Alex stared at Terrorantula, her mouth caked in blood and flecks of green venom as it parted to show her triumphant smile while she lowered the hero gently to the floor. Her mask was crumpled and beginning to fray while the rest of her costume had suffered just as much, singed and smoldering in several places from the blasts she’d endured. Her spider-half shivered with effort as it struggled to lift her body off the ground, betraying that she was just as tired as he was. Despite that, those large legs clacked violently against the concrete floor with unequaled force, the powerful echoes of her footfalls declaring her victory to the world. She pushed her sweat-dipped hair away from her face allowing her beautiful pure black eyes meet his gaze.
Gods… I’m not over her, Alex realized. Then he realized what had just happened as he looked down at the defeated heroine.
“I thought we weren’t killing them,” he pointed at Sun Light who kept twitching around on the ground.
Terror scoffed, “She’ll be fine. The lethal dose for a regular person is probably at least twice what I pumped into her.”
“Probably?”
Despite barely having visible irises, Alex could tell that she was rolling her eyes. Something about how the light caught on them.
“I haven’t actually killed anyone with my bite,” she admitted. “Most of the times I’ve bitten someone, it’s been a hero. Still, I judged my dose for her based off what I thought a hero half her strength could take. Honestly, that was just supposed to get her drowsy enough to stumble around before we’d knock her out, but it looks like that spooked her enough to carry it straight through the rest of her body.”
“So the spasms are normal?”
“Yep. Actually milder than normal to be honest,” she frowned as if disappointed. “If she wasn’t barely hanging in there towards the end, I’d be worried she’s going to pop back up in a couple seconds. The shakes should pass quickly.”
Terror spoke the truth. Within a few seconds Sun Light’s shivering slowed down to only a few sporadic tremors which gently rocked her body, as if she was simply suffering a light nightmare. If not for the large bloodstain around her neck, you’d be mistaken for thinking she simply fell asleep.
That was good. Alex really didn’t need his debut job as Riftmaker to involve killing a teenager. He still needed to recruit minions as part of his world domination schemes and that kind of thing tended to scare away the ones that knew what “restraint” was. He had no doubt that the road to global conquest was going to eventually be paved by working with people he hated, but he at least wanted to have a breakroom where he didn’t have to worry about regularly finding a body or two left over from disagreements amongst the staff.
“How about yours?” Terrorantula gestured over at the prone form of Orbit.
“He’s breathing,” Alex shrugged.
Terror gave him a look. Not unearned either. That last blow hadn’t been one of the concussive blasts he’d been packing. Those were basically to kinetic force what a tesla shot was to electricity, some weird science that turned shit that had a habit of being fatal into something a little more mild. What had actually knocked him out had been colliding with the hardlight shield. Even though the concussive blast had been the thing to throw him around, the sudden stop was your traditional form of blow to the head. Given the crack in his helmet, it was fair to say Orbit might need to be looked at.
Alex sighed and bent down to remove the damaged headgear so he could check the man’s vitals. The hero thankfully used the same standard release latch which Alex favored in roughly the same spot so it wasn’t too hard to take it off. Orbit technically had a secret identity along with the rest of the Squad, but in Alex’s prefight homework it turned out that “secret” might be stretching it. It was more of a gentlemen’s agreement to avoid mentioning his name and face alongside his costumed look. Kind of like that electronic band duo which dressed up like androids.
Most online discussions on the Squad basically agreed that it was kind of a stupid idea to try and come after any member of the cosmically powered team even if they were out of costume. Nevertheless, Alex angled himself to block a camera’s view of the man’s face as a professional courtesy. It wasn’t like Amberheart hadn’t dealt with identity leaks in the past, but with how Alex had barely managed to scrape the win here, he didn’t need Orbit raring for round 2 just because P.H.O.T.O.N. accidentally left this video unencrypted and his face made the tabloids.
Said face was in a rough state with a patchwork of bruises that were forming over his skin. One eye was swelling and his lip was cracked and bleeding into his thick beard. As a fellow connoisseur of full face masks, Alex spent a moment wondering how the hell he didn’t cook inside his helmet with that glorious thing covering his entire jaw before continuing to assess the rest of the damage. The hero’s nose and teeth looked fine as he took ragged but steady breaths, no visible breaks and nothing seemed missing there when the hero coughed and Alex got a momentary glimpse inside his mouth. Hero medtech was good but apparently fixing those two spots was a pain to get right. So all in all, the guy probably lucked out with the damage he’d taken.
As Alex placed his fingers on him to check his pulse just to make sure, Orbit’s good eye barely cracked open, managing to focus on the villain checking him over.
“You’re not gonna kill me or kiss me, right?” he managed to ask between wheezing breaths.
Alex exaggerated a gesture to show he was rolling his eyes behind his faceless helmet, earning a struggling smile before the eye shut again. The eye didn’t look concussed from what he could tell so apparently Orbit either trusted the villains around here or wanted to go out with a wisecrack. Alex checked the man’s helm to make sure it wouldn’t block anything important before slipping it back on when he was satisfied the act of remasking the hero wouldn’t suffocate him.
Gods, the things we villains do in this town to keep these heroes safe, right? He thought while mentally remembering some of the less savory rules of engagement that Orion City had operated under. It wasn’t like every villain there double-tapped the moment a fight ended in their favor. After all you were a lot less likely to see a prison than a morgue if your rope ran out with too many notches on your belt. Other villains also didn’t take kindly to you popping off their rivals or rivals-to-be, and Alex had heard stories of a few overly ambitious newcomers who suddenly learned that villains in all cities had some “self-policing” policies to keep heroes from getting particularly vindictive. However there were more than a few no-name heroes that vanished every year after poking their nose into things that no one ever found. Hell, even some lower ranked members of the Protectors of the Globe had met their end and the city moved on in a week. Here, if a member of Icon went dark, it would be on every local news channel for half the year.
“He’ll live,” Alex reported before beginning the painful journey of standing back up.
Terror smiled at that and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Good job.”
Alex wasn’t prepared for that for a couple different reasons that he wasn’t going to admit to and his mind went blank for half a second before he could mutter something that sounded like “thanks.” After his thoughts returned, he was infinitely grateful for the foresight he’d had by asking Celestial to add pitch modifiers to his helmet’s vocal components when she was rebuilding it. That came with an odd mix of guilt which he couldn’t shake.
He really needed to break the news about his previous identity somehow before this got really awkward. Obviously now wasn’t the moment. Hopefully Celestial or Starweaver could manage to ease things over if he told one of them first?
“Hey, sorry I’m actually the guy who hit on you a couple weeks back that you very obviously leapt away from. I’m not actually stalking you, I just hired the mad scientist you work with without knowing you were there,” didn’t feel like the type of thing you could drop without having someone else backing you up on that. Ugh… he really couldn’t afford to find a new scientist now.
Celestial’s voice chimed in over the comms as if summoned by his thoughts, “Hey, you should stop giving poor Riftmaker the wrong idea before he ends up falling for you. Poor guy doesn’t know you’ve already got someone.”
Terror scowled and pulled her hand back, “Don’t test me right now, shrimp. I’ve bitten once already today and I’ll do it again. Stick to the job and leave banter off the team chat until we’re done here.”
That earned a chuckle over the comms from both Celestial and Turnaround, the latter quickly going silent after a small yelp. Turning back to towards him, the spider woman gave him an awkward grin, “Sorry about her. Anyways, yeah my life’s a little complicated.”
Well… fuck… Despite winning this battle, Alex felt like he’d just lost something more important. Suck it up and move on. Don’t internalize it and just… just grab something from that Mueang place for dinner and something to drink and focus on how good this job went. Besides, it’s a really bad idea to try and date while the League is gunning for you.
He barely realized that Val had run up to the two of them and was offering him some more of the cryoterraga. He numbly accepted and applied it to the outer layer of the gauntlets. His thoughts began to stir as he noted that the inner layer of his gauntlets still felt uncomfortably warm even as the new gel should’ve begun to pull heat away.
The temporary solution had done wonders but he’d need Celestial to redesign the gauntlet if he wanted to use this strategy in the future or he seriously would risk frying his arms, assuming the shockwaves didn’t pulverize his bones to powder first judging from the aches crisscrossing his torso. The speedster raced away after Terror ordered her to continue offloading their cargo, the hovercart vanishing in a blur along with her.
“Hey, just as a heads up,” Celestial came in over the radio again. “Orbit managed to ping Amberheart for a second there. They’ve tried sending a few messages his way, but are getting static. They might reach out to P.H.O.T.O.N. soon, so I’d hurry up with Reflecta.”
The sounds of battle from nearby attested to the fact that there was still one hero left with fight in her. Sounded like Turnaround and Sand Devil weren’t letting her go easily though. Alex glanced over at Terror who was rounding up the two unconscious members of the team and he offered her one of his cables for her to use. She gave him a look and simply fired off two web blasts which quickly trussed up both of them.
He shrugged and started moving towards the remaining upright shelves where the fight seemed to be when a ping came in over his helmet’s communications. He saw the sender and opened it up.
“Sorry,” Celestial’s voice sounded genuinely apologetic over a private channel. “I saw your vitals and that… uh, didn’t look like fear. I thought you needed to know. She’s kind of shit about these things.”
Right, his damn heartbeat was probably fluttering every time he looked at her. He could feel his cheeks flush knowing that. Well, good news was that the mad scientist knew how to manage telling someone something awkward to hear.
He quickly made sure that he wasn’t broadcasting outside the channel, “Yeah… thanks, I guess. Hey, I need to talk with-”
Alex never got to finish that statement as a woman shrieked, “GET AWAY FROM HER!”
A bright flash of light heralded Reflecta emerging from the stacks, her cracked helmet revealing an eye blaring with what looked like the full heat of the sun. Her glare was fixed on Terror as she was hoisting up the two defeated heroes onto her spider-half’s back. Mirrors orbited the heroine while spinning blindingly fast like buzz-saws, apparently no longer being used in her usual strategy to focus beams of light. Alex realized she was about to notice Terror’s blood-soaked face and knew he needed to act.
“Stay right there!” he shouted as he raised his arms up at her. He really didn’t want to actually have to fire anything off, but she didn’t need to know that right now.
Her attention shifted to him. One of her hands swept down towards him and several mirrors adjusted their course to fix themselves between the two of them, still whirring in the air threateningly.
“This battle is over,” he told her, really hating that Val picked that moment to open the hanger door. The sound it made was just loud enough that he didn’t feel like he should continue his impromptu villain speech, and he worried she’d believe backup was here.
Thankfully, the solid spikes made from pitch black sand with glowing orange cores which materialized around the hero, coupled with her mirrors suddenly snapping around wildly, helped dampen any inclination to keep the battle going which Reflecta might’ve had, even as pissed off as she clearly was. Her head spun around to take in the fact that she was well and truly screwed before she returned her attention to Alex.
“As I was saying,” he bumped the volume on his external speakers. “This fight is done and the best thing you can do for your team and this place you’re trying to protect…”
He swept a hand behind him at the mess of fallen rows to illustrate his point, “…is to take your fellow heroes and leave. Call someone else to clean up your mess. We have what we need and are leaving.”
That wasn’t entirely true but it made for a good “there’s nothing you can do to stop us” kind of message. He turned his head towards the open door to once again underline his point while really hoping Terror wouldn’t hold his grandstanding against him. Given Reflecta’s outburst, he really didn’t think the hero would be likely to call it quits if she was the one to give this speech. Alex figured the moment she saw the red smears, this was probably going to go until the knockout.
Alex watched as Reflecta’s stance loosened and she began to drift downwards, “Fine, we-”
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as a crate flew from the shelf and smashed into her, flattening her to the floor. The sound of the remainder of her armor shattering echoed throughout the room as the box tumbled away. For a moment, no one moved, simply staring at the heroine’s crumpled form.
“Godsdammit, Devil!” Alex shouted after the hero didn’t make any moves to stand back up.
“It wasn’t me!” the villianess in question protested petulantly as she emerged from the racks. “I was onboard with your plan! Forcing the heroes to retreat with their tails tucked between their legs was delicious irony.”
“Yeah…” Turnaround dragged herself into sight behind her. “Despite what she gets like before a fight, she’s actually always willing to call it early.”
Sand Devil shot her companion a glare which Turnaround simply shrugged off. The two were interrupted by Val shooting past, both barely stumbling out of the way. Terror in turn just shook her head.
Alex took this opportunity to apologize, “Sorry about jumping the gun there. Should’ve been your speech, just uh…”
He motioned around where his mouth would be and Terror reached a claw up to wipe away the blood.
“Yeah…” she agreed. “Probably not the best idea for her to see her precious protege’s blood on my face. Still, in the future, during my ops, I prefer to be the one making calls and speeches like that, understood?”
Her voice was icy towards the end and he respected that. He nodded, more than willing to acquiesce. She at least wasn’t asking to take charge all the time. That would get a little awkward considering future plans. Appeased for now, Terror turned her attention to Sand Devil.
“Go make sure she’s not dead,” the villainess instructed, earning a huff from the red skinned woman over the unspoken blame in her direction. Thankfully, Devil didn’t argue.
While she did that, Alex wandered over to the crate as he glanced around to make sure no other threats were incoming. Vigilantes loved to swoop in at moments like these, often mistaking cheap shots after a fight was over for proof of their superiority over establishment heroes. When no hero with anger issues emerged, he turned his attention back to the box. Running a hand over the crate, Alex looked for any sign that Devil had been lying, searching for signature grains of silica or whatever she kept manifesting. Hopefully she’d just been overeager and embarrassed and the team wasn’t dealing with-
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Strands of silk stuck to the edge. Alex glanced back at Terror as she was lugging the other unconscious heroes along to string up with Reflecta. There was no way… She’d been right there! But if not her-?
His targeting array, still active, pinged something in the stacks for half a second. Too small to be a hero, even if a few of those new spider heroes that had been popping up as of late were looking younger these days. He zoomed in and only saw one of Reflecta’s mirrors on the shelf, slowly dissolving as whatever force that kept it in the physical realm was clearly fading now that the heroine was out cold. When nothing else popped up, Alex yanked the webbing off the crate, watching it dissolve into nothingness, faster than either Terror or Ned’s stuff disappeared. It almost hurt his eyes watching it.
Before he had anytime to process that, Celestial came in over the comms, “Okay, bad news, Amberheart is officially pressuring P.H.O.T.O.N. for updates. Their network guys are slowly dragging their feet, but the heroes will have the video feed from here in minutes.”
Alex cursed and made his way back over to Terror and Sand Devil, noticing that Turnaround had vanished while his back was turned.
“So we’ve only got a few more minutes until reinforcements arrive after that,” Terrorantula tapped a finger against her chin in thought, clearly evaluating their next move.
While she did that, Alex asked Celestial, “Can you do anything to buy us more time?”
“I think you have the wrong idea here,” the familiar edge of hostility entered her voice. “Just because I can work some magic on your suit remotely doesn’t mean I can hack P.H.O.T.O.N., Amberheart, or the godsdamn phone lines. Piggybacking off their signal in real time is easy. Actually redirecting anything is the shit you get the Human Virus to handle.”
“Any news on the other team?” Terror cut in.
“They got pinged as well but haven’t made any moves to head this way,” Celestial rattled off. “They’re on their way to another call right now, so apparently whatever message Orbit got out wasn’t enough to get them headed your way. They’ll be on full alert the moment Amberheart is though.”
“That means Racer and then Commander Cosmic,” Alex pointed out, looking over at Sand Devil.
She sighed, “I think I can still handle Racer.”
“Not taking that chance,” Terror told them. “We need to take what we can carry and make this our last-”
A beep cut her off and the group turned to see an approaching forklift balancing a large pallet on it front prongs. Turnaround stuck her head out the side and began to wave at them all, “Hey, I figured we could load this up now that no one’s here to stop us! Figured we wouldn’t need the ripcords if we’re not down to the wire, right?”
Terrorantula beamed before turning to face the other two villains, “Alright, let’s get to work.”
---------------------------------
They’d ended up stealing a second forklift as well. The team had loaded up as much as they could onto it seconds before getting word that P.H.O.T.O.N. apparently finally had cracked open the cameras. Their techs had instantly scrambled to share the feed with Amberheart. Before Celestial could even finish filling them in, Terror had them racing out the doors, knocking over a few unfortunate guards who had made the poor decision to get back on their feet by that point and not flee for cover quick enough.
The forklifts weren’t fast, but the point wasn’t to race them back to teleporter themselves. They just needed to drag all of this off to another location so Val could ferry it off for them. If they stayed in the depot, they were bound to get into another fight and there was a strong chance that any speedsters could follow Val back to the van if she kept running to and fro.
So Alex and the others were camped out a few blocks away in another storage lot. The guards here had been more than willing to look away when five villains had suddenly broken in. Regardless, Celestial was proper pissed off about having to keep tabs on their communications as well just to make sure none of them decided that calling in the heroes might be a swell idea. Alex had tied up a couple of them to pacify the raging genius, leaving the rest to sit confined to the security room alongside Turnaround.
The villainess had apparently been dealt into a game of cards up there judging from what Alex was overhearing, the guards seeming to have a very bad streak of luck against her for some reason. Meanwhile Sand Devil and Terror helped unload their haul as Val raced it away.
As for Alex, he was the one actually looking out for trouble with Turnaround distracted, despite her claims that she was making sure their hosts didn’t do anything stupid. For this, Celestial had him patched into the feed of a few of her drones and he was cycling footage regularly.
After almost five minutes of waiting around, Celestial called out “Contact” as a hero appeared in front of the warehouse they’d fled from.
“AnomaloCarrie,” Alex identified the woman as she climbed out of a modified ambulance, apparently the first on the scene. “No one we need to worry about yet.”
Celestial had shared Amberheart’s broadcast with them. Terrorantula had obviously been identified so everyone knew that they needed to be on the lookout for Ned, a fact that infuriated the villainess to no end. Alex’s paranoia spiked as he cycled drone footage constantly, hoping to see him pop up at the warehouse rather than poke around here.
Terror had been quite explicit that if he got within 200 feet, they all were to yank ripcords immediately. Turnaround’s idea had been a great way to cut expenses on this job by letting them simply stroll through the cheaper linked teleporter, but that hero was way too stubborn to reliably shake off their tail if he got close, a fact Alex knew too well.
Alex bit his lip as he watched Carrie rush forward, apparently unconcerned that there might still be villains lying in wait beyond the looming doorway. He might’ve written her off as a non-threat to them, but honestly if they’d been crossed paths with her, she might’ve been a hassle. She was a healer at heart, but you don’t dress up and throw together a supernym unless you’re ready to throw hands. Alex got the vibe that someone who heard there were five villains who just took out the Starlight Squad and ran directly into that mess without a moment of hesitation was probably punching above Team Icon. Or crazy enough to be a bigger problem than them in different ways.
A blur flashed across the screen and Celestial called out, “That’s Space Racer. Sounds like Cosmic and Wavelength are on their way. Amberheart’s pissed to hear that the Rodent Revolutionaries are apparently going to get away with… whatever they were doing at Maplebloom, but they’re not trying to rein them back that way.”
“Dammit,” Sand Devil complained, “I like that restaurant.”
Alex chuckled. Badger was probably equally as pissed. Apparently, he and Spring Hare were rivals or something and any time one of them actually got away with a job, the other would sulk for ages. His laughter dried up as one of the closest drones flagged movement nearby. He readied himself to call out but the feed revealed several heroes quickly speeding by, all headed towards the scene of the villains’ crime rather than rushing to fight them where they actually were hiding.
“Eyes on the Wild Warriors. Looks like Ice Hawk, Ground Hog, and Volt Vixen.”
Alex froze, wondering why Ice Hawk was here, but shook his head. No way that this was related to whatever Vandal had planned. He watched as the flying hero landed next to his motorcycle riding compatriot and the fox masked woman riding in the sidecar, the trio apparently pausing to talk to someone over their communicators before making their way inside.
“Got Ned on sight,” Celestial said gravely.
Alex immediately flipped through every available drone feed until he saw the hero stuck to the side of a building half a block from the depot, his hand on his ear. Alex’s pulse gradually slowed as he relaxed and let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
He looked over at the pallets, noting with satisfaction that they were almost empty by now and that only a few items remained for Val’s next trip. They’d soon be gone from here.
“What is he doing?” Terror hissed, clearly rattled by the news her nemesis had shown up.
“Walking through treating your venom,” Celestial replied with a chipper tone. “They’re really not happy with him at the moment, especially since he’s not acting like the world’s ending. I’m recording the verbal abuse everyone is throwing his way, just for you.”
Alex noticed Terror grin at that and a smile broke out on his face too. Regardless of whatever awkward feeling he had at the moment, it was always good to see a hero get humbled by their own villain even indirectly.
Then the hairs on the back of his neck rose. His eyes instinctively shot to the sky and an all-consuming dread overtook him as he watched a bolt of lightning sail horizontally underneath the clouds, the thunder almost overlapping its appearance. He heard Celestial open a private channel, apparently still monitoring his vitals before he saw one of the drones go blind for a second and the scientist focused on that instead.
The lightning bolt had touched down in front of the doors of the supply depot. When the resulting flash had finally dissipated, the drone displayed a woman in furs and leathers who strode inside.
Thana Alsdottir was here.
Alex’s teeth gnashed as he fought to remember an old breathing exercise to keep calm. She had to know, that’s the only reason she’d be here! On one of his jobs! He had to get out of here right-
“Yes, I said the Stormdaughter,” he realized Celestial had been speaking and he pulled himself out of his own head.
“Dammit, Rhino Wrestler was telling the truth,” Turnaround spat, chiming in over the comms. “I was sure it was Tempest Team. That’s a bet I just lost.”
“What?” he managed to ask. He’d heard the latter rumor make its way through the grapevine but really wanted to know why the hell he of all people hadn’t heard that Thana Fucking Alsdottir was in Victory.
“There’s been a few sightings of the Orion hero around this past week,” she explained. “Most have ended in either Arrestor captures or have had conflicting reports about who did it, since she’s apparently been hitting fast. Rhino and his crew got jumped and claimed it was Stormdaughter, but everyone thought he was just playing things up again. You remember when Commander Cosmic became Mr. Wonder for that guy? Had everyone spooked at any cape we caught sight of.”
It was amazing how blood curdling rage could override pants-shitting fear as Alex swore to himself he’d kill that braggart who cried wolf before this was over. He didn’t care if the man could reinforce his skin to resist industrial grade lasers and high grade explosives, he’d find a damn way. For now, he focused on his breathing so that Celestial wouldn’t notice he was still fucking close to hyperventilating. He really didn’t need anyone catching that some no name villain like him had history with the Stormdaughter.
“Alright,” Terror said as Devil and her loaded the last cart. “We’re not going to be dealing with that. Everyone, make your way back to the teleporter, quietly. We’re done here. Turnaround, time to break out Riftmaker’s gift.”
Alex watched as his teammate emerged from the security office with a bounce in her step, spinning around and tossing one of his sleep cans back behind her as she slammed the door shut. If he was in any mood to appreciate it, he’d probably feel grateful the damn things had finally seen use.
He checked the drone feeds again but didn’t have access to the warehouse cameras that Celestial had tapped into. Throat dry, he asked, “What is Stormdaughter doing in there?”
“Apparently offering to evac the Squad,” Celestial filled him in. “Carrie just shot that down so now she’s just kind of standing around. Sounds like Amberheart is close to begging her to go take care of the Rodents though.”
That finally got his heart to slow. If she was really here for him, she wouldn’t be acting like that. Could this actually be a coincidence? No, he couldn’t begin to rationalize that without tearing down years of paranoia, but at the very least he no longer felt on the verge of a panic attack. Alex took one last deep breath and watched the drone feed as Ned dropped into the picture to make his way inside. With no more pings on the drones, the team began to disperse, each making their way back separately to Celestial’s van.
The trip gave Alex time to think and he decided for now that he’d make up an excuse to leave the moment they teleported back. He suddenly felt a need to hunker down in his apartment which overrode any desire to stick around and celebrate the victory.
Godsdammit, he needed a clean win already.
---------------------------------
Yes! Yes! Hell yes!
Vandal punched the air in triumph as she watched yet another angle of Menace slamming Orbit into the dirt. It had been tough work to sneak her eyes into the warehouse unnoticed but oh man did it pay off!
Holy shit! What a godsdamn fight! Vandal had been replaying the hits of it for the past hour, admittedly mostly focusing on Terrorantula and Menace, or Riftmaker as he was calling himself now. Gods it had been a rough start, but they fucking pulled through! Oh and were those lingering looks signs of something more?
She kicked her legs excitedly as her information network spun around her, electronic surveillance and her own magical scrying all passively sifting through the influx of Victory City’s on-goings for her. Vandal would still need to pick through it all later to actually get anything worth selling from it though, but that was a problem for future Vandal.
She’d been cutting into her sleep schedule lately to sort through all of it and respond to messages, wondering how The Broker must’ve managed all this. Apparently he knew a guy who knew a guy for just about everything, but she’d struggled to track down those mysterious wellsprings of knowledge. Hell, even with her widespread network, she’d only just managed to learn that it was the Stormdaughter not a member of the Tempest Team who’d shown up a couple weeks back. Hell, one villain had even claimed it was Maximillion who had popped up here, which had led to a whole afternoon of having to prove the Protector had been seen in Orion often enough that he wasn’t splitting his time here.
She’d earned a break and was indulging herself with snacks and her new favorite recording from this morning, letting the tension bleed off her. She smiled in glee as she watched Orbit go sailing one more time, smacking comically into a hardlight shield as Menace outsmarted him, clearly two steps ahead once he’d analyzed all of the hero’s moves.
Oh man, she couldn’t wait until she pitched him her plan! It was going to be-
A knock at the door caused her to groan. There were only a few people who knew about this hideout and that meant either she was due for an annoying chat or would have to relocate.
Dammit, why now? Vandal thought as she killed the video, summoning one of her eyes outside to peek at who dared to intrude on her sanctum.
Fucking. Ikor.
How the hell had he tracked her down? Vandal groaned once more and lazily stood up, snatching a freeze ray from a desk drawer all while the villain banged on the door. She grumbled as she stomped over to the door, mentally calculating the costs to relocate everything from this admittedly small hideout to the next one on her list. Thank gods this wasn’t the server room, but it still would take a couple of hours and too many greased palms and couriers with expensive but selective memories.
Ikor was going to regret being a pushy fuckhead who couldn’t take no for an answer.
Vandal manifested a cloud of eye symbols in the air behind the gooey villain and threw open the locks, letting the ominous glow of her magic bear down on him to let Ikor know just how badly he fucked up. The guy had been hounding her since Maniacal bit it to help him out, declaring it “League Business.”
Vandal wasn’t part of the League, she just ran some jobs for them every now and then, like half the damn villains in this town. It was obvious that the guy had been forgotten about by anyone in that glorified country club who mattered and thought he could throw the name around to get whatever he wanted.
Well she was done with this shit! She was fucking Vandal Eyes, the next head of all information that flowed through this town! She yanked open the door and leveled the raygun at his face.
“I said: No,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
Ikor smiled and shrugged, twisting his body aside as if he was letting someone else pass. All of a sudden, all of Vandal’s summoned eye symbols shattered and she went blind. Before she could react, a force wrenched the raygun from her fingers.
Someone else was here! Someone her magic eyes hadn’t been able to see!
“I’m just here to knock,” Ikor said dismissively, his voice fading as he began to walk away. “Boss lady, this is the chick you were looking for.”
“Thank you, Ikor,” a cold voice replied, directly in front of Vandal.
Vandal swallowed and lifted her blindfold.
A thin woman with alabaster skin hovered in front of her, tattooed hands steepled in front of her. Each fingertip had a sigil painted over glossy black nail polish, all of them radiating arcane energy as the glyphs’ captured magic roiled within. A long black dress kissed the ground as she levitated, spellwork woven into strips of fabric that draped down it, each a potent magic that would be the pinnacle of study from an archmage. Her black lips were drawn in a thin smile that exuded malice and dominance. Long, oily black hair floated like tendrils as it cascaded away from her.
But the most striking feature of all was something that Vandal had mimicked for her own costume when her powers had manifested: a blindfold with silver filigree in front of which floated a massive eye made out of angry silver flames.
Over Seer’s sorcerous gaze burrowed into Vandal’s very soul, the woman she’d once sought to imitate now sneering down at her.
“I think it’s time we talked.”
