A Bad Case of Shingles.

Scales has always been reliable. Ever since I've known him, he's been prompt, resourceful and best of all - A team player.

Not to say any of the other guys aren't. But they'd sell each other down the river on the turn of a literal dime.

Rumble, Downtime, The Calamity Twins, and Big Jack. All trustworthy, up to a point. Jack more than the rest, he doesn't speak.

But something's wrong. Scales isn't looking so hot. Big black rings around his eyes, he's hacking up a storm whenever he speaks, and... I dunno, he just looks a little off colour.

Think I'll collar him at some point... Gotta be after the meeting though.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you all for coming."

Shape - Magnificent Bastard. Can heal any injury, and do things with his body you wouldn't believe.

"You know why we're here - You just wanna know who and/or what we're after."

Shape never plans for the small time. This'll be good.

"Pilgrim."

Whoa. The Pilgrim is a legend. Guy doesn't age. Super strong, super fast and feels no pain. Doesn't mean he can't be beaten though.

"DNA."

Deadly New Adversary. A rookie? Sure, he's caused a few problems but he's just a morpher - small scale shapeshifter. Just tough.

"And Rainy Forrest."

...Really? She's a fucking joke. She's a plant girl. All she can do is grow plants and spit poison. She retired years ago after... Well. The Gangland Incident. Heard she's a P.I. now.

"I know what you're all thinking. And I just need you to trust me. These people are gonna make waves in the next... 2-3 years."

How does he know?

...Scales ain't lookin' so hot.

Unlike the blonde at the front... Must be a rookie. Haven't seen her in the rap sheets lately.

"Pilgrim, as we al know is offworld at the moment. Something about the Uranians... God knows we're all sick of hearing about them. He's scheduled to be back on either Thursday or Friday, we still don't have a definative date."

That's odd. Downtime is usually good for the fine details. Guy works hard.

"When he's back, the Justice Alliance-"

Stupid name.

"-Are sending the rest of the big names out there to take his place for the weekend, to keep control of the situation."

That's... That can't be right. Thats a HUGE oversight on the part of the J.A. They usually only send 2 of the 10 out to assist in a situation. Something must be up. But then again, the 10 haven't been seeing eye to eye recently - 4 of them have quit after some huge conspiracy. Feh, just makes them easier to get at.

"And that leaves Pilgrim all alone in the tower in Washington."

Nice.

"As for DNA and Forrest - We're gonna just have fun wih them. We found out DNA's weakness, and Rainy is still hurtin' after the attack on Chicago by Reaver."

God bless Reaver. Mindless War machine that gets out of his prison every so often - I wonder how he got out last time, heh heh.

"Until Pilgrim gets back. We're gonna be busy with the small timers."

Seems kind of a waste if you ask me. Sort of pointless.

"Thanks to Ms. Mind over here, We'll be bolstering the ranks - If you get what I'm saying."

...Hahahahahahahaha. You ...Magnificent Bastard. A brainwasher.

"She's gonna open them up to their true potential. They're gonna be our shock troops against Pilgrim."

It's perfect.

...Still, I can't see what he meant about them making waves. Unless he can see the future, which is highly probable in our line of work, he has no way of knowing that. Just contradicted myself. In my own mind. Great.

"As for all of you, you'll all be playing the parts to which you are accustomed."

Which for me is Offense. You need a lot of offense to take on a Cape. Me, Rumble, John, Cash Calamity and Tektile, the power-armoured psychopath are on the front line. Jane Calamity, Scales and Solaris on defence. Downer and Shape usually watch from a distance, telling us joe schmoes what to do... Reminds me, need to get my earpiece fixed.

"Special orders for Ridgeback, Tektile and Macro."

Oh?

"You're gonna break someone out of Grayline. Two people actually."

Grayline. That's the freezer - place where the worst of the worst go.

"You're getting Mr. Zero and Gangland out of cold storage."

...Gangland. No. You can't do that. It's just not done. Girl went through enough with that thug-life freak. Gangland isn't talked about anymore for good reason - He has the power to take down a whole army, and he uses it to... She was defenceless.

And Zero? He's just gonna be for collateral damage. Zero controls luck. Makes it so those against him have zero chance to hit him. Good weapon, but he's nuts. A certain rampage through N.Y.C. was the reason he went into Grayline.

"Macro, I'm gonna need you to lead that one. You head out tomorrow night, I'll call you and we'll meet up beforehand."

...He bloody knows I'm not up for it. He's tying me to it.

"That goes for everyone too, I'll gather you all up next week before the first event so we can go through the plan. Just get some rest over the weekend"

...If I don't do it, I'll be sole reason for our failurAnd even if we succeed, I'll still be a pariah.

Fuck.

Gotta catch Scales.

"Hey Scales!"

"Macro..."

"You look like shit."

"You could say that."

"What's the story?"

"Took a hit from TLC. Bad hit."

Shit. TLC means Toxic Love Child. Punk asian heroine. Can turn into toxic waste. Hot, but deadly.

"You're fucking sick?"

"Worse than that."

"How much worse?"

"Dunno. The Doc says I'm either gonna mutate or... Die, basically."

"What are the chances of mutation?"

"1 in 6."

"That's pretty high."

"Here's hoping. The rest of the 6 is for the other possibility."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"...So, what do you think of all this?"

"Screwed up."

"Hm."

"I mean - We're going after a god, a rookie and a fucking vegetable."

"I know..."

"And your job, man. Letting those freaks out."

"I'm not a happy bunny."

"I've gotta go man."

"Wanna meet up at the weekend? Carol's still saying we need to double date."

"Alright. Providing I'm not dead."

"Same here."

...

Worst comes to worst, he's gonna be a one man feeding frenzy out there.

Maybe... Nah.

...Well. The doc was the one who gave him his chances. Maybe he'd have something to... Speed up the process.

Everyone has their job. One person fails and the whole thing usually goes askew.

Teach him to make me a fucking scapegoat.