When Aether walked into the office the next morning, Veritas was already waiting.

"Do you ever sleep?" she snapped, hitting the up button for the elevator.

Jason frowned sympathetically, flicking dark hair out of his eyes. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

The redhead gave him a hard stare.

"After last night?" she said. "Guess."

The elevator doors slid open. Jason gestured for her to go first. Aether swept past, balancing two coffee cups, and hit the button just as he slipped inside. She stared silently at the display, watching the floor numbers change.

Jason broke the tension. "So who's the coffee for?"

"Someone who's helpful and does their job without interfering in anyone else's," she said acidly.

"Okay, that was uncalled for—"

"After last night?" Aether raised an eyebrow, finally making eye contact with the tall super. "Look, I don't know how you thought you were helping, but you couldn't have made it worse if you tried. You and Kylie were way out of line – there's no way you would have gotten clearance if you'd actually talked to the right people."

There was a ding as the elevator slid to a stop. Jason made no move to get out, so Aether shoved past him.

"Maybe if we just talked about it—" he started.

She spun to face him, sticking one foot between the elevator doors so they wouldn't close. "No, I'm done talking to you. You'll be lucky if your job lasts the day, Mr. Number One Super."

The doors closed on Veritas' puppy-dog eyes, and Aether had absolutely zero regrets.

"That was a bit rude," a voice said from behind her.

She almost melted. "Charlie! Please help. I swear if he doesn't quit, I will."

The agent pushed his glasses up his nose, taking the chai latte from Aether's hand. He opened his mouth as if to give his opinion, then thought better of it, shooting her a weary smile.

"I have fifteen minutes," Charlie said. "It's almost ten and you still haven't given me the briefing from last night. Maybe you should sit down?"

* * *

"Nobody would have started shooting if he hadn't jumped up like that," Aether was insisting. "The room was tense, yeah, but I was doing fine. I think Vortex even liked my persona. She told us the minute we sat down that she knew we were supers, but she wasn't hostile or anything. It was almost... chill."

"Chill." Charlie tapped notes into his phone. "And when they did start shooting?"

"Veritas had the nerve to jump in front of me. Like it was my fault we were being shot at. I yelled for everyone to get down, but almost no one looked worried at all. At all. I think they knew exactly what was going on – we walked right into a nest, like complete idiots."

"The place will be empty, then. If they know a hideout has been compromised, it'll be swept clean by morning."

"So last night was useless." Aether popped the lid off her cup miserably, swiping a finger around the edge to get the whipped cream out.

"Well... no."

She met Charlie's gaze. "I mean, she said she was working on something important. Something about the future of superheroism in general, but that doesn't tell us much. If Veritas hadn't been there—"

"Then we wouldn't have this." He slid a micro-drive across the desk, raising his eyebrows at the super.

Aether looked at the tiny plastic square, baffled, then back up at him.

"Veritas was wearing glasses?" Charlie asked, like he didn't know the answer.

"Yeah. Why?"

The agent tapped the side of his own frames. "It was a recording device," he said. "We've got facial recognition on everyone who was in the club that night, as well as Vortex's voice print, the conversations of everyone around you – we've made four arrests since Jason came back this morning. Nothing major, but it's progress."

Aether put a fist over her mouth, silent.

"Don't get me wrong," Charlie said. "Jason Dare is still on probation. Jumping into someone else's mission without the proper procedure, not to mention his total lack of experience—"

"That's what I said."

"—but Kylie at least put some thought into her actions. She does have over thirty years of experience on the police force, so we think she can handle Jason."

The super bit her lip. "I'm sorry. It's just – we can't afford inexperience right now. Please, whatever you do, keep Veritas out of the Lucid situation?"

"I think I can guarantee it." Charlie pulled out his phone again. "You and Flickr are up. How does some nice, peaceful patrol work sound?"

* * *

"He actually said that to you." Flickr was laughing, one hand moving from the steering wheel to cover her mouth in shocked glee.

Aether groaned, spreading her arms in supplication. "Right? And then I was like, is this a cartoon? I don't know how anyone can take the guy seriously. He probably didn't even graduate from the academy."

The other super flicked on the turn signal, moving the sleek patrol car into the next lane. "How much further?" she asked. "We're almost around the construction, do I go up 3rd or 4th?"

"Fourth," Aether said, just as her phone started buzzing again. She rolled her eyes at Flickr, mimicking "Yes, Charlie, we're two minutes late," before opening the text message.

There was a pause.

Flickr slowed the vehicle. "Well?"

"There's been a voiceprint match," Aether said slowly. "From someone in the club last night. They're in the area... tracked to a community centre on 1st and 39th."

"We were just there," the driver complained. She swivelled to check her mirrors, then muscled the car two lanes over to turn left. "Tell him two minutes. Do we get a description, or grounds for arrest or anything?"

"Yeah, hold on." She checked the screen again. "The cops are going to be called, but they can't close in until we find the suspect. I think they're still clearing our authorization for the use of the voice matching software or something unimportant."

"What else is new, right?"

"Pull up here," Aether directed.

The two supers got out of the car, leaving it parked just behind a sketchy-looking restaurant. The community centre was half a block away still, and Flickr threw her friend a grin before blinking out of existence. The redhead sighed and broke into a jog.

"It's empty," came a voice just over Aether's shoulder when she finally rounded the corner. She stopped, glancing around.

"You sure?"

Flickr reappeared beside her, leaning against the wall of the building. "Well, empty of people. It's full of random boxes and junk that looks like it hasn't seen daylight for years. Maybe we could poke around a bit."

"That doesn't solve the problem of where the guy went," Aether pointed out. "But fine. Can you get me in?"

Flickr only took a moment to phase through the solid glass doors, disarm the security alarm, and push the door open for Aether. The two of them wandered further into the building, sidestepping boxes in the hallway to come out into the gymnasium area. Every footstep sounded far too loud, the complete silence from everywhere else swallowing up any other noise.

Aether hugged herself, a sudden chill creeping through her thin white leather jacket. "It looks like this place hasn't been used in years," she said, her voice fading without an echo into the darkness.

"Oh, it has," countered someone from behind them.

The two supers spun around. Flickr vanished, reappearing instantly behind the dark figure, crouching in a ready position before anyone else could make a move.

The figure laughed, putting their hands up defensively. "Hey now. I'm not the one trespassing, am I?"

"I think you'll find that we're registered supers with the full authority of the United American government," Aether said coldly. "Show your face."

The tall suspect tilted their head. They were wearing a full black super suit, silvery lines contouring their figure. A cat-like helmet hid their face completely. The figure made no move to take it off.

"What, you don't recognize me?" she teased, her voice distorted by the mask. "Maybe it's the haircut. Or the new tech."

She flexed her fingers, and blue electricity sparked between them, momentarily lighting up all of their faces.

"Lucid." Flickr straightened slowly at the realization, shooting a look at Aether.

"Nice. I was going to give you three guesses, but wow, you're good."

"So you are alive." Aether took a step forward, her expression unreadable. "Are you with Vortex?"

"Where else would I get this?" Lucid threw her arms wide.

The red-haired super didn't see it coming until too late. A shock wave of electricity exploded from where the villain stood, hitting Aether with the force of a truck. She was airborne, weightless for the tiniest fraction of a second, just long enough to think I'll never do patrol again – then came the impact.