It was nighttime. By now Uber and Leet's bodies were sealed off from the rest of the city. A concrete wall was erected around them, simply to avoid giving the townsfolk an eyesore. Vivan carried a pickaxe at hand, breaking the wall down as Aryana watched.

Aryana said, "there's a slave joke somewhere."

Vivan said, "I honestly can't tell if this is or isn't sexist."

He swung the pike again, taking down the last piece of wall. Most of the structure was already taken down by his and Aryana's powers, but he insisted on breaking the last bits of concrete with a pickaxe.

Aryana walked closer to the two. She dusted some of the dirt off, but realized that the stasis made their bodies extra slippery. It was like an invisible plastic wrapped around them, sliding off any soot and dust that fell onto them.

She hadn't visited them since the incident. The PRT had blocked off the area after the initial days of the attack. A part of her thought she hadn't earned a visit. Like if she couldn't come back with a solution, she didn't deserve to face them.

Vivan said, "hey Aryana, remember that time we stared at the snack machine and tried moving the chips with our minds?"

Aryana glanced up for a bit, "holy crap, you remember that? We were five."

Vivan nodded, "this reminds me of that. So close, yet so far."

Aryana stepped back from them. It was quiet outside. Nobody lived close enough to hear them. It was as though the alleyway was their resting place. Silent out of respect. "Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I thought we were carrying you guys. I guess it was the other way around."

Vivan tapped at Aryana's forehead. "It was more like synergy, actually. Before Emily came, we had a yin and yang thing going on. Uber and Leet did the bare minimum amount of work, and we would push them further. Its how we got to a sweet spot."

"Yeah," Aryana admitted. "I just didn't think they were the ones keeping us levelheaded. We needed them as much as they need us."

Vivan looked down at the mechanized box Aryana was carrying. It glowed blue with spherical designs on its edges, giving off a low humming noise from its energy. Vivan asked, "how much did that cost you?"

Aryana grumbled, "more debt than you could imagine."

The two of them waited there. There weren't too many moments of silence between them. When there were, it was very natural, taking the time to reminisce on something they had both experienced. They mostly spent the time talking about Brockton Bay, about the teams they'd met and the sites they'd come to know.

It wasn't long before Emily arrived. She had reached the street corner wearing a dark sweater and jeans. Despite having powers, she didn't want to bring attention to herself in the middle of the night. She raised off her hoodie to reveal her dark brown eyes and curly hair. Approaching, shoulders reclused and in a broken tone, she greeted them both. "Hi." She glanced over to Aryana, "listen, I'm-"

Aryana flung towards her to give a hard hug. She held her tight before she could speak again, "I'm sorry I was being stupid. I was afraid of losing them. I thought pretending nothing changed would make things better. I was wrong. I should've known better, and I'm sorry I was playing with your emotions like they didn't matter."

Emily croaked out, "Aryana… Can't… Breathe…"

Aryana let go, "I'm sorry."

Emilly let out a small smile, "I'm sorry-"

Aryana put her hands over her lips. "Nope, don't you dare apologize. I don't deserve it, and you being hard on me was something I needed. So… Thank you, for what you said to me. And I won't accept 'I'm sorry' even if you say it."

Aryana pulled her hands away. Emily's smile beamed out brighter. She was happy to know that their friendship wasn't completely over. Emily looked over to the box, " do you think this'll work?"

None of them dared to answer. Aryana only said, "if it does, then we can have them back. If it doesn't… We prepare a funeral for them."

Vivan and Emily nodded in morbid agreement. Aryana had thought about other backup plans for if it didn't work, but she no longer wanted to entertain the idea. She was in blatant denial, and to continue entertaining the fantasy was just her digging herself into a hole. No, this was their last option. She'd sold herself to Coil for their sake. If this didn't work, anything more wasn't worth it.

Aryana placed the cube in the middle of the both of them. She tapped the large button on the edge, and they all backed away slowly. The cube's energy glowed brighter. Blue lightning electricity extruded from the box as it encapsulated a large swathe of the alleyway center.

They backed away further. A blue forcefield encompassed Uber and Leet. Slowly, their last movements gradually began to take place.

Uber and Leet shifted their feet on the ground. They walked in impossibly slow motions, heaving forward still partially in stasis. Eventually, the sound of their voices came out. It was low and heavy. But once they both managed to step out of the cube's forcefield, they sprinted forward at their normal speeds.

Leet yelled, "she's got a bazooka!"

Uber yelled out, "its in her fucking name!"

The two of them sprinted out of the alley behind a car. They took cover feebly as though it could protect them. Leet yelled, "fucking take cover you morons! I don't know how tinker fuckery works!"

Uber looked back at them. The three of them were staring back in a stunned gaze. Uber yelled at them, "what are you guys waiting for!?"

Aryana and Emily sprinted towards them. Rather than take cover, Aryana embraced Uber for a hug while Emily tackled Leet to the ground in her embrace. Vivan jumped atop of the vehicle and raised two peace signs in the air. He yelled aloud, "victory!"

The car's alarm turned on, waking up some of the sleeping strays nearby.

Uber yelled, "Rush, now is not the fucking time!... Where'd your mask go?"

Aryana was rubbing her face in his chest, feeling his breathing body for the first time. "God I missed this."

Emily was crying now. Leet was confused as she held onto him tightly, "um, Emily…"

Leet looked over to the other side. No bombs were dropping. Vivan was just looking down at him with a wide grin on his face. He asked, "what the hell is going on?"

XXX

Taylor looked down at her phone. Mouse Protector left another text message for her, but she decided not to look at it. To her left, Amelia let out a groan before turning away from her phone, "do you at least regret it?"

They sat on the swing set together. It was the middle of the night and Amelia had just gotten off her hospital shift. To the disgust of Amelia, the Losers had just announced the return of Uber and Leet. Taylor answered, "I honestly thought I would, but the more I think about it the less I regret it. Between what I've seen from the E88 and ABB, the Losers have been a great counterbalance to them. Arresting them would've hurt a lot of people they could save. The city needs that. My only real regret was that I let them go because I was angry instead of really thinking about it."

She wasn't in a good headspace at the time, the silver lining was that she couldn't bring herself to regret letting them go. Amelia grumbled. She looked at the website pictures of the Loser team celebrating through various selfies. It seemed like her torment would return all the same. "I hate them, so much."

Taylor asked, "because of the blackmail thing?"

Amelia shook her head, "no, I'm not mad about that. I'm mad about the way they do things. Villains are supposed to be monsters, but the whole city loves them. It's not fair. How can anyone be okay with villains doing bad things right in front of them?"

"That's a fair question," Taylor admitted, "but I think in this case actions speak louder than words. They act like villains, but they're always doing more good than bad."

"That's still not right," Amy said gripping the chains of her swing set, "when you say you are something, you need to live up to it. Why are they being villains ironically when they could just stop pretending?"

Taylor thought back to Rush's tattoo. "Maybe they can't? Isn't it the job of capes to put up an act anyway? If anything, they're just pointing out the absurdity of it all. When you can recognize the facade behind it, it becomes easier to fake the part."

Amelia looked up at the half-moon in the sky. Her hospital trips were becoming more unbearable as her use of powers became more vapid over time. Saving lives made her think less of herself. She couldn't bring herself to appreciate the lives of the people she was saving, which perpetuated the idea that she was undeserving of happiness. "That's not how it should work. When you say you're a bad guy, it should be as simple as that. Why do… Why do they deserve to be happy and I don't?"

Seeing the Losers proud of themselves made her resent them. Amelia dedicated each day through grueling work to save lives, but the Losers were now getting more praise than she ever did. And worse than that, they didn't even try. Like things could just naturally align in their favor, and they were savoring it.

Taylor frowned. She could see Amelia's stress, but she also wanted to say who gives a shit? The Losers were helping people. If they enjoyed themselves while doing it, why did it matter? Taylor said, "I don't think they're as happy as they pretend to be. The thing about capes is, we always have clouds over our heads. And they're no different."

Amelia turned to her and asked, "are you sure? Is that what Light says? Please, just give me something to know that they're at least miserable. I really really need to hear that."

Taylor let out a sigh, "from what I can say for sure, Light wishes he were a real hero. But he can't because of his sister. And I think she feels guilty about that too. So, they're both stuck in places they don't want to be right now, and wish that they were somewhere else."

Amelia leaped up from her swing set, "thank you! I needed to hear that, because I hate how everyone keeps looking at them like they're frigging perfect!"

Taylor shook her head. Vivan and Aryana weren't the type of people you'd want to see as miserable. The air around them was always genuine, like the barriers typically propped up between strangers didn't apply to them. Amelia was clearly desperate to watch them fail, but that likely wasn't possible given their outlook towards failure. "I think you're following them too much. Amy, you need to take a break from their website, and maybe some time off from hospital visits too. Healers need rest too."

She shook her head, "you know I can't do either. I can't miss anything, and I can't let people die by being selfish."

"Even doctors don't work seven days a week. But I see your point."

Taylor stood up and the both of them walked towards Amelia's house. The air was cool tonight, and the city street lights provided enough ambiance for the both of them. Amelia asked, "but is that really it then? You're just going to work with them now? Since the Mouseketeers broke up, you might as well just join them."

"I'm not about to burn bridges by joining them. I'm keeping an eye on them from now on. If they're a counterweight to the E88, I'll be a counterweight to them. To make sure they're steered in the right direction."

Amy nodded, "if you ever need help with that, count me in. I hate that they think I'm someone they can push around."

"You've already helped me with those bugs. It's good to have mutant bugs that they don't know about."

"You're going solo then? Browbeat signed up to the Wards. If you're not joining them, it'll only be you."

Taylor looked down at her phone. There was a message from Theo now, asking for them to meet up. "I'm not really sure yet. I don't even know if its right to be mad at them anymore."

"Of course it is," Amy grumbled, "they lied to you by working with villains. They don't even deserve to call themselves heroes anymore."

"Doesn't that put me in the same category as them?"

Amelia curled her lips. "I mean, you're different. You're being smart about it."

"I'm not completely sure. Mouse Protector lied to us, but Golem didn't choose his family. I can't fault him for that."

Amelia gripped at her thigh, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I used to think that too. But then… Rune."

She let out a sigh, "I don't know what to think sometimes, they ruin everything they touch. It's like I'm the only one who still sees them as bad guys."

"It sounds to me like you've already concluded what they are, and nothing will convince you otherwise."

"Well yeah, duh!"

She let out a groan. Taylor shook her head, "maybe they have a master power we're not seeing."

"I hope that's the case, because that would explain everything."

They stopped at the front of Amelia's house. In a quieter tone she asked, "so um, do you want to come in for tea? We could watch a movie or something…"

Taylor shook her head, "I have school in the morning. I'd like to, but maybe when we both have time."

Amy let out a sigh, "alright Taylor, let's stay in touch. We don't have just be cape partners."

Taylor nodded, "thanks I appreciate that."

And with that, they went their separate ways.