“This... really is incredible.” The mannequin wearing my costume cut an almost imposing figure. Short and lean, dressed in a black and orange jester’s motley with a few armour plates visible on the outside. The belt contained a myriad of pouches, ideal for housing all manner of gear.

  The mask had a series of angular shafts hewn into the metal, with big lenses that carried a reddish glow. My throat tightened as I stared at it. The mask reminded me of Dad’s, sending a flutter of grief through my gut.

  Oliver smiled. “It was... nice, being able to do this,” he said. “Nostalgic in a way.”

  I nodded, unable to look at him. “You did great work.” I couldn’t afford to get choked up, but damn if it wasn’t hard. Well, this was what I had wanted. “I... still don’t have the bank account set up, but-”

  “Ah,” Oliver waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. You’re Toymaker’s daughter, I know you’ll be good for it like he was. Just pay me back whenever you can.”

  “You’re... sure? This couldn’t have been cheap to make.”

  “It wasn’t, but... I don’t know, I suppose working on this reminded me of better times. I mean I was going to have you pay up front originally, but nostalgia can make a man change his mind. Villains these days, they have no manners or class. Your father though, he was something different. He was... a friend, you know.”

  “I know.”

  I watched as Oliver set up a bag for me, made from opaque black plastic, and set each piece of the costume in it. The bag had a seal on the handle, allowing it to click shut. “I’ll... I’ll pay you, soon as I can. Promise.”

  “Well then.” The portly man smiled and held the bag out to me. “I will watch your career expectantly. Make me proud, dear.”

  And then, just like that, the day for the raid came up. I thought I was as equipped and prepared as I could get, but I was still starting to sweat underneath my new costume.

  It didn’t help that Cheshire drove like a damn madman, the van tumbling and bumping around us, nearly bowling over Lassie and myself. “Christ, Cheshire, are you sure you’re licensed to drive?”

  “I got a permit,” she said stealing a glance over her shoulder in a flagrant violation of the rules of the road. Her costume, black with purple highlights, was complimented by an armoured helmet with cat-shaped wars sticking out of the top, the mouthpiece like the fanged maw of a samurai helm.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “From who? Death fucking Row?”

  We had convened at the office early in the afternoon that Saturday, getting changed into costumes before piling into a van in the abandoned building’s loading bay. No idea where the van came from and I didn’t care to ask. It was not exactly glamorous, certainly I’d never heard of villains making a trip in an unmarked van, but I suppose we had to get around somehow.

  “Christ, I’ll die in a car crash before my first fucking villain gig starts.” I sighed, pressing a button on the side of my mask to make the grill in front of my mouth split open. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I could handle this, I told myself, resting my hands on my stuffed utility belt. Laden with every tool I could build in the time we had.

  My eyes scanned the group, trying to see if they were as nervous as I was. Beatrix, or Stretch, certainly wasn’t. She sat beside me, browsing her phone as we bumped along. Her costume was a hooded white bodysuit, her face covered by a black domino mask. Her gloves and boots were a matching shade of black, and the symbol on her chest was like an ebony spiral. Whenever she stretched her arm, her costume stretched with her.

  She must have paid a pretty penny to get a costume that worked so well with her powers.

  Greg, or Foresight, sat beside Cheshire. His costume was white with green armoured plates, his head covered by an orb-shaped helmet with a distinct letterbox slit for his black visor.

  And lastly was Dynamo, or Sam. He wore no costume at all, to my confusion. Just a sweater and cargo pants, a balaclava covering his face. “I thought you wanted me to have a costume ready, why does he get a free pass?” I asked.

  “It’s... complicated,” Stretch said, forcing a smile. “Sam’s powers are on a timer and... well we want to preserve that time, so he ain’t gonna transform until we get there.”

  “Transform?” I asked, lifting a brow.

  “Just...” Dynamo sighed and shook his head. “Look, you’ll see soon enough. Just... please don’t say anything when it happens.”

  “Uh... fine.” Cheshire probably wouldn’t let Dynamo onto the team if his powers weren’t impressive. But damn if the secrecy wasn’t getting on my nerves.

  “Trust me,” Cheshire said, mercifully focused on the road. “It’s gonna make you flip when you see him in action. But for now, when we get there, me and Stretch are gonna be the ones taking point. I want you and Foresight to hang back and attack from range. Get your little soldiers to flank around too.”

  “Fine,” I said, waving a hand dismissively at the air. She was, ostensibly, the leader. I’d follow her word on the matter, anything that got me closer to wrapping my hands around Sidewinder’s throat and squeezing the life out of it.

  The van pulled to a halt just around the corner from the factory, the twilight orange glow of sunset poking out trough the gaps of the distant skyscrapers.

  “Thanks to our lovely Toymaker here, we have a decent frame of reference for what to expect in there.” Cheshire killed the ignition and reached into the glove box, pulling out a pair of heavy night sticks. She slotted them onto her belt with care. “We can expect guards from the first room onward, and a lot of locked doors. We’ll try and grab keys as we go, but if we need to smash a door down we can leave that to Stretch or Foresight or Dynamo. We’re gonna want to try and be in and out ASAP. It’s quiet in these parts but too much noise will get people calling the cops. We might have to fight off the local masks, or... worse, the drones might come our way.”

  That caused a tense silence to briefly fill the van. Nobody wanted those Titanium drones breathing down their neck. The thought alone made my neck feel stiff.

  “Then...” I closed my mask shut and willed my heartbeat to slow down. I felt like I was gonna throw up. But this was the life I had chosen, so I could hardly give up at the first actual hurdle. Lassie looked up at me expectantly, LED eyes glowing with greater brightness. “Let’s fuck shit up and give Jupiter what he wants.”