Mocking laughter echoed through the theatre from all sides. This was the Shadow Phoenix Summer remembered, not the cautious and realistic Ashton. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She must be relieved Ashton was here, or was she scared because he was in danger? Summer denied the thought that the familiar situation gave her a thrill of nostalgia and excitement.

  “Weakness?” Shadow Phoenix sneered, “Don’t make me laugh. Do you have any idea how hard it was to pretend to be scared of that lightbulb with an overinflated ego? I mean, think about it? My name may be Shadow Phoenix, but my power has always been fire.”

  Was there any need to insult her like this? No, that was something Shadow Phoenix would definitely do. It was Ashton who was always gentle and cautious. Besides, he made a decent point. How had everyone been convinced that someone with the power of fire was weak to light when fire itself was a light source? Unfortunately, Summer was the only person in the room without access to a microphone so even if she did comment on it, no one would hear her.

  "Are you admitting to being used as SI's pawn?" Gilbert asked, his eyes sweeping the room for any hiding places.

  "Why hide the truth when everyone already knows it?" Shadow Phoenix pointed out.

  "What about the truth that no one knows," Claudia prompted, "You must be hiding because you have no way to hide your identity without your costume."

  "Unfortunately, I am wearing that hideous costume," Shadow Phoenix replied with more distaste than usual in his voice, "Rather than hiding, I am planning things out. You see, I don't have a director to give me stage instructions today, so I need to come up with my own way to make this little show of yours interesting."

  That's it. This was starting to get annoying. Summer needed a microphone so Golden Reign could join this play of theirs. Why was she even here if she couldn't play her part? MysteriousMaskz would have left her with something. Summer searched the balcony she had been confined to again to see if there was anything at all she could use. No dice on the mic, but she did find a coil of rope. Was she meant to climb down from the balcony with this?

  Summer didn't really know how to use a rope to climb, but it was better than staying trapped on this balcony like a sitting duck. Maybe rather than climbing down the rope she could swing on it? Or was that more dangerous? First she needed to find somewhere stable to attach it.

  The only sturdy place Summer could see was the railing of the balcony, which took swinging out of the equation. If she tried that from a place below her she was more likely to hurt herself. Climbing it was. Luckily all of the attention seemed to be focused on Shadow Phoenix, so she could make her moves without being worried about them spotting her. Summer really didn't want to block out the light. Not only would that reveal her improved ability, she also had no confidence in climbing down a rope in the dark.

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  “I didn’t think you were aware how outlandish that costume of yours was,” Gilbert Rook commented.

  The conversation was continuing while she was busy trying to find a way out of her balcony. None of it seemed important, but it still held their focus. It probably wouldn’t be enough to distract them once she started climbing down, though.

  “But are you aware of how incredibly obvious your name is,Checkmate? Or should I say, Gilbert Rook?”

  Summer dragged the rope over and began tying it around the railing of the balcony. Since she wasn’t confident in her knot strength, she tied extra knots for good measure. That should work, right? Once she got out of this situation, Summer resolved to study knots for future situations. Just to be sure, she tried to shake the railing to make sure it would hold. The railing stood firm. Just as she threw the rope over the edge of the balcony, Claudia Jones suddenly took notice of her doing something.

  “What do we have here? Golden Reign is taking action!” Claudia announced, “And here I thought the hero for show would stand on the sidelines in her safe little balcony.”

  If only she had a microphone right now! It was so unfair that they could all mock her, but she couldn’t give it back in turn. Perhaps spurned by her childish frustrations, Summer stared directly into the camera and stuck out her tongue. Before she could reply, or any of the embarrassment could hit, Summer hauled herself over the railing to start climbing down the rope.

  She was glad that the camera was now facing her back so she wouldn’t have to see it since climbing down a rope was much harder than she had thought it would be. Once the balcony ended, there were no footholds so her legs were dangling uselessly. It was all she could do to hold on and slowly lower herself down. If the Golden Reign costume hadn’t come with high quality combat gloves she would have gotten rope burn several times over.

  “Our amatuer hero looks more like a teenager sneaking out in the night than a hero,” Claudia mocked.

  “I know,” Summer grumbled, even though she knew no one could hear her. This would have never been allowed on camera during her time at SI. Heroes always had to be heroic and strong, and dangling helplessly from a rope tied to a balcony definitely did not give that image.

  Summer finally reached the floor, right next to a blue plastic mannequin wearing a white sunhat. In the mannequin’s hand was a microphone, pointed right at her as if it had been waiting for her to arrive. Before Summer could say anything through her newly found mouthpiece, the large doors leading outside the theatre burst open and Shadow Phoenix stepped in, wreathed in purple flame.

  “Stay out of my way, Golden Reign,” he warned, glaring in her direction, “This fight has nothing to do with you. It is between me and Checkmate.”

  It took Summer a moment to catch on to what he might be trying to tell her. If the battle was only to be between him and Checkmate, she needed to get Claudia off the stage. This would be the first time she would be rescuing a civilian as a hero, even if that civilian had never been civil and was currently under the control of their enemy.

  “You stay out of my way, then,” she shot back, “My business is with the reporter, Claudia Jones.”