Shimmer *The Seattle Superheroes*

Chapter Twenty Five: The Way We Work Best

Chapter Twenty Five: The Way We Work Best

Seattle; July 10, 2010; 9:40 a.m.

Trust is an important part of effective cooperation. When working with someone you do not trust, you must constantly be worrying that they are not cooperating properly. It is difficult to allow an untrusted person to work unsupervised. Often, cooperation with someone who you don't trust is only slightly more efficient than doing the job yourself.

This posed a slight problem for a certain hero in white. As Nash had so kindly pointed out, Shimmer trusted no one, and so had difficulty with cooperation. Fortunately, the majority of her dealings were with Nash and Theodore, both of whom trusted her a great deal, and so many potential issues were overcome.

Cane Branson, however, did not trust her at all. When he thought about it, he couldn't figure out exactly why he disliked her so much. She had done nothing at all to hint at any disloyalty to the team, and all of her actions seemed to point to an immense desire to take down the Cult. He didn't distrust her because of her cold attitude; Cane knew deep in his heart that he would act much the same way in her position.

Perhaps that was the problem. Cane Branson prided himself off of understanding people—he was a self-proclaimed philosopher. When it came to the red-haired superheroine, however, he more than understood her. They were eerily similar, and Cane could often predict her actions step for step by simply imagining what he would do in her place. He disliked thinking that he could easily turn into such a miserable, unlikeable person. In addition to that, he knew, once he had pushed his pride away, that there were indeed situations that would cause him to turn to the Cult; he just didn't know enough about Shimmer to know whether or not those situations were in play.

More disturbing than that, however, was how little control she seemed to have over her power. He had never seen someone with so much power, and the uses it could be put to were terrifying to say the least.

Before he had met her, when she was still just a face on the front pages of newspapers, Shimmer had seemed like a force to be reckoned with—cold but with unwavering determination, and the ability to do as she pleased. Cane had dedicated the better part of his adult life to his job, and he knew he was good at it. There weren't many people Megaman was afraid to tangle with, but the mysterious red haired wonder from England, who didn't even bother to wear a mask, was one woman he was cautious of.

Then, he received a visit from an ISDA agent, asking him to come to Seattle and be a part of a powerful team of heroes. He had wondered if she would be there, yet he was still in awe when she had walked through the door that fateful Monday morning. More than anything, though, he was struck by how human she seemed. Sure, she was cold, closed off, and so aloof that she seemed unreal, but the way she held herself, the look in her eye and the calculation she seemed to give everything she did, the effort she put into seeming indifferent—it all pointed to a desperate need to hide something. He could tell that she was terrified. If Cane Branson only knew one thing, he knew that anything that could scare a woman who couldn't die was something he never wanted to encounter.

As it turned out, he already had.

It didn't take long to discover the source of her fear. She was afraid of her own power. The one power that truly terrified the great Megaman, and it was wielded by a woman who couldn't control it. How was he to trust her when she didn't even trust herself?

Her presence on the team alone could be disastrous, but how could he say that he was scared simply by her existence? It was easier to turn her into an enemy. After all, it is far better to understand your enemy than to fear your friend. The way Cane saw it, even if her mind was filled with rainbows and bunnies, she was the greatest threat to the human race that ever existed. That made her an enemy, even if no one else, including Shimmer, saw it.