The next morning saw all of us back at the base, eager to start the day. I'd gotten a call from Ivan, though from what phone and how he got my number I had no idea, telling us that despite the crowd being thinner earlier in the day the boys were ready to head down to Chinatown early to check out the competition before their big reveal. When we arrived we found Ivan sitting cross legged on one of the conjured chairs that were still there while Wade stood in the workshop frantically modifying his suit.

Every few seconds Wade would curse and hurl something over his shoulder and ivan would lazily flick his fingers and send whatever he had thrown spinning into a nearby box. He nodded amiably when he saw us come in and raised what appeared to be a cup of coffee he had somehow obtained to his lips before nodding to his frantic friend. "Sorry about the early departure but Wade gets jittery on a deadline. If we don't go down there early I'm afraid he's going to redesign himself into a coma. Normally when he gets this bad I just knock him out and let him sleep it off, but I'm honestly pretty jazzed myself so I don't want to wait."

I shared a sympathetic look with Ray, as we nodded to Ivan, commiserating about the annoyances of befriending a super powered science nerd. Ivan drained the cup and tossed it up in the air to be consumed by dark red flame before hopping off the chair and heading over to smack Wade in the back of the head. "Up and at em' rain man, we've got a rep to make. Your current design will have to do, so button it up and get changed."

Ignoring the casual displays of sorcery and our presence both Wade responds without even looking up "Damn, I got the power issues ironed out and managed to juice up the exoskeleton and the shields up to probably two percent of your strength, but I had to nerf the thrusters. I can only do short bursts and no too far off the ground. Good for dodges and lunge attacks but nothing like real flight." His nearly invisible hands stopped moving and he wiped his forehead with the back of a wrinkled sleeve, standing up and turning before starting at our presence. "Oh hello, is it sundown already? I thought I'd be hungrier. Or did I eat? Never mind, I'll be all suited up in just a tick."

The absentminded scientist darted out of the room, much to the amusement of his friend who turned back to us "As you can see he's very excited to go. Oh and speaking of exciting, you are a vision of loveliness today miss Lutra. Though having seen such radiance from you two days in a row I've come to suspect this transcendence is your natural state." Ivan flashed a charming smile and raised a hand to pluck a rose from the air. I probably would've made fun of him for the magical stereotype, if the rose hadn't been made of a spiraling cascade of red glowing runes.

I found myself enchanted in a hopefully figurative sense as I reached out to take the flower, only to squeak as it dissolved in my hands, the runes cascading down my arms and over my body to melt into my skin. I blinked in shock before glaring at Ivan. "What was that? What did that spell do?" I hadn't considered that the flower might hurt me, which was stupid, because we didn't really know either of these boys, and cute or not if Ivan had messed with my brain I was going to stomp him like a tap dancing vineyard worker on speed.

Ivan laughed and raised both hands in a placating gesture "Peace fair lady, no need for an upset. It was just a little token of my affection. You mentioned burglary before, so I thought you might like a bit of an assist. That little working was a few very useful spells I wove together as a gift. A charm that erases scent and any unintentional noises you make, a toggled invisibility enchantment I worked up, and an interesting little spell I made that allows relative gravity to act on you the same regardless of orientation in space. Wall walking and such. Just a sign of my esteem, and not permanent at all. I can remove it now or it'll wear off after three days. Spells like that don't stick around unless bound into a focus."

I stared at him for a minute and then…I actually blushed. Boys had been flirting with me since I started filling out a sweater in fifth grade, and plenty of them tried little trinkets or presents. Even some older boys and some awkwardly creepy grown men had tried flattering and wooing me. But no boy had ever given me a gift so suited to things I actually LIKED before. The fact that Ivan had put so much thought into making me a present that he thought I would actually enjoy made me feel…almost SHY. My mother could not be allowed to find out about this. She would never let me live it down.

I plastered a cocky smirk on my still red face, pretending not to be swooning a little at the thoughtful gift from one of the only cute boys in the world who didn't see an adorable bastion of cuteness when he looked at me. I felt my face heat up even more as I caught sight of my hair to find it glinting like spun gold, but ignored my slip in control, thankful that Ray and Penny would be much too muddled by my power to notice my embarrassment. "Well, I suppose if it was just a present I cant get too upset about it. But next time you should ask."

Ivan grinned knowingly at my flush "But if I do that I wont get to surprise you." He winked at me "And you're awfully pretty when you're flustered. Or existing." I rolled my eyes at his flirting, trying to ignore the annoying way my mouth was quirking up in a pleased smirk, only to be saved by a clanking suit of powered armor stepping through the door. We all gaped in shock, Wade's suit was…amazing. I had expected since it was made from scraps and spare parts it would look rough and unfinished, but somehow the whole aesthetic pulled together into a sort of steam punk battle suit.

Ivan gave a low whistle "Damn Doc, I hope you built a stick into that thing, because you're going to need to beat the nerd girls off of you with it. I take it from the swagger that everything is functional to the best of your knowledge? If you make us look like idiots during our big debut I'm gonna put my foot so far up your ass I'll leave boot prints on the top of your skull." Despite his threatening words though, Ivans eyes seemed to gleam with anticipation of the days events, not worrying at all about his friends abilities.

Wades faceplate slid up and he grinned at Ivan, the manic scatterbrained boy replaced with a calm confident super villain "Don't you worry about a thing, Nax. By the time tonight is over, no one in this new world will be able to claim not to know who we are. Now," he said, turning to face us "how about we all head out to this party of yours. I'm quite anxious to make my entrance." And honestly, between him and Ivan, I wasn't sure whose grin scared me more.

It didn't take us long to get to Chinatown. We decided to take the red line instead of Pennys bike or bracers. As per usual in LA, the sight of a group of teenaged super villains in costume seemed to bother no one. Ivan was still wearing the same ragged black hoody and cargo pants, but somehow the shadows of the hood had grown deeper and his face had been swallowed in darkness. Looking at him was like looking into a bottomless chasm, with the exception of two floating red runes where his eyes should be. The end result was somewhat creepy and more than a little terrifying, but it certainly made an impression.

We arrived in China town around two P.M. Despite setup having been done the night before some of the later arrivals were still putting together their booths while the other customers browsed, being a Villain party, Chinatown really heated up when the sun went down soothe crowd was thinner than it could've been, but things were still already pretty lively. I watched Ivan- erm Fornax's hood track back and forth taking everything in as …Doctor Mechaniacal walked smoothly across the street towards the mad science tables.

I started after a second realizing we had lost Fornax, but shook it off in favor of watching the newest mad scientist in the world make his bones. How often do you get to see a world class intellect in a new world. Lab Rat scurried forward to meet us as Penny and Doc drifted ahead of Ray and I. "Bad Penny! New scientist! Tasty, tasty! Such a tasty design, yes, but missing goggles!"

Penny grinned at Wade and then down at Lab Rat "Well he isn't official yet, Lab Rat, so we figured we would wait and get him his first pair as a celebratory thing. So you think everyone will accept him? I think his inventions are amazing and I bet the others are going to love the stuff he came up with." My friend was excited and grinning talking about her new nerd buddy and his gadgets.

A calm collected voice that I recognized as my sometimes dinner companion The Expert broke in as she finished talking "I don't see why we wouldn't, assuming he built that himself I'm very interested in its capabilities. Meta-suits are a common enough theme for mad science, but they aren't so run of the mill as to cease being impressive. A basic rundown of his capabilities and maybe a demonstration would be sure to gain him entry to our humble circle, assuming the suit works without incident."

Penny grinned and was presumably about to volunteer our new friend for just such a showing when a high pitched squeal split the street, followed by a loud explosion. Despite Chinatowns weirdness, that was enough to get even this crowd to spin around for a look, and what we saw made very single jaw drop, including mine. Ivan was standing in the middle of the road, hood down but eyes still burning with red runes on a pitch black background.

Across from him, her already skimpy clothes blasted away in places to the point of outright indecency, was a wide eyed and smiling Lucyfar. Her eyes were fixed adoringly on Ivan who was glaring daggers at her and slowly backing away. With a flash of black Lucy shot forward toward our new friend and…glomped him. Ivans head was seized and yanked forward into Lucys pale and exceptionally large breasts, which were mostly uncovered by this point.

Before I could even raise an eyebrow, Ivans fist rocketed out of nowhere and smashed Lucy into the ground, teleporting away as soon as they were no longer in contact. "Listen you crazy bitch, I keep telling you, I am NOT your brother! You have a pretty nice rack, but the overwhelming Yandere bro-con thing is kind of killing the appeal! I don't know you! We aren't related! I'm drawing a firm line in the sand about this little brother thing if you're going to keep mashing my face into your tits!"

Lucy just shrugged and grinned "Firstly, you are my brother! Cant you sense it? How our powers resonate? Come on Leviathan, come give big sister a hug! Don't worry about me being topless, I'm already dating one of my brothers, its not weird when we're angels, theres no risk of inbreeding!" She squealed and dove forward again, her top having long since given way and her ahem assets, bouncing as she dove.

Ivan vanished from in front of her appearing behind me "Jesus, Claire please save me! This crazy bitch thinks Im her brother, which apparently doesn't preclude sexually harassing me!" He turned his glare back on Lucy "Also, if you insist on claiming me as a little brother, I'm one hundred percent not up for any sort of breeding, regardless of type!" I winced at that statement because I knew Lucy was just going to hear-

Her squeal split the air as shadows flowed up over her body, constricting into a pair of pants and a crop top. "You DO know me! I knew you could feel our bond! I was just kidding about the inbreeding thing, I'm seeing someone, but if you and Lutra Lite over there want to give me some sexy celestial nieces and nephews I would be a great Auntie!" Her lurid wink at him standing behind me made even my Lutra shamelessness evaporate in a raging inferno of embarrassment. I glared over at Lucy, feeling Ivan cower behind me. Well these two certainly fit in around here, only supervillains could make things go this crazy within ten minutes of arrival.

Ok guys hope you like this one, I was planning to have Lucy semi-adopt Ivan from the beginning. We've seen via Gabriel Lucy lives in her own world and isn't above just deciding someone is a family member, nor dating them after making that decision. Ivan at his current level isn't a match for a fallen angel, at least not without snapping and wiping out half a continent in the ensuing battle. Remember reviews make writing easier, hope to hear from you guys.