Up in Autumn's treehouse, the night passed quickly. It wasn't every day that she invited anyone - aside from Riley - up to her home, but she'd made the right decision. They stayed up almost all night, only around one in the morning everyone started to return to their own treehouses. Everyone except Riley, of course.

The storm had passed - it had become even colder, and bright clouds emptied out powdery snow over the Mount Rushmore Superhero Camp.

When Riley awoke, Autumn was still asleep. She hadn't been sleeping well, keeping watch over the monument and the visitor centre must've deprived her of sleep, so Riley did her best to stay quiet. She couldn't move either - Autumn had her put her arm around her during the night without either of them noticing. Riley didn't mind.

Her log was on the table. Autumn's treehouse was small, yes, but it was still too far to reach over. Instead, she focused.

She'd teleported a can of beans before. It stood to reason that it worked the other way around as well. She focused, pictured the book on her lap and tried teleporting it. Nothing happened.

Maybe she was going at this the wrong way. What Abby had said at Tahoe came back to mind - for her, the world moved when she teleported. For Riley, it was different. Felt different. When Abby teleported them to the cabin, the world twisted and stretched around them. Not like when Riley did it herself.

Another approach, then. Instead of picturing the notebook where she wanted it, she pictured what it would look like after the teleport. The empty space on the table, where her red notebook was lying right now, but soon wouldn't. The spot on her lap where it would be in a moment. The two places, apart from another, she just had to swap them.

A shiver ran through Riley as she book disappeared from the table and fell onto her lap. It had worked, again. And it wasn't like teleporting at all. She'd need to write this down, but she didn't have a pen.

Luckily, there was one on the desk. Time to try again. She held out her palm, pictured what it and the spot where the pen was now would look like, and with a soft pop, it appeared in her hand.

She flipped the book open to her own page. Under the powers section, where she'd tried to make sense of her abilities, she added a new section, and put a big box around it. Ability doesn't teleport me. It swaps places.

The morning light was starting to creep over the horizon, casting long shadows through the trees. From up here, Riley could see fresh snow coating the branches, making everything look like it had been dusted with sugar. The USGS trucks were still parked at the visitor center, barely visible through the early morning mist.

She looked down at her notebook again, at all her careful observations and theories. Then she flipped to Autumn's page, where her sketch from last night still needed finishing. She'd captured her profile well enough, but something was missing. Maybe it was the way her short hair fell across her face when she slept, or how her usually stern expression softened...

"You're staring."

Riley flinched. Autumn's eyes were open, watching her with that unreadable expression she had.

"I- I wasn't- I mean-"

"It's okay." Autumn sat up slowly, and Riley felt the gravity field adjust around them. "I don't mind."

Riley felt her face growing hot. "I was just... working on understanding my power better."

"By drawing me?"

"I... may have gotten distracted."

Autumn took the log and looked over her page. "Wow. You made me look a lot better than I actually do."

Riley's blush became stronger. "You're just... pretty."

That caught Autumn off guard. "You think that?"

"I- I mean..." Riley stammered. Her face might as well have been on fire the way she felt. "Yeah. I do."

Autumn was quiet for an agonisingly long moment, studying the sketch in Riley's logbook. The morning light caught her features in a way that Riley wished she had the book in her lap to capture it.

"Nobody's ever called me that before."

The words came out before Riley could stop them. "You're just... the way you float, how your hair catches the light, I-" She stopped herself. "I'm sorry, I'm making this weird."

Autumn shook her head. "No. It's... nice." She was blushing too now, something Riley hadn't ever seen before on her face. "Thank you. For saying that."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the sunrise paint the snow-covered trees in shades of gold and pink. Riley was acutely aware of how close they were sitting, how Autumn hadn't moved away when she woke up.

"Can I see the rest?" Autumn asked, gesturing to the notebook.

"Um, sure." Riley took the book and flipped through the pages, showing her the sketches she'd made of the others along with her notes on them, as well as the other pages - a map of San Francisco, a rough map of camp and the surrounding area, rough copies of the USGS diagrams and a double page spreadsheet of all the superpowers she'd seen and how they could be applied. "I know it's creepy, keeping notes on everyone, but-"

"It's not creepy. It's... very thorough." She flipped back to her page and read through the power section. "You... figured it out."

"What?"

"The null spaces. How they work." She pointed to a sketch in the corner, Autumn and Riley inside two bubbles nested inside one another. The space between them was crosshatched, with Riley's notes explaining a space of extreme gravitational push inside it that kept all the air and sound out. "Not even Jake has understood it like that."

"I'm just... trying to understand. Make sense of the world."

"Is that what you're doing with me? Trying to understand?"

Riley's heart was beating so fast Autumn could definitely feel it through her gravity field. "Is that okay?"

Autumn was quiet again, looking at the sketch. When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper. "More than okay."

She closed the notebook and made it float back to the bed. Riley was transfixed by her. Not just the elegant way she made gravity a suggestion, but everything about her - even right after waking up, she was beautiful.

Riley's eyes fell on the pendant Autumn was wearing. A silver crescent moon, the morning light making it shimmer.

"I... like your necklace." Riley said, trying to find something safe to talk about. Something that wouldn't make it look like she could only think about Autumn.

"Got it from aunt. She gave it to me before I..." The warm glow disappeared, and that darkness crossed her face again. "Before I left Korea."

"You don't have to talk about it."

"I trust you." Autumn's fingers traced the shape of the crescent. "I can tell you, if you'll listen."

Riley held her breath, afraid that any movement might break this moment. Autumn rarely talked about her past, and never voluntarily, Sadie had told her. She wondered how many in the camp knew the story she was about to tell. Riley simply nodded.

"I discovered my power three years ago."

Autumn took a deep breath, still holding the crescent moon pendant. "I was at school. In Seoul. Just a normal day, until... well."

Riley stayed perfectly still, afraid that any movement might make Autumn stop talking. Outside, snow continued to fall silently.

"Things would just... float around me when I wasn't paying attention. Pencils. Erasers. Thought I was going crazy." She took a deep breath. "I tried to hide it, but eventually, someone noticed. Seo-yeon. Popular girl at school."

Autumn adjusted in her bed, pulling the covers over her a little more. She was still touching the pendant.

"She tried to blackmail me. Took my lunch money in exchange for not telling on me. Not revealing my little secret."

As if responding to her emotional state, smaller objects in her treehouse began to float. A box of tissues. A bottle of black nail polish.

"That day, she wanted to take my necklace. Said it was ugly, and that she was doing me a favour by throwing it away, but I just... snapped."

Riley inched a bit closer and put her arm around Autumn. She didn't protest, being too lost in her own painful memories.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't. But she was floating too, in the middle of the cafeteria, screaming, ten feet in the air. Everyone was watching. I couldn't control it, and she kept going higher and higher, and-"

"What happened?" Riley asked softly. Autumn swallowed, as if to prepare for what she was about to say.

"I let go." Her voice cracked slightly. "She fell. Broke her arm and a rib. Could have been worse, but still... I did that."

The floating objects settled back down as Autumn regained control. "After that, everything changed. The other students were afraid of me. The teachers too. My parents... they tried to understand, but how do you explain to your daughter that she can control gravity?"

"So you ran?"

Autumn shook her head. "Not right away. They sent me to doctors first. Psychiatrists. Like there was something wrong with my brain. Then they found this... facility. For 'special' children." Her voice turned bitter. "They said they could help me control it. Make me normal again."

"Special kids? Like... us?"

"It was nothing like camp. They didn't want to help me control it. They wanted to study me, see how far they could push my ability. Gave me medicine that did nothing but make me feel terrible. I heard they'd do... other treatments as well. From the kids there."

"Like... what?" Riley asked.

"Electric shocks. Injections. Surgery. All kinds of torture, just to see if they could take our powers and make them into something they could use."

Riley hugged her tight. "That's... horrible."

"I wasn't going to let them do this to me. So I ran away. To my aunt's place, at first. She helped me get a passport, plane tickets, somewhere safe. She told me to go as far as I could, and that America was big enough to get lost in."

"And you ended up here?"

"Not right away. It took me a few months until I found Mount Rushmore. Found Sadie."

Autumn paused, letting the silence fill the space. Riley kept her arm around her, offering what comfort she could.

"That's why I stay up here," Autumn finally continued. "Not just to keep watch, but... it feels safer. Being able to see everything coming."

"I get that." Riley thought about all the times she'd checked the locks on her bedroom door, convinced her father would burst in any moment. "Being afraid all the time... it changes you."

"Yeah." Autumn's hand found Riley's, intertwining their fingers. "But maybe... maybe we don't have to be afraid all the time."

Riley's heart skipped a beat. She looked down at their joined hands, then back up at Autumn's face. The morning light made her dark eyes shine like obsidian. They inches ever closer together, until Riley could feel Autumn's soft breath on her face. Just kiss her, you idiot. Just do it. Just-

A knock at the door made them both jump. The gravity field flickered for a moment before stabilising.

"Riley? You up there?" It was Abby's voice. "JP says we need to talk. About... you know. The thing."

Riley got out of bed and ruffled her own hair. She opened the door, and Abby was standing on the platform, wrapped in her thick winter coat and a beanie Riley hadn't seen before. Pink spandex peeked out from under her jacket.

"Are you... wearing your costume?"

"I-" She turned red as a tomato instantly. "It keeps me warm!"

Riley grinned. "Sure it does. What do you want?"

"Can you come down to JP's house? I... we have to talk about something."

"Can Autumn come?"

Abby tried to peek around Riley into the treehouse, but Riley moved to block. "The less of us there are with JP the better."

"Right." Riley answered and didn't move. She didn't particularly care, and just wanted to go back to bed.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Now?"

"Yes, now! What's gotten into you?" Abby gestured to the rope ladder.

Riley sighed and turned back to Autumn, who was already getting up. "Go," she said softly. "We can... talk more later."

"You sure?"

Autumn nodded, though Riley could've sworn she looked disappointed. "Whatever JP and Abby found... it's probably important."

Riley grabbed her hoodie and followed Abby down the rope ladder, her mind still stuck on that moment before the knock. How close they'd been. What might have happened if...

"Earth to Riley?" Abby waved her hand in front of Riley's face. They'd reached the ground, and Riley hadn't even noticed the climb down. "You okay? You seem... distracted."

"I'm fine." Riley pulled her hoodie tighter against the cold. "Just... thinking."

"About Autumn?"

"Abby, no."

"About Autumn."

"Shut up!"

"You like her!"

"I said shut up!" But Riley was smiling despite herself. "It's... complicated."

"Doesn't look complicated to me." Abby grinned. "You two spent the whole night together, and now you're all..." She made vague gestures with her hands.

"Can we focus on whatever JP wanted to tell us?"

"Fine, fine." They approached JP's treehouse - small, with walls at strange angles and only a tiny window on the top.

The interior of the treehouse was even more cramped than the outside would suggest. JP had hung reflective mylar tarps on the walls, along with those pointy foam squares Riley had only seen in recording studios on TV. Sound-dampening curtains hung over the single small window, and even the floor he had covered in thick rubber mats.

The furniture was minimal - just a small bed pushed against one wall, a desk with a battery-powered lamp, and a single chair. Everything was bolted down or secured with bungee cords, as if JP was preparing for some kind of storm. Books were stacked neatly in milk crates, their spines facing away from where he slept - Riley noticed they were all in French.

Jean-Paul Meynard was sitting on the floor, leaning against his bed frame. He looked like he hadn't slept properly in a long time.

"You look horrible." Riley said. He looked up.

"Thanks." He sighed. "It's been a tough couple of days."

"New people?"

"Among other things." He gestured vaguely at the floor. "Sit down, please. Makes it easier to think."

Riley and Abby sat down on the rubber mat floor. The space was so small that their knees almost touched JP's.

"So what's going on?" Riley asked. "What was so important it couldn't wait?"

"Last night, when I teleported from my house to Sadie's..." Abby begun.

"When you were getting the costume?"

She nodded. "I... was interrupted. My teleport. I was... pulled somewhere. Somewhere dark. A hallway of stone, and at the end, a room."

"What do you mean, a room?"

"She means-" JP took over the conversation. "She means a completely circular chamber, with a mote of light in the centre of it."

"Do you know where you were?"

Abby shook her head. "No. But I know it was close. I didn't jump far."

"And you're telling me this because..."

"I want you to know. Be careful. We have the same power, and I need you to know so you don't freak out, and tell us when it happens to you."

"Does Sadie know?"

"Not yet." JP said. "But I'm not very good at keeping secrets. And-" He looked at Riley, and his eyes narrowed, like he was looking through her instead of at her. "You two don't actually have the same power, do you?"

"I'm... pretty sure we do-" Abby said, but Riley nodded.

"No," Riley said quietly. "We don't. I figured it out this morning."

"What do you mean?" Abby asked, leaning forward. "We both teleport-"

"No, you teleport. I..." Riley searched for the right words. "I swap things. Places. Like... trading spaces."

"You displace spacetime." JP said. "I think."

"That's-"

"Riley. Abby." He held up his hand to motion them to quiet down. "There's... something here. Thoughts that aren't... my own."

"I thought that was sort of a job description for you," Riley said and Abby shot her a glance.

"No. Different. They don't belong to anyone here. Something- or someone- is out there."

He lowered his hand and opened his eyes again. "And it's getting closer."