Clever

Joyce Knightly: February 21st,20XX

The young woman shifted in her seat and clenched her sweater in her hands, despite the occasional shudder from the cold. I couldn’t tell her to put the blood-stained article of clothing back on, but I also couldn’t leave her to freeze like that.

I raised a hand to the server and waved him over to the table. Thankfully, I’d requested a private room so we could have this conversation.

“Could you raise the heat, my companion here is cold. And go check on the food, it should have been here by now.”

“Ah, Ms. Knightly.”

Destia looked flustered at my sudden requests and tried to tell me she was okay, but anyone with eyes and ears could see she wasn’t.

From the angry roars from her stomach to the uncomfortable gait she took on as she walked in the worn-down soles of her shoes. She was a mess, but I couldn’t do much more than I had before I became clear of the situation.

I’d thought I’d prepared for the event that one hero might not be a perfect person, but out of the five kids I’d found; Destia had been one I’d least expected to need to fetch from a police station.

The captain had told me a paraphrased explanation of the situation and had shown me the statement from the kid she had saved. I knew why she had done what she did, but I needed to know if she had landed those five kids in the hospital on purpose or if it was because she couldn’t control her powers well enough.

If it turned out to be the former, then I wasn’t comfortable in letting her get close to the other kids. Aside from maybe Aaron, her power was the most directly combat-related. If her personality matched her potential for violence, then it would be irresponsible for me to integrate her into the lives of the other children.

The temperature in the room spiked high enough to make me take off my scarf, but even that wasn’t enough. I reminded myself I was still in public, despite the comfortable enclosed room, and waited for the server to finish laying out the food.

“That will be all. Close the door behind you and don’t enter until I call.”

The server nodded, used to such requests, and once he’d set out the last plate, left the room and closed the door shut with a gentle click. I picked the tablet off the table and locked the door from my seat.

That was why I liked this restaurant so much.

While there was a lot of negative press surrounding it, their status as a perfect meeting spot was unmatched. They didn’t require you to provide proof of your identity, and as long as you paid, wouldn’t ask questions.

It wasn’t like I was doing anything illegal or that I thought this was the best place to handle sensitive information. But I’d needed to take Destia’s hunger into account.

She tried to eat slowly at first, but I could see her inhibitions fade at about the third bite and she inhaled the food. Her arms blurred at the speed she brought the food from the plate to her mouth, but she didn’t seem to notice.

What I did next was immature, but the opportunity was just too sweet to pass by.

“Slow down, Miss Jayden. You wouldn’t want me to discover your powers.”

To her credit, she didn’t choke on her food, but her hands stopped at an abnormal angle and the food that had failed to make it into her throat, fell out of her mouth.

I finally saw the tip of her forehead as she lifted her head and made eye contact with me, trying to process what I had said.

It was impressive how clearly I could see the wheels turning in her head. But what was more impressive was how quickly she put whatever solution she’d come to into action. She scrambled to pick up the food she’d dropped in her haste to eat and looked up bashfully at me.

“Ah, sorry ma’am. I’ll try to eat slower. My mom always said I ate like a beast when I was hungry, but saying it's a superpower is new. Haha.”

She deliberately twisted my words to sound like I was joking about the speed at which she ate and looked back down at her plate, this time eating slowly. Her arm tensed as she tried to maintain the pace under my watchful gaze, but it amused me.

According to Aaron, Tillo and Kaja had given up their powers directly after he’s confronted them about it. Archer and Eva had tried to attack me with theirs, so lying about them afterward would have been pointless.

But Destia, not only did she talk her way out of my direct attack, she did it so smoothly that if I hadn’t been completely sure about what I’d just seen, would have made me doubt my information.

I took a bite of my food as well, I’d just eaten with Aaron and the other kids so I wasn’t that hungry, but Destia wouldn’t have eaten if I hadn’t taken a plate as well.

“Well, I’ve seen the speed for myself so I’m good there, but what about the invisibility? Or well, I guess I’ll see that when I look through the security camera footage of your little ‘scuffle’ earlier.”

This time she choked, and I quickly pushed a cup of water toward her. She fought back her urge to gulp it down and took her time, capitalizing on the activity to slow down the tempo of the conversation and figure out a plan of action.

She was an intelligent girl, there was never any doubt at that.

Even if she hadn’t had superpowers, I just might have taken her in for the normal internship program. Her grades and works were less than stellar in quality, but the sheer amount of quantity that she had submitted showed that she wasn’t one to leave any stone unturned if she thought it might have a shred of glass under it.

“Don’t bother trying to lie to me, Destia. You’re already in some trouble.”

Whatever she’d wanted to say died on her lips, and the dull expression she’d carried in the holding cell returned.

“I already said it before, but I will not scold you for saving that child. And I will say nothing to anyone about your powers, but that’s on the condition that you answer me completely truthfully.”

Again, I saw the wheels of thought spin through her eyes, but they eventually settled and her eyes dulled again.

“I…. can’t promise I’ll be a hundred percent honest if I think lying will get me what I want.”

She replied with a contradictory sentence, but it didn’t make me mad. At worst, I just needed to ask Archer to help me out in figuring out her true intentions, but only if he wanted to.

“Destia… Did you intend to hurt those boys?”

Her lips parted to give a response, but then she paused and took another long drink of water and reformulated her answer. I just didn’t know if it was to tell the truth, or to come up with a better lie.

“I- did want to hurt them, but not as badly as I did. I just needed them out of commission in time for Raf to get away.”

I didn’t have any sort of ability to check if she was being truthful or not, but I had no reason to believe that she would lie to me over this.

She reminded me of myself a lot, and that was a burdensome conclusion to come to after only having one substantial conversation with her.

The Destia I’d grown to know from the application and the Destia I saw in front of me now was just too different to accept as the same person.

Was she putting up an act to protect her secret? Or was this how she really was?

“… Did you enjoy harming them? Or do you regret it?”

Again she took her time before replying, and I could see the answer form on her face before she put it into words.

“I didn’t enjoy harming them, but I didn’t regret it either. They’re criminals, and if I’d left them be, they would and have done much worse to others.”

Now…. What was I supposed to do with that answer? And more so, what was I supposed to