Sometime before the unveiling...

It was rare for Tina to eat out but she had little time between leaving the Haven shelter and when she was due at the Cathedral for her turn at monitor duty. Even if she ate out often it would have been likely Tina would have passed over the tiny restaurant, nearly hidden on a side street behind the shops of the main road, without ever seeing it. On the outside it looked like someone's home with only a small sign reading "Peppe's" to show it was something more. Tina wondered how they managed to get any business at all, though the woman who told her about it said it was always busy.

The following stories are relevant to this Episode of the Conquistadors.

Soldier Boy vrs. the Swear Jar

Soldier Boy Saves the World

The Cathedral was relatively empty for a typical midday afternoon.  It might have been quiet, if Soldier Boy were among those that were gone.  On the contrary, he was there, and clearly in charge with the absence of both Nemesis and Ophilia.  It was an uncommon occurrence in the few months that had passed, but everyone knew that when the field and adminstrative leaders were gone, it was the trainer that was in charge.  And Jag took special care to make sure that everyone was vividly aware when it was his turn.

11:55 PM

The evening air chilled Tina and once again she was glad her suit was insulated knowing how uncomfortable she would be without it. She really wished she were back inside where it was warm but going back inside was not something she was prepared to do, especially after the incident with Soldier Boy.

Traffic was almost nothing, this the final few minutes before the event. It seemed like a nice night, if a bit chilly, to walk, or maybe fly. Anything to take her mind off of being benched before the team's first case. When she had told Stone she thought Soldier Boy wanted her off the team she had not expected this. This was worse than being kicked off the team. Now none of the team would take her seriously.

The examination room was neat and clean. No instruments were visible and the metal counters gleamed in the overhead lights. The floor was tile, hard and easy to clean, while the walls were painted in quiet, soothing beige. The table looked like an exam table from any doctor's room in the country, most of the special modifications weren't visible. Jonathon moved around making sure all was ready. He had already done a number of these mandatory exams and found them to be less of a waste of time than he expected. The utter imbecility of using someone of his talents to do routine physicals was offset by the amount of valuable data he was able to gather on metahumans. Hopefully his next patient, Heatwave according to his schedule, would prove as enlightening.

This piece was originally begun by Andy Mathews and myself. Andy did not get a chance to complete it but with the help of jshowell we were able to tie up the loose ends and bring it to a conclusion.

The shimmering trail was fairly easy to pick up with thermal vision. Raphael watched from about half a mile away. She landed somewhere near LeMastre park. The Latin Dragons were going to hit members of Posse 187 there tonight. Raphael thought, Her intel must be pretty good for her to hear that.

Soldier Boy sat atop one of the Stailey Towers eating a bacon double cheeseburger. It was a bit of work getting up this high, more climbing than leaping, but the view was worth it. From this vantage point he could see practically all of Hudson City laid out in the darkness like a blanket of lights. It was beautiful, but only because it seemed far away.

He knew there was a lot of ugliness going on in the darkness. People were out there wreaking lives, maybe their own, maybe not. Somewhere in the city someone needed a hero, but Soldier Boy tried not to think about it. He had seen some good superheroes drive themselves buggy trying to make every bit of evil go away. Not Soldier Boy. He knew that was a losing battle, and besides it was dinner time.