One short drive later, and I ascended to heaven.

Ever eager to maintain our working relationship, Kingston hadn't wasted a second in getting the prefab buildings air-lifted to the outskirts. To the point where I wondered if Clara had actually prearranged this before I'd had the idea. Maybe she'd even given me the idea subconsciously.

By the time we had dropped off the rest of the Disasters, I had long forgotten to press the techie for an answer. Teleporting to the storage yard had put me back in the southeast of the city. Our temporary residence was further to the east than our old home. Still, the familiarity of the area brought me some comfort.

Although that was nothing compared to the surprise I had asked from Roxy. Rather than a snack, she had waited until the right moment to give me exactly what I needed.

In one of the two residential prefab bedrooms, I melted under the weight of the best massage of my life. With her strength and ability to increase her body heat, all the tension left in my muscles from the arduous week evaporated.

[Any more of this, and my meat will fall right off the bone.]

"I trust you are content then?" The super moved off of my back, freeing me from her clutches.

[If only I had more fleshy parts for you to work your magic on.]

"The walls are too thin for that, and Clara does not spend enough time sleeping."

I turned on my side to look at the smiling super, the light in here dim from the covered windows. Despite our basic lodgings, she had seemed just as pleased to be back in the outskirts as I was. Now in a comfortable tank top and shorts, the soft peace made the past few days feel like a bad dream.

Other than the very vivid memory of asking her father for his blessing so that I could propose to her.

Maybe premature or tone-deaf on my part. It seemed pragmatic at the time, but now in the cold light of day we just had so many other problems going on in our lives.

"What are you thinking about, babe?"

My eyes refocused on the present, and on the woman sitting beside me. I held up my arm, inviting her in, and she shuffled down the bed to cuddle with me. Her fiery eyes looked into mine as her fingertips played on my back lightly.

[Just about how important you are to me. Both my guiding light and my rock to weather the storm.]

"Aw, you sweet talker." She gave me a kiss on the re-breather. "These last few days have been missing that charm."

[It's been an ordeal, hasn't it? I couldn't have gotten through it without you grounding and supporting me.]

"I'm not sure about that, Dubs. When haven't you been able to bullshit your way through everything?" Her hand moved up and ran along the side of my head.

[When I was hallucinating, it was thinking of you that made me realize that something was wrong. It stopped me from doing irreparable damage to myself.]

Concern pained her brow. "It was that bad?"

[I had a knife in my hand, ready to cut my eyes out.]

Blinding myself would have gotten me killed by the Witness. I might beat impossible odds more regularly than most, but there was a limit. If I had fallen at the warehouse, then the Aberration would have been set loose in the middle of the city. A little bit of stoic willpower and plenty of dumb luck had turned that potential calamity into a victory.

I took her hand and brought it down to my chest, where the handprint scar remained.

[You complete me.]

"Oh, Dubs." Roxy pulled me in for a tight hug. "I love you so much."

We remained in this content embrace for several silent minutes before her stomach gurgled. She released her grasp of me and locked eyes again, fire flickering in her gaze. "We really need to find some privacy soon."

Before I could agree, another gurgle interrupted me.

"Hells, you would think I never ate." She sighed and moved away to sit up. "It must be from all the stress."

I watched as she stood up from the bed and stretched out. She tensed and flexed various muscle groups before giving me a glum smile. "Feels like I've been losing definition, despite how active we've been. Kingston better not go cheap with my new gym."

Given the equipment that she needed to train effectively at her level of strength, I imagined the League would hope they could recover some of her old gym from our basement rather than supple something new.

[You still look like a goddess of war. Once you work out how to make a sword and armor, you'll be the talk of the city.]

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She put her hands on her hips and brightened up. "You think so?"

[Of course. Throw me a shirt, and we'll get you some food and go over some prep work for tomorrow.]

"Yes, sir," she replied, in a tone more flirtatious than dutiful. She threw me a black t-shirt from the pile of clothes and watched me as I stood from the bed and pulled it on. "You're not half bad yourself." Roxy brushed past me as she opened the bedroom door, eyes lingering on me.

Oh, how I missed the old house. I followed her out into the main section of the prefab. The single-story building had two bedrooms, a small bathroom, and an open-plan kitchen and living room. Everything was plain off-white or gray, and rather square-shaped.

Off to the side of the dining table - which took up most of the living room - Clara had set up a smaller side table with her computer, and was currently typing away at something.

Somewhat unlike herself, she remained focused and didn't have a comment to level toward us as we entered. I took a seat at the table while Roxy went to one of the kitchen cupboards to rifle around for food.

"There's a file on the table, babe. League sent over some... suggestions for the other outskirts team. I had a quick look over it while you were in hospital." She paused as she put a can away, turning to look back at me. "They must be eager as fuck if they had this ready to go so soon."

[I'm not sure whether to be impressed or worried.]

I pulled the file over in front of me and exhaled, rattling my re-breather. If Immutable accepted my offer, then I'd have to convince the Director to accept him. A pitch I'd work on when it was time to cross that bridge. I opened up to the first page.

The first hero was someone I hadn't heard of, even from Roxy's stalker room. As I read through the introductory paragraph, it became obvious why.

[This first one, she's only been in the city for less than a week.]

"Yeah." The super had crouched down to look into the lower cupboards. "In training and induction until yesterday, so missed out on a lot of the fun."

Although slightly suspicious, I trusted Kingston to have done enough vetting before sending any of these names our way. This hero was named Countress. Mid-twenties, from Seventh Province out to the east near the coast. Much like Roy, she had only recently learned that she had superpowers after an altercation with a mugger.

[It says her power is to absorb and reflect attacks. Potentially very strong.]

"I wish it went into more detail about the limitations." Roxy sighed and stood up, crossing her arms. "Apparently, she'd never really been attacked before. Simple office worker. No real hardship. She doesn't sound like someone who would fare well in the bullshit of the outskirts."

[You just want to meet her to see if she can block one of your punches.]

She held her hands up. "Guilty. We don't have anything I want here. I'm going to pop into the city, and maybe get some exercise in. We'll touch base about team building when I'm back?"

[Sure. Stay safe out there.]

She grinned and gave me a kiss on the head as she left for the front door. "Did you want anything, gremlin?"

"Just some more bread, please."

Roxy raised an eyebrow at the distracted and curt response, but just shrugged and waved to me as she left. The muted sound of her leap shortly followed.

I ran my eyes back down the page for Countress. On one hand, I agreed with Roxy that she sounded far too inexperienced for the potential horrors that came from the wastes. Alternatively, someone this green and new to the city wasn't so brainwashed and set in the expected culture. Better that than a League lackey who couldn't tie their own shoelaces.

A strong maybe. I turned the page and physically recoiled at potential candidate number two. Maestro.

[Did Roxy leave to avoid any potential awkwardness over this part?]

Clara was silent for a few moments, still typing away, before she finished and turned in her chair. "Sorry, what was that, Gunquake?"

[You're remarkably distracted. Anything I should be worried about?]

She drummed her fingers on her knees. "Future planning, you might say."

[Still working out how to tag along when I have a mission?]

Clara wrinkled up her nose. "I think I learned my lesson with the Aberration. Although being close to you at all times is preferable, I'm not exactly built for that sort of hardship. Which is a nice segue to my next point."

The techie turned to the computer and hit a key, bringing up a picture of her old drone.

[Back to the old faithful?]

"Unfortunately, Goldarch has limited options when it comes to drones." She sighed and turned back to me. "If I want to have an increased presence while keeping up with your growth, I'll need to look further afield for suitable technology."

[Something tells me you already know exactly what you want.]

"You do know me intimately after all, Gunquake. Coincidentally, when researching Neo-Scenia for our potential visit, I've learned that while their biotechnology is rather basic, their strengths lie in automation and security tech."

I sighed. Other than making it sound more difficult for me to steal that new mouth, there was clearly more trouble afoot.

[So you want us to take a detour to acquire one of their drones?]

"Not at all, Gunquake." She gestured toward the computer. "As luck would have it, I happened to find a few classified state-secret documents during my research. Sufficient information for me to build my own drone."

[That... doesn't sound like information easily stumbled upon.]

"With only dual-factor authentication and seven-layer server autolock, they were practically giving the documents away. Now if you'll excuse me, Gunquake, I have to reroute the hack origin so that it will appear to come from a company inside Neo-Scenia."

[That wouldn't happen to be the company holding the mouth tech, would it?]

Clara gave me a wry smile as she turned away, but didn't answer.

I shook my head in disbelief. After all those times she told me that she wasn't a hacker. As the techie started typing again, I cast another glance down at the paper giving details about Maestro.

We weren't friends, but at least I was on neutral terms with the man. The past was a muddy thing, and if Roxy could move on, then I was the last person who could stay on a high horse about it. He had stood beside me against Chevalier, which at least showed his priorities and enough guts to work in the outskirts.

The thought of him and Immutable trying to get along was amusing, but I would try to remain impartial with my choices.

I drummed my fingers on the table, but couldn't find the willpower to go through any more candidates. It wasn't that the process was difficult or tiring; I just had a lot on my mind.

Tomorrow, the Natural Disasters would converge at this temporary base for training. There were a lot of expectations that needed working through. Duties I had to perform as their leader to bring them together as a better team, not only improving them as individuals.

I also had to give Boss my verdict, setting the course for my future.

It was all a lot. Mental paperwork. Perhaps better than being beaten half dead every day, though.

"Oh, some good news, Gunquake."

My focus snapped away from my thoughts and over to the techie.

"Utterdark is back on the streets already."

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