“So you don’t think it was intentional?” Lyn asked as she picked up the drinks, the space she had been leaning over immediately filled the second she moved away by a throng of bodies all jockeying for the bartender’s attention.

  “Timeline doesn’t add up unless he’d done some serious digging on you beforehand,” Celeste explained while retrieving two glasses herself. “He came to work with me from Lab Lizard and said he called other labs first.”

  She hissed the last part and Lyn began to see that it wasn’t just the gravitor generators that had gotten the two started out on the wrong foot.

  “So… no chance at all he was stalking me?”

  “I think you’re safe,” Celeste grinned up at her. “I think it truly was just an acci- Why the fuck do you look disappointed?”

  Lyn didn’t mean to let that show. Despite it only being a few days since she’d gotten a face mask for this form, she’d gotten really used to it helping keep her reactions hidden.

  “I mean…” she tried to explain. “Look, imagine if he knew I didn’t mean to leave him there and was just… you know? Understanding? And then he got really dedicated to finding me because he knew about my crush and wanted to start fresh? And then he was doing this to impress me and was planning on asking me to rule the world with him tog-”

  Celeste gagged. Lyn glared at her but she pointed out, “Cute in theory, but in real life that’s still stalking.”

  “Yeah, but like, that’s not actually a red flag in our line of work right?”

  Her roommate paused their attempts to push through the crowd and fixed her with a stare, “Yes. Yes it is. I don’t know where to be-”

  She stopped talking for a second as her eyes got wide, “Were you going to have me help you stalk him?!”

  A few people turned to look over at them, but seemed to think better of it as Lyn swept her glowing red glare across them. After they returned to minding their damn business she looked back over to her shorter friend.

  “Uh…” Lyn bit her lip. “You wouldn’t needed to have said yes, it’s just that I thought Vandal’s rates might be a little expensive and you were always saying how these days people are too lax on intranet hygiene so you could find just about anyone…”

  Her friend’s look was incredulous and slightly disgusted. Bah, what did she know about romance anyways?

  “Anyhow,” Celeste changed the subject as hard as possible as the pair dodged through the packed bar back to their table, “I tried out building those gloves of his.”

  “C.”

  “Yes?”

  “Do we still own a microwave?”

  “...I think we should focus on the important parts of this story.”

  Lyn groaned, “I just got a bunch of frozen burritos…”

  “So steal another microwave,” the mad scientist shrugged. “You’re alright with stalking someone but suddenly you have to legally purchase all our kitchen appliances? The point of this story, one which doesn’t involve the most fucked up relationships imaginable, is that the tech does work but I still think he’s an idiot. He didn’t really solve the heat buildup issue of miniaturization so much as swapping to a short burst particle generation by tapping into the quirks of an ionic pulse. That utilizes the brief magnetic pulse generated through the Kit’Alli reaction in conjunction with the carbide’s natural properties to minimize the heat produced in the first place. It basically uses exomagnetic properties rather than cyclical Draschev fission to produce gravitors and antigravitors, which bypasses the exponential thermic loads that prevented anyone from creating a generator smaller than five cubic meters. But because he’s doing that, it means that the device follows an inverse thermodynamic response, which is why his stronger pulses almost burned him out.”

  Lyn followed a decent portion of that. Particle physics weren’t her wheelhouse but she didn’t turn herself into a half-spider mutant without a decent understanding of science.

  Still, Lyn had to cut her off, “Look, we’re already two drinks in each, so I’m going to need to know where this is going.”

  “He’s using this setup because he has no idea what he’s doing,” Celeste grumpily explained. “Give me another day and I’ll make sure Riftmaker isn’t puffing smoke after a couple shots.”

  “Perfect!” Turnaround cheered at that, the woman almost unrecognizable in the colorful sundress with a light jacket thrown over top it. “It would be nice to see him go sicko mode like that from the start!”

  She and Sand Devil were still where they left the two, the demoness dressed more casually than they’d ever seen her, actually sporting jeans and an over-sized jacket that she seemed to be swallowed up by. Wisps of black escaped out the edges, cluing Lyn into the fact that she still had her “costume” nearby.

  Misery’s Call was packed tonight with more than one band of villains celebrating alongside the usual crowd of rowdy civilians. The moment this table had opened up, their team had swooped in, almost needing to fistfight what looked to be a group made up of Negativa, Kickstop, and Bloodbreaker for the spot. At least that’s who Lyn had figured those three must be. It was always hard to place people while they were out of costume.

  The two had been charitable about the short notice, both probably still aching from the fight yesterday, so Lyn had offered the Starsilk duo to be the ones to brave the crowd to pick up the third round for the night. Misery’s didn’t really do wait staff, opting to keep its rowdy patrons worked up with a full length bar they all crammed around instead.

  “Sucks that Rifty and Val couldn’t be here,” Turnaround lamented as she accepted her drink from Celeste.

  Lyn’s roommate shared a look with her before Celeste spoke up, “Riftmaker said he needed to get a headstart on looking into a hench org. And Val decided she wanted to help out more around the lab.”

  “Still can’t believe you hired her on,” Turnaround muttered. “Like, as part of the lab I mean.”

  Neither member of Starsilk bothered to offer any explanation further than that. Val was indeed part of the staff now… though the exact circumstances didn’t need to be covered in detail at the moment.

  Lyn passed one of the cups in her hand to Sand Devil, whose eyes narrowed before taking it. Lyn briefly wondered if the demoness was picking up on the missing details before she caught the woman’s eyes flick up at her with an odd note of disgust for half a second in a way that felt a little too personal. Lyn suddenly remembered she'd done the same thing back at the lab when she first arrived and once again when the group had met up at the bar. Given that she hadn’t acted like this throughout the briefing, Lyn had thought it had just been how she reacted to dealing with whatever traffic she’d run into.

  Since it clearly wasn’t that, whatever this was needed to be addressed.

  “Everything okay, Devil?” Lyn opted to simply ask.

  “I am fine, Weaver,” the demoness sipped from her cup. “I just wish to not put myself in your debt overmuch should I be able to help it. I shall have it be known that I will pay my fair share for my food and drink tonight.”

  Lyn glanced over to the others for help. Turnaround laughed.

  “She thinks you’re fey,” the woman explained.

  Devil sneered at her friend, “I can smell odd magic on her. The taste of sorcerery apart from this realm. I must admit that if your nature is of the Courts, you have more patience than most I have met. But I warn you not to meddle further with Terror than you already have.”

  ...Oh, she can tell both of my bodies have the same magic on them. Well that’s better than immediately clocking who I am by my chin, Lyn resisted the urge to rub her lower face and risk messing up the make-up she’d applied there.

  “I’m not fey,” Lyn insisted, earning a scoff from Sand Devil who sulked into her own drink. “And Terror is doing just fine. Better than ever actually.”

  “Yep!” the horrid little green haired gremlin piped up. “She’s actually just about to ask out her crush.”

  Biting you, biting you, biting you!

  The statement got the full attention of those two and neatly sidestepped the awkwardness beginning to form in the air, so she let it slide. For. Now.

  “Anyone we know?” Turnaround prodded.

  Celeste grinned over at Lyn who simply rolled her eyes and muttered, “Iron Menace…”

  “No shit?” Turnaround leaned back in her chair. “She’s a little out of his league, although… Well, we haven’t teamed up but I’ve heard alright things honestly.”

  Sand Devil nodded, “He lacks combat prowess, but he has a suitable record of jobs performed. There’s also enjoyment to be had in power imbalances. A dalliance with a touch of whimpering makes for quite the treat.”

  Lyn almost choked on her drink while Turnaround shot her a look, “That’s a little… I kind of don’t want to think of my boss cracking a whip for business or pleasure, D.”

  Sand Devil flashed a mischievous grin, “Oh, given her reaction during the previous partnership of ours when Serpentian called her ‘Good girl,’ I have strong doubts that she seeks to be the one with the whip.”

  Lyn quickly pulled out two envelopes and slammed them on the table before she could begin blushing, “We have your payments here!”

  In terms of conversation changes, it lacked subtlety but Lyn would literally kill someone to get away from this topic. At the very least, a quick glance stolen at Celeste’s red face told her that she wasn’t alone for once, despite the goblin being the cause of this whole thing.

  “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding about Fencer giving you the hook up,” Turnaround’s wide eyes were thankfully fixed on the two letters and not on the two blushing members of Starsilk. Inside was actually a set of details that would let the two of them receive their payment. Either a hidden cache or secret passwords to bank accounts. Fencer didn’t exactly hand out briefcases full of money… most of the time. The middleman of crime had a little more finesse than that.

  Turnaround’s surprise was justified. Typically offloading a haul like theirs would’ve taken a lot longer than a single night, but apparently he’d seen their job and that very night Lyn and Celeste had been surprised to see not just simply a letter slipping under the door near the kitchen, but Fencer actually walking out of said door, his manor temporarily linked to their lab, to quickly arrange a trade.

  It hadn’t just been offloading their goods with him either. Fencer had opened up his wares to the two and even arranged some swaps for some of the stuff they’d initially intended to keep. The open cryoterraga barrels ended up getting traded out for a better coolant at steep discount, and they’d even sold parts of Riftmaker’s damaged armor. Apparently, Fencer had enjoyed the thrashing of the Starlight Squad enough that the gauntlets now qualified as the kind of memento he collected, which in turn sweetened the deals they ended up making.

  As usual, the man had been in a hurry, causing the whole thing to be over and done with before Celeste or Lyn could actually process what had just happened, left holding six envelopes and with a significantly cleaner lab in less than an hour after he’d arrived. Upon reflection, it felt like Fencer had been even more hasty than normal, with no teases about seeing the rest of his collection or good-natured ribbing tossed in about their performance in the fight. It almost felt like he was trying to get the deal done before anyone noticed.

  “Cheers!” Turnaround hoisted her glass in the air. “To a job well done and well paid!”

  Lyn shook herself from her thoughts and lifted her drink in response, letting out a cheer that was cut short by a symphony of phones going off at once.

  Half the bar was now hastily digging into their pockets, purses, and anything else to see the incoming messages.

  “Oh shit, this is it,” Turnaround almost dropped her glass in her haste to dig out her own phone from an ugly bag slung on the back of her chair. Devil simply reached into the swirling black inside of her jacket to retrieve hers, calmly unlocking it with a flick of her thumb.

  Lyn smiled at Celeste and withdrew hers as well. The message instantly opened on its own, taking up the full screen. Typical League flair.

  She frowned.

  “What the fuck?” Turnaround voiced the thoughts of everyone in the bar who was staring at a screen.

  ---------------------------------

  Azure sighed as he heard the commotion on the other side of the door. He glanced over to his side at Ruby who gave him a tired smile back. She could recognize the loudest voices in there too.

  “Hey, I’m just here to chaperon,” she said with a joking tone. “You’re the one who wants to keep these guys in check.”

  Although it had been said with her usual humor, the statement just reminded Azure of the deal his team had reached. He’d honestly expected worse, but it still felt like an open wound being prodded with that light reminder. He decided to focus that irritation into his willpower.

  Gripping the handle, Azure flung the door open and manifested two over-sized hands to seize the offenders. The blue constructs appeared with a *crack* that Azure wished had been louder than the shouting. His voice would have to do.

  “ENOUGH!” he roared at Commander Cosmic and ArachNed as he pushed both of them into opposite walls, away from the three medpods containing half of the Starlight Squad.

  He’d used just enough force on both parties to ensure they’d need to put in actual effort to break through his powers, but not enough to damage the walls as they collided with them. Both glared at him, at least to the best of Azure’s knowledge. Cosmic’s mask exposed his lower face, but his eyes were left featureless glowing suns brimming with his power. The sculpted brows above still moved to show his expressions, so it was at least obvious he was definitely glaring. However, if it was directed in Azure’s direction, as indicated by where his head was pointed, or if he still side eyeing Ned was impossible to determine. Obviously, Ned was back in his normal costume with the holoprojected eyes, all of which were glaring at Cosmic, but Azure knew he could manually control those so there was no telling how honest that was.

  Still, at least in some respect, some amount of their attention was on Azure and he could work with that.

  “This is a hospital and you two are heroes!” he kept his voice loud but adopted a calmer, more authoritative tone. “I will not have heroes fighting in a room where patients are resting!”

  Ned visibly took a deep breath and let his hunched shoulders lower. Cosmic’s lips trembled with barely controlled rage, but he at least made no move to try and break free and do something he’d regret.

  Azure took in the rest of the room, which was clearly overcrowded even if it could’ve housed twice the amount of medpods in use. Obviously the whole of the Starlight Squad was here, Space Racer and Wavelength both nervously looking on. Racer had been ineffectually trying to insert himself between the brewing fight when Azure had stormed in while the telepath stood back, though Azure noticed the fading lights around her temples as her powers began to fade. Had she been trying to calm down Cosmic or get Ned to leave? Impossible to say right now.

  Other than their teammates and Ned, the Squad had attracted three other visitors. Blazeshot stood protectively in front of a visibly angry Sun Light. Her team leader, Vortex, sat tensed in a chair in the corner. Azure noted the tension slowly bleeding off her as the seconds passed since his entry. He bet that she’d just about been ready to do the same thing he’d done, but with the negative press on Aegis, Vortex probably feared what stepping in would mean, especially if Cosmic or Ned didn’t back down after her intervention. His eyes drifted towards the last person and he was thankful his mask wasn’t as expressive as Cosmic’s in this moment.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Ice Hawk didn’t have an obvious reason to be in this room.

  Azure controlled his expressions and returned his attention to the two troublemakers. There would be time to circle back to figuring out what was going on here with the Wild Warrior later. For now, he had the two troublemakers contained. Now he had to find a way to deescalate. Unfortunately, despite the fact that he knew for certain who was no doubt at the center of this argument, he didn’t know the exact phrasing that kicked it off or how far it escalated.

  “I am going to ask you calmly to tell me what happened and I expect you to both act like the adult heroes that you are when you do so,” he told them and the constructs shook them both as each hero made to speak. “And that means no fighting while doing so and letting the other speak when it’s their turn. Understood?”

  If they weren’t glaring at him before, they definitely were now. Still, they both nodded even as they silently fumed. Azure decided to start with the one most likely to blow his top if he didn’t get to speak and turned to Commander Cosmic, motioning for him to begin. As he did so, Azure let the hands holding both of them dissipate, a show of trust that he hoped would help the two of them keep a level head.

  “I-” Cosmic began, his head turning from Azure to look at Ned. “I lost my temper when he came in. It was his villain that did this.”

  The white clad hero visibly trembled as he fought to keep his rage from working itself up again. Cosmic possessed a very passionate character with a strong sense of justice. Useful in a fight, but when he’d spent the past few months feuding with his own daughter, that kind of hotheaded personality was a ticking timebomb. Thankfully, this explosion hadn’t done any real damage yet.

  Ned for his part was managing to keep his damn mouth shut for once rather than antagonizing. Small miracles. Still, Azure wasn’t going to let Cosmic test that for long.

  “Noted,” he said with a tone of finality, hoping Cosmic wouldn’t try to test it as he turned to the spider. “You want to say anything?”

  Ned’s shoulders heaved with his breath as he prepared to tell his side, “I came here to check in on the team and to give some advice about Terrorantula’s venom. I may have said a few things after Cosmic threatened both myself and retaliation against the villain, which was taken as me defending her actions. I… apologize for that.”

  Azure tried not to squeeze his eyes shut and made a mental note to immediately get the hospital’s security footage under lock and key, if not outright scrubbed if he could. He didn’t want to be seen as hiding anything, but during the middle of a supervillain crime wave, he did not need footage of two heroes probably shouting the least heroic things possible in a hospital. He could only imagine what words had been spoken, none of which would be appropriate for a protector of the city. Cosmic clearly had gone on a tirade about getting even and had no doubt insinuated that Ned’s light touch with his villains had led to this. From experience, Azure knew Ned had most likely hit back with some comments about what he’d do if Cosmic tried to make good on those threats. If he was unlucky, Ned almost certainly had thrown some barbs about how the Squad had split itself up before this disaster, a detail that Azure had learned on the way over here.

  The saving grace of all of this is that the short amount of time they’d had to cool their heads from this argument had at least knocked some amount of sense into their heads about how they’d been acting. Unfortunately, Azure could tell this was going to be short-lived as Cosmic’s fist began to ball up.

  “Ned,” Azure turned to the hero. “Would you let me handle this and go for now?”

  Ned’s animated eyes flicked to him and for a moment, Azure wondered if he was going to argue. Instead, the spider hero made to step away only for a voice to interrupt them all.

  “No,” Sun Light spoke up, and Blazeshot moved aside to let her address the room.

  “Sarah, I-” her father began.

  “No, I asked Ned to be here because I wanted to talk to him,” she adjusted her posture to let herself stare directly at Cosmic. “I needed to talk to him about… her. Because-”

  She trembled for a moment before continuing, “Because I need to work through this loss to be a better hero. I need to do a lot of things actually… And that includes leaving the Squad.”

  Vortex couldn’t have sucked the air out of the room any more completely than those words had. Azure looked over at Cosmic, watching the man’s shoulders slump as his daughter’s declaration smashed into him. He knew the exact feeling the man was going through. He didn’t dare look over at Ruby, knowing that she probably felt the same connection.

  The New Aurora Champions had almost dissolved earlier this week. The team had weighed letting Azure leave after things were sorted out, but to his surprise, that option had been opposed by just about everyone in the end. Even Green had said that he couldn’t imagine the team without him, but in the same breath had muttered those damning words.

  “I can’t trust you anymore.”

  The man had struggled to voice if he meant that the trust was gone for good or if it could be rebuilt. Green had tried countless sentences that bungled over one another as he tried to clarify his own emotions, offering up hypothetical scenarios that he immediately dismissed. Azure had almost thought it would’ve been more merciful for him to try and make the decision for his friend and demand to leave the team, but when Opal had said she couldn’t imagine the team as a family anymore if anyone could be voted out, he’d frozen. Somehow he knew that if he walked away right now, the team would fall apart. Who knew if Opal or Sable would even keep being heroes at that point. And then there was Ruby and Amethyst, both of whom didn’t have a family outside this team. He hadn’t known what to do.

  Amethyst had been the one to offer a lifeline. If he couldn’t be trusted to make decisions on his own right now, then another member of the team needed to be there with the ability to contact the whole team. Their gems could do that: connect them no matter where they were.

  From now on, all important decisions needed to be made as a team. As a family.

  She’d emphasized those last few words. It had… helped. Even so, this just highlighted the cracks in the team. This distrust wasn’t just coming from Green Guardian, it was all of them, and they’d go as far as to monitor his every move. Azure couldn’t help but feel like he was still on the path to the same reckoning that the Starlight Squad was undergoing right now, a forgone conclusion everyone could see coming that ended with a family dissolving.

  The worst part of the talk which led to this was that Azure hadn’t needed to explain his motives. They all knew why he’d been so desperate to find Maniacal’s killer, why he’d needed the win denied by capturing the League’s head scientist. This city needed to be ready to face the threats to come and that meant a win strong enough to unite the heroes. Ruby had said that Keeper probably did what they did because they believed in the same ideal. His team’s understanding just highlighted how well they knew him, and how much he might lose when they finally realized the rift that was growing was too great.

  Now he watched Cosmic crumble in front of him and wondered if he was looking at his future self.

  “I… I’m responsible for this,” Sun Light proclaimed, and immediately spoke over half a dozen attempts to tell her otherwise. “I AM! I shouldn’t have put my family in a position where we could be targeted like this and I should’ve at the very least called in help.”

  She fixed Azure of all people with a stare, “That’s what you’re trying to do isn’t it?”

  All eyes turned to him. His own looked over at Ruby who gave him a confident nod. He straightened up, “Yes, I want heroes of Victory to be in constant contact with one another and coordinate with each other to take on the threats we face.”

  He had a better speech than that prepared, but it felt ghoulish to try and lay out his plans while Cosmic barely managed to keep standing as he processed the news. He didn’t want to build his future on this kind of foundation.

  “That’s why I want to talk to Ned,” Sun Light looked over at the spider hero who didn’t stop his animated eyes quickly enough to prevent the uncomfortable expression they broadcast for a split second. “I need to learn from this. I need to know what went wrong and I need to get better. I’m going to go help Foil out for a bit… but don’t think this is the last everyone will see of me.”

  She gave a bittersweet smile to her team, her eyes coming to rest on her dad, “I… want to try leading the way for us working together again. I should’ve been able to ask Ned about… her before I went in, or get another team to come help us out when the numbers were stacked against us.”

  Azure’s mouth opened and shut. He felt Ruby elbow him in the ribs and he turned to look down at her. She smiled up back at him, red eyes proudly glowing.

  His eyes passed over at the rest of the room. Most of her squad, along with both members of Aegis and Ice Hawk, had shifted to face the young hero, proud smiles of their own blossoming. Meanwhile, Ned was shooting him a suspicious look. Azure shook his head softly and Ned let the eyes flicker back to neutral, softly inclining his head in understanding. The Aurora Champion’s gaze was caught by Reflecta, her unmasked head facing him with a confident expression painted on her face.

  Azure knew Sun Light had made this decision on her own, but he had a feeling that the mirror heroine might’ve walked her through it before everyone else had arrived. While he knew that a childhood spent working alongside heroes had given Sun Light a more mature outlook on the world for one her age, this particular speech had the hallmarks of someone helping her practice. Someone who believed in his plans for a united hero community.

  That conjured an uncomfortable feeling that Azure didn’t know how to reconcile with. Apparently, Ruby picked up on it, as she squeezed his hand.

  “They’d be proud of her,” Ruby told him. It took him a moment to realize she wasn’t talking about Secret Keeper, causing Azure’s breath to catch in his throat as he remembered those two.

  All of this had been for them, so why was hearing that so…

  Cosmic’s voice broke him from his thoughts, “I, I need to go for a moment.”

  Azure heard Sun Light call out for him but Cosmic was already lurching past him towards the door.

  Ruby spoke up and dragged him along, “We’ll go after him.”

  The two made it a few steps out the door before they saw the caped hero lumbering down the hall on a collision path with a woman in a bright pink outfit. Azure called out to the hero and saw him start, the large man beginning to look backwards before realizing he was about to run into someone.

  “Oh! Carrie, I-”

  That was all he got to say before a loud *crack* split the air – louder than Azure’s manifestations had been – causing both Ruby and Azure to come to a stop abruptly as Commander Cosmic slammed into the ground. AnomaloCarrie stood over him, fist outstretched and eyes burning with fury.

  “If you ever, ever fight in front of patients around here again,” she hissed, the two tendrils framing her face clacking together angrily, “I will make sure you get to sit in a medpod so you know why patients in them need peace and quiet to recover. Do you understand me?”

  Nobody dared to so much as breathe for a second, all of them staring at the petite heroine who had just floored Cosmic with a single blow. Then Cosmic nodded and quickly stood up.

  “I’m sorry! It won’t happen again!” the cosmically empowered hulk of a man promised as he backed away from her.

  She pushed past him and stared down Azure, “I took care of things so you don’t have to worry about a PR disaster. Now tell Ned I’m angry with him again and he needs to apologize to me later.”

  Before he could respond, the heroine dressed like a nurse turned on her heel and strode away, leaving the entire hallway quiet.

  Ruby was the first to break the silence, attempting to address what had caused the large man to leave in such a hurry, “Commander, she just needs time. This isn’t goodbye, it’s… the next step for her.”

  Cosmic looked back at them before shaking his head, “I know… I just… made things worse. She- She wouldn’t have needed to do this-”

  He took a deep breath and composed himself, “I’m sorry Azure, Ruby, but I need some time alone. I will talk with my daughter and my team later.”

  “Okay,” Azure nodded. “Take the time you need. But once you’re ready and you have a talk with your team, I need you back at Amberheart. We all need you.”

  The man’s face went through a ballet of emotional expressions before settling on one of pained conviction. He nodded back and left without another word. Azure turned to Ruby who was still looking at Cosmic as he trailed away. Finally she raised her head to gaze at him, a worried look in her eyes.

  Does she also see my future in him? Azure wondered.

  Not wanting to speak further on it, he guided them back to the room. Inside, most of the remaining heroes had gathered around Sun Light, talking with her about her future plans. She turned her attention to the Champions as they entered, a hopeful look in her eyes. Azure’s heart sunk and he gave her a shake of his head. He could see her put on a brave face at that, but for a single moment he knew that she’d been hoping for her dad to come back in and be happy for her.

  He turned his attention to Ned who had shuffled over to stand between Orbit and Reflecta’s medpods, clearly having intended to talk to the mirror hero away from Sun Light, only for the gravity hero to have gotten his hooks into the man.

  “I’m telling you, actual godsdamn gravitors…” Orbit slurred his words slightly, and Azure realized that he clearly was on some medication in addition to the medpod working its magic. Given that Ned wasn’t even bothering to censor his emotive eyes, it was clear that he also had realized this fact too, probably the moment this conversation had started. Reflecta was clearly trying not to laugh, and Azure noticed her form flickering slightly at the motion.

  Before he could say anything, an emergency ping sounded in his ear. He noticed Ned jolted at the same time. Not again… This was the third time he’d have to “change the locks” if the spider hero had done what he’d thought he’d done. Sighing, he beckoned Ned over.

  “Could I borrow you for a second? Carrie had a message for you,” he helped Ned extract himself. Turning to Sun Light as he noticed her concerned look as she tried to peer past her small crowd. He smiled and promised, “I’ll bring him back.”

  Ned graciously made his way over and Azure led him out into the hallway along with Ruby, who huffed at the back and forth but followed him anyways. They walked a short distance away from the door, Ned silently following, which only confirmed that the bastard had tapped secure lines again. A problem for later…

  Azure held up his wrist and accepted the call from the mayor. Cinderoak’s holographic form appeared in front of him, the broad shouldered man barely constrained in his suit as he leaned over his desk.

  “Find a television right now,” he ordered without so much as a word of greeting.

  Azure glanced over to Ned who shrugged and brought up his own holographic display as it began to search for signals. Azure returned his attention to the mayor, “What am I-”

  “Oh… sh… oot…” Ned muttered.

  Azure and Ruby turned and watched in horror as Ned began flicking between several different feeds.

  Life Tyrant was assaulting Avalon with a horde of monsters.

  NecrOver had an undead army rampaging through Francia.

  The Thunderer was unleashing lightning possessed simulacra across Akitsu.

  The Steppeland was under siege by Steel Sorcerer.

  Draven’s army of robots, Crimson Dagger’s blood servants, and a menagerie of all sorts of henchmen of every uniform imaginable were overrunning Orion.

  Every hero city in the globe and even the one on Junea. Every single one of them all at once were under the full brunt of the League of Domination.

  Every. Single. One.

  Except Victory City.

  Azure looked down at the image of Cinderoak with his face locked into a deep frown, his brows knit together so tightly it could probably crack a steel beam in two if it made the mistake of trying to get between them.

  “Tell me this doesn’t mean what I think it means,” he growled.

  Azure bit his lip. The answer was obvious.

  “I’m sorry, sir. But the League is absolutely in Victory.”

  ---------------------------------

  ---------------------------------

  “Fuuuuuuck…” Turnaround exhaled through her teeth. “This is bad, isn’t it?”

  The packed bar hadn’t gone completely quiet, but there was a noticeable dip in the overall sound as the villains scattered throughout the crowd all digested the League’s message while the civilians milled around, seemingly oblivious. A few noticed a vast amount of their fellow patrons were suddenly looking grimly at their phones all at once and some began to check their own, wondering if some city-wide text had just gone out. Their confusion was beginning to ripple throughout the room, but it paled in comparison to the mixture of dread and hopelessness that had run its course throughout the normally costumed population.

  This shared cloud of dark emotion was shattered by an unlikely call.

  “Hey!” someone from the bar shouted. “Whoever left their bird over there! Get it off the table!”

  That was strange but not the oddest statement Lyn had heard this whole night. Villains, even when they dressed down, tended to push the boundaries of common sense in public. Still, it forced her to look away from the message as it was slowly deleting itself off her phone to try and locate this bird the voice was talking about. She turned her head for a peek, ignoring Turnaround who had practically jumped up on the table to swivel around herself.

  When she spotted it, her heart stopped beating.

  She heard almost all of the packed bar suck in a breath, even the civilians as they spotted the ugly creature preening atop an abandoned table.

  It was no bird, just a small creature, albeit one that was still alarmingly large for something covered in feathers.

  And scales.

  The velociraptor ceased cleaning itself and looked up, its lips curling into a too-human smile.

  “Finally,” it spoke in perfect Avalonian, “I have your attention.”