Once I’m positive everything is set for the meeting, I quickly put on my armor, quickly transitioning from ordinary dude to well, I’m not sure what I am at this point exactly but someone and something else.

  Once that’s all set up, I move back to the selected meeting room and pull up a map of the city on the smart-table so that we can draw on it properly.

  Unsurprisingly, the first person to join me is Amelia in at least the Fractal helmet. The rest of her clothes remind me of a racecar driver’s jumpsuit, which is better than showing up to this meeting in sweats and an oversized t-shirt, which had been what she planned on wearing, supposedly.

  “You ready for this?”

  “We have to be right?” I shrug. Casting my awareness, I can feel a car pulling up and three people getting out of it, which sets my teeth on edge. Unless Asher, Travis, and the representative all carpooled, it means someone invited a bonus guest to this meeting.

  Energy pools out of me as I direct it down, trying to enhance the clarity of what I’m seeing until a phone chirps loudly.

  “Hey if you’re brooding about something, Travis just told me he, Cass, and Sasha are coming up the stairs now,” Amelia says, distracting me.

  “Cass and Sasha?”

  “Are we going to complain about another super and an actual badass super heroine joining our little war council?”

  “No,” I say after a few seconds of thought.

  With my attention already on the street below me, it’s easy to tell when Asher’s van pulls up and a few moments later another car I don’t recognize pulls in. The timing is conspicuous enough that I have to wonder if the representative waited until Asher was fully inside the building before showing up so that they could be last.

  Unlike Travis’s group, who elected to take the scenic route of the stairs, Asher takes the elevator, leaving him to arrive at nearly the same time as the trio.

  “Now I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you all here,” Amelia says in mock seriousness.

  “You didn’t call us here.” Asher points out. “You texted me.”

  “Travis said he wanted to ask me for help.” Cass adds, taking a chair at the table and looking over the map of the city with interest.

  “If there is a meeting with the current guardians of the city going on and they’re asking for help, I thought having someone besides rookies,” Sasha says, glancing at both Amelia and I apologetically.

  I stay quiet as I track the last member of tonight’s war meeting come up the stairs, and call me crazy, but it feels like they’re pausing every time the subject changes as if they’re listening in on us somehow.

  “Can you hear me?” I ask in what I hope is a clear voice.

  Everyone’s head jerks in my direction. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone in the building is looking towards me. Sans Bianca, but she’s asleep at the moment.

  “The person from Containment I invited is listening in on us,” I say. The others all nod at that, and the conversation falls silent as we wait for the last member of the war council to get up here.

  “You didn’t need to pause the conversation on my part,” the representative says as they open the door to the room.

  “I don’t have a need to continue my conversations with people when they can’t respond to me, and I don’t have your phone number,” Amelia says, leaning back on her chair dangerously close to tipping herself over.

  The representative stares at Amelia slack-jawed before shaking his head and seeming to come to some kind of conclusion. “Is there a reason four of you have elected to wear masks?” He says, gesturing to the four people with hero-related identities.

  “Because secret identities are pretty cool!” Amelia says, gesturing to her helmet.

  “Besides the fact you all know each other out of the mask and I know all of your identities?”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Amelia Crest codename Fractal, Jason Leon currently unknown, Sasha Voren codename Warden, Travis Saya codename Cannonball. Need I continue?” They ask moving to a chair and sitting down at the table.

  “Well, that’s not exciting.” Amelia pouts, removing the ice from her face. “I thought officially y’all don’t know our secret identities?”

  “Officially, we don’t. Unofficially, this is the land of the internet. However, there are more people with powers not on our payroll than on it, so we don’t share,” he explains.

  Seeing that it’s moot, I take my helmet off, holding in my lap, seeing both Travis and Sasha have done the same, leaving everyone’s identities out in the open.

  If it wasn’t for my awareness of everything around me, I would be incredibly paranoid about all our identities leaking all at once but with me not being able to notice anything that I think would be a camera it looks like we are in the clear.

  “So, can this meeting begin?” The representative asks, glancing towards Sasha, who’s looking at me and Amelia.

  It is sorta my job to start the meeting, isn’t it?

  “Me and my good buddy, good pal Jason here are going to start a raid on the lab in two days, and we wanted to ask all of you for help, and you brought bonus help, which is great!” Amelia cheers, getting right into it.

  Everyone turns to face us, and I decide it’s my time to take over. “The two of us can handle the lab. What we’re asking for is both more important and harder.”

  Cass looks at me, eyes wide. “What exactly is more important and harder than taking on a lab full of mad scientists and who knows how many supers?”

  “It would only be ?up to six.” The representative says with a sniff. “Four are confirmed, though we expect that with the flood of supers they’ve at least bolstered their roster somewhat.”

  “Of the four, we know Jason and I each have two solid wins and one probably, with only one of them being a potential loss for us,” Amelia continues. “He can handle Vertiga, and Kurt easily. The lizard eventually, his only actual loss is Andromeda. The lizard and Andromeda I have in the bag. I should be able to beat Kurt, and I would rather avoid Vertiga.”

  “Leaving only two people you’re not sure ?how to handle?” Travis nods. “So what do you want us for?”

  Amelia and I share a glance before she nods at me. “I wanted to ask all of you to do what we can’t do if we’re targeting the lab.” The words ache as I say them. “We can’t watch the city. Be that because we’re training our teamwork or because we’re in the middle of fighting the lab.”

  “I told you I won’t do vigilante work.” Travis points out, though I don’t know the world where he considers what I’m asking vigilante work.

  As Amelia’s temper rises, mine clicks off. “That’s why I’m asking you to do this part. The raid can be mine. Saving civilians for a few days really sounds like hero work to me.”

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  “Good answer.” Travis agrees, his eyes flickering to the map. “With my speed, I can cover a good chunk of the city more if I have someone else to be my eyes.”

  “Wait, was that a test?” Amelia asks, jerking her head between the two of us.

  “If that’s what you want, I could have some ground troops brought in for a few days for you to work out a plan and execute it. With all the super attacks going on, our forces are stretched thin though.” The representative says after a moment. “But I wouldn’t want to do such a big favor for free.”

  “Buzz off, suit.” Sasha growls. “How about for the favor these two agree to actually get registered as capes held to the same standards my team is?”

  “What?” I ask, confused.

  “Unregistered heroes and registered heroes have different rules. The major distinction is that we can be asked to help out on specific things depending on our powers. You two wouldn’t be likely, cause you’re new and not uniques.” Travis explains.

  “If it’ll make sure our city is protected, I’ll happily sign on,” Amelia agrees immediately.

  I mull it over, trying to figure out if there’s any way that I can get out of this or what exactly they’re getting out of it.

  The representative doesn’t seem to disagree with this as a good option even if they’re slightly annoyed about it. Probably wanted to push for something better, I suppose.

  “Sounds good,” I finally decide.

  “I can’t help, but I can ask the other heroes in the state to pull some extra hours and expand their radius of heroics.” Sasha says after the silence hangs over all of us for a few seconds. “I’m sorry that I can’t do more for both of you, though.”

  “This is more than enough,” Amelia promises as she zooms out the map slightly and doodles to draw an accurate representation of what it looks like our concentrated power base will be.

  Cass clears her throat, drawing attention to herself. “I want to help too.” She says firmly. “The two of you aren’t enough to cover it all. Even if you think you can do the lab just the two of you, I can help with the city. I have my powers for a reason, so I want to help.”

  “Three of us. Though I guess I’ll be helping both duos,” Asher says, stamping his approval on our harebrained scheme of a plan.

  “The plan is for us to attack in two days, early in the morning, when we hope the vast majority would be asleep.” I say, taking over and changing the direction to the actual planning portion now that we’re all in some kind of agreement.

  “Are you going to want my people in position just on D-Day or the whole time?” The representative asks taking an offered pen and beginning to mark spots on the map for something?

  “Not sure.” I admit after exchanging a glance with my conspirator. “We can’t do the full-court press we were doing, but we don’t want to leave it out to dry.”

  “I can start patrolling tonight.” Travis says, taking another digital pen and beginning to draw a large area. Hopefully, that’s going to be his patrol range.

  “I could also start tonight, but I could also help you and Amelia train on how to work as a duo instead if you would prefer?” Cass offers.

  “You can help us train?”

  “I don’t know what powers they have, but I can copy a lot, and you need to work on fighting as a team, right?” Cass says quietly.

  “You don’t need to push yourself on our account, Jason and I can handle this.” Amelia assures the younger woman, who glares back defiantly.

  “I’m doing it.”

  “Sasha, when do you think the other heroes in the state are going to expand their hours and be closer by?” Asher asks, changing the subject.

  Sasha tilts her head, pondering the question. “I’m not sure, but most of them will be ready as soon as I call. Nobody wants underground super labs.”

  “You all would prefer aboveground ones?” I ask the detail catching on some corner of my mind, refusing to be ignored.

  Everyone turns to look at me, and I rescind the question.

  As we discuss more specifics, Travis and Sasha push the conversation toward what plans Amelia and I are making to be prepared for everything.

  “Worst-case scenario, what are the worst powers the enemy could have that make it so that you can’t do anything?” Travis asks, drumming his fingers fast.

  “Someone who can manipulate gravity for Jason,” Amelia answers immediately.

  Would gravity be the worst person for me? Unless I get really good at pushing off the air fast, I can’t move of my own volition if I’m in the air, so I suppose that's actually a good answer.

  But I don’t think that it’s right. Sure, something like that would be the worst-case scenario for me, and it wouldn’t be great for Amelia, but I don’t think it’s the nightmare scenario.

  What would make a situation that the two of us wouldn’t be able to do anything against what power that stops both of us?

  “Any form of mental attack.” I say finally. “Unless they’re unable to target me while I’m using my ability, it’s something neither of us can deal with. And the odds of me escaping are low in my opinion.”

  “You probably won’t have to worry about it.” Travis says after a second of consideration. “True psionics are rare, and they’re almost impossible to make through experimentation.”

  “So I won’t have to worry about getting mind-controlled in a more invasive way?” Amelia laughs with forced humor.

  “I wouldn’t call what you went through anything but invasive.” Asher snorts.

  “The point is!” Sasha says, taking control back. “You are likely to face people with more external abilities. Jason, you developed your ability by being buried alive. Can you imagine a scenario someone would have to go through to get a psionic mind control ability?”

  “Wouldn’t Vertiga be a psionic though?”

  “She is likely to be a pseudo-natural or a full one, though because she requires a visual stimulus, it’s easy enough for you to avoid.” Travis answers.

  “I have a question.” The representative says the first time speaking since we got to the more theoretical aspects of planning over logistics. Once it’s clear nobody else feels the need to speak, he continues. “What exactly is the plan for the lab once all of this is over, say you win two days from now?”

  “No idea.” I say.

  “Desecrate it in every way I imagine.” Amelia answers.

  “Strip it of all the resources and information I can from it,” Asher blurts out.

  “Not everything you find in there will be something we are letting civilians or heroes have.” He says, glaring at Asher. “And I would rather you not desecrate a place we can use.”

  “Nope, bad idea. A bunch of police living under my city gives me the heebie jeebies you’re supposed to be the law not cockroaches.” Amelia says, already digging her heels in.

  “Nobody said anything about having my men ?stationed there, but are you suggesting we abandon a base built to house a lab that was off the grid for months?” The representative asks, standing up and raising his voice equally.

  The other members of the war council decide to lean back and let the other two duke it out before they eventually run out of steam.

  My understanding is they’ve agreed to rehash the conversation once they see the level of destruction Amelia and I can work on the place.

  Though I have the sneaking suspicion, the real sticking point will be Asher’s desire to take everything he can versus their desire to confiscate the stuff and then compensate him with a reward.

  Once Amelia is sitting down, I place a hand on her thigh and give her a comforting squeeze as she continues shooting glares at the representative.

  “Are you two certain you can win?” Cass asks once silence has hung over us for almost a full minute.

  “Hundred percent.”

  “Not at all. But I can’t let it continue.”

  The representative looks at the two of us, his expression unreadable. “You two keep speaking like that, and you’ll make proper heroes yet.”

  Travis makes sure to fix me with a glare even though I don’t know what I have been or will be doing wrong. “Retreat is always an option. Both of you. Don’t box yourself in and don’t push farther than you can see.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me not retreating.” I try to assure him. “I’m quite literally built to run away from things that scare me.”

  “No boxes for me. I finished unpacking all of my boxes, so I don’t want to get back into that life,” Amelia jokes, shooting finger guns at him.

  “If we’re feeling all nice and friendly, could one of you four introduce me to a superhero or scientist who specializes in lightweight power supplies that I could use to make improvements to their suits?” Asher asks, batting his eyelashes innocently.

  “Oh, right!” Amelia gasps. “Please, can we do that? I want a shoulder cannon!” She pleads, also batting her eyes.

  Theories abound of what it could have been but I’m betting one of the people in the armor asking for a shoulder bazooka for no other reason than she wants it did not help pin the cause of Asher getting to meet some other geniuses to buy parts from.

  After that, people quickly leave to plan their own business, and I schedule training with Cass while Amelia checks on Bianca.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” I ask once I’m back in normal clothes.

  “Fuck no, but what better option do we have? We just gotta focus on what’s the most important in the moment.” Amelia says a sleeping Bianca curled in her arms.

  “Which is?”

  “Doing our absolute best to prepare for this.”

  “Two days till the end of the world?”

  “Two days till my victory lap.”

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