Chương 66: Chapter 64.5: Interlude 2

It was odd to watch a goddess yawn, Cali noted to herself as she saw Thana display the telltale signs of being tired. It was getting late, and her teammate Taggart had already opted to call it for the night, so it shouldn't be too surprising. But even after seeing how very… human the Stormdaughter could be, it still struck her as odd. A part of her wondered if it was a learned gesture, like the countless ones she'd needed to practice for years to get right.

She'd wondered if gods were like her own people, able to just pretend to be like the homa of this world. And yet, with how natural it looked and sounded, she doubted that. Somehow that made her feel alone again, like she was back to those first couple years struggling to fit in among a planet full of aliens. Nicole's – Wavelength's – hand brushed her knee, shaking her from those thoughts.

The psychic gave her an exasperated look that said Please don't make me help two people in one day, causing her to stifle a laugh. She shook her head, trying to indicate that she was fine. It was just a passing moment of melancholy.

Cali Carmine – whose true name was actually Ca'limithra Al-thura Ten-ten O'suvasha Who Rides the Dawn's Light, born to House Ys'thr's First Strata, and yes all of it had to be said every time back home – had long ago found her place on this planet with people who had been there to help her through the more trying times. Here she was, doing her best to do the same for a woman who dwarfed her in age.

It was a tad exhausting to be honest, but the momentary look back at the memory of a confused Travelbound, ¹ adrift on a world all by herself with a lot of psalms of emotion running through her mind, told her she was doing the right thing. No matter how much of an adult one thinks they are, life will find a way to pile on unfamiliar hardships upon you in ways that make you feel small and helpless.

Her friend, Samson Stellar, known to the world as Captain Cosmic, was one such example she was already attempting to help. She had just born witness to how much having the bedrock of others there for you was necessary, and if half of what Wavelength had told her was true, then Thana Alsdottir definitely needed the support. Right now though, she seemed to need sleep most of all.

Cali rose to her feet, doing her best not to disturb Orbit, who was beginning to doze off on the couch next to her and made her way over to Thana. When she offered a bedroom to the woman, she expected more of a resistance, but thankfully the storm goddess seemed to have spent most of her energy for the day and simply graciously accepted it with little fuss. Cali helped her to her feet and gently guided her away.

The two silently made their way through the suite to a guest room that Amberheart staff maintained for the heroes. That meant no one would need to hit the couch or use Sarah's old room for the night. Cali found herself glad to see it finally get a use, often feeling the overly large living quarters afforded to her team didn't see enough use. Rare was it for them to invite guests, and those such as Samson's wife, Sasha, tended to bunk with one of her team.

As she opened it up to show the goddess, she felt a strong hand rest on her shoulder.

"Thank you again," Thana said. Cali strained to make out the emotion running in the undercurrent of her voice, something she sometimes still struggled with even to this day. It sounded like embarrassment?

"Of course," she made sure to sound reassuring, years of practice helping her nail the pitch.

"We're here for you." Thana stared beyond her, back down the hallway where the sounds of the television were echoing down the hall, "It is a rare sight." Cali cocked her head to the side, "What is?"

"In the City of Orion, such a team as yours is not unheard of, but I had not the pleasure to be invited across its threshold. One that is as much a family as a party bound to the same cause, I mean," she clarified.

"I have spent the decades joining countless heroes in the field and more than one have offered me a night's rest in the aftermath of glorious conquest, but they've shared bonds that were different than your own." Cali followed her gaze back towards the soft light and noises, "Is that so?" She wondered if that was due to the hero alliance Orion boasted. The same sort she was helping Azure build here. She'd studied it intensely before deciding to work behind the scenes to help make that goal a reality.

Her research had found teams in Orion to be larger than their counterparts here, more akin to organizations unto themselves. In some cases, they might boast upwards of a hundred members, a so called "guild" more than a team. Even the smaller names often sported roughly a dozen or so heroes who would rotate active duty between one another in smaller groups. As was common knowledge, these active heroes would often overlap with others from different teams on patrols or responding to villain threats.

It wasn't uncommon to hear about a hero spending only a few weeks as part of one team only to join up with a different one that they'd been seen working alongside regularly. A more fluid sense of belonging than she'd found common in Victory, where the act of changing one's affiliation was a more notable affair. She'd originally chalked that up to being like a Strata or maybe even a House from back home, where everyone was roughly one larger family, but now she wasn't so sure. It sounded…

colder than she'd envisioned. Prickles of doubt began to weave their way across her mind, but she shook them free. Azure's plan was logical. The heroes of this city needed to stand united against the threats they faced. Cali of all people knew this to be true, especially as what scant news of her homeworld trickled back. Junea still lacked the unity of purpose in this sixteenth era, none of the Houses agreeing to a Monarch.

The League was able to lay siege to the principle moon with ease even as it waged its war across this planet due to this. She sighed, having felt the same division within this city so keenly with the same villains lurking in the shadows that so easily could be brought into the light should the heroes simply work together to pool their resources. Thana's head was drooped when Cali returned her gaze in that direction.

"I… Thank you again," the goddess repeated herself.

"I will take the advice you gave to heart." Cali nodded with a polite smile, remembering how she'd proffered the services of other Amberheart heroes so freely, frantically sending off messages when she was sure no one was paying attention to her. She didn't call upon the favors she'd been cultivating for so long for this, but instead leaned upon the compassion she knew her peers possessed, urging them in various ways to include the Stormdaughter as an ally in their patrols or battles in the coming days.

The intent was to provide a social network and support system for the poor woman as she struggled with the revelations and mysteries Wavelength had helped her discover. It would also serve as a good test run to see what issues an early form of the hopeful hero alliance might encounter.

Her mood began to sour at how easily she'd fallen into that line of thinking as she wished Thana a good night, remarking to herself that if High Adjustor Ul'akana Ma-thura Three-Eight A'kvalki Who Sings Truth and Peace, born to House Ys'thr's First Strata, could see her now, Cali just knew that she'd be aligned to the psalms of laugher. Perhaps even remark towards her 31 other siblings upon how her rebellious nature still led her back to the path of politics. Ugh…

by the grace of the firmament, don't let me become my mother, she thought to herself.

Quasar Sage nursed his fifth cup of coffee for the night, not expecting any better sleep than he'd gotten this past week as he watched Maximillion trudge off into the room. The man's armor was missing more than one plate and he'd stopped bothering to have his robotic assistants reapply the golden paint over all the burns and scratches. Despite this, the head of Orion stood tall, somehow appearing just as invincible as Mr. Wonder himself. Under the surface, Sage knew the man was running on fumes.

Every night he'd barely manage to make it to his own room before collapsing according to his own words. It had been more than a week since Sage had caught a glimpse of his actual face under the suit – which alone was a bad sign since he loved forgoing it while in the Towers – but he figured it was probably just as ravaged as his own. Still, the man of a million powers made it a point to nod in his direction after taking a detour here, which meant that he wanted to talk.

So Sage took his leave of the rest of the over-caffeinated and under-rested support staff he'd been helping out and pointed down the hall towards an empty conference room, figuring that whatever news was coming didn't need to be delivered in front of a score of people doing their damnedest to keep the heroes fighting for one more night. The truth was that outside of maybe three incidents so far, Orion itself didn't look any worse for wear after the League's relentless onslaught.

There were an absurd amount of break-ins, muggings, heists of all varieties, and countless other crimes, but you wouldn't have guessed how many aerial assaults by deathbots, kaiju rampages in bay, or unleashed superweapons the city had weathered by taking a look at it. Sage wished he could credit the unceasing protection of the heroes for that, but it was obvious the League was playing this game to get them haggard and spent, not to mention playing the PR angle like pros.

After the first few days, civilian life adapted to the fact that the sky seemed to constantly explode with battles between capes or giant monsters shutting down whole city blocks. The trick was that despite how brutal the League was to heroes and their usual MO when it came to ransacking a city, they were being careful here to keep the damage to a minimum and to limit civilian casualties.

It was so precise in its manipulation that the act of pointing it out would make the heroes seem even more incompetent than the League would have the world believing.

"Here's us holding back," they seemed to say.

"Watch your heroes fail you. Watch our limitless resources whittle them away." It wasn't like Orion's heroes hadn't bled the League in return. The Arrestors were working overtime to handle all the captured capes and dismantle all the confiscated supertech. Central Towers' vaults were filling rapidly with artifacts from rogue magic users and cosmic anomalies which would be handed off to experts for study and appropriate measures once it was safe to do so.

And they'd confirmed at least five large mercenary or henchmen companies had been decapitated, spent everything they'd owned, or generally just gone insolvent for one reason or another in Orion alone with several others struggling to intake their remains due to their own resource drain. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The League was just better about hiding how much its losses mattered.

Meanwhile, it was public knowledge just how many capes were in medbeds or on prolonged leave right now. The public didn't even know about the actual casualties and it still painted a pretty dark picture of how things were going. Quasar Sage's grim thoughts were interrupted when Max cleared his throat and he realized they'd made it to the secluded room.

"Draven's hacking attempts are getting worse," the hero said with as much forced levity in his voice as he could manage.

"Barely managed to crack one firewall this time." Sage offered him as much of a smile as he could manage, "Maybe he's willing to call it quits soon?" Max didn't reply for a second, leaning himself against the wall with a little too much force. The edges of his armor chipped the paint, but the wall itself was made of sterner stuff. Still, the hero winced when he realized what he'd inadvertently done.

"I think he's in this until Wonder comes home or one of us finally puts him in a cell," he said with obvious bitterness in his voice.

"Or they finally get what they want." Sage bit his lip, having already known that to be the case. The council at the head of the alliance knew that despite how vicious the fighting here was, this almost certainly wasn't the actual endgame for the League. Disagreements were on where that actually was. The obvious answer was Victory. The spark that lit this whole match with the death of Dr. Maniacal.

Reports were even coming out that the League's spymaster and other heads of their own council were there, having operated in secret from the start. But that was too obvious and there was no obvious goal in mind other than getting even, which wouldn't justify this much global response. But Max, in private, was oddly insistent that despite the League's penchant for plans within plans and misdirection, he was sure it was there. He refused to elaborate however, which led to Sage's own speculation.

In his mind, this all went back to Thana Alsdottir, but he didn't know the missing piece of the puzzle that Max was keeping to himself. Sure, evidence was that the guy who killed her fiance was also the one who killed Maniacal, but why would the League care this much? An attempt to bait the goddess out or offer her a trade in exchange for the one man she wanted dead more than anything? No… that didn't feel right. The math just didn't add up.

Since Max wasn't explaining himself, the other dissenting voices put forth their own theories. An attempt to lure the Dark Knight away from Hallowsguard. Experimental portal technology to shoot Mr. Wonder across the galaxy again on his way back home. A play to keep the surface busy while they raided Atlanthea's darkest depths. Some even speculated that this was actually all a smokescreen for the League to deliver the true final blow against Ant Hive to stop their rivals from ever rising again.

"The worst part about these big attacks," Max sighed, taking advantage of Sage's ear to vent like he'd been doing for the past week, "is that the top guys aren't monologuing. I tried baiting Crimson Dagger into at least saying they were there to kill me, but Draven shut that down." He'd made this complaint twice before already, but Sage nodded along anyways. It was part of that whole PR war. No one important was actually "failing" even when the heroes drove them off, which meant there were no clean wins.

Nothing to celebrate but a short reprieve, if they even got that. Sure, a lot of smaller villains would shout their plans immediately upon revealing themselves, but across the globe, not a single A-rank supervillain dared to offer a single explanation. Even Hell Harrier wasn't putting his feud with the Dark Knight at the center of his fights, even if there was no shortage of cursing the hero's name going on there. That in turn meant that the civilians of the world had no idea when the end would be in sight.

The economic effects were beginning to rear their head as travel and shipping was slowing down, afraid of being caught up in the multiple assaults raging across the globe. And with the heroes looking bad and the actual bad guys being careful to avoid directly hurting anyone not wearing a mask, the fingers were being pointed at the capes who were supposed to be protecting the world.

Even if the Protectors of the Globe acted on Max's suspicions and they turned out to be true, the League would probably respond by actually taking off the gloves and spilling blood. Then they'd be seen as abandoning Orion in its hour of need.

"We just need one solid win," Max muttered to himself. Sage stroked at his chin, while the mechanical glowing eyes of Max's armor stared out the window at the glowing lights of Orion. Then an idea struck him.

"Victory's about to host their little yearly festival," he pointed out. Even through the expressionless helmet, Sage could see the other man's confusion.

"I thought the same thing as well, but apparently they're trying to bring a spark of hope to the darkness, even knowing what that's going to invite," he explained.

"So you want us to throw a party as well?" Max asked, tiredness making his words prickly in a way that he probably didn't mean. Sage shook his head, "No, I don't know all the details but it sounds like they've been able to pressure the League there in a way that we haven't managed. Probably because they're still trying to be more subtle there for some reason." He let the statement linger, hoping once more that Max would share whatever secret he thought was lurking in Victory with him.

He didn't let the silence stretch long enough for it to be obvious but was still disappointed when nothing was proffered his way.

"I sincerely doubt the League is going to take it lying down and don't have high hopes Victory's going to be able to pull off a miracle, because I think Draven might divert resources so that no hero has a win, regardless of plans. But that means moving resources elsewhere." Max nodded and completed his thoughts, "You think we should reach out to the other cities to coordinate a counterstrike on the day of their party." Sage took a deep breath, "It'd be risky.

We'd need to get a view on how the other cities are holding up before committing. If anyone gets hit back too hard, it'll be a lot of bad PR on us. But if no one comes out of it limping too badly and we manage to defeat at least one member of the League's inner circle, it could be the domino we need to fall." Max tapped his temple, a nervous habit of his, "I'd rather try to have Victory's party go off without a hitch. From what I've heard, the Azure Avenger is making a push to unify things there.

If all the heroes there got together, it could be the speartip we need. They're practically right next door."

"Roughly four hours for everyone without superspeed or flight," Sage corrected, "and I'm afraid the League would put the extra effort into ensuring it will be a disaster, especially if we send anyone over there." Max shook his head, "But if it succeeded and Victory is able to send even the smallest amount of relief our way, there's a good chance we could break the League here and move onto Hallowsguard. Free up the whole northeast coast. That morale hit would be enough to shut down this whole thing."

Quasar Sage knew then that this was going to head to a vote. Max could get stubborn about things like these, and regardless, this kind of plan was something that the whole alliance would need to weigh in on. Still, between the two options, he could finally see an end in sight. A way to fight back against the villains who were ravaging this city.

"Alright, go get some sleep," he told Max, earning a laugh in response.

"I'd tell you to do the same, but fat chance you'll listen to me," the tinkerer waved a goodbye, leaving the older hero to head back to the countless desks full of people working their hardest to keep hope alive in this city.

Sarah Stellar jolted awake and rushed to the corner of the room, almost tripping over her discarded costume in the process. She cursed as she fumbled for the switch to a nearby lamp before remembering she had super powers. Her hand lit up, illuminating the corkboard, still covered in a sheet. She threw it aside and stared at the picture of a woman at the center of the whole thing. Terrorantula.

Her eyes fought through her sleepiness to read the printout pinned right below it, struggling to read the highlighted text.

"... revealed to be the missing student, Evelyn Everett…" Her heart was pounding, the dream memories still rattling in her head, calling back to this morning's events with the very drunk goddess as she slurred her words." Evelyn was right… I shoulda just been a villain…"" I'm sorry… Evelyn shouldn't have done that…" Her fingers trembled as she ran a finger under that name. The true identity of the woman at the center of all of this. Perhaps at the center of the League occupation, even.

A string led from the masked face over to Arex, a note pinned to it detailing a rumor she'd heard placing the two of them in the same bar the night the League came into town. The young heroine began to pace back and forth. What did it mean?! Was it really her that Thana was talking about? Could it be a different Evelyn? No… the mention of being a villain… Her fists, which she didn't remember balling, were now shaking as questions stormed through her head.

No longer able to contain it, she leapt over to her computer, nearly blinding herself as the screen booted up. She needed to access the hero-net this instant to find out what other Evelyn's could that be. But a sinking feeling in her gut told her she already knew the truth. But not all the truth! She would also need to check on Thana's own activity in the city, which would mean using her dad's credentials once more. Even then, there was a chance there wasn't much logged, but she'd need to scour every angle.

Every possible lead. This was it. This could be the big- A dark blue window filled the screen, covering everything on it. A very plain set of words were written across in relatively tiny lettering. The message read: It is currently 1: 43 AM. Electronic access is not allowed after 11: 00 PM. These services will be available again at 7: 30 AM. Please observe the quiet time hours and enjoy a good night's sleep, Young Guardian. Sarah grabbed a pillow and screamed into it.