Lyn examined herself in the mirror for the hundredth time, watching her eyes’ slight glow in the dim bathroom light, adjusting her dress to better conceal the chitinous legs woven around her chest.

  She didn’t want to linger on it too long but damn was it nice to be able to use a public restroom again. Yes, this one happened to be just barely above “not filthy” when it came to restrooms as far as she could tell. However, considering that over the past few years, the few times Terrorantula could actually squeeze through a normal-sized door, much less find a reliable public restroom where she could do what she needed to and get out before someone alerted the authorities that a known supervillain had burst into their place of business could probably be counted on one hand, she was happy to take a win this small.

  That said, even though it was a small win in her book for the new body, using a normal sized stall activated a sense of claustrophobia that she’d never remembered dealing with even when she’d had a body this size. It was like the walls were closing in fast around her and going to crush her. The same feeling happened whenever she lingered too long in small hallways or doorways too. There was this instinctive knowledge that her other body couldn’t fit in the enclosed space. A tug of fear would pull on her at the idea of transforming in these spots and what might happen. Would she simply shift back if she transformed in a space like this or would she be crushed? It tickled at an existential dread inside her that she didn’t know how to deal with.

  Staring in the mirror helped. It seemed to ground Lyn and remind her that she controlled her transformations. There was this relaxing feeling to it as though seeing her new body could make it more real and fixed in this reality. Light from the remaining cheap overhead fixtures bounced harshly off her blue skin, leaving a subtle reflection in the specks in the fake marble of the sink. Strands of hair fell out of place, the imperfection of her silhouette all the more reminder that this was real. The ruffles of her clothes and a slight smear of makeup she was still getting used to applying. The creases of her skin. The small details all added up and a sense of contentment settled over her as it always did.

  It would always last until she noticed the motion.

  Speaking of things that should fill her with dread, she’d discovered that when she was alone and stared too long into a reflection, she’d catch a glimpse of it. At the edge of the mirror just out of her sight, something would move. Like some creep ducking away after being caught staring or an annoying speck on your eye, it would flee immediately when she tried to focus on it. What it was was hard to describe, as despite her efforts Lyn could never catch enough of it to get a good read on it, just the movement of it disappearing.

  Surprisingly, this mysterious stalking presence didn’t terrify her. No, a lifetime of superpowers and fighting all sorts of monsters had probably poisoned whatever sense of fear Lyn should probably be feeling from this annoyance, even though her roommate had pointed out that this whole thing sounded like something out of a horror movie. Instead, the mystery captivated her, as much as it annoyed her to have made no progress whatsoever with figuring out what it could be. Whatever this thing was intruded on her in her private moments, never once showing up when she’d had Celeste try to verify it, and yet somehow Lyn felt a sense of familiarity. It was like listening to a soft instrumental cover of a heavy metal song you listened to once and just can’t place without the lyrics or the same frantic energy. The presence lacked a threat to it, or at least she didn’t feel threatened by it.

  Which only made its refusal to show itself all the more frustrating. She dealt with enough fellow villains who would do this routine with her already, hanging back and antsy about just asking for a team up to take down some hero they were struggling with or because they needed someone who knew how to properly break into a place through the skylight. Ugh, if this was anything like how Sir Squid, the Cephalopod Socialite, took to just outright approach her about forming the Evil Eight, she was going to be dealing with this for at least another couple weeks if she couldn’t just coax the presence to come out of hiding.

  So here Lyn was, past her small panic attack, standing in a public restroom overdue for a thorough cleaning, waiting for it to show again. Coiled over the sink waiting for just the right moment like she was stalking it. She felt the moments pass as she watched, eyes moving off of her own reflection and towards the edges of the mirror. As she watched the upper right corner, out of the corner of her eyes she saw something in the lower left-

  A thoroughly inebriated laugh split the silence of the quiet bathroom as two other women barged through the door, carrying the noise from the next room over in with them. Lyn sighed and closed her eyes, feeling the moment pass. Whatever wanted her attention wouldn’t show itself now, and she’d been in here too long already.

  Whatever, we’ll try again next time, spooky, Lyn promised.

  She’d already had Celeste reach out to Scarlet after the scientist had worn her down about how she should just ask the sorcerer about mysterious presences after the ritual. Lyn realized it was odd how enclosed spaces and the mysterious mage scared her more than whatever probably demonic force was waiting on the other side of a mirror. She chalked that up to the fact that she knew at least two or three guys who liked to teleport through mirrors and the girl who delivered pizza to the hideout had red skin and horns. Plus that documentary on hell didn’t make it seem that bad.1 Gods, the things you get used to.

  Anyways, Celeste had probably been waiting long enough, so Lyn exited the restroom and returned to the relatively lively bar bathed in just enough light from dim fixtures on the wall to tell who you were looking at and not a lumen more, the dark walls and floor smothering any other glow. Scattered conversations overlapped and made it hard to pick out anyone’s words unless you were a few feet from them. Only a couple tables were still open, with the bar itself now completely crowded as people fought for the attention of the two bartenders rapidly making drinks. Meanwhile, there were several groups standing up gathered nearby giant glowing screens on the side of the room showing a live match between two professional wrestlers in costumes only slightly more ridiculous than Lyn’s line of work.

  Her scientist roommate had wanted to go back to the Red Rum Pub, apparently to prove something, but Lyn had talked her down to the Slam. The scientist was riding high on making her sale and wanted to celebrate in a place full of supervillains, but Lyn wasn’t too keen on going to a place that public about its clientele while she was still enjoying the benefits of a secret identity (as long as Ned kept his mouth shut). The Slam was allegedly a bar that catered to wrestling fans, but for ironic reasons the villain community of Victory loved the name and had been starting to fill it out recently. So, until the heroes or the tourists ruined it, it was a great compromise for a place to celebrate with other villains and Lyn desperately wanted to get a drink in public again herself.

  Plus, she was still trying to organize a team up for whenever the bounty for Maniacal’s killer got posted and was hoping to do some “networking” on the side while she was here. Everyone in the villain community was getting antsy about that, and a lot of good (or rather, competent) supes were starting to have the same idea as her to form a team, get in some practice jobs to get a gameplan going and then try to strike immediately and collect on the bounty the moment a target was named.

  Turnaround and Sand Devil signed on, but she couldn’t find anyone who knew how to get in contact with Menace these days, and she’d already struck out with Lightning Legionnaire, Crowmaster, and Zeta Zoom, all of whom had joined up with some other impromptu teams. Tech villains were too hit or miss at the moment given how many were plotting their own things in order to impress Overlab. That didn’t leave a lot of people in her usual circles, especially since she didn’t want this to be an Evil Eight reunion. While Sir Squid, the Cephalopod Socialite, was currently out of the picture, she didn’t want him or the other temporary leaders of that old team to hijack her team with delusions of seniority.

  As she glanced over the somewhat crowded room, Lyn realized there was a flaw in her plan for tonight. The Slam was still an “underground” place in the villain world, meaning no one here was in costume. Unless she knew what a supe looked like under their mask, it would be impossible to tell who was a civilian from a villain tonight. And the list of who that included was maybe just barely over a dozen out of Victory’s sizeable villain population. Looks like tonight would be more about being Evelyn Everett than Terrorantula.

  The villainess on break tonight caught sight of her roommate waving her over to the small table she’d managed to nab while Lyn had been occupied and she began to slip through the outskirts of the standing crowd and behind those in chairs scattered around the floor to the tables on the side of the room, still admittedly glancing over faces and trying to see if there were any familiar chin shapes or telling accessories. Even when trying not to stand out, villains loved to work in some small tell. One day, Lyn would need to kidnap another therapist and find out if that compulsion was something to be concerned about.

  “Distracted by the wigglies again?” Celeste asked as she sat down, passing her a drink. Something disgustingly bright that looked similar to the one she’d finished before ducking into the bathroom.

  “Stop calling them that.”

  “When you pick up the phone yourself to talk to the spooky spellcaster, you’re in charge of what you call them. Until then, they’re the wigglies.”

  Lyn rolled her eyes and took a deep sip. Apparently, she was an expensive date for more than just meals when it came to her two bodies because this one was her third cocktail tonight (not to mention two shots and some seasonal beer or ale or something) and she didn’t feel any different from when they’d started the night out. The second one of those cocktails had been pretty strong too if the aftertaste had been any indication, her breath feeling like she could melt steel bars with it for a few seconds. The effects of alcohol had always been weaker when she was a giant spider woman, but now this many drinks in and the only negative effect was the bill started looking longer than she’d like, though Celeste was insistent that she keep ordering more to make up for lost time. She wasn’t willing to test just yet if a can of soda or coffee would still get her completely loopy in this new body, so she’d opted to try the traditional form of drinking tonight instead. Still, she could finally enjoy cocktails at bars that weren’t exclusively run by supervillains or ghosts who thought rum was a substitute for water, and this one was full of little fruit gummies!

  She picked one out and delighted in tearing it between her teeth, enjoying the moment for a second as her friend looked at her bemused, still nursing her first glass of the night.

  “You know those cost like 4 decks2 to make at home? Don’t get addicted to them or I’ll have to actually pick up Grumpy’s calls.”

  Lyn laughed, “I don’t think it’s professional to leave your new boss on read this early into your new job.”

  Her friend rolled her eyes, “He wants to be my boss, he can sign a damn contract.”

  Celeste had been pointedly ignoring her new client’s calls for a rush job for an upgrade. Tech Crash had apparently loved his first drive with the new wheels and had a little bit of the funds so he wanted the scientist to begin work on some new projects immediately. Celeste had told him that she was both busy tonight and to have the funds up front unless he was willing to sign an actual contract.3

  Mostly, this was just making sure this unknown villain wasn’t just getting lucky on his first job, but Lyn had to side with her roommate on this one for more reasons than just their friendship. If this guy really was in the business of world domination and wasn’t trying to immediately join up with the League, Celeste needed to be more than just a disposable asset that he could swap out for any mad scientist (or at least some of the less moral ones that pretended to be sane). No sense burning through the midnight oil on project after project for someone who circled the drain in a month or bought a volcano base on the back of your hard work and traded you out for an Overlab washout.

  “Grumpy” had taken it better than expected, with only 4 voicemails and half a dozen texts and none of them threatening to destroy her for the outrage. Still, that was 3 voicemails and at least 5 texts too many and so the short scientist was committed to making him sweat, especially since his next job sounded like it might be tough. All the better, actually, as it would probably make him appreciate Celeste’s gear even more.

  “At least sell him the shields if he asks,” Lyn advised her. “No point letting him learn to whistle through his chest before you can fleece him for more cash. Anyways, if he makes it and doesn’t have another job lined up, I’m about ready to have you forward him over to me for next week’s job.”

  “Damn, still can’t find Menace?”

  “Don’t start,” Lyn hunkered down in her seat.

  When she’d been putting out feelers, one of the only people who had seen him recently had been Laser Badger, who apparently had witnessed her amazing display of self confidence and took it to be a cruel act of rejection. She’d found him and a few other D-listers drowning themselves in booze at a different dive bar the villain community was currently fond of, dressed in their outfits no less.

  That idiot in a stupid costume had gone on a whole rant after having drunk more than she had tonight, warning her away from “messing with that poor boy’s feelings” in some misguided attempt to protect the Iron Menace, culminating in him almost loudly slurring his way through the whole story to an entire room full of other super villains before she’d been forced to introduce his mouth to the table. Unfortunately, that had only intrigued the audience of costumed crooks looking to capitalize off whatever was going on, almost all of whom despite being more than three sheets to the wind themselves suddenly saw a new business opportunity as their friend was passed out in a puddle of his spilled drink. Given that the word going around with her help was that they should sit out the upcoming manhunt, the dregs of the villain community had gotten rather mercenary all of a sudden.

  Each of them clammed up on how to contact the missing villain unless she offered some cash incentives. Given that she was already spending a good portion of her remaining loot money on filling out the lower half of her wardrobe and a look from the bouncer at that dive bar told Terrorantula she’d used up her one free bout of violence in that bar for the night, she’d ended up leaving the fools to prop the badger upright and continue their drinking in peace for the night.

  Celeste was about to say something more before a very loud voice from nearby called over to their table.

  “HEY!” a completely new drunk idiot called over. “Are those real?!”

  Lyn turned to spy some guy who looked to be in his early twenties, human, and what she considered “civilian” muscles straining against a cheap polo shirt. He was almost dangling off the edge of the bar gawking at her, with three friends who looked like they came off the same assembly line as him slowly turning to follow his gaze.

  Lyn met the idiot’s eyes as he did some stupid gesture with his ears. His buddies laughed along with him as the group collectively made the mistake to start heading over to the table. Lyn silently evaluated them as they approached.

  You generally could never tell when someone was a supe these days. Sure there were sometimes tells, obviously mutations or giant spider legs, but for the most part, three out of five super powered individuals tended to look like the average person, which made situations like these intimidating for most people.

  What you could tell is if someone was used to violence. As Terrorantula, Lyn lived in a world full of people like Laser Badger, villains who were barely an inconvenience, and people like Dreamender, sociopaths in love with the power they wielded and uncaring about the lives they ruined, to say nothing about the heroes she regularly smashed through brick walls. The one thing about both of those types of villains and the heroes who fought them was that they lived in worlds of violence and that changes you.

  It made them carry themselves differently, and they possessed this awareness about them which made them seem invisibly coiled up and ready to fight on a moment’s notice. Not like they were tensing their muscles, more like a familiarity with their surroundings and this threatening feeling to them. It wasn’t always there, but it inevitably came out when they were getting ready to show off their “power”. Again, not their literal glowing, zapping, or superstrength, more like when any conflict happened, there was this control they had. Heroes and villains were those who did, not those that actually reacted. Even the act of reacting to another hero or villain was you exercising this “power”.

  Over the night, she’d noted flashes of it in the other patrons around her. From moments like a casual argument over nothing much in particular to something as simple as downing a drink on a dare, she’d spied the telltale feeling throughout the room, even in these moments of relative peace. Hell, when she’d slammed Laser Badger into the table, even as drunk as he was, there was this look in his eyes that showed how familiar he was with the pain about to come.

  As for the four drunk men approaching her table, they lacked any shred of this even as they leered and laughed. Maybe they’d gotten into a fight once or twice or were used to harassing others, but they lacked this fundamental truth that was at the core of Lyn’s world.

  Celeste also lacked it, and her worry was plain to see. Lyn’s eyes flicked between the newcomers and her friend, and she barely kept herself from snarling. She felt the legs coiled around her beginning to loosen, preparing to lash out.

  “A dwarf and an elf!” one of them cried out, spotting Celeste. “Oh man, is this place a fantasy movie now?”

  The poor green haired woman curled into her chair, clearly wanting to turn invisible. That was enough for Lyn. She’d spent the past few days as she recovered getting a handle on her new body and knew it well enough now. Silently she calculated in her head.

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  Even at this distance, two of them were within range of her legs. If she adjusted her dress to leave it open enough, she could whip the top two legs out with enough force to shatter their clavicles. Sadly, at this angle, the other two legs would be trapped in the dress and unless she felt like destroying it, she couldn’t immediately kill all four of them. If they moved closer though, she could leap from her chair and slash outward to-

  Wait… she didn’t do this to civvies. She had no problem with a few broken bones on the job, but she’d kept a pretty clean streak when it came to actual collateral. Not for very moral reasons, more that it just really didn’t benefit her to have heroes upset that she was dropping bodies on their watch. So why the hell was she so set on murder here?

  Is something wrong with me?

  She realized with horror that her distraction had let the drunken quartet approach further. Lyn was about to stand to… to…

  “Alright, enough of that, kids.”

  A woman with chin length, snow white hair in a black leather riding jacket intercepted the group and forcefully gripped the shoulder of the one in the lead before they made it to Lyn’s table. Given her experience with supervillain egos, Lyn expected this to turn into a brawl, immediately prepared to see the guy lash out with at least a clumsy haymaker, only to watch the idiot completely shut down trying to process what had happened, his brain completely sloshed out of his head. After a moment he yanked backward with his shoulder only for the woman to release him mid motion. This caused the drunkard to over-correct without her grip and spin directly into two of his friends, smashing into another table, crashing the drinks to the ground.

  “Hey-!” one of the seated patrons cried out, only to be immediately silenced as the woman offered a fat slip of decks right to him with a friendly grin. The man took it and glanced down at the pile of bodies sliding over each other as they all tried to stand up. His companion laughed as he looked up with a grin, “Need any help?”

  “I’ve got this,” she laughed, and immediately ducked as the one remaining idiot still standing tried to reach out and grab her. The lady slipped underneath his arm and gently tapped him on the center of his back, her other hand slipping into her pocket in a lazy posture, and sent him falling down on top of his friends as she practically skipped over towards an approaching bouncer who had peeled himself off the wall.

  “Sorry about the mess, but I think these four have had enough,” she passed another set of decks to the brick shithouse of a man as the four bodies slipped over each other, each of them trying and failing to stand up.

  The bouncer gave a wry grin to her while pocketing the cash and shook his head, four arms that bulged against his sleeves unfolding to scoop the miscreants off the floor. This guy’s muscles were definitely above “civilian grade” and Lyn figured that the four arms came with a bit of story to them. While he carried them off, the woman scooped up a drink at the bar and returned to Lyn’s table while a few of the patrons gave some light cheers at her victory before returning to their own business. This truly was a place that catered to fans of fighting, be it wrestling or villainy, but with this particular bout ended, the show on screen became more interesting again.

  “You two alright?” the woman asked, a reassuring smile beginning to curl beneath a pair of golden eyes that glowed in the dim light.

  Lyn looked over and saw Celeste visibly starting to relax before turning back to the woman, “Seems so. We’re lucky there was a hero here tonight.”

  Lyn had enough experience to clock this woman’s day job instantly from how nonviolent the takedown had been. Sure, she’d stopped herself from ripping their heads off, but even if she’d been restraining herself, she’d probably have broken a few more noses herself to teach a lesson to the group. White Hair didn’t even get in a customary kick while they were sprawled on the ground and immediately came over to check on the two damsels. Damn, looks like the villains of this city were going to have to find a new place to relax in a few weeks.

  “Trust me, I’m only a hero for you two tonight,” she wore a confident grin and shot a wink over at Lyn.

  ...Fuck, why did that line work? Lyn knew she was blushing right now and turned away towards Celeste who was beginning to form a shit-eating grin on her tiny, stupid face, recovering from her fear quickly now that she could delight in Lyn’s embarrassment.

  “Mind if I take a seat?” the woman pointed the question to Celeste.

  The scientist shrugged, “I’ll warn you that the charm is only going to work on one of us here tonight. But it’s funny to watch her squirm so I’ll allow it.”

  Kill you! Lyn tried to psychically scream at her friend. She was fairly sure the scientist couldn’t actually hear her thoughts but she knew the glare accompanying it got the message across.

  “Thanks,” the woman grabbed one of the chairs left from vacating patrons of the table she’d used to take out the group and in one smooth motion flipped it around to sit down in. The wrong way of course. Biker jacket woman was all in on the theme, as most undercover heroes tended to do.

  The woman set down the tall glass on the table and introduced herself, “Name’s Emma.”

  She shot finger guns over at Lyn but glanced over at Celeste.

  “...Selli,” Celeste offered after a moment, her hesitation telling Lyn that the scientist had at least gotten the same vibes off Emma that she had. Still couldn’t come up with good names on the spot though.

  When Emma turned to look at her, Lyn thankfully had gotten her skin color back under control and replied, “Terri. So, what’s a hero doing here tonight?”

  Emma laughed, “If you’re dead set on calling me that, I’m not gonna argue. But honestly, I’m just a girl looking to blow off steam. Though I’m not sure if I needed to help judging from the look on your face for a minute there.”

  Lyn tensed, feeling exposed herself, before the woman continued, “Relax, the only ‘heroing’ I plan on doing is saving someone from the monsters at the bottom of some of these glasses. Doesn’t look like this one has one so I’ll need to check a few more. Oh, and maybe making sure someone gets to their bed safe tonight.”

  She wiggled an eyebrow as she took a long sip from her drink. Lyn was fairly sure she kept a straight face and kept her eyes from drifting down towards the open jacket with herculean effort.

  As she finished off her long gulp, Emma continued, “I was warned this place could be a bit rough though. Made it sound more fun, so I had to come check it out. See the clientele, up close.”

  “Laying it on a bit thick,” Celeste warned, thought was clearly slightly amused.

  Emma sighed, setting down the half a mug remaining, and sank to the table. Which was something of a feat considering the back of the chair in her way. Her mask of confidence slowly evaporated, “Okay, gonna be honest here, it’s been forever since I’ve done this, so I’m going back to some of my oldest stuff here and I don’t think it’s doing much. I think I scared off two guys already.”

  She gestured backwards and Lyn caught sight of someone she thought she recognized.

  “Was one of those him? Wait, did you really hit on Red Robber?!” Lyn couldn’t stop herself from asking with guffaw.

  “Oh shit, that’s him?” Emma sat up and glanced back. “I guess I can see it now. He looks different without the hat.”

  Celeste practically spat out her drink as she began to laugh. Emma looked over confused. Lyn was barely managing to keep a straight face herself but felt she had to help out the poor woman.

  “Robber and Flash Freeze have been an on and off thing for years now. Pretty sure everyone knows that.”

  It took Emma a moment to place the name before she looked mortified, “You’re telling me that I walked in here, strolled straight on up to the bar, and the first person I hit on was gay? Ugh… I’m usually better with this… Wait. You two aren’t toge-”

  “No.” Both Lyn and Celeste answered at the same time, and both silently agreed that if they could avoid mentioning they were roommates tonight, all the better.

  “Okay, good, I don’t want to try to be a homewrecker twice in one night,” Emma playfully wiped her forehead.

  “Too late,” Celeste’s cheshire grin returned. “You did hit on T while she’s desperately trying to find the guy she’s crushing on.”

  Lyn’s blush returned along with the same desire to end this puny little monster. Or at least put all of her dinnerware on the top shelf again.

  “Oh really?!” Emma seemed more excited than disappointed. “Which one is he?”

  Apparently her libido took second place to gossip or that strange shipping desire some people seemed to possess. Lyn remembered how Wither Wasp would spend forever trying to see if she couldn’t get Terrorantula and ArachNed to “become canon” despite the fact that she was fairly sure the girl had a crush on Ned herself back when the two of them were in the Evil Eight together. Oh gods she did not need to be thinking about Ned of all people right now.

  “He’s… Look, it’s kind of weird right now,” Lyn immediately soured as she began to speak. The last thing she needed was another maybe-hero in her personal business. “I kind of sort of fucked up and I’m not sure how to even find him. He’s probably not even here, we just came out to celebrate tonight.”

  She’d hoped the unspoken dismissal would come through. As attractive as Emma was, being reminded about Menace had kind of ruined the mood for her too much. Unfortunately the insect on the other side of the table spoke up.

  “She recently got an operation done,” Celeste explained. “She couldn’t walk into a place like this for the longest time, but she finally decided to take the plunge after he helped convince her to.”

  It was a good enough cover story and honestly Lyn should’ve left it there, but good old self-hatred had the wheel right now.

  So Lyn rounded on her, “No, what happened was he asked me out and I fucking abandoned him right there and now the only guy who would regularly hang out with me outside of the you-know-who’s probably thinks I’m a callous bitch! I only ‘took the plunge’ because it was the latest in a series of shit parts of my life that made me hate myself enough to get my fucking legs fixed and even that-”

  She choked on her words as too many of them came pouring out and turned away, snatching a glass of water she’d been ignoring off the table and hoping that she didn’t have tears in her eyes. This whole new body was supposed to make things better! Fuck!

  “T, I-” Celeste began.

  “It’s not over,” Emma told her. “You can still talk to him. You can still make this right.”

  Lyn turned back towards the table, fury ripping through her veins at this stranger who dared to assume anything about shit she knew nothing about, only for her anger to wither and die as she saw the absolutely despondent and melancholy look on Emma’s face, her golden eyes unfocused and seeming to stare through the table at something far away as her hand playing with something around her neck. Lyn realized it was a set of rings. Suddenly, those piercing golden orbs snapped up to meet Lyn’s eyes and the villainess felt herself swallow under a gaze that felt like it was haunted by more than a lifetime of pain.

  “You need to at least see this through. If he actually cared enough before this and is really worth it, he’ll hear you out, and you deserve to know if that’s true. Folks that stick around through the hard times are rare and are worth trying for even when it hurts. I’d offer my help for what it’s worth with helping you get in touch but uh…” she looked back at Red Robber who had his arm around the man next to him, “I’m kind of new to the area and don’t really know people.”

  She continued, the humor of her joke fading, “Just don’t give yourself too much grief. Couples are there to support one another through the tough times. If you manage to get back in touch, and, trust me, in this world you’d be surprised how often you cross paths with people you thought you’d never see again, just try to see if he’s willing to listen. If he is, then he’ll be worth waiting for.”

  Despite all the conversations around them, Lyn felt the silence at the table as Emma trailed off.

  “T, you still have me,” Celeste told her. “And for what it’s worth, I’m willing to bet that Me- that guy probably doesn’t hate you. Look, I can help out where I can. Maybe see if some of my old workplaces might know how to contact him?”

  “Thanks. Both of you…” Lyn sighed and smiled back at her friend. Then she turned to Emma, “That said, weren’t you trying to get into my pants though? Playing matchmaker for a guy you don’t even know feels counterproductive.”

  Emma shrugged and gave a mischievous grin, “I figure if you two get together based on my advice, I’m owed a chance with both of you.”

  Lyn had made the horrible blunder of picking that moment to try and down some water and nearly choked again. Celeste hooted, the moment passed and the scientist went back to her gremlin self. Emma’s joyful smirk faded quickly.

  “Look, don’t beat yourself up and don’t let the people you care about slip you by,” she said, though Lyn wasn’t sure it was meant for her. “You have to take the opportunities life gives you.”

  Lyn sat in thought for a moment. Then nodded back to Emma. “There’s a couple things I’ve held off on doing. Thanks for the push.”

  Emma smiled, and it felt like one of the first ones Lyn had seen on her that didn’t seem to be part of an act. The woman stood up, downed the rest of her drink in a single gulp, and brushed off her jacket, “I think I need to head out. I don’t think either of us are in the mood for what I came over here for tonight. Oh, but here, just in case.”

  She pulled out a scrap of paper and passed it to Lyn. Accepting it and looking down she chuckled.

  “I’m assuming this number is yours?”

  Emma’s cocksure grin returned, “Call me after you grab your man. At the very least I want to hear how it went. Or if you just want to grab drinks. Like I said, I’m new here and I could use the friends.”

  She pushed her chair from the table and left, leaving it roughly in the same area as the others that had been abandoned by the table she’d taken it from. Lyn watched her go, her mind caught between the woman she was sure was yet another nosy hero and the plans she was already hatching. She caught Celeste watching her and arched an eyebrow.

  “Well as far as heroes go, that one wasn’t too bad,” she agreed with Lyn’s thoughts. “I’m assuming this means that you’re going to actually call in a few of your favors in addition to me trying to hunt him down with my contacts?”

  “Yeah… but I really need to get that job ironed out first,” Lyn leaned back in her chair and finished her drink absentmindedly. “I don’t need Turnaround or Sand Devil to drop out because I got distracted. Emma was right about not letting chances slip by. I’d prefer to talk to Menance and even get him on the team before our first trial run, but that bounty will be posted any day now. I’ll shoot off some messages tonight to get things started on tracking him down, but I think I’ll need to poach your ‘boss’ to get the ball rolling on this job.”

  Celeste rolled her eyes and brought up her phone, “Yeah, let me just-”

  Lyn caught the scientist’s eyes bulge for a second, “Uh oh.”

  “‘Uh oh’?” Lyn got a horrible sinking suspicion of what that could mean.

  “I may have gotten some wires crossed about what he was asking for. Apparently the museum job is tonight, which is why he was bugging me about the upgrades,” her roommate got a pensive look on her face.

  “Cel…”

  “He’ll be fine! The tech he’s got is fine. It’s the Reddins History Museum, not the Vandermoore Superhero one!” she protested.

  Lyn shook her head, desperately hoping there was something that would be strong enough here to help her out with the headache that was starting to form.

  “Celeste, the Reddins History Museum hosts Junean, Atlanthean, and arcane exhibits. More to the point, it’s currently hosting the College of Justice exhibit that’s on tour.” Her roommate gave her a look saying she knew that and to get to the point so she did, “So it’s going to have hero guards.”

  “Oh…” the scientist looked worried. “Shit.”

  1. Hell, the realm of demons, was once thought to be a possible afterlife due to the fact that human souls would occasionally end up there. This has been proven not to be the case, and had more to do with how portals would draw in souls when they opened up, which often occurred around battlefields and areas of great death as watching these unfold was considered entertainment in the past to demons. These days, travel to and from hell is closely monitored as best as it can be by various government and hero organizations.

  2. Decks, or rather Decacians, are one of the more common currencies around the world and beyond. While the Amera dollar was once the important trade currency both for the Amera Union and the world following the Great War, there was a push about 50 years ago for a more stable currency not tied to any one country’s economy, especially with Junean trade to the planet increasing. Worry about offworld trade enriching any one country too much or economic downturns in one region kicking off a planetary depression led to a complicated series of economic reforms and the expansion of several international bodies, leading to the formation of the Decacians, a universal currency accepted by all inhabitants of the solar system.

  3. For obvious reasons, contracts between villains are not legally binding. There are magically binding ones, but attempting to use the legal system to enforce contracts would immediately come with repercussions that no villain would actually want. That said, there’s a matter of reputation that comes with signing of contracts which is considered to be sacrosanct within the community. Not to mention that such contracts are also of interest to the League of Domination under its expressed purpose of protecting anyone that calls themselves a villain.