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The outside of Brin’s Gate was plenty to scoff at. As far as pubs went, there were far more appealing ones around town. At best, the service could be described as lousy and the drinks… well they were very small step up from toilet water.
Rumor on the street was that it had to be a front for something, though no one could agree as to what. It clearly had some loyal clientele: people with no taste buds or a taste for lukewarm and slow beer.
It was the sort of run-down place that no one would willingly go to. At least not if you weren’t already in the know.
It wasn’t the sort of place Alice Adair would typically be spotted at, either. These days she was more likely to be seen at board meetings and galas, trying to maintain the connections her father had made in high society and keep her voice from being ignored by those making choices.
To be fair, unless you knew what to look for, it was hard to pinpoint her as the Adair inheritor. One who was seen making deals with politicians and their peers.
Alice Adair was not the sort to go around in sweats and navy blue hoodie. Nor did she generally walk about with her shoulders slouched. Though, her eyes kept focus and took everything in. Going incognito was no excuse for being lazy.
After a final circle around the block, Alice finally deemed herself as unfollowed as possible and vanished into Brin’s Gate.
She nodded at the familiar faces of her fellow heroes before finally settling down at a large table in the corner of the room. Despite the reserved for private event sign, or perhaps because of it, there was one other person sitting there. He didn't look up from the gadget in his hands as she approached.
“Funny running into you here,” she joked. “Figures we would be the first two here.”
“The others should be here shortly,” he replied. “I’d give them five or ten more minutes. That said, you missed Camille by two minutes. She got here early.”
“Camille made it?” Alice sat down.
Will nodded. “Seems stories about Halloween either didn’t reach her or didn’t to scare her off.”
Alice shuddered. “Do not remind me about Halloween. I can’t believe I ever thought graduating would break the curse. This year was somehow worse.”
Will shrugged. “What can I say? You guys are cursed.”
“Cursed?” Camille asked joining them.
She wore a warm smile and looked far more confident than the last time they had seen her.
“I can tell your internship is going well,” Alice greeted her fellow blonde.
Camille smiled. “You could say that. It was hard at first, starting alone, but it improved once I started making friends. Will, I cannot thank you enough for the latest shipment of fabric for my costume.”
Will shrugged. “Happy to help. It really wasn’t much trouble.”
“I still really appreciate it. On another note, what is new in Brewster? How has Vince been?”
“Wouldn’t you be the one to know that?” a voice called from the front door. “You’re the one whose dating him. Surely, he’s not leaving you on read.”
Will gave a weak wave in greeting to the newcomer.
“When was the last time we saw him?” Alice mused.
“I think it was … Halloween.” Roy shuddered. “Jeremiah’s been keeping him busy. We get a few notes every once in a while, though. He sounds busy, but happy.”
He gestured for one of the serving staff to bring him his usual. “While I’m ordering, you want anything? Seeing as how you came all this way, its only fair we make sure you also get the good stuff.”
Camille gave him her order. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Roy shot her a brilliant smile.
“The last time we saw him was at the Darengar Clean Up last week.” Will reminded them.
“Yeah, but that was work and its not like we really had time to talk.”
“There’s always time to talk if you’re creative enough,” Will pointed out.
“You’re one to talk,” Alice rolled her eyes.
Will’s tendency to lose himself in projects meant he socialized solely under peer pressure or his own schemes. Seeing as how he had been the one to approach Alice about helping plan this reunion, it made too much sense that he was planning on something more than just a non-catastrophic hang out.
Alice had worked out a few guesses of her own, but she was waiting to see which one it really was. Her patience was rewarded as Vince and Chad joined the crew and finished their members.
Shane had been invited as well, but been unable to make it to Brewster when called away on a last minute mission that wound up with the airport in shambles and his team all hands on deck helping repair the city.
If he had time, he had offered to try to video call. Based on the news, the odds were very unlikely he’d have time for even that. Same deal with Mary though she was busy with finals on her end. They’d told her it was okay to focus on school.
Alice grabbed Vince in a hug.
“How have you been? Its been so long.”
Vince hugged her just as earnestly back.
“Its been good.”
“Secret lair still secret?” Alice teased.
Vince sighed. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
“That is true,” Chad informed them. “Jeremiah made it quite clear the importance of having our hideout remain unknown.”
“I know,” Alice pulled back from Vince. “We go over it every time. I’m just checking if it might have changed.”
Vince’s face split into a grin. “Roy! Its so good to see you? Is Herschel going to join later?”
“Maybe later, he agreed to let me have this one. The way Will explained the invite, it made it sound like I’d be more useful.”
“Did he now?” Alice glanced towards Will who looked like he was doing his best to hide his nerves.
“I suppose you’re wondering why I gathered you all here today.”
Everyone turned to the voice.
“Nick!” A happy chorus rang out.
Alice’s smile brightened at the sight of her boyfriend. It was funny, despite one of them going nearly full-time as a super hero and the other being a budding politician, somehow they’d found time for each other. Lots of it.
And ways to work with each other. It was Nick’s idea, after all, to have Alice petition to gain full control over her father’s business.
Alice had responded by publically putting her support behind Nick and his tentative campaign. Two could play at a game after all.
“I’m going to be honest,” Nick started. “After what I heard about Halloween—” everyone froze up at the mention of the forbidden holiday. “—I was not expecting this many of you to show up.
“Well, while the socialization is a perk, the truth is I wanted to ask you for help. Nothing illegal—” Nick paused with the disappointment that none of his friends looked shocked. “—and, as a bonus, you get to help our darling Alice over here.”
Alice smiled, waved, and rolled her eyes.
“Now, just to keep things simple, I wrote out all your instructions and put them in these letters. Will, if you will?”
Will responded by pulling out a stack of envelopes. Alice counted three light blue and four orange.
“For the sake of fun, team blue is going to business district. Team Orange has another task in another location. You’ll know which team you were assigned based on the color envelope. Any questions before Will hands out your letter?”
Most people shook their heads.
One person’s hand went up.
“Yes, Vince?”
“Just to clarify, are we allowed to share information between each other?”
Nick raised an eyebrow. “Look at you go, your internship is really paying off. I remember when you wouldn’t think of that.”
“Interesting, I remember a time you made a scavenger hunt based on us making that exact mistake.”
“Well, well, well, I’ll take the sole credit if you insist,” Nick raised his hands in defeat at being called out. “But to answer your question, for this mission, blue and orange have completely unrelated and separate tasks. Its simpler and will work better if you only work with those with the same color. No tricks.”
The former Melbrook crew, plus Camille and Will, all nodded.
At this point they all trusted Nick, or knew him well enough that the simplest option was to go along with it.
Alice grabbed her letter first, noting the other two matching letters were for Will and Nick. She grabbed Nick’s letter as well. Team Blue it was.
A quick glance revealed that Nick had planned for this as well.
Nice try Alice,
How about actually reading your letter now?
Alice cracked open her letter as she shamelessly handed Nick his open letter. As she read and memorized the details, she began to smile. She could manage this. She would manage this very happily.
Alice and Nick walked into the Adair Inc. head office in Chicago.
The secretary, as usual, greeted her coldly. For all his crimes, Alice’s father was a decent employer and maintained a shocking amount of employee loyalty. Even after his demise.
As such, even without Simon stirring things up behind the scenes, Alice had already been facing an uphill battle in getting a foothold in on taking over her father’s company.
Even without spending most of her time as Legacy making things more complicated.
“Meeting for Nicholas Campbell,” Nick told the receptionist, flashing her a smile as well as his ID. Alice, in turn, kept her gaze steady and cool. Up until Nick flashed her a conspiratorial grin, “And fiancée.”
The secretary glared at them, but seeing as Nick’s meeting was in the schedule, there wasn’t much she could do to make Alice’s entry into the building more annoying than usual.
Once they were securely in the elevator, Alice turned towards Nick.
“So, fiancé, aren’t you supposed to ask a girl first before you start making declarations about it?”
“You’re right, I should probably get around to fixing that, but first, I think its time for business.”
Simon Shuster was a simple man. He had a strong work ethic. A happy home life.
He’d had a good boss too. That was, until a year ago, when he was sent on vacation and returned to find that some of his employer’s legally dubious activities had been made public. Now, everything Charles Adair had worked for was in chaos and it was taking all of Simon's effort to keep the company from completely collapsing.
There was something about the deceased man that had called to Simon. His tough-but-fair treatment of his employees had earned his respect, and his steadfast resolve had earned Simon’s loyalty to the point that no public revelation of his crimes was going to break it.
Simon was going to work himself to death before he let the only Adair contribution to the world be the harm he caused, and not the good he made possible. He refused to let his inexperienced daughter take control. She didn’t know the company like he did, and, as a future hero, her priority would be on saving the world, not learning to balance budgets.
Based on her endless persistence at bothering him, it seemed though she had the same stubborn streak that had gotten her father so far in life before his downfall.
Simon had a meeting with a persuasive campaign aide who was interested in his company. To his surprise, that aide had also shown up with the woman whose very existence gave Simon such a headache.
“Pleasure to meet you,” his guest offered a hand. “My name is Nicholas Campbell and I came to talk about our proposal. As I mentioned, while my candidate isn’t the most forthright, he continues to openly support organizations that improve the lives of Powereds, like Shelby’s House. Should you put your support behind him, I’m sure we can benefit each other.”
“I remember your proposal. Please understand while I respect the offer and have put great thought into my decision, at a turbulent time like this, it is not safe for us to muddle into political affairs at a time like this. My goal is to keep the company safe. I respected your proposal enough that I allowed this meeting. Unless you can convince me that backing your politician is still somehow a safer option than staying out of a race completely, I am afraid we are done.”
“This wouldn’t be the same as backing a random, unknown politician,” Alice spoke up. “The goal would not to be backing a politician, but an agenda, the same one our company needs to survive. We both know that my father’s death has left his company and reputation in shambles. We need to focus on rebuilding the public's trust. Which means we need to start focusing on rebuilding our reputation.
“My father’s true work was to provide a means for Powereds to become Supers. He achieved that with myself, Nick, and others. Its easy to shut down and try to ride out wave of terrible press, but we still have the chance to turn this into an opportunity. You don’t have to back Nick’s politician specifically. But we do need to back Powereds. By throwing our support behind them, we can show we see its a tragedy but we are making amends.”
“What you’re talking about would put our company in deeper debt.”
“The other option is slow death by bankruptcy and all the good my father did manage will be lost.”
Simon sighed. Alice Adair had raised good points. Points he himself had wondered about multiple times.
“I have a few other ideas,” Nick told them. “The initial proposal was just to get your attention. It wouldn't just be a random picking of a candidate to back, but instead a partnership with me.”
He pulled out a laptop. “May I?”
As the young man kept talking, Simon once again found himself intrigued. None of Nick’s ideas were perfect, but at least they were options he would have to carefully consider fully before tossing aside.
They all left the meeting exhausted, but feeling successful. Simon had promised to think it over, and they had the feeling he would say yes. Additionally, he had told Alice he intended to reach out regarding her plans with her father’s company.
“Well, that wasn’t too bad, was it?” Nick broke the silence as they walked back to the elevator.
“Now that that's done, shall we get to your real surprise?”
“What real surprise?” Nick cheekily replied.
“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say this was quite a lot of work for one meeting. A meeting I would have probably found a way to force my way into, eventually.”
“Well, maybe I wanted to give my girlfriend a little boost in the right direction.”
“Did you?! I think this was a distraction for what you got going on with the rest of our friends.”
“A distraction?” Nick feigned ignorance. “Don’t you know me well enough to know a distraction would be far subtler?”
“I know you well enough to know you always have a plan,” Alice gently reached out as if to fix his tie. “I think I figured out this one.” She yanked him forward and whispered her guess. “You let it slip earlier just to see if I was paying attention.”
Nick brushed himself off and they stepped off the elevator as organized as they had arrived.
“Well, what do you say?”
“I think you’ll just have to wait and see,” Alice teased “You’re not the only one full of surprises today, Nick, and I’m very curious what you managed to pull off.”
Alice offered her arm. “Shall we see if I’m right?”
Their friends had been exceptionally busy behind their back.
While Alice and Nick had been busy talking with the businessman, their friends had been busy turning a William’s Well-worn Warehouse into something out of a fairytale.
Alice gasped as she took in the sparkles covering everything. The furniture had been moved to the side and stacked neatly.
“Alice Adair, will you watch Murder Megatron III with me?”
“Murder Megatron?” she turned towards Nick. “That’s the best you came up with?”
He wasn’t right next to her though.
He was on his knees. Alice felt her hands float to her mouth.
“Will you—” He reached into a pocket and pulled out two pieces of paper. “—go to the movies with me?”
“If this was all build-up for a dumb crappy movie, I am dumping you!” Alice told him, activating her powers so he could feel the slight increase of gravity.
Nick pretended to look surprised and nervous. It would have been more convincing if Alice hadn’t spent years dissecting his facial expressions, while his eyes had been hidden behind a pair of cheap sunglasses no less.
“I must have ahem been looking in the wrong pocket.”
He made a grand show of checking his copious amounts of pockets.He pulled out a ring pop, more tickets for the same horrid movie, and a toy car.
Alice rolled her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Nick shrugged. I seem to be right out of rings. Better luck next time, Princess.”
“No need,” Alice reached into her purse. “I figured this would happen. So I brought my own. Nicholas Campbell, you have turned my life upside down since the moment we met. You have been aggravating, secretive, and a menace, but you have been more loyal, steadfast, and caring than I ever thought was possible. You have been there when I would have expected anyone to walk away, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Darn it, you just had to turn this around on me. Chad?”
A small box flew through the air and gently hit Nick on the head.
“Ow,” he picked the box off from the floor. “Alice Adair, you have surprised me at every turn. Every time I think I've got you, you manage to surprise me. When I first realized I cared for you, I was terrified. You still terrify me with how unstoppable you are when you’ve set your mind to something, but, more than that, you inspire me. I have never regretted falling for you. You make me happy while keeping me constantly on my toes. I can’t think of anyone else I want to grow older and watch horrible movies with until the day we die. Will you do me the honor of letting me be your husband?”
“Gladly.”
“Easily.”
As they exchanged rings they found themselves somehow embraced in each other’s arms. Lips locked to each other.
When they broke apart, their friends were there with congratulations. Alice raised her hand with its new shiny diamond on it and gasped again.
“MARY?!?!!”
Mary ran to her best friend, Herschel following behind, smiling. “You think I was going to miss my best friend’s engagement for anything?”
“So, what about you figuring my plan out?”
Alice laughed. “Love you too, Campbell.”
“Let’s see if you still say that after this film in an hour. ”
“What?!?!”
“Did you really think those tickets were just props? I thought we were friends.”
The entire rest of the group let out a loud groan.
Nick let out a wide unapologetic grin. Somethings, never change.
And sometimes you just don’t want them to.