Roan felt like she was going to throw up.

"Are you sure," Hestia was saying, looking right at Roan's nose. Close enough. "That you want to unmask yourselves?"

They were sitting in a conference room in the school library, the door closed and their voices hushed just in case someone was walking by. Luke nodded in agreement with their new Director. He had been public for a while now, and he was basically friendless at school. As soon as he unmasked himself, his friends stopped talking to him. Roan had heard that he and his best friend Jason had gotten into a huge argument about it. People were still polite to him, but he sat alone at lunch, and did most of his projects by himself. She didn't want that.

But she couldn't keep living a lie.

She's known some of these people her whole life, and since she was first recruited she's been lying to them. She's been lying to them about what she does, and what her powers are.

That was kind of taboo in this society.

Powers are sacred. They're a massive past of who you are, and greatly affect how you'll grow up, what you'll become. Her family power has always been in the fighting area, she was a combat expert, like Legion. They weren't related though. It's a common power. But paired with healing? That's too easy to narrow down. She's always had to keep that a secret, otherwise she'd be like the local doctor for all these kids getting bruised and scraped.

"I'm sure," Roan decided, looking Hestia in the eye. She sometimes forgot her friend couldn't see anymore.

"Yeah me too," Jay echoed.

We all turned to look at Quinn. Except Hestia. She doesn't know where anybody in this room is, except Cole, who was therapeutically rubbing the back of her girlfriend's hand. He looked up after the room went silent for a bit, glancing first at Jay and then at the rest of us. He clasped his hands together, thinking hard.

"I'm in, but I tell my extended family first. I need at least a week." He finally said, his tone leaving no room for discussion. He had gotten more confident over the months, coming into himself. Finally. He raised a good point, though. Roan felt she owed it to her family to tell them before they found out on their morning news. Sure her mom and dad and step-mom knew, and her older sister, but what about her grandparents? Her cousins? Her aunts and uncles? They need to know.

"I agree with Quinn on this one," Surprisingly it was Jay who spoke up first. "I want to tell my uncle before he finds out on the radio."

"Me too," Roan confirmed when Cole looked at her with those big brown questioning eyes.

"Okay," Hestia said. "I can hole off the press for about a week, but you won't get much longer. If you want to back out, please don't do it the day of. I have to tell them how many chairs we'll need and I've discovered I hate being a liar, all things considered." She let out a short laugh at that, of course, finding her own jokes funny. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the bell ringing shrilly. We all stood up silently, lost in our thoughts.

"Come on, Cammie," Roan said absentmindedly. "We've got English now." She started to walk out of the room, until she heard a cough behind her. Right, she's blind. "Sorry, sorry, I'm coming back. Jeez this is hard to get used to," Roan muttered.

Hestia snorted. "Try being the one who can't see who he's talking to," he joked. Guess Hestia is a he today, maybe Roan should make those bracelets she found on that Tumblr post a while back. The one where that teen had a bracelet for if they were female, male or neither. Classic Tumblr.

Roan grabbed Hestia's arm, and led him out of the conference room and out into the hall. She didn't acknowledge Luke, he still wasn't public friends with them. It sucked, but it wouldn't be that was for long, she hoped.

A week later and they found themselves in the same conference room, having a similar conversation.

"Well," Hestia was saying. "We're all here, again, I think." She muttered the last two words. Roan snorted. Hestia was just too sarcastic sometimes, it was so funny.

"So you guys are serious about this?" Luke said, looking each of them in the eye. His hands were clasped together on the table, and he was leaning forward. He looked a little nervous, as if he expected us to all say, surprise it was a joke!

"They're not backing out now, I paid a lot of money to get the good reporters to come." Their Director answered for them. The corner of Roan's mouth tugged upwards as she looked at Hestia. She had really come far in these past few months since the this winter. After everything she had been through, Roan was thoroughly impressed that she had almost gotten back to normal.

"So what time tomorrow, and where are we having the meeting?" Jay asked.

"Twelve," Cole answered. "At the front entrance of the cave."

"Alright," Quinn spoke up, stretching his arms across the table. "I guess by Monday we won't be living with secrets anymore. That'll be weird."

We were all silent for a while, just thinking. Slowly and silently, some people left the room. Finally it was just Roan and Hestia.

"Okay guys, let's get to class." Oh man, Hestia didn't hear them leaving. Roan stayed quiet, biting back her laughter.

"Guys?"

Hestia went silent again, looking a little mad. She slapped her hands lightly on the table, a decision made. "I'm getting a seeing eye dog," Roan couldn't help it anymore, she started laughing loudly. Everything was going to be okay.

. . .

"Good afternoon, and thank you everyone for coming out today." The Director was saying on TV. Moon was watching carefully, her family sitting beside her. They were all staring intently at the TV, watching the live news broadcast. The Director and the Secretary were sitting in the centre of the table, with Aerglo and Geronimo on one side, and Phoenix and Mazus on the other side.

As the Director was talking, Moon took the time to look at Aerglo. She was pretty sure his name is Luke, she's seen him around school sometimes. He was always alone, keeping his head down. He unmasked himself a couple years ago, and lost all his friends. Some friends they were, Moon thought. If they didn't stick it out with him.

She tuned back in when her grandmother elbowed her in the side.

"But enough with the pleasantries," the Secretary was saying. "Let's get to what this meeting is really about. We at the Agency have tried our hardest over the years to do right by you, and for one of us that was revealing his identity." She gestured down the line to Aerglo, and the camera panned to him.

"In the recent events that occurred," the Director continued, "Many of our members have retired. In fact, the ones you see at this table, and three others are the only ones who remain. Those of us at the table are here today to show that we will not back down, and that we believe in you, the people."

"That is why we are unmasking ourselves," Phoenix cut in. What?

Everyone went quiet on the TV. Moon's family was already silent, but now she could hear a pin drop. Were they really going to do this? As she thought that, Jay stood and pulled off her mask, revealing green eyes. Guess so.

"My name is Jay Wong, and I am a senior at James Peter Collegiate Institute." Moon recognised her.

Mazus stood up beside her, taking off his mask too, revealing dark messy hair and brown eyes. "My name is Quinn Budan, and I am also a senior at James Peter." Moon recognised him too. They were both part of that giant group of friends. Funny, how that worked. The Director stood, the Secretary helping her up. They both pulled off the masks they were wearing.

"I'm Hestia Whitehead, and I'm a senior at J.P. I was also Chameleon, but you can understand why I am not anymore." A few gasps were heard in the crowd in response to her face. Her skin was dark, but was marred by light coloured scars. They disfigured her face slightly, and she could see they went up into her hairline, probably covering her head and making her hair grow in patches. It was horrible. The worst part was her eyes. They were covered in a while film, and something wasn't right about how she was using them. She's blind, Moon realised with a jolt.

"I'm Cole Samai," no way, her too? "And I'm a junior at J.P."

Moon was starting to notice a pattern. Just that friend group alone, they were the main supers. How is that fair? Geronimo was the last to stand up, Aerglo already without his mask. Ten bucks she's from that friend group too.

She pulled off her mask, revealing a slightly hooked nose, fair skin and crystal blue eyes, dark brown hair tumbling out around her shoulders. "My name is Roan Michaels, and I'm a senior at J.P.C.I." Moon shut off the TV and stood, ignoring the questioning looks from her family.

She needed to lay down.

. . .

"Hestia! Hestia!" Calls were coming from all over the room.

"Roan, Roan!"

"Quinn!"

"Jay!"

"Quiet down, please." Hestia almost shouted. Roan could feel a headache coming, and it was probably going to be worse for Hestia. "We will be answering all your questions, despite the fact that we all have homework."

The crowd chuckled, and took their seats, calming down. A couple people called out to be asked first, and Cole selected a young looking woman in the third row. "What happened to the last Director?" Of course this question was coming. They all sat down and looked to Hestia. Nobody wanted to answer this question, not even her.

"I'm going to assume you saw the battle between us and the villains this winter in the park?" The woman nodded, and Hestia continued. "One of the members we took down was Genocide. When we removed his mask, it was revealed to us that he was in fact our previous Director. Next question?"

And so they came. Questions about when they are inducted, because that was apparently very difficult to remember, how old they were exactly, what direction the Agency is planning on taking, how they are going to recover, what they plan on doing with the old Director, if they were going to recruit. Hestia answered all of them honestly, telling them if she was unsure.

"What do you think about the mayor's new laws regarding your people?" Whoomp there it is. Roan knew this was going to happen as soon as Hestia mentioned her last name. She saw her friend's face crumple for a second, not having been prepared for something so rude. Anger welled up inside of Roan.

"That will be all for today," Roan called out stiffly. "Thank you for your time, we look forward to serving you as long as we can."

Protests rose, and some close to the man who called out that question turned on him angrily, having unanswered questions themselves. How could he say something so insensitive? After everything she had done for the people, how could he be so rude. Roan signalled to Cole to get her off the stage, and briskly followed after them. They ducked into the cave, Cole's hand resting on Hestia's back.

"Are you okay Cammie," Luke whispered coming up beside her.

"I was trying to forget about that," Hestia said hoarsely. "How could he do something so cruel as that. Making us register for citizenship even though we were here first. We were here first." She repeated, slowly leaning against the nearest object, which happened to be the wall. "We were here first." She slowly broke down into tears, and Roan felt helpless.

Moon lay in her bed, twirling her phone in the air, a meter above her head. She's a telekinetic, if you hadn't noticed. She'd been laying here for a few hours, just thinking about the news. So, the new Director went to her school, was someone in her grade. Had recruited people from her friend group, but not outsiders. No one like Moon. Only the popular kids. Figures. 

Her phone started to buzz in the air, and Moon considered just letting it buzz. She twirled it over, so the screen was facing her, and the very ugly close up photo she had saved for her best friend stared back at her. She sighed and dropped the expensive thing into her hand, sliding her finger across the bottom of the screen and putting it to her ear.

"Y'ello?" She said into the speaker.

"Did you watch the news?" Adam wasted no time getting to the point. He was always like that, he hated small talk. He preferred to get straight to the point, instead of beating around the bush. He found sugar coating to be meaner than the truth. 

"I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count," She said in response. Why did he bother asking stupid questions. 

"No, I'm not talking about our classmates being superheroes, I'm talking about what happened after." He said quickly. 

Moon sat up. "I didn't see it, I turned off the TV. What happened?" 

Adam sighed. "You need to see past your emotions. Some villains popped up. Showed up at the venue, introduced themselves as Bast and uh," he sounded like he was reading off of something, he was probably scouring the internet for more information. "Schism. They said they weren't going to let a bunch of teenagers tell them how they should live their lives, and they encourage more to join them."

Moon frowned. He sounded like he had more to say. "What is it," she asked. 

He paused. "What." She asked again.

"What if we did," he said slowly. "What if we joined them. I mean it's not fair that they get to be superheroes, they're only going to recruit their own friend group. Half of them are already up there. I want some recognition."

Moon sighed. She had heard this whole spiel over and over. Adam has a big family, he was often lost in the mix. He was the middle of seven, why someone would have so many kids in this day and age is beyond her, but she knows Adam hates it. He never gets a word in, and it was the same at school, he was always getting stepped on by the more popular kids. 

Like Roan.

Moon could understand Adam's frustration, but she also didn't quite get it. So what if it was mostly one friend group, they were doing a good job. It doesn't matter who gets recruited as long as they actually care about the people. 

"I know you do Adam, but is this really the best way to get it? By becoming a villain? What would you even do, steal candy from a baby?" Honestly, sometimes Adam was a little unreasonable. He still sometimes threw temper tantrums. 

"I'm actually with them right now." He said. 

"What?" Moon yelped. What was this idiot thinking. 

"I reached out to them, I want to do something. I want to be something." He said, his tone now stoic. 

"Adam come on this isn't the way to do things. You could hurt people!" She pleaded. 

"Then join me, Moon. Make sure I don't do anything I'll regret. Please?" That wasn't fair of him to ask her to do that. She's not responsible for him. But you could be, the little voice in her head said. You could protect him. You know you could. 

Stupid voice in her head. 

"Where are you."

Moon stared up at the building with apprehension. It didn't look like an evil lair. It didn't look like much of anything. In fact, it kind of looked like an abandoned house. Ivy was growing up the walls, and the glass was so dirty you couldn't see through it. There were no lights on, and Moon couldn't see any evidence of people being here for a long time. 

She walked up the steps slowly, and knocked on the door. Less than a minute later a tall woman opened the door and beckoned her inside. She turned around to lead the way, revealing a brown cat's tail flicking behind her. Moon guessed this was Bast. She was taller than she expected, with an angular face and a proud straight nose.

Moon followed Bast down the long hallway, into a big kitchen in the back of the house. A few lights were on, casting a warm yellow glow around the room. Adam was sitting and the table across from a short man, engaged in conversation. Bast cleared her throat, getting their attention. "We have a visitor."

"M!" Adam exclaimed, getting up out of his chair and coming over to hug the apprehensive teenager. "I'm glad you came."

"Yeah yeah," She said, waving him off. "I need to talk with Schism." She turned to the man, showing no fear despite not knowing his powers. "No killing." 

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Who are you to tell me what to do, little girl." He stood up, flexing his muscles at her, trying to intimidate the smaller girl.

She was not impressed. 

"I'm telling you, no killing, or I'll ruin your whole operation." She took a step forward, her hands balling into fists. She was not going to be pushed around by anyone, let alone a man. 

"You do that, and your little boyfriend over here loses his head." He wasn't joking. She saw the hardness in his eyes, and the fear in Adam's. 

"No killing," she said again, this time with less force. 

He advanced on her, and before she could react, he had slapped her across the face. "You're either in," he hissed down at her, "or you're out."

Moon clutched the side of her face, her lip split, tears in her eyes. She looked up at the man standing over her, and for a second she was scared. She doesn't know him, she doesn't know what his power is. She could die right now, and nobody would know. Adam wouldn't do much, he'd be too scared. And if he did try to do something, he'd probably get killed right along with her. Her decision made, she stood, her hand dropping to her side. 

"I'm in."

He smiled, a creepy smile, with ghostly light flickering across his face. He reached out a hand and grabbed hers, firmly shaking it. "Welcome to the team." He turned around and walked back to the table. While his back was turned Moon shot a glare at Adam. How could he get her involved in this? Did he understand how dangerous his actions were? He shrugged in response. Ohhh she was going to have words with him later. Some very strong words. 

Bast finally moved from the doorway, slamming her shoulder against Moon's, heading for the table. She was nice. Adam grabbed Moon's arm and dragged over to the table beside him. They sat down across from the two villains, nobody saying anything. 

"So," Adam started awkwardly. "Did you two have a plan, or are we supposed to come up with ideas together?" 

Schism's lip curled up with distaste. "Let's get one thing clear," he said. "You two, are muscle, despite how small you both are. We," he flicked a finger between him a Bast. "We're the brains. We have plans, big plans. You two are like the getaway driver. You only know parts of the plan, the parts you need to know. And all you need to know now is that you two need to be outside your school at five o'clock on Tuesday. Hide." He pushed himself up from the table and leaned over them. 

"If you tell anyone about our plans, about anything, we'll know, and we'll find you." 

With that, Bast leaned over the table quick as lightning and scratched down Adam's cheek with her claws. He let out a scream, clutching the wound. He had a hurt look in his eyes, like he didn't expect that to happen. Moon didn't expect that to happen. These guys were serious, they weren't joking around. She wondered what they had planned. 

. . .

Somewhere across the city, Roan was in a meeting with her school's principal and vice-principals, Luke, Jay, Quinn, Cole and Hestia. 

"Now that we know who you are, that changes things," Principal Monroe was saying. "All of your absences will be excused, and you automatically qualify for extensions on your assignments."

"Thank you, sir," Hestia said. 

"If you fall behind in your classes, I expect that you will go to your teachers yourselves and work something out together. You job may cause you to miss school, but your education is still very important, and all the staff here just want what's best for you." He continued, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at each of them carefully. 

"We appreciate it, sir." Cole said. "We wanted to ask you something." He nodded, signalling for her to continue. "Unmasking ourselves has drawn some attention to who we are. That means the school isn't as safe as it used to be. We were wondering if we had permission to use our powers if the need arises."

He considered it for a few minutes. "Schools have always been safe zones for powers, but I can understand where you are coming from. There's also the issue of damage during battle. We have insurance, but not a lot. And honestly, our government wouldn't be able to fix our school fast enough. So I'm going to say that you can only use your powers on school property if we are being directly attacked. But your goal should be to drive them from the grounds, not to keep the battle in one place."

Roan listened carefully, making sure she caught every word. Using powers at school has been forbidden for almost as long as powers have existed. They weren't toys you could play with, powers are dangerous. They can cause serious damage, and some schools have even taken the precaution of setting up dampeners.

"Mr. Monroe," Roan started, a thought nagging at her. "How long do you think it would take to set up power dampeners at the school?"

He looked at her. "Not as long as it would take to rebuild the school, that's for sure." He took his hands out of his pockets. "That's a good idea, I'll bring it up at the next staff meeting. Thank you," he said, the conversation coming to an end. "For doing what you do." 

"Thank you sir," they chorused, heading out of the door. Roan was the last one out, shutting the door behind her, and immediately walked into Luke's back. "Why are we stopped," she said, looking up. "Oh," she realised. Standing in the foyer was dozens of student, staring at their little group. Some of their faces were easy to read, Roan say disgust, anger, pity, worry, and some faces were blank masks.

"I'm assuming a lot pf people are looking at us right now," Roan heard Hestia say from the front of the group. "Shall I give them something to stare at?" She snarled, taking a step back. And there was that familiar anger. Roan knew it wasn't all gone, no matter how hard Hestia tried to hide it. Her eyes flickered back to the crowd, and she saw them slowly disperse. 

"Good," Hestia sniffed, hearing the sound of dozens of feet moving. "Let's get to class."

Roan was starting to get really annoyed with these reporters. It had been a week since the conference where they had unmasked themselves, and apparently it was almost the breaking point for those vultures.

"Geronimo! Geronimo!" The gaggle of reporters called. She glanced over for a second, and saw they had a TV crew with them. And some poor freshmen caught behind them, trying to get through the school gate. Time to be a hero. She walked over, and they ruffled their feathers.

She smiled politely, and said "Good morning, I'm sorry but you're blocking the way of a couple students trying to get through." There was a slight shift in the crowd, and two small bodies squeezed through. The reporters were clamouring for her attention. One of the kids shot Roan a grateful look, and the other didn't even look at her. Not bad.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she said to the cameras and recorders in her face. "I need my education, and you are still blocking the school entrance. The other students need to get in too." She turned to leave, and the calling got louder.

"Why didn't Rellik unmask himself?"

"What about Mayhem and Nova?"

"What does the Director think about the Indian laws?"

That was the last straw. She whirled around and stalked back to the vultures, their teeth bared in grins. "Who said that?" She asked. Her tone had an edge to it, and the reporters picked up on it. A thin man in the middle of the pack raised his hand and repeated the question, much to Roan's distaste.

"How very ignorant of you," she said coolly. "They aren't Indians, they are First Nations, Aboriginals, Indigenous Peoples, and so on. We stole their land, and now the mayor wants to make them register for citizenship, so he knows how many there are. It is inhumane, and I expected a reporter to at least know proper terminology." With that, she turned on her heel and walked back towards the school door, the vultures screaming after her.

Anger simmered underneath her skin, threatening to tip over the edge. She was so angry she didn't notice the person standing in front of her.

"Are you okay?" A timid voice came. She looked up to see a familiar face. A beauty mark right beside her cupid's bow, high up on the left side of her nose, and almost in the centre of her forehead. Moon Myoui. Her crush. Her crush!

"Uh, what?" Roan said dumbly. She could feel her face starting to get red, and she tried to shove it down. Moon smiled a little.

"I asked if you were okay," she repeated, her voice laced with laughter.

"Oh, yeah, I guess," Roan stumbled over her words. Come on this was her crush, act normal!

"I saw what you did outside, but I didn't hear. You looked angry when you walked into the school." Moon remarked.

Whoops.

"Yeah," Roan said, trying to calm her racing heart. Dang this girl is cute. "It's just something they said about Hestia, it bothered me and I couldn't say nothing about it. I probably should've thought through what I said though, who knows how they're going to spin it."

She looked down, her anger suddenly swept away. "Hey," Moon said softly. "Don't feel too bad about it. Reporters are good at aggravating people into making them spit out words they don't want to say." She smiled a little a Roan, making her hear melt, and then walked off up the staircase.

Man she is so pretty.

. . .

As Moon walked away, she thought about how Roan had gone back for those freshmen, and how she had stayed and spoken to the reporters politely, before they insulted Hestia. Then she thought about Bast and Schism. How could they be so cruel? How could they be so mean? They're just kids, and these adults want to hurt them? That's not right. She suddenly realised that she was now expected to help them.

She didn't know how long she could play the part.

Roan seems sweet, and besides, Moon isn't a violent person. Sure she may have initially been annoyed that the main superheroes were all from one friend group, but that doesn't mean she wants to do something about it. They were doing a good job, there were less and less attacks every year, and now they mostly helped out with regular crimes.

Which Moon also didn't understand. How could people be so mean to other people? Why would you want to hurt or kill someone, or even just rob them? Okay, Moon could understand why, but at the same time, she didn't understand it. They were hurting people like themselves, it just didn't make sense.

She was sure of one thing, she was not going into psychology.

. . .

Walking into her Writer's Craft class, all eyes turned to her and the room went silent. Hey, there was the anger again. Roan looked down and made her way over to her seat, not saying anything. She sat down, looking around the room again and surprise surprise they were still looking at her. She bit back a sneer and instead pulled out her binder and notebook, preparing for class. It was going to be a long day.

As she made her ways through the hall to fourth period English, she noticed that people we looking at her. She glanced around, and every eye was either on her or on Jay, who was walking in the opposite direction as her. As they passed Roan reached out her hand and grasped Jay's lightly, letting her know that she understood, she's here. They broke apart and continued off in their different directions. Just as Roan was about to enter her class, a girl walked up to her.

"How old were you?" She asked, rather rudely actually.

"Pardon me?" Roan said quietly. She wanted to avoid this, she just wanted to go to class and be done with school for today. It had been a more taxing day than any exam study period.

"How old were you when you were recruited?" Can these kids not do math? She's a senior now, which means the oldest she can be is eighteen. She was recruited publicly, six years ago, and the youngest she could've been at the time was eleven. She stared at the girl for a second, then sighed.

"I was twelve," She responded. Without waiting to see what would happen next she brushed past the girl and into her classroom. Here come the stares again. At least this time she had a friend in this class. She walked over to her table where Luke, Penny, and Kieran were sitting. Kieran gave her a look, and as soon as she sat down started going off at her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, being very forward. His face was tight with anger, and he wasn't going to back down. "Why didn't you tell any of us."

She sighed again, she's been doing that a lot recently. "You know I couldn't K, even if I wanted to. I only unmasked myself now because the others did too. It was only fair. Plus, I couldn't keep lying."

He still looked angry, but he shut up. He pursed his lips and pulled out a book from his bag, shoving his nose into it. They weren't going to get anything out of him for a while. Roan looked at Penny and Luke and shrugged, not knowing what to do. Before any of them could say something, their teacher walked into the room, drawing the attention.

"Okay guys," Mr. P said. "I have an assignment for you." Groans. "Don't worry, it's a fun assignment!" More groans. "I'm going to pair you off next class and you'll have to write a short story in one of the genres provided." He turned around and started writing them out on the board. Romance, Adventure, Dark Humour, Horror, Thriller, Fantasy, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Mystery and Dystopia.

Oh fun.

. . .

"Are we really going to trust them," Bast murmured to her brother. They were sitting at that kitchen table in that abandoned house, empty mugs in front of them. "They're just kids. They don't know what they want."

"The little guy said he did," Schism rumbled. He liked the boy, but he was uncertain about the girl. Something about her was off. Not to mention he didn't know what her power is. If he could just figure out her intentions, he could fix everything.

"I know that look, brother dear," Bast said. "What are you planning?"

"I don't like the girl, something about her. I feel like," he said slowly. "she would betray us the moment she could, however she could."

"So," Bast replied, stretching out like a cat. "We convince her not to."

. . .

Running. Heart pounding in her chest. Feet pounding against the ground, the roof. Ba bum, ba bum, ba bum, ba bum. Flinging herself through the air, not a care in the world Laughter sprung up from down the line. Bubbling over the edge and tipping down the sides, infecting everything around it. The night was young, still a little sun to see by. Feet racing, laughter ringing, bodies flying.

Roan had never felt more alive.

She loved this part of her job. The carefree part, where they would just race each other on patrol, forgetting for a while who they are. Who they are is hard. Roan's body is physically at it's peak, and she's only eighteen. Her muscles can only deteriorate from here. This job is taxing on their bodies, demanding every part of the person, never just a bit. Because you can't only give a part of yourself when you save someone. You have to give it all of you.

This job sucked every last ounce of energy out of them, and it was times like these that Roan felt like a kid again. Just running around with her friends, making up games and scenarios, pretending. But she wouldn't trade it for any other job in the world. She loved everything about it, and she loved helping people. Being a role model, an inspiration. Being something to look forward to, something good in the world.

She touched down on the ground just outside the cave, leaping off a storage unit. Rellik touched down right beside her, a large smile still on his face. "That's what I needed," he said, lifting his arms up and stretching them out.

Roan glanced over at him. "Uni getting to you?"

He rolled his shoulders. "Yeah, it's coming up on the end of the school year so basically I'm working on a giant essay. Multiple giant essays. It's not fun."

Roan let out a light laugh. "But then you're done, and the essays are in subjects you're actually interested in. Plus, you didn't suddenly become the new thing to stare at."

He glanced over at her, concern in his eyes. "I meant to ask, how are things at school now that you're unmasked?"

She sighed, stretching her neck out and leading the way to the cave. "It's not horrible, but it's not fun either. Reporters are showing up outside of school, sometimes harassing other students for information. They're incessant. It's like they forgot common courtesy as soon as they got their job."

Rellik laughed at that, then sighed heavily. "I've been thinking of telling my family and friends, so I don't have to lie about where I am all the time. It's getting exhausting. I hate it too. I'm usually so honest, and they can tell I'm hiding something." He looked at the ground, and Roan could practically see the gears turning inside his head.

"That might not be a bad idea," Roan said lightly. "You've always been an honest person, I'm surprised you were able to keep it a secret this long. What's it been, four years?"

He looked up. "Yeah, I think so," he said. "Huh, it doesn't feel like years, it feels like yesterday."

"That's what happens when you get old," Roan jokes.

"Hey!"