I might be a little dumb. A bull with a vase and all that. But I’m not stupid. When Kitsune told me she had a lead on Pandahead and Marskin, I knew I had a chance to make up for what I did in the Null Domain. If I didn’t pull the man’s helmet off, I’d damn sure at least slip a fucking tracker into someone’s clothes. Right after Kitsune called me, I called Epione and asked for something from PK to do the trick. She gave me a little sliver, a tiny needle that could slip into somebody’s skin and go unnoticed, if it were done right.

I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to slip it into Pandahead’s jacket in all that chaos. But I was.

All I have to do now is wait. Wait until Epione tells me where he goes.

Making sure I’m not followed by any drones, I get back to the house, where Mateo is currently reading through a stack of tattered comic books. “Oh man, you’re back early. Date not go well?” He sits up, shaking his head like a wise little sage, and clicks his tongue. “I’ve seen this happen. The couple spends every night together and then the romance burns out!”

I flip him the bird.

“Hey, you okay, dude?” Mateo joins me in the kitchen. “You seem a little… shaken.”

I don’t know if I should tell him I made out with a former cape, that I almost did more than that… So I stuff it. “It’s fine. She just had somewhere else to be.”

“Hey! Fuck her then!” Mateo runs over and love taps me in the stomach. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing! The actual Home Run, savior of Houston, and she thinks she can just ditch him? She’s the one who’s delu!”

I laugh, playfully push at him, but really all I want is just to go sit in my room alone, so I tell him I’m tired and I need a nap. Once I get to my bed, I rip my mask off and stare at my face in the mirror. She left a lipstick smear on my lips and cheek.

I’ve never had this before. Never experienced these emotions. This desire for someone.

“What’d you expect?” Megajoule asks, appearing beside me on the bed, wearing a black baseball hat with green stitching that matches his uniform. Not that he needs it. “She told you what she was. A cape. How do you know she isn’t telling them everything she knows about you right now?”

That paranoia sends a chill down my spine.

“Hell of a kisser, though,” Megajoule says, his voice smug.

“Can’t you give me even a single moment of privacy?” I ask.

“You know I can’t. I see it all. Feel it, taste it, smell it.” He touches his fingers to his lips. “She tasted like cherry.”

#

Mateo and I wait out a week filled with anxiety. The whole time, I wish she’d call me. And she does. On the seventh day.

I’m in the shower when the burner phone rings, and I rush out to see her number on the screen. Inwardly, I cheer, but I can also hear Megajoule’s voice in my head warning me that there’s a reason she hasn’t called in a while.

Still, I can’t keep myself contained when I answer: “Kitsune! I- are you okay?”

“Home Run!” Her voice matches my energy - I can hear how much she missed me. “I’m so so sorry. There was an emergency I had to deal with. I’ve been working day and night…”

“Do you think that’s the truth?” Megajoule asks.

I shake my head. I don’t hear a lie in her voice. “It’s okay.”

“I would’ve called if I could have.”

“You’re naive,” Megajoule hisses.

“It’s okay,” I say. “But look, I’ve got something. If you want to be a part of it. The other day, when you and I found Pandahead, I managed to slip a tracker on him. We should know where he hangs his helmet very soon.”

“Fool,” Megajoule whispers. “You think the Front will be happy to see her?”

Kitsune is quiet on the other end. For a second, she says nothing, just long enough that I start to speak again, and then she says, “That’s… serious. You’re sure?”

“If you want to join us, I’ll text you when we have a plan together.”

“Are you sure she won’t betray you?” Megajoule asks.

Thankfully, before I can linger on that thought too much, our door buzzes. “Uh, I’ve got to go. I’ll text you!”

I hurriedly dress, put my mask on, and warp down the hall to the living room. And, just as I hoped, it’s Epione and Silent.

Epione greets me as if we haven’t been on icy speaking terms for the last month, and grabs my hand with both of hers. She bows slightly. “You did it. We got him.”

#

I’m a little shocked to feel extra people in the Front’s club. But what shocks me even more than that is I recognize the extras when I open the door.

They’re called the Muse Masks, and they’re Houston’s premier underground rock band slash mask gang. Their leader, Power Chord, who I’ve met on a job once, is dressed in an extravagant costume with a short crimson cape and a mask that resembles a samurai helmet. A flare gun and several flash bangs hang from his hips and his swat armor, spray painted red, isn’t even strapped all the way on. The other three members of his band are behind him, all dressed just as cartoonishly, but it’s always worked for them because I believe the severe lady in the back has the power to turn people invisible.

“Home Run, my guy!” Power Chord practically jumps into my arms. “It’s been ages! How the hell have you been?”

“Not too bad,” I say. “Just out here becoming famous.”

“You’re even more of a rock star than I am now.” Power Chord clasps my arm before turning his attention to Mateo. “And this must be Volition, your boss I’ve heard so much about.”

I glance over at Saw Off, who snickers at me. I’m sure she’s enjoyed seeing me downgraded to sidekick. I roll my eyes, flip her the bird, and she sticks her tongue out.

“Who the heck are you?” Mateo asks, and I can hear the star-struck tone in his voice. He’s exuding wonder, curiosity.

Power Chord’s laugh in answer is garish. “I’m the masked musician, baby. Leader of one of Houston’s first mask gangs, and hard rocker! And today, little man, we’re gonna be helping you bring down the guy busting all our balls ‘round these parts.”

While Mateo gets introduced to the band, I head over to Epione and Silent, who are conversing quietly to themselves.

For a moment, the empath’s armor slips, and I feel Epione’s excitement. Or maybe she wants me to feel it. “More masks are going to meet us at Pandahead’s hideout, tonight at midnight. Are you ready?”

“That even a question? Where did the tracker lead us?”

“The estate of a retired cape. Shortfin,” Silent explains.

“No way, the shark documentary guy?” I ask.

Silent blinks at me.

“You can’t tell me you’ve never seen them. He uses his powers to work with sharks and…” I shake my head. These people don’t even want to hear about a cape in a positive light. And I guess if he’s somehow harboring Pandahead… he’s probably not a good person. “Never mind.”

“He lives in West University, a really nice neighborhood. But there’s also a lot of people living there, so it makes a nice smokescreen of Affect,” Silent continues.

“Okay. What’s the plan?”

“We’ve got his address and we’ve got the means to rough him up,” Epione replies. “We’re going to hand it out to as many pissed off masks as we can.”

Once Epione has explained everything, I extract myself from the conversation and text Kitsune the plan.

She replies with an emoji cat giving a thumbs up.

“Cute,” I murmur.

#

#

Later that night, we arrive at the meeting spot, an abandoned car wash nestled behind an under construction PK tower that brims with wires and antenna but isn’t yet powered on. A few trucks and cranes wait around the tower for their workers to come back in the morning.

I’m shocked to see a dozen mask gangs gathered here, at least fifty people. A gathering of masks like this isn’t something you see often. But this could be the final blow against Pandahead, maybe even against the Vanguard and PK Resonance if the public turns against them. All of it is rotting to the core.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Every single mask turns to me as we join them. They look at me like I’m some kind of mythical figure, a messiah rather than a mask. Metis, it makes me feel like such a hero. Like the kind of hero Megajoule was before he died.

It makes me excited.

“Everyone. The Front is taking point, but the rest of you are going to be positioned in the neighborhood in case Pandahead tries to escape,” Epione announces to the crowd. “Once we have him in our custody, we will return here and use Portrait’s gateway to get to safety. He most certainly has guards, so we’ll need you as back up. In case anything goes wrong, Portrait has scattered some extra gates around. They will be immediately sealed off upon your extraction. Portrait will send you back to a randomized location in Houston, so that we are not all returned to the same place. Understood?”

That means no turning back. The masks accept this with grim determination.

Epione addresses me quietly, while the masks scatter with their marching orders. “We’re taking point on this. Saw Off, Silent, Volition, you, and me. That should be more than enough.”

While everyone gets ready, I check my phone. There’s no response from Kitsune.

“She’s not coming,” Mateo says, seeing me check my phone again.

I sigh. It’s whatever.

“You’re in danger,” Megajoule whispers.

“I can just leave if I need to. Nobody’s ever been able to catch me,” I say.

#

Shortfin’s estate is an acre of lush garden, with a three story town home presiding over the veritable Eden he’s contained inside an iron-wrought fence. Pristine and lit with mood-lighting, it fits right into the overall decor of the surrounding neighborhood.

Epione glances around at the neighborhood. “A lot of Affect around us. It should keep us hidden from the drones’ longer range scanners.”

Silent puts her hand on her sword hilt, shaking her head. “All those people just asleep, not even knowing what’s about to happen.”

“Anybody in the house?” Saw Off asks.

My thermal sense reveals a living room with six people asleep, and three people in bedrooms across the house, their heartbeats slow and light, their breathing barely there.

“That’s odd,” I whisper. “Do either of you feel any guards on the property?”

“I hear some rustling out there,” Silent replies.

“We’ll need to get closer,” Epione says.

We creep to within fifty feet of the house.

The front door is wide open.

I search for guards wandering the property, but there’s no one. It’s just the people sleeping in the living room and the bedrooms above us.

Silent, alarmed, says, “No. We should abort.”

Before we can, though, something in the air shifts. About twenty feet behind us, a PK fence, like the one outside the Null Domain, begins to shimmer with power, and a swarm of drones rises from hiding places along the streets, suddenly springing into life.

A golden veil rises around the property.

“Oh, god. It’s a PK fence,” Epione whispers.

No way. No.

“Yes,” Megajoule sighs. “This is her doing. It must be.”

“What do we do?” Mateo asks, trembling. “We gotta do something.”

“Stick to the plan,” Epione says, her voice sharp. “The people inside. Several heavyweights are in there. Shortfin must be among them. He may be able to disable the fence from inside. If not, they’re hostages, we can use that.”

I’m already sprinting for the door.

We crowd into the foyer, which is connected to the living room. Instead of Affected thugs or armed guards, I see six random Latinos in a state of drugged stupor lying on huge u-shaped couches facing a TV. It wasn’t sleep, it was sedation!

Silent rushes up the stairs. She calls back down to us: “Metis, they’re all just random people!”

The TV suddenly turns on.

Pandahead jeers at us from the other end of a live feed and jabs his fingers in the air in a celebratory dance. With the TV, an alarm begins to blare. Text scrolls across the bottom of the screen: SMILE, YOU’RE ON CAMERA.

Megajoule hisses in my ear: “I told you so.”

The alarm continues to blare for a few more seconds, so loud that I can barely hear myself think, until it finally shuts off. In the quiet after, Epione asks, “Can you hear us?”

Pandahead stops his dancing. His voice comes through a filter in his helmet that completely scrambles the sound, making his words into some kind of electric saw. “I can.”

I look back. Mateo, Epione, Silent and Saw Off are struck dumb, and I’m apparently the only one who can muster any words. “You knew we were coming.”

“I knew, yes. You idiots didn’t think that I knew someone was after me? After blowing up my tunnel, after hitting my lab? What kind of amateur do you take me for?” Pandahead leans forward. The white and black painting on his motorcycle helmet seems to transform with the shifting angle. No longer a docile panda, but a grinning skull. “And now, the Heroes know you’re here. They’ll get to work arresting your little gang of terrorists for me.”

“Where the fuck is Lugs?!” Saw Off shouts at the TV.

Pandahead shrugs. “Who’s that?”

“Oh, fuck you, we’re not doing this.” I’m not going to eat that shit, not for breakfast, not for dinner, not for any meal. I’m going to melt this TV into nothing.

“Don’t be an asshole. You’re trapped in a cage designed to hold people in, and you’ve got nothing to do but talk to me, now. Until the real heroes get here.” Pandahead’s helmet makes a strange sound like someone dropping pennies into an AC unit, and I realize that he’s laughing. The laughter dies off slowly. “You’re very strong, I can tell. I actually only arranged this so we could talk uninterrupted for a few minutes.”

I glance at Epione, who is dangerously silent. Her gaze is locked onto Pandahead, her hands behind her back as always, but I can feel her animosity. She’s foregone her armor.

“Listen here, you little shit,” Saw Off says. “If you think-”

Pandahead cuts her off: “Your little gang might think you have some kinda moral high ground trying to kill me off. But you don’t, nobody does. That’s not how the world works. High grounds only exist in homework problems. Of course, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Epione? Miss Ends Justify the Means? Miss Kill All Witnesses?

The pit of my stomach drops out. “What?”

“Not now,” Epione says.

“Oh, please tell me you’re not that dense.” Pandahead cackles, slapping his knee like this is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “They’re called terrorists for a reason, Home Run. They’ve got more blood on their hands than me.”

I’m not stupid, I see how Silent gets between me and her leader.

Epione raises her hand, the warning sign of her empathy. If she touches any of us, she can change how we feel about this. “This is so typical. It is textbook comic villain activity, turning us against each other.”

I back up, putting a hand over Mateo’s chest. Behind me, I can hear Pandahead chuckling, humming, watching this unfold.

“Of course, the rest of you are probably very interested to know that Home Run here betrayed your whole plan to the capes. He’s been making little kissy faces at one of them the whole time you’ve known him!” Pandahead laughs again. “And that’s how I knew you’d be coming. I mean, I knew you’d be coming eventually, but giving me the exact time stamp! I had such a head start to clear up shop, thank you for that. Honestly it’s really brilliant how badly you failed.”

“A cape?” Silent roars, rounding on me. “You were canoodling with a cape!”

“No!” I hold my hands up. “I’m not!”

“You gave us away!” she shouts. “Ep, I told you! I told you this would happen!”

Epione is silent. She stares at me, through me, like she’s going to murder me. Not even Saw Off, has anything to say in my defense this time.

Pandahead’s voice lowers behind the filter, turning his voice from grating electronics to dangerous buzzing. “Do you have an appetite for experiences?”

My mouth is so dry. I’ve got no clue what to do. I only know that I’ve got to protect Mateo.

“I mean jumping out of a plane with a parachute, or running down the side of a mountain buck fucking naked. Taking LSD, fucking a world class model on a boat off the coast of Italy. Strapping yourself to the top of a rocket and hitting orbit. Experiences. Things that change your whole life. Things that pull you out of the monotony of a day to day existence.”

“A fight to the death among friends,” Pandahead continues. “That’ll change your life for sure.”

“You’re a monster,” I say. The words are weak.

The TV explodes as Saw Off unloads her shotgun sneeze, ripping the flat screen off the wall. She kicks the busted husk and screams in rage. “Fuck that guy! We’re not fighting! We’re going to get out of here and figure this out like adults.” She swivels her wild gaze at everyone, daring anyone, even Epione, even me, to challenge her on this.

“Leaving is easy,” Epione says, shaking her head. “I can manipulate the shielding, same as the Fence. But getting away from the estate is going to be the hard part, with all the capes attention on us.” She stands there, thinking, trying to come up with a plan.

I can’t see her face, but something in her body language changes, and it looks like she’s figured something out. “Okay. I’ve got a plan.”

She jogs over to the back door and we follow her out into the garden, back to the shimmering barrier at the iron fence. Her fingers begin to shimmer, too, and she works them into the curtain, splitting it in half. She motions for people to run through. Silent goes first, then Saw Off…

I look back to Mateo, who is just now catching up. “Come on, we’ve got to-”

Mateo’s eyes widen and he points behind me. “Gabe! She’s leaving!”

Epione slips through the curtain and allows it to close behind her.

I warp over to it, trying to make it in time, trying to stop her, but I can’t. She’s on the other side of the trap we’re still caught in.

“Epione?!” I slam my fist against the barrier, feel the electric shock go through my soul as I hit it. I can’t bring it down if I try. “You can’t leave us here!”

Silent is already gone, but Saw Off looks back and sees what Epione’s done. “Ep! No!” She runs back, staring at Epione, and while I can’t feel her horror and heartbreak through the barrier, I can see it on her face.

I think Epione knows that nothing she says can fix this, so she turns, and says to Saw Off, “If you want to be caught by the capes, be my guest, but at least give the rest of us a head start so we can pack up. Just remember that he’s the one who betrayed you to them.”

Saw Off, mouth dropped in shock, runs her hands along the outside of the Fence. She searches helplessly for a few seconds, and then, with her hand against the Fence, says, “I’m sorry, Gabe.” She turns and runs after the rest of the Front.

I fall to my knees. Fuck.

“Gabe? What do we do?” Mateo asks. I’ve got no fucking clue. If Epione hadn’t abandoned us, we could have figured this out, gotten away. But now we’re trapped in a box, surrounded by a promise of death.

I spin around, searching for an answer. What else am I gonna do? I’m gonna have to turn myself in. Everything I worked for. It’s all trashed, now. My face twists, feels like it’s going to fall off, and I drop to my knees and hands, unable to stand.

From somewhere outside the house, an amplified voice shouts: “Please come out with your hands up. If we detect any Affect flux, we will use deadly force.”

And, Metis, I know that fucking voice.

It’s Kitsune.

Damn it.

“Gabe?” Mateo asks again, his voice tiny, full of terror. “What the hell do we do? How do we get out of this? You gotta have a plan!”

“Please,” I whisper. “Help me, Mega. Please, I don’t know what to do.” My chest burns with shame. Pathetic and prostrated, I close my eyes tight and will that awful bastard to speak to me. “I’m sorry, Julian. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I’m gonna get caught. I need your help.”

I feel him, standing over me. Disappointed eyes boring into the back of my head.

His voice, cold as steel: “No, you aren’t.”

I stammer, I open my eyes.

Mateo is there, freaking out. “Gabe, what the fuck is going on? Who are you talking to?”

And behind the kid, Megajoule, as dark as a shadow, green eyes blazing bright in the dark. “You’re going to fight.”

“It’s the Houston Heroes, dude. How am I gonna fuckin’ fight them?”

Mateo’s eyes almost pop out of his skull as he realizes I’m actually talking to someone he can’t see. “Gabe are you going insane?”

“Gabe, what do you think they made you for?” Megajoule asks. “You think that anybody in this city’s gonna have strength to match you?”

There’s no way. “I can’t.”

The light of his eyes intensifies. The shadow darkens. “I don’t want to hear the words ‘I can’t’ out of you.”

“But I can’t—”

“You can,” he says, emerging into his full form. I can see the white of his face, the ghoulish structure beneath his skin. “Or are you telling me you’re okay with dying?”

Dying. His words panic me. I breathe, unable to get enough air, and clutch my chest.

“Gabe,” he hisses. “G for Good. A for Able. B for Beautiful. E for Enough. Say it.”

“I…”

“Say. It.”

I repeat the mantra. It calms me.

“Good. Breathe. Say it again.”

I rise. I repeat the words.

“Again.”

I breathe in deep.

“Gabe?” Mateo asks.

I exhale.

I rise to my feet.