"Oh shit," says Kai as he wakes up in the hotel he helped Finn find last night. It's a nice hotel, at least; tasteful beige wallpaper, modern square beds and lamps, the smell of lemon and tea tree oils from the complimentary little soaps. 

Kai has always wanted to take a vacation, mainly for the excitement of staying in a hotel that isn't full of cockroaches, like that one time Monet dragged him to a Super 8 on the edge of the county for a news story. The story, Kai can't remember. Most of what he can remember includes a) being a hundred percent sure he was going to die that night after ripping the sheets off his mattress and finding a colony of bed bugs, hundreds of the bastards, and b) their neigbhoring suite, with the voices "whispering" about a "deal" that was definitely, definitely three guys planning to start a cult.

So, Kai is more than down to get a cushy hotel room in a big, toursity city. But there's Monet, and Max, and shit. Chip is gone. Just a note on the nightstand 'gone exploring :)'—stupid little smiley included. As if the written colon and parentheses are gonna convince him and Finn that it's okay actually that Chip's alone, in a giant city they've never explored before, probably hunting down Max himself. But Finn, currently, is passed out on the bed, with a dopey smile on his face.

"Finn!" Kai shakes the grumpy boy, his grumpy friend, his maybe grumpy boyfriend. Finn doesn't stir, just turns over. "Finn!" He smacks a kiss on Finn's forehead and Finn launches upright, a flush of red racing to his pale face.

"Huh? What?" He snatches for his glasses on the nightstand, putting them on the teensiest bit crooked. "Where are we—oh shit, Chip."

Kai's already scrolling through snap, searching his contacts for Chip's bitmoji, which wears a clear frown. "Fuck. Didn't share his location."

"Oh." And all the flush of red that surged into Finn's cheeks from Kai's wet, stupid kiss, it all drains away. "No, that's not good."

Kai stretches, looking out into the rush of traffic below, and an idea hits him like a very-need slap in the face. The boys are three stories up. A fall from the height will not be an enjoyable experience, but Kai needs someone to help, someone who understands superhero stuff. And anyway, Kai's not too keen on thinking things out or dwelling on the bad things that might happen. He has to get help for them, now. And this seems like the quickest way to get it.

Another perk of this fancy hotel; the windows aren't painted shut like the one with the bed begs and cult people. So Kai slides the glass pane aside easily and pushes the screen open. The space isn't big, but Kai isn't a big guy. "Wish me luck," he says. "I mean..." Eh. What is there to lose? "Maybe you could give me a kiss for luck?" Kai tries on a smirk, tries to waggle his eye-brows, but the smarm doesn't feel right and the bad-boy-wannabe-ness just sort of slides right off oh him, like water on a rain poncho.

Finn freezes while changing jeans. "Huh? Kai? What?"

Kai gives up trying and approaches Finn, wraps him in a hug. And Finn, jaded as he is, doesn't say something sarcastic or shove Kai away. He holds him, and his eyes flutter shut behind his fogged up glasses, and he tentatively presses his lips against Kai's. If there were more time, just the two of them, Kai would squeeze him tighter, giddy, stupidly giddy. Aside from goofy smiles and the sudden forgetfulness of his usual reluctance to be touched by Kai, Finn has never said 'I like you,' or 'I have a crush on you,' he never asked him out. Finn would sort of blush when they were alone together, stammer, look away. This delicate, awkward kiss means so much, but Kai has to step away. He walks back to the window and takes in a deep breath before Finn can stop him.

"GALAXY, I'M FALLING, HELP!" Is this a terrible way to get a superhero's attention? Yes. But Kai's desperate. So he tosses himself out the window, only realizing that maybe he made a terrible decision when he's already plummeting towards the cars and concrete. That realization turns quickly to hot and searing terror when he's falling, falling, falling...

And then there are arms around him. Cool, shimmering plates of purple armor casing the powerful muscles corded around his shoulders. This superhero's got the full look going, a purple helmet with a pull-down visor over the eyes, armor that flexes and falls easily with her even breathing, and warm brown eyes that glow behind the glass. "Are you okay? Is there anything you need assistance with?" The words are robotic, but she says them smoothly. They sound human coming from her, like bad lines spoken by a good actor.

Kai's all little gasps and tremmors, talking fast. "Yes, yes, yes. I've got a friend, Chip, and he's hunting for this supervillain, Max Preston, the one you punched in the face and he's really scary and he's trying to get supers into power-harvesting."

Galaxy hovers in front of the hotel window, shoves the pane open, and gently sets him on his feet on the hotel room floor. She lands steadily, this warrior-like figure looking up at these two teens. Up close, she's very short.

Finn is holding his face. He's cussing, and between his trembling fingers, his eyes are big and white and wild. "What did I just see, what did I just see, what did I just—"

She sits down on Chip's bed. "Power-harvesting? Do you think you know where he is?" She keeps to a calm cadence, and in full body armor, anyone is hard to read. But Kai sees the flicker in her eyes, the slight jilt of her summery voice on 'where he is.' "I have a friend, but I can't quite seem to find him. He would go to a power harvester."

The superhero, this mythical figure in Starlight city, pulls her iPhone 6 out of her toolbelt and holds it out to them. It's a picture of another phone screen, so blurry Kai and Finn have to crowd over her shoulders to read it. Something about power-harvesting from an FB and an Anonymous. "This is the last video he was watching, smart as he is, doesn't cover his tracks well from prying roommates who haven't heard from him in a day."

She pulls up a video of Max, his stupid little smirk clear on his face, even if he can hide his eyes with the shadows his black hood casts. "Oh, yeah, that's the one. He's from Silver Dollar." Kai blushes. "Sorry. We're not all supervillains."

Finn is still holding his jaw, eyes shifting back and forth between the hero, Kai, and the phone, like a flashlight beam trained on a cat's tail; flicking, constantly flicking. "I guess we're both missing friends."

"Didn't he give us an address?" Kai frowns, trying to grasp the numbers and names. Finn grabs for his dead phone on the nightstand, but Galaxy shakes her head.

"Can you describe it?"

"Big square with tiny windows, uh, fifteen, maybe twenty minutes away."

Galaxy sighs, firing off a quick text. "Think I know the one you're talking about. Very much not up to code, the kids call it 'Death Tower.'

"Oh, how comforting," says Finn, but the words are flat, more reflexive than emotion-filled, like he has to say something sarcastic. But he's still just staring at the hero, his face so easily betraying shock, like he can't quite fit the usual curled lip or sarcastic smile on to it. She offers out both hands. Kai snatches one. Finn flinches at her gloved fingers. "Um, I'm a bit hesitant about flying."

Kai gives Finn a pleading look he's been perfecting for years. "For Chip?"

Finn blinks a couple of times and ruffles Kai's hair, and Kai gets all tingly at the touch, and Finn looks at his hand for a second as if it acted on its own accord. "I mean–for you—yeah, uh, yeah okay, whatever." Finn swallows tightly and puts his hand in the hero's.

It's over in seconds. The trace of the window casing against their shoulders, the whip of motion, the feeling their stomach is going to fly through their chest and out their throats, and then, the solid press of the rooftop against their feet. Here, on the concrete twelve stories up, they can see the blue-blue sky and how the silvery steel buildings that make up one of the many down-towns reflect it. They can see apartments crunched against each other, a sea of blocky buildings, and further, where the houses scatter and the hills are brown. Farmland and city.

"This city is so weird," Finn grumbles, trying not to look down, or at Kai, trying not to think about how oh, fuck, maybe he isn't a husk after all, maybe he is capable of showing affection, the horror.

"That's what makes it beautiful," the hero says, and with that, she rockets them up into the clouds.

***

For what is worth, flying with the superhero is slow and easy. The air is cold but feels soft against them, and Finn even cracks a smile. Says something that Kai can't make out over the whistle of the wind, but he flaps his free arm in a silly, jokey way. Finn is never silly or jokey, so Kai takes it as a good sign.

They land on a parking escape beside an angel. Or what Kai thinks is an angel, or really, Kai doesn't know anything about the supers here, but that's what he assumes.

Black feathery wings spread, long black hair tied up in a ponytail that reaches the back of his shoulders. Leather jacket, purple shirt underneath, a cheap plastic mask on his face. He's holding a long-sword on his one hand, offers a handshake with the other. "Angelos Fi—"

Galaxy nudges him. "You don't give away your name when you superhero!"

"Ah." A nervous blush rises to the teen's face. The four dive in through the open window, 'Angelos' having to squeeze extra tightly to get all that wing through, but the others slip through easily. Even Finn, who's mostly just a very long skeleton in an old teeshirt to Kai, limby and lanky as he is. The window barely grazes his not-so-graceful form.

It's a clean apartment, smelling of Yankee Candle and incense. A couple of black couches, and shrine set up on an old computer desk made up of flowers, photos, and the figurines of skeletons in flowing robes.

And there are the boys. Gatsby, Chip, Gideon and Max. Gatsby's sitting on the makeshift coffee-table, drinking something from a mug. Galaxy leans forward, murmurs, "Not liquor this time" to her buddy, Angelos. The boy tosses his sword on the ground and rips Gatsby right off his perch. Steaming coffee splashes Angelos' feathers, but he just squeezes the man. And the man protests for a little before laughing, just laughing, "I'm not going to die!" and it's such a joyous little laugh that Kai's heart flutters at the sight.

Chip's smiling, the last of conversation drifting softly from his mouth with Gideon. "Hey," he says, "we got him."

And Max is leaned against the couch cushions, the rope laced from his ankles to the armrest. He's the one unhappy boy, much more pale than usual, and his breathing a bit labored. But he doesn't fight it, doesn't even bother to glare at the four when they barge in through the window. He looks at the ground, neither a Max nor a Masquerade move.

"What happened?" asks Galaxy.

Finn points at Max. "He's wanted in Silver Dollar, for lots of things, which is across state lines, so...."

"And we really need to get back."

Galaxy nods, her friend still babbling. "I mean, yeah, the powers are still there, but like, the headaches and stuff, it's gone, it's gone..."

"Hey Gideon," Chip says, and he's louder than Kai has ever head him in a conversation. The words are powerful and clear, beautiful from his honey-like voice. "Could you do me a favor?"

Gideon smiles sheepishly, tossing a curl from his face. "Oh anything." The man was terrifying to Kai only last night, but just seeing the small smile on his face, Kai figures there's a lot under the surface. Something a bit softer, something he'd be more than willing to get to know.

"I have a friend in Silver Dollar who needs some healing, do you think you help us?"

Gideon leans back. "Yeah, yeah. I can do that, on one condition."

"Name it," says Chip back. Simply, coolly, with a confidence Kai's never heard from him before.

"Well, you gotta show me the beach."

And relief runs through Kai like an electric current. The room is spinning, so he sits down and wipes happy tears off his face with his sleeve. Finn grips his shoulder, and when Kai looks up, he sees a smile so clear on his jaded friend's face that Kai can't help but smile stupidly back.