Whims always had a habit of taking me off guard. Even before I manifested, and maybe more so ever since, I’d found my focus tended to drift and when I found the frame of mind to bring myself back to looking through my eyes, I’d done something I didn’t remember. Normally it was routine stuff, the things parents spend years drumming into their kids, that my parents had spent years drumming into me.

Sometimes I’d have a shower and suddenly come back to myself dressed and brushing my teeth, or I’d sit down for dinner and only realise I missed something when I was rinsing the dish and putting it away. Of those things, I normally wouldn’t realise until hours after the fact because it didn’t interrupt my train of thought and they weren’t of any consequence. It wasn’t like I was losing time, I was just focusing on other things. I’d found similar sentiments online about people driving, then suddenly realising they had no recollection of the past hour and no idea how they hadn’t crashed.

It was autopilot. If I had to liken it to anything I knew, because I certainly hadn’t driven before, I would say it was like going into a seven eleven, noticing a drink you liked was on sale, and buying it without ever making the decision to. You just reached out, bought the thing and moved on. The fact that you had to spend the money to buy the drink never becoming more than a footnote in your mind.

The whim that took me off guard this morning was me suddenly realising I was staring at a bloodstained twenty dollar note.

It was, in a way, what had started me down the road of joining the Sentry. My bloody payment for taking a beating I hadn’t asked for. I could still recall the guy’s face. Every time his fist had hit my face, my power had given me an intimate knowledge of his entire being.

He went to my school, I had seen him there. Still, I was going regardless, keeping to the corners without much traffic to reduce the chances of an encounter. When I came to looking at the speck of blood covering Franklin’s eye I couldn’t help but wonder why. Why had he beat me up? Did he remember me? If he did and we ever encountered each other again, what would I do about it?

If what happened were to repeat with me as I was now, would things go the same way?

Maybe. I had only really exercised my powers in costume. There was trepidation surrounding the notion of using my power out of it. Even though I had disarmed that weapon against me, it was still there. Maybe I hadn’t disarmed it, just reduced its effectiveness. Swapped out the .45 calibre rounds for 9mm ones instead.

Regardless, all this introspection was making me late for school. I left the note where it was. Money wasn’t that tight.

~~~

“Sorry, what was that?” Voidling startled. We were on patrol again and he and I were on the ground team.

I gave him a questioning look as best I could with a literal blank face through a mask. “I asked if I could do a double patrol today.”

“I don’t see a reason why not.” Voidling said, speaking softly now that he was more composed. “May I ask why you are asking?”

“You may or may not have heard Unshaken saying ‘It doesn’t make sense’.” I quoted. “I agree with her. Given that the Racketeers pattern just changed so suddenly yesterday.”

“You do give Unshaken a remarkable amount of consideration.” He hummed.

I felt the embarrassment rising, but was able to push it aside because the girl in question wasn’t present. “That’s not my fault. But the point of the matter is, the Racketeers go from a witch hunt to avenge their teammate, to shoplifting?” I made sure to stress the contrast between the two notions. “It’s just weird. Maybe something’s coming, maybe not. I have a bad feeling about it.”

“An interesting point you aren’t the only one to mention.” Voidling commented, more to himself than me. “You’ll need to fit in a meal in at some point.”

“I can do that.”

“Is there any region you’re particularly interested in?”

I glanced at Voidling, who was giving me his full attention. Was this a test? “Anywhere that isn’t downtown.” I answered at length. “It’s very close to where they were most recently active. It might be a bit too hot for them there.”

Voidling nodded and returned his attention forwards, and that was kind of that. When we met up with Unshaken and Lucidity, the latter was quite pleased to know that I was available for a PR flavoured dinner if nothing showed up.

~~~

The rest of the patrol came and went without anything villainous coming up. There were several people asking for pictures and autographs from Voidling. The fact that only a few seemed to even care about me ticked me off a little, but not as much as having to run across tiled floors did. It made sense, with Voidling being an established hero while I had only just debuted.

There was one time where I had to help an old lady cross the street. It was fine, and I got a thank you for my trouble.

By the time the patrol came to an end, my nerves were wound tighter than they’d ever really been. The sun was about to start going down, and the Racketeers still hadn’t made their move. If worst came to worst, it would happen during the meal. An idea I was willing myself not to think about, but failing miserably.

It was stopping me from being able to properly read the menu of Greasy Pete’s. I just couldn’t focus on one line of text long enough to register what it meant.

“Give me the double cheeseburger, but take away the tomatoes, I don’t like them. Extra fries. And a strawberry milkshake.” Lucidity was ordering. Then she remembered who was paying and checked over her shoulder. “Is that okay?” She asked Slingshot.

“It’s fine.” Slingshot jovially responded. It felt weird, hearing her talk like that. It was like how she was with the girls who’d sneaked a picture of us. I knew it wasn’t really Slingshot, just the persona she put on for the public.

“Oh, and a berry pie.” Lucidity added, then suddenly remembered her manners. “Please.”

“Coming right up.” If the cashier was psyched to be serving three superheroes, he wasn’t showing it.

Slingshot stepped next to Lucidity. She was using her boots to walk rather than fly. “A lime milkshake for me, please.”

“Coming right up.” The cashier repeated.

The two heroines paid before I could place my order. It took awhile for me to order, but eventually the menu behaved and came into focus. I ended up going for a burger with bacon on it and a lime milkshake. I hadn’t had one before, I was curious. The bacon burger was to see if the place lived up to its greasy title.

Plus, y’know, bacon.

“Coming right up.” The cashier repeated again, sticking to the script. Another person on autopilot.

I paid and we sat in a corner booth, which I appreciated. It gave us some privacy, being in a corner, but still put us on display because of the windows. That would make Lucidity’s PR supervisor happy. Not mine, though, I didn’t have one.

The conversation was mostly between Lucidity and Slingshot while we waited for our food to come. I was right in thinking that the two had become close since Slingshot and my debut. Lucidity almost finished saying M- several times talking to Slingshot, but managed to catch herself. I was glad she wasn’t aware of my secret identity, even if she had met me without the mask.

While the two talked, I kept an eye on the people in the chain, and waved whenever I saw someone pointing. A few people got their phones out and tried to discreetly take pictures. I tried to give them ‘are you serious’ expressions, but likely failed given the mask. The fact that I wasn’t being included in the conversation didn’t bother me, I was distracted by the anticipation of events to come.

“Are you interested in astronomy?” Slingshot asked me once food had been delivered.

“What?” I asked rather dumbly. Given that eating through a metal plate inserted into valuar was a difficult task, I had taken my hood and mask off but kept my power active to gain access to my mouth.

Slingshot hadn’t taken anything off, and was drinking through the straw under the bandanna. Lucidity had no issues because her mask didn’t cover her mouth in the first place.

“Astronomy.” Slingshot repeated.

I nodded slowly in response. I knew what astronomy was, I was trying to contain my artificial excitement from being included by Slingshot.

“There’s an event that is going to happen soon, on the cosmic scale at least.” Slingshot explained. This was the first time I had heard her talking about something that she was actually interested in. She was far more animated, which was saying something.

Also, she wasn’t able to stay seated properly. Her boots only kept the feet on the ground, it seemed.

Slingshot continued, “What do you know about 4-Vesta?”

“That it’s the fourth?” I tried. Slingshot had taken the opportunity to take a slurp from her drink and shook her head knowingly. “Then nothing.”

“I’ve heard of it.” Lucidity interjected, pointing with a fry. “That’s a real big asteroid, isn’t it?”

“Yip, that’s right.” Slingshot said with a nod. “And it is actually the fourth of something. It just isn’t that relevant to what’s happening in six months.”

“What’s happening in six months?” I asked. My first thought was a Calamity, but that didn’t fit the schedule. Well, schedule wasn’t really the right word. More of a countdown. I pushed aside the tangential thoughts with a sip of lime milkshake, which I was still undecided on.

“I’ll give you some backstory information first.” Slingshot decided, causing Lucidity to roll her eyes and get back to her burger. “So 4-Vesta is named so because it was the fourth asteroid to be discovered, way back in 1802 by a mister Olbers.”

“Hm.” I hummed to acknowledge I was following around a mouthful of burger.

The burger was greasy, sure. Enough that the wax paper it had been delivered with was see through. My issue was with the bacon, it was too soft, not cooked as much as I would have liked. I was still going to eat it, though.

Slingshot was still going strong with her explanation, “It’s the second largest body in the asteroid belt, or it was until 1986. Something happened that caused it to change course from simply orbiting the sun.”

“The Hundred Hour Day.” I said.

“Well.” Slingshot gestured with her hand. Her palm facing down and tilting it from side to side. “That’s not really certain. Astronomers weren’t really a priority after they had confirmed that the earth hadn’t moved, just gone dark for a bit. It took five months for 4-Vesta’s new course to be noticed.”

“Where is it headed now?”

“It’s slowly spiraling inwards in the solar system and it’s going to hit Mars in six months!” Slingshot finished with a flourish, accidently hitting table and jostling Lucidity’s meal, earning the elder heroine a grumbling look from the rapidly eating girl.

“Hm.” I hummed through another mouthful.

“I see you are unimpressed.” Slingshot continued, it sounded a little rehearsed. “Here’s another fact that will blow your mind, then. You know of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs?”

“That statement isn’t entirely true.” I said through a mouthful, pointing to emphasise the point. That meteor had only killed some of the dinosaurs.

Slingshot gestured dismissively. “That meteor was ninety three miles in diameter. Nine three. Guess how big 4-Vesta is.”

I shrugged, still eating.

“Two hundred.” Lucidity jumped in before taking another bite.

Slingshot shook her head knowingly, enjoying the knowledge that only she held. Then she shared.

“Three hundred,” She said dramatically. “And twenty six. Three two six. Miles.”

I tried to imagine the scale but found myself unsure of how accurate my imagination was. The force was easy to imagine, everything I touched was hurtling through space after all as Jess’ message to me had aptly highlighted. But I failed to comprehend the size.

“How wide is the earth?” I asked.

“Uh.” Slingshot thought for a moment. “Somewhere around eight thousand, I think?”

“Eight thousand miles?” I checked. She nodded. “I can imagine it.”

I wasn’t lying.

“So what do you think of it?” Slingshot asked. “I mean, it’s only the biggest astrological event that’s happened in our solar system in millions of years.”

“I think Mars is fucked.” As soon as the words left my mouth Slingshot’s eyes glared at me and then flicked to Lucidity to remind me of the company we were keeping. I couldn’t tell because of the eyes, they were obscured. I could tell because of everything else. Being chastised hurt, and I resolved to watch my mouth in the future.

Then I realised what just happened and squashed that resolve using hatred directed at Collage. I would watch my mouth out of courtesy, not because some guy had zapped me.

Lucidity, for her part, was undisturbed and kept eating happily. Which was unsurprising given how Unshaken spoke on patrols.

“It’s good seeing you talk about something you like.” I said, changing the subject. “I’m guessing that heroing wasn’t your first choice.”

“No, it’s…” Slingshot sighed. “I have to for the boots.”

“Ah.” That made sense. “Do you have any other reasons for joining the Sentry?” Anything to keep the conversation going.

“Uh, yip. Hope, I guess.”

“Hope?” I asked, not quite getting it. Then I got it. “Oh, Hope.”

At the same time Slingshot said. “Aegis.”

Lucidity’s mouth had cleared enough that she could join the conversation. “I don’t really know her.” Then she was eating again, stuffing her mouth with fries.

Thanks for the input. “That’s one hell of a role model. What do you think happened to her?”

“What conspiracy theory do you like the most?” Slingshot asked in response. “There have been seven years of internet detectives trying to get to the bottom of it. Do you subscribe to the shoplifting theory, or the one where she dove to the bottom of the mariana trench and started turning into Scathach?”

I didn’t have a response to that. The world renowned heroine had simply disappeared in 2012. That was kind of it. No body had ever been found despite the efforts of the worlds best psychics. Hope was a modern legend if there ever was one.

“What about you Lucidity?” I asked as the heroine was clearing her mouth for still more fries.

“Uh.” She thought. “Queen Freeze.” Then stuffed herself with urgency. There was less youthful fervor in there than there was before. I didn’t recognise the name.

Slingshot laid a supportive hand on Lucidity’s shoulder. “Queen went to Salt Lake City.” She told me.

Meaning she was dead.

Lucidity pointed at me. I supposed that was fair, I had been the one asking the questions. The problem was, I couldn’t exactly say that Lucidity was the reason I’d joined the Sentry. Well, I could, but that would be revealing a connection that I would prefer kept under wraps. To cover that, I reached further back to the rosy memories I usually kept locked in a box.

I smirked when I remembered my childhood hero. The man in the red mask that could clear away the clouds with but a punch. “Daymaker.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them.” Slingshot said.

“He would throw a haymaker and make the day.” I explained, earning a snort from Lucidity. “Daymaker had flight and superstrength, as far as I’m aware, and whenever he hit something the weather would change. The bigger the change in weather, the stronger the blow. He’s not from around here, so I’m not surprised you don’t know of him. Though, speaking of, I haven’t heard anything about him in years. He probably retired, or…”

‘Died‘ went unsaid.

I leaned back in my seat. My burger was still partially uneaten, but my appetite had evaporated. I hadn’t thought about Daymaker in so long, the realisation that he was probably dead hit home for me. The tension that I had walking into the Greasy Pete’s had been replaced with something numb. Something I’d felt before.

Slingshot snapped into focus in my minds eye as she took my hand and squeezed it, probably intending it to be reassuring. I just gave a light squeeze in return and withdrew so I wouldn’t dwell on anything I wasn’t supposed to. I needed to change the subject again.

“You should put that kind of effort into your handshakes.” I told Slingshot. “I just compared that to the handshake you gave me after Greenflame. That was two and a half times stronger, and therefore two and a half times better than the aforementioned handshake.”

“What?”

“First impressions are important.” I said, imagining Collage getting shot or something to distract from the inexplicable joy of being touched. “A good handshake is part of that.”

The conversation flowed kind of okay after that. I managed to not bring it back to any touchy subjects until we were all done with the food. Slingshot flew off after the meal, and Lucidity and I were headed back to the SRT when the call finally came through.

~~~

“This is Lock. I see you, Voidling.” I released the transmitter and crouched to enhance the speed of the hoverboard, bombing it from high above. Using the muscle memory from a hobby of a previous life, I skidded to a stop on nothing next to the Sentinel.

“Is it just you?” Voidling checked.

“Lucidity got a call from Blinker,” I explained. “She’s making the rounds to get everyone transport.”

Voidling nodded and started walking.

“What’s the situation?” I asked.

Voidling was glancing around, but when I followed his gaze I couldn’t figure out exactly what he was looking at. “Your fears were confirmed, more Racketeer activity. Attacking the Courtesans again, this time deeper in their home territory. Instead of a targeted assault against a particular member they are hitting a stronghold, probably to get several suspects in one fell swoop.”

I took in the information I already had and put a frown in my voice. “Who is involved?”

“Witness reports say that most, if not all of the Racketeers are involved.” Voidling said quickly, but still softly. “Of the Courtesans, the blue and orange Mistress, Amatoria, and Dubloon have been confirmed, and we’re keeping an eye out for Halcion.”

“I’ll go up and keep an eye out.” I lifted a foot on the hoverboard and started ascending, but Voidling stopped me by way of grabbing my arm. There was an impact when he grabbed me, not unlike what he did the day before.

“First, I need to make sure you know what we’re getting into. Amatoria, what is her power and how will you deal with it?”

There were popping sounds that echoed throughout the neighborhood Voidling and I had met in. The assault Waterlad had warned me about was happening while we talked. I wanted to get moving and do something, but Voidling wasn’t letting go.

“Amatoria. Monarch. If she sees you do something, she adds a queue of actions you need to do before you can do it again. Prioritise knocking her out or blinding her somehow before the scripts get too long. Preferably with a blindfold.”

“Dubloon.”

“Disrupter. Sheds gold dust then telekinetically controls it. My power won’t be good against it because it’s several objects instead of one or just a few. Her power seems to be channeled through guiding arm movements, so restraining her arms should be a priority.”

“Mistress.”

“Enforcer?” I wasn’t entirely sure about that classification. “Each of the coloured Mistresses have enhanced strength and slow regeneration. If one is destroyed, the other surviving Mistresses gain their memories and a portion of their power until the original Mistress remakes them. There are six Mistresses. The original, then the red, blue, green, orange, and purple ones.

“If it’s a coloured Mistress, I could probably disable them like I did Killer Kage or- the other one and get them out of the fight for a while. But I’m not confident in doing that in a straight fight. I’d need the drop on them to have a chance. I know they’re all experienced.”

Voidling nodded, approving of my caution. Since all the Mistresses shared their memories, they gained six days of experience every day. Mistress had been active for years.

At least, that was the theory online.

“Halcion.”

“Traitor.” I answered. “Stay away.”

“Good notion. What else?”

“Nothing, if he doesn’t get close to anyone, he can’t grow into anything. If he does get close to someone, there’s no way of predicting what will happen.”

“While true, there’s a permanent factor to Halcion’s power you are unaware of.” Voidling released my arm, but didn’t give me the go ahead to leave. “If he gets close and drains you, your power will go haywire and the most prominent emotion you happen to be feeling at the time will be lost to you.”

“That’d be,” I shivered at the notion of touching the ground. “That’d be real bad.”

“Halcion will enjoy the emotion for a time, then it will be gone.” Voidling continued. “Forever. Both for you, and for him. He prefers to disguise himself as a civilian and ambush heroes that way. Be careful.”

I nodded and started drifting upwards. “Constant radio contact then, until you arrive.”

“Channel four.” Voidling told me and we both switched away from the general channel.

I hovered above the houses and looked around, but the popping sounds had stopped and I didn’t know which way to go.

“Two o’clock.” Voidling’s voice came over the radio.

“Thanks.” I shot back as I started moving in the indicated direction.

Voidling’s warning about Halcion echoed in my head. I knew that he drained people and gained random powers for a short time afterwards, that was old news. He could even drain non-transhumans and get some modicum of power, but it was a far cry from what happened when he drained a transhuman. It was the fact that he permanently drained emotions was news to me. I was getting to wondering which heroes had been unfortunate enough to encounter Halcion before he was a known element when the warehouse came into view.

I derailed that thought and pushed my transmitter. “I’ve arrived. I’m going to wait for you if I can, but if someone’s in danger, I’m going in.”

There was a crackle as Voidling opened the channel to respond. “Lock, wait for me. What do you see?”

I looked at the property. It was fenced off, though parts of that fence had been cut through and were no longer keeping anything out. There was a fair amount of parking space between the warehouse and the fence that wasn’t being used the way it was meant to. A truck had backed onto the property and was halfway in the warehouse itself. Rather than open the garage door, the truck had simply backed through it somehow. That wasn’t really the Racketeer’s style.

There were a few bodies that were strewn by the entrance, and the pavement had several dents and scratches on it that weren’t normally found in typical carparks. Through the gap the truck had left in the garage door, I could see light rapidly shifting. Whatever was happening in there was casting shadows that I could perceive from across the street.

Peering at the bodies told me they were still breathing. Some moaning and slowly crawling away. That was a relief.

“I see a truck backed into a warehouse.” I told Voidling. “There’s also evidence of a fight happening on the property.”

I hadn’t realised at first because of the low lighting, but several portions of the property were bending at acute angles where they had no business changing direction. Prism.

I continued reporting, “I was going to say this doesn’t seem like a Racketeer job, but I can see Prism’s power at work. I’m going to try and get a better angle.”

“Keep your distance until you know the situation.” Voidling reminded me. “I’m going to get our reinforcements on this channel.”

I was already moving. As my point of observation changed, there were several fragmented images that I swept by trying to find an angle that gave me a bigger part of the picture. Eventually, I was able to catch a glimpse of a black trident.

“I see Waterlad.” I told the channel, but no one was listening.

I kept strafing and by the time I’d rotated ninety degrees around the situation I had identified three of the four people involved in the fight that Prism was going to town on. I was pretty sure I knew who the fourth person was as well.

There was a click. “This is Voidling. Lock, our immediate reinforcements are Blinker and Unshaken. We will engage the situation when they arrive. E.T.A. three minutes.”

“Is that it?” I asked pointedly. “This isn’t just the Racketeers and Courtesans. One doesn’t have a reputation for backing trucks into warehouses, and the other doesn’t need to because they own the warehouse. I would put money on the Private Army being involved as well.”

“Sorry I’m not enough for you.” Unshaken announced her presence. I immediately felt bad about what I said and wished I could take it back.

“The rest are on their way.” Blinker’s voice came through the radio.

My captain’s flat voice helped me recentre myself. “Who are the rest?”

It was Voidling who responded. “Collage, Lucidity, Muffle, Snowflake, and Zephyr. Some of them are still getting into costume and Zephyr wants to travel as a group.”

“Fine.” I said into the transmitter. If Zephyr wanted to show up later than she could, that was perfectly fine by me. “Do I need to describe the situation again?”

“Lock, where are you?” Blinker demanded.

“At the scene.” I snapped back. “Do you want to know what’s happening?”

There was a moment before Blinker responded. “I didn’t catch that.”

I was about to respond when Voidling opened the line. “Lock is scouting ahead for me and has eyes on the situation. Lock, can you please describe what you see?”

Right, these were radios. Only one line could be open at a time, otherwise nothing went through.

I looked back to the situation before I started talking. “I’m at a warehouse where there is active supervillain activity. There’s a truck backed through the roller door, and I caught glimpses of a fight happening inside. There’s a few bodies around the place, but I haven’t approached because there’s an active fight between four villains in the parking lot.”

“What four villains, Lock?” Blinker demanded.

“I’ve confirmed Waterlad, Prism, and Junk Mail. They all seem to be playing keepaway with Halcion, but Waterlad keeps losing.” I had seen him using his trident to keep Halcion at arms length at least twice.

It was Unshaken who asked, “Good. Does Halcion have powers?”

“Yes, but not what you’re asking about. Nothing I can see, anyway.” I answered, feeling confused at the question and a little sad that I couldn’t help more. There was a brief period of silence.

“Stay away from Halcion.” The warning came from Voidling. “He may have an enforcer power, but if he doesn’t then he can still drain someone.”

That meant he couldn’t drain two people in a row. That was good to know. I took the information with a grain of salt, however, since the information came from a hero and not the villain himself.

The scene was hard to watch simply because the refracting fields that were between me and it splintered the image so much. Getting a play by play was difficult.

“So that’s three Racketeers out of six,” Blinker commented. “and one Courtesan. They’re treating Halcion seriously, and I can’t blame them. That makes me worry about their resources for this one. They must have a lot if they’re dedicating that much there. How many Courtesans have been confirmed on the scene?”

I let Voidling answer that as I watched the fight. Suddenly the field of refraction dropped, and I could see dozens of sheets of paper lying on the ground around the four villains. Voidling’s explanation halted, then continued. One of them was backing away- Waterlad- while gesturing at another to do the same. Halcion had tackled one of villains and was straddling them with one of his hands on their mask.

He had Prism pinned, and as I watched red energy flowed around Halcion’s arm in a triple helix and into his body. The colours around the two seemed to gravitate inwards, like they were a singularity in my sight.

“Uh, Halcion is doing his thing.” I informed the channel as soon as Voidling was done.

“On who?” Someone asked.

“Prism.” I answered.

There was a few moments of silence.

“What emotion?” Unshaken tentatively asked. A first her.

Almost on cue, Halcion snapped to his feet and roared at the sky. There was an explosion of colour that expanded from him with the motion that swept over me. I was startled and forgot to respond for a moment. When I did the answer was a gimme.

“Anger.”