As Lozen kept jotting down on her notebook, she groaned a bit when she unnoticed that the clock had struck 10:25 A.M. It was almost time for her to go to the judges panel in Testing Room Omega, but she truly needed a few more minutes. The wounds from the previous fight were still healing, and she needed all the rest she could get.

"Hey." A slurry voice called behind her. Closing her eyes, Lozen calmly closed her notebook and tightened her white glove.

"I am in no mood for a fight. Please look for another person."

"Don't mind me. I'm just here to report some things to a seriously alert woman."

Lozen rolled her eyes as a smile graced her lips. "I've told you many times not to approach me from behind when I'm taking notes."

"There's the paranoid boss I know." The voice teased playfully, letting her finally recognize the sound of her right-hand man.

As she put her notebook away, Lozen turned to see a tired man with dirty brown hair leaning at the training room's entrance. He was wearing a grey trench coat and some khaki pants, almost making him look like a hybrid between a magician and a street detective. This was Jack Ace, a pro-hero and the second-in-command in the hero team she managed. He was one of the only people who truly respected her as an equal.

"Morning Ace. what brings you here?" Lozen said, breathing in relief. She really didn't want to fight again after this morning's fiasco.

Jack Ace went straight at her and lightly chopped her on the head. "I came to check up on my dumbass boss, since Janus looked more worried than usual and Yata was ranting about... punching an examiner? I don't know what that silly cat wanted, but he really seemed pissed."

He shrugged, but his masked eyes showed worry.

"Did something happen? Do you want to talk about it?"

She crossed her arms in disgust. A wry smile appeared on her face.

"Exactly what always happens. Although this time, he sent Batoon and a new girl after me in an attempt to force me to use that.” Lozen winced from the injuries she received that morning. “As always, I refused them, and they got particularly aggressive today."

Jack Ace frowned and took out a pink card from one of his pockets. "And where did they hit you? I can always help ease the pain a bit."

Lozen pointed towards her left side, where the "hero" hit her. It was just below her ribs, but it still hurt. It may have left a bruise, but Lozen didn't even check up on it. Being a team leader always involved more work to do.

Jack placed the pink card where she was pointing, and immediately a hot feeling perpetuated through her injury, dulling the pain.

"They seriously waste their energy fighting the wrong people, trying to push whomever they want." Jack Ace said, maybe a bit disappointed.

"Yeah." Lozen worriedly stared at her friend. "Any recent attack on the others?"

Jack Ace chuckled a bit. "This week has been especially intense for Janus and I. Luckily, we could fight them off before they did any serious damage, and Yata wasn’t hounded at this time."

"I see..." Lozen could feel her face darken at that. Sometimes she wished she could be better for her team. They always got her back, but they may end up worse than her if these attacks kept piling up. She couldn't help but feel responsible that they--.

"OI!" Jack Ace rattled her thoughts away by shaking her shoulders. "Don't go on with the self-deprecating act!"

At that unexpected comment, Lozen's eyes widened in surprise.

"I promised that optimistic bastard that I would keep your depression in check. You really need to stop worrying for us. We know what we signed up for when we joined your team."

With those words, Lozen closed her eyes, breathing out her worries. Then she smiled gratefully towards Ace.

"Thank you, Ace."

The man nodded with a soft smile as he went on to retrieve his card. As he peeled off the card, she could still feel a sting on her side, but at least Ace's heart card helped her move more fluidly.

"Well now, Ms. team leader, how about a spar to see if you can still move with that wound?"

Lozen's eyes twinkled with excitement. "Oh? A spar? I guess we have time for a little tussle before the exam starts. What was our score again?"

Jack Ace gave her a wicked grin. "I think it was two fifty-one for me and two-thirty for you, and about four draws."

Lozen assumed a stance that helped ease her sting. "Oh, come on! We agreed that last month's fight was null because of Yata!"

Jack Ace flashed her a grin before his face grew serious and he assumed his stance as. Lozen quickly recognized it was a Kung Fu stance, maybe leopard-style? Yep, it was a leopard stance. He really wanted to beat her today, didn't he?

The two of them stared blankly at each other. Lozen's breathing slowed as she gave her complete focus to the opponent before her. She started calculating which approach was better: where to strike, how would she dodge, where would Ace try to hit her first. She was battling him in her mind, but, as always, he left no openings for her. At least none that were obvious.

When she blinked, he'd already dashed towards her. His palm went straight for her shoulder. She dodged and sent a low kick. Ace jumped back, yet Lozen chased. She tried to elbow his stomach. He jumped back again, making some space between them, yet they didn't wait long to clash again.

This was their typical back and forth. Lozen and Jack Ace always fought by exchanging hits. One would punch, the other would counter. She grappled him to the floor, yet she had to dodge a strike going for her arms. Jack Ace pushed her off, but she immediately sent a heel kick to his shoulder. He evaded her, making some distance between them.

They kept sparring, trading blows. They kept having even engagements, but Lozen wasn't content with this. Jack Ace was the overall victor after all, and she had a bit of pride in her fighting skills. Because of this, she calculated for a bit, letting Jack hit her on her right calf. Surprised, he tried jumping back, yet Lozen sent a kick towards his torso. He blocked it.

And that's where each of them stood, finally reaching a standstill. They both knew that the fight was over. Jack Ace trembled from blocking that last kick. On the other hand, Lozen had exhausted herself. She had wasted a lot of energy between this fight and the one from earlier that morning.

"So, another draw?" She asked as she dropped her leg, her chest expanding and contrasting with her heavy breathing.

"Draw it is." Jack Ace grinned as his posture softened.

Both calmed themselves, and soon after, Lozen took out her small notebook again to jot down a few things she thought she could build upon.

"Boss?" Jack Ace suddenly perked up as he cracked his neck.

"Hm?" She answered without stopping her writing.

"Always writing down those notes, eh? You never change."

"Welp, wouldn't be me otherwise."

Ace chuckled. "Oh, speaking about changing, I forgot to update you on the Crime Joint issue from two weeks ago."

Lozen perked up at this. "Is this why 'He'...?"

"I don't know, but the civilian that helped Professor White has HOC running around the whole city looking for him. Also a new person of interest appeared. An unidentified male who saved a gadgetsmith workshop two weeks ago in Sector 9. I believe it was called Unwin's? I don't really remember, but Janus can fill you in on that. My point is that HOC put a recruitment bounty on this fellow too. If I were to guess, I think 'He' or White wants the two of them. Especially with how the Center reacted to those two bounties."

Lozen placed a hand under her chin. "That explains the intensity of the attacks. ‘He’ doesn't want us interfering."

Ace nodded. "Yeah, but it gets weirder. Both of them went off the grid, frustrating a lot of HOC’s contracted informants."

"Not even the Mistress got ahold of them?"

"That's the thing!" Jack Ace exclaimed exasperatedly. "The Mistress of Information herself has disappeared too!"

"She's off the grid!" Lozen looked exasperated. "Do you know what that means?!?"

"Excuse me?" A new voice said besides Lozen.

"Gah!" Lozen threw her pen straight at the voice and made some distance, while Jack took out a black card from his trench coat.

"Ow." The voice groaned. Who the fuck was that?!?! Even Jack Ace was surprised!

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something important?" The voice said in a formal tone. Lozen focused on the voice and was surprised to see a man with a green jacket and black vest rubbing his forehead. His costume seemed tame at first glance, but on closer inspection, he gave off a sort of biker look. What truly caught her attention was that he wore a string visor, something very uncommon amongst heroes today.

This immediately put her and Ace on alert, until he handed her pen back.

"No, you aren't interrupting us," Jack said cautiously. He sent Lozen a look, as if telling her “We’ll continue this topic later”. Lozen nodded back, and immediately went back on studying this new guy.

As of now, The only thing she could read from his face was an embarrassed smirk of sorts forming on the newcomer's lips. After that, his body language was weirdly unreadable for Lozen. It merely showed him as composed, not ashamed, or embarrassed.

"Could you help me with this then?" He inquired. He showed the two heroes a piece of paper with an indiscernible symbol on one of the top corners. "I'm supposed to go to where this piece of paper tells me, but I can't make left from right around here."

Jack took the papers, and Lozen went to his side, but not without giving the man one last look. He seemed around her age, and that neck-length brown hair was sort of attractive if she said so herself. Still, there was something about him that unsettled her. Why was he smiling like that? Had they met before?

This was when she noticed the symbol on the paper was an Omega.

"Oh, so you are an examinee?" Lozen asked the man.

"Yeah. I got lost on the way to the exam", He responded back. "I entered here after you finished your spar to ask for directions."

"Lovely. I would love to take you there, but I was assigned to Beta, literally in the opposite direction. Still, Lozen here can help you." Ace said while motioning towards her.

"Yeah, I'll take you there. I was assigned to view the Omega exam, after all." She handed the man his paper.

"Perfect." The examinee smiled. However, there were a few things that picked Lozen's curiosity. By now, she had tried multiple times to read his body language. Still, the visor impeded her from seeing his eyes, successfully hiding his emotions. People with the capacity to hide their emotions were dangerous in Lozen's book, and this man hid them well behind his smile. Too well for a newbie.

The newbie stretched his hands towards Ace. "You can call me, Wattz. Thank you for your help."

Jack took his hands and smiled back. "No problem. I'm Jack Ace, a pro-hero working here.

Both of them then stared at Lozen.

"And I'm Lozen, also a pro-hero working here." She took Wattz's hand but still couldn't feel at ease with him. "Let me take you to your exam."