Back at Villains Corp, I spent the next few hours strategizing. For Merlina, the prison breaks had become so routine it wasn’t a big deal for her. But getting into the suppression chambers was never a small matter, even when I’d had others go.

Once those preparations were dealt with, I spent some time on some very amusing paperwork. Many of the villains were ecstatic about getting to go after the Union more directly. I had several proposals for putting various types of creepy crawlies into the plumbing system of the Union’s building, (I gave approval for the glowing mutant newts and the neon pink aquatic roaches).

There were two requests to outright set the Union building on fire, (those I stamped ‘rejected’) Someone had an intriguing idea to hack into their accounting system and get the Union in bad standing with their vendors (that I approved immediately) and my favorite: kidnapping the lower level staff and politely forcing them to take emergency vacations (that I approved as well, though I put a limit on how many and which people were allowed to be kidnapped).

When the sun began to set I cleaned up my desk and then went to the changing room to get ready.

I felt it was important for the staff to have a place to prepare, and so the men’s and women’s changing rooms were outfitted to the nines. Great lighting, full facilities, and I’d even hired a laundry service to take care of those more tricky costumes.

I changed into my light blue suit, which consisted of a long sleeved top and skirt piece. In my days at the Union I’d forgone makeup, but now I brushed dark blue powder above my eyes and painted my lips.

Lady Snow’s gift was next, and the black material stood in stark contrast to the rest of my outfit. The effect was jarring.

I smiled at the message it sent, and last but not least, put on my mask.

Valiant was back. Better, badder, than before, and ready to dish out disasters.

When I went to Shelley to ask if the prison break team was ready to go, her eyes widened at my outfit.

After a moment, she said, “Yes, Merlina’s already enroute. Mr. and Ms. Blue are waiting in the van for you, and Breaker and Miss Malaise should be there soon too. You can take the telestation whenever you’re ready.”

She took another moment, and then decided to say what was on her mind, “You’re going out like that? They’ll know who you are! You don’t want to wait to let the public know?”

I smiled, “That’s exactly the point. I want to hit them where it hurts. This is as good of a time as any.”

Shelley frowned, “Just be careful. And good luck!”

I waved and turned.

In the basement, I got into the telestation and warped to the truck Mr. and Ms. Blue maneuvered near the suppression chambers.

Warping was never exactly pleasant, and warping into a moving vehicle did not help.

“Hello, love,” Ms. Blue said from a bench that was built into the van, “it’s nice to see you’re back on the scene.”

“It’s nice to be working with you and not against you,” I said. The Blue siblings were very good at facilitating havoc, and I’d had to deal with their shenanigans when I’d been with the Union.

Ms. Blue nodded, “I love your costume. Very bold.”

“Thank you.”

The telestation glowed, and Miss Malaise appeared.

She tumbled off the platform and then stood up and brushed her skirts for any dirt that may or may not have gotten on them. Miss Malaise was in her child-like form, and didn’t look much older than ten.

“I wish we could do this with a little more style,” she wrinkled her little button nose. If I didn’t know she was over sixty years old, I would’ve laughed.

One of her shadow monster pets peeked out from her behind her hair, on her shoulder.

The platform glowed again and Breaker appeared. He stumbled and would’ve fallen on top of Miss Malaise had her monster not grown a long shadow arm and steadied his shoulder.

“Ah, thank you,” he said to the thing as the long arm retreated, “sorry about that.”

He took a seat on the bench opposite us, as did Miss Malaise.

“Now that we’re all here, I’m going to go over the plan one more time and then we’ll get moving.”

Ms. Blue handed out ear pieces for everyone as I went over what we expected to happen, known issues that might come up, and what to do if things went very far south.

“Ready?” I asked once we were done.

“Yup,” Breaker said, as Miss Malaise said, “Yes.”

Mr. Blue drove across the street from the suppression chambers and we stepped out of the van.

It was time to get the show on the road.