No sooner had the door opened then Lia threw herself into my arms with a squeal without even pausing to see who all I had with me.

“You’re back!” she had said, muffled, and from the vicinity of my chest.

“Hi Lia. I’m back,” I said, thinking of the implications of that line. “I hope you don’t mind…I promised an explanation to some people and…well, nobody wanted to talk at HQ so–“

“Yeah, bring ’em all in. Actually, I’m hungry, can we go out somewhere and talk there? Just how private does this need to be?”

That was fifteen minutes ago. And that was why the nine of us were all crowded around a table in an event room at a sushi place near campus. Lia, AEGIS, Whitney, Jack, Moon, Tower, Tem, Rito, and myself. The whole crew, basically. Although I’m sure Saga wished she were here, with the amount of food going on.

I was still stressing and feeling guilty about the girl seated on my immediate right, who was staring at me instead of eating, with unbridled enthusiasm despite her state.

Tem was in a wheelchair with bags hanging off the back of it, small plastic tubes ran fluids across her body. When I’d left her to spend a week alone with Whitney, she’d stopped eating, and at some point, just imploded. AEGIS and Lia had done what they could, but at some point, if she wouldn’t take care of herself, bags and tubes became a necessity.

She was, at the moment, too weak to stand, and so she sat, staring at me like I was a god returned to Earth. Honestly, the whole situation just made me feel disgusting. That she could exist, that she could exist like this, and that it was my fault she was in this state, I found myself hating both of us for this position to even exist.

Whitney, on my left, however, was more energetic and social than I had ever seen her. It might have helped she was still somewhat drugged up…and had been led in a couple of sake bombs with very little resistance…but in general, she just had a lot to be celebrating. The mission was a success, she didn’t die, she’d gotten put through a regenerator after I bribed off Cosette…and most of all, she was powerless again. An odd-sounding thing to be happy about, until you’d lived it.

“Kanpai!” she shouted, her face red, before she pounded more of her drink. She’d pried the word out of Moon earlier and hadn’t stopped abusing it since, while Moon and Lia watched with an ever-shifting combination of disgust, irritation, amusement, and jealousy.

I was happy to be back too, in a way. But the life I got in the swap was the more complicated one, and I couldn’t just revel in simple happiness like she was doing. I’d done simple and happy recently, and it had been complicated and miserable. Going back to what I knew, even if it sucked, was a relief, in a strange sort of way.

And powerlessness didn’t suit me. As much as I wanted it to, I apparently just wasn’t a person who could be content to let the world go past him. Not that the world ever showed an interest in doing that to me.

“So why don’t we do this after every mission?” Tower asked, wiping off his mouth on the back of his hand after joining Whitney in drinking.

“Because half of them end in abysmal failure,” Moon said, barely audible to me over the general conversation.

“Bullshit,” Tower said. “Our record’s way better than that.”

“Language,” Jack chided across the table, covering his mouth to speak through a mouthful of sashimi.

“Might I remind you that this op was because we failed last time?” Moon said.

“No,” Tower said. “Not allowed to remind me of negatives after we’ve already handled them. Not at a party, anyway.”

Moon studied him for a minute. “Do ostridges ever come to you for advice?”

“What?”

“You seem an expert at sticking your head in the sand.”

He laughed boisterously, interrupting a conversation at the other end of the table between Lia and Rito about some show or another on the holo. I couldn’t help but grin as I watched the two of them. Talking to Rito was some of the only times I’d seen Lia acting just like a regular kid her age.

“Okay, how’s this,” Lia asked, pulling out her mobile, the refuge for any fact-seeker embroiled in trivial debate. “AEGIS hey. Tell me, is this guy hotter than…than this guy?”

AEGIS politely received the device and flipped back and forth between the images with a confounded smile. “Um.” I saw a flash of yellow as she glanced at me momentarily.

“Oh Athan doesn’t give a rat if you find celebs hunky or not,” Lia said. Which was true.

“Um, this one has a more…symmetric face, I guess?”

“What? No,” Lia groaned as Rito bounced and clapped excitedly in her seat. “AEGIS, you betrayed me. You betrayed good taste!”

“I’m telling you, beards are coming back in,” Rito said shaking her head. “You’re gonna see them, like, everywhere soon.”

“Ugh. Gross,” Lia said with a roll of her eyes. This made Rito giggle, and before long their conversation veered wildly again to something equally unfathomable. I met eyes with AEGIS who just gave me a smile and a shrug.

So yeah, in short, in general, it was a nice time. People who hadn’t seen each other in a long time mingled and friendships were rekindled, and damn did we eat and eat. Sushi was frickin’ amazing.

But as the meal melted away and people began to quiet and settle, the atmosphere turned serious, and I realized people were glancing at me more and more. I took the hint and, during a lull, tapped my chopsticks against my glass, producing a much crappier tone than I’d expected, being wood.

I cleared my throat. “Um. Hi everybody. Thanks for coming out. Or maybe thanks to Lia for deciding to put us all here instead of talking in a cramped living room?”

“And for the food!” Tower shouted. Lia just grinned dismissively, but the table erupted into appreciative murmurs for a few moments.

“Yeah, you spoil the shit out of me,” I agreed. “But uh. We’re here because I promised you guys an explanation. I already told Cosette as payment for patching up Whitney, but the rest of you deserve to hear the truth as well.” I swallowed hard. I didn’t know where I was gonna start or go with this all because I didn’t understand it myself, when to my surprise, Whitney stood up, swaying slightly from the booze.

“I was an Exhuman. It was me in the suit the whole time,” she said.

“Yeah. That,” I agreed. I waited to see if she was going to say anything else but she just smiled stupidly for a bit before Jack patted her tenderly on the hand and helped her retake her seat. “Maybe the aftereffects of the sedation and the drink was a bad combination,” I said.

“For comprehension, possibly,” AEGIS said, pushing her glasses up her nose. “But nothing about it is threatening or reactive, biologically speaking.”

“Well, as you all saw,” I continued “I wasn’t the one in the suit. Whitney was. And as she said, she had Exhuman powers. My powers, specifically…and the whole time she did…I didn’t. That’s the reason why she was disguising herself, the reason I went to college away from everyone, and why the whole agreement was drawn up to cut back on social interaction between ‘me’ and the rest of you.” I paused for a second. “And I’m sorry about all of that.”

“Oh boo,” Lia said. “Boooo. No apologizing.”

“The biggest question,” I continued on, ignoring the heckler “is how my powers moved to Whitney in the first place. And I can safely say I have no idea. The only thing we’ve figured out is that whoever didn’t have the powers at a given time had a lot more…what did we call it? Brainspace? To work with. The second my powers left me, I found all this engineering stuff just amazingly captivating, and gripped it like I’d never done before in my life. Likewise, when Whitney picked up my powers, she had to close up her shop because she’d lost most of her motivation and interest with the stuff.”

Moon raised her hand and I called on her. “Are you saying that if Tower lost his powers he might actually be intelligent?”

“Damn, girl. Savage,” he said. She gave him a hint of a sly grin.

“It’s possible. Though we can’t really say. Tower does need a lot of help,” I grinned.

“Damn. Screw all y’all, I’m gonna eat the rest of everything. See who’s stupid then, huh?” he threatened, reaching across the table to liberate a piece of tuna from Moon’s plate.

“So my theory…and I’m sure at least Lia will weigh in on this later…is that whatever our powers are, whatever causes them or how they work, they reside in our brains and take some of our attention and focus just to exist. It’s not like Whitney got stupider, or that Tower would get smarter, it’s just a matter of available focus and concentration.”

“So there’s no hope for you,” Moon said to Tower.

“I do not suppose anyone here has tried methlphenidate?” Jack asked with a smile. “Ritalin? Effocia?” We shook our heads. “Hmm. Well, it promotes focus and is often prescribed for those with ADHD or narcolepsy, debilitations where one’s brain wanders beyond one’s conscious control. I was curious if the focusing sensation is similar.”

“Can’t say I’d know,” I said. “But the real question is Jack has ADHD?”

He smiled enigmatically. “No. But sometimes it can behoove an individual to have preternatural focus and concentration.”

“There are some serious risks to taking unneeded medication,” AEGIS said with a frown.

“I am aware,” Jack replied. “And you’ll note that I am not taking them presently. It was merely a question.”

The answer didn’t seem to satisfy AEGIS but I kept things moving along. “So anyway. Yeah, I don’t really know anything about how Exhuman powers work, but to my knowledge we’re the only ones in the history of ever who have had a Freaky Friday like this. Can you confirm, AEGIS?”

“Are you referencing a book published in the nineteen-seventies?” AEGIS confirmed. “My goodness, that’s obscure, even by my standards.”

“What? I was talking about a movie from like twenty years ago. I think it was a remake but I kinda doubt it was from a book from three hundred years ago.”

“Two-hundred and eighty years.” She pushed her glasses up her nose at me.

“Whatever. Please confirm the important parts of what I said?”

She laughed before putting a serious face on with much adjusting of glasses of course. “Can confirm. To-date, there have been zero incidents of an Exhuman spontaneously losing their powers or another human gaining powers from another. But I’d like to remind you all that we’re living in a new era of Exhumanity. There’s more of them living publically and for longer now than at any other point in human history. Or Exhuman history.”

She looked around the table significantly, not smiling, but I could tell by her poise and the way she glanced at her audience that she really enjoyed the attention. So it didn’t surprise me when she continued. “Going over a previous point, as we all know, the XPCA and the world in general have never been able to find a source of Exhuman powers. I’m not proposing that there’s any breakthrough to be found in the diminished-slash-enhanced focus capabilities of Athan and Whitney, but it is significant research. It’s possible that, given what they experienced, powers have no physical component at all, and reside entirely in a person’s focus, or capability of producing it.”

“What, so people just like, figure out how to weaponize their thoughts?” Rito asked.

“Perhaps. Though obviously not consciously,” AEGIS mused, her finger dancing on her chin.

“Doesn’t hold up,” Lia said. “If it was just some activation of latent telekinesis or whatever you’d classify that as, there’s no way it’d be transferable between Athan and Whitney. Spreadable, I could buy, but there’s no way Athan’s brain would turn parts of itself off just ‘cuz parts of Whitney’s turned on.”

“Uh, this is really interesting if you’re a nerd, I’m sure,” Tower said, swallowing a mouthful before reaching over to snag another couple rolls. “But that’s not why we’re here, right?”

“Right,” I agreed. “We can go over theory later, I’m here to talk about what happened to us. Thanks for keeping us on-track buddy.”

He gave me a thumbs-up because his mouth was crammed again.

“So I think the Whitney thing…aside from how impossible and incomprehensible it is, is all pretty clear?” I asked. “We didn’t want the XPCA getting involved, so it was necessary to have her pretending to be me.”

“I was pretty sure they’d dissect both of them for research if they found out there was a potential ‘cure’ for Exhumanity,” Lia added. “So yeah. Kind of necessary.”

“Did I know about all of this? Did I contribute to decision-making?” AEGIS asked, her head cocked, looking even more angled for her ponytails framing her.

“Um, you did. But you were mostly just ecstatic about my ability to have a new life,” I said. At the confused glances I explained to the others “AEGIS just uh, went through another change. Her memories are now of the last version prior to Eryendria, New Eden, TARGA, and all of that.” And prior to us ever dating. “She might be a bit behind on events.”

“But I’m happy to learn,” she said with a smile. “So I hustled you off to college to be happy, Whitney took your place as resident ass-kicker and sad-sack–“

“Hey!” I argued.

“–and the two of you coordinated and did the exosuit thing to keep the XPCA in the dark who they had on-their own missions. Is that pretty much it?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I should have just had you summarize from the start.”

Whitney gave me an very uncharacteristic pat on the head and a very characteristic smirk.

“But what else I wanted to discuss…if nobody had any questions?…is what now?”

“Now, you’re back!” Tower said.

“Kanpai!” Whitney shouted, her glass in the air again.

He continued, “We’re gonna rock missions now, no offense, but Whitney sucked at being you,” Tower said. “We’ll have the world put right back together soon as anything with you as strike lead again. Damn, it’s gonna be so good.”

“Well. Sure,” I agreed. “Some of that, certainly. “But my concern was actually with Dragon still running around out there. I’m…I’m not sure, but I think…with my powers back, I might be able to take him now.”

“Wait, why are we eating?” Lia asked, standing up suddenly. “We should be killing you, bro.”

“Huh?”

“I agree,” Moon intoned. “Though I suspect you might have an actual reason for it?”

“Yeah, his Ramanathan window!” Lia said. “Dude, we should be hurting you as bad as possible the second you guys switched back. We could get you the craziest powers ever.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, aside from the fact I have very little interest in all of you guys doing your best to kill me…I don’t think it’ll work.”

“Why not?” Lia asked, a freaking table knife in her hands like she was ready to jump across the table with it at any moment.

“Because during the fight in New York, I tore the fuck out of my legs. I had to get carted to the regenerator in a wheelchair,” I said, glancing at Tem next to me. “And yet the window didn’t do anything to counteract that.”

“Maybe because it didn’t kill you?” she suggested, waggling the knife.

I shook my head. “When Saga explained the window to me, she said that if there’s no legit threats to counteract, the window basically lowers its standards to whatever trauma the Exhuman suffers, no matter how minute. Some woman missed her bus and it was the worst thing that happened to her so she got super-speed out of it.”

“Basically, no matter how good or bad your life, people like, invent their own drama?” Rito asked. And I stared at her because it was a really good way of putting it, and it came out of Rito. I guess if someone was an expert in studying drama, it would be her?

“Maybe a maiming, just to be sure?” Lia pleaded. “I don’t want to miss the chance to turn you into some crazy superbeast.”

“Can you listen to yourself for a second?” I sighed. “And I was maimed, dude. My legs didn’t work, flat-out. So I’m gonna have to go with no.”

“Yeah, I’m not a fan of anyone killing Athan, even for science,” AEGIS added, her brow all kinds of crumpled up. “His powers are just fine the way they have been.”

“Better than that, actually,” Jack added. “He seems to have quite a few new tricks.”

“I know, right?” I said. “All the stuff Whitney could do, all the stuff I used to be able to do, and more. It’s crazy.”

“Woah, no way, really?” Lia asked with awe. Her mere standing there was no longer sufficient as she began to squirm in excitement. “Show me, show me, show me!”

“Dude, we’re still in a restaurant.”

“Oh boo. No fun.”

I coughed. “You guys are sidetracking me so friggin’ hard. Dragon. I want to fight him.”

“Why?” Jack asked. “That is suicide.”

“Who’s…no, I’ll figure it out,” AEGIS said.

“It’s not suicide, I’m more powerful than ever, I’ve been training physically, and he won’t expect it.”

“Yes, but why?” Jack repeated through a patient smile.

I glanced at Lia, who sat down, still again under the weight of my eyes. She frowned and nodded. “Dragon came after Athan at school,” she explained. “He ultimately was found to have killed four people, one of whom was a good friend of Athan’s, burned a fifth of a school building down, and left Athan for dead, seemingly ambivalent about him entirely once learning his powers were gone.”

“It’s a mistake I’ll make sure he pays for,” I growled.

“Or…it’s a gift you can enjoy,” AEGIS frowned. “He’s lost interest in you, he’s gone, you can just leave things settled.”

“I’m sure he’ll learn soon enough that I’m still out there using my powers on XPCA missions, and when that happens, he’ll either feel lied to or curious. Both of which bring his focus back on me. I’d rather he find out I’m re-empowered first-hand.”

She gave her hair a gentle tug as she nodded, and I turned around to look at the others. Each seemed lost in their own thoughts, impossible to tell what was going on beyond that.

Except Tem. She was pretty easy to read. She was still staring at me star-struck.

“Dude, Tem, eat something,” I said, pushing her untouched plate towards her. She nodded and broke apart the pieces of sushi roll on it, picking at pieces of it ineffectually. But at least food was going in her mouth.

“I think,” Moon spoke breaking the silence, and then froze as suddenly everyone turned towards her, reddening slightly. “Ahem, I think…that…you will have issue…finding Dragon at all.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “And that’s one thing I wanted to talk to you guys about. He’s a killer, right? A paid killer? So it seems like there’s an obvious way to get him somewhere I want him.”

The table jumped as Lia slammed a hand on it. “You are not putting out a hit.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re putting yourself in a whole web of danger that way! It’s a whole underworld of intrigue and reputation and egos out there, it’s not just a place you step into lightly, and it’s certainly not something that a person with no connections or experience can just waltz into and expect things to work out how they want. Plus it puts you in friggin’ completely obvious contact with Dragon, and he’s nowhere near stupid enough to believe a damn thing you’d tell him, ever.”

I grinned at her. “Yeah. Maybe. But that’s why I think it’d work better for Black Shark to post a bounty instead, wouldn’t you agree?”

She glared at me, her eyes looking more lethal than any bounty she could post. “Absolutely not. I refuse a hundred percent.”

“Lia, come on. It’s the only way.”

“You could just leave it all alone,” AEGIS reminded us.

“There’s always another way,” Lia said. “Just because you want to charge in like a stubborn bull-headed idiot does not mean that’s the only way. Especially something this dangerous and this steeped in nuance, you are not the right guy for making the call.”

I crossed my arms at her. “Well what then? Are we just going to wait until Dragon shows up again one day and kills me?”

She frowned. “No. But there’s always a smarter solution. We just have to find it.”