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“You’re more fun when you’re wearing the mask.

” Arn made a face at her. “And all I’m saying is that I worked up a whole pitch for the Consumer Products Division the other night, but then you put the kibosh on that by not dying.

I was wondering what the chances are that things might change again.

” He nodded persuasively. “Because a special line of memorial Multifarious merchandise could be a real shot in the arm for sales, especially coming as it does at the start of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is in a few days, and…”

They both stared at the man in silent amazement.

Arn looked confused. “What?”

“It’s just…” Natalie shrugged helplessly. “It’s just not even worth it. ”

Oz opened his mouth to tell the man off, but Natalie pulled him away. “Don’t engage, Oz. It won’t help. He won’t understand.”

“What’d I say!?!” Arn called after them. “I’m just trying to sell some T-shirts! If you’re going to die anyway, you might as well help out the team while you’re at it!”

They reached the intersection, where a crowd was gathered, looking across the street to where crime scene tape was set up.

To their left, Julian appeared from one of the Consortium’s vehicles and was instantly booed by every man, woman and child in the crowd.

“Julian remains as popular as ever.” Natalie observed.

“Well, there is the fact that he killed Mary Sue, the brightest of stars who shined against the darkness of this world.” He paused, making a disgusted face as he recognized that the dead woman’s brainwashing was still partially in effect. “Damn. I hate that.”

“I’m told it’ll stop in time.” Natalie assured him, patting his arm in comfort. “I’m still glad I killed that bitch.” Her eyes narrowed in fury. “She should have known better than to use her freaky powers on you.” She paused for a beat. “And, you know, everyone else.”

Oz looked down at her hand as it remained on his arm, and he felt… good. Like he’d managed to overcome his unforgivable actions the other day, and had recovered.

Natalie was standing next to him, her hand on his arm, and she wasn’t wearing very much. All in all, the morning was going better than he ever could have hoped.

Julian reacted to the universal hatred by putting his arms over his head and looking overjoyed, like they were cheering him.

Bridget appeared beside him, laughing at her lover’s overblown enthusiasm to being hated so vehemently .

He was now, unquestionably, the least popular member of the Consortium of Chaos. And Julian obviously LOVED that fact.

Julian strolled along behind the police crowd control cordon, pointing at people in the crowd like he recognized them or was calling attention to particularly vicious protest signs against him.

He was obviously drinking in their hate like it was the sweetest liqueur, and grinning like the star quarterback arriving at prom or wrestling heel entering the ring.

Oz had never in his life seen anyone more pleased with himself and the world.

He didn’t understand that man sometimes. But he guessed that Julian had felt irrelevant for so long, he was basking in the hatred directed at him by the people Julian had always despised.

It was nice that some people got what they always wanted. Oz was happy for them. Despite the fact he knew he never would.

Bridget gestured to Natalie, and she started towards the other woman.

Oz started to follow her.

“Hey, playboy!” Someone called to him. “Haven’t seen you in ages.”

Oz turned to his right to spot one of his former teammates from the Freedom Squad, Rembrandt, leaning against the hood of a car, looking bored.

The man had never been one of Oz’s favorite people. Which was one of the reasons why he hadn’t invited him to join up with the C of C when he’d recruited several of the other not-so-evil members of the Freedom Squad.

Rembrandt hadn’t so much sided with the Freedom Squad in its final fight with the Consortium, as it was that he simply called in sick for work that day. He either didn’t care enough about the city to fight for it, or else he simply wanted to see which team won before he formally picked a side.

Either way, Oz had never particularly liked him. But Oz liked very few people, so he was used to it.

“Rembrandt.” Oz inclined his head at him in stiff greeting, and started to lean against the car next to him, then recognized the fact that the car was filthy. There was no way Oz was going to touch it. “You on the job?”

Rembrandt nodded. “I’m working with The Overlords now.”

Oz frowned at the news.

“I know, I know.” Rembrandt rolled his eyes.

“But beggars can’t be choosers about such things, I’m afraid.

The Consortium took out the Freedom Squad and there aren’t exactly a whole lot of Cape organizations left in town to choose from.

So, I have to settle for small-timers with less than stellar track records.

” He glanced over at Oz. “You guys wouldn’t have room on your team for one more, would you? Maybe?”

Yes, the Consortium absolutely did.

But not for Rembrandt.

“No.” Oz shook his head. “You wouldn’t fit in on our team.”

The last thing the C of C needed was another morally questionable and incredibly powerful psycho walking around its headquarters. Oz was in charge of the former Freedom Squad heroes, and there wasn’t a place there for Rembrandt. Ever.

He’d seen the kinds of things that man had done for the Freedom Squad. Willingly. And there were some sins which didn’t wash clean.

The man seemed to instantly understand the reasons behind Oz’s complete dismissal of his informal application.

To Oz’s surprise though, Rembrandt seemed to find it amusing.

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you, playboy.

You don’t fuck around. There are a lot of people in this world who would front, and tell someone a line of bullshit in order to save face or feelings.

” He shook his head. “But not you.” He nodded in appreciation of that.

“You’re not a bitch about things. You man up and always tell it like it is.

I’d shake your hand for that, but then you’d get all weird about it.

” He reached down to his pad of paper and quickly drew an image of a pack of bubble gum, then reached through the surface of the paper and pulled out the object and popped one of the sticks into his mouth.

“You change your mind though, let me know.” He pointed across the street where a few other of The Overlords were working crowd control.

“These Triple A assholes are driving me nuts.” He made a face.

“The other night, they were chasing a bank robber headed to Queens and one of them freaked the fuck out and ended up blowing up the F train .” He swore under his breath at the Cape in question.

“Jagoff.” He shook his head sadly. “People in Jamaica are going to be pulling bits of $100 bills and gunmen out of their hair for days.” He was silent for a beat.

“They told the news that the guys had some kind of bomb. But they didn’t.

It was just their own inexperience and fear. Fucking newbs.”

“You tell anyone about this?”

“No one to tell.” Rembrandt shrugged. “The city doesn’t want to hear it, they’re helping the team cover it up.

It’s like the fucking Freedom Squad all over again.

The team views the whole thing as a victory.

” He hopped up to sit on the car’s hood.

“No matter how fucked up the Consortium is, they’re still probably saner than the rest of the Capes in this town. ”

A new idea occurred to Oz. “You’re still pretty tied into the other Cape groups though, right?”

“Somewhat.Why?”

Oz leaned closer, lowering his voice. “I’m interested in anyone talking about a train that’s going to be leaving on Wednesday.”

“A lot of trains are leaving on Wednesday. It’s the day before Thanksgiving.”

“I know that, but I’m talking about one in particular which might be important to the Capes or villains in town.”

Rembrandt let out a long breath as he thought about it, then shrugged.

“Not that I can think of, no. Most of the chatter around town is just soap opera bullshit, and bets about who’s going to die next.

” He pointed to the crime scene. “Now they’re saying that this could be Cape-on-Cape.

” He looked down at the street for a long moment, sounding tired. “Hell of a war we’re in, playboy, huh?”

Oz continued to watch Natalie’s red hair dance in the cold wind as she discussed something amusing with Bridget.

She’d tied feathers into it today, and the bright colors made her hair even more entrancing.

Oz could literally watch it all day and be perfectly happy.

“Have you ever heard of someone named ‘Mercygiver’?”

“Yeah,” Rembrandt nodded, “back during the ‘Super-Person Resistance Movement’ mess, I ran into the second-in-command of that crew. Dude named ‘Mr. Jack.’” Rembrandt shook his head. “My advice would be to steer clear of that mess, playboy. They’re baaaaad fucking mojo.”

That got Oz’s attention. “Do you know where I can find either of them?”

“Since Alectryon got cooked, a lot of the Norms have started treating Mercygiver like the new ‘Keyser Soze’ in town. A legend that’s got a small crew and demands a piece of the action, and if you don’t pay tribute, you get crushed .

” Rembrandt blew a bubble with his gum.

“What’s your problem with Mercygiver? Seems like Norm crime ain’t your scene. ”

“Rondel threw my partner off a roof.” Oz told him flatly. “ We’re going to have words. ”

Rembrandt pointed at Natalie. “The jungle babe over there? She’s your partner?”

Oz nodded.