Masks are Greater than Sunglasses [ COMPLETE ]

twenty - what you make of it

- Nick -

The fluorescent lights are beginning to sting my eyes. I rub them through my mask, not taking my eyes from the holotable. I can hear the dull thrumming chatter of other Supers on the third level of HQ, all preparing to go out on patrol... Or coming back from patrol. I don't know how long I've been here.

Time has begun to lose meaning since Bella came back.

I've been researching since I left Rya. There has to be something out there that will give me a hint as to what my family is planning, why they are threatening her. I know how they work. Nothing is ever truly a secret. There are records of the political back channels they use to pass laws. Emails or phone transcript of the people they are watching. Contracts for their hired mercenaries.

Yet I can't find anything. It's infuriating.

With a groan, I look back around the third level. Supers are sprawled on couches or chatting, everyone looks so relaxed. None of them have to worry about their family plotting something sinister. 

My eyes are strained from the past hours of staring at the screen and when I finally focuses as a figure making her way toward me. It takes far too long for me to recognize Alexandria. 

She sits down in the chair across from me, her eyes fastening on the dozens of files open on the holotable between us. 

"Are you busy?"

"No," I sigh, leaning back in my seat. "I'm not making any progress on this anyway."

She glances down at the table again before meeting my eyes. She knows better than to ask what this is about. I can't tell her, she's not official in the League yet. 

Scooting forward, she brushes a strand of hair behind her ear and I freeze. The girls look nothing alike, yet the gesture is so similar to Rya I can't help but picture her across from me, her hazel eyes sparkling.

"What are you doing here?" I ask Alexandria, trying to shake off the vision.

"I am picking up my forms," She smiles slightly, waving a sheaf of papers in the air, "to become an official member of the League."

Shoot, I totally forgot. Alex was the first trainee after I started the underaged super program. If she hadn't been such an amazing recruit I doubt that Connors uncle, or the rest of the council for that matter, would have let me keep it running. How did I repay her? Forgetting her 18th birthday, the days she's been waiting for. 

"Happy birthday." I say, trying to grin. 

Over the past few months though Connors taken over from me. I've been too busy to keep up my search and train the new generation of Supers. Still, I feel terrible for forgetting but Alex doesn't seem to mind. I continue, "Congrats. I didn't know that the office was open this late." 

"This late?" She frowns at me, her dark curls falling into her eyes as she ducks her head to check the time. Her voice is soft and lilting as ever as she looks back up at me, confusion in her eyes, "It's only 6 in the afternoon."

Six. Quickly I look down at the gauntlet of my suit. Sure enough, the time there reads 6:02 but Rya and I weren't done training until 10. Have I seriously been sitting here for 18 hours?

No wonder my head hurts.

She drops her forms on to the tabletop, taking a pencil from behind her ear and beginning to doodle on the back. As she draws she keeps speaking in the absentminded way that Alex always seems to, "Did you pull an all-nighter, teach?"

"It's Ghost." I mutter, passing a hand over my burning eyes.

"What?" She asks, barely glancing up from her drawing.