve apologized. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry. I want to see you again.”

  She wasn’t talking to him. Didn’t even notice his presence, it seemed like. One-hundred percent focused on her screen.

  Slowly, Cipher began to back away.

  “I bought some new clothes I can show you when you get back,” she continued speaking to the person in the picture who could not hear her.

  “My hair is a bit messy right now, but I’ll style it for you, okay?” She twirled a finger through her black locks. “I got strong too, so I can help you with things. It’s what I still know how to do. With everything else, I just leave a mess.”

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  Leaning closer, she whispered so faintly that he could barely make it out, “Please don’t leave me again…”

  *******

  Name: Shade

  Missions completed: 376

  Ability: Color manipulation, invisibility, light control, physical augmentation

  Combat capabilities;

  Offensive power: High

  Defensive power: High

  Mobility: Expert

  Utility: Expert

  Hand-to-hand combat: High

  Weapon proficiency: Intermediate

  Power control: High

  Tactical awareness: High

  Strategic planning: High

  Estimated threat level: A

  *******

  Unimaginable. She couldn’t believe it.

  Casey felt the relief flooding through her body, shaking up other long-buried feelings she hadn’t ever wanted to address. He was alive. That asshole. He was really alive.

  “You’re lucky I can’t slap you right now, Allister,” she said with a groan, letting her head fall back on her pillows. There was definitely no tightness in her throat, and her eyes were not watering. In the least.

  Letting out a slow, shuddering breath, she sat up. There was a lot that needed to be addressed, but at the moment, Casey just allowed herself to be glad that her friend was coming back while simultaneously thinking of what she would say to him.

  And then? Well…

  She needed to go tell Emily the miraculous news.

  *******

  “I told yoooouuuuuuuuuuu. I. Told. You~”

  Colette watched on in fond exasperation as Ines did her little victory jig. It was to be expected, of course. They just got back from another basic merc gig here in Central, only to receive the news that Shade was alive. Clearly a great deal of celebration was warranted.

  She couldn't imagine how Aiden was feeling right now. Out of all of them, she could confidently say that his expectations of Finn had been the highest. So to see the younger boy shatter them like that… hell, even she was suitably impressed. From the day they had first met, it felt like every time she blinked, there was a bigger and better version of the color manipulator standing in front of her.

  The one lingering concern she had was about Lyra, and how that would go once Finn returned. She lacked the tools to help the other girl, despite having tried her best to prove otherwise. Maybe with him here, that could change.

  Plus, she dearly wished to tease the pair again. It’d been way too long.

  But for now, she owed Ines a lot of credits.

  *******

  “Talia. What is your assessment?”

  “Consistent with previous footage recorded of this individual, sir. It’s almost certainly him,” answered the woman in her standard robotic tone.

  Leaning back in his ergonomic desk chair, the CEO nodded. “The kid from the Trooper clip was him, then. That might complicate matters.”

  “What are your suggestions, sir?” inquired Talia.

  He thought about it for a moment. Cotherman having past interactions with the boy could turn out to be a complication if handled incorrectly. After a second of further deliberation, he said, “Wait and observe, don’t take any rash action. If he crosses one of our districts, prepare to make contact. That is all.”

  “Very well.” She nodded.

  He would be a fool to dismiss new contacts who might have their uses. Especially in this stage of preparation for their next major campaign.

  Homeland was experiencing an upswing, after all.

  ********

  Sitting in a dark room, Gunther read the article with a grin, elbows in his knees as he hunched forward to look at the report. It wasn’t much, admittedly, but this? This was proof that the broken—now mended—kid, Shade, had not been what he’d expected. The power was impressive and familiar in a way he didn’t often see, and yet he hadn’t envisioned that he would actually succeed in mastering the prototype.

  “Unreal,” he grunted, baring his teeth further.

  We’ll destroy him, like we do all our other adversaries.

  “True that,” he replied. Shellrend wasn't as talkative after he had unlocked his transformation, but the belligerent bastard still spoke up from time to time when it came to the important stuff.

  Granted, he wasn’t gonna make the mistake of underestimating Shade if the upstart came after him. Sometimes, hubris was a deadly thing, if you let it control you. Other times, it came down to raw power and skill.

  And on a rare occasion, you survived because of nothing but happenstance and goodwill from your opponent. Instinctively, his hand reached for the scar over his chest before he stopped it. No. If Summitway wanted to send its new anchor after him, that was fine.

  He clicked off the video and stood from the crate he’d been sitting on. Central was getting boring, to be honest. Hero teams panicked out the ass that their little plan failed, scrambling to keep their golden girl safe. Maybe he would do the unpredictable thing and head off to Solvarna again? Nah, better Domini. Teach Phantomurge a lesson for thinking he was hot shit. Create a panic. Yeah, that sounded right.

  In his twenty-seven years of life, it was in the latter half that Gunther had gained a true appreciation for causing chaos. There were few things more satisfying to him.

  Then, his thoughts were interrupted by an incoming silhouette. He sensed the contours in his awareness, bearing down on him from up high.

  Rocketing down at hypersonic speeds.

  Lightforger is coming to us. How coincidental.

  He tacitly agreed with Shellrend on that, their thoughts already synchronized to near perfection. How did Noor know his location, when he wasn't even active or staying transformed?

  Either way, he bulked up and grew into the form he used for battle, three meters of muscled, scaled ursine power. Setting his stance wide, he braced himself for the white blur smashing into him. Concrete, glass and brick shattered, though he was unharmed.

  “Omega,” Noor said, flying him well out of the bounds of civilized society. “Surrender. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

  Hardened claws swiped at her, but she swerved away and circled around him for a double-fisted punch to the back, the impact creating a thunderous shockwave around them. Still, he remained undamaged. “You think you got the power to make demands like that?” he taunted.

  “I didn’t come alone.” She started to back away.

  Seven more figures teleported in, courtesy of Voyager’s power. All of them were beacons of the supernatural, holding connections to something beyond themselves. He frowned. A strike team coordinated to take him down. Not some random lucky guess. How the hell had they found him?

  This was the first time something like this had ever happened to him. The look of his human face wasn’t known to the public, and he knew how to throw off the heroes and their spy networks. So how?

  A black tesseract spawned around him, trapping him in place. Star-shaped comets of red light surged toward his position, unavoidable. He reinforced himself, arms shielding his torso.

  They crashed into him with practically no kinetic power, but somehow did ruin our damage to his scales and penetrated even deeper than that. Disintegration effects. Internal damage. Dimensional locking. He knew what was going on here.

  As he anticipated, a cone of mental force connected to his back, putting him in some psionic’s mental realm.

  He growled, marshalling all of Shellrend’s power. Rebellious fury roiled in his gut, and as he started fighting his way out, realization dawned in his head. About the one loose end running around who could have had critical info on him.

  Gunther would make sure to pay Shade back for this.

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