With Aria's hand in Leon's, he led her towards the exit Lily was watching over. He gave his familiar an upward nod and Lily responded with his own.
"This is your stop," he said, letting go of her behind the thinning crowd. When he turned around, she looked embarrassed for some reason, but he didn't pay it any mind. "You should head home now."
Nolan was going to have an aneurysm when Mark and Aria both reveal their Viltrumite awakening at the dinner table.
"Home? Oh, home! Right," she stammered and cleared her throat, seemingly refusing to make eye contact. "But can I get your name before I go? I should at least know the name of my new baby's savior."
Aria shook the box in her arms. She must really like photography to call it her baby.
"If you're asking for my alias, it's Wild Card. But if you're asking for my real name, I can't say. It's classified."
"That's all right. I get it. So, you're Wild Card..." she repeated, looking at him up and down. "Good name. It fits with the whole casino dealer thing you kinda have going on. I'm Aria."
She offered a handshake.
He shook the offered hand as the commotion outside grew. "Pleasure meeting you, Aria. You really should head home now. This place is about to be swarmed by the police and the media. I doubt you'd like the hassle of dealing with them."
"Shit, you're right. And Mom's gonna kill me if I miss dinner," she muttered, her brows knit together before she sighed. "Too bad. Guess I'll be seeing you, Wild Card."
She'd be seeing him?
Leon raised a brow at that cryptic statement. For a moment longer, he watched Aria run outside. Her swaying hair drew his eyes and his gaze abruptly landed on her rather thick thighs and perky bu—
Nope. Not going there. She's off limits as far as I'm concerned.
Mission. Focus. Girl hot. Dad scary.
"Cecil, send a team down here," he said as he returned to the supervillain's corpse. "There's a body that needs picking up."
"What?" Cecil's voice rose. "Whose?"
"Rampage."
"...Did you kill him?"
"Yeah. I tore through his armor and crushed his heart while listening to his pleas for mercy," Leon said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.
"..."
"No, I didn't kill him! At least... I don't think I did. I did something, but I wasn't intending to kill him. Have some faith in me, will you? He sounded miserable when he talked about being trapped in his armor, so I just wanted to see if I could help."
"Damn it." Cecil sighed. Leon could already imagine Cecil pinching his nose bridge. "Run me through everything that's happened. And don't leave anything out."
"Sure. Just... Give me a minute." Leon looked at the structural damage and debris all around him. "Need to double check the mall for any civilians and clean the place up."
After he was sure no civilians were left inside the mall and that the place was back to its previous state, Leon started his report.
It took a while, but he told Cecil about everything. From him saving Titan to Aria getting her powers and leaving. The response to his recollection of events was more mild than he expected.
"What a shitshow."
Seated on a bench with Lily next to him and Nyx on his shoulder, Leon watched as Cecil's paramedics hauled off Rampage's body on a floating gurney and into a door-shaped golden portal. A different but cheaper form of teleportation, he assumed. The portal closed when the last person entered it.
Cecil's instant teleportation. Ms. Popper. And now this new portal teleportation. The GDA in this world was packing some sweet teleportation technology.
Just in time, too. He sensed the police and a few unknown superheroes getting in the mall.
"Things just happened." Leon frowned, making his own portal to his suite using the Portal Gun. He shot the blue portal onto the floor. "Am I getting in trouble because of this?"
Seeing Lily and Nyx jump in, he followed them inside. Firing the blue portal at the gym wall removed the previous one in the mall.
"No. You're fine. Besides, you didn't know he'd die if you freed him from the armor. Speaking of which, you've been holding out on me. I didn't know you could break curses."
"I would have told you if it became relevant."
Leon used Rebake to conjure a strawberry milkshake, a kiwi smoothie and a bowl of Nyx's favorites. Placing the bowl on the table, he gave Lily the smoothie and clinked glasses.
"That was the first curse I ever broke. It's not like curses are common, you know?"
"Fair enough. But if you're looking for curses, there's a rather infamous one. You'd be doing the country a massive favor if you broke it."
An infamous curse? Leon tried recalling if there was one from the show, but the only one that immediately came to mind was Monster Girl's. Cecil surely wasn't talking about her.
Regardless, Leon perked up. He smelled gacha points.
"What curse are you talking about?" he asked.
"I'm talking about Midnight City," Cecil said, refreshing Leon's memory. "Back in '02, the Midnight Magician cursed it to be in perpetual midnight. Turned the place into a no-man's-land with the highest crime rate in the country."
Correction. He smelled a mountain of gacha points. If Leon had been a cartoon character, he was sure he'd have slots hitting a jackpot in his eyes.
Now he remembered. It was this world's version of Gotham City with its own version of Batman and Robin. Darkwing's sidekick had pretty useful powers. If they could make it work as a last resort, he would suggest putting Omni-Man in the shadow dimension.
Leon took a deep breath. How many gacha points could he get from breaking the city's curse? He was eager to find out.
"I'm not sure if I could break it, but I'll give it a try."
"Glad you're on board. I'll have Ms. Popper pick you up at the roof of your place in an hour. Now about Aria..." Cecil's voice dropped. "Are you sure about what you said?"
"Yes. Aria would've been dead if she didn't get her powers."
Why she acted as if she didn't know she could get powers was beyond him. He just played along and acted coy instead of asking.
"These twins..." Cecil muttered something further Leon couldn't make out. "Mark threw a trash bag into the upper atmosphere fifteen minutes ago. Should be around the same time Aria got her powers."
Leon combed his fingers through his hair. "...Huh. How about that?"
"That's why I think we need to speed up our preparations," Cecil asserted. "After we take you to Midnight City, I'd like it if you could stay here at the GDA."
Leon took a sip of his milkshake, savoring the frosty blend of strawberry and dairy, before raising a brow at the request.
"You want me to stay at the GDA? Why?" he asked, taking another sip. "Want me to officially work for you?"
"While that would be nice, the answer's no."
That was a relief. Leon liked Cecil and his pragmatism, but he would never work for him. He much preferred their current arrangement.
"Let's be realistic." Cecil's voice came through crisp and matter-of-fact. "With Mark and Aria's powers manifesting today, the board's starting to shift. You've already proven you can handle high-stakes ops, and having you closer means we can share intel in real time, coordinate without delays, and hit threats before they escalate. Think of it as a strategic partnership with better logistics. You keep your independence. I get someone I trust in the room when Viltrumite-level problems start knocking."
Leon set the glass down, turning the words over. He wasn't anyone's asset, and Cecil knew better than to push that line. Still, the director wasn't wrong about the bigger picture.
Staying at the GDA would put him in a better position. More direct access to GDA intelligence meant earlier warnings on any Viltrumite activity or whatever else The Order was cooking up.
If he built his reputation with the GDA further, they could also give him more missions. Every mission translated to more GP, more tickets, and more power to fix the disasters he knew were coming.
Beyond that, it aligned with why he was even doing this. If he wanted to protect people integral to the planet's survival and change the bloody trajectory this world was on, he needed to be where the decisions happened.
He exhaled slowly. "All right. I'll base out of the GDA for now. But I get to use your facilities and I'm not answering to anyone but you directly. We stay partners on this."
"Fair terms. You're free to add more as long as they're reasonable," Cecil replied, the tension easing from his voice. "Ms. Popper will handle transport after Midnight City. We'll get you set up with secure quarters and a direct line to the command center."
Leon ended the call and stood, stretching his arms overhead until his shoulders popped. Lily watched him from the counter, tail flicking once in quiet approval, while Nyx preened on the back of the couch.
"Smart move," Lily said. "Information and position are two things we sorely lack at the moment."
Nyx cawed softly, nodding in agreement.
Leon gave her a quick headpat. "You're right. More eyes on the board means more chances for us to actually change things before they go to hell. Get some rest. You guys deserve it after doing such an amazing job earlier. Especially you, Nyx. You healed so many people."
Those people were probably happier they didn't have to worry about medical bills.
"Thank you," she said, tilting her head. "Are you... proud?"
The question took him by surprise. Leon didn't know where it came from, but he found his answer was already set.
"Yeah." Leon smiled. "Really proud."
Hearing his response, Nyx shook her tail feathers and brushed her head against his palm. Cute.
When the time for Ms. Popper to arrive neared, Leon enchanted a simple silver ring with Hypnos' Blessing. Nothing flashy. Cecil just ran on fumes too often from what he could tell. This was a small investment in their partnership.
"You two ready?" he asked.
Lily rose into his battle form, Musica Sword secured and enchanted gear gleaming. Nyx puffed up proudly on his shoulder, rings catching the light.
They stepped out the Suite door and he removed the bathroom door as a gateway into the High Roller Suite. On the rooftop, Ms. Popper's appearance was accompanied by the warping of space and an audible pop.
Huh. That explains her name.
The silver-haired woman offered a polite nod and smile as they approached.
"Ah, good. You're here," she said. "You three ready?"
Leon nodded. "Ready when you are, Ms. Popper."
Once again, space warped. They now stood on top of a different building, under a dark, cloudy sky. But merely a few feet in front of them was Cecil and a familiar figure standing in what seemed like another world entirely.
Curious, Leon walked inside, freezing in place when his body fully entered the dome. The hum from when he touched Rampage's armor stirred in his mind once more, but far, far stronger.
I can already taste the gacha points.
They stood just at the the edge of Midnight City, overlooking the cursed metropolis. Cecil was already waiting, hands in his coat pockets as he stood beside a caped figure in a black and light grey suit.
Darkwing.
The superhero's gaze sharpened behind his mask as he sized them up.
Cecil greeted them with a smile. "Welcome to Midnight City."