Annou"! Do it! It's fiiiine," Sonya hisses.

  Lillian pokes her head out of the door, "A-are you sure? I've never dohis kind of thing before."

  "Do it! Dooo iiiit!"

  Lillian steps out into the room and brushes her hair over her ear before clearihroat, "H-hey heroes and vilins! Lillian aka Crusader here! Uh... o meet you! Thank you for reading Broker!" she bows quickly before pnting her hands on her hips and straightening her shoulders, "Right! So uh... oh! Thanks so much for the questions! You guys have plenty of time to ask more before the deadline! We'll keep doing this until then a you know when it's the st day!"

  She scratches her ned gnces over her shoulder, "Sonya do I have to-"

  "Doooo iiiiiiiit!"

  Lillias out a weary sigh before striking a pose, g one arm on her bicep and flexing, "So keep 'em ing! I'm looking forward to reading them when I help co-host!" she turns and darts bato the door, "Sonya! That was so awkward! Stop ughing! Did you make me do that to- ugh!"

  Sonya watched out the window of her office as Lillian and Annabelle left to go have dinner and talk more. The woman had immediately seen a bit of her brother in the young hero which wasn’t a surprise. Sonya wondered if a little bit of Nick had actually passed on through the ability that was given to Lillian as part of the merger into Fenghuang. It was an absurd notion, but ohat had cropped up a few times in her musings about the nature of instincts. She shook her head and dismissed the more plex thoughts, they weren’t necessary right now and would be more of a distra than anything else.

  It seems like you’re rec well, Ishtar said, You seem mrounded.

  “Cass’ little impromptu breakfast party helped,” Sonya said absently, reag up to touch the gss of the window. She saw two refles in it, one her own and the other a woman that looked like her but was distin her own way. She was leaougher, with scars on her fad a hard look in her eyes. “It seems like you’re being more you.”

  The refle frowhat is not something to be happy about.

  “I don’t know, I kind of like having you around,” Sonya said with a small smile, “You give me perspective.”

  A perspective you should have on your own, Ishtar insisted, crossing her arms in the refle, What happens the ime I push your limits while at the helm? Will you drift off into a a?

  “I just dozed a little,” Sonya said dismissively, “It wasn’t that big a deal.”

  You didn’t feel it on my end, Ishtar said, the refle suddenly looking forlorn, a sadness in her eyes that Sonya had never imagined could be on the cold woman’s face, even if she’d only seen it once before. She knew Ishtar. Regret was antithetical to who she was, it was the point, how she’d e to be. I am like a parasite to you, Sonya. I’m hurting you. If what we were existed in a normal human body I doubt it would be so problematic, but something about our bined abilities is not healthy for you. I promised I would never hurt you and here I am breaking that promise by existing.

  Sonya frowned and reached up to touch her refle, “Don’t say that. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have made it this far. Ever sihat day when you started to take shape you’ve been taking the weight off. I’m not blind to it. I know. I appreciate it.”

  Ishtar looked away with shame, It was the least I could do. The refle gnced up and Sonya felt it as well. I think we’ll have to table this talk for now. You are a busy woman after all.

  “You don’t want to take this?” Sonya asked.

  I… Ishtar trailed off, I would prefer to a an advisory role for now.

  “Ishtar,” Sonya said softly, “You don’t have to-”

  A knock came to the door and Ishtar’s refle faded from the gss. Sonya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She turned and gracefully sat down in her seat, leaning bad crossing her legs. “Enter,” she said cooly and the door opened. A young man in a bd white suit entered. He was of asian dest, Korean, with steely gray-blue eyes and short bck hair. His face was a bit unfamiliar, ged just enough to hide his true identity. He closed the door behind him and strode up to her desk, ining his head.

  “I am here, mistress,” Bckrazor said.

  Sonya graced him with an easy smile aured to the chair across from her, “It’s good to see you, dear. It’s been a while.”

  “My role keeps me busy,” he said, slipping into the chair, “I have made a point to take time off as you have instructed. This has been positive for my uanding of my partners wants and needs as exhausting as they are. This is not without its positives, of course.”

  She snorted and raised an eyebrow, “You get tired?”

  He made a face, “You might be surprised.”

  She ughed and shook her head, tapping her finger on the desk, “I’ll take that as things have been going well for you too, I’m happy for you,” she said with a smile befoing serious, “Let’s talk elsewhere. I have some other things I o check up on and having you with me would be advantageous.”

  “Are we taking one of your portals?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Sonya said.

  “Then I will enter your shadow. I have found that traversing your portals in physical form is disorienting for me for some reason. An inpatibility between our powers, I suspect,” he said thoughtfully, “While in the realm of shadows I feel no such problems.”

  Sonya nodded and reached out to tap the inter for the secretary desk, “Marta hold my calls and turn away any visitors,” she said as the windows arouinted into opaqueness. A moment ter, Bckrazor melted before her, turning into a puddle of inky bess and sliding across the ground to meld with her shadow.

  “Yes ma’am,” Marta’s voice came back through the speaker, “I’ll clear your appois as well.”

  “Thank you,” Sonya said before frowning a little, “I-”

  “It’s fine,” Marta said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry about it.”

  Sonya smiled and got to her feet, gesturing at an open spa her office. A sheet of light took form before being solid like a gss pahe interior distended before ing into an uling refle of the world around it that bottomed out into an apparently endless void. She strode through it and out the other end. Unlike Bckrazor arently didn’t enjoy the feeling of going through a portal, Sonya found the process exhirating. She smiled to herself as she took iificially fresh air of her destination.

  Sonya was standing in a spacious room with white walls and intense lights hanging over her head. She could feel the mana in the air being pulled and moved cyclically, excess energy being drawn away from pces where it was densing and down to a point far beh her feet. There was a wide desk in the room with a number of ss behind it all in a state of inactivity. She crossed her arms behind her back as Bckrazor slipped out of her shadow, rising from the ground like something out of a nightmare. He took shape befng at the single door in the room with a frown.

  The door opened with a hiss and a young man walked in, whistling to himself as he wheeled a ing tray into the space. He paused, blinking at the sight of Sonya and Bckrazor standing there. Sonya gave him a sweet smile, “Adam, right?” she said politely, reading his h her ocur ability, “Go get your boss for me, if you wouldn’t mind?”

  –

  The be of having as one of her inner circle was being able to produents that could be used in pce of her broker ability. That allowed her to make deals with others without being physically present. There were dramatic uses for it, certainly, but the more pelling fun to her was the practical application. Every member of Kingshark’s crew had signed a non-disclosure about the identities of the Inner Circle in case they actally happened upon one of them who kept their identities hidden. For the portion of the crew that mahe base in the Marianas trench, her appearance didn’t really surprise anyone. Sonya enjoyed being able to walk around the pce with impunity.

  “It’s one hell of an evil ir,” Sonya said with a ugh as she, Bckrazor, and Kingshark walked down the halls, “You guys did a good job finishing things up.”

  “Still got more work to do but the structure itself is finished,” Kingshark said.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t try to build it in the shape of your head, mistress,” Bckrazor ented, getting a look from both Kingshark and Sonya. Bckrazor frowned, “What?”

  Sonya ughed, “I suppose that would be a very supervilin thing to do.”

  “You’re not a ic book character,” Kingshark pointed out, barely hiding his grin, “You don’t even have a weather mae.”

  Sonya cpped her hands together, “Oh! I do need one of those don’t I? That or a shrink ray.”

  “Does that digitizing ability of yours not defeat the purpose of a shrink ray?” Bckrazor asked.

  Sonya rounded on him and waggled a finger, “Don’t disregard the cssics! Besides, if I digitize something big how am I supposed to put it on dispy? Have a pretty picture of it on a s? That’s not impressive. It’s gotta go into a trophy room that the heroes stumble into and are aghast at the extent of my crimes.”

  Kingshark barked out a ugh, “I like the sound of that! You should go around stealing mos or something. Get them real wound up.”

  “I’ll get to that,” Sonya said, “I want to deal with the idiots actively trying to throw the world into chaos before I do it myself. In a trolled manner of course, I’m not pnning on running around trying to set off dungeons.”

  Kingshark blinked and looked at her, “Woah, you’re serious?”

  Sonya smirked at him, “I’ve been thinking about what to do after we deal with Liberty. Most of the other heralds are out in the open besides Majordomo. They’ve taken up roles as heroes and be monitored and mao a degree. Craftsman seems more like the type to join a bandwagon rather than strike out on his own. Once Liberty is dealt with Ishtar properly make her mark on the publisciousness.”

  “I would argue you’ve dohat already,” Bckrazor pointed out.

  “Oh I’m far from done,” Sonya said as they desded a stairway, she g Bckrazor, “Have you got anything more about Halloway?”

  “Little more than I have already provided, unfortunately. He went by Rift after awakening and used his spatial abilities for assassination. It seems that Liberty’s ability to amplify ht-touched powers has given him the capacity to shut down teleportation as well as create portals. She’s been sending him oions that require a low profile,” Bckrazor said, “That is what I wao discuss with you. Liberty is on the move.”

  Sonya frowned, “Already? She just started turtling up.”

  “The woman is powerful but cks a siderable amount of patience,” Bckrazor said ftly.

  “No kidding,” Sonya said and shook her head, “That’ll be her downfall, though not without heavy casualties. What do we know about what she’s pnning?”

  “She’s been sending people into dungeons withierritory equipped with unusual hardware, I believe this may be equipment developed by this ‘Craftsman’ you mentioned. I have nothing on him, I’m afraid,” Bckrazor said.

  “Try following up on Graham Taylor, that’s his real name apparently.”

  Bckrazor nodded, “I will do that.”

  “Do we know anything else?” Sonya pressed, exging a look with Kingshark as they arrived at a rge pair of doors. He put his hand against a panel and it fshed green

  “I’m afraid not, though whatever it is involves the research she is doing iher dungeons. She’s being exceedingly cautious and my people have not been able to ihemselves into the teams dug these dungeon runs. It’s shameful,” Bckrazor said with a shake of his head.

  “I’m beginning to suspect that her ability allows her followers tnize one another, it’s the only expnation I e up with for how easily they’re notig spies,” Sonya said.

  Bckrazor rubbed his , “Something worth sidering. I have some angles I approach if that is the case,” he opened his mouth to tinue speaking but trailed off as the doors in front of them slid open. His eyes went wide as they all took in the massive chamber that waited for them. Thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands e oval shaped objects sat in rows within the space. Each oval tained a faint glow that sent an itto the back of one's mind if they stared too long at it. Bckrazor strode forward in silend rested his hands on the rail overlooking the room. He turned back to look between Sonya and Kingshark with awe in his eyes.

  “You’ve been busy,” Sonya ented as she walked up to stao Bckrazor.

  “Ayep!” Kingshark guffawed, leaning against the rails, “It’s taken a while to get so many of them here. They’re all volunteers of course who wao gh the process. Many of them have a vested i in what I’ve got pnned.”

  Bckrazor turo him, “What you have pnned?”

  Kingshark held a finger up to his lips, “That’s a surprise, brother, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the show when it es up. Trust me.”

  “As long as it achieves the aim,” Sonya said with a chuckle and spped Kingshark on the arm, “You be as cryptic as you want. You’re certainly a king now, though, aren’t you?”

  “You think that’s impressive?” Kingshark said aured for them to follow him. They looked at one another as he made his way dowwalk overlooking the eerie se before stopping at one end. Sonya froze, her eyes going wide as she took in an absolutely massive glowing pod, a small figure was floating i. She blinked a few times and squi the person within before looking up at him, “Is that-”

  “The kraken dude, yeah,” Kingshark said.

  “Is this why this base was built?” Bckrazor asked.

  “It’s one of the reasons, sure,” Sonya said, “Building an army with the help of Kingshark’s improved ability. We were going to do it anyway with his inal ability but apparently this new version has some iing funs,” she added and g Kingshark who nodded.

  “Of course the main reason this pce exists is the safehouse for us and a pce where our boy Amos follow his less than legal researterests,” Kingshark chuckled, “Speakin’ of which,” he turo Sonya, “I think we might o set up a dummy base somewhere, boss. This pce is getting some attention and the chatter we’re pig up suggests they think it’s yours. Any ideas?”

  Sonya pursed her lips for a moment before brightening, “Actually, I have a marvelous idea!” she said with a ugh aured to her left where a portal appeared. For a brief moment the trio felt a gust of cold wind roll out of the portal from the other side. Bckrazor and Kingshark exged a look before looking at Sonya who ractically bubbling with excitement. She heir ed expressions, “Oh don’t be like that, it’s not going to be in the shape of my head or anything,” she paused, “...maybe. I’ll think about it,” she said and squi the portal, “Could I do that?”

  She shook her head, “Nevermind,” she said with a grin and skipped forward to stao the portal, “Shall we, gentlemen?”