Archive of Our Own ^beta

Zoey stared at the message on her phone, her expression a twisted amalgam of horror and anger. She glanced around the hookah lounge surreptitiously, as if by scanning the other patrons, she’d discover the sender of the offending message, twirling a long mustache and cackling maniacally like a cartoon villain.

Unfortunately, Zoey had no such luck. None of the people spread out on the plush sofas and chairs, partially blurred by colorful curtains of sheer gauze, really stuck out to her as a criminal mastermind. Her eyes found Wu, up at the bar ordering more hash and drinks, before they quickly darted toward the door. 

The lounge was just crowded and noisy enough to give her a tiny window of opportunity, if she left now. “Fuck...” Zoey muttered under her breath, debating with herself for half a second before leaping to her feet. She wound her way toward the door, too afraid to look back over her shoulder at Wu, in case he sensed the gaze of someone staring at him and turned to find her leaving the lounge.

It was no small feat that she made it to the breezeway without being spotted, keeping her head down to not be conspicuous. Before exiting onto the street, she dug a hand into her pocket to pull out a tiny black device that looked for all the world like a harmless broach. Zoey pinned it to the collar of her shimmering red sequined shirt and activated it.

It was a nifty little thingamajig Echo had whipped up in Santa’s Workshop a few months prior. Will had immediately started shopping the device (that Echo dubbed Incognito) to the military, dollar signs in his eyes at the prospect of a new, lucrative military production contract. What Zoey possessed was just a prototype Echo doled out to her and the Suits for their own personal use, but it would do the trick.

When it activated, there was a moment where the world seemed to shift around her, as the hard-light projection surrounded her head and shoulders. If anyone bumped into her or tried to touch her, thanks to the magic of the haptic feedback technology Echo had baked into it, her hair and skin would feel real, despite being nothing more than an intricate hologram. It even came with a voice modulator feature, to complete the disguise. 

Zoey had suggested she spell it ‘Incogneato’, because it was pretty neato, but was quickly overruled by a round of boos and eye-rolling.

Once the projection settled, to the citizens of Tabula Ra$a, Zoey would appear as just a random, plain woman not worth a second glance in a city filled with models, Blink celebrities, and the insanely wealthy parading around with their expensive jewelry and cars. Incognito wouldn’t change the appearance of her body, make her thinner, taller, or more muscular looking, features Will had asked Echo to add in future versions, but in this instance, their absence would keep people from paying her any attention, seeing a short, heavy woman on the streets.

When Wu finally discovered her missing and ran out to see where she might have gone, he would have no hope of finding her, thanks to Echo and Incognito.

Assuming, of course, he didn’t recognize her fat ass and short stature making a mad dash to safety. She then seriously wondered whether or not he actually had the entire shape of her burned into his memory, for this exact reason, to not lose her. 

That’s a creepy thought.

Feet hitting the pavement outside the entrance to the hookah parlor, she banished her current train of thought and breathed a quick sigh of relief in the cool night air before the reality of the situation came crashing back down around her. Zoey took one last look at her phone (and the awful message that had spurred her exodus) before bending and cracking it in her hands. The screen shattered easily enough, not designed to withstand being manhandled in such a way. 

Tossing it into one of the automated garbage cans that lined the streets -the can thanking her for disposing of her refuse properly- Zoey forced herself to keep calm, walking down the street like she was just on an evening stroll. Only the guilty ran and that’s what Wu would be looking for. She did feel guilty for leaving him, but it was either that or...

Zoey’s mind raced at, and working on auto-pilot, she let herself be carried away in the flow of foot traffic heaving to-and-fro on the busy streets.

It had seemed innocent enough at first, just some randomly misspelled invite to check out ‘the crziest shiz evar n tabula rasa’ and like everyone else, Zoey enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude, so of course she had clicked on it.  It was important to keep with the times after all, and missing out on the new meme or the latest celebrity arrest could prove detrimental to the sad excuse that was her social life. Besides, it was usually good fodder for a full-body high, laughing at the mishaps and missteps of those who only tolerated her because of her money or because of her infamous father.

It was no laughing matter however, the images she’d been linked to. 

Budd in his tighty-whities, cowboy boots and ever-present cowboy hat, a bottle of some unidentifiable liquor in one hand. Knowing Budd, he was probably high on something, the music blaring on his state-of-the-art sound system. It had been taken through an upstairs window of his house, via a high-powered scope. The image wasn’t some grainy affair, either, it had been taken in the highest definition possible, to really drive home the point that they were seriously invading Budd’s privacy.

Echo was next, in her backyard with her dogs, dressed casually for a lazy day at home, no sign of the dangerously intelligent woman she was beneath the warm smile and playful exterior as she ran around barefoot in the grass with the two dogs at her heel. It could have just been a trick of the camera, but Zoey had been to Echo’s house, and she recognized the angle of the photo, which sent a particularly horrifying chill down her spine, that the photographer had been way too close for comfort.

Even from behind, there was no mistaking Andre’s Whopper-like dome, clad in a robe as he made the trek from his back patio to the alcove housing a ridiculously large hot tub. From experience, Zoey knew he would normally have a bevy of women waiting for him, but when the photo was taken, Andre had apparently decided to spend the evening solo, drinking and doing bumps of cocaine by himself while he enjoyed a soak. If the person taking the photo had lethal intent in mind, Andre could have died alone, the false illusion of safety and security in his own home shattered. 

There was no trickery needed for the photo of her mother, as she made herself quite available to the public in multiple ways. Instead of hunting her down at one of the numerous nightclubs that catered to the so-called enlightened New Agers, this one had been taken at the sex class she taught, Melinda in some spine-bending pose as she illustrated how one should position themselves above their lover. Zoey could almost feel the lecherous gaze of the person taking the photo through the image, the way the shot was focused and cropped. So, definitely a man or an incredibly perverted lesbian. 

The photo of Will was the most startling, as Zoey knew he had an impressive array of military grade anti-surveillance devices surrounding his property, the very same ones the Casa employed to keep away prying eyes and would-be stalkers. The windows had a custom frosting so that one could see out of them, but so that no one outside could look in. Yet somehow, there was Will, standing in front of an ornate credenza pouring himself a nightcap, appearing both implacable and fragile at the same time. His lonely expression, burned forever into the photograph, almost broke something in Zoey’s heart.

The final photo, however, had proved to be the final straw. It was a single banal photo of Stench Machine stretched out lazily in the backyard of the Casa, making a futile attempt to clean himself.

Beneath it, the photographer had typed: leave the city or else.

Whomever had sent the message was showing Zoey just how easily they had bypassed every security measure and sense of privacy of her mom and her friends, that they could pull the trigger at any moment without anything to stop them from doing so.

Except for her leaving.

Zoey exhaled a heavy breath. Guilty or not, it had to be done, no way was she going to put the Suits’ head on a chopping block just so she could selfishly keep going home to a luxurious bed every night. The only problem she could see now was actually getting out of the city. Trains and ride-shares cost money. Zoey had more money than God, but all her accounts were on her phone, locked away behind a biometric identity lock, but the phone was now getting friendly with the roaches in a garbage can. 

Her face alone would get her some credit or special consideration, depending on who she spoke to, but that would defeat the purpose of trying to hide.

“Fuck. Shitty shitty fuck fuck.” Zoey cursed under her breath, much to the consternation of the people walking next to her. They side-eyed her before glancing away quickly, afraid they might contract her insanity if they caught her gaze for too long. She ignored them and continued on, berating herself under her breath.

The only way she could secure funds was to pawn whatever she had on her of value and hope it would be enough to get her out of the city limits before some maniac blew her friends’ brains out. Zoey diverted down a side street, toward the seedier side of the city, and prayed Stench Machine wouldn’t miss her too much. His vengeance knew no bounds and she just hoped he wouldn’t take it out on anyone’s personal belongings.

“What do you mean ‘you lost her’?” Will Blackwater asked, a fatal edge to his otherwise calm tone. His fingers tightened around his crystal tumbler, grip threatening to shatter it, if the white of his knuckles were anything to go by.

Wu gulped audibly as he saw his life flash before his eyes. As a rule, Will carried no weapons, but Wu had the distinct impression that in the blink of an eye, Will could end his existence. He had to force himself to regain his composure, reminding himself he was a consummate professional, he faced dangerous men and women every day, and it wouldn’t do to wilt under the pressure of Will’s gaze.

“I mean...” Wu cleared his throat, afraid one stuttered word would be his downfall. “I turned my back for one minute and she was gone. No commotion, no cracked-out Raiden nutjobs or wannabe Blink badass busting in to do any monologuing before making Zoey his damsel of the week, no nothing. Once I realized she was gone, I asked around, but everyone said she just got up and walked out.”

Echo cut in before Will’s eyes became laser beams and melted a hole through Wu’s head. “I checked all the security feeds and Blink cameras in the area. The parlor only has two cameras inside, on the front and back doors, to ‘protect the privacy’,” She made sarcastic air quotes with her fingers, “of its customers. There is a quick shot of Zoey walking out the door alone... but after that, she’s just...”

“Gone.” Will said, finishing Echo’s sentence. “She has one of the most recognizable faces in Tabula Ra$a, she can’t be gone.” He didn’t raise his voice, not one decibel but there was no mistaking the sheer ferocity of his words.

“Well,” Budd cut in before Will blew a fuse, “whatever happened, we know she did it over her own volition. If she hadn’t, surely someone would have made a ransom demand by now, or put her up on Blink to rack up views while they tortured her.” That thought didn’t improve the mood of the room and Budd sank into his chair, before Will turned those death beams on him.

“Then how do you explain her phone going dark?” Echo asked him pointedly. It was designed to track her location, even if it was shut off, to keep this exact scenario from playing out. “Someone outright destroyed it and it wasn’t Zoey. Her entire life is on that thing. Remember what happened when Stench Machine pissed on her old one?”

Andre exhaled a loud snort. “Only time I thought she would kill that damn cat.”

It had been a close call, too, Will holding back Zoey by the collar of her shirt, as Carlton held Stench Machine by his actual collar, Zoey yelling and waving her pissy phone in the cat’s face as he yowled savagely back at her. The whole experience had been frighteningly surreal.

“Exactly. So, something is going on, we just don’t know what.”

“All right,” Will said smoothly, setting his drink down so he could brace his weight upon the immense mahogany conference table by his fingertips, “let’s use a little inductive reasoning then, to connect the dots of this mystery.” Will fixed his stormy eyes on Wu. “You said Zoey seemed fine the whole evening.”

“Yeah, totally chill. In fact, I kinda thought she was overdoing it on the anxiety meds, but she wasn’t loopy or anything. When I left to get more hash from the counter, she was laughing at some stupid Blink video.”

“But the other patrons said after you got up, she left the parlor by herself. Did they mention if someone approached her while your back was turned?”

“No. I mean, those booths are set up for privacy but everyone knew Zoey was there, so it’s not like there weren’t people keeping an eye on her, to see if she’d have another public meltdown or whatever. No way they would have missed someone going up to hit on her or call her a fat cow to her face.”

“Okay. So in the brief moment you left your employer alone and vulnerable,” Will said, his frustration bleeding through the petty jab, “Zoey made the decision to leave the parlor, but the impetus behind it was not her own.” There wasn’t much one could do to force Zoey into anything, obstinate as she was, but she wasn’t stupid either. Her reasoning for doing what she did might be stupid, but she certainly wasn’t. 

“She must have received some kind of message.” Echo said, mostly to herself. She realized everyone stopped to look at her but instead of balking at their attention, she continued with the thought. “You said Zoey was on her phone. If no one said anything to her in person, maybe they said it online.”

Andre arched a brow. “Maybe she got a booty call. Would explain why no one’s heard from her, she’s too busy getting down.”

“A booty call where she had to destroy her phone?” Budd rejoindered. “After last time, she knows better than to just run off for some deep dicking.”

Will cleared his throat pointedly. “Please try to remember to whom you’re referring.”

“Sorry, boss.” Budd said before starting again. “After last time, she knows better than to just run off to get her junk knocked around.”

It wasn't much better but at least it wasn't as explicitly crude. Will nodded minutely, taking the point. Zoey would have known better.

“And it still doesn’t explain how she just up and vanished.” Echo said. “Even if it was a booty call, simply walking around the corner to meet the beau of the moment would have put her on over a dozen cameras.”

They shared a moment of contemplative silence, each trying to puzzle out what exactly was going on but coming up empty-handed. 

Will broke the silence. “Either way you slice it, we need to run serious damage control while we figure out where she went. Budd, get one of Zoey’s body doubles over here as quickly as possible. We can’t have it getting out that we’ve lost Zoey, the media would have an absolute field day.”

Not needing to be told twice, Budd whipped out his phone. They had three Zoey doubles on retainer, it was just a matter of who could get to the Casa the quickest. Budd shuddered to think of the added hazard pay on top of their normal fee.

Spinning around in his chair with dramatic flair, Andre leaned forward on the conference table to stare at Echo. “Why haven’t you just hacked into Zoey’s account to see what happened? It’s not like you can’t do it.”

Offended, she straightened her back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just because I monitor her every move and action, as well as the moves of everyone around her doesn’t mean I would brazenly hack into her private accounts.” Zoey was her friend, it wouldn’t be a simple invasion of privacy, it would be a breach of trust. 

“It’s not like you have to sift through mountains of shit to find out what happened.” Budd said as he tapped away on his phone, clearly on Andre’s side even if he was only half paying attention. “Just one little message. If it is some life-or-death situation, I think Zoey would forgive you for a little hacking into her nudes.”

She hated to admit that he made a very good point, but Echo still looked to Will for approval. If she was going to do this, she was going to drag them all down with her, if and when Zoey asked them how they’d found her. 

There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation in his response, though he did look askance at Budd at the mention of Zoey’s nude photo collection. “Do it. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. We’ll take our lumps for snooping after we know Zoey is alive and well.”

Echo stood up with a world-weary sigh and nodded resolutely at her compatriots before leaving to go break into her boss’ private accounts. 

“If you find any of those tasteful nudies, send a few of ‘em my way!” Andre said.

She heard the sound of glass shattering, followed by the sound of flesh on flesh as Andre loudly exclaimed a string of curses. Echo didn’t see it, but just the idea of Budd slapping Andre upside the back of his giant, gleaming dome after finally pushing Will over the edge made her smirk.

“I think I know what’s going on here.” Will said bluntly as he watched the doctors move around the operating theater, trying to staunch the flow of blood from Budd’s neck so they could suture the wound up. He’d never been one for medical dramas, but it didn’t take a genius to understand Budd was hanging on by a very thin thread.

Echo ripped her gaze from Budd’s still form on the gurney to glare up at Will. “Our friend might die and you’re more worried about... solving a mystery?!” She spat.

He responded by arching a calm eyebrow in the face of her anger. “Solving the mystery explains why our friend is on that table in the first place.”

“He’s on that table because some methed-out shit bag had more balls than brains.” Andre said, walking down the hallway toward them, still covered in blood despite the attempts to clean himself up. The shimmering silver of his suit was marred by the dull, dried blood splattered across it and not even Carlton would be able to save it from the trash heap. Assuming Andre didn’t burn it first if Budd died. “When I find that stupid motherfucker, I’m gonna cave his skull in with my bare hands.”

Andre curled his bloodstained hands into claws, miming his intent with a barbarous visual.

“I’m sure we’d all enjoy watching that,” Will replied, “but I have a suspicion this wasn’t some junkie looking for a quick buck.”

“Only a junkie would be retarded enough to attack Budd in the street.” Andre snapped back.

“Seriously, Will. I know we do dangerous work and we walk around with targets on our back but... only someone not in their right mind would walk up to Budd on a busy street and shoot him.”

“And I say you’re both wrong.” Will glanced between Echo and Andre. “It’s no coincidence that hours after Zoey goes missing, someone just decides to take a pot-shot at Budd. I think this has all been orchestrated, to what end I haven’t figured out yet, but orchestrated nonetheless.”

Echo’s face became expressionless. “You think... you think Zoey’s been killed?” She asked quietly, as if afraid if she spoke any louder, it might tempt fate to bring the words to fruition.

Will shook his head firmly, and Echo visibly relaxed. “No. She walked out of that lounge on her own, though I’m quite certain she received some form of goading from whomever just tried to kill Budd. The first salvo in what might prove to be a bloody game.” He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, trying to suss out what the endgame could possibly be.

“Well, while the chess master tries to solve our mystery, I’m going to get coffee. I can’t just sit here and watch Budd on that table. You want one?” She asked Andre, knowing Will only drank people’s hopes and dreams, washed down with whatever brown liquor was readily available.

Andre nodded and Echo left the two of them standing there in the observation room.

It was past midnight, and as such, the hospital was only at a dull roar, the influx of drunks and fights still a few hours away, making it easy for Echo to navigate her way toward the cafeteria. There were coffee machines on each floor of the hospital, but she refused to drink the liquid shit they mass produced. She wanted a cup of coffee brewed by an actual human person, not anything from a concentrated box mildly diluted with water.

A woman had to have standards, after all.

Besides, the solitary walk to and from their little alcove, along with the act of preparing the coffee for her and Andre would give her time to decompress.

All hell had broken loose from the moment Wu had returned to the Casa from the hookah lounge and there was no end to the madness in sight. They were all on edge and Will was about to teeter over it. She knew, deep down, that Will was masking his true anxiousness by keeping his eyes on the prize, but that didn’t stop her from cursing his name at his callousness towards Budd’s well-being. 

He didn’t have a monopoly on worrying about Zoey, but at least the rest of them weren’t being so cold-hearted about it. Once they were certain Budd was going to make it, she’d have to take Will aside, to try talking to him to figure out what was really going on with him.

Two steaming cups in hand and a plan forming in her mind, Echo made her way back up to the operating theater. Doctors, nurses, and patients milled up and down the hall, and through the throng, she spotted Will coming toward her. He had a blank expression on his face, making Echo’s heart drop. Fearing the worst, she picked up the pace to meet him.

“God, no-”

Before the words escaped her lips, a meaty fist swung toward her head. In any other situation, Echo would have expertly ducked the throw, but was too dumbfounded by the sight of Will trying to punch her to do anything other than take it.

An explosion of pain, followed by the sound of her nose breaking and Echo cried out, dropping the cups to clutch at her face. The hot coffee splashed around her feet, scalding her legs. The dual shock of her broken nose and burned flesh kickstarted her brain, just in time to dodge the incoming left hook.

Turning her body to avoid it put Echo’s feet directly in the puddle of coffee and the lack of friction between her boot and the tiled floor caused her to lose her balance when a leg went flying out from underneath her.

With a surprised shout, Echo landed butter side up, her back colliding with the floor so hard it knocked the wind from her lungs. The din of the people around her sounded muffled in her ears, some yelling for them to knock it off, others calling for help, but none of them intervened on her behalf.

Especially not when Will moved to straddle her prone body, hands going for her neck. No one wanted to watch her get strangled to death, but given Will’s fearsome reputation, no one wanted to stop him either, creating a lethal catch-22.

Mind racing in pure, utter confusion and dread, Echo grasped at Will’s wrists, trying to break his hold. In general hand-to-hand combat, they were pretty much equal, given their respective histories, but Will had the sheer advantage of weight and gravity. In desperation, she tried beating at his chest and shoulders, hands smacking fruitlessly at his face as the world turned black at the edges of her vision.

“Why...?” Echo croaked.

“Echo!”

A tiny fist throat punched Will with enough force that he released his death grip on Echo. Coughing, she numbly watched a woman follow up the first blow with a kick to the head. Will went sailing sideways, landing on his shoulder.

Reality cracked around his face, revealing a lantern-jawed blonde man before the image of Will reshaped around his head.

“Oh, you dirty motherfucker!” The woman screamed before she leapt at him wildly.

Not-Will rolled out her path just in time, swinging his weight to get his feet back underneath him. Once upright, he barreled down the hallway, violently tearing through the gathered crowd, knocking a few people down as he went.

Instead of running after him, the woman offered a hand to Echo, who levered herself up with only a small grunt of pain. “Thanks.” She murmured, throat still raw from the manhandling.

Andre and the real Will came running toward them, drawn from the operating theater by the fervor, the crowd splitting in apprehension at the reappearance of the man they’d just witnessed committing attempted murder.

“Holy fuck, Echo, what happened?” Andre asked, motioning with a still slightly blood stained hand to the angry red ring around her neck.

“Will just tried to kill me... or someone who was using my goddamn invention to look like him, though I have no idea how he would have gotten it since we have the only prototypes!” Echo said pointedly, voice raising with every word until she was outright shouting. She ruthlessly pushed past Andre toward a medical cart and snatched up a roll of gauze, unwinding it and ripping it off at the end to staunch the flow of blood from her nose.

“Thank god there was at least one good goddamn Samaritan in this hospital,” Echo indicated the woman who’d helped her with a jab of her thumb as she glared around at their audience, who suddenly found themselves with better things to do and began dispersing, “otherwise I’d have been worm food. And Will would have taken the blame.”

“The sad fact is, even dead, you still would have looked better than me and that’s the biggest travesty of them all.” The woman said, shaking her head.

As one, Echo, Andre, and Will turned to stare at her.

“Zoey?” Echo asked, brow furrowing questioningly.

“Aw, shit, my bad!” Hitting the broach on her shirt, Zoey ceased being a random stranger and became herself again. “That’s totally my bad, guys, it’s stupid how easy it is to forget this thing is going.” She grinned her toothless grin up at them, trying to appear innocent amid the absolute fucktastrophe that they’d found themselves in.

All but deflating in relief, Echo raced over to Zoey, pulling her into a fierce one-armed hug, overjoyed she was alive and beyond grateful she’d been there to save her life. “Don’t think this means I won’t tear your ass a new one later for disappearing on us but thank god you’re okay!”

Echo released Zoey from her grasp, fully intent on continuing to berate her but was immediately thwarted by Andre swooping in to hug her. She was almost thrown into the wall with the force of his giant body insinuating itself in their space. Echo smacked his back in indignation but was dutifully ignored as he got his hug on.

“I’ve never been so happy to see someone I’ve never slept with!” Andre said, smooshing Zoey in his ginormous arms. 

“Well, that explains why you always have an angry poop face when you see Will.” Zoey replied, somewhat muffled by having her face buried in Andre’s stomach.

He boomed out a laugh. “I keep offering but the lanky shit keeps turning me down.” Pulling away, he grinned down at Zoey.

“Not to interrupt the love-fest,” Will interrupted in his annoyed voice, “but would you mind explaining where the hell you’ve been for the last several hours?”

“Oh no!” Echo said, holding up a bloody finger. “You’re not getting out of this that easily. You still have to explain how the hell your more evil doppelganger has my tech!” She wasn’t as intimidating as normal with a handful of gauze shoved against her nose and when she realized it, she dropped her hand, hoping the visual of her blood-smeared face and quickly bruising neck would do the trick.

That didn’t work either, and when Will didn’t answer right away, Echo squared her shoulders, stepping into his space with a lethal edge to her stance. It didn’t matter that Will was nearly twice her height, she could still put his dick in the dirt without breaking a sweat, and he damn well knew it.

“I may...” Will trailed off uncharacteristically, seemingly to compose himself, “I may have forwarded the prototype schematics to a contact within the military, to chum the waters before they were ready for mass production.” He held up his hands before Echo could blow up at him. “But they were early drafts, with none of the proprietary information included that would allow them to make their own. I’m not an idiot.” He paused, aware of the situation they’d just found themselves in. “Or so I had thought.” He amended. 

Echo growled angrily, curling her fingers into claws. “My god, you are the dumbest smart person I know! Those military eggheads are more than capable of reverse engineering anything they get their grubby little mitts on and you know that, Will!”

“This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve bought and sold enough hardware to know exactly how much information to feed someone before starting a bidding war. If they managed to reverse engineer a version of the projector based off what meager data I gave them, it’s not just eggheads within their ranks, it’s technical genius beyond the realms of mortal man.”

Seething up at Will, Echo punched him in the chest, with only enough force to make him wince. Deflating, she shook her head. “This is just great. Because of you, we now have an unknown number of military forces in the city, here to do god knows what, all because you got a premature money boner... fantastic.” She tore off a fresh strip of gauze and tipped her head back. “Just fantastic.” She muttered nasally.

While Andre grimaced at the mental image of Will’s boner, Zoey meekly raised her hand into the air. “Uhm... I think I might have the beginning of an idea as to why these douche canoes are here.”

Three sets of eyes turned toward her once more, suddenly making her regret piping up.

Will narrowed his gaze. “And now we’re back to where you’ve been.”

Zoey managed a nervous chuckle. “Soooo, funny story, you’re gonna love how hilarious this is... I was at the hookah lounge, minding my own business when I got the funniest message. It was from some random creeper, and he was sending me all kinds of dirty pics, all of you guys and my mom and my cat, at your most vulnerable. Like no joke, I don’t even know how they got the pictures of you, Will, you’re harder to get to than a Christian virgin on prom night. And with all those pictures, my creep stalker sent love notes, saying if I didn’t leave the city, they’d kill every last one of you.” 

She laughed again, this time with more force than necessary. “I didn’t need to be told twice, major duh, so I left. Destroyed my phone, pawned my stuff for cash on hand and used this handy-dandy hologram doohickey to hide from you dweebs. I was on a bus back to Fort Drayton when I saw the news about Budd on Blink. Even I could do the math, that my creep stalker was also the one who tried to kill Budd, so I hopped off the first chance I got and hightailed it back to the city. That’s how I knew I’d find you all here.”

It was a lot to digest but considering none of them were laughing, maybe they hadn’t found the whole thing as funny as she had. 

Andre broke the silence first. “And how do you think all that has something to do with all this?” He made a little circular motion with his finger, indicating their current predicament. 

“I said it was the beginning of an idea. I’m definitely not the brains of this operation, I figured one of you, and by that I mean Will, could connect the other dots. But this whole divide and conquer shit, no way it’s all a coincidence. Who said it, when it comes to coincidences, the universe is rarely that lazy? The same night I get threatening messages, whacked-out military dicks sporting our hardware swoop in and try taking you down? Not a coincidence. I just... don’t know why it’s not a coincidence.”

“Stop saying coincidence.” Will said, trying to stave off semantic satiation as everything he’d been puzzling over for hours finally came into clearer focus. “But you’re right, it’s not. This was all meticulously planned. The why is glaringly obvious. They knew what we’d do if you suddenly went off the grid. We’d go into panic-mode. Sticking to our strengths in order to find you, we’d split up to search for you via different means, which is exactly what we did. 

“Once we were vulnerable, they’d use their ill-gotten projectors to get close to us and take us out. It wouldn’t be enough to simply take us out while we slept, because you’d still be in charge, in the safety of the Casa, able to employ an army that could rival several small nations. It’s also why they couldn’t just kill you, because we’d do the same thing, close ranks in a veritable fortress. They had to get you as far away from the city as possible while splitting the rest of us up.” 

He paused for a moment, staring into the middle distance as he put it all together and tried seeing past it into the next moves.

It made sense to Zoey, even if it made her brain hurt. The Suits made up the board of her companies, with them gone, dead, or in prison, the power structure of the city would devour her assets like vultures, assuring that even if she did return to the city from her hiding place, out of revenge or stupidity, there’d be nothing left for her. Her name on a legal document would mean nothing to the avaricious appetites of her enemies.

Andre shook his head. “The government’s been trying to do that for years, since Arthur founded the damn city. The IRS couldn’t do it, Congress couldn’t do it, why the hell would these upjumped Rambos think they could do it with some stupid little doodads?”

“Because now they can look like anyone, or more specifically, us.” Echo answered. “By deploying Incognito, they can do anything they want, as long as they do it wearing our faces. No one saw who took a shot at Budd, they just saw him go down, but I guarantee you the only reason they got close enough to him because he thought they were one of us, like they just did with me. With the real versions of us dead, they could pose as us and do... whatever.”

“But they weren’t expecting a group of tourists to be in the wrong place at the right time,” Will added, picking up on Echo’s thread. “They were trying to do it quietly but screwed up by jumping the gun, which means they’ve got to clean house as quick as they can. They’re not just going to give up, now that they’ve come closer than anyone before them in achieving what the government has been itching to do since the founding of Tabula Ra$a... destabilize the city power structure, bust up the ‘illegal’ enterprises while using civil forfeiture laws to heap the so-called filthy lucre into their war chests, reinstate American law and order, and use it as precedence to bring down the other charter cities around the world.”

“They were close.” Andre said. “Now they’re fucked and that means they’re gonna get sloppier than ever.”

“Sloppy is good. Sloppy means they’ll make more mistakes and lose whatever ground they've gained.” Will replied. “Good plan, piss poor follow-through.”

“Okay, seriously,” Zoey cut in, before Will could elucidate further, “who the fuck is just sitting around coming up with these stupid ass plans all the goddamn time?! Don’t these shit nips have anything better to do than figure out ways to ruin our lives? Helping the poor living off PDR checks? Stopping tinpot dictators from hurling bombs everywhere because they’re angry about the size of their dicks? Keeping Jaden Smith from making more movies? Can’t they redirect their brain power towards stopping all the other awful things going on in the world, instead of piling on with all the other fucking lunatics who want us dead?”

“Apparently not.” Will responded dryly. “I suggest instead of pondering why bad things happen to... occasionally good people, we instead put our focus on finding this cell that has infiltrated the city.” Without missing a beat, he turned toward Echo. “You’ll need to come up with something that will shut down the projectors. It’s the easiest way to flush these turds. Unless you want to go on a city-wide manhunt for the mirror universe versions of us?”

Staring up at Will like he’d lost his mind, Echo just balked at the request. “Sure thing, it won’t take long to build a massive EMP bomb that’ll nuke all the tech in the city, I’ll get right on it.”

It was Will’s turn to balk, but in his case, it was more a slight widening of his eyes. “I was thinking less technological holocaust, though your sarcasm has been noted. You designed Incognito, did you not think to build in a way for it to be circumvented, just in case? After everything that happened with Raiden-”

“I designed it as something to protect our identities, so we could move about the city unseen, so Zoey could go unseen, instead of always relying on body doubles and Kowalski’s men every time she wanted to take a dump at some fancy new restaurant, I didn’t think you’d want to sell it to the military, and I figured I wouldn’t need to until we actually sold the plans to them, so no, there’s no failsafe or backdoor to be exploited.”

Zoey tilted her head to the side questioningly. “Uh, speaking of doubles... where’s Wu?”

“When you ditched us like the awful boss you are,” Andre said, “we put your doubles on double time, pun totally intended. He’s out with one of them.”

Twigging to Zoey’s train of thought, Will pulled out his phone. Wu’s image appeared before them. “Hey, how’s Budd? The old fart gonna make it?”

“It’s touch and go, but with the miracles of modern medicine, he should walk away with only minor scarring. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Oh snap, did you find Z-” His image stopped himself before he could say too much in public, “uh, Zardoz, did you find that old movie, in my collection?”

“Yes, we found it, but that’s still not why I’m calling, if you’d quit interrupting.”

Wu blinked up at Will silently, waiting.

“You need to take the double home immediately and then go to safehouse bravo. Under no circumstances are to trust either myself, Echo, Andre, or even Zoey, if you see us approach you. In fact, I would suggest killing us outright if you were to see us.”

“Uhm...”

“Oooh, we should have a safeword or something, so he knows it’s the real us and not some murdering dickheads!” Zoey paused, considering her current company. “Less murderous dickheads.” She amended.

Will exhaled a long-suffering sigh, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

“She’s got a point.” Andre said. “We stop these fuck knuckles, how’s Wu gonna know we’re the real deal when it’s all said and done?”

“How do I know you’re the real deal now, and won’t be lying in wait for me at the safehouse?”

A loud guffaw escaped from Andre. “He’s got a point.”

“Fine, I’ll prove it’s really us, if it will alleviate your suspicions, I could elucidate on how you stumbled into your current position, but it might embarrass Zoey, considering her illicit affair with your predecessor.”

Zoey punched Will’s arm as hard as she could. It barely ruffled his suit. “You really are a dickhead.”

“A jealous dickhead.” Wu muttered. “But that’s good enough for me, I believe you’re really the asshole I know you to be. I’ll drop off Kelsey at her place and go to the safehouse to wait out whatever it is you idiots have gotten yourselves into this time. And I guess our safeword can be... Zoey and the Dickheads?”

Will didn’t dignify that with a response, merely hanging up instead. He took a second to compose himself, hand shaking around the phone as if he couldn’t decide whether to crush it or hurl it across the hallway floor. He sucked in a deep, centering breath through his nose.

“Andre, stay with Budd. I don’t trust hospital security to keep him safe if these hitmen come back. Get Kowalski to send a couple men out to set up a perimeter, just in case. Echo, I need you to figure out some way to nullify Incognito. Going back to the Casa is out of the question, so you’ll have to commandeer an R&D lab at one of our corporate holdings.”

Echo threw her hands into the air. “I don’t know how you think I can pull a miracle out of my ass this time, but yeah, I’m on it. What are you going to do?”

“Zoey and I are going to get her mom.”

“We are?”

“We are. Now that they know we’re on to them, they’re going to go for the jugular, literally, and they’ll be wearing our faces when they do. We have to get to her before they do, lest they use her as leverage against us.”

Zoey hadn’t even thought about that possibility. Sure, these whackaloons had sent her threatening photos of everyone she loved and cared about but her mom was probably in the second-most secure location in the city, in Titus Chobb’s ridiculous zeppelin. Assuming, of course, she hadn’t disembarked to do bumps of cocaine off the back of some club’s disgusting toilet. 

“Yeah,” She replied, head suddenly back in the game at the idea of the sword of Damocles hanging over her mother’s head. “Yeah, we should go do that.”

Placing a sympathetic hand on Zoey’s shoulder, Echo gave her a reaffirming squeeze. “It’ll be okay. Like you said, we deal with these kinds of ‘shit nips’ all the time, always trying to put us through the ringer just to watch us squirm. We’ll come out on top, just like we always do.” Echo smiled. “So go, save your mom.”

Zoey smiled back at her, placing a hand over the one Echo had on her shoulder. “I keep telling you, I’m straight.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Echo replied with a laugh.

Will sat calmly in the waiting room of Titus Chobb’s office at Freya’s Palace, boring holes into the head of the secretary who was giving them the runaround with a flat, unimpressed glare. 

Zoey had to admit the woman had balls, making someone like Will Blackwater wait. Lesser mortals usually balked at the mere presence of Will, but this secretary took her job seriously, so when they’d asked to speak with Chobb, she’d mustered up nerves of steel before telling them with pleasant condescension to have a seat.

Needless to say, Will was not happy. It didn’t matter that it was still the middle of night, he expected immediate access at all times to anything and everything, and being denied was something he wasn’t used to, especially from a lowly secretary. If Chobb wasn’t paying this woman her weight in gold, Zoey thought she just might have to steal her away. 

The waiting wouldn’t have been necessary if Melinda or Chobb had just answered their damn phones, but that would have been the universe doing them a favor, which rarely ever happened.

So Will sat as Zoey paced the plushly carpeted floor anxiously, scared for her mom and anxious to do something that would get them ahead of these nutjobs, instead of trailing behind in their wake. 

“Sit down. You’re making me nervous.” Will said. 

“Hah! You, nervous? That’ll be the day.” Nevertheless, Zoey sat down in the chair next to Will’s. Her feet barely brushed the carpet. She began swinging her legs with the same anxious energy that had her pacing. After a few minutes of that, Will placed a hand firmly on her knee, pressing down with enough strength to make her stop without hurting her. He side-eyed her disapprovingly. It was one thing to be impatient, but he was a big believer in not telegraphing one’s emotional state.

Not that she really cared what he believed in. The moment his hand left her knee, she resumed swinging it. She got a moment’s pure delight in watching his frown deepen.

The secretary stood up and disappeared into what Zoey assumed was either Chobb’s office or a tiny kitchen, whether it was for actual business or just to get away from Will’s hateful stares was anyone’s guess.

“If you must know,” Will started under his breath, “there was a moment of nervousness earlier this evening, after you’d ‘heroically’ left us behind.” He didn’t need to make the motion with his hands for Zoey to understand he was using air quotes, a verbal dig at her boneheaded decision. 

He just had to rub it in.

“Okay then, smartass,” Zoey said, matching the low pitch of his voice with hers, “what would you have done differently, if you’d received death threats against us?”

He lifted his shoulders in the vague motion of a shrug. “I receive death threats every day. We all do. Yours are usually more public, but nonetheless, we all get them.”

She’d never considered that. She knew they all had their fair share of enemies, most with good reason, but he was right, the vast majority of death threats she got were made on Blink. It never dawned on her that the rest of the Suits dealt with the same issue, only much more discreetly. “Okay, but these were like... serious threats. I saw Budd in his underwear. They got up close and personal, which I didn’t even think was possible. It’s why I took it seriously. So what would you have done with a serious, valid threat?”

“I wouldn’t have abandoned everybody and run off alone to god knows where, just because I thought it was the right thing to do. Mostly because it would make me easier to kill. Did you even consider that?”

Zoey hung her head. She hadn’t. The threat had been against her friends, she’d been thinking of their best interest, not her own. If these assholes had really been out for her blood, and not out to wrest the reins of the city out of their control, she would have been an easy target. Coming out of the sleazy pawn shop, sticking to the shadows of the train station, in the scuzzy bathrooms of the bus depot...

You’ve walked right into my trap, little fly...

Her only consolation was at least this was why she paid the Suits what she did, so they could do most of her thinking for her. The one time she’d thought it was up to her to save the day and she’d monumentally screwed the pooch.

Will placed a finger under her chin, lifting her head so he could lean in to place a tiny kiss to the corner of her lips. 

It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed but it was certainly the least awkward of them all. Despite being alone, they were still in public, and aware of their surroundings, he didn’t try to deepen it. Instead, he pulled back a bit, to look Zoey in the eye.

“Now do you understand why I was nervous?”

“Because deep inside that prickly exterior, you’re an emotionally damaged little girl who can’t handle stress but hides it by pretending to be a mindless automaton?” She grinned toothlessly at him, which made him huff and sit back in his chair, any semblance of tenderness gone.

After a moment’s silence, Zoey turned to peer up at Will. “If it makes you feel better, I didn’t take it seriously until I saw the picture they had taken of you.” 

He lifted an eyebrow but said nothing.

“You were in your house, with all your so-called state of the art security measures, yet somehow, there you were. All by yourself, exposed... you looked sad. And I knew I couldn’t let you die alone.”

“We all die alone.” Will replied.

“You know what I mean, fart wad.” She snapped.

He managed a brief smile. “Yes, I do. What I don’t know, and what has been an undercurrent to the stress during this whole affair, is if this will lead to a definite answer on whether this,” he motioned between them with a hand, “will become a reality or not.”

Zoey hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for Will, because she’d left the city at the drop of a dime just to keep him alive. If that didn’t tell him she cared, she didn’t know what would. They’d shared a few kisses, a few heavily charged moments, and she knew for a fact that he was no chump when it came to what he was packing -she swore it was an accident, that she wasn’t being a disgusting lecher like her father who would sneak up on unsuspecting women to sneak a peek but Will still didn’t believe her- but she couldn’t make up her mind.

Mixing business and pleasure would only lead to another Armando-like end, for either one of them, the reasonable side of her argued. Getting good dick from a man who was not only hanging brain but knew how to use it was virtually priceless, the horny side of her rejoindered. 

It was too weighty a decision to just make because she was desperately lonely and hard up for a roll in the hay. She loved Will, in ways she never thought possible. She just didn’t know if she loved him.

When she didn’t answer, Will simply nodded and sat back in his chair.

“There’s no use arguing over the past,” He said, by way of moving past the conversation, “what’s done is done. Best intentions or not, we’ve got to play out this hand with what we’ve been dealt.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Mr. Blackwater?” The secretary popped her head through the door. “Mr. Chobb’s ready to speak with you now.” 

So it was an office after all. Huh.

Standing up, Zoey tried to keep pace with Will’s long-legged gait and found herself jogging into an office that was more ridiculous and elaborate than his airship. Seriously, did a man need that many bare-breasted statues of women? 

She had to force herself not to cover her own chest in a gesture of self-consciousness.

On an expansive display screen was Titus Chobb himself, looking tired and a little worse for wear, his greasy hair in wild disarray. He’d apparently had a good night out on the town, unlike the rest of them. He groaned when he saw Will.

“Good god, Blackwater, what the hell is so important that you couldn’t wait until the start of business hours?”

“We’re here with a warning, Titus.” Will said, not one to beat around the bush.

Chobb’s entire demeanor changed, from annoyance to simmering anger. “You’re threatening me? Is this your boss’ idea of a joke, putting you up to this?” He asked, eyes sliding over to Zoey with unbridled menace. He may have been schtuping her mother but that didn't mean he had to like her daughter, which he most certainly didn’t. 

It was Will’s turn to be annoyed and he was much better at it. “God damn the confines of the English language...” He stepped in front of Zoey, blocking her from Chobb’s line of sight so that his focus was entirely on him. “We’re not here to threaten you, we’re here with a warning about someone threatening Melinda.”

That certainly took Chobb aback. “Who?”

“The American military. Not so terrifying as other military forces you and I have both dealt with, but they’re currently in possession of technology that allows them to look like anyone they want. They’ve already threatened Melinda once, now that we’re on to them, we suspect they’ll come either disguised as Ms. Ashe or perhaps even as you, to get close to her. We tried calling numerous times, but it appears you’ve been... busy.”

“I like to consider myself always too busy to deal with the likes of you, but...” Chobb trailed off. “We’ve been in the air since we got back. Unless they’re gonna blow us out of the sky, we should be safe here.”

“Excellent. We’ll keep you apprised of the situation, but I suggest you exercise caution. They can look like anyone. Be a strong, capable man.” Will said, regurgitating Chobb’s horrendous world view on men and women.

Chobb sneered but nodded his head. “Thank you.” He said, though the expression on his face suggested those two words were physically painful to say out loud.

“It’s no problem. Answer your phones next time, to save us both the aggravation.”

“Baaaaby, who is it?” Zoey heard her mom say before the call ended. She felt a weight lift off her chest, just knowing that she was safe and sound, miles above the city in the stupidest blimp conceived by man.

They shared a glance with one another. It was one less problem to worry about, but a different problem took its place. If they weren’t going after Melinda, where were they going?

“You can leave now.” The secretary said, raising an arm to indicate the door. 

“If you ever get sick of Chobb’s shit, I’ll gladly hire you.” Zoey told her with a wink as they walked past.

When they got in the elevator, Will pressed the button to the lobby before peering down at Zoey. “Why would you ever hire that woman?” He asked, perplexed. 

She almost laughed. It wasn’t often Will was caught off guard and she relished it. “Because she’s the first regular person I’ve ever met who didn’t shit themselves at just the sight of you. That’s definitely a talent you can’t teach...” Even Chobb had ceased his verbal jabs the moment Will inserted himself between them, proof positive he was no one to be trifled with. 

Will harrumphed, clearly unamused with Zoey and she decided to console him by side-stepping closer to him, until their arms were touching, thanking him without words for ensuring her mother would be okay. She felt him relax into her. 

It was one small victory.

During the drive to the safehouse, Echo called Will. He answered it immediately. “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is I’m now officially in the running to replace you. You don’t even have to die, Zoey will just demote you and then you’ll be doing my grunt work.”

“You found an exploit.”

“I found an exploit.” Echo confirmed with a triumphant grin.

“Will, you’re fired. Echo, you’re my new side piece.”

Echo barked out a laugh, the sound of it booming around the car. “If that’s what it takes to be second-in-command, then I think I’ll let Will keep his position. But I think I just won the pool, so thanks.”

“Pool?” Zoey asked, her stomach sinking. “What pool?” Were they betting on her behind her back? About Will? Did they know?

“Never mind.” Echo replied quickly. “So this exploit, it’s not just a snap your fingers kinda thing. We’ll need to set up several relays around the city. It’s gonna take time to get the devices ready and in place. And it’ll be messy. The hologram displays on the skyscrapers, all the advertising projections... people are gonna notice these things going offline.”

“I’m certain missing out on the next movie promotion will be more tolerable than losing the city altogether.” Will said. People would get angry, most did when minorly inconvenienced. Thankfully, he didn’t work for the Department of Water and Power, nor the movie studios, it wouldn’t be his problem to deal with. “There’s still the issue of actually finding the cell once the devices are up and running.”

“Actually, I solved that problem for you, too. Buuuuut, you’re gonna have to let Zoey punch you in the face to pull it off.”

“Cool. I mean, I’ll need a stepladder, but cool.” Zoey flashed Will a teasing grin.

“I’m not sure I see the necessity of such an action-”

Echo cut Will off. “Get to the safehouse and I’ll explain everything.” She disconnected the call before he could object any further.

The punching Will bit turned out to be a joke but Echo’s real plan was nothing short of brilliant.

Jamming the relay into the ground as hard as she could, Zoey used her foot to rearrange the dirt to secure it. With the flick of a switch, it hummed to life. Satisfied, she placed her hands on her hips and stared across the landscape, watching the sun dip below the horizon. It was almost showtime.

Footsteps sounded behind her and Zoey glanced back over her shoulder. Will was covered in dirt and grime, just like she was from all the hard work, and she had to admit, it was a good look on him. “This one’s good to go. One more pair and we’re live.”

“Excellent. We just have to hope these morons don’t do anything worse than they already have before our plan comes together.” Will stopped beside Zoey, wiping a hand across his forehead as he took a moment to admire the sunset.

The military cell had been busy throughout the day. Zoey, the Suits, her mom, even Carlton and Stench Machine, were secure and in place, with no easy means to get at them, so instead of moving in for the kill, they’d assumed Will and Andre’s identities and had gone on quite the spree. They’d done their research and instead of going after their competitors or enemies, had gone after their own businesses and allies. The tragic loss of life, coupled with the billions of dollars in damage to the city was an absolute nightmare. Megaboss Alonzo had made a statement on Blink, condemning the Suits for their betrayal and personally attacked Zoey for approving their power play before promising swift retribution for their actions. 

“Trust me, after we pull this off, Alonzo will get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness for saying what he did. And I’ll enjoy every finger-lickin’ minute of it.” The only reason she hadn’t lost it listening to him verbally flay her alive was because Andre had been standing behind her, reminding her that he was just jealous she had a bigger dick than he did. Or, not wanting to assume what Alonzo had going on downstairs, a shallower vagina.

Zoey had almost choked before laughing so hard she developed a stitch in her side. 

“See what happens when we decide to work together, instead of playing the selfless hero?” Will said. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are Borg or apes together strong or whatever pop culture reference tickles your pickle and sums up this shit-show I unwittingly got us into.”

Will stepped forward in front of Zoey and looked at her, assessing her with cold, blue eyes. “It’s not about summing it up with a witty quip and tying everything up in a neat little bow,” He said after a beat, “it’s about learning from the mistakes you make. Budd nearly died, and not only did you put the rest of us at risk, you put the city itself at risk.” 

Will was never one for what ifs, but Zoey felt it simmering beneath the surface of his words, unspoken but ever present. A whole lot could have gone wrong if she’d not come back when she had. It all would have been on her head if she hadn’t and she would have had to live with mistakes for the rest of her life.

“I know. I know. And trust me, I’ll be throwing myself a little pity party once this is all over with.”

“Crying will serve no purpose, neither will wallowing in guilt, so don’t waste the tears. Just... admit you were wrong, apologize, and do what it takes to move on.”

Zoey narrowed her eyes up at him. “You never apologize to anyone. Or admit that you’re wrong. I thought there were rules against that.”

“Never admit fault publicly. It opens yourself up to all manner of tedium, mostly in the form of lawsuits. But I’m quite certain Budd will not say no to an apology. Especially if alcohol and loose women are involved.”

Another unsaid sentiment hung in the air between them. Zoey offered out her hand to Will, who hesitated before taking it. She laced their fingers together. “I’m sorry, Will.” She said sincerely.

He squeezed her hand approvingly. “Apology accepted.”

They took a moment to watch the sun set fully.

“C’mon, it’s almost showtime and we’re not done yet.” She said, tugging his hand to get his feet moving.

Will went along with her unquestioningly. 

“I’m not wearing nearly enough makeup for this kinda close-up.” Zoey grumbled, pushing away the Blink camera. “I’ll save the city but end up another goddamn meme.” 

Andre rolled his eyes. “A small price to pay for fucking these dicks in the ass.”

Will, Echo, and Zoey all stared at him. He appeared to second-guess his particular choice of phrasing, screwing his lips together in a moue of contemplation before shaking his head. “Nah, I stand by it. Fuck ‘em.”

“I second the motion.” Wu said, carefully running a hand over the glittery lapels of his suit. It was one of Budd’s and as such, wasn’t cut to fit his lithe frame. It would have to do, however, as he had no chance of looking convincing in one of Andre’s or Will’s. “How does Budd move in this thing? And how does he not leave sequins and rhinestones everywhere he goes?”

“He does. It’s maddening.” Will answered. “Are you one of those people who gets upset when someone adjusts the seat settings in your car? This thing won’t sit properly unless I lengthen the strap.”

Zoey had to bite her lip and cover her mouth with a hand to keep from outright laughing as she watched Wu help Will sling the shoulder harness for the katana’s scabbard over his shoulders. It took some fiddling to lengthen the strap enough to let it settle naturally on Will’s chest. It wasn’t that he was broad, his torso was just too long. 

His lankiness was further thrown into sharp relief by the fact that he was wearing a loose fitted long-sleeved shirt and soft, cotton slacks, something that would give Wu the free range of motion he needed for his job and be comfortable to boot. It was downright bizarre to see Will so dressed-down but it wasn’t an unattractive sight.

She must have been caught staring, as Echo nudged her gently. Zoey tried not to look guilty as she glanced up at her. 

“You ready for this?” Echo asked.

“In all the time we’ve known each other, have I ever been ready for any of the insanity we deal with on a regular basis?” Zoey asked. 

“No, but you somehow manage to get by, usually by the skin of your teeth.”

Zoey rolled her eyes. “By the skin of your teeth this time.” Tapping the broach pinned to the thick roll of her turtleneck dress. She felt the hologram form around her head and when it solidified, Zoey activated the voice modulator. “Hi, my name is Echo and I’m the ugliest woman alive. Shit biscuits, fart nuggets, titty twisters.”

Gaze flicking from Zoey-as-Echo to the real Echo, a bandage over her nose, a bloom of fresh bruises around her eyes and neck, Andre nodded in appreciation. “I don’t know how I’ll ever tell you two apart.”

Echo flipped him the bird as Zoey rolled her eyes. She may have been wearing Echo’s face and a top similar to the style of clothing she wore, but there was still their gaping height and weight difference to contend with.

Running a thumb under the thick synthetic strap of the harness, still not all that comfortable with the feel of it, Will cleared his throat. “It’s time.”

The humor in the room vanished. Andre, their de facto director, as he couldn’t disguise his giant frame behind anyone else’s face, motioned for everyone to take their places. Echo sat down at the table they’d set up, her chair lowered to hide everything below her shoulders. Wu and Zoey stood on crates placed just behind the table, on either side of Will to disguise his height. 

Andre checked the Blink camera. “Z, I need you to move... four inches to the left. Uh, your right, camera left.”

It took some maneuvering, all of them shuffling to the right to give her room, their crates scraping along the floor. Zoey climbed back on top of it, the others assuming their new places. She was now directly behind Echo, her body hidden by Echo’s profile. “Better?”

“Yeah, that’ll do it. Uh, Wu, the hat.” Andre lifted a meaty hand to point at one of Budd’s signature flamboyant hats.

With an embarrassed grimace, Wu hopped off his crate to grab the hat. Donning it, he retook his position. “Good to go, boss.”

“All right, turn those suckers on.”

Tapping their broaches, there was a gentle hum as the holographic projections hummed to life around them. They took a moment to glance around at one another, Wu as Budd, Will as Wu, Zoey as Echo, and Echo as Zoey. It was a bit surreal. Wu reached out to touch Will’s projection, fingers brushing against the altered line of his jaw and the stubble from his five o’clock shadow.

“That is trippy.” Wu breathed, his voice sounding like Budd’s, which only made it more surreal.

“Please don’t do that.” Will said, voice coming out as Wu’s. “I’m not entirely comfortable with the visual I’m getting right now.”

Wu snorted, Budd’s bushy eyebrows crinkling together as he chuckled, tossing a glance at Echo who was peering back at them over her shoulder. “What,” He said, turning his eyes back to Will,  “you and your old war buddy never-”

“Hey hey hey!” Andre interrupted. “One, what happens in war stays in war. Two, enough fartin’ around, we got a city to save.”

It wasn’t often that Andre was the voice of reason, and his admonition had them straightening up, putting their focus back on the mission. Andre shook his head. “Damn fools...” He muttered as he futzed with the camera one last time. “Okay, on my mark.” He gave Echo a reassuring look. “You got this.” Lifting a hand, he began counting down with his fingers. “Three, two, one... mark!”

The little blue light on the camera turned on. Echo sucked in a deep breath.

“Citizens of Tabula Ra$a: I know we’re the last people you want to see,” Echo motioned behind her to the Suits, “that I’m the last person you want to see right now, given the troubling events you’ve seen on the news, but please, you have to listen to me.” Her voice was pitch perfect as Zoey’s, but her vocabulary and inflection was a bit off. Zoey would never sound so calm and collected, so intelligently cogent.

She frowned, realizing she had just insulted herself.

“I need you to stop what you’re doing right now and look around you. Take a good, hard look at everyone, memorize their faces. There are imposters in this city, who can be anyone they want to be and they’ve chosen to be us. Why is too stupid and insane to explain, but long story only kinda short, they’re using technology we created to disguise themselves and have decided to use that technology to cause massive unrest. I know what you’re thinking, it’s Raiden all over again, but fear not, we have the solution. We’ve placed eight pairs of disrupter arrays along the city’s borders and when we activate them... well, you’ll have to see for yourselves.”

Echo raised her arm, a tiny white device in her hand. With a swipe of her thumb, she activated it. Fifteen seconds later, all their projections fizzled, revealing their true identities. From outside the safehouse windows, they could see the lights in the city go down as the advertisements and holographic light shows went offline. 

Zoey stepped down from her crate with as much grace as she could muster. The last thing she wanted was to end up as an epic fail video if she stumbled off the crate and landed flat on her face. Thankfully, she avoided that fate and walked over to the table Echo was sitting at. With a smile, Echo stood up, vacating the seat so Zoey could sit, and she moved to stand behind her, beside Will and Wu.

Taking a moment to compose herself, Zoey lifted her head, staring dead-on into the camera. 

“The only way to convince you we were telling the truth was to show you. Hopefully, some of you were there to see one of those asshole shit-stains get left holding the bag when our array turned on. If you were, feel free to beat the piss out of them... maybe even piss on them, for good measure. These twats killed and hurt a lot of people, but they messed with the wrong goddamn city and we shouldn’t let them forget it. That’s why I’m authorizing a million dollar bounty for anyone who brings me these fart-mongers alive, so we can show them and their bosses what happens when they fuck with us. Happy hunting, everyone! Oh, and to Megaboss Alonzo...” Zoey narrowed her eyes, trying to channel as much menacing energy as she could muster. “Suck my dick.”

Andre cut the feed and let out a sonorous whoop. “Haha, hell yeah! That’ll make these nutbars think twice before they mess with my girl!” He leaned forward, offering out a fist and Zoey gladly bumped it.

“Or it will only encourage more bad actors to move against us, the kind who might see our staked claim as outright insurrection against the established military powers and things will only get worse for us.” Will said pragmatically.

Andre just glared narrow-eyed at Will. “Can’t even celebrate for thirty seconds before Mr. Killjoy has to go and ruin it.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Zoey said dismissively, “he can’t help being a black hole of fun.”

“The black hole is standing right here and he doesn’t have to take this kind of insolence.” Will pulled at the katana scabbard, carefully yanking it off so he could hand it back to Wu.

He took it, but pressed a hand to Will’s chest, to keep him from making an over-dramatic exit. “C’mon, Will, you love a good victory as much as the rest of us.”

Will took a deep breath, internally counting to ten. “That I do, and I will celebrate, when we’ve actually won.” He said before making good his exit.

Everyone shared a knowing look.

“I’m not going after him.” Andre declared. “Now that we’re in the clear, I wanna go check on Budd, make sure the old goat didn’t think he had permission to up and kick the bucket.”

Echo took the temperature of the room and seemed to be of the same opinion, or any opinion that would let her leave. “Yeah, good idea. I’m sure he’ll be butthurt he missed out on all the shenanigans.” She made to follow after Andre. “You should let me change first, though, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this where people can see me.”  Echo turned to wink at Zoey over her shoulder, fingers plucking at the shirt that read Let’s Smoke Crack & Worship Satan in red, twisty font.

Rolling her eyes, Zoey put her hands on her hips and looked at Wu expectantly. 

“Nope, no way. I’m not talking to him, that’s all on you. I’m going home to my wife and kids, y’know, people who love me and won’t kill me if I forget the milk.”

“Aw, c’mon-”

Wu lifted a stern finger to stop her. “You do not pay me enough to deal with Will’s emotional outbursts and even if you did, I’ve had enough of them for one day. Besides, I already lost the pool and I want to go nurse those wounds, too.” Before she could even ask what he meant by that, he exited the room, leaving her alone. 

Zoey supposed it was fair play, after leaving him at the hookah bar without a word, putting his job in jeopardy, potentially his life, given how seriously the Suits took things like losing their boss. “Definitely deserved that.” She muttered to herself, heading out the door so she could go find Will. “And I’m definitely gonna get to the bottom of this fuckin’ pool...”

It didn’t take her long, she heard him grumbling under his breath and found him in the downstairs bathroom, naked from the waist up. He was fighting with his undershirt, trying to get it turned right side out so he could put it on.

Leaning against the door jamb, she wolf-whistled at him. “Holy hell, Will. If I’d known what you looked like topless before, I might have slept with your narrow ass already.”

“I’ve literally watched you throat punch a man for objectifying you, why would you think it’s okay to do the same to me?”

“Because he was gross about it.” Zoey shuddered for full effect. “Me, on the other hand, I kept it as clean as possible. And I figured coming at you with a compliment would temper the mood a little.”

Finally getting the shirt to cooperate, Will tugged it over his head, threading his arms through the sleeves. He turned as he pulled the hem down over his torso and Zoey got the distinct impression he’d done so to keep Zoey from ogling his bare chest, but the visual of the pristine white cotton sliding over his pecs and abdomen was even more distracting. 

He was lean and lanky but not lacking in taut, wiry muscle. He folded his arms tightly over his chest and Zoey ripped her gaze up to his eyes quickly. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” She asked, aiming for innocence but not pulling it off convincingly.

“I said, it’s not a mood, the fallout from this operation is going to be immense, personally and financially. In hours, they burned bridges that took years to build. The government is going to be chomping at the bit for us ransoming their men and we’ll be stuck cleaning up after the mess they made for years. Forgive me if keeping my eye on the situation at hand sucks the fun out of the room.”

“Well... would it make you feel any better if I said I promise to not run off in the middle of it all again and leave you alone?” She closed the distance between them, close enough to Will to impress upon him the gravity of the conversation but not so close that he couldn’t escape if he so chose. Zoey reached out to tug at the hem of his shirt. The temperature in the bathroom notched up a few degrees. She heard Will suck in a breath as her fingers brushed over his stomach. “Or in the middle of the night when I’ve got it in my head I’m worthless garbage and dying in a back alley is preferable to living in this shithole town.”

“Is this some kind of joke? Are you trying to win the pool or something?” Will asked, a slight hitch in his voice.

“Oh, sweet baby fucking Christ, what is this pool everyone keeps talking about?! How do you know about it?”

Will smirked down at her, something he rarely did. “I didn’t know, at least not until today, when Echo mentioned it. Apparently, there is a running bet on when you and I will hook up. Everyone’s in on it and it’s up to a couple hundred thousand dollars.”

“Those filthy rat bastards...” Zoey shook her head, wondering if she should have let everyone just be murdered. “No, it’s not that, I mean, yeah, maybe it’s that, I’ve never won anything.” She teasingly poked Will’s belly button. “But honestly, I’ve been leaving you hanging for weeks like an inconsiderate twat while I try to figure out what I want this to be and... I think I’ve made up my mind.” Zoey moved in to wrap her arms around Will. The undershirt was soft beneath her cheek as she rested her head against his stomach, his skin warm beneath. After a moment, he returned the hug, hands smoothing over her back. “I’m sorry, Will.” She murmured softly. “For everything.”

She yelped when she suddenly lifted up into the air and deposited on the sink. Will insinuated himself between her legs and Zoey could feel him through the thin cotton of his slacks.

“What are you doing?” Zoey asked him breathlessly, clawing her fingers into Will’s shoulders. “I thought you said we didn’t have time for celebrating or anything.”

“We’re not celebrating.” He replied, slowly thrusting against her. “We’re helping you win the pool.”