Villain Retirement

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

Aerith was as careful as anyone could be. Although her entire face was already covered, her son was there. There was a small possibility that he would recognize her; and so, the only thing she could really do was very sneakily approach Empress.

It was a good thing the rest of the Baby Crew were busy trying to calm Gary down as he started flexing his muscles and entertaining the crowd; if not, there would have been a risk of one of them approaching.

"They'll be fine," Empress, on the other hand, just casually waved her hand as she looked at the Baby Crew, "They needed the break anyway."

"What do you mean fine?" Aerith whispered loudly as she dragged Empress away to the side of the jet, "Why did you bring people who might be able to recognize me here!?"

"...It's fine, Aerith," Empress could only let out a small but very deep sigh as she looked Aerith in the eyes, "They don't suspect anything, if they did, we would know. And your son… well, you're not really that close for him to recognize you."

"That…" Aerith slightly stuttered as she glanced at Gary, "...That's true, isn't it?"

"Hm…"

"But even if it was, there's still a small chance. You could have brought anyone else but them."

"Anyone but them wouldn't have the same impact. If I am going to openly support a superhero agency, it might as well be something you own," Empress shrugged.

"It's not mine, it's called Paige and Paragon for a reason," Aerith scoffed as she pointed at the large signage above the entrance of the building.

"Let's just say I want to pave the way for future generations. And besides, as I said…

…they needed this."

The Baby Crew– ever since the alien invasion and the Death of Darkday, their name has been rippling throughout the world; there was almost no one that didn't know who they were. And now, based on surveys online, they even surpassed Hope Guild in popularity.

It came to the point that they wouldn't even be able to do their jobs properly as everyone wanted to talk to them. It died down when Hannah decided that the team should prioritize fending off the alien invaders– as they basically stayed months on end in space in the Dark Millenium ship… which was now being used as the Hope Guild's official base since the last one was destroyed when Darkday and Megawoman fought.

It would seem that whenever their base gets destroyed, Riley and Megawoman are always there. The first one was when… Alice attempted to kill her own son– no, she did truly kill him; thus creating Darkday.

Empress could only sigh as memories of the past started resurfacing in her mind. Darkday was gone, and any memory of him should be erased– almost like a taboo…

…especially in front of Hannah Ross.

"Come on, let's get this over with so we can return to space… where it's not fucking loud and filled with people," after a few minutes of watching Gary, Hannah finally gave up on trying to stop him from signing autographs and taking photos with the crowd. She was about to approach Paige and Riley, but before she could do so, Bella blocked her path.

"Girl, hold up– what you mean return to space?" Bella said as she shook her head, "I could barely even walk properly anymore since half the goddamn station doesn't have gravity control in them motherfucking rooms."

"B… Bell, your language. Other people could hear us," Katrina also moved away from Gary as she stood in between the two.

"See? I used to not swear but since we been spending all this time together, these lips of mine is starting to become like yours."

"They don't fucking need us here," Hannah's eyebrows began to furrow as she looked at Bella, "There's like a million superheroes now we could barely even fit in this fucking planet anymore."

"And there's nothing for us out there!" Bella pointed her hands toward the sky, "We haven't had any sightings of aliens for 3 months!"

"You–"

"The lesbo is right, Nuclear Seraph."

"Man, just go back to signing fucking autographs," Hannah rolled her eyes as Gary joined in on the conversation.

"This isn't right what you're trying to do, Hannah," Gary then lowered his voice as he leaned closer to the three girls, "Avoiding Earth isn't going to help you to cope with your loss."

"Oh fuck."

And as soon as Bella and Katrina heard Gary's words, they quickly removed themselves from the group. But before they could do so–

"Stay. You all have something to say, right?"

"I… I don't think this is the right time to do this, guys," Katrina could not help but stutter as she once again stood in the middle of the group.

"Yeah, when do you think is the right time?" Gary's tone started to change as he looked Hannah straight in the eyes, "All of us have experienced losses, Hannah. I lost my dad and my mother ran off to god knows where. And don't forget, your brother is the–"

"Gar, I think that's enough," Bell could only sigh as she gently pushed Gary away before he could finish what he was going to say, "We're all just… we're all just trippy as hell from space."

"What we are is falling apart," Gary shook his head as he took a step back, "And what you need Hannah, is a fucking therapist."

"That's enough, Gar."

"I… I think we should all just take a breath and… and…"

"Look…" Gary once again stepped closer to Hannah, "...I'm really sorry for everything the world has done to you, Hannah. But this…

…we're not the same as before. And after what happened to us, we will never be the same again. Silvie even left because–"

"Uhm, excuse me?"

"Why, hello there, pretty lady."

And before Gary could finish his words, he quickly turned his head toward the woman that approached them, Paige.

"Are… you guys okay?" Paige meekly said as her eyes trailed across the members of the Baby Crew, only to see all of them with sour expressions on their faces, "Was… the entry from space hard? Maybe we should head inside and have water? Of course, I don't really know if there's water inside since my partner and I actually haven't been inside yet."

"..." Gary, Bella, and Katrina could only look at each other as the woman in front of them started chuckling awkwardly.

"You're Paige!" If it wasn't for Katrina approaching Paige, then she probably wouldn't have stopped mumbling on her own.

"Ah… yes!" Paige shook Katrina's hand, "I… I'm a big fan, Hurricane Katrina."

"Just Katrina is fine."

"S… sorry. I didn't really know that you guys were coming, so we didn't really prepare anything for you. If I knew then I would have probably–"

"We cool, girl," Bella also shook Paige's hand, "To be fair, we was called last minute. And we won't refuse a chance to put our feets back on Earth."

"And anything for a pretty lady like you," Gary then slightly pushed Bella as he too, shook Paige's hand.

"T… thanks?"

Bella could only roll her eyes as Gary… once again started doing Gary things right after he said they were not the same as before. But as soon as her eyes stopped moving around, they landed towards… a man with long black hair– and judging by what he was wearing, he was probably the other part of Paige and Paragon.

"Bro," Bella covered her mouth as she approached Paragon; looking at him from head to toe with her eyes clearly filled with excitement,

"Bro… you got them drip. Is you, right? Paragon?" And instead of a handshake, Bella clasped Riley's hand as if she knew him.

"Yes, I am Paragon," Riley nodded his head as he looked Bella straight in the eyes.

"I'm Katrina," Katrina also approached Riley as she shook his hand, "We're… here to help you promote your agency on its opening day."

"It's okay," Riley nodded.

"D… don't worry about Monarch, he's not trying to steal your partner," Katrina then chuckled as she glanced at Gary, who was still holding Paige's hand.

"I'm not worried, Katrina."

"Wait, wait…" Bella then stood in front of Paragon, "You're that dude from the news! The one who destroyed that truck, bro! I watched that video like 3 times!"

"What truck?" And finally, after standing in silence for a few moments, Hannah started to move again as she walked toward the three.

"Let's skip all the political stuff and just call me Hannah," Hannah then stretched her hand towards Riley; her eyes, looking at the building, "You guys must be someone special for the fucking queen herself to be giving you–"

However, as soon as she touched Riley's hand– her eyes quickly moved away from the building; first looking at his hands… before turning to his face.

"...Riley?"

"..." Riley also quickly returned Hannah's gaze; their eyes, quickly glistening as they met. A few seconds after, however, Riley shook his head and let go of Hannah's hand.

"I am afraid it's not anything like that," Riley then said; his voice, slightly… husky, "My mother's a friend of Empress, we just got lucky."

"You–"

"Why are you talking like that, Adam?" Paige seemed to be done chatting with Gary as she rushed to approach the group,

"Wait… is that your superhero voice? That's so freaking cool!" Paige almost squealed as she stood beside Riley, leaning on his arm before stretching her hand to Hannah, 

"I'm… I'm a big fan of yours, Nuclear Seraph…

…as… as well as your brother!"

"Fuck," Bella once again groaned as she once again took a few steps back.

"What…

…did you say?"