"...with the known death toll at 98 while 33 people are still reported missing. Mayor Erlend Romanov again publicly appealed to the Australian government for assistance in rescue operations with no response from the federal government..."

I woke to find myself in a sparse loft apartment, laying on a futon in the center of the room, the television to my right which turned off when I looked, a workout machine to the right, a bay window at my feet. I didn't bother to look at what was behind me because my eyes settled on Eldritch who was sitting in a chair near the foot of the bed.

I couldn't tell the look on her face, the sun coming through the window behind her and silhouetting her body. I tried to shield my eyes from the sun and she apologized, turned and reached up and closed the blinds.

"Good morning," she said with a small smirk, her hair pulled back in a pony tail that bobbed as she turned back to me, her hand coming down to wrap around the other side of a coffee mug she held at her knees.

"Is it?" I asked, glaring at her as I stretched slightly and then turned to put my feet on the floor.

I realized then I was naked.

"Actually it's evening," Eldritch said as I brought the sheet around to cover my legs. "That's a beautiful view of the sunset behind me."

"Of course it is," I said, looking around, trying to find my clothes. "Where are my pants?"

Eldritch stood up and walked past me. I noticed a kitchen kinda thing on the last side of the room, a counter that split it from the rest of the place, where she grabbed a gym bag.

"Here," she said, tossing it at me. I caught it with my chest and opened it on up. "Isiah brought those over earlier today."

"What's the story Erlend's giving the press about me?" I asked as I pulled my clothes out. Just jeans, t-shirt, change of underwear and socks. All I needed.

"That you went back to your office after the press conference," started Eldritch as she walked past me and sat back in her seat, still holding her cup of whatever, "felt a little dizzy and a doctor checked you out. Nothing serious, minor concussion, scrapes, bruises, maybe a couple of bruised ribs. Recommended 72 hours of bed rest."

I nodded as I stood up.

"What's the real diagnosis?" I asked as I turned my back to Eldritch as I let the sheet fall, pulling on my underwear.

"Minor concussion, scrapes, bruises, maybe a couple of bruised ribs. 72 hours bed rest."

"Yeah, right," I said as I grabbed my pants and started to pull them on. "So we're looking at about 130 dead?" I asked, catching Eldritch staring at me out of the corner of my eye. She didn't answer, just stare. "Eldritch?" I asked, turning my head to her, seeing her smirk, her staring at me. "130 dead?"

"98," she said.

"With 33 missing," I said. "And it's been, what, sixteen hours now?"

"More or less."

"Okay, so 130 dead is what I have to prepare for," I said with a nod, putting my pants on. "Has Erlend really asked for assistance from the federal government?"

"Twice now," Eldritch said. "No response either time."

"When did he ask?"

"What times?" I nodded. "He first asked around four thirty this morning, again asked around noon. He figured that after no response the second time that they weren't going to do anything."

"Did he ask for anything specific?"

"He said any assistance they could offer would be appreciated. The Red Cross has set up operations for the injured and displaced."

"How many were there?"

"So far, sixty two were hurt, but most of those are from the Palace Apartments."

"How many rescue workers are dead or hurt?"

"Three died when the Palace came down, a handful were injured seriously enough to need hospital visits, all are accounted for."

"Could've been worse," I said as I pulled my shirt on and turned to sit down. "Who's been doing the press conferences?"

"Nancy's running most of them with Erlend stepping in once in a while."

"Nancy doing alright?"

"She's holding up."

"Don't give me that," I said, grimacing from the tightness in my back as I bent over to put my socks on. "She's probably better at it than I'll ever be."

"Roger Thompson slipped into a coma about an hour after he was taken into custody."

I stopped and slowly sat up, looking to Eldritch.

"He say anything about the rest of the group before he went under?"

"No, but his broken jaw may have accounted for that."

"I didn't break his jaw," I said, grabbing my shoes and leaning down again to put them on. "He was talking when I last saw him."

"Still," Eldritch said, "he's out cold and they don't know when he's going to wake up."

"How good is he otherwise?"

"Critical but stable."

"He's strong, he'll pull out of it," I said with a nod as I finished tying my shoes and sat back up. "Any luck on finding the others?"

"None that I know of. We have a list of names of who we think is involved."

"Do we know the exploding guy?"

"We think."

"Who is he?" I asked as I stood up and stretched again.

"Dean Williams," Eldritch said, "but you probably know him as Boombastic."

I froze.

"Son of a bitch," I said, sighing. "Are all of these fuckers people I've tangled with in the past?"

Eldritch was silent and I looked to her. She wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You have got to be shitting me."

"Simon Cooper, Roger Thompson, Dean Williams, you know them already," said Eldritch as she held out a finger for each, setting her mug down with her other hand. "The fast guy, Frank Sign, or Zoom Zoom."

"Shit," I said, sitting down, putting my head in my hands.

"The blonde girl we think is Tracy Pine who was last seen under the horrible name of CandyAss."

"CandyAss?" I asked, looking to Eldritch.

"Of the AssMasters."

"CandyAss?"

"The sixth one," continued Eldritch, holding up a single finger on her other hand, holding it up for me to see, "we can't quite pin down. Real name wise. But Erlend thinks it's Teapot."

"No shit," I said. "Fuck, why? Why the hell is this happening with people I dealt with?"

"Well, you probably weren't the only person to ever deal with them," said Eldritch as I stood up and began to pace. "I mean, didn't Victoria run into a few of them once?" I didn't answer, just thinking. "So they found a few more. Also there's the matter of your tactics that lends to this."

I stopped and glared at Eldritch over my shoulder.

"What about my tactics?"

"You leave them alive."

I couldn't argue with that.

"Another connection is that, well, clerical error seems to have put Simon and Frank into the same therapy sessions after they worked together on that attempted robbery Victoria stopped."

"They were let out of jail?"

"On probation."

"Why even that much?"

"Talk to Erlend about that."

"I will."

"So also in this therapy session was Tracy Pine. No one's sure how Roger or Teapot came into the picture, but we now think it was Simon, Frank and Roger that broke Dean out about six weeks back."

"Wait, what?"

"Dean Williams escaped after his police transfer convoy was attacked outside of the courthouse."

"Six weeks ago?" Eldritch nodded. "Why didn't I ever hear about this?"

"Don't you read the newspaper?"

"And no one followed up on it?"

"Who's supposed to follow up on it? The police think that the science heroes should handle the science villains and most science heroes think the police need to step up. So it fell through the cracks."

"Through the goddamn faultline," I said with a shake of my head. "That info's going to get out and we're going to have to explain why that happened on our watch. Shit, Erlend's policies are creeping up to bite him in the ass. Or, rather, this city in the ass."

"Would you like some coffee?" Eldritch asked.

"No," I said. "I need to get running."

"To do what?"

"My job," I said as I walked back to the futon and grabbed the gym bag.

"Which one?"

"Which one won't have every science hero in the city trying to beat the shit out of me?"

"Jeffery," Eldritch said, standing up, "we were only trying..."

"Don't," I said, holding up a hand to stop her. "You guys did it, I now know where you all stand. Fair enough."

I started to walk to the front door.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What the hell do you think it means?"

"Jeffery, you were in no condition..."

"Not after you all were done with me, right. But you had no right to get in the way of..."

"We were looking out for you!"

"You need to be looking out for everyone else, Eldritch. That's why we're fucking here, to look over the city first, each other second."

"And when do you look after yourself, Jeffery? Last?"

"I was fine, goddamn it."

"Jeffery..."

"I have shit to do, Eldritch. Two jobs to do and a friend to check up on."

Something changed in her face with that. Oh my.

"Is that what this is about?" I asked.

"No," Eldritch said, glaring at me. "God forbid people care about you, Jeffery. God forbid they want you to take care of yourself."

"God forbid they let me be a big boy and make my own decision."

"Sometimes you make the wrong decisions, Jeffery."

"And if that wrong decision puts the lives of others at risk, by all means, step up and stop me, but if I'm only going to cause harm to myself, then for Christ's sake, let me learn from my mistakes."

"Go be a big boy then," said Eldritch, throwing up her hands in a show of defeat.

"Just keep in mind, Jeffery," she said as I turned to the door, getting me to look at her over my shoulder, "you're looking at a team made up of people you've met before, every last one, all associated, and there is certainly a connection between Simon and Cassandra that you should be concerned about."

"What connection?"

"That they worked together in the past."

"As civilians."

"And that you just happened to go to her apartment the same night he happened to break in. And that she happened to invite you to a function that was the first instance of these people popping up on the radar as a group."

"You think she's part of this?"

"I think that there are a lot of coincidences here that you just need to keep in mind, Jeffery. For your own sake."

"Should I also keep in mind that this friendly reminder is coming from what may not be an entirely unbiased source?"

"You take from it whatever you want, Jeffery," said Eldritch as she crossed her arms and continued to glare at me.

"Yeah," I said, opening her door and leaving it at that.

***

I waited patiently after knocking, head hung, trying to work out in my head what I was going to say, what I needed to say if anything.

Did I need to explain myself? Was it necessary or needed or expected?

Was she going to be pissed with me?

Was she even okay?

Cassandra Trellis opened the door and glared at me, her right hand on her hip as she just stood there and waited.

"Are you okay, Cass?" I asked

"Do I look okay?"

"You look pretty upset, but aside from that I can't tell."

"Are you okay, Jeffery?"

"A little tense and sore all over, but I think I'm okay."

She nodded and we both stood there, me out in the hallway, her with the door open, neither of us speaking for a few moments.

"Can I kiss you?" I asked, giving a weak smile.

"What makes you think you have any right to kiss me?" She smirked slightly and I knew she was okay.

"Because I ooze with charm."

"Huh," she said, standing there and I figured that was all I was going to get right now. "You might as well come inside."

I stepped in and she closed the door then turned to me and slapped me across the face.

"That's for this morning," she said.

"What about this morning?" I asked as I rubbed my cheek while she walked away. Not that it hurt, but, well, that's what you do when you're smacked.

"Where do I begin?" she asked as she reached her living room and spun to face me with a little flourish. "Coming over here like you did, not stopping to get yourself taken care of, leaving me like you did, disappearing for most of the day..."

"That last one was out of my control."

"Oh really?"

"I kinda had an accident and woke up about thirty minutes ago at Eldritch's."

"What kind of accident?" she asked, hands on her hips, perhaps a hint of displeasure in her voice.

"Well, after I finished with Thompson, Eldritch and Lin tried to beat me up and I ended up falling off a building and landing on my head. Or something like that."

"Landing on your head?" I nodded. "Are you normally that clumsy?"

"Well, the fight with Thompson wasn't exactly a walk in the park and then Eldritch coming at me like she did didn't help either, and, well..." I scratched my head and looked down. "Yeah, I'm normally pretty clumsy, but landing on my head is rare."

"So you just woke up?"

"More or less."

"Do you know what's been going on?"

"About 130 dead and missing, sixty some odd injured, the Mayor's asked for federal assistance twice with no results, and I've been advised by a doctor to take three days of bed rest."

"Are you going to?"

"I'm not in bed right now, am I?" I smiled so she'd know I was joking. She just gave me a smirk that called me a smartass.

"So the Mayor grilled me for about thirty minutes after you left," said Cass as she walked to her kitchen.

"She did what?" I followed.

"Questioned me about Simon, how I knew him, how well I knew him, why he was here earlier this week, things like that," she said as she opened a cabinet and pulled out a couple wine glasses.

"No thanks," I said as she set them down and reached for the wine.

"What?" She gave me a smile. "You said you were tense, this will help."

"Aspirin will help. And should you be drinking with a headwound?"

"It's a scratch, Jeffery. Besides, the pain pills they put me on says alcohol may amplify the effect, so since they aren't doing squat for my headache, I say amplify away."

I just smiled and shook my head.

"So, Anna questioned you?" I asked as I leaned against the fridge and watched her pour.

"Yes, and I didn't appreciate her tone," she said as she finished and handed me a glass. I nodded and said thanks.

I wasn't about to tell her Eldritch's warning. Not that I believed it, but just the same, what would it help?

"I'll talk to her," I said as she turned with her glass.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I just wanted to give you a bit of grief over it."

"I'm more than happy to pass it along," I said as she held her glass up.

"So what shall we toast?" she asked.

"Living to fight another day," I said and we clinked glasses and drank.

"Oh," she said as she finished her sip and set her glass down on the counter.

"What?" I asked as she took my glass and set it down as well.

As soon as it was on the counter she was on me, nearly making me stumble back into the wall, her arms around my neck, her lips on mine. I wrapped my arms around her and went with the flow.

She pulled away after a few moments and gently put her forehead to mine, her breathing heavy and slow.

"That's for being okay," she said and I smiled.

"I need to be okay more often," I said.

We stayed like that for a bit and I kissed her again, on the lips but brief.

"I can't stay too long," I said.

"I figured as much," she said with a sigh and she brought her arms from around my neck and stepped away, turning to the glasses of wine and handing one back to me.

"I gotta go in and figure out what all's happened while I was gone."

"You don't need to make excuses, Jeffery. You take your job seriously. A little too seriously for someone who supposedly doesn't want it."

"I'd be doing the people a disservice if I did this half assed," I said as I stared into my wine glass, swirling its contents.

"So I've been meaning to ask," Cassandra said. "How do you know Emma Randolph?"

"Daggon's fiancé?" I asked, looking up to Cass who nodded while she took a sip. "She's the one that gave me the scars."

Cass nearly choked on her wine.

"Emma Randolph?" I nodded. "Did that?" I nodded. "How the hell did she pull that off?" she asked as she stepped past me and into the living room. I followed.

"You remember the Imperial Magistrate attack?" She gave me a look that said that was a stupid question. Which it was. "Well, when the Magistrate left, she forgot her sword. Which Emma, one way or another, got ahold of."

"And she stabbed you with it?"

"Twice."

"Why?"

"I was in her way, I guess," I said with a shrug.

"You guess?" I shrugged again. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you now know who she is, where she is. What are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing," I said, studying my wine again.

"Nothing?"

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked, looking to Cass. "I can't just barge in and beat her up. It's quite obvious to me after two encounters that I'm not quite in any position to do that.

"But, worse, she knows who I am, and THAT'S what I'm worried about."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know yet," I said and I finished my wine. "But seeing her did answer a few questions."

"Like what?"

"Just what she's up to and all."

"Are you purposefully being vague or is there a reason?" asked Cass as she gave me a smirk and stepped toward me, practically against me.

"There's a reason," I said, leaning in and giving her a quick kiss. "I should go."

"Have you eaten anything today?" I didn't respond, which was response enough. "Have dinner first, Jeffery. Please."

"I'll grab something on the way," I said. "Really. I'll eat."

"Don't make me mother you."

"Please resist the urge," I said and I kissed her again.

"Call me later," she said as I stepped past her and toward the door.

"I will," I said as I opened the door and turned to her, gave her a wink and a smile. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Just be careful, Jeffery."

"I'll see what I can do."