Page 32

Nervous energy coursed through Joan as she stood in the second-floor lounge at Superhero HQ. It was rather comfy, like a windowless manor home library, all wood-paneled walls and rich colors and cushioned chairs.

The same room where not so long ago, she and Mark had stormed in demanding the Supers help rescue Sadie. Before they knew about technology that could inhibit their powers should it be turned on in there.

She scratched where her bodysuit rubbed against her neck. It was just bizarre being here in their Villain suits. Breeze sitting beside Amazing Woman, Ice giving Lunk shit for something, Catch and Flight bossing Ward around. They were waiting to implement their plan.

Kade had chosen some truly bad eighties hair band music to get them pumped up. Zee used their cohort being distracted to turn it off on Kade’s phone.

Joan pulled up one leg at a time for a little stretch. Her muscles were sore from last night’s couch activities. Totally worth it. She had Sadie’s love and support to see her through any and every thing.

Thankfully, Sadie was safe at Morris and Tenia’s house. There was a benefit to having a few people in on the Spark secret. She’d let them and Wren and Beth-Ann know today might not be the best day to park their trucks downtown.

The strategically leaked rumor was that Amazing Woman was doing an “impromptu” meet-and-greet outside this very building to reacquaint herself with the fine citizens of Vector City.

Three o’clock in the afternoon, so there wouldn’t be a lot of foot traffic to contain.

Race and Flight were going out soon to be seen patrolling on the north and south sides in the ol’ decoy maneuver.

They could get back the fastest for the confrontation.

Something pinged on Ward’s tablet that made him rush toward the doorway. “Ms. Aura has arrived. I’ll let her in.”

Otis nodded. He’d somehow convinced Aura to join them today. Joan did not want to think about how exactly he did so.

Mark snickered and looked like he was about to ask. Then he wandered over to Gus and perched on the curved arm of the couch. “Where are you staying? ’Cause I live next door to Perry, and?—”

“You haven’t been home,” Perry stated.

“I’ve been home enough to not hear conversations through the wall.”

“We can’t hear through our walls, thank god.”

“He has a guest room,” Gus said. “And if you’re neighbors, you know he snores.”

“I don’t snore,” Perry said in a way that suggested they’d had this argument before. “It’s the wind coming out.”

“Which is snoring.”

“Oh yeah, the wind-snoring,” Joan said. She totally knew about the whooshing in and out of Per’s throat while he power-napped.

“It’s not snoring,” he grumbled.

Darlene straightened into her I like to pretend I’m second-in-command stance. “Once Aura is ready, we can begin…” Her gaze crested over Joan. “Capturing our enemies.”

Hey, she’d expected Darlene to get in a dig at the ex-Villains. Progress.

“I’ll go out now,” Zee said, pulling on their facemask. “I don’t like standing around.”

“Better to be seen longer,” Otis agreed. “More SuperWatch sightings.”

“Remember to listen for the signal,” Darlene said.

Zee nodded once, then took a step. Then paused. “I hope this works,” they said before zooming off.

“Why wouldn’t it work?” Mark scoffed.

“Because we have to get all four of them directly in front of the building,” Joan reminded him.

“Yeah, but if we don’t, we’ll just go after them and regain our powers. We outnumber them two to one.”

“Plus one,” Kade said, looking very proud of his math.

Gus raised an eyebrow at him. “I can’t get injured, but these bones are old. I’m not fighting with anyone.”

“We still value you, Amazing Woman.”

Perry snorted and muttered to himself. Otis rolled his eyes and visibly tried not to clap back. Those two still hadn’t decided to play nice, which was to be expected.

Irritation flared out of nowhere and Joan spat, “It would’ve been great if you valued her back in the day.”

Darlene crossed her arms. “Maybe she pushed them away with her bad attitude.”

Mark slid to his feet, saying, “It’s easy to have a bad attitude around you jerks.”

They broke into simultaneous bickering, pointing fingers and hurling insults. Joan wasn’t even that upset, but it felt like the thing to do.

Ward entered with Aura wheeling a large suitcase behind her. She said something, then shook her head and waved a hand. A muted glow twinkled around her and flowed across the room.

Joan blinked as calm washed over her.

“My bad,” Aura said. “I’m pissy ’cause of the freaking flight delay. I don’t just get to hop into the sky whenever I want.”

“I can’t fly,” Kade murmured. “I’m just a big, useless lunk.”

“I thought your powers didn’t work on Supers,” Gus said.

“If the overall mood matches my mood, it sets off a chain reaction.” Aura unbuttoned her thin, red, floral-print jacket that matched her flowing skirt. “It’s been a long time, Gus. You look well.”

“Good to see you, Sherrelle.” For once, Gus really did seem glad to see someone from her past.

Mark rolled his head around. “Ah, dang it. That was weird.”

Aura—well, Sherrelle—looked him up and down. “That’s my thing, Iceman. I’m not going to pretend to feel great about working with the former enemy.”

“To be fair, we never fought with you.”

She wiggled her fingers. “Let’s make things nice and truth-y. I came here to help an old friend and get that damn screamer locked away for good.”

“Thank you,” Otis said.

Sherrelle shot him a look. “You’re not the old friend.”

A small something passed through Joan but didn’t linger. Sherrelle making things nice and truth-y?

“Gus was a mentor of sorts. We women Superheroes have to lift each other up.”

Darlene’s face contorted into so much internalized pain, Joan actually felt bad for her.

“I would have done more if not for how things were left.” Gus directed this at Darlene.

“I really could have used that,” Darlene whispered, then looked mortified. “Why did I say that?”

Sherrelle smiled and wiggled her fingers again. “It’s best to cut through the noise and get to the heart of things.”

Perry slouched into the couch cushions. “I hate everything about this, but I’m here for the people I care about.”

“I’m sorry I never called you back!” Otis declared, throwing his arms back dramatically. “You’re intense. It scares me. I like the rush, but it’s a lot.”

“About damn time,” Sherrelle muttered.

Kade and Mark burst into giggles and high-fived. Joan took a step backward. What sort of crap would come out of her mouth if prompted?

Gus eased out of her seat, waving at her old friend. “You can stop. Things have been civil.”

“Good. I’m out of juice anyway. That only works a little on the superpowered.”

“I thought we aren’t supposed to use our powers on each other,” Kade said.

“ We’re not. ” Otis crossed his arms, gripping his biceps so hard, you could hear the squeak of his fingers against the red spandex.

Gus tugged at the legs of her Super suit. “Review the plan with Sherrelle while I try to remember how I wore this contraption comfortably.”

Ward bobbed his head and consulted his tablet. He went over Phase One: Misdirection.

Joan caught Perry watching Gus with concern. Too bad he didn’t make his own declaration about what exactly they’d been doing all these years. It didn’t matter if it was truly just a friendship or they boinked like grumpy rabbits, but it would be nice to know.

“Phase Two: The Trap is Set,” Ward said. “Amazing Woman will take position directly in front of headquarters. Catch and Lunk will be on crowd control to keep civilian interaction at a bare minimum.”

He went over Phase Three, where the Villains actually showed up. Greta’s words flitted through Joan’s head.

Did you just hear yourself? You’re trying to get rid of Villains?

She glanced down at her Spark suit. The Supers must’ve had countless meetings about what to do to get rid of Spark. She didn’t really know how to feel about it all other than this felt right.

“Phase Four.” Ward proudly grinned. “And arguably the most important phase: The Signal. I will alert everyone to converge on headquarters. This is when Flight and Race will rush back. Breeze and Aura will come from the right side of the building, which we determined after several minutes of discussion is the right side inside the building, not looking at it from?—”

“Yes, yes,” Otis said, circling his hand. “Get on with it.”

“Yes, sir. So they come from the right, and Spark and Ice will flank the left side of the building. You will all approach whichever Supervillains have arrived.”

Sherrelle nodded. “I get the gist. Fight, contain, save the day.”

Ward glanced up. “But there are five more phases, plus the three contingency phases.”

“I’ll get her up to speed while she changes,” Gus said.

Reaching for her suitcase handle, Sherrelle said, “In the meantime, clear up the bad energy in here. Particularly you two.” She pointed at Otis, then Perry.

“I don’t have bad energy,” Perry grumbled, arms crossed like the very image of bad energy.

“Yeah you do, Windy. Otis, you want to share with the class?”

Otis mirrored Perry’s pose. “No.”

Sherrelle leveled him with a glare. “Do I have to make you get truth-y again?”

Joan risked getting a read. “Former Villains, Superheroes. You said yourself you weren’t thrilled to work with us.”

“Oh no, Sparky. This goes deeper than that.”

“Sparky?” Joan muttered.

Mark gestured toward both men. “Like perhaps how Otis exposed Perry, turning him into Breeze, who has made it his personal mission to be a thorn in the Supers’ ass ever since?”

“Like that,” Sherrelle said.

“And also how Otis was one of the Supers who let Gus be thrown under the bus—like, literally? And Gus betrayed Perry after they had a little artistical tryst?”

“Yeah—wait, what?”

Gus headed for the door. “Lots to get you up to speed on.”

She was at the threshold when Otis spoke. “I regret the way you were treated, Gus. I wanted to speak up, but I was young, and fighting for acceptance from the old guard.”

“You were,” Gus acknowledged. “It was a real boys club. They wanted to keep it that way.”

“I would have done more if I could.”

“Eh, that’s all well and good. I’m too old to care any which way.” She pointed at Joan and Mark. “You should be apologizing to these two young people you did let down.”

Memories Joan preferred to keep buried rose to the surface. Being sixteen with seven dollars between her and Mark, trying to get a little assistance from Flight only to be dismissed as he turned his back to pose for pictures. Brushing off two scrappy teenagers angry at the world.

Then Perry coming across them a few nights later in a dark alley, recognizing they were at the mercy of their powers, offering to buy them dinner and a place to stay for the night.

Then letting them invade his condo for the next few years and be the annoying children he never asked for.

Being the parent they desperately needed.

“I want an apology for Perry,” she stated.

“Yeah,” Mark said. “That’s who you really fucked over.”

“I didn’t—” Otis began, then wisely changed course. “We should have handled that situation differently. There was heightened vigilance with Big Quake around. Mistakes were made.”

Perry didn’t react.

“I don’t blame you for hating us. I would if the tables had been turned.”

A muscle twitched in Perry’s jaw, but that was it.

To Joan and Mark, Otis said, “We could have done better with you.”

Mark’s eyes crystalized in sharp shades of blue. “We came to you for help, man. You could’ve done the right thing that time.”

“By the time we tried, it was already too late.”

“Yeah, well, you created the mess. I’m glad we made you pay for it.”

Otis obviously wanted to say something that Sherrelle cut off with a loud throat clearing.

More memories flooded in. First Flight and then Race trying to talk with Joan and Mark about not having to be Villains.

The Supers really did try to get them to stop villain-ing. No—to give them the choice to leave. By the time Lunk and Catch hit the scene, it really was too late.

Perry may not have wanted what happened to him to happen to the Malone twins, but in the end, neither had the Supers. She’d honestly forgotten about that through the years and many battles.

Joan looked to Perry. The apology was well overdue, and he did enjoy carrying a good, long grudge.

Forgiveness would come slowly, but Joan could see it for her and Mark.

Hell, they’d all been working together and were still unscathed.

If she wanted to join their fight for real, she had to trust them.

Kade clamped a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “I wish we could’ve been friends sooner. You guys are cool.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Mark said with a small smile.

“Mr. Flight?” Ward said, eyes wide behind his glasses.

Otis shifted his weight and said, “What you have done these past few weeks has shown you’ve reformed your ways. As long as none of you go back to a life of crime, we’ll leave you be.”

“Bring back Hot and Cold!” Kade pumped his fist.

“Yeah.” Mark sent Joan a look she couldn’t really read.

“That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Sherrelle teased.

Ward waved his hand. “Guys?”

Joan caught movement from Darlene and stepped into a fighting stance by habit, but her hands didn’t fist. And actually, her arms dropped on their own accord.

Darlene did the exact same thing.

They didn’t want to fight anymore.

“GUYS!” Ward shouted.

“What is it?” Otis snapped.

Ward held his tablet so the screen faced out. A security camera feed showed it was eerily green outside. And standing in front of the concrete columns… “They’re here.”