"What did Nobody say?" Vivienne asked.

"He said that he's stuck in a BNA lockdown because Havok and Virtue are fighting against the Villains' Syndicate. He told me to go there to meet him and take advantage of it," I answered.

"Oh hell yeah. Then let's get going," Vivienne said, getting up off the chair she's sitting in.

"He said just me."

Vivienne stops and looks at me with an odd expression before sitting back down.

"Congratulations, Hotpants. You're about to see who's under the mask," Vivienne said, grinning.

"So you do know who he really is. I always assumed, but felt it rude to bring up. Does Kai know? Is that the secret you all have been keeping?" I asked, voicing the thought that had eaten away at me for weeks.

"I've always known; I met him the night he started all this and tracked him down. And before you go and get your panties in a twist, chill, Hotpants. Nobody was forced to tell Kai because of Technologica. He's choosing to tell you, and you already know how important anonymity is to him. Take the win, you're the first person he's ever chosen to tell."

I can't help but smile at that. It isn't that he likes them more than me; he didn't have a choice with those two. The first person to earn the right to know. The only one to deserve to know.

"What should I expect? What's he like, the real Nobody?" I asked.

"You've already met him. You'll understand what I mean once you get there. Now get out of my sight; I'm jealous as shit you get to fight Virtue for a second time before I've fought her once. And you're going against a goddamn dragon, fuck you," Vivienne laughed.

"Stay mad, bitch," I teased. I look Vivienne right in the eyes. "I won't let anything happen to him, V," I swore.

"Dude, relax. You should know by now that Nobody likes to plan out things in advance and control every variable, but that guy's a hell of an improviser. If he's choosing to stay in a warzone, then he's got a plan," she said, waving me away.

I nod at her and burst into a smoke cloud, flying through our base and into the sky. The shopping district is thirty-five minutes away by car, but I'm going to make it there in less than ten minutes by flying. I'm so happy. He trusts me. He trusts me with his most important secret: his identity. I can't wait to meet him. Jetting across the Quinstin skyline, I look down at all the little dots of people below me. Up ahead, I can see the signs of the battle between Havok and the Villains' Syndicate all over the city. Gashes through buildings from his wings, frozen cars, wire strung between buildings, and intense flames that the fire department is desperately trying to fight. There are civilian bodies as well as other, more disturbing signs of battle, but I just don't give a fuck about any of this. This city only matters because it matters to him.

I soar right over the perimeter that the BNA has erected. They're out in force, armored trucks, Tinkertech weapons, and squads of agents. I spot a few Special Agents below me and make note of their positions relative to the fight. Never want to get caught with your pants down unless you're trying to get fucked. The level of destruction at the shopping district means there's plenty of smoke spiraling off all the fires burning, so I arrive unnoticed. Havok's in his smaller form, and Virtue's rocking a new mask that looks much better on her. The Villains' Syndicate is much more tragic-looking. Edgelord rejects, theater kids who somehow made it through life without getting their weirdness beaten out of them. We need to bring back bullying. Wannabe social media stars creating snuff films for their bitchless loser fan base.

I stop moving, hiding in one of the many columns of smoke emerging from the shopping district. I should take in what's going on. He might want information. My smoke cloud sees in every direction, and I'm able to spot six of the seven current members, but I'm betting the seventh is also here. That sneaky fuck. Echochamber is a Caster who can store attacks done by nearby Neuvohumans and recreate them, but he can only store one attack from each Neuvohuman, and he retains them for only an hour. He doesn't wear a mask or bother hiding his identity. Instead, he has thick white carnival makeup all over his face with painted black circles around his eyes, and black lipstick giving him the look of a Chelsea grin. He's chubby, short, and bald. Very penguin-coded. He's dressed like a ringleader of a circus, with pinstriped pants, a bloodstained waistcoat, a faded maroon tailcoat, and a tophat that matches his pants. His weapon is a pair of elbow-length gauntlets that feature sharpened screws protruding from them.

Next up is Reverso the Clown, who somehow, doesn't have the stupidest fucking name of the group. He's a Manipulator whose power is kinetic redirection. He can only redirect things three feet off course, and it only works on physical objects or attacks. The man is abnormally tall, standing over seven feet tall and muscular, like a circus strongman. He's larger than I am, which is a significant feat, but I'm bigger where it counts. The clown doesn't wear a shirt, instead wearing an abhorrent fusion of a strongman's unitard and clown pants, all while being the ugliest colors imaginable: Pantone brown and mustard yellow. It's polkadot, but the dots are actually made of two arrows twisting around each other in opposite directions. A point in his favor is that he doesn't wear clown shoes, opting for black boots. But then he loses that point because he has a homemade, creepy clown mask with fangs, wrinkles, and fake hair that is made out of dodgeball rubber. My costume won't be anything like that.

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That's where the circus theme ends, because Snare is just a goth girl who's never seen the sun. She is the palest person I've ever seen, including Echochamber in his makeup. Her roots are black, but she's dyed stripes of blue into her hair. Her hair is up in a ponytail held together with a giant midnight blue bow. Leather corset, laced tight to prop up her exceptional chest, underneath a long-sleeved fishnet top. Low-waisted leather super shorts, fishnet stockings, and mid-calf platform boots covered in buckles. She's sexy, in incredible shape, delicously curvy, and murderously crazy, but that's not a deal breaker in my opinion. The crazier the brain, the crazier the brain. She's a Manipulator who can create and control metallic strings. She also seems to have a couple of secondary effects of her power, allowing her to have incredible balance when standing on the strings and a slight increase in strength.

Null is a Neutralizer who is immune to powers that come in contact with him. His power has a ton of caveats and eccentricities. He doesn't actually shut off or block abilities the way most Neutralizers do. He is immune to Virtue's lasers and Havok's flame breath, but if Miles manipulated a nearby fire into a fireball and threw it at Null, it wouldn't dissipate because his power didn't create it; it was a naturally occurring flame. The same goes for superstrength and Shifter forms; he can't affect them. A nightmare for a Caster, but useless against my glocks. He wears a tasteful white suit, tailored to fit him perfectly, and a white cloth mask over his head, featuring red Xs and a frown stitched into it. He carries around a taser cane as a weapon. Will Nobody's power work on him?

The one currently facing off against Havok is Revenant, a Shifter who turns into a possessed suit of medieval armor. Almost as big as V's Shifter form, the rusted steel armor is covered in spikes to the point it looks like a reverse iron maiden, with a tattered cobalt cape that trails behind him. Through the gap in the visor, you can see the cold blue wisps that are his eyeballs, but there's nothing else inside of it. Contrasting with his armor is the double-sided war axe he wields, which is made of silver with pulsing blue veins. The blades have a thick layer of ice over them, which ties into the powerset of the Shifter form. Revenant has a chilling effect on the area around him, a roughly ten-foot radius, and his axe can freeze whatever it touches. Even though he's a set of living armor, the actual armor itself isn't extraordinarily durable, and that's how he's been defeated in the past.

The final member I can see is Rotshot, a psychotic woman dressed like she escaped the psych ward at a Ren Faire. Wearing dyed deerskin pants with thigh-high leather boots. She looks like a forest elf archer, complete with arm braces, buckled corset armor, and a dark wool cloak. Everything she has on is a differed shade of muted green or brown, except for the white wolf skull mask strapped to her face. Only her weapons are modern; she's got a bandolier of throwing knives, a quiver, and a recurve bow. She's one of the longest-serving members of the Villains' Syndicate and might be a true believer of their proclaimed creed. She's an Alter who can charge inorganic objects she touches with a toxic rot that is passed on to any organic target it hits. The crackpot crackshot.

The only member I can't see is Looking Glass, but she's around here somewhere. She's a Traveller who can traverse through glass. Her costume is meant to look like Alice in Wonderland, but it ends up looking like a heroin addict cosplaying Little House on the Prairie. She's painfully unclean, barely lucid, and seems like she's trying to be the poster child for anorexia. She puts the ED in unwashed. They're a unique-looking group, but there is one thing that they all share across their costumes: each wears a camera somewhere on their person to stream their point of view. The action heats up as Revenant takes a swing at Havok, who flies backward to avoid the frost axe. He keeps backing up to avoid the swings, but he doesn't see the wall of wires that bite deep into his wings, slicing them. He drops to the ground, wings too damaged to fly, as Snare is walking across the wire like a tightrope.

"You're making this boring," Snare complained from above him.

"Stop running and fight me. I'll mount your head on my wall of trophies to show off," Revenant said.

Havok doesn't respond, ignoring their taunts. His tail thumps against the street, sending some of the broken rocks jumping off the ground. The Cape's tail strikes out like a whip, launching them at the female Cowl. Snare isn't ready, and gets hit in the thigh, knocking her off. She tumbles toward the ground until a spiderweb of wires catches her, slowing her fall. She set that up ahead of time. And after forcing Havok to engage by blocking off the remainder of the street. Snare has a good mind for tactics. She starts giggling, rolling around on her web. Havok rushes Revenant, getting too close for the Cowl to maneuver his weapon around. He hammers punches into the chestplate, pushing him back and away from the wall of wires. Revenant clearly isn't used to weaponless combat, and he's paying the price for it. The knight tries to block, but Havok wrests the axe from his hands, throwing the weapon away. The Cape opens his mouth, and a jet of flame engulfs Revenant. He keeps it going for over a minute, and Snare makes no moves toward helping her teammate. God, she's hot.

Havok is probably the only Cape that I hate. He represents everything Miles talks about, but for me. Both of our triggers resulted in a reptilian body, but he got to turn it off. He got to have a career, friends, colleagues, and go out on dates. If it weren't for a chance meeting, I'd be stuck as a monster for the rest of my life. He got to be normal, and I didn't. Even though my days as Constrictor are over, a part of me loves seeing the Villains' Syndicate hurt him. What about the other Cape? I spot the gold and white coloring of Virtue's costume as she faces off against the other four Syndicate members.

Rotshot is perched on top of an overturned bus, firing arrows at Virtue that are being blocked by her cape. Reverso is engaging her in hand-to-hand, well, more like he's deflecting her attacks and not landing any of his own. Null and Echochamber are off to the side of them, both men useless against the young Cape. That doesn't stop them from spouting bullshit, though.

"Come on, Reverso, quit clowning around," Null shouted.

"For those just tuning in at home, we have quite the show today. We started out trying to slay a dragon, and we were making good progress. Until this rotten bitch showed up and spoiled our fun. So now, my wonderful companions, Rotshot and Reverso the Clown, are going to teach her a lesson," Echochamber said, chuckling to himself.

It's a standstill. I can meet him now. I spot the Crepuscolo Boutique, and it's in rough shape. The roof is half collapsed, the front of the store is completely gone, and there's a truck inside the store. The surrounding stores are even worse; some of them have been completely flattened. I keep an eye on the ongoing fight between the Capes and the Cowls as I travel down toward my destination. I slip through the cracks down into the building. It's dark in here; the power must be out. My heart is pounding, and my palms are sweaty. I am equal parts excited and nervous to meet Nobody. This is a man I would follow into hell if he asked me to. The man who cured me of my curse, who gifted me a renewed lease on life, a second chance for greatness. I would do anything for him. Anything.

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