The South Quarter Hero HQ located an hour away from the safe house is a tall building that shoots up into the sky like a spear of ice. Pale, frosted glass windows line its exterior with elegant navy blue trimmings spiraling around it and ending in a sharp point several stories up. Morning sun flashes off of the windows and passing hovercars like paparazzi cameras, stabbing me in the eyes more than once.

This headquarters screams importance, elegance, and heroes—a far cry from the temporary one back in the west sector. I squint up at it as David pulls over a drop-off platform sticking out of the left side of the building. "Is sparkly the new fashion?"

David quirks a lip, landing the hovercar with ease. "No. We just thought it'd be a great deterrent to villains."

I snort. So villains are afraid of sparkles now? Aaaah, I am so terrified. Save me from the sparkles, pleeeease. The urge to roll my eyes is so strong, I have to run my hand through my hair and give a few tugs on my curls to keep a straight face. Since when did I become sour and sarcastic? What's more likely is the villains being blinded by the periodic flashes of light.

Pushing open the door, I step out of the hovercar and back into a little alcove, Citizen following me. David pulls away, sinking down towards the car park. I run my hand through my hair again, watching until the hovercar is out of sight, the ghost of frost buzzing in my arms like fireflies in a jar.

How do I always seem to find myself at hero headquarters? You'd think I'd be better at avoiding them, but no, Citizen insisted I accompany him today and no excuse was good enough for him. Sighing, I glance towards him. "Why am I here again?"

Citizen leads me inside and past a crisp and formal-looking reception room filled with people and heroes alike. "To answer a few questions and sort out your files." He doesn't face me as he answers, instead choosing to walk briskly through the thankfully not sparkly halls, weaving around heroes and staff with the coat of his hero costume fluttering behind him.

I frown and pick up my pace to keep up with him. "Couldn't we have done that at the safe house?"

He curves around another corner and slows, letting me catch up. "No," he says as I fall into step. "Your presence is needed here where the files are safely stored."

I sigh. I want to say I have better places to be—because I do: hero HQs are no place for villains—but I swallow it. I am here now and it'd be better to get all of it over and done with as soon as possible.

We reach a room lined with Leapers. Citizen approaches the first one and barks a command for the seventeenth floor for two. It beeps, opens, and he jumps in, vanishing just like David had in the first Leaper I ever saw.

Narrowing my eyes, I wait for my turn. Something is...off about him today. Something is off about this situation. I flex my fingers, darting my gaze around the hall, lingering on the heroes in uniform, senses prickling. This place is crawling with heroes. Getting out in an emergency will be...difficult. The Leaper beeps and its doors pull apart. Grimacing, I jump inside, tensing as it blasts me upwards.

At the top, Citizen waits for me, hands in his pockets and hardly looking ruffled. He glances me over, eyes lingering on my hair, then dips his head. "This way." Pivoting, he heads down the right hall and turns a corner.

Combing my fingers through my curls, pulling out some tangles, I push my pace to catch up. I round the corner just in time to catch his coattail disappearing into a room. A huff fans my face. Well, he's in a hurry. Maybe he wants this done as quickly as possible, too. If so, fine by me. With a short burst of speed, I close the distance and slip into the room.

It is rather sparsely furnished with two chairs facing a desk piled with files. A few file cabinets line the far wall and a holographic screen projecting the time is set into the one on my left. Citizen stands by the desk, scrolling through a file with a slight crease in between his eyebrows.

Unease spools into my stomach like a roll of toilet paper being attacked by a cat. Maybe it's the lack of personalization, or maybe it's the chill fingering in the room, or maybe it's the way the furrows in Citizen's brow deepen each passing second, but something about this place makes apprehension sink claws into my shoulders and alarm bells sound in my head.

Citizen clears his throat and sets the file down, fixing his eyes on me. They are hard disks of brown, almost as unfriendly as packed dirt. "We found your laptop."

A jolt freezes in my muscles, its edges sharp and warning. That means they— found my hideout. Shoot. My mind darts into my memory, tearing apart every moment for incriminating evidence. I...don't think anything I left there should give me away. Swallowing a curse, I hesitantly nod.

Rifling through the files, Citizen pulls out a particularly thick one and flips it open. With a few taps, a holographic projection of my laptop's details compared against a report of matching details appears. "Your laptop's details match with the one that hacked into our databases. We believe that is part of why Blank Slate kidnapped you again: to access your computer and its...unique hacking abilities." He glances at me and I scramble to school my expression into one of surprise and horror.

The room blurs, tilting and shifting with the static that screams in my ears. They— they found the bug. They. Found. The. Bug. Heat rushes to my ears, my heart screaming "run, run, run!" with each beat. Shoot, shoot, shoot! Tucking my hands into my pockets, I curl them into fists as ice slams into my fingers.

Dropping his gaze to the hologram, he waves it away and shuts the file. "Thus, we cannot return your laptop yet until we've figured out exactly how it was used and where to patch the hole. My apologies."

Taking a deep, shaky breath, I force down the rising tide of panic. They don't think it was me. I am— not caught. Yet. "That's fine." My voice is shakier than I want it to be and I run my tongue around my teeth, pressing back static. "I don't need it for a while."

Citizen nods and offers a tight smile. "And that brings us to the reason I wanted you to come in today."

Alarm in the shape of ice harpoons shoots down my arms and I stifle a hiss. What else does he have? Does he—suspect something else? "Oh?"

"David tells me that you have a power." He paces towards me, folding his coat over his chest a little more, head tipped slightly. "I know it is not proper to ask as we are only acquaintances, but I must for the sake of this case. Perhaps it is useful. What level is it?"

Megabytes! I knew I shouldn't have said that! Instinctively, I step back, suppressing an urge to glance towards the door. What can I tell him? What would he believe? "One. Nothing much. It really isn't all that useful."

Citizen raises his eyebrows. "And what does it do?"

"Uh," I run my hand through my curls, all possible excuses vanishing into a plume of smoke, "it just makes my hands white when I'm nervous, that's all. I...I haven't figured out what else it does. Frankly, I haven't tried—it really isn't that important."

"I see." He regards me with a thoughtful look, tapping his foot twice. Taking a step forward, he spreads out one hand. "I would like to do a power test. Perhaps it will reveal the nature of your power."

Oh no. That is never going to happen. If they do that, the game is up. They'd see that I am off the charts and dig deeper where all my secrets lie. Nope. No tests. Period. I raise my hand, backing up more, shaking my head. "No, no thank you. I'm fine not knowing."

Steel flashes in Citizen's eyes. "I am afraid I will have to insist, Denizen. All powers are important, and yours has yet to be logged into our databases. Did your parents never have you take the test?"

My breath snags on a lie and squeezed my throat shut. No, no, no. Not happening. Not. Happening. "They didn't know I was a one. I— I only started showing signs later and—" Shoot, shoot, shoot! "—I don't want to take the test. I don't like needles—"

"Denizen."

I snap my mouth shut before my heart can pound its way out of it.

Citizen lifts his chin, spearing me with his hero look mixed with shards of obsidian and fire. The one that normally says this is an order, but to me, you're screwed. "This is not an option. I am sorry, but you must take the test."

My throat closes around all the words—all the excuses, explanations, lies—rushing to my defense, tongue withering into a lump of sand. He's—serious. He's going to force me to take the test and I—I can't let him do that. Winter fills my hands, flowing faster and faster with the racing of my heart and the shortness of my breaths.

Nothing I can say will fix this. I can't salvage this. It's either take the test and let them find out when they have surrounded me, or run now. I squeeze my eyes shut, consolidating the ice inside of me into my hands, letting the numbness creep from my hands past my wrists.

A voice hisses through the static, wrapped in royal violet and venom. "The game is up and now it's time to burn our way out." And this time, it really is. I...have to burn my way out—blank my way out.

I take a step back. Then another one. Twisting on my heel, I fling open my eyes and shove my hands forwards. The door collapses into a sheet of metal. I barrel through and into the hall, sprinting down the way I came, teeth gritted against the wail of the alarm screaming along with my heart. Citizen shouts something, but I don't catch it. I don't have to; I already know what it is: Get him! Don't let him get away!

I nearly collide with a hero as I dash around a corner. He shouts and grabs at me but I duck and drive my fist into his face with one hand, snatching the weapon on his belt with the other. With a groan, he stumbles back and I push on ahead, clutching the weapon tightly. It is a gun, but by the buzz of authorization needed, I won't be able to use it as it is intended.

The walls fall away, opening up into a reception area. Four heroes snap their heads in my direction, the closest twisting to attack. Pushing my momentum into a jump, I leap up and send my power into the frame holding up the ceiling tiles, pushing my power as far as I can. Metal and ceiling tiles rain down as I land and dart into an adjacent hall.

Shouts follow me, merging into a cacophony of sound. Winter screams in my hands, biting harder with each frantic pulse of my heart. Gasping in air, I push my legs faster, risking a glance over my shoulder. Seven heroes are on my tail, Citizen in the lead. I whip around and stumble. More heroes round the corner ahead, two of which are armed with guns.

Sneakers skidding on the smooth tile, I careen to the left and blank straight through a door. Four walls, no doors and— window. Scrambling around chairs, I reach for it. Almost there—

Something zips by my ear and buries itself into the wall. Dropping to the floor as two more bullets whizz past, I roll and leap to my feet, slamming my hands onto a wall. "Shoot again and I'll take this building down with me!"

The two with the guns freeze, though they keep their guns trained on me. The rest of the heroes spill in, closing off my only escape and tensing for battle.

My chest heaves as I stare at them, teeth gritted and the fury of ice screaming for the death of this building. Adrenaline weakens my legs, driving flashes of light in between the static. Seven heroes. There are seven heroes, not counting the two holding me at gunpoint. I swallow my tongue, heart freezing. There's—there's no way out of this.

I am surrounded.