Sanctuary

Beth and Ivy made their way out of the mall, careful to avoid any suspicion. The last thing they needed was someone getting too close and noticing the bezel of the mask that ran under her chin... but they were able to get past all the other high schoolers who might be on Dean's side, carrying shopping bags and the pretend infant all the way out to Kelly's car. The two reverted the headsets back to their default faces once they were close enough to the vehicle, knocking on the door so Kelly would unlock them.

Kelly was a cute redhead with loads of freckles, another friend from journalism club on Ivy's side. Like Ivy, she had gone through a bit of a transformation in high school to beauty, but Kelly really liked to play up the 'geek chic' angle and thus stayed off the radar of the likes of Dean and others, though she stayed in the loop online. She snorted in laughter when the two girls climbed into her car, and she peered back. "Posing as undercover moms for a story in the school paper or something? ...Uh, sorry. I've been watching my feed all day, Dean's really pissed about whatever went down. What even happened?"

"I told him no," Beth said. "And then Ivy punched him. Same happened with Mark, but in reverse."

"Yikes," Kelly said as she drove off. "Probably more angered by the rejection than the injuries, huh? James is lucky to have you, Ivy. Beth, though, I'm surprised. You're on the market, Dean's right there, I've heard good things. ...At least, until now, I guess."

A frown quickly formed on Beth's face. "Well, I don't think there would be any meaning behind what he wanted. Seems like he's just trying to go through a checklist of girls before the year is over. Plus... I dunno, maybe I could give Lucas a shot again. In, uh, some form or another. He's got qualities I hadn't known until recently, it just required the right circumstances."

Beth smiled over at a beaming Ivy.

With a nod, Kelly pulled into the housing development where Ivy lived, parking the car. "And, final question. Which one of you is Luke and which one of you is James?"

Both Ivy and Beth froze. Neither confirmed their situation, but their hesitance made Kelly's face grow wider. "I knew it! Your silence speaks volumes!" She turns around in her seat excitedly, peering at the two. "I just want to see one of them, can I see it? The Ascend gear. Ivy, show me yours."

Reluctantly, Ivy removed her receiver, disconnecting Lucas briefly from the mix. Ivy in her full faculties frowned down at her attire, before glancing back up with a sigh. "How did you know?"

"You do know what we do in journalism club, the club that you're in, right?" Kelly snorted again. "I saw the video Dean posted, and did some research after watching you remove a face from Amy only for that face to go on Beth. Most people might just think it's a typical mask, but I thought about it, and then it didn't make sense why Amy would behave so differently, letting herself be tied to the car's wheel and then struggle against it when the mask was off. So I started to research what sort of masks might do that, and found some Hideki stuff. The V5 Ascend has the same sort of bezel shape as what was in the video."

Beth looked defeated, slumping forward. "Well, that explains how you knew about me, but what about Ivy? How would you know we both had them?"

"The pixels, Beth! Gotta look at the pixels! There's little blips of bezel on Ivy's face too, it's unmistakable when looking for it!" Kelly exclaimed. "But also, I put two and two together. Why would you have these things? Then I remembered, Luke's in the hospital. That seems like a good reason as any to be able to control a body, so he isn't chained to the hospital bed. He's friends with James, you're all buddies... And the looks on your faces confirm everything. So who's who?"

"I've got James in my headset," said Beth. "But we're splitting control, fifty-fifty. It's hard to explain..."

"It's the mixed mode, I got it. I figured that's the case, if you were going to fit in at all anywhere but not just squelch one of the personalities. I already read the whole manual." Kelly did her homework...

"Could we talk inside, or something?" Ivy asked, nervously. "I don't really want to just sit in the car in case Dean tries to come by. Plus, I think keeping Lucas cut off isn't so fair to him..."

"Fair," Kelly said, opening the car door. "But I want to see these things in action, they'd make a great story!" Both Ivy and Beth groaned a little as they climbed out of the car, and all of them went inside. Was this **** of some kind on Kelly's part? Or was she seriously interested in the tech? Either way, they were going to need to find a way to appease her... so she would keep the secret. They only hoped that others didn't do as much research into it!