I was still sweating and shaking well after we made it back to the hideout. I had feared that, at any moment, cops would come rushing around with an army of drones to stop us. But it seemed Trailbzer and Visionary, in their arrogance, had not thought to ping for back up.

  I y in one of the armchairs, my mask and hat thrown onto the nearest table, rubbing slowly at my sweaty forehead with one hand. I felt... relieved? Anxious? Terrified? Ecstatic? God, I didn’t even know where to start.

  My first gig as a vilin had been a success but now I had the knowledge that there would be superheroes and w enforcement out there looking for the new Toymaker. Not many, I was still a nobody on the grand scheme of things, but that knowledge still made me uneasy.

  Still, this was what I had signed up for. And it was necessary to get what I wanted.

  On the other hand, my chest was aching. I’d been hit before but punches from mean bitches in high school didn’t have shit on a Speedster ramming you twice.

  And that big lumbering monster was still following be around.

  I opened my eyes as Cassie’s shadow fell over me, the taller girl grinning and offering me a tall can of lemon iced tea. “Thanks,” I mumbled, grabbing it with numb fingers.

  “Eh, you earned it. We were in a bind against Visionary until you got an opening for us.” She took a seat beside me and zily reached over, stroking Lassie’s head. She leaned into the touch, still uneasy on her feet. I’d have to fix that quickly. “You good?”

  “I feel like I ran three marathons in a row. I might puke.”

  “Ha, yeah the first time is rough. The nerves and jitters will pass,” she assured me.

  I took a long sip of iced tea, welcoming the sweet chill as it rolled down my throat. I gnced over as I drank, and could see everyone else was trying to unwind. Beatrix had literally defted in a corner, munching on a rge bag of gummy worms. Greg was puffing a fat blunt, the stink of which was filling the room more and more. Sam had hunched up by one of the TVs and was busying himself with some farming game, pnting radishes at an arming speed.

  “What’re we gonna do about this guy?” I asked, jerking a thumb to the creature behind me. “I can’t exactly bring him back to my foster parents.” Hell they probably only tolerated Lassie because she was a pet that didn’t need any cleaning up after.

  Cass shrugged. “You could say he’s a stray?”

  “Be serious,” I replied bluntly.

  “Okay, okay. Well we can probably leave him here, have some food and water id out for him. He listened to you before, right? So tell him to stay, and he hopefully will.” She paused, staring over at him. “I know a guy, a back alley vilin doc. I could get him to take a look at the guy, just so we know what the hell he even is. Guess we should name him too.”

  I paused, staring at him. “Rover,” I said. “Since he’s like a guard dog.”

  “Lassie and Rover. You’re not very imaginative at naming pets.”

  “It’s not my main concern,” I said, taking another sip of my tea. And hell, I thought they were good names. Who needed a fancy, weird name for their dog?

  “No, it really isn’t Jay.”

  I watched her quietly for several long moments. Well, after what we had just gone through... she probably deserved some trust on my end. “Jess,” I said. “My name is Jess.”

  “Wooooow, first name basis?” Cassie’s grin broadened. “I’m fttered.”

  “Don’t get a swelled head,” I replied, but I couldn’t help but let a smile flit across my face. “So, where do we go from here?”

  “Well, I sent word to Jupiter’s people a while back, they’ll send a representative to meet with us. By now there’s cops swarming the STING base, apparently nabbed every agent who didn’t regain consciousness and cheese it, so they know we got the job done. We earned our pay,” she expined.

  “Mm. I don’t have an account with the Bck Bank,” I admitted.

  Cass nodded at me. “No worries, Jupiter’s folks can work that out. Just leave some of your deets with me, they’ll get your account prepped.”

  Well, it wasn’t like I could get my foot in the door on my own and I wanted to get started on paying what I owed for the costume.

  Cass smirked at me and raised her can. Took me a moment to realise she was offering me a toast. I smiled faintly, briefly smothering the more negative emotions rife in my head. “C’mon, short stuff.”

  I snorted, clinking my can against hers. “Fine, fine. A toast to a job well done.”

  Her smirk broadened, and I saw a twinkle of mischief fsh in her eyes. “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.”