The Marvels

Ep. 21 | Succulents, Flowers, Cats, and Lady Marvel

People did terrible things out of hate, and no one hated them more than Callidus.

Juggernaut repeated the almost-Marvel's name over and over in his head as he walked. Callidus. It was Latin for crafty, cunning, clever, et cetera—the perfect superhero moniker for an ambitious guy like him. A little too perfect, unfortunately. After a whole year of referring to the incident only as last time, Juggernaut was annoyed to have to be properly thinking of it again, to have to refer to him by name.

He knocked once on Fox's door and opened it without waiting for an answer. He paused in the doorway, disoriented. Up until the resignation party, this had been Goodman's office. Juggernaut was used to white walls, Impressionism-era art, and a horrible man with the eyes of a shark sitting behind a desk that had a mini bonsai on the corner. All of that had been recently changed to better suit the new President's taste: the walls were gray, and modern photography had replaced the paintings. Instead of a mini bonsai on the desk, there was a mini cactus. A fake one. The person who now owned the office was also horrible, but Juggernaut liked her better. Fox was smarter than Goodman, more human, and less robotic. She made sense.

She was alone. There was no Senator or Representative or press head or anyone else who was talking to Celestro for whatever reason sitting in the guest chairs. He thought Emika might come in at some point, but that would be okay, so he closed the door but left it unlocked.

Fox took off her glasses with a tired sigh. It made Juggernaut happy to see her genuinely worked up about everything—after all the impossible situations she'd forced him to figure out, it was about time she suffered through one herself.

"What is it?" she asked, rubbing her temples.

Juggernaut stood in front of her desk, petting the cactus. Definitely fake. "I need every bit of surveillance on Callidus for the past year," he said.

Fox froze. Her eyes widened at nothing, mouth clamping shut, and then she straightened in her chair, clearing her throat. "Why?"

"There's a slight chance he might be behind the murders. For revenge, or out of spite."

"Uh huh." Fox put her glasses back on, the movement oddly nervous. "And you're just considering this now? It took you this long to come up with that?"

"Of course I thought of it before," Juggernaut snapped. He'd thought of it and dismissed it, but Lady Marvel's line about hate was making him reconsider. "I didn't say anything earlier because...well, imagine how astronomically stupid he would have to be to try something like this, and how cunning and lucky he'd have to be to pull it off."

"So he's probably not the one responsible," Fox said dismissively.

"I want to make sure. Give me the information, and I'll decide for myself if he's worth considering or not."

Fox thought about it, tapping her fingers on her desk one by one. Juggernaut waited for an answer, eyes narrowing further with each second that passed. He was surprised she was being so difficult and judgemental, considering no one else had any better ideas about the investigation.

Fox finally said, "There is no surveillance."

Juggernaut blinked, thinking she was kidding, but she looked dead serious. "What?"

"Don't look at me like that," she snapped. "You're the one who wanted to relocate him instead of killing him or throwing him in jail."

"Only because I thought we'd be keeping an eye on him," he argued. "Are you telling me that for this entire year, we haven't been keeping any tabs on him? We have no idea what he's been up to?"