Lake Galena was about as picture perfect as you could hope for it to be. A summer wind cut down the heat, rustling through the trees and skimming over the cool bright waters. A yellow and orange hot air balloon navigated its way through the blue skies overhead as families splashed through the water, the rip-roar of a jet ski cutting over the calm waters. A few small boats launched out from a private marina over the water, a young good looking set celebrating a vacation with loud music and enthusiastic whoops, as a couple of guys did flips from the boat into the water, pulling themselves back up or pulling the women trying to help them up in with them.

Good times, good vibes.

It almost covered up the fact that not far from here, the kid-friendly offshoot of the Humanity First Militia was indoctrinating and preparing a bunch of kids around my age for a fight to the death with the para-folk community. The Guardian Summer Camp, the reason I was really out here, investigating what they had planned and who was behind them.

But that was for skulking around at night. Just because I was here for work didn't mean I couldn't enjoy some time off, particularly with my dad. His girlfriend, my homeroom teacher Carmen, took to the water, quick and slippery as an otter, leaving the two of us alone to go fishing.

A long pier, a pair of fishing poles, and a bucket of bait. Dad liked fishing, he said it was relaxing. If I'm being honest I'd always found it a little boring, but it was a chance for some one on one time with Dad.

For months he'd been a wreck since Mom had died. Actually, he'd been a wreck since before that, since her diagnosis had turned terminal. He still had a bruised energy, but for the first time in a long time his smiles were natural, his laughter was easy, and he didn't stink of alcohol. He hadn't touched a beer can since Carmen had moved in, and even if I thought they were moving kind of fast I couldn't help but feel relieved to see him happy, even if a part of me, a small nasty part of me, resented her moving in so quickly.

I guess there were things we both disapproved of when it came to each other's love lives.

We were far enough away from swimmers. Dad flicked out his line, standing on the edge of the pier. I followed his example with a little less confidence.

"It's good to get away," he remarked, staring out over the water. Dad's a country boy at heart. We didn't talk right away, Dad isn't a big talker. "Kid," he said, "I know I've put you in a bad spot with Carmen." He'd demanded I tell her my secret identity, that I'm the superhero Hotspur, and if I didn't, he would. "But this thing, it isn't casual. I'm...I'm serious about her. She's moved in and I...I don't plan on her moving out."