“I saw that video and I just about had a heart attack!” Mom said, fussing over Perry while he tried to eat dinner. “Solaris thought it was funny, but I don’t think they should let this Chemestro character go around bullying other supers. Especially not my boy!”

“He’s not bullying me, Mom, he’s my nemesis,” Perry said, trying to weave a slice of pizza past his mom and into his mouth. While it was still warm, preferably.

“Kids need a nemesis or two growing up. Builds character.” Dad said, stealing a slice of Perry’s pie.

Perry raised his brows and pointed at dad. ‘see?’

“That being said, you’re not officially nemeses yet,” Dad continued. “You gotta take a trip to Nexus HQ with Chemestro and get yourselves registered as such.

Perry almost dropped his slice.

“Excuse me, WHAT? Why would I ever do that?”

“It’s actually more beneficial than you might think,” Dad said. “Nexus has software that will alert dispatch any time they might be sending a super into the territory of their nemesis or if they’ll be crossing paths on a mission. It’s a great way of avoiding trouble.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool.” Perry said, nodding.

“On the other hand, sometimes the IT guys nudge two nemeses into the same area on a slow night and take bets on who wins.”

Mom gasped, staring at dad.

“At least, that’s what I’ve heard.” Dad said nervously. “Definitely never took bets on those myself when I was an undergrad in Nexus IT. And I certainly didn’t start the practice in the nineties out of sheer boredom.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed.

“I think you’re just digging the hole deeper, Dad.”

“MMm, this pizza is great!” Dad said, changing the subject.

“Our son was almost killed!”

“Part of the job. Almost dying builds character.”

“What about that time Slash cut off your head for no reason?” Mom said. “How did that build character for you?”

“That’s easy. I appreciate my limbs a lot more than I did before.”

“Your head got cut off?” Perry asked.

Dad froze. “I got better.” He shrugged.

Perry scoffed and shook his head.

“Listen,” Mom said, turning to Perry. “You just tell us if Chemestro’s bullying is too much to handle. Your dad and I will step in and take care of business. Paladin and Glamour girl could use some fresh air.”

“I second that!” Dad banged the table.

“Like I said it’s not bullying if he’s a nemesis and…” Perry scowled as his brain caught up. “And you don’t need to use my problems as an excuse to go out on a date!”

“Busted!” Dad said, grinning at Mom, who at least had the decency to blush.

“But seriously, just say the word and they’ll never find his body.” Dad said, turning his attention back to Perry.

“Darryl!” Mom shouted, reaching across the table to whap him.

“I’m just saying,” Dad said, holding his hands up.

“Thanks for the offer,” Perry said. “But I don’t think murder is on the table just yet.”

“So what are you gonna do next?” Dad asked.

“I guess I’m gonna visit Nexus and do some paperwork,” Perry said. “…Then I’m gonna fight dirty.”

“Good plan,” Dad said. “Escalating things has always worked out for me in the end.”

“Darryl,” Mom said, eyeballing the hawknosed professor.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? What about that time with the jewels of Sraknoz? You said there was no risk of…”

Perry zoned out, focusing on his pizza as Mom continued laying into Dad.

Mmm…pepperoni pineapple.

“And then none of the amazon women had a place to stay!”

“I told you I could’ve kept them in my lab.”

“I think you know why I’m not gonna let you do that!”

Oh, this crust is good. Chewy AND crunchy.

“…Which was when the entire floating empire of Sraknoz came crashing down around our ears! billions of tons of stone falling out of the sky!” Mom continued as Perry finished off the rest of his meal.

“I got it, I got it, I won’t escalate things any more, dear.” Dad said, giving Perry a wink.

“Don’t wink at me. I’m no longer amused by this sketch comedy of yours. Be a responsible adult for once.” Perry said, picking up the plates and heading to the sink.

Dad’s face was genuinely hurt for the first time since Mom had started berating him.

Perry winked.

Perry finished up the dishes and headed out for his lair, arriving just before it got dark.

Yes. Darkness. The perfect mood to do something underhanded.

When Perry got to the bottom of the stairs leading to his secretive lab, he walked into a wall of arcade sound and bright lights.

Blinking several times, Perry gradually recognized Heather’s favorite VR boxing game in the corner of the lab, completely at odds with the rest of his setup, with it’s bright lights and loud punching noises.

“EEK!” Hardcase flinched away, her cutesy fox avatar doing the same on the big-screen on the outside of the pods, while Heather’s enormous avatar pummeled her from above, subjecting Hardcase to discombobulating blasts of air from the jets.

Perry opened his mouth and thought about telling them off, but decided to do it later after they’d had their fun.

Besides, they were completely unable to perceive the world around them, and that worked out well for Perry.

Perry whipped up another scrying spell-frame in short order, poured a little water into the vial with Chemestro’s bloody q-tip, then shook it up until the blood had all come out of the cotton.

He then poured it into the new spellframe, diluted it with a ton more water, until it was impossible to tell if there had ever been blood in the mixture.

Spendthrift don’t fail me now, Perry thought, switching the spell-frame on.

LetsspyonHeather.EXE

The spell frame looked a bit like a kitchenaid mixer as it began pouring water into the bowl and painting the sky giant’s cornea edges with words in the creature’s ancient language, activating the Sky Giant’s Essence.

A slightly tinny chanting emanated as the spell-frame added the highly diluted blood to the bowl, giving the Giant’s visual Essence something to adhere to.

A moment later, the ritual was done and the mixer-looking robot pulled itself away, revealing the bowl in its entirety.

Giving Perry a damn good view of…blackness.

Well, that’s not cool, Perry thought, wheeling the spellframe carefully over to a corner and locking it in place before bolting a camera onto the spellframe, recording the bowl and live streaming it to a website that Perry could tap into whenever he wanted to check in on Chemestro.

I mean, assuming it’s not busted or simply too little blood to work with. It had to be doing something, otherwise, the water would still look like water, and not black.

Frowning, Perry went to his bookshelf, grabbed mom’s spellbook and looked up the scrying spell to see if he could figure out what was going on.

He found what he was looking for in the counter scrying section, which asserted that anyone trying to scry on them using these defensive techniques would only stare into an ‘abyss of darkness’.

“Shit. He knows I use magic,” Perry muttered, clapping the book closed. I suppose giant floating swords are a bit of a giveaway.

“What’s up?” Heather said, panting as she walked up behind him, wearing gym clothes and a towel over her shoulder.

“Chemestro pisses me off.” Perry said, turning to face Heather and her clinger-on. Hardcase was standing beside and a bit behind Heather, her eyes a bit watery, like she had been on the verge of crying for the last twenty minutes.

Which is believable, Perry thought, glancing over at the arcade game. Hardcase had no idea what she was getting into, agreeing to play a competitive game with Heather.

“Where’d you get that?” Perry asked, nodding towards the arcade game.

“There was a minor wall-breach and the arcade got smashed, me and Hardcase were doing search and rescue, and the machine was only slightly destroyed. So Hardcase patched it up for me.”

“Did you ask the owner?”

“Yeah, he didn’t care, he was insured.”

At least they didn’t steal it.

“Follow up question,” Perry said. “What the heck is it doing in my lab and not the rec room!?”

“Ceilings aren’t high enough.” Heather shrugged, tossing her towel and civvies to Sophie, catching the angel in the chest as she passed by with a bucket full of cleaning supplies. “Wash that for me, will you?”

“Ack, um-Okay!” Sophie said. “Hardcase, can I take your towel too?”

“Don’t tell my angel what to do.” Perry said, frowning. “Go get your own angel.”

“It’s fine,” Heather waved it off. “She likes it.”

“No she doesn’t.”

“Actually, I do.” Sophie interjected quietly. “Nothing gives me more pleasure than-“

“Being helpful,” Perry said, rubbing his temples. “If I make the ceiling higher in the rec room, will you move the game and consult me in the future before moving stuff into the lab?”

“Hmm…throw in a shower room and you got yourself a deal.”

Perry’s eyes narrowed.

Heather’s eyes narrowed.

I shouldn’t have to bargain for control over the lair that I BUILT, Perry thought, scowling. Then again, they were a team, and he had to have some kind of concession to Heather’s presence.

And If I get a verbal agreement recorded, it could help for later. He was also planning on making the locker room and shower eventually, so he wasn’t losing much there.

Yeah, I think this is a decent deal. Assuming I can enforce it.

“…Are you guys fighting?” Hardcase said, looking up at the two of them with glistening eyes, her arms tight to her chest.

“Just establishing dominance.” Heather said, patting Hardcase on the head.

“You little punk,” Perry said. “You got a deal. I’ll raise the ceiling and add a shower room, and you will promise not to bring things into the lab without permission.”

“Deal.”

Perry stretched out his hand, and Heather took it.

He squeezed.

She squeezed harder.

Perry cranked it up.

Heather’s arm bulged with muscle, crushing his palm.

“Ow, dangit, I give!” Perry said, letting go.

“You lose via power-abuse,” Perry said, rubbing his hand.

“I don’t know if you realized this, but you were squeezing hard enough to break my hand if I hadn’t.” Heather replied.

Perry’s brows raised. Really? It didn’t feel that way. It kinda made sense though. His Body stat was starting to snowball, with 21.5% faster recovery, durability and strength. He was putting on muscle fast now that he was dedicating a couple hours a day to working out. All of that combined to more than the sum of its parts.

“If you’d used that kind of power on Hardcase you would’ve crushed the poor thing,” Heather said, grabbing the Tinker’s tiny hand and overlaying it over her own, demonstrating the disparity in size.

“It wouldn’t have been necessary because Hardcase is cool, unlike yourself.”

“Pfff. Come on, let’s get out of here before the brute tries to hurt women again.” Heather said, steering the stammering Hardcase away.

“You have powers, and – hey, you hurt ME!” Perry said, pointing to his hand.

“Get started on that shower room!” Heather called over her shoulder with a mischievous grin.

That was fun.

“It’s always nice to see young people expressing their love for each other.” Sophie said once they were alone. “Whatever form that takes.”

“There’s a clogged toilet in room 215,” Perry said, pulling out his keys.

The sex angel pouted a moment before snatching the keys out of his hand and sashaying off, somehow managing to make overalls and a bucket full of grimy tools look good.

Once Perry was alone, he was able to relax and plan out his next steps.

He grabbed one of the suits earmarked for Locust, switched off the failsafes and dialed in the size with a ratchet before slotting in new spell-frames. It only took a few minutes before Perry came to the horrifying realization that a huge portion of his spell-discs were still in the suit that had fallen over the side of the wall.

I need to find those discs, Perry thought, pulling out his phone and checking the tides. He could make new ones, but if the old ones got into the hands of someone with any level of competence…Perry could be in big trouble.

******

“What have we here, bro?” Terminal Velocity said, nudging the half-buried suit of power armor.

“Dude, that’s Paradox’s design!” Maximum Overdrive said.

“Who?”

“Umm…I’m not sure.”

“Wait, don’t we hate that guy?”

“Oh, right!”

“So is he dead or something?” Terminal velocity asked, nudging the suit again with the toe of his armor.

“One way to find out,” Maximum Overdrive said, leveling his blaster at the suit.

WOMP.

The high-tech buzz of a plasma bolt thrummed as it shot through the air, ricocheted off the inert power armor and caught his brother in the groin, propelling him backwards in the sand.

“Dude, that was awesome!” Terminal velocity said, sitting up.

The two high-fived.