Tampa, Florida, March 1st, 19:17.

"-Yesterday evening, at approximately five minutes past six, the city of Oakland declared an emergency evacuation, urging it's citizens to seek refuge in one of the available Endbringer shelters, or to simply evacuate the area. Initial fears that this was in fact due to an Endbringer attack were lost as time went by, until approximately fifteen minutes past seven."

Inside of a well lit, luxurious office, a women can be seen paying half a mind to the news being shown on the room's large TV, not all that interested in it's contents since the same story is all any news channel has been talking about since late last night.

The woman, Helena, is a five foot nine and noticeably voluptuous, dressed in a luxurious red dress, with mature features, well maintained eyebrows over a pair of sharp maroon eyes with full, plump lips coloured a deep red that matches her fiery hair and contrasts well with her milky white skin, is spending her time slaving away at some paperwork in front of her instead of watching the TV. Nobody ever said running a gang was easy.

And as the news caster continues talking, Helena finishes with one sheet of paper, flipping it over and adding it to another pile on the side of her desk, taking a moment to pet the midnight black cat sleeping beside the pile.

"It was then that the infamous killer Lusia Abel, also known as the Villain Tear, reached the city and began engaging the Heroes on the scene, who had been waiting for her thanks to a pre-emptive warning by Dragon, in combat, taking the lives of thirty-nine Heroes before the fighting moved away from the Diablo Mountain Range, and into Oakland proper, leaving the formerly lush mountains looking like this."

The screen transitions to show a pair of still photos, with a helpfully labelled 'Before' and 'After'. The 'Before' photo is exactly like she described, being green, mountainous and lush full of trees and a small lake. The 'After' photo however, has none of that. It is simply one large cracked crater of grey stone, completely flattened, with no trees or lake in sight.

Though, it is likely that the crater will turn into an impressive lake once a few rains have passed.

Helena briefly gives the image a glance, and her lips twitch downwards for but a moment before she returns to her work, trying to push her worries out of her mind.

"The fighting then started moving through Oakland, with Eidolon, Legend and Poe pursuing her as she attempted to flee, until they had her cornered and she appeared to give up, as shown in this video that was sent to us anonymously."

The screen changes again, and Helena actually looks up from her work this time to watch, even though she, alongside the vast majority of the country, has already seen it.

The scene shows a single woman, dressed in a simple black shirt and pants that conform tightly to her skin, with some noticeable red veins running through the clothes, pulsing as if alive.

She is kneeling at the top of a large pile of rubble, staring up into the night sky, with arguably the three strongest Heroes on the continent forming a triangle around her in the air. The camera is from behind her, so it's not clear what expression she is making.

What is clear, is when a  blinding violet light abruptly emanates from her location, the shadows making it clear that the light is coming from right in front of her stomach. Then the video moves to slow motion and the light expands, engulfing the woman entirely, right as Eidolon appears by her side, only to disappear in almost the same instant, and the camera to fade to static in a flash of violet that, despite being in slow motion, all happened in barely two seconds.

"Here, we can see the Villain using some kind of suicide attack, one that has had far reaching, and severe consequences."

The screen changes again, showing a still image of Oakland, San Francisco and the bay between them. A top-down photo taken during the day, showing the lively cities for what they are. Then the image transitions into another, fading away into another top-down photo, taken from exactly the same place and also during daylight, making it clear to all how the land has changed.

Without the previous image, it wouldn't have been immediately noticeable that you were looking at a disaster site, but when the screen changes to show both photos side by side, still with the entirely superfluous 'Before' and 'After', it becomes clear what has happened.

Oakland is gone. Mostly anyway. The Southern edges of it survived, but for about half a dozen miles from the heart of Oakland, there is simply nothing there, it looks as if someone used photoshop to extend the size of the bay from where the water has flown into the crater that once was a prosperous city.

Oakland is now just an extension of the bay. The explosion she released was even large enough to clip the shores of San Francisco, demolishing the bridge that connected the two entirely. But if one were to look even closer, they would see that it's somehow even worse, as all of the buildings immediately surrounding the new bay extension have crumbled, blown over by the immense aftershock of the explosion.

Further in it becomes clear that the explosion has also had the effect of causing massive water displacement, flooding everything immediately surrounding the bay. It truly is a disaster, comparable even to an Endbringer attack.

"As you can see, the situation is one that can only be described as a disaster. So far, reported casualties are over half a million, with another eight hundred thousand injured, a number that is rising with every hour. Homes and businesses have been torn down, roads have cracked from the shaking of the earth that immediately followed the blast, making the estimated cost for this disaster anywhere from forty billion, to one hundred and twenty billion dollars."

Helena shakes her head and sighs slightly, returning her focus to her work, even if the reminder of that Clown's prowess leaves her with a slight feeling of nervousness that has her reaching for the remote, turning the TV off in a fit of annoyance before they can circle back to talking about all the families without homes and overrun hospitals. She doesn't care and she doesn't care to listen.

The news has been parading around the fact that it was a suicide attack, that it won't happen again. Helena isn't buying it. She doesn't think it makes sense, but at the same time, surely they would know how foolish they would look the moment Lusia Abel shows herself again after making these claims?

She's missing something, that much is clear, and there's no point in wasting time trying to figure something out when you know you are lacking important information.

However, before she can get back to her work, the landline on her desk rings, getting not just her attention, but the attention of her cat too, making it raise it's head and open it's eyes, revealing a rare case of heterochromia, with the left eye being a steely silver, and the right an icy blue, it's raised head also shows off a collar with 'Kitty' engraved on the front of it.

Moving her hand over to the landline, she pushes a button to answer it on speaker. "Boss," her secretary says from the other side, "your guest has arrived."

And there comes the source of her worry.

This morning, shortly after the news started coming out of every channel about what happened, she got contacted by a Clown asking for a meeting.

Normally, she wouldn't mind at least talking with them, but right now is a tense time for Clowns, everyone is wondering if they are going to follow up on Lusia's little 'adventure' or not.

In the right circles, it's no secret that this all started because a Clown was killed, one of the First Clowns and Lusia's right hand at that. Even less of a secret is that said Clown was killed in Florida, specifically in Tampa, right where she calls home.

And now one of those Clowns wants to see her, something that can either go well or very very bad. Frankly, if he comes in and demands that she pay some inflated fee for allowing a Clown to die in the same city as her, she'll have no real choice but to just grit her teeth and do as told.

She is not nearly a big enough player to refuse them, and no matter how strong she knows her dear bodyguard to be, there are plenty of Clowns more dangerous than her just by themselves, never mind if they came en masse.

Optimistically, they will just demand she help them learn about what exactly happened and why, but considering Lusia's actions, she doubts that that will be the case.

Whatever the case may be, she's not in any immediate danger, so after telling her secretary to let their guest in, Helena gets to her feet and moves around her desk, picking up her cat's leash as she goes, dragging the limp animal off of her desk without a care.

Contrary to popular belief, the cat does not land on it's feet, instead simply impacting the ground face first as Helena takes her seat at the head of a nearby low table, with another chair on the opposite end and a couch on either side.

Shortly after she sits down, her door is opened after a single knock, a maid entering holding a tray with a teapot, two cups and some biscuits that she lays out on the table, pouring Helena a cup before folding her tray against herself and politely walking away, not saying a word the whole time.

As Helena picks up her cup, taking a small sip of her drink, her cat starts walking between her legs, rubbing itself against her, to which she responds by stepping on the cat's paw, making it bounce away under the table, right as the door is once more knocked on.

Helena can tell by the three knocks that it is not anyone in her employ, she she straightens herself, takes out a fiery red domino mask to keep her identify safe and clears her throat. "Come in."

The door opens, and a man walks in. Wearing a closed black long coat that has three horizontal buckles attached to its chest, and another three on each arm, with a zip that goes all the way up to the top of it's high collar, No Face strolls into the room completely at ease.

His faceless mask, a simple blank white covering that is clearly segmented into a three-by-four grid, with a small 'x' stitched where his eyes should be, swivels side to side, as if surveying the room, despite the mask not having eyeholes.

"Ah, Efreet, I presume? It's a pleasure to meet you," No Face greets, voice pleasant and friendly as he moves over to the seat opposite herself, flopping down on it with one leg over the armrest, subtly flexing his position of power by disregarding the social etiquette of waiting for a seat to be offered before taking one.

Her brow twitches slightly at the disrespect, but as he  is above her, she can only bare it, for it is his right as the stronger party to act as he pleases, up to a certain extent of course.

"Indeed, and it is an unexpected joy to meet you, Mr No Face, one that I am most curious to know the reason of." She returns before taking a sip from her tea.

No Face doesn't reach to pour himself a drink. Normally she'd assume that it was because he was expecting her to pour him one, but given his mask, she assumes that it is simply a practicality to not waste tea.

At the same time, No Face's attention is abruptly drawn down to his foot on the ground, where Helena's pet cat is now rubbing itself against his leg. Noticing this, No Face gently pushes the cat away with his leg, and then lifts it up, resting the leg with the other over the chair's armrest.

"I'm glad you asked, Miss Efreet. You see-"

Before he can continue, he is distracted by something out of the corner of his eye, and when he looks back down at the floor beneath him, he sees that there is now a dark-skinned woman lying on her back facing up at him, her chest going under his chair so that her face is right below his own as he stares down at her in confusion and amusement, hidden by his mask as the woman opens her mouth to speak.

"What's wrong with you? Do you not like playing with pussies? Or are ya just gay?"

Finished with her 'greeting', the woman simply looks up at him with a cheshire smile, seemingly oblivious to the growing tension emanating from Helena.

"Actually, I'm fine either way, it's just that I'm allergic to cats," No Face responds, an amused smile playing at his lips beneath his mask, but Efreet doesn't pay much attention to his response, to distracted by her anger.

"Kitty." Helena all but hisses, her anger only making the woman's smirk wider.

No Face just watches as fire rapidly spreads from Efreet's hand, down the leash she is holding and all the way to the collar over Kitty's neck, fire that then spreads throughout the woman's body, making her dark skin emanate an aura of flame.

But despite the pain that should wreck one's body when lit aflame, Kitty only lets out a small hum, her lazy smirk not fading at all even as Helena yanks on her collar, dragging her out from under the table and back to her side.

Immediately disregarding Kitty, Efreet turns back to No Face, bowing slightly to him, enough to be apologetic, but not so much to be subservient. "I am  so sorry about my bodyguard, she struggles with the concept of proper decorum, I assure you, she will be punished for this."

Rolling her eyes, Kitty gets to her feet, allowing No Face to get a good look at her. She is a six foot two, dark skinned woman with wild, untamed black hair and a lithe, muscular physique, dressed in all black, with a sleeveless turtleneck crop top and military pants.

Notably, her eyes. Not only does she have heterochromia, the left silver and the right blue, just the same as the cat that was just playing at his feet, but her pupils are even split exactly like a cat's. Further proof that they are one and the same are the long claws on her hands and feet, even having specially designed boots to accommodate for them and the constant lazy smirk laying on her face with a hint of playfulness to it.

"C'mon Boss, no need to be such a tight-ass, he wouldn't be much of a Clown if he couldn't take a joke.~"

Helena is honestly surprised that she even knows that he's a Clown, given how little she pays attention to things, no matter how much Helena insists that it's important.

"It's as she says, I hardly mind. We're not so stuck up like The Elite to demand everyone wear suits and be all formal n' stuff." No Face says, diffusing Helena's anger at her bodyguard embarrassing her  again.

"If you insist, Mr No Face. Now, I believe you were saying why you are here?"

"Right," No Face snaps his fingers, moving his one leg back to the ground for comfort, "you see, there's been something of an upset recently among us Clowns, I'm not sure if you would have heard about it, but one of us was forced, rather crudely to 'exit stage left', as it were, and Lusia set about showing why doing so is, shall we say... Unadvisable?"

Refusing to swallow, or show any other signs of her nerves at the thought of Tampa being turned into as much of a lake as Oakland now is, with her still inside, Helena opens her mouth. "Yes, I may have heard of it, but what does that have to do with your presence here?"

"I'm glad you asked. See, Fool, the Clown that died, he was here, in Tampa when he was killed."

"So I have heard."

"Ah, but do you happen to know  why, exactly, he was here?"

That, get's Helena to tilt her head slightly, considering the question for a moment before once more simply giving up on trying to figure out something when she is lacking important information. "No, I do not."

"I figured. In that case, allow me to enlighten you." Moving his other leg down to the floor, No face rests his forearms on his knees and leans forward slightly, "he was here for  you."

Not having expected that, Helena can't help but raise her brow in confusion and voice her doubts. "Me? Why would he have been looking for me?"

A reasonable question. She knows that she is not so lackadaisical as every Clown has shown themselves to be, and other than some drug business, her operations do not extend out of Tampa. As far as she is aware, there is nothing about her that would have attracted Lusia's right hand.

Alas, she has made a mistake. For she is trying to understand something while lacking important information.

"No no," No Face denies, shaking his head with mirth before turning his head slightly to the side to face the taller woman to her side. "He was here for  her."

Eyes opened in surprise, Helena turns to face Kitty, or Lilith, when they're in private.

He was here for her? That's not something Helena expected, and the more she thinks about it, the more her surprise turns to anger.

Why was he here for her? Was he going to try and take Lilith away from her? She refuses. Lilith is hers,  hers. No one else can have her.

It takes an impressive force of will for Helena to calm down and not kill No Face for even implying that Lilith could be taken from her, even though he never really implied that in the first place.

"Me?" Lilith asks, pointing to herself with both hands, her smirk going from lazy to playful.

"Indeed. He heard about you from that incident, ah... two weeks ago?" He pauses for a second before nodding his head as if someone just corrected him. "Oh, sixteen days ago, to be precise. You fought with a few Heroes, and bullied them so hard that one of them has resigned entirely and now sees a therapist every day."

Lilith's smile grows as she remembers the fight he's talking about, while Helena's frown only deepens, as she remembers all the ramifications the fight caused that she had to deal with.

"After seeing such a star display, Fool came all this way with the intent of offering you a place with us, as a Clown."

"No." Helena's voice, quiet though it may be, has an undercurrent of tension to it as she stares No Face down, her eyes blazing with power. "No. She is  my bodyguard, you can't have her."

So focused on No Face is she, that she never sees the way Lilith looks at her, nor the light blush on her still-smirking face.

No Face meanwhile, simply waves both of his hands in front of himself in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "Woah there, nobody' poaching anyone. Even if Kitty were to be a Clown, that wouldn't really change anything for her, none of us really have any obligations to each other except for the occasional favour, and you could leverage her position with us to help expand your own operations anyway."

Seemingly satisfied that no one is trying to steal away her pet bodyguard, Helena calms down and leans back in her chair, allowing No Face to continue talking.

"But that's besides the point anyway. The offer for her to join is open, but ultimately not why I'm here." Moving his arms down to his armrests, No Face leans back into his seat. "I'm here because of Fool's death. He was killed by a man called Lucky, under the orders of Bastard Son of The Elite."

Helena relaxes slightly at the information, both because she likes knowing secrets, and because it means that she is almost certainly safe from the Clown's wrath.

"Now, Lusia has already gone ahead and avenged Fool directly, and though she has gone off grid since, we have all come to a consensus that Lusia's actions alone wasn't enough of a lesson."

A shiver goes down Helena's spine at his words. Half a million dead, nearly a million injured. Millions left homeless or destitute, homes reduced to rubble by the blast or flooded by the resulting waves throughout the bay. All of that death and destruction, and they collectively agreed that it wasn't enough of a lesson?

"So, since Fool was killed by The Elite, and since he was killed in Florida, we have decided that The Elite is no longer allowed in Florida. They're a West Coast organisation anyway, what are they doing all the way over here, right?"

Helena has to actively remind herself that the Clowns have only existed for about a year, and yet they are probably the only group in the country that can so confidently and assuredly kick The Elite out of an  entire fucking State.

You know, The Elite. The single biggest criminal organisation in the country since it was  founded. The second larges parahuman organisation in the country, just below the fucking  government, also known as The Protectorate.

Just with his easily spoken words, Helena is reminded once again that making enemies with The Clowns will only end in her swift defeat and death.

Still, no matter her feelings, she refuses to show weakness, so with a steadying breath, Helena opens her mouth once more. "And you want my help routing them out of Tampa?" She asks, her voice just as composed as ever, not showing a hint of her internal turmoil.

But contrary to her thoughts, No Face shakes his head in denial. "No no. It's a Clown who was killed, it will be Clowns who avenge him. I'm actually just here to let you know ahead of time, and to kindly ask that you swiftly expand your operations once we have finished kicking them out of the city, such that they are not able to retake their foothold here, because you would have already taken it over. They can't build themselves back up if there is no vacuum to build into, after all. We're even willing to supply some money and other resources you may need to have this done as soon as possible.

Now  that, is now what she had been expecting to hear, but at the same time, it is all but music to her ears.

Basically, he wants her to sit and watch as he takes out her biggest competitor, and then help her take over their fortune and fill in the gap they leave.

There really doesn't seem to be any downside to this, so she accepts the deal, shaking on it and sending No Face on his way with a smile on her lips.

"Careful Lena, if he catches you grinnin' like that, he might think ya wanna fuck or something~."

Only for her smile to immediately fade as her bodyguard opens her mouth and Helena remembers that before anymore work can get done, she has a Kitty to punish.

---

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Dang, big numbers on Lusia's kill count now. And by the way, I have once again done about an hour of research to make sure my numbers are accurate, just in case any of you felt like doubting them, they are realistic.

Also, credit to FumiXi for this chap introducing new characters, cuz she bought the privilege to make an OC with me, that being Lilith/Kitty. At the same time, screw FumiXi for scamming me into making more OCs via the magic of  ~backstory~ But at the same time, I take that back, cuz the backstory has added something that was semi-important that I'll use later, and it let me make Helena, who is pretty interesting.

So yeah, Epilogue numero uno. idk how many there will be, prolly between 5 and 10

Also, this chap was 4k lmao, so double normal length... I think I am going to just start doing 5 chapters a week, with each chap being longer on average so that I'm actually technically writing even  more than before lmao.

5(+) Advance Chapters on my Patreon :D (There should be buttons below the poll)