Delinquents (Worm Dramedy)

Author's note: A fic I'm doing. I'll post on Sufficient Velocity and Space Battles after the completion of each arc. This is also strictly rated M because of my crude sense of humor. Caveats, critiques, pet peeves, complaints or plot holes getting caught is much appreciated. I'll be in the process of re-editing before posting this else ware.

XXX

Prologue

"Is this gonna hurt?"

"Only if you keep crying like a pussy."

Vivan glared at his sister, to which she grinned. “Make it a swan,” she said. “Just like this one.”

Aryana lifted the glove off her fist to reveal a white dove tattoo on her hand. The tattoo artist looked up at her, “you can't be fucking serious?”

“Oiy, what are we paying you for?”

“You're not fucking paying me!” The skinhead with his body covered in swastikas and nazi symbols looked up at his friends behind him. Three E88 members had their bodies clung to the ceiling, gravity pulling them up making it difficult to move as they stared down at the three of them.

“Well, what are we holding you hostage for?” Aryana said. “My lil bro wants a tattoo, we're entitled to equal treatment!”

“Fucking spicks,” one of the men said from the ceiling, “bitches like you are better off bending over and sucking cocks.” Vivan zapped a neon-colored light at the skinhead's ass . “Fuck!” He yelled back. “Both of you can suck my dick.”

“Isn't that gay?” Vivan asked with his eyes rolled up. “Like, if you say that, isn't that against your religion?”

“Yeah,” Aryana cut in, “I'm not above sucking a skinhead, but aren't you supposed to be against that, since, you know... I'm brown?”

“Both of you are dumbasses,” the tattoo artist muttered. “If I finish this, can you just put them down?”

“Of course!” The two siblings said together. The tattoo artist shook his head, swallowing his pride as he marked Vivan with the tattoo.

XXX

Aryana and Vivan put on their masks. While most capes preferred to have entire costumes ready to wear at a moment's notice, the brother and sister liked to have access to their small, makeshift masks in their pockets, ready to put on with whatever casual wares they had at the time.

“C'mon shrimp,” Aryana said to Vivan’s distaste, “they're over there.”

The air was cool, the alley wasn’t lit but the streetlamps provided enough light to show the outlines of the two figures waiting for them.

“So, you're new to Brockton Bay?”

“Yup,” Aryana said. “We're looking for a place to crash.”

The villains looked at each other, “Um... Why us?” One asked meekly.

“Because you guys play video games,” Vivan said cheerfully.

Aryana raised an arm up..“And obviously, it's because we’re agents of chaos. And what better way to spread that chaos than through the internet?”

Uber and Leet glanced at each other. They shrugged. “Well, I guess I have nothing against it,” Uber said.

“Wait, are you guys gonna dress the way we tell you?”

“Hell yes,” Aryana said. “I've already got three months worth of cosplay ready!”

“It's true,” Vivan said sighing, “mom would think she's a sinner if they saw what she had in mind.”

Uber and Leet blushed heavily beneath their masks. “She's in!” Leet yelled.

“Er, does that include me?” Vivan asked.

“Sure, why not.”

XXX

​

 

Emily thought she was ready. Wasn't this how it was supposed work? Put on a mask, get invited to a team, then set your own path?

The pain she felt was instant. Hit after hit while she tried protecting her head from the incoming punches. She wasn’t sure what to do. Was she even allowed to fight back? Her alone fight against an entire team?

"Bitch, get the fuck off of her!" Grue yelled.

Grue grabbed her back by the arm, but Bitch kept punching with her other arm. "Rachel!" Tattletale yelled, "she's not a threat!"

Not a threat. Those words stung more than anything else. When Regent, Tattletale, and Grue finally managed to pull Bitch off of her, Spitfire found herself crying. It was humiliating. A part of her wanted to believe that their invitation was just a cruel prank, but she knew that everything that had just transpired was all too real.

“What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Spitfire yelled, trying to take the attention away from her crying, "all of you can go to hell!"

She turned around and ran off. Before her plan was to find her place in a scary world, now her only plan was to get as far away from that team as possible. Faced with showing humiliating weakness, she knew she'd never survive with the Undersiders. What kind of team beats someone up for staring at them? But an underlying worry scratched at her backside, will I have to do this alone?

Spitfire needed a team. She knew next to nothing about capes and her destructive powers made her a danger to everyone. If she couldn't get allies, the only futures she saw for herself were either the birdcage or a death sentence.

She breathed heavy, Spitfire was careful not to let her saliva build up as she panted, lest she accidentally burn something. By the time her heart and legs were too tired to take her forward, Spitfire slowed down at the nearby alley dumpster and crouched herself to it’s side.

Dawn was setting. The darkness protected her visibility as she pressed her face into her knees to finish crying. The world was becoming more and more scary to her. After she finally regained control of her breathing, she wiped away her tears to try and get her thoughts back in order.

I need a plan, she thought to herself. Her only plan was to join any team, she never considered that some of the teams were completely off the rails. Getting taken advantage by others was a deep fear for her. After what just transpired, she could never show her face to the Undersiders again.

Contemplating her options brought up more doubts. Were they the only team that would accept her? How worse were the other teams? She refused to consider joining the E88 or Merchants. Going solo was a death sentence. New Wave wasn’t an option and the Wards were more likely to arrest her.

Faultine’s crew was an option. They were mercenaries. Theoretically, they would take anyone. But Emily ideally wanted a team of people that were closer to her age group. A team that she could relate to as a teenager, not be a kid among parental figures.

Then there was one last option. Something that wasn’t even an option a month ago. Emily pulled out her smartphone and typed ‘The Losers’ on the web browser. A video website came up. Each upload had over fifty thousand views, Emily clicked on their latest video.

XXX

“Welcome my bitches and bastards!” The voice on the video feed said. The girl stood in the center of an alleyway, wearing a Link outfit with a plastic sword at hand. There were three strangers tied together behind her. Her broken mask revealed the bottom half of her face, allowing for her smuggish grin to display. "Today on the Loser's channel, we've taken the liberty enlighten these hitler hipsters that no, the fourth reich isn’t happening, and you guys aren’t cool for trying to bring it back.” She tapped her plastic sword at the tied up victims. “Apparently, these incest loving pagans thought they could get a hit on us.”

"And not the good way!" A boy’s voice from the background said.

The camera lit a spotlight onto the victims. They were three E88 members with tattoos covered across all their necks and faces. They were tied together by rope and had bruises across their faces. The E88 girl growled at her, “you can go and get fucked!”

“I will later,” the Link girl said sticking her tongue out. “But for now, I’m busy screwing you guys over.”

“All of you are dead,” she growled back, “you really think you can get away with fucking with Kaiser?”

“When you say fuck, do you mean-”

"Captain!" Uber interrupted. The camera turned to reveal him wearing a pink Zelda dress over his robust physique. "Shall we commence the interrogation?" Uber proceeded to take out a pink themed makeup kit. Upon opening it, a dildo fell out.

“Oh, fuck no,” one of the victims screeched.

“These guys are just talk,” the tied girl said. “They’re pussies and they know it.”

“The preferred term, is loser.” The Link girl leaned down at her, “As in, you’re getting your asses kicked by a bunch of losers.” She flicked her on the nose and turned around to face the camera.

“So, back to my gentlemen and friends, I’d now like to take the time to enlighten everyone on who these wannabes were messing with.” She gestured behind the camera, “Allow me give proper credit to our camera man, Leet!”

There was a grumbling behind the camera, "I'm not coming out with this cosplay."

"But skimpy Shiek is best Shiek."

"No!"

She shrunk her lips, "fine. Special thanks to Leet, our anonymous cameraman. And let me also introduce, Uber. The brawn, muscle, and heart of our team!"

Uber spun around in his pink colored zelda dress. He asked the E88 members, "does this dress make me look fat?"

"Yes," one of them answered. Followed by a headbutt by the girl tied next to him.

"Aaaand.... Light!"

The camera turned to a chainmail wearing boy, he held a heavy sword that glowed an ominous blue light. Light mirrored an antagonist from the Legend of Zelda series. "Winter is coming."

"Wrong reference," Leet yelled.

“You’re a wizard, Luke.”

“Goddamnit man. Do you even game?”

"And I," the girl yelled over them, "leader of the losers, advocate of chaos, agent of the Underlord. Rush!" The camera zoomed out as she lifted her arms up. Heaps of garbage behind her floated and collapsed for a mid second. The ground thumped at once by the demonstration of her power. "We are the losers! The scums of society, the rats that gnaw at your feet, the cockroaches that can never be killed! Whether they be wannabe nazis fake, or protectorate sellouts, our only mission is to watch the world burn. To bring chaos to the secret puppeteers above!"

She pointed at the E88 again, "pawns of the illuminati! Pathetic wretches being used as tools, their blind lust for power shall be their downfall!" She pointed at the camera again, "do you hear that Illuminati? We're coming for you. And when we find you, your fates will be worse than death!"

The video feed cut off. What followed it was a series of images as they drew dicks on the E88 member’s faces. Light took the opportunity to put a wig on the man. An image by image process was shown of Rush removing her sock and stuffing it into the girl E88 member’s mouth. The final image ended with a bear hug, in which Uber hugged the three of them while wrapping them in a gay pride parade flag. The song “Happy Days” played in the background throughout the montage.

XXX

Emily lowered her cell phone. She was forced to admit that she enjoyed their show. Where as Uber and Leet were originally infamous for their ineptitude and failures, Light and Rush carried the team up into heightened success that no one else thought was possible. It wasn't just a nerd channel anymore. They were all becoming reputable villains wreaking havoc onto Brockton Bay’s organizations.

The Losers were mostly thieves. They’d rob jewelries stores across the city, more as a PR stunt than for actual profits. Their livestreams of them running away from the PRT were the highest rated videos on their website. The banter between them and the Wards increased popularity among both the villains and hereos. Clockblocker’s fanbase grew tremendously, and there were even rumors that the Wards didn’t actually want to capture the Losers.

Even as villains, many people speculated that they were more anti-villain than villain. They robbed more villains than heroes, constantly hitting E88, Merchant, and ABB businesses. And although they stole from everyone, the E88 were the prime targets for their attacks. Nazi puns, ridiculous pranks, constant ridiculing on camera, the E88 were becoming the laughing stocks of the internet.

Emily took a deep breathe. She was a fan of them, but did she really want to join them? They were in Brockton Bay, but Emily’s ideal scenario was joining a team and then fading into obscurity. That’s why the Undersiders seemed so ideal at first. Now it was either the Losers or Faultline’s crew.

It all boiled to a basic question: What did she really want? To join a team that would let her hide? Or join a team that would put her in the limelight?

Was the exposure worth the companionship? She scrolled across the photography section of their websites. There were a few dozen photos of them smiling next to their fallen enemies. On one occasion, they took a group picture with the Wards before confronting each other at a store robbery (the PRT swears it was photoshopped). On another occasion, they took a selfie of themselves hiding, with New Wave hidden in the crowd behind them, thumbing up as though they were planning something devious.

They were each active with their own communities. Light recommended cooking recipes, Uber offered sparring tips online, and Leet gamed with his fans regularly. From the world’s perspective, they’re lives were stable. Some people even romanticized the villainous life because of them, and Emily couldn’t help feel the same way.

At least I’ll know what to expect. Emily took another deep breath, and turned on the camera on her cell phone.

XXX

An important trait to have on the internet: Have a personality. People liked to see other people be the extremity of things. The reason this is is because there’s a general ‘standard’ to real life, an etiquette that people have to follow. Manners, respect, courtesy, these are all things people get bored of easily. Which is why people followed internet celebrities; they’re deviations of what people are used to.

So, Emily needed to pick a personality for Spitfire. Something that the internet could love, something that the Losers would want to have. She swallowed, and spoke softly to the camera. “My name is Spitfire, and I’m…an arsonist.” She fired her burning breathe onto the junkyard behind her.The flames amassed into the air as the metals around her began to melt. “I also enjoy long walks on the beach, Netflix and chilling, and getting upset at people who don’t like raisins.”

Her voice was oddly shaky, but it wasn’t noticed over the sounds of burning metal. “So if the Losers ever need help lighting up a campfire, a bon fire, or a… House fire, Spitfire can help.”

The video ended with the flames spreading across into a wall of fire behind her. She breathed through her gas mask and gestured a quick peace symbol to the camera. Emily hoped to give herself an absurd contradiction by the end of her video.

After uploading the footage to their website, she held her hands tightly as she waited for a response. Instantly, the footage became the fastest trending video on the website. People commenting for her to join.

She should rename herself flowers and sunshine.

Thank God someone else loves raisins.

Does walking on the beach include walking on a burning beach?​

Emily commented: That’s what I meant the first time.

More people endorsed her.

Now they can finally use the catchphrase “let’s watch the world burn.”

I can finally ship Leet with someone.

Join them, and f*** up that song from Adele.
​

After fifteen more minutes of waiting, a single message from the main mod become the top rated comment in the video.

She’s in. Prepare for the initiation test.
​

 

“Hello my pretty little tool.”

Tool. For some reason that word terrified Emily. She knew she was stronger than the average cape, but by how much would they decide to take advantage of her?

Rush had on a black overcoat jacket with a red corset underneath. Her leather pants were matched up with an oversized belt buckle. Her finger cut gloves wrapped around her metal club, one which could extend and split into two shock batons.

She floated above Spitfire’s head with her brother next to her. Her powers were telekinesis, but most people speculated it was more gravity control than mind controlling matter. Her brother had a white hoodie and pants. The blue cloth strip that lined across his pants and arm sleeves glowed whenever he used his powers. People called his glowing clothes, the most impractical thing a tinker could invent.

“How did you find me?” Spitfire asked up to them.

“Lucky guess,” she answered.

“Leet tracks who uploads,” Light answered. “Basic tinkering, anyone could do it.”

That made sense, it wasn’t like Emily’s phone was tinker proof. Light and Rush fell to the ground where Spitfire was standing. They were a few miles away from the junkyard she’d recorded the video, she didn’t expect them to find her less than an hour after uploading.

“By any chance, are you Chinese?” Rush asked.

“What? Why are you asking that?” Spitfire covered her face, worried if they were prying her for her secret identity.

Rush tapped at her chin, “we were on our way to get chinese food when you uploaded it. I was hoping we could go back to Uber and Leet and say, ‘look, I brought Chinese!’”

Spitfie gazed at her for a full minute. Light groaned, “that is so racist. I’m offended as an asian.”

Rush asked, “you’re asian? I thought you were latino.”

“Just because I’m brown, it doesn’t mean I’m latino.”

“Wait, what color are asians?”

“Yerrow.”

“That sounds pretty spanish to me.”

Spitfire cut in. “Wait, aren’t you both siblings?”

They nodded. “Doesn’t mean I can’t be asian.” Light grumbled.

“But, shouldn’t she know what-”

“Oiy,” Rush interrupted. “We’re the one doing the initiation test here, not you!”

Rush’s mask covered the top half of her face, making her jawline extremely animated whenever she spoke. Light’s mask covered the bottom half of his face, they could both fit together like broken egg shells.

Spitfire’s mask was a simple gas mask she’d bought off from home depot. Her jumpsuit was somewhat pathetic. It was just a worn down fire fighter suit her father used to wear, she removed the patches and was thankful that it was at least dyed black. She really was on a lower standard than the both of them. Leet’s inventions probably gave them multiple tricks literally up their sleeves.

“Question number 1,” Rush shouted, “Are you willing to worship Scion as the devil in the sky?”

“What?” Spitfire blinked.

“Scion, the death God of the multiverse, traveling through time and space as the evil prophet saving us from our reckoning. Are you willing to embrace the code of Scion?”

Spitfire tilted her head, she was asking her to believe in something no one understood. She’d constantly yell ‘code of Scion’ on the show, but none of her fans could pin point the actual beliefs were. On some occasions she’d worship him, on others she’d shame him, on other occasions she’d spew out conspiracy theories that he’s a demigod from the future sent to save us from the Illuminati.

“Will... I have to understand the code of Scion to embrace it?”

They both quickly answered, "no," to her.

“Then… I’ll ‘embrace’ it.”

Rush pumped her fists up, “holy shit she actually said yes!”

Light sighed, “Leet is gonna be so pissed.”

Before Spitfire could think to regret her words, Rush began unleashing an ocean of questions at her. “Are you a part of the Illuminati?”

“No.”

She snapped her fingers. “Damnit, I was hoping you could give us some info.”

Light asked, “do you like your chicken fried or mild?”

“Mild.” She answered. While Rush unleashed heavy questions that seemingly had no meaning, Light launched his own line of mundane questioning that seemed absurd in comparison.

Light asked, “do you prefer your bed sheets tucked or untucked?”

“Untucked.”

Rush asked, “When the world ends, how likely are you to revert to cannibalism?”

“Not likely.”

Rush growled, “godamnit, I was hoping to share an Uber rib with someone.”

Light asked, “do you prefer brooming, or washing dishes?”

“Washing dishes.”

Light crossed his arms, “but wouldn't you melt when you touch water?”

Rush commented, “oh, because she has fire powers she has to melt? You racist fuck.”

The questioning went on for a full thirty minutes, by the end of it, Spitfire felt drained simply from the feeling of having nothing accomplished. The amount of random questions didn’t offer anything, and it was almost like they were visiting her just to waste time.

“Okay, one final question,” Rush said. Spitfire sighed in relief, happy that this ‘interview’ was almost over. Rush leaned in closer to Spitfire, she floated in a laying position as she stared directly into Spitfire’s eye sockets. Her smile was gone, and she almost whispered to her. “Will you tell the world what your trigger event is?”

Spitfire’s eyes widened, she took two steps back. “Why?”

Rush lightly stepped onto the ground. She pointed to the distance, a camera drone rose up from the junkyard behind them. It was was recording everything. “There’s a reason everyone on our team posted up those ‘origin’ story videos on the website. We really are losers, but the only way to get passed that, is to be okay with the worst parts of ourselves.”

She turned around to tap a button on the drone. The red light on the camera turned off. “Its not just to make the fans like us, the world really is a scary place. People look at parahumans like Gods or monsters, easily forgetting that we’re human beneath our masks.” She pulled up her mask to reveal her full face to Spitfire. “So the only way to beat that, is to humanize ourselves. And the only way to humanize ourselves, is to remind the world that we’re as screwed up as every other person is.”

She turned on the camera again while putting her mask back on, “so what’ll it be Spitfire? Do you have what it takes to be a Loser? Do you have what it takes to be on our team. If you do, then all you have to do is look into this camera, and tell the world what your trigger event is!”

Spitfire felt the world hold still. The camera stared at her, and she shook her head. “No,” Spitfire said. “I won’t.”

XXX

The three of them returned to their base. To Emily’s surprise, it was just an abandoned apartment complex that happened to have electricity running. The apartment building was cut off due to mold, but apparently the problem had long gone away. Leaving the team with the freedom to roam across the entire building without any issue.

“Hey guys, I brought chinese,” Rush said opening the door. Her new hair style was more natural. It was cut to neck level and stayed a normal black color, she apparently altered it when in costume.

“Finally,” a boy answered. “I’m starving, did you guys get lost? You took forever-” The boy paused mid sentence at the sight of the curly haired freckled girl. He was scrawny, with black hair and pale skin that matched his boney figure. “What… The hell.”

A blonde haired young adult stepped out from the kitchen. He had rubber gloves on from washing yesterday's dishes. “Right,” Uber said, “while you were in the lab an audition tape got uploaded to our website. I’m guessing you’re… Spitfire? Unless Rush invited a fan again.”

Rush shouted, “she had chlamydia, she deserved to meet us!”

“Cancer,” Uber corrected, “the girl had cancer. Stop mixing the two diseases.”

Leet turned to his bigger, more robust friend. “I’m gone for a few hours, and you guys brought a new member without asking me? Why am I always getting left out of this?”

Uber answered, “she didn’t tell me either. I just figured she and Vivan would probably do that without us. Guess I was right.”

Leet pointed at Rush, “since when could she make big, game-changing decisions without us?”

Light answered, “I kind of go where she tells me. Be honest though, would you have been against it if she told you?”

“No,” Leet said quietly, “but I’m not happy about it.”

Uber took off his gloves and dried his hand. He stepped across the living room to shake Emily’s hand. “I’m Robert. Also called Uber. It’s nice to have you on the team, Spitfire.”

Emily was taken aback by his politeness. After what the Undersiders, Light and Rush had put her through, she was beginning to think all capes were naturally crazy.

“I’m Emily,” she said. “I’m… Glad to be here.”

She was still nervous, fortunately, it was easy for them to do the talking for her. Uber pointed to each of the members, “Leet here is Edwin, or Ed for short. He spends a lot of time in the lab. He complains a lot, but never actually means it.”

“Seriously?” Ed said, “I never actually mean it? Is that why you guys never listen to me? Because you think I never mean it?”

Not listening, Robert pointed to Light. “I’m sure you know Vivan now, and his sister Aryana.”

Emily nodded, smiling without worry for the first time in hours. “I’m glad to be here.”

Robert returned to the stove in the kitchen, “I had a feeling you guys were going to forget the food, so I got some take out. Not as good as what Vivan makes, but food is food.”

“Alright,” Vivan said, “I’m starving. After we eat, we celebrate our new member with a super smash brawl tournament.”

Ed looked over to Emily again, just as he was passing her to enter the kitchen, he asked in a lowered voice. “So… are you really chinese? Because you don’t look like it…”

In an instant, Robert, Vivan, and Aryana yelled, “racist bastard!” from the kitchen, and proceeded to throw plastic forks and napkin balls in his direction.

XXX

“Five o’clock,” Light said staring at his watch sitting on the sofa. “Right on time. Nice.”

Spitfire was smiling beneath her older mask, “thank you,” she said. She wasn’t sure what she was thanking them for, but they all accepted it anyway.

Rush had on her default costume, the same one she’d worn from the day before. Uber and Leet had on their skin tight bodysuits, but only under some casual pants and t-shirts. Spitfire wondered why they dressed casually.

“First things first,” Rush said with a smiling. “Show her the new toy.”

Leet pulled out the gas mask from behind the sofa. “It’s an adjustable fire mask. It lets you spread out your fire like a garden hose. A lot of different settings. Wearing it, you can spread your fire, focus it, or even minimize it as much as you’d like.”

Emily looked down at the mask. It looked so plain, but the nozzle at the end was almost glowing. “Amazing, thank you.”

“Hmm… I haven’t finished explaining.” She was still looking down at it in astonishment. “It also lets you freeze things.”

“What?”

“Your power is shooting napalm fire, right? The nozzle can be adjusted to ‘snuff out’ the fire, and uses some chemicals to convert the napalm into liquid nitrogen. That stuff still kills, obviously, but it won’t spread.”

Emily placed the mask atop of her face. "Oh my God." Panels were lit up everywhere, showing the flammability of the materials around her. “You put safety panels here.”

Leet nodded, “it was Rush’s idea. She said you might want to play it safe, so there are a lot of backup warnings in it. It’ll let you know how the fire will react based on the environment around it. It even predicts the directions it'll spread. Use your hand to turn the nozzle or say the words ‘command ice’, and it’ll change to liquid nitrogen. The computer can also guide you on how to put out fires with that.”

Emily was tearing beneath her mask, she ran up to Leet and gave him a heavy hug. “Thank you, so much.”

Leet, unsure what to say, only turned red from her thankfulness. “You know, it doesn’t matter or anything.”

She let go, “yes it does,” she was smiling, almost sniffling in happiness.

Leet swallowed, wholly embarrassed by the spectacle.

“Now,” Rush said, “back to the mission.”

Light nodded, “while you were in school, we’ve been scouting the city for what targets to attack next. We’ve reduced it to eight possible hit-points, and we’re using advanced probability devices to choose what the perfect place to hit.”

Rush handed Spitfire a dart, “since this’ll be your first mission, you should be the one to decide.”

She looked across the room, the dart board had eight pictures attached to the wall. Five pictures were swatsikas, one picture had a lazy boy chair on it, another had a weed symbol, and the last picture had a lewd fan art photo of Clockblocker and Rush together.

“Seriously?” Spitfire said, “this is how you guys decide things?”

“And it hasn’t failed us yet,” Light added.

Uber nodded, “which is really astounding, when you think about it.”

Spitfire looked down at the dart. Maybe she wasn’t ready for a mission, but her team was. And for the first time in a long time. she felt like she had people she could fall back onto. Like where if she failed, they could pick her up. One mission, one beginning.

She tossed the dart at the wall.

XXX

 

Aryana casually walked backwards while the rest of her team followed. She stuffed her hands in her leather jacket while Vivan pulled at his sports gloves. Emily wore the same outfit she’d had on from school. It surprised her that she was asked to dress casually for a mission.

Walking across the broadwalk, Emily couldn't help but feel nervous by the people around her. Strangers scowled down at them, specifically at Vivan and Aryana, as they happily walked into the center of E88 territory.

“Here’s how it works,” Aryana said. “Emily and Vivan are gonna hold hands and be the interracial couple, Ed and Robert are gonna hold hands and be the gay couple. Since I don’t have a partner this time, I’ll just be the fifth wheel token minority.”

Emily looked over to Vivan, he was visibly blushing. Emily asked, “are you sure this’ll work?”

“It’s worked so far.” Robert answered for her. “When it’s obvious the bar is owned by the E88, they all react the same way. Seeing non-white non-straight couples at their hangouts pisses them off. So they try to kick our asses, not knowing we’re capes. Things look better when they attack us first because it makes them look more like the bad guys. If we just ambushed non-powered thugs all the time, we’d come off as bullies.”

“Self-defense,” Edwin added. “For some reason, viewers like us more when they think we’re just defending ourselves.”

“That, and everyone hates nazis,” Aryana said.

“Because they do nazi it coming,” Vivan commented.

“Jew know you can’t be anymore reicht.” Robert added.

“Let’s not take this any fuh-rer,” Edwin said, “Nazi puns are outside mein kam-fort zone.”

Aryana pointed to the bar up ahead, “Stop Shtalin, guys. We have to hitler them until they’re fuh-rer-ious!” Before walking any fuhrer, Aryana took the time to turn to Emily and release a soft grin at her. “Just, um, be sure to keep your powers on ice right now. That place is flammable, so let’s save burning it to the ground for last.”

Emily nodded, it was a light reminder of how dangerous she was, but it was refreshing that she was willing to acknowledge it. By the time they reached the bar’s street corner, Emily noticed that the people scowling at their presence were all gone. Not only that, but it became eerily quiet as they reached the bar entrance.

Aryana pushed at the doors, “well that’s weird.” She pressed her forehead against the glass,”the doors are locked, why would a bar be closed on a Friday at six o’clock?”

“Oh shit,” Emily whispered.

Turning around, the team looked in astonishment at the two giantesses looking down at them with heavy weapons at hand. The twins each single handedly blocked off street intersections while grown to the size of three story buildings.

A few blocks from their right, Hookwolf stood in a beast like boney form. His size was growing, they watched layers of metal release from his central core. Crusader and Alabaster stood at his side armed with their lethal weaponry.

“Oh yes,” Vivan gestured for Hookwolf to come in his direction, “I’ve been waiting to fight that guy forever.”

“Please,” Edwin said quietly, “now is the worst time to provoke them.”

From the side of the street the group had entered from, a fog was forming. It was undoubtedly the trademark mist of Fog and Night. It inched closer and closer towards the bar’s direction. Victor and Othala were obscured within the mist, Rune was floating on a stone platform above them, spinning smaller stones to encircle herself.

“Sup Rune, we should go shopping!” Aryana yelled. Rune threw a boulder in Aryana’s direction, to which she easily stopped in midair with her own powers. “She hates that my power trumps hers.”

Edwin scowled, “what did I just finish saying?”

Kaiser revealed himself from the rooftop across from them. Krieg stood by his side while they both looked down at the Losers with looks of disdain from all around. Kaiser said, “what made you think a bunch of delinquents could get away with making fools out of the empire?” Kaiser’s voice was calm. It was factual, the lack of anger made him sound like he was spewing out truths instead of threats. “Humiliate our members a few times, avoid confronting the capes, and somehow you’re all heroes? That’s not how it works. You don’t get away with playing it safe, not with the empire.”

“Four capes are hiding behind the bar,” Edwin said unmoving.

Robert added, “they’re expecting us to hide in there.” Emily looked over and noticed Edwin’s backpack blinking. She had assumed his gadgets were in there, but she didn’t think the backpack itself was a tinker tool.

“Wow,” Aryana said. “I just remembered that badass line I’ve always wanted to use.”

“Please not now,” Edwin pleaded.

“Vivan, will you do the honor?”

Vivan took a deep breath and yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, “We’re surrounded, now we can hit them at all sides! Those poor bastards!”

The E88 members stayed silent. “Are they retarded?” Othala asked.

Victor shook his head at them, “I’m going to enjoy killing these guys way more than I should.”

Kaiser let out a heavy sigh. “They can’t seem to learn.” He was genuinely disappointed. He knew they were reckless and stupid, but he had at least hoped to catch a glimpse fear on their faces.

Aryana turned back to her teammates and screamed “what the fuck are we gonna do?” Aryana tugged down at her cheeks, “we can’t fight ten fucking capes!”

“Fourteen,” Robert corrected. Aryana’s eyes and mouth widened further.

A thought suddenly dawned on Emily. Of all the videos they’d uploaded, the Losers never actually fought capes. Beyond running away from Oni Lee or the Protectorate, they’d completely avoided full-blown cape battles. As far as Emily knew, they were novices when it came to real fights. She gulped.

“Alright, I’m taking charge.” Robert said. “First, Spitfire, put the roof on fire. Light, gets us in there.” Spitfire froze at the thought. Put the roof on fire? Before going in there? Uber remembered that he needed to reassure her. “Rush, make sure the building doesn’t fall down on us.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.”

Could her powers do that? Spitfire suspected that the recklessness was meant to stop the more vulnerable E88 capes from wanting to enter. It was suicidal, but they couldn’t fight everyone at once. Holding her breathe, she launched a single fire ball onto the roof and watched it quickly spread across the ceiling.

Light knocked down the doors with his light. “Damnit,” he yelled, “I forgot to bring ID.”

They all ran inside. Leet took out his backpack and immediately sat down to work on his tools. He breathed heavy as he did his best to exchange banter while he worked; masking the panic in his mind. “Light, I thought you only kept that ID to vote.”

“It's true,” Rush said raising her arms up. The rooftop held strong as her gravity lightened the infrastructure above them. “He ain’t drinking on my watch.”

“Do you guys think I’d fight better drunk?”

“No!” They all yelled.

Rush called out, “Yo Spitfire, mind using that mask to make sure the drinks behind me don’t blow up?”

Spitfire pressed on her mask, to her surprise, the thermal vision watched the fire seemingly bubble around and away from their specific area. Rush had more control over her powers than she’d originally thought. “You’re safe,” Spitfire said.

Instantly, a boulder flung passed between Rush and Spitfire. “Not safe,” Rush eeped.

“Rune incoming,” Light yelled. Slashes began tearing at the side of the building. They were shaped as claws and skidded against the floorboards like invisible razor blades. “And Stormtiger. When can I start hitting them in all directions?”

“Put shields at the walls.” Uber ordered. He didn’t have time to explain himself, they wouldn’t have enough time to survive if Rush got hit and dropped the roof on them.

Leet threw a ball of goop for Uber to catch. Spitfire, to her astonishment, watched the black tar form around Uber’s body. It looked alive, merging itself into him like he were a swamp monster. Once it wrapped entirely around Uber’s exterior, his arms morphed into a heavy shield and blade. “The prototype works Leet.”

“Thank God,” Leet sighed. “I honestly thought it was gonna kill you.”

“What?”

Hookwolf broke into the side of the wall. He looked like a giant wolf eying directly at Rush.

“Shit.” The five of them said together.

“I got this,” Vivan said.

“No, put up those shields. I’ve got this.” Uber ran up to Hookwolf and launched his body into the center of his speared monster man. Uber’s arm scythe slashed right into Hookwolf’s stomach.

Metal extruded from Hookwolf’s core. Its wall of spikes pushed Leet back through several dining tables, but he spoke as though he wasn’t harmed. “Light. Shields. Now.”

Metal canon balls and heavy stones broke into the building's sides. Light tossed up shields in all directions, firing at the walls and letting his powers encircle Rush.

By the time there were enough shields stop the projectiles from entering, Victor crashed through the gaps between Light’s barriers. In an instant, he rushed onto Light and pounded him on the sides and neck. Light collapsed quickly.

Victor rushed to Rush, and almost managed to hit her before she took the time to force push him out through the wall. “Light is down,” Leet said. “Can we go with plan Wolfenstein?”

Hookwolf clawed at Uber’s body armor, his metal claws seemingly cut through several layers of tar, but it grew back faster than he could pull off. “Yup. Rush, bring the roof down.”

Spitfire gasped. She looked up as the ceiling collapsed above her.

XXX

The smog at the bar was subsiding. There was a fall, then an explosion. He didn’t want it to end so quickly.

“They didn’t escape,” Cricket said to Kaiser. “All the exits were blocked.”

It was failure in his mind. He wanted to capture them alive. A quick death didn’t make up for all the humiliation they had put him through. “Did we record it?” Kaiser asked to Victor.

“Yes sir,” Victor answered. “The cameras were all placed to see them burn, but the footage from inside the building has been destroyed.”

“Then this was a failure,” Kaiser said. His underlings stood around him. Krieg stood nearest him, the rest of his capes were a few steps behind them. He had planned to defeat them with overwhelming firepower. Rush was an escape expert, so he wanted to have a flawless final victory over them. But it all ended too shamelessly. “We’d be lucky if their charred remains are recognizable. The plan was to capture them, not kill them quickly.”

He couldn’t even catch them pleading for forgiveness. This act couldn’t undo the hundreds of hours worth of humiliating footage they’d uploaded of the empire on the internet. He needed to capture them dying, to show the world what torture the enemies of the empire would be forced to go through.

“They’re alive,” Hookwolf said stepping onto the rooftop. Kaiser and his followers turned to him. “They vanished before my eyes right before the roof fell.”

“Are you sure?” Victor asked. Kaiser didn’t doubt Hookwolf’s words.

“Certain of it. I had Uber in my arms before he vanished before me.”

“Their tinker,” Krieg said. “He probably invented a teleportation device for emergencies.”

“Is that even his specialty?” Crusader asked.

“They’ve said he’s a match to Hero.” Alablaster said. “That he can invent anything from any specialty.”

“I’ve checked out their website,” Rune argued, “they only say that to scare people.”

“You checked out their website?” Othala asked keenly.

“I swear it was for prep reasons.”

Kaiser allowed for the rest of them to speak amongst themselves. He was glad, the Losers were most likely alive. They were beaten easily but escaped, now he gained the chance to hunt them down again.

“Spread out.” Kaiser ordered. “They might be close by, teleportation typically has its limits. From this point on, we focus our resources on finding their base of operations. We won’t rest until we have their corpses, cold or warm.”

All the E88 members spreaded out. The stronger members dug through the rubble for clues, but they all stayed distant from one another to cover more ground. Street corners, abandoned buildings, the capes searched everywhere, knowing they’d evacuated the place before planning the ambush.

“What the hell is that?” Rune said from her bird’s eye view. Floating on her rock above head, she pointed to the distance. Fenja and Menja looked over from their heightened forms. Their jaws dropped.

As the marching grew louder, the rest of the E88 capes looked over at the bodies. A grey-uniformed battalion of soldiers marched in their direction. Mixed reactions were spread across all the E88 member’s faces. Krieg, Kaiser, and Hookwolf watched with stoic stares. The others looked and exchanged glances with each other by the absurdity of the view.

Kaiser kept his thoughts to himself, I am going to torture them, so badly.

Krieg wasn’t so modest, “I am going to kill them, so badly.”

It was a nazi battalion of soldiers, marching into the streets with full blown world war two attire with skull patches, medals and antique weaponry. Some had gas masks to give off a stereotypical violent portrayal of nazism. Others wore cloths covering their heads, with their physiques identical to Uber and Leet. The most damning thing might’ve have been the tan skinned soldiers decorated in swastikas, structured identically and wearing masks similar to Rush and Light. There were hundreds of them.

“They’re fake,” Cricket assured them. “Every one of them, they’re just projections.”

A loud song played around all of them. It played through all the speakers, stereos, televisions, and radios, both broken and functioning, within their twenty mile radius. “Oh fuck no,” Victor said. Only half the E88 members recognized the words.

“What is it?” Rune asked.

Victor’s mouth twitched, “Hitler’s national anthem.”

More holographic projections popped up into existence overhead. Rush floated in a lying position smiling, her teammates flew around her with matching nazi uniforms. There were several groups of them in the sky, making it impossible to know which ones were the real ones. “"Bereitet eure Waffen vor!” the Rush projections yelled together.

The other teammate projections smiled, and began counting down. “fünf... vier... drei...”

Krieg’s mouth gaped open. “How the fuck did they learn German?”

“One!” They all yelled together.

Before Krieg or Kaiser could even think, the projections fired an arsenal of lasers at the E88 members. At first, the lights only touched them the same way flashlights would. But it became very quickly apparent that Light hid his own energy blasts within the barrage of lights.

He fired from the sky and he fired from the ground. The lights spun and twisted in altering directions making the source and target impossible to find. Fog and Night moved to cover their teammates, but more lights rained downed from the air and all around the. A few of the gas-masked holograms began spewing ice and fire at the capes. Using the holograms as cover, Spitfire created walls of fire at sidewalks and abandoned buildings, while cold ice covered the streets around them.

An arsenal of super-suited Uber holograms jumped up at Menja, with a real Uber pounding her into the ground. When Fenja was about to help her, a ten ton iron baton, lifted only due to Rush’s powers, dropped onto Fenja’s side like a cannonball.

Night wasn’t transforming. Rune blindly threw stones in all directions and Stormtiger had no target to aim for. Kaiser eventually threw up spikes from all sides of the streets, trying to find where the true bodies were hiding.

Cowards, Hookwolf thought to himself. He ran through the hundreds of holograms with heavy spikes tearing through the streets. The Light holograms all taunted at him in German.

When Hookwolf almost closed in on the real Light, a heavy foam was shot onto him. It looked as though several nazi soldiers had surrounded him and fired PRT-styled foam, but in reality, it was Leet hiding among them, testing out the new tools on his tinker-backpack.

Krieg was the only one who understood their words. “They’re mocking us,” he said. He turned to Kaiser, “what are we doing? We’re fighting blindly now and we’re just wrecking down our own territory.”

One by one, the holograms began covering for the real team to fire containment foam on each of the members. Night was contained after Hookwolf. Othala, Rune and Victor were captured right after.

A Rush image floated into Kaisers direction. Kaiser instinctively shot a metal spear into its stomach, but the projection was unfazed. With her devilish grin she said, “Es ist ironisch, dass ich mehr Deutsch als du weiß Kaiser.”

“What did she just say?” Kaiser asked.

Krieg clenched his fists, “she said, ‘it’s ironic that I know more German than you.’”

All the Losers, both holograms and real, yelled at once, “Wir sind die Inglorious Bastards!” A gravity rush pushed into Kaiser’s face, causing him to fly off the roof.

“I’ve had enough of this,” Krieg said. He spoke into his hand radio, “everyone retreat. From now on, we focus on finding out where they’re hiding.”

In an instance, all the holograms disappeared. The music cut off. Fires were beginning to spread, and half the E88 capes were incapacitated. When the remaining members took the time to look around at the damage they had done, a final message came out through the speakers again. Their newest member said it. She sounded nervous, “I bet you did nazi see that coming.” A cheer was heard from the background, and then it cut off again.

XXX

 

Aryana’s feet were half stepped off from the ledge of the building. Her heels stayed on the rooftop while her arms extended outwards like she were floating without powers. Her eyes were drowsily closed. She took long and deep breathes as she listened to her heart beat in a meditative manner.

There was a lightness to her darkness. The atmosphere was cool and the night sky was calming. She was happy. It was an escape. Escaping and pretending that the world around her didn’t exist and that she alone was the life and love of the entirety of the universe. Nothing scared her in this state, because she knew now staring off into nothing, that if she wanted to, she could escape into the tranquility of her closed eyes.

If she didn’t have powers to catch her fall, she’d practice this exercise on an empty desk at home. In a way, this was her own illusion of what power was. She wanted to feel strong by choosing not to die. Because in her mind, her life was just victim of fate, chance, destiny, and the people around her. This was her trying to feel powerful. This was her knowing that dying didn’t scare her. Knowing that falling was always close to her. Knowing that gravity could only bring her down if she’d let it.

Emily stepped onto the rooftop. Opening the rooftop door, she stared at her. “Aryana?” she spoke out, hoping not to startle her.

Aryana immediately turned around and opened her eyes again, lightly floating back onto the platform of the roof. She smiled, “sup rookie.” Emily looked to the ledge of the building, wondering what she was doing. “It’s a trust exercise,” she answered for her.

Emily wasn’t sure whether to question it, but she did want to move on from the topic quickly. “I have to go home now. Thank you for everything. For having me on the team, for saving me. Thank you.”

Aryana turned around again and took a seat at the ledge. She pointed to the spot next to her. “Sit, I wanna chat real quick.”

“I really should get going.”

“It’ll be quick, I promise. I wanted to talk to you about yesterday.” Emily was hesitant, more because she was worried she’d say something wrong than about the subject itself. She slowly walked next to Aryana and looked down at the height of the twenty story building. “Relax, my powers will catch you if you trip and slide off.”

That did make her feel better. Why was she so afraid? She’d put her life in Aryana’s hands before and she hadn’t failed her. She couldn’t really explain it. Emily slowly took a seat to her.

Aryana swung her feet out, “Sorry about asking about asking about your trigger event, I didn’t mean to put you in the limelight like that.”

Emily didn’t say anything. It did feel inappropriate when she’d asked. Capes, of all people, should understood that well enough.

“I wanted to ask why you didn’t join the Wards. We’re glad you're on the team, but you act more hero than villain.” Emily was the cautious type, which was ironic considering her powers. She over thought everything she did which made her seem more nervous than the average cape. That line of thinking was far more in line with the PRT than with other villains.

Personally, Aryana thought she was better in the background than in the limelight. Emily was constantly anxious around them, and she really wanted to get that kicked out of her. She even debated right now whether to take Emily by the shoulders, shake her furiously, and yell, ‘hey, you’re awesome, stop being afraid of everyone!’

Emily rubbed down at her hands, knowing that of the laundry list of reasons she could’ve picked from, she needed to say the truest one. “Because of my trigger event,” she answered softly.

Aryana could put the two and two together. People dying or getting hurt during trigger events was common, or even the circumstances of trigger events could border along the illegal side. “I’m sorry,” Aryana said, genuinely meaning it. Aryana was doing her best to keep the atmosphere light, getting sad or getting serious was always outside of her comfort zone. But she knew that in a world of rational people, there came times when she needed to speak in ways that others preferred, and not in ways that she’d prefer.

She took a deep breathe. “The reason I asked was because I wanted to give you an option before uploading the video. We can edit you out, and you could join another team. We’re crazy and the world knows it, so once everyone knows you’re with us, a lot of bridges will be burned.”

Emily nodded her head, “I like it here. I like you guys, this is a nice place to be.”

Aryana took out a pack of cigarettes, she offered one to Emily, to which she refused. After lighting it, she said, “really? Because I think we’re a bunch of freaks.”

Emily chuckled. She almost wanted to tell her the truth about what she’d seen in them. When Emily was four years old she had a brother two years younger than her, one that died falling off from the kitchen counter while playing. She grew up imagining what it would’ve been like to have a little brother growing up. And seeing Aryana and Vivan together was like seeing what her relationship with her own brother could’ve been.

“Glad you didn’t pick the Undersiders,” Aryana mentioned.

“Really?” Emily stared, “why?”

“Because Tattletale is a biiiiitch.”

Emily laughed out loud. She remembered Tattletale being smug, but she didn’t know her well enough to call her a bitch. “I don’t think you should say that behind her back, I heard she can read minds.”

“I heard that too, that’s why I always say it to her face when I see her.” Emily laughed harder, completely believing Aryana’s attitude. “Yet another reason why we keep our shit in the air, people can’t use that against us. Which is also why Tattletale hates me a ton, I don’t give her ammo for her to use.”

“I believe you,” Emily said smiling. “I’ll… Tell you guys about my trigger event tomorrow. Maybe I can post a origin video too. Leet lied for his video, right? I’ll do that too.”

“That would be splendid,” Aryana smiled between her teeth, “just make sure it sounds real, people tend know when we lie, so make it a half-truth, or something.”

Emily nodded, “I’ll sleep on it. I’ll make it dramatic, tragic, and mundanely relatable all at the same time.” Emily counted her fingers with excitement.

“That’s the way to do it,” Aryana said approvingly.

Vivan walked onto the rooftop entering from the building walkway. “Aryana,” he called out opening the door, “someone uploaded another audition video.”

“Really? Nice, let’s go get’em.”

“Actually, Robert and Edwin are really against this one.”

“Really? Why?”

“Come and see it.”

XXX

Rune threw rocks and pieces of junk into the outskirts of the junkyard. Upen hitting the targets, vehicles and gas tanks blew up. It was in the same spot Spitfire had made her video, but Rune’s powers almost seemed more destructive in comparison. The way she used it, it wasn't cautious like Spitfire, it was her being as destructive as possible with powers that aren’t overly powerful.

Rune turned her cell phone camera onto herself, “My name is Rune, and I’m sick and tired of the E88. I want to join the Losers, because the Losers can kick ass.”

The video feed pointed down to the wake of destruction she’d created, “so if you guys need a real agent of chaos, I’m your girl.”

The video cut off. A barrage of comments followed its upload.

My, how the tables have turned.

Oh look, it’s a wannabe teenage nazi bitch.

Hell to the fuck no, after everything she and the E88 have done, I will never watch another Loser video again if you guys recruit her.​

XXX

Aryana stepped back from the laptop, “Let’s recruit her.”

“Hell no,” Robert and Edwin said. Robert argued, “recruiting someone brand new is fine, recruiting someone who’s done a load of bad shit? That’s stupid.”

Aryana waved her hand off at him, “oh hush puff, she can’t be that bad.”

“In fact,” Vivan interjected, “weren’t you guys the ones that thought it was okay to beat up hookers before we came along?”

“Don’t bring that up again,” Robert pointed. “We made up for that, how can she make up for all the shit she’s done?”

Aryana cheered, “by joining us!”

Leet shook his head. “No, it’s bad enough that’s she’s a nazi, it’s worse that she might just be an E88 spy. Are you seriously gonna trust an actual racist into our group?”

“Well,” Vivan argued, “if she’s willing to join a team with me and Ary, maybe she’s not so racist?”

“Bullshit,” Edwiin yelled, “you really think people just change that overnight?”

“Either way,” Aryana said, “I’m alright with it, I don’t see why you guys are overreacting.”

“Because she’s a nazi!” Edwin and Robert yelled again.

Aryana and Vivan glanced at each other. They wouldn’t budge. So instead, Vivan suggested leaving the decision to someone else. “Okay, fine, you guys don’t trust her. That’s two for, and two against. How about we leave it to the tie breaker?”

The four of them turned to Emily. “Me?” Emily said in disbelief. “I’ve only been here for a day, you really want me to decide?”

“Exactly,” Vivan said. “You’re new to the cape thing, you know what it’s like to not have a team. Right now, Rune must have pissed off a lot of people by uploading that video. With her reputation, she probably has nowhere else to go except us. She’s in a tough spot, like you not too long ago. So…” Vivan bowed down to Emily, “we leave her fate, in your hands.”

“Fuck,” Edwin said. “Vivan’s talking again. I know how this is gonna end. All of you know my vote, I’ll be in the lab if you need me.” Edwin turned away from the kitchen and headed to his bedroom.

Robert shook his head at Emily. “It’s a bad idea. I guarantee she’s either a spy or will be impossible to live with.”

“Which,” Vivan reminded, “isn’t a big deal to you since you won’t be living here.”

“You’re really alright with that?” Emily asked. “She might treat you guys like garbage, you’re alright with living with that?”

“Believe me,” Aryana said, “we won’t be living with her, she’ll be living with us.”’

XXX

It took three capes to pull Rune out from the containment foam, and it only came out because the foam almost dissolved after a half hour. It was bad enough their reputation had steadily worsened since the Losers came in play, but damn, this ambush was meant send them to the grave, not set the nail on the coffin of their spiraling failures.

“Rune,” Kaiser said as she was pulled out. “I need to speak with you.” The implication was obvious, and the other capes left as soon as he said it.

Rune kneeled down in front of Kaiser while trying to take away from the reality of the defeat he’d just faced. It was both necessary and difficult. As a teenager, politeness went against her rebellious attitude, as an E88 member, respect was needed above all else to prosper. Showing courtesy after such a being disgraced by losers? That was a challenge. “Yes, my king.”

“Stand,” he said, implying that she could relax. “The plan I’d talked about to you before, are you still willing to carry it out?”

Rune nodded her head. She hated the plan, it involved getting close to the Losers, but after such a ridiculous mockery they’d made of the empire, she now knew it was necessary. “Of course,” she said, mixing courtesy and and a light tone of casualness in her tone.

Kaiser placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to emit the same warmth that always guaranteed him the loyalty from all of his members. Even in defeat, he would show any falter. “Sabrina,” he said in an honest-like tone, “what I’m asking from you is more than just a normal favor. The moment you join them, you’ll be a traitor by the rest of us. I’ll still be here to protect you, to vouch for you when you finally need it. But you’ll be hated in the meantime, and I’ll understand if this is too much I’m asking from you.”

He was killing two birds with one stone. He cared nothing for Sabrina, nor her clan. By making her fall into treason, Kaiser could gain the excuse to dissolve her clan while potentially gaining vital information to kill Leet and the Losers.

He was just giving her the illusion of an option, not so that she can actually refuse, but so that she’ll place more trust in him. He’d already guaranteed her answer before, he just wanted to fortify her trust with him. “I can handle it,” she said in an almost venomous tone. “I can handle anything you need from me.”

She sounded offended, like she was upset Kaiser could even question her willingness. Good, Kaiser thought to himself. She believed she was thinking for herself, not knowing he’d steered her into his submission. “Alright, Sabrina.” Kaiser embraced the teenager for a hug, “don’t let them discover you.”

Rune held still, she didn’t feel anything from his hug, but she knew now that this mattered to him. And she wasn’t going to let him down. After letting go, he nodded for her to help clean up the destruction from the battle.

Rune caught up with Victor’s group. “What was that about?” Othala asked to her cousin.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Rune answered with a grin. “Maybe I’m finally becoming Kaiser’s favorite.”

 

Rune was almost glad she left the E88. Their rules, mannerisms, expectations, it was driving her crazy. She didn’t need more of that in her life. She was sixteen and wasn’t allowed to maker her own decisions, all because she owed her family something for being born with powers. She was tired of it, tired of them, but even more fed up than them, she was pissed off at the losers.

It had only been a few hours since their failed ambush attempt, and she still couldn’t get her mind over what had happened. The nazi hologram prank was the most humiliating experience she’d ever had, and she wasn’t going to let them get off that easy. She was glad she was picked for being the double agent, she wanted to join them, just so she could see the looks on their faces for when they’d fall into Kaiser’s trap.

It was now 2am, and the Loser’s still hadn’t responded. Rune didn’t care, if they chose not to recruit her, she could still trust Kaiser to take her back.

Rune attuned more of the vehicles and garbage barrels surrounding her, tossing them around for added practice. A few fires were starting, bigger fires than Spitfire’s, spreading around the outskirts of the junkyard while engulfing the gaps within. It was just a way to pass the time. She eventually clenched her fists, remembering how easily Rush’s telekinesis overpowered her’s.

A vacuum swallowed up the sound from outside the junkyard. Gliding on towards it, she saw a circular purple light forming into a portal. It looked like a glowing tunnel, with echoing sounds inside from people talking while they walked.

“I still say we should’ve brought the nazi uniforms,” one of the boys said.

“Nah, it’s never funny a second time,” a girl replied.

“I cosplay for fun, but I don’t dress up like Solid Snake and pick fights with Russians. Once you’re done, make sure she doesn’t go to my lab. I don’t need some Nazi fanatic thinking she can gas up my home like a psycho.”

Three people stepped out from the portal. Light and Rush were easily recognizable, they had their recognizable half broken masks, along with cosplays similar to knights. Rush’s armor had a crimson painted dragon on the front of the chestplate. Uber wore a white cloth mask, with a wizard looking attire that looked more like a long dress. In fact, his v-neck cleavage and the tightness around his waist almost implied that he was cosplaying as a female character.

“You know,” Uber said with his clip on earrings, “when you said you had three months of cosplay ready, I was really expecting something else.”

Rush stuck her tongue out. “I wouldn't be a master of foreplay if I couldn't tease and troll at the same time.”

The younger brother extended his arms. He was shorter than her, and she wondered if he was of middle school age or just shrimpish for his age. “There’s our wonderful new guinea pig.” Light almost approached her for a hug, but once Rune stepped back, he extended his hand out for a shake.

Rune looked down at his hand for a full minute, remembering she wasn’t supposed to touch his kind. “Relax, it doesn't come off.” She stared at him. “Also, if it makes you feel better, I’m technically an Oreo.”

Rune raised an eyebrow. So he’s mixed, she thought to herself.

Rush cut in, “Wait, so now we’re Oreos? Does that I mean I get to be fun, fresh, and full of flavor?”

Rune tilted her head at her. What?

“No,” Light answered, “think of it like skyrim. We get half the benefits of both races.”

“Well, that’s a shitty power. That means my dancing skills cancel itself out.”

Rune shook her head, “what the hell are you guys talking about?”

“Don’t ask,” Uber answered. He dropped his backpack in front of him, and turned around and headed away, “the lengths these guys go to fuck around is astounding. I’ll be on lookout if you need me.”

Rush clasped her hands together, “okay, let’s get this initiation process started. Light, hand me my clipboard.” Light pulled a clipboard with heavy booklet out from the backpack.

Rush pulled out a pencil while Light began asking questions from the book. “First question; what do the stars on the American flag represent?”

Rune lifted an eyebrow. “Are you serious?’

He answered, “do you wanna join or not?”

Rune let out a loud sigh, “the states.”

“Good, now what do the colors represent?”

Rune cocked her head back, I should know this…

After a minute of waiting, Rush and Light shook their heads disappointingly. Rush marked an ‘x’ on her clipboard. Light continued with his line of questions. “Can you tell me what the stripes represent? Also, can you name the original US colonies?”

Rune tried remembering the names, but she wasn’t sure if Florida existed back then, or if the colonies were named something different from the states.

He went on, “How many congressmen do we have in the house of representatives? Which government entity has the power to nominate chief justices? What is the current chief Justice of the Supreme court right now?”

“What the fuck is the point of this?” Rune yelled. “It’s just history and politics bullshit, it doesn’t fucking matter.”

Rush grinned, “it’s the US citizenship test.”

"Are you fucking serious?”

“Well,” Light said, “if she thinks it’s bullshit, I don’t think I can trust her. I don’t want a commie on our team.”

Rune swallowed, she thought about how pissed Kaiser would be if she met with them just to fail. “That’s… Not fair. I’m bad at history.”

Rush rubbed at her chin, “well, I suppose we can let you enter illegally. Just don’t tell the feds about it.”

Light crossed his arms, “I don’t like it, it makes me not wanna trust her. Are you willing to work for less than minimum wage for double the workload?”

She clenched her fists, “go fuck yourself.”

Light, not at all offended, muttered, “damn liberals…”

Rush tossed her clipboard to the side. She went into the backpack again and picked up some white sheets. She tossed them to Light, and took out a rainbow colored attire. “Say hello to your new costume.”

“Fuck no,” Rune yelled. It was a bright green colored porcelain styled dress, complete with rainbow striped knee socks and sleeves. A giant bright sunflower was the logo on its chest. “No way in hell am I wearing that!”

Rush waved it around, “C’mon Rune, you gotta improve your image since you’re a former E88 member. And what better image is there than to change your name to Sillywhim from Sillyville?”

“Or you could go with mine,” Vivan said. The sheets Rush passed to him was unfolded into a KKK robe, complete with an overly pointy hat, a white cape with a burning cross picture on the back, and a swastika patched on its chest. “I figure you should just embrace your former history. Remember your battle cry; while brise white by light, by night, brise white takes flight, with the might of right, to fight for our plight. You are… The White Knight!”

Rune suddenly remembered Uber’s parting message. “You guys are just fucking with me.”

Rush sighed, “Don’t be ridiculous. Do you really think we spent three hours sewing these costumes as an oxymoron to your history, just to shove in your face as a way to fuck with you? Who would do that? That’ a crazy amount of effort and only crazy people would do that.”

“So what’ll it be,” Light said. “Sillywhim, or the White Knight?”

Rune shook her head furiously, “neither!”

The two siblings glanced at each other. They communicated almost non-verbally. Light tossed a wad of bills at his sister, “For a second, I seriously thought she was gonna pick the rainbow one.”

“Told you she shouldn't, and I’m glad she didn’t. Rainbows are gay.”

Light nodded, “they’re like gay rays of gayness, emitting gay sun rays onto this gay earth.” Light shot a rainbow colored beam into the air. “Like gay blasts.”

Rush stared intensely at Light, “you have gay blasts?”

“Of course. Legend’s lasers aren’t rainbow enough, someone’s gotta do it.”

Rune gritted her teeth, “you’re gay?” These guys don’t stop getting worse.

“What? Ew, of course not. I’m as straight as a garden gnome.” He pointed to his sister, “she’s pretty gay though. Kinda super gay, since she’s a cape. She checks out more girls than me.”

Rush rubbed her hand at her cheek. “It’s true, it's not my fault the female anatomy is so wonderful.” She eyed at Rune, to which she took a step back. “Oh relax, I don’t touch jailbait.” That didn’t make Rune feel better.

“Okay,” Light said, “I think it’s time for the final test. The real test, the test that’ll tell us whether or not you’re fit for the team or not.”

Rush nodded and crossed her arms. Her smile fell to a frown, and she walked closer to Rune to speak on a more personal level. “Rune, here’s the thing. Unlike Spitfire you have a bad history behind you, so we have to make sure you’re serious about joining the team. Which means you have to show us that you really don’t want to be a part of the E88 anymore.”

“And,” Light said, “you gotta make up for the crimes you’ve done. To balance out the all hate you’ve ever done.”

Rune thought about the laundry list of hate crimes she’d done with the empire. They were tame compared to what the veteran members had done, but that didn’t make her any less guilty. “Like what?” she asked.

XXX

The red haired teenager stood at the center of the busy street corner. It was Saturday afternoon, warm for April, but it wasn’t nice for her. It was the ‘cleaner’ part of town, so she was glad no one she knew would recognize her. Sabrina frowned, refusing to let herself have fun in the morbid situation she was in. The “free hugs” sign was hanging by her shoulders, and she glared at people that decided to provide it to her.

“Free hugs,” she said monotoned. “Free hugs,” she said in a flat tone, hoping no one would hear her.

A dark haired boy clapped methodically after seeing her. He was slim, and overall scrawny. He couldn’t stop laughing, “I can’t believe she actually did it.”

He was followed by two tan skinned friends. The girl next to him had her own sign around her body, it read ‘super hugs, $10.’ She spoke, “I, for one, am proud of our newest member.”

Sabrina stared at them. “Rush?” She couldn’t believe it. She finally got to see their secret identities. Rush’s body was overall slim, something that was hard to tell from all the cosplays she’d chosen to wear. Her dark hair was cut to her neck level, she'd typically dyed her hair bright white in costume. Oddly enough, her hair now was shorter than when wearing a costume, was that one of Leet's inventions? Rush looked to be only slightly taller than Sabrina, she guessed that she was either eighteen or nineteen years old due to her jailbait comment.

The shorter one looked to be older than she expected, high school age, but probably fourteen or fifteen. His dark hair was silky and scuffled down. “One more hour, and we’re throwing a welcoming party when Emily gets back.” His smile was identical to Rush’s, the similarities between their faces were now apparent. “And no alcoholic beverages. If I can’t drink, yuz are partying like Mormons too.”

“Yuz?” Sabrina said. “Was that.. Slang?”

“Well, I did grow up in Boston.”

Sabrina furrowed her eyebrows, wondering again how his accent tied to his ethnicity.

“So, I’m Aryana, this is Vivan, and that’s Edwin, also known as Leet.” The boy nodded at her, not saying much more. “So, I think you deserve an ice cream cone. We all thought you were gonna leave after the first hour, glad you stuck around. I’ll be right back.”

Aryana left to the other direction, Edwin turned to Vivan and said, “shit, I forgot to ask for a smoothie. Vivan, can you go tell her that.”

“Sure thing,” he left to follow her, leaving Edwin alone to turn to Sabrina.

“So, enjoying yourself?” he asked. Sabrina scowled at him, but held her tongue. “Good, because I just wanted to chat with you real quick.”

Edwin placed a hat on her head. On the outside, it was just a typical cap with the local sports team written on it, inside it, her head began to tickle. “I don’t really get why Ary and Vivan wanted you on our team, but I’d just like to make something clear. Don’t think about hurting my friends, especially Ary, because if you do, I’ll do that one thing Tinkers aren’t supposed to do.”

In an instance, an image flashed before her eyes. The world around her became black, and she felt wind pulling her down into the ground. The stars above her were glowing purple, and she felt her body going soft. Her body became brittle, and her insides tingled like the were withering away inside her.

The image lasted for a mere second, but the sensation of it all was worth remembering. Returning to normal, Edwin pulled off the hat. “They weren’t joking when they said I’m as good as Hero. It’s more than just a gimmick. The trick is to keep being more original than the last thing, and they showed me that.” He hugged her, “so if you even think about hurting my friends, I’ll do things to you worse than the holocaust.”

He let go. Aryana and Vivan returned with ice cream cones a few minutes later.

“There weren’t smoothies where we went,” Vivan said. “But here’s a banana ice cream cone instead, so I guess it’s kind of like a smoothie.”

Aryana looked to Sabrina, her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. Not understanding, Ary asked, “you okay? If you want, I could give you a free hug for ten dollars.”

 

First Month In Brockton Bay

Leet and Uber skipped around Light as though he were a christmas tree. They wrapped pearl necklaces and golden chains around him until he was so bright he could reflect street lamps if he walked outside. It was relatively dark inside, but they could still see each other with the dimmed ceiling lamp at the center of the room.

“You guys are weird,” Rush told them, while carefully staring at the display cases full of diamond rings.

Uber retorted, “says the girl dressed up like a furry.”

Rush was dressed up as Ahri, a cat-human creature from League of Legends. Light was supposedly Malzahar, his scarves were in an Ottoman warrior like fashion, but the golden colors made him proclaim himself as ‘mr. sandyman.’ Leet had bandages around his body. He wore a bald cap with a large tube-like backpack to reflect a character known as ‘Singed’. Uber wore a gender swapped cosplay of a sword wielder. The gender swap costume wasn’t at all feminine, which was a compromise from what Rush had proposed.

She hissed at them, “oiy, it’s a perfectly common fetish!”

“Uber,” Leet said, “don’t complain about the cat ears. Never complain about the cat ears.”

“See?” Rush said. “I’m fetish friendly!”

“Light,” Uber questioned, “it astounds me how you can tolerate the things coming out of her mouth.”

Light shrugged, “I’ve trained myself to shut away some of her words. She goes mute every once in awhile, and I’ll have no idea what she just said.”

This was only the team’s second heist. Their attempt of amassing funds was underway, and they wanted to run a few practice robberies before they began posting videos online. Leet, in particular, needed more time and money to complete some of the project ideas they all had in mind.

XXX

“This is kind of fun to watch,” Regent said watching from the security room monitors. The Undersiders watched the newly formed team prance around the jewelry shop that they had initially planned to rob.

“They’re stealing our gig,” Tattletale commented.

“Boss isn’t gonna like this,” Grue mentioned.

“I can get rid of them,” Bitch said, offering her own solution.

Grue replied, “the mission was the make the Protectorate look bad. Fighting a bunch of amateurs wouldn’t exactly help us.”

“Yeah,” Tattletale said, “but are we seriously gonna leave without anything to show for it?”

She had a point. They couldn’t retreat before the robbery even started. They’re plan to gain rep from outrunning the Protectorate fell flat the moment the newer team deactivated the building alarms. A flat out fight with them also wouldn’t have garnered any reputation benefits.

Grue looked at Bitch, maybe she could intimidate them to leave? Then they could at least gain a profit without wasting their time fighting. Grue ordered, “Tattletale, stay here, the rest of us will handle these guys.”

XXX

There was a low growling from the distance. When the team looked over to see, they saw the Undersiders with three hyena sized monsters growled lowly at them. Rush instinctively hid behind Uber.

Regent mentioned, “you do know you’re not actually a cat, right?”

She whimpered, “but do they know that?”

BItch’s dogs eyed directly at her. Bitch grumbled, “I fucking hate cats.”

Rush shrunk even further. “This cosplay backfired, terribly.”

“Hey,” Uber said, “what’s the big idea? We called dibs here first.”

“Yeah,” Light yelled, “what happened to honor among thieves!” Light lit up his arms, he was more than happy to pick a fight with strangers.

Grue crossed his arms, wondering if they’d be willing to concede to his commands, “we’ve been planning a heist here for days, and we aren’t leaving empty handed.”

“Days?” Leet raised an eyebrow, “seriously? We rolled dice before deciding to rob this place. All that planning sounds really wasteful.”

“And stressful,” Rush mumbled. Bitch growled at her again, to which she winced.

“So what do you guys call yourselves?” Regent asked.

The four of them looked at each other for a moment. Together they answered, “we’re working on it.”

“Enough talk,” Bitch said. “Get out, or we’ll make you get out.”

Light couldn’t help but smile at Bitch’s hostility. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love the name Bitch? Anytime I hear a woman call herself ‘Bitch’, I think of a strong, independent, open minded feminist.”

“I dunno,” Uber said, “I like the name hellbound better.”

Regent and Grue immediately took a step back. Uber just pressed a button they knew shouldn’t ever be pressed. WIthout thinking, Bitch blew into her dog whistle and pointed directly at Rush and Uber.

Rush eeped, but managed to fire an invisible shockwave into the Undersider’s direction. Regent slid across the floor but managed to pick himself back up and hide behind a display case. Grue smashed against a wooden case, causing the case to tip over and hit him on the ground. The dogs got back up quickly and sprinted towards her, Rush redirected her powers to pick up metal display cases and smash them into their bodies. She raised the heavy cases and pressed them against the wall, pinning the dogs into place, unable to escape from her power’s weight.

Light took cover behind the register counter. He launched bright lights to the other side while Uber dashed towards Bitch to trap her into a grappling hook. He pinned her to the ground while Leet stepped to his side to nit-pick around his utility belt.

“Light,” Tattletale said over the store intercom. She watched the fight unfold from the safety of the security monitor room. “You know, the only reason you go by that name is because you wanted to be a hero once. But your sister dragged you out of that. In other words, you're the opposite of what you’ve always wanted to become because you cling onto a person you feel forced to follow.”

Tattletale grinned from where she was sitting, she picked up more and more bits and pieces of each of them as she scanned through the monitors and audio she had access to. Surprised they had an extra member accessing the intercoms, Light said to his sister, “it’s true, I wanted to wear skin tight suits, be famous, and have bitches on all of my sides. You ruined that for me.”

Regent commented, “that is pretty fucked up. Never cock block a man from his bitches.”

Rush shrugged, “I tend to be good at making lives miserable.”

Rush’s strength didn’t falter as she held the dogs pinned. They were powerhouses, and they all knew they couldn’t survive if the dogs became freed. Regent tried getting Rush to release them, but Light was shooting at him so heavily that Regent was more focused on distorting Light's aim than anything else.

Grue stood up from the floor. He expanded his darkness at both Light and Rush, Leet tossed a flashbang in the air. They were all blinded for a mid second, but Rush didn’t falter with her eyes closed. “Shit,” Rush yelled, “watch out for the black guy! He’s gonna corrupt you all with his blackness!”

Grue rubbed at his eyelids, “what the fuck did she just say?”

Light groaned, “crap, a liberal. You better not get offended, it’s just a joke. And it’s not like you're actually black underneath your mask.”

Both teams fell silent for a long time. When realization finally dawned, the other team bursted out laughing.

“Tattletale,” Grue said aloud, “shut these guys up.”

Tattletale raised an eyebrow from where she sat. She spoke into the mic again. “Rush. I know the only reason you came to Brockton Bay was to escape from your past. And the only reason you crack jokes all the time is to hide the insecurities of how you’ve lived, and of how scared you really are towards the world around you.”

“It’s true,” Rush said sighing. “That’s why I draw dick pics everywhere we go. I fear of the Scion uprising someday.”

“Enough talk,” Bitch said as Uber twisted her arms to the ground, “let me kill these bastards.”

“No!” Everyone from both teams yelled.

Bitch grunted. She hated holding back, being told to limit the strength of her dogs. She could easily have beaten all of them, if they had just let her!

Regent had long given up trying to take the fight seriously. “Hey Grue, is it alright if I started calling you the black guy of our group? If they’re allowed to have a wise cracking gamer girl, we should follow our own stereotypes too.”

“I like this guy,” Rush said teasing, “cute, and funny. By any chance, are you single?”

“If the answer were no, I still wouldn’t stop you.”

“Awwww, that is so sweet.”

Grue had regained his sight. Light pounced at him from the counter. Even though Grue had just barely regained his vision, he managed to grapple Light by the arms and pin him into the ground. “Fuck,” Leet said. He left Uber’s side to try and double team Grue.

“Uber,” Tattletale said over the coms, “I know you only accepted these two because you were desperate to try something new. You knew you and Leet were pathetic together, so you were willing to take in two complete strangers because you thought you couldn’t get any worse. In reality, you know you’d be better off as a solo cape than with Leet.”

“I’ve never denied that,” Uber said sticking his tongue out, “and to be fair, I’d be better soloing than with any of these other guys.”

His teammates instantly shouted profanity at him, and even picked up some priceless jewels to throw into his direction. Uber grinned as Tattletale gritted her teeth.

Regent jumped out from cover and stopped Leet from reaching Grue’s side. He caused his feet to collapse, allowing his head to hit onto one of the display cases. It hurt badly. There was even a light nausea as he tried picking himself back up. But as he tried, Regent used his powers to keep him from rising up, making him fall back onto the ground again and again in a pitiful fashion.

“Leet,” she said in a final attempt to irritate them. “Long story short, you’re a loser. You go out of your way to try and show the world that you're half the worth of a regular tinker, but you aren’t, and you never will be. Your tinkering is programmed to blow up in your face, you’ll never be good enough for anyone, and everyone you tinker for is bound to get dragged down by your lousy skills. At the end of the day, you’re just better off not being around than dragging down everyone else with your personal failures.”

Leet didn’t say anything. He knew it was true enough to not argue, he couldn’t even spin that into a positive light. The rest of his team waited for him to turn her words into a meaningless banter, but he remained silent. Before Tattletale could claim the small victory, Rush said, “you know, being a loser is better than being a nosey, stupid-ass bitch.”

Leet chuckled a bit. Light added, “yeah, if Leet’s a loser, I wanna be a loser too. We’ll make a badass posse and call ourselves the losers while we kick other loser’s asses.”

“Yeah,” Uber said, “I wanna be a loser too.”

“Me too,” Rush said.

Leet finally began laughing, laughing in a way that withered away any doubts he had about himself. “And I guess since I’m already a loser, the rest of you guys are losers for hanging out with me!”

“So it’s settled,” Rush said, sweating from the prolonged use of her powers. “As of this day, we are calling ourselves, the Losers!”

Tattletale shook her head, what have I done?

Rush clapped her hand. In an instance, everyone dropped upside down. The ceiling fall surprised Grue, allowing for Light to fight off his grip. He changed into his neon-like shape, and jumped onto Regent into the ceiling chandelier. Regent groaned in pain. Leet quickly stood up and threw another flashbang into the air.

When Rush inversed the gravity, the dogs were immediately released from her power’s grasp. They tried to re-orient themselves to stand on the ceiling, but were quickly pained by Leet’s flash bang.

“Losers,” Rush yelled, “retreat!”

They each pocketed the jewels they could carry and ran. Some the loot was priceless, and they only picked up half of what they expected to collect. But by the time they entered the city streets and distanced themselves from the Undersiders, they stopped caring about why they were there.

 

The most obvious benefit to not needing sleep was time. A person could gain an extra third of the day with complete lack of sleep. The obvious downside to that was that you were forced to be alone with yourself. And if you couldn't tolerate being alone with yourself, more time was self-destructive rather than beneficial.

For Aryana, alone time was the natural being of things. Being with a group of people was just as distracting as being alone. So once the daytime finally came up, and she was done meditating, she got up from her bed and made her way to the kitchen, unchanged after a long night by herself.

Aryana heard Emily and Sabrina conversing at the kitchen table. They’d been talking for about an hour before she decided to leave her bedroom. “Vivan is fifteen,” Emily said. “Aryana is eighteen. Edwin is nineteen, and Robert is twenty one. I haven’t asked how they all came to Brockton Bay, but I think they’d be open to talking about it if you asked.”

Entering the kitchen, Aryana saw the two girls sitting at the dining room table. One was slightly taller than herself, with short curly brown hair and a face densely covered in freckles. The other girl was red-headed, with straightened curls, and bright blue eyes that that made her look pretty.

Aryana let out a fake yawn, “hello, my fellow humans.”

Sabrina rolled her eyes. “It’s twelve o’clock, do you always sleep this late?”

Aryana shrugged, “mondays suck.”

“It’s Sunday.”

“I know, I’m just saying Mondays suck.”

Sabrina squinted at her, she was already detesting who she’d have to live with. Aryana rustled through the fridge to look for something to microwave, “shit, we’re out of leftovers. By any chance, can one of you two cook?” They both shook their heads, “such useless women. I should trade one of you for Vivan.”

Sabrina raised her arms up, “no way in hell am I rooming with Lee-” she quickly held her tongue, “two other boys…”

Aryana sighed, “I think I’ll start asking Vivan to make breakfasts for all of us from now on.”

Aryana pulled out a bottle of wine from the fridge and set it on the table. “Christ," Sabrina commented, "you just woke up, and you're already getting hammered?"

Aryana took took out a glass cup and poured the chocolate flavored wine in. “It’s the Lord’s day today, and the Lord’s day is wine tasting day.” Sabrina glared at her, but Aryana easily ignored her gesture.

Emily, thinking Aryana was still tired from sleeping in, spoke quietly, “Aryana, I wanted to ask, is Vivan mad at us right now? He seemed... upset when you told him he’d have to move out.”

Aryana thought back to the night before, when Vivan packed his things up to move to Robert and Edwin's apartment unit.

“Once again,” Vivan said, “a black man gets kicked out of his home by a group of white chicks.”

Sabrina yelled, “for the last frigging time, what race are you!?”

“Native American,” the two siblings said at the same time.

“Last time you said it was Indian.”

Vivan commented, “to be fair, that's pretty similar.”

Before Aryana could call him ‘racist bastard’, Sabrina pointed to her and yelled, “don’t you fucking say it!”

“Nah,” Aryana answered, “he wasn’t actually angry, he just pretends to get angry. We thought about giving you two your own flats, but we’d rather not divide ourselves too thin. It causes too much distance. Besides, I'm sure he’s better off with Robert and Edwin than staying here to clean up after my messes.”

XXX

Vivan’s new Apartment:

“For fuck’s sake man, God created hangers so that man could hang coats.” Vivan threw a fistfull of hangers in Edwin’s direction, “so hang up your goddamn shirts you sick fuck.”

“We’ve lived here for a year on our own, why the hell should we start cleaning now!?” To prove a point, Edwin grabbed all the coats in the closet, and threw them to the floors. “See this mess? It’s my mess, at least I know where my goddamn stuff is instead of where you’ve been hiding our shit.”

“You cannot organize piles of shit!” Vivan yelled, “both your dumbasses are messier than Aryana.”

“You know what,” Edwin stormed off to his room, “if you’re gonna clean up, then be a little bitch, and pick up these coats!”

Vivan yelled back, “I am not little! And check your privilege you sour cream colored bastard!”

XXX

After taking a quick shower and getting an apple flavored juice beverage, Aryana paced around the living room while her new roommates sat on the living room couch to listen to her. Emily listened attentively while Sabrina stared off to the side offering her minimal attention.

“First, a few rules,” Aryana said, “each of us have a fan-base. Edwin is always busy tinkering, so his fan base is playing video games with other gamers. Robert kind of took the easy way to do it. He uses his powers to recommend sparring techniques for people online. He’s pretty big online for it, even experts like taking his advice. Vivan runs a cook show. He puts on a mask and shows people how to make foreign dishes.”

“Question,” Sabrina said snapping her head, “are you sure he’s not gay?”

Aryana shrugged, “I’ve asked him that a few times. He says he’s straight as a cucumber, even though he’s never had a girlfriend.”

“Sounds pretty gay to me.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s not. He actually told me he started culinary arts in middle school because he wanted to take a class with a girl he liked.”

Sabrina chuckled, “of course.”

Emily asked, “so what’s your fan base?”

“I’m a webcam model.” Their eyes widened at her. “Kidding, that doesn’t pay enough anymore. I’m more of a jazzy blogger type. I make poetry and philosophy vlogs.”

Sabrina commented in a sarcastic tone, “I bet you think you’re so deep.”

Aryana bobbled her head, “indeed, as deep as a shallow puddle.” Sabrina stayed quiet, wondering if Aryana was either dense or being stupid towards her snide comment. Aryana pointed to them, “so, both of you are going to need fan bases. Humanize yourselves. Think of something you love, and vlog about it one way or another.”

Emily thought about her love for botany, and wondered how she could make videos about it. Sabrina sighed in annoyance by how useless the requirement was. Sabrina said, “there’s nothing I like, so there’s no point in me being a part of that.”

Aryana smiled, “hate to break it to you, but having a fan base is a requirement on this team. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have 50,000 followers like Robert. You can have ten followers for all I care. The point is, you need a fan base. It can be anything, it just has to be something worth following.”

Sabrina shook her head, “this is fucking stupid. Humanizing ourselves? What’s the point?”

“The point is to make ourselves something that people don’t want to kill. Our fans cheer for us, and being involved in our own communities expands that cult base. Remember, the best way to gain minions is to connect with people on a fundamental level.”

Sabrina shook her head, “christ, I don’t have anything I wanna share, alright? All I’ve ever done since juvie was roll up joints when I’ve got time.”

“Holy shit,” Aryan laughed, she jabbed a finger in her direction, “that’s it! We need a pot head in our group!”

Sabrina raised an eyebrow, “what?”

A wide grinned formed on Aryana’s face while she asked Sabrina a series of questions, “how good are you with blunts? Could you recommend stuff to eat while stoned? Could you give people advice on edibles?”

“Wait,” Sabrina asked, “you’re serious? You want me to do a blazing channel?”

Aryana ran to her bedroom and came back with a bong. “Emily,” she tossed the bong in her direction. Emily hastily fumbled her hands as she caught it. “Show me how to use this.”

“But I’ve never-”

“I know. Just show me how you think you should use it.”

Emily looked down smoking tool. It looked more liked a strangely sculpted toy from her perspective. She guessed that she had to put her mouth on the longer end of it. She did so, but also tilted the bong up like she were sipping down from a cup.

Sabrina cringed, “that’s, actually kind of sad…”

Aryana bit her lip, “yeah, I bet you like it like that you dirty little whore.”

Emily gagged, and dropped the bong to the ground. “See?” Aryana said catching the bong mid-fall, “how many more innocents need to be enlightened by the power of trees?”

Sabrina leaned back on the chair, it wasn’t like she had any other talents she could offer. She looked down at the bong and had a hard urge to relax from the predicament she’d put herself in. “Fine... But I gotta ask, do you have something I can smoke right now?”

Aryana grin grew wide enough for her teeth to show, “Sabrina, you’re gonna love what I made Edwin brew up in his lab.”

XXX

Sabrina, above all else, needed to find Leet’s lab as soon as possible. The less time she'd spend undercover, the better. The Losers had a philosophy of the exposure effect, the idea that they needed to show who there were as much as they could, both good and bad, for the sake of publicity. It only did damage to Sabrina’s image with the E88. She didn’t need more people thinking she’d left the gang.

Unbeknownst to Sabrina, as she walked through all of the apartment rooms, and checked each individual unit for any signs of Leet’s lab, hidden cameras watched her while the Loser team spied on her from the boy’s living room unit.

“Hey, Edwin,” Aryana asked, “have you used these cameras to spy on me and Emily yet?”

Emily’s face paled while Edwin’s face turned a hot red. “Hell no,” he shook his head violently. “I’m a villain, not a creep.”

Aryana smirked, “too bad, I’m an exhibitionist.” She stared at the TV screen while Sabrina scurried across the floors searching for what was obvious. “I feel kind of bad for her, she’s trying so hard to find your lab, but she’s never gonna find it.”

Vivan said, “I know right? I feel like I’m cheering for a nazi underdog.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Edwin yelled, “she’s gonna stab us in the back as soon. When are we kicking her out?”

Aryana hummed to herself, “After our… Third mission.”

Robert scoffed, “why, so she can screw us over on the first mission?”

“No,” Aryana sighed. “But maybe if she’s on our side of the field a few times, she’ll learn to like us more."

There was a long pause among all of them, no one believed that would happen. And Robert was growing exhausted at her naivety. Typically, her attitude made them more reputable online, even energized offline, but now, it was obviously putting them all in risk. “That’s not how it works, Aryana.”

“I already know that.” Aryana replied in a plain tone. “I just figured if we could convince the world that she’s more loyal to us than to Kaiser, Kaiser would have to ditch her anyway. When that happens, the E88 loses a member, it looks like their cape ditched their nazi ideology, and the biggest loser ends up being Kaiser.”

Emily finally asked, “isn’t this dangerous? I won’t be here on weekdays because of school, but you’re in real danger just by living with her.”

“That’s why drugs are always good for you,” Vivan said with a wave.

“Excuse me?” Emily asked.

Edwin flicked at his own forearm, “He means biomods. I made a vaccine that gives us special blood cells. We’re more numb to pain, heal faster, and have perfect physical strength because of it. So I guess we’re not in as much danger as most people would expect.”

“You should get the shot too,” Aryana mentioned, “and relax, it doesn’t get you high… anymore.”

“That was only a trial shot,” Edwin said meekly.

“Those poor hamsters…”

Emily asked, “you guys heal faster?”

“It’s helped us on several occasions,” Robert said. “We won’t give it to Sabrina, but trust me, you should take it. You’ll feel great afterwards.”

“And it’s not like Edwin’s limitless pill.” Vivan lowered his head, “the hangovers from that are like crack, opium, LSD, and alcohol all at the same time.”

Aryana winced at him, “stop pretending you know about stuff.”

Vivan sighed, “I hate that you make me live like a godless mormon.”

Emily wondered if it was worth having those modifications. She was skeptical of having irreversible tinkering alter her body. “But are we sure about this?” Emily asked for a final time. “Do you guys really think it’ll be a good idea for Sabrina to stay here?"

“Nope,” Aryana answered. “But it'll be fun anyway.”

Robert rubbed at his chin, “look, we wouldn’t be half the team we are without you two taking risks. So if you’ve got some sort of plan to make this work, I won’t stop you. But…” Robert paused, he wasn’t sure what words could actually make them more careful.

Emily finished the statement for him, “watch each other’s backs.”

Aryana and Vivan replied at the same time, “of course.”

 

An hour had passed, and there were no clues of where Leet’s lab could’ve been. She knew she couldn’t stay away from the team forever, so she headed back to her apartment take a break from searching. She’d have to think of better ways to ask about it without raising any red flags.

Sabrina reached her apartment door, and stopped at the sight of a four foot big headed robot. It looked up at Sabrina with triangular green eyes, giving a sad and disarming gaze. “Ugh,” the robot said in an exasperated tone, “another guest, I do detest guests. They don’t even let me know that they’re coming anymore…”

Sabrina stared at the robot in a blank gaze. “Are you… A security bot?”

The robot let out a long exhausted sigh. It sounded like it was already disappointed, “no,” the robot said. “Sorry to disappoint you. I always seem to disappoint the people around me...”

Sabrina stared at him for a long amount of time. He sounded ridiculously sad, like he had some sort of depression issue. Could robots even have that? “So, if you’re not security, why are you even here?”

The robot sighed aloud, longer than he ever had before. “Why am I here? Don’t even get me started.”

A female hologram appeared by his shoulder, she wore a circuit board patterned body suit, and was complete purple from hair to toe. “Don’t mind him,” the hologram said. “He has terminal depression, except its never terminal enough.”

“Why couldn’t Leet give me an off switch...”

“I”m Cortana,” the hologram said. “Marvin here is in charge of video editing. My job is to make sure he doesn’t sit around and mope all day.”

“I’m the most advanced AI on the planet, reduced to making online videos for adolescents…”

Cortana shook her head, “we tend to get a lot of free time when Leet isn’t in the lab.”

That piqued Sabrina’s interest, “by any chance, do you know where Leet’s lab is?”

Marvin answered, “yes, but if you’re looking to visit, I don’t think he likes you very much.”

Sabrina raised an eyebrow. Cortana slid her hand at him like she were slapping him across the head, “Marvin, be considerate!”

Marvin sighed again. “What I mean to say is, he’s seriously concerned that you’ll, and I quote,” Marvin slowly rose his metal fingers in the air to emphasize quotes, “‘burn it up like if Spitfire were a crazy nazi bitch.’”

Cortana began hitting Marvin in the head again, but her tiny holographic arms did no damage. “Marvin, we talked about courtesy before!”

“But Leet told me to say that…”

“Then stop listening to him!”

“But he’ll call me useless again…” Cortana gave of an exasperated sigh. She rubbed at her forehead like she had sensation within her holographic fingertips. Marvin asked, “you’re disappointed in me again, aren’t you?”

“No, Marvin, of course not.” Cortana looked up at Sabrina, “Okay, I’ll be blunt. We know you have a bad history with the E88. So it's going to take some time for the others to get used to you. Aryana loves that you’re here, Robert and Edwin… You’ll have to get on their good side before they warm up to you.”

Sabrina really didn’t care about that. She wasn’t going to stay for long. “So what? Am I banned from visiting Leet’s lab?”

Cortana didn’t want to answer that. Marvin said, “according to Leet, ‘that Hitler wannabe bitch better not-’”

Cortana cut him off, “yes, just until you can show you’re responsible enough to be trusted after a few missions. After that, I’m sure you’ll be welcomed there.”

Sabrina clenched her fists. How long would that take? She wondered how long Kaiser would be willing to wait for her. He was a patient man, but playing Loser wasn’t something anyone could tolerate forever.

XXX

Tomorrow, she'd have pick the next mission. Sabrina laid back on her bed. She had her headphones on while she listened to ‘sparklehorse’ by herself. She was glad Emily had suggested the band to her. In terms of interests, the Losers were more relatable than anyone in the E88 were.

Age may have played a factor into that. The Losers reminded her of what she used to be like, reckless and never giving a damn. The closest thing she had to a crew of friends was before she’d gone to juvie. And those friends had backstabbed her. This time, however, instead of waiting to be ditched aside when she needed help the most, she’d be the one doing the backstabbing. It felt nice switching rolls.

But she still had to figure out from what angle she could live with them. Vivan and Aryana were kind to her, which was ironic considering that they weren’t white. Vivan seemed dense to her, but she desperately wanted to find out what could get Aryana pissed.

In contrast, Robert and Edwin watched at her like she were a monster. Speaking carefully around her like she was always ready to stab them in the back. It was definitely justified, but it still hurt. Emily seemed scared to speak to her, but Sabrina figured that was more due to shyness than paranoia.

Compared to the E88, the team seemed more dynamic than what she was used to. In the E88, respect was more valuable than anything. It was like a military order, you were only accepted if you obeyed like a mindless soldier. It was an ironic position Sabrina put herself in, considering she hated authority.

Then again, as she sat alone and thought more about herself, she didn’t choose to join the E88. Her uncle had just offered it to her, and her parents had pushed through with it before Sabrina had even made the decision. She would’ve joined anyway, sure, but she still hated when people thought they could make decisions for her.

Which was partially why she liked living with her uncle. He was the only adult in her life that treated her like an equal. He never discouraged her from doing what she wanted, never tried controlling all the little aspects of her life. He only asked that she do well with the E88. If anything, she was loyal to him more than anyone else.

There was a knock at the apartment door. Sabrina stood up and left her bedroom to open it. By the time she’d reached the living room, Vivan had already let himself in.

Vivan looked up while pulling out a container from his handbag. “Oh, hey Sabrina. I thought you were at the mall with Emily and Aryana.”

Sabrina shook her head. “I didn’t feel like going.” She looked down at Vivan’s arms, the containers had warm foods fogged from heat inside. “I’m guessing your cooked that?”

“Yup, these guys would be fat asses if I didn’t cook meals for them.”

Sabrina stared at him for another moment. “Are you sure you’re not gay?”
.
“I am ninety five percent certain I’m straight.” Sabrina raised an eyebrow. Vivan asked, “can you help me out with these? I’m not sure how you guys wanna organize them.”

Sabrina sighed, and entered the kitchen to help Vivan. As she smelled through the Tupperware, she had hoped to gain a hint of what Vivan's ethnicity was. But it became plainly obvious that Vivan's race wouldn't be revealed through his cooking.

Tomato lasagna, bean burritos, seasoned fried rice, his cooking reeked of skill, not of any particular culture. It was odd, really, both Aryana and Vivan directly contradicted any stereotypes Sabrina was expected to believe.

“So I asked Edwin why he didn't join the E88,” Vivan said.

Sabrina raised an eyebrow, “Really? What did he say?”

“Get this, apparently he's Spanish. I didn’t know that until he mentioned it.”

“Really?” Sabrina cocked her head back, “he doesn’t look spanish.”

“I know right, apparently they come in more than one color.” Vivan thought back to when he asked the question.

“Holy shit Edwin, you’re Spanish? Teach me how to say ‘fuck you’ in Spanish.”

“Fuck you Vivan.”

“That sounds pretty American. I’m disappointed in you.”

Edwin groaned loudly to himself. Vivan asked, “bro, do you even soccer?”

Edwin tossed the playstation remote in his direction.

“Well,” Sabrina said to Vivan, placing a basket of fruit at the center of the dining room, “that explains why he hates me.”

Vivan clicked his tongue, not wanting to bring up her sneaking around from earlier. “Maybe, but don’t take it personally. I’m sure once he knows you better, things’ll become easier with him. I think he’s still getting used to Emily.”

Sabrina sighed, she didn’t want to wait to gain anyone’s approval. The only thing she needed was to get the information for the E88. Compelled to ask, and convinced that Vivan was dense enough to give an honest answer, she asked, “So… I’m guessing he won’t show me his lab?”

Vivan clicked his tongue again, “yeah, don’t worry about Leet’s lab. He works better alone, and me and Robert just stay away from his lab anyway. He gets kind of high when he’s in tinker mood.”

“High?”

“Like staring at a bag of cheetos, and figuring out why there’s a cheetah on the bag.”

Sabrina laughed, remembering a time when she didn’t know how to handle a high, “Wow, you just explained tinkers better than anyone at the E88 ever has.” Vivan smiled, glad to finally make Sabrina smile.

Sabrina asked, “so no one else goes in there? That sounds creepy.”

“Aryana goes in and out sometimes, but that’s about it.”

She squinted at him, “Are… they both fucking in there?”

“What?” The question caught him off guard. “Of course not.”

“You know,” she speculated a theory, “maybe they are, but you just ignore it because you don’t wanna think about Edwin fucking your sister.”

Vivan stared at her like a deer caught in headlights. He never even thought of the idea of Edwin and Aryana being together. His mind began making connections that weren’t really there.

“Holy shit,” Sabrina bursted out laughing, “you look like you just got mind fucked.”

Vivan shook the thought out of his head, ”stop that. You’re driving this team apart.”

“All part of my master nazi plan,” Sabrina commented.

“Already planning a final solution, I see.”

“Jew know it better than anyone.” Sabrina gasped, “fuck, you just made me do it.”

“One of us.”

“Go to hell.”

After they finished putting the tupperware away, Vivan mentioned that he made ‘special’ courses for the weekends. Before leaving, he looked over at the living room and said, “I can’t believe it. I’m gone for a day, and Aryana is already tossing her shit all over the floor.”

Sabrina looked over to the living room, he was referring to the coat and hat left on the sofa arm rest. “That’s my shit,” Sabrina said.

“Oh…” He turned at her and yelled, “Clean up your goddamn shit, Sabrina.”

Sabrina crossed her arms, and wondered if Vivan was as casual to racist remarks as he often showed on camera. “I’m white, you do it.”

Vivan bursted out laughing, “yeah, but you're also ginger, so you don't really count as a person.”

"You bastard," she laughed, forgetting that she was supposed to hate him. "As a feminist, clean up my shit."

"As a feminist, clean up your own shit," they laughed for another minute. Forgetting that she was going to backstab him, he said, "Sabrina, you’re gonna fit in just fine here.”

XXX

The dart board had the swastikas removed from it. No one needed to ask why. They were replaced with two pictures of a glory hole, one picture of hot chocolate, and two pictures of Bob Marley. Sabrina tossed the dart where it landed it right on a picture of a glory hole. “New Wave it is,” Aryana said. “It’s about time we settle the score with them.”

Vivan asked, “does this mean I get my rematch with Glory Girl?”

“Dude,” Edwin said, “you got your ass kicked by her last time.”

“Which is why I’m entitled to a rematch.”

Aryana quickly presented her idea with to the team. “Alright, I say we hit them with glitter. Glitter the shit out of them. Glitter bomb their homes, their wives, their children. Because that shit sticks on forever.”

“Glitter?” Sabrina said in toneless voice. “Not impressive, especially compared to what you guys did with the E88.”

Aryana shrugged, “ you got any better ideas?”

“How do you guys feel about hostages?”

They all shook her heads, Aryana said, “we’re kinda iffy about that. Hostages get people put in the middle of danger, what’s worse is that there could be a long term psychological toll involved, especially if kids get caught in the mix.”

Sabrina was disappointed by how spineless they all were. “If you guys are afraid of getting your hands dirty, why are you all even villains?”

Robert answered for her, “most of us have a reason to not like the Protectorate. The shortest answer is there’s no profit to being a rogue hero. Since we gotta live to eat, we’re only allowed to rob villains as villains.”

“In my case,” Edwin said, “to get supplies for tinkering, I need to steal a mountain ton of money to supply myself. Sponsors would limit my tinkering to profitable purposes. There’s no fun in that. What’s worse is my specialty can never be profitable. My choice is to either tinker for myself or don’t tinker at all, and I can’t do the latter.”

Sabrina asked. “Then why even bother attacking New Wave and the Protectorate?”

Aryana answered, “because I hate the Protectorate.”

Vivan answered, “for the rep. As long as we don’t go pure evil mode, fighting them is alright. It also helps that we sometimes let them win to boost their own PR. On the long list of bad guys they want to stop, we’re on the bottom.”

Sabrina looked over to the dartboard, “mind if I pick something else? There’s a place I wanted to hit that’s been on my mind on for a while.” The others exchanged glances with each other. “This’ll be my first mission with you guys, right? Can I pick without the throw?”

After an exchanging of nods and shrugs, the team agreed. Sabrina walked up to the dart board and re-positioned the dart onto the chocolate mug picture.

Aryana mentioned, “you do know that means we just go out for hot chocolate together, right?”

Sabrina nodded. Robert chuckled, “well, that was unexpected.”

 

Sabrina wore a black jacket with dark leather jean. Compared to Emily and Aryana’s colorful attires, she looked more ‘punk’ than the rest of them. Vivan had on a gray colored hoodie he’d occasionally use with his costume/mask. The color scheme seemed casual for the nice temperate spring day. Edwin had a black, superman logo t-shirt, and Robert picked out a plaque button shirt that he’d often wear for non-villainous walks.

“Okay,” Robert said walking on the sidewalk with the rest of his team. “I’ve got one. An atheist, a jew, and a Christian step into a bar.”

Emily asked, “when you say Jew… Do you mean ethnically jew, or religiously jew?”

“Um… Both?”

“Also,” Vivan asked, “what kind of Christian? Because some Christians don’t drink.”

“The ones that do, I guess.”

“Be more specific, man. Because why the hell would a mormon step into a bar?”

Mildly annoyed, Robert answered, “Protestant.”

“What kind of Protestant?” Sabrina asked, solely for the sake of annoying him, “a lot of Protestants don’t-”

“Fuck it, catholic then, can I get to the joke now?”

Sabrina shrugged, slightly satisfied she’d irritated him. She walked forward leading the group to the coffee shop she had in mind. She hoped her dubious plan would work the way she wanted to.

Edwin asked. “When you say atheist, do you mean atheist atheist, agnostic atheist, or atheist Satanist?”

Vivan chuckled, “Satanist atheist? You serious?”

Edwin shrugged, “to be fair, I was raised to believe Satanists and Atheists are the same thing.”

“Well,” Vivan said in a proud tone, “I guess I’m satanist.”

“Me too,” Edwin said with a quick laugh.

Sabrina threw a peace sign back at them. “hail Satan.”

Groaning, Robert said, “it's just a regular atheist. Now, can I get to the joke?”

The self proclaimed Satanists paused for a moment, and then gave a small nod in approval.

Sighing, Robert said, “an atheist, a jew, and a christian step into a bar… And they all have a great time because none of them are assholes.”

“Well,” Aryana commented, “that was underwhelming.”

Robert added, “And they all agreed to never to invite the Muslim guy.”

“Oiy,” Vivan yelled, “that’s fucked up.”

“Because Muslims can’t drink, and they knew to respect his lifestyle.”

Vivan blinked. Aryana laughed aloud, “nice save.”

Slowing down, Sabrina pointed forward, “we’re here.”

Looking up, the team stared at the old, outdated, building at the edge of clearly marked E88 territory. It had gang graffiti to the side, with peeling paint falling due to years of faulty maintenance. “Here?” Robert asked. “Are you serious?”

“Yup,” Sabrina said with her hands in her pocket, “hurry up, I’m starving.”

Following behind her, the inside of the building was almost empty. The confederate flag didn’t bother anyone, but the shaved man with swastika tattoos seemed furious to see them. He was the only one at the diner and the Losers recognized his familiar glare from all the E88 bars they’d broken into.

Sabrina stepped up to the counter. She spoke a few words to the couple behind the register. The couple was fairly middle aged. The husband was wide and robust, while his wife seemed slim with red hair that could’ve made her pass off as Sabrina’s older sister.

They both had non-E88 tattoos on their necks. They scowled at Vivan when Sabrina mentioned his name. When she pointed back at the group, the man and women clenched their fists like they were ready to attack.

Robert reached for his prototype tool in his pocket. Edwin tapped at his backpack, almost ready to turn it into a weapon.

Walking back across the diner and to the group, Sabrina placed an arm over Vivan’s shoulder and kissed him on the lips. She turned back to the couple and said, “mom, dad, this is my boyfriend.”

The team froze in place. Aryana glared at Sabrina before her parents began firing insults at them. They called Sabrina a whore and shouted derogatory words at Vivan before Sabrina took him by the arm and lead the team out of the building.

“Sabrina,” Aryana yelled turning the street corner, “what the fucking hell?”

She shrugged, “what? I’m allowed to piss people off too.”

“You bitch, Vivan isn’t some fucking tool.”

“Vivan,” Sabrina asked in a casual stride, “are you pissed at me?”

Vivan was partially in a dazed, realizing he’d never been kissed before. “Nah,” he tried playing cool, “I’m alright with this.”

Aryana gritted her teeth. She yelled at him, “you frigging idiot, stop being a tool!”

Vivan covered his lip, recollecting the tender feeling there. He shook his head,“no, really, I’m okay with this.”

Sabrina grinned, proud to find a way to piss off Aryana. “It's not really a big deal,” she said, rubbing salt on the wound. “If we’re pissing off racists anyway, isn’t it better they think I’m fucking Vivan too?”

Aryana’s jaw dropped. She turned to her other teammates, Robert and Edwin had shit eating grins on their faces, with wide enough smiles to relay the message ‘I told you we shouldn’t have recruited her.’ Emily looked to the side to avoid eye contact, she would never admit it aloud, but she wanted less to do with Sabrina too.

Aryana turned back to Sabrina, she put on forced smile. “Fine,” Aryana said with a scowled tone, “if you wanna fuck with people, that’s fine by me.”

Sabrina elbowed at Vivan, she teased, “fucking? What was that? You’re alright with it?”

Aryana croaked, and nearly force pushed Sabrina into an alleyway. But instead, she gritted her teeth and said “what I mean is, since you’re done fucking around. We’re gonna do a real mission with New Wave. And since you like tools so much, how about you be the bait this time?”

Sabrina raised an eyebrow, “what?”

“I said,” Aryana smiled at the thought, “you need to be bait. So unless you wanna go crawling back to the E88, I’m gonna need you to play bait for what I have in mind.”

Sabrina glared at her, well aware of the underhanded threat to the statement. “Fine, you need bait, then I’m your girl.”

XXX

On one hand, Sabrina was glad she found out what made Aryana tick. With her constant optimism and aloofness, it was a breathe of fresh air from what she’d been living with. On the other hand, no one had ever seen her so pissed before.

“You sure this is full proof?” Sabrina asked, speaking into her ear piece.

“Of course not,” Aryana responded in a plain voice, “that’s why you’re doing it.”

Sabrina could almost hear Aryana’s smirk from the other line. She had on no mask, and no costume. A big risk in the cape community. She followed the target on the city broad walk in bright daylight for anyone to see. The city crowds were stretched and noisy enough to hide any suspicions towards her.

She heard the two people conversing in front of her. With a sigh, Sabrina responded, “The target is within reach... Why couldn’t I get a real gun?”

Aryana chuckled, “it’s called bait for a reason, Nazi-girl.” Sabrina clenched her fists. Aryana added, “alright, positions are all covered. Light, your turn.”

Sabrina looked up, above the city streets, Light shifted into his energy form and flowed across the air like a slow-motion ghost. He crossed the air in a zig zag technique, leaving a light stream in his wake. He gained quick attention from the people beneath him, particularly from Sabrina’s targets.

Sabrina’s main target nodded to the girl next to her. Victoria flew up into the air, and chased after Light. An energy shot was fired back at her, and they then disappeared in the distance as Light shifted away from her reach. “The target is alone,” Sabrina said to the earpiece.

“She’s all yours,” Aryana replied. "Fair warning, don't let her touch you, or else she might... Never mind."

It was a backhanded statement, which Sabrina was forced to ignore. She walked closer to Amy Dallon and pressed a chocolate bar to her back. “Five minutes.” Sabrina whispered in a hushed tone. “Five minutes to get you where I need you. Or three hostages die at the other side of town.”

Sabrina wasn’t ordered make up a hostage situation, but she liked raising the stakes. Amy answered, “you really think you could get away with this? You have any idea who you’re fucking with?”

“I know exactly who I’m fucking with,” Sabrina pressed the bar harder, “and unless you do what I say, people are gonna die because of you.”

Amy clenched her fists. Sabrina put the candy away. It was far too crowded to hold a candy to her back and lead her far away to where they wanted. Sabrina walked in front of Amy to meet each other face to face. “Pretend we’ve known each other for years, and follow me.”

XXX

A few miles away from them, Uber and Leet barricaded themselves in a nearby thrift store. Shielder and Laserdream floated above the building, raining down a steady storm of lasers and shields in their direction.

Uber yelled through a megaphone in their direction. “Listen to your mother, and surrender to the badass villains!” He wore a skimpier version of Lady Photon’s costume.

Leet spoke down to his backpack wearing Manpower’s costume. “You know Uber, it’ll be really awkward if Lady Photon shows up, and you’re both wearing the same thing.”

“It’s every mother’s nightmare.”

Laserdream fired a laser through the window, narrowly missing Uber’s head. Laserdream yelled, “stop screwing with mom’s costume!”

Uber yelled back, “it looks better on me!” Another, heavier laser, was narrowly dodged by him.

Shielder floated closer to his sister, “hey, I think we can sneak in through the back.”

Laserdream raised an eyebrow, “but they have hostages.”

“No, here’s the thing,” Shielder explained, “I watched some of their videos. They used holograms in their last fight, I think they’re just bluffing again. How else could they get this many hostages when the store’s closed?”

Laserdream squinted at them, “you watched their videos?”

“I swear it was for research,” Shielder answered meekly. They nodded to each other, and Shielder flew away, to reach the back of the building.

“Shielder’s gone,” Uber announced to his teammate.

Inside the store, Leet’s backpack transformed into a miniature robot with big green eyes. It’s nimble limbs and body made it an exact resemblance of the robot ‘Clank’ from the playstation game.

“Alright Clank,” Leet asked, “how long before PRT communications are back up.”

“Twenty nine minutes,” Clank explained. “Or nineteen minutes if Marvin’s chronic depression returns, and he stops jamming their signal.”

“Goddamnit,” Leet muttered. Leet looked around to the holographic hostages he had set up around the building. For the sake of comedic relief, they had health bars over their heads. “Clank, can you get operation Golden in place, for if we need a quick evac?”

“Affirmative.”

XXX

Light, proudly wearing his knock off Legend costume, leaped over from rooftop to rooftop. He carried a supposed bag labelled ‘stolen goods’ at hand, while flicking off Glory Girl from behind.

Glory Girl didn’t show any signs of mercy. She rushed him at top speed, but every time she almost reached for him, he transformed his body into a neon-light substance, and shifted away to lose her grasps. “What’s wrong hero hipster?” Light yelled, “I thought you were as good as Alexandria.”

She tried smashing at him again. This time she hit into the building rooftop, destroying some of the cement where Light had stood. She yelled, “just hold still, dammit!”

Light shot a laser at her, not enough to cause real damage, but only enough to moderately annoy her. “You know, I’m technically as good as Legend. Does this mean Legend is better than Alex-”

Glory Girl leaped at him, and nearly grabbed him before he grasped his bag to get away from Glory Girl’s grip. Glory Girl looked down at the fallen contents, “what the hell?” It wasn’t a bag full of jewelry, it was bag full of erotic magazines from the nearby convenience store.

“To be fair,” Light pointed to the receipt, “Leet bought those fair and square.”

“You’re just fucking with me.”

Light shrugged, “well, I couldn’t get a rematch if I asked.”

She pounced at him again, to which he shrieked before shifting into the nearby alleyway.

XXX

Amy walked to the alleyway as Sabrina walked backwards in front of her. Sabrina kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn’t leave her sight. Amy said, “if anyone gets hurt, I will fuck with you in more ways than you can imagine.”

“Oh no,” Sabrina said in a sarcastic tone, “the wannabe hero is threatening me. Look at me, being terrified.”

Amy clenched her fists, hoping she’ll get the chance to wipe the smug grin off her face. Sabrina then pointed up. Looking up, Amy saw Rush floating in the air in a laid back position with her arms crossed, with Spitfire standing on the fire escape next to her. Both girls were wearing casual outfits, it was plainly obvious they were out for a stroll, and decided to spot on their masks and kidnap Amy on a whim.

“Hello, my wonderful corruptible tool,” Rush spoke down to her.

Amy placed a palm on her face, “fuck, these guys? Are you fucking serious?” She turned to Sabrina, “you’re Rune, that nazi girl.”

Sabrina rolled her eyes and put a mask on her face. It covered the top half of her face like Rush’s did, and had an emerald green color with celtic symbols running across it. “I’m not a nazi anymore,” she answered plainly.

“As far as we know,” Rush teased to her.

Rune glared at her. Amy shook her head, wondering if she could take advantage of their tension, “you know what I’ve heard? People are betting how long it’ll take before Rune stabs you all in the back.”

Rush waved her hand off, “dude, I’m the one holding the betting pot online for that. And I’m already betting she will.”

Rune cocked her head back, “wait, are you fucking serious?”

Rush nodded, “that way if you betray us, I’ll at least be able to make some money out of it.”

Spitfire sighed, “to be fair Rune, I betted you wouldn’t.”

Rune growled, “am on this team just to get fucked with?”

‘Yes,’ Rush answered, as soon as Spitfire answered ‘no.’

Amy bursted out laughing, “wow, the fucking child prodigy of the E88, made into a joke by a bunch of fucking losers.”

Rune clenched her fists, realizing playing this fake role was no longer worth it. Before Rune could respond, Rush said, “don’t laugh too hard, Panacea. Because the next Loser here is about to be you.”

Amy raised an eyebrow, “what the hell are you talking about?”

“Why did you think we brought you here?” Rush made a heart shaped gesture with her hands, “this is an initiation test.”

 

“Nope,” Amy said turning around. She made a sprint for alleyway exit. Rush lazily gravitated the nearby dumpster to block her exit.

“C’mon Panacea,” Rush waved at her, “our last two videos were a hit, now it’s your turn.” Amy began climbing over the trash bin, to which Rush slightly tilted forward to knock her off her balance.

Rune picked up a metal trash bin top, and levitated herself like she were riding a hoverboard. She floated several stories up until she reached next to Rush and Spitfire. Rune asked, “you made me show her my face to her, just so you could pull off this skit?”

Rush answered, “hey Rune, remember that time my team graffitied E88 territory pink, in honor of breast cancer awareness day?”

“Fuck all of you,” Amy yelled, “no way in hell am I going along with this.” She took out her cell phone, but Rush quickly lifted it out of her hands.

“Dude,” Rush said plainly, “you seriously have to chill, it’s not like you’re actually gonna become a villain.”

Amy thought about more ways to escape. The other two alleys were fenced in, and with three capes each capable of hitting her from a long distance, she didn’t see much way to escape. “That’s why you picked me,” Amy said in a calmer tone, “I’m the only one in New Wave that couldn’t run from you guys.”

“No,” Rush said in an offended tone, “we did it because you are clearly the most corruptible of the bunch.”

Spitfire sighed, “no Panacea, you’re exactly right.”

Amy sighed in relief. Rush yelled, “stop telling secrets to our enemies!”

Spitfire replied, "I just really don't want her to hate us..."

Rune mentioned, "Spitfire, you're the least scary villain I've ever met."

“I’m not joining your goddamn team,” Amy yelled.

“Anger,” Rush replied, “so sexy, it’s lovely for the camera.”

Amy clenched her fists. “I don’t have time for this." In her mind, if she went through with this, even as a joke, the world would think she were too busy playing games instead of healing people.

Rush rolled her eyes, “relax kiddo, it’ll only take fifteen minutes. Then you can go back to saving the world, and we can go back to gaming and cheetos."

Amy squinted at her, "you guys are a joke, no way in hell am I pretending to be villain for a frigging podcast."

"Panacea," Spitfire said, too sympathetic to keep her in the dark, "we don't actually expect you to play along. We're doing this for publicity. Once this is over, we'll gain more followers online, and New Wave will hopefully gain better PR for standing up against us."

Amy raised an eyebrow, "hopefully?"

Rush sighed, finally willing to break character, "we won't upload it if both our teams don't come out looking the way we want them to."

Amy thought about that for a moment. On one hand, she didn't want to play the game, but it's not like she truly had a choice. If anything, she could stall time until more heroes showed up, she was certain they'd be on their way. "Fine, just hurry up with your questions," Amy would never admit it aloud, but she did enjoy their last recruitment video.

“Let’s get this show on the road," Rush pulled out a blank flashcard, "Question one… Can you turn me into a furry?”

Rune face palmed, contemplating what she was doing with her life.

Amy stared at her blankly. She extended her hand out for her to reach, “come here, and find out.”

Rush’s eyes widened, and she slowly floated closer to Panacea. “Rush,” Spitfire yelled, “don’t do it, it’s a trap!”

“But… Cat ears.”

“Don’t trust her people,” Spitfire said, tugging back at Rush’s shirt.

Rush responded, “Stop generalizing, that’s Rune’s job.”

“Fuck you,” Rune said, “go shake her hand.”

“Cat…. Ears…” Rush said again in a hypnotic-like trance.

Amy added, “and I'll make the tail fully functional.”

"Guys,” Rush said, “I think it’s worth the risk.”

XXX

Light shifted across the city streets, he narrowly dodged oncoming traffic as Glory Girl flew in his direction. A car finally hit him, coming to an abrupt stop as Light fell back to the concrete pavement. He groaned as he got up, and hit his fist at the hood of the car. “Jesus christ,” Light yelled pointing at the stop sign. “The light was on red! You were supposed to stop anyway!”

Light flicked his middle fingers at the car, and turned his middle fingers into a neon-colored red. Looking into the window, he noticed it was a couple driving with three small children sitting in the back seat, all staring up at him in astonishment. “Er, sorry you saw that kids… And stay in school.”

Glory Girl slammed her body into his, and finally pinned him to the ground. Light rubbed against the pavement, and Glory girl pressed him down in a chokehold. He stared up at her with his back against the pavement. “Oww,” Light said. “You really gotta control your strength. I’d be dead if I weren’t immortal.”

“You’re dead now,” Glory Girl shouted, “I’ll bury you, you hear me? I have connections, I can make sure you never see the light of day again.”

He chuckled to himself, “hehe, ‘light’ of day. I gotta use that line.” Light knew he couldn’t transform into his neon form through people, so Glory Girl’s grasp was as tight as it needed to be. Instead of fighting, his mind wandered, “by any chance... are the Wards recruiting?”

Glory Girl lifted an eyebrow, “are you fucking serious?”

“Yup, I’ll totally sell out my teammates. Just… Uh… You know…” Light pointed at her hands for her to let go, “you just gotta trust me..”

“Fuck no,” she lifted him up two feet in the air. He hated being short. She said, “do you have any idea how much damage your videos have done? People think being a villain is a fucking cake walk because of you. They’re becoming villains for the shits and giggles. Villains are posting torture videos because you guys. And it’s not just capes, normal people too. Do you have any idea how many racists in other cities have made hate crime videos because of you?”

Light fired a heavy laser in her face. She flung back from him and hit a nearby road sign before falling down. Light quickly shifted closer to her and stared down to her. “Fuck you, those people would’ve done those crimes with or without our videos. It don’t make a damn difference whether they do it off or on camera.”

He took a step back from her, “and maybe if you heroes stopped acting like a bunch of self entitled pricks, people like me would’ve ended up a hero instead of a goddamn villain.”

Not caring about Light’s rant, Glory Girl stepped back up, and returned to her chase. Light sighed as he transformed away from her again. He spoke into his earpiece between transformation shifts, “hey guys, Glory Girl hates me. Can I have backup?”

XXX

Spitfire asked, “can you use your powers on cats?"

"I'm not going to start healing pets," Amy groaned.

"I was hoping you could turn my cat into a kitten again..." Spitfire lowered her head in disappointment.

"Since I hate pets," Rune asked in a casual tone, "can you turn cats and dogs into exploding zombies like in left 4 dead?"

Spitfire gasped. Amy squinted at her, "you've got a lot of problems, you know that?"

"If I gave you a horse," Rush asked Amy, "could you turn it into a black unicorn that shits out rainbow colored butterflies?"

Amy rubbed at her eyebrows. On one hand, she was glad no one would take this initiation seriously, on the other hand, it was still a complete waste of time. She really was on her way to the hospital before she was cornered by these losers. “I can't alter animals," Amy lied.

Rush said, "then that brings me to Light's question.... How willing are you to turn E88 members black?"

"I'm not using my powers for your messed up jokes," Amy answered honestly.

"Thank God," Rune blurted out.

The three other girls stared at her, Rune looked away. Before Rush could comment, their radios received a message. “Glory Girl hates me. Can I get backup?”

“I'm on it,” Rune quickly announced.

Rush sighed, "fine, got any more questions before you go?"

Rush looked down to Amy. She smirked and said, “hey Panacea, what would you really do if you got your hands on Rush?”

Amy chuckled, “I’d ruin her body so much, that she'd be too disgustingly fat to even levitate anymore.”

Rush squinted at Amy, and stayed quiet as Rune flew away from the scene. Spitfire coughed, and tried lighting up the mood, “so basically… like Amy’s mom?”

XXX

“Fuck,” Leet yelled, “they’re in the building, hit the alarm!”

Clank ordered the hologram hostages to disappear. He began playing the song ‘thrift shop’ through his loudspeakers as the three of them scattered across the store. They hid across various cloth racks to evade from the barrage of lasers from Shielder and Laserdream. Running across the aisles, they tossed clothes in their directions to block their lines of sight.

“We need backup,” Uber ordered through his earpiece..

“I’m on my way,” Light answered through the line.

“Light?” Uber asked, “weren’t you still fighting Glory Girl?”

“Yeah, she’s on her way too.”

“Fuck,” Uber yelled, “Light, turn away. Do not come for backup!”

Leet groaned to himself, “this is just like the fucking video games. Just when we’re cornered and need help, he leads a goddamn army to fuck us over some more.”

A coat hit at Laserdream’s face, frustrated, she yelled, “Shielder, can you please kill that damn robot?”

Clank yelled, in an almost scared reaction, “I would strongly advise against that request!”

Shielder chuckled, remembering a time he replayed the song ‘thrift shop’ for three days, solely to annoy his sister. “Sure, right after the song is done.”

Leet ordered, “Clank, put the song on repeat!”

“Affirmative.”

XXX

Rune flew across the sky as she headed to Light’s direction. Her wristwatch had a simple radar that gave her a map of where her teammates were within the city. She noticed Light’s dot heading towards Uber and Leet’s location. Once she got close enough to see him, she noticed Glory Girl chasing him towards the thrift shop.

“That fucking idiot,” she said to herself. Rune looked to the ground and thought about things she could attune. Her first instinct was to pick up cars and heavy objects to hurdle into New Wave, but then she thought about something slightly less destructive, but all the more humiliating.

Rune hovered across the nearby restaurant buildings to collect a dozen piles of trash bags. She hovered them in a circular motion on her way to Light.

XXX

Clank played pre-recorded banter of Uber and Leet through the intercom. The real Uber and Leet escaped to the rooftop as Clank made holographic copies of them to distract Laserdream and Shielder. When Shielder noticed Laserdream directly hitting one of the holograms, Shielder ran up to Clank, and formed a dome shield around him. Clank almost fired his arm blaster at Shielder, but the dome quickly deflected the weaker energy weapon.

“Where’d they go?” Shielder demanded.

“Er, I plead the fifth.”

“Robots don’t have rights,” Laserdream said, flying to her brother’s side.

“I was constructed in America, therefore, I believe I am entitled American rights and citizenship.”

Laserdream shook her head, “put down the shield, let’s just kill this thing.”

Clank croaked, “they escaped through the rooftop, and are heading south.”

Shielder tilted his head. “You’re not as loyal as you are in the game...”

Laserdream said, “he’s just a shitty robot. Let’s shoot him anyway.”

Shielder blinked at Laserdream, “but… He’s still Clank…” Not only had Shielder grown up playing Ratchet and Clank, but he also enjoyed the banter Clank made on the Loser’s website.

It was actually a common assumption that Clank was an AI like Marvin, in reality, he was a split personality connected to Leet's mind through a neural implant. Designed to entertain the masses, Clank said, “Shielder, I’d like to humbly request a farewell song.” Clank replayed the song ‘thrift shop’ over the store intercoms. This time it played faster and in chipmunk version.

Laserdream yelled, “you bastard."

XXX

Rune followed them from the distance. Glory Girl would have noticed her if she weren’t so focused in chasing down Light. The upgrades on Rune’s mask were quite impressive. She could zoom in from the distance, and watch as Light led Glory Girl across the rooftops, right to where Uber and Leet were running towards.

“Show time,” she said to herself. She spoke into the radio piece, “Light, Uber and Leet are running your way. Laserdream and Shielder are chasing behind them. Get ready to surprise them when you both meet up.”

Right on queue, Light shifted into his neon form to leap over Leet and Uber. He jumped in front of Shielder and Laserdream to flash a bright light in their eyes, and halt them with a massive shield. “Thanks Rune, that’s gonna look so cool on camera.”

“You are such a lose-...” Rune paused, “dork.”

Uber and Leet watched as Glory Girl flew in from where Light had come from. “Rune,” Uber asked, “are you on your way? Light has a long losing streak with these guys.”

“I’m about to change that!” Light said gleefully.

Rune rolled her eyes, “I’m on my way.”

A part of her wanted to leave the team surrounded by New Wave, but she knew better than to expect that they didn’t have an escape plan. Flying closer, she could hear the banter between Shielder and Light.

Shielder formed another force field to match Light’s. “Hey,” Shielder said, “you stole my power.”

Their shields pushed and smashed like rugby players trying to pass a line. Light replied, “it’s not my fault I use it better.” To prove a point, Light shifted backwards, and returned to hit Shielder’s force field with a conjured, laser-like sword.

Rune could already guess where this was going. The banter between Shielder and Light online often sounded like a sibling rivalry. A common rumor on the internet was that Shielder and Light were secretly best friends in real life.

“Okay,” Shielder said, “I gotta admit that’s pretty cool.’

“I know right? I’m like a real life jedi.”

Laserdream yelled at her brother, “stop being friends with him.” Laserdream hovered over the both of them, and fired a laser at Light. He fell back for a moment, but quickly got back up.

'Christ,' Rune thought to herself flying closer to them, 'those guys need to get laid.' She launched a trash lid at Laserdream’s stomach and knocked her back a few feet. Smiling, Rune rose her arm up and the trash lid returned to it as a shield.

Glory Girl looked over to Rune. She chuckled, “oh look, it’s the token nazi girl.”

Uber commented, “that sounds about right.”

Rune tossed a spaghetti filled trash bag in Glory Girl’s direction, some of which scattered over Uber as well. Rune grinned, “better a nazi than an Alexandria barbie doll.”

Glory Girl flew towards her. Rune instinctively flew back with her trash lid like it were a hover board. She was impressed by her own ingenuity, she’d picked up two more lids on her way there to use as arm shields. Glory Girl crashed through four more trash bags to fly closer to Rune. She smiled at the sight of Glory Girl getting covered in rancid food smells.

Then a fear entered Rune, she quickly realized she was about to come face to face with Glory Girl. Light had said the feeling of getting close to her would’ve been exciting, but clearly, Light was as insane as Rush. Rune dropped to the floor, and began maneuvering between roof skiing, running, and levitating to avoid Glory Girl’s hits.

Glory Girl punched at her but Rune was lucky to parry some of her attacks. The lids she used as shields also served as weapons, she’d smacked Glory Girl a few times, but her invulnerability was too much. At one point, her trash lids dented upon hitting her. Rune skied closer to the trio. “I could use some backup,” she said in a meek voice.

Uber stepped forward and wrapped his body around in his biosuit. Rune had asked Light what the prototype suit did. He explained that the prototype suit was more like a brute suit. It existed to give Uber enhanced strength and durability without cutting back any of his own athleticism. He could also draw out weapons from the tar-like substance, and use his power to perfect the skill needed to wield those weapons.

Uber’s arm shield were more durable than Rune’s garbage lids. He swung them into Glory Girl’s body. Her being flew several feet, like she'd been hit by a canon ball. Glory Girl paused mid-flight to plan out her next move.

Glory Girl was strong, but Uber had the skill to back up his strength. She cracked her knuckles, and looked over to Laserdream. With a silent nod, Laserdream flew above Shielder and began unleashing her lasers at Uber alone. Glory Girl flew to Light’s direction to try and get a chokehold on him.

It was a simple, but effective plan. Uber didn’t have distance on his side, and Glory Girl had more experience winning against Light.

Glory Girl grabbed at Light and picked him up by the collar again. In a calm voice Light said, “so about my Ward application..."

"You and your friends are dead," Glory Girl said.

Rune threw another trash bag at Glory Girl, it covered the both of them in various spaghetti sauces. “Haha,” Light said, “you look like shit.”

Glory Girl threw Light down the building gap, knowing he’d be able to neon-shift his way out from the fall. She turned to Rune, “you know, I’m getting really sick of you and your fucking games.”

Rune gulped. Glory Girl rushed to Rune and punched her hard enough to hear her ribs crack.

XXX

“Okay, let’s review,” Rush took out a notebook and pen, “so you’re not willing to heal us. You’re not willing to be our groupie, fan-girl, or double agent… Or thumb up our videos online... C’mon Amy, you gotta offer us something.”

“I’ll offer you handshakes,” Amy answered in a morbid tone.

“It’s not much…" Rush scrached at her cheek, "But I guess it’s something. You just better make sure they’re some damn good handshakes.”

“Always,” Amy said rolling her eyes.

Spitfire shook her head, “Rush, can we turn off the cameras? Our time is almost up, and we still need to give her her gift.”

“Gift?” Amy raised an eyebrow.

Spitfire climbed down the fire escape and walked over to Amy. “They’re glasses. They have thermal optics to tell who’s dying within a five mile radius. It ranks the condition based on who needs immediate care first, verses who need moderate care or can heal with time. Since you go to the hospital often, we thought it could help you speed up your healing trips.”

Amy’s eyes widened, “that… Could actually help out a lot…"

“We didn’t mean to waste your time, Amy,” Spitfire almost seemed apologetic. “It’s just… The world needs a break from the regular cape game sometimes, and we try to provide that.”

Amy took Spitfire’s gift, “so that’s it? I can leave now.”

Rush sighed, she lifted the dumpster from behind Amy and pushed it to the side. “I guess so, but man, we’re gonna need to edit the video a lot to make you seem less like a stingy brat.”

Amy sighed in relief, better to look like a brat than a villain.

Rush floated closer to Amy, not within reaching distance, but close enough to see the dark circles slowly forming underneath her eyelids. “You know, part of the reason I hate the Protectorate is because they treat kids like slave workers. Do yourself a favor; sleep more. You’re too young to end up like a zombie.”

Static entered Rush’s radio, “Uh… S-sis,” Light’s voice sounded shaky, like he couldn’t form the words, “Glory Girl... just killed Sabrina.”

 

Clank’s animatronic limbs rolled back to the center of his body. His head flopped over fallen clothes as it returned to the torso of the body. Laserdream had assumed when his eyes shut off and his body blew up into pieces, the robot was destroyed. In reality, Clank’s ‘self-destruct’ display was only for show, meant to spread him apart so that he could re-attach himself when the coast was clear.

When his limbs magnetized back to their spots, and his head twisted back onto his body, Clank’s glowing green eyes lit back up, and he headed his way out of the thrift store. His arms and legs levitated. The original design was meant to exhaust engines firing from his hands and feet, but that cost too much fuel to be efficient. Simple anti-gravity pacts were easier.

It was still warm outside. The typical chill for spring passed by while the cloudless sky lit down the sun’s rays from the center of the sky. Most people enjoyed this kind of weather. It was too bad Clank didn't have a true personality to enjoy it.

Levitating over the rooftops, and tracking down Leet’s location, he followed his radar to where his creator was. Arriving, Clank noticed Leet and Uber sitting on the ledge of the building, talking amongst each other like the battle had passed.

“Is it weird that I don’t give a shit if she dies?” Leet asked to Uber.

“It’s understandable,” Uber answered looking down over the ledge, “but we’re still bad people for not caring.”

Clank flew over to Leet, hovering over the building gaps to see him face to face. “Did something occur in my absence?” Clank asked in a respectful tone. “I assumed New Wave was still our adversaries.”

“Glory Girl death punched Rune,” Leet answered. He pointed over to the capes at the center of the building. Light and Rune were huddled to the ground, with Light coupling Rune’s head as he tried comforting her between her coughing fits.

Laserdream, Shielder, and Glory Girl were circled around them, unsure what more they could do. “Light is over there is holding her while she’s dying, me and Uber are waiting for Rush to show up. Panacea might be able to heal her. Might not though, I doubt she can bring the dead back to life.”

“I see,” Clank said. Without saying anything more. Clank stepped onto the rooftop, and walked over to Light and the rest of New Wave.

“Amy is on her way,” Shielder reminded them, “this’ll all be fixed soon.”

“Still,” Laserdream said, “she should’ve known not to go full strength.”

“It was a fucking accident,” Glory Girl muttered, not wanting to let guilt sink in.

“Salutations,” Clank said coming in from behind.

“Fuck,” Laserdream said, “I thought I killed you.”

In a simple tone, Clank said. “You will find that I am much more durable than standard humans, such as Rune.”

Shielder shook his head, “just shut up. Now’s not the time….”

Light whispered to Rune. Glory Girl, Laserdream, and Shielder were all close enough to hear him. “You’re gonna be fine, Sabrina,” it was plainly obvious Light stopped caring about cape etiquettes. He had lowered his mask around his neck, letting her see his calm facial expressions. “I know it hurts right now, but things’ll get better soon.”

Clank scanned Sabrina, revealing that her bones were shattered and poked into her vital internal organs. They were causing her lungs to drown in the bleeding. He looked over to Glory Girl, “I believe this is considered involuntary manslaughter, Victoria.”

“Shut the hell up,” Glory Girl said.

“Or perhaps it was intentional. Afterall, she is a villain and you are a hero. It would be typical to treat her as something less than human. A generalization, maybe, but perhaps it is also accurate?”

Laserdream looked down at him, “it was an accident. She’d never kill on purpose.”

“I am inclined to disagree.” Clank tapped into the video feed from the Loser’s masks. His eyes formed a projection at the nearby building wall like he were a movie projector. It showed Glory Girl holding up Light in her arms, and her words, ‘you and your friends are dead,’ repeated three times, before it switched to Uber’s vantage point, showing Glory Girl making her rib cracking punch at Rune.

“From my, objective perspective,” Clank said, “that did not seem like an accident. Brashfulness, recklessness, carelessness. Many things, but not an accident.”

The realization dawned onto all the New Wave members. The Losers recorded everything. They had a perfect visual of what Glory Girl had done, and had the power to ruin her reputation, and New Wave’s.

“Fuck you,” Glory Girl yelled, not knowing how to handle the panic. “We can crush all of you to a pulp if we wanted to, you’re just a bunch of fucking villains.”

“I’m still recording.” Clank said calmly, letting Glory Girl sink in on the words she just said. Clank pointed to Light, reminding them of the more morbid situation.

“Sabrina,” Light said quietly, “I wanted to tell you I think you’re really cool. Your rocker look? Badass. I liked that about you. I’m glad you were a part of our team.”

Glory Girl wondered if there was something between Rune and Light, the same way there was something between herself and Gallant. “Amy will fix this,” she said quietly, more for her own assurance than for others.

Clank replied, “I don’t doubt that. But there may come a day where miracles won’t save you. When that day comes, my hope is that you will not be forced to say; ‘I could have avoided this.’”

Leet looked over to Clank, surprised by what he was doing.

When the team had first formed, Edwin had confided in Aryana that he often felt doubtful before he tinkered, and brash after his inventions were complete. She suggested making a robot that could exist as his inner voice. One with a second personality from him, designed to bring him up when he was down, and cut him down a peg when he was high.

Leet was surprised to see Clank doing to Glory Girl what he typically did to him.

Sabrina choked some more, no longer able to breathe. She stared up at Light while lowly humming. He said to her, “hey, Sabrina, you’re gonna go to sleep for a little while. Because I know you’re really tired. Right now, what you’re seeing here, it’s just a dream, see? So I need you to close your eyes, so that you can wake up a little later.”

With that, Sabrina finished choking, and Light stayed still as he looked down to her in silence. He didn’t move as she stopped moving. It wasn’t like the movies, there were no last words from her and he didn’t feel anything as her hands became calm. They just held still, like nothing had changed from a few seconds ago.

Rush flew in from the distance. Spitfire and Amy Dallon were behind her, gravitated with Rush’s power. Rush put her hands in her pocket as they all touched the ground. She firstly walked over to Glory Girl and said, “you’re a shitty hero.”

“Oh fuck you,” Glory Girl yelled, “you don’t get the right to tell me what makes a hero!”

“All the more ironic that I have to.”

“You can’t-” Rush placed a finger on Glory Girl’s lip, and then another finger on her own to signal for silence. She pointed a thumb to Light, and walked over to him.

Rush placed a hand on Light’s shoulder, “C’mon, let Amy do her thing.”

Light was quiet. He mechanically moved away but his stare still held onto Sabrina.

Amy placed a hand in Sabrina’s hand.She guessed what Light’s concern about death was, and answered, “you know how the heartbeat can stop, but can be brought back after twenty minutes of cpr? This is the same. I can jumpstart her heart, I’ll just need to fix what’s broken first.”

To Amy’s relief, she wasn’t gone for long enough to cause brain damage. The first thing she did was pump oxygen into her head to prevent permanent damage, and then begin the removal of obstructions to stop the bleeding. Amy thought to herself, she’s gonna cough a lot of blood. She’d even be woozy for a few days, but she’d survive.

Spitfire walked over to Leet and Uber at the ledge of the building. They didn’t bother watching Amy heal Rune. “You guy’s pushed her too hard?” Spitfire asked.

“Fuck no,” Uber said in a huff. “We never told Glory Girl we could survive her punches, for an Alexandria package, she sure is stupid.”

Spitfire rubbed at her forehead, causing a slight squeak as she touched at her mask. That easily could’ve been me, she thought to herself.

Rush turned to see Glory Girl again, “so, since this footage has been relaying back to base, would you say you’d still look like a hero after we upload this online?”

“Don’t even think about it,” Glory Girl pressed her finger at Rush’s chest, even demonstrating her strength as she did. “Because at the end of the day, you’re just a villain. If you do anything to hurt my family’s reputation, I will personally make sure you get locked away in the birdcage. I’ll make sure you never see the light of day again.”

“Hehe,” Rush pointed to her brother, “‘light’ of day.” Her brother was still quiet, but she thought it was funny.

Typically, Glory Girl gave off an aura of fear and strength when people were around her. Rush had felt it when she initially met her, but rather than react to it, she was intoxicated by it. Like a drug she enjoyed tasting it whenever she was near. But her raised heartbeat and goosebumps across her skin never changed how she responded to Glory Girl, Rush was far passed being afraid of people in costumes.

“Victoria,” Amy said, not stopping the healing process. “It’s okay, she won’t share the footage with anyone.” Amy thought about her flight there, and the deal she’d stricken with Rush.

“We’ll bury you,” Rush said in a calm voice. Amy and Spitfire floated to her side as they flew over to their teammates. “Our masks record everything. If you can't help Rune, New Wave will get buried by the footage. And Glory Girl will go to prison in her honor.”

Amy gulped, hoping Rune wouldn't have brain damage when she arrived.

Amy breathed heavy as she finished Rune’s healing. Just as she predicted, Rune fell into a coughing fit when she gasped up for breathe. Balls of blood spat out as she sat up to lean down to breathe. Amy still held her hand tightly, making sure to complete the process.

“Ugh,” Rune said between heavy breaths. “That.. Hurt…”

Spitfire placed a hand on her shoulder, and Amy finally let go, not really relieved by what she did. Rune wobbled as Spitfire tried carrying her up. “You’ll still need to rest for a few days,” Amy explained. “I couldn’t give you a blood transfusion, so you’ll feel light headed for awhile.”

Amy nodded to Rush, signalling for her completion. Satisfied, Rush said, “Leet, Spitfire, Light, and Rune, rewspawn to base.”

The four of them disappeared from sight. Uber and Rush behind stayed to face with New Wave. “Okay,” Rush said clasping her hands. “Here’s the dilemma. We had intended to upload the footage today to give people our weekly update, but boy, did Glory Girl fuck that up.”

Glory Girl clenched her fists, but was still careful not to do anything that would look bad on camera. Rush continued, “so, we’re gonna need some compensation for the waste of time.”

“Waste of time?” Amy yelled, “you guys fucking started this! Did you really think you could go around playing games and never get hurt? Are you that fucking stupid?”

“So,” Rush said ignoring Amy. “For compensation, I want you.” Rush pointed at Amy, to which she cocked her head back.

“What?”

Rush took a walkie talkie from her belt buckle, and tossed it to Amy for her to catch. She typically used it as a prop, but it still functioned as a regular communicator. “From now on, you’re an honorary Loser. In your case, you’ll be on call for when one of us need healing. And if you don’t,” Rush pointed to Glory Girl, “poster girl goes to jail.”

“You can’t fucking do that!” Glory Girl sprinted to her and squeezed Rush by the shirt. “This isn’t a fucking game, I’m not letting you blackmail my family!”

“Rune is my family,” Rush said calmly, “I’m entitled to protect my family, as you are to yours. Therefore, Amy will be on call when we need healing. She’ll give it to us, or else your Alexandria ass will go to jail.”

“Do you know what I could do to you right now!?” Glory Girl raised a fist in the air.

Rush wrapped her hand around Glory Girl’s grip, pulling it closer to herself. “Bash my head, break my bones, murder me to a pulp. All very unheroic things. Either way, I’m numb to that. But feel free to try though, the footage I’m recording right now is delightfully eye opening. And it’ll do wonders once I’m dead.”

“We’d make sure to upload it,” Uber said, adding himself to the conversation. He was good at staying calm, hiding the real concern he had for Rush’s safety. “If you go down that route, it won’t stop the footage.”

Rush faced toward Amy, “so what’ll it be?”

Laserdream groaned as she shook her head, “Victoria, for once in your fucking life. Calm down, and let go of her.”

Glory Girl swallowed, and released her, feeling defeated for the first time in her life. Amy said, “I’ll do it. But if you ever try to hurt us, come after us again, or hurt our reputation even a little, it ends.”

Rush nodded, and extended her hand out for Amy to shake. Amy stared down at her hand, and squeezed it tightly when she held it. Tingling sensations ran across Rush’s skin as Amy touched through Rush’s fingerless gloves. “And if you ever break that promise, I’ll rip your body in ways you couldn’t even imagine.”

“Hmmmm….” Rush said with a smile. “That is one great handshake. And I’ll take your word for that. I’ll watch out for my family, and you’ll watch out for yours.”

They let go, and Rush nodded to Uber. Uber said, “Rush and Uber respawn to base.” And with that, their masks teleported them away.

Amy looked down at her hand in shame. She wasn’t sure how real the threat was, but it still made her feel like a monster. Dormant guilts were now blossoming. Shaking Rush’s hand felt like she’d just sealed the deal to her path of villainy.

Glory Girl rubbed her hands together, “Amy,” she said softly, “I’m so sorry.”

Amy shook her head, “it’s okay, let’s go home.”

XXX

Sabrina put on her black leather hoodie and headed out the apartment doors. Some chains around her belt buckle jingled as the door closed behind her. She strapped on her backpack. Inside, her green robe and nordic mask were stashed away, along with a few hundred dollars she always carried around with her.

Outside, the moon shape was hidden behind a cloud covered sky. Sabrina had forgotten how much light the moon normally emitted at night. Since their apartment was in the outskirts of town, it was the first time she ever noticed the difference between a cloudy night and a cloudless night.

“Going out for a walk?”

Sabrina turned around, Aryana was leaning against the wall next to the entrance. The blunt in her fingertips had just been lit, and based on her sweatpants and pajama t-shirt, Sabrina could see that she was outside for the sake of relaxing.

“Sure,” Sabrina said. “You guys go on walks too, so why shouldn’t I?” She said it like she needed to justify it.

“Can I come with? I was gonna go in a few minutes anyway.” Aryana offered Sabrina her second cigar, almost like it were a bribe.

“Sure.”

They walked for a few minutes in silence. The near death experience was still fresh in both their minds. Sabrina had watched the footage a dozen times, from different angles and viewpoints, easily memorizing the faces and words expressed towards her. It was surreal, because she was certain she was truly dead for at least a few minutes.

Aryana wanted to ask if she was feeling alright, but she knew she would’ve gotten a hostile response. Emily had been prying at Sabrina with questions all day long. It was purely out of compassion, but it had reached the point where Sabrina was plainly upset by the barrage of questions.

“Tomorrow we’re watching a movie,” Aryana said. “We’ll be livestreaming our reactions. There’ll be food, we’ll be in masks, and I was hoping you’d come and watch it with us.”

“What movie are you watching?”

“The Last Airbender. We’ll be taking shots whenever the pronounce the names wrong.”

Sabrina chuckled, not really knowing how much alcohol that would involve. Sabrina answered, “I don’t think so. I don’t really trust myself with livestreaming yet.”

Aryana nodded, not willing to question the reason why. “Hey Sabrina, you asked earlier if we let you join us as a joke. The real answer is yes and no. Our team itself is a joke, but we’re not trying to prove anything or piss anyone off by having you join. We just like adding new things to the mix.”

“I almost died today,” Sabrina said, finally spelling out reality. “It doesn’t seem like a joke to me.”

Aryana nodded, not feeling the urge to argue. Sabrina was inclined to disagree with Aryana’s outlook, and she wasn’t going to begin harassing her into her own mindset. “It’s ironic really,” Aryana said, “It doesn’t matter if you have a master tinker on your side, the protectorate backing you up, or the best hate group in town with you. We’re all like ticking time bombs, waiting for an end, never knowing when it’ll happen.”

Sabrina swallowed. She remembered the excuse she gave for joining the Losers, ‘I’m doing it for the rep,’ and they accepted it. But that wasn’t far from the truth as to why she stayed with the E88. For the longest time, she’d been fed to believe that she was a sort of prodigy child. Like she’d become something big if she just gave it more time.

The Losers was meant to be an outlet to that path. A stepping stone to becoming something more within the E88. But as she re-watched the video of herself dying, It became plainly obvious that she might not ever reach adulthood. Either with the E88, or without them.

Sabrina said, “you know, my uncle explained something to me once. He said there’s an unwritten rule about capes, that they can never have good endings. And that that’s why he wanted me to be strong, so that I could at least go out as something big enough to be remembered.”

“Yeah,” Aryana said, “but can you live with yourself if you never reach that point?”

“No,” Sabrina said coldly. It was also why she got angry when she saw the video footage of herself dying. She wanted to be something, more than anything. Yet she’d almost died with the title Loser in front of her. “I’m not going out as a....”

Aryana opened her mouth, then closed it. Sabrina didn’t finish her sentence. Once they’d walked a few blocks forward in silence, Aryana said, “I’m heading back now, I didn’t wanna stay out for more than an hour.”

Sabrina nodded her head, “I’m gonna keep walking for awhile.”

“Kay, we’ll be at the apartment when you get back.” Aryana turned around in a casual stride. Sabrina continued forward deciding not to return.

It was ironic that Aryana had called her family in the video. She’d stood up to Glory Girl in her namesake, and treated her as more than just a teammate when they were alone. Sabrina hated to admit it, but she no longer had a future with the E88 after meeting her.

She walked forward, determined to push out future expectations.

XXX

Edwin sat on the sofa with his sweatpants and white t-shirt. He felt very comfortable. He hadn’t had a late night game marathon in a long time. Tinkering in the lab was often distracting. Now, sitting on the living room sofa, with a playstation remote in his hand and a soda by his side, he finally got the chance to relax for the first time in days.

“Hey Edwin,” Robert said washing the dishes from the kitchen.They hadn't talked to each other for almost half the night. It had literally reached the point where Edwin was giving him the silent treatment. “You need to man the fuck up.”

That was the last straw. Edwin paused the game and hissed to Robert, “you fucking talk to him, I’m in the frigging middle of something.”

“No you’re not,” Robert said, “you’re sitting on your ass like a kid, too scared to talk to another kid.”

Edwin brushed his dark wavy hair from his forehead, to rub at the circles around his eyes to relax his muscles. “Look,” Edwin explained, “you’re better at talking to people than me. I’m an asshole, and everyone knows it. So when it comes to talking, that’s your job, because I don’t have time for that shit.”

It was true, when Aryana and Vivan had first joined the team, it was Edwin who was ridiculously awkward. Robert could speak with them casually, like he had known them for years. But Edwin was self conscious. Aryana was too cute for him to form complete sentences around, he often stuttered and second guessed his words when he was around her. The only person he could respond well with was Vivan, but that was because he treated Vivan like an annoying brat. He’d insult him and tease him, and Vivan, luckily, responded to insults positively.

“Vivan isn’t as close to me as he is with you,” Robert explained. “He sees me like an adult. I talk to him, sure, but now it’s just gotten to the point where it’s like I’m lecturing him whenever we talk. He doesn't need that right now. He needs to talk to someone he thinks of like an equal.”

“I’m four years older than him,” Edwin reminded him, “and he sees me like an equal? That’s fucking great.”

Robert shook his head, “Edwin, we know Vivan. Aryana either doesn’t know he’s acting weird, or doesn’t wanna deal with it. He won’t like me talking down to him, so he needs you more than anyone.”

But Edwin didn't like being sentimental. He thought it was bullshit because he didn't feel like talking to Vivan just for the sake of comforting him. It seemed weird.

Robert added, “you are his best friend.”

Edwin threw the controller to the ground, “alright, fine!” He stepped out the apartment door and muttered loud enough for Robert to hear, “fucking ruining my gaming night….”

Edwin stepped up the stairways and to the rooftop. Opening the door, it was daybreak. The light was already hitting the sky to make it a purplish blue, and light was finally shining on the rooftop to reveal what Vivan had done.

“Holy fuck,” Edwin said. There wasn't a gimme of dust on the rooftop, it was completely spotless from natural filth. Vivan had waken up in the middle of the night and began brooming the roof with no explanation. When Marvin had mentioned it earlier, Robert began pestering Edwin to ask about the strange behavior.

Vivan was quiet. He was half asleep, and surprisingly glad he couldn't take the limitless pill. When he'd first taken the pill, he seriously thought he'd become a God. But after they realized he couldn't recharge his powers without sleep, he had to suffer through the terrible withdrawal symptoms just to get back on his sleeping schedule.

Thinking back, Vivan was glad he couldn’t have the pill. Because with the pill, he couldn't sleep and had the chance to remember everything. The problem with that, was that he could remember all his memories vividly, and staying awake to think about that was something he wanted to avoid.

“Uh… Vivan…” Edwin squandered, “what the hell are you doing?”

Vivan wasn't sure how to answer. He kept brooming, wondering if ignoring him would make him go away.

“Vivan,” Edwin yelled, “I said, what the hell are you doing?”

Vivan shook his head, remembering this wasn't his original home. “Oh, hey Edwin. I'm just… cleaning up the roof.” He grinned, knowing how stupid he sounded.

Edwin looked around some more, “uh… I think you already finished.”

Vivan looked around, not really caring about the spectacle he’d made. “Yeah, I guess you're right.” Vivan put his broom to the side, and took a seat at the wall next to the door. “Everything’s clean now,” he twirled his finger, like he’d just accomplished a small victory.

Edwin took a seat next to him. He was a head taller than Vivan, but he was also certain Vivan was still growing. Edwin wasn't sure how the fuck you’re supposed to comfort someone, so he simply stayed as blunt as he usually was with Vivan. “Uh… why'd you clean the roof? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to clean outside.”

Vivan looked down for a minute, and nodded in agreement. “My mom used to make my sister broom the sidewalk as a kid. She'd say, ‘if you’re gonna act like a brat, clean up like a brat,’ and she'd make her start brooming the sidewalk. I always got jealous, because I never did anything worth getting in trouble for. So instead, whenever she was in trouble, I'd broom for her instead. My sister would be happy, my mom would get pissed, and I’d be happy that I could help out in something. So now, whenever I'm feeling like a little brat… I broom.”

Edwin stayed quiet, he said the only thing that came to mind, “your family is fucking weird.”

Vivan laughed aloud, “fuck yeah we are, and I love it for that.”

Edwin guessed at why he was acting strange. “Hey Vivan… Do you, have a thing for Sabrina?”

“What?” Vivan looked to him in surprise. “Uh, of course not. I mean, yeah, she’s pretty, but I’d never stick it in crazy.”

Edwin bursted out laughing, “thank God.”

Vivan smiled, glad he could still make his friend laugh. But as he thought more about Sabrina, a remorse fell over him. “I am so fucking selfish,” he blurted out. He thought back to the images of Sabrina dying, and tried to put into words what he really felt. “When she was dying in front of me… I didn’t give a shit about her dying… I gave a shit about the fact that I was on the same side as her. And that that could’ve easily been me… I don’t wanna go out like that… I don’t wanna go out, like a useless villain.”

Edwin wasn’t at all offended, he knew what Vivan meant. Edwin had long come to terms with his own villainy. “How do you wanna go out?” Edwin asked.

Vivan paused, and stared forward, “in a glorious fire… Like a hero.”

“Then what the hell are you doing with a bunch of losers?”

Vivan thought long and hard about the question. To him, he valued everything except himself, which was exactly why he stayed with them. He rubbed at his finger cut glove, covering the swan styled tattoo that perfectly matched his sister’s. “Just trying to have fun, before we can’t have days like this anymore.”

 

Emily put on a yellow hazardous suit and chemical gas mask. The smell of fresh plastic filled her nose. The blue gloves and yellow plastic hoodie reminded her of a tv show that involved narcotics and a high school drug dealer.

“Alright Clank,” Edwin said in his own hazardous materials gear, “time for your portal gun.” He unzipped his backpack. Clank hopped out onto the ground. “Set the dilation to normal. We don’t wanna get distracted in there.”

“Affirmative.” Clank unlocked his chest to reveal a glowing power source inside. The blue energy glowed at the wall in front of him, and lit into a laser at the wall’s surface. The laser quickly grew into a blue outline of a portal, looking like a mirror from their point of view.

Emily’s eyes widened. This was why Sabrina could never find his lab. Edwin simply carried the gatekey wherever he went. Clank hid in the school backpack he always carried casually, all he had to do was ask Clank to open the portal in whatever surface was nearby.

“Alright Emily,” Edwin put on his gas mask. “Normally I set it so that a few days in there, equals a few hours out here. But since I we’re only doing one thing, I’d rather not risk spending too much time in there.”

“Risks?” Emily asked in a hesitant voice. “Is it dangerous if we stay there for too long?”

Edwin lifted a hand up in defense, “er, not really dangerous. Just… bad...”

Emily stayed quiet, wondering what sort of risks could lie for her on the other side.

Edwin shook his head, “what I mean is, tinkering takes a lot of time. Our inventions might look impressive, but it actually takes a lot of work and supplies to get projects into gear. So Vivan suggested I make a pocket dimension, one where one year in there could equate to one day out here. That way, projects that would normally take months to make can take hours in real time. The only problem is, Tinkers tend to lose track of time when they're obsessing over tinkering. Sort of like...” Edwin wanted to give a relatable example, but he wasn’t sure if Emily would get it.

Emily snapped her fingers, “like playing video games all night, and forgetting what the time is.”

Edwin snapped back at her, “bingo. We lose track of time easily, could you imagine if I went in there and came out looking like I’m forty?”

“So you set the clock on normal, so that someone can get you if you stay for too long?”

Edwin nodded, “Clank normally chooses the best time dilation for me, depending on the project. I’ve also got several alarms in there as a precaution. I never bring food or sleeping gear to avoid staying longer than a day. But the best reminder for me is to put the time dilation to normal, so that I don’t think I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Emily looked over to the portal. She stepped closer, and tapped at its surface. The mirror wobbled upon touch, making it look and feel like she was tapping on floating water. “Incredible.”

Edwin grinned, glad to have another person to be impressed by his inventions, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

They walked into the portal. When Clank stepped through, the portal closed behind them, cutting off the only entry point.

Inside, the tunnel was thin. About three meters tall and three meters wide. The surrounding edges were an alternating pinkish purple color, shifting warm colors as they crossed an interdimensional bridge to the lab. The temperature was fresh, like wildlife of a rainforest made the air delicious to breathe. Emily was awestruck by what was around her. Edwin mentioned, “this tunnel determines the time speed for the pocket dimension. The colors were Aryana’s idea…It’s more for fun than for anything else.”

They walked another ten minutes before reaching the other side of the tunnel. Another portal was already established there. It was orange instead of blue. “Are there chemicals inside that I can’t breathe?” Emily asked, with some last minute anxieties. “Is it dangerous if I take off this mask?”

“Er, no, I just felt like cosplaying like Breaking Bad.”

Stepping through, Emily was awestruck by the sight of another earth. It was hill over a meadow that stretched on for miles. There were no buildings or people, just pure, safe, nature. Edwin had an entire planet to himself. The flowers were completely untouched, mountains overlooked from the distance. A spring chill blew at the meadow grass. The sky was so earthly, Emily thought the pollution free air was an improvement from where she’d just been.

“It’s beautiful here.” Emily looked within the grass. She noticed the miniature, human like creatures with plants on their heads frolicking across the grass. Her eyes widened, “are those… Pikmin!?”

She gleed in excitement. She loved the game growing up, but she never expected to see living, colorful creatures running around in front of her.

“Life-tinkering is my gold,” Edwin explained. “Or anything that can grow itself. I’ve even got a few farm animals that produce flesh for biology tinkering. The pikmin here are plant tinkering. They grow and pollinate like real plants. Except they aren’t really intelligent like animals, they just mimic consciousness like they did in the game. You can gesture for them to follow you, except they can’t attack anything.”

Edwin gestured for Emily to walk forward a little. Emily was still grinning at the sight of the adorable creatures. Up ahead, there was a metal shed at the top of the hill. “That’s my lab,” he explained. “I make everything in there. The pikmin was Vivan's idea, we’re gonna have to catch some for what Robert needs.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, bro,” Emily happily began picking up a dozen yellow colored pikmin she passed by.

Edwin shook his head. “You… Probably shouldn’t get too attached.”

“Why not?”

“We’re going to put them in a blender.”

“What?”

XXX

Emily wanted to cry. She could hardly watch as Edwin smashed them with blunt objects to crush them into powder. “For the last time,” Edwin explained, “they’re plants, not animals! They’ve got as much feeling as sunflowers!”

The lab was as mixture of high tech circuitry, and regular tools that could be found in a tool shed. The large lab was divided into subsections, each for Leet’s specific types of tinkering. There was a long steel work bench for blunt mechanical creations. A fish aquarium labelled ‘babel fish’ hung from the ceiling. A large ‘darkspore’ cloning machine took up space in the corner of the room, with a computer to design monsters for Leet to experiment on. A microscope desk for molecular tinkering, plants and mice for life tinkering.

At the moment, Edwin was working in front of the chemical tinkering lab, watching a recording as he smashed the Pikimin into dust. “I like sunflowers,” Emily said quietly, hearing another pikmin die. “I even like Dandelions, even though they’re weeds…. I hate picking flowers, because it’s still the same as killing them.”

“Look Emily,” Edwin said, not taking his eyes off the monitor screen in front of him. “This is a two person job. I brought you here because each of us needs to know how to use my tinker inventions. We make a lot of money through these ingredients, so you’ve gotta learn to do this so that you can use my lab if I die, or something.”

Emily looked over at the screen, “you need to use the instruction videos to make this stuff? I thought since you're a tinker you wouldn’t need the help.”

“I can’t tinker the same thing twice,” he said. “Or I kind of can, but it’s always harder to make the same thing a second time. It’s like my mind forgets. When Aryana and Vivan first joined us, the first thing they made me do was make a bionic eye for myself. Now I can record everything I tinker. In the case of chemical mixing, I can create thousands of different tinker formulas through these Pikmin, but I'll forget them once I do it once. So I record the ingredients, and Marvin designs these videos so that anyone can follow the instructions… And that includes for myself, later.”

Edwin smashed another pikmin, to which Emily winced. “So… That’s how you replicate your tinkering? Through your videos?”

“Not quite,” Edwin admitted. “I also sell these videos to Toy Box for them to recreate. They get schematics for my inventions and can sell them to whoever they want. In exchange they let me buy back my inventions for a discounted price. It's a pretty good deal since I get to use my inventions again. Pikmin formulas like these are easy, but I need Toy Box for bigger projects. Like robots, nanobots, or teleporters. Youtube videos aren’t enough for anyone to make those on their own.”

Edwin crushed the head of another pikmin, and Emily couldn’t help but imagine it screaming. She turned around in her chair to stop watching. “This is so cruel…”

“Emily,” Edwin groaned, “you have to learn how to do this. They’re just flowers, they’re not animals, or-”

“Edwin,” Emily glared at the wall, “I liked that game. It's the reason I got into botany in the first place. On days I’d get sad, I sit down and talk to my flowers. I still take care of flowers I’ve had for years. So don’t tell me they’re flowers like they mean nothing.”

Edwin’s mouth shrunk, he didn’t know he was being inconsiderate. Trying to better relate to her, he pointed to a pikmin in the corner of the room, “see that purple one?”

Emily looked over, it was the biggest pikmin in the room. It stayed there quietly watching Edwin as he worked. “That’s the first pikmin I ever made. I keep it because it's special. So I guess I can get where you're coming from, but try not to think of them as sentient beings. Think of them like... medical ingredients. Some flowers are used for personal reasons, others are used for medicine.”

Emily slouched, she looked over to him and said, “Edwin. We’re making drugs, not medicine.”

Edwin sighed, “help me out here Emily, I don’t want you to be upset over this.”

She hated that he was right. The plant medicine analogy had already won her over. She swallowed her pride, and began smashing the friendly looking creatures into highly potent narcotics.

XXX

Emily and Edwin walked back through to tunnel home. She was less amazed than she was before she entered. Whereas before she was excited, this time she was upset at herself for crushing such life like creatures. She was fully aware that her emotions were irrational, but the awareness did nothing to quell them.

“Uh, Emily.” She turned to him, and saw him handing a young, albino colored pikmin with red eyes and red wings. “This for you.”

Emily tilted her head, the little pikmin flew onto her shoulder like it knew her. He said, “I figured since I have one I always keep, you should have one too. This one won’t pollinate, so don’t worry about it reproducing on earth. I added wings so that it can stay safe. Just… Make sure you don’t squish it… Or something.”

Emily smiled in excitement, she held the tiny creature in the palm of her hands. “Thank you, Edwin.”

 

The three of them wore ghostbusters uniforms as they headed to the abandoned warehouse in the forgotten part of town. They all wore gas masks like Spitfire to conceal their faces. Rush was making some surprisingly sexist comments as they walked ahead, “I’m just saying,” she went on, “I don’t see how a girl can do a man’s job.”

“Goddamnit,” Light yelled, “ghostbusters does not discriminate. Any women could be a ghostbuster if you just give’em a proton pack.”

“I call bullshit,” Rush said, “ghostbusters was made for men and by men, therefore, we should not change what isn’t broken.”

“You know what else they said wasn’t broken? Slavery. You wanna bring back slavery?”

“Depends how you define that. Hey Uber,” Rush spoke to him as he walked in front of them, “you’d totally be my slave, right? No whips or chains. I’d just be on top to claim my territory.”

Uber’s ghostbuster costume was actually customized to a skirt. It unbuttoned down to his chest to give a more scandalous portrayal. He spoke casually as he walked. “I don’t know, that sounds kind of degrading.”

“You know what else is degrading?” Light yelled, “objectifying another man’s body, I’m offended on his behalf.”

“I’m simply admiring it,” Rush said, “there needs to be a rule against men being feminists.”

Reaching the warehouse, they were greeted by two armed guards. They were hoodlums, probably just out of high school. It was plainly obvious by their clothes and slouched body language, that they were inexperienced and as addicted to drugs as the clients were.

The three Losers stepped in. Inside, all five merchant capes were sitting on beanie chairs. They passed a hookah as they waited for their business partners to arrive. The Losers were glad to have their gas masks on, the place reeked of low quality cigars and tobacco, and other rancid smells that came with never cleaning.

“I want to clean the shit out of this place,” Light muttered quietly to his teammates.

Uber reassured him, “maybe you’ll get the chance to, once we’re done with these guys.”

Skidmark stretched arms wide as the three cosplaying capes approached, “hello my loves.”

Skidmark had admitted it a few times, he was actually growing fond of the Losers. The Losers didn’t cause his gang trouble like they did to the other gangs. Hell, the Losers even kept the E88 off his back. Since they’d stricken the business deal a few months prior, both teams were overall neutral.

“Where’d the nazi bitch go?” Skidmark said, picking at his teeth.

Light answered, “Rune wasn’t willing to say nazi puns. That’s a dealbreaker for us.”

Skidmark chuckled, “hope that cunt ass bitch gets fucked over, it’s what’em whores deserve.”

“Speaking of whores,” Rush turned to Squealer. “Why the heck haven’t you been taking Leet’s calls?”

Squealer, dressed up in cargo pants and a tang top t-shirt, groaned obnoxiously at them in her high-pitched voice. “I was fucking busy,” she said, too high to care. “I’ll get Leet’s project done when I get to it.”

Rush pulled out a bag of pills from her pocket, to which all of the Merchant members perked up in attention. “For missing our calls, I’m giving you half.” She threw half the pills to the ground, and smashed them beneath her feet.

“Fuck,” Skidmark yelled. He hit Squealer over the head, “next time do your fucking job.”

“Alright, alright,” she hissed. “I didn’t think they’d cut us back.”

Rush smiled, remembering when she explained the deal to Emily.

“You guys keep them addicted, just so that they’ll work for you?”

Rush nodded, “we told them these pills make them smarter, like the limitless pill. It actually speeds their perception of time, but doesn’t have any enhancements. It’s highly addictive, more addictive than all of the hard drugs combined. Thing is though, it’s also designed to hide awareness of the addiction. They don’t know they’re wrapped under our thumb, they just think they really like the tinker pills we made.”

“That’s…” Emily’s tone was quiet, “really bad.”

“I know, we don’t pretend to be good guys.”

“Let’s get the deal on the road.” Uber walked forward, he brought out the suitcase full of the pounds of blue meth Emily and Edwin had created together. “First,” Rush said, “money please.”

They threw the suitcase at Vivan, which was heavy for him to catch. “Yup,” he said, “just as heavy as last time.”

Uber placed the suitcase at the center of the table. Skidmark stretched his long hands out to pull it in. “Finally,” Skidmark said rubbing the briefcase, “that tinker made shit is gold.”

“Quite the Rush,” Rush said. She tossed the ‘limit pills’ for Trainwreck to catch. The limit pills were technically free, just a small gift of courtesy for the real business they’d been doing together.

Skidmark opened the box, “what the fuck?”

Noxious fumes escaped from the box. The blue meth was still there, but a purple gas escaped the briefcase the second he opened it. “You remember our deal, right?” Rush spoke in an echoed voice beneath her mask. “We had a deal. We sell you our tinker meth for a bargain, and you get to sell our tinker meth on the one condition that you not sell to, or recruit high schoolers anymore.”

Skidmark and his gang coughed out as the Losers stayed still in their ghostbusters gear. They were perfectly immune from the gases thanks to their gas masks. Skidmark choked up, “that was the deal, we haven't gone back on it.”

Rush yelled, “then why the fuck did a fifteen year old overdose on our product last week? You think we made our meth blue just for the shits and giggles? It's so we can keep track of where it ends up.”

Skidmark yelled, “people overdose, people give drugs to kids, it just fucking happens!” The warehouse was now filled with purple smog. The Merchants were feeling more and more light headed.

Rush replied, “except our meth was designed to be impossible to overdose. Fuck, it hardly even has any of the side effect you see in hard drugs. So how the hell did a teenager overdose on our product?” She hissed at the word ‘our’, like she was offended by the idea that her product could even cause a danger to anyone.

“I don't fucking know,” Skidmark whimpered. “Shit… Happens…”

“Turns out,” Rush explained, “one of your dealers put anthrax in our product. Anthrax. For fuck’s sake, I've seen this marketing technique before. Dealers like to overdose a guy to make a product seem potent. They'll put anthrax in some samples to OD a guy, to let other meth heads think their product is great. Except our product doesn't need that kind of shitty advertisement. Our product is perfect, and one of your guys hurt the blue meth’s rep by making a kid OD on it.”

“I've got a lot of dealers,” Skidmark was now distant, looming up and smiling. “I've tripled in size… doubled in profits thanks to you lot… I can't keep track of everyone.”

“Find out who did it,” Rush yelled, “kick him out. Slit his throat. I don't fucking care. No high schoolers, no overdoses. Or else we start selling this shit on our own, and you can go back to being the real losers of Brockton Bay.”

“Alright…” Skidmark said slurring his words, “lassies… just… I'll fix that… what is this good shit?”

Rush smiled, “we call it happy days.” She removed her mask, “prepare, for happy fun times.”

XXX

Sabrina sat at a cafe as she watched the live stream unfold.

“She… wasn't supposed to take off the mask,” Uber said. He radioed Leet into the livestream. “Leet, are you sure this stuff is safe?”

Leet groaned on the other side of the mic. “It's safe… she's just going to be very confused for the next three days.”

“Oh my God,” Rush said laughing, “Light, your wrists are so thin!”

Light pulled his hands inward with shame, he yelled, “that's exactly what I'm insecure about!”

Sabrina couldn't help but laugh. At the same time, she was envious, and thought to herself, ‘wish I was there to try some of that shit.’

XXX

Theo watched the livestream from the safety of his bedroom. The room was dimly lit as he sat on his bed comfortably to watch the show in secret. He had to hold his breathe to control the laughter.

“Light,” Uber yelled, “why the hell can't you control your sister!?”

Light yelled, “I'm not Christian, I can't tell her how to live her life!”

The camera feed showed Rush dancing with Squaler, Rush yelled, “Squeal like a dolphin to show that you love him!”

Squealer proceeded to do so.

Kayden opened the door to Theo's bedroom. Theo immediately fumbled to close his laptop screen, and hide it beneath his bedsheets. “Oh,” she said wide eyed in surprise.

He yelled at her, “do you mind!?”

She quickly closed the door. She muttered, "sorry, I didn't know..."

Theo yelled out, “and next time knock!”

She said back to him, “I'll forget I saw anything!”

Theo sighed, he hated to admit it, but whatever she suspected was better than her knowing that he liked the team she deeply desipised.

XXX

“Hey Light,” Uber said, “hold my mask.”

“You son of a bitch,” Light yelled, “I'm too young to be the responsible adult!”

Uber pulled off his gas mask and tossed it to Light. He then began using his powers to eloquently dance with Skidmark.

“Hahahah!” Aisha laughed aloud, “these guys are a fucking riot.”

“Don’t curse,” Brian said to her hopelessly.

“Damn, being a villain has never looked so sexy.”

Brian raised an eyebrow. Aisha rolled her eyes, “sexy means cool. Everyone in school says it, Rush started it.”

Brian shook his head, they’d truly made villainy into something glamorized. Aisha often joked about how she’d be a villain if she triggered, which made him wanting to share the truth about himself to her all the more difficult.

“Aisha, I think-”

“Hold on,” Aisha said. “I’m gonna emoji a swastika on the live chat, just to be ironic.”

“Christ,” Brian shook his head, “you can’t just-”

“Will you relax,” Aisha said plainly, “it’s just a joke. We all like that sense of humor anyway.”

“Who’s we?” Brian asked.

“Me and my friends at school. We met through their website, you’d be surprised how many people watch the show.”

Brian shook his head, he still wasn't sure what to think of them. He still remembered when they were just no-name villains at the jewelry store. "I can't believe how popular they've gotten.”

XXX

Taylor quietly watched the livestream unfold from the library computer. That same afternoon, she noticed other people laughing as they watched with their groups of friends. Taylor was perhaps the only person watching the Losers for research purposes instead of entertainment reasons.

The footage they provided was a goldmine. They gave a first person view of what the cape world was like. Watching them provided a vivid imagery of cape combat, escape techniques, and fighting tactics. She made sure to take several notes in her journal from all of the combat related videos they’d recorded.

In her eyes, they were pranksters. People more interested in wrecking ironic havoc instead of actually affecting the city around them. But she also noticed that the Losers were largely holding back, most likely to give an absurd image of incompetence.

“Okay,” Light said staring at the camera drone in a daze. “I think we’ve lost track of why we were here.”

“Trainwreck,” Rush yelled in the background, “commence the strip show!”

Uber proceeded to throw wads of cash in Trainwreck’s direction.

Light still stared at the camera with a morbid gaze, “guys… I’m just a teenager. What the hell am I supposed to do?”

Light looked at the drone’s holographic text, “According to the live chat, yuz are sayin I should start stripping with her… Yuz are nasty motherfucking pedophiles….”

Taylor sighed, there wasn’t anything she could gain from the livestream since it was obvious there wouldn’t be combat this time. She turned off the livestream window, and made a mental note to add them into her enemy list for when she was ready to become a hero.

 

“Today, on the Loser channel.” Rush floated several stories in the air smiling at the the camera in a Santa Claus suit and hat. The outfit was hardly even a costume, if anything, it looked more like red pajamas with fluffy white endings. It was the Santa Clause bag that was most absurd, in which she’d pull out various kinks to throw at her enemies.

“First,” she said in a serious tone, ignoring the sounds of combat below her. “I’d like to apologize to all the racists who have left our website since the E88 ambush. We had no idea that dressing up as nazis would offend you, and we promise never to do that again.” She crossed her fingers at the camera. “So in the name of Scion, we promise to be more sensitive to people’s feelings from now on. Especially for the nazis, who's feelings are much more sensitive than most..." Rush laughed maniacally at her own sarcasm.

"And now, my bitches and bastards, onto the Loser channel!” Rush pointed her middle fingers to the rooftops. The night lights of the city lit up the building rooftops as Light and Shadow Stalker skittered across them. They breathed heavily as they ran. Both were refusing to concede to each other’s speed.

They fired their projectiles at each other, attempting to hit each other whenever not in their breaker states. Light’s lasers lit up the roof tops as he shot, and Shadow Stalkers bow’s were completely visible in the night. Glowing building boards and side lights gave an ideal visual for them, and Leet’s drone camera gave a high definition image of their chase; crystal clear even at midnight.

“Shadow Stalker,” Light extended an arm, “roses are red, violets are blue, you are the light to my shadow, for I have fallen for you!”

Light lit up his powers into a pink heart in the sky. It gleamed so bright the building illuminated even more.

“Shut the hell up you fucking bastard!” Shadow Stalker shot an arrow at the heart, causing it to firework into more miniature hearts.

“You have struck my heart with such love, you majestic dark angel from heaven!”

“Shut your damn mouth!” Shadow Stalker screamed.

This was an ongoing joke within their fan community. Shadow Stalker had once insulted Light heavily during one of their heists, and Light retorted back with compliments which only pissed her off even more. Ever since then, people began shipping Light and Shadow Stalker as a light/dark love/hate relationship, and the team finally decided to make a gimmick out of it.

Light wore a pink hoodie sweater with pink butterfly wings behind his back. He had initially faced with Shadow Stalker and yelled, “Shadow Stalker, my Luv, you have robbed me of my cupid arrows, just as you have robbed me of my heart!”

Rush narrated their chase as Shadow Stalker attacked Light with pure rage. “Oh how scandalous!” Rush said to the drone camera, “The Stalker of the Night has begun stalking the bringer of Light! Oh what length’s love hath truly takes us!”

“Shadow Stalker,” Light shaped his hands to a heart, and made it glow with pink energy,“you have lighted your way to my soul, my beautiful night angel.”

“Arggghh!” She charged at him, this time to use her crossbow as a blunt object to clobber him. “I’ll kill you!”

Light shifted away to safety, “a lover’s murder, the truest crime of passion.”

Further away from them, Triumph and Dauntless fought off against Uber, Leet, and Spitfire. The trio blocked off the Protectorate from the Ward they were mentoring. Leet wore a Jack Skeleton costume, which worked surprisingly well for him with his already thin frame. Spitfire had bunny ears on, her mask and torn hazardous costume gave her the impression of being a radioactive bunny. Uber was a skimpy leprechaun. His broad body made his muscles ridiculously extrude, even underneath the green bra and kilt.

“Our first night mentoring her,” Triumph groaned while facing them, “and these guys are trying to make fools out of us.”

Uber’s biosuit formed large heavy gloves around his arms. “Spitfire. Wall.”

Spitfire launched a wall of fire between them and the heroes, making sure to block the line of sight both sides. Uber sprinted through the wall of fire while quickly wrapping himself around his armor. He charged out to Dauntless. The hero blocked the assault with his energy enhanced shield, but was still pushed back by Uber’s force. He’d have fallen off the ledge of the building if his boots didn’t allow him to fly.

“Make sure you make Dauntless look good.” Rush said to Uber. “The guy is freakishly camera shy, he needs a rep boost. Let him kick you around a bit, lose to him good. If we’re lucky, he’ll look good enough to manage his own team, and the PRT will finally get that poster boy they’ve been trying to make out of him.”

Uber chuckled to himself, remembering what Rush had asked from him earlier. It was easy enough for him, considering his power. He could either become a combat master or a drunken master. Letting the PRT win some battles had so many benefits. At the moment, it felt nice being the joke villain again, this time intentionally instead of unintentionally.

Dauntless swung his spear into Uber. Uber smiled, it wasn’t a great swing, it was one he could’ve easily dodged and parried, but he chose not to. The hit knocked Uber several feet away, making it look like he’d tossed and turned in a comedic manner. His armor cushioned the impact. Uber stood right back up and looked over to Leet.

"You good bro?" Leet asked.

"Bro," Uber feigned dizziness, "I could use some backup, bro."

Leet faced his ionizer ray at Triumph. "You got it, bro."

Leet launched a radiant laser at Triumph. Dauntless launched himself in front of him, using his shield to block the blast. His actions were predictable, Uber began feeling like he was movie director.

Triumph fired his seismic screech at Spitfire’s direction. It snuffed out the remaining flames and Spitfire flew back in pain. There was a ringing in her ears, “owww,” she groaned in pain. Over the intercom Spitfire said, “Rush, I could use some help here please.”

Rush looked over at her fallen teammate, “just yell jailbait. They’ll never touch you.”

“Come on bro!” Spitfire yelled.

“Fine,” Rush opened up her Santa Claus bag. A ridiculously long bazuka stretched out from it.

“What the hell,” Triumph said looking up.

“Don’t worry,” Dauntless said. “I’ve seen some of their videos, it’s never as bad as they make it out to be.”

Triumph asked, “you watched their videos too?”

“I’m dead serious Triumph, I watched it for studying reasons.”

Rush pointed the bazuka from the sky. “Merry Christmas motherfucker.”

She launched the cannon at them. It hit Dauntless’s shield, but exploded like a pound of dust. The smog rose around them, making their sight difficult to see. Triumph sniffed, “is that… Cinnamon?”

The brown dust floated around them with the smell of christmas. Rush yelled down at them, “and don’t make me take out the dildo cannon for the naughty kids!”

“The things you guys tinker is ridiculous,” Dauntless said, preparing to charge at Uber again.

Things had become complicated for Dauntless. He couldn’t be everywhere at once. Shadow Stalker and Light ran away from him when he approached. And Rush made it her mission to make sure they stayed on their one on one match, she even kept out of combat for the sake of narrating the show. So the only option he had was to distract three of the members to buy time for the rest of the Protectorate to arrive.

Shadow Stalker launched a lethal arrow at Light. It was one she kept hidden from her mentors, stored for the sake of feeling powerful. Light dodged it as he did with the other arrows, but paled when he saw it stick in the wall next to his head. "I know love hurts, but shooting people isn’t the answer.”

“Will you shut the hell up about the bullshit!” Shadow Stalker yelled, “do you have any idea how many people have fucked with me because of your damn show?”

“To be fair, I think I could do better too.”

Shadow Stalker screamed, she ran towards him solely to try and strangle him. Light flashed a light into her eyes, and shifted away while she was temporarily blinded. “Sister,” Light called out, “she just broke my heart, can we go home now?”

Rush looked over from a distance. She noticed PRT vehicles closing in on the streets below them. Battery, Assault, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia were arriving closer to them. “Yeah,” Rush said, “Operation Seduce Shadow Stalker was a failure.”

“Losers,” Uber yelled, “retreat!” Leet threw a flash bang at Dauntless and Triumph. Spitfire launched heavy amounts of ice at the ground to ensure their escape.

“Light,” Light said, “respawn to base.”

“Rush,” Rush said, “respawn to base.”

They waited to teleport home. Instead, they were left standing still in momentary silence. Leet tapped at his backpack, “Clank, what the hell?” His robot didn’t respond.

Uber looked over to his friend, “did... something just happen?”

Spitfire, Uber and Leet returned to Rush’s building, just as Light joined them. “Dude,” Light said to Leet, “why didn’t we respawn?”

Leet put down his backpack. He began picking at the buttons and openings of his user-friendly backpack. “I don’t…” Dauntless and Triumph caught up to them. Shadow Stalker shifted to their sides while Leet hastily tried figuring out what had gone wrong.

Armsmaster and his team reached the other rooftop. While Dauntless, Triumph, and Shadow Stalker blocked their left side, the rest of the protectorate blocked their other side. Leet looked up at Armsmaster. “Oh. Fuck. No.”

Armsmaster had a miniature green glowing light extruding from his Halberd. Leet recognized it. It was the same type of light his teleporters showed from the inside of their masks. It was the same kind of light used in the schematics he’d sold to Toy Box. It was the same kind of light that could be used to jam the frequencies of another teleporter, if there were a tinker willing to do so.

Leet glared at Armsmaster, “fucking tinkers…”

“You’re surrounded,” Armsmaster announced. “We know all of your tactics, and all possible methods you could use to escape. We've studied your combat footage and prepared for every scenario. Things will only be worse for you unless you surrender right now.”

Light replied, “aha, so you watched our show too.”

In a confident tone, Armsmaster replied, “I did, and I didn’t find anything you’ve all done as funny.” The Losers cringed back together, like that was the most insulful thing they'd ever heard in their cape careers. “Turn yourselves in,” he ordered from them.

Rush yelled at him, “over my dead body you illuminati scum!” She took the camera drone and lifted it over my head. “This camera drone happens to have a kiloton neutron bomb inside, so unless you want this west side of this city to blow up, I suggest you all back the hell off.”

Dauntless and his patrol partners took a step back. Miss Militia looked over to Armsmaster. “You're lying,” Armsmaster said firmly. “Not only is killing against your principle, but I short circuited all of Leet’s inventions. What you're holding there is as dangerous as a toaster.”

Leet yelled, “Fuck you you cheating tinker. You’re a cheap ToyBox stealing motherfucking-” Spitfire walked over to Leet and pushed a button on the edge of his Jack skeleton mask. The mask proceeded to censor Leet’s profanity. “-****** ******* wannabe **** slinging fake tinker!”

Unfazed by Leet's profanity, Armsmaster added, “my helmet also tells me when you're lying. There is no bomb in that drone.”

“Wow,” Light said, “Tinkers are bullshit.”

Leet snickered, “I know, right?”

“You have two options,” Armsmaster said, raising his Halberd, “either surrender, and make things easier on yourselves. Or not surrender, and risk getting seriously injured, while also risking any chance of an acquittal for your cases.”

Uber looked over at his team. Armsmaster was right. Rush couldn't fly them out, especially if she carried the combined weight five people. Leet’s wildcards were turned useless. Light was all talk, and Spitfire would never do anything to cause real collateral damage. When it came down to them versus the Protectorate, their only chance was to run, and that wasn't an option anymore.

Uber raised his arms in surrender. “Uber,” Rush yelled, “traitor!”

“C’mon Rush, you really think things’ll go better if we fought?”

The team fell silent for a moment. They really were out of options. Spitfire raised her arms up in surrender. Leet copied her. Light put his hands in his pockets.

Rush saw a chance to take her brother and just run, but she was also certain she couldn't fly the both of them away from Dauntless. ‘Maybe he could escape. I could fly him far away enough, and then I could distract Dauntless while Vivan ran away.’

But that wasn't an option for Vivan either. He wouldn't know what to do if he were alone. He could return to base and ask help from Marvin to break the team out, but that was still a long shot.

No, the best chance she had of outrunning Dauntless and saving her brother, was for her to escape to the base alone. “Okay,” Rush said, “I've got an idea. Just make a distraction for me.”

XXX

“You tried ditching us,” Uber said in a plain tone while walking.

“C’mon bro, I was gonna come back for you guys,” Rush smiled as she walked to the PRT van in handcuffs. The team followed suit behind her, defeated, handcuffed, yet surprisingly casual about their arrests.

Uber said, “You yelled, ‘every man for themselves,’ and flew off while calling us stupid bitches.”

“It was just to throw them off,” Rush argued, “I didn't want them to think I was gonna save you guys later.”

“It was still a pretty bad plan,” Light said, not really upset. “I thought you knew Dauntless could outrun you.”

Rush shrugged, “l was hoping me yelling jailbait would throw him off.”

Uber asked, “are you aware that you're not actually jailbait?”

“Sure, but they don't need to know that.”

Leet grumbled as he walked behind everyone in handcuffs. The Protectorate members eyed them as he walked. Leet couldn't stop brooding. His mask still censored him as he glared at Armsmaster. “You ******* fake ****ing tinker taking my ******* designs like a ****ing wannabe little *****. Those were my schematics! My ****ing *****! You stole them like a ****ing ***** ****. **** ***** ****** ***** ***** *****. Mother of a ****** **** ****** **** ******. **** you! **** this earth, ****the protectorate, and **** bull**** cheating tinkers!”

Armsmaster shook his head, “next time, don’t sell your inventions to Toy Box for anyone to buy and reverse engineer.”

“You’re enjoying this you cheating horse pile of smoldering ****! Those were my designs, my hard work! You’re a cheap piece of **** you ****ing fake tinker!”

Shadow Stalker puffed her chest as Light was the last person to enter the van. “Got any more funny things to say, retarded villain?” Without saying a word, Light blew a kiss in Shadow Stalker’s direction. The van door closed behind him as he whispered 'wait for me'. She yelled at him, “I hope you get fucked in prison.”

Cementing themselves to their seats, they all let out a loud sigh in defeat. The vehicle gradually moved to the place to carry out their arrests. “Well,” Rush said in a slight daze. “I did not wake up this morning expecting to get arrested.”

Uber said, “I don’t think any of us did.”

“Coolio,” Light said spinning things into a positive light. “I’m gonna get so much street cred when I break out.”

“Alright,” Rush said taking charge. “I think we’ll need a plan for how we’ll operate in the birdcage. Me and Emily will prostitute ourselves for favors. Robert can do that too since he’s sexy. Edwin will be Robert’s bottom bitch so he can stay safe. Bromance to the max.”

“You know,” Uber said in a normal voice, “are you sure people won’t think I’m the bottom bitch since I might go to prison in a sexy leprechaun suit?”

Rush nodded, “if that happens, I personally apologize for whatever you go through next.”

“Well that's reassuring.”

“And Light,” Rush said, “never do that heart thing you did for Shadow Stalker when we reach the Birdcage. It’ll give people the wrong impressions.”

“Remember guys,” Light said, “never take free gifts from strangers. Things are never free in prison.”

“That’s right,” Rush nodded approvingly. “As long as we all pull our ass-sets together, and whore ourselves in an organized fashion, I’m sure living in the birdcage will turn out to be…. Emily, are you crying?”

They heard sniffling beneath her mask. “No…” Spitfire whimpered in a pathetic tone. “I just… really don’t wanna go to the birdcage.”

An immense guilt flew over all of her teammates. “Wait, Emily,” Rush shook her head, “I swear I was just kidding. Don’t worry, I won’t pimp you out when we reach there!”

It didn’t make her feel better. Leet swallowed, “listen Emily…” He wanted to comfort her, but didn't know what to say. “****, I can’t think of a bright side.”

“We can get prison tattoos!” Light said optimistically.

Now Spitfire was tearing up, they could hear her choking underneath her mask. “But I don’t want tattoos….”

“Crap,” Uber said, realizing how dense his team was. “Alright, listen Emily. I know how this is gonna work, I’ve been down this road before. You’re not actually going to the birdcage. They’re gonna offer you a deal. Ask for a lawyer first, because they’re always better at negotiating deals than you. Don’t agree to anything until you've got a lawyer giving you all the options you have in front of you.”

“Okay,” Spitfire said in a weak voice, “But my parents will kill me when they find out…”

“They won’t find out,” Uber said. “In fact, your civilian identity is probably the safest thing you have right now. Even if you’re a minor, unmasking you takes away any chance they have of working with you. They’re not gonna take away that leverage, and they’re not gonna tell your family and force you to become a full-time villain.”

Spitfire swallowed, “Robert, how are you sure about that?”

Uber muttered quietly to himself.

“Wait,” Rush said, “what did you just say?”

“I used to be a Ward,” he repeated crystal clear.

Light cocked his head back, “you were a ward?”

Uber nodded, “kind of forced into it. Something I found out while there was that they’ll recruit almost anyone, as long as they’re willing. Of course, you can get better deals with them if you lawyer up, because there are more options and deals that most of us don’t even know about.”

“But you were a Ward?” Light shook his head, “I think I just lost some respect for you.”

Uber sighed, “which is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you guys. I hated the rules and pressure, I left the minute I had the chance”

Spitfire asked in a now stale voice, “what… kind of deals could they offer me?”

“You’re about to graduate,” Uber said, “you’re more likely to go straight to probationary Protectorate member. More likely in another city since you have a reputation here. And yes, you can keep your trigger event a secret.”

Rush said, “hey Vivan, do me a favor and-”

The van tipped over to the side. The sound of crashing followed as they tumbled around inside the back of the van. They rolled and turned, flipped onto one another before the van finally came to a thrashing halt.

The back door of the van opened. “Come on,” Faultline said. “We’re getting you out of here.”

 

Aryana moon walked into the living room wearing a formal suit. She wasn’t exactly moon walking, she was floating just high enough to give the illusion that she was sliding her feet. She hummed as she entered the living room. “Pimp cane bitches!” Aryana rose up a cane with a disco ball at the end, and pointed at Emily. She tipped her fedora in her direction.

Emily was finishing her homework at the dining room table. Vivan was sitting across from her to help her study, which mostly involved him reading questions to her for her exam next week.

Robert stepped into the living room wearing his own black suit with cufflinks and tie. Instead of a hat, he combed back his blonde hair to give it a slight shine against the light. “Christ, it’s been ages since I’ve worn a suit.”

Aryana squinted at him, “where’s that dress I picked out for you?”

“We’re going to a nightclub. I don’t wear dresses outside of costume.”

“Quite being gay. The pink looked fine on you.”

Robert wasn’t going to budge this time. “You wear it.”

Aryana gasped, “eww, dresses are gay.”

“Do you ever listen to the things you say?”

“I tend to faze in and out while I’m talking”

Vivan took a sip of his herbal tea. He stuck his tongue out in disgust, “Emily, you said tea would taste good. It tastes like leafy water.”

Emily replied, “that’s how it’s supposed to taste…”

Vivan took another sip. “Gross.” He took another sip, “gross.” And another sip, “gross.”

“You don’t have to drink it,” Emily suggested.

“No, it’s fine.” He took another sip. “Gross.”

Aryana took a step to Robert’s side and they hooked arms with each other. Aryana asked, “wait, which one of us is the escort this time?”

“I am,” Robert said kindly, “and no, you don’t have to pay me at the end of the night.”

“Oh my, such a gentleman.” Aryana motioned to Emily, “look Emily, I am swooning. Look at me swoon!”

Emily tilted her head, “I guess so.”

“And, we’re off!” Aryana and Robert stepped out of the door together looking like a strange couple. “Wish us luck on our perilous mission!”

“Good luck,” Vivan and Emily said casually.

When the door closed behind them. After staring out for a few seconds, Emily looked over to Vivan and asked, “Vivan, are Aryana and Robert… Close?”

“Sure they are, the whole team kind of is.”

“I mean… Are they closer than friends?”

Vivan looked over to the door, “nah, of course not.”

Emily raised an eyebrow, convinced that Vivan was missing some obvious signals.

XXX

Aryana and Robert walked together on the boardwalk to the nightclub. They could’ve taken a bus and arrived there within thirty minutes, but taking a walk at night together had become somewhat of a routine for them. Without the need to sleep, they enjoyed going outside in the dim streetlights whenever they could. They took the long route to the club, strictly for the sake of having more time to talk in the chill night atmosphere.

“I hate shoes.” Aryana said, “have I ever told you that I hate shoes?”

“Only every time you wear shoes,” Robert replied. As if to contradict herself, Aryana proceeded to tapdance on the sidewalk in rhythmic fashion. It obviously required some skill to perform. Regardless of her hate for shoes, Aryana had taught herself to tap dance for the sake of irony. “Your random talents are impeccable,” Robert said.

“I still wish I had my crocs. Crocs are like clouds on my feet.”

“No shoes no entry,” Robert said. “Remember the last time you tried going to a club without shoes?”

“You should’ve beaten up that bouncer, win my heart. Get laid.”

“You always want us to abuse our powers too much.”

“Hell yeah, yet another perk to being a villain,” Aryana smiled. “Don’t tell New Wave this, but the whole concept of not having identities is cool to me. It means you get to use your powers without people freaking out. I hate how people will freak out if I fly. Even if it’s for a minute.”

Robert sighed, “I respect the concept of New Wave. But it sort of feels like… They're phonies.”

“Phonies?”

“Like they’re only doing it for publicity. Going unmasked so that they can reap the social benefits of being superpowered. Like icons who are icons out of pure luck and clever marketing tricks. Glory Girl, Panacea, Laserdream, and Shielder, all strike me as those celebrity kids who grew up with everything, and won’t have to work for anything in their lives because their parents are famous.”

“Meh,” Aryana took off her dress shoes. “Even though they’re celebrities, I think even celebrities have issues they keep away from camera. I’m a narcissist, I love the fame. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some days one of those guys wished they could hide in a dark corner to be left alone.”

“A dark corner? For some reason, I really doubt that. Whatever personal issues that come with fame, I'm sure the riches outweigh it. Besides, none of them give off that vibe.”

Aryana tiptoed forward barefoot, “vibes are hard to read, I’ve found it's better to either not expect anything or to keep expectations low. Think of it like rotten onions. We only ever see the nice outer layers, but everyone has that nasty part on the inside that no one ever sees.”

“You’re a very cynical person.”

“I am indeed. Carry me.”

“What?”

“I hate shoes. Now I’m stepping on rocks. People will freak out if I fly. So carry me, because you're the one who didn’t let me bring my fluffy crocs.”

Robert scrunched his mouth, but didn’t complain when she jumped on his back. “Mwahahaha,” Aryana pointed her cane forward, “slavery has finally reversed.”

“Goddamnit, do you ever give it a rest?”

“Vivan thinks its funny.”

“Vivan is a kid, act your age.”

Aryana frowned, and fell quiet. They walked a few more blocks with her on his back in silence. It was late, and it was reaching the point where people were now leaving the nightclubs instead of visiting them. The lights kept things calm, and the streets were becoming clearer by the hour. Silence in the city was as low as it could be. “So…” Aryana’s said in a plain tone, “You were a Ward?”

Robert sighed, “yeah. It’s like I said before, I was kind of forced into it.”

“Forced into it? How? Like a probationary member?”

“No, no…. My ‘parents’ forced me into it.” He stretched the word ‘parents’, like it was only a technical term.

“Parents? Do you mean your biological parents, or foster parents?”

“Foster parents. Remember how I said I triggered in a car crash with my parents?... I lied.”

“Shit,” Aryana turned her head to the side. She wasn’t angry that he’d lied, she was just disappointed in herself for not realizing it sooner. Robert had realized a long time ago that Aryana didn’t get mad at people, she only got mad at situations she was caught into. “Are me and Vivan the only ones who told the truth in our origin videos?”

“I guess so,” Robert said. “Edwin’s trigger was kind of tame, so he tried overplaying it to seem more tragic. It's kind of the same with me. I thought no one could relate to my real trigger event, so I just used my parent’s car crash for the origin video.”

Robert’s voice was somewhat casual. Aryana and the whole team knew that he’d lost his parents in a road accident. It should’ve been something difficult to talk about, but Robert had grown far past feeling uncomfortable talking about it.

“But this Ward thing,” Aryana repeated, “how long were you in it for?”

“Four years.”

“Woah,” Aryana whistled, “did you go to any Endbringer attacks?”

“A few. I went to as many attacks they wanted me to, minus the Simurgh attacks. I couldn’t do much beyond medical work. What they really needed me for was to help train Wards and Protectorate members to improve their sparring techniques.”

“Why’d you leave? I thought the Protectorate looked out for their members.”

“They do. But it’s like I said before, I was forced into it.”

Aryana scrunched her lip, “you keep saying that like someone held a gun to your head and made you do it.”

Robert swallowed, and forced a smile. The body language was obvious. Aryana had always been good at cold reading, and Leet’s limitless pills had refined that skill into perfection. If anything, she was a level 1 thinker that could interpret body language perfectly. She asked, “was… There some truth to that joke?”

Before he could answer, the sound of gunshots were heard from the distance. Aryana jumped of Robert’s back. She flew for a mere five seconds to put her shoes back on, and sprinted to the direction of the sound. Robert paced after her.

They came to an alleyway and found a young women, blonde and slightly older than Robert, pointing a gun at a man in a skii mask. The man was bleeding out from his chest, and he had a knife in his hand from what was obviously an attempted mugging.

Aryana looked over at the women, she was trembling. The gun was still freshly shot but she looked down at the man wide eyed in fear. “Robert,” Aryana said, “help him.”

Robert walked over to the mugger. He laid back choking. Robert knew he was supposed to stop the bleeding, but it was plainly obvious he was shot into a vital organ. There was nothing he could do to save him.

Aryana placed a hand on the women’s gun barrel. She had the gun tightly gripped before Aryana began speaking. “You’re safe now,” she said calmly. The women’s hands were shaking. She was mortified. It was plainly obvious she had never expected to truly use that gun.

“He… Had a knife… I thought…” She swallowed.

“It’s over now. He won’t hurt you, you were only trying to stay safe.” Aryana noticed the E88 tattoo at the side of her neck with an X crossed over it. The women looked at Aryana in confusion but Aryana didn’t change her attitude in any way. “We’ll call the paramedics. We can walk you home when they get here.”

Gallent and Glory Girl came flying in. They came in from the sky flying calmly to the situation at hand. Looking across the four people, Gallent asked, “what happened?”

“I think,” Aryana explained, “she was attacked, and she defended herself. Is that right ma’am?”

The woman swallowed, and nodded her head slowly.

Robert checked the pulse of the mugger long after his breathing stopped. He noticed the tattoos running across the mugger’s arm. Looking back at the woman’s ‘x’ marked tattoo, Robert could better understand the confrontation. The ‘X’ symbolized betrayal or treason against the E88. Supposedly, the only way to officially leave the E88 was to brand yourself as a traitor. These marked people were often victims of E88 harassment just as minorities were.

It was obvious to Robert that the mugger had some sort of personal vendetta against the woman.

Glory Girl put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. In an instance, the fear she had was melted away by Glory Girl’s presence. It was calming, hopeful. The trembling stopped in an instance and she felt pang of peace on her shoulder.

Aryana noticed it too. She could almost smell it. She never felt Glory Girl’s power on the positive side before. It was delightfully intoxicating. It added a sense of hope, relaxation, and confidence. Aryana couldn’t help but want more, but she reminded herself to act natural.

Glory Girl said, “you're safe now, ma’am. The police will be here soon, when they come-” She stopped mid sentence. The neck tattoo finally passed by her eyes. “Hold on, you're an E88 member.”

No she’s not, Aryana wanted to say. But an explanation wouldn’t have mattered, because the moment Glory Girl said it, terror went across the woman’s body.

The complete shift from safety to horror came in an instance. Whether it was conscious or subconscious, Glory Girl’s aura registered her as a threat. And her power made her from being something admired, into something to be fearful of.

The woman muttered, “I-I-I-I swear I left.” She was backing away from Glory Girl now, holding the gun more tightly out of pure panic. “I regret everything, but they wouldn't let m-m-me leave.”

She was now ready to point the gun to Glory Girl. Not out of fear, but out of irrational panic. Aryana thought of a quick solution. She rolled a block of wood beneath her feet as she stepped back. Slightly, in an undetectable fashion, she yanked the wood to cause the woman to fall back on a trash bin. The gun was then yanked out by Aryana’s power, causing the woman’s movements to seem more clumsy than threatening. Better she look like a fool, than to attack someone out of a foolish panic.

“I never wanted to join,” the woman yelled crying. “My boyfriend made me do it! I didn’t think he’d try to...” She looked over at the mugger, shameful for what she’d done.

“Your boyfriend made you do it,” Glory Girl scoffed, “like that should fucking matter.”

It wasn’t a threat. Victoria wasn’t going to take her in jail for what was clearly self defense, but she did feel the need to be angry at someone. After what the Loser’s had done to her and Amy, Victoria’s temperament had become like boiling water. She avoided being angry at herself, so she found solace in venting out at criminals instead.

Aryana’s mouth twitched. The idea of kicking someone while they’re down, for something they clearly regretted, didn’t run well for her. “You know Glory Girl,” Aryana took a deep breathe, “you’re a shitty hero.”

Glory Girl’s eyes widened, “Rush?” She took a step back. Glory Girl’s aura immediately turned hostile. The feeling of hope and sanctity were replaced with insecurity and self-doubt. Aryana loved the shift. That immediate peak and fall within her body made her feel a high within her mind.

Aryana smiled. She took off her fedora and covered the top half of her face the same way her mask would do. She gave an iconic grin. “Oh, because I’m tan skinned, I have to be associated with the sexiest tan skinned villain in town? So racist, my lovely Poster Girl.”

“You bitch,” Glory Girl yelled, “it is you! I ought to-”

“Ought to what? Arrest me for being brown? I’m terribly offended, I ought to go to the press for such bigotry.” Glory Girl stepped back, remembering the footage of they still had. Aryana walked backwards. “C’mon Robert, I’d rather not associate myself with these Protectorate scum.”

“Fuck the Protectorate,” Robert stood up and put his hands into his pockets, Gallant realized it was Uber.

“Stop,” Gallant ordered. “We know who you are, you’re under-”

“Stop, Gallant,” Glory Girl swallowed. “Please, just ignore them this one time.”

Gallent went silent. Aryana and Robert hooked hands again and marched out of the alleyway in a comedic fashion. Looking over at them, Gallent noticed the vibrant colors encompassing Uber. It was a mixture of passion and happiness towards his friend, like a blind love that only long-time lovers could have.

His partner was contrasted. Within her, he saw nothing. The emotions she emitted were fake. There was neither happiness nor ego in what she had just gotten away with. Something rare for people with such exaggerated displays of emotions. She was a psychopath.

When they walked off, the blonde victim stared off at the two Losers leaving, wide eyed in surprise. Without saying another word, she backed away trying to forget the spectacle she’d just gone through.

Gallent and Glory Girl didn’t bother stopping her leave, she wouldn't have been cooperative with the police, and they couldn't arrest her for having a tattoo. The emotions Gallant saw in the blonde woman was remorse, coupled with a small sense in pride that she was willing to defend herself. And, with a passing smile, admiration for someone she'd just met.

Gallent turned to his girlfriend, “Victoria… What’s going on?”

Glory Girl swallowed, “There’s…. something I need to tell you.”

XXX


Faultline’s nightclub was packed, even though it was a weekday night. The bouncer let them in the moment they let him know their names.

“Rush,” the bouncer nodded with a smile.

She smiled back to him, “Aye, hombre essay, broly.”

The bouncer chuckled, and spoke Spanish to her. “Keep giving those gringo bastards what they deserve.”

Aryana replied in Spanish, “Of course. Does that include my gringo bitch I brought with me?”

Robert included himself to the conversation, “bitches like her always give guys like me what they deserve.”

“Hey,” the bouncer said in crystal clear English. “Don't call her a puta.”

Robert cocked his head back. Aryana yelled at Robert, “yeah, I'm a lady, how dare you call me a bitch, you filthy fuck.”

Robert muttered quietly to himself, ‘why do people always take her side?’

They entered the nightclub and made their way to the stairway. The top floor was where Faultline’s crew stayed. Passing by the balcony, Aryana noticed Labyrinth and Newter sitting next to Gregor the Snail on a nearby sofa. She walked over to them for a greeting, “hello strangers.”

“Hello… Rush…” Labyrinth said softly.

“Did the medication help?” Aryana asked. She was referring to some tinker made medicine she'd offered for Labyrinth’s mental disorder. Faultline gave approval for her to try it, and Aryana said they'd sell more to them if the first sample went well.

Labyrinth shook her head furiously, Gregor answered. “Under normal circumstances, it did help things become more vivid for her. But it also halted the intricacies of her powers. She couldn't create exactly what she wanted while on the medication. She stopped taking them after a day.”

“Sorry it couldn't help,” Aryana’s voice sounded sympathetic.

“It's… okay,” Labyrinth spoke softly. It made the headaches go away. But it stopped me from helping my friends. “You tried.”

Aryana passed a glance over to Newter. With a grin, she lifted her chin up and said, “sup Newter. High five.”

Newter smiled back at her, “I charge forty dollars a hit.”

“Robert, lend me eighty.”

Robert replied, “After the meeting.”

“Yes,” Gregor mentioned. “I believe Faultline is waiting for you in her office upstairs.”

Robert and Aryana left to the office. Before leaving, Aryana pointed a finger at Newter and gestured a finger telephone over her left ear. She mouthed the words ‘call me’ to him before heading upstairs. Newter pointed back at her with a grin, implying he’d take her up on the offer.

“Are you acquainted with her?” Gregor asked him with genuine curiosity.

“Nah,” Newter answered, “but I know the type. If she's anything like she is in the show, she just pretends she's already on everyone’s good side.”

“She's… good.” Labyrinth said, trying to imply something else.

“Funny you say that,” Newter remembered some banter from one of their earlier episodes. “She'd get really offended if you ever called her that.”

XXX

Faultline’s office was clean. As expected for the curator of a nightclub. Robert and Aryana took the two seats that in front of her. Faultline sat behind her desk in her riot-gear like armor.

“You could’ve brought your masks,” she said in the form of a question.

Aryana shrugged. Robert replied, “it’s a gesture of good faith. None of us have family in Brockton Bay. Speaking face to face offers more genuinity when speaking.”

Faultine nodded, she disagreed, but she wasn’t going to start an argument. “I was hired to give you a note, and a present, at a safe place and at a specific time. When we found out you getting arrested by the Protectorate yesterday, we called our client, and he was willing to pay extra for us to free your team.”

“Sounds like a good deal,” Robert said.

“And ominous,” Rush commented in an eager tone. “I wonder if it's like s secret illuminati message. Maybe I’m a sleeper agent, and the note will trigger me!”

Faultline smirked. She felt the need to ask. “This illuminati you always talk about… Is there any truth to it?”

Aryana snorted, “I dunno, maybe the letter will reveal the answers.”

“But…” Faultline leaned closer, and in a whispered tone she asked, “these Illuminati conspiracies you talk about… is there a hidden message there?”

Aryana tilted her head, she thought to herself, ‘wait, is Faultline crazy?’ Robert coughed and answered, “it's more of a thought experiment. We like making people ask questions, so we came up with a fake conspiracy idea to keep people guessing about things they wouldn't normally think deeply about.”

“I see,” Faultline said. She decided to drop the subject. “Keep asking questions then.”

Faultline gave the note to Robert. She handed the small present to Aryana. Aryana recognized the box instantly and didn't even bother opening it. Instead, she stroked the bright ribbon that was finely tied to the side, letting her eyes half wander as she became mesmerized by its perfectly symmetrical wrappings.

Robert read the note aloud; “there’s a porcelain doll inside.’” Robert checked the other side of the note, “that’s all it says.”

Aryana’s gaze fell lower. She looked disappointed.

Robert noticed her change in attitude. “Do…. You know where this came from?”

She shook her head, “nope, but whoever gave me this has a terrible taste in gifts.”

XXX

That night, Aryana stepped into Vivan’s bedroom. “Yo,” she said, poking him awake. “Get up kid.”

“What? It’s three AM.” He let out a yawn. He shook his head to try and get a better sight of his sister in the dark. “Why’d you wake me?”

“We gotta go."

"Why?"

“Accord found us.”

 

Robert didn't say anything when Aryana and Vivan left his apartment unit with their backpacks at hand. They said they were going to rob a jewelry store, but he guessed that they weren't coming back. Somewhere along the line Robert stopped trying to figure out the reasoning of them both. Vivan went out of his way to enjoy himself, and Aryana did the same in a seemingly identical manner. The why's had became irrelevant over time. And although they both always changed their stories as to how and why they came to Brockton Bay, Robert guessed there was more baggage there that they were trying to make light of.

Vivan, in particular, reminded him of himself back when he was in the Wards. Like he was stuck but didn't want anyone to know. Constantly wanting to leave, yet hiding that fact through absurd happiness to pretend everything was alright.

Aryana was the complete opposite of that spectrum.To most, she seemed stupid. To Robert, he noticed the constant shifts in moods and personality in her, reminiscent of himself when he was trying to understand himself a few years earlier.

Leaving the Wards was like leaving a prison, there was a steep need to learn how to cope with freedom and happiness. Aryana was like that, trying to compensate for a loss of childhood through exaggerated immaturity.

A long time ago Robert promised not to obligate people into situations they didn't want. Although he would miss them, he wasn't going to force them into staying.

XXX

Present

“That’s bad for you,” Vivan said. “You’re gonna get fat.”

Aryana mowed down at her third cheeseburger at mcdonalds. “It’s my god-given right to be fat. I’m not letting you stop me.”

Vivan had ordered the chicken nuggets. He hated fast food. “Fatty, mc fatty, fatty fat, fatso, fat, fat… Want a milkshake with that fatso?”

“Yes!” Aryana took Vivan’s milkshake, and drank half of it.

“Oiy, that was mine! It’s like the only good thing they have on the menu.”

“You can’t control me, you lil biiitch!”

“Every time you call me little bitch, I get more offended you’re calling me little…”

“Your insecurities are wonderful to pick at.”

The mcdonald’s they sat in was about to close. They decided to get something cheap to eat before taking the long trip out of town. Aryana had once explained that getting a hit from Accord was like getting a kill order. The best way to survive, was to cut all ties from people around you. Vivan asked, “so you think Leet and Uber will be okay?”

Aryana nodded, “ Yeah, they’ll be fine. More likely than anything, Accord might freeze their assets for a day, and then bribe them to tell him where we are. Since they won’t know where we are, Accord will give up that up and then compensate them for whatever problems he gives them.”

“Sure is good of him. It must be nice throwing money at problems until they go away.” Vivan smiled. This was the advantage they had over Accord. He didn't leave a path of destruction in his wake, he liked keeping things as orderly and procedurally as possible. It made him incredibly predictable.

“Indeed,” Aryana chuckled, “we should have done that with Leet. Make him build a money canon to shoot at our enemies.”

“I'd have used that to shoot poor people.”

“Shooting poor people, every rich man’s dream.” Aryana finished the rest of his smoothie. “You could have stayed if you wanted to, I know you liked it here.”

“It wouldn’t have been fun without you.” He didn't' want to admit it, but he was going to miss Brockton Bay.

“You could join the Wards you know, Accord doesn't touch Protectorate members.”

“You always push that Wards thing on me, but I haven’t wanted to join them since I was twelve.” He stopped wanting to be a hero when he found out Aryana was a villain.

“Still,” Aryana repeated a phrase he was getting used to, “I still wish you didn’t follow me around.”

XXX

One Day before her Eighteenth Birthday

Aryana’s eyes fell low. Dormant emotions she'd suppressed for years was finally swelling up. Her eyes passed Vivan in a morbid gaze at the sight of his demonstration. The scarecrow Vivan had set up was set aflame. He had skipped school and invited Aryana to visit just so he could show her his new display of power. “See?” Vivan said breathing heavily. “I have powers too. I get… Tired when I use too much energy, but at least I can blow up stuff.”

Vivan was happy. This was what he wanted. Power to be something more, power to be closer to the person he cared about. He asked, “can you get me an interview with Accord? It would be awesome if we could work together.”

Aryana shook her head slowly, “no.” Her voice was a stale. The shaking of her head looked like trembling. “Never. I’m not letting you end up like me.

XXX

Her Eighteenth Birthday

She sat across the dining table from Accord. It was a special occasion. Not only were they celebrating her eighteenth birthday, but they were also celebrating her fourth year of service to him. For Accord, he saw it as a celebration to her loyalty, to Aryana, it was a celebration to her liberation. In a way, he'd given her freedom from the destiny she didn't choose.

Aryana’s dress was a delicate white. It was mirror-like in design, with flower patterns running across the bottom half of the dress. Her mask was hex polygon textured over the top half of her face, with origami styled bunny ears extruding from the top half of her head. Accord had designed it. He made it to be perfect, just as he envisioned her.

Accord, much shorter than Aryana wearing his cashmere lint-free suit, raised a wine glass into the air. “A toast,” he said serenely, “to your eighteenth birthday.”

Aryana mirrored his movements in a delicate like manner. She knew exactly how to move. Eloquently, like a perfect woman that could flatter any guest. They knew each other perfectly now. And although he’d never said it aloud, he could have considered Aryana as something liken to a daughter. She was his favorite.

To him, she was testament. Proof that he could beat even the unbeatable endbringer. He turned the teenage girl from someone who was lost and destined for terrorism, into a pure machine, living only to serve for his organized syndicate.

It was success to him. Aryana would never become something she shouldn’t. Aryana took a moderate sip from her flask, to which Accord smiled. “If you’ll excuse me.” Aryana nodded in a sentimental courtesy, knowing that manners were everything to him. Accord stepped up from the long table and headed to his bedroom upstairs. He picked up Aryana’s gift.

It was a small box. Gift wrapped by his own two hands. Inside there was something special, something he was glad to give to Aryana. Like a father, giving his daughter a rite of passage.

Before returning to the dining room table, he stepped into the restroom to wash up before presenting the gift. He twitched at the sight of it, and returned to Aryana. He walked over to her and leaned in close to her side. He asked her in a low tone, “Aryana… Why was the toilet seat up?”

Aryana rotated her head slowly towards him. She grinned. An assured death sentence, which was something she secretly yearned for. In an identical low tone Aryana answered, “how else am I supposed to mark my territory?”

Accord grabbed his and smashed it across her head. She immediately fell back across the floor. A piece of her mask was cracked away, making it look like a cracked egg. All she could do was shield her face as Accord began hitting her repeatedly in erratic motions. As he bashed his cane continuously, he noticed an unusual moaning sound coming from her…

“Oh yes,” Aryana yelled smiling, “it hurts so good! Hit me harder!”

Accord paled. The sexual implication was obvious. She was glad he hated it. “Aryana,” Accord took a step back, “what…Happened?”

Aryana stood up, she tilted her head with a crooked smile to laugh. “It’s my birthday you five foot white collared bitch. I do what I fucking want!” She cracked off the bunny ear from her mask, turning it into something unsymmetrical. A large part of her wanted to kill him, but how could anyone bring them self to kill a person that could potentially end world hunger?

That's what the Simurgh would have wanted, and she was done doing what others wanted.

“You cretin,” Accord screamed. He clicked a button on his cane revealing a dagger at its edge. Before he could swing it to pierce into her skin… She threw a pocket full of glitter in his face.

Accord froze in place. His hyper aware senses caused the glitter to mortifying him. “Glitter.. Never… Comes off...” Some of it fell in my mouth.

Aryana floated away from Accord. The high ceilings of his building were meant to be aesthetic. Currently, it provided Aryana enough room to fly around in a comedic fashion. “God made glitter for love,” she lifted her dress up, revealing trousers with pockets underneath. “So allow me to show you my love liquids.... Glad I’m not jailbait anymore.” She stuck her tongue out at his direction, and floated upside down onto the ceiling.

She proceeded to take exaggerated steps across his home, pulling out pockets full of glitter as she tossed it across his home’s floors. Accord’s oversensitive keenness caused him to tremble at the sight of the scattering crafts. OCD horror filled him as his face grew red with anger.

He was going to kill her. He lost all attachment for her in an instance. He’d underestimated the Simurgh, there was no fix for it. He’d contact the Yangban to kill Cody, make it his personal mission to kill Simurgh tainted to make up for this mistake. But with Aryana, he’d torture her. Simurgh tainted or not, she had no right to humiliate him the way she was doing.

Aryana floated upside down and pretended to walk on the ceiling. “Oh my, what does this button do?” She knew every contraption in Accord’s house. She’d visited him so many times, and had been trusted to know everything. The intricacies of Accord’s mind was second nature to her, and she was abusing that knowledge maliciously.

She pulled secret levers, trap doors, rotating cavaliers and all sorts of trap doors he’d designs for his enemies, unleashed for the sake angering Accord. She dismantled a few, and tossed glitter in others.

Accord could already envision the perfect torture machine for her.

Aryana levitated a jar of mustard from the kitchen. She mixed it with ketchup. “Aye, matsa watsa salami?” She said, stereotyping an italian movie. “And thanks for the dress Accord, how long did it take you to make? I’m guessing several hours since your hands are so small.”

Still standing on the ceiling, she poured the mixed ketchup atop of her head. She used her powers to let it drop upwards, and spread it across the ceiling around her feet. “Now, you won’t be able to tell when I’m bleeding, hewhewhewhew.”

The laugh was obnoxious. It was so fake he wanted to strangle her for it. Then she said, “I bet you wish you had your brown pants…”

Accord screamed at the top of his lungs, he went to the nearest doorway opening and picked up shotguns he always had ready. When he pointed it at her, she wagged her fingers in a way that matched her wagging hips. “Nookie dookie,” the gun was quickly flown out of his hands, “you really shouldn’t have taught me how to use my powers so good.”

“That is grammatically incorrect!” Accord screamed. “Aryana, why are you doing this? What went wrong with you?”

Aryana floated closer to match him at an eye level. Aryana’s mouth was flat. She was absolved of the emotion she had a few seconds ago, and spoke in a methodical voice. “You lied to me.”

“About what?”

Instead of answering, she spun around to turn his back at him. The spin caused the dress’s ketchup to splatter all over Accord’s face. She fled off at high speeds.

XXX

One hour before her last dinner with Accord

Aryana stared at the mirror for a long time. Her hair was tied back. It braided around her head in the form of a crown. Not a strand of raven colored hair was out of place, she’d long learned how to make it as orderly as possible. All in accordance to what was defined as perfection.

She spun around to gain a visual of the uniquely designed dress. The mask was something she used to like. It made her look innocent. Four years ago it had fitted her perfectly, now it was more of an oxymoron from what she turned into. Four years ago, she didn't know what she'd gotten herself into.

“Aryana,” Accord told her. “There is a necessity for order in this world. When chaos breeds, order exists to quench that chaos. It’s how the world survives, strives, and succeeds. The Simurgh, by its very nature, exists to inflict chaos unto humanity.

You are destined to do terrible things. Your decisions will be like tiny explosions, unraveling this world into ways it shouldn't be. Every choice you make will have overreaching consequences that will damage everyone. All because of the circumstances that were outside of your control.

But there is a way to avoid the Simurgh’s power. You have to stop making your own decisions. Forfeit your individuality and exist for anything other than yourself. In that way, the Simurgh no longer has control over you. Let your decisions fall onto someone else, someone who exists for order and peace, so that your freedom may never hurt anyone. We can give you liberation from the destiny you didn’t want, as long as you're willing to choose to give up all your decision making to me.”

He’d given her an ironic hope. She knew what the loyalty entailed, and she sold herself to escape what she didn't choose.

There was one thing she didn’t expect; the apathy. Accord’s obsession for control forced her to become indifferent to the crimes she’d committed. She committed the most cruel murders for the most mundane offenses. Her mind, like a defense mechanism, learned to stop sympathizing for the people around her.

Was that a good thing? Wasn’t it a necessity to grow colder, in order to avoid soul crushing remorse on a day-to-day basis? What was that numb insanity called? Was it worse than the kind of insanity that involved loathing oneself into the brink of suicide? Emptiness verses pain. Lack of feeling verses feeling too much.

But she wished she could feel again. She wanted to pretend she still had the colorful emotions from when she was a kid. Accord made her forget what that was like, but she was now desperate to try and play the intrigued character of a curious child again.

She looked into her bedroom mirror again. It was a small apartment flat. There were no decorations because she wasn’t creative enough to add anything worthwhile. The minimalistic setting, she realized, was Accord’s belief, not hers. She couldn’t remember what she used to love. She couldn’t even remember what she loved about herself.

"Eighteen came too soon."

Water marks formed at the edges of her eyes. It wasn't because she was sad, it was because she was hollow. The awareness of it was finally settling. She'd detached herself from so much, but she didn't want to become as cold as Accord. She'd made a decision, she was going to anchor herself onto someone else. Wiping away the tears with a heavy swallow, she said to the mirror, "Accord... Which one of us is the crazy one?"

 

Edwin looked across the computer screen at all of the tinkerings he’d done over the last few months. His files were well categorized. The main trick was remembering the kinds of sciences used for each individual invention

Organizing was easy, recalling the kinds of sciences his old inventions was the hard part. Energy cells, for instance, could be used for the same purpose but with different sources of energy. He’d once made a tiny nuclear reactor in his home, and it was only a miracle that the reactor didn’t kill him when it finally exploded. Except it wasn’t run on nuclear energy, it was run on a different kind of energy he couldn’t quite remember. It was unique, more natural. He needed to remember it so that he could remember not to create it again.

Combat tinkerings were easier to remember. He’d burned through most of his mechanical tinkering copying robots from video games, so most of that tech tree was out of reach for him. Thank God Toy Box could take care of that. They’re the reason he could get Clank back, as well as various other copycats of things he’d previously invented.

Some days Edwin worried he’d have nothing left to tinker. That his usefulness would finally go away. But at the same time, he was glad. He felt like he was finally reaching the true potential he’d always had inside of him. ‘Like a candle light, finally burning away the way it was meant to.’

That was something Aryana had told him. That he needed to take greater risks, that it was worse never seeing the prime of his power than clinging onto his weakness forever afraid to lose it. She’d pulled him out of his comfort zone, and he loved her for that.

A part of him thought it was wrong to go through such great lengths over the infatuation of a cute girl. But what harm was there in him becoming a better person for the sake of someone else? At least something was gained. He was pathetic before she’d come into his life, and his desperation to impress her was what strived him to go further than he was used to.

A notification came up at the side of the monitor. Dodge. He opened a window on his screen for video chat. “What’s up Dodge. I’m kind of cataloguing right now, so I can’t game, if that’s what you're calling for.”

Dodge twiddled his thumbs. He didn’t have a mask because he never entered combat. Toy Box was his outlet for tinkering. Without a threat from danger at home, the twelve year old often called himself a ‘self proclaimed internet lurker.’

Dodge was a slightly obese child from rural Texas. He had natural tan skin from his Native American heritage. His dark wavy hair was kept kept low, similar to how Vivan kept his hair low enough to cover his forehead.

“Leet,” Dodge said nervously, “something really really really bad happened…”

Dodge’s age was sometimes obvious, he often blew things out of proportion more than they needed to be. “What’s the problem?” Leet asked.

“I went to get some money for some hot dogs, because I was gonna have my aunt and uncle come over and play video games with me. But when I went to the ATM to get my money, my card didn’t work…”

Leet raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you mean our Toy Box cards? It didn’t go through?”

Dodge nodded.

“First off,” Leet opened up the a screen window for his bank account. “Those cards are for supplies, delivered via portal transport. Just because they can’t get tracked, you shouldn’t use them for small things like hot dogs.”

“We were hungry. I wanted to be nice to them…”

“Second of all… Hold on a second, let me check this.”

ACCOUNT BALANCE: 0000
​

“Wait… What the fuck…”

“Please don’t curse,” Dodge asked politely.

Leet raised his finger at the touch screen. He opened up the Toy Box contacts to call Cranial. Just as he was about to call, Cranial called him instead. His finger slipped onto the ‘answer’ button by mistake.

“Cranial, I was just about to call you. Did you cut us off?”

Cranial’s costume was of a ‘megamind’ styled costume. She had a bald cap with the drawing of a brain on it. Her steampunk goggles were shaped as a visor that ran across her head. Even though she was from Florida, her pale skin complexion was still a result from her never leaving outside. But she did make sure to exercise regularly, giving her a more muscular build that made her go against the typical tinker stereotype.

“Leet,” Cranial said rubbing at her eyebrows. Her voice came out like a snake's hiss, “what the hell did you do?”

“Me?” Leet scowled, “the fuck are you talking about.”

“Please don't curse,” Dodge pleaded. “I wanted to tell you before Cranial called…”

“Tell me what?”

Cranial gritted her teeth. Although there were no ‘leaders’ in Toy Box, there were coordinators. The responsibility of regulating and arranging meetings always befell on one. When a coordinator tinker would leave, that responsibility fell onto someone else. Cranial was the coordinator since Leet had first triggered.

A year ago, Leet was considered a failure in every way. Cranial worked actively to outcast him because she thought Leet’s tinkering was broken. Leet remembered their worst conversation.

“You don’t have a specialty.” Cranial said over the monitor. Cranial’s video footage was faceless, with only an oblique outline of her shadow.

“I have a lot of specialties.” Leet said nervously, “I just have... limitations to them.”

“They break if you make it twice.”

“Not… Quite…”

“I asked you to recreate something. You failed at that. Are you seriously telling me you’ll fail every time you have to recreate something for a customer?”

Leet didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to answer yes.

Cranial continued. “The invention you made blew up in the client's face. We’re luck they’re alive. You damaged Toy Box’s reputation. Are you honestly telling me you can’t make a single order twice? How the hell do you expect to do business?”

Leet didn’t say anything, he didn’t have an answer for that either.

Cranial made a decision. “You’re brain dead Leet. You're better off not having powers. Hang up your things. We’re cutting off your funding, you can’t work for us anymore. And my personal advice, stop tinkering altogether. You’re a fuck up, and you're better off being normal.”

Aryana was relentless. She insisted he prove his worth. She pretended to be a client to get in contact with Dodge. His naivety allowed them both to work together separately from Toy Box. They developed a more accessible network of pocket dimensions, and Leet’s expansive specialties allowed him to create biospheres for the dimension’s environments. Biospheres which some tinkers found crucial in their research.

Toy Box owed them both big time. And although Cranial was bitter about it, she couldn’t ignore Leet’s skills anymore.

“It’s not just you Leet. Everyone in Toy Box had their assets frozen, all because your teammate pissed off the wrong person.”

Leet cocked his head back, “what the fuck are you talking about?”

Across Leet’s monitors, more video windows popped up on their own. Various members from Toy Box glared down at Leet standing still in his laboratory.

They all yelled at him.

“What the fuck did you do?”

“You screwed us over!”

“I went broke in a day!”

“I have clients that are dead without me!”

“I’m dead if I can’t get my supplies tonight!”

The other tinkers, some with blank screens or in masks, lashed out at Leet as though it would save them from their situations. Cranial muted their audio so everyone could hear her. “I got a phone call from Accord today. He said he wouldn’t mind if you were dead too.”

Leet swallowed, “Accord? That psycho thinker from Boston? Aren't you on good terms with him?"

Cranial continued, “that girl, Rush, he wants her dead. Typically he wouldn’t give a damn about your stupid videos, but if anyone get in his way, the assassins wouldn't hesitate to kill you all either.”

“Ary…. Rush has a hit from Accord?”

“Figures she didn’t tell you,” Cranial scoffed, “try vetting your members better next time, and try keeping the standard higher than nazi.”

Leet growled, “fuck you. Toy Box owes me big time, I’m not selling her out because a psycho prick has a stick up his ass!”

“You don't have to,” Cranial leaned back on her computer chair. “The deal was, we give Accord the coordinates to your dimension, and his assassins would take care of the rest. That's all he needs to give back our assets. As long as you stay out of the way, he gave his word he’d leave you and your team alone.”

“Fuck you,” Leet gave her the finger, “no way in hell are you getting my numbers from me.”

Dimension coordinates were kept secret from each other. Every member of Toy Box had their own pocket dimension, and even the coordinator didn’t have access them.

“Dodge gave us your coordinates.”

Leet glared at the boy. Dodge winced in shame, “I’m sorry Leet. Toy Box helped me make my first portal, they even helped me get away from home. I have to help, and they promised not to hurt you or your friends....”

"Leet," Cranial spoke to him again in a hushed-like tone. "Some of us have clientele that are dead without us. Some of us can go to prison if we don't provide tinker tools regularly. Some of us have long term projects that require supply drops daily to be on life support. Do you understand the predicament I'm in?"

“I’m not walking out on her!” Leet yelled, “I don’t give a shit if I get killed. If Accord hurts her, or anyone on my team, I’ll make it my mission to fuck him over until there’s nothing left in me!”

The other members, still muted over the monitors, exchanged glances between Cranial and Leet. Respect was something they had for Cranial. For Leet, there was camaraderie. Cranial earned admiration and loyalty through her recruitment and clientele networking, something that was the lifeblood of Toy Box. Leet earned companionship through his group experiments. His vast tinker specialties made him work with all the Toy Box members at least once, and his brutally honest attitude always made for an entertaining experience.

Cranial took a deep breathe. “Bring Uber on the line.”

XXX

They were walking out of the city, taking an obscure road away from the main highway. Morning was entering. The rain drizzling caused steam to rise up from the roads behind them. A light mist obscured the city as they walked forward on the edge of the street.

“You’re gonna get sick,” Vivan said walking behind her with an umbrella.

Aryana had a red leather jacket that was sleeveless. She extended her arms outwards to make sure they remained wet. “Worth it,” she caught rain water with her hair as she walked forward.

A portal opened behind them. “Well shit,” Vivan said. He lit his arms up, but stopped when he saw Edwin and Robert stepping out from the portal.

“For guys running from Accord,” Robert said, “you’re both pretty bad at hiding.”

“How'd you find us?” Aryana asked.

Edwin pointed to Vivan, “next time you're trying to run away from a Tinker, don't steal their tinker inventions.”

Vivan looked down at his gloves, “shit, I thought these were gifts.”

“Gifts are for teammates,” Edwin corrected.

“Give him the gloves, Vivan,” Aryana ordered.

Vivan pulled off the gloves and tossed them to Edwin. The Simurgh tattoo was now visible, but as far as Robert and Edwin knew, both their tattoos were from tattoo parlors.

Edwin tossed the gloves back to Vivan, “you’re not leaving.”

“Is this a kidnapping, or eloping?” Aryana asked casually.

“Yes.” Vivan answered, not knowing what eloping meant.

“Both of you knock it off.” Edwin growled. “Accord. Are you serious? What the hell did you guys do to piss him off?”

Aryana chuckled, “use your imagination.”

Edwin squinted at her. “He froze Toy Box’s assets. Every tinker there is on my ass because of you two.”

“Figures,” Aryana said, “if I were you two, I’d tell Accord where we are. Then you can get your money back, and he’d forgive you for being teammates with us.”

“We’re not selling you out,” Robert said firmly. “What the hell Ary? I thought by now you could trust us. We shared our trigger events, that’s supposed to mean something. We’re not selling you out because some psycho wants you dead.”

“I’d sell you both out.” Her voice came out as a clear statement. “In a heartbeat. You both should do the same. I never cared about you two.”

Robert scoffed, unfazed by her words, “hate to break it to you, but we could care less about what you’d do if the roles were switched. Right now, you need help, and we’re not letting you leave that easy.”

“This wasn’t supposed to last forever,” Vivan looked towards the misty city behind them. “At the end of each day, we were always ready to leave.”

“You both can leave anytime,” Robert said. “It just shouldn’t be because a psycho thinker wants you dead.”

The rain lightened to sprinkling water. Aryana couldn’t help but feel wrong, in a little way. Robert and Edwin had grown attached to them, but she didn’t feel any closeness to either of them. It wasn’t fair. “I only liked you because of your tinkering,” Aryana said to Edwin in a plain voice. “To be honest, I never even liked you as a person. Between everyone here, you’re probably the most pathetic. I only pretended to be nice so you wouldn’t be such a fuck up. Hanging out with you has been a waste of time.”

Edwin swallowed. He really didn’t want the statement to be true. Before Robert could defend him, a resolution boiled inside him. “You know what?” Edwin said clenching his fist, “I don’t fucking care what you think! I’m done giving a shit what people want from me, and I don’t give a damn whether you like me or not. Because you’re the reason I became a great tinker, and I’m not letting you leave because a five foot psycho prick wants you dead.”

Aryana sighed, disappointed she couldn’t make him hate her. “Both of you need to give up. Relationships never last forever, which is why I only stick with family. You both were just tools to us, so don’t make things personal.”

“Is this is why you joined us?” Robert asked over the sound of dwindling rain. “To have us as shields against Accord? What kind of plan was that? We were nobodies before you came along.”

Aryana nodded, “that was exactly the point. You guys were no-name villains so we thought we could stay low profile with you two. We figured if we stayed as joke-villains, we’d be a blip beneath Accord’s radar. I knew we’d have been found eventually, I just didn’t think it would be because we became popular enough to be noticed.”

Robert shook his head, “I know how Accord works, running won’t last forever.”

“I know he’ll get me eventually,” she eyed at her own tattoo. “I don't mind that. It happens to everyone eventually. The longer you stick with us, the more likely Accord will want you dead too. We’re not worth having around.”

“You know,” Edwin smiled, “I wish you told us that a few hours ago. Because from this point on, we’re all on the same sinking ship.”

Aryana raised an eyebrow, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

XXX

Accord stared down at his computer screen. His hands were trembling at the sight of the words in front of him.

EnLArG3 UR PIn3s

10000 Horny Moms in YOUR AREA!

Cum to Cheating House Wives looking for desperate men

Desperate? Try viagra!

Dear sir: The prince of Nigeria humbly requests for your help.​

Accord called down to the office, “have there been any technical difficulties with your computers?”

“Yes sir. A spam related virus has frozen most of our hardware. I’ve called the rest of staff, they’re reporting the same issue all over the building.”

Accord looked down at his computer. This was his personal computer, not even connected to the internet.

Another message came up:

Welcome. To the Tinker Toy Box Cardboard chewing Flame Boards.

Sponsored by: Accord
​

In another universe, Toy Box tinkers typed away at their terminals. Connected through video footage as they spammed Accord.

“This is fun,” Dodge said. “I might start doing this in my spare time.”

“Damnit,” Toy Soldier said, “I think we’ve just turned Dodge to a troll.”

Big Rig laughed, “so it’s true, trolling is a virus. I never thought I’d use my powers for spamming.”

Glace tapped at her microphone, “oh my, Accord, it appears you’ve just gained a massive shipment of viagra. Tis a shame it won’t help cure you of your tiny hands.”

Big Rig raised an eyebrow, “Glace, why is all your spam viagra focused?’

“Because that limp dick mother fucker took my cash.” Glace typed personal hate mail to him as she disrupted the communications within Accord’s building.

Pyrotechnical said, “whoever photoshopped Accord’s face in that porno, screenshot his reaction. I wanna send it to him later.”

Cranial shook her head and took a deep breathe, “I can’t believe we’ve all stooped to Leet’s level.”

At his office, Accord watched in fury as the spam became more and more grotesque. He tried turning off the screen, it didn’t turn off. He unplugged it, it didn’t turn off. He finally smashed the monitor with his bare hands.

An Ambassador entered his office with a written note. She gave a courteous nod, and handed him the piece of paper. It was an ultimatum: Unfreeze our ass-sets. Or this will never stop.

XXX

“Toy Box international?” Aryana asked.

"It was all Robert's idea," Edwin said. "The idea was to start an overseas account and begin recruiting tinkers from all over the world. India, Africa, South America, you name it. The internet can go a long way to connecting tinkers who have been isolated for a long time."

"Accord made us fast track that," Robert explained. "We figure since he froze our assets in North America, starting an overseas account would be out of his reach. We got a jump start loan from a group in India, so Accord has no leverage on us anymore."

Robert’s phone began vibrating. He looked over to Aryana and said, “it’s Accord.”

She took a step back, it was the first time Robert had even seen her worried. “Answer it,” she said.

Robert answered, “sup Accord.”

Accord’s voice was calm, “Toy Box’s assets have been returned. I hope this will put an end to their charade.”

“Too bad that won’t stop the shipment of viagra,” Robert chuckled.

“Uber. When will my communications return?”

“As soon as you call off the hit on Rush.”

There was a pause on the telephone. “She’s Simurgh tainted.”

Robert looked over to Aryana. He checked over at her hand, “she says she’s Simurgh tainted on our videos all the time. Really, is that supposed to surprise me?”

“She’s a ticking time bomb. She’ll break everything she touches. You’ll be left with ashes. That’s not a warning, nor a threat, it’s a premonition. She’s better gone now before that happens.”

“Funny, that’s exactly how she described you, my OCD friend.”

Accord’s eye twitched. But he stayed calm solely to avoid feeding Uber’s ego.

“Again,” Robert insisted, “we’re agents of chaos. So that actually works really well with us. So for your own sake, maybe you should just give up trying to kill the Simrugh chosen girl, and forget she was ever a part of your life.”

Accord fell quiet. Nothing he could say would convince him. “I’d like to speak with her.”

Robert looked over to Aryana. He mouthed that Accord wanted to talk with her. Aryana gave him a wide eyed stare, one riddled with fear and hollowness. It had been months since she'd spoken to him, she took the phone from Robert.

“Hi.”

“I’m glad we could speak again,” Accord said in a plain voice.

Unsure what to say, Aryana replied, “okay.”

“What did you mean when you said, ‘I lied to you?’”

Aryana swallowed, “I don't remember.” She did remember, but she didn't want to tell him. Accord had a knack for kicking down ideologies that could prop up against his own. She didn't want him to know the truth about what she felt.

“I see,” Accord said unsatisfied. “I watched your videos.”

She knew he hated them. Half the reason she adopted that absurd personality was to make him angry. She still felt the need to ask, “do you like them?”

“I did.” He lied. “You should keep making them.”

Aryana’s mouth twitched. In a single sentence he let her know that she had no control over him. All she wanted to do was exert a level of control over his emotions. It was just a game to them. They were tugging at each other’s hate for the sake of earning each other's anger.

She asked, “Are you going to kill me?”

“No.” He said calmly, “you're a walking time bomb. I'll wait for the world to collapse on you.”

They both knew it was true. She wished she could say something smart or witty to piss him off, but Accord only invoked silence into her. She mustered a single word, "okay."

“Pass me to Uber,” Accord said.

She handed the phone to Robert, to which he noticed her hands shaking. “Yo,” Robert said.

“I’ll call off the assassination. But it’s only fair I warn you, anomalies of chaos don’t necessarily work well together. There will come a day where she’ll fail you, and you may regret defending her today.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“Will falters, Uber.”

“Still worth it. Her kind of crazy is better than your kind of crazy.”

Accord hung up. Robert looked up at Aryana, “so… Still planning on leaving?’

Aryana shook her head, “I don’t know. I’ve only been making up plans since I left Boston.” She looked over to Vivan, “Vivan, you decide.”

Vivan blinked, and fell back on a phrase he often repeated, “I just go where you tell me.”

Aryana bit her lip, “Vivan, you're the only reason I left Accord in the first place. Quite being a tool and just pick for me.”

Vivan smiled, “Brockton Bay needs a better class of villains. Not the villains they deserve, or even the ones they want, but the Losers are definitely the kind of villains they need.”

 

“I like it. You should keep making them.”

Why did those words hit her hardest? She'd adopted a persona that was supposed to contradict him. To earn his hate, for the sake of owning some control over him. Instead, if anything, he still controlled her, because she still revolved her character around him. It was like the last few months had been a complete waste of time.

Robert stepped onto the apartment balcony. “Yo,” he said. She was the only one in her unit that night, Emily didn’t stay on weekdays. The morning mist was still across the city, from the floor they were on, they stared just above the mist to see the high rises of the city with the warm steam obscuring the streets.

“Hi,” she said in a quiet tone. She was running her fingers against the gift wrapped present Accord had given her. She refused to open it.

“What's wrong?” He asked. She’d gone quiet since she and Vivan returned home. She acted happy around Vivan, but whenever he caught her alone, it was like she needed time to think about something.

“You still don't have to stay here,” Robert said. “You don't owe us anything.”

“I know.”

He’d taken away her death wish. She couldn’t hate him for it, but he took away something she’d been asking for for a long time. Being close to danger was a thrill to her. Narrowly escaping death gave her the sense of control over her own life, or the sense of non-control by believing that the Simurgh was somehow keeping her alive. Either way, she liked the cloud over her head. It made her feel safe, powerful, and now it was gone.

“You said you joined the Wards because someone put a gun on your head, what did you mean by that?”

Robert snickered, “it's not a big deal. My foster parents caused me to trigger because they kept pressuring me to win sports competitions. After I triggered, they forced me to join the Wards the same way they forced me to do everything else. So I never enjoyed my time there. I guess I became a villain solely to piss them off.”

“How’s that working for you?”

“Working great if you ask me. To be honest though, I’m not a villain to piss anyone off anymore. That doesn’t last forever. I like being strange. Being a hero is too idealistic, being a pure villain is boring. I just want to have fun while I have these powers.”

“Making up for lost time?” Aryana asked.

“Something like that. I like to think of the world like Mass Effect. It's not about the endgame, it's about all the roadmaps you take throughout the game. You can still have fun playing, even if the ending sucks, or the endings are the same.”

“Renegade for life then?” Aryan jabbed a punch at Robert’s shoulder.

“Paragade for life,” He bumped her back. She rubbed at her shoulder with a smile. Robert looked down at her exposed hand and tapped a finger on her tattoo. “Accord told me that’s real.”

Aryana looked down at her hand, “you know, I vaporized earth in that game. You still think endings don’t matter?”

“Honestly, yes. This doesn’t change anything.”

Aryana smiled, “when I saw the Simurgh for the first time, I honestly thought it was an angel… What a load of shit.” Aryana tapped at the balcony rail, “are you going to tell Edwin?”

None of them were sure how Edwin would react. Sure, he had an immense loyalty to his team, but before Aryana came along, he was incredibly cautious with his powers. There was a very real possibility he’d stop tinkering all together if he found out he was heavily influenced by someone Simurgh tainted. “Of course not,” Robert answered. “I just… Can’t see you becoming a bad person.”

“You don’t really know me,” she said with a sigh. She rested Accord’s gift on the side of the balcony. “Robert, I’m not sure if this is because of Accord, the Simurgh, or because of how I triggered. Either way, I don’t feel attachment the same way other people do. I can get close to people when I’m in the moment, but I don’t feel attachment forever like other people do. I’ll love the person in front of me, but the moment they go away, I’ll move on like they were never a part of my life. I don’t miss things, I can’t get attached to anything. And I know it’s because there’s something wrong with me…”

“Living in the moment?” Robert said, “that’s not so bad. Ever feel the urge to murder people like in Red Dead Redemption?”

“No,” Aryana said, “but I’ve never felt regret murdering someone either.”

Robert’s eyes widened. “Oh…”

“Nothing feels real sometimes…. Like I’ve gone through so many highs and lows, that none of it effects me anymore.”

Robert thought about Endbringer events, how a lot of recruits would fight optimistically, and come out changed and numb to loss. “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” he said plainly. “When people are forced to go through horrible things, they cope. Adapt so that they can still function with some level of normalcy. I don’t think that makes you crazy or bad, just…”

“Different?” She asked.

“Not different, just changed. Everyone is different, you’re not so different from the rest of us.”

Aryana smiled, “so basically… I’m a Loser like everyone else.”

“Bingo. I still can’t believe how proud you are to call yourself that.”

“Thank Tattletale,” Aryana and Robert fist bumped, “it’s the little things that piss people off.”

Aryana wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore. A death wish didn’t go according to plan, and living on the fuel of earning someone’s hate was self-destructive. She kept thinking of Robert’s analogy, what character do I want to play in this game? She wasn’t sure. But she did make a promise to herself, she wasn’t going to revolve herself around external forces that were outside of her control.

She leaned over to Robert and kissed the side of his cheek. Then she stroked a finger against his golden hair and kissed him on the lips.

After five seconds, Robert backed away. “Nope.”

“Oh come on, I’ve got this pent of energy I’ve gotta burn off somehow.” She leaned closer to him again, to which he pushed her away.

“Girl, I will throw you off this balcony.” He wasn’t kidding, either.

“Come on,” she pulled off her jacket, “you can’t seriously tell me you’d reject a hormonal fertile girl who’s literally throwing herself onto you.”

Robert walked into the apartment living room. She floated towards him. He said, “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have flirted with Edwin for three months just to make him a better tinker.”

Aryana’s mouth shrunk. He was right, she couldn't argue that what she'd done wasn't wrong, even if they both felt the methods justified the results. “Relax, I’m gonna hook him up with Emily.”

“Nope,” Robert said heading out the door. “Bro-code. He likes you, I’m not touching you.”

“Touch me goddamnit!”

He closed the door behind him, leaving her in her apartment alone. “Goddamnit,” she took out her cell phone and called Emily.

“Aryana?” Emily answered whispering, “class just started, did something happen?”

“Emily, I need a big favor from you. I’m also willing to pay you for it.”

“Are you trying to prostitute me again?”

“...Kind of.”

She hung up. “Okay...” Aryana said to herself, “I really need to learn to be more subtle.”

XXX

Inside the Korean restaurant, the Losers took the liberty to buy all the customers free drinks until the PRT arrived. The customers were hardy, and surprisingly open to being held ‘hostage’ while the PRT slowly surrounded the restaurant. Spitfire sang Korean pop music through the karaoke machine while the rest of the ‘hostages’ cheered her on.

“She’s surprisingly good,” Leet said sitting at the bar stool.

Light looked at the laptop on one of the dining tables. “The fans still want to know when you’re gonna ask her out.”

Rush tapped at her phone as she reposted shipping comments that involved Leet and Spitfire.

Leet’s face turned red underneath his domino mask. “Can you just tell them I’m gay? To save me from future awkwardness.”

“Will do buddy,” Light typed into the livestream chat, quenching some of the rumors.

Rush glared at them. ‘Goddamnit Leet, you need to man the fuck up…’

Their camera drone was hovering around the room, emitting warm lights to brighten the mood. The livestream this time was more reliant on their mask feed while Marvin edited the feed from their base. Uber looked at the two restaurant owners that were tied up behind the counter. “Are you guys comfortable?” Uber asked in Korean.

The Korean man, slightly over the age of forty, looked mildly annoyed, “you guys better pay for those drinks when you guys are done.”

His wife smiled next to him. She nodded, “as long as you all can keep the ABB out of our business, these handcuffs aren’t so bad.” She didn’t understand why the handcuffs were pink and furry, but no one had the heart to explain where Rush had gotten them from.

The Loser’s ‘uniforms’ were actually diverse clothes meant to mimic something from k-pop bands. Leet wore a glittering suit while Light opted for a ‘rock band’ get up that matched Leet through dark color schemes. Rush wore formal black jeans with a tucked in dress shirt, and Uber had on a pink skirt with a tight t-shirt. The whole team agreed to make Spitfire wear the school girl uniform.

Spitfire just finished singing through the song ‘roly-poly’, before the sounds of sirens closed in from the distance. “Damnit,” one of the customers said in Korean, “someone shut those guys up, the lights hurt my goddamn eyes.”

His Caucasian-American friend sat next to him. In perfect Korean he replied, “try squinting your eyes, that helps me all the time.”

Everyone, both the Losers, Customers, and the hostages, yelled Korean at the same time, “racist bastard!”

XXX

The Wards and Protectorate arrived at nearly the same time. The PRT had already barricaded up most of the streets and lowered their sirens. The restaurant sat at the edge of Koreatown, just narrowly outside of ABB territory. It was one of the more expensive restaurants. The exterior of the building wasn’t distinctly Korean, the owner’s design for the restaurant was meant to appeal to an American-Korean cultural mix.

Battery and Assault left the PRT vans with Armsmaster leading them. It had reached the point where they agreed not to bring full firepower against the Losers. Since they rarely posed an actual threat, escalating conflict was discouraged, and instead, they did their best to make their battles a learning opportunity for the Wards.

All the Wards were there, including Shadow Stalker, whom hated Light more than anything. Battery said to the Wards, “we’re not planning extended combat this time. With hostages inside, we won’t let them get into danger in anyway.”

Clockblocker looked at his phone. “Clockblocker,” Aegis said, “now’s not the time.”

“Hold on…” He pulled up the Loser’s webpage. “I knew it. They’re livestreaming right now. Check out the hostages.”

He faced the phone screen to the Wards. Leet was beginning his Korean karaoke performance while Rush and Uber were taking shots with the customers. Light spoke to a young girl there that was the restaurant owners’ daughter. Even though she was handcuffed to the bar counter, she was surprisingly pleasant to Light, even speaking to him in a flirtatious manner.

“This doesn’t feel like a hostage situation...” Kid Win commented.

“I’d like to make a suggestion,” Aegis said. “The Losers are better known as entertainers than threats to civilian lives. If one of us could go inside and negotiate terms, maybe this ‘hostage’ situation can end without a confrontation.”

The plan made sense, considering the Loser’s tactics. But Armsmaster didn’t like entertaining the games that they often played. In fact, Armsmaster often felt he was the only one serious about arresting them. While most considered the Loser’s as the mascot villains of Brockton Bay, Armsmaster believed they undermined the gravity of crime.

“I volunteer Clockblocker as tribute,” Vista suggested.

“No way,” Kid Win said, “do you have any idea how many jailbait jokes that would lead to?”

“Well it can’t be me,” Vista argued, “Rush never stops hugging me whenever we’re close.”

Clockblocker looked over to Shadow Stalker, “hey Shadow Stalker, could you seduce Light and trick them to-”

“Fuck you,” she said before he could finish the statement.

XXX

Taylor walked to the street corner three blocks from the library. When she visited to the library to search for more parahuman information, she was surprised to see that the Losers were livestreaming close from where she was. Unwilling to miss the opportunity, she walked out and reached the restaurant where the hostage situation was.

The barricades were up with police lights flashing and low sirens all around. She saw the heroes for the first time up close. There were a few pedestrians around the PRT barriers to try and film the conflict with their cell phones. Taylor walked as close as she could get to near the heroes.

She couldn’t hear them from outside the crossing line, but as she drew her bugs into the building, she realized she didn’t need to. Her bugs could hear the music inside. It was difficult since the restaurant was mostly bug free, but as she converged more bugs to their location, she could hear the voices inside.

“Leet,” Rush said, “got the bomb ready?”

“You know it.”

Shit, Taylor thought, they’re going to far this time.

XXX

“Hello, my lovely heroes of the overworld,” Rush’s distinct tone echoed across the streets. The Protectorate looked forward to see mechanical helicopter-like drone flying closer to them. There was a screen at it’s front to show Rush’s face speaking directly at them.

“Today,” she said with a smile through the drone, “on the Loser-”

“Armsmaster!” Leet pushed Rush aside. He stole the mic and yelled, “you’re a bull**** fake ****** tinker, you know that!?”

Armsmaster with a cold face replied, “says the kid who buys robots from Toy Box because he can't outgrow video games."

“You son of a-”

“Stop getting in your own way!” Rush pushed him away and took the mic back from Leet. Annoyed, she looked back to the screen. “As I was saying… Today, on the Loser channel. We have taken the liberty to claim this wonderful restaurant as our territory.”

An advertisement banner shamelessly formed at the bottom of the screen. Prices of the store’s menu popped up, with words -Great Meals For Great Deals! - passing by. She continued to speak as the ad cycled through the menu.

“And in order to protect our wonderful new entrepreneurship, not only have we taken the owners hostage, but we’ve also taken the liberty to guard it with the greatest weapon ever made!”

The drone’s display turned to Spitfire. She held up the drone that Armsmaster had deactivated a few days ago. “This,” Rush said, “is a kiloton neutron bomb. And unless you want the west side of this city to blow up… I suggest you do exactly what we say.”

“She’s lying,” Shadow Stalker said, “we’ve seen this trick before. Leet’s just bluffing because he’s a shitty tinker.”

Leet twitched at the sound of that. In silent anger, he grabbed the bomb and opened the restaurant front doors. The PRT officers and capes watched as Leet lifted the drone over his head and pointed at Shadow Stalker. “Say that again mother******! I’m not bluffing this time!”

“I said,” Shadow Stalker continued, “you’re full of-”

“Shadow Stalker enough!” Armsmaster yelled. “Do not provoke him! My helmet is detecting immense radiation from that device, do not risk provoking him!”

The wards took a step back. Gallent asked, “wait, they actually did it? They built a tiny nuke just for the joke of it?”

Leet snickered, “that’s right, fear me biiiitch.” He returned inside and slammed the doors behind him, right after flicking them all off.

“I told you we’re bad guys!” Rush said over the intercoms and drone. “Like, do we have to spell it out for you? If I threw you a dollar for every fuck we gave, you’d have zero dollars.”

Light tossed a wad of bills out the window.

“Light,” Rush yelled, “stop giving them our fucks!”

“I don’t want my fucks,” Light retorted, “fuck my fucks, I don’t give a fuck about fucks.”

The wad of bill rolled over the Assault’s feet. He picked up the money and was genuinely surprised, “one thousand dollars… Wow, they really don’t give a fuck.”

Battery glared at her husband, “don’t you dare take that money. They probably stole it.”

Assault passed it for Clockblocker, both of them pretended it was collected for evidence.

“What are your demands,” Armsmaster said .

Rush grinned, “we’ve taken the liberty to take requests from our fans. And according to our livestream chat... We demand that Shadow Stalker and Light get a room.”

“God no,” Light said over the intercom. “How dare they objectify us like play things. I’m offended on both our behalfs.”

Shadow Stalker clenched her fist, don’t fucking say anything. They’re just trying to piss you off….

“Besides, I can do much better than Shadow Stalker.”

Shadow Stalker yelled, “says the five foot little bastard that dresses like a mascot!”

“Don’t call me little!” Light yelled through to front of the drone camera, “I am five two and still growing! Get it right!”

“Little!” Shadow Stalker yelled, “little little little little!”

Light yelled, “shut up you wannabe hero! You don’t even dress like a good guy!”

“Little little little!”

“Your arrows are fake!”

“Little!”

“Argghh,” Light busted open the entrance doors. He almost charged over at the hero team before Uber and Spitfire grabbed him by the arms and dragged him back inside. They hastily closed the doors before he could start a one sided fight.

No one could see Shadow Stalker smiling beneath her mask. Clockblocker commented, “Shadow Stalker, I think you just found his weakness.”

“Okay… That was weird…” Rush returned to reading the livestream chat. “Let’s avoid murder and forget that one. Demand number two, Kid Win becomes a man and sells his virginity to the highest bidder.”

Kid Win lifted a finger up, but Gallant quickly stopped him from talking. “Don’t make it worse, I guarantee they’ll run out of things to say.”

“Demand number three,” Rush read, “Clockblocker freezes a…. Oh my God, my fans are disgusting.”

“You reap what you sow,” Spitfire commented.

“Lets cut to the chase,” Uber said, borrowing the mic from Rush. “Leet’s bomb will blow up half the city unless Armsmaster follows a few simple orders. Orders which involve him stepping calmly into the building, unarmed and by himself.”

Armsmaster looked over at the Protectorate members, “I’m willing negotiate for the hostages. Just promise no one will get hurt if I step inside.”

“Mwahaha,” Leet laughed from the background.

Rush answered, “we promise the hostages won’t get hurt, nothing more…”

Uber looked towards Leet, “Leet, put your gun away.”

Light laughed, “haha, innuendo. You guys can’t see this, but Leet just put his dick away.”

Rush yelled, “God Light, get your mind out of the gutter.”

Spitfire commented, “you know, I used to be pretty normal before I met you guys…”

XXX

Taylor hid her bugs on some of the joints of the Wards, Protectorate members, and Losers. She could get a thin outline of their bodies by visualizing them based on where her bugs were located. Like a skeletal computer model of their bodies.

Armsmaster stepped inside with no Halberd at hand. He looked around at the ‘hostages.’ The sound of foreign hip hop music filled his ears. “Oopa!” All the customers took another shot glass the moment Armsmaster stepped inside. Even the kitchen was still cooking fresh meat for everyone to smell. Each of them were enjoying themselves, having free drinks while willing to be a part of the plan the Losers had for them.

“This won’t last forever,” Armsmaster said to the Losers in a stoic tone. “This game you’re all playing, it’ll never last. Some people might entertain the games you all play, but not me. When the opportunity comes up, I will put an end to your charades.”

“Oh my,” Rush said waving him off with her Simurgh hand, “what epic foreshadowing.”

Light said, “I bet a thousand fucks Armsmaster will someday get his ass kicked ironically by a tinker.”

“You’re on,” Uber said. Uber and Light threw a wad of cash in front of Armsmaster's feet.

Leet stepped forward to Armsmaster. He looked up at him from his shorter height. “I have one demand.” Leet crossed his arms with a grin across his face, “say I’m the better tinker, or else I blow up this city.”

Armsmaster’s helmet said Leet was telling the truth. But he wondered if Leet had some sort of tool that threw off his lie detector. “No.” Armsmaster answered, refusing to give up his pride so easily.

Leet’s eyes widened. “Um… Dude, we’ll blow up a city if you don’t say it.”

“I think you're bluffing,” Armsmaster glared closer to Leet, giving him an intimidating gaze. “I think you’re still a joke tinker, and this whole conversation is just a ruse.”

Shit, Leet thought to himself myself, he knows I’m screwing with his helmet. “You’re seriously gonna risk that? Me blowing up this city, just because you don’t want to say one sentence.”

Armsmaster said, “I’m pretty sure I can trust my gut more than you can trust yours.”

Rush commented, "is anyone else turned on by this?"

Leet swallowed, goddamnit, this fucker’s got me right where he wants me...

Spitfire said, “he’ll do it. He was laughing all day while he made that bomb. He’s been wanting to use it all day."

“Yeah,” Light added, “are you really gonna risk the city for a single sentence? I probably would, but I'm irresponsible."

“We’ve also been drinking all day,” Uber mentioned, “Don’t ask us to make rational decisions.”

“Ditto,” Rush commented. “Half of us are also high as fuck, how else do you think we can screw around like this?”

Leet looked over to Spitfire. She had the fake bomb in her hands while nervously eyeing at them. There was no way out of this, all he could do was give the signal to activate the bomb and then retreat.

Before he could give the signal, the sound of crawling grew around them. Cockroaches converged hastily as they amassed from the cracks in the ground. The bugs climbed on top of each other, forming a giant bulge of a person next to Armsmaster.

Customers threw their drinks to the ground as bugs passed by the dining tables. As the glass shattered they ran out in screaming panic towards every window and open exit they could find. The bug-constructed creature formed a humanoid arm and hissed out, “staaaahp.”

The music stopped. The Losers watched with their mouths gaped open in shock as the creature spoke. “Leet,” Uber said, “please tell me you made a new minion.”

Leet shook his head slowly. Taylor got the idea of using a doppelganger from watching the Losers use their holograms for deceit and manipulation. A few of the major things she learned from their videos; take control of the situation, choose your own battles, never let all your tricks be known immediately, and always use psychological warfare against your enemies.

And instead of mockery, Taylor decided to use fear.

“Oh my God,” Rush yelled, “Armsmaster just summoned Satan!”

Armsmaster looked at the insectoid creature with pure intrigue. Loud hostile buzzing filled the air over the Loser's heads.

“Run!” Light said, “just run, fuck it, spawnchild is gonna kill us!”

“It's a trick guys,” Spitfire said while insects hissed at their ears, “those bugs aren't even biting us.”

A cockroach crawled across Uber’s hand, “nope, this is getting too gross and weird. Respawn to base!”

Uber disappeared. A horde of flies flew in Leet’s direction, “no no no, respawn to base!”

Leet disappeared. Rush almost stayed behind, but then beetles crawled inside her shoes. “Abort mission! Respawn to base!”

“Oh God,” Light swapped at moths flying around his head, “the touching! They're touching me!”

“Light,” Spitfire said as ants crawled up her legs. A small swarm of bumble bees hissed around her mask as she spoke, “they’re not even biting, it’s ok-”

“Nope,” Light yelled, “nope nope nope nope nope. Fuck it, respawn to fucking base!”

Spitfire covered her face in shame, “am I the only one here who isn't afraid of bugs? Spitfire respawn to base.”

XXX

“Oh God, they're still crawling in my boots!” Aryana pulled off her boots and threw them out the window. She grabbed a sweater to start swatting insects off the apartment floors.

“Cockroaches in my pants, I'm taking them off.” Robert pulled off his leggings. Aryana wanted to watch him strip, but the freed bugs instantly made her lose interest.

“The moths…” Light shivered as he walked forward while hugging himself, “so… freakishly… furry.”

Spitfire looked down at the beetles that were caught on her costume. She poked a few that fell off her feet. “Guys, they're not intelligent anymore. There's nothing to be freaked out about anymore.”

“Ugh,” the sink filled with the smell of Edwin's puke. A fly twitched in his vomit. “I swallowed a damn horsefly, that's not natural.”

Vivan scrubbbed at his arms, “I don't believe in god, but what the unholy fuck was that hellfire demon spawn creature from Satan?”

“Maybe it was a Tinker invention?” Emily said, trying to stay calm for everyone else’s sake.

“I'll call Toy Box and see if they know anything,” Robert suggested.

Aryana looked at all the bugs that were scurrying around the apartment, seemingly normal compared to where they just came from. She said, “can we all agree to just run like hell if bugs show up again?”

“Agreed,” the rest of them said together.

 

Mouse Protector marched across the night!

She quipped and she turned, she minced and she miced , she slid across Brockton Bay’s streets ready to dice for a fight! Her first steps into bringing justice to this dark city of darkity darkness, was to find the missing child the Protectorate so beseechingly seeked.

And what clues did she have to find this missing child?.... None at at all. Zip. Zerp. Nada. How does one say zero in french?

She knew close to nothing about the city. All she knew was the basic run downs of the villains and heroes that the Protectorate files offered. (And what rumors the internet had before she visited the city, ‘oh how I love fan theories’.) Overall, she was on her own. Like a true crusading vigilante viciously masquerading in mystery!

She parkoured her way through building rooftops, satisfied that her stamina didn’t waver. As she entered the heart of ABB territory, she noticed a group of asian kids, dressed up in baggy clothes, matching colors, and an array of tattoos across their bodies. Using her detective skills, she deduced that they were all ABB gang members. ‘Or at least I hope they’re ABB members. I may be black, but I really really really don’t want to come off as racist….’

Mouse Protector pounced several floors down from the fire escape, landing onto the ground in a single badass landing. ‘I wish the Losers caught that on camera…’

She revealed herself from the night alleyway and pointed to the supposed gang members. “Stop, evil doers!” She said it with confidence, but inside, she prayed that she wasn’t being judgmental.

The young hooligans (‘Please be hooligans, please be hooligans, please be hooligans’) stepped back from the woman in the mouse ears. Mouse Protector’s protractor shield and blunted sword were recognizable enough, even if she wasn’t from their city.

The five boys stood back, and a man with a red mask with horns stepped forward. He wore a distinct demon like mask with two horn extruding from it’s head. It was Japanese in design, and his komodo-military accessorized costume told her that it was Oni Lee.

‘Yes! I was right, I’m not racist!’

“Goat man!” Mouse Protector proclaimed, “I challenge you to a d-d-d-d-duel!”

One boy amongst the hooligans chuckled, which was met with a slap on the head by his friend. Oni Lee scanned Mouse Protector from head to toe (which sort of creeped Mouse Protector out). “You’re not from this city,” Oni Lee said in a distorted voice beneath his mask.

“Indeed,” Mouse Protector said, “for mice of my kind need no limits when it comes to justice. For I am the protector of mice everywhere! And you have trespassed on the thing known as injustice!”

Oni Lee tilted his head. Shivers fell down Mouse Protector’s spines, ‘this guy is creepy.’ Oni Lee sprinted towards her unsheathing two butcher knives at hand. ‘Not so subtle, my goat friend.’ She kicked him in the chest and flipped back in an acrobatic motion. When she looked up at him, his body turned into white dust.

‘Oh yeah, he explodes.’

She turned behind herself and found the wannabe ninja trying to shaq her in the stomach. She kneed his arm out of the way and punched him in the neck. He turned to dust again. ‘Fucking tinkers… Oh wait, wrong chapter.’

She tapped at the next copycat (hehe, pun) the moment she teleported to it’s side, it popped into dust, making her ‘tag’ point disappear along with it. ‘Okay, so I can’t teleport to him if I tag his after image.’ Oni Lee appeared to her left, then right, then behind her. Each time he teleported, Mouse Protector dodged, parried, and smacked in a heroic fashion. Until finally!... She ran away.

‘Too many, too many, too many!’

As she ran across the street underneath the city lamps, Oni Lee gave chase trying to cut her down as she ran across the streets. He appeared in a knelled position ahead of her, and tried slashing at her feet. She stepped onto his face and flipped forward. Another Oni Lee clone tried stabbing her when she landed. She head butted that clone and spun around ahead of him.

Fortunately, she was agile enough to avoid him, unfortunately, he wouldn’t stop reaching her because his goddamn teleporting was bullshit. She eventually ran far past and away from ABB territory. Fun fact; rogue heroes were especially susceptible to murder since they aren’t a part of an official team. Oni Lee was really pressing his luck with her. With no tag to teleport home to, her only option was to keep running until she reached where she knew the Protectorate was patrolling at.

This was a big hit to her pride. Her first time in a new city and she couldn’t even annoy the person trying to kill her. Which was a first. She stopped and turned around, deciding she needed to say something cool to him. She pointed outwards and yelled, “konichiwa!” Not knowing what it meant.

Before Oni Lee could try and slash at her throat, beetles scratched at his feet. An unholy mass of beetles were carried to him by winged bug. They dropped onto Oni Lee as he hissed out, “Spawnchild”, in a villainous tone.

Oni Lee teleported away, but the bugs still latched onto him and pierced into his skin. Bees and wasps filled his face as he scrunched back in pain. He teleported further and further away until he was out of sight. “Hahaha!” Mouse Protector said as he left her view, “This guardian of mice always has several critters than up her sleeve!” She looked at her own hands, “so... do I have a super secret power?”

“No.” A voice behind her said.

A girl, looked to be a teenager, walked over from the darkness to her. She wore a costume that was morbidly yellow-gray, with big beady eyes that looked like the eyes of a mosquito. “Spawnchild?” Mouse Protector said with her head tilted.

Taylor swallowed, “um… that's not really my name, the internet kind of just picked that for me.”

“Spawnchild! It is you!” Mouse Protector sprinted towards her and shook her hand without permission, “big fan. I thought you were gonna go Carrie on those guy in your last video.”

“What?” The girl shook her head. “I would never-”

“Is it true you made a deal with satan to get your power?”

Taylor’s eyes widened, “Of course not!”

“Is it true you look like an oversized mosquito beneath your skin?”

“What? No! Why do people say this?”

“Is it true you feed on homeless people for nutrition?”

“God no!” Taylor flung her arms in the air, “I show up in one video, and everything thinks I’m some sort of monster! I was just trying to scare them, I’m not a villain!”

"You're not a villain?" Mouse Protector tilted her head. “To be fair, Spawnchild is kind of a villain name.”

“I didn't even pick it,” Taylor said frustrated. It was almost like she was mistaking Mouse Protector for all the accumulated trolls she'd argued with online. “Those guys said it once, and now the whole world thinks I'm some sort of monster…”

“Oh, so you're not a Satan follower.” Mouse Protector snapped her fingers, “darn, I was hoping you could call upon Satan to help me out.”

Taylor blinked beneath her mask. For some reason, Mouse Protector vaguely reminded her of Rush from the Loser’s videos. “You’re… Mouse Protector, right?”

“Aw, so my reputation precedes me.” Mouse Protector clapped her hands together. She gave Taylor a low bow. “Indeed I am, my Carrie-styled friend. I, am Mouse Protector! Protector of all that are mice and mices, minuscule advocator of good, gnawer of evil, and wretched enemy to the wicked! I have come to Brockton Bay to spread my goodiest of deeds, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, bug girl, defeaters of the Losers!”

Taylor let out a sigh, ‘she really is, just like Rush.’ “I’d rather not go by bug girl. It's not very intimidating.”

“And what kind of image, would you rather inflict upon your enemies my devious ally?”

Taylor shrugged. “Something heroic, to be honest. It's just too bad there aren't really any bug themed hero names.”

“What about Firefly?”

“Firefly?”

“Or Arachne kid. Or Critter Commander. Or Swarm Daughter!”

“Those sound… Okay…”

“Cretin Caller, Bugz rise, or Antenna Mite!”

“Hold on,” Taylor interrupted, “let me write some of these down. Those are pretty good.”

“Take a seat kid,” Mouse Protector patted bug girl on the head, “it’s not every day a damsel in distress gets to help out her savior.”

 

Such lovely walls they all had! And windows! Such lovely frame painted windows! So this must be what it’s like to be rich… I should really redecorate my home…

She turned her head back to Armsmaster facing the big tinker thingy tv screen. He pointed across the projector like he knew what he was talking about. Mouse Protector liked to pretend his helmet was showing a romantic comedy shows at the side, and he was enjoying dramatic soap operas while he debriefed the Protectorate of what was to be expected for their next perilous missions.

“He was last seen leaving Clarendon high school and heading onto the bus,” Armsmaster said with his laser pointer thingy. (Mouse Protector wondered if the laser pointer was tinker made.)

“Question!” Mouse Protector mused, “is that laser pointer tinker made?”

Duantless, Triumph, Miss Militia, Velocity, Battery, and Assault, all sat around her in the debriefing table.They all stared at her. Armsmaster replied, “Save questions for after the debriefing is done.” The man knew how to satisfy her, because she’d probably drop the question altogether once the debriefing was done.

“Theo Anders did not reportedly return home that day, and his father immediately filed a police report that very night. Typically this would be considered a paranoid father worried about his son, but considering that his father is a reputable business man in this city, we considered the possibility that he was kidnapped for ransom.

After conversing with our thinkers, it was determined that this was indeed a kidnapping. The following day, a note was left at his home, demanding one million dollars for the safe return of his son. They specified the kind of torture he would go through if the money wasn’t provided at a specific time at a specific location.

Our thinkers have determined that this was the work of the ABB, and our choices are either to give in to the ransom, or to find and rescue Theo before the ABB can carry out their threats. Max Anders has made it very clear that he has no intention of negotiating with criminals. He will not pay the ABB ransom for his son, making all responsibility for Theo’s safety drop onto us.”

“That’s cold,” Triumph said aloud. “He’s putting his son at risk for a PR stunt. And here I thought fathers were supposed to do anything for their kids.”

“That won’t always be the case,” Armsmaster said in a casual tone. “You’ll see situations like this often the longer you're with the Protectorate.”

Triumph nodded, willing to accept what the veteran member said. Armsmaster continued, “we have no leads so far. All we have are the locations of a few ABB businesses. Our mission is to thoroughly patrol these locations and collect any information of Theo’s whereabouts in whatever ways we can. Mouse Protector.”

Mouse Protector perked up, (she was literally playing with a toy mouse, seemingly not listening). He said, “since you’re visiting the city as a rogue hero, you have the option to either work alone or to patrol with the rest of us.”

Mouse Protector covered her chin with her forearm. She put on a low, raspy voice, “Mouse Protector works alone… For the Mouse Protector is the protector of the lonely nights!”

Dauntless and Miss Militia couldn’t help but chuckle. Triumph couldn’t help but groan in agony. “No offense, but I really don’t see Mouse Protector helping us improve our PR.”

“You’ll find that Glenn has a twisted sense of humor,” Battery commented.

“The man knows how to pull a leg when he wants to,” Velocity added.

“He was very sweet on the phone,” Mouse Protector said with a blush. “We’re meeting up for coffee later today.”

Miss Militia tilted her head. Triumph continued, “I get that we have a PR issue, but wouldn’t Mouse Protector going up against the Losers… Damage our reputation?”

“But the pun wars will be glorious,” Assault blurted out. Battery kicked her husband’s foot from underneath the table.

Armsmaster answered, “I stopped questioning how Glenn works a long time ago. As far as I’m concerned, Mouse Protector should be treated as any other new member should be.”

“Thank you, my glorious soap opera loving friend!” Mouse Protector placed her hands over her face, spreading out her fingers like they were whiskers.

“Soap opera?” Armsmaster questioned.

“Er, nevermind. It’s an inside joke… With myself.”

Ignoring her comment, Armsmaster wrapped up the presentation. “Before we start petrolling, are there anymore questions?”

Dauntless asked, “I can cover more ground on my own. Can I patrol alone tonight while the rest of you pair up in groups?”

Armsmaster frowned. “I’d rather we all stick together in some way. Lung is not someone I’d like for any of us to face alone. The same goes with Oni Lee. I’d like for you to pair up with Triumph tonight, just as you have been doing.”

Dauntless nodded, but he was slightly disappointed. Armsmaster was someone he’d looked up to since before he was a Ward. He watched him rise up to fame, and hoped that he could prove his strengths once he became a Protectorate member. But no matter how hard he tried, all his successes never seemed enough to satisfy Armsmaster.

Dauntless wanted a chance to prove his strengths, but Armsmaster never seemed to give him that chance. I’ll just have to try harder, he thought to himself.

The debriefing room’s lights came back on, and the projector turned off. The whole team headed out the room. Mouse Protector put an arm over Miss Militia, “hello my youth melicious warrior of justice.”

Miss Militia smiled, “I’m glad to have you back. We don’t have enough puns in the break room.”

“I noticed she doesn’t do a lot of puns though,” Assault pointed out walking behind them. “It’s actually a play on words. Puns are supposed to rhyme, not matching maliciously musingly on the musical first notes of a non whimsical sentence.”

Mouse Protector clapped her hands, “See? This guy gets it!”

“Please don’t encourage him,” Battery said to their distaste. “It’s bad enough he says nazi puns to the E88. I don’t need him using wordplay during all of our missions.”

“Aha!” Mouse Protector deduced, “so he watches the Loser’s videos too!”

Battery glared at Assualt, Assualt lifted his hands up in defense. “To be fair, I only watch them for.... Entertainment purposes.”

Battery thoroughly squinted at him under her mask. Miss Militia grinned, “I never realized how much I’ve missed you, Katherine.”

Even though Katherine and Hannah hadn’t seen each other for years, they still considered each other best friends. Katherine was the one who made Hannah feel most comfortable when she began high school in America. Katherine had no barriers to herself, which made Hannah open up to her the most when she could only speak broken english.

“Call me Kat, just like everyone in school used to.”

“You’re kidding?” Velocity said in disbelief.

“Kat never kids!” Kat proclaimed. “So, even though my side quest will involve looking for Theo Anders. Before we move out, what can you all tell me about these infamous self-proclaimed Losers that have wreaked havoc across Brockton Bay?”

Assault opened his mouth with a smile, but/ before he could say anything, Battery answered, “the Losers, are delinquents. They have no endgame or goals. They’re just living parodies of capes in general.”

“A parody yous say,” Mouse Protector rubbed her chin, “what wicked afoul disrespect such villainy beholds. But no matter! Justice will prevail, for light, always finds a way.”

“Light would love if you used that line on him,” Assault said.

Battery hissed at her husband, warning him to stop undermining the situation. “Crap, you’re right,” Mouse Protector tapped her forehead. “Half my lines use the word light in them, I can’t lose the war on words because they have a guy named Light.”

Assault couldn’t help himself, “when you face them, I pray to God they’ll record it.”

 

Light’s back dragged across the ground as Browbeat carried him by the ankle. While Browbeat made sure not to speak while he carried him, Light did everything in his power to strike up a conversation with Browbeat.

“Bro, bro bro bro, bro bro! Brah. Bro. Bro brah, brah bro. Broooooooo.”

Nothing fazed him. Really, there was no need for him to talk to Light. He wasn’t going to risk revealing unwanted information by being nice to Light. No, Browbeat was treating him like any other villain. Light had attacked him, and now he was literally getting dragged to jail.

“Bro buddy,” Light said being carried across the junkyard. “Brah bro, buddy pal. Bro cop, good cop, bro homes, bro home!”

Light, through sheer ignorance, wasn’t at all concerned about the predicament he’d caught himself in. He attacked Browbeat yelling ‘I challenge you, frenemy or foe!’, and launched a ball of light in Browbeat’s direction. Browbeat was largely on patrol to test the upper limits of his powers. To his pleasant surprise, Light’s “ka-me-ha-me-ha” (as he shouted) did not penetrate his telekinetic barrier.

To both their surprise, none of Light’s attacks harmed him. It was easy for Browbeat to grab Light, and grapple him in a way to prevent him from shifting away from him. Apparently, his Menton limit was that he couldn’t shift out of person’s grasp. Light was unfazed.

“Brooooooooooooooooooooooooo.”

Browbeat stayed quiet. He’d told Light the name he’d chosen, and Light was having a thrill making wordplay with it. He didn’t let it get to him. Maybe Light was trying to undermine his name, make him feel insecure through some sort of psychological warfare. Browbeat was better than that. Nothing fazed him. Ever.

“Going for the strong silent type I see. I can respect that.” Light let his arms drag as the junkyard’s garbage rubbed against his arms. He was outside wearing sweatpants, a t-shirt, and his half cracked mask. It was plainly obvious Light had attacked Browbeat through unplanned circumstances. “But you gotta make sure the few times you do talk are badass, or else you’ll just be forgotten like some sort of side character.”

“Being forgotten is the least of my concerns.” Browbeat said monotoned.

“See? Quotable line, right there. You’re already cool in my books.”

Browbeat was certain Light was trying to garner sympathy from him. Either that, or his persona online was as legitimate offline. Either way, nothing Light said truly mattered to him. Light had attacked him, Light was a villain, and now he was going to jail.

A mountain of bugs scurried in front of Browbeat, causing him to stop in his path. He didn’t flinch as the bugs piled up in front of him and formed a human-like figure. Light, however, quickly fell into panic from the ground. “Oh dear God, it’s Spawnchild! Lord have mercy! Oh Heavenly Father I repent for my sins! Browbeat, send me to the birdcage! Don’t let the bugs touch me!”

“Are you a villain, or hero?” Browbeat asked the bugs. Although it was hard to separate theories from facts online, the bug person did attack the Losers whom were villains, but that never specifically meant someone was a hero either.

“Hero.” The bug pile hissed, “I’ve never seen you before. Hero, or villain?” The bugs buzzing that would’ve made it difficult to hear if Browbeat weren’t so close. While Light was frantically trying to shake off Browbeat’s grasp, Browbeat was completely calm.

“Hero.” He answered. He thought about the possibility that bug person was lying to get his guard down, but Browbeat guessed that his shield could protect him from bugs as well. No harm in being honest this time.

The pile of bugs collapsed to the ground like water. Another cape revealed herself a short distance away from behind a garbage pile. She had a dark skin tone, with a mickey mouse helmet and emblem on her chest. It contrasted the warrior-like attire style that carried the metal gauntlets on her wrists and legs. “Ah yes,” Mouse Protector announced herself, “another ally in our crusade for heroism. And what is this?”

Mouse Protector pointed to Light. “It appears the infamous villain in peril has been captured by the newest cape in town. Such a boon shall surely be awarded once the PRT gets their hands on you. And what is your name, newly discovered hero?”

“Browbeat,” he answered, unimpressed by Mouse Protector’s monologue.

“Ah yes, a true bro the brows the browest of brows to bro hero bros like a true bro.”

Light blinked at her, “I’m sorry, I’m having some really weird deja vu right now.”

A girl in a light-brownish bodysuit followed behind her. She fell behind Mouse Protector like a shy kid hiding behind a teacher. Light raised an eyebrow, “wait, are you Spawnchild?”

“No,” Taylor said thickly. “The internet kind of gave me that name.”

Light’s eyebrow’s scrunched together, they couldn't see his mouth gaping underneath his mask. “Wait, you’re satan girl? Christ, you’re not scary, you’re the kind of girl I’d ask out on a date.”

Taylor took a step back and blinked beneath her mask. Mouse Protector was amused! Mouse Protector commented, “stop trying to seduce the heroine. She’s out of your league.”

Before Taylor could say anything, Light gave off a sigh. “Okay, okay, but seriously though, what’s your cape name?”

Taylor swallowed. Would it come off as pathetic if I said I didn’t have a cape name? “She doesn’t have one yet,” Mouse Protector answered for her. “We’re thinking insectoid, Beetle borg, or Pincer princess!”

“Needs to be neighbourhood friendly,” Browbeat added. “It's basic psychology. If she’s a hero, it needs to be inviting, not intimidating. Try Bugbro.”

“Ha!” Light pointed at Browbeat from the ground, “every time you open your mouth I love you more!“

“But I’m not a bro…” Taylor said quietly.

“That’s sexist,” Light commented.

“Beatbug.” Browbeat said.

“Queen bee,” Light said. “And bee as in bug, not the letter.”

“I’ve got it!” Mouse Protector yelled, “Wasp whisperer! Whistling away whilst whispering wicked winds with waltzing wasps everywhere!”

“Monarch.”

“Stinger.”

“Webber.”

Taylor took out her notepad. She made sure write down her favorite names as the three of them yelled titles over each other.

XXX

Mouse Protector handcuffed Light before she could forget. (I love the Menton effect!)'The handcuffs were PRT standard model, meant to prevent changers from escaping. The three heroes sat on the ground facing each other. Light sat a few feet away from them, grumbling that he wasn't a part of the conversation.

“We’re looking for someone,” Bug girl said to Browbeat. “A kid was kidnapped by the ABB.”

"With a ransom note," Mouse Protector added, "possibly a crime of passion..."

Light looked up at them, “the ABB? Are you sure?”

“Thinkers say so,” Mouse Protector said. “Also, you are really bad at practicing your right to remain silent.”

Light scooted closer to them. “Er, if it’s the ABB, I think I can help. My team stakes out ABB businesses at least twice a week. If someone was kidnapped, we can find out.”

“Stakeout?” Taylor asked, “I’ve never seen you guys fight the ABB online.”

“Yeah, we don’t put that on camera. The E88 hate us, but humiliating Lung online is suicide. Better they think we only screw with the E88, so that they’ll never come after us.”

“Speaking of which,” Mouse Protector mentioned, “any chance you could tone down the racist comments? People think it’s weird that I like your show.”

“No can do,” Light said. “I’m caramel colored, and I take full advantage of the racially confused sweetness.”

Mouse Protector squinted at him. Light continued, “anyway. Me and my team stake out prostitution rings that are on the edges of town. At least once a week, we’ll catch the ABB trying to ship some kidnapped teenagers to farms outside the city. Whenever we see that, we give an anonymous tip to the PRT so that they can stop it. Nine out of ten times they show up before the girls are shipped off. One out of ten times… We orchestrate an ‘accident’, to prevent them from getting shipped off anyway.”

Taylor blinked beneath her mask. “You guys do that? Why?”

Light shrugged, “spare time, I guess.”

Mouse Protector patted her buggy helper on the head. “The longer you’re in the game, the more you’ll see things aren’t so black and white.”

Light commented, “it’s true, sometimes we come out khaki colored.” Mouse Protector scrunched her lips. He continued, “I consider myself a delicious brown donut, with a sugary coating of powder that gives me just the right amount of all around sweetness.”

Mouse Protector’s mouth gaped open, “do you ever hear the things you're saying?”

“I phase in and out when I’m talking.” Light turned to Browbeat. “Anyway, I have a com channel in my mask, can you pull it off so I can call my sister? She’s better at detective work than I am.”

“It’s a trap.” Browbeat said factually. “I’m not calling your teammates to come save you.”

“We’re not stupid,” Bug girl said plainly. “You’re just trying to avoid arrest.”

Light stared at bug girl. “Trust me, none of us are stupid enough to pick a fight with you.”

“I’m fine with this,” Mouse Protector said to everyone’s surprise. “Way I see it, if you guys give info on the ABB anyway, better to get help officially than anonymously.”

“But…” Bug girl relented. “I’m sorry, but working with villains… I’m not so sure.”

“This is more common than you know,” Mouse Protector spoke in a mentor-like tone. “Even though television likes to portray the good fight as good versus evil, you’ll see that it’s better to work with good villains to take out the worst villains. It’s why Endbringer truces exist.”

Browbeat looked at Light. “He could just abandon us as soon as his teammates come. How can we trust this isn’t a trap?”

“You can’t,” Mouse Protector answered casually. “So we just have to have faith that they’ll help us in this case.”

Browbeat and Taylor exchanged glances. Light eyed across the three of them. After an exchanging of nods, Browbeat pulled off Light’s mask. He smiled, a smile identical to Rush. The two younger heroes were surprised by how comfortable he was with showing them his true face.

Browbeat pressed a small button on the inside of the mask. "Also," Light warned Mouse Protector, "keep the puns on minimum. Rush hates puns."

Taylor stared at Light in disbelief. Mouse Protector grinned deviously, "duly noted."

The sound of a dial up connection groaned out from his mask. Rush answered on the other side. “I hate you.”

The three heroes blinked as they heard Rush’s voice. She was on speaker. Light let out a sigh, “it was an accident.”

“It’s Sunday, the lord’s day. I planned on smoking today.”

Light retorted, “I thought the Lord's day was your drinking day.”

“It's both.” Rush let out a sigh, “I never get time away from the team. And the one time I get the day off, you get arrested.”

“How’d she know?” Taylor asked.

Light whispered, “we have a rule. When it’s her day off, only call her if I’m getting arrested.” Light returned to speaking to Rush, “I kind of need your help with something.”

“Should I bring the dildo cannon?”

“Er, no. You see, they’re looking for a kid who got kidnapped by the ABB.”

Rush sighed, “lemme guess, since we stakeout ABB rings, they want us to help find her?”

“Exactly.”

“All because you have an asian fetish.”

Light paled. He looked at the three heroes, eying him curiously. Light yelled, “for the last time, I don’t have an asian fetish!”

Rush countered, “you’re the reason we stakeout for asian teenagers. It’s pretty obvious you have a fetish.”

“Oh God no,” Light groaned, “can’t a man save lives without having ulterior motives?”

“I wouldn't,” Rush said, “I’m still surprised you didn’t ask the girl from the Korean restaurant out. It was obvious she wanted to suck your D.”

Light wasn’t sure how to respond. “You’re being stupid again.”

They all knew she was referring to the Korean teenager he’d been speaking to in the last hostage situation. Light had been talking to her for almost half the episode, easily making her laugh while keeping her within arm's reach distance. Mouse Protector said, “she was pretty flirty. I actually thought you asked her out off camera.”

Light asked, “she was flirty? No she wasn’t, she was just being nice.”

Browbeat commented, “she laughed at everything you were saying in an exaggerated way. The body language was plainly obvious. I thought she was already your girlfriend.”

Light argued, “she just… Had a great sense of humor.”

“Yeah,” Taylor said, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice. I only watched the first few minutes of that video, it was pretty obvious she was into you.”

Light’s mouth shrunk, “goddamnit, why can’t I notice these things?”

Rush answered, “it’s because you’re a friendly person, and just assume everyone else is too.”

Light said, “can we get back on topic? Rush, help me find this kid.”

“Fine, fine.” Rush said with a sigh, “meet me at the stakeout where we met two weeks ago, when we ran away from Oni Lee. Remember that?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Also, Light?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not the worst fetish to have.” She hung up.

 

“Light,” Rush said. “Pass me the torture kit.”

The two villains and three heroes stood in the warehouse in the middle of the night. The other employees were scared off easily thanks to bug girl’s horror show. The warehouse was dark, with outdated electricity, but they still managed to find the ring’s leader. Browbeat took the opportunity to tie her to a chair when they found her. Two other prostitutes were tied with their backs against her. One was a college aged girl, the other looked to be of high school age.

Light passed the briefcase to Rush. To their surprise, Rush spoke to them in fluent Japanese. “Tell us where Theo is!” She switched back to english easily. “Or face the non-kinky wrath of my torture tools!”

“Would they do that?” The high school aged prostitute asked in Japanese. “I’ve never seen them torture people on camera.”

“We’re not on fucking camera,” their leader grumbled back.

“Oiy,” Mouse Protector protested, “no torturing.”

Rush squinted at Mouse Protector, “stop being a buzzkill. We'll call it enhanced interrogation if it makes you feel better.”

“Buzzkill,” Light pointed to bug girl. “Or killbuzz, or buzzkiller. You pretty much ruin fun wherever you go, it’s perfect for you.”

Taylor scrunched her lips beneath her mask. Browbeat said, “no kill words.”

“I still say she should go with Pheromone women,” Rush said with a blush. “Releasing pheromones wherever she goes.”

“Stop sexually harassing her,” Mouse Protector growled. “How is it that you’re making me the responsible one?”

“Or leg girl,” Rush said. “She’s got the legs for it.” Rush winked in Taylor’s direction. She didn’t react.

“Bug girl,” Mouse Protector said, “I’m giving you permission to put a moth on Light’s head every time Rush makes you uncomfortable.”

“Oh dear God,” Light gripped his sister’s shoulder, “stop ruining my life!”

Rush glared at Mouse Protector, “I bet you think you’re clever you... Mouse… Furry… Yiff thing.”

“I’m not just clever,” she replied in snarky tone, “I’m clever forever like steller cheddar .”

Rush’s mouth twitched at the rhyme. Before she could mutter profanity, Browbeat said, “can we stay focused? Not all of us are here for the passive-aggressive banter.”

“Fine,” Mouse Protector and Rush said at the same time.

“But no torture,” Mouse Protector said.

Rush opened the briefcase. She faced it so that only the prostitutes could see it. “Three seconds. Or else the torture begins. One.”

The three ABB members stared at the briefcase’s contents in shock. Their eyes widened in disbelief.

“Two.”

“Hey,” Bug girl said amassing some bugs, “we’re not going to let you-”

“Three.”

Rush lifted the briefcase over their heads and dropped thousands of dollar bills over their heads. “You like that you dirty whores!?”

“Yeah,” Light said emptying his pockets. More hundred dollar bills were crumbled up and thrown at the gang member’s faces, “and there’s plenty of more where that came from you criminal scum!”

“Tell us where Theo is!” Rush demanded, "we won't stop the golden shower until you talk!"

“It’s true,” Light double downed. “We have a lot of money. Ridiculous, boatloads of money. This can go on all day if we need it to.”

"I think we should wait it out," the college aged hooker said. The other two gang members nodded in agreement.

Mouse Protector shamelessly knelt down and pocketed the bills falling in her direction. “Really?” Bug Girl commented.

Mouse Protector whimpered, “being a rogue hero does not pay as well as you’d think…”

Rush yelled, “trying to act tough, huh? Don’t make me take out Light’s college fund!”

“She’ll do it,” Light repeated, “my future is in your hands.”

Browbeat shook his head, “I don't think you two understand the concept of torture.”

Bug girl added, “I think they would’ve talked at the first hundred thousand.”

The briefcase emptied out. Light answered, “better safe than sorry.”

Rush spoke in Japanese, “now, tell us where Theo is, or I’m taking all of this away.”

"Seriously," Light added in Japanese, "We stole this from a friend. So we're kind of broke now that we threw it at your faces."

The middle aged hooker said to their leader, “I'll kill you if you don't tell them.”

“Alright alright, he’s in the ring west from here. Eight blocks away, third warehouse on the east side. If he’s not there right now, he’ll be there later tonight. It’s where all ransom kids end up.”

“Got it,” Rush announced. She strided away passed the hero, “take my lead, you crappy heroes.”

Mouse Protector glared at her, “hold on, I’m the adult here, I’m leading this mismatched team!” She followed behind her. Browbeat followed after them.

Taylor stayed behind to watch Light speak to the ABB members in Japanese. “I wanted to let you know, I get it.” Light told them in their fluent language. “You ended up here either because you’re stuck, you were pushed into it, or because you needed an escape from something. I get that, and I think most people do too.”

He untied the two prostitutes, but tightened the rope on pimp’s arms. “What gives?” The leader said.

Light took the time to tell them they had the chance to leave now. A chance to leave the ABB, and to leave the down ridden area of Brockton Bay. All the money they'd thrown at them was theirs now, they could release their leader only if they wanted to. But more than anything, Light asked for them to leave the gang. "The ABB aren't worth it. Gangs only have your back until you lose you're worth, and that's not what family is. You both, like everyone else, deserves a better spot in life. And now you have the chance at that." Light pointed to the money to emphasize his point.

The two gang members rubbed at their wrists, and began picking up the money. The younger girl murmured, “tank… Yo.” She wasn’t fluent in English, but she was willing to try for his sake.

Light gave a smile before he left. He didn’t really believe they’d leave the ABB, but he was happy to give them the chance. “What did you say to them?” Taylor asked.

“Anime jokes,” Light answered. “There’s always time for anime jokes.”

XXX

“How dare you undermine my auht-o-ra-taye!”

Rush groaned at Mouse Protector, “stop with the word play! You’re not funny, the only thing that’s funny is ironic humor with borderline grotesque wording.”

Mouse Protector stuck her tongue out at Rush. “Amateur. You’re the one who makes overused innuendoes when she can’t think of anything.”

“Screw you you freaky furry, and not in the yiff way!” Rush lifted her middle fingers up at her, “you’re a wannabe joke hero with no respect!”

“You call yourself Losers,” Mouse Protector hissed. “You know people online don’t even think you’re real villains?”

Rush gasped, “take that back you furry force creep! You’re the one who created those freaky mouse fetishes online!”

“Bohoo,” Mouse Protector feigned tears. “Like you’re one to talk, you’re website literally has a kink section you putrid freak.”

“It’s a perfectly common fetish!”’

Rush and Mouse Protector eyed each other in rage. They were using everything they knew about each other to make personal jabs at each other’s cape lives. They were like sisters. So similar, yet so hateful towards each other.

Light, Bug girl, and Browbeat were on the rooftop staking out the ABB warehouse a short distance away from them. They were crouched at the edge, well hidden in the cool darkness of the apartment. They had a clear view of the building beneath them. There was a light fog low in the ground, but Bug Girl served as a terrific scout for when the hostage would arrive.

“You guys really do stuff like this?” Bug girl asked. “These stakeouts. Why do you guys do it? It takes hours to do, and there’s nothing to gain from it.”

“Why are you a hero?” Light said casually.

It was a rhetorical question, and Taylor understood it enough not to answer.

“I think the better question is, why are you a villain?” Browbeat said. “I'm not altruistic, but you seem more purpose driven then I am. You only rob places with insurance, you stakeout ABB trafficking rings, and go out of your way to humiliate the E88. It looks to me like you’re on the wrong side of the playing field.”

Bug Girl added, “I never thought of it that way.” She sort of assumed the title ‘villain’ was self-explanatory, now she was wondering if they used the label ironically. “It’s even in your name, you don’t act like-”

“Can we stop talking?” Light interrupted. “I get it. I’m a bad villain. Can we drop it?”

Taylor paused, forgetting that she might’ve treaded on a sensitive topic. Sure, the Losers were each willing to talk about their trigger events, but clearly there was some other baggage that they didn’t want to talk about. Note to self, Taylor thought, never ask a villain why they’re a villain.

The three of them fell quiet. Mouse Protector and Rush were now arguing loud enough to drown out the silence, but Light didn’t want to leave the conversation at that. ‘Why are you a villain?’ He didn’t like thinking about that, but it was times like these that he knew he needed an answer. The two heroes wanted to know something about him, and he wanted them to know something about him.

“Rush… Was on the bad end of the stick,” Light said it quietly, enough for only Taylor and Browbeat to hear. “People are after her. The Protectorate won’t protect her. I’m staying with her because I have to, nothing will ever change that.”

It was a half truth, but it felt like he’d told the whole truth. Bug girl said, “that’s… Noble of you.”

Light felt his heart skip a beat. Like he’d finally gotten a pat on the back for the choices he made. “Can I ask... Why none of you are in the Wards?”

“Too many regulations,” Browbeat answered quickly. “I’d rather have it as a fallback plan than as a primary plan. I’ll try solo first, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll join the Wards. Right now, I’d rather not be tied down by them yet.”

“Same,” Taylor said.

Light nodded. “Thing is, you’re more likely to die as solo capes than as Wards. My team is lucky, we have a tinker that always has an escape plan ready for us. If you want, I can ask for Leet to make something to help you guys out.”

“You would do that?” Bug Girl asked. Light nodded.

“WIll it be trackable?” Browbeat asked in a plain tone.

“No, I wouldn’t do that to you guys,” Light answered. “I’ll talk to Leet, figure out what he can create to up your success rates.”

“Thanks,” Bug Girl said. Browbeat nodded.

"You're a bad hero and you should feel bad!" Rush yelled aloud. "You have no shame and bring insult to heroes everywhere!"

Mouse Protector pulled down an eyelid to give her the stink eye, "says the girl who calls herself loser."

Rush gritted her teeth, "you know what? You're my fucking enemy now. Next time we meet, I'll be dressed up as a cat and rip your real ears off."

"That would be puuuuur-fect," Mouse Protector teased to her distaste. "The puns will be... Caaaat-astropic!"

"You son of a mouse bitch," Rush yelled. Rush jumped between Browbeat and Bug Girl. “How much would it cost for you two to join the dark side?”

“Hey,” Mouse Protector growled, “you can’t bribe heroes with money!”

“A million dollars for signing up.”

Mouse Protector’s eyes widened. In small tone she asked, “can I join?”

“No adults.” Rush growled.

Mouse Protector retracted, “don’t fall for her lies!” Mouse Protector crouched next to Light, and elbowed at his side. "Let me tell you the glories of heroism, so that you can convert to the light side."

Rush yelled, "stop corrupting my brother!"

“Um,” Bug Girl grumbled, “I’d rather not go online and call myself a villain all day.”

“Ditto,” Browbeat said. “You guys paint yourselves as the target to everyone. I’d rather not make myself vulnerable like that.”

“Hah,” Mouse Protector cried out in victory. “You’re recruitment methods don’t even work. Rune didn’t even stay after the first video.”

“She wouldn’t do redhead jokes!” Rush groaned, “she disqualified herself!”

After Rune’s recruitment video, the Losers couldn’t upload anything following the New Wave incident. As far as people knew, it was theorized Rune’s racism got her kicked out of the team.

“I still text her on weekends,” Light commented.

Rush stared at him, “what?”

“Yeah,” Light took out his phone. He read some of the text messages, “‘O-m-g. You caramel colored screw up. I heart you.’ Three smiley face emojis.”

“Wait, let me see that.” She stole his phone and scrolled down the text messages.

Rune: This rich snub is saying some racist shit to the Muslim clerk at the gas station.

Light: Here’s the plan. Attune the gas pump handle, and spray his clothes with gasoline when he passes by.

10 minutes later.

Rune: His suit is ruined! This fucker is freaking the fuck out!

Light: He probably thinks God hates him. Congrats Rune, you are God.

Rune: (Three smiley faces, plus one emoji heart)

Rune looked up at her brother. “I’m taking this away from you.”

“What? Why?”

“You dense motherfucker.”

“Found them.” Taylor announced. Rush pocketed his phone. The rest of the capes stared off at the dimly lit warehouse. “Movement in the warehouse. A truck is coming in through the back with five people inside. One of them is pulling out a kid. He’s tied up on the wrists and ankles. Even if it’s not Theo, it’s definitely someone there against his will.”

Mouse Protector nodded. “Alright, this is the part where we put our powers to strategic use. Bug Girl, I need to stay here as a scout. I’ll leave a tag here in case you get into trouble. Put a beetle on my shoulder. If I crush it, it’s your signal to make a distraction for us to escape.”

Bug Girl nodded. She continued, “Browbeat, you stay back and watch her. Keep Bug Girl safe since she’s not a Brute. You’re shield does have high limits, but don’t jump in until things go south. Thing is, you two are new to the cape game, so I’d rather keep them guessing at what you’re both really capable of.”

Browbeat nodded. Mouse Protector turned to Rush. “Rush, Light, can you both stay by my side? Let’s go for a shock-and-awe tactic, fight down the bad guys as a trio, and rescue Theo in one quick swoop.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Rush said with a nod.

“Alright,” Light said. “Let's do this. LEEEEROY JENKIIIIIINS!”

Light ran into the warehouse. “Oh fuck,” Rush ran after him, “Light, I didn't bring the teleporters!”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Browbeat said.

“Oh crap,” Taylor said, “we have to go after them.”

“No,” Mouse Protector ordered. “You two stay here. Stick with the plan.” She swooped in after them.

 

Lisa called Coil immediately after checking their blog feed. The ambiguous sentence long posts told her volumes about what they were up to. She tugged at her face as her powers revealed the information.

“I'm gonna go punch a stranger. If I'm lucky, fight club can become a thing.” - Light

“Update: Don't pick fights with strangers. #Gettingarrestedagain” - Light

“Making a deal with Satan. Brb.” - Light

Rush replied: “You son of a bastard.”

Light replied: “I'm doing my best! #Notagreatvillain”

Rush replied: “I’m on my way. #Youfuckingdisgrace”​

Lisa’s powers told her everything: Light arrested. Negotiated release for aid in finding reported kidnapping. Theo Anders. Losers can easily find ABB hostages.

She was disappointed at how quickly they found him. In fact, it would've been comical if she didn't hate them so much. ‘These guys enjoy themselves way too much…’ The posts went on:

“I'm about to put a hit on Mickey Mouse. #Fuckdisney” - Rush

“Paying hookers is a wonderful way to spend the night. #Callmeback” - Rush

“Remember kids, prostitution is a perfectly noble profession. #Feminism” - Light

“Googling rat poisoning.” - Rush

​

She pressed her phone to her ear more tightly. When he finally answered, she went straight to business. “Coil, the Losers found Theo. We need to speed up the plan now or else we might lose the best leverage we have.”

“Understood. I'll expect further explanation once this is over.”

“I know,” Lisa said staring at her laptop. She gave out a long sigh, how is it those losers ruin everything?”

XXX

"This... Was definitely a mistake." Light stared forward with a dazed look in his eyes.

Mouse Protector pranced forward to the villains wicked lair. Step by step, underneath the breaking dawn, she headed closer... And closer… Until… “Oh shit.” Mouse Protector shouted profanity!

Rush stood next to Light, forcing on a crooked grin. “Hey there…. Lung… I think... We might’ve made a mistake.”

Lung stood in front of twenty of his armed men. They were armed to the teeth, but still seemed feeble in the presence of Lung. Lung had on an open trench coat. It was opened to reveal his muscles and extensive tattoos across his body.

Inside their heads, all three of them wanted to insult Lung for his choice in tattoos, but opted to keep their mouths shut.

“Leave, this has nothing to do with you two.” Lung told them all. He wasn't sure who Mouse Protector was, nor did he care why she was with the Losers. He was giving them a chance to relent. He’d rather they stay alive to be an insult to the Empire Eighty Eight, than have to kill them for disrespecting him. “If you even think of turning this into a game, none of you will step out of here alive.”

Mouse Protector stared down at Theo sitting on a worn down sofa at the edge of the building. Theo’s arms and legs were tied. He was blindfolded, not gagged because he promised to keep his mouth shut after their first threat. Theo wasn't sure whether to feel relief or stress by the sounds of Light and Rush.

Rush clapped her hands together, “well, my horrifying Leviathan defeating friend. I have a proposition for you. I’ll offer double whatever you’re asking from Theo’s dad, to give him to me. No promises on not doing kinky stuff to him.”

Lung didn’t waver, “twenty million dollars?”

Rush blew up her cheeks, fuck, that’s literally all of our money. “Sure, why not,” she said feigning confidence. As much as she would’ve liked to just kick ass and go home, getting on Lung’s bad side was a one-way ticket to death. And she couldn’t do that to her brother, or his new friends.

“No,” Lung said. “This has nothing to do with money. It needs to come from the boy’s father. Otherwise Max Anders can have his son returned to him in pieces.”

Theo choked a little at the sound of that. Mouse Protector’s turn! “Here’s the problem, lizard man.” Lung raised an eyebrow. She continued, “The Protectorate are already on their way. So I recommend you take her up on her offer, so that you can at least have something to show for all the trouble you’ve gone through.”

“Let them come.” Lung said with a tone of excitement in his voice. “That just means more victories for my mantle.”

Rush and Mouse Protector glanced at each other. The nature of Lung’s ego was now obvious. It wasn't about the money, it was about showing the world that he had power over the millionaire class. This whole kidnapping and ransom was about exerting his power over those who might try and pull a move on him.

Rush turned to Light and gave him a stern nod. Light nodded back in agreement.

Rush yelled out in fluent Chinese, “tell me Lung, since your half Japanese and half Chinese, does that mean you have to hate yourself half the time?”

Lung glared at her. Light spoke out in Japanese, “Hey Rush, does he evolve into a pokemon because of his power, or do all Japanese people do that?”

Rush shook her head, “nah, he only half evolves like a pokemon. The other half is digimon.”

Light asked, “can I guess which pokemon he evolves into? I’m guessing it’s a charizard.”

“Nope, it’s a gyarados.”

“Dragonite.”

“Snorlax?”

“Godzilla.”

Lung’s underlings stared at the two of them in shock. They backed away as Lung began shifting his skin into metal.

“I like how he starts off as hello kitty before he evolves,” Light commented.

“It’s like freeza, ‘This isn’t even my final form!’” Rush said.

Light nodded, “hey Lung, do me a favor, can you shout ‘I'm not even at 100%’ before you finish evolving? Then I'll go on a rant about me being the legendary super saiyan.”

Lung’s body become completely encased in metal. The room’s temperature went up, small fires were smoldering around him as his body’s metal added mass into the room. Smoke escaped his lungs, and his underlings quickly distanced themselves from him as he focused his rage at the Losers.

Mouse Protector blinked. “What… Did you just say to him?”

“Instant regret.” Light said plainly.

“So much regret,” Rush said in a hushed tone. She pointed to Theo, and gave Mouse Protector the signal to go after him.

Mouse Protector wondered if it was right to let the duo to become the bait. ‘Should I stay and fight with them, or abandon the Losers to their suicidal vices?’ Lung’s body exploded. 'Run run run run run run run.’

Lung charged after them. Light flashed a blinding light in Lung’s eye. He was only blinded for a mid-second and distracted just enough for Rush and Light to shift/rush away from his charge. Lung did manage to destroy part of the warehouses pillars, but quickly regained sight of them once his vision returned.

Mouse Protector ran to the corner of the building, managing to catch Lung’s underlings dragging Theo away. “Stop, evil doers who are totally within my league!”

Five thugs ran at Mouse Protector. They had bats, crowbars, and swords drawn out to attack her. Without a moment’s hesitation, she dodged their weapons and punched, kicked, and smashed them everywhere it hurts the most. “Sorry,” she said punching a guy’s nose, “sorry’, she said kicking a guy’s groin, “sorry,” she said quietly at the guy she headbutted a guy’s nose.

‘Mouse Protector is far too good at her job… She should get paid for this!’

Seven more thugs surrounded her. The ABB members were now focused on guarding Theo, not just dragging him away. Mouse Protector crushed a beetle on her shoulder.

A swarm of bugs rose up. A giant blob of insects amassed at the entrance of the warehouse. It was so thick and large that nothing could be seen inside of it. The bugs transformed into a humanoid shape. And then suddenly!... Browbeat stepped out of it like it was nothing.

“Spawnchild?” Some of the gang members murmured.

“Sure, why not,” Browbeat said not caring. Looking around, Browbeat was torn between helping Rush and Light or Mouse Protector.

Rush was kind enough to choose for him. “Get this motherfucking dragon off me!”

Browbeat rushed to Lung, and somehow, some fucking how, pushed Lung’s seven foot metallic body, into a fucking wall. ‘Christ,’ Mouse Protector thought, ‘WHY AREN’T WE RECORDING?’

Insects began stinging at the ABB thug’s bodies. When Mouse Protector noticed a bug humanoid form next to her, it looked over and said, “getzzzzz Theozzz out of herezz.”

Before Mouse Protector could pounce passed the desecrated bodies of swarm infested thugs, frigging Oni Lee fell from god knows where. “My arch nemesis!” Mouse Protector yelled.

“Who are you?” Oni Lee asked.

Light launched more lasers at Lung’s body. They couldn’t penetrate his armor, but he focused his power into creating shields, distractions, or temporarily blinding Lung whenever he could.

Rush’s telekinetic abilities were largely delegated into minimalizing the fires around the warehouse.

Browbeat had become somewhat of a tank, taking the bulk of Lung’s hits, and managing to survive without damage.

Bug Girl began running up bugs across Oni Lee’s body.

“Who am I?” Mouse Protector announced, “I am the defender of all that is righteous! I am the scurrier of all that is right, the round eared master that walks unwittingly to the fight! I am the greatest rogue of all time! None can escape my mousy cosplaying presence, for I am, Mouse Protector!”

“Lame,” Rush said in the background.

“I love you all,” Light said to no one in particular.

Mouse Protector pointed to Oni Lee. She gave a pleasant order to bug girl. “Kill.”

The swarm rushed at Oni Lee. The moment he teleported away, the bugs still remained on Oni Lee’s body. The ABB cape teleported three more times before he attempted attacking them with the bugs still picking at his skin.

“At our six!” Bug girl’s new clone stayed at Mouse Protector’s side. This one instructed Light and Rush to watch out for Oni lee just in time. Browbeat turned around and knocked him in the face before he had to chance to stab him.

“Light, above you!” Bug girl ordered.

Without hesitation, Light fired a laser over his head. Breaking through the rooftop and causing Oni Lee to fall onto the ground in a crash. He teleported away in pain.

Oni Lee reappeared right behind Mouse Protector. Before bug girl could even warn her, Mouse Protector thrusted her elbows backwards, and leaned her head back to headbutt the bridge of his nose. His clone dissipated to dust again, and this time Oni Lee appeared within arms length of Theo’s body.

He put a knife to the boy’s neck, “Stop,” Oni Lee demanded. Lung was the first to freeze in place, putting on a creepy smile as the other capes held still. “Or I slit his throat,” Oni Lee said.

Nobody dared to move. Rush stepped onto the ceiling like gravity was upside down, and waved her Simurgh hand at him. “I like how you think holding a hostage will help you.”

Oni Lee’s knife slid across Theo’s cheek, drawing blood from his face down to his chin. “Don’t think I’ll do it?”

Rush stared into his eyes, knowing full well that Oni Lee was a murderer like herself. “I don’t doubt that you’ll do it, I’m just saying it won’t help you out.”

Oni Lee raised an eyebrow. ‘The Losers were there to save Theo, wouldn’t they avoid risking his life?’

Knives from the fallen ABB thugs began rising to the air. Rush used her powers to spin two circles of sharp knives in the air. They cycled around her like windmills of deadly weapons. “Him dying will make a wonderful distraction for me to get a clear shot at you. In fact, if the blood covers your eyes, I can cut through him to get to you.”

Bug girl’s clone, not knowing how to handle Rush, said, “please tell me your joking...”

Mouse Protector swallowed, “Rush, you can’t really mean that.”

“And why the hell wouldn’t I mean it?” Rush chuckled. "Yet another wonderful reason to be a villain, no responsibility. Theo’s life was never in my hands to begin with."

“Everyone loses if he dies,” Oni Lee reminded her.

“Big whoop,” Rush said with an waving her hand. “When this is done, I’ll be sure to send his dad a mourning card attached to his body bag. Do me a favor Oni Lee, once he starts bleeding to death, hold still so that I can put a knife through your throat.”

Oni Lee and Lung believed her enough. The way she spoke told them she truly had no regard for Theo’s life. If Theo died, everything they'd done would've been for nothing.

It was like game of chicken, and Theo was the commodity. Rush flashed his Simurgh symbol at them, “Sorry kid, but things never go according to plan with us around. Ninja man, you have until the count of ten to drop him. Kill him, and all barriers are gone. I’ll go for the kill, and you won’t like me when I’m in murder mood. One.”

Mouse Protector and Browbeat looked over to Light. He was quiet, it looked as if he wasn’t sure what his sister’s plan.

“Two.”

At the other side of town, Purity received an anonymous tip from a benefactor. She flew at extreme speeds to where her rival was hiding.

“Three.”

Theo couldn’t believe it. He had admired the Losers so much, and now they were throwing him away like he were nothing, joking about his fate like his life were nothing to them.

“Four.”

Purity reached the ABB warehouse. She basked in the rising sun’s rays.

“Five.”

There were blasted holes all over the rooftop of the warehouse, allowing for skylights to give her a glimpse of what was happening underneath her. She saw Oni Lee, holding Theo hostage with a knife to his throat.

“Six.”

A light charged up all around her, giving her the illusion of being a miniature sun.

“Seven.”

She couldn’t hit Oni Lee without hurting Theo. Fortunately, Lung was close enough to Rush and Light to be within the crossfire of her blast.

“Eight.”

Tears formed in Theo’s eyes.

“Nine.”

Taylor saw the light form in the sky. In an instance, all her bugs yelled, “Purity!” Rush pointed her knives in Oni Lee's direction.

“Te-”

 

Stars. Expanding and shrinking. In mirrors. Rotating like a dance. There were many. No destination yet with a purpose. Jumping around and slivering between masses of people. So many people. An obstruction of humanity passing by. Faces being seen in the thousands of the thousands of a millisecond. Everything could be seen. Everything once. For a second’s worth of a second. Everything had become clarity.

Purity looked down at her hands, dazed at what had just happened. She was still floating above the building looking down at the capes with her glowing power surrounding her body. She thought she could take out Lung, Rush, and Light conveniently at the same time, but her charge had come to a complete halt.

That vision… Was unexplainable. And the more she tried remembering it, the less she could understand it. But as she looked down through the rooftop of the warehouse, some sense came out from her vision. “Theo… Triggered."

Stone golems had formed all across the warehouse. One had held Oni Lee by the neck, in a position that said the statue pried Oni Lee off from Theo’s body. Another statue trapped Rush in a bear hug from behind. Rush had her head low. Only the statue’s torso was above from the ground, giving the impression that the statue was trying to pull Rush into the earth.

Mouse Protector was just getting up from her collapse. She yawned, like she just had the craziest night of her life. Mouse Protector is in over her head!... Why does Mouse Protector always think in third person view?

She saw Purity floating to her ground level. Recognizing her as a villain, Mouse Protector wanted to shout, ‘halt right there evil doer!’ But still recovering from her vision, the only words that came out were, “buzstop... wut dah hel waz dat?”

Purity raised an eyebrow at the mouse eared cape. She only noticed that she was a minority, and wasn’t sure whether to deduce if she was villain or a hero. Theo looked over to Purity, shocked by his own disbelief. “Kay-” he almost called out.

“Stop.” Purity interrupted, before he could say something he’d regret. They all looked over to Rush, hugged by Theo’s power. Light was in front of her chiseling away the rock that grabbed at her.

“We’re all so small.” She spoke quietly. It was eerie, almost like she was talking to no one. “Do you get it? We’re all so small. Like tiny pieces of sand making up a vast ocean beach, so similar that no one can tell the difference. So un special. So identical.Like tiny droplets, in a massive ocean.”

“Aryana,” Light said in quiet tone. He removed the golem arms that had grabbed his sister, “can we go home now?”

“None of this matters,” Rush whispered. “It’s all so beautiful. I don’t have to be afraid, because none of it matters…”

Lung’s transformation was still in effect. Conveniently, none of Theo’s statues grasped at Lung. With the arrival of Purity and Theo triggering, there was nothing to gain from dragging out this conflict any further. He gave a signal to Oni Lee.

Oni Lee’s body withered away to dust, causing the stone golem grabbing him to break apart from lack of command. Oni Lee teleported to Lung’s side, and took a flashbang from his jacket. “Stop right there ninja!” Mouse Protector shouted in crooked tone, “even anime tropes cannot escape our justice!”

Oni Lee gave her a menacing stare. It was a stare that Mouse Protector was all too familiar with. ‘Yay, another arch enemy!’ Oni Lee lit the flashbang in the air and blinded everyone for a long moment. Bombs went off, and the building collapsed as the two ABB villains made their escape.

Light instinctively launched a plasma wall up, covering all of them with a thin shield to hold back the heat. Rush shared his stress by using her powers to keep the building intact. Mouse Protector ran to the thugs beneath the shield, she carried three of them out the building to prevent them from dying.

Browbeat followed her lead and did the same. Purity lead Theo out of the building. To everyone's surprise, she returned to help pull out the thugs out. After fifteen minutes of dragging ABB gang members out of the collapsing building, Light and Rush let go of their powers. Letting the warehouse collapse behind them as they made their escape.

XXX

They all met together on a rooftop at an abandoned apartment building. Morning had come. Purity assured them she was only there to save Theo, and that she was only doing vigilante work, and not trying to recruit Theo in anyway. They were skeptical given her E88 reputation, but Mouse Protector decided not to try and arrest her given that their fight with Lung was more than enough action for one night.

“Join the dark side!” Rush yelled at Theo’s face. “We have money, drugs, and bitches! So many bitches! You will drown in pussy if you join the villain’s side!”

Taylor turned to Light and said, “you’re sister is a bit…”

“And air fresheners,” Light added with blind innocence. “So many air fresheners.”

“Nevermind,” Taylor stopped herself from commenting.

Purity was leaning at the building’s ledge. She was only staying to get the chance to speak with Rush and Light alone, away from cameras. I’ll talk with Theo later, she told herself. But why are people always okay when they try and recruit people? Purity wondered. Even though Rush and Light were considered villains, Purity was labelled a bigger threat than either of them. Which was ironic, really. Purity did everything in her power to portray herself as a hero, the Losers did the exact opposite, yet people treated herself like she was the only monster.

Rush said, “Come on dude, you and I totally had a connection back there. Like, really great sex. Only better.” She pointed to Browbeat, “vouch for me bro, you watched.”

Browbeat stood with his arms crossed, “you tried cutting him.”

“Irrelevant,” Rush argued. “Bug girl, you were there too. You saw it right? The netherworld?”

“I really don’t know what we saw,” Taylor answered. “But I don’t think that means he needs to be a villain.”

Mouse Protector rubbed at the templates of her nose. She was truly annoyed for the first time in years. Even though she wanted Rush and Light to shut up, she'd rather talk down their points than have them resort to their video tape recruiting methods. “Okay, real talk,” Mouse Protector stated. “You’re just a kid. You’re more likely get killed if you're a rogue hero. You’re even more likely to get killed working as a villain. My suggestion? Become a ward, and then decide whether to go hero or villain after you graduate.” Mouse Protector glanced at Bug Girl and Browbeat. “And the same goes for you two.”

Theo’s voice came out hollow. “I can’t,” his face was contorted. “I can’t tell you why… But there’s no way I could ever become a Ward. You just have to take my word on that.”

There wasn't much more to say. If Theo wouldn't join the Wards, none of them could guarantee his safety. Light said, “you know the dark side isn’t so evil. We have burrito Tuesdays, because taco Tuesdays are bullshit.”

“No, you don’t understand," Theo said. "This isn't a game, I can't just be a cape for fun."

“I know that.” Light said with a changed tone. "I know its not a game, us joking around is just us killing time while we're doing this. I get how you don't want to be labelled a villain, but not everyone can be choosy. We're tying to offer you a team. Because that's something everyone always needs."

"No," Theo said stressing the point, "I'm not going to live my life like I'm a criminal."

Light curled his lips, somewhat offended.

Rush broke the silence with a hiss, “biiiiiiitches,” she said as a faint whisper. “Droooowning in puuuusaaaayy!”

Theo finally snapped at her, “After you nearly butchered me to pieces? Do you really think I’d ever join you two psychos!?”

Rush paused, and blinked at him. The word 'psycho' had a ring to it. The nail on a coffin of what Accord had done to her. She'd always done her best to distance herself from the man, but Theo regarded her in the same regard as Accord's sociopathy.

Without arguing his statement, Rush quietly stepped away from the group, aware that she didn't belong there. She stepped to Purity's side and excluded herself from the conversation.

Bug girl read Theo’s posture, noting that he was becoming more and more doubtful of his own abilities. She asked, “Mouse Protector, couldn’t you serve as his mentor? I’ve seen other capes do it.”

“I don’t do sidekicks,” Mouse Protector answered. “Sorry guys, but I’m only staying in this city for a short while. And I’m better soloing than mentoring.”

The other teenagers fell quiet, unable to find a solution for Theo. Browbeat said, “you can’t make a decision today. You'll need more time. Layout your options for now, and let’s all meet here tomorrow before it gets dark.”

“I’m guessing that doesn’t include me,” Light shoved his hands in his pockets, disappointed this might be the last chance he’d get to talk with them.

They all nodded, agreeing to outcast the villain. Sighing, Light walked over to Light and Purity.

Rush stood at Purity’s side. “Sabrina told us you left the E88.” Rush looked over the building ledge, wondering what falling felt like. “I can respect that. It takes a lot more strength to change an ideology, than to protect it out of blind pride.”

“I did leave them,” Purity admitted, “but now I’m ruling it.”

Rush raised an eyebrow. Light tilted his head.

“Your team did a heavy toll on Kaiser. The E88 almost fell into civil war before he agreed to step down.” It was a simple plan. Kaiser didn’t want to concede power to Hookwolf or Krieg, so he offered the position to Purity, someone he believed he could control. She knew that, and she took the offer anyway.

“Now you’re in charge?” Light asked.

Purity nodded. “I have a different vision for the empire. I want us to become vigilante focused. Only fighting other villain cape, and leaving the white gangs strictly to protection rackets.”

Purity turned to fully face Rush. “I wanted to form a truce with you. I’ll promise to prevent E88 members from performing hate crimes, and in exchange, I’d like for your team to stop making fools out of our members.”

Rush frowned, "but... If you stop being nazis... How else could we make nazi puns?"

Purity cocked her head back. "Excuse me?"

"Anne frankly, your final solution makes me fuhreroious. No geneva deal."

Purity's mouth gaped open. "Don't... You even care about your people?"

"My people?" Rush spat over the roof, "'Why should I give a shit about strangers? I'm more offended, than anything, that you think I'm somehow responsible for brown people everywhere."

Purity stared at Light, noting that he was slouching with his head staring at the ground. "Are you really alright with this?"

Light swallowed, "You do what you do, we'll do what we do."

XXX

“They said no?” Tattletale asked in disbelief.

Purity had her arms crossed, gripping her arms as she sat at the round table across from Coil and Tattletale. “She was very vocal about her refusal, too."

Coil looked over to Tattletale. Tattletale shook her head in daze, “I don’t get it, half the reason they attack the E88 is to prove a point. I thought they’d love making a deal like this.”

“Apparently you were wrong,” Coil said, adding insult to injury. “It happens to the best of us.”

“But not to me!” Tattletale yelled, “they should’ve agreed to this. Purity, tell me exactly what she said!?”

Tattletale was now more upset than Purity. Purity chuckled, “Rush took the time to say a barrage of nazi puns at me. When she started making jokes about my mom, I left before I could lose temper.”

Tattletale’s mouth gaped open. “But… That doesn’t make sense… How could she be so…”

“Psychotic?” Purity said.

“No, no. It’s just…. Did you talk to Light?”

“It was plainly obvious he didn't agree to it,” Purity explained. “but he didn't contradict Rush.”

Tattletale twiddled her thumbs. “But…” He should’ve spoken up… He would’ve loved this plan, and Rush would’ve listened to him….

“That’s enough then,” Coil said. “Thank you for keeping us informed, Purity. We’ll stay in contact for anyway in which we can help the empire.”

Purity gave a respectful nod, and left Coil’s base. Coil turned to Tattletale as soon as the door closed. “Lisa,” Coil said, using her real name to try and keep the conversation more personal. “Was Purity hiding anything from us when she debriefed us?”

Lisa was still dwelling at which point she was wrong. Without hesitation, Lisa answered, “Max Ander’s son triggered. She didn’t hide it to try and deceive us, she just wants what's best for Theo. She’d rather he not get involved with the rest of us.”

Coil nodded, accepting the explanation. Purity was his tool, the same way Max thought she was his puppet. Purity knew the web she’d tangled herself in, but it was all worth it to her. If she could truly turn the empire into a vigilante organization, then she was willing to follow Coil. Besides, it was like Tattletale said, Purity trusted Coil, more than she trusted Kaiser.

“What are the chances of a civil war occurring?” Coil asked. He picked up the files in front of him, scanning through the secret identities of the capes he’d been collecting.

“It just went down again,” Tattletale explained. “As long as we keep orchestrating crimes for Purity to stop, the empire will keep gaining approval of her. It’ll reach the point where not even Kaiser’s charisma can kick her down a peg. We just need to toss more curveballs to make her look good.”

Coil stared at a snapshot of Sabrina, sitting on a park bench out of costume listening to music not knowing she was being watched. “I can think of more scenarios to orchestrate. Now onto the Losers. Accord contacted me to assassinate them.”

Tattletale blinked. She didn’t like them, but it was against her principle to flat out murder capes. “I refused the request.” Coil said. “I’d rather the Losers be used as tools, instead of completely going to waste. They’re certainly experts when it comes to propaganda, and I’m considering hiring them.”

“Er, that’s not possible,” Tattletale said. “Money isn’t an object to them. The only real way to win them over is to offer interesting jobs that require creativity.”

“Do you have any suggestions at how I can turn them into portraying the PRT as inadequate?”

Tattletale nodded, “they don’t typically humiliate the Protectorate, but we can arrange for something to go wrong in one of their heists. They aren’t perfect.. If we need them to make the PRT look bad, we just need to force the right confrontation to occur.”

Coil nodded. “Do you have any suggestions?”

Tattletale nodded, “sure, I’ll just invite them to our next heist.” Although she didn’t know it, the Undersides were on the verge of making a permanent alliance with the Losers.

 

Mouse Protector smiled with delight! Honesty is the best policy as long as honesty keeps out the nasty parts of the story. For some reason, Director Piggot looked glum about it. Which was strange, because Mouse Protector was certain everyone loved it when she told her stories.

“You didn’t think to contact us?” Piggot asked from her office desk. Mouse Protector shrugged, trying not to get distracted by the jar of colorful marbles that sat on the edge of her desk.

Armsmaster leaned back on the wall next to her. He looked down at Mouse Protector sitting on the chair and asked, “what about the kids?”

“I’ll be meeting them later today,” Mouse Protector stretched her arms while sitting, “I’m sure I can convince them to join the Wards.”

“You seem relaxed.” Armsmaster noted.

“Why wouldn’t I be? We saved Theo, beat the bad guys, and I might get a bonus check for recruiting two new Wards.”

Director Piggot sneered at her, “you put two rogues in danger last night, and you’re smiling about it?”

Mouse Protector snorted, “well, when you mix words together, you can make anything sound bad. And to be fair, I think we were only in danger when Purity showed up.”

Armsmaster shook his head, “I disagree, I think it got worst when you intentionally provoked Lung.”

Mouse Protector waved her hand, “couldn’t be helped. He had Chinese tattooes, I had to say something.”

“Except that was a lie,” Armsmaster said in a stern tone. “You weren’t the one that provoked Lung. Everything else you said was true, but that tiny detail was a lie.”

“Well-”

“And Lung couldn’t have retreated when he was winning. You, two new heroes, and Purity, aren’t enough scare Lung off that easily. More capes were with you, weren’t they?”

“Er-”

“The Loser’s blogs.” Armsamster interrupted, “they made references to fighting ninjas last night, around the same time your story took place.”

Oh tarter sauce, Mouse Protector thought to herself. “I don’t work with terrorists!” Mouse Protector argued.

“That was lie.”

Mouse Protector squinted at him. “You ruin fun. Check your helmet if that was a lie.”

Piggot glared at her. “You worked for the Losers last night.”

“Well…” Mouse Protector’s grin was crooked, “thing is, the Losers knew where the ABB rings were, so I had to let them tag along.”

Director Piggot’s eyes widened, “wait, how did they know that?”

“Er, they do stakeouts every three days.”

Director Piggot rubbed at her eyebrows. All those anonymous tips the PRT had received suddenly made sense. She thought it was some independent detective, or some unknown cape giving them the intel, but the fucking Losers? Director Piggot growled, “Your job was to give them a taste of their own medicine, not be on the same fucking side as them!”

Mouse Protector shivered, she remembered that Piggot could treat her with less courtesy than she did to Ward and Protectorate members. Mouse Protector argued, “on the bright side, at least they didn’t record it!”

Armsmaster mentioned, “they started a kickstarter campaign for rat poisoning.”

She gasped, “those traitors!” The two PRT members glared at her. Mouse Protector added, “not that… We were ever on the same team, or anything.”

“You’re lying.” Armsmaster said.

“Stop talking, your words never help!”

Director Piggot stood up from her chair, “two potential Wards in one night. You put them in an ABB stakeout, risked their lives to face off against Lung and Oni Lee, when you were asked to call the Protectorate if you had any leads. Those kids could’ve been killed, are you out of your fucking mind!?”

Mouse Protector blinked. “Was that a rhetorical question?”

Director Piggot added, “you quit the Protectorate because a ward died under your mentorship, and you almost repeated that same mistake with two people. Can’t you think with your goddamn brain!?”

She froze. They both did. That was the biggest regret Mouse Protector had in her cape career, and Piggot threw it into her face just to get under her skin. After a long moment of silence, Director Piggot sat back down on her desk and made a decision.

“I’m cutting you off,” Director Piggot said. “As a rogue hero, we wanted you to work with our team, but I can now see that you can’t follow orders. You're better off solo, and as such, you’re no longer welcomed to use PRT facilities.”

It was really the only thing Piggot could do. Katherine wasn’t part of the Protectorate, and she was only in Brockton Bay on invitation. But the PRT didn’t owe really her anything. “Okay,” Katherine said softly. She slowly removed her mask. “I… understand.”

Armsmaster’s helmet told him she was telling the truth. When Armsmaster opened the door to the office, Mouse Protector shouted, “but you can’t fire me, because I quit!”

She tipped the desk’s jar of marbles onto the floor, and teleported away.

XXX

It was nice outside. A little cloudy, but rain wouldn’t come until tomorrow. Theo sat on the park swing set with a light swinging from his seat. He looked down at the ground with a long gaze because he wasn’t actually present.

The ABB could find him. Just having his identity known put him at danger. He needed allies, but his family secrets limited that. The last thing Theo wanted was to become a criminal, but joining the Wards would be going against his father. His only option was to go solo like he’d always wanted to. But the ABB fight from the night before showed him how wrong everything could become.

Rush stared at him with calm eyes, “If the blood covers your yur eyes, I can cut through him to get to you.”

Theo shivered. For a long time, Theo imagined what it would be like to be a cape. He even wondered if he could become friends with the Losers. But that fantasy had now ended, all his dreams had hit a roadblock because of the reality of what happened last night.

Kayden knew the truth too. Theo was avoiding her, not wanting her to tell him anything, hoping she wouldn’t tell his father. Kayden had told him how she wanted to reform the E88. Theo believed her genuinity, but if he spoke to her, would she ask for him to join? Could she convince him to be a part of the new E88? What if he was recruited, and it turned out Kayden was wrong? There’s no bouncing back from joining a nazi gang.

“Hey, Theo.”

Theo’s head shot up. His eyes stared blankly at the girl in front of him. “Bug Girl?”

She wasn’t intimidating, in fact, the glasses were kind of cute.Her curly black hair went below the shoulders, and Theo didn’t mind that she was slightly taller than him.

She nodded, “my name is Taylor, and I’m actually still deciding on the cape name.”

Taylor took a seat at the swing set next to him. Theo had started a message board on parahumans online for ‘the heroes that fought godzilla’, and they agreed to meet at the park nearest to his home.

Taylor asked in a soft tone, “Theo, I know you’ve been through a lot, but… Are you alright?” As soon as she said it Taylor thought it was a stupid question. Of course he wasn’t alright. His life had been on the line, in so much danger that he triggered as a result. And for one reason or another, being a Ward wouldn’t help him.

Theo shook his head, “No… I’m not alright. I… Things are weird now, and I don’t know what to do.”

“I think we’ve all been there,” Taylor said.

“I always dreamed about having powers, you know? I thought having powers would be great, but now that it’s happened… I know I’m actually just stuck with them.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, remembering from when she first triggered to when she finally decided to use her powers to stop the Losers. “I think all parahumans feel that way, in one way or another.”

They both fell quiet, except it wasn’t awkward. In fact, the silence was nice. This was the first time either of them could talk with a wannabe hero their own age. There was less pressure than there could be anywhere else, it was like barriers could dissipate between them.

Taylor attracted a firefly to her finger tip. “But hey, at least you’ve got stone statues at your side. I’m the one trying to be a hero with creepy powers.”

“With a name like Spawnchild? The world must be so confused now.”

“Brockton Bay, the city of racist bad guys, Losers who always win, and heroes who don’t join the Wards.”

Theo frowned, feeling disingenuous around Taylor. “I do want join the Wards, but I can’t. I always thought if I had powers, I could’ve… Met people?”

“Make friends?” Taylor completed the thought for him.

“Yeah, I thought getting powers would help me make friends.” He shook his head, realizing how stupid that sounded. “But I forgot the Wards were never an option, I should’ve known better than to think that getting powers was a good thing.”

“But I have to ask, why are the Wards not an option?”

“I... “ Theo looked at Taylor. Could he trust her? They were both capes, after all. Willing to trust each other with their secret identities. He wasn’t a nazi, so could he trust Taylor with his family secret? Looking up, Theo noticed a student in an Immacula high school uniform walking towards them. Theo’s eyes widened, “Amir?”

Amir waved his arm at them as he approached. He was a broad, wide shouldered muscular student with an athletic body build. His slick black hair was combed back on his square jawed head. Theo, and the rest of their school, knew him as the star athlete of the Immacula high baseball team.

Reaching the swing set, Amir smiled at them, which felt disingenuous from Theo’s perspective. Theo knew Amir as the kid who only stayed with the ‘popular’ kids, never talking outside his social circle like strangers weren’t worth his time. He’d normally never talk to a chubby kid like Theo. In the math class they shared, Amir was always intent on not talking to other students, Theo guessed it was because Amir didn’t like math geeks.

“You’re… Browbeat!?”

Amir nodded. Taylor glanced between the both of them, noticing Theo’s shock and Amir’s casualness. She asked, “do you both... know each other?”

“We, um…”

“We’re classmates,” Amir answered.

Theo nodded slowly. Taylor told him that Browbeat would come to talk too, but Theo never imagined that Browbeat was Amir. A part of Theo felt envious. Amir had everything, reputation, athletic prowse, girls wanting to go out with him. And with this meeting, Theo just found out he had powers on top of all of that. Just how perfect could a guy’s life be?

Theo glanced at Taylor and then back at Amir. He asked, “are…. You both going out?”

“No,” they both answered at the same time.

Theo let out a sigh of relief, but also wondered if he could even compete against a guy like Amir. After a moment of silence, Amir skipped the formalities and asked, “Taylor and I decided to join the Wards. We wanted you to join too.”

Theo stared, “I already told you I can’t join. Why can’t you both just take my word on that?”

“Because you’re not giving a reason,” Amir said in an apathetic tone. “Expecting us to take your word without reason isn’t a reason to take your word. The Wards offer a lot of aid, and being a rogue hero is like throwing your life away compared to that. Of course I’m skeptical when you say you can’t join.”

“Just get off my case,” Theo yelled. “Amir, you get everything you want. Everyone in school likes you, you’re an athlete, girls like you, and now you get to be Ward? Things aren’t easy for me like they are for you.”

Amir didn’t flinch, “all those things have to do with me, but not you. I’ll be honest, I don’t care what you do. Taylor just wants what’s best for you. So unless you can give me a real reason not to join, not joining seems asinine.”

Theo sneered, “if Mouse Protector could solo, so can I.”

“Even more asinine,” Amir said.

“Shut the hell up.” Theo yelled standing up, “just mind your own damn business.”

Amir stepped closer to Theo. His large body overshadowed Theo’s smaller, chubbier stature. “Make me,” Amir said down to him.

Theo gulped, “what?”

“You want to solo, right? Beat me, and show me you can handle yourself in a fight.”

Theo swallowed, and took a step away from him. Looking around, Theo realized he had no metal surfaces to construct a golem in the grass covered park. If Amir wanted to, he could choke Theo to death in one quick motion.

Amir said, “See? you’d already be cornered if you fought the wrong person at the wrong place. That’s why people need teams. Capes don’t last long alone, Mouse Protector works well because she can escape at any given moment. You don’t have that option. Stop pretending you're a special case, and join the Wards like the rest of us.”

Amir took a step back. Theo’s face fell to a complete frown. Even with powers, he couldn’t stand up to a fellow classmate, and any confidence he’d had in his powers had just been sorely hit.

“Theo,” Taylor said, “neither of us want you to be at risk, and neither of us want you to be a villain. We were hoping the three of us could join together as new recruits, and have each other’s back when we got there. If you told us why you can't join, maybe we could help in some way?”

Theo swallowed. Amir was Persian. If he found out his family were nazis, what would he do to him? Theo shook his head, refusing to answer.

“Hi.”

The three of them turned around. Five feet from where they stood, Light had appeared on the park’s grass edge. He stood smiling without a mask, holding a backpack with loose jeans and a black t-shirt. His smile that was identical to Rush’s. It was a face they were all familiar with upon meeting him from fight the ABB.

“I-” before he could speak, a swarm of bugs surrounded his perimeter. Without hesitation, Amir ran through the wall of bugs to thrash his body against Light’s. Amir grabbed and tussled Light to the ground, pinning him with his weight and super strength to prevent Light from escaping.

Over the sound of bugs buzzing, Light yelled, “dear god, you guys don’t miss a beat.”

“How did you find us?” The bug swarm said in a loud hissing buzz. They swarmed around Amir and Light, creating a vortex of hostile bugs over them.

Light yelled, “truce! Truce! I surrender!”

“How did you find us?” Amir and the bug swarm hissed at the same time.

"I can’t think under pressure!” Light yelled.

“You fought Lung,” Amir commented with his neck hold.

Light shook his head quickly, “did it look like I was thinking back there!?”

Amir nodded to Taylor, and Taylor’s bugs dissipated quickly. Amir had explained before that Light couldn’t ‘shift’ through physical grasps, so his hold would’ve been enough to block his escape. It was easy for Amir and Taylor to know each other’s gestures, because they both thought very tactically.

Relieved that the bugs were called off, Light said, “my name’s Vivan, by the way.”

Amir didn’t say anything. Vivan added, “still the strong silent type I see. I feel like making an innuendo joke the way you’re holding me down.”

“I thought the innuendos were Rush’s thing.”

Vivan raised an eyebrow, “it is? I seriously hadn’t noticed.”

Taylor walked up next to him. In a cold, harsh voice she said, “why are you here? You saw us without our masks, just because we saw your face, that doesn’t give you the right.”

Vivan swallowed, and gave a crooked grin. “I honestly thought it wasn’t a big deal, my team knows half the secret identities in this city. It wasn’t like we’d tell anyone.”

Theo and Taylor glanced at each other. Theo asked, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

Vivan sighed, “Browbeat, your hands are choking me. Can I-”

“No,” Amir said, keeping him to the ground.

Vivan rolled his eyes. “The ABB and Merchants hardly have identities, their cape lives are their only lives. We’d rather not collect the Ward identities because the Protectorate would kill us if we dug deep. New Wave are self explanatory, and we’ve collected half the identities of the E88 but haven’t told anyone.”

Vivan turned his head to Theo and gave him a wink. Theo’s eyes widened, he knew. “So relax guys,” Vivan said, “I wasn’t gonna tell anyone, I actually came to give you guys the tinker tech I promised.”

Taylor asked, “but how did you know we were meeting here?”

Vivan chuckled, “dudes, you're not the only ones who use parahumans online.”

Taylor rubbed her eyebrows, she couldn’t believe how careless she’d been. As vague as the short messages were, someone who had been there could’ve easily realized what they were talking about. A tinker like Leet could’ve seen their messages and realized they were planning to meet at the park near Theo’s home..

Vivan asked, “can I uh… Take out my tinker gifts?”

Amir turned to Taylor. Taylor could… Feel the strange insects within his backpack. They were small, yet strong. She could control them, but they felt like a species she’d never known before. Taylor said, “I’m feeling… Bugs in his backpack, bugs that I can control. This seems real, and with three against one, I don’t think he could spring a trap on us. I don’t even feel his teammates nearby.”

Theo glared down at Vivan. Theo said, “but tinker tools can be traps, Leet is proof of that. And his teammates could teleport at us anytime.”

Trusting Taylor’s judgement, Amir let go. Amir commented, “if this were a trap, his teammates would’ve teleported when we attacked him. Besides, if this were a trap, there’s nothing we could do about it anyway.”

Theo gulped. Vivan rubbed at his shoulders as soon as his sat up. “Damn dude, that was hard as hell. Next time, go easy on me. I can’t take poundings as well as people think I do.”

Amir, Theo, and Taylor stared at him. Vivan paused, “oh my God, I’ve become my sister.”

Theo clenched his fists, “what do you want from us?”

Vivan looked at Theo’s tightened hand. Without hesitation he answered, “I wanted to say I’m sorry. We didn’t plan on putting you in danger like that, and we didn't want to escalate things the way that it did. You shouldn't have been threatened that way from us."

“Us?” Theo snickered, “you mean her.”

Vivan’s mouth twitched, “no, that was my fault too. I should’ve stopped her, but I didn’t. I’m as sorry as she is.”

Except she wasn’t sorry. Vivan spoke to Aryana after that battle, she had no remorse for using Theo as dead weight. Nor did she regret refusing the truce with Purity. It disgusted Vivan. For the first time, he’d seen the true apathetic side of his sister that he’d always known had existed.

As was disappointed as he was in her, Vivan was even more disappointed in himself. Ever since Sabrina had nearly died, decision making was scaring him. He'd let Aryana make wrong decisions out of fear of responsibility. He should’ve known better than to let Aryana decide things like that.

Vivan wanted to apologize, both on his behalf and on behalf of his sister.

Theo looked at Vivan for awhile, and asked, “was she serious with what she said back then? Did she really want to use me… Like that?’

“Of course not,” Vivan lied with ease, “it was a bluff. That’s why she counted down, she wanted Oni Lee to let go of you, so that me and her could attack him.”

Taylor and Amir glanced at each other from behind Theo. They weren’t convinced, but Theo felt some restored hope from Vivan’s words. Not wanting to lose their trust, Vivan pulled out an iron ball set from his backpack. “Here you go, an apology gift.”

Vivan tossed the ball for Theo to catch. Theo’s hands fumbled upon catching it, and they all noticed Taylor’s bugs buzzing as soon as he tossed it. But Theo managed to grab a hold of it. “What is this?”

“A titanium ball. Designed to be as light as a soft ball due to its magnetic center. It has more matter than it looks, so theoretically speaking, you could pop out a titanium statues from it.”

Theo stared at it, and placed it on the ground. Pulling his powers out from the ball, an iron arm pulled out from it. It pulled out looking distorted, but quickly solidified upon growing out more. A head came from its shoulder blade, a torso, and legs pulled out from the magnetic ball. Theo stared at the statue. This one was small, only three feet tall. But he guessed he could make bigger ones if he spent more time on it. How would metal be created from such a small thing? I thought I needed a clear surface to create statues.

Theo turned to Vivan, “this is amazing, how did you-” Looking over, Vivan had his eyes and mouth closed shut. His fingers were plugging his ears.

“What are you doing?”

Vivan opened an eye and saw the newly formed golem. “It worked? That’s a relief, I thought the black hole was gonna break out.”

Theo stared at the ball, “What?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Why,” Taylor asked.

Vivan answered, “Well, I don’t know how black holes work, or science for that matter, but Leet said-”

“No,” Taylor said. “I mean why are you helping us? We’re heroes, we could easily end up using these things against you.”

Vivan shrugged, “you guys are just doing what I’d do if I didn’t have to be a villain, I don’t want you guys to be killed because of that.”

They stared at him. Before silence could settle in, Vivan pointed to Taylor, “Spawnchild.”

“It’s Bug Girl,” Taylor corrected. She then shook her head, “no, wait, I mean, I haven't decided a name yet.”

“Kay, anyway Bug Girl, I wanted to give you this.” Vivan pulled out a jar with a large beetle inside. It was brown, and looked like it had a body of a beetle with an ant shaped torso extending from the front. Like a centaur that was comprised of half beetle and half ant-armored human.

“Meet your newest friend, I call him Antman. Its a genetically engineered bug, designed to have the strongest trait of several species of bugs. The shell is as strong as metal, and they can move fast enough to run on water. The claws give it a strong grip, and if you had several of them, you can make him carry up to several pounds of weight. It can fly, but can actually climb faster than it flies. The stinger has paralysis venom. You can either sting someone to numb their pain, or you could collect several of them completely paralyze a person. The venom is completely non-lethal, the effect wears of in an hour. I figured you wouldn't anything lethal, so you can't really kill anyone with this bug unless you tried really hard."

Taylor noted that the 'Antman' was pregnant. He was giving her the opportunity to create more. “It… Doesn’t think like bugs do.”

Vivan nodded, “we designed it to not be able to survive on its own. It has a long lifespan, but has no mouth or stomach. It can last a month without food and water, so you'd have to breed it once a month to get hundreds of them. Leaving them alone would just make them hold still and eventually starve to death.”

“That’s… Clever.”

Vivan smiled. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was a trait in Taylor that reminded him of someone he used to know, which only made him want to help her even more. “If you came to our base, we could show you how the Spore machine works. Leet has a machine that lets us create any type of animal or creature. You could design your own bugs if you wanted to.”

“You’re… Inviting me to your base?”

Vivan nodded, “I bet you know more about the bugs you need than I do. And that Spore machine shouldn’t go to waste. Think of the bug I gave as a test sample, feel free to visit anytime you’d like.”

“You know she’s joining the Wards, right?” Amir said. “She could use these insects, and base information, against you.”

Taylor didn’t want to say it aloud, but that was exactly something she’d do. As hospitable as Vivan was being, that didn’t take away from the fact that they were enemies.

Vivan shrugged, “Meh, she doesn't strike me as a double crosser.”

Taylor noted his naivety.

Vivan asked Amir, “are you good with weapons?”

“No.”

“Regardless, here’s a weapon.” Vivan pulled out what looked like a baton. Pushing a button, it became a bowstaff. “We figured since you’re already a tank, you just needed a weapon. It can extend into a staff, a three part nunchuck, split into twin batons, and can even become a bow and arrow if you had some tinker ammo. This weapon is completely non-lethal, and has the option to shock people whenever you hit something. It also has a safety feature so that it doesn’t hurt the user, and its fingerprint activated. So lucky thieves would get shocked if they get their hands on it…. Including us.”

Amir took the staff in his hand. He stared at Vivan, “I’m going to use this against you.”

“Browbeat, your honesty is your most admirable trait.”

Vivan stood up from his kneeling position, “welp, my work here is done. I’d talk to you about the Lord now, but I’m not full of shit.”

Before Vivan could turn around, Theo stepped forward. “Um… Vivan,”

VIvan said, “if you still want to join the Losers, you’d have to talk with my sister.”

“No, no,” Theo shook his head. “I’m not actually joining the Wards. I was just wondering if we could stay in contact with each other. I heard you guys do stakeouts with the ABB, maybe we could do that together?”

Vivan frowned. “You’re gonna be a solo hero?”

Theo nodded. “Joining the Wards was never an option for me.”

“Or you could join the E88, they could train-”

“Hell no,” Theo cut in. “Never. No way in hell.”

Vivan grinned. He knew about Theo’s family history, and was glad to see that he wasn’t a part of that. Vivan turned to Taylor and Amir. “You two alright with this? Him being a solo hero?”

Taylor blinked at Vivan. It was obvious what he was doing, guilting them in a little way. As though them all being rogues put Theo on their shoulders to bear responsibility. Taylor asked again, “Theo, if you’re not joining the Wards, are you really going to be a solo hero?”

Theo nodded. Vivan commented, “Rogues really do have the lowest survival rate, especially solo rogues. But I’ll do my best to give you tinker tools to up your chances. ”

Theo smiled at that. Taylor shook her head, “No, Theo, I’m not letting you do this alone. I won’t join the Wards if you don’t.”

Vivan turned to Amir, “how about you, bro?”

Asking me live up to my name, Amir thought to himself. But really, everything Vivan said was irrelevant. Amir really didn’t care what would happen to Theo, but he did like the prospect of staying rogue. And with more tinker tools from Vivan, without the red tape from the Protectorate, maybe Amir could have more freedom than he could as a Ward. “Alright,” Amir said to Theo’s surprise, “I won’t join the Wards if Theo doesn't join.”

XXX

Author's note: Tinker invention ideas are much appreciated, especially inventions for Taylor, Browbeat, and Theo.

 

Mouse Protector sat on the edge of the rooftop. There was a slight whistling in the wind, and Katherine noticed the sound was amplified through her costume’s mouse ears. She thought back to ten years ago. When she was among the first generation of Wards and teaching the next generation of Wards how to be heroes.

The cape she’d taught had been so optimistic. Squirrel girl, back when the word ‘girl’ wasn’t common enough to be overused. She was happy, energetic, and looked up to Mouse Protector as an idol. Katherine used to call her her little sister, and she’d failed her miserably.

“I hate responsibility,” Mouse Protector muttered to herself.

Bug Girl climbed onto the roof from the fire escape. Mouse Protector teleported behind herself to greet the excellent new heroes. “Hello my little guppies!”

Browbeat followed behind Bug Girl, and another kid came with a mask. “Theo!?” Mouse Protector shouted with a grin.

Theo had come in with a light armor--styled costume, similar to herself minus the mouse ears. It had no design or color like it was meant to be generic. His mask was plain, with a line for a mouth and eyes to give it a neutral expression.

“Um… Golem, actually.”

“I get it! Because you summon golems!”

Golem turned to Browbeat, “see? She gets it.” Referring to how Browbeat thought the name was in reference to Lord of the Rings.

Browbeat replied, “Mouse Protector doesn’t counts.”

Golem squinted underneathe the mask, but it didn’t resonate because of it’s neutral expression.
“Woohoo!” Mouse Protector pumped her fist in the air. “That means I get three bonus checks for recruiting Wards, I’m paying rent this month!”

The teenagers paused as Mouse Protector celebrated. Bug Girl was going to break the news, but she suddenly became anxious when Mouse Protector began cheering.

“We’re not joining the Wards,” Browbeat cut in.

“Hmm?” Mouse Protector paused.

“Theo really can’t join the Wards,” Bug Girl said. “He needs a team, and we’re going to be here for him.”

“Ergo, but why?” Mouse Protector tilted her head at Golem.

Golem swallowed. Browbeat answered for him, “he has his reasons. You’ll just have to take his word for that.”

Mouse Protector walked closer to Golem, “is it because of Endbringer attacks? You can work in the sidelines if you want. And if you really didn’t want to go, they’d make an exemption for that.”

“He’s still going to be a rogue hero,” Bug Girl explained. “We all are, we just decided we’re going to form a team together.”

Mouse Protector asked again, “is it because your parents would be against it? There are options to join anonymously. They’d put you in a fake afterschool program, and your parents would never need to know the truth..”

Golem stayed quiet. Browbeat said, “Theo has his reasons for not joining, and we’re going to help him be a hero since that’s the case.”

Mouse Protector mouth shrank. She could deduce that Theo was the core reason Browbeat and Bug Girl wouldn’t join. “Level with me Theo, what would it take for you to join?”

An act of God, Golem wanted to say. “Nothing,” he answered.

“Why?” Mouse Protector pressed, “the Wards can give you anything. There has to be a good reason not to join.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Just…” Golem wanted to tell her too. And a part him knew it was the right thing to do, but throwing his family under the bus was an unwarranted change he couldn’t go through right now. He shook his head, “you’re a rogue hero, why can’t the rest of us be independent too?”

Mouse Protector’s mouth flatlined. The idea that she was partially responsible for their choice repulsed her. “I started out as a Ward. I trained with the Quadrumvirate. I had help from tinkers, thinkers, and trained from Brutes. I never pretended I was good enough to solo. If the rest of you go independent, I can’t say you all won’t end up dead like those no-name capes that died at the start of their cape careers.”

It was morbid statement, having Mouse Protector of all people tell them that they couldn’t do it. When Theo had nothing left to say, Browbeat said, “we’re not asking for permission. We’re telling you that we’re not joining the Wards. We’re going independent, whether you agree with it or not.”

Mouse Protector’s stomach churned. She remembered Squirrel Girl again, there was something about kids that always gave her a sense of vulnerability. “There’s… Nothing I can say to change your minds, is there?”

“No,” Bug GIrl said. “We talked about it, we’ve already decided.”

Mouse Protector scrunched her fists, “no, I’m not letting you guys do this alone.”

XXX

Katherine leaned back on the park bench chair. She had on sweatpants and a pink t-shirt. It was humid outside. A thin layer of moist were on Hannah and Katherine’s arms as they sat together on the park bench under the shade. “I hate getting a job,” Katherine groaned, “my life would be so much easier if they’d all joined the Wards.”

Hannah drank a smoothie as Katherine spoke, they both picked the same flavor, like they did back in high school. Hannah said, “if it makes you feel any better, I think you’re doing a great thing.”

Katherine let out a deep breathe. She had trouble being serious around people. Everyone was such a downer and she didn’t want to become like that. But with Hannah, they might as well have been sisters. She’s the only person Katherine could open up to. Katherine helped Hannah learn English, and they often spent long nights of their youth together watching foreign movies.

They were best friends in high school, going through thick and thin as capes. Hannah was there for her when Katherine’s apprentice died. It was the last time Katherine had cried, and neither could never forget their bond. Katherine said, “it’s like, ever since I went solo, I sort of built myself on this idea that I have to do this alone. But now that I’m seeing other people do it, I’m not allowed to say, ‘no, you don’t know how much it sucks being alone. It's not as fun as I make it, this isn’t for everyone.’”

“I heard the Losers have that same affect,” Hannah added, “their videos are making more capes reveal themselves, and making people believe that being independent is easy.”

“Exactly,” Katherine grumbled, “we’re giving people the wrong idea. I had to do something, at least for them.”

“Though, there is a silver lining,” Hannah pointed out. “People aren’t seeing villains as the monsters as they used to be. Villains always have this aura of wicked to them, and it's a big reason why people are afraid of them. With what the Losers do, they're ruining the perception that villains are inhuman.”

Katherine chuckled. “Yeah, I believe that.”

“Didn’t you say something about that? You said you wanted to show the world that villains aren’t as scary as we think, by making fun of them until the fear is gone.”

Katherine smiled, surprised by how little she’d changed over the years. Although she’d never admit it aloud, the Losers were similar to her, except living on the opposite side of the spectrum. Whereas Katherine tried her best to ridicule her enemies to remove the perception of fear, the Losers did the same thing except in the form of extreme irony.

“But I’m not sure if these new guys can think the way I do.”

Hannah smiled, “really though, there’s only one way to find out.”

XXX

Mouse Protector pranced with delight! As she skipped across the junkyard where the Losers had recruited Rune, Rush chased her with two blunt knives at hand. “You furry faced fuck!”

“Such uncreative name- calling,” Mouse Protector retorted, “is it possible a cat has caught Rush’s tongue?”

Rush slashed at Mouse Protector’s direction, to which Mouse Protector disappeared from sight. “Goddamnit,” Rush yelled, “I call foul, you need to tape your mouth shut!”

Mouse Protector teleported onto a giant pile of junk and scrap metal. She grinned down at Rush. Rush was wearing a cat ear headband with a cat tail belt buckle. It was meant to piss off Mouse Protector, but Mouse Protector quickly flipped the game of irritation onto Rush instead.

Mouse Proteector punned. “Such claw-ti-tude, I believe now is the puurr-fect time to reveal, our new web series.”

Rush’s eyes widened. “No…”


A spherical drone out from behind a pile of garbage. It was a simple spherical orb, courtesy of Glenn from Kid Win. A camera lens focused from its center, and it pointed directly at Mouse Protector. “Today… On the Mousketeers channel!”

Rush gasped, “you plagiarizing bitch!”

“God forbid I steal from villains.”

Rush flew quickly at the drone, but the drone easily dodged Rush’s attempted grabs. “Leet,” Rush ordered through her mask, “they’re making a fucking mouseketeers channel, kill them!”

“No.” Her teammates said over the communication lines.

They stood several feet away from her. Spitfire, Leet, and Uber were surrounded by a dozen golems. Six golems were made from rusted junkyard copper, ranging from four to six feet each. One golem was made from the titanium sphere Light had given Theo, it stood at a whopping ten feet tall with a robust body structure.

They were wearing cat costumes. Cat ears and cat tails were enough for Spitfire and Leet, but Uber wore a skimpy cat suit that seemed oddly inappropriate for the battlefield.

Spitfire launched a wall molten breathe at the golems. The golems that were copper melted easily, but the titanium one stayed in place.

Leet groaned, “in hindsight, I shouldn’t have done what Vivan asked.”

Uber engulfed himself in his prototype suit. Spitfire shot cold breathe over the golem to slow it down, and Uber sprinted and clobbered at it with a ten ton swamp covered fist to knock it down.

The statue slowly got back up. Uber said, “you could’ve at least put on an off switch.”

Rush yelled over the call line again, “this mickey mouse slut is stealing my idea!”

Uber said, “god forbid she steal.”

“I know right?” Leet said, “unacceptable.”

Spitfire added, “we should take her to court.”

Rush yelled, “all of your are assholes.”

The new drone hovered over the junkyard field gaining a mild view of the people around them. While Uber’s trio were surrounded by copper and titanium titans, Light shifted across the junkyard, searching for where Bug Girl and Golem were hiding.

Light only halted his shifted state to glance around for searching. Bug Girl and Golem were masters, so it was only natural that they hid while their powers fought for them. He checked under cars, behind garbage bins, and across as much ground as he could cover. When he finally got far away enough from his team, he turned into his normal form and had a moth swarm fall over his face.

“Oh dear God,” Light yelled. He shrieked as he stepped back to shoot excessively at the swarms. “Why the fuck are moths my weakness?” Stepping back, he tripped over the invisible trap set behind him. As he fell to the ground and fell on a garbage pile, more bugs began tangling him with the spider silk.

Light tried to shift away, but quickly realized his feet were bound. Staring at the spider silk, he asked, “what… The hell?”

Browbeat appeared from nearby and pressed Light to the ground. He had electric handcuffs (courtesy of the Protectorate) and tied Light’s hand keeping him from shifting away. “You’re under arrest.”

Light really didn’t put up much of a fight. “Holy crap, I forgot about you.”

Browbeat said, “They’re masters, of course I’d stay with them in case someone got too close.”

Golem revealed herself from neary by a metal bin, “one down, four to go.”

Light tugged at the silk around his feet, “Browbeat, why can’t I phase through this stuff?”

Bug girl revealed herself from nearby. “It's black widow silk,” she said confidently, “stronger than steel. I also covered it in crushed bugs since your Menton Effect doesn’t let you phase through organic matter.”

“Oh my god,” Light yelled, “I’m covered in dead bugs!” Light rolled away from Browbeat and smeared himself over garbage bags. Caring more about the bug juice than the trash smells or his actual arrest.

Browbeat said, “that isn’t helping.”

“You the devil.” Light retorted, “you’re not a good guy, you’re a monster.”

Bug Girl said, “I’m not-”

Light made a fart noise at her.

She replied, “I’m just-”

Light made another fart noise.

“Grow up.”

Light yelled, “I call cheater. Hashtag Nerf Spawnchild.”

They all knew his mask was recording, Big Girl shook her head. She raised her arms up in the air with a dramatic flare. Every bug she’d collected from outside the junkyard gathered. Millions of them. Horseflies, Mosquitoes, moths carrying spiders. Millions upon millions of insects flew into the air, casting a shadow over the junkyard.

Taylor yelled, “I am not Spawnchild, I’m Buzzkill. Get it right!” The insects resonated her message through a loud hissing buzz, almost like it echoed in unison across the junkyard.

Light, Spitfire, Uber and Leet stared at the air in silence. It looked like the sun was blocked out by a black cloud. Spitfire spoke over the line, “new strategy, don’t get Buzzkill angry.’

Light said, “I surrender again.”

Leet pressed a switch on his laser gun, it occasionally killed bugs within a one mile radius. But he was becoming doubtful as Buzzkill felt more like a force of nature. He asked, “can we run away now?”

Rush looked over at Mouse Protector. Mouse Protector laughed manically at her camera drone. “Remember villains, next time you consider fighting Buzzkill, always remember that chlamydia can be transferred through mosquito bites too.”

Rush squinted, “Sex ed is my schlick. We’re not finished here until I’m dead!” She pulled out her duel knives.

“Oh dear” Mouse Protector said backing away, “is this your way of trying to claw your way into my heart?”

“That’s it, I’m ripping your real ears off!” Rush pounced at her.

Mouse Protector didn’t teleport away this time. Instead, she parried off Rush’s hits, and quickly disarmed her of her weapons by bending her arms in a heavy fashion. The knives fell out, and Mouse Protector pushed her to the ground causing her to toss and turn..

Mouse Protector turned her head to the camera. With a grin she said, “For you see, my fellow villain, you are no longer fighting against the average heros any longer! We are the scurrying masters of mayhem, the heroes without borders, restrictions, or honor! The rogue heroes of the east coast, the unfiltered rogues of justice! We are warriors without limits, you have no idea what hammer of justice hath just befallen on Brockton Bay!”

“Stop dialoguing shit!” Rush stood up. “We are the villains of chaos! Agents of everything wrong with this world! We will destroy the establishment, and drag this world down with us!”

“Return to the litter box hence you came from!” Mouse Protector retracted, “take your hissy fits back to the catnip depths from which you cometh you kitten cretins!”

Rush’s face scrunched. “I’m… Running out of banter. Uber, say something funny.”

Uber said, “I feel like a whore in this cat costume.”

“That’s the point,” Rush said back.

Mouse Protector’s walkie talkie rang out. It vibrated from her belt buckle. When Rush ran towards her, Mouse Protector raised her arm and yelled, “TIMEOUT!”

Everyone stopped in their place. Even the golems stopped attacking their team. Golem asked, “wait, are we allowed to call that?”

Light replied, “I… Honestly don’t know, no one’s ever tried that before.”

“It’s an unspoken rule…” Buzzkill’s bugs buzzed from around them.

Browbeat said, “all of you are… Fuck it, sure, why not.”

The walkie talkie call was from Miss Militia. “Mouseketeers, there’s a fire north side from here. You’re closer, keep it from spreading while Velocity heads in your direction.”

“Copy dat,” Mouse Protector answered. She put her communicator to the side and said to Rush, “I gotta go.” She pointed away in an awkward fashion.

Rush glared, “oiy, we’re winning, you can’t retreat now.”

The bugs hissed, “Light is in handcuffs.”

Rush spoke to her mask again, “you're a disgrace Vivan.”

Light replied, “I’m beginning to realize my life can be summed up as a series of bad decisions.”

Mouse Protector was already running away, “sorry, but heroes have real duties to do.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rush called out, “am I not good enough for you? Come back here and finish me!”

Uber spoke through the masks, “hehe, innuendo.”

Rush yelled, “shut up, that applies to you too.”

XXX

The Loser team was slumped as they walked home. It was night now, and they were still debating whether to post the footage online or not. Losing was no problem for them, but they never expected to have the tables turned against them like that. “Mouseketeers,” Aryana grumbled, “another shitty team to deal with. Those guys are worse than the E88.”

Robert commented, “this team has a strange bar of standards.”

Emily smiled. “I... kind of like them. They’re kind of like us, independent, and not really looking to prove anything.”

Edwin said, “meh, I have been getting tired of fighting the E88. A change in pace is nice.” Edwin punched Vivan on the shoulder, “seriously though, did we have to give them those tinker tools?”

Vivan’s grinned. They all said he shouldn’t have done that, but once Aryana and Emily were on board, Edwin and Robert were willing to accept it. Vivan said to Edwin, “thanks dude.”

Before they reached their base, a growling noise was heard from the distance. Just before they reached their apartment entrance, three rhino sized monsters stalked around the building. The monsters looked over from the base entrance, growling at the Losers like their only job was to protect the building form their team. Bitch, wearing a dog mask, was sitting on top of one.

The Loser team hadn’t removed their cat costumes yet.

“Everyone,” Aryana said in a hard voice, “take your cyanide pills!”

Robert grabbed Aryana’s hand before she could reach for her belt buckle. “Nope.”

Aryana glared at him, “I’ve spent three days trying to seduce you, and now you’re finally touching me?”

A black cloud appeared from behind them. It dissipated with the night sky leaving only the rest of the Undersiders in its wake. They were hoping to enter in a dramatic fashion, to show the Losers their strength as well as their theatrical capabilities. Grue, Tattletale, and Regent stepped out from the cloud to meet the Losers from behind. “Losers,” Grue said, “we’re here to make an offer.”

Aryana ignored him. She reached for her belt buckle with her other hand, but Emily grabbed it before she could eat it. “Aryana,” Emily said, “stahp. The dogs won’t eat us.”

Aryana pulled against Emily’s strength to try and eat the cyanide pill. Robert and Emily pulled her hands down to stop her from placing it in her mouth. Aryana yelled, “Life is absurd!” Her teammates eventually tackled her to the ground. “Morality is meaningless! God isn’t listening!”

They wrestled Aryana on the ground as she struggled to put the pill in her mouth. Vivan walked forward already chewing his own pill, “Edwin, why does your cyanide pill taste like strawberries?”

Edwin answered, “because I'm not making you guys fucking cyanide pills.”

Emily and Robert paused from struggling. They got up from the ground, and Aryana brushed her clothes as she stood up. Aryana said, “you’re a pussy Leet.”

Emily asked, “Vivan, did you know the pills were fake?”

Vivan asked, “what does cyanide mean?”

Aryana turned to Robert and slapped him across the face. “There, now we’re even!”

Robert’s face beamed red. He pulled his hips back, and turned around in an awkward posture. Aryana looked down at Robert’s pants. She asked, “did… You just get a boner?”

Robert sat on the ground. Covering his crotch with his legs. “I’ve… Never been slapped before.”

Aryana yelled, “are you fucking kidding me? That’s all it took!?”

Regent held Grue by the shoulder while laughing his ass off. Grue looked over to Tattletale and asked, “are we… Really doing this?”

Tattletale stared at the team in disbelief. She sighed, “yeah. Don’t worry guys, we’re just here to make an alliance.”

XXX

Author's note: This is the end of the Mouse Protector saga, and I am now putting this fanfic on hiatus. Not just due to writer's block (I've still got a few arcs I'd like to write out), but also because real life has changed a lot for me, so I won't be able to update this in regularly soon or in a few months. I'll do my best to write in my spare time, but for now, this fanfic is on hold.

Thanks for everyone who have supported it, I hope you enjoyed this story.

 

Light spoke into the camera in a confident tone. He was donning a familiar costume that was infamous in America. “Hello E88. This is my video application for joining the E88.”

He was wearing a long, klu klux klan costume, with long white robes covering his arms and face. But the eye holes of the cone hat, and exposed tan skinned on his hands, all revealed how plainly obvious he wasn’t white supremacist material. He spoke into the camera in front of him.

“My resume includes, advocating for a wall between Canada and America. Telling the french guy his pastries were shitty. Beating up oriental hookers in GTA, and being a registered republican in my local district.”

Rush asked from behind camera, “wait, you have to say Asian, not oriental. Oriental isn't racist enough.”

"Bullshit," Vivan said. "Asian is literally just people from Asia. Oriental is literally defined as 'shiny object.' How the hell is calling someone a shiny object less racist than asian?"

Leet said, “as a libertarian, I’m offended by that republican comment.”

Uber added, “also, I’m pretty sure that French guy was actually Italian. All Europeans look alike.”

The whole team gasped around him. Rush said, “oh, so all Eurpoeans are the same now? Christ, you’re a racist fuck.”

“Seriously,” Light said crossing his clan covered arms. “That is so, ignorant of you.”

“Hey Leet,” Rush said, “I think your bro is racist.”

The camera turned to Leet and Spitfire. They sat on the couch playing video games in their costume masks. They both had on sweatpants, with Spitfire having a white t-shirt and Leet having a black t-shirt. Leet answered, “he’s German, what did you expect?”

Rush questioned, “Uber is German? Then why the fuck hasn’t he slept with me yet? I’m the closest thing to chocolate he’s gonna get.”

Spitfire mentioned, “to be fair, everyone loves chocolate, not just Germans.”

Rush added, "god it's great being sugary."

“All of you,” Uber yelled, “Fuck all of you.”

XXX

It was daytime. Brian, Lisa, and Alec walked across the street and headed towards the Loser’s apartment base. Staring up at the large apartment complex, Alec couldn’t help but feel some envy towards them. “Okay, so how is it that the Losers get so many floors, and we’re stuck with our abandoned warehouse of solitude?”

“It’s not so different from our base,” Brian said. “Taking a building that’s abandoned and making the inside more livable. It’s not much better than what we did.”

“Not quite,” Lisa said scanning the building from top to bottom. “The building has defenses that break half the laws of physics. I feel bad for whoever gets the bright idea to try and attack them here.”

Alec looked over at the electric padlock at the entrance of the building. He said, “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars I can guess their password is.”

Lisa commented, “we’re not gonna trip an alarm for you.”

“I said guess, not try. I bet you a hundred bucks the password is password.”

Heading towards the door of the apartment complex, Lisa stared down at the electronic combination lock. She frowned, and typed in the password the Losers had given her.

P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D-1.

“Fuck,” Alec said, “that’s why you didn’t bet.”

Lisa murmured, "you still would've lost..."

XXX

Vivan wrapped his arms around Robert’s back. He didn’t remove his kkk costume after the broadcast had finished, and he still felt the urge to bring Robert into the dark side. “Embrace my white power!”

Robert yelled at him, “stop tempting me you little bastard!”

"How dare you call me little!"

Aryana threw a wad of bills at Robert's body, “we demand you accept your Aryan heritage!”

Robert leaned his back against the floor to crush Vivan with his own body. Robert said, “I’m ordering curry today, and I’m throwing it in both your faces.”

“Wrong race,” Vivan groaned weighted down underneath Robert’s back, “close, but not quite.”

Emily was sitting on the sofa, drinking her tea calmly as Vivan and Robert wrestled on the living room floor. Emily said, “you said we were close when we said Mexico, South Africa, and Hawaii. We’ve literally narrowed down your ethnicity to everything that isn’t completely white.”

Robert stood up from the floor, and Vivan clutched onto his kkk hoodie. “But I feel white, that should count for something.”

“Not true,” Aryana said, “until you’ve experienced white privilege, the E88 will never accept you.”

“New plan then,” Vivan said, “Edwin, I need you to infiltrate the E88.”

Edwin shrugged, “I think we’re beyond the point that any of them would accept me or Robert.”

“Or me,” Emily mentioned. “Not that I’m upset about it.”

There was a knock on the door. The five of them turned at the noise, and then stared at Aryana. Emily asked, “chlamydia again?”

Aryana blinked, “I honestly don’t remember.” On a few occasions, Aryana would invite dying patients to spend the evening with the team. It wasn't a regular thing, but she'd often call the cancer visitors 'chlamydia patients' as a joke. Aryana walked over to the door and opened it to see the Undersiders. Without an ounce of surprise, Aryana asked, “you guys have chlamydia?”

Brian frowned. He looked over her shoulder, and saw Vivan waving hi to him in a kkk uniform. Lisa sighed, “Rush, you know exactly who we are. You’re pretending you don’t know for the funny, and it’s mostly because you’re trying to make light of the lousy situation you and your brother are in. So can we stop playing games right now, and just let us in so we can talk about a team heist?”

Aryana squinted at Lisa, “wow, five seconds I already don’t like you.” Aryana shut the door at their faces.

Alec said to Lisa, “great, you got us kicked out.”

“Relax,” Lisa said, “just wait for it.”

Behind the door, the Losers spoke among themselves in loud voices clearly meant for the Undersiders to hear. From the other side, Brian, Alec, and Lisa could all hear her clearly. Aryana said, “alright guys, the Undersiders are here. And Tattletale reads minds. So put all your bad shit in the air before she uses it against us.”

“Fuck,” Robert said. “Edwin, I used your razor to shave my crotch.”

Vivan commented, “Edwin shaves? But his skin is as smooth as an albino colored eggplant.”

Edwin squinted at him, “Vivan, I’ve been doing secret experiments on you while you slept for the last three months.”

“Holy crap,” Vivan patted his head, “no wonder my hair glows in the dark.”

“Emily,” Aryana said. “The truth is, the reason I don’t sexualize you isn’t because you’re underage, it’s because I want to preserve your virginal innocence for as long as possible. Because I know that if I had the chance, I’d soil your spirit hole in the most vulgar and grotesque ways possibles.”

Emily blinked at her, “Okay...I don’t, have any secrets I keep from you guys.”

“Edwin,” Vivan said, “you don’t want to know why, but it’s extremely important you never use your toothbrush again. Don’t ask, you don’t want to know, but trust me on this. NEVER use your toothbrush again.”

Edwin stared at him for a long moment. “You fucking little bitch, I knew it!”

"I'm not fucking little!" Vivan squeeled before Edwin tackled him to the ground. Robert tried breaking them up, but only got caught in between their wrestling.

Edwin yelled, “why the fuck do you all screw around with hygiene products! You can literally buy your own shit at seven eleven!”

Aryana yelled down at them as they continued to fight, “guys, can’t you see Tattletale is trying to tear us apart! Don’t let her mind tricks get to you!”

The Undersiders in the hallway were only left outside the door to hear their bickering. Alec was leaning against the wall, laughing so hard he was losing his breathe. “Lisa,” he said, “we are so fucked here.”

Brian wasn’t impressed. He turned to Lisa and asked, “how long is this gonna last?”

Lisa yelled at them from outside the door, “I haven’t even said anything!

After a few more minutes of wrecking noises, Aryana opened the door for them to enter, “okay, I think we’re ready now.”

Stepping inside, the Undersiders noticed that Edwin was tied to a wooden chair. Duck tape wrapped around his legs, arms, and body to keep him tied in place. Tape covered his mouth, but there was enough opening for him to mumble. “Why the- fffff-uk am I the one- thatz ti-ed?”

Vivan yelled, “because that's what white privilege is, lil bitch!” Vivan turned at Alec with a glare, “you’re next.”

“I’m Canadian,” Alec said quickly.

Vivan blinked, and stared up at the ceiling in amazement. “Oh my God, we finally have enough diversity for a cereal commercial.”

“That’s it,” Brian finally said. “This isn't going to work out. None of you have shown you want to work together. If none of you want this, why should we keep pretending like this will lead anywhere?"

The Losers didn’t say anything. Brian asked again, “are any of you serious about this, or not?”

Aryana answered, “nope. But it’s pretty obvious that there’s a reason you want to work with us. Despite the name, you know we win. Or at least, never get caught. That’s why you’ve been tolerating us long enough to finally meet us at our base.”

Aryana tapped a finger on Brian’s chest, she said, “we’re never serious. You’ll have to deal with that, but we can still work together if you want it. So if you can tolerate this,” she pointed to Edwin struggling in the chair to emphasize the point, “we’ll be fine. If not, feel free to leave right now.”

Brian frowned, it was clear Aryana was more self-aware than she pretended to be. Lisa answered for him, “this won’t be a problem. As long as the missions work out the way we want them to, an alliance can work out.”

Aryana looked over at Lisa again. “Seriously, there is just something about your face that I just really don’t like. I’m sorry, but can you just stop talking? I want to punch you the more you talk.”

Lisa bobbed her head, “you can’t be serious.”

Aryana shrugged, “if you can tell what I’m thinking, I might as well say it.”

Vivan yelled out, “you have very nicely combed hair, and I really like how your sweater matches your eyes.”

Robert said, “also, your shoes are a little tacky. Next time, go for something that’s a little more in season.”

Emily said, “wait, does fashion advice count as the truth? Aryana, I think you’d look a lot nicer if you started wearing earrings.”

Aryana replied to her, “Emily, I love you so much, never let your guard down around me.”

Lisa’s mouth was left open, “oh my God… This is my life now…”

XXX

Purity and Kaiser stared down against Hookwolf and Krieg across from them. They were out of costume, standing in an alleyway that was dangerously far away from E88 territory. In fact, it was near towards the PRT base. All of them made a pact to keep this conversation strictly between them four.

“We kill them all,” Hookwolf said. “We kill ten niggers for every day they don’t surrender to us, let them know they’re own fame is causing the hurt, and let everyone know not to fuck with the E88.”

Kaiser shook his head, “that’s full-scale war. The Triumvirate would make the effort to stop us.”

Hookwolf glared at the former leader. “Look around you Kaiser, this is war! I’m done waiting, playing along and pretending patience is key. We need to flush them out, and make them feel the pain that the E88 brings.”

Kaiser glanced over at Purity. She was quiet. She couldn’t believe the corner she’d been pushed into. The Losers, of all people, were putting them at risk of a civil war. If Purity couldn’t convince Hookwolf and Krieg that this was under control, fracturing was inevitable.

“We can’t go to war,” Purity said. “Not against the Triumvirate, not against the Losers. I tried negotiating a truce with them, they refused.”

Krieg raised an eyebrow, “you tried negotiating… A truce?”

Purity nodded, “I told them we’d stop doing hate crimes, focus on fighting other gangs if they stopped-”

Krieg slammed his fist against the wall. “You what!?” Krieg walked closer to her, “just what the hell are you making us into? Where do you stand with the E88?”

“Enough,” Kaiser said, taking control of the situation. Just as he’d always been, he was watching out for Purity’s back, making sure he had more control of the organization than she did. Kaiser said, “I think I know a way to send a message to the Losers. It won’t carry the same consequences to war, but it’ll make one thing clear to the world. No one stabs the E88 and gets away with it.”

 

Author's Note: Meant to do this after the Mouse Protector Saga. Sorry for the inconsistent ordering.

XXX

Vivan typed away on his laptop searching various possible locations they could run away to. “How about… Seattle?"

Aryana sat at the table across from him. They were sitting at a coffee shop, they had a few hours before moving to the next store. “Can’t,” she said. “Seattle is near the Elite headquarters. Accord sells plans to them, we’d get caught quick if we moved to the west coast.”

“How about Utah?” Vivan asked. Now they were on the front steps of a colonial historical site. It was a good thing the site had wifi. “There’s robot tinker there that’s pretty badass.”

Aryana’s mouth twitched. She had a headphone on, and had gotten used to half-listening to Vivan as he threw possibilities at the wall, “listen, you might as well assume everything west of the Mississippi is off limits. Between the Elite and the Fallen, those places are death sentences for anyone that wants to be independent like us.”

Vivan typed on the tablet as they walked across a busy street crowd. Aryana sighed, and could only think of one stupid possibility for them to have a team, instead of just being alone. She stopped Vivan from walking, and took the tablet from his hand.

She googled the words ‘Uber and Leet.’ “Look,” she said facing the screen towards him.

The screen turned onto two young adults in two mega man suits. “Zero!” Uber said, “Dr Wily is at it again!”

Leet had a megaman Zero costume, complete with a bright green plasma blade. “Now that I think about it, I should've been Dr fucking Wily.”

“Don't break character!” Uber scolded.

“But you just did!” Leet bickered back.

Two gang members tried charging at them as they bickered, but they quickly turned their laser weapons at them, and caused burns as they shot and slashed at the gang members.

Aryana said, “these guys, these guys are perfect. Nobody knows them, not a huge threat, and they look fun to be around.”

Vivan looked at the screen as they fired their plasma lasers at the teenagers. They laughed maniacally as they did it, to which Vivan frowned. “They’re just… Bullies. I remember liking their first few videos when they started out… But that Grand theft auto video really freaked me out.”

Aryana rolled her eyes. Things like that were tame from her viewpoint. “It’s not like they murdered anyone.”

“Still, they hurt people. And they put it on camera, how could we join guys that are okay with that?”

Aryana frowned. She didn't believe justice mattered, but she could at least make villainy more bearable for Vivan. “How about this, if we join them, we start beating up pimps once a week.”

Vivan shook his head, “that’s not really the point, they hurt people, and that matters more than anything else.”

Aryana clicked her tongue, “alright, how about this; if we join them, we stakeout ABB warehouses for prostitution, and tip off the PRT of their locations.”

“Hmmm..”

To drive the point home, Aryana used Vivan’s feminism against him. “Aaaaand, we’ll donate the money we steal from them to domestic violence shelters.”

Vivan clicked his tongue, “alright, let's do it.”

Aryana threw the tablet at a concrete wall, “internet here we come!”

The tablet shattered. Vivan said, “you paid for that…”

“Don't worry,” Aryana said, “believe me when I say this, villain shit pays well.”

Vivan sighed, “but do you really think they'd agree with the plan?”

“Leave that to me, I have a way with words.”

XXX

Robert glared down at Aryana, “no.”

Aryana and Robert glared deep into each other. While Edwin leaned back on the sofa with his head deep in thought, Vivan sat at the kitchen table with a laptop sitting in front of him.

Aryana yelled, “quite being a pussy and just do it. Vivan, queue Shia Lebeauf.”

Vivan played a ‘just do it’ montage over his laptop. Robert gritted his teeth as the soundtrack played in the background.

As soon as the music stop, Robert shouted at her. “We’re not goddamn heroes. We sure as hell aren’t gonna start screwing over Lung just because of something we did months ago.”

“The hookers you beat up were Korean,” Vivan said. “You’re already on his bad side.”

Robert retorted, “who gives a damn if some hookers got beaten up? Lung sure as hell doesn’t. Those hookers couldn’t even speak english, they were nobodies, and we don’t have to make up for anything.”

Vivan pouted, “nobodies, that’s an ironic word coming from you guys.”

Robert almost said something, but Aryana intervened, “nobodies gotta stick together. The PRT doesn’t spend nearly enough resources investigating these non-cape crimes, let’s level the playing field. No one has to know, we’ll just do the detective stuff, and the PRT will do the dangerous stuff.”

Robert frowned, “and why… The hell should we waste our time doing that.”

“Reputation,” Aryana clapped her hands together. “It’s time we find direction in ourselves. Figure out exactly what villains we want to be, and exactly what we do and don’t stand for. You two, ruined your image the moment that GTA video went up. You guys went to fun guys having fun, to psychopathic guys having psychopathic fun. Your viewership went down, and for good reason. It’s time we portray ourselves as something more than just villains. As people, who happen to have superpowers.”

“Let me repeat myself,” Robert said, “I’m not risking my ass to save people who don’t matter. No one cares about gang members, it doesn’t matter if those rings keep going.”

Vivan murmured, “it matters to them...”

Aryana couldn’t help but sympathize Robert’s point. There really wasn’t anything to gain from it, and for every ring they could stop, another one would prop up to take its place. It was a large risk for an ultimately meaningless purpose.

Arayan flew over to the Sofa. Edwin still had his head tilted back, in a daze not wanting to interrupt. “Edwin!” Aryana yelled, making Edwin to snap forward in shock. Aryana leaned close to his face, “you’re with me on this one, right?”

Aryana was so close to him that she breathed onto his cheeks. Edwin turned bright red and mumbled, “um…”

Robert hissed, “Edwin, don’t you dare say it.”

Edwin swallowed, and turned his head away from her. “I mean, I don’t see what the big deal is. We’d be doing it secretly, the PRT would do the fighting, it’s not that bad.”

Robert yelled, “goddamnit Edwin, stop thinking with your dick.”

Edwin yelled back, “I’m not thinking with my dick!”

“No take backs,” Aryana leaped back from the sofa in a proud stance, “since this is a democracy, and its 3 to 1-”

“Not a democracy,” Robert retorted, “we’re villains, I'm leader, and I say no.”

Edwin fell quiet again. He wasn’t going to argue with his best friend.

Aryana noticed that Vivan’s mouth was contorted, like talking more with these people disgusted him. That was a problem. Sure, Aryana could convince Vivan to join them anyway, without the conditions mentioned, but she wasn’t going to force Vivan to join a villain team he hated without a silver lining.

Aryana pointed to Edwin, “Edwin, you know how you said Toy Box kicked you out? Let’s make a deal. If I can get Leet back into Toy Box, you guys have to do these stakeouts with us.”

Edwin and Robert turned to stare at each other. Robert said, “you know Toy Box hates him, right?”

She answered, “I’m aware of that. Me and Vivan will do the stakeouts on our own in the meantime. If I can get Edwin back in, will you both agree to make up for that GTA bullcrap you did?”

Robert chuckled. From what he saw from her, he guessed she had her head in the clouds, believing things were easier than they actually were. “Alright fine. But if you don't manage to do it, not only do you both drop this stakeout thing.” Robert took his hand out for a shake. “But you also have to agree to cosplay whichever way I want.”

Aryana grinned. “In that case, if I win, you ALSO have to wear whatever I say. Kapeesh?”

“Kapeesh.”

They both shook hands.

XXX

Aryana headed towards Robert and Edwin’s apartment. Yellow PIkman filled the hallways as she walked forward. She put no effort to miss stepping on them, and managed to squish dozens underneath her boots as she walked forward.

The apartment complex was infested with them. Having the drug supplies as living nintendo creatures was a spontaneous idea, but it made collecting and categorizing ingredients as easy as picking up colored tomatoes that walked towards you.

Phase one of Arayana’s plan was complete, steal enough money to create self-supplying organic drugs. Accord taught her that self-reliance was key. To have things weaved together so tightly that no single chess piece on the board was vital. Now, they could all make high-quality drugs without fear of losing supply. And since it was made with tinker mutated ingredients, no one else could compete with them in terms of quality.

We have become a useful asset, Aryana thought to herself, we’re not nobodies anymore. People will want what we can offer.

Aryana was also lucky Edwin had confidence issues. He’d listen to anything she’d say, as long as the possibility of her loving him back was always there. Edwin never risked making edible Tinker drugs until she pushed him into taking risks.

Was it manipulation? Sure. Was it worth it? Yup.

Aryana entered Robert and Edwin’s apartment room. Their apartment building had dozens of multiple colored Pikman. Purple, blue, yellow, albino. He had them all separated in the corners of the living room to prevent them from mixing.

Aryana stepped in and walked to the kitchen table Robert was eating. She proceeded to scrape off the yellow Pikman that was smeared underneath her foot. She went out of her way to scrape it across the chair next to him, to let him see her remove the once alive Pikman from her boot.

“Why do you like killing my childhood?” Robert asked casually.

“Because some people love to watch the world burn.”

Aryana fell back on the carpet, and began rolling all over the yellow Pikman. “Pikman genocide!” She yelled. “Mwahaha, ethnic cleansing! Am I not villain enough for you!?”

Robert commented, “Christ you’re fucked up.”

Edwin rubbed his forehead, he couldn't help but chuckle at what was happening. “Just be careful where you roll. Things go really bad when the colors mix.”

Aryana stopped rolling and laughed, “haha, that’s so racist.”

Edwin’s face quickly turned red, “you know what I mean!”

Aryana grinned, “anyway, that’s why I’m here. Vivan wanted to feel more American today, so he covered himself in red, white, and blue Pikman, and began rolling on them while screaming team America. He passed out and hasn't woke up since.”

Edwin’s face paled, “fuck, I gotta go!” He ran out the room.

XXX

Another thing Accord taught Aryana; people will work together as long it serves a certain self interest. The moment that purpose is served, be prepared to break ties.

Gangs typically fall into four motives; Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego. Merchants? Definitely money. Their reputation was pathetic, and had nothing to lose working for them. So when Rush, Leet, and Uber walked forward to them, handed them a sample of their newest product, they had no reason to turn it down.

Mush was so high it looked like he wasn't coming back. He was responsive enough to let Skidmark know that the product was worth a price. “Aight,” Skidmark said, “you give us a weight of your blues, and we’ll spread it around like wildfire.”

Light was looking to the side of the warehouse. His eyes were locked at two teenagers on a worn down sofa, both wore catholic school uniforms, and were so dazed it was obvious they were strung up on heroine. Light whispered into Rush’s ear, “can you make them stop recruiting kids?”

Rush snapped her head back at him. She whispered, “you cereal?”

Light nodded.

Rush moaned. She’d noticed the teenage heroine addicts when they arrived, but it was easy for her to ignore. Nothing new, in the world of villainy.

Rush said to Skidmark, “tell you what, Skidmark. Since we’re new to the game, we’ll cut you some slack. We’ll sell this stuff exclusively to you, and no one else in the city, as long as you agree to stop selling and recruiting to kids.”

The four Merchant members laughed at the girl, “and why the fuck we oughta do that? Dem high schoolers are the ones who work best.”

Rush chuckled, “Three reasons. One, kids are shitty gang members. Once you start getting money from our meth, you won’t have to rely on kids in training bras to sell your product. Better muscle will be come in soon, so you might as well cut off the weak fat now before they become a liability. Two, we’ll let you have a bigger cut of the share. Think of it as a condition for you selling our product. An ethics fee, if you will.”

Rush tapped on Leet’s shoulder, “and three, if you do this, Leet will lend you the super genius drug the rest of us are on.”

“What?” the Merchant members asked together.

Leet stared at Rush, “wat?”

“That’s right,” Rush tapped her noggin. “Every one of us are on super pills right now. You know how the mind can only access 10% of its capability? Our pills let us access all of it. We can process information faster than the human mind. Great when you have to improvise in combat, it might as well make us Thinkers. We’ll share that with all of you for free, if you stop recruiting high schoolers.”

Skidmark squinted, “alright, but I want a sample of this shit first. And I’m a give it to a member to see if it works.”

Rush smiled, “fine by us.”

They left the warehouse, and Light was the only one smiling underneath the mask. Uber was frowning, pissed that they'd just lost a big cut and delayed the lab project by a month.

Leet said, “Aryana, what the fuck?”

“Can you?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Edwin said, “that’s not how the mind works. Where’d you come up with that brain bullshit?”

“Can you at least fake it?”

“I don’t…Know...”

“Just make it convincing Leet, I need you for this.”

XXXX

Vivan wore a Darth Vader suit looking at the video camera, “alright, here’s the thing. I’m an ecosystem tinker as you can see.” Pikman were standing all around behind him. They were shrouded in darkness, and looked more like tiny demons with their glowing bright eyes that made them look intimidating.

“I need a large place to hold my creatures. So I’d like to make a deal. I heard Dodge could create dimensions, I want to not only buy a dimension from him, but customize one. Give me some time to work together with him, and I’m willing to help make biosphere dimensions for all the tinkers of Toy box.”

“Like rental property…” Cranium said, intrigued by the idea.

“That’s right, me and Dodge can split rent income fifty fifty.”

Cranium added, “after the thirty three percent cut from Toy Box, I presume.”

“Of course,” Vivan said.

Cranium nodded her head. “Alright, I’ll tell Dodge to visit you guys. You also said you work with the Merchants?”

“I’m new in town,” Vivan answered.

“Don’t offer him any drugs, or I’ll personally reign hell down on you.”

Vivan lifted a thumbs up, “I’d never dream of it.”

XXX

“Alright Dodge,” Cranium said, “you’ll just work with this Tinker for a few days, and then get commission when you finish.”

Dodge gulped, “but… what if they kill me?”

“It's alright Dodge, the guy works for the Merchants. Beyond drugs, they don't do stupid things like murder.”

“But…”

“Listen, Dodge,” Cranium put a hand on his shoulder, “you’ll be fine. The guy is offering something Toy Box could use, something that could help us grew fast. I never even thought of providing labs for tinkers, but if this works, more tinkers will come to us and join us for supplies in exchange for commission. This is exactly what Toy Box always needed, I never knew it until the chance came up.”

Dodge fell quiet. Cranium added, “but if you really feel too afraid to work with others, I’ll understand. You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to.”

Dodge swallowed, Cranium gave him so much, he wasn’t going to let her down. “O-okay, I’ll do it.”

XXX

Dodge entered their apartment complex, visibly nervous. He was slouched, pulling his finger nails to quench his anxiety. A heavy breathing echoed from the hallway. The lights were dim, so what appeared next seemingly came from the darkness itself.

It was a large black cloak. A mask covered his face, and breathing became more intimidating as he slowly walked forward.

Dodge eeped at the sight of him. He fell back panting, thinking this dark cloaked man would somehow cut him down.

When he finally reached in front of Dodge, Leet took of his mask. “Relax kid, you seriously telling me you never watched Star Wars?”

Dodge’s eyes beamed up, “you.. like Star Wars?”

“You have no idea.”

Leet took Dodge by the hand and they walked to the basement floor of the building. He had a lab full of supplies ready for the both of them. In a few days, a network of pocket dimensions and various biospheres would be ready.

They passed by Uber and Rush as they walked towards the basement. Uber said, “I...can't believe this is working”

Rush smiled, “so, how do you feel about Sailor Moon's outfit?”

XXX

One month later

Cranium gritted her teeth, “fucking Leet?”

They stared at the living room tv screen that was hooked up to a communication line with Cranium. Dodge, Light, and Leet were all sitting on the sofa enjoying pizza. While Dodge was shocked to learn that Cranium hated Leet so much, Uber and Rush were standing to do the rest of the talking.

Uber said, “The contract states, both Dodge and Darth Vader have full ownership over the dimension ecosystem real estate. They share ownership equally. Seeing as we alternate aliases regularly, the contract stands as is since Leet was Darth Vader at the time.

Dodge can also nullify the contract anytime, but that would mean the ecosystem tinkering returns to us, turning most of his dimensions useless.”

Cranium’s eye twitched. Uber grinned at her face, reeling in Cranium’s anger. Even though Uber never admitted it, he hated that she’d insulted Leet too. It was his chance to make her feel weak.

“To be honest,” Uber said twisting the knife, “at this point I don't care if you cancel it anyway. It's good to know you’d lose a shit ton of money just because of your pride.”

Cranium smashed her fist against her keyboard, but didn't say anything. Cranium could’ve ordered Dodge to stop working with him, but there was too much profit potential from this. “Fine, he can work with our other tinkers, but only as a non-member. He’ll have to negotiate with them individually.”

Uber grinned as Rush’s jaw dropped. He pointed at Rush, “hah! He’s not a member, I win the bet.”

Cranium cocked her head back, “bet?”

“Fuck,” Rush yelled. She turned to Leet, “give up your ownership to be a member!”

Leet blinked, “that’s a terrible idea, I wouldn’t get rent money!”

Uber said, “get ready to start wearing cargo pants!”

Rush yelled back, “fuck you, just make me wear cat ears like normal people!”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Cranium yelled, “you went through all of that for a fucking bet?”

Dodge was laughing in the background.

Uber laughed at her, “say goodbye to all your shitty fantasies.”

Rush whaled out a pathetic cry.

Crainum was finally laughing, “wait, that was the bet?”

Light answered, “the bet was, Uber would have to start crossdressing as a villain, if Leet could rejoin Toy Box.”

Rush mouthed the words, ‘help me,’ to Cranium.

Cranium finally dropped her head back in laughter. “So basically, if I let Leet in, Uber has to be her dress up doll?”

“Just do it!” Aryana yelled.

Uber covered her mouth, “it's too late, she already decided.”

Cranium grinned, “well, who am I to stop a man from crossdressing?”

The rest of them froze, and everyone except Uber smiled. Cranium said, “Leet, welcome back to Toy Box.”

Rush, Leet, Light, and Dodge all threw their hands up in a cheer. Uber froze with his face as pale as snow. “No…”

Rush patted his back, “I hope you like tight clothes, because from now on, you’re a size small.”

XXX

Present

Light and the Mousketeers were waiting on an apartment rooftop, scouting for an ABB truck to arrive and take prostitutes to other trafficking rings along the east coast. They stared down with their binoculars, and waited for the smugglers to arrive.

Light had on a ninja suit. Mouse Protector and Browbeat were standing since they were the ones that would go in and fight directly. Golem and Light were both laying on their stomachs at Buzzkill’s side.

Buzzkill said, “hey Light, I got an idea for a villain heist you could do.”

Mouse Protector turned her head back to squint at Taylor, but didn't interrupt her.

Light didn't stop staring down at the warehouse. “It's about time you embrace the villain side.”

“Alright,” Buzzkill said with a nod, “this is a bit complicated, but it involves a bank.”

“Oh my,” Light said, “it's so cliche it's classic,.”

“You have to scout it, kind of like… how you’re in a ninja costume right now.”

“I also like ninjas, this sounds good.”

“Step one is to get job position there. It doesn't matter which, it can be any. But the point is, go in there, and learn the ins and outs of the bank facility.”

“This sounds so clever, that only a villain could think of it.”

“You go on there everyday, do what they tell you, and most importantly, gain their trust.”

“So conniving, such a masterful plot.”

“Work there every day, and then, thirty, forty years later, you’ll have a 401k plan that'll last you a lifetime.”

“... wait, what?”

“The money will go in your bank account every week, they won't even realize they’re being robbed.”

“Taylor… did you just tell me to get a job?”

Golem bursted out laughing. Light couldn't even read her expression under her mask. She was totally smiling. “Taylor, what the fuck?”

“All bureaucrats are evil,” Buzzkill said, “you’ll still be a villain!”

“Goddamnit Taylor.”

“They're here,” Mouse Protector announced at the sound of a truck rolling by. She looked back at Light, “remember, you’re only tagging along as backup. No jumping in like you do with the Losers. No one should even know you’re here. Me and Browbeat will go in and do direct fighting, Buzzkill and Golem do distant fighting. And you’re only here to defend them if anyone gets too close. Kapeesh?”

“Kapeesh,” Light said with a thumbs up.

Mouse Protector and Browbeat went down the fire escape towards the thugs. Buzzkill said, “thanks for the help.”

Light nodded, “thanks for inviting me.”

Light watched with pleasure as Buzzkill and Golem summoned their minions in the distance.