Philadelphia, West Ritner Street, 8:32 PM.

July 9th, 2010.

“You’re the one who told me about this in the first place?” Selena rolled her eyes, “Why are you pretending you don’t know anything?”

Byrna flinched at the statement, and Aiden started at her amused.

“Well, I didn’t want a strange man knowing that I was in contact with…” Byrna flushed and fell silent.

Aiden raised an eyebrow behind his mask, curious what cover story she had come up with to explain away her knowledge of the assassins to her friend.

“The Batman?” Selena finished curiously. “Why are you acting so weird?”

“You’re in contact with, The Batman,” Aiden said dryly, “And he told you, a school teacher, about the league of assassins.”

Byrna was growing increasingly red-faced.

“It’s true!” Byrna cried embarrassedly before cringing. “He-he visits me sometime?”

Aiden started laughing, unable to help himself. How Selena was buying anything from this woman was a god damned mystery, she had to be the worst liar he had ever met in his entire life.

“Look, Byrna,” Selena sighed, rolling her eyes, “I don’t care about your Batman booty calls; can we stay here for a few days or not?”

Aiden had to turn around and lean against the wall, as Byrna looked like she was undergoing a complete meltdown at the moment. This is why you stick to half-truths or vague wording rather than an outright lie.

“Stop laughing!” Byrna groaned, holding her face. “You can stay here, just don’t go snooping around.”

Now, why would she say that? Did she have a secret lair here or something? A hidden room filled with her power suit?

“I need to use your computer, though,” Selena pleaded, “I have so much work to catch up on, Byrna.”

“Fine,” Byrna huffed. “Don’t do anything weird that might get me in trouble.”

“Thanks!” Selena said, pleased.

Byrna quickly dragged Selena into the office room, presumably to set her up on the computer there, and Aiden leaned against the kitchen wall again, waiting. He followed the quiet conversation the two were having in the other room, and it further solidified that Selena had no idea that her friend was, in fact, a villain.

“Shut the door!” Selena called when Byrna stepped out of the office again.

Byrna pouted at being ordered around in her own home but did as requested before stopping at the end of the hallway, watching him nervously.

“Um.” Byrna mumbled, “How long have you known Selena?”

“Are we really going to pretend that you’re not The Blue Snowman?” Aiden said wryly.

“Why did she have to bring you here?” Byrna whined, “Shes rich! She could have rented a building or something.”

“That you were the first person she thought of when she needed help.” Aiden said idly, “That means you must be a pretty good friend, huh?”

“I’ve known her since I was a kid,” Byrna admitted, “We used to play together when she lived here.”

“Why not tell her?” Aiden asked curiously.

“I can’t tell her that!” Byrna said hissed, horrified. “You can’t tell her either.”

Byrna stared at him, nervously when he didn’t say anything in response.

“Bubbles?” Byrna whined. “Don’t tell her.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Aiden said simply, studying her.

“Oh,” Byrna said sheepishly.

“Hey, Byrna; why are you a villain?” Aiden asked curiously.

How strange that a school-teacher would become a supervillain, what set of circumstances created her? What benefit did she get out of it? Did she enjoy teaching so much that she kept her job? She was robbing places for cash all over the city; she clearly needed money that being a teacher didn’t provide.

Byrna Brilyant was smart enough to operate, maintain, and develop an armored power suit; she was absolutely wasted as a school-teacher.

“Shush,” Byrna nervously glanced up the hallway for a moment, as if Selena might be listening. “I needed money.”

“Why not get a job as an engineer? Or sell some of your technology?” Aiden asked curiously. “Why continue to be a school teacher if you are not earning enough money from it? Do you enjoy teaching that much?”

Byrna laughed suddenly.

“I hate teaching those little monsters,” Byrna giggled, before recovering after a moment. “Well, maybe not hate, but it only took about a year before I regretted that decision.”

“Then why continue?” Aiden pressed.

He needed a weak point to work with if he would be attempting to recruit her; it was likely some kind of personal reason or an attempt at a cover story. Byrna chewed on her bottom lip for a long moment before coming to some kind of decision.

“My father was a college chemistry professor,” Byrna said, smiling, “When I was little, I always wanted to be just like him, so I promised him I would become a teacher when I grew up.”

“Simple as that, huh?” Aiden said thoughtfully. “What does he think about your night job?”

“He never found out,” Byrna snickered, before smiling sadly. “He created the basis for all the cryotechnology I use.”

Aiden could read the atmosphere enough to tell that her old man was no longer around. Interesting, so her father had been the catalyst. That didn’t explain the power suit, though; that was an entirely different subset of technology then freezing things.

“Did he make your suit? Or was that all you?” Aiden said calmly.

Byrna shook her head to refocus herself and met his eyes through the mask again.

“The suit was all me, he was never that good with engineering.” Byrna admitted, “He was a genius, smarter than me for sure; never very good with his hands though, that’s how he…anyway.”

“What’s your area of specialty then?” Aiden said evenly. “Engineering?”

“Robotics, Engineering, Computer systems,” Byrna said quietly, glancing up the hallway again.

“Cyro technology as well, obviously.” Aiden prompted.

“Yep,” Byrna said sheepishly.

“Byrna!” Selena called, distracting them both from further conversation.

Aiden decided to wait for his recruitment pitch, now wasn’t the optimal time.

“What?” Byrna projected her voice down the hallway.

“Make me a coffee!” Selena demanded.

“You know where the kitchen is!” Byrna cried, “Make it yourself!”

“I’m working!” Selena whined, “Byrna!”

“Oh, for the love of-” Byrna huffed, “Fine!”

The two women argued for a bit longer, but all he could think was that it was going to be a long few days.

Central City, Selena’s Home, 8:32 AM.

July 14th, 2010.

The amount of Ki-signatures standing around outside the wall had been steadily increasing as the morning progressed.

Selena’s almost assassination had apparently been reported to both the police and the Justice League by Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash. In turn, they had stationed a police presence around her home. He had even spotted a red blur that was probably The Flash, through the window, occasionally patrolling the area for any suspicious people idling about.

The police had contacted Selena the second night they had stayed with Byrna, but they had decided to remain then for three days before returning. Selena had managed to catch up on her lapsed work, Aiden had managed to find the hidden basement containing all of The Blue Snowman’s equipment.

Byrna had spent most of the week at her teaching job, which had given him plenty of time to snoop around unobstructed. He had no idea what half of the machines where that she had down there, but some of it was clearly used to maintain her power suit, given that the Blue Snowman’s arm was partially disassembled on one of the desks.

The contract that they had agreed on had been extended for the full month, despite the extra presence of the authorities. He wasn’t complaining, more money in the bank to play with; that was never a bad thing in his eyes.

Selena was still working in the sealed-off office room, which is where she had spent most of her time while awake. The woman was a worse workaholic then he was, which was saying something, and Aiden was getting bored as a result.

Okay, so maybe he was complaining a little.

Training had continued, although it was mostly just gravity training, meditating, exploring his surroundings with his Ki sense, and some necessary experimenting with Ki. He had figured out how to bulk his muscles up by filling them with KI, although he was still struggling to move the effect evenly across his body in any substantial way. He had also started trying to repeat his earlier feat of duplicating his KI-splitting it into two parts; in the hopes of chasing down the multi-form technique.

No luck on that part yet, but he was getting better at controlling his Ki with every moment.

A flicker in his Ki sense appeared; it moved from one side of the block to the other, looped around the wall three times, and then vanished again in the same direction. The Flash performing his hourly patrol; the guy was obscenely fast.

He could follow him reasonably well with his Ki-sense, but visually the guy was Fast enough that he could only see a red streak without details. Kid Flash had been hard to follow back in Selena’s office, but he was able to react in time.

He was pretty sure at the moment that Flash would kick his ass with ease, and it probably wasn’t even close to his top speed.

“There's only one way to go,” Aiden said quietly, “I’m getting better every day, and eventually, you’ll all be saying the same thing about me.”

Central City, Selena’s Home, 4:07 PM.

July 16th, 2010.

“You agreed to attend all appointments-” Dinah stopped herself before taking a deep breath. “At least tell me where you are.”

“Oh come on,” Aiden groaned, “I told you I’m working, you know that thing people do to make money? I didn’t agree to tell you my every action, okay? I agreed to a weekly checkup to make sure I wasn’t going to release your stupid identities-which! I’ll remind you I told you under the bondage of truth, I still haven’t told anyone; I’m willing to meet Diana again in a couple of weeks if you don’t believe me, and I still have no intention of telling anyone!”

“You agreed to weekly checkups-which you missed-” Dinah returned fire, but she sounded a lot calmer than before. “When exactly will you be returning to Philadelphia?”

“Why do you think I’m not working in Philadelphia?” Aiden said immediately, “Are you stalking me now? That’s illegal, you know, and not something a therapist should be doing.”

“A simple guess,” Dinah said offhandedly.

Aiden rolled his eyes; they were clearly tracking him or had decided that he was ‘Bubbles’ without any actual proof. Lucky for him, he had been given a massive reputational boost by all the reporters that had interviewed Selena on her return. He was now known far and wide as a legitimate, super-powered bodyguard, one who worked for outstanding members of society like the CEO of Farano Enterprises, Selena Gonzalez.

Better than that, he was known as an effective bodyguard, one who had fought of three Assassins; or at least that was the story that Selena has sold to the reporters, not a mention of the younger heroes being present. Then again, the three heroes had essentially done a break and enter into her office building; they probably didn’t want that getting out any time soon.

“Well, it’s a bad one, I’m still in Philadelphia,” Aiden said briskly.

“Your appointment at Star Labs is in four days; if you are still there, I’m sure you will be able to attend it on time,” Dinah said immediately.

“Nope,” Aiden denied quickly, “I’m busy working. I won’t be able to get any time off, even for an appointment; I’ll be there for the August one, though. Consider this advanced notice.”

That was the best way to deal with people who were trying to trap you with words, just be completely upfront with what you intend to do, be confident, unapologetic, and in most cases, it was a hard position to assault. At least if they weren’t able to dip into blackmail, a strategy which would sour this relationship entirely and would likely remain a non-issue.

He could almost hear her sigh at his complete refusal to step into the minefield she was trying to set for him.

Central City, Selena’s Home, 11:32 AM.

July 18th, 2010.

Selena was working again, so he had been listening to the massive tv she had in the living room while working out.

“This is Live footage of an ongoing attack on Happy Harbour!” A man said fearfully, as the camera shook. “A red-robot? It looks like Red Tornado, but larger; is laying waste to the surrounding areas!”

He’d never met Red Tornado, but he could remember what he looked like from his research, and this new guy definitely looked like him, at least superficially. Although the wind attacks weren’t red at all, which was a signature ability of the hero.

“We’ve seen several heroes engaging with the villain already. We’ve identified; Kid Flash, Robin, Aqualad, and two new heroes! Superboy and Red Tornado-” The man continued, both the cameraman and himself had to duck as a truck crashed through the corner of the roof of the building opposite them. “There's the missing Power Girl now!”

Indeed the blonde Kryptonian appeared in the air catching the truck before it could squash the reporter and placed it gently onto the ground before waving at them and then heading into the ongoing fight.

“The battle is quickly becoming one-sided now!” The man continued excitedly, “Wait-Red Tornado just turned into Miss Martian! There go the villain's arms!”

The camera work was pretty good considering all the smoke, fire, debris, and wind being tossed about. And he could clearly see when a man crawled out of the wreckage of the robot-well, power suit now he supposed.

“Foul-I call foul.” The man said nervously, just audible. “Nobody said anything about a Kryptonian-”

Miss Martian smashed a rock onto the guy’s head, killing him instantly. Aiden stared at the scene, shocked, what the hell was she doing?

“What the hell is Miss Martian doing?!” The report said, horrified. “She just killed-oh! It was another robot! A robot piloting a robot! Ingenius!”

He slumped back to the ground and shook his head; pretty damn lifelike for a ‘robot.’ It was possible it looked different closer up, but it was indistinguishable from a human on the camera feed. The fact that somebody could make something like that blew his mind; he wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Whoever had designed them was more wasted potential; they could be making a free robotic labor force or a legion of programmable robot assistants to sell to other scientists; hell, there was probably a market for companion robots if they were that lifelike. That wasn’t even addressing the whole aerokinetic thing the larger mech had going on; the power source used to power all those wind attacks must have been pretty powerful.

What a waste.

Central City, Selena’s Home, 7:37 PM.

July 25th, 2010.

“There has been another disappearance,” Cat Grant said pleasantly, “Only hours ago, a Dr. Serling Roquette was taken from her home. It hasn’t been confirmed yet whether this is another attempt by the same criminals who attacked Farano Enterprises CEO, Selena Gonzalez; that was the woman who was attacked earlier this month-but I don’t think it would surprise any of us at this point.”

“Serling Roquette,” Aiden mumbled, “Familiar name, one of the earlier episodes, something to do with nano-machines or something?”

“We are waiting on a statement by the police, likely to occur tomorrow morning.” Cat said, nodding decisively, “I’ll keep all of you updated; this is Cat Grant, sighing off.”

The heroes had managed to stop it without any outside help, from the vague memories he had of the situation.

Less than two weeks remained on his contract, and then he would be returning to Philadelphia; before Dinah had a conniption. He made sure to make his last phone appointment on the 23rd​, but nothing new had come up there; they had developed a pretty standard series of questions by this point.

He’d actually made some decent progress on splitting his KI, although he was currently working his way up to larger and larger amounts. He assumed his end goal would logically be to completely split his entire Ki into two identical sections; it wasn’t an easy feat, and it was going to take a lot more effort before he was close to pulling that off.

Roshi’s technique, which he had been trying to crib, had gone a lot better.

He was at the point where he could fill most of his muscles with a minimal amount of KI, and damn if it wasn’t a weird feeling for his muscles to suddenly expand like that, even if it was just a small amount. It didn’t hurt either like he had expected, but there was a strain there, a constant effort to keep the effect going.

There was some hope that it would grow easier the more familiar he became with using his KI in that way, much like it had with the Energy Shield, which he could now maintain for almost twenty minutes while in it’s expanded state before he started losing control.

He couldn’t wait to get back outside and start working on his speed; seeing The Flash multiple times a day had helped grow envy in him at the man's sheer speed. He had some money to play with now, so he would call Tracey and see if he could get that gravity room started.

Unlimited Funds, he had not, but surely the twenty thousand down payment he had received would be a good start. The red blur of The Flash passing by again was motivation enough to snatch his phone off the table.

It rang several times before someone picked up.

“Tracey,” Aiden said pleasantly. “How would you like to make ten thousand dollars?”