Chapter Thirty-Nine - Melaton's Talk

Melaton wasn’t all that impressive, not at first glance. She was a bit shorter than Emily, with a costume that didn’t fit the usual bright-spandex and neon colours of the typical hero. She had too much leather on for that, and her costume didn’t look like it followed any particular themes. The only concession to hiding her identity was a large half-mask which covered her eyes and the upper half of her face.

Still, it wasn’t her looks which made everyone snap to attention, it was her attitude.

Melaton was a whole lot of anger stuffed in a little package. She was ten wet cats in a paper bag, and at the moment there were enough cats for everyone to get a facefull.

Basically, she had all of the confidence that Emily lacked, and she wielded it like a bat. “Alright, who’s in charge here?” she asked.

Emily, her sisters, and the collected heroes glanced around at each other.

“I’m not going to ask twice,” Melaton snapped.

“Um,” Emily said.

That had Melaton paying her a lot more attention than she wanted.

“I am,” Glamazon said. “At least, for some of us.”

“Alright,” Melaton said. “And what’s with the two on the ground?” She gestured to Wrap Up and Black Shield.

“They’re bad guys!” Trinity cheered. “And we’re heroes.”

“We were just arguing about that,” Glamazon said. “The actual villain left. Fabien the Fabulous. We were here to capture him. He’s, ah, gone now.”

Melaton half-turned and gestured to the armed and armoured agents pouring out of vans and SUVs. They immediately started forming a cordon around the area, but a few snapped to attention as Melaton gestured them forwards. “Watch those two. Non-lethals only. We might have an identity issue, or a mind-control power at play.”

Troopers darted forwards and knelt next to Black Shield and Wrap Up. Three for each of them, with one on one knee next to the hero, another standing behind them ready to act, and the third a pace or two further back with a handgun by their side.

“Boss, Glamazon, you two with me,” Melaton said. She spun on a heel and walked over to one of the vans, fully expecting the two to follow them.

Emily found the nearest of her sisters, Athena, and gave her some quick instructions. “Be good girls,” she said. “Heroes, remember. There’s a lot of eyes on us right now.”

“Don’t worry, Boss, I’ll keep the others from doing anything stupid.”

“Right, thanks,” Emily said. She shored up her bravery, used it to fill in the hole left by her panic, then jogged after Glamazon towards the van Melaton was waiting by.

Melaton crossed her arms and only spared a glance at the traffic slowly flowing past not too far away. The van would hide them from the oncoming traffic, at least. “Alright, let’s get this mess over with. Who got here first?”

“We did,” Glamazon said. “Myself, Hindsight, Cheatah, as well as Wrap Up and Black Shield.”

Emily wondered at the list. Did she include the final two at the end like that to create some distance between them and herself? She wouldn’t have put something like that past Glamazon.

“Okay, and why were you here?” Melaton asked.

“Hindsight knew that Fabien would be trying something today. We narrowed down the places he could be and then I got some friends, civilians, to watch over each place. When he showed up, we were already on our way over.”

That was... actually kind of scary. Deploying a group of heroes so quickly was impressive, even if they had someone in their group who could see into the future.

“And you?” Melaton asked Emily.

“We showed up just after,” Emily said.

“How did you know to show up here?” Melaton asked.

“Um,” Emily said. “We have someone that told us? Another member of my group. He doesn’t do public stuff.”

All technically true.

“So you showed up too,” Melaton said. “It’s usually considered bad form to steal another hero’s catch, you know.”

“I doubt she does,” Glamazon muttered.

“Anyway, tell me what happened next,” Melaton said.

Glamazon recounted the events from her point of view. It wasn’t a terrible recounting, but Emily noticed a few bits that were clearly biassed in her own favour. Her sisters did the same thing when Emily asked them to explain why they were fighting, each delivering the same story in a way that made them out to be in the right.

“Our ambush was initially successful. Fabien was caught between the storefront and our group. Black Shield and Cheatah would keep the civilians safe while Wrap Up and I would capture him. Hindsight was there for backup, in case something unexpected showed up. Like the Boss here and her crew. They came up behind us, and we discussed things for a moment before she levelled some accusations towards Wrap Up and Black Shield.”

“We’ll get to that in a moment,” Melaton said. “What happened next?”

Glamazon hesitated. “Fabien attacked. And... in the confusion, it’s possible that Black Shield and Wrap Up acted in a way that might have made them seem hostile.”

“Uh-huh,” Melaton said. “Well, there’s enough cameras around. We’ll have a dozen angles up on Outube to see before the end of the day. The analysts will be earning their pay, I think. They eat this kind of thing up. Of course, they can never agree with each other.” The last was muttered just low enough that Emily could understand.

“What now?” Emily asked.

“Now, Boss,” Melaton said, the tone used for Emily’s name hinting at a lack of respect that had her flinching back. “You tell me why you attacked two heroes.”

“Um, I don’t think they’re actually heroes,” Emily said.

“They have tags,” Glamazon jumped on the opportunity to make Emily look bad.

Melaton waved that comment off. “Those don’t mean Jack to me. Once you’re in the business for long enough you’ll see what something like ‘Hero’ really means, and it ain’t much. I’ll... admit that most of the folk with ‘Super’ in their title earned it, but that’s for another time. What’s your evidence, Boss?”

“Wrap Up went by, uh, Iron Chains before,” Emily said. “He was a villain. My sisters... uh, my companions and I arrested him.”

Glamazon blinked. “Sisters?”

“A slip of the tongue, I’m sure,” Melaton said. “Don’t poke at people’s identities if you can avoid it. Now... Iron Chains, yeah, I heard about that.”

“He’s reformed,” Glamazon said.

“It only took a week or two to reform him? Impressive,” Melaton deadpanned. “I see where you were going there, Boss, but really, there’s a number of good heroes that strayed along the way. It doesn’t make them villains.”

Emily shifted on the spot. “Oh.”

“And Black Shield?”

Emily glanced around. She didn’t have a good answer for that one. Which didn’t mean to say that she didn’t have an answer at all. “Black Shield is a member of the Cabal,” Emily said.

“The what?” Glamazon asked.

Melaton scowled. “You shouldn’t be interacting with them,” she said.

“They started it,” Emily said. She held back a wince, though she couldn’t do anything for the warmth she felt on her cheeks. That sounded a bit too much like what the brats would say. “I was investigating something the other day when she attacked. She’s bad news.”

“But not a villain,” Melaton said.

“Well... no, but maybe worse?”

Glamazon looked between the two of them. “Care to share?”

“If you don’t know, then best keep it that way,” Melaton said. “Suffice to say, some groups are a lot of trouble, and messing with them only causes more heartache. Which is something you should know.” the last was aimed squarely at Emily.

“She made us miss out on catching Fabien,” Glamazon said.

Melaton shook her head. “He's a small fry. Sure, robbing banks and such makes him annoying, but he hasn’t hurt any civilians, and banks have insurance. You’ll catch him next time. Besides, more fights with him will only help your popularity. That’s what you’re in this for, right?”

“What?” Glamazon blustered. “No, I’m here to help people.”

“Sure thing, sparkles.”

Glamazon tightened her fists, but she didn’t protest any further.

“I’m... I’m sorry about Fabien,” Emily said. “Next time, maybe I’ll help you. But this time, I had to do the right thing.”

Melaton muttered something about idealistic heroes under her breath. “I’m not sure if the right thing will end up being useful in this case. It’ll shine some light on things that are best kept in the dark.”

“What kinds of things?” Glamazon asked.

“Ask the Boss here, maybe she’ll enlighten you. Heh. Not that you need lights, right sparkles?”

Glamazon glared. “You’re not a very heroic person, are you?”

“I’m not the ideal, no, but I’m good at what I do,” Melaton said. “Boss, get back to your brats before they cause trouble. Glamazon, go smile for the cameras and sign some babies or whatever. I need to fix your messes. Oh, and for the love of everything good, don’t talk any more than you have to where anyone can hear.”

***