clubhouse, tailing Jet and Derek, leaving the others in Team Aik to follow.
It wasn’t the warehouse, and being a superhero rather than fighting with them still sat strangely with her, but Iridium couldn’t deny that if this was being a hero, she liked it.
CHAPTER 62
JET
While we can control them for now, it begs the question of what will happen when they are no longer subject to our will. What would the Squadron, freed of its Corp-Co messaging, choose to do with its power? Would it serve mankind … or demand to be served?
—From the journal of Martin Moore, entry #98
Jet kept the smile painted on her face and pretended all the hundreds of people in the crowd outside of City Hall wouldn’t be looking at her when she took the microphone in a few minutes. In front of her, blathering for all the vids, Mayor Lee droned on. And on.
“Babe,” Meteorite said in her ear, “your BP is skyrocketing. Calm down. It’s just a press conference.”
“I know,” she replied, using the old trick of not moving her lips. Can’t have the Shadow power talking to herself, now, can we? We don’t want people thinking she might be just a wee bit soft upstairs—especially now that she was hearing Shadow voices almost all the time.
Light, she hated public speaking.
“You want to know what your favorability rating is?”
“No.”
“Want to know how many people want to sleep with you?”
“No!” she hissed, stretching her smile wide, wide, wide.
Meteorite chuckled. “More than 64 percent. That’s higher than it ever was pre-Hypnotic.” That’s how they were dividing history now: pre-Hypnotic, when they were all slaves to Corp-Co, and post-Hypnotic.
Jet couldn’t quite bite back a groan.
Standing next to her, Iridium leaned over to whisper: “Picture him naked.”
Ew.
“Wow, she can smile without looking like she’s screaming,” Iri mused. “Who knew?”
“Shhh!”
“Please. Like anyone’s going to care about us girls chatting behind the mayor’s back.”
The mayor, pompous as ever, loudly and proudly announced how thrilled he was to have the Squadron back, how extrahumans were once again the protectors of their human cousins, how he had no doubt that New Chicago would once more rise up to be one of the jewels of the United and Canadian States of America, et cetera.
And the crowd ate it up. The Runner network had been doing its job better than Jet had anticipated—they were proving themselves to be the exemplars of public relations, far better than Corp had ever done. Bruce had known what he was doing when he’d gathered them together during the crisis.
Damn him, anyhow.
“By the way,” Iri whispered, “I like the new look.”
Jet tried not to blush. “It’s not that different.” She still wore the black leather–Kevlar blended skinsuit, which covered her from neck to wrists to ankles. The boots, gloves, and utility belt were the same. Her optiframes were in place, as always. But no cloak, no cowl. Her golden hair hung in a thick braid down her back.
“You don’t look like a female Night anymore. It’s good.”
Jet smiled, even though she was now blushing madly.
“She’s right,” Meteorite chimed in. “If I swung that way, I’d do you.”
Jet choked, then covered with a polite cough and thought of the many different ways she’d love to kill the Ops coordinator.
Finally, the mayor introduced Jet, once again the official Hero of New Chicago, their own Lady of Shadows.
The crowd, as they say, went wild.
Trying not to panic, Jet stepped forward and shook the mayor’s hand. He was smiling for the cameras and staring bloody murder at her, warning her silently that if she even thought of skipping off now to do anything short of saving the world from exploding, he’d personally chop off her head.
She stepped up to the podium and smiled at everyone standing on the steps outside of City Hall, cheering for her. Cheering for New Chicago. Jet took a deep breath, then she spoke.
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, New Chicago.” She paused to let the audience settle down. “When Doctor Hypnotic broke out of Blackbird a little more than two weeks ago, it felt like the End Times were upon us. Hero turned against hero; extrahuman turned against human. People were hurt. Property was destroyed. All on the whim of a man who would have bent all of our minds, forced us to live in the world of his creation.”
She hated the lie. But this was the compromise. And the good part was yet to come.
“Doctor Hypnotic is once again in Blackbird. And that wouldn’t have