Cheri frowned, an expression that morphed into a pout as she turned my way. I patted my leg and she came over to sit on my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck.

  “We’re going to make all of this right,” I said, then kissed her on the cheek. “As much as possible, anyway. I know taking you all was wrong now, and… Whenever you want to go back, get out of here and find your way home, you know I won’t stand in your way.”

  “And you know none of us want that,” she countered. “Not when we have a chance of taking out Orion Corp.”

  “And after that?”

  She looked confused, then chuckled. “Oh, Ezra, don’t you know? There’s always going to be another Orion Corp.”

  “What?”

  “Psychobitch Supreme is right,” Erupa said, finally grinning at Cheri. “Even after Orion itself falls, you know that won’t be the end.”

  “So, what, after this and others like it, you all are sticking with me?” I was surprised to find each of them meeting my gaze and nodding. “Like, the Psychobitches become some band of superheroes?”

  “What is it you like to say?” Cheri winked. “‘I am the law,’ right? Let’s change that slightly—‘I’ to ‘we.’ We, sugar, we are the law. Or can be.”

  I laughed, loving it. “But come on, you all are serious?”

  “When you found me, I was so drunk I couldn’t buy Brandy,” Cheri said. “I mean it, couldn’t even afford the cost of a lap dance from that bitch, as much as I was in the mood.”

  “The fuck are you talking about?” Erupa asked, but then waved it off, apparently not wanting her to elaborate. “Point is, same here. I could go back, but to anything as cool as this? No. Fucking. Way. This is the Citadel we’re talking about, and…us. Our team. We’re hot chocolate.”

  “I like that.” Tink chuckled. “Hot chocolate. And Ezra’s nuts are the marshmallows—so yummy, I could slurp them up.”

  “Whoa there.” I held up my hands, grinning at the thought but caught off guard by the one-eighty. “We still have the hybrids on board, and one specifically. I mean…”

  “The mermaid,” Tink said, nodding. “Right. Only, we don’t have a clue where she’s from, and neither does she.”

  That sentence silenced us all.

  We had saved the mermaid, along with others from Abaddon. Hybrids who had once been supers, no doubt, and had been worked on to improve their fighting ability. Only, in many cases their memories were adjusted as well, their…

  “Give us time,” Cheri said, interrupting my thoughts. “Voices tell me she’ll come around, we just need to work with her.”

  I nodded, noticing that the other ships in our little impromptu fleet were starting to slow. If this was really happening and we were about to be part of a force taking on Orion Corp., the last thing I wanted was to be thought of as a reactor. My team was right—from now on, we were going to fight on the side of right, together… as the law.

  “Patch me in,” I said. “It’s time to introduce ourselves.”

  Nobody moved, and after a moment Erupa gestured to the controls in front of me. I grinned, pulled up the comms, and said, “Sure, I’ll do it. Whatever.”

  “Just, you were closest,” Tink added with a restrained chuckle.

  I ignored my team as the comms connected, showing that I was hailing the other group but they hadn’t put the call through yet.

  “Breaker?”

  We paused for a moment, sharing nervous glances before a familiar voice said, “This is Breaker. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

  Sending over my video, I nodded when it confirmed I was showing on their screen. It was good to see this other team, led by the man from the video Letha had shown me before departure. The man had a small scar on the right side of his face and thick, slightly disheveled black hair. He had a civilian look to him and appeared younger than me, but weathered, like maybe he’d spent some good time in a boxing ring. Behind him was a woman with green hair along with a larger woman with dark skin, and the fox-lady with canine-like ears protruding through her tousled pink hair.

  “My name is Ezra Faldron,” I said. “I take it by your voice that you are Breaker. We received your message and have brought what forces we could muster to assist in your mission.”

  “Hold the fuck up,” the curvy woman said, and I put together that this was Gale, the one who had served in the Citadel military. “I’ve heard of you, you piece of shit.”

  This wasn’t how I wanted the conversation to go, but we all had our pasts. I would have to move on from mine. Holding my hands up, I said, “I was a bounty hunter. One who brought my catches to Abaddon, as a matter of fact. Often for the group we now consider the enemy.”

  “He’s changed,” Erupa came to my defense. “We were some of his prisoners, but he helped us fight our way out of there and take down the planet’s core.”

  Cheri wrapped her arms around me. “We are the Psychobitches!” She kissed my cheek affectionately, then added, “And we blew that shit the fuck up!”

  “Dear…” I kissed her hand, then turned back to the screen. “This is Cheri, and here we have Erupa, as well as Tink.” At a look from Tink, I added, “Er, sorry. Flyer.”

  “Tink’s fine.” She shrugged. “It’s kinda grown on me.”

  “As in… Tinkerbell?” Breaker replied, laughing.

  “You’ve heard of her?” I asked, surprised. It had been my experience when interacting with other bounty hunters that very few of them got my Earth references and jokes. They always acted like I was the idiot, when it was their ignorance that was being highlighted. But whatever.

  “Dude,” Breaker replied, grinning. “I’m O.G. Earth, okay? You want to know about Peter Pan, The Man in the Iron Mask, Princess Bride, Zelda, whatever. I know it all. Well, whatever I’ve been able to dig up, anyway.”

  “No shit?” I was impressed, but in part because I only caught half of his references.

  Gale shoved Breaker aside to get central in the screen. “You’ve turned over a new leaf, huh? How the fuck do we know that’s true and you aren’t bullshitting us?

  “I didn’t know,” I explained, glancing back as the mermaid entered, legs normal since she wasn’t in the water. With a nod her way, I continued. “That’s my only excuse—I thought I was on the side of righteousness. Didn’t realize the ones I served were up to such vile practices.”

  “Although, not everything they made turned out bad,” Cheri interjected, turning to our new mermaid friend and caressing her face with a giggle.

  “Yes, but they had no right,” I countered, not sure what to think of the hybrid mermaid yet. She seemed legit, wanted to fight, but had yet to tell us much about who she had been before any of this. “And have done far more evil than good.”

  “What opened your eyes?” Gale asked, frowning.

  I took a moment, trying to decide where to go with this. “Do you mind?” I asked the mermaid. She shook her head. “I’d hate to…”

  “She’s not some toy to show off,” Erupa hissed, too low for the other side to hear.

  “I know…” I lowered my voice. “It’s not like that. They need to understand.”

  “This will… help?” the mermaid asked, voice even quieter than my whisper.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  She nodded, so instead of me answering directly, I stood aside and motioned for her to come forward. Breaker and his team stared in confusion, then processed realization as the gills moved on her neck and she opened her mouth to reveal her sharp teeth.

  “When she’s in water, she’s a mermaid, kind of,” I explained. “A hybrid super. They’ve been doing this all over that place. Or rather, inside. Working with powers such as regeneration, water survival, and others to create various creatures—some who can shift, like her, others who are stuck as what many would consider monsters.” At the narrowing of the mermaid’s eyes, I whispered, “Sorry.”

  “We faced some on Abaddon,” Breaker said, then put a hand on Gale’s arm. “Also, we set up the ships so the others wouldn’t be able to take them. If he had ulterior motives, I’d like to think the A.I. we programmed would’ve caught it.”

  The idea that A.I. on ships could tell anything like that confused me, but I nodded. “There you go. What he said.”

  Gale frowned but turned away from the screen.

  “I think we can trust them,” Breaker said.

  “Us and a couple of others who helped out down there,” I said. “I hope you all agree, since we have every intention of taking out Orion Corp., same as you. As soon as we set down somewhere, I’ll introduce you to Letha, Trunk, and the others.”

  “They have my vote,” a blue lady said with a hint of a smile. Not just any blue lady, I realized as I stared at her—this was the Blue Lady. Andromida herself. Many a bounty had been issued for this woman, but after a while, everyone began to understand how stupid it was to even try to go up against her. “Enemy of my enemy and all that.”

  With a hesitant nod from Gale, Breaker said, “Welcome to the team.”

  91

  While Breaker signed off, I stayed on the call with the green-haired Twitch to discuss logistics and answer a couple of questions to prove our loyalty. At the end of it, she had us send over a list of who we had on board and what our powers were. It felt a bit like an invasion of privacy but it made sense. They had to know what powers they had on their side to properly formulate an attack plan, I figured, so got right down to it.

  I signed off, finally, and turned to find the ladies talking with our new mermaid friend.

  “You’re sure you don’t even remember your name?” Cheri said, scratching her chin.

  “Nothing,” the mermaid said. Although there wasn’t a doubt on my part, as my powers kicked in to show me her emotions, all of which spoke of her telling the truth.

  Cheri glanced my way and nodded. “Agreed.”

  “Sorry?” I asked.

  “Just that I agree, she’s been nothing but honest with us. I’ve been hoping my voices would give me a name, but… nothing.”

  “Mer,” Erupa said with a shrug.

  “For Meryl?” the woman asked but shook her head. “I don’t think that fits.”

  “No, for mermaid. Until we get your memory working again.” Erupa glanced down at the pistol at her side, and I sensed what was going on there—caution. A simple name to avoid becoming too attached, in case the mermaid didn’t last long.

  Up here, in the situations we were finding ourselves in, such caution made sense, as cold as that was. Mer would do, though.

  “Comms,” Erupa said, pointing to the display.

  “Twitch again?” I asked, glancing back over.

  “Wishful thinking?” Cheri asked, an eyebrow raised.

  I ignored the comment and blew a kiss her way. She didn’t really think there could be wandering eyes on my part, not when I had these beauties at my side. Her eyes wandering, though? I had to wonder, now that she had raised the topic.

  Regardless, this wasn’t the time.

  “Not her,” Letha said, appearing on the display. Trunk was on, too.

  “It’s good to see you both again, and clear of Abaddon,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Actually, this call is to fill you in on something, then I’ll check with Breaker and his team, see what they think. Cool?” Letha gave it a moment, then went on to tell us how we would need to track down a man who worked for Orion Corp., but there was more than that. It was Trunk’s father.

  We all agreed it made sense, that we would need an inside man, so we signed off.

  “His dad?” Tink said, a humored expression dancing in her eyes. “Damn, if I had the slightest idea where my dad was, I certainly wouldn’t wrap him into something like this.”

  “Wasn’t a super?” I asked.

  “He was, actually. Quite high up there in the power grid, but… the guy was an asshole. Cared more about trying to help everyone else than ever being there for his family.

  “I know the type,” Erupa said, nodding.

  “Not all of our dads could be perfect.” I cringed at my own words, hoping they didn’t ask me about my dad, who actually had been quite the role model.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Erupa said. “For me, it was a fiancé.”

  If I had been drinking at the moment, I would’ve spat it out in surprise. “You were engaged? Were, I hope…”

  “Correct. Ended it when the fucker showed me his true colors. I mean, he volunteered for a second tour of duty that would take him off to the fringe planets to fight piracy, instead of being with me. But it was simpler, in his case—found out later that he was banging some redhead twins.”

  “Damn.” I shook my head, sensing the curiosity from Cheri, who clearly wanted to know more about those twins.

  “Your dad was the superhero type, too?” Mer asked Tink.

  Tink scrunched her nose in thought. “Complicated. Not so much a hero, but not a villain either. Like… more of an entertainer. Thought he could use his powers to bring joy to those without powers—but I always saw it as showing off.”

  “Complicated one,” Mer admitted.

  “And you?” I asked her.

  She shrugged.

  “Ah, right. Sorry.” I bit my lip, wishing I hadn’t spoken, having momentarily forgotten that her memory wasn’t in great shape.

  “My dad is just a normal nobody,” Cheri said. “A bit of a fucker, but not a super.”

  “For some reason, I figured your dad would be either a Tier One or maybe some supervillain,” I admitted with a chuckle.

  “He tried to beat my mom, once, the story goes. He’s missing half his face because of that, so he always wears a mask. It gives him a supervillain look, but nope. No powers. She left him after that, of course, but I’m not sure if it was the guilt over having done that to him or the hatred regarding what he tried to do to her. Maybe both.”

  A long silence followed, and I took her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

  “Don’t pity me,” she said to the room. “In a world like ours, that seems to be fairly tame, I’d say.”

  Considering some of the horror stories I had heard when it came to domestic issues and powers being involved, she had a point. They all turned to me, waiting, so I sighed and said, “My dad? Honestly, I’d rather tell you about my mom. A legend, in some parts of the galaxy. Ever heard of Trattoria?”

  Erupa gasped. Excitement shone in Tink’s eyes.

  “Who?” Mer asked.

  “No shit,” Cheri interrupted as I was about to answer. “You’re telling me the Scourge of Redalia was your mom?”

  “She had a bit of a reputation on both sides,” I admitted. “That specific title had to do with her darker days.”

  Cheri started going on about how much she had heard about the legend that was my mom, but I only half listened. Those stories were usually as much hype as anything else.

  I was surprised that I was talking about my mom with them but I supposed that was a sign of how much they truly meant to me. When Erupa asked if I had been close to the woman, I even told them about the time my mom had taken me to watch a famed group of supers perform cliff-diving off the waterfalls of Mokal, a region known for the dangerous cliffs but also the even more dangerous wildlife in the area.

  “We had been under protection, of course,” I continued, “but watching those thrill-seekers nearly lose their lives—one of them lost an arm—gave me a new perspective on life. Although that hadn’t been as life-changing as when she had walked out amid the thunderous applause and battled a squid-like creature for the cheering audience, then taken me out for tea afterward. It was the first time I had begun to understand her fame, and the first time I had realized I could actually lose her.”

  “Damn,” Think said, all of them staring at me excitedly.

  “She sat me down, looked at me with eyes full of a zest for life, and asked me how school was,” I told them. “Which was another sign altogether, since I had dropped out of school two years prior, at ten, to study on my own. The teachers at the schools I could get into couldn’t keep up, and my empath abilities made puberty surrounded by all those adolescents too awkward.”

  “Holy shit, I bet!” Cheri said, and my empath ability told me that her mind had immediately gone into horn-dog mode.

  “Not so different from now, actually,” I added with a wink.

  Erupa burst into laughter. Tink grinned, while Cheri punched me. Mer, however, had a very confused but interested aura about her, and simply smiled pleasantly. That one was going to be a tough nut to crack.

  “Of course, that was all before the fame sucked up so much of her time and life,” I added. “It’s always the same story, isn’t it? If we had a child, I mean…”

  Everyone went silent, nobody making eye contact for the longest time.

  “Why is that an awkward conversation topic?” Mer asked. “Which of you all are romantic?”

  I bit back a smile.

  “We all fuck him,” Cheri stated, never the type to be shy about such things.

  “All…?” She turned to each of the three ladies, then to me in turn. “With you? Wow, I mean… wow.”

  “It’s not a bad situation,” I admitted.

  She stared, eyes actually moving to my crotch and her aura shifted for a moment before suddenly switching to amused. “You all are fucking with me. I get it. Jokes, haha.”

  She actually said the “haha” part, too. I shook my head, and Cheri suddenly looked very serious.

  “Is that weird in your mind?” Erupa asked. “Because to us…” She shrugged. “I don’t see a problem. It’s not just him—”

  “Oh, there are other men? Like a shared thing?”

  “No,” Tink interjected. “But… we kind of have feelings for each other.”

  “Or at least are sexually curious.” Cheri beamed as if that hadn’t been a sort of insult in some way, but the other two either didn’t notice or didn’t seem to care. “Other men would be… weird, though.”

  “Weird.” Mer grinned at me, gave me a ‘good job’ nod, and then jolted slightly, looking at the display. A series of shots went off nearby, nearly hitting Breaker’s ship, and a moment later we were being hailed. According to the screen, we had basically arrived at the Paradise Planet.