June 18, 2016 — July's House — 5:29 a.m.
When Kai came back, July was still sitting against the headboard.
The sheet was pulled up to her chest, clutched between her fingers. Her eyes remained fixed on the empty space in front of the bed, as though part of her mind still hadn't fully returned to the room.
Kai handed her the glass of water.
July took it with both hands. The glass trembled between her fingers, making faint noises until she rested it against one leg.
Kai sat beside her, leaving some distance between them.
He didn't repeat the question.
Her breathing gradually slowed. The tension in her shoulders eased, and the glow vanished completely from her eyes. Even then, her expression remained distant, as though she'd just watched the saddest movie in the world without understanding the ending.
July took a sip.
"I have powers."
Kai waited.
"When I touch someone and activate my power, I can see some of their memories. I connect to them and feel part of what they felt."
She ran her thumb along the side of the glass.
"And that's not all I can do."
The discomfort in her voice didn't seem to come only from fear of how he might react. July spoke about those abilities like they were something she'd rather not have at all.
Kai didn't rush her.
Her eyes remained on the unmade bed.
"I found out in the worst possible way. Back when we still went to school together."
July took a few seconds before continuing.
"I was home alone for a few hours because my parents were working, as usual. I was angry. I grabbed some money they'd left on the counter and went to a convenience store to buy candy."
She set the glass on the nightstand.
"On the way, an older boy stepped in front of me. He saw the money and tried to take it out of my hand."
Kai watched every change in her expression.
"I tried to get past him. He grabbed my arm."
July wrapped her fingers around her own wrist, over the same spot where the boy had touched her years ago.
"I got scared and told him to let me go. He laughed."
The memory made her mouth tighten.
"I just wanted him to disappear. So I yelled, 'If you want it that bad, take it and die.'"
She swallowed.
"The boy let go of my arm, turned around, and threw himself in front of a passing car."
Kai didn't move.
"He didn't die. The driver managed to brake, and he only got hurt."
The way July said only made it clear that didn't make the memory any better.
"While he was touching me, I felt something. Like I'd pushed the words into his head."
She released her wrist.
"It happened again sometime later. Nothing serious. I said something without thinking, and the person obeyed."
July shook her head.
"That's when I understood how it worked. How to turn it on and off. I never used it like that again."
Her gaze shifted to the hand that had grabbed Kai during the nightmare.
"But the memory part... sometimes I can't control it. If I'm scared, asleep, or feeling something really strong, the connection just happens."
Kai frowned.
"You can control people?"
"Not exactly."
She corrected herself before the answer could sound like an attempt to downplay what she could do.
"I can give someone a command. A suggestion. They can still resist, depending on their willpower and how much power I put into it."
July drew her knees up beneath the sheet.
Her expression mixed shame with disgust at what she was capable of.
"Besides invading people's privacy and putting suggestions in their heads, I'm also stronger, faster, and have better reflexes than a normal person... but the connection isn't always under my control."
Kai looked at her fingers.
Then at the impression left in the mattress where her hand had pressed him down.
The sheet bunched between them made it difficult to ignore that he'd had other opportunities to notice that during the night.
"Should've noticed."
It took July a second to understand.
When she did, she looked away, blushing.
"Maybe you were distracted."
"Maybe."
The brief embarrassment vanished as soon as she looked back at her own hand.
"I'm sorry I went into your head."
Kai didn't answer immediately.
July looked up.
Her eyes were completely wet.
"You're Infinity, and you used to be Grey..."
The revelation caused no visible reaction in him. Of everything she could have found, that was the simplest part.
July tightened her grip on the sheet.
"But that's not what scared me."
She held his gaze.
"I saw another life inside you."
Kai brought a hand to his forehead.
His fingers slid into his hair as he tried to sort out how much she might have reached. The name Damon didn't exist in this world. It wasn't in any conversation, any GDA file, or any memory he'd ever shared with another person. Even Cosmic had never heard that name.
It was something that had died with him.
Kai lowered his hand.
"I have memories of another life."
July didn't move.
"I remember living and dying. That was my name."
He watched her carefully, searching for fear, disbelief, or any sign that she was about to run.
"Damon."
The word sounded strange in his own voice.
"I don't even think of myself by that name anymore. I've never said it out loud since I got here."
Kai looked away for a moment.
"Actually, I tried to forget it. The ironic part is... I look pretty similar to how I did in my previous life."
Tears began gathering in July's eyes again as she listened.
Part of what she'd seen was still haunting her.
And everything he said only confirmed that she hadn't been wrong.
Her voice came out quietly.
"I saw an endless void."
She raised a hand to her head.
Pain suddenly crossed her face. July pressed her fingers to her temple, feeling echoes of something that hadn't originated inside her—scars, too much information, infinite distances compressed behind her eyes.
Kai moved closer on instinct.
His hand touched her shoulder, ready to pull her against his chest.
July immediately recoiled.
Fear appeared before she could hide it.
Kai withdrew his hand.
The small distance between them returned.
"That's part of it."
He moved farther away.
"A lot happened. I don't know exactly what you saw, but... that's what I am."
July opened her mouth.
"Kai, wait. That's not—"
A door slammed downstairs.
Both of them froze.
Footsteps crossed the entryway.
"Why are there clothes thrown around in here?"
The color drained from July's face.
Kai knew exactly what whoever had come in was looking at. At some point after midnight, they'd made it back downstairs. Most of what they'd been wearing had ended up around the couch before they returned upstairs.
The shout came up from the living room.
"JULY!"
She shot out of bed.
"Shit."
July ran for the en suite, still clutching the sheet around herself. She abandoned it at the bathroom entrance, snatched one of the robes hanging behind the door, and pulled it on while looking around for something.
Footsteps started up the stairs.
"Kai!"
She grabbed the second robe and threw it at him.
Kai caught it in midair.
It was pink.
He stared at July in disbelief, but it wasn't like he had another option.
Kai put on the robe and tightened the sash around his waist as the footsteps reached the hall.
His phone was still on the nightstand where he'd left it after coming back upstairs with the water he'd gone downstairs to get for her. Kai grabbed it on reflex before searching for an exit.
The window was the only option.
He opened it and jumped.
Morning air struck his face as Kai gained altitude over the house, barefoot and wearing nothing but a pink robe whipping violently in the wind.
He stopped in midair and looked down.
July was still near the window. A voice came from behind the bedroom door, demanding to know why it was locked.
Kai realized his wallet and keys were still downstairs with the rest of his clothes—right where whoever had just come in had found them. Going after any of it meant crossing the living room in front of them. Fast or not, there was no way to do that without risking being seen.
"Shit."
He shot across the sky toward his own house.
Grayson House — 5:41 a.m.
Kai came through the bedroom window still wearing the pink robe.
The house remained quiet. From the other bed came only Mark's steady breathing. He was still asleep.
Thank God...
Kai closed the window without making a sound.
At least he wouldn't have to explain this.
He took off the robe, put on the first clothes he could find, and buried it in the back of the closet before sitting on his bed.
He had no idea how July would react after everything that had happened.
She'd seen more than anyone else in this world. Not just Infinity or the powers he'd hidden from Mark. July had touched a life Kai had spent eighteen years trying to let die.
Elise hated him after Cosmic died.
July might reach the same conclusion for different reasons.
All he could do was wait.
Over the weekend, the answer began to seem obvious.
Kai sent her a message asking if she was okay.
No reply.
Hours later, he tried again.
The message was delivered.
Still no reply.
By the time Sunday night ended, July hadn't said a word.
Kai set his phone on the table and went to sleep.
June 20, 2016 — PRZ Global Logistics
July's desk was empty.
No purse hung from the chair, no cup sat beside the monitors, no reports were scattered across the space she usually occupied.
Kai set his backpack down at his own desk.
Janet was walking through the aisle with a folder in her arms when he called to her.
"July isn't coming in today?"
"I got a message saying she couldn't come."
Janet slowed only long enough to answer.
"Something personal."
Kai looked back at the empty desk.
"Got it."
He didn't ask anything else.
He opened that day's files and started working.
The hours passed. The office seemed quieter, even though nothing else in the department had changed.
Kai finished his shift, packed his things, and went home.
June 21, 2016 — PRZ Global Logistics — 3:47 p.m.
The desk was still empty the next day.
This time, the monitors had been disconnected and removed. Her cup, the reports, and the few personal things she'd kept there were gone too.
Janet found Kai looking at the space.
"She terminated her contract with the company this morning."
He turned toward her.
"Terminated it?"
"The paperwork came in signed. Didn't explain much." Janet hesitated before continuing. "Someone came by early this morning and picked up her things."
Kai waited.
Janet opened one of the nearby drawers and took out a small bag.
"They left this for you too."
Kai took the bag.
His wallet was inside, along with his house keys he'd left behind that night.
Janet glanced at the cleared desk, her mouth tightening slightly.
"I tried calling July, but she still hasn't gotten back to me."
Kai slipped the wallet into his pocket.
"If you hear from her, let me know."
Janet studied him for a second.
"I will."
Kai set the keys on the desk and sat in front of his computer.
For a few seconds, he didn't read a single thing on the screen.
Betty appeared before he could get started.
A stack of folders landed on his desk.
Kai looked up.
Betty rested one hand on the documents.
"Since July decided to leave, someone's going to have to absorb the work she left behind."
She glanced at the empty desk beside him, then leaned over Kai's desk.
"Congratulations. Looks like you're doing two people's jobs now."
Her polite smile carried far too much satisfaction. The top button of her blouse was open. The second looked close to following it whenever she leaned forward, exposing part of the dark lace underneath from an angle that was unlikely to be accidental.
She placed one last folder on his desk.
"I need you to give this to Janet."
Kai didn't touch it. His eyes followed her with the last thread of patience he had left.
You really are a bitch.
"The report for this shipment needs to be ready for Thursday's meeting with the directors. It's extremely important cargo."
Betty slid the folder a few inches toward him.
"If Janet didn't screw anything up this time, it should reach the port tomorrow."
The emphasis was slight.
Enough.
Kai watched Betty walk away between the desks.
She hadn't sounded like someone afraid they might discover a problem.
She'd sounded like someone who already knew it was there.
Kai looked at the stack of folders.
Then at the computer.
Then he leaned back in his chair and covered his entire face with both hands.
His fingers pressed against his eyes as he sank a little farther into the backrest.
He stayed that way for a few seconds.
What a ridiculous life.
First, people kept leaving him.
Now even the work of the ones who left got dumped on him.
The realization didn't make him sad. It was hard to feel sad when the pattern was starting to look like a particularly persistent joke.
Kai lowered his hands slightly but kept staring at the ceiling between his fingers.
It had been like this in his other life too.
Not with July.
With everything.
Even when he went out drinking, some part of his mind kept counting the hours because he had work the next day. Whenever he accepted an invitation, he was already thinking about the commitment after it. Whenever he tried to rest, he remembered something he still needed to take care of.
Even drunk, it had been hard to simply be drunk.
There was always someone he didn't want to disappoint. Some obligation he shouldn't abandon. Some responsibility waiting when the fun was over.
At some point, it had stopped being just responsibility.
He'd turned his own life into a sequence of things he needed to do right.
Then he'd started wondering why living felt so exhausting.
He lowered his hands from his face.
The memory of Viktor surfaced without any voice inside his head.
Just a memory.
Viktor loved throwing that in his face.
He used to say Kai took everything too seriously. That he found a responsibility in everything until he managed to make his own life unbearable. That he should stop acting like enjoying something was a waste of time.
Kai looked back at the pile of work.
The most irritating part was that the idiot might have been right.
"Son of a bitch."
He pulled the first folder closer and opened it.
June 22, 2016 — PRZ Global Logistics — 3:32 p.m.
Kai knew something had happened before he even reached his desk.
Janet had two phones going at once. One was pinned between her shoulder and cheek while she typed on the other. On the monitor in front of her, shipping routes, customs records, and container numbers filled overlapping windows.
"No, I know where it's supposed to be."
She ended one call and immediately started another.
"The problem is none of the ports are confirming receipt."
Several employees remained nearby, searching through information without knowing exactly what they were supposed to find.
Kai set his backpack on the floor.
"The shipment from the folder?"
Janet looked up.
"It disappeared in transit."
She removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"It's this division's biggest client. Controlled materials. If we don't find it before tomorrow's meeting, the company will be liable for the loss, and I signed the release."
Kai pulled a chair over.
He didn't need to hear anything else.
He opened the shipment records and started with the document Janet had approved. The original destination was correct. So was the container number.
The alteration had happened after the cargo left the first terminal.
The port code had been replaced during transit. The new destination was in another country, outside the contracted route and nowhere near where the client expected the shipment to arrive.
Kai compared the system timestamps.
The authorization had been modified minutes before the carrier updated the route. The change didn't appear in PRZ's normal history.
He opened the training environment and compared its replicated records against production.
The record was still there.
ADM-04
The same user tied to the changes made after Janet's approval.
The same one that appeared in the duplicate payments, the incompatible cost centers, and the amounts split below audit thresholds.
Kai searched for the user in the main database.
It no longer existed.
Someone was creating it, making the changes, then deleting the trail before the system finalized the record. The training environment had retained the record before it disappeared from the production history.
Kai cross-referenced the timestamps with the company's administrative users.
ADM-04 always appeared while Betty was logged in.
Even so, that wouldn't be enough.
Matching timestamps didn't prove who was behind the access. The account was created through another administrative credential, used for a few minutes, then removed. Unless they found a surviving link between that profile and the computer of whoever controlled it, any lawyer could call it a system error.
Betty passed the desk on her way to the break room.
She didn't look at Janet.
Nor did she show any curiosity about the missing shipment she'd claimed was about to arrive.
Kai watched her until she disappeared down the hall.
Janet remained in front of the screens. The workday was nearly over, but none of the open documents gave her an answer that could protect her the next morning.
She noticed Kai was still there.
"You can go home."
"And you?"
"I'm going to try to organize everything before tomorrow."
Janet looked down at her own signature on the document.
"Maybe I can prove the change didn't come from my team."
She looked at him.
"You don't have to stay. This isn't your problem."
Kai closed the files and picked up his backpack.
"Good luck."
He walked to the elevators.
The doors opened.
He stepped inside and pressed the button for the lobby.
Before the doors closed, he looked back.
Janet remained alone among the desks. Farther down the corridor, the lights beyond the conference rooms were still on.
The image stayed with him for a few seconds.
Then something else returned to him.
Not a hallucination.
An old conversation.
Viktor's voice existed only in memory.
"You're like a god. Enjoy it. Being a hero means saving the day, protecting the weak, and... getting girls. You should do what you want to do."
Kai stared at his reflection in the metal doors.
Ever since he'd woken up, he'd been trying to do the exact opposite of what he normally would. He'd taken the job. Kept coming back. Stayed when his first instinct had been to leave.
I'm trying to do what I normally wouldn't, but...
The doors started to close.
Kai raised one hand and blocked the sensor.
His mind still hadn't fully regained the balance it had lost because of the Void. And that simple question found far too much room inside it.
"What do I actually want to do?"
He stood in front of his reflection.
For a moment, nothing changed.
Then the exhaustion disappeared from his eyes.
There was no anger in its place.
Something lighter.
Confident.
Almost amused.
Kai let out a quiet laugh.
"You know what? Fuck it."
He stepped out of the elevator.
"Everything's fucked already. I'm gonna screw that bitch over."
Kai crossed back onto the floor.
Janet was still where he'd left her, buried in the records spread across her screens at the far end of the department. The department stretched across most of the floor. Beyond a row of glass-walled conference rooms, the corridor turned toward Betty's office, the break room, and the restrooms, putting that side of the floor out of sight from Janet's section.
Betty was alone in the break room, waiting for the coffee machine to finish pouring.
She noticed Kai in the doorway and rested one hand on the counter.
"Decide to work late?"
"Maybe I was looking for a distraction."
Her eyes swept over him without the slightest attempt at subtlety.
"And did you find one?"
Kai stepped closer.
"Depends what you're offering."
Betty set the coffee aside.
The smile came slowly.
She didn't need convincing.
A few minutes later, the door to her office closed.
Betty was the one who pulled him in first, still wearing the confident smile of someone who believed she was controlling the situation. That impression didn't last long...
When she finally managed to catch her breath, she let out a short laugh against his ear.
"Fuck... I seriously underestimated you."
Kai simply pulled her back before she could regain control.
An hour later, Betty stayed braced against the desk for a few seconds, breathing harder than she would have liked to admit.
"Handsome, way above average, and you know what you're doing. Were you blessed by some Greek god?"
A brief smile appeared on Kai's face at the irony of the question.
"Something like that."
The office was nearly empty by the time Betty started buttoning her blouse again.
Kai remained sitting shirtless on the edge of the desk, watching her look for one of her shoes.
"I need water."
She looked up.
"There's a bottle in the break room."
"You're not going to make a guest get it himself, are you?"
Betty smiled as though the request confirmed something.
"Fine. I need to use the bathroom anyway."
She found her other shoe and slipped it on.
"Don't touch anything."
She left the office.
Kai waited until her footsteps disappeared.
Then he went to the computer.
Betty's session was still open.
The local traces of ADM-04 hadn't been completely erased. She had deleted the account from the main database, but her own computer still retained pieces of the profile used to create it.
Kai recovered the deleted session record and traced ADM-04 back to Betty's administrative profile. He exported a copy of the recovered audit trail, leaving the original local data untouched.
Then he dug deeper into the cached data on the machine.
The shipment's altered destination appeared first.
Among the recovered files, he found fragments of messages between Betty and an employee at the client company.
The plan became obvious. Once PRZ formally declared the cargo lost, the client would follow its normal claims process—full reimbursement for the products, compensation for the delay, and damages for breach of contract. Betty's contact would make sure the claim moved forward while Janet took responsibility for the release.
While everyone investigated the missing shipment, the earlier financial diversions would disappear beneath a much larger problem.
Kai saved the data he needed, locked the computer, and returned to where Betty had left him.
She came back a short while later with the bottle.
"Did you behave?"
Kai took it.
"More or less."
He looked her up and down with a wicked smile.
Then came the confident voice.
"One more time?"
She locked the door behind her and turned around, surprised.
"Seriously... What planet are you from?"
Kai exhaled at the irony of how close she'd come without knowing it.
He didn't answer. He simply pulled her against the desk again...
An hour and a half later, Kai left the building alone.
He walked two blocks until he found an empty alley between the buildings. Downtown's lights barely reached the ground.
He checked the destination on his phone, then pocketed it.
Going after the container as Kai Grayson would be stupid.
He made a quick stop at home. A few minutes later, he was back in the sky wearing Infinity's uniform.
He climbed above the city without drawing attention. Only after Chicago had disappeared behind him did the air crack as he accelerated.
Much later, the coast appeared beneath him.
Kai found the port listed in the falsified records and located the container among hundreds of others. The seal was still intact.
The cargo hadn't been stolen.
It had simply been put in the wrong place so everyone would believe it was missing.
Kai lifted the entire container.
The metal structure weighed several tons, but from a distance it looked small as he carried it through the night toward its original destination.
Shortly before midnight, he lowered the cargo into the customs holding yard, among the inbound containers waiting to be processed.
Minutes later, the overnight crew found it. The container number matched an expected shipment, and the seal was still intact. They scanned its arrival into the system at 11:57 p.m.
It hadn't cleared customs. It didn't need to. The destination terminal now had a valid arrival scan tied to the correct container number.
By the time anyone started asking how it had gotten there, Kai was already gone.
June 23, 2016 — PRZ Global Logistics — 9:18 a.m.
The meeting between the directors and department heads had already begun.
Kai arrived, collected the copies he'd kept separate on the computer, and headed for the directors' conference room.
The client's representative could be heard through the closed door.
"Cargo of this nature doesn't disappear because someone filled out a form wrong. PRZ assumed responsibility the moment it approved the shipment."
Kai opened the door.
The conversation stopped.
Directors, lawyers, and representatives from the client occupied both sides of the table. Janet stood near the projection screen with several documents in front of her. Betty sat a few seats down, far too composed for someone whose division was in the middle of a crisis.
Everyone looked at Kai.
One of the directors immediately asked,
"Who is this?"
"He's with my team," Janet said. Her eyes dropped to the documents in Kai's hand. "Kai, did you find something?"
Kai walked straight to the conference-room computer, logged in, and brought up the files he'd prepared.
The screen changed.
Spreadsheets, payment records, and audit trails filled the projection. Duplicate amounts appeared side by side, followed by transfers split between incompatible cost centers.
"There it is."
Kai walked toward the table.
"These are the financial diversions I found inside PRZ over the last few months."
One of the directors leaned forward.
New information appeared on the screen.
"They're all tied to the same user."
ADM-04
Janet looked at Kai.
Betty was the first to find her voice.
"You shouldn't be in this meeting. Leave."
Kai ignored her.
Betty turned to the directors.
"We need to identify who controls this ADM-04 account before we accept any accusations from a temporary employee."
"I agree."
Kai stepped up to the room's computer and opened the recovered network audit.
The deleted ADM-04 session appeared in the log.
Directly beneath it, the administrative credentials used to create the account were tied to Betty Hepburn's corporate profile and the computer in her office.
Kai changed the screen again.
The recovered messages appeared beside the audit trail. One side of the exchange belonged to Betty. The other belonged to an employee at the client company.
The client's representative leaned forward as he read. His expression changed before he reached the bottom of the first message.
The silence in the room changed.
Betty went pale.
"This has to be a mistake."
She stood too quickly, hitting the chair with the backs of her legs.
"Janet lost the shipment. She knew she'd be held responsible, so she put this kid up to framing me."
Kai pulled a document from the folder and placed it in front of the client's representative.
"But the shipment wasn't lost."
He tilted his head as though he were trying to understand the accusation too.
"The destination terminal logged this at 11:57 p.m. last night."
The document confirmed the container's arrival at the correct terminal.
The representative pulled the page closer.
Janet stepped over to read it over his shoulder.
The container number matched.
The seal matched.
The terminal had received it.
Betty's altered route still pointed PRZ's internal tracking toward the wrong destination, so the terminal's arrival scan had never reconciled against Janet's shipment record.
Kai spread his hands.
"Looks like it was delayed, but it reached the correct terminal."
His gaze met Betty's.
The ironic thought came immediately. It had Viktor's way of speaking, but this time it was Kai's own voice.
Actually, it was late because I was kind of busy with you.
Kai wore the most fabricated confused expression he'd ever managed.
"Where did you get the idea that Janet lost anything?"
The memory of the previous night passed through his mind.
Yesterday was pretty productive. Gave you a good time and still crossed half the world with a few tons on my back.
Kai almost smiled as the thoughts kept coming in the same mocking rhythm.
I must have some kind of problem with redheads.
Betty tried to say something.
Not a single word came out whole.
Janet covered her mouth with one hand. She could no longer hide the smile beginning to form as the directors turned toward Betty and the lawyers demanded immediate access to her computer.
Kai placed his temporary badge on the table.
"I quit."
Janet turned toward him.
"Now?"
"I was already thinking about it."
Kai adjusted the backpack on his shoulder.
"Thanks for the opportunity."
Janet's smile remained, mixed with surprise. She stood and followed him to the conference room door.
"You know you just saved my job, right?" she said quietly.
"I just did what I wanted to do."
Janet stared at him for a second.
"You picked a hell of a way to figure that out."
Kai left before anyone could try to stop him.
The elevator doors closed, cutting off the argument beginning outside.
Kai looked at his reflection in the metal.
His attempt to build a life away from trouble had ended with corporate fraud, a friend who'd looked inside his head and nearly lost her mind, a night with Betty, and the illegal transport of cargo between two countries.
It didn't exactly look like an improvement.
The elevator began descending.
Kai put his hands in his pockets.
"Didn't even have to throw a cap into a fire like Mark did."
A satisfied smile appeared.
"But it was close."
The Next Day — June 24, 2016 — Sky Over the East Coast
Washington was already visible on the horizon when Mark checked the time for the third time.
"Shit. Of course this happens now."
Kai flew beside him in the Infinity suit again. The last pale strands were disappearing into hair that was almost completely dark now, whipping in the wind.
"Well, I'm with you today. We'll finish this fast, and you won't get chewed out for missing graduation."
Mark put away the communicator.
"Yeah. Looks like you finally realized what we do is more important than going to an office."
Kai didn't answer.
Both of them accelerated.
Washington Monument — Washington, D.C.
The area around the monument had been evacuated.
Cracks cut across the lawn and parts of the nearby streets, releasing smoke and heat. Creatures made of black rock and magma emerged from the openings, leaving glowing trails wherever they passed.
At the center of it all, Dr. Seismic stood on a platform of stone with both arms raised.
"Behold! Even monuments erected to glorify oppressors bow before the fury of the planet!"
Mark slowed when he recognized him.
"Didn't this guy fall into lava and die?"
"That's what I was hoping."
Kai watched a Magmanite rip an abandoned vehicle off the ground.
"But I guess your prayers were answered and he's doing fine."
Dr. Seismic looked up.
"The duo of IN—tolerables!"
Kai ran a hand through his dark hair.
"Terrible joke."
"You arrived just in time to witness the collapse of the phallic symbols that uphold this society and return the Earth's materials to their rightful place!"
Mark looked at the monument.
"Do you ever get tired of talking bullshit?"
Seismic slammed his fists together.
The cracks widened.
"Destroy them both!"
The Magmanites charged.
Mark punched the first one in the chest. His arm tore through the outer shell and sank into lava without meeting enough resistance to stop the creature.
"Damn it!"
The Magmanite wrapped both arms around him.
Two others joined the first, burying Mark beneath rock, fire, and magma. Lava washed over his suit but couldn't penetrate Viltrumite skin.
Mark broke free with raw strength.
All three were hurled in different directions, spraying glowing droplets across the lawn. The pieces torn from their bodies began pulling themselves back together before they even hit the ground.
"Punching doesn't work!"
Kai had already discovered the same thing.
His fist tore through another creature's face and came out the other side covered in magma. The hole closed around his arm before he could pull it free.
The Magmanite tried to crush him between both hands.
Kai yanked his arm out, grabbed the creature by the shoulders, and accelerated.
Instead of backing away, he flew straight through it.
Rock split around his chest. When he reached the center of the glowing mass, Kai stretched both arms out and kept flying.
The Magmanite was ripped apart from the inside out.
Lava and shards of stone exploded to either side, splitting its entire body open before the remains crashed onto the grass.
Kai emerged on the other side.
The creature still tried to pull itself back together.
"That didn't work either."
Dr. Seismic spread his arms, pleased.
"Beings of flesh will never comprehend the persistence of the Earth itself! You may strike it, pierce it, exploit it—but it will always rise against you parasites!"
Mark dodged a stream of lava and kicked another Magmanite with both feet. The creature skidded across the ground but got back up almost immediately.
Three of them surrounded him again.
Mark punched the first in the face. His fist went straight through.
The second trapped his arm inside its body while the third struck him from behind. Mark slammed into the ground, carved a trench through the grass, and returned before the Magmanites could reach the nearby buildings.
Kai knocked one of the creatures aside on the way.
"Stop hitting them."
"You just split one in half!"
"Exactly! And guess what? It didn't work."
A seismic wave rolled through the area.
The ground rose beneath the brothers, forming a wall of stone between them. New fissures opened around Seismic while the Magmanites regrouped to protect him.
Kai scanned the creatures.
It didn't matter how many times they destroyed them. As long as Dr. Seismic kept controlling them, they would keep reforming.
Mark reached the same conclusion.
His eyes met Kai's over the stone wall.
Neither needed to explain.
They went up.
Mark attacked from the left.
Kai from the right.
Dr. Seismic reacted too late.
He aimed one gauntlet at Mark, changed direction when he noticed Kai closing in, then pointed it at his brother instead.
"One at a time!"
The gauntlet fired at Kai.
The wave struck the air like an invisible explosion. Kai crossed both arms in front of his face, and the impact stopped his advance. His suit vibrated against his body as he was shoved several yards backward.
Seismic kept all of the force focused on him.
He never saw Mark coming from the other side.
Invincible's fist struck his face.
CRACK!
Dr. Seismic was ripped off the platform and hurled across the lawn. The gauntlets lost power the instant he hit the ground.
The fissures stopped widening.
Dr. Seismic rolled through the dirt on the far side. The magma lost the shape holding it together and flowed back into the cracks, leaving only piles of glowing rock scattered across the area.
Mark landed beside Seismic.
The scientist tried to raise one hand.
"You may strike me down, but the Earth's crust will never—"
Kai landed and slapped Dr. Seismic unconscious, finally shutting him up.
"Enough."
Cecil's voice came through their communicators.
"Good work, both of you."
Kai looked at the Washington Monument. Soot marked parts of the base, but the structure was still standing.
"At least the monument's still in one piece."
Minutes Later — High School Graduation — 1:46 p.m.
By the time Kai and Mark arrived, Principal Winslow was already calling students to the stage.
The brothers landed behind a nearby building, slipped through one of the side entrances, and changed out of their uniforms in less than a minute. Mark was still straightening his tie when they joined William, Eve, and Amber among the rows of graduates.
"You almost missed it."
Amber pulled Mark toward the empty seat beside her.
William looked at both brothers' hair, still messy from the flight.
"Don't even bother sitting down."
Kai took one step toward his chair.
"And now, please welcome Kai Grayson."
He stopped.
William suppressed a laugh as Kai changed direction and walked straight toward the stage.
Kai shook Winslow's hand, received his diploma, and went down the other side. The ceremony continued through names, applause, and speeches about the future that none of them seemed willing to listen to all the way through.
When it finally ended, everyone stood with their caps in hand.
"Congratulations to the Class of 2016."
The caps flew into the air.
For one moment, Mark forgot how much force he was supposed to use.
His cap shot past the others, kept climbing above the field, and disappeared from sight.
Amber followed the black dot until she could no longer see it.
"You know you have to give that back, right?"
Mark raised a hand to block the sun.
"Damn it."
Kai caught his own cap before it hit the ground.
"If it hits a plane, your graduation's going to be a lot more memorable."
Eve approached the four of them with her diploma tucked under one arm.
"Let's celebrate at my place."
William looked at her.
"The house in the middle of the forest?"
"That one."
"Do you have food?"
"I've got beer."
"Why are we still here?"
A Little Later — Eve's House
The sun was dropping behind the trees when they opened the first bottles.
Eve's house rose above the surrounding forest, its wood and living greenery blending into the structures she'd shaped with her powers. Mark, Amber, William, and Eve sat around the outdoor table.
Kai stayed by the railing instead, elbows resting against the wood. Beyond him, the forest stretched beneath the fading orange sky.
William examined the diploma lying on the table.
"I thought I'd feel different."
Amber tapped her bottle against his.
"You finished high school."
"I know. But it feels exactly like yesterday."
William took a drink.
"Now I feel more qualified to keep having no idea what I'm doing with my life."
Eve leaned back in her chair.
"Maybe it'll feel different tomorrow."
"I told you it wasn't a big deal."
All four of them turned toward Kai.
He raised the bottle to his lips.
"You spent years waiting for a piece of paper and a hat Mark launched into space."
Kai glanced toward the sky.
"Give it some time and you won't remember half the people who went there."
William pointed his bottle at him.
"I don't remember them now." He narrowed his eyes. "Actually, ever since you stopped bleaching your hair, you've become slightly less unbearable."
"I didn't bleach it. It was a side effect of one of my powers."
The answer came without Kai trying to bury it beneath a joke.
Eve looked up at him while William glanced from Kai's dark hair to Mark.
"If you start showing up more as Infinity again, it's gonna get hard to keep track of who's who."
Amber wrapped her arms around Mark from behind his chair.
"Mark's easy to recognize. Their faces aren't exactly identical."
Mark rested one hand over her arms.
"There's also the fact that my suit is blue, yellow, and black. His is black and gray."
"What about color-blind people?"
William pointed at Kai's hair.
"The white hair was the distinguishing feature."
The others kept talking.
Kai stayed by the railing, listening to their voices and watching them fill the space around the table. He wasn't exactly separate from them. No one had left him out.
Even so, being there didn't create the sense of belonging that seemed to come so easily to everyone else.
He'd acted as Infinity that day, but he still hadn't actually decided to come back.
He'd taken the job because he'd chosen to go against his own pattern.
He'd left it after exposing Betty because he'd done what he wanted to do.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
The elevator. Turning back. The way he'd approached Betty in the break room without hesitation. The smile he'd given her. The satisfaction of walking into that meeting already knowing he'd won.
There was something of Viktor in every one of those choices.
Or maybe Viktor had simply been too similar to a part of Kai that had always existed.
Kai took another drink.
The outcome at the office hadn't been bad. Betty had been exposed, Janet had kept her job, and the shipment had reached its destination.
He lifted the bottle again, then paused.
There wasn't much point in drinking it. So far all he'd managed to prove was that an ordinary beer did absolutely nothing to him.
Kai took another sip anyway.
At least now he was sure.
Mark and Amber's voices dropped on the other side of the table. William finished his bottle and stood.
"Gotta drain the lizard."
Eve pointed toward the house.
"Bathroom's the first door on the left."
William looked toward the forest.
"I thought all of this was the bathroom."
Eve laughed as he disappeared through the door, then stood and joined Kai at the railing.
"I'm surprised you went to your own graduation."
"So am I."
She rested her arms on the wood beside him.
"Mark was worried."
"He has a weird way of showing it."
"So do you."
Kai rolled the bottle slowly between his fingers.
"He wants to understand your other powers."
"I know."
"Then why don't you show him?"
A joke came easily. He could tell her he liked keeping the mystery alive, or that Mark needed to learn how to live with curiosity.
This time, he let it die before reaching his mouth.
"During the fight with Nolan, I completely lost my mind."
Eve went quiet.
"You couldn't see all of it on TV. It just looked like I was being an arrogant asshole."
"It definitely looked like that."
"I wasn't thinking straight."
Kai rested the bottle against the railing.
"It was like being drunk. You can still move, talk, and think you know exactly what you're doing. You only realize how badly you fucked up once you're sober."
Eve glanced at the beer in his hand.
"Does that get you drunk?"
"Just found out it doesn't."
She almost smiled, but waited for him to continue.
"Depending on how much I use, the way I think changes. It's like certain parts of my head start speaking louder than the others."
Kai kept his eyes on the horizon.
"If I hadn't lost it, I could've stopped Nolan."
He paused.
"I could've kept Mark from getting hurt. Kept all those people from dying."
His fingers tightened around the bottle.
For an instant, the sunset disappeared beneath purple light above Chicago. Cosmic vanished again while Kai stood powerless among the ruins.
The memory passed almost as quickly as it had come.
Eve noticed anyway.
"None of that was your fault."
Kai neither agreed nor denied it.
Eve turned her attention to the trees.
"When I use my powers, I can feel how things are structured. Atoms, molecules, how matter is arranged, and what I need to change to turn one thing into another."
She raised one hand. A small leaf broke free from a nearby branch and floated into her fingers, wrapped in pink energy.
"It's not like seeing normally. I just... know what's there."
The leaf dissolved into tiny particles, then reformed into the same shape above her palm.
"When I'm near you, there's something different."
Kai watched the leaf.
"I don't know how to explain it."
Eve released the energy and let the wind carry it away.
"It's like whatever's inside you is made of every possible atom and none of them at the same time. It feels like matter, energy, and empty space between the two."
She frowned, clearly dissatisfied with her own explanation.
"I can perceive it, but I can't understand it."
Kai turned back toward the horizon.
"That's reassuring."
"My point is, dealing with something like that has to be difficult."
For a while, neither of them said anything.
By then, the sun had reached the treeline, leaving one last band of orange between the branches. Behind them, Mark and Amber continued talking quietly.
Kai held the bottle between both hands.
"Look at this romantic moment."
Eve turned toward him.
He continued without losing his ironic tone.
"Don't fall in love."
She rolled her eyes, but a smile slipped through anyway.
"There it is. Annoying Kai is back."
"You might be the hottest guy I've ever seen, but I'd rather bite my tongue off than fall in love with you."
"Good to establish boundaries."
She gave him a pointed look, as if making sure he understood exactly where those boundaries were, then her gaze drifted toward his hair.
"I think you look better with dark hair. Less stylish, but better."
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"Less stylish, but better?"
"That's what I said."
"Lately, it's getting hard to tell when something's supposed to be a compliment."
She smiled.
Kai tilted his head toward Mark.
"You only like it dark because it makes me look more like him."
She shoved his arm.
The force barely moved him, but some beer spilled from the neck of the bottle.
"Idiot."
The moment passed, and the days kept moving.
While Kai tried to decide which parts of his own life still belonged to him, other threats continued advancing without anyone on Earth noticing.
June 30, 2016 — United States Space Agency — 10:12 a.m.
Mars filled the entire screen in the conference room.
It wasn't a still image. The footage showed hundreds of Sequids moving through the corridors of the Martian installation, covering walls and bodies as they spread into deeper sections of the complex.
The astronauts who had returned from the mission watched in silence.
One of them placed both hands on the table.
"If those things take over Mars, Earth is next."
He pointed at the creatures on the screen.
"We should send those two up there. Invincible and Infinity. They've dealt with the Martians before."
The astronaut sitting across from him shook her head.
"We don't know what's happening. Going into Mars and attacking everything that moves could turn an infestation into an interplanetary conflict."
"So we wait until they show up here?"
"It's not our war."
The director let them argue for a few seconds before looking for another opinion around the room.
His gaze landed on the man seated farther back.
"Livingston."
The disguised Martian pointed at his own chest.
"What? Me?"
"You were there. What do you think?"
Livingston looked at the screen, then at the other astronauts.
"What would I know about Martians?"
The question came out too loud.
He tried to rest his arms on the table and knocked over a glass. When he tried to catch it, he hit a folder instead, scattering papers across the floor.
"I mean, beyond what any normal human would know."
No one answered.
Livingston picked up two pages, set them upside down on the table, and stood.
"I need to perform a private bodily function."
He left before anyone could ask which one.
The director waited a few seconds, then followed him.
He found Livingston at the bathroom sink, pulling paper towels from the dispenser over and over. He dried his hands, dropped the paper onto the floor, and pulled out more even though his fingers were already completely dry.
"Livingston."
The Martian tore off another length.
"Yes?"
"You can stop that."
Livingston froze with his hands covered in paper.
The director approached slowly.
"It's normal to be a little off after what you went through. Mars, the attacks, the trip back..."
He gestured toward the floor, already covered in crumpled paper.
"Maybe you should take a few days off. Clear your head."
Livingston's eyes widened.
He dropped to his knees in front of him.
"Please don't kill me! Don't pierce any of my three hearts."
The director stopped.
"Your three what?"
"Human hearts."
Livingston put a hand to his chest.
"The three hearts all humans possess."
The director stared at him for several seconds.
"I'm not going to kill anyone."
"Excellent."
"I just want you to go home and rest until you can act normal again."
Livingston sprang to his feet.
"I always act normal."
"Of course."
The director left the bathroom, stepping around the pile of paper on the floor.
Livingston waited for the door to close.
Then he raised both hands to his head and began feeling around. He pressed the top of his skull, pulled at his ears, and moved his neck from side to side.
His head seemed to be in exactly the same place.
Chicago, United States — 12:12 p.m.
The first beam came loose before the workers noticed.
Part of the structure under construction tilted over the plaza, dragging scaffolding, metal panels, and two men working on the upper level with it.
Eve was descending over the city when she heard the crash.
She changed direction.
Pink energy reached the construction site before the first worker hit the ground. Both men stopped in midair along with the scaffolding, tools, and concrete slabs.
The structure continued collapsing.
Eve stretched out both hands.
The broken columns froze a few yards above the people running through the plaza. She moved the workers to safety and turned her attention back to the unfinished building.
She hadn't merely caught the collapse.
She could see everything that was wrong with it.
Poorly distributed concrete. Bent rebar. Sections installed out of position and materials left exposed for weeks.
The energy spread.
The columns regained their shape. Concrete reorganized itself around the rebar, and the suspended pieces returned to the structure in positions different from the ones they'd occupied before.
Eve descended slowly as she finished what the workers had started.
Incomplete sidewalks took shape. Benches appeared in the still-empty spaces, and churned-up dirt became flower beds covered in plants.
At the center of the plaza, pipes that were still waiting to be installed connected beneath the ground.
Water rose.
A fountain formed around it, and the first jet of water cut through the pink energy before splashing into the newly built basin.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
One of the workers took off his hard hat.
"Did you just finish the entire plaza?"
Eve looked at the result.
"Looks like it."
The applause started near the sidewalk.
Others joined in. Some raised their phones while the men who had nearly fallen thanked her, unable to decide whether to look at Eve or the rebuilt structure.
She hovered above the fountain, watching the water fall.
She hadn't destroyed anything.
She hadn't merely prevented a tragedy.
She'd created something better than what had been there before.
For the first time in a long while, Eve had no doubt about what she could do with her powers.
Her phone started ringing.
The screen showed a call from her mother.
Her smile faded slightly before she answered.
"Mom?"
Guardians of the Globe Base — 2:26 p.m.
The training sector doors opened.
The Guardians walked through looking like they'd just survived a war.
Part of Robot's armor was dented. Frost had dark marks across his suit, and Undertow was limping while trying to scrape something dried off his shoulder.
Rex came last.
His face was bruised, with blood running from his nose and the corner of his mouth.
Immortal waited for them with his arms crossed.
Rex spread his arms when he saw him.
"People try to kill me every damn day. I don't need this shit at home too."
Immortal didn't move.
"If you trained more and complained less, you'd probably save more lives."
Rex wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Inspiring speech."
"And maybe you wouldn't have struggled so much with that giant downtown."
Rex walked past him.
"Maybe if the giant wasn't the size of a building."
"Your enemies aren't going to shrink to make your job easier."
"Shame. That'd be very considerate of them."
Immortal kept watching the group as they scattered through the base.
Later, Rex headed to the locker rooms alone.
Steam drifted through the partially open bathroom door.
Rex walked in looking for a towel and stopped before reaching the cabinet.
Kate was with Immortal.
The way they were positioned and the clothes scattered around left no room for another explanation.
Rex stood frozen.
Kate noticed him first.
"Rex."
He pointed at both of them.
"Seriously?"
And Immortal said nothing that improved the situation.
Rex looked at Kate, completely pissed off.
"You're with him?"
She started adjusting the towel around herself and answered with equal irritation.
"You and I never had anything."
"Oh, right."
"You and I were never a couple."
Kate kept her voice firm.
"Now he and I have something."
Rex gave a short laugh, but his face didn't follow.
He looked at Kate.
Then at Immortal.
"Super-assholes."
He turned and left before either of them could answer.
Outside the door, Frost had seen the whole thing.
"Yeah. That's what I call explosive karma."
The door slammed behind Rex, and he forced a laugh.
"Ha-ha. Very funny."
"You do realize you did the same thing to Eve, right?"
This time, he didn't answer.
Frost watched him walk away, barely holding back a laugh.
Meanwhile — Grayson House — 2:28 p.m.
Debbie was working on her laptop at the kitchen counter.
Kai occupied the living-room couch, one arm stretched along the backrest while his eyes remained on the television. The program had been running for several minutes without him actually following what was happening.
The door opened.
Mark came in, dropped his keys on the entry table, and headed for the kitchen. He took a mug from the cabinet, poured the coffee left in the pot, and pushed the wooden cabinet door shut.
The cabinet opened again.
Mark closed it.
The door drifted open a few inches.
This time, he slammed it harder.
"It's been like that since they repaired the house." Debbie didn't look up from the laptop.
Mark held the door closed for a second.
"Didn't you say Kai was supervising them?"
From the couch, Kai kept looking at the TV.
"I told them it was messed up when they fixed the cabinet."
Mark let go of the door.
It opened again.
"Great job."
Kai didn't answer.
The silence that followed wasn't new. Ever since the explosion at the port, any conversation that got too close to Kai's powers died before it could really begin.
Debbie looked between them.
She closed the laptop.
"I was thinking about something."
Kai lowered the TV volume.
"I thought the three of us could take a trip."
Mark turned with the mug in his hand.
"A trip?"
"The beach. Somewhere tropical, a nice hotel, a few days to relax."
Kai stared at the darkened TV screen for a moment.
I hate the beach.
He didn't say it.
Debbie had spent too long trying to hold together a home Nolan had destroyed in more ways than one. If she wanted to pretend for a few days that they could still have a family vacation, Kai wasn't going to be the first one to refuse.
Mark didn't have the same thought.
"You're serious?"
"I am."
"I'd like to, but Cecil said the Guardians are having some problems. I don't know if I can just disappear right now."
Debbie rested her arms on the counter.
"Don't you want to enjoy your last summer before you grow up? It could be your graduation present."
"I'm already grown up, Mom. I'm eighteen."
"I know."
She held his gaze.
"Which is exactly why you don't have to do everything Cecil tells you."
Mark set the mug down harder than he'd meant to.
"Yes, I do. Last time I acted without knowing what I was doing, half a city got destroyed."
What little lightness Debbie had managed to create vanished from the kitchen.
She lowered her voice.
"I understand why you feel that way. But you're not alone."
Mark noticed where she was looking.
"You have your brother. Neither of you needs to keep proving yourselves."
Debbie moved away from the laptop.
"No one thinks you're going to become your father."
Mark's jaw tightened.
"If no one thinks that, why did you bring him up?"
"Mark—"
"You're the one who brought him into this."
Debbie drew back slightly at the speed of his reaction.
Mark pointed toward the living room.
"And Kai spent weeks working in an office when he has the power to save a lot of people. Power he's still hiding, and who knows what the hell else it can do."
Kai looked away from the TV.
He didn't raise his voice.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually starting to miss the office."
Mark stared at his brother.
"At least there I didn't have to listen to this tantrum."
Irritation immediately rose across Mark's face.
Before he could answer, both communicators chimed.
Cecil's voice filled the room.
"Mark? Kai? I need you."
Mark kept staring at his brother for another second.
Kai remained seated, showing no sign that he intended to keep the argument going.
Debbie opened her mouth, but none of the possible responses seemed likely to improve what had already been said.
Mark picked up his mug and poured the coffee into the sink.
"I have to go."
He passed his mother on the way toward the stairs.
"If you two want to go to the Bahamas, go. I've got work to do."
Kai exhaled through his nose and turned off the TV.
Debbie watched him stand.
"Kai..."
"It's fine. We'll be back soon."
He followed Mark upstairs.
En Route to Midnight City — 2:36 p.m.
Daylight vanished the instant they crossed the city's border.
There was no sunset.
The blue sky ended behind them, replaced by permanent darkness covering the buildings, streets, and low clouds. Streetlights and signs kept Midnight City illuminated as though dawn simply never came.
Mark slowed.
"What the fuck was that?"
"The city's under a curse." Cecil's voice remained in their communicators. "It's always night here."
Kai looked at the perfect line separating afternoon from darkness behind them.
"And nobody thought maybe building somewhere else was a better idea?"
"People get attached to where they live. And to cheap real estate."
Mark accelerated again.
"What are we looking for?"
"Someone has taken the name Darkwing. At first, we assumed he was just an imitator. Now we have criminals hospitalized, some dead, and at least two people attacked for minor offenses."
"Minor offenses?"
"One man had his arm broken for stealing a wallet. Another was thrown off a building for trying to break into a car."
Kai looked down at the streets.
"Sounds balanced."
"Find out who he is and bring him in for questioning."
The transmission ended.
The brothers continued over the rooftops.
Midnight City seemed to belong to another era. Stone gargoyles watched over the avenues, narrow alleys divided dark buildings, and nearly every window was protected by bars.
A scream cut through the night.
Mark changed direction first.
They found Darkwing on top of a small apartment building. A man lay near the edge, trying to protect his face while the vigilante hit him again.
Kai and Mark landed behind him.
Darkwing grabbed the criminal by the coat and raised one fist.
When he noticed them, he stopped the punch.
"Invincible. Infinity."
He released the man, who collapsed onto the concrete with a groan.
"Come to help me clean up the streets?"
Mark gestured at the black suit.
"Who are you?"
"I was Darkwing's assistant."
The mask concealed most of his face, but not the resentment in his next words.
"Before your father murdered him."
Mark didn't react to the provocation.
"Assistant, like a sidekick?"
"We don't use that term."
Darkwing straightened.
"It's degrading."
Kai and Mark exchanged a look.
Kai tilted his head toward the vigilante.
"I think this guy's crazy."
Mark didn't miss the chance to jab back.
"Crazy recognizes crazy."
Kai looked at his brother.
Mark was already walking toward Darkwing.
"All right, man. You're coming with me."
Darkwing backed into the shadow cast by a water tower.
"I'm not going anywhere with the sons of a murderous psychopath."
Mark vanished from where he stood.
His fist struck nothing but darkness.
Darkwing sank into the shadow and emerged behind him. His kick struck the back of Mark's head, but the vigilante disappeared again before Mark could turn.
He reappeared near the chimney.
Mark charged.
Darkwing escaped through another shadow, appeared to the left, and kicked him in the ribs.
The blow didn't hurt. What was starting to irritate Mark was how easily the man kept disappearing.
"Stop running!"
"I am where darkness allows me to be."
Mark tried to grab him on the third appearance.
His fingers caught only the cape as Darkwing sank back into the rooftop.
Kai remained several steps behind, watching.
Darkwing couldn't appear just anywhere. He needed a shadow large enough to pass through, and he always attacked Mark before searching for the next one.
The water tower.
The chimney.
The raised edge of the building.
The next spot could only be the shadow behind Mark himself.
Kai moved when the darkness distorted.
Darkwing emerged with one leg extended for another kick.
Kai reached him at the same instant.
His fingers touched the suit.
The shadow closed around both of them.
There was no ground.
Kai remained floating, though he couldn't tell where the space beneath him ended.
Everything was black, but it wasn't the ordinary absence of light. Shapes darker than the background moved across it, visible only because they distorted what little sense of depth still existed.
His hand was empty.
Darkwing had appeared several yards away and was already retreating.
Kai looked around.
"What the hell is this place?"
"The Shadow Dimension."
The vigilante's voice seemed to come from every direction.
A black portal opened behind him.
Darkwing remained with half his body outside it.
"Good luck surviving here. Even I don't dare stray too far from the exit."
"Wait—"
The portal closed.
Kai was alone.
He spent several seconds staring at the place where the opening had been.
"You've got to be kidding me."
He flew in the same direction.
Nothing changed.
There was no wind, no landmark, no sense of distance strong enough to tell him where he was. The communicator didn't even produce static.
Five minutes passed.
Or something close to it.
Kai continued floating in the same void, trying to find some difference in the shadows that might lead to an exit.
He found nothing.
At ten minutes, he heard the first sound.
Something scraped in the distance.
Another noise came from behind him, like nails dragging across stone even though there were no walls anywhere in that place.
Kai turned and took a fighting stance.
A silhouette moved just beyond the edge of his vision. Too long to be human, with limbs bending in the wrong directions.
Another appeared above him.
It disappeared when he tried to track it.
He flew in every direction, searching for a way out.
His patience was running out. Waiting in the dark was no longer enough to keep his mind occupied.
Just considering using the Void made him reconsider his recent choices.
The memory of the office returned.
The way he'd approached Betty without hesitation. How he'd used her interest, slept with her, then broken into her computer minutes later.
The satisfaction he'd felt walking into that meeting already knowing he'd won.
Kai had tried to treat it as a necessary choice.
Betty was guilty. Janet would have taken the blame. The shipment had to be recovered.
None of that explained why he'd enjoyed carrying out the plan so much.
His hair had returned to normal.
His mind hadn't.
That impulse carried something of Viktor. The reckless confidence, the pleasure of manipulating the situation, the certainty that any method was acceptable as long as the result was what he wanted.
Maybe Viktor hadn't taken control.
Maybe Kai had simply chosen to act like him.
The scratching grew louder.
More creatures began moving through the darkness, drawing close enough for their outlines to become visible. Wide jaws. Long arms. Eyes that reflected no light at all.
Kai clenched his fists.
There was no way out.
Irritation replaced introspection.
And the same choice he'd made at the office returned.
Everything's fucked already.
"You think you're gonna scare me?"
One of the shapes rushed toward him.
Kai lowered his center of gravity, ready to charge.
"Let's see who hunts who."
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, blue filled his irises.
The Six Eyes pierced through the darkness.
The Shadow World gained depth all at once. Kai saw creatures hiding miles away, shapes crawling between layers of that space, and the paths where darkness folded back over itself.
Every one of them stopped.
The nearest creature pulled its limbs tight against its body.
Another backed away.
The movement spread like a wave until every creature within range of his perception fled in the opposite direction.
None of them came near him again.
A smile appeared on Kai's lips.
He felt it form and let it remain for a moment as he watched the shadows abandon the region around him.
The same satisfaction he'd felt in the meeting.
He deactivated his eyes once they were all beyond range.
The darkness became only darkness again.
"That was easier than I thought."
The smile disappeared.
A short while later, a portal opened in front of him.
Seconds Earlier...
Mark held Darkwing by the collar atop another building.
Part of the cape was torn. The vigilante had one arm twisted behind his back and his face pressed against a concrete wall.
"Open it."
Darkwing tried to free his neck with a sinister smile.
"It won't matter. With how long he's been in there, your brother's already dead. There probably aren't even bones left."
Mark's jaw locked.
"Open the fucking portal."
Kai calmly stepped through the opening and landed on the rooftop.
"Took you long enough."
Mark exhaled.
The pressure on Darkwing eased, but he didn't let him go.
"This psycho kept jumping from building to building, talking shit about how you were dead."
Darkwing turned his head.
His eyes traveled over Kai from head to toe.
No injuries.
No tears in the suit.
Not even dirt.
"How did you survive?"
Kai watched the portal close behind him.
"Your neighborhood's less scary when you can see."
Darkwing went still.
Mark pulled him away from the wall.
"Let's drop this guy off with Cecil."
Kai walked beside his brother toward the edge of the building. Before jumping, he glanced at Mark.
"Still PMSing?"
Mark released Darkwing only long enough to get a better grip on his arm.
"Go fuck yourself."
The anger from the house was gone from his voice.
He looked at his brother for a moment, then away.
"I'm used to you being like this by now."
Kai left the rooftop and started climbing.
Mark took off right behind him, carrying Darkwing.
Kai turned toward him.
"I'm ordering pizza when I get home."
"I'm staying with Amber."
"Fine. More pizza for me."
The three of them flew through Midnight City's permanent night toward the border.
When they left the curse behind, afternoon returned around them.
Sometime Later — Wilkins House
Eve landed in front of her parents' house.
She knew something was wrong as soon as she went inside.
The refrigerator held almost nothing but a few containers, condiments, and a nearly empty carton of milk. The fruit bowl on the counter was empty, and two bills sat open beside the sink.
Her mother tried to gather them before Eve could finish reading.
"Things are just a little tight right now, that's all."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Your father, he..."
Eve opened the refrigerator again.
Pink energy moved over her hands.
The empty shelves began filling. Fruit appeared on the counter. Packages of food took shape inside the cabinets, every molecule reorganized until there was no difference between what she'd created and something bought at a store.
"Samantha."
Her mother watched everything with concern.
"Undo that before your father gets home."
"Why?"
The front door answered before she could.
Adam walked in wearing a Burger Mart uniform.
Some of Eve's satisfaction vanished immediately.
"Dad?"
He stopped when he saw the full kitchen.
"What?"
"Why are you dressed like that?"
Adam set his keys on the entry table.
"Because it's work."
"What about the furniture store?"
His expression tightened slightly.
The company he'd worked for over several decades had lost part of its operations after the destruction of Chicago. His job hadn't survived the cuts that followed.
Eve looked at the uniform again.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Maybe you'd know if you came home more often."
"I'm here now."
She picked up a piece of fruit from the counter.
"You don't need this. I can make food, clothes, anything you need."
Adam looked at what she'd created.
"I don't want it."
"Dad."
"I said I don't want it."
Eve closed her fingers around the fruit.
Its surface changed beneath her hand. Matter became metal until a golden gleam filled her palm.
"Pure gold. Sell this and you won't have to work for minimum wage."
"Turn it back."
The energy around her hand disappeared.
The gold remained.
"You spent your whole life taking care of us. You don't have to keep pretending that accepting help means you failed."
Eve placed the piece on the counter.
Adam looked at the gold.
Then at his daughter.
"Help?"
Her mother saw where the conversation was going.
"Adam..."
"Is that what you did downtown?"
Eve's expression turned serious.
"I saved those people."
"And then decided to rebuild everything the way you thought was best."
"Because I could."
"Exactly."
Adam pointed at the food, the fruit bowl, and finally the gold on the counter.
"You walk in here, see a problem, and decide you can fix everything because you have the power to."
"You were struggling."
"And you didn't even ask before changing our whole house."
Eve opened her mouth, but he wasn't finished.
"The site you rebuilt in Chicago was condemned for a reason. There were rules, inspections, people responsible for deciding what could be built there."
"I know more about that structure than any engineer."
"That's exactly what I'm talking about."
His voice didn't rise. That made the next sentence worse.
"If you start thinking rules only exist for people who don't have your powers, you stop helping and start deciding for everyone. That place collapsed!"
Eve stared at her father.
"Your powers can put people in danger when you start thinking knowing more means nobody gets to tell you no."
Silence filled the kitchen.
Adam pointed at the gold.
"If you want to help, learn first that being able to do something doesn't mean you should."
Eve held his gaze for several seconds.
Pink energy covered the food she'd created. Part of it disappeared from the shelves, returning the kitchen to how it had been before.
The gold remained on the counter.
"Sell it or throw it away. Your choice."
She turned her back.
Her mother called her name, but Eve was already leaving.
The door closed behind her.
Throughout the Summer
The days grew longer.
Mark took advantage of every opening he could find between Cecil's calls.
Amber came over to the Grayson house. They went out to eat, spent afternoons together, and whenever Mark disappeared for an emergency, she no longer had to pretend she believed some terrible excuse.
Sometimes he came back hours later.
She was still waiting.
Kai did the opposite.
With PRZ no longer filling his afternoons, he spent more time at home. He helped Debbie with the groceries, finished small repairs the workers had left behind, and discovered that the kitchen cabinet still opened on its own even after he took it apart twice.
The third time, he replaced the entire hinge.
Debbie found the door closed that night and opened it just to make sure it stayed that way.
Kai watched from the living room.
"If it breaks again, I'm ripping the cabinet off the wall."
"You said that last time."
"This time I mean it."
She smiled before returning to the kitchen.
Other days, the communicator chimed.
Mark answered first.
Kai started going with him again, though not every time.
There were still days when he left the suit put away.
The world kept moving anyway.
At the Guardians' base, the team changed too.
Bulletproof was the first of the new members to find his place among them.
Zandale was tall and muscular, with black hair braided tight against his scalp. His yellow and burnt-orange suit had circular plates on the shoulders, chest, and around the waist, completed by a narrow visor over his eyes.
Shapesmith came not long after.
His skin took on the appearance of a blue-and-orange uniform, with a large geometric symbol across his chest and a blue mask molded directly around his eyes.
Rex looked over the two newcomers alongside Immortal, Black Samson, Rudy, Monster Girl, Frost, Shrinking Rae, Undertow, and Dupli-Kate.
"Another guy."
He quickly counted the people around them.
"This team's getting way too big."
Shapesmith stood near the dining table, examining a banana.
He bit directly into the middle without removing the peel.
Stopped.
Chewed slowly.
Then looked at the fruit as though he'd just discovered a serious flaw in Earth cuisine.
Rex pointed at him.
"And weirder."
Frost crossed his arms.
"You're only complaining because neither of the new ones is a woman."
Monster Girl nodded.
"That's exactly why."
"Of course it is."
Rex spread his arms toward the group.
"Look at this. It's turning into a sausage fest."
Bulletproof raised an eyebrow behind the visor.
"And you think you'd be the main attraction?"
Rex opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Frost smiled.
"I like him."
Shapesmith decided to try the banana again.
This time, he started with the sticker.
"I thought this was called a banana. Is it actually called sausage? And there is an entire festival for it?"
Everyone narrowed their eyes, unable to tell whether he was joking or genuinely insane.
Summer continued.
The July afternoons passed.
Then August.
The Grayson house regained sounds that had disappeared during the spring. Debbie went back to working for longer stretches without checking her phone every few minutes. Mark started sorting out what he would take to Upstate. Boxes appeared in the bedroom, though half of them remained empty because he still hadn't decided what he actually needed.
Kai didn't pack any.
The university letter remained tucked away in a drawer.
Sometimes he found it while looking for something else.
He closed the drawer again.
On one of the last afternoons of summer, Eve landed outside the brothers' bedroom window.
She tapped the glass twice.
Kai was lying on the bed reading something on his phone. He looked up and opened the window.
"You know we have a door."
"Takes all the fun out of it."
Eve climbed in and looked toward Mark's empty bed.
"Is he here?"
"No."
Kai went back to the bed.
"Amber."
"Of course."
She looked at the boxes scattered around Mark's side.
"Upstate, then?"
"That seems to be the plan."
Eve looked toward Kai's side.
No boxes.
"And you?"
"I've got a drawer."
"Impressive."
"Took me months to choose it."
Eve laughed and sat on Mark's bed.
Kai kept watching her.
"I can tell him you stopped by."
"No need. I don't even know if I should be here."
She stayed for a few minutes. They talked about Kai having gotten a job weeks earlier and spending time at a corporation, something completely outside anything they were used to from him. Naturally, the details of what he'd actually done there were left out.
Eve told him about the plaza collapsing, and about her parents.
Enough for Kai to tell her what she already knew.
It wasn't her fault.
When Eve stood to leave, she glanced once more at the empty space on Kai's side.
"You should figure out what you're going to do."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Maybe that's a sign."
Kai pointed toward the window.
"Maybe it's a sign you should use the door."
Eve passed him and jumped through the opening.
Kai watched the pink energy disappear above the trees.
Then he closed the window.
The Next Day, Far Away — August 29, 2016 — Paris, Eiffel Tower — 4:02 p.m. Paris Time
Mark slowed before reaching the city, keeping Amber protected in his arms as the Eiffel Tower came into view.
She opened her eyes.
For several seconds, she only stared.
"You're kidding."
Mark smiled.
"You said you wanted to go out."
"I was thinking somewhere nearby. Like a park or Burger Mart."
"Then think of this as one of the perks of dating a superhero. It's not all bad, you know?"
Amber tightened her arms around him as they descended toward the city lights.
Below them, Paris continued stretching across the horizon.
Summer was ending.
And after everything that had happened in the fight with Nolan, things finally began to feel like a new beginning.
Interlude — Somewhere in Space
Allen noticed the six of them before he could change direction.
They appeared from different points in the void and closed the distance almost simultaneously, forming a circle around him.
Six Viltrumites.
Allen stopped.
Ah, shit.
One of the women moved several yards closer.
Her voice didn't travel through space.
It appeared directly in his mind.
Unopan. Answer our questions, and perhaps we'll spare your life.
Allen looked around.
One.
Two.
Three.
Six.
"Well, that's new."
The Viltrumite woman narrowed her eyes.
"Usually you people don't ask questions before killing something."
None of them seemed amused.
Tell us about your encounter with the Viltrumite stationed on Earth.
Allen tilted his head.
"That wasn't a question."
One of the Viltrumites vanished from in front of him.
A fist struck Allen's face.
CRACK!
His body was launched through space, spinning out of control until he managed to stabilize himself.
He barely had time to raise his head.
The woman was already in front of him.
What do you know?
Allen wiped blood from his mouth.
Did he abandon his post?
Another Viltrumite appeared beside her.
Did he produce an heir?
For a moment, the humor vanished from Allen's face.
"One? Wait, where did you get that information?"
The Viltrumite woman didn't answer.
Allen looked from one to the next.
"Yeah. I think I've officially decided I'm not telling you anything else."
The first punch struck his stomach.
Allen folded around it.
The second came from above and drove him downward.
Before he could regain his bearings, another Viltrumite reached him and struck his ribs.
CRACK!
Allen spat blood into the void.
He tried to fight back.
His fist didn't even reach its target.
A third Viltrumite grabbed his arm and swung him toward the next.
Another punch shattered part of his teeth.
They started taking turns.
Every time Allen was thrown away, someone was already waiting in his path.
One blow broke through his guard.
Another struck his liver.
A knee drove into his abdomen.
Allen tried to protect his head, but two hands seized his arms and pulled them apart.
The Viltrumite woman punched him in the face.
Blood scattered through space in small droplets.
Where is the Viltrumite from Earth?
Allen didn't answer.
Another punch.
Silence.
The next blow twisted his neck sideways.
Allen could no longer tell which of them was attacking.
His vision shifted between six figures, distant stars, and darkness.
Even then, he managed to raise one finger.
"You people really... need to work... on how you ask for information."
A Viltrumite crossed the distance and struck him in the chest.
Allen's body bent around the fist.
This time, he didn't try to answer.
The blows continued.
Until his arms stopped coming up.
Until his legs stopped responding.
Until even his only eye hung outside his face.
When they finally released him, Allen didn't fly.
His body simply drifted.
His face was deformed. Blood covered his torn uniform, and his breathing had been reduced to movements so faint they were almost imperceptible.
The six Viltrumites remained around him for several seconds.
Allen said nothing else.
He couldn't.
Then they left him floating alone in the void, so still it was difficult to believe he was alive at all.