I had kept the feather in my pocket. Every time I brought my hand a little closer, it lit up slightly.
Making me wonder what kind of powers she had besides turning into a crow.
Because making a feather that is like hair react to another person was not something I expected.
But the feather felt real. It did not feel synthetic in any way, although I had no way to check its authenticity.
We were on our way to the agency at Sarah’s request. She sounded a little frustrated when she asked me.
Possibly it was not because she escaped in the end. I avoided her causing any kind of damage, which is the purpose of the agency with its subscribers.
It was more because of the path I took by chasing her without her authorization.
For the moment everything was fine. The streets were calm and the people were calm, except for one person named Vanessa…
I stopped for a moment to think, but without stopping walking, only slowing down almost without realizing it.
Vanessa did the same, as if she had immediately noticed that something in my head had just changed.
Why did Corvus’s henchmen know that someone was patrolling?
That question would not leave my head.
It could be something simple. Maybe it was common sense in a world where superhero services existed and where an agency could send any person with powers to watch over an area that was in danger.
If I were a criminal and I was doing something weird, I would also think that at any moment someone from the agency could appear.
In that sense it was not so strange.
But still there was something that did not quite add up for me.
Because one thing was being prepared for a superhero to appear and something very different was acting as if they already knew that someone was hanging around nearby.
I kept walking, trying not to look too much at Vanessa, even though she was right beside me.
She was not saying anything. She just walked with me with that calmness of hers that sometimes seemed normal and sometimes seemed too convenient.
It could be that the criminals had simply seen something weird, that they heard a noise, or that I had been more obvious than I thought.
I also could not turn into a paranoid person just because a mission had not gone in the cleanest possible way.
Even so, the word crossed my mind.
Had someone in the agency snitched?
I did not like thinking about that.
First because it sounded too serious.
Second because I had barely been in this world for one day and I had no right to start accusing people as if I were a professional detective.
Third because if I said something without proof, the only one who was going to look like an idiot was me.
That is why I decided to stay on the sidelines for the moment, not say anything to anyone yet, and just keep that doubt in some corner of my head.
But then another question appeared.
How could Vanessa know where I was?
That is when I got a little colder.
There were several options.
The first was that Sarah had contacted her in case of emergency. That made sense.
If I was on a mission, if something got out of control, and if Vanessa had already worked with me before, it could be logical that they called her to help.
The second option was that she had nothing to do and had followed me the whole time without me noticing.
Something that was also not impossible, considering that her power was turning invisible and that I had no real way of detecting her if she did not want to be seen.
But the third option was the one that left me speechless for a few seconds.
Vanessa could be a snitch.
Or worse still.
She could have some kind of relationship with Corvus Night.
As soon as I thought that I felt discomfort in my chest, as if my own head had betrayed me.
Because a part of me wanted to reject that idea immediately.
Vanessa was the rude girl, the one who had brought me into this superhero world, the one who had helped me when I did not understand anything, and also the one who in more intimate situations, without social pressure and without anyone watching us, could show a much softer side than she seemed at first glance.
I wanted to trust her.
I really wanted to.
But there was also the detail of the handcuffs.
At that moment I remembered again what had happened with Corvus.
Vanessa had said she did not have handcuffs, but that seemed stranger and stranger to me every time.
Everyone hired by the agency seemed to have some kind of basic equipment on hand.
I had seen it in other workers. It was not as if they were walking around without tools.
So, did Vanessa really not have anything to hold a villainess we had just captured? Or did she simply not want to use them?
I kept walking without saying anything, trapped between trusting and not trusting the person who had introduced me to the agency.
It was an extremely annoying feeling.
Because Vanessa was not a complete stranger, but she was also not someone I had known all my life.
And just when I was about to keep sinking into my own suspicions, Vanessa pulled me out of my thoughts.
“What do you want to eat?”
The question was so normal, so casual, that for a moment I stayed looking at her as if she had just spoken in another language.
I was really asking myself too many questions. Too many, maybe. Maybe the best thing was to leave it for later.
I could not solve anything at that moment and I also did not want to start an uncomfortable conversation without having proof of anything. Besides, a part of me kept repeating the same thing.
I want to trust you, Vanessa.
Invisible girl.
So I breathed calmly, pretending that my head had not just built a complete conspiracy theory in the middle of the street, and I answered her with the greatest possible normality.
“A good pizza with a lot of protein would be a good option for lunch.”
Vanessa did not answer right away, but she also did not seem annoyed.
We just kept walking for a while in silence, as if both of us had accepted that for now it was better not to talk too much.
The way to the agency felt longer than normal, although in reality it did not take us that long.
Finally we had arrived.
This time, unlike yesterday, no one changed the direction of their gaze to look at the flame boy who still did not quite feel part of the agency.
The novelty had already passed. Surely now another superhuman was the topic of conversation in the hallways, or maybe I had already stopped being so interesting after my first day.
That partly relaxed me, although it also made me feel a little strange.
We had gone through the scanner and everything had passed with total normality.
When we got into the elevator this time we did not meet the man with stone skin. This time it was a girl.
At that moment I could not guess what kind of powers the girl had.
She was between a speedster or some power with electricity or light.
My assumptions were unfounded because she had an earring hanging a lightning figure.
She also had the characteristic jacket of all support superheroes.
I did not dare to ask at that moment for the simple reason that Vanessa was at my side.
With the possibility of generating a huge scandal just by saying hello to her, but I need more colleagues in this agency.
Having a network of contacts is very important and one of the reasons why I never opted for another type of job besides being a children’s party dancer.
It is because I did not have any powerful contact with status and money behind me.
Going back to the girl, she had blue hair but an extremely intense blue that reached the point of being a living lamp.
The shape of the hair was wavy but very messy. It did not look like she brushed it in any way.
It was similar to Vanessa’s in terms of length, short for a woman without reaching her cheeks.
Her eyes were orange, quite pretty, the truth, to not lie.
She also had a wide cleavage that made Vanessa grab my arm with force during the ride to the fourth floor, even almost digging her nails in.
When the elevator stopped on the third floor, her destination, she turned and gave me a direct smile.
I had seen that her buttocks were marked in a good way, almost making her pants constantly on the verge of bursting.
They had a good size and shape.
She said goodbye with her delicate hand, bringing the other one to rest on her cleavage.
Vanessa once again dug her nails in a little more while her face turned angry, almost making a pout.
When we arrived at the fourth floor, there was Sarah Murphy waiting for us, standing. Far from my first impressions, she was completely serious.
At that moment I realized that I had screwed up in some way and I thought I knew why.