"Okay. On the underground level is our HQ. You're free to walk around dressed the way you want, with or without your uniform." Satina rested her hands on her waist. "It's kind of a big deal for most villains to make an impression, so you'll probably see a lot of imbeciles in their working clothes, but without their ID concealers—like Red Menace and his ridiculous outfit." Satina passed through the first airlock. "Sharing our true identities, though, is not as advised outside of your own team. For you, it'll be even more dangerous." The metallic doors closed behind them. "You're lucky you're in rags today. When people start to recognize you, there'll be real trouble."

"Why the secrecy?" Rob asked. "I understand my case. Some of the people here might hold a grudge against me... but what about you? In the Heroic League, we know each other's identities. The closest ones, at least."

Léon dipped his words in venom to say, "Would you be willing to do that again? Cause I thought that was precisely what almost ruined your and your sister's lives."

Roberto stared at him. The trio passed through the second airlock, but Rob stayed behind, frozen in place.

His sister had disappeared two years ago. When the police ignored his civilian wailing, dismissing it as a minor domestic problem, Rob turned to the League as Grizzly Bear, asking for help. He showed them a photo of her without her ID concealer. It leaked. In two days, the whole city knew Grizzly Bear's sister's face—and thus began the hunt for "Sister Bear," as the media called it. Whoever discovered her identity would also discover his secret identity… and would have his head on a plate.

The Heroic League tried to contain the situation, of course. Without success. People came too close to the truth, so The Mayor called an old acquaintance.

After a week, the photo and every single digital copy of it had mysteriously vanished, doing a massive ton of damage to the League's safes.

And while Rob still didn't know who had made the photo disappear, he had a good guess: Iara Iamí-Xarãma, the only woman in town versed enough in technology to fix something like this. Which meant she was—probably—not involved while also being his safest bet of a temporary ally.

Because of that, he had to agree with Léon. If no one in the League knew who Rafaela was to him, that would never have happened.

Rob swallowed hard, stepping through the second airlock. "Do you know what happened? Did you find anything about her?"

Léon crossed his arms. "Why don't you just go ahead and accuse us of kidnapping her? Isn't this why you're here?" Instead of mockery, Léon offered him a worried crease between his eyebrows.

Rob mumbled a thing or two, and Léon shook his head. "It was on the holotelly, Roberto. For weeks. We know as much as you do."

Shite.

"Yeah, whatever," Satina said. "Just don't go around with that my-name-is-Roberto crap, and you'll be fine, okay? You already know our identity, which should be sufficient shit for me to deal with. Don't let any other team know anything about us."

"Sometimes villains punch each other on the face to steal their missions and rank up. You don't want that," Mary said.

"Mary, Roberto." Satina jerked a thumb towards the elevator doors. "We're wasting time."

"Wait, where are we going? I might draw some unwanted attention in this." Rob opened his arms to show the blood-stained, tattered shirt he was wearing. On his chest, a 2030's band logo was cut in half, showing a good part of his well-defined muscles.

Satina clicked her tongue. "Yeah. Well, Léon will take care of that."

The basement was a luxurious hall that connected part of Invidia's storage room and the HQ entry. In the center, there was a victorian loveseat and a small center table. Behind those, a second elevator, surrounded by two white wooden doors, led to the main building of Invidia's Industries.

"We're going to the right," Léon said. He slapped the door to the locker room open. He opened one of the lockers with practiced movements, pushed a massive stack of books and music magazines aside, and took a perfectly folded stack of clothes. Léon offered them to Rob. "My gym clothes. You can change back there."

"I thought Anachronica told you to check me thoroughly." Rob took the clothes. It was a plain black hoodie and a jogger. "I don't want anyone here thinking I'm not sincere, so… go ahead." He opened his arms.

Léon scoffed and crossed his arms. "Just change your clothes, Roberto."

Rob opened a lopsided smile. As an answer, he took his shirt off and threatened to do the same with his pants.

The wall on the far side of the room seemed a lot more interesting to Léon at that moment. He cleared his throat and pivoted to the door. "I-I'm waiting outside."

***

"To the Farm!" Satina tapped a perfectly manicured index finger on the F1 button.

The elevator doors closed, and Rob was propelled backward, then to his right. A projector printed a map on the metallic walls, showing their position in a long line; all around them, charming images of smiley people holding crops appeared. Green-covered lands, massive apple trees, and baskets filled with bananas and coffee grains showed up, one after the other.

"So we're going to the coast? In an elevator?" Rob quirked an eyebrow. As far as he knew, most of the farms were precious, protected strips of healthy land that were worth more than their weight in gold—which meant they were watched and protected like the Mona Lisa in the Old Continentian Museum.

The elevator came to a sudden halt, throwing Rob against the doors. It chirped a metallic sound.

"This is the only way to get to the Farms. Welcome to the true Invidia, Roberto." Satina smirked.

"Why, what's so terrible about—" He hesitated as the metallic doors opened and revealed the nightmare outside. Rob's eyes widened, and his posture stiffened. "Shite."