“Mikhail, why do you not wear a mask in costume?”
As Mikhail Garnett shelved the armful of books he had, he frowned. “Because, Nico, I do not like going out in costume. I rarely do, and when I do, what is there that I can do?” he replied. “I can absorb information, and I can take the memories of people by doing so. Besides that, there is nothing that I can do that I haven’t learned in books.”
Nicolas cocked his head curiously. “That is true. Your only weapon in costume is a sword that you learned to use a few years ago,” he mused. “Still, though, why not put your powers to use for the ILUC?”
“Why not use your powers for the ILUC?” Mikhail shot back. “You can track down villains that they let escape, not to mention wipe the memories of anyone who’s learned who they really are.”
“The latter of which you can do as well,” Nicolas pointed out, leaning against the shelves of the library. “We should apply for a position in the ILUC.”
Mikhail scoffed. “You won’t catch me within a hundred yards of that place. I am fine with how I work things. I don’t get involved on either side, and nobody bothers me. If I really have to, I will hire myself out as a mercenary, and knowing you, you’ll come along. But I don’t need to wear a mask because to almost everyone in the town, I am just another citizen. Besides, the ILUC are a bunch of idiots,” he said scathingly.
On the other side of the dusty library stacks, someone dropped more than a few books. Being on the edge of the row of books, Nicolas peeked his head around to look at what had happened. A young woman was already on the floor and picking up her books faster than seemed possible, almost as if the books were ready to go into her hands. She stood up quickly, holding close to a dozen books. The woman, however, didn’t seem to notice how many books she was holding, as if the books were weightless.
“Sorry,” the young woman mumbled. She started walking in the direction of check-out, her gait the most flowing and graceful that Nicolas had ever seen.
“Do you want to check those books out, miss?” Nicolas said smoothly, walking away from where Mikhail was continuing to shelve the books.
The woman nodded, shifting the books in her arms uncomfortably. “Y-yes,” she said as she turned to look at him.
Nicolas smiled congenially. “Let me help you with that,” he said. In no time at all, he was behind the desk and stamping her books, and she was waiting on the other side, both of her hands on the desk, her fingers drumming impatiently.
I wonder what she’s so anxious about. Well, might as well check, Nicolas thought to himself, continuing to stamp the inside cover of the books.
He delved into her mind as if it were nothing, and her thoughts reflected her apprehensive attitude. --gotta tell the rest of the ILUC that we’ve got some super-mercenaries. They could turn against us in so many ways it’s not funny, and we should find out everything we can about these guys. Speaking of which, I should probably find out this one’s powers as well since the Russian guy never said anything specific about his friend’s powers, she thought.
Almost as soon as she had thought it, she leaned on the counter slightly and gave him a warm smile. “So, what do you think about living in a town of Gifted and Deities?” she said casually.
“I think,” he said, stamping one of her books and closing the cover, “that I’ve finished your books. They are due in two weeks on June third.” He lifted the stack of books cautiously and held it out to her with a smile.
The woman returned the smile, but a curse ran through her mind and the smile didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Thank you,” she said politely. Her smile grew slightly. “I think I’ll come back here again with some of my friends. This is a pretty good library, and everyone should know about it.”
Nicolas chuckled. “Have a good day, ma’am,” he said, forcing the conversation to a close. The woman smiled, and in a matter of moments, Bernadette had exited the library.
As soon as there were no more customers to attend to, Nicolas returned to where he had left Mikhail. The latter was down to his last couple books when the Greek man laughed softly. “I think we should talk a little quieter, Mikhail,” he said dryly.

Cecily was unhappy.
She, Aislinn, and Jack had found a lead that could help them get one of Westminster’s more dangerous criminals behind bars, or at least unconscious until the ILUC got there. Unfortunately, their only lead was that he would be at a masked ball. Aislinn and Jack had gone off to blend in, leaving her alone in a crowded room with an unfamiliar layout.
That was why there she sat next to the buffet, a deep scowl on her face and a fancy mask on her face. Not that she knew what it looked like, of course, but Aislinn had played dress-up with the “poor, little blind girl”… ugh, sometimes Cecily hated her disability.
“May I have this dance?”
Cecily tilted her head up to make it more comfortable for the man speaking to her, a lean-muscled gentleman in his mid-twenties. Elliot Whitman, unbeknownst to the blind girl, was their target, Glacier. His power, of course, was cryokinesis, and he’d been on a string of robberies recently, only to taunt the three superheroes into coming to the masked ball at which they were currently located.
Cecily sighed. “If you’re comfortable being the dance partner of a blind girl who can’t dance to save her life, then sure,” she said dryly, her arms crossing over her dress. Again, something Aislinn had picked out for her. It was a light green evening dress with a slight flare at the waist, offsetting her dark blue, sequined and feathered mask.
Elliot extended his hand to her with a smile that didn’t quite meet his brown eyes. “I’d be honored,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind teaching you how to waltz.”
“What? You actually want to dance with me?” Cecily said, her eyebrows furrowing. She thought that he’d give up and find another dance partner after hearing of her disability, but obviously he was not so easily swayed.
“If you wouldn’t mind,” he said suavely, tilting his head to one side so his dark red hair fell into his eyes through his bright red mask. At six-foot-one, he wasn’t small enough for this to make him look cute, and she was blind anyways, but it never hurt to ham it up for the audience.
Cecily lifted her hand up cautiously. “All right,” she said slowly, taking his hand when he moved it to where she could grab it. He pulled her to her feet gently, and in moments they were on the dance floor.
“Now, first you put your hand on me like this,” he said, taking her right hand and placing it on his shoulder. “Then I take you like this,” he added, putting his left hand around her waist. He couldn’t help but notice a shiver run down her spine, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a smile as he continued, “Finally, take my hands like this, and we can begin.”
It took more than a few tries and nearly ten minutes, but finally Cecily settled into the pattern of the waltz. She had just realized this with a small smile when her eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe I ever caught your name,” she said lightly.
“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t hear your name either,” Elliot replied just as nonchalantly.
“Candra. Candra Larkin,” Cecily said with a smile. It had been her mother’s name before she had married Cecily’s father, and she used it occasionally when dealing with people she didn’t want to give her name to.
“Arlen Riley,” Elliot replied, flashing a grin as well. “Nice to meet you, Miss Larkin.”
Cecily gave a chuckle and rolled her eyes. “The pleasure’s all mine, Mr. Riley,” she replied dryly. As he shifted the hand around her waist, she shivered again. “Your hands are so cold.”
Elliot laughed, and smile turned to a smirk. “I get that a lot,” he murmured. He caused a wave of light frost to spread from her waist to her uncovered shoulders, and even a few inches into her done-up hair were covered in a thin layer of ice. He leaned in close to her ear as she shivered once more. “My dear, you and your friends seem to be a poor excuse for a superhero team. Coming in all at once? Not a very wise idea, especially when you know your enemy is there.”
Cecily’s eyes widened and she struggled in his grip, but he tightened his grip. “Glacier!” she hissed. “Let go of me!”
“Not on your life, Miss Larkin,” Elliot said, his last two words dripping in sarcasm. He gave a laugh, not quite a cackle, but it was the evilest laugh she had heard in years.
Cecily finally got her hands away from him, tearing off a patch of his suit from the shoulder and falling back from him. She stumbled through the crowd, bumping into more than a few shoulders and backs along the way, abandoning her shoes as she ran. She didn’t know where she was going until finally someone grabbed her around the shoulders. “Let go of me!” Cecily shouted.
“Cecily, it’s me. It’s Jack,” a rushed voice said. Cecily panted heavily as Jack looked over her disheveled appearance and furrowed his eyebrows. “What happened?”
“I found him. I found Glacier, and he knows what we look like. He noticed we all came in at the same time, and we’ve got to get him out into the open where he can’t hurt the civilians,” she said quickly. “We have to find Aislinn before he does!”
Jack nodded, and he grabbed Cecily’s wrist to lead her through the crowd. They’d been pushing through the crowd for a while when finally Jack’s eyes lit up. “Aislinn!” he called.
The African-American woman in question turned at his voice, and her eyes widened as he saw their out-of-breath state. “What happened?” she exclaimed.
“Glacier happened. Get Cecily outside and change into your costumes, and once you’re done we’ll draw Glacier out into the courtyard,” Jack said in a rush.
Aislinn nodded shortly. “Right!” she said. Cecily frowned as her wrist was grabbed by Aislinn in place of Jack, but the three split in a matter of seconds.
As they ran through the crowd-- the third time in less than two minutes for Cecily, unfortunately-- Cecily bumped into another body that stood out. Perhaps it was because she had spent so long around Glacier, but the person she had just bumped into felt feverish, high above the regular body temperature. The group didn’t have time to check on sickly guests, however, so she kept running, her mouth a tight, thin line.
Without warning, Lionel Irving was shoved forward, splashing some of the wine in his glass onto the floor. He frowned and turned his head to the right, where the person who had bumped into him had been heading. It was a pair of women, one black and one Caucasian, but what caught his eye was on the Caucasian woman. A thin layer of frost ran up her back from her waist, and the only way that could happen was if someone with ice powers had spread it up her back.
“Glacier,” he muttered quietly. He turned to the group he was talking to with an apologetic smile. “I apologize, but I must excuse myself to the little boys’ room. The wine went right through me.” As the crowd laughed, Lionel leaned over to get close to his girlfriend’s ear. “Duty calls.”
Erin smiled and nodded. “Go ahead,” she whispered with a wink. “I’ll cover you if it takes too long.”
Lionel smiled back. “Love you,” he said, giving her a peck on the cheek as she took his drink. He quickly headed across the dance floor, scanning for anybody that looked out of the ordinary. Other than the two women he had seen, the only people he saw that looked ready to battle were a tall, muscled man with black hair that looked anxious and a man with dark red hair and a smirk on his face.
“Better get into costume,” Lionel muttered. He headed for the doors, where it would be safer to battle Glacier, and quickly made it through the glass-paned doors to the sprawling courtyard outside.
Once he had, however, he saw the two women from earlier enter the courtyard through doors fifty feet away. Lionel ducked behind a bush and pulled off the party mask, starting to change into his costume.
As he pulled off his suit jacket, Lionel chuckled to himself and rolled his eyes. “First Glider tells us about the mercenaries, and then Glacier appears at a masquerade ball? Today’s surprises will never end,” he muttered. It didn’t take long before he was in full costume, and once he had finished, he come out from behind the bush.
“You’re here to fight Glacier too?” a voice said from behind him. He turned to see two of the city’s less known crimefighters, whose names he couldn’t quite remember since they hadn’t given the ILUC any trouble. They were… an African-American woman and a Caucasian woman. When he’d said the surprises would never end, apparently Fate was listening. Darn her.
“Yes. I saw traces of ice and knew that he was here, and fight ice with fire, right?” Lionel said shortly, a small smile creeping onto his face.
The Caucasian woman frowned. “We have to set up a plan. Force Glacier into his other mask,” she said, her voice almost as icy as their opponent.
The effectual kind of crimefighter. Doesn’t like messing around. Got it, Lionel thought to himself. He refocused on his surroundings. “Aren’t there three of you usually?” he said with a frown.
“Present!” a man’s voice said cheerfully from behind him. He turned to see the third member of their group, a Caucasian man who, from what Lionel remembered, had superstrength as his power. Lionel refrained the urge to snort, but he couldn’t keep a corner of his mouth from quirking up.
“Okay. So you said we needed a plan,” Lionel said, turning to the shapeshifter. She nodded, so he continued, “The ILUC needs to find out who Glacier is, and I would appreciate your help since I am unable to contact any of my teammates. With luck, we can unmask him tonight and put him behind bars.”
As the three members of the other team nodded, Lionel sobered up, and his only thought wasn’t doing much to cheer him up.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t turn the tables on us…