:Ricky:

            It had been a full eight hours since Golden Eagle's disappearance and the public had started to take notice.

            I'd already seen a rise in crime in the worse parts of the city, which I stopped as soon as they started with the help of my police scanner and super senses, and most people were in an outright panic.

            Golden Eagle, also known as Harold Hartford, had never been gone from the public eye for this long in broad daylight. Sure, he took donut breaks in the sky sometimes, but he was always back in an hour or two. Never had he skipped out on the limelight.

            Ever.

            Harold also had a personal assistant/manager. Her name was Ginger Iris, and she was just as gorgeous and foreign as she sounded.

            "When will Gold come back?" Ginger asked in her thick accent.

            (From where her accent came from, Harold never bothered to figure out.)

            "Soon," I calmed the girl. She didn't know English as well as she should and was mostly around because 'Gold' liked a pretty face around his apartment. He also told her his name was Gold.

            I had called Tornado an hour before, so he could come and help me out on this whole problem. Tornado, also known as Archer Waters, was a media frenzy. A super villain turned superhero was something that the general public just ate up.

            Let me explain about this whole 'villain' thing.

            You see, Archer started out his super career doing some pretty awful things for a pretty awful guy who blackmailed him with his secret identity and some information that he desperately needed. After Nemesis tried to kill him, he switched over to the good side.

            But it didn't take a genius to figure out the information that Archer needed form the villain. He wanted to know about super power heredity from Connor when he kidnapped him (long story) and The Terror Trio killed off his father on Nemesis's orders.

            It wasn't hard to put two and two together.

            You see, with the help of Chase and Connor over in Empire City, we were able to figure out that the former mayor of Empire City was none other than the presumed dead super villain, Smith.

            Archer could control the wind, Smith could control the weather. It was kind of right in front of us if I had to say so myself.

            Back when the Great Battle occurred between the villain and the beloved hero, The Avenger, people all assumed that both were dead. Sure, one body came crashing down to earth right after the super induced solar flare, but no body was ever discovered and it was assumed that The Avenger had won the fight, fallen from orbit, and then crashed so far into the ocean that the dirt settled back over his body.

            But apparently that wasn't the case.

            Smith had been the one to survive the battle and crash back down to earth.

            It turns out that right after the battle, Lacey and Archer's father had been admitted into the hospital with wounds credit to being a bystander in the battle. No one thought that it was weird because almost every hospital was crowded with survivors from the attack.

            There was even more evidence to the two being one and the same, but I won't dive into that now.

            We also figured that it wasn't something that Lacey and Archer's father stole from Venom that made her kill him. Nemesis had given orders for Venom to warn him of his oncoming death if he didn't come out of hiding and restore his former place as a super villain.

            Archer knew, but we were sure that Lacey and Arabella hadn't figured it out yet. Seeing how they both reacted to Archer being Tornado when they both still thought he was evil, we didn't want to risk it.

            Anyways, Archer was coming to help me with my newfound superhero responsibility. I was glad that it was him and not some random super from another city that decided to help. I wouldn't be able to stand the constant jabs to my ego because they thought I was only useful as a sidekick.

            I heard a knock on the door. I tried to rush to get there before Harold's assistant, but I wasn't able to avoid the confrontation.

            "Rick," I heard her yell out for me, "Somebody dressed purple wants to see you!"

            She was also told that my name was Rick, much to my dismay.

            "Rick?" Archer walked in with a smug smile. There was no doubt in my mind that he would use it against me later.

            I sighed. "Ginger, you can leave. Me and the annoying purple guy have a lot t discuss."

            She left with a clack of her high heels and I turned to Archer. "Why'd you come to the apartment in your super suit?"

            He took a seat on my couch and settled his feet on the coffee table before answering. "I would think any visitors to Harold's penthouse while you are the only occupant would be thought of as friends to White Static whenever he isn't saving the world. Your secret identity could be traced that way, so it was just easier to show up as Tornado helping out a fellow super."

            He did make sense on his grounds, but it was also a show that I wasn't able to take care of the city by myself, which I found very insulting.

            "Fine, but we still have matters to discuss about your father."

            Archer's careless persona started to fade at the mention of the man he once believed to be a selfless protector of his city.

            "What's there to say?" His tone was cold, "He never alerted me to the chances of getting powers from him. He never warned me about Nemesis, who knew of his secret identity I might add. And he, most importantly, knew that I was Tornado and never once convinced the city that I meant good."

            "Archer . . ." I warned.

            "What? You expect me to be gracious that he stopped being a super villain to end up becoming mayor? He could've ruined the whole city if he wanted to. We elected a super villain as our mayor."

            I sighed, it had been a whole two months after the battle against the Trio and Archer was still letting the ranting of a lunatic haunt him. Archer was afraid of becoming his father, we could all see it.

            "Arabella's father is mayor now. We don't have to worry about a super villain running the city anymore."

            Archer scoffed. "Sure, we're all perfectly safe. Because, it's totally not like there's still a psychotic villain out there who knows Connor's and mine's secret identity, is possibly out to get Arabella, and has a huge hatred for all of super kind."

            "He's out to get Arabella?"

            Archer laughed. "Then I guess that Connor hasn't arrived yet. By my calculations, he'll be here within the hour."

            What? Why would Connor be coming?

            "Agent Argent has approached everyone but you so far for this thing. She asked Connor to tell you because he's closer to you. But - don't worry - it isn't anything bad."

            Sure, anything that needs to be told to us by a top secret agent isn't going to be bad. I already lost Golden Eagle to crazy robots, what more was I going to lose?

            I heard another knock at the door and saw Archer's eyes widen in shock. "I didn't think he'd come this early."

            "Rick," Ginger yelled out to me, "Marvely is here to see you."

            Ahh, the mispronunciation of his name never ceased to amuse me.

            "Let him in!" I yelled back.

            It took almost a full minute before I saw Connor enter in his full Marvel costume. His cape was dragging a little on the floor, maybe Ginger had stepped on it with her heels. His hair that wasn't flattened by the mask was crazy, indicating that he had flown here.

            "Hey, dude." Connor nodded to both of us.

            "Anything you'd like to tell me?" I pondered.

            "Oh, yeah . . . um . . ." Connor stalled.

            Archer butted in for him, "Agent Argent wanted to put together a group of superheroes to fight off the growing super kidnapping threats. You're the last member. It's basically everyone who fought at the battle on main street, except for me."

            "Why not you?" I asked.

            "Apparently I don't play well with others."

            Now that is something I could believe. But if I knew anything, it was that there was no way in hell that Archer was going to sit this one out.

            "Why now?" I question, ignoring his blatant consideration of the subject. Archer tended to soften the blow of important news by summarizing them really fast.

            "Well," Connor speaks, sending an irritated look over at Archer, "for one, Golden Eagle has gone missing, but you've obviously known that. Also, there was a note at the scene requiring that we turn over Arabella if we want the missing supers back. For some reason Selene thought that it was a valid reason for putting her on the team."

            "What?" I said at the same time that Archer said, "Who's Selene?"

            Connor decided to answer Archer's question first. "Agent Argent's first name."

            "No, her first name is Agent." He stated stubbornly.

            I sighed, "Stop the childish behavior, Archer."

            Connor turned to me, "Nemesis made the robots that kidnapped Harold and left a note demanding that she be handed over. But Argent thinks that it doesn't matter that he's after her. She's too much of an asset to not use."

            I nodded. I knew better than anyone that she had great power. Surprisingly, not many supers had the power of super speed. And, the ones that did couldn't even run at the speed of sound. The Orange Comet of New York came the closest, but being struck by a lightning bolt couldn't do miracles.

            I agreed with Connor and Argent's assumptions. I had watched her develop her powers. It was better if she fought with us and trained with friends than if we made her stay locked up in her house for protection. She panicked when she first got her powers. The only thing that she had to hold onto at that time was Cassandra and me.

            "Alright, I'll join the group, but why us?"

            Of course, I was being overly sensible. There were far more capable supers living all over the country, she didn't need us.

            "I guess you meet her high standards." Archer smirked.

            "Wait, do we have a name?"

            Connor racked his brain until he seemed to have remembered what she called her little project. "I think she called us the League of Legends."

            The League of Legends sounded a suitable name for the misfit group of supers that we were. But I doubted we could ever be the stuff of legends alone. We needed each other if we wanted to show the world that we weren't afraid of the faceless villain known as Nemesis.

            The League of Legends it is.