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Grey stood up from the wooden bench and walked over to the gate at the edge of the boards. They looked out past the sea of carnival tents to where the ocean lapped away at the sand. Their phone buzzed again, but it was a Messenger notification this time, not the app. The text was from someone named Rachel. 

[code] "Is he there?" [/code] the text read. 

[code] "Mhmmm" [/code] Grey responded. They got back an emoji with hearts for eyes. 

[code] "Can you send a pic? ;)"[/code] the texter responded. This was all scripted, and Grey knew the drill. 

[code] "No lol that's weirddd"[/code] Grey replied. 

[code] "Oh come on! Just one?" [/code] followed by the kissy-face and crying emojis. Grey rolled their eyes. This bit was so played out at this point that it wasn't even amusing. Grey looked over his shoulder as the lizard-man approached. Good lord he was massive. Grey had never seen a metahuman quite like that one. Full-body transformations were rare. 

[code] "Ugh, fiiiiiine. But he's got a big hunky friend who's in the way." [/code] There was a few moments of silence. 

[code] "Friend? ;)" [/code] Then a thinking emoji. 

[code] "Ew no, he's literally a lizard."[/code] Grey ad-libbed that line. There was another few seconds of silence from the other side. 

[code] "so...the pic?" [/code] Grey frowned. They had hoped the entrance of a new metahuman would dissuade their contact, but apparently not. Slowly, Grey turned their phone in the direction of Henry and Drake. While looking out at the ocean, they discreetly took a crooked picture with their right hand and then, pulling it back to center, opened Messenger back up. They sent the picture and waited for a response. 

"What'cha up to boss?" Albert said from behind. Grey jumped and turned around. 

"Mind your own business," Grey replied monotonously. 

"Jeez, I'm just making conversation," Albert replied. "Why do you look so jumpy? Someone creep you out?" Grey turned back around and looked down at the sand. 

"There's a lot of strange people in this world," Grey said. "but it's not like we're ones to talk."