Chum

An uncomfortable silence settles over the rest of us, broken only by the creak of the Music Hall's ancient bones as the blizzard rages on outside. Nobody seems to know what to say or do next. We just kind of stand there, staring at the space Devonte's gurney occupied mere seconds ago, the dark stain of his blood leaving an ominous imprint in the faded carpet.

"So, now that the immediate crisis is over - what the fuck was that about?" I ask Akilah, trying not to sound angry at her. "Did he at least get shot for a good reason?"

She stares at the bloody bed, and then sits down on the floor. "The Kingdom is going to heist a bunch of fucking rhinoceroses from the zoo."

"What?" Jordan asks, while my mind immediately snaps back to the map in the nightclub I infiltrated. So that's why the zoo was circled… Wait, rhinos? What?

"Devonte filled me in on what he had recorded while I was trying to keep him from passing out on the way here. 'Operation Ivory'. Fucking… Rhino poaching, to sell them! Mr. Nothing and Mrs. Heartbeat were really whipping the goons's ass about it, too," Akilah says, shaking her head. "What a stupid fucking plan."

"It's not so stupid," I muse, partially to myself. "Mrs. Xenograft can mix animals together, that's her thing. I think they're probably going to try and make Rhino-something hybrids. That's my best guess."

"That's stupid," Jordan says, in the same tone of voice as Akilah. "Why would you possibly do that? What good reason is there to steal a rhino and make it into a monster?"

"Why is pretty easy, Jordan…" I say, slumping down onto the floor next to Akilah, leaning my head back to rest against the bedframe. I close my eyes, every nanosecond of exhaustion in the previous fifteen minutes catching up to me. "Because they can. Because it's mean. Because they want to hurt people. What's hard is how. How the fuck would you even get one out? Those things are fucking huge."

"It's a good thing Devonte didn't get killed over that secret if it's that fucking dumb," Maggie says, folding her arms across her chest with a wince. She's trying to look tough, but the way her voice trembles ever so slightly gives her away. I can practically feel the fear rolling off of her in waves.

"I'm gonna get a headache if I keep thinking about this," I admit, pressing the heels of my palms against my eyes until I see stars. "Let's just… Clean up and regroup tomorrow, okay? When everyone's had a chance to sleep on it."

It's a shitty plan and I know it. But right now, with Devonte's blood still staining my hands and my voice going hoarse, it's the best I've got. We're all exhausted and traumatized and one wrong word away from snapping at each other like wounded animals.

Akilah sighs heavily, pushing herself to her feet with a soft grunt. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. No use beating ourselves up over this now. Let's just get this mess cleaned up and try to catch some Z's."

Nobody argues with that. We set about mopping up the blood (can't leave biohazards laying around, after all) and stripping the bed in grim, mechanical silence. I focus on the task at hand, desperately trying not to think about how close we came to losing one of our own tonight. And all because he went off half-cocked without backup and got his dumb ass shot! It's hard to stay mad when you're scared, though. Trust me, I would know.

Maggie tosses the bloodied sheets into a garbage bag with more force than strictly necessary, her jaw clenched so tight I can practically hear her teeth grinding. "This is so fucked up," she mutters, mostly to herself. "Shit like this shouldn't be happening to kids like us."

"No, it shouldn't," Jordan agrees softly as they finish wiping down the now-bare mattress with bleach. "But that's the life we chose, isn't it? When we put on the helmet and decided to make a difference."

"Some difference," Akilah snorts bitterly. "Feel like all we do is get our asses kicked and watch our friends get shot these days."

I don't have a good response to that. I wish I did, but the truth is, she's not wrong. It feels like we're fighting an uphill battle every single day, and for what? Why do they need to put kids in the firing line? Well… who's "they"? Why do we feel the need to put ourselves in the firing line. Aren't there adults to do this? What happened to relying on them?

But then I think about all the people we've helped. The lives we've saved, the criminals we've stopped. The little old lady who thanked us for getting her cat out of a tree just last week. And I know, deep down in my bones, that it's worth it. It has to be. I don't know what I'd do with myself if it wasn't.

So I take a deep breath and square my shoulders, meeting Akilah's gaze with a determined set to my jaw. "We bother because somebody has to," I say quietly, but firmly. "Because if we don't stand up to assholes like the Kingdom, who will? The DVDs can't be everywhere at once. And the cops sure as hell aren't gonna do it. Patriot's not gonna do it. Nobody's seen him in a month anyway. Everyone's got their hands full."

"Sam's right," Maggie chimes in, sounding a bit more like her usual self as she ties off the garbage bag with a resolute yank. "This city needs helpers. Maybe now more than ever. We can't just give up because it's hard or scary."

Jordan raises an eyebrow at her, a faint smirk playing at the corners of their mouth. "Easy for you to say, you haven't been in a fight yet."

Maggie flips them the bird with a playful grin.

The tension in the room breaks like a popped balloon, all of us dissolving into much-needed (if slightly hysterical) laughter. It feels good to remember that we're still just dumb kids at the end of the day, superpowers or no.

"Alright, alright," Akilah says after a moment, wiping at her eyes as she tries to catch her breath. "Let's finish up here and hit the hay. We can regroup in the morning and figure out our next move then."

I nod, feeling the exhaustion from earlier settling into my bones like wet concrete. Now that the adrenaline's wearing off, all I want to do is curl up in a blanket pile and sleep for a week. But first things first.

We finish cleaning up in record time, all of us moving with a newfound sense of purpose now that we have a plan. Maggie tosses the last of the soiled linens into the laundry pile as I give the room a final onceover for any missed spots.

Satisfied that we've done all we can for now, we start filing out one by one, murmuring goodnights and promising to touch base first thing tomorrow. Jordan pauses at the threshold to the upstairs bedrooms, looking back at me with an unreadable expression.

"You good, Sam?" they ask softly, their eyes searching my face for any sign of hidden distress. "I know tonight was…a lot."

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to center myself the way Gossamer taught me after our first big throwdown with the Philly Phreaks. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good," I say after a moment, and I'm surprised to find that I actually mean it. "I mean, I'm fucking exhausted and still kind of freaked out, but…I'll be okay. We all will."

They nod, seeming to accept that answer as they turn to go. "Get some rest, shark girl. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"You too, void gremlin," I shoot back with a tired grin. "Don't let the existential dread bite."

They flip me off over their shoulder as they disappear down the hall, but I can hear the smile in their voice as they call back, "No promises!"

And then it's just me and Akilah left in the common room, the silence settling over us like a weighted blanket. I turn to her, ready to tell her she did good tonight (and also maybe yell at her a little for not calling us sooner), but the words die in my throat when I see the look on her face.

She's staring at the spot where Devonte's bed used to be, this horrible blankness in her eyes that I've only ever seen once before - when she told us she was stepping down as leader of the Young Defenders.

"Akilah…" I start, hating how small my voice sounds in the cavernous space. "You okay?"

But even as I say it, I know how foolish it sounds. How can any of us be okay right now? But I have to try, if only because everyone else is losing their minds too.

She blinks, slowly, like she's coming out of a dream. Or maybe a waking nightmare. "No," she says simply.

Akilah quirks a tired half-smile at that, something almost nostalgic in the curve of her lips. Maybe she's remembering her own first night out on the streets, scared shitless but determined to make a difference. I know I think a lot about my first few days, every time something bad happens. I don't say that to her, though. I think she gets it without me having to.