Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The PRT was responding to a call-in report that masked people were setting up barricades and keeping people out of an area. The PRT arrived, with Armsmaster taking the lead. He spotted the line of men in Domino masks and padded jackets with belts on the arms and across the torso.

"Hold up. Are you the Heroes?" one asked. This one had a set of gauntlets on, and his speech was fast but not incomprehensible.

"Yes, what do you think you are doing?" Armsmaster was actually caught off guard by this action. Most of the time, the regular support to villains would just attack.

"Ok, we just need you to sign this form, saying you showed up and agreed to the terms, and then I can have this sent over to City Hall. Any damages will be tracked." the guy explained, pulling out a folded piece of paper and offering it to Armsmaster.

Taking it, still confused, but opening it up, Armsmaster looked it over, and it was a contract that the signing party, which was blank, had arrived to thwart the signing party, signed Surge Guard, in the public space of, which had their location written down.

It further went into detail about how if the signing party desired, they could have their field agents join in the battle, in the support of the Signing party, with the "Goons" of the Union of Evil would be joining in on the side of Signing party, Surge guard.

They even made note that Surge Guard had made a downpayment for the expected damages of 10 electrical transformers, nearby electrical infrastructure, and 4 vehicles' electronic systems due to power surge-related damages.

Armsmaster looked back at the man, confused.

"Do you need a pen?" The man who handed him the paper asked.

"This…is unexpected." Armsmaster answered.

"It's pretty standard for the Union. We actually care what we do; we're villains, we aren't evil. That's why we set up the barricades, don't want anyone to randomly drive through here and get hurt. And the R-9 is just standard, we covered what we thought might be damaged, but when you have no clue who will show up, you can't cover everything." the man shrugged.

"City Hall wasn't even sure what to do. The Legal rep had to get involved because they thought we were joking." someone shouted from the barricade.

"And who is…Surge Guard?" Armsmaster was just trying to think, was this a mass-mastering, or was this a group that formed and tried to make a name for themselves by being…eccentric?

A woman in a neon yellow suit with several metal bands on her arms that had little arcs of electricity running from nubs walked forward. Her hair floated, along with a half mask that had a digital display over a mouth. She also carried a staff with two prongs on both ends that had an electricity arc between them.

"Ma'am. The PRT is here, they want to meet with you." the guy explained.

"Yes, I'm Surge Guard. I take it you're Armsmaster. A pleasure to have you be here. The Union is always glad to see the PRT, better than the Heroes Of America, a little bit of a mix-up. Any issues with the paperwork, or can we get started?" Surge Guard explained that the digital display showed a frequency of her talking, as a fluctuating line.

"Why can't all the gangs act like this?" one of the field agents asked, almost laughing.

"You're here to…do what exactly?" Armsmaster asked.

"Well, generally I plan to pester you from a distance with my electro-bidant, then get in a few good hits. We banter, I declare how evil will win, you declare how you will triumph and try and put me in jail, I retreat, and whatever damages that I haven't already covered will be billed to the PRT. We've done this before, do we need to send the info packet again?" Surge Guard asked, resting the staff across her shoulders and doing stretches.

Info packet? Did this group move into town? They were comedic villains, more suited for Mouse Protector. Even their group name sounded like it was from the Mouse Protector Power Hour Cartoon.

"Need a pen?" Surge Guard asked, pulling a pen from her pocket. Looking at it, there was a logo, of a U with an E in the middle of it.

Armsmaster looked at the paper, and just signed his name where needed. He marked no on the field agents joining in, then handed it to the man who handed it to him.

"Looks to be in order. We'll get you guys a copy and send it to ya when this is all done. Oh, by the way, we have 2 cameras recording, there and there, and a drone up there, it's recording to track any additional damages. Now, since it is a cape vs cape fight, you PRT boys want to just sit back and watch, we can talk about the benefits of joining the Goonion." the individual that Armsmaster was calling the Minion Boss for the time being.

Surge Guard walked back into the blocked-off area, and Armsmaster followed, expecting a trap or some sort of trick. This did not feel at all natural, and he needed to know what exactly was going on.

Surge Guard eventually turned and took up a fighting stance. Armsmaster got into a stance as well, ready to attack or defend from an attack, we would lead with a sedative dart, if he could, he would need to question several people to figure out what crazy stunt this was.

Surge Guard cleared her throat, "Mwahahahaha! Armsmaster! You dare stand your Ground against the mighty Surge Guard in combat! You don't seem to understand your current situation! I'll defeat you in a Zap!" The electric-based villain launched arcs of lightning out from her staff, doing no damage to the area as they missed him, but the third arc did connect, but thanks to his armor, the electricity just flowed over him and into the ground.

Armsmaster rushed forward, giving a few thrusts forward. Activating the capture, where the halberd head opened up and would wrap around the target. As the head wrapped around her, Surge Guard became a burst of electricity, jumping to telephone wires and then standing on top of a building.

"You think this is some sort of game?" Armsmaster questioned.

Surge Guard spun her bident around, before slamming it down, electricity arcing all around her. Suddenly with an arm stretched out, the arcing electricity was seemingly grabbed, before she threw it. Leaping back the disk of electricity curved up and impacted with Armsmaster before his systems reported damage from the power surge.

Bolts fired at him. Dodging the bolts, Armsmaster tried to line up a shot to hit her with a tranquilizer, before she suddenly vanished and reformed on a different rooftop.

"Where is the banter? Am I crossing your wires? Maybe you're just not Amped up. I think you should consider your own conduct!" Surge Guard shouted before she lept down and tried to stab Armsmaster.

He deflected the strike before he grabbed the woman.

"You are under arrest for assaulting a member of the PRT." He ordered.

"There it is. Watt's up? You're much more serious than I remember. Maybe we can have some coffee and talk after." Surge Guard suggested.

"You are delusional." Armsmaster stated before Surge Guard reached a handout and zapped his nose.

"Nope, Jeez, you just seem out of it. We've fought before." Surge Guard stated, as she zapped her way out of Armsmaster's grip, and spun her electro-bident a few times.

Armsmaster watched, needing to be careful. A light illuminated them from behind, Armsmaster was shocked, Purity! He turned and saw a figure of light floating in the air. Flames seemed to flicker off their form, it wasn't Purity, but it was just as bright.

"Star Child. Interrupting? Really!" Surge Guard shouted, annoyed.

The floating figure simply stayed overhead, not talking. Surge Guard then turned, looking at Armsmaster. She thrust forward her weapon. Armsmaster deflected and used the staff of the Halberd to knock up the staff, before using a wrist-mounted dart launcher on her.

The dart hit and injected her with the tranquilizer, and it would take a few seconds to work. Surge Guard looked at Armsmaster, before zapping away, jumping into a power line, and vanishing into the city.

"Looks like she left." the Union of Evil Minion stated, before clapping, "Ok everyone! We can pick up the barriers, return them to the city storage sites, and drop the trucks off where they belong. Armsmaster, if you would please sign this form to complete our iteration, and this for my daughter, she's a fan." The Lead Minion explained, holding more papers.

Whoever Star Child was, just flew away, vanishing into the city, somehow. Armsmaster looked at the supporting members of the Union of Evil picking up the barriers and loading them in onto trucks.

"What did you learn about them?" Armsmaster asked the Lead PRT field Agent.

"They are a Union, they have a decent healthcare plan, they had permits to have this, they explained that yes, this was a cape fight, yes, they would pay any damages on their part. That Surge Guard is one of their bosses, and they are planning to set up a Soft Ball League in Brockton Bay with the PRT, and other gangs for the non-powered grunts to be a part of." The lead field agent explained.

"Well, it's a non-brute and non-mover league, you could actually join if you wanted to, you just couldn't have a tinker tech bat or your armor." another explained.

"A softball league? That is absurd. This has to be some sort of mass-mastering that occurred. We need to report this to the PRT immediately." Armsmaster pointed out.

Armsmaster walked to his bike, as the PRT troopers got back in their vans, they needed to consider everything very carefully. Either this was a Mass-Mastering, or it was a new Villainous group that was very strange, it's like it was a distraction for a more maniacal type of villain.

"Console. I need you to search for information on a group. Search; Union of Evil, are there any search results." Armsmaster asked.

It took a minute, but Console did answer, The only result is one from a story on PHO, a cape fic. Now Armsmaster was even more confused.

"What about Star Child?"

It was a quick find, there was a name, but that was an article about children Capes being stars in some TV shows, and one of the programs to elevate success in academics, no heroes under that name. So many questions, with no real answers.

Brockton Bay was just seemingly a magnet for capes with ambitions, or quirky personalities. Let's hope that Mouse Protector doesn't pick up on this and comes to investigate. Clockblocker was bad enough with the puns already, his sanity wouldn't stand 3 people making puns in fights.

Chapter Text

A dark room was illuminated, showing a street map, with photos pinned to the corkboard. A man in a suit walked into the cone of light, turning to have his back to the board."

"Alright boys and girl, here's the plan." He clapped his hand.

"We will be hitting an armored car, one that is carrying a haul that will leave us set for years, I suspect. We will be acquiring some heavy vehicles, and our mountable saw, so make sure to bring your tool kits for the locks. Now, we are going to pull along the armored car. We then will ram the front of the armored car, trapping them. We then cut open the back with our saw. Once we have the back, we steal the money. We then get out, nice fast and clean." The man explained.

"How long would this take?" one asked.

"We go in, and get out, 5 minutes at the longest." The man explained, tossing the masks they were going to wear onto the table.

"Seems like the OG Protectorate's asking for donations." someone joked.

The 3 people sitting got up and put on the masks of Alexandria, Hero, and Legend. The one who explained the plan put on a mask of Eidolon. The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse would ride out, and strike it rich.

— — — 2 hours later — — —

The plan changed. It changed rather quickly at the fact that the robbers had spotted a rather fancy jewelry store that was just oh so very tempting to rob.

So after parking the van, getting out and moving with impressive careful movement, they opened the side door to the security room. They then knocked out the guard watching the cameras. Sneaking around back and opening the door, they next found the manager in their office. With a bit of tape and zip ties, they took the store manager hostage and got the access codes to disable the alarms. They could then shut the shudders, and take everyone inside hostage, where they would open the glass displays and rob the store for potential millions once they sell the jewelry on the black market.

That was the plan.

Reality was not so kind, however. They had been able to open the back door to the security room before the alarm went off because that door was a fire escape. The security guard drew his pistol, aiming it at them.

The Horsemen, wearing the mask of Alexandria, was able to get in and punch the man, knocking him out as he fell onto the table, breaking the computer set-up.

"Ok, just smash and grab everything! Quiet ways out!" the one masked as Eidolon shouted, jumping, kicking the door, and got his leg stuck in the door.

The was unlocked, and swung out. Everyone just watched as the man hobbled forward, trying to pull his leg free. The others slipped by the leader of the horsemen, before the people shopping rushed out, calling the police as they realized this was a robbery. Cases were smashed open, and the contents of the cases were grabbed and placed into duffle bags.

As they broke open more cases, the sounds of sirens got closer and louder. As the 3 finished loading the bag, the door was broken open and the Eidolon masked member fell over on his back, finally free of the door.

"We can salvage this! We are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse! We can not be stopped!" He declared, looking out the window to see the van they were using was now being blocked by a police car.

"We need a new escape." the Hero masked member shouted.

"Out the back! We can find a vehicle that way!" The Legend masked member pointed out.

As the 4 criminals ran towards the back, they busted the door down, knocking someone down with the force of the impact. Looking down, all 4 were horrified to see it was Shadow Stalker, of the Brockton Bay Ward. There was a momentary lapse of judgment as they just stood there. The Ward looked up at them.

"What do we do?"

"You're under…arrest." Shadow Stalker commanded, though dazed and struggling to not see double.

"Best you just let us by, sorry, didn't know you were there." the Legend masked member apologized as they stepped around the Ward as she tried to get to her feet.

The Alexandria masked member picked up Shadow Stalker, and sat her against the building, before running off with the rest. The horsemen continued to move to backstreets, ducking in next door, and found that they were in a hybrid car dealership, with a repair bay for the cars that were exclusively sold at the dealership.

A sports car dealership. The Hero masked member found the keys hanging by the door and unlocked the finished car. Opening the door and removing the tracker that was placed inside, the horsemen climbed in.

"Do we just wait or-?" One asked before they pressed down on the gas and drove out of the garage.

— — — 20 minutes later — — —

"So what you're saying is that 4 people wearing costume masks of the original Protectorate team came in, and knocked out the security guard. One tried to kick in the door and got their legs stuck while the other 3 robbed the displays. They left, and escaped somehow?" Kid Win asked as he got the abbreviated version of events from the police officer.

"Yep, we got their van, though it has no Vin or plates, so we are going to be looking it over for evidence, see who it may be." the officer explained.

"The PRT can be of some assistance if you let us. Armsmaster has some good scanners he can lend out for you to use, find some prints or something." Kid Win suggested.

Shadow Stalker was leaning on a broken display case, rubbing her head. She was grumbling about how it was dumb luck they got the jump on her, and she needed to add padding to her mask; she most likely was going to have bruises on her face.

Slowly stepping inside was a figure dressed like an old musketeer, with a tailcoat and decorative medals. With each step, a distinct clack was heard. The mask they wore covered their full face, and had a large grin with sleek eyes. The knee-high boots were like those of a cavalry rider's, a red and gold sash wrapped around their waist. As they stopped, all eyes turned to them.

They bowed, silent, slowly sliding a foot back to make a tap as they bounced the tip of their foot on the ground.

"Who's this guy?" The cop mumbled.

Kid Win ran the appearance through a database on his visor, finding no results.

Reaching into the pocket, they produced a card that they flicked in the direction of the officer, it slid to a stop on the counter and the officer picked it up.

"The Musician, of the Heroes Of America. Sanctioned cape. I've never heard of this guy." the cop shrugged.

"May I have a look at that card?" Kid Win requested the card be handed over to him, and he scanned it.

It was a business card, similar to the PRT's cards. "The Musician" was written in a fanciful font, making it look elegant. The back side had raised bumps; it was brail. Scanning that, it read "Musician, Heroes of America, hero". There was no address or anything to indicate where they were from.

"So…Came to introduce yourself? What's with the arrival?" Kid Win asked, confused as he just looked at the newly arrived "hero".

The Musician walked towards the back entrance, each step sounded with a click and clack. They then gestured across the road, to the Bently dealership that had you custom order your car, which they built on-site and delivered to the customer.

"The Manager is speaking with the head mechanic about how they are missing one of their orders. The mechanic believes it was delivered, but the manager does not. They have not reported this due to it being seen as bad publicity." the Musician stated.

"How can you tell?" Shadow Stalker questioned, suspicious of how he could even know that.

"I have a very fine-tuned sense of hearing young hero. Best have this be a subtle approach, they are not wanting this to be known to the public." The musician suggested.

"Are you familiar with a group called "Horsemen of the Apocalypse?" Kid Win asked, seeing if the new hero had any idea.

"Complicated hit and run group. They seem to rarely run with a plan and do things on a whim." The Musician confidently explained, "I have dealt with them before, They seemingly thrive on chaos in their jobs."

"That may be of help. Would you be willing to come to the PRT building? We can get you registered and in the system that way." Kid Win tried his luck, maybe he could get Armsmaster to ask some questions, and see if he can figure them out.

This guy was odd. New capes usually don't have this many resources before they act. Or go this unnoticed. Maybe they came from out of town and were a corporate team, or were trying to set up a new team in town.

The Musician didn't move.

"I best not. While I am willing to help, but there are those in the PRT who don't hear, ear to ear." He tapped the side of his helmet.

That is an odd way of saying it.

— — — — —

Across the city, Assault and Battery were reporting to the site of a gang fight. Empire thugs were fighting against people "armed with laser guns". It must be Coil's men, there were even reports of a figure in black that was giving orders; was Coil finally making a public appearance? This wasn't an opportunity they could pass up at all, capturing them would destroy his enterprise entirely.

As the pair arrived, they saw the forces of the empire shooting at a team of people dressed in a bright Prussian blue, with black gloves, boots, and belts. They also wore black lower face masks as they fired laser weapons that looked cursed.

Assault would describe them as the unholy child of an MP-40 and an AK-47, mixing the worst elements together and then adding a scope on top. They fired blasts of blue laser that came out the end and slammed into the building, doing no actual damage. One shot slammed into an Empire foot soldier and they fell back, no sign of injury, but they were down.

In the crowd of the blue-uniformed thugs, a woman wore a black leotard with red padding that looked like scales. Over her arm. She also wore a set of red stockings that were covered by fishnets. She moved with such fluidity towards the Empire Cape of Cricket, a new member in their cape line up.

Assault whistled in surprise, at the woman who was very much outside of the "practical" and well into the "stylish" type of costume that was reserved for brutes that had their protection extend to their clothes.

Battery looked at her partner/husband annoyed, however, she could admit. That woman pulled off that tight suit well. She was athletic, catching Cricket's arm, before disarming the pit fighter and giving the Kama a spin in her hand as she narrowed her eyes at the Empire's cape.

A second figure stood up, wearing a set of fine dress that showed off a rather ample amount of chest, but in a sexy seductress kind of way, a snake draped over her shoulders. The snake wrapped around her arm as she she carried a staff, topped by a carved snake head. Her head was covered by a large reptile skin hood.

"Go forth! Defeat them! Defeat them in the name of the Sssserpant Ssssssociety!" She hissed, before the end of the staff shot out fire, making the Empire grunts fall back as the others pushed forward.

This was a show of strength, establishing themselves at the edge of Empire territory.

"Ok, you deal with the foot soldiers, I'll go after the snake lady." Battery ordered.

"But- But I wanted to banter with the snake lady." Assault countered.

Battery didn't respond, rushing forward and going in to punch the snake lady that hissed her commands. The brute spun her staff and blocked the punch that Battery was winding up to throw. They then countered and punched Battery in her side.

Assault ran at the soldiers, snatching their guns and breaking some of them, before throwing a few into each. The Empire was falling back, in a full retreat. Assault learned that their other cape was free by her jumping on his back, wrapping her arms around his, and trying to dislocate both of his shoulders as she kneed his back and pulled back.

He tried to throw her off of him, with no luck, so his next move was to slam her into something. Jumping back with full force towards a car, the woman let go of one arm, pushed off, swung around, and twisted his held arm, before she struck with a jab to his throat, which he narrowly dodged.

"Woah! I know I'm called Assault, but you could at least give me some breathing room." He joked, looking at the woman.

Her eyes seemingly widened as Assault said his name.

"I am Anna-Conda! I guess then you won't mind if I put you in a bind." She stated, spinning her body before catching Assault's head and neck in her legs, having them cross as she choked him.

Battery caught the sight of Assault getting trapped, one arm behind his back, held tight, as he was getting choked, his full body being controlled by the other agile villain. She tried to split off, but a cord wrapped around her body, trapping her, a set of hooks catching her arm, and draining her as she tried to charge up.

"Yesssss! Thisss Sssweet victory shall be in the name of the Ssssserpant Sssssociety! And I Ssssssupreme Cobra! Will take over thisssss city!" They declared.

That was before with a blue blur of movement, the cord snapped, with a blue turning visible. The new arrival slid across the ground, took in a deep breath, and screeched, blasting away Supreme Cobra as a cone of sound projected from their mouth.

The new arrival had a body suit that was covered in crossing lines, and some padding that was spiked and studded on their legs. A set of pulsing glowing lines traveled over their body and clothes. They had a jacket that had "HOA" on the breast. They wore a black leather cap that connected to the blue visor mask they wore.

"Hey, snake. Catch!" they threw this disk, and it moved fast, throwing Supreme Cobra back, before another ran in, wearing a similar outfit.

This one had their hair tied back into a low ponytail, with black face paint over their eyes, and a grinning mask that covered their lower face. They had the same spiked/studded armor, this time on their shoulder, arms, and chest. They grabbed the cord that was wrapped around Battery, ran around her a few times, and then at Anna-Conda. With a whip that wrapped around the fighter, she was pulled off Assault and thrown at Supreme Cobra.

The two new arrivals took up a fighting stance and looked at the snake-themed villains.

"Best slither back to where you came from-" the one that freed Assault began.

"Cause you're about to be caught by-" the one that screamed continued.

"Super Sonics!" they declared in unison.

"RETREAT! You have not seen the lassssst of ussss Sssssuper Sssssonics!" Supreme Cobra pressed a button on her belt, and all of the soldiers, along with Supreme Cobra and Anna-Conda vanished as they glowed and disappeared.

Assault and Battery looked at the duo as they relaxed from the fight.

"Nice work." The man offered a fist.

"You know it." The other, who was a woman, bumped their fist before they turned and looked at the Protectorate heroes.

"Thanks for the save." Assault nodded, rubbing his neck.

Battery had a feeling there were a few stiff things on him now, and they would be talking about what happened here after.

"Hey, no problem." Super Sonic 1 or 2 said.

"Mind introducing yourselves?" Battery asked, standing next to her partner.

"Oh, yeah. I'm Super Sonic 1. This is my Brother, Super Sonic 2. We are with the HOA." Super Sonic introduced themselves, as they picked up the disk and tossed it to Super Sonic 2, who caught it.

"Didn't know the Home Owners Association had capes." Assault joked, making Battery roll her eyes.

"Yeah, hey, better than the Heroes Of Europe, 2 million euros worth of marketing and no one realized they were the Hoe." Super Sonic 2 chuckled.

Assault jerked and nearly fell forward to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"So, what does HOA mean here, because I'm guessing it's not "Home Owners Association." Battery asked, trying to get some clarification.

"Oh, yeah, sure; it means "Heroes Of America. Here's our card." Super Sonic 1 pulled a card out and gave it to Battery.

"Heroes of America, Super Sonic 1/2, Sanctioned Cape, Legacy Family"

"Legacy family? Are you related to a retired set of capes? I'm not sure if the Protectorate tracks capes that might be related. I mean they probably do." Assault stated.

"Yeah. Ummm. This may be a surprise, but….We are-" Super Sonic 2 began.

"-kind of your kids, from the future. We got sent back by the Clock-Doc to help the HOA out." Super Sonic 1 finished.

Assault and Battery looked at the two who claimed to be their kids, with a mix of surprise and suspicion.

"Our….kids?" Assault asked.

"Yep. Clock-Doc said that some issues would linger, we can't recall your names. We had to chase down the Serpent Society as they want to retroactively take control of the future -our present, your future- by taking over the past. But yeah, Clock Doc calls it temporal amnesia. We just showed up in time." Super Sonic 1 explained.

"You don't mind submitting to a DNA test would you, that's a claim we aren't quite…ready to accept on word alone." Battery asked.

"Yeah, we also have time radiation we need to shed, don't worry, it shouldn't cause anything to happen." Super Sonic 1 agreed.

"Oh, we're going to get to meet a young Major Militia. And a Young Indomitable." Super Sonic 2 sounded excited now.

"Oh fuck! You're right! We can even beat up Thor's dad in his prime!" Super Sonic 1 was matching her brother's energy now.

"This will be awesome!" They both declared and high-fived.

Battery just shook her head, this would be a very long day.

— — — — —

Across the city, with the curtain pulled shut over a window, the journal was closed as the owner finished writing details down for the day.

"Character notes" on the front. Picking up a water bottle and drinking from it, they got out of the chair, going to refill the reusable bottle.

Chapter Text

Armsmaster felt as though he needed to make sure he understood what he just heard.

"Please repeat that Battery." Armsmaster requested.

"We met some crazy people called the Serpent Society fighting the Empire and our kids from from the future showed up." Battery repeated, for the third time, "They are a part of some group called "Heroes of America"." Battery added, again, for the third time.

"Can you bring them in, we may need you and assault in M/S containment for a day." Armsmaster finally had enough of his senses to order.

"We planned that. Yeah. Just…Maybe run some DNA tests, I don't exactly trust the time travel line." Battery responded.

"We planned to. This has been weird. I don't know what was weirder, the snake villains or just the fact this felt like…those old cartoon fights, like the normal people were using just laser weapons that did nothing to buildings and objects but did hurt people. I couldn't grab one, but…if we reencounter them, we need to see what the hell they are." Battery explained.

Laser weaponry was difficult, tinkers made a variety of laser-like weapons, Kid Win's Zap guns technically were like lasers, but the energy acts were more like electricity. It made weapon testing necessary for any Tinker Projectile, one could make a laser that could stun someone, and a different tinker could disintegrate people with just one "low energy" blast.

Armsmaster looked over the report.

The Union of Evil, with Surge Guard.

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

"Musician" with the Heroes of America.

Supreme Cobra and Anna-Conda of the Serpent Society

Now the sudden appearance of people claiming to be Assault and Battery kids from the future.

Something was going on. Of course, there was also "Star Child" who showed up and vanished when he fought against Surge Guard, they were a mystery, and needed to be investigated. This had to be some plan, this was not how Cape criminal organizations act, they don't just pop into existence. Typically you can find some sort of evidence of them showing up and being built, Coil, as much as he tried to cover his tracks, some elements leaked, he mercenaries who came from all over, he had operations that stretched beyond the city.

The Union of Evil had actual permits, they were verified by City Hall; they thought it was some film project that was being done, not an actual planned fight with actual capes. There would be questions that Armsmaster, hell Piggot probably has a few questions just about the Union of Evil that needed to be answered.

Armsmaster felt that things would become very strange in the coming days to weeks. An Email pinged. Moving to his computer and accessing his Email, he noticed the heading "Footage of Fight Armsmaster vs Surge Guard ps. Flier for BB Cape Help Softball League attached". The sender's email domain was "UnionofEvil.Evil.

Armsmaster felt there was only one person he had to call to verify what he had just read—someone who rarely, if ever, made jokes. The FaceTime call rang a few times, and before it answered, Dragon smiled.

"Well hello Armsmaster, this is an unexpected call, what's the pleasure this time?" Dragon answered.

"Brockton Bay has had some…unusual arrivals recently. A crew who robbed a jewelry store, when they planned to hit an armored car. Two groups called the Serpent Society and the Union of Evil, are trying to recruit people to a Softball league that they were starting, the arrival of at least 4 new capes who may be a part of the same organization called "The Heroes of America, or HOA, no idea why "Of" is included in the acronym." Armsmaster began to explain.

"Maybe they didn't want to be called the HA." Dragon was covering her mouth, and her shoulders bounced just slightly as she heard of the softball league part.

"What's mind-boggling is they have their email domain of Union of Evil dot Evil. I am hoping to ask you if you could help me backtrack to see if this is some elaborate joke that was set up by Clownin." Armsmaster humbly requested.

"What did they send you?" Dragon asked.

"The recording of the fight I had with the villain who I am not really sure if I can classify as a villain known as Surge Guard, no they don't have a file." Armsmaster answered the preemptive question that was going to be asked.

Armsmaster would run a scan on the file, seeing if there were any modifications made, and nope, no signs of editing, just transferred extracted, copied, and emailed to him, the 3 cameras' perspectives that he would have reviewed to get Surge Guard's power rankings.

"Do you think if I responded to the Union of Evil asking for a list of members, do you think they would give me one?" Armsmaster asked.

"I don't see why they would." Dragon said, confused.

"They filed Legal paperwork, then what they did was fully legal; they paid for every bit of damage they could have caused. The PRT couldn't arrest the Union of Evil foot people, because they basically did the PRT's job in making sure there were no civilians harmed. They said they would send an info packet." Armsmaster almost complained at the madness that was the Union of Evil.

"Also Battery and Assault said they met their kids from the future who have time-radiation-based Amnesia due to being sent back in time." Armsmaster just threw it out there. "They are going to be questioned; I hope you don't mind sitting in for when I ask them some questions."

"Huh, I wondered when we'd eventually get a time travel tinker. Did they come with by chance?" Dragon asked.

"I doubt it, however, I can ask how they intend to get back to their time." Armsmaster noted.

After a few minutes of waiting, the 4 movers arrived. They came to a meeting room, and Armsmaster met them, sitting down. Dragon was watching from the cameras in the corner. Assault and Battery were being taken to M/S quarantine. Piggot had looked at him like he was crazy to create a sealed meeting room that could be flooded with knock-out gas, but this would not be the first time it had been used. It was the 8th.

Sitting down in the chairs, the Super Sonics both smiled, excited that they were here.

"So, You're Assault and Battery's kids, from the future. How far in the future are you from?" Armsmaster asked.

"About 20 years. We can't give exact info. We also do need to shower, and probably wash everything we have on, and off. Clock Doc's stuff usually doses people with Chronitons." Super Sonic 1 stated.

"Yeah, they've messed with it enough that they age weirdly. They had to make a special belt just to stop them from aging forwards and backward all the time." Super Sonic 2 stated.

Armsmaster's lie detection system understood that as True.

"What can you tell us about the Heroes of America, exactly." Armsmaster questioned.

"The Heroes of America was what the PRT became after fusing with the Guild and Las Ligas Federales in…drawing a blank here. But, yeah, That will happen, I just can't remember when. But we get sent back, well, there was a team of us, but Doc Clock has issues with the exact timing of things, so we got displaced by hours, days, minutes, seconds, months, or years." Super Sonic 1 stated.

"He always said the further a jump the harder it is to stick the landing, more people doing the jump probably didn't help." Super Sonic 2 had added.

"Ok, ok, moving on from that, how do you plan to get back?" Armsmaster interrupted before they got off topic.

"Oh, the Serpent Society took a time machine from Clock Doc, but only got the 1-way code; we have the reversal code, and just need to access the machine. The problem is, well, we don't know where it is." Super Sonic 2 explained.

"Yeah, our communication gear with Clock Doc got lost in the time stream. Our team is also lost." Super Sonic 1 added.

So far there haven't been any false readings yet.

"Ok, so who was brought here with you, or was supposed to be brought here?" Armsmaster asked.

"That would be Us. Legate and Tribune, Shadow, Musician, and Star Child." The Super Sonics listed, alternating names, "We think there's a chance of backup." Super Sonic 1 added at the end.

"Ok, just a few simple questions, what can you tell us about the Serpent Society? Who are they?"

"Snake-themed weirdos. They have some claim of being descended from some reptile people who ruled the world, blah, blah, blah, generic evil for the sake of power. They pay their dues to the Union of Evil regularly, usually like to do big spectacles, such as attacking the Hero Monument in San Francisco, they lost one of their….what did they call those?" Super Sonic 2 asked.

"The Couatl Carriers. We at least stopped them before they destroyed the statue." Super Sonic 1 answered.

"Ok, and the Union of Evil?" Armsmaster asked.

"Oh, the Union are mostly fair-play villains, they got rules, no extensive damage to structures in fights, always get your contracts signed before you do a fight, any requests for heavy equipment must be reviewed ahead of time, no fighting kids. They got the unwritten stuff too. They got a few teams, Serpent Society, Horsemen, a few independents." Super Sonic explained.

Armsmaster was swimming in an ever-increasing list of questions.

"Ok, why do you think you're the kids of Assault and Battery?" Armsmaster asked.

"Cause we are, they retired when we were born for a few years, we got our powers, they reentered the scene as mentors, Mom showed us some tricks that Madcap used since Dad trained us to capture and field control." Super Sonic 1 explained.

"Yeah. Is Major Militia here? We want to see if she's any different." Super Sonic 2 changed the subject.

"Do you mean Miss Militia?" Armsmaster questioned.

"Yeah, that should be her name at this time." Super Sonic 1 nodded.

Armsmaster looked at them.

"One final question. I'm a bit curious, what happens to the Endbringers?" Armsmaster questioned.

"The Endbringer. Oh, Jeez, they get defeated a year or two after we were born, but…It's kind of…I don't think we can actually say how they are defeated. Knowing what needs to be done and actually doing it….are very very different things, especially because it has things super specific, and can't be forced to happen." Super Sonic 1 and 2 both tensed up, diverting their gaze.

"How were they defeated?" Armsmaster pressed on them.

"I don't know.", "I can't remember." Both of those responses turned out to be False.

"Try that one again." Armsmaster leaned forward, inspecting the pair with a more cautious eye.

They knew how to defeat the Endbringers. If the hope killer, city killer, and hero killer could be defeated, once and for all now, it needed to be known. It couldn't be that unlikely. They both looked nervous as Armsmaster glared at them, trying to put pressure on them to make them answer.

Dragon then came on screen.

"Super Sonics, telling us now will save hundreds of thousands of lives that would be needlessly wasted if you don't tell us how the Endbringers are defeated. We will use this information for the good of everyone." Dragon spoke softly like a mother trying to get their kid to tell them the truth.

"Look, It's not that we wouldn't want to tell you."-" It's just that saying how is just the most ridiculous plot ever." The Super Sonics answered, worried.

"How are they beaten?" Dragon questioned.

"The PRT makes a deal with the devil. And the 3 Endbringers are beaten back in some….interesting ways." Super Sonic 1 began.

"Behemoth is teleported into Eagleton by Eidolon. He keeps it in place however he gets infected by the machine army and he makes himself go supernova. He takes out behemoth, himself, and the machine army in a blast that atomizes everything in the area." Super Sonic 2 explained.

Armsmaster had that detected as true.

"Levithan eventually attacks Egypt, planning to bust the High Dam. He and Ash Beast fought. Legend was the one who nearly hit lightspeed and did something after all the water was boiled away. Leviathan crumbled, no one knows why." Super Sonic 1 explained.

"The Simurgh faked one attack and then showed up where the 9 are. Alexandria and the Siberian fought and worked together. It was a mess. In the end, the Simurgh fell as their wings were clipped by Jack Slash, and the Siberian and Alexandria rammed it. They…they vanished after. Nobody knows what happened to her or the Siberian. The Simurgh's corpse is still quarantined, as her song continues, but nothing happens." Super Sonic 1 and 2 explained, alternating between each other.

"So the original Triumvirate kills off the Endbringers, at the cost to their own lives, and that of several S class threats." Armsmaster summarized.

"Sleeper got taken out with a weapon Dragon builds, that's something we never really learned about, so we don't know, it just….maintained a different reality around Sleeper long enough for him to be killed.

The blasphemies were taken down when the HOA formed, its first big operation. It took a lot of planning and some false orders to cause intentional confusion. The rule was to follow the directions, no matter what.

And Star Child…they dealt with Ellisburg." The Super Sonics explained.

"How did they do it?" Dragon asked.

"Oh, that was Star Child's Trigger. It took a few weeks before a combination of Shakers, Tinkers, and a few absolute brutes could calm her down. She has a belt that limits her output." Super Sonic explained.

"How much is she limited by?" Dragon asked.

"I don't know." Super Sonic 1 shrugged.

"99.95% power suppression. If she didn't have the belt we are pretty sure she would be a Blaster 10, Shaker 10, Brute 10, Breaker 10, and Mover 10; but right now she's like a 1, 3, 2, 1, 2" Super Sonic 2 stated, shrugging.

"Why all 10?" Armsmaster asked.

"Cause, she's basically a neutron star in the form of a human." Super Sonic 2 stated.

— — — — —

Double-checking her notes, the details were correct. Turning to look at the text document, they continued to add to the story, preparing it for when they would reread it for any issues. The story needed some extra details, the villain was fleshed out, along with their underlings, but she still needed the protagonist's name.

The opening chapter was focused on the villains, compared to her other work, which was a bit less serious with the villains, she wanted to make a more serious story, with a more serious villain. A shadowy Cabal who wanted to take over the world from the shadow was overplayed, so…why not a cabal who wanted to create a nation of capes, one that would eventually wage war against non-capes.

Typing out the speech given by the leader of this organization was supposed to announce the declaration to the world of their plans, their goals, and their warning.

"-The Age of Man has ended. We will establish Control! We will Establish Order! Those who are Parahumans will not obey those lesser than themselves! We will liberate our brothers and sisters from their oppression and role as show ponies! We are coming. We are the Masters of Destiny! The New Order of Power! Those who will usher forth a New Age of Parahumans!" The masked figure almost shouted before he bowed his head, letting silence return.

"I am the leader of The Order of Control. This is a warning, fight us, and you will lose." He finished the speech."

Leaning back a sigh escaped her lips.

"Trying to make a serious hero is a bit harder than I thought." Taylor told herself.

The notebooks were a good idea, she could sketch out the ideas, and make notes, and she kept them at home, with a "scrap" notebook where she could take the pages out and put in the character notes.

Chapter Text

The Number of Movers in the city was becoming a bit annoying. There were 5 with the PRT now. Himself, Assault, Battery, and now their kids from the future, who were called Super Sonic 1 and 2. The City itself had a decent number whose powers placed them in the Mover Category as well; Dauntless, Vista, Rune, Purity, Cricket, Stormtiger, Oni Lee, Glory Girl, Lady Photon and her kids, Skidmark depending on how he used his powers, Labyrinth depending on how their powers were used, Hellhound, he was probably missing a few others, but yeah, movers were very common in this City.

Now, he was in a chase with a mover who seemed to be skating around. The way they swayed side to side resembled roller skating.

"My Fair man, I've heard of chasing love, but I think you took this too literal." the mover joked, spinning around and skating backwards, as they tossed a rose at him, where did they even have that?

They continued to run, jumping up and spinning in the air, turning and skating over a car, Velocity had to jump up and ran on top of the car.

"Velocity, we have Super Sonic 1 and 2 on their way to try to capture the suspect." The Comms operator stated.

Velocity nodded. The skater took a turn, before grabbing a light pole and spun around it, going the opposite way.

Velocity was able to make the turn but was further behind than before. The problem was that they weaved between cars with ease, they were rolling over the hoods of cars and changing directions easily. They were heading towards the docks. Velocity continued the chase, updating the Super Sonics as they got closer.

Eventually, the pair did catch up, running alongside Velocity as he chased the Skater.

"Oh Hell, it's Rhinestone." Super Sonic 2 stated.

"You know who that is?" Velocity questioned.

"Yeah, Rhinestone, one of our exes." Super Sonic 1 explained, shaking their head as they ran.

"Hey, babes. Nice to see you both. So, who's the red guy?" Rhinestone smiled as she skated backwards.

"You know we broke up with you because you decided dating both of us was better than picking one." Super Sonic 1 shouted, as they sped up and tried to grab the mover.

"Oh, Supie, you know I can't let go of gems like you and your brother." Rhinestone laughed, as he came to a stop and was passed by the movers. Rhinestone made their way to an alleyway.

Velocity and the Super Sonics chased after, the two going around the buildings while Velocity went down the alley itself. The Chase for Rhinestone stopped, however, with a very, very awkward standoff having developed. Velocity was looking at a group of merchants who were robbing a store from the loading bay. Rhinestone was on the ground, rubbing their head as they had crashed into the Squealer vehicle that had a stealth field device on it.

Velocity had to carefully decide which issue was more important, a rogue mover whose only issue was they used their power in public or the robbery.

Velocity decided the Robbery was more important. Rhinestone got up and looked at the merchants.

"Well Well, what do we have here? A fancy pants with powers. How'd you like to join the real power of the Bay?" Skidmark asked with a cocky grin, showing his missing teeth.

Rhinestone looked up, before reaching into their suit jacket.

"As tempting as it would be to join up with such a uniquely scented gang, I have to pass up that opportunity sadly." Rhinestone then vanished.

Super Sonic 2 came flying in, kicking Skidmark in the back.

"Speedball maneuver always works." They laughed as Skidmark complained as he was being sat on.

Super Sonic 1 then cut all the tires and all the sound drained from the area. Super Sonic 2 covered his ears, and Velocity did the same before the only sound that could be heard was a scream. Every Merchant covered their ears, but most were thrown back from the force generated by the scream. Super Sonic 1 closed their mouths before taking a few breaths as the merchants were defeated.

She coughed and rubbed their neck.

"You know, that always leaves my throat hoarse." Super Sonic 1 said, her voice softer.

"Yeah, but you can generate a much better scream, that won't shake a building." Super Sonic 2 elbowed his sister as he walked over to her.

"Do either of you feel like explaining Rhinestone?" Velocity asked.

"Ok, so, we think it may just be a random mix of the Union of Evil people. So…we may need to plan things differently. Look, we can make a list, we can find the HOA members and see what we can guess." Super Sonic 1 explained.

"Why Rhinestone? She can't just leave us alone?" Super Sonic 2 complained.

"Could always be worse." Super Sonic 1 patted her brother's back, "It could have been the Feline-Fatale."

"Dare we ask?" Velocity crossed his arms as the PRT vans got their locations and were on their way.

"Best not. That would be shenanigans involving potential time disruptions." Super Sonic 2 shook his head.

"I'm still doubting that you are from the future." Velocity stated, looking at the two.

"Doubt all you want Thomas.". "We are from the future, Clock Doc just sucks at group time travel." The Super Sonics took turns saying.

"My name's not Thomas." Velocity stated.

"We know." "You're a Doubting Thomas." "One of our exes was hyper-religious and weird." They explained, switching back and forth again.

"That's freaky." Velocity added.

"We know.", "We just find it funny." They continued the gag.

Velocity rolled his eyes, as Skidmark woke up from being unconscious.

"Hey! Hey! You can't do this to me! Do you know who I am?" Skidmark shouted.

"A two-bit meme?" "A washed-up amateur adult video actor?" "A Luchador who lost his mask and home." "Oh I know, you're higher than the tallest buildings and won't come down." "The president's former press secretary?" "A clone of a blob fish and man?" "Someone who went bust in Vegas" "The lovechild of the elephant foot and the Chernobyl fungus?" The Super Sonics guessed, having zip-tied Skidmarks' hand and feet, placing them on his back so he was looking up.

"Well fuck you both." Skidmark was not impressed

— — — — —

Taylor struggled a bit. The latest project she was working on stumped her. She spent a good few hours trying to think of a power for the main character and then just trying to decide on the main character for the story. Honestly, it was becoming annoying how she kept coming up blank.

Going to school, Taylor felt a slight shift in the air, something was off for some reason and she couldn't quite place it. Going to the homeroom, Taylor found the person she was looking for. Greg Veder.

"Hey Greg, could you look at a list of powers for me? I'm trying to narrow an idea down, but I really can't flesh anything out to something I like?" Taylor explained, taking the folded piece of paper out and handing it to him.

Greg opened the paper, it was a list of various powers with short summaries of the powers.

Size Changing (1 inch to 100 ft, damage doesn't scale)
Attribution changer (can change attributes of an item except size and appearance through touch)
Biomass Absorption- regrows the body as long as absorbs living materials (not people)
Tinker- Mech suit builder
Hard Light item generation- uses energy from the body to form an item
Suggestion- talking compels people to do as ordered only after being answered to
Golemancy- can create golems from surroundings (touch-based summoning, limited number can be controlled)
Probability Manipulation- can only affect what be seen

Greg looked over the list.

"Ok, my opinions are that the size changer is good, maybe it can be played with "The bigger they are, the harder they hit, like the Valkyrie twins of the Empire. But you have to play it carefully because size is also your enemy.

Attribute changing is nice, 'surprise this toothpick is now as heavy as a car.' I would maybe say that's a good backup character power, cause it can be seen as overpowered if you write it poorly. And is it she had to hold the two items or can she store the attribute for later?

Biomass is a no-go unless you want a villain/anti-hero/anti-villain, you can pull off a lot depending on how much is needed to survive, like a fake death, so keep that as a backup or maybe a side character.

Tinkers are hard to guess, sorry, I'm not sure about that one.

Hard light item, that could be pretty cool, a battle of stamina vs an enemy would be interesting, any ideas on how you could explain it, do they inherently know how to make something or do they need to test and learn how to?

Suggestion when answered…that's more villain than hero, human masters are very hard to make sympathetic characters.

Golemancy…do the golems form from whatever they want or do they have a standard shape?

Probability manipulation is just kind of a bullshit power. It's like "Ah yes, I get exact instructions to know exactly what I want to have happen.

Maybe you can mix the golemancy and the hard light power; have them from something else and explode. It's an idea that could be interesting." Greg explained, pointing out issues with some powers and his idea.

"Ok, that seems…reasonable. I don't know, I like making villains, I just have issues making serious heroes." Taylor explained.

"Make an anti-hero or a mistaken-for-a-villain character. You do good work Taylor with villains, have them start as a bad guy and reform as a good guy, or change a group of villains into heroes." Greg suggested.

"But that's just crazy. How many villains going legit can you think of?" Taylor pointed out.

Greg looked up and shrugged.

"I can't think of any, maybe they changed their name or something before becoming a hero." Greg suggested.

Taylor rubbed her head.

"Maybe, it would be an interesting subversion of expectation." Taylor noted.

"So, what about your other story, the Union of Evil vs Heroes of America? Got any big events in mind?" Greg asked.

"Oh, I think I'll finally bring out the Emperor." Taylor said.

"You're kidding? You've built up the Emperor as a huge thing. It's like how we talk about 3." Greg pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. I think I'll have it show up in Haven City." Taylor suggested.

"That means Legate and Tribune. I love those two. Don't tell me, it's Pride, it's Pride isn't it, that's what this one will be." Greg sounded excited.

"I'm not going to spoil it. You can find out when it's published online." Taylor said.

"Oh come one. Just a hint, please? You've had the countdown going on for 10 chapters." Greg almost begged.

"Gregory, I am not spoiling it. Last time I trusted you with secrets you spoiled them 2 chapters before the reveal and I had to change the arc entirely to have a different reveal. Besides, I liked the Musician Rhinestone pairing, but I had to change it to be the Super Sonics." Taylor reminded him of that annoying change to the story.

— — — — —

A knocking of a gavel on the block.

"Ok, everyone. Everyone listens up;we have a few things to go over."

The first order of business is territory divisions. We have the Docks North, the Docks South, Down Town, City Center, Southern Edge, Commercial District." The head Goon stated.

"The SSSerpant SSSSociety will take the Commercial Disssstrict" Supreme Cobra hissed, declaring their interest.

"Any objections?" The head Good questioned

"What are we supposed to do? You got all the fancy shops! What are we supposed to steal? Art supplies? That's not fair for our style!" Death of the Horsemen of the Apocalypses objected.

A set of gavel strikes rang out, "No arguing. Commercial districts are under debate, moving onto the next desired claim, private discussions will be held after all non-contested territories are decided." The Head Goon declared.

Both Supreme Cobra and Death sat back down, arms crossed.

"I'd like to take Docks North." Surge Guard raised her hand.

There were no objections.

"Ok, so Docks south, who wants that area?"

"I'll take it, more space to run overall." Rhinestone nodded.

"Downtown is up next."

"We request that downtown become subject to the Red Scare. We will take down the Capitalist influence of the West in the very heart of the economic heart of the city." Comrade Dracula stated.

"Will this finally have you pay your dues? You're 2 months late, a third and you will lose the right to plan your own jobs." the head Goon stated.

"We will pay, we promise; we have simply been in hard times." Comrade Dracula apologized, earning a groan from Leninstein.

"A house is expensive to feed you know." Iron Baba Yaga stated.

"You have till the next meeting." The head Goon reiterated, not being lenient for the frequent late dues the team paid.

"Southern edge?"

"I can take it." Professor Von Metallic raised his hand.

"Ok, that leaves the areas of the City Center and Commercial district for the Horsemen and Serpents. You can either share the areas or discuss territorial claims." the head goon stated.

"Ssssshare? We can do that." Supreme Cobra nodded.

"Fine, just, if you do a big attack, let us know; we'd like to use you as a distraction for a 10% cut." Death spoke.

"20 Persssssent and you have a deal." Supreme Cobra stated.

"You get 15 and we won't use the Serpent Skin Suits." Death counter offered.

"I'm ok with that." Supreme Cobra nodded.

"Very well, so
Docks North goes to Surge Guard
Docks South Rhine Stone
Commercial and City Center are duel run by Serpent Society with Horseman
Downtown goes to Red Scare
Southern Edge has Professor Von Metallic

The next point of order, The Heroes of America followed us back in time. We need to prevent them from finding Clock Doc's time machine that we stole. So the plan is very simple. We split up the major components and divide them up into our major groups." The head Goon stated.

"I shall disassemble the device. Once its major components are separated, we can divide them up and hide them away." Metallic explained.

"Very good, Any points that feel need to be brought up?" The head Goon asked.

"I would request that if either of the Super Sonics, or Assault and Battery are defeated, I am allowed to interrogate them." Rhinestone suggested, raising their hand.

"I would request that we go after the group known as the Merchants. If I am correct, they have a tinker who builds vehicles, and I would desire to combine my Metalitrons with their specialty." Metallic suggested.

There was a pause.

"That isssss an unusssssual propossssssal Metallic. It would change the local history." Supreme Cobra hissed.

"Yes, it would. But it could aid in our conquest of the past for our future. Taking out the weakest faction in the city will be a strong step in establishing ourselves. From what I understand, the City is divided between 5 factions.

The ABB to the north, Surge Guard and Rhinestone, your issue, led by Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. Downtown is fully Empire 88 territory, with Dock South being partially controlled by the group of Nazis. The Commercial district is split by the Empire and a mastermind named Coil. City Center is mostly held by the PRT, keeping the gangs fighting in the Dock South region. The Merchants will settle wherever and are easily moved, but have some presence and maintain a large information network." Metallic explained.

"Fuckin' Nazis, we don't even have those bastards." Rhinestone spat on the ground.

Everyone agreed.

"Well, if no one has an objection to going after the group known as "The Archer's Bridge Merchants" raise your hands if you are in favor of this action." The head Goon stated.

Nearly everyone raised their hands.

"Very well, the Union of Evil will take down the Archer's Bridge Merchants and establish our organization. A letter will be drafted, and delivered to the PRT. Now, if that is all for the Cape portion, the Goonion will be meeting and discussing any change in conditions for our work with your teams." The head Goon stated.

Chapter Text

Star Child sat at the table, Musician sitting next to her while softly taping a rhythm with his fingers on the table's edge. The Heroes Of America members known as The Super Sonic Twins, The Musician, Star Child, The Shadow, Tribune, and Legate, had gathered at a meeting table, looking at a screen.

They were looking at Techno-Titan, the greatest Tinker of their age. He was on screen, arms crossed, looking over the report.

"Ok, Team, we have had you selected and assembled to chase after the forces of the Union of Evil who stole Clock Doc's time travel device. He was able to track them backward in time by finding his scanners detecting the temporal instability in the year 2010. He will be sending you back to retrieve the time machine and the members of the Union of Evil. The Supply bag, held by Tribune, will have the temporal traversal device that can be used to requisition supplies from now, to the past, where you will be. Are there any questions?" Techno-Titan asked, his mechanical mask shifting to show an expression of seriousness, with a small smile.

"Do we need to worry about paradoxes and all that stuff?" Tribune asked.

"Not necessarily. You just have to avoid any major impossibilities. Don't get someone killed if you know they are connected to your existence, don't try and find yourself if you have been born yet. The timeline should be able to correct itself for the most part since for you to have messed up, you would have to be born or exist as you are now. If you mess up to the point you can't exist, you couldn't have messed it up." Techno-Titan pointed out.

The Twins opened their mouths before Shadow had a smoky set of gags form around their mouths. They may have all the time in the past, but they didn't need 20 questions about hypotheticals. Tribune knew what the rules were, so they could answer when they had time and were tracking the Union down.

"So we just need to catch some Villains. I know some of you, a few legacies, the one who made their debut infamous. Mind sharing who I'm teaming up with?" The Shadow asked, his voice sounding clear, even through the shadows that emanated from his collar, and covered his head, showing a skull and spinal column where his head and neck should be.

""Right, so yeah, Super Sonic 1 and 2, Assault and Battery's kids; they got picked up from The Brockton Branch.. Movers, low blaster, and shaker rating with their scream thing. Members for 5 years when their parents let them join. Legate and Tribune of Haven City, Legate is a brute, Tribune is his tinker, specializes in aesthetic tech, anything can work, as long as it looks low tech. Legate is familiar with Red Scare, and Tribune is arming/running technical support." Techno-Titan explained.

"We shall show the Union no matter how far back they flee, we shall always be there to stop them." Legate boasted.

"Yes. I will try my best." Tribune nodded, before coughing a bit, while Legate placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you sure you can do this, my friend?" Legate asked softly.

"Yeah, I can handle it, just, I'll be in the chair, like normal." Tribune smiled a bit.

"Lastly Musician, Shaker, Blaster, Thinker, Cape career of 15 years, the last 6 have been with the Heroes of America, before then he was a part of a team with a different name. It's at his discretion to share that information." Techno-Titan continued.

"Thank you Tech." The Musician nodded towards the screen.

"We have Star Child, brute, blaster, breaker, shaker, mover striker, she's more meant to deal with Professor Von Metallic and Surge Guard. She's more present due to the Musician requesting her to join. Both Dragon and Arsenal approved her for the mission, I approved, she's a heavy hitter, as we all know from when she made her debut."

"I didn't choose to make my arrival at Ellisburg." Star Child pointed out.

"We know, Star. None of us chose when we got our powers; we just did." The Musician spoke softly, offering a hand, which Star Child held and leaned against the Musician's arm.

The silhouette of light that was in the shape of a human glowed softly against the fancifully dressed hero.

"And for all of you, this is The Shadow."

"Clock Doc has prepared the time jumper. If you all step on and secure the Chrono-stabilizer wristbands, you can all make the jump to the past." Techno-Titan explained before the screen turned off.

"You will be going to 2010 Brockton Bay, I was able to track down the time frame to a month, so you will be dealing with the city at its worst. The Dark Age of Parahuman action." Clock Doc pointed out.

"I still don't get why it's called the Dark Age, it had some of the most inspiring heroes." Star Child wondered.

"It was called the Dark Age because it had some of the world's largest threats. The Warlords of South America and Africa, the CUI, the Blasphemies, Endbringers, and S-class threats like the Slaughterhouse 9 at their peak. It was a mess in general, more capes died then than any other era for Parahumans." The Musician stated as he gripped the case that held his instrument, Star Child made sure the stabilizer was on his wrist properly and activated.

"Yep, and you saw it-witnessed it all." Super Sonic 2 corrected himself mid-statement.

"Yes, I did." Musician's chuckle was muffled by his mask, "I probably could at a time identify all the big names that we could encounter, I think Brockton Bay was a bit of an anomaly when it came to its parahumans."

"Bah, it's not like it will matter. We just have to find the most flamboyant and idiotic source of villainy and beat them." Legate smiled, knocking on his armor as he looked to Tribune, who shook their head, looking up at their partner.

"Brute force isn't a solution here. The Union of Evil may have done something that we need to fix." Tribune stated.

""Brute force may not be an answer, but it is a question; one that I find is best answered, with 'Yes!'" Legate shouted," Legate shouted, being his loud and boisterous self once more.

The group would be transported back in time, to capture the Union of Evil.

— — — — —

"This was written 10 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days ago. The events of the story seem to follow a semi-standard set of events, the Heroes of America Team will fight the Union of Evil in a series of battles, work with us to fight the Gangs, and return to the future.

So far, the story, and what we have encountered have mild contradictions. My interaction with Surge Guard presented itself as if we have had conflict in the past. The way they operate is more performance villainy over moral villainy. We have had patrols drive by the locations referenced as the secret bases of the villains in the story, but have had no such luck in locating any group referenced as 'The Union of Evil'." Armsmaster explained.

"So…someone predicted a very specific set of events last year as a form of a story. So….they are a precog?" Someone asked.

"There has been no repeated confirmations on accuracy. All other posts are being scanned and there have been no other statements of the future that have come to pass, this has been a 1-time event, but the number of names that have been confirmed to be accurate with cross-referenced names from the Super Sonic Twins, There is a chance that either it's a member of their team, or a precognitive thinker parahuman." Armsmaster explained

The account was a part of the Parahuman Story Community, mostly writing 2 stories. Story 1; a cape noir-style mystery where the main character was investigating into the murder of Scion, who was found dead, and was hired to find who, and how he was killed. It was complete, and revealed that Scion had been murdered on one of the few times he vanished from tracking; unpowered, no longer the invisible god-like parahuman.

The other story was the one that referenced the Heroes of America and the Union of Evil, which was set, annoyingly in an unmarked year, in the future. There were other characters that were the children of Parahumans who were popularly shipped in Cape-fics. He was surprised to discover he was the father of "Techno-titan" and was married to Dragon. They had no luck when it came to names, had some idea of the "Unwritten rules" mostly connected to cape vs cape fights, and rules about the Truce. There were a few inaccuracies, but the Unwritten Rules that were posted on PHO were incomplete, and clear because of how the public would see them, especially the secret identity protection parts.

The author even had some speculation on name changes from Protectorate Heroes becoming Heroes Of America. Miss Militia was "Major Militia", and Dauntless was "Indomitable". He had also apparently changed his name to "Arsenal", and modified his armor to have more weapons than he thought he could realistically even do with his specialty. But with Dragon…he may; it wouldn't be easy, and he'd have to sacrifice things like his mobility for firepower, but he could.

He could identify a few other capes that showed up in the future; by the power description, Panacea renamed herself Asclepius after making a bio-medicine to make a cure-all, and still worked with 'Lady Glory', aka Victoria Dallon, just grown up now.

There were a few references to the Brockton Bay Wards, and they often reflected opinions of the Wards on the forum site. Clockblocker would remain a bit silly, Vista would become a kick-ass grown-up. The joke of 'Vista with a gun' was one he didn't approve of, but the infamous "Vista's armory selection" post never died out really; she didn't let it.

Assault had also found the fic, when he wasn't laughing at some of the antics that his 'children' had faced, he still wasn't convinced, even if the DNA tests technically say Super Sonic 1 and 2 are biologically connected to Assault and Battery.

Red Scare mass brainwashing Heroes and civilians to begin a workers' Revolution, just for the Musician to work with a Villain duo named "Sister Soul" and "Rebel Metal" and undo the brainwashing with a song that was designed to be 'annoyingly catchy'.

The Horsemen stole a document of a country that technically made them the leaders of said country and then tried to sell it to the highest bidder.

The Serpent Society tried to turn everyone into Snake-HumanHybrids and used a tinker tech control rod to have them become servants of the Serpent Society, only to be defeated by Legate using "The Big Stick" Which was effectively a club that had a gravity accelerator in it to send people flying when used like a bat. Tribune had also used an Antikythera Mechanism-like computer to hack the "Snake-ification Wave Generator" and have it self-destruct.

From what he could gather, Rhinestone was more or less just the ex of the Super Sonics who was a villain, who thwarted other villains in their antics; they stole, yes, but they usually aided in capturing other criminals, though sometimes they broke villains out of jail.

Surge Guard was just a menace, stealing information, fighting, kidnapping and her largest claim of fame was creating 'The Pitch Black Spree' where she overloaded several cities' power grids leading to a multi-city wide crime spree by the Union of Evil. They were also the only member to never be captured, ever.

The story was more like a collection of disconnected arcs that were in the setting, making the story interesting, as once you know the characters, with only a few exceptions, you could go to any chapter, read, and enjoy the story that the chapter/story arc told.

Armsmaster however was worried about one thing. The Supposed "Final Endbringer" that was referenced. It had yet to actually show up, but the way it was presented, it was unlike any other current 3, it didn't destroy, but it was collecting something, taking heroes, villains, rogues, parahumans, and working to something that was unclear.

Armsmaster didn't care about the fic, he scanned it for any relevant information, the noir story was more enjoyable, having a few rough parts, the detective character making leaps in logic and explaining it later to the tag along when they asked questions. The idea that Scion would let himself be killed was just crazy; he was the greatest hero in the world, unmatched by anyone.

He would have someone in the PRT keep a loose eye on the story to see if they updated and revealed more; then they could covertly reach out, and try to have them come to them.

But that wasn't his main focus now.

— — — — —

Andromeda Dayton nervously looked at the school. She was supposed to blend in here? Well, she might as well try, she was just glad that Tribune had been able to create an approximation of an academic history, under the cover of homeschooling following federal regulations at the time. She was supposed to be a normal schoolgirl, but…she must have drawn the short straw. Though, Tribune was also with her; his coughing was a reminder that he was there.

"Well, I guess we go in and join the kids our age in class…What's the worst that could happen? It's just high school." Tribune said, looking up at the sign "Winslow High".

High School couldn't possibly be as bad as fighting a robot army, or the Serpent Society. Right?

Chapter Text

Purity was annoyed. She was out fighting the ABB, she was destroying a place that seemed like a good storehouse. She leveled the building with a strong blast. Now, however, she was trying to dodge a new cape that was using a sling and throwing stones at her. It was mildly annoying until the stones began to explode when they got close.

She was now trying to dodge the explosives being thrown. The Roman-looking guy wasn't the only one she had to worry about either. Nearby a person with black flames around their head was assembling something, just pulling black wispy shapes out of the flames and assembling them. Attempting to blast that one had been utterly pointless cause the black flames ate her blasts, feeding the flames to the point they seemingly formed a shield for him. So now she was just dealing with the grenade slinger.

They must have been from out of town, trying to fight the Empire, they were fools. She was doing good damn it! She was fighting a gang and probably destroying a storehouse for drugs, or weapons. The ABB was a menace she could fight, Coil was too slippery, and the Merchants were only dangerous with their scrap metal vehicles their blonde druggy bimbo made.

Another explosion pushed her to the side when she was trying to charge up a blast. She should just leave, fly away, but these two were insufferable. Fresh triggers were often annoying, at least one had decent-looking armor and a costume, Roman segmented plate armor, with a golden face mask that was secured with a laurel crown of gold. The other just had what looked like a bomber jacket, and some shin guards on a pair of jeans, the Black flames around the head being all that hid their identity.

Speaking of the black flaming-headed cape, what had he assembled? It looked like a gun…kind of. It fired and Purity realized what it was, a Bola gun. The shadowy bolas flew wide missing. The shadowy contraption dissipated in his hands, before the Roman guy went over, and grabbed the shadow flames guy. Purity was more stunned when she watched him throw them at her. These two were idiots.

The throw was very much short, It missed her entirely. Except that didn't seem to be the plan. Pulled from the flames was a crossbow, one that fired not a bolt, but a ball, and was right next to her, when it burst.

The black dust covered one side of her, thankfully it didn't seem to feed on her energy reserves. She tried to burn it away with her light, but no such luck. She couldn't even form a blast in her hand that was covered in the stuff.

'This better wash off.' She thought to herself, annoyed as she looked down and then decided, that just flying away was better than dealing with these two. Flying away, Purity left those two idiots well and truly behind. She would go through downtown, then maybe circle to her apartment. Let's just hope her clothes won't be stained, all white was a pain, and she didn't have a lot of bleach on hand, and it would be hard to explain why she needed to wear a white body suit and gloves.

Legate and Shadow watched as Purity flew away. Legate stretched, his body rekniting muscles, and skin, resetting bones, regrowing skin patches, even his body hair was back.

"Well, we seemed to throw that glowing bitch away." Legate smiled, resting his fists on his hips, looking at the sky.

The Shadow groaned from the gravel roof he landed on.

"Why." He weakly voiced.

"We needed to get closer, and I doubt you could have thrown me." Legate answered.

The Shadow rubbed his face as if that made any sense. He at least had some of his ash that he could use. If anything, it was a good middle finger to whoever it was behind that glow. That stuff stained everything, the only way to clean it was steam cleaning it, and washing it just made it spread.

"So…Do you think that was Star's mom?" Legate asked, just looking up.

The Shadow slowly sat up, still in pain from the rough landing.

"If it is then I wonder who would be dumb enough to steal a baby from that woman." he groaned, finally getting onto his feet.

A fight against past villains was not something that was really planned. The Shadow was recruited for this mission to fight Surge Guard. Legate and Tribune would deal with the team of Red Scare, they were from the same city after all. Star and Tribune were supposed to attend high school to not be suspicious, and maybe they could find info out.

Musician was doing his gimmick for intel gathering. The Super Sonics were with their parents, or was it those who would become their parents? He had met the Super Sonics' parents, they didn't really seem like the duo that was Assault and Battery, at least from videos of interviews and people talking about their interactions with the duo. Must have been raising those two that changed how they act.

"Legate, I have to ask, why did you want Tribune to go to high school? He has a PhD." The shadow asked.

"He has a piece of paper that says he is intelligent, but he lacks any understanding of how to deal with people. Besides, he needs to be out of his workshop." Legate finally stopped posing, falling face first on the ground, a dart in his back.

Shadow Stalker was standing behind him.

"He does like talking." She pointed out.

"Honestly that's probably better than if he was left conscious." The Shadow rubbed his aching back.

"So, want to help me beat up some weaklings?" Shadow Stalker asked.

The Shadow sighed as he walked to a ladder, sliding down and into an alleyway. Shadow Stalker landed next to him, looking at the skull-headed cape as he approached a motorcycle. He flipped his leg over the seat and sat down. The black flames spread, turning the body all black. The bike started.

"Gonna just leave him?" Shadow Stalker asked, pointing her thumb up towards the roof.

"If anyone is dumb enough to try and hold him, they will learn how hard that is. Besides, I want to know what this city has to offer." The Shadow chuckled.

Shadow Stalker climbed on the back, holding onto the seat before the bike sped out of the alleyway. The Vigilante turned Ward finally felt that she had someone who understood that if you were dumb enough to underestimate your allies, you were never going to be a good hero, besides, this guy was cool, he felt like a predator, just like her.

— — — — —

Thomas Calvert was sitting across from the Super Sonics, they were going over some fight that they had with the Union of Evil in the past. Professor Von Metallic was a tinker, he made robots, robots that broke with a bit of force applied to them, but robots all the same.

"So, that's when PVM began to monologue, how he was so smart that we would be worn out by the hordes of his metal men who would allow him to rule. We were busy throwing these things, they broke easily enough that the plan was containment. That was our job, we were running and using the Sonic screams to knock them into piles." Sonic 2 explained.

"Little did we know that Metallic had multiple machines active and pumping out his Metalitron. He had the standard humanoids. But he was also producing his Gophers. They were sneaking past the containment line and erupted in the back lines.

Some of us got surrounded, but the plan was just the same, break them faster than the workshops could create." Sonic 1 explained.

"An hour later, we hadn't made much progress, but an idea was hatched. Star Child does produce an electro-magnetic field, the issue is she also produces similar heat. That was when Dragon and Arsenal worked together and took one of Dragon's crafts to channel directional signal scramblers and reworked it to make a wave to direct Star's excess energy at the Metalitrons. So we had to buy them time to do that." Super Sonic 2 explained.

"So did that work?" Calvert asked.

"Surprisingly well. It flash-melted the craft, but the Metalitrons were deactivated and we stormed the workshop. Too bad e also found out Metallic had made a hyper-realistic decoy that was doing this. He left a note saying he was on vacation and he told his decoy to "Be annoying and do something to get on the news." Super Sonic 1 leaned her head on a fist.

"Did it?" Thomas asked.

"We didn't put it on the news, left a note, and had his robots pressed into a giant cube, workshops included. Technically we couldn't arrest him cause he wasn't responsible in a legal sense, none of the actions taken were by him or explicitly ordered by him." Super Sonic 2 rolled his eyes.

"Well, that certainly is interesting. Do you mind if I ask you, what's Brockton Bay like in the future?" Thomas asked.

"Eh, same old, same old. Someone wants to see the site where the Empire collapsed, or where Lung Surrendered. There's New Wave HQ, that's a popular spot. Sometimes the old Rig is toured, the Ferry stops there and drops people off, it's a museum for the PRT." Super Sonic 1 nodded.

"What about Coil?" Thomas asked.

"Who?" The twins asked at the same time.

Thomas looked at them, surprised.

"Coil, he's a major player in the underworld of the city. I happen to be a part of a task force trying to locate and take him down, as a special consultant." Thomas explained.

"Never heard of him. Must have been some low-tier villain. We never heard of him." Super Sonic shrugged.

Thomas looked, surprised, and annoyed. His head bowed and with a sigh of possible frustration.

"Just when I hoped that I would have a lead beyond 'he employs mercenaries'. Coil has been a pain in our side for months now. He's been slowly taking over the city and has somehow stayed steps ahead of us the entire time since he showed up. We've had a few close calls where we almost got a team but every trap the PRT sets, he seemingly knows what will happen. Maybe you could go and do something to catch him." Thomas stated, annoyed, before he leaned back.

"Huh. Sounds like a pain to deal with, but we never heard of him, mom and Dad never talked about him, so….must not have been that important to them or the city since he's just…forgotten." Super Sonic 2 stated.

Well, thanks for what you could share." Thomas stood up and walked away quickly.

Assault sat down across from his future, maybe his kids.

"So, you got an earful from Calvert? Yeah, the Coil stuff is making him crazy. I think Armsmaster is going to be asking the Director to remove him from the team and put him on the Merchant investigation team." Assault explained.

"Huh, neat." Super Sonic 2 stated.

"Yeah, so, me in the future, am I a cool fun dad, or what?" Assault questioned, leaning forward.

"You signed us up for wrestling and Ballet." "You were very vocal at all the matches and dances." The Super Sonic alternated their speech again.

"Well, I guess you were the leading lady?" Assault asked, looking at his daughter.

"I was ballet. Gave me better footwork overall. I usually was the one who did the lifts, sometimes I had to make sure no one hurt themselves with a riskier stunt." Super Sonic 2 explained.

"Yeah, I wanted to wrestle 'cause you took me to a pro wrestling event. Fell in love with that stuff. Was annoyed when it wasn't like the sport, but I sucked it up, besides, I get the practical and the impractical moves in costume." Super Sonic 1 clarified.

Assault looked at them both with some pride. He was the cool supportive dad that he hoped to be. "What about Battery? What is she like?" Assault asked.

"Mom is serious most days, but she's lenient. She pushes us to be good people, sometimes working on the rules, sometimes not working on the rules. Being moral isn't always being Lawful." they continued in the Twin speak.

"Ok, ok. Any advice you can give?" Assault asked.

"Nope."

"Not touching that area of discussion."

The Twins looked a bit sick by that question.

"Oh come on. I just wanted to know if you could tell me if I am going to do something dumb in the future and if I can avoid it." Assault pleaded.

"No Dad. If you screw up, it's cause you screwed up yourself, not on us." Super Sonic 1 said before standing up, then walked away.

Assault looked at Super Sonic 2.

"Whatever you do, do not ever tell the Valkyries twins they have a nice ass. You will be caught and they will sit on you." Super Sonic 2 quickly explained, before walking away.

Assault debated if being sat on by the Valkyries was something he would accept or not. His puppy, sure, but the Nazi giants…that was a different matter, one he wasn't sure if he could answer with a focused conscience.

— — — — —

Taylor was tapping her pencil on the sketchpad, trying to think, that the main villain group would have 3 main leaders, with varying numbers of underlings under them.

There was the one who would manipulate you into acting how he wanted, the one who would get control of you the more you fought him, but what should the third member's thing be? Manipulate… control… and dominate? Dominate how? Physically and in batter? Yeah, that sounded good.

They would be a more standard "combative" cape. Glancing around, Taylor's eyes looked at the posters on the wall….nah, maybe inspiration from a book?

'I'd you see the Wrestling match Last night? Oh yeah! It was awesome. That double-body slam was epic! That had to have been an on-the-spot thing.' Taylor overheard some boys talking about it.

Taylor stopped tapping her pen, that was an interesting idea. Parahumans never really got into pro-wrestling, except when it was more of a "special guest event" Alexandria's with the "Women of the Wrestling World" was one of those posters Taylor knew she could never get a real copy of. She wasn't into pro wrestling, but the image of Alexandria flexing with two beautiful and athletic women, who were at the time women's tag team champion title holders, sitting in her flexing arm as she hovered over the others. It was something a lot of people liked. She thought Miss Militia may have done something once, she was like a guest referee during her "the flag is a part of who I am" issue. Maybe a gladiator theme.

The homeroom teacher came in, with two new students. One was a girl, with bright blonde hair, she wore a crop top with jeans that had a belt buckle on it. She held her bag on one shoulder and looked at the classroom. The other was a boy, with black choppy hair, he wore a baggy sweatshirt and some sweatpants, his bag was a satchel.

The teacher just pointed to the empty chairs, which just happened to be next to her. They both walked over to the seats and sat down next to her.

"Hey, I'm Mark." The boy said.

"I'm Andromeda." The girl was introduced.

Taylor looked at them, closing her notebook. They were new, but she had a feeling that Emma would make them be bullies to her, or convince them she was a part of the Empire, or Merchants or something dumb like she worked at an ABB brothel. No reason to be friendly with them now, it was just a matter of time.

"Taylor." she said.

"Nice to" Mark started to cough, covering his mouth with his sleeve. The coughs were deep, painful even, "Meet you. Sorry." He wheezed a bit.

Taylor felt bad now, this guy was going to be like her, Greg, and a few others. Andromeda was going to be snatched up by the popular girls though.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you. What were you working on?" Andromeda asked.

"Just…something kind of silly." Taylor tried to change the topic.

"I mean, it can't be bad. We're new and need to meet people." Andromeda leaned over.

Mark seemed to be flustered as he tried to lean back so Andromeda wasn't pushing him over. Taylor looked at her sketchbook. And then opened it, showing a few characters.

It was a nameless character wearing a body suit, goggles, and a shoulder cape that rested on both or just one shoulder. The mask either covered the full face but let her hair flow or was a goggled domino mask that left the hair fully free.

A few names were in the corner. 'Khepri', 'Golden Scarab', 'Scarab" "Dawn Bringer" and "Aurora Eos".

"Oh, are you making a Cape comic?" Andromeda asked, sounding interested.

"It's a story, I'm still working on everything." Taylor closed the book and held it a bit closer to her.

She held the sketchbook closer, hoping to not have one of her tormentors overhearing and ruining the things inside, it was a lot of ideas.

— — — — —

Sitting in a rather luxurious chair in front of a fireplace, a wealthy woman in a comfortable smoking jacket was handed a phone by her butler.

"Hello?" The woman asked in a sensual voice.

Listening to the phone, the woman nodded. She set the phone down.

"Alfred, it seems I am going to be making a trip across the country. I will be away for a few weeks to scout business opportunities on the East Coast." the woman stated.

"Very good ma'am." Alfred the butler bowed and stepped out.

The woman stood up and walked over to a bust of Hero before she lifted the head to reveal a button, a bookshelf slid aside and revealed a firemen's pole.

"Quick! To the Mouse Hole!" She declared, sprinting full speed to the firemen's pole.

Sliding down quickly, jumping and sliding down the pole. Upon landing upon a pad, the woman now stood in a set of tights and armor, with a cloak that had mousy ears on her head. She adjusted the mask that gave her little whiskers on her cheeks.

The wide platform that had the Mouse Mobile slowly rotating on it, with several trophies of previous victories, and those that honored fallen friends, her armory with the Shield and sword resting on the rack, along with the utility belt that held many of her gadgets.

She rushed to the Mouse-Crime Computer (a laptop connected to a TV), and read the report.

The most dastardly of evil-doers were in Brockton Bay, and there was only one person the Director of the PRT could think of to stop them. To foil these villains of cheesy nature, the only hero who could stop them was-

MOUSE PROTECTOR!!!!!

Jumping into the Mouse Mobile, the jet engine fired, the wheels began to spin and she sped out the ramp, the fake wall moving aside and letting the Mouse Mobile speed out of the cave, at a blistering 10 miles per hour.

The small car drove down the road into the back of a transport van. The Transport van then started up and drove down the road. It was a long drive to cross the country, but when you don't have the PRT offering you transport, sometimes, you just need to enjoy the small pleasures.

Sliding in the CD, the first song began.

"Na na na na na na na, MOUSE PROTECTOR! Na na na na na na na!
Fighting mousy crimes with oh so cheesy action, MOUSE PROTECTOR!
Na na na na na na na, MOUSE PROTECTOR has come to save the day!"

Chapter Text

Triumph was awkwardly being glared at by Assault. An unease that bore into him for most of the time the two were in the same room. He had no idea wh-

Rory’s eyes slowly moved over to the Super Sonic twins who were talking with Aegis.

They were movers…but they also had a blaster sonic scream ability that they charged up. It wasn’t, they couldn’t possibly be. They didn’t look anything like him. What could the chances be that he-

The stare from Assault felt like he was trying to make him shrink with his mind. Assault and Battery were a happy couple, just like how the New Wave families were all happy families before, early on. He’d met them when Vicky was celebrating her first big arrest, it was a merchant, but it was still her first victory, and New Wave celebrated, and he was a Ward, he was invited to party.

Rory may need to talk to the twins, and to Assault to ease the aggressive theory that may be forming in his mind.

As he stood up, he was approached by Armsmaster.

“Triumph. We are scheduled for a duo Patrol. Best gear up and meet me on the platform.” Armsmaster explained

Rory looked at the leader of the Protectorate team. He could talk to Ethan later and get all this cleared up. Rory respected Battery. She was a good teammate, and sure, when he was a little kid and she was still a Ward, he had a kid crush, but he didn’t have powers and didn’t think he would ever have powers or know her personally.

He went to the locker room and got his gear on. Maybe just a patrol would be good to clear his mind, and let him think and organize his thoughts. Heading down, the platform was a helicopter that would ferry them to the PRT building, where they would then go inside a PRT transport van on patrol.

“Sir, I would like to talk to you about the SuperSonics.” Triumph requested.

“What is it you want to talk about?” Armsmaster asked.

“Look, I…I was just thinking. They’re Movers, that part of their abilities makes sense from their parents, but the screaming part of their power…I don’t see where it could come from.” Rory stated.

“Genetically, they are a combination of both Assault and Battery, with minimal genetic variation. As for the power variation, while we understand how powers form, there are still mysteries that we do not fully understand. The most obvious example we can see is how Brandish and FlashBang lack flight or enhanced strength, but their daughter developed flight and a force field around her.” Armsmaster explained while he leaned back against the wall.

“I guess that’s a bit of a relief.” Triumph sighed, as he sat in the back of the transport.

“The other members, I am worried about. Shadow Stalker claimed to have run into The Shadow and Legate in a fight against Purity. Legate is a brute who regenerates. The Super Sonics even claim his brain being destroyed will just slow him down as it regenerates. The Shadow was reported to have changed how a bike works just by infusing it with his shadows, allowing him to drive the motorcycle without a key. Those are unseen powers, they are much stronger than we expected.” Armsmaster explained.

“From how it pounds, all of them are a lot stronger than expected. The walking star in the city that destroyed Nilbog sounds dangerous.” Triumph explained.

“Makes you wonder what made her like that.” Armsmaster.

A very loud crashing sound came from above them as if something had landed on top of the van. Armsmaster gripped his halberd, ready to attack if the roof was torn open. Triumph clenched his fists, taking in deeper breaths, getting ready to scream. The van came to a stop before the mask of Musician showed itself from one of the windows.

“I must apologize for dropping in, I had to make sure Star got to school safe. Mind if I join?” He asked.

‘How did you land on the top of the van?’ was the first question he wanted to ask.

“Get in.” Armsmaster stated, Musician pulled his head free from the door, and which was opened, before he swung in, showing some impressive flexibility.

He slowly stood up, a violin case on his back, the mask having a wide smile on it.

“Been a while since I’ve done that.” He groaned, standing up.

Armsmaster studied Musician for a few seconds.

“How can you see out of that mask? It’s a plate of ceramic.” Armsmaster asked.

Musician turned to look towards Armsmaster.

“With great difficulty.” Musician explained before he sat down next to Armsmaster.

“Look, I overheard a few things. Apparently, the Empire has a shipment of stuff they are moving it and selling it to someone along the coast. Near a place called the Boat Graveyard. From what I could hear, it seemed as though this would be the payment for reinforcements to the Empire.” Musician stated.

“How did you learn this?” Armsmaster asked, suspicious, “This would be a major bust if true.”

“You’d be surprised what nazis will talk when they think they are safe. I normally do scouting while out of costume. Most people don’t pay much attention to me. No, it’s not part of my power, I lack a stranger aspect, I just happen to overhear the phone call through a wall and a car.” Musician explained as he tapped sat with his legs crossed and leaned back on the van wall, looking carefree in his posture.

“You’ve been busy. I take it you want this bust to be your team’s big debut to the city, rather than a series of disconnected appearances, announcing yourselves to both the public and the villains?” Armsmaster explained.

“It could be useful, send a message, and make waves.” Musician stated.

“And it gives us a separate team that will be hard to track. No one knows who they are, they lack a history, so having them active lets us counter the new influx of villains and our existing population, with only minor strain.” Triumph theorized.

“Musician. I want to ask a few questions to you. We found a PHO account that documented several events that you took part in, mostly from the future. Do you mind answering me a few questions, I just want to confirm a few things.” Armsmaster explained.

“Go ahead. I will do my best to answer.” Musician didn’t turn his head.

“What happened to Ellisburg?” Armsmaster questioned.

“StarChild triggered there. She had no idea what her limits were like, and the entire place was essentially obliterated. Every building was burned away, a good hole nearly a quarter mile down. Took a while before she powered down. I only heard about it later, never seen it myself.” He chuckled a bit at the last comment.

“And myself, you know me in the future?” Armsmaster continued his questioning.

“Armsmaster…you renamed to Arsenal, right? Wait you wouldn’t know that. Yeah, I am aware of you. You got a regional position, and you married Dragon. Heard it was beautiful, and had a music group, the Song Birds. I think that’s what it was, they played the wedding and the reception. You kid’s good, moved up the ranks fast due to his tinker ability and leadership skills. He’s a divisional leader on the East Coast, you’re technically the Executive director of the Eastern SeaBoard Heroes Of America.” Musician explained.

“What about me?” Triumph asked.

Musician tilted his head down, looking towards the ground.

“Honestly I barely remember PRT stuff, you might have joined the Heroes, you might have retired, I don’t know.” Musician shrugged.

— — — — —

Taylor felt awkward, Mark and Andromeda didn’t really leave her alone, they were in the same classes, and they were treating her like a person. Then Emma came up behind her.

“So, you’re the new girl? Well why don’t you ditch this loser, you don’t want to be associated with someone like her.” Emma stated.

Andromeda looked at Taylor, then to Emma, looking her up and down.

“Who the fuck starts a conversation like that? What are you? A cliche bully?” Mark asked.

“I wasn’t talking to you. I don’t care who you associate with you corpse.” Emma insulted.

Mark may look a bit pale, but he wasn’t that bad.

“Now hold up just a-” Mark had to stop his protest as he began to cough, he clenched his fist and hit his chest.

Emma and her posse backed up as Mark coughed. It sounded like it hurt, with how deep and hard it sounded.

“Christ, he probably has Tuberculosis with a cough like that. Must have gotten it from a Merchant.” Madison stated.

“Not quite.” Mark said, rubbing his throat, his voice a bit hoarse now.

“Yeah, don’t care. So, new girl, why don’t you hang out with us?” Emma asked.

Andromeda looked at her.

“No.” Andromeda answered.

Emma paused, she was denied…that was rare and she felt conflicted at that fact. Andromeda stood up, she was just a bit smaller than Emma. Emma smirked, looking at Andromeda.

“Come on, we can be good friends, and better than Taylor ever could-” Emma was cut off by spit landing on her face.

There was a pause to seemingly everything. Taylor just watched, her jaw dropping as Emma was seemingly frozen by the audacity of the action. Her followers were stunned as well, not sure what to do.

“When it would be rude to spit on the ground in the presence of a queen, the only polite thing to do is spit in her face.” Mark said, somehow topping the poetic nature of the events that just happened.

“So, that’s how it’s going-” Emma was cut off again as Andromeda spit again, this time it went into her mouth, making the redhead gag.

“You bitch.” Madison stepped forward.

Mark stood up and walked over.

“Oh and what are you going to do, sick boy?” Madison asked.

Mark didn’t say anything, he just stood there, giving her a dull, lifeless stare. His eyes were as open as wide as they could be, he leaned in slowly, his eyes boring into Madison as she felt…nervous. He continued to lean in, a hand slowly reaching towards her, before Madison backed up several steps.

Mark seemingly stumbled forward, as if he couldn’t properly walk, no, he stalked forward. Madison watched as he blinked, one eye at a time while he looked at Madison.

“Freak.” She said, her voice trembling just a bit.

Mark stood up and coughed a few times into his sleeve.

“Better to be odd and remembered than be boring and forgotten.” Mark answered, “Besides, I won’t remember most of you anyway.” Mark waved them off.

Andromeda walked away from Emma and sat down.

“You can just go away. Honestly, you’d be more boring to be with. If you take prioritizing making a girl feel bad more than being a good person. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were being paid by the Empire to do this, just because something has some bullshit idea of her name or appearance. Honestly, she looks beautiful, she’s just not your standard of beautiful, because you have as much depth as the spit on the ground.” Andromeda stated.

“I will ruin you, you bitch.” Emma stated.

“Good fucking luck, worse people have tried harder and failed.” Andromeda stated confidently.

Taylor looked at the two, shocked.

“You just made yourself a target.” Taylor told them.

“Eh, they don’t scare us.” Andromeda smiled.

“You Dad, now they would be scared of him.” Mark smiled and looked at Andromeda.

“My dad is a saint.” Andromeda protested.

“Saint of torture maybe.” Mark said with a smile, it was a joke…it had to be.

— — — — —

Kaiser, along with the Valkyrie twins, Victor and Othala were waiting. The buyer would be showing up soon, they just had to hand off the guns to the agent, and the Gesellschaft would send over a set of new capes.

“I heard the PRT got two new movers, that can use a sonic scream.” Victor was continuing a conversation with his wife, but Kaiser was listening in on it now.

“They like their Movers, no Changers or Brutes, hell even a Trump, no, Mover, Mover, Mover.” Othala rolled her eyes.

“With how much they lag behind us, it’s their only chance to catch up.” Victor joked.

“What I wouldn’t give to fight with someone who could match us.” Menja stated.

“If someone could, it would be like fighting at normal height.” Fenja stated.

“The Protectorate are fools thinking that adding more Movers will do anything to stop us.” Kaiser said.

“Yeah, but what about those snake fucks. They attacked our people and ran away. Coil must be thinking he’s funny to dress his people up in costumes. They must have gotten a new Tinker with that new team of his.” Kaiser said, dismissing the threat, ‘Serpent Society’ What kind of name was that?

Kaiser stood, his arms crossed, before the holes in the boat began to illuminate, as if a spotlight was illuminating them, but much brighter.

Had Purity finally decided to go against them? Had she somehow tracked them? There were no rotors of helicopters, so it was either Purity or-

The sudden opening in a wall, created by a pair of distinct snaps made everyone turn. The wall fell open and a man dressed in Roman plate armor rushed forward. Kaiser turned to try and planned to have him pinned by his armor. The man didn’t stop, as he had the inside of his armor stab into his body. The man slammed into Kaiser, wrapping his arms around the metal suit before he lifted and body-slammed him into the ground.

Kaiser was caught off guard by such a bold and reckless move. He made a beam shoot out and launched the man off of him.

“Fool, do you know who I am?” Kaiser demanded.

The man got up and rolled his arm and twisted at the waist.

“Kaiser, leader of the gang Empire 88, largest gang of racial supremacists, second largest drug running operations,  and first in gun running in Brockton Bay. Control and creation of metal.” the man grinned.

“Well, seems like he does know.” Victor stated, drawing a knife and getting in a fighting position, as Othala gave him electrical power.

From the opening, two more stepped in, one with a head of black flames, the other holding a violin.

“You best surrender now, make this easy on us all.” The violin-carrying man stated.

“Fenja, Menja, take care of those who. Victor deals with the Romans. I am going to see who it is outside.” Kaiser stated.

The twins grew 5 feet, the large space in the hull letting them move with ease. The twins first targeted the one with their head on fire. The spear-carrying Valkyrie tried to bat him aside, only for the bow being drawn across the string of the violin to sound, and the pair were unexpectedly pushed back by waves of force.

“Shadow, go after the Trump. I can deal with these two.” the violin-carrying blaster stated.

“Whatever you say, Musician.” The Shadow reached into his flames and withdrew a baton.

Kaiser stepped out and saw what was created that bright light, it was a floating silhouette of a person. Kaiser felt the Hot winds blowing as they hung overhead. It was hard to look up towards, they burned so much brighter than Purity. He noticed Cricket and Storm Tiger being tag-teamed by a pair of fast-moving red blurs of people.

He was annoyed, he wished he had more flyers, like Purity. He summoned a pillar, having it shoot from the mast. As the tip got closer it began to glow, and melt. The pillar missed and broke, before an arch of fire swooped off of the body and down towards the ground, laying a swath of fire near him, barely dodged by him jumping out out of the way.

From where Kaiser walked out, he saw the Roman thrown against a wall, as Victor blasted him with electricity. The man was laughing as he struggled to get to his feet, electricity still arcing off of his body.

“Fenja, Menja! Take the roman! I got the musical freak.” Victor requested.

Menja took the simplest approach and threw her spear, it impaled the man, trapping him against a wall. He pressed on it, trying to pull it out, as he coughed.

“That’s gonna take a bit to grow back.” He groaned.

Victor rushed towards the black flame-headed man, grabbing him and throwing him to the ground before he pressed a knife against the exposed spine of the flames.

“This is what you get for targeting my wife.” Victor stated.

“You’re like 30, and she looks 20, I thought she was maybe your sister or cousin, not yo-” Victor slammed the pommel of his knife into the base of the skull, shutting him up by knocking him out.

Victor looked at the violin-carrying hero and grinned.

“You know, I always wanted to learn to play the viol-” Victor was suddenly enveloped as the ground around him shot up dust.

Victor narrowly deflected a blade strike aimed at his arm. He however did receive an elbow to his face, making him stumble back and try to regain both his vision and awareness. Victor tried to blast electricity out, just to find his time run out.

“O! Need a refresh!” Victor shouted.

A draw of the bow across the violin, Victor prepared, before the man rushed forward. With a thrust of the bow, Victor saw the needle-like point on the end, and the razor-thin back on the bow. Victor was able to grab the man’s hand, before knocking the Violin bow from his hand.

“I’m going to break that fiddle of yours over your head!” Victor roared, as a hand pressed on his back.

Victor waited to be told what it was, perhaps pyrokinesis. The hand turned to a fist and Victor looked back, seeing it wasn’t Othala, but rather one of the SuperSonics, the sister.

“Sup. Hey, Musician.”

“Sonic 1.” Musician nodded before he clapped and Victor was hit by a clipboard across the face.

Super Sonic 1 then pulled Victor back and threw him out of the hull.

“I’m going to kill you and your fucking brother.” Othala shouted as she was wrapped up in wire.

The Shadow stood up and carried Othala on his shoulders.

“Cry about it in the PRT’s cells.” The flaming-headed hero stated.

Legate finally pulled himself free of the spear, his armor showing the fist-sized hole that was made when he was stabbed.

“Where did the Giants go?” Shadow Asked.

“Ran, I think they grabbed their boss. My brother is dealing with Cricket.” Super Sonic 1 explained, before a roar was heard, “Let's just get these two captured and we’ll have a good start.”

Super Sonic 1 ran and grabbed Victor, carrying him towards the PRT van that was a few blocks away. The Shadow sighed before he pulled out the tape and slapped it over Othala’s mouth before he climbed onto his Motorcycle. The bike was silent as it ran, black smoke trailed behind The Shadow as he drove.

Star Child was still floating overhead, she was supposed to deal with Purity, if she showed up, and denied any flyers an escape.

The plan was simple, a pincer attack that was being monitored by Tribune with his Eagle drones. The Super Sonics blitzed one side while Musician, Legate, and The Shadow breached the other side. Star Child’s light illuminated the area like a miniature sun, solar winds, and the occasional small solar flare flickering off her.

The objective was to strike and take down a few members, they would at least capture 3 of the 7 present. Stormtiger was knocked out as he was slammed into a car by a flying dropkick.

The advantage they had was this wasn’t being marked as an operation, until after it was completed, the same way New Wave files reports. The Van just happened to be parked nearby as part of a patrol and stakeout, or that was the lie used in the request file. Cricket, Fenja, Menja, and Kaiser were able to escape. The goods they were trading, which happened to be guns, were confiscated and turned over to the PRT.

Chapter Text

Super Sonics 1 and 2
Names: Jamie (Super Sonic 1) and James (Super Sonic 2)
Age: 16
Power Classification: Mover 3 (charged up generates Brute 1 and striker 2) Shaker 2: Sound draining ability. Blaster 2: Sonic scream powered by drained sound
Time as Cape: 5 ½ years
Team Memberships: Heroes of America's Mover Central, Heroes of America's Legacy of Heroism, Heroes of America's Junior Hero Program

Legate
Name: Titus Tiber
Age: 25
Power Classification: Brute 8: Full and Complete Regeneration (Warning, do not split into two, one of them is bad enough, we don't need more)
Time as Cape: 5 years
Team Memberships: Haven's Legion, Heroes of America, Brute Force, Honorary member of The Test Subjects.

Tribune
Name: Markus Antony
Age: 15
Power Classification: Tinker 3: Free tinker *Aesthetical limitation: Can build anything as long as it does not appear to be advanced beyond a basic instruments
Time as Cape: 3 years
Team Memberships: Haven's Legion, Heroes of America's Tinker Tank

Examples of created items
Laser Pilum
Plasma Pilum
Eagle Drone
Self-repairing Chainmail
Motorized Chariot
Micro-explosive pellets
Scroll tablet
The Frequency slicing Gladius
Energy Dispersal Scutum.
Scorpio

The Shadow
Name: Kent Allard
Age: 23
Power Classification: Breaker 3 (Black fire state), Shaker 2, Striker 3, Blaster 1 Tinker 1 (limited to smoke created items)
Time as Cape: 8 years
Team Memberships: Heroes of America's Independence Hero Division

The Musician
Name: "Nick Dayton" [Actual Name Redacted]
Age: 50
Power Classification: Shaker 5 Sound Wave control (self generated, can mute self or use sound to form invisible barriers. Effective range depends on how loud the sound is)
Time as Cape: 25 years
Team Memberships: [REDACTED] 8 Years [REDACTED] 5 years, HOA 12 years

Additional Information: Musician is typically well regarded by older members of the Hero Of America, a respected Veteran of the long battle against villains. Information of Past affiliation and name has been redacted by HOA directors under confidential information. Nick is currently acting as the guardian and mentor to Star Child AKA Andromeda Dayton.

Star Child
Name: Andromeda Dayton
Age: 16?
Power Classification: With No Restraint: Blaster 10, Shaker 10, Brute 10, Breaker 10, and Mover 10/ With Restraint: Blaster 1, Shaker 3, Brute 2, Breaker 1, Mover 2
Time as Cape: 12 years
Team Memberships: None

Additional Information: No records of Andromeda exists prior to Trigger event in Ellisburg. Effect of the Event lead to amnesia that has yet to be undone. No known familial relations, "Nick" AKA Musician, adopted the Star Child after her power could be limited.

Chapter Text

Kaiser dodged another strike, the white narrowly cracking against his armor, chipping the decorative metal on his shoulder. The one attacking one a man with a whip that he channeled energy cracks through, so it was annoying to deal with. Off to the side Hookwolf jumped and missed again, the rather agile member of this team.

“The SSSSSerpant SSSSociety will claim thissssss asssss our territory!” the leader, Supreme Cobra hissed.

“The Empire will not back down you snake sluts.” Kaiser shouted, having a few blades form and try and skewer the leader upstart villains.

Kaiser was annoyed, these upstarts were closer to an organization with years of organization, but there was nothing! Even having to be placed in debt to the Gesellschaft produced nothing from their network!

The previous losses were annoying. He would need to strike at that team, the one with the violin, or maybe the Roman dressed man. Getting him shipped off to the Gesellschaft and brainwashed would be perfect, Alabaster and him would be unstoppable with their durability.

“SSSSSSSSerpents! Bring up the Rattlesssssssnake!” The leader of the snake capes shouted.

The battle paused, as a technical rolled up, with 4 mounted machineguns on the back, in a harness. Kaiser raised pillars of metal between himself and the technical, as the guns trained on him.

The guns opened fire, the bark of the machine guns that Kaiser expected, was however replaced by a long high pitched whine.

“AH HA HA HA HA HA! YES! Run away you poor imitationsssssss of Villainy! The SsssssSerpaent Sssssssociety shall take over thissssss city!” Supreme Cobra shouted, it was sounding more like a repeating loop of statements.

The vehicle was slammed into by a dumpster. Alabaster came charging in, with cricket sliding across the hood of the truck to kick a serpent solider who was stumbling out.

Kaiser sneered, “Grab that technical! We will be back to reclaim our territory!” Kaiser shouted at his gang’s regular members.

A pair rushed over to the technical, before one climbed in, and the other got on the gun. They drove off as fast as they could, retreating into the Empire’s territory. With Cricket and Alabaster attacking the martial artist, Anna-conda, Kaiser could focus on Supreme Cobra.

Hookwolf had a whip wrapped around a paw, before he howled in pain, as the metal arm broke off, crushed and restricted to the point it just fell off.

“This is just our first step in taking over.” Baron Viper announced as he pulled back his whip.

Kaiser had a spear of metal form next to him. He broke it off and approached the woman.

“You dare sssstand againssssst me?” She hissed.

“I’m cutting your head off and killing this serpent.” Kaiser stated, before he thrust the spear forward.

Supreme Cobra used her staff and deflected the thrust with ease before she brought the bottom up and caught Kaiser’s chin with the strike. As Kaiser stepped back from the hit, he was suddenly kicked, and thrown back by a hit much stronger than he expected from a woman her size.

‘She’s a brute. Perfect, it she wasn’t annoying already.’ Kaiser thought as he made spikes of metal shoot up from the ground. Supreme Cobra lept back, gaining distance, before she drew a pistol and shot at Kaiser, it was, like so many of their weapons, a laser pistol, an ungodly hybrid of a luger and a mouser pistol.

They missed the first shot but the second shot impacted, not doing any damage but having force behind it.

‘I really am starting to hate these laser shooting bastards.’ Kaiser thought to himself, becoming annoyed with how much these people were using laser weaponry.

Hookwolf smeared, the metal arm reforming as he looked at the costumed crazies of the Serpent Society. Their sudden arrival was bothersome and ruined the plans they had for the future of the city. There was a plan for the merchants, a plan for the ABB, a plan for coil, even a plan for the PRT, but the new arrival of these unknowns have thrown off so many of his plans.

“Hookwolf. Maime, but do not kill them all, I need to know where they get their weapons.” Kaiser ordered.

“Happily.” Hookwolf growled as he leapt forward.

Before the mess of blades hook and sharp objects could make contact, Supreme Cobra vanished, along with the other members of the attack.

Kaiser glanced around. Once more, they vanished, just like they had when they first attacked.

“Cowards.” Kaiser spat as he turned and got on the platform Rune set down on.

“Get us to a safehouse.” Kaiser ordered.

Rune provided transport back. That technical would be valuable, 4 laser weapons that they could analyze, it must be toybox in origin, or perhaps a new tinker that they have.

— — — — —

Max Anders returned to his office in Medhall. He sat down at his work computer and opened up his Email.

Most her the ordinary work and “work” which was written in a code that was only clear when you examined the first letter of every sentence. The PRT was transporting Victor, Othala and Stormtiger in a few days, route would be delivered soon.

Max’s eyes then rested upon a very strange Email he had no idea how to really react to. UnionofEvil.Evil.

Opening it, he scanned it quickly.

To: Max Anders and the Board of Medhall
From: Union of Evil Business Outreach Team
Subject: Proposal for Insurance Coverage Partnership
Dear Mr. Anders and Esteemed Members of the Medhall Board,
We hope this correspondence finds you well. The Union of Evil is reaching out to formally propose the inclusion of Medhall among the medical health providers that accept our organization’s insurance policy. It is our firm belief that every member of our organization, often referred to as "goons," is entitled to comprehensive healthcare coverage that ensures their well-being, safety, and that of their families.
While our organization may operate outside conventional structures, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the rights and fair treatment of our members. Providing them with reliable healthcare is a fundamental aspect of this commitment, and we believe that partnering with Medhall would be mutually beneficial. Your institution’s reputation for excellence in medical services aligns with our goal of securing quality care for our workforce.
If our current policy does not align with Medhall’s standards or operational framework, we welcome an open dialogue to negotiate terms that are equitable for both parties. We value efficiency in these discussions and kindly request a prompt response to facilitate a constructive and timely resolution.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to the possibility of working together for the betterment of all involved.
Sincerely,
Union of Evil Business Outreach Team
“You have to be joking.” He whispered as he read the email.

— — — — —

“Seriously, you wrote a character with my name?” Andromeda joked.

“I mean…yeah. Your name is Andromeda Dayton. I just picked the name cause is sounded made up enough, but, like, you even look like her in the broad strokes.” Taylor explained.

“Oh that is creepy.” Mark joked.

“I mean, what are the chances of that even happening?” Andromeda asked.

“No clue. Oh, looks like my dad is calling. I have to stop by and pick up some groceries before I go home.” Andromeda explained.

“Oh, ok. Well, I guess I’ll see you later?” Taylor said.

“I mean,I guess. Maybe we could hang out, if I don’t have to go out and help my dad out, he has a tough time trying to find places when we move.” Andromeda explained.

“Yeah, Brockton Bay is tough to find good places that aren’t in gang territory.” Taylor pointed out.

“Oh…I didn’t even think of that. I guess I need to learn that too. Honestly, we came here cause of my Dad’s work, they aren’t the most accommodating but what he does is what he’s good at.” Andromeda shrugged as she explained why they moved into town.

“Did you hear, there was some fight over by the boat graveyard. Some of the ABB guys said that Purity was hanging over and attacking someone. The Empire was also seen nearby around the same time.” The group overheard.

“Who’s Purity?” Mark asked.

Taylor had to think, she knew a bit about the local capes, mostly in research of for her new story.

“Purity is/was apart of the Empire, flying artillery kind of cape, strong, can fly, dangerous. Some people say she’s independent, other say she’s still with the empire. I really don’t know. But she does radiate light when she’s around.” Taylor answered.

Andromeda paused, looking at Taylor surprised.

“What? Oh, I did take a bit of inspiration from her in the aesthetics of that character you share a name with. Mostly the glowing silhouette thing. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think the way I use it makes more sense. She wants to be a beacon, fine, but I’ve made mine a star.” Taylor smiled.

Andromeda nodded.

“That’s pretty cool.” Andromeda stated.

Mark nodded, before he pointed down the road.

“See you later Taylor.” Andromeda smiled and waved at her.

“Yeah, later.” Taylor smiled, feeling like she had someone who understood and wanted to know her, to be an actual friend.

Taylor nodded her head, maybe she would see what was new on PHO, something happened at the boat graveyard, someone must have heard more details and shared that online.

Chapter Text

Victoria was touring Brockton Bay University. They had seen some of the classes, spoken with a few teachers about classes she was interested in, and were now in the courtyard. Along the path, there was a man sitting under a pop-up tent with a table. He had a uniform on and was talking with a few people.

Was this a military recruiter? The military was downsizing as capes became more numerous and better suited to dealing with issues, most of the time. From what she understood by how it was talked about, there were enough people for large-scale crises and disaster relief. Slowly walking to the booth, the man smiled.

“Ah, hello there. I am here to talk about the reasonable and logical socialist movement and ideology. Would you be interested in our literature?” He said, a slight hint of a Slavic-borne accent, but it was very thin now, as he offered a folded pamphlet.

“What? Not talking about creating a revolution to overthrow whoever has the power to create an equal society?” Victoria asked, looking at the pamphlet, opening it, and seeing that it had “What we want” as a section header.

“Honestly, a revolution is a terrible idea if you want a true socialist state. Movements are needed, but using violence to achieve them just gives others a reason to fear and not see that our goals are something to consider. When parahumans came, they started by being good for the people, but then more became selfish, and we were at an impasse of conflict and suffering. Too many villains, too few heroes,” the man explained with a small grin.

“So you’re going to say what? Power leads to bad people trying to control others?” Victoria asked.

“That is what I am saying. People strive for a sense of order, and if you tell them that by using shows of force, they can control that order, you generate villains. Businessmen and Politicians are allowed to control order which will often cause problems.

Secondly, if you promise an equal society, then you are giving yourself a much harder challenge. You can not have the same needs for all areas under a promise of Equality. What values people held before will still live on, you can only hope they add your values to their own.” The man explained.

“So what makes your ideas worth practicing?” Victoria asked, just wanting to try and figure out what ideas this guy had.

“That is simple. We want to have the difficult problems focused on. Health, homes, food, and laws, are the basic needs to survive. Much beyond that, it is up to the person to choose how they move on with their life. Control too much, and you start to draw those who want power in, control too little, and outsiders will take control from you. It’s a delicate balancing act.” He explained.

“That….that sounds like libertarianism with moderate government control.” Victoria pointed out.

“Closer to the ideals of Henri de Saint-Simon and Frances Wright. Marx was very narrow-minded and if you compare how he lived and what he wrote, it becomes very apparent that he is the modern equivalent of a trust fund child who ran a blog that got shared around and was thought to be deep by mostly people who didn’t care about was said, and more what they thought was said.” the man explained.

“That sounds….ironic.” Victoria felt a bit lost now.

“It very much was. Marx’s influence on Socialism was amplified by imperialists who took after Napoleon, instead of being Emperor, they called themself a comrade. Instead of nobles, they had their party members. And when asked who their enemy was, it was anyone who wouldn’t stand for their renamed divine rule they called the doctrines of equality.” the man explained.

“You sound like a more charismatic anti-communist.” Victoria explained.

“Because I am one. A fair and equal society can not be forced on others. The communists across the ocean force all their workers into their unions and make them produce quotas. You have to allow the people to decide what they want, not what you want your people to do. Communism is similar to the corporate statism depicted in the dystopian future that describes “Cyberpunk” predictions.” He explained

Victoria was now completely lost… everything she expected to hear was thrown out the door of a train and long since lost.

“So…wait…You want a variation of socialism that was made before Marx that sounds like a wild hybridization of pre-Marxian socialism and libertarianism that stands as a middle ground. I want to know more but I also don’t because you are intriguing and confusing in what you advocate for.” Victoria stated.

“The best ideas are often difficult to explain in simple, easy terms. If an idea can be summarized in such a basic statement, it is an idea that can easily be corrupted by others.” the man explained.

Victoria looked at the man, shocked. He was a European man, with regal and attractive features with a goatee and mustache. The uniform was a bit odd, it was older with a great coat on, and it looked like a dress uniform with a few medals from the USSR.

“Is…the uniform a gimmick or-” Victoria asked.

“I served in the army of the Reds, I do however not fully believe in them as they drifted further and further. I got sent to the gulags, I escaped, and came here in the hopes of creating a true socialist society that creates a fair society.” He explained.

“And what is your name?” Victoria asked.

“Vladislav.” The man stood up and offered a hand.

Victoria hesitantly took it and the man kissed the back of her palm, his eyes glowing red, they were….beautiful.

— — — — —

Comrade Dracula was leading the Red Scare attack. It was an attack aimed to attack a business that fired everyone who attempted to form a Union, or just generally treated their workers poorly.

Leninstein smashed the door open as he strode in, followed by Comrade Dracula. The leader of the socialist team strode into the office of the boss. With a single movement, the man screamed as he was bitten, and fell, pale.

“You will do good by your workers, or you will be drained of blood as you have drained them of spirit. This is your only warning.” Comrade Dracula stated before he turned and followed the Brute Leninstein out of the building, doing little damage, with the exception of the door.

As he stepped out, Comrade Dracula paused…he needed to do something that was monetarily profitable.

“Perhaps hitting a bank, ones that have harmed people by giving them impossible loans to pay and mortgages they knew would have the signer’s default on.

“Leninstein, call the Goonion, request…2 vans, and some vault cutting gear, oh, and the document shredder.” Comrade Dracula stated as he crossed his hands behind his back.

As he slowly walked away from the business, a red figure rushed towards him and struck him in the face.

“Not as strong as The Sonics…You must be Velocity.” Dracula stated as he barely reacted to the punch.

Comrade Dracula blocked the next dozen strikes before throwing Velocity away.

‘With the Protectorate showing up, then the HOA is likely to be showing up. Which would it be? Maybe it would be the Shadow. He had heard-

“AAAAAAAAAAAHOO!” sounded as Leninstein was slammed into.

Oh, it’s the Legate, meaning that Tribune is either present or hiding…hiding most likely. That child never was in good health. Run him too much he’s doubled over coughing, the air too dry, he coughs like he’s choking, stress him, and he will be coughing. It was so sad he could never get that issue under control.

Comrade Dracula backhanded the red-suited breaker, throwing him back as he marched forward towards the Legate.

As he slammed his balled-up fists into the body of Leninstein, he looked up.

“Hello, Comrade.” He mockingly said.

“Legate. Why do you fight so hard against a righteous cause?” Dracula asked.

“Dracula…you eat people.” Legate deadpanned.

“I do not eat people, I drink their blood to survive. Do you expect me to starve?”

“You are a communist. You guys make that your big thing.” Legate quipped.

A single swipe took off the top of Legate's head, the body not dropping.

“Now that’s just rude.” Legate said.

Dear god, he doesn’t need to have a brain to be this stupid. He threw punches that missed as his skull, eyes, brain, and skin slowly regenerated.

Dodging the punches, there were a few moments where he had to decide if trying to deal with the immortal idiot. Dracula was curious if Legate could face against Alabaster and who would win? As Legate regenerated an eye, Dracula grabbed the man by the throat and threw him down the road.

Leninstein slowly climbed to his feet, groaning, as Velocity looked at Dracula with fear.

“What do you think you can do little man?” Dracula asked simply, standing a bit taller than the mover.

Velocity ran to get Legate.

“That’s what I thought.” Dracula stated, still radiating that powerful intimidating aura.

The duo of socialist villains ran, going to need to research which banks were the worst, and justifying their targeting of the establishment to rob it.

— — — — —

Kayden looked at the email. Max had sent her a report about the new heroes, the ones that called themselves the Heroes of America, and how they were time travelers. Star Child…No known history, powerful, but she was so much like her.

Kayden’s eyes slowly drifted from the computer screen to the door, where Aster slept. From the future…this…this had to be manipulation, right? If Aster triggered…there was a greater chance that she would be like her, more than Max. She was taken from her.

She needs to find her child. She needs to make sure that they are not harming Aster. Kayden sighed before she closed the Email.

This was Max trying to force her back into his control. That’s what this was. Max did nothing without a reason. He wanted her to fight her, to fight Star Child so that he could break out their capes who were captured by the Heroes of America Debut.

Kayden needed to control herself. The buzzer on her washer sounded. Walking over, and pulling it out, she was annoyed, the costume was still slightly stained by the black stuff that was coated when she fought the Shadow and Legate.

This would be annoying, trying to replace this would be suspicious, especially without Max wondering why she needed to contact…that person.

Slipping on one of the gloves, she summoned energy and the glow came through, just dimmed slightly….actually…it looked like cracks were forming. She kind of liked the look of it. Maybe she would keep the look.

If she crossed paths with Star Child, maybe…maybe she could talk to her, to see if it was her Aster. Maybe she could have her stay with her for a little while, and learn what happened. She had to be a good mother, for Aster. For Aster, she would do anything she could.

— — — — —

Taylor was tapping away with her eraser on the sketchbook. She had an idea; Forms. Forms over function. Heroes who had something to do with changes in their appearances to such an extreme that when you see them, you don’t think “hero” you think “Monster”.

It was like the Case 53s, yes, but except for whatever Faultline was trying to do, there were no teams of unusual biology capes.

Slowly dragging the tip of the pencil over the paper, she made a few hashes, a few lines, it was going to be a base of whatever it was.

The form would be shapeless, something that was “unkillable” but wasn’t evil.

What would the most terrifying origin be? Endbringer…Nilbog…S class Threat. Setting the sketchbook down. She opened PHO and just clicked on the News Board, her eyes glanced down until they landed on a post headline.

“S9’s latest mess was a school.”

Taylor paused. In Taylor’s mind, an image formed, one that terrified her as she thought about it. A mass of flesh formed from a horrific event. Reports were that Bonesaw once fused 2 capes together and made a monster, what if instead of 2, it was 12. 12 people experiencing an event so horrific, that they became a-

Taylor slowly wrote a word down “Primordial”.

Chapter Text

With the flick of a light switch, a corkboard was illuminated with a detailed heist.

"So, here is the plan. We will be hitting this nightclub, Palanquin, a really fancy place. They have a lot of money, and they have yet to deposit it in a bank. We're going to steal it and put it to good use," the leader said.

"So, we going to go in and take this place over, drill the safes, and get out before the cops show up?"

"Exactly. So, here's how it will go down.

"Conquest, War. You slip in through the front, you'll then have to go around to the back, letting us in. Don't worry, we'll have the fun gear for you to arm up. Once we walk in, get the staff tied up, bust the manager door open, and hit the safe. If the civies get smart, we have a special plan for them." The leader said as he hoisted an air tank onto the table, showing it was a special gas used by the Serpent Society called "Sleeping Snakes"

"Nice." Famine stated, nodding as she looked at the tank.

"Okay, once we clean the safes, we will make our escape, " Death said with a grin.

-2 hours later-

The Shadow, paired with Shadow Stalker, Triumph and Miss Militia were arriving at the scene of Medhall, a van smashed through the glass front. A few employees were sitting around and being interviewed by the police.

"They just drove up the steps and smashed the door. Then they climbed out demanding to know where "the drug" was. I don't know which one they meant, I was scared, I just panicked and told them the R&D level. They all just ran and charged down the steps." The receptionist explained, the officer taking notes.

"And what did they look like?" the officer asked. They had a suspicion of who it was. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse seemed to be a clear suspect; however, there were other possible groups.

"They wore masks and lettermen jackets. One was in a dress, and that one wore a horse mask. It was a chicken, cow, and pig mask along with the horse mask. They called each other by the masks they wore and rushed into the stairway. I thought security would be able to stop them." the receptionist explained.

"What happened next?"

"I don't know, 10 minutes later they came back with duffle bags that they somehow had on them and they looked full. I don't know what they stole. Olivia may know, she's the head of the department here in town." the receptionist explained.

"Thank you." the officer asked.

The Shadow ran his gloved hand over the side door, wisps of his smoke sliding up and getting no fingerprints.

"Gloved. Can we get the van out?" they asked, looking towards a police officer.

"Currently, no, but we have our techs scan the vehicle for any signs of ownership," the cop said.

"The horsemen clear all the VINs off, they're idiots, but they are smart idiots who have an eye for detail in planning. Execution is when things change." The Shadow explained, using his knowledge of the team of criminals to his advantage.

"What else can you tell us?" Triumph questioned.

"Depends, how did they escape?" Shadow asked.

"We think from the loading bays. They connect to the parking garage behind the building." the officer stated.

"They went to the roof." The Shadow stated.

"What? That's 20 stories up?" Shadow Stalker pointed out.

"Does this building have a helipad?" The Shadow asked the receptionist as he neared the front desk.

"Yes, but it's on the parking garage and that connects to the 5th floor."

"They would think top floor. And thus go to the roof. If I had to bet, they got up there and then called in Coatl-copter from the Serpent Society for a pickup." The Shadow Explained as he walked to the door, seeing that the magnetic lock was drilled.

"We didn't see any snake-like helicopters." Triumph stated.

"It's just a Bell 429, they bought a lot of them and just painted snake decals on them when Bell Textron unveiled a newer model and tried to sell a surplus they had." The Shadow added.

"How do you know so much? Did they send you an invoice or something letting you know all this beforehand?" Shadow Stalker questioned.

The Shadow just turned, his skull visible through the smoke.

"They did…didn't they?" Shadow Stalker asked.

"The Union of Evil technically did, the Serpent Society just uses them the most. Some with the Rattle jeep, the HISS armor, and the airship they call The Quetzal Carrier. That's how they attacked the Hero statue in San Francisco in the future." The Shadow stated matter of factly.

As he walked to the door to the steps, the smoke stopped radiating off of him.

"Let's investigate the lab level, and see what was taken inventory-wise." The Shadow added.

"He's…like a detective now?" Triumph stated.

"According to the documents where he shows up, he's a solo hero, but he has had a few references to knowing what to look for." Miss Militia stated.

"The Capefictions? Really? You're taking them seriously?" Shadow Stalker asked.

"They haven't been wrong about any of them, or the abilities of the HOA or UoE members. By all accounts they are accurate." Miss Militia answered, she had read a few quick chapters.

Codename: Story Prophet was still unknown, they didn't know if they should contact the account holder. They haven't even really announced them as who they were. The cover was they were an independent team that came to town to chase down an uptick in organized villainy.

— — — — —

Danny came to the baseball field, along with the rest of the Dock Workers who wanted to play a bit of softball. At the field already was a group warming up. Danny smiled, this wasn't that bad, it was a nice day out.

"Hey, what's your guy's team?" one person asked, as they held a clipboard.

"Dock Workers Association got a fair number of people here."

"Eh, it's a team and a few extra. Glad you could come out, nice to have some involvement with other unions and groups in town." the guy explained.

"Oh, you're a part of a Union? Who are you with?" Danny asked.

"Goon Union, basically we are the hired help of the Union of Evil. Most of the time we do some background stuff to make sure no one gets hurt, drives a car, or is menacing. It pays and we always make sure everything is legal before we are involved in anything. We're a temp agency with petty strict rules, you don't have to worry about any of us Union Busting. If you strike, the UoE will support you as long as we can." the man explained, waiting as Danny signed the various names, pausing as he looked up.

"Huh, my daughter made a campy story with a group by that name. She was happy when people started to engage with it. It's been a way for her to express herself. I just…never expected to hear about a group using that name." Danny chuckled.

"Well you don't have to worry, we don't care about coincidences like that. We're Evil, not assholes." The man chuckled.

"You don't have any "super bating technology" or something like that?" Danny asked, making a joke.

"Nope, but Andrew, he's the treasurer, he can hit a home run on a good day." the guy pointed to a guy with a full mountain man beard and round-lens sunglasses on.

"Eh, Kurt is the same." Danny joked.

"I can hit a home run on a bad day too." Kurt chimed in.

Danny didn't know if this was a good idea, but he didn't need to share that they were playing the normal guy in support of some villains. It was softball and as long as no one was hurt, there wouldn't be any issues.

As more time passed, 2 more softball teams showed up. One was the Civil Servants, basically a team made up of the police, firefighters, and garbage unions that came together. Danny and the DWA were familiar with them, they played them in a tournament a few years back, and they beat them, but it was only by a run. The other to arrive was surprisingly, a group of guys and girls from the PRT, they were mostly field agents, they wore the body armor and carried the foam sprayers.

The extra teams made it odd, so it was decided, 2 half games, 5 innings each, and the winner of each would do a full game after a break, where the Union of Evil brought a grill and some hotdogs to cook up.

They'd make a day out of it. Danny wished he had brought Taylor along, but, he didn't know what this would be like. As the teams warmed up, a small crowd came to watch. They even got an announcer booth opened and operating.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen to Brockton Bay's Baseball Diamond. Today we have a fun little tournament going, a little bit impromptu but I think this can be electrifying! I'll be the announcer for the game, and first up we have a half-game between UoE and PRT. I hope everyone is having a good day, now let's play some ball!" came from the speakers.

— — — — —

Taylor got onto the PHO and saw an announcement from the "Brockton Bay's Villain Watch" It was updated with 23 new names. Clicking and reading the names, some speculation of powers, Taylor paused.

These were all her character names. Clicking a few images, they looked like her characters! Heroes! Villains! They were all here.

She pulled out her journal for the "Heroes of America" story, the details on the costumes were incredible, it was exactly like her drawings.

Had she somehow predicted them? Was she a cape? She didn't think she was. She didn't have powers, and she didn't share any traits of normal parahumans. Sure, she was defensive about her characters and stories, but she wasn't that tough, she didn't like shitty criticism that was "too long, don't care, want them to fuck, then I'll read".

Some people were just plain assholes on PHO. Taylor flipped through the pages of her journal.

"The Emperor, the Endbringer Ruler." was on the top.

There was a list of signs, but no design other than notes, she'd drawn inspiration from the Beast of Revelations, but that was because all the other Endbringers had biblical names in some way, even if the Simurgh was the preferred name over "Ziz". Was this something she came up with…or was it a prediction?

Taylor worriedly looked through her notes. What were her ideas, and what was her prediction of the future? Was she predicting the future or was it by chance? Everything about this was terrifying to her now.

— — — — —

Glory Girl hovered, shielding her eyes from the bright light that came from Star Child as she floated over the city.

"Yeah Dad, I know, I'll be ok. My belt is maintained steady. Don't worry, I don't plan on fighting that big dragon guy in the docks. I just wanted to float in the air, I need to think. It's school, I'm not sure why we have to go there, it's so boring. I know you say it's important but- Ok Dad. I'll talk to you when I land. Looks like Glory Girl is here." Star child stopped talking.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your call. So, you just need to get your head clear?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah. New school, new town, still restricted. I have to hold back a lot." Star Child said.

"I know what you mean, I get called Collateral Damage Barbie on PHO all the time, I'm trying my best." Victoria complained.

"I can't use much of my power, too much, and 'Oops, I EMP'd the entire state. Or 'whoops, I flash-tanned everyone in the city who can see me.' It's just stressful." Star Child complained, as she crossed her arms, maybe, it was hard to tell.

"Can you dim your light anymore It's hard to look at you." Victoria asked.

The light dimmed as much, but it was still to the point she was all white.

"Sorry, Not many fliers like to be near me, I'm not used to an actual company other than my dad when we're in costume." Star Child apologized.

"Don't have many friends?" Victoria questioned.

"Kind of hard. Dad has a weird past, not many people like him, so I don't get to hang out with other youth HOA members. I have a few friends, There's the Super Sonics, There's Particle, he's nice, wait, you wouldn't know him, he hasn't been born yet. Ummm, who's old enough that you'd know them? Oh, Dad knows Arsenal. He's active at this time." Star Child scratched at her head like she was thinking.

"Wait, what do you mean hasn't been born yet? Are you saying you're from the future?" Victoria asked, confused.

"Oops. Umm, yeah. The HOA is from the future." Star child admitted, sounding nervous at that admission.

Victoria hung in the air, shocked.

"That is so COOL! Do I become famous? What's my name when I'm grown up? Oh! Does Amy ever find a date? What about New Wave? Is that still around?" Victoria asked several questions very quickly.

The eerie playing of a violin was heard.

"Oh, that's dad. He needs me for something. Ummm, I'll see you around?" Star Child asked.

Victoria looked around, where was that? Star Child flew leaving a trail of light behind her towards the PRT building.

Chapter Text

Wendy smiled as she softly hummed, preparing breakfast…or well it wasn’t really breakfast, none of the kids she looked after really ate. Evelyn came into the room, well part of her, most of her was in the pool floating, it was a mandatory rest day for her. Mia also came in, through the vents, she needed to get that out of their habits. Caleb entered next, he was a bit rough on the edges, but he was such a helpful young man for the rest of the team.

“Morning Ms. Marrifield” Evelyn spoke.

“Good morning Evelyn. Enjoying your little bit of rest?” Wendy said with a smile as she served herself breakfast.

“I am looking back at some of the horrendous actions that were committed by the worst people who were on this planet.” Evelyn stated.

“Has time and analysis changed your thoughts?” Wendy asked.

“They are still better gone than living.” Evelyn answered.

Wendy sighed. Perhaps she could never understand the way Evelyn sees the world, but it was saddening. She absorbed knowledge so quickly that she worried she wouldn’t understand it or look at it beyond face value. 

Mia spoke up, her voice was very soft and was sometimes hard to hear if you didn’t know how she spoke.

“Ms. Marrifield, are you sure we can go and be heroes?” Mia asked.

“I don’t think they would exactly….accept us.” Caleb stated.

“Fear is what ruins good people. What I want to bring out in you are your best selves.” Wendy said, with a smile as she looked at the human-like form of gas that was Mia. 

“We don’t exactly look friendly.” Caleb pointed out.

Wendy looked at the cobbled-together form of Caleb, the shifting stones, fragments of dirt, and metal were arranged in a way to show he was worried. Placing her hand on the shoulder of their most stoic teammate.

“Caleb. No matter how powerful someone is, they will always worry that they are not enough. They need to hide because someone doesn’t approve. The only approval of who you are doesn’t need to come from others. But from here.” Wendy said with a gentle smile, as she gently placed a hand over where his heart should be.

Taylor looked at the document. It was a nice idea to start with. Sometimes a simple opening was better than one that was explosive. After all, the story that redefined fantasy, started with the simple phrase “In a hole in the ground, lived a hobbit.”

But then….she glanced down at her notebook.

“The Order of Control. The Parahuman supremacists desired to country of their own, and the power to stop anyone from getting in their way to achieve their goal. 

Morally, they acted to help the people they identified with, Parahumans and their families. Machiavelli believed that humanity used parahumans to make their lives easier while forcing them to fight, it was an interesting idea. Paired with his two collaborators, who also acted to try and reach their “dream” they were only villains because people fought against him.

Father Eye, while not dangerous at first glance, had the advantage of having a powerful ability that took time. And Bloody Destiny…based on an exaggerated idea. Honestly, if they had to be a villain, the strong vs the weak was a way to decide if they were worth one’s time. It was stupid. 

Taylor closed her eyes before she turned and saw a PHO notification. 

“Uber and Leet: Sonic stream, feat Professor Von Metallic as Eggman.”

Clicking on the video, Taylor watched in disbelief.]

Uber and Leet were dressed as Sonic and Tails while fighting a bunch of various bugs, bird, and animal-themed robots that broke after being slammed into.

Upon a pod thing, stood a man dressed as Eggman, apparently, with an over-the-top mustache and goggles.

“TAKE ME SERIOUSLY! I did not come back in time to be beaten by literal clowns!” the Eggman guy shouted.

So that wasn’t a bit of costume, that was his actual look. Wait…her version of Von Metallic was inspired loosely by Eggman from Aleph’s Sonic game, but he didn’t….oh she was just getting annoyed.

‘Why are people using my designs?’ Taylor asked herself, worried that maybe he should scrap a few villains before they were used by actual villains.

“No, the Clown in town is Circus. We’re just awesome.” Leet joked as he slammed into a robot, making it crumple like an aluminum can. 

Uber and Leet continued to attack the robots, streaming them and showing that they were having fun. The Professor looked at two oddly shaped robots, shouting at them.

“What are you waiting for bolt for brains! Stop them!” 

“What are we supposed to do?” one of the robots asked, confused.

The Professor looked down, before it came in Kid Win on his board, along with one of the SuperSonics.

“Oh cool, retro sonic bots.” The Mover pointed out on camera.

“Uber and Leet, end the stream, you are both under arrest for…are you fighting a villain?” Kid Win asked confused.

“If we say yes, are you willing to Jet and Wave?” Leet asked.

“Who?” The Super Sonic asked.

“Sonic Riders? That was a great game! Besides, you got the board so it already works.” Uber explained, as he jumped and rolled into destroying a robot. 

The two didn’t have an answer, before Metallic looked around, “Aren’t there 2 of you?” 

“Two is doing something personal.” Super Sonic Explained.

“I hope you are having fun with your family.” one of the robots shouted before Metallic slammed his fist into the head of the robot.

“Don’t wish them happy times! They are heroes!” Metallic scolded the henchbot.

Taylor shut off the stream and looked away. How much was she making up and why was it coming true? She just wanted to write a silly story, not…predict the future. Standing up, she went to her closet, she wanted to go outside and take a walk. 

That's all this was, just coincidences. She would get some fresh air, clear her mind, and continue to work on her new project. If it was just Heroes of America coming true, that was ok. She didn’t need “Lloyd Anderson: Death of Scion” to be a reality. That would be terrifying to think about. 

Scion was a great hero, the idea of him being gone, was terrifying to even think about. So…silly villains and some neat heroes, she was glad that was the case. As Taylor walked downstairs, she ran through the various scenarios and things she would need to change. She may need to go back and change the location of the final battle of the Heroes story, Medhall wouldn’t be happy if she predicted that the Serpent Society would kidnap the CEO and Board of Directors and take over the building.

— — — — — 

Kayden Russel was out and looking for samples to add to her catalog for her work. She was still an interior designer and was hoping that something would spark some inspiration in her. While she was out at the store, she noticed something odd. A girl leading an older man. His hair had a sprinkling of grey and white, and he wore sunglasses. The man was testing out chairs.

“The fabric will cause you to build up static. Getting up and touching someone, you’ll get shocked a lot” he said, rubbing his hand on the armrest.

“He’s right. Go for faux leather for chairs or something that won’t generate static electricity if you sit in them a lot.” Kayden noted.

The man didn’t turn to look at her, “That has a different issue, makes noise, and I hear a lot of things people don’t.” he answered.

Kayden realized that the fact he was led around, he wore sunglasses, and he was blind. Huh….must be here to see Panacea, hoping to get his vision back. She almost felt bad for… for… Kayden couldn’t take her eyes off the girl for some reason. 

Blonde hair, but warm brown eyes. It took a few seconds before she finally moved her eyes away. She looked at the fabric samples and smiled.

“Anne, I don’t think we’ll need to look for something this nice. I get you want to have something nice, but—” the man said.

“Dad, It’s for the club’s common room. It’s just to be nice and be comfortable.” the girl pointed out.

The old man smiled, “Fine, fine. Where’s the tag, what’s the price? I need to think about this for a minute.” He requested.

“It’s 450.” The girl stated. 

With a small nod, the man slowly got up, using the armrest to move around the edge, before the girl took his hand.

“Let’s see if they have something in a less…easily stained material.” The man pointed out.

— — — — —

The Protectorate ENE felt a disturbance. One that so many offices dreaded. 

They had gotten a message, from Mice, Camera, Action, They were coming to town.

MCA only came to town for one reason, and everyone understood what that meant.

Mouse Protector was coming to Brockton Bay, and she was going to be filming. Uber and Leet had just doomed them to a comedically over-the-top episode of “Mouse Protector and Friends”.

Miss Militia groaned. Her fellow OG Ward had somehow not gotten mature with age. Her vocabulary had expanded, and the complexity of certain jokes had, but she was still the chaotic cape that no one could quite handle being around for too long.