Rune was almost glad she left the E88. Their rules, mannerisms, expectations, it was driving her crazy. She didn't need more of that in her life. She was sixteen and wasn't allowed to maker her own decisions, all because she owed her family something for being born with powers. She was tired of it, tired of them, but even more fed up than them, she was pissed off at the losers.

It had only been a few hours since their failed ambush attempt, and she still couldn't get her mind over what had happened. The nazi hologram prank was the most humiliating experience she'd ever had, and she wasn't going to let them get off that easy. She was glad she was picked for being the double agent, she wanted to join them, just so she could see the looks on their faces for when they'd fall into Kaiser's trap.

It was now 2am, and the Loser's still hadn't responded. Rune didn't care, if they chose not to recruit her, she could still trust Kaiser to take her back.

Rune attuned more of the vehicles and garbage barrels surrounding her, tossing them around for added practice. A few fires were starting, bigger fires than Spitfire's, spreading around the outskirts of the junkyard while engulfing the gaps within. It was just a way to pass the time. She eventually clenched her fists, remembering how easily Rush's telekinesis overpowered her's.

A vacuum swallowed up the sound from outside the junkyard. Gliding on towards it, she saw a circular purple light forming into a portal. It looked like a glowing tunnel, with echoing sounds inside from people talking while they walked.

"I still say we should've brought the nazi uniforms," one of the boys said.

"Nah, it's never funny a second time," a girl replied.

"I cosplay for fun, but I don't dress up like Solid Snake and pick fights with Russians. Once you're done, make sure she doesn't go to my lab. I don't need some Nazi fanatic thinking she can gas up my home like a psycho."

Three people stepped out from the portal. Light and Rush were easily recognizable, they had their recognizable half broken masks, along with cosplays similar to knights. Rush's armor had a crimson painted dragon on the front of the chestplate. Uber wore a white cloth mask, with a wizard looking attire that looked more like a long dress. In fact, his v-neck cleavage and the tightness around his waist almost implied that he was cosplaying as a female character.

"You know," Uber said with his clip on earrings, "when you said you had three months of cosplay ready, I was really expecting something else."

Rush stuck her tongue out. "I wouldn't be a master of foreplay if I couldn't tease and troll at the same time."

The younger brother extended his arms. He was shorter than her, and she wondered if he was of middle school age or just shrimpish for his age. "There's our wonderful new guinea pig." Light almost approached her for a hug, but once Rune stepped back, he extended his hand out for a shake.

Rune looked down at his hand for a full minute, remembering she wasn't supposed to touch his kind. "Relax, it doesn't come off." She stared at him. "Also, if it makes you feel better, I'm technically an Oreo."

Rune raised an eyebrow. So he's mixed, she thought to herself.

Rush cut in, "Wait, so now we're Oreos? Does that I mean I get to be fun, fresh, and full of flavor?"

Rune tilted her head at her. What?

"No," Light answered, "think of it like skyrim. We get half the benefits of both races."

"Well, that's a shitty power. That means my dancing skills cancel itself out."

Rune shook her head, "what the hell are you guys talking about?"

"Don't ask," Uber answered. He dropped his backpack in front of him, and turned around and headed away, "the lengths these guys go to fuck around is astounding. I'll be on lookout if you need me."

Rush clasped her hands together, "okay, let's get this initiation process started. Light, hand me my clipboard." Light pulled a clipboard with heavy booklet out from the backpack.

Rush pulled out a pencil while Light began asking questions from the book. "First question; what do the stars on the American flag represent?"

Rune lifted an eyebrow. "Are you serious?'

He answered, "do you wanna join or not?"

Rune let out a loud sigh, "the states."

"Good, now what do the colors represent?"

Rune cocked her head back, I should know this…

After a minute of waiting, Rush and Light shook their heads disappointingly. Rush marked an 'x' on her clipboard. Light continued with his line of questions. "Can you tell me what the stripes represent? Also, can you name the original US colonies?"

Rune tried remembering the names, but she wasn't sure if Florida existed back then, or if the colonies were named something different from the states.

He went on, "How many congressmen do we have in the house of representatives? Which government entity has the power to nominate chief justices? What is the current chief Justice of the Supreme court right now?"

"What the fuck is the point of this?" Rune yelled. "It's just history and politics bullshit, it doesn't fucking matter."

Rush grinned, "it's the US citizenship test."

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Well," Light said, "if she thinks it's bullshit, I don't think I can trust her. I don't want a commie on our team."

Rune swallowed, she thought about how pissed Kaiser would be if she met with them just to fail. "That's… Not fair. I'm bad at history."

Rush rubbed at her chin, "well, I suppose we can let you enter illegally. Just don't tell the feds about it."

Light crossed his arms, "I don't like it, it makes me not wanna trust her. Are you willing to work for less than minimum wage for double the workload?"

She clenched her fists, "go fuck yourself."

Light, not at all offended, muttered, "damn liberals…"

Rush tossed her clipboard to the side. She went into the backpack again and picked up some white sheets. She tossed them to Light, and took out a rainbow colored attire. "Say hello to your new costume."

"Fuck no," Rune yelled. It was a bright green colored porcelain styled dress, complete with rainbow striped knee socks and sleeves. A giant bright sunflower was the logo on its chest. "No way in hell am I wearing that!"

Rush waved it around, "C'mon Rune, you gotta improve your image since you're a former E88 member. And what better image is there than to change your name to Sillywhim from Sillyville?"

"Or you could go with mine," Vivan said. The sheets Rush passed to him was unfolded into a KKK robe, complete with an overly pointy hat, a white cape with a burning cross picture on the back, and a swastika patched on its chest. "I figure you should just embrace your former history. Remember your battle cry; while brise white by light, by night, brise white takes flight, with the might of right, to fight for our plight. You are… The White Knight!"

Rune suddenly remembered Uber's parting message. "You guys are just fucking with me."

Rush sighed, "Don't be ridiculous. Do you really think we spent three hours sewing these costumes as an oxymoron to your history, just to shove in your face as a way to fuck with you? Who would do that? That' a crazy amount of effort and only crazy people would do that."

"So what'll it be," Light said. "Sillywhim, or the White Knight?"

Rune shook her head furiously, "neither!"

The two siblings glanced at each other. They communicated almost non-verbally. Light tossed a wad of bills at his sister, "For a second, I seriously thought she was gonna pick the rainbow one."

"Told you she shouldn't, and I'm glad she didn't. Rainbows are gay."

Light nodded, "they're like gay rays of gayness, emitting gay sun rays onto this gay earth." Light shot a rainbow colored beam into the air. "Like gay blasts."

Rush stared intensely at Light, "you have gay blasts?"

"Of course. Legend's lasers aren't rainbow enough, someone's gotta do it."

Rune gritted her teeth, "you're gay?" These guys don't stop getting worse.

"What? Ew, of course not. I'm as straight as a garden gnome." He pointed to his sister, "she's pretty gay though. Kinda super gay, since she's a cape. She checks out more girls than me."

Rush rubbed her hand at her cheek. "It's true, it's not my fault the female anatomy is so wonderful." She eyed at Rune, to which she took a step back. "Oh relax, I don't touch jailbait." That didn't make Rune feel better.

"Okay," Light said, "I think it's time for the final test. The real test, the test that'll tell us whether or not you're fit for the team or not."

Rush nodded and crossed her arms. Her smile fell to a frown, and she walked closer to Rune to speak on a more personal level. "Rune, here's the thing. Unlike Spitfire you have a bad history behind you, so we have to make sure you're serious about joining the team. Which means you have to show us that you really don't want to be a part of the E88 anymore."

"And," Light said, "you gotta make up for the crimes you've done. To balance out the all hate you've ever done."

Rune thought about the laundry list of hate crimes she'd done with the empire. They were tame compared to what the veteran members had done, but that didn't make her any less guilty. "Like what?" she asked.

XXX

The red haired teenager stood at the center of the busy street corner. It was Saturday afternoon, warm for April, but it wasn't nice for her. It was the 'cleaner' part of town, so she was glad no one she knew would recognize her. Sabrina frowned, refusing to let herself have fun in the morbid situation she was in. The "free hugs" sign was hanging by her shoulders, and she glared at people that decided to provide it to her.

"Free hugs," she said monotoned. "Free hugs," she said in a flat tone, hoping no one would hear her.

A dark haired boy clapped methodically after seeing her. He was slim, and overall scrawny. He couldn't stop laughing, "I can't believe she actually did it."

He was followed by two tan skinned friends. The girl next to him had her own sign around her body, it read 'super hugs, $10.' She spoke, "I, for one, am proud of our newest member."

Sabrina stared at them. "Rush?" She couldn't believe it. She finally got to see their secret identities. Rush's body was overall slim, something that was hard to tell from all the cosplays she'd chosen to wear. Her dark hair was cut to her neck level, she'd typically dyed her hair bright white in costume. Oddly enough, her hair now was shorter than when wearing a costume, was that one of Leet's inventions? Rush looked to be only slightly taller than Sabrina, she guessed that she was either eighteen or nineteen years old due to her jailbait comment.

The shorter one looked to be older than she expected, high school age, but probably fourteen or fifteen. His dark hair was silky and scuffled down. "One more hour, and we're throwing a welcoming party when Emily gets back." His smile was identical to Rush's, the similarities between their faces were now apparent. "And no alcoholic beverages. If I can't drink, yuz are partying like Mormons too."

"Yuz?" Sabrina said. "Was that.. Slang?"

"Well, I did grow up in Boston."

Sabrina furrowed her eyebrows, wondering again how his accent tied to his ethnicity.

"So, I'm Aryana, this is Vivan, and that's Edwin, also known as Leet." The boy nodded at her, not saying much more. "So, I think you deserve an ice cream cone. We all thought you were gonna leave after the first hour, glad you stuck around. I'll be right back."

Aryana left to the other direction, Edwin turned to Vivan and said, "shit, I forgot to ask for a smoothie. Vivan, can you go tell her that."

"Sure thing," he left to follow her, leaving Edwin alone to turn to Sabrina.

"So, enjoying yourself?" he asked. Sabrina scowled at him, but held her tongue. "Good, because I just wanted to chat with you real quick."

Edwin placed a hat on her head. On the outside, it was just a typical cap with the local sports team written on it, inside it, her head began to tickle. "I don't really get why Ary and Vivan wanted you on our team, but I'd just like to make something clear. Don't think about hurting my friends, especially Ary, because if you do, I'll do that one thing Tinkers aren't supposed to do."

In an instance, an image flashed before her eyes. The world around her became black, and she felt wind pulling her down into the ground. The stars above her were glowing purple, and she felt her body going soft. Her body became brittle, and her insides tingled like the were withering away inside her.

The image lasted for a mere second, but the sensation of it all was worth remembering. Returning to normal, Edwin pulled off the hat. "They weren't joking when they said I'm as good as Hero. It's more than just a gimmick. The trick is to keep being more original than the last thing, and they showed me that." He hugged her, "so if you even think about hurting my friends, I'll do things to you worse than the holocaust."

He let go. Aryana and Vivan returned with ice cream cones a few minutes later.

"There weren't smoothies where we went," Vivan said. "But here's a banana ice cream cone instead, so I guess it's kind of like a smoothie."

Aryana looked to Sabrina, her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. Not understanding, Ary asked, "you okay? If you want, I could give you a free hug for ten dollars."