Lucas checked the Bluetooth settings on his phone and, just as he’d hoped, the overhead projector wasn’t password locked. Teachers had enough trouble figuring technology out, it was natural that the school would make it as easy as possible. At least until some mischievous student noticed.

His phone began vibrating. He felt a twinge of exasperation as he wondered if it was Adam asking him what was going on and whether it was safe to go to the park or the theater or the library because Stray was being really annoying. However, his exasperation became anxiety when he saw who was calling. It was his dad.

“Hey, Dad,” he answered.

“Lucas Delacroix,” said a voice that was decidedly more feminine than his father’s. “You may want to move your father to a more secure location.”

His phone vibrated again, and he looked to see a photo of a wall sent from his father’s number. He immediately opened a portal and jumped through, ready to open another one beneath himself and escape a possible ambush.

However, there was no ambush.

He was at a motel, looking out across the parking lot. A woman stood in front of him. She was middle aged, and had dyed red hair in braids. She was standing next to the twisted remains of a drone. There was an expensive-looking camera hanging from her neck.

“Where’s my father?” Lucas asked.

“Safe in room 11,” the woman answered. “He has no idea what almost happened. I wanted to inform you before alarming him.”

Lucas’ eyes darted to the drone, then back to the woman. “Who are you?”

“Snapshot,” the woman replied. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Lucas had heard of her. A woman who sold secrets to supervillains.

“Why would you help my father?” he asked.

She opened her hands, attempting to show that she meant no harm. “I saw disaster if harm came to your father. So I prevented it.”

So she wasn’t acting out of a desire to protect a single innocent person. At the very least, Lucas was beginning to hope she wasn’t an enemy.

“Are you a Norn?” he asked.

She gave him a small smile. “You know about us. My sister lays claim to the future, but I’m not entirely lacking in foresight.”

“Valkyrie says you’re going to join her.”

“Miriam has always been very self-assured.”

Could she be on their side?

“Then come back with me,” he said. “Tell us about her powers, and how to fight her.”

Snapshot gave him a sad look. “I wish I could share everything with you, but the situation is delicate.”

“You mean you see something in the future? But if Valkyrie can see the future better than you, isn’t she going to outmaneuver us?”

“Not if the future is the past. The past is my domain.”

That was annoyingly cryptic.

“Can I hire you for something else, then?”

She blinked, clearly not expecting such a request. “What kind of information are you looking for?”

“It sounds like you already know a lot about me. You know about my mother’s disappearance?”

She nodded.

“Can you find her?”

Snapshot weighed the question for several seconds, her eyes shifting one way and another as she considered her answer. “I suppose I can do that much for you, at least. You will, however, owe me a favor in return.”

Lucas’ eyes narrowed suspiciously. Getting indebted to a supervillain could lead down a dangerous path, according to Stray. “What kind of favor?”

She smirked. “Normally, I don’t have to answer that right away. But in this case I know exactly what I want from you. In return, you will keep Shudder safe. She’s family, after a fashion.”

Shudder? Why would she care about Shudder? Still, at least it was something he was planning to do anyway. “Deal.”

Snapshot gave him a gracious nod. “Then you will hear from me when I know your mother’s fate.”

She turned and walked away.

Despite the host of questions in his mind, Lucas realized he wasn’t going to get anything more from Snapshot right now, and his concern for his father was too strong to waste any time. 

He made his way to room 11, where he found his father unharmed and unaware of any danger. Lucas quickly explained to his confused father that the motel was not safe, and quickly opened a portal to his uncle’s house in France, ushering his confused father through and promising to check in soon. He worried that if he allowed the interaction to continue that he would start crying. Instead he carefully set his fears aside and checked his phone, finding a text from Whisper which read We need to talk. Now.

He wasn’t sure where he had sent Whisper. It must have been somewhere far, because he’d felt a small strain that he always felt when creating portals more than a couple of hundred of miles away. He created another portal to that location now.

A young woman stepped through. “It’s Tlön. I think Samantha is Tlön,” she announced.

Lucas nodded slowly. That fit. It explained what Valkyrie had meant in her vision about prying Samantha away from the commander. It explained the missing psionic tech. And it explained how Valkyrie planned to create a world safe from omega threats. By creating another Orbis. Of course, it also meant that at last the scope of Valkyrie’s plan was clear. It was worldwide.

“That makes sense. That means Snapshot must be Amelia.”

Whisper’s—it was clear that this young woman was Whisper, despite her completely different voice—eyes narrowed. “Did you already suspect? Is that why you didn’t want me to tell Shudder?”

“Not at all,” Lucas replied. “I just wanted to know what we were going to uncover in case there turned out to be a reason to keep it secret. But now that I know, I think it’s time to share it with everyone. We’re going to need their help to figure out the rest. Especially Sila’s roommate.”

“Sila’s what?” Whisper shook her head. “Nevermind. Listen, we need to be careful with how we reveal this to Shudder. She’s come a long way, but Tlön’s involvement is going to reopen a lot of old wounds.” 

Lucas ignored Whisper and opened a portal back to the classroom he’d prepared. After a few minutes of debriefing Whisper, and a few more of texts and portals, he had his confused team assembled, and had made sure each had checked in with their families to make sure they were safe.

“Alright, have a seat, everyone, it’s time for class,” he announced, making his way to the whiteboard, where he stood with a marker in hand.

Adam raised his hand, possibly out of habit. “Uh, is this room secure?”

Lucas blinked. “Do you mean you’re worried about listening devices?”

“No, I mean physically. As in, is it structurally sound?”

Lucas sighed. “I’m sure it can handle you for a few minutes. Now—”

“Question. Who’s that?” Whisper asked, gesturing to Sam.

“That’s Sam,” Synapse replied. “Sila’s roommate.”

“Roommate-slash-love interest,” Stray corrected mischievously.

Sam’s face reddened.

“Sila insisted on them staying with us instead of leaving town,” Lucas explained. “Which works to our advantage because they know about—”

“Question,” Adam interrupted, staring at Whisper. “Who’s that?”

“Elise,” Whisper replied. “You know me as Whisper.”

“Okay, can we focus, please?” Lucas asked. “This is kind of important.”

“Um,” Sila said nervously. “Pronouns?”

“It’s not important,” Elise replied.

“She/her now, he/him when in costume,” Shudder said.

Lucas raised his voice. “Do I need an air horn or something?”

Everyone fell silent, finally. Despite how aggravating they were, there was something comforting about the casual attitudes of his team. The fear and anger he felt from having to deal with his father nearly being killed was dulled somewhat by the knowledge that even with their families in imminent danger, his friends would tease each other and ask for people’s pronouns.

“Please, sit down.” Adam raised his hand again. “Except Adam, of course.”

Once everyone was settled he uncapped his marker and wrote at the top of the board the word ‘Norns.’ Below that he wrote, in a single line ‘Miriam Korris,’ ‘Amelia Terrini,’ and ‘Samantha Delavore.’

“These are the Norns,” he explained. “They’re a trio of legacy superhumans. Each time one group dies, three more women inherit their powers. In 1997, they were living in a town called Tutamaqui, somewhere in…well, somewhere in the western hemisphere. We haven’t really narrowed it down. Whatever they doing planning there, STRIX put a stop to them and the entire town was destroyed. Somehow—coincidence or fate or whatever—all three ended up as supervillains in Fairfield.”

Below each name he wrote, respectively ‘Valkyrie,’ ‘Snapshot,’ and ‘Dr. Tlön.’

Looking at his audience, he noted Shudder’s perplexed expression. Meanwhile, Elise was glaring at him.

Adam raised his hand again. “How do you know all of this?”

“A vision and some investigation. According to my scrying, Valkyrie is planning to get the band back together. I spoke with Snapshot and she’s not interested in helping Valkyrie, but for Tlön, I imagine that teaming up with an old friend is probably more appealing than rotting away in Singularity. Right now, we need to figure out as much as we can about their powers. Because I already know they shapeshift and see the future and that alone does not paint a hopeful picture. Fortunately, we have a clue.” He pointed firmly at the word ‘Norns.’ “You’re all familiar with the theory that the gods of ancient religions are based on actual superhumans?”

A chorus of nods made its way across the room.

“Well, we have an expert on mythology right here.” Lucas gestured to Sam. “I’m hoping you can help us learn more about them.”

“I’m just a student, really,” Sam said, looking at the wall somewhere to Lucas’ left. “And I’ve never really bought that theory. I mean, we have records of superhumans from those same time periods and locations. It’s obvious that people knew the difference. But, if we are assuming that it’s true, I suppose it makes sense for these three. There are lots of trios of goddesses in European mythology, not just the Norns. There’s the Moirai, the Morrígan, the Matres. They could have traveled in ancient times.”

Lucas considered this. “It could be the other way around. Gaelos Hex gave me a primer on types of magic when I first started. I remember he mentioned a subtle kind of magic drawn from the collective unconscious. A sort of magic that comes from ideas. Maybe stories about trios of goddesses influenced their power. Or maybe both influenced each other.”

“If they’re all connected, do they all have the same powers?” Synapse asked.

Sam’s nervousness seemed to be dissipating as they answered. “Usually, goddesses like these each have their own domain, but they sort of blend together forming a larger domain. So I would guess that they have different powers.”

Lucas remembered what Snapshot said about her sister claiming foresight. “I think they sort of have a shared pool that contains all their powers, but whenever one of them draws on one power, that leaves less of that power for the rest of them. They say Snapshot changes her appearance all the time, so that leaves less shapeshifting for the others. If we can figure out which Norn each of them matches, maybe we can learn more about their powers.”

“That’s only if we map them as the Norns,” Sam replied. “Maybe they’re more like the Triple Goddess. Maiden, Mother, and Crone.”

“I imagine Snapshot would be the Maiden, since her job involves beginnings and setting people on their path,” Elise said. “And Tlön would be the Mother, for obvious reasons.” She glanced at Shudder.

Adam let out a laugh. “That makes Valkyrie the Crone.”

“But that doesn’t tell us anything about their powers,” Synapse objected.

“Let’s stick with the Norns for now,” Lucas said. “They’re past, present and future, right?”

Sam pointed to Miriam’s name on the board. “Valkyrie would almost certainly be Skuld, future, since Skuld is sometimes depicted as a valkyrie.”

Exactly what Lucas had feared. How could they hope to fight someone who could see the future? “Snapshot said the past is her domain.”

“That makes her Urd, and Tlön would be Verdandi, or the present,” Sam concluded.

Shudder finally spoke up. “This is ridiculous. Doc isn’t magic.”

So she didn’t know. Lucas had been hoping that she would speak up about some hidden power of Tlön’s.

“Shudder, she does have magic,” Elise replied gently. “She may have kept it hidden from you.”

“Where did you even get the idea that she’s one of these Norns?”

“Oh, right,” Lucas said. “I forgot that part.”

He reached above the whiteboard and pulled down the projector screen, then using his phone, projected the image of the three Norns at Tutamaqui. “These are the Norns in 1997.”

“Yeah, see, none of them look anything like Doc,” Shudder replied.

“Remember, they can change their appearance. After STRIX attacked, Samantha changed her appearance and spent the next twenty years or so in hiding before she reemerged as Tlön. To prove it…” he switched to the image of Samantha reading Ficciones.

“So what?” Shudder asked. “It’s a popular book.”

“For those of us who aren’t readers,” Stray interjected, “what does this book have to do with anything?”

“Yeah, I’ve only read ‘Death and the Compass,’” Adam added.

“The first story in the collection is about an organization attempting to change the physical nature of the world by altering how people perceive it,” Elise explained. “Its title is ‘Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.’”

“Spooky,” said Adam, drawing out the word and wiggling his fingers dramatically.

“Two of the Norns are active supervillains located in Fairfield,” Lucas continued, allowing the image to remain projected so that Shudder couldn’t ignore it. “It makes sense that the third would be connected to it as well. In my vision, Valkyrie mentioned wanting to pry Samantha away from STRIX. Snapshot said that Shudder is family. And it explains the vanishing psionic tech.”

“No it doesn’t,” Shudder protested. “If they need Doc, then how were they able to build their own Uqbar? And why do they need to start a war if they can just build a new Orbis?”

“Maybe Tlön shared some of her plans with Valkyrie,” Elise suggested. “Enough for her to build her own Uqbar. And maybe Valkyrie isn’t planning to build an Orbis. She may want Tlön for something else.”

“Or she could just care about her,” Stray suggested.

Lucas could see Shudder’s frustration growing. She raised her voice. “Doc isn’t magic! She would have told me. We trusted each other completely. I would have loved hearing it.”

The reason for her anger was becoming clear to Lucas. She didn’t like the idea that Tlön had kept something hidden from her.

He held his hands up. “Okay, okay. In that case, what is she capable of?”

Shudder gave him a suspicious look, but answered anyway. “She’s a scientist, that’s all. She invented all the psionic stuff we used. The other weapons and gadgets were mostly bought from the Scrounger.”

“I’ve always been curious,” Elise said. “How did she build Orbis? What was the process?”

“It’s actually really interesting,” Shudder said. She still seemed a little guarded, but apparently couldn’t resist boasting about her mentor’s brilliance. “We started off creating a map of my brain. Not like an MRI, though. Doc built this scanner that could record every detail of every neuron. We stored all that information in these huge servers, right? We took a recording when I wasn’t using my power and one when I was. Then we pared it down to just the parts that were active when I used my power. And using that data, Doc created a program that could imitate the way my brain behaved when I used my power. Then she invented a little pseudocerebrum and a psionic projector that could imitate my power and we tested it out on some guys. And, I mean, it couldn’t really imitate my power because there’s a lot of subtle individual stuff I do that the program couldn’t, but it could sort of approximate my power. So then—”

“Okay, that’s already a lot of different fields,” Elise interrupted. “You’re describing significant advances in psionics, neurology, engineering, programming. How many people did she work with?”

Shudder gave her a confused look. “Just me. I mean, sometimes she would consult with other experts. If she ever hit a dead end, she would send me to find some expert or another, and she would go meet with them, or have me bring them to her, and consult with them for an hour or two, and then she’d know all about it.”

The room was silent for a moment.

“Just so I’m clear,” Adam said. “You’re saying that if she wanted to make a particle collider, she could talk to a particle physicist for a couple of hours and she would understand how to make one?”

Shudder looked around the room, perplexed by the reaction. “Yeah. You all know. That’s how it works for smart people. When you go to college you learn how to learn, so once you become an expert in one field, it’s much easier to learn another.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Shudder,” Lucas said. He felt strangely anxious.

“Sure it does,” Shudder said. “Like, take Repulse for example. She’s some genius engineer, right? But if she wanted to learn brain surgery she could just talk to a brain surgeon for a while and then she could…” Her voice weakened as she heard her own words. “...do brain surgery. Doesn’t it work that way?”

“No, that’s a superpower,” Adam said flatly.

Lucas stared at Shudder. How much had Tlön twisted her image of what was normal? Part of him wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Tlön’s powers had been in full display before her, and she was so taken in that it had never occurred to her to ask about it.

He decided to keep things moving in an effort to spare Shudder further embarrassment. “So Tlön has some sort of knowledge absorbing power. But that sounds similar to Snapshot’s information gathering.”

“Not necessarily,” Sam said, sounding a little timid again. “It sounds like Snapshot’s information is all facts and events, stuff from the past. But Tlön picks up scientific understanding of processes, stuff that occurs all around us constantly. The present.”

“And Valkyrie can see the future,” Lucas finished. “And I think she may have another power, as well. In my vision, she was talking to a cyborg who seemed to be one of Mindbreaker’s victims. It sounded like she’d changed him.”

“Maybe she made him into an Einherjar?” Sam suggested. “In Norse mythology, valkyries escort those who die in battle to Valhalla, where they prepare to battle in Ragnarok.”

Lucas threw his hands up in the air. “So she can see the future and bring the dead back to life as fearless warriors.”

“Fearless zombie cyborg warriors,” Stray corrected.

“And she has an ally who can build a device to brainwash the world,” Adam added.

“And invent who knows what else because she can learn any science in a matter of hours,” said Synapse.

“And she plans to recruit someone who can easily gather any piece of strategic information she might want,” Elise concluded.

It looked a little hopeless.

“This brings us to a tough decision,” Lucas said. He took a deep breath, knowing that this could turn into a disaster. “Do we keep fighting her or do we join her?”

Stray’s ears twitched. “How is that even a question? Of course we fight her.”

“Not necessarily,” Synapse replied. “What do we actually know about her and her goals? Tlön’s a monster, but maybe Valkyrie plans to keep her on a short leash.”

“When she tried to recruit me, she said she wanted to come up with a system to prevent omega threats, instead of hoping there’s a superhero who can stop them,” Adam explained.

“See? That doesn’t sound bad.”

“She kidnaps supervillains and turns them into zombie cyborgs,” Stray insisted.

Synapse shrugged. “Maybe she only chooses the really bad supervillains. Murderers and stuff.”

“It’s less about whether she’s secretly actually good then whether we can win,” Lucas said. “With the deck stacked against us so completely, I don’t think we can. But if we join her, maybe we can sway her away from her worst plans.”

“You mean save ourselves and maybe a few other people?” Shudder asked, her tone dark. “In exchange for what, every criminal in Fairfield? None of them get a choice in the matter.”

“So what?” Synapse asked. “They’re criminals.”

“So am I.”

Synapse shook her head. “Not anymore. You turned your life around.”

“And will anyone else get that chance if Valkyrie gets her way?” Shudder raised her voice. “People like that don’t care about circumstances. Once you step out of line, you’re a criminal and the only response is to get rid of you.”

“Shudder, I don’t think you get to have an opinion here,” Adam said. The unexpected anger in his tone was barely restrained. “Because you don’t have a family.”

Shudder’s eyes widened with a mixture of shock and anger.

“Okay, let’s take a step back and—” Lucas began, but Adam wasn’t done.

“No, Lucas. We need to acknowledge that the stakes are higher for the rest of us. Your dad was almost killed. My family could be next. Or Stray’s. Or anyone’s except Shudder’s.”

Shudder scowled. “She wants to recruit Mindbreaker. That should give you an idea of the type of person you’ll be working with.”

“If she wants Mindbreaker, then maybe I’ll join her,” Synapse said, standing and crossing her arms.

“Wait, Jade, what do you mean?” Adam asked.

“Screw it, I’m not ashamed of what I do,” Synapse said. She pulled her mask off, revealing a familiar face and hair dyed bright red. Jade was one of Adam’s friends, Lucas recalled. He barely knew her, but…didn’t she have to drop out of school because of cancer or something?

“I was dying of leukemia,” Jade said, apparently reading the confusion on Lucas’ face. “And a demon approached me with a deal. She would keep me alive as long as I continued to feed her human minds. It was a chance to stay alive and make a difference.” She glared at Shudder. “Every one of those people was a murderer or worse. Do you really want to stand up for them?”

Shudder stood and met her gaze. “Was Hedge a murderer?”

“Aww, not Hedge,” Stray said quietly. “He was a bit of an incel, but he couldn’t have deserved that.”

Jade turned her glare on Stray. “He was a total creep. I was nice to him in a bar once and he wouldn’t leave me alone. He followed me home one day and…”

“And you protected yourself,” Adam finished. “You had no other choice.”

The look on Shudder’s face was heartbroken. “And us low-level types lose again. We’re expendable to both heroes and villains. As soon as we’re inconvenient, our lives don’t matter anymore. It was a mistake to think I could be a superhero.”

She walked to the door.

“What about my life, then?” Jade asked. “Shouldn’t I be allowed to fight for it?”

Shudder ignored her as she left.

Lucas felt a little guilty. It was clear that Shudder had no doubt that her friends would suffer the most should Valkyrie prove victorious, and there was a good chance she was right. However he wasn’t ready to write her off completely as a friend or ally, so he resolved to figure out how to get her back once the meeting was over.

“Jade, I don’t think I can judge you for your choice,” he said. “And we need you as an ally, either way. Moving back to the matter at hand, Adam, if you can arrange a meeting with Valkyrie we—”

“Absolutely not,” Stray said firmly, rising from his seat. “We can’t compromise with someone like her. Not with someone who kidnaps people and turns them into her own personal army.”

He began to leave, too, while Sila rose.

“I didn’t come to Earth to see it become another Nanzara,” they said quietly.

They left, with Sam trotting after.

That left Jade, Adam, and Elise.

“I think it would be foolish to consider joining Valkyrie,” Elise said. “But I also think meeting with her could provide valuable information. I’ll see the meeting through, but don’t expect our association to last beyond that.”

“I think it’s at least worth talking to her,” Adam said. “I’ll arrange the meeting.”

“Good, then I guess that’s it for the meeting,” Lucas said. “Thanks for hearing me out.”

Being a leader kind of sucked.