I was so monumentally fucked in this moment. There were four supervillains on one side of me, and another supervillain that was playing the villains of Graceland against each other on my other side. It was a battle to keep my face straight, and I was pretty sure I was failing.

Greenflame thankfully stepped past us without addressing either of us. I gave Nathan a concerned look, only to meet his confused one. There wasn’t anything I could say that wouldn’t blow my cover, so I didn’t say anything and watched the meeting of Greenflame and the Beastmasters.

There had been something in the air as Greenflame went by. A certain… it was difficult to describe. The air she pushed out of her way had been excited as it made contact with my skin. It wasn’t like heat or sound, but it also didn’t feel like a standard force or vibration. I put it down to her power fucking with the area around her.

Another person stepped through the portal before it shimmered and faded. He was a shorter guy, probably a year or two older than me. Around the age where people started getting ready for graduating high school. The hood concealed most of his features, but from the smoothness of his chin, the way he carried himself, and the situation we were in, it was easy to tell both his lack of maturity and where his loyalties lay. I wondered who he was. Patrol Officer, maybe? It was strange that he would show himself like this.

Looking back in the direction of the supervillains meant I noticed Channel still staring at me. I clenched my fists in my pockets and stared at the back of Greenflame’s head, waiting for one of the villains to start talking.

The man representing Jackal stood and traced his fingers along the edge of the table as he started making his way around. His fingers dropped from the surface of the table and went to the backs of Bad Valentine and Channel’s chairs. The male supervillain clenched his fist as the fingers inevitably made contact with the back of his shirt. Channel shivered and broke away from staring at me.

Greenflame looked as the man stood before her, far closer than most people would, completely disregarding the concept of personal space. The man in the Jackal mask reached out with one hand and pulled a chair out. He gestured for Greenflame to sit.

He certainly had the composure of someone in charge of a group of supervillains. I wasn’t sure whether or not to put that down to an unknown facet of Jackal’s power that let him appear normal, or to contribute it to this man being the only thing between safety and Jackal’s wrath.

“Well that’s a little rude.” Greenflame commented, sitting like she’d been told.

“I am displaying self control as a sign of respect.” The man in the Jackal mask said as he slowly paced back to his side of the table. “The services you sell are impressive, and you have the backers to show for it. You have used this reputation to pull us around when we could have concluded our arrangement long ago.”

“What you must understand,” Greenflame spoke confidently. “Is that I cannot favour one client more than any other. In this case, that requires me to offer you the deal I offered another client, with no leeway as to the interpretation.”

“This requires a neutral party?”

“One that is free to make their own decisions, yes.”

Nathan gulped. They were talking about him.

“We got the perfect guy for you.” Rainbowfish said. “Fits all the criteria, as you listed them. With the brown hair, the brown eyes, the slightly brown skin-”

“Dreadnaught.” Greenflame flicked her hand towards Rainbowfish. The hooded boy Greenflame brought along stepped over to Rainbowfish and placed a hand softly on his shoulder.

Rainbowfish glanced up at the hooded guy. “Did she just say Dreadnaught?”

“She did.” The boy who was apparently the world’s strongest cat said without intonation.

“Oh…” Rainbowfish looked back to Greenflame, then Jackal. “I tried.”

“That is fine.” Jackal’s representative said, then addressed Greenflame. “But if you allowed yourself to believe a small tale, then your terms would have all been met.”

“But that would have been incredibly boring.” Greenflame smiled. “And you haven’t met the requirements of my services yet, you must still do one job for me. It will be for your benefit, not mine, and you will be including the third party in the plan.” Greenflame leaned her chair back and looked backwards until she was looking at us. “We already talked about that, but I thought you needed to know.”

Then her chair fell back to its original position with a clatter.

“So what’s the job?” Bad Valentine demanded. His voice dropped at weird moments, like something was in his throat. Given his power, there probably was. “Shakedown? Smash and Grab? Grand Theft Auto is always fun.”

“I was thinking of more of a grab and smash, coupled with grand humiliation for a certain group.” Greenflame explained. “You Beastmasters will choose one of your gifted to be the team leader, and you, Nathan, will be the lieutenant.”

“I- Hol-” Nathan took a moment to remember how to speak. “What?”

“The leader and the lieutenant can choose a small number of persons to take with them on the job. There can only be one gifted on the team. Are the rules understood?”

Nathan’s confused response was dwarfed by the Jackal Representative’s slamming of the table.

“You are dragging us along a pointless ride.” He snarled.

One of the lights flickered as electricity arced from it to Channel. The villain’s brown hair briefly rising, before settling in a neat shape. A thrumming sound permeated the room.

“Not pointless.” Greenflame wagged a finger, heedless of the implied threats. “Don’t you want the future? This is the price.”

“This and two hundred thousand dollars.” Bad Valentine jumped in. “I’m not even getting the wish, can we just hurry this along. I want to race tonight.”

Jackal’s representative glared at Bad Valentine, and the latter villain slumped forward. His face slammed against the table, two shards of glass jutting from his face impaled the table, stopping his nose from taking the brunt of the impact.

“Down, pet.” He told Channel, and the thrumming sound lowered until it was no more.

Yeah, this motherfucker was Jackal. The way he was in charge of these guys, and the way Bad Valentine had fallen asleep. That was a power at work, no doubt about it.

Jackal looked back to Greenflame. “What is the job?”

“You’re going to arm yourselves.” Greenflame explained. “Not with anything here. You’re going to go to a place and pick up a specific weapon. Then you’ll leave with the bounty, preferably without casualties. Does that sound doable?”

“Where is this place and what weapon is it?”

“Not so fast.” Greenflame swept out of her chair and traced her hand along the table much like Jackal had. She kept speaking as she took her time tracing the chairs the supervillains were sitting on.

“The process will go like this.” Her fingers traced along one of Channel’s wires. “You will pay me.” Her hand dropped from Channel’s other shoulder. “I will tell you the job.” Greenflame slowed down by Bad Valentine and showed fascination touching the tip of one of his shards. “You will complete the job.” She passed behind Jackal. “If you do the job well enough.” Greenflame reached Rainbowfish, her hand reaching towards his neck.

Rainbowfish’s hand caught Greenflame’s. “Mind the gills, will ya?”

Greenflame smiled and went around Dreadnaught, draping herself around the hooded teenager’s shoulders. She turned her attention to the leader of the Beastmasters. “Then, and only then, will you get your wish, Jackal.”

Jackal and Greenflame had a short staring contest, then the former turned his attention to us, the ‘non-powered’ people in the room. Nick gasped from behind me. I glanced back and saw his eyes were wide.

“Find Niel and tell him to bring the payment to me.” Jackal told him. “Don’t even try to skim off the top.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Nick joked shakily, then slunk away from the tense room. Nathan and I were left with no one to our backs. I knew there were enough people downstairs that running would only escalate the situation into something worse, so I put a hand on Nathan’s shoulder to stop him when he started to follow.

When he looked at me my expression was grim. I turned back to the supervillain meeting. Greenflame was moving towards us. I stepped back, not wanting to experience being near her again.

Greenflame paused with her hands out, then lowered them. “I apologise if I scared you, child. You might say your involvement in this is… out of my hands.”

“Don’t touch me.” I blurted, shoving my hands into my pockets. The situation galled me. I should have pulled Nathan back with me.

“Then I suppose Nathan will have to be the one.” Greenflame turned to the named boy and touched his face. Nathan didn’t know what to do. “Don’t be scared, you’ll return to your home unharmed tonight.”

“I didn’t even want to be here.” Nathan responded.

“Ah, but again. It is out of my hands.”

“Sure it is.” I blurted again.

Greenflame seemed surprised. “Oh?” When I didn’t elaborate she took a step towards me and I took another step back. I had my hands out of my pockets now to search for anything behind me. It would have been better to look around for a weapon, but I wasn’t taking my eyes off the supervillain. Thankfully, Greenflame only took the one step.

“Do not terrorise him.” Channel said, now standing. Her voice was a lot higher than I was expecting. She sounded younger than she looked.

Greenflame looked between Channel and me, teeth beginning to show through her smile. Meanwhile Rainbowfish let out a chuckle.

“Called it.”

Then Dreadnaught’s hand tightened on Rainbowfish’s shoulder and he shut up again. Greenflame seemed to have had enough of the situation between her, Channel, and myself, and returned to her chair.

“What a wonderful dynamic.” She spoke aloud to herself. I didn’t like that she kept commenting on things the rest of us didn’t know. Greenflame clearly had a Smart ability in her powerset. She had been the first one to name Nathan. If she could figure that one out, what else could she figure out?

Hopefully not my caped identity. Then I’d be even more fucked.

Jackal sat as well, gesturing at Channel to sit with him. Eventually Nick returned with another older, mechanic looking person. The other guy had a duffel bag that they put on the table by Greenflame at Jackal’s direction, then stood back from. Greenflame ignored the bag and reached her hand towards the mechanic.

“Thank you Niel.” She said.

Niel looked to Jackal, who nodded permission, then shook Greenflame’s hand. After the handshake, he walked back out of the room. Greenflame sat in her chair and looked at Jackal.

“The money is all there.” Jackal said.

“I know.” Greenflame responded, sounding a little bored. “I’ll have Dreadnaught carry it, and yadda, yadda. I was considering the exact words I should use to describe this job I want you to do for me.”

Jackal tilted his head a little and waited. Bad Valentine jolted awake after a few moments and went to say something, but stopped when Jackal gestured at him. He swallowed and looked around the room, taking in what had changed while he was out.

“You’re looking for a medieval weapon.” Greenflame said at length. “You are aware of the fatalist church in Duncan?” Jackal nodded. “Well would you believe it, it’s actually a front!” Greenflame flourished her hands at the revelation. “A certain smarmy gang has been using it as a place to store their ill gotten gains. If the Courtesans make you uneasy, you can rest easy because they don’t store their people there. It is a place for money and treasure.”

“Treasure like a medieval weapon?” Jackal spoke carefully as he uttered ‘medieval weapon’.

“Amongst other things.” Greenflame nodded. “But what you’re looking for is the weapon that’s four centuries out of date. I’ll give you thirty six hours to get it. You get that, you return to me, and you get your wish. As per the terms of the agreement, the one that executes the job does not get to make a wish.”

Meaning whoever did what she was asking wouldn’t get to make the wish. Jackal couldn’t be the one do it.

“I see.” Jackal stood again and paced to a window in the room showing the warehouse below.

“Can I be the one th-” Channel started saying.

“You will stay sitting.” Jackal responded, shutting her down. Channel sat further down in her chair and looked at the table. “Tonight you are required for the Hound Races.”

“If I may.” Rainbowfish raised his hand to speak. The teenager called Dreadnaught looked at Greenflame, who gestured permission. “I’m fuckin’ out of this job. You can get your wish all you want, but I’m not going into hostile territory by myself. People have started to stop listening to me when I speak.”

“You were not amongst the candidates I had in mind.” Jackal responded flatly, then he turned to face the room. “Seeing as Retch and Wayvern are indisposed for today, that leaves only one candidate. Bad Valentine.”

“You’re finally letting me out?” Bad Valentine grinned. A shard of glass grew down in front of his teeth, but still inside his mouth, making it appear like a translucent fang. He gestured with a hand and the shard flew to it. “‘Bout fucking time.”

Jackal stared at Bad Valentine until things started feeling awkward.

“Sorry boss.” Bad Valentine muttered, not meeting Jackal’s gaze.

“Choose your team and start preparing.” Jackal told the villain. “And do not use that title.”

Greenflame clapped her hands. “Perfect! You’re on your way. Take Dreadnaught and have fun! I’ll be back when you are.” The blue mist of Patrol Officer’s portals spread behind Greenflame and she disappeared through the dimensional rift.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dreadnaught took his hand off of Rainbowfish, who let out a deep breath, then the hooded teenager threw the bag of money through the portal after her, which subsequently closed. That left four Beastmasters, one human who was apparently Dreadnaught, and Nathan, Nick, and myself as the only apparent non-transhumans in the room.

“Greenflame has left us with a task, and has given us the location and objective, as well as some information, but not as much as I would like.” Jackal spoke, sitting at the desk. “Who are you thinking of bringing along? If you name any drivers, I’m going to veto them. They’re needed for the races.”

Bad Valentine pushed away from the table. “Think I’ll take Nick, since he’s right fucking there, as well as Joe and Nancy.” Nick grimaced when he was named, but didn’t say anything.

“Acceptable.” Jackal nodded. “Though you are traveling into a Courtesan stronghold. Are you certain you are capable with only three assistants?”

Bad Valentine shrugged. “Think I got a pretty nice deal, all considering. If there’s gifted guarding that place, which I doubt there is, I’ll be fine. I’m really looking forward to when they make me start defending.” He grinned a little at that.

“Apologise to Wayvern.” Rainbowfish deadpanned.

“I will when she’s here.” Bad Valentine flippantly responded, then jerked his chin up at Nick. “Let’s go.”

Nick and Bad Valentine made to leave, but Channel caught the latter’s arm. She pointed at me. “Lieutenant.”

As Bad Valentine reared back to face Channel, Rainbowfish piped up. “You got it wrong, Channel. It’s the other one that got dubbed lieutenant. It doesn’t matter how much you like them.”

Channel ignored him as Bad Valentine gave a sigh.

“Do I have to bring along the uninitiated?” He asked Jackal.

“You do.”

“And me.” Dreadnaught added. “To make sure you behave.”

“What a fucking hassle.” Bad Valentine sighed. “Right. All of you. Get moving.”

“Um, no.” Nathan said a moment before I could say something stupider. “We’ve been coerced into coming here, and now you expect us to just take part in your gang shit?” There was silence as the Beastmasters seemed to remember that we were people too.

“We’re not gifted.” Nathan added. “Leave us the fuck out of this.”

“You can be paid.” Jackal said.

Nathan shook his head. “I’d rather just call the cops on all of you.”

That was a good idea. I actually got my phone out and started dialing, holding it behind my back and using my power to hit the right spots without looking. That I hadn’t been doing this the moment I walked in had me kicking myself.

“We can compensate you for your time and inconvenience.” Jackal looked at Rainbowfish. “How much money do we have prepared for things like this?”

Rainbowfish made a show of thinking. “Somewhere along the lines of fifty thousand dollars. I’m sure we can prepare ten thousand authentic bucks for each of these lads. I could even throw in a thousand dollars consolation for the one that got Channel’s attention.”

I was sure that he was lying through his teeth for that, but I didn’t say anything about it. That lie was to our benefit. When I looked at Nathan, I saw that he was taken off guard by the offer. It was tempting him.

“You’re not actually consider taking it.” I told him. “There’s no way they have that kind of money. He’s just saying that.”

“Nope.” Rainbowfish hastily said, then he breathed and much more cordially said. “Didn’t you see that two hundred thou we just gave to that woman? That was with a discount, which we would have been fine with not having. So is it really that hard to believe we have ten thou- twenty thousand dollars as backup? Just do this for us and your money will be waiting for you.”

Dreadnaught didn’t have anything to say on the matter. I looked at Rainbowfish for a few seconds and elected not to say anything that would make me a target. So I glanced away when my phone stopped making ringing noises and went through. Channel immediately perked up.

“Someone got a call.” She said.

Well that was bullshit. Everyone started looking at each other suspiciously, then everyone followed Channel’s line of sight as she stared at me.

“What?” I said, knowing they knew it was me. I just needed to delay until they traced my location or something.

Nick grabbed my arm and jerked it up, revealing my Vphone in my hand. Bad Valentine flicked his wrist at me, sending glass into the phone casing that carried it out of my grasp and into the wall.

“Bad boy.” Bad Valentine told me as more shards of glass floated in front of his face, slowly orbiting it. I stared back at him, wondering what the fuck I should be doing. Doing nothing ended up being the best thing when those shards of glass were also sent into my phone, and even more glass appeared from his body to replace them.

Rainbowfish was the first one to break the tension. “And to make the offer more appealing, we’ll even throw in enough money to get you a new Vphone. All of the five dollars you spent on that Vthing will be recompensed.”

“Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated, Nathan.” Jackal said.

“And if we don’t?” I asked.

Jackal looked at me. “You will.” Amber glowed in the eyes of his mask and suddenly my body sagged under an inexplicable weight. I wanted to close my eyes so bad. It was just like what Meretha did to me, but far more forceful. I staggered as I felt myself slipping under the veil. That I was so tired right now just added to the weight.

Jackal was a monarch. He couldn’t be resisted. Still, I tried.

Getting my mouth to move took a while. “You…” Was all I got out before falling forwards as my legs gave way.

~~~

“Come on. Come one.” The ring tone kept going, though. No one picked up. “Fuck.” I cut the call when the prerecorded female voice started telling me the person I was trying to reach was unavailable. I went to the next person in my contacts and called them.

Nothing. They didn’t pick up. The next one didn’t either.

As I was going for the next number my phone started ringing. The caller id was Tess’. I accepted it immediately.

“Tess!” I said as I put the Vphone to my ear.

“Michael!” Tess said at almost the exact same time. “Are you safe?”

The ground shook, the quake dislodging dust from the ceiling. I had moved away from the window. The light was more painful the closer it was to the Eclipse.

“Safe as I can be, there’s a fucking Calamity in the sky.”

“Where are you? Are you on your way to a shelter?”

I shook my head as the ground shook again. “You know, Tess, it’s really funny. I was asleep and the whole class left when the sirens started.”

“You’re still at school? You idiot, Michael. You-”

I cut her off before she could get going. There was a hysterical note in her voice that I just couldn’t ignore. “Where are you? Maybe we can meet up.”

Tess took a breath that I heard through the call. The serene sound of Quetzalcoatl was fading from my ears. It was moving away. “I’m at uni right n- oh god it’s coming closer.”

“Hide!” I hissed into the Vphone. Of course it was. Further from me and closer to her. It was that big of a deal.

There was shouting from the other side of the line as I sat against a wall of the class and tried not to rock myself. The sound of Quetzalcouatl came to a crescendo as the light coming through the gaps in the curtains suddenly started changing in angle, as if the sun was a light on a rope that was swinging randomly in the wind. The surface where the light touched burned to a black colour. There were screams.

As I listened to the sounds coming through the phone I couldn’t help but wonder how many people just died. I didn’t say anything. There was a chance Tess wouldn’t respond if I did. Eventually the light reset to normal.

“Michael?” Tess’ shaky voice came through the line, making me sigh in relief.

“Tess, did it hit you at all?” I demanded flusteredly. The fact that I wasn’t able to do anything was racketing up the tension in my body. I needed to do something with my hands.

“No, I’m fine.” Tess gave a strained laugh. “Barbara though…”

Barbara got hit. I knew Barbara.

“Tess, we need to meet. Somewhere in the city, halfway between us.”

“Okay, Michael.” Tess’ voice had less energy than before. “Can you make it, though? There isn’t much cover around your school.”

“I’m close enough, and I have run of the place.” I was looking at my hand as I held it in a strained claw. It was something to channel my nervous energy into. “I’m sure there’s an umbrella or something I can use.”

“Michael, no stealing!” Tess said firmly.

“It’s that or brave the light.” I responded, still doing the claw but not looking at it. “Do you want me to brave the light?”

“Don’t tell me the details or I’ll have to get you for it.” Tess told me. She liked to be pedantic about law with me, which was fine. I kind of enjoyed the endless banter it made, even if it annoyed me to the point of stamping upstairs and locking myself in my room sometimes. That she was doing it now was insane.

“You should get one too.” I told her. “Get several if you can. And don’t move as a group. I read online that it goes for groups.” A rumble in the ground punctuated my point. “I’m going to get moving now.”

“Stay on the line Michael.” Tess said pleadingly. “Please stay on the line…”

“I was planning on it.” I said as I pulled my finger away from the hang up button. “Still here, Tess.”

“Still here.” She repeated.

I stood and started looking around for an umbrella. There were a lot of discarded bags in the room, as well as a few jackets, but no umbrellas. There was a good chance others had had the same idea as me on their way out. I grabbed the largest jacket in the room and started going from class to class looking for an umbrella.

Eventually I poked my head into a teacher’s office and saw a long umbrella sitting in a dusty corner. It was claimed and I moved to the exit of the building. I stopped before stepping out and lifted my Vphone back to my ear.

“Tess?” I said. I could hear distant shouting, both through the phone and in the area surrounding the school. More importantly, I could hear panting that would only be picked up if Tess still had her phone.

“I got an umbrella and I’m heading out now.” I kept talking, not quite focusing on what was coming out of my mouth. The sound of the Eclipse was rising again. It was nearing crescendo.

“Do you have a path in mind?” Tess asked between pants for breath. It didn’t sound like she was slowing down to talk either.

The sound was rising still. It kind of reminded me of a violin building up to the bridge. “Get under something!” I yelled, moving away from the door and into a corner.

Tess made a surprised sound, and the sounds of scuffling came through the phone. Seconds passed and the serene sound reached the drop. The light arced in ways it shouldn’t.

“I’m safe.” Tess said right as I started to worry.

“Me too.” I responded.

The sound of the Eclipse faded abruptly, and the rays of light coming in jumped back to where they were supposed to be. Cautiously, I stood and went to the door. I looked over the horizon and noticed three things.

First, the skyline had changed. A skyscraper just wasn’t there anymore. Second, the earth was charred black. I tested it to find that it wasn’t slippery or sticky, just black and maybe warm. I didn’t touch it with skin, so I couldn’t tell. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to. The third thing I noticed was that the Eclipse was really far away on the horizon.

I could see a number of birds taking to the sky far off in the distance to the left of where the Calamity was arcing through the sky. It was moving in a mixture of snake like movements, and flapping its wings that some people thought it didn’t actually need. It coiled around itself from far away and eventually faced towards the birds in the sky.

They weren’t birds, I realised. They were the gifted that had rallied to fight the Calamity.

The form of the Eclipse blurred, the gold-white tendrils that trailed from its body leaving a traceable line burnt into my retinas. It intercepted three of the heroes, then crashed into a tall building that didn’t quite meet the criteria to be a skyscraper. There were no shakes that reached me from the initial impact, but the Calamity had bisected the building. The tendrils cutting through what the body itself could not reach.

The three heroes hit the ground before the top half of the building did. One of the specks split into two on the way down. When the building hit the ground there was a moment before the shakes sent a tremor up my legs.

I lifted my phone to my ear. “Tess.”

Nothing.

“Tess!”

“I’m okay!” Tess responded. “It was two blocks away from me.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, then remembered I just saw three heroes die.

“It sent up a lot of dust as well. I’m going to use that as cover.” Tess was still talking. “Michael. Michael! Are you listening? God damn it, say something-”

“Michael!”

I punched at the voice, but I was in a bad position to throw something like that. In a panic, I jolted upright and used my elbow to strike backwards at the source of the sound. Someone caught it and snapped into focus in my sixth sense. The body was one I knew. Nathan.

“Sorry.” I said as I screwed my eyes shut and held my other hand to the bridge of my nose.

“Jesus, what the hell were you dreaming about?” Nathan let go of my elbow and he vanished from my senses. I blinked until the light stopped hurting and looked at him through squinted eyes.

“Things worse than this.” I said soullessly, then looked around. “What happened?” We were in the back of a car. My movements had been arrested somewhat by a seatbelt that I was just now realising was strapped around me. It had stopped me from getting a good hit in on Nathan. There was a divider between us and the front seats, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I reached forward with a hand and touch the divider to confirm that they were in fact talking and not listening in.

Nathan didn’t look like he wanted to answer the question, but did anyway. “We’re following the Beastmasters. I’d have liked to say no, but with what Jackal did to you… You know.”

“I get it.” I said, not quite getting it. “I don’t like it, but I get it.”

“I said that you were my guy, otherwise you would have been left at the Hound races.” Nathan continued. “I don’t think staying there would have been a good idea.”

“Being here isn’t a good idea either. So we’re helping these guys steal a sword?” or a flail, if I’m right.

Nathan’s mouth twisted in a way that wasn’t too sure of itself. “Sure. Whatever that ‘medieval weapon’ ends up being. Our role is specifically lookout. So we aren’t actually doing anything.”

“But we are complicit.” I said, remembering Tess telling me about the concept. What it entailed exactly and how severe punishment could get. “This is deep shit.”

“Yeah… You were right.” Nathan sighed. I looked at him without turning my head. “Don’t say it.”

“You haven’t felt any of the consequences you were worrying about yet.” I decided to say. “You might just get lucky.”

Nathan didn’t seem sure how to take that. “I guess that means a lot, coming from you.”

I considered the insinuation. It ran parallel to the memory I had just relived. “Yeah, I guess it does.” I was looking through the clear part of the divider at the people in the front of the car. There was a blond woman with heavy goth make up on, from what I could see from behind. There was another guy I didn’t know in the front. Joe and Nancy, presumably.

“Anything else you can tell me about this?” I asked after some silence where I gathered my bearings and fixed my facade.

“Yeah, Bad Valentine fucking scares me.” Nathan said. “You didn’t see him when we were getting in the cars. Jackal has a tight fucking leash on that guy.”

“Ah, shit.” I slumped down in the seat. That meant Bad Valentine was going to pick a fight if the opportunity arose. Hopefully things wouldn’t come to that, but I wasn’t ruling it out for anything.

The car we were in eventually pulled up behind another flash car that Dreadnaught was stepping out of. Nathan and I stepped out to join him on the sidewalk as Joe, Nancy, Nick, and Bad Valentine did the same.

We were standing right outside a church that had a fatalistic sign out the front that had me staring at it in its audaciousness. It was run down, but still held the letters reading ‘The Inevitable approaches always’ ‘Attend on Sunday’s to stave off the time of its coming’. That they had turned a Calamity into an advertisement for their faux religion was ridiculous. The apostrophe on ‘Sunday’s’ was just insulting. The church itself was as run down as the sign, and didn’t even match my mental image of a church. It was shaped like any other building on the block, and didn’t even have a slanted roof.

I suppose it made sense that somewhere like this would be a front. But they could have had the decency to use a longer standing religion like Catholicism.

“Alright, here’s the plan.” Bad Valentine clapped his hands, making a sound of clashing glass that most people would not make when clapping their hands. I looked as his hands separated. There were glass shards poking out of his palm. He should have just impaled himself but there wasn’t any blood. “You three.” He pointed at Nathan and me, then at Dreadnaught. “You’re lookout. Find somewhere and lookout. You.” He pointed at Nick. “Mind the fuckin’ cars. And you two are with me.” Referring to Joe and Nancy.

“What’s your plan?” I asked. “I would have been there for the rest of the planning, but someone put me to sleep.”

“Show some fuckin’ respect.” Joe told me, sounding about twice as educated as Ben. Which wasn’t saying anything at all.

I glared at him for a moment, then looked back to Bad Valentine. “If you’re going to hold me hostage and make me complicit in something, I want to make sure it doesn’t come back to me. Does that make sense?”

“Ey, it’s fine.” Bad Valentine grinned. “I asked ‘round before we left and found someone that goes here on sundays. She told me where the secret door no one is allowed through is, so I’m going to go in there, grab the thing, maybe some other shit too, and walk out like the boss that I am. Fucking terrible security if a random churchgoer notices something wrong, y’know.”

I didn’t have any response that cut through how stunned I was at his stupidity. Greenflame had been the one to set this up, and he was just going to walk in? Eventually I just shook my head and pointed at a far corner. “Nathan and I are going to stand over there and lookout. If anything approaches, we’ll let you know.”

Nathan was about to ask something, so I pushed him to get us moving.

“We can just leave if it goes to shit.” I whispered to him. He got the message and nodded.

Dreadnaught wandered over to the sign and looked up at it, completely disinterested in the goings on. Nick was standing by the cars. He made to lean on one, but Nancy got up in his face right as he was leaning back. It seemed she was the owner and didn’t want anything scuffing the paintjob.

Then Bad Valentine yelled at his minions and they made to follow him inside the church. The door was locked, so Bad Valentine grew a dagger sized shard of glass, popped it out, and swiped it through the middle. When he pushed the door, it opened. By that time Nathan and I were at the corner looking back.

Bad Valentine strode inside confidently, and Joe and Nancy followed close behind. Two seconds passed, then there were dark flashes of light as people in costume started appearing at the front entrance of the church, around the side of it, and even on the roof. They were prepared and organised. This was a very carefully constructed trap, and Bad Valentine had waltzed right into it.