Boba, as it turned out, was iced tea with... lumps in it. As a general rule I tried to keep my solids solid and my liquids liquid when it came to food, with occasional crossover. Still, as I sipped through the straw, I would admit reluctantly that it tasted good.

  “Not bad, eh?” Beatrix asked as we ambled down Mason’s Road, flashing me a toothy grin.

  “I’ve drank worse,” I replied.

  “Oh?”

  I sighed, rolling my eyes slightly. “My foster brother made this junk he called ‘rainbow juice’ one time. Took a bunch of these... powders you mix with water to make fruit juice, blending a bunch of the flavours together. And, in his usual way, he badgered me until I drank some. Tasted awful.”

  “Ha. Sounds like my kinda guy. Might make some rainbow juice of my own.”

  I snorted. “Sure, if you hate your kidneys,” I said. Still... the little jerk had seemed happy when I drank it. “So, what’s this all about?”

  “Does it have to be about anything? We’re just hanging out.”

  We rounded a corner and ventured down 13th Street. A trio of drones fluttered in the distance, watching the crowds in mechanical silence. People picked up pace, eyes to the ground, hoping to pass the machines without drawing attention. We were much the same, and we lowered our voices in case the drones listened in on us.

  “People don’t usually look to hang out with me,” I said plainly.

  “Well... no offence Jess you do look like a cat that just got soaked in a tin bath,” she replied, snickering at the mental image.

  “Most folks don’t interest me, so I try not to waste the energy on them.” Yeah, it made me come across as a loner weirdo, but so what? Supervillains tended not to have that many friends outside of other villains. “Anyway... we have other matters to deal with. Namely our Impact problem.” I took a long sip on my straw, wincing a bit as a blob of tapioca came through.

  “I don’t see what the big deal is? She’s just one Apex.”

  “So’s Dauntless. Would you go against him without a game plan?”

  Beatrix slurped noisily at her bubble tea, giving me a sideways glance. “Come on. Dauntless is the guy, not every Apex compares. We outnumber her, even if she is strong.”

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  “As far as we know. But she could have others working with her. And those pit fighters? Some of them are bound to be loyal. We walk in unprepared it’ll be like jumping into a lion enclosure covered in raw meat.”

  There was a crash in the distance and the three drones suddenly lurched to attention. They rocketed down the road, to where police sirens were starting to wail.

  “The main thing is,” I said, worrying the staw in the corner of my mouth. “I wanna learn how her powers work, what she’s capable of. What her limitations are. If there’s any weakness we can exploit. Once we have that there’s also the matter of finding her and getting access to her club.”

  “Oh yeah.” Beatrix gave a soft chuckle. “Hadn’t even thought that far ahead.”

  I doubt you think further than putting one foot in front of the other. I didn’t voice that aloud, though it took effort to hold those thoughts back. Beatrix was nice... even if her carefree nature rubbed me the wrong way.

  “The thing is... do people know our group works for...?” I trailed off, pointing at the clouds.

  “Oh, uh, J-Man? Nah, we’re pretty obscure. People barely know our names. And we do jobs for the guy but it’s not like we’re... employed by him specifically. We could work for other people if we wanted,” Beatrix said. “Just uh... you know, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Cuz he wouldn’t like it. Why do you wanna know?”

  “Well...” I reached down, fiddling with my straw. “Rushing in and kicking ass? Might land us in hot water. But if we could make thing think we want to be involved in the business... we get our foot in the door, we can do our research.”

  Beatrix seemed to consider this. “That... might lead to one of us getting killed.”

  “Oh... we wouldn’t be the ones doing the brawling.” I grinned over at Beatrix. “We get Rover to do it.”

  The big bastard was damn strong, could adapt to whatever was thrown at him, and would do whatever I told him to. Whatever was in the arena, we could trust Rover to take care of it and wow the crowd. And while the dumb bastards were clapping and cheering, we’d have more freedom to make a move.

  “Sounds a little...” Beatrix trailed off, looking up at the cloudy sky as we wound our way through the bustling crowd. “Inhumane?”

  “He’s a big boy, he can handle it. Though I guess I should run it by Cass too, see if she’s game for the plan. If this all works out, I’ll get Rover a biiiiig brisket.”

  That evening, after dinner, I got back into research. Masquerade had a little more footage to work with, particularly from the Mask Chasers who would go to great lengths to catch any footage of superhero fights.

  Still, most of it wasn’t anything special. Phone footage of a standoff with the police where she stopped a hail of bullets with one hand, flicking them back the way they came with ease. CCTV footage of Impact brawling it out in a bank vault with Lady Dozer, lifting and smashing her armoured bulk around the walls before flinging her out of the yawning vault door.

  I clicked my tongue as I watched. “Pretty strong grip if she can throw someone around like that.” I paused the video and leaned in, paying attention to the smoke kicked up around Lady Dozer from one hard impact. Through the grainy footage I could see something... shape itself against the dust. Like a silhouette of a giant hand.

  “Huh. So she has to extend a telekinetic field out to grab someone,” I murmured under my breath. Well, certainly that was easier to work with than her being able to grab people with just a glance. At least we’d have a chance to dodge that. “Just need something to highlight her telekinetic field. More marbles it is.” This time with coloured gas, I mentally added, glancing briefly to my workbench.

  I went through the other videos on Masquerade one by one, but I found little of use. Until I came upon the last file that popped up in my search.

  CRAZY fight w/ Impact and Titanium!!! (found footage)

  “Titanium huh?” I murmured, my eyes widening a tad. That was kind of a big deal, fighting a high-tier like Titanium and getting away with it. For a moment I dreaded clicking on the video. If she could fight Titanium head on and win, what chance did we have? Even Sam’s quantum body couldn’t match a guy like Titanium.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself, hovering my mouse over the link. When it came to Apex fights, anything could happen. And if I wanted to get what I needed, for Dad’s sake, I had to find a way to beat Impact.

  So, bracing for the worst, I clicked on the link and watched as the video file blossomed out to fill my screen.