Hidden Enemies | The Prime Archives #2 ✓

twenty-seven

Emily needed to get out of The Acropolis. She could feel herself suffocating within its walls every time she sat in the quiet of her room.

While she and Kai were talking again, she could tell the girl was still disappointed in her. Everyone was. She screwed up. She shouldn't have broken into Crane's penthouse—she knew that now. But at least she had done something. No one had been doing anything.

They also didn't stop to think about why she had done it. She didn't do it for herself. She did it for them. Her family.

At least, she thought they were family.

Nowadays, she wasn't so sure.

A few days after being reprimanded by Director Shaw, who took her off squad duty for a week, she decided to take a trip back home. It was nearing Halloween and she knew how much her little brother liked to dress up.

She also knew how horrible the kids in their neighborhood could be. Every she would take Emerson out trick-or-treating. Not that she liked it or anything. In fact, she kind of hated it.

But she had to protect him. No one else would.

She remembered the days he would come home from school with a blank expression on his face and hurt in his big, brown eyes. He never understood why they bullied him. Emily did. It was because he was different from them. Their mother always said that he was "special in his own little way".

The woman was right. He was special.

Emily remembered how he would spend his time reading massive history encyclopedias during his free time. Given the chance, he could give anyone a rundown of what caused the fall of the Roman empire. He also loved robotics—it was the main reason why she brought him a new toy, courtesy of Archie, whenever she went came back home.

Sure, he had a few weird ticks and habits, but who didn't? Besides, being normal was overrated. Emily knew that firsthand.

"Jiě jie!" Emerson whined from downstairs. She could hear the agitation in his voice.

Emily sighed as she stared at herself. She was wearing her Atlas uniform—a black, semi-armored mesh suit with purple lines running through the material. The number "4" was printed into the center, right below the Atlas logo.

This year her brother decided he wanted to be a superhero. But not just any superhero. No, he wanted to be a Prime like his big sister. To her surprise, she was his favorite member of the team. Instead of trying to convince him to dress up as something else, she had the designers back at The Acropolis make him a mock mission suit. They even gave him a fake team number.

At least he doesn't hate me...I think.

She could never tell with him. It wasn't his fault, though. Emotions were hard for him. They were hard for her too—and for their father. It must have run in their family.

She took one last look at herself in the mirror. Her short, black hair—devoid of its purple tips—hung just past her ears. She had gotten rid of her piercings too. Without her dark makeup and studs, she almost looked like a carbon copy of her mother.

A frown pulled at her lips.

So much had changed in the past year. She barely recognized the person staring back at her. Sighing, she shook her head and left her room to join her brother downstairs. He stood in front of the door with a decorative bag in his hands and a muted expression on his face. He didn't look excited, but she could tell he was.

His fingers drummed to an internal rhythm against his thigh. Every now and then, a smile would explode onto his lips only to vanish again.

"Ready to go, loser?"