Monday, February 1
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As far as I was concerned, classes were canceled.
Fursona and I flew hard toward the address that Mindstorm had sent us; she’d only told us where the meeting was happening ten minutes ago and said that anyone who didn’t show up was “…unserious…about this whole thing. Be there or…be neutral.”
I knew a lot of supers who wouldn’t be there, not because they didn’t want to be, but because they weren’t fast enough to make it.
Mindstorm’s house sat in a single-family neighborhood south of Tokyexico University; she’d drained her pool for the winter, but just like she’d said, a corner of the cover was unfolded, and below it, I could see a door. I punched in the code she’d texted, and a moment later, a metallic eye popped out of the wall. It beeped at us a couple of times, took flash photos of our faces, then withdrew.
A screeching sound filled the air as an entire side of the pool opened, revealing a long, dark hallway.
“Think it’s a trap?” Bee asked.
“No.” I shook my head and headed in. “We’re not in an Episode, and Mindstorm’s been suspicious of them for a while. She wouldn’t actively oppose them before, but she wasn’t afraid to come out against them here—and in a public way. She’s not here to trap a couple of minor leaguers.”
But the farther we walked down the hall, the more worried I got. Mindstorm had obviously spared no expense to make her lair an impossible-to-assault fortress. Every corner seemed to be defended by the best weapons a Genius could install, and there weren’t ten feet between each airlock. All the doors were open, though, and the guns, flamethrowers, and pressure plates were offline.
“See, nothing to worry about,” I said. I reached for a door handle, but the door flew open before I could.
“Welcome, welcome,” a hulking man with a hammer said. He wasn’t quite as big as Lord Destructo, but he was big. Punch and Grapple were big—heck, Cam was big, too—but this guy looked like he ate barbells. The only part that wasn’t a walking wall of muscle was his legs, and it wasn’t because he was skipping leg day; it was the parachute pants his costume featured. He stuck out a hand, and I shook it reflexively.
“Who are you two?” McHammer asked, crushing my ego almost as much as he’d crushed my hand.
“Magical Girl Understudy and Fursona. Mid-minor leagues. We did an attempted raid on the Hot Zone two days ago,” Fursona said. She was in her kangaroo fursuit, but even with her extra strength, she couldn’t match his hand. “We’re all in on this…whatever it is.”
“It’s a rebellion, kiddo,” McHammer said. “Come inside.”
He got out of the way, and we squeezed past him.
The room was a vast, round dome; a holographic brain hovered high in the air, with glass tubes running to and from its supercomputer-looking projector. The stainless steel walls glistened in the murky blue-ish light, and tiny sparks flashed from exposed wiring. But closer to the floor, I couldn’t see anything. There were so many people.
There had to be forty of us. Maybe fifty. I recognized a bunch of heroes and villains: Gourmet, Tearjerker, and Lady Lockless from the SSS; Springlock and Milo from TUSSA; and The Narrator. She smiled and waved when she saw us, but her eyebrows furrowed in worry. I remembered what Honeycomb had said about her thinking of us as her kids and that she’d wanted us to back off against The Agent.
There were others, of course, but the hulking form of McHammer walked through the crowd toward a balcony. He stopped under it, face shifting from the somewhat jovial man who’d greeted us to a severe and villainous look. “Alright, I’m calling this meeting to order!”
As Livestream and a familiar-looking fox-nun villain stopped near us, I shivered. It suddenly occurred to me that if someone started something, this entire room was a massive explosion waiting to happen. How had I thought this was a good idea? And more importantly, how could I get out if I had to?
We were too far from the exit for a clean break. That meant fighting. I’d have to go Super Girl Spotlight Star and blow all my most powerful attacks to clear a path, then hope that Mindstorm didn’t shut her doors or—
“Welcome…to my lair,” Mindstorm said dramatically, and I whirled.
She stood on her balcony, well above McHammer and the crowd. Her smile looked like a combination of relief and smugness; I’d had a dozen office hours meetings with her, but I’d only seen her in her element like this twice. Once, she’d kicked our teeth in as part of a lesson, and once, when she’d fought McHammer and Lord Destructo. Clearly, she hadn’t minded the challenge, and she hadn’t held it against McHammer, either, if they were allies now.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I’m happy to see so many of…us,” she continued, and I shivered. “You all know who I am, and I’m not…wasting time…with an introduction session. As of right now, we’re all in this…rebellion…together. If you have rivals or enemies in this group, put aside your grudges. You’ll have time later, after we…win. After the Ilneats are gone.”
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Something about how Mindstorm said what we all seemed to want, but said it so casually, sent more shivers up my spine. I glanced around as she kept talking; Sister Sly kept shooting looks at Fursona, and my partner wasn’t exactly chill about being in the same room as her, either. I didn’t have as many true enemies in the room, but Theseus had arrived a touch late, and in the back, I could see the neon-helmeted Roadrage.
Mindstorm didn’t seem worried about the room’s increasingly tense atmosphere, though. She kept going as if it wasn’t an issue. “Since we’re all hanging together or separately, I want to…reassure…you all about a few important things.
“First, I believe the Ilneats won’t reveal your identities to the masses unless they start losing…hard. I’ve studied them for a long time, and I believe that they’ll view even this as a chance at higher ratings. That means you should be safe from reveals…on that front. But be cautious. You may want to…take steps to mitigate any reveals that could happen. I’ll leave that to you to decide how best to take care of yourselves…except for student supers. See me after…class. You have additional challenges on that front.”
The crowd laughed nervously at Mindstorm’s joke. I did, too. She might be a bitch, and she definitely was a villain, but even I grudgingly admitted that she’d helped me in my year and a half of college. And, even though it was a dumb joke, it seemed to help. I could feel some of the tension melting off…a little.
“Next…we need to discuss the reality of our situation. We are outgunned and outmatched—and that’s before the…Ilneats…get involved. Stella-Lunar, The Agent, and the Triad are all top-tier supers, and so is Lord Destructo. Worse, they have Dr. Mays. We can’t fight them in a straight-up fight and expect to…win.”
I could hear disgruntled heroes and villains murmuring in the crowd at that. McHammer cleared his throat. “Everyone, shut up and listen. The boss is talking about how we win, not how we’re going to lose.”
“Thank you, McHammer. Now…if I thought we couldn’t win, I wouldn’t…fight. This isn’t going to be easy, though. We need to spread out their bigs and…defeat them one at a time. But unlike in Episodes, we can’t just…win. Villains, this part is on you.
“That means ethical combat. You need to change your tactics. No hostages. No destruction unless it’s unavoidable. None of that. We aren’t villains anymore. We’re the heroes, and we need to win the Extras over. Otherwise…this won’t work.”
I nodded. That all made sense. Mindstorm went on and on about the tactics we’d have to use: the strategies she had for pinning down Stella-Lunar and the Triad, for cornering Lord Destructo, and for removing Dr. Mays from the board without actually fighting him. I listened intently, even as some of the more impulsive supers started to grow bored. She was right; we couldn’t handle them in a real fight. We had to fight them like we were the weaker side.
We had to be villains.
But we had to act like heroes.
Then, Mindstorm turned to the bigger problem. “A…rogue element…attempted an assault on the Hot Zone two nights ago. They discovered that the whole district is protected. Additionally, all movement in and out of our studio doors is cut off. That leaves us with a major problem; we can beat Stella-Lunar all we want, but if we don’t take her producer off the table, we haven’t won. I’m working on solutions to that…problem.”
“In that regard, I want all major leaguers and upper-tier minor leaguers to go with McHammer. He’ll be laying out the first stage of our plan to take the Tokyexico Council of Heroes off the table. It’ll be…counterintuitive, but necessary.”
I blinked. That was an odd choice, since the Council of Heroes hadn’t officially chosen sides in the upcoming conflict. Then I started walking toward McHammer. But before I could get there, Mindstorm stopped me. “If you’ve had any conversations with APPEAL or similar groups, I want to see you near the door. You’re going to engage in our hearts and…minds…program. Welcome to psychological operations 101 with Dr. Mindstorm.”
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Fursona and I joined Mindstorm and a handful of others by the door. None of the heavy hitters were there, but I could see that Acid Rain had joined us, along with a few other mid-tier heroes and villains. I cleared my throat. “So, hearts and minds, huh?”
“Yes. You’re the most important front in our…war. The Extras should be sympathetic to our cause, but I can’t promise that. If they decide the status quo is better than the war we’re about to fight, we can’t…win. So, at the very least, I need APPEAL and the others off the table. It would be better to…convert them into allies, but I’ll…accept neutrality.”
“What do you want us to do?” Livestream asked.
“You, specifically, have a platform that’s not controlled by the studios. So you do, Gourmet, but yours is a little…different. So you two will work on public relations. Grab Foamy Flash and The Crumb, work together, and figure out how to message that we may have been villains, but we’re the…good guys now,” Mindstorm said. “When you’ve figured out your messaging, report back to me. Livestream, you’re the liason. Not in charge, just reporting back to me. Work together, not for someone.”
“Got it,” Gourmet said. “See you later, Snack.” She waved at me and stalked off, following the streaming villain toward another corner of the crowded room. I sort of wanted to ask why she was here; she’d never gotten along with her studio, but she had a pretty good gig going on her cooking show.
“Next, Earth governments. We don’t need…a lot of them. But we do need a couple. Any volunteers to deal with them? Well-known heroes, ideally.”
A couple of hands shot up, and Mindstorm directed them to the side. “I’ll work directly with you in a minute. Let me line everyone else out on their jobs.”
She cleared her throat. “The rest of you are here because you’ve interacted with anti-super groups. Your job is to turn them into anti-Ilneat groups. Convince them that we’re on the same side.”
I winced; I’d known it was coming, but I couldn’t see how we could possibly convert Su-Bin into a super-loving president. The chances seemed null.