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But you've avoided the cops, the heroes and the Academy goons only to get caught by a woman thrown out of the Academy for being too weak!"
    Peter nodded slowly. "Yes, I don't think you're really in a position to bargain. Keepsie can keep you there until she decides it's time for you to be free, no sooner. It might be best to tell her what you know."
    Keepsie relaxed a little. Her friends' brave words belied her nervousness.
    It wasn't as if she could do anything to him except for keep him where he was.
    Clever Jack leaned back against the box, his immobile hand allowing him little wriggle room. "Sit," he said, gesturing with his left hand. "I'll tell you what I can."
    Keepsie sat cross-legged. Her friends assembled themselves around her, Peter looking stiff and out of place on her kitchen floor.
    "Everyone knows where the First and Third Wavers came from. But no one ever talked about where the heroes came from, much less those of us who, well, aren’t terribly heroic," Clever Jack said.
    "Well, we asked, they just didn't answer," Michelle said, but got quiet at Clever Jack's look.
    "That's because the government didn't want people to know they were experimenting with Zupra," Clever Jack said. "Your parents were born with powers, but too many babies were miscarried because of the drug, so the FDA banned it officially, but they bought up all the company's stock under the table.
    Then they took poor pregnant women and promised them health care and a future for their babies if they would participate in these studies. They offered it as an alternative to abortion. Even got some small town churches to support their campaign."
    Keepsie's mouth dropped open. "That's sick. But what does that have to do with this ball everyone is so uptight about?”
    “Getting to it,” Clever Jack said. “They didn't make the experiments public. They knew it would take a couple of tries to make the babies they wanted. So Pallas was the first successful baby born. You all know the ones that came after. They let her start fighting crime when she was only fifteen."
    "Engineered superheroes," Keepsie said.
    Peter frowned. "So, providing the government got all the drugs, it started manufacturing heroes. What does this have to do with you?"
    "I was getting to that," Clever Jack began, then cocked his head. "Did you hear something?"
    Ian jumped up. "Keepsie, did you lock the door?" he asked.
    "No, there's no need-" she began.
    "Oh there's need," Ian said, peeking through the kitchen door. "Heroes."
    "Patricia, that little shit," Michelle whispered.
    Clever Jack leaned forward as far as he could. "Listen to me, Keepsie, I need this, and I need it now."
    Keepsie had no time to consider. "You can't take it. But go," she said, and Clever Jack wrenched his hand free. He was up and running through the kitchen door and up the stairs to the alley before any of them could say anything further.
    Michelle ran to the box and grabbed a coat, pulling it over the small silver ball that lay where Clever Jack had left it. "What are we going to tell them?"
    Keepsie stood up slowly. "We'll tell them that they're trespassing."
     

    ***
     
    Timson pushed the door to the kitchen open a second later. Keepsie stumbled into Peter's arms and glared at the intruders.
    "Wha' d’you want?" she said.
    "We have reason to believe you had a known fugitive captured here. We came to apprehend him," Dr. Timson said. White Lightning and The Crane flanked her. White Lightning looked ever the asshole, but Keepsie had always liked The Crane. He seemed awkward and un-hero-like until he took the air, where he was just as graceful and heroic as the others. But now his regal features contorted to show haughtiness and perfect righteous action. It was clear that Keepsie and her friends were, if not evil-doers, definitely not on the side of Good in his eyes.
    "Do ya see an arch-villain here?" Keepsie asked, miming an attempt to stand. Peter gripped her tightly.
    White Lightning made a point to