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“All right,” she said. “We try to trick them into leaving town. If it works, you back off. Stop with the check-ins. Let us live our lives in peace.”

Mark scrunched an eyebrow at her. Then he nodded in understanding. This was the only way forward.

“We need our suits,” he said. “To make it more official.”

“And to shield ourselves,” Joan added.

“Yeah. We’ll need protection in case this goes south, which I’m a hundred percent certain it will. These guys aren’t fools. They won’t fall for it.”

Otis finally turned away from Perry. “Then brush up on your acting skills. Ward?”

The eager sidekick stepped forward, tablet in hand.

“Get the three containers from the—” Otis directed this at the former Villains “— very secure storage room with Breeze, Spark and Ice’s confiscated gear.”

“Confiscated,” Mark snorted. “We handed them over voluntarily.”

“Yes, sir,” Ward said. He made a wide berth around a still smoldering Perry.

“I’ll help,” Zee said, getting up. “Darlene?”

She tore her gaze away from Joan. “What?”

“Can you help, too?”

“Get Lunk to do it.”

“My strength is turned off,” Kade said.

Darlene rolled her eyes and stomped toward the exit. Zee followed behind, mouthing, “ You’re welcome ” to Joan and Mark.

Perry parked himself beside the door and stared into the distance.

“Are you ever gonna tell us what this is about?” Mark said to him.

“They use people for their own gains,” Perry said.

“Hey,” Kade said. “We’re heroes. It’s in our name.”

“Ask Flight how heroic he was years ago. No, better yet, ask Atomic Man or Stretch Boy.”

“Atomic Man died a few years ago. Stretch Boy is really old and has dementia.”

Otis crossed back to his side of the table. “Do you really want to open that can of worms?”

Mark bounced on his toes. “Oh my god, yes please open that can.”

An alert from SuperWatch popped onto one of the TV screens. The two Supers went to investigate.

“Damn it,” Mark said. “Perry, I’ve never asked you for much.”

Perry scoffed at that.

“Will you tell us why you hate the Supers so much? Pretty please with sugar on top?”

He figuratively lasered his eyes at Otis. “They’re the ones who exposed me for having powers and turned me into Breeze.”

“How?” Joan asked.

“One of them was sent to see if I had abilities. There had been an incident where I accidentally used them in public.” Perry crossed his arms again. “They found out the truth and ruined my life, so I took the path they forced me to take.”

“You hid your abilities,” Joan said, never really connecting the dots before. “You had to when you were doing your MBA and art gallery stuff.”

“What was the incident?” Mark looked like a kid about to open the biggest present under the Christmas tree.

“It was nothing.”

Joan fully faced the man who’d raised her. “Then why are you so hard on us to not hide who we are? You’re always saying I’m Spark, no matter what.”

Perry stared at her. “Because I tried to hide it. The truth came out anyway.”

A terrible memory from the moment Sadie realized Joan wasn’t Catch poked at her from the depths of her mind. The horrified look on Sadie’s face.

“It always does,” Joan murmured.

She sent Sadie a quick text while Mark badgered Perry for more details.

Everything’s fine. I’m okay.

Thank god I was so worried! Come home soon

Shit. What was Sadie going to think about Joan donning her Spark suit again?

Perry predictably clammed up. But that was more than they’d ever gotten out of him. The Supers had exposed him. They must not have liked someone running around with undetected abilities.

He sure was milking this old grudge. Flight was the only active Super from back then. Stretch Boy had retired right before Joan and Mark’s sixteenth birthday. Atomic Man had a few years before that. And Amazing Woman… It’d been so long, Joan wasn’t even sure.

Was Amazing Woman still alive? She had to be a hundred years old, easy. Her indestructible body had aged so slowly, it’d been hard to tell by looking at her just how old she was.

Otis and Kade turned away from the screen. They’d rendered themselves powerless, too. They were that nervous about their visitors trying something. The trust was so not there.

Joan attempted to manifest a fireball, but it was still a no-go.

Kade grinned at her. “It’s weird, huh? I don’t like having that turned on. We usually just use it to keep Villains under control after we get them.”

Ah-ha. “Is this how you keep them from using their powers in jail?”

“Uh-huh.”

She’d always wondered how they did that. Melvin couldn’t mind control his way out of prison. Ethel couldn’t zap her cell open.

And Joan wouldn’t be able to flame her way out.

“Don’t ask me where the prison’s located,” Kade said. “I can’t tell you.”

“It’s in some undisclosed location in the middle of nowhere,” Joan said. “That much everyone knows.” Which made sense, since they didn’t want Supervillains to escape smack dab in the middle of a city.

Wrinkling his Roman nose, Kade said, “I really can’t tell you. Nobody tells me where it is. I have a hard time keeping secrets.”

“Good to know,” Joan lightly teased, though that was an interesting bit of intel.

Ward, Zee and Darlene returned with three metal suitcases. A little thrill danced up Joan’s spine. Maybe this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It could be atonement for not better protecting Vector City from future villainy. Send the message far and wide to stay away.

Doing this could prevent her from meeting the same fate as Trick, Hide and Volt. Maybe then the nightmares would stop.

Darlene set her case on the table. “This is temporary,” she stated. “You will return them immediately after the assignment is completed.”

“Assignment?” Mark said. “What is this, grade school?”

He exchanged a small but noticeable glance with Zee as they set a case in front of Mark. Maybe Zee had assured him he wasn’t actually in danger of being arrested. That could explain why Mark wasn’t freaking out. Then again, Mark was the chill one. Literally.

Joan opened the case, and there it was. The mask with that dark, annoying long wig. Her black boots. The black bodysuit with slashes of deep red. A part of her life for so many years, it was like reuniting with an old friend.

“Hello, gorgeous,” she breathed. “I missed you.”