She was still the girl who had to do what she had to do to survive.
“All right,” she said. “We try to trick them into leaving town. If it works, you back off. Stop with the check-ins. Let us live our lives in peace.”
Mark scrunched an eyebrow at her. Then he nodded in understanding. This was the only way forward.
“We need our suits,” he said. “To make it more official.”
“And to shield ourselves,” Joan added.
“Yeah. We’ll need protection in case this goes south, which I’m a hundred percent certain it will. These guys aren’t fools. They won’t fall for it.”
Otis finally turned away from Perry. “Then brush up on your acting skills. Ward?”
The eager sidekick stepped forward, tablet in hand.
“Get the three containers from the—” Otis directed this at the former Villains “—very securestorage room with Breeze, Spark and Ice’s confiscated gear.”
“Confiscated,” Mark snorted. “We handed them over voluntarily.”
“Yes, sir,” Ward said. He made a wide berth around a still smoldering Perry.
“I’ll help,” Zee said, getting up. “Darlene?”
She tore her gaze away from Joan. “What?”
“Can you help, too?”
“Get Lunk to do it.”
“My strength is turned off,” Kade said.
Darlene rolled her eyes and stomped toward the exit. Zee followed behind, mouthing, “You’re welcome” to Joan and Mark.
Perry parked himself beside the door and stared into the distance.
“Are you ever gonna tell us what this is about?” Mark said to him.
“They use people for their own gains,” Perry said.
“Hey,” Kade said. “We’re heroes. It’s in our name.”
“Ask Flight how heroic he was years ago. No, better yet, ask Atomic Man or Stretch Boy.”
“Atomic Man died a few years ago. Stretch Boy is really old and has dementia.”
Otis crossed back to his side of the table. “Do you really want to open that can of worms?”
Mark bounced on his toes. “Oh my god, yes please open that can.”
An alert from SuperWatch popped onto one of the TV screens. The two Supers went to investigate.
“Damn it,” Mark said. “Perry, I’ve never asked you for much.”
Perry scoffed at that.
“Will you tell us why you hate the Supers so much? Pretty please with sugar on top?”
He figuratively lasered his eyes at Otis. “They’re the ones who exposed me for having powers and turned me into Breeze.”
