Dean was sitting with Gate, who looked him over with a bit of imperious judgment in her eye. “You should be fine,” she said at last, grabbing his shoulders with her hands. “Remember, when in doubt, wait three seconds and give them that big country smile of yours okay farmboy?”

“I didn’t actually grow up on a farm,” Dean pointed out. Having a farm meant having money and, while his mom had owned their house outright, there wasn’t much else to their name.

“I know that,” Gate responded. “But they don’t know that, right?”

Dean nodded. He was nervous about this – Up until now, he’d conducted most of his meetings in the Ziggurat or with the team. Zera, however, was insistent on taking him down to Ferryville on Missippi to meet with Queen of Hearts.

“You’ll do great,” Molly said, laying on a couch nearby and tossing a ball in the air. “Better than what we’ve got going on.”

Things had been coming in pretty slow so far this week, not that Dean was complaining. It was a nice break from the high eventfulness of the recent weeks that he got to just chill with his team and enjoy himself.

There was a ping from the front of their conference room and his aunt walked in. She looked like she always did – Suspiciously young for her position, just tilting into the prime years of her even though she must have been forty five. She grinned at him, her purple and gold suit on, “You ready to go?” she asked and he nodded.

They spent the trip on the disc mostly catching up on how they were each doing. It was pleasant and Zera taught him her world’s chess equivalent as the pilots handled the trip. Once they were about thirty minutes out, Zera broke into briefing mode and sat him down. “There are a bunch of cities in the Order’s aegis that are large and unremarkable,” Zera said. “We assigned the Queen of Hearts to this one in the aftermath of the war. A lot of mid-tier preternaturals are assigned to cities like this one.”

“So why are we going out to visit, exactly?”

“To say thanks,” Zera said, “not everybody gets assigned to cities of their choosing. If people are responsible with their holdings, I like to go out and visit them, make them feel important for a day or two.”

Dean nodded at that. It made sense to be show gratitude as a leader, he’d gotten that much from his aunt already. “Okay but why am I going?”

“Well,” Zera said, “there are a lot of young members of the order’s second generation, people like your team, and I’d love for you to meet more of them.”

Dean felt a strange suspicion about that, “Do you mean there’s a girl?”

“There is a girl,” Zera said after a moment. “Jill of Hearts, she inherited her mother’s luck power. Very lovely young lady.”

Dean felt a bit condescended to at that, “I can do just fine on my own.”

“I’m not saying anything has to happen, but it’s good to encourage friendliness between Order members.”

Dean didn’t roll his eyes at that. He was still getting his feet under him, getting used to the idea that he was a prominent member of society and dealing with the… groupies that the Order members sometimes accumulated.

Once they reached the landing zone, Dean and his aunt were greeted by quite the welcome. There were dozens of service members present and lined up at attention to greet him, the Queen of Hearts and her daughter were standing ready to receive them.

Zera wasted no time in zipping out of the plane and grabbing the Queen of Hearts in a hug, “It’s so good to see you!” she announced loudly for everyone to hear.

The Queen of Hearts half-way extracted herself so that she was holding Zera’s shoulders, “And it’s good to see you!”

Dean proceeded down the ramp on foot, saluting the service members with a hearty, “Justice prevails!” and receiving a “Justice prevails” in return.

The Queen of Hearts had a sleek adaptive fiber costume with accoutrements that made her look a little bit like a playing card Queen. Next to her, her daughter smirked a little at the salute, wearing a sleek no-adornments adaptive fiber costume from the neck down, split half red on the left side and half white on the other with a red heart over her right eye and a white J around her left. “Welcome to Ferryville,” she said, looking him over.

Dean was less self-conscious about that than he would have been not that long ago. He’d started to fill out as he worked out and got excess calories and no longer felt like a walking bean pole. “Thank you for having us,” he said politely.

His aunt and her mother were apparently old friends, thick as thieves from their days together during the war. She had left that part out although it explained a little bit the match making with such a relatively low rank Order member.

They were dragged off after that for the tour of the town, sitting in the back of limousines as they passed through it. One thing that struck Dean was how much more prominently the Queen of Heart’s colors figured than he had expected. New Avalon was a big city and while it hung enough purple and gold for anyone, those felt like they were the Order’s colors rather than Olympia’s alone.

Ferryville, by contrast, had not really cleaved closely to the new medieval style or similar, but there were red and white banners anywhere you might see it. “They’re pretty fond of your mom,” Dean said to Jill of Hearts as the limousine turned down another broadway.

“Ferryville didn’t have any heroes before the war, so they’re grateful,” Jill said, sounding polite if a little… distant, maybe?

“Yeah, when I was growing up the closest city was smaller than this and didn’t have a hero, I can’t imagine how excited they would be to have – you know – an Order member.”

Jill looked at him, “Didn’t you grow up in New Avalon?”

Dean shook his head, remembering the old lie so well by this point it was basically the truth, “No, my family thought it would be better if I grew up away from the limelight. People in my hometown didn’t even know we were connected to Olympia, much less that I was Titan’s son.”

“Huh,” she said, a bit surprised, “my mother’s always been very insistent that I have as much experience as possible as a leader.”

Dean shrugged, “I guess my family was afraid it would go to my head.”

Jill nodded at that and they got to talking about their respective hometowns. Dean talked about the ongoing reconciliation process and how people back home were still stuck on the war, Jill talked about her life as the local princess. It was a fun exchange and made Dean wonder about what it would’ve been like to grow up in public like that, with everyone’s eyes on you all the time. If there had been one saving grace of Littleton, it was that they were mostly overlooked.

The tour came to an eventual end and they came to a big recreation center that was bedecked out in welcome. Zera tore herself away from her friend and led Dean inside, “We need to make a good impression on the locals as well,” she said. “I know it’s a smaller city, but once upon a time, these were Loyalists,” she paused for a moment and leaned closer to whisper, “Seraphite, not Patriot.”

Dean felt his body stiffen just a little. He hadn’t known anyone who ever claimed to be a Seraphite or to have been a Seraphite, but he knew a lot of people were once upon a time. Even if they hadn’t won election directly, they’d appealed to a lot of people as a powerful counterbalance to the preternaturals. He stood up straight after a moment, trying to look as heroic and serious as possible.

A party began at that point as they entered the room, a huge crowd of people milling up for the meet and greet. Dean had plenty of experience shaking hands with other Order members, but his aunt had carefully protected him from any meetings with the mass public until now.

Dean found it to be a surprisingly draining experience to smile and nod for hour after hour. Most people who came up were just being friendly, though he definitely got the sense that a good number of the women who came up to him were hitting on him. As he was deflecting the thirtieth dropped hint and the sun began to wane in the sky, Jill of Hearts walked up.

“I’m flattered,” he said to a compliment on his physical appearance for what must have been the fifteenth time tonight. But hey, if it worked, “but I’m not going to be here very long and I’m so busy.”

“He’s very busy,” Jill of Hearts said, leaning up against him with an exaggerated manner.

The young woman’s smile became quite fixed and she departed immediately.

“Thanks,” Dean said as the woman left. He was relieved that he wasn’t going to have to deflect her any further.

“Groupies, right?” Jill said, as if it were an ordinary part of life. Maybe it was an ordinary part of life for her – She had grown up here, after all.

“I admit, I’m not generally the type to go out and hit on people like that, but…” he didn’t want to be rude. “I get it. For them, this is once in a lifetime.”

“Oh, for sure,” Jill agreed, looking out at the bustling party room. “Do you want to get out of here?” she asked quietly in his ear.

Dean felt his heart race a little bit at the suggestion of leaving. “We’re supposed to make a good impression,” he said, hesitant to jump ship immediately.

Jill rolled her eyes, “I’m sure that you’ve already come off as a fine young man,” she said, “but my mother has these people thoroughly managed. If there was anyone here who it mattered what they thought of you, they already think highly of you. Ferryville is only two hundred thousand people, but even here there were thousands of people who sided with the Order from the jump. These are those people’s kids.”

Dean felt a shock of realization that this was a Loyalist party. It wasn’t that he hadn’t known that objectively that was possible or even likely. But he knew what it was to be on the outside of this sort of party and what sort of people were here. He thought of Ethan’s actions on the rooftop and felt profoundly uncomfortable. What was he doing here?

“You want to get out of here or not?” Jill asked, her auburn hair hanging to her shoulders.

“Yeah,” Dean said, eager for the chance to escape the situation now that he fully understood it. “Let’s go.”

Jill pulled him out through the hall and he followed, moving along after her. “We’ll need to head out in a car,” she said and she tapped a button on a key. A car levitated up in the lot, a sleek red convertible with the latest in hover tech and siren modules on its sides. “Come on,” she said.

Dean followed, getting into the car. It was a beautiful thing, luxurious, “This car is nice,” Dean said. He probably could have afforded one, now that he thought about it, but he didn’t leave the Ziggurat alone enough for it to be worthwhile in his mind.

“Thanks,” Jill said, “it’s definitely my favorite.” She put the car into reverse and the smooth purr of the levitation tech kicked in. They swept down the road, moving quickly without much trouble. The sun declining in the west. “Want to see what it can do?”

“Yes,” Dean said, feeling quite excited at the idea.

Jill grinned a positively wicked grin, “Let’s go then.” The roof of the cat pulled down, the wind whipping through their hair as if they were flying, and Dean felt the sort of liberation that a car could deliver. Once they made it to a highway, Jill flicked on music and the siren.

They were going fast now, Dean felt his hand curl against the door’s handle. He had never been in a car this fast and smooth before, almost as if they were sliding down a sheet of ice instead of straight across the highway, people pulling aside.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Are you sure you should be using the sirens to show off?” Dean asked

“Oh relax,” Jill said, her body perfectly at ease. She looked good as the wind whipped her hair behind her back. “With my luck powers, the odds of a crash caused by this are miniscule.”

Dean felt a bit of relaxation at that. He wondered how powerful her luck was, that she felt that confident about it, but he supposed this sort of thing was part of how one ended up with a charmed life in the first place.

As they darted past cars pulled to the side, Dean wondered how they felt about it. If this had been Seraphite territory, then it seemed likely that some of them might resent them for this sort of abuse.

But soon enough, the rush of movement was clearing Dean’s mind of everything but the motion and the music on Jill’s stereos. It was a sort of fast-paced rock sound that Dean was surprised to find that he liked, the beat tapping in his ear as the car moved down the highway.

“It’s fun right?” Jill said from beside him, “once you get out of your head!”

“Yeah, it is!” Dean agreed. He felt himself enjoying the moment a great deal – A beautiful woman, a beautiful car, a beautiful evening – and wishing it could last a little bit longer. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere!” Jill shouted back over the rush of the wind.

“Shouldn’t we be going somewhere?”

“We can go wherever you want, Tee,” she said, with an easy confidence, “but we’re going to go, you know?”

Dean smiled at that. Going to go – “Nothing wrong with that!”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Jill said, smiling out at the road. As the music flipped over to another track, Jill started belting out a song with it. Her voice wasn’t that good – One couldn’t have everything Dean supposed – but she sounded so damn happy Dean was enjoying it anyway.

“Come on, Tee, you’re making me feel weird, you gotta try to sing along with the chorus,” she commanded and Dean hesitated.

Dean gave in and followed suit, trying to match the song key for key. He felt confident he would’ve embarrassed himself singing like that in church, but Jill just laughed and applauded by thumping on her steering wheel. “That’s the spirit, Tee,” she said after the song wound down. “You got a favorite song?”

“Bread and roses?” Dean suggested meekly.

“Never heard it,” Jill said after a moment.

“My mom loves it and it’s very singable,” Dean said.

“Car, play Bread and Roses,” Jill commanded and the car obeyed.

It was a very, very different sort of song than Jill’s rock head banger of a song and Dean felt self-conscious as it wound down. “It’s okay if you don’t like it,” he said quietly.

“No, it’s good,” Jill said. There was only a hint of disappointment in her voice, “Not my usual taste, but it’s good.”

Dean shrugged. She’d asked for his favorite song and that was it. “We going to keep peeling into the deep night?” Dean asked.

“Not getting bored of me already, I hope,” Jill said with a grin.

“No!” Dean shouted, “But it’s kinda hard to talk with the roof down like this! Do you guys have a club around here?”

Jill smiled, “Oh, we’ve got a club. Come on,” she whipped the car into a u-turn and peeled down an on ramp on the highway. Dean felt a tense moment of discomfort, but just as if providence had arranged it, there were no cars in the way. “Come on, Tee, let’s go hit the town.”

She grabbed his hand, the sharp red and white of her costume drawing his attention to how good she looked. He tried not to think about it – He worked with Molly all the time and she was wearing a swimsuit, why was this so much more distracting?

“The night is young and the lights of the street are bright,” she said, turning back toward him with a smile. He managed a weak smile back, feeling insecure about his lack of… experience.

When they reached a club with red and white lights, Dean started to feel a bit more on footing. Molly had taken them out clubbing enough that he understood the basics and he was comfortable with it.

When they went inside, the entire place had a very different attitude than Molly’s usual preferred haunts. She liked thumping music and the smell of sweat, this was much more… laid back. The place smelled faintly like perfume, though it managed not to be cloying. Jill lead the way inside and plopped down at a table without waiting to be seated contra the sign and something inside of Dean curled up a little bit at following her lead.

“We could’ve waited for the hostess,” Dean said.

“Well, Tee, I don’t like to wait, so why should I?” she held up her red, left hand and a woman approached immediately. “I want my usual, Tee, what do you drink?”

“Cider,” Dean said, defaulting to his usual order at the club. At least it tasted like fruit and you could drink it slow over the course of the night.

The woman bent a little bit, “Of course, Justice Prevails,” she said subserviently.

“Justice prevails,” Jill said before waving the woman off, sending her scurrying away.

This was very much not how they dealt with the staff at any clubs Molly dragged them to. It stunk of the exact kind of bossy behavior that Dean had once associated with Loyalists back in Littleton. His own team wasn’t much like that, so he had assumed most second gen heroes were like his friends. “So,” he said, trying to focus on the positives, “why’d you decide to become an Order member?”

“Nothing but the highest of ambitions to serve and protect the general public Tee, why would you ask?”

Dean did not know exactly what he had done to project this level of cynical disinterest, but he was beginning to feel a bit foolish for it nonetheless. “I just thought it might be something a little more specific than that.”

Jill frowned but then wiped it from her face, “Hey, no biggie. Why’d you get into it? Trying to live up to your father’s legacy?”

The waitress came back, her body tense and nervous as she approached with three shots of vodka and a bottle of cider. She put them in front of Jill and Dean. “Thank you,” he said, counting to three before doing his best to put on a big ‘country smile’ as Leah called it. “Your service is much appreciated.”

The girl blushed a little bit at that, “You’re welcome, Boy Titan,” she said.

Jill didn’t like that, “Yeah, thanks,” she said in a tone that was clearly a dismissal.

“I wasn’t flirting with her,” Dean said as the young woman hurried away.

“I know that,” Jill said, putting on a regular smile, “but I AM trying to flirt with YOU.”

Dean felt his ears turn scarlet red at that. He had known – he had suspected at least that there might be – but she was very pretty and he was not used to the attention from the fairer sex. “Right, sorry,” he said after a moment.

“No animus,” she said with a laugh, shotgunning a shot in about a second flat. “So why did you become an Order member? Martyr’s pension should’ve set your family up for life.”

Dean hesitated at that. He hadn’t actually known that his aunt was going to restore his father’s pension with backpay when he’d signed up. “I grew up in a small town,” he said after a moment, “and I wanted to see the world, I guess.” That was true enough – His mother might have been more free than she’d had any right to expect after a decade and a half as a fugitive, but she was definitely monitored.

“Gotten to see anywhere really cool?”

“Uh, not yet,” he said a little dumbly. Now that he had all the power, he had spent his time mostly hanging out around the Ziggurat. “I meant, I guess the Ziggurat is one of the wonders of the world and I live there now, but that’s about it.”

“You live in the Ziggurat? What’s it like?”

“Oh, uh, we have a lot of really dedicated staff. It’s a very buttoned up place, with a lot of rules and stuff. Pretty boring, really. I guess that occasionally some preter makes an attempt to mess with us in some way.”

Jill laughed, “If that’s boring, I’d kill for it – Nothing ever happens here in Ferryville,” she said leaning in and running a finger over one of her shot glass rim. Dean was forced to acknowledge once again that Jill was very attractive and she was flirting with him.

“I know what that’s like,” Dean said locking eyes. “What do you do for fun?”

“Movies, this club,” she took another shot as he sipped on his cider. “We keep each other company,” she said and her foot ran up his leg.

Dean felt profoundly uncomfortable now, “Yeah, people did that a lot in my hometown,” he said, tucking his legs under his seat. If she’d tried this before they’d made it to the club, he might have been more enthusiastic. But while he did not yet strongly dislike Jill, he wasn’t ready to dive head first into the whole… thing on a first date. “I didn’t get much experience though.”

“Ah,” she said, leaning back, “and I’m coming on a little strong.”

Dean nodded his head after a moment of pause.

“My bad,” she said and she blushed. “I’ve been a princess for too long, I guess. Everybody has always known who my mom was, so I’ve got more experience with groupies than with guys like you.”

Dean smiled without wondering what she meant by guys like him and took a sip of his cider. “I guess I just want to take things, like, slow.”

“You’ve got it,” Jill said, putting down the last shot and leaning back in her chair. The atmosphere of the place definitely reflected her family colors – That made sense, Ferryville had been her mother’s stomping ground as a cape. There was even a signed picture of the Queen and Jill of Hearts on the wall. Jill tilted her head toward a stage, “We’re big patrons of artists here in town,” she said, “Elliot should be out in a bit with some of his music.”

“We didn’t have any musical scene where I grew up,” Dean said, looking toward the stage with interest.

“None at all?” Jill sounded shocked.

“Not unless you count guys playing on their guitars at youth group or at parties, no,” he said.

“Elliot is really good, you’ll like him,” Jill said.

When Elliot came out and played, Dean was not astonished to discover that he did like him. The man was maybe early thirties, but he had virtuosity, playing the piano like master and crooning along. It could be slow and melodic or thunderous and imperious and he enjoyed every second of it.

They passed the evening into the night without much trouble after that, exchanging glances and conversations about music or art. Apparently, Jill was very enthusiastic about the arts – Ferryville had a bunch of museums for more modern art that her family had collected over the years.

“We were art thieves before the Seraphites got us on-side with the Order,” she said, in one of the lulls. “I think my family cares more about art than anything else in the world.”

“Not one another surely,” Dean said.

“You’d think that,” she said after a moment and she looked a bit sad. The alcohol had definitely kicked in for her by now and she was a little less the extraverted rager than he’d expected. She was more melancholic.

“Do you feel the same way?” Dean asked, trying to probe a bit deeper.

“Oh, I guess?” she said, “Everything is ephemeral and appearances, but sometimes I guess it’s lovely – Nothing wrong with that right?”

Dean felt he had once again stumbled into an area of disagreement with Jill. He let out a hmm, “Not in and of itself,” after a moment.

“Look, life passes by real quick and-” there was a buzz in Dean’s communicator that he knew must have gone off in Jill’s ear as well. It was a criminal activity alert. “and you have to grab it by the horn when you have the chance.”

Dean pressed his finger to his ear. The communicator listed out that there was a robbery happening a few street over. He got out of his seat, “Come on,” he said, jerking his head toward the door.

“Ugh, but why?” Dean looked at her aghast, “Yeah, alright, alright, after you Mr. Paladin.”

Dean darted out of the club, jumping into the car and flicking on the emergency lights. He had only drunk half a glass of cider, anyway, and his powers gave him a certain level of resistance to alcohol. Jill followed up behind him, her swords at her side, and got into the car.

He started driving as quickly as he could toward the robbery. It was a standard B&E of a jewelry store, nothing special, but he still wanted to get there. “You know this is why we get paid right?” Dean asked, over the sirens.

“We mostly get paid for sticking our neck out when there’s a big preter problem,” Jill said, clearly resentful at having to do her job. “It’s not like anybody is going to die if we don’t arrest these goobers.”

They arrived in a matter of minutes. The street was poorly lit, the robbers were already moving toward their car. The roaring of the car’s siren wailed in Dean’s ears but the the robbers weren’t stopping. “This is Boy Titan, squire to Olympia. Surrender now and this doesn’t have to be painful for you.”

Dean had expected that to work – It usually did in New Avalon – but there was instead a frightened shriek as the robbers started clambering into their car.

“Why do they always run?” Jill said with a sigh, leaning out of her window with a razor-sharp card and hurling it at the robber’s car’s wheels. It dinged off the side of the car. “Security services this is Jill of Hearts, we’ve some runners if you could put up a cordon.”

How had she been so energetic driving down the road for no reason and so apathetic now? Dean did not understand Jill of Hearts at all. He pushed open his door and jumped toward the car before it started down the road. He slammed into it, grabbing the hudcap. The car’s engine ignited and the car launched off, dragging him after it.

Dean struggled as the car pulled him along, trying to move along the length of the car. If he slammed down his feet, the car would just tear loose of him, and so he had to try and reach the inside of the car. Wind roaring past his ear, he clambered up onto the hood of the trunk, making holes in it to serve as handholds. The sharp metal felt like grass beneath his fingers as he lugged himself to the back windshield and slammed his fist into it.

The inside of the car was already a screaming torrent, “-you nuts? No way in hell I’m shooting Olympia’s squire,” one of the robbers was saying.

“I appreciate the thoughtfulness gentlemen, but it wouldn’t do you any good.” Dean said before hitting a different robber with a clean kick to the face. “Now, do I need to knock you all out or can you pull over?”

“We surrender!” one of the robbers said, “We surrender!” the other robber agreed.

Dean did his best to keep his temper down. That had been exciting – For all that he knew that he was unlikely to get injured from a mere car crash, he’d still felt like he might. It was like a rollercoast – Sure his conscious mind knew he was fine, but his subconscious mind still thought he might be roadside pancake. “Alright, that’s good, don’t know why we had to make this so difficult.”

Moments after they had pulled over, Jill of Hearts pulled up in her car and climbed out.

“I’ve got them!” Dean said happily, only to see Jill yank the driver out of his seat and onto the pavement.

“When the Order says surrender,” she said, landing a punch with her right hand that smeared blood over her white segment. “What do you do?”

The robber looked desperate, “Please!”

She slammed another fist into his face once again, pulling it back, and then another one, “What do you do?”

“We surrender!” he wailed and Jill gave him another punch before seemed satisfied.

Dean felt a genuine sickness to his stomach as Jill straightened up. “See, they can learn!” Jill said, flicking the blood off her hand.

“I…” Dean was mindful of his aunt’s advice that they often had to keep the Order appearing more united than it was. “suppose that’s true enough,” he agreed after a moment of thought. “Help me put the cuffs on them,” he said, reaching into his belt. “Gently,” he added in her ear as she approached the next pair.

“Yes sir,” she said in a way that she was clearly hoping was flirtatious but that just made Dean a little bit queasy. She had just beat up a man who had already surrendered. Within two more minutes, they were all cuffed up and Zera had arrived.

“Ma’am,” Jill said, standing to attention. Dean looked at his aunt a little wearily, but she seemed to be in good spirits.

“You did great,” she said with a big smile that took up most of her face. It wasn’t at all insincere.

Dean didn’t feel like he had done great at all. He looked over at Jill, who was feeling pretty confident. “We gotta do this again,” she said as Zera took the criminals in.

Dean watched his aunt fading into the distance and lied, “It was a nice night,” with his voice as friendly as he could make it. He couldn’t wait to get back to his team and the Ziggurat where he felt like he was doing good.