In The Arena

Hugo Eligible Novelette (15,321 words; originally appeared in AFOUL & AFFAIRS from DefCon One Publishing, August 2024. Part of the Best Series Eligible RUBY KILLINGSWORTH Series (2024 installments TIME & AGAIN and AFOUL & AFFAIRS)

September 20, 2020

A-list pop stars very rarely come through Albany. The largest arena in town maxes out its crowd capacity at 17,500 and most top tier musicians won’t get out of bed for fewer than 20,000. But since the point of the Imagi-Nation festival tour is to foul Lyle Prather’s re-election campaign, and not to make money, they had happily booked the place. And they’d known all along they’d have no problem filling it.

Meanwhile, the Prather camp will be hosting a rally in the sports venue on the local college campus; they’d sell their place out as well, but that venue has a capacity of just over 5,000 people.

It would be like this for most of the tour. Even in the few cities team Prather has booked the larger venue, the Imagi-Nation tour is still poised to draw the larger crowd. Albany is only the fourth stop; the tour will be shadowing the President’s re-election efforts all the way until November.

The musicians and crew have begun settling into the work. The bugs and kinks that inevitably arise when a live show is put together as quickly as this one had been have been mostly worked out, and this fourth city is sure to be their smoothest show yet.

This is a great comfort to Lisa Yamamoto.

When she’d first been asked to take on some of the planning of the almost-impromptu, billionaire-version-of-grassroots tour, she hadn’t pictured being named Tour Director. But Ruby Killingsworth herself, CEO of Goblin Entertainment, and the mastermind behind this whole exercise, related having been younger than Lisa is now when she’d headed up her first pop artist tour. She had loudly expressed complete confidence in Lisa’s ability to manage things. And Miss Killingsworth is not a person who it’s easy to tell no.

Rolling into Albany, Lisa has finally begun to believe her boss had been right. Which is good, because the Albany show is going to be different from the shows in Reno, Louisville, and Dayton.

Albany is the closest the tour will be passing to Cobalt City. Meaning: almost everyone Lisa cares about, either personally or professionally, is coming to tonight’s show.

Perhaps most importantly, Yumi is here.

Yumi Kujikawa, college senior, superhero, Olympic athlete, and possibly the love of Lisa’s life, arrived in Albany just as the tour buses had, and she’d been watching Lisa work all day.

Being the Tour Director, it turns out, has perks beyond the size of the paycheck. Lisa was able to hand Yumi a credential that’s let her tag along on all the day’s business. It’s been a pretty routine day as far as setup and preparations go, and Lisa has enjoyed the way Yumi seems impressed at her level of know-how and authority.

Things have been the kind of perfect Lisa wasn’t sure was actually possible. She’s even managed to arrange for multiple vegan options for lunch without any of the artists complaining about a lack of carnivore foods.

She’s feeling pretty proud of herself as she sits across from her girlfriend under the lunch tent on show day, nibbling on a skewer of crispy tofu. Her walkie-talkie bleeps, then blares static. Lisa is reaching for the volume control when an unfamiliar voice calls her name.

“Lisa Yamamoto,” the device sounds, “front gate to Lisa Yamamoto.”

Lisa shakes her head and frowns. She unclips the radio from her belt and presses the talk button.

“This is Lisa,” she says into the device, “go ahead.”

“This is the front gate,” a man’s voice says. “And there’s a visitor up here asking for you.”

Lisa shakes her head again and stands up from the table. She takes a few steps into open space before answering.

“For me?” Lisa shakes her head. She’s not famous, and it’s not public knowledge that she’s on this tour—much less in charge of it. Whoever is asking for her has to be someone who knows her personally. But that makes no sense: her friends would call or text, they wouldn’t just roll up to the security checkpoint and ask to see her.

“Yes ma’am,” the guard’s voice calls back.

“You mean for me, me?” she asks then. “Like they’re asking for Lisa? Or is this somebody asking for the Tour Director?”

“No ma’am,” is the answer that comes. “Not asking for who’s in charge. Asking for Lisa Yamamoto. Specifically.”

“What do they look like?” Lisa asks.

“Um…” the man pauses. “She’s a… um… blonde woman in a business suit. Looks to be early twenties.”

“Yeah,” Lisa says back, “I have no idea. I’ll come up, see what’s going on.”

“What’s up?” Yumi asks her, turning in her seat to look over at Lisa.

“There’s a blonde girl asking for me at the security gate.”

“A blonde girl?”

“He said ‘woman’ actually. Early twenties. Wearing a suit. For all I know it could be Jillian from Miss K’s office, although I don’t know why she wouldn’t have called me first. I’ll go check. No big deal.”

“Want me to come with you?” Yumi asks.

“Sure,” Lisa answers. “You can. Or you can finish your lunch.”

“Nah,” Yumi says back. “I’m good. Angel, you want the rest of this?”

Angel DeSantes, tour headliner, impervious superhero, and internet celebrity, who has been stuffing a hoagie into her mouth at an impressive rate, just nods and reaches across the table, scooting Yumi’s half-finished plate of sushi toward herself.

Lisa isn’t surprised. Angel’s appetite is legendary, and the principal reason for the size of the Imagi-Nation Tour’s catering budget. A city is safe when Angel is around, an unattended plate of sushi… not so much. She and Yumi have been friends for years, so it’s no wonder Yumi handed over her leftovers voluntarily.

They leave the table as Angel is popping the first bite of nigiri into her mouth.

The security gate is on the far side of the lot from where catering has set up lunch, and it takes Yumi and Lisa almost five minutes of weaving through tour buses, grip trucks, and merch vans to get there. But it takes them almost no time to identify their visitor once they arrive.

Allory Greene is Yumi’s teammate on the Cobalt City University varsity fencing team, which Lisa manages during the competitive season. But they’re not friends. They’re not even properly collegial. And if she’s come here trying to score free tickets to the show by virtue of their acquaintance, she’s about to have another thing coming.

They aren’t yet quite within speaking distance yet when Lisa spots something the gate attendant clearly hasn’t—something that tells her Allory probably isn’t here looking for free concert tickets—a Prather campaign credential hanging from a lanyard around her neck.

“You see her badge, right?” Lisa asks Yumi quietly as they approach.

“Sure do,” Yumi replies. She speeds up then, approaching the swing arm at the security gate at a clip it takes Lisa a little effort to keep up with. “Jesus, Allory,” Yumi calls out as soon as she’s sure their guest will hear, allowing every bit of disgust she’s feeling to show on her face. Even Lisa, who’s usually very reserved around politics, is frowning. “I knew you were a fascist. But I didn’t know you’d gone pro.”

“It’s…” Allory is shaking her head as the other two draw closer. Yumi and Lisa can’t help but to notice she’s not holding herself together well, either. “My dad got me this job. I’m just an intern. But listen,” she says then, leaning in toward Lisa, “I need to talk to you.”

“No.” Lisa crosses her arms as she stops advancing.

“You heard her,” Yumi says then. “Get lost.”

“I mean it Yumi,” Allory says, her eyes growing wide and her grip on her Prather lanyard so tight Lisa fears it might come apart in her hand, “I need to talk to you. Lisa, It’s important.”

“Lisa?” Yumi asks then, “you want to talk to Allory or you want me to keep that from happening?”

“It’s okay,” Lisa says quietly. “She can talk to me.”

“Okay,” Yumi says, very obviously acquiescing to Lisa’s decision on the matter, “fine. Go ahead. Talk.”

“Can we go someplace private?”

“Shit.” Yumi is shaking her head.

“Do we really need to?” Lisa does not want to go someplace private with Allory Greene or anyone else from the Prather campaign, but she’s pretty sure their blonde intruder isn’t going to let them say no.

“You’re not afraid of being accused of something?” Yumi asks. “Insisting on being alone with a couple of lez-beings…?”

“You know I’m not a homophobe,” Allory says back.

“No, we don’t,” Lisa pipes up, shaking her head. Yumi reaches for Lisa’s hand and shrugs.

“Look, I’m not, ok?” Allory says back. “And I really do need to talk to you—both of you—someplace we aren’t going to be overheard.”

“Is anybody on that bus?” Yumi asks Lisa, tilting her head toward the gloss-black Prevost parked five meters to her left.

“Everyone’s going straight from lunch to sound check,” Lisa tells her. “We can use the bus.”

“Ok,” Yumi replies. She starts toward the bus, still holding Lisa’s hand, with Allory not far behind. Lisa’s face unlocks the door, which springs outward and slides away, and Yumi grins at the look of wonder in Allory’s reflection.

The three of them scramble up the stairs, where Yumi slides onto a bench seat behind two stacks of A-Girl posters: the ones on the left recently autographed, the ones on the right clearly awaiting similar treatment.

“You guys really know A-Girl?” Allory asks, inspecting the posters.

“Took her to prom, actually,” Yumi says back. “But… not like that. Angel is tragically heterosexual. But she is one of my best friends.”

Lisa isn’t sure why Yumi felt the need to out Angel as straight just then, but it probably has something to do with who Allory works for and the lengths he and his will go to in order to fuck up a person’s life—especially if that person is Latina. Or has powers.

Angel, being both in a single gorgeous, blonde, very prominent target, won’t fare well if the Prat Hats decide to go after her.

“Cool,” is all Allory says back. She’s looking around the bus nervously. It’s annoying, but also a little satisfying. Having her off-kilter and on Lisa and Yumi’s home turf feels like a win, even if they have no idea what she’s doing here.

“Yeah,” Lisa answers her. “it is. But you didn’t come all the way over here to see the inside of A-Girl’s tour bus. So how about you tell us why you did come over here.”

Yumi squeezes Lisa’s hand as the two of them exchange a look. Every day Lisa gets more self-assured and assertive, and she can tell Yumi likes what she’s seeing.

“Look,” Allory says, still fidgeting under herself, “The Chief’s real mad.”

“The Chief?” Lisa asks her.

“You know: The Chief. The President of the United States. Ever heard of him?” Allory snarks.

“You call him the chief?” Yumi asks, not bothering to hide her disdain at the moniker.

“Like ‘Hail To The Chief’,” Allory answers. “The President’s song…? He likes it. So we call him that. Anyway…. He’s mad.”

“Mad like angry or mad like crazy?” Lisa asks.

“Really it could be both,” Yumi adds.

“Mad like furious,” Allory tells them. “Literally anyplace he’s been this whole month there’s been this pop-up music festival across town. MerMeg and A-Girl, and Floral Riot, and Carlton Fairlane and…. Anyway, he thinks this whole show is specifically to target him.”

“That’s because it is,” Lisa informs her.

“What?”

“You wanna know how this got started?” Yumi asks, picking up A-Girl’s silver sharpie and twirling it between her fingers.

“Um… sure.”

“Yeah, okay,” Yumi agrees. “It started because Prather was using a MerMeg song at campaign events. Except Meg hates him so she sent him a cease and desist letter. And that pissed him off. So he showed up in the Goblin Entertainment C-Suite at, like, eight in the morning. He literally got Ruby Killingsworth out of bed to complain about it.”

“The audacity….” Lisa adds, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yikes,” Allory says.

“Yikes indeed,” Yumi says back. “You know what happens when the boss is in a foul humor? Absolutely nothing good for anybody. So MerMeg and a bunch of other artists got together with Goblin Media Political Affairs and they decided to put on these shows. The show itself isn’t explicitly anti-Prather, but everybody in it is. So yeah. Your guy was a brat to the wrong person. And now he gets to be the second biggest show in town every stop until the election.”

It’s not strictly the truth. The part about the artists coming up with the idea all on their own is a particular lie. The whole thing had been Miss Killingsworth’s idea, and she’d been pulling the strings all along. But the tour was set up to look like it was artist-led and company-blessed and nobody attached to it in any way is going to tell a member of the enemy camp anything different.

“Look, I’m not saying it isn’t his fault this is happening,” Allory concedes, shrugging her shoulders as she continues to look around the bus.

“You can sit down,” Lisa tells her, gesturing to a swivel chair just behind Allory. The nervous blonde nods, stumbling over herself to get to the chair. She sits then, and leans forward, propping her elbows on her knees and her head on her chin.

“I get that he started it, ok?” Allory says then. “But I don’t think that matters as much as the fact that…” She looks up at Yumi and Lisa, shaking her head fiercely as she grabs hold of her Prather lanyard. “I think you’re all in danger.”

“You what?” Lisa asks back.

“There’s just….” Allory is just as fidgety in the chair as she’d been standing up. “There’s been a bunch of meetings I’m not allowed in, and that’s never been the case before. And a bunch of weird crates have shown up on the trailer and not even the Secret Service is allowed to touch them, just the private security guys, and they always wear gloves and sometimes even raincoats when they handle that stuff. And then since we’ve been up here there’s been a bunch of Patriot Militia guys walking around carrying rainbow tee shirts and MerMeg merch and suddenly all those crates aren’t in the trailer anymore and…”

“And you think we’re going to have a bunch of badguys show up tonight and try to fuck up our good time?” Yumi asks her.

“I think they’re going to kill people,” Allory says back without a hint of the hysteria that was in her voice just a minute ago. “Between the things I’ve seen and the things I’ve managed to overhear, I think they’re going to do something terrible—like possibly ‘knocking down the building with everyone in it’ terrible. And then they’ll send in the local PD and the local FD and the local EMS—they’re all Prather people—and then some people will start a riot. And the story will be that the anti-Prather people picked an unsafe venue and the show descended into violence and then there was a riot and it took Prather supporting, law-and-order types to make things better and meanwhile there was a safe and wholesome event of the same size across town. I think they’re going to kill people and turn it into a commercial.”

“Well that’s fucking ridiculous,” Yumi says.

“What?”

“Those assholes really think they can get away with blowing up our event when we’ve got all the superheroes?” Yumi answers back. “I mean… you know about my powers, so I’m not giving anything away reminding you of them. Plus we’ve got A-Girl.”

“Hell,” Lisa adds, “Stardust is coming tonight.”

“He is?” Yumi asks, turning her head to look back at Lisa, who’s nodding. “Taking a night off from the mayoral race?”

“Yeah,” Lisa answers. “Lillia emailed me this morning. He’s coming up on the chopper with Miss Killingsworth.”

“Tell him to pack his super suit, I guess?” Yumi tells her. Lisa nods and pulls out her phone.

“You’re really not worried?” Allory asks her. “You really think having heroes in the crowd and on the stage is going to make it to where no one gets hurt?”

“Never said we aren’t worried,” Lisa is the one who answers. “What Yumi said is they’re being ridiculous. And what I’m saying is it’s a dumbass move to for a bunch of normies to try and take down an event full of supers. But there’s been plenty of damage done by dumbassery throughout history, and I’m sure these dumbasses are committed to their bit. We’ll be on high alert. And we’ve got more up our sleeve than just a few famous heroes. Not that I’m going to share any details of our security with you.”

“Right. Yeah. Sure,” Allory allows. “I could be here as a spy. I could be here to tip you off to see what you’ll tell me about how security on the tour works so I can go back to my side and tell everyone everything you said and then they can figure out how to defeat your security. I get it. That’s fine. I don’t need to know that stuff. I don’t… care. I just….”

“You just what?” Yumi asks her then. “Like… why did you come here? Why did you want to tell us this stuff?”

“Because it’s like…” Allory shrugs as she’s shaking her head. “It’s politics… you know? It’s politics. It’s tax deductions and corporate subsidies and it’s the second amendment and its values and its freedoms and yeah, okay, you’re willing to die for that… cool. Like… thank you, even. But being willing to kill for that…? That’s a whole ‘nother thing. The way to win elections is to make more people believe in what you believe in than what the other guy believes in, not to murder the other side’s voters, or to scare them into not voting. That’s not America.”

“As a woman of color,” Yumi says back, “I can assure you that it is. And that it always has been. But you’re right that it shouldn’t be.”

“And I appreciate your sneaking over here to warn us,” Lisa tells her then. “I’ll tell the people who need to know.”

“Okay, good,” Allory says, standing up. “I should go. I… I’ve got to get back. They think I just went to get lunch. But, look… I’ll call you okay? If I see or hear anything else?”

“Text me,” Lisa says. “Don’t call. It’s loud in there and anyway, calls can get overheard. But you can sneak off to the bathroom and text from inside a stall and nobody will be the wiser.”

“Yeah,” Allory says. “Right. Okay.”

Yumi and Lisa stand up as well. They follow Allory to the still-open door of the bus.

“Hey,” Yumi calls as Allory reaches the bottom of the steep, curved stairs down into the parking lot, “thanks. I can tell you’re not used to this kind of stuff. It was kind of a big risk to come over here. We appreciate it.”

“You’re… um… welcome. I think.”

Yumi and Lisa follow Allory onto the pavement and Lisa gestures to get the door to close behind them.

“I’m going to go talk to Sidney,” Lisa says quietly. “Think you can catch Angel when she comes offstage?”

“Yeah,” Yumi answers. “I’ve got that.”

“Hey!” Allory has stopped moving and turned around to look at Yumi and Lisa again.

“What is it?” Yumi asks her.

“When this is all over,” she says, “do you think I could meet A-Girl?”

“You know what?” Yumi says back. “This turns out to be something… yeah. Hell, you can meet A-Girl and Stardust. Whatever. But if you’re jerking our chain….”

“No,” Allory says with a shake of her head so frantic it nearly shakes the enamel clip out of her hair. “I’m not messing with you, okay. I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re acting weird. I still want your side to lose,” she assures them. “I just don’t want anybody to get hurt. All right? That’s all.”

“Yeah, all right,” Lisa tells her. “After the election. When we’re all back in Cobalt City. We can arrange for you to meet A-Girl. Maybe even get an autograph or a selfie. If she’s in the mood. But first we all have to survive until November. So… yeah.”

“Yeah, okay,” Allory says, pulling the clip from her hair. “I’ll send a text if I find out anything more.” One more nod and she turns again, this time charging away from Lisa and Yumi back toward where her car is parked.

“I like how you made it sound like Angel isn’t absolutely always down for a selfie,” Yumi says as the two of them also turn to head toward the arena.

“Listen,” Lisa says back, “just because you and I know she’s the friendliest celebrity on the planet doesn’t mean we have to tell Allory.”

“Yeah, okay, that’s fair.”

“I’m getting kind of good at this job,” Lisa asserts then. Yumi smiles as she leans in and kisses Lisa’s cheek.

“Yes, you are.”

“And since I’m sort of in charge of this whole thing and now I have been made aware of a possible threat,” Lisa says then, frowning as she crosses her arms over her chest, “I really am going to talk to Sidney. And then I… I think I should go meet Miss K at the airfield. She’s going to want to know everything and once she gets here there’s not going to be any time. Sidney’s going to want to stay here and coordinate our guys with venue security, so I think I’m it.”

“Sounds like it,” Yumi agrees. “I’ll tell Angel to have her hero brain engaged. We’ve got this, okay? The Pratheads have no idea what they’re walking into.”

~

Lyle Prather’s campaign events all feature top of the line security. They advertise it. They’re proud of it. Concentric perimeters. Metal detectors. Armed Guards. Bomb dogs. No purses or backpacks allowed. Signs reminding the attendees that all sworn law enforcement and active duty military are welcome to open carry but asking all other second amendment devotees to please leave their weapons locked in their cars. Something, something “law and order”. “In case of Antifa,” and whatever else. Getting into a Prather rally is almost as intensive a security exercise as getting into the actual White House.

The Imagi-Nation festival tour is taking a very different approach to things. In fact, most attendees, and surely everyone from the outside, would think there was no security apparatus in play at all.

That is, of course, not the case.

The security situation for Imagi-Nation is a direct result of Jaccob Stevens having been present around the swimming pool where much of the tour planning had gone on. In exchange for unlimited license to analyze the data, Starcom had agreed to lend the tour a full complement of next-generation multi-band scanners and chemical sniffers. Concealed within lightbulbs, merchandise kiosks, and cable covers, the scanners are designed to be all but invisible to the general public, meanwhile doing a more thorough job of sweeping the crowd for dangers than Prather’s full suite of very obvious machinery.

It’s literally the best in the world, and nobody knows it’s there.

“Whatever it is these Prat-heads are going to try and sneak in will probably get flagged at the door,” Lisa explains to Ruby and Jaccob on the short limo ride to the venue from the airport.

“Oh, they’ll definitely get flagged at the door,” Jaccob assures her.

“While I admire your confidence, darling,” Ruby tells him, patting his knee, “you can’t know that.”

“But…” Jaccob frowns as he leans forward to look Ruby in the eye. “I can know that. I know what my machines are capable of. I….”

“I have no doubt,” Ruby interrupts him, “that your security apparatus will pick up even the tiniest example of anything it’s designed to detect.”

“Then what are you saying?” Jaccob asks.

Lisa nods. She wants to know that, too.

“I’m saying they don’t detect magic,” Ruby tells the both of them bluntly. “A magic user doesn’t need a weapon,” she goes on, “she is one. The fact of the matter is, darling, that you and I haven’t exactly been sneaking around. Not all of Prather’s people are as dim as his base, and I happen to know for a fact that most of them make a habit of reading the tabloids. So there’s every chance someone has drawn the conclusion that there’s hidden Starcom machinery in the arena somewhere. And, if it were me, and I was looking to try and defeat Stardust tech, I’d do it with magic.”

“Yes, but” Jaccob says back, half-smiling as he looks back at Ruby, “you’d do just about everything with magic if given the chance.”

“No,” Lisa pipes up, a little surprised at her own assertiveness, “She’s…she’s right. She’s got a point. While the baseline Pratheads may think we’re doing arena shows with no security and might be planning to try and sneak in knives and guns and bombs and whatever, there probably are some people who’ve guessed correctly that we’ve got a whole lot going on that they’re not seeing. And if they’re super committed to turning the show into a riot they can spin for votes, they won’t leave that to chance. We should probably prepare for both.”

“We can presume the scanners will catch all the normal problems,” Ruby says then, smiling sidelong at Jaccob, “which means we can likely also presume that their second wave will think we’re under the impression we’ve caught them all. Which probably means they’ll think we’re all very proud of ourselves and letting our guard down.”

“Which we will not be doing,” Jaccob adds for emphasis.

“Correct,” Ruby says.

“When we get to the venue, I’m going to have a chat with security,” Jaccob tells them both. “We’ll make sure everything is as tuned as possible so that we really will catch any mundane threats. And we’ll have a chat about what else we might be looking for.”

“Are you sure you want to do that, darling?” Ruby asks him. “I didn’t bring you here for your security expertise.”

“You know I’m going to help whenever I can,” he tells her shrugging.

“I’d be a fool to try and stop you,” Ruby replies. “That ‘good guy’ stuff is hard-wired.” She’s smiling as she shakes her head. “We’ll be very grateful for any assistance you can offer.”

“I’ll do everything I can,” Jaccob tells both of them. “But what’s the plan if they really do resort to magic?”

“Oh, I think I can handle that,” Ruby assures him.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, Miss K,” Lisa adds, “are you sure?” It’s barely been two months since Lisa had watched Ruby stop six bullets with magic, knocking herself int a coma as a result. The last thing the festival tour needs is for the boss to wind up passed out in the middle of Prather-seeded pandemonium.

“Oh, I’m beyond sure,” Ruby tells them. “I won’t have the kind of time, nor the necessary ingredients for type of ward I’d like to cast, but I can make enough trouble for anyone trying to do magic within my bounds that, at the very least, the heroes in the room will see them coming in plenty of time to put a stop to whatever it is they’re trying to do.”

“So you’re just gonna make the building inhospitable to magic?” Lisa asks, both amazed and impressed by the idea.

“To any magic that isn’t mine,” Ruby corrects her. “Depending on who and what, and the flavor and the means by which their power manifests I may not be able to stop all of it. But I can make it hard. And I can make it hurt. And I can make it impossible to cast without showing themselves.”

“That seems…” Jaccob reaches, wide-eyed, for Ruby’s hand. “That’s a very prudent use of power,” he tells her.

“I do enjoy that I can still surprise you,” Ruby says back to him.

Jaccob just grins.

As the limo pulls past the gate and into the secure lot behind the arena, Lisa begins to unfasten her seatbelt. “I’m going to chat with Meg,” she says. “I think it’s only fair to tell our headliner what’s going on. Angel knows already: Yumi went to talk to her right after we got tipped off. And I’ve already talked to Sidney,” she says then, “he’s our head of security. Mr. Stevens, you’ll have no trouble finding him, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to have your help.”

“Yeah,” Jaccob says back. “I’ll talk to him first, get those calibrations underway. Then I’m going to round up every hero on this tour and have a little meeting. It’s been a while since I’ve led a team, but I think I still remember the basics.”

~

“I just want you to know this is going on,” Lisa tells Meg. They’re sitting across from each other in the little booth built into Meg’s tour bus as the show’s headliner works at gluing rhinestones to her face and neck. “We’re doing everything we can to keep the disruption to a minimum. Maybe, from the stage, you won’t even notice anything’s off. But in case you do, I wanted you to have all the information.”

“But you’re sure it’s safe to go on with the show?” Meg asks, picking up another rhinestone from its tray with her long, purple tweezers.

“Pretty sure,” Lisa answers her honestly. “I mean… we have A-Girl and Stardust on our side and together they’re probably enough to put down a riot all on their own. We’re about to have a meeting with the two of them plus anyone else with powers who happens to be around. We’ll let you know if anything changes. But for now you can presume the show will go on like nothing is different.”

“So if something’s a real danger the stage manager will put it in my earpiece and unless that happens I just keep singing to keep as much attention on the stage and away from the problem as I can?” Meg asks, quoting back the tour’s standing audience disruption policy.

“Yep,” Lisa answers, nodding. “That’s it. I have to get going,” she says then. “The supers meeting is about to start. Unless you hear different, just act like it’s a normal show.”

“Cool,” Meg says then. “I can do that.”

Lisa gives her a thumbs up and turns to go.

Jaccob is waiting for her at the foot of the steps at the front of the bus.

“She good?” he asks.

“Oh yeah,” Lisa answers. “We’re good.” She gestures to the other side of the parking lot, where Angel’s bus is parked.

“Cool,” Jaccob says back. “Angel and Yumi have rounded up a few other capes,” he shares, “the bunch of them, and your head of security, are already on Angel’s bus waiting for us.”

“Excellent,” Lisa answers. “Any word on the other thing?” she asks, gesturing vaguely toward the arena itself, where she understands Ruby is currently engaged.

“She says she’ll let me know when she’s done.”

“Ok,” Lisa says back. “Then let’s go to a meeting.”

Jaccob nods as the two of them start toward the other bus. No sooner have they begun walking than Lisa feels a hand on her arm. She spins around quickly to see Meg’s partner standing behind her.

“Maia,” she greets the other girl, “everything ok?”

Maia nods in the affirmative, but her expression says differently. “Can I…” she asks quietly, leaning in to speak quietly to Lisa and Jaccob, “is it okay if I come to your meeting?”

“Yeah, sure,” Lisa says back, taking her by the elbow as they continue to walk toward A-Girl’s tour bus. Maia is a near-perfect example of a particular flavor of lesbian sex appeal. She’s Filipina, with suntanned skin and gorgeous dark eyes. Her masterfully-crafted tattoos highlight her solid, well-toned physique. She wears her candyfloss-pink hair in a short undercut, rose-gold glitter eyeliner, and a tiny septum ring. Being this close to her makes Lisa a little nervous. “If you want to listen in, you’re welcome to, but….”

“Look,” Maia says quietly, stopping abruptly enough to cause Lisa to stumble, “I don’t tell people this usually. But I… I have powers.”

“You have…?” Lisa’s eyes are wide and she takes in a deep breath. She’s trying to keep her cool. She’s in charge even though Stardust is here and that feels weird, but she’s determined to appear competent and in control.

“Yeah,” Maia says back. “I figure you’d understand my keeping it a secret. It’s hard enough to be an Asian American lesbian in Prather’s America without adding the stigma.”

“I mean…” Lisa says quietly, “my girlfriend is Muramasa, so….”

“Wait?” Maia shakes her head. “Your girlfriend? As in: Yumi who I met at lunch…she’s…Yumi is Muramasa?!?”

“Yeah,” Lisa is nodding. It feels weird to have told Yumi’s secret like that, but it isn’t like Maia wouldn’t have found out as soon as they get to the meeting.

“I probably shouldn’t admit to the amount of NSFW art I have downloaded of her, huh?” Maia awkwardly half-jokes.

“No worries,” Lisa assures her. “I totally showed her a bunch of it the day I found out. It’s fine. So, um… what kind of powers do you have?” she asks, trying to keep the conversation relevant to the current crisis. They’ve got two more months of tour to trade anime representations of Yumi’s superhero alter ID.

“A lot of the usual stuff,” Maia answers. “Super strength, super speed. A little bit of flying.”

“Hey, wait,” Lisa says then, shaking her head as her mouth falls open. “You used to live in Chicago,” she says quietly. “And then L.A. And then Cobalt City and now in Chicago again…. Holy Shit you’re Aura Moonstone!”

“Name based on Meg’s song lyrics too on the nose?” Maia asks her with a shrug.

“Nah,” Lisa tells her. “Rock Ballad is a pretty deep cut.”

“But you knew it.”

“I’m a Japanese American college senior. Which means I was a high school sophomore anime girl when Meg wrote that album. I’ve been her target audience since forever. You’re cool, though. And we won’t tell. And if you want to come to the meeting, you’re totally welcome.”

“Cool,” Maia says. “Thanks. If someone is trying to fuck up Meg’s night and I can do something about it, I want to.”

Lisa nods as she starts them walking again.

Jaccob gets to the bus first and waits by the still-closed door until Lisa arrives to unlock it. The three of them amble aboard with Lisa in the lead, Maia just behind her, and Jaccob bringing up the rear.

“Jaccob!” Angels calls out, springing from her seat near the back hall and dashing forward to throw her arms around him.

“Hey,” Jaccob says back, embracing her in turn.

“Sorry you had to come on the night the show’s gotten all weird,” Angel tells him.

“And I’m sorry the show’s ever gotten this kind of weird to begin with,” he says back. “I’ll tell you what,” he says, “we’ll get through tonight and then I’ll look at my schedule and we’ll have Jillian look at Ruby’s and we’ll see if we can try this again in another city.”

“Really?” Angel asks him, looking more than a little dubious. “That won’t mess up your run for mayor, you don’t think?”

“I think supporting some of Cobalt City’s top musical artists in their fight against homegrown fascism couldn’t possibly hurt my political career. I’ll see what I can do about getting to another show.”

“That would be really great,” Angel says.

“Good,” Jaccob tells her. “Now let’s get this meeting going.”

Angel nods as she turns to head back to her seat. Lisa gestures for Maia to sit as well, on the end of a bench just to her right. Maia is getting settled as Sidney, the head of tour security, comes forward to stand on Jaccob’s left.

“Jaccob,” Lisa says, “you wanna…?” It had been Jaccob’s idea to get all the capes together, so she figured he’d want to talk to them.

“Yes,” he said to Lisa before turning to address the group. “Hello everyone,” he says, loud enough to get everyone’s attention and stop the quiet side conversations that had been going on when they all arrived. “I think we’re all well enough aware of the threat that’s been made against tonight’s performance. On behalf of the organizers, I want to thank all of you for your willingness to disrupt whatever plans you had in order to help us see to the safety of everyone in the arena tonight. Since a lot of us don’t know each other, and we’ve never worked as a team before, I think the first order of business should be to get to know what everyone’s powers are like—what we can expect from each other. In case anyone doesn’t know: I’m Jaccob Stevens, Stardust. Everything I do is tech based. I’ve got flight, forcefields, projectiles….”

“I think we’re all pretty familiar with Stardust,” Lisa assures him. Jaccob nods.

“Good,” he says. “Lisa?”

Lisa’s mouth falls agape. Had it occurred to her she’d be the one going next, she might have let him talk longer.

“Uh… yeah. I’m Lisa. I’m the Tour Manager. All the power I have is organizational. I’m… I’m not a cape. But I’ll have two radios, one on the standard show channel and the other on the channel we’re giving all of you. So I’ll be able to coordinate. Um… Maia?” she says then, indicating the woman to her right.

“Hi,” she says, waving her hand but not standing up. “I’m Maia. I’m Meg’s partner. Aura Moonstone. Super strength, super speed, low altitude flying, and just enough godsight to be useful. I’ll be in costume, but backstage unless I’m needed.” Maia turns then and looks at the girl to her right who nods and shrugs.

“I’m Liza McKinley,” the girl says. She can’t be more than twenty. Her strawberry blonde hair is up in a ponytail and she’s dressed in a black long sleeve tee shirt, cargo pants, and work boots. “I’m not a cape either. I’m a union stagehand. I do rigging and lighting for the tour. But security said anyone with powers, so…. I’m fireproof, shock proof, acid-proof, and not exactly subject to the laws of gravity.”

“So… you can fly?” Maia asks her. Liza shakes her head.

“No,” she answers quickly. “I can’t fly. But I also can’t fall. Makes me a perfect choice for hanging lights from catwalks and stuff like that. Also, if anything electrical is going on, I can help. I don’t have a costume,” she adds. “Because I’m not a cape. But I’m dressed for work and I’m going to be at work and the audience never seems to see the crew anyway, so I’m good.”  It was pretty clear Liza was done talking when she once again shrugged and leaned back in her seat.

“Yumi Kujikawa,” Yumi piped up next. “Muramasa. Legacy hero. Olympic fencer. Extreme heightened reflexes and an inherited magical sword. I didn’t bring my costume either.”

“Oh,” Jaccob piped up then. “For any of you who include magic or magical items in your work: we have some magic in our corner tonight as well. Our sorcerer prefers to remain anonymous, so they’re not in this meeting and I won’t be divulging their identity. But you may find yourselves having difficulty with magic inside the arena. Yumi, you may wish to summon the sword in the parking lot and carry it with you the normal way.”

“All right,” Yumi says back nodding, “good to know.” She’s frowning in Lisa’s direction until Lisa nods at her. The identity of the sorcerer in question may be unknown to some, but Yumi, Lisa, and Angel for that matter, know it as well as Jaccob does.

“I think you all know me,” Angel says then. “A-Girl. I’m in the show. Also I can fly and have super strength and I’m pretty well impervious to everything. Next?”

The rainbow-haired girl on the far side of Angel looks up and nods. She’s dressed in full coverage of lightweight, soft knits which she wears with pink sunglasses and a pair of cat-ear headphones. “I’m Julie,” she says. “I’m the tour comptroller. My cape name is Spectrum. Mostly because I’m Autistic. But also because I can see and hear things that humans usually can’t. Infrared scanning, radar, lidar, subaudible communication…. I can see temperature, too. So anybody sneaking stuff in is gonna get caught. Cold metal, volatile chemicals, whatever.”

“Cool,” Jaccob says.

“Sometimes,” Julie says back. “Most of the time it’s a pain in the ass, but I cope. And I’m glad to be of help tonight. I’m already in costume,” she adds. “It’s under my tee shirt and my skirt and my arm warmers. So, no problem there.”

“Yeah, hi,” the young man next to Julie says once it was clear she was done talking. “I’m Jeff. I go to school here in Albany and I work part time at the arena. Um… nobody outside my hometown knows I’m a cape, but I hate nazis and I overheard tour security asking for anybody with powers, so I figured I should show up. I go by Fist. Or Iron Fist. Um… I can basically turn any part of my body into metal. So: throwing a punch it’s my fist. Taking a punch, it’s wherever the other guy’s aiming. My foot if I need to kick somebody. You get the idea. My costume’s in my car. I’ll go get it as soon as we’re done here. I can wear it under my work clothes. It’ll be fine.”

“All right,” Sidney says when Jeff is finished. “For those of you who are new, I’m Sidney Ascot. I’m not a cape either but what I am is the head of security for this tour and I appreciate everyone’s willingness to help out. You’re all going to get earpieces. They’ll be on the same channel as tour and venue security. Except for you, Angel,” he corrects himself, “You’re going to do your regular thing.”

“Got it!” Angel says back, loudly enough for the others to understand how hyped she is for the added excitement. Lisa and Yumi frown at each other, but everyone else in the room seems to catch her enthusiasm.

The rest of the meeting is just Jaccob and Sidney going back and forth over possible vectors of attack and contingencies. By the time they adjourn, everyone has a pretty good idea of what they will be expected to do in the event things go off the rails. The new capes also leave with radio headsets and instructions to scatter and test them out.

By the time the doors open for the show, Lisa has checked in with Miss Killingsworth, Jaccob has put on the Stardust suit, and Yumi has summoned her sword quietly and carried it to a hiding place Liza helps her fashion from an empty electrics crate. They are as prepared as it’s possible to be when the threat is as vague as this one is.

No one is surprised when the scanners pick up more than the usual pocketknife and pepper spray on their way in, and even less so when a dude in a ball cap and combat boots makes a scene when he’s instructed to return his firearm to his vehicle. The first set of alerts from the chemical sniffers turn out to be the result of a Saratoga ranch hand coming straight to the show from work.

By the time Floral Riot takes the stage to open the show, Lisa is almost beginning to relax. Almost. She stands in the stage left wings with Yumi; they’re watching the crowd as much as the show. If the Pratheads are going to start shit, it’s going to start in the crowd, not on the stage.

Maia is in the stage right wings doing the same. She stands beside MerMeg, her rose gold and pale blue Aura Moonstone costume looking positively tame next to Meg’s scale-covered stage look complete with robot-powered rhinestone tentacles.

Liza and Jeff are at their regular posts, doing their usual jobs, while Julie has taken up the seat beside Miss Killingsworth that had been put there for Jaccob to use: on the floor in the middle of the crowd beside the sound engineer and light board operator.

Stardust himself has taken up a perch on a catwalk behind and beside a follow-spot operator. He’d been surprised to find the lights weren’t all pre-programmed, but had understood the necessity for a human-powered spotlight when Ruby explained Angel’s particular clumsiness and abject inability to hit the same mark two nights in a row.

Angel is floating around backstage somewhere, equally unable to sit still and unwilling to be in the way or cause the kinds of accidents she tends to cause when she gets nervous. She isn’t due on stage for a good while. Under normal circumstances, Lisa might have asked her to stay on her bus until closer to time for her entrance, but A-Girl is their big gun. Even with Stardust in the room she’s arguably the most powerful cape they have and she’s certainly the most powerful person in the company. Knowing what’s a normal part of the show and what isn’t might come in singularly handy.

Carlton Fairlane joins the band on stage at around the twenty minute mark and so far everything seems to be going to plan. Security at the stage level hasn’t had to do any more than they normally do to keep the fans off the barricade and according to Sidney’s voice over the security channel, the crowd is behaving no differently from the crowds at previous shows.

“Maybe Allory was wrong,” Lisa says to Yumi as the acts on the stage launch into their second piece of collaboration.

“She’s not exactly the brightest crayon in the box,” Yumi says back. “She could very well have jumped entirely to the wrong conclusion.”

“Yeah,” Lisa agrees. “It’s not that I doubt the nazis over at Pratherland aren’t up to some sketchy shit, but I’m starting to think maybe it has nothing to do with us.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Yumi says. “How much longer is the show?”

Lisa takes stock of the action on the stage and shrugs. “Two hours,” she says then, “give or take. Angel comes on two songs from now for three numbers with Riot and Carlton, then she and Carlton do an acoustic duet, then Carlton’s short solo set and then Meg does an hour and change before Angel comes back and does two more with Meg and then there’s the finale but there are always breaks for applause and sometimes Meg riffs for a while so….”

“So what you’re saying is there’s still plenty of time for the klan to start shit and for most of that time the act on stage will be a woman of color.”

“Shit, I hadn’t thought about it in those terms.”

“I’m not letting my guard down yet,” Yumi tells her, “But I’m gonna try and watch the show a little.”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry about that,” Lisa says. “I didn’t mean for you to come all this way to see the show only to have to stand backstage and be alert for hero duty.”

“Yeah,” Yumi says back wryly, frowning at Lisa as she bumps her on the hip, “because It’s totally your fault the nazis got mad and might be coming to fuck with all the work you’re doing.”

“I mean, sure, but….”

“No buts,” Yumi counters. “This isn’t your fault.”

“I know that. But I’m still sorry your good time is getting wrecked.”

“Are you kidding? Because right now I’m standing with my girlfriend backstage at a kickass music festival full of A-list acts I got to have lunch with, about to watch one of my best friends get on stage and be amazing. Having to do that with my sword stashed nearby doesn’t exactly wreck my good time.”

“Good.” Lisa is smiling when static from her radio hits her ears.

“Something is happening.” It’s Miss Killingsworth’s voice in Lisa’s earpiece.

“She sounds tired,” Lisa says to Yumi. “You think she’s okay?”

“I think what she just said is maybe a little more important than how she sounded,” Yumi says back.

Their earpieces crackle again.

“I was just about to say something.” It’s Spectrum this time. “It’s sort of in the middle of the middle, stage right floor.”

“What is?” Lisa asks over the radio.

“Er… electrons,” Spectrum answers.  “Um, electron activity. Somebody—probably a bunch of somebodies—they’re building a power source.”

“A power source?” Stardust asks, breaking into the conversation without so much as a moment of static from his radio.

“Yeah,” Spectrum says back. “You can probably scan for it.”

“Damn,” Stardust says after a moment.

“What is it?” Lisa asks.

“Spectrum is right,” he answers. “Now that I’m scanning for it, I can see it too. Looks like, I don’t know, a couple dozen cell phone batteries and couple of charging rods and power banks; they’re all being linked up to make a single, larger power source.”

“That can’t be good,” Yumi says, not bothering to key into her radio. Lisa just nods.

“While I agree that is of great concern,” Ruby tells the group, “That’s not what I was talking about.”

“Oh,” Lisa says as it dawns on her what her boss meant. Miss Killingsworth wouldn’t have any way to know about electron activity. She would only be sensing magical activity. But she’s about to say that out loud over an open radio channel; not everyone with a walkie-talkie has signed the kind of NDA Lisa and Yumi have. “Maia,” she asks then, “are you getting anything?”

“I am.” This time it’s Liza who answers. The audience is applauding loudly enough Lisa has to turn up her volume, but she’s as quick to reply as ever.

“Go ahead, Liza.”

“Yeah, so I can see pretty much everything from up here,” she tells everyone. “And I’m in basically the same spot for every show. And there are patterns. You start to get used to what the crowd is gonna do. And there are some people in this one not acting right.”

“What do you mean?” Stardust asks.

“So…ugh… how do I explain it?” Liza asks quietly. “Um… okay. So there were a bunch of people—people at kind of regular intervals—doing the exact same thing during the last Riot and Carlton number, and not the little dance thing that’s been all over social media. It looked like, sort of… I don’t know… marching?”

“Marching?” Sidney is the one who asks.

“Yeah,” Liza answers him. “Like marching in place to the beat of the song. And they’re still doing it. Which is weird as hell because the music stopped and everyone’s clapping and cheering and jumping up and down and stuff and these guys are still just, like, marching… in time to music that’s not even playing anymore.”

“What do you want to bet they keep going like that even though it’s not to the beat of the next song in the set?” Maia finally chimes in.

“But it would be,” Spectrum tells her.

“Huh?” Yumi asks, this time over the radio channel.

“They just played ‘Collapsible’,” Spectrum answers. “That song is at 170 BPM. The next song in the set is ‘Outrun’ featuring A-Girl, and that song is also at 170 BPM.”

“But they probably don’t have any way to know that,” Lisa says. “Because I’ve been with this tour since it was just a really good idea Miss K had on an airplane and I didn’t know that.”

“There’s video on social media,” Angel chimes in then. She’s flying across the stage with a giant smile on her face, waving to the crowd and hyping up the applause. Lisa marvels a little at her ability to join the conversation without letting on.

“I didn’t know you were on this channel,” Yumi tells her.

“There was an extra radio and I asked Sidney if I could have it,” Angel replies. “So I swapped earpieces. I’m mostly a feature in this song, and making sure nothing terrible happens is more important than the click track. I’ll hit my cue or I won’t, the other musicians will be fine either way.”

“Ok,” Lisa says back. “So what was it you were saying about social media?”

“There are videos,” Angel tells her, “all over the internet. This show’s had fancams at every stop. Anyone who’s wanted to pay attention has probably seen the whole thing by now. And there are plenty of people who would be able to tell two tempos are the same just by listening.”

“Okay, so they probably did know,” Lisa says as the intro for ‘Outrun’ begins.

“Anybody else think it’s weird they kept the beat even when there wasn’t one?” Liza asks the group.

“I think it’s creepy as hell they were able to,” Maia answers. “I’m looking now, and I can see it. This is just a guitar riff, the beat hasn’t dropped yet, but all of those guys you described, they’re still rocking back and forth like you said. All on the same foot, all in time with each other, and it’s a bunch of different groups: they’re nowhere near each other. I doubt any of them on the floor can see anyone else, but they’re still perfectly in time even without the music. That’s got to be something, right?”

“They’re still in time with each other,” Ruby repeats, “even without the music. It’s almost like magic, isn’t it?”

“Shit,” Stardust says then.

“Huh?” Maia sounds.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Stardust asks Ruby, seeming to have forgotten the rest of the people on the channel.

“Better than these assholes are going to be in about five minutes if they keep this up.”

Stardust lets out a chuckle. So does Yumi, but she at least remembers to cover her microphone in time.

“Hey,” Iron Fist tells the group, “I can see a cluster of them from where I am. Want me to something? I’m no expert on magic,” he adds, “but if there’s some sort of something going on that requires them all to be moving the same, it stands to reason that stopping one of them could mess things up, right?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Maia answers him. “But there’s a lot of them,” she adds. She’s in flight now, visible hovering above the second wing from anyplace on the stage deck but probably not the audience. “I think knocking out one or two, hell, even if we each knocked out one or two whole groups, I think they’d still have critical mass for whatever it is they’re trying to do.”

“And that’s without worrying about whatever the people with the giant battery are planning to do,” Spectrum reminds them.

“Yeah,” Lisa agrees. “I think maybe, based on the stuff Allory said she was worried about, that the battery should be our priority. But we keep an eye on the magical marching or whatever because I feel like that could turn into the bigger problem real quick.”

“Agreed.” Maia says.

“Miss Killingsworth,” Sidney’s voice comes over the channel, “I’m sending a pair of venue staff to walk you out.”

“Like hell you are,” Ruby snaps back.

“Ma’am,” Sidney says, his voice a little extra stern and commanding, “I cannot guarantee your safety in the face of whatever it is that might be going on. I highly recommend your falling back to a safe location before things get hairy.”

“And I highly recommend you remember who’s in charge of this operation,” Ruby tells him. “I will not be run out of my own show by a bunch of nazi fuckbois. I’m fine. I’m not leaving. And I’ll be responsible for my own safety, thank you very much.”

“It’s all right, Sidney,” Stardust says. “Ruby can handle herself. And She’s got both me and A-girl to get her clear of the fray if it comes to that. It’s not worth the time and energy to argue with her on this one.”

“All right,” Sidney acquiesces in a tone that tells everyone on the channel he’s not happy with the resolution.

Stardust snickers quietly. A-girl laughs out loud. It’s pretty clear to everyone in the know that Sidney has yet to be informed of Miss Killingsworth’s abilities.

“Want me to light them up?” Liza asks the group.

“I don’t think we’re at the point where we need to start blowing things up yet,” Maia says back.

“No,” Liza says back. “I meant… light. With a light. I’m up here with a follow spot. Right now it’s on A-girl, but I can turn it to the battery people. Might spook them into stopping, at the very least it would let you see them better.”

“Only if we want them to know they’re caught,” Yumi answers her. “I don’t know if we want to do that.”

“Why not?” A-Girl asks.

“Because they haven’t actually done anything wrong yet,” Lisa answers. “They’re acting weird. But there’s no rule against acting weird. They’re marching in time like an asshole army, but like Spectrum said, they were sort of in time to the music. There’s nothing technically wrong with anything they’re doing. Which means we can’t throw them out. We let on that we know they’re up to something and maybe they cut it out but that doesn’t seem likely. We spook them now and there’s no telling what they’ll end up doing.”

“So you wanna give them enough rope to hang themselves with,” Yumi says.

“I think so,” Lisa answers. “Stardust? Thoughts?”

“Yeah,” he says back. “Lisa’s got a point. We could probably stop them now, freak ‘em out a little, maybe even get them to leave. But the best we could hope for after that is a bunch of Prat-hats popping off to every news channel in America with their sob story of getting kicked out of a concert just because of who they are, or picked on because of their politics and made to feel uncomfortable or whatever. We want to stay ahead of this, we probably need to wait until they do something worthy of getting tossed out on their backsides, that way we don’t look like the intolerant jerks in this situation.”

“Remind me to explain the paradox of tolerance to you later,” Yumi says to Stardust.

“I’ll remind you,” Lisa tells her. “But he’s right about this. It’s not about reality, it’s about perception. And we don’t need to be the ones throwing people out just because we don’t like them. I mean, I wish we could, but it really in our best interests not to be seen as the bad guys. Being able to say they were welcome here, that the music is for everyone, and that we only made a move against them after they made trouble first is going to be the better move.”

“Hey Lisa,” Maia’s voice over the radio, “can you see me?”

“Yeah.” Lisa looks up and waves at Maia across the stage.

Maia gives her a nod and a thumbs up. Then she gestures to her radio and her earpiece with her left hand while making the sign for the letter “C” in ASL with her right.

Lisa echoes the gesture, pretty sure she knows what’s being asked of her.

“What’s up?” Yumi asks.

“Maia wants to talk to me on a private channel.”

“You should probably do that,” Yumi says. “She says she’s got just enough godsight to be useful; if there’s something she thinks she can see coming but doesn’t want to announce it to everyone….”

Lisa doesn’t need to hear any more. She nods at both Yumi and Maia as she turns the dial that set her radio to channel C.

“Hey Maia, what’s up?” Lisa can’t imagine what Aura Moonstone wants to say to her on a private channel, but Yumi was probably correct: whatever it is will probably be timely, and worth hearing. She could see Maia walking a few steps into the wings, far enough away from everyone else on stage right that it’s unlikely she’d be overheard.

“Yeah, ok,” Maia says quietly as soon as she’s visibly alone, “I’m about to ask you a question and the only thing you’re going to say back to me is no.”

“I’m…?”

“That means.” Maia doesn’t even pause, “if the answer to my question isn’t no, then you’re just not going to say anything at all. Got it?”

“Um… I think so.”

“Okay, good.” Maia turned around to check that she was still out of earshot of anyone else on her side of the stage. “Miss Killingsworth has powers, doesn’t she?”

Lisa swallows hard. “Uh…” She’d have known she looked like a deer in headlights even if Yumi didn’t turn and put a hand on her arm.

“Everything ok?” Yumi asks her.

“I don’t know,” is all Lisa had the chance to say before Maia’s voice is in her earpiece again.

“Yeah, all right.”

“Maia,” Lisa says, “I…”

“Nope,” Maia interrupts her. “You’re not going to say anything else. I get it, okay? You’re under embargo, or NDA or you know something you’re not supposed to. And you don’t want to get fired, or sued, or whatever. I had a hunch and that’s all this is. But Sidney is over here having an actual meltdown over the CEO’s safety and I want to say something to talk him down but I didn’t want to be too far off base.”

“I…” Lisa forces herself to take a deep breath. Having their head of security in a panic over Miss Killingsworth could turn out badly for all involved. If Maia really thinks she can help…. “What are you going to say?”

“I’ll leave the channel open,” Maia declares as she turns to head to where Sidney is standing. “You hear me go anywhere you think I shouldn’t, just tell me to stop.”

“Ok?” Lisa tries not to panic as Maia crosses to Sidney and taps him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Hey,” Maia says “I just figured something out and I think it’s something you ought to know.” There’s a pause; Sidney is probably saying something back, but it’s only a moment before Maia starts talking again. “I’m pretty sure Miss Killingsworth has powers,” she says bluntly. “Either that or she’s wearing so much Stardust tech it wouldn’t matter if she did.” Another pause. Lisa can see Sidney’s expression, and that he’s talking, but she can’t read lips and has no idea what he’s saying. “Look,” Maia starts again, “Capes talk, okay? And Stardust has a bit of a reputation. And I just can’t imagine he’d be anywhere near as chill about her not leaving as he is right now if there was any chance in the world that something bad was going to happen to her. So that means either she’s got powers they’re not telling the rest of us about or he’s got her wired up like some sort of science experiment. Either way I don’t think we need to be worrying about her. I think it’s better we accept that she’s going to be fine because otherwise Stardust would be having a fit right now and keep our attention on the bad guys….”

Maia’s voice is cut off by the sound of Lisa’s radio switching channels. She catches Yumi’s hand on the dial just as she steps in front of Lisa to block her view of the far wings. Lisa frowns but doesn’t protest. If Yumi’s being this insistent, there’s certainly a good reason for it. Maia would either handle Sidney or she wouldn’t, but Lisa had heard enough to be confident she wasn’t going to get anyone in trouble vis-à-vis Miss Killingsworth’s powers.

“Repeat what you just said, please,” Yumi says to everyone, “Lisa didn’t have her ears on.”

“They’re not building a power source,” Spectrum says, “they’re building a bomb.” Her affect is so matter-of-fact it takes Lisa a moment to process the words she’s just uttered.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

“I’m sure,” Spectrum answers.

“I’m sure, too,” Stardust adds.

“How?” Lisa asks the group. “There’s no way anything explosive got through security.”

“A pair of nine-volt batteries will explode if you put them together the right way,” Spectrum says back.

“And wait until someone tells you about peroxide and nail polish remover,” Iron fist adds.

“This bunch of meatheads is pulling the batteries from their cell phones and charging banks and it’s already starting to heat up,” Spectrum tells them. “Sooner than later, it’s all going to explode.”

“Well, shit,” Yumi says.

“No worries,” A-Girl asserts then. She’s flown off the stage and over the audience to where she has an unimpeded bird’s-eye view of the goings on with the power banks and cell phone batteries.

“What…?” Sidney has apparently finished his chat with Aura Moonstone. “Yes, worries,” he insists, “many worries!”

“Nah,” A-Girl says back. “Spectrum and Stardust should be able to tell me right before the thing’s about to go off and I’ll just land on it, or pick it up and fly into open space and make it look like it’s part of the show. Might mess up my costume, but that’s nothing we can’t fix. A bomb that size won’t… oof- just a second….”

Angel keys off her radio just in time to sing her part at the end of the bridge of the song.

“So,” Maia is now back on the channel as well, “if that little explosion was their big plan, and A-Girl has that handled….”

“That’s not the whole plan,” Stardust tells them all.

“It isn’t?” Lisa asks.

“That marching,” Stardust says then, “it’s the beginnings of a control spell. They’re trying to work the crowd onto the verge of panic with magic. That way the explosion will set off genuine pandemonium and they can get a riot started without it being obvious they’re the ones who started it.”

“That’s pretty much what Allory said she suspected they might try to do,” Yumi tells the group. Then to just Lisa, she says, “but I kind of want to know how Stardust knows what kind of magic the Pratheads are up to. Because that’s not really his thing, you know?”

“Yeah,” Lisa nods her agreement. “I’m guessing he got it from Miss K somehow. I mean… she’s not going to talk about magic stuff on an open channel, but she has a way to DM the suit, so she probably just told him.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” Yumi switches her radio back on. “So…um… Stardust,” she says into the channel, “how well would you say the wards on the building are working on their marching magic?”

“I can see one of these guys near me has a nosebleed,” Iron Fist offers, “so I think that means they’re at least feeling it.”

“Yeah,” Stardust answers, “it’s um….”

He’s vamping and Lisa can tell. Probably exchanging texts or sub audibles with Ruby.

“If you’re not sure yet,” Yumi begins to say.

“That nosebleed is something,” Stardust interrupts her. “The magic is going to be weaker, and it’s going to be a whole lot harder to cast than they’re probably prepared for. But our sorcerer didn’t have a lot of time, nor the right materials, so some of what they’re working is likely to land. The best we can do is to be ready for it. A-Girl taking control of the bomb is a good start, but we’re going to want a coordinated effort to put down the marching once she does or else the venue might erupt into chaos even without the explosion.”

“How pissed you think Miss K is right now?” Yumi leans in to ask Lisa in her ear.

“I think she doesn’t pay me enough to ride back to the airfield with her after this is over,” Lisa answers.

“Yeah, no shit. Glad I have my own ride back to Cobalt City.”

“Stardust,” Liza says then, “I’m about to take this spotlight and run it around the arena like it’s part of the show—it’s going to look completely random. But if you can tell me every place you see people marching, I can make sure the light lands on them for long enough that all the capes will know they’re there. That way y’all can figure out who’s going where and who’s going to beat up whom.”

“Good thinking,” Stardust tells her.

Lisa partly zones out as Stardust and Liza spend the next few minutes spotlighting various groups of audience members. At one point a second spotlight joins in, and then a third, until it really does look as though it’s all just a random light show meant to dial up excitement during the segue from “Outrun” to “Blast”.

The capes all agree on who will start where in service of knocking out the marching when the time comes. Lisa considers for a moment checking in with Miss Killingsworth, but decides against it. She’s probably in a very bad mood, and possibly trying to work magic without being noticed. Either way it’s probably a bad idea to interrupt her.

Yumi kisses Lisa’s cheek before heading into the crowd to wait for her cue to act. As the only cape currently backstage who lacks the ability to fly, she’ll have to get close to her assigned group of marchers on foot. She isn’t taking her sword; it’s a precaution against inciting further panic in the crowd, but Lisa isn’t sure she likes Yumi headed into the middle of what’s soon to become a rioting crowd unarmed.

“A-Girl,” Lisa says, keying on her radio, “Moonstone.”

“Go ahead,” Maia answers her immediately. A-Girl flashes a thumbs up from the stage. She’s stationed herself upstage, where she won’t pull focus. Hovering between the keyboard setup and the stage right wings, gives her a straight shot across the stage and into the audience where the Pratheads are putting together their improvised explosive.

“Yumi’s in the crowd without her sword,” Lisa tells them, “and, like, I get it. It makes sense. But I think I’d feel a lot better about things if somebody who can fly could agree to get it to her if it turns out she needs it.”

“I really shouldn’t need it,” Yumi says. “I’m not going to pull a weapon on a bunch of unarmed assholes so Prather and his talking heads get to blame a bunch of injuries on a slash-happy child of immigrants.”

Angel turns a backflip in mid-air. “Just let me know if you need it,” she tells Yumi once she’s facing upstage. “I got you.”

“Thanks,” Yumi says before Lisa has a chance to.

“You can’t just… magic?” Maia asks.

Right. Lisa bites her lip. There are things their teammates for the night don’t know—like how Yumi’s sword hadn’t obeyed her on the roof of the Ruby Tower when a time traveling gunman had opened fire, and how it was probably Miss Killingsworth’s magic that made that happen. They also don’t know Miss Killingsworth’s magic is at work in the arena right now.

“Better not to fight the ward,” Lisa manages to answer her. “Even if she could get her sword through it, that magic’s on our side and the less we tax it, the better.”

“Gotcha.”

The next few minutes are interminable. Carlton’s solo set is only three songs. “No You” “I Wander” and “Navigate” last just over eleven minutes total. But it feels like forever.

Did the drummer pop a Benzo? This can’t be the usual tempo.

Carlton finally finishes up and the stage lights go black while Meg’s band takes the stage and her set pieces are wheeled into place. The rumble of synth bass fills the auditorium. The chimes begin to tinkle.

Lisa is holding her breath. This feels like the moment. There’s already a bomb building in the audience and Lisa knows it was Prather’s anger with Meg that started all of this. Meg is taking the stage. The room is pitch dark. The crowd is screaming.

Lisa wants to scream, too.

But she never gets the chance to start.

“Angel! Now!” Lisa was sure she’d never heard Stardust’s voice so loud. Did he have some way to amplify himself beyond the normal volume levels of the walkie-talkies?

There was no time to wonder.

“And everyone!” Sidney calls just after.

At the sound of Stardust’s cue, A-Girl streaks her way from behind Meg’s drummer out into the audience where she lands directly on top of the would-be explosive device which Liza has already hit with a spotlight.

The stage lights come up then as well, all blue and green with patches of purple and a bright white strobe as hidden fog machines add to the underwater quality of the intro chords of Meg’s opening number, “Go Down.”

If Lisa hadn’t known otherwise, she might have thought Angel’s incursion into the stage right audience was part of the show.

A roar erupts then—a simultaneous shouting of unfamiliar syllables that Lisa would have known was part of whatever magic their foes were looking to work even if she hadn’t been able to see a bunch of them chanting near the stage left apron.

The sound of the explosion comes just an instant after Angel has hold of the device. She’s curled around it when it detonates and Lisa watches as the shockwave tosses A-Girl her several feet into the air from where she had it pressed into the floor.

A-Girl flies upward then, under her own power and fully in control, dodging phone parts and baseball hats being thrown at her from people whose hard bomb building work has just been foiled. Knowing intellectually that Angel is impervious and seeing it up close are two totally different experiences and Lisa has to force the panic down as she digests what she’s just seen. She will probably never get used to the fact that Angel can lay down on a bomb while it blows up and be totally fine a moment later.

Lisa steps closer to the stage, where Meg is singing as though nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Enough of the audience is still paying attention to the show to make it apparent the chaos magic isn’t doing all it’s probably intended to. That’s a good thing. And neither Stardust nor Spectrum mentioned the possibility of a second bomb. That’s a good thing, too.

But Lisa isn’t going to be able to relax until the show is over and the venue emptied of potential threats.

She inches closer still to the edge of the wing curtain, taking advantage of the mostly dark stage to peek out from behind it into the audience. She wants to see Yumi. She wants to know what’s happening. Nobody is talking, which makes sense; all the capes are working on putting down the various groups of marchers. And Lisa can’t see any of them.

“Somebody say something,” Lisa asks the group. “Who can see what’s going on?”

“The group that built the bomb is trying to start fights,” Liza says back. “But Sidney’s people are on it. Fist has his guys handled, and Maia looks like she’s having fun with the group she’s tangled up with.”

“Can anybody see Yumi?” Lisa asks before she can stop herself.

Nobody answers.  Shit.

“Oh, she’s kicking ass,” A-Girl pipes up after a moment. Lisa can see a pink streak heading from the floor level toward the balcony; apparently Angel has done her bit for the bomb and is now going to take care of the group of marching assholes in the back of the room. If Angel says Yumi is kicking ass, that’s probably the truth.

A flurry of activity by the stage left apron pulls Lisa’s focus from Angel’s progress toward the balcony. One or more of the marching men in that group is passed out on the floor and the others are in turn trying to rouse them and flagging down venue security.

Security is busy with the would-be bombers. But having a bunch of unconscious invaders littering the floor is going to be the bigger problem any minute now.

“I’ve got guys passing out here by the stage,” Lisa tells the others.

“Me, too,” Fist says back. “And that doesn’t count the two I punched in the face and knocked down myself.”

“Spectrum,” Lisa calls into the radio. She’s beginning to figure out how this is going to end, but it’s only going to work if she’s right about something. She dashes away from the stage, through the door into the auditorium, and into the aisle between the center stage and stage left seating areas. “What do things look like from where you are?”

“Just like what you said,” Spectrum answers without pause. “Marching assholes overheating and falling out left and right. Looks like Stardust has a few in cuffs and Fist has a couple face down on the floor, everybody else looks to be in some kind of fistfight, but our side is winning everywhere I can see partly because the other guys keep fucking passing out for no reason.”

There’s a reason. But Lisa isn’t about to say that out loud. And the reason was why she’d chosen to ask Spectrum for a sit rep instead of Liza. She wants to know the state of things where she’s headed; she figures she’ll know soon enough.

She moves quickly through the aisle between rows, careful not to break into a run. The crowd isn’t panicked—not yet anyway—the chaos seems confined to the tiny pockets where heroes are engaged or pratheads have fainted. Lisa hopes to keep it that way.

“Sidney, call 911.” Lisa steals a glance to her right where Iron Fist, both legs fully metallic, stands atop the backs of a pair of loudly protesting young men as a third, much larger man lays still on the floor beside them.

“You sure?” Sidney asks. Lisa isn’t angry at the question. She’s told Sidney about what Allory said, about how the first responders in Albany are Prather people, and part of their plan for ruining the tour. But Lisa has her own plan, and it hinges on the emergency response.

“There’s people passing out left and right,” she answers him. “We’re going to need EMS.”

She wants to look for Yumi. She’s almost where she’s going, though, and it doesn’t pay to get distracted. She takes a hard right and charges toward the dais where the light and sound boards are set up.

It’s also where Miss Killingsworth is sitting.

Lisa charges toward the dais with all the authority befitting the tour director. Miss Killingsworth is still in her seat; she’s facing forward, but se isn’t looking at the stage. Her eyes are downcast, her fingers grip the wooden arms of the folding chair so tightly Lisa can’t imagine it isn’t a little bit painful. There’s a sheen of perspiration on her forehead, and her normally flawless hair has begun to curl at her temples.

She’s working hard, and Lisa isn’t thrilled about interrupting. But her plan is already in motion, and its success hinges on her boss’s cooperation.

Lisa slips through the cordon at the back of the dais, up the stairs, and alongside Ruby. She flips the switch to turn of her boss’s radio and hits the mute button on her own before she speaks.

“I can see how hard you’re working,” Lisa says into her boss’s ear. Spectrum had mentioned enhanced hearing; it’s loud in here, a person speaking softly is unlikely to be overheard, but a person can never be too sure. “These assholes are passing out left and right. I’ve got EMS on the way, and we’re going to need you to have a chat with them. With them,” she adds, “and maybe with a few of the pratheads our team has in custody. Have you got magic left in the tank to handle that?”

Ruby is still for a moment—long enough Lisa begins to wonder if she’d been concentrating too hard to understand. Just as she’s considering posing her question again, Lisa notices a quirk in her boss’s lip. Her expression quickly develops into a smile; not only does she agree, she probably knows exactly what Lisa is planning.

Lisa is smiling now, too.

This is going to work.

She swaps out her security earpiece for the one she normally wears backstage during the show. Meg’s click track sounds in her ears and the stage manager is counting measures until the end of the guitar solo.

“Meg,” Lisa interrupts. She has six measures to get her message across. “We’re taking a break after this song. You’re going to finish this number like always but then we’re shutting off the track and bringing up the house lights. The story is there’s a medical situation in the audience and we’re going to pause the show to handle it. We want everyone to take their seats while the lights are up and we’ll continue the show as soon as possible. Do you think you can make that announcement?”

Meg looks to the side of the stage where Lisa had been standing until just a few moments ago, before turning back to the audience and shouting, “Yeah!” at a place music it doesn’t normally belong.

Lisa gets the message.

Now to get it across to everyone else. She switches her earpiece back to talk with the capes.

“All right, folks,” she tells the group, not even bothering to hide her excitement at the prospect of how well this night might end for all of them, “this is what we’re about to do….”

~

The back lot of the arena looks like something out of the last act of a disaster movie.

Lisa is thankful she’d at least had the foresight to ask the bus drivers to move their coaches before the ambulances began to arrive. Still, it’s crowded, and it’s noisy, even without the reverberations from the show that’s re-started inside. The second half of Meg’s set is well underway, and as best anyone can tell the crowd is as calm and collected as it’s possible to be with MerMeg on stage. Yumi and Maia are back in place on either side of the stage, watching for any sign of further trouble.

But Lisa is pretty sure there won’t be any. All the troublemakers are accounted for; they’re all out here in the back lot, some in handcuffs, others strapped to gurneys. A-Girl and Stardust did an admirable job of getting the unconscious ones out from their seats and into the aisles. EMS and venue security had done the rest.

“You gonna make your cue?” Lisa asks Angel as she zips an Albany VFD jacket on over her bomb-shredded costume.

“Oh yeah,” Angel says. “I’ve got plenty of time. And the crowd’s gonna love the local flavor,” she adds, pointing to her borrowed jacket.

“Cool.” Leave it to Angel to find an extra angle for good PR.

“And did you see the news vans?” Angel asks then. Her feet leave the ground as she starts away from Lisa. “I’m going to buzz the camera on my way in; I think they’ll like it.”

“Yeah,” Lisa agrees. “I think so, too.”

“Hey, Miss K!” Angel shouts then, “Tia! You should get a picture of this.  You, too, Lisa. My phone got kind of smashed by the bomb so I can’t just take a selfie, but I think we should get the jacket on the tour socials.”

Lisa pulls her phone from her pocket. There’s a missed message on the screen. She dismisses it—Angel’s probably right about getting a photo for social media, and she has to be on stage very soon. Best to click the picture now and see to that text message after.

Lisa waves when she’s taken several shots and Angel flies off in the direction of the local news station’s satellite truck. The news crew hadn’t been her idea, but she’d enthusiastically endorsed it. Every time she spots a reporter interviewing another person, Lisa has to work hard to keep her face in check. It’s a skill she’s learned from Miss Killingsworth, and one she’s putting to good use tonight.

Miss Killingsworth herself has full control over her face—over the rest of her appearance as well. Whatever strain had affected her earlier has passed now, leaving behind no visible evidence. She stands in the middle of things, her phone in one hand and a bottle of water gifted to her by a member of the local PD in the other.

Stardust stands nearby, chatting amicably with a Public Information Officer and a member of venue security Lisa doesn’t recognize. She moves closer in hopes of overhearing, but Miss Killingsworth catches her gaze, and she diverts to chat with the boss instead. She’s probably already emailed those pictures of A-Girl to Ethan, but she may counting on Lisa to do that. Plus: it’s never a bad idea to check in with the person who signs your paycheck.

“You want me to post those pictures of Angel?” she asks as she approaches.

“You can if you want.” Ruby answers her, slipping her phone into the pocket of her blazer. “But the office is on it. We’re getting air check from the news in almost real time. So if you’d like, you’re welcome to wait for the professional shots.”

Lisa considers. She’ll post the photos to her personal page later after she reposts what the company decides to put up. She’s learning to leave the social media to the professionals whenever possible; there are people who make whole careers out of knowing what and when to post. She’ll follow their lead on this one.

“How are you feeling?” Lisa asks Ruby, not entirely changing the subject, and also genuinely curious. “Because you look amazing, and that’s… kind of not fair.”

“Thank you, dear,” Ruby says back to her. “I doubt I’ll have a problem sleeping tonight, but I’m quite well, all things considered. I couldn’t be more satisfied if this had all been my idea.”

Lisa can’t keep her face in check anymore. “I’m pretty pleased, too,” she says back.

“You should be more than pleased,” Miss Killingsworth tells her frankly. “Deciding to spread it around that a group of Prather fans got hold of a bad batch of E and took it before deciding to come here and check out our show was a stroke of pure genius. And inviting the news cameras: that was a savvy move.”

“Credit where it’s due,” Lisa says back. “Jeff, local guy, college student, minor cape, part time venue staff, he’s the one who called the news. He has a buddy who works at this station and they’re always looking to scoop their competition. He asked me first, but I was more than happy to let him invite the satellite truck. Of course none of this would have worked if you hadn’t been able to convince them to ‘admit’ to the whole thing,” Lisa tells her, in case there is any question. Lisa doesn’t completely understand how Miss Killingsworth’s magic works, but she has a pretty clear understanding that she has a way of giving instructions that no mortal human can resist having to follow.

It only made sense to ask her to compel the men in custody to own up to their affiliation with Prather and their intention to disrupt the show. And adding in the notion the bunch of them had taken some bad drugs would account for all the random passing out. Miss Killingsworth had no problem making that happen.

Jeff’s buddies at the local news are already broadcasting confession footage, and apparently someone with Goblin Entertainment Media Relations is getting that footage in near real time. A second camera operator is inside the arena now, with special permission to shoot the end of the show for later broadcast on their station. And there’s a call in to the newsroom for reporters to do a little digging; they’ll be able to prove the Prather connection to at least some of tonight’s troublemakers.

Even if the Prather camp wants to deny involvement, it isn’t going to end well for them.

Ruby’s grin is enough to tell Lisa she’s well aware of that, too. “It seems you and I work well together, Miss Yamamoto,” Ruby tells her. “You have a bright and promising future with this company.”

“Thank you,” Lisa says. “I’m glad it’s helpful that I know stuff about you that you don’t really tell people. And I’m glad I thought of that story to feed the cops and the news. I’ve got your back.”

“I can see that.”

“Now if you need me,” Lisa tells her, “I’ve still got my radio. But right now I’m going to go watch the end of the show with Yumi. We don’t know if she’s going to make it to another city, so there’s a chance we won’t see each other again until after the election. So I want to spend time with her while I can.”

“Of course,” Ruby says back. She’s still smiling, but her eyes narrow as she glances sidelong at Stardust. “And tell Miss Kujikawa I’ll happily fly her out to any tour stop she chooses. Election season has all our lives a bit of a mess. No need to make it worse if it doesn’t have to be.”

Lisa has to work to get control over her face again. She’s been following the news from Cobalt City closely enough to be suspicious of Miss Killingsworth’s very visible absence from the coverage of Jaccob’s run for mayor. But she knows better than to say that to her boss—especially not while she’s in such a good mood.

“Thank you,” she says, “I’ll tell her.”

Lisa’s smile is genuine as she turns to go. She looks down at her phone as she’s walking. That missed message is a text from Allory. She’d almost forgotten asking her to text a heads up.

There’s a bunch of guys not here, it reads. I think they’re coming to your show. I don’t know what they plan to do but there’s like 30 of them.

Thirty. That sounds right. Lisa runs a mental total of the men she’s seen taken from the arena. Three from Fist’s area. Stardust had five. There were nine with the bomb. Angel got four more at the back of the venue. There were the three by the stage left apron, four that Maia brought out, and Yumi’s three on top of that.

If there are any pratheads left in the audience, they’ll be dealt with in due time. And Allory kept up her end of the deal. That means something—at least it does to Lisa. She fires back a reply.

Look at the news, she types. We handled it. Thanks. She’s almost to the door, her phone halfway back in her pocket when she pulls it back up to add: And let me know when you want to meet A-Girl. She’s always up for a selfie.