He really could have been here to go after us, but I hadn't seen any hint of it. Of course, if he were good at his job, I wouldn't.
"Then we have to get him," Cassie said.
She tapped away at the keyboard. "The sightings all seem to be ten, twenty miles north of Grand Lake. I wonder if he's staying at a cottage?"
"In December?" I said. "Can people use them in the winter? I always thought they were sumr only."
"My family's got a cottage on Lake Michigan," Haley said. "We do our family Christmas there."
"Really? I didn't know." I said.
"We use ours mostly in the sumr, but it's comfortable during the winter too. It's a little bigger than most, but it has to be. My dad's side of the family -- brothers, sisters, cousins... They all co for Christmas. You ought to co."
"I'd like to," I said, "but I'd feel a little weird walking in on your family's Christmas party."
"Don't worry about it. Between everybody, we've got more than one hundred people there most years and people bring friends... and dates. You'll fit in. I don't even know all my cousins."
"It must be nice," Cassie said. "I've only got two cousins my age and I wish I didn't know them. Anyway, let's say we've agreed that so cottages can be used in the winter. From what I see here, he's co around this ti in other years."
"Which ans he probably isn't targeting us," I said.
"He might have a cottage," Daniel said, "or maybe a hideout."
"You'd think they'd have caught him by now if he did," I said. "Soone would watch for him."
"They are," Cassie said. "That's what's cool about this thing. You can sign up to receive updates on him by email and, if you want, you can publicly list yourself as being after him."
"Who's on the list?" I asked.
Cassie smirked. "Protection Force."
"Oh. Wow," I said. "That's wild."
Haley said, "Are they the team that sells ad space on their costus?"
Cassie said, "You've got it. Protection Force -- justice and sponsorships."
"There's nothing wrong with it necessarily," Daniel said. "Taking sponsors is okay. Putting their logos on your costu is legal. They just go a little too far."
"It's embarrassing," Cassie said. "Half the ti they're on TV, they're trying to slip in the na of their sponsors."
"Didn't Larry used to cover his costu with logos?" Haley said.
"Oh, yeah. He looked like a NASCAR driver," Cassie said.
"Well, to be fair to him," I said," the factory he worked at had closed and unemploynt had run out so he was basically living off his sponsorships at that point. Once his brewery started growing, he ditched all of them except for a pizza place and that's only because he really likes their pizza."
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit for the authentic version.
"He had to pay his bills," Daniel said. "I'm sure the Rhino suit and the Rhinomobile don't co cheap."
Daniel had a point. Anyone who wanted to be a superhero (teams especially) eventually faced the issue of money. Did you want to go full ti? Buy or create more equipnt? Expand your reach beyond your hotown? Money decided whether or not you could. So, like the various Defender groups, were mostly governnt funded. Others were non-profits. Still others took the for-profit route. Most of the last managed to look less silly than Protection Force, licensing out the rights to action figures or technology instead of taking advertising.
The car went silent for a little while as we all tried to rember where the conversation had been going before the detour.
"I wonder why no one but Protection Force is after him?" I asked. "He seems kind of major."
"Like I should know?" Cassie shrugged. "They don't publicly list everyone who wants email updates. Maybe a lot of people care, but only Protection Force wants to be listed."
"Could be," Daniel said. "It's accessible to any heroes that ask for it whether they're active or not. My dad never publicly lists himself as being after soone unless he wants the person to know it."
"Does he really think supervillains are using it?" Haley sounded surprised.
"That's the thing," Daniel said, "he doesn't know, so he doesn't assu they aren't."
* * *
We changed seats again at a McDonald's. I ended up driving. Daniel got his laptop back and spent most of the rest of the ride experinting with his internet access and the Alliance's online applications.
The driving wasn't bad. The freeway turned out to be free of ice and snow despite being piled high on either side. I drove about five miles per hour over the speed limit and passed a few cars. I guessed that we'd probably get ho before five.
Haley sat across from in the front and twisted back toward Cassie, "Travis wanted to choose a wolf based na because of Grandpa, but after Travis took Night Wolf what was there? He thought I should choose a na based on a female wolf, but I didn't like 'She-wolf' and I really didn't like my other options."
Cassie laughed. "What did he want you to do? Call yourself 'Night Bitch'?"
"See?" Haley said. "There aren't any good female wolf nas. That's why I went with Night Cat."
"I think it's a good na," I said. "Night Cat, I an. Not the other one."
"Nice save, Nick," Cassie said, sounding amused.
"You know I didn't an -- " I began.
Haley laughed.
From the back, Daniel said, "Wouldn't it be crazy if the Executioner had family here and that's why he ca back?"
"Not if it were my family," Haley said.
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