Finn breathed out. Were these people finally going to let up? The only reason he had engaged in this fight to begin with was to—without straining his power too much through attempting to revert it with reality impressions—undo the warped space established by the girl in the black-and-white costume. He had no clue what her name was, honestly. Neither did he know what any of the others here were called.

Save the woman hovering above him.

Automique was a household name in this country, definitely one of the people Jack had in his top fifty and could name all the public exploits of. That was also the reason Finn remembered her in the first place. Besides the few Unbound scattered throughout the nation, she was among the top. Close to Mistral's level, in his estimation.

Her outfit looked impressive enough, he supposed, but he was far beyond the point of seeing no deeper than the surface image humans liked to portray. The carefully crafted masks they presented. This, too, was a curated image she was showing him. Unbeknownst to her, he was more aware of her emotions than she likely was herself.

Irritation, dread, hope, relief. Her aura was a blend of clashing colors, though admittedly not as erratic as her apparent juniors.

Either way, Finn was prepared.

"On behalf of my charges, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for the aggression they displayed towards you," Automique began. "I dearly hope we can put this all behind us, and see if a peaceful resolution can be achieved that satisfies both parties. Do you find that agreeable?"

Finn just stared at her for a moment, considering. Her red helmet hid her worried frown well. Something she no doubt thought worked in her favor. Little did she know, it didn't make the slightest difference.

Not that he bothered to take advantage of it. "I don't care about your peace negotiations. Remove the spatial loop, before I do it myself," he replied.

He wasn't bluffing. He could've torn through the girl's spatial construct minutes ago. Only the risk of damage had stayed his hand. Not to himself. Rather, it was the girl. He could feel how she was connected to her power in a fundamental way that could do permanent harm if he wasn't careful; giving her a few bruises was preferable to giving her a brain hemorrhage. That restraint was gone now. He'd already shown more than he wanted to.

There was a brief silence. The kind that came not from hesitation, but recalibration. Automique didn't twitch, didn't move, yet the air shifted subtly around her. The others behind her, battered, bruised, barely standing as they were, tensed. She raised a hand, palm out, a silent gesture for restraint.

"I see," she said carefully, then turned her head a fraction. "Tress. Revert your power."

The quivering girl could not have obeyed faster, making broad motions with her hands as Finn felt the structures in his sphere of influence return to their normal arrangement.

"I appreciate your compliance," Automique told him, her tone measured, rehearsed.

"I didn't comply," he said flatly. "You realized you had no choice."

One of the younger heroes whose names he didn't know, bristled at that. The one who tried to outspeed him earlier, full of fire and nothing to back it up. Finn didn't even glance her way.

He turned to leave.

"Please wait," Automique urged. "I want a conversation. Just a conversation. You're not under arrest. As I said previously, this entire fight was a misunderstanding. Some villains were robbing a bank, and Echelon here happened to see you running away from the crime scene. I now realize it was an unfortunate coincidence, but at the time I allowed Vindex to detain you. We're not going to do that anymore. We simply want to understand what happened, and who you are."

Echelon and Vindex? He looked at the power armor kid and the energy construct boy in turn, noting and promptly dismissing their presence.

"I need to head back home," he declared. "Move on with your lives as if I was never here. I'm going."

The heroine moved to block his path. "That's the direction of the TUR station. Is that why you came to Miami? If so, I'm obligated to say I can't permit illegal entry."

He stared.

"Look," she added, "it's okay with me if you need to leave. I'm just saying, it's going to take even longer if you waltz in there now than it would otherwise. That much, I can promise you. Just come with us so we can make the proper arrangements. That's all I ask."

Governments making things difficult for him all the time. This was why he never joined up with the DHD back home. He couldn't imagine having to deal with this red tape nonsense twenty-four seven when he had actual important missions to attend to.

Around them, three of the younger heroes were picking shifting positions, including the team captain. Finn didn't need to turn around to see the combat stance the girl in the green suit was taking. As if she thought he still wanted to fight. Ridiculous. They had started it.

"You want to take me to your base," he inferred.

"We'd prefer it to continuing this conversation out in the open," Automique said. "You've already drawn attention. Every news drone in a ten-mile radius is probably en route."

He exhaled, releasing some of his annoyance. If what she was saying was true, it would be better if the government heroes could work for him instead of against him. In the wake of his last two fights, he had become keenly aware of how high quality American sensor technology could be, and he couldn't say he was confident in slipping into an underground train unnoticed.

If they tried to lock him up here for weeks, that would be problematic beyond belief. He didn't want to be held up. He inwardly scoffed. Why was the universe making it so hard to get home?

"Alright," he said, sensing relief ripple like a wave through the group. Echelon and Tress in particular slumped their shoulders, posture losing what little hostility remained.

Automique gave a nod. "Then we'll do our best to host you before we arrange your trip. That is, unless you have a criminal record." She eyed him for a second. "And where are you from, by the way? It's a piece of information we'll require you to part with regardless."

"Apexia."

"You are?" Vindex interrupted. "Wouldn't've guessed it from your accent. I figured you were from up north."

"What the fuck," Echelon blurted out of nowhere. His team turned to him. "I knew I recognized you. Colors? Apexia? You're that Shade guy, aren't you?"

Finn would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. He hadn't realized that his career was this well documented. To the point where heroes on another continent knew about him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You know who he is?" Vindex asked.

Echelon ignored him, gaze firmly locked on Finn. "How are you alive?"

To be honest, he wasn't interested in disclosing more than he needed to. But it seemed that these people were looking for confirmation. "Shade, yeah. That's what I go by."

"Dude," the scrawny kid pushed on. "Did you fucking unbind or some shit? I've watched footage of you in action before. It wasn't anything like this."

The green speedster girl walked up to her companion. "Echelon, what are you talking about?"

"You guys don't get it. Remember when I got in trouble for taking my suit out before my scheduled recalibration?" He didn't wait for her to respond. "The boss made me write an essay about three different big counts of hero casualties in the past five years. One of those was a big fight in Apexia with a bunch of Aegis ops and officials banding together to take down this gang. Then the leader became an Unbound. Everything went bad. Noor arrived late. This guy in front of me? He didn't make it."

The hero team and their adult supervisor blinked, eyes sliding back over Finn to reassess him, as if a second look at what they'd been seeing the whole time would give them an epiphany.

"We really should take this inside," Automique cut in. "Can you run with us, Shade? I doubt any of us are in the mood to stop for pictures."

She was right about that last part, at least. Seeing agreement all around, it wasn't long until they were leaving the empty street they had been standing in. Finn noticed the others forming a ring formation around him, the strongest among them staring at his back, hovering centimeters above the asphalt.

The winged heroine kept speaking code into what Finn assumed were comms, even though he spotted no earpiece. He also noticed a relative lack of personnel showing up to the perimeter of the fight. Compared to the DHD, there were hardly one or two cops securing the area but far more drones in the air for various purposes. That meant rebuilding as well.

No one spoke to him on the journey; all communication came in the form of tense glances being exchanged between comrades and covert team channel discussions they assumed he couldn't hear.

For the most part, they were discussing whether he had actually unbound his power and what their chances were if he tried to escape with Automique on their side. He deemed it inconsequential. Whether they knew he was Shade or not, it would make no difference. What mattered was the fastest route to getting out of this.

Deciding to go with them had been a frustrating decision for him. He logically knew it would be faster. The problem was that he didn't have a second to waste.

Not when Omega was back.

He'd never once stopped to check the news since making it back to civilizations with an internet connection, but that hadn't prevented the knowledge from reaching him. Phone and TV-projector screens had been clear as day in his senses, displaying the infamous villain's deeds for the world to see.

Apparently, Omega had made headlines killing and subsequently exposing a famous researcher for child experimentation. The first public appearance he had made in almost two years. Tension coiled Finn's body tight like a spring.

Looking at it from one perspective, that was the extent of the damage. Gunther had only recently seen fit to go back to fighting. On the flip side, he was now sure about that monster escaping Wanderlust's dimension alive.

More than anything, Finn was worried that the next thing he saw on the news would be someone else falling victim to the consequences of his actions. While it may have been limited to a single individual of disreputable character this time, it wouldn't stay that way. Innocent people would die, and the blood would be on his hands.

Hence the rush. He wanted to be there when Omega showed up again, ready to prevent further bloodshed. In order to do that, though, he had to play nice with these roadblocks. Of course, he had considered the possibility of them springing a trap on him, but dismissed it when his superior senses didn't detect any signs of deceit. Granted, there was a chance the woman trailing after him had set something up. He was just skeptical.

Besides, he was more than confident he would see it coming. And if he didn't, then he would be able to fight his way out. Looking around at them, there were three of them with the ability to fly, in addition to two runners and a space warper.

Sensing the emotional states surrounding him, he dismissed that line of thinking. He wasn't here to fight. Fighting for a second round would complicate things. Unnecessary delays.

It became evident that this group had a travel routine, complete with set routes around the city and formations made up so no one would bump into others. Civilians on the street pointed from a distance, spotting superheroes up high. A bit of a contrast to his own adventures in costume, generally. He didn't deem it necessary to be spotted by the public.

The base wasn't anything special.

If he had to point to one aspect that stood out, it was that they go into the front entrance as opposed to a side corridor that led to a subterranean wing of the headquarters. This part of the building was unmanned.

Stepping past multiple layers of automated security, Automique raised a hand, halting them in a wide hallway with sealed doors on the far end. "Down the corridor. Room three," she instructed. "Debriefing lounge."

Vindex muttered something under his breath about "debriefing" being a generous term, but did as he was told. The girl in the green suit by the name of Zyph, as he had just learned, lingered closer to the older woman, giving him a critical side-eye every few seconds.

Finn said nothing. He'd said everything he needed to already.

They reached the room, and the automatic door hissed open to reveal a small, glass-walled space with a table, three chairs, and a wall-mounted screen displaying a muted news channel. One of the headlines at the bottom scrolled past with a familiar name: Omega Sighting Confirmed – Apexia Government Condemns Murder of Professional Researcher.

He looked away from it immediately.

Before inviting him to sit, Automique dismissed the junior heroes. Tress didn't hesitate to put as much distance between herself and Finn as possible. The rest left more reluctantly, Ironeer giving him a last meaningful glance once Echelon had walked around the corner with a "call me" gesture.

The door closed. Silence settled.

"Thank you," Automique said at last, surprising him by taking off her helmet. His brows raised at that. Her hair was a dark mahogany bob, neatly styled to complement her diamond-shaped face. Long nose. Thin lips that formed a polite smile which didn't reach her hooded eyes. "Don't look at me like I'm crazy. These kinds of conversations are easier if both parties have a modicum of trust in each other."

Retracting the leather half-mask, he waited. Not his real face, but it was closer to the courtesy she was requesting.

"I'll keep this short." Her tone was less performative this time. "I know you want to leave."

"Then keep it short," he responded.

She gave a dry chuckle at that, albeit for a short second before she addressed the matter at hand.

"First things first. Officially, you're not under detainment. However, your presence here has tripped some serious red flags. Intercontinental travel without TUR clearance usually does, especially from someone who's been reported dead for a year and a half."

"I wasn't trying to get attention."

"Be that as it may," she said, crossing her arms, "you failed."

A pause.

"I've read up on you since Echelon recognized your name," she went on. "Shade. Mercenary Aegis operative status. Alignment, hero. Very solid track record for the short couple months you were active up to the Venin Incident. Then nothing… until now. Assuming you're really him."

"What?"

"I feel that I have to preface this by saying that we are not the European Federation. Neither you nor we hold an obligation to disclose your civilian identity to them. Although it would smooth a lot of these procedures over. Should you try to gain entry in your hero identity, it's almost inevitable that they're going to put pressure on you under the false pretense of you not being who you say you are."

He merely kept listening, knowing she wasn't done.

"But there is one way I might be able to get you across in a reasonable time frame."

"And that is?" he prompted.

"The Global Accords. Due to their negotiating power and mediation duties, they're granted a lot of exemptions because of the treaties their supporting nations signed in the past. In this case, both nations fall under that umbrella. So if we get you admitted to the next trip under the third revision's Article 9 Diplomatic Escort Allowance, you'll be making use of this rarely invoked clause to get past restricted borders, no questions asked."

That sounded too good to be true. "What's the catch?"

She gave another smile, this one genuine. "For me to call on my contacts and arrange that trip for you, I want you to tell me your story."

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