Sparrow looked completely different. In the few seconds she spent behind the shelf, she had changed into a new outfit. She wore a black skirt, tights, and a T-shirt with the word “NOCTURNAL” written in all-caps. Her mask was gone, revealing an attractive woman underneath. Her hair was dyed blue, though the black roots of her hair were starting to show.

  My face twitched, and my mouth hung open slightly for a few seconds before I was able to collect myself. Her outfit was very effective at hiding her identity, which made the switch much starker.

  “You change fast,” I said to cover up the embarrassment I was feeling.

  “It’s a trick you pick up as a Hero,” Sparrow said, and I could see some coloration in her cheeks.

  She stepped into an elevator, and I followed her. I was reminded of the elevator ride out of the Chateau, which made me appreciate the informality and calmness of the present moment. Last time, we were a Hero and a maximum-security prisoner. This time, we were just two young people in an elevator.

  “So, Sparrow,” I said, chuckling slightly. “What do I call you now?”

  “I hope you appreciate this, Macro. I don’t let many people learn my secret identity. Some Heroes are really casual about telling people, but I’m not.” She spoke with a light tone, but I could hear real fear in her voice.

  “I really am thankful, really,” I said truthfully.

  She smiled slightly before speaking. “My real name is Hana York.”

  “York, eh?” I gave her a sideways glance. “That’s… uh… not what I expected.”

  “Why, ‘cause I’m Asian?” Hana said with a sardonic smile.

  Race relations were the same on this planet. Good to know.

  “To be honest, I never knew my parents,” Hana said wistfully. “I decided to take the name of the nun who ran the orphanage as my surname.”

  The elevator doors opened, and we exited out onto the street. Though the sun was still above the horizon, no one was standing nearby when we left the elevator. The road looked like it hadn’t been maintained in decades, and the asphalt looked like it would be fully consumed by the dirt in a few years.

  Immediately, I knew this was a bad part of town. The buildings were all dilapidated, and the lack of foot traffic put me on guard. It was the kind of place that homeless people would stay away from due to lack of safety. I doubted that the cops ever patrolled this part of town.

  I choked down a sarcastic statement. Instead, I said, “What’s up with the wall?”

  “I thought even you’d know about that,” Hana said. “The walls keep out the divine beasts and nightwalkers.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Of course, the divine beasts and nightwalkers. Silly me.

  “Well, here’s the place,” Hana said after walking less than a hundred feet away from the wall. With the sun low in the sky, the building we stood in front of languished in the wall’s shadow.

  On the front of the building, the words “Ashburn Luxury Apartments” were written in neat faded letters. Before I looked at the apartment building, my eyes were first drawn to the smaller building across the cracked street, which was marked with the words “New Hope Orphanage.” Hana looked over toward the old orphanage, and there was great significance in her gaze.

  “What’s the story?” I asked.

  “I didn’t want to go far from home,” Hana answered.

  We entered the apartment building, and it was much nicer on the inside. The lights were out, but the lobby seemed like it was well maintained. Two people in their mid-twenties - a man and a woman - stood at the far end of the lobby. Their backs were turned to the entrance, and they were fiddling with a fuse box built into the wall.

  Once the door was closed, Hana said, “Now that we’re out of the open, I can tell you that every person who lives here is a Hero working for New Kinsington. The city pays for rent and utilities, and there’s always food in the pantry.”

  “Nice place,” I said. Once the words were already out of my mouth, I realized I meant it. “Do you get paid for being a Hero?”

  “Pay for Heroes is a… touchy subject,” Hana said. “Those of us that get paid make enough to live on, and we try to support the Heroes that don’t make money.”

  “Ah, politics,” I said with a smile. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

  The two others in the lobby saw us, and the man said, “Hey, Hana! The power cut out. Help us fix it.”

  The woman saw me and asked, “Who’s the new guy?”

  “His name is Kevin Avery; he’s a telekinetic,” Hana said.

  “Hello,” I said.

  Sparrow gestured to the man and said, “This is Jason Jacobi. He can control electricity, and his Hero name is Thunderbolt.”

  Very original.

  She pointed at the woman, saying, “This is Claire York. She’s a telepath, and her Hero name is Europa.”

  Europa? Unbidden, thoughts began flying through my mind and dots started getting connected. She was named after a moon of Jupiter just like somebody else I ran into recently.

  “Another blank? How annoying,” Claire said, grimacing in my direction.

  I looked over at Hana awkwardly. With just a few sentences, my mind was filled with three questions that I needed to have answered.

  “Blanks are people who are immune to telepathy and mind control,” Hana answered my implicit question. “I’m a blank, and I guess you are too.”

  I was reminded of the time when Speaker tried to control my mind. “I see. Claire, you wouldn’t happen to be connected to a villain named Ganymede?”

  The tension in the room increased significantly as soon as I said the word “Ganymede,” and I knew I was right.

  Though I expected an answer from Claire, Hana was the first one to speak. “The orphanage is officially run by Kingfisher and Calysto, so a lot of the kids who go through there name themselves after birds or moons. Ganymede lived in the orphanage at the same time as me and Claire.”

  For a brief moment, I considered telling them the truth, that Ganymede had been killed in a prison break after running through a door that I had opened. There was no reason to, so I kept my mouth shut. They would learn the truth eventually, and I didn’t want to darken our first meeting.

  “Nice to meet you. Now, help me get the electricity back on,” Jason Jacobi said quickly.