Lightning and Starlight

In Danger

Three weeks and one day Vincent had been gone. Neera opened her eyes slowly, groaning when she was met with darkness. She pulled off her covers and pulled on her pants, slowly going to the bathroom to get ready.

She brushed her teeth. She washed her face. She put makeup on, ever so slightly.

She got dressed and checked the time. Thankfully, it was after eight in the morning. She could go to breakfast. Knowing her friends, they would be already up and ready to eat.

She walked slowly to the cafeteria, watching other heroes scurry around in the hallways.

It was busier than usual.

It was like that sometimes.

Neera walked into breakfast to see an almost empty cafeteria. She sat down at the usual table, noting Selah and Badiah's absence. Hayes and Sydney were already there.

When Neera sat down, Sydney handed her an apple and bacon. Neera thanked her quietly.

"Where is everyone?" Neera wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure," Sydney drawled, glancing around the cafeteria. "There was a big rush this morning. I'm not sure if something's happened or not."

Neera's head shot up. "Vincent?"

"No," Sydney claimed. "If something with Vincent's mission had gone wrong, alarms would be going off. There would be an even bigger panic. Even if heroes don't always want to rescue other heroes in danger, Vincent still has a lot of information we need on that new villain and that whole group. So even if he was in danger, they would send people. He would come back okay, Neera."

Neera shifted her gaze to Hayes. "You're awfully quiet, Hayes."

Hayes shifted in his seat. "I'm often quiet. I usually only talk to Syd."

Sydney smiled, but Neera ignored the comment and Sydney's reaction.

"What do you know?" Neera demanded. "It is Vincent, isn't it? Something happened. You usually talk to me some, too."

Hayes held his hands up, as if to calm her down. That only made her madder. "Neera, Verena hasn't said much. He's okay, I promise. They're working on it. It's just a slight bump. He'll be back soon."

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself," Neera replied, shooting up from the table. She took a deep breath to control the energy threatening to shoot out of her body. She marched out of the cafeteria and to the main room, Hayes and Sydney hot on her trail.

"Neera. Stay calm," Hayes shouted at her.

Neera burst into the main room to find the room in chaos. Techies were running around and shouting things at each other. She spotted Selah yelling at another techie, something he never did, and Badiah furiously working on a computer, yelling orders.

Verena stood over Badiah's shoulder, her face set in determination. She said something to another techie, and the techie shot off to grab another computer, hurrying back to Verena with it.

Neera couldn't contain herself any more. She focused and switched back to how she used to handle her anger: cold rage. The lights flashed and everyone's attention went to the ceiling. The room grew quiet.

"Where is Vincent?" Neera asked calmly.

Verena stood from over Badiah's shoulder, a muscle in Verena's jaw twitching. "I'll explain, Neera."

"Explain quickly."

"Vincent was communicating with us in short, coded messages. Little details. We were sending him back home in a few days, so we could collect the heavy details he couldn't risk coding and sending to us. But he stopped responding to the messages the day before yesterday. We thought he was busy, so we waited. He didn't respond again yesterday, so we sent somebody to check the house we set him up in. It was ransacked. There were signs of a struggle, but Vincent never really had a good grasp on his powers. We're working on locating him."