Ever since the offer came down, four months had passed in a blink. When it turned out that Phantomurge himself had conferred with his team supervisor in order to arrange a transfer, Bartosz had not believed his ears. Apexia sounded fantastic. He had always wanted to go there, so to hear that he finally could, and do good work there, was a dream come true.

Talks of Voyager coming personally to give him a free teleport straight to the main DHD building were excessive. No need for his superiors to trouble themselves; he wanted to see the sights! Enjoy the food, listen to the music, look at the monuments, all that stuff.

He carried his suitcase behind him, rolling it on its wheels to the platform he needed for the final stretch to Central. When he arrived, the train was already there, causing him to hurry up and jog up to the front car, a separate luxury space that could have carried way more people than the seating indicated.

It was all a bit excessive, if you asked him. He would've been perfectly fine sitting with the other people in the other cars, even if he had to stand the whole way—his mamusia had raised him to be a tough, strong boy. A few hours of standing wouldn't kill him.

Diverging from the rest of the crowd because his trip had been arranged as such, Bartosz walked up to the door opening and pressed the button in the middle. It slid open soundlessly, allowing him to get the suitcase over the threshold by grabbing the handle and lifting it.

Inside, he saw nobody at first and wondered if he was alone. Then he looked to the right and saw a beautiful married couple sitting on each end of one set of seats. Wait, no, his brain did a double take. Those were teenagers, probably around his age. No way they were married. But that didn't stop him from checking them out.

Nearest to him there was the girl, honey blonde, dressed in a fashionable blazer over a dress shirt, complemented by a skirt and leggings. Her eyes were the most stunning green he had ever seen, popping naturally from the light lip gloss and eyeshadow.

Sitting in the far corner of the train, the boy appeared to be sleeping, long brown hair cascading down his broad shoulders and framing his chiseled features. His powerful arms were crossed under the rippling muscles of his chest, a light t-shirt showing off a trained body. Bartosz was quite muscled himself, what with him being in training so often and his parents' nutritious cooking, but he was never able to manage that lean, aesthetic look.

He swallowed.

Nothing to worry about. It wasn't as if he was asking them out on a date, even though both of these people seemed like amazing candidates. One, he was going to be too busy with hero work settling in his new team. And two, they were out of his league.

That being said, he did wonder why they were heading to the unofficial 'capital' of this megacity. Back in Domini, you saw all kinds of people heading to and fro when it came to the main district, each with their own interesting stories. It made him initiate conversation to find out quite a bit whenever he traveled.

He wasn't the shy or reserved type, so this would be no different—though if they didn't want to be bothered, he would mind his own business. Taking a seat on the other end of the middle path, he addressed the young lady.

"Hello," he greeted with clear pronunciation. Accents were prevalent in Domini, just like in Solvarna, due to the lower level of cultural assimilation and oft-spoken primary languages not being English despite that being the one Europe officially used in every megacity. Having a signature speech pattern denoting your heritage was a point of pride in two-thirds of the continent, but he was currently in the third where it wasn't. So he had worked on making himself as understandable as possible, just in case even if he considered his accent on the fainter side.

She looked away from the window and turned to him with a neutral expression, taking in his appearance as if noticing him for the first time. "Good afternoon," she replied.

He gave a genial smile. "Sorry if I'm intruding. I just thought, 'Hey, there is space.' And you looked like they wouldn't mind company too much. Unless I'm mistaken? I can sit out of sight, if you want."

The girl observed him quietly for a moment, perhaps weighing his honesty, and said, "You're fine. It's a public train."

"Fantastic. A wonder to meet you, my name is Bartosz Świda," he introduced himself.

Hesitating a fraction of a second, she responded, "Casey. Pleasure."

That sounded rehearsed, or perhaps just very practiced, like she introduced herself that way to many different types of people. It didn't escape his notice that she was omitting her last name, though he wasn't about to call her out on it.

"And that's Finneas," she added, pointing to the silently slumbering boy sitting opposite her.

"Had a late night?" he asked, injecting some understanding into his tone.

"Something like that," Casey said, a mix of love and concern in her eyes as she looked at this Finneas person.

Aha.

"Are you traveling to Central for the holidays? I hear it's quite full of tourist attractions," Bartosz continued, parking his suitcase neatly to the side and clasping his large hands.

"Not exactly," she said from across the walking space while shifting in her seat. "We're getting settled there before starting university in a few weeks."

So they would be renting a house together? Or staying in the same place? It was nice to hear, he found. They seemed cute together. "What a coincidence! Me, I'm on an exchange program from Domini, the same year as you I believe."

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"I guess that means we're both early," Casey acknowledged with a nod.

"I'm excited to meet all the new people there, I must say. Central is a big place. About twenty-six million residents?"

"Twenty-eight million," she corrected.

"Gigantic," he amended. "It's home to a lot of citizens. My cousins studied here in their youth, as it happens. Same field I'm going into: physics." He already did plenty of homework on it in order to use his power better. Might as well go into something he could use long-term.

"I've heard mixed opinions about advanced physics," Casey said. "Some say it's hard, some say it's simple. Others say it's doable as long as you don't fall behind."

"I would likely subscribe to the last group. However, I believe that philosophy applies to every major. What about yourself? Any interest in the hard sciences?"

Blonde hair swayed a little as she shook her head. "My brother is doing applied mathematics. I'm content with my superficial understanding. Majoring in business."

Bartosz bobbed his head. "A young entrepreneur, am I getting that right?"

"You could say that," she said, a note of pride entering her voice. She glanced at Finneas again. "That's one of the reasons we're here ahead of time."

Business partners and life partners, then? That sounded like an ordeal, but he didn't have that much experience with dating, and none with running a company. Casey wasn't unhappy with the arrangement, clearly. She probably figured it was best to share all parts of your life with someone you trusted.

There was some sense in that. "It sounds like you have a busy time ahead of you, but busy times can be good times, also."

"That's true," she agreed rapidly, sitting up a bit. "So many people say that it's better to relax all the time, and I just, like, wonder if it's because they have nothing worthwhile to do. Everyone is too used to numbing themselves. I get wanting to spend time with your friends, but how much of your day is actually left for what you want to do in life, you know?"

Briefly, Bartosz was curious why she was so passionate about this topic before he decided to simply ask. "I believe I do. You spend your free time working on your business, I assume?"

"Yeah, for the most part. And networking doubles as socialization time, so it's an efficient way to spend the next few weeks. Since I graduated high school in Central as well, there are already groups of people I'm familiar with in the relevant circles. And now that I'm making adjustments I might work late nights—"

Finneas opened his eyes.

"No, you won't," he declared in a pleasant, deeper voice. He hadn't been asleep?

His striking eyes were settled on his travel companion, pinning her to her seat. She glared back, chewing on her cheek as if she was debating whether or not to argue.

After a few tense beats of this fiery staring contest, Casey sighed and relented. "You're right. I won't."

Bartosz didn't interrupt. He just watched the exchange with a quiet, respectful interest, noting how easily the balance of power shifted between them. Casey, for all her assertiveness, didn't push back hard. She trusted Finneas. It was nice to see. Comforting, even.

He smiled to himself and folded his hands again, resting them on the table. "He makes a strong argument."

Casey huffed a quiet laugh, still staring sidelong at Finneas. "He always does."

"You two have known each other long?"

"Two years," the brown-haired boy answered.

"Since we started talking," Casey clarified. "I've known him by face for six."

Shorter than Bartosz had imagined, which only reinforced his growing belief that there was something special about the pair. Nonetheless, he gave them a knowing look. "Zgranie. It's a word we use back home whenever we see individuals who have grown familiar with each other's ins and outs."

His words elicited a smile from the young lady. "I can never get used to how much more common it is to speak different languages in the other megacities. If we retained more of our original cultures here, there wouldn't have been room for a lot of these criminal groups to form."

He knew the one she was referring to. It was a big reason why he had been called here, in fact. As Rozek, he would be using his rather destructive power to combat these forces. While didn't look forward to fighting because he had to be careful of his surroundings non stop, he did look forward to making children smile again.

Wasn't that what mattered, at the end of the day? He definitely thought so.

"Have you ever left Apexia? It's quite different where I come from. Social grouping and habitation is more defined by who your parents' parents' parents are." He paused, realizing how bad that sounded. "I would not call it segregation, more different countries in one. Less uniformity."

"Grass is always greener," was her simple yet accurate response. "And yeah, although my visits to Domini can be counted on one hand. Solvarna is more my speed with the warmer weather. But you seem like the kind of guy to bring positive energy no matter where you go."

She wasn't wrong. "The temperature is no issue for me personally. I even drink my favorite hot beverages in summer." If it wasn't at the bottom of his luggage, he would hold up his thermos can. "What about you? Places that you've been to?" he asked the third person in the room, not wanting to leave anybody out.

Opening his mouth to respond, Finneas paused when Casey casually communicated a hundred sentences to him with another look. He closed his mouth, contemplating for a while. After a long silence, he revealed, "...I was in America recently."

Fantastic. Bartosz wanted to learn more. And he did, for the people in front of him were receptive to his questions and anecdotes despite their slightly intimidating air. Over the course of the hours-long ride, he felt like he'd gotten to know them a lot better, and even secured contact information.

It followed naturally from the revelation of Finneas possessing a cutting-edge American phone prompting everyone to bring out their mobile devices.

Sadly, all good things came to a close at some point, and this was no exception. He would see them again though, when school started. He had no doubts about that.

Once they arrived, the two stunners got up without fanfare, unsurprisingly used to transitioning from one task to another. That was a skill he shared with them, at least.

Now, if everything was as it should be, there should be a colleague meeting up with him to get him acclimated to the district. He'd spoken to her one time on a video call, and it took him a second to find her leaning against one of the pillars.

There she was! His new team captain. She waved politely as she saw him exit the train, and he waved back. Only to stop mid-motion. Because she suddenly looked furious.

He realized belatedly she wasn't looking at him.

She was looking behind him.

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