Once Ashton took a look at his pamphlet, he noticed many of the powers mentioned were familiar. From John Doe to The Purple Tortoise, and even members of his own team. Kayla made sense, but Ashton had to consider why the twins were categorized as an unseen power. What was more surprising was that many of these composed rumors and urban legends were things Ashton had already heard or suspected himself.

  Then again, there were always rumors going around about how there were people with unnatural luck, charisma, intelligence, or even the ability to read minds. A lot of the rumors could just as easily be influenced by popular media without a real person being the source. There were also darker stories that Ashton was more inclined to believe, even if they might be a bit exaggerated.

  The tales of the one with the ability to control minds were too similar to be dismissed as wild imagination. Not to mention, Ashton recognized a familiar symbol of the facilities. F1. Not only that, he saw the code for a missing subject. Was Harper trying to warn him that a dangerous person had escaped? But if Summer knew the truth why not just tell the whole team directly? Perhaps these were old files and he was simply overthinking it.

  No, they couldn’t be that old since both John Doe and Queen Heart were mentioned. He would have to ask for more information about this later. The charisma power struck him as familiar as well. Ashton had always found the way the hero agencies came about, and so quickly, to be a bit off. Then again, charisma could just be a natural trait, not a power. Were any of these going to be part of their first case?

  “What kind of case do you think we will get for our first one?” Summer asked, startling Ashton from his thoughts.

  For a moment he wondered if he had voiced them out loud, but it was probably what everyone was wondering. Actually, where was everyone? It looked like they had left while he had been focused on the pamphlet.

  “I’m not sure,” Ashton replied, “I know the case that we will need to work on at some point. The mentions of the person that is a bit too convincing sounds a lot like the founder of that first hero agency that popped up. Despite being completely uncertain with a terrible contract, hundreds of people signed on without hesitation.”

  “You mean you think they are using powers to make heroes join them?” she asked, surprised, “Who is it?”

  Making them join wasn’t quite right. If it was the all consuming mind control popular in media, they would be doing everything with no will of their own. Ashton found the idea of being tricked into believing everything was their own choice far more frightening. After everything that had happened, he couldn’t help but jump to conclusions about the possibilitiy of someone’s involvement.

  “I don’t know,” Ashton admitted, “I’m just hoping it isn’t another gift from our mysterious friend.”

  Summer bit her lip. “Ashton, do you think if I hadn’t approached him, if I hadn’t met him that day, that things would be different?” she asked, “I can’t help but think that things got to this point because of me.”

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  Because of her? Ashton had never thought of it that way, but he found it easy to understand where she was coming from. He had never been good at comforting people. The best thing he could do was tell her his perspective on the situation.

  “I don’t think the threat would be any less,” Ashton assured, “In fact, if you hadn’t allowed him to use you, you might have gotten the worse end of the stick. It seems like he was already obsessed with me before you got involved, and that was entirely my fault. I knew we were being recorded, but I lost my temper and quit on camera. That is what caused this mess.”

  “Then let’s say we are both at fault and settle it when we take him out ourselves!” she declared.

  Both at fault, huh? Sharing the blame didn’t sound so bad. It would be silly to argue over who was worst culprit between them in the first place. The real culprit was MysteriousMaskz. Once they took him out of the picture, neither of them would have to worry about blame or faults.

  “Sure. And after that, everything will finally be over,” Ashton replied, feeling a smile tug at his lips.

  A chime sounded in the room, and Summer pulled out her phone to check it. Ashton’s smile disappeared as he watched her expression fall. Something was wrong. Had something happened back home? Had MysteriousMaskz targeted her family?

  “Was that from your parents?” Ashton asked.

  “Yes,” she answered, quickly putting her phone back in her pocket, “They were just wishing me good luck.”

  Her guilty expression and trembling voice didn’t fool him, but why had she lied? Was it because she didn’t trust him enough to tell him after what she had found out, or was it because she couldn’t tell him. Either way, Ashton would have to look into this on his own. Just a moment ago it had felt like everything was perfectly on track, and now he felt like things were falling apart. Relationships were hard to build but easy to break. He had always known that.

  Ashton let Summer leave first. She seemed eager to be alone and he needed to take care of some things as well. Despite his instincts warning him that she was in danger, he didn’t have the courage to confront her for her lies. For now he would believe that she had a very good reason she couldn’t tell him. Based on what had happened so far, MysteriousMaskz had begun threatening her again.

  Just in case, Ashton checked his own phone, but there was nothing. Why? If MysteriousMaskz was after him, why not just come at him directly? Why would he go through Summer like that? No, he might just be reading too much into this. He should focus on his duties as team leader. He couldn’t let his personal problems get in the way of proper preparation and get everyone hurt once real missions came along.

  “Harper,” Ashton called out once he tracked her down, “I have some questions about a few of the powers mentioned in the pamphlet.”

  “Already?” Harper asked, “On the ball today. Alright, ask away.”

  “After looking them over, I have concerns about the rise of hero agencies,” Ashton admitted, “Was our team assembled to deal with a specific threat?”

  Harper sighed. “I knew you would pick up on this,” she muttered, “But you are only half right. We are after two main threats. The one who started the hero agency trend, and the one who you would know better than us. You were chosen because we have common enemies and you will want to get rid of them just as much as we do.”

  “I had always intended to target MysteriousMasks,” Ashton realized, “I didn’t consider that it would be the goal from your side as well. I should have, though. I’m the one who asked for help tracking him down.”