She’d woken up under warm blankets feeling safe and comfortable in body, but the feeling had been swiftly replaced by a growing dread. She banished her projection and forced her to get up after ten minutes of convincing herself. Eating breakfast, doing homework, moving, taking a shower, the actions were mechanical. She was a step removed.

Eventually, with some prodding and encouragement, Evelyn’s mom managed to convince her to go to PRT HQ. Every second of the drive was filled with her mom’s easy sense of humor, trying to break the tension and distract her. It almost worked, but alas the haunting silver ‘shadow’ caught her eye and reminded her of the dread and where she was going...and why she was going there. When they pulled up, her mom turned off the engine and, seeing that her humor hadn’t helped, she got out of the car and got into the backseat with Evelyn.

For a moment the seventeen year old girl that she was struggled against the tight embrace of her mother, but that’s as long as it lasted, a moment. She didn’t cry. She wasn’t crying. Her eyes were just watering a lot. She wasn’t scared, those knots were just cramps...because she was growing up. That wasn’t a knot in her throat, she just had something small stuck in her throat.

After what was perhaps five minutes or twenty, her mother pulled away, but looked into Evelyn’s eyes and smiled.

“You’re brave. You get it from me. Your dad’s just a big ole’ bundle of nerves, but you’ve got my will of steel in you,” her mom said. Evelyn tried to look away, but her mom, Lily, Lil, Lilliana, Mom, gently turned her chin back and met her eyes again. She swallowed hard, but held the gaze this time.

“I don’t know mom. I don’t...I don’t feel like steel,” she said, her voice weak, strained from crying. Her mom squeezed her shoulder, “It’s okay sweetheart, my Evywevvy.” Evelyn laughed a little and for once didn’t tell her mom to stop. The shared a smile and it was warm and safe and full of compassion and understanding.

God she loved her mom.

They hugged again and her mom got out of the car. Evelyn followed. Brushing off her clothes she started towards the building, but her mom caught her shoulder, and she turned to look at her again. “It’s okay to be scared…” she began, but Evelyn spoke, joining in, “...but fear is the mindkiller, don’t be its next victim.” Her mother nodded and smiled, pride and love and trust in her amber eyes. Evelyn nodded, squaring her jaw, closed her eyes and took some deep breaths. When she opened them her mom let go of her shoulder and gave her a small nod.

Turning away she approached the building. Behind her, Lilliana called out, “Go get ‘em!” She couldn’t help but smile.

Entering PRT HQ, Evelyn nodded to some of the workers, spoke briefly with the receptionist and then headed deeper in. Her heartbeat gradually ramped up the closer she got to the Director’s office. Outside his door she had to work up some courage. Closing her eyes she internally recited the little mantra her parents had taught her over the years. It was the same one she’d said with her mom earlier.

It’d helped get her through a lot. It would help her get through this.

It had to.

She knocked on the door.

A firm voice responded without any pause or hesitation. ”It’s open, come on in.” As Evelyn entered, she was treated to the sight of Director Kens staring over numerous reports, both electronic and paper. It was more like he was staring through them, actually, with his glazed eyes covered in bags and dark rings. The director appeared to have not been sleeping much lately.

Noticing just who had entered his office, the director locked his computer screen and swept up the papers into a file, but she was able to catch sight of one in particular which was titled Notice of Action, which was addressed from the Youth Gard.

Once the documents were out of the way, Director Kens locked eyes with Evelyn. Though he maintained his composure and body language which screamed, ‘I’m the one in fucking charge,’ his eyes were softer than she’d ever seen before. His voice gentler. ”I’m glad you were able to come today, Miss Chambers. After what happened, I know that exploring more about your power must be… Troubling. Unfortunately we have to determine what happened, if it was outside interference or…” He hesitated a moment. Director Kens never hesitated before. He always said hesitation was weakness. ”If it was a natural consequence. And apart from that, yours is the power we have the least understanding of among the Wards. The experience may prove to even be therapeutic for you, Miss Chambers. At least, I hope it will.”

Director Kens took a moment to drink a bit of water he had sitting in a glass on his desk. Once that was done he continued, steeling himself. Gone was the softer man Evelyn had only just experienced for a scant few seconds, and returned was the tough bulldog that would tear a man’s legs off just to beat them with their own feet. ”You’ll be heading to the labs on the second floor. You should be meeting with Bret Linkton and Alina Brestoff, two of our parahuman studies experts. I trust that you will cooperate with them to the fullest. You are excused, Miss Chambers.”

Fiercely resisting her equally intense urges to chew her lip and break down at his show of kindness, Evelyn instead smiled, shifting into a mindset of his subordinate. She was a Ward, following orders. Still she ended up chewing her cheek slightly before nodding. “Thank you for your time and consideration sir. I’ll do my best,” she almost choked on the last words and, embarrassed she bowed slightly and then turned on her heel and fled the room.

With her directions firmly in mind she made her way to the second floor labs, but before she got there she reminded herself of her mother’s words and of the Director’s. She was still surprised that he’d been so...understanding. He’d always seemed like a hardass, if a reasonable one. It made her smile a bit, and were her eyes watering?

’Okay, so it’s a little touching, she thought to herself, smiling a little, before steeling herself and entering the lab.

“Mr. Linkton, Ms. Alina, reporting in for t-testing,” she swallowed hard as her awareness of the silver shadow--which was still many miles from that at present--shifted into the forefront of her mind.

The two expert were already preparing materials and equipment for the testing. Evelyn was greeted with the sight of Alina’s friendly smile, and Bret’s casual, yet non-confrontational, indifference. They seemed to be putting the finishing touches on some sort of cage made of glass? Hard plastic? Some transparent substance. It was barely large enough to contain an average sized person.

“Welcome, good morning!” Greeted Alina Brestoff. She waved the young Ward in. Bret Linkton escorted her in, taking her coat if needed, and explained the basics.

“Good to have you. We want to start by observing your projection manifested in an isolated environment. If you could please, create it in a relatively harmless form in the cage. Don’t give it any orders. We just want to observe it naturally. So to speak.”

“Thanks,” she said, rubbing her arm a bit, before she caught herself and nodded, “I...I think I can do that. Um…” she glanced around looking for materials then, taking in a deep breath she made sure her breathing was steady before she tapped into that part of her mind that controlled the projection. She willed it to draw near and immediately, its shadow was there, in the room with them, but something was a little different.

The shadow was filling the entire room. It was huge. Her breath caught in her throat, but she managed to steady it again, even as tears welled in her eyes.

She shut them for a moment and recited her mom’s affirmation under her breath, willing the projection to a smaller form. It obeyed. She took stock, meticulously, of the materials it had scanned. She scrapped all but the most harmless materials she could find.

’Malleable/hard/soft(Clay).’

Those were the traits she set in place before shifting the ‘shadow’ into a humanoid shape only 4 feet tall, which she then placed into the designated space. She opened her eyes and looked to the two, “Alright, I’m gonna manifest it now.” She swallowed hard, equal parts fear and steel in her eyes. Her hands were clenched into fists and there was tension in her muscles despite her breathing being steady. She looked to the projection, it didn’t have any powers programmed in--though it appeared it had accidentally scanned a few. She only recognized a few of them.

“Go,” she said, willing it into being. She flinched away as the shadow phased into existence. It appeared like a dwarf made from grey clay, but without any notable defining features. It was one smooth surface, but despite it being made of clay, she knew it could move. Despite it not having any eyes or a nose or ears, she knew it could perceive its environment.

“H-how’s that?” She asked, clearly nervous. Despite all her efforts there was a pit in her stomach and she felt just a little bit nauseous.

The younger woman jotted down some observations and fiddled with some of the computer systems in the room. After a few seconds she gave a thumbs up to her colleague. The older man however did not share her assessment. He gave an additional request to Evelyn. “Good, but do you think you can give it a face? That would help us observe any emotional instability on the chance it experiences such things.”

“Um...sure?” At first she considered de-manifesting it, but before she could, the projection responded to her idea of a face and one formed. Its expression sent shivers up her spine because despite being made of clay its face was startlingly detailed and its expression was dead.

The ‘eyes’ in its visage turned to regard her, then the other two individuals. There was somehow life in those clay eyes, but despite that there was no feeling. The projection did not otherwise move its body, only its head and eyes shifted. Evelyn bit her lip and crossed her arms, holding herself a bit.

She took a step further away from the projection’s enclosure.

“Excellent.” The man’s tone was quite detached. He took up a pen and clipboard, and began hitting down notes. “Refrain from providing any orders. We wish to observe it for the next hour.” An hour. She’d never been asked to manifest it for that long. She wouldn’t be able to reform it for an hour too, troublesome if an emergency came up. Ah, but she was still off duty, so nothing should happen, right? Regardless, there was nothing to do now but wait while the experts observed and recorded observations.

“A-alright,” she replied and, after a few minutes of staring she found a chair and sat down. Having brought her phone, but not wanting to seem rude, Evelyn glanced over to Alina. She wanted to maybe strike up a conversation, but she also didn’t want to distract them from their work. After maybe five minutes she drew out her phone and took to distracting herself, it helped her ignore the projection.

The projection, at the same five minute mark, slowly started to display what one might describe as restless behavior. Its expression remained largely the same. Neutral. Dead, unfeeling, but its body language shifted somewhat. Where before it had stood entirely still, its gaze trained on Evelyn, not its carved eyes began to wander around the room. At first it took everything in, then mostly paid attention to the two adults, occasionally glancing in Evelyn’s direction. At around 7 minutes the projection began to pace, and at around 9 minutes it started touching the walls of its enclosure. While perhaps mildly interesting, the behavior was not particularly alarming...that was until roughly 11 minutes had passed.

At first nothing seemed amiss, but the researchers might notice that where the projection before had been restless, now it had ceased moving at all and was staring intently at the two. It had ‘carved’ an additional set of eyes into its mockery of a face. One pair was dedicated to Alina and the other to Bret. A minute of this passed and then in an unnaturally quick movement, the projection lunged at the wall closest them and slammed one of its clay fists into the material.

Its gaze was still dead, but its ‘mouth’ had affected what could only be described as a snarl. A hollow rattling began emanating from within the projection.

Evelyn stared, her phone forgotten, eyes wide. She could feel the projection and it felt...alien. Far moreso than normal. Was the connection weaker than it had been before?

The Tulpa drew back its arm, which had become malformed--the clay having redistributed itself into a club--and then slammed it against the barrier again. Its strength was perhaps greater than it ought to have been, despite its frame. With each strike, Evelyn flinched. After a minute of this the projection tried a new tact, redistributing the mass of its hands into hardened claws, which it began to scratch viciously against the enclosure. With each passing minute it became more frantic, beating anc clawing and eventually running--as much as it could--full tilt into the wall. The rattling sound became more frenzied and rose in pitch, becoming grating and loud enough to feel in the body more than just hear with the ears.

Evelyn, at this point had moved as far across the room from her tulpa as she could. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, fingernails digging into her palms. She was lightly chewing the inside of her cheek as she paced nervously. Occasionally she’d mutter her mom’s reassurance under her breath, but it was largely drowned out by the sounds of the tulpa. The creature only became more violent as time passed, but eventually it stopped beating and clawing and ramming into the wall. Instead it had formed ‘eyes’ all over its head and thin antennae had sprouted from its ‘hands’. It could not alter its original design too greatly though for it never grew or lost any limbs or its head as it redistributed its mass.

It was also clear that it wasn’t generating additional material for sometimes portions of its body would shrink when it changed. The projection had taken to probing the enclosure, apparently seeking any gap. Any escape. The entire time it kept ‘eyes’ on Evelyn, Alina, and Bret and for the latter two its gaze was malignant and hostile, filled with violent intent. For Evelyn its eyes were neutral, blank, emotionless.

After the 15 minute mark there were no further noticeable escalations in its behavior. It would occasionally attempt to damage the enclosure, but would always abandon this to attempt to find some other means of escape. Evelyn could feel it and what she felt disturbed her. Not only would it no longer respond to her commands, it seemed to hold in its mind only two entwined ideas: Protect at all costs/Eliminate all threats.

Evelyn hated this. She hated being scared of it when it was part of her, if it was indeed part of her. She didn’t know that there was anything so violent or nasty in her. She hoped there wasn’t. She hated not being allowed to make it go away. She wanted to leave, but she refused to be insubordinate on top of being weak and afraid and unable to control her own damned power. Determination and loyalty were all she had and the former was a shaky thing now after everything that had happened.

The two scientists observed the entire ordeal from safety, with Alina measuring responses via a computer terminal and Bret taking a great many notes. The tulpa’s behavior was concerning to say the very least. However after 30 minutes had passed by and the thing’s activities hadn’t deviated for the last fifteen of those minutes, the senior expert decided to put a halt to the experiment.

“That’s fine Evelyn. I don’t think we’ll be experiencing any further deviations. Please demanifest it and we’ll wait until you can manifest again. I have some questions for you.”

Even when one of them finally spoke, Evelyn didn’t relax, responding only with a tense nod. Looking at the tulpa she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Normally demanifesting the projection was a simple whim away, but now it was hard. It was like trying to claw her way to a lever in a room full of molasses and it was a big room. After about ten seconds, her face screwed up in concentration, her eyes closed, the projection suddenly flashed out of existence. A shiver went through her and the silver light of its shadow replaced where the projection had been.

The frail connection and the hostility had vanished utterly, replaced by the neutral responsive presence she was used to. However, as there always was, there was a distance between her and the projection and a sort of block in her mind where typically there was none. She didn’t bother setting a timer to tell her when it would be available again, she would know.

Shaking herself a bit she sat down, eyes on the ground. She’d brought her chair closer to the two scientists again. She couldn’t meet their eyes. “Well...shoot,” she said, awaiting the questions. Slowly she steadied her breathing and the frantic beating of her heart slowed.

The scientists had noticed the extra effort it had taken Evelyn to dismiss her apparition, and jotted it down in their observations. Once that was done, Alina took a seat in front of the young Ward, and gave a friendly smile. “I’m sure you noticed it growing more and more restless over time. Can you tell me what you felt through your connection during this time?”

Evelyn swallowed hard and glanced up at Alina. “It was like it was disconnecting from me, drifting away. I...I think it stopped caring who was a friend and who wasn’t. I’m not sure. It seemed like,” she met Alina’s eyes, “...it seemed like it saw everything as a threat to me.” She held herself, taking deep breaths again to calm down.

Alina nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry to hear that, sweetie. What about after you returned it to its base form? How has your connection been since then?”

Evelyn paused, checking, before she responded, “It feels normal again. It...went back as soon as it demanifested.”

“Well that’s good news at least.” Alina smiled, attempting to comfort Evelyn. “Our observations and the data the computers collected have led us to a hypothesis,” she began, “but we’ll need to reaffirm the theory over multiple sets of experimentation. Do you think you’re up for two, maybe three more rounds?”

Rubbing her arms a bit, almost as if she were cold, Evelyn swallowed hard and nodded. She’d do what needed to be done to figure out her power on a deeper level, even though it was unpleasant, even though it was scary. Seeing her projection...her power, so violent and unreasoning really did disturb her. “I...um. We can continue, but we have to wait till it can manifest again,” while it was true, Evelyn really wanted to put it off for awhile. It had been hard enough to watch the tulpa the first time. She could only hope that it would get easier….

And so the experiment continued for two more repetitions. The second was more or less identical to the first go around, with the same actions occurring at the same times and the same observations. On the third go round Bret and Alina had encouraged Evelyn to once again create the tulpa as something harmless within the confines of its cage, but also to give it orders. Simple orders, like turns, spinning in place, jumping jacks, and any other mundane, irrelevant ideas they could come up with.

For the first 5 minutes the projection followed her mental commands instantly and without and difficulty, but as the clock passed the 5 minute mark the projection responded to commands with a slight delay or with less accuracy, completing the tasks more sloppily and with an expression that made it seem...almost confused. Ten minutes passed and it was at this point that the projection gradually began to act strangely. At first it was at least mildly responsive to her commands, and would perform them with a delay or in a fashion that implied its attention was elsewhere. The entire time its gaze remained locked on either its enclosure or the non-Evelyn humans in the room. By the time 15 minutes rolled around, the projection was not only ignoring any and all commands, it was clawing at and attacking its enclosure with gradually mounting vigor. It was at this point that--despite any commands--the projection proceeded along a similar set of behaviors as had been noticed at a certain point following the ten minute mark in the two previous tests.

Oddly, Evelyn felt...less bothered as she noticed the trend. It seemed that there might be consistency in her power, even if that consistent result was in and of itself rather disturbing in nature.

“I think we can safely assume our hypothesis to be correct,” Bret spoke, jotting down some notes on his clipboard. Without looking up he said to Evelyn, “Go ahead and turn it off.” She complied.

Alina performed some final tasks on the computer consoles and then approached the young Ward. She bit her upper lip nervously, but recovered fairly quick. “Our visual-audio observations, as well as the brain pattern analysis in this room, strongly indicate a consistent pattern to your tulpa’s behavior based on the length of time it is existing in a corporeal state,” she began. Realizing this might be a bit too much jargon for the young woman, she backpedalled. “That is to say, it seems to be a normal behavior that happens after a set time limit while it’s manifested. Gradually it begins to ignore you as a new parameter kicks in. I can only assume that goal is to ensure your protection at all costs, as it showed intense hostility toward us administering the testing, but none toward you. It would appear to grow more zealous of this goal as time passes. About ten minutes by our timing.”

Bret stepped in. “According to our findings, there was no influence from any master-class parahumans on your mission, this is a natural behavior of your powers. One we should have discovered in earlier testing. I’m taking full responsibility. In any case, unless it becomes an extreme circumstance and is approved by your team leader or a senior Protectorate hero, I am advising that the director enforce a ruling that you are never to allow your tulpa to remain corporeal for longer than seven minutes. Just in case.”

Alina nodded in agreement. “Do you have any questions, Miss Chambers?”

Evelyn, though she was grateful for the second explanation, had followed the first just fine. Still, hearing it again did help hammer home the reality of her power. Not only did her power have to be inactive for as long as it was used, but using it too long had some...well, truly dire consequences. She shivered and bit her lip as flashes of the warehouse nearly overcame what nerve she had left.

Taking a deep breath she focused on Alina. Did she have any questions? Was there really anything to say? She frowned a bit then realized something, “Wait...in the warehouse I don’t think my projection was active for more than 10 minutes. So...why did…it attack,” she dropped the sentence, a desperate look in her eyes. After a few moments of trying to find a different word, she sagged a bit, giving up, “Why did it attack my friends?”

Saying it outloud she realized something else. As guilty as she felt and as scared as she was...she needed to talk to Lillian.

“You’re absolutely certain that it hadn’t been ten minutes?” Bret asked more to confirm her question than to get an answer.

“Let me pull up your own account in the official report,” Alina added. She went back to the computer console and took a moment to access the proper files, then took another moment to read Evelyn’s account. After a couple minutes, she snapped her fingers. “I can’t say for certain unless we get thinker confirmation, but I have a strong theory as to what happened. Immediately before your manifestation turned hostile, all the Wards reported seeing it struck by a blaster beam from one of…” she paused awkwardly. “By a blaster beam. And then you reported feeling a strange disorientation with your manifestation. It feels fairly clear to me that the beam did something to force its nature to come about early.”

Evelyn nodded, “Well...that helps. If um, if you can get confirmation I’d appreciate it. Anything else you need?” Even though she was asking, it was clear from the faint nervousness about her that she wanted to leave.

Bret shook his head. “We’re all set. Just need to crunch some numbers, analyze the details, and call in some favors with some out of state thinkers. We’ll update you with any new observations.”

“Alright. Um, thank you for your time,” she said before making a hasty retreat from the room. As soon as she’d departed the room the researchers would notice something odd. The projection’s shadow expanded rapidly until it filled the room completely, then began expanding out the door as well. A moment later it vanished, or rather moved so fast in the direction opposite Evelyn that it appeared to. If they glanced at the file for her power they might recall that the projection wasn’t supposed to get much bigger than 12 feet in height and while its normal dimensions aside from height were not so limited, it still should not have been able to fill the entire room.

Evelyn, entirely unaware of the phenomena, though she had banished the projection as far away as possible again decided, headed for the front desk. Once she got there she asked the receptionist where she could find Lillian. The woman’s response however, dropped all of her hope and resolve in a bucket of acid.

“Lillian isn’t accepting visitors right now. She’s currently with her therapist.” Suddenly numb, Evelyn thanked the woman and turned, an empty look in her eyes. Her dad picked her up and neither of them said anything for the entire ride.

The only part of the receptionist’s response she’d heard were “Lillian isn’t accepting visitors.”

---

It was morning. Jason peered blurrily at the sunlight streaming into the room through the open blinds. How long had it been? A few hours, maybe.

He couldn't stop seeing the alternate Sofia being shot. Every. Single. Time. Every time he tried to sleep those events ran through his mind. Fighting kids? Killing kids? He might enjoy a good fight, but this… This seemed a bit much. Maybe this wasn't his calling, despite the killer pay. Not that he could leave, could he?

Rolling to his feet, Jason dressed. A nice white suit, black tie. Yeah, that would do. Trudging into the hall, he stopped at the room Sofia had taken at this… He couldn't call it a headquarters anymore. It didn't feel right.

A shake of his head before he knocked.

”You up?”

Sofia was curled up in bed, earbuds snaking up her stomach and resting on either side of her head, playing the smooth, comforting sounds of a piano though them. She’d been doing a lot of thinking lately. The last mission they’d done. A lot of weird stuff had happened. Sofia was still not sure what to feel about it, so as usual, so tried to feel nothing. It wasn’t working as well as it usually did. She was in her usual plain gray sweats with an equally boring sweater over them. At the sound of a knock she turned quizzically towards the door. Thunderbird? Sofia cleared her throat, ”Yeah?”

”I'm heading for a walk and ice cream. Wanna come?” He figured they could both use some freedom after everything yesterday.

Sofia mused it over for a moment. She did like sweets. She also remembered hearing that people sometimes took walks to clear their head, she wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was probably better than what she was feeling right now. ”Sure.” Sofia replied simply and rolled off the bed and slipping her feet comfortably into her shoes. "Oh right." Sofia moved over to the desk and computer that sat against the wall and grabbed a small, painfully girlish wallet(It appeared to be a Hello Kitty theme, covered with pink and flowers. It had been bought for for the reasons that it held money and it was the first thing she had seen than the cutesy designs, but Sofia certainly hadn't shied away from it). ”So I can pay for myself!” Sofia said somewhat more brightly, seemingly excited at the thought of paying for something. Considering how times she’d actually bought something she wanted, it was perhaps justified.

Jason chuckled a little at the enthusiasm in her voice at the end, glancing at the garishly pink wallet with some surprise. He always felt like the girl seemed distant, even if it hadn't been very long that they'd been a team together, and the bright colors wasn't what he'd expected.

They walked in silence off the property before Jason spoke up again. “It's nice out, considering the season.”

Weather was always a good icebreaker, wasn't it?

Sofia glanced upwards at the clear skies, as though she was just now considering them. ”Hm, I suppose so. Do you like sunny weather?” Sofia liked it when it was raining. Something about the sound it made and feeling the little impacts of the rain, whether you were inside or outside.

”Honestly, as long as it's not snow I'm happy,” he replied with a casual shrug before putting his hands in his pockets. Might as well get to it... ”So, err, how you doing?”

”Eh?” Sofia was puzzled for a moment, ”Well… I…” Her voice trailed off for a bit. How WAS she doing? When was the last time someone had asked her that? To be honest, Sofia had a feeling she wasn’t doing great. Sofia had never pondered much whether she was a good person. She stole things sure, but they were little things. Sofia knew she wasn’t a great person but, what she was doing now? ”I don’t think I want to do stuff like that again.” She said quietly.

Jason stopped walking, looking at the sky, as he took that in. ”Yeah...I don't either. That… Wasn't… Just fuck.” Running a hand through his hair, he started walking again. ”I spent a lot of last night thinking, and that was pretty bad. I was thinking of leaving, but I don't know.”

Sofia shook her head, ” But Broker doesn’t like loose ends, he said so.” Sofia said softly as she tailed after Jason, rather than walking directly beside him, she was more of walking in his shadow.

Jason nodded slowly. ”Yeah… But I think if something like this happens again I'll take my chances. Killing kids? Just not my thing. I didn't honestly even like fight those Wards… And giving them mental trauma?” Jason kicked at a passing trash can in an attempt at relieving frustrations.

”Hmm…” Sofia simply made a thinking noise and continued trailing after Jason. She wondered how many people died at the warehouse. Then she stopped wondering. She did not wish to think of such things. Instead she could think of what flavour ice cream to get! They arrived at the place, creatively named, “Coldstone” and Sofia immediately increased her pace, stepping ahead of Jason for once and started ‘ooooh’ing at all the flavours. ”Hey, hey, can I get this one?” She said, pointing at some chocolate.

”Heh, you don't need my permission…” Jason muttered. ”It's not like I'm in charge of you.”

“Oh… Right. I want um, 3 scoops of that, no wait that one.” Sofia said, switching her pointing from the chocolate to Rocky Road. The man serving her raised an eyebrow but seemed more amused than annoyed at her antics. Within moments Sofia had a triple scoop of Rocky Road on a cone and had paid for it, a fact that seemed to surprise the man serving her. ”What are you gonna get?” Sofia asked as she ‘nom’ed on her ice cream.

Jason chuckled, more at the man's expression than Sofia's antics, before pointing at the mint chocolate swirl. ”Triple.” After paying, he moved to go outside before turning and pausing. ”Inside, outside, walk?” he asked his ice cream partner.

”Walk.” Sofia said confidently and headed outside, feeling rather pleased with herself. She’d never had much of a chance to have ice cream, much less something more expensive like Rocky Road. It was a rewarding experience for a couple of reasons and Sofia was happy that Jason had invited her. ”Mhmm, thanks Jason.”

”Sure thing. Doesn't always have to be doom and gloom,” he said with a shrug. ”Not like any of the others would be fun to chill with anyways, I don't think.”

”Hm…’ Sofia thought about that. He kinda had a point. Everyone was so serious and stuff. Sofia wasn’t sure any of them would even like ice cream. Although she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to find out. Hm...

Inside a room in their current base, Shatterpoint had called Creep and Visage to a meeting. One of which entered while invisible, and the other dutiful yet a bit distracted.

Creep felt considerably uneasy about this meeting. Not only was there another girl there, with all likelihood another parahuman, but they had clearly been summoned as a pair. That broke the mold on how these meetings usually went, with Creep being a secret to everything and everyone, mostly. That said, it did seem people had started to figure it out. Creep inspected the other girl from the safety of her invisibility. She was… decidedly feminine and pulled off a costume in a way Creep could only hope to one day achieve, if she ever overcame her natural shyness.

Visage seemed to notice Creep immediately and began to focus on that instead. She kept looking around, her power telling her someone was there, but not elaborating. After a small bit she gave up, and refocused on her more visible leader.

While noting how the other girl started looking around and becoming a little perturbed as to the reason, Creep went ahead and gave Shatterpoint a little blink of a black star only he could see that indicated “I’m here”. He proceeded to speak to them both.

"It has come to my attention that I have been invited to a meeting with the other villains of Denver. However I won't be able to participate. The Big Boss would like one or both of you to represent us in my stead."

Sheila internally cracked, albeit it wasn’t visible. Flinched, eyes widening under the blindfold, staring at the image of Shatterpoint that she had made for her eyes to see. She was gripped by a slight bit of panic, the fact she was there revealed… and they wanted HER to represent the Rockers at a villain-meet up!?

After a few seconds, she decided to speak. The person next to her knew she was there right now, anyways. Taking the greatest care to sound as collected as possible, she spoke into the voice-changer she had stolen and incorporated into her mask. Her voice was still decidedly female, but perhaps more creepy and hoarse than her real one.

‘Are you serious?’ she asked, not in a ridiculing way, more in the way of ensuring this was no practical joke. Shatterpoint did not respond, but she got the impression he didn’t appreciate the question. … He was serious. Creep had to take a few moments to process that. This went directly against her desire to stay hidden. … That said. She was here to get information on villains… was she not? If so, this was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to dismiss. She gathered herself again, and started speaking.

‘You realize that goes directly against the terms I outlined in the beginning of our cooperation? ... That said, I would be willing. Am I only there to gather info or should I know a lot of information for when I am spoken to? Like, our willingness to potentially cooperate, or if I can make decisions on the spot to make us look stronger, or anything like that...’ … She felt a little too much of herself leaked into what she was saying, but she was frantic for answers.

"Accept to do this or don't." So yielded Shatterpoint’s only answer.

Sheila staggered. She had to sort out her emotions for a second or so, and once again overcome her apprehensiveness.

‘... I accept. But, um… Any guidelines to how I should act, in general? As representative of the Rockers?’

That’s when Shatterpoint simply turned and walked away, exiting the room and leaving the two on their own.

‘Well, damn,’ she muttered. So she was simply to represent this criminal organization without nary a clue to what they’d be willing to do, what stance they had on issues and whatever else. Not entirely true, she had plenty of clues over her time in the organization, but she was comically unprepared to actually represent them.

Still… there was another girl next to her, who also had been picked to represent them. Sheila wasn’t alone. So…

Creep let the shroud of invisibility fall. To Visage, if she was looking, it looked like an invisibility-cloak fell off a person in black standing next to her, revealing parts of her in turn from top down with the cloak remaining invisible when it was gone. Creep slowly turned her head partly towards Visage, mostly for appearance since Sheila could always see the girl with powers.

‘... I’m Creep,’ she eventually settled on, eyes hidden behind a blindfold, mouth hidden behind a mask, body hidden behind a cloak. Now it was simply a matter of Sheila remembering the mannerism she established for Creep, and actually sticking to it this time.

Visage wasn't surprised by their leader's quick exit, nor particularly bothered by the request. It seemed to be all upsides, in her opinion at least. It happened that she was more perturbed by Creep's questioning, and more importantly the inability to actually see her fellow representative. The speaking helped Visage pinpoint Creep, not to mention the whole "stopped being invisible thing." Visage stared deep, tracing the woman's outline, and immediately deciding whether or not she liked the aesthetic.

It was modern, and intimidating, matching the villain persona well. Where Visage tried to draw eyes, Creep tried to keep them off; invisibility or no. Despite the contrast to her own choices, a smile flashed across her lips after the two beats spent inspecting. "I'm Visage. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, as opposed to just overhearing quiet rumbles on the street every so often." She said, almost flirtatious, even now. "Were you staring at me by the way? I normally don't talk about my power, but I kept getting alarm bells" She continued, taking a few steps to circle Creep, clearly wanting to observe the woman's body further. As to whether it was for work or for pleasure, the line seemed blurred, though that was a common theme for the shapely stranger.

Creep immediately got an uncomfortable premunition as Visage looked over her form, and then proceeded to wander around her to inspect her closely. Natural shyness took hold of her, holding her breath as she felt the other girl’s eyes on her, but she remained watching Visage through her power as-

Huh. Quiet rumbles on the streets? Power, setting off alarm bells-

Creep shut down her observational power in immediate instinctual reaction, and her vision turned black as she only looked into her blindfold now. … No, this was unacceptable, like this she wouldn’t see if Visage intended on backstabbing her. She’d simply have to accept if this girl had a power that let her recognize that she was being watched. Creep turned on her power again, staring at Visage despite Visage being behind her.

‘... I’m, uh…’ No, that’s no good. Creep’s villainous. Be Creep, Sheila! ‘... Not used to that people knows I’m watching.’ Not much better, but true… Feeling excessively apprehensive, Creep shut up and let Visage continue watching her.

"Even now you can see my eyes," Visage said, just loud enough to be heard. Completing the circle, she smiled wider. She was wearing a reverse of her normal mask, a broken porcelain piece that covered the top half of her face instead of the bottom. Eye holes were cut, with a small bit of clear glass preventing any actual straight attack vector to them. "If you don't want to go, I'd be fine with being the sole representative. Or you can lurk in the shadows while I appear to attend alone, you shouldn't let the bosses decision affect terms agreed upon beforehand."

She paused, considering her words.

"If you've ever worked a straight retail job, you know that sometimes your responsibilities can expand beyond that of what an initial contract entailed. Despite this being a common progression in most careers, if the contract doesn't change, your responsibilities, or the expectations that are held concerning you, shouldn't either. So feel free to approach this in the way you feel is more natural. As a note, you could always try to leverage the increased responsibility for a pay raise at some point, but only if you're a good negotiator."

Creep breathed through her nose, working to keep calm as Visage confirmed knowing her eyes could be seen. That… could be dangerous, in the event they were together when Sheila was Wisp. She’d just have to keep this in mind. Then… Visage started giving suggestions, both for the coming event and for her career as a villain. Despite herself, Sheila felt a bit comforted, and answering came more naturally.

‘… I’d like to be there, but being invisible is too dangerous. Denver’s villains will have gathered, and odds are somebody could see me, and somebody dangerous might feel it an insult that I tried to sneak in my presence. I’d rather not my power be publicly displayed in such an event. Much preferable that I’m simply there, a mystery they’ll have to grumble about.’ So she reasoned.

‘… Noted,’ she responded to the advice on changing contracts. ‘I don’t… consider myself a good talker.’ … Now, Sheila, whatever happened to the unfriendly Creep persona you were going to employ, she mentally asked herself. Still, they had to cooperate, so this was to their advantage.

"I love the blindfold by the way, it's a great touch. If I were you I'd show more skin, but at the same time costumes can be hard to adjust when you're still growing." She said, switching subjects just often enough to keep Creep off guard. "Well I'll be happy to have you along then" Visage was no longer actually keeping her eyes on Creep, just around her outline instead. It was a small difference, but she did it intentionally. "Now then, what will you be wearing?" This was something she was very much interested in, and it showed.

Despite herself, Sheila felt a touch of pride when her blindfold was praised, though immediately felt awkward again at the mention of showing more skin. Sheila felt that would be both hard and embarrassing to incorporate… She would have replied, but Visage was already onto the next point, being glad having her around. Creep nodded, and was about to ask a question of her own when suddenly Visage instead asked that.

‘… This, I was intending…?’ Creep asked, confused as to what else she could possibly wear, feeling nervous she had made an error in her judgment. It was her costume, after all.

Reaching up, Visage did a small flourish. As her hair came down she activated her power with full dissonance. A black dress hung tightly to the curves that were more teased by her costume, a black mask covering all of her face except her right eye and the cheek beneath it. The other eye wasn't even visible, which left a striking contrast. The red of her hair was more vibrant now, though that could've been because of the costume change. "I was thinking something like this for myself, something to break up the monotony. Do you think it's too much?" She asked, ignoring Creep's answer to the question before this one. It wouldn't be too far off to assume Nora had only asked the question to answer it herself.

Creep took a step away from Visage in pure cautious nature when suddenly the other parahuman's appearance changed. When the changes became apparent Creep froze, though other indications of her amazement was mostly hidden under blindfold and mask, but amazed she was. It was similar to some of Sheila’s own abilities, but didn’t seem to suffer the same limitations. Hard to say without knowing how it worked. Now, Visage asked her if she thought it was too much, but worrying Sheila had another question she wanted to ask now that she saw the demonstration of the power.

‘If things go bad, will you be able to hide?’ Creep asked, naturally wondering if she had to protect her. Still, she was amazed, and it hurt a little to have to force the instinct to say that away.

"That'd be such a waste, don't you think? I try not to hide much," Visage said, inspecting the dress's material. She couldn't actually see it, but she could pretended none the less. "If it comes to it, I can hide just fine. And of course we can trust each other not to share what we know about the other's power." She took a couple steps closer, seeming relaxed with her arms down, but it was still a violation of Creep's personal space. "Us girls gotta stick together after all." Visage was grinning now, Cheshire and unapologetic.

Creep stared at Visage and then nodded when she confirmed that she can, in fact, hide. Then… Visage wandered closer, and Creep turned her head to the right, to avoid a feeling of awkwardness at the closeness, but Visage could feel she was still watching. … Sheila got the feeling Visage felt that she was feeling uncomfortable. A sudden realization in her said that she was showing weakness. That wasn’t a very villain thing to do, was it? Visage had so gracefully entered her range. …

Suddenly, to Visage, the room suddenly started tilting. The same way a vortex tunnel at an amusement park causes the visitors to stumble and fall, her balance would be attacked by the instinct to either fall or grab onto something, Creep gracefully stepping out the way if she was grabbed for. Creep didn’t do it as intensly as she could, however, as her hope was that the Visage would just stagger out of Creep’s range, where the world would then rectify itself.

‘Yeah, it’s to our advantage to be friendly and stick together… but please, not that close, okay…?’ Creep said, letting a bit of amusement into her voice. Now to see how Visage reacted.

Visage saw the room tilt, but didn't feel it. The illusion was sold regardless, and the woman stumbled backwards, eyes wide. Visage hit the ground harder than she would have liked, and tried to regain her composure. The world wasn't actually tilting, it was just an illusion. She narrowed her eyes at Creep after relocating her, and took in the words. "Yeah." She said, the grin gone. "Right." Visage stood, ignoring the urge to reach out her hands and balance herself. Grace was very important. "I'm going to go now. It was nice meeting you Creep. We can meet up here a bit before the meeting and head in together, but until then." Visage turned on her heel, the dress turning back to her standard villain garb as she dismissed the node. She was seething.

Creep simply kept watching as Visage dealt with what had happened to her. … Whoops. Might have lost a potential friend there. Still, acting-like-a-villain points. Sheila felt remarkably torn between feeling proud she had been able to pull it off and feeling horribly guilty for her most recent action. Still, she had to simply suck it up, and remain Creep.

‘Yeah. You as well, Visage. I did like the dress,’ Creep said, nodding to the other parahuman and letting her leave.

---

Day of the meeting

Creep arrived around half an hour earlier than she probably needed. Better early than late. If that meant she arrived before Visage or not, Visage was the one person that’d know she was in the room. Still. Creep attempted to talk as quickly as possible, revealing herself as she had been invisible heading here. Creep was wearing the same clothes as last time, no changes to her appearance.

‘Hi. Are you ready? Did you plan anything specific?’ Creep asked. Herself, she probably wasn't very ready, probably would let Visage do the talking as much as possible so she could stay inconspicuous and avoid making mistakes. She was a bit worried about how Visage might behave towards her due to last time's end, but Creep at the very least thought she was okay, so far. But… it was good to remember that she was a villain.

Creep saw Visage enter at the some moment Visage's power told her about Creep's presence. Visage nodded in response to the question, smiling again, though it only showed in her eyes. She was wearing almost the exact same outfit as she had showed Creep with her power, though all the details were more fully realized. Blush was splashed against the revealed cheek, the red lending a nice tone to her pale skin, as well as further contrasting the dark mascara she wore. A cut in the dress's thigh area was also present though it still clung very tightly to her curves. "We go there, we look intimidating, and I make sure at least one of them falls for me." Nora's voice was sultry again. "If you want, we could arrive together, I think that would be for the best."

Creep actually found herself a bit amused by Visage’s line about making someone fall for her. ‘Yeah… You do that. You look more suitable for that. I’ll stick to looking intimidating.’ She nodded to the next part, relieved that it still seemed like they could work together despite what she pulled last time.

‘Yeah. Let’s go.’