The world’s smallest covert ops agency is hitting its stride.
Costigan and Parker have offered some kind of quasi-legal access to satellites, but Charade is adamant. “Knowing which birds we use will tell people where we are,” she explains. “For now I believe it’s better that we rely on our ad hoc solution.”
The team in Antarctica and their MIA partners both know the score. Half the world’s intelligence agencies are on the hunt for Alycia Chin, to get at the lifetime of knowledge about Achilles Chin and his tech that’s in her head. The other half simply want revenge. And MIA is in the crosshairs for sheltering her, although day by day the online evidence of that collusion disappears from the world’s servers thanks to Alex’s diligent efforts.
The team has tackled two other jobs since their run against the Golden Dragon near Shanghai. One was thwarting a theft of high-tech gadgets, which exposed an international spy ring. The other was preventing an assassination attempt against a well-known diplomat working to broker peace in a regional conflict.
Now the work is finally feeling routine. Get a data dump from MIA. Make a plan of action. Launch aboard John’s stealth jet. Carry out the mission. Defeat the bad guys and look good doing it. Do some vitally necessary shopping. Go home.
Life in Antarctica isn’t easy, but it too is feeling more comfortable. Some ground rules have quickly emerged. Everyone cooks, everyone does dishes, everyone runs laundry. Group meals use rice, beans, and other staples, slow cookers and woks, and plenty of creative seasoning to offset the lack of fresh imports. There’s a big whiteboard where people keep track of tasks and supplies.
Life without regular Internet access is a rough adjustment for a bunch of Gen Z geniuses, but board games and other analog group activities are helping take the edge off. Two activities in particular keep people coming back. The first is Alycia Or Jason vs. Everybody, a paintball-style hunt through the tunnels of the Stone Builders’ city. Either Alycia or Jason take on the other four. So far it’s been total destruction for team Jalycia (and Alycia takes special pride in shooting anyone who refers to it as such), but the scores are starting to even out a bit. The second activity is a regular tabletop role-playing game Nono runs, where she rehashes some of her old spy plots off Tumblr, with the rest of the group as spy characters. It’s an exercise with high competitive value and low risk, which makes it a great training device. And for Nono, learning the flaws in her plots is a good way to improve her own skills as a planner.
That’s why everyone feels pretty good when the new mission comes in. Parker’s prerecorded video plays, as people look at the data on tablets and other devices.
“Tyran Enterprises has steadily been taking control of AEGIS assets. Part of this is the incarceration of supervillains. Tyran is moving a few such individuals, including one especially dangerous subject, from an AEGIS West Coast facility to a Halcyon-adjacent complex. We have strong evidence that at least two runs will be made against the convoy. First, we believe that Tyran will try to free their prisoner covertly, through intermediaries or deniable assets. Second, there are indications that independent supervillains are planning to disrupt the convoy themselves.”
Jason starts. “Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Why would Tyran want to free supervillains they’ve been entrusted with keeping in lock down? I think I know why, but just in case anyone’s still in doubt.”
Alycia has this one. “The Stellar Six took a tremendous PR hit from their revelation as remote-operated puppets, cloned from the city’s heroes. The villain team the Seven Wonders are now effectively masters of Tyran’s New Tomorrow. They demonstrated on camera that they can shut off the Stellar Six with a snap of their fingers - literally. Tyran is therefore recruiting villains to battle the Seven Wonders on their behalf, while they either retool or replace the Stellar Six.”
This revelation happened in “420 - Revenge of the Seven Wonders” – Ed.
“Isn’t it in our best interest to weaken the Seven Wonders too?” asks Alex. “I get that it’s like asking Gigan to fight Godzilla, Tokyo’s gonna get stomped, sure, but isn’t there some way to swing this?”
John scowls. “A villain’s a villain,” he retorts. “Nothing good can come outta freeing more.”
Emma punches him in the back of the head - to no effect - and speaks up, in a more serious tone of voice. “I can tell you who else is making a run at this convoy. Chief prisoner Numero Uno is Father Freak. Big mutated dude out of Detroit. Super duper tough, like tanks a rocket to the face tough, and very bad attitude. Also drinking buddies with another well known villain, who’d be the logical leader of any jailbreak attempt. Mr. Big. My old mentor.”
She looks around with a worried look on her face. “Gang, I dunno if I’m gonna be able to go on this mission with you.”
And before anyone else can respond, she walks out of the ops center.
Alycia and Nono find Emma hanging out in the hangar, staring out across the Antarctic landscape beyond. It’s Emma’s favorite solo hangout, since only she and John can comfortably endure the cold without help, and John typically has no reason to interact with Emma. That leaves the two visitors struggling with the temperature in thick coats and mitts, while the pyrokinetic is comfortable in casual wear.
Alycia coughs, thanks to the bitter cold in her throat that fights to keep her from being heard. “You can tell me to leave if you wish, but…”
“Leave,” calls Emma loudly and distinctly.
Alycia and Nono look at each other. They turn to go, and begin walking, until - “Wait.”
Emma lets out a long sigh that turns to condensation a few inches beyond her protective heat shield. “Maybe you can help me through this. You with your particular background I mean.”
She turns to her partner. “Nono, no offense but keep your mouth shut for this, okay? You’re gonna be too supportive for what I need right now.”
Nono makes a lip-zipping motion, and Emma smiles wanly.
She turns back to Alycia. “Say that you got a powerful dad. He’s got a lot of pull with you. You struggle to go up against him because of that. But he’s doing a thing you’ve been asked to shut down. You worry you’re gonna earn his displeasure, disapproval, dis beating, whatevs.”
Alycia’s head tilts slightly. She thinks she knows what this is about. She suspects it’s as important to Emma to say it as it is for her to hear it, and so she listens.
Emma goes on. “Mr. Big isn’t my dad. He’s like… uh, you know those t-shirts like, I’m not the stepdad, I’m the dad that stepped up? That’s what he was for me. I couldn’t stand to live like I’d lived. I felt like everything had been a lie. And Mr. Big… he was okay with the haha, hot mess I’d become. And he said, you know, we’ll get you therapy, we’ll give you something to do, but he cared, he accepted me.”
She looks up at Alycia with tired, pinched eyes. “So I got two problems here. I don’t wanna go up against this guy who gave a shit about me. And I’m scared because he and his cronies are genuinely experienced badasses and I do not like our odds.”
Alycia opens her mouth. And Emma immediately cocks a fist. “Do not patronize me or sympathize or anything-ize me, bitch. I’m warning you.”
Alycia just smiles. “I hadn’t planned to. Your prohibition to Nono is understandable and I am complying with it as well. Instead I want to make two points. The first is that your intelligence about Mr. Big and his allies would be invaluable. Anything you can contribute to our plans would be welcome. That may be nothing at all. If so, I understand.”
Emma pauses, eyes narrowed, then lowers the fist and nods cautiously.
“The second is to say that while I do completely understand your situation as you’ve framed it - the outsized influence parents can wield - I will only give my advice if you ask for it. However, I would like to pass on advice I’ve heard elsewhere. I think you will be receptive.”
Emma looks cautiously between Alycia and Nono. “Yeah, okay, go on?”
“You are a supervillain. Your mentor has given you advice for supervillains, which you’ve often repeated. In this matter, as in all others, you should do whatever the fuck you want. It seems that your difficulty is determining what that is right now.”
Emma’s mouth hangs open, perhaps out of shock that Alycia has actually been listening to her past tirades.
Alycia jerks her head to the side, indicating to Nono that it’s time to leave, and begins walking away. Nono waves and smiles goodbye, and follows. Emma turns back, looking out of the hangar and across the white desert of Antarctica.