Hughie had successfully avoided superhero movies for almost half a year now. Then the Spiderverse trailer came out and his juvenile obsession hit him with full force.

It's an animated film, he tried to justify it to himself. It wasn't Vought produced. It wasn't Transparent, A-Train, or Homelander. He tried to convince Annie of this point as well, saying they'd be just like any other average citizen in the theatre.

And they were. The movie was funny, following an adolescent supe as he struggled to reconcile his powers. By the end of the movie, despite the constant running narrative of super propaganda, Hughie was having a good time. So was Annie.

That's when the shooting started. Someone at the back row screamed before he heard gunfire graze over the seats. Before he even registered what was happening, Annie was on top of him and his face was pressed against the dirty carpet. He saw her sit up, scanning the rows intently looking for the perpetrator. A desperate "Annie" passed hoarse from his lips before she was up, sprinting towards the back.

He squeezed his eyes closed unconsciously, some part of his brain trying to protect him from what always, always happened next. Instead, he heard a howl of pain and a loud smack.

Annie was glowing, her eyes like laser points in the darkness. She hoisted the shooter's automatic rifle in her left hand, ammo ejected and the barrel pointed towards the ceiling.

"It's okay, everyone. He's down," she announced, with all the authority of a woman who had trained for this kind of bullshit her entire life.

People were up now, gawking at Annie in amazement. A dozen phone cameras pointed straight at her and Hughie grimaced.

Annie touched her jaw, where the gunman had grazed her before she knocked him out. "Can someone call the police?"

Hughie noticed the shining rope wrap around the gunman and Annie before she herself did. She gasped as he was lifted off the ground, gun yanked out of her grip with the woman's other hand. Hughie scrambled to his feet, to see another woman, dressed in a grey and blue super suit. A domino mask covered her eyes but Hughie could see her squint with suspicion as she held Annie in her grip.

"Who are you?"

"Uh..." Annie grunted, struggling to not struggle wrapped in a lasso of light. "I'm Annie?"

x

"You know, this is pretty awesome. I've got some friends here but we've- we haven't met any superheroes from the alternate universe yet. You have to be the first." Dreamer enthused.

"Really?" Hughie snorted. "Supes are a dime a dozen, where we come from." Dreamer narrowed her eyes, as far as Hughie could tell behind her domino mask.

"Really?" Nia said, imitating his tone. "Are you a 'supe' as well, then?" she said, the word unfamiliar in her mouth. Annie smirked, appreciating the reaction to Hughie's arrogance.

"Well, not a dime a dozen, maybe, but yeah. We're quite common." Annie grimaced.

"Oh." Nia wasn't quite sure what to make of their odd reactions, but her work here was done and she couldn't afford to hang around this newcomer any longer. "Well, if you ever wanna meet up, there's a bar we sometimes meet up at on Sunday's."

"You- seriously? You're inviting me to hang out?" Annie grinned. "Mask off?"

"Yeah. I dunno, I just... feel like you've got a good 'energy'." Nia imitated Annie's power stance when she took down the guy with a gun. Hughie snorted at the impression, Annie shook her head. "You can come too, Hughie. If you want."

She pulled a piece of paper and pen out of her belt, scribbled a location, and passed it to Annie. "Sundays at 5. We sit at the bar."

xxx

Despite Hughie's anxiety about walking into a location with unknown supes, he and Annie reluctantly agreed to show up only if they texted their location to Frenchie every thirty minutes. Hughie didn't bring any weapons, he knew none would stand up to the average Supe and would probably just enrage them. Annie brought a yellowy sundress, and pointed nude flats.

They walked into the dusty pub, and both were suddenly overcome by the sheer number of nonhuman creatures they were suddenly faced with. Hughie recovered first, grabbing Annie's hand and pushing through the throng to find the bar. He hadn't actually wanted to come to the meeting place, but now that they were here, no going back.

Annie recognized Dreamer right away, even without her domino mask and striking blue costume. She was wearing an elegant gold dress that glittered down to her calves and sandals. She was surrounded by a group of five, a Filipino man with shoulder-length hair, a blonde woman, a tall black man, and a brunette with short hair.

"Hey!" Annie shouted. She knew better than to call Dreamer by her superhero name out of costume, but she had never learned the woman's actual name. Dreamer turned at the sound anyway, along with the others in the group.

"Annie!" called Dreamer, before tapping the shoulder of the man at her side. "Grab a couple of chairs, come on! This is Annie, the girl I was telling you about."

Dreamer ushered Annie and Hughie into seats in the middle of the group so everyone could get a good look at the newcomers.

"Intense energy displacement. Nia tells me you're quite powerful," said the Filipino man. "You'd need a power source in order to make those waves, correct?" His gaze was quite intense, unblinking.

"Um..." Annie glanced at Hughie, who was busy staring at each person with suspicion. "Yeah, that's right."

"I'm such an idiot, I didn't even think-" Dreamer sighed and cut herself off. "My name is Nia. This is Brainy, Alex, Kara, and J'onn." she gestured at each person in turn.

"Nia, huh?" Annie shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you out of... that situation."

"Likewise. And don't mind Brainy, he's like this with everyone."

"Ha!" she grinned at the 'Brainy' in question. "Don't worry about it. My boyfriend, Hughie, is the exact same way." Hughie did an awkward half-smile and wave that she was accustomed to.

"Are you superpowered as well, Hughie?" asked Brainy.

"No." Hughie replied, clenched jaw. Brainy blinked, unsure how to react to this reaction.

"Well. You both appear to be human, but I thought I should ask-"

"Are there a lot of supes in this neighborhood, then?" Hughie asked, his voice too light as he tried to push past the awkward moment.

Kara, the blonde shakes her head. "There didn't use to be. But once you have one..." she grins at her friends.

"Kara was the first out of all of us. We all started using our...abilities to help out. She was our inspiration." Nia gazed adoringly at Kara.

"How- how many of you? Are uh, supes?" asks Hughie. His voice is too high, again. Annie has stepped away to the bar to order a drink and Hughie tries not to panic.

He can feel the gaze of everyone present, scrutinizing his every reaction. Some, like Kara and Nia, are more subtle about it. Brainy and Alex don't bother with subtlety. J'onn looks less scrutinizing and more somber.

"Are you okay?" Kara blurts out. "Your heart rate keeps going up."

Annie, who unfortunately returned to the table with drinks at this moment, had to smother a wince as she heard Homelander's voice.

like a fucking hummingbird...

"No, yeah! I'm just a little worried about Annie being stolen away by you guys. I mean, you're all so cool." Hughie lies. Annie glares at him as she passes him a drink, disturbed by the ease with which Hughie can craft falsehoods.

"Nothing to worry about. We're all dorks, when it comes down to it." replies the brunette at the bar, Alex. She's clearly had the most to drink so far, sucking down neat whiskey like it's apple juice. Despite this, she looks entirely sober, and she hasn't looked away from Hughie once. Like a hungry falcon, circling its prey.

"We can be a little overwhelming, at first." Kara apologizes. She beams at Annie, a little uncertainly. Annie smiles back, a brilliant Starlight specialty. She notes Kara's ability to hear heartbeats away for further use.

"Seriously, you never answered the question. Are you all supes?" she asks, looking at each person of the party in turn. They chuckle, and take small sips, avoiding the question.

"It depends how you define 'supe'. For example, everyone but Alex is an alien." Brainy says, dropping this piece of information far more casually than Hughie feels it warrants. "Because of our races, we possess abilities that most earthen individuals do not possess."

"You're asking an awful lot about our abilities," J'onn speaks up for the first time. He looks suspicious, but his voice does not share the same quality. It's almost serene.

"Well, confession time, but Hughie here is a total dork too," Annie explains. She pats his knee. "You should have seen him when we first started going out, it was like, question after question about all the supes I worked with..." her voice fades out as she remembers that period of her life when nothing felt right despite everyone telling her it was. Suddenly, she feels sick to fake a smile, and keeps chatting as if nothing is wrong. She wilts and covers the movement with a big drink, letting the fuzziness of the liquor wash over her.

"Yep, that's me." Hughie is saying. He's watching Annie, gaze flitting to hers before it leaves to assess the threat level of everyone around them. "Heh. Not quite sure why she even put up with me."

"Aww..." Nia croons. She laces her hand with Brainy. "Where did you two meet?"

"On a park bench," Hughie and Annie say at the same time. They glance at each other, eyebrows raised. The first, and arguably only moment of total honesty between two people who had nothing to gain from the other.

"Yeah, it was a park bench." Annie continues. "He was eating a sandwich and, um, I was crying."

"You were."

"There was some... work bullshit, or- family bullshit. All the bullshit. And Hughie talked me through it. It was sweet." This time, her smile is genuine. "The next time he saw me, I was in costume. He recognized me right away."

"He recognized you?" asks Kara. She looks a little lost for words, mouth hanging slightly open.

"I don't wear a mask," Annie explains. "He has a good memory."

"That's pretty wicked," Nia observes.

"Absolutely." Looking like she doesn't know what else to say, Kara takes a big swallow of her non-alcoholic cider. Annie imitates her, feeling fearless. The liquor burns her veins like an embrace.

"Must have been quite a shock," comments Alex absentmindedly. She looks a little less suspicious now that Annie is sharing.

"I don't know. Was it a shock?" she asks Hughie, honest.

He glances between her and Alex, unsure of what to say. "It was- yeah, a shock. Yeah."

"Were you scared of me?" she flirts. She loves the expression Hughie makes when he is genuinely flabbergasted. She's not quite there, but she thinks she knows how to reach it. Her glass is empty, so she steals Hughie's out of his hand, enjoying his confused expression.

"Why would I be scared of you?" Hughie says, flirting back. He's hard to wrongfoot, with all the practice lying he's had. She'll have to work harder, then.

"Maybe because you had murdered one of my coworkers not three days before?" she shoots back, laughter bubbling out of her before the sentence is finished. It's fucking ridiculous, really when she thinks about it. A few tears squeeze out of her eyes, smudging her mascara. She wipes them away and checks Hughie's face.

Shit. She's really fucked up. Miscalculated the cruelty in her words. Hughie doesn't look flabbergasted, he looks terrified. Of her.

Of her?

They should be past this...

No one else is laughing, their faces were frozen between horror and confusion. Finally, Kara breaks the silence.

"Is that... are you joking?" she asks weakly. It's J'onn who answers.

"She is not."

Hughie slowly stands, every supe at the table tense and ready for action. He makes a move as if to reach for Annie's hand, but stops just short and hovers inches away.

"We should go."

"Sit down, cowboy. Nobody's going to arrest you." Alex is smirking, leaning back in her chair as she regards Hughie in a new light. "Not unless you give us a reason to."

Annie shakes her head, cursing her own drunken stupidity. She shouldn't have fucking done that, fuck.

"Look, it's not what it seems-"

"It's exactly what it seems." Hughie sits down. His voice is uncharacteristically flat but ends in a gravelly croak.

The group is quiet as they digest this new information.

"Who was he?" Alex asks. "Your... 'coworker'?" She's calmer than she's been all night, most at home in an interrogation with a nervous suspect. Hughie glances at Annie for reassurance.

"He was, uh, a superhero," Annie replies. "Who I worked with." She's slowly feeling her way towards him under the table. She wants to hold his sweaty palm, and feel the reassurance. Hughie glances at Annie, his eyes damp and searching for disgust.

"What the fuck." Nia breathes. "So you're, what? A 'supe' assasin?"

Hughie doesn't quite know what to do with his free hand. He nudges his drink, considers it, then takes a swallow. "Not exactly."

"Speak clearly, then." J'onn replies without mercy. His face is as unbothered as it was when Annie first made the tasteless joke.

"He followed me... And attacked me, at my job, where there were no witnesses. I was only defending myself."

"No," corrects J'onn. "That's not the whole story."

"You're a telepath," states Hughie. It's not a question.

"Yes."

"...and how about you, Kara? Super-hearing, right?"

"Among other things." Kara is standing rigidly straight, and for the first time, Annie can see how she carries herself on the job.

"Well, that's a useful interrogation tactic." He sighs, rubbing his hands down his face. "His name was Translucent. He had unbreakable skin that could go completely invisible if he wanted it to. He attacked me. I stunned him. Butch- uh, we had to make sure he was dead so he wouldn't attack us again. So we found a vulnerable spot and killed him with a bomb."

"A- vulnerable spot?" Nia asked.

"His rectum," Hughie said.

There was the sound of chair legs on linoleum as half the table pushed backward, away from the table, away from Hughie.

"I think-" started Kara. "I need a breath of fresh air."

Starlight blinked and the next thing he knew she was gone, a woosh of air through the tightly crowded pub. She looked at Hughie.

"I think that went well..."