The team entered the base and the very light around them seemed to dim. The day had been draining. While Liam had only visited two murder scenes during his short career, they both gave off the feeling of having your very energy drained away. Being near a deceased person tended to do that. Or at least Liam assumed that was the reason.

After everything the team saw at the Pullun house, they knew the killings were related. There was a serial killer on the loose. What they were still trying to figure out was the who and why of it. Given how slowly the case was going that could take some time to figure out.

Running through what he knew of the two victims, Liam tried to figure out what they had in common. At first glance there wasn’t anything. The two men lived in different worlds. The first, Mr. Dean, was single and in his early twenties. He worked at a local insurance company and was still at the bottom of the totem pole.

Mr. Dean lived in a small, single bedroom apartment. While the place wasn’t falling down around him, it wasn’t a five star establishment. It was no surprise he went to bars. Some weeks he spent more time at them than in his own apartment. Many nights finding someone new to bring back and enjoy the evening with.

On the other hand Mr. Pullun was in his late forties and worked at a pharmaceutical company. He had three kids and everything indicated he was in a happy marriage. His home was in an idyllic neighborhood to raise children. Besides the interesting neighbor, Annabeth, everything was great about the place.

Where Mr. Dean was a known partier, Mr. Pullun was quite the opposite. Many of the people Liam interviewed said the man spent most of his nights away from the public. Preferring to spend it with his family in the privacy of their own home. No where near the partier lifestyle of Mr. Dean.

The two victims were so different Liam was having trouble seeing how they ever crossed paths. If it wasn’t for the similar crime scenes, then he would’ve said there was nothing connecting them at all.

Filing into the base, Liam tabled his thoughts on the crimes. It was time for a small break before he got back to work. The rest of the team must’ve felt the same way. Gladius sprawled out onto the couch and turned on the TV. Barely paying attention to the rest of them as she stared at the screen. Taking off her helmet, golden hair fell down in a knotted tangle. However, her eyes didn’t even flutter as they watched the TV, unaware of the large purple bags hanging under them.

H-Bar trudged to the fridge and grabbed a couple beers before joining Gladius on the couch. Setting one next to her, he opened the other and took a long pull. Even from the other side of the room Liam could see the tension in his body melt away as he sagged onto the couch. A long sigh escaping his lips.

The two didn’t speak as they shared their drinks. Liam had seen this tradition before and knew what it signaled, decompression time. Heading to the fridge he grabbed his own beer and went to join them. On his way Liam noticed a member of the team was missing.

Skip had disappeared as soon as they reached the base. Another tradition Liam was seeing. As always, Skip didn’t explain where he was going or even say goodbye. He was there one moment and gone the next. The rest of the team didn’t even bat an eye at his departure, but it got Liam’s blood boiling. This was just another example of how the man wasn’t a good teammate.

Walking to the couch Liam saw the TV watchers had settled on a baseball game. Tied in the bottom of the ninth, perfect time to start watching he thought. Before making it to the promised relaxation, the pillows singing his name, Ullr stopped him.

“When you joined the team, you said there was some new code you were working on. Something about digging into crimes and finding any commonalities between them?” Ullr asked.

“Yes, it’ll find even the smallest of leads for us to dig into.”

“Good. Have you tested it yet?”

As Ullr started to ask questions about the new program both of the Heroes on the couch piqued up. The conversation distracting them from their exhaustion as well as the game on TV.

“Yes, but only on the small time stuff like petty theft,” Liam said.

“How do the results look?”

Liam’s mind spun. Taking a moment to reconfigure before he could think through the question. From what he remembered, the results of the program had been good. He hadn’t been running it religiously so he’d only seen about a dozen cases so far. All muggings and petty thefts, if his memory served. But try as he might to remember the exact statistics the numbers wouldn’t come.

“The system has been very accurate. If you give me a minute, I can find the statistics,” Liam said. A faint red creeping onto his cheeks. He should’ve known those numbers. This was the program he was trying to get the team to use. Why would they, if he didn’t have those stats on the top of his head?

“No need to do that, I trust you. Can you run it on the two murders?”

The question caught Liam off guard and by the stunned silence from the couch, its occupants as well. “Are you sure you want me to? I thought we didn’t want to run an untested system on the first murder?”

The exhaustion he’d been feeling was gone. Replaced with an energy he hadn’t felt in a long time. This was the chance to prove the program useful. To prove himself useful. However, before that, he had to make sure Ullr knew what he was asking for.

“We’re past the point where we get to pick what we use.”

“Are you sure boss?” Gladius asked. Head swiveling around to point at Ullr. The first movement she’d made sense she landed on the couch.

“We need to know what the program finds.”

The comment drew a thoughtful nod from Gladius and a serious one from H-Bar as all the team members present gave their blessing.

“Then we’re all in agreement. Source, if you’d be so kind.”

“I’ll get started now!” Liam said, already shifting towards the door.

“Great.” Ullr said as a dismissal.

Taking one last look at the promised relaxation Liam turned and headed to the workshop. With the adrenal rush of being asked to use his system he couldn’t just sit down and watch a game. Though that didn’t mean he’d pass on the beer. Popping the can open Liam took a drink. Not the best he’d ever had, but it’d be more than enough to get himself through the rest of the day.

Reaching the lab, in record time, Liam got to work. Uploading all the information the team had on the two murders into his system. The files from today’s murder were still being worked on so he snuck a look at the draft forms and used those. He also connected any social media accounts and other publicly available information on the two victims into the system. He hoped it would be enough to find something useful. This was the first time the program would be used for such an important case and Liam was dying to see the results.

With all the files uploaded a green arrow key appeared. Taking a deep breath Liam hit the button as butterflies took flight in his stomach. Time to see how the code worked with the most heinous of crimes.

From previous cases he knew it’d take a few hours to a day for the code to run as it cycled through all the data and flagged anything of interest. With the code, unoptimized as it was, that was a reasonable timeframe. Now that it was getting used he’d have to look into speeding it up. Liam played with the idea of using off site servers, for additional processing power, but knew the team wouldn’t approve. Even if it delivered results much faster. For security reasons, it was best to keep everything in house.

Even knowing that it was going to take time to process, Liam stared at the screen. His foot tapping away as he watched the processing icon spin. An examination like this couldn’t be expected in minutes. Looking through the crime scene and victim data would take longer than a few minutes. With a sigh Liam set a notification to alert him when the program completed. Then he moved on.

Because he was already in the workshop Liam decided to do a little more work before he called it a night. As tempting as the couch sounded, this was for the best. Plus he needed something to keep his hands busy as the program ran.

With no end in sight, Liam took off his suit. Returning each piece to its rightful place on the rack. As each piece came off the chilled air of the lab sent goosebumps roaming over his skin. The temperature change was jarring, however expected. Liam liked it cold in the lab. It helped him think.

Placing the last piece of the suit on the rack Liam looked at it, standing there in all its glory, he felt like a father looking at his child. All of his accomplishments couldn’t compare to those his suit would reach. With a little chuckle at himself, for the stupidity of the thought, Liam moved to the next task.

This was an important, if sometimes dull step, looking for any problems with the suit. On days where there was fighting, Liam faced dozens of parts needing repair. Each bringing new challenges he’d never seen before. Liam almost looked forward to the damage as it let him toy around repairing it. The most recent exciting repair was bending a shoulder piece back after he’d hit a street light. Well, maybe Liam was hit by the street light, but why worry about the details? The repair had taken quite a while, and every moment was a blast.

But today wasn’t one of those days. There hadn’t been any fighting so there was no damage to repair. With no physical damage to the suit, Liam moved to standard maintenance. Making sure all the screws were tight, liquids were topped off, and the servo motors were responding nominally. That was the duller side of suit maintenance. No challenges to keep his mind active just a checklist to work through.

The entire process took about thirty minutes and toward the end an old ache in Liam’s shoulder began acting up. With a sigh he started the last part of the daily maintenance. Plugging in the helmet and downloading today’s logs. Interestingly, there was a critical flag notification. Something of such importance demanded Liam review it at that moment.

Opening up the suit’s log Liam found the flag in seconds. It was a timestamp in his video feed. In the log it appeared as if he’d turned off the camera then turned it back on a few minutes later. Just after the restart a manual flag was added. Strange, Liam thought. He didn’t remember entering it.

Pulling up the video on a desktop display, Liam watched as his earlier self walked back from the interviews. Nothing in the video was strange or out of place. All it showed was him walking across a yard. Pressing his lips together Liam pinched the bridge of his nose. There must be a bug in the system.

Something must have gone wrong when Liam turned on the camera. That must’ve caused the video to be flagged by accident. On the bright side, Liam didn’t have to respond to an emergency right now. On the bad side, he had to go through his suit’s code and find out what caused the error. His systems had been so good of late, no errors at all, but such was the life of a tinkerer. When you least expect it, something would go wrong and all you could do was fix it and wait for the next problem.

Buckling himself in, Liam got to work. Looking through his code for any error. It was a slow process, but it had to be done.

An hour later, Liam gave up. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open, let alone finding an error in tens of thousands of lines of code. This was looking like a project for another day. Add in the fact that the issue with the video system wasn’t about to cause errors in his suit’s other systems and a fix could wait.

As a Hero, he often had to work past exhaustion. When others gave up, he kept going. It was what kept Heroes at the top. Yet there was always a limit. Knowing when you reached it was a hard skill to learn, but an important one.

Training at the academy, Liam learned what it meant to push himself. Achieving things he never dreamed possible. Often returning from a long day to fall onto his bed. Overcome with exhaustion. At the academy that was acceptable. As a Hero it wasn’t. Learning where your true limit was and pulling up just before you hit it and burned out was imperative. Which was why Liam called it quits now.

Having reached just that point Liam grabbed the long empty can of beer and walked back to the living room. Maybe he could catch some of the team still decompressing. It’d be nice to spend time with them outside the rigors of work, especially after a day like today.

Making his way to the living room the lifeless cement walls encased him. While the base was becoming his new home, he was still going through a transition. No longer the imposing monolith it’d once been. But still lacking the warmth of a true home. The limited number of people down here played into that. Most days the halls were empty, as the team was training, sleeping, or working. Like a rock in waves, the quiet wore Liam away. Which was why music was always playing in his workshop. At the academy he’d always listened to the news, but now that he was a Hero and the stories were often about him he found it grating to listen to.

Rubbing the ache in his shoulder Liam finished his trek. The door to the living room standing in front of him, ajar. Inside were raised voices in a heated conversation.

One of Liam’s biggest pet peeves was people budging into a conversation. Trying to avoid that Liam decided to wait in the hall until the conversation settled down.

“But are we sure he can be trusted?” A voice inside the room asked.

The sound drifting through the partially open door. Liam was tempted to walk a little farther back however, his curiosity got the better of him. If they didn’t want their conversation overheard, they would’ve shut the door. At least that’s how Liam justified staying and listening.

“I trust the kid,” H-Bar said. Almost stumbling over the first voice. His response was that fast.

“You’ve said that a dozen times already. It doesn’t make you right,” the first voice replied, heat rising into the comment. As the voice grew louder Liam could put a name to it. Skip was back and going at it with H-Bar. It looked like Liam wasn’t the only one who had a bone to pick with the man.

“I can tell with these things.”

“He’s only been here for a couple months. How could you know?”

The realization they were talking about him hit hard. The thought of leaving flashed through Liam’s mind, but was dashed. The heated tone they were using commanded him to stay. Why was a conversation about him eliciting such strong emotions? Against his better judgment Liam inched forward to catch what came next.

“If history tells us anything it’s that I’m better at reading people than you,” H-Bar said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what I'm talking about.”

There was a scuttle as chairs were thrown backwards before another voice cut in.

“Both of you, be quiet! What happened with Blue Feather is in the past. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If that means playing it safe this time then so be it,” Ullr said. The room becoming quiet as he spoke.

Liam tilted his head to the side as they talked about Blue Feather. Why would they bring her up when talking about him? Like a clock striking midnight the realization hit him, for the second time in as many minutes, they weren’t sure if they could trust him. Maybe even thinking he would betray them. That was a gut punch if he’d ever felt one.

Ullr spoke up again, “We’re all on this team because the fates pushed us here. It’s the last place for us to be Heroes. Liam is on the same boat. He just doesn’t see it yet. Once he does, he’ll do whatever it takes to stay on board. I know I did.”

“That’s why you asked him to use his program on the murders?” Skip asked. His voice calmer than before, nevertheless there was still an edge to it.

“It’s still a new tool, and I felt this was a good chance to see what it can do,” Ullr said.

“A controlled test is what he’d call it,” Gladius said as she spoke up for the first time.

The entire team was here Liam realized. Deciding if he was a traitor or not? H-Bar’s words from a moment before came back to mind. He was the only member of the team actually defending Liam. The small bright spot in this weird conversation he’d stumbled upon.

“Well we wouldn’t have been in this situation if you hadn’t invited him in the first place,” Skip said. Liam’s annoyance with the man growing with every word.

“How long could we say no to a new member? Another six months, maybe a year. Bringing up Blue Feather bought us some time, but eventually we all knew a replacement was coming. Might as well be an apprentice. Someone we can make sure is on our side,” Ullr said.

“He will be, I can tell,” H-Bar said.

Ignoring H-Bar, Gladius said. “I agree with Ullr. This was the best option we could’ve hoped for. Might as well take advantage of it.”

Taking quick note of everyone’s opinions Liam mentally marked where everyone stood. H-Bar was on his side while Skip was against him. No real surprise with either of them. That left Gladius and Ullr still on the fence. Somehow he had to convince those two he was trustworthy.

“I have to go soon. You know they hate when I’m late. Can we finish this?” Skip asked.

“Fine,” H-Bar said, “Let’s test him.”

There was a pause before Ullr asked, “What would that entail?”

“Put him in a situation where he has to make a moral decision.”

“That would tell us a lot,” Gladius replied.

“What, see if he kills a baby or something?” Skip asked.

“No nothing that extreme,” Ullr said. “I see where H-Bar is going with this and I like the idea. We make this test in a gray area. See if he bends to something like that first.”

“Exactly,” H-Bar said.

“Make it something relating to him, might be easier to push him that way.”

“True, but we can figure out the exact test later,” Ullr said, “The other hurdle is who will administer the test.”

“Obviously me,” Skip said. Jumping at the opportunity.

“No. You want him to fail,” H-Bar countered. His voice rising again.

“No I’m objective. As you said, I was wrong with Blue Feather. I won’t be wrong again.”

Liam had heard enough. The team would test him to see if he was a traitor like Blue Feather. The knowledge that they weren’t sure of him was like a knife to his gut. Hadn’t he been bonding with them? Surely, more of them, than just H-Bar should’ve been on his side.

The empty corridors on his walk back to the workshop were all the lonelier. The cold stone nearly suffocating him. The team was meeting between Liam and his bedroom so he couldn’t even go there to think. Instead it was back to where he worked. Waiting for them to disperse.

Then what, he wondered. Wait until the test? Knowing full well that the team that was supposed to have his back through everything didn’t. Would that cause them to hold up at a critical moment? Would he falter knowing what they thought of him? His mind spun as he walked through the lonely hallways.

Since he’d gotten here, Skip had always been a pain. That man was difficult to work with at the best of times. But the rest of the team was always there for him. Helping him become the best Hero he could.

Collapsing into a chair, Liam realized he was back in his workshop. It felt like he simply turned a corner and was here. The cold of his new world blocking everything else out.

Liam tried to focus, to think of the ramifications of what he’d heard. He tried to plan what to do. He tried to think of who to talk to. But whatever he did a chilling cold gripped him and pulled his mind back. Preventing him from doing anything except sitting there and going back through the conversation.

The only thing Liam knew for sure was he wouldn’t let the team down. Even if they didn’t trust him he’d prove his place here. He’d pass this test like it was nothing. He was no traitor and never would be!