"All right, villains, listen up." Maggie stood center stage, looking out at Chester, Yasmin, Duncan, Kevin, and Eminya, all of whom were spread out in their usual scattered configuration. "We have a big event tonight."
"New member," said Duncan with a yawn. "We know."
"Right," Maggie confirmed. "And here's the thing: I recruited her because, based on the interview I had with her earlier this week, she seemed like a good fit for our group. She seemed like someone who would be on board with our cause. And as I've stressed again and again, we're going to need as many people as possible if we want our attack on the parade to be effective." She took a deep breath. "But, as we all know, there are risks associated with bringing a new person into the gang. The biggest risk is that we can't be a hundred percent sure we can trust her. For all we know, she's a Renegade spy, or a vigilante spy, or someone who'll turn us in and spill all our secrets the moment she finds out what we're doing. So we have to be careful about what we tell her."
To everyone's surprise, Kevin was the first to speak up. "She already knows our stance on power equality, or lack thereof. She knows we don't agree with society on the whole 'everyone is equal' thing."
"That is true," said Maggie. "And she knows we have a plan to prevent the world from breaking people down into classes based on how cool their superpowers are."
"That's not really what we're doing, though," Eminya spoke up thoughtfully. "We're more of stepping in and becoming the ruling class before someone else does."
"Yes," Maggie replied, glaring at her. "But we're doing that as a gang of people who all don't have the more 'powerful' powers. Some of you don't even like your powers! We're stepping in and taking up the position of Villains before the 'powerful' people do."
"Except the Flamethrower," Chester pointed out. "Is he working with us now? Are we going to try to recruit him?"
"He seems cool," Yasmin spoke up, chiseling the seat in front of her into a point.
"Cool?" exclaimed Chester, staring at her. He aimed his pointer finger at her like a gun, but Maggie knew he'd be too chicken to actually squirt Yasmin. "The dude lit a building on fire with people still in it! He burned some chef guy to a crisp!"
"My point exactly," said Yasmin, shrugging.
"Okay, let's not get off track," Maggie stomped her foot a few times on the stage to get everyone's attention, then continued speaking. "I'm glad Chester brought up the Flamethrower, because we have a little matter of business to discuss relating to him." She paused, not entirely sure she wanted to let her gang in on Frostbite's plan. Then again, they were the ones who were actually going to be downtown during the parade, not her, so they might as well be aware of what was going to happen.
"I will share with you some important information regarding the Flamethrower once our newest member is here," she told the others. "But before she gets here, I just want to reiterate that we have to be careful how much we let her know. Do not—I repeat, do not let her see or know about our storehouses. Okay? A plan without evidence is just a plan. Knowing our plan plus seeing all the stuff we've amassed to implement our plan… she could do some serious damage."
The other gang members nodded solemnly.
"And I think it goes without saying not to let her know what I'll be doing during the parade," Maggie added.
"Who is she?" Chester called out. "What's her name? What's her superpower?"
"I will let her introduce herself when she gets here." The words were scarcely out of her mouth when the door at the back of the auditorium opened, and a figure appeared silhouetted in the doorway.
"Who's there?" Maggie called out.
"It's me. Zoridel." The reply was quiet but confident. Zoridel moved through the shadows until she arrived toward the front of the seating section. She took a seat in Eminya's row, turning a respectful expression up to Maggie.
"We'll do our introductions first," Maggie decided. "I'm Maggie, alias Magpie. I'm the leader of the Villains."
"The Villains?" Zoridel's left eyebrow arched up. "Creative name."
Maggie scowled at her. "You'll learn very quickly that I have little patience for people sassing me," she snapped. "We don't need a name like all those old gangs had during the Age of Anarchy. We are the only villain gang in Gatlon City; therefore everyone will know us as the Villains." She pointed at Chester, who was closest. "That's Chester, alias Squirt. He's a brat, which is why we keep him around."
As if to prove her point, Chester squirted a few jets of water toward Zoridel, soaking her hair, her face, her right sleeve. Zoridel wiped the water from her face but otherwise didn't react.
"That's Yasmin, alias Dagger. She's the muscle of our crew."
Yasmin proudly displayed her razor-sharp digits, grinning wickedly.
"That's Eminya, alias Balloon Girl. She has a legitimate job and access to all sorts of legal perks and stuff that the rest of us don't have."
"And a head big enough to store all kinds of smarts and strategies," added Duncan, and Maggie saw Eminya's face take on a conflicted expression, as if she wasn't quite sure what to make of the insult/compliment.
Maggie turned her attention to him next. "That's Duncan, alias the Skunk. He stinks. Literally."
"And he's good at organizing the—" Eminya's face went red and she fell silent under Maggie's glare, chagrined at almost mentioning their storehouse of items with which to wreak havoc on the parade.
"That's Kevin, who you already met," Maggie hurried to introduce the last member of their gang, hoping Zoridel hadn't noticed the near slip-up. "Kevin refuses to have an alias, because he's still sulking over not wanting to be a prodigy, but his power would actually be pretty cool if he would make proper use of it. He has super-sensitive hearing."
Zoridel, who'd been listening quietly and studying each member in turn, nodded. "I can see the pros and cons with that one."
"Yeah, well, work on getting Kevin to see more of those pros," said Maggie. "All right, Zoridel, it's your turn. Come on up. Introduction and origin story."
Zoridel stepped up onto the stage, maintaining the collected confidence that had exuded from her since the moment she'd arrived. "I'm Zoridel Montego," Her voice was loud and clear, projecting every bit as much as Maggie's had. "Alias the Sea Witch."
"The Sea Witch?" Chester questioned, raising his eyebrows.
"It was either that or Mermaid, and I figured Sea Witch sounded a little more villainous. I can breathe underwater. I got my powers as a result of the Supernova, but it took me forever to figure out what they were." She launched into the story she'd told Maggie back when they'd met at City Park, and concluded with, "I can already feel it coming, society's shift from celebrating everybody to putting people up on pedestals again, just like they did before the Supernova. Heroes versus villains. Big powers versus small powers. Oppression. A small group of people making all the rules. From what I understand, you guys have a plan to ensure that you become that elite group, rather than waiting around for someone else to step into that role. I'd like to be part of that group with you. I'd like to help your cause in any way I can."
Yasmin pointed a blade-tipped finger at her. "Can you fight?"
"Yes," Zoridel replied, not batting an eye. "I'm skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and have been trained to use a variety of weaponry."
Eminya narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Were you ever a member of the Renegades?"
"No. As I said, I wasn't a prodigy until the Supernova, so they wouldn't have let me in back then even if I'd wanted to join them."
Eminya nodded in understanding. Maggie wondered if she was thinking of her own attempts to join the Renegades, and how she'd been laughed at and booed out of the trials.
"Do you have friends or family? Anyone you're close with?" Duncan wanted to know.
Zoridel raised her eyebrows. "Is that really any of your business?"
"Well, yeah, it kind of is," said Duncan. "We're a pretty low-profile group, for the time being, and we don't want outsiders finding out what we're doing."
"That won't be a concern," Zoridel assured him. "I'm very good at keeping secrets."
The gang members questioned her for a little longer, and then Maggie sent her back to her seat and took the stage once more. "You were interested in learning about our plan," she said to Zoridel. "I will share it with you; however, you need to realize that the seven of us in this room are the only people who know about it, and we wish to keep it that way." She faltered, realizing that what she'd just said wasn't entirely true. "Well, and our four allies know about the plan as well, but that's it. Eleven people. If word gets out that anyone else knows about our plan, we will all blame you. As the newest member, you're our weakest link. If you think you can get away with running off and telling our plan to, I don't know, the Renegades or something, Dagger will come after you—" She pointed to Yasmin, who wiggled her bladed fingers menacingly—"and so will our allies, whose powers include ice manipulation, earthquake-making, a poisonous barbed tail, and the ability to turn one's body into solid rock. I think you can use your imagination as to what will happen next."
Zoridel nodded, seemingly unafraid. "I understand. As I said, I can keep a secret."
Maggie stared her down for a few moments, and Zoridel steadily met her gaze. "Okay," Maggie finally said. "Don't make me regret this." She took a deep breath. "We plan to crash the Hero Parade this year." She watched Zoridel's face, keeping her eyes out for any sign of a reaction—positive, negative, or disbelieving—but the girl's expression remained neutral. "We're going to be stationed around the busiest parts of the city," she continued. "Particularly the areas that are the most densely populated during the parade. Last year we all took notes, and we figured out that the prime time to attack is when the Council float is turning on to Main street. Squirt will be our lookout, and when he sees that happening, he'll notify the rest of us, and we'll all simultaneously pitch our attacks."
"What kind of attacks?" Zoridel asked skeptically.
"Each of us has a specific attack plan that's related to our superpower, or other specialized skill," Maggie explained. "We'll come up with one for you over these next few days. The key is, we need to be absolutely certain that everything happens at the same time. That way nobody will have time to tip anyone else off. Our goal is to create absolute chaos. And after the chaos, to rise up, take credit, and declare ourselves the Gatlon City Villains."
Zoridel still looked doubtful, and Maggie couldn't blame her. Without seeing the stockpiles, and without knowing exactly what each gang member's plan of action was, the plan seemed absolutely ludicrous. To be honest, even with all the knowledge of the plan and the stockpiles, it still seemed far-fetched to think that they could pull this off. But Zoridel didn't know about the key ingredient.
And with the key ingredient, they could definitely pull it off.
"Is the Flamethrower a member of your gang?" Zoridel asked.
Maggie tried not to wince. "Not yet. Our allies are working on him." She steeled herself. "That's… the other thing we have to talk about. Our allies came to see me a few days ago."
She caught most of her gang members nodding. No doubt they had heard Frostbite's piercing voice and felt Aftershock rumbling the ground.
"Frostbite believes that she can get Flamethrower to join our side, or at least to do our bidding." Her bidding. "She wants to stage an attack specifically on Sketch's float. She thinks it's important to—to kill Sketch and Insomnia."
The room suddenly felt as if someone had taken a giant vacuum and sucked out all the sound. Although the Gatlon City Villains liked to call themselves a villain gang, Maggie knew that most of them were more of unruly rebels than true villains. Their allies were hard-hearted, unafraid of getting their hands dirty to do what needed to be done. But Chester, Yasmin, Duncan, Eminya, and Kevin—none of them had ever killed anyone, or, as far as Maggie knew, ever truly wanted to. Yasmin may talk tough and flash her blades around at anyone who annoyed her, but she'd never done any damage worse than surface wounds. And everybody else—well, she could tell by the looks on their faces that they were as uncomfortable with the idea as she had been when Frostbite had first mentioned it.
"Come on," she said placatingly. "We're villains. We're overturning an entire social structure, taking control of a whole city. You know people are going to die." This had been an unspoken but nevertheless understood fact for a long time. Even if Maggie's gang kept their damage on the level of "nuisance but not permanent," Frostbite's gang was going to kill people. Everyone knew that.
"Sketch and Insomnia?" asked Zoridel, brow furrowing. "Adrian Everhart and Nova Artino?"
"Mm-hmm." Maggie willed herself not to think of Max. "Frostbite believes those two are too powerful and would put a stop to our destruction before we really have a chance to begin. Her idea is to get Flamethrower to toast them the moment everything starts."
"Frostbite thinks those two are more powerful than the Council?" Zoridel asked in surprise.
Maggie shrugged. "I guess because Adrian doubles as the Sentinel, and because he can pretty much draw any weapon he wants at any time, and Nova's… you know, all that science-y stuff." She wrinkled her nose. "Plus I think Frostbite just really doesn't like them."
"Isn't Nova the one who gave that speech a couple years back when voting was first introduced?" Eminya asked, frowning. "The one who kept emphasizing how important it was for everyone to participate and make their voice heard and do their civil duty and everything?"
Maggie scowled. The event Eminya was talking about had taken place on Supernova Day of two years ago, when the Council had announced that they were making changes in the way they governed the city, starting by putting all new and existing laws to a vote as to whether they should be kept, changed, or discarded. Maggie had only been there because it was a huge event, therefore drawing a huge crowd, which in turn meant lots of items to pickpocket, but she had heard every word of Nova's speech, seen the massive digital images of her face duplicated on all the TV screens. It had been sort of sickening. Not the speech itself, but just so much Nova.
"Yes, that's her," Maggie confirmed.
"Then isn't she kind of on our side? I mean, she's pretty outspoken about anti-oppression and letting people do what they want and stuff like that. I feel like she wouldn't support Power Classism any more than we do."
"She's not on our side," Maggie growled. "Power Classism is coming, like it or not. And from what I know about her, she'd be the kind of person who'd try to stop it from happening at all. Which is impossible. So, the next best thing is to step up and become the ones in power before anyone else does."
"I didn't mean we should try to recruit her or anything. I just meant—" Eminya looked down. "I don't think it's necessary to kill her. Or her teammates."
"Well, take it up with Frostbite," said Maggie. "Zoridel. Any questions?"
"Yes." Zoridel still had a skeptical expression on her face, clearly not fully convinced about the plan. "Let's just assume that your plan works and you guys—we—get into a position of power. How exactly do you plan to stay in power?"
Maggie could feel the eyes of all her fellow gang members shifting from her to Zoridel and back again. She knew Zoridel was aware of it too. But she just smiled reassuringly. "That's not something I wish to disclose at the moment, but rest assured, it will happen."