The calm before the storm is an expression describing a moment of overwhelming peace that makes imminent disaster on the horizon appear surreal—usually only realized too late. When I shook hands with Tobias MacClain for the last time, he offered me the kindest smile that his damaged face could conjure and expressed a genuine respect and appreciation for me that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I was escorted from the interrogation room, he was escorted to the prison yard, and just before we parted, he said, "Saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit, my dear Chadwick. Thank you for your company."

I nodded, my brows pinching. Had I known what the future was, then, it indeed would not have been advantageous. To get caught amid what ensued...

I left the penitentiary smiling through a cloud of confusion and pride and bittersweet farewell emotions. Perhaps, I thought, I could visit him as a guest, one day. He had impacted my life greatly—and through my research would continue to.

This was not in the cards, for the storm came the moment that the gate screeched shut behind my coattails. The syrens blared. I shook the gate, naturally, begging to get back in to investigate, to know what was going on. I heard on the news hours later, while shaking from the sugars in my tea, that after our precious moment of calm, the Penitentiary for Estranged Non-Typicals experienced its largest escape in history. Seven dangerous inmates disappeared after an organized chaos broke in the prison yard that afternoon. Tobias MacClain was among them. I would wager anything that he led them. Why? This investigation is ongoing.

I appreciate that we shared calm before the storm from which he gained his freedom, in the same way that he experienced a calm the evening before the storm from which he lost his freedom. It is almost poetic, in a bittersweet way.

His calm moment came late in the evening, but not so late that the sun had fully sunk. The sky was orange, the smoke pungent, the heat all-encompassing. Hiccup and Milk Chocolate raced each other over an obstacle course of random basalt formations on the floor of the hero lobby, yards below. Tobias sat on the edge of the control platform, slipper and peg dangling over ladder rungs.

It had been a few hours since they had staggered out of the buffet and into their boat, stomachs filled to a button-bursting potential after having spent the day on close to nothing. Milk Chocolate had napped on the boat ride back. Tobias still felt a nap oncoming.

He expected good dreams, after enjoying himself so with his companions. It had been a welcome distraction to laugh a little with them, to play charades at a restaurant as if the attention drawn didn't matter. The constant presence of his powers had faded into the background for once; something he experienced so rarely (when of sober mind) that it almost seemed unreal.

"Are you sure that any of this still works?" Dizzy asked. She wore her band t-shirt untucked for once, hiding the button she had undone on her skinny jeans after leaving the buffet. "There's a lot of damage, here, Doc."

"I have a good feeling," he said, nodding to himself with half-lidded eyes. He touched the back of his neck and set his wine jar to one side. "From a seer, that is usually quite telling."

"Is that the wine or the chocolate cake speaking?"

Tobias scowled. "Neither, thank you."

Dizzy kicked the sparking machinery beneath the large table which overlooked the grand lobby. It was covered in lit buttons and levers of all shapes and sizes. Her hand traced over the board, careful not to press anything. Her fingers scratched a few worn labels. "You'd better start reading the manual now if you want to use the lair's equipment to your advantage. There are a lot of buttons."

"Dizzy." He hung his head back, laughing breathily. "I'm very good at choosing the right buttons without a manual. As long as the power is working, I am not concerned."

Dizzy grabbed her soda off the table and paced to one wall, where a panel had been stripped to expose patched wiring. She touched the bundles of electrical tape that held the mess of things together. "To think, just yesterday you were having a meltdown about breaking into your university. Now, cool as a cucumber, and we don't even have a plan. Tell me how that works, because I'm not sure I'm buying it. I'm not sure that I want to buy it."

Tobias lay down, one hand beneath his head and the other on his stomach. His spectacles slid on his nose until his eyelashes brushed the lenses and the white lights overhead enveloped his vision. He closed his eyes. "It is Monday tomorrow. I realized at dinner, it is Monday tomorrow."

"Monday? Monday? Yeah, that solves everything," Dizzy drawled, voice tainted so thickly with sarcasm that it was a wonder that the dripping poison of her tone wasn't visible.

"Yes." He lifted his leg to scratch an itch around the prosthetic. "Right."

"So, you're shaky on Saturdays, but Mondays are a whole new bag?" The girl left the wires alone and reached for a hook hanging from the ceiling. "Doc. Speak to me."

Tobias looked over and watched her swing on the tips of her toes. He rubbed under his eyes. "Predictability. I don't need to waste my powers to know how I can get Benjamin Jones to take my little virus." He grinned, a purr rising in the back of his throat. He was winning, now. This was where his powers dominated over all others; super strength, nature calling, even a supernova could not compete with his natural knack for strategy. Perhaps he couldn't give a good roundhouse kick, but Tobias was proud to be able to take a person out with seldom a finger raised. Planning and anticipation was everything. The volcano had a high chance for eruption on the morrow, and he counted on it. "It's Monday. A package arrives for Benjamin Jones every Monday morning at eight o'clock so that he may take the tea from it and finish his cuppa by nine; shift beginning. I send a little broadcast his way then, and by the time he and Poppy Tris barge in here, the virus will have taken effect. All I need to do is soak the tea in the virus, send a broadcast calling them out, wait for them to fall into the trap, lock the doors, pull off my mask, and leave. Simple."

Dizzy let go of the hook and stared at him. "Leave?"

"They could escape. Or not." Tobias shrugged. "That would be a matter of chance, with the volcano threatening to erupt and the integrity of the hero lobby being... 'so-so'. I'd take the boat and—"

"You can't kill them, Doctor MacClain!"

Her face caused Tobias to sit up. It was a jumble of everything from shock to betrayal, from fear to anger, from pain to hope. Her hand smacked over her lips, eyes flicking over the edge of the control platform. Hiccup and Milk Chocolate tackled with each other obliviously.

"I won't be—"

"They aren't good heroes," Dizzy's voice lowered to a harsh whisper. "That's all we want to prove. We want to prove they've been cast in a golden light that they don't deserve. Worst case scenario, we want them out of a job. Since when were you planning on leaving them to die?"

He clasped his hands together to stop their shaking and peered at her through his spectacles. "That was your plan, Dizzy. I do hope it works for you. I did my part and recorded that little propaganda broadcast and we can only hope it will have the impact you wish for. But when you recruited me into your project, here, you promised me revenge. What did you think revenge meant?"

"You—you're a hero. You're one of the best, most morally centered, noble and true heroes in all of Benediction. I didn't think you were looking to murder. I thought exposing Mr. Might for what he did to you and with the Neville bomb would... would be enough."

"Then what did you reckon the virus was for?"

"To make him powerless on camera."

"And the volcano? The weed killer in the sprinkler system? I told you, Dizzy. I don't give a damn about cameras. Making him powerless on duty would be rash and stupid and put a great deal of people at risk. He is a man-child and would not have the cognitive capacity to turn the mission over to back-ups and admit defeat." Tobias scowled and turned away, peering down at the drop. "I am bringing him and Poppy Tris here to make him powerless in a place where he can't hurt anybody. More than that, I'm bringing them here to be selfish. In this place, I can see him in person when he realizes that I am alive and that I beat him. This place... I could almost call it my origin. A place that leaves their lives up to chance, the same as they left mine, is the perfect way to return to them the way they made me feel. It is unlikely that they won't survive, but very likely that they will be traumatized."

Dizzy threw her soda can at the floor and it skidded past him, over the edge, and echoed a clatter down below. She combed her fingers through her hair and started to pace. "You could get sentenced for life."

"You and Ellie and Annie will be safe at school in East Benediction, none the wiser. We'll go to shore early tomorrow and you may take the van and forget about me. I made the choice to go the PENThouse the day I decided to let the nation think me dead. At least I'll go into custody satisfied."

"School? School? The girls can go back, but I have to stay. With the technology in this place, I can broadcast to the entire nation with minimal effort for as long as I need. Then I can control the cameras in the hero lobby to..."

"You can't stay," Tobias interrupted sharply, sitting straighter. "If you are caught, you'll be sentenced, too. You are eighteen, Dizzy. An adult."

"I don't care." She threw her arms out at her sides. "I'm not going to leave you."

"I'm asking you to. You have two bright young sisters who need you much more than I do."

She shouted with anguish, a muted cry. "Is it that easy for you to cast us out?"

The color drained from Tobias's face. He tried to speak, but only a breath shuddered from his lips. He tried again, managing a weak, "No." He dragged his body away from the edge and wrapped his fingers around his cane. "Dizzy, that is not..."

"What happens next? You go to jail for life, the world calls you powermad, and we pretend we never met?" Dizzy's hands fluttered frantically through the air as she spoke. She threw them in the direction of the hero lobby. "The girls like having you around. Look at them. They're happy."

Tobias rose. "I am happy that they are happy. They and you have made me happy, too. But, I cannot stay, Dizzy. The penitentiary will have a place for me as soon as my face is seen. I don't want to hide forever. I don't want to be angry forever, either. Tomorrow could take so many weights off my shoulders. I am counting on it."

Dizzy folded her arms and faced away from him.

"You are brilliant, Dizzy. You are immensely talented and beyond extraordinary, and I am so very grateful to have had your help through all of this. If my word meant anything anymore, I would give my highest recommendation for your leadership and your outstanding skills with technology to whichever university or hero apprenticeship you desired, without hesitation." Tobias smiled sadly in the direction of the younger girls. "You have the makings of a great team. With a little bit of training on how to master your powers and recognize your limits, I would wager you could take Defiance's title as the top team in a few years, when Annie is grown. You can't throw that away on a washed-up pom."

"You're not a pom," she snapped. Though her voice was fierce, her fire cracked. Tobias watched her fingers lock tight around her biceps, then retreat to cover her pale face.

He touched her shoulder, creases forming sympathetically around his good eye. "Oh, Dizzy... I know you don't like hugs, but..."

The balls of her palms moved to her temples, elbows sticking out, encouraging his hand to drop away. She huffed a harsh sound of frustration and shook her head. Then, she turned around quickly and shoved her face into his chest where he couldn't see it. Her arms wrapped as far around him as they could reach.

Tobias staggered slightly and pressed his cane down, wincing at the sudden force against his raw middle. His vision sharpened, but he took little notice. The little millions of screens made themselves small in the corners of his eyes. Tears soaked through his shirt.

"Oh..." One hand lifted to the back of her head, the other around her back. He rested his cheek on her spiky white hair and held her closer. "Sweetheart... It will be all right."

She shook her head without lifting it. Her nose crushed against his sore sternum.

"There, there." He coaxed her head over his shoulder, stooping to press his over hers.

Dizzy's hands twisted fistfuls of his shirt behind his back. Her eyes hid in the fabric covering his shoulder.

"We can go for breakfast tomorrow, before we part," Tobias said gently. "How do waffles sound?"

She shook her head again.

"Bacon and eggs? Creamy mushrooms? Cinnamon rolls?"

She groaned loudly and shook her head. Her body quivered.

"I know the city like the back of my hand. Whatever you want, we'll find it."

"How can you be thinking about food?" Dizzy moaned. She dug her face deeper into his shoulder, then withdrew to wipe any remaining emotion off her face with her black denim sleeves. The redness remained.

Tobias let her go. He pressed his knuckles against his lips to hide a bashful smile, then drummed his fingers on the head of his cane after it went away. He glanced off, eyes wandering the black tiles underfoot, painted with a heat-resistant coating. "Perhaps we all should be getting to sleep."

Dizzy's face, still pinched tight with a stubborn refusal to express herself openly, scrunched further. Her nose wrinkled, her brows sank. Her crimson gaze avoided him. "Whatever." She shot air loudly through her nose and fixed her fingers around her temples. "What were you planning on doing about Spectre? If you broadcast to Defiance, she'll see it."

Tobias's lips twisted and he sneered at the ground. "A complication."

"I'm her counter-power," Dizzy mumbled suggestively, one dark brow lifting.

"You get dizzy whenever you use your powers," Tobias dismissed. He shook his head and lifted his eyes to the hook that swung absently overhead. "Spectre is indeed a complication, but I have been thinking on how to work around her."

"Yeah?" She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "How's that?"

"That is for me to know." Tobias smiled.