I splash the frigid water on my face over and over. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.” The icy therapy isn’t helping me clear my thoughts in the slightest. “I’m sleeping with the man who’s hunting me down…”

Just then, a flush echoes through the bathroom and a guy comes out of the stall. “Oof, no clue what that means but sounds rough dude.” He turns on a sink, barely wets his hands before shutting it off and walking out.

“Really? Couldn’t even use soap?” I sigh, turn off the sink, dry my face, and decide to head back to class. On the way, I pull out my phone and begin to draft a message to Bryan. “Shit. This may be a bigger problem than you think… I’ll fill you in when I come over. Good news though, got a new member for the team.”

After tapping send, I slide the phone into my pocket and head back into the classroom. A few eyes turn back to look at me but none seem to be suspicious by any means - not that they should be. Unless one of them works for Ken… Did he suspect me the first night and send someone to come check me out? Well he’s the one checking me out mostly, heh. Stop it, Tyler! Nobody in here works for the FBI!

I take a deep breath and return to my seat. I spend the rest of the lecture bouncing my leg and desperately trying to wrap my head around what was happening. When noon finally hits, I’m the first one out of their seat and out the door. When I get outside, Maria is waiting for me by sitting, perfectly balanced, on the handrail in the middle of the steps. As I walk past her, she hops down beside me and follows alongside as I make my way off of campus.

“What’s up with you? You look distracted.” Maria skips a step ahead of me to turn around and face me while she walks backwards.

“Yeah well, I just found out that you chose the wrong day to join up with me.” I can barely look her in the eyes as my vision snaps around to look for suspicious individuals.

“What? The anti-super taskforce? Everybody’s talking about it on Twitter. I think we can handle it!” Her cheery attitude is appreciated but my current state of paranoia is too high to agree with her.

I stop in my tracks and grab her shoulders. I stare her dead in the eyes and feel it best to tell her the whole truth. “You say that as the person who didn’t fuck the head of the task force last night.”

“Oh… Oh no. I assume he doesn’t…?” Maria’s face makes it clear she’s at a loss for words.

“No, no. He doesn’t know who I am.” I let go of her and keep walking. “Or if he does, he’s done a good job of hiding it by not shooting me or taking me to some secret government lab.”

Maria jogs back up to my side and looks at me from the corners of her eyes. “What’re you gonna do? Break it off with him?”

I sigh and shake my head. “No. I mean… I don’t want to.” I throw my arms out in front of me in exasperation. “I know I probably should but he’s so nice and I’m worried if I just suddenly ghost him it’s gonna be too obvious.” I tilt my head back with a groan. “God, this is why I hated dating! But now I have to add imprisonment, experimentation, or death to the consequences of the break up?”

Maria chuckles at my exhaustion. “Relax, we’ll figure it all out together. Let’s just handle one thing at a time. You’re the lead on this so I’ll follow you wherever you want to go with this.”

“Fine. I suppose we should start by going to our HQ.” I wave her along as I make my way to the nearest subway station. “Onwards to… Inevitable mistakes!”

She grabs my arm and pulls me along to the station with a hearty: “Onwards!”

Maria talks my ear off the whole ride over. It’s immediately clear that my new partner is able to take all the energy out of someone without even laying a finger on them. I wouldn’t be surprised if her powers came from her excited extroversion. I’m barely able to get a word in during the conversation.

As we climb the steps out of the station, I feel a constant buzzing in my pocket. Pulling out my phone, the last name I wanted to see on the screen is calling me. “Hold on, I’m getting a call.” I swipe up to answer and place the device to my ear, “hey Ken! I’m so happy you called.” I wasn’t happy at all. Well, maybe a little bit.

“Hey Tyler!” Ken’s voice has its usual calm pride. “I assume you’ve heard the news by now?”

The moment of truth: “I did! I have to say it’s rather surprising. I figured you must’ve been someone important but the head of a major governmental task force?”

“Yeah, I know.” He sounds like he still can’t believe it himself. “My bosses put me in charge as a joke back when it was nothing but a series of rumors of people doing weird things. Nothing unusual back then, but then Burst had to go and put a stamp of certification on the whole project.”

“So I guess you could say you owe him then?” I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of myself.

“Yeah, I guess so. But I still have to bring him in.” Ken’s voice was sure and it only made me more worried.

“Why? Isn’t he doing good work? I heard he stopped a few powered criminals too.” I knew it wouldn’t work but I’d be damned if I didn’t try to convince him to drop his investigation of me.

“Vigilantism is illegal not just because it puts the criminal and vigilante in danger, but also the civilians around them. Plus, when does he decide he’s above the law completely and starts playing judge, jury, and executioner himself? Or inspires someone else to do so?” Ken’s voice was getting heated.

“I get it, I get it. Hey, I’ve got a meeting to go to but I’ll see you tonight?” I needed to get off the phone before things got worse.

“I should get back to work too. I’ll pick you up at eight!” I hang up before he can and let out a long, relaxed sigh.

“Come on, Maria. Things are only going to harder from here.” I wave her along and make my way towards the warehouse.