Shawn leaned against a car, watching his team fight. It was almost an exact replica of last time. Emmy was a little more cocky, but not enough to impact the major beats of the battle. 

Inez and Emmy had done a good job with the bomb. But something about it bothered him. Other than the obvious “how did the enemy get down there” and “who is the enemy” and “why does someone want us dead”, something nagged at him. He couldn’t figure out how an incendiary bomb, designed to start a fire and make damn sure that fire stayed burning, had made the building explode.

Was there a gas leak somewhere in the building? Did Nick have some highly volatile chemical stored down there? How had the building exploded?

In the middle of the street, Victor hit the shark man square in the face, sending him flying backwards. Nick shot two darts out of his rifle, both of which connected. He’d fired one earlier, but it had landed uselessly in the gutter. Emmy ran to the enemy, sliding the hot pink climber’s rope that made up part of her costume off her forearm. She wrapped it around the shark man, tying him up in an instant. For good measure she pulled the rope off her other arm and used that, too.

Shawn smiled, dialing the chief of police. He’d seen people in the city walking around with sleeves that went from wrist to elbow. Sure, t-shirts with designs that copied superhero costumes had always been a thing, but Emmy had started a whole fashion trend with her costume. Few heroes could claim that.

“Vines?” Chief Palo asked, answering.

“Yes, sir,” Shawn said, strolling towards the group. “The battle is over.”

“Good! Quick battles usually mean less damage to the area,” Palo said. “Is there any damage to the road?”

Shawn heard Emmy asking about food and snapped his fingers to get her attention. “No, sir, the road isn’t damaged. Traffic should be able to start back up as soon as the shark man is in custody.” As he spoke he pulled his backpack around. He found a power bar and tossed it to the teenager.

“Will you wait there until we’re able to get him out?” Palo asked.

“Yes, sir, we’ll wait here until the van arrives.”

The team groaned like kids who were told no ice cream until all the broccoli was eaten.

Palo heard the groan over the phone. “Is that a problem?”

“No, sir, it isn’t a problem at all,” Shawn said pleasantly.

“I just want you there to make sure the bad guy doesn’t escape.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The van should be there to collect him in ten minutes.”

“Very well, sir.”

“Thank you for your help, Team Vines. Until next time.”

“Good-bye.” Shawn hung up, looking at the group.

“I don’t want to wait for the van,” Emmy complained. “Last time it took like fifteen minutes!”

“No one wants to wait for the van,” he told her. “Victor, how’s your arm?”

“It’ll be fine in an hour or so,” Victor said.

“Good,” Shawn said. He saw Inez had already pushed her goggles up. “Inez, how are your eyes?”

She blinked deliberately a few times. “They’re good. No burning.”

Shawn nodded. “Did anyone else look directly at her light?”

The team shook their heads. 

“Nick, you-“

Nick held up three darts, smiling. “Got ‘em.”

Emmy walked over and started rummaging in his bag for more power bars. “So how did we do compared to last time we fought this guy?”

“The fight was nearly identical,” Shawn told her.

“Nearly?”

“I hit the shark guy with the first shot last time, didn’t I?” Nick asked, sliding the empty darts into his bandolier.

Shawn smiled. “Actually, no. You missed, same as today.”

“Damn.”

“You need to work on your aim,” Inez told him. “You should come with me to the shooting range tomorrow.”

“I suppose that couldn’t hurt,” Nick shrugged.

Shawn checked his watch. 5:40. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still off. 

They’d found the bomb. They’d deactivated the bomb. They’d disassembled the bomb. There was no more bomb. The team was safe.

The team was safe. There was no bomb.

Victor stumbled out of bed, yawning. He found a t-shirt and pulled it on, wondering if he needed to comb his hair. Deciding no, he made his way to the stairs. 

“Breakfast is served,” Nick announced, sliding plates of food into everyone’s place.

Victor sat down, muttering a hello before biting blindly into the toast. With Nick’s cooking it was often better to not focus on what the food looked like.

It was good, whatever it was. The cold peanut jam hit a tooth, sending a flash of pain through his gums. He winced, setting the toast down.

“I-”

Shawn cut him off. “I think I’ve got a cavity or something. It’s good but the cold is making my tooth hurt.”

Victor glanced at Inez before turning to watch Shawn.

Shawn stared into his coffee cup, nervously tapping it with his fingernail. The clink clink clink clink was slightly unnerving. 

Emmy came down the stairs and flopped into her chair, same as always. She picked up the toast and sniffed it, not noticing the tension in the room.

“S-”

“Strawberry?” Shawn asked for her, his voice monotone. “Didn’t you have any blackberry, I hate strawberry. I do have blackberry, but the strawberry jam was nearing its expiration date because no one eats it. It’s jam, doesn’t it last like forever? Technically yes, but it’s still best to eat things by their ‘best by’ dates.”

The room was as silent as the grave. Shawn took a sip of his coffee, the tapping pausing while he held the cup up. 

The team watched him, everyone tense. 

Inez took Victor’s hand under the table. “Wh-”

“What happened? I don’t know. You don’t know? Not exactly.”

Victor’s fingers tightened around Inez’s as the tenseness turned into pure fear.

Nick leaned forwards. “Hey. Shawn. You ok?”

Shawn rubbed his face, sighing. “There’s a bomb in the basement. An incendiary bomb. Inez and Emmy found and deactivated it. Nick dismantled it. It was- It was gone. We went to fight a shark man, came back, and the building still exploded. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I- I don’t-” He looked around the table, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

Fear turned to dread.

Victor had known Shawn for almost two years. He’d worked with him for almost two years. In all that time he’d rarely seen Shawn nervous, much less afraid. Seeing sheer panic in his eyes terrified Victor.

“What should we do?” Emmy asked, her voice small.

Shawn went back to staring into his coffee. The rest of the team looked at Victor.

Victor was the face of the group. He was the one who talked to all the reporters. He was the one who got lunch with high government officials. He was the one requested to go to hospitals and schools to entertain children. He was the V of Vines, the one everyone thought of as the leader.

Victor was not the leader. He knew he wasn’t smart enough for that job. Shawn was the leader. Shawn set up all the interviews and lunches. Shawn told them where to go, what to do, what to wear, everything.

Victor wasn’t even Shawn’s right-hand man. That honor went to either Nick or Inez. Nick was the smartest of the group by any measure. If there was a science problem, Nick knew the answer. Nick could logic his way out of any logic problem. Inez, on the other hand, was the best fighter of the group. She knew people. She understood how people moved, how they thought. If there was a problem Nick couldn’t solve, Inez could blast or hug her way out of it. 

But neither of them wanted to be leader. They both shied away from that responsibility. They were happy in their roles, and hated change. So when Shawn wasn’t around…

Victor had to be the leader.

He looked at his toast. Seriously, what even was that on top? He had no idea how Nick had made it. Or why it was so cold.

“We have a battle today?” Victor asked.

Shawn only nodded.

“If there was a bomb, it might have been a decoy. Someone might know about Shawn. Know we’d look for one.” Victor paused, waiting for someone to tell him he was dumb. No one did, so he continued. “We’ll deactivate the bomb in the basement, duh, but when we get called out… Emmy should stay here. To see if someone sneaks in. Ok?”

“Ok,” Emmy said, picking up her toast again. “As long as you think you can survive the fight without me.” With a smirk she bit into her toast.

The rest of the group looked at Shawn. Shawn nodded almost imperceptibly before picking up his toast.

“Please, I’ve got my sleeping darts,” Nick told Emmy, leaning back. “If I get a clear shot I can single-handedly end every fight by myself.”

Inez looked at him flatly. “Hah. You can barely hit a stationary target.”

Emmy snickered, and Victor smiled. The tension was still there, like a current at the bottom of the ocean. But they could ignore it for now.

Inez leaned against Victor’s arm in the back seat of the car. The battle had gone well. Emmy’s absence had been noted, but the shark guy wasn’t a smart fighter. His method of fighting was mostly “see thing, swing fist at it”. A few intense beams of light to the eyes and he’d been flailing around like a moron.

“I was thinking about sushi for dinner,” Nick mused. “The shark guy made me want seafood.”

“Me too,” Victor said. “I vote sushi.”

Inez smiled slightly. “Normal sushi, or mad scientist molecular gastronomy sushi?”

“I’m insulted,” Nick lied. “You think I would ever make something normal?”

Shawn gave a half-laugh at that, pulling the car into the garage.

“Think Emmy caught anyone?” Victor asked, climbing out.

“I don’t know if I hope she did, or if I hope she didn’t,” Shawn said, opening the door to the building. 

“Emmy, we’re back!” Nick shouted, following him down the short corridor to the main room.

They stopped at the end of the hallway, stiffening. Inez and Victor stopped behind them, wondering what was wrong. 

Shawn put his hand on the wall, sliding to the ground as Nick ran into the room. Inez followed, stopping dead when she saw it.

Everything was destroyed. Burns marked every flat surface in arced lines. Streaks of blood covered the room where Emmy had run. Her corpse lay on the couch. It would almost have looked like she was sleeping if not for the gash that nearly separated her head from her body.

Above her on the wall, painted in crimson blood, was one word:

PATHETIC