As Summer stared at the railing in horror, Ashton moved past her to examine the scene. He was silent and focused as he stared at the ground and even seemed to examine the building below them. He muttered something she couldn’t quite hear, and his brows furrowed in frustration.

  “Ashton?” Summer asked hesitantly, “Is he dead?”

  “No,” he answered, finally turning to face her, “It’s like he vanished into thin air.” He leaned down and tugged at something that was jammed into the bars of the railing.

  “He vanished? Does that mean his ability is teleportation?” Summer suggested.

  “I doubt it. Someone must have helped him,” Ashton guessed, “Was that man MysteriousMaskz?”

  Summer’s nerves that she had held back through sheer willpower and adrenaline started to come back in full force as she realized the situation was over. She was safe. Well, nearly safe. Just in case she walked over to Ashton’s side and peered over the railing. He was right. There was nothing there. There was no sign of anything ever having been there for a few years at least.

  “It was,” she confirmed, “He looked exactly as I remember him. I thought he called me up here to lure you out, but he fell off the building before you even got here.”

  “That isn’t quite true,” Ashton corrected, “We locked eyes before he fell. I don’t know why he would want to show me his face. There is no way he doesn’t already know mine.”

  The fact that madman wanted to be recognized by Ashton didn’t bring Summer any comfort. If anything, it made the whole situation all the more sickening. The entirety of their conversation ran through her head, but none of it really seemed like a clue. Not unless his real goal was to give her some high handed form of gratitude for playing a good puppet.

  “I don’t know either, but let’s get out of here,” Summer encouraged. No matter how much she tried to fight it, Ned terrified her. Her hands were shaking against her will, but at least it was happening now in front of Ashton rather than in front of the enemy. “Now that he is clear, the building might collapse for real, or worse.”

  Ashton put a comforting arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “Let’s get going, then. Everyone else is already waiting outside. Mason is safe with Kai.”

  Mason was alright? Thank goodness. She had been worried about him going down all of those steps by himself. What if he had fallen? When they finally exited the building and Summer saw Mason with her own eyes, her legs went weak with relief.

  Another car had arrived on the scene to escort Jargon for questioning. Summer was a bit surprised to see her darkness still covering his eyes. Maskz was gone. Wouldn’t it be safe to release it? No, it was better not to risk it. Ned had never said anything about this being over. It would be fine to release her power once he didn’t have a chance of seeing Ashton anymore.

  Once Jargon was finally taken away, Summer collapsed against the seat of the car in exhaustion. She felt like she was forgetting something important, but Ashton let her rest as he dealt with the situation. The rest of the drive must have been smooth since she slept right through it. She was vaguely awake for Ashton carrying her to her apartment, but she soon drifted off again.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  When Summer woke up in her bed later that night, her phone was filled with an endless string of notifications. Family, team members, and even superiors that demanded her immediate attention. Summer dealt with family first. Aunt May had been rescued, and with Jargon’s power out of commission she was free to return home. Mason was a little shaken but he hadn’t really grasped what was going on so he was more excited about meeting the heroes.

  The majority of the messages were worried about her. Apparently they had all gotten a hold of Ashton and he had informed them she had passed out. That was a bit embarrassing. Summer wasn’t even sure why she passed out, but based on one of the messages from Harper demanding she come in for both a physical and psychological evaluation she would probably find out the answer to that soon.

  The messages from Kai and Levi were about Kayla. How could she have forgotten about Kayla?! After a moment of panicked realization, she continued reading and was relieved to see Kayla was doing well. Jargon had knocked her out with some kind of drug, but the hospital said that she was coming out of it just fine and there wouldn’t be any serious aftereffects.

  Ashton’s messages were a bit more like nagging. He told her to make sure to get a physical evaluation immediately once she woke up. He seemed to believe she had overstrained her power by covering that whole building in darkness, but didn’t notice because of the stressful situation. Now that he mentioned it, even in training Summer had never used her ability on such a large scale before.

  Since it was so late at night, Summer expected to have to wait until morning, but the moment she contacted Harper to let her know she had woken up, she was immediately summoned to the medical center. The medical center at Gale Research gave the impression of a private hospital, complete with psychiatric help. She had imagined a few offices on a dedicated floor, not an entire building like this one.

  The examination went surprisingly quickly, and the results were close to what Ashton guessed. She had fainted from a combination of overusing her ability and heightened emotions like fear and stress pushing her body to the extremes as well. The psychological evaluation took far longer, especially since she had no choice but to discuss Maskz with the current situation. Once she was finally finished with all of the paperwork for that, Summer thought she was done, but Harper pulled her aside to talk.

  “Ashton has already filed a report for your team, but considering how much time you spent alone with MysteriousMaskz, we will be needing a separate report from you,” Harper began, “I was asked to speak with you because I am a familiar face, but this situation has made the higher ups realize some things.”

  That didn’t sound like good news. Summer knew she had messed everything up for the mission. Her family had been the ones held hostage, and she even ended up alone with the wanted criminal, putting the rest of the team in danger when she lost contact. Was she going to be fired?

  “What is going to happen to me now?” Summer asked, already fearing the worst.

  “After Ashton’s report and our questioning of Jargon, it has become obvious that MysteriousMaskz is using you to get to Ashton,” Harper pointed out. Summer couldn’t even deny it, “Not only that, you abandoned a teammate and let your emotions control your actions out in the field. Both you and Kayla have been suspended so you can recover and reflect on your actions.”

  Suspended? Summer wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or not. It was better than being fired, but what if the suspension never really ended? “For how long?” Summer asked.

  “Until both your physical and mental health are stable or MysteriousMaskz is caught,” Harper replied, “Go home and spend some time with your family. It would be good if you could take Kayla with you. Going back to the facility won’t be good for her so she has nowhere to go during her suspension.”

  “You want me to take care of Kayla while we are suspended?” Summer checked, not entirely sure if she heard that right.

  Harper sighed. “Isn’t it your fault she was attacked by Jargon in the first place? You should take some responsibility. We will provide everything she needs, so all you need to do is keep her company. It would be for the best if you didn’t tell her we are asking you to do this, either.”

  As if getting secret tasks from Ned wasn’t enough, now she nearly lost her job and had to somehow secretly take care of Kayla as well? How exactly was that supposed to work?