Alex squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temple so furiously anyone would've thought he had a migraine.

Anything to prevent him from looking at the person in front of his right now.

Aegon sat opposite Alex with his arms folded, eyes half-lidded and expression nonchalant.

He'd just been sent to the principal's office for calling a teacher naive during a heated argument.

"I wasn't lying." Aegon said finally. "She is, in fact, as naive as a child."

"I need you to tone it down," Alex said, finally opening his eyes. "I get that you're having an existential crisis and whatever—"

"Don't do that," Aegon interrupted. "Don't downplay what's going on here... What's the next mission?"

"..."

He said nothing for a minute, trying to analyze if Aegon was serious, especially since he just had one last night.

Sighing, "No." He said dryly. "I don't think it's healthy for you to be out there every night... Besides, after Invisiman was blown up in his penthouse suite, the cops have put most supes on high alert.

Take the break, kid. Go spend some time with your friends."

Aegon scoffed. "Yeah, right." He leaned back. "And I told you already, I'm not alone. I have a partner."

"Yeah, the former hitwoman is a great partner to rely on." He answered sarcastically. "You still haven't found the leak, huh?"

"Nope."

That was a lie. He'd gotten the number of the informant from Omniblade's storage unit.

However, the number's IP address could alone be tracked to as close as his dorm room. So, it was either Quinn or Eli.

"Still haven't found anything yet." He doubled down. "... Come on, Alex. Give me a mission."

"If I give you a mission and you get, killed at best, or captured at worst—that shit's coming right back to me."

"So you only care about yourself."

"What? Yes." He gestured wildly. "These are bad people yes, and they need to go out. But also, this is, under the law, as illegal as the shit they do."

"..."

Aegon didn't reply, but his stare pressed on.

Until Alex finally broke. Pulling out his drawer, he slapped a file onto the desk, then slid it to Aegon.

He opened it and read through as Alex explained.

"Some heroes are easy to catch slipping up but others aren't, their agents don't tell anyone about their secret identity, and the perfect example of that is..."

• · ─ ·✶· ─ · •

Name | Von Fischer. / [ Alias: Mind-Forge. ]

Faculty of Soulcraft | Affinity: Hypnosis.

Rank: Transcendent.

• · ─ ·✶· ─ · •

"He's a Transcendent." Aegon remarked while skimming through the file. "Where's the location?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Alex gestured for him to calm down. "Hypnosis this far up can override conscious thought, bypassing fear, pain, and survival instincts.

Targets act while fully awake, fully aware—and still helpless. No trance needed.

They can rewrite perception: make allies look like enemies, pain feels like pleasure, reality feels wrong. Commands can be layered—triggers that activate later, phrases that unlock obedience."

"I just read the file too," he leaned in. "Where's the location?"

"A club he supposedly owns called 'sleazy's', he shows up once a month and intel says, tonight's that once.

The club is... weird, in the least. It's a regular club every other day, but when Von shows up things turn exclusive.

It says they only let a third of the men into the building but all girls are allowed to go in.

No one leaves until the next day where they have no idea what happened, but—" he raised his hand in quotes for the next line. "—they're sure they had a good time."

"How can he hypnotise them all and for so long?"

Aegon asked.

"Simple, he's a Transcendent. And there's also suspected drug use." Alex added.

"Thought awakened couldn't get high or drunk."

"No." He laughed. "We just have a higher resistance than non awakened. And what do you know when alcohol doesn't work?" He pointed at Aegon to answer.

"You drink until it does."

"Bingo." He winked. "... So, everyone in that club is basically his private meat puppet orgy army, and you will too if you get too close so—" he reached for his drawer again.

He pulled out a small black case and tossed it to Aegon. "That's an Aetheric Null Patch.

Designed to block out the weirdo's frequency from getting into your head. There should be enough for you and whomever you decide to take.

Pay attention, when you place it on your temple and hit the centre it should glow a cool blue—showing you it's stable and safe.

When it changes to an amber colour—it's actively resisting intrusion, which means you're in the hypnosis radius.

Finally, when it's red—it's about to fail. Sometimes the frequency can get that high or you could get that close, and the patch can't deal with that.

Do not and I repeat, do not, get too close when that thing's on red. If it fails and Mind-Forge gets into your head then you're as good as dead.

And also its attachment is made from a self adhering gel. So, once placed it locks on to skin temperature and pulse rhythm.

Removing it without deactivation will be very bloody and painful."

Aegon continued to nod along until he was done. "How bout the people around him?"

"What about them?"

Alex raised a brow.

"They're obviously gonna try and attack us when we get close. What do we do then?"

Sighing again, he leaned back. "Aegon, I don't care about collateral damage, you're the one with the conscience here. Do whatever you want to do with them."

He immediately left Alex's office and headed back to his dorm. He'd intentionally been avoiding most of his friends for a while now.

Even after finding out it wasn't most of them, he still couldn't fully trust them.

He pushed the door of his dorm room open and, luckily, it was just Zara.

"Get ready." He said smoothly. "We have another mission tonight."

She groaned audibly. "We just finished a mission yesterday, don't you think—" Her sentence was cut short as Quinn and Eli entered the room.

Quinn, as usual, made way straight for her bed. Meanwhile, Eli patted Aegon on the shoulder. "What's going on, man? Hardly see you around anymore."

Trying his best to be as light as possible, Aegon said, "Just been busy."

Eli's eyes darted between Aegon and Zara, before he leaned in close to whisper. "Saw you weren't in bed last night, and neither was Zara, you dog."

Even with everything going on, an unknowing smile stretched Aegon's cheeks. "Dude, you are so creepy."

After another inappropriate joke from Eli the tension had loosened, not died, but loosened. They playfully continued to joke until they fell asleep.

Well, at least Eli did.

Aegon remained awake, eyes wide open and just waiting for the gog of the clock tower to signify it was time.

"..."

He waited for a few more minutes, then it echoed throughout the academy ground. 'it's time.'

He crept back up and after waking up a groggy Zara, they snuck out.

Out the door. Out the dorm. In the middle of the cold night only illuminated by the tired moon and the fluorescent street lights.

A figure stood underneath a street light, hair swaying in the wind as he leaned against the pole.

Ren.

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