"Hello my pretty little tool."

Tool. For some reason that word terrified Emily. She knew she was stronger than the average cape, but by how much would they decide to take advantage of her?

Rush had on a black overcoat jacket with a red corset underneath. Her leather pants were matched up with an oversized belt buckle. Her finger cut gloves wrapped around her metal club, one which could extend and split into two shock batons.

She floated above Spitfire's head with her brother next to her. Her powers were telekinesis, but most people speculated it was more gravity control than mind controlling matter. Her brother had a white hoodie and pants. The blue cloth strip that lined across his pants and arm sleeves glowed whenever he used his powers. People called his glowing clothes, the most impractical thing a tinker could invent.

"How did you find me?" Spitfire asked up to them.

"Lucky guess," she answered.

"Leet tracks who uploads," Light answered. "Basic tinkering, anyone could do it."

That made sense, it wasn't like Emily's phone was tinker proof. Light and Rush fell to the ground where Spitfire was standing. They were a few miles away from the junkyard she'd recorded the video, she didn't expect them to find her less than an hour after uploading.

"By any chance, are you Chinese?" Rush asked.

"What? Why are you asking that?" Spitfire covered her face, worried if they were prying her for her secret identity.

Rush tapped at her chin, "we were on our way to get chinese food when you uploaded it. I was hoping we could go back to Uber and Leet and say, 'look, I brought Chinese!'"

Spitfie gazed at her for a full minute. Light groaned, "that is so racist. I'm offended as an asian."

Rush asked, "you're asian? I thought you were latino."

"Just because I'm brown, it doesn't mean I'm latino."

"Wait, what color are asians?"

"Yerrow."

"That sounds pretty spanish to me."

Spitfire cut in. "Wait, aren't you both siblings?"

They nodded. "Doesn't mean I can't be asian." Light grumbled.

"But, shouldn't she know what-"

"Oiy," Rush interrupted. "We're the one doing the initiation test here, not you!"

Rush's mask covered the top half of her face, making her jawline extremely animated whenever she spoke. Light's mask covered the bottom half of his face, they could both fit together like broken egg shells.

Spitfire's mask was a simple gas mask she'd bought off from home depot. Her jumpsuit was somewhat pathetic. It was just a worn down fire fighter suit her father used to wear, she removed the patches and was thankful that it was at least dyed black. She really was on a lower standard than the both of them. Leet's inventions probably gave them multiple tricks literally up their sleeves.

"Question number 1," Rush shouted, "Are you willing to worship Scion as the devil in the sky?"

"What?" Spitfire blinked.

"Scion, the death God of the multiverse, traveling through time and space as the evil prophet saving us from our reckoning. Are you willing to embrace the code of Scion?"

Spitfire tilted her head, she was asking her to believe in something no one understood. She'd constantly yell 'code of Scion' on the show, but none of her fans could pin point the actual beliefs were. On some occasions she'd worship him, on others she'd shame him, on other occasions she'd spew out conspiracy theories that he's a demigod from the future sent to save us from the Illuminati.

"Will... I have to understand the code of Scion to embrace it?"

They both quickly answered, "no," to her.

"Then… I'll 'embrace' it."

Rush pumped her fists up, "holy shit she actually said yes!"

Light sighed, "Leet is gonna be so pissed."

Before Spitfire could think to regret her words, Rush began unleashing an ocean of questions at her. "Are you a part of the Illuminati?"

"No."

She snapped her fingers. "Damnit, I was hoping you could give us some info."

Light asked, "do you like your chicken fried or mild?"

"Mild." She answered. While Rush unleashed heavy questions that seemingly had no meaning, Light launched his own line of mundane questioning that seemed absurd in comparison.

Light asked, "do you prefer your bed sheets tucked or untucked?"

"Untucked."

Rush asked, "When the world ends, how likely are you to revert to cannibalism?"

"Not likely."

Rush growled, "godamnit, I was hoping to share an Uber rib with someone."

Light asked, "do you prefer brooming, or washing dishes?"

"Washing dishes."

Light crossed his arms, "but wouldn't you melt when you touch water?"

Rush commented, "oh, because she has fire powers she has to melt? You racist fuck."

The questioning went on for a full thirty minutes, by the end of it, Spitfire felt drained simply from the feeling of having nothing accomplished. The amount of random questions didn't offer anything, and it was almost like they were visiting her just to waste time.

"Okay, one final question," Rush said. Spitfire sighed in relief, happy that this 'interview' was almost over. Rush leaned in closer to Spitfire, she floated in a laying position as she stared directly into Spitfire's eye sockets. Her smile was gone, and she almost whispered to her. "Will you tell the world what your trigger event is?"

Spitfire's eyes widened, she took two steps back. "Why?"

Rush lightly stepped onto the ground. She pointed to the distance, a camera drone rose up from the junkyard behind them. It was recording everything. "There's a reason everyone on our team posted up those 'origin' story videos on the website. We really are losers, but the only way to get passed that, is to be okay with the worst parts of ourselves."

She turned around to tap a button on the drone. The red light on the camera turned off. "Its not just to make the fans like us, the world really is a scary place. People look at parahumans like Gods or monsters, easily forgetting that we're human beneath our masks." She pulled up her mask to reveal her full face to Spitfire. "So the only way to beat that, is to humanize ourselves. And the only way to humanize ourselves, is to remind the world that we're as screwed up as every other person is."

She turned on the camera again while putting her mask back on, "so what'll it be Spitfire? Do you have what it takes to be a Loser? Do you have what it takes to be on our team. If you do, then all you have to do is look into this camera, and tell the world what your trigger event is!"

Spitfire felt the world hold still. The camera stared at her, and she shook her head. "No," Spitfire said. "I won't."

XXX

The three of them returned to their base. To Emily's surprise, it was just an abandoned apartment complex that happened to have electricity running. The apartment building was cut off due to mold, but apparently the problem had long gone away. Leaving the team with the freedom to roam across the entire building without any issue.

"Hey guys, I brought chinese," Rush said opening the door. It was cut to neck level and stayed a normal black color, she apparently altered it when in costume.

"Finally," a boy answered. "I'm starving, did you guys get lost? You took forever-" The boy paused mid sentence at the sight of the curly haired freckled girl. He was scrawny, with black hair and pale skin that matched his boney figure. "What… The hell."

A blonde haired young adult stepped out from the kitchen. He had rubber gloves on from washing yesterday's dishes. "Right," Uber said, "while you were in the lab an audition tape got uploaded to our website. I'm guessing you're… Spitfire? Unless Rush invited a fan again."

Rush shouted, "she had chlamydia, she deserved to meet us!"

"Cancer," Uber corrected, "the girl had cancer. Stop mixing the two diseases."

Leet turned to his bigger, more robust friend. "I'm gone for a few hours, and you guys brought a new member without asking me? Why am I always getting left out of this?"

Uber answered, "she didn't tell me either. I just figured she and Vivan would probably do that without us. Guess I was right."

Leet pointed at Rush, "since when could she make big, game-changing decisions without us?"

Light answered, "I kind of go where she tells me. Be honest though, would you have been against it if she told you?"

"No," Leet said quietly, "but I'm not happy about it."

Uber took off his gloves and dried his hand. He stepped across the living room to shake Emily's hand. "I'm Robert. Also called Uber. It's nice to have you on the team, Spitfire."

Emily was taken aback by his politeness. After what the Undersiders, Light and Rush had put her through, she was beginning to think all capes were naturally crazy.

"I'm Emily," she said. "I'm… Glad to be here."

She was still nervous, fortunately, it was easy for them to do the talking for her. Uber pointed to each of the members, "Leet here is Edwin, or Ed for short. He spends a lot of time in the lab. He complains a lot, but never actually means it."

"Seriously?" Ed said, "I never actually mean it? Is that why you guys never listen to me? Because you think I never mean it?"

Not listening, Robert pointed to Light. "I'm sure you know Vivan now, and his sister Aryana."

Emily nodded, smiling without worry for the first time in hours. "I'm glad to be here."

Robert returned to the stove in the kitchen, "I had a feeling you guys were going to forget the food, so I got some take out. Not as good as what Vivan makes, but food is food."

"Alright," Vivan said, "I'm starving. After we eat, we celebrate our new member with a super smash brawl tournament."

Ed looked over to Emily again, just as he was passing her to enter the kitchen, he asked in a lowered voice. "So… are you really chinese? Because you don't look like it…"

In an instant, Robert, Vivan, and Aryana yelled, "racist bastard!" from the kitchen, and proceeded to throw plastic forks and napkin balls in his direction.

XXX

"Five o'clock," Light said staring at his watch sitting on the sofa. "Right on time. Nice."

Spitfire was smiling beneath her older mask, "thank you," she said. She wasn't sure what she was thanking them for, but they all accepted it anyway.

Rush had on her default costume, the same one she'd worn from the day before. Uber and Leet had on their skin tight bodysuits, but only under some casual pants and t-shirts. Spitfire wondered why they dressed casually.

"First things first," Rush said with a smiling. "Show her the new toy."

Leet pulled out the gas mask from behind the sofa. "It's an adjustable fire mask. It lets you spread out your fire like a garden hose. A lot of different settings. Wearing it, you can spread your fire, focus it, or even minimize it as much as you'd like."

Emily looked down at the mask. It looked so plain, but the nozzle at the end was almost glowing. "Amazing, thank you."

"Hmm… I haven't finished explaining." She was still looking down at it in astonishment. "It also lets you freeze things."

"What?"

"Your power is shooting napalm fire, right? The nozzle can be adjusted to 'snuff out' the fire, and uses some chemicals to convert the napalm into liquid nitrogen. That stuff still kills, obviously, but it won't spread."

Emily placed the mask atop of her face. "Oh my God." Panels were lit up everywhere, showing the flammability of the materials around her. "You put safety panels here."

Leet nodded, "it was Rush's idea. She said you might want to play it safe, so there are a lot of backup warnings in it. It'll let you know how the fire will react based on the environment around it. It even predicts the directions it'll spread. Use your hand to turn the nozzle or say the words 'command ice', and it'll change to liquid nitrogen. The computer can also guide you on how to put out fires with that."

Emily was tearing beneath her mask, she ran up to Leet and gave him a heavy hug. "Thank you, so much."

Leet, unsure what to say, only turned red from her thankfulness. "You know, it doesn't matter or anything."

She let go, "yes it does," she was smiling, almost sniffling in happiness.

Leet swallowed, wholly embarrassed by the spectacle.

"Now," Rush said, "back to the mission."

Light nodded, "while you were in school, we've been scouting the city for what targets to attack next. We've reduced it to eight possible hit-points, and we're using advanced probability devices to choose what the perfect place to hit."

Rush handed Spitfire a dart, "since this'll be your first mission, you should be the one to decide."

She looked across the room, the dart board had eight pictures attached to the wall. Five pictures were swatsikas, one picture had a lazy boy chair on it, another had a weed symbol, and the last picture had a lewd fan art photo of Clockblocker and Rush together.

"Seriously?" Spitfire said, "this is how you guys decide things?"

"And it hasn't failed us yet," Light added.

Uber nodded, "which is really astounding, when you think about it."

Spitfire looked down at the dart. Maybe she wasn't ready for a mission, but her team was. And for the first time in a long time. she felt like she had people she could fall back onto. Like where if she failed, they could pick her up. One mission, one beginning.

She tossed the dart at the wall.

XXX