The streets were quieter now as Kite made his way home, his hoodie back over his head, hiding the soft glow of the Nexus Stone beneath. His muscles ached with every step, a reminder that tonight had been anything but normal. Again.
As he rounded the corner of his block, something caught his eye—a silver sedan in the driveway. Not his mom's. Not his. Definitely not a neighbor's.
Kite stopped short, brows knitting together. "No way… Is that—?"
The car looked all too familiar. The air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, the weird sticker on the bumper that read "Coffee is my spirit animal"—yep. That was Aunt Mel's car.
He sighed. "Great. Because my night wasn't weird enough."
He slowly climbed the front steps and pushed the door open.
The scent of chamomile tea hit him immediately—his mom's favorite for unwinding after long nights—and voices drifted from the living room. He shut the door quietly behind him and turned the corner to find his mom on the couch, cup in hand, and beside her—
"Aunt Mel," he said, his voice flat with disbelief.
"Kite!" she said, turning with a warm smile and that classic no-nonsense aunt energy. "There he is. We were starting to think you got abducted by aliens."
"I mean… not far off," Kite muttered under his breath.
His mom shot him a look, but it softened almost immediately. She was tired, that much was obvious—dark circles under her eyes, posture slightly slouched. But seeing Kite walk through the door seemed to lift something from her shoulders.
"Where were you?" Aunt Mel asked, standing up and folding her arms. "You know it's almost midnight."
Kite shrugged, kicking off his shoes. "I needed air. Things were… a lot today."
"You could've told someone," his mom added gently. "You just ran off."
"I know," he said. "Sorry, I just—wasn't in the mood to talk."
Aunt Mel narrowed her eyes. "Teenager logic. Love it."
Then she smiled. "Well, I'm staying for a few days. Just visiting, don't worry—your mom didn't secretly sell the house or anything."
"Guess that's a relief," Kite muttered, already drifting toward the stairs.
"Don't stay up too late!" his mom called after him.
"No promises!"
He reached his room, shut the door behind him, and immediately tossed his hoodie onto the chair by the desk. The Nexus Stone shimmered against his chest in the dim light, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
He flopped onto his bed, reaching for his phone.
Keith: "My bad for texting so late but I got some news on Mr Mayor and the other Quasar stones."
Kite sat up straighter, eyes narrowing.
He tapped the call button and held the phone to his ear. It rang. And rang. Then—call cancelled.
Kite frowned deeper, brows furrowed. "Seriously?"
Just as he was about to try again, a strange sound tickled his ear.
"What's up, dude!"
Kite jumped, jerking away from the unexpected voice—not from his phone, but from the glowing stone around his neck.
"What the—?" He yanked the hoodie off the rest of the way and stared at the Nexus Stone, now faintly pulsing like a speaker.
"Apparently each stone can communicate with other Quasar Stones," Keith's voice continued, casual and way too cheerful for a guy who had just ghosted him. "Neat, huh?"
Kite blinked. "Okay… I'll admit—that is neat. But enough chitchat, we need to talk. About the stones. About her."
The line—or whatever magical connection this was—went silent for a moment.
Then Keith's tone shifted, more serious. "Right. I guess I should just get into the details. So, I got some information on Mr. Mayor."
"Go on," Kite said, already bracing for something big.
———
FLASHBACK – TWO NIGHTS AGO – NOVATECH INDUSTRIES
The security alarm blared through the lobby as red lights flashed wildly. Keith, clad in his sleek black and red Paladin armor, dropped into a crouch from the rooftop skylight, landing in front of two masked intruders attempting to pry open a sealed door with some high-tech gadget.
"I don't think you guys have an appointment," he quipped.
The taller and bigger of the two intruders took a step forward.
"Yeah well, the queue was too long the other day!" He said in a southern accent as he activated some sort of energy distributor around his knuckles.
"Ooo, nice tech!" Keith said as he ducked an incoming punch from the goon.
Keith dodged the attacks with ease and grace before ducking once more and putting his hand on the guy's stomach. His suit quickly morphed into a giant taser-like weapon.
"What the—" before the man could even react he was shocked by red electricity and knocked out cold.
Keith's hand morphed back to normal and he looked at the other guy.
"I took him out shockingly fast didn't I?"
Keith said as he wiggled his eyes under the helmet.
The other intruder dropped his weapon.
"Man, they don't pay me enough for this!" He said as he turned around and ran away
"I really don't get why they run," he said to himself as he watched the guy bolt out the massive front door.
Keith disappeared from his original spot and appeared right in front of the man, causing the man to bump into him and fall backwards.
"Man, please don't hurt me! I'll tell ya anything you want!"
———
The street outside Novatech was bathed in the sharp strobing of police lights. Officers fanned out quickly, weapons drawn, securing the area and shouting commands.
Code Red stood tall near the front steps of the building, the defeated intruders sprawled at his feet. His black-and-red Paladin armor gleamed under the flashing lights. As officers moved in cautiously, the crowd of first responders parted to make way for their commanding officer.
Lieutenant Bibi Morales stepped forward with her usual air of control, one hand on her belt, the other holding a tablet with live security feeds. Her eyes locked on Code Red, a spark of recognition narrowing them—though not of identity.
"Code Red," she said sternly. "Back away from the suspects."
Code Red raised his hands in a mock surrender gesture, his voice distorted slightly through the helmet's vocoder. "Relax, Lieutenant. Just helping clean up the mess."
"I don't recall asking for your help."
"Well, if I waited for permission, these guys would've made it into the vault."
Bibi studied him for a moment, sizing him up. Something about the way he stood—relaxed, a little cocky. Familiar. But she shook the thought away.
She turned to her team. "Secure the suspects. Start sweeping the perimeter. Tech unit, get ready to pull the building footage."
Then she looked back at the armored figure. "You—come with me. Now."
They stepped into the shadowed side alley beside the Novatech lobby, away from the ears and eyes of the rest of the squad.
"Okay," Bibi snapped, arms folded. "You've been running around my crime scenes for weeks now. No badge, no ID, no jurisdiction. And tonight? You just appear out of thin air. Who are you?"
Code Red was quiet for a long moment. Then, with a hiss of servos and shifting plates, his helmet slowly retracted and disappeared into the rest of his suit.
Keith stood there. Face exposed. Vulnerable.
Bibi's jaw dropped. "Keith?"
"Yeah," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Surprise."
"You—wait, you're Code Red?" she whispered, eyes wide. She looked around quickly to make sure no one had followed them. "Are you out of your mind?! Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"
"About as dangerous as letting criminals walk away with experimental energy tech."
She stared at him for another second, then let out a long, low sigh. "God, this explains so much."
Keith grinned faintly. "You mad?"
"I'm furious," she said, but her voice had softened. "And weirdly proud. But mostly furious."
He chuckled. "Yeah. That checks out."
Her tone dropped, serious again. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Long story—plus you were busy and we haven't talked in a while—plus I didn't want to drag you into this," he said.
"You've always been a terrible liar," she said, though there was no heat in it. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone." She said before getting serious, "But you owe me answers."
Keith nodded. "You'll get them. Just... not tonight."
Bibi exhaled and nodded once. "Fine then, you can leave now."
Keith frowned at her words. "What!? But I wanna help! Plus I did catch the intruders first!"
Bibi sighed for a moment, "Listen Keith I'd love to have you help me, but I can't just bring some vigilante into a crime scene."
Keith scoffed. "Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"
She thought for a moment, then spoke up.
"The only way I can have you join the scene is if you sign a document back at the station."
Keith nodded immediately and stuck out his hand, "Deal!"
———
Back inside, the security team had pulled up the Novatech surveillance footage in the executive office. Keith, helmet back on now, stood beside Bibi as the screen flickered through angles and timestamps.
The intruders were visible—one tall and broad, the other lean and quick. They weren't amateurs. The way they moved, the tools they used—it all pointed to military or ex-military background.
"They came in through the roof access," one of the techs—Luke said. "They knew the guard rotation. Hit the vault during a blind spot."
"Which means they've done recon," Bibi muttered. "This wasn't a smash-and-grab. This was planned."
Keith leaned closer to the screen, pointing. "There—see that?" He zoomed in on the frame showing the intruders pulling a case from the vault.
"That's not just any tech," he said. "That's part of the Quasar energy project, isn't it?"
Bibi nodded. "Classified prototype. Even most of our department didn't know it was stored here."
"They weren't just here to steal. They were hired for something."
"Which means this wasn't just a job—it was a contract." she said before turning around. "Download all the footage from the past month and send it to my office."
Luke spun around in his chair, "And where are you going?"
"Back to the station," she said before pointing at Keith. "You, come with me. And sergeant Henderson is in charge while I'm gone."
Bibi walked out of the security room with purpose while Keith followed closely behind her. They eventually made it outside and got into her car before driving off to the station.
The glow of the dashboard lights painted the inside of the car in cool hues as Bibi drove in silence. Her hands were steady on the wheel, eyes fixed forward, but the tension in her jaw said everything she wasn't. Keith sat beside her, helmet now retracted, arms crossed over his chest as he stared out the window. The bobblehead on the dash—a cartoon detective with oversized sunglasses—nodded back and forth with every bump in the road.
"So…" Bibi finally said, her voice low but cutting through the silence. "How's life treating you?"
Keith blinked, caught off guard by the question. "You mean besides the part where I'm chasing mercs with alien tech in the middle of the night?"
She shot him a look. "Don't play coy."
He sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I don't know. Things are heavy lately. You already know I've been doing the Code Red thing for a while, but it's different now. Bigger. Messier."
Bibi nodded slowly. Her eyes didn't leave the road. "We haven't talked in a long time, so I haven't gotten to ask…"
Keith turned his head.
"How are you holding up… after her death?"
Silence.
The bobblehead kept nodding.
"I'm breathing, aren't I?"
Bibi's knuckles tightened on the wheel. "Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"That thing you always do—shrug off the pain like it's nothing."
His voice dropped a note. "I don't want to talk about it. And even if I did—it wouldn't be to you."
The words stung, and he knew it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't make it to her funeral," Bibi began softly. "I tried, but—"
Keith's suit hissed, and with a faint mechanical shift, his helmet reformed around his face, cutting the conversation dead.
Bibi let out a slow breath and said nothing more.