The rest of the day passed in a blur. We spent the time talking to Alyssa, who told us stories about her time growing up with Amelia, Alexander, and (though she rarely mentioned him at length) Paul, Callie's dad. She avoided mentioning Midknight as much as possible, though she talked enough about his twin that he came up incidentally a few times.

She also talked at length about Piper, Jessie's mom, and how they knew each other. It turned out that Alyssa's family were old Valen money, as were Piper's. The two of them grew up going to the same social functions and had become fast friends. She'd met Amelia and the twins fairly young as well, but she'd gotten to know them through the Unity, rather than the older families I hadn't even known existed in Valen.

Piper hadn't really been interested in joining the Unity as a hero, and had gone through intake and gone into the private sector, and option that had been mentioned when I'd tested my own powers so long ago, but one I'd never considered. Despite their different paths the two had remained friends for most of their lives, even if Alyssa kept her two social circles mostly separate.

By the time night fell Jessie was enjoying talking to her old mentor so much that she'd decided to stick around, and most of the others did the same, wanting to see the Druid's Grove at night, but Callie and I decided to go our own way, since my girlfriend had somewhere she was planning to be tonight. We said our goodbye's to the others and then suited up, taking the bus downtown.

"So." I said as we lounged on the bus bench. "Where is this mysterious destination, and exactly why are we heading there? Are you going to let me in on the plan? Or am I just following along? Not that I mind in either case. I did tell you that you should do more selfish stuff that you wanted to do, and this feels like it might qualify." I kept my tone teasing so she didn't take my probing as some kind of complaint, I was sure I'd be amused by whatever she had planned, based on the grin from the day before.

Luckily, she didn't take it that way at all, simply grinning at me. "Oh, definitely selfish. We're heading to the Shuffle Masquerade. I don't think you'd ever been. It's the Queen of Hearts' biggest earner. A dance club run by her most influential lieutenants. A couple of triplets named Calamity, Disaster, and Despair. They're all G-rankers, and they've been a constant annoyance for pretty much the entire time I've been an Ascendant."

I chuckled darkly. "So we're going to start some trouble then? I'm figuring attacking without provocation is a no-go, but it should be easy enough to act up a bit and bait them into a fight. Assuming the Queen isn't going to get involved? We have literally no shot at beating an F-ranker, especially not one with probably decades of experience under her belt." I was down for a little mayhem, assuming we didn't take it too far, that was the nature of the relationship between heroes and villains, but I wasn't going to get my ass kicked just to amuse Callie.

The shake of her head was a relief. "We won't need to.. As long as we don't take it too far she won't get involved. The Queen is tough, but she doesn't cross Stella lightly, not to mention we're members of the main branch. The mortals may be cut off, but you can bet your ass that the bigger gangs here have connections in the capital, and there's no way they didn't clock us showing up. It's going to be just us and them, especially since it'll be two on three. If mommy has to save their bony asses it'll ruin their rep, and you know how much that means to an Ascendant."

I had to concede that. Strength was a big deal for people like us. Losing was fine, but getting humiliated could seriously fuck up your future. Things like the tournament were opportunities, but also dangers, and picking the fight in their center of power would make that even more effective. I shrugged, as long as we had a legit reason I didn't mind starting a bar fight. From the sound of it these girls hated Callie, so I wasn't too worried that they wouldn't be willing to oblige our need for them to mess with us.

"Alright." I said. "I'm down for a night out with a few punches thrown. I could use some more info though. What exactly did these three do to you, and what are their powers. You said they're the Queen's daughters? They don't have her ability do they?" The Queen might not be at Stella's level, but she was a genuinely terrifying person for anyone below F-rank. Her ability leaned more toward quantity than quality in that way, but from the research I'd done, she was the kind of person who would have conquered this whole fucking city if this wasn't a Unity planet.

Callie just laughed. "Gods no. They wish. They have can imbue other people with powerful energy. Calamity can imbue strength, Disaster grace, and Despair induces a sort of crazy battle confidence that increases the efficiency of Skills. They wouldn't be quite so dangerous, but they're glued to each other almost all the time, and when they get into fights they all stack their powers across all three of them. It's an annoying combination, especially since as triplets they're freakishly good at communicating in combat."

That I wasn't worried about. However good their natural rapport was, I was sure that we were better after our training. I had to ask the obvious though. "Are they heart touched? I know she only gets a certain amount, but they're her daughters, so I figure there's a solid chance they were selected." The Queen's ability was terrifying, known and feared throughout the whole damn city. We'd avoided her when I was here last. We didn't need to be scared of the heart touched now, even if they were, but still, it would be nice to know. The chosen of the Queen of Hearts were known and feared for a reason.

The Queen's ability wasn't a secret, though most people who were lower ranked didn't know it for the simple reason that the Unity didn't want to cause a panic. Her power was called Touch of the Heart. The Queen could literally reach into a willing target's chest and touch their heart. When the Queen touched a person's heart, they became stronger, slightly upgrading their ability at the cost of allowing the Queen influence over them. She left a mark on them that allowed her access at any time.

Heart touched were the eyes and ears of the Queen of Hearts, as well as being her hands in the world. She could alter their thoughts and goals and sense them at all times, some people even claimed she could draw power from them. Last I'd heard she could make a hundred of them at F-rank, so the spots were exclusive, but I had no doubt that her daughters would be on the list if there were any available slots.

Callie grimaced. "Yeah. All three of them. The upgrade makes their abilities much more effective, and since each of them gets it the stacking effect amplifies the difference. They aren't at a level we'll have trouble with though. They have a lot of raw power, and I've never been able to take them head on, but that was back when I lived here. Some of the people we've seen in Rajak could turn them inside out, and we can beat most of those by now. This shouldn't be a problem."

She bit her lip, seeming to be talking herself out of the plan more than me into it. Her eyes swam with indecision. "I...I guess it is a bit reckless. If you don't want to do this that's fine. We can do a patrol or something. The more I think about it the less of a good idea this sounds like." She nodded after a second. "Yeah, let's ju-" I cut her off with a kiss, the bottom of my mask opening the same way it did when I needed to eat. I made a note of that trick for later.

When I pulled back, I left the mask open so she could see me grinning. "Nope." I said firmly. She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "No dice. This sounds like fun, and I insist we go. If things go wrong we can figure it out. The Queen won't kill us anyway, so the stakes aren't that high. We can escape a few suped up G-rankers if needed. You want to do this, I can tell, and if you want it I'm going to make it happen. If it's stupid all the better. You're making me look bad with all your maturity and forward thinking." I put on a faux reprimanding tone. "I'm sick of it."

She giggled at my absurdity, narrowing her eyes a bit in contemplation as she decided whether or not to fight me on this. Finally she just sighed and leaned against me. "Ok, you're right. There isn't too much room for real trouble. And I really hate those three. Especially Disaster. She's been a pain in my ass for literal years. The triplets got their ability around the same time I did, and Disaster decided she was going to be my nemesis. She's sent more than a few of her goon squads after me."

I just shrugged. "Just tell me what to do. Like I said, I'm not really down to attack someone for no reason or anything, but since you said they're bound to start shit if we piss them off I have no problem running my mouth a bit." She smiled up at me softly, and we both jumped a bit as the bus pulled to a stop, too distracted by each other to notice we were coming to our destination.

As we climbed off the bus, I looked around at the neighborhood we were in, trying to get a feel for the place. It was nice. Upscale in a downtown hotspot kind of way. The Shuffle Masquerade was a gorgeous black paneled building that looked more like an opera house than a nightclub. There was a line outside, a bouncer, and I could hear music thumping from inside though. Not to mention the lights strobing through the cracks and crevices. Between panels and through thin slits of unobscured windows I saw multicolored neon strobing piercing out into the evening air.

Callie saw me staring and smiled. "Ah, wow I guess this is your first nightclub huh? I didn't even consider that. You going to be ok?" I nodded decisively and she pulled me into a hug. "Now how did I know you would say that? Just stick close, I'll help you navigate, and if you start to get overwhelmed tell me. We can always leave if you're uncomfortable." She winked up at me. "I want my guy to be happy, call me selfish."

I squeezed her back with a chuckle. "I'm fine. This isn't my scene, but being basically invincible in Valen helps. At least aside from a few threats. Whatever you need, I'm down for." I stepped away from her, formally offering my elbow. "Now, if you might accompany me inside milady. I believe we have some trouble to start. We should scope out the club to see how we can get some attention without being dicks about it."

That got a laugh from Callie. "Fair enough. We aren't just going to punch a civvie or something, we'll need to come up with a place." She took my arm, and we headed for the door. As we got in line, I took a deep breath. Going in here was going to be more stressful than I was letting on, but I was happy to do it. This was Callie's night, and I'd make sure she had fun. Besides, this sounded like it might be a good fight, so I was probably going to enjoy myself too.