The previous day had been eventful for Lester. He had then woken up early for a jog in the Recalm City central park. After that, he'd gone to the superhero evaluation center, where he'd been interrogated, which ended up with him losing his superhero license. Then he'd fought a couple of low-level villains, escaped the city, hiked in the forest, fought a snake, gotten monster repellant all over himself, found the small town of Juniper Grow, lost an arm wrestling contest, and finally he had ended up joining a monster hunting party.

  And now, Lester woke to voices.

  "I'm here to pick up the intern."

  "He's under there."

  Lester looked around. He was in the bar and under a table. It was quite dirty here, with all kinds of stains from blue to green, and he had somehow ended up here.

  "Lester, time to go. The others are waiting," he heard a voice. It was one of the guys that had been with Armie. His new colleague. He'd joined a monster hunting party, and it was likely time to start his new job.

  "I'm coming." Lester got up, wiping away the dirt from his ragged clothing.

  "Come on then," the guy said.

  Lester noted that the man had many knives on his vest, but he couldn't remember his name. It might have started with a D.

  Lester made his way toward the door, but then he heard his stomach growl in a really hungry way and stopped at the bar. The bartender was wiping the bar surface clean. Lester said to him, "Would you happen to have something to eat?"

  The bartender looked around. "There's a piece of cheese here—a bit moldy, but still mostly edible."

  "Is it okay if I pay later?"

  "Well, I couldn't charge anything for this thing." The bartender gave Lester a chunk of cheese, which Lester took and smelled. It was definitely edible—his nose said so.

  "Thanks," Lester said and took a bite.

  As they made it out and started walking among the dirt streets of Juniper Grove, Lester asked, "What is going on?"

  "We're headed out soon."

  Lester looked at the sky. It seemed the sun was not quite up yet. They were early.

  Lester just nodded.

  "What do you remember from last night?" the man asked.

  Lester thought of what had happened. He remembered asking them if they were villains or heroes. And there had definitely been an answer. Also, he'd heard everyone's names. The guy's name started with a D. He was certain. It might have been Darryn.

  "Not much." Lester took a bite from the cheese.

  "You fell asleep soon after you got accepted into the party. I was a bit disappointed since I was the only one betting that you would survive over a month, and you fell unconscious after five minutes. But luckily Armie decided to still keep you."

  Lester remembered the wagers on him dying. It was certainly not a sign of good safety standards.

  They met the others near the wooden gate, where one of them handed Lester a big backpack and said to him, "This is your job. Keep this safe."

  Lester took the big bag. It was around as big as he was, and it felt heavy. Like several times his own weight heavy. But he managed, after a couple of tries, to get it on his back and stand up.

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  "You good?" Armie asked. She was wearing full camo gear with a heavy machine gun held in her hands.

  "I'm okay," Lester said.

  "So what do you remember from yesterday?"

  "You said that we're supervillains."

  "Yes, I did," Armie said, "We're registered at the Guild of Calamity and Woe, and therefore, we only work for supervillains. Is that okay with you?"

  Lester saw his dream of becoming a superhero slipping further and further. It might actually be out of reach already. But what could he do? He couldn't go back.

  Lester nodded. "I'm okay with being a villain."

  Armie smiled. "But we don't hurt people—if you are worried about that. We just hunt monsters and sell the parts to supervillains."

  Lester knew what she meant was they didn't directly hurt people. The monster parts they harvested would end up in the possession of a mad scientist who would use them, most likely, to give people superpowers. It was how more than half of all the supers got their powers. He himself, although having an undefined power before, had gotten his current powers from a lab, and it was quite possible some monster parts might have been part of his awakening.

  But, he knew, there were a couple of moral problems with all this. Firstly, they were actually helping to create more supervillains. And secondly, sometimes people in these experiments turned into monsters themselves and started rampaging and killing innocent people.

  "Good to hear," Lester said, keeping a calm demeanor.

  "I guess some introductions are in order," Armie said. She turned to the three people. "You've met Red." Armie pointed at the guy who had come to get Lester from the bar. Lester looked at Red. The guy wasn't a Darryn after all. Maybe one of the others was a Darryn and he'd gotten mixed up. On another note, he didn't see any red on Red. But maybe the name was a metaphor for blood and violence. The guy seemed to have like twenty knives hung all around his body.

  Red gave a feigned bow.

  Lester nodded and said, "Good to meet you."

  "Our scout here is Whiskers." Armie pointed at a man, who, Lester noticed, had indeed whiskers under his nose. At least his name was accurate.

  Whiskers gave Lester a nod while brushing his whiskers.

  Lester nodded to Whiskers, trying all the time not to stare at the guy's whiskers.

  "And finally this beauty here is Lance." She pointed at a man with long golden hair, who had a huge rifle.

  Lance indicated his rifle. "And this beauty here is Mademoiselle. She can punch through eighty millimeters of steel." Then he scanned Lester up and down. "No one but me is allowed to touch Mademoiselle."

  "Okay," Lester said. Then he added, "Do I get a gun?"

  "You have any experience with firearms?" Armie said.

  Lester thought about it. He'd used pepper spray a couple of times. But that likely might not be the same thing. But he was certain he could handle one. His superpowers included a Reflex of three, which would likely make him an expert sniper even if he hadn't used a gun before.

  As he didn't answer immediately, Armie said, "If you're still with us after a couple of weeks. I'll consider giving you one. But for now, your job is to carry all our extra gear."

  Lester nodded, understanding not to ask for more. He'd definitely been lucky to land this job.

  "And one more thing," Armie said, "If you're running from something, Juniper Grove is a good place to be. No one asks about one's pasts here. And, also, don't you go asking about others' pasts. That'll get you killed here."

  Lester understood what she meant. He was probably not the only runaway in this place. But there was still the fact that there was a bounty on his head.

  Lester felt he should try to ask subtly some more. Even if there was some risk there. "So, hypothetically speaking, what if someone has a bounty on their head?"

  Armie nodded. "Plenty here do. But no bounty hunter would come here unless said bounty was in the several hundreds of thousands."

  Lester remembered the villains at the train station saying the bounty on his head was ten thousand. Definitely not hundreds of thousands. It might have been that he was not that important to Doctor Nastybrain. Kinda insulting in a way. But it was really a relief to hear.

  Lester said nothing.

  As the other checked their gear, he took out the last of the cheese and started eating it. It tasted okay. But he could have sworn that one of the party members was a Darryn, as he continued walking behind the others.

  Then Lester heard Lance say, "At least the new Darryn seems to be struggling less with the baggage than the previous one."

  And it clicked. Darryn had been the previous bag carrier, his predecessor. The guy who had gotten bitten by a snake and whose head had given birth to a bunch of baby snakes.

  Soon they left the small town through the wooden gate. Lester looked at the surrounding forest, and he thought, So this is my job now. Strange.