My first step towards real villainy. Mark considered that idea. Thinker had a point- he had just threatened a bound, scared captive. Threatened to use his Abnormal power to ruin his life, to mess with his family even. Mark didn’t feel particularly bad about it- Liquefy had threatened him first- but it was still fucked up.

“Why would you say that?”, Lucky Guess interjected, with irritation in her voice.

Thinker shrugged. “It’s true.” Lucky Guess didn’t seem satisfied with that answer and shook her head.

“It is true”, Mark agreed. “But… thank you, I suppose. I couldn’t have done that myself.”

Thinker shrugged. “Don’t thank us. It was to make up for yesterday. Speaking of which…”, he said. He took a second as if to think about what to say, and took a deep breath.

“I do think what we did was necessary. We needed to test your ability, and that was always going to be stressful.” He paused as Lucky Guess sighed and slightly slapped him on the shoulder. The blonde shook her head.

“But”, he continued, throwing a look at Lucky Guess. “I understand. We put you in a stressful, scary situation. We tricked you into it. I suppose I got too caught up in it all. I’m sorry, truly.”

“We all are”, Lucky Guess said.

Mark sighed. “The Liquefy thing makes up for it. Yeah, I’m not pleased about it but… whatever. It’s over.”

Thinker replied. “I’m glad to hear that. Now, I don’t have to tell you you passed our test. Given that, are you open to having a conversation again? About joining Scalpel?” His tone was surprisingly gentle.

When Mark nodded, Thinker took his mask off. As if on cue, so did the others- Lucky Guess and Steelskin. Mark took off his own in response, to escape the sweatiness more than anything else. He desperately wanted to change, but he settled for flicking on the air conditioning.

The blonde went and sat back on the kitchen counter. Butterfly still hadn’t said a word since he had arrived, and she didn’t lose any tension in her body either. Her focus was simply fully on Mark now.

Neel spoke. “I’ll keep it quick. We’ve already discussed everything there is to discuss. You’ve passed the test, and we’re happy to have you. So really, it comes down to you at this point. Yesterday you said you were in, but I’m asking you again after everything that’s happened.”

Mark nodded. “You’re not going to pull any more shit like that?”

Neel shook his head. “No. Even if you don’t want to join, we leave and never bother you again.”

“And this mystery job of yours…”

“I can’t say anything more than I already have, I’m sorry”, he said with an apologetic face.

Mark sighed. "Risky?" He had already asked, but he couldn't help but ask again.

Neel didn't seem to mind answering again. "Very."

"How much is 'very'?"

"About twenty-five million's worth", Steelskin replied.

"I'm probably not going to like it, whatever it is?"

"It would be weird if you did", the blonde answered, before Neel could reply. Neel nodded.

"Scalpel can help you out with your... 'job offers', as we just did, and we don't hurt people. On the other hand, we expect you to help us out on this job. But you get twenty-five million for your trouble.", Neel summarized.

“I need a second to think”, Mark said.

“Of course.”

Mark looked around the room once more. Neel was still staring at Mark in his intense fashion. Steelskin had stopped grinning for once and was watching him with interest. Lucky Guess was looking at the ground with a slight frown on her face. Over at the corner, Butterfly was still watching him, her body still tense as if ready to fight. He wasn’t sure what to make of her face expression, but he could tell she was bothered by him looking at her, so his eyes moved over to the last member- the blonde.

She smiled at him and nodded slightly, as if to encourage him to say yes. He noticed that she was roughly his age. Neel was about twenty-four years old, and Mark guessed that Lucky Guess and Steelskin were about the same age, give or take a few years. He honestly couldn’t tell how old Butterfly was – she just had one of those faces- but she was definitely older than him.

But the blonde girl was around the same age he was- roughly eighteen or nineteen. It was reassuring somehow; they could have gone to the same school together. He considered scanning her but decided against it- it was easy to get used to these invasions of privacy.

He frowned at the floor. “I said yes last time, and the reasons for saying yes haven’t changed.” The business with Liquefy reinforced them, if anything. He met Neel’s stare. “I guess I’m in.”

Once again, no one seemed surprised. But there were more pronounced reactions this time. Butterfly immediately lost most of the tension in her body and looked away from Mark for once, as if no longer needing to keep guard. The blonde girl let out a small whoop and clapped a few times. Steelskin grinned and lifted a hand to high five- which Mark did, sheepishly. Lucky Guess sighed and sat herself in the chair Neel had gotten out of. Neel for his part extended his hand to shake.

“So… now what?” Mark asked while shaking Neel’s hand.

“Introductions!” the blonde girl suggested.

Mark nodded. He had already met three of the members, and he had researched Butterfly, but he didn’t know most of their powers and had no idea who the blonde was.

“Sure”, Neel agreed.

Mark waited for a few seconds before realizing they wanted an introduction from him.

“Oh! Erm… you guys know me, I assume. I’m Mark Gianni, um, also known as Technique or er, Digitalis and some other names.” Mark felt awkward, like he was in high school. When no one responded, he continued.

“I can control most electronics with my power. This is Bitbird”, he added, pointing at the drone that had been hovering behind all this time. Still no one responded, and Mark felt his cheeks redden. Everyone’s eyes were on him.

“How old are you?” Steelskin asked with a grin.

“Um, Nineteen.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Steelskin again.

“Er, what?”

“What are your hobbies?”

Ah, so they were making fun of him.

“Electrocuting people”, he challenged with a bit of a smile. Steelskin laughed at that, as did Lucky Guess.

“I guess we should introduce ourselves”, Neel said. He was smiling as well.

He pointed at Lucky Guess. “You’ve met Luck already. Her guesses tend to be correct.”

“Depends on the type of guess.”, she clarified. “But still, it has its uses. My real name’s Ayah Hall.”

Ayah laughed when Mark gave her an awkward wave. “And I’m sorry again, Mark. For the minimart fiasco. Really, I’m sorry.”

Mark nodded in response.

Neel gestured to Steelskin. “Steelskin. Real name Tomás Marin”, he continued.

“Tom’s fine”, Tom said. “And you should apologize to me, you fucker- you almost electrocuted me”, he said with a grin to indicate he wasn’t being serious.

Before Mark could respond, Neel continued. “He can change the structural properties of the things he touches, or himself. Primarily, he can make soft things hard or hard things soft.”

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“Gotta be a better way of phrasing that”, the blonde girl interjected.

“That’s how he gets his name- he makes his skin and body hard to withstand damage”, Neel continued, ignoring her. “Combined with making whatever he’s hitting or touching soft, it’s a good approximation and substitute for super strength and super durability. He’s our muscle.”

Tom looked pretty pleased with himself.

“However”, Neel continued with his voice a bit stern. “He can also do other things to a limited extent, including making the things he touches less or more conductive to electricity. Which means”, he said, speaking more to Tom than Mark now, “that he should never have been in danger of being electrocuted because his body should have been nonconductive anyway, right?”

Tom smiled sheepishly. “I sort of forgot.” Before Neel could speak, Tom continued, “Don’t start. I learnt my lesson. The kid nearly gave me a heart attack when he pulled his stunt and I modified myself immediately after, anyway. My body is shock proof right now. Never making that mistake again.”

Mark remembered what Tom had said at the store- ‘you almost got me’. He was never in danger of being electrocuted.

Tom turned to Mark. “Good work by the way, computer boy. If I was actually that Daniel Quan guy, I would’ve been toast. And then you rob the store with me right there? Priceless.”

“Thanks”, Mark responded uncertainly. “That’s how you contained Liquefy? You would make him solid when he turned liquid?”

Tom shrugged. “Something like that.”

Neel continued. He pointed at Butterfly. Butterfly was watching but wasn’t smiling like the others. “This is Butterfly. Real name: Laura.”

“Hi”, Mark said, uncertainly. Laura gave him a slight nod and to his surprise, extended a hand to shake. Mark took it.

“I’m curious; Do you know what her abilities are?” Neel asked. “It’s good to judge what others know of our powers, and you’re better informed than most.”

Mark shook his head. “I looked, and there were some theories- mental or agility powers. I know she’s a good fighter”, Mark didn’t think it was a good idea to bring up the murders. “But nothing concrete.”

Both Neel and Laura seemed satisfied with that answer. Neel spoke- “Butterfly’s abilities are…” he took a second to think about how to phrase it. “You’ve heard of the Butterfly effect? Little changes and actions ripple out to make big impacts?”

Mark nodded.

“Her power lets her see how to do things like that. Make the right pushes for the maximal effect.”

“I’m not sure I understand”, Mark said, looking at her. She didn’t seem to want to talk.

“Butterfly can find out which pillar of a building to damage to bring the whole structure down like it was a house of cards. During a fight she would know which part to hit or just touch to make the person trip and break an arm or something.”

The blonde girl spoke excitedly. “One time she threw a quarter at a mask, and he slipped and fell on another mask, which triggered a laser gun which hit another mask. It was awesome.”

“Useful for big results with small, precise actions.” Laura spoke for the first time. Her voice was high and clear.

“And keeping track of complex situations”, Neel added.

Mark nodded. He still didn’t fully understand it, but he supposed he could wait until he saw it on the field.

“She’s also a goddamn ninja”, Ayah said.

“She’s a pretty good fighter”, Neel clarified.

“No, you’re a ‘pretty good’ fighter. She’s a goddamn ninja”, Ayah insisted. Neel sighed but didn’t say anything. Laura smiled a little.

That brought them to blonde girl.

Neel turned to her, and said, “This is Natalie. Goes by Nat.”

She smiled sweetly at him. And something clicked in Mark. It was Nat. How the hell didn’t he see it before? He had grown up with her! They had gone to the same school! He would play tennis with her after school, and they were in the same English class. It was Nat. How the hell didn’t he see that before?

“I know her!”, Mark exclaimed at Neel. “We went- “

“No you don’t”, Neel and Nat replied almost in unison. Neel sighed.

“No, Nat. We went to the same school”, he insisted, looking to Nat for help.

“No you didn’t”, they both said again.

“Stop it, Nat”, Neel said sternly. “We’ve messed with him enough already, haven’t we?”

Sighing, she made an exaggerating waving motion in front of Mark’s face.

Mark blinked.

“What- “, he started.

“Nat can make you think you’ve known her your whole life.” Neel had an apologetic tone. “It’s useful for information gathering. The target will trust her and even protect her if the situation calls for it. You’ll be disoriented for a few seconds. I’m sorry about that. She can be annoying at times”, Neel said with a stern look at her. She stuck her tongue out.

Mark ran a hand over his face and hair as if getting rid of her influence. Bizarre.

“You can see why her existence is kept secret”, Neel continued. “I’m pretty sure no one knows about her.”

“My power still works if people are watching out for it, but they can take precautions. If they’re careful enough and focused enough, they can see through it. Or use passwords and uniforms to get around it. So it’s best that people don’t know I exist. I don’t even have a mask name or costume.”, she said.

Mark frowned at her to examine her again. Definitely didn’t go to school with her. She gave an apologetic smile in response, which made Mark blush. She was pretty.

“You can learn to see through it after a while”, Neel continued. “But it’s variable. It was easier for Ayah thanks to her power. It took me and Laura awhile, but we got the hang of it. Tom still hasn’t managed it. But she won’t use her power on us, anyway. Because that would be rude.” He frowned at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“That leaves you”, Mark said, turning to Neel. “I know your name and stuff but I still don’t know your power. There’s theories out there, but nothing definite. Same as Butterfly.”

“Right. That’s a little complicated”, Neel said. He walked over to the wall and leaned against it beside Laura.

“All the theories are wrong, because well, until recently, I didn’t have powers. I wasn’t an Abnormal.”

When Mark raised his eyebrows in surprise, Neel continued. “Before the last few months my role in the group was… well, I tend to have good ideas once in a while”, he said simply.

“I’ve never heard of someone manifesting their Abnormality so late in life. Twelve to eighteen is the usual range, isn’t it?” Mark’s manifestation was on the far end as far as these things went.

“There’s also those that seemingly had it from birth. Like Ayah.” Neel added. “But yes, no one manifests past their twenties. And… I didn’t. I was given my abilities.”

Given? Mark thought about that for a moment. “I don’t think that’s possible. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Me neither. But all the powers out there, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that one of those powers include power sharing.”

“What power did you get then?”

“Right. That’s another wrinkle. Because as far as I can tell, it’s not any one power. It changes.”

“Changes?”

“I only got this a few months ago. But- initially, I had a form of local omniscience- I could see and hear everything from every angle within a radius of some thirty or so meters. Then I briefly had a power that let me turn intangible and phase through solid objects.”

Mark had never heard anything like this. There were people with apparently more than one ability, and some had many abilities, but he had never heard of someone with changing abilities. And he definitely hadn’t heard of someone who could grant others abilities. If Mark’s power was a desirable asset, then that power was priceless.

“And what’s your ability now?”

“I can control people’s perceptions. Not their thoughts, memories or actions. But I can make them see, hear and feel what I want them to. Only one person at a time unfortunately. But it’s handy so far. I can make someone punch a wall thinking they’re punching me.”

“Do you get to choose? Which ability you get I mean?”

“I wish”, he said, wistfully. “No, every time this happens, I have to carefully examine and figure out what my power is without accidentally hurting myself or anybody else.”

“He walked through me when he was figuring out his second power”, Tom said, with a slight shiver. “Unbelievably weird feeling.”

“And when he had the first power everyone was paranoid as hell. You never knew when he was watching us”, Nat said with a dark look on her face.

“I told you I didn’t use my power unless I needed to”, Neel snapped back. They had apparently argued about this before.

But Mark was thinking about something else. “This person gave you your powers a few months ago. Was he the contractor for this big job?”

Neel nodded. “He calls himself Scythe. I think it’s a he, at least. I haven’t really seen him. He uses this projection of sorts to speak- like a hologram but not really. More like a puppet.”

“And what’s the job?”

“Well, I oversimplified a bit. It’s not exactly a job, as much as it is an audition. Well, the job is the audition. Maybe more of a test.”

“A test? I don’t understand.” Mark looked around. Everyone else was paying close attention as well, even though they undoubtedly knew this already. Ayah looked uncomfortable.

“Like our test for you, only bigger. He gives us twenty-five million each, and he gives me powers. Not as payment, but as tools and resources.”

“And what does he want?”

“For us to impress him. To use those resources to pull a job, any job, that’s impressive enough.”

“Impressive enough for what?”

Neel seemed confused that Mark didn’t get it. “For us to work for him.”

“You want to work for him?” Mark didn’t know how he felt about that. Whoever this person was, he sounded scary. He was throwing around nonsensical amounts of money and apparently had impossible powers.

“You don’t? This is a guy that gives us a hundred and fifty million and superpowers for an audition. As a recruitment thing. Can you imagine what we get if we actually work for him?”

“You’re not worried? What is this ‘work’ supposed to be? What if he asks you to do bad stuff?”

“I don’t necessarily get that impression. He knows how we operate and I made it clear that it would be an issue already. Our audition- he said that we should pick what job we want to pull. Apparently, that was half the test right there- whether or not we would pick something impressive and ballsy enough that would interest him. And the thing I suggested involves no killing or hurting, and he was happy with it. Impressed, even.”

“What did you suggest?” Mark braced for the answer. Moment of truth.

Neel stopped leaning against the wall and started pacing. Mark noticed that Neel had gotten more energetic over the past few minutes. Ever since Mark had met him, Neel seemed calm, almost too calm. This was the most animated Mark had ever seen him.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a simple robbery because, well, he just gave us twenty-five million dollars. What’s the point of more money? It has to be something that demonstrates skill, planning, discipline and restraint. But it has to have an element of risk to it. More than an element, a lot of risk. And it has to be flashy enough to interest him.”

Mark fiddled with his thumbs as Neel spoke. He was beginning to feel nervous.

Neel stopped pacing and turned to face Mark. Mark saw an expression on his face which he hadn’t seen before. It was excited, frantic, almost crazed. His eyes penetrated Mark’s and his teeth was showing through his grin.

“My suggestion, our job, is this. We’re going to go after the biggest superhero group in the world. We’re going to war with them, and we’re going to humiliate them. We’re going after the Shield of Honor.”