The page that the link took me to was the homepage of a livestream that was currently down. I searched for the website that was hosting it, but the search engines didn’t come up with anything. There weren’t any hits, so I returned to the livestream.

While I waited, I found my ear pods and plugged them in. I didn’t start playing music because I didn’t want to be distracted. Then there was nothing to do but wait.

I was sitting cross legged on my bed, rather than my desk. I liked feeling the forces spreading across the sheets. I wasn’t about to be downstairs where one of the girls could look over my shoulders and see me working with the villains of Graceland.

The minutes ticked down slowly. Three to go.

The livestream updated itself, the video playing automatically. It seemed it was starting early.

I considered making the video full screen, but decided against it because there was a chat window open. There weren’t any comments, but I would want to know if that changed. Then I saw what the video was showing and it had my complete and undivided attention.

It was the sick bay in the SRT. Zephyr had been released, which I already knew. I spotted her chasing Jagmikh at four pm as usual. Instead of Zephyr taking a bed, Satellite was lying there. He looked bad.

Real bad.

Stabbed repeatedly kind of bad.

Swarmed by venomous spiders and repeatedly stabbed while being beaten up with bludgeoning weapons kind of bad. The Racketeers had gone to town on him. I spotted some wires sticking out of holes in his arm. Holy shit.

But he was alive. A weight lifted from my stomach.

Standing next to him was a man that took me a moment to recognise. It was the director of the Regulation, Theo. I really needed to look up his last name. It took me a moment because I hadn’t seen him from this angle before.

The two were talking, but there wasn’t any sound. I didn’t like that. Even though I could clearly tell that Satellite was uncomfortable as all hell, I didn’t like that I was being shown this without any context. What were they talking about? I needed to know.

Thankfully, the audio cut in after a minute of watching them talk. It made me jump, but I was quickly back to focusing on the video.

“-ieve that this was simply them ‘going through the list?” It was Theo talking. His voice was as impassive as it was in front of the cameras.

Satellite took a moment to respond. His voice was wheezing and strained when he did. “Of course- it was-.”

“So then let me recount. The Racketeers waited until you were alone, which you eventually were because you needed to check on something. Something, I should add, that you haven’t yet specified.”

“It was- a shop-.” Satellite strained painfully.

“What shop?” Theo asked sharply.

“Hotdog- place-.”

Theo took a moment to respond. Hopefully he wasn’t buying it the same as I was. “And when you were coming back you ran into a Racketeer.”

“Water-lad- in an a-alley-.”

“You encountered Waterlad, and then decided not to call for backup.”

“Couldn’t-. Got- blind-sided-.”

“How?”

“Spiders-.”

“And?”

“Paper-. Cut my- radio- in half-.”

“Who else was there?”

“Prism-. I tried- to run-. Hit- a wall-.”

I felt a bit of dark satisfaction hearing that.

Satellite wasn’t asked to stop, so he continued. “Zipline-. Obvious-ly-. All- of them- left-.”

“And they did this damage to you before leaving?”

“Bas-asically-.”

“And that was it?”

“It- was-.”

“I don’t appreciate being lied to so obviously.” Theo said, earning a reaction from Satellite, who quickly regretted moving. “I figured you would be obscuring some truths going in, but this level of blatant lying is just insulting.”

“Wha-t?-”

“We received a call, telling us where you were. It’s how we found you before you bled out. You can thank Collage for repairing your internal bleeding, but we decided not to give you a blanket fix until the wires are out.”

“I’ll- mention- it-.”

“Don’t talk, let me finish. This call came at a very fortuitous time, because you would have not made it to emergency care if you were left any longer. It was very specific. It even gave me all the details on where the stab wounds were, how deep they were on average, the number of broken bones you had, and even the antivenoms we should use.”

Theo paused, looking Satellite in the eye.

“I took the call personally.” He added.

“I- don’t- get- it-.” Satellite wheezed.

“Normally I am removed from street level affairs until they persist, become a problem that needs addressing in the interest of public safety.” Theo talked, changing the subject, sort of. He was making a point. “It is very rare to receive a call from anyone on such matters, but this one came directly to me. It was Andrew. He was always a chatterbox. He had a lot to say.”

Satellite didn’t respond. He just glared at Theo.

The curtains separating the beds swayed suddenly.

“Just don’t.” Theo told him. “You’ll hurt yourself before you hurt me. You’re a splatter, there’s no way you’ll be accurate enough.”

The swaying persisted, then ceased.

“He told me that you found one of their safe houses, which was subsequently burned down as they escaped it. They should have all made it out safely but they did not due to circumstances outside of their control. Clothesline was left behind.”

Satellite wasn’t looking at Theo anymore. His fists were clenched into fists, and blood was dripping down where his straining arm had a wire embedded in it.

“You made it to the safe house, found Clothesline, something happened, and she turned up dead.” Theo said. “They know it was you, they have it on Smart authority. Queue, I suspect. Did you really think no one with a Smart power would turn their attention to this? Personally, I’m inclined to agree, given your track record. This is your opportunity to tell me what happened.”

“Fuck- off-.”

“Satellite, you were on strike one from day one. This is strike two. If you get a third one, I’m sending you to the Megahold.”

Satellite was going to the Megahold.

“What happened? Last chance.” Theo reminded him.

Satellite glared at Theo. Theo held his ground.

“You’re actually one of the less scary transhumans I’ve had to work with, you can’t intimidate me.” Theo paused, considering. “Orcus isn’t even the scariest.”

Satellite kept glaring.

“Very well. You had a chance to mitigate this mess. This will be the road we travel.” Theo turned and picked up his jacket, which I hadn’t realised was there because of the angle.

“She- kept- getting- away-.” Satellite said, causing Theo to stop in his tracks. His voice was filled with anger and disdain. Rage.

Theo turned and waited. “You’ve confessed now. Keep going or it gets much worse.” He eventually told Satellite.

“So- many- goddamn- times-.” Satellite hit the bed, irritating his wounds and causing more blood to flow. He didn’t keep going, instead he closed his eyes. Eventually, “I met- a- woman-.”

“Who?”

“Didn’t- say-. Lot- of- green-.”

I wasn’t surprised. I was kind of expecting it.

“Greenflame. What did she offer you and how much did it cost?” Theo asked.

“No-thing-” Satellite spat. “Called- her-self- a wo-wondering- genie-. Of-offered- her ser-vices- for- free-. Let me- ask- for a-any-thing-.”

“What did she offer you and how much did it cost?” Theo repeated, deadpan.

“I as-ked- for the- abil-lity to- get- them-. She- She gave- me- a s-ss-Smart- power-.”

The words sent chills down my spine. She can give abilities? The notion was terrifying. With that kind of power, she could create an army of superpowered minions. It was a freaking miracle that hadn’t happened yet.

“Tell me.” Theo said.

“Pingba-back- I guess-.” Satellite said. “When I- u-use- my- power- now- I s-sense- the sha- the shape- of- things-. Can- tell be-tween- sol-ids a-nd- stuff-.”

“And that’s how you found Waterlad?”

“Yes-. Put- a- sma-ll f-force on- each h-ouse-. Looked for- a hu-man- shaped- water-.”

“Felwyr’s law of effect should have prevented you from affecting living things.” Theo said.

I had to suppress a groan. That sounded important. I had a pretty good guess as to what that law was, because of the context, but I’d need to look it up later. Another thing I hadn’t been told about.

Satellite’s eye glinted with satisfaction. “Not- Water-lad-.” He said. “Not- now-.”

Well that was terrifying.

“And what did it cost?” Theo asked.

“No-thing-.” Satellite told him as smugly as he could manage in his state. “I t-old- you-. It wa-s free-.”

I would have found that hard to believe. Boss and Samurai had spent immeasurable resources bringing Greenflame to Graceland. If Waterlad hadn’t told me that Greenflame was giving out wishes for free I wouldn’t have bought it.

“I find that hard to believe.” Theo said. He didn’t know.

Satellite shrugged painfully. “It-s- true-.”

Theo took a moment to ponder on that.

“The time between you finding Clothesline and her being found. What happened.”

“I- f-found- her- in the- rubble-.” Satellite said, sounding resigned. “Cuff-ed- her-. Got her- out-. Chatted- about bri-nging- her- in-. She- dislo-cated- herse-lf-. Hit me-. Ran-. I stopped her- from runni-running-.”

“The Racketeers have always been cooperative when being brought in.” Theo said. “Their Boss gives them that security. What made Clothesline feel the need to run?”

“Don’t- know-.”

“Don’t test me, Kaiden.”

He thought they had privacy. They didn’t.

Satellite fidgeted in the bed, agitated. “I don’t- know-. Se-rious-ly-.”

“You said you chatted with her when you were bringing her in. What did you talk about.”

“Thi-s and- that-. Pre-vious- arres-ts-.”

“You talked about Junkie, didn’t you.”

“He- came- up-.”

Theo slowly facepalmed. It turned into a serious massage of his forehead. “You were told not to mention Junkie, especially to the Racketeers. Everyone was.”

Not me.

“I- don’t- get why- not-.” Satellite said.

“Because it was a calossal fuck up.” Theo told him, voice raised more than I’d ever heard him before. “You know it. Meretha knows it. Everyone involved knows it. Everyone who was in the damn building knows it.”

But it was another thing I didn’t know about. The list of things I needed to know grew longer every day.

“Can’t- change- it-.”

“No.” Theo agreed. “But we also don’t give villains reasons to escalate.”

“Like- I- said-.” Satellite said.

“So you name dropped Junkie like an imbecile, and Clothesline panicked. Is that the narrative you’re going with?”

“I- guess-.”

“This motivated her to fracture her own wrist and batter you in an attempt to escape.”

“Yeah-.”

“And you tracked her down?”

“I- did-.”

“You caught up to her in a construction site.”

“Yeah-.”

“Attacked her with a timber nog.”

“It’s- what- was- there-.”

“Broke her arm in two places.”

“Yeah-.”

“And she attempted to jump to a neighboring building.”

“Her- mistake-.”

“She could have made it, but you used your new power to force her to the ground.”

“Not- her-. Her- clothes and- bone-.”

Theo thought for a moment. “Explain the bone.”

“Power- worked-.” Satellite said, then approximated a shrug. “Couldn’t- say w-why.”

“And then you left” Theo checked.

“Yeah-.”

“Do you have anything else to say?” Theo asked.

“I don-’t regret- it-.” Satellite said with conviction.

Theo evaluated Satellite. “That was strike two.” He told him, turned, looked back. “No more killing.” Then he left. The video kept going, watching Satellite in his bed.

I was disgusted. There was no other way to describe the visceral feeling that had been growing constantly ever since Satellite had first opened his mouth. The fact that Theo had extracted a confession from Satellite only to give him a warning offended me to the highest degree.

Going by the chat, I wasn’t the only one feeling that.

19.38 WoooooooorstNightmare: WHAT THE FUCK

19.38 Plip-plop: Hope you’re happy.

19.38 WoooooooorstNightmare: TELL ME THAT DIDN’T JUST HAPPEN

19.38 Plip-plop: Shit. I could have timed that better

19.38 WoooooooorstNightmare: SOMEONE GIVE ME AN EXCUSE

19.38 WoooooooorstNightmare: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK PP

19.38 Plip-plop: Nightmare, I was talking to the guest.

19.38 WoooooooorstNightmare: SO INAPPROPRIATE

19.38 Plip-plop: not you

19.39 WoooooooorstNightmare: THE GUEST? YOU MEAN THE ONE THAT ASKED US NOT TO KILL THIS MOTHERFUCKER?

That would be me, then. I started considering what I could add to the conversation, because I really had a lot to add, but startled when I realised the default handle was my school email. I erased it and put in something after a brief thought. Then I snickered despite myself and changed the handle again.

19.39 Bitofboth: Let’s take a moment and let calmer heads prevail.

19.39 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: I wasn’t expecting that outcome.

19.39 BeatTheWind: He’s fucked

19.39 UCantCMe: I thought I’d be feeling something after watching this...

19.39 WoooooooorstNightmare: WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THE FUCKING GUEST?

19.40 WoooooooorstNightmare: NEXUS WHY DO YOU ALWAYS MAKE US RESET OUR NAMES

19.40 UCantCMe: But I’m still not feeling it...

19.40 Bitofboth: None of us. Though, this could be seen as the first session for one of us.

19.40 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: I’m a little confused. I’m not smart enough.

19.41 Plop-plop: @WoooooooorstNightmare Hey. No real names here.

19.41 WoooooooorstNightmare: UCCM it’s okay. I’m going to get you something really nice, it’ll make you happy.

19.41 UCantCMe: I can be happy. That’s not the problem.

19.41 WoooooooorstNightmare: IF THE GUEST WOULD LIKE TO REVEAL THEMSELVES

19.41 Plip-plop: I can be happy too, for the record.

19.41 WoooooooorstNightmare: I WOULD LIKE TO PICK A BONE WITH THEM!

19.42 BeatTheWind: Sorry, I was typing something out. Pasting it below.

19.42 BeatTheWind: He’s fucked because he’s already committed strike three and letters are already on their way to the heroes. Letters letting them know that where the body of Mist can be found. Satellite found Mist using his power as he just described, and there’s evidence that he’s been using his power in the area where the body will be found. There’s also evidence that Mist had a fight on the first floor. Where he fell has unusually deep dents where he hit. There should also be stretch marks on his body from where his costume suddenly became much heavier. It’s irrefutably Satellite. The Regulation will be the last to know so it will absolutely go public.

19.42 BeatTheWind: Like I said, Satellite’s fucked.

19.43 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: Oh my.

19.43 Bitofboth: Oh my.

19.43 BeatTheWind: He’s going to the Megahold.

19.43 Plip-plop: Should’ve known you were holding stuff back.

19.43 WoooooooorstNightmare: I”M NOT ACCEPTING THIS YET

19.43 Bitofboth: @4ctu4lT3l3p4th, are you in the building right now?

19.44 Plip-plop: Love the name, by the way.

19.44 WoooooooorstNightmare: WHY DID YOU ASK US TO LET HIM LIVE

19.44 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: I swear I’m not.

19.45 WoooooooorstNightmare: TELL ME

19.45 Plip-plop: Chill,

19.45 BeatTheWind: Typing something out.

19.45 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: I just figured out who you are @WoooooooorstNightmare. You really like that number.

19.46 UCantCMe: This is making me feel weird. I’m backing out.

19.46 WoooooooorstNightmare: *Is bashful

19.46 WoooooooorstNightmare: FUCKING TELL ME @BeatTheWind!!!

19.46 Plip-plop: @UCantCMe Come talk sometime. I’ve had ten months of learning how to deal with it.

19.47 BeatTheWind: I had this long answer.

19.48 BeatTheWind: But I just don’t like the idea of killing. That’s all.

19.48 UCantCMe: Just start talking. I can hear you from here.

19.48 WoooooooorstNightmare: OH YOU DON”T LIKE THE IDEA OF KILLING???

19.49 WoooooooorstNightmare: WELL THIS GUY JUST LOOOOOOOOVES IT

19.49 Plip-plop: Senses still acting up?

19.49 WoooooooorstNightmare: AND BECAUSE YOU DON”T LIKE THE IDEA OF KILLING

19.49 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: @UCantCMe, can we meet tomorrow. Before it calms down too much?

19.49 WoooooooorstNightmare: HE”S GOING BACK OUT ON THE STREET

19.50 BeatTheWind: Sorry. I can’t afford to have someone’s death on my conscience.

19.50 UCantCMe: @Plip-plop Yes. @4ctu4lT3l3p4th I’ll text you a place. Don’t want anyone from here showing up.

19.50 Bitofboth: @BeatTheWind I think you should refrain from interacting with nightmare any further at this time. Doing so will avoid bad fortune.

19.50 WoooooooorstNightmare: IS IT BECAUSE I”M EMOTIONAL

19.51 BeatTheWind: Sound advice if I ever heard it.

19.51 WoooooooorstNightmare: GO ON. SAY I”M ON MY PERIOD

19.51 Plip-plop: @WoooooooorstNightmare I’m removing your internet privileges until you calm down.

19.51 WoooooooorstNightmare: DO IT!

19.51 WoooooooorstNightmare: YOU CAN”T DO THIS TO ME

19.52 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: Alright. I’m shutting this down.

19.52 4ctu4lT3l3p4th: @BeatTheWind You’ll want to check out the archives before you go. You may find some interesting things there. You’ll need the password.

19.53 BeatTheWind: Sure...

19.53 N0TTH313ZZT: You guys are all crazy.

19.53 Plip-plop: Fucking preach.

19.53 AUTOMODERATOR: This conversation has been closed.

The video froze and a pop up with a link directing me to the mentioned archive appeared. I clicked it after some hesitation. A popup asking for a password appeared.

I looked at it, thinking about what 4ctu4lT3l3p4th had said. The only passwords I had were my own. Well, that and maybe the string of characters Jess sent me. I quickly navigated to the document that held a copy of Jess’ email, copied the post post script, and pasted it into the password box. I hit enter, and was taken to an archive of videos.

There were a number of videos that had thumbnails picturing various places in the SRT. I recognised the villain holding and interrogation room in several. The most recent one was the scene in the sick bay. I scrolled and found the two of me in the interrogation room. One with Risk, and the other with Zephyr and Meretha.

They were titled by the date and time they happened. There were a lot of scenes here. One thing was for sure, this was a huge security breach. I really shouldn’t have, but out of curiosity I clicked on the one where Meretha and Zephyr were interrogating me.

The perspective of the camera was the one I’d seen in the tripod. It was before anyone had entered the room, and there were the sounds of people shifting uncomfortably. It took a while before someone spoke.

“Wait.” A female voice said. Zephyr. She wasn’t in frame. “Walk away.”

There was some more silence. The me in the video started tapping his fingers.

“I don’t get it.” A young male voice. Blinker. “How can he tell when someone approaches the door?”

“He’s tapping into powers he hasn’t told us about.” Zephyr responded matter of factly. “More proof.”

“He said he had the ability to sense forces affecting things.” Blinker pointed out. “Do you think he’s listening to us through the floor? Is that possible?”

“It’s a touch range dagger ability and he’s still got his boots on. Either he’s hiding a third power, or, there is no alternative because there’s no other explanation.”

“He isn’t responding to what we’re saying, that much is for sure. Who handled the analysis of Michael’s power?” A third voice asked. It was one I recognised from the previous video. It was Theo.

“Orcus.” Zephyr said.

“Did his description of that ability satisfy you?”

“I just regurgitated it, boss. How long should we wait this time?”

“Four minutes.” Theo said. “He’s getting tired.”

“He should be in shock, vulnerable.” Blinker said. “Everyone is after their first encounter with Halcion.”

“You didn’t say he fought with Halcion.”

“What Lock dealt with was worse. He had to pacify Prism, the one who was drained by Halcion.”

“I haven’t had the pleasure.” Zephyr said dryly.

“It’s not.” Blinker stated.

“I’m curious as to why he’s playing mind games.” Theo said. “Not much has occurred to make him suspicious of us. Michael manifested in the wake of Salt Lake City and spent time in limbo before calling to sign as a Sentry. His reasons for signing were textbook, but just, and Orcus’ impression was that they were honest. To top it off, his powers are Disrupter/Ghost. That’s not a very common combination, and certainly not one that promotes subtle subterfuge. That’s more the realm of Whispers, Smarts, and Traitors”

“He might be Enigmatic.” Blinker said.

Zephyr snorted.

“But it fits. His Ghost power ignores the law of effect.”

“If the other Michael Barker had powers, we would have reason to warrant a more in-depth study.” Theo commented.

I paused the video. They knew? Was that why being Sentry was such a hassle for me? From what they were saying, it was. Was this the reason that Fail had asked me to keep quiet about his powers. From the sound of things, it was the reason I was being treated with such ridiculous suspicion.

Zephyr seemed to be the strongest advocate against me, if that snort was any indication. I wrote ‘Fuck Zephyr’ on my wall in gold. Then I hit play again.

“I still think he’s a clone.” Zephyr said.

“An imperfect one.” Theo said.

“He doesn’t have a proper birth certificate.” Zephyr pointed out. “All there is is the one child services made for him after Quetzelcoatl destroyed all the databases.”

I stopped the video again.

I skipped to the end. After I had broken the mirror with Zephyr’s head, but was still on my feet. Zephyr was slumped in the bottom of the frame.

I hit play.

“-ou hear me?” My voice came through my headphones, sounding almost exactly like Fail.

Meretha nodded frantically, still humming. Terrified.

“Didn’t you hear me? I was talking about your power. Never use it on me again!”

Meretha’s mouth moved, but the sound of her words weren’t picked up by the mic. The me in the video closed their grey eyes and toppled backwards, cracking their head against the wall on the way down.

Everything stayed as it was for a while. Meretha stared at my unconscious body in shock.

“Meretha.” Theo said, his voice calm in the way that promised bad things were about to happen. “You better have a good explanation for this one.”

“I-” Meretha swallowed. “He- She jus-.”

“Meretha.” Theo repeated.

“He was tired- that was his want.” Meretha said, still staring at my body. “Then Zephyr walked in and he wanted an explanation. There was an active desire to deceive that slipped into desires to convince right at the start. A lot of desires for an excuse came up throughout the talk. I marked those. He wanted to win at several points in the- the talk.”

“What changed?”

“The accusation. He wanted to repay Zephyr. Get even, which seemed fine. But he wanted to sleep more. Then Zephyr said, something, and it became a desire to hurt her.” Meretha swallowed. “The want to sleep was the greatest, then suddenly the aggressive want eclipsed it. I was taken off guard and couldn’t change it back. Then I… I slipped.”

“So you forced him to act on his greatest desire, which was to assault his superior, because you ‘slipped’. When if you had stayed your hand for a bit longer, the desire could have been to fall asleep, as we just saw. Is that the narrative you’re going with?” Theo asked, his voice still had that dangerous edge.

“I- yes.” Meretha sighed.

“I shouldn’t need to remind you about strike one.” Theo said. “Consider this strike two.”

“Okay.” Meretha said, her voice squeaking. She sounded very small in that moment.

“That was terrifying.” Blinker broke the silence. I had forgotten he was there.

“That...” Theo took a moment to ponder. “That is something I’m not entirely sure is on our side.”

“He’s very calculating. I couldn’t tell at first because the colour obscures so much of him.”

“Treat him carefully.” Theo told Blinker. “I’ll get someone in to check on Lock. Blinker, take Zephyr to the doctor.” He took another moment to ponder. No one was moving. “Everyone. I want your attention.”

Meretha finally faced away from me, turning to face someone beside the camera.

“This didn’t happen. Dismissed.”

The video ended and I was left reeling.

~~~

“You look terrible.” Nathan commented.

“Thanks.” I replied as I dropped into my chair too heavily and winced as I hit the metal bits through the thin plastic. “Late night. Where’re your friends?”

“What friends?” Nathan scoffed. “You mean the budding Courtesans? Nah, man. I’m staying out of that shit.”

I looked at him. His mouth wasn’t twisting, so he was being serious best I could tell. “I didn’t realise the Courtesans were recruiting from Merryfair.”

“Nah, it’s them going to the gang.” Nathan handwaved. “Why someone my age wants to be associated with the people that kidnap and traffic people, I’ll never know. The gangs really recruit from Fairfax high and Graceland Grammar. GBG and GGG both. Better locations. Rumours are that heroes go to Bitopia and this dump are also a factor.”

I nodded, paying less attention than I usually did. It wasn’t that I had a late night, I hadn’t slept at all. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw something different. It was the consequence of opening the box.

I blinked and let my eyes stay closed for a moment. Quetzalcoatl descended on the shelter. I wanted to rest, but the need wasn’t great enough to keep my eyes closed, so they opened again.

Spending all night looking for more information regarding this conspiracy had also contributed. Before moving on, I had decided to impose the rule that I was only going to watch videos featuring people that were conspiring against me. That had quickly fallen apart, but I stopped watching the videos where the other Sentrys were unmasked.

I wanted to be better than the Regulation, not on the same level as them. Even with that self imposed rule I had learned some haunting things. The worst fucking part was that I had only said yes to working with Waterlad because Zephyr wasn’t letting me be a hero. In treating me like I was a key part of a conspiracy, I had willingly stepped into a separate conspiracy. This stuff needed to be handled carefully, but I had ten days to think about that. Right now I had other immediate concerns.

“What’s today?” I asked, referring to class.

I hadn’t realised Nathan was still talking “-and the Beastmasters are actually taking an interest in Merryfair. Seems they’re situating themselves somewhere around here.”

“I didn’t think you were into this stuff.” I commented.

“Sonya keeps talking about it and I guess I picked some of it up. I think they call that osmosis.”

I shrugged and put my head down on my desk. I didn’t know.

“Yeah. You usually go glassy eyed when she goes on about it. Anyway, you said something?”

I lifted my head up a fraction. “What’s today?”

“Dunno. Ask the teacher.”

I put my head back down on the desk and used my power to analyse the shit out of it. I came to the conclusion that it was a desk, one that I was now very familiar with. At least I wasn’t thinking about-

“Michael!” Someone with a shrill voice said.

I bolted to a sitting position. The whole class was looking at me. I blinked and looked around in an attempt to identify who had said my name. The teacher was glowering at me while the other kids were just curious and/or amused. It was the teacher, then.

“That’s my name.” I said. And not just mine, either. I thought, thinking of Fail.

“Can you please repeat to me the intent of today’s class.”

“Uh…” I looked around and saw that Nathan had a piece of paper on his desk. Everyone else had one too. “Something on a worksheet, Ms Grayson?”

There were a few snickers that were ignored by the teacher.

“We are doing a peer review of the essays you that all wrote as homework in response to the book we are studying for your exams.” Ms Grayson stated, clearly unimpressed. “You had a week to write this essay in your own time. You do have an essay for review, Michael?”

“Uh…” My mind was frayed from thinking about things beyond school. “Let me check.”

~~~

School was a fucking drag. It was break now, but I had been held back. I had forgotten to print the essay Ms Grayson was referring to, and therefore couldn’t be evaluated. Now I was being held back to explain myself.

Nathan was waiting outside, which was a small mercy.

“Why didn’t you have your homework ready for class, Michael?” Ms Grayson demanded, her glasses off, held in her hand.

She was an older teacher, and there was gray in her hair that was matched by wrinkles on her face. Her general demeanour was ‘no fun’ and ‘all work’. It was a horrifyingly accurate recreation of another time I’d had to explain myself just days ago.

“I didn’t print it off.” I said.

The reminders that Rosie sent me hadn’t stopped coming, and I had been sure to stay up to date with my homework despite my involvement with the double murder that had been happening in the background. I had an essay written, but it was a digital copy and Ms Grayson was old fashioned. She required that everything be handwritten despite it being the age of technology, and didn’t have a history of letting print outs fly.

Which was a fact I remembered too late.

To Ms Grayson’s credit, she didn’t explode like Zephyr would have. She did arch an eyebrow judgmentally, though. “Does the fact that you don’t have homework for class have anything to do with the fact that you look like you haven’t slept in days?”

I blinked, my vision going a bit blurry and forcing me to squint as I answered. “Not related, no.”

“Oh, so were you playing video games?”

I was researching a conspiracy against me. “No.”

“Do you have a reasonable explanation, then?”

Not without compromising my identity. “PTSD, Miss.” That took her off guard. “I'm handling it. Can I go?”

She put her glasses down in shock and stared at me. I wondered what was going through her brain. “Y-yes, Michael. You can go.”

I let myself wonder if she would report that ‘cry for help’ back to Kathrine or the Regulation as I joined up with Nathan. I was suspended from being a sentry, so in the latter case there probably wouldn’t be any repercussions for ten days. Which would hopefully let me get something of a handle on myself. There was someone standing next to Nathan that I barely noticed.

“Let’s go, Nathan.” I wasn’t in a very good mood.

“Just a second, Mike.” His voice was strained.

I looked at the scene again and saw there were actually two people standing near Nathan, trapping him against the wall with their presence. One glanced at me.

“I expect to hear from you soon.” One of them said. It was the taller one, who retreated and walked away after speaking. Not even dignifying Nathan with a goodbye.

The other one stayed for a second longer before leaving with his friend.

Nathan let out a breath he had been holding.

“What was that?” I asked, feeling more focused than I had all day.

“Nothing. Just bullshit.” Nathan handwaved. “Let’s go.” He walked past me but I didn’t move. I was staring at the back of the head of the guy that had spoken. “Mike.”

“Don’t call me Mike.” I told him, echoing Elsbeth’s sentiment. Was that how she felt when I called her El? I owed her an apology.

“Michael.” Nathan strained. This was out of character for him. Normally, Nathan was the comedic happy one. “Let’s get out of the way.”

I followed when Nathan finally started moving. The other guy had rounded a corner, I couldn’t see him any more. I looked at my friend instead.

“What?” He demanded.

“Nothing.” I said, then closed my eyes and immediately reopened them. I was just wondering why you were being held up by the guy that mugged me.

I longed for the days when nothing happened.