Mindstryke nodded. “She’s right, but it’s not going to be all bad. It’ll be hard to deal with at first, but it could be worse.”
He glanced to the right, toward sothing off cara. When his eyes were on us again, he said, “You’ve just experienced what would be a life changing event for so capes. You stopped St. Louis from being destroyed and did it with minimal loss of life. If you want, you’ll be interviewed every day of the week. People will want to pay you thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars for product endorsents. You’ll be celebrities.”
He stopped, gave a sigh, and continued. “I’ve known a lot of people who used events like this to change careers. They stayed in just far enough that they were visible vigilantes, but they spent the rest of their ti being ‘the man who saved St. Louis.’”
“No shit,” Vaughn said, “who?”
Mindstryke shook his head. “I’m not naming nas, but there are lot of complications that co along with doing sothing on this scale. We’ve got to decide a few things imdiately. That’s why the League’s board will be eting you back at HQ. Don’t expect us any later than ten.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but didn’t get the chance.
“Hey,” Cassie said, “why now? We’ve been visible for almost a year and half now. A lot of what we’ve done made national news. Fighting Rook last fall? That was all over.”
He nodded. “It was, but none of it made any sense, and no one explained it. All the public saw was a few fights in Grand Lake and then a big explosion in Canada. With this, you’ve got a clear story. The new Rocket discovers that True Humanity’s got enough bombs to destroy St. Louis. Against all odds, you succeed in preventing the bombs from doing major damage while more experienced heroes fail. End of story. It’s easy to explain. There are clear heroes and villains. It gets ssier once you look closely, but what doesn’t? Most people won’t look.”
From behind , a low, female voice—Izzy—said, “I don’t like it. It’s a distraction from what really matters in all this—people. People are alive because we acted. I don’t care about being a celebrity or endorsents. If I end up doing this full ti, all I want is a living wage. Besides, I can’t believe we’re talking about this before Ronin’s even been buried.”
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Daniel’s dad replied calmly. “As wrong as it seems, it’s going to co up before Ronin’s buried. We need to get everyone on board with a plan now. Personally, I’ve never endorsed anything, but I’ve found that letting the Defenders make money off my likeness pays for new and better uniforms, our base’s upkeep, our publicist, and lawyers. All that keeps us out of trouble with the law, and lets us help more people.
“That’s why I’m expecting to see everyone who was on this trip back in HQ, even if you’re not an official League mber. We’re even calling in the mbers who weren’t on it.”
With a little bit of a tremor in her voice, Sydney said, “Just people from this trip? Not all forr mbers of Justice Fist?”
Mindstryke lifted his eyes, probably searching for her on his own monitor. When he found her, he said, “The two of you will be enough for now.”
He looked over all of us. “I think that I should let you go. Captain Commando, you should know that we’ve notified your mother, and she’s not expecting to see you soon. Rocket and Ghost, your mother called the Midwest Defenders private line as soon as this hit the news.”
I glanced back to see Rachel’s response. Her mask hid the top half of her face. The bottom half was unreadable.
“She wasn’t very happy,” he continued. “The good news is that the talk you’re about to have with the board might help with that. Or,” and here his tone turned apologetic, “it might make it worse, but it shouldn’t.”
Vaughn said, “What about my mom?”
For a second Mindstryke froze. I might have missed it if I hadn’t known that he’d dated Vaughn’s mom as a teen. She’d figured out that he was a super at least twice that I rembered hearing about, and erasing it from her mind had only been temporary. She’d recognized Daniel, Cassie and I the first ti we’d gone out in costu, and warned us to keep Vaughn out of it.
Calmly Mindstryke said, “Nothing. No calls at all.”
Vaughn shook his head. “That doesn’t make less worried.”
Mindstryke nodded. “I’ll have people watch for calls from her. Co as soon as you can.”
Then his image faded from the screen, the letter Ψ disappearing last. I wondered if that was intentional, but guessed that it had to be.
No sooner had he finished than the St. Louis Defenders told us we could go. I ntally filed that under “no coincidence at all.” Daniel’s dad had always struck as the kind of person who paid attention to detail.
Turning around in my chair, I looked the group over. No one looked happy, and I understood why. We’d been in terror for our lives for what felt like hours, and people had died. Now we were in the middle of what? etings about League mbership, and selling action figures with our faces on them? Izzy was right. It felt hugely screwed up, but maybe I could raise the mood a little.
"I guess we’re headed back to HQ. So, um… we’ve got a few hours before the eting. I’m thinking we could have breakfast at IHOP on the uh… League’s credit card."
Haley glanced over at . Even through her mask, I guessed that she was raising an eyebrow.
“Look,” I said. “I’m trying.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers