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Joan pointed at Catch. “Fuck you, Darlene. She’s a harmless norm who’s in danger.”

“Anyone who consorts with the likes of you has no integrity.”

“Look.” She pulled her phone from her jeans pocket and brought up the photo from Melvin.

Darlene was only marginally interested. Zee took a look, thin eyebrows drawing close in concern. “Who is that?” they asked.

“Her name is Sadie Eagan. She works at a coffee shop. We’re… She’s my neighbor.”

“They’re more than neighbors,” Mark said, “but it’s a bit complicated at the moment.”

“She’s a good person who doesn’t deserve any of this.” Joan held the phone out for Otis and Kade. “We have to save her.”

Otis eyed her warily. “If we allow you to work with us, what will you give us in return?”

Joan shared aWhat the fuck?look with Mark. “If we worktogether, we take down Trick, Hide and Volt for good,” she said.

“You have our word we’ll put aside our differences,” Mark said.

Darlene snorted. “What good is the word of a Villain?”

Joan turned to Zee. They’d already had this argument. The only way forward was to trust each other.

“I’m not comfortable working with those two,” Darlene continued.

“Let’s hear them out,” Zee said.

“We believe injustice.” She punctuated the word with a fist to her opposite palm. “We stand forjustice.” She did the fist hammer again. “If we let them go,justicewill not prevail.”

“Oh my god,” Joan groaned. “I can’t believe Sadie thought I was you.”

Darlene’s face scrunched in confusion. “What?”

“Who’s Sadie?” Kade said.

“Your mom,” Mark and Joan chorused.

Otis floated in front of them. “We can work together to defeat a common enemy. But you have to give us something in exchange for?—”

“Mark and I are out,” Joan said. “We’re done with villainy. We’re retiring.”

Darlene snorted again. “You can’t just retire. You belong in prison.”

“If we help you, we walk away. For good.”

“No.”

“Then we can continue making your lives a living hell,” Mark said. “Orwe can go live quiet, normal lives and give you three fewer bad guys to keep track of.”

“Breeze is in for this as well?” Otis made a big deal out of looking around the room. “I don’t see him here.”

“Sure, yeah, of course he’s in.” Mark waved a hand like that was guaranteed.

“He’s doing stuff back at our HQ,” Joan said.

Otis made a face, and Darlene was winding up to rebuff everything, and Kade was probably still trying to figure out who Sadie was. Damn it, they were wasting time.

“This is what we always wanted,” Joan told them. “The life we could’ve had if you’d given us a little support back in the day. Do your jobs and give us that fucking support now.”