"Awkward," Tuesday sang.

We have a chance to avoid them all and escape without being caught, but it's foolish not to have a plan in case we do run into Capes. The floor number ticks down and I'm racking my brain for a solution. We're on an invisible timer, and the worst part is I have no idea how much time is left. Minutes? Seconds? How long until a Cape gets here? The others are waiting for me to speak. I'm in charge, and I need to say something.

"Nothing says we have to go back through the kitchen again. We have the truck and we can take any exit we want. Rorschach, find us a path to the street that avoids people. Do you have eyes on any Capes in the vicinity?" I asked.

"No, I would've mentioned it if I had. We should get off on the next floor and take the emergency exit staircase," Rorschach said.

We get off the elevator one floor early and make a break for the stairs. The path is clear and free of people. Running would make too much noise, so we jog along in silence. Isaiah elbows the emergency exit open, and everyone follows him. We're jumping down multiple steps at a time, doing anything we can to move faster. Down we go until we hit the ground floor and burst through the exit onto the alleyway. It's quiet, late enough that no one is out here. A few cars are going by on the street attached to the alley, but I don't think they can spot us in the dark. Kai places the shrunken-down box truck on the street, and it returns to its normal size. We made it. I allow myself to slightly relax as everyone starts climbing into the back of the truck. Vivienne, Isaiah, and I are the last ones outside.

"Found you."

All three of us turn to see a person drop from the sky behind us. And there's the Cape. His costume is a blast suit, and the helmet resembles a cross between a diving helmet and a gas mask. The visor portion is dark, and I can't see the man inside from here. He's large, as tall as Isaiah and with a bot belly built into the outfit. The color scheme of his costume is khaki, with high-vis yellow stripes around the chest, waist, ankles, and wrists. A streetlight reflects off the man, allowing me to notice that the whole costume is sealed and made entirely of metal. FUCK.

"It is I, the pyro protector, the flashy firefighter: Glow Guardian, and you're all under arrest," Glow Guardian shouted.

"HAHAHAHA! Holy shit, no way this guy's real. Where do they find you idiots? Dude, I can't get enough of how bad this City's Neuvos are at naming," Tuesday cackled from inside the truck.

"You and your gang are coming with me. Lucky for you, no one was hurt, or this conversation would be going a lot differently," Glow Guardian said to me.

He thinks I'm the only Cowl because of my helmet. He doesn't know how wrong he is. I'm going to have to kill him before he can realize his mistake and call for backup. I don't reach for my gun. Instead, I feel for the ring inside my glove. Vivienne and Isaiah are both looking at me, waiting for my orders on how to handle this. I shake my head slightly. His name leads me to believe he's got fire powers. Should I take him out now? Rotating the ring, I switch the helmet's weapon to the pressurized stream. No telling what his suit is made of, but concentrated hydrochloric acid should do something to the metal. I make my face look nervous, so the projected one makes me look like I'm in over my head. He looks relaxed as I walk toward him with my arms raised in surrender. I'll wait till I'm close enough to guarantee I hit him.

"Don't try anything," Glow Guardian warned.

He raises a palm to me, and I can see a flattened metal disc in the center of it. What does that do? He shouts to stop when I'm ten feet away from him. He's cautious of me and what tricks I might be hiding. But there's no way he's prepared for this. I blow into the front of my helmet, activating the weapon for the first time. To Kai's credit, it works exactly as advertised. The acid blasts forward like a laser; the thin beam punctures his suit as it melts a line through it. I aimed for his helmet but missed and only hit the left shoulder of the suit. Launching the one attack used half of the acid I had. I'll need to get more.

"NO! You fucking idiot. You don't know what you've done," he yelled at me.

I don't respond, and he falls to his knees, covering up the cut with both hands. There's a bright orange glow coming from the tear. A byproduct of his power or something else entirely? He's trying his best to cover it, but his hands can't fully block the cut on the suit. The light escaping through the space between his fingers is glowing brighter, and I turn around to leave him. Fortunately, it was only one Cape, and an incompetent one at that.

The glow behind me is like a spotlight, obliterating the night's darkness. Isaiah and Vivienne cover their eyes from the blinding light. The light preludes a sonic boom that makes me stumble. What follows is the shock setting in as a beam of yellow burns a hole through my left side. It hurts in a way I haven't felt since almost burning to death at the senior party. As I fall to the ground, I notice signs that there were multiple beams, and a building across the street was hit as well. Isaiah and Vivienne are running toward me, but it looks like they're moving in slow motion. Am I dying?

Vivienne POV

Six beams explode out of the Cape, and suddenly it feels like I'm staring at the sun. By the time the light fades, I can see the destruction around us. The orange lasers burned holes through everything, making the walls look like Swiss cheese. That's when I see Nobody fall, with a six-inch wide hole missing on his left side. That had to have hit his ribs and part of his lung.

I run faster than I ever have before, reaching Nobody's body before it hits the ground, cradling him in my arms. Nononono. His pulse is erratic, and there's charred blood oozing out of both sides of the hole. The smell of burning flesh is, unfortunately, a smell I am all too familiar with. Lifting him carefully, I carry him toward the truck.

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"We gotta go. NOW!" I yelled.

I lay Nobody down carefully on the truck's floor. Kai is already working, slicing open Nobody's shirt to look at the wound. His little robots are swarming around him as he works. It's bad, and I feel helpless. He isn't supposed to get hurt. He's always a step ahead of everyone. I don't know what to do.

"We have to get back to the base. I don't have the equipment to treat him on me," Kai said, shaking me from my thoughts.

"None of you are going anywhere. You have assaulted a member of the Heroes' Union, and more importantly, you attacked my subordinate."

The voice comes from a man floating above the Cape that Nobody attacked. His costume is a white Hyperweave suit resembling a toga. The front features a scale with a sword piercing through the middle. He's not wearing a mask or helmet, but a long loose cloth around his eyes and the top of his nose. He's tan, with olive skin a few shades lighter than Anika's. He's got blonde hair that's clearly dyed, which stops just below his ears. He's muscular, but I can tell from a glance that they're popcorn muscles. His bare feet are out. Ew. He just looks like a dickhead.

"I am Arbiter, and I find you guilty," Arbiter said snarling.

He flies so rapidly it almost catches me by surprise.. Almost. One second he's twenty feet away, and in that same second, he's between Hotpants and me, reaching for the others. He's a monster. Hotpants backhands Arbiter away, sending him flipping through the air. Arbiter stops himself right before he collides with the building behind him. Arbiter flies right at Hotpants, driving a punch into his gut so hard that he pukes up blood. He grabs Hotpants, stopping him from being shot up into the sky like a cannonball.

"ENOUGH!" I roared.

My transformation causes Arbiter to release Hotpants, dropping him to the ground. I feel the heat inside me bloom outward, lava coursing through my veins as I become an elemental goddess of violence. I'm angry, at the Cape who hurt Nobody, at the dickhead attacking my friends, but most of all at myself. I'm supposed to keep everyone safe. What's the point of all this power if I can't protect them from assholes like this? Hotpants starts to get up, ready to attack Arbiter. I move in front of him, facing Arbiter, and shielding everyone.

"Keep them safe and make sure he lives."

"I can handle him. I will handle him," Hotpants said angrily.

"GET THEM OUT OF HERE!" I screamed.

His ego doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that Nobody survives the night. Hotpants slams the back of the truck shut, turning to smoke and slipping into the driver's side. The truck starts up, and I don't bother looking. Hotpants will keep them safe; he would do anything to protect Nobody. Arbiter moves, trying to fly past me to get to them. That trick won't work twice. My hand grabs his ankle just as he passes. I try to crush it, but my hand gets stopped by some invisible force extending a few inches from his skin. Whatever the invisible force is, I'm still able to grip it. Arbiter's body sends cracks through the ground as I slam him into it.

Arbiter floats off the ground like a vampire coming out of its coffin. His mouth is locked into a perpetual sneer. Who the fuck even sneers? He doesn't look any worse for wear from hitting the concrete. He might be strong enough to handle me going harder. I don't want to kill him; I only need to make sure that everyone else gets away. Arbiter punches me in my face, and I slide back a few feet. It was a good punch, strong and without overextending, but it didn't even tickle.

He flies at me, trying to use his speed to make up for the difference in strength. He doesn't have a speed-related ability; it's the mobility that flight grants him, allowing him to be so quick. But I'm not a slow lumbering ogre; my Shifter form is every bit as agile as my human form is. My uppercut connects with his chin, or at least it hits his invisible armor. He rockets up, tumbling through the air. I crouch down and jump as hard as I can. The alleyway collapses beneath me as I leap. The tall brick building next to the Capital Hotel is some kind of law office, and I grab hold of it as my momentum bleeds off. Like a rock climber, I rapidly scale the wall, creating my own footholds and punching holes through the concrete to have something to grab onto.

I reach the top of the office building quickly, and Arbiter is floating there. His nose is bleeding pretty heavily. Good, this asshole deserves it. The blood drips down his chin, falling to the alley below. He wipes the blood with his hand but doesn't get it all, leaving him with a red smear across his mouth and cheeks. Gross. Arbiter turns away from me, looking in the direction the truck went. He flees from me, flying after my friends like the cowardly bug he is.

"GET BACK HERE!"

I start running after him, reaching the edge of the building and pushing off. My legs launch me into the sky, and I land on top of the building across the street. I was a bit worried my weight would send me through the floor, but I guess' Quinstin is built of stronger stuff. Running across the rooftops, I chase after him, vaulting from skyscraper to skyscraper. I'm not bothering being quiet, I can't afford to. All that matters is making sure that he can't get to them. I'm gaining on him; his flight isn't as fast as my sprint. I spot the truck ahead of Arbiter, and they haven't lost him yet. Speeding down Main Street, they're too easy to follow for him. They're headed toward the base, but he doesn't know that. I turn left, aiming to cut him off by getting ahead of him.

They need a distraction to slip away. A spectacle so big that everyone's eyes will be on me. Nobody desires anonymity above all else. He has plans for our group's reveal, meticulously organized details so that our debut is flawless. That's why we needed The Merchants, and why we've been lying low this whole time. Tonight changed that. Sorry, Nobody, but if keeping our identities hidden means you might get hurt, then I'll shout my name from the rooftops. I spot Arbiter as he flies above the streets and cars, but he does not see me. I leap at him, spear tackling him out of the air as we both plummet toward the intersection below.

"Who are you?" Arbiter shouted, struggling against me.

Ever since that talk Nobody and I had months ago, right after we burned the base down, I've been thinking of what my Cowl name should be. Something powerful and thematically relevant to what I can do. Athena, Bellona, Freyja, Hephaestus, Firestorm, Cinder, Incinerate. I thought about a goddess of war angle or something overtly fire-related. I hated the names Nobody suggested, but I didn't love any of the ones I came up with. I am an unstoppable monster, an unavoidable disaster; I am a force of nature.

"I am Vesuvius."

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