Several hours later, Irelyn slumped down onto a beach chair next to her sisters and Haley, who were already lounging on theirs in bathing suits. It was done, it was over, finally. The damn shapeshifter had been the last part of the mercenary army that had been sent to try to force the Adherents to work for that Senator Parrs guy. They’d had three Touched with them, the armored guy, the speedster, and the shapeshifter. All three were dealt with, two more permanently than the last. And the army they’d brought with them had all either retreated or been firmly detained.

  Irelyn murmured, “Well, that’s that,” as she stretched out on the lounging chair. “I sent everything we had to a few contacts in the state government back home, and they’ll have to run with it from there. We already have a few of our new friends, including that shifter, ready to throw the good senator under the bus in exchange for a deal, so we’ll have to see what happens with all that.”

  “Ehh.” Haley grunted with obvious doubt, stretching out on the chair while watching the ocean waves lapping up against the sand nearby. This area of beach had been blocked off with a bit of Touched-Tech that created temporary forcefield walls that they could see through from this side, but were opaque from the other. They extended a couple hundred feet out into the ocean, and it all stretched up over their heads. From the outside, the whole thing looked like a large, pitch-black oblong dome that was half on the island and half in the ocean.

  Right through those one-way walls, the group could watch the Adherents moving around the rest of their island complex. Most of them weren’t out near this beach, having too much work to do to clean up and put things back together. But they had insisted that the people responsible for saving them should get an actual vacation after everything they’d been through. And that they wanted the group to stick around here until their leader had an actual chance to talk to them.

  Resistant as she might’ve been about the idea of spending any more time than necessary on this island after everything that had happened on the last one she’d teleported to, Irelyn couldn’t take away the chance to relax like this away from the others. Besides, there were a few pretty major differences between this one and Breakwater. Not the least of which was the occupants. The Adherents might have decided they were all going to do everything they could to leave the planet behind, but they were still a hell of a lot better than a bunch of superpowered monsters who had been thrown on an island to hunt each other. And this beach was pretty. So yeah, she wasn’t exactly suffering now.

  And most importantly, they had all the privacy they needed to stretch out like this in their suits and enjoy the sun and waves. They had been promised that no one would bother them, and that no one would do anything to disturb their privacy. Their identities were safe behind the one-way shield. Which was all pretty impressive. Irelyn had seen efforts used to ensure the privacy of Touched, but the fact that this group was able to throw something like this together just like that to ensure privacy for just the three of them on this stretch of beach was a pretty big deal. The Adherents had really wanted to thank them for everything.

  “Well,” Haley spoke up after watching the waves for another lingering few seconds, “that's just great. I’m sure we can all trust that the United States senator will get the just punishment he deserves and won't find a way to squirm out of taking any responsibility for the whole thing. That's definitely how this sort of thing tends to go.”

  Irelyn started to respond, but Paige snorted first while reaching down to run her fingers through the warm sand. “She has a point, we might have to follow up on things and make sure he doesn't get away with all of it. But, I mean, it probably helps that these people are important too. They might be working on leaving the planet, but they also share a lot of their breakthroughs with other countries. So there's going to be pressure to take that bus the senator is being thrown under and run it back and forth over him a few times.”

  Logically, that much was true. This Senator had been making a pretty big power play, trying to force control over one of the most advanced Touched-Tech groups on the planet. There were entire other governments out there who really wouldn't take kindly to that, and would probably insist that he be made an example of. After all, if he wasn't, it would look like the United States endorsed his attempt, and that would make the entire international community, especially the countries who were part of the Armistice, frown pretty hard.

  Loathe as she was to even think about it right now, all of those were thoughts that made Irelyn wonder how much pressure the Ministry could put on something like that. Obviously, they didn't have the sort of national power that they had within Michigan itself. But she was willing to bet that they did have some power in Washington. Even if it was far more limited, they definitely would have put at least a few of their people over there to warn them if any sort of federal investigation was started. Not to mention the way it would let them lean on the scale to get government contracts sent to Detroit companies. Yes, they would have some influence there.

  That made her chuckle at the thought of actually calling up the Evans to ask them to extend that influence in this case. She couldn't even imagine the looks on their faces if she, either as Irelyn or Flea, decided to reveal that she knew about them like that. Actually, part of her thought it might almost be worth it, just to see their expressions. And, of course, to get their help making sure this Senator was put in prison where he belonged.

  Opening a soda with an audible hiss of escaping carbonation, Sierra looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. She had a bandage over the back of her head and across one of her eyes, the one that she wasn't squinting at the woman with. That knife had done a fair bit of damage, but not nearly as much as it would have to an ordinary human. As the girl had noted, she didn't keep her brain in there. And the way Pitman had designed the Biolems, she would gradually heal even the damage to her eye. As long as she gave the biological part of her enough food to break down into energy in order to fuel her healing, the injury would eventually fade away as though it had never happened. She wouldn't even have a scar.

  “Uh, what’s so funny over there, Captain Snickers?” Sierra demanded, “Do you want to share with the rest of the class? Or is this just one of those, ‘I am so glad this is over I'm going to laugh at nothing’ sort of things?”

  Clearing her throat, Haley shook her head. “No, she's definitely laughing at something. I know her, ‘I'm just glad we're all alive’ laugh, and that wasn't it.” She paused before making a face “Damn it, and now I want a Snickers. So thanks for that.”

  Her shoulders rising in a languid shrug while laying back on the beach chair, Sierra replied. “Look, I'm telling you guys, chocolate is really disgusting. You've just been brainwashed and gaslit into thinking it's some sort of treat. I blame capitalism. I'm not exactly sure how, but it's usually a pretty safe bet.”

  As much as she enjoyed the idea of letting that continue, Irelyn spoke up before it could devolve into more of an argument about the deliciousness of the treat. She told them about the thought she'd had, and it made them chuckle as well. They all sat there for another minute, thinking about how something like that would go. Honestly, Irelyn was pretty sure a couple of them were considering it more realistically than others. But either way, they all found it amusing.

  The silence lingered for a moment while Paige shrugged and stood up to take a few steps closer to the water. She was standing there, barefoot as the waves lapped over her toes before finally speaking up. “I'm just glad we were here for this. I mean, yeah, it wasn't fun, and it definitely wasn't a vacation. At least until now. But can you imagine if those people got what they wanted and had this group under their thumbs?”

  Tightening her hand into a fist, Haley made a disgruntled and threatening noise deep in her throat. “I wouldn't let that stand. Whether I was here when it was happening or found out about it later, I wouldn't leave my friends hanging like that. They might be a little weird, and maybe slightly obsessed with this rocketship to another solar system idea, but they're not bad people. And they don't deserve to be put under anyone's fucking thumb, whether it's a senator or anyone else.”

  “Hey, we know you wouldn’t abandon them,“ Irelyn assured her old friend while looking that way. “But the point stands, if we hadn't been here, it would've been a lot harder to deal with this. If they were already in control and had their army here on the island, it would've been a hell of a lot more difficult to push them out. I would've come with you, and these two would've followed. But it would've been much worse. Can you imagine trying to fight those people if they were entrenched here? What about trying to fight those three Touched all together instead of one at a time? Believe me, we got lucky with how this turned out.”

  Even as she said that, Irelyn was considering the fact that she had killed one of those Touched, while Sierra had killed another. The girl had killed that other one in a way that put her very existence at risk. That could easily have gone very wrong. If the speedster had taken even another second before ripping the grenade out of her hand… It was a thought that made her shudder.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Every time she considered what might’ve happened, Irelyn realized a little bit more just how much Sierra had come to mean to her in such a short time. Yes, she'd accepted the girl quickly, as soon as she knew who she was and where she had come from. She was, after all, essentially Paige’s sister.

  Now, however, after this time they had spent together, Irelyn knew it was more than that. She cared for Sierra and would have even if she wasn't in any way connected to Paige. She cared about both of them. If anything happened to Sierra, if the girl had managed to get herself really hurt, or…

  Damn it, she couldn’t focus on that. She couldn’t consider it. So, Irelyn pushed that thought out of her mind. It was morbid and not at all helpful. They had won. They beat those mercenaries and this senator. The group didn't have to think about what would've happened if they weren't here, because the fact was, they were. They were here at the right time and right place to stop this from happening.

  Opening her own soda, she gave a soft sigh before agreeing, “We’ll keep an eye on what happens with the senator, yes. We're not going to let him wiggle out from under this. I'm pretty sure he won't be able to, but just in case, we’ll see how it goes. Even if we have to throw him in jail ourselves.” She left unsaid how that would actually work.

  From her own seat, Haley started to say something about not relying on jail, but stopped herself when Irelyn pointedly looked at her. Instead, she just waved it off and declared, “At the very least, his little private army is done. They lost pretty badly, so even the ones who managed to escape probably don't want to have anything to do with him anymore. And I've got some contacts of my own in the mercenary community to reinforce that. I'll make sure he can't hire any more replacements. At least none that have any standards.”

  There was a lot that Irelyn could say about that, but in the end, she just smiled faintly. “Nice to know that you made friends while you were running around out there in the rest of the world. Even if you made enemies too. Like that whole thing with the tiger TONI and his group in North Dakota.”

  Haley gave a quick glance at her at that, a slight blush crossing the woman's face. “Wait, you know about that? That was like four years ago, and it was only local news over there. What did you do, look up everything embarrassing you could about me after you woke up and found me back in the city?”

  Irelyn gave a soft laugh and reached out to grab her hand, interlacing their fingers while shaking her head. “I didn't have to look anything up then, you dingus. I've been keeping track of the things you've done this whole time. I had active web searches letting me know every time you came up in the news, no matter how local it was. I wanted to keep track of how you were doing out there.”

  Shifting in her seat, Haley opened and shut her mouth before turning to look at the ocean again. It took her a few long moments to respond, but finally, she managed a soft, “I ran out on you. I betrayed you. We were friends, partners. We were heroes together, and I took off just to get rich. Why would you pay attention to what I was doing for any reason other than to feel smug if I screwed up?”

  “Come on, Paige.” Sierra pushed herself up out of the chair and started to walk toward the ocean. “Let's go see how cold the water is.” Before Irelyn could say anything, she gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Yeah, yeah, the bandages. Don't worry, they promised that the things are waterproof. Not only waterproof, they'll keep the water out of the wound completely. So I am completely safe from the deadly ocean.” With that, she grabbed her sort-of twin and started to pull Paige with her out into the water.

  Head tilted as she watched them go, Irelyn gave a quiet chuckle. “I'm sure she's heard of subtlety, but something tells me she thinks anyone who practices it is a coward.” With that, she turned in her seat to look at the woman beside her. “Listen, you're my friend. You were always my friend, from the day we met. Yes, you did something I didn't agree with. I still cared about you. I wanted to know how you were doing. I wanted to know you were safe, and that you were getting what you wanted. I didn't want you to fail, Haley. I never wanted you to fail.”

  A soft sigh escaped her as she looked down at their hands, which were still clasped together. “So yeah, I kept track of your exploits. I have a whole drawer full of clippings that I printed out and saved, and a couple different folders on my computer for things that I didn't print. I've gotta say, there were honestly a couple times when I really considered going out to try to meet up with you so we could talk about everything, but I didn't know how it would go.”

  Poking Irelyn’s shoulder with her free hand, Haley admitted, “Yeah, well, I considered at least calling you at some point, but I thought you'd still be too angry with me.”

  “That’s fair, I was definitely angry,” Irelyn confirmed while using her free hand to rub the side of her head self-consciously. “But not so angry that I never wanted to see or hear from you again. I would've liked to hear from you, no matter how upset I was. I missed you, Haley. Like I said, you were my best friend. We were on the Minority together. We learned all of that together. The two of us went through a lot like that, and then you were just gone. I know you didn't like that whole thing as much as I did. I know you wanted to get out of poverty and earn some real money, and you deserved to. You deserved a lot more than we were getting.”

  Each of them fell silent for a few seconds, thinking that through while they looked out to where the other two were splashing around in water up to their waists. Then Irelyn spoke again, even more softly. “To be honest, I think they added a lot more benefits to being on the Minority because of what you did. I mean, you and others across the country who immediately quit as soon as it was possible.”

  “Really?” Haley gave a snort before offering a one shoulder shrug. “Well, at least I can claim partial credit for superhero kids not being quite as exploited as they were when we were going through it. Except, didn't that watergirl have a whole thing with her mom being upset that she wasn't getting paid?”

  “Raindrop,” Irelyn replied while shaking her head. “And that's definitely not remotely the same thing. She was being paid fairly, and a lot of it was being put away for her education or life in the future. Her mom was upset that she wasn't getting as much as she thought she deserved. She didn't care what her daughter received, she just saw herself as the talent agent who should get a much bigger piece of the pie.”

  It was clear that Haley was about to launch into a good long diatribe about her opinion on that, before blinking down as the phone beside her in the sand buzzed with a new message. “Oh, look at that. I guess Saunders is ready to talk about everything. I better go see what's going on.”

  Grabbing her towel, she stood up, just as Paige and Sierra came splashing back out of the water, the blonde girl almost tripping over her own feet as she called out, “The LEAT games! I have to check on them, I completely forgot about all that! I have to see how Paintball’s doing.”

  Head shaking sharply to send water flying in every direction, Sierra noted, “I'm kind of surprised she didn't spontaneously develop the power to teleport to the nearest TV as soon as she realized, honestly. I guess she doesn't care as much as I thought she did.”

  Trying to restrain her snicker while Paige elbowed her teasing twin, Irelyn rose from her own seat. “Okay, I guess we're done on the beach for now in that case. I'm sure these people have a nice television somewhere we can use to check on the games. Let's get dressed and head back in. Here.” She tossed a pen-shaped device toward Sierra. It was an incogniter. Not the same one that she'd come to get, but one provided by these people as part of their way of showing thanks. They hadn't even asked why she wanted it. Now Sierra would be able to go out in public without looking so much like Cassidy Evans.

  After getting dressed in her costume once more, Irelyn held her helmet and mask in one hand while looking at Haley. “I'll get these two settled in to get caught up with the games, then come find you so we can both talk to Saunders. I have a few things I want to ask him about too. Especially when it comes to making sure the people back in that town are safe after all this. Some of those mercenaries got out, and even if they don't work with that senator again, they still know that portal is there. He needs to make sure the people in that town don't get hurt anymore if someone decides to make a run at this place again.”

  Brushing the sand off themselves, the four left the privacy of the shielded beach area. Irelyn and Paige were wearing their masks, though Haley didn't bother, and Sierra was using the Incogniter to look like a pale girl with light brown hair and very different facial features. She had said she didn't know if it would be the one she settled on to use regularly, but it worked well enough for this.

  Once they had started walking up across the sand to the buildings in the distance, Irelyn glanced at the other three and smiled a bit to herself. When Paige looked at her questioningly, she waved the girl off, not wanting to break the mood by saying something that would give Sierra and Haley a reason to tease her. Not that they needed much of an excuse.

  Until now, Irelyn hadn’t been sure she would ever be able to feel like this again, this… content with her life. It was a bit of a strange feeling. Especially considering they were on a tropical island, a place she had told herself she would never be comfortable with again.

  That was a thought that made her grimace. But to be fair, things were definitely different this time than they have been on Breakwater. The people here weren't anywhere near as bad, she could leave whenever she wanted to, and they had actually been able to stop the bad guys here.

  No, there were plenty of differences this time. But one was more important than all the others put together. This time, on this island, she was with her family. And everything was just--

  “Oh that’s so cool,” Sierra’s voice cut through Irelyn’s thoughts, drawing her attention along with the others.

  Which meant they were looking at her just in time to see the girl reach out to Touch the orb that was hovering just beside her.

  Joke Tags: Boy This Would Be A Bad Time To End The Arc Huh? Hey Don’t Worry? There’s One More Chapter To See How This Plays Out!