Over night, I looked through the data on the Omegas I had been given by Voltic, but sadly, there was little new information to be found, most of the information they had, I had already acquired from the police-files. The only new thing was the file on the unknown, presumably Fleetfoot, without his mask but I had known about that one already.

In the morning, I made my way to the coffee-shop to meet with Sandra, curious about her take on the evening. Once more, I was wearing little serious equipment but I doubted that Sandra would start things in a public place, even if she somehow found out that I was Metis.

After getting myself a black coffee, I sat, waiting for Sandra. Luckily, she did not make me wait long before turning up and getting herself a drink. When she approached the table, I stood, pulling her into a hug and asking, in a soft voice, “Are you really alright?”

She hugged me back, answering, “Yes, I really am.”

Pulling back, I glared at her. “Good. Now, care to tell me why you felt the need to meet with a villain? And why on earth you thought it would be a good idea to use me as an insurance policy?”

She looked a little sheepishly and answered. “As I said, I needed to know something. And including you was a spur-of-the-moment idea, I thought that, if I include you, it would add the organisation behind you to the mix.”

I blinked, as if in surprise, before explaining, “You seem to misunderstand something. There is no great organisation behind me. Hell, I’m only seventeen, you know? My father trained me, mostly to make sure that I could take care of myself if the brown matter ever meets the oscillating air current distribution device. In addition, he gave me a few files on the local community, so I could avoid trouble with them.” I fixed her in place with another glare and she blushed.

“So, no, there is no secret cabal behind me, governmental or otherwise. If something happened to me, my father would look into it. But that’s it, no legions of secret agents to do my bidding.”

“But, when we met. You knew so much about Joy and even knew about me.” She protested.

“I looked into Joy when she asked to meet. Standard security measure, you know? You would be surprised how much information you can find in the public sphere, especially with social media, so I knew what I was getting into. I saw your picture on her page and had a hunch that you looked so very similar to parts of the file on Voltic. And when Joy made a few remarks, I was to maybe ninety percent sure that you were Voltic. What you said at the end, made me confident that I was right. So, yes, I knew some and bluffed the rest.” I admitted.

She looked me over for a bit, as if assessing me anew. “You know, I think I prefer this version of you. Last time, your mask was a little jarring.”

“Cut me some slack, I hardly knew Joy and didn’t know you at all. Maybe, I overdid it a little with the airhead-act, but it was fun.” I admitted with a smirk. “But why don’t you tell me what happened with Metis. I doubt that you can talk to another League-Member about it and a second perspective can be useful to shape your perception.” I suggested, hoping to help her shape her perception in the way I wanted.

She agreed and, over the course of the next hour and another mug of coffee, told the story of her business with Metis. It was quite interesting to hear it from her perspective, especially that Metis seemed to be a good guy, something I dutifully questioned, pushing her into arguing an anti-establishment position. Finally, when she wound down, I gave her my thoughts.

“Well, first of all, the question if you had the ability to cause such a detonation, I could have answered you that one. The League must have thought that you are safe or they would have never let you out. Someone with such power is an strategic force to be controlled, not left to wander on her own.” The look on her face was one of disbelief, before morphing into one of hurt that quickly vanished behind a mask. I gave her an apologetic look, after all I had just struck at one of the foundations of her belief-system.

“Another thing is, you are now basically beholden to Metis. I’m not certain on the rules and regulations for Heroes’ League member, but most organisations have rules against sharing intelligence with outsiders. Operational security, need to know and all that. So, if she wants to give you a heap of trouble, she just has to leave evidence that you handed her information, the storage-medium with your finger-prints for example, and you are done for.

On the other hand, if she is, as you say, a good guy, you are fine. But I was trained to never assume that the other party wants what’s best for me, quite the opposite.” I explained, creating low expectations towards Metis, so when Metis did nothing bad, Sandra would feel grateful, thinking it a great boon. Just when I wanted to make another point, Heather and Joy entered the shop, holding hands.

“Now, now, now, what do we have there?” I asked, grinning broadly.

Sandra turned, following my gaze and started grinning as well. “Why, it looks like two lovebirds on a date. It would be rather gauche to disturb the young love, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it would be. Let’s do it!”

After sharing an evil grin, we rose together and moved to bracket the two, as they ordered. They were so focused on each other, that they had yet to see us.

“My, what a joyous occasion.” Sandra said from behind Joy, making her jump in surprise. “So, that’s why she does it.” I heard her mutter under her breath.

“Indeed. Normally I’d say it’s a little late for spring fever, but those two seem to have it, even in the summer.” I added my own two cents.

The look on Joy’s face was priceless, partially lovesick puppy, partially ‘child with their hand in the cookie-jar’ and she was clearly lost for words, but made up with it by blushing a wonderful shade of crimson.

Heather was either more controlled or simply did not care and grinned like the cat that got the canary. Which was fine, she got the bird after all.

“Oh, Hi, Sandra, Cat. Joy and I were just getting some coffee.”

“Just some coffee? Why don’t you join us?” I asked, projecting an air of cluelessness.

“Or do you want to be alone, to enjoy your… coffee?” Sandra added, causing Joy’s blush to creep into dangerous levels. Soon, radiation alarms would go off all over the city.

“No, I think we will have enough time to be alone… later.” Heather said with a saucy grin, clueing in on what we were doing.

By now, Joy had gotten her bearing back and was growling. “You two know exactly what is going on, don’t act clueless! Yes, I’ve given Steve the boot and Heather convinced me that we should try dating.”

“Why, good for you.” I said, with a smile.

The two of them got their drinks and we moved to our table. Now, Sandra and I sat together to leave room for the two of them.

“So, now that we have established that Heather and I are on a date, where is your sweetie? Sophia, wasn’t it?” Joy asked, trying to strike back.

I didn’t even try to hide my feelings, letting them show on my face. Heather gave Joy an angry glare, before asking. “Are you alright? Wait, stupid question, clearly, you aren’t. Anything we can do to help?”

“No, I’m afraid not. Sophia has family trouble and it has gotten worse over the last few weeks. And I can’t help her, I see her hurting and I can’t do a thing to help her.”

Joy looked like she had just kicked a puppy by accident and apologized for asking but I waved it off. It was not her fault, was it?

Feeling a need to get it off my chest, I gave them a sanitized version of events and asking them for ideas. Sadly, neither of them had any good ones that did not carry the potential to make Sophia hate me, if they broke up her family. Not that her family was much of one, at the moment. But to her, it was the only one she had. And she wanted to keep it but hopefully not at all cost.

The four of us talked some more, before breaking apart. Sadly, I never had a good chance to prod Sandra a little more in the direction I wanted her to change. Luckily, it seemed that Metis and I had established as two very different figures in her mind, so it would take something obvious to let her make the connection. That gave me some security.