At school the next day, I bent my investigative acumen upon the 'kids' of last night. I looked for Tattletale – the only one who'd spoken – first. PHO was useless, unfortunately. I couldn't find any solid data on her. I tried the others: Regent was the shorter guy, and the taller was Grue. The latter could generate darkness, which amused me considerably. Mystia could fake it with blindness, and I had a few other cards lying around that I was pretty sure could do the same. The last villain was Hellhound, who'd been much more thoroughly documented. Her power let her transform dogs into the hulking beasts I'd observed the night before.

Class was nearly over by the time I thought to look for myself. Searches for bird-themed keywords and information on new capes led me to an isolated post:

Subject: Birdie

Owe you one. Would like to repay the favour. Meet?

Send a message,

Tt.

The period ended before I decided on a response. Mr Gladly took my next class, and his cheerful condescension left me steaming. What came next, though was worse. I frankly couldn't believe anyone would have the guts to say to me what he did, then turn their back on me so soon after. After all this turmoil, I was hardly prepared for even the weak needling of Emma's sycophants. And then she interjected –

Emma was fucking lucky I didn't have my decks with me. See how she looked after a Master Spark or two. Never mind that it would out me to the whole damn school.

Instead, I fled. Skipped the rest of the school day, and headed home. I needed something to take my mind off her, and a bit of cape action sounded like it would hit the spot. I swung by the library and sent confirmation to Tattletale, then retrieved my satchel. No sense going in unprepared.

We had agreed to meet where we did last night, and I was wary enough to enter my Mystia form before arrival. I didn't like locking myself in like that, but I figured it was best to keep my other abilities secret. Also, just because I couldn't shoot massive lasers like this, didn't mean they knew that.

I kept to the alleyways after transforming and performed a sort of flying-hop to get on the roof of my target. Three of them were waiting for me – Tattletale, Regent and Grue, presumably. None of the wore their costumes, which was a bit of a shock. I kept a wary eye out for Hellhound, but I didn't think she was around. I reckon its probably hard to hide those things she called pets.

Grue stepped forward and offered his hand to me. "I'm Brian."

"Call me Lorelei, for now."

I didn't miss the way Tattletale's eyes narrowed at that. Huh. Guess she knew a bit about literature. The others were introduced to me – one Alec, one Lisa. The names, I felt, suited them.

Brian got down to business quickly. A look at Lisa caused her to hold out a box towards me. A… plastic lunchbox. Alexandria merch.

"She was my favourite hero, when I was younger." I smirked. "Of course, I-"

I clamped down on my sudden urge to sing my own praises. This was really getting rather out of hand. At least I wasn't actually singing. That would be really embarrassing. Brian and Alec looked at me oddly, though Lisa sent me a knowing grin. I kind of wanted to show her up for that, too, but I focused on the box, taking it from her.

"Just open it." Lisa rolled her eyes.

I did.

…

Money! Aha!

I felt unaccountably joyous gazing on my prize. My wings gave a few beats. The villains were looking really weirded out by now, but I didn't care. I had money! Actual money! And lots of it.

Lisa forged ahead and launched into a recruitment pitch. Déjà vu much? Though she was frankly rather more inviting than Armsmaster. I wasn't really listening, and judging by her frown, she knew it. I spun into the air, gave some shocked villains hugs, then sped off homeward.

I have money!

I went a good five blocks before I realised I probably shouldn't be rocketing around like this by day. I landed in a backstreet, still wearing a silly grin on my face, then released my transformation.

From the start of the fight last night to my arrival home had taken less than ten minutes. This little outing had taken me something closer to half an hour, and I crashed even harder afterward. It took all my self-control not to curl up in a ball and cry. I'd had an opportunity! Possibly the best opportunity I'd ever have to do some espionage, and I'd blown it! As I fought to bring my racing heart under control, I ruminated on my power's greatest drawback. This was rapidly becoming a serious problem, and I needed to do something about it.

It was inconsistent. When I'd gone on that cut-short power testing, I hadn't really felt any different using Marisa. Some of the others caused even stronger changes than Mystia, which only seemed to make me want to show off. Cirno's arrogance left me feeling disgusted with myself (and I feel dumber using it) but the worst…

I swallowed. I didn't think I'd be using Rumia again. That need I felt was horrible.

The really interesting thing about my power was my foci. I called them that because they seemed to be required to 'channel' certain attacks. Fortunately, like my cardcraft, my foci tended to require only cheap materials – paper, wood, and so on. Not all were so simple however – I could apparently craft some hideously dangerous weapons from 'faith', whatever that meant. And how could I possibly get the tools I'd need to make concrete boots? Yeah, I don't know what those are supposed to do.

I paused. Something was niggling at the edge of my awareness. A new idea? I relaxed and tried to meditate. That helped, sometimes. It was…

Oh my.

I think I just figured out what faith is. And it looks to be the most absurd of my already highly-irritating powers. Faith meant faith in the religious sense. So to create those weapons, one of two things needed to happen. Either I become a paragon of piety (or a cleric) or I got myself a cult. Actually, the latter idea sounded a little appealing…

I refocused and thought harder. These… weapons, [Yin-Yang Orb]s, what could they actually do?

A whole bunch [Fantasy Orb] techniques, cool, cool.

And – [Fantasy Heaven]

…

Yes. All the yes. Okay. New priority. Try and gather followers. Even if it was only single-target, an undodgeable attack of such power would make a fine addition to my collection. Maybe I could use it on Endbringers? Though given the kind of bullshit they'd tanked in the past, it probably wouldn't actually kill them. Whatever. It was something to think about. Preferably somewhere other than a random city alleyway, too. I left posthaste.

I didn't go on patrol again that week. It had become clear I needed to do some more prep work. I was consistently ducking school now, which I knew would bite me, but I really couldn't deal with the stress at the time. On Thursday, I finally got around to doing something with my haul; I headed to the Bay Central Bank to open an account. By some twisted coincidence, I arrived in the midst of a cape fight.

I blame my new Remilia deck. 'Miserable Fate', indeed.