Page 8 of Secret Spark

Perry slid his pen down the agenda. “Item Two. Who keeps taking tools out of here and not bringing them back?”

“Joanie,” Mark said without hesitation.

“Way to throw me under the bus.” Joan told Perry, “I grabbed a few things to put my new shelving unit together.”

“It’s been going on for weeks. I needed a crowbar last night to get into that safe deposit box. Volt had to zap it open.”

“I’ll bring them back when things are set up at my place.”

Mark’s face crinkled in confusion. “Why did you need a crowbar to put together a shelf?”

“I used the crowbar to make sure my alarm system’s working,” Joan said.

“This is what happens when you move so far away from me.”

“I moved five minutes from you.”

“Sevenminutes,” Mark stated. “And do you know how long it takes to get up to your fancy high-rise apartment?”

Joan flattened her palms on the table. “I know you both aren’t happy I moved into a heavily populated building. But seriously, what better cover than to hide in plain sight?”

“Just bring the tools back,” Perry said. “And maybe get your own.”

“Joanie has a whole boxful of tools.” Mark ducked as she took a swipe at him. “It’s under her bed and?—”

She flicked a tiny fireball at him.

Mark snatched it and fizzled it out. “And it has abig, thickrainbow heart sticker on top.”

Joan shot several little fireballs at him that he neutralized mid-air with a burst of snow.

Perry crossed his arms. “Are you done?”

“Yes,” Joan said, then muttered to her younger-by-eight-minutes brother, “I won’t tell him what you’ve got underyourbed.”

“If you need help settings things up, you can call me.”

“I know, Per.” Joan gave him a smile. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I’m always gonna worry about you two,” Perry said. “You’re my exhausting almost-children who I’ve tolerated for too many years.”

Mark made heart hands. “We love you too, Per.”

Joan copied his heart hands. “Thanks for raising us to be the upstanding citizens we are.”

They owed everything to Perry. Even though he was barely fifteen years older than them, he’d taken them in when their actual parents decided it’d be better for the twins in the city rather than destroying various parts of their hometown.

Breeze might be a hard-nosed Villain to everyone in Vector City, but he was also just Perry, who whooshed the first guy to break Mark’s heart into the river while the douche was on a date with someone else. He was the one who’d told them the Heroes’ real first names, which he’d learned over the years. He’d taught the twins the importance of balance. That a family could be made out of Supervillains. He’d shown them how to survive when everyone else had turned their backs on them.

“Next item.” Perry glanced up from the agenda. “Trick’s proposition.”

Joan and Mark groaned.Speaking of family I only want to see at Christmas…

“I know you don’t want to discuss it, but we have to make a decision.”

“I decide we ignore him like usual,” Joan said.

“I second that.” Mark raised his mug in a toast.

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