After their meeting, JD and TT returned to his car. She sat up front and went over with him her list of T’s and F’s in her notebook. “Basically, he was honest, except about Marc being suspected. I mean, they think maybe he’s a part of it, but even that guy knows there’s no evidence.” Her serious demeanor made her seem much older than her seven years. JD considered that her power may have brought on an early maturity. But more importantly, in this moment, he was just glad to not be alone.

He breathed a sigh of relief as Tasha buckled herself into her seat in the back. He felt he could trust Officer Briggs for the most part. Their next meeting was set for Friday night, so for the next four days, JD planned to scope out a few of the places he recognized from the photos with Marc. Other than that, he just had to endure.

Despite the rising tide of hope, at home, JD felt his positivity and determination wane. He trudged up the stairs, after refusing dinner, and crawled into his bed. He kicked off his sneakers and rolled himself into his blankets, and prayed that sleep would come before the deluge of depressing thoughts could overwhelm him.

Each morning was a battle with his mind just to get to school. He remained mostly dazed and out of it, but the cacophony of students and steady pace of the school day kept him from thinking long enough to breakdown. He played with his lunches more than he ate them. The one thing that seemed to break through his mood was the GSA meeting on Thursday. He “came out” to the group as bisexual. As the first “out” jock of the school he was reassured by all the positive comments of the group.

By Friday afternoon, JD was on edge. All he could think about was how the night was going to go. Hope and doubt battled for his attention in his thoughts. Everything seemed to drag on, as if time was slowing down just to get in his way. After school he logged into Marc’s MusicStream app and selected his favorite playlist. With ear buds in, and volume high, JD went for a run to chase off the thoughts and burn the anxious energy.

After dark, a showered and suited up Vigilante was escorted through an unassuming office building by Officer Briggs. Three doors down, and to the left, they entered a plain looking conference room. At the head of the long faux wood table two chairs were positioned in front of a single laptop with a mic. On the screen was some video conference software displaying what was on camera at five other locations. Instead of people though, JD could only see, what he assumed was code names. Aaron, Bryce, Chris, Dianna, and Ellen.

Officer Briggs motioned for him to sit directly in front of the laptop and then sat in the other chair. He unmuted the mic and greeted everyone, “Ok, so to start this meeting, Vigilante, some of these people have questions for you.”

“Ok?” JD wasn’t sure what else they needed to know, but he was ready to do this.

Diana’s camera lit up to highlight that she was speaking, “Why did you lie about your relationship with the little girl when you met Officer Briggs?”

“Oh, uh, he assumed, I just didn’t correct him. She’s my niece though, and of course anonymity is as important to me and her as it is to you,” JD gestured to the laptop.

“And what power does your niece exhibit?” Diana continued.

“Your guess is as good as mine! She has yet to elaborate the specifics,” JD shrugged.

“Ok, but then why did you bring her? What did you get out of having her along?”

“Ah, the results? Whatever her gift is specifically I couldn’t say, but she did confirm that Officer Briggs was being honest with me.”

“And you,” Bryce’s camera lit up, “we know you can fly and have super strength? Anything else?”

“No, at least, not yet. I don’t really know how they develop.”

Bryce spoke again, “Your friend, what are his powers?”

JD wasn’t comfortable divulging his best friend’s secrets, but he had a feeling transparency and answering honestly was for the best. “Well for the longest time it was only that no one seems to notice him, and they forget him, so it’s almost like he’s invisible. And then, a month or so ago, he told me he was starting to be able to sense people and their locations relative to him, whether he can physically see them or not. He perceives them as colors based on if they are a friend, a threat, or neutral. That’s how he was helping me the night Officer Briggs confronted him. I was struggling to find the people in that house. Without Marc.... I would not have been able to save them all.” JD took a deep breath and looked down at his hands in his lap, “I am not complete without him.”

“Vigilante,” Ellen spoke quietly, “we understand that you are upset and worried for your friend, but we need to know, are you going to be able to prioritize the capture of the suspect over the rescue of Marc?”

He looked at the screen for a moment while mentally constructing an honest answer. “I am not prepared to make that decision right now? I mean, I don’t know what the plan is and how much support I’ll have from y’all. I work best with a team; as a quarterback on the field, I depend on the team to do things I can’t and make decisions that will bring us a victory. Will this be a team?”

“That is our next topic, Vigilante. Would you consider working with us in the future as well?” Officer Briggs looked JD in the eyes, with one hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Can we persuade you?”