The plan, such as it was, involved us scoping the area out while Rover went through the bouts. So far the surprise attack with bombs seemed the best option we had, but no matter what we did we’d have to act fast. It wouldn’t take long for a fight to spill out from the underground if we were unlucky, and from there we’d have an influx of drones and masks.

  For now, I focused on my part of the plan. My payout from the STING job gave me cash to work with, and I’d gone on to sell the recovered energy rifles to the Arcadians for a little extra. Not that I needed much cash to make black powder. Charcoal, sulphur, and potassium nitrate. All relatively easy to get if you knew where to look, the challenge was in getting the ratio right.

  “... And it’s a pain to get the ratio right with you two... hovering over me,” I said, sitting upright.

  Sam and Beatrix inched back from the table I was working at. “Just curious is all,” Sam said in his usual morose way. “You’ve been going at that stuff for a while now.” He raised a slim finger, pointing to an assortment of jugs and tubes I was using for storage.

  “These things take time,” I admitted. “I’d rather not burn off my eyebrows, or blast my fingers to bits.”

  Beatrix grimaced, lazily twirling a rosary in one hand. “Gross. Being an Artisan is a lotta work.”

  “You’re telling me,” I muttered. On the other side of the table sat two halves of a plastic container, no larger than a golfball. “But hopefully these cherry bombs will be worth it.”

  Sam frowned, as he so often did. “Not to denigrate your work, Jess, but... will a thing that small even do anything to someone like Impact?”

  “Well, I’m going to give my troopers more than one, first of all. But make no mistake, there’s more to these than just gunpowder. Each one is gonna have a little energy cell fitted into it. Once the gunpowder goes off, those will ignite too for an extra kick. They’ll make hand grenades look like firecrackers.”

  Beatrix’s eyes widened a bit. “Shiiiit, girl. You always know how to impress me.”

  “Eh. It’s nothing too impressive,” I said. By Artisan standards, it was a rather modest feat. Artillery once made a city block-flattening bomb with just a breadmaker and a smartphone, this was nothing in comparison.

  I saw her rosary from the corner of my eye, and I found myself briefly fixated on it. “How did you end up doing this, anyway?” I asked, focusing back on my work.

  “Huh? How do you mean?” Beatrix replied.

  “Becoming a villain. I mean, your faith is a big deal, clearly. Strange to see you become a criminal despite that,” I said.

  “We’re Americans, Jess. Plenty of folks are religious but still do heinous shit. And like I said before, it’s not like we do anything that bad as far as criminals go. But, I guess... I like the freedom of it.” She shrugged, thumbing the beads in her hand. “I mean... I got powers, and I want to have fun with them. Being a superhero? Too much work, too much responsibility. I wanna live life on my terms, and this is a part of that.”

  My eye shifted to Sam. “And you? I don’t actually know much about you, Sam.”

  He flushed a bit, turning away from me. “Uh... it’s a little embarrassing.”

  Like everything else about you, apparently. I rolled my eyes a bit. “I won’t laugh at you,” I assured him.

  “Well...” he gestured to the hideout surrounding us. “You probably guessed my family is pretty wealthy. We’re old money in the States. A fucking Mayflower family, if you can believe it. That leads to expectations. So much shit in my life was decided the moment I was born. So... using my powers for crime? It’s my own... little bit of freedom, I guess. Shit saying it out loud sounds like a fucking stereoype.”

  “A little,” I said, carefully fitting the halves of the cherry bomb together. A small hole sat in the top through which I could pour the powder. “But so what?”

  “Huh?” Sam cocked a brow at me.

  “It’s your life, bud. Do what you want with it. If your folks are assholes, it shouldn’t matter what they think.” Well, I didn’t care all that much. But anything to lessen his constant moping. I started slowly feeding the black grains into the plastic shell.

  Sam seemed to consider this, stroking his chin. “Huh,” he eventually said. “Well, what about you?”

  “What about me?” I asked in a murmur.

  “I mean... why are you doing this stuff?”

  I considered the question. Did I tell them everything? Hell no... My dad might have been innocent of Bonfire Night in my mind, but that didn’t mean everyone else thought the same. And if either of them had lost loved ones in the blast... even so, maybe they had earned something from me. They did help me escape the drones, after all.

  “Lost someone close to me,” I said. “only, I need evidence to figure out what happened to him. The resources of the Society are my best bet for that.”

  “Your dad... was the first Toymaker, yeah?” Beatrix asked.

  I didn’t answer.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “I mean, it wasn’t hard to guess. But... you think something else happened on Bonfire Night with him?” Beatrix added. “He was there when the blast went off, yeah? They say he and the other villains there caused it.”

  “They’re wrong,” I said without looking up. “Dad wouldn’t have done something that fucking stupid. And I don’t buy another group of villains appearing there at the exact same time as a coincidence. There was something off about that night, and I just, I have to prove it, I have to-”

  I had risen from my seat without realising it, raising my voice the more I spoke.

  “Okay girl, okay, chill,” Beatrix said, raising her hands.

  “Yeah, maybe don’t uh... start shouting while you’re messing around with gunpowder, yeah?” Sam said, his fists raise, set to transform as a method of protecting himself.

  I swallowed, my face a touch flushed. “Sorry.”

  “It’s cool. Just, you know, keep a straight head,” Beatrix said. “If... there is something off about Bonfire Night, then yeah people have a right to know. So... do what you gotta do to find the truth.”

  From their looks of surprise, I still doubted Cassie had said anything to them. And, for that reason, I would keep from mentioning her secret too.

  “Please... keep this to yourselves,” I said, softening my voice.

  “Yeah uh... don’t sweat it, Jess,” said Sam. “You gotta do what you gotta do, yeah?”

  I grunted, turning back to my work. “Yeah. Sure as shit,” I said, sighing. “I’ll need a day or two to prep a bunch of these. And then... then we can try and nab Impact for Jupiter. Come Sunday, her little pit is going out of business.”

  “So... you’re not worried about anyone else putting two and two together?” Sam asked.

  “Well, villains taking up the identity of dead villains isn’t exactly uncommon. And the amount of people who know the Toymaker even had a kid is damn small. Plus, you know how tightly guarded the identities of family members of masks are when it comes to death. The Cowl Laws are a thing for a reason.” Hell, even my various foster parents didn’t know about my dad, nor my case worker. And anyone with the clearance to unseal that information? Doubted they’d waste their time or attention on a street-tier hood.

  “Well, just... be careful,” Sam said, shrugging his slim shoulders. “Life like this, you’re always playing with fire.”

  It was getting dark as I walked along Lantern Row, passing an assortment of identical brownstones. I was a little sore and tired. Class took some energy out of me, as did squinting as I carefully prepared the cherry bombs. But, adding to that, I felt a fool.

  Freaking out like that in front of Sam and Beatrix made made feel like a damn fool. It wasn’t just that I’d lost my temper, it was that I’d spoken about Dad.

  Thinking about him, thinking about Bonfire Night, it always made my damn blood pressure spike. Right now I wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit.

  But bullshit, of course, found its way to me.

  “Ha! Look at the stupid rock-skinned freak! You gonna cry, freak?”

  I looked up to see a small group of boys crowding around Todd, keeping him boxed in at the alley of one house. Todd looked like a deer caught in the headlights, his eyes wet with tears.

  “Ugh, he’s so ugly!”

  “Imagine being an Apex but being UGLY because of it! So gross!”

  I slowly exhaled through my nose. “Fucking Christ.” I walked toward the group with sharp, purposeful strides. The ringleader of the group, a pudgy blond boy, only to turn around as my shadow fell over him.

  “Huh? Who the he-”

  I caught him by the hair with one hand, the other harshly ramming into his gut. His eyes bulged in his head, his face turning purple as he looked set to throw up his lunch. He doubled over, falling harshly to his knees.

  “Who the fuck do you little cunts think you are?” I backhanded another boy, a skinny brunette, who ran away squealing with his hands clutched to the side of his face. “Fuck off! Leave him alone!” I harshly booted the third boy in the chest, and he tried to hobble swiftly out of the alley with his hands to his gut.

  The ring leader was on his knees, wheezing and whining like a sick dog. “You can... you can’t-” he tried to blubber.

  “I just did.” I crouched over him, leaning in nice and close. “And if I hear you’ve been messing with him again... I’ll fucking kill you.” I rose to my feet, grabbing Todd by the wrist and pulling him away. “For fuck’s sake Todd, you can stick up for yourself. You could have pitched those kids like baseballs, so why-”

  I looked down at him and froze as I saw thick tears running down his cheek. He sniffed, one nostril bubbling with snot. “I... I’m not supposed to use my powers on people! If I... If someone... and if they got hurt! And if they got hurt, they’d take me away from here! They, they’d send me to another foster home, and I... I don’t wanna go again! I don’t wanna lose another family!”

  I groaned, rubbing my brow with one hand. “Christ, okay okay! Calm down and... stop crying!” I reached into the pocket of my school blazer and took out a tissue, which I promptly dabbed against his stony cheeks. Fuck my life, Gail and Brian would flip if they saw him like this... “Come on,” I said, “we’re getting you a drink.”

  There was a little cafe around the corner from Lantern Row. A cozy spot that stayed open until eight, and we could spend a little time there until we had to head home for dinner.

  I bought a hot chocolate for myself (coffee tasted like unwashed ass), and a chocolate milkshake for Todd. He’d sat there for sometime, quietly slurping at the straw. He wasn’t crying anymore, at least.

  “You didn’t tell me kids were picking on you,” I said, sitting back. The metal of my chair creaked faintly. On the wall beside me was a framed photo of Raptor gliding through the night sky, his body in silhouette from a lightning bolt flashing behind him.

  “It... only started recently,” Todd mumbled. “I mean... them following me around to pick on me. Th-there’s always people with... mean stuff to say about how I look. B-but... They followed me home this time.”

  I sighed. Being an Apex could be a hard thing for some people. Not everyone got powers from it, some folks just ended up looking strange. Spurned by ‘normal’ people.

  “And you didn’t say anything... do anything because you didn’t wanna cause trouble? Didn’t want to rock the boat?” I asked.

  “I thought... Gail would be mad... if I was... causing trouble for her.”

  Oh Gail would be mad alright, but only at the parents of Todd’s bullies. “You gotta be willing to stick up for yourself, Todd. I’m not always gonna be around to protect you.”

  “But-”

  “You don’t want to use your powers. I get it. But Todd, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Threaten ‘em, flex those super muscles. You think Dauntless would let someone pick on him? Or Atlas? Or Sovereign? Or any of those others superheroes you’re always watching?”

  Todd frowned, stirring his milkshake with his straw. “I guess not,” he mumbled.

  “Look, you saw how quickly they folded. Threatening them would be all you need to make them back off.” Admittedly I didn’t feel great about beating up kids half my age. But how did the saying go? Talk shit, get hit? They got what they deserved and I could have done a lot worse.

  Suddenly he was smiling up at me. “You were so cool when you came in and saved me. You were like a superhero, Jess.”

  I snorted, helping myself to a long sip of coco. “Trust me,” I said, lightly smacking my lips. “I’m pretty far from being a superhero.”

  “But... you could be! You’d be so good at it!” He paused, and his eyes became alive with excitement. “Is tha why you’ve been sneaking around so m-”

  “Never mind what I do outside the house. Doesn’t matter,” I said firmly. Doubted the kid could keep his fucking mouth shut if he knew. I stared at him. “You feeling better?”

  “Yeah,” he said, smiling fondly. “Thanks, Sis.”

  I grimaced. Part of me wanted to tell him off. I wasn’t his damn sister. But... He’d already been a sobbing wreck earlier, and telling him as much would probably make him cry again, defeating the whole journey out here. “Yeah yeah,” I said, giving a dismissive wave. “Come on and drink up. We leave it much longer and Gail might start to worry.”

  What a pain this all was. And if those kids knew who I was, that me and Todd were foster siblings, then it was possible then I’d probably get an earful from Gail and Brian. Well, so what? I could deal with it.

  We finished our drinks and went home.

  Todd held my hand on the way back, and I guess I let him.