Blackthorn dropped the team near the gate, near Titanfist in his Punchman gangster suit and Lawful Goose in his warden costume. The HVP crew was getting ready by a big building, far away from the actual structure of the gate. The gate loomed in the golden light of the late afternoon, like grey and black towers with an arch connecting them. It was large enough to be called ‘kaiju sized’.

  The HVP crew were all bustling around like they didn’t know what was really going to happen.

  Mark saw people laughing, and he was about to talk with Titanfist and Lawful Goose, but JJ, the costumer, ran up to them, to talk to all of his team about costumes and ask them to come for a fitting.

  Mark said, “We’ll be there soon, JJ. Thank you.”

  Titanfist and Lawful Goose stood there, waiting to speak of things that should not be spoken of too loud.

  JJ knew something was up, as he looked from the superheroes to Mark and his team, so he decided not to push anything. He said, “Whenever you get a chance. I’m glad you showed up early but there is always more we can do with costumes when we have the proper time to do them. Everyone always thinks we can just make these things…” He stopped himself there, judging that something was happening and that he should be elsewhere. “Catch you soon,” he said, hopefully, and then JJ walked back to the prep building.

  When he was far enough away—

  Lawful Goose said, “It’s too early in your relationship with your costumer for him to tell you like it is, so I will tell you: Do not treat him like he is the help. Apologize later. He’ll realize why you were curt with him after whatever goes down goes down, but that does not excuse bad manners. In fact, manners should be even better in times of great stress.”

  Titanfist said, “Lawful is a morality bastard. Ignore him. JJ is fine.” And then Titanfist said, “We’re trying to keep this all Under the Curtain but we expect big events, and soon. I might ask you for a weapon, Mark, if the one I have waiting for me near the gate isn’t close enough.”

  Mark easily said, “Sure.” He asked, “Do you two have experience with this sort of thing? Blackthorn told us that this is all sort of… happening across the world. But we didn’t get much more than that.”

  Titanfist shrugged. “It’s a major attack. It’ll be kaiju. Usually a place like Memphi wouldn’t rate a major offensive, but we have the gate, and the demons don’t like us messing with the Veil at all. That’s why the kaiju show during a gate opening. But fuck the demons.” Titanfist had deep, serious anger to him, as he softly said, “This is our world. Not theirs. Kill all monsters.”

  Lawful Goose nodded. “Kill all monsters.”

  Mark felt some amazing kind of way. And then he said, “Kill all monsters.”

  There was a moment.

  And then the moment gave way to normality.

  Lawful Goose said, “Nothing should happen until it all happens, so you four need to do final prep. Order something for delivery from a place you really like.” He looked to Mark. “Train with your new weapons and try not to think about how the city is probably going to sue you for monowire-based activity.”

  Mark grinned.

  Lawful Goose said, “Not a joke.”

  Mark chuckled. “I know.”

  Lawful Goose nodded.

  They kind of went their separate ways.

  Eliot said, “I’m ordering from that Nigerian place and getting lots of suya and jollof and whatever else you guys want.”

  “I want bread,” Sally said. “A lot of bread.”

  “Agege bread by the bucket,” Eliot said, nodding.

  “I want mexican,” Isoko said. “Quesadillas. Chicken and steak. Guacamole and salsa and chips.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Easily done,” Eliot said. “Mark?”

  “Whatever you guys are having is good by me. Just get a lot of it, and also dessert of some kind… Key lime pie.” Mark didn’t actually care for key lime pie, not really, but it felt like a good thing to get, if some place around here even made it. “I haven’t had that in a while.” And because everyone was looking at him with equal parts knowing and concern, Mark rapidly added, “And get some stuff for the viewing party at 9. Episode 3 airs in something like 4 hours and we’re going to be staying here for a while.”

  Eliot nodded, and then his mind was halfway elsewhere, his vector distant, as they all walked toward the production building.

  Isoko and Sally had their heads on swivels, looking at everyone, judging everything.

  The land around the gate was mostly empty, flat open space, except for the clump of buildings right here, and also over there. These buildings were the future airship terminal for ship and cargo and warehouse storage. The other buildings over there were the airship terminal for normal passengers. HVP was using one of the warehouse buildings because it was ready. The other buildings were partial skeletons.

  And people walked around, some laughing and drinking with each other, others inside the building focused on editing footage, while others debated scenes and scripts. Noel was in the center of it all, way up there in the middle of the main building, talking through his servitors about the show with a bunch of other people.

  With disbelief in her voice, Sally said, “They have no idea of the coming shitstorm.”

  Isoko said, “Some of them know. Those three Memphi Guard guys over there in the yellow and black are in full combat gear, and they know, but the gaffer walking by in the shorts and shirt does not know. Him and a lot of guys wonder why all the increased security, but they’re all explaining it to themselves as Collective interference, and they’re ignoring it.”

  Eliot came back— His flicked his eyes toward the gaffer, appalled. “Shorts and a shirt in the deep winter? There’s snow on the ground, man.” He wanted to change the subject.

  Mark grinned, and went along with the change. “Does the snow still bother you?”

  “Not at all! But it does mean I can wear nicer clothes without worrying about being too hot. Does the guy like shorts or something?”

  “I like shorts on guys,” Isoko said, grinning. “Legs are great.”

  Mark smiled… and then he said, “So I need to go play with my adamantium for a little while.”

  “Yeah yeah. Playing with yourself,” Isoko said. “Got it.”

  Sally grinned.

  Mark asked, “What are your plans right now?”

  “Hurry up and wait,” Sally said.

  Isoko nodded. “Same. Maybe watch you play with yourself if you don’t mind.”

  Mark snorted. “I wouldn’t mind sticking to the buddy system.”

  Eliot said, “Sentinel will be here shortly and I’m going to talk to him about a lot of neat stuff. We can stick to the room there—” Eliot pointed to a room at the side of the big building they were walking to, on the third floor. “It’s empty. You guys can stay out here in the snow if you want!”

  Sally said to Eliot, “I’m going with you.”

  “Sure! I mean… you can sit there and be bored.”

  Sally grinned. “Nothing new there.”

  And the team split, but just a little.

  Aurora had told them to stick together no matter what, but plans changed.

  And Mark got to ‘playing with himself’.

  He started off standing in the snow, kilometers from the gate, with Isoko watching, with three propellers of adamantium in his loose grip, one in the front and two in the back, like a tripod. He spun the one in front, and then he kinda let himself go, and suddenly the propeller spun a whole lot faster. A gentle breeze blew downward, brushing away the snow that had gathered on the ground in front of him. The pressure revealed simple concrete.

  And Mark was pushed backward, just a little.

  He grinned—

  Isoko called out, “You’re gonna have to do a lot more than that to get off of the ground!”

  Mark chuckled.

  Yeah. He would have to do a lot more than that.

  Over the next hour, Mark managed to carve into the ground accidentally, cut his shoes up, send chips of ice flying, and fall on the ground in many different ways. It was easy to hover off of the ground on caltrops, because the ground supported his weight. It was almost as easy to propeller himself out of water, and that was before he had gained this untethered speed. He’d need to see how good he could move in water now that he had been untethered.

  But air was an order of magnitude less dense than water, and this was…

  “Well this is just fucking difficult!” Mark said.

  Isoko said, “Break time anyway! Food drone is here.”

  “Ohh!” Mark said, whipping his attention back to the main building. A drone was coming in for a delivery, and Mark was hungry. “Break time.”