“Presents?” Firestorm asked, an obvious look of fusion on his face. The others looked equally fused, clearly they didn’t remember the versation they’d had the night before the Senate Hearing, that was okay as far as Sonya was ed. It retty rough day they’d gohrough after that.

  Sonya put her hands on her hips and threw her head ba a cocky ugh, “Ho ho ho! You didn’t think I would let you guys go to the Hero Day lising without something o wear, did you? I’m pnning on iing in you four after all!” She said and pat the packages, pulling the first one off the top and gng at the stiote with the chalice doodled on it. It had Firestorm’s name on it. She hahe box over to him and he looked down at it with furrowed brows.

  “Something to wear…?” He murmured and opehe box. His eyes went wide and the others hurried over to look ihere was a carefully folded form-fitting hero suit, like many in id and media it was desigo fit the entire body as one piece, boots and all. He exami carefully, the off-red design had e lines on the shoulders that formed sweeping patterned pauldrons. There was even a cowl to ceal his face while letting his hair e out the top. He rubbed the material between his fingers. “It’s… light.”

  “Monster skied by a patented process,” Sonya said cutely with her fio her nose and a small wink, “This one has been desigo be utterly fireproof up to the temperatures measured at one of your st fights. This outfit should be able to hahe big stuff you throw out and is quite bulletproof.”

  He looked down at the suit again, sweat beading on his brow, “Woah…”

  “It’s only the prototype, we’re w on somethier but that all depends on you!” Sonya said with a grin and leaned back against the desk.

  He looked up at her a her eyes, “What do you mean?”

  “Like I said, I want to i in you four,” Sonya said, spreading her arms wide to gesture to the four of them, “By that, I mean I want to sponsor you.”

  “Sponsor us?” Bandit asked, “What, like a racecar driver?” He asked incredulously.

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” Sonya said with a wink and a grin, drawing a startled look from Bandit who looked at the others in eveer fusion. “I’m a businesswoman, young heroes, and while I have a vested i in saving humanity I also need moo keep doing business and making the tools you o succeed,” She said with a small chuckle, “I io create ercial items using the teology derived from the materials we gain from monsters,” She expined, “And what better way to advertise my busihan by having heroes use my products and represent me?”

  Firestorm frowned and opened his mouth but Bluestar cut him off by stepping forward, “So you aren’t pnning on giving us orders or anything, you just want us to do our job well and make you look good. In exge we get the best gear without even having to pay for it.”

  I really like this girl, Sonya grinned, “I knew you’d make a good guildmaster.”

  They looked amongst themselves but Lifesaver was the first to speak up, “I’m in.”

  It didn’t take long for the other three to follow suit, but Firestorm still looked a little uneasy. He rubbed his ned looked at Sonya, “Did you… want to shake on it?” He said carefully.

  This boy, saying a little too much isn’t he? I should have been more clear oerms of our st deal, that was my mistake. Maybe I should exert more trol over him, I don’t want him pieg together my alter ego. She g the others and measured their reas, none of them seemed curious, more just a little fused about his rather direct question. Sonya held up her hands and shook her head, “I think a paper tract will work just fine, unless you want to,” She said with a ugh.

  He let out a sigh of relief, Tch, what a shitty poker face, she grumbled.

  “Let’s have a look at it,” He said brightly, his eyes sparkling with unbridled faith and trust.

  She wao groan, He is so simple it hurts.

  “We’ll hash out the details verbally for now,” Sonya said, “I want to write up the tract based on what we talk about,” She said and o the chairs in front of her desk, “Let’s talk.”

  They nodded and walked over as she turned away, walking past the other boxes. She kept her expression as trolled as possible, Now it’s time for an experiment. If this works, I’ll o do some hiring.

  –

  Beyol crouched on top of the building, peering over the edge. His binocurs were trained on the side of the building. He took a bite of jerky and frowned, he’d been sitting here for hours with no sign of his target. He lowered the binocurs and looked out over the facility. There were dozens of drones moving in the air, all of them carefully watg every angle of approach. Darkness would help him but it wouldn’t be perfect. The numbers of guards weren’t terrible but it was still a bit on the challenging side if he was being ho with himself.

  His expression tensed, If I were still a normal human, that is.

  Movement and a fsh of color caught his attention and he brought his binocurs back up, peering down at the entrahe first to step out was a man in a red jumpsuit of some kind, he looked like he ulled straight from a ic book. The was a woman in a blue and bck gown that seemed to be embedded with jewels he’d never seen before in his life. After her was a youth with a hood pulled close over his head and a dark mask on his face, there was some sort of device attached to his wrist. The wo wore all white, one was a man in a long coat and what could only be a pgue doctor’s mask. Tacky, he thought before turning his attention to the st person.

  There you are…

  Sonya ovna stepped out of the building and shortly after her, her maid stepped out as well. I’m guessing those four are heroes given their ridiculous es, He thought. He watched them all get into a limousine, joined by a pair of armed guards and a suit-wearing driver. It was quite the detail around Sonya. Now clearly isn’t the time, he groused and stood up, turning around and freezing in pce. What?

  Behind him stood a man in a fitted suit and sungsses, he was huge, at least a head and a half taller than Beyol himself. More notable was the shark tattoo on his neck. He looked like he was grinding something together inside of his right hand, it sounded like rocks.

  “One of Shark’s men,” Beyol growled.

  “You must be the hitman who killed my boys,” The man grunted, “I’m Trigger.”

  “Don’t care,” Beyol said, “Get out of my way.”

  “No do, the boss is pretty pissed about you going around killing people on his turf, kid,” Trigger said and cracked a smile, “I wonder what kind of reward I’ll get fing him your head.”

  Beyol cut an opening and drew blood with a quient, silver fshing through the air. A trio of knives hurtled across the distan an instant. Trigger grinned and dropped low, throwing out his right hand and flig out one of the pebbles he was holding. It hurtled across the dista terrible speed. Beyol clicked his tongue and darted to the right, rolling out of the way at the bullet like objebsp;

  BOOM!

  The pebble exploded just a few feet behind Beyol, sending him hurtling forward. He tucked and rolled, grimag as he got back to his feet and began to race towards the edge of the building overlooking the rooftop. He’d have to jump the gap to get away from this bastard.

  BOOM!

  Another bst went off ahead of him, he slid to a stop and turo look at Trigger who was sneering at him. Beyol frowhis guy is way more powerful tha group, they were his men, huh? A lieutenant then. Beyol’s eye twitched, First small fries, than the stage up, this Shark asshole is taking my measure! Shouts rang out down below and a sudden chill raced up Beyol’s spine. Worse, he sent the noisiest guy he could think of and started a fight in broad daylight! The look on Beyols face must have spoken volumes, because Trigger gri him.

  “You’re qui the uptake, ain’tcha?” Trigger ughed.

  “You’re not worried about being caught?” Beyol asked, his metal blood ref behind the guy and rising up as knives again. More seeped out of his wound on his wrist and began to spread thinly across his skin.

  Trigger shrugged, “That’s an expected possible oute that we’ve pnned for.”

  He wants to get caught? Why? What the hell are these vilins thinking? No, it doesn’t matter, this just means the only thing he has to lose is his life and these guys are fanatics. The worst kind of oppos. o hold back then.

  The metal spread down to Beyol’s fiips and turned into cws, he swiped once, drawing them across his ow in brutal arcs as the knives darted in from behind Trigger. Trigger grunted, one of them hitting before he realized what was happening. Blood poured from Beyol’s chest and was immediately repced by his heart. His steel blood had e with a built in regeive feature that replenished his blood as long as he had excess stamina. The result; silver blood running across his skin and clothes until a suit of gleaming armor formed.

  It’s not stealthy, but it does its job! He thought as he darted forward, cws outstretched as the three daggers zipped around in the air like s stabbing and slig at Trigger. Trigger sneered and swatted one away only for it to explode a moment ter, sending a shockwave out that would have knocked Beyol off his feet if he wasn’t in his armor and already gaining momentum. The explosive force is based on the mass of the objeoted.

  He lunged, darting in low for a moment before kig off the ground and going high. Trigger swatted his hands down towards the ground just as Beyol gouged four lines across his shoulder with his cws. Trigger grunted and spun, trying to nd a punch but Beyol threw his weight into his momentum using his telekiitrol over the metal on his body. He missed it by a hair, nding and skidding before darting back at Trigger. He only cause explosions with his hands. This should be simple enough then.

  More daggers appeared in his hands as one lodged itself in Trigger’s shoulder. Trigger grunted and grabbed the on, snarling and throwing it at Beyol. Beyol threw himself to the right and tinued around towards Trigger’s back. Got you!

  Just as Beyol luo finish the man off by skewering his throat, sirens approached followed by a sudden burst of bckish-gray mist at Trigger’s feet. It ed around the big man like a co before being abruptly pulled away towards one of the other buildings. Beyol’s eyes bulged, There were two?! He snarled and turned in the dire that the co had gohere, across the gap, Trigger was standing with his middle finger raised before hurrying off with another mao him.

  It would have been an easy fight if… no, no excuses, I’ve been zy. He drew his blood bato his body a a moment of dysphoria as an excessive amount of blood entered his system. He grunted and spat, pulling the excess out as a sword and stabbing it into the ground with an irritated snarl. For now, I o get out of here. After I’m doh that ovna woman, I’m ing for you Shark.

  –

  Feng Hyunh strode down the hall away from the test corpse her fiance had left behind. This was the third oly and it was beginning to bee a problem. He was too unstable, how oh had she been paired off with this man? Even worse, she still kind of liked him. She hated the fact that marrying him was the only path to power she had outside of striking out on her own, the Da Mau was not going to tolerate having a Matriarch with their backwards thinking. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, If I do nothing, I’ll end up dead one of these days. His powers are growing every day.

  She gnced down at her hands ahe amethyst light of her own abilities twirl around her fiips, It’s an option… I suppose, but who knows what effect it’ll have? I’ve only tested it on animals so far, they aren’t intelligent enough to demonstrate any real personality ge. If it’s too obvious I’ll be figured out.

  A crash rung out a few doors down and she stopped in pce, frowning at the door where a few sparks of electricity danced around the handles. Her eyes narrowed, I don’t think I have a choice, do I? One of these days he’s going to blow a city block or something, that would be inve for me.

  She sighed, He’s on guard right now, I ’t do it now. But soon I’ll have an opening, She thought as she approached the door and came to a stop.

  “Duang, darling, is something wrong?” She called through the door.

  There was a moments pause before the door opened aood over her, looking down at her with fury in his eyes. Sparks were dang off of his pupils and there was evericity in his hair. He was breathing hard as he searched her face, it was like he couldn’t figure out who she was for a moment. She nearly took a step back before he rexed a out a sigh, “It’s nothing… just blowing off some steam,” He clipped and pushed past her, “I’m going to bed.”

  She watched him go befng into the ruined room he’d left behind. It o be soon.

  TheBroker