As the car pulled up to the burned-out police station, Milly checked her watch.

14:05 (Well, and 16.388 seconds, but that wasn’t as relevant outside of Milly-time.)

Hopefully, whatever she was going to do with TRACE would take less than the 19 minutes she had before it was Milly-time again.

Before she had time to worry about it, she felt her dad drape his arm around her shoulder. The sounds of the street faded out as time slowed down. A clear sign that they’d entered the ‘Holden Room’.

“You got a second?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Are you sure this ability isn’t powered by jokes?” Milly groaned, which did nothing to lessen her dad’s obvious amusement. Like he’d been waiting her whole life to tap into this hidden source of bad comedy around her.

“Might be, heh…” He gave a weak chuckle but he looked more serious. “Listen… You’re a smart girl. I know you’ll figure out how to control your power in due time. Just like you’ll figure out some other things that you’ll have more questions about, and… Well, I’ll text you my hotel address in case there’s anything I can help with, alright?”

“Thanks, pa.” Milly hugged him for a second before the strain pulled her back to her starting position. Annoying. “Actually, I do have a question… Can I tell Niki about you?”

“She’s the one who’s been helping you so far?” He asked.

“Yeah, she’s been great! She’s my, uhm.” Milly fumbled, what should she call Niki at this stage? They were roommates, that was for sure. Friends too, but that didn’t feel sufficient. Dating, maybe? Was there a word for someone you failed to kiss properly and who was mostly cool with that? Thankfully, Milly couldn’t blush in this state. “My closest friend. I trust her to keep a secret more than I do myself.”

She really should talk to Niki about that. They hadn’t gotten a private moment in normal time together since last night.

“Mhm. You’ve met this girl? Eight days ago?” He shook his head. “I’d rather you didn’t until you get to know her a little better.”

“What? No, it’s been months, I think? Wait.” Milly knew that wasn’t true as soon as she said it. That was just Milly-time messing with her head, but she still boiled at the implication she didn’t know Niki that well. They’d been through a lot together, hadn’t they? Granted, maybe it’d been a little less time than she’d thought. “Anyhow, I’m right familiar with her!”

She might’ve gotten a little too defensive, but she couldn’t help the nagging thought that maybe he was right. What if she felt much more familiar with Niki than Niki felt with her? Maybe that’s why Niki was so surprised last night, because Milly made a move much sooner than would’ve felt natural if she wasn’t weeks ‘ahead’.

“I ain’t saying you aren’t,” he spoke cautiously, aware he’d touched a nerve. “You’re such good friends in only a week; I got it. I’m just saying, imagine how much closer you’ll be in another week.”

“...I guess,” Milly admitted. She wanted to argue, but there were definitely things they hadn’t told each other yet. Of course, the same could be said of her dad and her. “Can you at least tell me why it is so important to keep your power a secret?”

“Ah, that’s simple. I’d go to jail,” he deadpanned just before time resumed its normal pace. A dirty trick to ensure the conversation was over. “By the way, Niki’s your roommate, right? The one with the black and red hair?”

Jail?

Milly recognized he was trying to brush past it, but it didn’t feel like a joke. From what Principal Arkwright told her, the only people who realistically had to worry about that were supervillains; even vigilantes were afforded some leeway.

That didn’t make any sense, though. He was the furthest thing from a villain she could imagine. The worst thing she’d ever seen him do was make lame puns.

“You might wanna go and back her up.”

Shaken out of her thoughts, Milly looked up. “What?”

He motioned behind her to the outdoor seating area of a cafe across the street. Where Niki was having a standing shouting match over the table with another girl in an Arkwright uniform and a beret while a third tried to vanish into her seat while holding up a menu like a shield.

“What the?” Milly swung the car door open. “I gotta go, but this isn’t over! Love you! Bye!”

“Love ya.” Her dad waved her off.

Milly crossed the street and waved between the tables to get over to the trio. She could hear the argument well before she got there. The other patrons and a couple of staff members were watching the ruckus.

“—that’s not what happened, Paige!” Niki yelled at a terribly smug looking girl with long brown hair.

“Whatever, girl! Half the school saw her smack the bratty out of you. If you say Ruth didn’t make her do it, it’s obvious that she must think you’re annoying too. You should take a chill pill!” Paige grinned while she spread her arms as though daring Niki to come at her. “Like they say in France: Q.E.D!”

“That is not even French! You pompous—” Niki caught sight of Milly and immediately pointed at her. “Milly! Tell this fool that I asked you to hit me!”

“Nice to see you admit that you were totally asking for it!” Paige quipped, drawing a glare from Niki.

The last girl had all but vanished under the table, Milly could barely see a crown of raven-black hair before it dipped under entirely. By process of elimination, that had to be the girl Terra told her about, Celine. The shy one, clearly, since she didn’t seem to handle conflict well.

Speaking of conflict.

Milly marched up to the table and slammed her hands down on it with so much force her palms would sting for a week, but the bang was enough to at least temporarily shut them both up. “Sit—”

A second, softer bang immediately followed from underneath the table.

“Ow,” Celine whimpered.

“Gah! Sorry about that,” Milly said while she peeked under the table where a startled Celine rubbed her head. Milly really should’ve thought that through more. She reached a hand out to help her get back above board. “Are you okay?”

Celine’s hair obstructed half her face, but a single violet eye stared back at Milly. A pretty color, but it seemed odd for someone supposedly shy to get colored-contacts that made her stand out like that. “I-I’m okay. Thank you,” Celine whispered while she reached out for Milly’s hand and got out from under the table.

“No proble—” Milly gawked awestruck as Celine rose up, and up, and up. Finally, Milly had to crane her neck back to look as Celine stood nearly six feet tall like a bronzed statue and straightened her back with a loud crack. “Hoooly cow, you’re tall! I didn’t know they shipped in lanky amazons from overseas!”

Looking around, Niki and Paige had a similar reaction to Milly. Celine was only supposed to be a year older than them.The rest of the crowd just assumed she was much older if their lack of reaction was anything to go by.

“Oh!” Celine instantly shrunk down to Milly’s height. She ran her hands through her hair nervously. “Sorry.”

Milly’s first assumption was that Celine had a growth power similar to Abigail, but on closer inspection that wasn’t true at all. Celine was just slouching with her knees bent. Milly considered commenting on it, but it seemed cruel to prolong her stay in the spotlight for any longer.

Milly turned toward Niki and Paige. “Right. How ‘bout we all take our seats and start over?”

After a collective affirmative nod and shuffle to fit the four of them around the table, some semblance of normalcy returned to the whole situation. Milly made sure to nab a seat between Niki and Paige, in case they started up again.

With the fight defused, the onlookers gradually lost interest as well.

After things settled down and a waiter came by with their respective orders, Paige was the first to break the tentative truce. “Hey, Milly, settle a bet for me. Last Thursday when you gut punched Niki over here, was that your idea or did Ruth make you do it?”

Thursday had to be referring to their ruthless encounter with Ruth, Hilda and Penelope. It felt like ages ago, but Milly remembered elbowing Niki to stop her from blurting out a secret she wanted to keep while under Ruth’s influence.

Milly supposed she could easily confirm Niki’s story, but then they’d have to explain the reason and she was sure Niki wouldn’t want that. That left one easy answer, one she’d actually heard Ruth give. “Yes, no, maybe. What difference would my answer really make? Maybe I just remember what Ruth wants me to.”

“No,” Niki grumbled. “I don’t want people going around thinking you assaulted me. You did exactly as I asked you to… with a bit more vigor than I anticipated, but still.”

“For what it’s worth, that’s what I remember too.” Milly shrugged and reached for Niki’s hand under the table, receiving a squeeze in return. She could understand Niki didn’t want people getting the wrong idea about them.

“Right,” Paige rolled her eyes. “Why would she ask you to do that?”

“That’s none of your business,” Milly replied to the obvious satisfaction of Paige. Of course an answer like that sounded like she had no argument. “But, I’ve got something that is. What do you know so far about why we are here?”

“Easy!” Paige perked up at that. “We’re ACE with training wheels. Figure out who caused the fire, go beat him up, graduate from TRACE to full on ACE. I also know that Celine and I are the only ones with actual powers, so what exactly do you two bring to the table here?”

Well, at least her secret identity was in fact safe, but the implication that Niki didn’t belong at the table had Milly grinding her teeth. “You know, that’s a good point. Hey, let’s do a quick poll. Raise your hand if you’ve tracked a supervillain down to their lair before.”

Paige and Celine looked puzzled.

“Really?” Niki asked while she put her hand up along with Milly and shot her a smile. “Just us? Then I would conclude that what we bring is experience. Now, who was here last night and saw the fire or anything?”

After a moment of hesitation, Celine raised her hand. “I was with Stella’s group.”

“Aren’t you a glorified blood bank?” Paige asked with genuine surprise. “I doubt that was much help there. What’s the point of showing up?”

Celine withered at the comment. “Sorry.”

“At least she tried to help.” Niki countered. “Where were you?”

“Oh gee, let me think why I didn’t go help out with a fire.” Paige rolled her eyes while she held up a finger and spun a small circle, causing the napkins on the table to roll themselves into tubes. They floated up and hovered above her finger like wind chime. “Paper power? Duh?”

Milly was starting to see why Paige had gotten under Niki’s skin. Still, they were supposed to be working together. She had to think of some way to diffuse the situation quickly before things escalated again.

“Telekinesis?” Niki’s tone shifted from annoyed to begrudgingly interested as she watched the display of power with fascination. “Is it limited to paper specifically or are you able to move anything constructed of cellulose fibers? Such as cardboard or textiles?”

Great, Niki’s obsession with powers was showing itself. The plan had always been to take stock of the abilities within TRACE before they decided on how to investigate, but that was going to be harder if they were too busy sniping at each other.

“I can do thin cardboard, although it’s harder,” Paige explained while she caused the little tray with menus on the table to tilt over. She seemed to enjoy showing off and looked around for a moment then pointed at a man about to pay the waitress. “But that lets me tell the difference at a distance. Like that guy, he’s got six dollar bills and two stamp cards in his wallet.”

“Presumably he also carries a credit card, but since those are plastic you can’t tell?” Niki asked and received a nod in return. “Interesting. Do you have a range limit?”

“Hah, I’m not telling you that! But, since you're acting like a good girl, I'll give you a small demonstration.” Paige tossed her hair back then took a look around the area. Her gaze drifted past the tables, across the road and then along the buildings surrounding the public square, finally she settled on the burned-out police station and looked down at the street again. Paige narrowed her eyes then extended a hand and made a grasping gesture.

Milly shot a puzzled look at Niki as nothing seemed to be happening, but Niki was still paying close attention to Paige. Milly shrugged and took advantage of the silence to turn her attention on Celine. “So, Celine. Pretty cool that you helped out. What did you end up doing?”

“Oh, uhm. I—Our job was to find anyone that hadn’t left, so I was in the apartment building. Not the police station. Sorry, I’m not much help.” Celine gave an apologetic look.

“Paige mentioned you do something with blood?” Milly asked.

“What? Don’t distract me.” Paige grumbled at the mention of her name. “Ever tried to break out of a maze blind? It’s hard.”

“Too hard?” Niki asked.

“I can do it. Shut up.” Paige clenched her fist and shook it at the street. By the tension in her face, she really wasn’t having an easy time of it, but she also wasn’t about to admit it.

Milly bit her tongue. Paige had already shown she could be a brat, but she was only venting here, not picking a fight. Milly lowered her voice while she continued her conversation with Celine. “Since you helped find people, can you detect blood or something?”

Celine gave a furtive glance toward Paige, who didn’t seem to react. “Just my own. My sense of smell is enhanced, so I thought that would help, but a vigilante with a dog also showed up, so I wasn’t as much help as I hoped…”

“Well, it’s hard to compete with a dog’s sniffer. What’s important is that you made the effort.” Milly smiled at Celine who just blushed and averted her gaze. “What else can you do?”

“W-well… I think you already know?” She motioned to Milly’s breast pocket and sniffed the air. “You have one of my tonics, I think? But you’re still injured. Is something wrong with it?”

Milly quickly checked her pocket, but the tonic was definitely not visible. She gave an awkward chuckle. “No, it’s just a little… what’s the word I’m looking for here?” She hesitated on how exactly to describe the idea of injecting herself with a syringe full of a stranger’s blood.

“Creepy?” Celine sighed and slumped her head onto the table. “I know. Sorry. I’ve tried to use enteric-coated capsules to make a swallowable version, but that’s so inefficient that I can’t justify using my blood—I mean ‘tonic’ that way, because I can only donate once a week.”

“No no! It’s not, well, okay it is a little creepy,” Milly admitted. She felt terrible seeing Celine down in the dumps over it, though. “M-maybe it’s just because it’s unfamiliar. What is your power specifically?”

“It’s nothing special, but you’re not going to like my explanation…”

“Try me.”

“You are now breathing manually.” Celine allowed herself the briefest glimmer of a smirk when Milly groaned. “And be aware of your blinking.”

“Thanks a lot.” Milly rolled her eyes. “That’s not a power. That’s just what happens when you make people aware of stuff they normally do automatically.”

“Actually, that is my power. I can control most automatic functions of my body manually, even the ones you normally can’t.” She pointed to her one visible eye with the odd violet color. “Unfortunately, my power didn’t come with a PHD in human biology. One of the first things I tried was changing my eyes from light green to dark green, but I didn’t know what I was doing and the more I tried to fix it the weirder it got. I’m holding off on that for now while I’m studying.”

“That’s not a lens? Woah! I mean, it sounds tough, but dang.” Milly would feel worse about it, if she wasn’t having to remind herself to breathe and blink right now. If it was that annoying for her, how annoying was it for Celine? “No offense, but accidental pretty eyes are not exactly reassuring me on this tonic thing.”

“P-pretty?” Celine stammered quietly.

Niki hooked her arm through Milly’s and rested a cheek on her shoulder while she watched Paige struggle to thumb wrestle the air. Apparently even she could get bored with a display of power that wasn’t displaying much.

Even though it was something so simple, Milly felt her chest throb happily. It took her back to comfortably watching cartoons together; Niki liked this position there too. Milly smiled, entwining her fingers with Niki’s. She might not know what to call this between them, but she was happy they had it.

“I-I mean,” Celine rapidly flicked through her phone and held up a picture of what looked like a looted library on a couch. “That’s a fair concern, but you should see the pile of books I have on hematology.”

“That’s blood related, right?” Milly asked.

“Yes! I was able to change my blood type to O negative and boost my red cells and platelets count. Oh!” Celine noticed Milly starting to lose the plot. “Uhm, I’m a universal donor with extra healthy blood. I’ve had a lot of help testing it out to make sure it was safe.”

Celine sounded a bit more confident when she was talking about her studies than when she’d tried to socialize. Milly couldn’t fault that, but she did wonder whether Celine had tried to tweak more than just her eye color. It would explain some of her other odd features.

“Hah! Got it!” Paige cheered while a folded paper airplane came flying in from the police station and circled the table before it landed in the middle. Paige puffed up her chest. “That was all the way in the basement. The holding cells, if the insane number of straight narrow poles the stupid thing flew into are anything to go by when I was looking for a door.”

“Impressive, yet if it presented such an obstacle, could you not have gone for an easier target?” Niki asked while she picked up the airplane and inspected it with her free hand.

“What and look like a fool? I’d have to change to a whole new building since that was the only paper in the police station.” Paige leaned lazily back in her chair with a sandwich.

“I guess that makes sense, what with the blaze and all.” Milly tried not to think about how close she came to going up in smoke along with the paper, and just about everything else in the building.

Niki squeezed Milly’s arm to draw her attention. “Is this what I think it is?” She showed her the sheet of unfolded paper.

It was a crude crayon drawing of a gray square with a shield on the front similar to a police badge. On fire. Six angry-faced little red balls were in the windows. On the roof, a green blob roughly in the shape of a dinosaur spewed more lines of red into the air.

Milly looked up from the paper to the police station. “That does look a bit like a gray square. There’s no way this is a coincidence, right?” She looked back at the paper and noticed it was scorched, but most definitely not burned.

“Yoink!” The page got plucked from Milly fingers by an invisible hand and fluttered over to Paige who inspected it before flashing a cocky grin. “Quick poll! Raise your hand if you’re solely responsible for locating our first clue!”

This was going to be a long day.