Barnes & Noble was a different dimension, and no one could convince Vidya otherwise. It was a quiet, dreamy place that smelled like coffee, cookies, and books, and it calmed her enough so that she was able to pick out a calculus prep guide without panicking into indecision. She tucked the book under her arm and browsed the shelves, moving slowly because she knew that the moment she left the store, she'd be back in her own, homework-filled dimension.

She passed by a display, froze, and backpedaled to it, coming face-to-face with copies of Flamethrower's biography. Vidya eyed the cover, scrutinizing Flamethrower's angelic smile with a judgemental smirk of her own. The pages must be filled with words of kindness and compassion and heroics but absolutely no mention of the burned corpses or the buildings that blew up 'on accident'. There would be nothing about the scathing insults that spilled out of the hero's mouth or the fact that she didn't get along with anyone, especially not her team. Vidya shook her head, laughing to herself.

"One day, it'll be your biographies on that display."

Vidya whirled around at the voice, shocked that somehow, someway, someone here knew she was Frostbite. Standing a few feet away, alone, was a girl sporting a private school uniform and a devious grin. The recognition kicked in: it was Aisha.

Vidya exhaled in relief. "I've already gotten publishing offers," she joked, "but I've got nothing to write about."

Aisha laughed. It was nice to see her, to see Mask as she was during the day. Instead of the dark hero ensemble, she wore a green blazer and grey pants, a tie hanging loosely from her neck. Her friends, dressed the same way, were waiting by the doors.

"I'll catch up later," Aisha told them over her shoulder.

They shrugged and left. Vidya gestured to the connected Starbucks, hopeful. "Want to sit?" she asked. Any excuse to put off studying, she'd take it.

Aisha nodded. They bought two Astraccinos (a limited-time specialty drink named after Astra, a famous light-powered hero) and sat facing each other at a small table.

"So you go to Huntington Prep?" Vidya asked.

Aisha ran her finger over the embroidered school patch on her blazer. "Yeah."

"Does David go there, too?"

"No. He's nineteen, probably graduated already." She shrugged. "At least, I think so. I don't really know. I only met him two weeks before we met you, so the friendship's still fairly new."

Two weeks? They seemed so close that Vidya was sure they'd known each other a long time. It was adorable. She wished that her own team could be like this, that they would genuinely enjoy each other's company, because it sure didn't seem that way now.

"So how's it going in the big ol' corporate world?" Aisha asked, waving around her Astraccino with its mass-produced, signed-by-Astra cup sleeve.

"I think I've finally settled into the job," Vidya said. "I met hospitalized children yesterday, and their smiles were worth it."

"Yeah, I saw the pictures on Instagram."

Several thousand likes and heartwarming comments, and it felt great. Vidya poked the tip of her tongue into the mouth hole of the lid and gently tipped the cup to test the coffee—nope, still too hot. She set the cup down with a sigh; yes, she was that person who had to wait until the coffee was practically cold to be able to drink it. Ironic, no?

Aisha was having no such trouble. She swallowed a big gulp and cleared her throat. "I was thinking," she said, shifting in her chair, "if you still, you know, want to go out with us every now and then, and...if we're friends, do you, maybe, want to exchange phone numbers?"

Vidya blinked. She'd been wanting this for a while but thought it would be pushy if she brought it up; hearing Aisha ask, just as nervous as she would've felt, made her feel validated. They actually liked her!

"Of course." Vidya held out her phone. "And for the record? We are friends."

Aisha grinned. "Well then, friend, you should be able to guess what your contact name is going to be."

"Please, no," Vidya groaned.

Aisha's grin only spread wider as she made a show of typing it in, and then she waved the screen for her to see. "Text ya later, Elsa."

__________________

The Public Relations department was stepping up its game. They were always micromanaging to make sure that Celestro and its heroes were seen in good light, but now there was an urgency to it. The anniversary was drawing a lot of attention, which needed to be manipulated into usefulness, and they also needed to draw attention away from the still-unsolved mystery of the dead supers.

Image was everything, after all.

The Marvels were taking turns meeting with a PR team—except for Frostbite, who had a restrictive schedule and couldn't be roped into this. Lady Marvel was the second one to go. In terms of damage control, there was nothing to do: she hadn't publicly 'messed up' recently, and the general consensus was that everyone loved her.

So since there was nothing to fix, they could use her for anything.

"Ma'am? Are you listening?"

Lady Marvel looked up from her phone. "Yes. I'm just cleaning up my Instagram messages."

Kristen, the Marvel PR manager, twisted her hands together, glancing around at her team. "I think you might want to pay closer attention, this is important."

"Listen," Lady Marvel scoffed. "Half of these messages are promotional offers, and the other half are love letters from creeps who think I'm their soulmate. I'm not reading, just deleting, and I can multitask, alright? I promise I'm paying attention to you."

Kristen didn't seem to buy it, but she didn't have a choice. "Okay," she mumbled.

She jumped back into her spiel, and Lady Marvel went back to not paying attention. She scrolled through the direct messages, frowning and deleting them all. Some might be genuine letters from people who looked up to her, but she wasn't going to read through a bunch of weird partnership offers and disgusting declarations of love to find them and respond.

When Kristen went silent, Lady Marvel realized that she'd been asked a question. "Sorry, could you repeat that?" she asked.

"How are your relationships with the others?" Kristen asked. Everyone in the room waited earnestly, holding their breaths.

They were clearly hoping for an upbeat answer like 'Great! Absolutely fantastic!' but Lady Marvel simply smiled and said, "Functional."

It was still a better answer than what Flamethrower would've given.

"But no bad blood, right?" Kristen laughed nervously. "There's no one in particular who we should keep you away from for appearances? We want people to believe you're all friends, not frenemies."

"No bad blood," Lady Marvel replied, completely honest.

The team's relief was thinly veiled; the last thing they wanted was to have to cover up animosity.

"Good," Kristen said. "Good. How would you feel if we set up a live interview for you and one of the Golden Four? It's been a while since anyone on the two teams ever had anything to do with each other, and it would sure boost ratings!"

Lady Marvel shrugged. "Sure."

Again, the relief was thinly veiled. Lady Marvel might not be the most attentive, but she was one of the easier heroes to work with.

Kristen sat down; she'd spent the whole briefing pacing around the room, and it seemed that her legs were finally tired. "I think that's all," she said cheerfully. "Thanks for your time, Ms. Jones."

Lady Marvel rose from her chair with a stretch. "No problem."

As she left, she passed by Echo in the hallway. His briefing must be next—another easy one. It was number four they were going to have issues with, if she even bothered to show up.

Lady Marvel waited for the elevator, deleting the last of the messages and tucking her phone into her pocket. There was a little ding, and the doors opened. Phase was already in there, and he stepped aside to make room and said, "Hey, Marv."

It was obvious from the quiet tone and the calm way he looked to the side that he wasn't expecting a response. Lady Marvel smashed the button for the floor she wanted, thinking, it's time to bite the bullet. But it wouldn't be a bad thing, so bullet wasn't really appropriate. Cake? Bite the cake?

Lady Marvel turned to him, smiled, and replied, "Hi, Phase."

His head turned so fast, she was shocked he didn't break his neck. Lady Marvel couldn't help it: she burst out laughing. Phase watched her lose it, either concerned or convinced she was insane.

"Sorry," he said, laughing nervously. "I didn't mean to react like that."

"I get it. I'd also be surprised if someone who hadn't spoken to me in months suddenly said hello back."

He laughed again and mumbled something that sounded like no problem, as if he were honestly trying to pretend that he'd never noticed. Adorable.

"Seriously, Phase." Lady Marvel shook her head. "I apologize for never talking to you. As the second in command of this team, I should be keeping everyone together, not ignoring your existence. I don't know..." She bit the inside of her cheek, not having thought this through enough. "I can't explain why I did it, but I'm sorry. Truly."

"That's alright." He shrugged. "Shit happens. But it's nice to finally meet you, Lady Marvel."

Lady Marvel laughed. "Same here. And I was thinking, why don't we visit Andrea's art exhibit sometime and get to know each other? Treat it as a long-overdue icebreaker."

He smiled. "I'd love that."

They reached his floor, and he got out. Alone, Lady Marvel rested the back of her head against the elevator wall. Was that so hard? she wondered to herself.

She was also wondering how the heck Phase lasted this long with them.

Hey guys, sorry for the late update! College is hard, and this week has been the absolute worst (physics exam, calc iii exam, solidworks quiz, dynamics quiz, calc iii quiz, oh my!). Don't do engineering.

Jk, it's fun :)