Shade: Unbound

After the party concluded, their operation had yielded… mixed results, to say the least. They had gotten some leads, but sneaking around the mansion itself had obviously been out of the question for Finn after he had drawn so much attention to himself. And he was sure they had some kind of technology in there that would have caught him anyway. Even using his power on his phone had been risky.

Jack had filtered the recordings for any useful information. They had caught wind of some places Finn would explore in the coming weeks, but no groundbreaking discoveries were made that night; just some slightly suspicious chatter with a few details that might lead to more.

Having interacted with the Wardell siblings, Finn was relieved they hadn’t found anything; he really wanted to believe they were innocent. But he supposed that, even if they were, their father might not be.

Unlike his son, the enigmatic Cyrus Wardell hadn’t mingled much during the party, apparently content to view his daughter’s birthday party from a distance. Because of that, Finn hadn’t managed to get a read on the man. He was far from an expert at discerning the contents of people’s character, but he could usually tell when someone was saying something that warranted suspicion.

Jack did inform him that there were often extended periods where Casey and Aiden didn’t get to see their father, which made sense to Finn given how much the man was involved in with his various businesses and investments. But he wondered if it had shaped them to become the way they were today.

The extended periods of absence reminded Finn of his own father. He remembered how ecstatic he would be whenever his father would come back home and Finn would show him one of his drawings. His father would always smile, pretending they didn’t look terrible, and pick Finn up so they could exchange stories.

But those days were gone.

They had been taken from him.

Finn breathed slowly until the pain in his chest subsided. He was more equipped to deal with it now, years later. Even if the memories still stirred up a torrent of emotions inside him, he had long since learned to channel them into his drive to get stronger. Strong enough to face that monster.

He turned off the shower, watching the cold water drip down his toned body. Ever since starting his training with Jack, he'd started to become capable of greater and greater physical feats. His new mode of transportation as Shade served as a testament to that.

His strength was accumulating bit by bit, but he knew this was far from sufficient. And he didn't think it was coming fast enough. Not so much to start taking drastic measures just yet, but he couldn't shake the thought that he could be doing more. Especially after that conversation with Aiden regarding martial discipline. He would talk to Jack about expanding his training regimen.

He was doing that to Jack a lot, wasn't he? Passing requests and probing his friend for information and perspective. Finn wondered how his friend juggled all of that in addition to the skills and knowledge he was acquiring.

His mind raced with potential ways to make his routine more streamlined and efficient. He kept coming to the conclusion that having a team to support him would bring him to his goals faster. A team that included Lyra, now.

Finn would have Gridlock help her with picking out purchases from the Aegis store as they gained more credits. If she could get ways to supplement her power and cover her weaknesses, the upcoming Venin infiltration would be that much easier.

One thing he did question was Lyra's own training schedule. She was showing improvement, but Finn couldn't tell if that was from dedicated practice or just experience she gained from the missions he took her on.

In any case, Jack would be able to help her train. Although, if they wanted to include her in the personalized training sessions he had with Jack, it would be more convenient to disclose their identities. Finn wasn't ready to do that yet. Not until he really trusted her.

And it also depended on what was going on in her life. He didn’t know what made her so eager to join up with him or use Aegis, but he suspected she had a good reason, like him. He supposed they didn’t have to know everything about each other to work together, at least for now.

When he entered his room again fully dressed, he pushed his damp hair away, watching the shifting colors on the walls blend themselves into shapes. First one at a time, then two, and so forth. At this point, Finn hardly considered his original light and dark exercises proper training anymore, so he had taken to generating multiple illusions at once. Convincing ones, at that. As long as he kept the color scheme relatively simple, it became difficult to distinguish them from reality. Although it was frustrating to be limited to hard surfaces, given his inability to project his power onto thin air.

They were sharper than they had been last night, but that might have been because he’d gotten a good night’s sleep rather than any major improvement in control. His camouflage had been progressing much more slowly in that regard; he was still far from being able to run around completely undetectable.

He would have to put his powers to the test again tonight.

*******

This place is perfect for you. Stand up and sing. If you want them to listen, all you have to do is reach out.

Lyra took measured breaths, trying to filter out the voice. It had suddenly popped up again, after days of silence. Naively, she had thought that maybe joining forces with her new companions would keep it that way, but she was starting to learn just how persistent this unwanted visitor could be.

She sat on the edge of a building, looking down its many stories at the street below. It was strange to think about, being so comfortable sitting inches away from an otherwise lethal fall simply because she knew she would be able to catch herself with her power.

While she had never been afraid of heights, per se, her parents had always kept her from straying too close to the edge of their small balcony. It taught her to stay alert whenever she was somewhere high up, even when she wasn’t in their apartment.

In her darkest moments, some unspeakable part of her brain had often urged her to defy those words of caution, to throw it all away and take that leap to freedom, but she’d managed to restrain herself every time.

Because all it took was one slip-up. She had learned that the hard way.

That must have been the worst part of it all. That she had succumbed to that childish part of her, and that she wasn’t even the one to bear the brunt of the fallout. All those people would never be the same again because of her, unless a miracle happened. It made her sick to her stomach whenever she thought about it. Which was most of the time.

Now, though, she couldn’t let herself be distracted, because she had a debt to pay. Multiple debts. And that started here, with this mission. She could already hear the telltale buzzing of Gridlock’s drones in the distance, so Shade wouldn’t be too far behind.

She got up and was reminded that her costume was still a bit lacking. She wore a protective vest underneath her dark, baggy outfit, but it wasn’t anything special. Just something affordable she’d gotten from the Aegis store.

Shade had been wearing something similar when they first met, but she now knew that had been his first night on a mission, and he wouldn’t even have had to reveal himself if she hadn’t been clumsy enough to stumble into a dangerous area like that. And the very next time she saw him, he’d already had his current, high quality outfit on. She couldn’t afford to embarrass him by wearing these rags any longer than she needed to.

It was a new line of thought she should get used to. She’d never been so dissatisfied with her clothing before. She was used to shopping for cheap stuff, and usually liked what she found, but she didn’t want to skimp on anything and make her new team look bad.

A few buildings away, she heard the sound of rapid footsteps, and turned in that direction. Moments later, Shade shot his grappling hook toward the top of the building and vaulted over the ledge, landing on both feet with a slight crouch. He made it look so effortless. Lyra had never even seen him stumble.

“Calliope,” her teammate said in that down-to-business tone of his. Come to think of it, he had never addressed her by her real name.

“Uhm, yes?” she stood at attention, adjusting her mask.

He approached her and held out a closed fist. Briefly, Lyra thought he was waiting for a fist bump, then realized she was supposed to hold her hand out. When she did, Shade dropped an earpiece into it. It had a little wire attached with a microphone that would curl around the ear.

Lyra stared at it for a moment. “Is this for me?”

“Of course,” Gridlock laughed, his voice coming from Shade’s earpiece and her own. “You might be able to hear me talking to Shade, but this’ll make it easier for you two to communicate with each other. You know color signals are harder to read in low light conditions. Long distance too, if you’re ever out of range for your power to hear us.”

“Thank you. How much does it cost?” She grinned sheepishly, but neither of them could see her face.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shade said, turning around. “Put it on. Then we’re heading over to the first location.”

“Okay,” Lyra agreed, though she still felt uneasy accepting such a gift. It did fit nicely over her ear, she had to admit.

She checked her phone, about to accept Shade’s invitation for the mission, then paused. “Guys?”

“What’s up?” Gridlock asked, though she could hear him from two different sources. She filtered out one of them.

“I got a mission request. Do you know what to do with these? This is my first time seeing one,” she held up her phone to Shade, who was walking over to her.

“Any recommendations listed?” Gridlock spoke in a hurry.

“Not that I can see…” Lyra scrolled through but didn’t find anything resembling a recommendation.

“I got it too,” Shade cut in. “The client isn’t even anonymous. It’s from a pharmacy.”

They continued sharing details with Gridlock, who researched both the objective and the client. They were being asked to recover a stolen supply of medication from an armed group of criminals by a pharmacy. The credit reward was in the hundreds.

“It could be a trap,” Shade suggested.

“But it’s unlikely. Their reputation is pretty clean. It’s definitely not the first time they’ve posted an Aegis mission, or the first time they’ve given out the reward for one,” Gridlock countered. “What I think is, your reputation’s caught up to you, and this is a good opportunity to prove how reliable you are as a team.”

The young hero didn’t respond for a time, and Lyra could see his gaze harden in the dim lighting. It looked pretty scary when his eyes were all black. “There’s a time limit,” he said.

“I know, but an hour and forty minutes is more than enough time to get there. If I send my drones over to scout the location, we could make a plan before you go in.”

Instead of responding, Shade surprised Lyra by turning to her again. “What do you think, Calliope?”

Lyra stood and blinked for a couple of seconds before her mouth started working. “I uh, I think we should be… careful?” She mentally kicked herself. As if he needed to be told that.

“You’re not saying no,” Gridlock concluded, sounding pleased with himself.

She glanced at the street below. “I’m not. I mean, if you guys think we can handle this, I’ll do my best.”

In silence? That’s not what you were made for, and you know it. You will always suffer if you refuse to let yourself be heard.

She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the mental commentary would go away. Thankfully it did.

“—irst,” Shade said.

Lyra blinked. “S- sorry, I didn’t catch that?”

“I said, we can go there and see for ourselves first.”

“Right, yeah, I’ll be right behind you.”

She hoped Shade would just leave it at that and lead the way, but he was still staring at her. “We already went over this,” he enunciated in a low voice, stepping closer. “If something is bothering you right now, you have to tell me. I’m fine with letting you do whatever you want during the day, but when we’re out there, all it takes is one moment of distraction, and everything will be over. That CAN’T happen.”

Lyra squirmed.

Shade was unrelenting. “So what is it?”

“Shade,” Gridlock began. “You’re blowing this out of—”

“No, I’m not.” He continued to address Lyra. “We’ve been getting a lot done so far. That’s why you’re still on this team. But if you’re going to start daydreaming while we’re preparing for a mission that could get us killed if we don’t stay alert…” he trailed off, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid.

Gridlock cleared his throat. “What Shade means to say is that you can tell us what’s going on. You don’t have to be afraid we’ll kick you off the team if you’re dealing with some issues, but if it hinders your focus on a mission, that could put you in danger. Both of you.”

They went silent after that. Was she that obvious, or was Shade just perceptive? It could have been either, but she had to come up with an excuse. It left a bitter taste in her mouth to lie to them, but telling the truth was just unthinkable. There was no way ‘I’m hearing a voice in my head that’s been bothering me since the night I put a dozen people and my mother in the hospital’ would be met with a positive reception. And she owed them too much to put this on them as well.

Still, she couldn’t brush this off. “It’s…” she started, “that time of the month for me.” Oh, gosh. Had that really just come out of her mouth? She desperately wished the floor was quicksand, her face flushing with embarrassment.

More silence.

Shade broke it this time. “Never mind, then,” he said, his tone even. In contrast, his power had come undone, revealing bewildered, blue-gray eyes.

“We’ll, ah, give you some space. Yeah.” That was Gridlock.

“Can you still do the mission?” Shade asked.

Lyra rapidly nodded and unhooked the earpiece, a mix of emotions churning inside her. “Give me a minute, please?”

“He’ll wait a few blocks over,” Gridlock said for Shade. The boy turned and jumped off to another building.

Lyra took a few seconds to compose herself.

That was not how she had expected this to go.