Laurie rose into the air while holding what was left of Ashley's body, dodging Five-Oh's furious second and third laser-eye sweeps. Before anyone else in the manor could arrive, she fled the scene.
"Fuck!"
Seeing Laurie escape using the exact same power as Silver Kincaid only fueled Five-Oh's rage. He was burning with fury. He was going to find The Devine, who could fly, or Europo, who could teleport. He would hunt that blonde bitch down and kill her.
But before he could act, a steel hammerhead smashed squarely into his face, knocking tears and snot flying instantly. The attacker was Ground Hawk, one of the G-Men.
Ground Hawk's hairstyle and headgear made his head resemble that of an eagle, which was how he got his name. In his hands were a pair of hammers made from special alloys, capable of destroying most objects in the world.
Ground Hawk was usually the most taciturn member of the G-Men, rarely speaking more than five words a day. But now, unusually, he spat out a few extra words at the Five-Ohr:
"I warned you, you dumb fuck!"
Next to arrive was Stacker, accompanied by Cold Snap, captain of the G-Force. Professor G followed close behind, supported by The Devine. In an instant, Five-Oh understood what had happened.
"Stacker, you snitching little bitch!"
Stacker had gone to snitch to the G-Professor.
The Devine, who had always been at odds with Five-Oh, was the first to speak up.
"You really know how to screw things up."
The Five-Oh shot back without backing down. "You wanna go? you halo freak?!"
"Enough, my children!"
Professor G, dressed neatly in a suit, lightly tapped his cane against the ground. The quarrel instantly disappeared. On his refined face appeared a smile of gentle affection that sent chills down the spine.
"This is a critical moment. There is no time for internal conflict. Someone made a mistake, so we solve it together. That is the meaning of our family!"
Under the G-Professor's authority, the internal dispute was temporarily suppressed. Amid noisy chatter, the crowd returned en masse to the memorial banquet, ready to continue their festivities.
Much later, a pale-white figure emerged from the pool of blood left behind by Ashley's severed body.
It was Mirror Girl. She had been secretly dispatched by the professor to clean up the scene.
Her crimson eyes swept the area, and she soon found what had been left behind: Laurie's phone.
With the phone in hand, Mirror Girl could naturally follow the trail through Laurie's social connections and eliminate hidden risks to the G-Men.
Even with the screen off, the phone was still a mirror. Mirror Girl stared at her own reflection on the screen, red light flickering in her eyes. In the next moment, the phone unlocked.
What appeared were several messages Laurie's father, Arthur, had just sent:
-Where did you go?
- I was wrong when I said there were no good people among supes. That was just my anger talking!
-I'm really worried about you!
-Honey, I might not be able to understand you, but I love you!
-Please, call me back!
Mirror Gril stared blankly at the screen, standing motionless for a long time.
Then, as if possessed, she typed a single word and sent it—
"Help..."
---
Laurie drifted numbly through the air, holding Ashley's upper body.
Up in the sky, she remembered what her father had once told her: superpowers were a curse, not a gift. The more one used them, the further one drifted from being human.
Now it seemed undeniably true. Not only was that man with laser eyes proof of it—she was too.
If Joey didn't have powers, then what kind of harm might her actions and strength that night have caused him?
Laurie flew in one direction without stopping until exhaustion overtook her and she no longer had the strength to stay airborne.
She landed in a small town and soon lost consciousness. The last thing she remembered was townsfolk seeing her and the half-corpse in her arms and hurriedly calling the police.
"Wake up..."
Laurie felt someone gently shaking her. She snapped her eyes open and instinctively tried to activate her powers to drive the person away, only to be met with a sharp, splitting headache.
"Ugh!"
"Easy there. Want some water?"
What Laurie saw was a blonde middle-aged woman handing her a bottle of mineral water, along with an ID.
"Susan Rayner, CIA."
Laurie suddenly remembered the companion she had carried all this way.
"Where's Ashley?!"
Susan Rayner looked at Laurie with sympathy. "She's dead, kid."
The CIA's infiltration of Vought had begun long ago, including infiltration of the G-Men.
Susan had previously secured an internal informant within the G-Men: Silver Kincaid. Though her resolve often wavered, it was at least a start.
If they kept digging, they would eventually grab the G-Men by the tail and send both them and a large number of Vought executives to prison.
Then came the news some time ago: Nubia and Silver Kincaid—who had been close to her—had both committed suicide in succession. The investigation immediately stalled.
Susan continued following what little thread remained. Evaluating Silver Kincaid's successor, Laurie, was part of that effort. She hadn't expected the new member to flee the G-Men covered in blood after less than a single night.
Susan knew she'd stumbled onto something big by sheer luck—and she couldn't afford to let go.
---
Starlight was now moving nervously through the streets of Jersey City. The flow of people around her barely gave her a sense of safety.
She had destroyed her phone and abandoned her hideout. She didn't even dare to drive. When she'd tried earlier, she didn't know if it was imagination or reality, but she'd once again seen the mirror person who had tried to kill her in the rearview mirror.
Fleeing in panic, Starlight finally remembered who her pursuer was—Mirror Girl from the G-Men. She had seen issues featuring her years ago in Victory Comics.
Those installments had been drawn and written by the same team behind Crimson Countess. Their mirror arc was filled with supernatural horror elements that had kept young Starlight awake for nights.
She didn't know whether it was stress-induced hallucination or reality anymore. She was like a startled bird now, afraid to go near anything reflective.
Pedestrians passed by endlessly. Some carried reflective objects. Every time Starlight saw a reflective surface, her skin crawled.
She saw it. In every reflection—every single one—was the Mirror Person's pale face.
Starlight could no longer tell hallucination from reality. Screens and lights in the shops around her began to flicker.
She started drawing power from the entire commercial street. Her eyes and hands glowed with blinding golden light, startling passersby staring at her.
She was going to erase every mirror that could threaten her.
Boom—
A sonic boom cracked the sky. A red-and-blue figure scooped Starlight up from the crowd and carried her to ten thousand meters in the air before the energy could erupt.
"People always say first impressions matter. I believe it now. You really are a ticking time bomb—the kind that belongs in prison."
Joey remembered having a conversation like this with her once before, up in the stratosphere.
He had reviewed Laurie's file and knew she'd gone to the G-Men two days ago. He was on his way there to ask himself some questions.
He had barely taken off when he saw a familiar, eye-searing burst of light in the distance. Remembering last time, he only needed a few seconds to fly over and defuse another crisis.
"Oh my god... what have I done?!"
Only now did Starlight snap out of it, gasping for breath as cold sweat instantly soaked her forehead. She finally realized what she had almost done.
Joey could tell something was wrong with her. Normally, he might have tossed her into a prison to cool off. But he didn't have the time now.
"Feeling calm yet? I'll put you down in a bit. How about you turn yourself in?"
"No!"
Starlight couldn't afford to lose her freedom now. If she was locked up, she'd be nothing more than meat on a chopping block.
So she could only beg the supe she'd once hated.
"Please, don't do this to me! Mirror Girl from the G-Men is hunting me! If you send me to the police, I'll die!"
"Oh? Why would this Mirror Girl be hunting you?"
Joey didn't know any Mirror Girl. He had only caught the words "G-Men."
"I don't know! Maybe—maybe it has something to do with the missing persons cases I was investigating!"
Starlight was on the brink of collapse. She no longer cared who she could trust and spilled everything Stan Edgar had assigned her to do, rattling it all off in a rush.
"What do those missing cases have to do with the G-Men?... Forget it."
Joey didn't know if he had super-intelligence. Even if he did, he couldn't possibly reconstruct a coherent truth from Starlight's fragmented, half-missing account in such a short time.
Any conclusion drawn that way would be distorted and unreliable.
But luckily, he have super strength.
And he could go ask the G-Men directly.