NORTH WIND (Mia)

Mia had been planning this moment ever since Shade had discovered Red's little secret squirrel. She tried to avoid thinking about the fact that Shade and Artisan seemed to do just as much, if not more spying. Wait, they didn't spy on her did they? Anyway, She was going to enjoy throwing this particular snoop around because not only was she the one who'd been setting Red on her, she was also out in Mia's formally peaceful lake.

When she finally found her nemesis using thermal disparity (Fire-for-brains wasn't the only one who could sense heat), she reached down with her power, and lifted her prey up out of the water in a fist of ice. Time for revenge little fish girl! But instead of fighting back, the idiot just looked up at her with a ridiculously pathetic smile, and didn't even try to break out of her icy grip.

Division's voice came over her com, interrupting her frustration as what was supposed to be an epic confrontation, was instead starting to look like an episode of after-school bullying. "Ask her to meet us at the pier." He said, and Mia was sure she could hear a smile in his voice. She threw a quick glare at where she knew Division was watching through a pair of binoculars, another snooper!

Wind tried to calm down, but the adrenalin seemed to have made her a little silly. She frowned at the fish girl, just to let her know that she wasn't happy with her. "The boss wants to have a word." She said in her best mobster voice, nodding sideways towards the pier, before dropping the other girl back in the water and heading that way herself.

By the time Naiad arrived, Mia had managed to regain what she thought of as her usual relaxed attitude. She must have succeeded better than she thought, because Naiad seemed to have relaxed too, no longer surprised or concerned, she shook Division's hand in greeting before quickly apologising as she realised her hand was still wet.

Mia rolled her eyes as Division waved away Naiad's concern and invited her to sit with them on the nearby wall. Mia decided to focus on figuring the girl out, well woman she supposed, there was definitely a mature figure under the tight neoprene, she quickly returned her inspection to Naiad's face, hoping her wandering gaze hadn't been noticed.

It was hard to tell Naiad's age with the small stature, shiny blue skin and vibrant green hair. She could have been sixty, but the smooth gamine face seemed to belong to someone her own age.

"I want you to know there's no hard feelings over how you came to our attention," Division began, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence, and gave Wind a look as she snorted quietly behind him.

"We know how pushy Red Fury can be when he wants something." He continued, giving Wind another look when she snorted again slightly louder. He probably missed the strangely humoured look of agreement on Naiad's face because of it. Mia found herself warming to the little fish girl.

Division turned back to Naiad and continued, "As you may know, we're trying to establish a group outside the purview of the Heroes League, and away from their politics."

Naiad gave a sad little smile, "How's that working out for you?"

Division smiled back, his grin warm and full of humour.

"About how you'd expect." Mia said, shrugging her shoulders slightly to relax them further. She was starting to feel a little guilty. The girl was nothing like Mia had been imagining, no maliciousness or arrogance, and not only had Red Fury been pushing her around (which Mia could definitely commiserate with), but now here came the Outsiders, ready to push her into joining up with them instead, plunging her even deeper into the drama. She gave the back of Division's head a quick glare to let him know she didn't appreciate him trying to manipulate innocent young girls.

Naiad's smile bloomed into something startlingly happy and full of humour. "I'd like to join up with you." she said, before either of them could respond to her sudden grin.

Mia blinked in surprise and then stared with suspicion at Division. He'd mentioned something about evolving his powers a little, but he'd better not have gotten into mental manipulation!

SHADE (Carlos)

Carlos was currently feeling a great deal of nostalgia for his nights following gangbangers. Getting to the bottom of Red's ability to locate North Wind had been bad enough. Red was cautious and a little paranoid when it came to being spied on.

Can you call an hombre paranoid when you spent two days attempting exactly what they're worried about? It was an interesting thought, but it would have to wait for later. In the end Shade had found Red's little spy fish by bugging his teammates, who weren't nearly as cautious as Red. Unfortunately, his little venture into old-school bugging had also spurred Division into a security frenzy rivalling that of Red himself, and the boss-man had been riding Artisan for counter-surveillance tech ever since.

Right now, Carlos would kill for a gang to lurk after, or another nosy hero to find. Instead he was following possibly the most boring man he'd ever come across.

After they'd captured Ku and Dragon, Artisan had triangulated the burst from his signal grenade to an old warehouse on the waterfront. The only interesting thing about the abandoned warehouse was that it belonged to the family of State Senator Marcus Rassidae.

The team had originally worked on the theory that it had been a random choice by Flicker to cover the trail back to his boss, but after looking into the senator, some of Rassidae's recent activities had raised red flags with one of Artisan's associates (another Alien?). The kind of red flags that Artisan assured him meant Rassidae might be moonlighting as either a hero or villain. A worrying assertion since it seemed to come with a degree of authority. Just how much prying had Artisan been up to? Something else to think about later.

Right now, Carlos was wearing an ill-fitting suit in a shadowy corner of a city hall meeting about the parking enforcement budget. He was pretty sure it was a meeting the senator didn't need to attend, which begged the question of why the hell he'd chosen to. Carlos himself was five minutes from going villain and taking out the entire city council.

In a possible answer to his question, or maybe his silent prayers to Itztli, the building chose that moment to shake from an explosion. The lights flickered and then went off, and dust rained from the ceiling tiles as the building swayed slightly. A moment later, fire alarms began blaring from the ceiling and the corridor outside.

The meeting broke into chaos, councillors and the viewing public shouting in panic and pushing for the doors. Carlos stayed in his corner and kept an eye on the surprisingly calm senator, staying close as his security escorted him out through a back door and down some service stairs to the parking lot.

Carlos watched in frustration as the senator's black car pulled away. There was no way he was going to be able to follow on his dirt bike, not without attracting attention at the Police cordon now surrounding the building. So instead he reported in to Division and found a dark corner to lurk in.

Apparently no one had been hurt in the explosion, though a dozen people had been injured in the following evacuation. The city planning office had caught on fire, the sprinkler system failing in that part of the building, and a relatively minor prisoner had used the confusion to escape one of the courtrooms. An accountant if the building gossip was right. Carlos frowned as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.