The day after meeting Sam the parts dealer, Lightforge was up nice and early. He’d considered going into the shop the night before, but it had made sense to get a good night’s rest before starting on his crafting project in earnest. In retrospect, that had probably been a mistake.

He’d spent the night tossing and turning on the couch, excited for the night to pass and the morning to arrive. He had eventually fallen asleep, but it hadn’t been as restful as he’d expected. He’d spent the entire night dreaming of new blueprints that had been the pinnacle of genius in his head. But by the light of day? He shook his head.

“A bazooka that launches perfectly fried chicken? Seriously?”

It started him off on the wrong side of the bed that morning, but it didn’t last. He was up with the sun and ready to get to work. Today was an important day, because today was when he would finally prove that his success with his goggles was more than a fluke. That was always the risk of making something new; what if you could only pull it off once?

That shouldn't be possible with the system helping him, but that did little to settle his nerves. The only thing that would do that was getting to work and finding success.

At least, that was what he thought. He thought it as he ate and prepared for the day. He thought it as he stepped outside and started walking towards his shop. He thought it right up until he heard the gong.

It was a heavy, reverberating sound that rang out through the morning. It wasn't loud, exactly. It would be more accurate to say that the sound carried over impossibly long distances. Lightforge felt with complete certainty that everyone in the city could hear the sound.

He recognized it instantly, though he'd only heard it once. It meant that a month had passed since he'd arrived in this world. It meant that another set of new arrivals should be falling from the sky any moment. More importantly, it meant that fresh NPC villains should be spawning on every street corner right this second.

All his plans for the day vanished in an instant. Instead he reached out to his friends to see who wanted to go hunting together. Even with the levels that he'd gained over the last month, he didn't want to be caught out alone. Not again.

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Within minutes, Cannoneer and Gray Guardian met Lightforge at a convenient intersection. Their eyes shone with excitement as, finally, this world was going to feel like a game again. At least for a few days. Sunbird hadn't responded, so she was probably off doing her own thing. And Cannoneer raised the obvious question.

"You didn't invite Circe, did you? For a situation like this, I don't think it would be fitting."

Lightforge just shrugged.

"You're right, but I couldn't even if I wanted to. I never added her to my friends list. I can't message her directly."

"Seriously? How did she hear about the mission last week? Or any other time that she's done things with you?"

"She always finds me. It's sort of her thing: she knows things and she appears when she's needed. Or when she feels like it."

The other two heroes just stared at him, open-mouthed. Heroes in truth; Gray Guardian had gained the alignment thanks to their bust of the gang with all the stolen goods. Lightforge, on the other hand, was still counted as neutral. He grumbled at the thought.

"You know, we really need a better name than 'Neutrals.' I may not technically be a Hero or a Villain, but calling myself a Neutral always feels lame."

"How about Vigilante?"

Lightforge turned to Cannoneer, who'd given the suggestion. The gadgeteer raised an eyebrow at the name, and the Hero shrugged. But he also looked oddly… embarrassed?

"Where'd you get that from?"

"Apparently, that's what they were called in the early beta versions of the game. At least, that's what Sunbird told me."

Lightforge grinned and shared a mischievous look with Gray Guardian. There was, of course, nothing wrong with two teammates working together, but the bazooka-wielding man hadn't given the right reaction for that. Gray Guardian sauntered over and set a hand on Cannoneer's shoulder.

"Oh, is that right? I didn't know you and Sunbird were doing team-ups. You should have said something. Lightforge and I had one just the other day, we could have all met up to work together again."

Cannoneer began to blush, but the redness in his cheeks faded after only a moment. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then glared at his friends.

“It was nothing like that. We just ran into each other and chatted. And I don’t know what you two are thinking, but you’re wrong.”

“How can you be sure?” Lightforge asked, “You don’t know what we’re thinking.”

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There was a long pause as a flurry of emotions raced across the weapon specialist’s face. He bit his lip and shook his head a few times as he considered something, but finally his shoulders sagged and just stared at the ground.

“I remember what happened in the dungeon. With that gas attack.”

The smile slipped from Lightforge’s face. It was impossible to tell with Gray Guardian’s mask, but the sharp intake of breath was a sign in the same direction. The trio stood around for a few moments, awkwardly avoiding the topic that they’d all walked into. It was Gray Guardian who finally broke the silence.

“I thought neither of you could remember what happened?”

“I didn’t. Not at first. For the first day or so I could only remember the feelings that had overcome me. The uncontrollable urges that the damn gas put into me.”

Gray Guardian quietly shepherded their little group to the side of the street where they could sit on the curb and talk for a while. Cannoneer’s gaze was distant, looking into the past rather than at the street in front of him.

“The problem came the night after the dungeon. After we cleared it, I mean. I started having dreams, and every time I do, the image of what happened becomes a little bit clearer.”

Lightforge scratched his head for a moment as he considered what he was hearing. He wanted to be delicate, but that wasn’t a skill that he had. He was much better at being direct.

“I hate to say it, but what makes it so bad? From where we were, it just looked like kissing.”

“The kissing isn’t the problem. I don’t think I’d have a problem if that were all. The problem is all the feelings associated with it. It was deep and primal. All-consuming is probably a good word for it. Instead of just being a kiss, it felt like the first hit of the world’s most addictive drug.”

“Woah. Ok, I can see how that might be problematic.”

“Exactly. And now I can’t so much as think about Sunbird without feeling some of that come back. And honestly? I hate it.”

“It? But not her, right?”

Gray Guardian was nudging the conversation forward while quietly signaling for Lightforge to not talk for a while. He was perfectly content with that. He let the healer and the other man do all the talking.

“Of course not. I know it’s not her fault. I just don’t know if I can be around her for a while. I would like to see her as a friend, and I don’t want the remnants of that trap to poison that.”

“That’s fair, but maybe you should talk to her about it? If she’s going through the same—”

The healer was cut off as a car came screaming around the corner at high speed. It looked like something from a corny movie. There was money fluttering out of a sack in the back seat and thugs were leaning out the windows holding guns, shooting at something behind them. The police weren’t far behind, but the sudden sight had the trio so surprised that, for a moment, they just gawked.

Lightforge, having been quietly separated from the conversation, was the first to react. He already had his hammer in hand and leaped out into the street. Despite his size he flew out above the thieves’ car with perfect aim to come down right on their hood. But he wasn’t planning to wait that long. He gripped the weapon in both hands and brought it down with every ounce of force that he could manage.

The flat head of the hammer came down on the car’s hood with a thunderous crash. Metal crunched and sheared as the impact rippled through the vehicle, turning vital components to junk. The added knockback from Sabotage literally ripped the engine loose from its mountings, dropping the guts of the vehicle a few inches. The car spluttered and threw up sparks as the chassis began dragging on the road beneath and slowing it to a crawl.

The thugs were slammed against the frame of the car from the impact, as was Lightforge. While his blow had effectively crippled the vehicle, its momentum continued forward long enough to crash into him and send him flying. In that brief moment he considered that maybe, just maybe, his reckless attack had been a bad idea. He struck hard and the world spun around him for a moment before his head cleared.

He stumbled to his feet, vision blurring as he tried to reorient himself. As it cleared, he realized that the thugs had recovered just a little bit faster than he had. They were clambering out of their ruined car, guns aimed at him. Well, that was bad. Now Lightforge was willing to admit that he probably hadn’t thought this through properly. At the same time, he found that he couldn't regret it either, because it had been awesome.

And now he had to take the consequences. There was little more that he could do besides wince and hope that he had enough HP to take the inevitable bullets.

The guns barked as the criminals unloaded both ammunition and fury at the interloper who'd stopped their brilliant escape. Lightforge was mentally prepared for the pain, but it never came. A glowing energy shield popped into existence in front of him at the last moment. Lightforge grinned as he looked up to see a panting Gray Guardian glaring down at him.

“You had no plan whatsoever, did you?”

“Not really, no. Don’t you know the saying? When all you have is a hammer?”

He raised the glowing weapon with a weak smile. Gray Guardian shook their head and sighed before absently turning to look at the thugs, who were still shooting at them. Most of them were, at least. One was smart enough to have grabbed the cash and was looking around for an escape route. Gray Guardian absently reached a hand out and gave Lightforge a buff as they waited for the bullets to stop.

"Anytime you're ready over there."

Lightforge couldn't see who the healer was calling to, but it didn't take a genius to figure it out. A moment later, a grenade silently lobbed through the air, flying in an arc that carried it directly into the center of the criminals. They were all so busy glaring and shooting at the glowing barrier that none of them noticed it.

It exploded not with fire, but with lightning. Blue and white bolts of electricity arced out from the grenade spreading out to cover the hostile group. While some of the bolts ground themselves harmlessly, many more streaked through the gunmen. They dropped their weapons and shook as the voltage coursed through them.

The shock from the grenade only lasted a few moments, and only the thug closest to it fell. The others would only need moments to recover at least some ability to fight again. They didn't get the chance as a second grenade, identical to the first, fell among them.

The police had already been following the criminals, so it didn't take long for them to collect the twitching thugs. Lightforge watched them work with satisfaction before turning back to his companions with a big smile.

"As much fun as it is to talk about Cannoneer's struggles, I think we're going to be busy for a while."

"Agreed," Cannoneer said, "Personal issues can wait until things calm down."

"That's right. For now it’s time to kick some [BLEEP] and gain some levels!"

The trio turned away and took off at a run towards the nearest signs of crime. There would be plenty of time to talk, but now was a time for action. There wasn't a moment to waste.