We pulled onto a road where there was a long line of cars sitting bumper to bumper, many with things attached to the tops or backs of the cars. All of the cars were on their way out, while the road in was mostly clear, and half of the cars that were on it were ones that were trying to pull ahead or were pulling into the incoming lane to get a view of how bad things were further down the jam.

“You were in Brockton Bay, right?” Chicken asked.

“I was.”

“Did you know Armsmaster?”

“Only a bit. I knew him more as Defiant. Saw him earlier today, even.”

“Cool. I can barely remember the times before my parents died, but I had some Armsmaster stuff. I had one of the video games, but I never got past the first level. I read about the bad guys in the manual and I was too scared to go fight them. I mostly just ran around as Armsmaster.”

I smiled. “Which one?”

“Seasoned Heroes Northeast.”

One of the games that was re-released every ‘season’, with slightly different content each time, with variations for every major region. I had never understood the appeal of a game like that, when they could have run it all online and patched it instead. Money and lots of kids willing to pay, I supposed.

“Do you still play?” I asked.

“Nope! I’m doing it for real,” he said. “I’m not scared any more, and there’s no manuals for these villains.”

“Too true,” I said.

“Did you know Dauntless?”

“I ran into him on patrol here and there. We had a jurisdiction we were supposed to stick to, and it was close to his, south end of downtown and the Towers. We’d meet and compare notes.”

“Was he nice?”

“Yep. It’s… kind of one of those things where I wish I’d done something different. Back then I just wanted to patrol more, so if my dad stopped and had a twenty minute talk with Dauntless, I’d be so eager to get going again I wouldn’t be listening. Now I kind of wish I paid more attention when the more legitimate heroes were talking.”

Especially with how things turned out for him.

“And Miss Militia?”

“Super cool. Very serious. She’s been a hero for a good long while now, actually. When I was trying out for the Wards she was in charge, so I saw her more than most of them.”

“And… Aunt Rachel?”

I drew in a breath, then held it, before sighing.

“I kind of like her now, and my friends like her too.”

“But how was she back then?”

“I don’t want to say stuff that gets me in trouble with the Undersiders. I don’t like the villainy that they’re involved in, but I think we need to work together at least in the short term, so we can handle the bigger issues.”

“I won’t tell,” he said. “If I don’t ask in a moment like right now, I don’t think anyone’s ever going to tell me.”