Chapter 8 - Silas

I had plenty of words for Kaity, but right then I didn't feel like saying a single one. That might have been because I simply couldn't speak, or perhaps I just couldn't decide which one I wanted to say more. I couldn't tell if I wanted to hug her or shove her away for keeping such a huge secret from me for the three and a half years I had known her. It reminded me of how she hadn't told me she was even technically an Evolved for almost six months. We all came to the same conclusion once I knew the truth. My suit was from Void Star.

It made strategic sense for him to give me such a suit, since I had something to hate High Solis for. Something he undoubtedly knew I would despise her for. If he was planning on using my revenge for his gain, he was about to be sorely disappointed.

His plan seemed so clear in my head. Give me the suit, let me go on a vengeance rampage for a bit, approach me with an offer of aid whilst pretending to have never given me the suit in the first place.

As wonderful as the suit was, and the fact that Emma had actually opted not to turn me in, I was happiest about seeing Kaity standing. I made up my mind at that moment, I wouldn't work with her dad, but not because he was a villain to the city. I would refuse to work with anyone who was a villain to her. I slowly came back to the moment as I watched her stumbling about the room.

"Hey, Kaity, I don't blame you for not telling me. I'm not exactly any Evolved's best fan, now am I?" Emma visibly flinched at that one. "But I'm sure you came to the same conclusion that I did once I knew this…"

"Wait, what conclusion?" Emma interjected. She didn't have all the details yet, of course. I had only clarified that I was Basic, what I was fighting for, and that only Kaity knew his identity that he knew of. I had forgotten to mention that my suit was given to me in mysterious boxes.

I decided to ignore Emma for the moment.

"My suit came from your stepfather, didn't it?" I stared down Kaity as she nodded. It took Emma a few seconds, but she eventually figured it out. The dots connecting in her mind. She was smarter than her sister or the other heroes gave her credit for.

"I…" she mumbled, "I think so, yeah." I only stared at her for a minute, but I slowly realized what she was worried about.

"Kaity, I'm not disappointed even, much less mad at you." Her face lightened a little and she flopped back onto her bed. I worried for a second that she had lost her ability to move again when she slowly sat up.

"Si, I'm getting tired," she commented out of nowhere. At first I though it might have been some ploy to get out of the conversation, then I realized that using her power and what little of her muscles remained would have undoubtedly been tired from standing for so long.

I simply smiled and nodded, showing my understanding. It was about time for Emma and myself to have another talk in private about my alter ego, so I was slightly relieved when Kaity gave me an excuse to leave.

"See ya later, huh? Maybe out and about, am I right?" I laughed as I gestured to her bed. With a jerk of my head to Emma, I headed out the door.

I only barely caught her calling out, "See you out there, Silas." I shut the door behind Emma and myself and started walking down the halls of the hospital. Everything was a blur of greys and colors as we left, with all of the sounds melting together. We stepped outside and I immediately knew something was wrong. I had been meaning to talk with Emma, but there was no time.

It was only the middle of the afternoon, but for some reason the sky was dark. It wasn't the darkness of cloud cover, and I couldn't spot a single star in the sky. On a normal night, one of the benefits of having most of civilization elsewhere in the world was that you could clearly see the stars. It was unnatural for the sky to be such a pure black, velvet sheet. I stared at it and noted the blackness swirling and twisting in whirlpools of night sky.

Emma glanced at her watch, which now displayed a GPS map of Sol city with a red dot a multiple blocks from a blue arrow. It was an Evolved criminal, exactly what I needed. I nodded to her, and while she tapped away at her watch, I clasped my condensed suit onto my chest.

I had quickly discovered the collapsing system when I left the hospital the first time. It looked like a little square but weighted several pounds while it was collapsed. We were both in our suits in a matter of seconds, and I pulled my helmet out of my bag.

"What's going down?" I asked as we jogged our way down the block.

She took a few breaths before answering, "It's a light manipulator that can create artificial shadows." She glanced at her watch for a moment as she ran. "They dispatched one other hero. Not sure who it is."

"Let's just hope they don't get in my way. We should separate to avoid suspicion." I hadn't clarified that she was fully on my side, but it seemed that she was helping me. That would have to be good enough for now. I took the next turn, allowing us to approach the crime scene from two different streets.

I no longer needed to hold back to stay with Flare, so I mentally placed force fields under my feet and pulled them forward as I ran, operating like a moving floor in old airports.