"Where's the green mohawk?" Mathilda asks while crushing Joe's windpipe with her heavy pleather boot heel.

"I left it at home, it was terribly itchy." Joe croaks. "Shouldn't you be more concerned about the detonator's location?"

Mathilda blinks, then glances around the crowded city street currently being evacuated. She doesn't see his ice taser aimed at the keystone building straight down third. "What I'm more concerned about is missing Margharita night at La Cucina if your aim isn't off."

Okay she does see his ice taser. Joe blinks. "How is their barbacoa?"

Mathilda crunches harder on his windpipe, but his hand is wavering. "Tell me where the detonator is."

She has to know, he can't speak without the use of his windpipe. He can however do a quick geometric calculation, change the angle of his wrist slightly, and squeeze a tiny trigger resulting in the rapid formation of a cartoonishly large body piercing icicle.

With lizard-like reflexes, Mathilda thrusts herself out of the trajectory of the falling freezer pop before it can decapitate her. Joe has but a moment to catch his breath before rolling in the opposite direction. The Lava Lazer jams into his spleen, so he yanks that out of his tool belt. Double -fisting the weaponry, he takes aim slightly away from the Margharita place and lets a stream of fire loose in one direction and the freeze ray in the opposite.

"Have fun cleaning that up." Cackling maniacally, he holsters both weapons before leaping down an open sewer drain.

***

He and Luce are having the best tacos of his life. Luce keeps making yum sounds with her mouth, as if she hasn't eaten food before. Mathilda slaps the bill onto the back of his neck. "You're getting the bill tonight."

"You should be thanking me for saving this place."

Her cheeks redden, but Luce glances between the two of them, so Mathilda slumps into the chair next to her and shuts up. "There's trivia later." Lucinda grins through teeth covered in barbacoa chicken.

"Uhm Luce, you've got something right-" Joe gestures all over his face. She sticks a tongue out, failing to lick it clean. Both super humans are reminded how adorable she is, while Mathilda wets a paper napkin in her water and hands it to her.

Joe returns the conversation agreeably back to Mathilda. "I've never seen this street look so clean before. What's your guy in blue's secret?"

"Giant ice sculpture." Mathilda grunts.

"Hmm."

"Mysteriously. A clock we found at the train station beneath this building stopped two hours ago." Mathilda leans her bulky elbows on the table munching on a freshly made tortilla chip. "You wouldn't know anything about that, now would you?"

"Mysterious." Joe meets her gaze.

"I thought so."

***

"So this dry cleaner –" Mathilda heaves herself off the building onto the adjoining roof-top.

Joe catches a gargoyle by the head and swings himself up past the window, straining to listen.

"Asks her if she's ready for the Mexican new year." Mathilda's foot slips and she nearly doesn't catch herself on the next ledge.

Joe backflips toward the air conditioner, squinting into the bright sunlight. As soon as he pushes the button one roof over the sky will go dark as night. "No. What did she say?" He hollers back.

"So she says, I don't celebrate Mexican New Years because I'm Iranian." Mathilda straddles the gargoyle he just leapt from.

"Which he would know if he weren't a racist." Joe yanks his purple cape out of the way before he trips on it. Taking a running leap, he spreads his arms and cape to slow his fall.

Mathilda is quickly gaining, but that's ok because he wants to hear the rest of the story. "So he says she should go back where she came from."

Joe executes a perfect tuck and roll. "So you gutted him."

"I escorted her out of there and told him we would be taking our business elsewhere." Mathilda lands on the roof with a grunt.

Joe pauses consideringly. "Can we see the place from here?"

Mathilda rises to her feet barely winded and glances around their surroundings. She wrinkles her nose. Joe looks down the side of the building. His view is blocked by a checkered bodega tent. He doesn't flinch when Mathilda steps up beside him and stands so close their shoulders are almost touching. "There." She points.

Joe follows the direction of her finger. "I think I can probably hit that." He ignores the fact that Mathilda is dismantling the wires on his carefully constructed blackout machine. The minions will enjoy the challenge of building him another one.

***

"How do you keep finding me so quickly?" Joe asks winded after sprinting across an entire abandoned amusement park.

Mathilda is not winded. "Just lucky I guess."

Joe dodges around a creepy broken down carousel.

Mathilda struts confidently past some ratty looking superhero wannabee stuffed animals in pursuit. They never make them in his likeness. "It has nothing to do with the tracker you put on me that night at La Cucina."

Mathilda rights a garbage can that he tosses in her path. "If you know about it, why can I still use it?"

Joe sinks down onto a semi-respectable looking park bench, suddenly looking exhausted. "If you must know, I'd rather you come after me than your cooky family."

Mathilda sits next to him. "Ah Joe, I'm touched."

They stare out at the giant pavilion labeled for once being the home of 'the chicken show'. "Now that's a crime." Joe says. "Keeping those poor animals in those conditions."

"Joe, are you a vegetarian?" Mathilda asks.

"Lucinda made me watch a documentary on poultry farming." Joe shudders. "She would make a great super villain. She's got the torture down right."

Mathilda screws up her lips, but can't help a laugh escaping. "Does your nefarious plan have to do with the poultry farmers of New York?"

Joe slumps further down on the bench. "It should." He takes what appears to be a black bouncy ball from his pocket. Mathilda didn't know pants that tight had room for pockets. He rolls the ball in his palm. "Would you let me get away with it if it did?"

"Probably not." She feels guilty about the chicken sandwich she had for lunch today.

Suddenly Joe slams the ball to the ground. A purple cloud engulfs them both in its folds. Mathilda is hacking and wheezing before she recognizes that he got away.

***

Mathilda and Lucinda are picking out a restaurant after making fun of the latest Marvel movie. "This one looks like it might have a good tofu dish." Mathilda suggests.

"I didn't know you were vegetarian." Lucinda smiles.

"I'm not. I thought you were."

Lucinda shakes her head. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Joe-"

Lucinda is distracted by her phone buzzing in her pocket. "Speaking of-" Lucinda sticks out a tongue in concentration while carefully composing a return text.

Mathilda peers over her shoulder. "What's his excuse this time?"

"He's got a meeting running late."

"Hmm. I wonder if there are chicken farmers there."

Lucinda nudges her friend. "What a weird thing to say."