“It’s weekend time baby!” The announcement was paired with holographic fireworks exploding all around the room, and a backing track providing sound effects and a cheering audience played too.

“Good observation, Lowlight.” Heiress said, sounding the opposite of genuine. “Go and leave. Start your two day vacation. I’ll see you out the door.”

Lowlight’s little presentation ended, leaving the boy himself the only one standing, his arms still half raised, and a confused expression on his face. Heiress hadn’t moved from her chair in the slightest. “Could you sound less enthusiastic about not having school?”

“I’m sure she could.” Tip Top added from across the room. “Can’t you, Heiress?”

Heiress spared the other girl a glance. “Possibly.”

Tip Top jabbed a finger back. “See, Lowlight? She just did it!”

“It was kind of a rhetorical question.” The hero said quietly.

“Well I didn’t take it that way.” Tip Top complained, lounging deeper in her bean bag. “‘Cuz I’m bored. And I’m bored ‘cuz friday debrief is always boring. Why do we gotta do one on one five times all in front of each other? Massive time waster.”

Jumpspark wasn’t really sure how she got a bean bag into the meeting room, but it was there. The rest of the young heroes were all seated at chairs. If you included the bean bag, six chairs were pulled out and five of them were occupied. Now all they were waiting on was a senior hero and the director of the Central Streamrock Sentinels.

“Weird that we’re all here early.” Jumpspark said when he felt like the brewing argument between Lowlight and Tip Top was about to reach a breaking point. “We are all here, right?” He looked at Best friend, who glanced at the empty chair beside himself.

“Yeah, she’s here too.”

“Does Tammy have any good stories to tell?” Tip Top demanded before anyone else could. The distraction had been successful. “Say yes, because I’m gonna walk through a wall and see what happens if she doesn’t.”

Rather than answer, the boy in costume vanished. In the same moment, a girl wearing a near identical costume appeared in the formerly empty chair next to where he had been sitting.

“I do have a story, but you might not like it.” Tammy, the girl of the Best Friend pair said. “It involves this arrogant girl walking into a shootout after being told not to. I kept a close eye to the details. You’d never believe how many times she tripped. The first was great, she actually-”

“You know, I think I’m gonna go back to being bored.” Tip Top quickly cut in. Tammy grinned and vanished, letting her brother Danny return to reality.

“Finally. A good decision.” Heiress said louder than she needed to and Jumpspark had to hold back a sigh. Tip Top protested, Lowlight interjected with something stupid, Heiress said something bitchy again, and the whole dynamic repeated.

The young hero shared a sympathetic look with Best Friend. Thankfully it wasn’t long until the door opened and the bickering ended when the director walked in with Last Card behind him.

Jumpspark’s spirits were lifted seeing the superheroine enter. The woman actually had a personality, unlike the other two heroes that rotated through babysitting duty. She was absently shuffling one of her many decks of cards, and Jumpspark got the feeling the heroine was smiling sympathetically when she saw the five younger heroes all bored out of their minds.

It was hard to tell, of course. Last Card’s costume was modeled off of a male croupier, and her full face mask was mostly featureless, with the left and right half coloured black and red respectively. Then she took it off to join the rest of the unmasked heroes and Jumpspark’s hunch was confirmed.

Director Sunshrieker on the other hand was tall and well built, and applied the discipline that let him forge his body to his posture as well. There was nothing different in how he walked in, sat down, and opened his suitcase in front of him. Except for perhaps the exact position he sat and the markings of tiredness shifting the way he moved ever so subtly. Director Sunshrieker was all business, all the time.

This meeting went much the same way.

“In attendance, Best Friend Male,” The director paused as the best friend pair juttered in and out of existence with tired bursts of power. Sunshrieker didn’t even acknowledge that Tammy was there, he just moved on. “Best Friend Female, Jumpspark, Heiress, Lowlight, and Tip Top. Leading the meeting is Sunshrieker. Advising is Last Card.” He paused, as he normally did at this point, tapped his lips, and peered at the list. “We should look into expanding the team.”

“Said that last week.” Tip Top said.

“Some diversity would be good. East aisan would be the best addition to expand our inclusiveness.”

“Said that too.” Tip Top added.

“We’ll take what we can get.” Jumpspark said when he felt Heiress being roused to make a comment of her own.

Her mouth shut, taking the scathing insult that was just about to reveal itself with it. Instead she said, “He said it would be nice, not that we were actively going to look for them.”

“Yeah, but he is though.” Tip Top pointed at the director, who was typing something on his laptop. Her pointing finger was struck by a flashing card that somehow didn’t miss, and the girl cradled her finger and looked at Last Card with alarm.

“It’s rude to point.” The older heroine smiled as the card returned to her hand with a flourish. It was the two of clubs.

Tip Top whispered a word, “How?” Jumpspark agreed. What he just saw wasn’t something that was supposed to happen.

“Would like someone closer to my age.” Lowlight belatedly added, making Sunshrieker glance up.

“That’s a good idea, Lowlight.” He said, and began writing once more on his laptop.

Jumpspark looked across the table and rolled his eyes. Danny rolled his eyes along with him. The SRA director always had these talking points at the start of Friday debrief, but it had been six months since anything changed in the team. Six months, that was, since the previous captain of the team aged out and went independent. The heroes and heroines had been less cohesive ever since.

But someone closer to Lowlight’s age would be good. He was two years everyone’s junior, and sometimes it visibly got to him.

Sunshrieker cleared his throat “Next, the large events of this week. The Courtesans remain the highest level threat in our city, but still have yet to act. We know nothing of their activities, only that three key members of the gang were caught on CCTV on eastside.

“The Bad Dogs continue to conduct their underground fights on the westside. The source of their combatants still remains a mystery. A small percentage of such gatherings were disrupted over this past week. Heiress, you deserve credit for one of those busts.”

Heiress inclined her head politely. “Thank you director.”

Tip Top laughed. “Could’ve used less ice, but you sure got ‘em Heirie.”

The nicknamed heroine glanced sharply in the other girl’s direction, but did not grace her with a response.

“As for the Junkrats, they still remain as a buffer between the central district and where we believe the…” Jumpspark tuned the director out. It was the same old stuff every week. Laced within were reminders to obey protocol under every circumstance, but Jumpspark, being seventeen, didn’t have the patience necessary to remember all those hundreds of pages of regulations.

Common sense had worked out for him so far, so he’d keep doing that. His brain power was divided between being a hero and doing well in school anyway, since he couldn’t do the former without first doing the latter.

At least his lesser need for sleep let him catch up on homework when others would be sleeping. And game. Mostly game. It just sucked that all his friends were offline at those times.

“Jumpspark.” The director said, bringing the hero back into the meeting. “It is your turn now. Please give a detailed summary of this week’s events.”

“My patrols this week were Sunday day and night, Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening, and…” He delivered the information as he always did, now no longer with as many jokes as in the past. The crushing grind of routine had done away with that, but he did get a reaction out of Tip Top and Heiress when he mentioned the bra girl.

The former laughed and asked what one liner Jumpspark had said when he noticed the crimina’s state of dress, and gave him a thumbs up when he repeated it. Heiress however, gave a single word of berration when he revealed that she got away.

“Foolish.”

“Yeah, but she was skinny. I wasn’t giving her a full taser dose regardless. Was actually a point raised by the cops when they arrested the three that I did catch.”

“Also foolish.” Heiress said pointedly. “Perhaps if you had waited for your assigned partner, the number of arrests would have been higher. Best Friend’s power lets them follow criminals to their hideouts, after all.”

Jumpspark didn’t respond. It wasn’t the first time he’d been berated by the other hero in that specific way. The problem was that he got restless when he was moving, and most of the time it just ended up with him covering more area.

“Do you have something to add, Best Friend?” Last Card posed, bringing attention to Danny, who was clearly listening to someone that wasn’t there.

He shrugged and was replaced by his sister. “Jumpspark, you said you went easy on her.”

“I did,” Jumpspark conceded, recognising the look in her eye. “But I didn’t say why.”

“So say why.”

“She didn’t run at first. Didn’t even swing when I got close. Had the look of a deer in the headlights when I did. Thought she didn’t have it in her to run even if I didn’t use my power. Used it anyway. Turns out I was wrong.”

“So it wasn’t an attempt to be a Chad dudelad charming the girls with a milady?” She tipped an imaginary hat for emphasis.

“Jumpy isn’t a simp, Tammy!” Tip Top came to his rescue. “Come on, don’t be a bitch!” Jumpspark shot her a grateful look. Tammy could be difficult when things like this came up.

“That he isn’t.” Tammy finally admitted. “But I’m watching you.” She pointed two fingers at her face, and dissolved into nothingness as she pointed them at Jumpspark.

He could almost feel the girl’s ethereal body start to float behind his shoulder moments later.

“If that derail is complete,” Sunshrieker said, “Jumpspark may continue. Tip Top, you will be visiting the Public Relations office next week for vocabulary practice.”

Jumpspark let himself smirk at Tip Top’s exaggerated despair as he continued to finish his debrief. Then he tuned it all out until it was done. The way Sunshrieker closed meetings was as rehearsed as the way he opened them, he could afford to use autopilot for this stuff. When it was all said and done, and everyone was standing to go, either on a patrol or to go home, the hero was stopped by Last Card.

“I thought one of your stories sounded familiar. Have you seen this?” The heroine offered Jumpspark a look at her phone, which was held sideways and had a video paused.

“What’s this? This bra girl?” Tip Top was suddenly hanging off of Jumpspark moments into his hesitation, her elbow around his neck. “I’m interested now. Play it.”

Last Card glanced at Jumpspark, who still felt conflicted. He wasn’t the type of hero, or he didn’t see himself as the type of hero to get into grudge matches. He didn’t track specific villains that he’d fought previously in some publicity minded gambit for a battle. This wasn’t even that. It was a robbery done by six unpowered people, and the video humiliated one of the ones that got away. But he couldn’t deny that he was interested.

Jumpspark nodded and Last Card hit play.

~~~

Lucy was mindlessly surfing the internet when her phone buzzed. It was a text from Gracia, and contained just five words that sent Lucy’s thoughts into an uncontrolled spiral.

Want to do something tonight?

It was an invite. An invite to hang out, or maybe do some crime. But they wouldn’t do another crime so soon after the first, right? Especially not after one that had gone so wrong. Yet, at the same time it was Saturday. Lucy was looking at a weekend of boredom at best. There were no movies or shows coming out that she wanted to watch, and it was probably better if the fanfics she followed were given some time to release material.

At the same time, was this just Gracia using her again? The promise of company was a powerful lure for Lucy, and she’d outright told that to the other girl after the night of crime. If Lucy calculated the odds of this being some kind of manipulation from Gracia, then she’d put it at somewhere around eight times out of ten. Maybe that was being conservative too.

She had to know more. Prod at Gracia until more was revealed. So Lucy sent a response.

What do you mean by something?

The reply took five minutes to come back. Five minutes of Lucy switching between apps with increasingly frayed nerves.

Something fun.

The response made Lucy frown, but another text came through seconds later.

Different from last time.

Lucy was about to write a response when she remembered texting etiquette. You were supposed to wait at least three minutes before replying so that you didn’t seem desperate. But what if you were actively having a conversation? Lucy had more questions, and Gracia had sent the texts back to back.

In the end Lucy set a timer for two and a half minutes, since she’d spent at least thirty seconds dithering over whether or not to wait.

How different?

The reply seemed to come on the same three minute timer. Lucy reset her timer for three minutes before even reading Gracia’s text.

Like I said, something fun this time. No need for a mask.

Another text came through, and Lucy reset her timer again.

Question I should’ve asked was if you wanted to watch some action?

Watch action? Like a movie? The wording wasn’t right. Did that mean from an audience? Yes, Lucy wanted to be around that many people, movie or audience. The problem was what that implied from the other girl. It gave Lucy a bad feeling, so she sent a message to check after her timer went off.

Are you talking about the bad dogs?

This time the response was swift.

Come along and find out.

Interested?

Lucy set her three minute timer again, just to be on the safe side.

Yes.

Against my better judgement. Lucy thought in despair as she threw her phone on her bed and buried her head in the sheets. She’d caved. Caved just like Gracia knew she would sending her that first message. The girl didn’t set any more timers when her phone buzzed one more time, letting her shame keep her away until the lure finally overcame both it and her common sense.

It took about three minutes for that to happen.

Come to Crawmer Mall at two. We’ll go shopping and get a bite beforehand.

The phone dropped from Lucy’s hand and she buried her face in the sheets once more. It was all... so seductive and tempting! But Gracia couldn’t be trusted. Lucy would never trust her, it was impossible for her to anymore. But even then she wouldn’t reject an invitation to go somewhere and spend time with others.

Maybe… it could be practice. Practice at acting friendly with someone before she actually needed to act friendly with a friend and fucked it up. Lucy pushed off of her bed and stared at her phone with determination.

Yes. This would be practice.

Okay. I’ll meet you there.

She was out of the room washing up when Gracia’s response came through, and by the time Lucy got out of the shower it was far too late to send anything back after Gracia’s generic ‘see you there.’

The comment about going shopping might’ve been a jab at Lucy’s choice of dress, but that was just because Gracia didn’t know about her extensive wardrobe. Sure, the times they’d seen each other Gracia had always been the better dressed one, but Lucy was fairly certain the other girl didn’t have a walk in wardrobe with a full body mirror inside.

Lucy had never wanted for clothes. She had an outfit for every occasion, and different styles for every occasion. Some were too small, the girl having grown since buying them, but the fact of the matter was that she had casualwear, business casual stuff for any job interviews, and outfits for just in case she got invited to a goth party, a normal party, or perhaps an underground fighting arena, but as an audience member. She didn’t have anything for being a fighter. That hadn’t ever come up even in her wildest dreams.

But the problem Lucy now faced was deciding what exactly was best to wear for this specific occasion. She only had the clothes. It was her mom who was the authority on stuff like that, and she wasn’t coming back from her job for a while yet.

So Lucy guessed from a hopefully educated perspective. She exchanged her pyjamas for jeans with a studded and black leather belt, a long sleeved shirt with a lower cut, but not enough for any cleavage to show, and put on a dark jacket over that. After some consideration, she wore her watch as well. For her shoes Lucy decided on sneakers, the ones she normally wore since they were well fitted, deceptively cheap looking, and Gracia had hinted they were going somewhere unscrupulous.

That last part excited Lucy less than it had earlier that week.

When it was finally one o’clock and after travelling down and up the stairs several times when she realised she forgot her purse, Lucy made for the front door, only to remember she didn’t actually have the house to herself today. Her face lit up when she saw her dad leaning over a bowl of cereal, a laptop not far from the meal.

Then she faltered. She felt like she was a different person from when she last saw him. Then he looked up and sent a strained half smile her way.

“Hey daughter.” He looked back to his laptop and swiped on the touchpad. “Listen- no, it’s an easy fix. Or it would’ve been if you commented on the code before forgetting why you wrote it. My- I don’t want to hear it. My daughter is here and I’m going to talk to someone I actually want to.”

Click.

Then Lucy’s dad was standing up and leaning against the kitchen island, bowl of cereal in one hand as the other closed the laptop with a little bit more force than necessary. The stress had drained from his whole demeanour and he was paying attention to his teenage daughter.

Lucy liked her dad a lot. James Bentley was tall and neither fat or muscly, and somehow not gangly either. He was funny and compassionate, but knew where to draw the line. Most of all he was a hard worker. So much so that he was on call or on site practically all the time. Since he worked for an internet provider, that warranted near twenty four hour availability. Lucy would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t resent that about him, but there wasn’t much she could say on the matter anyway.

She just did her best to enjoy the times when he was there. “Hey dad. You’re… having breakfast for lunch again?”

“Ah.” James looked down and back up. “Had a late night. But you know… I checked the fridge and there weren’t any leftovers.” He opened the fridge door and looked inside. “And I wasn’t about to throw together pasta for breakfast.”

“Lunch.” Lucy corrected.

“Break-unch.” James compromised, letting the door swing closed. “Strikes me as more of a dinner kind of meal anyway.

“But there’s ham and cheese in the fridge. You could’ve made toasties.”

James snapped his fingers and pointed at her. Lucy tried to not flinch at how alike it was to how Jumpspark had done. He finished a mouthful of cereal and said, impressing seriousness, “You make a lot of sense, daughter of mine.”

“And if you had told me you’d be here today I could’ve cooked more last night.” Lucy reminded him. After spending so many nights in a house to herself, she’d become good at cooking just enough for herself. When she didn’t get take out at the very least.

“Ah.” James put his bowl down and scratched his head bashfully. The bowl was mostly empty now. “Wasn’t actually supposed to be here today. Slept in. Through my alarm. Tomorrow is my day off.”

“Oh.”

“But are you going somewhere? Normally we’re pyjama buddies on days like today and you’re all dressed up.”

“Uh. Yeah. I was going to Crawmer Mall.” Lucy admitted.

A glint lit up in James’ eyes. “Is it a date? Is he cute? Or is he bad? Am I finally allowed to go buy a shovel?”

“Dad!” Lucy protested, covering her reddening face. He always got the shotgun and a shovel thing wrong.

“Well?” James pressed.

“No!”

Lucy’s dad seemed unconvinced. “Are you just saying that?”

“Why would I- No. I mean, yeah. No!”

“So what is it then?” James asked, finally relenting.

“It’s for d- Shopping!” Lucy almost said dog fighting. James picked up on the aborted sound.

“D-, as in date?”

“Dad!”

“Well then I feel safe offering my daughter a ride on the way to work. Just gotta…” He looked at a clock on the wall and swore. “Wait by the car actually. I’ll be late for a meeting, but I was gonna be late anyway.” James disappeared into the master bedroom. “Just getting dressed!” He called.

“I’ll see you out there!” Lucy called back, thankful that the pressure was off of her, but sad that it was over. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth!” She glanced back from the door. “And put your dishes away!”