The flickering of the portal intensified, the pylons glowing brighter and brighter. Every time she saw a tiny wisp of light drift away from the portal she felt her heart tighten just a little bit, only to be relieved when she reized it as nothing more than runoff. o her, standing as stalwart as ever, Marta watched the portal with a bit of trepidation. She felt her friend’s eyes on her and graced her with a small smile. “They’re fighting very hard,” She said quietly. If her eyes could twihey would have. Instead, they only clicked and whirred.

  Marta looked her way, “Are they?” She asked and looked back up. “Is that why you’re standing?”

  Sonya nodded, “Yes. It is,” She said and held her head high, “If they’re going to risk their lives for us, the least we do is stand for them.”

  Marta looked back, “You’re… not a very good vilin, sometimes,” She said quietly, only loud enough for Sonya to hear with her enhanced senses.

  Sonya chuckled and looked down, smiling demurely, “I suppose you’re right,” She said, just as the portal fshed with a brilliant light. Nearby, Amos let out a shout of arm and stumbled away from the portal, c his head. “It’s fine Amos!” She called out to him before turning her eyes on four shapes that staggered out into reality from the bloom of light. Behind them, the portal shuddered, shimmered, and slowly began to colpse in on itself. The pylons dimmed, and then faded baple stone.

  Bluestar was cradled in Lifesaver’s arms, awake, but she didn’t look like she was in any dition to stand. Firestorm was slumped over a bewildered looking Bandit’s shoulder. Behind them was peared to be a trunk of some kind. The four of them stood in the darkening room looking more than a little dumbfouheir eyes wide as they looked around as if trying to figure out what had just happeo them. They finally saw Sonya, standing, waiting for them.

  They look just like you did, the first time, how cute. She thought and couldn’t help herself. She opened her arms and greeted them with the warmest smile she could manage, “Wele back, Heroes.”

  Firestorm coughed ond looked up, grinning o Bandit before meeting her gaze. “We’re back.”

  Sonya heard Marta let out a sigh of relief as Amos nearly bounced about, admiring one of the ss on his equipment. “It’s dispersing! It’s really dispersing! Mana levels dropping! Not just here! City wide! Monster appearances are going to drop like crazy! You guys really did it!”

  Sonya ughed and walked over to the heroes. Bluestar got gingerly to her feet and Lifesaver took a moment to heal her a little more. She looked up at Sonya who quickly pulled her into a hug before reag over and pulling the other three in as well. They looked at one another in surprise before returning the embrace. Sonya pulled away and Bluestar cleared her throat, “We should start the debriefing as soon as- eep!” She gasped when Sonya put a fio her lips and gri her.

  “Tut tut! I won’t hear it, you four are getting some rest and a heroes dinner, nuing,” She said and then turned away with a flourish. “We do a proper debriefing when we have time. For now, you did your job, now it’s time for me to do mine!” She announced and cleared her throat, whipping her pho dramatically.

  “Amos! I want a full write up a on all data obtained from the portal!” She anded.

  “On it!”

  “Marta! Get our medical team down here and give the heroes a full check up. I’m sure Lifesaver is fi he should get checked out just in case. Help him do any additional treatments.”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  She tapped a number in on her phone and held it up to her ear. “I need a press ference scheduled for two days from now. Worldwide broadcast.” She hung up and dialed another number, “Chairman! I seem to have missed a few calls from you! How are you dear?” She ughed a walking towards the exit, “Oh I know I know, I’m so much trouble,” She snorted, “I have some very iing information for you dear. I’ll give you a full briefing in a few days once we’ve collected the data. Why don’t you e to New York, we’ll have a grand time.”

  She hung up and turo a few aides, “The heroes brought bae trophies it looks like, help them carry it out of the building a to headquarters. We’ll need a pce to store it.”

  The aides blinked rapidly before nodding, “Yes! Of course!”

  She grio herself, in her element, and tapped o number in on her phone, she held it up to her ear, “Ah, hello, This is Sonya ovna, I’d like to make a reservation tonight for a private dinner. Party of eight. I’m sure you make something happen, dear,” She tittered, “What’s your name by the way? You sound cute, could I ask you to host us?”

  Behind her, Firestorm and the rest of his bedraggled party just stood there and gaped.

  –

  “Oh I wish you could have seen it! It was amazing!” Firestorm enthused, gesturing wildly as they sat around the table together. They were sitting at a long table at a luxurious restaurant, the atmosphere was beyond refined, but they had the good fortune of being in a private room so they could let their hair down a little. He and his team were all sitting on one side of the table with Sonya directly across from him. To her left was Marta and tht, Amos and .

  Sonya sipped her wine and beamed at the hero before turning to look at Bandit, “To think you figured out how to walk on ceilings like that. I seem to recall you struggling to do more than g to them just a little while ago. That’s some explosive growth, dear.”

  Bandit who was clearly regretting not having his hood to cover his face, flushed furiously as he looked down into his gss. “It-it was no big deal…”

  “No big deal?” Firestorm tered, “Are you kidding, you’re the MVP of the dungeon! Sure, my fire power helped, but man, you saved Bluestar twid got my ass out of the fire more times than I t, and eve the final blow on the boss! You were amazing!”

  Bandit seemed to shrink more and more as the praise kept mounting until he finally let out a growl, drained his gss in one gulp, and coughed. “Alright, fine! Yeah! I am pretty awesome!” He decred, wiping his lips.

  “Please don’t get drunk,” Bluestar said with a sigh, shaking her head.

  “I’m fine! S’no problem! I killed a twenty-foot tall demon!” Bandit shouted, throwing his fists into the air.

  “I thought it was fifteen,” asked from across from him, resting his on his palm and giving Bandit an amused look.

  Bandit blinked a his gaze before clearing his throat again, “R-right, fifteen, s’what I said. Right? No? Shit…” He rubbed his head.

  gave Amos a sidelong look and gri him a little. “Maybe you should send some drones in with them ime, to get some proper measurements. Wouldn’t want incorrect data, right?” He suggested. “You know, men and measurements.”

  Amos frowned a his expression still, not looking at the coy wyer. “I trust the inal report from Firestorm,” He said ftly, ign the off-color remark.

  Sonya raised an eyebrow in their dire. That was iing, had they even properly met before this dinner? I don’t recall introdug them. She decided to let it go, she’d interrogate Amos ter about it. She gnced over at the heroes celebrating their victory and couldn’t help but find the whole situation amusing. Firestorm, Bluestar, Lifesaver, and Bandit. The first for heroes of the ASTA guild sitting across from Ishtar and her inner circle. It was almost ughable.

  “So how did you find that thing anyway? Those images you showed us in the briefing,” Bluestar finally asked, leaning forward to get the versation in a more sensible dire.

  Sonya opened her mouth to speak but Amos cut in almost hurriedly. She gnced ain and spotted a small bit of annoyan ’s face. Okay, definitely getting an interrogation ter.

  “It was a natural step up from the ability detectors,” Amos expined, “They check to see if there is active mana inside a person’s body. The energy that we naturally draw in and gee to let our powers work,” He tapped his finger oable. “During an experiment I picked up a fairly signifit amount in the air and developed what amounts to a she doppler radar.”

  Bluestar looked flummoxed for a moment, “That’s… amazing.”

  He grinned, “Isn’t it?” He said proudly before carrying on, “We were able to see a moake form iime, they’re basically just masses of mana that have gathered in one pce. That’s what the portal and dungeooo, just on a far bigger scale.”

  Firestorm looked up, “You see a monster f? Doesn’t that mean you have a pretty good idea when and where one might take shape?”

  Amos gnced his way, he looked almost impressed. Sonya knew Amos didn’t have aly high opinion of Firestorm, he’d muttered ‘himbo’ at least once before but she’d opted to ig. Amos nodded slowly, “That’s right, but it’s more like predig a tornado. All the ingredients are present for a monster f but that doesn’t mean it will, only that the ces grow increasingly high.”

  “You should make an app,” Firestorm said quickly, leaning forward with a bright look in his eyes. Amos was taken abad even Sonya ghe hero’s way with a bit of fusion on her face, “I’m serious. Imagine if all of us heroes had a monster warning system. We could kly where to patrol instead of spending all day in pointless wandering. Could even add a dungeon monitor or something, no wait, listen! I’m just saying-” He seemed to be babbling, worried that the distant look in Amos’ eyes was a sign of ck of i.

  Quite the trary, Sonya thought.

  She gnced over at who’s passively amused expression had turned serious. He met her gaze. Both of them had the same thought. Most apps have an end user lise agreement, don't they? Would that work?

  –

  The Chairman rubbed his head, he hadn’t expected to get a return call from that woman. Especially one admitting she’d been up to something. Even more so that she was willing to e and share her findings with him now that her research was plete. It erplexing, but not unwele. She had made it clear that she waheir w retionship to be a rgely positive oer the debacle involving his admitted attempt to undermine her intellectual property rights.

  Had he misjudged her? Was she simply etric? Okay, very etric, but he didn’t mind etric. Most of the truly powerful people were remarkably strange in their own ways. He’d learhat through his rise to power.

  What had been more ued, though, was that she’d called him while he’d been away from headquarters and visiting home. The series of events following that had left him not only fused about her, but about everything as a whole. His son and his fiance had been in the room when she’d called and they’d insisted on ing to visit. He’d been proud of his son before, as any good parent should, but even more so when he’d found his son’s reasoning not only to be sound, but remarkably mature.

  He gnced over at his son’s fiance, Feng Hyunh for the upteenth time sihey’d gotten on the private jet and regarded her thoughtfully. He had wondered a little more than once about whether or not she was a suitable partner for his boy. While she was well ected with a powerful underworld syndicate and by extension their political allies, she had always e across as more demure and overly polite than anything else. Yet somehow, some way, she had man in his son’s rather abrasive disposition.

  That alone had signifitly raised her value in his eyes.

  She returned his gaze and graced him with one of her easy smiles, her purplish eye sparkling a little. “Is everything alright, Chairman?” She asked, her hands in her p.

  He blinked, realizing he’d been staring a bit lohan he’d inteo and cleared his throat, “Not at all, miss Feng, and please, feel free to call me father,” He said into his fist, looking back down at the dots oray he’d pulled out to give him space to tinue his work.

  “I’ll remember to do that, Father,” she said politely, that easy smile never leaving her face.

  He gnced up at his son, “You’re a very lucky man, son.”

  Duong had been staring out the window, his expression thoughtful, paying little attention to the iion. Only when the Chairman spoke did he perk up and gn his father’s dire. He turned his head and looked at Hyunh, giving her a rexed smile and nodding. “I’d have to agree with you, Father. She has ged my life in more ways tha was her suggestion to form a pruild and have the state back it formally. The President was very happy with the arra.”

  The Chairman had of cotten most of the details surrounding the formation of the Vietnamese People’s Guild, but he hadn’t gotten all the information. Namely how Duong had mao vihe party to put so much bag behind his son. He knew nominally that his son owerful, he had an uanding of what the ‘Mythic-tier’ meant, but he himself was not light-touched and so couldn’t fully grasp the extent of what the boy was capable of.

  His son g him, “Will we really be able to meet Miss ovna during the visit?”

  The Chairman nodded, “Yes, you wao have a word with her?”

  Duong nodded, a bit sullen, “I have a lot to apologize for and I want to make sure that we’re on a better foot going forward.”

  The chairman smiled, perhaps, maybe, given the woman’s etriature, bygones could truly be bygones. He was looking forward to the meeting anyway. He hadn’t met her face to fad already khat she had some signifit bag in Europe. She seemed more amicable than before as well, so that lus. More importantly, whatever she’d discovered had been important enough that she’d actually takeo reach out to him. Whatever it was, it had to be groundbreaking.

  He gave his son a firm nod, “I’m looking forward to clearing everything up.”

  Duong smiled, showing his teeth a little, “As am I.”