The adept labs were a mess. It was so typical I just sighed and tried to move on, giving it the least amount of recognition possible. There was a row of computer screens along one wall that were almost hidden by the sheer amount of disassembled stuff covering every single surface. Though, when I turned the lights on I saw that none of it had spilled onto the floor, which was a pleasant surprise.

There were areas where the stuff was large and areas where the stuff was small, and that was about all I could figure with my lack of techo knowledge. Fortunately, I already had an idea what Orcus had been referring to when he told me about the generic gear.

There was one door that had remained closed each of the three times I’d been sent here to familiarise myself. The door had no handle, but there was a scanner next to the door that looked perfect for the blank card Zephyr had given me. I swiped it and the edges of the door flashed red. A screen on the scanner blinked, showing the numbers 76743.

I recognised the number and called 76743 - Rosie - who picked up after one ring. There was the sound of a phone being picked up, which I spent a moment thinking on. She was the Regulation AI, Rosie shouldn’t need to pick up anything.

“Hello Lock, how may I help you?” Rosie asked in her voice pleasant, bringing me back into focus.

“I need to get to the generic gear in the techo labs.” I explained. “I think I know where that is, but I can’t get there.”

“Your blank card will not grant you access to where the generic gear is contained.” Rosie replied.

I sighed. “Orcus authorised and ordered it.”

“Your claim is unsubstantiated and therefore ignored.” Rosie informed me, her voice still pleasant. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

It took me a moment to trust myself to speak. “I have been ordered to gear up and meet up with Orcus. How can I do that without the gear from here?”

“I was not aware that was where you were calling from.” Rosie said, the red light behind the door shutting off a moment later. “There is gear in your locker near the changing rooms. After collecting that gear, you should meet with Orcus.”

I breathed another sigh, this time of relief. “Thanks Rosie.” I listened to her say she was welcome and almost, almost hung up. “Just to check, can you list the gear in my locker?”

“Of course, one momen-” Rosie’s pleasant voice cut itself off. “One metal staff.”

I waited. Nothing else came. Of course.

My fist clenched and I focused on the various forces, how they interacted, how some passed through my muscles while others didn’t. I managed to calm down.

“Rosie, please check my previous call from this device. Orcus orders me to collect generic gear. Please verify, and update my blank card.”

“Of course, one m- Authorised. Is there anything else you need assistance with?”

“No.” I said curtly. I took another breath of relief and hoped it would stick this time. That had been a long shot. “Thank you Rosie.”

“It was a pleasure.” Rosie responded, again in that pleasant voice and I could swear there was something hinting at amusement in its voice. I terminated the call.

Swiping the blank card this time resulted in the door quietly sliding open, revealing a sanitary and well organised array of various protective pieces of gear. It took me a while to give up finding any in my size and settling for the smallest things they had. Being a small person in the United States of America meant I was used to most things being too big for me. I ended up grabbing a vest, as well as protection for my arms and legs, and then a helmet as well after some consideration.

Cloud had snapped my head into the ground when we fought. Recovering from that had been a bitch, and I didn’t want a concussion. Dr Louis had scared me far away from letting that kind of injury happen. Each piece of gear was a clean white colour. It seemed that none of it had ever been used before, which struck me as a callosal waste. But if it meant I could have some protection moving forward I wasn’t going to complain.

I considered using my all-powerful ability to tag to add a design to the gear, but decided not to given that Orcus hadn’t told me to kick my feet. My face was still completely blacked out underneath the helmet, of course.

I gave the room a once over anything else that might be useful, weapons, mostly. Even pepper spray would have been nice, but I was disappointed. After that I went and picked up the staff in my locker and checked my phone for the address Orcus had said he was going to give me. The Lictor building. It wasn’t too far, but running there would take twenty minutes and leave me out of breath. That was fine, I had an idea I wanted to test.

~~~

Anyone looking at me would have thought I was trying to get heelys back in fashion. They’d be wrong, heelys are always in fashion, but I wasn’t using heelys as I slid across the pavement at a pretty impressive speed.

One of the first things I’d talked with my teammates about was the specifics of my telekinesis and how it worked. Naturally, that lead to the topic of flight, as theoretically I could use my power to push my clothes up and forwards to simulate flying. This remained theoretical because doing it hurt like hell and ruined whatever I was wearing. Fabric just isn’t meant to withstand that kind of force.

Then Collage suggested cutting a hole in each of my socks to make sure I was always touching my shoes, and hence be able to use my power on them. That was something I was kicking myself for overnight as I took to each sock I owned with a pair of scissors. I was sad to do it, as I really liked some pairs of socks that I had, but it didn’t make sense not to.

After that, I’d become constantly distracted by forces acting on my shoes and thinking about ways I could use it. Flight was still out of the question, obviously. But I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I just got rid of the thing that kept everyone’s feet in the same place. Namely: friction.

The answer to that was slip and fall the first time I tried doing it. The next few times as well. When I added some forward momentum, however, things started speeding along nicely. All I needed to do was maintain balance, stay focused for when the pavement changed where I’d have to reapply my power, and I’d slide across the ground like a very graceless ice skater.

It wasn’t even ruining my shoes. Can’t scrape off on the ground if there’s no friction.

More people were out and about now so I wasn’t able to test the upper limits of how fast I could go. There were a few people that tried to get my attention, asking “Are you a new hero!?”. All of whom I ignored. There were even more who got their phones out and just snapped pictures as I passed. A fair number of kids were in uniform, going to school like I usually did around this time. I wasn’t sure how I felt knowing I’d be a popular topic, but the fact my name wasn’t attached lifted the anxiety a bit.

So this was my official debut. I could think of worse ways to debut. Like emerging from a pile of rubble to find- Stop. Move on.

Soon enough I slid to a stop behind the Lictor building. Minutes after that I was walking into the room the Sentinel had commandeered.

“Hey, it’s the slowcoach.” Snowflake announced when I entered. She was in costume so the name Elicia was off of the table.

“Hi to you too.” I said. It had been just over a week since I’d met her, and this was maybe the third time she and I had spoken. Elicia spent most of her time as Snowflake and on patrol.

Muffle was ducking down by a far window to look out. The upper frame of the window was level with his head even while he was hunkering down. Orcus was situated by a nearer window. He’d dragged a desk over and had some files spread across its surface. Snowflake was lounging against a pillar near the Sentinel, so I made my way towards them.

I passed a doorway and saw Lucidity dragging something out of a wall. It seemed heavy, and I was about to offer to help when whatever she was pulling suddenly broke and she went sprawling. Lucidity stood and exchanged some words with another costumed figure in the room, then went back through the wall. The item she’d been dragging vanished into thin air, leaving piles of similar gear behind.

The other person Satellite. We nodded our greetings to each other and turned back to what we were doing.

“Lock, good of you to arrive so punctually.” Orcus said. I noticed his gauntlets were off, though he still had a layer of black fabric over his hands.

“Given how long you probably spent picking through the adept labs, you must have raced over here as fast as Clothesline would’ve. How are you not out of breath, skinny?” Snowflake jibed.

“Slid across the ground.” I explained, being intentionally unhelpful.

“So?”

I gave her a look, then remembered she couldn’t read my expression.

“Snowflake.” Orcus evenly warned, then turned back to the files on the table. “There’s not much for us to go on, and a lot to consider. Know this, Lock, this is a serious situation.”

“I’m getting that.” I said, glancing back as Lucidity dumped something that looked like an RPG launcher onto a pile, sans payload. She’d used that net launcher on Zipline.

“The precognitive we received warning from was Metafore. Are you familiar with how his power works?”

“Yes.” Metafore was a smart psychic who foresaw large events roughly one day before they happened. But never saw what actually happened, only metaphors of the events. He was pretty high up in the Regulation.

“The account given is as follows.” Orcus’ finger drifted to a specific piece of paper and traced a paragraph.

“A deep shadow approaches a waterlogged city of Atlas. Three carpets unfurl. The first is orange and very short, more a square than a rectangle. The second is black and white. It is missing pieces and has multiple beginnings and ends. The third appears on the horizon, which bends and shimmers as the carpet is revealed. It is green. In between the three carpets a one sided coin is spun. Liquid is flung from the coin and stains the carpets. The stains are red. Something circular is placed on top. (Could be a plate, could be a crown. It blurs together.) Vision ends.”

“The waterlogged city is us, because of the dam.” Snowflake picked up. “The Atlas thing refers to the greek titan Atlas, who held up the sky. The real world being us with Mt Duncan with that ski field on it. But then again, it might not be us. The Regulation has every city with a similar description on high alert to be safe.”

“What about the carpets?” I asked. “I mean, I get that it’s Metafore’s schtick, but if that’s word for word, he spent half the vision talking about carpets.”

Orcus said. “Character representation is what I believe he was referring to. We have strong guesses regarding two of these carpets. The orange and the black and white.”

“The Rising Sun and the Entrepreneurs respectively.” Snowflake supplied.

“The premonition is that of a meeting between three characters.”

“And the Courtesans like the colour red.” I remembered. My house was near their territory. It was difficult to distinguish between Courtesan Red and Rising Sun Orange when it was dark. “Beastmasters?”

“Nope. If it was, we’d have two very similar carpets. Seeing as Jackal is the one in charge at the moment, it would be brown. Plus, that carpet comes from the horizon so we’ve taken the liberty of ruling out anyone from Graceland from our list.”

“Who’s on the list?” I asked.

Orcus said. “We consulted the database for known transhumans with thematically green abilities.”

“There’s definitely one person I know of who has a power like that.” I said.

“Borealis.” Snowflake put in before I could finish, saying a name I didn’t recognise.

Orcus said. “Perhaps. However Borealis was last sighted in central Australia three weeks ago and has been active there for some time. There is no reason to expect her to travel this far.”

“Actually, I was going to say Greenflame.” I gave Snowflake a look for cutting me off, for all the good it did.

“Ah, yes. That may be it.”

“Who’s Greenflame?” Snowflake hadn’t noticed my chagrin. I mentally sighed and pulled back the irritation. “I don’t recognise the name.”

“Think of a gypsy giving tarot readings.” I said, unable to think of a way to supplement the explanation.

Snowflake cocked her head, not getting it.

Orcus commented. “That is not incorrect. It isn’t wholly correct either. Greenflame can, after brief interactions, accurately describe two stages of a person’s life: the past and present. She can also describe a future for that person, and potentially makes that future come true.”

“She just does that?” Snowflake checked.

“No. She needs your consent.” I said. “She was kicking around in Quebec last I heard of her. That was last week.”

“Her relative proximity means she is a likely candidate. Given how three particular villains in this city like to dream, her appearance could put a metaphorical shadow over the city.” Orcus leaned back from a tablet he’d produced. “On the other hand, Keaton, Mega, Thareneal, and even Borealis are all likely candidates.”

“Keaton?” I repeated, recognising the name. “There’s a guy running around called Keaton?”

“Yeah.” Snowflake said through a heavy sigh. “Keatons power is: he’s an actor. His power gives supplementation to his roles, and he has used green powers in some personas.”

“How many times has he asked for one million dollars?” I asked lightly, making a mental note to read up further on the man later. The reaction I got was subpar. Nothing from Orcus. One sad sigh from Snowflake. Muffle might have laughed, but I couldn’t tell.

“Why is Mega on that list?” I asked, moving the conversation along. “Doesn’t he only show up every six months or so?”

“If Mega’s creation has clean energy,” Orcus said. “like the reactor he built in Africa or the shuttle he gave to Australia, then it’s possible for it to fit the green theme. The launch of the Megahold was foretold as a form of darkness rising, it isn’t much of a leap of logic from there.”

“It’s also been five or so months since Mega’s last drop.” Snowflake added. “He’s due a payload if he’s sticking to his schedule.”

“So that what we’re hoping for?” I checked.

Orcus said. “Yes.”

Mega was an adept with an unclear specialty. While most had specific areas where their power applied, Mega didn’t seem to have any particular specialty. Or he did and that speciality was just making things that were massive in scale, impressive in design, and ingenious in its implementation.

The man, if he was one, was well established, even if he was still shrouded in secrecy, and whenever he made something new it got worldwide coverage. The most recent of Mega’s creations was a shuttle that had been gifted to Australia. It was large enough to house one hundred and fifty people comfortably, as well as their luggage. The engine was powered by a clean reactor with no runoff or fuel requirements, and allowed the shuttle to travel to and from space from the surface if needed.

Previously to that Mega had built an observation facility on an island in Japan that put every other deep space observation programme to shame. Before that was a dinosaur enclosure in South America. Before that was the fusion reactor in central Africa. The list went on.

“And Thareneal is what we’re not hoping for.” I said.

Orcus said. “It’s what we’re preparing for.”

I looked over my shoulder at the pile Lucidity was building. If Thareneal showed up I wasn’t sure we would even be able to use anything in there.

“What about the coin thing and the red stains?” I asked. “Or should I say blood?”

Orcus responded. “It is best to remain open minded with premonitions. The aspects of the vision that we are most unclear of are: The one sided coin, the circular object mentioned at the end of the vision, and the bending of the horizon associated with the green carpet. The red stains tell us to treat this vision seriously. Which we are.”

“So where’s the rest of the Sentry?” Snowflake asked Orcus. “It’s getting close to go time, and I don’t trust Collage as far as I can throw him. And there’s the other rookie too. Are the other hero teams coming out?”

“The other half of the Sentry are with Blinker by Mt Duncan.” Orcus explained. “Zephyr realised the event might progress into the time where Jagmikh enjoys being chased, so she’s trying to draw him out for an early session.”

“I see.” I didn’t actually see, nor did I understand that reasoning. Surely her flying around with a literal demon looking guy who could make sonic booms on a whim would be noticable. Anyone would realise they were doing their dance far ahead of schedule.

Orcus continued. “The Grey apostles, as mandated by law, are not allowed so close to me and have not been mobilized. The Heroes of Yesterday are divided into two teams staking out other potential sites of activity. Finally, Scar’s Advent are working a separate case today, and will not be able to participate.”

“Busybodies.” Snowflake muttered disdainfully.

Orcus continued. “Which reminds me, I’ve neglected to mention when the event is going to occur.” He checked the time on his watch. I hadn’t realised he wore one. “It is in twenty four minutes.”

“If we’re unlucky, the villains will meet over there.” I pointed at the building opposite.

“Huh.” Snowflake reacted. That was the biggest response I got. I pushed down the urge to pout.

Orcus continued to pour over the notes. He idly strapped on his gauntlets, reminding me of something.

“Do we have any fingerless gloves?” I suddenly asked.

“What? You’re going biking?” Snowflake laughed harder at her own joke than she had at any of mine.

Orcus calmed Snowflake with a glance. “Was there nothing in the adept labs?”

“Nothing I wouldn’t have had to take a pair of scissors to.” I replied. “You made it seem like time was important.”

Orcus did... something. “So-so.”

I continued. “Everything was too large for me anyway. Even this stuff is extra small and it’s too big for me. I didn’t get gloves because I need skin contact to use my power.” I tapped the staff, which until that point had been weightless.

“I see a solution.”

Lucidity hefted a stack of what I recognised as hoverboards onto a nearby desk. “I’ve gone through the list, Orcus. I’m going to go get a snack now.”

“Before you do that, can you outfit Lock with a costume?” Orcus gestured at me.

I waved hello.

“That’s hard.” Lucidity complained. “You know I can’t bring things that big through. Wait. Lock! Hi! Orcus, he’s already in costume.”

“Lock has requisitioned fingerless gloves.” Orcus said. “It isn’t much. See what you can do.”

Lucidity’s hand hovered over her stomach. “I’m so hungry I feel like I’m empty, but fine, I’ll do it. Then I’m going to eat.”

“Thank you.” Orcus turned his back to us as he looked down at the street.

“Lock.” Satellite said, having arrived with Lucidity.

“Satellite.” I replied then turned to Lucidity. “Do you need me to do anything?”

“Um, get by a wall.” Lucidity was still holding her stomach dramatically. “It’d make things easier for me. Not that wall, it’s too thin.”

“That’s a pillar.” I corrected her as I stepped towards a wall.

“That’s an I Don’t Care.” She stuck her tongue out and walked through the pillar.

“Smartass, eh?” Satellite let a grin play at his face. His helmet didn’t cover his jaw. I noticed he drew out the end of his sentence.

“And you’re Canadian, eh?” I said.

“Can you blame me? Your American capitalism makes this place so much better because you’re buying out all the adepts. Makes it warmer too.”

“Just commenting, I’m from Vancouver myself.”

“Toronto. Came down two years ago, manifested the better part of a year ago.”

I stepped back as Lucidity walked out of the wall right next to me. “I was last there a decade ago. Funky stuff happened.”

“Last where?” Lucidity asked. She had a pair of fingerless gloves that matched the green colour and abstract pattern of her costume. They looked very small.

I took the gloves when they were offered. “Home.”

“Oh... Um.”

“Lock’s Canadian, like me.” Satellite explained as I pulled my new gloves on. They were too small for me, but considering my experience with Lucidity I was expecting them to do something strange. I was proven right when they started expanding to suit my hands, resulting in a snug fit.

I nearly fell over that had felt so goddamn weird.

“Do you need anything else?” Lucidity asked.

“Just needed the gloves.” I got out.

“You’ve stolen his heart.” Satellite jokingly told Lucidity, who scowled at him and vanished through the wall. He turned to me somewhat more seriously. “But really, what was that?”

“Something fucky.” I held my head. “Got a sixth sense. Tells me about the forces on everything I touch. Feeling something grow… fuck. I never want to experience that again.”

“I can’t imagine.” He said simply.

“Neither could I until a moment ago.” There was still something bugging me about the gloves. It’s net force wasn’t anything special, but beneath that, when it moved, the glove seemed to move twice as much force, only to be cancelled out. It was a strange bastardisation of Newton’s third law. I sighed. “I don’t get Lucidity’s power.”

“You and all the villains.” Satellite chuckled. “But seriously, she’s a damn godsend. Smart mix of Displacer and Disrupter I think.”

“Explain that. Blinker still hasn’t given me a cheat sheet.” I explained.

Satellite scratched the back of his head, finangling his fingers through the mesh of his costume. “Displacer is pretty easy to remember. That’s a power that involves movement, so in Lucidity’s case that’s her going through the walls into her dreamspace and coming out somewhere else.”

“Dreamspace?”

“Yeah, a reflection of the world. From what I hear Lucidity is a golden god there. Anything a lucid dreamer could do, she can do. I’m talking flying, teleporting, massive amounts of destruction, literally creating matter. That’s the Psychic part of the power because it’s all a dream. The Disrupter part is where she brings the stuff back.” He gestured to the hoverboards near the window.

“Okay.” I mentally started unpacking that. “Where did the Psychic part come from? From my point of view you just said it for no reason.”

“Smart Psychic.” Satellite stated. “Psychics are always one of two things. Smarts or Adepts. Depends of if the power works with information or inventions. Does it make a thing? That’s the golden rule.”

“Disrupter?”

“Breaks the rules.” He waved towards me. “You’re a disrupter as well, being a Telekinetic. Same as me. Just a different flavour of disrupter from Lucidity. It’s also the word for us transies that make big fucking explosions.”

“Disrupting.” I commented. Satellite shrugged. “Any numbers attached to that?”

“Sometimes. But it’s difficult with Lucidity because… Well, it’s a lucid dreaming ability. How the fuck do you measure that?”

“What about you?”

“Disrupter 4. I’m in the Alpha class. How about you?”

I blinked, not expecting him to turn that question back at me. I was still learning this. From memory neither Blinker or Orcus had said anything on the matter. Nor had Zephyr.

“Don’t know.” I shrugged a shoulder. “No one’s told me.”

The silence dragged on for a bit.

I broke the quiet with a question. “Did Lucidity come up with all the names?”

Satellite thought briefly. “Why do you ask?”

“Dreamspace?” I said incredulously. “Lucidity? She’s twelve.” The girl in question had reappeared with a metal lunch box that she was producing snack bars from.

“You’re right. The folks in Regulation call it that. Lucidity wasn’t given a choice in the matter.”

“That seems to happen a bunch, doesn’t it?”

“Regulation naming things?” Satellite checked. “Yeah, it does. There’s the dreamspace, Lucidity, Zephyr, Muffle, and me, Satellite. They get off on it.”

“Right.” I decided to end that conversation there and went over to the window by Orcus.

We didn’t exchange any words and just surveyed the road below. I knew what I was looking for, and there were more recent pictures on the desk of each of the high profile villains.

There was the Entrepreneurs, which was headed by Boss, and supplemented by his two partners, Queue and Yearn. Queue would be a Smart Psychic, and not much more was known about them than that. They never showed their face, but they had a massive impact on the effectiveness of the Entrepreneurs. Consequently, there were only theories as to what his power exactly was. Most assumed his power just made him really smart.

As for Yearn, there was a lot more known about her. Her power allowed her to change the point of gravity for certain objects. She liked to use it to make arrows never miss, always walked around with a quiver of arrows, and only sometimes with the bow.

The Rising Sun, on the other hand, was headed by a character called Samurai. He was a man who liked to throw his weight around in an Oni mask. His power let him summon weapons to his hands and use them to extents that shouldn’t be possible. He’d used a dagger to cut through solid steel on multiple occasions.

Samurai like to change out his underlings, so there was no way of knowing which ones he might bring with him. If he showed up.

Time passed on by. Every so often a hero would cough or idly comment on something, but for the most part, time ticked by in silence. I noticed Orcus repeatedly check the time.

“How much longer until the event?” I asked.

“Two more minutes.” He said.

Two minutes passed. Nothing.

“When do we decide it’s not happening?”

“When the event is confirmed to have passed in another place.”

I nodded and resumed waiting.

Suddenly my phone buzzed in sync with every other cell in the room. The others checked the message and relaxed, so I took my phone out and looked at the message.

Hello Sentry,

The event foreseen by Metafore has passed in [Whistler].

Theta Level protocols have been rescinded. You may return to your duties.

~Rosie~

That made sense. Whistler had a ski field nearby and had more bodies of water nearby than Graceland did. So why did I feel uneasy? I glanced over at Orcus who was focused intently on the message.

“Where’s Whistler?” Snowflake asked.

“Seriously, you?” My voice dripped with incredulity, but I explained regardless. “It’s a city north of Vancouver. Lakes and ski fields right next door. They had the 2010 Olympics there and everything.”

“I didn’t care about snow when I was eight.” Snowflake snapped back.

“Sweet, I got out of bed early for nothing.” Satellite lugged a bag onto his back and moved to leave.

“Hold on.” Orcus said.

“Come on old man, I had things I wanted to do today. Metafore saw something that happened somewhere else, so what?”

“Something’s off.” Orcus turned back towards the window. “Has anyone noticed anything?”

A chorus of “no” filled the room, sans Muffle, who was here.

Orcus let his posture slowly fall, then turned to us. “Very well, this was a false alarm. Everyone will still need to fill out a crisis report when they get back to the tower.”

“I’m getting rid of this stuff now.” Lucidity quietly announced as she wandered closer to a pile of weapons. It dissolved into nothing and she started moving to another one.

“Can’t you let us off once?” Snowflake groaned.

“No.” Orcus said. “Being a Sentinel requires vigilance, and you should all be aiming for that.”

“Yeah, but not today.” Satellite made it out the door. “Seeya.”

Orcus’ phone started ringing. He looked at it then turned to Muffle, who was still standing by the window. Muffle was pointing down at the street. I followed his finger and saw three masked figures exiting an expensive looking limousine and walking towards a nearby high rise. I recognised two of the figures, Boss and Yearn. The third had to be Queue.

They walked into the building I pointed at before. Why the fuck had I opened my mouth?

“Oh you fucking idiot…” Snowflake muttered through her sigh.

“Muffle, send Satellite a message telling him to mobilize.” Orcus ordered, his voice was growing deeper as he spoke, and I could swear there was another, even deeper voice echoing him. It was subtle and unnerving. “Alert Blinker and Zephyr. Tell Rosie that Metafore’s prediction is happening in Graceland as well, then come and join us. Lucidity, stay behind and tell us where the Entrepreneurs are going. The rest of you, with me.”

“We won’t be able to enter from below. They’ve already set up a cordon. We’ll have to go in from above.” He picked up a hoverboard that Lucidity hadn’t dismissed yet, moved to a tall window, opened it and jumped out. Snowflake followed suit. Muffle was busy with his phone. I realised I was just standing there.

Shit.

I grabbed a hoverboard, which glowed softly in response to my touch.

“Lucidity, what do you have for me?” Orcus’ strange voice came through the comms I didn’t have. Another oversight.

“Go!” Lucidity shooed me towards the window when she saw me standing around. “I’m getting on it, Orcus.” Then she was gone, vanished through the wall next to me.

I stepped over the windowsill and stepped onto the board, not letting go of it until I had my foot in each of the indents and the green light glowed. I looked down to find that there was in fact a cordon being established. Several official looking men and women in uniform were closing off the road and moving barricades. They were expecting something big. Snow started falling.

Up at the top of the building the Associate had entered was a swirling cloud of tiny specks, Snowflake and Orcus had gone to the top. Now I had to follow them.

The cloud billowed briefly and a portion of it flew out over the street, where it started lazily floating down. That meant there were villains on the roof, they were fighting with Snowflake, and also Orcus, and I was lagging behind. I could only hope that I’d be able to keep up.