Hostility didn’t really do the atmosphere justice. An unmitigated malice permeated, a buildup of failure and rue that made even the softest step a lesson in humility and courtesy. One jumped upon with wrath that had been flattened time and time again. All to the point that it was all just for show, to keep up appearances and reputation. Not much you could really do behind a foot of steel latticed plexiglass and enough guns, guards, and gas to turn that rue about with enough force to shatter your ankles. Omnimax wasn’t put up for nothing after all. Though the dark plastered concrete and deep set safety lights didn’t lend any endearment to Aegis’ visit. And she knew enough of this hostility first hand.

Seth had apparently not sat idle waiting for her, and investigations took time and patience. Two things she was denied as soon as she set foot back on the Hill. A lot of explanations to go through and fractured egos to assuage. Not to mention hostile connections to refute. All the while her sworn target was left to his own devises, and for some reason he came here of all places. The one place half the League wanted to throw him in till the heat death of the universe. The other half wouldn’t have even allowing him the moment to choose. But still…

“Why here?”

The cameras were useless despite their reinforcement and redundancy. She hadn’t put any stock in them anyway, but in the end they at least put a timestamp to his visit. Ten minutes of pure static were the best he could do this time it seemed. The eye witnesses though were the real confirmation. That permeating rue rebounding back in their faces beyond the measure of their desperate intimidations. Seeing a tower of scales, claws, and teeth walk free and right up to you, walls and guns rendered tissue paper in your mind as you relived your darkest hours with fresh physicality and searing reality. Almost made Aegis feel sorry for some of them, almost.

The guards who called this visit in were of little help. Most were stunned that someone would willingly break in to Omnimax, though most were just flat out afraid as soon as they learned what it was that broke in. But the ones who originally called it in, the ones who came in to investigate why an entire cell block was suddenly dark and the quietest it has ever been since it was built. Those guards flat out refused to say what had happened, simply saying “You have to see it for yourself”. So… that’s why Aegis was forced to retrace clawed footsteps yet again, but at least this time they weren’t scraped and burned into the floor.

She followed along behind her assigned chaperone, the look she caught in his eye telling her he was the one too awestruck to give a believable report. Even buried in blacked out armored padding and enough non-lethal volts and ccs to put out the most uppity of rioters, she could still see the nerves misfiring in every step he took. He was scared, probably liable to jump at shadows if there were even any to fear. The lighting and flush walls refusing anything even remotely concealing. And the soft white lines laminating to the walls explaining bluntly that all this was for the least threatening of the power groups incarcerated here. Yet he was terrified still, unable to rectify his anxiety that a laceroid had walked his cell block like it was a Sunday stroll in the park. The scars of the crisis were everywhere, and definitely far from healed now.

But Aegis followed along regardless, disparity in anxiety making her pity too clear. Something probably jumped upon any other day than today by the malice filled eyes tracking her from behind their see through cells. A malice she had little recourse but to accept in the end, given that she put a good number of these villains here in the first place. The white band across every chest high surface making sure everyone knew these were all skill supers, trained or talented individuals with nothing outwardly above normal about them. Most were soldiers or mercenaries like Bleakwalker or members of the Hightower Corps. A lot used to be minions of other higher threat super villains like Goldbreaker’s muscle bound Tarnishers. Still some were just really good at what they did, the weapon masters and safecrackers of the underworld. Or at least the ones who got caught.

But none of them mattered as Aegis’ chaperon continued along, passing cell after cell of known and all too familiar stares. Passing guards put up to keep the scene clear and as it was. Passing cells still crowded back and away from the pitiful defenses that kept them safe, like that thing was still standing there in the absent shadows. All to reach the last cell against the far end of this spoke. Technically the most recent arrivals despite the distance, but also the only ones allowed a cell all their own. A team of four given special treatment due to some kind of extenuating circumstances Aegis wasn’t privy to. For some reason. But the real strange thing about them wasn’t their incarceration. It was that they were… happy.

A large barrel of a man sat against the left wall, arms wrapped around and hugging himself. His plain grey uniform wasn’t fully sleeved despite the required uniformity, and he was too teary eyed and joyful to notice Aegis approach their transparent cage. Her chaperone turned about on her, eyes a new level of anxiety as he returned to the scene of the crime and beckoned her to see what had broken his needed stoicism. Almost on cue, as the guard moved away, a tall crew cut man began to hum as he leaned against the far wall. A deep rumbling hum that almost seemed somber and missed. He was focused down at the crossed foot his lean freed up, swaying it to the slow easing tune he sang. But he soon looked up at Aegis from across the see through lattice, a smirk across his face as joyous as the man still too happy to stop hugging himself.

The humming continued as the man leaned his head back as the guard pulled the last few feet away from Aegis’ sightline. On the floor behind laid a woman with slowly regrowing hair and yet another immutable smile on her face. Her eyes were closed shut, head rested on the only pillow allotted to the cell, damn near cuddled and hugged tight like it was a nip filled cat toy. The humming didn’t rouse her, more than likely it was meant for her, but the way she clung to that pillow read like she had hardly slept a full night in her life. Aegis tried to make sense of this, tried to wrap her head around why a bunch of unpowered and overly happy villains got a visit from the damn near societally accepted incarnation of terror that was Seth. But her confusion turned her gaze to the last member sat in the cell, and the truth of the matter.

Sat listening against the right wall, arms folded and smirk blaring to the ceiling, was an older man. Greying hair and grizzled demeanor all too familiar to her. It was Tango Delta. That failed bank robbery… Or well, the suicide by bank robbery. That was the commonality, why Seth had been here. Or at least that was a starting reason. But the happy faces across these villains-

“What… can’t we feel happy for once in our lives?”

Tango wasn’t pulling any perceptible punches, though it’s not like Aegis wasn’t clearly confused by all of this. A greyed with age eye turned from the laminated ceiling and toward her, eye shine sending a learned tension through her. Like looking into a sniper scope trained on you. But momentary trained fear faded, and a heightened smirk blared his prideful confirmation of his reputation.

“Heh, always so easy. But you aren’t here just to flitch at the slightest mean look are you. No, you’re here because of our recent… guest.”

His all too good eye sight returned to ceiling as the humming lowering in an unspoken respect.

“He gave us all quiet the fright, if not for the rumors spread about we probably would have lost our poor Sasha and Michel again. But to see him for real, armor stripped away and nightmares made real… It made our suffering all the more poignant and ironic. Wouldn’t you say?”

His smirk deflated, not quite to scowl but close.

“To be condemned twice for fighting your monsters… yet… heh.”

His smirk rose back up, sadistic but still joyous.

“The irony just refused to abate. To think the only one who saw us as victims was someone like that. Ha, A monster trying to play the hero.”

He unfolded a hand and looked longingly down on it. Flexing it like it…

“Wait?”

That smirk rose higher with Aegis’ shock, maniacal laughter kept at bay only just as Tango relocked his eye… both eyes on her. His wounds, his scars, his missing fingers, his missing eye. All of it was healed, returned like it had always been there. Baring the elation brought about by their return.

Aegis looked back to the minions, too thankful to return her inquisition. She remembered the reports on his crew, the damage they’d sustained from the crisis, the mental and physical scars they were left with. She couldn’t see any of it anymore. Not on any of those smiling faces.

“W-Why…”

“As I said… the only one who saw us as victims. Who knows, maybe the only one who deserves to be called a hero.”

His taunting smirk curled, but quickly stopped and turned incredulous.

“Except he thinks himself a jokester or something.”

That full longed over hand slammed to his side, the clack of gun metal readiness eliciting a tensing from the guards and their called in support. All flinched back as a rifle rose up from behind his stretched out leg, fresh brushed coatings and tightened sights making it clear it was Tango’s one and only. And yet-

“Look at this crap! Like a child drew it from memory! My tallies aren’t even on it, and the zero is astronomical! And to add insult enough he filled it with fucking concrete! If you do ever see him again my dear Aegis please kick him in the chest for me! I mean who does this to a perfectly… adequately good rifle?”

Tango kept his… gift aloft by the barrel, staring at it disdainfully-

“Where did he even see my rifle in such detail? Those simulation never get it- Wait. Stupid question. Of course a laceroid found my rifle.”

The tension subsided as the shaken guards realized the reality that the gun was little more than a club… and even if it was real they were separated rather protectively. Yet Aegis still cupped her face with her hand, wiping it down with the sum of her embarrassment. Just for her exacerbation to be revealed. That was definitely the confirmation of it. Seth was still definitely the same person, just maybe wearing a different skin. But it was clear this investigation wasn’t going to get any less frustrating. And it was really starting to piss her off.