The party had been going at a steady pace. A few hours into it all of us had enough to drink to let loose a bit and get into the moment.

"Come on....spill it. You know all of our names now, what is yours?" Slugger said, sitting sideways on my lap. None of them would believe me that I had as much physical prowess as I claimed, so I had spent the last 30 minutes using her as a barbell.

"I don't recall ever asking for any of your names. Also, go back to your own chair." I said, more amused than I wanted to be.

"But it's so comfy here."

"Shush. Scram." She reluctantly got up and made her way back to her seat when Jess joined in.

"I mean, I'm curious too. The mystique is sorta sexy but my curiosity is starting to overwhelm my other desires." she joked.

I laughed. "Shut up, you." I made myself more comfortable in my chair.

"Not even your partner in crime knows the title of your personage? Oh for shame. The poor girl." Smooth Criminal added, injecting himself into the conversation.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. That woman is dead." I said after another sip. The resulting laughter caused me to blush. "What?"

"That woman is dead. And ya call me dramatic." Jess snorted.

"Oh, let her be." Smooth Criminal came to my aid. "Drama is the blood that fuels costumed villainy. T'is essential to our way of life. We might as well be common thugs without it."

"Right. What he said." I added hastily.

"But speaking of you, my possessive friend, I have a question to ask you."

I took another sip. "Shoot."

"Alright. Here's the big inquiry. You probably already know, or at least have deduced with that mighty and voluminous brain of yours, that we three, the incredible trio, the unbeatable trinity, the thrice-forged blade of villainy want to form a team." He gestured between himself and his two friends. I nodded.

"We have yet to come up with a name, or a theme, or a structure, but as I always say, and in impeccable timing every time no less, 'You can't rush genius.'" He paused to bask in the light (sarcastic?) claps of his partners. "And I hereby want to formally and with the utmost politeness extend an official invitation to you. To join our team. Our future team."

I stared at him for a bit, motionless. My wine brain spat hundreds of potential responses into my addled head, none of them flattering. I decided on the first one that had popped into my thoughts. ".....But I hate you."

He made an exaggerated spectacle of falling from the chair in relentless mental anguish, while Toy General shook his head with a smile and Slugger laughed out loud. He got up pretty quickly though.

"You wound me with your blunt assault of words, but, gracious as I am I am willing to look past that. Should minor details like whether you enjoy my company or not really matter in the grand scheme of things?" I nodded but he ignored that. "Your Power is an invaluable asset to every team. I heard about your restrictions, but if even Army Ant is weak enough an Empowered to qualify for a hostile takeover then we can work around that." Oh boy, if he knew the "restrictions" were made up he'd haunt me to join his crew until my dying breath. "Just think about it. Think about how much we could achieve together."

I let out a tired sigh. It stank of wine. "Look, I appreciate that you're asking me."

"No, you don't."

"You're right, but I'm at least not more repulsed by you than I usually am." Damn. I so rarely drink that I always forget how much harsher I became under the influence. "Before I decide, I want to know something. Do you have any goals in mind for your little clique? Any desired notoriety? An end goal? Or are you just coasting along?" The answer to this question would determine if I even considered taking his offer.

"Well, my dear, I honestly don't know if we are capable of ascending to the heights of notoriety that the A-List villains soar in, but I figure we can climb decently high. As for an end goal.....it isn't an end goal per se as I do not plan to retire after achieving it, but it is a long-term aspiration to be sure." I raised one of my eyebrows. "I want to make a run on the Magic Castle."

If I had taken a sip right then I would've done a spit-take. A quick glance at Jess' open mouth confirmed that she too was shocked. The Magic Castle on Franklin Avenue apparently started out as some kind of private club for Magicians long before Powers started to emerge. Nowadays it was the most prestigious gathering ground for Mages on the West Coast, and the second-most prestigious nationwide, only beaten by the Arcane University in Maine.

Non-Mages were forbidden from entering but according to its website, the spacial magic Mages are known for made the inside of that building the size of a small town. It housed a school for every type of mage, specialized shops for anything a Mage could desire, the second largest repository of magical artifacts in the world, living space for nearly 5000 mages, and much much more that only members have knowledge of.

Stolen story; please report.

"That is actually insane." I muttered. Usually, villains made a wide berth around even small gatherings of mages. The potential reward was almost never worth the considerable risk.

Smooth Criminal chuckled. "Insane, or simply ambitious?"

"It's def both, my dude." Jess interjected.

"Oh, ye of little faith. Of course, I don't plan on leading a full-on assault. It'll be a sneaky mission. It's going to be fine. But in any case, that is still years ahead of us anyway. By that time I will have made doubly and triply sure we are ready. For now, we'll just focus on building up our strength." He dramatically pointed at me. "So, Master Controller, what do you say? Are these goals lofty enough for you? Will you join our terrible trio?"

I shook my head. "Not a chance."

He visibly deflated

"Told you so, man." Slugger said, playing around on her phone and barely paying attention to us.

"But why? Are we not ambitious enough for you? What more could you want?"

I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts. "It's not that. It's the opposite, in fact. This run, the Yellowbrick Society one, will be the peak of my villainous career. I will never aim higher than this, in fact, I'll aim lower from now on. The top of the D-List villains is a fine position for me."

The dejected aristocrat shook his head. "Really now? You have no greater aspirations whatsoever?"

"None. I'm comfortable on the D-List. Most villains are here. I enjoy comparatively low scrutiny. I can stay in this place forever. It's great!" Become too established and you are kicked out of the free Villain-Condo by the BHF. There are paid ones to move on to, which are apparently much nicer, but the price would force me to do regular decently paying runs to keep afloat. That was one of the main tactics the BHF used to make sure that the villains under their care stayed active and in need of their services.

He let out a heavy sigh and turned to Jess. "What about you, my witchy friend. Don't tell me you are similarly listless."

She looked at me for a few seconds and shook her head. "Nah. I do want to move on to bigger and better things at some point."

I knew that already, but it still wasn't great to hear it.

"So you will join up with us?" he asked, more animated than before.

"Oh, nononono. Ya got me wrong. I wanna move on at some point. But I'm still the rookiest of rookies. I have a lot to learn. And while I become comfortable with being a full-on bad gal, I'd rather stay with MC. I mean, I can't just leave her alone. The sadsack needs a spunky young companion to inject some life into her dried-up old veins or she'd never leave the bed in the morning."

"Hey! I'm not a sadsack....anymore. And what was that about my veins? I'll have you know that the mid-thirties are the prime of your life."

"Sure, grandma. Ya have improved a tad, I'll admit, but I don't want ya to backslide. And I'm pretty sure ya don't want me to leave either, right?"

I crossed my arms and looked away from her. "I guess I'd prefer if you didn't." I grumbled.

Smooth Criminal leaned back with a smile. "Alas, I can't bring myself to break up such a pair. I guess it was not meant to be. Oh Fate, what a cruel mistress you are."

"I don't wanna interrupt this melodramatic theater piece you are performing..." Slugger threw in. "But if you wanted just a moderate amount of notoriety you may have fucked up a tad."

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She pressed a button and her phone threw the website she was on on a holographic display for all in the room to see. It was a news site, and while the article was a tad blurry the headline was clear as day.

PROFESSIONAL HEROES SCARESCHOLAR AND ARMY ANT ANNOUNCE INDEFINITE HIATUS NEARLY SIMULTANEOUSLY

My blood ran cold.

Scarescholar was to be expected. I doxxed him to the general public. I knew this would make headlines, but that was fine. Me revealing his private info was not something that would get people to talk about how strong or powerful I was. By itself, this was harmless.....but now?

People rarely read full articles, but they would be interested enough to find out if there was a common cause. And suddenly the narrative changes from 'This one villain leaked a hero's private information.' to 'This one villain caused 2 heroes to go on hiatus!', or to people who were paying less attention 'This one villain caused 2 heroes to hang up their capes in one day!', not to mention the people who counted Army Ant as six heroes on her own.

Jess was there too of course, and she would get some deserved notoriety, but from my experiences with the press full Possession was too juicy a tidbit not to focus on.

I felt anxiety build up inside me. This could be bad. This is more attention than I wanted. Why Army Ant? Something was going on with her. She suddenly lost her enhanced durability after I possessed one of her. Did it never return? But why did that happen in the first place?

Before I could freak out more I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Jess standing next to me. The other three looked at me with slight concern on their faces. My internal freakout must've been a bit less internal than I had assumed. Damn alcohol.

"It's alright, MC. Let's sleep it off and deal with it tomorrow." She turned to our hosts. "I think it's better if we split for now. Thanks for the invite. It was a fun evening."

I barely registered us saying our goodbyes and leaving for our room, already back in my headspace. Once we were inside I immediately plopped down on my bed. "Just try to empty your head and go to sleep. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

I nodded. "What would I do without you, Jess?" I mumbled.

"Probably brooding. That was your favorite activity when we first met."

"Probably." I let out with a sigh.

"Very attractive, but not good for your mental health." she joked and I laughed a dry laugh.

"Shut up, you."

I don't know if it was the alcohol or the anxiety and the need to anchor myself, but before I knew it I opened my mouth.

"Mallory."

"Hmmm?"

"My name is Mallory." I said into the dark.

For an agonizing minute, there was nothing but silence. I looked over to her bed but I couldn't make out anything in the pitch dark.

"Thank you." Her words were quiet. Too quiet to make out any emotion they might have carried. Maybe that was the point.

"Don't mention it. Good night."

"Good Night, Mal."

I turned over towards the wall. Mal. A familiar pain flooded my chest. Mal was dead. Dead and gone. I shouldn't have unearthed her.

That night, for the first time in forever, I had a vivid dream. A dream of the beginning of my new life and the end of my old one.

The day that everything fell apart.