Dice clicked together in Vivainne's hand as she rotated them around each other, enjoying the feel of the hard acrylic hitting against each other as she awaited her turn. Across the room, taking up most of the space in the living room, Pip, Nick, and Violet played "strip twister", a version of the game Vivainne had never heard of. Pip had made it abundantly clear what the game was, however, in a loud declaration of the instructions that caused Viv to bow out of the game immediately. Whether it was a Carter classic or hero school classic, or whatever Pip insisted, Vivainne had no desire to strip off layers of clothing while in close proximity to multiple other players.

That didn't mean she wasn't watching. Her eyes continued to flit up to the game as Florence reluctantly played referee, calling out colors they were evidently meant to place a body part on. And if they couldn't, they could strip off a piece of their own clothing in forfeit. So far, Pip had lost her shirt, revealing the white sports bra beneath.

It shouldn't have been surprising, how toned Pip was, but Vivainne still had a hard time pulling her eyes away from the Carter's tan, toned stomach, abs clearly defined.

"So," Harper leaned in beside Vivainne, dropping her voice into a raspy whisper. "You like girls?"

Vivainne choked, the dice coming to an abrupt halt in her hand as she spasmed, face hot. "What?"

"You've been staring…" Harper's mouth wagged mischievously, a faint touch of color across her cheeks. "I'm just wondering, is it girls, or like, girl in particular."

"What?" She glanced again at Pip, legs stretched across the multi-color dotted mat, body twisted to the side in an accidental yoga move as Nick moved into place across from her, their bodies touching. A knot formed in her stomach as the smaller girl laughed, and she looked down at the dice. "Why?"

"Consider it personal curiosity." She shifted away, focusing once more on the game as Gael called for her turn. Once the dice gave her a number, she moved her piece on the board that many paces, then waited for Vivainne to do the same. She could only be thankful it was a game that didn't require much more thought and effort than rolling a pair of dice and moving her piece, because she couldn't focus. Heat filled her face, a face she was certain was red as a beet.

Why did Harper care? Was it that Harper was interested, and if she was, how did Viv feel about that?

She liked girls. Vivainne knew that much. It wasn't something she'd really thought about, or pursued, aside from a few sorta-kinda dates with Iris, but she'd been obsessed with Glitterbomb since the first moment she saw her, and it wasn't because she was an incredible hero. Or at least, that wasn't the only reason.

So she liked girls. Asking if she liked a specific girl was an entirely different question.

A glance to the side, and she met Harper's eyes, heat flooding her face again as her eyes quickly darted away. They landed across the room, on the trio of girls playing strip twister. At some point, Violet had lost her pants, and was now just in her underwear and a t-shirt. Pip threw her head back, laughing, and nearly lost her balance. She flailed, grabbing onto Violet, and the whole group went down, tangled together in a mix of naked limbs. That certainly wasn't helping her figure it out.

Not that there was anything to figure out. She didn't know Violet and Nick, though Pip clearly was interested in them, and Pip…

Pip was her roommate.

That was it.

"Uh, just girls," Vivainne finally coughed up. She pulled her eyes away from the game of twister as they untangled themselves, uncertain where to put her attention. When her gaze landed on Florence, she knew that was the wrong decision.

He winked, big and obvious, and gave a thumbs up.

She shuddered and looked away, locking gazes with Harper again. "Just girls."

"Good, because I'm a girl." Harper reached up, smoothing back her layered black hair, color blooming quietly across her cheeks.

"Smooth," Raesha deadpanned.

"That was painful," Gael said, the words accented and smooth. Harper clutched her own chest in mock pain.

"Ouch. I never mocked you for your flirting attempts."

"Because I am as smooth tongued as I am beautiful," Gael said, the words emphasized by a white-toothed grin and a wink. "Even you lesbians cannot deny."

It was enough to break Raesha into hysterics, her laughter spreading around the circle and thankfully pulling attention away from Vivainne. The heat across her face and chest diffused as the laughter quieted, their game all but forgotten.

"What's so funny?" Florence asked, plopping down onto the floor beside her. His legs were too long, bumping against her side as he tried to fit between Vivainne and Gael.

"Me," Gael said. He picked up a set of dice, rolling them and moving a piece a moment later. "I also win, I think."

"Wait, what?"

Raesha leaned across the board, inspecting the pieces carefully before scrambling backward for the box. A moment later, the instructions were in her hands, eyes darting frantically across the page. It didn't matter though, because anyone could see Gael had won, his pieces all tucked safely away off the board's main path.

Harper pushed herself to her feet, then reached down, offering a hand to Vivianne. Viv allowed herself to be pulled upright, the touch lingering as Harper grinned at her, cat-like eyes locked on her face.

"So," she said, finally releasing Viv's hand. "What do you say?"

"To what?"

"A date. With me?" The confidence wavered for a moment, smile caught tight on a wire of tension.

A date. That wasn't what Vivainne was here for. She was here to train. Figure out what she could do with her powers. Learn how to be a hero.

She ought to focus.

"Sure," she said, blurting the word out before she could regret it. As much as she was here to train and become a hero, it wasn't like she couldn't enjoy her life a little bit. It wasn't like heroes took everything seriously all the time either. The Carters were clear examples of that. At least, Thalia was. Maybe Vivainne needed to be a little more like the Carters. "Uh, when?"

"Give a girl time to figure it out!" Harper exclaimed. The smile that filled her face was no longer curved and full of humor; it had been replaced by something all consuming, and infectious. "I didn't really expect you to say yes."

"Oh. Then why ask?"

"Because, I mean, you're cute." Harper shrugged, then stepped further into the kitchen, retrieving a now cold piece of pizza from an open box. "And I'm pretty handsome myself."

"You are," Viv said, letting her hair cover her eyes as she stepped closer. With her dark, fluffy hair and tan skin, tattoos covering one arm, she was handsome. Maybe not exactly Viv's type, but she didn't know exactly what her type was. The only person she'd been mildly interested in, aside from distant, impossible crushes, was a walking rainbow. "I'm glad you asked."

"I think this means you should give me your number."

With a laugh, Vivainne pulled out her phone, self conscious as she opened up her contacts. She didn't have many people's numbers. Charles, Darcy, and Jordan. Pip, of course, and Florence. Nobody else.

Harper stole the phone before she had a chance to pull away, quickly typing in her number and returning it with a grin. "There. Now we can get to know each other a little more."

She darted away, crossing the room and joining up with Raesha, whispers passing furiously between them. Vivainne watched until Pip skipped across the room, still not wearing a shirt, and snagged a can of soda from the counter.

"What was that about?" Down and loose, her colorful hair brushed against her collarbone.

"Uh, Harper asked me out." Her stomach squirmed as she said the words, unable to look away as she waited for Pip's reaction. Not that it mattered, really, but Pip was her friend. Her closest friend.

Pip's face screwed for a moment before breaking out in a grin. It did nothing to ease the tension gathering in her stomach. "That's awesome. She's pretty cool."

"Yeah," Viv said. "Uh, what about you?"

"What about me?" Pip asked, laughing.

"I mean, Nick. Violet." The two girls sat across the room, in various stages of undress. "You've been getting naked with them all night."

Soda sprayed from Pip's lips. She slapped a hand over her mouth, coughing furiously behind it, ears going red. "Hey!" she choked out. "Not fair."

Unable to help herself, Vivainne grinned. "I'm not wrong."

"Shut up. Shut up!" She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then hurried over to the sink to wash them off. Her back was as muscular as the rest of her, deceptively narrow shoulders rippling with muscle beneath the straps of her sports bra. Is Harper this muscular? she wondered.

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She didn't get a chance to find out, as game night wound down. Eventually, everyone left, taking leftover pizza and sushi and soda with them, though Harper left behind the remaining cookies with a wink. Vivainne helped Pip clean up, gathering up pillows and blankets and piling them on the couch while the other girl swept. Eventually, their apartment was back in order, and Vivainne bid Pip a quick goodnight before retreating to her bedroom, not bothering to open the door.

She phased into the dark, and breathed.

In the dark, she could breathe. It filled her, like a plant growing in the sunshine, stretching toward the distant sun.

She opened her eyes, seeing the room for what it was. Shades of black and grey and filtered light from the curtained window, as bright to her as a beaming spotlight.

It was late.

She should sleep.

Instead, she crossed to her desk, retrieving Artemis' assignment. It needed to be completed, but it wasn't the assignment she was eager—no, excited—to work on.

The map that wasn't a piece of anyone else's assignments. A map of the unground campus. There wasn't anything marked on the map, but she felt certain it was directing her somewhere, and she needed to figure out where that was. Artemis had enticed her here with the concept of spywork, hero work that was particularly suited to her style of power and what she'd done so far for the heroes, and this had to be the result of that.

Folding the map, Vivainne tucked it into the front pocket on her hoodie and made for the door. With a light touch, she twisted the doorknob, wincing at the squeal of hinges. She should have just phased through the door.

On the other side, the apartment was dark, save for a light above the so far untouched stove. Pip must have gone to bed. Good, Vivainne thought, phasing to move silently through the apartment. I don't need her asking questions right now.

Of course, she wasn't doing anything wrong, though the feeling rubbed at her. The guilt of doing something in secret, sneaking around in the dark. She'd promised she wouldn't do that anymore, after the incident with her sister, but this was different. This was part of her assignment.

Pushing the feeling down, Vivainne made her way into the underground campus, using her bracelet key to access the tunnels that ran beneath the building and under the street. This late, they were empty, and silent, save for the quiet whir of fluorescent lighting.

It was easier to remain phased under artificial lighting than it was natural, but Vivainne decided to return to her physical form as she made her way to the campus. It was possible she would need her power to access wherever the map was leading her, and the last thing she needed was for her core to be exhausted when she reached it.

It was something she needed to work on. Something she was certain she would work on during her time in the program, because there was no way they would let her be a hero if she couldn't maintain use of her power for extended amounts of time. Perhaps whatever research the heroes were now doing into Vora's artificial cores would help her, or there was someone who could help heal the fractures in her core.

She needed to follow up with Recompense. They'd started research, or picked up where Vora had left off, but navigating it was hard. They were using Vora's research, but it had to be combed through carefully. There was no avoiding that her research had been illegal and immoral, but there was useful information there, they just had to unearth it and at the same time, deal with the ramifications of what Vora had done to discover it.

Vivainne had asked Charles to look into it, and promised her help if they wanted someone physical to research on, as she was living proof of her mother's experiments, but as of yet, no one had approached her. She wasn't sure how it would work, now that she was no longer in LA.

At the end of the tunnel, Vivainne came face to face with a door she didn't remember being there, closing off the campus. Before phasing through, uncertain what sort of protections surrounded it, she lifted her wrist to the keypad against the wall.

A quiet beep, and the door slid open.

Vivainne stepped gracefully inside. Good to know campus isn't closed off when we're not in training.

Straining her ears, Vivainne listened for any sign of people on campus. She didn't expect it, at the late hour, but if she was here, so could others.

When she heard nothing, Vivainne moved further inside. Paper rustled inside the jacket pocket as she fished it out, unfolding it in the dim light. In the middle of the central open area of campus, set up not unlike a mall's entrance or a community park, stood a faintly glowing map. It depicted the many classrooms, training rooms, and offices that comprised the hero campus, along with rooms labeled with things such as training room D. Those had to be the specialized training areas, didn't they?

Holding the paper map up, Vivainne compared the printed black and white lines to the glowing lines on the electronic map. There was the main thoroughfare, and then the amphitheater Artemis taught in. The massive training room Professor Wilson trained in, and the many exercise rooms splitting off from it. Professor Artemis's office, where she'd brought Vivainne, Pip, and Florence after their tour of the campus so many months ago. A room simply labeled Power Room, where they'd be having their first power-focused class on Monday.

All of the big rooms were the same. What Vivainne needed to look for were the small details, already small on the huge standing map, made miniscule on paper.

Her eyes began to smart, tears forming in the corners as she stared between the electronic map and the paper in her hands.

With a groan, Vivainne screwed her eyes shut. What am I looking for?

She needed to see the mistake. The difference. Just like those Where's Stargirl games everyone played growing up, with the massive books full of hundreds of hero figures and civilians and Stargirl hiding somewhere amongst them.

She'd been good at those games.

When she opened her eyes, Vivainne stopped looking for anything in particular. She let her gaze slide over the two maps, side by side, no longer scrutinizing every single detail. Simply sliding over them, darting from spot to spot, taking it all in.

Her eyes snagged on a small detail, not on the paper map, but on the electronic one, and she let herself focus in on it. A small room, left off the paper map she'd been given. Not on the outskirts of the campus, or near the offices, but smack in the middle, behind the auditorium.

Where I received the second map, she thought, scowling down at the piece of paper.

Before leaving, Vivainne gave the map one last scan, but knew she was correct. Like she'd found the final piece in a puzzle, it clicked into place in her mind, satisfaction not far behind it.

But it's not the final piece of the puzzle, Vivainne realized as she jogged toward the auditorium. More like… the final edge piece, and now I have to fill in the middle.

A thrill, like a jolt of energy, ran through her at the idea, and she found herself smiling. Maybe this was her ideal work.

But do I want to hide all the time? She'd been asking herself the question for months. This work excited her, and she was good at it, at least for someone without training. It suited her power. But another piece of her wanted to be out there, in the sunlight, fighting alongside the heroes she was certain Pip and Florence and the others would become.

Could she really be satisfied, working in the darkness when all her friends were out defending the world and saving lives?

She had time. There was time to answer the question. And in the meanwhile, she needed to respond to this bait placed in front of her.

The door to the auditorium slid open and into the wall, moving easily at her touch. No lock, then.

Steps descended down toward the stage at the bottom, podium still standing from Artemis's earlier lesson. At the top, a passage stretched around the outside of the theater, meeting the wall on either end. The map still fresh in her mind, Vivainne walked to the left, following the curve of the wall until she came to a panel of fake wood at the far end.

Utilizing her power core once more, she scanned the wall through her dark vision. Maybe there was a hidden doorknob, or keypad that she just needed to use her bracelet to unlock.

Finding nothing, Vivainne gave up, and phased.

She pushed into the wall in front of her, trusting her decision. The map clearly stated there was a room beyond this wall, and even if there wasn't, all Vivainne had to do was turn around to escape.

Before she had a chance to worry, Vivainne stepped through into open space.

The room was lit by a single dim light on the ceiling, the yellow glow reminiscent of the library. With dark, velvet walls and a table that doubled as a desk against the far wall, it could have been an office or a green room. A window she hadn't noticed from the outside was built into the nearest wall, looking out over the auditorium.

Bang.

Vivainne jumped, spinning toward the sound as a door at the far end of the office opened and a man rushed inside. He was entirely underdressed, wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt sporting the name of a band Vivainne didn't recognize, his blond hair swept back in a way that said it had been styled, once, but whatever he'd used in it had worn out by now.

He held a can of soda in one hand, and a half-eaten sandwich in the other.

"You! Took you long enough, didn't it?" he said without missing a beat. He kicked the door shut behind him with another loud bang, then took another bite from his sandwich. He'd hardly chewed it before speaking again. "I was about to start making little arrows on that map and text bubbles saying 'this way, this way'."

He laughed at his own joke as he walked over to the singular table in the room, placing both the can of soda and the sandwich down, without a plate.

Vivainne opened her mouth and found no words.

This couldn't be the person who'd summoned her here.

He wiped off his hands on the side of his shirt, then crossed the space between them, extending one hand out for a handshake. "I'm Chad," he said, grinning a crooked-tooth smile. "Or Inkwell, if you want to go by hero names. Though, I'm guessing you haven't picked one yet."

"No…" She took his hand, shaking it quickly and pulling back as something wet rubbed off onto her. "Vivainne. I'm sorry, I haven't heard of you…"

"Good thing too, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my job very well," Chad said, grinning. "I'm your spywork teacher! Or technically, the school's spywork teacher, but also your teacher specifically."

"Right." It was what Vivainne had assumed, but not the person she expected, and she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the idea that this person could be a spywork hero. He was so… not. "So, you made the map?"

"Yup. Hold it up." He motioned eagerly for her to lift the paper. Eyeing him warily, Vivainne lifted the map and took a quick glance at it.

It was blank.

"Tada!" He waggled his fingers, and at the same time, dark ink crept around them, winding up his wrist like dark tentacles.

"You're an ink manipulator?" Vivainne asked, watching as the ink settled around his upper arm. It was the only thing that made sense. That, or a summoner, of sorts, but weren't they basically the same?

"Summoner, actually," he said, and Vivainne sighed internally. "Hence the name, Inkwell."

"Right." Vivainne shuffled, crossing her arms over her chest. This wasn't going the way she'd planned. She'd expected someone cunning, someone with a power not unlike hers, maybe. Not a loud, sloppy man with the power to summon ink. How did that even work, as a hero power? "I don't even know if spywork is what I want to do."

"I didn't either," Chad said. "Though, let's be real, what else do you expect someone with my power to do?"

"Become a tattoo artist?"

"You're right, I would be a killer tattoo artist," he said, snapping his fingers. "That'll be my backup plan. And in either case, I'm just here to give you the training in case you do decide this is the route for you. Because, from what I was told, you're good at this. If you don't want to do it, though, I won't make you. No point in training someone who won't work for it."

He turned his back to her, returning to the table to pick up his soda and sandwich.

Vivainne jumped after him. "No," she blurted out, the word urgent. "I'll do the work."

He turned back around, grinning. "Excellent! Let's get started."

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