JUNE 22ND

0906 EST

All CJ remembered was running. He couldn't stop, but he didn't want to. He had no idea what was going on as he sprinted through the darkness, weaving in between shades and shadows of an impenetrable darkness.

However, CJ knew one thing: he had to keep running. Maybe it was one of those crazy gut feelings, but he had to keep running. He didn't know why, it was just a primal instinct; something he had to do or else...he didn't know. Maybe it would make him stronger, or faster, but he had to keep running because if he didn't, he would lose himself. He would lose who he really was.

Then, just when he thought he had reached his fastest, he heard a crash and the darkness swallowed him.

CJ woke up with a start, sitting up abruptly in his bed. He looked around wildly as he tried to gain his surroundings. He was still in his bed, covers and sheets kicked around haphazardly. He took a deep breath; he must've had another nightmare.

Running a hand through his hair, CJ stood. He pushed himself off his bed, padding over to the bathroom. He splashed some cold water on his face to rid himself of the thin layer of perspiration that doused him in his sleep. Then he looked up at his reflection in the mirror.

He expected to see some sort of change, some sort of sign that informed him of his memory clearing. However, all he saw was the same thing he always did. Disheveled brown hair, hazel eyes, the same visage that made people wonder if he was doing rocket science in his head or planning a heist. Everything was the same and it made CJ sigh in dejection.

An impatient knock at his door shook CJ out of his reverie. Looking down at his shirtless torso and gray sweatpants, he bit his lip. "One second!" He called, before dashing out of the bathroom and into jeans and a t-shirt for the day. Within a second, he was at the door, pulling it open.

Outside stood Bristol, her brown eyes widened. "Wow, when you say a second, you really mean a second." She said, furrowing her eyebrows. "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"

CJ blinked. No one in the Union knew of his memory loss or identity crisis. He had to be himself, and by himself, he meant the mischievously light-hearted guy that could run real fast. He smirked a bit, a twinkle in his eye. "Just haunted by the ghosts of the night." He said coolly.

Bristol frowned. "It's morning."

CJ inhaled sharply. "So to what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked, changing the subject.

Bristol gave him a suspicious look but it washed away. "It's past nine. You're late for training." She said as if it were obvious.

CJ gave her a funny look. "I thought training was postponed until we had all sung kumbaya around a campfire like Priscilla wanted us to do." He said jokingly.

A ghost of a smile appeared on Bristol's face. "You would think so, but she changed her mind, I guess." She shrugged and started down the hall. "Come on."

CJ shut his door behind him and followed Bristol. They were silent as they made their way to the cortex for training, and it lasted a little too long for CJ's comfort. He glanced at Bristol and jumped when he saw that she was staring at him. "What?" He asked timidly, his cheeks turning pink.

"Why are you so jumpy?" Bristol questioned, another one of her suspicious looks on her face.

"Why are you so pushy?" CJ retorted with a huff.

Bristol arched an eyebrow, a small smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I'm not pushy, I'm simply curious."

They walked a few more paces before Bristol continued. "So are you gonna tell me or what?"

CJ refrained from groaning. "If I were an open book, I would tell you, Bristol. However, I am not, so put this book back. It's dangerous."

Bristol gave him a look. "Oh, please." She laughed wryly. "I just want to know what got you so jumpy. Did you have a nightmare?"

CJ stopped in his tracks. He turned to face her, trying to gauge her. Why did she care so much? It wasn't like he even knew what to tell her. "Bristol, I'm not an enemy. You can drop the interrogations." He said tiredly.

The brunette pursed her lips, folding her arms over her chest. "It isn't an interrogation." She said defensively.

"How would you feel if I did it to you?" CJ shot back. "If I poked and prodded you with questions about something you didn't want or know how to answer?"

That shut her up. Bristol clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks turning a shade of scarlet. This made CJ look at her in surprise; she was hiding something.

"Do you have a secret, Vandeviere?" CJ took a step towards her, an amused look on his face.

Bristol matched his gaze with such an icy one that it would've made Tristan take a step back. However, CJ could tell it was a bluff. Her look was ice but it was a thin layer of it. "How about this, Stone," she said slowly. She took a step towards him, so there was only about a few inches of space between them. "I'll tell you mine, when you decide to give up yours." And with that, she stormed down the hallway into the cortex.

CJ watched her go, whistling under his breath in impression. The girl was intriguing, he'd give her that much. But nothing he couldn't crack over time.

The hallway had chilled drastically in such a way that CJ had to look over his shoulders. It felt like he was being followed or watched, by invisible ghosts of the past he couldn't remember. He shook his head, taking a deep breath, and dashed off after Bristol.

~~~

As soon as CJ step foot into the cortex, he wished he hadn't. Whatever training that Bristol had told him about had stopped, because standing on the platform was Tristan and Priscilla. They both were mid-argument, heated looks in their eyes and if CJ looked close enough, he could see small mists of snow emanating from Tristan's clenched fists.

Along the opposite wall were Avi and Bristol. Avi was staring blankly at the feud between their caretaker and fellow teammate, whereas Bristol still looked shaken with discontent. She met CJ's gaze and quickly tore her eyes from his, focusing them on some other random point in the cortex.

CJ sighed and walked towards the platform. However, Priscilla and Tristan didn't bother to notice him. He shook his head and made note of how Tristan's miniature fist blizzards were chilling the air.

CJ laughed. "Tristan, dude," the human popsicle looked over at him with blazing eyes, "Relax, you're turning the hallways into refrigerators."

Tristan glared at him, but he unclenched his hands and flexed them a bit to restore feeling into them. He averted his attention back to Priscilla. "I'm telling you, it's the truth! Psyche attacked us last night!"

Priscilla flinched. "Tristan, Psyche is locked up in prison along with Rune and all of his minions." She said, trying to turn away from the conversation.

"Then what other supervillain have we faced that recognized us—me, in particular—that has telekinetic abilities?" CJ called out.

That got their attention. Priscilla looked at him in astonishment, whereas Tristan nodded his head in CJ's direction. "Now do you believe me?" Tristan asked her, fury laced in his tone.

Priscilla's icy eyes examined CJ carefully, as if she were trying to perform one of Avi's signature scans herself. She looked at Tristan slowly, before glancing at CJ, Bristol, and Avi individually. "Listen to me. Rune—is—gone. He is locked up under high security. His abilities are diminished and he will not be returning to Brightbay City ever. I will hear no more of this. Now, resume your training." She stepped off the platform and left the cortex, sparks in her wake.

CJ watched her go and when she was officially out of eyesight and earshot, he spoke. "Anyone else think that she knows something that we don't?"

Tristan huffed and sauntered off the platform. "I've thought that since we defeated Rune in the first place. She's been off ever since."

Bristol strolled over to them, Avi right behind. The four heroes stood in a circle, all peering down the hallway that Priscilla had gone down. There was a chill in the air that shook CJ to the bone, one so cold that he didn't even know if Tristan could summon it.

Suddenly, CJ felt that it wasn't safe to discuss this in the cortex. Priscilla was now a suspicious character in his eyes, and she had access to the cameras all around headquarters. Who was to say that she wasn't listening in on their conversation? They had to go somewhere private.

"Come on," CJ said. "We can't talk about this here."

Avi looked at him, her green eyes filled with confusion. "Where do you plan to discuss the matter? The cortex is the safest place for us."

CJ looked at his companions, all three of them looking to him with expectance. "Not anymore." He glanced at Bristol, and the idea occurred to him. "I know a place. Follow me."

He left the cortex and was relieved to hear the sets of three footsteps behind him. He turned corners and down staircases until he had reached the room beneath the river outside headquarters: the manual entrance.

"Uh, CJ? Why are we here?" Bristol asked.

CJ looked at here with determination. "I need you to make a water bubble. We're discussing this in the river."

Tristan's dark blue eyes widened. "In the river? Like inside of it? Underneath it and all?"

CJ gave him an impish look. "Yes, that's what 'in the river' means, Tristan." He said.

Turning back to Bristol, CJ nodded. "How long can you hold the bubble?" He asked.

Bristol bit her lip. "About ten minutes without tapping into too much of my energy." She said. "Will that be enough?"

CJ nodded, grinning at her. "That's perfect, Avatar." He used the nickname on her, hoping to lift some of the tension the two had shared just moments earlier. It worked, because she smiled a bit.

He moved to the door and opened it. Now, the door was enchanted to not let water collapse into the shed-sized room everytime it opened. So once CJ opened it, the doorframe glowed as the enchantment kicked into gear.

Bristol stepped forward, holding her hand out. She stepped into the water, onto the gravelly bottom of the river, flexing her palms out. The water glowed around her until a bubble formed at the base of the door. "Come on, I don't exactly have much time." She said.

Tristan stepped into the bubble, followed by Avi, and finally CJ, who shut the door behind them. There under the river, in what CJ hoped was a soundproof magical bubble, they were safe to discuss Priscilla out of her reach.

"So, first order of business." CJ asked, clapping his hands together. "Why is Priscilla so uptight lately?"

Tristan took a deep breath. "She's been like that since we last defeated Rune. When was that, like three weeks ago? Four?"

Avi nodded. "Three weeks, four days, and nine hours." She reported.

Bristol arched an eyebrow. "This doesn't make any sense. When Rune was out and about, she was dead set on defeating him. She gave us ops and practice and information. Why now, that he could be back again, shake her up so much?"

There was silence in the bubble, the only sound to be heard was the soft rush of the water around them. CJ thought; it truly was an interesting case but he felt nervous. Should he be prying in this? Maybe it was just them four overreacting.

"Well, the battle against Rune and his minions cost the Contingency a lot of lives and supplies. It was pretty personal to everyone, even us." CJ said. "But it still doesn't make sense for her to be like this."

"What do we do now, then? She's still our trainer and caretaker. We can't just shut her out." Tristan said.

Avi got her thinking face on and CJ hoped that she wasn't performing a scan. Who knew how sturdy Bristol's bubbles were against shock waves like that. However, she spoke after a while. "We, as the Union, will figure this out together. For now, we will carry on as usual, but we will go on our own covert ops and missions to try and decipher more about our predicament. I can rig the cameras so if Priscilla gets suspicious, she'll see we're still here even when we aren't. We keep all information to ourselves, but to Priscilla we act as if none of last night's or today's events have happened." She said boldly.

Everyone blinked at her. Bristol spoke up. "So what you're suggesting, Avi, is that we completely disregard Priscilla's authority to send us on ops and go on our own to get to the bottom of this?"

"Precisely." Avi said proudly.

CJ nodded. "Sounds like a good plan to me," he grinned. "When do we leave for our first one?"

Avi glanced at him. "That is simple. Tonight, at 2230 we can depart for Shadowedge Prison in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar."

~~~

Eventually, the Union ended their impromptu meeting in the river and filed back into headquarters. Avi's plan was as good as any, so they all acted as if nothing had happened. However, Priscilla was nowhere to be seen, which set CJ on edge.

Bristol and Tristan departed their own ways, and Avi headed to the control room to begin setting up the rigs for tonight's covert op. CJ, however, made a course for his on op before the official one began.

He crept down the hallways, trying to be as quiet as possible in case Priscilla was still around. Eventually, he reached the hallway that housed her quarters, and occasional glows emanated from behind the door.

"What in the world..." CJ said under his breath. He knew that Priscilla had some weird portal-making magical abilities, but what was she doing? Making a portal in her room over and over again?

"Asterokinesis, the power to manipulate cosmic forces." A voice chimed softly behind CJ.

The speedster practically jumped ten feet into the air. He whipped himself around, facing Avi, looking at him curiously. "Don't do that, Avi!" He said, pressing a hand to his erratic heart.

Avi tilted her head. "Why not? You voiced a piece of your confusion and I presented you with the answer. Why should I not do that?"

CJ sighed. "Just...warn me next time." He said.

"Noted," Avi chirped brightly.

CJ looked at her in confusion. "Weren't you supposed to be rigging the you-know-what's for tonight's you-know-what?" he whispered.

Avi nodded. "I already completed that task. It is officially set up and ready for operation." She said.

CJ blinked. "Well, alright then." He turned back around and peered down the corner to Priscilla's shut door. Thankfully, the lights of her cosmic energy had continued and there didn't appear to be any sign of her eavesdropping.

When another one of the flares shone from behind the door, CJ noticed a powder along the floor. A slight trail beginning a few feet past where CJ and Avi were standing to directly against Priscilla's door, where it fanned out like there had been a small explosion.

"What'd she do, set off a bomb?" CJ asked.

Avi knelt down, knitting her eyebrows together. Her emerald eyes glowed as she took in the substance in its entirety. After a moment, she stood. "Volcanic ash, primarily consisting of rock, glass, and minerals." She said.

CJ made a face. "What's Priscilla doing with a trail of volcanic ash?" He asked.

Both heroes gazed down the trail, their eyesight falling upon the door. Whatever their caretaker was doing behind it was a mystery with each flare of cosmic energy. With every arc of light, more questions arose in CJ's mind that he didn't even know where to begin to find the answers.