12 Chapter 12 - Emma

After helping out Silas and Hannah (who were getting along wonderfully) I decided I should head back in with HQ for a mission report and drop off Silhouette. High Solis' headquarters was pretty impressive, and I wondered if it would ever stop taking my breath away to see the lobby of it.

The Empire State Building had been modified by an impressively powerful psychokinetic. The entrance hall had a massive sloped ceiling that was an architectural marvel, and I always found myself sneaking glances at it. As I passed the reception desk, heroes didn't need to check in because we were registered by the security team and checked in on camera, I still found myself peeking around the room at the wonders of the lobby. There were still things that I was noticing for the first time.

A small security team approached me as I escorted Silhouette through the main lobby and took him off my hands. I noted that he wasn't hanging his head in shame nor puffing his chest in pride. He was simply smiling, a wide grin that spread from ear to ear, covering whatever of his face wasn't blocked from my view by what I could now tell was his very poorly maintained mop of hair.

It seemed to fit his profile, based on what I could tell from the incident at the theater. He craved attention, thus the very show-like crime, the spotlight on stage, and waiting for Hannah to get there before he made a move. It was sick and unlike anything I wanted to deal with. I walked to the door marked, "Hero Offices, Management, and Deployment" then slipped away from the immaculate domed room.

With a greeting to the young woman sitting at the first desk, I slip back towards the elevators. I had considered going back out and finding Silas as soon as Silhouette was taken into custody, but there was one stop I needed to make first. As a new hero, I shouldn't have my own office, but being the second in command's daughter has its advantages. I found the elevator and punched the button for the thirtieth floor.

My mom's office wasn't too high in the building, but it was right in what she called the sweet zone. It was high enough that if the elevators shut down, few people would take the stairs to get up to her, but also still a reasonable elevator ride. Not that she ever took the elevator. Her office was modified to have a balcony with sealing glass doors, that way she could fly to her window and walk right in the office.

I thought about what Silas had mentioned about High Solis being self-centered, and remembered that she had her office on the hundredth floor of the tower, and the ten floors below and the two remaining floors above were completely clear. She was separating herself from the rest of us. Just as my train of thought was going somewhere, the doors dinged. They opened and I stepped out onto the thirtieth floor and quickly found my office, right across from White Angel's and next to Metallette's. Normally a new hero wouldn't have their own office, but special privileges apply. I slipped inside and flipped my light switch.

I had to admit that my office was a total mess. I wanted to look through all the congratulation notes and papers that I still hadn't sorted through after getting the position as a hero. I took a minute to collect all the loose papers on the desk and tapped them on the table to straighten their edges. I went to the small desktop I had set on the desk and typed in several keywords for my search. Once I found what I wanted, I clicked the file and began reading.

I made sure to fill out the full report, checking each of the details mentally. I noted that part of it was already filled out with rather vague information. Hannah had filled out a mobile report on her watch, and it was full of grammatical errors and missing all sorts of punctuation. She must have been using a voice to text adapter to simply speak the report on her watch. I finished up what Hannah had started, even removed a few useless pieces of info.

After I was done with the report, I closed the page and sighed. Files are quite possibly the most boring part about organized hero work.

I clicked off my computer and waited for it to fully power down. Taking a few minutes to at least tidy up was important, so I decided to devote some time to it. Neatly stacking the notes, putting all of my spare writing utensils back into my drawer, that sort of thing.

I walked to the door and turned the knob. As soon as I was in the hallway, I noticed the second figure. A tall woman in white with long golden hair. The wings folded behind her back made her look like an angel, and indeed that was where her name came from. My mother, White Angel, was waiting for me.

"Were you going to leave without saying hi?"

"Yeah… I was. I figured you were either out or busy. You're almost always busy." It was true, as High Solis's second in command, she was always either saving something, or arranging something of inter-city political value.

"Emma, can we talk for a second, in my office?" She asked, lowering her voice a little. I decided it was better to just go with it and act like nothing was out of the ordinary. We stepped through the door with her alias on it, but Mom always had just been Mom to me.

"I was reading the report you just now submitted. You mentioned that you helped Hannah bring in a light manipulator, with the help of another Evolved. You didn't say who in the report." I froze for only half a second as I formed an excuse in my mind.

"I didn't think anyone who wasn't a hero needed mentioning." It was a blatant lie, but I figured it was somewhat believable. I would make a great politician.

"Hannah's mobile report wasn't specific," my mom pointed out, "but it mentioned the villain Basic in the few details it had. She also mentioned that she would be following up a lead." I couldn't stop the minuscule flinch, and my mom caught it. She didn't say anything for a moment, only watched me as closely as she could. Even before the Evolution, she had always been able to tell when I was lying. It was like a superpower.

That statement is a lot less impressive when a majority of humanity is superhuman.

"Yeah, he was there. As I mentioned in my report without giving the name, he was the one that actually incapacitated Silhouette."

"I didn't ask if you were lying. I already knew that. I just want to know what else you aren't telling me." She was right, there was so much more I wasn't telling her, but I couldn't let it all out now. I had to let something slip to get her off my back.

"I talked to him, heard his side, back when I first ran into him."

"His chance to explain himself is in captivity. Why would you do that?" She asked, no emotion showing on her face. I needed to not incriminate myself and get Basic on her good side if I could.

"He only told me why he calls himself Basic."

"And?" It wasn't a question, more of a command.

"He said he is a basic, but he is also the Basic. I have been thinking about it ever since. How could a basic have powers like his?" All of that was true. I was still wondering how in the world the suit Silas wore could give him the powers that he had.

"So why does he fight? I believe, from the reports, that the only thing he has done truly wrong was attacking our heroes when they interfered with whatever he was doing. I suspect that his reasons are similar to Rolan Drike's." I flinched again, knowing that she had just compared Silas to a supervillain and was completely wrong about his motives.

"That isn't quite what I think he wants," I interrupted, knowing she would keep going, "I think his ideals are a little bit personal and…" I struggled to find the word that best fit the idea. Silas both wanted to personally avenge Kaitlynn and make High Solis suffer, but he also actually cared about the fact that basics were treated so poorly compared to the evolved.

"I guess you could say he actually cares about how most basics are treated. He mentioned he had a personal vendetta against High Solis herself, but he also just wanted to try to fix our system. He claimed it was flawed, giving more power to the most powerful of us, and completely ignoring the basics!"

"This sounds a little more personal than just what he said," my own mother accused. Unfortunately, she was right. I was letting the fact that I agreed with him that High Solis had too much power seep into my own words.

"He might be partially right," I grumbled. I knew my mom wouldn't approve of the fact that I had been talking with a registered villain. Granted, the time I said I talked to him, he wasn't registered yet.

"Emma, I am not going to stop you from believing anything, and I agree that basics are not treated with equality." It hadn't been at all what I expected her to say, but I guess my sense of right and wrong must have come from her. Hannah never talked about our father, and Mom had only just had me when he died.

"I just don't want you to associate with this Evolved anymore, understand." I nodded, though I knew I would be seeing Silas soon. Her strange ability to identify whenever I was lying didn't seem to go off thanks to her wording, Silas being an actual basic.

I was about to go, but as soon as I turned the knob I stopped. Before I opened the door, I asked a question.

"Mom, do you think that High Solis is a good person?" I felt the tension in the air, almost freezing my feet to the ground like a block of ice.

"Natalie was the greatest person I had ever known besides your father, but power corrupts. She isn't nearly so pure-hearted anymore." It had been a while since I heard White Angel use High Solis's real name, Natalie Brynn, and it had been forever since I had heard anyone call my mom Helen Railon or even Maralie, her maiden name. I certainly hoped that I still went by my own name rather than Flare when I grew up.

"Thanks for the talk Mom," I said over my shoulder as I pushed the door open, "I'll keep what you said in mind." I waved at her as I turned to close the door behind me, and I caught the smile on her face. I knew behind the smile she was worrying about me, and I considered saying something to comfort her other than that I was thinking about what she said. Before anything came to mind, the door closed and my chance was over.

I sighed and let my shoulders fall, then jumped as my watch dinged with the alarm I had set for messages from Hannah. I glanced at my watch and wondered what she had gotten herself into this time. I jogged down the hall and slapped the down button casually when I came to the elevator. I was just relaxing from my talk with my mom when the doors dinged. There in the elevator stood the fiery-eyed hero herself.

"Going down?" she asked in a monotone. I simply nodded and stepped in as I felt the sweat begin to form on my brow. "No need to be frightened, Railon." I almost thought the idea of not being scared of the leader of the city when she could easily turn me to ashes was humorous. The doors dinged as the shut, and I wondered how long she had been in the elevator if she had come from the hundredth floor.

"This new villain, I hear you ran into him again." She didn't say it as though it warranted further comment or discussion. Unlike my mother, I could tell she didn't care to listen if I tried to explain the idea behind Basic to her. I wondered if High Solis even remembered the night that Silas had told me about, only a little over a year ago. She probably did so much saving that she would lose track of several things.

"I hear he calls himself Basic," I noted, "ring any bells?"

"One, but it was something I crushed long ago." She seemed certain that whatever the name reminded her of was gone. "One of the basic gangs gained some help from my rival, they had access to some materials they shouldn't have. It ended in me having to personally intervene. I hate having to intervene in basic crime." The spite in her voice came through, and I guessed she wasn't kidding. She really did hate basics, and more than likely, by extension, Basic himself.

We finished the last minute of the ride in silence, then stepped off the elevator in tandem. I read through the message that Hannah had sent me as I walked out past the desk. She needed me to meet her by the hospital, though she didn't give her reasons right away. It wasn't until I reached the end of the message that I realized that she was asking me to help her hunt Basic. What's more, she wanted me to find Void Star to help catch Basic.

I didn't know what crazy plan she had concocted, but I was almost certain of one thing. Hannah would succeed, and Silas would have no clue what hit him unless I warned him.