A faint smile formed on the hero’s face before he even realized it.

If his team had managed to solve only one of the last cases he had worked on with them, that meant the second unresolved one was the story of Sunshine Boy. For a brief second he forgot about the mystery connected to Amelia and lifted his head, turning toward Creed.

Once he had his attention, he turned the notebook in his hands so the dark-haired man could see the pages about himself and watched his reaction. 

“That nickname is terrible,” Creed muttered after a moment, and Jamie took it as a sign that he didn't mind the rest of the team knowing his identity.

“I solved one,” the hero said before turning his gaze back to the rest of his team. He sounded almost relaxed, even amused, and it was all thanks to Creed’s reaction and the realization that even though he had been gone, he had still managed to help his team somehow. He wasn’t completely useless.

“I managed to finish the Sunshine Boy case,” he clarified. “Actually, I brought him with me.”

At his declaration, all eyes turned to the stranger, who could no longer quietly read the notes about himself under such intensity and looked up at them. It was obvious he had no idea what to do, so he gave them only a brief two-finger salute in greeting.

“You’re Sunshine Boy,” Eli said, but his tone made it sound somewhere between a question and amazement. “Holy shit.”

Then he suddenly turned with a wide smile toward the hero beside him. “Only you,” he said, shaking his head.

Jamie hadn’t meant it seriously at first, because he could hardly take credit when Creed had found him and not the other way around, but after Elias’s reaction he felt a strange sense of satisfaction inside.

It was silly how two words and a smile could make him feel like he wasn't just a burden, but was still seen as a hero, even though no one had questioned it out loud. 

Maybe it was Elias. Maybe he needed him as a constant in his life more than he thought.

“Does that mean Amelia’s case and Sunshine Boy’s case are connected?” Nate interrupted their brief celebration and steered the conversation back to what mattered most.

“I don't recognize that name,” Creed answered as the heroes' gazes shifted his way, while his own expression made it clear he wasn't pleased with them continuing to call him that.

“I do,” Jamie admitted, and as he realized what else he had to reveal, the smile vanished from his face in a second. “I think they were feeding me fragments of reality to confuse me. Circular bruises, small cuts behind the ears, blue lips, right?”

“Yes,” Xavier confirmed. “We managed to find out she wasn’t the only one in recent years with the same injuries, but all the other cases remained unsolved as well. We even visited the heroes who worked on those cases, but no one could tell us anything new.”

Right after that, all eyes turned back to Creed again, as everyone realized at once where they might get new information.

“She must have been one of the test subjects. There are two types. Those with abilities and those without them. In both cases, it's usually people no one expects will be missed,” the dark-haired man said, and even though he spoke about it as if it were normal, his tone carried the disgust he felt toward those experiments.

The hero with glasses couldn’t even imagine everything he must have gone through. He looked like he was in his early twenties, and if he had grown up in a facility like that, he must have spent years there. His family must have been worried sick about him.

Jamie almost asked the question, before reminding himself of Creed's words—people no one expects will be missed. Was that Creed’s case too?

“Why do they need people without abilities?” Nate asked.

Creed didn’t answer right away and lowered his gaze for a moment toward his lap before looking up again and pulling a pillow into his arms, as if drawing support from it.

“They’re trying to turn abilities into a commodity. They study people with abilities to find out where they come from and what makes them superhuman. Every time they think they’ve figured something out, they test it on ordinary people. I think they believe it has something to do with the brain, which is why the injuries are usually mostly on the head,” he explained.

Jamie immediately pictured Amelia’s injuries in his mind and was sure he wasn’t the only one.

“Who are they, Creed?” Xavier’s tone was careful, as if he was afraid his question might silence the young man instead of giving them an answer.

The dark-haired hero also turned toward him expectantly, since he hadn’t been given this answer yet either, always receiving only excuses before. Earlier it had made Jamie question whether he could trust him, but now that he knew more about him, he had a new theory—that Creed’s reluctance to answer had its roots in the trauma those people had caused him.

“You mentioned scientists,” Eli reminded him.

The stranger shifted his gaze to him for a second before lowering his head again toward the pillow he was clutching in his arms.

“We’ll believe you,” Jamie promised, also trying to encourage him to finally give them an answer.

Everyone else stayed silent, giving Creed space. And in the end, it paid off.

“They call themselves R.I.S.E.—Research Institute for Superior Evolution.” He was still looking down and began playing with his fingers. The gesture seemed to calm him enough to give him the courage to continue explaining. “They actually operate under NovaCure Labs—”

NovaCure Labs was a medical organization producing medication for people with abilities. Not all standard medicine worked for those born exceptional, so there had been a need to start producing specialized ones for them. For example, those for prostration. NovaCure Labs was one of the companies specializing in such medication and had been on the market for years.

“—I don’t know if that applies to all of their branches. I only know they test more than just regular medication on people who didn’t volunteer themselves.”

“NovaCure also supplies medication to the hospital for heroes,” Adrian voiced his realization out loud.

Creed nodded and finally lifted his gaze.

“Do you know who runs it?” Xavier asked him.

This time the dark-haired man shook his head in dissent.

“That’s alright,” the team leader assured him. “You’ve already given us enough information. Thank you.”

“So what now?” Nate asked first. “If Legion is involved in this…”

Xavier nodded. “We have to be careful.”

“Sooner or later they’ll find out Jamie is back anyway,” Elias noted.

“But they don’t have to know about Creed,” the team’s medic pointed out.

“So we need to come up with a story about how Jamie returned without his help?” Nate asked another important question.

“We’ll figure something out,” Xavier replied, and from his tone alone it was clear he already had some kind of plan. “Jamie and Creed can never be alone. We’ll take turns staying with them. It’ll be best if they stay here. If anyone comes for them, someone in a building full of heroes and agents will notice. In the meantime, the rest of us will look into Amelia’s case and gather all available information about NovaCure Labs.”

“But we can work from here, right?”

The team leader nodded in response to Eli’s question. “The only person who needs to be at the office, at least occasionally, is whoever has patrol duty. Even then, it would be best if there are always two people. At least for now. No one stays alone.”

Jamie almost asked whether he could return to duty as well, but he already knew the answer. Besides, if he was honest, throwing up earlier had weakened him more than he wanted to admit, and it might have only worsened his current condition—one Adrian couldn’t fully heal without losing his abilities for a few weeks.

At the same time…

He didn’t like admitting it, but he wasn’t ready to return to the center of attention.

It wasn’t as if Solid was exceptionally popular—not like Citadel, Seismic, or Rhina. He wasn’t an academy legend, a member of the Cursed Generation as that unfortunate team had been nicknamed, nor a superheroine with supernatural strength and pink hair who was impossible to overlook. Still, he was glad he didn’t have to worry about too many eyes on him when he was still paranoid.

“Can we keep Jamie’s return a secret at least until the end of the week? Then tell leadership we did it for his safety?” Eli suggested.

Today was Wednesday, which meant with that plan he could enjoy invisibility from the world for another four days. With a hopeful gaze, he turned toward Xavier as well, though he didn’t want to pressure him.

Fortunately, even without that, the team leader considered it a good idea. “Of course.”

The next few days were decided then, and while Jamie had no responsibilities except staying in Eli’s apartment, the others kept distracting him constantly while working on his case. Adrian made it his responsibility to check on his condition every day and treat him, and physically the hero felt better with each passing day.

As for his mental state…

Creed still didn’t want to reveal more, even though they all suspected he knew more than he had said, and that still didn’t allow Jamie to fully relax. Not even for a second.

Then there was the question of his abilities. Jamie wasn’t just Jamie. He was Solid. But after a year in a laboratory where they had studied his abilities, he was afraid to try them. What if he was like Creed now and couldn’t control them? Or worse—what if they caused him pain?

He was afraid. He didn’t like admitting it, but he was afraid.

He didn’t show it, but he had the feeling Elias knew anyway. With how closely he stayed by his side—except on Friday, when he chose to take patrol duty so it would be fair—Jamie was practically under constant watch, yet surprisingly, he didn’t mind.

It was ridiculous, but Eli’s changed appearance was a constant reminder to him that he was in the real world, and that was the only thing keeping him sane right now.