Page 30 of Catalyst

Disgusting. His thoughts hit my mind long before his voice hit my ears, and I tried to shrug it off.

“You must be Calista,” he said coolly, his gaze creeping back up to meet my eyes.

“Actually–I prefer Callie,” I explained as I took a seat beside him.

Seriously, what is she, five?The freckles running across his nose creased as he looked at me with complete and utter revulsion. But, apparently, this guy was just as trained to face the public as I was because the look didn’t linger for long.

“Well… I’m going to call youCalista. It’s a beautiful name.” He flashed me a smile, one that might have been charming if it weren’t for the slight yellowing of his teeth. “And it’s far more fitting for such abeautifulgirl.”

The saccharine tone in his voice barely masked his disdain, and the contempt in his gaze was so thinly veiled that I could practically see it flitting through the air between us.

“Thank you.” I kept my tone formal, not wanting to encourage anything he felt he was owed. “Now… has Dr. Langford let you knowwhatwe’ll be working on?”

“Yeah, she let me know that you’ll be making custom wearable tech for me… So it’s probably best if you just let me talk about myself for a bit.” He barked out an obnoxious laugh, one that suggested he thought he was the funniest man in the world. “So, for starters, my name is Trenton Taylor, but the world knows me as TitaniumJustice…”

His words turned into a hum in the back of my mind as he droned on about things I didn’t really care about. None of it mattered anyway. I’d already come up with my project. I needed something that would help me stand out, andeveryonewould be making weapons or something to help enhance their supers’ powers.

I wanted to focus on something that would make arresting villains safer for all parties involved.

“How much do you know about the process of apprehending villains?” I asked, not caring if I cut him off.

Trenton paused, his smug expression faltering. Annoyance was plain on his face, but again, I didn’t care.

“Uh, all of it?” The condescension in his tone made me want to slap him. “Heroes capture the villains, subdue them if necessary, and wait for containment units to handle the aftermath.” He leaned in close enough for me to smell the nicotine on his breath. “And sometimes… well, let’s just say some villains need moreneutralizationthan others.” He whispered. “You know what that means, right?”

It meant they killed the villains and relied on Vitalis to revive them. Heroes weren’t allowed to kill anyone; it was against their creed. That’s why they had to find a loophole, but Vitalis was getting older, and he wasn’t going to live forever.

I nodded.

“And let me guess, you want to fix an already flawless system?” He scoffed.

“I’d hardly call legal murderflawless.” I tried not to sound offended, but recently, all I’d been able to think about was Sulien’s death and how he’d have almost been better off as a villain. At least that way, he would have been revived. That being said, no one deserves to die in the name of justice.

Trenton shot me a skeptical look before motioning for me to talk again. And, while I didn’t want to humor him, we werea team… unfortunately.

I unzipped my backpack; the sound echoing through the still-empty room. After a moment of rooting around, I found my sketchbook and opened it to the page I’d been doodling in on Saturday.

“It’s like a bracelet.” I started, pushing the drawing toward him. “Except this one suppresses abilities… Kind of like the high-tech prison in Germany.”

He raised an eyebrow as he picked up the sketch. “... Like the billion-dollar one with walls that are close to two meters thick?”

I nodded.

Trent hesitated a moment as he rubbed his jaw.Seriously? Isn’t Calista supposed to be a genius or something? This is the best she can do?

The longer I sat with the guy, the more I understood one thing: he was an asshole. But something about that made mewantto prove him wrong.

“It’s more adaptive technology rather than an outright blocker,” I explained, lowering the drawing so I could point to different components. “All the bases start the same, solid quardradrainium.” I pointed to the main drawing. “And we then add sensors that pick up on–”

Trenton cut me off with a sigh. “Sensors? You realize they’d need to be hyper-intelligent to work fast enough–right? Any lag in the system and the heroes would get killed.”

I tried to ignore his tone, but hearing that out loud made me feel a little stupid.

“I know–That’s why instead of relying on one or two big sensors, it would use approximately two hundred nano-sensors. They’d be specifically calibrated to detect fluctuations in someone’s–”

Trent’s dark gaze drifted around the room as he pretended to be anywhere other than here. And I realized I’d probably gotten too excited and shared too much with someone who had more in common with a houseplant than most intelligent life forms. So, instead of continuing to waste my time, I took a deep breath and thought about how I’d explain this to a preschooler.

“Think about it like this: the bracelet isn’t a way to stop the villain’s powers completely. That would require tech that we’re not capable of yet.”Yetwas the optimal word. But Trent didn’t seem like the kind to care about what may be possible soon.“Instead, it kind of puts a damper on them, just enough to keep their abilities from damaging anything or anyone else.”

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