Patreon Side Story # 14: The Hero Guild: Origins (Pt. 1 of 3)

--- Vigilance ---

“Why are we doing this?” Hugh asked, adjusting his blue suit.

“Because it’s the twenty year anniversary for the guild.” Aurora answered, making sure her own white suit and mask were on right. “We have to do something, and this is the most watched talk show right now.”

“I get that, but why do we have to dress up in these… monkey suits.” Hugh groaned. “Can’t I just wear my power armor?”

“I know you’ve worn a suit before. Quit making a big deal about it.” He told the man, straightening his own black suit out while making sure his tieless collar completely covered his mask’s neck lining.

“V you can only say that because your helmet looks good with a suit.” Hugh scoffed, trying to make his bulky helmet go with his fitted suit. “Seriously, only you are vain enough to make sure their costume can adjust to formal wear.”

“I am not the only one who makes sure they’re prepared for anything.” He argued, knowing he could name at least half a dozen-

“You’re kids don’t count, you helped them design their outfits.” Hugh shot down.

“I was talking about Aurora.” He lied, gesturing to the only member of their trio who hadn’t needed to change their costume for the evening.

“To be fair, I did steal the original white suit from you.” Aurora chuckled.

“Good thing too, I’d hate to see how you’d make a hoodie and shorts work for this.” Hugh told her, giving her a once over. “Seriously, did you change anything about your costume for this?”

“She’s wearing a red rose on her suit… Can you change it to blue?” He asked. “It’ll actually match your eyes rather than contrasting.”

“Ooh, good point.” Aurora blinked her glowing eyes before changing the rose’s color.

“As many of you know today marks the twenty year anniversary of the Heroes’ guild.” The host called out suddenly audible from their space on the stage. “And today we have three very special guests to celebrate that anniversary.”

“That’s our cue.” Aurora reminded them before stepping into the light and taking it over in a way that made things significantly easier for both Hugh and him.

“We have the founders of the guild themselves, Aurora, Vigilance, and The Iron Guardian!” The host introduced, earning them an applause from the audience as they made their way to their seats on the stage. The entire affair made his skin crawl in an uncomfortable way that reminded him why he stuck to the shadows in his professional life. A feeling he knew hugh shared with him despite the two of them doing this kind of thing for half of their lives at this point.

“It is so good to have you three here.” The host told them with a smile he could read as genuine. (Though given how everyone is going to ditch her competitors for her today, I suppose that’d make sense.)

“And I know I speak for all of us when I say it’s good to be here.” Aurora said, telling the truth for herself while lying for him and Hugh. Once more proving herself the most sociable of their trio.

“Well, then how about we get right into it then?” Their host asked, before a highlight reel began to play on the nearby screens. “Twenty years that’s quite an achievement in any field, let alone one as dangerous as what you’ve all faced over the years. From the Asylum of old, to numerous Creeps and Supervillains, or even the government themselves.”

He counted himself lucky that the host didn’t mention any of the real threats by name, because while he’d fought them and would fight them as many times as it took to stop them, that didn’t change the fact that he had enough unpleasant memories to not want them dragged back into the light.

From beside him Aurora took his hand and Hugh gently tapped their elbows together, both knowing his… issues were more prominent than theirs. Something he’d never figured out if it was because of how dark his cases tended to be or because their Deviant psychologies let the bad memories flow off of them easier. (Or you could just be weaker than them.)

“Still, while the three of you have definitely made the biggest waves together, that doesn’t change the fact that the three of you also chose to become heroes on your own without any support during the height of the Rift Riots.” The host continued, before asking. “I’m sure even after all this time people still wonder what pushed you to be the first heroes to step into the light.”

“Technically, we weren’t.” He forced himself to answer, if not to face his own issues than to make sure the fallen were given credit. “We were just the first to come together. There were many great heroes before us, just as there have been many great heroes after us.”

The host nodded, her sympathy more for show than in understanding. “True, though that doesn’t keep us from wondering what led you all to become heroes. A question that while asked of every hero in the guild at one point or another, has never been asked quite as many times as it has been with you, Vigilance. Why don’t you tell us what was going through your head when you became not just one of the first heroes, but arguably the first non-Deviant hero?”

It was a question he’d been asked many times, and one he’d answered just as many, if with his usual vagueness about the circumstances.

The same vagueness he’d answer with once more.

“When I was young I watched… monsters do… unspeakable things…”

---

“Baby I, I need you to stay here… No matter what happens I need you to stay here. Promise me.” His mother begged, as she sat him in the closet.

“I pwomise mama…” He told her, not quite understanding what was going on.

His mother gave him a sad smile as she cupped his cheek before kissing his forehead. “No matter what happens, remember I love you baby.”

With her last words spoken, his mother hid him away before pretending to pack a bag in a rush even as the front door of their home was kicked open.

---

Aurora’s hand squeezed his, drawing him out of his first real memory.

“I was powerless to stop it back then, but… When the riots started, the monsters came out of hiding… And seeing someone else in a similar position…”

---

There was an explosion on the other side of the street as the crowd ran in fear from the rampaging Deviant, all of them powerless to do anything in the face of such inhuman power.

He ran with the crowd, trying to keep up, but found himself falling short as he fell to the ground. The crowd trampling him for showing too much weakness in the face of a threat to them all, less cruelty and more survival instinct demanding he and anyone else too weak to run be left to the slaughter.

As he laid on the ground his eyes caught sight of something through the stampede of the masses. A woman being dragged into an alley as one of the numerous gangs took advantage of the chaos decided to claim yet another innocent victim.

It was a shameful thing, but… Given how confident they were acting in the middle of a Deviant attack, they likely worked for the attacking Deviant.

Meaning there was little he could actually do to stop them…

But…

A small child called out, “Mama!”

---

“At which point I realized something important…”

---

He forced himself back onto his feet, refusing to let the crowd force him back to the ground as he instead pushed past everyone, past his own pain, and perhaps past his own sanity as he forced his way to the alley.

Looking in he found half a dozen men surrounding the woman who tried to keep quiet even as they tore her clothes and tears ran down her face, as she did everything to not draw her child into a nightmare she knew she would not survive.

---

“The monsters would only stop if someone made them.” He met their host’s eyes. “So I did.”

---

His fist slammed into the thugs face as he set upon the gang seeking to take advantage of the riots to hurt people.

The moment of surprise was enough to knock one of the thugs out, and shout, “Run!” at the woman they’d dragged into this alley.

It was not enough to keep him from taking a crowbar to his ribs.

Though that in itself wasn’t enough to keep him from continuing to fight until he was the last one standing. Even if with a limp and more than one broken bone.

---

“And I found that after stopping one monster…”

---

His fists slammed into the brick wall, the pain in his knuckles deadening as he took things a step further than his foster father ever had when teaching him how to box.

“Fuck!” He cursed, watching the blood drip from his knuckles as his mind drifted back to the mother and child he’d left at a clinic of overworked nurses who could do little to help given how stretched everything had become with the riots.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a flash of light, drawing his attention to the fire and smoke continuing to rise through the air as riots grew ever worse.

---

“There was nothing preventing me from stopping the rest.”

---

He put the black ski mask on, knowing that if he somehow survived this, that he couldn’t let anyone know it was him to do this or else they’d burn his whole house down with him inside. But regardless of the consequences he couldn’t let things continue the way they had been. Not when he was apparently insane enough to try and do something about it.

---

“And with each monster I stopped…”

---

He slammed the thug’s head into the wall, knocking them unconscious before realizing the other had drawn their gun.

A crack tore through the air, as a bullet tore through his flesh.

---

“I learned…”

---

A crack tore through the air, as a bullet collided with the vest he’d stolen from one of the gangs.

Moving quickly he rushed the man and tackled him to the ground, before punching his face until the thug was knocked out.

Unfortunately, this left him open to the thug who slammed a two by four into his back.

---

“I improved…”

---

He caught the two by four and tore it out of the thug’s hand’s before using it to sweep the man’s legs out. At which point he stood with the board in hand, and slammed it down on the thug’s rib cage until he broke it across the gangster’s body.

A set of nearby doors opened, and a dozen men saw the carnage around him before rushing him to avenge their fallen comrades.

---

“Until I became the monster, the monster’s feared.”

---

A set of nearby doors opened, and a dozen men saw the carnage around him before he rushed them to avenge the fallen innocents.

The men ran, but they couldn’t run fast enough to escape.

---

Their host swallowed, face pale.

Aurora let out a near silent huff of amusement from beside him, always surprised by the fact that no matter how many times he gave that answer it always elicited the same response for those he told.

“And you say you can’t give a speech.” She whispered.

“R-right.” The host coughed, trying to regain their composure. “Well, by all accounts, while all three of you founded the guild, you Vigilance specifically are the one responsible for bringing the three of you together. Given your… reputation and methods I have to wonder what led you to deciding to go out and found your own team.”

Hugh laughed at something. “Anyone who thinks his ‘methods’ don’t include teamwork, clearly hasn’t seen how many Vigils there are.”

(Oh, he’s laughing at me. That tracks.)

“True.” The host smiled. “But as I said, while today you are probably most infamous for bringing heroes of various stripes together. Back then you were little more than an urban legend on your lonesome. What led you to deciding to form a team? The need for more… firepower in the face of greater Deviant threats?”

Given how his mask hid his eyes behind white lens he didn’t bother fighting his eye roll, (because of course I formed a team because I don’t have powers and needed them… assholes…)

It was arguably the most annoying question he got in these interviews, despite his twenty years as a hero. “If you must know, I formed the guild as a… response to the Tallman.”

“A response to his power, his rampage, or the aftermath of his assault on Asylum?” Their host pressed.

He considered it for a moment.

---

His eye twitched as he stared at the screen showing footage of ‘Samhain, The Tallman’s assault on Asylum as he rapidly moved between cities tearing apart their various bases.

“You stupid motherfucker! Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!” He screamed at the TV. “No you don’t because your stupid ass is clear proof why humanity needs contraceptives to protect the gene pool you stupid excuse of a broken condom on a drunken prom night!”

---

“Yes.” He nodded. “I realized that there were numerous problems exposed by the Tallman’s rampage and before his final attack on congress I had already begun searching the local region for the best heroes I could find.” He lied.

Back at the peak of the riots pretty much all Masks were deemed villains by the media, and given the chaos left in Sam’s wake he latched onto the first semi-heroic masks he found.

“It was during this time that I stumbled upon news reports of an Iron Guardian in New Haven City.” Which was barely an hour drive from his first base, thus making it very easy to pester the older man into joining up whether he wanted to or not.

“Yeah, still trying to figure out how you tracked me down all those years ago.” Hugh admitted with a shake of his head. “I mean, I’d gone out only a handful of times and only to deal with the serious threats.”

Which was code for he kept his head down around New Haven’s mafia problem, but stuck his neck out whenever there was a Creep invasion. Something that had bought him an amount of… leeway from the crime families due to not getting in their way while dealing with the things they didn’t want to.

“All I had to do was create an activity area based on your appearances, figure out your response time to narrow that down based on your early suit’s mobility. Then I scoured that area for people or locations with the means to acquire the materials necessary for your original suits. At which point I simply had to figure out who would be motivated enough to go out in a suit and pick a fight with monsters.” And while all of that was true, he’d also spent about week running to every Creep Bleed and evacing innocents out of the hot zone waiting for Hugh to show up to one. (Which is how I figured out his motive was a little girl in danger.)

“Yeah, and I tried that while knowing the answer and still couldn’t make a clean connection.” Hugh scoffed. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re psychic and just playing everyone.”

“That would be in character for him.” Aurora admitted, the habit of throwing a bit of doubt on his Non-Deviant status decades old even if completely unnecessary now that the secret was had been confirmed for years.

“Very true.” The host nodded along despite not knowing just how… mischievous all of the Vigils really were.

A fact hidden by their complete and utter bullshit reputation for professionalism that he was still surprised anyone actually believed. (Not that I’m going to correct any of them.)

“Still perhaps you can tell us about your first meeting, the one that would go on to create the foundation of the hero guild.” The host prompted them.

“I’ll admit I didn’t take having my identity outed so well.” Hugh began. (Completely understating what happened.)

---

He gave the outside of the body shop another once over, knowing that while the place was actually a chop shop for one of the local mafia families it was more importantly the place New Haven’s Iron Guardian was probably getting his metal for his suit. A conclusion he’d come to after realizing that the Guardian was smart enough to make sure that wherever he was getting his metal it would stay off the books such as in the case of a business with both legal and illegal incomes, where the income lines would be vague enough to let one or two choice parts slip through.

The fact that the Guardian had consistently disappeared in this area the last three times he’d followed the Mask as well as the fact that there were no other ‘metal’ sources within a mile left him fairly certain that he had his target cornered.

After picking the lock to the shop, he felt his hunch was further confirmed as he found someone working inside the shop despite it being far later than any sane person would be working. (Then again I suppose there’s a reason they call the acronym spells MAD.)

Moving with a silence he’d been honing since figuring out that fairly obvious fact that sneaking up on people and taking them down had far fewer risks than simply rushing into a group of twenty armed thugs, he snuck through the shop until he stood behind a large dark skinned man working on what was very clearly not a car.

Quietly hopping onto the hood of an actual car he watched the Deviant work on his armor with a skill and focus that went far beyond any mundane craftsman. Taking note of how the man moved and collected his tools, made adjustments to fine machinery, and other complex all without looking as the Guardian focused on what appeared to be a portable computer far more advanced than anything he’d seen outside of an arms dealing M.A.D.’s work.

Believing that he’d seen more than enough, he called out, “Well hello there.”

The Guardian jumped swinging a wrench through air and missing him by a decent distance. “Who the fuck are you?!”

“An interested party.” He answered, before taking an obvious look at the Guardian’s armor. “A very interested party.”

“Damn it.” The Guardian cursed before throwing a tarp over the suit of armor. “I don’t know who the fuck you are-”

“Vigilance.” He cut in.

The Guardian’s face scrunched up in confusion before shaking his head. “I don’t care, who the fuck you are. I don’t care why you came here. And I don’t want anything to do with all of this… costumed garbage you’re involved with.”

“Really?” He asked with exaggerated surprise. “Then why do you go out in that suit so much? Clearly you want to get involved with something.”

The Guardian grimaced. “Look, I don’t know who you’re working for, but I don’t want to get involved with the families. I’m not bothering you guys like the other masked idiots. I’m just dealing with the… the monsters that keep coming out and attacking everyone. That’s got to be bad for everyone’s business, right?”

“Mmm, yes and no.” He argued, deciding not to point out the other man’s real misconception just yet. (Need a better read on him.) “In reality the appearance of real live monsters has actually spiked drug and prostitution use. Sad fact of humanity, the worse off things are the harder we try to distract ourselves from our problems.”

It was part of the reason half his family turned into alcoholics when things got… difficult.

“So, what you want me to just leave those monsters rampaging… letting them kill people?” The Guardian growled, demonstrating that even if he was willing to compromise with criminals he at least partially deserved his title.

“No… Nothing quite like that.” He admitted. “I’m merely interested in the man inside the suit…” He gave the armor another once over. “As well as the suit itself.” (There’s a lot I could do with this kind of technology…)

“The suit isn’t for sell.” The Guardian shut him down.

“Oh, not even for say…” He briefly calculated how much he’d stolen from the families while trying to find the Guardian. “Two hundred thousand?”

The Guardian gagged.

“I mean, that’s what you’d make in roughly six, seven years, right?” He didn’t actually know how much a mechanic made, but he’d heard it was a decent blue collar job so hopefully he wasn’t too far off.

The Guardian took a deep breath before shaking his head. “I’m not selling the suit to the families. You, you guys have enough power.”

“People always want more power.” He scoffed. “I’ve found those in the criminal industry are never comfortable with what they have, even when they’re at the top of the dog pile.”

He gave the Guardian another look. “Half a mil.” It’d take him a bit to get that much, but if he dipped into his stash back home he could do it if he pushed himself for a couple weeks. “That’s a decade's pay before the month is done. Enough to move your entire family out of the families’ reach.”

The Guardian closed his eyes, clearly fighting with himself over his decision, his fists clenching and unclenching before shaking his head. “The answer is no. No. I won’t give you the suit.”

“And what will you do if the families go after your’s?” He asked, sliding off the car in case this point was taken as poorly as he was expecting. “After all, they don’t tend to take kindly to people telling them no. And your daughter… Take it from an orphan, you don’t want to leave her alone.”

“Don’t you dare talk about my family!” The Guardian roared, stepping into his face. “If you think this suit is a threat, you’ve got no idea what I can bring to the table if you fuckers touch them!”

He gave the Guardian an amused look. “Oh? And you’re willing to stand against the families? Just a moment ago you were all for avoiding the families’ attention.”

“Yeah, and that was before you threatened mine.” The Guardian warned him.

They had a stare off for a moment, each wondering if the other would break before he felt a smile on his face. “Fantastic. You’re even better than what I could hope for.”

“W-what?” The Guardian blinked, taking a step back.

“I’m going to be honest, I was thinking at best I would just be buying the suit off of you or paying you for all of this, but you really are a Guardian you know that?” He praised the man, taking his ski mask off to run a hand through his hair.

“W-what?” The Guardian repeated.

“You’re not willing to sell out, you’re willing to stand up to the families, and you aren’t even bringing your best yet.” He explained, clapping his hands together. “You’re just… You’re exactly what I need.”

“You’re, you’re not with the families?” The Guardian frowned, finally catching on.

“No, I’m not. I just needed to make sure you wouldn’t bend the knee to them when push came to shove.” He was desperate, but that didn’t mean he was stupidly desperate. (Yet.)

“Then the money, the, the things with my family…” The Guardian slowly put together.

“A test.” He confirmed, not bringing up how it was more a spur of the moment thing that the other man had handed to him. (Don’t think he’d appreciate that.)

The Guardian closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

And despite having spent almost two years fighting thugs and Deviants in back alleys, V still wasn’t quite prepared for the fist that broke his nose.

---

(To be fair to him though, I did deserve that.)

“But V is nothing if not… persistent and convincing when he wants to be.”

He couldn’t help but smirk behind his mask.

---

“You bought my fucking job!” The Iron Guardian hissed, forcing himself to stay quiet despite clearly wanting to scream.

“I didn’t buy your job.” He scoffed. “I… simply bought the place you work and am now paying you to hear me out instead of breaking my nose.”

“How did you even buy this place?” The Guardian asked. “It’s owned by the fucking Franchetti family!”

“Oh, I offered them twice what it's worth. Which is an amount they really needed after having a dozen of their local bases robbed and their drugs torched by a Masked Deviant, thus leaving them deep in debt with the Cartels since they can’t make the money back without any product to sell.” He explained with a shrug before giving the Guardian a smirk. “And they honestly thought they were conning me as some know nothing rich kid.” (You can take the kid out of the streets, but you can’t take the streets out of the kid.)

“You stole from the families?” The Guardian whispered, face pale.

“Not just them.” He confessed. “I’ve built up a fairly decent stash of cash robbing every gang I tear down. Though I do donate a lot of it anonymously to pay for the hospital bills of anyone caught up in the local Deviant attacks.”

The Guardian blinked. “So, when you offered to buy my suit…”

“Oh, that was an honest offer.” He nodded. “Though if we’re going to make this work I’m going to need a different suit from the one you’ve been using. Something built more for stealth if you can manage it.”

“I already told you the suit isn’t for sale.” The Guardian frowned, before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, I don’t know who you are-”

“Vigilance.” He interrupted once more. “Or Virgil if we’re going to be working together.”

“We’re not going to be working together.” The Guardian told him. “I don’t know what your deal is, but stealing from the families is a surefire way to get yourself killed, and I want nothing to do with it. I’m no thief.”

“That’s fine. After all, I’m not looking to hire a thief.” He assured the Guardian. “I’m looking to hire a hero.”

“A hero?” The Guardian scoffed before shaking his head. “I’m no hero.”

“You sure?” He asked, opening his suitcase before tossing a number of newspapers on the manager’s desk. “Because these clearly say otherwise.”

“These don’t know what they’re talking about.” The Guardian grimaced as he crumpled the papers up. “I’m not a hero. I only fight the monsters when they get close to my home, my wife’s job, or my daughter’s school. If they don’t get close to them, I don’t get close to them.”

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded. “And how close would you consider ‘close’ to be? The same block, street, zip code, city?”

“I, I don’t know… I just… If I recognize the place, and it’s close enough I go there.” The Guardian explained, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“And if you could go all over the city, would you stop all of the monsters?” He asked, giving the other man a pointed look.

The Guardian backed away from him. “I, I can’t. Moving the suit is a pain in the ass. It's, it’s honestly a miracle no one has found it hidden in the car trunks I stash it in. And, and the whole thing is too bulky to stash in just one trunk.”

“What if we got you a big work van?” He wondered. “Big enough to stash the suit and any tools you need for it. That way you can drive to any threat and then drive off. Keep your base always moving.” (Actually, note to self get a black car for self. Something like Sam’s old rum runner to keep up with cop chases.)

“That’s a good…” The Guardian closed his eyes and shook his head. “This is crazy, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t be considering this.”

He tilted his head. “Why not?”

“Because, because Masks are crazy.” The Guardian tried to answer. “And I, I can’t. I’ve got a wife and a kid. I can’t risk myself doing something like this.”

“Aren’t you already risking yourself trying to protect them?” He pointed out. “This would just be a step up from that. Only instead of just protecting them where they are, you’d be making the whole city safer for them. I mean what would you do if they went somewhere else for the day, a store or to visit a friend without telling you, you wouldn’t know to show up unless you were protecting the whole city.”

The Guardian scowled at him. “That’s playing dirty.”

“I’m going to be honest, I’ve won so many fights by kicking someone in the dick, I don’t think I know how to play any other way.” He shrugged, not bringing up how he and his brothers used to rough house in his father’s gym.

Iron Guardian was silent for a moment before giving him a look. “If, and that’s a big if, we do this, how would this work? Would you be bankrolling me as a hero or?”

“Right, and there’s the hard part of the pitch…” He admitted.

“Hard how?” The Guardian frowned looking twice as apprehensive.

“I am willing to bankroll you, fund your suits, and everything else while you’re in your city. Hell, I won’t even tell you what to do or how to do your job. If you want I won’t even talk to you again and all I’d be to you is an unlimited piggy bank.” He explained as many perks as he could.

“While I’m in my city.” The Guardian repeated.

He couldn’t help but grimace as the other man caught the, well, catch.

“Right, so, um, you know how a few weeks ago the Tallman raided the US government?” He asked, just to make sure the Guardian had been paying attention to the news.

“Yeah, pulled some Malcolm X type shit and… actually pulled it off.” The Guardian nodded, looking kind of impressed.

“Misconception, given how for the most part Malcom X preached self defense instead of outright violence.” He corrected the other man. “ A ‘stay armed in case they come for you, but don’t go after them’ kind of thing. Media gives him a bad reputation because of… reasons. Uh, my brother was a fan… Not the point, though. Do you think what he did was good or bad?”

The Guardian gave him a wary look. “Is this another test?”

“No, just… it’s a big part of why I’m doing this.” He tried to explain without explaining. “So… thoughts?”

“Well, I’m a Deviant so him fighting for our rights, so… I’ve slept a lot easier knowing Asylum isn’t going to kick down my door. Honestly, I was more scared of them than the families doing this whole thing.” The Guardian confessed. “But at the same time I know he was an extremist given how far he took things. Then again with how extreme things were getting, maybe he had a ‘normal’ reaction.”

(Yeah… He doesn’t know how bad it got.) V grimaced internally, fully aware of how bad things had really gotten during the peak of the Riots let alone with The Tallman’s rampage.

“So a net positive.” He summarized, before sighing. “Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be the end of it.”

“What do you mean?” The Guardian frowned.

“This isn’t going to be the end of the government’s response…” He began, feeling the same chill he had upon realizing what was going to happen during Sam’s rampage. “They’re going to drag the Tallman’s reputation through the dirt, and given how he’s currently the most famous Deviant on the planet…”

“They’re going to drag every Deviant down with him…” The Guardian realized.

“Oh, it gets worse…” He chuckled nervously. “There… There are talks of building a replacement organization to Asylum.”

“What?!”

“Yeah.” He nodded, sadly. “Right now they’re saying it’ll be… softer than Asylum, but that’s just while Deviants have public sympathy for side-stepping a genocide… Give it a couple years of dragging him and every other Deviant through the dirt and…”

“We’ll be even worse off since they won’t let this happen a second time…” The Guardian finished for him.

“Exactly.”

The Guardian ran a hand down his face before quite aptly summarizing their situation as, “Shit…”

“Exactly.” He grimaced, before sighing. “What I’m hoping, is that if we can get enough Heroic Deviants together and make a big enough splash, then we can overshadow the Tallman, and keep the public in Deviant favor.”

“That, that would take a big splash…” The Guardian swallowed.

“Which is why if you agree to this I’ll need you to leave town on occasion… Get our names known across the country while recruiting whoever we can to this operation.” He explained.

“Fuck… this is… this is big… Bigger than me.” The Guardian told him. “I mean, I’m just, I’m just trying to protect my family… This is… It’s too big for me…”

“Too big for me too…” He admitted, feeling the weight of what he was setting out to do. “But I… I can’t let this escalate… I can’t, I can’t let any kids feel the… the hopelessness I did… Not when I… Not when it’s…” (But maybe I’ll have to…)

A silence fell over them for a fair while as they both were lost in their thoughts.

“Fuck!” The Guardian cursed as he paced back and forth. “Fuck! If we don’t do this, then our kids are going to have to deal with this shit aren’t they? If they become Deviants… Fuck…”

There was another silence, this one much shorter as The Iron Guardian turned to him, “Alright… I’m going to regret this but… I’m in.”

“R-really?” He blinked, honestly thinking he’d lost the other man.

“Yeah, I… I can’t let my little girl go through all of this bullshit, wondering if they’re going to kick in her door and gun her down before taking her kids… I can’t do that.” The Guardian shook his head, before giving a firm nod. “So I’m in.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” He smiled, practically jumping in place. “You have no idea how much this means! To have a real hero like you on the team! With the Iron Guardian, we might just have a chance of pulling this off.”

“Like I said, I’m not a real hero, but… I can pretend to be.” The Guardian assured him, while offering his hand. “And, if we’re going to be working together, call me Hugh.”

“Well, Hugh, I’m Vergil.” He greeted, taking the hand in his own. “And I can tell this, this is the start of something amazing.”

---

“Of course, at the time V completely neglected to mention that I was the only person he’d recruited to his little team.” Hugh continued. (I still say it’s your fault you didn’t ask.) “Which… Honestly, given what little I knew about him was completely in character.” (See not my fault.)

“Given what little I know about him, I’d agree.” The host chuckled alongside the audience.

“Still, knowing a team needed more than me and him, we continued our search for other recruits. Preferably ones with abilities outside of my tech and his skills.” Hugh lied, because they’d still been desperate enough to recruit any hero they could find. “And as luck would have it, we stumbled upon a news report about Aurora.”

“Ah, yes, her famous break out feat. The one that brought her to the national stage.” The host nodded. “A recording we actually managed to find for this special evening.”

“Oh… How lovely…” Aurora smiled, the grip on his hand shifting from her supporting him, to him supporting her as she was forced to watch one of the most horrifying days of her life.

The screens along the stage filled with a news camera inside of a helicopter looking over hundreds of Creeps tearing through city streets in what could only be described as a demonic invasion. And while he hadn’t been there personally, he’d been in enough similar situations to see the details the cameras were too far to catch, to remember (screams filled the air alongside the smell of blood and ash, every inhale tasting of death itself as he tried to keep from focusing on the dead bodies that littered all around him.)

Aurora’s tightening grip brought him back into the moment, just in time to watch hundreds of blades of light appear in the air in but a blink of the eyes before slamming into the ground in a veritable storm of blades. The rainfall of blades went on for nearly a full minute, each blade impaling the Creeps below with however many it took to kill all of the monster’s ravaging the city.

When the shower of blades finally came to a stop, the street seemed to glitter like a sea of stars as all of the Creeps dissolved into black ash, the blades pinning them to the ground all that remained behind.

The camera panned over the city street trying to take in the impossible sight of an invasion stopped in but a minute, before eventually locking onto a blonde haired figure standing between all of the destruction and a handful of civilians.

With a possible source of the phenomenon discovered, the helicopter grew closer to the figure before eventually capturing the shot of Aurora that would go into the history books. The one of her standing battered and clawed up by the hordes, but unbroken as she protected the innocent.

“Even after all these years, it’s still breathtaking.” The host admitted with no small amount of reverence in her tone.

(Yeah, she is…) He mentally agreed with a glance to his best friend.

“Heh, thank you…” Aurora smiled looking far more tired than she had a few moments before.

“I’m sure you can see why we sought her out as swiftly as we did.” He spoke up, hoping to draw the attention from Aurora. “We couldn’t have done this without someone as heroic as her.”

Aurora squeezed his hand in thanks, before withdrawing hers as she took a moment to herself, prompting him to keep talking to keep all eyes on him, “The moment we saw her we knew we needed her for our team. Something she easily proved upon our first meeting.”

---

“So how are we finding this Mask?” Hugh asked as they drove through the city.

“The same way I found you.” He shrugged. “A list of her known appearances, pre-Creep invasion for real accuracy given how she’s had a wider range since then. Then once we have a decent set of patrol regions for her, we start looking at locations that meet her personal needs within those regions. Then we cross reference those locations with a profile fitting our known information about the unsub. In this case a blonde woman early twenties, active for two to three years, given just how many appearances she’s had over that time she’s also probably had a bit of time holding down a job. Though the timing of her appearances is likely a good way to narrow down her work hours.”

“O…kay…” Hugh nodded, looking a little overwhelmed. “Uh, how long do you think… all of that will take? Because I only bought the weekend with my wife, if I’m not back by Monday then I’ll be in the dog house.”

“It won’t take that long. She’ll actually be easier to find than you since she’s got so many more appearances and has been active for so much longer.” He assured the other man, before spotting a diner nearby. “That said, we’ll probably be at it for a while once we get going so we might as well grab lunch before getting to work. How about that diner over there? I could go for some pie.”

“Sure, why not?” Hugh told him, clearly not caring about it nearly as much.

Once inside the diner, Hugh decided to continue their conversation. “Now you’ve proven you can find someone, given how you found me, but I’ve got to ask how are we actually doing this? Because I’m going to be honest, I understood about half of what you told me in the car.”

“Do you really want to talk work before we get our food?” He asked the other man. “Because once I get going on this I’m going to be going for a minute, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be more bearable on a full stomach or with desert in front of you.”

“Maybe but I really would like to know how you know all this stuff at the very least. I mean you’re what twenty-five? And yet you’re throwing around words as if you’re an old pro. What were you a cop or something before all of this?”

“Ha!” He couldn’t help but laugh at that as he looked for their waitress. “No, my family hasn’t respected the law since they assaulted my adoptive brother for being black… probably before then too. That said, I did look into how they do things when I started doing more investigation work. Really dug deep on all of that up to the FBI level because while I believe there are more crooked cops than straight out there, that doesn’t change the fact that the ones off the take really do know how to do their jobs. And them I respect.”

“So what, this whole hero thing is doing what the crooked cops won’t?” Hugh asked.

“Eh, that’s pretty close even if the actual reason is a little more… personal.” He admitted, waving down their waitress with a grin he was only half-forcing given the matters at hand.

“Hello, what can I get you two fellas?” Their blonde waitress asked with a smile that made his own a little more real.

(Huh, she’s got a pretty smile…)

“Ah, didn’t even look at the menu, uh, give me a second.” Hugh told her, looking at a diner menu on the wall.

“How about you, hon? You know what you want?” The waitress asked him, looking a little more tense when she realized he was staring at her rather than the menu. (Probably used to people unwantedly hitting on her.)

“Yes, I do. I’ll have a black coffee -actually make that two coffees- and a burger hold the lettuce.” He decided, noting how the waitress was a couple years younger than him.

“I hate coffee.” Hugh sighed.

“Good because both were for me.” He nodded.

Hugh gave him an annoyed look before letting out another sigh. “But a burger does sound good. Just with everything on mine and… a coke I guess.”

“Right, so… Two burgers, one with no lettuce, a coke and two coffees.” Their waitress repeated back to them with an amused smirk.

“That sounds right, to me.” He told her, giving Hugh a grin before looking at their waitress. More specifically her name tag. “Thank you… Aurora… Huh, isn’t that the same name as the hero who saved the city?”

Aurora froze before giving a nervous laugh. “Y-yeah, weird coincidence… You’ve uh, you’ve no idea how many people have asked me that.”

“You sure?” He innocently asked. “Because the news never reported your name, I only found out about it after talking to someone you saved six months ago over the phone.”

For some reason Hugh just stared at him with a look of horror.

---

“You are beyond lucky I was there to smooth things over.” Hugh laughed, playing things up given how he’d also noticed Aurora’s discomfort. “Somehow you fumbled things with her even worse than you did with me. It’s a miracle she didn’t stab you when you called her out like that.”

“Which is why I confronted her in a public space, rather than a private one like I did with you.” He argued. “I am capable of learning after all.”

“And somehow it’s always the worst thing to learn from the situation.” Hugh sighed. “It took me an entire hour to calm her down enough to hear us out without stabbing you the moment you were alone.”

---

“Oh, god. Oh, god. You figured out who I am, and if you can figure it out so can other people…” The girl panicked as she rocked back and forth on the alley stoop, leaving him feeling kind of like an asshole.

The fact that Hugh kept calling him one wasn’t helping him with that.

“Look it’s fine, we’re not here to threaten you or anything.” He assured the young woman. “That’s why I brought it up in public, no one can hurt anyone else without witnesses.”

For some reason that seemed to make Aurora spiral even further. (Oh, right we’re in an alley with no witnesses right now.)

“Alright, you, you shut the fuck up for now.” Hugh told him.

“That’s uh, that’s fair.” He agreed, taking a step back.

“Now ignoring the fact that Vergil -that’s his name- is an asshole, we really aren’t here to cause you any problems. In fact, we’re… heroes like you, but if you want we’ll leave and you won’t ever have to hear from us again if you don’t want to, right?” Hugh glared at him.

“Right.” He nodded despite wanting to protest, because he was sure he could convince her to work with them, even if it meant throwing a few hundred grand at her. (And we really do need a big name with us if we want this to work.)

Aurora took another moment before eventually nodding herself. “O-okay… O-kay… This, this isn’t the end of the world…” The girl looked at both of them. “You’re… You’re really heroes?”

“Uh, yeah.” Hugh grimaced, clearly still uncomfortable being called that. “I’m, uh, I’m the Iron Guardian from New Haven.”

“Th-the one with the super suit?” Aurora asked, looking at him with a fair amount of awe.

“Y-yeah…” Hugh nodded, looking even worse at being recognized. “And he’s Vigilance.”

Aurora stared at him for a moment. “I… have no idea who that is.”

“That’s fair.” He shrugged, unconcerned. “I do a lot more, uh, street work than… dimensional invasion work.”

“He’s smart and an ass.” Hugh sighed.

“A smart ass if you will.” He confirmed, getting a laugh out of the stressed girl.

“That said, he can apparently track down anyone given how he found both of us in just a few weeks.” Hugh continued, ignoring him. “And given the… other things I’ve seen him pull off, I’m willing to put up with his personality for this.”

“For what?” Aurora frowned.

“Well, you know how The Tallman got rid of Asylum?” Hugh asked, getting a nod from the girl. “That left a… power vacuum of sorts, and we’re hoping to fill it with heroes before another Asylum can pop up. Maybe, maybe get people to quit hating Deviants so much, you know?”

“That… that would be nice.” Aurora admitted. “When I first started going out to help people… People were more scared of me than the muggers I stopped.”

“Maybe, but I’m sure they’ve changed your tune after what you pulled off during that invasion.” He pointed out. “Whole town is talking you up like a hero.”

“I, uh, I wouldn’t know.” Aurora grimaced. “I… I haven’t really gone out since… that.”

“Ah, injuries.” He nodded with a grimace of his own. “Yeah, after what you pulled you deserve to rest for however long it takes for those to heal. Trust me, you do not want your stitches tearing in the middle of a brawl and staggering you into a crowbar.”

“Um, y-yeah…” Aurora winced. “But um, I actually… I’m not sure I’m… cut out for the hero stuff, honestly…”

“Why not?” He frowned. “I mean, you’ve been at this as long as me and kicked twice as much ass as him.”

“Maybe… but muggers aren’t… they aren’t like those monsters.” Aurora shivered.

He just barely kept himself from scoffing at that, and only because after picking off some local criminals for… financing, he’d figured out that the monsters from his city were a touch darker than the criminals Aurora and Hugh likely dealt with during their own heroics. (But pointing that out will just scare her off, and Hugh is still on the fence about being a hero so he’d run off too.)

“That’s… true.” He assured her. (In a sense a least.) “But… Does anyone know that you’re a Mask? Family, a friend, anyone that can… support you when things get… difficult?”

“N-no… I… I don’t have anyone like that.” Aurora admitted, looking even more depressed.

“Well, now you do.” He promised easily.

“W-what?” Aurora blinked looking up at him.

“Me and Hugh here are both heroes, so… we get it.” He tried to explain, making it up as he did so. “We’ve both… been we’re you’re at, where things get bad… scary… When you think you should give up because it feels like you aren’t getting anything done… When you… when you can’t save everyone…”

“But that’s, that’s not when you give up…” He frowned. “That’s, that’s when you get better, learn better, do better, be better. And that’s not always easy…” He admitted, running a hand through his hair. “But just because it’s not easy, doesn’t mean you’re on your own… There are… There are people willing to help if you let them… Like us.”

He blinked before nodding with a little more determination. “Yeah, like us. If it gets too hard you can talk to us and… we can help you do better or… solve the problems you can’t solve by yourself. Hugh, Hugh can make equipment you’d only see on star trek! And I, I can help solve crimes… or something? I, I don’t know… It’s just you don’t have to do this by yourself… Okay? If, if we become a team we can… we can help each other.”

(Fuck… I have no idea what I’m saying…) His eyes drifted between the other two Mask, with Hugh looking at him with a fair amount of surprise and Aurora looking at him with a growing resolve.

“You, you’re right!” Aurora practically shouted as she stood up. “This, this isn’t when I should give up. This is when I should do better! And… and I want to help people and you guys want to help me help people so… I’m in! I’ll, I’ll join your team and we can help people and each other together!” Aurora told him, smiling with a determined nod.

“R-right…” He smiled back. (Heh, she really is a hero isn’t she?)

---

“And as they say, the rest is history.” Hugh concluded the… public version of their first meetings.

“True, and what a history it has been.” Aurora laughed, having pieced herself back together during Hugh’s story. “Of course that wasn’t really the end of it. We had a lot of work to do in order for us to get enough reputation to found the Guild, and we couldn’t do that sticking just to our home towns.”

“Right, that would be when your national tour started.” The host nodded, following along. “Where you traveled the country saving lives and recruiting heroes.”

“It wasn’t a tour.” He pointed out, feeling like calling it that turned the whole thing into something it wasn’t.

“You’re right, it was more of a road trip all things considered.” Hugh agreed.

---

“An RV?” Hugh frowned at his big reveal. “You had us drive all the way here to show off your RV?”

“Not my RV.” He scoffed, before wrapping an arm around both of his fellow heroes. “Our mobile base.”

Hugh sighed. “I know I’m going to regret asking but… mobile base?”

“Right, well, if we want to fill in the Asylum power vacuum before something worse can take over then we need to get our names out there. Meaning we need to go out there and do heroic stuff all over the country, not just our home cities. Hence the RV.” He explained. “I figure this would work better for moving all of our stuff around than taking plane flights everywhere. I doubt they’ll let you pack your suit for this.”

“Look I… I’m all for this hero team you’re trying to set up.” Hugh told him, running a hand over the back of his neck.

“But?” He prodded.

“But, I can’t just… take off and go on a cross country road trip.” Hugh shook his head. “I mean, I’ve got a family and this, this sounds like it’s going to be a… long term kind of deal. I can’t just, up and leave them like that.”

“I don’t expect you to.” He assured the other man. “I fully expect us to be taking a lot of plane flights home so that we can maintain our presence at home. After all, I know I can’t leave my powder keg alone for a year without it exploding. All you need to do is tell your wife you’ve got a contract gig fixing things for some rich asshole a couple cities over and that you’ll be home every weekend. Won’t even be a lie, since I am technically a rich asshole.”

Hugh didn’t look entirely convinced by his argument, so he turned his attention to Aurora figuring if he could get her on board Hugh would cave. “How about you, what do you think of all this?”

“I mean… It sounds a bit complicated, but also like we could help a lot more people if we did this.” Aurora admitted, before giving him a nervous look. “Though, uh, that offer to pay for everything that… that applies to me too, right?”

“Of course.” He nodded. “I know you’ve had a bit of trouble balancing the whole work and hero thing, but I’ve got enough stashed to pay you… Let’s see you were a waitress, so that means you were making something like two thirteen an hour plus tips right? Which is eighty-five dollars a week without tips or four hundred and twenty to five hundred and five dollars a month depending on how many pay weeks you’ve got. Now I can’t pay you less than Hugh, that just wouldn’t be fair since you are the biggest hero between us and I need to pay him more than he makes now so his wife doesn’t get mad about him working for me… So he’s going from fifteen an hour to a technical twenty-five over fourty salary. Meaning you’ll both get paid a thousand dollars a week, which is four or five grand a month with an aggregated fifty-two a year. So for you that’s a raise of… eight hundred and fifty something percent.”

“F-fifty-two th-thou-thousand.” Aurora gasped.

He snapped his fingers. “Oh, almost forgot I’ll also be covering expenses while we drive all over. Can’t expect you to pay for everything when I’m the one dragging you all over the place.”

“I… I need to sit down.” Aurora admitted as she leaned against the RV and slid to the ground.

“Fuck… That’s a lot of money.” Hugh admitted.

Seeing their reactions he couldn’t help but sadistically make the pot sweeter. “Yeah, and your first year will be even better because you’ve got a sign on bonus of… Mm, does fifty percent of your yearly sound good?”

“How do you even have this kind of money?!” Aurora screamed.

“I steal it from the various gangs and crime families I come across.” He shrugged.

“Is… Is that legal?” Aurora asked, looking overwhelmed.

He waved her off. “Eh, being a Vigilante is illegal. And the cops confiscate the money to buy themselves new cars and guns, I’m just being more cost efficient since I have less red tape and am not an embezzlement scam for the suppression of minorities.”

Aurora blinked. “W-what?”

“Nothing!” He lied to his most innocent teammate before turning back to the one with grayer morality. “So! Aurora is in, how about you?”

Hugh was quiet for a moment, before gaining a pained look. “I’ll… I’ll talk to my wife…”

“Fantastic!”

---

“Unfortunately, while we were all on board for the cross-country heroics, we -or rather Vigilance since this whole thing was his idea- forgot one little bitty detail.” Aurora laughed.

“And what was that?” The host asked, eyes locked onto him.

He sighed. “None of us had worked with other people before…” (Which I did account for, I just didn’t account for them being so… soft.)

“Needless to say it was a learning experience for all of us.” Hugh told their host with a wry grin.

---

“Right, so everyone ready?” He checked, after making sure all of his new armor was on right.

“As ready as I’ll ever be…” Hugh grimaced as he seemingly stretched inside of his suit. “Not used to having this much flexibility. Usually I’m just a massive freight train trying to trample Creeps.”

“Yeah… Can’t do that to regular criminals, might kill them.” He pretended to joke in spite of his very real concern over how, (That would pretty much kill this team before we even get it off the ground.)

Hugh just shook his head, before looking at the two of them. “How about you two? New gear working alright for you?”

Aurora twirled around in her new suit, causing her cape to twirl around her padded form. “Y-yeah, I actually feel like a real superhero now!”

“Going to take a minute to get used to the extra weight but it’s definitely got better protection than my old stuff.” He agreed, absolutely preferring this armor to the leather and hockey pads he’d worn before.

Hugh gave them both a nod. “Good, I’m used to working with tankier suits and wasn’t sure I bound the more cloth-like materials you guys need for mobility right.”

“So, uh, how are we doing this?” Aurora asked them after a moment. “I mean, I know you said you found a gang hideout or something but, uh, I usually just deal with muggers and stuff…”

“Yeah, I’ve only fought those demon things myself. I’ve got no idea what I’m supposed to do here.” Hugh admitted.

“Well, since we’re trying to build up our rep we’re going to have to do this a bit different than my usual urban warfare stuff. So, no stealing the money, torching the guns and drugs, or leaving intimidating messages.” He told them both.

“Intimidating messages?” Aurora frowned.

“You know stuff like, a simple ‘Murderers.’” He shrugged. “Or an ambiguous ‘I know what you did.’ or if you want to get them paranoid ‘I’m coming for you, name of a random crime lord’.”

They both stared at him for a moment, before Hugh spoke up and told him, “Just… going to ignore that for now. But, uh, that doesn’t really tell us what we’re supposed to do?”

“Righ, so… Hugh you’re a giant bullet proof tank in your armor. Just walk towards people with big guns, let them shoot you without flinching, and then break their guns… I’m kind of assuming the suit gives you enough strength to do that?”

“I haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure I do.” Hugh shrugged.

“Good enough, but like I said, don't actually hit anyone because I’d rather not find out what that suit can do to a squishy meat bag. Just be…” He smirked. “Heh, an Iron Guardian for us.”

Even if he couldn’t see Hugh’s eyes he could tell they were rolling.

“Now Aurora, you’ve got a bunch of non-lethal stuff from dealing with Muggers, right?” He asked the only other member of their team to deal with regular humans.

“Uh, yeah.” Aurora nodded. “I’ve got a couple of light shields and I can make swords pin people without piercing them by adjusting the hard light ratios on contact with organic materials. Though doing that takes more concentration than the… kind I don’t want to use on people.”

“Perfectly understandable.” He assured her, before glancing at the wall of the warehouse. “Hey, Hugh, do you think you can take this wall down?”

Hugh glanced at the wall a little unsurely. “Uh, if it’s just brick probably?”

“Good, so here’s what we’ll do.” He began. “Hugh will run through the wall giving us a dramatic enough entrance to take everyone off guard, then he’ll stick to Aurora to make sure you can focus on pinning people down with your blades. Meanwhile, being the most used to this kind of thing, I’ll rush in and deal with them up close, so they can’t risk shooting me without shooting their friends. Sound good?”

Despite being visibly nervous they both gave him a nod, “Alright, Hugh, on your mark then.”

Hugh stepped up to the wall and took a three point stance before glancing back at them.

He gave the nervous hero a double thumbs up. “You got this.”

With that bit of encouragement, the Iron Guardian looked forward before running straight through the wall into a warehouse full of stunned criminals surrounding a table covered in drugs and money.

(Game time.)

Seeing his targets, he rushed past Aurora and Iron Guardian and grabbed the first criminal he could, dragging them forward as a human shield so that he could get closer to the center of the criminals.

Once in range of another (victim) he grabbed his (meat shield) by the throat and slammed (it) into the ground, his sudden crouching allowing him to duck under a reflexive shot from a panicking thug that would’ve killed his shield.

From his low point he reached forward and pulled on the thug’s knee, dragging it forward as he toppled the man to the ground. Leaving him free to stomp the thug’s chest as Vigilance stood back up, the added weight of his new armor guaranteeing that he cracked a few ribs.

Seeing the thugs on the other side of the table beginning to rally, he grabbed one of the two they’d used for their setup, before using both hands to flip it onto the side and break sight with the thugs as he sent their drugs and money flying through the air.

Gunshots cracked, shooting through the wood of the table and the space he’d been prior to reaching around to grab another thug by his arm and pull him behind the upturned table.

With the man’s stance broken by the unexpected tug, he went ahead and brought his elbow down on the thug’s shoulder, dislocating if not outright breaking it. He kicked the thug back into the open as he screamed in agony, a perfect distraction for him to twist out and under the other table in a slide that left him crouched beside a new (victim).

Moving before the thug could spot him he tackled the man around his waist, lifting him into the air before slamming him into the ground at an angle that whipped the thug’s head against the concrete floor.

Standing up, he pushed aside a gun with his forearm leaving another thug open for several blows to the ribs before receiving a final one to the jaw knocking him back into one of his compatriots.

With their tangle of limbs as a temporary shield he turned to another thug just as they were beginning to raise their assault rifle, something he couldn’t allow as he instead tore it from the man’s hands before using it as a bat to break the thug’s jaw.

On his recoil he went ahead and threw the gun at a thug he’d need a second to get to, forcing them to duck to the side as he went ahead and grabbed one stupid enough to be within reach of him, before stomping their kneecap and breaking their leg.

Finding the thug’s sudden scream annoying, he also went ahead and grabbed the thug that had managed to recover from having his friend knocked into him before slamming the two’s skulls together, either knocking them out or giving them enough brain damage to be out of the fight.

Turning to the last thug a trio of gunshots cracked like thunder as an impact sent his head snapping back, and two more hit his chest. But not being the first time he’d been shot let alone the first time while wearing a helmet, he simply walked it off as he stalked forward before lifting the final panicking thug off the ground by his throat and slamming him through the wooden table, shattering it to bits.

Seeing that there were no more thugs left he clapped his hands and turned back to his friends with a smile on his face. “Great job team! First outing and we got… ten guys? Not bad for a first night out.”

For some reason Hugh and Aurora simply stood there staring at him.

---

“Then again a lot of our early days were a learning experience.” Aurora pointed out as she and Hugh worked on her suit while he worked on paperwork. “I mean, before us M.A.D.s and Arcane were so focused on the whole Magic vs Science thing that they never really worked together.”

“True.” Hugh nodded, before muttering, “Science for the win.” Solely for the audience, given how comfortable Hugh actually was with the existence of magic after twenty something years.

---

“I don’t get why this isn’t working…” Aurora growled in frustration. “It worked for my old costume and I can feel it starting to work for this but it’s, it’s just not clicking…”

“Maybe it has something to do with the materials?” Hugh suggested. “Your old costume was pretty much all cloth.”

“No, that can’t be it because you can enchant pretty much anything.” Aurora sighed, shoving her costume away. “Heck, I’ve enchanted just about everything I own to be indestructible since I was such a clutz before figuring out how to cheat.”

“How to cheat?” He asked, his interest peaked.

“I’ve got a light movement spell on me half of the time. Makes it easier to move around.” Aurora shrugged as Hugh took the costume.

He snapped his fingers. “That’s how you do that air dodge thing.” He’d been trying to figure out how she was getting the leverage to pull that off. (Should’ve known it was magic.)

“Did you figure out your powers?” Hugh frowned. “On your own or did you manage to find one of those manuals the Arcane Association are popping out like candy?”

“Oh, I got one of their old books but… While the magic in it works, they were a little obtuse in the how since they were still trying to keep magic secret.” Aurora warned them as she began digging through her things. “I was actually hoping to get some of their real books now that their printing them… Maybe even take a few of their college classes once we get some more people on the team.”

“Right, just tell me what you’re interested in and I’ll order them for you.” He told her, going back to his paperwork. “I know a couple of people in the Association and can set you up for something over the phone… or spell. Whatever they end up using.”

Aurora froze, before turning to him. “You know people in the Arcane Association?”

“Yeah, my sister in law is a magic teacher there or something.” He shrugged, since the two of them didn’t actually talk all that much about her being a Deviant, more busy commiserating over his brother being an idiot than anything else.

“Did… did you ask her if she wanted to… to join your team?” Aurora asked, sounding off as she held her book close to her chest.

He couldn’t help but break into a fit of laughter. “Fuck no. If you think I don’t respect the law then you need to meet the rest of my family. Trust me none of them are even half as heroic as you.”

The only reason he even bugged her for anything was because of the fact that the Association coming out of hiding was a massive boost in their favor, and would give his whole plan for Deviant acceptance a push on multiple fronts in case his hero angle flopped. (So glad I talked the Eds into helping with that.)

“Oh…”

Hugh coughed, drawing both of their attention. “Uh, the manual?”

“Oh, right!”Aurora blushed in embarrassment before handing over her book. “Here.”

“The Arcane Arcanum?” Hugh read, flipping the book open. “Sounds magic-y.”

“You say that…” He smirked, looking up from his paperwork as he waited for it to hit.

Hugh’s eye twitched, and his smirk grew into a grin, as the man started flipping faster with a growing sort of desperation, until Hugh finally threw the book on the table as he yelled, “This… this isn’t a manual, it reads like a game book!”

“It can be both!” Aurora defended, as he held back his snickers.

“No, it… Magic can’t simply be a bunch of nerds playing games around a table!” Hugh scowled, not noticing as someone pulled the book towards themselves.

“We, we needed a cover!” Aurora defended. “If we, if we didn’t pretend it was a game then Asylum would’ve been all over those books!”

Hugh let out a scoff. “Really? And how much of this ‘game’ can really help you with your powers when you can’t even use these ‘enchantment’ things it taught you for the very thing they’re supposedly designed for?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” He interrupted. “Right, here under the enchanting section it warns that you can’t actually use it on anything with too many moving parts such as cars, TVs, or Phones.”

Both Hugh and Aurora just stared at him with the game book in hand, before Aurora turned to Hugh. “Ha! Told you!”

“This… This doesn’t prove anything.” Hugh (lied). “We all know you can find pretty much anything when you try to!”

“Yeah, but all of this magic stuff is laid out pretty straightforward once you switch out a few of the game variables with real world equivalents.” He shrugged, before spotting something interesting. “You know, I’m actually kind of curious how accurate their math is here since they have this entire breakthrough system laid out in the description for levels, while accounting for Crits pushing those numbers.”

Hugh blinked at him. “You… you can’t be serious…”

“I am.” He nodded, forcing his smirk down. “In fact, tactically speaking I think playing this game would be a fantastic way of figuring out how Aurora’s powers really work.”

“Can we?!” Aurora burst, looking like a puppy as she threw away any conviction towards proving her book wasn’t meant to be played as a game.

Hugh looked between them, at V’s completely (bullshit/)serious face and Aurora’s hopeful one before eventually sighing. “Fine. We can play the stupid game…”

---

The fact that Hugh also now GMed their monthly tabletop game as well as his daughter’s weekly game, was something that always made him laugh upon remembering the other man’s initial reaction to the Arcane Arcanum. (It’s always funny how the mad scientists love playing witches and wizards.)

“Of course, it wasn’t just Aurora and me that learned a lot about each other.” Hugh admitted, grabbing his shoulder. “Even the mysterious Vigilance couldn’t keep all his secrets when trapped in an RV for days on end. Let me tell you guy’s backstory is a trip.”

---

“Hey, V, I’ve got a question.” Hugh told him, after Aurora had passed out in the back and the other man had a few beers.

“Everyone’s got questions.” He shrugged from where he was driving to hit their next town by daybreak. “What’s yours?”

“You know how you’re not actually a Deviant?”

“Yes, I’m fully aware that I’m not a Deviant.” He nodded as patronizingly as possible. (Doesn’t stop me from being able to kick your ass.)

“Why’s this whole thing so important to you?” Hugh asked. “I mean, Asylum wasn’t really interested in you, in fact I don’t think they were that active in your city, but you’re putting like ten times as much effort into this whole thing as me or Aurora.”

He was silent for a moment, just staring out at the night road passing by in front of him, and at a certain point he knew he wasn’t going to answer.

“I’m adopted.” At least until Hugh began to stand.

The other man froze, before slowly sitting back down.

“My mom -Samantha- died when I was a kid and I… I was adopted by my grandfather, though he’s also the only father I’ve ever had, so… yeah.” He admitted, feeling like if he stopped he wouldn’t start again.

“I had two uncles… brothers?” He shook his head. “Our relationship was weird. The old man was going through this depressed phase after my mom’s death and… Adopting me got him through it, but my brothers came by a lot to make sure we were getting by given pop’s old age and my lack of age. One of them always brought my niece -though she was more of a sister- because we were pretty close in age. She was my best friend…” He smiled before going quiet.

It took a moment to get going again because he was getting to the hard part. (Then again no harm in stalling a bit… We’ve got all night…)

“My old man grew up Irish in a… bad time to be that in America and fought at the end of the second world war when america was involved in Germany and saw things there that he refused to let stand here.” He explained, knowing he was dragging things out. “Which is how a white man adopted my black brother Samson… Having seen a few more similarities with how black folk were treated than he was comfortable with on the night Samson’s parents passed, and refusing to let the kid go through life in fear of that.”

“Needless to say that made life… hard for my family since the fifties and sixties were not a fun time for a mixed family.” He sighed. “Of course that was all before my time, just… When combined with how the old man’s old man was a prohibition gangster, well… it sets a tone for my family’s views on things. Namely that we refused to take anyone's shit…”

(Can’t… Shouldn’t put it off anymore…) He figured after a moment, knowing that he’d let himself talk about everyone but the person he had to if kept on like this. (And she deserves better than that…)

“Rose, my… niece, cousin, sister?” He ran a hand down his face, his other tightening on the steering wheel. “During Vietnam, my eldest brother found out he was a Deviant. Of course, he didn’t tell anyone other than the woman that he would marry, who herself was an Arcane. The only reason I found out is because Rose… inherited his Deviancy… Which is what got her killed.”

(I… I need to pull over…)

For a moment all he could hear was his own breathing, before he forced himself to continue, “Rose, she… She protested against Asylum… as an open Deviant, because of course she did with our family.” He laughed, not feeling the least bit of joy. “Asylum… Asylum didn’t like that… And because of that one night… One night her branch of the family was just… gone…” (Like mom…)

He wiped at his eyes. “And I… I can’t let that happen again…”

A hand clasped his shoulder. “It won’t.” Hugh promised him.

---

Hugh squeezed his shoulder. “Would not believe a rich kid raised by his butler could turn into this much of a badass.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Aurora smiled, bumping shoulders with him as she showed -knowing the real story- she was there for him too.

The host laughed, people long since having realized that particular story was fake.

“Well, we all know Vigilance likes to keep his secrets, but maybe we can dig into the secrets of the Hero’s Guild.” The host told them, before looking to the camera. “So be sure to tune in after the break as we continue to talk to everyone’s favorite heroes.”

They all waited for the ‘Live’ sign to switch off, before relaxing.

“How much more of this is there?” He found himself asking.

“Well the show is like an hour long so… three breaks?” Aurora shrugged.

“Fuuuck, kill me now.” Hugh groaned quietly enough that no one would hear.

“We both know Cass would kill me if I let you die.” He sighed.

“If you want we can do a suicide pact?” Aurora offered. “I mean, V will be left out because of his no killing policy but we can still take each other out.”

“Leave me alone and I’ll have your son summon you from hell.” He warned her, before glaring at Hugh. “Both of you.”

“And you wonder why everyone calls you a killjoy.”