Ashetana had only heard bits and pieces about the event from her seniors. She avoided the news all day so she could get a first-hand account, she thought she owed her colleagues the chance to tell the story themselves at the very least. Lunai carefully went over what happened, trying not to overwhelm herself in the process. Ashetana’s face remained neutral throughout the story until Lunai told her about her own hostage situation. She explained how Armageddon held her in his grasp and the only reason she was here today was Bliss’s sacrifice.

  “I know we have to face failure as heroes; I’m just having such a hard time with this.” She put her head down in her palms. “Bliss would’ve been taken back to hell and it would’ve been my fault. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

  Ashetana gently grasped her wrists, pulling them from her face to look her in the eyes. “Hey. If he had been taken away, would you go on to look for him? Would you ever give up on finding him?”

  Lunai shook her head. “I would look for him. I would never give up.”

  “Then that’s all that matters. We can’t control everything, just what we do next.”

  She smiled at her. These were all things she knew in her head, but her heart needed time to catch up. She needs to hear the words in other people’s mouths.

  “Thank you. This is really helping a lot.”

  “No problem, I’m sure I’ll need a pep talk one of these days.” Ashetana stood up from the bench. “Anyway, I’m heading home for the day, wanna walk with me? I mean, assuming you’re also going to the apartments.”

  She offered her hand to Lunai, who grabbed it and pulled herself up. Ashetana looked down and noticed the boots on her feet.

  “Woah, boots? I heard that was a no-no on Ya’ar.”

  Lunai’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Old God, I hoped no one would notice! I did it to stop bugs from crawling on me. I really didn’t want to spray them off this morning.”

  She was worried that her reverence for bugs would be creepy to her peers. Ashetana simply looked at her with a concerned expression. She didn’t look disgusted or start laughing at her.

  “Oh Lunai, it must be very hard to have to keep going like nothing happened. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

  She opened her mouth to reassure Ashetana; she was just embarrassed and no harm was done. As soon as her name was spoken, their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash behind them.

  They turned to face the commotion. The bench they were using rested on a side wall of the building that spanned past the entrance. A single person sized space vehicle was lodged into the edge of that wall. The ship was smoking and threatening to catch fire at any moment. The two intern heroes rushed into action, approaching the crash while activating their hero suits. Lunai looked inside the front window and saw a man in the ship’s lone seat. He stared vacantly into the wall in front of him.

  Lunai yelled, “Sir, can you hear me? Are you injured?”

  No response. Ashetana lifted the hatch open and Lunai took a sticker out of her pocket that had a chip on top. She placed it on his neck and it expanded into a cervical collar, stabilizing his neck in case of any spinal cord injuries. She slowly lifted him out of the vehicle with her roots, placing him flat on the ground in front of them. As soon as the roots released him, his body started to spasm. Lunai ran up to him to push him over to his side, but her violently pushed her away when she touched him. Before she had the chance to try again, the man clumsily pushed himself off the ground and stood on his trembling feet.

  Lunai tried to calm him. “Sir, you need medical attention, please sit down!”

  His eyes pointed to the ground as his neck twitched. He slowly looked up at Lunai and his vacant stare changed to one of pure rage. He ran straight for her, letting out a piercing scream on the way.

  Ashetana’s medical distress call immediately changed course. “The subject has become violent, requesting backup! Keep medical assistance at safe distance from the scene.”

  She left the call running as she moved to help Lunai, who was too shocked to respond appropriately. Ashetana leapt towards her and pushed her out of the madman’s war path. They hit the floor and Ashetana pulled them both back up.

  Come on Lunai, you can’t let Ashetana fight alone. Snap out of it and fight like you were trained for four years, because you were!

  Her inner thoughts pushed her to act as she whipped the branches of a nearby tree towards the assailant. They slammed into his body and he tilted to the side, almost falling over but regaining composure in the end. When another branch came towards him, he grabbed it before the impact and ripped it off the tree.

  Ashetana stepped in front of Lunai to engage the man. She ran for him and dropped to the ground as she reached him, pushing her foot under his. He tripped forward and she rose to bump into him as he fell. The soot covering her skin rubbed off on his and she moved to strike his stomach with her fist. The punch landed right in the center of his abdomen and he doubled over coughing. The soot that rubbed off on him started to rise in the air as smoke, heading straight for his hunched over face. He inhaled large heaps of smoke in between coughs. This seemed to be the end of his rampage as the coughing escalated and brought him back to the ground. Lunai took the opportunity to apprehend him with her roots.

  The man sat with his knees to the ground as medical personnel rushed onto the scene. He remained restrained as they began an initial evaluation. As they looked in his mouth, his eyes widened and he started to scream again. Screams turned into another fit of violent coughing as the paramedics noticed a hint of white scrap leaving his mouth. One of them took out a pair of pliers and grabbed the piece, slowly pulling it out. It was now clearly a folded-up piece of paper. It was put in a sealed baggie before anyone dared try to unfold it. Once safely covered, they awkwardly fumbled with the bag to try and unfold the paper and see any writing inside. Lunai leaned over to watch their efforts, eventually seeing a typed message in a fancy font. It was much longer than she expected and very strange in its content.

  To the esteemed administration of the Galactic Security Agency,

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It has been a while since I have seen my favorite superheroes following me around. What’s the matter, did you guys give up on me? I’m hurt. Maybe I’m just not flashy enough to matter to you. I’ve tried acting out to get attention, even sending some mechanic guy to stir up trouble. I really hoped you would track it back to me before I started getting bored, but no such luck. I guess it wasn’t enough of a priority for you to investigate, so you continue to let the poor soul I borrowed rot in prison.

  I guess I need to be more direct, so I’ve sent a little gift straight to you. He was very weak so he shouldn’t cause too much damage, but I’m sorry if he ended up mauling a nearby child or a paramedic trying to help him. Good help is so hard to find these days. Anyways, I’ve been working on a great new project, one a certain human hero would be very interested in. If I get the right investors, it would be a big problem for him. He won’t return my calls, but I’m guessing his CellPulse number has changed since our school days. Just looking for a little love, so please send someone and maybe no more people will be hurt!

  With love, Placebo

  It sounded like a prank, but the agency also followed a large number of minor villains and she didn’t know of every single one of them. It was possible there was a villain who enjoyed the agency’s pursuit. Armageddon sightings had increased in recent weeks, so the agency likely had to postpone a lot of less pressing investigations. She thought back to her interrogation with Olken, thinking he might be the mechanic that the letter mentioned. She felt bad that the agency had not provided him with any closure yet, but perhaps the letter would be a break in the case that could bring his spirits up. The letter also mentioned a human hero which could only be Bliss, unless the writer also knew that Entropi was human.

  No, I’m sure no villain knows that, they would’ve blabbed by now if they did. He also mentioned their school days which is weird. Bliss attended school within the Rebirth System if I remember his biography correctly.

  The paramedics started discussing the next steps together. Lunai helped them move him to a gurney while still wrapped in roots. They were then able to properly restrain him with GSA-approved medical restraints. The roots were removed and the paramedics injected him with a sedative after analyzing his body to determine his species. Ashetana and Lunai followed them as they wheeled him into an ambulance.

  “We’ve got it from here. We’re taking him to the hospital at the Corrections Center.”

  “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” asked Lunai.

  “That letter was signed by Placebo, a lesser-known villain but one a lot of us paramedics know well. He’s a Scorpionidae, they can produce venom.”

  Ashetana curiously replied, “Scorpionidae venom is deadly, it kills within a minute. It doesn’t make people do what that guy was doing.”

  “Yes, that is what makes him sort of a supervillain. He is a chemical mastermind and figured out how to create reactions within his own venom, turning it into any drug he can manage to synthesize.”

  Lunai gasped. “That sounds horrific, how is he only a minor villain?”

  “He seems more attention-seeking than malicious, never actually attacks on a large-scale. He has a history with Bliss; they went to school together. He used to be a resident of the GSA. He’s always trying to get his attention again; it’s kind of cute sometimes.”

  “I don’t see how any of this is cute!” she retorted.

  “It’s actually a really interesting story.” The paramedic leaned in closer to Lunai. “I heard that he stood Bliss up at their high-school prom. Imagine that!”

  Lunai started speaking before her mind could catch up to her instincts. “Wait, what!? No way, he stood Bliss up? Are you sure it’s not the other way around?”

  The paramedic shrugged and gave her slight chuckle. The ambulance doors slammed shut. It hovered up into the air and flew off towards planet Emendatio. It seemed that they were using the coping skills needed to survive their job, just as she needed to do for herself.

  When lives are in your hands, is callousness and humor the only way to survive? How do I keep my compassion and my sanity intact?

  With Lunai in contemplation, Ashetana stood around and waited for something else to happen. She was unsure what the protocol was for a surprise attack, they were so rare at the GSA headquarters these days.

  Her CellPulse buzzed. “Agent Ashfall, please report your status.”

  “Oh yeah!” She brought her wrist to her face. “We apprehended the threat. The medical team arrived and took him to planet Emendatio for treatment.”

  “Understood. We will recall the request for backup. Thank you for your service, we will now hang up this call”

  The screen vanished as the call dropped. Without backup coming, she was even more unsure of what to do next. She walked over to Lunai and tapped her shoulder.

  Lunai whipped around. “Ah!” Her startled posture immediately dissipated. “Oh, sorry, just lost in my own thoughts.”

  “For sure, I am too. That was crazy. I’m just standing here wondering if we’re supposed to write a report on this or something. I guess I’ll wait and see if anyone texts us or someone else shows up? I feel kind of stupid, like this was definitely somewhere in the manual and I missed it.”

  “Honestly, I’m pulling a blank right now too. I went over that book religiously, but my mind is kind of scrambled.”

  “Lunai, you should go home and rest. You already had to work Saturday, don’t spend your entire Sunday working too.”

  Lunai looked at the path towards the apartments. “Rest is tempting, but I think I would prefer to not be alone right now. It’s been nice to just sit and talk with you.”

  Ashetana smiled as a deep red blush met her pink cheeks. “Then we can get right back to it. I’ll just send the general line a message asking if there’s anything else to do. If there’s a report to write, I will handle it, not you.”

  Lunai laughed and sat beside her. They chatted while waiting for a reply to Ashetana’s message. What they got was an unexpected visit from Lunai’s senior. They watched as he descended from the sky and landed in front of them.

  “Bliss, what are you doing here?” she asked.

  “You just got a letter from the most insufferable prick in the galaxy.” He looked over to the crash site, a team of workers now surrounding it to prevent public access. “So goddamn annoying. Every so often he pulls shit like this to try and get me to see him. He doesn’t even have the stomach to pull a stunt that would actually get Crux to send me.”

  Do not ask him about the prom. Dear Old God give me the strength to not ask him about the prom.

  “The letter said he’s working on something that could cause trouble for you. Any idea what that means?”

  He laughed. “Loshket has never followed through with anything in his life! He’s no threat to me, but it’s hilarious that he thinks that would get my attention.”

  Never followed through on anything… Like the prom? Fuck! Stop it, Lunai!

  Ashetana raised an eyebrow. “It did get you to come here, didn’t it?”

  Lunai put a hand over her mouth and turned to Ashetana. Bliss looked shocked, as if she touched on some version of the truth. Lunai’s thoughts shot off wildly as she waited for someone to continue the conversation.

  He put his face on neutral before delivering a calm and collected reply. “Lunai is my intern. I should be here to discuss her first surprise attack.”

  Ashetana turned to her shoulder and mumbled into her sleeve. “If you say so…”

  Bliss glared at her but ignored the comment. “Lunai, you already broke duty hours so you should go home. Since your friend here was involved, I’ll let her write the note instead. Send it to me when you’re finished; I’ll check it over before signing it.”

  She gave him a quick nod and thumbs up. It sounded like a punishment, but she was already planning to do the work instead of Lunai. With that confirmation he was off again, disappearing into the sky.

  “Well, I guess I’ll be off now. Sorry you got stuck with the note.”

  Ashetana put her hand up. “Don’t talk like that. I already told you I would handle it. Get some rest, Lunai.”

  Lunai nodded and gave her the signature GSA salute before walking off. She turned around as she left campus, seeing no sign of Ashetana at the bench. She felt strangely sad, like she was missing her despite just talking to her. It was likely another lingering effect of the trauma from the gala. She could keep telling herself that, at least.