Using my power I was easily able to open the elevator doors. Something I hadn’t really considered about my power before was just how easily I was able to exert those huge forces. The elevator door took more force to move than it had to break Killer Kage’s arm or Clothesline’s leg, but in both cases I was barely exerting myself to do it.

It was impressive, and it scared the shit out of me. I had the power to break bones with the bat of an eye, at little to no cost for myself. All it would take is for me to overdo something at the wrong moment and wanton destruction would reign. Though, the risk hurting myself was probably going to keep me awake at night as well.

Today I had been lucky and had only damaged my fingers when swinging at Killer Kage. But what about the inevitable eventuality of me using an even greater force? If any part of my body got in the way, I’d be feeling it for a while. My fingertips had started aching in the lull since the last fight, and it was starting to be distracting.

I needed to stop throwing things.

We decided to leave Muffle behind. Waterlad had been talking to Muffle while Slingshot and I were arguing over whether or not we should go along with his idea. Muffle for his part wrote down “I’m a terrible stealth operative here.” when Waterlad told us he wasn’t coming, and the giant parted with the hoverboard he was still holding on to so I might get down the elevator shaft.

Before we left I hurried down to pick up my staff, seeing as I was feeling horrendously naked without it. I wasn’t happy being unarmed while Waterlad had his black glass trident.

Waterlad stepped past me onto the threshold of the shaft. “You’re really quite the muscle. I’m glad I’m the water.”

“Of course.” I said. “Is this the right shaft, or should we go one over?”

“Phrasing.” Waterlad chuckled. I rolled my eyes and remembered that my eye motions couldn’t be seen. “Yeah, it’s the one. Are you sure you’re comfortable using hoverboards in here? They have terrible control.”

“I’ll be fine.” I leaned forward and glanced down the shaft. It went down further than I’d expected. “They’re super intuitive, or so I’m told.”

“But you can’t fly.” Slingshot said.

I glanced back at her and saw she was still floating. The only time I’d seen her touch the floor was when she was hit into it by Clothesline and that first time in the SRT. Why was she flying so persistently? It was like she couldn’t touch the ground.

“Lock.” Slingshot brought me out of my thoughts.

“I’ll be fine.” I repeated. “Hoverboard, remember? Waterlad, you first.”

Waterlad stepped forward, then paused. “No. You should go first.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the elevator shaft. I was caught off guard and found myself over a void that would likely kill me if I fell down it. Lucidity’s hoverboard was tucked under one arm, and as intuitive as it may have been, I wasn’t confident I could get my feet in the right spots before I hit a wall or something. That same hand was holding onto the staff, so I locked it and held on for dear life as the door slammed shut behind me.

The thing that surprised me was that the staff didn’t stop when I locked it. It wasn’t falling by any means, and I nearly lost my grip on it when my body fell and it didn’t. Instead of falling it was sliding across the empty space, heedless of gravity. It carried me to the other side of the elevator shaft and didn’t stop when it reached the wall. The staff started embedding itself in the concrete.

Suddenly panicking even more, I unlocked the staff and felt it immediately stop and bend down. My weight suddenly registering. It didn’t bend by much, so I was still safe. But my weapon was now stuck in the wall. I was really glad I had taken the time to pick it up.

After taking some moments to breath and calm my erratic heart, I slipped the hoverboard under my shoes and tentatively took flight. The last time I had flown in an elevator shaft, things had gone very wrong. This time there wasn’t any white mist or spider webs that I could see, but I was still on edge. I ripped the staff out of the wall, nearly falling off the board doing so, and opened the elevator door again.

“-obably killed him! You-” Slingshot was yelling.

“I’m fine!” I cut her off. “What the hell, Waterlad? You could’ve killed me. Slingshot, put it down.”

A whiteboard levitating near a wall shot at Waterlad. It passed through him with a splash and crashed onto the floor. Slingshot halted her protests and glared at the villain. I felt my cheeks heating up.

Waterlad shrugged, unfazed. “I had a horoscope: push a man down an elevator shaft for good luck.”

My jaw tightened. “I’m the one holding the door open, how were you going to get through without me? And you nearly fucking killed me! If we’re going to do this you need to work with us. You can read that as: Don’t throw me down the fucking elevator shaft.”

The teenage villain raised his hands in surrender. “I sincerely apologise.”

I eyed the trident he hadn’t bothered to put down. “Go on, we’ll meet you down there.”

“Don’t make me wait.” Waterlad made a kissing sound and casually walked into the void, falling like a brick. There was a long pause, then a wet slapping sound echoed up the elevator shaft.

“I’m having second thoughts about this.” Slingshot blurted as soon as Waterlad was gone.

“You think?” I shook my head. “He’s a villain. He’s asking us to do villainous things, and he’s asking us to do them to other villains. As a hero, I’d be worried if you weren’t having any doubts.”

“Right… Yip.” Her ‘yip’ fell flat, breaking my heart. “Don’t make me- Don’t take too long.” Slingshot flew into the elevator shaft.

I breathed and let go of the door, bracing for it slamming shut. Then I turned my attention to the task beneath me. Though Lucidity’s intuitive hoverboard actually pulled through this time. It still took me a minute to get down.

“Took you long enough.” Waterlad commented.

I touched down on the roof of the elevator. Waterlad was leaning against a wall inside the car and Slingshot had been waiting with her feet hovering above the elevator.

“Sorry, but I don’t have the ability to be able to jump five plus floors without worrying about the consequences.” I retorted, stepping down through the hatch.

“You were literally standing on air the entire way down.”

“That was a hoverboard.” I moved to the door and pushed them open with my power.

We were immediately blinded by light. I flinched back, but didn’t let go of the elevator door this time. Slingshot squealed in surprise somewhere behind me, while Waterlad uttered a curse under his breath.

“Close it.” Waterlad hissed. “Slowly.”

I reduced the force on the door and let it push itself closed. When the door was half closed I realised I could see again. The room outside the elevator was extremely well lit. So much so that the colours were somehow overexposed, even though that shouldn’t have been possible. It was painful to look at.

The effect was one I recognized. Somewhere nearby was Ardent, a villain with the power to make orbs of blinding light. The manifestations of her power made so much light that even when I had my eyes closed, all I could see was white.

“That was Ardent.” I said once the door was shut. “Who else is going to be out there?”

“Agent Orange, maybe.” Waterlad replied. “Beefcake, Idea, or maybe Cease and Desist. Definitely not Nurture, though. He’s useless inside without prep that we haven’t had the time for.”

“The Handiemen.” Slingshot quietly murmured.

“Yeah, but I can’t imagine there’s more than three of them out there. I’d be surprised if there were three at all.”

“What about the Collectors?” I asked. “These are the Entrepreneurs we’re talking about, there could be one of the Racketeers out there as well.”

Waterlad shook his head. “Boss doesn’t mix the employee gangs. It’s a Handieman.”

The elevator doors were ripped open, revealing a mass of ripped muscle on the other side. A huge hand reached in, tore me out and sent me skidding across the floor. Slingshot soon joined me, followed by Waterlad. The villain among us was at his feet before I’d regained my bearings.

“There are three of them.” A massively deep voice observed.

“I can see that.” A female voice sharply retorted.

I looked up and realised that Ardent’s power was blinding me again. Because of it I couldn’t see where the voice was coming from, but I still turned my head towards where the sound had originated.

The glimpse of muscle had told me who the other villain was, it was Beefcake. He had an explosive power that had made him notorious among the gangs and people who followed the heroes and villains. Normally he was an average sized person with no special capabilities, save for the ability to bulk up at will.

When he bulked up, Beefcake’s mass more than doubled with nothing but pure muscle. At the same time he gained super strength and toughness, but it only lasted a short while before he returned to normal.

“We have good old Waterlad, still throwing himself places he shouldn’t go.” A far more normal man said. It might’ve been Beecake, maybe someone else. Being blinded, I couldn’t tell. “And then we have the two new ones. Whatsit, Lock?”

“That’s me.” I stood, looking in the direction of the voice. My eyes still closed.

“And the other, weirder one is… Shit. I forgot.”

“It’s Slingshot.” The voice likely belonging to Ardent said. “And, I have to say, it’s wonderful to see new and… bright faces around. But what are two fresh heroes doing with a defected Sentry?”

Neither Slingshot or I responded. Waterlad had a different inclination.

“I had the bright idea to spy on Boss.” He told them.

“Waterlad, what the fuck are you-” I was cut off as something big knocked me off my feet and into a wall behind me. I fell to the ground in a heap and worked to suppress a moan.

“I don’t like interruptions.” Beefcake explained in his deep voice.

“Lock?” Slingshot asked, scared.

“As I was saying,” Waterlad continued, unperturbed. “Boss is having a super secret meeting with a guy who swore himself Boss’s enemy. The brains decided it was important enough for him to show his face. No one’s been told anything and I want to know what the hell is going on.”

There were a few moments of silence.

“What do we do?” The normal male voice asked.

“We should kick their asses and tie them up, but with Waterlad here that’d be an issue.” Ardent said. “The rookies we won’t have any problems with, but Waterlad would just use his power to escape any bonds we put on him.”

“Why don’t we put him in a bathtub?”

“Do you see a bathtub anywhere around here?” Ardent chastised him. “He’s blinded right now, but there’s nothing we can do to him and he knows it. Besides. He makes a good point.”

“A good what now?” The man asked.

“Aren’t you curious about why we’re here?” Ardent asked.

“Nah, not really.”

There was a beat where I could only assume Ardent facepalmed.

“Yeah, it’s a huge deal.” Waterlad chimed in. “Did you hear the thunderclap before?”

“Everyone did.” Ardent replied.

“That wasn’t any thunderclap, that was The Thunder. I’ll give you three guesses before I tell you what exactly that means.”

“Or you could tell us right now.” The man said.

“Fine, spoilsport.” Waterlad took a breath. “Victorious is upstairs. It took him like, fifteen seconds to superman slam Prism, Clothesline, Headache, Junk Mail and almost me as well.”

“What?” Ardent and the man asked in unison. There wasn’t a third person so I felt safe in assuming the man was Beefcake.

“Yeah, I was scared too.” Waterlad continued. “It’s the only time I’ve ever run away, but boy am I glad I did. He could’ve killed me!”

“Shut up now.” Beefcake’s deep voice told Waterlad. A sharp slap followed, which was in turn followed by the sound of spraying water and many droplets hitting the floor. That was likely Beefcake hitting Waterlad while bulked up. The wisecracking villain probably wasn’t affected by the strike, but he thankfully didn’t respond to it.

“When was the last time a member of the Aegis came to Graceland?” Ardent asked in a lowered voice.

“I dunno.” Beefcake responded.

“You’re not helping.” She shot back at him.

“To be fair, I have no idea either.” Waterlad said.

“And I wasn’t asking you.”

“Yeah, but I responded anyways and you’re welcome. Can we move this along? I want to spy on Boss. He’s put all of us way in over our heads and deserves anything that’s coming to him.”

Ardent was silent and soon I found I could see again. The orbs had drifted behind various walls and obstructions, blocking the blinding light. We were in a lobby. I was standing by the secretary desk I’d been hit into, Slingshot was floating at a strange angle and was looking around. She relaxed when she saw me. Waterlad was standing nonchalantly next to her.

Standing next to each other were two villains: Ardent and Beefcake. The latter of the two wasn’t wearing much, which made sense considering how most clothes would be destroyed when he bulked up. The clothes he was wearing included uncomfortably short shorts, a white and red luchador mask, and shoes.

Ardent was dressed much more modestly, she was wearing a monochrome costume with a white, close fitting helmet that hid her face with three ridges on the top. The helmet had tinted lenses that showed her eyes but discoloured them to the point I wasn’t able to make out any details. They were looking intently at Waterlad.

“We’re in over our heads,” Ardent echoed Waterlad’s words. “But you’re the one who’s decided to dig your hole deeper. We didn’t see you, you snuck through the vents.”

A thought crossed my mind as I picked myself up. “Where are Boss and the rest? We don’t want to accidentally walk in on them.”

“A good question.” Waterlad nodded as Ardent glanced at me.

She half turned and pointed at a glass door. “They went through there. I’ve got an orb set up just around the corner, so no one can see that way. You can hide in one of the cubicles or something.”

There was another pause. Beefcake nonchalantly cracked his knuckles as I eyed him warily.

“Should we go?” Slingshot asked.

“Yeah, let’s.” Waterlad agreed and strode away. Beefcake glared at him as he walked past.

I considered exactly how deep I was in now. Orcus had gone behind Zephyr’s back bringing me here, she’d told me to stay put not ten minutes before I’d left Muffle behind to team up with a villain. Not just any villain either, the one the Sentrys had the most history with. Waterlad, the traitor.

“Lock!” Slingshot hissed, shaking me from my thoughts. That had been happening a lot recently. Had I been taking too many hits?

Like Ardent said, there was a blinding orb around the corner, but it was a T intersection, so we went the way the orb wasn’t. Waterlad lead the way as we navigated to an office with a chest high wall separating it from an open work space. Three figures stood in that space.

One leaned against a desk, standing far away from the other two. A curved sword was sheathed next to him where he could easily pick it up - a katana. The man wore a dark green leather jacket over a solid looking vest, not too dissimilar to the one Gizumo had been using. An orange and green oni mask, the staple of Samurai, the head of the Rising Sun, covered his face.

The other two men stood far away from Samurai, and were engaged in a quiet discussion. Occasionally one of them would glance over at Samurai. One was dressed in an expensive looking suit, and had an asymmetrical angular mask covering the upper half of his face. That was Boss, and by process of elimination the other man was Queue. That villain, for his part had decided to go with a budget approach for his costume. Queue was wearing nothing but black, everything was long sleeved, and he had a balaclava over his face. It reminded me of a stereotypical robber from a commercial.

Those two were two of the three heads of the Entrepreneurs. There was a lot of power in the room, and not just of the supernatural kind.

Waterlad pulled me away from the corner. “We’d all love to speculate, but we’re not here to get found. Nobody say anything.”

“Yip.” Slingshot whispered, matching Waterlad’s volume but earning herself a warning look nonetheless. I just nodded and returned to where I could see the three villains.

It was confusing. This whole mess had been orchestrated by these people, yet they weren’t doing anything now that they were here. All this effort to be in the same room and they were standing almost as far away from each other as possible, without talking.

Nothing happened in the next fifteen seconds. Nor in the next two minutes. I could feel Slingshot wanting to ask a question. I made sure to make eye contact while putting my finger to my lips and she got the message.

After an uncomfortably long time there was a visible distortion in the space between The Entrepreneurs and Samurai. Each villain turned their attention to the distortion, which had grown to an inexplicable swirling blue mist. It grew slowly but consistently, eventually reaching between the floor and ceiling where it ceased. The mist ceased, leaving a rectangle of space that looked entirely different to how it had before. Slingshot, Waterlad, and I weren’t positioned at a good angle to see it, but we weren’t about to move.

The villains were moving towards the anomaly when a black blur hurtled from the rectangle and landed on the floor. Everyone paused and took in the sight. It was a black kitten like creature that looked at Samurai, and then at Boss and Queue with intelligent eyes.

Waterlad swore under his breath despite himself. I couldn’t blame him, I wasn’t expecting that cat to show up either. The kitten had double pointed ears. It’s tail was a fraction longer than what looked natural and moved with a prehensile flexibility that wasn’t present in the tails of most cats. Those were the telltale details that defined Dreadnaught.

Dreadnaught was something of a meme. It wasn’t really all that intimidating. In fact it was kind of cute, even I admitted that. That being said, no one was laughing when that same cute kitten looking creature started punching through skyscrapers and going claw to toe with some of the strongest heroes around. It’s history wasn’t that well known, beyond it just showing up one day. That being said, I had encountered numerous theories on the internet about Dreadnaught.

That it was an Altered, that it was a monster that was just a little less murderous than the others, that it was a shapeshifter, that it was an Adept creation gone rogue, and many more. It was a widely debated theoretical possibility that Dreadnaught was the strongest creature on the planet.

And it had just landed between the heads of two supergangs.

It didn’t make sense. Dreadnaught had black fur, not green.

“I’d say I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” A smooth female voice spoke from somewhere I couldn’t see. Then a woman wearing a green and very gypsy looking outfit stepped through the space into view next to Dreadnaught. The space behind her returned to normal. “But that would be pandering to stereotypes, and, frankly, I’m not.”

She was wearing a circlet that a green veil hang from to conceal her face. An excessive amount of beads were strung from it and her hair. The beads jingled each time she moved. She was wearing a repurposed tank top that had more strings of beads dangling off, some of them following the curves of her body. That was Greenflame, the green carpet unfurling to meet with the Entrepreneurs and Rising Sun. It clicked. I was observing the event that Metafore had foreseen.

“Welcome to Graceland.” Queue stepped forward.

Greenflame gestured dismissively and the portal behind her dissipated. “I’m not here to talk to you, psychic. I don’t like you and I don’t care for you being here. Don’t talk, or I’ll sic you-know-who on you.”

Queue gulped and stepped back to where he had been flanking Boss. Dreadnaught took a step towards him and Queue flinched. The black cat purred loud enough for me to hear and turned back, rubbing itself on Greenflame’s leg.

“Shall we get to business?” Boss enquired.

“Skipping the pleasantries, are we now?” Greenflame looked at Boss, “How rude. I’ll have to up the price.”

“I mean no disrespect.” Boss spoke calmly, but offered no calming gestures. “I’m sure you’re aware that the Regulation was somehow tipped off about this meeting. They are engaged with my employees in floors both above and below us. You understand I don’t wish for this meeting to be interrupted before it’s due course.”

“Greenflame.” Samurai stepped forward and bowed. “It is good to finally meet you in person.”

“Ah, a foreigner.” Greenflame watched the man bow and practically smiled through her words. “You simply must take my offer. A man like you in your position has a story that’s too interesting not to.”

“That depends on the offer.” Samurai responded.

“To whom will the offer of fate go to first?” Boss enquired. “The reputation of the Vardotrio precedes you, but setting up this meeting has taken up far more resources than I initially expected. Cease and Desist, one of my employees has successfully pacified Victorious and several Sentinels for the time being.” What? “But I would like to conclude business before Victorious can interrupt us.”

“Absolutely to this gentleman here.” Greenflame reached out and earnestly shook Samurai’s hand. “I can feel it. Oh, this is fresh. I can’t wait to hold your fate in my hands.”