One of her specialties in the academy was working on transports, mostly because she was so skinny that she could fit in the tight accessways and fix things. Like any organization, you could wait for the work order to get through the bureaucracy, but it was almost always easier to get things done yourself. She stretched out in the narrow passageway, glad to be finally free of the chains, and massaged her hands and shoulders, rotating them to relieve them. The warmth of the duct got to her, and she drifted to sleep, thinking about the academy again.
Aurora looked at the man in the purple jumpsuit and was ready to bolt. “I saw what you just did there, young miss, and I’ll admit I’m impressed. What would ye think about coming to train at Purple Faction Academy?” he asked, his voice thick with an accent. Not quite French—Belgian, maybe?
Aurora had heard things about the academy but it didn’t seem real. That was for important people. The difference between regs and supers was a huge divide. And among regs, she was the lowest of the unspoken caste system that had developed post-supers.
No, it was too good to be true. This guy had to have some ulterior motive. I’m not going to escape from those creeps just to jump into the arms of this one. “I’ll have to think about it,” she said noncommittally.
The man laughed slightly and reached into a pocket, pulling out a card and a purple token. “Well, if you change your mind, go to this address and show the token. It was nice to meet you. Stay safe out there.” He waved goodbye, spun on his heel, and walked away.
Aurora stood there, watching him go, anticipating him waiting for her but he joined the stream of pedestrians at the end of the alley and was gone. The card was a shimmering purple color and just had a single address on it. The chip was thick and had something embedded within; she could see some sort of electronics or wires through a translucent window in the center of the token as she held it up to the light.
Pocketing both, she made her way back to the main street. She was in a nicer part of town, and many people she asked for directions either didn’t know anything about the part of town where she lived or outright ignored her, suspecting she would pickpocket them or beg for money. She must have been grimy and dirty, and the thought embarrassed her.
Eventually, she began to ask for directions to a couple landmarks, and she was able to make it back to the small shack she called home about an hour before sundown. She was mentally exhausted as she tried to open the door, finding it locked.
Knocking loudly, she yelled, “C’mon, Auntie, it’s been a rough day. What gives?” She shook the door, and after yelling louder and louder, the neighbor Mr. Kim poked his head out of the window above next door.
“What are you doing here? She left a couple hours ago.”
“What do you mean she left?”
“She said she doesn’t need you anymore. Told us to tell you to find a new home.”
“Huh?” she asked, shocked. She had been helping Auntie learn English, and she had become much better in the last four years, but she never anticipated this. “What about my stuff?”
Mr. Kim just shrugged and leaned back in, closing the window.
Reeling from the situation, she sat on the front steps of her former home and started to cry. Life sucks. Cass knew very well that it wasn’t safe to be on the streets late at night in these parts, and it was getting dark. Pent up emotions from the near escape earlier crashed against the new anger and hurt from Auntie abandoning her. Cast off just like trash.
Is everyone going to leave me? First Mom, now Auntie? She swiped the tears away but they kept coming, then her nose started to run and she reached into her pocket looking for a tissue, but found only the card and token.
Balling her other hand in a fist, she stood and walked back to the main street, making her way to the academy, choking back her sobs.
Aurora frowned and groaned a bit, then rolled over in the dusty duct, and slept even harder, the dream fading away.
Chapter Twelve
Still Alive
Gus got the alert early in the morning before the sun was up. His minimap showed two flashing yellow stars. Gus had set up the alerts so they would flash more and more quickly the closer they got to the island, until they would remain solid when they were ten miles or less away. The color of the stars would also shift to red the closer they were to his location, giving a quick heads up on proximity. Gus quickly got ready, grabbed Jet and an energy bar, and headed out.
Both the boat from earlier and this new approach had come from this same direction. Gus’ plan would be to evaluate from a safe distance and try to discover what their powers were. Gus asked Nick to check the quantum server to see if there was any information there but was told that Nth often would not record things like weaknesses, in order to protect their host. After the host died, this type of information was recorded and transferred for all to see. Gus had no idea how many or what types of supers to expect, and his lack of preparation and abilities seemed daunting. Still, he had his ace in the hole.
Gus was counting on using his untested Leech ability to see if he could gain some new abilities and disable the attackers long enough to get them to the brig. Eventually, he would have to figure out what to do with them, but
