Astrid walked the streets as the evening lights shadowed the empty streets of Cruxham district in the evening. She longed to go home but there was no chance that she could end up going home. First, because she had too many enemies as a secret agent. And second, because her powers were unstable.

The way the ancient texts described her powers was that they came from within her and around her. She had the ability to control light energy and the energy of life. Her counterpart, whoever he was, had control over the shadows and dark energy.

She worked with a team of ragtag group of heroes whom she had met on the way.

“If you are going to do something, Drew. You should have walked quieter. I am an ex-assassin and secret agent,” said Astrid, as she grabbed his ear. “It will take a lot more to surprise me.”

“Ow! Ow!” He exclaimed as she released his ear. “I really thought I had you there.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy… not even close,” said Astrid

Caleb laughed at that. “She has a point. You will have to do a lot better.”

To be clear, she was still an agent of the Phantoms, but she also always wanted to recreate the team my father did with people she trusted, and she trusted these guys.

She had met them when she was traveling.

“I got some information on Galaxy X. You know the assassins that want us dead. The people who want to kill us because of our special talent and abilities.”

“Yeah… we know… people who want to kill us,” said Drew. “Get to the point, buddy.”

He retracted the tablet. “You first, Ari… what did you find out? What do you know about their plan?”

“I need some time to process what I found on the flash drive. Tell me what you found,” said Astrid.

“They recently bought up a huge mass of property in the richer part of Redmont,” said Caleb.

“That’s unusual,” said Astrid. “Why would a shell corporation buy land for a terrorist organization? They have to be up to something.”

“What about you?” asked Caleb.

“We’re going for the people behind Galaxy X. The Circle and whoever else is behind them,” said Astrid as she showed him the picture on the laptop. “Those symbols look really familiar.”

* * * * * * * * *

Cameron sighed as she looked at the picture of her with her sister. They were happy even for a little time and the science project that her sister was working on exploded taking her with it. She looked at the trunk at the corner of her room.

“I wish you were here,” said Cameron.

It was her fifteenth birthday, but somehow it did not seem so sweet without her sister. Her boyfriend had lost someone to, his brother.

“I know we lost people but maybe you could try to be happy on your birthday?” asked Zach.

“What if she’s still alive, Zach?” asked Cameron looking at the box.

“You haven’t opened the box since the night she died,” said Zach.

“Maybe it’s time I do,” said Cameron. She opened the trunk and found a lot of her belongings some photo frames and a laptop the one that belonged to her when she was alive.

“I would expect the laptop to have some clues,” stated Zach.

Cameron opened the laptop, and it was password-protected but Cameron had gotten to know her sister a lot when she was still alive and typed in the password.

There were multiple files on the laptop but another one was a video file. Cameron hovered over the video link.

“If you are watching this, Cameron it probably means one of two things: 1) I’m dead or 2) something terrible has happened to me. I want you to know I never wanted to keep secrets from you the day I walked back into your life, and I was just preparing myself to tell you the truth but then I never got the chance to tell you. So here it is, I was or am a secret operative that oversaw keeping the peace. I also am still a superhero I was doing both. A couple of days I was sent in with some fellow agents to check on rumors of a bioweapon sale that was going down. They released the bioweapon and all my friends. I knew something was going on, so I was able to escape but I still feel somewhat guilty about what happened and I had to go into hiding.”

“We should use it to find her,” said Cameron. “She told me she was alive.”

“She also said it was dangerous,” said Zach.

“She’d do the same for me,” said Cameron. “Risking her job… her life to come help me if I was in trouble.”