Saturday, Sept. 12, Thorne Blackwood's House, Vancouver; Mid-Morning

Thorne woke up to the buzzing of his cell phone under his pillow. He struggled to get the phone out from under his pillow in his barely-awake state. "Seven, I told you not to wake me up until 10..." Thorne groaned as he looked at the time on his phone, seeing that it was an entire hour before he asked Seven to set his alarm.

"Master Thorne, an alarm was set for 10:00 AM on Saturday, September 12th," Android 07 explained. "In other news, you have a missed call from Heather."

"Oh... it's Heather..." Thorne sighed, rubbing his eyes and trying to readjust to the waking world. "Sorry Seven, I should've trusted you."

"You really should have. I am a highly-advanced psycho-digital Android," Seven noted.

Thorne opened his phone's lock screen and called Heather back. "Hey... what's up?" he asked. "Aren't you tired...? Last night was rough..."

"Of course, but that's just the thing," Heather said in her cheery tone. "I want to go do something after that intense fight."

"Like... what?" Thorne asked, finally starting to actually sound awake.

"Maybe we could get some coffee. I know a really great place that's away from all the busy city stuff. We need to talk, anyway," she responded.

"Yeah... okay... Where?" asked Thorne.

"It's called Centuries," Heather answered. "I'm sure Seven can help you find it. You want to meet up ASAP, then?"

Thorne really didn't want to drag himself out of bed, but he sighed and agreed to meet up with Heather. He hung up his call, and stretched, reaching over to pull open his dresser and see what to wear. "So, Seven, where is this Centuries place?"

"I have located a cafe establishment titled 'Centuries' on Robson Street. If you like, I will guide you there," Seven explained.

"Great!" Thorne smiled. "You're so helpful, Seven."

"It is my purpose to assist people," Seven responded. "I am glad I am performing well at my purpose."


Sept. 12, Centuries Cafe, Vancouver; Mid-Morning

"Hey, you made it," Heather greeted. She was wearing a comfy-looking red sweater, and Thorne could see that one of her earrings looked like Kitty Noir, which he recognized as one of her favourite cutesy cartoon characters.

"It's too early," Thorne jokingly complained.

"Coffee is best enjoyed early in the morning," Heather said, raising her eyebrows as if to dare Thorne to question her logic.

He didn't, and sat down with her at the rustic-looking exposed-wood table. "This place is kind of cozy... So, what did you want to talk about?"

Heather sipped at her latte, which was steaming and very frothy. "Last night... that Android that attacked us..."

Thorne urged her to continue with the look in his eyes.

"Well..." she sighed. "What do you think it means? Are we... in danger?"

"I..." Thorne was faced with an option. He could either brush it off and reassure her, and say something like I'm sure it's no big deal. But in reality, his gut was telling him to say something like I'm not really sure... "I'm not... really sure, you know?" He sighed. "Maybe... But... we're probably safe on this side of PsykoLink."

"You're right, I just..." Heather moved some hair out of her face. "Sorry, it's a little early to be getting so anxious. It's just... I don't want to get too deep into something I'm not supposed to get into, and end up in trouble."

"Do you want to stop investigating the PsykoNet?" Seven asked from inside Thorne's pocket, prompting Thorne to take his phone out of his pocket and put it down on the tabletop.

Heather thought for a few moments. "No... No, I want to find out more about it. And I want to help you, Seven. I want to help you find out where you came from."

"Thank you. That is kind of you," Seven responded robotically.

Heather chuckled. "I guess there's no turning back now, huh? We're really in this now..."

Thorne chuckled as well, and grinned. "We're really in this now."

Heather sat up straight, and puffed up her chest, her mood seemingly changed in an instant. "Then we need a name. To make it official."

"Huh?" Thorne gasped.

"We need a name for our team. We're spies now, right? We ought to have a cool name to call ourselves!"

Thorne nodded. "Oh, I get it. Any... suggestions?"

"I mean... spy organizations in movies are always named after the kind of work the spies do," the undisguised Agent Belle said. "So... what do we do?"

"Um..." Thorne thought to himself. "We explore PsykoNet, and defeat Shadows."

"We should be the PsykoNet Exploration Squad," Heather suggested, getting excited but still keeping her voice down.

"That sounds more like a kid's TV show," Thorne chuckled.

Seven interjected. "A common theme in spy fiction is for the name of a spy organization to be an acronym which is also a word."

"So... like... S.B.S.: The Shadow Buster Spies!" Heather suggested again.

"What kind of word is 'sbs'?" Thorne joked. "It should be a word that means something to us."

"Like what...?" asked Heather.

"A variety of words which seem to be meaningful to your lives are as follows." Seven began to recite a list of words relating to the trio's shared activities. "Shadow, Persona, PsykoLink, PsykoNet, PsychoWeb, identity, dimension-hopping."

"Ooh, what if our acronym was P.E.R.S.O.N.A.?" Heather grinned, feeling like she was onto something.

"Seems a little long..." Thorne criticized. "What would each letter be short for?"

"Um... P is for... Persona... E is for... Engagement... R is for... no, I got nothing." Heather let her cheek fall into one of her palms. "Why is this so hard..."

"We oversee activities taken by Shadows within Headquarters, so what if the acronym was something related to sight or surveillance?" suggested Seven. "I apologize if my suggestion is unhelpful. It seemed that you needed help making a decision.

"An acronym related to sight or surveillance...? Like... what?" Heather sighed. "I'm starting to give up.

"Like... S.E.E.I.N.G.?" Thorne suggested. "No, that's stupid. Forget I said that."

"Ooh, or S.E.E.S. Since we're a group that 'sees' things through!" Heather perked up. "We're really getting somewhere."

"No we're not, that's a stupid acronym," Thorne said bluntly.

"No..." Heather sighed, flopping back into her defeated stance. "You're right..." She folded her hands around the warm surface of her mug. "Oh, hey, you haven't even ordered a drink yet. What are you waiting for?"

Thorne chuckled. "I guess you're right. It'll have to wait until I have some caffeine." He went up to the counter and looked over the menu on backlit panels behind the barista. There were a lot of options for classic coffee variations, like mochas, lattes, or coffees with various fitting additional flavours, like vanilla and caramel. There were also some snacks that Thorne could see through a glass display case. "Mmm..."

"What can I get for you?" asked the barista as she saw Thorne coming closer to the counter.

"Um..." Thorne didn't just want a basic coffee. If he did, he would just make it at home. And the sweet baked treats in the display case were calling to him. This privately-owned rustic coffee house had a much different atmosphere than the corporate Dollar Star shops. "Can I get a French vanilla latte, and um... a Cookie-Crumble Cheesecake?"

"Coming right up!" the barista said with a big smile. "Will that be cash or card?"

Since it was a fairly small amount, Thorne handed over enough change to cover the bill, and asked the barista to keep the very little amount of extra change as a tip.

"All right, thanks so much," the barista said. "That will be ready for you soon."

Once Thorne returned to Heather's table, where Heather had apparently been talking with Seven through Thorne's phone, he had a mug of frothy latte in his hand, and a small plate with a mini cheesecake-in-a-mug in it, served with a delightfully tiny spoon.

"Ooh, that looks good," Heather commented. "Is that a Cookie-Crumble Cheesecake?"

Thorne nodded.

"Yum!" giggled Heather. "Those are one of my favourite things that they make here, food-wise." She waited for Thorne to sit back down on the other side of the table before she continued. "Seven and I were just discussing how we want to help him discover the truth about where he came from."

Discover the truth... "I've got it," Thorne exclaimed.

"Huh? Got what?" Heather asked.

"Our main goal as a group is to uncover the truth behind people, and behind the PsykoNet," Thorne explained. "So our organization should be called T.R.U.T.H."

"Ooh, I like it! Like, an acronym that spells T.R.U.T.H.?" Heather asked.

"Like... Targeted... Realization of... the Undiscovered Truth of..." Thorne was stumped.

"I feel like this is the right way to go with our name," Heather grinned. "I just feel it! We're really going to discover the truth about humanity like this!"

"Targeted Realization of the Undiscovered Truth of Humanity?" Thorne suggested.

"I'm almost feeling it... but there's just something off..." Heather critiqued. "I think it's the word 'Realization.' It makes it feel really long-winded. And 'Undiscovered,' too."

"As spies of Shadows' Headquarters, would it be appropriate to say we perform reconnaissance?" Seven asked.

Thorne nodded. "I'd say so."

"What does... reconnaissance mean?" Heather mumbled, nibbling the tip of her finger. "Like... renaissance?"

"Reconnaissance means to scout out enemy territory in order to discover important or strategic information," Seven explained.

"Oh, I get it. Like the word 'recon'?" asked Heather.

"Yes, precisely," chimed in Thorne. "So then... how about Targeted Reconnaissance of the Untold Truths of Humanity?"

"It's..." Heather gasped. "It's Perfect! Can we put it on a badge!?"

"It might be a bit long of a title to put on a badge," Seven said, unsure if Heather was asking a serious question or not.

"From here on, we'll operate as the Agents of T.R.U.T.H.!" Heather exclaimed. "Man, it sounds so cool! It's perfect! I guess this whole spy thing is official now, huh?"

"Our first operation as an organization can be to keep our voices down," Thorne joked. "If you yell it out like that you'll totally blow our cover."

"Oh god...!" gasped Heather. "You're right! Sorry, Leader."

Thorne was a bit taken-aback that Heather had decided to call him Leader.

"I feel a lot better now," she said, smiling. "Together, as Agents of T.R.U.T.H., I just know that whatever we come across, we can overcome. Like that Android that attacked us... He doesn't stand a chance against us! We have a name now! That means we're an official spy organization!"

Thorne chuckled. "I'm glad you feel better, Heather."