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Kyle walked through the front doors of Brewed Awakenings and immediately knew that something was wrong. His co-worker Sarah barely acknowledged him as he entered the coffee shop. He went into the employee area behind the counter to put his jacket away and punch in for his shift, and when he returned to the main counter he was stunned by how quiet it was. Granted, the mid evenings were generally slow, but this was different. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Kyle asked Sarah. “Where’s Grace?”

“She’s in her office, she had some…visitors earlier. She seems kind of shaken up.” Sarah told him, her voice devoid of the humor that he had grown accustomed to.

“Who were they?”

“I don’t know, there were three guys in suits. I think it has something to do with the riots.” Sarah told him.

“The riots? But we weren’t…” his words trailed off as he made his way back to Grace’s office. Brewed Awakenings hadn’t been harmed in the riots. In fact, the riots only extended about three blocks south of the coffee shop. So why anybody would be coming to talk to Grace about the riots was beyond him. Something didn’t seem right, and he needed to know what was going on.

He knocked on Grace’s office door and pushed open the door without waiting for a response. When he entered the office, he saw Grace sitting behind her desk holding her head in her hands. Her eyes were puffy and her makeup was smudged, it was clear that she’d been crying. 

“Grace, what’s up?” Kyle asked as he sat down across from her.

“I, I don’t know.” Grace admitted. “I had no choice, I had to sign over the deed to the building.” 

“You what? Why? To who?” Kyle asked, unable to process what he was hearing.

“Don’t worry about it.” Grace told him.

“Grace, I can help you. I know people that can help with this, but I have to know what happened.” Kyle implored her. He knew that she’d never just sign over the deed without a good reason, and she wasn’t the type of woman to scare easily. Something had clearly happened, and he needed to know what that was, and who was responsible.

“These men came by, they said they were from the Renaissance Project. They offered to pay for general expenses and protection, and would just take 10 percent of the profits of the shop. When I told them ‘no,’ they threatened my mother. I had no choice.”

“Grace, I’m going to help you get out of this. I…I’m going to go and talk to some people and see if we can’t figure something out.” Kyle said as he got up and left her office. He went back to the employee coat room and grabbed his things before heading back out into the cold March air. He didn’t know anything about this so called Renaissance Project, but he was willing to bet that it was connected in some way to The Shroud Syndicate. 

As Kyle walked down the street away from Brewed Awakenings, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. As he did so, he nearly jumped as the phone began going off in his hand. He looked at the caller ID, and saw that it was Harry that was calling. 

“Harry, I was just about to call you. I have a lead, I need you to look-” he was cut off.

“No time, there are more pressing matters. Come to The Garage now, it’s urgent.” Harry said.

“What is it?” Kyle asked.

“Someone is threatening to unleash some sort of weapon in the city that will grant everyone metahuman powers. Get over here and I’ll fill you in. Hurry Kyle, we don’t have much time.” Harry said. He was uncharacteristically shaken by whatever this threat was.

“Great, some terrorist threatening the city with some sort of weapon…must be Thursday.” Kyle said under his breath has he headed off toward The Garage.