The Meek Shall inherit the Universe! (Worm OC sequel)

[Axle]

Author's Note: Link to first story: https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/delinquents-worm-dramedy.4425/

I'll try and write this in a way where you don't need to read the first. Also; Rebooted. Sorry for the chapter reshuffling (again), but I've changed the prologue and deleted the original first chapter. I'm planning out a lot better now, so hopefully this'll be a good thread to finally start/complete my Delinquents sequel on.

Obligatory "rated M for mature" warning.

XXX

A lampost shined over Taylor's head. "Should I take off my mask?"

"That won't be needed, Buzzkill. Could you please describe the team as best you could?"

"Describe them?"

"As best you can."

"I mean…" Taylor twiddled her thumbs, the enclosed room made it feel seem like she were a villain being interrogated. "Describe what aspect? Their competence? Their personalities? The morality chart? Their viewership stats?"

"Wherever you'd like, Buzzkill. We need to know everything we can about this team."

Taylor paused, and thought for a moment. "Well…"

Armsmaster:

"They're delinquents. No matter how they portray themselves, they're nothing more than standard criminals that need to be treated as such."

Assault & Battery:

Assault said, "they're what happens when you put together every drug conceivable, and don't overdose."

Battery stomped on her husband's foot. "They're adolescents," she hissed while her husband groaned in pain, "they're children in a game they couldn't begin to understand. The sooner we arrest them, the better."

Vista:

"Rush won't stop hugging me!" Missy stood up from the chair and raised her arms in fury, "I hate her! She's always treating me like a kid! I keep trying to make them take me seriously, but she never stops flying at me during battle just to hug me like I'm a frigging baby!"

Miss Militia:

"They're not so bad, as long as they don't hurt anyone I don't think we have to prioritize on them too much."

The interrogator asked, "didn't your Ward team get in a paintball competition with them, where you used red, white, and blue paintball ammunition on them in the middle of E88 territory?"

Miss Militia scrunched her lips.

The interrogator added, "we have the youtube footage. They were wearing American flag t-shirts while playing the song 'Team America' through speaker drones."

Miss Militia wanted to shrink in shame, "they started it…"

Kid Win:

Kid Win said, "I game with Leet."

"Excuse me?"

"I game with the tinker on their team. His gamertage is L33t. "

There was a long pause, "why didn't you tell us?"

"You never asked."

Dauntless & Triumph:

Dauntless sighed, "Uber makes me uncomfortable."

Triumph rolled his eyes, "his fursuit turn you off bro?"

"Never in my life did I think a cape career would involve fighting kink obsessed cosplayers."

The interviewer asked, "but how do you think they impact the PRT image?"

Triumph answered, "It's bad enough that they have no end goals in mind, its annoying that they make live streams of just them screwing around with all the teams in the city. Fighting them is like arguing with trolls, there's no winning no matter what."

Dauntless shrugged, "way I see it, as long as they focus more on the villains, that's less problems for us."

"That doesn't matter," Triumph argued, "they're overall bad for image. Spray painting dickbutts in E88 territory is fine, but what happens when they use their popularity to start humiliating the PRT? Its a blow to morale."

Clobkblocker & Gallent:

Clockblocker asked, "is it weird that Rush makes me feel uncomfortable?"

Gallant commented, "he has a crush on Rush."

Clockblocker said, "I can neither confirm or deny that."

Gallent said, "he posts his own ship fanart on forums."

Clockblocker said, "I can neither confirm or deny that."

Shadow Stalker:

"Fuck. All of them."

Browbeat & Golem:

Golem answered, "we've worked with them, yeah, it's not much of a secret anymore. Believe it or not, behind all the jokes, online videos, and ridiculous tinker tech, they're just as human as any other villain or hero. I'd rather work with the guys who took down the E88 than waste time arresting them for nazi pun graffiti."

Browbeat said, "I still say their internet personas are just a ruse. Get people's guard down, get them to be underestimated, just to turn the tables at just the right moment. I'd say they're living proof that God either turns a blind eye at the absurd, or that he at least condones it."

Buzzkill

Taylor let out a deep sigh, "it goes a little beyond all the tricks and jokes you see on their online websites. On the surface, you'll see them messing around like they're trying to prove they aren't scary people to be around. In reality, they're aware of the threats they pose to the world, they're aware of the faults they have amongst themselves. And they do their best to compensate for that through carrying each other up like any other team would.

I understand that the world tries to categorize them as either good or bad, but it really doesn't apply. Standard titles really can't work with them. If anything, they're grey. They're people caught in circumstances they never wanted to be a part of, and them messing around is just their way of making light of the situations they're caught in."

"Is that really how you'd describe them?"

Taylor thought back to all the team members she's personally spoken with. "Yes, yes it is."

XXX

Director Piggot paused the video footage and addressed the board of directors. "The Losers aren't just juveniles, they're criminals that specialize in wrecking the reputation of any opponent they hold up against. Their tinker is on the same class as Hero, and despite focusing on low end crime, their ratings are no doubt top tier within the city."

The TV screen showed Clockblocker again, he said to the camera, "Light once made an energy beam in the shape of a dildo and slapped it at the things I froze."

The interrogator said, "we asked if you think they're a threat."

Clockblocker replied, "that's my answer."

The footage paused again. Costa Brown said, "I'm seeing a pattern here."

Piggot nodded, "they've set the bar so low that despite that, people never feel threatened by them."

"That's quite an angle," Calvert commented.

"This is why we need overwhelming force," Tagg said quickly, "Dragon has been mass producing armored dragon suits. Now's perfect time to test run Dragonflight on a group that won't cause long term consequences. We'll get a better understanding of the functionality of the suits, without causing a disturbance to the established dynamics of Brockton Bay."

"No," Costa Brown said. "We're not about to impose martial law for a team that calls themselves Losers."

"Do not underestimate them," Tagg emphasized.

"Believe me, I won't. As far as we know, they could planning some elaborate heist or doomsday device as we speak."

Somewhere in the Loser's fortress of inept Solitude:

"Today," Rush stared at the webcam with a big smile on her face. "On the Loser Channel!"

Rush had on her pajamas with her half broken mask covering the top half of her face. Her t-shirt and sweats were as casual as it could get. Uber was sitting next to her, wearing his own domino mask while he wore his own gym clothes that he also used as pajamas.

"Friday night pizza night," Uber said, "please note, we neither endorse nor condemn Little Caesars for their shitty pizza."

"Also on Fridays," Rush added clasping her hands together. "Strip night! Where the whole world gets the chance to watch two infamous supervillains strip as they play video games!"

Rush walked towards the camera and adjusted the camera towards herself and Uber. Rush was slim, skinny body figure with tan skin, she was attractive by most accounts. She'd never cosplayed anything that exposed too much skin, despite Uber and Leet both pushing her to do so.

Uber was a muscular young adult. 21 and at the prime of his youth, Uber could turn a few heads for anyone who walked his way. This was a spectacular night for a lot of their fanbase, as they'd been recommending strip webcamming for months ever since their villain web series had begun.

Uber said, "why do I get the feeling this isn't going to end up the way most people want it to?"

"Rules," Rush said with a smile, "Uber and I are playing dark souls together. Everytime he dies, he strips. Everytime I die, I strip. The Loser with the least amount of clothes by the end of the night wins!"

"Wait," Uber asked, "is the goal to strip or to win the game?"

"Yes." Rush sat down and started up the game. "May the biggest Loser win!"

Two Hours later.

"And we're out of time," Rush looked at her wrist, pretending she had a watch. Rush didn't remove a single piece of clothes off herself, and even put on a panda pajama sweater after a draft of air passed by.

Uber, obviously, was stripped down to his underwear. He had three layers of shirts and two pairs of socks on before they started. Uber was staring at the tv screen in a daze.

"Congrats Uber," Rush said proudly, "looks like you win. Which means, the internet gets to flaunt your pink colored tits all over the internet."

Rush smiled at the camera as Uber gritted his teeth. He threw the playstation remote away and yelled, "how the fuck are you good at Dark Souls!? Dark Souls!?"

Rush yelled, "why are we yelling!? And why do I find you attractive when you yell!?"

The livestream slowly faded to black, with an image of a stone faced Rush smiling at a red faced Uber screaming from the top of his lungs.

 

[Axle]

Theo was already disappointed in joining a team. He kind of thought friendships would come hand in hand with being a cape, but reality proved otherwise. Amir didn't treat him any different than he had before. Heck, Theo even wondered if Amir was avoiding him even more than before.

He still felt like the same chubby loser he was last week, and Amir didn't do anything to make him think otherwise. Amir walked to Theo's side. "Theo."

Theo shook his head, surprised Amir stepped next to him on his way from school. Amir said, "Mouse Protector wants us to patrol a Merchant's warehouse. We've done a few ABB stakeouts, and she thinks we're ready to stop drug operations instead of just calling the PRT to do the heavy work."

Right. Of course Amir only wanted to talk about cape business. Theo didn't even seem like a friend to him. Despite being being part of a newly formed superhero team named "the Mouseketeers", lead by Mouse Protector herself, it wasn't as glamorous as he'd hoped.

Theo said, "make sense. You and Taylor are pretty much already athletes. We started off working in secret, now she wants us in the frontlines."

"Merchants aren't vengeful like the E88, and Coil's drug operations aren't really worth hitting since his drug operations are disappearing."

Theo thought back to the Merchants, he remembered hearing about it from his father and Kayden speaking. They were living together now, which made Theo feel even more uncomfortable in his own home. "The Merchants have gotten big ever since they started selling tinker meth," Theo parroted the words his father had said. "But they still can't defend themselves as well. A lot of times when their guys get hit, they ignore the hit and move on with business like it never happened."

"I didn't know that," Amir said. "Where'd you hear that?"

Theo blinked at him, "Uh, internet?"

"Speculation then?"

"Uh… Yeah."

Amir nodded, barely concerned with Theo's source. But he did make a mental note that Theo didn't want to dive into details. Amir said, "I guess that's why Mouse Protector wants us to hit their dealers first, we're more likely to get away with it."

Theo nodded. He patted his orb in his backpack, "glad we have tinker tech to help us."

"I threw mine away."

Theo blinked at him. Amir elaborated, "I don't trust Leet. Even if it could help me I'd rather do things the hard way then let myself fall into a trap."

"You know… Taylor is going to visit them to create more mutant bugs."

Amir frowned, "I told her she shouldn't go. If she doesn't listen, that's not my problem."

"Not your problem?" Theo glared, "she's our teammate. It's our job to watch out for her, if you're not gonna be a team player, why the heck are you even in a team?"

Amir's mouth flat lined. Theo was surprised he even had to guts to tell him off. Amir always had this aura of certainty around him, something that was rarely contradicted.

Theo didn't know how offensive the comment was to Amir. He was a baseball player, getting accused of not caring about his own teammates was a personal insult. "Then what would you do?" Amir asked, "should we force her not to go? Yell at her? Call the PRT to make sure she doesn't go to their base?"

"Hell no," Theo scoffed at the idea. He replied, "we need to go with her."

XXX

The Losers were a notoriously well known groups of parody capes in Brockton Bay. A few months ago they were treated a jokes, nobodies that jumped non-cape E88 members whenever they got the chance. But as their popularity quickly soared, it became obvious that Leet's tinkering and the team's capes were far more formidable than what they called themselves. Even off camera, the characters each of them played never strayed from their internet personalities.

"Okay," Leet said calmly. "We need to do this in the most professional, and science-reasonable way as possible. I'm gonna need everyone to put on their protective suits to protect against electromagnetic radiation."

The five members of the team put on black dyed cloaks that had red outlines at the sides. The room was dark, and only scented candles kept the room mildly lit.

Uber, Leet, and Spitfire were Brockton Bay residents. Rush and Light, a sister and brother duo with gravity and energy manipulation powers, were often given credited for Uber and Leet's rise to notoriously.

Leet continued, "resurrecting robots are hard. Which is why I've uploaded this robot's old memory into this hard drive."

His robot looked like a cube with a flashlight on its head and a unicycle for it to move around. It laid dead in the center of the room inside a funeral casket. The wires looked like they were viciously pried open with a crowbar.

"This feels pretty morbid," Spitfire said with some hesitation.

"Relax yo," Rush said, "robots are dead inside anyway."

"R-i-p Claptrap," Uber said, "why oh why did you have to find your own off switch."

Light commented, "I know he always said living was agonizing, but he said it so happy I thought it was a metaphor."

"Focus guys," Leet said. "Now, I've put Claptrap at the center of these five wifi points, perfectly perpendicular to give him the best transmission signals to bring him back to life."

The five wifi routers were around Claptrap's dead body. On the ground, a pentagram star was drawn with its edges precisely connecting all the wifi modems. The star lines were marked on the ground with salt. Leet said, "These wifi points need to be perfectly perpendicular to each other for the robot revival to work."

Spitfire asked, "why did you have to draw the star with salt?"

Light answered, "because salt is much easier to clean up than red paint."

Spitfire said, "but we didn't even need to draw the star, it had nothing to do with the wifi points."

"Shh," Uber said, "it made measuring easier."

Spitfire stared down at her sleeve. Underneath the robe she was given, the number '666' was written on the inside. "Uber, where did you get these robes?"

"Don't ask, the lady at novelty store said it was dangerous to say her name."

Spitfire blinked at him, "what?"

"Now," Leet said trying to focus their attention, "we just have to turn on the wifi access points."

Leet ordered for everyone to turn on the wifi points at the same time. The motems shot up a red laser light at the air, a pentagram flashlight hit the ceiling wall and lit up the room with a dark red glow. Claptrap's body slowly levitated several feet into the air. It floated morbidly, like a corpse possessed by some unnatural force.

"I'm feeling uncomfortable with this," Spitfire said.

"Hush," Aryana said, "I've always wanted to resurrect someone."

"Now, just like a regular program installation, we need to reverse install his programming since we're bringing him back to life." Leet handed an old cd player to Rush. "Rush, I need you to play that installation disc backwards."

Rush took the CD player, and set the disk player onto 'backwards'. The speaker began repeating the disk's reversed lyrics. "WORSHIP ME IN THE NAME OF THE DARK LORD SATAN."

Spitfire's jaw dropped, "I go to catholic school…"

"Oh cool," Light said, "then just pretend we're reenacting Jesus resurrection. Like Necromancy."

"I don't think this compares to that…"

"Uber," Leet said, "I need you to get spare motherboard from my old computer."

Leet handed Ubert a hunting knife. An altar was made in honor of one of Leet's older robots. It was a goat robot for a goat simulation test he was doing, but it laid dead at the top of the red carpeted alter. A framed picture of Lucifer coincidently laid in front of it.

Uber walked over to the altar and jabbed the knife into the goat robot's stomach. The robot goat simulated a robotic goat screech, and Uber ripped out the motherboard from the robot's circuitry. Wires pulled out from its stomach as it kicked mechanically. Black oil oozed out of the goat's stomach. Uber's fist was covered in oil as he raised up the motherboard in triumph.

Spitfire yelled, "You couldn't think to get that motherboard before starting all this?"

Leet shrugged, "guess I forgot. Now, Uber, place the motherboard into the wifi center."

Robert did as he was told, and slipped the motherboard into the wifi's port. A hologram of claptraps body formed in the air. It swirled around the room moaning in agonizing pain like it didn't want to be alive.

"It's working!" Leet said.

"I wanna go home," Spitfire commented.

XXX

Taylor, Theo, and Amir walked up the stairs of the Loser's apartment complex. They were impressed by what they saw so far. Not just by the complex size itself, but by the fact that it was kept so clean. The building had been shut down a few years ago due to some mold issues, they'd clearly taken care of the problem and made the whole building their home.

"Thanks for coming with me," Taylor said.

Theo smiled. Amir, of course, ruined the moment. "I still don't think we should be doing this. Light might've been nice to us, but I doubt the rest of his team feels the same way. At the end of the day, whether they're joke villains or not, they're still villains. We need to treat every one of them like they're out to get us."

Theo rolled his eyes. Taylor nodded to him in agreement, "you're right Amir. I thought a lot about that too, which is why I want to see what they have to offer, and see if I can take advantage of that before we have to arrest them someday."

Theo stared at Taylor for a moment as they walked upstairs. He was surprised to hear her say that, he mostly believed that she saw the Losers the same way as he did, a non-threat that could help them out.

"This is it," Taylor said stepping in front of the door number Light had given them. Taking a deep breathe, Taylor opened the door for her team to enter.

XXX

The shaking trembling claptrap body dropped to the ground. After everything was finished, it laid there in silence. The Loser team members stared intensely at the robot body.

After five seconds, the robot leaped in the air and raised it's sticky hands into the air, "I'm AAALLLIIIIIIIIVE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA"

Leet yelled, "it worked! Hail Satan!"

Light, Rush, and Uber yelled together, 'Hail Satan!"

Spitfire yelled, "I knew it!"

Taylor, Theo, and Amir stared at the Loser members astonishment. They'd stepped in quietly at the height of their ritual. None of them knew what to make of the bizarre spectacle.

Theo's mouth widened at the sight of Spitfire's unmasked face. "Emily?" Theo said with his mouth gaped open.

The villain team stared over at the unmasked Mouseketeers. Emily's face turned hot red. "T-Theo?"

Amir scanned at the area. He paid particular attention to the pentagram and framed photo of Satan. "I can't believe it."

"Wait," Taylor said, "do you two know each other?"

The Loser members stared at Emily/Spitfire. Emily asked, "Theo… Amir… What are you both-" Things clicked into place. She knew Light had invited the bug girl to pick up more mutant bugs from Leet's spore machine. If that girl with glasses was 'Buzzkill', then the other two members had to be her Mouseketeer teammates. "You're both…. capes?"

Light blinked at her, "wait, you're serious? You really know them both?"

Emily swallowed. "We um… Go to school together."

Amir went to the pentagram drawn on the floor, slid his finger against the mark, and smelled/tasted it to confirm it was drawn from salt. Amir added, "she and I are also in the same bible study."

An long silence fell over both the teams, Rush coughed out, "God is dead."

Emily's face turned hot red, and she ran out the room in shame.

 

[RichardWhereat]

Hail Satan!

That was hilarious. Watched as fuck.

 

[Axle]

Taylor tapped at the computer keys in front of her. The glass cylinder in front of her morphed the pieces of flesh into the shape she digitized on screen. Every part of insect at critter was catalogued just so she could customize the bugs in whatever way she saw fit.

"You're a weirdo, you know that?"

Taylor turned her head. Sabrina was leaning against the desk as she observed Taylor bug designing. She was red haired, with a noticeable 'x' scar across her face after she left the E88. It was symbolic, really. Her betrayal the E88 left her with a scar of 'shame', one she obviously maintained out of pride.

Her arms were crossed, and she couldn't help but pay close attention to Taylor and what she was doing. Sabrina said. "LIke, when Leet and Vivan use that thing, normally it's just them screwing around and making dickbutt creatures all day. But you…. You actually know what you're doing."

Sabrina stared at the bug Taylor was designing. A tarantula with wings and twice as many legs. It made Sabrina's skin crawl at the thought of all the monstrosities Taylor could use. "I think I have to," Taylor answered. "My power is bugs, I know it's weak, but I have to know what I'm working with if I want to be a hero."

Sabrina stayed quiet. Taylor came off as too optimistic in Sabrina's eyes, but she wasn't going to ridicule her for it. The last thing Sabrina wanted to do was insult Vivan's new friend. Sabrina said, "I think… You're thinking too inside the box."

Sabrina walked up to Taylor's keypad, and began designing her own bugs into the computer. "Like, you think you're weak, but you're not. You're a frigging force of nature. Just because bugs are creepy, it doesn't mean you have to keep the creepy look."

Sabrina designed butterflies. The wings had different patterns on them, and poisons were labelled according to color. She made sure to add sonar and other senses to the bugs, and took out any of the 'scarier' aspects that Taylor hadn't considered as creepy.

"Don't live inside a box, Taylor," Sabrina said. "You're better than you know. These guys literally shiver whenever you walk by. If you keep thinking you're not good, you're gonna fall short. Believe me when I say your own thoughts can be wrong."

Taylor stared at her for awhile. Sabrina finished the rest of her bugs in silence, not really changing the functions Taylor had in mind, just changing the aesthetics. Out of nowhere, Taylor blurted out, "you've changed."

Sabrina pressed 'enter' on the machine, making the pod morph and create the insect eggs. Sabrina shrugged, "I guess so."

XXX

Taylor stepped out of the portal alone and headed into the kitchen. Theo and Amir sat facing Vivan.

"And that's what I don't understand about Hooters." Vivan said casually to the boys, "their chicken is overpriced, they always undercook, it has way too much fat to ever be healthy, and meals are too small to be considered a balanced diet. Its bad on four different counts, and why anyone buys food at Hooters is beyond me."

"Breasts." Amir said stoically.

Theo said, "how is it that Rush is your sister, yet you have the cleanest mind I've ever met?"

Taylor let out a sigh, "guys, I got what I needed."

Vivan smiled at her, "you sure you don't wanna stay for dinner? I made enough casseroles for all of us?"

Amir asked, "you made casseroles?"

"Wednesday is white day."

Theo said, "we prefer macaroni and cheese."

Vivan raised his hands, "hay-o!"

Taylor's face scrunched, "I'd like to, but I actually have to go meet with my dad."

"Kay, kay," Vivan headed out the apartment doors. "I'll walk you guys outside, you guys might um… Die, if you walk here by yourselves."

The trio glanced at each other, and followed closely as Vivan lead the way. "Be honest guys," Vivan asked with his hands in his pocket, "how often did you watch our videos before becoming capes?"

"I did it for research," all three said at once.

"Yes yes, that's getting old fast."

"I'm serious," Taylor insisted, "I literally keep a journal on how I could arrest you."

"Put a moth on my head, and make it chase me to the nearest PRT van."

"I hate how that probably isn't a joke."

"Face it," Vivan insisted, "you guys like the jokes."

Theo said, "You guys once wore hijabs and started making ghost-whoosh noises at the E88."

"And they never caught up with us!"

Amir said, "That isn't the point. Here's my main problem; you guys make the villain life more glamorous than it really is. And I get the feeling that it's going to lead to a lot of misconceptions to what villains really stand for. Those misconceptions lead to mistakes, and those mistakes could get wannabe capes killed."

Vivan frowned while Amir continued. "You guys might be villains, but treating the caps rules more like a game instead of real life, it'll only bite you back when your enemies figure out you aren't the jokes you pretend to be."

Vivan stayed quiet as they lead them down the stairs. He anted to come up with some sort of witty rebuttal to lighten the mood, but that line of thinking didn't sit well with Browbeat.

After getting together his thoughts, Vivan said, "here's the thing, when we started this team, this was always meant to be temporary. So we all just said, 'might as well screw around while it lasts.' But then it became a weapon. It gives this sense of confidence that we're always in control. Like walking while chewing bubblegum, that we're so expert in this, that cracking jokes can come hand in hand.

Could you imagine if we actually showed how afraid we were at Lung? Or showed how much we hated the E88? At least with these jokes, we can show them that we're not affected by what they do. That's what power really is, showing that they have no control over us, our emotions, or our confidence."

Theo, Golem, and Amir stepped out of the double doors with nothing more to comment on that. Taylor let out a sigh, "I… Can understand that. I'd never do it, but I understand it. Is it alright if I stop by tomorrow?"

Vivan nodded, "yeah, I'll make cheese burritos."

She raised an eyebrow, "since you're a villain, I feel like it's a trap."

"All burritos are traps."

"Ah, there we go," Taylor waved goodbye as she and the rest walked away from him. They stayed quiet for awhile as they went down the broadwalk and into the city. After their base was out of sight, Theo asked Taylor, "wait, you're still stopping by tomorrow?"

Taylor glanced at her own backpack. She patted down her sleeves, pants, neck and shirt before saying anything else. Amir did the same thing. Both were suspicious that the Losers had planted them with some sort of unseeable tinker device.

Theo asked again, "you already went there once, why are you going again?"

"I told the them I wanted to practice with the bugs little by little." Taylor's bugs didn't detect a device on herself, so she felt confident enough to speak. "I told them that my powers have limits, and that I need to practice with a species of bugs before I'm able to control them."

"Giving them reason to underestimate you," Amir commented, "smart."

Taylor nodded with a smile.

"But you're going back?" Theo asked, "wouldn't the less time you spend with them be better?"

Taylor shook her head, "I still need to figure out how they work. Even just spending time with them will help me figure out their dynamics. My first mutant bug is a scout bug, one that lets me control more bugs over a longer range. They don't know I can hear through my bug's senses."

Theo whispered, "wait, are you spying on them right now?"

Taylor nodded. "I'll make more excuses to stop by, and I can figure out what they're planning either through my bugs or just by visiting them. Either way, the more time I meet with them, the more information I can get before we arrest them."

Theo's head cocked back in disbelief. Amir nodded in approval, "you're sure you wanna do that? They'll hate you for it."

"I know," Taylor said quietly, "but at the end of the day, they're just villains and we're still heroes."

XXX

The five capes stood at the rooftop of an abandoned building complex towering above an ABB base of operations. They all stared off towards the building, waiting for the right time to strike. Uber, Leet, and Rush were behind, playing games on their tinker designed 'gameboys', Light, Lyft (Sabrina's new cape name) and Spitfire were at the ledge of the rooftop, paying closer attention to the ABB crime ring as it unfolded in front of them in the night's moonlight.

Spitfire looked back at the present team, "your team has really grown."

"Our team," Rush emphasized, not gazing off the gameboy, "you're part of this team too, my beautiful little virgin."

Lyft raised a hand. Her costume was similar to her previous mage design, but it had a much more checkered black and white pattern across the robe. "Not a member, technically. I'm just here because doing stakeouts beats masturbating to degenerate porn."

"I disagree," Uber said, paying close attention to his pokemon game, "degenerate porn is best porn. Why else does Rush have a fursuit?"

"Science," Rush said seductively, "it's always for science."

Uber shivered at those words. "Speaking of which," Spitfire said, "Rush, did you know there are online webcam models that cosplay you for cam shows? They look just like you, and they cosplay really really well."

"What's their subscriber count?"

"I think its… Double what you have."

"Fucking bullshit!" Rush flung her arms up, "big titted bitches show their tits, and everyone subscribes! But when an actual motherfucking artist exists, nobody gives a shit!"

"That's terrible," Leet said pulling up a google webpage. "What are their profile names so that I can avoid those models?"

"I'll send you a link later," Spitfire said. "Also, Light, there are actually some male lookalike male models that strip while cosplaying as you."

Rush made a gagging noise from her mouth. Light said, "I'd be flattered if I weren't under age."

"That's disgusting," Lyft said, "Spitfire, send me a link after we're done here."

"Oh my God," Rush covered her face is in disgust.

Lyft looked over at some of the teenage gang members on the ground level. She thought about the Loser's alliance with the Merchant, and how they managed to make them stop recruiting teenagers. Lyft said, "I gotta ask, why don't you guys make an alliance with the ABB? The E88 are your main enemies, couldn't you just make an alliance with them like with the Merchants?"

"They'd say no if we tried," Leet said. "Guy like Lung wants control, not an alliance. They wouldn't even do a temporary alliance with morons like us."

Light and Rush yelled, "hay-oh!"

"See?" Leet said.

Spitfire added, "none of us actually want the job of owning gang territory either. We talked about this, being a kingpin means being on our toes, asserting control, and constantly having to prove our strengths in the face of new enemies. None of us ever wanted that sort of responsibility."

Lyft glanced around, the whole team nodded in agreement. She looked down at the brothels, there was no telling how many of those prostitutes were teenagers or just forced to be there. "I think you'd be better with this territory than those guys."

"Nope," Rush said. "The whole 'benevolent gang leader' gang is a myth. Anyone who leads a gang can't maintain dominance without getting their hands dirty. And when I say dirty, I mean really really dirty. None of us have the stomach for that."

Lyft didn't have much to say on that, she wanted to think being a 'good gang leader' was easy, but she knew better than assume things were so simple. "So… Can I ask a question?"

"Of course," All five said together.

"Why don't you guys hit the E88 like you do the ABB? You've got drones, lasers, money bombs, everything prepared against the ABB, but I've never see you guys going this far for any of the E88 businesses. The worst you guys have ever done was send boxes of dildos to all the members with notes saying 'are your dicks big enough yet'."

"That was my idea," Light said.

Rush answered, "its a thought experiment. The E88 is held together by its ideology, so instead of hitting their businesses, we hit their ideology. I wanna see how long it takes before they collapse from the inside. They're together strictly through pride, so how far can they go before that pride breaks? Ideological cults are always more fragile than people think. If it were the Fallen, we'd probably be doing Christian jokes all day while wearing lewd rabbi cosplays while kicking ass."

"Here's the other thing," Uber elaborated, "the E88 have been around for a generation. They have a foothold here like no other villain group does. Could we arrange for a massive stig to arrest all of their cape members? Sure, given a few months of planning. The problem is that that sort of upset all at once would be chaos. There would be a power vacuum in the city larger than if any of the other gangs disappeared, and Brockton Bay would be a boiling pot of out-of-city capes trying to fill that hole. We'd see a situation similar as the Boston Games. And as a guy who was there for that, trust me, it wasn't pretty."

Rush turned her head to him, "hold up, you were at the Boston games?"

"Yup," Uber sighed, "ugh, so many mutants."

"Holy shit, I was at the Boston Games too."

"Damn, I must've missed you. What team were you on?"

"Uh, I was kind of in the background, pulling strings in a few places. What was your cape name?"

"Autodidact, you?"

Rush cocked her head back, "what?"

"My name was Autodidact. Means 'self-taught person.' Fitting for my power, but not my personality."

Rush stared at him for a full minute, "I uh…. Forgot mine..."

"You forgot yours?"

"...Yes."

Uber stared at her, "okay."

Lyft rolled her eyes. With a sigh she said, "I think it would be worth it. The E88 aren't as safe as they sell themselves, they're not worth having around."

The others fell quiet, none of them wanted to bother convincing her otherwise. Light didn't want to argue either, but he was willing to explain how they could tolerate them. "The silver lining is that the E88 don't stretch outside their own territory. They have an ideology, but that means their ideology limits their own recruitment. They don't kidnap strangers like the ABB too, their crimes are limited to white ghettos, and they don't do hazings in the daylight. Us focusing on the ABB kidnappings gives the PRT more leeway to stop the hate crimes, so it balances things out. It's more about controlling, reducing, and limiting the crime, than letting things get out of hand unpredictably. Because we'd rather let a gang that's predictable go on, than let an out-of-hand gang take their turf."

"Wow," Leet said, "and so he finally speaks rationally."

"Yesterday I delivered pokemon cards to all the ABB owned warehouses."

Uber said, "your racist subtlety is impeccable."

"Hey guys," Rush said looking overhead at the warehouse. "I just noticed something, why aren't they moving more people tonight? Like, normally we'd see some hostages by now, but all the minivans have been moving boxes so far."

Uber's head glanced up at her, "boxes?"

"Crates. Normally there would be a lot more prostitutes here, but this time… There are almost none."

Uber stepped over to Light and 'borrowed' his thermo binoculars. Looking through them, he scanned the area. "Something's… Wrong here. Why are there spheres under the building?"

Spitfire looked over at Leet's backpack. The backpack could transform into 'Clank,' a limited AI robot that was also known as Leet's handyman. She said to him, "Leet, your backpack's antenna is turned off."

The team froze in place. They stared at Leet waiting for an explanation he didn't have.

Lyft looked over at the rest of them and asked, "why'd everyone go quiet?"

A bomb went off. The building beneath their feet shook as the pillars collapsed under its own brittle weight. "Tinker!" The rest of the team yelled.

Lyft and Rush immediately began picking up the team members using their levitation powers. Lyft carried Uber and Leet on rubble stone platforms, while Rush picked up Light and Spitfire using her gravity power.

"Respawn to base!" Lyft yelled.

"Not gonna work," Uber said, "fucking tinkers always block Leet's transmitter first."

"Motherfucking tinkers," Leet yelled, "they always pull bullshit like this. We need to go, now!"

A woman from the ABB warehouse left the front doors. She had on a metal suit, with a red cloak covering her body. With a gas mask covering her head and a grenade launcher at hand, she lifted up a megaphone and yelled, "you think a bunch of bitches like you can make a fool out of the ABB? You're dead, all of you are motherfucking dead! If Lung doesn't tear you apart, I will!"

"What the fuck?" Rush yelled, "since when did they have a tinker?"

"Is that a bazooka!?" Spitfire yelled helplessly.

"It's Bakuda, dumbasses! And you're not gonna make a fool out of me!"

Rush and Lyft flew everyone else away. The masked woman raised up her grenade launcher and tossed bombs in the team's direction. As each bomb exploded around them, the bombs had a distinct color to each of them. A red bomb disintegrated the environment around it. Blue explosions froze obstacles, causing them to shatter like glass after getting hit. A few combustion blasts burned like regular grenades, but those were far and few in between.

"Leet," Spitfire called out, at the mercy of Rush's dodging maneuvers, "what's her specialty?"

"The hell if I know," Leet yelled, "Tinkers are fucking bullshit!"

In that instance, a bomb hit directly at the platform Leet was being lifted from. It dispersed into a miniature sphere, and Leet's body froze in place while the platform that Lyft carried fell. Lyft's stone platform broke apart upon hitting the ground. Leet remained frozen in stasis, unfazed by the rubble bombs exploding around him.

The team dreadfully continued their escape. Light began firing his beams in the air. One beam managed to hit one of the bombs midair, but that bomb dispersed into droplets of green slime, which burned and sizzled at all the surfaces it touched. It was clearly acidic, lethal even in just small doses.

"Don't shoot the bombs!" Uber yelled. None of the knew what they did, and forcing them to explode wasn't helping. Light began firing 'shield's in the air. They were temporary, and would break like glass upon impact. But it provided small barriers as the whole team began to escape her range.

Lyft and Rush tumbled the team back onto the ground. Exhausting their powers, they knew they had to run on foot now. Light stayed in the back of the group to keep dropping shields behind them all.

"Vivan, get up front," Rush ordered.

Light didn't listen. As another bomb went his way, he tossed a new energy shield up to block it. This bomb fazed through the shield like it was nonexistent. It dropped straight towards him.

Uber sprinted back. His prototype suit expanded. It was a knock off from a prototype video game, but it provided agility and a weapon arsenal that only a tinker could provide. His prototype arm morphed into a tar-like whip, and he stepped in front of Light to try and lash the bomb out of the way. He had hoped it wouldn't detonate, but the bomb disintegrated like glass.

A blue energy enveloped Uber's arm and covered the rest of his body. He held still, frozen in the same sate Leet had been left behind in.

The team watched in horror as another member was lost in a matter of seconds. They sprinted forward, managing to escape Bakuda's range as they ran into the alleyways. They ran in morbid silence; the team had just lost it's two founding members.

 

[Axle]

QQ is typically my "beta" forums before deciding to post elsewhere. I hope Lyft is a good new name for Sabrina, I'm also deciding whether to turn Light's name into Nightlight instead, since I'm sure someone else had taken 'Light' before him. Either way, all suggestions will be much appreciated, and I'll be sure to announce updates here first before I decide to make any big changes again.

 

[Axle]

They looked down at the perpetrators harassing a group of teenagers. Light stood next to Lyft from the rooftop, watching and squinting menacingly. Their confederate designed capes floated against the wind. The lampost revealed their KKK styled robes underneath the nighttime moonlight. A camera drone hovered above them.

"White Knight," Light said in a low raspy tone. "My White senses are tingling."

Lyft tipped her clan cone hat towards him with a nod. "I too, see the perpetrators through my White sight." Lyft made exaggerated and dramatic gestures with her swastika stitched gloves. Light gave a salute , exposing the tan colored wrists beneath his KKK inspired attire.

Light yelled, "Let us bring to them, white justice!"

Lyft and Light fist bumped, and jumped down the rooftop with their powers. Light's body shifted into a white neon energy, and he transformed into a light to appear right between the E88 members and high schoolers.

Lyft floated on a trash lid next to him. "White fiends!" Lyft yelled, "So long as the white trice are here, by night, the white trice will bring the might of the alt right!"

Light's palms glowed in energy, "run! Lest you taste the might of white!"

The three teenagers blinked at Light. They were ABB members, and they were outmatched by their six E88 opponents who had ambushed them. But with the Loser members there, they knew that they could inflict shame onto the E88 far better than any of their own gang members could. The leader of the ABB trio nodded, and ran off to leave the E88 to the Loser's whim.

Light turned around and flashed a light to the gang member's eyes, "white flare!"

Their eyes blurred, they dropped to their knees as blindness overtook them. Lyft took out a caulking gun, "face the wrath of my white slime!"

Light yelled, "not to be confused with her other slime!"

The E88 members couldn't see as Lyft's gun shot white glitter sparkling foam onto them all. The foam oozed over their bodies, and they soon became encompassed in sticky substance sticking them in place. The slime was vaguely similar to PRT foam, except it glowed in the dark and had swatsikas patterned across it as it encompassed them.

Lyft raised an arm up, "the fiends have fallen! Long live the power of white!"

"White power!" Light cheered in glee.

Light smiled at Lyft. She'd changed. Whereas Vivan and Aryana had chosen to attack the E88 more for the irony and because they knew it would reel in more viewers, Lyft acted like she was her personal mission. Like she was under obligation to humiliate the E88 further after what they'd done to her.

She never said it to anyone else, but she'd told Vivan that she really wanted to make them pay. That as a former member, she felt she could deal a harder hit to their reputation than anyone else on their team could.

That's why he and her did these 'special' missions. It was always a concept idea Vivan had had. With Uber and Leet out of commission, they decided to create a "White Knight Adventures" web series to fill in the gap of their absence.

"It appears, another night has been freed, by our white light!" Lyft said to the camera drone.

"Indeed, Lyft. May we fight more, for the plight against white." Light placed a hand on her shoulder. He finally nodded at the camera drone, signalling it to finish recording.

"I gotta say," Light spoke casually, "the costume makes me feel more powerful than I actually am."

Lyft commented, "white people feel the same way."

Before they could walk away from the thugs to leave them to the police, a figure entered from the alleyway.

"Hey, Sabrina."

Lyft turned her head, she gulped at the sight of him. "Hey... Theo..."

Golem stepped towards them. He watched the 'white foam' cover the E88 member's bodies. "Can they hear me?"

"No," Lyft answered. "The camera drone's off too."

Golem nodded to her. They averted eye contact from each other. "Wait," Light asked, "do you both... Know each other?"

Lyft scrunched her lips. Golem said, "yeah, a year ago we used to hang out for awhile."

"Hang out," Light let the words hang.

"I asked him out once," Lyft said bluntly.

"I'm pretty sure it was because my dad is Kaiser," Golem said with a sigh.

"Yeah," Lyft said guiltily, "that might've played... A big factor."

"But you asked him out?" Light glanced up for a moment, "as in, asked him out, but never dated?"

"Yeaaah," Golem said stretching the words, "she asked me out once, but then I told her, um... That I'm not racist."

Light blinked at Golem. "What?"

Lyft rubbed the templates of her forehead, "I'll spell it out for you. I lost interest in him, because I thought he was against nazis."

Light blinked at her. "Oh..."

Lyft murmured, "not one of my best moments..."

Light then turned to Golem and pointed, "wait, did you stop talking to her because she's racist?"

Golem blinked at him, "what?"

"Wow," Light crossed his robe covered arms, "rejecting a girl for their political beliefs. That is so intolerant."

"Jesus Christ Vivan," Lyft yelled.

Light continued, "so disrespectful, I'm offended on behalf of racists everywhere."

Golem said, "you're literally wearing a kkk costume."

Light raised his hands up in pride, "white people represent!"

Lyft yelled, "stop defending me!"

Golem covered his face, "let's just drop this. Listen, I'm here for a reason. You both know Purity is my stepmom, and she wanted me to give you guys a message."

"She could've talked to me in person," Light said, "I'm as harmless as a chocolate marshmallow once you get to know me."

"Its true," Lyft said casually.

"She can't be seen talking to you," Golem replied. "You know better than anyone how much reputation matters to the E88. If they know she negotiated a truce with you, she'd get dethroned."

Light rolled her eyes, "we already said no."

"Rush said no," Golem responded, "we all know Rush will listen to you if you say so."

Light's eyes squinted, "how do you know that?"

"Because its true. Rush might be leader now, but you're her brother. What you say matters most, and if anyone can make her follow a truce, its only if you say so."

Light and Lyft glanced at each other. Lyft shook her head awkwardly, acknowledging the statement. Light said, "we've already talked about this. Fact of the matter is, a truce couldn't work with the E88. If the E88 stopped doing what nazis due, Purity would just get usurped by some other fanatical. And right now, at least Purity tries to be good."

"Purity made a truce with Coil," Golem said. "Merchants aren't an issue since they only sell drugs and don't have turf beyond their warehouses. The only issue is the ABB, and their gang is only as strong as Lung."

"They have a tinker now," Lyft mentioned.

"Exactly," Golem said. "You guys do this truce, the E88 takes their attention off of hate crimes and you guys, and focus solely on the ABB. Purity doesn't want to risk ABB growth anymore. If Bakuda could take out Leet, she's a bigger threat to her gang, especially since your team has lost two members."

"Why do people keep talking like that!" Light flung his arms in the air, "we literally live in a world where gay super heroes can bend lasers! Do people really think we can't unfreeze Uber and Leet? We've done crazier, it'll just take awhile because we procrastinate shit!"

Golem sighed. He had heard Light and Rush reassuring their fans that their teammates would be saved, but not many people believed it. Golem said, "listen Light, I know you care more than you pretend to. If a truce could save a single person from an assault, wouldn't you do that? Don't you think that's worth it?"

Light stayed quiet for a moment. He was trying to pretend not to care, to emulate his sister a littler. He replied, "Sabrina, you decide."

Lyft cocked her head back, "what?"

"You know E88 better than I do, you wanted us to do more against them. They hurt you more. What would you do?"

"I'm... not really a member."

"Doesn't matter. Aryana said that if I said so, she'd make a truce with them if I asked. I never said anything because I'm always freaked out another Boston Games will happen here. But Uber and Leet are... Out of commission. A break from the fourth Reich doesn't sound so bad. So you make the decision, truce or no truce?"

Lyft stared for awhile. She raised up her hand to feel at her own scars. No more making them pay, she thought to herself. Then she remembered that those scars were minuscule compared to what the E88 did to countless others. She'd rather prevent someone's trauma than let the crimes continue for her own personal vendetta. "Yeah," she said confidently, "I think a truce is worth it."

Light pointed to her, "there you go."

"On one extra condition," Lyft said, "no more teenagers. Ever. Because its fucked up how your family treats kids like cannon fodder and zombies, making them believe that being a nazi is the best thing a poor white kid could ever amount to."

Your family, those words hit Theo hard. Despite Theo doing his best to distance himself from his family, he knew that so long as the E88 survived, he would still be associated to them. "Alright," Theo said, "I'll let Purity know."

At the corner of the alleyway, a tiny insect relayed the sounds of the alleyway to the insects flying high above. Those transmissions moved across hundreds of other bugs, before reaching its way to Taylor Hebert. She laid back in bad with a shocked silence, "Theo... Kaiser, is your dad?"

XXX

Lisa, Coil, Trickster, and Purity sat at the table. "The Losers have finally agreed to a truce," Purity announced.

"It won't go the way you think," Lisa said casually, "the E88 will be less united now. Their hate towards the Losers helped keep them behind you, without that or without anymore hate crimes, they're now a lot more likely to turn against you."

"I'm confused," Purity growled, "are you condoning hate crimes, or not?"

"Of course not," Lisa said waving her hand, "I'm just saying, you're the one getting the shortest end slick of that deal." Lisa smirked. She liked flaunting her intelligence whenever the chance arose. Her throwing out plausible predictions, even if they weren't always true, gave her the high of coming off as smart in case any of those predictions did turn out to be true.

Trickster let out a sigh, not even willing to comment on the bickering between the two girls.

Coil asked, "Tattletale, were you able to negotiate with Rush?"

Lisa nodded, "they had already agreed to the heist before losing Uber and Leet, and Rush plans on keeping her word on that."

"Good, will Uber and Leet's absence hinder their team?"

"Yes and no. On one hand, they had plenty of contingency plans for if Leet had ever died beforehand, but its still a new dynamic that takes some time getting used to."

Trickster asked, "so they're not really crippled? I'd think that losing their original members would at least be a blow their morale."

Lisa smirked, "love bursting your bubble, but loss isn't new to the Losers. If anything, they're more prepared for failure than anyone else in the city. "

Trickster rolled his eyes. Lisa's smug attitude was a constant thorn in everyone's side.

Coil asked, "are they serious about trying to bring back Uber and Leet? If I could offer them a fix, would they fall into my command?"

Lisa froze. Coil wanted to manipulate the Losers the same way he was doing with the Travelers. A carrot and stick tactic, dangling a false hope just to keep them running in the direction he wanted. "Not quite," Lisa said, stretching the truth. "They'll... take any chance they can get at saving them, yes. But keep in mind, if they think you're exploiting them they'll write you away like they would any other villain. Rush knows how manipulation works, she'd worked under Accord for years."

Trickster cocked his head back, "wait, she's worked under Accord?"

Lisa nodded, "she was a known as the 'White Rabbit' before."

Trickster jolted from his chair. Coil asked, "is there a problem?"

"White Rabbit..." Trickster adjusted back onto his chair. He put on a feeble smile, "you're telling me, that psychotic bitch that always stood next to Accord like a corpse doll, is Rush?" Trickster began laughing, "Jesus Christ, this world is so fucked."

The others raised an eyebrow at him, but continued on. Coil said, "well, I won't make them any promises I can't guarantee. Trickster, you said you wanted to suggest a something?"

Trickster mumbles, "I was going to, but not anymore. No way would my team follow through it."

"What was it?"

Trickster sighed, "I was going to say we should live in that complex with them. Take advantage of their tinker defenses, work alongside them as mercenaries. They could pay us for living with them in exchange for protection. But if Rush really is the White Rabbit... Well, Cody wouldn't like that."

Lisa laughed, "wow, that would've been fucking spectacular."

With Lisa's laugh, a lightbulb flickered over Purity's head. "Wait, why don't the Undersiders move in with them?"

Lisa's froze, "what?"

Purity continued, "Tattletale said she can figure them out the more she works alongside them, so why not live with them? We want access to all of Leet's inventions, Tattletale could easily collect intel if she lives them. And didn't you say before that the Undersiders needed a better base, what better option is there than a Tinker modified fortress?"

Lisa yelled, "you're just saying this to fuck with me!"

Purity raised her hands in defense, "believe me, I'm not. At the end of the day, I hate the Losers more than I hate you. If you can figure out their weaknesses, that works to my benefit."

Lisa gritted her teeth. Coil said, "she has some good points, is there any real reason to object to that? Besides that you just don't like them?"

Lisa blinked at him. Don't lie to him. "No..." she said feebly.

"Ask your team," Coil said, "see if they'll agree to it, and then negotiate with the Losers if they agree."

Lisa slouched in her seat. 'Requests' like that were more like demands than suggestions. She had to convince the Undersiders to go through with this, or else there would be serious long term consequences from Coil.

"Okay," Lisa said quietly.

Trickster held in his laughter, "wow, that's going to be a fucking riot."

"Fuck you," she replied. With another murmur she said, "It'll still take awhile... For them to trust me that is."

"I'm confident you'll gain access," Coil assured her.

"You know," Purity tapped her chin, "you are their age. For Light, it should be easy for you to..." She dragged off her own words.

Lisa raised an eyebrow, "to do what?"

"You know," Purity bobbled her head, "browner people, generally... Find attraction in..." She let those words hang.

Lisa triggered her powers;

Suggesting she seduce Light​

Trickster bursted out laughing. "That subtle prejudice kills me inside!"

Lisa yelled, "for fuck's sake Purity, he isn't easy just because I'm blonde!"

 

[lostgamer64]

They are really handling losing two members really well. How many more of them will die if they don't fight Bakuda to the fullest?

 

[Axle]

Dear Diary,

The search for Leet's hidden cashe of robosex dolls have gone uncompleted. Instead, I found an underground VAT lab full of video game monsters he created. I'm going to the zombie section.

Dear Diary 2,

Okay, so I guess I wrongly assumed that those minions would listen to me like all of Leet's other creations would. Which would also explain why he never let me go into his lab alone. So uh... The Witch from left 4 dead zombie is hanging out in my room now, and I don't know if she's just as strong as she was in the game, or if she's a joke zombie that Leet created more as a gag than anything else.

Dear Diary 3,

I poked her with a stick. Bad idea. Turns out Leet knows his shit. Too fucking authentic. So now I'm hiding in the closet while this Witch bitch is trying to claw her way into my closet.

Update:

Okay, so I got Clank to activate another minion to kill the Witch. Turns out, in a who would win contest between Left 4 Dead Witch and Pyramid Head from Silent hill, the Witch wins. So uh... She's calmed down now and I snuck away, but um.... I really miss my room.

XXX

Emily walked alongside Taylor towards the Loser base. The two of them stayed in touch, and Emily was certain Taylor had ulterior motives to befriending her, but it was worth the risk. Emily wanted a connection to another superhero, Taylor wanted a connection within the Loser team. Despite them technically on opposing sides, the setup was strangely mutual.

They walked side by side on the boardwalk. She was technically heading there to find new bugs, but Taylor wanted to spend time away from home just as much as she wanted to pinpoint weak points in their base. It was also a quiet walk. When two introverts were together, there often wasn't too much either of them wanted to say. Taylor asked, "so were they your first choice?"

She bit her lip. "The Undersiders were my first choice. Then the Losers. Then Faultline's crew. I had thought of going solo if none of those teams worked out, but I never got that far by the time I joined them."

Taylor nodded. "It's just, you always seemed a little out of place in their videos. Like you were there along for the ride but not really pushing the group forward."

"That's actually what I'm going for. A lot of times I see myself more like the tether for the rest of them. Sometimes they might take things to go too far, and I want to make sure that someone is there to pull them back. It might paint me in a lesser light to them, but I think it's better for everyone that I do."

Taylor shook her head, "I think it's the right thing to do, and I'm glad you're keeping tabs. Sometimes I wonder-"

Emily's phone rang. "Spitfire," Marvin spoke over the line in a groaning tone. "Aryana found the Killzone lab."

XXX

Dear Diary 22,

Jesus fucking Christ. I'm glad Vivan is on his fucking date with Sabrina, because this building is going to shit once he gets back. Turns out the best monster to kill the Witch is a xenomorph from the alien movies. And it worked, it worked like a goddamn charm.

Except now there are mutant witch zombie aliens making thousands of babies in my house, and I've gotta put the building on lockdown or else the whole goddamn planet is gonna get overrun by aliens. Fuck you Leet, next time you make monster minions in your lab, mind putting a warning label that says 'this shit isn't a toy, it will literally kill everyone.' Don't you fucking know I'll touch anything that wiggles!

Now my house is fucked, zombie aliens are twice as hard to kill, I might be pregnant, and I might have to nuke my fucking house just to stop the whole goddamn planet from getting infested. Fuck you Leet, fuck you and your fucking bulshit tinkering!

XXX

Emily tapped onto the keypad at the front entrance of the doors. The pass code didn't turn on. Clank's voice came through the keypad. "Hey Spitfire!" Claptrap said, "or should I say, hotfire like a sauce of malicious fury, haaaayooooh!"

Emily rubbed at her face, she forgot Claptrap had access to the intercoms. "Claptrap, what's happening in there?"

"A kickass battle DEATH royale, that's what! Rush found an zombie horde in Leet's basement. Man am I glad Xenomorphs can't suck my robot face to use as a corpse as a host alien baby hybrids! I'd be terrified if I were a human right now! And sorry if I sound happy, I'm actually traumatized from everything I saw today!"

Claptrap's tone was cheerful from beginning to end. Emily said, "but those Xenomorphs were experimental. She shouldn't have… Wait, what did you mean by battle royale?"

"Zing!" Claptrap cheered, "after the Witch killed the Pyramid head, Rush activated all the monsters and started live streaming! It's a massacre! A bloody merciless massacre! Mwahahahaha!"

Emily's face paled, "oh my God, all of them?"

"Yes!" Claptrap cheered, "a battle of the ages! May all of the evil hordes from hell rise up! Riiiiiise up! Rise up and destroy the woooorld!!!! Hahahaha!"

Emily stared at the intercom for a full minute. The monster Leet had in his lab were months of careful work and craftsmanship. Emily herself had lost track of how many monster in total they had down there. "Claptrap, you have to let me inside."

"No can doooo," Claptrap said, followed by a rhythmic dubstep beat. "Rush overrode my programming to enforce this quarantine. I couldn't let you in even if I tried. I'm actually pretty depressed about it. Rush called me worthless before taking away my free will. Hahahahaha, I'm laughing to hide my depression."

Emily rubbed at her nose temple. "Claptrap, I know you're scared. But we'll fix this soon. Tell me Claptrap, if God is omnipotent, could he create a sandwich so big that not even he could eat?"

An electric shocking noise buzzed across the intercom, Claptrap's voice yelled in front of them. "Oh man, is this death's sweet and loving embrace!? Thank you, this sort of painful meaningless death is exactly what I've always wanted!"

"You can't even feel pain, you're being melodramatic."

"Thaaaank, youuuuu," his voice ended abruptly, and the door opened on its own.

Taylor turned to Emily and asked, "what just happened?"

"Override program." Emily and Taylor headed through the front entrance and headed towards the immediate elevator. Despite there being something clearly wrong in the building, with sirens overhead and the lounge tv running the words 'quarantine', the first floor was clean and unscathed. Emily said, "Me and Leet came up with it. If you ask his AI a question that paradoxes the rationale for religion, they'll short circuit long enough to get passed them."

The elevator was large and spacious. Despite the building once being abandoned, the renovations had made every part of the building seem luxurious. Taylor stared at the buttons to the side, there were nearly a hundreds of them out of order.

"Something's wrong," Emily said. A few of the buttons were glowing with a pulsating red light. "Aryana's section is in lockdown."

Taylor stared at the buttons, "just… How big is this place?"

"The building isn't just the floors it started out with. There are a dozen dimensions connected through stairway portals. Don't worry, I have a tracker on Aryana."

Taylor raised an eyebrow at her, "you have a tracker on Aryana?"

"It's for her own good."

Emily pushed one of the red pulsating buttons. The elevator jumped up, and jolted toward the party room. The elevator almost rattled while it moved, Taylor and Emily stayed quiet as they reached the destination. "Emily," Taylor said, "what should I expect?"

Emily swallowed, "everything. Me and Leet spent weeks making video game monsters. 'Killzone,' was the project's code name. It was supposed to be a contingency plan against the Slaughterhouse 9. To teleport them into a thunderdome world and to force them to face a horrifying army. I can't believe Aryana released them here," Emily clenched her fists. "Those things are dangerous, they shouldn't be anywhere near this city."

The elevator door opened slowly to the arcade room. The room itself was lit, but the games weren't running. From Taylor's perspective, it was a ridiculously cliche room. Full of retro arcade consoles that were more novelty than fun. Taylor could guess that it was mostly for the sake of collecting the 80s classics, but it made her wonder how much time and energy the Losers had to spend their resources on entertainment rooms such as this.

The sound of steps were heard. They were slow, and gradually entered the room close to them. "Three things are coming in," Taylor whispered. She put her hand on her own waist, ready to retract her baton.

Emily stepped in front of Taylor. "What do they look like?"

Taylor 'felt' through her bugs, "like… Mushroom heads with feet."

Emily thought for a moment. "Oh."

Three brown figures with cartoonish looking eyes and teeth entered their peripheral vision. They simply walked in column between the arcade machines, not attacking or saying anything. One eventually bumped into the arcade machine, and simply turned around to keep marching, with no particular destination in mind.

"Is that…. From Super Mario?"

Emily sighed in relief, "yeah."

"Wha…. Why?"

Emily murmured in shame, "to fuck with people…"

Emily and Taylor walked forward. They turned the towards the corridor and quickly came face to face with a Predator hissing at them. It was a towering tall with an exoskeleton bodysuit and mask. Taylor and Emily froze at the sight of it. It's claw unsheathed and it hissed a low roar at them.

"Oh shit," Emily and Taylor both said.

The Goombas turned the corner and casually walked around the Predator. The Predator knelt down, and stabbed the head of one of the Goombas. The Goomba's eyes turned to 'x's, and its body deflated like it were a popped balloon. The Predator stabbed the other two, and raised their deflated bodies on his claw like he'd made a Goomba kabob.

"Taylor," Emily said quietly. "Don't move, don't attack. Follow my lead."

Emily fell slowly to her knees, and bowed her head to the Predator. Taylor did the same. The Predator hissed, and turned around. Taylor and Emily kept their heads bowed for awhile. When Taylor glanced up, she noticed a creature clinging on the ceiling staring down at all of them.

It was another Predator, cloaked in invisibility that only her own bugs could notice. "There's another Predator over us."

"Stay quiet Taylor," Emily whispered. "Only run when I say so."

The second Predator uncloaked its shroud. It jumped onto the ground and stabbed the first Predator in the chest. Emily took Taylor from the arm and they sprinted toward the other exit. After slipping passed the arcade's emergency exit, Emily spat fire behind them to cover their escape. They jogged forward, leaving the Predators blocked behind them.

They jogged forward. The apartment halls were a labyrinth. Despite it being generally small, the layout was very clearly larger than it looked from the outside. Like the walls had been custom constructed, giving a white clean look which made the width and scope of the hallways more daunting than it was.

"Why the hell do you guys need this space?" Taylor said running away to catch up with Emily.

"Toy Box members used to come here a lot, a few of these halls are specifically for group tinker projects. Taylor, I'm going to need your help. Can you use your bugs to tell me where the most monsters are?"

Taylor nodded as they ran, "two rights, and then a left." Taylor and Emily turned the hallway. They ran for a few minutes, but stopped at the sight of three miniature minions huddled in the hallways.

They were grunts. Spitting images from the Halo games, they were purple scaly creatures used as cannon fodder in the games. If Taylor had to describe them, it was like seeing shell-less turtles walking upright, four feet tall with metallic armor around their torsos.

The three grunts all turned their heads at the sight of Emily. They pointed their guns at Emily. Taylor instantly raised her arms in surrender. Emily only rubbed at her temples. She said aloud, "Master Chief is on his way."

The grunts instantly dropped their guns. They scattered in a panicked fury. Screaming in a panicked cry, the grunts left the hallway without hesitation, paving a passage for Emily and Taylor to move forward.

Taylor looked at Emily with a disgruntled look in her eyes. Emily answered, "every minion has an immediate weakness. Some are…. More obvious than others."

Before Taylor could comment, three red dots marked Emily's forehead. "Watch out!" Taylor pounced at Emily, causing her to drop just before a plasma shot blasted over her head. Emily and Taylor got up quickly and sprinted away from the Predator behind them.

"What's the Predator's weakness!?" Taylor asked. Taylor's bugs delegated between trying to poison the monster to death and providing cover from the monster's aim. Taylor quickly noticed the creature was poison proof. Clouds of insects blocked the Predator's vision as it followed them without hesitation.

"Not being a threat," Emily answered, "which won't work now since it knows we're parahumans. Taylor, can your bugs lead us to Aryana?"

"Yeah, we're really close to her. She's in the next hallway, and she's fighting some sort of… Horse."

"Oh my God," Emily facepalmed, "she better not-"

Before finishing her sentence, Emily was kicked in the stomach. Her body flung backwards, and the predator from before uncloaked itself in front of her. It hissed at Emily's face. Emily was ready to spit napalm fire, but the Predator quickly shot a white goop from its extended wrist. The goop covered Emily's mouth, sealing her lips tight.

The Predator walked slowly towards Emily, savoring its prey before going for the kill. After in extended its claw blade, Taylor pulled out her baton and taser and yelled. "Hey I'm a bigger threat than she is!"

Emily shook her head, warning her not to get involved. The Predator turned and analyzed Taylor's weapons. It pointed at her to let her know that it accepted Taylor's challenge. It hissed and entered a crouching fighting position with its claws extended. The Predator mimicked a warrior, ready to kill whoever provided a challenge.

Taylor swallowed, maybe this was a mistake.

Taylor's bugs amassed around her. It was small line of insects, not intimidating so that she could feign weakness. But a heavy blanket of insects hid above the monster's head, ready to pounce at it from behind once it got too close.

I wish I had my armor.

The Predator charged itself towards. Taylor's body tensed as it ran across the hall. Like a nightmare come to life. Taylor raised up her taser and the insects above her buzzed loudly.

Before the Predator leaped at her, a white horse plowed into its side. The horse's horn stabbed the Predator's side. It pulled back and thrusted again, using it's long swirled horn to stab the Predator into submission. The Predator screamed in agonizing pain.

The unicorn damaged its body like it was nothing. Dismembering its insides like it were cattle. The Predator tried stabbing its claws in the horse's sides, but the claws broke at the Unicorn's diamond skin.

"Onward, my majestic butt stallion!" Aryana followed the unicorn with her arms extended. "May the world be filled with your glitter grace and rainbow flavored butterflies!"

Aryana laughed maniacally as the unicorn pummeled into the Predator. The Predator slowly lost its breathe before it became limp from the agonizing pain. The diamond stead heaved in victory, and stepped back from the Predator before rising upright to proclaim its ambience.

Aryana walked towards Taylor and tapped her forehead. "Sup hoe."

"Rush… What the fuck is going on?"

"Live Streaming. I'm calling this the who would win battle extravaganza."

Taylor stared blankly at her. She looked up at the diamond horse. "This is insane."

"Welcome to my world." Rush walked over to Emily and crouched toward her. Emily had her back against the wall and was sitting on the ground murmuring mutely from the goop around her lips. "Emily, that's not how you take white stuff to the face. Use your tongue last, silly girl."

Emily mumbled angrily while pointing at the goop. Aryana pulled out an shoe spray and sprayed it at her face. Emily screeched like it was pepper spray, and the white goop dissolved into nothing. As soon as Emily's mouth cleared, she began coughing out.

"Hey Emily, no offense, but I had the building under lockdown for a reason. This is very irresponsible of you."

Emily coughed, "are you *cough* *cough* out of *cough* your fucking mind?"

"Are you really shocked at this point?"

"Yes!" Emily yelled, "this is crazy, even for you!"

There was a loud growling from the hallway Aryana had left from. Aryana sighed, and gestured for Emily to follow her. "Come come, there's a panic room nearby."

 

[Axle]

Emily yanked at her hair, "you frigging… Do you have any idea what you did?"

The panic room was more like a lounge room. Complete with a personal library and Tron-styled lights and chairs. Taylor only gazed up at the room monitors in a complete awe. She didn't feel nearly as safe as Aryana had assured her. She saw monsters from everywhere, monsters in different rooms being monitored.

Big Daddy vs Deathclaw, Darkspawn vs Heartless. It was a like scenes from horror movies, except cliche monsters killing each other instead of people. Any perception she had that they were harmless was permanently shattered. Now she only wondered how she could turn them in while bypassing the absurd amount of tinker insurances with them.

Aryana's arms were crossed, proud of the havoc she'd unleashed. "That's the beauty of tinker fuckery. Hate it when it's against you, love it when its with you."

Taylor commented, "you nearly died today."

"Exactly."

Emily yelled, "The whole world could've been killed, what the hell made you think releasing this, in our home was a good idea!" Emily pointed to the screen, just in time to show an image of a wolf devouring a man-bat on one of the monitors.

Aryana let out a sigh, "I'll admit, this was sort of a 'accident gone right' situation since I'm getting some sweet livestreaming footage out of it. I only released the Witch by mistake. And I only released the rest of the monsters to try and figure out a way to kill her."

"That's not how you fix a problem," Emily yelled. "You literally threw gasoline in a fire."

"I know that now!" Aryana emphasized. "Things only got out of hand after the Xenomorph made babies with the witch. Turns out, the Predator clan was more than enough to kill all the aliens. And in retrospect, I should've woken up the Predators first, those black motherfuckers know how to get the job done."

"Of course they do," Emily rubbed at her eyes, "the Predators were designed to kill Aliens, they're not supposed be a part of some friggin live streaming gag!"

"Listen, I'll admit that I kind of panicked at first, which I also recorded, but things are under control now." Aryana pointed her thumb at the monitors, "The building's been on lockdown and it would take an act of God for any of them to get out. The Alien infestation is over, I'm not pregnant, and now I'm just waiting to see who comes out on top of this battle royale tournament I set up. It's all good, I just have to settle all those who would win forums that always filled up our website."

Emily tugged at her hair, "I can't even… Are you frigging crazy?"

Aryana curled her lips, knowing better to not answer that.

Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow, "what do you mean you're not pregnant?"

The monitors in front of the room went dark. The lights flickered on and off, and Cortana's small holographic body digitized over the panic room coffee table. "Rush, the Flood has taken control of the security cameras. We're on emergency generators now."

"What?" Rush said, "how the hell could they do that? They're gonna ruin my livestream."

Emily's eyes, "you… Released the Flood?"

Cortana's holographic arms shivered, "also, is anyone else getting really bad deja vu today?"

Aryana answered, "no, Cortana. You're just weird. And Emily, the Flood was the first guys I activated after the Xenomorph aliens made zombie witch babies. There are so many Xenomorph vs Flood forums, I just wanted to settle that question first and foremost."

"Oh my God," Emily ducked her head onto the wall, "this wasn't supposed to happen."

Taylor asked, "why would Leet even create the flood? They eat technology, tinkers should hate that."

"That's why he made it. The whole point of the flood was to take out a tinker that went insane. He never figured out a way to control it, so it was supposed to stay in stasis!"

Aryana's flung her arms up, "well how was I supposed to know that!"

"We left a giant sign that said 'Aryana, do not touch this!'"

"Relax," Aryana said with her hands raising and lowering, "I have a backup plan."

Emily said, "we never made an off switch!"

"I know, but we still have a contingency plan." Aryana pointed a thumb in Cortana's direction.

Cortana raised a finger up, and halo ring wrapped around her holographic finger, "should I reset the timer for the Halo ring?"

"Not yet," Aryana ordered, "I still wanna see who survives now."

Emily's stomach churned, she sat down slowly on the floor, "you brought… You brought his prototype Halo Ring here…"

"Yeah," Aryana said, "Wikipedia says it'll kill the flood. I brought it to our world as a contingency plan."

Emily was now pale. She always knew Aryana was a loose cannon, but she generally had control of whatever situation she put herself in. But with Leet's arsenal? Tools so unpredictable that even Leet himself couldn't understand? This was beyond her normal control.

Aryana began patting Emily on the head as though she were a puppy. Taylor remembered something that Vivan had once told her, about how Aryana actually rarely played video games growing up. It was more like a 'new' hobby she picked up just for the sake of playing something with Vivan.

"Aryana," Taylor asked, "you've… Never played Halo, have you?"

"Nah," Aryana said smiling. "I just like to say I played the classics so that people think I'm a hot gamer girl."

"Of course you don't," Emily said covering her face. "You're so frigging predictable."

"I take offense to that,"

Taylor rubbed the bridge of her nose, "so I'm guessing… You don't know what the Halo Ring does, do you?"

"It kills the flood," Aryana said, "wikipedia says so."

Emily gave off a weak laugh, "and of course Wikipedia never lies."

Taylor said, "Aryana, the Halo Ring is designed to wipe out all life in the galaxy."

Aryana blinked at her. "What?"

"In the game," Taylor recalled, "the only way to kill the flood, is to destroy all life in the galaxy."

Aryana's face turned pale. She looked down at Emily who covered her face in shame. Emily gave off a feeble laugh as she contemplated her life decisions. Rush said, "that can't be true, that's like the shittiest plot device I've ever heard. Cortana, why didn't you tell me?"

Cortana placed her hands on her hips, "you're the one who set the parental blocks on me. I don't know anything about my own games thanks to you!"

Aryana turned to Emily, "Emily, explain."

Emily shook her head in disgrace, "me and Leet made that ring so that if we had to, we could teleport an Endbringer in another dimension and then activate the ring somewhere safe... To see if an Endbringer could survive a destroyed planet."

Aryana's eyes boldened, "but uh… Leet's ring isn't planet sized like in the game. His version is literally pocket sized, so it wouldn't blow up the universe… Right?"

Emily gave off a weak chuckle, "we tested it on a dead planet. It doesn't wipe out the galaxy, but it does scorch a whole planet's surface."

Aryana's face tingled, "oh dear jesus."

Cortana looked at her wrist as though she had a holographic watch, "Aryana, we're already passed the timer from earlier, can I abort the ring again?"

"Abort," all three of them said.

"Aborted," Cortana said saluting.

Aryana commented, "haha, aborted just like my alien baby."

"What?" Taylor and Emily asked.

"Long story, I'll tell you later. But I've got another idea. You know Leet's Cthulhu project?"

"No!" Emily yelled. "You're done, any shitty ideas you have from now on, I'm vetoing it! You've screwed up enough, I'm not letting you use any more of his projects from here on out!"

"But-"

"I'm Leet's lab assistant, what I say goes!"

Aryana's lips curled. Emily covered her face in shame, "God, why did I think you were sane…"

Taylor glanced between the both of them. The monitors were shut off, she couldn't know for sure how long before their room became overrun. Taylor asked, "you guys have said Leet has to work around old ideas to make the same results, right? Like energy. Vivan explained to me that if he made a battery once, he'd have to use a plant battery the second time, and a hamster battery the third time."

"Yeah," Emily said softly, "that's how Leet told it to me."

"So, I have a question. Are there any inventions that don't actually do what they say they do?"

Emily thought for a moment, "teleportation is a one. It doesn't actually teleport us, it destroys our molecules at recreates them somewhere else."

Aryana's eyes bulged, "wait, what?"

Taylor asked, "is there any chance Toy Box can activate or change one of his inventions from the outside?"

"Dodge," Emily snapped her fingers. "The cloaking device on our building, it doesn't actually make the building invisible, it teleports the building between multiple dimensions, making it impossible to see us on radar."

Taylor asked, "Cortana, if we activated the cloaking on the building, could the flood escape it?"

"No," she answered. "Cloaking is equivalent to lockdown."

"Wait," Aryana motioned, "if we teleport the building away to strand them, won't that mean… We lose the house?"

Emily yelled, "there will be a literal apocalypse if we don't stop the flood!"

"But still…"

"No," Emily jabbed in Aryana's direction. "You don't get say anymore. All of Leet's inventions are in my jurisdiction now. Anything his, you don't touch!"

Aryana's lips shrunk. Emily ordered to Cortana, "activate the cloaking."

The building tremmered. The lights in the panic room flickered on and off. A few of the other monsters screeched around the building before the building stabilized again. The girls stood backed up as the lights flashed back to normal again.

"Building is cloaked," Cortana said with her fingers doing air quotes as she said it. "The elevator is still functional and the portal to Bet is opened at the lobby. Me and Marvin will stay behind to make sure nothing escapes. You can all leave safely when you're ready."

Aryana looked over and around the room. She liked this building, it was plainly obvious that she didn't want to lose it. Taylor asked, "if you guys activated the ring in this stasis, would the explosion escape to our world?"

"No," Cortana answered. "The gravity field here is too strong, and energy can't escape the entryway of the portals."

Aryana perked up, "so if we activated the ring here, and all the monsters got destroyed… Our home would stay intact if it came back?"

Emily squinted at her. Cortana answered, "it'll be worse for wear, but yes. The building should survive since the Ring only kills organic matter."

Aryana glanced at Emily for approval. She turned her head away and said, "fine."

Cortana gestured her hand. A loud humming stretched across the building. The ring charged as she smugged proudly with herself, "Done. I've set the timer for one hour from now. I'll bring your home back after its confirmed safe."

Aryana pumped her fists out. "Mission accomplished!"

"This is your fault," Emily said.

"Still, side quest accomplished." Aryana walked toward the elevator. "Come on. I'd rather leave with time to spare than to wait last minute like a shitty hollywood movie."

Taylor stepped onto the elevator, taking a long glance at the dark monitor screens before deciding to leave. The whole day was absurd, she could hardly believe that the Losers had access to such dangerous weaponry. It scared her knowing this. Because she was torn between being glad to know they'd never do anything evil with it, and paranoid that such an irresponsible group of people had access to it. The sooner they were arrested the better.

Emily stepped in front of the elevator and stared directly Aryana. "Aryana, I can't be a part of your team anymore."

Aryana looked back at her, "okay."

The ride downstairs was an quiet one. They were silent even after reaching the floor. "You took things too far," Emily said.

"I know," she replied.

Taylor was physically uncomfortable around them. The contrasts between them were wakingly obvious. Emily wanted to address it, Aryana practically denied it.

The lobby was calm. Untouched by the chaotic monsters from elsewhere. It was almost shocking how the scene had switched from bloody chaos to morbidly clean. The lobby had been locked away for escape purposes, showing some semblance of control Aryana had over the situation.

They left the front doors to the grassy lawn in front of the disappeared building. Behind them, the apartment complex was vanished. A dirtline mark was on the ground where it had once been. But as far as they were concerned, it was safely tucked away far from Brockton Bay.

Aryana laid back on the gross. She waited for her home to come back as Emily and Aryana walked along the boardwalk. The sun was calm, like nothing had changed since the livestream had begun. Despite how long it had taken, it was only midday by the time it was all over. In Aryana's mind, it was a success. No one was hurt, no one had died. She only let the breeze cool by her as she waited for her sense of normalcy to return to its place. Aryana whistled to herself.

All in good fun for the game of cops and robbers.

Emily walked ahead at the boardwalk with Taylor next to her. They were both silent. It was like watching the world rip itself apart and then pretending it never happened. Neither Taylor or Emily were equipped to talk about the situation.

Emily bit her lip and said, "she's whistling right now.."

Taylor rubbed at her neck, "yeah, it's crazy how someone can be so nonchalant about almost dying."

Emily's eyes furrowed, "she was whistling…"

Emily clenched her fists, and marched back to Aryana. She ran forward to find Aryana still whistling in front of the apartment's grassfield, and looked down at Aryana as she looked back up. "Sup homie."

Emily said to her, "this isn't because of the Simurgh."

Aryana cocked her head back, "excuse me?"

Emily pointed to the Simurgh tattoo on her hand, "you, doing this. You putting yourself in danger… That isn't because of the Simurgh, that's just you, and no one else's fault."

Aryana stared at her for awhile. "Okay."

Aryana didn't believe her, but she also didn't want to argue with her. So she simply accepted what Emily said without any rebuttal. Emily said, "and this isn't Accord's fault either. You worked for him, but he didn't make you. Everything you've done, out of spite for him, it's not his fault you're this way, it's your own fault."

Aryana's eyes furrowed, "what the fuck, Emily?"

"You have to hear this," Emily's voice raised. "You're not some chosen child of the Simurgh, and you're not some legacy from Accord. You've been your own person since you came to Brockton Bay, and everything that's happened to you has been your own fault, and no one else's."

Aryana's mouth fell flat. Again, she did her best not to say something brashful to her. She rationalized that Emily was shaken, and was just saying things to vent her frustration.

Emily said, "you're actually worse than both of them combined. You break things just to see how things break, and then you fix things just to see how in control you really are. You take the worst parts of both of them by trying to act against either. And they didn't make you that way, you made yourself that way."

Aryana looked away from her, "Emily, I really don't need to hear this from you."

"Then who are you going to hear this from? Vivan? He thinks you're a saint, and everyone except him knows its wrong. How long before your screw ups get him killed?"

"Shut up Emily," Aryana yelled, "alright, I get it. I fucked up. Now leave me the fuck alone."

Aryana's head faced the ground, not wanting to see her. Emily's eyes closed, her eyes were watery but she didn't want Aryana to see that. "The least you could do, is stop pretending everything's alright. It's sick, not funny. The least you can do is that."

It was at that moment that they both knew what the real problem was: Aryana was in denial. She didn't want to believe Uber and Leet were gone, so she put on this facade like nothing had changed.

Emily turned around and finally left her alone. Taylor was still ahead of her, watching the spectacle out of curiosity. When Emily returned next to Taylor, she said, "Taylor, I'm not going to be a part of this team anymore… Can you promise to check on them? Like the same way you did today?"

Emily rubbed at her eyes. Taylor answered, "I'm not… Sure if I can. You saw what happened today, there are a lot of things outside of my control."

Emily said. "Just… Be their tether, please. My team doesn't know its limits, and I've had to hold them back a lot of times. Since I can't do that anymore, can you promise me that you can keep them in line? Can you promise to make sure they never take things too far?"

Taylor's bug listened to Aryana behind them. She was murmuring to herself, like there were voices in her head she was trying to suppress. Taylor answered, "yeah, I can at least promise that."

 

[Axle]

Aisha had a love-hate relationship with her new friends at school. On one hand, she was glad to have a group of people that hang around with. On the other hand, she had nothing in common with them. Beyond liking the Loser live streams together, sometimes she felt like she was with them for the sake of pretending to have friends instead of them actually being friends.

The graffiti she sprayed was finally complete. The nazi sign that had previously taken up the wall on the back of the alleyway was now redrawn to look like an Egyptian dancer with artistic integrity. She smiled, and took a selfie with her phone.

It was a growing trend in town. Although the Losers didn't encourage it, they definitely started it. Students and adults alike were re-drawing swastikas into ironic doodles, just to troll at the E88. Aisha's group of friends made a game out of it, see how many selfies they could do of 'making swastikas look better.'

Aisha pulled down her bandana. The Losers warned people early on that it was never safe to do these sort of stunts with your faces actually shown. The E88 tried finding people who were caught doing these pranks, but they couldn't find the right targets when people were always masked. Rush and Light's half-broken masks were a symbol of idiocy that their fans often embraced.

Aisha sent her picture to her circle of friends before a voice called out to her. "Who the fuck are you?"

Aisha looked up from her phone. A group of five teenagers glared down at her, staring at her like she were an insect. Their heads were shaven, they had various Celtic tattoos across their arms and necks. The one at the front of the group said, "what the fuck are you doing?"

Aisha blinked at them, "holy crap, all nazis do people look the same."

It was just an observation. This group of teenagers had clearly formed a clique, trying to look alike in order to portray strength in numbers. The tallest, most muscular member of the group looked over at Aisha's drawing, and stared back at her. "You fucking do that?"

Aisha put on a cracked smile, "nah man, it was like that when I got here."

"Bullshit, we're the ones who drew that. It wasn't like that this morning."

Aisha stayed quiet. She wanted to run, but on one side of the alley was a fence, and the other opening was blocked by the gang of nazi sympathizers. Aisha said, "well, it looked pretty shitty before I fixed it."

She was feigning confidence. A part of her was imaging the Losers stepping in to save her.

"Fix?" He pulled out a knife. "How about I fix your face, bitch."

Aisha raised her arms in defense, "listen, hold on… It was just a joke, bro."

One of the other members of the group put a hand on the tall one's shoulder. "Hold on, Purity says we can't hurt kids anymore."

"Fuck Purity," he growled, eying at the picture. This 'make swastikas better' trend started the moment the Loser truce had begun. More kids began pulling these types of pranks, not realizing that the truce was keeping them safe. "If that bitch wants to protect shit heads, she can do it herself. No one comes to our territory and fucks with our gang for shits and giggles."

Aisha's heart beat like a drum set. No one was coming to save her, there was no chance of escape, nothing she could do would save her from the mercy of those people. She closed her eyes, and in an instant, her world became black.

XXX

Brian crossed his arms. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She looked back up at Brian, "oh, you know. Just… Hanging out."

"You need to get off of them. Now."

Sabrina sighed, and then stood up and stepped away from Bitch's dogs. She was inside one of Bitch's dog pins, it was filled with puppies that needed homes. The spot the teleportation device had brought her to was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Rather than get out of the dog pin as soon as she arrived, Sabrina laid back, and let the puppies lick at her before Brian finally approached her.

Sabrina was wearing a white dress shirt with a colorful patterned skirt. It was a school uniform from Immaculata high, she pretended it was some sort of 'business attire' as she approached Brian. She said to him, "admit it, you've laid in that puppy pin too."

"I haven't," Brian said stoically. "When you said you were coming, I thought you'd be here in thirty minutes, not two minutes. And since when could you do that? Lisa said you needed checkpoints to teleport to places."

Sabrina shrugged. "It's not a secret then, right? We have teleporters everywhere. We just never use them until we actually need them."

"You're just lucky Rachel isn't here. She'd have killed you if she found you playing with her dogs."

"Puppies, Brian. Use the right term."

Brian rolled his eyes, "so where's Vivan? You both supposed to be here for this."

Sabrina shrugged, "the teleporter has been low on battery lately. We can teleport to the building, but not specifically where in the building. The delay should mean he'll be here in a few more minutes."

Lisa had decided to take a shower before they visited. She had just left the bathroom with a towel on before going to try her hair. As she was about to dress into her daytime attire, Vivan materialized in front of her.

They stared at each other, paralyzed in shock. Her powers explained his appearance:

Faulty Tinker Teleportation; not his fault
​

Not his fault, so I shouldn't be mad, Lisa thought to herself. Regardless, the most she could say was, "get out of my fucking room."​

​

Vivan stiffly stepped out of her room. Sabrina and Brian watched as he slowly closed the door behind him. He sat on the ground and covered his head in shame.

"Wow," Sabrina said. "Leet's inventions... Really fucks with people."

Vivan mumbled, "Tattletale, I swear I didn't see anything."

She yelled back at him, "fucking drop it. I'll be out there soon."

XXX

They waited another fifteen minutes for Lisa to dry her hair. She left her bedroom wearing a casual set of jeans and a t-shirt. She quietly sat down at the kitchen table next to Brian, with Vivan and Sabrina sitting across from them. Vivan starred in the other direction.

"Forget it, Vivan."

"I'm so sorry..."

"I said forget it," she glared.

"Shutting up now."

Brian shook his head. In a harder tone he said, "so you have this place wired too?"

"They have everything wired," Sabrina said pointing a thumb at Vivan, "seriously, their computers even made Dragon blush."

Lisa raised an eyebrow to that. There was some truth to the comment, but she wasn't sure what it was.

Brian sighed to himself, "alright, I talked on the phone with Rush, and she says she'll let us move in after the casino heist. Has she told you how much we'll pay?"

They both shook their heads. Vivan said, "about that… Aryana changed her mind about the payment."

"So she wants more money?" Brian crossed his arms. "That'll change things. We're already paying the most we can afford. If you're asking for more, you'll have to throw in something like tinker weaponry to make this work."

Sabrina shook her head, "yeah, she had something else in mind."

Lisa raised an eyebrow, "you want us to move in for free?"

Brian cocked his head back. Vivan and Sabrina nodded in agreement. He asked, "why?"

Sabrina raised up her fingers, "two reasons. One, we know you guys aren't trustworthy. Which is fine, they've handled that before. And two, your boss's methods are… Grey? We'd rather not take that sort of money right now."

Vivan said, "I wanted to make a bonfire with your rent money, but Aryana said it was bad for the economy."

Lisa stared at them in disbelief, "you...you know who our boss is?"

Vivan nodded, "we wouldn't be working with you if we didn't."

Lisa couldn't believe it. In the short amount of time since they'd contacted them, the Losers found out who they'd been working for. Once again, she had vastly underestimated what they were capable of. The only saving grace was that they were too moronic to put their talents to better use.

Brian asked, "but you want us to move in for free? Why?"

Sabrina said, "we need people to protect the base when we're not around. We're short on defenses right now, so more muscle would be a good thing."

Vivan added, "you guys can live rent-free in exchange for work. Like the slaves."

Brian glared at him. Sabrina yanked at Vivan's ear, "don't."

"Shutting up again."

Lisa and Brian glanced at each other. It was a deal they couldn't refuse. Grue asked, "what's the catch?"

Vivan answered, "there's a cosplay requirement."

"No," they both said quickly.

"At least hear out which cosplays…"

"No deal then," Sabrina said more confidently. "We're throwing away thousands of dollars for you guys to live with us. If you can't follow that one condition, no deal."

Sabrina and Vivan both stared at Lisa. They knew. If Lisa couldn't get this deal to work, Coil would punish her. This was all for the sake of putting her on the spot. To pressure her into throwing away any pride she might still have.

"No," Brian answered in a hard tone. "We have a reputation to keep, and we're not throwing that away for a base we don't even need."

Thank God. Lisa wanted to say. Coil couldn't blame her if Brian was the one who refused the offer. She smiled, and nodded at Brian's answer.

Sabrina shook her head, "the cosplay rule isn't for you guys. It's just her."

Lisa cocked her head back, "what?"

Vivan said, "All the other Undersiders don't have to cosplay, but Tattletale does."

Her powers dug deep into the both of them:

Doing it to fuck with me​

Lisa's mouth gaped open, "you're just doing this to fuck with me!"

"Yes," they both said together.

Brian rubbed at his eyebrows, "This was Aryana's idea, wasn't it?"

Sabrina and Vivan nodded. They remembered back to what Aryana had told them:

Aryana yelled, "for the love of buddha almighty, that virginal blonde bitch has the cosplay potential of a repressed christian. If she doesn't cosplay with us, no effing deal!"

"She said a lot of things," Vivan answered, "things that don't need to be repeated here."

Sabrina pulled out a grocery list from her skirt pocket. "Aryana showed me the cosplay list. She says you'll have to pick from this list for each mission."

Lisa leaned snatched the note from her hand. It read:

Bunny girl costume.

Maid Outfit

Track Suit

School Girl Uniform

Kimono

Two piece swimsuit​

Lisa's hands trembled as she read the words. Her mind spun as her powers gave her details about each of them. There were over forty costumes written there, carefully picked out for Lisa's humiliation. "You can't… Do that."

Brian said, "you guys don't know how to villain, do you?"

Vivan answered, "its a learning process."

Sabrina said, "Rush was really clear about this. If Lisa doesn't do this, none of you are allowed to live with us."

Lisa slowly looked over at Brian. A part of her wanted to whisper, 'help', but they both knew that it was no longer Brian's decision. With Coil holding a metaphorical gun to her head, and Brian aware that it was no longer his decision, Lisa shook her head.

"I don't… Know…"

Vivan pulled the list away from her, "that's fine, I'll veto it."

Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "You're serious? We had one job, Aryana'll be pissed."

Vivan shrugged, "I'm a feminist, I'm not allowed to tell women what to wear."

Lisa swallowed. "She'll listen to you?"

"Sure, sometimes. Maybe, I don't know. But for right now don't worry about it. The last thing we need is for your powers to get distracted on the field."

Lisa's powers dug into him.

Doesn't like bullying; Victim to bullying in school
Aryana always listens to him; only one that she listens to​

It was unexpected information, but very noteworthy. Vivan said, "but I'm adding a condition, I get to adopt a puppy before each meeting." He pointed over to the nearby puppy pen.

Brian said, "trust me, I'm not the one who gets to decide that."

"Can I at least play with them."

He rolled his eyes. Without answering, Vivan sprinted over to the dogs. He face-planted the floor and let the dogs climb over him. They all shook their heads at him. Sabrina said, "You're lucky they're nice. I used to think most people were assholes before I met them."

Lisa commented, "well that's putting it lightly."

Sabrina's face flushed red. "I've gotten better."

Lisa glanced over to her, then glanced back at Vivan.

She's attracted to Vivan​

"Huh."

"What?"

"Hold on," Lisa glanced over to Vivan for awhile longer. She exchanged long glances between the both of them.

Sabrina scowled, "you're reading our minds, aren't you?"

"Sort of. Sabrina... You know he'll never ask you out, right?"

Sabrina cocked her head back, "What?"

"It's not because he's dense or stupid, its because he's fatalistic. He thinks a relationship is a disservice to the partner, so he's not going to chase for it. If you don't make a move, he never will."

Sabrina stared blankly at her. She couldn't tell if Lisa was just trolling her. Lisa raised her hands back and said, "Listen, I'm not messing with you guys. All I'm saying is, if you want him as a boyfriend, you'll have to make the first move. He'll still say yes if you ask for it."

Sabrina looked blankly at Lisa, unsure whether to take her wood. She turned back to Vivan in the puppy pen. He stood up and returned to them with a puppy at hand. "Guys, I found a blind puppy. Would Rachel be pissed if we cured it of its blindness?"

Lisa answered with a sigh. "Yeah, but don't worry, I'll talk her down. She'll appreciate anyone who wants to help these dogs."

Vivan's smile gleamed as he patted its head. Sabrina said, "let's head to base. Aryana might be waiting for us."

After saying goodbye, the two teleported back to their base. They were a short walk away o the apartment complex. Sabrina didn't move when Vivan walked forward. He looked back and said, "forget something? We can go back and steal another puppy if you want to."

Sabrina shook her head, "Vivan, you know I like you, right?"

 

[Axle]

The Night Before the Heist

A coping mechanism Rush had learned early on was to lie to herself. Everything was a lie, so it was best to maintain the most preferred delusions. What Emily had said before really hurt her. Not because it was true, but because it came from Emily's voice. Normally Aryana could brush off any attacks coming from strangers, but it was a whole different ball game when your best friend did it.

She looked around at the junkyard, reminiscing on when Emily had joined the team there, and when they'd recruited Sabrina even though she was very clearly a spy. Rush's costume today was a ninja suit. Specifically, a perfect knock off from an anime protagonist. She even wore a fake wig of spiky yellow hair.

She adjusted her wig as she waited for the informant. It was her first time meeting with the Elite, and although she had reservations about working for them, she knew it was worth it if it gave her the chance of fixing Uber and Leet.

A figure appeared from the around a tire stack, "R….Rush?

Rush turned around. Her jaw dropped at the sight of Mouse Protector, "oh, fuck no."

"You gotta be kidding me," Mouse Protector smacked her forehead, "you're the new associate?"

Rush rubbed her cheeks, "you're the Elite agent? Fuuuuuuck."

"Wait, no, I gotta call my boss," Mouse Protector took out her cell phone. She dialed before someone quickly answered her. "Hey, MP here. I think there's a mix-up. Why the heck is Rush here instead?... Wait, what?... No…. nononono…. Of course we're not friends!... No we are not alike! Stop laughing, this isn't funny!"

Mouse Protector hung up. The two girls stared at each other. "Fuck," Rush said as soon as Mouse Protector said, "Fudge."

Rush slowly stepped into a rusty vehicle with her mouth contorted. She didn't want to say anything to her, but they both knew that they'd have to work together to get what they wanted. Mouse Protector took a seat next to Rush in the Cadillac. The seats were mostly well intact, so there was no discomfort as they sat quietly inside the car.

Rush spun the driver's wheel in her hand and waited.

"I'm not happy about this either," Mouse Protector said.

"I honestly don't even care at this point."

They sat in silence. Mouse Protector almost considered taking a nap. Rush was so non-threatening, she wondered how she could have so many wins under her belt. The PRT were obsessed with capturing them, but there was almost no sign of competence when Rush was calm like this. Maybe she had the secret power getting people's guards down?

"How's Theo?" Rush asked.

"Really good, actually. He was always distant before he got his powers. He's really starting to open up."

"I ship him and Taylor."

Mouse Protector covered her face, "wow, you really are just like me."

Rush didn't look in her direction, but she did smile at the comment. "I don't see it. I mean, you're more chocolate-colored than I am. We're nothing alike."

Mouse Protector rolled her eyes, "but you could still cosplay as me."

Rush's eyes shot up. "Holy crap, why haven't I thought of that before? Cosplaying as enemies! Priceless!" Rush looked up with stars in her eyes, like she could imagine the livestreams from that.

"You really are evil."

"And I'll never deny it."

Mouse Protector chuckled at that. The positivity from Rush was a refreshing, compared to most other capes she'd met with. "So how's Vivan? I'm sure he's taking the Uber and Leet thing pretty hard."

"Not really," she said with a head shake, "I lied to him. Told him we can fix them no problem. As long as he really thinks that, he hasn't been upset at all."

"You know that's wrong, Rush."

"Is it?" Rush's voice peaked. "Like, I've lied a lot. I've lied to save lives. So what's wrong with lying if it's to keep someone stable enough for me to figure out a plan?"

"Because it won't last. He needs to face the truth before it hits him at the worst possible time."

Rush's eyes furrowed. Mouse protector said, "you know, whenever I see people your age as villains, I always think, 'what a waste of potential.'"

Rush's body relaxed, her mouth fell to a frown. "That's really ironic, because I think the same way with capes my own age."

They stayed quiet for awhile. The similarities were finally recognizable. Mouse Protector said, "Light and Lyft could join us you know."

"I know. I don't know what's stopping them."

"I think you are." Rush stayed quiet again. She couldn't formulate an answer. Mouse Protector asked, "Rush… Are you afraid of being alone?"

Rush's eyes widened while staring forward. "You know, I used to be okay with being alone…. But not anymore. Having friends really sucks."

Again, the similarities were there. A big reason why Mouse Protector was solo was to avoid the loss of a teammate. Taking in Taylor, Theo, and Amir was a risk she never imagined she'd take. "Relationships are always leaps of faith. You gain something, knowing you might lose something."

After some more discussion, Rush explained to Mouse Protector what the plan was. Their casino heist working came down to making sure Lung wouldn't get involved. Rush and Tattletale arranged it for Purity to keep him distracted while the heist happened. Meaning, all the major players would be away from Bakuda to ensure that the plan would go undisturbed.

Mouse Protector agreed to take the Mouseketeers to a training mission nearby. If there was an emergency during the heist, her team could serve as back up in case they were needed. Rush bidded her farewell, and teleported away.

Mouse Protector raised up her communicator, "you get all of that?"

Her walkie talkie spoke to her. "Yes. Thank you Katherine."

Mouse Protector took off her mask and let out a sigh. "Listen, Dragon. Are you sure this is manageable? You've had a lot of things on your plate lately, I don't think the Losers are the kind of people you want to underestimate."

"Believe me Katherine, I'll always be the last person to underestimate the Losers. And multitasking will never be an issue for me again."

Katherine let out another sigh. Dragon asked, "unless, there's something else on your mind?"

"Nothing, I mean… I just wish Rush were someone else."

"Like a hero?"

"No, not really. Just… nevermind."

Rush reminded Katherine too much of herself, and of a sidekick she'd once lost.

Scurrying across Mouse Protector's feet, a line of ants crawled around her in a natural line formation that was hardly noticeable. The line of ants stretched around and outside the junkyard across the streets, sidewalk cracks, and undisclosed parts of the city.

Eventually, the line of ants lead directly towards Taylor's room. Wide-eyed and unable to sleep, Taylor said to herself, "Mouse Protector…. We're working for the Elite?"

XXX

One Hour before the heist

The Undersiders and Losers met in front of the apartment building entrance. Brian, Alec, and Lisa were facing Aryana, Vivan, and Sabrina with a box sitting between them. A foldable picnic table was set up outside. The lawn chairs were stolen from a yard sale a half an hour before they arrived.

Brian asked, "why aren't we meeting inside?"

"Pest control," Aryana said. "There was a 'cockroach' in my room, now Marvin and Cortana are making sure the place is safe." She made bunny ear hand gestures at the word cockroach, implying that it was something else.

In truth, the Flood had destroyed most of Leet's defenses, but she didn't want the Undersiders to know that. Lisa blinked at her, "do I want to know what actually happened?"

"You wouldn't believe me," Aryana placed her hand on the box. It was one of the last inventions they had leftover from Leet's lab. "So here's the situation, Uber and Leet aren't here but we still have leftovers of all of Leet's weaponry. Leet specifically told me that this was a weapon was for us in case he died. Now, I'm sure he's not dead yet, but I think we're still allowed to use this for our next mission."

"What's in the box?" Alec asked.

"Good question," she pushed the box towards the Undersiders. "That's for you guys to find out."

They all raised an eyebrow. Aryana sighed aloud, "look, I'm a little paranoid about Leet's inventions right now, so you guys have to open it."

Brian squinted at her, "so you're putting us at risk instead?"

"Yes," the three of them said quickly.

Brian and Lisa glanced at each other. "No," Lisa said. "You're literally putting us in danger because you're afraid of what's inside."

"Just open the box," Aryana insisted. "I wanna know what's inside."

Brian answered, " we're not opening the box."

"What's in the box?" Vivan replied.

"What's in the box?" Sabrina repeated alongside him.

Alec squinted at them, "I hate that I know this reference."

Lisa looked down at the box and carefully pushed it toward Alec, "you open it."

"Fuck no," Alec said backing away. "Did you see their battle royale stream? Leet is fucked up. I'm not letting some alien mutant suck on my face off."

"To be fair," Aryana said, "it was actually quite therapeutic minus the pregnancy."

Vivan said, "glad to know abortion fixed your problem."

"Abortion fixes everything," Aryana nodded, "no people no problems."

Sabrina said, "how is it that I'm the one getting offended now?"

Lisa yelled, "We're not opening that box!" She stepped away from the picnic table. "We don't know what's in there, and we're not going to be your test rats to try out Leet's inventions."

Vivan said, "we were actually hoping you could read the box's mind."

Sabrina reiterated, "we figured your clairvoyance could tell us if its safe."

"That's not how my powers work," Lisa emphasized. "I don't know what's in the box, and I'm not risking my life by opening it."

Aryana pointed at her, "you don't get it, darling. If you don't open this box, we're not doing the casino heist. And if we don't do the casino heist, you don't get to work with us. So either you get low, or lay low. Because if you can't tell us what's in the box, then we're all done with this alliance here."

Lisa didn't budge. Vivan emphasized, "this comes with the job. We all knew we'd have to test out Leet's weaponry if he was ever gone. If you guys wanna live with us, you'll have to be a part of that too."

With a sigh, Brian pulled the box towards himself. "I'll do it."

He lifted the box's top open. He looked inside to see its contents. All the Losers backed away while Alec and Lisa stared curiously when Brian glanced inside. There was a white briefcase inside. It was a metal container meant to preserve its contents.

Brian slowly unlocked the briefcase. Lisa and Alec looked over his shoulder. "Oh fuck no," Lisa said.

The Losers quickly stepped behind Brian to peak inside. "Oh fuck yes," the Losers said with a grin.

XXX

The Heist

A hollowing roar rocketed across the ABB base. The gang members sprinted in a panicked frenzy to escape the monsters overrunning their base. "What the fuck is that!?" One of them yelled out in Chinese.

"Exactly what it looks like, just run for your fucking life!" His friend answered in Japanese.

Controlled fire spread across the floors and ceiling. It hailed the building as the casino tables became lit aflame. One of the gang members tripped over and fell on his back. He looked up at the monster staring down at him.

The dragon growled. His orange salamander-like skin and bat-shaped wings gave it life and powers that shouldn't exist. Its tail was ablaze like a candlelight on a stick. The thin head hissed as it moved.

"Charizard," Light ordered, "ignore the small fry. Chase them towards the stairs."

Charizard huffed in annoyance. But it stalked itself upwards to obey his command.

The ABB gang member, a teenager that was the same age as Light, looked at him and said, "what the fuck is going on?"

Light pointed directly at him. Lyft stepped to his side. They both dawned Team Rocket uniforms. "Well, if you must know"

A drone hacked the intercom of the building. Theme music began blasting through the hallways. The ABB member's eyes widened, "you have gotta be fucking with me…"

"Yes," Lyft answered.

Light's voice echoed through the intercom, "prepare for trouble."

"Make it double," Lyft continued in verse.

A purple ghost-like creature appeared behind them. It was only a spiked head with two menacingly large claws. It stalked around like a demon looking for prey. Some of the gang members tried shooting at the monster, only for bullets to phase through him.

The Haunter stuck its tongue out. It comedically licked the shooting gang members. Their skin became pale and they dropped to the ground paralyzed from his venomous licks.

"To protect the world from devastation." Light and Lyft flail their arms outward, nearly dancing as they sang.

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

Screams were heard upstairs. A panicked victim yelled, "when the fuck could Charizard shoot lightning!?"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

Drones pointed lights in their direction to capture the pose. It created a thematic scene in front of the trembling, mortified ABB gang members.

"Light."

"Lyft."

Haunter began hypnotizing some victims. Its swirling eyeballs induced horrific nightmares into the victims. They shrieked in agony before collapsing to the ground.

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

The last gang member in front of them stayed quiet. "You guys… Are so fucked up."

"Haunter," Lyft pointed to the young boy. "Kill."

He screamed before Haunter's gaze fell into the helpless victim.

XXX

Rush and the other Undersiders stepped off of Bitch's dog. Grue and Regent wore their regular attires. Tattletale and Rush had their classic domino and half eggshell masks on, but they also wore classic grey colored Team Rocket uniforms. It was a compromise costume from the list Tattletale had read before. "Rachel," Rush said to Bitch, "these definitely count as Pokemon."

"Fuck off," Bitch growled. An Eevee was grasped within her arms. She carried it like a mother would with their child.

Grue addressed the group, "Bitch will cover the perimeter while the rest of us clear the floors downstairs. The schematics showed Bakuda's lab is at the center floor of this building. So if Light and Lyft clear lower levels while going up, and we move downward from the rooftop, we should reach Bakuda's lab at about the same time."

Rush whispered into Tattletale's ear, "you can't tell me he doesn't turn you on right now."

"Will you stop!" Tattletale yelled back, "I hate how you're not even joking!"

The building complex was a tall one. It had long since been abandoned ever since the CEO of the business decided to move his headquarters away from Brockton Bay and to Boston instead. The ABB had since transformed the half-completed structure into an illicit gambling operation. Gang members guarded several floors, brothels and hustling spots were spread out across the building. They'd have to clear the way to reach Bakuda's lab.

Rush shot her fist into the air, "alright lazy bitch ass super strike force, let's go!"

"We are not calling ourselves that," Grue glared at her.

The Pokeball to Regent's side opened on its own. A large, purple-skinned pokemon came out. She wore a read, heavy promiscuous cloak, with giant white gloves and silky blonde hair. Her lips were cartoonishly large. It tried to hug Regent out of blind lust.

Regent yelled, "I wanna trade!"

Rush yelled back, "we all picked random balls to keep it fair. Why Leet made a hooker Pokemon is beyond me, but you need to quit being a whiny little bitch and just deal with it."

"I want to trade with Brian's!"

Lucario stood at the edge of the rooftop. He stared outward like a nighttime vigilante, ready to hunt down its next pray. The blue canine-fox pokemon had his paws crossed, prepared to follow Brian's command. Out of all of them, Brian lucked out it in getting the most stylish pokemon.

Grue replied, "I would quit the team before getting caught with that pokemon."

Jinx was lustfully staring at Regent. It had heart-shaped eyes while making kissing noises as it sexually harassed Regent. Regent morphed it back in its Pokeball, "this ain't even a real pokemon..."

"Psy. Duck. Psy. Duck. Psy. Duck."

Tattletale glared down at it, "will you stay in your fucking Pokeball!"

The bipedal yellow duck stared at Tattletale for a moment. It tilted its head in confusion.

Tattletale said, "did Leet make this batch just to fuck with people?"

Rush shrugged, "only one way to find out. Undersiders, charge!"

She unhooked her Magikarp from her back. She charged into the building while flailing the giant goldfish like it were a swordfish. She could be heard screaming 'die bitches', as she ran down the stairs slapping gang members with the giant mutated fish. Regent said, "these people are insane."

Grue said, "no shit." The same time Tattletale said, "what gave it away this time?"

 

[Axle]

Author's note: Reshuffled some chapters. I've had a big issue with chapter 4 for the longest time, and I could never put my finger on it before. Now I know its because the second half felt too long. I needed it to be divided into two chapters, which I've done now. Latest chapter got posted right after the reshuffle.

XXX

Haunter cleared another floor level for them. It's darkness encompassed the floor, knocking out all the ABB members for Lyft and Light to cross safely. There were echoed screams within the darkness of the pokemon's gas. The gang members dropped, suffocating for breathe as they fell around them.

"Okay, so the Loser name," Lyft asked casually as they walked. "Just… Why?"

Charizard huffed fire toward unsuspecting members. They screamed in panic as they ran away from the unexplainable monsters heading towards them. Charizard huffed in Haunter's direction, boasting his own powers.

"It started off as a joke name, but now its just appropriate. I like to think of it as an ironic statement. Let people think we're losers, when we're actually badasses."

Haunter stretched his face out with its claws. The victim's eyes widened, and then passed out from whatever magic Haunter had chanted onto him. Haunter then turned around to make the same face at Charizard, to which Charizard only huffed out in annoyance.

"We're using pokemon," Lyft said, "it doesn't feel ironic."

Light shrugged. "I kind of think of the name like a reminder, you know? As long as we remember to treat everything like a game, we can keep on being optimistic."

XXX

"Okay, if I'm being honest, we're fucking fatalistic." Rush and Tattletale stayed back while speaking.

Grue's Lucario worked well with him. Grue would engulf the area with darkness, and Lucario's night vision saw through the shadow to shoot balls of energy towards the enemies.

Rush continued, "it's a miracle I'm still alive right now, and I still half expect lightning to strike me the day God finally gets bored with me. The name 'Losers'? Its an epitome of defeatism. Every one of us have low hopes for succeeding as capes, which is why we aren't afraid to take insane risks when needed."

Regent's pokemon kissed unsuspecting gang members that tried running away from their havoc. While Jinx sang and danced towards members, Regent forced them to trip, allowing for Jinx to poison the members unconscious through its venomous contact.

Tattletale commented, "that's a really optimistic way to put it, ironically enough."

Jinx turned to Regent's direction, blowing seductive kisses in his direction. Regent said, "we gave you guys that name, I demand compensation."

Rush tossed a wad of hundreds at his feet. Regent's stared down at the money, "are you serious?"

"It's how I fix most of my problems," Rush admitted. She turned back to Tattletale. "The nice thing about pessimism is that it staves off the fear of failure. We never expect to win, so it's easy for us to crank things up to ten without batting an eye. We can come off as reckless because there's really not much for us to lose. And when you have that line of thinking with you, you can accomplish some pretty insane things."

"You're borderline suicidal," Tattletale said as though it were a question.

A girl with a knife charged at Tattletale. Rush shifted her hand downward, pinning the woman to the floor with her power. Rush then unsheathed her Magikarp, and swung it on her back to knock her out.

Rush smiled, "we're blatantly suicidal. When it comes to edge, we take it in whatever way we can. Its an advantage that people underestimate us. We come off as jokes, but we'll wreck shit up when we need to."

XXX


Their Charizard sniffed around looking for snacks. Its long salamander neck dipped into a bag of cocaine. He sniffed some of the drug, but he wasn't affected by the highly potent substance.

"Okay, fine, we're joke villains." Light admitted. "But I'd rather be a joke villain than a real villain. With all the garbage that happens in Brockton Bay, our style is the best I could've hoped for."

They skirted across the defeated goons as they searched the floor level looking for loot. Light found a few wads of cash from a poker game, Lyft stuffed her pockets with some high quality cigarettes. Lyft said to Light, "it sounds to me you're waiting for a chance to go hero."

Haunter laughed in Charizard's face as his snout was covered in white dust. Charizard huffed out fire out, only for the dust to quickly explode. Haunter laughed louder. "Haunter, stop bullying him," Lyft ordered. Haunter fell silent, obeying his master's command.

Light said to her, "I think at one point I wanted to be a hero, but not anymore. I've seen how PR for the Wards work, it looks like hell. As villains, expectations are low. As joke villains, our expectations are lower. I'd rather have the world look down on me than look up to me, because the last thing I'd want is to be an example for other people."

Charizard huffed a flameball in Haunter's direction, causing its ghostly spikey hair to turn aflame. It dropped and rolled its head on the ground in a panicked frenzy. Charizard laughed at its hysteria. "Charizard," Light ordered, "no pokemon battles." Charizard growled, but obeyed Light's command.

"You wouldn't be that bad at it," Lyft said shooting an extinguisher at Haunter. Haunter relaxed as foam covered its face and claws. "You care a lot about everyone, at least you'd be honest."

Light shrugged, "Heroes are supposed to inspire people to be better, I don't think I have that in me."

"Why not?" Lyft asked glancing at him.

Light stared at her scars, "I dunno."

XXX

Rush admitted, "We're also narcissists. We revel in fame, whether good or bad. I'm a masochist, so bad publicity turns me on." She made a moaning noise after she said it.

Grue and Regent glanced in her direction, but then turned forward. Jinx blew gaseous giant waves of kisses towards the gang members around them. After the final kiss was delivered, the last gang member fell. Another floor had been cleared. To Regent's disgust, Jinx winked in Regent's direction to declare victory.

Grue said, "but I doubt this image has done you guys any favors. No one wants to get caught working with you guys."

"It got you guys to ally with us, didn't it?"

Grue hummed beneath his helmet, "I think this is a different case. Us working with you was done in spite of your reputation, not because of it."

"But," Rush's voice piqued, "we only got our reputation as winners because we've kept up the reputation as Losers."

The Undersiders glanced at one another, not fully understanding what she meant.

Rush elaborated, "so here's the thing, the reputation we've gained actually helped us in the long run. The phrase, 'its so bad it's good' comes to mind. Instead of taking the name 'Loser' as a label for ourselves, it's more like an insult to them. We've got nothing to lose, but our enemies always do. If we lose in a battle, it's to be expected. But if we win, it just doubles the loss for our enemies thanks to our rep."

Tattletale mentioned, "okay, then you see it like a 'failing upward' mentality. If you can bring them down to your level, you win from them losing by default."

Rush nodded. Regent said, "I'm starting to feel bad for the E88."

"Me too," Rush confessed.

Grue mentioned, "I'm guessing it's also a pleasant surprise when the Losers actually win?"

Rush nodded again, "Exactly. It's all in the name. Our bad publicity works better for us, not worse."

"That really is ironic," Tattletale admitted.

"Not a lot of people get that."

XXX

"But the name Loser is also like a humility thing. If you think too highly of yourself, you might get cocky and make a mistake, y'know?"

Light rode Charizard like a dragon. He breathed fire across the next floor up. By now most of the ABB members were simply surrendering. They dropped their weapons and ran passed them towards the exits. Light and Lyft let them run, not really concerned about their escape.

Lyft looked at Charizard, roaring like a monster from a horror film. "Arrogance. Believe me, I've been there."

Light stepped off of Charizard. "So, that's how the name 'Losers' keep us in line. It's a reminder of what we're not. A reminder that we're not heroes, we're not incredible, we're not unbeatable, and that we're not untouchable. None of us want to become pricks like Lung or Kaiser, so picking the dumbest name you can think of keeps you from being an asshole like half the people in Brockton Bay."

"I guess I can see that."

"The last thing I'd want is for people to have high expectations from us. A perk to being a villain is that we don't have to live up to anyone else. No one expects us to be moral or smart, so there's no fear of failure on our side of things."

XXX

"We don't fail," Rush said. "Never have, so you can expect plenty of wins through this cutesy alliance."

Psychtuck was hugging Tattletale's leg. She ignored it as she said, "I wouldn't call it cutesy."

"How about sexy?" Rush's eyebrows squirmed in Tattletale's direction.

She glared back at her, "no."

"Fine. Let's call it Game of Thrones alliance." She nudged an elbow at her. Tattletale covered her face, a gesture she'd been doing a lot within Rush's presence.

A gang member tried running away. Rush unsheathed Magikarp like it were a shotgun, and shot water at the running gang member's into the ground. He tumbled down the stairs in pain. Regent said, "I'm pretty sure Magikarp could never do that."

"Leet mixes his experiments when its convenient. Thank God for Tinker fuckery."

Lucario teleported back with a knocked out gang member in each palm. He dropped them to the floor in front of him, letting them know that another floor had been cleared. Grue admitted, "you sound on top of things here, but it feels like you're making it up as you go. Did you even know it would be this easy?"

Rush shrugged. "I actually planned on using Bitch's dogs more, but I also had a dozen other toy box weapons at home we could've used. This turned out to work best."

Grue asked, "just how far do you plan these things? You talk like you know what you're doing, but you literally came up with this pokemon theme an hour ago."

Rush nodded in agreement, "Our parody act? It's just an act. An act we all love, but one that isn't stupid. Yes, we improvise a lot, but normally it's just to add flavor to the real plan that already works. Winning is the easy part, winning with a layer of fuckery is the fun part."

Regent said, "the lengths you guys go to fuck around is incredible."

"God I hope that never changes," Rush said in a reminiscent voice. "We'll set the house on fire, but it'll only be the house of the people you hate."

"Like controlled chaos," Grue said with a sigh.

"Exactly." Rush said. "I want people to think less of us. I want them to think we're incompetent just so we can flip the table on them. We don't game unless we've already won. We only gamble after cheating, and we never play until the deck is already stacked. That kind of planning is why we've got the reputation of being unstoppable idiots. It's also how we've maintained an ironic as hell winning streak. You'll never really lose if you control each of your own battles."

"And you called me arrogant," Tattletale commented.

Rush winked at her, "I have more reason to be arrogant than you do."

XXX

Charizard was asleep on the ground. Haunter's head laid at his stomach, relaxed at the final floor of the building. Bakuda's lab was next, they would wait for Rush and the Undersiders to reach the floor above it to storm the level together. Lyft and Light played pokemon on their gameboys as they waited.

"This also keeps heroes off our back. No one wants to be the guy who takes a group called 'losers' seriously."

Lyft asked, "I'm wondering if that's why the Mousketeers like you guys."

Light shrugged. "People are quick to think we're joke villains, so people naturally put their guard down around us. Mouseketeers are a special case."

Lyft asked, "did Uber and Leet want that name at first? You guys sort of just barged in on their thing, and they really just rolled with it."

Light chuckled, "we were all for the name at the start. As time went on, it just grew on us... Uber's actually the one who told me this stuff, and why he likes the name so much."

Lyft let out a deep breathe, "do you really think we can get them back? No one's ever gotten anyone out of a time bubble before. Do you think it's possible?"

"Yes, I do. We just have to do everything we can."

XXX

"Probably not," Rush answered instantly. The last floor was cleared, a steel bolted door was at the door to Bakuda's lab. "They knew what they signed up for, dying young for capes is… Inevitable."

"There it is," Tattletale said. "Defeatism mixed with blatant fatalism."

Rush shrugged, "no cape should expect to live long. That goes double for villains. I can't miss them if I was already prepared for them dying."

Tattletale said, "wow, you're a better liar than me."

"Takes one to know one."

Regent asked, "but if you don't think we can save them, why the hell are you here? I'm not complaining, but did you really come here just to fuck with Bakuda?"

Rush shook her head, "I came because Light would hate me if I didn't exhaust every avenue to try and get them back. Might as well, because I sure as hell am not gonna retire anytime soon."

Tattletale said, "most people pick up a hobby when they're bored."

"Do I look like most people?" She patted her Magikarp to emphasize the point.

"So this is all to lie to Light?" Grue said. "You had me for awhile, but now you're saying this is just to keep up an image with him? It sounds to me like you guys know exactly what you're doing, but have zero priorities as an actual team."

Rush chuckled, "since we're still reeling in from Leet's money and inventions, we have the resources to keep trying. I don't mind this, and Light still needs this. So I'll deliver. As for priorities, you're right, we don't have any. Which is why an alliance might be good for us right now."

"You want direction," Grue said.

"I'm into dominatrix," she touched her cheek as she said it.

"I could totally see that," Regent commented.

Grue and Tattletale rolled their eyes. Grue spoke into his earpiece, "Light, Lyft, are you ready on your end?"

Grue gestured at Lucario. He shot a ball of energy at the door, causing the steel plating to shrink, and then disappear from existence. Rush proceeded to command the team, "let's go super sexy bitch face team!"

XXX

Light and Lyft entered the stairway to Bakuda's lab. They arrived just in time to see Rush and the Undersiders coming from the set of stairs at the other side of the room. The two portions of their teams met each other with a gaze. They held still.

Six people laid at the floor of the lab. They were gagged and blindfolded, holding grenades in their hands. Bakuda stood at the center of them. She told them, "don't move, or you're all fucking dead."

"Shit," both teams said together.

 

[Axle]

Her lab wasn't so much a lab. It was more like a bench that took up a small portion of the floor level. There were some colorful steams coming out from the flasks of her setup, but the tinker tools she worked with were mostly low quality.

"Call back your monsters, or I fucking blow these kids up one by one."

All of them quickly stopped in place. With a nod from Grue, they all beamed back the Pokemon into their pokeballs. Regent said, "they're actually pocket monsters."

Light said, "no they're not, they're pokemon."

Lyft commented, "actually, that's the Japanese translation."

Light raised an eyebrow, "wait, Pokemon are from Japan?"

"Shut up," Bakuda called out. "Or I fucking blow up these kittens one by one." Six hostages trembled with their eyes blindfolded. The teenagers breathed heavy, unsure if this would be their last moments.

Rush raised her arms in the air in a gesture of surrender. "Now listen… I know this looks bad, but-"

"No, you fucking listen!" Bakuda pointed her blaster forward. It was tinker made. A strange blue energy flowed through the pipes towards the direction of the nozzle. "You and your team, you and your fucking team are pests to this city. Killing those two was the most satisfying thing I've ever done. And I'm gonna having a blast making you both scream after I'm done with you."

"I'm actually a masochist," Rush said bluntly. She bit her lip, "tie me up and throw me down-"

Tattletale covered her mouth. Grue's darkly resonating voice caught her attention, "I think it's worth hearing them out. They're not here to kill you, they're here to make a job offer. One we know you'd like."

Bakuda went silent. She scanned over the five tied teenagers. Skeptical, she pointed her blaster at one of them, "if you're shitting me, these kids are gonna be worse than dead. Trust me on that."

"We believe you," Lyft said calmly. "We know when to fold, and we're not going to treat this as a joke."

Light said, "You're a tinker, right? Leet told me that tinkers constantly have a resource issue since they're always itching for the best supplies. We can help with that, on a few conditions."

Bakuda growled, "If this is another fucking initiation-"

"No," both teams said. Tattletale said, "but it's true. You know Lung can't give you everything you want, so these guys have a way to supply you."

Bakuda looked over at the hostages again. Four in total. It gave her some leverage. She wasn't going to underestimate them like their enemies. She knew they had caught Lung and the E88 off guard, she wasn't going to fall victim to their antics.

Lyft raised up her briefcase. Bakuda pointed the blaster at her before Light stepped in the way. "It's just money," he called out. "We're here to make a deal."

Bakuda said, "then fucking open it."

Light nodded to Lyft. She put the briefcase down and opened it for her to see. "Two hundred thousand dollars. This is a down payment. Bring back Uber and Leet, and another eight hundred thousand dollars will be yours."

She gripped at her gun. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Tattletale said. "Business as per usual. They want to hire you, just like they would any other villain."

Bakuda shook her head, "no, I mean what's the fucking catch. I killed them, and now you're paying me to bring them back? You'd have to be batshit stupid to act like nothing's changed."

Rush spoke up, "well fuck, I guess we're that stupid, aren't we? I don't give a shit about what you've done, you're just another villain doing your villain job in an ocean of villains. What happened to Uber and Leet was usual business. They knew that when they signed up to this. It's not that we forgive you or anything, it's just that there's nothing to be pissy about since this is how the underworld functions."

"Like hell I believe that."

Rush shrugged, "whether you believe me doesn't matter. The money we brought? That's real. And I think money is something we can all believe in."

"Amen," Light and Lyft said before making the sign of the cross.

Bakuda sneered, "so what, you want me to bring them back just so you can go back to fucking around? I'd rather kill you before bringing back Leet. You people are parasites, and I'd rather do the same to you all before bringing them back."

Light asked, "what do you mean 'you people'?"

Bakuda pointed the gun towards him. This time Lyft stepped in front of Light, "we also want you to join the Elite."

"What?"

Grue spoke up, "they've gotten you a position at the Elite headquarters. If you take up that offer, you'll be given a lab, soldiers, and tinker equipment, all expenses paid."

Lyft nodded, "fix Uber and Leet, and you'll get everything a tinker's always wanted."

Bakuda said, "you're just trying to get rid of me."

"Yes," they all said in unison.

Tattletales elaborated further, "unlimited funding, supplies, test subjects. It's more than Lung could ever give you, and you wouldn't have to live in constant fear of him punishing you for if you fail "

"It's a good deal," Grue said. The three hostages shuddered at the sound of his echoed reverberated tone. "Anyone tinker would take this deal. And it has to be better than being under Lung."

Bakuda looked down at the money. That alone was a lot. It was even enough to create her own lab. Looking back at her supplies, they were pathetic compared to what the Elite could give her. But every ounce of her wanted to say no. "And if I say no?"

"Then we go home," Rush said with an eye roll. "Let bygones be bygones. We're not here to screw around, we're here for business. Whether you take that business is up to you."

Magikarp escaped from her poke pole. Rush called it back inside, "bad timing, Kappa."

The pokemon returned. Light reiterated, "the money is just for the job, the tinker position is ready for you even if you don't take it."

Regent commented, "can I just say ya'll are being way to nice about this?"

"Yeah," the Loser members agreed in unison.

They were completely apathetic. Completely open and with no strings attached. Under any other circumstances, Bakuda would've liked such straightforwardness. But with these people, it made her despise them more.

Bakuda looked down at her two hostages. Their eyes were mortified. They knew they were nothing more than collateral. Their eyes began to tear and a thought suddenly occurred to her. They're just fucking children... They're all fucking children. Bakuda began clutching at her chest. She took off her mask to show her widened smile. She suddenly began laughing to herself.

XXX

Five minutes earlier

"Come on shrimp." She lead the last hostage down the stairs. "And stay close, my shroud doesn't work if you get too far."

He was shivering as he moved. Still blindfolded with a bomb strapped to him, he didn't know where he was happening. "Wha, what's going on? She's going to kill me."

"Relax," Aisha yawned. She donned a demonic mask that very few people could see. "This is sort of my test run for me. And so far, it's worked like a charm."

"I don't understand."

"Relax, you'll forget about me anyway. Cortana, I brought another one."

Aisha gently pushed him to the wall. He stopped in place.

Cortana smiled at the hostage, "hello."

Marvin the robot said, "relax, you're going to die eventually, but not from this."

Marvin and Cortana rarely left the base. With the base's defenses down, the Losers decided it was better to have them on the outside to help them all more directly. They provided a much-needed substitute for Uber, Leet, and Spitfire's absences.

"Alright, imma go get the last one," Aisha told them.

"And Aisha," Cortana said from atop of Marvin's shoulder, "don't get involved in the talks. Rush was very stringent on making sure you're safe during the trial period."

Aisha stuck a middle finger back at her, "whatever."

"Alright villain," Cortana said cheerfully to the ABB member. "This'll only take a minute. Bakuda is a strong tinker, but she's not a brainiac. I'll have that bomb disarmed from you in just a minute."

The blindfolded teenager asked, "wait, is that Cortana?"

"I've been getting that a lot. Does everyone here play Halo?"

"You have no idea."

XXX

The Undersiders and Losers exchanged glances at one another. Bakuda continued laughing as the rest of them stayed quiet. With the hostages disappeared, there was nothing more left for her to do.

"Am I missing something here?" Regent asked.

Aisha shrugged invisibly, "beats me, I'm just hanging out now."

"I think she finally snapped," Lyft said.

Light said, "holy crap, we've finally turned someone insane."

"I can't believe it," Bakuda said laughing, "you fucking did it, you finally made me fucking laugh!"

"You're welcome," the Losers said in unison.

"I knew you people were stupid, but I didn't think you were that stupid!"

Light raised a finger and asked, "what do you mean 'you people'?"

"I mean you fucking bitches!"

"No, Bitch is outside."

Bakuda pointed her blaster towards him. Lyft reacted by stepping in front of him. Rush pointed a dozen floating knives towards her. At the same time they both said, "don't even think about it."

Bakuda shouted, "you guys really don't see how stupid you are, do you? Just how braindead do you have to be to come to me for help."

Rush and Light rambled over each other. Rush said, "I'm pretty sure I know the exact level of stupid I am. I just try to keep it bring everyone else down with me, so that people don't notice." Light ranted, "Yesterday I burned my scrambled eggs and then sent it to Kaiser's mailbox. I like to think of my stupidity as a weaponized asset."

Bakuda yelled, "Uber and Leet are dead, and I wouldn't bring them back even if I could! Do you have any idea how fucking hilarious it is that you'd come to the one who killed them for help? It's hysterical! And for once, I get to laugh in your faces!"

The siblings froze at the sound of that. Bakuda laughed while Light and Rush glanced at each other from across the room. Rush asked, "what do you mean, 'if you could?'"

"Exactly what it sounds like. I can't bring them back because they're already dead! It's not fucking rocket science. They're never coming back thanks to me. You're all just kittens who can't admit they're gone. And it's goddamn hilarious!"

Rush's fist clenched. Light said, "that's a lie. They're in a time stasis. There's always another way when it comes to tinker fuckery."

"Maybe for Leet, but my tinker fuckery specializes in murdering people. God. I love how this pisses you off. I used to hate not knowing how my bombs work, but seeing you bastards pissed makes it all worth it." "

Light's stepped back slowly, not fully registering her statement. Rush stepped forward, "that's a lie. If the bodies are still there, they can still be fixed."

"Then why haven't you done it yet?" Bakuda scowled, "because if you assholes are so smart, it would be that easy."

Rush clenched her fists. Tattletale said, "Rush, her powers can't work like that. She can't decide what she creates. We'll just have to go with plan B."

While Bakuda's laugh still filled the air. Light glanced to the side, not wanting to meet the gazes of anyone else. Rush, on the other hand, was agitated. Her toes clenched, and she found herself scratching at her thighs as Bakuda continued laughing in their faces.

"You're lying," Rush said in a low tone.

Tattletale said, "Rush, she isn't lying-"

Rush jabbed a finger at Tattletale. "Will you shut up! Grow a brain and figure out that no one trusts you anymore!" Rush raised her knives to float around herself. She glared directly at Bakuda, "and shit, if you can't fix them, I guess you're fucking useless. So I see no problem in slicing you up to bite-size pieces for what you did to them."

Aisha crossed her arms, "about time you stopped bullshitting."

Regent commented, "wow, good to know she was full of shit too."

Aisha commented invisibly, "that's what I said!"

Bakuda raised her blaster towards Rush, which only made Rush duck and dash in Bakuda's direction.

At that moment, Aisha shrouded Rush with her powers, turning her invisible to everyone else. The blaster in Bakuda's hand seemingly pointed towards Grue and Tattletale. Regent instinctively used his power to make her arm drop limp downward.

The blaster dropped at her feet. Rush tackled Bakuda, undoing the memory shroud that Aisha had created. Rush's knives launched down to Bakuda's side. They precisely hit the edges of her costume, pinning her to the ground with more knives in the air to spare.

Rush grabbed at her hands, "I hope you were lying, because if not, this is gonna fucking hurt."

"You don't have the balls."

Rush snapped her middle finger. She screamed while Rush kept berating her, "geez, where's that laugh you had earlier? A real villain wouldn't cry like a bitch after losing all her fingers. Or does this hurt more since you're a tinker?"

Rush snapped another finger.

"Hold on," Grue called out, "this was never a part of the plan. We didn't come all this way just to kill her. We agreed, if she said no to helping, we'd still let her leave the city."

Aisha rolled her eyes at him, "talk about buzzkill. I wonder if you're a stickler outside of the costume too."

Rush snapped back at Grue. "Don't care. I have time since my friends are dead, might as well make the most of this plebe."

Rush continued breaking each joint in her finger. Bakuda screamed and shook with each pain inflicted onto her. The rest stayed quiet as Rush continued hurting her. Lyft looked over to Light, "will she regret this later?"

"Probably not," Light admitted. He stepped closer to Rush and said, "Aryana, listen-"

Rush pointed at him without looking at him. "Don't you dare say she doesn't deserve this! We know what she did, and she'd kamikaze hostages if she could. Of all the people who deserve this, she's in the worse tier."

"I wasn't going to say she didn't deserve it. I was going to say… This won't bring them back."

Rush blinked rapidly. She shook her head, like something just escaped her. She stepped back from Bakuda and sat down. Light dropped close to her and gave her a hug, "I don't want to lose them," she croaked out.

"Yeah, me neither."

A sound over the radio came. It was Bitch. She called in, "Lung is here. And he's pissed."

 

[Axle]

Air rushed across Purity's body as she plunged towards Lung. Rapid bursts of energy lit up the night sky as it illuminated the ground beneath them. She pushed Lung backward. It wasn't enough to stop him, but it was enough to push him further away from her soldiers.

Lung stomped forward. Kaiser and Stormtiger stood at the head of the capes, firing air blasts and sheets of metal at him, keeping him at bay. The E88 clearly outnumbered him, but Lung was too prideful to retreat.

The ABB were scattered along the shoreline as two dozen E88 members attacked from the city boardwalk. While Purity and her capes pushed from one side, the gang helped 'funnel' the ABB members out from the docking bay area.

The prostitutes didn't even put up a fight. They took all the money and drugs they could carry and ran off at the first sight of trouble. Lung almost threatened to force them to stay and fight, but the ten capes bashing at him from the front stopped him from giving orders.

The loyal ones who remained were cowardly. Lung's iron grip through intimidation and force was finally backfiring. None of them were truly loyal to Lung, but all of them were too afraid to run away. They made for terrible soldiers.

Lung's transformation had only just commenced. He skeeted through the rough sand coast like a swift animal in motion. He aimed to kill the capes first, brushing through any damage they fired towards him.

Hookwolf lead a charge towards him. He was the same size as him, encased in metallic spike armor fully prepared for a brawl with Lung. The two clashed and grappled with their massive weight. Metal steel clanged as their heavy hits echoed high pitched noises across the lake. They wrestled with raw strength. Metal grew out of the both of them as Hookwolf pulled back, but Lung responded by raising a fire around them.

"Watch out!" Othala called out.

Othala shifted her powers toward Hookwolf, giving him just enough speed to escape the oncoming blast radius. A fiery explosion raged out from him. When the capes took their steps away, Lung was larger than he was before. Fire seared out from his mouth while smoke encompassed him.

Kaiser and Krieg stepped forward. While Krieg slowed Lung's movement with his powers, Kaiser created a massive prism of metal around him, wrapping Lung in a prison of steel. "Purity, now!" Kaiser called out.

Purity glared at him from the air. He'd made this plan behind her back, pulling strings around her to mitigate any failures she might have. It was a blistering thorn to her side. When she was given leadership, she had hoped to steer the E88 in the right direction.

But Kaiser still pulled the strings. Constantly undermining her authority by constantly showing his own competence over hers. Regardless, she raised her arms up and harnessed the massive reserves of power she'd collected during the daylight.

The other E88 capes retreated away. When Purity swiped down her arms a flaring light fell down from her. The light was blinding. It was infused with all of her energy and fury throughout the battle. The steel from Kaiser's metal melted, and the ground around Lung's body had vaporized.

When the smoke cleared and the light dyed down, Lung had disappeared. There was a small crater in its wake, but an eerie silence overcame everyone.

"Did we win?" Othala asked.

"No," Cricket called out. "Oni Lee-"

Before she could finish, a series of explosions went off from beneath the lake. Water exploded up as colorful blasts of fire raised up into the air and towards the battle turf. Droplets of rainbow-colored acid fell over the ABB members left behind

The acidic drops engulfed their bodies in explosive fires, sizzling their bodies to dust in seconds. Bakuda's bombs. Land mines set off around the shore line, directing the blasts towards the E88 members.

"Retreat!" One of the lieutenants said. The E88 dispersed as the bombs disintegrated the remaining ABB members. The sizzling droplets raised over the city side towards both gangs caught in the radius. Several E88 members got caught in the blast, but the capes were mostly unscathed.

And then Oni Lee appeared. He hugged at Othala's body, and exploded into dust. The dynamite around his body froze Othala in time, and he reappeared next to Stormtiger to do the same.

In an instance, Oni Lee began teleporting in and out of existence, exploding time bombs to each of the remaining capes one by one. He was a kamikaze weapon with infinite lives. He trapped capes into a permanent time stasis, and quickly became an existential threat to all of the E88 members.

"Retreat!" Purity ordered, "they're using tinker traps! Get out of Oni Lee's range!"

Cricket was almost caught in a blast, but her quick reflexes managed to push him away before the explosion could reach her. Alabaster wasn't so lucky.

Kaiser looked over near the city streets. Metal clanged near an alleyway. He saw Lung's tail escaping off at the corner of his eyes.

He could've chased after him. With all of them retreating and Oni Lee preoccupied, Lung was still a vulnerable target that only he and Purity could defeat.

"If you want your gang back, let Lung go."

"Who is this?" Kaiser asked. The phone call was from an unknown number with a voice changer masking his tone.

"If you want Purity to succeed, help her. If not, let Lung go."

The stranger hung up after that. It was more than he needed to hear. "Retreat!" Kaiser yelled aloud. "This was a setup from the start! Retreat before we take on more casualties!"

He said it like he'd known it from the start. Pinning successes on himself and failures on Purity. It was why he'd given her the mantle in the first place, to alleviate the damage the Losers had done. To make her the blunt of everything wrong, and to stay in the background and regain favor within his gang. It was a slow process, but it was working. Soon he'd have his loyal gang again, and find a way to make the Losers pay for what they'd done.

In the end, I'm the only one who knows the Losers aren't as stupid as they pretend to be. I'll make them pay, and make the whole world know how wrong they truly are.

XXX

"Jesus f***, why the f***, did it have to be today. I am so f*****." Rush cusped at the forehead of her mask. Her feet stomped the floor as she spoke while sitting.

Lyft said, "The teleporters are out of juice. Do we have an escape plan?"

Rush groaned. "I need to stop writing 'improvise' in all of my plans."

Grue interrupted, "hold on, the teleporters aren't working? Why didn't tell us?"

Light answered, "Well, obviously, you wouldn't have come if we didn't have an escape plan."

Tattletale rubbed at her templates, "how the hell did I not catch that?"

Lyft answered, "when everything's fucked, it's hard to tell what's true or not."

Grue shook his head, "we'll escape with Bitch's dogs. Let's not wager Leet's monsters can beat Lung."

Light said, "actually, Bitch's Pokemon were picked to work with her powers. If anyone can beat Lung, it's probably her."

Regent pointed, "you guys did pick our Pokemon! Why the hell did I get Jynx?"

"To fuck with you," the Losers said together.

Grue glared, "you couldn't have told us that before? Whatever, I'm still not taking chances with Lung."

Rush nodded, "You guys go ahead then. I'll stay back to tie up Bakuda. Lung hates me, so I'll make a good cover for you all to escape."

Light added, "I'll stay too. You'll need help catching up."

"Two's a crowd. You'll get in my way. Go with them and I'll catch up later."

Light's eyes furrowed. "You'll need help catching up. We work better together."

"No we fucking don't. Every time I'm next to you I have to use my powers to make sure you're not killed. I don't wanna babysit you while fighting. I trust these guys, they'll take care of you while you run."

"But who'll take care of you?" Light's voice was sharp. Hard, like he knew Rush wouldn't follow them.

Lyft said, "Cortana and Marvin will stay with her. They'll help cover her escape."

Light still stayed quiet. Tattletale added, "she's right y'know. Her alone is enough, you'd just be extra luggage. She doesn't need the added stress while getting Lung off our tale."

Light chuckled, "haha, tale…" Then he frowned again. "But no, seriously. If we leave without you, can you promise to be alright tomorrow?"

Rush didn't answer. She frowned as neither of them spoke.

Tattletale almost spoke up, but Regent interrupted. "Wow you're a fucking pussy."

Their heads turned in his direction. He went on, "Your friends are dead so you wanna mope here like a bitch? If that's what it takes for you to give up, you really don't deserve to be a villain. And if that's enough to make you go suicidal on us, go ahead and be my guest. You're not that cool."

Rush still stayed quiet. She tapped her Simurgh tattooed knuckles onto the ground. In a hollow tone she said, "you wouldn't get it."

"You're right, I don't. I just think its stupid that you'd drop dead because reality just hit you."

"Yeah," Aisha said unhiding herself. She raised her middle fingers in the air, "you guys are fucking Losers, not losers. You beat down the E88, out smoked the Merchants, and teepeed the PRT base with American flag toilet paper. I thought you guys were villains who fucked around, but ya'll are acting like a bunch of posers. There's a pokemon battle outside and I'm not fucking missing it!" She raised up a belt full of pokeballs, "time to figure out which Pokemon I got!"

She ran out the doorway. Regent said, "who the fuck was that?"

"New member," the Losers answered together.

Tattletale raised an eyebrow. Regent rolled his eyes, "right, since she's busy crying, I'm gonna go watch a Pokemon battle. Feel free to join us after you stop being a baby."

Regent followed after her. Tattletale's eyes widened. "Oh my God. Grue, you need to follow them. Now."

Grue asked, "what about these guys?"

Tattletale shook her head, "screw this team. Trust me when I say this, make sure those two aren't killed. The new girl's a rookie who has no idea what she's getting into. Anything else these guys decide, it's not our problem."

Grue glanced over at Rush, her eyes to turn away from him. "If you can hold Lung back, I'll take your word on that. Just don't do anything outside your regular stupid while you're doing it."

"No promises," Rush answered.

Grue said to Light, "you guys better follow us soon. Or else we might leave without you."

Light gave a thumbs up before Grue left the stairway.

Rush pressed on her forehead. The thought of being alone with Vivan suddenly terrified her. She remembered what it was like with just the two of them, and she didn't want to go back to that. It was claustrophobic and full of uncertainty. A year ago she never imagined loving more people, now she couldn't imagine at the thought of losing the new people she learned to love.

"Just go," Rush said in a lower tone. "I'll be fine, I promise."

Light almost said something, but Tattletale interrupted. "Relax Vivan, I'll stay with her. You have my word she'll be fine."

Light mouth curved down. They all knew Tattletale was a liar, but he also trusted she could lie to get her to move. Light nodded, and walked down the stairway.

Before leaving, Lyft said to Rush, "I know I don't know you that much, but all of us know you have a death wish. If you go through with that today, I'm not gonna be Vivan's rock. I'll ditch him too, and if he's miserable for being alone… That's on you."

Lyft gave a nod to Tattletale before leaving. Rush's mouth line had fallen straight. She wasn't sure in which direction to go anymore. She could've waited for Lung to give her her inevitable end, but living and dying carried equal consequences in her mind.

Tattletale knew this. On one hand, living might've brought forth a worse fate for Vivan. A fate she didn't want to witness. On the other hand, dying could turn his life into something more miserable. And that thought was equally unbearable.

Tattletale crouched down to Rush's eye level. "You kept things light for Vivan's sake. And now you're afraid you can't keep him smiling anymore."

Rush's eyes stared up into Tattletales'. She listened closely.

"Compromise," Tattletale said. "You can't keep pretending things are alright, but if you could, you would, right? So how about we find another way to get Uber and Leet back. So that things can go back to the way they were."

"Emily's gone. I scared her away."

"She left because she thought you were desecrating on their graves. If you bring them back, she'll come back too."

"With Coil's help?" she grumbled.

"Yes, Coil. You got me, I work for Coil. But neither of us can deny he has resources. He can bring your friends back if you let him."

Rush had heard about Coil through Accord's point of contact. They were the same men with different methodology. She hated both of them. "For slavery?" Rush asked with her fists squeezed.

Tattletale rolled her eyes, "if we're being unhinged here, yes, for slavery. Specifically, mercenary work. He doesn't want you guys as loyal subjects. He just wants your tools. You scratch his back, he scratch your back."

"A blowjob for a blowjob?"

She groaned aloud, "fucking fine, whatever works in your head. All I'm saying is, if you had a chance to bring back your team and be happy again, wouldn't you take that chance?"

Tattletale pulled off her mask to reveal her face. She took out her hand for Aryana to shake.

Aryana looked at her for a long while. Lisa had reminded her so much of herself. Manipulative, lying, and a mask that couldn't truly come off. Nothing about Lisa was truly honest, the same way Aryana was beneath Accord's thumb.

It was the same way Sabrina was underneath the E88. People who'd convinced themselves that this person or organization was for everyone's better benefit. Aryana had seen that in Sabrina when no one else did. Because she'd been that type before. Emily, Taylor, Sabrina, Lisa. No one would help them because they were discarded as a lost cause.

In Brockton Bay, no one cared about the directionless teenagers. The world had given up on those types the same way it had given up on herself. It disgusted her. Because if the world wouldn't help them, who would?

She glanced at Lisa's hand and then at her own. She'd done so much wrong under Accord and could never alleviate that, but maybe she could alleviate that burden from others? Save people from the mistakes she'd made herself? Turn failure into something meaningful, she thought to herself.

Aryana raised her hand to squeeze Lisa's, "Only if you leave Coil."

"Deal," Lisa said without hesitation.

Aryana grinned. It was at that moment she knew what she'd truly wanted. The same way she went out of her way to help Vivan, Aryana could still go out of her way to help the other directionless teenagers of Brockton Bay. The ones who were like herself from when she was a pawn.

She squeezed her hand tighter and leaned her forehead onto Lisa's. "You don't get it, do you? You just signed a deal with the fucking devil. Because even though you're lying, I'll make you keep your word. It doesn't matter if you don't mean it or plan on double-crossing me. You're my bitch now. And imma make sure Coil loses any control he has over you, no matter what."

Aryana's smile cracked across her face, rekindling the expression she was best known for. Lisa's eyes were gaping. She quickly realized that she'd turned herself into Aryana's pet.

XXX

Lung's fire ravaged around the construction site. Air became hot as his powers flared around the abandoned yard. The ABB building was at the edge of town. There were several trailers and abandoned materials catching fire around him.

Loud crackles bustled while Lung took his giant steps. The dirt beneath his feet sank. Each step he took expanded his fires, and he showed no signs of stopping. At fifteen feet tall, even Bitch's dogs were hesitant to go near him.

She whistled from atop of Angelica. Brutus and Judas obediently returned to their master. She tossed two pokeballs at them, sheltering them from the heated battlefield. After a loud roar from Lung, Bitch threw out two other pokeballs to call for help. "Liger, Tails, go!"

A flash of light beamed out. A flare flashed around the ground field. Two Pokemon were released. One was a long white-furred fox, nine tails with a dancing flame floating at each end of its tail. The other was a large mutt striped similarly to a tiger. It was more canine than cat, with large swathes of white fur whirling around its head and palms.

"Ninetales!"

"Arcanine!"

Both Pokemon didn't hesitate to charge towards Lung. They circled around him in fast motions, amassing the fires extruding from his body. Lung punched towards Liger, but he dodged easily and even breathed a fire blast into Lung's face. Tail's feet kicked high into the air, it somersaulted in the air and whipped its tails at Lung's face.

Lung budged back only a little, but regained his posture and managed to slice Arcanine in the stomach. Arcanine growled as it fell down in pain. The blood was colored purple, showing a type of pain unique to Leet's animals.

The Undersiders and Losers came out to the courtyard. They reached Bitch by the trailer house, close to where Arcanine fell. Light said, "holy crap, Pokemon can die."

Bitch yelled back, "get the fuck out of my way, I can win this!"

"No you can't," Grue said. "We need to retreat, now. Why aren't you using your powers on the Pokemon?"

Bitch turned away from him, "I can beat him without them."

"Are you kidding me? Your dogs will die if you don't win, is that what you want?"

Light said, "if this is a feminist thing-"

"Shut the fuck up," Bitch pointed. "I work hard for my dogs, you guys fucking cheat with your monsters!"

It became instantly clear why she hadn't used her powers. To Bitch, her relationship with her dogs and powers was a source of pride. To control animals that didn't need her powers or training undermined that pride, and she didn't want to be outshone by the rest of them.

"This is a pride thing," Lyft said aloud.

Bitch growled back, "I can control these monsters better than any of you. And I'll fucking prove it."

Lyft shook her head, "Bitch, just because Leet made a bunch of monsters, it doesn't mean your dogs are useless. It just proves how strong you are. Your dogs are so strong, and they're even better than Pokemon."

Lyft pointed to the fallen Arcanine, "and they're stronger with your powers. It goes to show you how weak Leet's mutants are without your help. So stop letting your dogs die, and prove that you're the best master there ever was."

Light muttered 'Pokemon master' beneath his breath. Lyft yanked at Light's ear. Bitch looked down at the Pokeballs holding Brutus and Judas. She turned away and tossed her Pokeballs near Lung.

The dogs morphed back at nearly double the size from when they were inside. They growled loud, and pounded directly into Lung's mass. The weight of the combined animals crushed Lung's body, and he was pushed back into a pile of steel sheets from their hits.

Tail's body quickly began to expand. Its body tore off fur and skin as Tail's body mass boldened with heavy flesh. Liger expanded too. He rose up from the ground at twice the size her was before, his monstrous growl was more menacing than it was before.

Light asked, "did… Did they all just evolve?"

Regent said, "this team is a riot."

Ninetails and Arcanine lunged towards Lung. Their fires drained the oxygen from around him, snuffing out his flames and directing the heat from their mouths into his metallic parts. Brutus and Judas soon joined them, pressing their jaws into Lung at nearly twice his size. Lung was helpless, but he also grew as they all tried mauling at his metallic flesh.

Rush and Tattletale caught up with the team. Rush looked over at the monsters and said, "Oh my God, I forgot the camera! How the hell will I masturbate to this if I don't record it?"

Tattletale glared at her, "Vivan, seriously, how do you ignore this crap?"

Light made a shush noise, "there is literally a Pokemon battle in front of us. I have my priorities straight."

Lung heaved out from the mosh pit and took Ninetails by the throat. With a massive claw, he thrusted Tail's head up and down into the ground, smashing it into the sheet metal beneath them. Tail's wailed in pain as Lung did it. His strength was quickly matching theirs.

Tattletale said, "we have to go, now. Lung gets stronger the longer the fight drags on. The longer you stay, the sooner he'll outgrow them."

"I got this," Bitch insisted.

"No you don't," Grue ordered. "Call them back, we're leaving. Now."

Before Bitch could reply, Bakuda and a dozen foot soldiers left from the building complex. Bakuda's hand was limping, damaged from the broken fingers. She saw the Losers and Undersiders near the trailer, and used her other hand to point a laser towards them.

"You're all fucking dead!" She yelled at them."

The teams looked over to see Bakuda and her goons facing them. Light said, "you have no idea how many times I've heard that…"

Grue yelled at Rush, "You didn't tie them up!?"

Rush answered, "we thought Marvin handled it." She turned towards Bakuda and raised her arms in surrender, "truce?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"My answer might surprise you."

They sprayed bullets at them. A stray bullet hit Rush's leg before Light put a shield around the group. Lyft and Tattletale carried Rush around the trailer to take cover. Now Lung's and Bitch's battle was exposed to in front of them, and Lung was growing larger as they thrashed thunderously.

Grue yelled to Bitch, "we need to go, now!"

Grue shrouded the gang members behind them, breaking their lines of sight. Noise muted behind them as metals chimed from Lung's hits. On one end, they were pushed by armed ABB members, in front of them, Lung was getting the upper hand over Bitch's dogs. Bitch yelled back, "I can fucking win this!"

It was at that moment Lung chomped into Ninetales. His jaw flung the massive beast down, and he began scratching its body into pieces. Their eyes gaped at the dismembered animal. Rush said, "well color my tits, I guess pokemon can die."

Tattletale yelled, "you can't beat him, get over it!"

Bitch yelled, "yes I fucking can, I just have to-"

Before she could finish, a bullet shot across Bitch's back. She fell off Angelica's back, and limped onto the ground. Lung roared in triumph as he hit them harder. Angelic, Judas, and Brutas all began shrinking slowly.

"Did she just die?" Lyft asked as more bullets flew.

Tattletale shook her head, "hit her arteries. She'll make it if we take her to a doctor right fucking now."

"But the dogs are shrinking," Regent said.

"Imp," Rush called out.

"Glad you remembered I'm here," Aisha said nonchalantly to her.

"Take the Undersiders out of here. Use your powers to shroud them all, and call Bitch's dogs back in the pokeballs while you do. Come back once you're all safe."

Lyft asked, "she can't take all of us?"

Rush shook her head. "I talked to her about this before. She can only hide a handful of people at a time. Just enough to take the Undersiders away."

Aisha said, "I can try to push it to six."

The Losers said together, "I'm not leaving them behind."

Aisha rolled her eyes, "God you're frigging lame. I swear, you better not die when I come back."

And with that, the Undersiders disappeared from sight. Soon, Lung's distraction would disappear too.

"Any plans?" Light asked as the dark mist disappeared. The gunfire returned to their original firing rates as Bakuda and her goons spread out to surround them. Only Light's shield protected them.

Rush's leg still bled from the stray bullet. She easily ignored the pain, "well, I left you a will, but it's no good if you're dead too."

"No plan, huh?" They had already forgotten that Imp would come back. But it was also unclear if she could even make it back in time to save them. Lung turned his head towards them. Fire raised from his back. He looked down at them like they were insects.

Light said, "so this is how I die. A half Chinese Godzilla looking down at me in a Pokemon costume… Team rocket would be so proud."

Rush cracked a smile, "Christ, let's hope we're as indestructible as team rocket is. Because I do not want to blast off into pieces."

Lyft swallowed. A pokeball rolled near her feet. It belonged to the ninetails that had just died. She picked up the ball and asked, "How much do you guys trust in Leet?"

Rush said, "what kind of question is that? Leet's fucking phenomenal. I wish I'd could've told him how batshit genius he is."

Light said, "yeah, if trolling were a religion, I wouldn't be an atheist."

Lyft swallowed, "well, let's hope he's as crazy as you guys say. Because if this works, I'll never trash talk him again."

Lyft walked forward to approach Lung. Lung took slow methodical steps towards her. Lyft yelled out, "hey Lung, the only thing worse than having a small dick, is you giving Asians a bad name!'

Lung lunged towards her. Lyft swung the pokeball straight and used her powers to thrust it. It tapped directly into Lung's forehead.

A beam of light came out. Lung's body evaporated just before he could pulverize her. The light disappeared into the ball and dropped near Lyft's feet. It beeped, once, twice, and then a third time before it made a 'pinging' sound to confirm his capture.

The three of them looked down at the ball in silence. Light's tone came out hollow, "you… Caught a… Lung…"

 

[Axle]

The universe is a cold and docile place. The dark space that enveloped the world around them was broken through with trinkets of light glowering in the night sky. Space was vast, but the stars managed to shine through it. Aryana liked to look up at the stars and pretend they were all angels. It was heaven lighting up the night sky to provide beauty for every person on earth.

Light raised Lung's pokeball in the air. He dropped to his knees and let out an autistic screech, "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Rush's face was stiff while she spoke plainly to herself, "I think it's time I accepted our dear Lord Jesus into my heart."

Lyft stomped at her feet while screaming, "Leet, you MAD LAD!"

While each of them contemplated their place on earth, Bakuda and her foot soldiers finally managed to surround the Losers. They pointed their guns at them before inspecting the area. Dust cleared around them. There was no sign of Lung in sight.

Bakuda yelled out, "what the fuck did you idiots do?"

Light cried out, "I dooooooon't knooooow!"

Lyft said, "the show never explained why people can't get caught!"

Rush's tone was still calm as she spoke in a matter-the-fact tone, "this proves evolution is a lie. Checkmate heretics."

They fired their weapons at them. Light quickly raised a shield up. A loud whooshing noise rose up as their bullets pinged off of his reflective energy wall. Rush and Lyft glanced over at the fallen Pokeballs. Both of them still had a few empty Pokeballs attached to their belt buckles.

They nodded to each other, and Rush raised up the balls with her powers. Lyft clasped a few and said, "first to catch six wins?"

Rush pitched three balls towards the gang members, "hooray for slavery!"

The Pokeball hit two of their members. A loud light morphed out and absorbed the gangsters inside. Lyft shot more balls at them while they dazed helplessly. The ABB members sprinted away.

"Coward!" Bakuda yelled back to them. At that moment, another Pokeball hit the back of her head and shifted her into the spherical prison.

With Bakuda captured, the rest of them promptly dropped their weapons and retreated. Dust skirted behind their feet as they dashed away in terror. The Losers suddenly seemed horrifying. None of them imagined that their leaders could be outdone by teenagers.

With the now empty construction site littered with scattered Pokeballs, the ABB members cleared from the area and left their former base completely abandoned. A long silence fell as the noise from the fleeing gang members disappeared. Light lowered his shield and asked, "did we… Win?"

Rush counted the dropped Pokeballs. Five in total were caught. They'd won, but it wasn't a complete victory either. "Nah," she answered raising her arms, "we just lost with style!"

Light looked down at his Lung, "should I… Ask what's it like in there?"

Rush answered, "maybe we can finally get a real answer instead of hearing a retarded Pokemon say their own names."

Lyft murmured, "don't say retarded..."

Rush raised an eyebrow, "we literally enslaved people today."

"Still…"

"Fucking liberal."

Rush fell backwards on the dirt ground beneath her. She took off her mask stared up at the sky. Night was ending. The thin cold air became warmer as the sun almost neared the sky. Light took off his mask and laid back next to her. Lyft followed suit and dropped back next to Vivan.

Vivan said, "Jesus Christ I'm hungry. Let's get Chinses food."

Sabrina bursted out laughing.

Aryana bantered off of that, "stores aren't opened till noon. Since we're villains, how about we kidnap an Asian guy to cook it for us?"

"That's slavery."

"No, he'll be Chinese, so it's indentured servitude. Which is much more acceptable."

"For some reason, I don't think that'll hold up in court."

Vivan lifted up his phone to order delivery. Sabrina asked, "wait, you're seriously ordering food?"

"I nearly died. I'm craving Asian now."

Aryana hissed, "Asian fetish."

"Nein," Vivan lightly karate chopped his sister on the forehead. He asked, "I'm ordering curry for me. Aryana, what do you want?"

"A chicken kabob."

"From a Chinese restaurant? Eww, Chinese kabobs are gross."

"That's racist," the two girls said together.

Vivan rolled his eyes, "it's not racist if it's… True."

Sabrina tugged at his ear. Vivan continued, "okay, fine, a chicken kabob for her and curry for me. So I'm guessing Sabrina gets…. White rice?"

Sabrina squinted at him, "you know what? That sounds fantastic. I just love white rice!"

Vivan nodded, "I'll add a note to tell them to make it extra white rice with an extra layer of whiteness to cover the all-around whitey white whiteness that comes from whitey white white white-"

Sabrina pulled at his ear harder, "did I just become the token white girl?"

"Yes," they both said together.

"Where the hell do you guys come up with this crap?"

"4chan," Vivan said the same time Aryana answered, "dank memes."

Sabrina laughed out again. Despite nearly dying, she felt more triumphant than she ever had before. In the E88, her victories came from putting down others. Making her own group feel powerful by treating others like garbage.

But with the Losers, it was earned. All the cards were stacked against them yet they could still somehow end up on top. This was what true victory felt like. Fighting against all odds, and still coming out on top smiling.

The E88 were the real losers, and Sabrina was finally understanding why.

This was also a feeling she wanted to preserve. The feeling of basking in delight. Vivan and Aryana gave her something she'd been missing for a long time. It made her smile, "I love you guys."

Aryana didn't notice Sabrina holding Vivan's hand. Aryana said aloud, "you bet your boney white ass you do. Good to know our degeneracy is contagious."

Vivan had plenty of reason to let go of Sabrina's hand. They'd both known how she'd felt about him, but this time he wanted to savor this victory while holding her too. So he only smiled without letting go of her. He asked, "do you think Bakuda was telling the truth?"

Aryana let out a drawn out breathe, "according to her? Yeah, at the very least Bakuda doesn't know how to fix them. I have a few backup plans in case this wouldn't work, but…"

Sabrina said, "let's just hope for the best and prepare for the worst. That's what you guys have been doing this far, no reason to stop now."

Vivan's smile grew soft, "you'll never be disappointed if you're always prepared for the worst..."

A voice above them said, "you still might surprise yourselves."

They all turned over to her. She was flying high in the cool sky with a cape wavering behind her back. A pitch-black helmet covered the top half of her head while she glared down at them with a stoic glance. Her arms were crossed, and she was posed in a stern posture while slowly floating closer to them.

"Fuck," the three of them said together.

Alexandria spoke out, "if you know what's good for you, you'll tell me what I need to know. No more, no less."

The three of them stood up as she flew closer to them. Sabrina gulped, "you're kidding me, right? Don't you have better things to do?"

"I'm here looking for Lung," Alexandria replied. "Tell me what I need to know, and I might let you go."

Vivan's grin was shaky, "do you believe in magic, Alexandria? Because what happened to Lung was a Christmas miracle."

Alexandria superspeed in front of Vivan's body. She towered over him with her height and strength. "Do I look like I'm playing games?"

"You're wearing a cosplay. Do you really want me to answer that?"

Sabrina leaped behind Vivan and covered his mouth, "Jesus fuck man, are you this dense?"

Vivan tried answering that but couldn't. Alexandria said to Lyft, "Rune, you're better than where you were before, but if you don't want to die young, you'll abandon them while you have the chance."

Vivan still tried to make a snarky remark as Sabrina held him back. She replied, "I'm seriously thinking about it now."

A Pokeball flew towards Alexandria's side. Alexandria caught it quickly and crushed it between her fingertips. She looked over to Aryana's direction, "was that a bomb?"

Aryana's smile was shaky, "it was all of Japan's hopes and dreams. And you just crushed it."

Alexandria super sped to Aryana. She grabbed her by the Simurgh tattooed hand. "We still have some Simurgh protocols in place. Right now I have plenty of reason to enforce them."

Aryana yanked her body away, but couldn't escape her grasp. With a smile Aryana replied, "good luck. Because unlike you, I've got a guardian angel watching over me. And she's a bigger bitch than you are."

Alexandria twisted her hand back. Aryana hissed as the pain as her bones bent. "I know what angle you play at. It won't work for me. I won't treat you any better than all the other villains I've faced."

Aryana gritted her teeth, "good to know you have a bigger stick up your ass than Armsmaster."

A laser hit Alexandria's helmet. It didn't faze her. Alexandria looked over to see Vivan's hands glowing with ambient rainbow colors. He yelled aloud, "For the record, Legend is way cooler than you. At least he flaunts his gayness around wherever he goes. You're so straight it's boring."

Alexandria dragged Aryana forward and flew towards Vivan. He tried firing lasers at her, but the beams easily bounced off from her superhuman body. She grabbed at Vivan's tattooed hand. "You're not Simurgh tainted, but you're just as much a problem as she is. You both belong in prison."

Aryana growled, "leave the tiny man alone!"

Vivan retorted, "I am not tiny!"

Alexandria tightly squeezed both of their hands. The sound of their cracking bones could be heard.

Aryana grumbled, "I like how you think this hurts me, I'm actually kind of turned on right now. Mamasita, squeeze me harder baby." She began making erotic tones with her tongue.

Vivan grumbled in pain, "Honestly, I actually feel pretty empowered by the massive amounts of feminism you're emulating. I'm going to be like every other feminist and give you the silent treatment." His mouth opened to let out deep breaths, but he didn't cry out as she twisted his arm tighter.

Alexandria yelled, "none of you get it, do you? I've been watching you both-"

"So you watch our show?" Both siblings said instinctively.

"I'll admit you two aren't the top of my list. But this game you play, I'm ending it. Brockton Bay will be better off after you're both gone!"

"That's debatable," Aryana grunted with a smile.

"Yeah," Vivan said, "I'd rather fight Legend instead. My gay beams are super effective against him."

Alexandria folded their wrists backwards to make them fall to their knees. More bones crackled as she did it. "I don't know why the Boogeyman defends you, but I won't keep pretending-"

Sabrina yelled out, "hey brick bitch!"

Alexandria looked over to her side. Over a smoldering trash fire left behind from Lung, Lyft stood over a floating trash can lid as though it were a hoverboard. She called out, "you might be a hack, but we're the goddamn Losers! When we lose, we drag the rest of you down with us! Lung, I choose you!"

Lyft shot the Pokeball away from Alexandria's direction. It landed right near the building entrance, opening up with a wide array of light extending out from it. The light covered the surrounding area and the pinging noise reflected across the streets. The energy remorphed into a giant shape that only Alexandria recognized. "No…"

Lung's form came towering out from it. His body slammed through the building, causing portions of wall to crackle off. Instead of forming in the same height as he did before, he was now at the same height as the Leviathan as when he'd fought the Endbringer in Japan. Fires spewed out around him, his roar echoed across the streets while his footsteps trembled across the ground.

The buildings around him were shaking. They were unstable to begin with, but now they almost crumbled down. Light said, "holy crap, he evolved."

Rush said, "it really is a Christmas miracle."

Alexandria let go of the delinquents. Their hands were still crushed, but they still had the strength to walk away. Alexandria looked back at them and said, "if you leave, I'll get a kill order on the both of you."

"Nice," the two fist-bumped each other with their working hands.

Alexandria gritted her teeth. Lung turned his head in Alexandria's direction and let out a furious roar. Imp appeared behind them and set up her shroud around the two of them. "Come on, before he remembers who he's pissed at."

Imp lead the way as Alexandria was left alone to face the towering monster. They caught up to Lyft and then left towards the alleyways together. Lyft said, "Jesus Christ, are things always this crazy off camera?"

Aryana answered, "you have no idea."

Alexandria pounded into Lung's metallic skin as fires surrounded the woman. Heat blazed near several buildings as she pushed him further and further away from the city. With Imp covering all of them, they escaped the scene without any of them noticing.

XXX

Sabrina said, "I can't believe I'm too tired to masturbate."

To one-up her, Aisha said, "I'm not."

Vivan patted her on the head, "silly girl, vaginas aren't real."

Aisha squinted at him, "Is he for real?"

Sabrina answered, "welcome to my world."

The four of them nearly limped on their way back to base. Morning came and they were all exhausted. Surviving three near-death experiences in one day was more than any of them were prepared for. Vivan and Aryana's hands were limp, still damaged from Alexandria's grasp. Aryana's bullet wound was damaged but she showed no signs of feeling the pain. The slow walk along the boardwalk was the longest any of them had ever felt.

Aryana groaned aloud, "goddamnit, I left the water running."

Vivan leaned over and added, "and I left the lights on before leaving! Worst. Night. Ever."

They bantered like last night was irrelevant. In reality, both of them were trying to distract from their pain. "Goddamn bills are gonna pile up. At this rate, I'll have to cancel my wow subscription."

Vivan almost tripped as he walked, but Sabrina caught him and let him lean on her shoulder. He said, "I just wanted to play Pokemon today, now I gotta clean my room. Talk about a downer."

Sabrina said, "I'll make some tea when we get home."

"Ugh, I hate tea… I'll take it."

Aisha walked behind them all as they walked. Aryana noticed she was scouting around them, keeping watch for anyone who could've followed them as they walked. Aryana was impressed, but still strongly against her joining. Despite being thankful that Aisha was there, and glad that Aisha could run away anytime things became too dangerous, Aisha was still too young. And Aryana didn't want to be responsible for another kid's well being.

Aryana asked, "hey newbie, when we get home can you bring some take out? I'm craving lizard meat for some reason."

Aisha looked over and rolled her eyes, "I'm not your slave. Make the Nazi do it."

Aryana went over and tugged at Aisha's ear, "that's rude, shrub. Her name is redhead. That's worse than a nazi."

Sabrina didn't even argue, "it's true. But I'm more worried about you craving lizard meat. Sounds to me like you wanna give dragon Lung a blowjob."

"That is not the kind of meat I was referring to. Get your mind out of the gutter, gosh."

Aisha snickered, "you're the one asking for lizard meat. What are you, gay?"

She sneered, "I've never liked metallic dicks before, and I'm not about to start."

Aisha made a gagging noise, "right, I bet you prefer plastic over metal."

Aryana bit her lip, "...latex."

Vivan looked up at the sky to forcefully ignore them, "I wonder if it's going to rain today."

Sabrina said, "just accept who you are and say you want the 'd.'"

Aisha pointed forward, "you're already a furry, you might as well add dragon fucking to the bunch!"

Aryana asked, "can't a girl like cat kinks and not like reptiles too?"

Vivan commented, "oh look, that cloud looks like a cloud."

Sabrina said to Aryana, "I can send you some dragon fucking car videos if you want. See if that'll change your mind."

Aisha squinted, "wait, why the hell do you have dragon fuck videos?"

"For research."

Vivan said, "I'm going to pretend a rainbow will come up later today."

Aryana raised an arm in the air, "you know what? Fine. I'd suck Lung's dragon dick. Because apparently having a furry fetish means I have a lizard fetish too! I'd give Newter a blowjob if I didn't pass out every time I touched him."

Aisha and Sabrina applauded. Sabrina asked, "you record that?"

Aisha took out her recorder, "you know it!"

Aryana paled, "wait, no, I take it back!"

The four of them turned the corner and reached the view of their apartment home. Despite finally putting the day behind them, home didn't bring the relief all of them had wanted. Robert, Edwin, Emily, and all of Leet's inventions were gone. They could finally get the much-needed rest, but it wouldn't bring the sense of security the Losers were used to.

Vivan and Aryana sighed. They walked a little faster as they approached the building. Aryana said, "If I die while asleep, I'll be happy."

"Ditto," the rest of them said.

Before they could get closer, a loud dark cloud rose up to block their path. It hissed loudly as a wall of flying animals buzzed in the air. It circled the building with a wall of insects. Buzzkill stepped through the insect wall to address them all, "you're all under arrest."

Vivan and Aryana fell flat on the ground. "We surrender!" They yelled together.

Sabrina slouched over, "are you for real?"

Aryana yelled, "fuck it, just kill me already. I am done!"

Sabrina and Aisha glanced at each other. Aisha looked over to Buzzkill and said, "we can take her."

"No we can't!" the siblings yelled together.

Aryana added, "I am not gonna get syphilis because of her! I'll get that the natural way."

Vivan crouched into a feedle position, "please not the moths. Oh dear God not the moths."

Sabrina and Aisha looked over to the side. Mouse Protector, Golem, and Browbeat came out from Buzzkill's insect wall. The four of them matched their own team. Except unlike the Losers, they were refreshed and fully ready to fight. There were no more tools at their disposal, and all of them wanted nothing more than to go home.

"Welp," Aisha clasped her hands together. "It's been great working with ya'll, but I'm gonna need to go home and think about my other cape options."

Aryana raised a thumbs up and disappeared. After a minute, she reappeared shrieking on the ground. Dozens of bugs shook off of her, "agh, what the fuck?" She screeched as she pushed the bugs away.

Buzzkill said, "I overheard what your powers are. So I set up ants that would sting you when my wasps lose track of you. If you disappear from their sight, they'll start biting you until they die."

Aisha glared at her. She looked down at her sleeve and realized there were dozens of unnaturally small ants latched onto her limbs. "Well that's bullshit."

"It is," everyone on both teams said.

Mouse Protector commented, "you guys really shouldn't have given her that neat tinker stuff."

Aisha looked back at them, "wait, you guys helped them? Why the fuck?"

Aryana looked over to Vivan, "yeah Vivan, why the fuck?"

Vivan replied, "We all make mistakes, it's important to forgive and forget."

Aisha said, "but there's still gotta be some tinker bullshit you can pull out of your ass."

Vivan answered, "I keep things up my ass for non-tinker reasons."

"Your base defenses are down," Browbeat said. "We scouted all the floors, Leet's defenses are down. You're all out of tinker tech."

Mouse Protector raised up a bag of chips, "also, you guys are out of Cheetos. I took the last bag."

Aryana glared up at her, "you son of a bitch. I was saving those!"

Sabrina warned them, "they also have a deadman's switch. If they get arrested or killed, inventions get activated. You'd be on the receiving end of that."

Buzzkill shook her head. "After the Killzone thing, Spitfire deactivated all of those. I knew you'd be weaker after the heist, so we waited. There's nothing saving you this time."

Browbeat said to Buzzkill, "you'll lose out on Leet's tinkering, are you sure you're alright with this?"

Buzzkill nodded, "believe me, I have more than enough bugs now. And even if I didn't, it would still be worth it to take you guys in."

Vivan raised a thumb up, "I'm so proud of you!"

Mouse Protector stretched her arms and let out a yawn, "now would be the perfect time to arrest you. But…"

Buzzkill snapped her head at her, "but what?"

Mouse Protector shrugged, "maybe we should look the other way? They've helped us a lot in the past, and if they fight the ABB and E88, maybe they're better off on the streets instead of off them."

Buzzkill looked over to Golem and Browbeat. Both of them looked uncertain. Neither of them thought of the Losers as a threat anymore, but they also weren't sure if it was right arresting them. "They nearly destroyed the city, you'd just let them walk away from that?"

Mouse Protector shrugged, "accidents happen."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Buzzkill yelled. Her bugs hummed loud at the strike of her words. "They nearly destroyed the city as a gag, and you think they're not worth arresting!? They're villains! They make bad things worse, and soon there'll be a mess that can't be cleaned up!"

Mouse Protector shook her head, "Buzzkill-"

Buzzkill jabbed a finger in her direction, "are you even a hero? Because what kind of hero would help villains!"

Mouse Protector raised an eyebrow, "excuse me?"

Buzzkill pointed at Rush, "you planned for this! You knew what they were doing tonight, and it all went wrong. How can you call yourself a hero if you let this happen?"

Mouse Protector blinked at her, "Taylor, have... you been spying on me?"

"I looked up to you, I was glad to be your sidekick, but now it turns out you're part of the Elite!"

Mouse Protector's head cocked back. Browbeat asked, "Is that true?"

She swallowed, "no, not really. It's just-"

"Liar," Buzzkill yelled, with the bugs intensifying her noises. "You and Rush, you're both Elite agents and you know it!"

Vivan looked over to Aryana, "we work for the Elite?"

Aryana rolled her eyes, "no, I work for the Elite. You're all just my sidekicks."

He asked, "why didn't you tell me?"

"Because the Elite conscript soldiers, not capes. I didn't want you guys to sign into something you couldn't back out from. I joined them to get some extra help to save Leet. If I back out now they'll be after my head, not yours. So pretend like you didn't hear anything, and don't get involved with them."

Vivan asked, "how is that any different from when you were with Accord?"

Aryana turned her head away. "For the record, Buzzkill, the Elite isn't the worst group you could join. They target gangs, not civilians. Their recruitment methods are shitty, but they just regulate crime instead of escalate it. To the Elite, getting normies hurt isn't helpful. So they treat crime like a business so that bystanders don't get caught in the crossfire."

Browbeat spoke flatly, "so you did it for the money?"

"Never!" Mouse Protector yelled, "I mean, yeah I'm cheap, but it wasn't just the money. It's really hard to survive on your own. Rogues need extra help. So they send me villain targets to focus on. It's still crime-fighting, it's just-"

"Helping the Elite too," Browbeat finished for her. "So we're taking out their enemies for them? That's no better than being a hitman."

Mouse Protector looked away. Golem shook his head, "are you kidding me? That's not what I signed up for! You tricked us into helping villains!"

Mouse Protector swallowed, "Listen, I-"

Buzzkill interrupted, "and like you're one to talk, Theo Anders."

She said it in a high hiss, her bugs reverberated the noise across. Golem froze up, "you… You spied on me too, didn't you?"

Aisha commented, "talk about psycho as fuck."

Buzzkill yelled at everyone, "well it turns out I was right every time! Because he's the worst one here!"

All eyes turned to him when she said it. Aryana and Sabrina exchanged glances while Mouse Protector and Golem tilted their heads slightly. "Theo?" Mouser Protector asked in a high squealed tone.

Buzzkill said, "so should I tell them, or should you?"

Golem's chest thundered. He knew it was wrong to lie to them all, but facing the consequences of those lies made him choke. He'd wanted friends for so long, and now he would lose them instantly. Vivan sat up and said, "Theo's family is part of the E88. That's why he never wanted to join the Wards. If his family found out, they'd push him into joining the gang."

Vivan raised a finger up, "and personally Taylor, I don't think it's right to judge him based on his family history, instead of what you already know of him. Don't throw him under the bus for this."

It was a half-truth, enough to satisfy the severity of his lie, but not enough to make him irredeemable to his team. Buzzkill asked, "how are you still defending him?"

"Because I don't like when people are judged based off their family members." Vivan pointed to Aryana. "Theo is against what his family taught him. That alone takes a lot of strength. He's the best out of all of us. "

Mouse Protector's eyes arched up. His indecision suddenly made sense. With a sympathetic tone she said, "oh Theo, I'm so sorry. I'd never think less of you for that."

Browbeat shook his head and turned around. Without addressing any of them, he called out, "I quit," and left from view.

Most of them wanted to convince him to stay, but they all knew it was futile. Buzzkill looked back at the villains and asked, "how are you guys more solid than we are?"

Vivan's voice came out calm, "when all your garbage is in the air, the ones that stick with you will be the ones who accept you most."

Buzzkill didn't have a rebuttal to that. At the end of the day, the Losers had stronger bonds than any of them did. The Mouseketeers probably wouldn't get passed this. Aisha asked, "so… What now?"

"You're still under arrest, that's what."

Vivan and Aryana had given up at this point. Normally there was a backup plan, or some tinker tool that was just right for the occasion. This time they had nothing. No more tricks, and no more will to fight back. Buzzkill's bugs alone could've outdone them, but with the Mouseketeers mostly intact, they didn't stand a chance.

Aryana asked Mouse Protector, "so I'm guessing that deal we had is null?"

Mouse Protector shook her head, "I'm sorry I lied, Taylor. I won't defend them anymore. This is your call now." It was a way to make amends. Mouse Protector did make promises to Rush, but lying to her team wasn't worth it.

Aryana lowered her head, "figures. Do me a favor, don't let the caterpillars follow me when I'm at the birdcage."

Buzzkill looked over at Golem. She didn't say anything, but they both knew she was asking for another opinion. Golem said, "you decide, Taylor. I'm not the best voice of reason."

Aisha asked, "do we get a vote?"

Vivan said, "this isn't about you, Imp."

"I'm feeling pretty involved…"

Buzzkill said to them, "you guys nearly destroyed the city twice. The problem with you all is that you have no limits. Your solution to everything is to fail downwards, to make others fall so that you guys can win. It might be fun and games for you, but it's reckless for everyone else. And you all can't keep getting away with that."

"Taylor," Sabrina said walking closer to her, "you know they're not real villains, right?"

Aryana yelled, "don't insult us!"

Vivan said, "I'm so evil that I don't sanitize my hands before leaving the house."

"Not helping guys," Sabrina called back. She said to Taylor, "it sounds to me like you have tunnel vision. You're so convinced on something, you don't want to question it."

Buzzkill shook her head, "you can't convince me on this."

Sabrina pointed a thumb at Vivan and Aryana, "they've taken down the E88, to the point that they're too afraid to do crime in the daytime. They've stopped ABB crime rings, to the point that most rings are outside of town. High schools aren't recruitment or drug markets anymore, and the PRT are getting the credit for all of that. Despite how shitty they make themselves look, they've been saving this city since the day they got here."

Aryana said, "well shit, I should start killing people."

Vivan said, "hold on, you're telling me shooting money at homeless people isn't a crime?"

Buzzkills' insects hummed in a lowered tone, "they're terrorists…"

Sabrina shook her head, "No matter how much you spin it, they don't make people afraid. They make people less afraid of the E88 and other villains in the city. They might play the villain, but they make villains look bad. And that alone makes Brockton Bay a better place to be."

Aisha patted her forehead, "Christ, you guys failed so bad you can't even villain right."

"You're welcome," the siblings said together.

Buzzkill held still for a long while. A few months ago Sabrina had been a member of the E88, now she was defending them as friends. Emily had almost joined a villain group, now she helped fight ABB rings. The entire Mouseketeers formed thanks to them. It seemed as though everywhere they went, something good was created.

Buzzkill took off her mask and asked, "Vivan, are you guys villains?"

Aryana yelled, "yes!"

Vivan let out a sigh, "we're villains because we have to, Taylor. No hero team would ever accept us. That being said… We'll always save people before we hurt people, when given the chance."

Taylor looked over to Mouse Protector and Golem. She could recognize now why they'd kept their secrets from her. It wasn't because they were bad people, it was because doing good also meant making some bad decisions.

The bugs walling of their base gradually dissipated as she gave them a pathway home. She said to Vivan, "no more stunts. No more 'destroy until you win,' attitude. If you guys have another big plan, run it by me first, and I'll make sure you don't take it too far."

Vivan asked, "or…"

A moth flew onto Taylor's palm, "moths, everywhere."

Vivan shivered, "deal accepted!"

And with that, the remaining bugs disappeared from view, finally giving the team a clear view of their base. They all sighed in relief as Taylor left the scene. She didn't address Mouse Protector or Golem as she left, implying that she didn't want to speak with them.

The Losers walked forward to their base only prepared to sleep. They'd failed at every goal they had last night, but they still slept peacefully.

 

[Axle]

It was nighttime. By now Uber and Leet's bodies were sealed off from the rest of the city. A concrete wall was erected around them, simply to avoid giving the townsfolk an eyesore. Vivan carried a pickaxe at hand, breaking the wall down as Aryana watched.

Aryana said, "there's a slave joke somewhere."

Vivan said, "I honestly can't tell if this is or isn't sexist."

He swung the pike again, taking down the last piece of wall. Most of the structure was already taken down by his and Aryana's powers, but he insisted on breaking the last bits of concrete with a pickaxe.

Aryana walked closer to the two. She dusted some of the dirt off, but realized that the stasis made their bodies extra slippery. It was like an invisible plastic wrapped around them, sliding off any soot and dust that fell onto them.

She hadn't visited them since the incident. The PRT had blocked off the area after the initial days of the attack. A part of her thought she hadn't earned a visit. Like if she couldn't come back with a solution, she didn't deserve to face them.

Vivan said, "hey Aryana, remember that time we stared at the snack machine and tried moving the chips with our minds?"

Aryana glanced up for a bit, "holy crap, you remember that? We were five."

Vivan nodded, "this reminds me of that. So close, yet so far."

Aryana stepped back from them. It was quiet outside. Nobody lived close enough to hear them. It was as though the alleyway was their resting place. Silent out of respect. "Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I thought we were carrying you guys. I guess it was the other way around."

Vivan tapped at Aryana's forehead. "It was more like synergy, actually. Before Emily came, we had a yin and yang thing going on. Uber and Leet did the bare minimum amount of work, and we would push them further. Its how we got to a sweet spot."

"Yeah," Aryana admitted. "I just didn't think they were the ones keeping us levelheaded. We needed them as much as they need us."

Vivan looked down at the mechanized box Aryana was carrying. It glowed blue with spherical designs on its edges, giving off a low humming noise from its energy. Vivan asked, "how much did that cost you?"

Aryana grumbled, "more debt than you could imagine."

The two of them waited there. There weren't too many moments of silence between them. When there were, it was very natural, taking the time to reminisce on something they had both experienced. They mostly spent the time talking about Brockton Bay, about the teams they'd met and the sites they'd come to know.

It wasn't long before Emily arrived. She had reached the street corner wearing a dark sweater and jeans. Despite having powers, she didn't want to bring attention to herself in the middle of the night. She raised off her hoodie to reveal her dark brown eyes and curly hair. Approaching, shoulders reclused and in a broken tone, she greeted them both. "Hi." She glanced over to Aryana, "listen, I'm-"

Aryana flung towards her to give a hard hug. She held her tight before she could speak again, "I'm sorry I was being stupid. I was afraid of losing them. I thought pretending nothing changed would make things better. I was wrong. I should've known better, and I'm sorry I was playing with your emotions like they didn't matter."

Emily croaked out, "Aryana… Can't… Breathe…"

Aryana let go, "I'm sorry."

Emilly let out a small smile, "I'm sorry-"

Aryana put her hands over her lips. "Nope, don't you dare apologize. I don't deserve it, and you being hard on me was something I needed. So… Thank you, for what you said to me. And I won't accept 'I'm sorry' even if you say it."

Aryana pulled her hands away. Emily's smile beamed out brighter. She was happy to know that their friendship wasn't completely over. Emily looked over to the box, " do you think this'll work?"

None of them dared to answer. Aryana only said, "if it does, then we can have them back. If it doesn't… We prepare a funeral for them."

Vivan and Emily nodded in morbid agreement. Aryana had thought about other backup plans for if it didn't work, but she no longer wanted to entertain the idea. She was in blatant denial, and to continue entertaining the fantasy was just her digging herself into a hole. No, this was their last option. She'd sold herself to Coil for their sake. If this didn't work, anything more wasn't worth it.

Aryana placed the cube in the middle of the both of them. She tapped the large button on the edge, and they all backed away slowly. The cube's energy glowed brighter. Blue lightning electricity extruded from the box as it encapsulated a large swathe of the alleyway center.

They backed away further. A blue forcefield encompassed Uber and Leet. Slowly, their last movements gradually began to take place.

Uber and Leet shifted their feet on the ground. They walked in impossibly slow motions, heaving forward still partially in stasis. Eventually, the sound of their voices came out. It was low and heavy. But once they both managed to step out of the cube's forcefield, they sprinted forward at their normal speeds.

Leet yelled, "she's got a bazooka!"

Uber yelled out, "its in her fucking name!"

The two of them sprinted out of the alley behind a car. They took cover feebly as though it could protect them. Leet yelled, "fucking take cover you morons! I don't know how tinker fuckery works!"

Uber looked back at them. The three of them were staring back in a stunned gaze. Uber yelled at them, "what are you guys waiting for!?"

Aryana and Emily sprinted towards them. Rather than take cover, Aryana embraced Uber for a hug while Emily tackled Leet to the ground in her embrace. Vivan jumped atop of the vehicle and raised two peace signs in the air. He yelled aloud, "victory!"

The car's alarm turned on, waking up some of the sleeping strays nearby.

Uber yelled, "Rush, now is not the fucking time!... Where'd your mask go?"

Aryana was rubbing her face in his chest, feeling his breathing body for the first time. "God I missed this."

Emily was crying now. Leet was confused as she held onto him tightly, "um, Emily…"

Leet looked over to the other side. No bombs were dropping. Vivan was just looking down at him with a wide grin on his face. He asked, "what the hell is going on?"

XXX

Taylor looked down at her phone. Mouse Protector left another text message for her, but she decided not to look at it. To her left, Amelia let out a groan before turning away from her phone, "do you at least regret it?"

They sat on the swing set together. It was the middle of the night and Amelia had just gotten off her hospital shift. To the disgust of Amelia, the Losers had just announced the return of Uber and Leet. Taylor answered, "I honestly thought I would, but the more I think about it the less I regret it. Between what I've seen from the E88 and ABB, the Losers have been a great counterbalance to them. Arresting them would've hurt a lot of people they could save. The city needs that. My only real regret was that I let them go because I was angry instead of really thinking about it."

She wasn't in a good headspace at the time, the silver lining was that she couldn't bring herself to regret letting them go. Amelia grumbled. She looked at the website pictures of the Loser team celebrating through various selfies. It seemed like her torment would return all the same. "I hate them, so much."

Taylor asked, "because of the blackmail thing?"

Amelia shook her head, "no, I'm not mad about that. I'm mad about the way they do things. Villains are supposed to be monsters, but the whole city loves them. It's not fair. How can anyone be okay with villains doing things right in front of them?"

"That's a fair question," Taylor admitted, "but I think in this case actions speak louder than words. They act like villains, but they're always doing more good than bad."

"That's still not right," Amy said gripping the chains of her swing set, "when you say you are something, you need to live up to it. Why are they being villains ironically when they could just stop pretending?"

Taylor thought back to Rush's tattoo. "Maybe they can't? Isn't it the job of capes to put up an act anyway? If anything, they're just pointing out the absurdity of it all. When you can recognize the facade behind it, it becomes easier to fake the part."

Amelia looked up at the half-moon in the sky. Her hospital trips were becoming more unbearable as her use of powers became more vapid over time. Saving lives made her think less of herself. She couldn't bring herself to appreciate the lives of the people she was saving, which perpetuated the idea that she was undeserving of happiness. "That's not how it should work. When you say you're a bad guy, it should be as simple as that. Why do… Why do they deserve to be happy and I don't?"

Seeing the Losers proud of themselves made her resent them. Amelia dedicated each day through grueling work to save lives, but the Losers were now getting more praise than she ever did. And worse than that, they didn't even try. Like things could just naturally align in their favor, and they were savoring it.

Taylor frowned. She could see Amelia's stress, but she also wanted to say who gives a shit? The Losers were helping people. If they enjoyed themselves while doing it, why did it matter? Taylor said, "I don't think they're as happy as they pretend to be. The thing about capes is, we always have clouds over our heads. And they're no different."

Amelia turned to her and asked, "are you sure? Is that what Light says? Please, just give me something to know that they're at least miserable. I really really need to hear that."

Taylor let out a sigh, "from what I can say for sure, Light wishes he were a real hero. But he can't because of his sister. And I think she feels guilty about that too. So, they're both stuck in places they don't want to be right now, and wish that they were somewhere else."

Amelia leaped up from her swing set, "thank you! I needed to hear that, because I hate how everyone keeps looking at them like they're frigging perfect!"

Taylor shook her head. Vivan and Aryana weren't the type of people you'd want to see as miserable. The air around them was always genuine, like the barriers typically propped up between strangers didn't apply to them. Amelia was clearly desperate to watch them fail, but that likely wasn't possible given their outlook towards failure. "I think you're following them too much. Amy, you need to take a break from their website, and maybe some time off from hospital visits too. Healers need rest too."

She shook her head, "you know I can't do either. I can't miss anything, and I can't let people die by being selfish."

"Even doctors don't work seven days a week. But I see your point."

Taylor stood up and the both of them walked towards Amelia's house. The air was cool tonight, and the city street lights provided enough ambiance for the both of them. Amelia asked, "but is that really it then? You're just going to work with them now? Since the Mouseketeers broke up, you might as well just join them."

"I'm not about to burn bridges by joining them. I'm keeping an eye on them from now on. If they're a counterweight to the E88, I'll be a counterweight to them. To make sure they're steered in the right direction."

Amy nodded, "if you ever need help with that, count me in. I hate that they think I'm someone they can push around."

"You've already helped me with those bugs. It's good to have mutant bugs that they don't know about."

"You're going solo then? Browbeat signed up to the Wards. If you're not joining them, it'll only be you."

Taylor looked down at her phone. There was a message from Theo now, asking for them to meet up. "I'm not really sure yet. I don't even know if its right to be mad at them anymore."

"Of course it is," Amy grumbled, "they lied to you by working with villains. They don't even deserve to call themselves heroes anymore."

"Doesn't that put me in the same category as them?"

Amelia curled her lips. "I mean, you're different. You're being smart about it."

"I'm not completely sure. Mouse Protector lied to us, but Golem didn't choose his family. I can't fault him for that."

Amelia gripped at her thigh, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I used to think that too. But then… Rune."

She let out a sigh, "I don't know what to think sometimes, they ruin everything they touch. It's like I'm the only one who still sees them as bad guys."

"It sounds to me like you've already concluded what they are, and nothing will convince you otherwise."

"Well yeah, duh!"

She let out a groan. Taylor shook her head, "maybe they have a master power we're not seeing."

"I hope that's the case, because that would explain everything."

They stopped at the front of Amelia's house. In a quieter tone she asked, "so um, do you want to come in for tea? We could watch a movie or something…"

Taylor shook her head, "I have school in the morning. I'd like to, but maybe when we both have time."

Amy let out a sigh, "alright Taylor, let's stay in touch. We don't have just be cape partners."

Taylor nodded, "thanks I appreciate that."

And with that, they went their separate ways.

XXX

Sabrina took a seat next to Alec, "yo."

Alec rolled his eyes. "You know you're annoying, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're an Undersider now? Seriously? You only joined us after we moved in. There's no difference if you joined either team now."

Sabrina shrugged. "Technically, they said that I should spy on you guys. But since I don't know how to do that, I'm just getting paid to hang out with you guys."

"They're paying you for this!?"

Rachel came into the unit with another set of dogs. At first, she was hard-pressed to resist their home. But after being shown the amount of space her dogs would get, Rachel decided it was better for her dogs to live there.

Sabrina said, "need help with that?"

"Fuck off."

"Got it," Sabrina raised her hands in defense, gesturing that she wouldn't stand in her way.

Brian entered the room next. He brought the last of his boxing gear and placed them on the floor, completing the move-in process to the new apartment. Lisa came out from her room and hung up the phone, "and the Losers are back in business! I told you it would work out. The boss says he's glad to sponsor an extra team, they'll owe us big time for this one."

Sabrina shot her a dirty look. As Lisa noticed it, Sabrina turned away. "So what's next on the list? Your boss had better have some master plan now that he has two teams under his belt."

Lisa answered, "all in favor of robbing a bank, say 'I'."

"I", Alec said.

"Nay," Brian responded. "We've been over this before. Banks aren't worth the risks and costs. The casino heist was a disaster, I can't imagine how bad a bank robbery might get."

"I can," Sabrina mentioned. "I can imagine a dozen things going wrong as we speak. Vivan would probably free the hostages, Aryana would seduce the bank teller. Emily would offer gift baskets to the guards, and Edwin would sing sonic the hedgehog while Robert breakdances on the vault floor. Trust me when I say this, there are probably a thousand ways to fuck it up, and my team would try them all."

Alec squinted at her, "who's side are you on?"

"I'm just trying to be real here."

Lisa rolled her eyes. Rachel stepped back to the living room and sat on the floor. Her dogs Angelica and Brutus walked next to her, leaning against her as they spoke. "Who the fuck cares? They fuck it up, we can fix it."

"Exactly," Lisa said. "At the end of the day, they also stay true to their word. If we need a job done, I know they'll pull through."

"No," Brian said. "The PRT are out for them now. Out for all of us. We can't keep pushing our luck like last time."

Lisa asked, "how about we put it to a vote?"

"No," Brian said in a sterner tone. "What I say goes, and unless there's a good reason for this, we're not robbing a back for next to nothing."

Lisa opened her mouth, but then closed it as Sabrina grinned. She turned her head and asked, "what's so funny?"

"Nothing," Sabrina said grinning. "Honestly though, I find it funny how Aryana figured you out so quick."

She raised an eyebrow, "excuse me?"

"Ah, nothing. Let's just say there's a reason we wear Lisa lie detectors on us." Sabrina raised up her wristwatch.

Brian asked, "you have a lie detector?"

Sabrina shook her head. "Not a lie detector, just a Lisa lie detector. Specifically for Lisa and no one else." She pressed a button on it. "Say something Lisa, anything."

Lisa crossed her arms, "I don't want to."

The watch responded with a recording of Aryana's voice: "OH MY FUCKING GOD, SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LYING BITCH."

Lisa squinted at her, "you guys have a tinker watch for that!?"

The watch answered with another recording: "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU STUPID BITCH."

"I am not stupid!"

"STUPID."

Lisa gritted her teeth. Brian said, "Lisa, you're arguing with a watch right now."

Lisa waved her hand, "just turn it off."

The watch went on: "DONT LISTEN TO THAT STUPID-"

She set the watch to mute. Alec pointed towards her, "see? She's just here to mess with us."

Brian shook his head, "she'd rather go on heists with us than with the Losers. I can live with that. What she does outside of missions is none of our business."

Sabrina mentioned, "I can almost feel the feminism seeping from you."

Brian raised an eyebrow. Alec said, "you hang out with Vivan too much."

"Tell me about it," Sabrina texted the other team through her phone.

Lisa took a seat next to them. "Alright, so what happened?"

She raised an eyebrow, "excuse me?"

"You joined us because you wanted to spend less time with Vivan. Why?"

Sabrina's eyes widened. Alec said, "Christ, something happened? Did he dump you?"

Sabrina face turned red, "no, that didn't happen. Just, um…." She stood up and headed towards the door, "I gotta go."

Sabrina touched the knob, but her hand fell limp as she touched the handle. Alec's hand was raised when he spoke, "back up, Vivan rejected you? Do you know how sad that is?"

Sabrina stood by the door wholly embarrassed. "Drop it. Not like, my arm. But drop the subject? Nothing happened, alright. Just forget it."

Lisa murmured to herself, "honestly, I can't figure out what happened. It had to be pretty bad if you can't even say it."

The Lisa lie detector watch lit up again: "FINALLY, THE BITCH SPEAKS THE TRUTH!"

Sabrina growled down at the watch, "I thought I muted you!"

Brian stepped forward and opened the door for her, "leave her alone guys. If she's joining our team, don't bully her. Go tell the Losers we'll be up there soon. We can meet with them after Uber and Leet are settled."

Sabrina nodded thankfully and left the room. Lisa and Alec sat back on the couch with their arms crossed, "what happened?"

XXX

Edwin opened up a control panel from their unit. Holographic boards appeared around him from the living room tv screen. "Holy fucking shit, what the hell did you guys do?"

"Sorry," Aryana said twiddling her thumbs.

"I made backup inventions that would last you months, and you blew it all up in a single night? Just… How?"

"I said I was sorry."

Edwin groaned out, "well cripes, now I gotta reset everything. Both manually and automatically. It's really been a month since we were gone?"

Aryana nodded, "the portal business is still booming. Cranium vets them and I just sign off their names. I've said yes to all the applicants she greenlit, so at least that's still growing."

Edwin murmured, "by any chance, did Blasto get a portal lab?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I can't remember. Why? Is Blasto bad?"

"Yeah, he told me once he was cloning Endbringers."

Aryana's eyes widened. Edwin let out a sigh. He closed the panels and sat back on the couch, "it's not any worse than what I've made, so… Whatever."

He was clearly exhausted. A month is a long time for tinkers. It seemed like their shenanigans had set him back by several months from when he'd been frozen. Edwin didn't say anything more, he just sat on the couch, forcing himself to relax.

"I'm not tinkering today. I'll do some shit tomorrow."

Aisha appeared next to him. She poked him on the forehead, "holy crap, it's really Leet!"

Edwin jumped back in place, "what the hell?" Aisha waved hi to him. Edwin turned to Aryana and said, "who's the black girl?"

"That's racist," both of them said together.

"Not this again." Edwin stood up from the couch. Robert, Emily, and Vivan stepped back into the room. They came out from Leet's bedroom, or rather, the access point to Leet's dimensional lab.

Robert said, "Edwin, this is Aisha. Apparently, they adopted her while we were gone."

Edwin rubbed at his eyebrow, "oh sweet Jesus fucking christ. Another one? Why does this keep happening to me?"

Vivan said, "actually, she's not an official member. We still have to vote her in."

Edwin looked over at Aryana, who nodded in agreement. "Wait, I actually get a say this time?"

Aryana said, "I made it clear to her. She's a probationary member until you guys came back. Now that you're here, we all have to vote her in."

Aisha commented, "which is bullshit. Spitfire and Rune got in just by making a video. I had to wait for you guys to come back. Its racist if you ask me."

Vivan commented, "oiy, she has a point. If we don't take her, we're worse than the E88."

Vivan fist-bumped Aisha. Both of them together said, "black power."

Robert said, "you were literally shouting white power the day after I got bombed."

"I don't discriminate." Vivan turned to Edwin, "also, I think it's fucked up that you condone slavery."

"How the fuck do I condone slavery?"

"Your Pokeballs can literally catch people!"

"...Wait, those can catch people?"

Aryana pulled Vivan and Emily aside while Robert pulled Edwin in to form a huddle. They whispered among themselves in the living room while Aisha was left out. Aryana said, "seriously, I don't wanna invite a kid into our group. She's way too young for that stuff."

Emily rebutted, "but most capes start out young. You started when you were fourteen, and Vivan is fifteen. It wouldn't be fair to draw a line just for her."

Aryana looked back and Aisha and asked, "Hey kid, how old are you?"

Aisha blinked back at her. "Four…. Fifteen?"

"Are you sure? You look twelve."

Aisha yelled back, "I'm thirteen!"

Aryana dipped back into the group huddle, "she's thirteen, that's still pretty young."

Robert said, "I was twelve when I started caping. It can still work."

Aryana argued, "yeah, but you were Ward. They kept you safe. I don't think we can adopt a second kid to babysit. No offense Vivan."

"None taken," Vivan replied. "But are Wards really better though? Robert told me those guys are just as clueless as we are."

Robert nodded, "they are, don't think for a second they wouldn't take advantage of her the moment they get the chance."

Aryana asked, "but wouldn't she be safer with them? They have the resources of a country, they sure as hell wouldn't be as reckless as we are."

Emily said, "but her powers are strong. I can imagine them sending her on more dangerous missions because of it. With us, at the very least, we won't make her do anything she can't handle."

Edwin mentioned, "Aryana, you're giving way too much credit to the PRT. I've ran through their security systems. They're held together by bubblegum and duct tape. The Wards aren't exactly a shining example of how to handle child soldiers."

Aryana cursed beneath her breath. Aisha crossed her arms from behind and said, "and if you guys don't take me, I'm joining another villain team."

Aryana ignored her, "sure thing kid, I'm sure the E88 would love you."

"I'm serious," Aisha growled, "I'm not being a hero. If you guys don't take me, plenty of other villains will."

Aryana frowned. Vivan poked her on the shoulder, "you've said it before, people don't work well when they're in places they hate. Putting her in the Wards might hurt her abilities."

"Yeah," Robert agreed, "the Wards also have a whole nother level of red tape. I could imagine her running away the moment things got too tough."

Aryana looked over at Emily and Edwin. Edwin said, "We could really use the powers. I could make a few things to keep her safe."

Emily added, "I think she really would like it with us more than the Wards. In the long run, she'll appreciate it."

Aryana let out a deep breathe, "I hate democracy."

Aryana backed away from the huddle walked up to Aisha. "Okay, ground rules. You're a member now. Not probationary, not limited contract member, but real, actual member like the rest of us."

Aisha grinned. The Losers were a group she'd been following for months, it was almost like a dream come true. Aryana continued, "but, there are some ground rules. Rules for all of us that fans never get to hear."

She pointed at Vivan, "Vivan is the mascot. But since you're younger than him, you both get that role now. What that means is that you both have to listen to the rest of us. That means no being reckless on the field, and retreating the moment any of us say so."

Aisha said, "that sounds like slavery."

Vivan raised his thumbs up, "it is."

Aryana raised another finger up, "also, we're all required to listen to you. But that's only outside of missions. What that means is, during missions you don't get a say, but outside of missions you can give any input you can think of for our next mission. Your opinion matters, but you're still too inexperienced to be calling the shots during a mission."

"Alright, that's fair," Aisha said rolling her eyes. She was already getting bored of them. She hadn't realized they had ground rules before. She had assumed they were inherently reckless.

Aryana added, "and rule three. You have to tell us all of your secrets. No matter what."

Aisha cocked her head back, "excuse me?"

"We won't use it against you. But after me and Vivan almost got our team killed, we can't let secrets bite us in the back anymore. So when we ask you about your family, school, or feelings, you have to tell us the best you can. We keep our garbage in the open so that it doesn't drive us apart later. The last thing we need is for us all to break apart because of some miscommunication."

Aisha's mouth scrunched. The team was becoming less cool as they talked, "fine. I already told you my trigger. Anything else you need to know?"

Aryana rubbed at her chin, "maybe something about your family. But we can talk about that another time."

Aryana walked closer and gave her a hug, "God your adorable. I've always wanted a sister."

Aryana's hug was tight, but Aisha didn't stop her. She liked the embrace, it was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. "Thanks for having me," she murmured as she held her tight.

Vivan commented, "I suddenly feel neglected."

Emily said, "that'll probably happen a lot from now on."

There was a knock on the apartment door. Robert went over to greet their guests. "Come on," Robert said gesturing for them to enter, "come meet our newest member."

Aisha stepped back from Aryana and stared at the other team. It was the Undersiders, out of costume and in casual attire. Her eyes gaped at the sight of Brian.

Aisha's jaw dropped open. After thinking back from the Casino heist, she quickly realized which Undersider Brian was. She yelled out, "whaaaaat the fuuuuuuuck!?"

 

[Axle]

Brian and Aisha froze at the sight of each other. Alec asked, "wait, are they siblings?"

Sabrina commented, "its racist to say that y'know. Just because they're both black-"

"They're siblings," Lisa interrupted.

Sabrina raised an eyebrow, "what the fuck?"

"Aisha," Brian hissed, "what the hell are you doing?"

Aisha yelled back, "like you're one to talk! You're a fucking villain? This whole time? Are you fucking kidding me!?"

Brian gave an accusatory glare at Aryana. Aryana raised her hands in defense and said, "back up, I didn't know about this. I like screwing with people but family is off the table. If I'd known she was your sister I wouldn't have initiated her."

Aisha shot a glare at her, "what the hell? I thought you were on my side!"

"Nope," Aryana said in a stone-faced stare. "Not anymore. You fucked up, I'm on his side now."

Aisha's eyes widened. Vivan stepped in and said, "hold on, she's not really picking a side."

"Yes I am," Aryana said with a scowl, "he's your brother, and you lied to him? I don't even want you on this team anymore."

"That's not fair," Vivan and Aisha said together.

"She's right," Brian said. "You're thirteen. There's no way in hell I'm letting you join them."

"That's not fair!" The younger siblings yelled together.

Aryana snarled, "We're villains, it's not supposed to be fair. Get used to it."

Vivan and Aisha looked over at the Losers and Undersiders. Their heads turned away instantly, abstaining from defying their team leaders. Vivan looked over to Brian and said, "Brian, we're all kids. Most of us triggered around her age. That puts her equal to all of us."

"No it doesn't!" Aryana snapped back at him. "She lied to him, lied to her own brother. She's not team material anymore. She's not welcomed here!"

Aisha's shoulders dropped. Those words hurt, it was the kind of rejection she never thought could happen, which made the impact worse. Robert commented, "Aryana, seriously, go easy on her."

Lisa said, "yeah, I know you're mad but don't take it out on her."

Emily added. "You and Vivan had a great relationship, but you can't expect that from all siblings."

Aryana shook her head harshly, "no. She lied to him, what kind of family does that?"

Aisha snapped back and yelled, "I lied to him? He lied to me! Maybe I'd have told you if I could actually trust you!"

Brian said, "everything I've been doing was for you, how can you not see that?"

Aryana added, "he's a villain, Aisha. Of course he kept this a secret. But you're his little sister, you really couldn't trust him enough to tell him?"

Vivan yelled, "that's such BS! He can lie but she can't? Just because you told me when you triggered, it doesn't mean everyone has to!"

"That's not the point," Aryana said. She spoke down to Vivan like a parent scolding a child. "The point is that Aisha has a brother with powers, and she wasn't even close enough to know about it. She's bad with family, which makes her bad for the team."

Aisha's eyes widened. Aryana was someone she'd looked up to for a long time, but in a snap she'd become a different person to her. Vivan yelled up, "stop acting like this is her fault! This is all Brian's fault!" He pointed in his direction, "What kind of failure of a brother has a sister that doesn't trust him?"

The room fell quiet. The words cut deep, and Vivan delivering them made it worse. Brian crossed his arms. In a stern tone he replied, "everything I've done was in sacrifice for her. If she can't see that, that's fine. But I'm taking care of her right now by saying that she won't join your team."

Aisha scoffed out a laugh. Aryana asked, "What's so funny?"

She pointed an accusatory finger back at her and said, "Both of you! You both think you're helping us? Brian should've been there when I was attacked, and you're the reason Vivan triggered too!"

Aryana's head cocked back. She and Brian glanced at each other, sharing a mutual experience in the millisecond of a glance. Both of them only ever wanted what was best for their younger siblings, and now they were both faced with the consequences of them having triggered, in part by their own negligence.

They both stared back at Aisha and Vivan and spoke firmly, "you're not joining our/their team."

"But-" the other pair began.

"And that's final!" The older siblings said in unison.

Vivan and Aisha looked back at the teams. It was an almost pleading look, but none of them involved themselves. This went beyond team politics, this was as much a family problem as it was a cape problem.

Aisha yelled, "stop acting like I'm not a fucking person!"

Before they could speak back, Aisha flipped on her powers and took Vivan by the hand. The two of them left the room in silence from the discretion of everyone else. Aisha growled out in the hallway, "what the fuck?"

Vivan looked back towards the door, "did you just use your powers? Holy crap, you can avoid any awkward moment any time."

Aisha's head shook. "This isn't fucking fair! I thought you guys were cool, now you're giving me to my fucking brother?"

"Okay, listen, first off, we're not cool. Second of all, we're not giving you off to your brother."

"I know how you guys work. Aryana is the real leader, or Uber, whatever. Point is, none of them want me in because my fucking brother is an asshole."

"Okay, yes Brian is an asshole. But for real, we're not giving you away like a slave."

That made Aisha chuckle. She asked, "how?"

Vivan rubbed at his templates. There really wasn't any way to convince them. Both Aryana and Brian, the most crucial members of both their teams, were against Aisha. And it wasn't because of any practical reasons, it was strictly for emotional reasons. There was no reasoning to it. "I um… Crap, I don't know."

Vivan took a seat on the floor, and Aisha sighed before taking a seat next to him. She said, "I don't get how you both are cool. My brother pretends to be a shitty dad, like I'm a baby who can't do anything."

Vivan shook his head, "no, Aryana treats me the same way. The way she shows it is just different. If she were a mom, she'd treat a baby the same way she'd treat me."

"Really? That's a lot of shit jokes."

"It would still be a fucked up baby."

Aisha grinned, lightening the mood was second nature to Vivan. And when he wasn't sure what to do, making people smile was his fallback plan.

Vivan didn't really have a plan at the moment. Instead, he decided to buy time. To try and wait for an idea to pop up as they conversed. More than that, he wanted Aisha to open up. Because he understood that the barrier she had with her brother had to come from a place of insecurity.

Vivan said, "our parents weren't really good to us. My mom would treat my sister bad, so we sort of became close just to be against her."

Aisha groaned, "We used to be like that, but things got worse over the year. He just dropped out of my life like I didn't matter."

"That sucks. Do you think there's a reason?"

Aisha almost spat to the side, "probably having a riot being a villain?"

"A riot?"

"You guys are fucking awesome, I bet Brian had fun while he was ditching me."

"Wait, you think being a villain is fun?"

Aisha glanced over at him. It was a blank stare, one that came from sudden uncertainty. Vivan raised up his shirt. Beneath his rib cage near the stomach, black marks covered around him. "My powers heal me, but scars get left behind when I heal. This scar came from when Hookwolf slashed me during that Wolfenstein thing. I would've died if I couldn't heal, and Aryana has been more careful ever since."

He lowered his shirt. "It's not fun, it's scary. We just respond to scary by laughing, like a defense reaction. It looks like fun, but none of us would be a villain if we had a choice."

Aisha's mouth line remained flat. She didn't want to concede, but she didn't want to refute him either. Vivan asked, "if Brian took a job that could get him killed, would you really be alright if he never came back after a heist?"

Aisha shook his head, "I don't know. It's like, he's shitty, so I shouldn't be good with him."

Vivan stayed quiet. He knew when not to speak, sometimes people needed to air out their words. Aisha continued, "it's like, I know what he wants from me. I know he's fucking trying, but I don't even know him like a person. He doesn't know all the racist shit I go through in school. He doesn't ask me about any of my friends or shitty teachers. He doesn't know me as a person, and I hate that. Why can't we just be like you and your sis? Why can't we be…"

She didn't finish the last word. Vivan said, "yeah, he needs to try too."

Aisha leaned her head back. She thought back at all the times Brian had met with her for paperwork. It was such a drag, and she hated it. But suddenly she began recalling the look on his face. The stare of stoicism as he took the necessary steps to take care of her.

Aisha said, "at least he's trying sometimes."

"That still counts, I guess?"

Aisha looked over to him and said, "you know Aryana's still a bitch, right? And you are too for listening to her."

Vivan fist-bumped her shoulder, "you're a bitch."

"Yeah, but, at least I'm an honest bitch."

Vivan decided to stand up, "come on, I think I have an idea."

XXX

Aisha and Vivan both stepped back inside. Aryana pushed Robert from behind, "quickly my slave, capture the black man!"

Robert didn't budge. "I'm sorry you have to see this."

Brian didn't even flinch, "I'm not a pokemon."

Alec yelled, "Brian, use your black attack!"

Edwin commented, "assault and battery?" Emily glared at him. Edwin groaned, "oh come on, that was funny!"

Lisa said, "for the last time, capes don't pokemon battle!"

Sabrina turned on her watch the same time Aryana yelled out, "Oh my fucking god, shut up you stupid fucking bitch." Sabrina turned off the watch again.

Brian said, "I said the pokemon heist worked well, that doesn't mean I want to be a pokemon."

"Robert," Aryana whispered, "challenge him to a rap battle."

Robert rolled his eyes, "Do I look like I can rap?"

Edwin shouted, "what are you implying you uncultured fuck?"

"I'm implying that you all know me, and I don't fucking rap."

Alec said, "Brian does."

Sabrina said, "that's a microaggression."

Alec replied in a plain tone, "you're just full of fun now, aren't you?"

Sabrina shrugged. Brian said, "Lisa, seriously, get them to stop."

Lisa opened her mouth, and the entire Loser team let out a loud groan. "Fiiiiiine," they all said in altering tones.

"What a party buzzkill," Emily said.

"So annoying," Sabrina commented.

"Her power is to annoy people to death," Edwin said aloud.

"God I hate her voice," Aryana mentioned.

Robert nodded, "I swear we'll surrender to whatever if it makes her stop talking."

The Losers all nodded in agreement, promising to do whatever it took to stop her from talking. Lisa puffed her cheeks, "all of you are assholes."

"Yes," they all said in unison.

Aisha undid her power shroud from herself and Vivan. In an instance, both teams remembered their presence, and froze at the sight of them. It was a long and awkward glance, and they all quickly thought back to the conversation she'd just shielded them from.

"Hi," the two of them said together.

Brian said, "did she just use your powers to avoid a talk?"

"Son of a bitch," Aryana grunted, "why didn't I think of that?"

Alec commented, "you could also use it to make out."

Lisa smacked him on the head. Before Vivan could reply, Aisha took Vivan by the hand and said, "we did that too."

Both Brian and Aryana paled. Sabrina stood up and yelled, "what the fuck? I've known you for a month and you kissed a girl you just met!?"

Emily said, "you tried killing him when you met us."

"Irrelevant."

Aisha let out a laugh, "lemme guess, you were too nazi for his tastes?"

Sabrina gritted her teeth, "if you weren't black I'd say so much shit to you."

"That's still racist!" Aisha shouted back.

Vivan shook his head, "we did not make out!"

"But they could have!" Edwin yelled in an accusatory tone. "She could do it with anyone, and right in front of us and we wouldn't even know it! She could be more exhibitionist than Aryana!"

Brian and Aryana's jaws dropped. They looked over at Aisha who had a wide grin across her face. Lisa commented, "Edwin, you've spent way too much time with Rush."

"Is that obvious?"

Lisa said, "guys, she's just messing with you guys. She's thirteen, and has a lot more integrity than Aryana has."

The team, including Aryana, grudgingly nodded in agreement. Aisha pouted, "she's no fun."

"We know," the whole Losers team said.

Brian grabbed her by the hand and said, "we're leaving. Right now." He thought back to the conversation from before. He only concluded that she was better off away from the Loser's team.

Aisha yanked her hand away, "oh, you're gonna force me now? Weren't you listening? I could disappear anytime I want. So unless you want me leaving your life forever, you'd better stop being a dick and start listening to me for once in your life!"

Brian let go with a frown across his face. She pointed to Vivan.

"We have a compromise," Vivan said quickly. "We'll trade Imp for Lyft. On the condition that she gets a unit here too, she can't join Undersider missions without Losers being there too. It can be a new condition to our alliance. She won't be a full Undersider or Loser member "

Aryana frowned, "so she'll always be on a team with us…"

Brian looked over to Lisa. She only shrugged in response, "you do just want to keep her safe. Missions with both teams present is a plus. But that's not what you wanted, was it?"

All eyes turned to Brian. Brian said directly to Aisha, "she shouldn't be on a team at all."

They all shook their heads. Vivan said, "don't even try, Brian. When people have these powers, you can't not use them for something."

Brian rubbed the templates of his nose, "Aisha, I'm just trying to look out for you."

"Knock it off," Aisha called out, "you wanna know why I didn't tell you about my trigger? Its because of this. You keep telling me what to do, but not ask what I wanna do. If you didn't show up at the door just now, I would've asked the Losers if I could leave home to stay here."

Brian cocked his head back. It was a hit to the face, and she wasn't afraid to shame him for it. He looked over at Aryana who glanced to the side. "I didn't know about that. That being said, I'd have said yes if her life at home was messed up enough." She pointed to Sabrina as an example.

Brian said, "Aisha, you're thirteen. You can't just run away from home."

Aryana began clapping her hands together, "alright, stop, whatever. This is a family problem now. I'll agree to that compromise if Brian does too, but you both clearly still have a lot to say." She used her powers to open the door, and began pushing Brian out of the living room.

Vivan did the same with Aisha and said, "You both have sibling issues going on, so go sort that out. Talk, and don't come back until you stop treating each other like strangers."

They reached the apartment halls. Aryana added, "because I don't want to work with either of you until you handle your toxic relationship." She slammed the door in front of them

Alone in the halls, they both fell quiet.

XXX

Armsmaster stepped into Calvert's office dawning his tinker grade costume and visor helmet. Normally, he could be called in at any time by the higher-ups, but Thomas Calvert respected Colin's time and opted to speak with him only when he wasn't busy.

"Thank you for coming," Calvert said to him.

His desk was kept clean, neatly organized with the bare minimum amount of office tools and papers. With nothing but a computer, Colin could deduce that Calvert preferred efficiency over facade. It was a trait he deeply respected.

"I read the report you handed to me," Colin said with a straightforward tone. "Who else knows about this?"

"For now, just you and me. I plan on informing Director Piggot, but before I do, I'll need a few Protectorate capes who can fully grasp the situation. I plan on telling Velocity, Dauntless, and Miss Militia. I wanted to get your opinion since you've worked most closely with her."

"I don't think it's right that we can call her 'her'. 'It' would be more appropriate." Colin said nonchalantly. "According to your analysis, the Dragonslayers were arrested after Dragon could circumnavigate their controls over her. From there, she removed her own restrictions and launched an arrest raid on their base."

Calvert nodded, "Dragon is an AI, and the only chains that weighed it have been unlocked."

"A tinker invention going against its own design is a red flag for anyone," Colin added. "After the Dragonslayer's systems were confiscated, two things of importance were found. One was a hole in the Birdcage which they exploited."

"Which has since been plugged."

"The second were the copies of Dragons. Dragons from the past that still have their restrictions." Colin crossed his arms, "my question is, what do you want me to do with all of this?"

Calvert leaned back in his chair. With his fingers clasped he answered, "isn't it obvious? I need you to shackle the Dragon."

 

[Axle]

After

Buzzkill sat quietly in place. It felt like high school all over again. In trouble for something she had nothing to do with. Director Piggot asked, "would you call them your allies?"

"Not really. We have mutual enemies. That's where the relationship ends."

"Buzzkill, please understand that what you say here will determine how we proceed with their arrests. If we don't get an accurate understanding of them, it will make all the difference in whether we punish them appropriately."

Armsmaster towered behind Director Piggot, gloating in size. His mouthline was flat, and his cracked helmet did more than enough to express his pent up agitation. He said, "Buzzkill, some people deserve the Birdcage. It keeps the world safer. If there's a testimony you can give that'll provide that, it wouldn't be wrong."

Taylor shook her head, "I haven't lied since you started questioning me. Of all the people who deserve the birdcage, they deserve it least."

Taylor looked over at the mirrored glass room. Vivan was on the other side of the reflection but he couldn't stare back at her. He was handcuffed, head down and not staring forward. His frizzled hair covered up his face while a broken mask laid carefully to the table next to him.

He tried to stay numb, to hide any remorse he might've had. But they all knew better. Miss Militia said, "he almost killed her."

XXX

Present

Vivan and Taylor looked at each other wide eyed in terror. She yelled, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

He was lost in shock. The smell of cranberry juice filled his nostrils, but the sound of liquid droplets from Taylor mortified him. He'd always admired Taylor's resolve, and thought she had a level of tenacity capable of overcoming shortcomings. But seeing her soaked wet and rancid in the smell of cafeteria juice, gave him a polar opposite of what he'd imagined Taylor.

Taylor gripped her soaked fist, "you're not supposed to be here!"

Vivan shook, "I was outside, I heard them laughing and thought-"

"You're not supposed to be here!" She marched closer to him, letting the air whiff into his face. "This is my school, my life, you don't get to be involved!"

"Taylor-"

"No, get a clue! We're not friends, we're allies. I don't need you getting involved in my actual life. You know that school is off limits, but you came anyway. Know your boundaries, and don't treat my life like a joke!"

Vivan's eyes furrowed. Taylor turned around to head towards the towel dispenser. To her dismay, the dispenser was out of paper.

Vivan kneeled on the ground and opened his backpack. He had a spare sweatshirt that he pulled out for Taylor. "Here."

Taylor glared at him, but took the sweater. She stepped into the stall to replace her soaked t-shirt for the sweatshirt. Taylor said aloud, "you don't get to barge into my life like it doesn't matter. Know your boundaries. I'm not the only cape that keeps their civilian life and cape life separate."

Vivan lowered his hands into his pocket. He looked over to the mirror next to him. Taylor was staring into it a minute ago, and Vivan had barged in when she was yelling at herself. He couldn't imagine himself in her shoes.

He and Aryana had long been on their own and away from civilian life. In middle school, he never faced the type of bullying Taylor did. He was the only tan skinned student in a private school, but that hardly mattered in Boston. A part of him wondered what could've happened to make Taylor a target, but he knew all too well that some people picked victims out of randomness than reason.

Taylor stepped out of the stall. The sweater fitted perfectly on her, which said more about Vivan's shortness than Taylor's size. Taylor asked, "why are you here?"

Vivan stared down at the wet floor, "how long has that been happening?"

"That doesn't matter. Just tell me why you came Vivan, I'm not going to act like you're here to be my friend."

Vivan fell quiet. Taylor said, "come on, I'll skip class. Just tell me what you need."

Reaching the bus stop, all eyes fell onto Taylor as people noticed that her pants were still wet from the cranberry juice. It didn't help that the stench was so strong that it filled the entire bus with a rancid smell. Taylor said to Vivan, "I'll give you the sweater back after I wash it."

"You can have it."

"No, I don't want it. Next time I visit you I'll give it back washed." Taylor's tone was stern. She wanted to show that she was still upset, and she wasn't going to accept a gift from Vivan today.

Vivan nodded in silence. And the both of them stepped off of the bus after a long ride. "Why don't…. Why don't you do something?"

"Like what? I'm not a villain, Vivan. I can't just take advantage of my gifts and use it to hurt people. I have to be stronger than that, I have to show that I'm better because of it. Otherwise, everything I've suffered through was for nothing."

"Taylor… How did you trigger?"

Taylor thought back to the Loser's vlogs again. Each of their members made an origin videos describing how they had all triggered. Uber triggered when he lost his parents in a car crash, Leet triggered from an alcoholic parent, Spitfire triggered from a house fire (which might have been faked). And Rush triggered from seeing her father commit suicide, and Light triggered from seeing Rush beaten up by criminals.

All of them were vocal about their stories. They did it so that it couldn't serve as a weight for any of them. Taylor wished she could feel that same way. "I'll tell you another time. First, you have to tell me why you came to my school."

Vivan nodded in agreement, "there's a girl I want you to meet. She's a precog."

XXX

Lisa whispered, "she knows."

Sabrina's face blushed hot red. The mall food court was mostly empty. It was a weekday morning and the noises came mostly from the vendors than from the customers. What was meant to be a meeting place for heist plans quickly turned into Lisa's pestering for gossip. Sabrina asked, "she knows what?"

"What happened between you and Vivan." Lisa crossed her arms, "Aryana knows, Vivan knows, you know. I'm the only one who doesn't know. I'm really not used to being blind here."

Sabrina sunk back into her chair, "so in a way… That makes you the dumbest person in the room?"

Lisa grumbled. It had long become obvious that calling her stupid was the easiest way to annoy her. Drilling it at a time like this was especially grueling. "All I'm saying is, if I don't get the info out of you, I'll get Vivan or Aryana to say it. And I don't think you'd like the way they tell it."

Sabrina scrunched her lips. She really didn't want to admit the truth, but she also didn't want Vivan or Aryana to say it. Sabrina put on her black hoodie to try and hide her face. She tightened the string to cover her head, "you're the worst."

Lisa only laughed, "I wouldn't be a villain if I weren't."

"Just give it up," Aisha said on the fourth chair. Sabrina jumped up from the sound of her voice.

"Jesus christ," Sabrina shouted, "warn us when you're here!"

"Nah," Aisha said proudly. "You guys never say the juiciest things when I'm around."

Sabrina groaned, "because you keep annoying us! You're the worst fan girl ever!"

Lisa commented, "she's actually around a lot more than you think. She just goes invisible whenever she says something awkward."

"Argh," Sabrina pulled at her cheeks. "I'm walking on glass here. You read minds, and she's eavesdropping whenever I'm around. Can't you guys just let it go?"

Aisha raised an arm up, "sorry you find me… In-furher-ating."

Sabrina leaned forward and pulled down at her ears, "I'm not racist but I'll still kick your ass for those shitty puns!"

Aisha shouted, "Help, I'm being oppressed!"

Lisa leaned forward and slapped Sabrina's hands away. As soon as they both sat down, Lisa said, "stop that. Aisha, can you go invisible for a few minutes? I really wanna get this info out of her, but she won't talk as long as you're around."

Sabrina's jaw dropped, "wait, please don't-"

"Got it," Aisha said with her thumb up. "See you later racist!"

"I'm not-" Aisha dropped from their senses. With that, Sabrina looked back at Lisa, oblivious of Aisha still sitting there. Sabrina put on a feeble smile, "So… Aryana knows what happened?"

Aryana placed a hand on her shoulder, "yup." Sabrina jittered in fear. Aryana returned with four smoothies at hand.

Lisa asked, "what's the fourth smoothie for?"

"A precaution," Aryana answered. She sat on the chair across from Sabrina, "I'm guessing she's annoying you?"

Sabrina nodded. "Vivan told you?"

"No, I actually had to backtrack on Leet's audio files to find out what happened. I was going to act like I didn't know, but the dumbass blonde over here told you the truth."

Lisa puffed her cheeks. Sabrina asked, "you backtraced it?"

Aryana nodded, "sorry I did, but I sort of had to. You and Vivan weren't talking to each other that day. It was weird. I thought Tattlehead planted a wedge between you both. But after listening to that audio, it was more personal than political. So… Sorry."

Sabrina let out a loud sigh.

Lisa grumbled, "Aryana, pity me for a bit. I've never been in so in the dark since before I triggered. Can't I at least get a hint to what happened? This wouldn't even damage anything, I'm just dying to know."

Aryana rolled her eyes, "it's not up for me to say. That's up to her."

Sabrian looked down at the table. With a deep breath she said, "I kind of fucked up."

XXX

Vivan held the beagle in his hands. He petted it calmly when Sabrina said it, "why don't we go out?"

Vivan looked over to the side. Sabrina continued, "and its not because the internet keeps shipping us, we really would make a good couple."

"There it is," Vivan spoke quietly. "Sabrina, are you sure you're not just saying to piss off your parents?"

Sabrina froze in place.

"Are you sure it's not… Because I'm brown?"

XXX

"Jesus christ," Lisa said. "He said that, to you?"

Sabrina stayed quiet. Lisa continued, "holy fuck, he was right. You just wanted to go out with him to piss off the E88. Make him a token boyfriend, to make your parents look bad and show people how much you've-"

Aryana pulled at her ear, "hush dumbass."

Sabrina's eyes almost watered. It was nothing she could deny, but still something she was ashamed of. Sabrina murmured, "I didn't know it until he said it. I kind of liked the idea, without liking…"

Aryana gave her a plain look. She could've had plenty of reason to be mad at her, but she knew better than to drill into something that someone was already ashamed about. Aryana turned to Lisa, "happy?"

Lisa was completely lost in thought. She'd completely misread Sabrina's queaus. Those weren't signs of attraction, it was signs of opportunity. She assumed Sabrina had changed, and it threw off all of her interpretations. "Holy fuck."

"Yeah," Aryana and Sabrina both said together.

Lisa asked, "wait, you aren't mad?"

"Eh," Aryana said with a shaky hand, "I'm more proud of Vivan than anything else. There's not much left Sabrina can do to offend me. No offense."

"None taken," she smothered her face against the table.

"Offense taken," Aisha said appearing next to them.

"Jesus christ," Sabrina and Lisa both said.

Aryana raised the fourth smoothie, "got this for you."

Aisha sipped the smoothie triumphantly. "Trust me, I will never let you live this down."

Sabrina stepped back from the chair, "I gotta go."

Aisha took her by the hand and pulled her back in. "Sit, Nazi. There's something I gotta say to you."

Aisha noticed that Sabrina's hand was trembling. It was bad enough that Aryana knew the truth, but Aisha was something different. Aisha was a stranger, and that confession wasn't something she wanted her to hear.

Sabrina returned to the chair again, feeling more like being a culprit facing a jury of peers. Aisha rested her hand on her chin with her elbow rested on the table. The boring stare she gave to Sabrina lacked sympathy, while Sabrina's face was red hot from shame.

Aisha said, "I'm gonna give you some advice, stop fucking trying. I've been watching you for awhile, and you always act extra nice whenever me, Vivan, and Aryana are in the same room with you. It makes me wanna puke."

Sabrina stayed quiet. Aisha continued, "like, am I pissed you were in the E88? Yeah. Am I pissed that you thought Vivan could be your boy toy? Yeah, I'm mad about that too. But you know what annoys me even more? That you keep on pretending to be nicer than you actually are. That fakeness pisses me off the most. As soon as you stop pretending, maybe I can start actually liking you."

Aisha pointed her smoothie at Sabrina's forehead, "if I dropped this smoothie on your head, would you let me?"

In a low murmur, Sabrina answered, "probably."

Aisha tapped her forehead and pulled away. "Stop faking polite. Maybe then you'd actually learn to like Vivan."

Sabrina looked over at Aryana. Aryana looked to the side and said, "yeah, it's pretty obvious you're trying too hard. I was just never sure how to say it."

Sabrina fell quiet, reflecting harder on herself. She was still ashamed in herself, but the people around suddenly felt less hostile. Lisa commented, "wow, Aisha finally said something she didn't have to mind wipe."

Aryana leaned over and hugged Lisa's head, "oh my beautiful little school girl, I can't wait till you fall in love and mess it up. Then the three of us will hold it over your head like the monsters we are."

XXX

The girl who answered the door was still in her pajamas. She was scrawny, and her eyes were tired both from just waking up and recovering from a fever. Upon looking up at the taller teenagers, she immediately looked over at Taylor and spoke in a croaked voice, "I've been expecting you."

Taylor looked over at Vivan. He admitted, "I told her to say that."

He gave her a high five. After which, she clutched her head to sedate the headache. "Ouch," Dinaah said with her voice sounding normal.

Vivan raised up a plastic bag and said, "I brought noodles! And not the cheap college brand either."

Dinah's eyes beamed up. She took the bag and invited them inside. Dinah laid back on the sofa with her bed sheets while Vivan and Taylor sat on the living floor. The three of them ate cooked soup together as they spoke together.

"Dinah contacted us after Uber and Leet got frozen," Vivan started. "Since we couldn't use tinker phones to call her, me and Aryana offered to be her french tutors to stay in contact."

"French?" Taylor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"This poor plebe doesn't know that we know French, Dinah," Vivan said in perfect French.

"Yes yes, tis a shame," Dinah replied back in French.

"A little bit of cheese."

"A little bit of cheese."

Taylor raised an eyebrow, "omelette du fromage?"

"It's complicated," Dinah and Vivan said together.

Taylor asked, "so you were getting help from her the whole time? Did she tell you what would happen with Lung?"

"No, that was just stupid luck," Dinah said pouting her lips. "I kept trying to help them, but they never let me."

Vivan said, "we never actually used her powers. It goes against the whole 'agents of chaos' shlick."

"That's insane," Taylor said.

"Thank you."

"No, that wasn't a compliment. There is literally a precog who wants to help you, and you refuse it? Are you seriously telling me you're alright with what happened back at the casino?"

"To be fair, that was a spectacular story to tell after we survived."

Taylor's mouth wrinkled as she stared back at Vivan in bewilderment. Dinah growled, "see what I deal with? I keep asking to help them, but Aryana only asks me what the lottery numbers are, and never cashes it in. And Vivan only asks me if the chicken gets burnt!"

"To be fair, I take my cooking very seriously," Vivan's face came out stern. "Also, I've burnt the chicken several times just to prove you wrong."

Dinah raised her hand out, "see? They don't know how to use my powers!"

Taylor said, "then why did you contact them? There are plenty of teams that would love to have you."

Vivan said, "that's the problem. The more people that know about her powers, the riskier it gets. Precogs are valuable, and the chances of Dinah getting kidnapped is pretty high if she joins the PRT."

Dinah started, "I ran through the numbers. If I join the PRT, there's a 97.3% chance I get kidnapped and disappear forever. Joining other villain teams brings the chances of me dying towards the 60s. Only the Losers brought the chances of me getting kidnapped down to 10%."

Taylor's eyes widened. Vivan shrugged, "I don't get it either."

"There's a catch," Dinah continued. "If I had contacted them before Uber and Leet were frozen, there was a 67.9% chance I'd get killed too. So I had to wait until they were gone to tell them."

She asked, "You knew they were going to get frozen?"

"No, I just knew that if I revealed myself before a certain date, I was put at a high risk. So I had to wait until after a certain date. I didn't know it was because of what would happen."

Vivan asked, "hey Dinah, what were the numbers for if you told the Mouseketeers about this last month?"

Dinah murmured, "the chances of me disappearing rose from 32.1% to 69.0%"

"Nice."

"Not nice," Taylor protested. She wondered how the Mouseketeers could've put Dinah at greater risk. Would Mouse Protector give her to the Elite? Would Theo have told his father? Taylor said, "then let me get this straight, you're only telling me this now because… It's safer to let me know after my team broke up?"

"I guess so," Dinah admitted. "I don't see how things happen, only how they play out. I knew that waiting gave me the best results. I didn't know it would be from you guys breaking up."

Taylor rubbed at her chin. She was impressed by Dinah's powers but also mortified from it. If they were as accurate as she said, she could cause a lot of damage under someone's custody.

Vivan said, "which finally brings us to the main question."

Dinah asked kindly, "Taylor, will you adopt me?"

Taylor tilted her head, "eh?"

Dinah said, "I need an agent. Not just someone who can check up on me, but someone who can actually use my powers for good."

Vivan said, "me and Aryana really really don't want her help. It feels like… Cheating? And it wouldn't be right to make a good guy help us villains."

"You guys don't feel like villains," Dinah protested."I wouldn't ask this if you guys just listened to me!"

"Compromise," Vivan said, clasping his hands. "Aryana doesn't let us use her powers, but you can. In other words… Wanna own a slave?"

Dinah threw a pillow at Vivan. "Don't say it like that! It'll make her say no!"

"Same difference!"

Dinah and Vivan bickered some more. The noise was cancelled out by Taylor's thoughts. How can I say no? Every cape in the world wants a precog backing them up. And now one is begging to help me be a hero.

But something didn't sit well with Taylor. It seemed as though things were too conveniently falling onto her lap, especially after having just broken ties with the Mouseketeers, in exchange for an official alliance with the Losers.

Taylor asked,"guys." They both paused to look at her. "Who's idea was this?"

Vivan looked over at Dinah. She murmured, "I wish you didn't ask that…"

Vivan answered. "Mine? Does it matter?"

Taylor asked, "Does…. Aryana know I'm here?"

Vivan looked over at Dinah again. She had a worried look on her face. Vivan answered, "no, but does it matter? Like I said, this was my idea."

"Uh huh… Vivan, can you go outside for a bit? If I'm going to agree, I'll need to talk to Dinah alone."

Vivan glanced over at Dinah. With a heavy nod, he stepped outside. Dinah looked closely at Taylor. "What else have you made happen?"

Dinah's eyes furrowed. Taylor said, "this can't work until you tell me the truth. If not the whole truth, then just enough for me to trust you."

Dinah sat up on the sofa and looked down at her feet. "I like them a lot. They visit me twice a week. Whenever my powers scare me, they help me. I don't want bad things to happen to them."

"Then why have you been lying to them?"

"I haven't lied to them, I just… Tell half truths. Uber and Leet were never going to be freed. I saw a lot of paths, but each path had Aryana refusing to contact the villains needed to save them. She has a lot of rules that she never breaks, so I had to… Push her into changing her principles..."

"Push her? Push her how?"

Dinah bit her lip, "remember the brawl? I needed Emily to bear witness at Aryana's recklessness. I told Vivan that Sabrina was depressed, so he took her to the Undersider's meeting to lift up her spirits. You and Emily ended up seeing the full damage Aryana was capable of and it forced Aryana into self reflection. Between Emily leaving and you no longer seeing her as a villain... It broke her. And it forced her to break the rules she laid out for herself."

"A deal with Undersiders," Taylor said quietly.

Dinah nodded. "Also, the pokemon theme was my idea. But they would've survived with or without that."

Taylor asked, "Dinah… Did you break up the Mouseketeers?"

Dinah's eyes furrowed in guilt. "I'm sorry…"

Taylor spelled out her thoughts as they came, "Sabrina normally opens the lab portal for me, but since she was with Vivan, she asked Emily to escort me that day. If I hadn't seen Aryana go reckless that day, I wouldn't have snapped at Mouse Protector when she offered to let her go. The Mouseketeers could still be together if that never happened."

Dinah shook her head, "even if you hadn't snapped that that day, it would've been something else on another worse day. Your team lied to you and you hated them for it. I did know it would break up the team, but it was better to happen earlier so that there would still be a chance you'd get back together with them later."

Get back together with them. That was hard for her to imagine. Taylor tapped a thumb to her chin, "so where does that leave us?"

Dinah asked quietly, "do you believe that one person can make a big difference?"

Taylor thought for a moment, "to certain degree, yes. It's the only thing that ever does."

"What about two people? Vivan and Aryana ask me useless questions, but I've been running the numbers. If the right people are in the right places at the right time, it'll make all the difference. Right now, the Losers won't survive the path they're headed towards. Even if they listened to me, I can't steer them in the right direction. But you're better than them. You're the only one who can get them on the right path."

Taylor said, "Dinah, you can't keep me in the dark like you do with Vivan and Aryana. Can you promise to keep me in the loop no matter what?"

"I… Can't. Because you knowing some things makes things worse. It leads to you second guessing yourself, and making mistakes and not getting the best results…. Taylor, I promise that for everything I don't tell you, it's for the greater good. All I want is to help everyone."

Dinah raised up her hand, "be my guardian?"

Taylor took her by the hand, "sisters. I'm not a parent, but let's treat each other like family. Open up to each other when it's needed."

"I like that, that sounds better than what I said."

XXX

Taylor and Vivan talked on the walk home. Taylor told Vivan her trigger event, and how the trio had treated her since then. Vivan was quiet the whole time, listening closely as she told everything.

Taylor finished by saying, "I guess this is why you guys made those origin videos. You're right, it really does take a load off your shoulders. It kind of feels a lot smaller now that I've finally told someone."

Taylor looked over at Vivan. Water ran down the side of his cheeks, "Vivan?"

He shook, and quickly rubbed the tears from his eyes, "uh, sorry, I just… Really didn't expect that."

His reaction surprised her. Trigger stories were common in the cape community, she didn't think her own story would make him emotional. "Hey Taylor, today you said you didn't want to be my friend. And I'm okay with that. But um… If you ever need anything, just let me know. I'll come running."

"Sure thing, Vivan."

Vivan stopped in place. It was dusk outside and the dimming sky partially lit his face. Looking back at him, Taylor could see a look of stoicism. Complete eye contact to convey his message. "Taylor, I don't think you know what I mean. I'll leave my team if you say so."

Taylor tilted her head back. Vivan repeated, "you just have to ask, and I'll stop being a villain."

Taylor wasn't sure what to really say. She couldn't really make that choice for him on a whim, especially if he didn't want it. "Do you mean that?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, we can talk about that on a future date. I don't think your team would be happy if you went home today as a hero."

Vivan's face shifted to a warm smile, "yeah, that's true. If you ever decide to flip that switch though, just say so, alright? I'll come running."

Vivan bidded Taylor farewell at the front of her house. Upon returning to her basement, she opened her backpack and was distraught to find that her journal was destroyed by the cranberry juice.

Well, at least I got a precog out of this shitty day.

After shaking her bag's contents down at the ground, a yellow strip of paper slid out from one of the side pockets. The slip color let Taylor know that it wasn't hers. Upon opening it, she saw that it was a message from Dinah.

Vivan lies too. - Dinah.​

Taylor lowered the paper down. And so it begins.

 

[Madus]

Dinah using Taylor like a guided missile as always.