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Even at his current altitude he could hear their confusion as they arrived on the scene. They had heard the Eagle’s sidekick scream for help being cut off by a crunch before the com line went dead. They had no clue what they headed into, just that Eagle needed help. Will raged against the chains in his mind that the doctor’s words had placed there, but he couldn’t shout out to tell them. They were there to save him from an untimely demise if they had to die to do it.And he couldn’t stop himself.He was going to kill them all.Panic washed over Will when all the heroes gathered in a tight defensive circle trying to locate the threat. He floated silently above them, watching and listening for a few more moments before neatly executing a tight turn. They were sitting ducks as Will crashed into the center of their formation. The sounds of the injured met his ears as he flew out of the crater in the middle of the heroes. His body hovered above the gaping teams, calm façade belaying the battle raging in his mind.Darting down, low and fast enough that the others barely had time to scatter, he snagged Leviathan by his ankles. Will spun in the air, Larry a giant living rock bat sending heroes flying to land in crumpled heaps on the ground that was coming alive with plants infused by Layla’s power. People who were nimble enough to dodge his swings quickly found themselves combating the razor vines that appeared out of the benign looking grass at Layla’s call. Will’s mind took a small hiatus trying to figure out what was under the lawn because as powerful as Layla was, she couldn’t mutate plants that much.He released Larry with an extra hard swing and the rock man cleared some serious distance before colliding with a building that Will hoped was relatively empty. The dust cloud hadn’t finished rising when he rounded on the regrouping heroes. Looking over the gaping heroes he wished there were more of them, or that they had any real fire power.Then the Saving Grace landed, and Will wanted to cry as Magenta jumped out.They saved lives, but were useless in a fight. But one of those psychics might feel something.Maybe they’ll be able to fix me and Layla. *****When Warren got on the scene of the latest World-is-Ending level disaster with his team, the situation seemed to have already hit the ‘We’re in Hell’ level of badness.“Park us by the Med Units,” he pointed the landing zone he wanted to Frost and she nodded, maneuvering the Artturioan battleship they had just hijacked to get home with to the ground. Elizabeth Dawson couldn’t beat him in fight, but when it came to piloting and strip poker he fully admitted her superiority. “Inferno, all Super lines are too chaotic to pick up anything, but civilian lines are reporting heavy casualties arriving at the nearest hospital,” said to Salem who was one step ahead of him on the way out of the cockpit. Connie Flay was a powerful witch and a communications expert; the fact that they had just flown a known hostile race’s ship unharmed into Earth’s atmosphere was testament to both her skill and the chaos this event was causing. Even he knew the defense grid’s current watcher should have done more then ask for current codes (that Will had given to Warren under the table) and tell them to get to Trinity Base ASAP.“Sagacity, give me a read.” He called as he landed on the cargo bay floor. The slim brunette closed his eyes for a moment before his brown eyes met Warren’s. “All I’m picking up is death, pain, and begging for forgiveness. They’re too intense to pin point anything else.” Warren couldn’t help but get a little more worried. Max Gorgetto’s power was weird, kind of a mix of clairvoyance, precognition and empathy, but it was very strong. Anything strong enough, especially bad things like that, to cloud his senses was not a good sign.“They must have really messed up.” Beth echoed his thoughts as she dropped down from the cockpit to Warren’s right. He nodded to his girlfriend and she went to open the bay doors. “I can’t wait to laugh in their faces.”“Beth,” he started.“I know, no rubbing it in how pathetic they are.” He glared at her.“Echo, stick close to Ringer. Deaths make heroes jumpy.” Ringer nodded, his dreads falling into his eyes and Echo didn’t even acknowledge him, eyes focused on the ground. William Laneaous, younger brother of Penny Laneaous. Except for his power he was nothing like his big sister. To sound cliché, Mildred Connor could talk to spirits, living and dead. She’d need the support if someone took issue with her speaking to a recently departed friend.Psych, Vanessa Rawllins, could create illusions and Mason, Richard Fairview, who controlled his body’s density and mass rounded out the team.His Infamy was the best of the fringe. Called vigilante on a good day, they were all exceptionally skilled, willing to go into suicidal situations, and fiercely loyal. There were very few other people that Warren would be willing to walk, much less hurry like now, into Hell side-by-side with.Warren’s gaze darted about until it landed on a familiar head of purple streaked hair wearing one of the x-ray goggles that they used to path out internal injuries or something. “Magenta!”The shifter looked up briefly from where she was holding someone’s internal organs in and spotted him. She motioned with her head for him to come into the hectic area. The rest of the team hung back as he and Beth darted through the triage area to Magenta’s side. Beth triggered her earpiece so that the rest of the team would be able to hear the conversation.“What’s going on furball? We just landed from two weeks in space and we haven’t heard a clear story.”“Not surprising, give me that sterilizing ray.” Warren pulled the ray from the pile just out of Magenta’s reach and handed it over.“Where are your usual gophers?” He looked around for one of the nurses that were always hovering around Magenta. “I have them working with the evac crews, we need people to be alive when they get to us to be able to help them.” “Evac crews are trained EMTs. What could be creating so many casualties that they need help?” Magenta’s eyes narrowed as she handed the ray back to Warren and he grimaced at the blood that got on his gloves. “Eagle and Gaia, mostly.”“What about them?” He said as he handed her a cell regenerator, making sure not to touch her blood covered latex gloves again, armored gloves were expensive.“They did this.” She said as she ran the ray over the edges of the wound to get it to start closing before she set the ray beside her patient and pulled off her gloves and stood up to face Warren.He froze at her words, and was barely able to meet her x-ray goggle magnified eyes. He swallowed a few times. “No, it’s just, it’s just not possible. Will and Layla, they’re just too… Too Will and Layla!” Magenta placed a hand on his arm for a moment before moving past him to another stretcher an evac crew was bringing in while snapping on a new pair of gloves.“All we know is that a half hour after Eagle, Gaia, Gooze and Star went to look into the disappearance of some top secret projects from Trinity Base, Gooze screamed a call out over the entire network, wideband. It even bled into a few civilian networks.” Magenta looked back to Warren as she finished peeling away Crawler’s uniform from the hole where his shoulder should be. “Six teams got here within ten minutes of his call, my team landed right after they did and Eagle was tearing into them from the air while Gaia was shredding them from below. It was all we could do to pull a few people out, they took down half my team before some more teams showed up that were a greater threat than a bunch of medics.”She was biting back tears at this point, but her hands never stopped working on the Hero underneath her as she poked and prodded the field dressings, completed scans with her goggles and worked the controls of the stretcher to shift it to an area with the proper tools.“Then some of the others that came joined them in beating us to a pulp! The casualty count keeps rising so fast we don’t even have a count anymore!” “No. I refuse to believe Will would slaughter people like this.”“HE DID!!” Magenta’s scream caused a few people to look at them before they got back to work.Warren bit back a retort about faithlessness, “who’s in charge around here?”“A few of the still living team leaders are over that way.” She waved vaguely to her right where more stretchers were being brought from.“Thanks.”His eyes met Beth’s for a moment and she put a hand on his cheek. He nuzzled it briefly before planting a kiss on her palm and taking off towards where Magenta had pointed with Beth’s supporting presence behind him. The rest of Infamy skirted the med area to fall in with them.“That’s absolutely absurd!”“You are the one who is absurd!”“Idiot!”“You’re the one who shoved a water nymph up against Sunspot!” “I sent her there to help him!”“To kill my team mates?!”“I didn’t know that!”“Because you’re an idiot!”“Shut up!”“No you!”“You!”“Pig!” “Say that again!” Green lightning arced over Thunderbolt’s head as he glared at Amazon who slid into a fighting stance, her neon pink thought blades forming in her hands. Shatter, Siren and Peak all looked like they were in shock and just stood back as the other two team leaders were about to rip into each other. “ENOUGH!!” Warren yelled as he moved in between the two, arms spread out to ward them off each other. “We have enough problems without those of us who are left fighting amongst ourselves.”“What do you care?” Thunderbolt screamed at him.“You’re probably happy they’re slaughtering us! Less trouble for when you finally follow in Daddy’s footsteps!”“I may not particularly care if they do kill every single one of you! But they will care so get off your high horse and solve the damned problem!”Thunderbolt and Amazon blinked at him and the others stepped a little closer.“What do you mean?” Peak asked.“It means none of this makes sense, and things like this not making sense are usually indicative of foul play.”“No one is holding a gun to any of those monster’s heads!”“It isn’t always a gun you morons.”“FROST!” She shrugged.He pressed a hand against his eyes for a moment before looking at the five heroes in front of him.“Ok, look. I’m not sure about any of the others, but I know Eagle and Gaia. They are the most principled people in existence. Layla is vegetarian because her Mom told her animals don’t like to be eaten. Will has nightmares about accidentally crushing his friends that leave him terrified to touch anybody for days. Then take into consideration they were looking for missing top secret projects. What type of projects? Who took them? What did they find that someone, maybe a really strong telepath or something, would want hidden? Could this be a gigantic, horrible distraction?”The others just kind blinked and gaped at him. He scowled and turned to his team.“Sagacity, pinpoint the most controlling element in the area. Echo, see if any of the spirits here are coherent enough to look around. Ringer, I want two covering each of them, and another two getting me lists of everyone in good enough condition to fight.”Thunderbolt grabbed Warren’s arm. “Now wait just a minute, who gave you permission to just waltz in h-”“You did when you guys started fighting each rather than our enemies.” Salem interrupted. Warren merely looked down at the hand on his arm and Thunderbolt swallowed before letting him go.“We need to regroup. Are any of the ones that were turned telepaths, empaths or any thing else that would be able figure out we’re up to something? Anybody able to track specific individuals we send across the battlefield?”Amazon stepped forward, “Remus and Romulus were turned, in wolf form they are not inconsiderable trackers.” Warren nodded, “They’re on your team, can you bring them down?” Amazon nodded. “Take Mason, he can make both of you light enough to not set off any of Gaia’s nets. Quick and quiet, please.”The two sprinted towards the field.“I’m pretty sure that almost all of them had physically based powers, then one was Powerhouse, and Lock, but I think that was it.” Peak stated. “Agreed,” said Shatter and Siren. “I saw Bewilder take down Aegis when she tried to help Emerald,” Thunderbolt added."Hmm, Lock was a very low power telekinetic, could only effect things he touched, and even then they couldn’t be very big or complex. But Powerhouse, he could create and mentally control a giant electrical monster, and Bewilder could confuse almost anything with any sort of thought process, he’d seen worms to computers to humans fall under her sway.“Anyone know if Powerhouse or Bewilder were injured at all?”“Yes,” Siren stated as a gleam appeared in her eye. “Origami managed to hit Powerhouse with a stun ray.”“And Lock was injured too. One of Gaia’s vines sliced up his leg. The pain would have been enough to cloud his mind a little, make his shields drop a bit.” Shatter was Lock’s team leader so Warren just agreed.“I’m going to guess Bewilder was hurt somehow too. We need a way to monitor the entire battlefield, see where everyone is.”Peak snapped his fingers, “Layout, we can hook her and Edifice up through a telepath and he can give us a hard light construct of what she sees.”“If they’re alive and conscious, do it.” Peak nodded and took off towards the Med Units. “Siren, does your team have ship here?“No, my team has, had, a powerful teleporter.” Her fists clench and Warren isn’t sure he wants to know what happened to the teleporter.“Thunderbolt? Shatter?”“Ours was destroyed by Sunspot.”“Eagle.”“Salem, can you boost the modifications you made to the ships array?” Salem nodded, and he pointed to the Attrourian ship at Siren and Thunderbolt’s questioning looks. “I want our com powerful enough to put Siren through to every team still out there. Tell everybody incoming to land here, then get on the ground and coordinate everyone coming in. Frost grab Labrat and as soon as Siren is done you and Salem take her to what’s left of Trinity then report back.”They were gone by the time he was done talking. He glanced at Sagacity who was still in a trance and the two Ringers who were focused on the direction the battle was in. “Shatter, Psych, talk to anyone who’s conscious then get to the edge of the battlefield and talk to Ringer and meet Mason and Amazon, I want a list of who’s left out there, what side they’re on and what condition they’re in.”Thunderbolt raised an eyebrow at him as they were left alone and Warren met his eyes. “The Commander and Jetstream were in space with the ISJ when I left the planet, where are they now?” “Their navigator accidentally put them through a wormhole; they won’t be back for another week.” “What abo-”“Viox and Keystone are in South America taking on Plague with that new Vanguard team, Guild’s in another dimension and they took all their auxiliary members with them, and half of the Ravagers disappeared into a portal with what looked like an older Blackflame.” “The other half?”“Went to the Duroser system to see if the Guardians of Toan would send them after their teammates.”“Anyone else?”“Most of the strongest on planet landed first and were caught by surprise.” “Villains?”“Last report had six hotspots and three red level jailbreaks.”“They won’t stay out of this for long.”“I know. We’ve been lucky so far, but you know Murphy’s Law, it’ll wear off quick.”“Think there’s any chance of them all joining monasteries?”“Don’t know, you joining one?”“Funny.”“I thought so. Put me one with Salem.”Warren shrugged and handed his earpiece over to Thunderbolt.“Salem, have you got the com set up yet?” “Almost.”“Have the signal bleed to civilian channels and make the code easy to crack and put Siren on.”“Inferno OK’d this?”Thunderbolt looked at Warren, “Inferno?” He leaned close to Thunderbolt so the receiver would pick up his voice. “Sounds fine.”“Here’s Siren,” said Salem.“Yes, Thunderbolt?”“Say that the new guy has said something along the lines of using the strength of the heroes to wipe out his competition for ruling the world.”“But he hasn’t.”“Just make it clear that someone without Eagle’s moral code is controlling Eagle’s powers.”“Salem just finished, I’m on it.”Thunderbolt gave the earpiece back to Warren. “It might backfire; they might join up with the controlled to get in good with the new dictator.”“But it’ll make the smarter ones weary, and they’re generally in charge of the stronger ones.” “My team is relatively fresh and they’re used to fending off mental attacks. They should spearhead the attack against whoever is mind controlling everyone.” “They?”“You and I are going to round up everyone strong enough and go after Eagle and Gaia so they can’t rush to the aid of whoever is controlling them.”*****Sagacity managed to pinpoint where the bad guy was. Echo had gotten some of the more coherent spirits to go and take a look. The man was a tall, pale guy with blood shot eyes in a lab coat, keeping himself hidden behind what had once been the primary guard station. One ghost even mentioned seeing Dragon holding Metamorph still while the guy was talking right before Whiplash had torn his throat out. Amazon and Mason were successful, and made a few changes to Shatter and Psych’s list. Aside from Will and Layla only two or three were going to be a problem.Peak had found Layout getting her shattered arm cast, and Edifice had run into him literally as he brought in two of his injured teammates. Aura had picked up from Peak’s mind what he wanted to do and sent Compound over to him, and they had managed to get an updating map of the field going.“The person responsible is Dr. Jerome Oliver.” Everyone turned at Frost’s statement as she, Salem and Labrat stalked up to where they were plotting around Edifice’s construct.He met Magenta’s eyes. She sighed. “Star is critical, but he was conscious long enough to tell me that he wandered away from where Ethan and Will were doing the main investigations when he found Layla unconscious. He rushed to help her when something hit him from behind. He woke up to find Dr. Oliver laughing his brains out while Layla had vines choking the shit out of all the scientists and Will was obliterating the computers. Zach got on his feet long enough for Layla to spot him and make a bunch of razor vines sprout right through him.”“Ethan?”Magenta dropped her eyes and Salem put a hand on her shoulder before she answered Warren.“I was able to pull up the last bit of tape; Gooze darted around in liquid form and avoided Eagle and Gaia, then went solid to call for help when Gaia took down Star. Eagle crushed the lower half of his body with a peace of the wall. What was left of him went liquid and Oliver poured acid onto him.”Warren turned back to the red ‘X’ Edifice was using to mark out Dr. Oliver on the map, “So, furball, you want in the group going to bring the fuck to his knees?”“I’m a liability, just make sure the bastard is in need of my services so I can forget the pain killers.”“Got it.”Magenta headed intently back to the med tents.“Frost, team idiots with me and Thunderbolt. Salem, team red, find Echo she’ll fill you in.”“Idiots, Warren?” Beth asked as she laid a hand on his arm and looked up into his eyes.“Only idiots would go up against Eagle and Gaia and hope to win.” Beth’s laughter made him grin and he kissed her cheek gently before getting back to business, drawing strength from where her fingers twined with his.*****The plan was rather simple in the end. Team Idiots was composed of Inferno, Thunderbolt, Frost, Siren and eight others. Their job was to target Eagle, Gaia, Sunspot and Dragon to keep them busy so the others could do their jobs.Dr. Oliver was Team Red’s. His Infamy and the most of the psychics still able to fight had a glint to their eyes that Warren was a little edgy about since he wanted Oliver to last long enough to suffer.Amazon hand picked Team One. Two telepaths, Mason and three others whose skills she trusted to either hide them or kick ass. They were going in with a list of other trouble individuals like Metamorph and Bewilder to take out before they could cause trouble for Team Two.Team Two was all the others and they were going in after everyone else under Dr. Oliver’s sway.HQ was around the map and was coordinating everybody with various headsets and communication devices that Salem, Edison and EM had managed to quickly cobble a network out of.Magenta came up right as they were getting ready to head in with five other doctors at her back and two of the evac teams. “There are heroes in there who have been fighting for a while, and other casualties we haven’t been able to get at yet. Plus, those three are registered psychologists; you’ll need them on hand for everybody Dr. Oliver used.”“Stay behind everybody.”She smirked, “I never wanted to be a hero.”“I was talking to the morons you were having to back up earlier.” She laughed and Warren spun around and took off towards where Eagle and Gaia were with Thunderbolt, Frost, Siren, Charge and Galeforce while the other half of his team split up a headed after Sunspot and Dragon.Team One was following right behind them, then Team Two. Team Red would use all the confusion to get to Oliver. *****Things were going relatively well, Warren thought.“At least we’re not dead yet.” He eyed Thunderbolt who just shrugged.Siren had screamed loud enough to tear her throat up, but that pounding sound wave with Charge’s lucky shot scrambled the heck out of Gaia and got Gaia’s mind controlled body to lose its sway over the plants. This had left them vulnerable to Inferno’s fire, the smoke making Layla rush into the open for fresh air and bam.Warren figured that he wasn’t going to blame Siren for bashing her that hard with the rock.Inferno told Charge to get Siren to Labrat then knocked her out when she tried to complain. He got to the others in just enough time to knock Thunderbolt out of the way of a flaming car that Eagle had thrown his way.The two of them picked themselves up, “We won’t be alive much longer though.”“We just have to live long enough.”Warren nodded keeping his eyes locked on Will dodging the ice spears Galeforce was sending at him.“Why is he dodging? I’ve seen bullets bounce off him. Doesn’t his super strength make him invulnerable?” “Not quite, Taserbrains. See his right shoulder? That was there when this fight started, and Galeforce nicked him with a spear on his leg. He can be hurt; it just takes something extreme to do it.”“Like ice spears hurtled at hurricane force winds?”“Precisely.” Thunderbolt tilted his head to the side as he watched Eagle dodge, “either they should have called him ‘Falcon’ or Galeforce needs to work on his aim.”“When you can blow the barn over, it doesn’t matter whether you can hit it’s broadside or not.” Thunderbolt laughed and they both raised their arms as Eagle corkscrewed, breaking away from Galeforce’s onslaught he dove straight towards the wind generator. “Will is damn good too!” Warren shouted as both he and Thunderbolt let lose a barrage that pummeled Eagle just far enough to the side that Galeforce and Frost were able to dart out of the way of his impact. “Took you long enough!” Frost shouted at him as she slid in behind him.“So punish me for it later.” “You bet your ass I will.”“Kink later fight now!” interrupted Thunderbolt as Eagle flew out of the crater to hover above them.“How much longer?” Frost asked as she slid in between his arms, back bracing against his chest.“Don’t know,” Warren answered as his hands cupped hers.“Do you really think now is the time to grope each other?”“Yes, don’t help,” said Frost.“What?” Thunderbolt turned to them right as Eagle dove straight down.Warren and Beth screamed as in tandem they let loose their powers at full blast, and a stream of super heated, pressurized steam nailed Eagle who barely managed to get his arms in front of his face. Warren could hear his best friend crash into the ground as their blast trailed off.Beth sagged against him panting, and his arms tightened around her. “Are you good?” he asked.“I’m great, think he’s fried?”“He better not be, I’ll never hear the end of his whining.”“Dude, you’re worried about him whining?”Warren flicked a small fireball in Thunderbolt’s face. “Do NOT call me Dude.” He steadied Beth as he pushed her away and when she nodded he let her go.He picked his way over the rubble to Will.“Warren?” Beth questioned as she slid down a slab of concrete behind him.“Stay back.”“But he’s out right? In between that and all the other damage he’s taken today, he should be. Right?” Galeforce asked as he rounded what looked like a building’s corner office.“Maybe,” Frost said. “Fire never bothered him much unless it was hot enough. Steam might do some damage though.”Flames licked up Warren’s arms as he tentatively stepped closer to his friend’s body. Suddenly Will’s head shot up and his dead gaze locked with Warren’s. “Oh shiiiiiiiiIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!” Warren cursed and slammed fireball after fireball in Eagle’s face as he dragged Warren higher and higher by the waist. Eagle had him tight against him, almost close enough to kiss. Warren screamed in frustration and ignited as high and hard as possible. He could smell his and Will’s costumes burning, melding where they were pressed together. They passed high enough that Warren felt the flames begin to falter. With everything he had left he created the strongest fireball he could in his hands and with as much force as possible bashed Will straight in the eyes.Eagle dropped him as he screamed and grabbed for his eyes. Warren gave one quick moment to hoping Will wouldn’t be blinded before concentrating on the fact that he had a better view of the planet then you’d get from an airplane. Warren let the air fling his arms wide and forced himself flat, trying to slow his descent. Damn it he was going to go splat.Warren forced his hands downward and bit back a scream as he forced more flames out straight down. He felt himself begin to slow down a little more, but not enough to save him.He felt the wind shift and with a growl he turned his head and bingo, there was Eagle, pacing him down, a blank look on his face, his eyes red with blood and the skin around them burnt just a tad crispy. Warren met his mind controlled friends eyes and shouted, “And here I thought that if I ever fell, you would be there to catch me!” He looked to the ground that was getting closer then back at Will, his wrist was just in reach.With a neat little leverage move Jetstream had shown him after he and Will had fought Wraith spun around and grabbed Will’s wrist swinging himself around Eagle so that he was behind him. He brought his knees right up against Eagle’s back and locked his hands around Will’s neck and let loose. Flames shot down his arms and ignited from his hands right onto Will’s neck. The air rushing over them drowned out his screams as he kept pushing, kept igniting over and over as the wind put the flames out. Eagle’s flight became erratic as he tried to buck Warren off of his back and tried to reach his arms around to get at him but couldn’t.“WARREN! Left!” He smiled at the voice coming through his com and glanced down. Beth was standing on a small out cropping, Galeforce right by her. He pulled up on Will’s neck and jammed his feet down into Will’s lower back then let go of Eagle sending the flyer off balance. He twisted around and braced himself just as a strong wind hit him. His relief as Galeforce lowered him to the ground was cut short when something latched to his midsection dragging him out of Galeforce’s wind. He recognized Will’s arms right before his friend hurled him against a vertical section of road. Dancing stars fought back the blackness creeping around the edges of his vision as the road fell to lay horizontal again. He stared at the blue bits of sky peaking out from between smoke and thought it should be overcast, that it should be raining, or it should be red. The sky was always red in the cartoons he would watch with his Dad when the Bad Guy was winning.A tourniquet tightened around his throat and lifted him and if he could get enough breath he’d curse it for making him look away from the sky, for making him focus on those eyes that shouldn’t ever, ever be blank.All he could do was stare, disappointed, for some reason, at Will as his friend hung him from his fist. Warren didn’t let his eyes leave Will’s. Not even when the grip shifted minutely as Eagle drew back his other fist to punch his head off. Beth’s shriek pierced through his brain right as a frozen squall toppled them both, Warren’s throat sliding from Eagle’s grasp.He felt chilled hands fumble at his shoulders, making him stumble to his knees. Dirty white gloves clashed with the black leather shreds of his costume as panicked blue eyes met his for a moment. He heard shifting, debris moving, and met dead eyes over his lover’s shoulder. The form around the eyes launched itself at him, not even noticing the tattered white in Warren’s arms. It happened as Warren was reacting, pushing away Beth from where she stood in between them, as Eagle came that pivotal foot closer, that dreadful horrible thing they try to teach you in Situational Ethics, motion that once started can’t be stopped. Horror bled into Eagle’s eyes, and his Will came back to him.And a dull pain thudded into his abdomen, and Will collapsed into Warren’s warm arms. A scream ripped open Warren’s soul, and he heard Beth shouting his name, but all he cared about was Will’s sweaty hair plastered under his nose, smelling of burntness and ozone, Will’s shredded blue bloodstained glove fisting in Warren’s chest armor, Will’s precious, shifting, moving, burnt to shit, sobbing, EMOTIONAL, BEAUTIFUL face burrowing deep into Warren’s chest. Warren’s Will was back now.He crooned softly at Will, petting his back with one hand while the other clutched the precious, precious boy to him more tightly. Warren’s name croaked out between the outpouring of grief and all Warren could do was pet Will, listen to his own strained, soft voice, “It’s okay, you’re alive, you’re fine, it wasn’t your fault, don’t worry,” and Beth and Thunderbolt’s pleading cries for Magenta or anybody and Galeforce’s yelling about olives.He fought to keep his focus against each throb that radiated from near his stomach. Warren and Will were a tangled, half kneeling heap on the pockmarked ground, Beth and Thunderbolt hovering horrified, sure that anything they did would only make it worse, Galeforce still talking to HQ, his eyes never leaving the growing red stain around Warren and Will.He caught her eye and gave Beth a tiny smile. Her lips started quavering and her eyes began to tear as he continued the quiet platitudes that he wasn’t even sure Will could hear.Warren dropped his gaze to Will, letting her fade away to concentrate on his trembling world. Warren forced shaking hands to stop running over Will’s back, to gently pull an unresisting Will away from him enough to meet those expressive eyes, and he beamed, leaning in he planted a small, chaste kiss on Will’s forehead, letting himself rest there as Will’s choked screams settled into quiet sobs.Warren leaned back after a few moments and found Will’s eyes locked onto his face. He gently stroked his knuckles over Will’s cheek.“Keep your head in the game, Stronghold. You don’t have time to be a jerk right now.” He couldn’t help but wince as he pulled further back, the movement enough to turn ache to pain.“Warren?” Will’s concerned whisper made Warren smile as his gaze went from Will’s tear streaked face to the forearm disappearing into his own abdomen, Will followed his line of sight. “NO! No, no Warren, oh God, Warren…”Warren let his eyes fall shut at Will’s terrified whispers. Maybe, just this once…. He stopped making the dead weight that were his arms move and let his body sag against his best friend. His breathy “Will,” lost under his friends panic.*****The only ones there were Will, Beth, Magenta, Zach via vid-phone from ICU, Thunderbolt, Galeforce, what was left of Infamy and the preacher.There was none of the media coverage that the other heroes and sidekicks of Trinity had received. Will wanted to laugh about that. He’d gotten the story out of Thunderbolt, how Warren had rallied the remaining heroes, been the one who had had enough faith in Will to realize that it was mind control and not betrayal. The heroes, they were the first to declare him guilty, a traitor. They hadn’t even thought it could be anything different. He didn’t know why it surprised him, he’d seen the way they’d treated Warren and his mother for all those years. He’d made the same assumption that Warren was villain material himself when he had first run into him.But he had realized his mistake, paid for his errors of judgment and apologized for it. None of those bastards had the gall to admit the only reason they were still breathing was someone they had ostracized all his life.Layla wasn’t there, too busy trying to mend fences with the living to pay homage to the dead.Hell, as much as they wanted to be there for their son, not even Will’s parents were willing to come. After all, they said, they had never really approved of his friendship with Barron Battle’s son. Warren’s own Mother was too busy throwing herself into fight after fight trying to die to come say goodbye to her son.Warren’s Father, well, he didn’t know why the man hadn’t even turned in a request to come to his son’s funeral, it was one of the only reasons travel rights were granted. Will cynically thought that at the very least he could use the opportunity to try and escape.Will stood there until the preacher left after finishing, staring at the picture of his friend laughing beside his coffin. It was one of the few in existence of Warren doing something other then scowling. It had been about two months ago at a housewarming party for Zach and Magenta when Will and Beth joked about falling madly in love and running away together. Layla had bashed Will over the head while Warren just laughed. Magenta was lucky enough to have had her camera on her.Everyone else left slowly, except for Echo practically running to get away from all the graves, Salem close on her heels. Mason bowed out to go visit Ringer and Psych’s graves since they weren’t buried that far off in the special burial ground for supers. Sagacity decided to follow him. Frost had collapsed half way through the short ceremony but had refused to leave and was now being lead carefully away by Galeforce. Only Thunderbolt and Will stood there and the guys glaring at them next to the anti-grav device and the shovels obviously wanted them to hurry up and leave so they could get on with their work. Will leveled a glare of his own at them and they quickly muttered something about lunch breaks (even though it was only 10) while sprinting behind a mausoleum. “He was something else, wasn’t he?” Will glared at Thunderbolt who laughed. “Don’t be so pissy. I just wish I had gotten to know him as more then Barron Battle’s son and future villain. He seemed like a decent guy.”Will smiled. “Warren was the best, Thunderbolt.”“Name’s Mark, Mark Harris. He wanted you alive and whole, so if you need anything, I’ll leave my contact info on the chair over here.”Will nodded and watched as the hero placed a slip of paper on the chair and walked off. He turned back to the now closed coffin and took a deep breath before stepping up to it. He grasped the lid and took another deep breath.Will couldn't decide if he was grateful that the advanced technology used in all Heroes and Villains coffins had preserved Warren’s body so well. Seeing him lying there in his old man’s tux Will could almost convince himself that it was some giant hoax, and that Warren would get up any second and laugh at him for the stupid look Will knew was on his face.He finally started crying as he sagged onto the coffin. He trailed his fingers over Warren’s cheek and wanted to scream at how cold it was. Warren’s body had always radiated heat. Will remembered everyone fighting over who would get to sit next to him when it was especially cold outside. To Will, the entire world was colder without Warren. Without those looks that needed euphemisms like ‘scorching,’ or ‘simmering,’ without those small bits of advice at the perfect moment that would light a fire under a person’s ass until what was wrong became something right. That rage that very few were privileged enough to see go from banked to burning after making it to somewhere private after having to put up with taunts about his father. The comforting warmth that radiated from him when all was right with his world.It was all gone now. Will didn’t know what he would do, without Warren’s light to guide him. He pulled his hand back and wiped furiously at his face, he was so stupid for crying like this. So very, very, stupid. Warren would be so mad to see him wasting time crying over him. Warren had told Will to get into the game and would be pissed as Hell that Will was letting his emotions get in the way of what he had to do.‘Keep your head in the game.’He would do that. He would still have Warren in a way.Warren would still be there, in his memories, in the fact that Will was still around, saved so many times by Warren’s actions, words, or mere presence. He would still be there in that moment in the cafeteria as Layla and the others walked away from him, as he listened to Gwen’s placating apology that had meant nothing at all because she hadn’t done anything to stop Penny, only speaking up after the wrong had been done. That moment that Will had never quite been able to put into words, when he felt as if he had somehow both met Warren’s low expectations of who he was, and disappointed the small hope that Will had managed to create that he would be different from all the others who had treated Warren with contempt because of who his father was.For some reason seeing the resignation in those aching brown eyes, the fact that his being an ass was something Warren didn’t look surprised about, made Will want to be better, made him scarf down his lunch and rush to find Layla.That look had stayed with him, coming up at all the times when Will was about to get lost in the adulation heaped upon Eagle, when he would think he was more important than others, that look more than even Warren standing right beside him or Layla berating him made him stop, think, and do what was right.And what was right at this moment, was honoring Warren’s memory, his last wish. Will’s tears fell onto Warren’s cheeks, giving the illusion that the pyro was crying, which was something that Will could say with good certainty hadn’t happened since Warren had manifested his powers at six years old. His temperature had always been so high that the tears had evaporated almost as soon as they had formed.Will leaned forward and gently placed a kiss on his best friend’s cold lips. And cried harder as he realized they were still soft.He would keep his head in the game, stop glaring at the reporters and actually talk to some of the others rather then just mutter apologies.He would stop acting like a jerk.He would be a hero like Warren was.Will let his forehead rest against Warren’s for a moment before he moved back, closing the lid of the coffin as he went.He walked along the coffin, trailing his fingers along the smooth metal. He pressed down the lever that lowered the coffin into the ground. He dropped to his knees and kept his fingers in contact with Warren for as long as he could.He stayed kneeling until the coffin finished lowering then stood up, ignoring the anti-grav device he took one of the small shovels.He filled in Warren’s grave one shovel full at a time.******Six Months Later*Eagle stalked through the hallways of the Station, not even paying attention to the amazing orbital view that had always captivated him since he had first paid a visit to these hallowed halls. He couldn’t believe the nerve of these bastards! He had been in the middle of a god damned final for his Asian Cultures class when the emergency call had come in and gotten him thrown out. It wasn’t even like he would have minded if it had been a REAL emergency.Instead the second he had rematerialized on the Orbital Watch Station he had been ordered by the giggling half cat transporter guard to get his ass to the chambers, the Commander and Jetstream wanted to talk to him, and not only were the primary ISJ all there, but the Guild too, cause he was in trouble. So here he was, when he should have been taking the final for like the only damned class he was going to pass, about to get his ass grilled by his parents. In public no less. Like they couldn’t have waited another half hour!He rang the call button and then stood at what he was told by Zach was a Parade Rest, but that he just thought looked cool and made sure he wasn’t scowling. He walked five steps into the Chambers and then stopped dead, facing front.The silence was overwhelming.His Father and Mother sat at the middle of the large rectangular table with the rest of the ISJ Leadership spread out to one side and the Guild Leadership on the other.“You do know that because you couldn’t wait thirty damn minutes to get on my case for whatever it is I’ve done now you just wasted all the money that you paid for that class, right?”Well, he probably could have been a little less hostile, he thought as everyone, especially his parents went from stiff to rigid.“Listen, you little-” Freeze hissed as he jumped to his feet and slammed his hands into the table.“Enough, Freeze.” Megajolt said from his side.“Eagle,” Will turned his glare from the fuming iceman to his Father.“Son,” Jetstream said as she laid a hand on her husband’s arm. Will nodded in recognition. “Sweetheart-” Will switched his glare to his mother and she swallowed. Then stubbornly went on, “Eagle. It has come to the attention of the International Society of Justice and the Freedom Guild that your behavior of late has been, erratic.”“Erratic! That bastard sent Magma to the hospital! There’s a good chance she’ll never regain full mobility!” Will smirked at Freeze.“Begin quote: ‘Thank you for saving us the trouble of stopping him later. Hell, he probably would have offered his services to Oliver if you hadn’t killed the freak before Aura and the other heroes could bring the doc down.’ End quote. She was stupid enough to miss how much false accusations irk me or just didn’t care. Either way she was hopeless.” Will’s tone hadn’t changed, and only the creaking of his armored gloves and further narrowing of his eyes gave away how truly pissed off he was getting.Jetstream and Commander looked at each other uncomfortably for a few seconds until they felt the glances from the others and straightened. “Son, we understand that you went through a hard time, with what Dr. Oliver did, but you cannot just go attacking people.”“Did you just miss what that bitch sa-”“WILL!” His Father said, his own eyes narrowing.His Mother quickly filled the silence. “The incident with Magma yesterday isn’t the only thing. Two weeks ago it took Gaia and six members of the Freedom Guild to keep you from destroying NTR Television’s American Corporate Offices. As it was you caused a good half a million worth of damages and caused several people to be hospitalized!”“Please, you think they could stop me if I really wanted to cause them damage? I was being nice considering the slander they tried to pull. If the damned fools had just admitted their mist-”“Are you even listening to yourself Will?” Josie Stronghold implored, looking at her son beseechingly who just glared. “Is this just going to be a list of everything you think I’ve done wrong or is something going to actually be accomplished here?”His Father and Wipeout, the leader of the Guild, met each others eyes then stood. The Commander took a deep breath and then met his son’s gaze.“William Stronghold, AKA Eagle, you are a hero, and because you are a member of these two prestigious teams, what you do reflects on them. Given your recent actions, your continuingly worrisome behavior, those you choose to acquaint yourself with, not to mention the antagonizing and belligerent attitude towards fellow heroes, we have no choice but to level sanctions against you.” Will went even more still at his Father’s words and barely glanced as Wipeout took over.“Eagle, your status as an auxiliary member of the Guild is here by revoked. You will turn in all communication devices and equipment granted to you by that status. While we will not change your classification of Hero in our records we are placing watch protocols on you and all of your super powered actions for a probationary period of at least six months during which you will have a GPS locator placed on your person.”“Your probationary period for the ISJ is six months as well, your position as a primary member of the ISJ is now revoked. You will be placed in an auxiliary position only to be called upon in a worst case scenario. You will attend Anger Management classes at times to be appointed and will have counseling visits with Dr. Apollo. We agree with and support the decision for a GPS Locater and watch protocols mandated by the Guild and will aid them in any way necessary. We also stipulate that you are to take no solo assignments for the probationary period, nor act as Eagle on your own without consulting a primary member under any circumstances. If at the end of those sixth months an appointed panel determines you are no longer a threat to the public or to other heroes you will be allowed to return to active duty.”Will looked at the floor for a moment before meeting his Father’s gaze again. “You know what, Dad? You don’t need to worry about what I do tarnishing your precious teams. I quit.”A stunned type of silence followed his words and Will sat there basking in it while it lasted. Jetstream started up, “now Will, you don’t mean th-”“I do. I’m declaring myself solo. I no longer wish to be associated with any official team. You so called ‘Heroes’ are nothing but sanctimonious pigs. You are so arrogant and judgmental… I’m sick of it. I’m off every team, including as reserve or auxiliary.” He turned and started to head out the door then paused. “Oh, and Mom? Dad? Consider this my disowning myself as well. I’ll pay you back every penny you spent on my classes and have the car to you by Wednesday.” “Now wait just a minute!” Will heard his Father shout but Will was already flying as fast as he could down the corridor. He was half way to the transporter room when the alarms went off and his Father’s voice rang out over the PA system. He didn’t listen to it and just pushed himself harder, slamming into and denting a few walls until he reached the transporter room. He literally tore through the doors when they didn’t open fast enough and threw the kitty cat guard against the wall when she jumped him trying to claw his eyes out. He moved to the transporter boards and using a small device that Warren had had Salem give him and show him how to use he quickly overrode the system and scrambled it so they wouldn’t be able to tell where he went.He walked onto the platform and vanished right as his Mom and a few others burst into the room.*****In the end he had Magenta take his car and the equipment for all his teams back to his Parents place.They kept trying to call him. He got tired of his Voice Mail being filled with the Commander’s ranting and he broke his cell phone picking up a cheap pay as you go one the next day. Salem was nice enough to clean out his dorm room. In between her and Frost he was positive that no tracking devices or anything had been smuggled in amongst his stuff.Will bribed Metamorph and a telepath on Thunderbolt’s team so that Metamorph went in his place to the rest of his finals. The telepath would relay the questions and Will’s answers so that Will was taking the test and Metamorph was his pen.After his Basic Economics final Will’s parents and several of the Guild and ISJ tried to snatch him but Will was safely tucked away at Thunderbolt’s.The small bond he and Mark formed at Warren’s graveside had only strengthened. They finally became actual friends when Mark had told off the Secretary of Education in front of Congress, the Vice President, and cameras from every major media station for calling Inferno ‘an unfortunate and rare blight on the sterling record of the Government’s Superhero Education Act,’ and ‘a disgrace to the honored institution that teaches the true heroes of tomorrow.’ The Vice President had censured Thunderbolt and Will told the VP to shove it.The fall out hadn’t been pretty for either of them, and neither were willing to admit the fact that they knew it had been a little childish of them.Will had kept his head down and watched a bunch of movies for the week it took Salem and Frost to come up with his new identity. “So, Jason Conner huh? I look like a Jason to you?”Connie glared at him as she collapsed onto one of Mark’s overstuffed chair.“Hey, be nice, Will. They had all the systems on alert for just what we were doing, and on top of that Ryan was getting suspicious.” Ryan was Galeforce, he and Beth had started a tentative relationship two months ago, from how haggard the blonde was looking as she curled up on the opposite end of the couch it wasn’t doing her much good.Mark walked into the room and handed Beth and Connie mugs of coffee prepared just how they liked them before he picked his up from the low coffee table and settled back onto the love seat he had been sprawled on before the girls had arrived. “Do you think they’ll be able to figure out who you turned Will into?”“No.” Beth said with finality. Connie nodded. “We did a good job on this, they won’t be able to crack this identity. I just don’t understand why you want to do this, even if you don’t ever want to talk to your parents again, you’re twenty years old, another month and you are twenty-one. You came up with Eagle, he’s yours and since you quit all your teams no one can restrict his actions in any way. You can do what ever you want.”Eagle sighed, and picked up his new driver’s license and Social Security card. “This is just, separation. If I am a Stronghold, I will never be out from my parents’ shadows, even though I am more powerful then them both they are the Commander and Jetstream. Even after I told what amounts to the entire superhero community that I disowned myself and didn’t want anything to do with my parents any longer, it didn’t matter. This way, and with naming Beth next of kin and giving Mark Power of Attorney, my parents will never again be able to have any sort of say.”Mark looked up at this, and so did Beth who looked at Salem who nodded. “Why us Stronghold? Why not Layla or Magenta or somebody?”“Because, Layla and I are pretty much over. I just, can’t put up the façade of caring about her any more and am tired of dealing with her preaching. We’re not really on speaking terms any more. She’d give into demands about pretty much anything if she thought it was for my own good. Zack’s still not fully mobile; he wouldn’t be able to stand up against the Commander and Jetstream. Magenta, she’s a good friend, but she didn’t believe in me, branded me and everyone else a traitor just as fast, if not faster then all the others. If it hadn’t been for Warren she, she still, I… I just can’t trust her anymore.”The room lapsed into silence as they sat and sipped their coffee. Mark jerked up as the ring tone from his emergency cell phone went off. He pulled it out of his pants pocket and flicked it open. “This is Thunderbolt.” The others watched as he nodded. “I’ll be right there Argos. Hang tight.” He shut it and stood, he pulled off his baggy jeans and top, dropping them on the floor as he walked back to his room. Will, Connie and Beth didn’t even blink, used to people stripping in front of them to change egos in a hurry. When Thunderbolt strode out of Mark’s room Will was already checking to make sure the alley outside of the open side window was empty and then stepped out of the way. Thunderbolt waved goodbye and checking the coast was still clear leaped out of the window, triggering a grappling line to pull him up to the roofs where he had a cloaked bike parked.It still kind of shocked Will, every time he watched Thunderbolt do that. He had grown up with his parents having the Secret Sanctum and it’s transporters that could pick up and drop off nearly anywhere, greatly reducing the risk of anyone noticing a pattern in their appearances and disappearances. Hell, his dorm had been outfitted with a transporter pad in his closet and hologram windows before he had moved in. He hadn’t realized how unusual it was until he had gotten out there with his friends and seen them change identities and get to bases and teams and the like. Just another way being the Commander and Jetstream’s son had made him different then everybody else. Or as Warren loved to put it, he was bloody spoiled when it came to the hero type stuff.Will moved away from the window to sit back on the sofa. “I was going to breach this subject with all three of you, but, maybe, well, you two could give me your opinion?”“Sure.” “Shoot.”He took a deep breath and met their gazes. “I want to restart Infamy. With as many of the original members Warren chose as possible together a few others like Thunderbolt, Siren, and Dragon.”They looked at each other and then at him, and said in tandem, “ARE YOU NUTS!?!” They looked at each other again and slid to the floor laughing.He huffed a little bit and then just got kind of curious as to why they were laughing so hard. They just looked at him and started laughing even harder, actually rolling around.When they finally calmed down he just looked at them quizzically. They smiled and Beth sat up and leaned towards him, trailing her fingers along his cheek. “Just then, it was exactly like when we would yell at something Warren proposed to do. If you can get that reaction, I’m in.”Connie just laughed again and smiled. “Same here. It’s been too long since I laughed like that, and I just can’t picture facing Warren in what waits beyond not having at least tried to make his dream, his team, work.”Beth stood up, pulling her cell phone out of her really tight jeans. “I’ll call Sagacity and Mason, have them meet us at the Starbucks on the corner.”Salem also stood. “I’ll try to hunt down Echo, if you’ll talk to Thunderbolt when he gets back he could help you put together of list of a few others who would be willing to join.”Will nodded and Salem’s persona slid back and Connie jumped up and hugged Will until he thought he would choke. As soon as she let him go she spun him around and raced out of the apartment. He turned to watch Beth’s hands waving as she yelled at Max.“I really don’t give a damn! You’ll get your ass to Starbuck’s at 4th East and Downing or I am going to kick your ass!” She hit the end button and then pulled up her phone book and then put her cell to her ear again. Will tuned her out and stared out the window at the clouds rolling by, then laughed a little as a red balloon wafted by.He snapped out of his daze at the snap of Beth’s cell phone closing. “Richard said he would be there if there wasn’t an emergency.” He looked at her quizzically. “Oh, yeah… You’re Guild level… You wouldn’t know. At Trinity Richard impressed Amazon so much not only are they now screwing like rabbits, but Mason accepted a position on the Pantheon team.”“Really?”“Yeah.”“Do you, do you think that he will be willing to leave them? I mean, it’s a big step up, it’s recognition, he counts as a real hero now, not a vigilante, even if it is lower level stuff.”Beth looked at him askance. “You are kidding right?” Will cocked his head. “No.”“Well, let’s just say that he’s chaffing under the restrictions being an officially named ‘Hero’ puts on him. And, he was never too happy to be in the public eye.”Will nodded, after seeing the media’s treatment of Warren and it’s own treatment of Will after the leaks about Trinity, he wasn’t going to blame anyone who wanted get out of the limelight.******Two Months Later*Will walked a few steps behind Frost and Mason as they manhandled Bear King through the prison hallways. He scowled at several of the taunts and jeers leveled their way by the rest of the inmates in the high security wing. He glanced over his shoulder at Thunderbolt’s curse and saw Blank’s teeth buried in the lightning users arm. Salem had her hands on the woman’s jaw trying to force it open while Sagacity slid in between them and held the woman’s arms. Echo looked up from where she was talking to the nervous looking Prison Guard Captain, sighed and went back to her conversation. Mist and Sunspot both laughed as they flew escort to Wraith, who was thankfully being mildly well mannered for someone who had just been caught helping some scum sucking moron with a child slavery ring. Wraith was dang creepy, the guy was basically a shadow, and had to concentrate like hell to get even a mildly human looking form.Suddenly Mason screamed and Will’s attention flew to Bear King who had just thrown Mason a good fifty feet and lifted Frost above his head, getting ready to throw her also. She formed an ice knife in her hands and stabbed the gigantic man in the arm and he screamed, hurling her to the side. Will launched himself at Bear King only to be grabbed and swung up in the air and into Sunspot, the two of them slamming into the security shield of one of the cells.Sunspot shouted as the shield electrocuted him and Will fell away, shaking just a bit from the excess charge that had hit him. He dove down at Bear King and dodging a fist slammed into him as hard as he could, pushing the giant through a wall. Bear King finally grabbed him and flung him across the small area. Will ricocheted off the wall right back at him and planted his fist right in the man’s face.He sighed as he stood over the now unconscious villain. “Given the flight and strength, I’m guessing it’s Eagle.” Will spun around, dropping into a fighting stance as he realized he was in another holding cell. “Ease up, kid. I’m not going to hurt you.” Will’s eyes widened as he took in a much older Warren holding his arms casually up in the air. He blinked and the vision disappeared, leaving behind a slightly bulky frame with Warren’s eyes that Will recognized as Barron Battle. His eyes narrowed and he didn’t leave his stance as he took in the orange jumpsuit and the, quick double check, working power dampening bands on his wrists and neck. “Really, Eagle. Ease up. I never attacked kids, and even if I did, I wouldn’t go after one of my son’s friends. He’d never forgive me.”Eagle hesitantly stood up. “Just stay right there you bastard, I’m sure they can find a comfy new home for you.” “Really Eagle, I hardly think that I’ve done anything to you that would warrant that level of animosity.” Will glared. “You’re right, you goddamned piece of shit. It wasn’t me you hurt, it was Warren.” Barron’s eyes narrowed and he hands dropped from the air. “Now listen here, brat, I never meant to hurt Warren, and I was lucky enough to get a great kid who understood why I did what I did and even if he never quite got over me having to leave him alone when he was so little, he knew I loved him and he stuck by me. Last time we talked he was doing great, rambling about you and Beth like he usually does and beating me at chess. Same thing as every other time he visited me. He isn’t ticked off at me and in a storming rage so I don’t see why you should be.”“Because Warren was a better person then I’ll ever be.”Barron froze, and Warren’s eyes turned into slits focused on Will’s face. “Was? What do you mean by was?”Will just kind of blanked, blinking at the bright orange figure in front of him until he heard debris shift behind him. Thunderbolt pulled himself through the hole in the back of Barron’s cell and took in the stand still happening near the ignored Bear King’s body. “Eagle?”Will glanced over at him before meeting his best friend’s eyes again. “Sit in the corner like a good boy, you move before they come to get you asshole and I’ll introduce you to a few walls.”He turned a step towards Bear King when Barron jumped forward and grabbed his arm swinging him around until they were face to face. “No, I bloody won’t, what the fuck do you mean by ‘was’? What happened to my boy? I knew something was off... He hasn’t visited me in a while but they told me he was fine, just busy, but that never stopped him before and they locked me here in solitary months ago and so help me if someone hurt my boy I’ll slaughter them.”Will just stood there looking up into Warren’s blazing eyes and felt himself crack and his knees start to weaken.*****Thunderbolt tentatively moved forward. “You’re telling me you don’t know? I find that hard to believe. It was everywhere. Someone had to have told you, the Warden, a guard, another prisoner…” He trailed off when Barron turned to look at him. He swallowed, the man really didn’t know. Well, at least it explains why he didn’t try to go to the funeral.“Mr. Battle, I, I’m sorry to inform you that just over eight months ago Warren Peace was killed in an incident at Trinity Base.”The older man just stared at him and his hand dropped from Will’s arm. It had been all that was holding Will up. The hero fell to his knees and he wrapped his shaking arms around himself and his eyes just kind of blanked out. Thunderbolt took him in quickly and scowled just a little. What a perfect damned time for Will to have a nervous breakdown, either that or PTSD. He wasn’t sure which.Mark took a few more steps forward as Barron Battle started to shake also, but looking at his face you could tell it was in suppressed rage instead of fear or shame or whatever it was that was getting to Will right now.The man’s furious eyes met Thunderbolt’s and he froze. “What happened?” Mark shivered a little at the tight hiss and glanced back at the hole in the wall hoping that the others would get here soon.He heard a step and looked forward again to face a scarily in control Barron Battle. “Sir, it’s classified and, uh, I, maybe you should wait until someone who’s trained in this can tell you, I just shock stuff. I don’t know why you haven’t been told but I promise Eagle and I will find out and-” he swallowed as Barron took another step forward.“Tell me what happened to MY BOY!!” The quiet even tones broke into a scream at the end and Mark felt no shame in the fact he back pedaled into the wall of the cell like a coward.“It, it was this thing, with stolen Top Secret tech. The guy doing it was a mind controller, nabbed a bunch of heroes, had them kill anyone else who came. Warren died taking down one of the mind controlled heroes, saving Beth from a shot aimed at her. We couldn’t get him to a medic in time.”Barron’s face kind of just shattered and all the rage and anger on his face melted off and then the man dropped to his knees beside Will, a loud sob shaking him as he buried his face in his hands. Beth and Sunspot came through the hole and Thunderbolt motioned for them to be quite and waved to the security field. Sunspot moved back out of the cell. But Beth moved to stand by him as they watched the two men on the floor.******Two Weeks Later*Will stood there arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Alfred Gasling, the warden of MaxSec World Penitentiary. He could feel similar glares behind him from Frost, Thunderbolt and Sagacity. Sunspot hung in the background, Will wasn’t quite sure why he was there in the first place.He wasn’t sure if it was that it had taken a week to get the appointment then another to see this guy that pissed him off, or if it was the fact that he was sitting there smiling condescendingly at the five of them as he told them that it wasn’t any of their concern why Barron Battle hadn’t been informed of the, unfortunate, death of his son. Will had tensed up at the way Gasling had said ‘unfortunate,’ and was pretty sure that Thunderbolt and Sagacity had calming/restraining hands on Beth.Sunspot darted to the front of the group. “Mr. Gasling, Eagle is not only Warren Peace’s best friend but listed next of kin, it is his concern.” Will smiled as he remembered why the guy was here, Hiiro was currently going through law school. “Are you aware of how many laws you have broken by not duly informing Mr. Battle of his son’s death and the date and time of the funeral, and providing the necessary transportation and security to and from the event, then subsequently unjustly placing Mr. Battle in solitary? This is on top of the records we have found indicating that you have deliberately turned away his lawyer, not to mention keeping him from several visitors on the clearance list?”Then man’s sickening smile just grew wider at this. “Now really, if people far more powerful and in the know then you have decided this is necessary, then it is, and you would all do well not to question that. You have already done enough damage and we will have enough trouble dealing with the possible consequences. Now, I suggest you leave my office and go do whatever it is you do.”Will just bit back his rage at the dismissal, it was all he could do to keep from leaping over the desk and throwing the man through the wall to plummet down however many thousand miles to the Earth.“Expect to hear from us again, sir.” Sunspot nodded to the officious Warden, and tugged on Eagle’s sleeve. “Let’s go.” Will glanced at Sunspot and was taken aback when the young man winked, and tugged again. Will turned on his heel and stalked out of the office a furious Frost and fuming Thunderbolt at his back. He heard Hiiro apologizing for the damage the Warden’s door before he caught up to the others. They had just reached there ship when the communications rang with an incoming message. Beth hit the button to accept the call and Salem’s face appeared on the screen.“I don’t know what you did but we just got a call from the ISJ, there are demanding that you go to the Station, like right now. They said if you don’t, they’ll classify you as a security threat.”Beth blinked and Will froze where he was standing looking over Beth’s shoulder. “Send them a confirmation, Salem. Let’s see what my parents have to say.” She nodded, but looked apprehensive as the screen went back to Infamy’s logo.He turned at Thunderbolt who still just looked pissed and Beth who was gripping the controls just a little too tightly, hands pale white. Then back up to Sunspot, who looked rather unsurprised.“Well?” Sunspot glanced up and sighed. “It was obvious when he said more powerful and more knowledgeable. I’m not sure on the reasoning for not telling him period, but by keeping him from going to Inferno’s funeral they took away what would have been a decent chance to escape.”Will scowled.*****Later that night Will was piss ass drunk.Beth was right by his side and Mark not far behind.All the other members of their team were scattered around in various stages of intoxication. “You know poisoning yourselves really isn’t a good answer to problems.” Mildred said as she placed another tray of drinks down in the middle of the table.“Yes, it’s a well known thing that drowning yourself in intoxicating beverages will only occasionally result in something other then a hangover,” stated Max as he put more little plastic bowls of pretzels in front of everyone.“If we want to destroy our livers, it’s our business not yours. Did you get that apple vodka stuff?”Mildred handed Connie two glasses brimming with liquid. “We’re driving, and we’re going to have to cart you to the ship, and deal with all of your hangovers in the morning, speaking of which, before you drink those, water.”“Oh come on…”“Now Connie, same for the rest of you, water or else I dump this tray on the floor.”Everyone grumbled but downed glasses of water that Max handed them before collecting their real drinks from Mildred.“Will, here, bottoms up.” Max nudged Will whose face was buried in his arms on the table. Bleary eyes looked at him blankly for a moment before narrowing in on the glass Max was dangling in front of him. He quaffed the thing down before choking.“Tha wasna alsohal.”“This is.” Mildred put another full tumbler on the table before him. He quaffed that and Mildred barely caught the glass as it fell from Will’s fingers and the young man’s head dropped to the table with a loud thunk.Mildred and Max sighed while everyone else just kind of mumbled. Max carefully repositioned Will so that his arms were acting like his pillow again.“Those fucking bastards.” Connie hissed as she leaned across the table to run her fingers through Will’s hair. “They had some serious nerve, didn’t they?” Tina said as she slammed her upside down shot glass on the table. “The thought that they could in anyway excuse it is just… Sickening.” She scowled into the mug she held in one hand. Mildred scowled a bit in return as she saw a light layer of cold mist form around the mug, cooling it from room temperature to something a little more drinkable. It was all she could do to bite back a comment on no powers in public.“Seriously Will, how did you keep from slaughtering them?” Richard kind of froze as soon as he realized what he had said, and everybody glanced at Will, who had thankfully missed the comment as he was unconscious.“Seriously, freakshow, how do you speak with that foot shoved in your mouth?” “Shut up Tina.” “You shut up, I’m still trying to figure out how Heroes could do this?”“Damn it Tina, you saw that feed Salem hacked, the things they said about us, about Warren… And Will… Those were his parents leading the damn charge! We’re used to this! Heroes are just hypocrites. They made us and they hate us and they’re never going to realize it’s them who need to stop being so damn heartless.”“It isn’t like it wasn’t something we haven’t heard before, Tina.” Chimed Connie.“But they thought they could get away with it!” Hiiro threw his empty bottle down on the table.“Hiiro, it’s like they said, after how they’ve treated most of us, tried to cover what happened to Beth, well, we’re surprised, but not that shocked.” Mildred said as she laid a hand on the man’s shoulder.“Keep it down. ‘M trying ta forget that my old man is a rank ass hole!” Mark stuttered, failing horribly to throw a pretzel at Richard. Mildred winced, today hadn’t been any easier on Mark when he learned his Father, Wipeout, had been right alongside the Commander, Jetstream and all the others in disparaging them.“La’off ‘em you big, big, battery!” Beth said as she stumbled to her feet glaring at Mark. “It’s not like you had to put up with half of what we do!”“Whosh cares who puts up whiff what! Thay! Thay! Those bastards!”“They’ve always been bastards! Always!”Mark drunkenly glared at her fumbling to his feet to square off, “I still say thought they were good! Thought who I fought for was right!” Mildred and Max moved carefully, Beth had had more, but she was swaying, and Mark was just gone. She hoped they were cognizant enough to not use their powers…“He’s right. Their blatant disregard for everything that makes us better then the villains we fight is horrifying.” Hiiro said with a scowl as he reached across Connie to snag another small bottle of saki.“Stay out of this!” Screamed Beth and what little attention hadn’t been focused on them joined the rest.“Back off him bitch!” Tina yelled at her as she shoved to her feet. “Guys this is stupid, why, why don’t I go grab another round?” Mildred said as she hesitantly stepped towards the three getting ready to leap at each other.“Really, come on. The rooms getting a bit tense guys.” Max said shakily as he eyed the bouncers beginning to edge towards them, along with a few other groups that were radiating emotions strongly. A couple felt like a fight waiting to happen.“Who cares! She isn’t the only one who has a right to complain about her life and this, this Hell we’re in!” Tina bit out as she clenched her fists.“We’ve had to freaking deal with this for fucking years! You’ve had what, eight months!” Connie screamed as she jumped up, squaring on Tina. “It doesn’t matter how long! I’ll never live it down! It hurts! And this, it was just fucking too much! Everything we’ve ever done! Every oath we swore! It’s all a damn lie!”“All right all of you calm down!” The whole group that was still conscious swung on the bouncer with various expressions on their faces and the bouncer recoiled.The man took a deep breath and raised his tattooed hands placating, carefully taking another step forward. “Okay, now I’m not sure what happened to you lot, but do you really want to keep on like this in public? Especially when aside from those two most of you have had a few too many?”“Thank you for your concern, sir. But I do believe that we can take care of ourselves,” Mildred said as she stepped in front of the bouncer, blocking him from the rest of her team. The mood they were in it was a possibility that they might just use the guy as a punching bag.“Oh no, Mildred, he wants to have an issue with us, let him! I’m sick of being shoved in a corner!”“Wait, Tina!”Despite Echo and Sagacity’s best attempts, the ensuing brawl leaked out into the rest of the crowd and soon enough the entire bar was involved. They just thanked what ever deity was listening that Will had passed out, Beth and Mark were fighting each other, and Hiiro seemed to be having too much fun dodging through the fight to write obscenities on people on the floor to cause much damage.They were quite content to let the arriving police deal with their friends hangovers in the morning. They were stuck with Will though, the police decided not to take him after all the waitresses pointed out he was unconscious before the fight.Sagacity mumbled about some guys having all the luck with the ladies despite the fact the clearly weren’t interested.He and Echo argued the entire way back to HQ about whether or not Will was still too hopelessly in love with Warren to even look at a girl.*****Three weeks after the bar fight was when Will gave in.Infamy had just successfully helped police with seezing a warehouse that they had discovered was a large scale drug house when several ISJ and Guild members showed up, including his parents and Mark’s Dad. “Will! Damn it son how many times have I told you to stop meddling in normal things like this! It’s beneath you!”“No it isn’t Dad! It’s helping people! And it’s Eagle!”“It’s interfering with things that don’t concern us! You should be paying attention to real threats like Wormhole and Myers escape! These things are small time!” Wipeout was glaring at his own son as he spoke, and Will wasn’t too surprised to see Mark’s fists clench and lightning begin to curl around them. He hadn’t been too stable in the last few weeks.“You call almost 2 million worth of drugs and the equipment to manufacture more not a threat? Have you even seen the news lately Dad?”“Thunderbolt, it’s not like it isn’t something the police couldn’t handle. Now if they had a villain heading it up or working for them, then yes, it’s your concern, but you guys don’t seem to get that!”Will didn’t let his eyes leave his parent’s as Mark got into it with his Father and the rest of Infamy started squabbling with the other Heroes.It took a few minutes and the cops had cleared a rather large circle around the groups when Will’s Father waved of his Mother who was whispering harshly in his ear and stepped to the front of the group.“That is enough from you kids! All of you are to come with us where we can discuss this in private and for once in your lives you’ll do as you’re told! That goes especially for you Eagle! I’m tired of this little rebellious phase you’re going through! It ends now!”Infamy reeled back and Mark looked at his Father who just nodded.“The Commander is right; this isn’t the place, Thunderbolt. Let’s go back to the Tower.”“And what Dad? Talk about how Heroes have persecuted, ignored, belittled and harassed so many good people for things that weren’t their fault? For what their Family did? How you deliberately kept from Barron Battle how his son died? How you turned Inferno into a scapegoat for your own inadequacies regarding Trinity’s security? He was a damn Hero! Hell, this team, his team! Each one of them is more of a hero then all of you combined! And Eagle and the others from Trinity, I remember how fast we all turned on them, how fast we were to discount them! Then when we were proved damn wrong we just brushed it under the rug, didn’t even apologize! And then we expect them to just get over it when none of us can even look at them and most still blame them!” Mark backed away, shaking his head, and slowly slid into a fighting stance in the midst of the silent parking lot of the warehouse. “I’m not going to the Tower, Dad. You have no right to tell me what to do anymore.” Wipeout gapped astonished at his son and then Commander moved forward.“Thunderbolt, everything you’re talking about is either more complicated then you’re imagining or you just don’t understand. It was discussed in the highest levels of Heroes and it was decided that a lot of what we do people wouldn’t understand. Eagle, you’re going to gather your friends, and bring them to the Tower where we’re going to talk about this in a civilized manner, and you’ll see that this is right. Thunderbolt, stop acting like a child, it’s not like you can win.”Will stared at the ground feeling the eyes of Infamy on his back. Mark had already chosen where he stood, and nothing would change that. The rest where just waiting for his move.“Civilized? Does that mean you actually want to talk, or just get us away from the cameras, Dad?” A stormy look passed over the Commanders face, and Will’s eyes narrowed.“Enough, Eagle. Wipeout, get your kid, we’re going to the Tower. Now.”As his Father's hand reached towards him Will fell back enough to grasp it, and let lose. The quiet of the parking lot became dead silent was only interrupted by his Father slamming into a SWAT van hard enough to crumple it and knock it over. Will hoped there hadn’t been anyone inside.He looked over to the Police Commissioner who was standing gaping in one of the circles closet to them. “Hey, Bill, you might want to move people back. This is going to get ugly.”“No shit, kid. That was the Commander.”“I think I’ve just declared war, actually.”“Why is it always the ones I actually like? Pull back! And place my bet on Infamy winning this round!” Will laughed without leaving his ready position. “You news cameras get all that?” Blinks. “Well good now get long distance lenses and get back!”Infamy fell in behind him and Thunderbolt, circling together to guard each other’s backs. “Will, sweetheart, think about what you’re doing! You can’t win this honey! We can make your little tiff with your Father go away but we can’t make this-”“Jetstream, shut up and a fight.” The battle was brutal. More and more Heroes, vigilantes and villains joined in as word spread. Soon it encompassed over seven blocks of the warehouse district. Will caught glimpses of a sea of press and emergency workers with a growing crowd of civilians beyond them. As it wound down, for the first time since Will could remember, the bad guys really won. Not just got a temporary victory, but littered the battlefield with the bodies of Heroes, with no last minute save in sight.A glance to Sagacity confirmed it, nothing that was indicating a change in the balance of things.The standing villains were laughing, congratulating themselves, shouting welcomes to Will and the others.And then Will just motioned for Infamy, bloody and battered, but with a glow of certainty around them that had been lacking since Warren died, something Will knew was in him too, and they went through the remaining villains like a heated knife through butter. The Heroes and vigilantes who had known, watched them enough to know, joined them against the villains like they had against the Heroes. When it was done, Will stood at the head of an army that was itching for more.Will turned to the sea of blinking lights and open microphones and decided to add to what Mark had said earlier. The army would help, but it would be words that did the damage here.He flew up, landed in front of the press and held his arms up, as if surrendering, the others moving behind him, following his lead without question, and mimicking him.“I’m Eagle. In case you couldn’t tell by all of that, I’ve just declared myself against the Heroes of this world and the others behind me have done the same.” Shouts and questions blended into each other and Will couldn’t make out a single thing.“Please!” The ruckus eased off and Will took a deep breath before continuing. “For longer then I’ve been alive people have looked to the world’s Heroes for images of truth, justice, freedom and hope. They have believed in them.While they knew mistakes had been made on occasion, they still believed that the Heroes were acting in the best interest of the greater good. The Heroes this world has placed it’s faith in are nothing but frauds, they are hypocrites, and we can no longer in good conscious stand by and allow their unchecked abuse of power and disregard for the lives and well being of those that need their protection the most. Though they will call us Super Villains, we are not. We’re not going to start robbing banks or blowing up cities, we will still stop crimes when we can, help fight the drugs, gang wars and poverty that create more criminals and villains. But we can no longer fight under the banner of people we cannot trust.We are taught, that with the great power we are granted, comes great responsibility, to do what is right, and help whoever we can, when we can, whatever their position in life.They should have followed their own teachings. They have allowed rapists to go free to preserve the image that no Hero could do something so base a crime, they have denied a Father the right to mourn for his fallen son, they have hidden the truth of Trinity Base behind a web of lies that make the true hero out to be a villain, they have declared the innocent guilty the moment they were born, they have abandoned children whose parents lay dead at their feet because the parents weren’t a member of one of the precious little teams. They have knowingly and deliberately perpetuated the cycle of discrimination and apathy that has given rise to many of the world’s villains and criminals. All it would have taken to prevent a good portion of the world’s most heinous man made crimes was a moment of compassion on their parts, instead of arrogance. But they believed themselves above doing the right thing.They believed themselves to be above being held accountable for their actions. Above the Justice that they clammed to fight for.I’m sorry, for the hardships the world will face in up coming events, but some regimes need to be fought, and this is one of them.”Will turned to see tears in Beth’s eyes, Thunderbolt smiling and Warren’s Infamy, new and old standing shoulder to shoulder in vindication, backed by the other who were willing to do what was right as opposed to what they were told was right.Will saw Warren laughing, and for the first time since he held Warren’s bleeding body in his arms, he didn’t see that look Warren had given him in the cafeteria. He grabbed Beth and Mark’s wrists and launched into the air, others following his lead, darting to ships, flying off, a few diving underground, but everyone got away, and when back up for the Heroes arrived, they faced an angry press, and a cold reception from the police and federal agents who had already taken the villains into custody.The EMTs had tended to the wounded on both sides, there were two casualties, Freeze and the villain Omneon. Well, three if you counted the unconditional trust of the world for the Heroes, because while people still believed in them, they started to question, and as the air waves were taken over by Salem and Frost to broadcast evidence, packages containing even more was delivered to Presidents, Prime Ministers, UN councils and attorneys, they questioned more. Enough to dig, and locate other discrepancies on their own. And the more that the Heroes closed ranks, refused to talk and deliver those responsible, or insisted on dealing with it themselves, the more they began believing in something else.And Infamy, well, aside from a few scuffles, they hadn’t really needed to fight any Heroes again, not when their stories got out. Public opinion grew to favor Infamy, who kept their word and went after drug cartels, slavery rings, illegal arms dealers and anyone else who made their radar for committing crimes against humanity. They had the tendency to take leave tied up criminals with heaps of proof that the authorities didn’t have the resources (i.e. powers) to get their hands on. The destroyed weapons and drugs, left some of the cash, the rest they took to finance their own operations and donated to various charitable foundations, mostly kid oriented. They also began leaking the plans to advanced technology and medicine that the heroes had been hording. Some of it, like advanced treatments for brain and spinal injuries, as well as a few treatments for cancers, genetic disorders and viruses sparked public outcry to the Heroes for hiding it. When they supplied various nations’ militaries with partial schematics and descriptions of some of the weapons technology, they grew enraged that the Heroes were violating the International Dangerous Arms Ban that they had helped make happen, they were also worried that the Heroes would use them.When they gave away the plans to the Tower’s and other fortresses power sources, they were publicly denounced for keeping things that ran clean and strong for so long out of the reach of the nations of the world that could use them. Governments, America, Britain, China and Japan especially, were taking the Heroes to task, upset that the funding they poured into Hero organizations was being used the way it was.Will just sat back and thought how much Warren would have liked to see the truth about his Father’s crimes come out, his Mother finally allowed to voice the pain she felt at the Heroes abandonment and persecution. He also thought Warren would have gotten a kick out of the way the media did a 180 about him, calling Inferno a True Hero and several other clichés. “You really would love this, Warren.” Will sat with his back against Warren’s headstone, his knee hugged to his chest. “Except I think you would have liked a little more violence, you always enjoyed setting idiots on fire. Beth finally got to see the bastards that raped her go to trial, they found them guilty. My parents and a couple of others are facing charges for covering it up and stopping the proceedings Beth had managed to get through. Connie was able to get that Senator on charges of discrimination. Echo is doing good, she says now that the truth about Trinity is out a lot of ghosts are resting. Sagacity is uppity about something, says it’s building. We think it’s the Villains, they’ve been kind of quiet, waiting to see who comes out on top, us or the Heroes. Also, we were able get the records they kept on superpowered kids, they've been handed over to a government sponsored organization that’ll help make sure no kid is ever treated like you and the others were. You’ll never guess what they named it. They called it the Warren Peace Children’s Fund. Seriously, me and Beth laughed for an hour when we heard, we kept imaging you scowling.”Will turned around so that he was facing the tombstone.“You know, Echo, Sagacity, Salem, everyone else who can tell, they tell me that you’ve passed on or whatever it is. But I think at least part of you is still here with us. I saw it when your Dad knelt where I am right now, I can feel it when I come here, feel your arms around me and hear a sarcastic quip that makes me want to laugh and hit you at the same time.”“Eagle! TSV just exploded a bunch of DNA mutagen bombs in LA!”He was in the air and headed towards Beth before spinning around and dropping to his knees before the tombstone. “I love you, Warren. Always have, always will, and I’ll keep making you proud, and make the world something you can be proud of too.”