Interlude 1

Junior awoke inside the shattered club. He remembered that he and virtually all of his employees had been knocked out by Aura drain; Blondie had been pretty violent, especially to him. Stretching and rubbing his face, Junior looked around, surveying the damage.

He remembered Blondie causing a lot of destruction, but this was well beyond what he had realized. The club was sturdily-built, but everything that could be broken, was—the decorative towers of glass panes, some glass partitions, the windows, everything. In case the mere destruction wasn't enough, almost everything had fire or smoke damage. Even the DJ booth was smashed.

"Aw, for—this is a nightclub! What am I supposed to play when the club opens tomorrow night? Harmonica? Kazoo? Whistle a happy tune? Unbelievable."

His boys, stiff and slow from their beating, were working to clean up, get rid of the shattered glass, and make the club look merely run-down instead of completely destroyed. Junior ignored them and went over to the door, where the Malachites were watching, turning away anyone who wanted to come to the club despite it happening to be destroyed.

"Good work, girls. Militia, come with me."

The girl in red obediently followed. They took a seat at a table as far away from the worst of the mess as they could.

"Damages?"

Militiades shrugged. "Look around, sir. I don't really know enough to say more than you already know. It looked worse when I woke up."

"Well, that's great. Any injuries, anyone captured, anything like that?"

"Pretty much everyone's here, sir. You were outside for some reason, so Mel and me brought you in. Um, what's-her-face is gone."

"Lisa?"

"Yeah, her."

Junior frowned. There were a lot of possible reasons why Tattletale might be missing. She probably ran with everyone else, she wasn't stupid.

"Did you see her, by any chance?"

"I think she was hiding over by the side exit."

So not that, then. If she was still around when the twins got involved, she stayed for basically the whole fight. If she was around when Blondie left, she would probably have stuck around, at least to make sure he was okay and report on Roman. That meant she probably didn't leave willingly. Maybe Blondie thought Tattletale was guilty by association, or maybe…

Blondie was nuts. She grabbed him without waiting for him to be difficult, which hadn't left him in a cooperative mood. This angered her, which she took out on the boys and the club. What would she think about a girl hanging around in the club? It's not impossible that Blondie would assume the worst, and…Junior knew Lisa's Aura wasn't awakened. She wasn't planning to do anything dangerous, so he hadn't worried, but sometimes danger comes to you. And Blondie had shot-gauntlets. She might have hidden the body somewhere to hide the murder. Who knows?

"That's…bad. If she was here then, where is she now?"

Militia shrugged. "Maybe she got scared?"

"Maybe. She'll…surely she'd check in tomorrow, if she can."

"Yeah."

"Blondie didn't find anything in the back rooms, did she?"

"Everything's like it's always been, sir. I mean, how it was right before Blondie came. Nothing's missing or broken or anything."

"Good, good. Any news from the bar?"

"It wasn't hit."

"One piece of good news. I'll have the boys take everything suspicious to their basements, and call the cops. Should be open-and-shut enough, I hope."

~0~

It wasn't. None of them got a good enough look at Blondie's face that the police could identify her, not that they seemed inclined to help. In case that wasn't enough, there was a big argument with the insurance company. Eventually, Junior got a good enough settlement that he didn't bother any longer.

Tattletale didn't come the next day, or the day thereafter. Junior didn't get a call, or a letter, or anything. She had vanished. Junior considered filing a missing-person report, but worried that that might provoke an unwanted investigation. Junior knew that the police knew he was a criminal, and suspected they were eager to find evidence of it, an excuse for a warrant.

Not like it would do anything. If Tattletale was alive, she surely would have sent word somehow.

Junior returned to business as usual. The boys who were hired out to Roman Torchwick never came back; the ones who remained were more unruly than usual, between their disappearance and Blondie. Carmine, a distant cousin to Junior on his father's side, was making a push to overthrow Junior; Li did much the same, more subtley. Li, practically his right hand man! Well, left hand, maybe…but still. Junior appointed Li for his skill, but didn't account for loyalty, and that was fading fast now. Junior still had the Malachites and most of the boys backing him, but he had to be careful if he wanted to keep it that way.

Junior didn't like how the future looked.