A spark-tacular sequel

Chapter 1 - Issue 1: Liberty Belly Ashore

“You saved my ass with that assist, Maddie. Cheers to you.”

Clink!

It was Spark and Megabyte treating themselves to a well-deserved snack-break, along with a couple of rounds of beers, at a front patio table of the Taco Shack nearest to the power plant they had just finished rescuing from an unknown villain’s army of mechanized drones.

After their toast, Spark took a big gulp from his glass. Megabyte stared pointedly at him over the rim of her own. “You know I’ve got your back…but it’s like I keep telling you, Ben. You need to make better use of the Neuro-Link.”

Ben sighed. “Just because I have it doesn’t mean I have to whip it out for every little thing. Big Tech invented it in the first place for phone sex, anyway.” And why would he and Megabyte even need that when they’d already had…well, sex? “I can key into your emotions during a battle just with my powers, pick up on if you’re distressed–”

“And some of us don’t have powers! What do I have?” Maddie reminded him. “Machines that let me fly, and teleport, and what barely counts as a firearm, but if I’d have been able to see what was going on on your end, I’d have pulled you to safety much sooner.”

“Fair.” Spark loaded a chip up with a hearty dollop of queso and bit in.

“You know, you are just like your cousin sometimes. Both trying to make yourselves bear the weight of the world…you have to remember it’s okay to let people in, and I don’t just mean into your pants.”

“Are you ready to order?” asked an approaching waitress, pen and pad in hand.

“I’ll have the same beer again,” said Maddie.

“Same beer,” Ben agreed. “And I guess we’ll just do our regular? If that’s cool with you, Megs.” She nodded in assent.

Their ‘regular’ was a combo party platter of tacos, along with rice, beans, and cheese, intended to serve a table of ten, but between Spark’s powerset relying on him remaining well-nourished and Megabyte’s each teleportation jump depleting her system of calories, the two of them had worked up quite the appetite. Luckily for them, the Misfits all ate for free at this chain, ever since Bombshell’s publicized rescue of one of their employees from an armed robber.

Still fresh from the fight, the two co-captains of America’s infamous feedist hero squad drew a few stares from the other diners in their costumes. Spark’s wasn’t that weird. Tasteful, even, with a military-inspired gray coat, accented in white and electric yellow, matching pants, combat boots, and a half-mask that didn’t serve much of a purpose anymore, his identity being out in the open since the end of the conflict in the Commune of Crucifix, but it was a classic part of the vigilante aesthetic. He’d always thought the little beret on his head was an awkward touch, but Evergreen had worked so hard to design the whole ensemble, and the girls in the squad thought the hat was endearing, so he kept it. Standard hero shit; the US Division of Heroics couldn’t have done better. But, he supposed, it wasn’t every day you saw a 450-pound guy taking up a chair for each ass-cheek a few tables over. As if to add to the spectacle, his appetizer plate rested on the crest of a doughy belly that spilled all the way into his lap when he sat. He could have reached the table if he tried, but he'd just fried an army of robots–give a guy a break!

Megabyte, on the other hand…

Maddie was pretty average-sized, for a fat girl. She took up only one chair, though it was lucky these didn't have armrests, otherwise, she'd have to wiggle to get her love handles past them. But, in her civvies, she wouldn’t have appeared out of place in a fast-food establishment. Her problem was her love of gaudy colors and showing off, her own digs consisting of a crop top, short shorts, and anti-gravity boots in shades of teal, neon purple, and loud, bright fuschia. Her AI-guided gauntlets sat on the table next to her drink, along with her helmet, visor, and portal gun. Her personal teleportation device, fastened around her left wrist, was the subtlest part of her ensemble, and even that was as chunky and eye-catching as the rest of her aesthetic.

A pair of women on their way out with to-go bags glanced sideways at her. “That is the fugliest fucking watch I’ve ever seen somebody wear,” said one to the other. Neither Ben nor Maddie paid them any mind.

They did, however, both turn their heads when something in the sky came hurtling towards the ground with increasingly ferocious speed. “What is that?” asked Maddie, pointing up at the unknown object. “It can’t be a bird!”

“Maybe a plane?” ventured Ben.

Or perhaps something a bit more extraordinary? Megabyte had yet to ever fight an alien; this could turn out to be a good learning experience for her.

Suddenly, there was a colossal CRASH, a chorus of civilian screams, and a shower of flying debris as whatever that thing was connected with the middle of the road. As the dust cleared, Ben could make out, at the bottom of the crater opened by the impact, the plump figure of a woman. Her long, blonde hair fell to the middle of her back in gentle, though mussed, curls, and she wore a flowing cape and strapless unitard in red, white, and blue, with a white five-point star emblazoned over her left breast. Abandoning his plate, he heaved himself up and went over to investigate, Megabyte close at his heels.

He’d met her before, but never on American soil–at least, not since before she was Liberty Belly, when they were prisoners together in the US Heroics Division’s experimental lab. In fact, Liberty Belly had been expressly banned from any manner of caped crusading in all 50 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. It figured that Captain Justice was free to wear the flag on hero duty, but when a big girl did it, it became a problem.

“Bella, are you okay? Are you in trouble?” asked Ben, helping her up out of the hole. He unbuttoned his jacket and draped it around her shoulders, lest any passing cops recognize her costume and decide to arrest her. Not that it wouldn’t end badly for the cop, with Bella’s incredible powers, but Ben would rather avoid the confrontation outright.

“No. I mean, I was, at the border, but I lost those fighter jets that were chasing me way before I passed the Blackwater City limit. The country might be in some deep shit, though. Can you assemble the Misfits? I need to tell them something.”

***

Oriana Tay–whoops, it was Oriana Salvidar, now, wasn’t it? Bella had never met Ben’s cousin Bombshell, but she’d heard enough, both from the Electromancer himself, and from the worldwide news media. It was kind of unbelievable that Big Tech and Bombshell had given up the heroic spotlight to start a family, but Bella supposed bringing one protege after another into the world of capes and crimefighting might make one antsy to have a couple kids of their own. In any case, she was no less grateful for the cup of hot cocoa that Oriana placed before her on the boardroom table at the Misfits’ underground headquarters.

“Do you need anything else?” she asked as the rest of the team filed in: Eddie, the only one besides herself in his civilian clothes, Spark, Craniotomy, Evergreen, Megabyte, and finally, Cannonball, zooming into his chair faster than the speed of sound, barely on time and muttering something about his phone having died. “Ice cream? We can order some pizza from upstairs?”

“I’m good, but I appreciate it,” said Bella. As much as she was looking forward to dinner, she could get it later. “Right now, my priority is making sure I tell you guys what I know…which isn’t much, but it feels important. Sometime recently, someone stole something from the Heroics Division’s northwest base. I don’t know what it is, who took it, or whether they’re a good guy or a bad guy, but it must have been high-priority if they went through the trouble of sending this guy all the way to Peru to shake me down about whether it was me.” She tossed a small photograph on the table: a mugshot of the weathered old madman who had experimented on her and Ben back in the day. Spark visibly recoiled at the sight of the dastardly Dr. Duplicate. “I handed one of his copies over to the police, but I punched the other fourteen right off the mortal coil, and after that, I flew straight here.”

“You flew all the way from Peru?” repeated Eddie.

“I like to travel light,” said Bella.

“Admirable, but reckless,” said Eddie. “Spark, you have contacts within the Division, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably see them when they hold the Electromancers’ Conference and Masquerade next week.”

“Perfect. Then you can do some sleuthing around about exactly what it is we’re dealing with. Liberty Belly, where’s your next stop? I’d be happy to book you a plane ticket and hotel, on the tab of Salvidar Solutions.”

Bella blinked. “Well, no…I'm staying, right? If Division weapons have fallen into nefarious hands–”

“Then Spark and Megabyte have a team of heroes ready to defend Blackwater City, none of whom are slated for immediate detainment if seen in public. It’s too dangerous here for you. Besides, what if, I don’t know, Costa Rica needs you to eradicate an army of…gosh, what kind of mutant or alien threat do they have in Costa Rica…” Eddie trailed off. “Look, my point is, I wish I didn’t have to gatekeep, but I’m a huge fan of your work, and I couldn’t live with it on my conscience if you were dragged off to some vivisection lab while trying to help us out.”

“Well, what if I just stuck around for detective work? Not as Liberty Belly, but as me?”

“I guess that would be alright…as long as one of the team accompanies you in public at all times, as a safety measure.”

“I could do it!” volunteered Spark. “Since, you know, I know her, and stuff.”

“Then it’s settled,” said Eddie, and with that, the meeting was adjourned.