There wasn’t much to do after that. Ballclub and a couple of the others were picking through the wreckage, trying to see if there was anything worth saving. Grace and Antonia were both on their phones, talking animatedly with, I assume, two different members of the DMA, Blackhawk was talking to Windfall, trying to reassure her that she’d done all she could, and while half of the team was out trying to find out if there were any clue or information about why Cadmium had attacked, several of the others were either helping with the shell shocked locals or talking frantically about other potential hideouts.

I had been busy before, trying to help the injured, but now that things were getting organized, I was like a fish out of water, just standing there in my slightly less ridiculous than before costume, and frankly a little bored. I could help pick stuff out of the rubble, but I hadn’t spent that much time in the HQ and had little or no idea what to look for. At this point, I just wanted to go work out or work on replacing my potions. Sure, I’d spent two years being bored most of the time, but I was very activity-oriented, I didn’t have to like it.

Finally, I tracked down Baldwin, who looked similarly out-of-place. “Do you think I should go try and help track down Cadmium or try to help them find out if any of the local bad guys are still going to try and make a statement?”

He shook his head, “From what I understand, Cadmium is in an invisible flying fortress, and is getting chased by Galactica. Unless you have a talent for tracking the invisible and a potion for flying, you probably wouldn’t be much help, and if the Prometheans are helping her, they might not appreciate your interference. As far as the local mooks are concerned, even Blackhawk seems to be giving it a miss. He was excited before at the chances of catching them, but right now he’s in damage recovery mode instead. I figure that their statement has been made, so they are in the wind to the point that even he’s not likely to catch them.”

He shrugged a little and scratched his head. “Once the panic at the DMA dies down they will probably have an idea of where to go here, but remember that they are run by politicians. There’s still a lot of potential visibility here, especially if they spin it as a new team that suffers from a huge setback, but recovers to become a shining example. A lot of people have been telling them that big spectacular grand openings are a bad idea, and getting a multimillion-dollar facility wrecked is kind of a case in point. I am not a politician or a spin doctor, but I suspect them to make a grand statement about how good cannot be stopped by the power of evil, do some grandstanding, and then finally realize that they need to keep the team public but their HQ’s secret.”

He chuckled. “I expect some serious downtime, hurry up and wait style, while the DMA redesigns their plans around that. This thing has been in the works since Moonstryker took off almost two years ago, and it takes a while for a train like this to change tracks. I suspect that we are going to get stashed someplace for a while, probably someplace like Aurora so we are still available to this team while things get worked out and they find a new base of operations, and they are going to decentralize. Two teams at separate locations with high security. Then again, there are lots of folks on this team that don’t really have ties to the area. They are not exactly drifters, but I think, like Aquantis and Ballclub, they moved here for the opportunity to be part of the first legal nonregistered teams.”

I nodded, “So what does that mean for us, personally?”

He smiled a little, “Like I said, hurry up and wait. Once Agent Andropolis is done with her call, we find someplace to hole up for a while until they either move us to the next city in line or have us wait. Maybe you can pick up some new concoctions or something and train, but whatever we do they are likely to still keep you stashed and secret.”

Emergency services were finally starting to get the fire under control, and Miss Petty was off the phone, murmuring to individuals and then beckoning toward me. The team members she had spoken to started to depart, except for Blackhawk, Windfall, Aquantis, Ballpark, Speedburn, and his sister Katonic.

“The DMA leadership is still working out all the details,” she said, a bit of soot streaked down her left cheek almost artistically. “And they wanted me to talk to you seven personally. Considering the circumstances, there might need to be some changes, and Senator Roman has asked that you consider an offer.”

She clammed up a little after that and said she would get to it in time, but that we needed to move someplace more private. Someplace more private involved a government-owned Limo that took us to a hotel room of the Chicago regency, and I noticed that Grace was apparently much better treated by the DMA as a civilian contractor than we were.

We all settled into the suite as she started, and I brushed past Blackhawk. Unlike before, I caught nothing from him at the contact. Was the suit empty? That would certainly explain his cooperation in the face of boredom, a remotely-piloted suit probably wouldn’t be much use in a fight, but synthetic muscle and circuitry was a good way to keep two places at once.

It would also explain why no one had ever figured out his secret identity despite his obvious wealth. If Blackhawk and his playboy alter ego were at two different places at the same time, they couldn’t possibly be the same person. I gave him a funny look, and in a moment he leaned forward and spoke quietly to me in his synthesized voice, too quietly for anyone else to catch.

“Blackhawk isn’t here right now, but if you leave your name and number I will get back to you. I know you can tell I’m not here, but I am trying to do four things at once and this is the easiest way to keep in the loop. If you would be so kind, please keep mum.”

I nodded and turned to Grace. If I could be in two or three places at once, even remotely, I’d probably do it regularly as well. It also explained how he kept so well-informed.

“The DMA wants to know if you would be willing to relocate. Michigan is willing to deal, but only one of the vigilantes in Detroit has expressed any willingness to work with us. Detroit has had a lot of revitalization recently, but it’s still a massive black hole when it comes to Crime, especially meta crime. There are a few vigilantes there, but they don’t enjoy the same kind of relationship with the Detroit cops that Chicago does.”

“Why us?” Miss Katonic asked curiously.

Grace shrugged a little, “Because most of you already have relocated specifically to be part of a legal team. I figure that you’d be willing to split up, and the DMA has decided that having all its eggs in one basket is a bad move. The first teams had so many people because we wanted to make a big splash for publicity purposes, but with the Protectors, we want the Great Lakes defenders to cover two cities and such a big team is a bit overkill.”

Blackhawk shook his head. “You know I cannot do it. Chicago is my city, and all of my interests and contacts are tied up here.”

Grace nodded, “Yeah, you have been a fixture here almost as long as Moonstryker. The thing is, they wanted to know if you would take over temporary leadership of team two for the next few months. You are the only one here that has any real experience with the hero game, and you know how to build contacts and gratitude with local police, information networks, and corporate interests. It’s not permanent, but the DMA wants a veteran that still qualifies as a vigilante to teach them the ropes.”

Blackhawk stopped moving completely, and I wondered if the bandwidth had been severed. After a few moments, he started talking again. “I can show up occasionally to help train them, but I will expect to be compensated. I can’t play on their team, but I would be willing to help them out with information, planning, training, and strategy. For that, I want the same data access as the Prometheans.”

Grace nodded slowly, “That would probably be enough, but I cannot offer you full Promethean access. That’s Proteus territory. There’s no way they’d give you access to the team restricted data.”

He nodded again, “I don’t need to know their secret Identities, I just want their passthroughs on the network. You can still keep the restricted bases locked up tight, but I want my own passthrough and official channel. Can that be done?”

Grace looked a little green, but nodded, “I can ask.”

Blackhawk shrugged and stepped into the corner. “Then ask. I will be right here playing Tetris with my HUD until you get a chance.”

I suspected strongly he was just going to keep doing what he was doing while he remotely monitored the situation, but Grace didn’t need to know that there might be more than one Blackhawk armored suit. Without access to cyberkinetic or technopathic gifts I doubted he would be more than minimally effective in a fight, but I could be wrong.

AI was kind of a joke and latency over distances was a real issue, but he might have a lot of software and gear I’d never even heard of to help him fight remotely. That might be a reason he didn’t want to leave Chicago, though… a few microseconds of latency might not be much, but 20 or 30 of them between responses might lead to a trashed suit and his secret getting out.

Ballclub also raised a hand and said, “I’m out.” At Grace’s confused expression, he said, “I have a family. I already moved them with almost no explanation once to get on the Defenders gig. The school year started and the kids are starting to make friends, and my wife got a new job she likes. I am not going to uproot them all over again, or do the two-hour commute in the middle of the night to work in Detroit. It’s also a shitty city for a family. No thank you. My wife knows what I do in my off time, and is pleased as punch I am finally getting paid for it, but I want to stay in Chicago.”

Katonic and Speedburn looked at each other for a moment, and then Miss Katonic sighed. “We are out also. Let’s just say that Speedy here doesn’t want to leave for the same reason Ballclub doesn’t want to uproot. He got in a great education program, and we aren’t going to want to do the street hero thing forever. Both of us would love to get on the Prometheans, but I have a fiancee and he’s got school. We are set in Chicago now.”

Grace sighed and nodded, and looked at the rest of us.

Aquantis said, “As long as I stay on the coast I am fine. Coastal’s clean-up efforts are as effective in Detroit as they are in Chicago, and things are looking up in lake Michigan, and I am very fond of the great lakes. You pay a bonus to get me moved and relocated, and most of my social life is still accessible. I will expect a settlement on my lease, though. Proteus has my info.”

She grinned, “Besides, Detroit’s getting the same refurb treatment as Chicago. In a year or two, I expect the nightlife there will be just as interesting as in Chicago. My folks wouldn’t give a shit if I took an assignment on the moon, and at least here there are some fun things to do.” She wasn’t looking at me, but I wondered if I was on the list of fun stuff to do.

Windfall looked around and shrugged. “I am looking at the big picture only. There’s an 85% chance that within the next five years there will be an extinction event, and there’s a 92% chance that Alchemyst will be deeply involved on some level. On the downside, With my support and the support of several other metas, his chances of success will be less than 28%, but without it, his chances are only 3%.

Windfall shook her head. “That 3% means the entire species, possibly the entire planet will cease to exist as a life-bearing world. So I am on the Detroit team as long as he is helping it, and will be going with him when he leaves.”

I shook my head at her, “I thought that metas didn’t have psychic powers. That smells a lot like precognition to me.”

Windfall shrugged. “My power is fortune manipulation, and part of that power is the ability to analyze odds. This generally involves tying millions of disparate factors together that I am not aware of. Just like your ability uses collective cognition to analyze the aspects of substances and combine them into useful forms, mine recognizes collective cognition in order to influence supposedly random factors.”

“How do you know how my power works?” I asked her suspiciously.

“I don’t, but collective cognition treats it as an established fact, with near 100% probability, that you utilize understood aspects to create your effects. Traditional chemistry, even metagenius chemistry, works on a far different set of physical laws. Traditional chemistry has no room for temporal healing alongside energy regeneration and shadowmass collection. They are three different laws, and would require vastly different powersets to create.” She said.

I nodded slowly, I understood her referents, but they were going together in a way I didn’t expect. I offered to take her hand, but she shook her head. “No.” She said. “If you analyze me right now, it will alter your future behavior significantly, dropping your future odds of stopping the anomaly to less than 12 percent even with my assistance.”

I glanced at Antonia, who was furiously texting on her phone, again. Windfall slumped over and said, “That’s it. I am tapped. My official decision is that I am going to Detroit because if the world ends, I go with it.”

I looked at her closely. “I was starting to wonder if you were a machine or something.”

She shook her head, “No, it’s a power. It drains energy the same way yours does when you make potions. Most likely something unlucky will happen to me tonight, and I need to change out of this incredibly stupid-looking shoot-me outfit before it does.”

Grace nodded, “Okay, that’s less than I had hoped for, but if we can show some success in Detroit, we might be able to pick up more volunteers. You might have to take a more active role than you were expecting, but I cleared it with the DMA.”

I nodded, “One problem, though, you didn’t clear it with me.”

Grace gave me a worried look as she bit her lip for a moment, and then asked me, “What do you mean? You work for the DMA, right?”

I shook my head. “No, I work for me. I am doing a favor for the DMA because I didn’t want to raise a stink, and it gave me the chance to get some vengeance and end a threat. I have decided that I am done cowering in a corner and hoping my problems go away, which means I need to take a more proactive stance. I plan on helping set up the team in Detroit, and will be happy to train under Blackhawk because the guy is brilliant, and Detroit’s a core of the cross-lakes drug trade, but I have already decided, based on a conversation with someone I sort of think of as a friend, that the DMA has bought three favors. Chicago was the first favor, Detroit will be the second, and then, wherever we go will be number three. After that, the DMA and I are quits unless they can come up with some way to convince me to negotiate with them.”

Miss Petty slowly nodded, “Alright, that’s between you and the DMA. My job was to get Chicago set up and running and then run their PR. Since we are splitting up the teams, Now I have to deal with the visibility of both, which is a little outside of my job description, but I think I am up for it. Would you be willing to consider running missions as part of your… umm… favor?” She asked.

Weird, I thought that Antonia had resolved to be professional, but there she was, fuming again, and clearly wanting some private time. So many girls wanted my time, I was having trouble deciding between them. I snickered a little, and came back to reality.

“Yes, I will, but when the job comes to an end, it’s ended. I am not a superhero, and I especially don’t have some kind of need to do for people what they are clearly capable of doing for themselves. If it’s a meta threat I will be happy to help at any time because people cannot protect themselves effectively from a meta, and I have a grudge against the drug cartels that needs to be addressed, but if you want me going after purse-snatchers and car thieves, call the police, I’ll be busy.”

Grace looked gobsmacked, “You aren’t a vigilante?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No way. The problem with vigilantes, or almost any type of superpowered heroes, is that they build a dependence. Yes, if some supervillain attacks the town, it’s obviously up to the other superpowered types to keep them from harming people who cannot possibly defend themselves. But I am stronger, faster, and tougher than your average thug. Police are hired and trained to protect people from your average thug, and it’s their job, one they are justifiably proud of, to do it. If they get used to me coming in and doing their jobs for them, what’s going to happen if I cannot do it anymore, like if I get killed or something? Sure, I am happy to help in emergencies, but superheroes can be counted on to always respond, and I refuse to be someone’s crutch.”

Yes, it sounded a bit shallow even to me, but I had never signed up to be a superhero. I’d be a supervillain first. I liked the idea of helping people in need, but I wanted it to be my decision, not a job, and not the hammer that made every problem look like a nail.

If Kjootoo and Rainbow Warrior had taught me anything, it was that not all problems are in black and white, and people are not simply good or bad. Yes, there was good and there was evil, there was still black and white, but it was up to people to choose to be either good or evil, they weren’t just magically pushed permanently into a category the minute they signed a paper or put on a costume.

I had moral rules, morals that many people would recognize, built on upbringing, common sense, religious beliefs, and simple logic. The ‘good guys’ had a set of morals that I disagreed with, that were founded on principles that I found repellent, even if they were logical in their own way. Was Rainbow Warrior a force for good? Absolutely, and in Proteus’ eyes, the good he did was more important than the minor lives he destroyed. They were also willing to let the cartels exist with the understanding that a power vacuum might lead to a worse and less controllable enemy.

I couldn’t live with those rules. The idea that compromising with evil was necessary for the greater good. Others could, like Kjootoo, and they were still good people, but I couldn’t enforce it myself. The irony of the double standard of the authorities calling him a supervillain when they did exactly the same thing was not lost on me. What makes something evil when an individual did it, but good and right when a group did it?

I know I disagreed with Blackhawk on the point and probably always would. If Blackhawk witnessed a monster doing something that could only be set right by their death, why was it alright to allow the prison to do it rather than choosing to do it yourself?

I shrugged, “That’s why Moonstryker was a true hero. He didn’t have any powers. I wish I could be like him, but I never will be.” I chuckled, “But I also won’t be a guy in tights flying around kicking the shit out of joyriding kids just because I can.”

Grace was nodding a little. “While personally, I can appreciate your take on things, I think this is a discussion for the DMA or Proteus. I would be happy for what assistance you can muster, and I have a lot more leeway because we aren’t dealing with Registered superheroes. Vigilantes are afforded more flexibility.”

I nodded and glanced at Aquantis, who was eyeing me speculatively. “Good, I have a great appreciation for flexibility,” I remarked.

The group started to split up, with Grace assuring us that tomorrow evening a different liason would be awaiting us at a coffee shop downtown between Woodward and Grand River Avenue. Grace would still be the primary media and DMA contact, but a man named Wilson would be their day-to-day contact. Grace told Blackhawk she would be contacting DMA and that she would get in touch with him later, and he nodded before heading out as well.

I stopped Aquantis before she left and took her hand. She was a little surprised, and I asked her, “Pardon me, Ma’am, but I seem to find myself at loose ends for the afternoon. Are you going to be terribly busy? I would be grateful for a tour of this city before I am forced to depart and was wondering if your company offers that service.”

“A tour?” she asked, and I think I caught her by surprise.

I nodded, “Yes, you know, the Sears Tower, Al Capone’s HQ, the Haunted hotel, Maybe a ride on the spirit of Chicago tour boat. Have you seen them?”

She shook her head, “No, I have only been here myself for about two months after I was contacted about the defenders. Most of the sites I have seen involved grungy ships, Lake Michigan, shipping containers, drug dens, and the various local precincts.”

I sighed. Wow. Total pick-up fail. I had assumed that she had been here long enough to take in the sights. But she smiled and patted my hand, “I would love to see them also. Meet me at the Park Plaza in about an hour?”

I nodded, “Absolutely, I would love to explore with you, it should be quite an adventure.” At her expression, I realized how my words could be taken. “I am going to have to convince my babysitters to leave us alone for the afternoon, but I understand that there are both walking tours and boat tours. I figure we can spend the afternoon on a walking tour, and then maybe catch one of the boat dinner tours or a nice restaurant? I don’t much feel like spending the afternoon on a tour bus, and if the walking tour gets boring we can drop out.”

She nodded and smiled at me, “See you in an hour!” Before heading out of the lobby.

Baldwin said, “We are actually right here for tonight.” He stepped closer, with a keycard. “We could only get two rooms, but one is a double, so Agent Andropolis and I will be taking the double.” He said quietly, and the three of us headed up to the rooms.

I took a shower and got changed. Yes, I take a lot of showers, but for some reason, my nose is unbearably acute sometimes. Antonia had mentioned that I was somewhat hyper-perceptive, but my nose was a big part of it. That might also be why I wasn’t terribly interested in a lot of girls for a while. Maybe I just couldn’t get turned on by non-metas? Brandi, lovely as she was, didn’t smell right. Callie, Antonia, and now Mariah did.

I heard a knock at the adjoining door, and after I yelled “Come in!” Baldwin wandered in.

“Hey. I know you are getting kind of salty about the whole service with a smile thing. Agent Andropolis has to go back down to DMA HQ for a while, so I thought I’d talk to you before you head out.”

I nodded, “I honestly wonder what her problem is? I barely ask for anything, and I am doing a huge service for the DMA. Do you know what my time is actually worth? While I was kidnapped I found out. If I were a mercenary and using my abilities for profit, my income could exceed that of most third world nations.”

Baldwin nodded, “Yeah, I actually was doing some thinking about it, and just knowing what I know, some of the stuff you could make could pull down hundreds of millions, easily. Even as a trainer, being able to figure out what is holding a meta back from advancing to a higher class is worth tens of millions.”

I nodded, “Exactly. But I don’t really want any of that. I like doing the right thing. I am not asking for freedom from this slavery racket that the DMA has set up, I keep my word. I never promised to be the DMA’s bitch forever, and I won’t be.”

Baldwin shrugged, “That’s why I said she’d be a better cape than an agent. She has that whole great power great responsibility thing in spades. She saw the video, and now she thinks of you like a potential Commander Freedom, and cannot understand why you wouldn’t use it. Your rant about not helping people who can help themselves? I thought she was going to blow her top.”

I nodded, “Again neither confirming nor denying the content of any video, but do you remember the big green guy in those superhero movies? With the anger issues?”

Baldwin nodded.

“Well, the person that got transformed, after his transformation, didn’t have any anger issues. It wasn’t that easy. He had almost no control over Hyde. That’s why Hyde is a last-ditch emergency response. There was no reason whatsoever to kill Totem once Copperhead was popped since his paycheck was gone. Totem tried to hurt him, which was the only excuse Hyde needed to turn him into a squirt gun. Yes, it was technically self-defense, but it was sort of like Sif using lethal force to defend herself against a toddler with a butter knife.”

“Hyde? Like Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde?” Baldwin asked.

I nodded, “Very much like it. Almost no control. I mean, he had a little control, he didn’t rape anyone to death although he was tempted, and he didn’t snack on anyone even though he was hungry, but you see why putting on tights and playing hero wouldn’t work, right? It would be like giving a child a machine gun and calling them a cop. Even if I did play the hero game, I’d be the guy stuck back in the base mindlessly manufacturing healing potions and spending the vast majority of my time playing stupid video games. I would rather go after the cartels personally and find out what the hell Windfall is talking about than be the chair nerd.”

I shrugged a little, “Windfall wasn’t the first one to tell me about something horrible coming, either. Some… demigods, really, were yammering about the same thing, which is why it doesn’t surprise me. Something bad is coming, and it’s threatening my very own world, and I am not going to spend all my time breaking up art theft rings or beating up the occasional meta mugger when the entire world is at stake.”

Baldwin chuckled a little, “I will explain it to Agent Andropolis. You had better not tell her that yourself.”

I lifted an eyebrow, “Why is that?”

Baldwin grinned, “You actually did a pretty good job putting her off your scent, especially with the mercenary rant. If she heard your explanation, sacrificing your powers to protect the helpless, giving up your life of ease and comfort to try and save the world, I don’t know what she would do, but you might not make your date with Aquantis., at least not for a couple of hours, anyway.”

I sighed and shook my head at Baldwin, “I don’t plan on that. But as far as a sacrifice, every single potion I make, even the crappy ones, takes a toll on me. That’s one of the reasons I exercise so much. The more fit I am, the more of my life and health I can afford to trade away every single time I make a potion. When I was working for the cartels, I was down to a scrawny wreck within a month with no exercise and crap food. They had to start force-feeding me every day so I could make their allotment of potions. It took me two years of constant exercise in prison and never making a single potion to get my muscles back, and even then I kind of cheated. I build up muscle faster than anyone, and my healing means I never need rest between sessions, I could do a week’s workout in a day if I had the time and inclination, and in Prison, I had both.”

“Between you and me, if the DMA or Proteus tries to force me down that road again, even for the greater good, God is my witness that I will kill every fucking one of them.” I snarled out the last word, trying to impress on Baldwin how important it was.

I remembered that feeling of helplessness, of being forced constantly just to survive, of endless sacrifice and getting my tubes forced down my throat and my stomach filled again and again with cheap vitamin slop just so I could spend another day as a slave, of the constant torture and laughing jeers as they explored my ability to regenerate, and I was not kidding in the slightest.

“I like Antonia, hell, I probably could have fallen for her if she weren’t DMA, but if she tries to force me down that road she’d better be ready to kill me because I won’t spare her. They’d better be ready to call up Galactica or the Commander because I won’t live to do that again, and I plan to see every single person that had anything to do with it dead.”

I sighed. “That includes my brother.”