It is better that everybody knows who is in charge. Professional. Nobody will get any ideas.
You wish you could have remembered that. Friends can be such a complication.
Everything was going so well. You had your allies. You had your armor. You had a plan. And then, of course, your past would come crawling back, as inescapable as your own shadow.
Ortega, tall and athletic, with bronze skin and unruly black hair. Charge, with electricity-generating mods, and a tendency to short out when upset. The former marshal of the Rangers. Your old friend. You ran into…
You ran into Ricardo Ortega by mistake, a chance meeting in a diner. Awkward. Painful. He thought you had died seven years ago, during the Heartbreak incident. You didn't tell him you wish you had. That was none of his business. Too nosy. Too inquisitive.
Back when you started out as a vigilante in a homemade suit you ran into him the first time, and he never let go. But his relentless attempts to befriend you were not the worst part. It was the fact that you can't read his mind. He is an epileptic and thus immune to your telepathy. You can't tell what he's thinking.
You can guess though, because in the past you were quite close.