Page 12

The riverfront warehouses proved to be a good secluded meeting spot that night. Joan didn’t want anyone spying her and Mark as Spark and Ice. No need to create unnecessary panic by having them be seen with Ether and Prowl.

It hadn’t been hard to contact them—Mark had Derek’s phone number. They’d arranged a meetup while Perry followed a lead on Squawk from SuperWatch. Then they’d spent the day getting their stories straight at the warehouse, like the old days.

Joan shifted inside her bodysuit. A little too snug in spots from not exercising the way she used to. But it admittedly felt kind of nice to be wearing it again. To be Spark for the night, like playing dress-up.

“Dude, is yours as tight as mine is?” Mark muttered, tugging at the zipper down the front of his.

“We should get back to working out on our day off.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

The crisp air was rather pleasant. Stars winked in the clear night sky. Hopefully they could get Derek out of town so he would stop making things all weird and misty and green.

She flicked anxious sparks from her fingers. Her fire had returned in full force after leaving the Supers’ HQ, thank god. It was a part of her as much as her lungs or bones or brain.

Mark unzipped the pocket on his chest and checked his phone. “Why are they so late?”

“Villains aren’t known for their punctuality,” Joan reminded him. She pulled her phone out to make sure she hadn’t missed anything from Sadie. After reassuring her with several phone calls that Joan was not going back to a life of crime, Sadie had agreed to stay at home today for her safety.

And because Joan didn’t want her girlfriend to see her as Spark and dredge up the past.

The lock screen photo of Sadie laughing at the beach made her smile.

Perry had treated them all to New Year’s in the Caribbean—an abbreviated version of their usual few weeks around Christmastime.

Joan had paid for Sadie’s airfare and meals and souvenirs.

Sadie never took vacations, and still didn’t love the means with which everything had been paid for, but Joan was so happy to have given her a warm island getaway. The ends justified the means.

Sadie had been understanding but honest, as always. One of the very best things about her. She was sympathetic to the situation Joan now found herself in. Like it or not, the Supers still held her fate in their hands.

She’d agreed that this could be a good thing. They could send the interlopers back to their own cities and return to normal. So this bad idea had to work.

“Do you think it was smart to let Perry go by himself?” Joan asked as she put her phone away.

“Per’s better with egotistical assholes. And you’ve exchanged bodily fluids with Prowl, so?—”

“Don’t remind me,” she groaned.

Shuffling on a nearby rooftop snapped her to attention. Prowl’s dark silhouette crouched low.

“I see you up there,” said Joan.

Derek walked around the corner in his green Ether attire.

“Hey, buddy,” Mark said. “Long time, no see. How’s it going?”

Derek was normally a pretty carefree dude, only his mouth was set in a grim line. “We’re not buddies anymore, traitor.”

Mark held up his hands. “Whoa, hey, easy there.”

“We shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

Ricki somersaulted off the roof, landing on her feet. “Curiosity got the better of me,” she purred in her husky voice. “I wanted to watch you grovel your way into our good graces.”

“We want nothing to do with you traitors,” Derek said.

Playing it cool, Mark gave them a lazy smile. “Is this because of that thing with Trick a few months back? That was part of a much bigger plan.”

“We got him out of the way so we could rule Vector City,” Joan said.

“With the help of your Superheroes.” Ricki shivered. “I’ve never heard anything more disturbing.”

“It’s not what it looked like.”

“You heard we aligned with the Supers and turned in all our stuff.” Mark gestured at his Ice getup. “Obviously, we did not.”

Joan flexed her fingers. “We convinced them to work with us. Then we used them to snuff out our competition. They think we retired, but we?—”

“Nobody liked Trick,” Derek said. “But you still don’t turn one of us in.”

“And you don’t work with Supers,” Ricki reinforced.

“The press made it sound like we helped them.” Joan chuckled. “If anything, they helped us gain a stronghold.”

Mark held out a hand. “We want to extend you the courtesy that yes, okay, we didn’t give to Trick, Hide and Volt. Vector City is still ours. It never stopped being ours. We’re very much still in the game.”

“No, you’re not,” Ricki scoffed.

“The Supers think we’re done, but we just shifted how we’re doing business.”

“Didn’t you open a restaurant or something?” Derek said.

“A food truck.” Mark grinned. “It’s the perfect cover. We’re mobile, can go anywhere, can make deals that look like meals.”

Ricki planted her hands on her hips. “What are you selling? It’s not like you can stuff a painting through one of those windows.”

“Information,” Joan said.

“To who?” said Derek. “You’re blacklisted.”

“People always want information.”

“We’re selling secrets,” Mark said. “Corporations will pay good money to get the skinny on their competition. And even more to stop them from getting leaked. Y’all know we love sticking it to big corporations.”

Joan gave him a look like Y’all? Really? “We park our truck near Allegria Tower. It’s so much easier than running around in spandex.”

“And, y’know, if they don’t pay…” Mark formed a long icicle, then shattered it against the ground.

This was a decent cover story. Maybe it would seal the deal.

Derek shook his head. “Nah. I heard you went totally legit.”

“From who?” Mark said.

“Everyone.”

“That’s a reliable source.”

Ricki slunk next to Joan, strong jasmine perfume wafting on the breeze. Her golden eyes shone bright against the deep purple of her facemask. “Everyone knows you’re tight with the Supers now.”

“They sometimes come by the food truck to check on us,” Joan said. The best lies had a nugget of truth in them. “Like Mark said, it’s the perfect cover. We appear to be legit.”

Whoops, she’d used Mark’s real name in public instead of Ice. Maybe they wouldn’t notice that slip-up.

Mark took a step away from Derek. “So yeah, we’re still here.

We’d appreciate you going back to Oceanview, which let’s face it, has better weather and gorgeous beaches.

Ether, you still having those off-the-hook parties?

Remember that one a few years ago when I made those ice slides into the ocean? Good times.”

“Oh yeah,” Derek said with a laugh, then sobered. “I mean, there’s no way I trust a word you say. You’ll turn on your own kind.”

Joan shared a look with her brother. Might as well go with it. “This is a courtesy as much as a warning,” she said. “Leave our city, or share a cell with our former friends.”

Her breath hitched. If this went badly, she’d be the one locked up with Volt.

Ricki snorted a harsh laugh. “You’re full of shit. You’re not doing anything illegal. You wanted a way out of villainy and did whatever it took to get out.”

Joan met her piercing gaze. Ricki knew exactly what she was doing in trying to provoke a reaction.

Keeping her voice steady, Joan forced out, “Then I guess we fooled you, too.”

“No kidding,” Mark said with false bravado. “You’re making this way too easy for us.”

Ricki curled into a half-crouch. Joan used to think it was sexy, but now knew it was the precursor to a verbal attack.

“The thing about you, Spark ,” she purred, “is that you’ve always thought you were too good for this life.

You became a Villain out of necessity, not by choice.

And now you’re fighting to keep the peace in your city.

” She turned her smirk on Mark. “You do whatever she tells you to, so I’m not worried about your motivation. ”

“Hey,” Mark said.

Fire rushed to Joan’s fingertips. “I will fight for what I have.”

“You shouldn’t be fighting with your own kind,” Ricki said. “We evolved past the norms. Stop giving them so much importance.”

“Trick said the same thing. I didn’t stand for it with him.” Joan’s glare said she wouldn’t stand for it with anyone else either.

“You’ve never wanted to hurt people, even though norms are insignificant. I saw the news footage. You helped that hostage.”

“She was really cute,” she said calmly so she didn’t blurt out And the woman I love.

“So what, you wanted her to think you’re a hero? You’re a coward.”

True, she’d been a horrible coward before that day. But she’d finally done the right thing.

“Hellooo,” Mark said. “Helping a hostage got us big brownie points. Who would suspect any more wrongdoing from us after that?”

“No, Prowl’s right,” Derek said, moving toward Mark. “You’re bluffing. And you’re cowards.”

Twin flames flared from Joan’s palms. “Call me a coward one more time.”

Ricki blinked up at her. “Aw, did I hit a sore spot?”

“Joanie…” Mark muttered through his teeth.

“And here I thought you were miffed at me for not being into you.” Ricki sneered. “Or women at all. Thanks for clearing that up for me.”

Mark stood over her. “That’s a homophobic low blow.”

“I thought you liked low blows,” she snickered.

Joan’s flames crackled in irritation. Fucking Prowl. Taking her bait would draw too much attention, but damn it.

Derek puffed up like a proud rooster. “This is our city now. We’re making bold moves you never dreamed of.”

Ricki hopped onto the concrete barrier. “Keep doing corporate espionage or cooking or whatever. You’re no match for us. Stay out of the way.”

“Get out of our city.” Joan enunciated every word.

“Or what?”

Ice shards tinkled from Mark’s hands. “Or we stop playing nice.”

A shrill cry rose in the distance, long and loud and angry.

Derek and Ricki looked up, then at each other. Then at Joan and Mark.

“Where’s Breeze?” Derek said.

Mark opened his mouth, then hesitated.

“You really thought you could talk your way into getting us to leave?”

“I mean, not really,” Mark said.

Joan gave him a look.

Another one of Squawk’s piercing screams echoed through the air. Sounded like Perry wasn’t faring any better in the convincing department.

“Why did you team up with him?” Joan wanted to know.

Ricki smirked at her. “All part of a bigger plan. You know about big, secret plans.”

She leapt from the concrete barrier. The world spun around Joan. She landed on her ass and was being held in a chokehold. She blinked in surprise. Ricki kicked both legs and sent Mark flying back before kneeling.

“This is your only warning,” she said against Joan’s ear. “Next time, we stop playing nice.”

“Go back to the shadows, cowards,” Derek said.

Assholes. Joan shot a fireball that just missed him. Then she twisted and blasted Ricki off her. She didn’t want to fight the Supers’ battles for them, but she was no goddamn coward.

Ricki released an angry growl and lunged at her. Mark sprayed a shot of ice from his prone position that coated the blacktop. She jumped over it, taking Joan to the ground.

She swatted Joan’s eyes, scraping her thick nails across the facemask.

Joan raised her forearms to protect her exposed skin.

She tried to sit up and push Ricki back but didn’t have the core strength anymore.

She flashed bright sparks from her fingers instead.

They blinded Ricki enough so Joan could push her off.

The air thickened around them as Mark tussled with Derek. Containing Ricki was the?—

Shit, she’d hopped onto a rooftop. Encasing her in a ring of fire wasn’t an option. Joan shot several fireballs high in the hopes they’d knock her down and not make contact with the warehouse.

The clouds glowed green, and a buzz filled the air.

“Now I see whose side you’re on,” Ricki yelled.

“Go to hell,” Joan yelled back, fire raging through her body.

Ricki slipped from view a second before the hard rain fell. Mark shot ice around to pelt the Villains, only the frozen raindrops hit him and Joan in the face.

Derek shouted something as he retreated that couldn’t be heard over the hum of atmospheric intervention.

“Stop,” Joan told her brother as she covered her head.

“Fuuuuuuuuuck,” Mark ground out, throwing a ball of ice into the river.

The rain cooled Joan’s heat. They hastened from behind the warehouses until they cleared the precipitation. Their suits were waterproof, but their wigs were a sopping wet mess.

“That went well,” Mark said.

“What do you think they’re planning?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I know we didn’t want to make a big deal out of this, but…”

“…we thought what Melvin was doing wasn’t a big deal,” Mark finished. “Unlike him, these guys do have something in the works.”

Joan nodded in agreement. “We can’t ignore this.”

“No, because the damn Supers dragged us into it.” He wiped at the water dripping off his dark wig.

Joan glanced down at her gloves. Her squeaky, wet Spark suit. “What are we supposed to do? We failed our mission. The Supers don’t trust us. Now these guys hate us.”

“We go back to the food truck. We told the Supers this was a bad idea. I don’t want to get dragged into this.”

“We’re already in it.”

Mark dropped another angry f-bomb and skittered an ice ball down the back alley. “I hate the power they hold over us.”

“The Supers?”

“Supers, Villains, that whole frickin’ world.”

He was really and truly mad. Mark was always so blasé about everything, so this was clearly bugging him.

“I’m sorry, bud,” Joan said.

“Eh, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten out at all.”

Ricki’s words rumbled around her head. That she’d do anything to protect the peace in Vector City.

Which was a bit extreme. She’d fight for her new life, and sure, for the people she cared about.

It was self-serving, not heroic. Not harming the norms was just basic human decency, which apparently Ricki and Derek did not possess.

“I’m not a hero,” Joan murmured.

Mark’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”

“We’re entrepreneurs. Food truck restaurateurs. That’s who we are now. I’m not letting your dream slip away, and I’m not putting Sadie in harm’s way again.”

“And Perry doesn’t need any encouragement to backslide.”

“So we’ll return our suits after they dry.” She pulled her gloves off. “This is the Supers’ problem. We can at least give them the intel about the new guys having a real plan.”

Mark unzipped his suit. “That’s more than they had before.”

“If they want to keep checking on us, fine. Let them. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

They passed under a harsh floodlight. Mark did a double-take and squinted at Joan’s face. “You’ve got a cut under your eye.”

Joan touched the tender spot below her right eye. “Great.”

“You think the Supers will reimburse us for medical treatment?”

“I’m sure.”

“We can always overcharge them for fries.”

“Done.”