Barden, VA

xx
Dhani had to stay up much later than he’d wanted cleaning up the mess in his apartment, and he didn’t have an easy time convincing his landlord that repairing the window was something that he should be doing.Honestly, if he wanted it fixed, he’d probably have to do it himself, and he couldn’t afford that. So he’d live with it. At least for a while. Eventually Kieran, or his sisters, or his parents would find out he’d had a broken window for three months and yell at him for not saying anything, and they’d either pay for a repair or get their lawyer husband/son-in-law to gently remind his landlord of his legal obligation to provide a safe place for his tenants to live. Not that anything like that had happened before.

Regardless, he took it in stride. He decided not to let Red Witch’s threats (whatever they may be based in; be it bigotry or a plain old hatred for heroes) get to him. He wasn’t about to let her keep him from contacting Atticus. It started simply enough (sorry for forgetting to text you last night, I was pretty exhausted), and sort of escalated from there. Dhani didn’t do this sort of thing, not often. The texting and flirting was nice, but a little unfamiliar.

Then there was the ball. Dhani had never been to a ball before, a few Indian weddings, yes, but nothing like this. A lot of preparation was going into just getting them into the ball, let alone looking the part; and then there was the matter of running a particularly big distraction. With Kieran. Dhani was a little worried about that one; they needed it to go well, and while he and Kieran worked extraordinarily well together about half the time, there was the other half where nothing went to plan, it all fell apart, and they were more embarrassed than anything. He guessed the others were banking on things going well. Or, at least, they were counting on Dhani being able to keep Kieran in line. That was a lot to ask of Dhani, and probably too much to ask of Christian Sullivan. Dhani told Kieran right away that nobody was going to buy that name, but she just told him to call anyone who might question it racist. He wasn’t going to do that.

Dhani and Kieran had started to craft a backstory, and they were originally going to coordinate their outfits, be cute and matchy, but Dhani just couldn’t do it. It was never going to be a believable performance- from either of them- so he decided to skip trying to look like a couple in favor of looking fantastic. Honestly, he should probably have seen the whole thing crumbling then. Still, he had to admit he liked the opportunity to get dressed up. He hadn’t had many occasions to look his best since his sisters had gotten married, and that was more years ago than he cared to admit. Kieran arrived while he was still getting his hair in order, with some comment about how he was going to make them late. He just told her that she looked very pretty, and before long they were out the door.

Dhani wasn’t sure what he expected, but a limousine wasn’t it. He smiled at the driver as they slid into the back, and tried not to make any faces at Kieran. For the first portion of their friendship, Dhani had been extremely concerned about where Kieran got her money, how she could afford to buy such nice things for other people, who the hell was paying his rent for him, but over time he’d learned to stop asking questions. He wasn’t any less worried, but there were never any satisfactory answers, and there just wasn’t a reason to ask a question with no real answer. Still, something on his face must have given him away, because Kieran started talking about having to play the part of being rich, and not asking too many questions. She was right, he knew that. He just had expected something a little less… Flashy, maybe. She told him about the limo, told him to stop being uptight, and he sighed. “I’m not uptight, I just-” She offered him a drink, and he declined with a dismissive gesture. “I just try to take this stuff seriously, you know?” He knew that wouldn’t get through to her, and he also knew he was going to have to watch her. He didn’t need her drunk in there. What he needed was someone on his side in case things went south; he didn’t have any weapons (he didn’t normally use or carry any, anyway), and he wasn’t sure how this venue was going to be if a fight broke out. He could take a good deal of abuse before a fight really got to him, but he prefered not to test the limits of his powers if he didn’t have to.

After making sure all of his communication equipment was in place, and triple-checking that is was all working properly, Dhani finally felt semi-prepared for this. Will I ever feel prepared for doing anything besides punching someone in the face? He didn’t have a good answer to his own question.

Being inside the hotel didn’t make him feel much better. It didn’t take long before Kieran said she was going to scout on ahead, “Wait, no, we should-” But she was gone before he could spout out the merits of a team staying together. He lost her pretty quickly in the crowd. She had to be over six feet tall in those shoes, how did he lose her? He was trying to keep an eye out for her, grabbed a glass of champagne so he didn’t look out of place. His powers made it take a little extra effort to get drunk, so he might even drink it.

Then he saw a couple dancing. Well, really, the dance almost demanded your full attention. That was Atticus, and presumably, Red Witch. This must be their distraction. Shit. He needed to find Kieran, but… Damn, this dance was really impressive. They had clearly put a lot of work into it. It made for a good distraction, clearly. He was just about to move on when it seemed the dance was done, and Red Witch was looking right at him. He didn’t hear the question, but he certainly heard the answer. “Oh, he's my fiancé.”

And then she kissed Atticus.

A few thoughts tumbled through Dhani’s head. First, the rational thought that this was just a part of the distraction; but that didn’t last very long. His mind went to Red Witch breaking into his apartment, seeming so protective over Att in the warehouse. He felt… Stupid. He needed to find Kieran, he couldn’t focus on this now. Of course she was angry, He had work to do, he couldn’t let whatever was going on in his head get in the way, that makes sense. He downed his glass of champagne.

He needed to find Kieran.

It didn't take long to identify the woman he was supposed to be distracting. She was trying and failing to give off a certain image. She was just a little too old for a dress that was a little too tight, the curls already starting to fall out of her hair, and her lipstick already a little smudged from the champagne glass in her hand. But she gave off an aura of power, and Atticus knew that judging her based on her appearance would be a very foolish thing to do. This woman was dangerous, and she was influential in this whole scenario. He was only supposed to distract her, but he knew that she would be a vital source of information.

He was right in thinking that she would stop to talk to him. It would be an easier way to initiate a conversation rather than having to come up with an excuse to talk to her. She smiled as she saw him walking past, stopping him with a gentle touch on her arm. Her perfume was not unpleasant but it was overwhelming.

"Aren't you the young man that danced so wonderfully a few minutes ago?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am. William Goldberg-Jameson, a pleasure to meet you," he said, taking her hand and gently kissing it. Her smile was one of a woman who was used to being treated with such respect. Flattery would get him nowhere with this woman, she was far too used to receiving it. He'd need to be someone she was interested in.
"You really put on a show for us, it was refreshing to experience such a thing. So tell me, what brings such an... interesting man as yourself to this wonderful event?" She asked. She evidently could read him as well as he could read her, which would be an issue. Lying would be much harder.
"Well, my fiancée simply insisted on coming. She loves any opportunity to dance and show me off, and see if she couldn't find some worthy causes to interest her," he said. "And of course, I was only too delighted to attend." It was a veiled version of the truth, and one she seemed to swallow easily.
"How lovely for you. What business are you in?" She asked.
"Oh, she dabbles in whatever interests her and always seems to turn a profit," he said with a small laugh. "And I... well, my family has more... specialised interests. One of our ventures is... private security," he said, hoping she would take the bait. And she did.
"Indeed. You know, William, I've been interested in hiring some more... security agents for one of my own enterprises. I'd love to discuss this more at a later date. I don't talk business at these events- after all, that's not why either of us are here, is it?" She asked with a laugh. Bingo.
"Absolutely. Allow me to give you my number and you can call me at any point. I'm sure we can come to some... agreement. I think you'll find our staff are very suitable for your interests. They're highly... specialised. Excuse me, do you have a pen?" He asked a passing server, who produced one from her apron and handed it to him. "Thank you." He took a napkin and scribbled down a number belonging to a burner phone he'd acquired a few years ago and handed it to her. Tracking it would lead to nothing about him. She took the napkin and smiled.
"I look forward to talking business," she said. The conversation was clearly over, and Atticus just prayed it had been long enough to distract her. He turned around and instinctively scanned the room... where he spotted Lucy batting her eyelashes at some guy that was definitely not her mark.

Att had to resist the temptation to storm across the room, knowing that would draw attention to them. That was, until the very guy Lucy was supposed to be distracting almost walked into Atticus, his phone pressed to his ear. It was too late to intervene. He made his way across the room, his eyes fixed on Lucy. She’d jeopardised the entire mission just to talk to some guy that looked like he had a sum total of about three brain cells, and two of them were taken up with worrying about his hair. They’d probably only avoided disaster thanks to sheet dumb luck. He didn’t even try to fake pleasantness as he reached them. “We need to talk. Now,” he ordered, not even acknowledging the other guy. He tried to say something, but Att just shot him a glare. “Don’t you have some mirror to fix your hair in?” He snapped. The guy apparently got the message and sauntered off, shooting a wink at Lucy. Att stormed off in the other direction to a quiet hallway where they wouldn’t be overheard. “What the fuck do you think you’re playing at?” He snapped.

Luciana was batting her eyes through the masquerade mask and giggling when she noticed Atticus walk up, but before she could say anything he quickly demanded to talk to her. Colton quickly spoke up. “Is there an issue here?” But Lucy noticed the glare from Atticus and sighed as he said a rude remark. “Hey!” Lucy tried to speak up but Att was already pulling her away, she gave Colton a last little smile and wave before he was out of sight and the two villains were down the hallway. He quickly spoke to her, with a little bit of hostility in his voice. “I’m not playing at anything. Do you know who that was? Colton Underwood.” Lucy said as she crossed her arms and stared at Att.

Att just rolled his eyes as Lucy said who it was. He knew the name, of course he did. He’d spent enough time talking shit about the show just out of her reach to not know who it was. “I don’t give a shit, Lucy. If he’s here, that means he could very well want people like us dead. And what I do give a shit about is that you were too busy fluttering your eyelashes at him instead of doing what you were supposed to do. I just ran into the guy you were supposed to distract, and he had very obviously not been distracted. Care to explain yourself? he asked.

As she listened, Luciana did remember she was supposed to distract a certain individual and she did start to feel bad for getting side tracked herself, but she didn’t need Att to come at her so aggressively, which she didn’t appreciate. “Okay Att. First off, he’s here because the producers from last season wanted him here, to get some funding for the show.” She said, taking a step closer to Att. “I’m sorry for getting side tracked and trying to take some time to relax, but atleast I’m not out here fucking heroes in my spare time.” Lucy said with venom behind her words, poking her finger into his chest. “Now if you’re done being a little bitch about things…” She said turning back, but Atticus stopped her, grabbing her wrist.

Att just raised his eyebrows as Lucy managed to drag Dhani into it, rolling his eyes a little. She tried storming away, but he grabbed her wrist. “We’re not done here, Lucy. You talk so much shit about me and Dhani but we haven’t once compromised the mission. First you kissed me, which was something we hadn’t discussed, and which was totally unnecessary. And before you say it was just trying to sell our story, we both know that’s bullshit. A kiss on the cheek would have worked just as well. I know you did that to try and spite Dhani. And you need to grow the hell up and get over that,” he snapped.

Luciana jerked her hand free of Atticus. “Never once compromised a mission? I recall you freezing up when you saw his face at the warehouse. And yeah I kissed you to spite him. I’m looking out for you Att. And what does it matter to you about him?” She asked. “He’s been ignoring you, time to just forget about him. Get your head back on what matters and out of dumb wild fantasies.” Lucy rolled her eyes. Since she threatened Dhani they should have been talking less.

Att just rolled his eyes as Lucy brought up how he had frozen on seeing Dhani in the warehouse. “That’s not the same and you know it. I’ve stayed professional this whole damn time.” He had a response on his lips as Lucy asked him why it mattered, when she said something about Dhani ignoring him. He frowned. “No… no, he hasn’t. Why would you think he’s been ignoring me? It’s not like I’ve said or done anything to give that impression,” He asked. If anything, he’d been afraid that Lucy had somehow known that they’d been in contact, that she’d picked up on it from his demeanour. “And don’t you dare try and bullshit me, we both know I’ll see right through it and I’ll find out one way or the other.”

Luciana turned away a bit from Atticus when he asked about why she would think that Dhani would be ignoring him. She was about to come up with a lie or change the subject, but Att insisted she would know. “Fine. I paid him a little visit after my mission with Malfyre, also had a bit of a girl over with two rats.” Lucy said as she turned back to him. “But it’s good to know he’s such as big of a fucking dumbass as you are Atticus.” She shoved him back a bit. “Maybe I should go back and pay your boy toy another visit. Rough him up this time so he gets the message.” She said with a smirk across her face.

Att honestly hadn’t been sure what he’d been expecting from Lucy, but somehow he was at once angry, yet not surprised. The comment about him being a dumbass passed him by as she threatened to go back and rough him up. “I swear to god, Lucy, if you as much as touch a hair on his head you’ll be finding somewhere else to live,” he swore. “Enough of your petty, over dramatic, stupid bullshit about the heroes. Stop dragging me into it. I never asked to be a villain. Everyone just saw me work with them once or twice and decided that’s what I was. I got dragged into this mess. So I’ll sleep with whoever the hell I want, I’ll text whoever the hell I want, and nothing gives you the right to tell me what I should do. So mind your own goddamn business and stop dragging me into your petty little grudges, because I don’t want to be involved.”


What you gonna do? Luciana thought as Atticus said an empty threat to her, though what he said next just made her laugh a little bit before regaining her composure. “You think we have a choice to be villains Att? I didn’t choose to be a villain. You know this, you know I went to the heroes when I was younger and they made the choice for me to be a villain. I had to become a villain or die a weakling.” Luciana said, anger starting to build up in her. If it was any other person besides Atticus arguing with her, she would’ve acted by now, plus she couldn’t really walk around the gala with blood on her and not be suspicious.

Att just scowled in frustration as Lucy recounted how she didn’t have a choice on becoming a villain. “This isn’t about you, Lucy. I know you didn’t have a choice. But you didn’t leave me with much of one either. And this is my life. And instead of being happy for me, or acknowledge that it’s my goddamn choice who I sleep with, you’ve been a selfish bitch about it and have tried to ruin my life just because you have a grudge against him because of what some people did years and years ago.” Somewhere, out in the main ballroom, he could hear what sounded like people yelling, presumably Dhani and Malfyre’s distraction. At least something was going to plan.

While Atticus talked, Luciana was getting more and more frustrated, she was about to interrupt and say that talking about this now wasn’t worth it and they needed to head back to the ballroom, but a word out of his mouth ticked her off. Bitch. Everything Att said after calling her a bitch she didn’t hear, she just stared into his eyes, as she was now at her peak. Lucy saw his mouth stop moving and blinked a couple times, and then slapped him across the face, not caring about hitting her hand on his mask. “Bitch? I’ll showing you a fucking bitch. Fuck you Atticus. Seriously. Fuck. You. I’ve looked out for you, protected you, while other villains wanted to either toss you aside or torture you. But I’m the bitch? Fine. I’ll leave you alone, invite your little hero lover to the apartment anytime you want.” She shouted towards him and quickly walked away.

Lucy didn’t stop as she came into the main room, but just continued out the door, bumping into a few patrons on the way out. She was furious but also trying to hold back tears as she got outside. Luciana quickly found the limo driver parked off to the side and climbed in, but only to change into spare clothes she brought in case. The driver asked her if she was ready to leave, but she just ignored him as she changed and handed him his payment for the night, not expecting to come back. After she got changed she exited the limo and just started walking down the street, unsure of where she was going. As she got far enough away she ripped off her mask and tossed it into an alley way as she kept walking.

It seemed that Lucy had only heard one word of what he’d said, and that single word resulted in a slap that left his face stinging and nearly knocked his mask off. She screamed at him, talking about how she’d protected him, as if this whole thing hadn’t been entirely all her suggestion. He hadn’t asked for any of this. She stormed off and Att sighed, pulling his mask off and running his hands down his face. He could have stormed out himself then, but he needed to keep his calm. Anger was dangerous, and anger could put them in danger. One person storming out was acceptable. Multiple people could raise questions. He took a deep breath and fixed his mask, regaining his composure. He’d just stepped back out into the ballroom when Dhani’s voice appeared in his earpiece. The curt briefing made Att tense up, afraid something had gone horribly wrong. He instinctively found himself scanning the room, searching for him. His eyes found him and the overwhelming emotion was just relief that he was okay. He had to force himself to look away, remembering that he still had a job to do.

xx
BludWynd spoke, first explaining his relationship with Paladin and Malfyre-which was more information than she wanted to know, honestly-and then he elaborated that the two were unpredictable. Be on the lookout for anything. Wonderful. From what she knew, Piper could understand calling Malfyre predictable. Maybe Paladin seemed unpredictable, but everyone who was more than a half-rate criminal knew exactly what to do to rile him up or throw him off their trail. It was like he was some sort of computer: push the right buttons, and you’d get your desired outcome. Something told her that the other heroes (or, at least, BludWynd) didn’t see it that way. Or maybe no one else in their little group viewed each other in such a pragmatic way. Piper wasn’t a fighter, so she had to learn people’s weaknesses, use them against them.

Speaking of weaknesses, Piper was Luciana from across the room. She was talking to some man, maybe her mark. Piper was busy trying to keep track of everything; a mistake meant that someone could get hurt. Could die. She didn’t really care about most of the people she was working with, but she did not want to get caught up in anything dangerous. She was in no mood to die, and she’d just gotten her hair done. As she glanced back over, Piper noticed Luciana pointing to the man she was with. At first, Piper’s instinct was that Lucy was in trouble, but after she processed the word Luciana had mouthed, ‘bachelor’ she understood what was going on. That could be a disaster.

For a moment, Piper felt helpless. She knew this wasn’t the intended order of events, and that this could potentially end very badly. She quickly found herself scanning the room for Atticus. Truth be told, she didn’t know him well, but he was meant to be Lucy’s partner for the night, and he might be able to keep her on task. Maybe. Atticus looked busy, which was good. He was doing his job. A voice went out over her earpiece. Artemis. They were successful, good. The chain of events that occurred after that were a mixed bag. Atticus was practically storming across the room, and shortly afterwards it seemed as though Paladin and Malfyre were starting their distraction. Maybe things would turn around. After a few moments, though, Piper found herself glancing over at BludWynd, almost as if to gauge his thoughts on current events. It was hard to read someone with a mask on, much less one as theatrical as they were both wearing. “Do you ever wish you’d done something different with your life? I’d be at home right now if I were an accountant.” She wasn’t entirely sure why she’d said it, other than that this life was hard in the best of times, and now it was only harder. The thought occurred to her that she had the option to stop all of this and move on to a normal life. It was tempting.

Then she spotted Luciana storming out of the ballroom, and presumably out of the building. “Excuse me,” Lucy was the only friend Piper really had, she hadn’t made a habit of making friends since she’d left her hometown. Becoming friends with The Red Witch was, in earnest, an investment in Piper’s future, but it had also become a relationship filled with some real comradery. Maybe it wasn’t the deepest or most meaningful friendship, but it was what Piper had. A part of her wanted to chase after Luciana, but she had a job to do. Paladin’s voice was in her ear next. What was happening? Everything seemed to be crashing down around her. She’d gone from never going on any missions, to being right in the middle of one that felt like it was crashing down on top of her.

She needed to talk to Icarus, and it didn’t take long for her to reach him. She rested a gentle hand on his arm, “Hey, what happened?” Of course, this was partly utilitarian; she needed to know if she had to step in anywhere. But she also cared. Sure, she probably could have asked over the communication system they had in place, but that didn't seem right to her.

Cerys scanned the room as she stepped back into the main ballroom, searching for a familiar face to go talk to. Dhani was perhaps the easiest to spot. She only knew a handful of people who could wear a suit like that and pull it off, so when combined with his height, he was easy to pick out. He seemed to be arguing with somebody, however, so she figured it was probably best to just stay away from that. She stayed moving around the crowd, eager not to appear suspicious, watching the whole time to see if she was needed anywhere.

She jumped a little as Dhani’s voice spoke in her earpiece, saying that they hadn’t been successful. She frowned, and scanned the room to see if anything had happened. There seemed to be a lot more security about, but no obvious disturbance. When she heard somebody calling her by her alias, she feared the worst. When she turned around to look, she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not to see another partygoer. But she didn’t recognise the woman, even as she closed in. But the heat behind the slap, more heat than there should have been, was the first clue, and her threat was the second. Cerys just stared as the woman walked away, trying to gather herself. People were staring. So she shrugged and laughed lightly. “Wait until she finds out about her boyfriend’s other mistresses,” she said, sipping lightly on her champagne as she walked away. People thrived on gossip, and it might be enough to distract some of them.

Intending on leaving, she slipped out into the hall as Aaron came on the mic to say Malfyre had left. Clearly something had happened with her and Dhani’s distraction then. She’d have to get the details from someone later. She jumped a little as she noticed someone else in the hall, but she recognised the figure. “Aaron? Jesus Christ, you would not believe the night I’ve had-” she started, but stopped herself as she spotted the blood on his hands. “Shit, by the looks of it, you’ve had a worse one. Are you okay?” She asked.

He’d always been good at faking comfort in a party, and this was nothing new. This was just another one of his parents’ mixers, an excuse for them to talk business and entertain and show off their power. If anything, this was easier, because here, he just had to blend in, not be the weapon he was supposed to be. He just needed to wait until it was appropriate to leave, and then do so without being noticed.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand on his arm, but sighed when it was just Aboleth. He sighed as she asked what was wrong, just shaking his head. “One of the guys from The Bachelor is here, and… Lucy got talking to him when she was supposed to be distracting her mark, and her mark was free to roam around. I yelled at her about that and… we had a bit of an argument, I might have called her a bitch, and she stormed out. It’s fine, she probably just needs a couple of hours to calm down.” He said, with a shrug, never quite meeting Piper’s eyes. Part of it was guilt, part of it was just a habit from knowing what her ability entailed. While glancing away, he could see more and more security starting to appear around the room, clearly trying and failing to blend in. Security never could blend in right, no matter how much they tried. They were like cops, they stood out if you knew how to look for them.

“Listen, I think we need to get out of here,” he said. “Security seems to have doubled, and I’m guessing they know something is up. We should leave before they start asking questions.” He eyed up the nearest guard as he spoke. He knew that they’d be looking for anyone who stood out, and he unfortunately fit that brief. “Can… can you check in with Lucy? She’s not going to talk to me and I need to know if I need to avoid the apartment or not,” he joked, but it sounded as forced as it felt. “Thanks.”

He turned and headed for the exit. He fully intended on just leaving, but BludWynd’s voice in his earpiece made him slow. Malfyre had left. Exactly how badly had things gone? He didn’t want to linger any longer, but he found his gaze drawn towards Dhani again. He pulled out his phone and sent a text.

To: Dhani
Are you okay?

And then, after a moment;

I’m outside. Can we talk?

Once he got outside, he pulled off his mask and his jacket, knowing the colour of his suit and the mask were too identifying if anyone started asking questions. Their limo was still there, the driver just playing a game on his phone. Lucy hadn’t taken the limo home then, and Att almost instinctively raised an eyebrow. He was surprised that she hadn’t taken it if only to force him to walk or get a taxi home.

Dhani never minded parties, but this wasn’t the sort of party he was accustomed to. Add the guilt of having yelled at Kieran and ruined their entire purpose of being there, the general awkwardness of being all by yourself in the middle of a big fancy party, and the embarrassment of… Whatever was going on with Atticus; he honestly just wanted to go home. Aaron’s voice in his ear, saying Kieran had left, only made it worse. He felt responsible for the way things had happened. Maybe he could have worked harder on staying with Kieran, or found her sooner, or been gentler.

Then he got the text. Initially, he decided on just ignoring the text. He felt justified in that, after what he’d seen and been through. He noticed security popping up around the room, too. Dhani wondered if a day would come when an influx of security guards didn’t make him feel nervous. Probably not. Another text, also from Atticus. A part of him really didn’t want to talk to Att. He needed to leave, that much was true, but he needed to walk out the door and head straight home. There was no explanation that would make all of this okay, so Dhani didn’t see much of a point in letting Att try.

And yet, there was another part of Dhani that started looking for Att the moment he stepped outside. He wanted Atticus to explain that it was nothing, just a big misunderstanding. He was feeling guilty, upset, angry. He just wanted something about the night to be okay. So he found Att, walked over; he wasn’t sure what to say, but he was pretty sure he should say something. In the end, all he said was, “Hey.”

Att spotted Dhani the minute he stepped outside the building, but he hung back, wanting to talk somewhat out of sight. There was a moment when he thought Dhani was just going to keep walking, just ignore him, a moment that troubled Atticus more than he wanted to admit. He didn’t know why Dhani had gotten under his skin in the way he had.

But then Dhani turned and made his way over to Att, and he could breathe a sigh of relief. “Hey,” he said. “You look great.” The compliment slipped out easily, even though he hadn’t really intended on saying it. “So… Red Witch told me about her little visit to your apartment. I’m so sorry about that, I… genuinely have no idea how she found out and she had absolutely no right to do it,” he said. “She… she didn’t hurt you or anything, did she?”

Dhani smiled at the compliment, and nodded in lieu of thanks. Normally, it would have been great to hear, but he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to hear it. Then Atticus brought up Red Witch breaking into his apartment. Dhani shook his head, “No. Nobody was hurt. She just broke my coffee pot, threatened my neighbor. Standard stuff.” Dhani crossed his arms over his chest, closing himself off. “Red Witch doesn’t scare me, I’m pretty used to being threatened. Besides, I think I understand it now.”

Att wasn’t even surprised to hear that Lucy had caused a little destruction in the course of her visit, but was at least relieved to hear nobody had been hurt. Att just raised an eyebrow as Dhani said he wasn’t scared of her. He was one of the very few people who weren’t, and Att wouldn’t have blamed him. But then again, Dhani was a hero. People like Lucy were probably nothing new, and besides, increased healing didn’t exactly play well with blood manipulation.

There was a moment when Att wasn’t sure why Dhani said he understood it. But of course, they’d appeared the perfect couple all evening, and she’d even kissed him. Why wouldn’t anyone believe them? He just sighed, shaking his head.

“Dhani, that was an act. I swear. She went too far, it was supposed to just be the dance and if anyone asked, we were engaged. That was all, that was all I agreed to. There’s nothing going on. We’re just friends.”

He wanted to just completely believe Atticus; it would have been really easy. Truth or not, it didn’t matter, because it was what he wanted to hear. And, obviously, it made perfect sense. But Dhani had had enough negative life experiences to be a little wary. Still, he nodded. “Okay,” He didn’t sound the most convinced, but Dhani knew that Atticus hadn’t owed him any explanations or anything in the first place.

Dhani sighed, relaxing his shoulders as he did. He didn’t realize how tense he’d been until then. “The dance really was impressive.” They had clearly put a lot of work into it. It had at least gone better than Dhani’s distraction. But Att had said that Red Witch took it too far. Dhani looked over Atticus for a moment, carefully considering that. “You okay?” He paused, then quickly added, “These things are a lot, even without someone springing something new and changing up your plans.”

The awkwardness of the moment hung between them, even as Dhani nodded. God, why couldn’t things just be straightforward for once? But Dhani’s compliment about the dance managed to earn a smile from Att, even despite that. “Thanks. You probably don’t want to know about the amount of times I dropped her,” he said, laughing a little.

He just shrugged as Dhani asked if he was okay. “I… just been one of those nights, I guess. The kiss was… weird,” he said, managing a half smile. “God, the mission was the easy part. I can handle stuff like that in my sleep, I’ve been doing it all my life. But... things didn’t exactly go to plan, and the only reason things didn’t end up worse is because we got lucky. And having what should be two entirely separate parts of your life come smashing into each other, it’s just… messy.” He shook his head a little. “Sorry, I just… Yeah, I’m fine.” It felt like a lie, even though it was mostly true. He felt like he was still “on duty” and that meant showing as few weaknesses as possible. And if you showed weakness, you covered it up as soon as you could.

Dhani would be lying if he said the mental image of Atticus dropping Red Witch didn’t make him smile. She’d broken his window, and generally made his life more difficult than it had to be, so there was a part of him that did want to hear about Att dropping her.

He listened intently as Atticus spoke, briefly recapping the night and how it affected him. Dhani understood it, or, some of it. He felt his heart break a little when Att said he’d been doing things like this all his life. Dhani had to wonder what kind of life he’d lived for that to be his experience. He wasn’t about to ask, but it was certainly going to be on his mind. He shook his head when Atticus apologised, “No, I understand.” He didn’t think the night had gone as planned for anyone. A part of Dhani wanted to reassure Atticus that it was okay; it was okay to make mistakes, or be vulnerable. Whatever he needed to hear. But Dhani didn’t know what Atticus needed, and it didn’t seem like the right time, anyway.

He glanced over his shoulder, almost as if he were expecting someone. He felt so awkward, he almost wished that someone had been there. “I’m pretty conspicuous,” As far as excuses went, it wasn’t the best one, but it was true, “Probably shouldn’t hang around too long.”

The awkwardness was still lingering, practically tangible in the air between them. It felt so wrong, but Att didn’t know what he could do about it. Maybe things were just going to be like this now. It was probably never going to work anyway. They’d just been naive.

He nodded as Dhani said he was a bit conspicuous. “Yeah, we should… probably get going,” he said. “Do you need a ride home?” He asked. “Red Witch left me with the limo so may as well get my money’s worth out of it.”

Dhani hadn’t even checked to see if Kieran had left him stranded (and even if she had, it wasn’t as if he was without options), but something about Atticus offering him a ride home had Dhani feeling… something. Excited, maybe. He should say no, though. He could get home on his own, and Att was probably just offering to be nice. “I, uh,”

But as he looked at Atticus, Dhani realized that he really would like nothing more, which just made things that much more complicated. “Thank you,” He offered a soft smile, “But you don’t have to go out of your way or anything. Very gentlemanly of you, though.” The last thing Dhani wanted was to be in the way, or be inconvenient. He’d made enough of a mess that evening with his fight with Kieran.

God, that night in the bar, Att was pretty sure neither of them had envisaged them ending up like this, the silence feeling weighted with… what? The history between them? Everything that had just happened? What they (or, at least, Att) wanted, but knew was a bad decision? Part of him almost regretted offering now, maybe things would have been more straightforward then.

Dhani’s remark about the offer being gentlemanly made Att smile, and he shrugged a little. “Well, you know me, the perfect image of a gentleman,” he joked. “And I’m pretty sure your place is en route anyway. But there’s no pressure, if you’d rather get a taxi, that’s totally fine, I won’t be offended,” he said with a slight laugh. “Just doing the gentlemanly thing.”

As Att spoke, Dhani couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing. He liked Att, a lot more than he ever expected to. He was so used to ending things before they really started, but here he was with a guy that knew everything that he was, could understand how demanding his life really was. “You know,” He paused mid-sentence; Att really had him rethinking everything he thought he knew. Of course, he’d always logically known that villains were people, but it was so easy to file them away, count them off, forget that they, too, had a different life under the mask. Maybe it was a little hypocritical, but it wasn’t anything he’d spent any length of time thinking about until he saw Atticus in that warehouse.

But what was he supposed to say? He’d always told himself that when he found someone that could understand what he did, that he wouldn’t let him slip through his fingers. Maybe he said that because he’d thought it would never happen. Or that the guy would be a hero, or a reporter… or something.

“It’s been a shitty night. I’d love for something to just feel normal,” Dhani shrugged, “Ish.” He smiled at Att, “I’d like a ride, yes.” There were a lot of things he’d like from Att.

Somebody had once asked him how he could tell the difference between a vision and a dream. Usually, it was the sheer clarity. It felt like he was there. Sometimes it was like he was the one dying. Sometimes he was the one responsible. He never knew which was better. Sometimes, he could feel the pain if he was the one dying. But the ones where he was responsible were a haunting echo of his old life, and left him questioning if he was actually going to be the one responsible. But this time round, he knew exactly which position he would have preferred to be in. Because as bad as it was to experience the pain and trauma of being killed… it couldn’t be worse than seeing his hand pulling the trigger of the gun that was against Lucy’s head.

He bolted upright, the dream still lingering in his head, far, far too vivid to be anything other than a vision. Nausea rose in him as he tried to catch his breath, still feeling like there was someone sitting on his chest. His head was spinning from the sudden movement, but he fought back against his body’s protests to reach over and grab his phone, struggling to read the texts at first. There was a moment of relief when he saw the texts from Piper, but as he read the texts and the screenshots within, the nausea and panic became almost overwhelming. But when he went to actually get to his feet, his head spun so much that he felt like his legs wouldn’t support him. He didn’t have time for this, he needed to do something now. He just sank back onto the bed and squinted at his phone, looking for the number. It rang, which settled his anxiety a little, but she didn’t answer. Of course she didn’t, why would she? She was mad at him, that was all.

“Lucy, if you get this, call me, it’s urgent.” He doubted she’d check her voicemail if she thought it was from him though, so he sent a text as well.

To: Lucy
Call me, it’s urgent.

Was he too late? The rational part of him told him that no, he was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to happen for another few days at least, but he also knew that it was always a vague timeframe anyway. He didn’t have time to hesitate, didn’t have time to wait around. He needed to tell someone, he needed to do something before it was too late.

He didn’t know what made him pick that number first of all. Maybe he thought that Dhani could help the most, maybe he knew that Dhani could probably contact the rest of the heroes, or maybe it was the same goddamn reason he’d offered him a ride home the night before.

He hesitated for a minute, wanting to call him. He wanted to hear a friendly voice, wanted to hear someone tell him he would be okay. But another wave of nausea hit him and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t capable of holding a coherent conversation. Texting was just about as much as he could manage.

To: Dhani
I need your help- rw in trouble and only gonna get worse if I don’t do something

He wanted to deal with this like they always had, as few people as possible, but if they were as short on time as he thought, they couldn’t afford that. Lucy couldn’t afford that.

To: Dhani
can you contact the others? things are real bad and we need to meet asap

He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what he should do, and hated how scared and useless he felt. He hadn’t felt like this in years, it hadn’t been this personal in years. It wasn’t like he wasn’t freaked out by every vision he had, but this was just… a whole other level. He had to do something and had to do it soon, and that was just making it worse. And sitting here feeling sorry for himself wasn’t good enough. He managed to get to his feet and get dressed, making his way out to the kitchen to make coffee, watching his phone the whole time. He knew he needed to text Piper as well, get her help on it, but something in him told him to wait until he’d heard from Dhani.

Everything seemed perfectly normal the morning after. Cerys had been doing this for years, and it never failed to amaze her how normal life just carried on, despite what had happened behind the scenes. Ignorance really was bliss, it seemed. And she knew that the gala really wouldn’t have had a major impact, not compared to other things she’d seen. But it had seemed so momentous to all of them that the fact that it had passed everyone else by always felt a little strange.

She was a little later going on her run that morning, having slept in a little later than usual on account of the late night. But the grogginess didn’t take long to shift as she ran her usual route, the music pounding in her ears. She wasn’t quite sure why she noticed the group of individuals or why she slowed to a walk to observe them, pausing her music and pulling out her headphones. But once she understood their topic of conversation, her blood ran cold. She stayed walking past them, not wanting to draw attention to herself, but looped around the block to slip down an alleyway where she could listen without risking being noticed. And as a precaution, she hit record on her phone as she edged as close as she dared to them.

“-seems reasonable to assume that if Red Witch was there, Icarus was more than likely also in attendance. They’re known associates and have worked together in the past. We have reason to believe Gemini may have been in attendance.”
“Two villains that are known to work together and a single hero isn’t much to work off of. We need more evidence that some of the others were there before we can bring this to her.”
“How are we supposed to do that? Icarus, Red Witch, and Gemini were all there under aliases and it was a masked event.”
“I don’t care how you get it, just figure it out. She’ll want to know about this. If the mutants are taking action, she needs to know. Find what you can.”

Cerys pressed herself into the shadow of the alley as they walked past, unaware that they were being spied on. She sent the recording to Dhani and Aaron as she caught her breath with the caption, “We have a problem.”

She fully intended on following them, but by the time she looked up from her phone, they’d disappeared. She swore silently to herself and went in the direction she last saw them heading in, but they were gone. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. Nothing she could do about it now. So she put her headphones back in and finished her run, mulling the whole situation over the whole way.

She got home and jumped into the shower, already trying to figure out if there was anything that could give her away. She’d had her mask on the whole time she was there, and she’d gone straight home. But the only reason they’d done that was because her dress had been entirely impractical for going to a bar. She’d had a lucky escape, really.

She sat down at her laptop, fully intending on doing some work. But she found her mind wandering and her eyes focusing on her phone instead of what she was supposed to be doing. It could be nothing. They could find nothing. But she felt like that wasn’t the case, like they were sitting ducks if they were just going to sit and wait.

xx
There was just something about the morning after a big mission (Dhani considered anything that involved any sort of undercover identity to be a “big deal.”) that felt unnaturally normal. Dhani was always half expecting someone to jump out at any moment, like some cartoon villain (he should know better about how villains operate, really) to say they’d found him out, it was over, he was done for. This fear used to be constant, but like anything when you do it for a decade, over time it had settled. Only flared up on occasion, when life threw a big wrench in his plans. But with people actually out to kill him, he didn’t feel so paranoid anymore. He also knew that at least some of those feelings came directly from fighting with Kieran the night before.

He felt bad about it. He’d meant the things he said at the time, but it had been less than fair to bring it up at the time. Growing up with two sisters, he’d learned pretty quickly that peace offerings in the form of something edible tended to make it easier to bridge the gap between hurt feelings and awkward apologies. Breakfast would probably be a good place to start.

He felt his phone go off in his pocket, but it took him a minute to get to it. Initially, when he pulled out his phone and saw the texts from Att, he was thrilled. The night before had been undeniably awkward, and he figured that things were ruined between them. It made sense, things probably couldn’t work out between them, anyway. As he read the messages, though, a sort of quiet worry set in. If Red Witch was in trouble, what did that mean for Att? Dhani wasn’t sure how close they were, but he knew they were friends.

0Atticus:
Of course. Are you okay?

Dhani didn’t waste any time. His immediate reaction was calling Gemini. Really, Adrian was who Dhani wanted to talk to. He was pretty level-headed, and he could help Dhani get his head wrapped around the whole thing. Dhani wasn’t much of a planner, so he needed all the help he could get. Adrian picked up the phone, and immediately started going on about the night before. “Yeah, that’s great. Listen; Icarus contacted me, and apparently Red Witch is in trouble. I don’t know any details, but he needs our help.” They quickly made plans for a meeting in a few hours. Adrian asked if he needed any help contacting the others, but Dhani told him he had it under control.

But then there was the matter of actually letting everyone know. He messaged the details to Att first, quickly followed by another text.

0Atticus:
I don’t have Aboleth’s contact information. Pass the message along?

He sent the meeting details to Kieran and Aaron in a group text; he was hoping that Aaron could help get Kieran on board. She tended to be slightly difficult even when she wasn’t upset with Dhani, so he wasn’t taking any chances.

He finally got around to Cerys’ message then, and he replayed her recording several times before messaging her back.

0Cerys:
This might be important. Red Witch is in trouble, don’t know much more than that. Having a meeting.

He followed up with the details: time, location of the shady abandoned warehouse of the week, a curt “thank you,” for agreeing to attend the meeting was included, though he’d sent it before she had the chance to agree.

Now Dhani had to get ready for this meeting. None of the news he'd received had been anything he'd wanted to hear, and to make matters worse, he’d burned his breakfast.

Most of the time when couples have fights, one is able to slam the door in the other person’s face while yelling from across the room, give the other person silent treatment, or just walk out of the house and getting some time alone with your thoughts. But that’s for most normal couples, and Adrian and Jena were the farthest thing from a normal couple. If someone was to watch them having an argument, they would just think it’s a crazy person yelling at themself most of the time and probably call someone to help for this, and the night of the Gala was not any different for Gemini.

The taxi ride home was filled with silence, not just in the physical space of the taxi cab but in the head of Gemini. After the taxi driver tried to give a little bit of small talk to the fancy dressed woman in his back seat and got short replies back, he just turned up the music and drove through the city until getting to the apartment the woman had asked for. Jena dug into her purse and just handed the man a single hundred dollar bill, more than enough to cover the meter charge, letting the man keep the change. She carried her heels in her opposite hand that held her purse as she walked up the stairs, still in silence But as soon as the door shut to their apartment and walked over to the large mirror taking up most of the wall in the living room, the arguing and fight began and continued throughout the night.

The argument was mostly one-sided as Jena was pissed off at Adrian and his, what she would call, affair with Artemis. Accusing him of always being the one to work with her when in the public eye and that she hasn’t been blind and seen how the public basically ships the hero pair of Artemis and the water-controller Gemini, especially after a case where he used water from hydrant to soften a semi truck being thrown at her. Adrian did his best to calm down the situation, and somehow succeeded in convincing her ‘it wont happen again’ and it was just to save them from being out.

The night ended with Jena eventually laying on the bed and tears in her eyes, apologizing to Adrian, saying how much she loved him and sometimes they are only together because they have to be because of their condition and what happened. Adrian of course forgave her and told her he would be with her even if they didn’t share bodies, and them being two souls in one body isn’t a burden, but a benefit as they can be closer than any other couple, ever. The two fell asleep after a few more minutes of telling each other they loved each other and doing their little ritual of taking turns writing lovey-dovey stuff on a note pad while the other doesn’t pay attention and then letting them read it. Adrian had always believed to never go to bed angry, and has pushed this heavily in his relationship with Jena.

The next morning, Adrian took over the body and let Jena sleep in a bit, as well as making a small breakfast for the two of them. Just as Adrian sat down and started eating her got a call from Paladin. The two weren’t strangers to chatting so it didn’t surprise him that much to see him calling him. Probably to check in about what happened and probably ask about their next move. “Hey man, sorry about last night, not everything went perfect, but we did get a hard-drive, assuming Art told you about that?” He said as he answered the call.

Dhani talked fast, quickly telling him about what one of the villain’s had told him about. A little confused about why a villain would have reached out to Paladin, but dismissed it as he listened and while he didn’t say much and only it was about Red Witch. The two continue to talk, suggesting and setting up a meeting time and place in a couple hours. It would work best for everyone and give them time to get ready and get there without having to rush too much. He asked if Dhani needed help contacting some of the others, but Dhani had it under control. Adrian thought about waking up Jena right then after hanging up, but gave her another thirty minutes, gave him time to finish eating and clean the kitchen, as well get ready himself.

Just as Adrian got done getting ready, Jena woke up and Adrian told her about the meeting soon, letting her take control . “Ugh, you should’ve woken me up so I could get ready!” She said as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I still had to get ready too you know. There’s breakfast in the kitchen, you still have time to get ready and eat. He replied in their mind. Also, why do you always look so beautiful in the morning He said, making Jena blush as she started getting ready.

After eating Jena finally left for the warehouse, a little later than she planned. Adrian teased her a bit about it, but she kept saying it was his fault for not waking her up. As Jena entered through the side door of the warehouse, she saw Artemis was also arriving right when she was. You should talk to her babe… Adrian quickly said to her, Jena letting out a sigh and agreed, before walking over to her.

Jena lightly tapped her fellow hero on the shoulder and did a small fake cough to get her attention. “Hey Arty…” She said shyly. “I, I wanted to apologize for last night. I over reacted and shouldn’t have done that. Just… stuff pent up, and you know how those forums are. I guess I accidentally let jealousy take over.” She continued, eyes drifting away from her for a second. “So, sorry…” Jena wasn’t sure if her apology sounded genuine or not, but hoped it would be received well.

Cerys had just about managed to start to focus on her work when her phone buzzed with a text from Dhani. She swore silently at the news about Red Witch. There was no love lost between them, but after what she’d learned that morning, it probably wasn’t the best news for any of them. If Dhani had just texted her out of the blue to say something had happened to Red Witch, she wasn’t sure that she would have shown up. But she had important knowledge she needed to share, and so she felt almost obliged to at least share that information.

She at least managed to get some work done for a few hours before leaving to go to the meeting. She’d also spent a few minutes cleaning up the recording a little so the voices were clearer and easier to identify, and spent half an hour backing up everything important to a remote hard drive, made sure she had nothing incriminating easily accessible, and double checked to make sure she was still ahead of schedule with her work. When you were liable to have to take a day or two off due to getting your ass kicked while on patrol, you learned to never leave articles or blog posts until the very last minute.

She knew she wasn’t going to be able to go to the meeting in full Artemis gear. It was too early in the day and too easy to be spotted. She knew that that didn’t mean the meeting was going to necessarily be safe, though. It was about striking a balance between blending in and still being practical, which meant leaving her outfit as it was, but wrapping her knuckles and pulling on a pair of gloves, braiding her hair out of her face, and shoving her mask into her pocket. She didn’t trust everyone enough to show up to a meeting without her mask.

She stopped only briefly outside the warehouse to pull on her mask, arriving a few minutes early. She stepped inside, scanning the room and keeping her arms folded. Everyone looked as on edge as she felt, which was oddly comforting. She almost jumped out of her skin when somebody coughed behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around to see the female part of Gemini standing behind her, and let out a sigh of relief.

She smiled and shook her head a little as she apologized for how she’d reacted. “It’s fine, really. I don’t think I blame you. And by the ways, those forums are total bullshit, some of their theories are batshit insane. Like, shipping Paladin with a villain level of insane,” she joked. “So we’re good. You have nothing to worry about.”

She turned to look as Icarus cleared his throat, stepping out of the shadows where he’d been lurking.

He’d managed to drink most of the coffee he’d made, but eating something still seemed a little far beyond him. Atticus knew he should do something productive, but he couldn’t bring himself to do any more than pace around the apartment. What could he do? What could he do that would help the situation?

The buzzing of his phone almost made him jump, and even seeing it was Dhani didn’t help. But he had at least agreed to help, and it meant no matter what else, Att wasn’t alone in this. And that was a start. The question of if he was okay went unanswered. He didn’t want to lie but he also didn’t want to worry Dhani by being overly honest about it. So he just… didn’t reply until Dhani sent a text with meeting details.

To: Dhani
yeah, I can pass that on. thanks, I really appreciate it.

To: Piper
Lucy missing, in real danger. Meeting the heroes in a few hours to figure it out. Here’s the details.

The meeting was still a few hours away, and Att tried to put his mind to something productive. But it wasn’t like he had any skills that would be particularly useful, not when he had zero leads and nothing more than a vision to go on. He had a vague sense of time frame and next to no sense of where it would happen, which was completely useless. Lucy’s room was completely untouched, exactly as it had been when they left the apartment the night before. Useless.

He was tempted to see if he could trigger another vision, but he’d never tried to do it for someone he’d already had a vision for, and didn’t even know if it would work. It worked much better with physical contact anyway, and knowing his luck, it would drain him far too much for him to be of any use at the meeting. He also knew that there was a big, big risk that this could be a trap. Take one of them, cause them all to flock together, then pick them off. But they had to meet, they had to figure it out, they had to do something, he had to do something.

He didn’t even check how he looked before he left, just pulled on a warm coat, shoved his mask in his pocket, and made sure he was carrying enough weapons for a worst case scenario. He’d gotten his hands on another gun in return for a favour, a necessary evil. (They were going to die in a police shootout, in a blaze of glory, and they seemed pleased with that.)

It seemed that most of the others were there by the time he arrived. He stuck to the edges, as always, the exits in clear view. He stared straight at the ground, only glancing up to see if anyone else had arrived.

Once it seemed that everyone else that was coming was there, he shot a glance at Dhani. Dhani had, strictly speaking, called the meeting, but Att was the reason they were all there, so it seemed he should be the one to talk, as much as he didn’t want to. He cleared his throat to gather their attention.

“Thanks for coming at such late notice. I’ll get straight to the point.” He scanned the room, as he spoke, but couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. “Red Witch is going to be killed in the next few days unless I- we- do something. And she didn’t come home last night, so I can only presume that we don’t have a lot of time. I’m not going to force anyone to stay or to help, but… she will die if we don’t do anything, and we can only presume one of us will be next.”

His phone started buzzing in his pocket, and he dug it out, intending to silence it. But he froze as he saw the name on it. Almost instinctively, he turned to glance at Dhani. “It’s her.”

There was a moment of relief at her finally contacting him, enough that he didn’t think the fact it was a video call was odd, he just answered it. “Lu- Red Witch, where are you?” He said, until he realised what he was looking at. “Oh my god.”He whirled around to set eyes on Malfyre. “Come on, you’re a hacker, trace the call or something! Get the phone connected to your laptop, do something!” He yelled.

Jena let out a bit of a giggle when Cerys brought up some of the wild crack ships some of the citizens think of and the edits they somehow make. “You’re so right, still I hate it that they think me and my other half are brother and sister.” Jena said, making a fake throw up noise and face. She smiled and was glad Cerys didn’t take offense to how she acted at the gala. See, wasn’t all that bad Jen, maybe now they will make ships about you two. Adrian spoke and chuckled a bit to Jena, Jena just shaking her head in response as her and Artemis entered the main room, standing next to each other as others started to arrive and wait for the meeting to start.

Adrian only said the meeting was something about the heroes and more would be explained at the meeting, so Jena wasn’t entirely sure what was going on and tapped her foot waiting for someone to start and say something, starting to get a bit impatient. She was about to speak up and say something, but Icarus cleared his throat and began to speak. The first few words surprised Jena and Adrian. That Red Witch was going to die in a few days. He must have seen something with his powers. Jena said to Adrian, Mhmm… He replied as they continued to listen to the villain.

Gemini knew they would help and weren’t just going to leave the villain to die. First off, it wouldn’t be the hero way to just let someone die without trying to save, but also they needed the Red Witch as much as they needed the rest of the group. Adrian was about to ask Jena to let him take over so he could talk and try to come up with a plan of trying to find the Red Witch and what to do, when Icarus picked up his ringing phone and said it was her, though it was more directed at Paladin.

Jena tensed up a bit when she caught sight of the screen, seeing a woman with what seemed like blonde hair restrained to a chair with a bag over her head. Icarus started to freak out a bit, yelling at Malfyre to trace the call and get it hooked up to her laptop, which she had already pulled out before the meeting started. Malfyre worked fast and got the phone connected to the laptop so everyone in the room could see what's going on, as well as another screen with a ton of stuff quickly flowing down, probably just Malfyre things.

Gemini let out a small gasp as the villain was hit, and began speaking, but in a weird manner which Jena noted. “She must be being fed what to say…” Gemini whispered out loud to the others as the villain continued to speak. Though what happened next scared Jena. Red Witch shouted towards them, specifically at Aboleth and Icarus. Jena let out a bit more audible gasp and instinctively grabbed onto Artemis as the villain was struck and interrupted, the video feed quickly cutting off as there was more yelling coming from the video.

As they stared at a blank screen, Jena noticed she was still grabbing onto Artemis and let go quickly, followed by a quiet sorry. Jena, let me take over… Take some time to relax. Adrian said, Jena just nodded and Adrian took over, taking a step forward. “Hey!” He said loudly to get their attention. “Alot just happened, and we don’t want to act rashly. Malfyre is, what I’m assuming, trying to track location of the phone. Icarus said a few days, that gives us some time to think of something. Anyone got any ideas?”

xx
Piper had tried to call Lucy, like Atticus had asked, but she didn’t pick up. She didn’t think much of it when Lucy texted her shortly after, and just screenshot the messages to send to Att. After that, she was done with the situation. They could work out their roommate drama themselves.

The next morning, she went about her usual routine: yoga, light breakfast, shower, get ready for the day, look over her schedule. It was important for her to stay on top of the jobs she took; sometimes people requested her talents very last-minute, and she didn’t want to double-book herself again. That had been messy.

All together, though, she was looking forward to a normal day. She didn’t have much to do, which she didn’t mind at all. She was just starting to mentally plan out her day when she got a text from Atticus, and her blood ran cold. Of course she would be there, and she shot back a quick text, saying as much. Lucy was her friend, and she would do what she could to get her back. Though, Piper wasn’t sure that she could do much, really.

There wasn’t much to do to get ready for the meeting. Strictly speaking, Piper didn’t even have any sort of “uniform” to change into; she hardly even had a consistent mask. Though, she did wish she hadn’t gone through the trouble of applying lipstick. That would just get ruined. All she was really worried about was showing up on time. As per usual, she wore her mask around her neck, like some sort of a scarf, until she’d nearly arrived at the meeting place.

Just once, she would like to have a meeting in a place that didn’t look like it might collapse on top of them at any moment. She didn’t think that was too much to ask for.

It wasn’t very long before everyone had arrived. Most of the group was always on time, and Piper commended them for that. Especially now. She knew that many of the heroes weren’t the fondest of Lucy, so the fact that they would come out to help her meant a lot. Unless they hadn’t been told why they were here, which Piper figured was also a possibility.

She found herself staring at Atticus; she wondered if he was going to speak, how he was handling all of this. He and Lucy had fought the night before, so Piper wondered if he felt guilty. She wouldn’t have. Piper caught Atticus’ glance to Paladin; had he been the one that helped set this up? She crossed her arms as Att spoke; the danger they were all in felt very real in that moment, and the worry she felt for Lucy even more real. It was like an all-consuming pit in her stomach. They had to save Lucy. She would die if they didn’t, and then more of them would die. Piper wasn’t overly fond of anyone in the room, but they were still her best chance of survival, and they stood the best chance of finding Lucy before it was too late.

Then Lucy called.

There was a moment when Piper found herself hoping that Lucy was fine, she’d be back home soon, and everything would be fine. But Att’s reaction told her that was unlikely. She rushed to Atticus’ side, wanting to get a look at what was happening; though Malfyre quickly had the video feed hooked up to her computer. She felt the presence of another person behind her, but honestly didn’t think much of it. She was entirely focused on the video; watching wide-eyed, as if blinking would make it disappear. She wanted to flinch when Lucy was hit the first time, but she forced herself to stay calm, keep watching. Luciana needed them to stay calm.

Piper listened as carefully as she could, studied what little she could see and hear. She figured they were very likely only going to get to see this once, and she wasn’t going to risk assuming someone else was putting any of the information to memory. But when Lucy broke the script they were feeding her, Piper couldn’t stay as calm. Something was very wrong, and Piper wondered if she and Atticus had been specifically threatened, or if Luciana had just assumed it was them on the other end of the call. It was more violent when the guards hit Lucy the second time, and when combined with the warning, it was a surprising moment. Piper let out a quick yelp and recoiled, taking a step backwards, and right into someone. A pair of hands grabbed onto her shoulders, likely to steady her, but Piper immediately reached and grabbed onto the hand on her right shoulder with both her her own, taking a bit of comfort from the gesture.

It was only a short moment when, embarrassed by her reaction, she let go. She almost didn’t want to know who’s hand she’d just held onto like a scared child, but she figured she should apologize, so she turned her head. Of course it was Paladin. Why couldn’t it have been a hero she was even marginally familiar with? “Sorry,” The apology was hardly more than a whisper, but he shrugged it off.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Piper didn’t have much of a chance to consider if she would worry about it before Gemini (Hadn’t the other one been here earlier? It was so hard to keep them straight.) was speaking, trying to regain some control of the situation. Piper looked down at the floor as he spoke. She didn’t know much about any of this. She didn’t know how to help, or do anything besides tell people to give her a free cup of coffee. They had a little bit of time, but not much. Hopefully enough time to put a real plan together. She felt her eyes stinging, tears threatening to start pouring down her cheeks. She started blinking them back; this wasn’t the time. Later, she could be scared and cry. But not now, not in front of the heroes. Now, she needed to channel these emotions into something more useful. Anger, perhaps. "There was a train," She said, and cleared her throat, so her voice sounded a little stronger, "In the video. I don't know if it's helpful, but I heard a train."

xx
Dhani had always felt like his mask looked silly when paired with regular clothing, but it was too early in the day to go out in a super suit, and frankly he didn’t want to deal with getting into it for a meeting. It wasn’t worth wearing the thing if he wasn’t going to be in it for at least a few hours. So he didn’t spend much time getting ready. As he left, he almost stopped by Kieran’s to make sure she was coming, but he didn’t want to bother her. Besides, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t late, and he was nearly almost lost when he started trying to drag Kieran along with him. He’d called the meeting, he couldn’t be late this time.

Instead, he tried to be early, wanting to show up ahead of everyone else. This felt tense, important, but before he knew it everyone had arrived. When Atticus glanced his way Dhani gave a small smile, as if to say “you can do this.” When Atticus started talking, Dhani glanced around the room at the others. He didn’t like speaking up at these meetings, but he was ready to if anyone decided to be difficult. Not that he thought they would, but Red Witch was not beloved amongst the heroes. Hell, he wasn’t fond of her, himself. But here Att was, asking all of them for help. Dhani knew that even if no one else agreed to help, he would. For Red Witch, and the cause they all shared… And for Atticus’ sake, too.

Atticus fished his phone out of his pocket just as he’d finished explaining what was going on, and then turned to look right at Dhani. It was Red Witch. It wasn’t long before Atticus was yelling at Kieran to do something. Dhani glanced at Kieran, hoping she’d keep it together for this. She was looking a little rough, but this was important. It wasn’t long before they had the video pulled up on a bigger screen, though everything else going on was a little distracting. Dhani moved in to watch, right over Aboleth’s shoulder. She was short enough that she wasn’t in his way, and he counted on her not minding him standing behind her.

The video itself wasn’t fun to watch. Dhani didn’t particularly like Red Witch, but he didn’t like seeing anyone be abused like that. It only solidified that they needed to work to get her out of wherever she was, and quickly. At the end of the video, Aboleth backed right into Dhani. She was surprised, and it was only a natural reaction. He grabbed onto her shoulders to stop her, so she wouldn’t end up taking them both to the floor. He didn’t know what to do when she grabbed his hand, so he didn’t do anything. It wasn’t a big deal, anyway. They were all on the same side right now, and Dhani had never hesitated to help out or comfort any of the heroes if he could.

Thankfully, Gemini stepped up to take control of the room. Dhani wasn’t much of a planner, but he’d go along with whatever plan was made. He looked at Att, trying to see if he could piece out how he was doing. Dhani didn’t know. The fucked up situation they’d been in had only gotten worse by the minute, and Dhani wouldn’t be surprised if it managed to get even worse before they finished the meeting.

Icarus’ words only served to make Cerys’ blood run cold. If Red Witch’s life was in danger, that also meant that the rest of them could be as well. She was about to speak up and reveal what she’d learned, but then his phone began to ring. At first, she rolled her eyes, expecting it to be a false alarm. But the glimpse of the screen made her stomach twist.

There was a flurry of activity as Malfyre managed to connect his phone to their laptop, and the view confirmed Cerys’ worst fears. A hostage video, by the looks of things. The robotic way she was speaking confirmed she was being fed lines, and she just nodded as Gemini commented on it. It just made it all the more obvious when Red Witch suddenly broke away from the script and yelled at the two villains not to listen. Gemini’s arm on hers made her jump, but she didn’t tear her eyes away from the screen. It went black, and Cerys let out a shaky breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, managing a small smile at Gemini’s apology.

There was a flurry of outbursts and people talking over one another, but Cerys couldn’t help but notice that Icarus was frozen, practically rooted to the spot. Everyone else seemed to be leaping into activity, giving answers, trying to figure things out, but he was just still staring at the screen. She glanced away as Gemini turned into their male form, the shift happening without her noticing despite the fact they were standing right beside her. He seemed to get some semblance of order on the proceedings, getting people to chip in with anything that could be helpful. Aboleth had heard a train. Malfyre began discussing what they’d seen and what it meant. They mentioned that they had some details on where they were, but said it would be a few days before they had concrete evidence. Icarus almost seemed to snap to attention at that, and turned his attention to Malfyre. Cerys braced herself on seeing how his posture shifted from one of shock and emptiness to one of anger. She didn’t know much about Icarus, none of the heroes really did, but she knew that if someone like him got that angry, it generally wasn’t good.

Malfyre’s comment about not yelling at them went straight over Atticus’ head as he stared at the screen, all of his worst fears being confirmed. They had Lucy. She was being held hostage. He could see shadows in the background, presumably guards of some kind. For a few horrific moments, Att thought he was about to see his dream repeated, just from a different angle and too far away to help.

And then Lucy began to speak, her tone flat and her words not her own. Telling them to get out and stop looking, or else. They knew they’d been at the gala. Of course they did, with everything that had happened, were they even surprised? He could see Lucy stopping, beginning to think. She yelled for him and Piper not to listen, that it was a trap, but all that really seemed to sink in was the struggle that ensued and how quickly the video shut off. Somewhere in his head, he could still hear the echo of the gunshot from his vision. Malfyre walked away, going into one of the corners for a moment, before coming back.

Even as the heroes sprung into action, he was frozen. Were they already too late? Had they already killed Lucy for her insolence, for trying to warn them? Maybe he shouldn’t have let her storm off like that, he shouldn’t have called her a bitch like that, he should have gone after her-

It was only when Malfyre began talking that Att’s attention was drawn back into the room. He just about managed to catch his phone and shot them a glare as he did so. They were discussing at length everything they’d seen and what it meant. Everything they were saying seemed promising, right up until they mentioned it would be a few days and not to do anything stupid. Her tone made something snap inside him, anger rising to the surface and replacing the numbness that had been there only moments before.

“No.” The word came out forcefully and almost without him meaning to. “This might just seem like another mission to you but in case you forgot, they are going to kill her in the next few days. And after that, it’s probably sooner rather than later. So we don’t have a few days for you to sit around on your ass and figure this out. Put your fucking ego aside, stop treating this like a game, and help us now.” Malfyre’s downright flippant and patronizing attitude had somehow released all the anger he was feeling, but he didn’t care. It needed an out, and they were a convenient target. “Or else give us the fucking locations and we’ll deal with it ourselves. We can’t do any worse than you taking literal days to try and figure out where she is, because she’ll probably be dead anyway.”

“And… there’s something else.” A female voice said, and Atticus turned to look at Artemis. “I was on a run this morning when I overheard people discussing… well, discussing Red Witch. And they seemed pretty confident in the fact that you and Gemini were there last night, and… they were looking for evidence that there were others in attendance. They were going to look at our movements last night to try and identify us to confirm which of us were there.” She glanced at Gemini. “And by the sounds of it, they’ve already gotten evidence I was there. If they can confirm you guys were all there as well…”

“We could be direct targets,” Att finished, sighing. She nodded.
“I’m guessing that they only name dropped the two heroes they knew for sure were there, so directly threatened us. They don’t know for sure about the rest of you. Yet.”
“Yet,” Att echoed. He turned back to Malfyre. “So. Do you think that they’ll just ignore that knowledge, file it under “for future reference”? They probably won’t use it, they’re clearly the type of people who will do exactly what they say so why would they go trying to kill us?” He snapped. “Now you know that your life is probably also directly under threat, are you going to actually help by giving us that information now so we can do something sooner rather than later?” He asked, staring straight at them.

Adrian turned his head Aboleth spoke, saying she heard a train. She was right, there was one in the background, but Jena and Adrian must have been too distracted by the Red Witch to what it. He flashed her a smile and a thumbs up before Malfyre began talking and taking a bit of control over what was happening and giving what she thought.

What Malfyre was saying made a lot of sense, and Gemini mostly stayed quiet and just nodded. It wouldn’t be smart to head directly to wherever they were keeping Red Witch, acting on emotion and anger would cloud their thoughts and impact their actions, it was good to sit on information for a while. But he didn’t feel exactly comfortable just sitting tight, maybe even scouting out a bit at the warehouses in the north end or west end to help them prepare. But before Adrian could say anything, Icarus quickly spoke up, and not exactly in a calm manner.

Adrian… you might want to do something. Jena quickly spoke up as Gemini watched Icarus yelling at Malfyre. “Hey hey, calm down there cowboy.” Adrian said, stepping between Malfyre and Icarus a bit, hoping things wouldn’t get physical, especially with everyone’s tensions a bit higher than normal at the moment. He was a bit relieved for a moment when Artemis began talking, hoping to himself that this would distract Icarus, but the information she shared wasn’t exactly all the uplifting to the mood.

Artemis spoke about how they knew they were at the gala, which wasn't exactly a surprise as Gemini had a literal run-in with some of the guards, but confused how they knew Icarus was there. Which caused Icarus to speak up again, both Gemini able to hear the venom in his words behind them as he spoke.

“Enough. Both of you.” Adrian commented towards Icarus and Malfyre, glancing a bit at Paladin hoping he could try to keep Malfyre from pouring any more gasoline on the fire before he’d had to put it out. “Listen. We were all in danger the second these guys targeted other heroes and villains, from the second we joined forces and began working together. We know what we signed up for, including Red Witch.” He said looking around the room before stopping again on the Icarus, “But Icarus, I promise you we will get Red Witch back. No one left behind, regardless of them being a hero, or a villain. We are all in danger regardless of who they knew went to the gala.” He paused for a second as the people in the room glanced at each other. Babe, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you took a speech class before we dated. Jena spoke up, finally revealing herself to Adrian, causing him to smirk a bit.

“Anyways. Malfyre can’t just immediately track the location of the call, if it was that easy any of us could do it. But I’m assuming if she searched a smaller area, might speed up the tracking process. And with the train horn Aboleth pointed it, we can probably figure out a general area since most trains in this city run on a strict schedule. Is that right Malfyre?” Adrian finished, looking towards the hero.