Bulwark Bay truly was built to last against supervillain attacks. Even after a major fire and a battle on the roof, the police station hadn’t collapsed in on itself. The inside was a mess, but the bones of the structure still held.

However, that still didn’t mean it was a smart idea for a couple of teens to wander in and explore the basement.

Milly, Niki, Paige, and Celine stood at the edge of the police tape that surrounded the building. So far, all they could tell was that it was dark inside. The entirety of it was blackened from the flames and soot, which made it even harder to make anything out.

“So, why exactly do we need to know where this was?” Paige asked while she held up the crayon drawing of the fire. “I’ve already got it.”

Milly answered, “you took it from the holding cell. If we know which one, we can narrow down our suspects to just the people in that cell.”

“Uhm, we’re not going in there are we?” Celine gulped and took a step away from the building.

“No,” Niki gave Milly a stern look as if to warn her to not even think about it. “We are going to be smart about this. I shall see if there are any cameras down there that I can access. Celine, hold my laptop for a minute.”

Celine held out her hand only to realize Niki had the laptop open. “O-oh, like a table?” Celine folded her arms as support while Niki worked the laptop.

Did that count as teamwork? Milly supposed there wasn’t anywhere clean to sit, but why had Niki asked Celine instead of her? Maybe Celine just looked stronger because she was tall, or maybe Niki was trying to include the other girls?

Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea.

Milly saddled up next to Paige and pointed at the drawing. “So, what do you make of this?”

Paige shrugged. “Someone obviously saw the creatures then hid in the basement while they made it.”

Niki snorted in the background, drawing a glare from Paige.

Milly barely kept her composure. “Maybe. There’s two ways they might’ve seen it, right? Either they saw the creatures with their eyes or with a superpower. Any explanation will end up on one of those two piles, I reckon.”

“Right. That’s what I was thinking.” Paige brushed her hair back. “Tell me what else you also came up with, so we’ll be on the same page.”

Milly was reminded of doing a school project with assigned groups. There was always someone who didn’t know what they were doing but were happy to take credit.

Well, maybe that was too harsh. They had the drawing thanks to Paige. She’d contributed something. Granted, a sweep of the building once Milly-time kicked in would have probably found it too.

How long did she have, anyway?

“Right! I figure there are a few ways to explain the drawing.” Milly checked her watch to find Milly-time was only seven minutes away. She’d better hurry this along. “I’ll skip the lame ones like someone drawing it afterwards or a total coincidence. Whoever drew it must’ve known the attack would happen.

“Maybe they are a precog, or maybe they are the one who summoned the flame sprites and the T-rex. Or maybe they learned someone else was staging the attack. In any case, the drawing ended up in the jail cells. Seems to me it might’ve been a message to prepare for an escape.”

“Precognition? Like tell the future?” Paige wrapped her fingers on her arm while she visibly thought it over. “That and summoning could both have been done by the inmates. I feel like there are better ways to send a message than a crude drawing.”

“That’s a fair point.” Milly nodded. “Unless it was meant to be unclear to anyone who didn’t know what they were looking at so—”

“It looks like a kindergarten drawing, I guess?” Paige interrupted, tilting her head while she looked it over. “Either they had a kid in lockup or we’re looking for a crook who can’t draw. I doubt that narrows it down much. If they were good at anything but thieving, they’d have real jobs.”

Milly opened her mouth to correct Paige that the drawing might have been made badly on purpose, but she was left agape by Paige’s hardline follow-up.

“What if it’s unrelated?” Celine asked, looking over while she tightly held onto the laptop. “I mean, not un-unrelated, but maybe it was left by whoever was there previously?”

“Hey, that’s pretty good, you two!” Milly forced a smile while Paige proudly puffed up her chest. However, Milly also saw Celine give her an appraising look, as though she wasn’t certain if the easy praise was genuine or mockery. Milly made a note of that. She raised four fingers. “Fourth option, nobody down there drew it, and it was delivered somehow.”

“Fifth option! Maybe, uhm…” Paige immediately held up five, but she stalled while she looked around, blatantly still trying to come up with something until she caught sight of the police tape around the building. “Ah! Maybe it was one of the guards that drew it! That could happen!”

“Uh, yes.” Milly briefly considered offering a sixth option, just to see if Paige would do it again. Maybe Paige liked to get the last word, but Milly wasn’t sure what the point of that was. “Okay, so those might be people we gotta keep an eye out for. Niki, any luck so far?”

“The cameras are out,” Niki said before she spun Celine around to show a map on the laptop’s screen, “but the floor plan is public knowledge and I found a record of who was kept in which cell from the cloud. Bad idea to store secure data there, by the way. My point is, Paige, do you know where you found the drawing based on this?”

“Sure, it’s uhhh.” Paige squinted while she studied the image. “...One sec.”

Paige slung her backpack to her front and took out a half full pack of printer paper. She aimed the opening at the police station and made a flicking motion with her hand. A stream of white papers spilled forth and surged into the building like they were being blown by a powerful wind.

Amidst the chaotic movement, Milly noticed something peculiar. Some of the pages stuck to the walls, the pristine white rectangles contrasted hard with the black soot-covered walls. She only had a moment before the swarm disappeared deeper into the building, but she was sure that the first couple pages to hit a wall always stuck, but the others did not. She also noticed a few on the ceiling and guessed there might’ve been some on the floor.

It struck Milly a little like fingerprints left behind by a giant hand feeling its way around.

A suspicion that was quickly confirmed when Milly turned back to find Paige had closed her eyes and was moving one hand around as though she was trying to find a stuck sock in the dryer. She looked much more relaxed than the first time she was using her power.

“Will this take as long as last time?” Milly asked her, checking her watch again. Four minutes left to find herself somewhere out of sight.

“If you could not talk to me right now~ that’d be great.” Paige suddenly clenched her fist. She looked at the map and grinned. “Got it! It’s cell number 5. See, it barely took any time at all!”

“That was quick. Impressive,” Milly admitted. “Just curious, do you have any tricks for controlling your power? It almost looked easier to do when there are more pages to work with and I saw you plaster the walls.”

“Yeah, I just slapped up some posters to remind me of where the walls and door frames are. Makes it much easier to fly blind.” Paige shrugged. “It’s harder to control them all, but way easier to navigate. It helps if all the paper is the same size and stuff. After that, it’s just practice with that size. I’ve used books and newspapers before, but printer paper has the most reliable dimensions, so that’s what I’m best at now.”

All their phones buzzed in unison.

“You each have a list of some people of interest.” Niki closed the laptop and took it back from Celine. “Look into them and text the group chat if you come up with anything during the day. Our next move will depend on what we find. Meeting adjourned.”

Milly wasn’t sure if she should call Niki’s tone commanding or straight up demanding, but she kind of liked it. On the other hand, she saw Paige bristle at being ordered around. If they started up another argument, that would eat up all of Milly’s remaining normal time! Mily hastily stepped in between them. “Sounds good, Niki! Hey, can I talk to you in private real quick?”

“What? Are we just gonna—” Paige paused mid-rant when Celine tapped her on the shoulder. Paige turned to give her an incredulous look, like she couldn’t believe Celine was trying to interrupt her. “What?”

“Uhm, Paige?” Celine quickly pulled her hand back to her chest and fidgeted. It looked like she also couldn’t believe she was trying to do this. “S-sorry if this is a bad time, but… I was hoping you could tell me more about how you practice your power. Is that okay?”

“Mhm, I suppose it’s not every day you get to ask a master of multitasking. I could give you another demonstration.” Paige smiled and extended her hand toward the police station. Apparently she ahd forgotten why she was mad in the first place.

Milly swiftly hooked an arm through Niki’s and walked off with her. She glanced backward to mouth a silent ‘thank you’ to Celine, who gave a covert thumbs up while Paige regaled her on the finer touches of page turning or whatever it was. Milly was already out of earshot.

Real privacy was hard to come by in a big city like Bulwark Bay, but alleyways were plentiful and just about good enough if all you really wanted was to be out of sight for a second. Not the most romantic of locations, even if it was surprisingly clean. One of the benefits of a well-planned city, perhaps.

As they passed a dumpster, Milly checked her watch again. “Three minutes left.”

Not nearly enough time for everything, but it might be enough to settle one burning question.

“Yesterday, that would have been thirteen.” Niki sighed and pulled Milly’s arm tighter against her waist. “It is not fair. If I had known this meeting would take so long, I would have just done it by group chat in the first place. Sorry for wasting your time like this.”

“Nah. It was nice to finally meet new people again.” Milly assured Niki then took a quick look around before stepping behind the dumpster, away from prying eyes should her power kick in. She leaned against the wall. “We’d have had more time if I got here earlier too, but I was talking to my dad about, well, everything; he supports me. Funny how sometimes that’s all you need to know, you know?”

“I know.” Niki chuckled and found a spot next to Milly. “Not that I doubted he would. I had to listen to you phone home every night, Daddy’s girl. If it was any sweeter, I would have gotten cavities. Obviously you could tell him anything.”

“Shut up! I’m not that bad.” Milly nudged Niki with her elbow, but Niki shielded herself with her bag. “You’re wrong, anyway. I didn’t know what to tell him about us.”

“You were not that uncertain last night,” Niki brushed her fingers along Milly’s cheek. She smirked at Milly’s surprise. “You are a terrible kisser, by the way. It will require rigorous practice to get you on my level.”

“I am not! It was dark!” Milly felt her cheeks burn while Niki obviously reveled in watching her reaction. That stupid cute smug smile on her face the whole time, just daring Milly to do something about it; to prove her wrong.

Or was that just Milly’s imagination again? She’d misread the situation the night before when Niki just wanted the boost. Was this the same?

It was possible that Niki was signaling her, but Milly didn’t want to repeat her previous mistake. She raced to list anything else Niki might be thinking. Maybe it was a serious criticism. Or just a joke to break the tension. Or an indication of what Niki wanted to do later, in a better setting than a lousy alleyway.

“Earth to Milly,” Niki waved a hand in front of Milly’s face. “Are you okay? You just spaced out. Am I boring you?”

“Sorry, I might’ve been overthinking.” Milly rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “I don’t want a repeat.”

Visibly confused, Niki tilted her head, then her eyes shot wide open. “Oh! I did not realize you were hung up on that. Then let me elucidate. Yes, you surprised me since you are such a marshmallow that I never expected you would take initiative so soon, but I am not upset that the girl I like wanted to ‘make out’... If anything, I was scolding myself for freezing up and making it awkward.”

“Oh, so you don’t feel like we’re going too fast?” Milly asked with as much restraint as she could muster. Niki was smart enough to realize that time worked differently for them, but the last thing Milly wanted to do was pressure her by mentioning it.

Niki furrowed her brow and mulled it over for a quiet moment. “...Marriage, what is the stage before it in English?”

Milly’s heart rate spiked so hard it was like it was trying to get an early start on Milly-time. “I-Uhm, engagement?” She couldn’t fathom why Niki was asking that.

“Not that one.”

“Oh, I dunno. Uhm. Moving in together? Go steady? Dating? Honeymoon? Actually, I think that one is afterwards.” Milly babbled.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” Niki replied with an overly polite tone while her cheeks reddened. By the looks of it her brain had just caught up to her mouth. She hastily added, “Milly, I was wondering if you would like to take our relationship to the next level and make a commitment to be exclusive with me by going steady?”

A single dumb thought buzzed through Milly’s head in a brief moment of stunned silence. Well, that certainly was one way of showing it wasn’t going too fast. Milly wasn’t certain what could’ve brought this on so suddenly.

“I-Yes, obviously!” Milly couldn’t answer fast enough, she wrapped her arms around Niki’s waist. “Any more easy questions?”

“Yes,” Niki entwined her fingers behind Milly’s neck and pulled in until her face was just a breath away from Milly’s. “What do you think of my eyes?”

“Wha—Oh.” Milly felt it all click into place. Celine. One errant comment brought on by that odd violet eye had seemed innocent enough, but it hadn’t been for Niki. That was almost adorably needy. Milly flashed a grin as she sensed the opportunity.

“Well?” Niki asked.

“Mhm, I’m not sure, hold on.” Milly locked eyes with Niki. Their deep amber hue kept her spellbound for a moment, every bit as bewitching as the first time she’d seen them. She could spend hours describing how they’d make her feel and not even scratch the surface. Niki would probably like that too, but Milly had a better idea. She carefully pulled off Niki’s silver-rimmed glasses. It didn’t actually help. Without her glasses, Niki had to squint, obstructing Milly’s view. However, it certainly made Niki blush harder. “Better… but the light is at the wrong angle.”

“Light?” Niki had just enough time to look around the shady alley before Milly pulled her close and spun, depositing Niki with her back against the wall instead. It mirrored the position they’d been in last night. A fact that wasn’t lost on Niki if her smile was anything to go by. “I’m pretty sure this is darker than before.”

Milly ran one knuckle along Niki’s chin, directing her attention back to her. “No problem, your eyes are the light of my life.”

Niki opened her mouth to groan at the terribly punny compliment.

Milly kissed her.

Properly this time.

...Well, better than before, at least.