Atomic Rebooted

66. Story

CLAIRE

It was only getting darker earlier as December marched on. But that was alright—it meant that the stars and the holiday lights erected all around the city were able to shine all the brighter for it.

Instead of getting on the tram after esports practice, I headed toward Stephens Park and Town Square.

"It's a great, quiet little place, especially for a place around Town Square." Henry smiled as he walked with me through the colorful city streets. "You'll love it—and their coffee is good, too."

"Hey, I trust your recommendations, don't you worry." I laughed.

There was nothing like the city during the winter holidays—I loved this time of year. When everyone was just a little kinder, a little happier, and everything was beautiful. Some nights I could've walked forever uptown with my hand in Tristan's, even as he grumbled under his breath about the hyper-capitalism of sacred solstice holidays. Not that I didn't get the point just I also really liked just being out in the snow and the lights too. And he knew that.

I'd even daresay he didn't mind nearly as much as he pretended sometimes.

We did not continue forever, for Henry was not my boyfriend and as much as I enjoyed my friend's company, I wanted to see my sweetheart.

Before long, I saw him through the window of the coffee shop, looking longingly back at me. His eyes lit up when they locked onto mine, and Mira waved at us.

I grinned as I stepped inside and shook the snow out of my hair, stomped it off of my boots onto the muddy mat. In the paperboard tray were drinks with our names scrawled on in sharpie.

"You didn't have to do that! Thank you!" I kissed Tristan on the cheek as a means of greeting.

He squeaked in response, turning red.

"We thought it would be a nice thing to do." Mira looked away to the window as Henry took his place beside her.

That was something to get used to—the whole Mira situation.

She'd confided in us a lot of it, what had happened to her. I never knew or cared before about what happened to the Sentinels. I didn't really know about Mystic beyond that she was an ally of Heretic's. Then again, I'd never known that Heretic was the wrong person to blame all along.

You could see it in Mira, the shadows of her upbringing, the places where she wasn't entirely human, for lack of a better word.

And yet she'd become our friend, because of the secrets that tied us all together. We were the Mutated, the Crusaders, the main heroes of the city.

Sure, there were others. But the Sentinels were disbanded now, with only Mira really still doing any kind of hero work. She was the only one who could after all. And sure, Heretic and Mira's dad were back in the game, along with Julien.

But they weren't like us.

"I was surprised you wanted to meet up like this." Mira's eyes glimmered. "I would think you'd want us, you know, in costume."

"I don't want us to only be friends with the masks on," I admitted. "I want us to stick together, or at least to try. We're stronger together—we were able to topple a regime and a supervillain on the same night, when we worked tougher."

"That's true." Tristan snaked his arm around my shoulders.

"I guess I can understand that." Mira looked back out the window, her expression thoughtful.

It was crazy, now that I knew, how much of Mira's mom there was in her. She had the same clever, calculating dark green eyes as her mother.

Was it always there, or was I only just now seeing it because I wanted to?