Emily loved sleeping. Her bed was her most treasured thing in the world—aside from her bow and arrows. And maybe Kai.

She had been having a wonderful dream. The summer sun had been beating against her sun as she sat out on a beach on some island. Ahead of her, Kai was surfing on a massive wave that she created herself. The sounds of tropical birds cawing and water lapping against the shore soothed her ears.

The sound of loud knocking at her door ruined it.

After reluctantly straggling out of bed and trudging over to the door, she was met with Angus' pudgy face. Lucky and Holly, still in their pajamas, stood behind him.

Emily stood beneath her doorframe and glared at the trio of young heroes.

"Ah told ye not to knock so loud," Holly quipped. Her accent was thicker than molasses. Sometimes it sounded like she was speaking an entirely different language. Then again, Scottish English practically was another language. 

"What do you idiots want?"

Lucky cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Director Shaw has requested our presence at his office."

Her heart stopped. They weren't due to return from New York until the morning. Director Shaw never went off schedule. Never. If they had arrived early, something must've happened.

Grumbling under her breath, Emily closed the door to her room and brushed past the teenagers in front of her. "C'mon. Let's go see what this is about."

#

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Angus interrupted. "You lot got your asses handed to you by a giant, a snake-lady, and some homeless lad?"

"And a shadow," Zach, who was sat on a couch beside Theo, added. "Don't forget the shadow."

Andre narrowed his eyes at the young speedster. "Thanks for reminding us."

"No problem!"

Chase shook his head at the kid. "Yes...but that's not the point. These Primes are strong. Like, level three and above strong."

"I coulda' took 'em," Angus boasted.

Emily snorted back a laugh. "With what? Your baseballs and your bat?"

"I'll have ya' know that Slugger is a very dangerous weapon."

"Oi, Angus." Holly jabbed a finger at the stocky ginger. "Yer head's full o' mince."

Everyone turned to look at her. Confusion was written across their faces.

"What did you just say?" Emily asked.

Scowling, Holly shook her head. "Bloody 'mericans."

"I think she was trying to say that Angus is stupid," Chase clarified. "Which is correct." Holly nodded, confirming his translation.

Everyone let out a collective "oh".

Director Shaw, who was sitting at his desk while the others were spread out around his massive office, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Children, please. Can you let us finish explaining?" They all nodded. "Thank you."

He typed something on the touchscreen keyboard built into his glass desk. The television on the other side of the room switched from the video feed of the day's earlier battle to a slideshow of grainy images. Emily rubbed her tired eyes and squinted at the pictures.

"These Primes have been in our database for some time now," Director Shaw explained. "We had been keeping our tabs on them. Before now, they hadn't shown signs that they knew each other or were planning some sort of attack."

"But they didn't plan that attack. They were just protesting. It was the police who shot first," Danai pointed out.

"They were begging to be attacked," Stella countered.

Emily narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Of course you'd say something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She simply shrugged and faced away from her.

"While the police may have shot first," Director Shaw said, "they still put people's lives in danger."

Emily frowned. "She's right, though. From the video you showed us, they were just protesting peacefully. Shouldn't we be holding the police accountable for this."

A few others murmured in agreeance while some shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"Yes, but it's not that easy," Director Shaw said while rubbing his temples. "Primes are already being viewed as a threat. And after today, things aren't going to get much better."

A defeated sigh left Emily's lips. She cast her gaze back to the television screen. The pictures being shown were of the Primes involved during the attack.

"Who are they?" Chase asked. "You said we have records on them. So, who are they?"

"The big one is Jason Gresham. He's from Perth, Australia. Prior to being exposed to the Primonium, he was a construction worker. His abilities seem to be some form of physical mutation and muscle growth."

"Definitely muscle growth," Chase echoed while rubbing his arm.

Despite there being no signs of external damage to his body, Emily could tell he was hurt. More so on the inside. He hated losing. Sometimes she thought he would rather die than to lose. Whenever he got like that during a mission, she found it best to just stay out of his way. More often than not, he could handle himself.

Though, one of these days he was going to get himself hurt—and his unbreakable skin wouldn't be able to protect him.

Both she and Stella had been telling him that message, but of course, he never listened.

"What about the others?" Chase asked. He began pacing around the room with his index finger cupping his chin.

"The 'snake-lady' is Zaria Khaji. Before becoming...whatever it is she is now, she was a scientist working out of India," Director Shaw said.

"Let me guess," Emily interrupted. "She was working with snakes."

"No, actually. She was a chemist."

"I stand corrected."

"We have limited information on the shadow that extracted them, but there have been reports of similar sightings along the western coast of Africa." 

Chase faced Director Shaw. "What about King? What do you have on him?"

The man pushed his glasses up his nose. "Erm, he's actually the only we couldn't find anything about."

The blond scowled. He grumbled something under his breath while glaring at the screen.

Emily arched an eyebrow at him.

"So, what do we do now?" Theo asked. He tapped his foot rapidly against the carpet. "I mean, we can't just let them go, right?"

"I say we leave them alone," Danai proposed. "They weren't bothering anyone before the police showed up."

Stella rolled her eyes. "We can't just 'leave them alone'. They're fugitives now." She held up a finger. "Also, they were bothering people. I'm not sure if you missed it, but they were giving a whole speech inspired by Kismet. That should've been enough to arrest them on the spot."

"Free speech," Danai argued with a shrug.

"Free speech is dangerous."

Chase tilted his head at his girlfriend.

She shook her head. "You know what I mean. All I'm saying is that we need to take those Primes in before they hurt more people."

Emily eyed her cautiously. Their relationship had gotten better over the past months, but she still wanted to rip the girl's head off sometimes. Her crush had long since vanished, especially after Kai arrived at The Acropolis.

Stella had been changing, though. She was still the maternal figure of the group, but she wasn't soft anymore. She was strong-willed and uncompromising. Had Chase not been their de-facto leader, she would've made a great commander.

He must've been rubbing off on her.

"I have agents searching for the Primes right now," Director Shaw said. "We'll find them. And when we do, we'll send a team out to apprehend them."

Emily nodded. "You think this whole situation will affect the PRA? I'm sure Crane is jumping for joy right now."

The man pursed his lips. "I'd assume this will only convince more people to sign."

"I still think you all aren't giving it a chance," Stella said with an air of nonchalance. "After today, I'm starting to see why people might want it."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Thank God you're not in charge then."

Stella frowned.

"Stella's got a point." Holly nodded in her direction. "Ye chaps are doin' a good job an' all, but some terrible things have happened. Manchester an' Moscow are just a few."  She shrunk into her seat upon coming under fire from multiple harsh glares. "Maybe havin' folks intervene is a good thing."

Chase scoffed. "So, we just go out and arrest our own people just because they might do something?"

Angus scratched the top of his head. "Er...I wouldn't go as far as to say that they're our people. I mean, we're still humans, right? If you ask me, we don't owe these other Primes anything if I'm being honest."

"Well, it's a good thing no one asked you," Oscar said from the corner of the room.

A few people snickered at his comment.

Emily glowered at the boy. "We may be humans still, but everyone else doesn't see it like that. As far as I'm concerned, Primes are our people now and it's our responsibility to help them when possible."

He was still new. He hadn't yet experienced the alienation she and the original six felt from the public when they first found out about superhumans. Even her own family regarded her like some walking nuclear warhead for the first few weeks she returned home.

Her mouth twitched. He didn't know.

But he would.

"Em's right," Oscar chimed in. "We're all we got now. We're a family. And family's help each other."

Chase nodded. "Exactly. And what the PRA is asking us to do is to arrest people before they've even done anything. That's not how justice works."

"But if it means saving the lives of others..." Lucky weighed two imaginary objects. He was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor. "I don't totally agree with the PRA, mind you. Though, some of its methods could be rather useful."

Emily glanced at her friends. Andre had been fairly quiet for most of the debate, but she already knew his thoughts on the entire situation. Theo's brown gaze kept bouncing across the room nervously as he tapped his fingers against the arm of the sofa. Oscar and Chase both seemed pretty annoyed—the latter more so.

The others were mumbled amongst themselves.

Chase suddenly swiped his hand through the air, silencing everyone in the room. The muscles in his jaw were taut like suspension cords. His face had even gone red. "We're done talking about this. If you're on board with Crane's little idea, then you can go work for him. But if you're interested in actually helping people, you'll see what the right side is."

No one dared speak out against him. Not when he got like that.

On the other side of the room, Director Shaw sighed. "Alright, I think we're done here. Everyone get to bed. You've got training in a few hours."

A few groans of protest sounded around Emily. She simply scowled and stomped towards the exit of the man's office. The others followed behind her.

"Can't believe I got dragged out of bed for this," she mumbled as she made her way back to her room with Kai at her side.

"That was a serious meeting," Kai chided. "This PRA thing might really get signed. We have to be prepared for when that happens."

Emily stopped walking but kept her face forward. "If that happens."

"Right. If."

Shaking her head, she continued onward.

It won't get signed. It won't.

Senator Crane was trying to push his oppressive ideals onto everyone. His tirade in New York led to mass incarceration for hundreds. Soon, it wouldn't just be innocent civilians being locked up. It would be Primes. It would be children and regular people who hadn't even developed powers yet.

Everyone knew it, but no one was willing to address it. Maybe they were afraid of him. His name. His power. But Emily wasn't. She didn't care if Crane was the senator of New York or the President of the United States—which was a likely possibility. She didn't care if he had everyone wrapped around his finger.

He was up to something.

And she was going to find out what that something was.