Standing outside of the PVP HQ- no, his workplace, Leo rubbed at his eyes. Wishing for sleep was too much, at least while his body was in movement, but he still yawned. Once he entered, he became starstruck again, focusing on more than just the eye-catching parts. In a corner, above the gift shop, was a small cafe filled with people drinking their morning coffee. Leo wasn't one for caffeine. Their gift shop held plushies of famous Powered individuals like Miss Strength, Rubberman (he'd heard too many jokes about that particular one), and some more unknown ones, such as Jokester, Lord Penguin, and Saviour. Then again, calling Saviour unknown was like calling a Pope a Priest.

Continuing on into areas meant for workers, he began spotting some Powered individuals, talking to each other, hugging the walls. They made it a point not to look at him, which made him flare up. However, he spotted Neo ahead of him, marching through; everyone painted themselves against the walls to avoid getting in her way, except for Leo. Her coat, coloured purple, held many different trinkets, each so technologically advanced it must have made him look like a caveman. Violet covered her head, a shroud of it falling down, opaque enough to block out her face, but allowed him to see her features; a sharp nose, blocky jaw, and a square face was everything he saw.

"Hi," he said, his mind lagging behind.

"Hi?" she said, her voice just as unsure. "If you have business with me, please make it quick."

"Autograph." Struggling to take his phone out of his pocket, he was aware of everyone's stares. "If it's not a problem..."

"Yes, problem here. One second." Faster than he could get his phone unstuck, she dug out something in one of her pockets, tinkered with it a little, and then gave it to him. Too circular to have been made by a human's hands, it opened with a little force, showing a black screen that started booting up. "Problem solver solves problems unproblematically." Looking away, she said, "В твоем лице, мать. Given prompt, it will make answer quick. До свидания." When she walked away, he watched her, his mind still waking up.

"Huh," was all it could come up with, and he went on his way, rolling her invention along his hands, wondering about it's smoothness. Incomparable to his phone's size, he couldn't think of how it'd work better, but this was a piece of Neo's tech; he'd keep it forever, maybe in a bullet-proof glass box in his room. Would that be enough?

***

The hallway leading to the First Response Unit was empty, save for a few paintings of old men sitting behind a desk, their stature unmovable. Underneath their stares, Leo felt smaller than normal; these must have been great people that lived to help others for their entire lives. How could he ever compare to them?

What shocked him out of this spiel was raucous laughter erupting from within, coming from where he heard it his first day.

Turning that same corner, he found Isaac, Captain Gold, and a few other people he didn't know the name of, hanging out, having fun.

"Heyo, kid, come over here, meet everyone else," Isaac said. Today he was wearing their suit's lower half, a faded blue t-shirt.

"How's it going," Leo said, extending a hand.

"Johnny," a black guy said, holding an unpopped can of beer. "If anything happens today, I'm driving." Johnny waved his can, tipping it upside down.

"Penny and Henry over there," Gold said, pointing at two people kissing. "Keep it in your room."

"But Captaaain," said Penny, a girl with freckles and red hair, who rolled her head back, pointing upwards. "Love."

"They're now capped on alcohol. Isaac, take what they have."

"Sure, boss," Isaac said, standing up from his seat. "Leo, take a seat, anywhere you want. Want something to drink?"

"No thanks," he said, taking the nearest seat, which turned out to be next to someone he didn't know. A hand shot in front of him.

"Dahli," he said, once Leo shook it. "Nice to meet Isaac and Peter's saviour."

"Good to meet you, too, Dali," Leo said.

"No, it's Dah-li, not Dali."

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"My bad."

"It's alright. You didn't butcher it like those smoochers over there. Daily." Dahli shook. "From one who doesn't drink to another, welcome."

"Welcome!" everyone else said, raising whatever item they could. Drops of alcohol fell around them.

"Nice to meet all of you."

When the ad's stopped, everyone's attention went forwards, watching CBN's title screen.

"We at CBN have managed to get ourselves an exclusive interview with our new mayor, Mayor Donny Ozwald."

In a decorated office, filled with bookshelves full, faded in two people; one was a beautiful woman wearing a skimpy dress, while the other was a man built like stone wearing a suit.

"Mayor Ozwald, finally in office after years of campaigning. How does it feel?"

"Liz, I have to say, this all feels like a dream to me. I couldn't be happier that I can now support my citizens even more than I could before."

"Yeah, right, you human skin-wearing tortoise," Johnny said. "Eight weeks, I lived near his apartments, and he never once tried to fix their noise problem. Parties, every single night, with music playing till six o'clock."

"Try living in his apartments. Nothing there worked, no hot water, lights were spotty, and it seemed like we got electricity three times a day for two hours, each," Captain Gold said.

"Some say that you're term will be more akin to a tyrant's reign of terror; what do you say to that?"

"Listen, if they want to call me a tyrant, then they must be ignoring that PVP group or whatever, doing whatever it is they want to our city. Now, I came across this picture of a child working in their First Response Unit, no older than fifteen-"

"I'm not that young," Leo said, turning around to find nodding heads.

"If you were, I would not have accepted you."

"And I'm thinking to myself, what are they doing down there? We pay them plenty of taxes, and their best is a child. Here, and I'll say it right now, on air, that the only reason they are still a thing today is because of those Superpeople they have, cocked like a loaded gun, just as a warning to whoever might shut them down. Just talking about them sends shivers up my spine."

"The one thing that could do that is dead, you miserable old-" Before Henry could finish his words, Penny started kissing him.

"I love it when you get so riled up," she said before planting her red lips back on his mouth.

"Are they..." Leo said, unable to finish.

"Uh-huh," Johnny said, nodding his head. "Day in, day out. Unless they're not drunk, but that's a different problem altogether."

"Do you think their work is unneeded, even though it keeps our city standing?"

"Do they really keep this city together, or do they worsen our problem by throwing Powered's at it until it's no longer a problem? We can't use bigger guns to stop them from shooting. What needs to happen is change. Everything needs to change, and I have placed a team on figuring out how to cancel out their power's."

"Oh, no, you stupid idiot," Gold said, covering his face. "Looks like we'll have to vote soon."

Henry and Penny's smooch fest seemed to have finished, and they looked upon them with eyebrows raised. "What's happening?"

In defeat, Gold waved a hand at the TV. "Our mayor just signed his death warrant. Alright, everyone, get up, run some drills. We need everyone in top shape, and I swear, if any of you take a single drop, it won't just be this career you'll be losing."

Everyone stood at once, Leo a beat off, and said, "Yes, sir."

"Leo, suit drill's, Henry, make sure he put it on right. Everyone else, focus on what you need to."

Rushing to a suit, Leo put on a suit, making sure he got everything correct along the way.

Too slow," Henry said, holding a can, gazing at Penny, who was practising her fire hydrant speed, setting it up, dismantling, and putting everything away, rinse and repeat. "Plus, you're missing a clasp around your side. To get it, you'll have to undo everything above your waist."

"No drinking," Leo said, undoing it all to find out Henry was right; a single clasp was left undone. "Couldn't someone else get it done later, though?"

"There is no later. Again. Come on, we don't have all day. An alarm's just gone off, this complaining's slowing you down, everyone else's already in a truck, waiting for you."

Putting it on again, Leo felt like he did it faster, but again, Henry called him slow, pointing out something he missed. After half-an-hour of repeating this process, he pushed Leo aside, sitting him down where he was.

"This is how you do it," he said, counting down from three. Then, in a blink of an eye, he was wearing the entire suit, head-to-toe, clips done, clasps clasped, and lace's tied. "Maybe you'll get to that level, maybe you won't. Maybe I won't remember your face next week."

"Break's in ten," Captain Gold said, his voice reverberating. "None of your slacking, and I know you heard me."

***

After ten more minutes of drills, they were allowed to have a break.

"Why is it so complicated?" Leo said, plopping down in a seat.

Dahli said, "To save your life. If it was any simpler, it wouldn't be safe against any reasonable Powered."

"Fear for your life if you see an unreasonable one. They have powers that bend reality to their will." Gold didn't look away from his laptop, typing away at it.

"What, like Horus? Psh, he died with no trouble," Henry said, sitting next to Penny, hand in hand.

"Horus was nothing more than a toddler. No, I'm talking about who lead the Demon's in their heyday. I have my suspicions they made it out alive, but no one's seen any Demon in three years." With a mention of Demon's, a troubled look fell across everyone's face. "Unfortunately, they are a case study of why Ozwald should do it. But, I'll leave it there."

"It is getting dark out," Isaac said, standing up. "See you all tomorrow, if you show. Have a quiet night." With that, a few other people started leaving, as well as Leo, who's eyes were having trouble staying open.