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Mel stopped posing and grinned. The women sighed again. “Why didn’t you say so? Ladies, give us some privacy. Go back to what you were doing.”

He waved a dismissive hand. The women moved away in a zombie-like daze.

“It’s a short conversation,” Joan said. “We’re not interested. Leave us out of whatever you’re planning.”

Melvin crossed his arms. “Breeze must not have explained things the right way.”

“No, he explained it. You want to lord over the city and then take the show on the road.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s not our style. We’re not interested.”

“Now, Spark…”

She took a step back, signaling this was over. “We’ve never had grand plans of domination. We don’t want that kind of attention. We like being in the shadows.”

“We shouldn’t have to be in the shadows,” Melvin said. “Look what we can do. What we can get if we work together.”

He gestured around the gym. It was like a scene out of a horror movie with all the people exercising at a steady, monotonous rhythm.

Wrinkling her nose, Joan said, “Yeah, no. This is disturbing. Taking away free will isn’t cool.”

She turned to go. Mel hastened to get in front of her. “Stealing isn’t cool, but you do it all the time. Breeze has taken chunks out of half the buildings in the city. That’s not cool. We work with the skills we have.”

Joan kept walking. “I don’t have to justify our decision. Just wanted it to be clear.”

“But you haven’t heard about my magnificent plan!” Melvin cried, falling in step beside her.

“Not interested.”

His nostrils flared, which meant a tantrum was coming. “This is all your fault. All your idea.”

Joan sighed and told him, “It’s all three of us. Get Hide and Volt to do your dirty work.”

“You’ll reconsider when you hear about my plan.”

She paused her stride long enough to guess, “First you take over Vector City, then you mind control your way into taking over the other big cities. Even though you’ll have to get through all their Supersandtheir Villains, which is honestly ridiculous.”

“That’s where Spark and Ice and Breeze come in.” Melvin gave his dorky grin.

“We’re gonna be wherever we want because we won’t be the most wanted Supervillains in the world. It’s ludicrous and unsafe, and we want no part of it.”

“You’re just having the jitters.”

“I don’t get the jitters.” God, talking to him was like reasoning with a six-year-old.

“Urgh, damn it, Spark!” Melvin growled.

Three of the women shook their heads. Mel was too distracted to direct his power. They comprehended that Supervillains were standing right by them and screamed in fright. The rest of the women came to, shrieking and running in all directions to get away.

Melvin waved his hands and said, “Look what you did!”

“This is because of you, numb-nuts.” Joan ducked as the blonde flailed her arms.

“Don’t hurt us!” she begged. “Please! I have a child!”

She was screeching so loudly, Joan covered one ear. “I’m not gonna hurt you. Stop screaming.”