At 8:44, the Blue Jay Cafe is finally starting to recover from its morning rush. In twos and threes, office workers filter back out into the gloomy morning, not wanting to be late. A few patrons, however, stick around, either because they have nowhere else to be or simply to people-watch. An overdressed construction worker, a barista leaving after handling the night shift, and of course the six-foot woman in bright blue armor, tucked neatly into a booth in the back.

A fizz on her radio prompts Skye to sit up straighter – after a second of connection, Alice becomes audible, immediately talking. “Alright, hi, I’m back from my first meeting.” In a stroke of luck, Alice’s office had bought her faked illness, letting her work from home for the day – and thus act as mission support. “More importantly, where’s Kit? The only reason I’m on board with this-”

“-Is because I’m keeping an eye on her in person, I know.” Kit’s voice clicks on in Skye’s other ear, interrupting Alice. “I’m a few blocks away right now.”

“They’re only going to step in if Marco attempts any subterfuge,” Skye adds, bored. While she waits, she rolls her wrists back and forth, stretching her joints. Exactly as she feared, Alice’s stunt with the Jet Punches has made her suit’s fingers start locking up again, and just after she’d finally fixed it.

Alice huffs, blowing out the mic. “Alright. Clearly I missed something. Why are you ‘keeping an eye on her’ from a different building?”

“Well, let’s see, here.” Kit gets that tone in their voice that means they’re being annoying on purpose. “Numero uno, I don’t trust myself not to punch Marco in his smug little face the moment I see him, and that’d be, y’know…”

“Deleterious,” Skye suggests, idly looking over the signs on the walls. Tacky, all of them, but intentionally so. If Skye were in charge of decorating, she might like to do something similar… but the thought of others judging her for being kitschy makes her reconsider.

“Deleterious to setting up any kind of diplomatic relationship, thanks.” Kit chuckles before continuing. “But also, just by being there, I think I’d probably put the guy on edge, y’know?”

“Okay, yeah.” Alice finally relents. “Fair point. You don’t really have an off switch the way Skye does – no offense.”

“None taken! Built that way,” Kit says with pride. “Anyways, I’ll just keep listening and step in if anything goes south. Feelin’ ready, Skye?”

“To talk things out? Not particularly.” The door jingling prompts her to look up, groaning internally as a man in a white suit, white hat, red shirt, rainbow bowtie sweeps in, immediately spotting her and offering a wave. “But at the very least, I am ready for this to be settled. If you both can do me a favor – please don’t be disappointed or try to talk me down, should I end up deciding to compromise.”

“Promise.” Alice’s voice comes through clean and firm.

Kit is less emphatic. “...Sure. You’re the boss.”

Once armed with his coffee and croissant, Marco carefully sits down in the booth chair opposite Skye, all smiles. “You’re here! I mean, I didn’t expect – I hope you didn’t-” He trips over his words, laughing at himself as he starts over. “Thanks for coming. And sorry we couldn’t have had this chat sooner.” With a gleaming smile, he extends a white-gloved hand. “Marco Domini.”

“A team lead of Omni R&D, and spokesman of the Omni Horizons,” Skye finishes as she takes his hand, shaking once perfunctorily. “I’m glad we could speak in person, as well.” Withdrawing her arm, she clasps her hands under the table. “I’m Sky Horizon, of course.”

“The one and only!” Marco grins as he mimics her signature pose. “I’ll level with you, I’m a little bit in fanboy mode right now. I didn’t expect you to show up wearing the suit!”

“No offense meant, but…” Skye gestures to a lapel camera hidden in Marco’s shirt. “If I showed my face, I don’t doubt your team would look up my name, address, and social security number within seconds.”

Marco raises his hands. “Guilty as charged,” he chuckles, sounding remarkably guiltless. “It’s not just that, though – it’s awesome to see your suit up close! I mean, I could tell you’re a big Rider fan from the design, but looking at the texturing – it kind of gives me Space Sheriff vibes, too.”

Skye is taken aback for a moment. “Yes, actually! That’s precisely what I based the outer material off of.” In spite of herself, she relaxes a bit. “You’re the first I’ve met in person to even know of that series.”

“Oh, boy, here we go,” Kit grumbles in Skye’s ear. “Let the record show I was right about him being a fan of-” Skye mutes them before they could throw off her groove any further.

“I could say the same- I’ve never had an in-person chat about this stuff before!” Marco takes a sip of his coffee, hissing as he finds it’s still too hot. “Ah, ow. But yeah! I actually used Sharivan as the design for the OH’s visors, if you can believe it.”

“Is that right?” Skye rests her elbow on the table, increasingly engaged. “I thought it was supposed to be Boukenger.”

“Huh.” Marco pauses, croissant halfway to his mouth. “You know, I never thought of that, but the helmets actually do look kind of similar, huh?” While in thought, he takes a bite of his pastry, not talking until he swallows. “Anyhow, I gotta ask – favorite Rider season, favorite Sentai season. Go.”

“Great question.” In the corner of her vision, Kit’s mute icon blinks, signaling that they’re probably yelling at her – well, they can wait. “If I had to pick just one… mm, probably Build and Go-Busters?” A good mix of personal drama and goofiness, combined with examining improper use of technology… they’re the ones she always finds herself coming back to.

“Huh.” Marco is, apparently, unimpressed. “Well, to each their own. I guess girls like bunny motifs, so that’s fair.”

Skye is taken aback, posture frozen. “I’m sorry?”

Over the radio, Alice sucks air in through her teeth. “Is – is he gatekeeping you?”

Marco continues, one hand on his coffee. “I mean, no offense, the aesthetics are cool and all, but the good guys are so… nothing in both of those. Super paint-by-numbers. You should watch Black if you haven’t, it’s basically just Build but better.”

“Oh my god, he’s gatekeeping you.” Alice half-laughs out of shock.

Skye sits up in her chair. “I’ve seen Black, yes, and enjoyed it, but nonetheless prefer Build. I like the aspect of the hero being a scientist responsible for their own creations.”

“Eh, fair. Sorry for assuming!” Marco grins, trying to recover his disarming attitude. “Anyway, my own favorites are, oh, probably Dynaman and definitely Zero-One.”

“What a shock,” Skye mutters, careful to mute herself. “He likes the series about being a tech CEO.” Turning her mic back on, she speaks up so Marco can hear her. “I agree that Dynaman is a great time, but I’d be curious to hear what excites you so about the other one.”

“Skye,” Alice hisses in her ear, “Don’t do this. You’re not gonna be able to talk him into agreeing with you.”

“I disagree,” Skye responds firmly over the radio. “His poor attitude is simply a matter of misconceptions on his part. With my knowledge, and the respect he has for me as an engineer, it’ll be simple to clear up.”

Twenty minutes later, Skye slumps back, defeated. The gloom outside has given way to proper rain, Marco’s coffee has long since gone cold, and he’s still talking.

“And, I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like she’s a bad writer for the most part, but I just can’t see a world where Kobayashi has contributed half as much to the genre as Takahashi has, when you look at it without nostalgia goggles. You know?”

Finally, Skye peels herself off the back of the booth, leaning forward. “Listen, Mr. Domini, this has been an… enlightening conversation, but we are here to discuss a business situation, aren’t we?”

That finally shakes Marco out of his tirade. “Oh! Oh, yeah, for sure. Let me just get set up…” He trails off, hoisting a folder onto the table. “We can keep talking about this later.”

“Thank God.” Alice groans, only half-audible as she turns away from her mic. “If he said ‘plot armor’ one more time, I would have walked over there and punched him myself.”

His notes collated, Marco looks back to Skye. “So, first let’s check we’re all on the same page so far, capisce?”

“Sounds great.” Skye refocuses her mind, chasing out idle thoughts of whether Marco actually says ‘capisce’ normally or if it’s just an affectation.

“Coolio! So, the gist of it is, a few years back, you developed that (super rad) suit using Quorium and started superhero-ing with it. The core of this whole rigamarole is, do you own the rights to the suit because you built it, or does Omni own the rights because it’s made with patented materials?”

“Right.” Skye rolls her hand in small circles, still stretching the joints. “Carry on.”

Marco flips open the folder to an unsigned form. “Now, the easiest way to resolve this is to have you just join Omni as an engineer, so that the rights belong to both you and to Omni – everyone wins.” Marco winces as he continues. “The issue is, when the Horizons went out to give you the pitch, Bianca jumped the gun and took a swing at you, which pretty understandably soured you on the whole deal. From there things kinda spiraled out of hand – that’s on me for not keeping them on a shorter leash.”

“This guy sucks,” Kit mutters, finally unmuted.

“Well, it’s nice to hear you don’t bear a grudge,” Skye responds drily, not entirely sure if she’s talking to Marco or to Kit.

Marco either doesn’t detect the sarcasm or chooses to ignore it. “None at all, we totally forgive you. And to prove it, I wanna just start by saying that our first offer – that you can just hop on board and have a team of your own to keep working on the Skyline, no questions asked – is still totally on the table. Even easier, I bet, now that you’ve, uh, been in the office and had a look at how things work.”

“Right. The carrot.” Skye’s tone is flat and even. “And what of the stick? Is your legal team still formulating charges against me?”

“Well… sort of, a little bit. Kinda.” He visibly wilts in the face of Skye’s mask. “Okay, yeah, we are. Listen – the fact of the matter is, when you look at it objectively, we can pretty obviously do more good with the tech than you can.” Again, he raises his hands to stave off potential criticism. “Nothing against what you’ve done, or anything! The whole ‘keeping it local’ angle is pretty cute. But you have to agree that with the money and engineers we have, things could get a whole lot better a whole lot faster.”

Skye is quiet, looking over the form.

Marco, sensing her hesitation, continues. “Look. You have to see it too – right now, we’re the good guys, trying to get power to the people, and you’re the bad guy, trying to hoard it all to yourself. But it doesn’t have to be that way – people can change.” He slides Skye the form and a pencil. “Please.”

“Skye…” Alice leads, worried.

Skye picks up the pencil, tapping its end against the table. After a few seconds of thought, she looks up, meeting Marco’s gaze. “I don’t disagree that its potential for good is greater in your hands, but so too is its potential for harm. Even if what you say is true, I can’t stomach even one person being seriously injured by something I created.”

Marco nods sadly, his lips spreading into a thin line. “Thought you might say that, and while it does make me kinda sad, I can’t really judge you for letting your feelings do the talking.”

“This guy sucks,” Kit interjects.

“The good news,” Marco says as he flips ahead in the folder, “is that we’ve got another option. See, you represent something one-of-a-kind.” He slides another form to Skye. “You’re the only guy – well, gal – to have worked with Quorium that isn’t part of Omni.”

Skye, forcibly ignoring his fumble, quickly scans the page. “This is an affidavit.” Setting the paper down, she looks back to Marco. “What exactly would you have me swear to?”

“Short version? That Quorium is totally safe to use, provided you’re sufficiently careful about it. We’ll be able to get the ban cleared, get production back up, and start working on our own Quorium tech.”

Skye resumes tapping her pencil against the table. “At which point you’ll no longer need to chase me down, leaving us free to go our separate ways.”

“Bingo!” Marco claps his hands together. “You can keep the Skyline’s design, we scrap the Horizons, and we pick up our own Quorium research where we left off. Slower than just having you on board, but better than nothing.”

“So your backup plan is to have me swear Quorium is safe… ‘so long as you’re sufficiently careful’. What does that mean, exactly?”

“Basically, that the Pearl Incident was a fluke, caused by improper safety regulations – which, of course, we both know that it was. It could have been avoided with a larger advisory team.”

Alice gasps. “Does that mean…”

Kit finishes grimly. “...They’re throwing Pranavi under the bus.”

Skye remains silent, flipping the pencil around and now dragging her eraser across the table. From within her helmet, she flicks both Alice and Kit to mute.

Marco, unaware, keeps talking. “And of course, again, you don’t have to agree to any of this now if you want time to think it over. After all, I’ll be here for a couple of weeks!”

“Marco.” Skye speaks without lifting her gaze. “I saw the emails from within your team.”

Marco flinches, taking off his hat and holding it over his heart. “Yeah. It was… a terrible mistake on my part, there’s no other real way to put it.”

Skye perks up. “So you admit it. The blood of the Pearl Incident is on your hands.”

“Hey, I…” Marco breathes out heavily, hanging his head. “Yeah. It is. I know I’m never going to be able to make up for my mistakes, but at the very least I don’t want to let those losses be in vain. I want to be able to use Quorium to save at least as many lives as I cost, as a matter of integrity-”

“Integrity?” Skye laughs incredulously. “If you were so worried about integrity, you’d own up to it being your own fault that the team got crunched so hard they couldn’t run safety checks!”

“Please, Sky Horizon.” Marco sets his jaw, sitting up straighter. “You have to understand the calculus here. I can do more good here, in the world, leading this development. I can’t atone for my mistakes from bankruptcy.”

“...Fine,” Skye seethes. “I don’t agree with you – at all – but I can at least understand your logic. I draw the line, however, at asking me to publicly buy into the lie that Pranavi Nehra was to blame.”

Marco flinches like he was shot again. “...I didn’t know you knew that name,” he says, voice small.

“Listen.” Skye’s voice is tight and measured, her vocoder distorting the lower ranges of her speech. “I’ll be fully honest – I actually agree that you can do far more good than I with Quorium. All else being equal, I probably would sign this – but you’re asking me to lie under oath.”

“Don’t think of it that way, then,” Marco pleads. “Think of it as… making a sacrifice for the greater good. Because that’s what a hero would do.”

Skye goes fully silent at that, folding her arms in apparent thought.

After a few moments of silence, Marco stands up, grabbing his coffee cup and plate. “I’ll be right back.”

Skye simply sits, digging deep within herself. Half-formed ideas flit around her mind – Betrayal. Selfless. Ethical. Cowardly.

Finally, Marco returns, dishes disposed of, placing his hat back atop his head. “Thanks for waiting. Any thoughts…?”

Skye nods slowly. “I’ll sign it, on one condition. Do you have a written plan for what Quorium research will be used for, should I agree that it ought to be deregulated?”

Immediately, Marco’s face lights up. “Yes! Yes, actually, I do! And not just a plan-'' Rifling through the folder, he triumphantly slaps down another page. “A fully itemized list of clients looking into Quorium usage!”

Skye lifts the piece of paper, masked face impassive as she scans the list up and down. About halfway through, she startles, shaking her head as she sets the paper back down. “Marco, there are PMCs on this list.”

“PMCs?” Marco tilts his head, confused.

“Private military contractors. And not just one, either.”

“Yeah, no, yeah, I know what PMCs are. Why’s that an issue?”

Skye sputters. “You don’t have any objections to military clients? None at all?”

“Why would I?” Marco frowns. “I mean, we’re both superheroes, we both know defenders of the peace are a good thing-”

“Nope. No way. I’m done.” Skye slides the papers back to Marco. “I don’t care what you say, I’m not going to sign off on for-profit weapons development.”

Marco looks queasy as he sorts the folder back up. “So, no for now, then?”

Skye shakes her head firmly. “No for good.”

“Are you sure you can’t just…?” Marco lifts a hand halfheartedly. “We could, y’know, go over things again…”

“So long as there is even a chance of it being used with the intent to harm people, no means no.” Skye rises to her feet, towering over him resolutely.

“...Look, are you absolutely sure you want to go back to being the bad guy?” Marco’s disappointment fades to frustration as he finishes packing. “You know what’s going to happen if you turn down every compromise we offer.”

“I do know, and I welcome it with open arms.”

“Well… alright. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

With no further words, they each lift their hands to their earpieces.

Nine seconds later, the front windows of the Blue Jay coffee shop shatter as backup arrives.

Spoiler

Sophibeans

It's a double update! I'm going to do this on Sundays going forward for pacing purposes, and so the story will be completed a week sooner.

Next time, Kit interrupts a car chase to explain a meme. See you there for Episode 19: Connecting Flight!

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