21. Lunchtime Perusal (Patreon)

A woman in black with a white fang symbol on her chest wandered into the room, joining the three or four other supers who slowly joined the tables. Levi glanced up and tossed her a jaunty wave, which she ignored.

“You know her?” Fira asked.

“Not really. Let’s just say we share a few niche hobbies,” Levi said.

Fira sat back, crossing her arms. “I don’t want to know.”

“And I don’t want to share, so that makes two of us!” Lifting the file, he angled the paper toward the table, trying to get the candle to light the page.

Fira leaned in. “What are you looking at?”

“Homework.” He turned the page. A blurry shot of a brunet boy with a pink-stained shirt appeared, circled in bright red ink with an arrow scribbled pointing at him.

Fira squinted. “Isn’t that…you? Yesterday, at the concert…”

Levi looked at her. He grinned, slowly, and raised a finger to his lips. “Shhhh.”

She leaned in closer, skimming the words. Her eyes widened. “This is a—”

“Shh, seriously, though,” Levi said. He turned dramatically around the room. “The walls have ears.”

Taking a bite of her pizza, Fira scanned the room. The low buzz of conversation filled the air. All around them, the masked supers reclined at their tables, casually chatting with their tablemates and enjoying some pizza.

“I don’t think anyone’s paying attention,” she said, glancing over at Levi.

“Yeah, but it’s less dramatic if I admit reality,” Levi returned, flipping the page. He whistled.

“What?”

“Ten k prize. Not bad, not bad.”

Fira squinted at him. “Ten thousand dollars, but it’s your head, though.”

“Right? I’m worth at least a hundred thousand.” Levi smacked the folder shut and stuffed it back into his backpack.

“No, I mean… you can’t use that money. You’ll be dead.”

“That’s what you think,” Levi said, stuffing pizza into his mouth.

“It’s not ‘what I think,’ it’s base reality.”

Licking his fingers, Levi shrugged. “I’m only joking, anyways. I wouldn’t turn my head in for ten k.”

“Good,” Fira said.

“Twenty k, though, I’d think about it. Fifty k, for sure.”

“Fifty k and you’d kill yo—”

Levi grinned at her, firing finger guns in her direction. “A joke, it’s a joke! I can’t make Maury cry like that.”

Fira rolled her eyes. “Maury wouldn’t cry for you.”

“I know she’s a hardass. I mean on the inside,” Levi said, patting his chest.

“She wouldn’t cry on the inside, either.”

“What do you mean? She cries on the inside all the time.” Taking a big bite, Levi paused as he chewed, then swallowed. “Mostly from frustration, though.”

“I was going to say,” Fira muttered.

A sharp clap sounded out, echoing in the room. The conversations quieted down, and all the supers turned, facing the far end of the room.

Three figures emerged from behind a curtain, ascending a small stage. All three of them wore white, loose robes, their faces obscured by cheap plastic masks of the big three supers of years past and present: Alpha, from his red headband era, the modeled face a few scarce years younger, Edelise, her Venetian-style mask characterized by delicate handpainted white flowers, and Thonk, his mask nothing but a reproduction of his brutal, broad face with its distinctive diagonal scar.

Levi clicked his tongue. “There really is no accounting for taste.”

The Alpha-mask-wearer took center stage. He spread his hands. “Welcome, one and all. Welcome to the End.”

“Not bad, but kind of generic. Three out of seven for the opening,” Levi commentated.

Fira leaned in. She whispered, “You don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to.”

“I don’t want you to.”

Onstage, the Edelise turned, glaring directly at Fira. She cleared her throat.

Fira blushed. She glanced down.

Levi shook his head at her. “Look, now you’ve made them angry! If we get kicked out, it’s all your fault.”

Paying no mind to the whispering in the back, the leader pressed his fingertips together, stepping forward again. “What we want is an end to this hideous status quo. The heroes endlessly looking down on us, the hopeless future, with no possibility for villains to thrive—this era must come to an end.”

“Lame.” Leaning his head on one hand, Levi turned back to his file.

“And how do we do that? By opening the Gate. Create an endless wave of monsters, such that even Alpha has no recourse! So many monsters that he cannot ability hunt, nor so easily suppress our plans. More powerful monsters. More monsters! More threats! Overload Alpha’s capacity, and force the other heroes to join the hunters, leaving the city wide open to us!”

“As if no one’s tried that before. Concrete. Give us something concrete. Prove you can do it,” Levi grumbled.

“And to prove my point, immediately after this meeting, I shall incite an Outbreak! A wave of monsters such that you’ve never seen before shall wash over Old Town, and even flood into Central City itself! Take advantage of it, my brothers and sisters. Cavort in the madness. And when you have taken everything you can carry…” The man lowered his head, looking the crowd in the eyes from the far side of his mask. “Come back to me, and I shall guide you to the new world.”

Fira looked at Levi. “Can they do that?”

Levi paused, then leaned in. “It’s not that hard to agitate the Gate…you should know. Gates love to spit out monsters, so it’s easy to provoke them into spitting out a few more. But it shouldn’t be on the level of a true Outbreak.”

“Oh…really?”

Levi squinted at her. “Aren’t you from an Exclusion Zone?”

Fira shrugged. “Our com…village was pretty far from the Gate.”

“Right, right. You guys don’t have an Alpha. Naturally, you can’t live close to the Gate. What was I thinking?” He nodded. “I’ll take you there after our lunch. It’s usually guarded by supers to keep idiots away, since, like I said, you pretty much just have to look at it funny to proc more monsters. If this guy can truly incite an Outbreak, though, he’ll have to do more than poke the Gate.”

“Wait, you’re taking me to the Gate…? What if he does provoke an Outbreak?”

“Huh? Isn’t that the best case?” Levi asked.

Fira stared at him, lost.

“If he successfully provokes an Outbreak, right next to the Gate is the best place to see it happen,” Levi asserted. He nodded at her. “Sure, we could run the opposite direction and be safe, but we’re here to get hints on finding your brother, not ‘be safe.’”

“But what hints about my brother will be at the Gate? I mean, I get that being there will tell us how they provoke the Gate, but what does that have to do with my brother?” Fira asked.

Levi spread his hands. “For example, if they simply used a certain precog to predict an Outbreak that was going to happen anyways, then set up this whole theater around it, we’d see nothing special at the Gate, putting aside the impending Outbreak. And on the other hand, if they actually attack the Gate, then…well, then we don’t know that your brother isn’thelping him, but we know it’s still just a chance, not a guarantee.”

Fira’s eyes widened. She nodded. “I get it.”

“Course, it still doesn’t explain those white monsters we saw at the concert the other day…but what kind of evil cult doesn’t have at least two cards in its hand?” Levi reasoned, leaning back in his chair. Reaching his arm all the way forward, he snitched another piece of pizza and chomped on it, listening idly with a bored expression.

Fira’s brows furrowed, forehead crinkling. “Wait, but my brother warned everyone against the Apostles. Why would he help them?”

“Idk. Maybe he disagreed with their innocent-hurting stance but generally agrees with their ideas? Maybe he’s being compelled to predict the future for them? Or maybe if he acts in this specific way, the future shakes out in a way he likes.” Levi shrugged. “Precogs are a mysterious breed. I never expect normal human logic from them. He’s playing blackjack with all the cards revealed. Us mere mortals have to guess whether to hit on seventeen; he knows that the next card is a four.”

“I guess,” Fira murmured, but her brows remained furrowed, and she frowned at the table, unconvinced.

The man continued talking for a while, but Levi’s eyes glazed over. He ate pizza and skimmed the file again, giving off the attitude of someone with nothing better to do. Fira yawned, occasionally noting down things he said.

As the speech wound down, a slender, shorter figure rushed out from behind the curtain, their back to the crowd. They rushed up to the leader and tugged his sleeve, whispering in his ear.

Fira sat forward sharply, then sank back in her chair, shaking her head.

“What?” Levi glanced up.

The leader looked at the slender figure, then nodded. The slender figure nodded back and turned, looking at the crowd for a split second.

A pale mask, modeled on a youthful face. Black wings at the temples, blending into an infinity symbol that twisted around the eyes, spilling fabric at the cheekbones to cover the sides of the face. Scraggly bangs, half-covering the mask.

Their eyes locked.

Levi jolted. He sat bolt upright, clutching the table so tight his hand curled into a claw. His heart raced.

“What?” Fira asked.

The figure froze, caught by his gaze. The pause stretched a few moments too long, and the leader turned, giving him a nudge. Tearing his eyes away, the figure rushed off without another word.

“That…” Levi took a deep breath. He released the table and gave her an easy smile. “…was nothing. Let’s go check out that Gate.”

“Now? He’s still talking—”

Levi stood, leaving the pizzas behind, and marched outside.

Fira hesitated a beat longer, staring after the figure, then scurried after him, completely lost.