Speed of Sound Part 2/2

[daniomalley22]

Part One

Once Ray had learned what he needed to know, he realised that it was of limited use unless he could pass the information along to someone in a position to do something with it. He couldn’t face down these two supervillains by himself. The trouble was he wasn’t sure who to tell, even if he could figure out how. An anonymous tip to the police wouldn’t do the trick; he’d passed one cop while he was there, and the man had already been under Cogito’s mind control. The police weren’t going to be any use.

Unfortunately, talking to the Runners posed a lot of the same problems. Ray didn’t really think they were up to fighting Cogito and The Taint working together. Finding them to explain what he knew would be a challenge, not to mention dealing with questions about who he was and why they should trust him. Ray didn’t really want to deal with that.

Once Ray had eliminated those options, there was really only one left. It was the one he’d been trying to avoid - his whole reason for coming to Bakersfield was to try to leave the superhero life behind. But he had to be realistic; few supers ever managed to retire properly. He’d always known it was a long shot.

It was getting close to dawn and Ray knew he needed to return home. If he was really going to do this, he needed to organise a few things.

He pulled into the driveway and Spencer and Jon came out of the front door, waving at him.

“You’re back!” Jon exclaimed. “You’re back! Oh my God, are Brendon and Ryan with you?”

“Huh?” Ray asked, taken aback by the fervent welcome. “No, they’re... aren’t they here?”

“They haven’t been home since last night,” Spencer answered gravely. “We thought... we were hoping they were with you, and that you’d all gone... somewhere.”

“A heap more people have gone missing,” Jon added, the words carrying just a touch of hysteria. “And people have been attacked in the streets... the police caught a few of the people involved, but most of them are still at large. There’s a rumour that Cogito’s here, and working with The Taint.”

Well. Ray involuntarily looked at Spencer, who was gazing back at him, unflinching. “Did you try calling their cells?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Jon. “And yours. None of you were answering.”

Ray flushed and fished his cell out of his pocket, turning it back on. He’d had to turn it off while he was sneaking around, and then he’d forgotten about it. He grimaced when the screen lit up and revealed that he had three unread texts and seven missed calls.

“We were really worried about you,” said Spencer, and Ray felt awful.

“Sorry,” he said, scrolling through the missed calls. One was from Brian, and he’d left a voicemail. “I didn’t realise.”

“What are we going to do about Ryan and Brendon?” Jon asked, while Spencer hustled everyone inside.

“There’s nothing we can do, Jon,” said Spencer gently. “We just have to wait.”

Ray listened to his voicemail and tried to pretend he couldn’t feel Spencer’s glare burning into the side of his face. ”Hey, Ray,” said Brian’s voice. ”I just wanted to let you know I’m not opening the store today, so you don’t need to come in. Mikey and Frank weren’t too keen on going out, and they’ve got a point. Stay safe.” Well, that was one thing taken care of.

Ray looked back to the others. Jon looked miserable. Spencer had an arm around his shoulders and was talking to him quietly, but he didn’t look any happier. Occasionally he sent a pissed off glare in Ray’s direction, but Ray thought he was starting to figure out how Spencer worked, and the anger was just his way of trying to cover up how worried he was.

Spencer was the problem, really. Too perceptive by half. If he hadn’t figured out who Ray really was, Ray would have just slipped out of the house while they were distracted and figured out a story later. But if he disappeared now, Jon would be worried and Spencer would be sure to cave and tell him the truth. He couldn’t just disappear.

“It’s okay,” he said with a sigh. “I’m going to go find Ryan, and bring him home.” He nodded to Spencer, then walked out of the room.

“You’re going to what?” Jon asked, following him. “You can’t! Come on, Ray, we’re all worried, but there’s nothing we can do. Cogito is seriously bad news.”

Ray walked into his bedroom and started pulling out clothes. Too bad he’d destroyed his old costume when he left New York; he was going to have to make do with whatever he had on hand. The other two didn’t take the hint and give him the privacy to get changed, though, instead piling into his room and making it unbearably crowded.

“What are you going to do?” Spencer asked. Ray didn’t bother to answer, instead going to the closet and opening the door. The guitar case sat right at the back where it was mostly hidden by clothes and junk. Ray pulled it out and laid it on the bed. It was locked, but he always kept the key close by.

“What is that?” Jon asked, but Spencer shushed him.

It was a seriously, ridiculously, over the top flashy guitar. Ray always thought it had been Decaydance’s idea of a practical joke; The Phoenix tended to listen to his ideas at the worst possible times. It was black and red and silver, to match the costume he’d thrown away. Ray supposed the instrument’s gaudiness had worked in his favour. No one had ever connected Ray Toro, big haired guitarist, with Soundwave, musical superhero. It was also probably one of the most recognisable guitars out there.

“That’s Soundwave’s guitar,” Jon breathed almost reverently. “You’re Soundwave?” He sounded like he didn’t quite believe it. “Spencer, are you seeing this?”

Spencer shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, sounding unaffected although his eyes kept flicking towards the guitar and his voice was a little higher pitched than usual. “I sort of figured it out a couple of days ago.”

Jon’s eyes bugged out. “You did not!”

“Yes, I did!”

Jon opened his mouth and Ray sensed that this was going to take a while. “I need to get changed,” he said firmly. “Out, both of you.”

He closed the door behind them but he could still hear Jon saying, “I can’t believe you knew, and you didn’t tell me!”

***************

The sun was just coming up. Its bright orange fingers stretched out over Bakersfield, and Ray let them lead him to where he needed to be. A series of major arpeggios let him soar over the houses and offices, and he played a bit louder as he saw people looking out of windows to see what the noise was all about. They wouldn’t see anything; when he played he lost his physical form, it was what allowed him to travel so fast. But some of them might recognise him anyway.

He’d never been a stealthy superhero, and this was why. He could travel as fast as the waves of sound he created, but it meant people always heard him coming. He’d used it to his advantage; made the approach of Soundwave a thing that supervillains feared.

When he neared the warehouse, a bright red arrow shone in the air for a moment and then disappeared. Ray figured Masterstroke was behind it, and followed the arrow into a narrow side street where he landed in front of the three Runners.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, studying one another. It was Aftershock who spoke up first.

“So,” he said. “It was you, that day in the mall. I wondered.”

“Hey,” said Ray, trying to put the right note of superheroic confidence in his voice. “I thought you guys could use a hand.”

“What happened to your helmet?” Masterstroke asked. Ray rolled his eyes.

“I don’t have it anymore,” he said shortly. His hair was so distinctive, when he became a superhero the options had been to wear something that covered his head entirely or cut it off. This time, he’d had to make do with a scarf that wrapped around his head and covered his face. “What’s up with the hats?” he asked, noticing for the first time that the three of them were each wearing identical silvery skullcaps instead of their usual headwear.

“Anti-mind control hats,” Masterstroke said, tapping his with one finger. “I didn’t make one for you, though.”

“That’s okay,” said Ray. “Cogito won’t be able to get me while I’m...” He gestured towards his guitar and the other three nodded. “So what’s the plan?” He was the interloper; he really couldn’t come in and start throwing his weight around.

“Well,” said Masterstroke, a little testily, “It was to observe undetected for a while, but...”

Oops. “Sorry,” said Ray.

“People are coming,” Bulletproof said suddenly. “A lot of them. We need to move.” He bounced on the balls of his feet like he meant to run off then and there.

Ray peered around the corner to see a group of mind controlled minions coming their way. He directed an energy blast at them to buy some time.

“Be careful!” said Masterstroke. “They’re just civilians. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

“I know,” said Ray. “I’m holding back, I won’t hurt anyone.”

“There’s too many of them,” said Aftershock.

Ray nodded, but really, he was more worried about the fact that most of them were armed, some with knives, some with guns. “That could work to our advantage,” he realised. “The more minds Cogito tries to control, the more tenuous his grip is.”

“So we might be able to break it?” asked Masterstroke. “How?”

Ray looked at Aftershock. “I think stunning them would do the trick.”

Aftershock nodded at him, and they moved seamlessly into the street like they’d been fighting together for years. Masterstroke and Bulletproof stood either side of Aftershock and slightly in front of him, so that he could still shield either of them if he needed to. Ray didn’t need shielding and was able to move more freely; when he moved through the frequency of the music he lost his physical form and attacks passed straight through. He couldn’t use his energy blasts at the same time, though, and constantly changing back and forth between the two forms meant he was still at some risk.

His theory was correct; the people Aftershock stunned got up after a minute or so and ran away, free of Cogito’s control. The problem was that stunning didn’t seem to work on all of them; some of them were wearing the same type of band that had prevented Aftershock’s stun from working on The Taint.

Bulletproof wrestled one of the headband-wearing minions to the ground and yelled, “We need to pin these guys down somehow!”

“No civilian casualties, Bullet!” called Masterstroke.

“Come on, I barely touched him, he’ll be fine!” Bulletproof tried to dodge an attack from another minion while still restraining the one he was holding down. Ray hurried over to help him, dragging the second man back and pulling the gun out of his hand. The minion turned around and tried to hit him, and Ray was so shocked he almost didn’t block it in time.

It was Brendon. Ray grabbed his other arm and held him still, examining his headband. “It won’t come off,” he said. “We just need to restrain these guys and then deal with whoever’s inside.”

Masterstroke took care of that, painting bonds around their prisoners that he said couldn’t be broken by anyone else. They left them in a group on the street, and Ray looked over his shoulder at them as he reluctantly left Brendon behind. He knew they needed to keep going. Ryan was still unaccounted for.

“Better not get yourself killed then, or put in a coma, or those guys will be sitting there for a long time,” said Bulletproof as they advanced on the doors to the warehouse.

Masterstroke sighed. “You’re not as funny as you think you are, Bullet.”

“No one could be as funny as Bullet thinks he is,” added Aftershock, moving to shove open the doors.

“Oh, can I do that?” Ray asked. “I love this bit.” The other three looked at him quizzically, but stepped aside. Ray released an energy blast that not only blew the doors open, but knocked them clear off their hinges and into the room beyond.

Inside, the warehouse appeared to be deserted. “Avon calling?” Bulletproof called as they stepped through the empty doorway. Ray looked at him.

“What?” Bulletproof demanded. “You’ve got to say something when you break into the supervillain’s lair. Surely you’d know that.”

“Never really been an issue for me,” Ray admitted. The helmet had always made talking too much of a pain in the ass. Besides, his voice was pretty distinctive and so he’d always tried to keep quiet.

“Can you hear anything?” Masterstroke asked, and Bulletproof shook his head. “They’ve set up white noise generators,” he said, apparently for Ray’s benefit as the others didn’t seem surprised. “But I can smell The Taint. That way.” He pointed, and Masterstroke stopped in his tracks.

“Breathing masks, everyone,” he ordered, and the Runners pulled out what looked like white surgical masks to tie over their faces. Ray knew there had to be more to them than that, though. If Masterstroke had painted them, he could give them whatever qualities he wanted.

“Sorry,” said Masterstroke to Ray. “If I’d known you were coming...”

“It’s fine,” said Ray. He adjusted the scarf to cover his mouth better, and tapped the neck of his guitar meaningfully. Masterstroke nodded.

Bulletproof followed his nose further into the warehouse. Makeshift walls had been put up, erected out of stacked crates and empty cardboard boxes. They made their way through the maze until shayky light revealed that they’d found what they were looking for.

“Morning, boys,” said The Taint, from where he stood at the far end of the room. “Nice to see you again. Oh, and you’ve brought a friend.” He grinned at Ray, yellowing teeth standing out in his pallid face. “Is it you who gave me all that trouble at the mall a few days ago?”

“Soundwave,” said a different voice, and Ray’s skin prickled. Cogito stepped up beside The Taint and sneered at him. “I’m surprised to see you show your face... well, anywhere, after that messy business in New York.”

Ray clenched his jaw and reminded himself to focus. Cogito was just trying to throw him off balance.

“Give up, Cogito, you’re outnumbered,” he said instead. Cogito threw his head back and laughed.

“Are we?” he asked. “Well. What if I even up the odds a little?”

Ray had already begun to play before Cogito’s hands began to move. He was safe while he stayed in this form, but it was more difficult to maintain than usual. The white noise generators were interfering. Ray tried to get into a position where he could turn his energy blasts on the two supervillains, but he was reluctant to leave the protection of the music and take on a form that was susceptible to being mind-controlled.

The Runners moved in instead. Between their anti-mind control and poison fog gear, and Cogito and The Taint’s stun protection bracelets, all the relevant superpowers were effectively neutralised. It was kind of sad watching them brawl like a football team, particularly since only Bulletproof seemed to have any sort of unarmed combat skills.

Of course, The Taint and Cogito didn’t need to have unarmed combat skills when they had armed combat skills, and they both pulled out rather nasty looking weapons. The Taint had his throwing stars, of course, but he was also carrying some kind of high-tech looking gun. Cogito had a gun which was similar, but larger. Aftershock was able to use his shields and Bulletproof never seemed to be where the shots landed, and Ray hoped that that would be enough. He sped over to where three minions had been working, apparently building more of the anti-stun headbands. They were each wearing their own, but they hadn’t been wearing any protection to The Taint’s poisonous gas, and so they were all unconscious. At least Ray wouldn’t have to fight with them, but it did mean he’d have to carry them out.

He went to the nearest of them, lying face down on the floor, and when he rolled him over it was Ryan. Ray hoisted him over his shoulder and ran towards the exit, hoping that the Runners were distracting the supervillains enough to protect him. He got outside and gently set Ryan down. He didn’t want to leave him, but there were two more civilians inside and Ray wasn’t going to screw this up. The situation was eerily like the one that had gone wrong in New York, except that time he had been the one distracting the supervillain while the rest of his team was supposed to be rescuing the hostages. He had no way of knowing how long the Runners could keep Cogito and The Taint occupied, and he needed to move fast.

The second civilian was a woman a few years older than Ray. The battle was moving across the floor of the warehouse and it was hard to stay out of the way, but the Runners formed a wall to shield Ray from attacks and he got the woman outside safely.

Ryan was just stirring when Ray set the woman down beside him. He hesitated, knowing that he needed to go back in for the last civilian, but he realised that he also needed to make sure Ryan was free of the mind control before he left him. Ray watched Ryan’s eyelids flicker and waited until he got a glimpse of clear brown eyes, unclouded by grey. Then he ran.

They were having trouble inside the warehouse. When Ray got back inside, Cogito had Bulletproof cornered and The Taint blasted Masterstroke off his feet before Aftershock could shield him. Ray sent an energy blast at first The Taint and then Cogito, more powerful than the ones he’d used against the minions. He didn’t want to turn away from the fight, but he knew he had to trust the Runners to have his back while he rescued the last civilian, and he made himself go. It was an older man, heavier than the other two, and Ray wanted to run but he was getting tired. It hadn’t taken long for living a normal life to catch up with him; he was getting out of shape.

Outside, Ryan was sitting up, almost crouching over the woman who was just coming around. He stiffened when he saw Ray approached, but then blinked in disbelief when he caught sight of the guitar hanging from its strap across Ray’s back.

Ray lowered the man to the ground and looked at Ryan. There were so many things he should say that he couldn’t decide where to start. “Are you okay?” he asked, almost as a reflex.

Ryan didn’t react to Ray’s words, but he didn’t really seem hurt either. He blinked slowly and Ray wondered if he was still a bit dazed from the mind control.

“Soundwave?” he asked. “Are you really here?”

Ray sighed. It wasn’t the right time to have this conversation, or any conversation. He would have to deal with Ryan learning the truth about him eventually - Spencer had made it clear that he wasn’t going to keep Ray’s secret forever - but now he needed to focus on other things.

“Can you watch these two?” he asked. “I need to go help the others.”

He ran instead of using the guitar, and was rewarded when he managed to slip into the warehouse undetected. Cogito and The Taint had gained the upper hand again. Masterstroke appeared to be injured and was hanging back, painting something on the floor. Aftershock was battling The Taint, but Cogito had Bulletproof on the ground and had removed the hat protecting him from being mind controlled. Panicked and hoping he wasn’t too late, Ray blasted Cogito across the room. Bulletproof retrieved his hat and Ray felt a wave of relief.

“What are you making?” Ray asked Masterstroke.

“Something to melt off those headbands,” Masterstroke said, painting furiously. “If you can take it...”

“Yes,” said Ray. “Quick.”

Masterstroke finished working and Ray watched, fascinated, as the flat design painted on the floor slowly took shape. Masterstroke picked it up and wrapped it around Ray’s hand. It was light and thin enough that it wouldn’t interfere with normal hand movements, and Ray flexed his hand inside it.

“Just put your hand over the headband,” Masterstroke said. “It will melt right through the metal, but it shouldn’t do any physical harm.”

“They’re trying to kill us!” Ray said, standing up and readying his guitar.

“That doesn’t mean we have to stoop to their level.”

There was no time to argue with Masterstroke about whether that made any sense or not. Ray lifted his hand and began to play.

He went for The Taint first, because Aftershock was fighting him and he needed Aftershock to react the second the supervillains were vulnerable. He wrapped one hand around The Taint’s forehead and felt the metal bubble under his hand. The band fell away and The Taint tried to bring his gun around to shoot, but Aftershock was faster and knocked him out. Ray didn’t wait around but went straight for Cogito, hoping that Aftershock was just behind him.

Bulletproof wasn’t moving as fast as he usually did, and seemed to be favouring his right leg. One of his gloves had been torn, and Ray got a glimpse of tattoos. No wonder he kept his arms covered. Cogito was raising his gun to line up a head shot, and then Ray was in front of him.

He put a hand to Cogito’s head and the supervillain turned to look at him, sneering. “Mistake,” he hissed, while a grey haze descended over Ray’s vision.

************

Ray thought only a few minutes had passed. He was sitting on the floor of the warehouse, and The Taint and Cogito were sitting not too far away, thoroughly secured with more of Masterstroke’s bonds.

“What happened,” he gasped. “Did I hurt anyone?”

“No, we’re all fine,” said Aftershock easily, walking over to him. “You were only out for a couple of seconds. When I stunned Cogito, you collapsed. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” said Ray, checking himself over to make sure. “Yeah, I am.” A memory struck him. “Ryan’s outside!” he said.

“Ryan?” Aftershock asked.

“Fuck. Um, nevermind. Forget I said that.” Ray was pretty sure Aftershock was smirking at him, although his expression was partly obscured by the mask.

When they dragged the two supervillains outside the police were on the scene, talking to Ryan and the other two rescued prisoners who didn’t seem to remember much of what had happened. The minions who had been tied down by Masterstroke had regained their right minds and were clamouring to be released.

“You can let them go,” said Masterstroke. “They weren’t helping of their own free will. Soundwave, come get these headbands off them.” He led Ray over to help them while Aftershock and Bulletproof handed over their supervillain prisoners.

Brendon was beside himself when he was released. Ray finished his work as fast as he could and backed away, not sure how to handle his adrenaline-fuelled hyperactivity. Masterstroke seemed to take it in stride, and Ray went to remove the headbands from the people he’d carried out of the warehouse.

The older man he’d saved said thank you, and the woman hugged him, and that left Ryan, who had been hanging back.

“So you really are here,” Ryan said. “I thought maybe I’d imagined it.” He was still looking a little dazed, but then he shook his head and blushed. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m a little... anyway. I’m a big fan.”

Ray put Masterstroke’s melting device over Ryan’s headband, trying to be matter of fact about it. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said, because the pool of things he could say without being even more of a lying jerk than he already felt like was pretty limited.

“Thanks to you,” said Ryan. “Um, listen... I don’t want to impose, but do you think...” He was searching through his pockets and eventually came up with a stubby pencil and a crumpled post-it note.

“Not right now,” said Ray, trying not to wince at Ryan’s hurt look. “But I promise, you’ll get another chance to ask me. If you still want to.”

“O-kay,” said Ryan, looking confused. Ray nodded and started to turn away, not sure what else he could add and needing to leave. “Hey,” Ryan called after him. Ray stopped and looked back. “Um...” said Ryan. “It wasn’t your fault,” he blurted. “New York, I mean. It wasn’t... I mean, I wasn’t there, I guess I don’t really know what happened, but...”

“Thanks,” said Ray, surprised to feel a lump in his throat. He wanted to ask Ryan how he was going to get home, but he couldn’t do that. Soundwave wouldn’t do that, would have no reason to. Ryan gave a half-smile and walked away.

**********

The problem with being without a team was not having a ride home. Ray started to walk, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to get back to the house. The guitar was the problem; Ray couldn’t use it to go anywhere without leaving a shiny trail for any supervillains still at large, but it was also pretty conspicuous. He couldn’t just pretend to be a busker travelling bus route 305, everyone who saw it would know who he was.

He’d walked a few streets without reaching a solution to the problem when a car pulled to a stop in the street beside him. Bulletproof leaned out the window and waved at him.

“Hey!” he called. “We thought you could use a lift.”

Ray almost refused before he came to his senses. “Sure,” he said, moving to open the door.

Aftershock was driving, and he pulled away from the curb without asking Ray where he needed to go, which Ray appreciated. There was a process for this sort of thing.

They were all pretty quiet, with the exception of Bulletproof. “That was an awesome fight!” he said enthusiastically, and the rest of them grunted, not with agreement or disagreement, but just the tired grunts of those who were too tired to commit either way.

“Seriously,” Bulletproof insisted, “best fun in ages.”

“Seriously?” Aftershock asked sarcastically. “We were all nearly killed multiple times.”

“Exactly!”

“Seriously,” Masterstroke said, “we would have been killed, if you weren’t there.” He looked over at Ray. “Thanks for helping out.”

Ray shrugged. “It was the right thing to do.”

There were a few more minutes of increasingly awkward silence before Masterstroke finally said, “Okay, I know we’re all wondering, and I’ll be the one to ask - what happened in New York?”

Ray shrugged and looked away. “You must have already heard what happened.”

“Sure,” said Bulletproof, “but not your side of the story.”

It wasn’t that Ray didn’t want to have his side heard, just that he didn’t want to have to talk about it. “We went up against Black Blade,” he said. “He had six hostages trapped in a house. I was supposed to keep him busy while the other guys got them out. I was supposed to give them fifteen minutes.”

“But?” Aftershock asked quietly.

Ray shrugged. “They must have run into trouble, been delayed somehow. I didn’t get a chance to ask them, after. After fifteen minutes, I brought the house down on Black Blade. The hostages were still inside. Two of them were killed instantly, and another died on the way to the hospital.”

The Runners digested that silently. “The other guys said that I got trigger happy, that I jumped the gun. The next day, I was asked by the rest of New York’s superheroes to leave the city.”

Not all of them had signed the petition. The Phoenix hadn’t, and neither had Decaydance. But all his former teammates had, and that had hurt.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Masterstroke said at last, after a long pause. “They didn’t fulfil their part of the mission, and then they hung you out to dry!”

“They got scared,” said Ray. “You know what people are like.”

“Selfish assholes,” Bulletproof grumbled.

“So,” said Masterstroke, his tone indicating a change of subject. “Are you planning to stick around?”

Ray thought about it. “I don’t really feel like moving on again,” he allowed.

“Cool,” said Masterstroke. “Because if today’s business is any indication, we could probably stand to expand our lineup.” He glanced at Ray again. “If you’re interested.”

Ray fought down a grin. He’d missed having a team. He’d told himself that it was better, safer, to be self reliant, but he’d missed it.

“I think I could be talked around,” he said.

“Cool!” said Bulletproof. “In that case, I think we should exchange cell numbers.”

Ray’s stomach tightened with nerves. Sharing one’s secret identity was a big deal, and he’d already done it once today. The code among supers was strict, and most of them would rather die than give up someone else’s identity, but it was still a massive show of trust.

Of course, Ray suspected the identity revealing was more of a formality than a necessity in this case, and by the glint in Bulletproof’s eye, he thought the same.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve already got your cell,” he said, keeping his tone light. “Those tattoos of yours looked pretty damn familiar.”

Bulletproof laughed and slapped his leg. “Yes! I knew it. You owe me twenty bucks,” he said, leaning over from the passenger seat to point at Aftershock.

Ray looked over at Aftershock, who was lifting up his mask to reveal Mikey’s face. “You didn’t think I was Soundwave?”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “I didn’t think you’d admit it,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d trust us enough.”

Ray flushed. “You watched my back in there,” he said.

“That’s how it’s supposed to be.” Masterstroke grinned at him. Without the mask, he looked younger than Ray would have expected. “I’m Gerard,” he said, offering a hand for Ray to shake.

***

Ray wrapped his scarf around his guitar before he left the safety of The Runners car and walked into the house. Everyone was there, watching the front door, and as he walked in the focussed attention of four sets of eyes made him freeze on the spot.

Ray’s mouth dried up. He couldn’t speak, even if he’d known what to say.

“Is that it?” Ryan asked, nodding to the scarf-wrapped guitar.

“Yeah,” Ray said with a nod, unwrapping the scarf.

“I knew it!” Brendon crowed, and Spencer snorted.

“Brendon,” he scoffed. “Shut up. You did not.”

“I might have done,” Brendon insisted. “You don’t know.”

“I do know, because you couldn’t keep a secret if your life depended on it. I knew. I kept it to myself.”

Ray tuned the bickering out and looked back at Ryan. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he said, truly meaning it.

Ryan shrugged, not quite meeting Ray’s eyes. “Don’t be,” he said. “You couldn’t. I understand.”

Ray shook his head. “I wanted to. I really did. But it’s just not... there’s a reason we don’t tell everyone we get close to.”

“I know,” Ryan insisted. But he was still standing back a little, and his eyes flicked to Ray’s guitar more than they did to Ray himself.

“Do you want to play it?” Ray asked impulsively.

Ryan’s eyebrows lifted. “It won’t make me all...” He waved a hand around in the air.

“No,” said Ray with a smile. “The dematerialisation stuff works because of my energy powers, it won’t work for anyone else. You can use it as just a guitar.” He handed it over and Ryan gripped the guitar eagerly.

“I didn’t want to leave New York,” said Ray as Ryan began to play softly, “but I’m glad I came here.”

Ryan looked up from the guitar and straightened, and suddenly his face was just inches from Ray’s. “So am I,” he said, and if Ray had bothered to listen he would have heard Brendon and Spencer and Jon whistling and cat calling, but he didn’t. It wasn’t important. Not with Ryan just there, waiting to be kissed.