By the time they got back, Iris, Hermes, and Grapple were waiting in the rec room, draped across the blue couches that lined the room. They all greeted Enmachina as soon as he got in the door. “Everyone, we have a newbie here,” he said. “Act as embarrassing as you can.” They laughed.

“Introductions!” Grapple called. She had her hero top on, a sleeveless purple piece of armor with one of her labrys-shaped grappling hooks in white, but jeans underneath instead of black pants.

“Right. Usual rules: hero names for others, only you give out your civvie name,” Enmachina said, more for Rainbright’s sake than theirs. He pulled off his helmet and shook out his hair. “Hi. I’m Nathan.” He held out his hand, which Rainbright shook. Maybe it was a little early, but he’d never liked deception, no matter how necessary it might be.

“Nice to meet you, Nathan!” Grapple said.

“You just volunteered for the next intro,” Nathan said. “Rainbright, this is Grapple. She’s got strength, invulnerability, and telekinesis. But only for ropes.”

“Yep!” Grapple said, walking over and holding out a hand. “I’m a hugger. You a hugger?”

“Um. Sure, I can have one.” Rainbright eyed Grapple’s muscular arms.

“Great!” Grapple hugged Rainbright, lifting her off the ground. When Rainbright squeaked, Grapple instantly put her down. “Too much?”

“A little,” Rainbright said, her face completely red.

“Quit hogging her!” Hermes called. “It’s our turn.” He teleported right next to Rainbright, making her jump. “Hi!”

“This is Hermes, resident teleporter.” His black winged helmet and purple boots were off, but his grey cloak and white armor were on and he still had his winged staff. “Iris?”

Iris waved from the other side of the room. She was still wearing her white, gray, and pink suit, and probably the armor underneath, but her helmet was off and she was wearing a domino mask instead.

“All right, so Iris has superspeed. She can get over here when she wants.”

“And they,” Grapple said. “Iris has she/they pronouns.”

“Uh, okay,” Rainbright said. She looked a little overwhelmed.

“And you’ve met Angelica. That leaves only Scope.” Nathan glanced over at where he’d seen Scope’s gradient-green scrubs. The costume was lying alone on the couch with his chest symbol, a black stethoscope in the shape of an infinity symbol, facing up. “Where’s the rest of him?”

“Lying down,” Grapple said. “You should go check on him. We’ll take good care of the newbie. Recruit her into the basketball team.” She slung her arm around Rainbright’s shoulder.

“I prefer soccer, actually,” Rainbright said. She was blushing again.

Iris’s eyes lit up and she zoomed over, the colored ribbons on her back leaving a rainbow blur behind her. “You play soccer?! Me too! What’s your favorite position?”

Nathan took advantage of the distraction to rescue Scope’s uniform and sneak away to their room before Angelica could catch him. The lights were off, which was a bad sign. Without turning them on, he knocked on the bedroom door and then walked in. “Raph? Got your uniform.”

“Thanks,” came Raph’s tired, muffled voice.

Nathan deposited it in the laundry basket and stripped his own armor off. “How did the fight go? Last I heard, the bad guy was cornered.”

“Yeah,” Raph said. “Had some sort of force field. Hermes couldn’t get through. Grapple punched it until there was a hole for him and Iris and they took it down and took the villain in.” He yawned. “Too many injuries. Too many bodies to scan.”

With his suit finally off, Nathan sat down on the bed. “Need me to go away for the night?”

“If you don’t mind,” Raph said. “Just need to be alone.”

“One of these days, we need to get you one of those sensory deprivation tanks,” Nathan said. “Nothing but you, floating on salt water in darkness and silence.”

“Sounds nice,” Raph said, burrowing further into the sheets. “You going to go see Eric?”

“Yeah, if he’s available.” Nathan picked up his phone from the nightstand. It was dead, so he sent power into it, but didn’t turn it on. No sudden light when Raph was suffering from sensory-power overload.

“Use protection,” Raph said.

“Always do,” Nathan said. “Especially since Coral’s picked up a new partner. I’ll head out now. If Eric’s not available, I’ll be at Ma’s place. Call you in the morning. Love you.”

“Love you,” Raph said, pulling his sheets up over his lips. Nathan gave him a kiss through the sheet and then went out into their living room to text.

Epic, are you available tonight? Raph needs a break. I’d love to see you. Nathan sent it. While he waited for the response, he put together a sandwich for Raph when he needed it. Two slices of bread, a leaf of lettuce, one slice of deli meat and one of muenster cheese, and then ketchup and mayo in between the meat and cheese so the bread didn’t get soggy. He set the sandwich on a plate and then put a bottle of soda and a bottle of water in the fridge. Since Eric hadn’t responded, he amused himself by folding the napkin into a heart.

His phone finally pinged. Oh, you finally got my name right. Nathan frowned and glanced back at the previous text. Yes, he had said Epic instead of Eric. He was more tired than he’d thought. That or his phone’s autocorrect just sucked. Yeah, Coral consents to being kicked out.

Be there soon, Nathan replied, setting the heart by the sandwich, and headed out the door.

***

Nathan finally reached Eric and Coral’s cozy little apartment. He paused outside the door to steel himself. Neither of them were in the superhero loop: to them, he was just Nathan, who did IT work for an IT company with nebulous products. Telling them the truth would mean outing everyone around him. Not telling them meant lying to them. Still, that was a lesser sin than possibly endangering Raph, his ma, and his coworkers and friends. Nathan took a deep breath, trying to become someone who was just like himself but with no secrets, and knocked on the door, preparing to enter into yet another lie.

A few moments later, Eric opened the door, grinning. “Hey,” he said, pulling Nathan into the apartment.

“Hey.” Nathan kissed him and dropped his overnight bag. “Sorry I’m late. The boss demanded a report right as I left.”

Eric wrinkled his nose. “Seriously? When you’re off? Why don’t you tell her to…” He frowned. “I can’t think of a way to phrase it that wouldn’t get you fired.”

“That’s part of why, yes.” Nathan said dryly. That and he knew full well that Angelica was under a lot of stress as it was, even if some of it was her own fault. If she decided to fire him, he would probably never work again, at least not as a hero. More importantly, if her bosses decided she needed to be fired for not reining in a rogue hero, the entire branch could be shut down or micromanaged. Given what was currently happening to Cogsham, those were probably the same thing. In any case, he’d accepted the chewing out and then told her how Rainbright had done, gave her some training recommendations, and then left as soon as possible. But he couldn’t tell Eric any of that. “Coral still here?” he asked, mostly to get off the subject.

“Coral is,” Coral called from the bedroom, waving an arm out. There was a pink bracelet on her wrist. “I’ll be gone in a few minutes.” She sounded tired.