“You haven’t been home,” Perry stated.
“I’ve been home enough to not hear conversations through the wall.”
“We can’t hear through our walls, thank god.”
“He has a guest room,” Gus said. “And if you’re neighbors, you know he snores.”
“I don’t snore,” Perry said in a way that suggested they’d had this argument before. “It’s the wind coming out.”
“Which is snoring.”
“Oh yeah, the wind-snoring,” Joan said. She totally knew about the whooshing in and out of Per’s throat while he power-napped.
“It’s not snoring,” he grumbled.
Darlene straightened into herI like to pretend I’m second-in-commandstance. “Once Aura is ready, we can begin…” Her gaze crested over Joan. “Capturing our enemies.”
Hey, she’d expected Darlene to get in a dig at the ex-Villains. Progress.
“I’ll go out now,” Zee said, pulling on their facemask. “I don’t like standing around.”
“Better to be seen longer,” Otis agreed. “More SuperWatch sightings.”
“Remember to listen for the signal,” Darlene said.
Zee nodded once, then took a step. Then paused. “I hope this works,” they said before zooming off.
“Why wouldn’t it work?” Mark scoffed.
“Because we have to get all four of them directly in front of the building,” Joan reminded him.
“Yeah, but if we don’t, we’ll just go after them and regain our powers. We outnumber them two to one.”
“Plus one,” Kade said, looking very proud of his math.
Gus raised an eyebrow at him. “I can’t get injured, but these bones are old. I’m not fighting with anyone.”
“We still value you, Amazing Woman.”
Perry snorted and muttered to himself. Otis rolled his eyes and visibly tried not to clap back. Those two still hadn’t decided to play nice, which was to be expected.
Irritation flared out of nowhere and Joan spat, “It would’ve been great if you valued her back in the day.”
Darlene crossed her arms. “Maybe she pushed them away with her bad attitude.”
Mark slid to his feet, saying, “It’s easy to have a bad attitude around you jerks.”
They broke into simultaneous bickering, pointing fingers and hurling insults. Joan wasn’t even that upset, but it felt like the thing to do.
Ward entered with Aura wheeling a large suitcase behind her. She said something, then shook her head and waved a hand. A muted glow twinkled around her and flowed across the room.
Joan blinked as calm washed over her.
“My bad,” Aura said. “I’m pissy ’cause of the freaking flight delay. I don’t just get to hop into the sky whenever I want.”
“I can’t fly,” Kade murmured. “I’m just a big, useless lunk.”
“I thought your powers didn’t work on Supers,” Gus said.
