"It's me, Alice." She said softly with a smile. "It's Spectra. And I kinda need a big favour."

"Spectra?" She repeated. Squinting her eyes and examining the lady's features closer.

Surely there were similarities but there were over a million blondes in the world. "How can I be sure?" She said sceptically.

"Sigh." Kate rolled her eyes but the green energy lined her body and lifted her slightly into the air. "Believe me now?"

Alice's eyes widened. She took a step back in disbelief, but also curiosity. "Oh my god... What are you doing here?"

Spectra, according to what the world officially knew was in the next trial and wouldn't be back for weeks. Unless... unless, she failed and turned into an anomaly.

She lowered back down as the energy expelled from her figure like smoke. "Like I said, I kinda need a big favour."

"Uhmm..." She dragged, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.

A Paragon who'd preferred to have a secret identity was at her door, with a baby and a bag, had just revealed her secret identity and was asking for a favour.

"..."

"Is it something I can do?" Alice said finally.

"Tsss." Kate winced loudly. Not exactly sure how to answer that question. "Yes, in theory you could."

"Alright, then what is it?" Alice straightened out her spine and asked.

"I—" she scratched the back of her head. "I need you to take care of my daughter for a while."

"..."

"...?"

They both stared at each other in silence, neither sure of what to say next.

"W— What?!" Alice unconsciously screamed. "What are you talking about?"

"Could we talk inside?" Kate gestured for her to see they were still standing in the hallway.

"Oh, shit." Alice cursed. She'd completely forgotten. "Please come in." She stepped aside and allowed Kate to enter first.

"..."

It took a while before they started talking again. Alice had got to make tea and Quinn was now fast asleep.

"What's going on with you, Spectra?" Alice asked honestly, nervously glancing at the child sleeping on the couch that might be her responsibility soon. "Why aren't you in the trial?"

Kate, completely numb, didn't answer. Sipping her tea despite the temperature and her eyes fixed on the window.

—HELLOO~!

Alice's scream ripped her from thought. With a sigh, she answered. "Nightwalker happened."

And that word made the hairs at the back of Alice's neck stand. They'd already dated and broken up—and that was the main reason Kate chose to come to her over everyone else.

She'd dated the psychopath, and somehow made it out alive. Which means she could protect her daughter if the need ever arose.

"..."

It took a few minutes but Kate told Alice all that transpired between her and Nightwalker.

Slowly, throughout the conversation, Alice had been lowering her head, and now her face was completely downcast.

She finished but Alice still hadn't raised her eyes. Yes, this wasn't a conventional situation but any response would do in this.

"Haha!" Alice burst out in laughter, clutching her stomach and tearing welling behind her eyes.

"..."

What type of sicko laughs at something like that?

Noticing Kate's instant vex. She tried explaining while she laughed. "I'm sorry, it's just fucking nice that someone else will acknowledge the fact that he's fucking crazy.

"..."

Throughout our relationship, when someone looked at me weird, they'd end up dead in some horrific way, when a waiter's eyes lingered on me too long—they'd be dead, even when I disagreed with him—someone I knew would just end up dead...

And everyone thought I was being fucking paranoid?"

Her words were a complete contrast from her voice. Despicable things she uttered, yet, she did it with a smile.

Kate stretched a comforting hand on her thigh. "Alice, are you okay?"

She brushed her off with a simple nonchalant gesture. "I'm amazing. Just glad someone else knows what I went through now." She stopped her tea.

"..."

"So, what do you want to do about it?" Alice asked when she finally calmed down.

"I'm gonna kill him." Kate hissed, fingers curling in her lap. "I'm gonna make him suffer for everything he's done."

——CLINK!

She set the cup down loudly. "You don't fully understand what game you're playing, do you?" She held Kate's eyes. "He's the Paragon on Veltharion—"

"So am I." Kate cut her off. "I should have just as much standing as he does."

"But you don't," she answered flatly. "Sorry to say this... But Nightwalker's been in the industry a lot longer than you."

"Then— Then, I'll ask V.A.L.O.R for help," she stuttered. "The director doesn't like him anyway."

"The human director?" She repeated. "What's he gonna do... Fire him?

We're talking about a man who can control the sun, a man who only uses lasers, and ignores his other abilities, because it's more fun."

Kate sighed. The tension was steadily rising between them and she didn't come for an argument. She didn't even want to involve Alice, because she knew she'd already retired from being a hero.

She just wanted someone capable and kind, to take care of her daughter. The last thing she had left in this world.

"Alice, I know you don't think this will work and honestly, she turned to sleeping Quinn. "Neither do I. I just can't face her—" Quinn. "—knowing I did nothing to right a wrong."

"At the cost of your life and millions of others? Because that's what it's gonna cost.

Two Paragons going head to head will at least result in the death of millions..." She paused. "Look, of course, I'll take care of Quinn if anything happens to you but, can't we just make sure nothing happens to you first?"

Just before she could open her mouth to respond she heard something that made her ear tingle.

——SKREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!

She whipped her head towards a wall, trying to decipher the source of the sound.

Alice, who couldn't hear at the range which a Paragon did, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Are you good?"

Kate ignored her, trying to listen in harder and confirm the sound and location.

A deafening screech as steel wheels grind against rails and twisted metal collides. A thunderous, explosive bang when the trains or cars collide, similar to a massive industrial explosion.

It was the train in Vistra.

"I have to go!" Kate said quickly just before she bolted out of the apartment. Leaving a gust of wind to further add to Kate's worries.

Wings slicing through the wind, the hero surged across the sky like a blazing comet, every heartbeat pounding with urgency.

The world blurred beneath her—rooftops, rivers, forests—mere streaks of color as she pushed faster, faster, until the air itself roared in protest.

Ahead, faint cries pierced the chaos, and with a final burst of speed, she hurled herself toward the danger.

She crashed down not too far from the crash and looked at the disaster with wide eyes.

The train had already gone off the rails. Cars were bent in half, steel frames folded like paper.

Glass was everywhere—shards embedded in seats, scattered across the ground, crunching underfoot. The smell was a mix of burnt oil, hot metal, and dust, heavy enough to sting the nose.

The sound had died down to occasional groans of twisted beams settling, but faint cries still leaked out from under the wreckage, muffled and weak.

The scene wasn't cinematic—it was mechanical: iron crushing bodies, weight pressing down, systems failing. Everything about it was chaos reduced to debris, a disaster frozen in place.

Her eyes swept across the wreckage but Nightwalker wasn't there. If it was Nightwalker, the train would've been flattened not scattered.

Then how the hell did the train end up so like this?

"..."

That wasn't important, pushing her emotions aside, she stepped up and tried to rescue the survivors trapped under the wreck.

Some she could save, the others were long gone. But shortly after, the police arrived and helped her with the wreckage.

"I'm so glad your here, Spectra." One of the officers tried to lighten the mood. "Why were you in town anyway?"

She indulged as the sat together. "I heard the crash and came as soon as I could." Her words were monotonous.

"Thank you." He showed gratitude. "Things could've been a lot worse if you weren't here."

She scoffed but had no reply to that.

How the fuck was this better? Hundreds killed in the wreck—that they could find, too many mangled and mutilated body parts to actually tell the death toll.

Survivors were few, too few. Making the whole thing feel useless and unnecessary.

The smell of dust, and blood was written all over her again, she couldn't save them either.

But one thing was most jarring—it had already been a few days aince Nightwalker's threat. So, why now?

"Ma'am?" The young officer called her out of thought. "You were the first one on the scene, would you like to give your statement?"

After the brief statement, where she accounted all she'd seen, leaving out the last few days and the fact that she was sure it was Nightwalker.

Just before the officer was about to leave she called him back and asked, "Do you guys have any idea what happened here?"

"Wear down of the brakes, really weird since it's supposed to be checked every day but it is what it is."

"The brakes?"

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