[color=f26522]“We need to go after them.”[/color]

Mary sighed and wiped the towel over her face, scrubbing away the last of the water from her quick shower.  [color=00aeef]“No, we don’t.  They hurt us, but that doesn’t mean we should do anything stupid.”[/color]  She sat on the desk chair, poking the computer’s mouse so that the screen came back alive, showing their latest internet search.  The Covenant.  Simply by searching the different factions in the city, they’d come across enough evidence that these were the mooks that they’d fought against.

[color=f26522]“What about Pipeline?  You think that he got away?”[/color]  They hadn’t seen his dead body lying on the battlefield after they made their hasty retreat, so it seemed rather likely that he was still at large.

[color=00aeef]“Probably.”[/color]  All in all, a completely failed excursion to go save people.  Things had gotten way out of hand, they’d gotten too deep into the fight.  Should have just bailed on it as soon as their surprise attacks had failed.  [color=00aeef]“So you think we made any enemies?”[/color]

[color=f26522]“Probably.”[/color]  It was annoying to be on the outskirts of the main groups: they didn’t know how other independent capes kept up with the news, but prowling social media and chat servers seemed to be the best that Maryland could do without getting an official contact.  It meant that it was hard to gauge the response to their actions, and to get invited to cape-only events.  Not impossible, but hard.

Tonight, amid the responses and conspiracy theories around the morning’s fight, a tantalizing bit of news stuck out.  Capes were converging on a large, rundown building, and digital murmurs of “Circus” came from the more knowledgeable theorists.  The way that Dragon hummed and hawed over the messages could only mean one thing: she wanted them to go.  [color=00aeef]“Do you think it would be safe, after this morning?  If anybody were there, they’d recognize you pretty easily.”[/color]

[color=f26522]“That’s why you would go alone.  Just don’t wear your combat gear, and no one will know.”[/color]

Mary raised a curious eyebrow; it wasn’t like Dragon to recommend something so… sensible.  But she had to admit that she was curious, too.  And it was true that she’d been completely covered up during the battle, so no one should notice her…


It was easy to find where she was supposed to be going.  Once Mary was in the right vicinity, she needed only to move with the crowds of thugs and weirdly-dressed capes.  She was hiding in a blue pull-over hoody that did nothing to convince anyone that she belonged there.  But she managed to slip by with few questions, since most of those attending were the sort to rape a nine-year-old, not ask if they needed help finding mommy.  She made it just in time to see the last big attendee take his seat, and jostled into position to see as best she could.  But she was more focused on who was sitting above her than anything going on below.  She recognized the whole Covenant crowd, and Pipeline.  Apparently not dead, though.  She recognized the others more remotely, from images off the internet.  Honestly, none of them looked as impressive sitting on their thrones as she had expected they would.