Page 56 of Secret Spark

“Possibly? So, what, your jerk friends can double-cross us? Not a chance.” Sparks flickered from her eyes. Zee had picked the wrong night for this.

Zee planted their hands on their hips. “You’re a criminal. I can’t wave a magic wand and erase everything you’ve done.”

“But you could let me and Mark go. And Perry, if he goes legit. Mark and I want out of this life. We’re making plans. We want Perry to come with us.”

“Perry will never stop. I tried telling you that years ago.”

“You just wanted me and Mark to join you.”

“I didn’t want you thinking you didn’t have a choice.”

“We didn’t,” Joan stated. “We were homeless street kids. The Supers did nothing to help us.Nothing.You all treated us like shit. Didn’t even offer to buy us food. Oh, wait. You never pay for anything. You couldn’t even give us a free meal.”

Zee didn’t respond to that. They couldn’t. They knew the Supers had failed two angry kids with superpowers. Bad seeds once again.

“Perry took us in. He helped us control our abilities so we?—”

“So you could use them for his benefit.”

“So we wouldn’t destroy the city. You should be thanking him.”

The heaviness of an old, unresolvable argument hung between them. A small part of her had always wondered what made Perry so vehemently anti-Super, and vice versa. It went deeper than just the Hero/Villain conflict. It sometimes felt like his life of crime was to spite them. The more he villained, the more he was determined to villain. That had to be why he didn’t like the idea of going legit.

“I can talk to the others,” Zee said. “See what we can do for you.”

“That’s not a good enough guarantee.”

“What good is a guarantee to a Supervillain? You could very well double-crossus.”

“I would if you didn’t uphold your end of the deal.”

“Then why should I trust you?”

“Why should I trustyou?” Joan countered.

“If I was here to capture you, I would’ve done it by now.”

“Yeah, and I’d have burned through whatever you’d try to contain me with.”

Zee cocked their head. “Let me put it another way. If you don’t want to be lumped in with all the Villains, don’t lump me in with all the Supers.”

Hmm. Good point. “Maybe,” Joan answered slowly.

“We don’t always see eye to eye.”

“They’re total jerks.”

Zee looked like they wanted to agree, but changed their mind. “You and I have more in common than you want to admit.”

“What, that we’re both stubborn? Sarcastic? Think Darlene’s a pain in the ass?”

“She’s very dedicated to our cause.”

Joan rolled her eyes.

“Do I have to point out the obvious?” Zee gestured at their off-white outfit, then at Joan’s black-and-red getup. “We’re part of a larger community.”

They gestured back and forth again. “We’re both queer,” Joan realized.

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