April 22nd, 2011, Thursday, 9:02 AM.

I spent my eighteenth birthday alone, and it was much less eventful then the previous two had been. I skipped school for the day, instead catching a bus into the central business district. I spent an hour or so wandering around and checking out the novelty shops before I ended up at the cinema. I bought a deluxe ticket, I wasn’t ever going back to those shitty normal ones. The movie was a medieval comedy, about a pair of princes that were trying to save one of their fiancés. I got myself a frozen drink and some popcorn, before sitting down to watch it, idly noting that there was barely anyone in the room.

I realized sometime later that I hadn’t spoken to anyone all day, other than the short exchange with the cinema staff. I had received no birthday greetings or cards with good wishes, it was kind of my own fault anyway really, the only people who could have even known it was my birthday would be at school, but even then I barely interacted with most of them, it was unlikely that anyone would have known in the first place.

It sounded pretty sad actually when I thought about it.

Don't get me wrong, I got along with people fine, even if people did tend to become annoyed with my constant joking. I talked to people in class, and during break times in the cafeteria. I would respond to questions with light-hearted jokes at people's expense, I was on surprisingly good terms with most of the kids my age, with only a few enemies around.

Fuck you, Thomas Payton.

At the end of each day I would go home, but none of the people that I interacted with in school had ever made an effort to talk to me outside of it, and I certainly wasn’t going to reach out, it seemed too much like begging for friendship. I wasn't willing to make people give a shit about me by forcing the issue, so instead, I stayed in my lane. I went to school every morning, I left school every afternoon, my school life was completely separated from the outside world, and I was fine with that.

I tossed my half-eaten popcorn into the bin on the way out of the building, still smiling from the hilarious movie, it was definitely the funniest thing I had seen all year. I stepped out of the front doors back into the city, the sun was shining and there was an empty bench nearby with my name on it, carved long ago with a thin wire on the underside of the seat.

I sat around and just watched people for a while thinking, the explosions had slowed down a great deal once Lung had been rescued from his cell. There had been a great deal of noise on the news about it this week. I had tried to contact coil but every time I did it would just ring out, the dude was totally ghosting me, I was considering hunting him down and kicking his ass for the disrespect.

The thing that was actually annoying was that it felt like I was being sidelined, even when the Lung fiasco had occurred almost a week ago, he hadn’t even called me. I never even got to tell him that I'd succeeded in recruiting Purity either, I knew intellectually that Coil must have been busy setting everything up for the meeting or whatever, trying to organize a bunch of crazy villains was bound to be tough, but I wasn’t exactly patience incarnate.

I supposed I couldn’t just lump all the blame onto the guy.

Speaking of Purity, I realized like a day after I had successfully recruited her that I hadn’t offered to pay her any money. It made me wonder why she had accepted so easily, was she secretly rich and didn’t need any? Even so, who wants to work for free, I would have to split what I was getting from coil with her. It was the best I could do for now, if she wanted more I would have to pay from my own personal funds.

Yikes, my precious money mountain.

I had been keeping in contact with Kayden via instant messaging, just to make sure she wasn't about to vanish and hang me out to dry. Our chat logs were bizarre though, every now and then I would send her a message about something to make sure she hadn’t been blown up by one of Bakuda’s bombs or assassinated by somebody.

I felt pretty disappointed if I were being honest, movies had given me the impression that sending secret messages to a hot older woman would be a lot raunchier. I had sent her a bunch of winky faces and “You good?” messages. Kayden would simply reply with variations of “Yes.” or “I’m fine.” I sent her an eggplant once for laughs and she’d left me on seen for hours. Even last night I had sent her a hilarious meme and she didn’t even reply!

This was bullshit, our working relationship was going to need some work.

My phone dinged suddenly bringing me back to the present, it was a message from Coil, I felt a thrill of excitement. The meeting was happening tomorrow night, at a place called Somer’s Rock, I had better go find out where the hell that was exactly.

Well, if I couldn’t crack Kayden with winky faces and eggplants, I would just have to win her over with my charming personality.

April 23rd, 2011, Friday, 6:17 PM.

I slowly lowered myself downwards like I was that guy from Mission Impossible. I touched down only a couple of buildings away from the roof that Purity and I had fought on. I dropped down into a seated position and quietly looked around the area. The trip from my own apartment to here had only taken less than a minute of flying, I probably should have called before I had left, I was going to have to wait for a while now.

On my way over I had made a note of all of the barriers and roadblocks that were set up in this part of the city. The military, the police, and the PRT were all working in conjunction to block off areas that were deemed to be a likely target for Bakuda or those that had already become a target and where now simply too dangerous for civilians to be around due to spent bomb effects. Nobody wanted a building to suddenly fall down and squash someone, after all.

I fished my phone out of the pocket sewn into the inside of my coat, and typed out a quick message to Kayden, telling her to ‘meet me in the alley’, along with a bunch of winky faces. Surprisingly enough, she agreed almost immediately which sending me some mixed signals. Was she responding because I had told her to come outside? Because it was work-related?

Of course, she responds to work-related stuff but ignores the memes, this was completely unacceptable.

I studied the area curiously, the height of the building letting me see a fair distance down the road. There had been walking patrols heading all around the city down the sidewalks, guys in military gear were openly carrying assault rifles as well, which had to mean that shit was getting really serious on the Anti-ABB front.

What all of the ‘good guys’ didn’t know, was that the upcoming villain meeting was going to be the nail in Lung's big dragon-shaped coffin. The protectorate had been copping a lot of flak for 'allowing' the dangerous parahuman to escape their custody, which was the dumbest thing I had ever heard, I have never understood why the public always goes ape shit when something like this happens, it's not like they opened up his cell and held the fucking door open for the guy. They had obviously taken precautions to try and contain the dude, but sometimes shit just happens, I would like to see the normies try and keep fucking Lung of all people in a cell.

Bunch of assholes, really.

I noticed the back door of the building in front and to the left of me open up before Kayden stepped out covered in heavy coat and sweatpants. Oh wow, maybe that was why she had gone at me so hardcore, we were literally fighting next to her apartment. Whoops.

Kayden stopped when she spotted me sitting on the roof, legs dangling off the edge, she looked remarkably uncomfortable as she stepped further into the alleyway and then a handful of seconds later she appeared on the edge of the roof, the bright glow receding as she dropped down onto the roof, she must have removed the coat and sweatpants down below, because now she was wearing her white bodysuit.

Kayden stood on the edge of the roof, watching me quietly for a long moment.

"Urchin." Purity said coolly, all professional-like.

Uh oh, she sounded way too serious.

"Yikes," I said easily, and she looked unsure for a moment. "Just chill out, you look like you’re going to a funeral."

After a moment of silence, she let her shoulders relax, and let out a sigh.

"The only funeral I want to go to is Lungs," Kayden said dryly and I laughed.

What a shit joke, I loved it.

"That's the spirit, but we’ll get to that in a moment." I laughed. "First we need to address the elephant on the roof."

Kayden narrowed her eye at me, and I abruptly realized that it might have sounded like I was calling her fat, I coughed into my hand awkwardly.

"Excuse me?" Kayden said annoyed.

"I sent you the single funniest meme I have ever seen,” I said passionately, "and you fucking left me on seen!?”

"Oh, for fucks sake," Kayden said exasperated.

I pointed at her angrily.

“The Full Frontal’s communication network never goes dark, got it?" I ranted, “I would be well within my rights to bust your ass back to training!”

“I haven’t gotten any training!” Kayden said sounding pissed off, but keeping her voice in a whisper, “I’m more experienced than you! I should be training you!

"What the fuck? I am your commanding officer!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and thumping my chest with a fist, “You aren’t treating me with the respect my station deserves!”

“What kind of commanding officer sends eggplants to his subordinates?!” Kayden furiously whispered, still trying not to draw attention.

“The best kind!” I yelled with passion, refusing to back down, “Drop down and give me twenty!”

“Fuck off,” Kayden scoffed, but she was fighting a smile. “Idiot.”

I considered that a win and let the matter drop, for now.

"What are we going to do about this meeting anyway?" Kayden said more seriously, doing her best to refocus me, "There are going to be some big names at this thing. Kaiser, Coil, and Faultline."

Funny that she didn’t mention the Undersiders or the Merchants, or me.

"Yeah, if Coil managed to get everyone he wanted to come," I said easily. "Nearly every villain and mercenary in the bay is going to be there."

Kayden bit the tip of her thumb and started pacing on the roof, looking pretty stressed at the thought.

"How are we going to handle it? Do we just stay silent on the sidelines?" Kayden wondered aloud. "Do we go in hardcore, so they don't fuck with us?"

I was looking at her strangely, I hadn't even thought about it at all. Did something like this actually matter? Was I supposed to put on a show or something? Try to intimidate everyone? I scratched the back of my head in wonder, what was the point?

Fuck it, I’ll just wing it.

"Don't worry, Sparkles. I've got it all handled already," I said confidently.

“Don’t call me that,” Kayden said immediately, eyes narrowed once more.

"I’ll handle the negotiations, you just stay chill and try not to explode anyone unless they attack us first, got it?" I said seriously.

Kayden looked impressed that I had already thought ahead and nodded in agreement, looking much calmer than before.

"We should probably head over now anyway," I said idly, pulling my phone out to check the time.

6:32 PM.

"When does it start?" Kayden asked curiously.

I lifted myself up into the air, and Purity followed, lighting up the immediate area with her power, I had to look away from her even with the goggles.

"About two minutes ago," I said cheekily, before taking off.

Purity yelled something at me, but I couldn't hear her over the wind, she pulled up alongside me and then we dashed across the city towards 'Somer's Rock'. It didn't take long at all to get there and we both stopped to hover in the air above the roof of the building, taking a moment to scope the place out.

A bunch of people were heading for the door, all of them dressed in bizarre clothing. They had already spotted Purity, on account of how god damned bright she was, and the guy wearing the top hat waved to us, which I returned happily. They were clearly capes judging by their clothing, and almost certainly villains by their choice of a watering hole, but I didn’t know who they were offhand, I would be doing some research tonight it would seem.

Somer's Rock was a total mess of a building, with every curtain and window closed uptight. There was a single wall-mounted light above the door, its glass casing mostly shattered, but even without the case it barely illuminated the entrance.

I looked over to Purity and she was still floating calmly beside me, with all of the light stealth clearly wasn’t ever going to be an option for her.

"Bright-Eyes," I said seriously, and she snapped to attention. "Just like we planned, remember?"

I dropped myself down to the ground next to the door, Purity followed barely a second later and made an aborted grab for my shoulder. No doubt she wanted to know when exactly we had planned anything, and what exactly it entailed.

I kicked the door open and strode in like I owned the place.

"The big booty bitches are here!" I cheered, as we strode into the room.

Purity followed behind me in something approaching shock, her shoulders stuck in a bizarre meld of confidence and embarrassment.

Hilariously, half of the people in the room had jumped up out of their chairs near-instantly, already facing the door where we had come in through. Nobody made a move to attack as I wandered up to stand next to Hookwolf, who had been one of the few people who hadn’t bothered to stand up.

I spotted Coil still sitting at the head of the table gave him a friendly nod.

Coil was sitting extremely still, and just staring at me. Was it shock, awe, or pride? I couldn't tell with his costume in the way, I would just have to assume that it was all of the above. That will teach him for ghosting me.

Kaiser was the first to talk, from his seat opposite Coil, at the other head of the table.

"Purity," Kaiser said calmly. "How nice of you to join us."

Kaiser was covered in a pretty awesome looking set of armor, it was all interlocking metal pieces, and straight lines, it looked intricate as all hell. I wondered if I could make my own amour look as cool as that I would have to spend some more time practicing.

I gave the room a quick once over, the Undersiders were sitting to the side behind Grue, who was seated at the big boy table in the middle of the room. I nodded to Regent, who nodded back, Tattletale, Skitter, and Bitch were all there as well. I almost made a crack about Panacea quitting the team but managed to hold myself back.

Hookwolf was looking up at me curiously, practically sprawled in his chair with Krieg and an unknown man and woman sitting around him. I spotted Victor, Rune, and Othala at another table, and gave them a friendly wave, before turning away.

"I'm not here for you." Purity said calmly, after taking a moment to collect herself. "I'm with Urchin."

Kaiser looked supremely unbothered by his absolute cuckening, which probably meant that he was pissed off. He better not try and put a spike up my ass for stealing his ex-enforcer or I was going to have to whoop him.

"I see," Kaiser replied coolly. "You should work on your entrance."

The second part was directed at me and people started to sit back down after the pleasantries were concluded. Fenja and Menja were both sitting directly behind Kaiser, looking at Purity with looks filled with something, I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but it looked negative. They both had blonde hair and looked like supermodels, both wore matching armor.

Damn, Kaiser was living his best life.

"Heh, I almost went with, 'Get on the ground!'," I said easily while looking around the room, but Kaiser said nothing in response.

I spotted something interesting in the corner, the three members of the Chorus sat watching us quietly, Aural stood up and waved.

"Aural," I said cheerfully. "How's it hanging?"

Aural lifted her hand and tilted it to the left, drawing a laugh out of me. Swallow grabbed her on the arm, quickly tugging her back down and began whispering furiously into her ear. The table next to them housed a bright orange dude with a thick reptilian tail, a real tall, very rotund pale man. The orange dude was ‘Newter’, and the big guy was ‘Gregor the Snail’. There were a few others sitting with them, but I couldn’t recognize any of them.

"Urchin," Coil said finally. "Please take a seat, we can start now that everyone has arrived."

I wandered over and pulled the chair out that sat across from Faultline and the dude with the top hat, who on closer inspection was also wearing a red mask. Kaiser was sitting next to me on my left, completely calm and looking regal. Someone had knocked a seat over at some point, so I picked it up and set it right again.

Purity sat at the table directly behind me, glowing brilliantly.

Aural wandered over and took the seat next to Faultline, I guess that she was their designated spokesperson, Heh. The seat I put back in place was still empty, it sat between Grue and I. I had another look around and spotted the merchants sitting at the side of the room, Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush, with no Trainwreck to be seen.

I blinked at Skidmark’s expression, he looked furious and Squealer was looking pretty upset as well, the less said about Mush’s appearance the better.

"Hey Skidmark," I said cheerfully, "This is your seat, isn't it? Move your ass buddy, it’s go time."

I motioned him over, and he smiled suddenly, anger abruptly forgotten as he shot up to his feet, he strode over before sitting down next to me with a shit-eating grin on his face. Faultline, Grue, and Kaiser all turned to stare at me in silence, I stared back uncaring.

They were angry for some reason obviously, I frowned at them from behind my mask before realizing that they couldn’t see it.

“You got a fucking problem?” I asked in general, waiting for someone to speak up but there was just a moment of tense silence before Coil drew everyone's attention to him.

“That should be everyone." Coil began coolly, completely ignoring the tension, " It would seem that Lung won’t be coming, though I doubt any of us are surprised, given the subject of tonight’s discussion.”

There were some murmurs of agreement and nods from around the table. I stared at Coil, was the man on drugs? Why the fuck would Lung be coming to the meeting about kicking the shit out of Lung? What a strange way to begin the discussion, he must have had a reason for it, so I didn't call him on it.

"The ABB," Kaiser spoke calmly, pronouncing each letter. "They are causing some property damage."

Kaiser mentioned it like it was a small inconvenience to him, something annoying but not an actual problem yet. Faultline sat forward and drew everyone’s attention to herself. Aural leaned back to watch her.

"The ABB is being reckless." Faultline said firmly, "The increase in law enforcement is becoming an issue and it is a problem for all of us."

"Homeland security and military forces having been setting up blockages all across the city in response to Bakuda's attacks," Coil added evenly. "Even the heroes from neighboring cities are being drawn to Brockton Bay because of their actions."

Coil paused a moment, studying everyone’s reactions before continuing.

"It is making business somewhat, difficult." Coil stressed the word. “This meeting is to decide what exactly we should be doing about it.”

Grue joined the discussion then calmly outlining what he and the Undersiders had witnessed during Bakuda's ambush on them. Hundreds of people kidnapped and apparently having bombs surgically implanted in them, forced to follow Bakuda’s orders or be killed gruesomely. Bakuda had even started ordering her captives to go out and find even more people, she was like a one-woman factory at this point. Input people: output unwilling suicide bombers, it made me sick.

Grue handed out a disc to everyone.

"This is a video recording that Uber and Leet took when they ambushed us," Grue said calmly, "They left it behind when they ran, it should be useful to get an idea of how Bakuda fights."

When he got to me, I declined.

"I've already seen it, I'm good thanks," I said easily, before nodding to him.

Grue hesitated for a moment before continuing on to the others, there was a quiet moment where they all fell into thought before Coil spoke again.

“We’re in agreement then," Coil said calmly after Grue had ceded the floor. "The ABB cannot be allowed to continue operating in Brockton Bay.”

Everyone was making noises or gestures of general agreement, the man had actually done it. Coil had brought together this motley assortment of villains and mercenaries under a single banner, I barely restrained myself from clapping, the guy had charisma.

"Very well, then I suggest we establish a temporary truce," Coil said simply. "We refrain from everything that isn't essential to our businesses and we remove the ABB from Brockton Bay."

Faultline immediately spoke up.

"My group won't be getting involved with this unless somebody is paying us. If the person paying is the ABB, then I'll be on the other side of this fight." Faultline said steadily.

I immediately started laughing, not even five minutes ago she had been talking up how big of a threat they were and now she wanted to play it off like she was going to join fucking Lung? Who was going to pay her exactly? The only person here who even used other mercenaries was Coil.

"You just said that they were being reckless, and causing trouble for everyone," I said pointedly, staring straight at her.

Coil leaned back in his chair, watching me curiously. I’ve got your back buddy, I’ll protect your money mountain. Besides, I was going to ask him for a raise now that Purity had joined, it was less likely to happen if Coil was hemorrhaging money to all these other vultures.

Faultline turned to look at me, the blank face of her welder’s mask glinting in the light.

"What's your point?" Faultline said darkly as if to dare me to start shit.

Well if you insist, I thought.

"My point is everyone else here has the exact same problem with them." I said easily, "They aren't asking for money, you want us to do the work for free, but your team gets paid? Fuck off."

Faultline leaned forward and started to respond but I cut her off.

"If you want to go join the ABB, go right ahead, I’ll kick your ass as well." I said pleasantly, "No skin off my nose."

Tattletale made a strange noise from her table and Faultline sat back before crossing her arms. Everyone was staring at her now, she had to be feeling the pressure.

"Fine," Faultline said balefully. "Pro bono, we'll help." I could almost feel her glare through the welding helmet.

Coil watched me for a moment longer, no doubt basking in my magnificence, before he re-joined the conversation, getting us all refocused on the task at hand.

"Kaiser?" Coil asked calmly.

"I think that a temporary truce is acceptable," Kaiser answered easily.

Grue spoke up next without waiting to be addressed.

"We were thinking of something similar anyway, count us in," Grue said seriously.

The guy in the top hat joined in a moment later.

"Sure," Top hat said, "Not a problem."

I looked over to Skidmark, but he was staring at the side of Grue’s helmet.

"Skidmark, you guys in?" I asked curiously, to speed things up.

Skidmark turned to me and grinned.

"Fuck yeah, we're in," Skidmark said happily.

I nodded at him.

"Aural?" Coil asked calmly.

Aural nodded in agreement, so I gave her the thumbs up, she immediately stuck out her tongue at me. Cheeky.

Everybody that had turned up was now onboard, Lung was pretty much fucked, Bakuda was also fucked and Oni Lee could probably fuck himself if he were quick about it, the meeting was a smashing success.

We started to wrap things up after that, with everybody swearing their undying fealty to the cause, some had wanted to air some grievances though. Hookwolf had some beef with Bitch.

We ducked out right behind the dude in the top hat, who’s name I never ended up learning, I would have to look that guy up later. I was confident in my own power, but I wasn't sticking around in case any of these assholes had some funny ideas or some really esoteric powers.

Purity followed beside me, the dream team in action. Purity alone was one of the strongest capes in the city, so nobody wanted to fuck with her, that was probably most of the reason they had let me get away with so much shit in there.

I had Purity glowing brightly directly behind me, hard to forget her.

I was well aware of just how strong she was, don't get me wrong. I’ve seen the footage of her other fights and she usually doesn't blow her load as quick as she did during our fight. I had managed through sheer luck to catch her in a moment of critical weakness. Days of bad weather resulting in a lack of light to absorb, compounded by the fact that she had been patrolling for several hours already and had used up a fair amount of her rationed power.

Then I came along, making her use up the dregs of her remaining power to try and punch through my defenses. The fight would have been a much longer and nastier one if I had caught her during the day with the sun out, on the other hand, she probably wouldn’t have fought so desperately if she had more power at her disposal.

I would have had to somehow get her out of the light and then keep her buried in more material then she would be able to destroy, which was probably still doable. The fight had escalated pretty quickly but in my defense, she had started going lethal almost straight out the gates.

It made more sense now than it had at the time, I hadn’t realized I had literally attacked her outside of her home, the entire situation had probably come off as a lot more sinister then I had intended.

In a full lethal fight, no restrictions, I was sure she could kill me just as fast as I could kill her and I'm glad that it hadn't come to that.

I dropped Kayden off at the place we had met, like the well-mannered gentleman I was. I made a wire top-hat like that dude at the meeting and took it off there was even some bowing. Kayden shooed me away, exasperated but smiling.

I told her to contact me if she needed to and then skedaddled, what a day.