Cassie smirked, “Are you saying that you think the first Captain Commando was a quiet, subtle guy? Because that’s not how I remember him. I remember him as the kind of guy who’d go after the Nine and not give a damn what happened because they’re a danger. He’d be smart about it, but direct and he wouldn’t wait for permission.”

Major Justice’s thin lips tightened and for the first time, I thought about how much of his face his helmet showed—almost all of it by way of a transparent faceplate. I pegged him as being in his late 50s, maybe early 60s, from his white hair, and lined face.

With the smallest hint of a snarl, Major Justice said, “I did have the pleasure of meeting the original Captain. You remind me of him.”

And not, I guessed, in a pleasant way. Not giving him a chance to go further, I cut in, “Major Justice, we’re working on something. The Midwest Defenders know what’s going on and they’re fine with it. They helped us out with it just yesterday.”

What I wasn’t saying directly was that Guardian, one of the most powerful supers on the planet, and his team, which happened to include people connected with our team, were going to have issues with them if they pushed us to stop, but he’d probably catch that.

If he didn’t, I’d have to say it in words.

South Beach Surfer put dropped her water bottle with a thump hard enough that a splash of water erupted from the open top. What was weirder was how it stopped there instead of rolling down the side of the bottle and hitting the counter below. Instead, it retracted into the bottle, not spilling at all.

She turned to face me. She didn’t wear a mask either, giving me a good view of her tanned face, graying blond hair, and blue eyes. I vaguely recalled that she’d been a model or maybe still was. I couldn’t at all remember why she’d been kicked off the South California Defenders team. I’d have to ask Alex. His dad had run that team for at least twenty years.

“I know your type,” her upper lip curled as she spoke. “You’ve been raised to be heroes from birth by heroes that are household names. You don’t need to listen to us because you can call daddy and have everything taken care of.”

Haley frowned, “No. We don’t.”

South Beach Surfer continued as if she hadn’t heard her, “You’re friends with Alex. I know what you pulled the last time you visited him. You and his friends caused millions of dollars of damage and none of you received any kind of punishment at all. Sure, they were ‘punished’ by bringing them on the SoCal team for more supervision. Some people aim to be on a Defenders team for their entire lives. What kind of punishment is that?”

Noting how stuck on Alex’s actions she seemed to be, I set my implant to remind me to ask him if he had anything to do with her leaving the team.

Continuing, she said, “In the real world, there are consequences for your actions. That’s why we’re here. Supers police other supers. If you continue to be irresponsible, we’re going to teach you to be responsible.”

Haley tilted her head as she looked at South Beach Surfer, “You’re going to teach us to be responsible by beating us up?”

Major Justice glanced over at South Beach Surfer, frowning, “I wasn’t going to bring that up so quickly, but yes. One of our options is to prove to you that we can physically and mentally best you if you continue to be irresponsible. That’s not our first choice. Our first choice is to talk with you like reasonable people. We’ll only resort to violence if you don’t give us the respect we deserve.”

Cassie laughed, “So what you’re saying is that you’ll only beat us up if we don’t do exactly what you want us to. I don’t know what the Rocket, Night Cat, and Bloodmaiden think, but as far as I’m concerned, you just said that you’re going to attack us. I mean, it’s not as if we’re going to stop going after the Nine.”

Standing behind Major Justice, Shifter placed her coffee on the nearest counter and moved her arms forward and back, stretching her back, and watching all of us. Mime, meanwhile, added sugar and then stirred his coffee with an invisible spoon.

South Beach Surfer leaned forward, “We’re here for your own good. If we have to throw down, we will and don’t think we’re alone. We have friends.”

“Whoa,” I said, “wait a second. Are you really here to tell us that you’ll use your influence to bring in enough supers to take us down if we don’t listen to you? Because we also have friends and that might expand into a much bigger fight. If you’re really afraid of losing the public’s confidence, I think it’s more likely to happen that way.”

Major Justice held up his right hand—the one without a shield, “Wait, wait! Things appear to be getting heated. We can’t let our emotions take over. We need to talk this out. Now, if everyone will take a moment and breathe, I think we can move forward.”

He paused, took a breath, and said, “That’s better, right? All you need to do is consider our words. We need you to agree to back off on whatever you’re doing for a little while, maybe a week. While you’re taking that break, tell us about it, and let us guide your response.”

In short, he was asking us to stop acting, give him all our information, and allow him to plan our strategy. I didn’t know the motivation behind his actions, but it felt like they benefitted the Nine most of all.

Of course, if he wasn’t being controlled by the Nine, it might be the actions of a fading superhero desperate to put himself back into the limelight. At least, it wasn’t impossible. I wondered how well Daniel was doing at determining whether or not we were dealing with the Nine’s puppets.

Not well, Daniel thought at me. Major Justice has a psi shield in his helmet. It leaks a little, but not in a way that conveniently explains anything. It doesn’t block strong emotions. I’ve sensed fear and jealousy most strongly from him. The others have shields of the same design. I’m not sure where theirs are hidden, but I’m getting anger and bitterness from South Beach Surfer and wariness from Shifter. I get flickers of emotion from Mime, but nothing strong enough to identify.

That’s bad, I thought back.

I know. I’d hoped to be more useful. I can tell you that there’s a small but significant chance this ends in violence. Also, Kals has a few words for you to try that might force them to reveal if the Dominators messed with their heads.