The green haired man swung his sword at Izzy, the curved blade of the katana slicing through the air above the Legend as he threw his body backwards.  Izzy planted one hand on the ground to brace himself, pushing up onto his fingertips as he pivoted around and landed in a crouch.  The swordsman jabbed his blade forward, thrusting hard with his full weight behind it.  Izzy darted to the side, dodging, leaning back again as his attacker followed through and swung the blade, narrowly missing his chest.  Izzy stopped and his arm shot out, pointing his first two fingers and cocking his thumb.  Energy exploded from his fingertips, straight through the swordsman’s face.  The illusion, dissipated, and Izzy scanned the room for the next one.

A tiny, pink haired girl holding a ridiculously oversized halberd dropped from the rafters of Izzy’s secret gym.  Mira was certainly getting more creative with her illusions.  Faster, too, he thought as the illusion charged, swinging her weapon with a speed that seemed out of place for a girl that size, but at least seemed to realistically obey the laws of physics he noted, as its fake momentum forced a wide follow through after he’d ducked under it.  Another blast of kinetic energy from his fingertips through the illusion’s gut and it swirled and faded.  He spotted the newest one, some ninja or something in all black in the corner, and he took it out before it could even step out of the shadows.

“Getting tired of dancing around?”

Her voice came from behind him, but that didn’t mean anything, and he didn’t look back.  Mira could throw her voice with ease; she’d be hiding somewhere in plain sight, masked behind a perfect illusion of her surroundings.

“Not tired.  Your illusions are just getting more ridiculous looking.”

“You never know what you might fight.”  Her voice came from above him this time, up in the rafters.  

He hadn’t looked behind him; she’d take advantage of that and attack his blind spot again.  Izzy dashed backwards a few feet, looking up, his hands at his hips, his fingers aimed up, ready to fire, but there was nothing.

“Nope!”  Mira swept her brother’s legs out from under him from behind with a low kick.

He fell, swinging his right arm out as she took off running, firing a weak blast at her back, but it passed right through, her back rippling before the illusion faded.  He looked around as he landed hard on his back, but she’d already gone into hiding again.  “Good one,” he said as he hopped back to his feet, adjusting his hat back low over his eyes.  It made it harder for him to see, but it made it much harder for her to see where he was looking, and what he was paying attention to.  “I could have sworn your footsteps were running that way.”

From the far side of the room, he heard the same patter of feet.  Now that he wasn’t falling and reacting, he could pay attention and note that it wasn’t actually the sound of footsteps.  Something was off, but just barely.

“You making that sound with your mouth?” he asked.

“I’m not smacking two coconuts together.”  A clopping sound came from his left.

He raised an eyebrow, missing the reference.

“Oh right.  That’s not from one of your westerns.”

He smiled.  “I watch other things.”  Wherever she was, she could see is face.

“Name one thing.”

He couldn’t think of any off the top of his head.  He fired, randomly across the floor in an arc in front of him.

“You just firing wildly now?  Hoping to get lucky?”

He watched the dust he’d kicked up swirl about.  “I think I just did.”  And the areas where there was no dust.  He fired, one lightning fast shot from the hip.

“Uff!”  Mira sprawled across the floor as the near perfect illusion of the room she’d been crouched behind faded.

“You should clean up in here every once in awhile,” he said as he sidled over to her.

“Not my place,” she retorted.

“Not my problem.  I’m not the one on the floor.”

“Hmmph.”  She pulled in the light in a bright flash.  He squinted, and she was already moving, but he hadn’t let her out of her sight.  The flash was an old trick, and he wasn’t going to be fooled so-

Another figure came at him from the side and he whirled-

And froze.

Aegis stood before him.

It was an illusion.  He knew that.  But his hand trembled as he brought it up to fire, and before he could Mira barreled through the illusory, late leader of the LC.  Izzy was caught totally off guard as she slammed her elbow into his chest, knocking him back.  As he staggered backwards, she stepped between his spread legs, kicking outwards, completely knocking him off balance.  An uppercut to his stomach followed by a quick jab at his throat sent him crashing to the ground.

“What the fuck was that?” he snarled, sitting up.

“I believe they call that a cheap shot,” she replied smugly, examining her nails.

“Too far, Mira!”

She stopped her gloating pantomime and stared down at her brother, her face suddenly dead serious.  “No.  It was a wake up call.”

“Excuse me?”

“You need to get your shit together, Iz.  You killed him.  You had to.  But you need to find a way to deal with that, one that isn’t just tossing me and my illusions around.”

He was still seething, unbridled rage simmering just beneath the surface.

“Seriously, what else have you done recently?” she asked.

“There’s the stuff with Anna and the prison.”

“No, I’ve been doing that shit.  It’s been weeks.  I’m not going to find anything else.  I know she talked to Ursula.  I know you’re not going to do anything about it.  You need to move on.”

He took a deep breath.  And another.  “You’re right,” he said finally.

“I know.”

“I’m sorry for taking this out on you.  I’ve been going real hard on you, harder than I should.”

“Imbécile.  Don’t be a bigger idiot and start apologizing for not holding back with me.  We have a deal, remember?  No coddling.  So don’t start holding back with me.  This is me not holding back with you, but, you know, the emotional bullshit we hate.”

He chuckled.  “We have a deal.”  He held his hand out for her to help him up.  As she took it, he grabbed her wrist, pointing up her arm and blasting her in the chest.

“Awk!  Sh-it!” she cursed as he pulled her down to the ground, and she collapsed, lying on the floor next to him.

“Cheap shot,” he said, looking at her smiling.

She stuck her tongue out at him and flicked him off.



Izzy’s hand hovered in front of Lady Sapphire’s door.  He’d just about summoned the nerve to actually knock when the handle turned with a soft click and the door opened a crack.

“Come in, Israel,” Lady Sapphire’s voice came from inside.

He lowered his hand and walked inside.  Lady Sapphire was sitting behind her desk.  “You got a minute?”  

She nodded, gesturing to a chair.  “What do you need?”

Things between the two of them had been tense.  Besides Mira, Stephanie was the only one who knew that Izzy had killed Aegis, and she had agreed it was best for everyone if they laid the blame for that on the Sea Witch.  But that didn’t mean she had forgiven him for killing her partner, no matter the circumstances.  It was part of the reason Izzy had made himself scarce, to give her space.  Seeing him every day, keeping up his calm, relaxed facade, it had to be torture.

He took his hat off and set in his lap, running his fingers around the brim.  “Look, Stephanie, I, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

He glanced down, bending and folding his hat nervously.  He supposed he was going to have to do better than that.  “I justify it in my head that I had no choice, that I had to do it.  But I feel awful.  You know me, you know I’ve done some questionable things, but this- I don’t know.  I feel like if I’d been a better man, I’d have found a way to do it differently.  I wouldn’t have killed him.”  His eyes were watering, but he kept his gaze locked on hers, afraid if he blinked, the tears welling up would spill down his cheeks.

“You’re a good man, Israel LeBlanc.  It’s why you feel guilty, even though you made the right call.”

“Thanks,” he managed.

She let out a little laugh.  “To tell you the truth, I thought you were here to quit.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head.

“Good.  We have to be heroes, but we’re still human.  I know you made the right decision; you did what you had to.  It’s still hard for me though.  I’m mad at you, I’m mad at myself, I’m mad at him.  But I appreciate you coming here today.  I can’t keep ignoring you.  I was so afraid when I thought you were going to leave that it was because of me.”

“Never because of you.”

“Thank you.  It might take me some more time for me to fully come to terms with everything.”

“That’s understandable.  Send me somewhere.  Get rid of me for a bit.  Anywhere.”

“Actually, I just assigned Anna a case in Baltimore.  She should be able to handle it on her own, but it’s her first job since coming back, a little back up couldn’t hurt.”

Izzy hesitated.  He couldn’t really refuse at that point.  Anna was a whole other can of worms he was hoping to wait on opening just a bit longer.  “Fine.  I’m on it, boss.”