Chapter 63

‘Yeah… Maybe I made the wrong call.’

Lisa Wilbourn stood stock still, every human instinct in her body screaming for her to turn Angelica around and get the fuck away from what the Brocktonites were calling ‘Mt. Invictus’. It was one thing to see the massive white dragon from a distance, lording over the peak of the mountain like some fucked yo scene from Game of Thrones made real - but it was a complete other reality to actually come face to face with the mythical creature.

She could still feel its growl reverberating through her bones. Her eardrums still hurt, her skin nipped with an icy coldness that seeped from its scaly hide like a mist. Even across the full expanse of the grassy backyard, hundreds of feet away, that horrible creature’s frosty aura was like tiny needles pricking her flesh. And she wasn’t the only one who felt it, either; there was no way to escape on her temporary mount, because all three of Rachel’s dogs - the same dogs who rivaled trucks with their raw size and weight - were whimpering, their bodies low to the ground, damn near lying on their sides beneath the dragon’s glare.

Submitting before a much, much stronger predator. They were fucked.

‘All because I wanted to start negotiations off on more equal footing.’ 

Not for the first time in her short seventeen years of living, Lisa was frustrated with her own damned pride. Or was it arrogance? Losing Rachel hurt, but it wasn’t like she’d been planning on sticking with the Undersiders herself much longer after Coil kicked the bucket. No, the worst part about Rachel’s sudden decision to join Avalon’s crew was that it put Lisa and Brian in compromising positions. 

With the only other person in their ragtag ‘crew’ joining him, what fleeting pieces of empathy would convince the hero to give them a decent enough severance package? 

He was already doing it moreso out of pity than anything else, which rankled Lisa something dirty. She hated accepting scraps, but she hated accepting pity scraps even more. By showing a more unified front and taking the initiative, they’d be able to surprise Avalon, put him on the back foot with the showing of gumption and bravery, and appease the very obvious ‘don’t give a fuck’ rebellious streak he wore around his shoulders like a mantle. 

It wasn’t all that hard to convince Rachel and Brian of her plan after giving the aggressive girl a day or two of ruminating in solitude. For all of her apparent strength and dominance, Rachel was a human, and the fear of rejection and subsequent loneliness still bothered her - so the thought of joining forces one last time, not burning bridges with her only two friendly acquaintances, and ‘impressing’ Avalon by fearlessly scaling his mountain… it was appealing enough to her.

And Brian just needed the money. His entire focus was on Aisha and being able to pull her away from her deadbeat mom, so he was on board after Lisa assured him that Avalon’s dragon was most likely for sure. He had the whole Greco-Roman palace thing going on, and his entire persona screamed ‘dark sorcerer’. Was it that surprising that he figured out a way to create a dragon?

Well, yeah, but over the past week it hadn’t even left the mountain, so it was clearly well-trained. This could work.

Avalon, or Jason, the cute, nonchalant boy with dreads she’d met outside the pawn shop… Lisa didn’t know him anymore. Never actually did. She couldn’t even claim to be all that curious now, considering the fact that curiosity may very well actually kill the cat this time around. No, as much as it secretly bothered her to admit it, Avalon was far out of her league - in any way that it mattered. 

She would get her money and then get the fuck out. Not out of the Bay - with Invictus here, this city was the safest place this side of the East Coast. No, she’d get her money and get the fuck out of supervillainy.

It just wasn’t worth it at this point. Not with the opportunities her powers gave her. Coil had a decent idea with gaming the stock market…

Now, if only she could avoid becoming dragon chow.

‘What a fucking rushed and stupid idea.’

Brian’s gruff, strained voice grunted out, interrupting her train of thought. “Rach, your dogs.”

“Tch. Fucking stupid idea!” Rachel growled beneath her breath, half buried beneath Brutus’ submitting bulk. She winced, more of a snark and gnashing of teeth than anything else, and clicked her tongue loudly. With a jerk, a whine, and a creaking of bones, her canine mount roll upright, digging his claws into the grassy soil and slowly rising on shaky legs.

Much to Lisa’s relief, before they could also crush them, Judas and Angelica hesitantly followed suit. 

“Jesus.” Brian immediately hopped off of Judas, and Lisa immediately did the same. Six hundred pounds of mutated dog flesh crushing her body was not the way she wanted to enter negotiations. The dragon was an obstacle she hadn’t thought would actually be an obstacle, but the plan didn’t change. They simply had to adapt.

Her powers made her good at that - changing things up on the fly. If only it fucking worked on him. For now, she just needed to get the others on board before their good common sense kicked in and left her estranged on fucking Mount Invictus.

“Okay guys, this is fine. This is doable. New objective - get past the huge, fuck-off dragon guarding the back door.” Lisa shivered as another wave of cold suffused her body, biting through the latex of her bodysuit as easily as a knife through butter. It was still staring at them from across the clearing, its massive head - the same size as one of Bitch’s dogs - frosting the grass beneath it with every breath. 

‘Lowered posture. Refuses to move from perch. Growled only once - a warning growl. Is waiting. Waiting for owner. Waiting for Avalon. Won’t attack unless pushed.’

At least half of that was good news. Lisa’s hand palmed the pistol at her side - a simple, unobtrusive Glock - and she almost immediately perished the thought. There was no fucking way 9mm rounds were piercing the scales of a fucking dragon if push came to shove. It was either wait out for Avalon, starting negotiations off in a horribly slanted position, or somehow get past his mythical groundskeeper.

Easier said than done.

“This was fucking retarded,” Rachel ground out, sliding off of Judas’ back and landing hard on her feet. She clicked her teeth again, tapping her left toe against the ground-

‘Calling her dogs to heel. Annoyed. Annoyed that she followed my lead. Angry that she let herself be manipulated.’

They didn’t have time for this. Lisa sighed, reaching out to touch her temporary teammate on the shoulder. “Bitch-”

‘Tightened jaw, curled lip, balled up fists-’

Correction - she didn’t have enough time to think. There was a low snarl, the snapping of teeth, and suddenly, Lisa realized that she was looking up at the gray sky, the canopy of trees partially obscuring the clouds from view. Her chest hurt from what felt like a punch or a particularly vicious shove, and…

Lisa hacked up phlegm, feeling her bruised sternum pulsate agonizingly with each wheeze. She was having trouble breathing. 

That feral bitch hit her.

“-Out of fucking line, Rachel. Stand the fuck down!”

“Fuck off, I didn’t even wanna come here with you losers anyway! You wanna eat shit too?”

“.... You really wanna try me? None of us are happy with this decision, but we’re here now. Together. Straighten the hell up for once!”

Lisa rolled over on her side, inhaling and exhaling deeply to recover from having the wind knocked straight out of her lungs. She’d been hit much harder before, but Rachel had a fucking mean right hook, and there had been months of barely restrained anger packed into that punch. Through the blurred tears of her body’s reaction, Lisa watched helplessly, unable to get out words, as darkness pooled beneath Brian’s feet - not filling the air yet, but more so as a visceral warning.

Yet…

‘Brian is nervous. Brian is frustrated. Left foot six inches behind right. Hip flexors near rotation. Ready to move. Ready to flee.’

They were practically face-to-face now, Brutus, Angelica, and Judas prowling low to the ground and circling them as threats and swearing flew back and forth. In a straight up scrap, Rachel was the best of them. In hand-to-hand, no powers, Brian would win nine times out of ten due to him having formal boxing training, height, reach, and weight, but with their abilities in play? No amount of gym memberships could prepare you for wrestling with a truck-sized lizard hound, and Rachel had three of them. 

His darkness was great for covering escapes or forming ambushes. 

It wasn’t so great when you were defending yourself from vicious, salivating beasts.

“You’re not my boss, dirtbag. Never was. I don’t give a shit about you and you never gave a shit about me, so stop pretending and get the fuck outta here before I make you. You’re just gonna mess this up.” Rachel’s words were compounded by an aggressive shove, one that actually forced Brian back a few steps. Though his face was hidden beneath his mask, Lisa was familiar enough with the boy to recognize every minute shift in his body language - like the way his shoulders suddenly squared, and his leather gloves squeaked as his fists tightened.

His patience was running out. Her ‘friends’ were about to come to blows, Avalon still wasn’t here, and the dragon…

Why did it suddenly seem so curious now?

Fuck. She needed to get up and take control before shit became worse. Her chest still ached horribly, but her lungs felt relatively normal. Her head was clearer now.

Slowly, subtly, Lisa began to work her way back to her feet.

“You think this Avalon guy is going to just accept you because you attacked your only friends and left them bleeding and mauled in his backyard?” Though his voice was muffled and discordant beneath the filter of his mask, the anger coating his words were damn near tangible. He stepped forward as the darkness beneath his feet seeped outwards, muffling the low growls of Rachel’s dogs. “This is a horrible way to start a new life, Rachel, and you know that. You’re letting your emotions control you right now. Think.”

“I am thinking - thinking that I shouldn’tve let that bitch trick me. We’re done here.”

Her eyes cut to the sides, narrowing at the sight of the roiling black cloud. Her jaw, already tense, visibly pulsed with adrenaline and the surging of blood, and behind Brian, her knife-long teeth bared in a snarl, Angelica rose from the shadows like some sort of animalistic wraith of vengeance. Lisa didn’t even need the insights from her powers to know that things were about to get dicey, and this time, it wasn’t even because of the fucking dragon watching them from afar. 

She had to fucking do something. Now.

All pretenses of subtlety thrown out the window, Lisa surged forward, her mouth opening to call out a command-

But darkness clogged her throat, her voice muffled and silent as the cloud of smoky shadows filled the clearing. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. The last thing her eyes caught a glimpse of before there was nothing but abyssal black was Brian jerking to the side, Rachel’s mouth open in a silent roar of frustration, and Angelica snapping forward, biting at nothing.

How did it even come to this…?

…

WOOOOOOOSH!

It hit like a ton of bricks.

A gale force storm of cold, freezing wind surged forth out of nowhere, plowing through the shadows like a sledgehammer through fine china. Not even a second after the blast of wind hit, chilling Lisa to her very fucking bones, the darkness was blown clean away, tendrils of black fog flying into the canopy of the trees and disappearing into the branches. 

Lisa stumbled back, ass over kettle, her body violently shivering to ward away the cold. Her eyes were dry and blurry from the sudden attack - because what else could it be? - but even then, she could see, and hear, the aggressive violence happening right in front of her. Brian was on the ground, grunting and shouting as he tried in vain to fend off Angelica’s snapping jaws. The oversized dog was unbothered by the blast of wind and the cold, her bestial attention focused purely on holding down and disabling the boy beneath her cinderblock-sized paws.

Rachel was slowly pulling herself back to her feet, grabbing onto Brutus’s neck spine for leverage.

Her fingers numb from both the cold and fear - annoying, base fear - Lisa scrambled for her pistol holster, cursing beneath her breath as her fingernail scratched uncomfortably against the metal grip. ‘C’mon, c’mon-’

“!!!!”

And that was when a growl ripped through the air - deep, guttural, bone-shaking.

Angelica immediately flopped onto her side with a loud, mournful whine, barely avoiding Brian’s bloodied and scratched up body. The former Undersider wasted no time scrambling back on hands and feet, darkness roiling beneath him like bubbles made from coal.

All eyes shot towards the source of the sound.

“Don’t know what sort of Tom and Jerry assed fight I walked in on, but it ends now. If you were comin’ all the way up here for the severance package, pissing off Snowcone and gettin’ blood on my petunias ain’t a good way to convince me you deserve it.”

Avalon’s deep voice filled the clearing as the white-haired hero made his way towards them, his hands resting calmly in the pockets of his jeans. The sheer annoyance in his vaguely Southern drawl was so damned loud and clear that even Rachel took notice, her shoulders and spine stiffening as she stepped back towards Angelica and placed her hands protectively on the panting dog’s bony side. The air somehow grew denser the closer he got, each step bringing forth a mysterious weight that pressed down on her shoulders and head, nearly pushing for her to bow or kneel to handle the pressure better.

Some sort of Shaker effect? Another power undocumented on his Respect Avalon thread? 

‘......’

Lisa bit back a curse at her power’s radio silence. She’d almost forgotten-

“Oh, Snowcone didn’t eat them though! Dang it…” A higher-pitched voice, feminine and vaguely disappointed, rang out like the tinkling of a bell. From behind Avalon’s broad back, stepping out of his shadow and twirling around his body to peer closer, was a short, slim slip of a woman - pretty, in a cutesy, manic pixie girl sort of way. Her hair was short and cut into a stylistic bob, her eyes dark yet glittering with both interest and annoyance. 

She was Avalon’s exact opposite in almost every single way; short whereas he was tall, slim whereas his shirtless body seemed like it was chiseled from bronze, with dark eyes where his were a sparkling, unnatural silver. Not to mention the black and pink headset on her head, made to look like cat ears.

She was Iris, Avalon’s not-so-secret girlfriend and teammate. Invictus’ tech specialist too, if her boasting on PHO was to be believed. 

Would Lisa be a bitch if she said that she didn’t like her purely on sight?

Maybe. But she was a bitch, so it didn’t really matter. What did matter was what info she could pull on to give her an advantage-

‘......’

Oh, come the fuck on!

“What’d you do to Angelica?” Rachel snapped, still stroking the side of her oversized lizard freak of a dog. The big baby lied there, docile and panting on her side, while Brutus and Judas warily formed a half-circle around the two of them. The closer Avalon and Iris got, the closer to the ground the two boys lowered themselves, their lips curling back into overprotective snarls. 

The sight was more than enough to strike fear in the hearts of most people. The Undersiders had gotten used to their size and bulk, but as far as Lisa was aware, Invictus had never actually interacted with Rachel - or her dogs - before. To be towered over by two reptilian, mutated beasts that were more than double your size… it wasn’t something you could just shake off.

So why the fuck did these two seem… amused?

“Lil’ bit of bestial magic,” Avalon replied easily, coming to a halt a few feet away. His sharp gaze drifted over to her and Brian, as if weighing their worth, before straying back to Rachel and her dogs.

Dismissing them. The realization was bitter and ugly.

“I told her that I’d feed you and everyone else in this clearing to Snowcone if she didn’t stop immediately.” A rugged half-grin formed on his lips, much more natural and genuine than the nigh emotionless smirks he’d given her all those weeks ago. “Guess she believed me. She’ll be alright though - just a lil’ scared is all.”

Rachel grunted, but said nothing more. She just continued to stroke her dog.

“So-“

“So you can speak to dogs now too, Avalon? God, you go through abilities like a fucking arcade game. Still, it’s nice to see you again,” Lisa interjected coyly, powering through Brian’s attempt to speak. She could practically feel his annoyed, exhausted glare burning a hole through the side of her head, but she had to scramble for any purchase she could get in this conversation. Things had already turned out so fucking poorly.

Slowly, mindful of Rachel and her dogs’ wry, near hostile stares, Lisa eased her way forward. “Guess that isn’t too surprising, considering the giant dragon watching over your palace like it owns the place. You’ve grown a lot since we last spoke.”

Her strategy was simple - even though she had no advantage in the form of her powers, starting off with simple flattery and reminding him of the fact that they weren’t complete strangers would hopefully soften him up and place a bandage over the stinky, festering sound of them sneaking onto his property and spilling blood in his ‘petunias’.

There were no petunias, but still-

“I told you to contact Iris for the cash.” His cool baritone cut straight through her social strategizing like an arrow aimed at the heart. Avalon tilted his head, raising a hand to ruffle the kinky mass of tamed chaos that were his dreadlocks. “You ever get a message from her, Cass?”

Iris - or Cass, apparently - looked over to Lisa, her dark eyes sharpening as she stared. It lasted for only a second before she apparently made a decision, a catlike smile forming on her pouty pink lips. “Nope. I get a looooot of messages daily from fans and people wanting to hire out our services, but I have my VI sort through all of that.” 

The girl clicked the side of her cat headphones, and suddenly, a bright blue and pink visor materialized in front of her eyes like some sort of holographic VR goggles. For some reason, the sight of Iris looking her up and down made Lisa’s skin crawl uncomfortably. “Yep- no messages… I just checked your Outbox, too. You’re AllSeeingEye on PHO, right? And Tt23458. And ASE352479. And LisaLisa435. And-“

“Damn, I get it. Has anyone ever told you that nonconsensual hacking is not okay?”

“Hehe. I usually make it a point to not make it so obvious, but it was kinda funny this time. Might wanna change your passwords, though!”

“Yeah. That or nosy little girls can mind their own business.”

And wasn’t that fucking ironic?

Scowling, Lisa shoved her hand into her obnoxiously tight pocket, fingers sliding against the side of the phone as she searched for the power button and held it down. Hard. Iris’ small, catlike smile didn’t shift, even as she tilted her own head and clicked her visor off. The smile was familiar, in an unsettling way - smug and bratty, like she knew things she wasn’t supposed to know. God, she fucking hated it.

Was that how she looked to other people?

“I- We wanted to make it a point to meet you face to face first before anything. Going through your teammate-“

“Girlwife,” he corrected instantly, shifting his weight to peer down at her with the tracest amount of curiosity in his burning silver gaze.

At his side, Iris gave a cocky wink and stuck her tongue out.

Lisa’s cheek twitched, but she continued smoothly, her brain racing just as fast as her lips. “… Going through Iris’ DMs would’ve made the entire exchange too impersonal. Especially…” Her eyes darted over to Rachel, who was watching them with a wary glare, and then to Brian, who looked in the background with his arms crossed over his broad chest. She hadn’t planned on going this route, but it was clear that she’d overreached and needed to stir the pot a bit to get some goodwill.

“Especially because we all want to work with Invictus, under you. As teammates, or associates, or mercs, or whatever else you need. The Undersiders’ track record speaks for itself, and-“

A growl cut her off, less bestial than the one Avalon had used to pacify Angelica, but no less pissed sounding. Rachel stalked forward, her fists clenched at her sides, and as her dogs began to ghost her steps, one click of her teeth and a sharp, husky ‘Stay!’ stopped them in their tracks. Lisa resisted the urge to sigh, opting instead to step far to the side to get out of the animalistic girl’s way.

Rachel glared, and Lisa glared back.

“She wanted the money,” the dog-girl snapped, shaking her head and glancing back over to Avalon. The angry glare on her face eased, but the furrow in her scarred brows stayed. “I want to join Invictus. You got a lot of space - a whole fuckin’ mountain. Lotsa room for a lotta dogs. And we’re tough; got a strong rep.”

Avalon blinked, and that curiosity in his gaze - previously so minuscule and fleeting - grew exponentially. He shared a glance with a grinning Iris, before looking back over to Rachel. “… That right?”

Lisa opened her mouth to speak, but Brian brushed past her, tossing her a warning glare of his own. The jostling of his wide shoulders slamming against hers nearly sent her stumbling, and she stared, wide-eyed, at his tense back. 

‘Frustrated at being undermined. Frustrated by pain. Frustrated at you.’

“She’s was outta line for attacking me like that… but Bitch is telling the truth,” he sighed, raising his gloves hands and pressing them against the bottom of his helmet. There was the squelch of suction and sweat before he managed to yank the hard plastic off, revealing a handsome face and deep-set, tired brown eyes. His skin was a couple shades darker than Avalon’s own.

If the unmasking did anything for the heroes, their faces showed nothing.

“It’s clear that Tattletale’s little games aren’t worth shit to you, and that’s fine. We get sick of them too. So I’ll lay it out like this: You give us whatever check you were gonna give us, and we’ll do a job for you in return. Stealing, security work, distractions - so long as we’re not killing anyone or breaking the Unwritten Rules, we’ll get it done.” Brian’s head twisted to the left, and he frowned as he glanced at a tensed-up Rachel. 

She shook her head once, and Lisa’s powers swiftly analyzed her body language - her stiff shoulders, the curve of her scowl, the tapping of her fingers against her broad forearms.

‘Stubborn. Impatient. Waiting. Waiting for the Undersiders to leave.’

It was clear where she stood.

Sighing, Brian turned back to Avalon. “TT and I’d just need a bit of time to get a third.”

The proposal wasn’t bad, and as reticent as Lisa was to admit it, Brian’s tactic seemed to work much better than hers did. Avalon’s face stayed in its vaguely amused mask of apathy, the curiosity in his eyes growing ever deeper as he leaned down to Iris’ level, covered his mouth and her ear with one hand, and murmured words too quiet for them to hear. Lisa kept her lips shut for once, trading glances with a solemn-faced Brian.

‘Circus is back on the market now that Coil’s dead…’ she thought, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes. ‘It could work. She wouldn’t know how much money we’re getting from Avalon if he agrees, so we don’t have to do an even split all three ways immediately. And having a Trump as backup has never been a bad thing…’

It wasn’t the best case scenario. It wasn’t her stealing off with her golden egg, untethered from all chains with her entire villainy-free life ahead of her, but it wouldn’t be a bad situation to be in. Avalon wasn’t Coil, and one job was not a declaration to be his little pocket Thinker. Not that he’d need one, considering he had a pretty solid Thinker rating himself.

Her lips quirked up into a smile. Yeah, this could actually work…-

“‘Ight, I hear your proposal and rebuttal you this,” Avalon suddenly spoke up, a lopsided grin forming on his previously stoic face. He straightened his back and stepped forward, ignoring the way Brutus and Judas’ hackles raised at the sudden movement. “You, you, and you-“

He pointed a finger at each of them in turn, his grin growing. “Fight three of my team members in a full-powered training spar. Give me a good showing, and you’ll get your reward; eighty-five grand each, Bitch joins Invictus as a probationary member, and I don’t kick your asses for the fuckin’ crazy audacity of trespassing and then trying to manipulate me right after.” 

Iris casually butted in then, as Avalon shot Lisa a lidded, unamused glare. “Lose, and you get zilch! Except, I guess, an ass-kicking and your rep as super scary criminals taking a maaaajor loss, ‘causeI’m totally uploading the fight to PHO! Either way I get to test out my MagiLink, so I’m hella satisfied.”

Sparks crackled around the shells of her fingers, bright blue and angry. The abrupt snap of electricity was startling, forcing all of the dogs to their feet - including the lounging Angelica. Rachel wasn’t even a moment behind them, her head twisting towards the previously cutesy and innocent looking hacker with wary caution.

Lisa blanched, all thoughts of recruiting and strategizing grinding to a screeching halt inside of her brain as she stared at the very familiar looking energy. While her powers assisted her own natural talent at sleuthing and analysis, she didn’t necessarily need them in order for her mind to grease the cogs themselves.

And the sight of Iris playing with lightning triggered a vague, niggling suspicion she’d been holding back on ever since her powers hadn’t first worked on the Asian girl.

“She's not just a coding Tinker, is she? I don’t even know why I asked- obviously she’s not.” Lisa’s voice was quiet and calm in spite of the tense atmosphere. She narrowed her eyes, that niggling suspicion solidifying into certainty as Iris allowed a small, knowing smile to appear on her gloss-covered lips.

Swinging her head back to stare at Avalon, Lisa jabbed a well-manicured at the annoyingly unbothered man. “You’re a fucking superpower vending machine. That’s why I can’t read anything from your girlfriend- You gave her the same anti-Thinker juice you d been drinking.”

Avalon shrugged his shoulders easily. “An lil’ in-house secret. I plead the fifth.”

“I’m the furthest thing from law-enforcement, buddy.”

“Touché. Fuck it, then I’m just straight up not answering you,” he grinned, glancing over to Rachel and Brian. “What about you two? You in or out?”

Rachel’s response was immediate. “Not fightin’ you, right?”

“Nah.”

“Then I’m in.” She laid both hands on the heads of Brutus and Judas, the massive reptile-hounds leaning down far enough to receive affirming headpats from the sour-faced teenager. Behind her, still staring at Avalon with fear and alarm on her bony, spine-covered maw, was Angelica - hesitant, but ready.

Brian took a moment longer, his eyes dark as he watched Iris with caution. 

When he finally did speak, there was a heaviness to his gruff voice. “Fine. But if we’re doing it like this, I want to modify the wager a little.”

“A little too late for that, isn’t it?” The hacker arched her slim eyebrows, placing her hands on her hips. She wasn’t really wearing much, Lisa noticed - just a silly crop-top that said ‘I’m with Stupid’, and pink booty shorts that practically rode up her ass. With her smoky eyeshadow, lightly glossed lips, and smug little smile…

Sex never really concerned Lisa when it came down to the nitty gritty since every ‘partner’ she’d ever had always ended up disappointing her with rancid fucking thoughts, but grudgingly, she had to admit - Iris was fucking hot, in a nerdy, unhinged, ‘I’m so random xd’ kind of way. How she even got with mister tall, dark, and handsome in the first place was a mystery she wasn’t even sure she wanted to crack.

A busted hero like Avalon, capable of sharing his outrageous powers with others? The closest comparisons she could think of off the top of her head was Othala, freshly locked up and serving time in Protectorate prison, and Teacher - a disgusting Trump who brainwashed those he empowered. Even then, his ability, from what little research she’d done in the past, was limited to Thinker-like abilities.

The Thinker-resistant crap matched, but not the electricity. Plus, Iris did not seem brainwashed in any capacity… which was probably the point, thinking more on it, but claiming ‘MASTER!’ without proof or backup was like calling someone a fucking rapist off of a vague hunch - she wouldn’t cross that line. Not with someone like Avalon.

‘I need more information,’ Lisa realized, a burning spark of curiosity and yearning burning hot in her stomach. ‘This could be fucking big. I knew he was a big fish swimming in Brockton Bay’s fucked up pond, but if his power-sharing is permanent and unrestricted…’

The thought sent shivers down her spine. Screw the stock market, Rachel had the right idea - what better way to climb to the top of the mountain, no pun intended, than gripping onto the lapels of someone who was already up there?

Mind made up, Lisa refocused on the conversation.

“-just need a guarantee you can help me with my sister. That’s all. You do that for me, prove you can get me custody, and you can keep the eighty-five thousand. I’m not doing this just for the money.” Brian was saying, his voice earnest and maybe even a little desperate as he stared down at Avalon. Watching him negotiate with a man without any posturing or dick-swinging was an interesting sight, but an unsurprising one as well.

Lisa knew who’d win that contest.

Still-

“… Right. You’re doin’ that. That’s still a thing.” Avalon murmured, his brow furrowing. For the first time since she’d met him, he actually sounded taken aback - Iris looking between him and Brian with open curiosity on her face.

“Huh.”

“Imp,” he said simply, glancing down at his girlfriend.

Immediately, her eyes widened, understanding bleeding through the small little ‘o’ her pouty lips formed. “… Ahhhh.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

In Brian’s defense, he didn’t immediately freak out when he heard his sister’s name. Hell, if it wasn’t for context clues, Lisa wouldn’t have even picked up what was being yahtzee’d at the ground. No, the tall, dark-skinned villain merely clenched his large fists, his previously tired eyes narrowing into slivers as he glared at Avalon - the slightly shorter man sighing and tugging a hair through the organized chaos that were his dreadlocks.

“Funny thing, that. Crazy how small the world is.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and clicked through a couple of screens. After a couple seconds of pressing buttons, he held the device up speaker-first, and everyone - even Rachel, as much as she tried to hide her curiosity - leaned in to listen.

BRRRRING.

BRRRRING.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re tryna pull-“

“Yo.”

The voice that came from the phone was low and husky, but undeniably feminine - the voice of a teenage girl in her mid to late teens, probably. Brian had never spoken to them much about his sister, only claiming that she was young and had pretty severe ADHD, but judging by the way his eyes widened and his mouth flopped open like a freshly snagged fish…

This smoky-sounding chick was definitely his sister.

“Yo, Aisha - think you can swing by the Palace after school, or d’you need me to come fly you up here? Got some ass that needs kickin’.” Even as Avalon spoke into the phone, his burning, quicksilver gaze was focused entirely on the shellshocked Brian. Open amusement twinkled behind his unnatural eyes as he watched the boy flap his lips soundlessly. It wasn’t a cruel or mocking look, but one of genuine enjoyment, like a prankster watching a harmless joke go off successfully.

In the back, Iris was leaning forward surreptitiously, funky Tinkertech visor activated as she snickered into her fist. 

The response from ‘Aisha’ came immediately, only interrupted by the sound of a shrill bell whistling in the background . “Fuck yeah I can! Last period’s comin’ up, no freaky, so I’ll take my motorcycle and head up in like thirty minutes. You gonna finally let me ride Senor Snowflake into deadly battle, Boss? Wipin’ up your sloppy seconds ain’t all that fun no more.”

Brian flinched as if struck as the word ‘boss’ came through the speaker, his bug-eyed look transitioning into a molten glare that he directed onto Avalon. If he noticed the lasers being shot into the side of his head, the hero didn’t show it. His attention was back on the phone, all amusement gone in place of a fond smile.

Lisa was good at gauging emotions. She had to be, being who she was, and it was clear that Avalon cared about this girl.

But did she get a slurp of the power juice too? That was something she had to know.

“No dragon-riding this time, but give it a chance. You’ll have your fun.” 

“Hehe, whatever. Is Cass n’ Amy with you? Tell ‘em I said wassup!”

Iris plodded forward, a radiant smile on her soft lips. “Heyyy girl?”

“YOOOOO!”

Avalon snorted, placing his free right hand over Cassie’s face and gently pushing her away from the phone. “Get to class, brat. Talk to ya soon.”

“Fuck you! … when I’m sixteen, heh.” 

The normally unflappable hero nearly choked on his own tongue. “Aisha!”

CLICK.

‘Ha! No fucking way…’

Silence reigned in the clearing, disrupted only by the faint, guttural sounds of the massive white dragon, Snowcone, snoring on top of the roof nearby. Avalon sniffed, somewhat awkwardly pocketing his phone, while Cassie - his girlfriend - tried, and failed, to hide her snorting snickers behind an exaggeratedly serious face. Lisa didn’t even need to look up at Brian to know what sort of expression he was wearing. The darkness beginning to pool around his feet was obvious enough.

“Relax Brian, and look on the bright side,” she sighed, elbowing him softly in his hard-packed side. “At least she’s waiting for the age of consent.”

His growl was almost as feral as Rachel’s. “You motherfucker.”

Lisa wasn’t a fighter. She knew a couple of self-defense techniques, and when her powers were working, she could use them to help predict how her opponents would act - but she wasn’t a combat precog, and using her powers in that way often resulted in a damn near debilitating migraine. However, she did know enough about fighting to recognize the fact that Brian, physically imposing but still soft and fleshy human Brian, would not win in a fist fight against the man who beat a transformed Lung in close combat and decapitated him.

That was why she very swiftly extracted herself the second that first punch was thrown.

CRACK!

“F-FUCK!”

Avalon’s expression was sinfully apathetic as he waved his hand, allowing the sea-foam green shield of energy to crackle and flake off of his body. Brian staggered back, three of his knuckles protruding awkwardly out the side of his warped fist. The boy panted harshly, congested air huffing fiercely from his nose. All the while, Iris watched impassively from the side with her visor still on - and most likely recording.

Hopefully she blurred their faces in post.

“I’ll heal that before Aisha gets here,” Avalon said coolly, not even bothering to attack back - thank fucking God. He turned around, exposing his back to them, and began walking to his backdoor at a slow, languid pace. Cassie took one look at Brian’s fucked up fist and snorted. 

Somehow; it felt more offensive when she turned her back to them. 

The hero, and their current benefactor, threw a lazy hand up, gesturing with two fingers for them to follow. “Now c'mon, I’ll give y’all a lil’ tour before the match. We probably still got a few smashburgers in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

Wary were shared all around. Lisa looked at a scowling and huffing Brian, who blinked through misty tears to shoot a furtive glance at Rachel, who curled her lip in dark amusement and looked up at her dogs.

“Let’s get some grub ya uglies,” she muttered explicitly to the dogs, laying her hands on each of them in turn. The snap and squelch of bones breaking down and crumbling shortly followed, alongside the dogs’ low, reverberating whines, before - in a burst of discarded tendons and keratin - the giant lizard hounds were, once again, just hounds barely large enough to reach their owner’s knee caps.

Without a second glance at them, Rachel began to follow Avalon and Iris. At her feet, Brutus, Judas, and Angelica playfully nipped and growled at each other as they enjoyed their smaller size. 

Lisa looked to Brian again.

‘Wounded pride. Angry. Confused. Overprotective. Wants to protect Aisha. Doesn’t trust Avalon. Doesn’t trust Aisha with Avalon. Thinks he’s manipulating her.’

“Brian, she’s-“

A raised, broken hand cut her off. “Don’t, Lisa. Not now. Let’s- let’s just see how this goes. If he did anything to her…”

‘Willing to fight Avalon. Willing to kill Avalon. Wants his sister safe.’

For the first time ever, Lisa didn’t have a sarcastic quip to toss out. She only shook her head silently, following her ‘former’ leader as he cradled his hand and slowly trudged his way up to the backdoor. The cold from the dragon had long since faded, confirming the fact that it had been doing it on purpose, but chills still threatened to run down Lisa’s spine. Her thoughts were in a tornado of chaos, plans being birthed and aborted as soon as they popped out of the constantly chugging machine that was her brain.

It was clear who held the power here, in this city, and it damn sure wasn’t Brian or the PRT. The only question was how she’d manage to break herself off a piece of the chocolate pie. She was behind, and working with factors that did nothing to increase her favor with him. Things weren’t looking the best.

But admittedly, they hadn’t looked all that good in months. The look of things didn’t necessarily matter, results did.

And she’d always been good at getting results.

______________________________________________

Perks Rolled (Revealed Next Chapter)

Masamune (100 CP - Final Fantasy II): A katana unparalleled in both sharpness and speed. Simply holding the blade increases your attacking speed by a great deal, letting you move like the wind for brief periods.

A/N:

And we are back! Thank you for your patience beautiful readers, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter - I quite enjoyed writing it. The Undersiders finally meet Jason and Cass, a challenge has been set, and Brian... broke his knuckles on Jason's face? Woooow.

Understandable, though. I'd be pissed at dude too if my underage sister just alluded to wanting to fuck him. Real pseudo cuck-seat behavior.

Anyways, next few chapters will have things ramp up. We have the challenge, we get to see the results of Cassie's and Aisha's training and the MagiLink, and we even get a new recruit. PLUS the housewarming party, haha. Totally innocent event where nothing bad will happen whatsoever, plus we get to recruit Sabbah. Definitely a fun time coming.

See you soon!