A tense look covers Ena’s face as she sits at a low coffee table, where nine mechanical keyboards of various designs are next to six computer mice of various styles. With a serious expression, she taps the keys on one of them.

Click click click.

“Hmmm.” She mumbles as she taps through the keyboards.

After a moment of debating with herself, she picks the keyboard and mouse she wants and places them in her small backpack along with a drawing tablet and her laptop.

On the day after Ena and Elio’s meeting, the afternoon sun beats down on Ena as she makes her way to the JOAW office. She climbs the stairs to the office and heads down the hallway, but before she reaches the door, she spots a cat curled up in a ball sleeping on the bench. Ena’s eyes widen with joy as she examines the cat. It’s slim with slightly fluffy white fur and black paws, along with a sleek black face.

“Hello, beautiful!” She says as she goes to pet the cat.

The cat stares at the approaching hand. It doesn’t move and gladly accepts the pettings, but only for a moment before it stands up and does a big stretch on the bench. Its tail, which is white with a black tip, rises to the sky as it stretches, followed by another tail. The tails sway in the air. Ena is surprised by this two-tailed cat.

“Huh?” She says as she gets closer to examine the tails.

The tails sway back and forth as the cat raises its rear for more pets. Ena kindly pats the cat’s backside. “Well, aren’t you something?”

After getting plenty of pets, the cat lies back down and resumes its nap. Ena gives the cat a few more scratches before she moves to the door, where she spots two sticky notes on the door.

“Hi, Ena, your key is in the mailbox.” Says the first one.

Ena looks inside the mailbox on the wall, spotting a loose key at the bottom. She was baffled because he left the key in an open box with a note saying where it was, anyone could have picked it up.

She looks at the second note. “I’m on the roof. The door between the staircases goes up there.” It reads.

Ena turns the key in the lock, twisting it a few times to lock and unlock to test that it works. After confirming it does, she then attaches the key to her keyring before she steps inside the quiet office to check if Elio is there and to drop off her bag. After taking a moment to rest on the couch, she leaves the office, making sure to lock the door. She climbs the stairs that go to the roof. At the top of those stairs, she hears fast thudding of shoes galloping across the rooftop, along with dogs yapping.

She creaks open the door to step onto the roof. The roof appears to have been modeled to be a mini park. The ground is grass with a pavement border around the rooftop that acts like a walking path. In the center is a little gazebo with a wooden bench under it. Next to the gazebo is a water fountain that has a little dish at the bottom for dogs. There is a high school-age girl doing some schoolwork at the bench. Ena spots Elio being chased by two small dogs around the roof park.

He spots Ena and jogs up to her with the dogs while the dogs nip at his ankles.

“Hey! You’re here.” He says in between breaths as the two dogs nip at his ankles.

“Yeah, I am,” Ena says, looking at the dogs. “What are you doing?”

“Working.” Elio points at the girl at the bench. “That’s Yuki, Yu’s daughter. She has to study for a test, but they got some dogs to watch, so she hired me to take care of them as she studies.”

Elio whispers loudly. “It’s 50,000 per dog, so I am making so much right now.”

“I’m not paying you! Yuki shouts at a grinning Elio. “Mom says you have to.”

Yuki looks at Ena and gives a courtesy nod before returning to her work.

“Oh, shame.” Elio says as he goes to pick up the dogs, but they run away and start playing with each other.

Ena looks at the dogs rolling around each other. “So you’re just playing around. On this roof…park? Is this part of the dog groomers or something?”

Elio moves to sit on the bench to catch his breath. “Pretty much, her dad.” He points to Yuki. “Built this park years ago.”

Ena sits on the grass next to the dogs, and they flop over, showing their bellies to her. “That’s pretty cool.” She scratches the dog’s bellies. “Oh, by the way, it might not have been the best idea to leave your key in the mailbox with a note saying where it is.”

Elio looks annoyed at the dogs eagerly accepting Ena’s pets. “Traitors.” He mumbles.  “Who’s gonna take the key?” He chuckles. “Business is slow.”

The dogs snuggle with Ena. “You could have just texted me where the key was.”

“Oh, yeah.” Elio laughs. “I forgot about that.”

Ena helps one dog onto her lap. “How much longer are you going to watch these dogs? Do you need my help? Cause I wouldn’t mind”

Elio glares at the dogs as he questions why they like Ena more than him. “They’ve been chasing me for over two hours. They should be getting tired now, but they haven’t slowed down. How do such small things have so much energy? But they seem to be calming down now.”

“Because they like me more.” Ena jokes.

Elio sighs. “Maybe.” He glances at Yuki. “How much longer till we can go?”

Yuki doesn’t look up from her work. “I’m pretty much done, and the dog owners will be back pretty soon, so you can go. I can watch them now.”

Elio sits up. “Fantastic, let’s go Ena.” He turns back to Yuki. “Tell your mom I did my job.”

“Sure.” Yuki comments.

Elio leans down to pet the dogs as they cuddle up to Ena, but they shoot up and start to play with each other again.

A painful look covers Elio’s face. “Why do you betray me?”

Ena sits up and dusts herself off. “Are we heading to the office?”

Elio heads towards the stairs. “Yes, these ungrateful dogs don’t deserve me.”

The two make their way down to the office, and as they approach the door, the cat perks up and starts to pace around the bench, waiting for pets.

Ena points towards the cat. “Is that your cat?”

The cat sits on its back legs and stretches its front paws towards Elio, asking to be picked up, so he does so. “No, it’s this old guy’s, but it comes by from time to time. It came by my old place and somehow found me again after I moved. He’s a weird little guy.”

Ena scratches the cat as it snuggles into Elio’s arms. “He must like you. What’s his name?”

Elio looks down at the cat as it looks back at him with a smile. “His name is…” He pauses as he thinks. “Is uh, I don’t know.”

“Well, what do you call him?”

Elio puts the cat back down. “Cat.”

“Just cat?” Ena asks.

“Yeah, I should ask the old guy his name if I see him again.”

The cat sits back down on the bench and looks up at the two with its tails swaying back and forth. Ena points at the tails, remembering how odd it is. “Why does it have two tails?”

Elio shrugs. “I don’t know. Just a mutation.”

“Just a mutation?”

“Yeah, like those turtles that have two heads. It’s the same.”

“The same!” exclaims Ena. “What if it has an ability?”

Elio laughs. “Animals can’t have abilities.”

“Really? Are you sure?” questions Ena.

Elio’s eyes narrow towards the cat. “Yes.” He says, unsure as he places his hand on the cat’s head. The cat pushes its head against Elio’s hand.

A moment later, he moves his hand away and exhales. “Okay, yeah, he is just a weird cat, unless.” He pauses again. “Yeah, just a weird cat. Still better than those dogs.”

“Are you sure?” Ena asks again.

“Yeah. I just used my Alter to see if he had one, and he doesn’t.”

“What if your ability doesn’t work on animals?”

“I can sense all abilities.” Elio says as he looks suspiciously at the cat.

“All?”

“All.”

“If you say so.” Ena smiles.

The cat flops over onto its side for Elio to give it a few more scratches before the two go inside the office. Ena sits down on the couch and starts to bring out her electronics. She places her laptop on the coffee table and turns it on as Elio turns on the TV.

Elio turns to Ena and gestures towards his desk. “Are you gonna do computer work? You can use mine?”

Ena looks over at the desk. “Will do, I was just getting my stuff out.” After checking her keyboard and mouse, she gathers them and moves over to Elio’s desk. She places her laptop next to the monitors. “I should have asked this before, but do you have Photoshop or any other editing software?”

Elio shakes his head. “Nope. I don’t know anything about those.”

Ena pulls out a flash drive from her bag. “I thought so. I’ll just add Photoshop to your computer.”

“Will mine have enough space for that?” Elio asks.

Ena looks at Elio’s computer and monitors, confused. “How much stuff do you have on here?

Elio shrugs, “I don’t know. It’s from my old job. They said I could have it after they clean it up.”

“They just gave you a computer?”

“Yeah, I asked if I could have it when I was leaving, and they did along with the office phone.”

“Was that your severance pay?” Ena jokes, “Who did you work for?

“Maybe, I’m not sure I did get some money from them.”

“And they are? Maybe they bugged your computer.” Ena jokes again.

“The Menders.” Elio leans towards the computer. His eyes narrow. “Bugged my computer?”

“Uh, that was a joke. Who are the Menders?”

Elio begins to search his desk for bugs. “Yeah, The Menders. They take care of ability users in this country. Didn’t I tell you this yesterday?”

“The Menders? I don’t think so.” Ena answers. “What do they do?”

Elio lifts up the computer, looking for bug devices underneath. “All sorts of stuff, find ability users, teach them, protect them, punish them, help them. You know the basics.”

“Punish them?” Ena says with a hint of concern. “Like they have their own police and jail?”

“Pretty much.” Elio puts the computer down. “If an ability user is causing trouble, The Menders handle it. It’s safer than normal law enforcement doing it. The Mender’s public safety department does handle that work with regular law enforcement.”

“Is that what you did?” Ena asks as she plugs in her keyboard.

Elio shakes his head. “No, not really. That’s a small part of Menders. I was on a locator team. We searched for ability users. They like my ability because I can scan a lot better than their machines.”

“Machine?” Ena asks. “Like an ability radar?”

“Not a radar nor like a scanner, like what I can do, it’s like a uh,” Elio pauses to think. “It’s like one of those blood pressure machines you put your arm in. They can hook you up to it to see if you have an ability. My Alter is a lot better than what they got. That’s why they still give me work.”

“You still work for them? Will I work with them? Or is it a secret? It kind of feels like a secret group. Should you even tell me all this?”

 “It’s fine, probably.” Elio notices Ena’s keyboard as she places it on the desk. “That’s a fun keyboard. They aren’t a secret, but keep a low profile, they don’t outright tell the common folk what they do. You might have seen some posters or online ads about helping people with special powers. To the average citizen, it looks like weird pseudoscience stuff. That way, it keeps them unaware of ability users but helps ability users find them, safer for everyone.”

“I guess that’s smart.” Ena plugs in her mouse. “Thanks, I like keyboards. When I saw yours yesterday, I knew I would bring one of my ow-”

Bam!

“The Menders!” Ena slams her hands on the desk.

“You’ve heard of them?”

“When my ability-”

“Your Bounce.” Elio butts in.

Ena rolls her eyes. “When my Bounce first activated, I did some searching for help and saw an ad about weird powers. I thought about contacting them, but I got a weird vibe and thought it might be a weird cult or something, so I left them alone.”

Elio laughs. “Well, that would have solved your problems. They did have a problem with making signs that were a little too cultish for a time. But luckily, you got me now and I am just as good, if not better than them at helping you with your ability.”

“Really?” quips Ena. “You’re better than a full company.”

Elio nervously laughs. “Well, I am better at dissecting abilities. They are just good at helping kids with their abilities, but for adults, uh well, they are good at that too.”

Ena thinks to herself whether she should go to these Menders instead of working with Elio, but decides this will be more fun. She moves things on top of the desk to better fit her setup, then she looks at Elio. “Mind if I start working on the flyers now?”

Ena gestures towards the monitors. “Sure, go ahead. I’m going to do some shopping here shortly. Is there anything you would want me to get for you?”

Elio sits down at the desk. “No thanks, I’m all set. Does your computer have a password?”

“Nope, I have no passwords to anything.” Elio smiles.

Ena leans over to turn on the computer. “That’s so dangerous.”

Elio laughs, “I know, right.”

He heads off to his loft but stops and points to the phone. “Oh, There’s a big button on the phone. If you hit it, it calls directly to the Mender’s office. Make sure you don’t hit it.”

Ena looks at the button. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Elio enters his loft as Ena pops in her earbuds. She opens her laptop next to the monitors as the computer boots up. The computer’s home screen has no programs besides a web browser and a program for the board game Go.

“Huh,” Ena mumbles as she plugs in a USB drive.

She works on her laptop as Photoshop downloads from the USB. After the download finishes, she sets up Photoshop to her settings and plugs in her drawing tablet, making sure the settings are correct. She takes a moment to admire the setup that she created in this little office. She turns on some music as she starts to work on the flyer designs.