The Legendary Consortium had convened for yet another meeting.  It was as if Lady Sapphire needed to justify the decision to call everyone back to headquarters by constant updates that could have been done in a group text or email.  

Israel LeBlanc would have been napping in protest if he wasn’t trying to keep a low profile, so he sat upright in his comfy old sofa, watching attentively as Lady Sapphire went over the same information she’d gone over yesterday.  And the day before.

“The perp hit another bank and museum,” she said.  Perp.  Stephanie’s diplomatic compromise between referring to the person in question as Siren, even though she was dressed as such during her crime spree, and the Sea Witch, or Ursula, as Izzy knew her to be.  It was a step in the right direction, but it implied a greater problem.

They weren’t cops.  Ursula wasn’t a “perp.”  They weren’t super heroes, and Ursula was a menace that needed to be stopped.  However well she covered her tracks, they knew she was gathering magic artifacts.  What she had was inconsequential, and with the abundance of such items in the world, trying to find a pattern to her robberies or even her motives was pointless.  She was a powerful spell caster who was able to steal the powers of the real Siren, and now she possessed the ability to compel anyone who could hear her to do whatever she wanted.

“The news is unfortunately already all over this story, and any attempts to keep it under wraps would be seen as us trying to cover up this crisis,” Lady Sapphire continued.  “We’ve got the Pentagon and the DEO breathing down our necks.”  The DEO, the Department of Enhanced Oversight, was the branch of the US government tasked with overseeing the Legendary Consortium.  They were largely superficial, making it look like the government had a tight leash on some of the world’s most powerful beings, but the LC regulated and kept itself in check for the most part.  The fact that the current secretary of the DEO, that fat bastard Colin Wallace, was making a fuss, was a complication they didn’t need.  The LC had “eased” him into his position because he was the sort of pushover puppet they needed to save face, someone who was content in the idea that whatever problems they came across, they would handle it themselves.  But the media coverage on “Siren’s” recent crusade against banks and museums was enough to pressure even that lazy slob into doing his job.

“We’ve plugged whatever the locations of the robberies into our computers, there’s no rhyme or reason to where she hits.  We can’t predict where she’s going next,” Adam said.  “Every new location just confuses the algorithms.”

“Can we at least narrow down the known locations that house artifacts of interest?  Maybe get a manageable number.”

“I’ll try, but manageable, that’s not likely.  There are arcane artifacts all over the place, and she’s taking everything from things that are known to glow slightly to tomes that predict the end of days.  It’s…” he trailed off with a shrug.

Izzy had used the word smoke screen in a previous meeting, but he saw no point in driving that fact home.  The cowboy emulating Legend had hedged his bets, not counting on the LC to solve this current problem themselves.  And speaking of, his hand slipped into his pocket, easing out his phone.  He glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.  

ML 3 missed calls.
ML 1 missed text.

He flipped open the phone, scrolling down to the missed text.

“Are we boring you Barrage?” Aegis asked, his gaze landed fixedly on Izzy as he read the text message.

“If I’m being honest, a little, but things are about to get much more interesting,” he said, looking at the time stamp of the message.

He didn’t have to wait for a response from his superiors as the door to the conference room slammed open.

Izzy was the only one who remained sitting, the rest of the LC springing up and turning towards the door, all fifteen of them taking a defensive stance as the big double doors flew open.

“Sheesh, you’d think this was some sort of private meeting or something,” the short woman standing in the doorframe said.

Izzy stood as the brunette in the gray tank top and fatigues strode into the room, a pair of bare legs hanging over her shoulder.  She dumped the limp figure onto Izzy’s couch, rolling her shoulder as the woman bounced onto the dusty couch.

The entire LC stared at the figure as she came to rest.  Her red hair was coming back in on her recently shaved head.  Her eyes were closed, her skin sallow and gaunt, dark circles under eyes.  A thick black leather muzzle still covered her mouth.  She wore a beige canvas straitjacket, hugging herself tightly under the restrictive garment.  A thick canvas strap ran tightly between her legs over the white adult diaper she was wearing.  He legs were bare save for a pair of padded cuffs connecting her ankles, though her legs clearly hadn’t seen a razor in quite some time, and purple bruises framed the cuffs.

She was barely recognizable, but there was no mistaking that the unconscious woman lying on Barrage’s couch was none other than Annabelle Carillon, the super heroine known as Siren.

Izzy turned to the woman who had brought her in.  “She needs medical attention,” Mirage said.  She lifted the back of her tank top and pulled out a manila folder tucked into the back of her pants.  “She was on a fuck ton of drugs; here’s the file they had on her.”  She tossed the file to Izzy.  He opened it and briefly skimmed the first page of the patient file.  One for an Ariel Doe, one last sadistic joke from the woman who had done this to her, Ursula, the Sea Witch.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Aegis asked, stepping forward.

“I found your missing Siren, what does it look like,” Mirage shot back.

“We need to get her to the infirmary.  Someone call Doctor Dhawan,” Izzy said.  He knelt to pick up her prone form, but Stephanie was suddenly next to him.

“I’ve got her,” she said, picking her up with ease.  “And we’re going to have a conversation later.”  She stared into Izzy’s eyes before she turned and swiftly left.

“I’m sure we are,” he replied as she left.

“Everyone else, you’re dismissed for now,” Aegis said.

The rest of the LC started to move towards the door, dragging their feet as their curiosity regarding the newest development got the better of them.

“Well,” Mirage said, “I would love to stick around, but I’m sure one LeBlanc around here is more than enough.  I’ll go ahead and get out of your hair,” she gave Izzy a nod and turned back for the door.

“You’re not leaving yet, Mira,” Aegis said.  “We still have questions for you.”

“Is that so?” she asked, crossing her arms across her chest as she turned to face the immortal.  “Cause last I checked, I’m not a Legend, and I don’t answer to you.”

“You are still a licensed enhanced individual operating in the United States.  You very much do answer to me,” he said, taking a step forward.

Izzy slid between them, his hand held up, two fingers resting under the brim of his cowboy hat.  “Mira, go ahead and get out of here.”

“That’s not your call, Israel,” Aegis said, his voice low.

The rest of the LC and Mira watched from the door.  

“I speak for the entire LC when I say we thank you for your assistance in locating Siren.  And you are free to leave,” Izzy said, staring fixedly at Aegis.  “No one is going to stop you.”  

The implication was clear.  The rest of the LC watched as the Barrage coolly leveled a threat at their leader and most powerful member.  Everyone had noticed his discontent over the past few weeks, but this went far beyond that.

He looked back over his shoulder, where Mirage was still standing with the Legends, waiting to see how this would play out.  “Mira, that’s your cue to get the fuck out,” he told his younger sister.

“Right.  I’d best be off then.”  Her voice sounded distant, and the illusion of her faded just as the elevator doors opened, and everyone looked back to see the real Mirage stepping onto the elevator.

Izzy pulled his hat low over his eyes as he turned his cold gaze back to Aegis.  “We done here?”

Aegis returned his stare, his face a passive mask that belied the slow boiling anger below the surface.  “You don’t speak for the entire LC,” he said finally.

“Neither do you,” Izzy returned, turning on his heels and walking past his fellow Legends towards the infirmary.



Izzy stood at the window, knowing better than to interrupt Lady Sapphire while she worked.  The infirmary glowed with a faint blue light as she worked, her hands hovering over Anna’s naked body.

The blue light finally faded, the sterile bright yellow glow of the florescent lights replacing her magical energies as she stepped out of the room.

“How is she?”

“She needs a medical doctor,” Lady Sapphire responded.  “Doctor Dhawan is on her way.”  Doctor Bharat Dhawan wasn’t the genius Doctor Jeremiah Sisaro was, who’d played his part in the whole thing, but she was respected in her field, had substantial experience with enhanced, and was, most importantly, trustworthy.

“That’s good,” Izzy responded.

“Your sister wasn’t supposed to bring her here,” Lady Sapphire stated.  It wasn’t a question, so much as a keen observation.

“No, she wasn’t.”

“She made the right call.”

“I know,” he said.

“Where did she find her?”

“I don’t know,” he responded.  “I told her to go.”

“That was a major clue,” Lady Sapphire said, finally looking away from Anna to stare at him.  “We need to talk to her.”

He kept his gaze fixed on Anna.  “I can still find out where.  It’s bad enough that Anna’s here.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game Israel.”

He finally turned to her.  “Look, I get it.  You’re in the public eye.  Hell, we’re all under scrutiny.  And you have to do what you have to do.  So I took finding Anna upon myself, and I outsourced it.  You still get to do what you need to do, save face, look like the LC is in control of the situation, and what needs to get done gets done.”

“And why wouldn’t you come to me with this?  We’re a team.”

“We have a history of throwing Anna under the bus.  She was part of that ‘team’ once.  And looks to me like we’re poised to give her the shaft again.  And now on top of that, some bitch has her power, and I don’t know if I can trust anyone.”

“You know that cuts both ways right?  You going off and doing your own thing, keeping secrets.  That could be seen as suspicious.  And what if you’re under this Sea Witch’s control?  Is it possible you might not even know?  Anna was never much for subtlety, but in the hands of a magic user worth her salt, there’s no telling what she could do.”

Izzy smiled.  “Glad to see you’re taking this seriously.”

“Who do you think you’re dealing with?  I know the risk.  You think I’m doing all of this just to cover our asses, but if something goes wrong, I want it under my roof, where I can control it.”

“And if you’re biting off more than you can chew?”

“Maybe I am, but I’m not the only one chewing.  We’re a team, remember?”

Izzy snorted.  “There’s only one of us you can truly count on, and I’m not the only one who’s noticed Mommy and Daddy are fighting.  You and Aegis aren’t on the same page, and you better sort it out, fast.”

Stephanie gritted her teeth.  Referring to her and Aegis as the Mommy and Daddy of the LC was nothing new, but there was generally a level of affection in the nicknames.  Now Israel had used it in front of one of her “children” who’d she’d kicked out on the street, so to speak.  Anna wasn’t the first Legend who’d had her career forcefully ended, but she was the only one who had done nothing to deserve it.  

“We work so well together precisely because we don’t always agree.  This friction you’re picking up on, that’s how we navigate the murky grey areas of what we do.  It’s why this organization exists.  It’s why people like you and me are allowed to be heroes.”

“Justify it all you like, people like her are paying the price,” he said, pointing to Anna.  



Ursula seethed with rage.

“Please, the woman who saved her had powers.  There was nothing we could do to stop her,” Nurse Jean Delamonte pleaded.  Ursula had not been pleased to find that Jean had lost her patient.  “She drugged me, beat up my staff, and threatened to lobotomize me.”

“Oh, is that all?  She threatened you?”

Jean prayed the woman wouldn’t ask more about the lobotomy.  She hadn’t authorized the lobotomy she was planning to perform on her patient, and while before this particularly angry visit, Jean had thought that fixing the stubborn patient permanently would be a happy surprise for the dark haired woman.  But now, she had a feeling the woman wouldn’t be so happy, and she’d been unable to lie or cover anything up when Ursula had asked her, the truth spilling out of her mouth unbidden.

“Yes, she threatened me.  She said if she came back I’d wish I’d gotten the lobotomy,” Nurse Delamonte said.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Ursula cooed.  

This soft tone was infinitely more terrifying that the anger she had displayed earlier.

“I won’t?” Jean asked, her voice trembling.

Ursula pressed her finger into Jean’s forehead.  Her sharp fingernail pressed into the woman’s sweaty forehead, breaking the skin, a crimson drop of blood pooling on Ursula’s black painted fingernail.  She spoke, her voice like gravel in a blender, and the fingernail shimmered, inky blackness swirling like liquid, mixing with the blood.  Ursula hissed an incantation, and the tainted blood shot back into Jean’s forehead.

The Nurse screamed, throwing her hands up to her head.

Ursula turned and walked out of Nurse Delamonte’s office, the woman still screaming hysterically as she fell to the floor.  The place would have to be burned, she thought idly as she strode down the hall, brushing past the orderlies who rushed to the rising screams of their boss.  

No, she decided as she walked back out.  Even if the LC did discover anything at the asylum, it was too late.  Better to give them something to do.  She whistled as she left the building, the sound of Jean Delamonte’s screams still ringing through the halls behind her.