“Name of subject?”

  “Deanna Artem,” said Pyper.

  With guns slinged at their sides, the three inquiring Proscious guards joined the team beside their sleek transport. A maintenance worker began his vehicle inspection behind them.

  “Uh–if you would, ma’am…” he uttered uncomfortably.

  Pang turned to find Deanna hadn’t yet exited the ship. But when Irma offered her hand, reluctantly, she took the step down onto the paved ground. She silently sheltered behind Pang, arms wrapped around herself.

  Out of the corner of her vision, Pang could see her hands trembling.

  “Over here,” the leading guard commanded.

  Deanna didn’t budge.

  “No way around it, ma’am. Over here now.”

  Pang couldn’t help herself: she scanned for the guard’s powers.

  Imaginer. Gun and scooter are all he can make.

  All talk, like the other ones. What a bunch of losers.

  But his posturing was enough. Deanna, without her dozens of followers to protect her anymore, stepped forward and stood beside Pyper.

  “Bondage remote, please,” the guard requested of his counterparts. “Hands behind your back, ma’am.”

  “Hey!!” Pang fumed. “Come on, you don’t need to do that!”

  At the sight of the device, she could nearly feel its tightness around her own wrists and ankles again.

  The guard hesitated at her word, eyebrows furrowing.

  “True,” Pyper chimed in. “She’s a willing subject.”

  “‘Willing subject?’ That’s not the designation in the file…”

  “We’re overriding the file, which our team rank gives us the authority to do,” explained Pyper. “Right, guys?”

  Up until now, Pang realized Benton and Irma had been staring off into space. The same cloudiness had masked them as before the mission began.

  But their attention sparked–as did the light in their eyes.

  “Oh, yeah! She ain’t hurtin’ nobody,” Benton assured. “Didn’t give us any trouble. Nope.”

  “So we’re changing her designation,” Irma finished.

  Aoi nodded in confirmation.

  Pang wasn’t one for non-League jargon, but she had a feeling she should agree. “Yeah, obviously. What they said.”

  “But…” the guard stammered. “Whatever. Recommended holding zone?”

  Pyper brought a finger to her chin in playful thought. “Hmm…what do you think, Pang? Where should these guys put her up?”

  Pang found herself glancing at her roommate. Irma had housed, clothed, and fed her even after Pang tried tearing the base to shreds in an attempt to break free.

  The answer was clear.

  “She’s just some sweet lady, and now she has to put up with our crap. At least put her somewhere nice,” Pang instructed.

  “Zone A,” Pyper translated for the disgruntled guards.

  “Zone A?! That’s for special guests–”

  “You’re funny, sir. I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” Pyper giggled. “Zone A. And she’ll be cooperative, so move her to the next available suite after that.”

  Out of both fear and annoyance, the guards finally yielded.

  “Right this way, ma’am…” the leader invited, clearly taking all of his patience to do so. “If you need anything, let us know.”

  “Man, these elite teams get real bossy…” one of the others muttered.

  Just like that, the guards escorted Deanna much less like a prisoner, and much more like royalty.

  But before she walked away, Deanna turned to the team one last time.

  She remained wordless, just as she had on the entire trip back to the base. Her final spoken words had been to her people, taking her time to say goodbye to them one by one. There was nothing left to say.

  Deanna had turned to them not to speak, but in hopes of hearing what she needed to hear.

  Pang stepped forward. “Lady, I won’t forget what I said. I swear.”

  I’ll take you home myself someday, she upheld in silence. Once we figure out how to bust outta here.

  Her gaze fell on Pyper: the second strongest Proscious member.

  And now, her ally.

  She couldn’t focus on anything but the unrestrained power hiding inside that dorky, fruit-scented frame. The way Pyper had skipped across her clouds of energy, cancelling every threat that came her way…it wouldn’t leave Pang’s head.

  With her, she schemed, busting outta here might be a lot easier than I thought…

  But Deanna couldn’t hear her quiet confidence. She simply turned back around and resumed walking away, leaving Pang to wonder if she believed her at all.

  Pang sighed.

  “Man, what the heck do you guys do with yourselves after stuff like this?”

  “Drink,” Irma said plainly.

  “Irma and I’ve got a bar we hit after missions to take the edge off for a bit,” Benton shared. His expression softened. “But ‘ya know…I don’t really feel like I gotta this time.”

  “Yeah…this was…different,” Irma agreed.

  “Playing tough-guy with those guards was kind of fun, too,” Pyper snickered.

  Right…’playing’ tough, Pang judged. Sure…

  “Well, I already said it a thousand times,” she told her team. “We do things our way now.”

  But still, the heaviness lingered. Guilt clawed at her chest watching Deanna disappear deeper into the base.

  They still upended an innocent person’s life. Regardless of how virtuously they did it, that fact remained true.

  “Alrighty. Well, whatever you guys end up doing,” Pyper said, “take it easy and enjoy the night. After all, the training’s over.”

  “Huh? Already?” Benton checked.

  Pyper shrugged like it was obvious. “Sure. Our mission gave me all I needed to inform my decision. We’ll pick which of us will be your new leader tomorrow night.”

  Pang shifted to mask her disappointment. Ripoff. We only got one day with the only good option.

  Stretching her legs to recover from their flight, Irma checked her SquadScreen. “Well, even without going for drinks, there’s no time to cook,” she noticed.

  Thanks to the thorough lighting all around the docking zone, Pang nearly missed how late it must be. The base’s pale and empty air didn’t help, either.

  But it made sense: their wolf/coyote hunting must have taken hours. And as promised, they’d allowed Deanna time for her body to develop the two antidotes, bulk her medicine supply for the commune dwellers, and say her farewells.

  If anything, it should have felt substantially later than it was.

  There was clearly some time dilation between the realities they’d crossed through. But without even knowing the reality they were in now, she had no way to tell for sure.

  “Hey roomie, if you order our takeout and go pick it up,” Irma offered, “I’ll at least whip up dessert. Lemon curd mousse sound good?”

  Suddenly Benton and Aoi loomed close, nearly sparkling.

  “Sounds mighty good…” Benton yearned.

  Irma recoiled. “Hey–who said I was inviting guests?!” she barked. “Ah, fine…but you guys have to go get the extra ingredients.”

  With evening plans set, the Proscious team began dispersing from the dock. Pang watched as similar transports came and went along the perimeter, completing their own missions. But the isolated city awaited, where she could at least distract her mind from these evils for a while with her strange companions.

  “Have a great night, guys!” their interim leader waved from behind.

  The team paused, realizing she hadn’t been following.

  “Oh. You’re not coming, Pyper?” Irma checked. “I meant you, too, obviously.”

  “Yeah. What’re ya doin’ way back there?” called Benton.

  For once, Pyper’s face went a bit rosy. Watching her stand there alone, Pang wondered what she must do with her downtime–aside from reading Proscious documents and asking staff about the inner workings of their departments.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  After all, her teammates were Gage and Danek–she doubted Pyper spent any more time with those devils than she needed to.

  This nerd needs a life, Pang concluded.

  “Yeah. Come on, Tea Lady,” Pang beckoned. “We’re the fun team.”

  Pyper smiled warmly. “Alrighty…” she said, pushing her glasses up. “I’d love to!”

  She scurried her way towards the team like a leaf in the breeze.

  “Oh, shucks. I forgot to ask those guards about the coding system for the holding cells,” she realized as she caught up to them. “There’s still so much to learn in that department…”

  Pang shook her head to herself. She never stops, does she? Well, I guess when your power lets you memorize anything, it’s gotta be hard to find new stuff to learn.

  But then, it hit her.

  Pang nearly stopped walking.

  Wait…

  Before they left for the mission, Pyper was prying the vehicle operator for information about the facilities where they built the ships.

  But it was more than that instance.

  Pang’s eyes widened.

  Even before that, she was in the cafeteria asking a worker about how they received their ingredients from the outside.

  She’d walked by Irma’s room chatting with a lab worker how power transferring works.

  She was constantly perusing Proscious documents.

  The very moment Pang had awoken in the lab room, trapped in that glass tube well before she knew anything about where she was, Pyper was there. The lab workers were teaching her about all their fancy Proscious tech.

  Nearly every time she’d seen Pyper, she was trying to gain more info on Proscious.

  “I think I’m just about healed up,” Pyper answered beside her when Benton inquired.

  That, too…Pang reflected: she even risked killing herself when Pang naively initiated an escape. She allowed that invisible power to slice her open.

  Pang knew it was, in part, to get them easier access to Deanna. But she could’ve simply told the team that was her plan, or done something less drastic.

  It had to be more. Pang could hear the notion louder than ever:

  If we want to escape, we have to think bigger.

  This chick’s been cooking something this whole time, and she’s trying to keep me from screwing it up, Pang deduced.

  She’s already working on an escape.

  “Are you excited?”

  Pang blinked. She found Pyper smiling at her. Right now the Rank-S fighter’s mind, filled with a library of Proscious knowledge, was simply anticipating Irma’s lemon curd mousse. Pang understood that.

  And yet, her smile spread wide at a deeper implication.

  “You bet I am.”

  ~

  Benton’s spoon clanged into his now-emptied bowl. He leaned back with a burp.

  “Thanks, Irma! So good!”

  She approached from behind in her hoverchair to claim his dish, circling her kitchen table to collect the rest.

  “Yeah. The texture was perfectly light; you’re an expert!” beamed Pyper as she turned in her bowl. “Have you ever tried pairing this with blueberry scones?”

  Pyper’s question turned Irma’s eyes into stars. Unable to contain herself, Irma zoomed closer and patted her interim leader’s head.

  “Great idea! Hey, she’s giving me pointers, like Pang does!” Irma cooed. “Can we keep her?”

  “Ms. Pyper’s our superior, not a cat,” Benton sighed.

  Over at the sink, Pang finished rinsing the plates they’d used for their takeout. “Plus, you make me critique you,” she chimed in.

  “Whatever. You know, Pyper, I’m usually kinda scared around you,” Irma confessed. “But you’re like, super chill.”

  Pyper laughed. “Well thank you guys for inviting me, really,” she said. “I haven’t just ‘hung out’ like this since my League days…”

  That perked Pang’s ears. Despite having just received the new dishes from Irma, she dropped them in the sink and paused.

  “You were in the League too?” she implored.

  Irma groaned. “Great. Now there’s three of them,” she realized. She inched close to Aoi at the end of the table. “Hey–you’re with me, right? Tennis is a way better sport.”

  Aoi nodded discretely.

  Pyper shrugged it off. “I was a little before your generation.”

  “Hold up–I would’ve heard of a pro as insanely strong as you,” questioned Pang. “You’re what, thirty-something? It’s not like you’re Benton-old.”

  “Ouch,” Benton chuckled.

  Smiling, Pyper’s shoulders sunk inward a bit. “My powers were less of a spectacle back then. We…we didn’t quite get into the public eye,” she opened up. “We’d only won a few small-time Conscious Competitions before I…ended up here.”

  Huh…then Proscious spotted her crazy powers before the industry even could, Pang noted.

  The apartment fell silent. Noticing this, Pyper suddenly laughed and sparked with life.

  “You know, not all of us can earn Legend Training right at the start of our career, young lady,” she teased Pang, wiggling a finger at her.

  “Yeah, well, not all of us can stop a jet by waving our pinky at it,” came Pang’s counter.

  While the topic summoned memories of Phillip, Pang couldn’t help but reflect on their Legend Training for the first time in what felt like ages. She smirked.

  “Anyway, we only passed because we did the Challenge and barely won,” she revealed. “And I mean barely. Our trainer was freakin’ awesome–this dude named Skip. He didn’t even use his consciousness powers, and he still almost whomped us.”

  “Oh,” Pyper uttered simply. “Skip.”

  “Oh yeah–Skip! I forgot you worked with him,” boomed Benton. “The youngest Legend Trainer, right? That guy’s trained a ton of my favorite teams out there these days. Golly…there’s those kiddos Orin an’ Fate, there’s Zoomer an’ Gen-Gen, there’s you, a’ course…there’s–”

  Pyper gently stood from her chair.

  “Thanks again for the dessert.”

  Benton halted his recollection, and the apartment came to a dead silence once more. The team watched as Pyper excused herself, heading calmly for the door.

  “Uh…yeah, anytime,” came Irma’s delayed reply.

  The door slid open, and Pyper looked back to them. Her smile didn’t wrinkle her nose this time.

  “Great job today. See you guys tomorrow night, okay?”

  She left too swiftly for them to bother replying. The door slid closed.

  Benton shook his head. “Poor thing. Ain’t easy thinkin’ back on that stuff. Just kinda creeps up on ‘ya sometimes,” he reasoned.

  “Preach,” sighed Irma.

  Clearly accustomed to such breakdowns, the two of them soberly moved on. Benton stood to help Irma wipe the table.

  But Aoi caught Pang’s attention.

  Oddly, she kept staring–her focus locked onto Pyper’s unseen departure on the other side of the wall as if it were transparent.

  Pang wouldn’t be shocked to learn Aoi could see through solid objects. But that wasn’t the strange part.

  Huh…this girl’s always staring at Pyper, isn’t she? Pang observed. She did the same thing the whole time we were eating cake last night.

  On top of that, Pyper didn’t seem to react. Now that Pang thought of it, she hardly acknowledged Aoi unless it was necessary.

  Even when Aoi had been the one to numb her injury, she didn’t even glance her way.

  Why is everyone here so weird?

  “Okay but like, we’re all on the same page though, right?” Irma said to her team. “Pyper better become our team leader tomorrow.”

  “Yup,” Pang and Benton said together, and Aoi gave a big nod.

  It was no contest, given Danek trying to kill them, and Gage’s creepy obsession with Pang.

  But even without that, these past couple days proved Pyper was more than the best option–she was the perfect option.

  She’s just like us.

  Mirroring Aoi, Pang found herself gazing beyond the apartment wall.

  ‘Part of us,’ she heard in her head.

  She was standing only a few steps away from where Irma told her that same thing, on the day she got adopted into her home.

  ‘You’re part of my group now. I have your back now, and so does the rest of the team. You’ll see.’

  Against all wishes, Pang choked up.

  Guess she wasn’t just sweet-talking me that day.

  If it weren’t for these goofs, I’d be dead.

  Pang backed away from the dishes.

  “Hey, I’ll finish these in a minute,” she assured Irma.

  “Oh. Okay, roomie!”

  She hurried to the door and exited the apartment.

  At first, Pang assumed the hallway was already empty. It would’ve made sense, considering the elevator was nearly right across from their room.

  But she heard a sniffle.

  Pyper was leaning against the opposite wall from the elevator, awaiting its arrival.

  “You good?”

  She only half-looked Pang’s way, offering a feeble nod.

  “Right…” Pang doubted. “Well, I just wanted to say sorry for bringing up sad memories and stuff. That’s all.”

  “Pang…” Pyper finally said, her voice airy. She met Pang’s eyes. “I’m really glad I got to spend time with all of you today.”

  “Sure, I mean, thanks for being the only trainer that wasn’t a total lunatic.”

  They stood in silence for a moment. The soft bell of the elevator rang, and the door opened.

  “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Pyper signed off again.

  “Wait.”

  She was only a step away from the elevator. Pang eyed the hallway in both directions: nobody was around.

  “Listen,” she started, “I know what you’re trying to do.”

  It felt a bit wrong coming out with it now–Pyper’s cheeks were still damp from whatever memories had festered.

  But Pang couldn’t help it: the more she waited and watched, the longer she’d have to justify ruining peoples’ lives, including her own. It was time to get in the know.

  Pyper didn’t reply. But she didn’t enter the elevator, either.

  Distant voices rumbled from down the hall. But they faded, heading in the opposite direction.

  Pang inched closer.

  “I’m serious. Clue me in,” she uttered low. “What’s the escape plan?”

  Taking another long moment, Pyper simply sighed.

  “Oh,” she said.

  “...‘Oh?’”

  Pyper sighed once again, this time in preparation to speak.

  “Hey...here’s a fun fact: that guy Skip, your Legend Trainer,” she muttered, “he actually used to be my teammate years ago.”

  Pang’s thoughts fumbled. This had swerved in a totally different direction.

  “Whoa…for real?”

  It didn’t remotely answer Pang’s question, but it was certainly intriguing. She could only imagine sheer stardom for a duo like that, if Proscious hadn’t gotten in the way.

  “This will probably sound mean, but…try to be thankful your old friends aren’t coming for you. It’s for the best–for you, and for them,” said Pyper. “Skip tried to save me, so I tried everything to stop him. I even became his enemy. But he didn’t stop. Now, he’s not a consciousness anymore. He can’t cross Worldlines. He can’t use powers…”

  The elevator door had already closed, but Pyper didn’t summon it again.

  At last, she faced Pang fully.

  That soft smile hadn’t faded despite her dampened cheeks. Her speech was the same, drifting and falling at the end of her phrases.

  Pang realized this wasn’t like her conversations with Irma and Benton about their pasts. Pyper’s mask was off–but as it turned out, it had been off since the moment they met.

  There was no defensive pretense. This was her.

  “Legend Training is probably all Skip has now,” Pyper told her. “I’m not surprised he’s excelling–he was always good at helping people reach their own conclusions.”

  Studying Pang for a moment, Pyper let out a short laugh.

  “Still a lot better at that than me, it turns out…”

  Pang tightened. Something about that admission turned the hallway cold.

  “Uh…girl, what are you getting at?”

  “Pang…I’m sorry. You don’t know what I’m trying to do,” Pyper plainly revealed. “But I’ve known what you’re trying to do for a while, because I used to be like you.”

  “Wait…” Pang stammered. “But…”

  “I’m not putting together an escape,” denied Pyper. “I’ve been trying to show you there is no escape.”