The abandoned hair salon was illuminated only by the dim streetlights and an open door in the back that looked like it ought to have led to a closet, or maybe into the cellphone shop. She could hear the distant buzz of conversations, but it was too varied to be coherent. Foreboding prickled the back of her neck, but she knew she was invited, and her sense of self-recrimination grew stronger. She put herself in this situation. She ought to own it.

The doorway did lead into the cell phone shop next door, with Alleyshadow in full regalia in the doorway. “Hey Erin, sorry for all the cloak-and-dagger.”

Erin smiled tiredly. “No prob. Sorry you had to reveal your secret hideout to me.”

Erin absolutely had to keep control of her emotions here. She had to remain calm. She did not want the Plot to come creeping up her spine and take control of her here, after all she’d been through. She hoped it wasn’t obvious she’d been crying, having already reapplied a little mascara at the restaurant.

Alleyshadow’s smile was friendly and disarming and, frankly, without the Plot warning her about anything yet, this felt as casual as hanging out with their alter egos. 

“No, no worries. It’s not our most secure hideout, to be honest. One time, a couple of teens tried to break in. While we were here.” Alleyshadow ushered Erin inside. “They promised not to say anything when they came face to face with Pyrocles first thing.”

“I bet. Not even surprised. Kids get warned not to enter buildings that seem to be abandoned anymore, so of course they try to snoop.”

Inside the old cell phone store was a combination of a lounge and a command and control center. A dozen or so large TVs were mounted to completely ring the main area, tuned to different local news channels. All were on low volume, creating the small murmur she’d heard as she came in. The carpet looked like it had come installed with the store that had used to reside here, but everything else looked nice, new and comfortable. The back of the room was partitioned off, and she wondered if further amenities were there. There were couches, a central table with laptops, and some oversized furniture that was definitely intended for Pyrocles.

Pyrocles was sitting in one of the larger recliners, reading a newspaper, which looked cartoonishly small in his hands. Erin gave him credit, as he seemed to actually be reading it, rather than holding it for ironic effect. He folded over the newspaper, so that he could find where he’d been, and offered a kindly, quiet, “Welcome, Erin. Thanks for making the time.”

The Ferret sat at one of the open laptops and looked up at Erin, her mask aside, but with goggles and voice modulator on, ostensibly to protect her identity from the civilian. “Absolutely. We appreciate you coming.” She pressed a button on her wrist and the TVs went mute.

Pyrocles asked, his deep voice loud even at an inside murmur, “How are you doing? Have you found a new apartment?”

Erin shrugged. “Hey, I’m alive, and yeah, I got a new apartment. Insurance will probably come in pretty quick. I sent them my list of things that were lost on Sunday. The bureaucracy just needs to percolate out.”

Alleyshadow took a seat next to The Ferret but didn’t bother to open the laptop. “Still, that really sucks, Erin. I know shit happens, but it’s not like it should all happen to you.”

“Yeah, misfortune has its favorites, I suppose. But I have the means to handle it, at least. So, did you guys want to cover something in particular or just watch me go through what I have?” She changed the topic and took off her backpack in the same motion. She was mildly surprised at the Plot leaving her alone for now, but she was still wary.

“I don’t know if we had a plan, I think we mostly wanted to see what you had in mind. From what we saw of how it would look from The Ferret, it seemed good. How do you usually show this sort of thing off?”

Erin nodded, and wondered where they wanted to get her set up. “I usually do this sort of thing remotely, just sort of showing the backend server structure, but given the level of trust involved, I understand why you wanted to see it and meet me in person. I was surprised you didn’t just want to buy the work I’d put together and just run it yourself.” She was disappointed they didn’t either.

Alleyshadow explained, “You mean, so that we could just make The Ferret run it for everyone?” The Ferret offered a very Misty-like snort of laughter but didn’t comment. “Na, we tried to get her to do that a year ago, and she refused to handle the extra work. She said we should look for someone to pay to deal with that.”

 “And I’m just the chump to do it.”

Pyrocles rumbled from his seat, “Not exactly. We just want a buffer for all of it. I liked that you had two different forms of feedback, one for fan-mail and one for tips on crime.”

“That’s pretty typical, from my research on other hero websites. I won’t monitor the tips on crime; that stuff goes straight to you. I can filter the fan mail a little, just to make sure you guys don’t get inundated with requests for appearances, requests for sponsorship, and other little things.”

Opposite from where Erin entered was an oversized door, which opened as she spoke, revealing Silverknight. Erin guessed it opened into the garage she saw from the outside. Most Backdrop speculated that the Cavalry had a teleportation circle set up.

Silverknight nodded to everyone. “Sorry for being late everyone, and to you Erin. It is rude to invite you here and not be prepared to receive you.”

Erin waved it off. “No big deal. I really just got here.”

“How’s getting resettled going? I am sorry to hear about your apartment.”

“It's just stuff. Nothing important.” Erin resolved not to sigh, not wanting to get back into this.

Alleyshadow asked Silverknight, “Things any better for you?”

Silverknight shook his head. “No, no response from her since Sunday night.”

Erin looked at the suit of shining armor with a question, but he waved her off before she asked. “Nothing you need to worry about. Unrelated. What did I miss?”

“I was just talking about a few of the features for the website. Want me to show it to you guys?”

They got Erin’s laptop hooked up to one of the monitors. Pyrocles stayed in his chair, likely because he’d have to stand otherwise. She showed them how she thought to lay it out. It wasn’t going to be a complicated website, with a front page, a biography page with a little form to send in fan mail or questions. Erin had put in a little blurb of commonly known information for each hero, which didn’t bother any of the Cavalry.

There was a page for providing crime tips, with a big disclaimer stating: ‘This anonymous submission is not intended to replace traditional law enforcement. All ongoing emergencies or criminal activity should be reported to the police immediately. This will engage the Cavalry far faster than any submission provided here. Non-crime or danger related emails will be deleted.’

There were also disclaimers that the Cavalry did not perform their services for money under any circumstances and would not investigate or advocate on anyone else’s behalf for money.

“Why not just say that the Cavalry won’t do work or assist any private or personal interest?” The Ferret asked.

Erin shrugged and nodded. “I could do that instead. I wasn’t sure if you guys wanted me to filter out any charity work that people may ask of you guys.” She waved indistinctly. “I didn’t know if you planned on being any more accessible to the public than you have been.”

They discussed a few things, changed the coloring preferences, and asked for a bit of a raised border to the edge of the web pages, some normal annoying client stuff, but most of them were pleased with the overall layout.

Erin was about to tell them she could go home and implement the changes and send it back for review, when a small siren went off, causing the four heroes to stand suddenly. Their sudden movement surprised her, and she got to her feet as well, less certain.

“Hey Erin, do you mind if we end this meeting early?” The Ferret had stepped close, surprising Erin as she’d been looking at the TVs for the source of the alarm. “We’ve got word of something going on downtown.”

Several of the local news channels were discussing something that was going on not far from her offices, a plume of dust and dirt captured on a CCTV camera. Frowning, Erin looked at the others.

Alleyshadow and Pyrocles were discussing where they should appear in town to get as close to the event as they could, while Silverknight seemed to be arming some sort of system alarm. She could hear various door locks engage from the direction of the back. Silverknight glanced over at Erin.

The screens showed what appeared to be two different scenes, each still obscured by dust and rubble.

“No problem. I totally understand.” 

The Ferret squeezed her shoulder, her gloved claws retracted for now, “Thanks. We need to figure out what this is.”

“Yeah. I’ll just finish making the changes, and you can take a look again when you guys are free.” At least they weren’t dragging her with them. She was well away from the trouble on this side of town.

It was surreal seeing Protagonists react in real time to stuff she’d spent years watching unfold as a spectator. The Cavalry were all business, and seemed to take the threat seriously rather than as entertainment.

What backdrop internalized as an existential farce, created by the Plot to entertain some jerks that abused the world for their entertainment, these Protagonists seemed to take as a solemn entertainment. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise, but Erin was oddly relieved they didn’t treat it like a joke, even just for her sake.

Erin would need to check the news on her phone to see if there was any indication of trouble near her apartment building, a real concern now that she lived in the metro proper, as she packed her laptop up.

She waved goodbye to The Ferret, and walked back out through the hair salon and to her bike.

When she’d left home around five, there wasn’t much going on around her street, except the three thugs that harassed her. Now, around nine PM, there was quite a bit of life, and none of it looked like her crowd. There were a couple of bars across the street from her apartment, and a number of people milled around outside, either Pawns or backdrop too jaded to care about Plot night. Erin went to her parking garage and used her code to open the gate.

There was a man loitering left of the entrance inside the parking garage. Erin parked her bike out of the way near him, kicked the foot stand down and left it running as she got off.

He seemed a little wary of her approach. “Red Street Roamers?”

The thin, tall guy nodded but didn’t say anything behind blue tinted sunglasses, apparently discounting the fact that it was well past sundown. Erin guessed that even Pawn thugs have to keep their aesthetic up. She pulled out the small stack of money from the ATM.

She offered him the twenties. “Four hundred, as explained.”

The guy counted the money and nodded again. “Yeah.”

The business of paying off the local gang being finished, she took her bike up the ramp to her parking spot.

Erin watched the news on her computer monitor as she made the small changes to the code as the others had directed. There were two of those autonomous, armed bots now, each about a block apart, firing into businesses and homes without any sense of pattern. Same make and model as last night’s. Anyone who could leave the area would have left hours ago.

Erin had been tempted to log into the forum. She had only a week or so left before she was irrevocably kicked out. Erin wondered if three of those killing machines would show up tomorrow. With any luck, the Cavalry would find the culprit today, on a Plot night. Erin sent the updated website code to The Ferret and went to bed.

Erin was brought awake suddenly by someone knocking on her door.