“He Who Is? I can take him.”

- Wreckless. Disrupter/Enforcer 8, 5. Theta Class villain. Last words.

_____________________________________________________________

School was a fucking drag. Merryfair looked great from the outside, no one disputed that. Yet somehow, despite the glamorous facade, the surplus laptops, and the fact that they no doubt benefited from having a Sentry among their attendance, the AC failed. Better, it failed throughout the entire school. The best part was the school had decent insulation because of how cold it could get in winter. But that did the opposite of help in summer when the windows only opened so far.

The Regulation had high standards for their heroes, I had come to find. Multiple times already I’d received reminders from Rosie to do my homework, and the reminders always came shortly before my larger assignments were due. Not only was I expected to do the work, I was expected to do it on top of the vigorous regime Blinker had set out for me.

That’s why I was feeling a little ticked off when the room had become so hot that I dozed off for the fourth time today. Now I’d missed something, and given how pedantic Blinker and the rest were about my work, it’d find its way back to bite me somehow. The fact that the class I just fell asleep in was physics with Mr Asher, one of the only classes I was actually interested in, was bittersweet icing on the cake.

“I’m sorry I didn’t wake-” Sonya broke off with a yawn. “Didn’t wake you up before...” Another yawn. Was she doing that on purpose?

“That’s fine.” I fumed. Mr Asher, for all his good points, had caught me dozing off and retaliated by asking me to answer a complex question. I’d failed, unsurprisingly, and in front of the class to boot. They had laughed, sneered, and reminded me even as I was exiting class. I was still red faced from the experience. Fucking kids.

It had been a coin flip anyway. Sonya had been just as sleepy as me.

Now it was lunch, and I was all too keen to put all that behind me. I went to the usual spot and this time Sonya decided to come with me. Normally she didn’t, but I was going somewhere shaded, which might have had something to do with it. There was the other thing too, which may have influenced that decision as well.

“Hey Michael.” The other thing dropped his bag next to me. “Sup, Sonya.”

“Hey.” I responded.

“Hi Nathan.” Sonya replied properly.

Nathan’s mouth twisted the way it usually did. “What’s the happenings?”

“Don’t want to talk about it.” I said. “How about you?”

“Just had a snooze. I’m feeling energized.”

I rolled my eyes as Sonya failed to stop a giggle. We spent the forty minute break talking a whole bunch about nothing like we usually did, even if Sonya wasn’t a permanent fixture. Since she was here, it was more that Nathan and Sonya were the ones talking about nothing, with me occasionally answering questions and dumb hypotheticals. Though, Sonya did have something interesting to say before the bell rang.

“Did you know the Regulation issued a statement today?” She asked, half looking at her phone.

“Did they now?” I asked absently, thinking back to the stupid questions I was answering the day before. I mentally shook myself. Of course they’d leave the big boy questions for the legitimate Sentinels.

“I heard about that.” Nathan snapped his fingers. “Mantis, right?”

“That was last night.” Sonya informed him. “This was just this morning.

I perked up. Mantis had been revealed shortly before I was, so I grouped that press conference together. Anything beyond that was stuff that I hadn’t heard about yet.

Sonya continued. “They’re warning everyone to be careful when going out alone, because the Racketeers have apparently been lynching people.”

“What?” I suddenly gained interest in the conversation. That was a quick turnaround. It was only a day before that half of them had been subdued by Aegis’ Victorious. Nathan and Sonya both looked at me in surprise, so I started to backpedal. “That’s the group that goes around hitting businesses right?”

“Hitting businesses is a bit difficult.” Nathan said. “They’re metaphysical, technically.”

“They’re supervillains.” I countered.

“Touche.”

“Wall Walker was on patrol by himself at around 7 am today when he was suddenly set upon by spiders controlled by Spinnerette.” Sonya was reading out. “In addition to Spinnerette, Prism and Waterlad were involved in the ambush, and Prism’s ability interfered with Wall Walker’s escape.

“The superhero from the Heroes of Yesterday crashed into a second floor apartment when he misjudged the direction he was travelling, surprising the occupant living there, but also allowing Wall Walker to get away and call for backup. By the time backup arrived, the Racketeers were already gone. There have been multiple reports of Racketeers moving around the city since then.”

She scrolled down. “Then there’s some stuff about the occupant, which I don’t really care about.” Sonya found where the story picked up. “Wall Walker says that the three Racketeers were accusing him of murder, shouting “this is your fault”, and “you killed her”, but did not say who the ‘her’ in question was.”

“Two guesses as to who ‘she’ is.” I commented as Sonya put her phone down.

“Well?” Nathan prompted.

“Uh…” I suddenly realised how much knowledge I was displaying of supervillains. I had a perfectly legitimate reason for having the knowledge, but it was a guarded reason. “Well there’s only three girls on the team. So… Ardent?”

“That’s a Handieman.” Sonya corrected me. I raised my eyebrows like that was new information. “But you’re right about the numbers. There’re four guys and three girls on the supervillain team. Spinnerette is one of them, and Clothesline and Zipline are the others.”

Both villains I beat. I thought. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been so clear cut, but I definitely hadn’t killed either of them. Zipline had been in the lower floors of the Greenflame incident, so I hadn’t even seen her, and Plasma or Muffle had been the last one to touch Clothesline.

“Who do you think it is?” I asked.

Nathan almost responded before Sonya did.

Sonya said. “Personally I think Zipline is the more likely candidate because she’s newer. She’s only got a few months working with the Racketeers under her belt while Clothesline has been around for an entire year. And in that year, she’s barely been injured.”

I raised an eyebrow, but I wasn’t listening. Whoever had been killed was someone I had interacted with recently, and the reality of that was slowly dawning on me. I’d played it off when Sonya first mentioned it, but I didn’t think I could spend much more time on the topic before saying or doing something weird.

“Michael, you all good?” Nathan asked.

“Hm?” I looked at them and it dawned on me I didn’t know how much time I’d just spent inside my own head. I needed to deflect, best to go with a half truth. “Yeah, it’s just, someone died. Got killed, even.”

“I understand how you feel.” Sonya told me with excitement in her eye. Excitement which made me doubt if she really did. She was a Graceland girl, anyway. There was no way she understood.“We don’t know much, but we know the Racketeers think someone killed one of their teammates. That might mean there’s another Deus Ex Machina on the loose. A vigilante that kills villains, even!”

“That feels off.” Nathan commented. “None of the Racketeers have killed anyone, as far as I’m aware. Machina doesn’t kill without a reason.”

“No one’s claimed responsibility?” I checked.

Sonya was the one who answered. “As far as super vigilantes go in Graceland, there’s Sleepwalker and Duke of Intent. Neither of them have said anything, and the Regulation hasn’t released any information on who might be dead. No updates from anywhere else, either.”

I recognised the names, having been a part of multiple debriefings since starting as a Sentry. Both vigilantes cropped up frequently. Sleepwalker was called as such because he only ever came out at night. He didn’t seem to have any abilities, but he worked alone and was way too active to not have something supernatural mixed up in his work. Duke of Intent, on the other hand, he only ever came out to combat his nemesis and one of the few independent villains in Graceland: Lake Lady.

The name fit, if it was a bit dumb.

The others kept talking about the topic for a bit then moved on to something else. I listened, but only partially. Chances were there’d be something about this brought up at the SRT today.

~~~

Jagmikh’s sonic boom told Graceland it was four pm.

Of the five people in the room, I was the only one who really reacted, being the only one that wasn’t entirely used to it yet. The dark shape of Jagmikh tore across the skyline, heading towards the mountains and getting smaller at a rapid speed. The muffled sound of jet engines spinning up could be heard briefly before they faded as Zephyr took to the skies after the speed demon.

I was the only one that looked at the two specks in the sky. The others all kept doing what they were doing.

Muffle was in the quiet space. He had been teaching me sign language since yesterday, as I’d asked him to after he got back from that whole fiasco. We were still on very rudimentary stuff since it had only been a day, but I’d learned that names weren’t really a thing in sign. Sure, you could spell it out, but going through six motions when trying to refer to Muffle was kind of pointless when most people just signed a ‘shh’ gesture.

Muffle’s way of saying my superhero name was reaching out with one hand and turning an imaginary key with the other.

Because I touched things and locked them. Get it?

Slingshot and Lucidity were sitting at the table with something in front of them. Homework, maybe, but it was ignored because they were talking earnestly with each other. Also in the room was Collage sitting by himself at a screen.

The door opened and Unshaken entered. She ignored everyone like she always did and exited through another door, leaving me feeling hurt at being ignored. Not that everyone in the room had been ignored, just me. I homed in on the bizarre reaction and stood, remembering what I had resolved to do about these strange impulses.

“Hey Collage.” I waited for him to turn.

“Hey, Lo-” He was cut off when I backhanded him. I indulged myself and upped the force of the slap with my power, the use of my power lifting my costume a bit and moving me in the direction of the slap. I landed and played it off. Collage’s head had snapped to the side and a hand slowly came up to gingerly touch the impact point.

“Ow.” Collage looked at his hand like that would tell him something, then asked in a hushed voice. “What did I do to deserve that?”

I made a finger gun at him and waited for him to get it.

“Right.” Realisation dawned on him. “Sorry about that.” He leaned forward. “But since it’s already happened do you wanna tell me all about it?” Any repentance Collage may have injected into his apology was absent from that last request.

“I would tell you...” I carefully began. “If I wasn’t so certain you were an impulsive gossip.”

“First of all, I take offense to that.” Collage told me, apparently unphased. “Second… No, I’ve already said sorry. Three, I’m trying to keep a tally.”

“Where’s the tally? I want to destroy it.”

“Aand I’m never going to show you the tally.” Collage hastily backed down.

I put a hand to my mask and sighed. Before I left there was one more thing I wanted to ask my senior Sentry. “How long do the effects of the beams usually last?”

Collage paused, considering something. “It depends. Different beams have different effects.” He tapped on a yellow patch of his costume and his other hand lit up. “Yellow delivers an electric payload, so that lasts as long as it takes for the energy to disperse.” Which would only be an instant, I realised.

He tapped a silver patch. “Silver cuts instantaneously.” He tapped red. “Starts a fire. Could go indefinitely if the fire was tended to. Is there a particular effect you want to know about.” With each tap his hand glowed with the mentioned colour.

“Try and guess.” I told him, unamused.

Collage grinned, sensing an opportunity. “I’m going to guess blue. Now this is a fun one because while all my beams have some force behind them, this one slows them down as well.”

I imagined Waterlad slowly falling with a crater spreading in his chest. “How much slower does it make them?”

“About a fifth.” Collage answered. “But if I hit them again they lose another fifth.”

“Is that from the total speed, or the remainder?”

Collage frowned and thought about it. “I don’t actually know.”

I sighed exasperatedly. “Just, just tell me about the pink beam.”

Collage’s exorbidant demeanour reappeared in an instant and he tapped his nose with a knowing smile. “Who is it?”

“How long, Collage?” I reiterated.

“I’m willing to trade information.” He told me. “Tit for tat, or something along those lines.”

“If I could have a moment of your time.” Voidling’s soft voice said before I could respond and I glanced in his direction. I jumped a little when I realised he was right beside me and tried to play it down. It’s not like I wasn’t paying attention to the doors, how did he get so close without me noticing?

“What is it? Sure.” I said, getting the order wrong.

“Orcus and I finished a meeting with Zephyr earlier today.” He held out a USB stick. “This is a care package I collated with all the information you’ll need as a Sentry. As well as a schedule for your duties as a sidekick for the coming weeks.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

I took the USB stick. “Thanks.”

“If you’ll sate my curiosity,” Voidling continued, still speaking softly. “Why did you do it?”

“Please be specific.”

“Initiate an op without oversight.” He specified.

A flash of memory took me back to the rant I’d gone on when Muffle had asked me the same thing. “To do something.” I gave him the incredibly abridged version, then followed up. “On pain of a thrashing.”

“I see.” Voidling gave a half nod, leaving his head tilted down. “Remain here for the next fifteen minutes.”

“I wasn’t going anywhere.” I said as Voidling had already left.

“You been naughty, Lock?” Collage was on my case the moment the dark hero was gone. I looked at him, and weighed how much he wanted to know.

I sat near Collage. “Do you remember how Zephyr was blowing up at me yesterday? Then how Orcus and her had an argument?”

He nodded to both questions.

“It’s about that.” I told him.

Collage waited. “Is that it?”

“You sound like you want to know.” I commented, then shifted, leaning in a bit. “Lucky for you, I’m willing to trade information. Tit for tat, or something along those lines.”

Collage immediately caught on and his curious expression was replaced by an excited grin. “Pink beam information in exchange for details on the op?”

“If you tell first.” I said before shaking his hand.

“Minutes, at most.” Collage easily responded. “I’ve never seen it last for more than an hour.”

Which explains why I didn’t feel anything towards Cloud or Zipline. I thought. “What happens after it fades? Are there any lasting effects?”

Collage shrugged. “Not really. I’ve hit most of the people in this room with the beam, and they don’t seem to mind too much.” A statement I had my doubts about. “Mostly it’s villains declaring me their nemesis after getting a dose of love, and usually out of embarrassment.”

None of that explained why I was still reacting so strongly to Slingshot and Unshaken. “Are there any other quirks?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It’s love, but it’s hollow. Purely a chemical response from my power inserting the love chemicals into whoever gets hit. If you’re still feeling its effects, it’s all you.”

I crossed my arms. “Forgive me if I don’t buy that.”

“A first impression might do it-” He cut himself off, then leaned even closer and spoke in a hushed voice. “Lock. If you’re thinking pink things about Lucidity, I have to tell you that I see her as family and I’ll destroy you if anything happens to her. But if you’re willing to work through it, I’ll help you out until the impulses fade.”

“What!?” I reacted loudly and shoved him away, enhancing the force on his costume with my power and sending him tumbling to the floor.

Everyone in the room stopped and looked, even Muffle.

I felt myself going red under my mask. “You got it wrong, Collage.”

“Hard to see that from down here.” He commented seriously as he started picking himself up.

“You boys okay?” Slingshot called across the room.

At the same time Muffle was signing something I didn’t recognise.

“Fine.” I replied as Collage signed something back, which seemed to satisfy the big man.

Lucidity didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t press the issue. Slingshot kept looking at us.

“See, here’s the thing.” Collage started once he was sitting again. “I hit you with the pink, then Lucidity walked into the room as well as Slingshot and Unshaken. While I commend you on holding out on the impulses until now, that shit needs to be addressed.”

“It’s not Lucidity.” I repeated. “Just the other two.”

“Oh?” Collage’s trademark grin was back. “Veery interesting.”

“I regret this conversation.” I said, mostly to myself.

“Oh, don’t be like that. Papa Collage can keep a secret.”

“You shouldn’t call yourself ‘Papa’ when you can mindfuck people like that.” I deadpanned.

Collage waved his hand dismissively. “I meant that I’ll keep the secret that you met Lucidity before walking into the SRT.”

I forced myself to cooly stare at him and do nothing more. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the three other people in the room moving in their places. It might have been nothing but it put me on edge.

“Keep quiet about the other thing.” I eventually said.

“Gotcha. I won’t tell anyone about it, loudly.” Collage laughed when I gave a defeated sigh. “Now pay up. What’s this about an op without oversight?”

I decided to stay true to my word and started telling him about it, but was interrupted before I could get anywhere in the story by Voidling and Orcus stepping into the room. They were flanked by two other heroes I hadn’t seen up close yet.

One I had seen yesterday, just from far away. It was Wall Walker, and this time I got a closer look at his costume. He had a yellow crash helmet that covered everything above the neck, and his costume had elbow pads, knee pads, and shoulder pads worked into the costume. There were tassels everywhere. So much so that I had underestimated exactly how many tassels there were. The arms and shoulders were lined, not unlike a denim jacket a cowboy might wear at a rodeo, only much more. As were the elbow and shoulder pads, as were every part where the costume ended, as was the utility belt even. All in varying shades of yellow.

The man liked his tassels. There wasn’t much more to say.

The other hero was one I hadn’t seen before, barring pictures online. His costume looked like someone had taken a police uniform and a spy outfit, and put them in a blender. It was tight fitted, blue and black, and while it didn’t have a utility belt, all the essentials seemed to exist on his person in holsters. A cursory glance revealed a taser, handcuffs, zip ties, which was a really good idea I found myself wishing I had earlier, and pepper spray.

His mask had eyes and a hole for the nostrils, but didn’t have a mouth. Mostly, the mask was blue, but there was a large red exclamation point over his left eye. The man went by Risk, and he was from the same group as Wall Walker, the Heroes of Yesterday.

“Sentrys.” Orcus addressed the room. Satellite had drifted in at some point, and Unshaken had returned with wet hair. “Wall Walker and Risk will be joining us for an impromptu debrief. Make your way to the meeting room.”

I looked at the large table as Lucidity spoke up. “Can’t we do it here?”

“No.” Orcus told her over his shoulder as he left.

I looked at Collage, who shrugged, and we stood to follow. Minutes later we had all moved down to the meeting room where Orcus had first interviewed me. The hole the chair had made in the wall was still there.

Orcus spoke in his ever even diction once everyone was seated except for him. “In attendance are seven of the Sentry. Collage, Lock, Lucidity, Muffle, Satellite, Slingshot, and Unshaken. Apologies from Blinker and Snowflake, who are both on patrol at this time.”

I had been the last to sit, so I sat on the far side of the table with a decent amount of space between me and anyone else. Lucidity and Slingshot sat together near the front, while Collage and Unshaken had sat near but not next to each other on the side of the room that I wasn’t on. The two Heroes of Yesterday stayed near the front and Muffle was standing right at the back of the room. Voidling hovered as far back as Muffle’s power allowed.

Orcus continued. “Of the Sentinels, two are in attendance. Myself, Orcus, and Voidling. Apologies from Zephyr, who is engaging Jagmikh at this time. Sting is unaccounted for.”

That got some of the heroes looking at each other. I remained focused on Orcus.

He kept going. “Also in attendance are two guests from the Heroes of Yesterday. Risk and Wall Walker.”

“Hello.” The former waved at the room, then frowned. It was hard to tell because of the mask, but that was the impression I got.

Orcus pressed some buttons on the table, bringing up a holographic screen, then sending it away after a few moments. “The weekly debrief has been pushed forward in light of recent events. The most notable of which you were all present for yesterday.”

Murmurs of agreement sprung from throughout the room.

Orcus pressed another button, bringing up a picture of the building where it happened. “To summarise, Metafore gave the Sentinels advanced warning a meeting was going to occur in this building, if indirectly. The meeting was between the heads of the Entrepreneurs, and the Rising Sun, as well as a third party that was eventually revealed to be Greenflame, who has moved from her previous location of Quebec.

“We intended to interrupt this meeting, as Metafore warned of what might be blood being spread in the wake of this event. We encountered significant resistance from what seemed to be an alliance between the two groups. We requested aid from the Regulation and received it in the form of Victorious, but we were ultimately unable to interrupt the meeting. “

The image of the building shrunk and a picture of the building after everything happened appeared next to it.

“This was in part due to the fact that Regulation forces were unable to advance from below thanks to the efforts of Makyer, whose forcefields were able to prevent entry to all but Unshaken. Several temporary arrests were made thanks to her efforts.”

Temporary arrests. I echoed to myself. Boss had teleported them out. Unshaken didn’t seem too happy about that. Collage whispered something to her and one hand pushed his face away.

I liked seeing that.

Orcus kept going. “After the meeting, the villains worked together to escape. They used Makyer and Cloud in tandem to advance safely and commandeered a vehicle, which was chased until it was crashed by Wall Walker. But the driver was a member of the PA, and the situation resulted in a temporary arrest. This combined with Mantis making a debut caused a significant enough distraction that the remaining members of the Rising Sun were able to escape.”

A picture of the aftermath of Mantis’ work appeared. I hadn’t seen this before, and neither had Slingshot or Muffle. The former gasped in shock. I felt like doing the same. There were several men and women still bleeding out at the time the picture was taken. I could see Collage in the background with a glowing green hand, a beam of the same colour between him and one of the wounded.

“In total,” Orcus continued. “One arrest was made in thanks to Plasma. Headache from the Rising Sun; Shino Akueda.”

A mugshot of Shino’s busted up face appeared alongside one of her in costume. She was asian, surprising no one, and had a dead expression in her picture.

Orcus looked at the room. “Questions.”

There was silence in the room as everyone unpacked everything Orcus had just dumped on everyone.

Eventually someone spoke up.

“You said that the meeting wasn’t interrupted.” Risk was the one to break the silence. I noted he had a southern twang. It was subtle, but definitely there. “How did you know about Greenflame?”

Voidling was the one to respond. For once, using a normal voice instead of speaking softly. “Lucidity and Lock were each independently able to infiltrate the floor where the meeting occurred.”

Lucidity shrunk when her name was said. She sheepishly waved when Risk looked at her. Then Risk looked at me.

I looked back, unblinking. In my periphery I could see Collage realising that this was the op he had asked about.

“What was the purpose of the meeting?” Risk asked without looking away. I wasn’t sure if he was asking that to me or not.

Voidling responded before I could reach a decision. “To welcome Greenflame to Graceland. They had apparently worked together to get her to come here, in exchange for her services.”

“Remind me, what was Greenflame’s power?” Wall Walker interrupted. Somehow I doubted whoever answered Wall Walker would be reminding him.

“She sells the future.” Risk told him quietly.

That was a surprisingly good way of putting it.

“Right.” Wall Walker took a moment. “So she sold a future to Boss and Samurai.”

“She sold the future of, and I quote ‘A Hero’s end’, end quote, to Samurai.” Orcus answered. “Boss was offered the future of a king, but backed out of the deal at the last moment.”

“And Queue was there.” Slingshot added, earning the attention of the Heroes of Yesterday, which made her falter. “He didn’t…” Then, very quietly. “He didn’t get an offer.”

I felt sympathy for her. Then I felt irritation for Collage.

“Did you see what Queue looks like?” Risk asked with a soft tone. It was still business, but softer because he was dealing with a new Sentry.

“I did.” Slingshot nodded. “But he was wearing all black and had a balaclava on.”

“Like a robber from a crap commercial.” I added, earning the attention of the HoY.

HoY. I repeated in my head. The thought was amusing.

“Nothing we can use.” Wall Walker muttered. Risk nodded in response.

Orcus continued. “Samurai was gifted a knife and fork, essentially silverware, when he accepted the deal with Greenflame. We are uncertain of its significance at this point. After that Greenflame departed.”

“Just like that?” Risk asked, confusion in his voice. “Boss didn’t teleport her out or anything?”

“Uhh… There’s more than that.” I said, getting everyone’s attention again. Well, everyone except for Unshaken and Satellite. They seemed bored, honestly. Lucidity was doing her best to follow along, though.

“When I arrived, Boss, Queue, and Samurai were standing across the room from each other.” I continued when no one stopped me. “They just stood there for five minutes before a portal of blue mist opened and Greenflame stepped through. When the meeting was done, another portal appeared for her to leave through.”

“We placed a request for information with the Regulation.” Orcus added in his even tone. “The maker of the portals was active in Quebec until recently, and was referred to by the heroes there as Patrol Officer. No one knows what they look like.”

“That’s a strange name for someone working with villains.” Risk commented.

“Originally they worked with normal police officers and firemen,” Orcus explained. “They would make portals leading to their objectives that let them avoid danger, like allowing access to a portion of a burning building that was blocked off. That behaviour stopped suddenly around seven months ago, and they haven’t been seen until yesterday.”

“That’s a lot of unaccounted time.” Wall Walker said.

I agreed mentally as I filed the information away. “I’m not done. When Boss was speaking to Greenflame he mentioned she was part of a group called the Vardotrio. Since trio is in the name, it makes sense that there’s three of them. The third member was Dreadnaught.”

That got reactions from most people in the room. Slingshot, Orcus, and Voidling already knew, so they barely responded. But there were a few chairs pushed back as everyone turned to face me.

“You’re kidding.” Wall Walker said at the same time Satellite went. “What the shit?

Voidling gave Satellite a disapproving clout on the back of his helmet as I shrugged.

“It’s true.” Slingshot said.

“You were there?” Risk checked. Slingshot nodded. Risk scratched the back of his head. “Well, that’s an enforcer and a half. Toil’s gonna freak.”

“Greenflame made Dreadnaught sit on Queue’s shoulders.” I added, then gave another shrug. “Which could be seen as funny from some perspectives.”

Risk shook his head. “No, I think that was a calculated move. Dreadnaught has a field that negates powers. It‘s very short ranged, so it isn’t all that noticeable. But that’s the reason any enforcer that goes toe to toe with Dreadnaught loses. If he was sitting on Queue’s shoulder, then Queue’s Smart power would have been suspended.”

My eyebrows raised under my mask and the other Sentrys in the room each reacted in their own little ways. Collage’s smile faltered, Satellite hummed to himself, and Slingshot drifted back without moving. Unshaken didn’t react.

“So, yeah.” Risk continued. “Don’t engage Dreadnaught if you see him. Not without tremendous backup.”

“Noted.” Collage answered, seriously for once. “I’ll pass it on.”

I didn’t have anything else to add regarding what I saw, so I looked to Orcus. I didn’t want to mention Waterlad’s involvement.

The grey man waited several moments. No one said anything.

“Moving on, then.” He pressed a button and the images were replaced by a map of Graceland. “So far this week, the Entrepreneurs and their shell gangs have been quiet if you ignore the incident we just covered. I have little doubt this was in preparation for welcoming Greenflame to Graceland.”

A red dot indicated where the incident occurred.

“Also this week so far, the Courtesans have been quite active. Two altercations with the Gray Apostles and one with the Heroes of Yesterday.” He pressed a button and three Cs appeared on the map, all near the lake. Two were grey and one was white. “None of these incidents involved any supervillains. They were either drug deals that were interrupted, or a bust in the case of this one.” One of the grey Cs was circled.

“These are just the incidents that have been reported on.” Collage told the room. “The police have more, but we couldn’t secure their information in time for the meeting.”

Orcus said. “Thank you Collage.” Then pressed a button causing a circled blue B to appear. “A hideout of the beastmasters.” He explained.

Voidling picked up the explanation. “That was a civilian tip. Somehow, they got wind that we were approaching and vacated before the Regulation agents were able to mobilize. But they left behind some evidence that ended up being useful.”

“What’s that?” Risk asked.

“They have acquired a new member. From the evidence gathered, we have deduced that he has decided on the name ‘Bad Valentine’.”

A decent name, I supposed. Risk and Wall Walker were whispering to each other.

“Powers?” Wall Walker asked, breaking away from the whispers.

Orcus explained. “Glass related. Disrupter, most likely. From Voidling’s account there was a lot of broken glass in strange shapes scattered about, but none of the windows were broken. Given the reputation of the Beastmasters, we’re assuming Altered.”

“We sent a dossier to Toil and Instinct the day before Greenflame showed up.” Voidling tacked on.

“Gotcha, it must have been buried somewhere in his desk.” Risk said. “I’ll find it when we get back.”

Orcus continued. “Finally, Duke of Intent and Lake Lady have not been sighted at all this week, while Sleepwalker has been active, they have not launched any assaults on the Courtesans.”

“Matter of time.” Unshaken muttered.

“Now. The reason you came here.” Orcus said to Wall Walker and Risk.

Wall Walker stood and Orcus found a seat. He turned and faced the room.

“So, I was attacked earlier today.” He started. “I was on patrol when I was attacked by three villains. Spinnerette, Prism, and…” He paused. “Waterlad.”

The room tensed. Lucidity shrank in her chair while Collage and Unshaken stilled. Slingshot looked back at me, but I kept looking at Wall Walker. I was waiting to hear what he said next.

Wall Walker continued. “They launched a surprise attack and I nearly didn’t get away. They were yelling that I had killed a ‘her’ the entire time, but didn’t specify who. They were emotional, which is the only reason I got away without injury.” He sighed heavily. “Which also made me think they were being genuine, so I called Risk and we started investigating. We found Clothesline’s body and delivered it here thirty minutes ago.”