“They flank him,” she realized. “See how they protect him? They keep you from getting to him. They didn’t factor Spark and Ice into the equation.”
“Yes, we noticed that as well.” Darlene gave her a smug smirk.
“Take out the sides and you get to the middle.”
Zee zipped into the room, gingerly sitting across from Joan.
“How’s the ribcage?” she asked.
“Been better,” they said.
Perry adjusted his glasses as he peered at the screen. “We only see Quake with the others. The rest of them go out day after day. He needs a break.”
“We do tire more easily with age,” Gus said. “I speak from experience.”
“He’s weak,” Zee said. “That’s good.”
Otis looked at Joan and Perry. “What would you have done to exploit a weak link?”
Joan snorted. “How much time do you have?”
“This is why you were brought in. Take it seriously.”
She laughed harder and backhanded Perry’s bicep. “Per can attest to how little Mark and I take things seriously.”
Her brother chose that moment to join them. “Very little. But you can— Oh hey, Gus. Fancy meeting you here again.”
“Hello, Mark,” Gus said.
He slid into the chair beside Joan’s. “What we did take very seriously was our food truck being crushed into oblivion. We’ll do whatever it takes to bring these douchenozzles down.”
“They’re working together,” Joan said. “We have to work as a team to defeat them. We took down three Villains at once last time. This has to be a group effort.”
Otis gave the twins an aggravated glare not unlike the one Perry usually gave them. “Then put your Villain caps on and tell us what you would do if you were in their shoes.”
“What is their next move?” Darlene said.
Glancing at Mark, Joan said, “We’d split up and make a big fuss at one end of the city. Then the real crime would take place without anyone noticing, or before you could get there to stop it.”
“But they don’t think like us,” Mark said. “They want people to see all the shit they’re doing.”
“True. These are different Villains.”
“Think like them,” Otis said. “What would you want to destroy next?”
“Well, they hit Friendship Park,” Joan thought aloud. “That was personal. Everything else has been strategic to disrupt our everyday lives. Gus, was there someplace Big Quake targeted but never took out?”
“We stopped him from ruining Vulture Stadium.”
“That could be another spot.”
“No.” Gus looked up from her notes. “It’s not baseball season. It wouldn’t disrupt anything.” She looked down again. “I know what he wants to take out.”
She scribbled for a few moments. Then she pointed her pen at the ceiling. “This building. Our headquarters.”
“Did he ever try?” Zee asked.
“Oh, he tried. This is the most stable building in the city. It was quite literally built to be quakeproof. He gave up rather quickly.”
