There were a lot of people running around with shopping bags. Not so much that there was a stampede, but enough that anyone with a brain could pick up on the sense of alarm. It made it difficult for me to make my way after Voidling, as having to wade through the tide of people made it slow going. After half a minute of pushing my way upstream, the flow of people ceased, and I tried to get some speed by sliding. The power faded after half a step and I nearly tripped as friction reasserted itself.

I looked down. The floor was tiled, I’d have to reactivate the power on each one. Not worth it. I just ran like a normal person to catch up to Voidling. The fact that I was only moving as fast as my physical limits allowed really ticked me off. That meant I was losing my sense of normalcy.

Then again, I had control over physics. What the hell even classified as normal? Anyway, Cloud.

Voidling was standing partially in the mist, but not so far in that visibility was limited. He looked over his shoulder as I approached. If he had any comments, he didn’t voice them. He just gestured with his hand that he was moving forward, then followed through with the gesture and I stuck close behind.

The experience of carefully making my way through a mall obscured by mists so thick that I couldn’t see either of the walls was reminiscent of a movie I’d seen a few years back. In that one, creatures had been in the mists. Deadly ones. I was hoping nothing Theta class had teamed up with the Racketeers in the short time since I’d last seen them.

Occasionally we’d pass a sign or a stall. Eventually the stall became tables and chairs, telling us we were in the food court.

A dark figure appeared in the mist. I tapped Voidling and pointed, he rounded and stood side on to the figure, taking a stance reminiscent of a fencer. One of his hands was raised and wreathed in black energy that wound around his arm, travelling all the way from his shoulder and back.

“Identify yourself!” Voidling commanded with a volume I didn’t know he possessed.

The figure slouched, then raised its arms in a surrendering gesture.

“It’s Unshaken!” They called back, the sound of them shouting was muffled. “I’ve got Lucidity here too!”

“This is Voidling and Lock!” Voidling called back. “Have you encountered any villains!?”

“Negative!” Unshaken’s muffled shout responded. “You!?”

“The same!” Voidling tapped me on the shoulder and moved towards Unshaken with me in tow. His power had dissipated when Unshaken first spoke.

We walked for like, two seconds before Unshaken and Lucidity were right in front of us. They’d been having that shouting conversation and they were that far apart.

“Lucidity,” Voidling addressed the Sentry as soon as she was clear enough to see. “Can you try making a cloud dispersal device?”

“Um.” Lucidity scratched the back of her head. “I can try.” Then she fell backwards and was gone, leaving swirling mist behind.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Unshaken said. “This is the second time they’ve hit the downtown area in as many days. That wasn’t the pattern they were going by before. Did you guys see any evidence of a fight?”

“No.” I responded. This was probably cover to deliver the Vphone to me, but I wasn’t about to mention that.

“So why?” Unshaken asked.

“When we have visibility, we’ll know more.” Voidling said.

On cue, Lucidity climbed through the floor and hefted a hand held fan to this side of reality. She crouched next to it and pushed a button, but nothing happened. Lucidity humphed, and hit it. The fan spun once, then drifted to a stop.

“Is that powered by electricity?” I asked, recalling the conversation about the villain detector. I was about to ask her to make a villain detector, but she’d already had an ‘aha!’ moment and vanished back into the floor.

“Good thinking.” Voidling commented.

“It’s come up before.” I explained, earning a questioning look from Unshaken. I looked away, not knowing how to respond to the attention.

Please stop looking at me. Please stop looking at me.

Thankfully Lucidity returned with another fan, now powered by friendship, I assumed. That rescued me from the spotlight that was Unshaken’s attention. This time when Lucidity pressed the button, the fan immediately whirred to life. The effect was immediate, pushing the cloud away from where we stood and pulling clean air from somewhere, increasing the visibility around us with each passing second.

“Do you think you can make a villain detector?” I asked Lucidity once the fan had started working.

Lucidity’s fist landed in an open palm. “That’s a really good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

It was your idea… I thought weakly as she vanished into the floor once again.

“A villain detector?” Unshaken asked incredulously.

Damnit. Not again. “When the Racketeers assaulted the SRT, Lucidity was teamed with me to get me to safety.” I started explaining, pointedly looking anywhere but Unshaken. “She made it to try and avoid the villains, but we got trapped anyway.”

“Because there weren’t any villains in the elevator.” Unshaken realised. I couldn’t bring myself to correct her.

Voidling went to Lucidity the moment she popped back up and looked at the villain detector. There was a quick discourse between the two before the Sentinel turned to us.

“No villains in the area.” He told us shortly.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Unshaken repeated.

“Mm.” I agreed.

Voidling’s hand went to his transmitter. “This is Voidling. What’s the ETA on police assistance?”

I was worried there was still too much cloud for the signal to penetrate, but a response was forthcoming, if crackly. “-Ten minutes.” was all I made out when I switched to the channel they were using.

“Thanks. Out.” Voidling turned to us and I switched back. “Pick an exit and guard it. No civilians are to enter the area where Cloud’s power permeated. I’m going to evacuate anyone that decided to hide instead of run. Wait until other authorities appear and relieve you. Is that understood?”

There was a chorus of noncommittal positives. I was the only one that just said yes. A hand went to my mask as I attempted to facepalm.

“Then go.” Voidling told us, stronger than before. An extra push to get us moving. I walked back the way I came while Unshaken and Lucidity had a quick argument over which way they were going to guard.

~~~

“It doesn’t make any goddamn sense.” Unshaken repeated. That was what, the seventeenth time she said that?

Wait a second, why was I counting?

“But the officer said that was all.” Lucidity pointed out. It was late now, we were walking back to the SRT to get out of costume and go home. Voidling had stayed behind to coordinate with the police.

“But the officer said that was all.” Unshaken mimicked in a falsetto voice. “There’s no fucking way that was all.”

We had stood guard until some police officers came and cordoned off the parts of the mall Cloud had obscured. After that we stuck around, maintaining a strong presence while the detectives carried out their work. Store owners were identified and questioned. There were overturned chairs, but that had just been people trying to get out when the cloud started forming. Witness accounts said that the cloud started spreading from the floor above the food court, but no one saw exactly where from.

Unsurprisingly, the security cameras was useless. The hard drives were undamaged, but they weren’t recording. The guards that were responsible for that were clueless as to why that was. It wasn’t something they were qualified to meddle with, they just watched and reported. I had no idea how any of the Racketeers had pulled that one off. It was something that had Voidling scratching his head about as well, they just didn’t have anything like that in their powerset.

“You’re right.” I agreed without looking at Unshaken. “There’s an unknown in play. It won’t make sense unless we figure it out.”

For the sake of authenticity I was talking about the thing with the cameras. Unshaken was grasping at the whole reason why the incident happened, which rested underneath the transceiver box in my pocket.

“But really, clothes?” Unshaken uttered the word with more disdain than I thought possible.

The police had let the store employees back in after being questioned so they could tend to their shops. Shortly after that they came back to the detectives claiming that items were missing. In total, several racks of clothes were gone from multiple clothing stores, a screen and a console from the tech shop, some swimming gear, some kitchenware, and a lot of sushi was missing.

Their cover was shoplifting. I didn’t miss Waterlad’s ‘hello’ and I don’t think Unshaken did, either.

“Maybe they were cold.” Lucidity seriously suggested. Unshaken spluttered at that.

“I don’t think so.” I said before Unshaken could say something worse. “It’s summer. But they are villains, maybe they needed to stock up on supplies.”

“I thought you were competent until you said that.” Unshaken told me straight. I blinked as my heart went numb. “The Entrepreneurs have a shit tonne of money that they throw around. It’s how they afford the PA. The Racketeers make bank.”

“It’s why Andrew left.” Lucidity added brightly.

“Don’t,” Unshaken grabbed Lucidity’s arm and pulled it up as the smaller girl yelped, “say that name.” She snarled.

Lucidity’s feet were kicking, only brushing against the ground. “Ow ow ow I’m sorry ow ow.”

Unshaken dropped Lucidity, who fell through the floor. On purpose or by accident, I couldn’t tell. Then I looked up and saw Unshaken glaring at me.

“I’m not going to say anything.” I non-aggressively raised my hands. “I wasn’t exactly raised here, so I didn’t know the Racketeers were paid so much.”

Unshaken grunted and stalked ahead. I stuck around until Lucidity came back up, seemingly okay. I hadn’t seen her arm after Unshaken released it, but Lucidity was in her dreamspace for almost a minute. Usually she came back straight away. I remembered how Collage had poked fun at Unshaken for dislocating several people’s arms, and I made sure Lucidity was fine before we moved to catch up with the staunch heroine.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Unshaken muttered when we caught up to her.

Eighteen. I thought to myself. For some reason I got the impression that she wasn’t talking about the mall anymore.

~~~

I elected to walk home once I was out of costume. The incident at the Mall had kept us out late, and Slingshot had already retired for the day, so Lucidity’s excursion to Greasy Pete’s was cancelled. She followed me to the secret exit in the carpark, but stayed behind. Apparently she had the night shift.

That was fine by me. I got out my Vphone and unlocked it. Then I paused, and put it away. Normally when I was done with being a Sentry, I would call Kathrine and tell her when I was due home. Tonight, however, I had things I needed to do.

I pulled out the other phone, navigated to the one message on it, and pressed the phone icon in the top right. It rung.

...

It kept ringing.

...

It kept ringing.

...

“Hello, this is Sundown Laundry Services. How may I help you?” A male voice came through the line. It sounded familiar, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I couldn’t place it.

The bright method of answering the phone caught me off guard. I didn’t respond right away.

“Can we cut the shit?” I asked testily. “No contractor takes a call that brightly at this hour.”

“But it’s still bright outside,” The voice on the other end said playfully. They were putting on an effect that all good phone operators used. “So we should be bright as well. You should know that we won’t take any meetings during daylight hours.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I need a meeting as soon as possible.”

“Who with?”

I said, “Andrew.”

“Well it seems you’re in luck.” The voice responded chipperly, confirming I was talking to a Racketeer. “I have Andrew’s schedule right in front of me and it seem, he’s,” There was the sound of shifting paper. “available. How lucky! Is there a region you would prefer to have this meeting in?”

“Downtown.” I immediately said.

“We’ll send you a specific address.” He informed me. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Yeah, Waterlad?”

“Yes?” Then immediately in his normal voice. “Shit.”

“None of this laundry services bullshit next time. It feels like you’re making a bad joke at Clothesline’s expense.”

“I thought it was on brand, but okay.” He unrepentantly rattled off. “If there’s a next time, I’ll do something else.”

If. I’d gone and talked like I assumed this was going to be a recurring thing. I shook myself and refocused.

“Give me the location and I’ll start heading over.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Waterlad paused. “This is some serious shit, Lock. Shit’s on fire, yo.”

I let silence hang for a bit. I didn’t miss that he specifically said fire.

“It’s why I’m even considering talking to you again.” I said at length. “But let’s hash it out in person.”

“Let’s.” Waterlad agreed. “Talk to you soon.” He ended the call.

A dozen seconds later the phone buzzed with its second message ever, an address that wasn’t too far away and instructions that the meeting was going to happen in the alley and not around it.

I made it there after ten minutes of walking and cased the joint. It was far enough away from downtown that not every building was a skyscraper, but one of the buildings bordering the alley Waterlad had specified was an attempt at one. It was an apartment building, went up six floors, and had an external fire escape that came down to the alley. On the other side was a shop that was closed given the hour.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I wasn’t about to approach the alley on the street, that would have been insanely stupid. Ideally, I would get to a vantage point and wait for Waterlad to show himself, then only meeting with him after confirming there weren’t any obvious threats. It was an incredibly cautious notion, a kind I hadn’t really entertained before. I wasn’t sure if I should put that down to nerves, or the fact that I was operating for the first time without oversight or companions.

The first step was to gain access to the apartment building and then get to the fire escape. The shop wasn’t appealing, I couldn’t enter it without either breaking something or seeming really suspicious in ten thousand other ways. The apartment building had people coming and going from it frequently enough that I wouldn’t be looked at twice if I went in through there.

The apartment building had glass doors, so I waited for someone to step out of the elevators from inside and started moving towards it. When they left, I entered. I went straight to an elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. From there I looked for a fire exit, and quickly found one. Before I stepped out onto the fire escape I activated my mask, then instead of going down, I went up and onto the roof of the building. Thankfully, the fire escape let me do that.

It was loud on top of the building. It was in part thanks to the wind, but more so the massive air vents that were constantly blowing. There was a portion of grime where the air that was vented from the building had built up over time. As soon as I was out of the fire escape I turned around and started looking for anyone with a black trident on the street.

“Oi,” A voice pierced the constant rumbling of the machines. “I said in the alley, not next to it.”

Alarm ran through me as I whirled to see Waterlad sitting against a wall of the roof. He gave a half wave. His hat and goggles were off, revealing his face to me. I was surprised by how different it was to how I thought he looked, those two accessories did more than I realised. His trident was leaned against the wall next to him, which I eyed warily.

“Seems you had the same idea as me.” I commented as he followed my eyeline.

Waterlad unceremoniously kicked the trident away and started standing up. “Can’t be too careful. Even with us extending hesitant ceasefires to each other, it was stupid of you to come here without a weapon.”

“Yes.” I agreed sarcastically. “My physical weapon that is very useful in every situation.”

“You didn’t know what you were walking into.” Waterlad shrugged.

“Can we skip the criticisms?” I asked. “I’ve had just about enough of that after agreeing to help you pull the shit you did.”

“Zephyr?” He chuckled. “Yeah, I can see that. You’re basically a second me if you came clean about that.”

That was a good point. Zephyr’s treatment of me had taken a turn for the worse after hearing about my involvement with Waterlad. But that wasn’t why we were here.

“Be on your guard.” Waterlad continued before I could get a word in. “If Queue turns his attention to you now, he’ll have some fine leverage to lift you from the Sentry.”

“Is that what he did to you?” I asked, more out of reflex than anything.

“Yeah. But that’s not why we’re here.” He followed my line of thought almost exactly. “Clothesline.”

I asked, “Did you see the body?” An uneasy feeling was rising in me with the turn in topic.

“I did.” Waterlad said with a nod. He didn’t raise his head after it went down. “I wasn’t the closest with Hayley, but that level of brutality doesn’t have a place in this game we play.”

There were several things I wanted to ask. Several points I wanted to address. Things that, if asked, would help us narrow down who did it, how they did it, and why they did it. And there was the fact that that Waterlad just called this a game. That was a gross misrepresentation of the situation in Graceland, even before the murder.

Instead I asked, “Did she die because of the leg?” My voice almost caught several times.

Waterlad’s response wasn’t immediate. He lifted his head and looked me in the eye. “I think so, yes.”

It was like I got punched sideways again as I registered his words. The world tilted and even though my power told me everything was normal, that I was standing upright, and that my skin was keeping just as good a hold on me as it always did, my perception dimmed. The feeling that was rising suddenly dropped. Vertigo. More strong than when I felt Lucidity’s gloves grow. I nearly fell over.

“Oh.” I said.

I needed something to focus on. My piercing. I focused on the glass stud and analysed it for all it was worth. I noted the force of wind on it, and how it was keeping the thing a fraction of a millimeter away from where it normally rested. When I returned my attention to Waterlad- No. Andrew, he was out of costume. Andrew was eyeing me with a calculating expression.

“That’s enough to convince me.” He said, taking me off guard. “You know, you’re one of the most human transhumans I’ve seen.”

“Huh?”

“That reaction, the realisation, the fact that you’re still off kilter.” Andrew ticked off each point on his hand. “You were holding out hope that it wasn’t you, but it was. You’re not sure how to react. It’s a very human reaction.”

I swallowed. “To be fair, I had already admitted to breaking her leg.”

“Oh?”

I took a moment and refocused using my piercing again. “So what’s the purpose of this meeting? How much are we sharing?”

“All of it, ideally.” Andrew said. “I’ll share my part first, because that’s the order things happened in. I was one of the last to see her.”

“Sounds-” My voice caught so I just gave him a thumbs up.

Andrew started explaining, “It started with Greenflame visiting us. She knew where we were staying, and the system we used to identify friends or foes. She offered them one word wishes, and two people accepted.”

“Who?” I furrowed my eyebrows as I comprehended that Greenflame was still an active element. I already knew she was in Graceland, but this was making me start to respect that fact.

“Junk Mail and Clothesline.” He paused. “Hayley, I mean.”

“What did they wish for?”

“Money for Junk Mail. Hayley wished for love.”

“Love?”

“I was as confused as you.” Andrew told me. “Apparently Greenflame’s ability moved Hayley across the room, next to Spinnerette. That’s all it did.”

“That one seems cut and dry.” I commented. Andrew raised his eyebrows, so I continued. “Ask for love, put them next to someone that loves them. Maybe her power has the ability to make someone love artificially, it’s not like that’s an exclusive power.”

Andrew thought for a moment. “Right. Collage.”

“Collage.” I repeated grimly. “And what of the money wish?”

Andrew shrugged. “A credit card. It hasn’t been declined yet.”

“Worrying.” I murmured. That was a whole different playing field to the one we were normally on as supervillains and superheroes. One that muddled in the lives of civilians and businesses. Way outside of my ballpark.

Andrew continued, “After granting those wishes she vanished the same way she did from the meeting we spied on. That’s when I got back. I found Hayley paralyzed by one of N- Spinnerette’s spiders. She would have attacked Greenflame otherwise, or something.” Andrew shook his head. “Anyway, then we got advanced warning a hero had found the safe house and torched the joint. That’s where I fucked up.”

“Hold on,” I held a hand up before he could get into the specifics of how he fucked up, which I was very interested in. “A hero found your safe house?”

I had heard of a house getting burned down recently. The date matched with Andrew’s story, but there hadn’t been any hero involvement. I would have known if there was. That was something to look into if I got the chance and was able.

“Yeah, Satellite.” Andrew told me, then frowned. “Didn’t he tell you?”

“No. And we’ve had an early debrief because of the crap you’ve been pulling.” I rebuked. “It should have come up, that’s suspicious as hell.”

Andrew sighed, “Honestly, I wanted to go after Satellite first, but there hasn’t been a good opportunity.”

“Let’s refocus.” I decided. “You torched the safe house.” In the interest of keeping the conversation going smoothly, I deigned not to rub salt in the wound and specifically mention him fucking up.

“Right.” He nodded. “I told Spinnerette to fix Hayley while I got Cloud out of the house and started the fire. I should have picked Hayley up because she was still sluggish and her leg was healing, but I didn’t because Spinnerette seemed to have it under control. Then the house came down with Hayley still inside. She pushed Spinnerette out, but dodged back inside. Her leg broke again when she was leaving and got trapped.”

I tried to recall where the house that burned down was. “That doesn’t match up.” I felt confident saying that because the house had been residential, while Clothesline had been found in an alley. And what was that about her leg breaking again?

“No, it doesn’t.” Andrew agreed. “It’s why I’m not entirely certain Satellite was the one that did it. I didn’t even see Satellite, by the way. I left before he showed up.”

“You just left Clothesline in a burning building?” I asked incredulously.

Andrew hand waved the notion. “A hero was coming. If things went by the book, Hayley would have been rescued and arrested, then teleported out when we told Boss that she needed extraction. Standard procedure.”

He breathed a heavy sigh.

“Instead we were the ones that got a call from Boss, asking us why one of his marks had disappeared.”

“Marks?” I asked.

“Boss marks people.” Andrew explained. “He needs to have a mark on someone to teleport them. Didn’t you know?”

“No one tells me shit.” I said bitterly. “This mark, what does it look like?”

Andrew pulled his shirt up, revealing his abs which he gestured to like a salesperson to a good sale, then he pointed to a mark on the left side of his chest. There was a stylised f there, exactly like the patch that Muffle wore on his back, but without the negation sign.

“It’s the mark of any Employee.” Andrew stated. “There’s one on each of us. Comes with signing the contract.”

“Can I touch it?” I asked, more out of curiosity than anything.

Andrew gasped and raised a hand to his cheek. “Lock! With a villain? What if someone saw?”

“I just want to test something.” I deadpanned.

“Chill.” Andrew laughed. “Go ahead.”

I touched the mark and immediately withdrew.

“My bod too hot for you?” Andrew asked amusedly, reminding me of Collage.

“No.” I replied shortly. “It just felt weird.”

“Really? It feels like skin when I touch it.”

I shook my head. That wasn’t what I meant, what really felt weird was Andrew. Normally when I touched someone I felt all of them, but when I touched Andrew I barely felt anything at all. In fact, I could only sense the part of him that I touched. Instead of having my senses expand as per usual, I only sensed as far as the molecules on my fingertips.

My power worked strangely on water and gas. I still sensed those things, but my power didn’t travel through them. It’s why I couldn’t tell much from the way the wind moved, but was able to predict the Thunder back in Greenflame’s welcoming party. Andrew felt exactly like water. Which was fitting, given his moniker was Waterlad.

I didn’t learn anything about Boss’ mark though, which I lamented.

“Anyway,” I shifted my thoughts back to the matter at hand. “After you got the call you went and took your anger out on the nearest hero?”

“Yeah.” Andrew dropped his shirt back down. “Mostly it was Spinnerette who needed to vent, Prism and I only came along to keep an eye out. Make sure she didn’t get in a losing battle. That was the only emotional hit though, Spinnerette got her head back on after that. The rest have been mediated since.”

That was interesting. “How so?”

Andrew gave a one shoulder shrug. “Queue apparently had a number of jobs he wanted to pull and this motivation came at an opportune time.”

I recalled the hits the Racketeers had pulled since Clotheslines… demise. “Hold on. What was the purpose of chasing Channel down the street then?”

“Interference.” Andrew answered. “They were running some business on Entrepreneur turf. That’s a nono. The prospective buyers are Entrepreneur clients now.”

“What about the attacks on the heroes?”

Andrew explained, “For Fear and Method that was a distraction while the Handiemen stole their archives. The attack on Forsaken was needed to steal a weapon from his collection. We pulled a flail. Very scary.”

I recalled what I could of Forsaken. He was a techo of sorts. He couldn’t match the know how of someone like Impulse, who made incredibly complicated machines and traps. His proficiency lay in making weapons, each of which seemed to have an individual power. Off the top of my head, he had a spear that could alter the ground and a sword that produced moving force fields when swung. I didn’t know anything about a flail.

Though, speaking of Impulse. “What about Impulse?”

“Trash the adept’s workshop and steal their stuff, same as Gizumo.” Andrew answered shortly. “Rising Sun haven’t been too happy since then, given how shortly we did it after welcoming Greenflame.” He paused. “Personally, I think Greenflame is setting up to unseat Boss as the kingpin of Graceland.”

“That’s a claim.” I commented, but I didn’t disagree. The pieces were there and they kind of fit.

“How are things on your end?” Andrew asked.

I considered the facts. “Risk is leading the investigation, and has interviewed everyone on the Sentry and Sentinel roster. I don’t know if he’s questioned heroes of the other teams, but I think he’s put everyone with disrupter powers on the suspect list.”

Andrew shook his head. “That’s dumb. An enforcer could have killed her just as easily. A monarch or a whisper could have done it with a little more effort.”

I nodded, suddenly feeling vertigo again.

“What else?”

“Uh, the Sentry is scrambled. We’re trying to react to what you guys are doing, but it’s reactionary. Not effective at all. Given that you can extract at will I’m not expecting that to change.” Andrew nodded in agreement. “Oh, and Risk shared two predictions for the outcome of this whole thing. They’re grim.”

“I wasn’t expecting anything different. Do tell.”

“The most certain outcome has at least three more people dead when everything is said and done.” I stumbled through the words. “The second outcome has four.”

Andrew blinked. “Who?”

I took a breath to steady myself. “For the first one, Satellite, Unshaken, and myself. For the second, include Lucidity in that crowd.”

“I’ll kill anyone that hurts Lucidity.” Andrew said coldly.

That took me off guard. “Risk is working on changing the numbers.” I supplemented. “At the time there was a thirty percent chance of anything else happening.”

Andrew relaxed, if only a little.

I was still tense. “I wish I had more for you.”

“No, that’s plenty.” He said with a shake of his head. “You aren’t heading the investigation since you’re a suspect, that’s not going to change.”

“Still, I want to do something.”

“What are you going to do when you find the killer?” Andrew asked pointedly.

“I’ll-” My stomach dropped. “I’ll arrest them.”

“No.” Andrew shook his head. “It’s that human side of yours coming through again. Whenever the fact that Clothesline died comes up, you blanch. You feel that? It’s not showing in your face, but I can clearly see it anyway. What’s the matter Lock? Can’t handle a little death?”

Something about the question snapped my baseline back to normal.

“I can handle death. I’ve been around more of it that you think.” The sunlit city briefly intruded in my thoughts. I banished it before it could get a foothold. “Horrible, senseless, inevitable death. But this is different.”

My baseline shifted again, upsetting my momentum.

“This was mediated.” I continued. “Motivated. Someone wanted to do this. That’s what I can’t comprehend. It’s what’s throwing me.”

Andrew gave me a long and calculating look. “I suppose everyone got a little fucked up manifesting. I’m curious, but I won’t pry. Kind of against the rules, and that’s not why we’re here.”

“Thanks.” I said. “But what’s left to do? I didn’t contribute as much as I would have liked, and from what you’ve told me the Sentinels haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s really going on. What’s more, it doesn’t feel like we really have a plan of action. Clothesline- Hayley’s murderer is still at large.”

Andrew tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe you can help run damage control. We’re going to be hitting the Courtesans tomorrow in their home turf. There’s a warehouse close to the lake that Queue thinks holds a large portion of their supply and we’re going to take it from them.”

“When you say take…” I invited him to explain.

“I mean we’re going to brutally take down any Courtesan that doesn’t run. The contents of that Warehouse is going to be property of the Entrepreneurs within the next twenty four hours. It’s not just us Racketeers as well, Queue’s bringing out the Private Army for this one. The Courtesans are bringing in a shipment tomorrow because they think we’re winding down. That’s what today was really about.”

“Oh.” That meant I’d been wrong about the mall. “Where’s the warehouse and how will I know?”

“About halfway between King street and the dam, near Beastmaster territory.” Andrew answered. “Can’t remember the exact address off the top of my head. The Private Army is involved, so there’s going to be gunfire. Follow the sound of expensive pops.”

I hummed. My costume would provide protection, but Charlotte’s warning echoed in my mind. “Second question: how do you know so many details?”

“Because it’s a big operation. Queue had us all briefed days ago, or he briefed me and I passed it on. With pictures.”

I tucked that information away. Waterlad, when in costume, was the de facto leader of the Racketeers.

I told Andrew, “I’ll do what I can. But Zephyr will get more suspicious if I push to go to the warehouse before anything happens. I might not be able to do anything at all.”

“Say you have a bad feeling.” Andrew gestured dismissively. “Heroes can say that all the time and no one will think twice.”

“Am I really a hero, though?” I wondered aloud. It was more me thinking out loud than a question. “Ignore that. Pointless thought. Third and final question: why?”

“You’re gonna need to be specific about exactly what.”

“Why extend this olive branch?” I specified. “Catching a killer is all well and good, but this thing with the Courtesans is a separate issue. Giving me a tip that you guys are going to hit a warehouse strikes me as counterproductive.”

Andrew was quiet for a bit, thinking.

I glanced away and saw the sky had gone red and orange. “Actually, I’m just going to take the gift horse. I need to go now, got dinner to catch.”

Andrew nodded. “Bring a weapon next time.”

“I did.” I replied, tossing the Vphone the spider delivered into the air then catching it.

“Hey now, I put effort into getting that to you.” Andrew pointed at me indignantly.

“It cost you all of five dollars.” I rebuked. “And I could get two or three good throws out of this thing before it breaks. Also, leave in five minutes. I’m going first.”

Andrew picked up his trident and leaned against it, one of the pointy bits went into his head. “Bye.”

I didn’t respond and started leaving the way I came. When I put my hand on the side of the building, my power pulled the entirety of the building into focus and I noticed something weird. On the other side of the AC units were several tiny points of pressure, each grouped in sets of four- No, eight. They were in circles. Now that I realised what they were, I was noticing more and more such circles. On the sides of the building and generally anywhere that was just out of sight.

Then it clicked. Spiders. Lots of them. Spinnerette had delivered the phone to me and there was a human sized weight behind the door that was supposed to lend access to the roof. I finished getting onto the fire escape and turned back to Andrew. My sense of the building vanished as I pulled my fingers away.

“Waterlad.” I said, pointing at the door. “Is Spinnerette cool with us meeting?” I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea, since she and Hayley had apparently been in love. That meant she was liable to make dumb decisions.

Then again, most people were. But this was a special case.

Andrew’s demeanor shifted when he realised what I was telling him. “Shit. She’s cool, just...” He searched for the right words. “She’s on our side. I’ll convince her that you’re here to help.”

I wasn’t sold on that idea, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Andrew knew Spinnerette better than me, and if this shaky alliance was going to bear any fruit, I needed to let him deal with his own team. That was his area.

“I’ll let you know if anything comes up.” I told him and descended the fire escape.

Before I left, I put a hand on the wall and felt that the weight had shifted from the door to be next to Andrew. I could feel sound vibrations up there, but I couldn’t comprehend them. As I dropped the rest of the way off the fire escape and turned the mask off, I mused on how useful it would be to be able to listen through my power.

Then I called Kathrine, who chastised me for staying out so late with the Racketeers being so active, then told me dinner was lasagna. I then went home and ate lasagna a little later than everyone else. When the others went to sleep I told Sofiya about my escapades as a hero, but left everything about Waterlad out. I went to bed early.

As exhausted as I was, I didn’t get much sleep.