The Charade looked up as Siren swung down next to her. Siren’s purple cape came down along her boots. Its waving against the wind created a frantic rhythm with Charade’s dress shoes. The two were at the end of their patrol, drained from a long night. Somewhere in the distance, fireworks went off. Siren asked for a status report. The team all came to the same conclusion: Pittsburgh was a mess right now. Cobalt confirmed between choice obscure references. Over the past few weeks, they had stopped a few sales from the Neon Man, but it had done little to curb the ludicrous amount of guns coming into the city. Now, they were just trying to keep everything under control. The Charade suggested that they head back to the book-cave when they heard a commotion coming from down the street. A little boy ran past the alleyway, followed shortly by two men brandishing shotguns.

“You take the left, I’ll get the right.” Siren ordered, charging down the alley. Charade nodded emphatically before following. The Charade went to her opponent’s side, disarming him and giving a punch to the ribs. Siren disarmed similarly, but flared it up with a neck pinch and a stomp to the back of the leg. Siren unloaded the gun and tossed it aside. The Charade almost immediately dropped hers. Siren looked at the boy, still running. “Stop!” She yelled. The boy turned around. He was wearing a baggy hoodie. He pulled a glock out of one of the pockets and displayed it in his palms. He looked away sheepishly. Siren let out a deep sigh and walked over to him. Charade reluctantly followed. Siren picked up the pistol. “Where did you get this?”

“I took it.” The boy said proudly, crossing his arms. “From those guys.” He pointed at his assailants, now writhing on the ground. Siren looked down at the gun.

“Police issue.” The purple cloaked crimefighter took the gun apart in a few movements, stashing the barrel in her utility belt. She scattered the other pieces. “When you can take this from me, you can have it.” The boy grunted and walked away.

“What’s our plan?” The Charade asked, putting her hands in the pockets of her dress pants. “When are we gonna move in?”

Siren grappled up to a roof. “Tomorrow.” she said. She put her finger up to her ear. “Everybody be ready to take down the Neon Man tomorrow.”

————————————————

Nathan Edwards awoke at 11:35 AM. For breakfast, he made a hotdog in the microwave. He picked up an assault rifle and dragged it throughout his lavish mansion. The barrel squeaked along the expensive linoleum. The pictures of Edward’s family on the walls were askew and dusty. In some, his father’s face was crossed out with a sharpie. Nathan Edwards was an orphan, yet his father died only recently.

A few men in landscaping uniforms were walking around, not really knowing what to do with themselves. Nathan’s young, awkward figure was covered with a bathrobe. Besides that, he was clad only in a pair of boxer briefs. He was firing at various fruits and ceramic pieces at the end of his atrium. The landscapers patrolling the house knew when to cover their ears. A pudgy worker came up to him with a phone. He didn’t hear his employee over the sound of high velocity rounds.

“Sir, you have a call!” The landscaper yelled during a reload, handing over the wireless landline.

“Jesus, Rupert.” Nathan jumped a bit at this. “How long have you been standing there?” He took the phone and nudged it between his face and shoulder, still firing. “What’s up?” A few more shots. Rupert covered his ears. “Of course I have the product. You wanna deal damage, you’ve come to the right guy, my friend.” He set the gun down and paced up the atrium, twirling the ties of his bathrobe. “I’m sorry, sir. I know I’m not your friend. When should you come over? I need some time to beef up security, so could you come later in the night? I’ll let you know specifics when we get closer.” He hung up, tossing the phone to the side. “Get Mike to send the rest of his crew over for tonight.” He said to Rupert. “Hero watch, y’know?” The landscaper reluctantly spoke up.

“I’m not sure he’ll be able to send the whole crew. They have lawns to trim.”

“Do I look like I give a shit? Just make it happen.” Nathan went into his disastrous bedroom and fished out a dress shirt and slacks. He went into his medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of bright orange, unmarked pills. He took one. He shook violently, white knuckling the sink. The porcelain squeaked as his hands dragged down the facade. Lines of neon green and orange erupted through his skin. He took a deep breath and appreciated the tribal linework moving up his fingers. The Neon Man smiled and went back to his makeshift firing range.

————————————————

Izzy Guevara-Robinson arrived at the Yorba Public Library at 12:27 PM. She was wearing a crop cut Minor Threat T-Shirt and cut-off shorts. Despite this, she was still sweating. Her bright red hair had faded to a dull pink that gleamed in the noontime sun. She was listening to her walkman, about to enter the library, when she noticed a strong smell coming from the side of the building, almost like burning plastic.

Eric Petersen was leaning against the back wall, chewing gum. There was a small metal trash can next to his feet. Something was burning in it.

Izzy approached and took her headphones out. “What are you doing?”

“Burning my Blu-Ray of Man of Steel” Eric said casually, popping his gum.

“Why?”

“Because it doesn’t matter.” Izzy shrugged before walking into the library. Coming in through the side door, she passed the two small conference rooms that the Yorba sported. She waved at Ms. Dillon, who was giving a talk to elementary schoolers about LEGOs. Tanner Bishop was sitting at the front desk when she clocked in. He was playing Hollow Knight on his Switch and munching on Cheez-Its. Once Izzy assumed her station, Tanner promptly left, leaving her reading a tattered Infinity Gauntlet trade for the next few minutes. Eric came back inside and leaned over the checkout desk.

“Thoughts? Feelings?” He asked. “Concerns? Comments?”

“I’m enjoying it.” Izzy said. “I don’t know why they didn’t include Lady Death in the MCU.”

“Not the only mistake they made.” Eric made his way around the desk. “Infinity War is a garbage movie because Spider-Man’s head did not get bashed in with a giant rock.”

“I still don’t agree with you on that.”

“One day you’ll join the side of reason.” Eric reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box wrapped in a blue ribbon. He slid it to Izzy’s side of the desk. It took her a second to realize it was there. She picked it up and inspected it.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Belated birthday/actual fourth of July present.” Eric sat patiently with his hands in his pockets, smiling. Izzy undid the wrapping and pulled out a cassette tape. Eric had scrawled “Soft” on it. “Figured you could use a break from the heavy stuff every now and again.” He said. “AJJ, Cat Power, Iron & Wine. That sort of thing.” Izzy’s face lit up with a bright smile. She put it into her walkman and started it. A quiet whisper counted “1, 2, 3, 4” as Gabriel Kahane went into Ambassador Hotel. Eric gave a playful pat on the shoulder to Izzy before pulling out a shiny new Green Lantern trade. They sat in mutual silence for a few minutes before a father and daughter came up to the desk.

“Izzy?” The daughter yelped, smiling. Izzy looked up. It was Kate Kohl with her father. The city councilor and Izzy locked eyes. William Kohl got the distinct impression that the teenage clerk knew something he didn’t. “Since when do you work here?” Kate now had Izzy’s undivided attention. She was an average height for a girl her age. Her hair has been bleached and redyed beyond repair, leaving a shoulder length rattly, tangled, vaguely silver mess above her floral print romper. Izzy scanned her up and down for a moment, then blushed. Kate put a Gillian Flynn novel down on the front desk.

“I s-s-started a few weeks ago.” Izzy said, adjusting her hair. She picked up the book and started ringing Kate out. “Uh, just this?”

Kate giggled. “Yea, just that. You ready to go back to school next month?”

“As ready as I’m gonna be, I suppose.”

“‘I suppose.’” Kate turned to her father. “Don’t you just love how she talks?”

“I suppose” William said with a grin. Kate tried her best to laugh along. They made their goodbyes and left the library. Izzy watched them as they made their way out, smiling. Eric leaned in and tapped her on the shoulder.

Eric asked, “Who was that?” in a sing-song fashion.

“That’s just-” Izzy replied. “She’s my friend. Her name is Kate.”

“Oh, I believe this one might be more than a friend. I’ve seen that look before.”

“That look?”

“Girl fever. Have you told her how you feel yet?” Izzy fell silent at this. She pondered for a second before responding.

“How do I tell her?” She asked.

“You want my honest advice?” Izzy nodded. “Just tell her. Don’t get super specific about it, cause sometimes all that hearts and flowers shit will scare people off. I learned that first hand. Just say something akin to ‘Hey, Kate. I know we’re good friends, but I think I like you as more than that. Would you wanna go out sometime?’ Something like that.” It was then that Eric realized Izzy was texting. “Alright, talkin’ to myself here.”

“-go out sometime?” Izzy whispered her message as she typed it out.

“Wow, showing some initiative. I like the way you operate, Iz.” Eric went back to his trade. Eventually, Izzy went back to her tape

————————————————

Once evening rolled around, Liz Moto called a team meeting in the book-cave. Tanner, Izzy, and Eric stood around patiently as Liz went over what they knew about the Neon Man’s operation and how they were going to take it down. Liz was already in her Siren costume, mask down. The yellow spandex came up to her wrists. Her nails were bitten down slightly.

They knew that Neon Man was going to make a massive sale tonight of experimental weapons, reverse engineered from the Cimmerian’s armor defense system. That hero operated through hard-light projectors. How he got technology from the other side of the country in enough quantities and who exactly he was selling to, they didn’t know, but Liz intended on finding out. She went over the game plan. Tanner would be parked a few blocks away from Nathan Edwards’ North Hills estate, on the com system. Cobalt would do his best to clear a path for Siren as they made their way to bust the sale.

“-and Izzy, you’re gonna stay here and help Ms. Dillon close up.” Liz said.

“Wait, what?” Izzy asked, pulling her Charade mask out of her backpack.

“This job is going to be dangerous. We’ve only been working together for a few weeks.”

“But I’m ready. I want to help.”

“I understand that.” Siren pulled her royal purple gloves on. “But I disagree on the ready part. These weapons are extremely dangerous. Julia does enough damage on her own, I don’t want you to be on the receiving end of it. Especially if it’s coming from the Neon Man.”

“I can’t believe you call Cimmerian ‘Julia’.” Cobalt said, stashing his quiver.

“Why?” Siren asked. “That’s her name.”

“I know I haven’t fought any big bads with you yet,” Izzy said, “but there has to be a first time for everything, right?”

“I agree, but there’s no need to rush into things. You’ll take on your first ‘big bad’ at some point.”

“But-”

“You’re not coming and that’s final.” Siren started putting her utility belt together.

Izzy turned towards Cobalt. “Eric.”

“I’m gonna have to side with the Goldfinch on this one.” Izzy then turned to Tanner, who shrugged. Siren and Cobalt left in the Volvo, leaving Izzy looking at her shoes in the book-cave. She pulled out her phone. She had texted Kate five hours ago with no response. She scrolled down and was about to call her mother, Detective Dani Guevara. Then, she walked out the back entrance.

————————————————

Siren and Cobalt sat in the back of Tanner’s Volvo, large coats covering the top portion of their costumes; masks off. The Neon Man’s mansion was about half an hour out from the city, in a neighborhood called Wexford. Consequently, this was near where Tanner grew up. Liz explained the plan again as they were just getting onto Route 8. They sat in relative silence, only occasionally broken up by things rattling around in the trunk. Eric and Liz held hands, until Eric reached down into his quiver.

“You gotta see this.” He said, pulling out an arrow with a small, cylindrical speaker attached to the end of the shaft. “I call this one Dinah.”

“Is this the new one you guys have been working on?” Liz asked.

“That it is.” Eric said. Tanner was nodding furiously with a ridiculous smile on his face. Eric pressed a button on the fletching of the arrow. The speaker let out a violent, droning shriek. The car swerved a bit. Liz switched the arrow off.

“What is that thing?”

“It lets out a high-pitched frequency. The kind of sonic bombardment that really knocks you on your ass. Tanner and I developed a counter-frequency which, when played through our headsets, would allow us to move unharmed through a room of clocked out baddies.”

“Let’s just hope that we don’t have to use that.” Liz said.

“But I wanna use it.” Eric whined like a toddler. It was just then that they pulled off of Route 8 onto Route 910. They were about ten minutes out when they heard a banging from the trunk. Liz urged Tanner to pull over a block before their planned stopping point. They opened the trunk to find Izzy laying there. She was wearing a plain black T-shirt with a bomber jacket, her Charade wig and gloves on.

“Let me explain.” Izzy said.

“No.” Liz answered, plainly. She pulled Izzy out and into the passenger seat of the car. She strapped Izzy to the passenger seat with the handcuffs from her utility belt. She leaned in and looked at the struggling teenager. “If I’m going to trust you, I need to know that you can listen to me.” Eric and Liz pulled up their masks and took off their coats. “No hard feelings. It’s just not safe.” Siren and Cobalt made their way up the road to Nathan Edwards’ frivolous mansion. The house itself looked identical to the others in the neighborhood, only this one had about two more stories than the rest. There were a few landscapers patrolling the yard, looking awkward with their military firearms. Siren was perched on the top of a nearby hill, scanning the area with her binoculars. Cobalt was crouched beside her.

“How many we got in the yard?” Cobalt asked, notching an arrow.

“Only five.” Siren answered. “Four corners and one floater.”

“What’s our situation in the house? Got eyes on our valued customer?”

“House is moderately guarded. I see the Neon Man, he’s talking to-” She put her binoculars down. “He’s talking to Mark Moreno.”

“Knuckle Duster? I thought he was locked up. When was the last time you checked on him?”

“Yesterday. As far as I know he hasn’t been arranging any buys from the inside. I guess we’ll find out what’s up, though. You got the mic arrow ready?”

“Locked and loaded.” Cobalt drew his bow back and fired in a large arc. The arrow landed in the roof adjacent to Knuckle Duster and the Neon Man. A red LED flashed on the side of the arrow as static waned in their headsets.

“Turing, can you clear up that signal?” Siren asked.

“I’m on it.” Turing told them. He had his laptop open back in the Volvo, adjusting levels. Izzy was knocking her head back on the headrest lightly. As he changed the frequency, the conversation morphed into something audible.

“You want 50 million?” Moreno asked. “My guys told me 35.”

“The upcharge is because of a new feature I had them sneak in.” The Neon Man said.

“Continue.” Moreno’s foot tapped on the floor.

“You see this? This is a plasma grenade launcher.” A large explosion followed. Feedback rang through the heroes’ headsets. They recoiled, grasping their ears.

“Welp,” Cobalt said, turning to Siren and stretching. “feeling limber?” She shrugged and nodded, heading down the hill. Siren took out the guards at the northmost corners with her bo staff. Cobalt took out the southmost guards with some kicks and a bola arrow respectively. He yelled “Eyo, suckaduck!” at the floater guard. At the second he was notching an arrow, Siren knocked him out. She collapsed her staff and walked over to her partner.

“Were you gonna fire an arrow into the barrel of that gun again?” She asked.

“I can’t help it.” He exclaimed. “It’s just so satisfying. Where’s his office?”

“One guard told me it’s on the southwest corner.” Siren pulled out her grapple gun.

“He squealed that fast?” Cobalt followed her up with his grapple arrow.

“They’re landscapers. I just had to be vaguely threatening.” When they reached the window, Siren put her hands on the bottom and lifted. She almost fell over when she stood up. “It’s not locked?”

“The suburbs are such a nice change of pace.” They entered the office. It was dark with the exception of a lamp on the desk. The door was slightly ajar. Cobalt notched an arrow. Siren put a hand on him.

“Turing,” she whispered. “pull up thermal vision.”

As Tanner pulled up the program, he heard his car door shut and turned his head. Izzy was gone. The handcuffs were dangling off the headrest. Tanner muted his mic. “Well boy howdy, that’s not good.” The Charade watched from the forest before heading towards the mansion.

Siren used the thermal mode on her mask’s camera to scope out the scene in the hallway. Aside from the occasional passerby, the hall was empty. Once the coast was completely clear, she motioned to Cobalt. He fired a grapple arrow into the door and pulled on the rope slightly to shut it. “We should get a branch book-cave out here.” he whispered. “We could come patrol every other weeknight.”

“Why would we need a branch book-cave?”

“I don’t know. Ask Greg Rucka, I guess.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.” she sighed, looking through the Neon Man’s personal effects. After a few seconds of flipping through papers, she was on his computer, pulling up spreadsheets.

“Whoa.” Cobalt said. “You trying to set a record?”

“He had his password written down on some loose leaf.” She said, typing away.

“Get anything good?”

“Pretty juicy stuff here if I’m being honest. Transaction histories. Names. And let’s just forward all of that to [email protected]” She closed the laptop and got up, starting towards the door.

————————————————

The Charade came up on the hill next to the mansion. She saw the unconscious guards surrounding the house. “It seems they’re already in.” She said quietly. She searched the guards, found nothing of importance except the business cards of various landscaping companies. She kept them anyway. She came up to the driveway of the house, making sure to stay out of the lights above the garage. There was a sedan parked outside. It’s polish made it stick out from the various pickup trucks parked throughout the driveway, as well as the license plate. “Now where did you come from? Georgia’s awfully far from Pittsburgh.” She took her camera out of her drawstring backpack and snapped a picture of the license plate. She also took a shot of a stack of plane tickets sitting in the back seat before heading into the mansion.

————————————————

At this point, the guards had largely moved out of the living room and through other parts of the house. The Neon Man told them to sweep the place once the guards patrolling the grounds didn’t respond. Siren and Cobalt were crouched next to the door of the study, trying to make a plan. Siren stood up and put her hand to her chin.

“I think our best move is to just make a run for the living room.” She said. “As soon as we cuff Moreno and Edwards, I don’t imagine the rest of the crew will go down with a fight.”

“Okay, but how do we do that without getting stopped?” Cobalt asked. “There’s gotta be at least 50 dudes in this place. All with guns, I might add.” Siren looked around the room. She walked over to the mantel at the end of the study. She pulled a ship in a bottle off, appraising its weight.

“We could use Dinah.” A small smirk came across her face.

“You’re the love of my life.” Cobalt exclaimed, notching the arrow. “What’s the plan?”

“I’ll smash this to get everyone’s attention, then you fire and we make a run for it.” She walked

over to the door, opening it a bit. She saw a black loafer at the end of some blue pinstriped pants. She looked up. It was him. The King of Hearts. He was wearing his blue suit, still covered in Liz Moto’s blood and the dust of concrete. He smiled and waved at her. She was taken aback. Once she shook her head, he was gone. The hallway was just filled with orange and green. “How loud can it get?” She asked.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll turn it up to 11.”

“Our counter-frequency should probably be turned up accordingly.” Siren stared at the floor.

“Hey, that’s pretty good.” Turing said, laughing.

“Well, I guess it’s Nerf or Nothin’.” Cobalt said. Liz chuckled.

“You’re so stupid.” She said.

“Oh, come on. You know you love it.”

“I do.” They grasped hands for a second. Liz smiled. They took fighting positions. “Ready?”

Cobalt nodded. Turing cued the counter-frequency. They hadn’t noticed a difference. Siren jumped up and threw the bottle. It smashed on the wall, glass and small pieces of wood clattered to the floor. Cobalt jumped over her, firing the sonic arrow in mid-somersault. The hall was filled with armed landscapers. They all collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads between their hands and screaming. The young crimefighters ran to their left, leaping over the shoulders of henchmen in their way. They then came to a balcony and leapt down a story or two into the atrium. They turned around, Siren threw up her bo staff as Cobalt notched an arrow. The Neon Man was in the living room, in a similar condition to everyone else. The heroes rushed in, not noticing the landscapers wearing earplugs standing against the wall. As Siren and Cobalt crossed the threshold, they were tackled to the ground and their hands were ziptied. The Neon Man was screaming something. Siren thought she read “Turn that shit off” on his lips. Eventually, the frequency from the sonic arrow stopped. The landscapers took their earplugs out. The Neon Man was laughing smugly.

“Well, well, well.” He said. “Who do we got here? Did you know Halloween is in three months?”

“Dude,” Cobalt said. “You stole some guns from the daughter of a lizard. Update your material.”

“Where’s Moreno?” Siren asked. “Where’s Allen?”

“Knuckle Duster ran off. Left all his guns too.” The Neon Man leaned down and grabbed a gun out of the crate. It had the vague shape of a rifle, but it was entirely white, gold, and chrome. The barrel was round and thick with two openings in it. “As for The King of Hearts,” He started it up. A bright cyan light emanated throughout. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He chuckled a little bit. He ordered the landscapers to take them into the basement.

————————————————

The Charade was able to slide into the garage as a landscaper was going out for a cigarette. She walked past a Rolls Royce to a door into the house. She cracked it open a tad and watched. The landscapers were all flooding out. “I suppose it’s quitting time.” she whispered. She waited until there were only a few stragglers walking around. She walked through an ornate dining room and peered into the living room. She inspected the scene and turned up a brow. Something about the splatter of fruit on the wall stuck out to her. She went to the crate of guns at the end of the room and ducked behind it. Once she knew she was alone, she stood up and looked inside. There were 18 guns and a small metal box. She reached in and grabbed the box, quickly sitting down behind the crate. “Is this what people mean when they say ‘Christmas in July’?” It was the right hand gauntlet from Cimmerian’s armor. It was white, gold, and chrome. Upon further inspection, the chrome was a glove underneath the robotics. Tattered silver fabric came off the end of it, attached to a ring shaped battery. “This must’ve fallen off when they fought Doctor Colossal.” She put it on. It was a tight fit. She could barely move her fingers. She flipped a switch on the battery. Cyan lights came on around it, culminating at a circular hard-light projector at the palm of the hand. The Charade turned her head. A small cube came up from the palm of her hand. “Cool.” She said. With her free hand she reached into her pocket and checked her phone. No notifications. She sighed, noticing the sonic arrow on the floor in front of her.

————————————————

Siren and Cobalt were hanging from a coat rack in the finished basement. The Neon Man was standing in front of them, firing his gun to the left. Shards of cyan hard-light embedded in the wall before quickly disappearing. They left a sea of holes in the drywall. Every time a shard made impact, the Neon Man laughed hysterically. He felt the weight of the rifle in his hand, smiling.

“This shit is awesome.” He exclaimed, walking towards them. “I’m glad I finally got your attention.” He placed the barrel of the rifle onto the floor and leaned on it.

“You’ve been on our radar for a while.” Siren said, fishing a bobby pin out of the seam of her glove. “We just needed the right time to move in.”

“Of course you get involved with this deal. Why haven’t you busted any of my other sells?”

“We have.” Cobalt said. “What kind of convenience store are you running here?”

“What the fuck are you even talking about half the time?” The Neon Man asked, frustrated.

“It’s vaguely related. Don’t criticize me. I’m not the one who can’t keep track of his illegal arms trade ring. Why the hell are you even in this business?”

“That Hearts guy.” The Neon Man was motioning with his gun. “He changed things. At least around here. The stakes in crime were getting higher. And if business school taught me anything, it’s that the higher the risk, the higher the reward. I wanted a piece of the action.”

“You’re just doing this because of the King of Hearts?” Siren asked.

“A poorly thought out knock-off that nobody asked for.” Cobalt said. “It’s like Force Awakens all over again. Does this also lead to daddy issues?”

“I’m not doing this just cause of him.” The Neon Man said. “I’m doing this because of you. You sent your friend. The freak in the Eyes Wide Shut mask. She cut off 25% of my inventory. I started having to work with local cops in Wexford. And believe you me, there ain’t nothing more that I want than to not be working with more suburban dads. So I flooded the city with guns. And now here you are. Zip-tied to a coat rack in the wrong basement.” Cobalt blew a raspberry as the Neon Man aimed his gun. The cyan light came glowing around it. Suddenly, the door at the top of the stairs opened. The clacking of loafers against the concrete echoed throughout the basement. Everyone looked up.

“If you’re gonna point that at anyone.” The Charade said, finishing her descent and powering up her glove. “Point it at the freak in the Eyes Wide Shut mask.”

“Charade.” Siren yelled. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve got this.” The Charade whispered to her. She turned to the Neon Man. “I’m not afraid of you. You’re not a supervillain, Nathan. You’re just some kid trying to act tough. You think that just because your daddy isn’t here, you can do whatever you want. I’ve known people like you my entire life. I’m more prepared for this than you let on, Siren.” She put her headphones in and started Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings on her walkman. Full blast. She pulled the sonic arrow out of the back of her belt. “You want to fight a superhero? I’m the Charade.” She turned on the sonic arrow, throwing it to the ground. “Come and get me”

The Neon Man collapsed to the floor. He shakily held the rifle with his right arm. His left was futilely covering his ear. He fired a few hard-light bolts at the Charade. She held the palm of her hand out, the projector in the center lit up as a pillar of cyan light came out. It eventually stopped about a meter in front of her, creating a giant wall of solid light. The bolts landed in the construct. The whole mess quickly went away as the Charade did a tuck and roll, using the gauntlet’s rocket function to leap above the Neon Man’s head. She punched him across the face. He went tumbling across the floor, still holding onto his rifle. As he regained his balance, he pulled some earplugs out of his pocket. He put them in, grinning, blood dripping from his lip. The bottom barrel of his rifle slowly lit up a stop sign red. A small glob of glowing red plasma fired out with a resounding thunk. The Charade reached out to grab it with the gauntlet. Seconds before impact, the Neon Man shot a bolt of hard-light into the plasma grenade. It exploded, sending a gush of shimmering light throughout the basement. Siren and Cobalt’s coat rack tipped over, leaving the heroes squirming on the floor. The Charade got up, bruised and bloodied. The bottom of her mask was frayed She got up and adjusted herself.

“Is that the best you got?” The Neon Man said, wiping some blood off of his lip. “A sappy speech and some moves you didn’t even practice?”

“You’re right. I didn’t practice that.” The Charade said. “But she practiced this.” Just then, Siren undid her ziptie and leapt up.

“Cobalt.” She yelled, throwing a shuriken at his zip-tie and tossing out her bo staff. Cobalt leapt up, notching an arrow. Siren threw her staff at the tip of the Neon Man’s hard-light rifle. As it spiraled onto the ground, Cobalt fired a taser arrow into it. It wobbled and vibrated, light crackling out of its titanium shell. The Charade quickly projected a box of cyan light over the whole affair. It finally exploded, all of the energy that went throughout the room now trapped Charade’s container. She picked up the projection and hit the Neon Man across the chest with it. Siren and Cobalt walked over to her as the Neon Man toppled along the floor of the basement. She threw the box out of an open window. Fireworks.

“You’re really good with that Power Glove.” Cobalt said, taking out handcuffs.

“It’s surprisingly intuitive.” The Charade replied, pulling out her headphones. She turned to Siren. “I’m sorry I stowed away.”

“Do not worry about it.” Siren said in a sing-song manner. “If you hadn’t tagged along we would’ve been lasered to death.”

“Technically, it’s hard-light and plasma.” Cobalt said, cuffing the groggy Neon Man. “But what do I know? I ain’t no scientist.” He leaned down and nabbed the sonic arrow, turning it off as he led the Neon Man up the stairs

“Point being,” Siren said. “Thank you, Charade. I shouldn’t have underestimated your ability.”

“I’m used to it.” The Charade said, they both followed the archer up into the living room. Siren put a finger to her ear.

“Turing, thanks for keeping the counter-frequency going.” She said.

“Yup.” Turing said, audibly using finger guns. “Totally meant to do that.” As the heroes dragged the Neon Man out of the house, police lights were visible from the edges of the forest. Three Northern Regional squad cars and one City of Pittsburgh rolled up to the scene. Dani Guevara got out of the Pittsburgh squad car with a new partner. He was tall, blonde, and strong-jawed. Four pudgy beat cops followed from the Northern Regional cars.

“So nice of you to be checking your emails on a holiday, Dan.” Cobalt said, handing the Neon Man over to one of the local cops.

“I try my best.” Dani said, lighting up a Marlboro. “I brought along some Wexford friends for good measure.”

“I was wondering about that.” Siren said. “Where were you guys twenty minutes ago?”

“What do you mean?” One of the beat cops asked, tucking his shirt back in.

“Why did you roll up with Dani?” Siren asked. “There were explosions twenty minutes ago.”

“Hey lady, it’s the Fourth of July.” The beat cop said, putting the Neon Man into a squad car. Siren outstretched her arms as if she was about to say something. Even opened her mouth a bit, but then she just decided to reply with:

“Okay.” The heroes had a few words with the officers. Dani introduced her new partner, Sam Trent. He made an awkward comment towards Siren. They gave the crate of guns to the Northern Regional Police. It was unanimous that the costumes should take Cimmerian’s gauntlet. The beat cops as well as Dani and Sam felt that it was a bit out of their jurisdiction. Siren promised that she would return the gauntlet to Julia Anderson. Once things were dying down, Dani asked for a sidebar with Charade. They walked to the back of the house. Dani lit up another cigarette.

“I didn’t know you were coming on this one.” She said. Charade put her mask up. Izzy looked at her mother.

“Neither did they.” Izzy said. “I snuck my way in.”

Dani chuckled. “You’re always gonna be a little rebel, huh? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m working on it.” Dani put an arm around her daughter, smiling.

“You did the right thing. Welcome to the superhero club.” Izzy put her mask back on, changing her demeanor and posture in a way Dani had never seen before. Dani stared off in the distance and took a puff of her Marlboro.

“Are you okay?” The Charade asked.

“Yeah.” Dani smiled and walked Charade out to the rest of the group. “You should get your mask fixed.” She said playfully. “I’ll chip in. Don’t worry.” Dani went into the house and down into the basement. She looked around and saw the aftermath of the Neon Man’s brawl with her daughter. She cringed a bit at the thought. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bottom of the frayed mask. She picked it up and put it in her pocket, flicking her cigarette out of the open window.

The heroes and the authorities eventually made their separate ways. Izzy sat in the passenger seat on the way back, admiring the various suburban sites as they made their way into the city. She listened to Eric’s “Soft” tape the whole way. Merging onto route 28, Izzy’s phone went off. She hastily grabbed it out of her pocket and played hot potato with it before getting a firm grasp.

“Is it her?” Eric asked emphatically, breaking his grip on Liz’s hand.

“It is.” Izzy responded, smiling.

“Who are you talking about?” Liz asked. Eric leaned in and told her. She got a giddy smile on her face. “What did she say?”

“‘I’m sorry for the long wait. I just didn’t know what to say. Could we maybe talk over coffee tomorrow?’” Izzy looked around the car to judge responses. Liz had a smirk on her face. Eric was giving a thumbs up.

“Hey, that counts as a date.” Tanner yelled. Izzy confirmed coffee with Kate, letting Cats in Heat by Apes of the State play on as she looked over the glimmering Pittsburgh skyline.

————————————————

Tanner dropped Eric at his apartment, then Izzy and Liz at the library. Izzy was working at a punching bag next to Turing’s supercomputer. Liz was going over the footage from their headsets. It had been a few hours. Izzy moved onto shoddy archery; compound bow. Liz was still at the computer. She hadn’t even taken her costume off. Her mask was just down, gloves off. Izzy finally hit the target at the edge with her last arrow. She walked over to it and saw her chipped Charade mask on the cot in the corner. She picked it up and felt the chunk missing in the end of it, walking to Liz.

“Something wrong?” Izzy asked. Liz kept going through the footage, biting her nails. Izzy snapped twice.

“Sorry.” Liz said. “It’s just-” She motioned towards the central monitor. “Just look at this.” She brought up the footage from the Neon Man’s study. The King of Hearts, waving to her like a friend. Izzy took a step back.

“First Moreno and now him?” Izzy asked. “Did they organize a breakout along with the buy?”

“I don’t think so.” Liz bit at her nails. Her knee was bouncing. “I looked at the security footage from Riverside and they’ve both been there for the past few weeks.”

“So how were they both at that mansion tonight?”

“I have no idea. I’ve been looking through all the specs from our cams and our com systems that night. I thought maybe some data glitch could’ve caused that to appear. But there was nothing. I went through the debug process and went down to the code running at every frame and everything was perfectly normal. It shouldn’t have happened. But I know what I saw. He was right in front of me.”

Izzy walked to her backpack. She pulled out her camera. She put the SD card into the supercomputer. “Take a look at this.” Liz scanned the license plates and plane tickets. The plot thickens.

————————————————

In downtown Pittsburgh, a woman in white was smoking a cigarette. Her white stilettos clicked across the sidewalk. The white pleather of her top reflected all the reds and blues and greens of the city neon lights. She eventually found herself at a dumpster and kicked it playfully. There was a dull thud, with no ring. She looked inside of it and saw a briefcase stuck to the bottom. She pulled it out and found $25,000.