Taking a break should have been good for me, given everything I’d been through recently. The ten day suspension meant that nothing could take me off guard and make things worse with the heroes. But there was a problem with that, the issue being that I was probably worse off without distractions given that the box had been opened.

Before the lid had been lifted, it had been easy to lock away all associations to the Eclipse and carry on as if nothing happened. It hadn’t been perfect, though, and things still had an effect. What ended up happening was that I just went through the motions anyway, with a slight robotic feeling to the actions. When I signed on as a hero, I’d started developing into something new, started travelling down a new path. Then I opened the box and took approximately thirty seven steps back.

Light was the big one. Before opening the box, even Ardent’s blinding light hadn’t taken me off guard. Now even stepping outside was something I dreaded. The feeling was exacerbated if I knew it was sunny. Being alone came a close second.

Despite that, I wasn’t spending much time around people. Doing that would either make them concerned for me, which made the feeling worse, or they would feel worse, which made me feel guilty. Feeling guilty, I had found, also made it worse. So I had taken a concrete pill and was dealing with it.

One thing that helped was the situation regarding Satellite finally breaking the news. The video that was being given the most attention was an interview with Mark. Not Mark, as in any old guy, but in reference to actual marks. He was a Transhuman, and was at the top of the hero group known as Scar’s Advent. He had a power that left permanent marks on the people that fought him, so the name fit.

What he said was, “We investigated and found evidence consistent with the use of Satellites powers at both scenes of the crimes he has been accused of being involved in. We’ve put in a request for information regarding the third murder Satellite has been accused of, but the Regulation hasn’t supplied that information yet. We think they won’t. That the Regulation is sheltering a murderer is frankly disgusting.”

That had been incredibly cathartic to hear. The news presenter had gone on to agree with Mark, making it even better. The distance the Regulation had forced upon me meant that none of it was falling back to me. There were theories online that Lock was on strike because of the whole Satellite situation, which I watched silently.

There wasn’t any word so far on what was happening with Satellite himself, but the accusations were in the air. Fail assured me that he was going to prison, or even better, the Megahold. Given the livestream I’d piggybacked on, he was going to the Megahold.

It just needed to come over America before he could be put there, of course. That was still days away.

As for me, while I had been suspended from duty, but still had access to SRT facilities. The secret entrance didn’t accept my blank card, but I could still walk in and out through the public one, so I did that despite the warnings not to. I lifted some weights in the gym, did some running, other workouts too, then went home. Sparring was off the table. Blinker didn’t even want to see me.

I had maintained the rest of the regime he set out for me regardless for the past four days. Today I found myself walking into a scene in the lobby. Two people, a man and a woman, were making a scene at the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist looked like they hadn’t gotten enough sleep, a feeling I could relate to, and that they weren’t getting paid enough for this.

“You can’t hold onto her anymore. She needs to come home.” The woman’s voice carried, and the emotional waver in it came along for the ride.

“They had their chance to look at it.” The man had an accent. British? No, it was faster and deeper. “I don’t care what techo is interested, give us our daughter back.”

“Please. You’ve been holding on to her for so long.”

“Sir, m’am.” The receptionist’s voice was strained. “I’ve already sent a message to the one responsible for releasing the body. They will respond to it when they are able.”

Body. I repeated to myself. Were they talking about Clothesline?

“That’s not good enough.” The man said.

“I’m sorry, but I’m just a receptionist.”

“She shouldn’t be in the same building as… him!” The woman pointed upwards.

Were they keeping Satellite up there? I wondered as I made it to the elevator and called it. I touched the wall and felt the building snap into my view. Instead of looking up, I looked below and felt an occupant in the underground cells.

I wasn’t about to correct the woman, though. The memory of Elsbeth telling me she would help without hesitating sprung to mind. There wasn’t much I could do to help here, but I did have an idea. I got my Sentry Vphone out as I stepped into an elevator alone and called 76743. Rosie.

“Hello Lock, how may I help you?” Rosie asked pleasantly, playing the sound of picking up a phone again.

“Uh…” It took a moment to figure out what to say. “The body of Hayley Vermont hasn’t been released.” I said as the elevator started going up. I was alone, and felt safe saying it. For good measure, I activated my mask. “Can I know why?”

“You may.” Rosie told me, stopping there.

“Please tell me.” I asked, a little irritated.

“One of Hayley’s bones was snapped when she was found. The autopsy found that the bone in her leg had been replaced with a foriegn material akin to spider silk, yet had a greater stress capacity than typical bone matter. This bone has attracted the attention of adepts who have requested that the release of the body be delayed.”

“Can I know which adepts requested that?”

“You may not.”

My finger twitched belatedly and I shook my head to ward off an encroaching headache. “Can I place a priority request to have the bone removed so the body can be sent back to the parents? She may have been a villain, but they deserve to put her to rest.”

“Hmm…” Rosie hummed, which made me frown. Just how lifelike had Rosie been designed?

I squinted at nothing as I waited for her to answer, trying to stay awake and lucid. Her hum became a tune that I recognised. It was the theme for the movie I went to see with Elsbeth. My hand clenched into a fist as the elevator opened to the right floor.

“Doctor Langford has been sent a message to release the body without the bone by five pm.” Rosie informed me as I made my way to the gym. A moment later a sonic boom echoed throughout the building. It was currently four. “He has received the message and is currently moving.” There was a smug undertone in her perpetually pleasant voice.

“Thanks, Rosie.” I said, but didn’t hang up right away. I don’t think I normally would have said what I said next. “You’re very scary.”

“I’m sorry, I could not parse that request.” Rosie told me warmly.

“What?” I asked. When there wasn’t any response I checked my phone and found that the call had ended.

Yeah. Rosie was scary.

I spent the next forty five minutes thinking about it. The thoughts sometimes distracted my from the workout I came to do. That ended in one of two ways each time. Either I reduced the weight of the machines I was using, or I would have an accident when I just forgot that I was handling something heavy. Then there was the fact that I was bleary eyed the whole time as well, which probably didn’t help with anything.

Sleep hadn’t really been all too welcoming, either. All I had managed since opening the box was the occasional involuntary nap, which always ended too soon and with me feeling worse than I had before slipping under. Regardless, I finished my workout for the day and left the building feeling a bit more energised thanks to the workout.

I didn’t say hi to anyone, Sentinel, Sentry, or otherwise. My workout was done alone, and most of the Sentry was out on after school publicity patrol around now. When I passed back through the lobby, Mr and Mrs Vermont were much more calm and were waiting in chairs off to the side. Mr Vermont was even on his phone.

Mrs Vermont caught me looking at them, so I averted my gaze and walked past without saying hello.

~~~

“Here comes trouble.” Nathan said, stopping the conversation we were having about nothing.

I looked and saw Nick striding towards us. His lacky wasn’t far behind, but he stopped by the corner.

“I’m offended, Nathan.” Nick said, his voice conveying that he was ticked off, but it didn’t sound like offense. “I extended you a branch that so many are vying for. That you turned it down reflects bad on me as well.”

My eyes were still bleary, and I’d only been taking a small part in the conversation. That cloud was clearing up as I registered the presence Nick was putting up. It wasn’t focused on me, just on Nathan. I glanced over and realised that Sonya wasn’t sitting with us today. Which was probably for the best.

Nathan glanced at me, then back to Nick. “I’m not interested in Hound races. Fuck off.” His voice was trying to be strong, and held up for the most part. There was still wavering in there, though.

I blinked. That had been a quick transition to blatant hostility.

Nick cocked his head at that, then casually reached down and picked Nathan up by the collar. He didn’t hold Nathan close, just up, and only far enough that he was standing on his toes.

“Well, Nathan…” Nick said. “You are cordially invited to the Hound races tonight. This time you’ll have an actual invitation, rather than just my word.” With his other hand he produced a shard of glass. It was thick and pointed, and was shaped almost like a W that was missing half a limb. Nick held it close enough to Nick’s face that he had to go cross eyed.

“The fuck is this?” Nathan asked.

I glanced at Nick’s lacky. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. It was so similar to the time I got mugged. How long had it been since then? Three weeks? Four? It felt like I’d lived a lifetime since then.

Getting mugged had put me in a position to get a pep talk from Lucidity, and I’d come away from that with a desire to do something if I ever found myself in a situation like that again. This was exactly that, and what was I doing? I was blinking my eyes, squinting to even look at a guy who was less than ten feet away.

What could I do? That was the better question to ask. Standing up to Nick would prompt his lacky to get involved as well. If I did that now, I would be between him and the guy harassing my friend. It felt like if I even stood he would get involved, but that was a good first step wasn’t it?

Standing took more effort than I thought it would have. Nick hadn’t recognised me for whatever reason, and if I got his attention then I wouldn’t be able to pretend it never happened like I wanted to. I pushed the self contradicting thoughts aside and stood with half of my attention on the lacky. They pushed off from the wall as I stood.

“Now, now.” Nick wagged a finger in my direction, still holding the glass symbol. Had he explained what the glass was? How long had I spent in my own goddamn head? “Let’s not make this a scene.

“You’ve kind of done that yourself.” Nathan said.

Nick rounded on him and pulled Nathan a little closer. I reached over and gripped his arm. He didn’t have long sleeves, so I couldn’t use my power here, but I got the message across. I did my best to ignore the mental image of his body.

Nick looked at me with an appraising eye. “You going to say anything, kid?”

“Michael.” I retorted.

“Thanks, Michael.” Nick rolled his eyes. “Do you have anything to add?”

“Michael, don’t.” Nathan pleaded.

“Just repeating something.” I said after taking a moment to remember how to speak. “Fuck off.”

Nick sighed and looked past me with his eyes. Then he flicked them back to me briefly. One hand grabbed my arm while the other took hold of my neck, making my shoulders rise reflexively. I was tugged back and my grip on Nick slipped.

“This isn’t about you.” The lacky said, taking about twice as long as anyone else would to get the words out while he dragged me away from Nathan and Nick.

I could tell through the hand on my neck where the lacky’s clothes stopped thanks to the weight on the skin. When I tried to turn and throw a punch or something, his grip on my neck tightened and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I reached back, my power giving me a perfect measure to judge where exactly I needed to be reaching, and got my fingers on his shirt.

From there it was easy to grip the fabric and pull with supernatural strength, throwing my head back at the same moment. My head connected with the lower half of his face, and I felt a crunch. The lacky’s grip on my broke and I turned so I could properly deal with him. Pushing on his shirt with enhanced force was easy enough since he was dealing with a bloody mouth. He went sprawling. I didn’t touch him again, so I didn’t know if he had any teeth dislodge

Frankly, I didn’t care if he did. That fucker had stood by while I got hospitalised.

I rushed back to where Nathan was being accosted by Nick only to find that Nick was leaving. Their business was apparently done, and the shard of glass was nowhere in sight. Nick shoulder checked me as he left, muttering the word ‘fucker’. I watched him go. If he was leaving, then I had no problem with that.

When I looked back at Nathan, I realised we still had a problem as he grimly watched the older boy round the corner. I heard him asking what the fuck happened to the lacky, then they moved away.

Nathan sighed.

I put my hand on the outside of Nathan’s arm. “Are you good?”

Nathan looked at my arm in momentary confusion. It was the first time I had gone out of my way to make physical contact with him, then he sighed. “Yeah, I’m good.”

It was a lie. I felt his heartbeat flutter and blood rush to his face as he said it. It and another half dozen other bodily functions were operating like what happened in me whenever I lied. Before I took my hand away, I made eye contact with him as a method of challenging it, but Nathan didn’t say any more. I pulled away, having achieved what I wanted with the gesture.

There was a strange shape poking into him from one of his pockets.

I sat, the adrenaline already wearing off. “What’re the Hound races?”

Nathan sat as well. “Some dumb shit the Beastmasters do some nights. Straight up illegal stuff I want nothing to do with.”

“But you accepted Bad Valentine’s invitation.” I said.

“Who? That was Nick.”

I closed my eyes and pulled out my phone, having realised my blunder as soon as I said it. I waggled the phone. “Giftedlist.com.” I said. “Bad Valentine’s a new member. Glass powers.” I hadn’t checked to see if he was on it yet, but it seemed likely.

“Right… Shit.” Nathan leaned back. “Guess Sonya’s rubbing off on you as well.” I shrugged and put my phone away. “What’s a gifted want with me anyway?”

“Do you have a secret you’re not sharing with anyone?” I asked, very conscious of my own.

“If I do, I’m keeping it very well. Even I don’t know.”

I gave a sharp laugh. Then lapsed into silence for a while. I opened an eye, squinting at the light, and looked at Nathan. He was looking in my direction, but not at me. He was looking at where Nick had gone.

“You’re going, aren’t you.”

Nathan looked at me, then sighed. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? He’s just gonna escalate until I go.”

“Tell a teacher, make it a deal that’s bigger than him.”

“What? And use this glass as evidence?” Nathan held up the glass Nick had given him. “They’ll think I’m one of the Beastmasters, given how many others are around here.”

“It’d be a start.” I said.

“It’d make it back home, and then I’d have to deal with my parents thinking I’m a Beastmaster. They’ll take away all the things I like and all I’ll have to do is homework. I won’t be allowed out except for school and shit. Basically grounded. All for what? To tattle on someone?”

“You’re blowing it out of proportion.” I told him.

He shook the glass. “There’s a fucking gifted involved!”

“Transhuman.” I corrected automatically, my tiredness was inhibiting my inhibitions. It was a strange thing to have to deal with.

“Who cares? It’s already bigger than Nick is supposed to be, and he did all that anyway.”

“Kind of my point.” I muttered. “Nathan, what do you think he’s going to do next if you don’t?”

“I don’t know.” Nathan said exasperatedly. “That’s why I’m going.”

“Think about it, he only does physical stuff. If you keep saying no, you’ll end up in hospital and get some days off school. It would be like when I got mugged.” Almost exactly like when I got mugged.

Nathan thought about it. “As appealing as days off of school are, I think I won’t. I like my record of never breaking anything.”

“He-” I almost said he won’t because he didn’t break any of mine, but stopped myself. “You’re making it hard to help you.”

“I appreciate it, Michael, but I can handle this on my own.” Nathan rebuked.

I stared at him with both eyes. He was lying, and I didn’t need to check his body to tell. “Bring me, then.” I decided.

“What?”

“Bring me along, then I’ll make sure that when you get reinvited, you say ‘no’. Sound good?”

“I don’t want to bring you to something like that.” Nathan told me.

“Tough shit.” I rebuked. “You’re worried about being falsely accused of being a Beastmaster. If you go to this ‘Hound Race’ Nick invited you to, you may as well be a Beastmaster. Are you seeing the hole you’re digging? It’s quite obvious to me.”

“Fuck…” Nathan trailed off. I looked at him pointedly to keep him talking, but he got saved by the bell.

“I’ll call you after school and we can meet up.” I said definitively as I picked up my bag. “When is this thing, anyway?”

“Sunset or sometime around that.” Nathan answered, getting to his feet as well.. “That’s what Nick said.”

“I’ll see you later, then.”

“Yeah…”

~~~

“Michael!” Nathan hissed from behind me, causing me to jolt awake.

I looked back and saw wet red hair sticking to the side of a clammy face, her eyes staring at me unblinkingly. Then I blinked and Emma vanished. “What?”

“This is us.” He stood and started moving to get off the bus. I looked around, realising we were pretty far from the centre of the city. Traffic was less dense here, and the spaces between the buildings were larger. I didn’t recognise exactly where we were, but looking over the building let me see landmarks like the SRT, even though Lake Shane wasn’t visible.

The bus came to a stop and I stood to follow Nathan. We walked in quiet, with me squinting and actively looking around. It was an attempt to combat my tiredness and to have some light hit my eyes both, while also limiting the amount of light I looked at so the memories stayed in the box. There was a safe zone in there. It was slim, but I had been getting used to staying there over the past five days.

We walked for fifteen minutes from the bus stop before reaching a group of people all gathered on the road. It seemed the event was hosted in a run down warehouse, but the roller doors were down and there were enough people that they had spilled out onto the street. The age demographic was young, but people mostly older than Nathan and me.

Further up and down the street were ugly buildings build to a certain low standard and seemingly copy/pasted all the way down. There were maybe three different models on this road, with the warehouse being a unique building amongst the blad. Normally there wouldn’t be anyone here at this hour, but apparently Hound races drew crowds

The vast majority were people at the tail end of high school, or had graduated highschool but didn’t look like they were bothering with further education. A lot of guys had facial hair, but the ones that were growing full beards were few and far between. The girls were dressed like tonight was a party night, but the guys hadn’t done the same. There were wife beaters and trashy girls galore.

I recognised a few faces from Merryfair here, but so far Nathan was the only person I could put a name to. “What the hell are we even supposed to do here?”

Nathan shrugged. “Nick just said to come. Most of the today was him promising that things would get worse if I didn’t.”

“How you can be so blase about this, but go along with it anyway is beyond me.” I commented. “I’m perfectly fine staying on the sideline. How about you?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Nathan admitted, pointing at a fence near the crowd but was free of people. “There, or is that too close to the crowd?”

I deadpanned a glare. “It’s fine.” That Nathan was minding my current aversion for light and sound, courtesy of my lack of sleep, was great. It would be better if he looked for himself.

We went to the fence and sat. Nathan leaning against the fence, while I rested on the ground and let my head fall back against the wire mesh. Most people were milling about, and the kind of persons in the crowd changed as it got closer to the warehouse. No one was going in or out, so I assumed that whoever was in charge was either inside or staying nearby. I squinted, trying to get a clear view of the people there, but my eyesight was too blurry.

To counteract that, I divided my attention into my piercing and my eyes. Things cleared up a bit, but I didn’t see anyone that stood out. No Nick, either. I glanced down at the concrete the building was built on. The driveway didn’t extend to the ground I was sitting on, so I couldn’t touch the ground and get a sense of what was inside.

I could touch the ground, but that wouldn’t give me any good information. Touching the ground wasn’t a good idea at the best of times, anyway.

At least two people in the crowd had brought speakers and were playing music through them. They were far enough away that they didn’t interrupt each other, but if you were in the inbetween, you got two different songs playing in your ears. One was rock and the other was pop. They didn’t mesh.

A new song that was definitely in the ‘screaming’ spectrum of the metal genre faded in as a car approached. The crowd reacted to it, going from just milling around to clearing the driveway and turning the music down. The metal was being played louder from the arriving car than either of the speakers had been playing, and it dominated as the car rolled up the driveway and came to a smooth stop just before the roller door.

The metal stopped, and the other music was turned back up. The car was sleek black, with flame decals on the side that were pale blue instead of typical fire colours. It was clearly a sporty car, maybe a bit modified, but it was hard to tell with me having to squint at it. The two people that stepped out were easier for me to recognise, given the more than human qualities they had.

The guy that stepped out on the side closer to us was dressed entirely in black leather, save for the band t-shirt, and had pointed studs in rows on each shoulder. He was far away, but I could tell even though I was squinting that he had black eyeliner that had been wet and drained down his cheeks. His hands, neck, face, and dyed black hair all had shards of jagged glass stuck in them.

He had blond roots, which kind of detracted from the intimidating look. The dots were all connecting, however. Altered, with glass in his body. This being a Beastmaster gathering. That was Bad Valentine.

He showed his namesake as he greeted the crowd with a yell and stuck his tongue out. There were glass shards clearly growing out of it. As he shook his fist in the air, the glass shards in the mouth fell out and flew to his hand. Bad Valentine grabbed them and threw them to the crowd, who started scrambling for them as Bad Valentine laughed. A good chunk of the crowd was totally about all that. Joining in or egging others on despite the fact that the supervillain had essentially made a lolly scramble over his tongue.

Much more quietly on the other side of the car a villain I had seen before. Their presence was much quieter now that they didn’t have electricity crackling down wires that had been engraved into their arms. Channel was wearing a puffy vest and had her hands jammed into her pockets. She, like Bad Valentine, was surveying the crowd. Channel’s continuous scan was interrupted when she looked in our direction. A moment or two later it continued, then was called off before she finished scanning.

That made me frown. Had Channel recognised me? How? I glanced behind us and saw another group of college aged guys approaching, jostling each other as they moved and generally being rowdy. It wasn’t that much different from what the rest of the crowd was doing.

“Did you see that?” Nathan asked.

“See what?” I responded distractedly, watching the group to see if they did anything remarkable. If Channel knew one of them, then the way she looked at us could be explained that way. I didn’t want to think about the alternative.

“That gifted. The girl with wires scrimshawed into her arms.” Nathan said. “Did she look at us?”

“Maybe she was looking for someone new.” I ad libbed. “We’d fit. Maybe it was one of those guys.”

Nathan glanced in the direction I was looking. “Maybe.”

It wasn’t looking like the guys were here for anything other than a little bit of fun, but Nathan seemed to buy it. I sure as hell wasn’t sold on it. Channel had stepped away from the crowd towards the warehouse and was waiting by a small door around the building from the roller doors. Her eyes were locked on Bad Valentine, who was mingling with the crowd, but slowly following after her.

Eventually Bad Valentine reached the warehouse, opened the door, and went inside first. Channel caught the door, pushed someone trying to get inside away from it, and went inside after glancing in our direction again.

A new chill went up my spine. It was a refreshing change from the constant memories, but the implications were not good. I glanced over at Nathan, who was appraising the guys I had pointed out earlier. From the way his mouth was twisting, he wasn’t that sold on them being the guys Channel was looking at.

More people slowly trickled into the area until the sun was well and truly dipping down. In the end there were a total of thirty to forty people milling about. Enough that people we didn’t know were joining us at the fence and asking us who we were. Both Nathan and I were only cordial enough to answer the questions, but we gave the air that we didn’t really want to talk.

There was a lot of enthusiasm about the Hound races. People kept saying things along the lines of ‘The Hounds were gonna roll tonight.’ ‘A Hound might bite the dust.’ ‘Which Hound is your favourite?’

I tried asking what exactly the Hound races were, and was given a simple answer. ‘The Hounds would race to the finish line.’ I suspected that meant at some point all these people would be moving inside and the reason we were being kept out was so we didn’t disturb the hounds. It made sense, what with the Beastmasters’ group name.

It was also very illegal, as far as I could tell. But supervillains.

No other Beastmasters showed up as far as I could tell. There were pictures of Jackel and Wayvern online, and they had a difficult time blending in. Definitely more than Bad Valentine and Channel did since they just looked like normal people who had manifested amidst being tortured. Rainbowfish had a similar deal, being a rainbow fish-person.

Retch was the only Beastmaster I hadn’t seen a clear picture of. I had seen a picture, but she had been half obscured by black smog, the focus had been soft, and she had been moving fast enough to blur the camera. That being said, no one here matched any of them.

There were two people we knew here, however. One of them snuck up on us.

“Nathan.” Nick said loudly, grabbing both his shoulders from behind in the same moment. “You actually fucking showed up. That’s fuckin’ great. You looking forward to the Hound races?”

I looked up and started standing, making sure not to touch the dirt.

“Sure.” Nathan said uneasily.

“That’s cool. Want to meet one of the racers?”

“Are you going to tell us why Nathan’s getting special treatment?” I asked, now standing.

Nick glanced at me and released Nathan with a pat to his shoulder. “Brought your friend as well? That’s nice.”

I looked at Nick flatly, then glanced at Nathan.

“Seriously, man. Why?” Nathan said.

“You’re gettin’ an opportunity most don’t.” Nick’s lacky said, ever present in his shadow. His lips were still swollen from earlier today. “Why you complainin’?

“What is even your name?” I asked exasperatedly.

“Ben.” He said simply. I kind of expected it. Not that name specifically, but one that was short and completely failed to represent his personality. Or maybe it fit perfectly. Either way, it wasn’t the kind of name I’d been dealing with a lot recently.

“And what’s the opportunity?” I followed up.

“Front row seats.” Nick grinned. “And a chance to meet the talent. Come on.” He jumped the fence and made a beeline for the warehouse. Ben stayed where he was and glared at us until we started moving.

“Are you going to explain anything?” Nathan called after Nick.

“I will, but I want to show you first.” Nick replied, making it into the crowd proper. The noise of people was enough to drown out our words and we didn’t get any more questions in. I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried not to let anyone touch my face or neck as we navigated towards the door Bad Valentine and Channel had disappeared through.

“Got your invitation?” Nick asked when we caught up.

“Yeah.” Nathan had his hands in his pockets, presumably holding it at that moment. “Did that come from his tongue?”

Nick grinned. “Get it out, but don’t show the crowd.” Then he knocked on the door loudly.

After a few moments, a pretty nondescript older guy opened the door. He looked at us, then glanced at the shard of glass in Nathan’s hand.

“That’s for three.” The man said, prompting Nick’s positive facade to slip momentarily.

“Yeah, fine.” He huffed, turning to Ben. “Have fun at the races I guess.”

Ben frowned and jerked his head at me. “You not gonna?”

“Two for one.” Nick responded cryptically. Ben shrugged and left, quickly finding someone he knew to hang out with.

The man at the door stepped back and Nick led us through. I was expecting the smell of animals to hit me as I stepped inside. Instead, I got a strong wiff of gasoline and oil, or whatever it was that many cars smelled like. The majority of the warehouse was filled with four impressive cars that had been tailored for looking good and racing.

Cars weren’t really my thing. They gave me a headache whenever I spent too much time in one, but I could clearly see the care that had gone into designing these things and maintaining them. There were about ten people in the warehouse, either milling about or working on the cars. Nick waved at a few as he led us to a flight of stairs and away from the main warehouse.

The atmosphere was tense. There was music playing from a speaker by one of the cars, but it was classical, and was nearly drowned out by the small sounds of tools as people worked on them. While some acknowledged Nick, none even gave us a glance.

It was confusing. The ‘Hounds’ were clearly these cars. But what the hell was this for? Why had Nick brought us here?

He lead us to the second floor of the warehouse, where the offices normally were. Here there weren’t any desks, but chairs were arranged around a table and the cast sitting there sent another chill up my spine.

Bad Valentine and Channel were there. It made sense, seeing as they hadn’t been downstairs. Also there was a tall, but thin man wearing a jackal mask and a teenage guy with rainbows in his hair. Jackal, presumably, and Rainbowfish. Or maybe the former was a spokesperson for Jackal, since Jackal was Altered like the rest of the Beastmasters.

“Brought ‘em.” Nick announced his presence, causing the four supervillains to look at us.

I started fucking sweating right there. All tiredness was chased out of my body in that instant. The three Beastmasters I could see the eyes of appraised us. Channel looked me up and down, and didn’t move on to Nathan. When I met her eyes a spark flickered off of a wire jutting out of her head and she kept staring.

We looked at each other for a bit. I looked away first, not wanting to attract attention to my civilian identity.

“Shit, looks like Channel found someone she likes.” Rainbowfish commented, laughing. He turned his head to me, letting it droop at an angle. “Sorry bro.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.

Bad Valentine joined in with the laughter and Nick shot me a look I couldn’t parse.

So much for not attracting attention.

“Does this meet your conditions?” The man with the Jackal mask spoke to the room. I heard a disturbance behind us and looked to see a familiar rectangular portal slowly forming out of blue mist. When it finished, the mist faded and it was like there was a doorway to another room at the top of the stairs. Through the door stepped a woman with a green veil over her face, wearing short green dress with dozens of strings of beads dangling off of it.

She stepped through and surveyed Nathan and myself, sizing us up like the Beastmasters just had.

“Yes.” Greenflame smiled through the word. “It’s more than I asked for, but this will do.”