“Chk chk.”

- Bang Bang. (Pre rebrand)

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“Eva…” His fluttering eyes were watering, his sweaty skin pale. He did not let his mortal wounds stop him from delivering the words he had been holding on to for so long. “There’s something you need to-” Blood spattered on Eva’s dress as he coughed. “There’s something that… I need to tell you.”

“Don’t strain yourself Liam.” Eva scolded. Her eyes were threatening to overflow with water as well, but she didn’t let them. Couldn’t, even. Dark Knight Vorugal was near and to break down now would only strengthen him. “You need to hold on. Just hold on.”

Liam shook his head, heedless of the damage that movement did to him. “I’ve loved you,” He told her, resolute. “For so long.”

Eva had to fight to hold back the tears. It was hard, but she held back the tide. “I know you dummy.”

Liam was dumbfounded. His skin became a degree colder before he got over the shock. “But when?”

“For a while. Ever since you stood up for me in Darkarch. There’s only one reason someone would go that far.”

“But-” He was so pale now. “But that was when we met.”

“I only figured it out because I was watching you. And I was watching you because I love-

Slingshot shut the book with a disappointed sigh.

Sword, Sorcerer & the Return of the Dark Knight had started out promising, but that romantic subplot had been rearing its head for two solid thirds of the book and every single scene dedicated to it had been, for lack of a better term, icky. That the white squire Liam had been felled and was bleeding out, then using that as an excuse to confess to the ruby maiden Eva had been foreshadowed so obviously for the whole goddamn novel.

There weren’t even twenty pages left in the book and so much was left to wrap up. Slingshot predicted a cliffhanger ending, because there was no way all that was going to be resolved to any satisfactory extent. She would read it anyway, but she wouldn’t enjoy it, and not now.

Slingshot just wanted a good book to read, but everything seemed to be following the standard young adult fiction tropes these days. She had read romantic subplot after romantic subplot tank so many otherwise good stories that she was beginning to wonder if there existed any good books that didn’t fall into the ick trap.

There were, but she’d read them already. Slingshot briefly considered going back to read them again, but tossed that idea as soon as it came up. One month was not enough breathing room to read a six hundred page book again. Even if it was a good one.

In her musings, Slingshot realised she was going heels over head and righted herself before her skirt fell up. Or before it fell down since she’d be up side down. She wore leggings under the skirt, and the costume designer had insisted on the skirt despite Slingshot’s inclination to go without it.

If the skirt wasn’t there, then other people wouldn’t want to see what was under it. Slingshot had mentally prepared herself for a bodysuit when she manifested, expecting something like Hope and Queen Freeze used to wear. Then she’d have been free to just let herself drift at any angle, but now she had a skirt and she had to be mindful of it.

She didn’t enjoy musing on that, so Slingshot flew to her bag and opened it. She put Sword, Sorcerer & the Return of the Dark Knight in and took a workbook out. Homework to do and time to kill until Control arrived.

Getting the right book took a few tries, but she found it. She looked at the bordering lines and focused, then dragged them sideways with her power. There was a subtle strain at the back of her mind, like a finger that was itching to bend. She ignored the itch and kept the book where it was. Until she let that ‘finger’ twitch, or she dragged the workbook further, it would stay there, suspended in the air.

But Slingshot hadn’t set it level. It was tilted, not level with the floor. Not that that was a problem, since she just floated up and rotated her body until it matched the angle, letting her work in it with relative ease.

Working on homework wasn’t easy, though. Slingshot was distracted, her mind wandered, going to the Theta Monster that was going to appear sometime in the next day. People normally died where they appeared, would she die? There was a chance.

Norman, dad, ugh, he hadn’t wanted her to attend things like this. He definitely hadn’t wanted her to sign on for Omega level threat relief. But Slingshot… she’d made a promise. It wasn’t to him and it wasn’t negotiable.

Slingshot dropped her pen and moved the lines around it, catching it before it fell too far. She ran her hand through her hair and rotated idly until she came to a stop looking at the other heroes in the room.

Snowflake was using her power, making snowflakes land on her finger one by one to build up a thin pillar that shouldn’t exist this time of year. Hangnail was finally off her phone, but she was leaning back in her chair and staring at the ceiling, not paying attention, letting her son babble.

Papercut was a second generation gifted, with two transhuman parents. Supposedly, that made people more likely to manifest, and the younger guy evidently had. The articles Slingshot had read around the time she manifested proposed exactly that, though the numbers were inconclusive. Maybe because so few transhumans lived long enough to have kids.

Looking at them was strange for Slingshot. Instead of seeing shades and colours like normal people saw, her eyes observed colours that didn’t exist on the same spectrum. Sunglasses did nothing to impede her sight, but they did for everyone else. It’s why she wore them. Apart from the unique situation with the colours, there were the lines.

They were everywhere and on everything. Marking out all the changes in angles, spreading out nebulously on curved objects. They looked somewhat green, though Slingshot didn’t see green as it used to be. She didn’t have a word to describe the colour though, so she just called it green. The lines were especially strong for outlines. Manipulating those outlines was the basis of her telekinesis.

Focusing on an outline made it grow, and let her drag the object like another limb that she just knew how to move. That movement made the outlines smear behind them, and when Slingshot let that twitch happen, the smears would become the vector in which her power flung things.

Active powers made things light up in Slingshot’s vision. Right now, the area of Snowflake’s power became a little bit darker that the surroundings, and the snow was easier to make out thanks to a thick outline. The line marking where her field ended on the floor was quite helpful. Hangnail was turning her power on and off under the table, making small orbs of something that matched one of Slingshot’s new blues, and then disappearing them. Slingshot only noticed because she’d drifted to be heel over head again, so she righted herself once more.

Papercut’s power was prismatic, and constantly shifted like water contaminated with oil. The areas where the forcefields were present were very blatantly obvious to Slingshot, even though they were see through, according to Lock. The outlines just stuck out so obnoxiously that they almost entirely obscured wherever they were.

And then Lock. His power let him obscure himself as far as colours went, but since Slingshot saw in lines and outlines, she was privy to his real face. He had a cute nose, which helped Slingshot understand how satisfied he looked whenever he was obscuring his expression and using that to his advantage. It was hard to take a face that cute seriously, especially when his eyebrows were furrowed and he was getting all frustrated.

Plus, he had walked in with glitter drifting from his hair. Slingshot wasn’t sure if he was aware of it, and she was wondering if she should bring it up. On one hand Lock seemed like the kind of person to prefer a more serious aesthetic, but on the other hand she was enjoying the sparkles that were lighting up his short dark hair.

Lock’s power made outlines thicken much like her’s did when he was exerting his form of telekinesis, and usually he was walking around in that costume of his. The more he was doing to something, the thicker the outline. Thanks to that, Lock’s normal costume had such a thick outline that Slingshot was having trouble connecting him to this new casual costume, which barely had any outlines at all.

Then there was the spear Lock had with him today. The lines running along the shaft of it made an optical illusion to Slingshot, like they were moving without moving, and they were thicker than the lines on anything else. There was a power active there, but it wasn’t Lock’s usual. His were normally rigid and unmoving.

It was quite off putting.

As for Lock himself, he had been acting strange today, though he’d never really been normal. When he was in costume he was overly serious, taking note of everything and anything. Capable of seeing the humour in things, but seldom laughing at it. Yet that seriousness was pliable, easily changed. One of the first things Slingshot noticed about Lock was that he changed how he talked to people like a girl changed clothes.

She must have only said five words to him in costume today, yet he’d changed the course of the confrontation between Snowflake and Hangnail with a well timed question, and then he’d gone over to Scar’s Advent and activated his glib tongue. Papercut had been itching to talk, and felt the most comfortable talking to Lock. Lock kept the conversation flowing, he traded information about their powers, getting more than he gave, even though they spent more time talking about Lock’s power than Papercut’s.

Papercut eventually asked a question that Slingshot had been meaning to ask for a while. “Can’t you use your power to fly?”

Lock’s invisible expression involved tightening his lips. He must not like that topic too much. “I can’t do it because it’d be putting essentially twice my body weight on my clothes. It would be uncomfortable, and they’d rip.”

“But what about your costume. It’s just one piece right? I heard you got shot, so it should be able to take the strain.”

Slingshot had heard about Lock getting shot as well. She took a moment to be glad that she hadn’t been shot at yet.

“That’s a no go as well. If I used my power to push that up, then I’d be giving myself a wedgie the entire time. Then I’d have trouble stabilising since the forces my power invokes are uniform. If I started tipping, there wouldn’t be much for me to do.”

“Yeah, but you could add a big force to it, curl up, and fly like a meteor.”

Slingshot had to stifle a laugh.

Lock’s response took a few moments to present itself. “That- There’s just too many things I don’t control. Not to mention that I get the backlash. Remember Isaac’s laws? That everything has an equal and opposite reaction? I’d go splat. Besides, I can get around just fine.” His hand reached for the spear he’d brought along as he said that.

The air of the room changed as Snowflake stood up. “Control is here. Mission brief in fifteen.” Then she turned around and walked out, leaving her snowflakes drifting in the air displaced by her exit.

Slingshot checked the directions of the smears before releasing and catching her workbook and pen. She put the stationary away and slung her bag over her shoulders, then made to leave and barely managed to avoid crashing into Lock. Scar’s Advent had already left.

Lock’s invisible expression was thoughtful, almost concerned. Slingshot let herself smile at it. He wouldn’t see it because her own expression was hidden by a bandana and a pair of aviators.

“Are you feeling ready for this?” Lock eventually asked, taking his time picking his words.

“Yip.” Slingshot responded.

“Only checking because this has the chance to turn out more dangerous than the whole Greenflame thing.” He paused, thinking. “Not as bad as things could get, though.”

Slingshot knew what he was talking about. The Calamities. “This isn’t him.”

That threw Lock for a loop. “Him?”

“Quetzalcoatl.” Slingshot tugged at the straps of her bag, just now realising she’d been drifting sideways again. She righted herself.

“You’re right.” He hummed to himself briefly. Slingshot watched decisions fly past on his face. “Why not Ai Laau?”

Ah. Slingshot hadn’t meant for him to ask a question like that. “Um…” Think up something. “Proximity, I guess. He wasn’t too far away recently. We’re still dealing with refugees.”

Surprise made it onto Lock’s expression. “I guess we are.” He glanced outside, looked back to her, then made a decision. A second later he said, “The meeting’s starting soon. We should move.”

“Yip.” Slingshot floated after him. She had to regulate how quickly she moved, since Lock’s walking speed was much slower than her flight, she constantly needed to correct. Speeding up and slowing down as needed.

How much charge was left in her boots? Without slowing at all, Slingshot brought both knees up and fiddled with the operating keys on the outer side of the right boot. Sixteen percent, and she didn’t know when next she would have these things on the charge. Best to save it.

Orcus wasn’t at the meeting, as well as a few of the Sentry. Muffle, for one, wasn’t here since he would disrupt the work that needed to be done. Lucidity wasn’t here either. Maybe it was past her bedtime. More likely she was too young. Unshaken, Blinker, Snowflake, and Collage were all already there. As were Zephyr, Voidling, and Sting, who seemed to have a haunted air about him ever since the Courtesans kidnapped him.

The Heroes of Yesterday were only mostly here apparently, but Slingshot didn’t know their roster so she couldn’t name the absentees. Lock split off to talk to the one in white and blue with the cape, who looked to be the leader. He gestured at the spear a few times, but Slingshot couldn’t figure out what they were talking about.

Scar’s Advent was present, of course. The three of them were grouped apart from everyone else. The meeting was taking place in a bookstore that had been emptied of people, but not of books. There was a bit of a temptation to go peruse, but Slingshot stamped down on that urge. This wasn’t the time for browsing.

The cashiers were situated in an island in the middle of the store, so the staff had four counters in one location for customer service. The cashiers themselves had been pushed to one side and presumably emptied. Overlord from Control was lounging on the counter, paying some attention to the screen of a laptop open next to him, but was more focused on sizing everyone up.

Overlord’s costume was light. A black vest that was nearer to a singlet than anything else, and long blue pants that gave him a look like he was going to a disco. What it really accomplished was showing how skinny he was. His mask was grey and featureless, but had a big yellow O over one of his eyes, and an interconnected little v over his nose. He had the symbol of control on the front of his singlet/vest.

Behind him was Brainstorm. She was standing half bent at another counter and was completely focused on another laptop. Her domino mask covered less than Overlord’s did, but her features were difficult to make out since her hair was lit up. Brainstorm’s power let her turn her hair into arcing electricity. Right now it was humming quietly and occasionally crackling, the energy spreading out in the same dark red colour as her natural hair. The rest of her relatively straightforward costume had lightning motifs that were clearly spreading out from the head. The symbol of Control was small and off centre, near one of her shoulders.

The costume itself was well fitted, but not tight by any means. Slingshot respected a woman that didn’t rely on sex appeal.

In front of both of those was Common Sense. He had a visor over his eyes that had neon letters on it spelling out ‘DUH’. His costume looked like he had tried to cross civilian clothes with military gear and tried to make it look good, but had failed on all counts. His sleeves were baggy and his pants were too short, and he had an ill fitted bulletproof vest on over his jacket. The symbol of control was tiny on the vest of his costume, barely larger than a name on a nametag would be. In the same spot too.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Frankly, he looked like a slob. But there was something about him, either how the other’s were looking to him or how he was simply standing in the most authoritative position, that gave Slingshot the impression that he was the one she should be listening to. He was a longstanding member of Control, and had even had a documentary made about him that Slingshot had watched a while ago.

His name was pretty on the nose, if the documentary was accurate.

Time ticked past, and Lock left the Heroes of Yesterday to rejoin her by a bookshelf that she’d ended up by. Where Slingshot had kept herself from browsing, Lock went right to it.

“Sword, Sorcerer, & the Darkarch Assassin.” He read out loud to himself after a bit. Slingshot turned in alarm to find him pulling the book off the shelf and reading the blurb on the back. She looked at the other titles and groaned to herself. Of course she had ended up by the YA fiction section.

Lock glanced at Slingshot, and she couldn’t figure out what that one meant. He glanced back to the book. “Wasn’t there a series being made about this? Seems decent. Actually it’s not the first, nevermind.”

Slingshot used her power to catch the book as he was putting it back. He looked back to her with curiosity. She swallowed. “Let me see?”

Lock relinquished the book and Slingshot floated it over to her. She checked the reviews. Not that bad. But that didn’t answer the question of whether or not it was worth finishing the first book. Only reading it would answer that question, which was the dilemma.

As Slingshot turned the book over in her power, she noticed the number three on the spine. The Darkarch Assassin wasn’t that bad a title, and the blurb promised action. A return to the roots for the characters, spoiling Liam’s survival, but threatening the deaths of other characters Slingshot cared about more, as well as others she didn’t know. The problem was that the blurb always promised action. The better stories were usually the ones with vague blurbs more focused on setting the tone.

Slingshot was mostly worried about another make-me-want-to-vomit love subplot. Still, she made to seek out the second in the series. The room quieting behind her made her stop and put the book back, and pay attention to the meeting.

Common Sense stepped up, then frowned and looked at Overlord. They exchanged hushed words, then Overlord picked something up from the counter and handed it over. Common Sense stepped up again, raised a customer service bell, and tapped it several times.

The rest of the conversation stopped as people started getting annoyed. Slingshot was considering using her power to snatch the bell when Common Sense hid it behind his back and launched straight into his speech.

“Alright, so Graceland. This is the second time I’ve been here, but the first time I’ve been here for an A-13.” He spoke, pacing just a little. “Consequently, most of you, especially you young ones, won’t know what the deal is with these Theta class monsters. I’ll put it plain and simple. There are two truths to these things. The first is that they are all powerful, and the second is that they all want to kill you.”

He didn’t even let that sink in before moving on. “There’s a lot to discuss about them concerning relative power levels, what form it’s going to take, and general guesswork about their intentions, and you’re free to discuss it. Know that it’s going to be big, and so long as you assume that whatever is going to appear across the street is both hostile and more powerful than you, you probably won’t die. That goes doubly true for you, Blinker.”

Blinker reacted from being singled out, but Common sense kept going before Blinker could challenge that.

“The electromagnetic disturbances have been ongoing for four hours now, and this is a high traffic area, so we can assume a thirty minute window between the when it first appeared and it being noticed. That means we have somewhere between an hour and a whole day before shit hits the fan.

“Standard Control containment procedure involves setting up barriers around the point of appearance, aiming all guns and powers in, pulling the trigger until everything stops moving, and hoping that’s enough. Eden and Unloaded are setting that up now. However, since that normally that isn’t enough, we’re having this meeting. Can I get a show of hands for all the Lance powers in the room?”

Voidling, Collage, and Hangnail all raised their hands. Slingshot’s hand tentatively followed.

“You meet with Brainstorm and explain your powers after this is done. Show of hands for powers that are good for crowd control.”

Snowflake, Papercut, Sting, and one of the Heroes of Yesterday- the one whose costume was on fire, raised their hands. Hangnail raised her hand again.

Common Sense singled out Hangnail. “You put your hand up twice. Why?”

“Because my power’s good for stopping movement and I can make it from a distance.” Hangnail pointed above Common Sense, where her power swirled and formed into a small blue orb. There were actually two, Slingshot noticed, but only one was coloured in. She took it to mean that Hangnail could choose to make invisible orbs.

Well, invisible to everyone but Slingshot.

“Those take a hell of a lot of effort to move.” Hangnail continued. “I’ve broken metal bats on them.”

“How many can you make?”

“A few.” Three more orbs joined the first, as well as two more ‘invisible’ ones, then they all vanished. “Depends on how much I’m able to focus.”

Common Sense thought on it, then turned around. Overlord nodded, then Common Sense turned back around. “The ones that just put their hands up, you talk to Overlord when this is done. You with the orbs, talk to Brainstorm afterwards. Final show. Everyone with little to no range.”

Lock put his hand up, along with Unshaken, Wall Walker, Mark, and Zephyr. Slingshot realised that Blinker hadn’t put his hand up for any of them.

“If you can’t do much damage, put your hand down.”

Everyone that had their hand up kept them up, though Mark seemed indecisive about his. In the end he stuck it out.

Common Sense took them all in. “You guys come see me. You.” He pointed at Blinker. “What’s your power?”

“Short range teleportation.” Blinker answered. Slingshot noticed Lock letting out a long breath.

Common Sense continued without hesitation. “You’re on standard patrol. Don’t take part in this. You.” He pointed at the hero from the Heroes of Yesterday in white with the half cape.

“I’m really very good at stuff.” He answered.

Common Sense paused for a moment, then he smiled a bit. “Damn, Toil. You went all in with the redesign. I didn’t recognise you.”

Toil laughed. “I really wanted a cape.”

“Do you want a gun this time?”

“I have been practicing.”

“Perfect, Unloaded will set you up. That makes you Risk.” Common Sense turned to the last Hero of Yesterday to be addressed.

“What gave me away?” Risk asked sarcastically. It almost fell flat, but Overlord burst out laughing. Brainstorm zapped him without looking, and he calmed down to silent chuckles.

Common Sense shook his head. “You and I are going to have long discussions leading into this. After I get to know everyone, that is. Stick around.”

Risk nodded, and let the meeting move on. But it got disrupted by four people in armour entering the bookstore. At first Slingshot thought she had just seen four Orcuses walk in, but then she caught on to the differences in the armour.

The one in front was female, and was fairly evenly proportioned compared to the rest. It was only really possible to tell it was a she because the breastplate stuck out ever so slightly. Instead of horns curling back, this woman had two tiny pointed nubs in the forehead, and had a crack in the helmet that Orcus didn’t have. It was a rough parting line shaped almost like a smile going all the way across the front. The effect was off putting.

The other woman was taller, a bit thinner, but a bit curvier, and had a row of horns in a mohawk that were longer at the front than at the back. One of the remaining men was wide and short compared to the rest, while the other was the tallest and not so wide. The short one had bulls horns that went out and then up, and extended beyond the helmet as if he intended to ram them into something. The tall one didn’t have horns on his helmet, rather, he had ridges along his arms and legs, and jagged armour at the elbows. None of them had the smile line of the woman with impish horns.

“I assume you are the Gray Apostles.” Common Sense was the first to speak.

The smile line didn’t move as the imp horned woman spoke. “We are.” Her voice was harsh and guttural. It permeated the room with a familiar undertone that Slingshot was finding unnerving.

Lock swore next to her. Slingshot glanced at him in confusion, he was frowning. Then she hesitantly tapped his shoulder for an explanation.

“They hold themselves exactly like him.” He explained.

Slingshot looked at the Gray Apostles with fresh eyes. Lock was right, and it made them even more creepy.

“You just missed the important part of the meeting.” Common Sense started.

“We are already aware of standard Theta class creation containment procedures.” The woman interrupted him before he could get going. “Brute, Fear, and Method are your front line. No questions. You and I will speak tactics.”

“That’s not how this goes, Instinct.” Toil spoke up.

“For once, I agree with Toil.” Zephyr added. “You can’t just walk in and expect everyone to obey your commands.”

Instinct stared at Zephyr, then her helmet moved for the first time as she barked a single laugh. “You’re cute. The orders I have given here have only been to my own team, and to Common Sense.” She looked at the hero from Control. “And if you have common sense, you will listen to me.”

That left the focus on Common Sense, who was looking at the Gray Apostles with something bordering on disdain. “We’ll talk later, Instinct. Tell your people to listen to Eden and Unloaded, and to stay out of the way for the time being. They’re still setting up and we aren’t on five yet.”

“The child is still with you?” Instinct spoke rhetorically, she’d already turned around and started to leave. “I wonder if he still-” She was out the door.

“Okay.” Common Sense clapped his hands and injecting some energy into the now tense room. “As standoffish as those five are, our chances of survival just went up dramatically. Break and talk to us as we decided earlier. I’ll be moving outside for this. All this is is getting to know what powers we’re working with here. I’ll say it again. If we’re lucky, no one is going to die this time.”

Slingshot noticed his fingers were crossed as he said it. Overlord and Brainstorm absentmindedly knocked on the counter twice.

“Remember, we don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take to hatch, but we will get some advanced warning. Your job is to get ready as soon as possible and stay ready.”

“Hurry up and wait.” Lock muttered.

Common Sense heard it and pointed next to Slingshot. “Good analogy, now hurry up.”

~~~

Slingshot’s new bandolier was heavy, but even though it weighed on her it didn’t force her down to the ground. Brainstorm had gotten a thoughtful expression when Slingshot explained her power to her, then directed her to Unloaded and told her to interrupt whatever he was doing to explain her power to him. Unloaded had been handling a volatile energy weapon at the time, so it was difficult for Slingshot to work up the courage to interrupt him.

Thankfully, it was much easier after he put the weapon down. Slingshot introduced herself before he could pick up another one, and he immediately asked if he could scan her power in action after he realised what it was. She acquiesced, even if she didn’t really get all the mutterings about boomerang guns and curved bullets he was going on about.

When she asked, all she got was something about ricocheting bullets not having enough versatility. Slingshot let it fly over her head.

In any case, Unloaded had given her a plethora of impact grenades that had handy descriptions of what they did for the upcoming battle. Most of them just exploded, but there were a few with different effects like ‘pause’, ‘electrify’, ‘speed up’, and ‘cover’.

The speed up grenade was meant to be used on friends. Slingshot had checked with the man himself.

She tossed one in the air and watched it fall. At the peak of its arc, Slingshot put her power on it, but didn’t make it move. She let it travel and watched the smear grow as it went. Once it nearly hit the ground, Slingshot released her power, and the grenade abruptly reversed course, but it didn't travel back along the smear. Instead, it traveled more directly towards Slingshot. She put her power on it again just before it flew past her and she made it stop in space, where she easily picked it up and put it back on the bandolier.

“Hey!” Someone shouted from below. Slingshot looked down to see a man in Regulation combat uniform looking up at her. “Be careful with those!”

“I will!” She had to shout down to him since there were three floors between them.

Slingshot pulled another grenade off her bandolier and used her power to make it rotate around her. When it drifted out of her line of sight things got weird. She could still ‘see’ the grenade even when it was directly behind her. At some point it stopped being off to the left and started being off to her right, then it came back into where here eyes could see.

She put it back onto the bandolier and looked down again, hoping someone else would be done. Lock had just stepped away from Common Sense and was looking around. After a few glances, he looked up and met Slingshot’s gaze. He gave a small wave, still holding that spear.

Slingshot waved back and started descending slowly. Slowly because she didn’t want to upturn her skirt, and because she didn’t feel like going headfirst and risking hair in her face. Soon enough she was next to Lock, who had found somewhere to sit on the barrier Eden had constructed in the middle of the street. An impressive achievement considering the hustle and bustle.

It was almost like stadium seating, but the seats were further apart, and there were barriers in front of each seat. They were angled, slightly orange in colour, especially around the edges, and had outlines so thin that Slingshot almost didn’t see them half the time. She had to take a moment to remember that it was her new ‘orange’, so it was probably a completely different colour to everyone else. In any case, it was all centered on where the spot where the Theta Monster was supposed to appear.

Lock glanced up when Slingshot ‘landed’. He looked worse than before, really, really tired. “Unloaded give you some toys?” He asked in an upbeat way that belied his expression.

“Yip.” Slingshot pointed at a grenade. “Not all of them are bad, though. This is a go fast grenade.”

She saw the urge to laugh make it to his face, but Lock didn’t laugh. “Does it hurt to use?”

“Um…” Slingshot didn’t actually know. She checked the instructions. “It just says to use on an ally and has a warning against hitting an enemy with it.”

“Well yeah, who’d willingly speed up a monster?” Lock nodded, his expression far away. “How fast do you think it makes you go? Not as fast as the Eclipse, obviously.”

Slingshot rocked sideways. She hadn’t even considered that.

Lock’s expression matched his words for once. “Is something wrong?”

“Ah.” Slingshot realised how far sideways she was- almost upside down- and righted herself. “It’s nothing.”

“Is it? Because that’s the farthest I’ve seen you lean in response to anything. All I said was a name.”

Slingshot considered flying away, and not just because Lock had named the Eclipse. He had also just admitted to watching her, not unlike Liam from that ick romantic subplot. She already knew he watched her, and she wasn’t ready to think about why she knew that.

But Slingshot stayed on, or at least near the ground. Lock didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, and he knew her as Madeleine, not just Slingshot. She liked the concern he showed for her just as much as she hated it. She didn’t really know how to react to it.

“Um, so this is a big monster we’re going to be fighting, right?” Slingshot started. Lock nodded, paying her his full attention. “And that isn’t that far removed from a Calamity, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, this is going to sound stupid, but I’m looking to rest a demon of mine by fighting this monster.” As soon as the words were out, they sounded stupid. Slingshot wanted to stop, so she did.

The quiet between them stretched into awkwardness.

Lock looked like he was as far away from all this as Slingshot was. “Yeah, me too.”

“Really?” That had taken Slingshot off guard.

Lock shifted, raising and then finding a new spot for the spear he was carrying around to rest. “You mentioned how we’re still dealing with refugees from the last Calamity attack. I’m one of them. Manifested because of it, even.”

Slingshot almost went sideways again, but saved it, almost, and it became a slightly graceful maneuver. She caught Lock smirking detachedly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

The smirk vanished as Lock came back. “No, don’t apologise.” He insisted. “I received more than my fair share of those just making my way up here, and then I spent a solid month getting the youngest to stop tearing up whenever she saw me. Besides, I’m Canadian. My word.”

“Sorry.” Slingshot apologised, then tilted forwards in embarrassment, staring at something that wouldn’t give Lock an angle to see her face, even though it was pretty well covered. Or maybe so she wouldn’t see his. She needed something to distract from this. “What did you mean by the youngest?”

“I got put up with a foster family. Alice is five, and still getting to know everything. The oldest, Marie, is twelve and a terror. The middle child is Sofiya and she’s nine. She lost her family to a Calamity just like I did. Scathach and the Undertaker. They’re all girls.”

Slingshot made a face. “And they just put you there? Um, no offence, but you’re a guy and you’re so much older than them.”

Lock chuckled for the first time in a while. “Yeah, it’s not ideal. But there was overflow even this far away from the Sunlit City, and I got priority housing thanks to my age.” He looked better now, more relaxed. He was always so tense at the start of a conversation. “The reason they gave for putting me there was because Sofiya was a Calamity victim as well, so we could help each other recover or something along those lines.” He shrugged. “I suppose it worked out.”

It worked out. The words repeated in Slingshot’s head. Maybe…

“Um, that demon I was talking about.” Slingshot blurted. She hadn’t made a decision properly yet, but if she thought on it she’d back down, and then she wouldn’t even think about talking about it for so long. That would be fine, but this was something she wanted to get off her chest. Tell someone that wasn’t her dad.

“You’re going to think this is silly.” She sighed. Lock didn’t say anything, didn’t interrupt. He just paid rapt attention. “I had two friends that I grew up with, Hannah and Michelle. We were tight knit, thick as thieves, all those sayings and all that. We made this stupid, stupid pact.”

“What was it?” Lock prompted. He was good at doing that, greasing the conversation.

“To go see a Calamity if we ever had the chance.” Slingshot was tense, but as the words came out she felt all the tension leave her. What remained wasn’t relaxing, though.

“You described the pact accurately.” Lock commented, making Slingshot laugh again. It was pained and fleeting.

“So uh... when the Eclipse descended on Salt Lake City, they went along to go see it. They were killed as soon as they got there. The bodies landed outside.”

Lock nodded, understanding the implication. “Question.” Slingshot didn’t interrupt. “How did they get there? Salt Lake city isn’t- wasn’t that close.”

“You know what hurricane chasers are?” Slingshot asked. Lock did, obviously. “Well, Calamity chasers are a thing too. It’s like a club, all these like minded people getting together wanting to see something awe-some, and some of them are well funded. We were… I suppose unlucky enough to find a group someone really rich was a part of. Han and Mich went to a private airport and got on a small plane, and they were there before five hours had passed.”

“Ah. So that’s how they were killed on arrival.”

“And while my best friends were doing that, I was in Europe because Dad had a business trip and wanted to bring me along. And I only went because I thought that would let me see He Who Is.” Slingshot slumped in midair. “We didn’t even end up going to London. I was watching a movie when the news broke. I ignored it and didn’t even realise until the next day.”

“That’s rough.” Lock said, even though the words he was supposed to say were ‘I’m sorry.’

“I started manifesting at the wake and it stopped me from speaking.” Slingshot finished lamely.

Lock didn’t seem to know what to say, but that was fine. Slingshot could see the empathy on his face. He was too easy to read.

“Talk about a wake up call, right?” Slingshot gave an awkward smile she remembered too late wouldn’t be seen through the bandana.

“Well,” Lock said at length. He might have caught a hint of it through everything. “You and I both have a reason to give this thing hell then.”

Slingshot nodded bodily. “Yip.”