My plan was simple: walk to the car with Lucy after school and wait for Liam to meet us.

I had already texted Sam to let her know I was bringing Lucy to the hideout. I didn't receive an outright 'no,' but I felt like I could gauge the tone of her response. She was cautious and wouldn't be entirely thrilled I was involving someone with direct ties to Pandora.

I watched the clock tick by until the final bell rang.

"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Troy?" Ms. Elise questioned as I stood from my desk. Most of my peers were already out of class and mingling in the hallway. The rest looked over their shoulders and snickered at my misfortune. "I seem to remember giving you detention. I don't blame you for forgetting with all the upsets we've had recently, but unfortunately I can't go back on my word."

I had half a mind to tell her to kick rocks, but I quickly sealed my lips. There was enough on my plate already. I didn't need to make enemies out of people who were ultimately irrelevant. At the end of the day, Ms. Elise was just doing her job, and all I was in her eyes was a student falling behind.

My plan wasn't simple after all.

"Right," I sighed, pushing out a fake smile. "How long will it be? Sorry, don't mean to sound rude, but I do have commitments."

"Just an hour," she said. "I won't keep you any longer. It'll give you some time to do some catch up work."

I let my bag slip off my shoulder as I collapsed back into the seat. I noticed Lucy standing in place, staring at the door with a conflicted expression. After a few moments, she turned and gave me a weak smile before sitting next to me.

"I'm supposed to meet Travis, but I can just text him," she pulled out a slick new phone and blitzed out a message. "I'll stay, so we can get started on the next assignment. It's not paired, but that doesn't mean I can't help you out," her hand dove back into her bag and pulled out a few books, her gaze flicking to Ms. Elise. "If that's okay? I'll leave if its meant to be—"

"Not at all," Ms. Elise waved her off. "I'm not about to kick you out for wanting to do school work."

Lucy smiled.

"Thanks."

Suppressing the urge to throw myself out the nearest window, I retrieved my books and started working on the next assignment.

We worked quietly with the occasional shared murmurings about ideas and topics. It became quickly apparent how disinterested I was compared to Lucy. She shared her usual passion to push for the best grade, always putting a hundred and ten percent into everything. While she wrote a whole page and a half of notes in a half hour, I barely had a few sentences. With every passing minute, I grew more bitter about my situation. It was 3:30 PM, and I knew that was a good ten, maybe fifteen minutes wasted because I wasn't in my workshop. No, instead I was here scribbling nonsense on a page that ultimately wouldn't matter.

"Max," Lucy nudged. "Come on. I know you can do better than that," she gestured to the page. The look on her face was halfway between annoyed and disappointed. "What are you having trouble with? I can help you find a topic to write about."

"Lucy…" I muttered, unsure what I wanted to say. All I could think about was how pointless it was, and it sucked all the motivation to strive for excellence in schooling. "I just can't do this anymore."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Is there a problem?" Ms. Elise asked, looking up from her desk. "If either of you need help, you need only ask. I might be keeping Max prisoner here for the time being, but that doesn't mean I won't help if either of you are stuck on something. It has been known to be a tricky assignment in the past."

We turned.

"I—" the words died in my mouth, my attention drifting to the ventilation above Ms. Elise.

Anomaly's head poked through the grating, stretching like it was made of rubber and coiling down to survey the room. My heart just about leaped into my throat when I felt Lucy stiffen next to me. The blazing white light amidst the inky darkness locked onto us, and I saw his head tilt slightly. I had forgotten to text him, so he came looking for me.

Ms. Elise gave us a strange look, noticing that we weren't actually looking at her. When I glimpsed her neck starting to crane upward, I shot out of my seat with a nervous laugh.

"Yes! Yes, I uh… am struggling with a topic. Lucy and I were just talking and she was helping me find one," I explained in a rush. I managed to prevent her from looking up by capturing her attention, but my outburst was out of character, and Ms. Elise knew that. "Sorry, I'm a little stressed about it, having flunked the last assignment entirely."

My cheeks burned with embarrassment as I glared up at Anomaly. The idiot looked between me and my teacher before quickly retreating into the ventilation. I let out a sigh of relief once he was out of sight.

"Oh!" Ms. Elise looked rather taken aback. "Well, try not to worry so much. I know deadlines can be tough on students when things in their personal lives aren't going smoothly. I won't presume to know anything outside of my own observations, but if you want the opportunity to recover the credits you lost from the last assignment, I could see if I can schedule an extracurricular activity for you at a later date."

I couldn't think of anything more redundant.

"That would be awesome!" I exclaimed. "Thank you. I've had a lot on my plate recently."

"Not to worry," Ms. Elise waved off. "Now, is there anything more I can help you with?"

The rest of detention passed uneventfully, and once Lucy and I left the classroom away from Ms. Elise, we let out a relieved sigh.

"I take it that was Liam?"

I grumbled, increasing my walking speed to get to the car quicker.

"He's about to be a smudge on the road after what he just pulled."

We found Liam sitting on the car's trunk in the student parking lot. He looked particularly bored despite having his phone in his hand. When he spotted us approaching, his face lit up. He pushed himself off the car's trunk, landing with a skip to his step.

"'Bout time! I thought you guys were going to be in there all day. I was scrolling through some delivery apps cause I was starting to get hungry. Not far off dinner, you guys want—"

"Liam," I cut him off harshly. "You can't ever do that. Do you realize what would've happened if our teacher saw you? The whole school would be locked down and The ECU would've put Mentalists on the case. We'll be found out within the day! We're a big deal now."

He frowned, looking slightly dejected.

"Come on, man. I wasn't spotted, and I was wondering where you guys were. I sat around here for like… I don't know, thirty minutes? I figured you guys were still inside school," he shrugged. "I used the vents and there wasn't any detection stuff in there. I would've noticed."

"Would you?" Lucy and I said at the same time. Our eyes briefly met before we turned our attention back to Liam. I took the lead. "Liam, we can't afford to take risks like that. You could've just called me. I'd rather risk a call in detention than you using your powers. Someone could have seen you."

"I seriously doubt it, dude," Liam countered, adamant. "I'm pretty good at this stealthy stuff. I did it all the time at my old school and nobody found out. I might not be good at academics, but I'm not stupid enough to not look around for cameras before I switch."

"How'd you even get into the vents?" Lucy asked.

"Toilets," Liam replied easily. "Went up the vents in there. Like I said, no one saw anything, and I'm pretty sure there are laws against putting cameras in bathrooms," I didn't miss the subtle smugness that crossed his face. It didn't look right on him. Sam pulled it off far better. "After that, I just went around and checked out any sources of sound. Only took me five minutes to find you guys."

"Our teacher almost saw you," I scowled. "If I hadn't spoken up to draw her attention, she would have looked right at you."

"What? Naaah," Liam waved me off. "I had that under control."

I didn't feel like arguing with him right now, especially out in the open like this.

"No powers at school, unless under dire circumstances," I intoned. "Can we please agree on this? There's no reason to be using them otherwise, and I'm absolutely certain Mia and Sam will say the same thing."

"Alright, alright!" Liam groaned. "No doing super stuff…" he trailed off, and I could see in his eyes that he wasn't quite done. "Can I at least do partial transformations? I don't like paying for the chocolate bars at the vending machines. Seven dollars for a Kit Kat is fucking robbery."

"I'm sure you can manage without the chocolate," Lucy jumped in to help. "Plus, shouldn't you guys be swimming in cash?"

Liam snorted.

"If we are, that's news to me."

"We can figure that out later," I moved to the side and unlocked the car so I could throw my bag in the backseat. "Let's get going."

Driving with Sweepers and Walkers on the roads made rush hour unbearable.

Gridlock was becoming the norm, and with each passing minute, I found my motivation to take them all outgrowing. With all the aggravated honking and barely suppressed road rage around us, it was only a matter of time before people would demand looser restrictions. The chaos Grim inflicted was still fresh in everyone's minds, so I believed there was a level of goodwill people had to put up with this.

That goodwill wouldn't last if things stayed like this. New Elpis wasn't a war-torn country, so in the eyes of the population, there wasn't a reason for Ajax to be here long.

"Do you guys think I could jump out and order chips for all of us from that store before we make it out of the street?" Liam asked, pointing to the shop. He was spread out across the backseat with his feet resting on a door armrest. "I could kinda go for some hot chips – oh, hey, they put chicken and lamb on top! Bit expensive though. Twenty dollars for a small?"

"No thanks," Lucy drawled. "Not hungry."

"Neither," I said, keeping my eyes on the road ahead. I could feel the vibrations from the nearest Walker reverberating through the seat and steering wheel. "Not really sure if it's the best idea to be walking around anywhere right now. We're about to be scanned."

The Walker's giant legs appeared first, some latched to the buildings and the others on the street between traffic. The main body was the next to appear, scanning lasers roaming over cars and pedestrians. I bit my lip when the lasers moved over our car, and I noticed Lucy tense up as well. I saw Liam sit up in the backseat through the rearview mirror, looking tense and ready for a fight. Fortunately, nothing came. Sweepers followed in after the Walker and zoomed through the street above all the traffic.

"Good thing this car is an insurance replacement. If we had been using mine, their scanners would've picked up on the evomaterials I used," I released a sigh. "I've had to resist the urge to alter this one as well. I don't like driving around in something that can't even block regular bullets."

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"That's not something I'm used to hearing you say," Lucy slumped in her seat, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I still can't believe you're taking me to your hideout. My life was already complicated enough, now it's just going to get crazier." She said. Lucy didn't usually sound nervous, but I could see the slight bounce she was trying to suppress in her leg. "How far off are we?"

"In this traffic, about an hour," Liam said.

"Annoying, but it's fine. I've got nowhere to be because I messaged Dad to let him know I'm staying with you tonight," Lucy explained, looking in my direction. "He's not too thrilled, but he knows better than to fight me on this. It's one of the arguments he's never been able to win with me."

"With everything that's happened recently, I'm honestly surprised he's even letting you go to school," I muttered. Now that I knew about her ties to Pandora and her relation to Wildfire, I wondered why she was allowed to operate like she was. No one in our friend circle even suspected Lucy's ties to Pandora, so maybe that was Wildfire's angle. Give her enough freedom so that she didn't feel the need to act out and give them all away, and no one would suspect a thing. "Maybe that's the point, though. Letting you come back wouldn't raise suspicion."

"That's probably part of it, so I wouldn't put it past him," Lucy agreed.

"Your dad sounds like a prick," Liam voiced. "Just sayin'."

Lucy grumbled.

"You don't know half of it."

I expected Lucy to start filling Liam in on the relevant parts of her history, but she kept silent. Realistically, it was bad enough that Abby and I found out about her in the way that we did. I imagined that at some point, she would have wanted to break the news to us herself when she was in a better position in life, somewhere stable away from all the politics.

I couldn't speak for Abby, but I knew how I would feel. I would have been sympathetic and understanding. In that hypothetical scenario, I would recontextualize our relationship, and then all the mysteries would have become clear. However, that wasn't possible anymore, and Lucy was stuck trying to juggle the added stress that her best friend was now a Super.

Liam continued to make idle chatter all the way to base. When I pulled into the garage, I immediately caught on to Lucy's expression. Like me, she had been here before Cyberspace bought Chris' family business.

"Max, this is—"

"Yeah," I replied solemnly. "I know. It wasn't my decision."

"Have you always—"

"No," I cut her off again. "Our old place was deeper into Groves Den, an old condemned apartment building. The night of Grim's attack, it was compromised, so Cyberspace moved us here temporarily."

"Temporarily?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, they've got Max working on some cube thing. Apparently it's one of Deadlocked's prototypes," Liam said before I could get a word in. "Once he's cracked it, we're supposed to move into that, but I don't really know how that's supposed to work. It's the size of a snowglobe."

Lucy's eyes practically bulged out of their sockets.

"You have—!" She stopped herself, rubbing her temples. "Did I just hear that right? You have one of Deadlocked's prototypes? How the hell did you get your hands on something like that?"

"I'll tell you about it later. It's not a long story," I said, getting out of the car. I was immediately met with some of our building staff, Cyberspace's agents disguised as mechanics. I tossed them the keys as Liam and Lucy vacated the vehicle. "Come over here first, I've gotta get you registered."

I led her over to a trolley that stood near the door to my workshop. I moved a greasy rag to reveal a slick black tablet underneath. I tapped the screen to wake it up before pushing the palm of my hand against it. It read my biometrics and let me through all the security, all while Lucy quietly watched.

"Place your hand against this," I said, holding the tablet out to Lucy

Tentatively, she followed my instruction.

"What's this for?" Lucy murmured, uncertainty plastered across her face. "Are you creating some kind of biometric security key for me so I can get in and out?"

"That, amongst other things," I chuckled.

"It's so his workshop's defenses don't take your head off the moment you walk through the door," Liam snorted. "First couple of days here, we tested the defenses' accuracy and detectability on a bunch of watermelons. Let me tell you, it wasn't fun to clean up."

Lucy paled significantly.

"I guess that's why father never let me visit Torpedo."

I frowned.

"Who?"

"One of the Pandora Mechakinetics here in the city," Lucy explained. "She makes… well, the name speaks for itself," she paused, meeting my gaze. "No, Max. I don't know where Torpedo's workshop is."

"Aha!" Liam cackled. "Wow, even I saw you thinking that."

"I wasn't thinking that," I snapped defensively. "I was just thinking what kind of potential there would be in acquiring her Mechatech."

Liam's smirk almost mirrored Sam's.

"Sure, dude."

The tablet in my hands flashed, signaling the completion of Lucy's registration.

"All done," I grumbled, placing the tablet back in the trolley. "Do we want to go inside, or stand around out here making fun of me?" I watched Lucy and Liam exchange thoughtful stares. I didn't give them the opportunity to answer. "You know what? Don't answer that. Fuck both of you," I opened the door to the workshop. "Get inside."

Liam went first, and I followed after Lucy.

Liam had long since grown accustomed to my workshop, so he found the nearest chair and collapsed, spinning around to watch Lucy's fascination. She crept forward, taking in everything she could. There were a couple of times she reached out to touch something, but her common sense stopped her. Everything here was unfamiliar, and she knew enough about Supers to know that touching things she didn't understand wasn't a good idea.

"You get used to it after a while," Liam commented, spinning in his chair a few times. "It's still pretty cool to come down here every so often and see something new."

"And I constantly have to remind you not to touch anything," I remarked with a smile. "Maybe I should start putting up signs."

"You know when people put up those signs in museums and art galleries, it just makes people wanna touch 'em more," Liam said in jest. "It's cool, man. Don't worry. I'm not about getting disintegrated over my own curiosity. I know Mechatech is a whole different pot of noodles."

Liam's strange analogy seemed to snap Lucy out of her wonder.

"You made all of this?" Lucy asked, amazed. "Even with resources, something of this scale should've taken months of work!"

"Not all of it." We turned to see Francis walking down the stairs from our living area. He looked like his usual self, just without the stoicism I was used to seeing. Instead, he wore an expression that appeared to be a mix of annoyance and dissatisfaction. "Cyberspace is responsible for a good deal of it. Maxis has been steadily improving on the charitable donations."

"I'd say it's about 50-50," Liam said.

"Not even close," Francis intoned, his eyes landing on Lucy. "You must be Lucy Kim, I would say it's a pleasure, but I don't make a habit of lying," his face returned to its usual stoicism as he sighed. "Don't take it personally. I just don't like seeing kids get dragged into this mess, but I've been briefed on your particular situation."

"You've been briefed?" I scowled, not understanding where this was going. "Briefed about what, exactly?"

"Me, apparently," Lucy muttered. "You must work for Cyberspace."

"That I do," Francis nodded. "As I understand it, you've been in contact with them before."

"Briefly, when they instructed me to leave my phone in one of my older jacket pockets," Lucy glanced in my direction a few times before heaving a sigh. "I didn't know why, until Max told me he found it when he and Abby raided my house. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, by the way. Why were they so insistent on me keeping my mouth shut when they were just going to come and look for me anyway?"

I felt a pang of irritation. Cyberspace had informed me that Lucy was fine, but they neglected to mention they were deliberately enforcing her silence.

"Timing," Francis replied before I could get a word in. "Cyberspace wanted certain events set into motion."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" I asked through gritted teeth. "I figured our working relationship would involve some transparency. I don't like things being kept from me, and I think I can say the same for the rest of us."

"Don't pretend like the thought never occurred to you," Francis rolled his eyes. "We've been open about the fact that we were watching you from the get-go, and that includes Cyberspace. It hasn't been explicitly said because it's no longer relevant. By all means, if you want to bring it up as an issue, go talk to them yourself. You're able to contact them just as easily as me."

I crossed my arms and leaned against the edge of a desk. Cyberspace pulling strings had always been a theory that floated around in the back of my mind, but I never bothered to put the question forward. With all the control they had, it only made sense. They had been watching me before I even made contact with Sam. I had to wonder: how much power did they really have?

"It all led to Grim's defeat," Lucy murmured. "Clever. They must have some kind of Mentalist capability."

"It wouldn't surprise me," Francis mused. "They predicted it was only a matter of time until you ended up here."

"I wanted to keep her in the loop and give her options. She's deep in Pandora and knows enough about me that if any of their Mentalists picked her brain, I would be compromised," I explained. "I've already stressed enough about The Cains potentially knowing who I am, and we still don't know where Mirage or Bonesmith are. I don't want the entirety of Pandora knocking on my front door."

Francis sighed.

"Maybe you should have thought about that before telling her."

"Maybe if I knew beforehand, I wouldn't have said anything," I glared. Lucy shied away at the aggression in my tone, and I found myself quickly softening. "It's not your fault. It's just a bad situation all-round. We'll figure things out as we go, but for now, you're going to be safest here with all of us."

"I shouldn't have pushed you. I was just concerned and you weren't your usual self, so that's why I had to ask" Lucy lamented, shaking her head. "Hindsight is 20-20. It's pointless to linger on that. I just need to figure out how I'm going to keep all this to myself without Dad getting suspicious. If he thinks there's even a shred of a chance that I'm hiding something or lying, he'll bring a Mentalist over to see me. He's done it to me and Mom before."

"Can't you just stay here?" Liam asked, confused. "Just run away from home. Hell, bring that Travis guy and his sisters. They'll be safe here."

"I wish it were that easy," Lucy replied. "The moment I go missing, Dad will investigate. He'll go to my Grandparents first, since they'll be at the top of his suspect list. After that, he'll start paying visits to people that he knows I'm closest to," she looked in my direction. "You and Eleanor will be in danger."

"Mom knows about me. I can just bring her here to keep her safe," I dismissed that concern.

Still, Lucy wasn't persuaded.

"He'll just go down the list. Chris and Jackson will be next. He'll go after everyone I've ever had a connection with. I'm not putting all of them in danger just because I want to take the easy way out."

"It's not the easy—!" I stopped before frustration overwhelmed me. "Lucy, it's not the easy way out. Stop thinking like that."

"There's too much risk involved, Max. I'm not doing that. Plus, we can't just hide everyone we care about here," Lucy gestured to the workshop. "This is a garage, not a hotel."

"She's right, we don't have the space here to protect that many people without raising suspicion," Francis said. "However, we could round up those you two have ties to. I think you'll find that we are very good at making certain people disappear, but there would be risks to this plan. Pandora, namely Wildfire, will notice the precautions we've taken, and there will be consequences."

"Like what?" Liam asked.

"They'll react similarly to when Max and Abby burned my house down," Lucy said, turning to me. "And this time there are no Cains to front the blame. They'll go after the most likely candidates."

"Us?" I frowned. "We may have brought Grim down, but nobody knows of our partnership with Cyberspace. There's no way any of them would believe they were capable of doing something like that. We wouldn't have the resources. We—"

"—Pulled off the impossible once already," Lucy cut me off. "Pandora wouldn't openly wage war with The Queen's Court with Gaea around. With Ajax here, you better believe they won't make any open moves toward The ECU. They'll try and wipe you guys off the map."

"Which is why we're not going to do any of that," Francis said, directing his attention to Lucy. "You're going to remain within Pandora's grasp for the time being, and you're going to openly cooperate with your father in any way you can. To adequately do this, I've been advised to 'coach' you."

Disbelief hung in the air.

Lucy blinked.

"Pardon?"

I counted the seconds that ticked by, watching Francis' conflicted expression. Slowly, he reached up to the collar of his shirt. Pulling it down and to the side he revealed a colored tattoo of two cards. It was a two of hearts and a seven of diamonds.

It must have been something Lucy recognized, judging from her gasp.

"You're—!"

"I was," Francis said. "So I know a thing or two about operating in secrecy within Pandora's ranks. I'm going to teach you how to play the game."

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