The party was held in one of the covered training halls. Summer could already see exactly what Ashton meant about it being a different kind of party. There was faint music on an old bluetooth speaker, too small to fill the space. The table was lined with a chaotic assortment of pizza, chinese food, and mexican food, with a rather incomplete set of each. Above the table hung a vague ‘welcome’ banner that had been used so many times the letters were beginning to fade.

  However, despite the haphazard preparations, everyone present seemed to be enjoying themselves. There weren't as many people as Summer had expected. Harper was there, as was Jared, but they were the only two she even recognized. Beyond that, the party guests seemed just as random as everything else. There was someone from the front desk, from finance, and even someone from the lab division which had very little to do with the emergency aid division.

  "We don't have to stay if you don't want to," Ashton told her. His tone was practically begging her to bail on the whole thing.

  "No, we should stay," Summer decided, "We need to at least say hello to everyone. They went out of their way to welcome us on such short notice." At least, Summer hoped this was the result of short notice and they weren't being discriminated against.

  "Alright," Ashton agreed, and went over to the people he knew first. There was Harper and Jared, of course, but she was also introduced to a few members of Jared's team that Ashton had worked with.

  They had never really tried to keep it a secret that they were dating, but everyone present already seemed to know about it. It was oddly embarrassing, but Summer was glad Ashton was by her side. After the greetings, they grabbed something from the mismatched arrangement of food and snagged a place to sit.

  "I've never been to a party like this before," Summer told Ashton.

  "The main point of parties like these is the free food," Ashton explained, "It's the only reason I ever attend anything. Not that the food is usually that great."

  Summer was beginning to feel bad for dragging Ashton to the party. It wasn’t very date-like at all. There had to be something she could do to make this situation even a little bit better. Maybe they should talk about something? But what? Summer didn’t want to waste this precious time talking about work. This wasn’t really the environment to touch on deep topics like his past. Maybe she should just start with small talk and see where it went?

  “I never would have put orange chicken with tacos before but it is better than I expected,” Summer blurted, feeling the rush of heat from embarrassment before the words even finished leaving her mouth.

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  “That’s good,” Ashton replied.

  He had played it safe and only grabbed pizza. Right, the strange food combinations were a choice since she had been the one who loaded them on her plate. Summer searched for a better topic, but before she could think of anything in particular, she saw Harper coming over.

  “Ashton, sorry to bother you during the party, but something important came up that I need to confirm with you,” she told him, sending both him and Summer an apologetic glance.

  “It’s fine,” Ashton said, “As long as it doesn’t take too long. I promised to spend time with Summer today.”

  “It won’t take long,” Harper assured, and led Ashton away.

  Being team leader sure was rough. Even at his own welcome party he was being bothered with work. Ashton was always one step ahead of Summer, and she pushed down her usual feelings of inadequacy. If she was really a bother, Ashton wouldn’t have allowed her on the team. Comforted by that thought, Summer dug into her food while she waited for Ashton to return. He sure was taking his time, though. Harper had even promised it wouldn’t take that long.

  “Excuse me,” an unfamiliar voice called out. It was a woman whose badge mentioned she was from the recruitment department. It wasn’t the same one who had hired her, so why was she calling out, “You are Summer, right? The daughter of the Aster Corp? I wanted to check in and see how you are adjusting.”

  “It’s been going well so far,” Summer assured her. Was she supposed to ask her name? It was listed on her badge so maybe she was just supposed to glean it from there.

  “That is good to hear,” she said, “I am Mara, from recruitment. You have no idea how concerned I was when I saw an innocent like you was assigned to that team. You even came in with one of them. Is it true that you are dating?”

  “Ashton is my boyfriend,” Summer confirmed, her discomfort growing. Just what was Mara trying to get at, “He is a great guy.”

  Mara gave her a pitying gaze. “Listen, I know you don’t want to hear this, but be careful. Everyone on that team is dangerous. Everyone but you.”

  “Even Ashton?” Summer asked skeptically.

  “Especially him,” Mara told her, “I can’t tell you much right now, but if you really want to know you should look into why he became a villain in the first place. Your team should be gaining security clearance soon enough.”

  Security clearance? Why Ashton became a villain? Summer had never even considered his reasons for becoming Shadow Phoenix. She had just assumed SI had forced him to somehow. Still, she wasn’t going to let some random warning stop her from trusting Ashton.

  “Thanks, but whatever the reason is, Ashton isn’t dangerous. Not to me,” Summer declared.

  Mara sighed. “Suit yourself. You might regret this later when you find out the truth.”

  She wandered back into the meagre crowd leaving Summer alone again with her now chaotic thoughts. Even though she had decided she wouldn’t doubt Ashton, that didn’t mean she wasn’t curious. After all, Ashton seemed to hate his past as Shadow Phoenix. What could have made him agree to do it in the first place?