Chương 76: Chapter 73: Plotting vs Preparation

Vandal looked over the gathered crowd, utilizing a small amount of her powers to take in all of them at once with a few floating eye sigils at her shoulders. She didn't bother to conceal her enthusiasm. This. Was. Awesome! Pretty much all her faves in one spot! Listening to her plan! Oh man, this was the best moment of her life! Alright, don't get distracted, Vanny, you've got this, she both reminded and reassured herself as she launched into the meeting in earnest.

"Thank you all for coming," she led with the classic line. One she'd written into dozens of stories before this. Gods, who could imagine that all those tales of team ups she'd written would come in handy for a moment like this.

Though she supposed this meeting was far less likely to end in rising sexual tension between villains eyeing each other from across the table, strange and seductive feelings which would only build and build over the impossible job they set out to accomplish together until it finally broke in a post mission make-out that led to- Okay, focusing!

"Some of you know your roles in this upcoming heist, and a few of you might be wondering why you're here." In truth, pretty much all of them actually knew what their roles were if they were in this room. Broad strokes at least. A few of them had absent teammates who might be out of the loop on this operation, but just about everyone in this room knew where they were going to be on Victory Day.

What this meeting was actually about was giving those she trusted enough information on grand scheme so that they could be shuffled around if need be. A lot of things could change in the short amount of time between now and the holiday and she might need more distraction teams or additional capes for the heist itself. This would also help everyone here know who was where.

Admittedly, that could be a massive risk which was why she was trying to time this particular meeting as close as she could to the heist itself but with enough wiggle room to change the plan should she detect any leaks. The plan itself was the kind of thing that would necessitate quick reactions on the fly and even those not going into the tower itself would probably need to call in backup at a moment's notice if things got hairy. As for why that was important…

"This operation is going to be divided into two groups," Vandal opened her laptop and sent a command to the projector. A small graph sprang into existence behind her. She hadn't had the time to make pictures for the teams like she wanted, so villain names appeared in two columns on a white background behind her.

"Street Teams and Tower Teams."

"Just call us Decoys…" Leckter sighed, though his voice gave away that he was joking.

"We're used to it."

"No way," Heatstroke protested with just as much amusement.

"That lets Tower Team think they're actually important. We should be the Brave and Selfless Fighters and they get to be the Scurrying Rats." Vandal noted the villains that laughed at that were all the ones she'd asked to help pull distraction duty. Surprisingly, their compatriots took the trash talk well.

"Sounds like someone's trying to fleece us for hazard pay," Sharp Shooter jabbed a finger at the flame villain sitting across from him.

"We're the ones who have to carry the gems out after the heroes realize who the real threat is."

"I suggest stretching beforehand," Catterwallop snickered.

"Heroes are surprisingly fast when they get around to chasing you." Vandal reluctantly clapped her hands to interrupt the cross-talk, already imagining the Feline Felon bringing up stretching beforehand in a different context, "Good to see everyone's happy with their roles. As a reminder, the Street Teams will be coordinating to cause incidents around the city at overlapping intervals to draw away patrolling heroes and Tower security."

Azure pressed his knuckles to the table, surveying the whole room as he spoke, "It is important for everyone to know their roles on Victory Day. There will no doubt be incidents across the city as there always are and we're trying to organize coverage across the various celebrations around the city so that we don't have to divert security forces from other regions to cover unexpected threats." This particular meeting room was rather large, but costumes tended to bulk out even the slimmest of heroes.

So the fifteen capes had spaced themselves out the full length of large holographic display table at the center of the room. Five Amberheart staff members lined the edges of the room, along with a pair of Arrestor sentinels who were primarily there to report back to Warden Sentinel Kastel in order to coordinate efforts with his organization.

Despite the number of people in the room, there was still enough space to walk around the room without bumping into anyone, but from where Azure was standing, it still felt cramped, like he was being boxed in somehow. The only member of his team here today was Ruby. And to be frank, despite how much he depended on her normally, she wasn't likely to help him out very much in a meeting like this one as he could already see her eyes beginning to glaze over before he'd even begun.

In her defense, she'd listened to most of the points he was going to make at least three times as he practiced last night to help him prepare. At least Reflecta was in attendance, but unless things went really badly, he couldn't depend on her to take the reins here. Not that she would fair any better with the hostile parts of the audience. Speaking of which, Dashback had his locked eyes with him, a challenge in his gaze over the perceived "order" in Azure's tone or maybe his choice of words.

Regardless, the hero felt it best to address him directly before the other hero could start an argument.

"Obviously, this is a request, not a demand," he said, even if he wished he could just tell this argumentative asshole to just run laps around his park for the day.

"Everyone is free to decide their own routes and stations on that day, but we are hoping to coordinate everyone's preferred assignments to ensure that heroes aren't rushing away from one spot and leaving it helpless should a situation arise a couple miles away from them. Dashback, I believe you surveyed the independent heroes on what areas they want to prioritize?" The glower faded and the speedster nodded, "Yeah, I made the rounds at the crack of dawn and got to most everyone.

Couple of them want to attend your ball." He said that with a smirk, but Azure gave him one of his own, having expected that, "We'll get tickets ready for their plus ones if they want them. Just need to make sure we've got the coverage for their usual districts. Ms. Sani, if you would?" One of the Amberheart staff moved over to a podium behind him and keyed something in. A map of the city appeared atop the table as tablets lit up around the room in front of the heroes.

"These are the current projected…" Azure stopped himself from saying "assignments" and setting off the speedster, "duties that we felt everyone would be happy with. If you'd like to make suggestions, the screen in front of you will let you-" Dashback's hands flew across the screen and almost eight separate notes were suddenly added to the projection. Azure controlled his breathing.

Sensing the tension building, Reflecta quickly spoke up, "I believe my team would be more than will to adjust some of our plans for the night to help out with the Silverside district in the early evening rather than handling the closing hours of the market. We'd still have a decent reaction time to any disturbances along the northeast region without overextending us."

"What happens if there's trouble in both spots?" Flying Fist, the leader of the Knuckledusters, asked. Reflecta was about to answer when Azure cut in, "That's what we're here to discuss. This meeting is about setting up contingencies for overlapping events. And establishing priorities."

"What if they don't take the bait?" Wither Wasp asked, the filters on her gas mask lighting up in sync with her voice. Vandal rolled her eyes behind the blindfold, "They're heroes. You just have to know what buttons to press to make it impossible for them to ignore you."

"I'm not just going to ignore villains causing chaos out in my city," Red Rocker jabbed a finger on the table to punctuate his point. Azure rubbed his temples, "I'm not asking you to. We're going over responses to ensure that incidents are handled without falling prey to obvious diversions." Several of the independent heroes exchanged glances, clearly not happy with this. Most of them were the type to immediately jump in when things looked bad with no regard to the overall picture.

To them, if a villain was causing trouble then they had to be stopped right there without bothering to check if it was covering up a break-in elsewhere. Most of them would be more than happy to let a known threat get from point A to point B if they drove the speed limit if it meant stopping the flashier crime in progress nearby. But with the League in play, it was the hidden threats that were the most dangerous ones right now.

Underestimating villains was always playing with fire, but he couldn't afford to have Victory's heroes getting tunnel vision and ignoring the big picture now of all times. He would not allow another Dark Star on his watch.

"I don't want to stop anyone from responding to an actual threat," Azure told them all, truthfully, "but we are here today to get everyone on the same page about who should be focusing on what and where so that no one's falling into any traps our enemies are setting."

"Okay, but they're gonna know, right?" Lecktor held out his hands.

"Like… this isn't the first time someone has tried to pull people away from the Tower to steal the Gems. Pretty sure Sir Squid, the Cephalopod Socialite, tried that once before forming the Eight. There's no way they fall for this trap." Vandal smiled, "It's all about knowing their priorities."

Ice Hawk watched when, just as expected, everyone began arguing after Azure's little speech, and he faked a sigh, feeling a couple of eyes watching him. He put on a show of adding to the argument as a representative of the Wild Warriors, protesting when Red Rocker and Blue Blaster made demands that one of the higher priority-slash-exception cases involve Midnight Lance popping up, under the pretenses that the pair of them leaving their posts for any reason left too much of the southwest unguarded.

In reality, he was making sure his goggles were sweeping across the room, capturing all sorts of things for his niece. He might rarely wear them these days, but that idiot Dashback had given him the perfect excuse to keep them on during a meeting. If anyone asked, he could easily deflect it. Hell, it could be useful for undermining whatever goodwill towards a citywide hero alliance these meetings were building up. No need to force the subject for now. Let the cracks build naturally and massage them.

This whole plan depended on the hero alliance collapsing before it could even truly take off.

In the end, Vandal explained as much of the planned crimes the Street Teams would be performing as she dared to. She needed the people in this room informed enough about the overall plan to grasp the importance of their individual actions, especially when self-preservation instincts kicked in. Plus, they also needed to know enough to be able to take over someone else's job should the heroes or the League knock one of their compatriots off the board.

More than anything though, the very heart of this plan rested on the villain community of Victory using this coordinated series of crimes to draw a clear line between itself and the League so that the rest of the city knew this whole thing happened because they worked together. She couldn't just play at being an invisible puppetmaster manipulating them all or risk being just like The Broker. If she did that, the villains of this town would never see the difference between her and just another stooge of the League.

Of course, the self-centered nature of villainy meant there would never be a true community. But if there was to be any hope of countering the heroes' attempt to build their own club, the denizens of this city's underworld would need to feel like they were united in some way. And not by some fixture that the League could co-opt down the line. Obviously… this kind of plan meant that not all the actors who would play a role would be in the loop.

She'd taken steps to ensure there were more villains planning Victory Day "celebrations" that didn't know they were part of this, but you didn't tell someone like Laser Badger he was going to pad the number of alarms going off nearby Broad Street's banking district so that the Shielders got antsy enough about their home turf to redirect from their afternoon patrol. No, you just gave him a free bit of intel that there was going to be an unguarded dumpster on the northeast lot of the market as a bit of holiday cheer.

But he, and a lot of others like him, certainly weren't the type to begrudge her for those kind of methods if they ever learned what their actions would contribute towards. Not like she was actually lying to them about a job. Her little cabal in this crowded room were much more eager participants and crucially were the type to refuse to give up anything out of spite, either to the heroes or the League. On that note, she had plans to keep the League busy.

Ned half-listened as the conversation began to die back down, noticing the staff around the room rushing back and forth with their own tablets to coordinate the heroes' concerns and the suggestions everyone had made. If this was like yesterday, a couple of the strategists downstairs would meet with Azure after this was done and figure out a good way to make most people happy in time for the second meeting of the day. Funnily enough, Azure hadn't tried to pin down Ned's plans for Victory Day.

Not even an offhanded suggestion that he should try to hang out somewhere. Aw… he was learning! Besides, Ned was actually waiting to see the final plans before making any calls himself. It was obvious that local villains would probably try their stupid little attack on the Tower and he'd want to be there for that, but the real issue this year was-"-Concerning the latest League developments," Azure spoke up, causing everyone to slowly trail off.

Ned actually looked away from Ice Hawk – though his neon eyes had never betrayed that – to lock onto the center map again as Big Blue wiped away the heroes' projected patrols. It now displayed circles marked in red with several green icons scattered across the city. A big fat one, which hadn't been there last meeting, was now glowing in the middle of sprawl of buildings southeast of the financial district.

Ned recognized that particular tangle as one that had been the victim of over development and poorly coordinated reconstruction efforts prior to Cinderoak's election.

"Thanks to N. Cog N2," Azure gestured at the robot dressed up like a noir detective from the 2020's who tilted a fedora in recognition, "we located another site the League was using as housing. The Stormdaughter led a raid yesterday which managed to catch a few of them still at the complex. We had confirmed visuals on Prime Ape, Zeal, and Chariot by heroes on the scene, although they managed to evade capture using a nearby above-ground rail line.

By our estimate, the complex seemed to be used to house and feed at least 30 villains, potentially more if they were hot bunking like we believe." That sparked a lot of murmurs around the table. Obviously, no arrests wasn't great, but catching the League at one of their larger bases was coming pretty damn close to nailing down a decent portion of them. A couple of heroes around Ned were clearly taking the news of "thirty, maybe more" villains with an ounce of foreboding, but the spider hero caught Azure's meaning.

Still, Blue Beatback over there was more than happy to explain for the rest of the class.

"The converted nature of this housing and the evidence of limited bed space indicates we're stretching the League's resources in this city to a breaking point," Azure said with a smile.

"Thanks to the cooperation of all the heroes of this city, the League is running out of safe rocks to hide under." Dashback leapt out of his chair and clapped the metal detective on the back with pride, more than willing to chalk up the indie heroes' victories to a win for "his" side. Despite the less expressive face, Ned could've sworn he saw a bit of bashfulness on the robot's face. Or perhaps embarrassment…? Odd…

Ned drummed his fingers, not enjoying a tingle at the back of his brain telling him that things were going too good all of a sudden. He tuned out as Azure went over a list of confirmed League sightings in the city and the dossiers on each, both because he knew them all by heart himself and because he didn't particularly relish the way everyone was suddenly super interested in this part of the presentation. It felt bloodthirsty, even if Ned agreed with the sentiment of being prepared.

Something about the way that the heroes were dissecting Azure's words with visible hunger, the eyes around the room sparkling with imagined fights. It wasn't like Ned was expecting a peaceful resolution to this. Honestly, if the League was still in town by Victory Day, he knew that he was going to be throwing hands that night and probably plenty of nights leading up to it. But watching the room shift from defensive to offensive justified his feelings on Azure's pipedream.

Ned cleared his throat, "Hey, can we circle back to the Victory Day plans? The actual concrete ones. I want to know what we're planning to do about evacuations and how to handle incidents at the party grounds." He caught a few stink-eyes as well as an embarrassed look or two as the heroes were forced to divert from strategizing about fights during this particular meeting. Not like he was planning on shutting that down entirely, but time and place, guys! Enjoying this book?

Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Azure tapped a finger on the table and the hologram suddenly displayed projected maps of the Tower, the main square, and the parade route.

"The Arrestors are going to be assisting us on site at the events, obviously not including the ball," Azure said, glancing at the two sentinels at the edge of the room.

"They will assist city staff in the case of larger incidents…" He trailed off, allowing one of the two sentinels to continue for him, "… And our patrols will be more than willing to help citizens facing any minor problems they might have throughout the day. To better allow heroes to focus on important duties." Oh, Ned actually let the surprised animation show on his face as the sentinel just implied what they did.

By their charter, Arrestors were not crime fighters or peacekeepers, even if they were equipped with tools for self-defense. And despite being the ones in charge of power suppressant technology, it was a big no-no for them to be involved in fights with villains. ¹ Warden Sentinel Kastel was clearly bending some rules here, which Ned would ordinarily take as a sign he needed to keep an eye on the man, but he knew who was probably twisting his arm. And it wasn't Azure.

The man in question continued on about the preparations the city was making regarding parking and blocking off roads in a dry monotone as the room slowly processed his previous words. An understanding slowly rippled across the crowd about why the hero had previously made a point about prioritizing larger threats. Most seemed to take it as a sign of reassurance rather than the dangerous ground they were walking.

"As for the Tower, should the need arise for a mass evacuation, we can disable the teleportation blockers-"

"-in order to make a quick escape," Vandal concluded her rough overview of the heist. Lord Menace could obviously tell she was leaving more than a few details out, clearly compartmentalizing some of this plan. He had to respect that despite her bringing way more people into the fold than he would've. The plan itself mostly matched the pitch she'd spun for Starsilk when she'd first looped them into this whole thing, though she'd added a few more flourishes to this rendition of the speech.

It was impossible to discern if the added details this time around had deliberately been omitted or if she'd only thought of them in the time since. Still, it was an enticing endeavor, and even the villains that weren't going to be part of the heist itself were nodding along. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though, as more than a few villains had their eyebrows scrunched as they dissected the plan.

Leckter was the one to voice them aloud, small sparks dancing in his eyes, "Gotta say, this is the first time I've signed up to be bait and knew that's what I'd be doing, and fuck if it doesn't sound fun for once, but that shit in Amberheart's gonna be a tight squeeze. As someone who's worked heists like this, you sure you've got enough bodies in there?" Wither Wasp nodded, "Anyone gets caught off guard and it means we're only walking away with only a few of the Triumph Gems, not all of them.

Assuming everyone isn't caught. Anything less than four of them isn't a big payday, last I checked, and this feels like a lot of risk for all of us if Tower Team doesn't clear at least six." Grumbling broke out across the room, even if Menace had the distinct impression everyone wasn't actually here for the money. Still, his own plans did depend on walking away with enough of the sparkly rocks that no one would mind him keeping one for Fencer.

"Are you trying to gun for a spot on the Tower Team?" Sharp Shooter pointed a finger at the electric villain.

"Nah, I'd light up the EM detectors in that place no matter what you've got cooked up," Leckter shook his head, a surge of electricity sparking off his fingers to make his point.

"I'm just saying we might want a few more thieves up there. Hey, Watch Witch, is your brother still dead or can he come along?" The woman gave an overacted gasp before insincerely replying, "How can you ask that question? I am in mourning!""'Cause Flawless has come back to life like three time now?"

"Twice. Time displaced clones don't count as resurrections," Watch Witch rolled her eyes.

"And as far as I know, the bastard's still worm food. What about-?" The room descended into about a dozen suggestions before Vandal slapped the table to interrupt them, "We're not bringing in anyone outside this room in on this! Not with the League in the city." No one spoke up, the slightly jovial attitude vacuumed out of the air in an instant. Everyone watched the blindfolded information broker as the sigils on her clothing glowed an incandescent rainbow. Menace swore he heard her teeth grinding together.

"You all are here because I trust you," she said slowly, the weight of her words hitting them all like a freight train. She sounded young… naive… and fucking dumb if Menace was being honest with himself. But in that moment, he, along with the rest of the selfish bastards in this room, felt like her words mattered. She turned her head directly towards him of all people, "If we need more people, a certain someone here just hired a bunch of henchmen. Ones that I've vetted."

And suddenly, Lord Menace was the center of attention with all the other villains looking his way. He glanced back over his shoulder towards Wade Wakeland, now sporting his own set of gravitor gauntlets – albeit still the type that got toasty since those were the only ones that Menace knew how to make himself. The man solemnly nodded, "My team will be more than ready to assist." Leckter coughed, trying to clear some of the awkwardness still in the air, "Yeah… then it sounds doable.

Provided it's as easy to get in as you made it out be."

As Azure went over the specifics of the night's events, Ned gazed over the Tower map, analyzing it with a critical eye. Thanks to his own digging, he knew how hard it could be to break into this place between all the sensors, cameras, reinforced construction material, frankly labyrinthine ductwork, and various countermeasures against all sort of movement abilities. And yet every year, without fail, the villains of this city would throw themselves against it to try and snatch the Triumph Gems.

Ned wasn't optimistic enough to believe that they'd skip this year just because the heroes were having a hard time. The saving grace here was that when this place underwent a redesign shortly after the turn of the century, it practically became a fortress, complete with a central security hub that could strategically lock down practically any room in the tower.

While Ned had his misgivings about hosting the ball here, with the knowledge that villains were planning a raid, this place offered the most controlled environment to deal with attacks. The entire setup was hardwired with plenty of defenses against brute force intrusions that even people like the Human Virus wouldn't be able to crack easily or without being noticed.

And while Amberheart lacked a contract with the Sanctum for extensive magical defenses, the wards they did have around the exterior access ports would catch most attempted arcane intrusions. Except… Ned knew firsthand that there were plenty of flaws in its security. First and foremost was that a place built to house supers, some of whom wished to maintain some level of anonymity while coming and going at all hours, had to sacrifice complete surveillance or risk literally everyone tripping an alarm.

Ned wasn't really opposed to that for a number of reasons, but it meant Amberheart was blinder than it cared to admit. Blessing and a curse that one, since it also meant that it wasn't storing vast amounts of data on its heroes that would make it an alluring target. So because the system couldn't truly be automated, that meant there was a lot of human oversight for security.

In Ned's experience, that was the most common point of failure against infiltration, something he'd exploited plenty of times against villains in the past and absolutely no times that Azure could prove in the tower itself. People got complacent, missed things, and could be tricked or redirected. Oh, and there weren't enough of them to go around.

The Amberheart Foundation might be one of the biggest non-government, non-corporate entities in the city, but that just meant it had a lot of funding, not infinite amounts of it. And it preferred to use those funds on its heroes. So hiring prioritized hero support staff over security personnel.

And from Azure's earlier remarks, the Arrestors might be okay bending rules to help look after the city as a whole, but the Separation of Powers clauses baked into the AU's Wonder Accords meant sentinels staffing the place was probably a bridge too far. It would be really bad for them to show up on TV and prompt an investigation into both Amberheart and this branch of the Arrestors.

Ned's final red mark on the security system was obviously the fact that if you could make it to the security hub itself, the software running had a few exploits in common with the hero-net. Obviously, you couldn't access it wirelessly, but all software needs patches and updates so the hub was built to readily receive inputs from storage media.

Allegedly, one could make their way down there, chatting up some technicians and slip a flash drive into a port unnoticed if you wanted to make it harder to be tracked while running to and fro in the tower.

"It will be easy enough once we have someone slip into the security hub and manually upload a little surprise," Vandal smiled as she laced her fingers together, smugness radiating off her. Menace and several other villains leaned in closer, eager to hear how they were going to accomplish that, only for five of their number to sigh in unison. He turned his head to look at his girlfriend rubbing her temple while Wither Wasp, Leckter, Three Ring, and Miner Mole were all exchanging knowing looks.

"What?" Vandal Eyes hissed.

"We're using Ned's patch, aren't we?" Three Ring asked.

"Of course we are…" Wither Wasp sunk down in her chair.

"What? No! This is an infiltration program I designed based off confidential information of the local network! It-""-Creates looping data points across the network that selectively hides you and validates your credentials when scanned," all five former E8 members said at once. The whole room just stared at the five villains.

"He's brought it up more than once," Mole sighed. Sharp Shooter chuckled, "This is why I don't hang out with my nemesis."

"Fuck you, your guy lives on the opposite side of the country," Leckter said.

"Also, it's not like we arrange playdates with the bastard. He just… shows up."

"... Could show up more…" Wasp muttered to herself, barely audible between the groans from Three Ring and Mole.

"I-it does more than just that!" Vandal protested. Menace spoke up, out of the desire to move the conversation past the hero who knew his secret, "How are you even getting it into the Tower in the first place?" He got another smug grin in response, "That's on your team once more. Specifically…" Her head turned towards Sand Devil, who was clearly fixated on the projector screen still showing the expected heroes present at the night's ball.

It took her a moment to realize that everyone's attention had shifted to her, displaying a short start when she finally noticed.

"Me?"

"The exterior wards are calibrated to detect arcane magic usage crossing the threshold, but it has a slight oversight regarding Outsiders' natural gifts," Vandal explained.

"You'd be able to slip through the vents and carry a portable drive down to the security hub with a little guidance." Sand Devil chewed on her lip for a moment, "I thought I would be the one opening the locks to get past the checkpoint on the 20 th floor?"

To be fair, Menace had also gotten that impression when Vandal had laid out her plan regarding the infiltration, especially since she mentioned that neither of those doors were airtight and none of the other villains on the Tower Team had powers that would-"No, Turnaround can take care of that." Menace felt his blood freeze while Lyn's claws gripped his arm tightly below the table. Slowly, he turned his head towards the demoness, worried about what he might see.

To her credit, her poker face was immaculate, but he could see the shifting patterns beneath her skin slowing in the dim light. When she spoke again, it was stilted and awkward, "I… I'm afraid that to utilize my less solid form, I would be unable to use communication devices. I don't think I can-""Comms won't work in the vents anyways," Vandal interrupted, clearly missing Devil's distress.

"We'd be using some good old fashioned maps and notes. Don't worry, you won't miss the fun up top. Turnaround will be opening a sealed grate for you on the forty-first floor so-""Actually," Terrorantula cut in, "I believe I might have a suggestion." Before Menace could even begin to feel relief at his girlfriend's quick thinking, he heard the scuttling sound of those fucking little assholes and cringed. Well… Vandal had requested Outsider help.

"Please don't have them crawl up my leg," he softly whispered his plea, hoping that the twisted smile on Lyn's face was unrelated.

"I know crawling around is your thing," Leckter laughed, "but I think we want someone a little slim-" His words died in his throat as a spider-like creature the size of his forearm crawled over the lip of the table, prompting him to leap out of his seat in surprise. He wasn't alone when a dozen more of Lyn's horrible little fairy gremlins with eight legs all tiptoed into view from the shadows, a few descending from webs spun on the ceiling.

"FUCKING MOONS! When the shit-?!" Leckter shouted as lightning ran across him. Lyn chuckled in an alarming and disturbingly sexy way as far as Menace was concerned, stopping the various villains from vaporizing her minions when more than a few followed Leckter's example and spooled up their powersets. She gingerly extended a hand and let one of the closest ones, one the size of Menace's fist, crawl into her open palm.

"You didn't think I got into a fight with Ned the other night without learning a few new tricks?" she asked coyly before gingerly depositing the little fucker on her boyfriend's shoulder. He heard the damn thing whisper something to him, "Lord. We will serve the mistress." Thankfully, he couldn't feel its horrible little legs through the pauldron, which helped him resist the urge to smack it off him. Lyn was trying to make a statement here and he'd go along with it for now.

Vandal watched this whole thing play out with an unreadable expression, "... Alright. That might open up a few more options for us. Any other suggestions?" Menace let a few of the Street Team go first, especially since it looked like the Feline Felons were practically vibrating in their seats to change the victim of their distraction job, and Ion Ink had already raised some good points about labs Vandal had initially targeted.

Finally, the conversation began to steer towards the Tower again, when Crowmaster started to offer alternative escape plans. Vandal shut him down, "No, it has to be teleportation given the circumstances. Too much aerial control on the heroes' part. I suggest taking some motion sickness medication beforehand if that's going to be a problem."

"Okay… but if that's the case, can't we use portals?" he whinged. No one bothered to explain the obvious to him. ² Instead, pretty much everyone in the room just fixed him with the same tired look, causing the feather covered villain to whine as he sunk back into the shadows.

"Anyone else?" Vandal asked, and Menace got the feeling she was looking at the bag he'd dumped on the table before the others arrived. Fine, this seemed like as good a time as any.

"I had some ideas, all things considered," he said as he rose to his feet and moved a hand to the zipper.

"Figured I'd break out a couple of tricks I've used in the past."

Azure exhaled, glad this was finally wrapping up. To his right, Ruby gave him a pleading look to just end things. He nodded her way, earning a small and very relieved smile.

"We'll be finalizing some of the details discussed here today and get back to everyone regarding the changes," the blue-clad hero told the room.

"I'll be reaching out to those that volunteered for-" A knock from the door interrupted him. He raised an eyebrow as one of the staff members moved to see who it was. He turned back to the room only to hear a soft squeak of alarm from the direction of the door. A woman in an immaculate black suit with silver accents strolled past the stunned Amberheart employee into the room full of costumed heroes with the force of a whirlwind.

Ice blue eyes locked onto Azure, who fought the urge to shudder as they pierced straight through him. Trailing in her wake were two men in matching suits that were notably tailored differently than the woman's, neither wearing a tie. If Azure didn't recognize them as her assistants, he probably would clock them as her bodyguards. As always, they were escorting a small child between them. If the heroes of this room could spare a second glance his way, they might've been charmed by the Mr.

Wonder costume he was wearing. However, unfortunately for the poor kid who was clearly having the time of his life, everyone in this room was too busy to really notice it right now. After all, District Attorney Nightingale was not a woman you could afford to ignore. Her voice cracked like a whip as her gaze raked over the men and women gathered around the table, "Good. You're all still here. We have some things to discuss."