Emily and Angela walked behind the Student Arts building across from Langley Hall. Looking around, they made sure no one noticed as they ducked behind the wall to the pickup dock. The camera above was set on a continual loop; no one would see them using the new external entrance to the Infinite Seven HQ. The old sewer entrance had been barricaded; the only ways in were through the Langley 7 triple's hidden elevator, or through this external stairwell.
The entrance let out in the workshop, where Steven Chen was doing the final repairs on Dragonfly's wings.
"There you go, Aaron! You're no longer grounded!" The wings had taken damage in a recent battle, which gave Aaron Majesky an excuse to focus on his finals. The others had the situation well in hand; the rest of the semester after the Professor Sampson incident had been relatively calm.
Aaron came over to Chen and high-fived him, but stopped when he saw Emily and Angela.
"Hey, ladies," he said sedately. Emily looked marginally hurt, Angela uncertain.
"Aaron," Emily said, smiling. He gave in and gave her a gentle, tentative hug. He was really going to miss her.
"That's everyone!" Steven shouted to the others, gathered in the main meeting room. Caz, dressed in shorts and a rumpled T-shirt, turned his curley mop of brown hair at the new entrants. Stomping over in a very Cazmonster-like stride despite his currently human form, he took one woman in each arm and gave them a bit hug.
The ladies followed him to their seats around the table, while Aaron tried on the wings Chen offered him. Flexing a little, the wings began to hum. "What about the humming bombs? Were you able to rebuild those?" The entire supply of humming bombs had been destroyed during the battle with Sampson, leaving Dragonfly without one of his most powerful weapons.
"I put my designs on my father's server. I can pick up the finished product when I arrive in Hong Kong ."
"Guess I can live without them for a couple weeks," Aaron said.
"Everyone! Head over to the meeting table. We have some things to discuss," Rick called. Aaron already knew one of those things.
Two nights ago...
Aaron and Emily sat at Regent's Diner quietly finishing their meals. In front of Aaron was is philosophy textbook. Emily was texting someone on her phone. Finally, Aaron couldn't stand the silence any more.
"You decided yet?" he asked for the tenth time that week.
Emily sighed. "Yes, I have actually. I'm going to Princeton."
Aaron nodded. "And us?"
Emily reached out tenderly to touch his hand. Her forehead wrinkled and a sad cross between a grin and a frown crossed her pink lips.
"Aaron, I think we should stop seeing each other."
Aaron took in every detail of that moment. In a flash, all the times they had spent together, from the incident in the alley where they stepped all over each other trying to catch a Nex dealer to the week they spent together while her mom was out of town, flew before his eyes.
Now...
"Okay, now that we're officially a team, and we've got a headquarters, I think it's a good idea to get official. I hearby call this meeting of the Infinite Seven to order! Before we get started, I have a couple of annoucements from our membership. Most of us are heading home for the summer, to Chicago, or the suburbs, or China! However, one of us is taking the opposite path. Emily will be starting summer courses at Princeton in three weeks!"
There was much cheering and conversation, friendly questions, and general congratulations. Cazmonster noticed the distraught look on Aaron's face, but chose not to say anything. When the buzz over Emily's leaving was over, Rick continued.
"Additionally, Tim O'Malley, Wrecking Ball, has decided to continue his education closer to home, and is leaving our team as well." This was a surprise to most, although Caz knew that Tim had failed three of five classes. The guy was a genius, literally, but he lacked focus. It was sad to see him go, but Caz knew Tim himself would be better off for it. There was considerably less celebrating here. Emily was moving on with her life. Despite Tim's assurances that this was something he was looking forward to, he didn't quite convince anyone.
"So we're back to five," Aaron said solemnly.
"Should be change the name?" Angela asked.
"I think," Rick said, "that we should keep it, no matter how many people we have. Infinite Seven is a concept. We chose it when we had seven members, but I think it represents our team no less if there are five or ten of us."
"True," Steven added simply.
"So, we're the Infinite Seven, still," Aaron said with quiet conviction.
Elsewhere, a bald, heavyset man set a cup of tea down on a workbench. Beside him, the wrecked remains of a once powerful machine lay in disarray. "Starting again," the man said softly, with a slight his in his voice. "My revenge is not complete."
Picking up a portion of the machine, he began adjusting a bolt to loosen the collar, and pushed a new pipe into place when it was ready.
Caz was on a bus to Peoria to meet his parents. He carried with him the last of his things; his parents had put the rest in a van a few days earlier. A few minutes ago, he had watched Tim walk away; he was going to miss that guy. He'd been his first roommate, first partner in the hero business. Caz silently wished his friend well, and closed his eyes for some rest. He still had everyone's cell numbers, but he was looking forward to a break from Stevenson, from CIU, and even from Cazmonster.
Tim O'Malley took a train later that day to Chicago, then transfered to a local line to the west suburbs. He was, actually, looking forward to seeing some of his old friends, particularly a certain young lady named Megan. CIU had been a blast, but he was ready to move on. It might be time to put Wrecking Ball behind him for a while and do something more subtle, but equally useful, with his powers. He thought over his alternatives as the train pulled into the station, and he saw his dad and kid brother waiting for him.
Rick had lived in Stevenson since he started CIU two years ago. Since he'd given up his aparment to move into the Langley triple, he had to hit the streets and find a cheap summer place. In the end, he wound up staying with a friend who was also interesting in magic, but of a different sort. Sydney was a student of the Druidry movement, a proponent of the inherent powers of nature. It seemed fitting that they two friends could spend their summer discussing the finer theo-philosophical points of magic.
Emily began packing as soon as she left the meeting. She was incredibly excited about this new chapter in life. Angela, for whom she'd been a close friend, sat on Emily's bed as she packed. "I'm going to miss you, Em," Angela said, looking up from her phone. Emily stopped packing for a minute.
"Yeah, me too, so much." She stopped to give Angela a big hug. She still got that shiver, that unnatural fear, whenever she was too close to Angela. But she'd learned to look past it.
Angela got up, straightened her outfit, and prepared to leave. "I've got to go," she said. No tears were in her undead eyes, but Emily could swear she saw one forming. "I have to get back to the HQ. I'm taking care of the place for the summer."
After another hug, Emily responded "Take care of yourself, and these idiots. They need you! And you better text me at least once a day!" Angela left Emily's room, and walked off toward CIU down lonely streets.
Steven Chen was on an international flight in a private jet owned by his father's company. A young woman brought him his dinner as he watched the sun setting over the ocean. As he ate the expensive meal before him, Steven thought about his new friends, and was happy to be able to put the bio-suit he'd "acquired" to good use.
The same young woman walked up a moment later with a phone. Steven answered. It was his father.
The man spoke in Cantonese: "Now that you're coming home, I think we can safely end this superhero nonsense! I just found out where you got your super-suit, and the government is not happy! They'll ruin me if I don't somehow get it back."
"We'll talk when I get home, dad," Steven answered. Hanging up the phone, he continued to enjoy the sunset, but was considerably less optimistic.
Aaron Majesky was at a hotel in downtown Stevenson. As Aaron looked off the balcony of his room, he felt strangely vulnerable without his wings. All of his Dragonfly equipment was locked up in a storage unit in I7 HQ. He was on his own, now, plain old Aaron Majesky, going home for the summer. Or so everyone thought. On the bed, next to his suitcase, was a plane ticket to Italy. Milan, to be specific. That was the home of one Benito Asante, the man Aaron knew as a high-up in the Milan Syndicate, the group of organized criminals responsible for spreading the drug called Nex, first in Stevenson, and then later, in bigger cities across the country. Heroes in other cities had been saddled dealing with the Nexers while he stood quiet. No more. Time for Aaron Majesky, and Dragonfly, to disappear for a while. He'd take care of this problem under a different name.
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