Jolly did not visibly react, but he was surprised. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing really,” the man coolly replied, “Just thought we should have a talk. Would that be a problem?”

“No,” Jolly said while scanning the park again for the man’s backup. “Just surprised. You never wanted to talk before. What changed?”

“Nothing,” the man said with a smile. “I just have some questions about what happened yesterday.”

Jolly’s surprise became confusion. “Yesterday? Yesterday, the Gaps opened. We fought, we won, and then the Gaps closed. What about it?”

“Just some questions about what your friend was doing yesterday.” The man gave Jolly a lopsided grin. “It was awfully selfless of him to charge into the Northern Barrows the way he did. I never knew villains did that.”

Jolly had to chuckle. “Oh, that’s what you want to ask. Yes, he went in. What about it?”

“Why?” The man’s tone was light, but Jolly wasn’t fooled. He scanned the park once more, but the results were the same. The man’s backup wasn’t in the park, so that left one place to search. Jolly stretched, his arms raised high above his body, and lifted his head skywards. Jolly scanned the sky; his visor magnifying his vision and he saw them. There were two of them. Heroes floating in the sky like gods above men.

Jolly put down his arms and looked at the man. “I know this may be before your time, but that’s what you are supposed to do in a Nexus Accord. You take the fight to the invaders, demons, or whatever that come through the Gaps, and you kill them.”

“Was that the only reason?”

“What do you mean?”

“I am not sure,” the man admitted, “but something wasn’t quite right. I can't quite put your finger on it, but Sweet Fist’s actions yesterday were strange. Was there really no other reasons he charged into the Barrows?”

Was the man fishing, or did Velocity Tower have something? Jolly would be surprised if he was the only mole the heroes had inside Victor’s crew, but if they had something, why would they be talking to him about it? The man was fishing, but as Jolly thought about it, he realized the man was right. Jolly hadn’t seen Victor in twenty years but charging into an active combat zone was not something a villain would usually do. The heroes’ psych profile of Victor must have told them the same thing. Of course, the heroes didn’t know Victor was a mystic so their profile could be wrong. Jolly asked the man a simple question.

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“You know Six-shot Samurai is in town, right?”

“Yes. We want to ask about that too, but what does that have to do with Sweet Fist going into the Barrows?”

“Impressing an old flame.”

The man’s eyebrow raised at that. “Really? You can’t come up with something better than that?”

“You know they had a kid, right?”

“Yes, we do.” This time it was the man’s turn to chuckle. “Just how many kids does Sweet Fist have?”

“I have no idea. I really don’t. I doubt even Sweet Fist knows for certain.”

“He was a real player back in the day.” The man shook his head at that. Jolly could see that the man was not pleased, but he was a professional. “Back to the topic. Sweet Fist and Six-shot Samurai had a kid. So what?”

“Six-shot Samurai came to Velocity City seeking Sweet Fist’s help because their kid is in a coma. Sweet Fist agreed.”

“We know that. Sweet Fist has already put out a call for help through that app H.A.V.E has. Again, so what?”

Jolly nod his head. It didn’t surprise him that the heroes also had agents within H.A.V.E. They probably had agents in all the major companies involved in the hero business.

“Word on the street is that Streetman is a hero so consumed by his work that he has no time for relationships. You don’t have kids, do you?” For the first time, the hero’s facade cracked, and the man glared at the information broker. Jolly put up his hands in surrender. “Easy now. I’m just saying you need to think of it from Victor’s point of view. It’s no use waking the boy up if the kid is still going to be a stranger.”

“You think Sweet Fist want a relationship with the boy?”

“Why not? He is already repairing relations with the two he met so far.” Jolly said, ‘inadvertently’ dropping a hint he knew the Streetman would pick up on. As long as the heroes think they can gain information from him, they will keep paying him for going ‘undercover’. Everyone knew about Jennifer, but how many people knew about Deion?

To his credit, the Streetman did not visibly react to the hint and continued with the conversation. “You think Six-shot Samurai will allow that? You know what Sweet Fist did to her?”

“Made her fall in love with him, then ruined her career.”

“Talk about a simplified summary.” Streetman scoffed. “Six heroes died that day. They died because of him!”

Jolly nodded. “Your point?”

In Victor’s defence, he did not know about the attack. To Victor, it was just a job to sleep with someone and install a virus. He did not know that it was a prelude to an attack. Jolly doubt Streetman would look at it that way. Victor himself never used ignorance as an excuse. So, Jolly kept quiet. He looked at the hero who looked back. Neither giving of them giving way. After a minute, Streetman finally stood.

“We will send the payment to your son. Find out everything you can about how Sweet Fist is teaching his students. And spread the word about what the Sweet Fist did back then. Let’s remind everyone why he is considered a villain.”

Jolly watched the hero walked away and had to admire how good the hero was. Even his gait was different from what you usually see on television. Jolly sat, drank his coffee, and wonder about his friend. Jolly wonder what secrets Victor was hiding. He wasn’t about to admit it to Streetman, but the hero was right. Something strange was going on with Victor. When the coffee was finished, Jolly stood up and began walking back to the King’s, wondering what other secrets the Sweet Fist still holds.