Mo wasn't in the mood for conversation, but the waitress always wanted to practice her English.

"Here! Are your noodles!" she announced happily. "Please enjoy."

"Xie xie," he replied pointedly. As usual, she ignored the hint.

"Happy New Year!" she chirped.

"Uh? I thought New Year was a month away."

"American New Year is now." She checked her watch. "Literally! Ball dropping in New York. Champagne! Y2K!" She beamed at the other person seated at the bar. "You want a beer? Let's celebrate!"

"It's a little early for me," the young woman, apparently an American tourist, demurred. But the waitress was quite taken with the idea of celebrating American New Year, and nothing would do but for the three of them to clink beer bottles together and yell "Happy Y2K!" several times.

Satisfied that she ran the funnest dive on the harbor, the waitress ambled outside for a cigarette.

"New year," the American observed. "New beginnings."

Mo scowled and attacked his noodles.

"So, " the American said, unperturbed. "Did you hear the Justice Patrol is disbanding?"
                          
                                                      
Kevin stared at the stranger. "But...they can't break up," he protested.

"I totally agree, but they totally are."

"Are they even allowed to do that? Isn't that derelicition of duty or something?"

"Look who's talking."

Kevin face flushed. He looked away. There wasn't far to look in any direction of his cell, and little to look at anyway.

"I'm sorry," the woman said. She sounded a little embarrassed herself. "You shouldn't have that thrown in your face all the time." She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You should have the chance to make amends."

His heart started beating faster. "You're...not from the counsel's office, " he said. "Who are you?"
                                                                       
                                                             
"Kelly Mooney? You're late." From behind the door, a gangly man with red hair looked down at her disapprovingly.

"You were expecting me?"

"The land tells me many things. Follow me into the garden, please. That's where I will decide." He turned on his heel and disappeared into the house. Kelly shrugged and followed him. The chill of winter clung to the interior, and she walked briskly.

She gasped as she stepped out the kitchen door. The garden was unseasonably, impossibly lush. Vegetables and shrubs and flowers ran riot. Kelly unzipped her jacket and smiled winningly.

"I guess you know why I'm here," she said.

"Why? Hmm," he mused. He gracefully sat crosslegged on the grass. Kelly joined him.

"I know you want to recruit me for your new Justice Patrol," he said dreamily. "But why...that's what this conversation hinges on. Why do you want this?"
                               
                                    
"Are you kidding? You'd be perfect!" Kelly exclaimed.

"Not me," Astra sighed. "You." She moved her left hand another millimeter, slid the key into the lock, and shook loose the handcuff from her right wrist.

"There are many superteams. There are even some that aren't tools of Western hegemony." That was the left wrist free. She drew her legs up as best she could and started on the ankle cuffs.

"But," Kelly protested, "The Justice Patrol is the world's greatest-"

"Assuming that's true," Astra grunted. "How do you deserve to lead it?"

"Besides being one of the most powerful superhumans living," Kelly said, "I'm extremely well trained. I don't have a ton of experience, I admit, but I practically grew up in the Patrol."
                                        
                                                     
"After Harmageddon, the Patrol kind of became my family. I thought you might, uh, understand the appeal of..."

"Don't," Mo snapped. "Don't go there."
                                                    
                                                               
"I've been trained by a dozen of the world's most effective superhumans," she continued. "I've observed them for years, analyzed their missions for years, even come up with some improvements to tactics and strategy."
   
Astra exhaled noisily, but in the flickering light of the fire it was difficult to tell if she had sighed, stifled a laugh, or just pinched herself on the iron chains wrapped around her body.

"For instance," Kelly said quickly, "you don't just recruit whoever's available. First thing I did was get us a psychic healer. It's shocking how overlooked medical care is in the superhero world.

"Then I got Wayfarer. Teleportation is kind of key to my whole vision for this team."
                                       
                                  
"I'm so flattered. But that was only half my question. Why do you want this?"

"Oh." Kelly frowned. She looked away. "It's hard to explain," she said. "Every time I try to put it into words it just sounds...Oh!" She opened her fanny pack, pulled out a piece of pasteboard encased in plastic, and laid it on the bar.

"A trading card?" She gestured, and he picked it up and examined it.

The front of the card bore a faded photo of a grinning teenager striking a cheesy pose in a baggy superhero costume.

"Who or what," he asked, " is a Mental Boy?"
                                   
                                       
"Is that real?" Kevin asked softly.

"Guaranteed genuine," she replied.

He picked it up gingerly. His expression bordered on reverence. "I have complete sets of all the official cards," he said. "But I've never seen one of these. I almost got my hands on a Kid Chromatic once, but..."

"That was a fake. Topps printed these without permission and the Patrol personally confiscated and destroyed the lot. Except they kept a few as souvenirs."

"Wow."
                   
                
"Shockwave gave me that," she added proudly. "When I was about ten years old. It's my good luck charm."

"So?"

"So?" Kelly snorted as if he'd said something incredibly dense. "So I've been carrying it around ever since. Don't you get it?

"Other teams come and go. But the Justice Patrol is always there. They're the ones you can rely on. You can put them in your pocket for luck, and know the world will be okay because they're protecting it.

"The Justice Patrol can't disband. We need them."
                
                              
He lay back and turned his head. His lips moved slightly, and Kelly got the uncomfortable idea that he was talking to the grass. Finally he sat up again.

"I believe you believe all that," he said carefully. "And it worries me. You have more than a history with the Patrol. You have emotional baggage. Now you want to be their hero. You want to step in save the Patrol."

He shook his head. "I think you're going to get your heart broken. What's most likely, assuming you don't get yourself killed, is that the real Patrol will kick you out of their clubhouse."

"Gawd," Kelly snorted, "I hope so! We can't cover for them forever. We're just gonna be, like, super-temps. I give it three months, tops."
                                 
                            
"Time?"

Kelly looked at the stopwatch and frowned. "I forgot to start it," she admitted. "Want me to tie you up again?"

"In battle, lack of attention to detail can you get killed. What does this job pay?"

"Ah," she mumbled. "Yeah. We're kind of still working on that."
                        
                    
"You don't have funding?" he asked, incredulous. "How the hell you gonna keep your team running?"

"Dude, we have complete access to Justice Mountain," Kelly boasted. "It's state of the art, it's got everything we need, and it's stocked up for like a year. Also I hacked the slush fund, but I think we should save that for emergencies, don't you?"
                       
                
"Charming," Astra said through gritted teeth. "But what's in it for me?"
         
         
"Parole."
                                
                       
"Credibility."
                     
             
"Payback."
                 
            
"Um, the master suite?"
                
                       
"You said you weren't recruiting."

"Anton? How did you get this number?"

"So you lied to me. Worse, you're taking Amy but not me."

"Anton..."

"I can understand blowing off the rest of the old crew, but how can you take Amy and not me? How does that make me look?"

"Amy provides indispensable support. But you, well, I just thought it would be awkward now we're not dating."

"Oh, now you call it dating."

"I will never mention it again. And neither will you."

"Agreed."

"All right. You get an interview."

"What?! We worked together! Now I have to audition?"

"I'm writing down: Candidate has issues with authority figures."

"Fine. When?"

"I'll come by tomorrow night. "

"I'll be sure to wear a tie."
                 
                     
"You said you weren't recruiting."
  
"Anton, what now?"

"This isn't Anton."

"Oh. Shit."

"I'll be watching you."
                              
                              
Amy shrieked with laughter. "The master suite?"

"Okay," Kelly said. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. "This is why I'm practicing." She surveyed  the files and printouts. "We just don't have a good psych eval on this guy," she grumbled. "The pitch is obvious on all the others."

"You know how to handle everyone, huh?" Amy asked slyly. "What about Anton?"

"Oh, I finally figured him out," Kelly replied. "You just have to be a little mean to him. Keep him working for approval."

"That's cold."

"I told him he had to audition."

"You're terrible!" Amy shrieked, and the conversation dissolved into giggles.

"Seriously, though," Amy managed after a full minute. "You really think it's so easy to get all these people?"

"I know it is."

"Arrogant much?'

Kelly folded her arms and thrust out her chin. "I bet you I get everyone I want. Bet you anything."
                        
                           
"Why not just give us a try?" Kelly wheedled desperately. "You can jaunt off to Antares whenever you want, for crying out loud. It's not like we can stop you or serve a writ. I'm not asking for a big commitment here."
                    
                     
"But serving as a member of the Justice Patrol would be a very big commitment," he thought aloud.

"Ah," Kelly said. "Um. Actually, I had imagined you in more of a consulting role."

"But you'll need me, very much," he said matter-of-factly. "It may be the 21st century, but many ancient evils have yet to wake. Hmm, yes.

"I have decided."
                        
                     
"Don't expect me to wear a uniform."
                 
                        
"Can you really get me out of here?"
                          
                         
"Yeah, what the hell."
                   
                        
"Are you saying...?"

"Indeed."

"Awesome!" She stepped forward to give her new teammate a hug, but Astra stepped back.

"That's a good way to lose a finger," she warned.

"Charming," Kelly riposted. "But really, this is going to be great. Wait'll I tell Amy!" She fumbled in her fanny pack for the special cell phone and dialed the special number.

"NIGEL, this is Kelly. I mean, this is Vector. I got us a new recruit! Kindly inform Amy I expect to collect on our bet."

"Oh, Miss Kelly," Justice Mountain's artificial intelligence protested. "I do wish you'd stop this. I can't imagine the Justice Patrol would approve."

"NIIIIIIGEL, when are you going to get it through your head? We are the Justice Patrol now. You, me, Panacea and Wayfarer. Uh, and Astra."
                
                                            
"Wayfarer?" NIGEL whined. "You hired that, that, scoundrel of the spaceways?"

Mo snorted. Kelly cocked an eyebrow. "Super hearing?" she asked.

"No," he explained. "My Realtime Telcom Array routinely descrambles transmissions in my vicinity. She's feeding me your cell signal."

"Well," NIGEL said, his vocoder dripping sarcasm, "I certainly can't wait to meet this RiTA. I'll send her safe teleport coordinates to Justice Mountain."

"Belay that," Kelly said crisply. Mo sat up straighter. "I have a few more stops to make." She smiled at Mo. "It would be a lot faster if you do the driving."

For the first time, Mo smiled back. "Where we going, boss?"

She grinned with excitement. "Mirpur, Sheffield, Trois-Rivières and San Diego," she replied.

"For starters."