The Stupendous Adventures of the Super Union

Author's Note: I have a hard rule against graphic depictions of rape and suicide. Such matters are extremely sensitive to portray casually and very difficult to portray responsibly. So when I wrote this story about male sexual assault victims, and the suicide of one victim who wasn't believed, I tried my hardest not to be too triggering. I would not like to alienate the people who I feel would benefit most from a story such as this. I've done my best to keep the following material PG-13 (except for some mild cursing), but please proceed with caution.
In this story which I shall present to you, members of a team of superheroes struggle to reconcile with the death of their most beloved member, and the troubling accusations which he launched against his fellow teammate shortly before his death.

The dark side of the moon has forever been shrouded in mystery to us regular humans. Since the orbital body first appeared in its near perfect orbit around the planet which we call home, its dark side has been the backdrop of many strange sights which we will never have knowledge of. However, on the eve of March first in the year of 1981, the dark side of the moon was once again the site of yet another bizarre tale. For on this day, in the largest cavern on the darkest corner of the moon, The Super Union – the Earth's weirdest champions – gathered to lay one of their own to rest!

"I feel like I should say something, because I don't like this silence. But," Sister Shrinkage trailed off. She turned to her companion pall-bearer, Fuerte, and searched his eyes, hoping that he would somehow speak the magic words she needed to hear to feel better.

"It's not something I'm good at," Fuerte began, "speaking has never been my strong suit. I lift things. I could lift this casket with two fingers, even if we were on Earth – even if we were on Jupiter. I can carry the world in my arms. But his body, it feels so heavy to me. For once, I feel weak. So I know exactly what you mean, Nicole."

Just who was it that died, you may ask? Which member of the Super Union could be so beloved that it would render Fuerte to such a weak state? Simply look here, dear reader, upon the head of the casket! The Adinkra symbol, Nyame Ye Ohene, should be one that all fans of the Super Union's adventures should recognize.

"It's just so wrong," Noire stated from her position, "The papers didn't even report on it!"

"You know their policy," Flying Fool responded, for the first time in his life without a chuckle.

"It's a fucking bullshit policy!" Noire cried out, not caring how many of her fellow heroes could hear, "Johnathan Richard Carter was a teacher! He was a mentor! He marched with King! His life – he was more important than some celebrity hopped up on ecstasy! He was—"

"A nobody," Flying Fool reminded her, "he was a nobody and he liked it that way. To keep his students, his entire community safe, he willingly spent years in isolation. His suicide—"

"Murder!" Noire corrected, at which point the entire congregation stopped. Everyone was looking at her, too somber and confused to try and calm her down. They'd become used to the unkillable detective's screams and paranoid ramblings and had created a thousand different ways to counter them. They employed none because they knew this was different, they knew that the crazy, unreal situation that none of them had ever thought could come to pass actually did transpire.

"Now, Noire," Sister Shrinkage said as she went to place a hand on her shoulder, to comfort her friend and now ex-lover.

"Don't you fucking touch me," Noire screamed as she pulled away, "don't you even look at me! He was my friend! And YOUR friend killed him! What the hell is wrong with Aphrodisiac?! Why did she have to – she could have had any man she wanted! She didn't have to FORCE him! She should be the one in a casket! I should have—I should—I..."

At that moment, Noire's short, plump body lurched forward, and slowly began to dip before she began to rise higher and higher, lifted by the moon's micro-gravity. A glimmering sliver of brown and black hair wrapped around her body, and Sister Shrinkage secured the incapacitated woman before she wandered into the inky void of space.

"Thank you, Mr. Mental," spoke The Gemini, the Super Union's twin leaders from Mars.

The Magnificent Mr. Mental, who served as the Super Union's only master of the Psychic techniques, nodded his head. Employing his telepathy to conserve oxygen, he reached out to the minds of the other heroes present: {I am sorry that I had to use my Empathic Wave to knock-out Noire. But I think we can agree, with tensions as high as they are already...}

"No one's mad at you, Mental," Fuerte said. He and the rest of the heroes understood the potential fight that could break out.

"We can settle political matters after the funeral." Flying Fool stated, neglecting to mention that as soon as the body was buried, he planned to fly back to earth with his own to wings. Just like Fuerte, he didn't handle emotional situations well.

***

Later...Inside the Super Union Headquarters two hundred yards away from Aspiration's grave, the members of the Super Union gather in their meeting room. None of them want to be there, especially not Flying Fool, who only decided to stay so Noire could see one friendly face once she awakened. Our heroes sit in uncomfortable silence, not sure if even speaking on a topic as mundane as the weather would be appropriate.

"At some point, we have to talk about this," Fire Flame Inferno Blaze said. He looked to his left and to his right, scanning faces for any sign that someone, anyone, would engage him in the conversation that they had put off for so long.

"I want to go check on Noire again," Flying Fool said, arising from his chair. "It's been awhile since someone saw to her, and she should be awake by now. Assuming...."

{Assuming what exactly?}

"Assuming you didn't just blast her into kingdom come, Mental!" Zookeeper slammed her fist on the coffee table in anger. For a split second, it grew tiger's fur and her voice began to turn to a growl.

{I assure you, I only used my power as a last resort to calm her down. I took the utmost care to ensure that she wasn't injured.}

Unconvinced, Zookeeper's eyes narrowed on him while she spat, "Funny how you only found it necessary after she started talking about your old best buddy, the whore."

"Now that's unnecessary," Sister Shrinkage said, "what Aphrodisiac did was wrong, but we don't have to play into such sexist slurs. Women's sexuality is demonized enough, can we not use one instance of a woman misusing hers to justify blanket statements that affect us all?"

Zookeeper silently slouched back in her chair, unable to disagree with Shrinkage, but still enraged at Aphrodisiac and Mr. Mental. Regret started to form in the back of her mind as she remembered that she was originally on Aphrodisiac's side during Aspiration's trial. Almost everyone was. Though still tough to believe given his usual nature, the entirety of the Super Union found it easier to believe that Aspiration had simply snapped and revealed his true nature by brutalizing Aphrodisiac after a disappointing sexual excursion than to believe his claim.

"Thunda Sista still doesn't see why what she did was wrong," chimed in Thunda Sista. The octogenarian was the newest addition to he Super Union team, yet she had quickly become the voice of reason within the group, with almost every member, including The Gemini turning to her for advice and sage council. Thunda Sista found this hilarious, given that she was considered a toddler in her own home dimension, and largely took their reverence of her immortality in jest. At that moment, however, the respect that the team had developed for her wavered.

"You've got to be kidding me," Swordcane the Swift said.

"Gorak. Think. Thunda Sista. Wrong," stammered out Gorak, the inarticulate cyborg from 3000 AD.

"Thunda Sista," Sister Shrinkage began, "you seriously cannot mean that, right? Aphrodisiac used her powers because she knew full well that Aspiration would never agree to have sex with her otherwise, that's wrong. That's rape."

"Thunda Sista has seen rape," the elderly toddler said defiantly, "rape is when one is beaten and constricted. Aspiration is as strong as Fuerte, faster than Swordcane, tough and smart as Noire, and can control light that burns hotter than Fire Flame Blaze."

"Fire Flame Inferno Blaze," Fire Flame Inferno Blaze corrected.

Thunda Sista held up a shushing hand, "Thunda Sista's point is that Aphrodisiac's endorphin control is hardly a threat to him. Aspiration was a god among men AND women. All Aphrodisiac could do was release gasses that give her control over someone's base instincts and control the chemicals in their brains. If Aspiration broke his sacred vow to The Ancestors, then that's his own failing as a man."

"He didn't have a choice!" The ring of fire perpetually surrounding Fire Flame Inferno Blaze flickered slightly. Taking a deep, calming breath, he willed it stable again.

"Inferno, control yourself, please." Sister Shrinkage said.

"Fire Flame Inferno Blaze," he silently corrected, though no one heard.

"Thunda Sista's point," Thunda Sista began as she pointed at the teenaged hero, "men are raised to believe their base desires are the will of God, the rest of us be damned. Even the most pious among them will fail at some point. I think it's unfortunate that The Ancestors couldn't forgive Aspiration for one moment of weakness, but that doesn't change the fact that he is just as responsible. They were two innocent, stupid embryos that each made their mistakes. This is not rape."

"Gorak. Disagree. Fear. Gas."

"No, Gorak," Fire Flame Inferno Blaze said, "remember from the trial? After Aspiration attacked Aphrodisiac we checked his system, there was no sign that she messed with his fear responses. In his own testimony, he didn't say anything to indicate that she did the night that...the night that she did what she did."

"Call it what it is," Zookeeper began. Looking across at Thunda Sista, she scowled, folded her arms and continued with only one word, "Rape."

Thunda Sista rolled her eyes.

"All Imma say is, if it were Aspiration that slipped Aphrodisiac an aphrodisiac, we'd consider it date rape, at least," Swordcane the Swift said.

A few heads in the room nodded slowly.

"Course, that's a big assumption to make on my part." Swordcane the Swift continued, "Not like anyone gives a shit when the shoe's on the other foot."

"That's not true," Infirmary chimed in, "it's just because male sexual assault is so rare that when it's used as a defense for violence against women, we have to be skeptical. You don't know what it's like-"

"But I do!"

All heads turned to the meeting room entrance, where Noire was standing defiantly. Upon seeing her, every member of the Super Union gasped. For the first time ever, Noire wasn't wearing her signature black scarf around her face. The only Super Union member to have an identity which was secret even to her teammates had finally unmasked.

"Hey ya'll, Noire's up," Flying Fool said as he walked in from behind her. Quickly, he took a position beside her and placed his hands on each of her ears before he turned once again to his comrades, "Is it just me or does she look a lot like that really famous supermodel, popstar, tech-genius, Olympian, and billionaire, Zara Genesis?"

"Shut up, Fool," the Union said.

"Kay," came Flying Fool's robotic response. In the back of his head, he bemoaned the exchange. For so long, that had been their informal catchphrase, meant to liven everyone's spirits and morale. But even he couldn't feel truly comedic at that moment.

"I know exactly why we have to be skeptical," Noire continued, "and I would have been skeptical had it been Flying Fool or Swordcane. Shit, Gorak, Fuerte, or even Fire Flame Inferno Blaze I could maybe see. But it wasn't. It was fucking Aspiration! How could any of you seriously think that he'd attack Aphrodisiac for no reason?"

"Noire, please," Sister Shrinkage said, "I know he was your friend, but you have to look at it from our perspectives. We were all just sitting around, and he suddenly flew in, screaming obscenities and punching the hell out of Aphrodisiac. What were we supposed to think?"

"I don't know," Noire said, "apparently that isn't your strong suit. Because when I saw how deranged Aspiration looked, I reasoned there was something wrong with him. I ran through every logical scenario in three seconds. Thunda Sista and Zookeeper didn't indicate feeling strange or paranoid, so there couldn't have be a demon possessing him. Dr. Nan-no is still presumed dead, so microbot mind control wasn't likely. Only potential explanation left was clones, but Mr. Mental didn't signal anything indicating a clone in his telepathic scan. The only explanation was that Aphrodisiac had done something to harm him, because there was no way Aspiration would attack her, or any of us, unprovoked."

"It's not like what he accused her of was typical behavior either!" Infirmary was screaming now, which was unlike her usual, quiet self, "Aphrodisiac had never done anything like that, what were we supposed to think?"

"Infirmary's right, Noire," Sista Shrinkage said, "you're both right. No matter how you look at it, this wasn't like either of them. But that's why we had the trial, to give them both the benefit of the doubt."

"That trial was a joke," Noire said, "you barely focused on Aspiration's assault. Every question was about his fight with Aphrodisiac, and every question about what caused it was a bad faith question. You were trying to catch him in lies that didn't exist. You had all already made up your minds to kick him out of the group, you just wanted that decision to be fucking validated!"

"Again, we had no other choice," Infirmary began, "Aspiration went apeshit and we had to figure out why. For all we knew, he severed his ties with The Ancestors long ago and this was just the end result."

"Bullshit!"

"Please, Noire, it wasn't the best situation but what could we do? Aphrodisiac said that he attacked first, then Aspiration mentioned the rape, but we didn't know who to believe because this wasn't like either of them."

"That. Not. True."

Everyone's head suddenly turned towards Gorak, who sat with his head hung low, avoiding direct eye contact.

"Gorak?" Infirmary held back tears as she stared at her fiancé.

"Maker. Didn't. Need. All. Of. Gorak Body. Aphrodisiac. Not. Care. She. Think. Funny. Make. Use. Other. Parts." Gorak's head hung low as small tears began to fall on the surface of the table.

"Sounds to me like you just cheated on your woman and only now regret it," Thunda Sista said.

"GORAK. SAY. NO!" The behemoth cyborg slammed his fists into the table, causing it to splinter and crack.

"We've seen repeatedly that the level of control Aphrodisiac can employ over a person rivals even Mr. Mental. It makes sense that she could overpower their very wills," Noire said, placing a comforting hand on Gorak's shoulder.

"She didn't have to," Fuerte said. Nervously, he pulled a flask out of his pocket and started drinking.

"What do you mean, Fuerte?" Sister Shrinkage said, her eyes widened in horror at what she already knew his answer would be.

"Don't look at me like that, okay? One thing Thunda Sista's right about is that she didn't hold me down or anything."

"She drugged you, didn't she?" Swordcane frantically ran up to his friend, leaving a streak of after-images in his wake. Grabbing the portly man by the shoulders, he looked him dead in the eyes and asked a stream of questions too fast for Fuerte to respond to, "What did she give you was it a muscle relaxer or did she just get you drunk or maybe she only used a bit of her hormones but it wasn't enough did she try to intimidate you what happened tell me what happened why aren't you answering say something!"

"Swordcane," The Gemini said in low, stern voices.

The speeding swordsman relinquished his control of his friend, then sped back to his seat where he hung his head, ashamed of his sudden out-burst.

Fuerte continued, "Look, there's no need to make a big deal of it, okay? It's actually kind of funny. I had one night of legendary drunkenness, and...well everything happened so fast. I woke up, and she was there, laughing her ass off. She laughed a lot, you know..." The hero absentmindedly took another sip of his drink but didn't complete his thought.

"Fuerte," Swordcane began in a much slower tone, "aren't you...I mean, we all just kind of assumed..."

"I am indeed gay," Fuerte said with a chuckle, "I don't try to hide it or anything. And yeah, Aphrodisiac knew, just like all of you did. That's my point. At first, I thought that she didn't realize. A guy like me...I don't really fit any of the stereotypes. So, I told her, and apologized if I led her on or anything."

"And what did she say?" Sister Shrinkage asked.

Fuerte took a deep breath, "She said it was a waste. I told her I was gay, and she laughed and said it was a waste, and that she thought she could fix it, seeing as I was halfway there already."

The words hung in the air for a minute.

"Computer, play minute 18:35 of Aspiration's trial," Noire said.

The window on the far left wall turned black for a moment. In the next, it showed the entire Union in the same meeting room, sitting in a half circle around Aspiration.

"She'd been coming on to me for weeks," he said, "at first I didn't mind. I never flirted back, but I didn't stop her. I thought it was just playful banter. When I realized it wasn't, I tried to break it to her easy. I thought she'd understand. If I have sex ever, then the Ancestors will take my powers away. I have to stay pure, so I can keep my powers. And while I've toyed with the idea of one day getting married and renouncing my powers, so I could start a family, it's not something I want right now. And when I said all that, she just laughed. I remember the night that it happened, I told her I didn't want to do it, and she said...I don't want to repeat the words she used but she basically asked if I was gay. I told her I just never really felt interested in sex anyway and she said that I was just awkward, and she could fix that. And after that, I could feel her pheromones entering my system. I tried to resist, but her power was so strong, and I hadn't trained for anything like this."

"Computer, pause," Sister Shrinkage said. "Yes, Noire, we remember."

"Why didn't you say anything then," Infirmary asked.

Fuerte didn't answer.

"Okay, so Aphrodisiac had a pattern. I'm sorry we didn't see it, I am." Sister Shrinkage tried to make eye contact with Fuerte and Gorak but found that she was unable to. How could she? For years, Aphrodisiac was her closest friend on the team. Even now, she didn't want to believe what they were saying.

"Oh, shut up." Swordcane said.

"Swordcane," Infirmary began raising her voice, but The Gemini stopped her.

"You seem...passionate about this, Swordcane," Noire began, "Is there any particular reason why?"

"Oh, shut up," Swordcane the Swift snapped as he slammed his walking stick on meeting room table. It wouldn't take him much to run out of the room, hop on the teleportation pad, and beam himself home before any of them could take a second breath. But he stayed.

"You're supposed to be the world's greatest detective, but you couldn't notice how Aphrodisiac was? Bullshit! And the same goes for the rest of you. Aphrodisiac was always doing the most, but ya'll didn't do shit. Fire Flame Inferno Blaze is fucking sixteen, and not one of you said shit when she was grinding all up on him at the party three weeks ago."

Everyone remembered what party they meant. The party was to celebrate the defeat of the New Republic of Assassins, a murderous cult that was plaguing the nation through manipulation of the criminal underworld. To defeat their leader, The Crown, The Union had to team up with the much less reputable alliance of super people, the U.S. Military's Team of Specialized Unorthodox Police and Emergency Rescue. After months of espionage and a grueling battle that took place over three days and on four continents, both teams celebrated at Team S.U.P.E.R's mansion in the Bronx. It was a full-fledged bacchanalia typical of their leader, George Gates. As always, Aphrodisiac was the life of the party and treated everyone to an endorphin rush the moment they walked inside. With the Magnificent Endocrine Enchantress Aphrodisiac around, no one even needed alcohol, but they happily partook anyway. All except legal minors, The Gemini (who were half a year shy of their 21st birthday) and Fire Flame.

"Fire Flame Inferno Blaze – oh, wait, you did say it right, didn't you Swordcane? Sorry, reflex."

Zookeeper turned to Swordcane, "I saw them. And when she went to the bathroom later, I pulled her aside and told her it was inappropriate and that she was lucky no one in S.U.P.E.R knew how old the kid is, or else she could have wound up on a list."

"It wasn't that big a deal," Fire Flame Inferno Blaze muttered.

"It is a big deal, kid," Zookeeper said, "you're still young, and she's nearly twice your age. Had it been any more than that, had she actually had sex with you, that type of shit can mess you up for years after. Trust me, I had a twenty-four-year-old boyfriend when I was sixteen."

Fire Flame Inferno Blaze shrugged, "I'm not saying it's not big deal for you. It's just not a big deal for me. Shit, you know how many dudes I know that had their first time with an older girl?"

"She wasn't an older girl, she was a grown woman and you're a child!"

The teenaged hero shrugged again, "Like I said, that describes a lot of dudes I know. What's the big deal if it's consensual?"

"Fire Flame," Swordcane the Swift began.

"FIRE FLAME INFERNO BLAZE! Literally how hard is that!?"

"Fire Flame," Swordcane said again, "did Aphrodisiac have sex with you that night?"

"No," he said.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"But we had been having sex for a few months at that point," he said with a shrug.

Swordcane scoffed, "Well, gee, I sure am glad Zookeeper was there to give her a stern talking to."

"My turn to ask you a question, Swordcane The Wannabe Pimp," Fire Flame Blaze Inferno said, "cuz you've been pretty defensive all day. Did Aphrodisiac use her powers on you, too?"

The man laughed and tipped his wide-brimmed hat lower, "Boy do you know who I am?"

Swordcane the Swift appeared behind Fire Flame Blaze Inferno faster than anyone could register, "I am the fastest man alive!"

He disappeared, then reappeared behind Gorak, sword drawn and pointed at the Cyborg's back, "I could kill this nigga before any of you could do anything!"

Suddenly, he was between The Gemini, planting his hands on their heads with a wide grin, "These motherfuckers here are probably the only people powerful enough to stop me. No matter how fast I run, I'll never be able to warp time as well as they can. And even if I ate for a thousand days straight, I wouldn't be able to burn as much energy as the stars that power them."

He went back to his seat before any of the Union could blink. "You really think Aphrodisiac's little perfume could work on me? You think she could ever control a brain that fires neurons faster than light travels? You think I was ever scared of her harming me?! Don't make me fucking laugh."

Fire Flame Inferno Blaze laughed, "That means yes."

"She had something on you, didn't she?" Sister Shrinkage asked.

He nodded, "Yes. No. I don't know how to explain it. She tried her hormones a million times, but they don't work on me, my body's just too...I can't even explain it. That girl, she liked a challenge. So, she just kept hounding me over and over and over, but it didn't work. So then, she used the blue stuff."

Omnitraxifoloticalperinodal was a chemical that The Gemini synthesized when Swordcane the Swift first joined the team. The "blue stuff" is the only anesthetic that is effective on those with super speed, and was instrumental in defeating Swordcane's nemesis, Fastlane. The Gemini kept a supply on hand in the Union headquarters, in case another super-sonic threat arose.

"It's funny, no one ever talks about sleeping," Swordcane began with an uncharacteristic somber twinge in his voice, "everyone makes having superspeed look like this amazing thing. Scientifically, I shouldn't exist. To compensate, every single particle in my body is in a constant state of vibration that makes your atoms look like they're standing perfectly still. Just to stand still right now, I'm wiggling my toes at Mach 3. The energy needs to go somewhere, that's what people don't understand! I'm not an addict!"

"No one thinks you are," The Gemini interrupted, "that's why we've never stopped you from sneaking out supplies."

Swordcane rose his flask to the twin leaders, "I thank you for that. It means a lot to know that you won't judge me. Unlike her. The minute Aphrodisiac found out, she made my life hell. Whenever she wasn't flirting or rubbing up on me, she was making little snide comments about my medication. Called me an addict and said I could kick it for a whole new one if I spent one night with her. I was scared that she was right, so I didn't. Swordcane doesn't get pussy-whipped."

Zookeeper found herself rolling her eyes, but then feeling guilty for doing so, then feeling conflicted about her guilt. She tried to remind herself that this was a difficult matter for him to address and high emotions were to be expected, but that felt like too easy an excuse. What she didn't know was that the other heroines of Union were all thinking the same thing in that moment.

Swordcane continued, "I guess she got tired of waiting one day. Slipped the blue stuff in my drink and I was out like a light. Woke up the next day in bed with her, completely blissed out. The blue shit apparently inhibits whatever combination of biological and psychological defenses I have against her powers. Don't get me wrong, the second that I wasn't high as a kite I told her off and said it would never happen again. But I should have known better than to try and just tell-off an ex-secret agent trained in poisoning. She drugged me maybe three or five times after that. After the second, I didn't really try to avoid it, and then over time she didn't even have to sneak it in, she'd just walk up to me with the vial in one hand and Captain Morgan in the other."

Fuerte placed a consoling hand on Swordcane, but the anachronistic player brushed it off, "I don't care about your sympathy. Aspiration's dead, that's all that matters now. But kid—I can see you trying not to look at me—this is why we have to go in on you like this. Thunda Sista's right about one thing, Aphrodisiac didn't pin me down and threaten my life, she did something worse. She did what chicks have done to a few of my own niggas just like they're doing to yours. They catch you at your lowest, get you hooked, and then bash and degrade you anytime you're not slaving yourself out in the bed. And you feel the rush, so you think it's okay. But you gotta ask yourself if you were ever really happy, or if you were just doing what was expected of you?"

Fire Flame Inferno Blaze stayed silent, turning his head to the window, sulking.

"She has to be arrested. Kicking her off the team wasn't enough." Sister Shrinkage said after yet another uncomfortable silence finally died.

"For the first time today, I'll actually admit that I agree with you," Zookeeper said.

"Same." Noire spoke without looking Sister Shrinkage directly in the eye. After everything she just heard, she didn't know if she could. Sister Shrinkage was Aphrodisiac's only real friend on the team, and Noire couldn't stop herself from questioning how she never saw her friend's predatory behavior. She couldn't look her in the eye no matter how many passionate nights and romantic excursions they'd shared, just Sister Shrinkage's connection to the woman she blamed for the death of Aspiration tainted all her memories. How could Noire look her in the eyes or see her fondly when she couldn't even look at herself? Noire was the greatest detective in the world, the woman who single handedly proved that Drum Industries was knowingly poisoning a Louisiana town to process chemicals for the US's secret army of super-soldiers. She couldn't even catch a rapist in her own team. She couldn't see that her would-be-wife's best friend was a monster in plain sight. She couldn't even protect Aspiration after he protected both her identities for nearly ten years, never letting either of them slip to those in her life. The least she or anyone else there could do was bring in Aphrodisiac and throw away the key.

Sister Shrinkage took a long look at Noire's face and inferred everything her ex was thinking. She spoke up again, "Aphrodisiac was my friend and I never noticed what she was doing. Or maybe I did but dismissed those suspicions because I didn't want to believe them. I'm not sure. But that isn't important. What's important is that she's taken down, and I'll be the one to do it."

Thunda Sista nodded, "What she did to that baby was unspeakable, and she needs to be locked up."

"I'm NOT a baby! I'm a man that can make my own decisions!" Fire Flame Inferno Blaze bellowed.

"How can you defend her after everything we've just heard?" Zookeeper asked.

"I'm not! What she did was wrong, yes, but...it wasn't for me! I wanted to have sex with her..." The teen's voice trailed off, almost in an uncertain way. Everyone noticed the hesitation, the unending internal questions he was asking himself which were telegraphed on his face, but no one pressed him on it. Either out of respect, or fear of saying the wrong thing, they resolved to give the child a moment to process his feelings.

Yet in the next moment, no one in the room felt sympathy for the child. Nor did they feel anger at Aphrodisiac, pain at Aspiration's passing, or confusion on how to proceed. Every emotion present in the minds of our heroes was replaced by another emotion, one of intense disgust. Noire, along with others, found herself rolling her eyes at the thought of the melodrama which had just transpired. The idea that a woman should be thrown in the cell for cuffing a few men was downright laughable. In the storm of intense disgust was the creeping vine of another emotion waiting to take root and engulf them all: rage. It wasn't a hot, intense rage that screamed for blood and retribution, instead it was a small rage, more like an intense frustration. The absurdity of the situation! The extreme penalties being proposed! The audacity of these men to not—

Then it was gone.

Infirmary stumbled and almost fell to the ground had Gorak not caught her. Swordcane the Swift was a blur as his entire body vibrated, making a sound like a thousand angry bees. A few heroes complained of light headedness, or alternatively, migraines. Zookeeper tried to hide the quills that had begun to erupt from her skin, not noticing the fully-grown ones on the top of her head or the fleshy hood around her neck.

"What was that?" Infirmary said.

Noire angrily her head, "I think that's obvious."

Mr. Mental tried to avoid eye contact but found that the sheer number of eyes looking at him made that feat difficult.

{It was an accident. Let's just drop it.}

"Yeah, no duh," Noire began, "we all know you lose control of your powers when you lose control of your emotions. My question is why were you feeling those emotions to begin with?"

Mr. Mental said nothing.

"You. Mad. At. Gorak? Michael. Is. Gorak. Best. Friend." Gorak began to tear up, and Infirmary struggled to wipe them away.

Mr. Mental said nothing.

"After everything you've heard, man? Really?" Flying Fool flew over to Mr. Mental to force the psychic genius to meet his gaze.

{...shut up, Fool!}

"Look, I understand why," Sister Shrinkage began, "I don't excuse it, but...I mean, you liked her-"

{Liked? LIKED? I LOVE her! I always have! Any sane man would! She was beautiful and smart, and anyone that didn't want her would be a fool! And that's what you all are, fools! She gave herself to you, and all you do is complain?}

"Hey, man," Fuerte began, "just because she didn't like you—"

{Do you have any idea what it means to know that a woman you'd give EVERYTHING to would rather fuck a teenager deemed unworthy of being on the C-String football team?! Do not pretend to understand my woe, Fuerte!}

"The bitch was crazy and you gotta get over that," Swordcane responded.

"She wasn't crazy!"

Everyone jumped at the unfamiliar sound of Mr. Mental's voice. He slammed his fist into the table with a thunderous boom much louder than his words, but no one noticed. He took his hand up and stared at it for a second, so dazed that he could barely reason why it existed in the first place. He began to take both his hands and smooth out his suit, pretending that he was still fully composed and level-headed. What he didn't know was whether he was lying to the Union or to himself.

{She was lonely.}

Zookeeper scoffed, "Lonely? Boy, I ordered two pizzas for myself last night, and stopped going to my favorite coffee shop because a waitress smiled at me once and in response, I spilled a macchiato on myself. That's lonely."

{She was! She was lonely and wanted love and couldn't find it no matter where she looked because these clowns couldn't shape up! Every time she moved on I tried to tell her to stop, that she was only hurting herself but-}

"Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up!" Fire Flame Inferno Blaze raised two hands in the air and shook his head, "You mean to tell me that you KNEW she was doing this shit?"

"He's a psychic," Noire said, the realization only just dawning on her, "he's one of the most powerful psychics in the world. But he's also much stronger than we think. He's scanning our brains all the time without us noticing. He knew what she was doing and he knew how it was affecting all of you. Am I right?"

Mr. Mental gave her a silent scowl that let her and everyone else know she was right.

"You. Know. Gorak. Pain. You. Do. Nothing?"

{What about MY pain you inarticulate oaf! The love of my life taken by my best friend! What happened to honor? What of comradery? What happened to the solidarity between two Black men?}

"Don't you dare speak of solidarity towards Black men, nigga," Sword cane said as he accusingly pointed his cane at Mr. Mental. "Don't say shit about solidarity when you sat here and let her torture us for years! Don't talk about comradery when you never even tried to defend us! And don't you even think about honor when Aspiration, the most honorable of all of us, is sitting in a fucking ditch on the fucking dark side of the FUCKING MOON!"

The Gemini stared at Mr. Mental with a judgmental gaze that could pierce the soul of any man that had one. But they said nothing.

"You're a member of this team, Mental," Sista Shrinkage began, "you have a responsibility! We take care of each other! You should have said something!"

"Thunda Sista thinks he isn't to blame, they all should have said something," Thunda Sista folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. "If any one of you had spoken up before, we could have watched her and prevented her from taking Fire Blaze."

Fire Flame Inferno Blaze was silent.

{The boy isn't complaining! Apparently, he's the only one of you with sense! You all disgust me. You want to, what? Lynch a woman for having an enthusiastic sex life? Yet you preach your pathetic "womanism" daily. Isn't the whole point not to condemn women for their sexual appetites. But what do you call this?}

A screaming match began. Everyone had their piece to say. First at Mr. Mental, and then to each other. How could you not notice? How could you not say anything? What happened to you wasn't as bad as what happened to him, or him, or him. At one point, Noire suggested that Mr. Mental was likely manipulating their emotions with his powers, and Swordcane told her to shut the fuck up with her paranoid theories.

When an amethyst light illuminated the entire meeting hall while an indescribable noise danced through their ears, the Union all stopped. The Gemini had just opened and closed a wormhole.

"Why did you send him away?! We should have put him on trial!"

"For what, Sister Shrinkage?" They asked.

"Mr. Mental. Know. Years. He. Know."

"Aspiration is dead! We need to beat his ass and then go beat Aphrodisiac's ass!"

The Gemini shook their heads, "We can and will report Aphrodisiac's actions to the law and her new bosses at T-S.U.P.E.R. But we can charge Mr. Mental with nothing that does not at least in part apply to ourselves. He knew more, but we weren't completely unaware. Everyone's testimony here proved as much."

Waves of protest went around the room. What went unspoken, however, was the knowledge in the back of everyone's head that The Gemini was right.

"We would also like to say," The Gemini began, "to the victims of Aphrodisiac's sexual terror. We are sorry. And we speak for the whole team in saying this. We should not have dismissed our suspicions so easily. We should have asked more questions, been more vocal about the moments when watching and listening to her made us all uncomfortable. And above all, we should have believed the first victim that came forward when he did. We speak only for ourselves when we say that we regret believing Aphrodisiac's claim that Aspiration's attack was unwarranted, just because she spoke up first. We wish that we could bring back Aspiration and undo the damage that she has caused to this team and its members. But we cannot. We can only help moving forward. And for that, we are sorry."

The various heroes muttered words to no one in particular as they began to leave their seats and head out of the meeting room. Infirmary whispered to Gorak, asking if he wanted to talk about it, but the goliath cyborg stayed silent. Swordcane the Swift walked up to Fire Flame Inferno Blaze, put an arm around him, and began to walk with him as he told the youth that while he would not like what the older hero would have to say, he was going to listen to it. Sista Shrinkage began to walk towards Fuerte, but he turned away from her with an apologetic look. The meeting hall was nearly abandoned in less than a minute, with each hero either on their way home or holed up in their private rooms at the headquarters. Only two heroes remained in the large room overlooking the lunar plane below.

"Think they all hate me?" Noire asked. She wiped a tear from her eye and continued, "I think I may have gotten a bit in tense back there."

"No more than usual, we're all used to you," Flying Fool said.

There was a brief pause before Noire spoke again, "You never said. I should have asked. One of us should have. Did Aphrodisiac ever-"

Flying Fool shook his head, "I asked her out once and she laughed and walked away."

"Ouch."

"Hey," he said with a wide grin, "that's my move! I make the ladies laugh and they can't get me out of their heads. Not like I'd want to be in her head with everything I know now, but you get my point."

Noire shook her head.

"Do you think," Flying Fool stopped himself and decided not to ask dumb questions. Then, he remembered that being dumb was his whole thing, so he asked anyway, "I mean, you and the big guy were best friends, and I know that you monitor online activity, so you've heard the rumors. You've come across all those theories, right? About Haitian Vodou rituals and the stars aligning and shit? Then there's that idol that was stolen from the British Museum yesterday—"

"He's not coming back, Tony, I'm sorry. If Aspiration did have some master resurrection plan, he never told me about it, and I doubt it would work anyway, considering that The Ancestors took his powers after...after what happened."

Flying Fool made a mental note to bring up how Noire knew found out his real name later and shook his head solemnly. "That's what pisses me off the most about this, you know. He didn't want to do it; how could those dead assholes see rape as a violation of their contract?"

Noire shrugged, "I don't even know, man. I don't even know. I hate not knowing things."

Neither knew what to say after that. They sat in their seats and watched the light from a satellite beginning to drift into view from the blue orb beyond.

"Okay, another awkward question that I have to ask," he began.

She nodded to indicate it was fine.

"I don't want to put you in an odd position but...tomorrow's my mom's birthday and she's a big fan of Quincey Jones and I know he worked on your last album, so...remember that time I saved you from falling out of Dr. Frog's lair?"

Noire laughed, "Shut up, Fool."