With his mind set on vengeance, Derrick was not one to disappoint. He delivered a large amount of bugs that could easily be split between two people. Once the bugs were in his possession, Ashton searched through his phone for any conversations he had with Maskz. There.

  “I heard about your plan from Summer,” he typed, “Let me come too.”

  Not even a moment after he sent the message, Ned had already replied. “Of course!” There was a pause, then another message. “I’ll let you know when the date and time are set.”

  That was easy. Ashton hadn’t expected it to be difficult to convince him, but it left an odd feeling when your enemy was so eager to meet you. The meeting took place about a week after his abandoned arcade date with Summer in the evening. Ashton arrived before the others and carefully split Summer’s share of the bugs into a coin pouch so he could pass them over to her without suspicion.

  “You forgot this in my car,” he told her as soon as she arrived, handing over the coin pouch.

  With his main objective complete, Ashton noticed the faces of everyone else. Kayla was surprised to see him, and her guards were wary. One was even reaching for a weapon. Ashton hadn’t expected them to be happy to see him, but their distrust was a bit too blatant. Ashton had met the whole team of bodyguards on the first day Kayla moved in.

  “Maskz invited me,” Ashton told them,giving them the bare minimum explanation to calm them down, “Let’s get inside.”

  Luckily that explanation must have been passable as the hand that reached for the weapon visibly relaxed. The group headed inside and was immediately greeted by the staff with a level of polite formality that couldn’t have been standard treatment. Ashton even caught one of them giving him a slight bow. Did MysteriousMaskz truly have no connection with this place?

  The staff led them to a private room that was fairly large in size, but had the bare minimum furniture. Two tables, one for dining and one for entertaining, and the chairs to accompany them. Maskz was sitting in one of the cushioned armchairs like a king on his throne wearing an all black costume that was somehow cringier than the nonsense Ashton had worn as Shadow Phoenix.

  Ned offered food, and Summer accepted before they got down to business. “Those higher ups of yours sure have a lot of expectations for me,” he commented, “I may have an idea I want to test but that doesn’t mean I actually know how to improve Kayla’s powers. Are you sure you won’t be disappointed.”

  “We are just following orders,” the first guard replied.

  They began the test, or rather the show. Since Ashton knew it was all fake he didn’t bother paying attention, focusing instead on his real goal for the night. Looking at the room again it wasn’t as if there was nowhere to hide a listening device.

  There were two windows with long curtains, and there was a wooden lattice design on one of the walls. Neither place was exactly subtle, but it was a start. More importantly, Ashton wanted to try planting a device on MysteriousMaskz himself. The man in question had turned all attention to Summer as part of his play. That might make things a bit more difficult for her to act, so Ashton moved closer to his target.

  Suddenly, everything went black. No, black wasn’t quite the right word. It was as if they were blind. As if there was never any light in the first place. This wasn’t just darkness, it was the all consuming void. The armchair where Maskz was sitting was close enough.

  Ashton knew it was far from subtle as he took advantage of the darkness to feel for it. He winced as his fingers brushed a shoulder, but he still slipped the bug into their clothing. He quickly stepped back since he had no way of telling how long the darkness would last. He barely made it to his original position in time.

  “That was insane,” Summer gasped as the darkness withdrew.

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  “There,” Maskz said, his smirk widening, “Proof.”

  The snacks Summer had asked for arrived before anyone could object to Ned’s statement. It was good to have another distraction, but Ashton still couldn’t tell if he had succeeded at doing anything under the cover of darkness. One of the guards brushed past him to leave the room, no doubt to report whatever they thought they had discovered.

  If there was any issue Ashton had with the plan it was that it placed Summer in a more important position. At first that might seem like a good thing, but it came with restrictions, surveillance, and even potential danger. This time it was only because of her connection to Kayla but sooner or later they might take interest in Summer herself.

  Suddenly Summer picked up her glass of soda and started chugging it. Before Ashton could say anything, Kayla spoke up.

  “Are you okay?” Kayla asked her, a bit startled.

  “Yeah, just a bit surprised. I didn’t expect to be able to use the new power so quickly and easily. It was definitely different than mine,” Summer told her.

  Ashton could understand that. The darkness had felt so consuming. Unfortunately, now that the light had returned, Ashton didn’t have any chances to make a move. He could feel Ned’s gaze on him at all times, so he decided to join in at the table and eat something. He didn’t have anywhere near the confidence to boldly eat and drink in enemy territory like Summer did, but he could put a couple things on a plate and pretend.

  Not long after Ashton got settled at the table, Summer shot to her feet, almost toppling her chair backwards. “Excuse me,” she said a bit awkwardly, “Is there a bathroom I can use?”

  Ashton was a bit shocked until he saw the determination in her expression. This was all part of a plan. If he saw it, there was no way that Maskz missed it. Then again she had actually emptied a whole glass of soda. That was some incredible dedication to a plan. Whatever Ned actually thought, he played along well. He gave her directions to the bathroom and offered the services of the staff should she get lost.

  Kayla followed Summer out, which naturally meant the guard followed Kayla. The door closed behind the three of them with a soft click, leaving Ashton completely alone with MysteriousMaskz. The two sat in silence for a stretch, each quietly observing the other. This would be the first time Ashton met him without Summer present if he didn’t count that strange conversation through the computer at Gale Research.

  “Are you having fun?” Ned finally asked.

  Fun? “I didn’t come here for fun,” Ashton replied.

  “That much is obvious,” Maskz agreed, “I was wondering why you would go out of your way to ask to be included, but the motive is funnier than I expected. Is this your petty idea of revenge against me?”

  MysteriousMaskz pulled the bug out of his collar and held it up for Ashton to see. It was just as Ashton had feared. He had given himself away when he accidentally brushed his shoulder in the darkness. Despite being called out, Ashton didn’t feel any sense of panic. Ned didn’t seem particularly angry about the situation either.

  “Revenge?” Ashton asked in return, “Why would that have anything to do with revenge? I was merely taking advantage of an opportunity as I saw it. Weren’t you the one who asked me to catch you?”

  “That’s true,” Ned admitted, “In that case, how about we make a deal? I will let you place as many of those wherever you would like. I will even agree to keep one of them on my person at all times. All you need to do is promise to wear one of mine in return.”

  “Aren’t you already listening in on me wherever I go?” Ashton asked.

  “When I have time to track you down, yes. Summer is usually a lot easier to find, but it can take me a while to find her as well,” Maskz explained, “All it will do is make it easier for me to access you. Not much will change. You, on the other hand, will gain information about me that you had no hope to access before. What do you think? Isn’t it a great deal?”

  Ashton considered it. “I am sure you will be able to turn yours off if you are doing something you truly don’t want me to hear,” he brought up, “I will agree to your deal if you make it so I can do the same.”

  “Aw, you caught me already,” Ned chuckled, barely even pretending to be disappointed, “That shouldn’t be a problem. I will give you a power switch. If you get really uncomfortable you can always fry it with your powers. Just know as soon as you do I will be disposing of the bug on me as well.”

  “Sounds fair to me,” Ashton agreed, holding out a new listening device towards his opponent.

  Instead of taking it normally, Maskz grasped Ashton’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “We have a deal,” he declared, releasing his hand and taking the bug Ashton had offered.