Chapter Twenty-Four

Plans Are Made to be Foiled

I nervously and rapidly tapped on Ellie's door, eager to explain my plan to her and nervous about what she'd have to say about it. Within a few seconds, the door swung open revealing Ellie sitting on a pillow cross-legged on the floor with her laptop, a bowl of dry cereal, and a remote sitting in front of her. She waved me in hastily and pointed the remote at the door, activating a servo motor that closed it again.

"Need anything?" Ellie asked as she stared at her laptop with a hand on the trackpad, her quirk allowing her to do everything she needed without making any inputs, exactly what I came to her for.

"Uh, yeah, actually," I said quickly as I paced back and forth, unsure how to position myself. Eventually, I just settled on the floor, making myself eye level with Ellie. "How should I put this…? Do you wanna help me hack into the 8-Ball agency?"

I crossed my fingers and raised my eyebrows as Ellie glanced at me and fixed her glasses.

"Sounds dangerous," Ellie said quietly and bluntly. "You could get in a lot of trouble for that."

"I know, but we both have internships with him next week and it's really important that I—"

"No, I'll do it." Ellie deadpanned as she continued to work on her laptop, not even taking her eyes off the screen.

I blinked.

"Really?" I asked, absolutely taken aback. "Just like that? You don't even… Do you want me to tell you why?"

Ellie finally took her hand off the laptop and looked at me.

"Listen," She explained. "I don't really need a reason. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll knock out the Wi-Fi here. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it for fun — all you gotta do is tell me what it is."

I shook my head in shock.

"Alright, two things; one, you gotta find some other things to do when you're bored, and two, I need you to dig around in the local network, I'm looking for a case file or an incident report — just something of that nature," I explained, catching Ellie's attention even more. "You'd be looking for the name Casey Williams, she's my old neighbor."

"What, are you stalking her?" Ellie raised an eyebrow.

"No, she got attacked by a villain last year and she was relocated. I want to know where she ended up." I said truthfully. Ellie thought it over for about a second before shrugging.

"Alright," She said as she went back to work on her laptop. "That should be pretty easy."

"You're sure?" I asked, eliciting a laugh from Ellie.

"I could crack anything short of maybe the Pentagon." Ellie spread her hands. "I'm not exactly a novice Emmet, I could have enrolled myself into Imperium from a toaster assuming it had internet access."

I chuckled and rubbed my hands together.

"Sounds promising, but uh, one more thing," I continued as I pulled my sleeves over my hands. "I need you to knock out the power."

Ellie stopped working again and stared at me quizzically.

"I can," She muttered. "What's in this for me?"

"Pride and accomplishment." I proclaimed with confidence, hoping she'd take it. She raised an eyebrow at me. "And twenty bucks."

"Alright, I won't ask any more questions because this just got a lot weirder than I… previously anticipated." Ellie trailed off as I stood up.

"I'll let you know what day this will be happening, and thank you for doing this." I clasped my hands together as I backed up to the door and walked into the hallway, only to come face to face with Amy. My breath caught in my throat as we locked eyes, a mere six inches away from each other's faces. "You hear all that?"

Amy nodded as I closed the door, shooting Ellie a nervous smile.

"Thin walls," Amy said. "What are you doing?"

I brought my tone down to a whisper and pulled her by the hand away from the door. Amy physically recoiled and took a big step back from me. My hands shot up to my head immediately.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. Amy shook her head and rubbed her hand as she stepped back over to me. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just…." Amy gestured to herself and rolled her eyes. "Why are you trying to track down your neighbor?"

I took a deep breath and looked behind me to make sure no one was watching.

"She's a lead," I whispered, almost to the point of just mouthing to Amy. "She used to work for him or — or adjacent to him — something like that."

"Him being….?" Amy shook her head. "Bloodshed?"

"Voss." I spat as I winced at his pseudonym.

"And she's gonna knock out the power in the dead of night so you can sneak away and find her?" Amy asked. I nodded. "And what if she's halfway across the country?"

"Well, then I'll have to figure something else out," I admitted. "But it doesn't really matter because I have a plan B and C."

"Do any of these plans involve backup?" Amy asked, a small smile forming on the sides of her mouth. I furrowed my brows as my face turned bright red.

"No, it's too dangerous for anyone to get involved," I told her as I shook my head, trying to hide the enormous blush on my cheeks.

"Certainly too dangerous for one person." Amy pointed out. I opened my mouth to defend myself but I couldn't conjure the words. "The only responsible thing for me to do is to tell Brutus about your little plan."

Even being totally sure Amy was bluffing, her words got to me.

"You-you can back me up on this but if anything goes wrong I need you to just get out," I explained, my face finally starting to cool off. Amy smirked as I kicked myself mentally for not even bringing this plan up to Ri.

"Your girlfriend know about this plan?" Amy asked, as if on cue. I shook my head furiously.

"No. No, no, no." I fired off rapidly. "Ri doesn't like the fact that I'm trying to stop him in the first place. If she knew I was actively working against him, she'd kill me."

"If he doesn't kill you first." Amy retorted.

"I am well aware of the mortality of the situation." I bit my tongue as I looked at my feet. "But if anything happens to you, that's on me."

"I'm not anyone's responsibility but my own," Amy said sternly. "I wouldn't even be talking to you right now if I didn't want to so you'd better believe I wanna be part of your super secret spy mission."

I sat in silence for a moment and bit my lip as I crossed my arms.

"You're gonna come no matter what I say, aren't you?" I mumbled.

Amy nodded.

"... But what if Jason finds out?" I whispered, causing Amy to fall silent.

"He doesn't track my every move if that's what you're thinking," Amy said sternly, but with a tinge of pain in her voice. "He wouldn't, like, hit me or anything either.

He hasn't been violent in…. A while."

My mouth began to fill up with the dull taste of iron, at which point I realized my lip was bleeding. It was enough to keep me from saying anything else on the subject, no matter how much I wanted to press it.

"It's gonna happen on the last day of the internship. I figure if we're caught it'll get us into the least amount of trouble." I explained after a long pause. "Ellie-"

"Yeah, yeah, she's gonna knock out the security system and grab you a file."

"Right…." I trailed off as I made eye contact with Amy once again. My face got hot as I started to space out, and as cliché as it sounds I wouldn't have minded getting lost in them. I quickly snapped out of it, remembering that it didn't feel right for me to fawn over other girls this way, no matter my feelings for them. "Just…. I'll see you at the internship, yeah?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Amy said as she stepped back and swung her foot back and forth. We made eye contact one last time before I dashed past her to get to my dorm, where I could finish my packing for the internship.

Part of me was tempted to stay and keep Amy company, but the thought of it sent a pang of guilt through my body, so instead, I resigned myself to staying in my room for the rest of the weekend, wishing that I had changed my mind.

Monday came faster than I had anticipated, but I worked quickly to formulate a plan to get to Casey. Ellie had gotten back to me within hours with her address, which brought both good news and bad news. The good news was that she was within city limits — the bad news was that I would need to look over my shoulder in case Voss had found her too.

8-Ball had shown up outside to greet me and my classmates — Drew, Amy, and Ellie — when we arrived at his agency; a sizable building incongruent with his popularity, almost like he had overestimated how much space he'd need. He walked to the car that picked us up from school and opened the door for us. He was dressed in a white and black suit complete with his signature cue ball helmet, almost the exact same outfit as when I had seen him last.

"Good morning students!" 8-Ball proclaimed, eliciting tired responses as we stepped out of the car one by one. "It's always nice to see some new faces…"

He trailed off as I stepped out.

"And some familiar ones." He said fondly as he patted my shoulder. I instinctively pulled away and avoided eye contact — helmet contact? He didn't exactly have visible eye holes — with him, something that surprised even me. I forced myself to look at him and nodded. "Brutus tells me you should be taking it easy this week, yeah?"

I forced myself to look at 8-Ball, but no words came out as I tried to talk.

"I'll make sure to keep an eye on you," 8-Ball told me as he turned around and motioned for us to follow him. "Welcome to my agency!"

I clenched my fists and followed the group, suddenly very aware that I was in the presence of someone who had basically told me I was nothing but dead weight in middle school. The memory alone was enough to make my face heat up and my heart race. I wondered what he had thought of me now.

8-Ball turned and waved his hand, motioning for us to follow, but I hesitated. Ellie and Drew followed suit, but I wrenched my eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath.

Calm down, Emmet. You have a job to do.

The reassuring thoughts were almost enough to calm me down, but for those ten seconds, I hung back from the group I feared I would fall into a full-on panic attack.

Until I felt a touch against my hand. My eyes shot open, expecting to see 8-Ball standing over me, scoffing at me and having all of his doubts proven right. But instead, it was Amy. My fists immediately unclenched as I felt the blood return to them and my fingernails leave a crescent moon shape on my palms.

"You okay?" Amy raised her eyebrows with concern. A nervous chuckle escaped my throat as I opened my mouth to speak. Amy smirked. "Come on, weirdo."

Amy grabbed my wrist and pulled me along toward the group, almost pulling me off my feet and onto the ground before I recovered from my stumble and caught up to her brisk pace. I almost didn't want her to let go of my hand, but when I looked down to see my wrist in her grasp I involuntarily recoiled as goosebumps covered my arms. When she quizzically looked over to me I kicked myself mentally but shot her a goofy grin. When she turned away my stomach dropped. I pushed whatever feelings were coming up away.

8-Ball proceeded to take us on a tour of his agency from the rooms we'd be staying in and the training facilities, all the way to the server rooms and mechanical rooms. As my gut feeling had told me when we'd arrived, he was severely understaffed, with even the training facilities looking totally untouched. At the end of the tour, we met in his office, where he briefed us on the plans for the week.

"I can tell you're all unimpressed," 8-Ball told us right off the bat. Crickets. He must have been used to that by now. "Don't everyone talk at once."

He chuckled and walked around to his desk.

"Why do you guys wanna become heroes?" 8-Ball asked. I scoffed, which was meant to be unheard, but in a room as silent as the one I was in, it may as well have been a gunshot. "Emmet? Got something to say?"

My heart dropped and my ears began to ring as my classmates turned to look at me with wide eyes.

"No, I just — I've heard this speech before when you visited my school," I admitted. 8-Ball chuckled.

"Then why don't you go first?" He suggested. "From what I remember you gave me a pretty good answer."

I bit my tongue and cringed. Did he remember me and my answer? Really? Who is this guy, Sherlock Holmes?

"I want to be a hero to keep people safe." I quoted myself to the best of my ability.

Silence once again.

"Is that all?" 8-Ball inquired. My breath caught in my throat as I glanced at Amy, who may as well have been screaming at me to keep my mouth shut. "You didn't sound as confident as when you had first told me."

"... Yes," I said simply as I looked him in the face and squeezed my fists as tight as possible. "I'm confident now. I know what I have to do."

I glanced at Amy once again as she shot me a smile.

"I love this kid," 8-Ball announced and pointed at me. "That, by the way, is the right answer. Don't be a hero for fame and glory, those don't mean a thing when you're down at the site of a train crash pulling civilians out of the wreckage — a natural disaster does not care about how famous you are and a supervillain does not care about how rich you are. What matters is that the people around you see you for who you really are. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not exactly the most popular hero around, but that's okay.

"This job isn't about selling the most movie tickets or the best cereal brand. This job is about doing all you can come hell or high water. And my mentor had a philosophy that I hold myself to — that if you have the ability or the chance to do something good for others, you have a moral obligation to do those things. That's what's at stake. Not choice.

"Responsibility." 8-Ball finished. I exhaled deeply and looked down at my feet.

"If it means anything, that's exactly what I was going to say. You know, word for word." Drew joked, eliciting laughter from everyone in the room, including myself. I'd almost forgotten why I was nervous about seeing 8-Ball in the first place.

"Well, then you're on the right page." 8-Ball spread his hands and laughed. "Long speeches aside, starting tomorrow, you will all be shadowing me on my patrols and participating in training exercises — save for Emmet, I am under direct orders from your teacher to keep you from combat training because of a recent concussion. It won't be very glamorous for you but there will be plenty of learning opportunities."

I sighed and nodded. He continued to talk ad nauseum about his precise plans for the week, but I was lost in my head once again, combing through my plans. When he'd stopped talking and sent us off to get acquainted with the rooms we'd be sleeping in I hadn't even noticed. I quickly turned when I saw everyone was past me to the door.

"Emmet!" 8-Ball called out to me just before I'd made it out the door and gestured back to his desk. I gingerly let go of the doorknob and walked back to where he wanted me. He looked down at his feet and handed me a newspaper clipping from a drawer in his desk.

Local Teenager Saves Woman from Home Invasion!

"What is this?" I asked as I skimmed through the article attached to the headline — it wasn't a big article, it couldn't have been on the front page.

"That's from the day we met," 8-Ball told me. My eyes darted up at him. "I never got the chance to tell you that I was wrong."

A lump immediately formed in my throat, betraying any sense of anger I had harbored toward 8-Ball.

"What do you—" My voice cracked, stopping me from finishing my question.

"I mean that I was wrong about you. You did something that day that most grown adults with quirks wouldn't have done. You saw what was happening and you took action. That woman is alive today because of you. That was an act of heroism." He explained. "You might not have a quirk, but you have a heart and you pack a hell of a punch. I've been keeping close tabs on you during your time at Pathfinder and I've been impressed. Any agency would be lucky to have you and I am confident you will become a great hero one day. I'd be happy to take you in for more internships later in your high school career. And who knows, maybe I could even save you a spot as my sidekick one day."

I was stunned. If I had died of shock then and there, I wouldn't have been surprised and I certainly wouldn't have noticed. The lump in my throat prevented me from saying anything when I opened my mouth, so I stood there with my mouth agape like an idiot.

"T-thank you." I stammered out eventually. 8-Ball nodded and sat down at his desk before beginning work on his laptop. I took that as my cue to leave as tears finally began to flow down my face.

The rest of that Monday we were called into 8-Ball's training facilities where we were pushed to our limits in various workouts. I was able to participate up to a point, but I didn't take nearly as hard of a beating as my classmates. Even still, I slept like a rock until the next morning.

Tuesday we woke up at four-thirty in the morning, an ungodly hour punctuated with an ungodly workout for the first two hours of the day. The rest of the day consisted of going about 8-Ball's patrol where I got to finally try out my new costume courtesy of Colin. The patrol itself incorporated a lot of parkour, something that I was, fortunately, able to partake in, but honestly, I didn't really have a choice — I wasn't keen on being left behind. Lunch was the best part of the day by far — eating a sandwich on top of a building downtown was unlike anything I'd ever done, it almost made me forget how high up we were.

Wednesday we woke up at the same time and were made to work out for the same two hours, but that day was quirk training day, meaning for me it was combat training. Meaning for me it was nothing. Which meant that I had to get something. Which meant I got cardio. I couldn't help but feel like I got the short end of the stick that day. We went out on patrol once again and helped stop a robbery, but nothing life-threatening.

Thursday was more of the same, wake up, work out, patrol, eat, patrol some more, eat again, and crash.

Friday was the big day. As our treat for surviving the school week, we got to sleep in until the simply unreasonably late hour of eight in the morning, after which we were tested on everything we had learned that week. The tests were eye-wateringly easy, but they passed the time and got me — and Amy — closer to the day's objective, which I had the details for down to a science in my head.

I almost didn't notice when the time had come.

Almost.

At eleven o'clock sharp I changed into my costume and gave a quick tap to the wall separating my room from Ellie's. A blackout rolled through the building on cue, kickstarting the very short amount of time Amy and I had to make our escape. In sync, Amy and I threw open our doors and sprinted to the stairwell where we made our way to ground level. Emergency blackout power kicked on just as we reached the fire escape door, bathing both of us in a harsh red glow. I held the door open for Amy and we continued running to the parking lot of the unfinished wing of the agency where a flatbed truck carrying concrete drainage pipes was pulling away. My heart skipped a beat as I realized the plan was working exactly as I'd hoped.

Amy and I tucked ourselves just out of the view of the truck until it passed, at which point we started jogging after it. Just as the truck was about to pull out of the lot, Amy manipulated a large branch from a nearby tree, bringing it down and allowing us to grab on and get pulled onto the back of the truck. As we touched down, I ducked into one of the pipes and retrieved my phone from a pouch on my belt as Amy crawled in next to me.

"It looks like it'll take us about forty-five minutes to get to Casey's address," I announced just loud enough to be heard over the truck's tires.

Slower than I had thought. We had to stay on the truck until it reached the construction company's headquarters, at which point we would be just a five-minute walk from Casey's safe house on the outskirts of town. I closed my eyes and stuffed my phone back into my utility belt to prevent myself from staring at the map the whole ride.

Deep breaths. That's what I needed. At this point, any screw-ups would be dangerous not just for me. Amy needed this to go right just as much as I did. I opened my eyes slowly and took a deep breath.

"Remember," I said to Amy. "If anything goes wrong, you leave me."

"Yeah, you said that," Amy chuckled. "It's not happening."

I clenched my fists and maneuvered to my knees to better face her.

"This guy isn't going to give you a second chance like he did for me. If you give him the chance-"

"I won't give him the chance." Amy asserted sternly. "And I'm not leaving you behind."

I pursed my lips.

"If anything goes wrong, we'll take care of it." She continued. "Together."

I spread my hands to emphasize my point, but before I could even open my mouth, Amy's hand shot up and grabbed my wrist. For a brief moment, I saw a flash of fear in her eyes. I recoiled instantly and fell onto my butt.

"I'm sorry," I said in a quiet and shameful voice as she turned away. "Just…. Be careful. We'll have each other's backs, yeah?"

"Yeah," Amy breathed and squeezed my hand, which she hadn't let go of yet. I tried to pull away, but a gentle squeeze let me know that she wasn't ready to let go yet. My face immediately started to heat up, which made me glad that it was nearly pitch black as we rode down the highway.

Should I ask her about Jason? Should I try to make conversation? Should I go over the plan again? So many questions ran through my mind, all of them beginning to pile up and start to crush me.

"You okay?" I managed to blurt out after a few moments of silence. Amy shuffled and turned back towards me, still gripping my wrist as she lowered her hand.

"Better," She chuckled and I let out a breath I forgot I had been holding. "Jason and I broke up. You don't need to worry."

I blinked and took a deep breath.

"I'm…." I trailed off.

"Sorry?" Amy finished my sentence and laughed. "No, you're not. You're glad."

A smile almost began to form on my face, but I shook my head and hung it low.

"You don't need to be sorry." She assured me. "I'd actually rather you not be."

"Then…. I'm not sorry?" I lifted my head up and chuckled. Amy squeezed my hand, causing my face to heat up. I dropped my head back down in embarrassment.

"Thank you," She said. "How are you and Ri."

Whatever warm feeling I had quickly dissipated. It felt slimy of me to even feel this way. How could the thought of my relationship make me feel like this? I gulped and forced a chuckle.

"Yeah, it's…" I struggled to find the words. "It's good. We're good."

Amy stayed silent.

"I mean, she's my first girlfriend and all so she's pretty much the best one I've ever had." I joked. "I'm glad we can talk about these things while sitting in a concrete tube traveling seventy miles an hour on the highway. A really nice place to converse, actually."

Amy laughed and squeezed my hand once again.

"Not great?" Amy asked. I blinked and tried to stammer out a response. "Between you and her, I mean?"

How did she know? Was I that obvious?

"I-I…" I stammered as my heart started to beat faster. After a few moments of silence, I leaned back and closed my eyes. "Please don't tell anyone."

"That bad?" She asked.

"That's the thing, I don't even…" I trailed off. "She's perfect. She's pretty, she's nice, she knows things about me, she listens."

"But…"

"But I don't know. It just doesn't feel right. I don't know what's not clicking." I admitted. "We don't fight. We go out. We spend so much time together but it just feels so… empty."

I leaned my head back and stared at the top of the concrete tube, memorizing all of the micro-cracks and the patterns and imperfections in the surface.

"I'm sorry," Amy told me. "I kind of know what that's like. I'm sure you'll know what to do in time."

I sighed.

"Thanks. It's just something I have to learn about by experiencing it, I guess." I said as I placed my hand on top of hers and squeezed it. She gave a quizzical look at the piece of equipment on my other wrist.

"What's this?" She asked, lifting my arm up and taking a look at the piece of gear. "You haven't worn this all week."

I took a look at it and shrugged. It was a bulky gauntlet with a spool of thin cable that had a hook on the end.

"This guy over in the support department at Imperium designed it for me," I explained. "It's a grappling hook. I haven't used it because Brutus told me not to push myself this week, but…"

I inspected the item for a moment before setting my arm down. A cold shiver ran down my spine as the cold night air smacked me in the face.

"Thanks for letting me join you for this," Amy said, breaking the silence. Or at least the lack thereof. The wind that was bombarding us happened to be extremely loud as well as cold.

I chuckled.

"You didn't give me a whole lot of choice," I told her. "If you told Brutus—"

"I was bluffing," She cut me off. "I wouldn't have said anything to him."

I paused for a moment. Of course.

"Seriously?" I asked. She nodded and smiled bigger than I had ever seen her smile. Luckily, the darkness hid any sort of redness in my face. This silence was louder than anything that came before. I sat for a moment and let it hang in the air. "Well, I'm…. Glad you're here anyways."

Amy chuckled and leaned her head back, smiling smugly. The silence stayed, yet didn't feel awkward. For one of the first times in my life, I didn't feel the need to break it. I was comfortable.

Then I had to check the map.

"End of the line's coming up soon," I announced as we neared the construction company near Casey's safe house. Amy and I crawled out of the tube and held on tight as the truck exited the highway and started down the road to an industrial part of town. The cold night air bit at my skin even harsher than it had on the highway, making every hair on my body stand up.

Right.

Left.

Straight for two blocks.

A left outside the lumber yard.

The truck was going exactly where I had hoped. I leaned over and peeked around to the front side of the truck to better observe where we were. Sure enough, I could spot the construction company's headquarters just down the road.

"When I jump, you jump," I said to Amy as I braced myself. She nodded as she reached behind her head and pulled her mask over her face — a pale green cowl with big red goggles. It didn't offer much in the way of stealth, but it hid her identity well enough. I reached into my utility belt and retrieved my mask. It had been untouched all week while interning, but I decided I should follow Amy's lead and mask up. It was a rudimentary black cloth mask with big, white lenses that didn't offer any functionality other than to hide my face. I wasn't the biggest fan, but it would get the job done. Colin would be hearing from me, however.

The truck suddenly slowed down, signaling that it was pulling up to the site. Without a word, I leaped off the bed of the truck and into a roll, coming to the cleanest stop I could have hoped for. Amy followed suit, landing right next to me. We broke into a run down the street perpendicular to us, quickly falling out of sight from the truck's driver. Amy kept pace with me, pulling her red scarf over her mouth to protect herself from the wind as we made our way to our final destination.

The place was in disrepair. An old house on the outskirts of town long abandoned by society. Broken windows, collapsed sections of the roof, and absolutely no reason to come around. Perfect for harboring someone you don't want to be found.

Amy and I came to a stop across the street and took a good look at the house. The internet showed a picture of this house before it was abandoned with a big oak tree in the front yard, something that hadn't changed, thankfully.

"That's our way in," I pointed at the tree and drew a line in the air to a portion of the collapsed roof. Amy scoffed. I nudged her with my elbow and broke out into a jog, stopping near the wall of the house, which smelled like mildew, mold, and sadness. I didn't actually know what the third smell was, but I think sadness was probably a good enough analogy.

The longest branch of the tree slowly and carefully swooped down to pick us up, setting us down gracefully on the roof, right where it was most stable.

"Thank you," Amy whispered as the branch returned to its original position. I felt a warm fuzziness as she gently helped the branch along, which shocked me, because the sight was actually quite odd. When she turned to me, I quickly looked away and thanked whoever was listening that I had put my mask on — my face was probably an inhuman shade of red. I nervously looked down at the collapsed part of the roof and eyeballed the best way to crawl in. Wooden trusses were clearly visible, and I could see what remained of the attic floor had fallen away to reveal a bedroom.

"Gotcha," I mumbled as I squinted. A glow emanated from within the room and spilled into the hallway, illuminating stray empty food cans. Casey had to be here. "I'm gonna squeeze in and clear a path for us both. I'll help you down once I'm inside."

"Right," Amy nodded as I descended into the opening, clearing any debris lodged in my way with my boots. I made sure to hold my breath as I passed a sheet of insulation, but my feet touched down on the old attic floor before I knew it.

"You're clear," I whispered as I hopped through a hole in the attic floor down into the hallway facing the bedroom. The house on the inside was littered with food cans and water bottles. She must have been living off rations this whole time. Did they really have nothing better to offer her? I couldn't help but think that this was inhumane — how could she deserve to live like this after making it out of the situation she did?

My train of thought was interrupted by Amy's feet swinging in front of my face, followed by stifled yelp.

"Sorry!" I quickly apologized and made a foothold with my hands for her. I brought her down gently and took a deep breath.

"Were you daydreaming?" Amy asked, slightly annoyed that she had almost fallen from the ceiling and likely the next floor.

"... No, I—" I bit my tongue. "It's nothing."

I shook my head and gestured to the bedroom door. I pulled my bo staff from its resting place on my back and held it in a defensive position, ready to block a strike at a moment's notice. Amy adopted a more offensive position behind me as we crept up to the door. It creaked as I slowly pushed it open. The first thing I noticed was the TV from which the glow was emanating. The second thing I noticed was Casey, shaking in the corner opposite us with a knife in her hand — no, the knife was her hand.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked defiantly. "Huh?!"

She yelled as she shook her hand, which was morphed and came to a point, not unlike a knife's edge. Amy started to shuffle behind me, but I gestured for her to stop and slowly reached for my neck to pull my mask up. Casey didn't falter when I revealed myself.

"You're that kid," She said. "Why are you here? Did he send you?"

"No," I said calmly as I stuffed my mask into my pocket. "I just wanna talk."

Casey's eyes darted to Amy.

"She's a friend," I reassured her. "You can put down the—"

"You are NOT going to tell me to put it down!" Casey roared as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Why are you here?!"

"Voss," I blurted out without thinking. "We need to know what he's planning. You're the only person I know who could possibly—"

"Are you serious?" Casey asked. "You're on his case?"

I nodded. Casey stared me down.

"I'm sure you've been keeping up with the news," I continued, speaking softly and slowly. "Vampires in the streets. Victims drained of their blood. You know it's him. What's he planning?"

Casey stayed silent.

"People are going to die if—" I began, only to get cut off by Casey.

"It's a heist," She stated. My eyes widened.

"To steal what?" I asked. Casey shook her head.

"I don't know," She continued. "I was just an enforcer. All I knew was that I needed to do jobs for him, I never questioned why. Not until I found out the truth about the Allfather."

"The truth?" I asked, remembering the man in the armchair in that dim room the night Voss kidnapped me.

"He's not what you think," Casey revealed. "He's using Voss as a pawn. And if you think Voss is a pain in your ass, you've got no idea. The beasts they have, they called them nomu —"

Casey stopped dead in her tracks as a sound cut through the air. A sound that may as well have been a gunshot. A car door. And another. And another. My heart leaped into my throat as I rushed out of the room and sprinted to a window facing the part of the street it came from.

Please, no.

I prayed to myself as I scanned the street until —

My heart fell out of my throat and sank to my stomach as the world around me became fuzzy.

A bright red Hummer was parked in the grass.

And that man, Bloodshed.

He was already marching toward the front door.

My triumphant return. It hasn't been over a year, what are you talking about? Anyways, writer's block hit me pretty hard this year. This is the hardest chapter I've ever written and to be honest, I'm still not totally happy with it. But, I do think it gets across what I want, plus incorporates a few elements I've been itching to include for a long time. Nomu anyone? I wonder if anyone figured that out when Voss mentioned injecting someone with too many quirks. And what's the deal with the Allfather? I guess we'll have to wait and see. This time NOT in a year. That's a promise. To anyone reading this who has been keeping up with the story, I implore you to leave a review to let me know how you feel about my return with this chapter. I thank you for finishing this behemoth of a chapter and hope you're anticipating the next one.