A Tale of Two Masks

Ashton managed to finally leave the CEO’s office by lunchtime, and he had to stay late to catch up on his work. Once he did, he noticed his notifications showed some texts from Summer. The first one had been sent several hours ago, warning him of her father’s plans to test him over dinner. The second message made him pause. It wasn’t something he had expected her to ask, and something difficult for him to answer.

“What do you think of my work as Golden Reign?”

Her work, huh. He tried to separate himself from all his scorn filled experiences as Shadow Phoenix as he mulled the question over. By SI standards she was above average in performance. Most heroes were awful at doing their jobs, but it wasn’t as if they received much in the way of actually useful training.

He decided to think of it from a different angle based on his own personal experiences instead. His pent up frustrations of being forced to do ridiculous things to play the role of a villain couldn’t be completely one sided.

“Golden Reign? I thought you performed well. All the things they made you do must have been embarrassing.”

Almost immediately after his message sent, the little ‘read’ symbol appeared and he saw the trio of dots blink in and out of existence.

“Thanks.” There was a pause and then another message appeared. “Any ideas about meeting my dad?”

Another question, huh? At least this one was easier to answer. He took his time, trying to carefully choose his words. He wasn’t worried about the meeting, but that didn’t feel like the right thing to say in this situation, so he settled on some common advice instead, along with the truth. He didn’t know enough about the man to plan anything.

“Not enough info.” Ashton finally sent back. His next message was similarly simple. “Let’s just get it over with. The longer we wait the harder it will be.”

After his message Summer seemed just as eager to plan the meeting as he was. Ashton reluctantly surrendered one of his days off. It was better than showing up tired from a long day of work. Not to mention the possibility of being held back for some emergency situation.

They decided to meet at an SI supported cafe that was always filled with posters advertising crowd favorite heroes. It was something of a middle ground between the two locations, and one that they both knew. Summer had thought it would be fine for him to just show up at her house, but Ashton always got terribly lost in residential areas, so he insisted on meeting somewhere and going together.

The days passed until the event. Ashton began to notice that every morning Summer would send him a “Good Morning” text even if they never talked about much else that day. She also sent him an ominous warning to never ever watch new hero dramas. As another bonus, these interactions seemed to be more than enough to satisfy the ever nosy Amos.

The day itself went by with incredible speed as he caught up on all his chores and quickly got ready. Always overly punctual, he left far too early for the meeting spot. To his surprise, Summer was already there.

“Looks like we are both early again,” Ashton commented.

“Yeah.”

The way Summer responded and the look she gave him was a bit odd so he had to ask. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she repeated, “Just nervous. Should we get going?”

Ashton decided to accept whatever that was as nervousness and nodded. They each got in their own cars and he followed her to her house. At first, they had considered going together, but Ashton thought it would be best if he could leave without having to drag her with him. Besides, leaving his car in a public parking lot for an unknown length of time was never a good idea.

The moment they arrived, both of Summer’s parents greeted them at the door. Mrs. Aster seemed especially eager, though Ashton couldn’t help but notice her disappointment after catching sight of him. He wasn’t offended. It was impossible to live up to the standards of someone’s imagination.

“Dinner will still be a while, but feel free to make yourself at home,” she told him.

“Thank you, Mrs. Aster,” Ashton replied, stepping through the doorway after Summer.

The house looked fairly normal at first, but Ashton couldn’t help but notice details here and there that hinted at prosperity far beyond that of a normal family. Well, he already knew her father’s business was doing well enough for him to make a rather large donation to SI a couple of years back so it wasn’t a surprise.

Rather than worrying about that, Ashton carefully settled on the furniture he guessed was probably more expensive than any of his paychecks. He needed to be ready for the coming testing Mr. Aster would put him through.

The man in question didn’t even hesitate. He fired off a question as soon as they had all settled. “I heard you work full time. Do you mind telling me what you do?” he asked.

“I work for SI in hero assignments,” Ashton replied willingly. “It’s not as exciting as it sounds. Most of the time, I just process paperwork. It’s a communication role.” He had to make it sound at least a little better than ‘odd jobs’ or whatever else the CEO deemed to be important at the time. He felt more like he worked personally for Amos Wyndart than actually being a standard employee.

“Hero assignments?” her father asked, giving Summer a stern look, “My daughter hasn’t asked anything strange of you has she?”

“Dad!” Summer shouted.

Ashton smiled. He had expected this line of thinking and was ready for it. “Nothing like that,” he promised, “Even if I could do anything to bring her back to the front lines, I wouldn’t.” How could he put anyone back into a business he knew was a sham after they had successfully escaped?

Mr. Aster clearly liked that response. “Wonderful. Make sure to tell me right away if your superiors get any ideas.”

After making many more promises that made Mr. Aster’s negative opinion of SI very clear, they moved on to dinner. It was far more simple than Ashton had expected, and he was relieved. He didn’t want to have to worry about table manners and a three course meal now that he had crossed the first hurdle.

During dinner, Mr. Aster bragged about his business and tried to recruit Ashton to work for him instead without the slightest hint of subtlety. Ashton dodged the offers by stating he preferred to be judged by his merits rather than connections whenever possible. This only seemed to make Mr. Aster more determined to recruit him, though.

Ashton was exhausted by the time he returned home, but smiled slightly as he saw a text from Summer show up.

“We did it! My dad is still raving about you, and mom likes you too!”

“Glad I passed,” he sent back. It hadn’t been that hard, but he still had no wish to do it again anytime soon.

As he got ready for bed, another notification appeared, this time from his email. It was another unknown sender. It was different from the last one, but the message made it clear it was from the same person.

“The first crack in the foundation of SI is ready to be revealed, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You were warned.”

Just like the time before, Ashton took a screenshot and sent it to the CEO. Realistically speaking, there was nothing he could do about these threats except receive them. Why was this mysterious person even warning him in the first place? Wasn’t Shadow Phoenix just another pawn of SI that should fall with it? Or was this all because he quit on camera?

Blissfully unaware of what was in store, Ashton went to bed.