Now, I'd better admit something. As repugnant as I found the Super team, and of course, the work of Villains, I've always been interested in all the different crazy things that those of us with abilities can do. So what happened next was all at once weird, creepy, and fascinating to me.

Green light and energy flashed from the man's hands and branched out in thin, interconnecting lines through the fog particles, like he'd thrown a brilliant, radioactive spider's web over our heads to catch us. For a moment, the whole web was starkly illuminated, and then it faded into the slightest hint of green drifting amongst the mist.

"Oh, hell no, what is this?" I heard what I thought was Grace's voice from somewhere.

"That, my dear, is a field of energy that suspends you within it, rendering you unable to move, though obviously it hasn't affected your mouth. Call it a forcefield, if you will," the Villain said smugly.

Supers and Villains, they're all just so smug, especially the new ones.

I looked around me, and couldn't see anybody but the Villain moving. The green points of his eyes were focussed away from me, to wherever Grace was in the room, and I took the opportunity to test out a little theory. I'd noticed when the web descended that it seemed a little repelled by me, and even now the faint hint of green glow in the fog was giving me a healthy berth.

Giving another quick glance around, I tried to wiggle my fingers. To my delight, they moved as usual. I started to pull the fog in closer and thicker around me as stealthily as possible, and took the smallest step to the side. I shook my arms lightly and twisted my torso, then cracked a wicked little smile.

Bingo.

Obviously whatever he'd done, I was immune to it somehow. The thought made me feel at least as smug as he'd sounded, so I guess none of us are perfect.

While I plotted my next move, another shape appeared out of the corridor. Presumably another Villain.

He confirmed this when he opened his dumb mouth. "Aw, what is this? Trapped people, again? Come on, Electron, this place was supposed to be closed!"

"And yet, as you see, there are people here," Electron retorted sarcastically. "We're just going to have to do the job a little differently."

"This was not supposed to happen again! This is too many people." The other Villain, whom I dubbed Dopey, whined.

"My god, you are lucky you're necessary here. Let's just get on with it." Electron sounded more than a little annoyed with his partner.

Another snort came from somewhere in the room, and this time, it wasn't me. "You guys are bad at this," a voice said scornfully. Definitely Lexa.

"There'll be no comments from the peanut gallery, or I'll keep your mouths shut for you," Electron threatened.

"I'd think if you could do that, you'd have done it already," Lexa scoffed.

"Do not presume you know what I can do, and please don't push me. This isn't about you and I'd hate for it to have to be," he said in a silkily polite tone.

"Lexa, for god's sake," hissed a male voice, maybe Grant. I couldn't even tell how many people were actually still in the room.

"Whatever, weirdo," Lexa muttered, a little quieter now.

"Look," Electron started in a low voice to his partner. I doubted the others could hear it very well, since my hearing was much sharper than theirs. "We're going to have to rethink this a little. As you know, that case is protected by a specific type of energy field in the glass. I don't have enough power to keep this forcefield up and disable the protection like we had planned." The green eyes were fixed in my direction for a moment, before he looked back towards Dopey's shape. I wondered if they were talking about the amulet.

"Why don't you just let the forcefield down then. These aren't Supers," Dopey suggested.

A silence, in which I can only imagine Electron was fixing Dopey with a withering stare. "Because, you moron, there are at least six of them, and two of us, and letting the forcefield down would release all of them. Do you know for sure that none of them are Supers? I can trap Supers too, and I could trap you if I wanted, so don't push your luck, Jumper."

Jumper? What kind of a Villain name was that? I preferred to stick with Dopey.

"Alright, alright," Dopey/Jumper placated. "So what do we do then? I can cut through the glass but I won't get past that energy field."

"You go back to the Boss and tell him we need Sonic, and then you go get her. With your talents, you'll be back in no time." I figured Dopey had to be a teleporter, with a name like Jumper. That didn't give us much wriggle room, quite literally.

I had to find Seb and let him know what was going on; I didn't know what else I could do to help, since my gifts weren't immediately useful here. I wondered idly how long Electron could hold that forcefield, and whether he was getting tired yet. It must be at least a little draining on him, especially if he didn't have the power to multi-task.

At any rate, I could escape now, and I'd best do it while they were distracted. I pulled my foggy cloak closer about me, pushed the green glow further away, and started to edge away towards the exit to the main hall, which was fortunately close by the amulet case.

Thank goodness I'd spent years sneaking up on Seb as a bratty younger sister, which was really hard because of his superior hearing, because I knew now how to tiptoe very, very quietly. Also, the path from the case to the door was carpeted, but I'm going to put this mostly on my sneaking skills.

I kept my eyes on them the whole time. I knew I was nearing the doorway when I saw Dopey's shape turn towards my area. I froze, not wanting to put them into alarm mode.

"Does it look the same to you out there? I could swear the shapes look like they're in a different order," he hissed suspiciously to Electron.

The other Villain did a sweep with his glowing eyes. "That is impossible, Jumper. The forcefield will hold whomever I want it to."

Glad to know he believes that, I thought to myself, waiting until they started talking again to dare move a muscle.

"I'm not sure why you're still here, anyway, Jumper. Go do what we discussed, and I'll look after things here until you get back," Electron said a little coldly.

I took the opportunity as they both turned their backs. I could make out the shape of the doorway and the thinning mist behind it, so I focussed on that space beyond and pulled it towards me.

It was a short jump, so I found myself sitting in a bit of a bundle in the entrance hall almost immediately.

Picking myself up and dusting myself off, I took a moment to recalibrate, clear my mind and appreciate the fact that the mist had little effect in the vast space of the hall. After that moment, I realised that I had no idea where to look for Seb. He couldn't have gotten too far away; it had after all been less than 10 minutes since he'd taken off.

Then I remembered that I lived in a modern world blessed by technology. I pulled out my phone and texted Seb, where are you? I need to tell you about what's going on here.

Thank goodness he was attentive because my phone buzzed almost immediately.

How did you get out? Is the forcefield down?

I frowned; that was not the point at this moment. No it's still up. Doesn't work on me. We can talk about it later. Listen, they're going to get another Villain to bust into a case. I think it's the amulet they're after. You guys need to get in there. Can I meet you somewhere for a second to talk to you?

A moment went by, where I paced anxiously on the spot. I wasn't supposed to let myself get involved in Super team stuff or tactical planning, but those were my friends in there, and this was personal. Plus, I felt a weird connection to that amulet, if that was indeed what they were after. Then my phone buzzed again.

Natural history hall.

Now wasn't the time for dallying, so I used my abilities to pull myself through space to the end of the hall, and then down the next corridor. Luckily, I knew the museum very well.

At the end of the next corridor, though I heard voices and stopped short.

"Electron says he needs Sonic. Don't know why the people were there, but he can't do the extraction now. He seems to think Sonic can break the energy field, wants me to jump and get her. Told me to clear it through you first, Boss." The unmistakable sullen tones of Dopey.

The other voice was silky and charismatic. "It astonishes me how difficult this is proving to be, this which was supposed to be the simpler of the two extractions, but if he says he needs Sonic, then by all means, go and get Sonic. Knowing your luck, the Super team is here already, so make it quick, Jumper. That's what you're here for, since we don't need your night vision after all."

I don't know what made me do it, but I peered around the corner as stealthily as I could. I felt like I needed to know who the other voice was, since it was oddly familiar.

As luck would have it, they had their backs turned. Unluckily for me, it meant I couldn't see his face, but I noticed he wore a suit rather than a costume and had short, dark hair just starting to grey at the temples.

His senses must have been tingling, because I saw his head start to tilt in my direction, so I quickly ducked back around the corner before he fully looked back, my heart pounding.

"Alright, I'll go find Sonic at the lair and be back soon," Dopey was saying. I couldn't help but snicker to myself that they actually called it a lair. How Villainous.

I heard the pop that indicated he'd teleported and waited a few more moments before cautiously poking my head back around the corner.

My heart nearly stopped as I found myself looking into a pair of cold blue eyes.

"Hello, Kenna Jones," said the man. "What a delightful surprise to find you here. Unfortunately, you're a little bit early for our needs, but rest assured, we'll talk soon." He smiled pleasantly, and if I wasn't so shocked it might have creeped me right out.

"Gareth?" I gaped. There was no mistaking the man I'd spent so many years avoiding.

He only smiled again wolfishly, before whirling around and striding off down the corridor.

My shock gave way swiftly to fury.

"Gareth, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I shouted after his retreating figure. He paid no mind, and shortly disappeared around the corner.

I quickly debated going after him but knew that now, more than ever, I had to talk to Seb. The torrent of emotions that mixed through me as I hurried to the Natural History hall ranged from fury, to utter confusion and a creeping of fear thinking of the way he'd promised to talk soon. Mostly, I was determined to find Seb and end this debacle with our friends safely out of here.

I spotted him in his Zeus kit standing in the shadow of a snarling stuffed lion. The hall was dimly lit by the out of hours lamps.

"Could you have picked a creepier spot?" I grimaced

"I thought it was funny," Seb grinned.

"Of course you would think that. Anyway, that's not the point. I don't even know what to think right now. My mind is so jumbled, Seb, I just escaped a Villain's forcefield and ran into the other one talking to Gareth, who he called boss. Also, Gareth seems to have some sort of sinister plan for me as part of whatever twisted scheme he's cooking up here, and also he said there was going to be a second extraction, and they're bringing another Villain, and I think I have some ideas and ... " I broke off, panting for air.

He stared at me, trying to process it all. "Kenna, Gareth is back in the next exhibit preparing with Enigma, Gaia and Cobalt. I just saw him. It must have been someone else that you saw."

Confusion reigned in me again. "No, what? No, Seb, it was definitely Gareth. I know him, and he knew me too. How could it not be Gareth?"

He shrugged. "Unless he can be in two places at once, I don't see how it could be Gareth. Like I said, he's preparing with the selected team to take these guys out. Last time, it was too unexpected and we didn't know enough about them to do anything other than deterrence, but this time we're going to try to bring them in. We need to know what's going on here. Enigma and I are familiar with what they can do this time."

"Okay but there's some things you might not know about them. The forcefield one - he's called Electron - he's not strong enough to create his field and use his energy elsewhere. I don't think he's much of a multitasker, and that'll be a weakness. The other one, he's called Jumper and he's a teleporter, plus from what I heard 'Not Gareth' say, he can see in the dark. Don't know if he can do anything else, but you'll want to grab him first in case he bolts or tries to take the others with him. The new one's called Sonic and I don't know what she can do, but Electron seemed to think she could break the energy field protecting the case. Like I said before, I think it's the amulet they're after."

He looked amused. "Kenna, I know you'll hate to hear this, but you're pretty good at the whole Super tactics thing. Gareth has a point." He waved off the venomous glare I shot him. "And Gareth already admitted that he knows it's the amulet they're after, but he won't say why. I guess he's keeping secrets for the Greater Good. Don't roll your eyes like that. They can't tell us everything, it's too risky. We operate on a need to know basis here. That's good info though, thank you."

In the midst of everything, my mind twigged to something he'd said earlier. "Did you say that Enigma's here?"

"Yeah, why?"

I felt self-conscious all of a sudden. "Ugh, what is he going to think when he sees me? He's definitely going to think I'm lying when I say I want nothing to do with Supers. I keep showing up everywhere!"

Seb laughed. "Why do you care? Besides, he's going to think you're a cultured and sophisticated museum-goer who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time." His tone was gently mocking.

Shaking my head, I pulled myself together. "Okay, okay, you're right. That's not important right now. I'd rather he didn't see me here with you though, because that's going to bring up a lot of questions that I'm not ready to answer."

"Fair enough. What are you going to do now?"

"Go back and wait for you, do what I can until then. Hurry, though."

He nodded. "We'll be right there."

I made my way back towards the entrance hall, hoping I wouldn't run into anybody on my way - not fake Gareth, not real Gareth, not any Villains and not even Enigma. Mercifully, everywhere was clear.

Peering cautiously back into the room, I saw that everything looked the same; nebulous shapes frozen in the mist, with the weird green of Electron standing sentinel.

I crouched low against the arch of the doorway for several minutes, trying to decide what to do next.

Suddenly, a hushed voice behind me made me almost jump out of my skin.

"You know, I'd say I'm surprised to see you here but I hate to lie."

I scooted around and marched over to where Enigma was standing well out of sight of the exhibit.

"First of all, they'll hear you," I hissed, "and second of all, I've had it about up to here with people creeping up on me tonight." I indicated a spot way over my head.

He cocked his head. "Aren't you even a little happy to see me?"

"Oh come on now, this is serious." I ignored the question, probably because I didn't want to tell him that I was. Even though I was also anxious about it.

"He can't hear us talking like this. Sound doesn't travel very well in that kind of fog. Are you okay? He hasn't hurt any of you has he?"

"He's got them trapped in a forcefield. I think everyone's okay otherwise. I'm fine, besides being annoyed with all of these damned Villains crawling around."

He chuckled. "That's the Kenna I know. I'm somehow not surprised that you're not stuck in there as well."

I thought on my feet. "I managed to get out of there before he threw out the forcefield, and it only seems to cover the room. I've been trying to figure out what to do since. You know that there's more coming, right? I heard them talking about it."

"You've got good hearing. We've been fully briefed on the situation, and we're going in now to diffuse it. I just saw you there and wanted to make sure you were alright first." He sounded almost shy about the last part, and I felt my heart warm a little.

"Well go on, then, catch us all a Villain. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself as I think I've mentioned before." I mock saluted him.

He reached out and squeezed my arm gently. "I believe you, Kenna." His sincerity was touching, and I smiled at him a little.

Then he disappeared.