“You really think it’ll be easy to get him to call it off for today? From what I’ve seen so far, it was a challenge to even get him to admit we were in the earliest stages of a zombie apocalypse,” I used my HUD to take a quick look to see where we were with that.

There weren’t any nearby at all—not even among the trees. I’d adjusted the suit’s sensors to detect them and set the implant to watch for movement.

At this point, Vaughn had stopped hitting them with lightning and Amy hovered above the forest, staring downward, doubtless trying to detect them with magic much as I was with technology.

Vaughn shouted something that sounded like, “... see anything yet,” and Amy flipped him the bird.

South Beach Surfer said, “I know. At least it’ll be easy by comparison. I don’t think anyone will want to go into a fight after using up some of their best stuff on the zombies—especially with Accelerando and Blue on your side.”

Jaclyn floated up to join us, the anti-gravity pack in her costume working without any noise at all, “I’d like to take that as a compliment, but I know that means you have a plan for dealing with us.”

“Menagerie and Bullet thought the zombies and Meteora would keep you too busy to handle anything else,” South Beach Surfer shook her head, “but not this busy.”

Over the comm, Izzy said, “They’re killing the last T.Rex spawn now. Meteora’s burning it to death. Bullet’s flying in your direction—him and a few more. The rest are checking the forest to make sure they didn’t miss any. And by the way, I don’t see anything moving that isn’t a human being.”

Cassie’s icon blinked as she responded, “I don’t see any more either and neither does the gun. I’m heading toward Team Obvious.”

Down the block, Cassie floated into the air, still holding the gun in her hand and pointing it toward the forest and ahead of her in the air.

It struck me that with all the distractions, I’d hadn’t responded to the last thing South Beach Surfer said. A look at her told me that she wasn’t irritated at all. She’d been snared in her own distraction, staring down at the screen of the bracelet on her wrist.

She looked up and said, “Sorry, I got a call. It looks like we’ll find out if Major Justice will be able to let it go for today. He’s coming here right now. Everyone’s coming here.”

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“Oh,” I said. This wasn’t the spot I’d have chosen for a confrontation with Major Justice and everyone on his side. The way Mime, Strongman, and the Human Cannonballs had started walking toward us now felt less victorious and more ominous.

Using my implant to translate my thoughts into words, I told everyone, “It looks like we’re about to have a conversation with Major Justice and close to everyone on his side. If you’re not fighting zombies, it might be good if Team Hidden got into position to help.”

Aloud, I said to South Beach Surfer, “If everybody’s coming, I guess we should land. Not everyone can fly.”

A statement from Hal appeared in my helmet as I spoke, [In view of the possible options available to your opponents, I will be cloaking and putting myself into a position to act.]

In the distance, the jet dipped below the trees as if leaving the spot it burned and heading in the direction of Grand Lake.

South Beach Surfer looked downward toward Mime, Strongman, and the Human Cannonballs. I wondered if she was looking at this the same way I was—landing put us in blast range of the Cannonballs. It also put everyone in reach of Jaclyn in a way that they wouldn’t be if she had to depend on anti-gravity to move.

Whatever South Beach Surfer thought, Jaclyn followed my line of thought, saying, “Good idea.”

Then she turned off her anti-gravity, dropping thirty feet to the ground, bending her legs to absorb the force without any hint that it was unusual.

I dropped, but with less speed, landing next to her and being joined in seconds by Vaughn, Cassie, Amy, and Izzy. Tactically it wasn’t a perfect choice—some people could target all of us at once.

Over the comm, Kayla said, “Team Hidden is getting into position, but not all of them. No one has yet seen the special forces team. If they’re here, they’re being held in reserve. Night Cat is keeping some of ours in reserve too.”

“Got it,” I thought back, letting the implant translate it into speech for the League comm channel. At the same time, I watched as everyone from the Coffeeshop Illuminati including Bullet, Gifford, and Hunter landed in the street in two groups. Bullet’s group was close but not quite next to the rest of the Illuminati—which made sense.

InfiniKlown got out of his little car and walked over to stand next to the rest of Mime’s group. InfiniKlown’s power involved creating more clowns, but I couldn’t remember the details off the top of my head. He was probably a good person to have on your side in the face of rapidly reproducing mushroom zombies.

Major Justice’s team got out of a podjet that landed in the remains of the road. I didn’t recognize any of them, but much like Major Justice, they all wore camouflage as their basic uniform.

Shifter flew in and landed next to South Beach Surfer. If she’d brought her team, they were still in reserve.

Everyone seemed to be there, but no one started to talk, Major Justice looking over to Bullet, Mime, South Beach Surfer, Shifter, and then to me.

As I decided that I might as well call this meeting to order, three more figures appeared. Sean and Dayton floated down from the sky, landing next to us. Jody appeared in a blur at almost the same time, standing between Sean and Dayton.

Sean looked over at me, “Dude, where did all those zombies come from?”