xxxxxADAxxFORREST

âRelax.â Ada nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Kye behind her.
âJesus Christ Kye, can you not?â
The smile faded from Kyeâs face for a moment. âWhatâs up with you?â
Her tongue felt heavy. Telling him would be the easiest thing in the world, but she couldnât. Not with Xander making his views on supers so well known. She couldnât dump that on Kye. âJust nervous I guess.â
She pretended to not see the glance down to her leg before Kye put his arm around her shoulder and swiped a canape with the other hand. âYouâll be fine.â He took a bite. âThese things always play out the same. People schmooze and make golf plans or whatever, a few people have too much champagne and then split off to whichever White Castle has the smallest drive-thru queue because there wasnât enough food.â
âWhite Castle? Really?â
âWhatâs wrong with White Castle?â
Ada shook her head. âNothing. Youâve just absolutely destroyed the image I had of you in my head. You know, the one where you have taste?â Her jaw tensed when she heard the electric buzz in her ear. She wasnât exactly a tech expert, but she knew that it wasnât good. The voices coming through were garbled like they were filtered through water. She looked around the room. Through the pockets of people, she saw Leo weaving through to the exit. Ok, ok, thatâs gonna be fine. âIâll just be a minute,â she said to Kye and excused herself from the room. She might have perked up a few of the flower arrangements on her way, no one can prove anything.
Ada locked the bathroom door behind her and slid her earpiece out. The casing wasnât cracked, she couldnât see any loose wire hanging out. It looked the same as it always did. Maybe a storm was rolling in, the electricity in the air interfering with the signal. She rolled the earpiece between her hands and slid it back in place. She quickly checked beneath the door. No one else was here. Good. âGuys, whatâs going on?â She still kept her voice low. You could never be too careful. âMy comms are acting up.â
xxxCAMERONxxJENSEN

Isimirâs voice crackled through on the comms from their highpoint somewhere above. "Drakey...I think you're gonna wanna take a look at this..." There was static for a moment before Isimirâs voice came back. "MommyâŠSorry...Mommy...Sorry, I mean Mommy, sorry-"
Cameron bit the inside of his cheek to suppress a laugh. âThink Drakeyâs spoken for Isimir, you trying to get him in trouble?â He leaned back against the wall, looking down to the lower floor. There was a stone bench a few paces away. He could sit down, but knowing his luck it would be a modern art installation and alarms would start blaring as soon as he looked at it. His survival plan at this point was âDonât Get Chewed By Reaperâ and it was working pretty well. Setting off an alarm during a stakeout would end that perfect streak.
It wasnât often that Cam felt like the new kid that he very much was on the team, but when they started talking about being on eleven and fours, he got lost. Why couldnât they just say âheading towards X exhibitâ? Would that be so hard? He rolled his neck and slipped away from himself. Variant pulled his mask into place and headed back over himself. âCopy, Variant One in position. There was a second and then Cameron heard himself over the comms. âVariant Two, Iâm heading to the security hub.
Variant cracked his fingers one by one as he slipped away to the back of the art gallery. The forced laughter from the party faded. The neon street signs lit the world outside. He normally wasnât one for the Upper City. It was too loud, too bright, and it got dialed all the way up when you were seeing it from six different points of view. Stay on task Cam⊠Variant slowed as he approached the security door. He prodded the door with his toe and it swung open and back again. Clearly whoever was in there had been sloppy. Variant opened the door and slid inside, making sure to close it behind him properly.
Finally, the security guard noticed him. âWho the hell are you?â
Variant rocked onto his toes and swung his arms awkwardly. âYou probably donât believe that I got lost looking for the bathroom, do you?â
âNo.â
âNo...didnât think you would. I donât suppose you could just step aside and let me use the cameras? Would be a lot easier for both of us.â
Very carefully, the guard began to reach under his desk. Panic button? A gun? Either way, Variant didnât want to know for certain. A second Variant lunged forward and pulled the guardâs hand back, spinning him around and into his cloneâs fist. They hauled the guard up and slammed him headfirst into the wall, just for good measure. Variant high-fived himself and then there was only one. A shiver went down his spine as he remembered the fight from another point of view. He ducked down and searched the space the guard had reached for. There was an assortment of candy wrappers and a taser thrown in haphazardly, and a panic button attached to the underside. Variant pocketed the taser and took the guard's seat.
He looked over the screens, tracking the people inside, and followed the path to the two women they were targeting. âOhâŠshit...â He tapped his comm. âVariant Two, security hub is secured. I have a taser, a panic button, and visual on the targets and would also like to note that Charonâs hair is looking especially good today.â