Sometimes Léon thought he deserved a slap in the face.

He knew there was a way out; he felt it. His hands were tied behind his back, his ankles bound with such force he couldn't feel his feet anymore, and the gag in his mouth was already a foul-tasting, wool-made extension of his tongue. To top things off, he was hung upside down. Had been... for quite some time.

But Léon Dickens, aka 'Reality Warp,' had been in worse situations. He had lived through a bomb explosion, four sinking ships, at least two barbarian invasions, and more bank robberies than he could count. The money he raked in, plus what he stole from those dirty-rich New-Continentians, was all there, invested in his state-of-the-art graphene-nanofiber uniform.

So, yeah—he should have known how to escape from a few ropes.

Still, one thing distracted him from his plans of freedom. His damned cell phone. Léon's face burned, and the throbbing knot above his privates tightened with every passing moment, pulsating as his muscles tensed.

The man in front of Léon frowned. He sat on a plasmetallic chair, balancing on its two back legs and holding a plastipaper box of sashimi in one hand and a comic book in the other.

"Won't you answer your phone?" he asked. His voice, powerful and clear, echoed inside the empty warehouse. From a distance came the horn of a cargo ship; closer, two cats fought for a slice of raw synthetic fish. "Ah. Right. Hands tied and all that."

Léon glared at him. Cotton Candy, one of the strongest heroes in the Heroic League, was never one to blindly follow orders—or so Léon thought at the time—so it was a mystery why he was there, keeping an eye on him instead of being beside The Mayor.

Shit. What would Satina and the others do without him? Would they launch the mission anyway?

His thoughts were washed away again as his ringtone restarted. With it, the hum and the vibrations were back... fucking vibrations!

Goosebumps spread over his arms, and for the tenth time, he tried to free his hands, pulling and pushing. It was useless. He didn't have the strength nor, maybe, the will to do it.

Well, in a pocketless uniform, where exactly should a supervillain keep their phone?

Yeah.

"I don't understand why someone would wear trousers as tight as yours," Cotton Candy said.

Léon glowered at his captor. Cotton was caressing his fluffy pink hair with the back of his hand. Against his black skin, the white-and-pink uniform seemed even more vibrant. He fished a slice of salmon from the plastipaper box, using equally pink chopsticks.

"I'd hate to hurt your feelings, but... I mean, it's not only awkward, considering you hardly have anything to show." He aimed his cutlery at Léon's behind. "But it must also be terribly uncomfortable for you. To have everything, you know... packed like that." He sighed and shrugged, slurping a bit of soda from his pink plastipaper cup.

"Mmmtghfoomfh," Léon said.

"Well, it doesn't change the fact that things can't be unseen, Warp. But you're a villain after all, right? That's what villains do, I suppose. Traumatize people. And let me tell you, you're doing a wonderful job." He dropped his comic book on his lap and threw a pointed look at Léon. "Trauma is real."

Léon rolled his eyes. "Mmontmmhtisop!"

"Of course, Warp. Tell you what, let me explain to you our twelve-step de-villainization program—"

An explosion broke his phrase in half and did the same with the wall on the opposite side of the room. Smoke and debris spilled inside as tongues of fire licked nearby columns. The sound of steps over loose rubble reached his ears as a group approached.

Cotton Candy furrowed his brow, readying his Cotton Cannon. "What the f—"

A roar echoed inside the warehouse. Eyes wide, Cotton staggered as a massive shadow clipped the light that pierced through the smoke. "Santa Madrecita," he whispered.

"Well, look who we meet again," a woman said, walking through the dense smoke. As she stepped out of it, Bureau Assassin unrolled her two whips and cracked them on the floor. Her high-heeled, shocking-blue boots crushed the debris as she approached. "Without the League here, we're gonna squash you, Cotton."

Cotton charged his weapon and chuckled. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Can I try too? Oh, hello!" another voice said, its owner trailing behind Bureau. The second woman was pale, lanky, and short, with big, blue, and unblinking eyes. Her bald head seemed to shimmer with the glitter in her fascinator.

"Of course you can help, Parfait." Bureau whisked her whips, and they both snapped and curled around Cotton's neck. "But let me make the first move." She tugged at them, bringing Cotton Candy down with a dull thud. As Bureau paraded around the fallen man with a certain arrogance, her rust-colored curls bobbed. Dogs barked outside, almost as if translating the violence in her brown eyes.

"Not so fast." Cotton gripped the rough leather of Bureau's whip while his other hand clasped her ankle. He furrowed his eyebrows. From the palms of his hands gurgled a dense, pink foam that spread over the leather of both the whip and the woman's high-heeled boots.

Bureau gasped as bubblegum-pink foam covered her foot and her entire leg. "Dude, these boots are real leather. Parfait, help!" Bureau's whips were disintegrating under Cotton Candy's fingers. Around her paralyzed leg, the burning effervescence was eating up the blue fabric, showing the black skin under her uniform.

Cotton glared at Parfait. "You better help this imbecile, baldie. Otherwise, she won't be needing another pair of boots." He got up and threw aside the remainings of Bureau's whips.

Parfait ran to Bureau, fishing a golden scissor from her golden backpack.

"Please stand down and surrender." Cotton Candy nursed the sore skin of his neck. "The rest of the Heroic League already knows you're here." He looked around, and his eyes set on the fallen plastipaper box of sashimi. "Aw, man," he mumbled. "Y'all know how expensive this shit is? I'm glad you'll all be taken care of when The Mayor gets here."

Another voice joined in, "You forgot someone, mate."

Grizzly Bear growled from the top of his six-and-a-half-feet. He flexed his muscles while, one by one, the tribal tattoos on his arms glowed a bright green. Against the light, the black leather of his uniform showed the silhouette of the muscles underneath. He used those same old drawstring pants and the tight tank top ripped by claw marks, the spiked bracelets missing a few spikes, and the dusty and bloodied sleeveless overcoat. Still, there was pure strength and sovereignty in him.

Bear looked to the side to see Parfait and Bureau cutting through Cotton Candy's pink foam. His eyes then locked on Léon, and a crease formed between his eyebrows. "Release him," he growled.

Léon's heart ached. He wanted nothing more than to be embraced by him and feel safe against his warm body, but... would he ever feel safe again after everything that had happened between them?

"You're late," Bureau said with a scowl. Léon wasn't the only one who was hurt by Bear's actions, of course. At Bureau's side, Parfait stuffed the golden scissor inside her backpack.

"Sorry," Bear answered, not taking his eyes off of Léon. "Parfait's explosion started a fire outside, and I was trying to put it out when guard dogs appeared. Took me a while to lock them in one of those containers without hurting them."

"Shouldn't you be dead or something?" Cotton Candy barked, pure fury in his eyes. "Not that I'm sad. Brash and I will enjoy making you pay for what you did to Celena." Cotton reached for his weapon and pulled the security latch. "You know the drill, Rob. You are under arrest. And by The Mayor's orders, Reality Warp is under the Heroic League's protection to be devilainized and incorporated in our ranks. Stand down or—"

Léon had never seen Bear move as fast as he did that moment. Grizzly Bear arched his back and dashed towards Cotton Candy, aiming a punch square in his face. The following punches, all too fast to count, pushed Cotton with such force he fell backward and slid a few meters, knocked out. Bureau, Parfait, and Léon raised their eyebrows, moving their gazes to Bear. He had a beet-red face, furrowed brows, and a body language Léon had seen only once before, violent and primal.

"Warp will never be part of the Heroic League," Bear growled. The intense green from his tattoos shone brighter, contrasting with the rich brown of his skin. Bear took a deep breath, going back to his composed self. He cracked his knuckles and cleared his throat. Then, he faced Léon. "Are you okay?"

His deep silky voice licked Léon's ears; his heart raced. Of course he wasn't okay. The powers inside Léon still swirled with rage, barely controlled... and it was Bear's fault.

Bureau cut in, "We should get out of here before the police or the League arrives."

Grizzly Bear nodded, walking towards Léon. He held him in his arms as Parfait untied his ankles and hands. Léon closed his eyes, breathing in that well-known smell of wet soil and the wooden fragrance of Bear's perfume.

"How does it feel like being a superhero again, Bear? Saving people and all?" Parfait asked, a broad smile stretching her doll-like lips.

Léon needed a moment to regain his balance, then another to yank the sock out of his mouth. He was hoping his team could interpret his flushed cheeks as the result of being tied upside down, nothing else. "We are superheroes, Fait. We steal from rich people to give to our poor selves." The ringtone restarted. "Ahhh-ah-ahh, shit," Léon whispered. He hid behind Parfait and fished his phone out.

"What happened, Warp?" Parfait asked, looking over her shoulder.

Instead of answering, Léon gently pushed her face forward. "Don't look, Fait. Seriously." His thoughts circled around the word trauma.

"Why?" she asked.

Bear answered in Léon's place. "Cotton Candy hit him in his weak spot."

"Oh, my! Are you bleeding?" Parfait asked, fidgeting with the straps of her backpack.

"If he is, it's not blood," Bear whispered.

Léon threw a hard punch on his shoulder. "Shut up." As much as he didn't want to, the ends of his lips curled up.

Bear laughed. He took his sleeveless overcoat off and placed it around Léon's shoulders, pointing towards the belt. "There. Use it," he whispered in a playful tone, only for him to hear. His hand lingered on Léon's shoulder for a moment as he brushed a finger on his long brown locks. His expression softened. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Léon's breathing caught in his throat. He moved his eyes aside and brushed Bear's hand away. He opened his lips to answer, but before he could say anything, the double doors burst open. Grenades flew into the room, spitting a white, dense smoke that made Léon's eyes water.

Bureau glanced around. "We still have our improvised entrance, right?"

A group of shadows approached the hole in the wall, guns in hand.

"No, we don't. Dammit! Exits. What did we plan for the exits?" Bureau insisted.

A dozen trails of thin red lights cut through the smoke, drawing red dots on their bodies.

"Weapons on the floor, hands where I can see them!" a woman shouted. "You're surrounded, surrender yourselves, or we're gonna open fire."

Bureau took a step back. "I won't go back to prison. I'd rather die, Warp. Do something!"

Tension built in his shoulders while Léon stretched a hand to the side. He shouldn't do this. It was too dangerous.

"I'll repeat. Drop your weapons and raise your hands or...."

But what other choice did he have? His powers flushed down to his fingertips, and the pain returned to his left temple... but a hand rested on his shoulder, stopping him with a firm squeeze.

With red dots dancing on his head and chest, Grizzly Bear raised his hands and took a step forward, ignoring Warp and Bureau's questions. "Parfait," he said, not looking back. "I'm counting on you. Use the big ones. Sapphi won't mind."

Parfait's smile turned wicked. Her big blue eyes narrowed into lines of amusement and satisfaction as she slipped her hands into her pockets and pulled two golden marbles from them.

***

Outside the warehouse, the sky covering New Continent was sapphire blue, spotted by the usual black satellites and ozone layer fortifiers. In a park, miles away from the Heroic League's warehouse, a little girl played with her toys. Her Parfait action figure had just punched the jaw of a Tyrannosaurus when a massive gust of golden glitter swept the entire neighborhood. Her hair danced and whisked in the gale, as did the tire swing behind her. She raised her impressed little eyes to the sky, as a monstrous cloud of golden smoke formed a massive heart above the buildings.

When it dissipated, the little girl smiled.

Hours later, The Mayor entered the trashed warehouse, avoiding contact with the golden statues that the police force had become. He sighed, running a hand through his thin white hair. His eyes studied the scene until he spotted the box of sashimi dropped on the floor.

"Sir, shall we send a search party after them?" Corporal Otho asked.

The Mayor considered his words for a moment. He squatted, raised the golden box, and found a few pieces of sashimi inside, still intact.

"No, Otho, we shan't. All this," he said, swirling a finger to show the warehouse, "just confirmed us one thing: Grizzly Bear and Fire Sapphire are still alive." The Mayor beamed. He smelled the raw fish, threw it into his mouth, then raised to his feet, munching. "And we just found them."

The Mayor completed, "The Bear season just opened." He smirked. "Let's aim for his head."