The Marvels

Ep. 30 | J's Tired, Frostbite's Having a Basic Day, and Marv's Irritated

Fox was working at her desk with Emika across from her, sure that things couldn't possibly get any more complicated, and then Juggernaut walked into her office. She was in the midst of yelling that he was supposed to be at a meeting when he slammed the door closed behind him.

"Shut up," he snapped, pointing at her. "I did something stupid."

Fox's eyes narrowed. "Explain."

He paced around the room, replying in a tone that got slower at the end, "I may have, sort of, given Lady Marvel the slightest impression that the circumstances of me being here aren't necessarily what they seem."

"Is she suspicious?"

"It's Lady Marvel," he said dryly. "Is she ever not suspicious of something?"

Fox adjusted her glasses, thinking. "Well...regardless of how suspicious she may be, there's simply no chance of her ever figuring it out."

"True," he mumbled, taking the chair next to Emika. "True."

Fox's eyes narrowed again. "Do you think this is a serious concern?"

"No," Juggernaut said, flapping his hand dismissively. "She despises me. She probably chalked it up to a joke, or, at the very least, she won't be thinking about it for too long."

Fox liked what he was saying, but she wasn't sure she liked the way he was saying it. He seemed to honestly not be worried anymore, which was good, but he was also slumped in the chair and staring blankly at her desk cactus. Emika was nervously bouncing her leg up and down, obviously trying to figure out when to tell him that he was supposed to be on the other side of the country right now.

Instead, she looked at Fox. "There's been some unrest."

"Why?" Fox asked distractedly, too aware of the seconds ticking by.

"There's an underground informant who people aren't too fond of," Emika explained. "She goes by Mask, but they've taken to calling her River 2.0."

Juggernaut laughed. "River's going to hate that."

"Is this Mask a problem?" Fox asked.

"Not necessarily." Emika shook her head. "The people who have a problem with her are the type of people we're responsible for putting in jail, so she's not actually acting against us. The concerning part is that she's not affiliated with us like River is, and she doesn't work like River does."

"What do you mean?"

"She only has a few connections, but that's not where her information seems to come from. Mask spies, and she's good at it. Scarily good. It's making people nervous."

Juggernaut tilted his head. "Well, that's not good."

"You're supposed to be in Georgia," Fox interrupted before he could throw the rest of his schedule out the window in favor of other things.

"About that," he said. "Can you calm down with all the anniversary prep? It's getting overbearing, and I don't know if you've noticed, but there are four dead supers, and we still don't know what happened to them."

"But that's not where your focus should be, now is it?"

Juggernaut raised an eyebrow. "You'd rather have me deal with useless PR details than the murders?"

"I know that the anniversary is meaningless to you," Fox said, undeterred, "but it means something to a lot of other people, and, like it or not, we're the ones running the show. As for the murders, it's not as if you've gotten anywhere, and the police are on it. I think you can afford to take your attention away, at least until the anniversary is over and done with." Fox turned to Emika. "We'll leave Mask alone. Unless she interferes with River's business or spies where she's not supposed to, she's not our problem." She turned back to Juggernaut. "It's too late for Atlanta, but don't miss Chicago tonight. And remember what I said about focusing."