"Hey," Light was crouched down across from Lyft. Her thumbs tapped at the wrapped burger in her hand, but she hadn't taken a bite. "Are you okay?"

Lyft was smiling. The heist to her was nothing more than a side gimmick. Without the obligations of full-fledged membership, Lyft's heists with the Losers felt more like a show of gratitude than a commitment bound by peer pressure.

Vivan and Aryana had opened their arms for her a long time ago, and now the amalgamation of that was finally being felt. "I'm doing great," Lyft stood up and took Light by the hand, "Come on, I wanna tell you something."

While the others were busy bantering in front of the camera stream, Lyft pushed him into the closet where Amy was hiding before. She turned on the lights and pulled off his mask, "you don't like me, do you?"

He pulled his head back, "what?"

"That thing you told me before, about me wanting to date you because you're brown? You said that to get rid of me, didn't?" His eyes wondered away. "You're afraid of this, aren't you? Afraid of things falling apart at any time. That's why you don't want to give us a chance."

Vivan murmured, "Tattletale told you?'

She shook her head, "lucky guess." She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He didn't move when she pulled away from him. "I think I owed you that one. Remember when we kissed before? That was to piss off your sister. This is because you're a good person."

"Haha," he said in a croaked voice. "Nah…"

She pulled him in for a tight hug. "Thank you," she said in a smaller tone. There was a lot more she wanted to say, but a simple 'thank you' would suffice. She put his mask back on and pulled him out of the closet.

Regent was standing outside. "How was the blowjob?"

The two of them quickly defaulted to shouting profanity at him. Meanwhile, Grue pointed towards the door as he spoke to Rush.

"I'm ending the alliance." Grue said. "This dynamic isn't working. I don't care how many victorious you get, following along with your antics is suicide."

"What?" Imp called out. "But it just started!"

"I should've called this off way sooner. Pressure from the boss made me stay, but I'm drawing the line now. The rest of us aren't going to take the fall for you guys."

Rush waved her hand off. "So be it. Tattletale is the only one under contract anyway."

He looked over to Tattletale. She let out a sigh, "they worded the contract as 'Tattletale + groupies.' Technically, your access to their tinker tools was optional…"

Imp said to Rush, "what the hell is with your fetish for owning virgins?"

Rush raised a hand to her cheek, "oh no, its not about getting virgins. Its about collecting white girls. Its about time it happened the other way around."

Tattletale put a hand on Grue's shoulder, "Grue, you guys can leave now. I'll stay to keep my end of the bargain. You and Ragent can ride Bitch's dogs after the distraction hits. Imp's invisibility shroud will keep you all hidden. When the bomb drops, no one will give you guys any attention."

"Bomb?"

Tattletale nodded. She looked over to Rush and asked, "its a bomb, isn't it? Some sort of tinker grade tool that'll take attention away from us? I'm just not sure what it is. Is it a glitter bomb?"

Rush pulled her wrist to her mouth, "mwahahaha, so close my little slave. But nein, I plan on dropping something much more… Generous onto this wonderful city."

Tattletale's eyes widened, "oh my God."

XXX

Cody and Francis watched from the distance as Dinah was taken into the van. Cody said, "you know this is all your fault, right?"

Dinah looked over to Francis and mouthed some words to them. He could only guess what she said, and a guess from a precog was ominous in itself. Either way, it didn't change the fact that he finally stooped low enough that he was kidnapping a little girl.

Francis said, "you just come here to piss me off?"

"Fuck yes," Cody hissed back. Francis brought him along because he wanted to feel guilty. Between making bad choice after bad choice, he was glad Cody would at least offer him consequences for his shitty actions.

"You didn't tell everyone else because you knew they'd say no. Fucking forcing them to go along with it after Coil has her. You're not just a monster, you're a liar too."

"Hm-hm," Francis raised his chin up. Dinah kept whispering towards them. They were several feet away from each other and he couldn't stomach taking her away much longer. As the remaining mercenaries left from her house and sat her into the vehicle, Francis said, "still better than Boston."

Cody sneered. Mentioning Boston typically made Cody shut up, but the silence wasn't as well-deserved as other times Francis typically mentioned it.

Francis made long blinks as he took deep breathes. After breathing in rhyme for a few minutes, he looked towards the sky and said, "what the fuck?"

XXX

Faultline opened the briefcase in front of her. She skimmed her fingers against the bill stacked out against her office. "Is that all?"

"I'm asking for a small favor."

Faultine shook her head. "You're mistaken in a number of ways. Despite us not having any particular requirements on who our clientele are, we won't turn our backs on previous employers for whatever the reason."

Purity slammed her hands against the table, "Kaiser is missing! Hookwolf has already left the gang and took half our members with him! I can't lead the empire unless I can show that we're capable!"

Faultline slid the suitcase back to her. "I missed the part where that's my problem. The Losers paid us quite a lot to make sure you don't interfere with Lung's arrest. Despite seizing their assets, I can't imagine what you'd have to gain from breaking them out."

"Its Bakuda I need. She's the only one who came close to killing Leet for good!"

Faultline raised an eyebrow, "and how exactly does that help you?"

"We need a tinker on our side."

"I'm doubtful Bakuda would-"

"It doesn't have to be willing," Purity insisted. "The Merchants are selling addictive substances now. All it would take is a few doses to force Bakuda's loyalty."

Faultline fell still. From the cracking of her voice to the heavy sways in her movements, it was plainly obvious that Purity was at her limit. She didn't have any of the prowess Kaiser had, and lacked any of the qualitative traits needed to lead the E88 in its deteriorating state. Enslaving Bakuda was a desperate tug for power, but Purity failed to see how pathetic that was.

"You can leave now," Faultline said, putting the contents back into the briefcase.

Purity rubbed at her eyelids to relax the exhaustion in her eyes. Before Purity could offer vials, Gregor opened the office door to address them. "Faultline," he spoke to her in a heavy brushed croak. "There's something you need to see."

He pointed to her office window, signalling for her to open it. Upon uncurling the blinds and seeing what was outside, Gregor said, "I'm shutting down the club for tonight. I hope you understand why."

She nodded in agreement, awestruck from the view.

XXX

"So here's the problem," Rush took a long loud sip from her soda straw, and pointed it directly at Grue. "Villains today focus too much on winning. Because villainy requires overcoming something, and overcoming is determined by defeating an opposition. The problem with that is that most people can't fathom that victories aren't always achievable. Dreams aren't a guarantee, because heroes are just as determined to stopping villains, as villains are to achieving them."

Rush raised a finger at Grue, "what if your boss doesn't give you what you want?" She pointed at Tattletale, "what if you never achieve true freedom?" She pointed to Bitch. After a short pause, she said, "you're… Okay."

"Damn straight," Bitch growled.

Rush raised a finger to continue, "my point is, everyone's always looking for something meta, unwilling to accept that maybe the end goals aren't possible. You can spend your whole life chasing after something, only for it to amount to nothing. In which case, how you villain now is more important than how you villain later. Its about the short-term wins, not long-term wins.

Those are the marks that matter. That's what makes it all worth it. Because impacting the world has less to do with how life ends, and more to do with the moments in life you create."

She threw her empty drink to the ground and stomped on it. "So if we're gonna be game-changing villains, its time we stop planning for shit, and wreck shit up now!" She raised her radio to her face, "Cortana, begin operation Communism!"

XXX

Two dozen makeshift drones discreetly hovered over Brockton Bay. They jittered and clackered. Designed by Squealer to avoid Armsmaster's jammers for Leet's tinkering. Without the radioactive signals from Leet's creations, the junk-made drones were easily able to spread out carefully across the city streets.

They had propellers and cycling plates, seemingly breaking apart as the floated between the buildings. The one constant among all of them were the dimensional boxes carefully tucked inside.

With the switch of a trigger, their latches opened the dimensional boxes. Instantly, streams of paper cash floated over the city streets.

Bystanders on the street looked up at the falling papers. Hundred dollar bills, in the thousands, fell from the sky. It blessed them with ungodly amounts of money for no discernible reason.

As more people caught wind of what was happening, hundreds of people rushed outside to grab as much money as they could carry. Entire sections Brockton Bay came to a screeching halt, as people left their cars to grab the cash flows. The skies were covered in riches.

While the Wards and Losers were caught up at the bank, riots quickly broke out as the money poured over the city streets.

"What the fuck," Aegis looked over the sky as Clockblocker watched on his phone.

Clockblocker said, "its falling all over the city. They're live streaming the riots now."

"All this for a bank robbery!?" Gallant shouted. He was the only one who could sense the chaos happening across the city. Clouds of mischief and frenzy covered the air as thousands fought one another for the falling money.

"I can't believe it," Browbeat said aloud.

"You can't?" Golem commented. "Because I can. This is totally within character."

Browbeat pointed to Mouse Protector. "No no, I meant to say, I can't believe Mouse Protector is doing that right now."

They looked over to see Mouse Protector gleefully grabbing wads of cash as they fell. "Oh my gosh, I have like three months of car payments backed up! This is enough rent for a year! I can finally get those student loans paid for!" She was like a child on Christmas, blind and shameless from her own behaviour.

Vista poked at Buzzkill's side. She looked over and Vista asked, "aren't you going to stop them?"

"I'm wondering if I should focus on the riots instead…"

Vista shook her head, "you can't ignore them. I listen to their podcasts. I hear how the Losers talk about you. They're terrified of you! If anyone can stop them, its you..."

Buzzkill bit her tongue. Light had promised things wouldn't get out of hand, this was definitely crossing the line. She asked quietly, "Vista, you're a fan of them aren't you? If I could take them off the streets for good… Would you really be alright with that?"

"I talked to Gallant about this. If they're arrested, they're more likely to get a chance to join the Wards than go to the birdcage. But that'll only work if they don't take things too far. This? Anything more than this will be a death warrant. If there's a time to turn them in, its now. Before the PRT loses any faith in them."

Buzzkill took a deep breathe. Looking towards the bank, she made a decision.

XXX

Inside the bank, Imp and the Losers were cheering at the raining cash flow. Ragent was calling them dumbasses for their frivolous spending. Grue just wanted this nightmare to end. "You did all of this… For a distraction?"

It was working. New Wave and the Protectorate couldn't focus on them anymore, and it wouldn't take long before the Wards were called away for riot control. Rush answered, "I did it for the memes you fool, weren't you listening?"

Tattletale dropped to her knees and huddled in a corner, "you just… Dropped… Four point six billion dollars… To rob a bank… For forty thousand dollars..."

Leet shouted, "its thirty eight thousand dollars after paying taxes. We aren't tax dodgers you conservative fuck!"

Tattletale could see that he was serious about paying taxes. Looking up at Rush in horrified expression, she whispered, "why?"

Rush kneeled down and gave Tattletale a big hug. "Because I'm insane, and I want this world to be insane with me."