"But you're the Howler!" Angie exclaimed, her jaw dropping. "You talk to the media at the drop of a hat! How could you have kept this quiet?"

"People never think to question me," I said, shrugging. "It's part of the reason I act like that."

Angie's jaw remained dropped and even Arya looked surprised. I don't know why they were so shocked I could keep a secret — I do have a secret identity after all.

"Spill," Angie said, crossing her arms. Arya turned her attention to me, resting her chin on her fist as if awaiting an explanation.

"You both know Talon, right?" They gave a curt nod.

"Well, he's my neighbor," I confessed. "And my best friend."

Arya's eyebrows furrowed, and Angie looked like she wanted to smack me.

"You're saying that a guy who strangles women for fun is your best friend?!" Angie screamed.

"First of all, it was one woman," I said calmly. "And second of all, that wasn't him. Well, not really."

Angie was fuming, and Arya sat silently, tapping her index finger on her thigh. I understood Angie's frustration, even if it was shortsighted, and, frankly, annoying.

"If it wasn't him, why doesn't he just say that?" Arya asked. "Why would he let everyone drag his name through the mud?"

Angie calmed down and looked at me expectantly with a smirk, as if to say "she's got you there."

"He's being blackmailed," I said. "And I think the person who manipulated him is the same person who's been messing with your mind, Arya." She stared at me blankly, and a shadow of doubt crossed Angie's face.

"Before Talon... turned, he said that he was having vivid hallucinations," I explained. "Of his mom, who died giving birth to him."

"Talon was really shaken up by the visions," I said gravely, thinking back to his manic bursts. "He was in a prime state to be taken advantage of."

Angie sat quietly, and Arya started to fidget. "Like me," she whispered.

"Perhaps," I said. "But that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"What are you on about?!" the words flying out of Angie's mouth. "How could that NOT be a bad thing?"

I sighed, trying to remember that this information was all new to them. I had been thinking about the turned supers for a month now, and sometimes forgot that not everyone shared my understanding.

"Think back to the incidents. No one was ever actually injured."

The woman whom Talon strangled did not sustain permanent damage, the mayor was eventually discovered and no one was in the apartment complex when it blew up. After further investigation, I found that it had been abandoned for 8 years. And of course, Contagion's hostages were safely secured before anything could happen to them.

"Maybe not physically..." Angie muttered. "But have you heard of emotional trauma?"

She was right, and I had that concern as well. I managed to catch up with Nico after he was abducted by Contagion, and he said, strangely, that he wasn't scared. On the contrary, he said an overwhelming feeling of safety filled his entire being in that moment — his exact words were "Someone made it clear they were watching over us. But I don't know who."

"I don't think that's the Mastermind's end goal," I said, shaking my head. Arya's eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.

"Mastermind?" she asked.

"That's what we've been calling him. Talon and I, I mean," I said. "Right before Talon strangled that woman, he said that a man approached him and forced the idea into his head. Talon became obsessed and acted on it."

"Hold up," Angie said, raising her hand. "You know where Talon is?" I nodded.

"And you've been working with him?" I nodded again.

"Bring him here," she said firmly.

"What? Are you crazy?"

"I'm not going to turn him in," she said, her lips curling into a smile. "I'm going to make sure he's not lying."