"The Heavenly Yaksha?" Stella said, sipping the freshly brewed coffee Kevin gave her.
Zack had finally made it to her apartment and got himself into civilian clothes. The two were planning on resting and celebrating their victory, but the news Zack brought put that on hold.
"What are they?" Zack asked, refusing his.
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long while. Honestly, a name I never wanted to hear again," Stella began. "It's some kind of secret society. I know we got a shit ton of those all over the country, but this one's legit. Real hush-hush."
"What do they do?"
"All I've heard are rumors and secondhand statements, so take this with a grain of salt. Their job is to keep the status quo in check."
"Status quo?" Kevin said, sitting down and sipping his coffee as well.
"Yeah. You know, the perpetual battle between good and evil. Like how villains rarely get killed off or put in prison permanently. There's always a new threat. There's always a prison break to bring back old ones," Stella explained.
"And you're saying these guys are responsible for that?"
"That's what my rumors say. Like this recent prison break a few months ago. The one that got Wyvern of the Dragon Clan back in action..."
Zack's eyes widened at that.
"People are saying it was planned by a greater power. That all these prison breaks are. Hell, some say these guys make new villains in labs, or orchestrate disasters to force people into becoming villains through the fallout."
"What the fuck?" Kevin said, putting his coffee down.
"Why haven't I heard of these guys?" Zack said, holding his arms.
"As I said. Real hush-hush. They'll do anything to keep themselves outta the public eye. Like..."
Stella stopped herself halfway.
"Like what?"
"N...never mind."
"Like what, Stella?" Zack said, prying further.
Stella sighed.
"You remember the Zee City incident, right?"
"Of course I do. I fought its cause, Galan."
"Yeah. Galan. Well, it's just a rumor, an outlandish one at that, but I heard the Yaksha orchestrated it to get rid of that city."
"What?!" Zack shouted, standing up.
"Why the fuck would someone want to obliterate an entire city?"
"I heard a lot of reasons from a lot of conflicting sources, but the most consistent one is there was a group there that had found out about them and wanted to make the whole world know."
"So they killed them," Kevin said.
"Along with a city's worth of people," Zack said, his voice deepening involuntarily as he stared at an open window.
"Zack..." Stella called.
He was silent.
"Again, it's just a rumor. Maybe they didn't do it. Maybe..."
"Guys," Kevin said.
"Maybe they did. Maybe the Super Society knew. Maybe Canman knew, maybe..." Zack interrupted.
"Guys."
"We don't know that, Zack. None of what I said was proven. Hell, some of my sources say they're just a backwater gang."
"Guys."
"Whatever they are, we can't..."
"Guys!" Kevin shouted, finally getting the two to listen.
"Kevin?" Zack asked, slowly getting embarrassed at his deepened voice as he sat back down.
"Listen, I don't wanna be that guy, but I gotta say it. This... Heavenly whatever is beyond us."
"Kevin?"
"At least for now. I know it's a bigger fish to fry, but have you considered it's way too big for our pan?" Kevin said.
"Like it's out of our league?"
"Yeah. Remember how you got his info? Andy? We literally got video evidence of that scumbag being partners to a criminal organization. Now we can stop him from running for office," Kevin explained. "You did get the video, right?"
"Y...yeah, it was in my bag. I left it in the forest when I was fighting. Don't worry, I brought it," Zack said, pointing to his backpack at the corner of the living room.
Stella sighed.
"Kevin's right. We got a chance to do some genuine change here. The Yaksha are a problem, but we'll hit that road when we get to it. Andy comes first."
"And how are we gonna do this?" Kevin asked.
"Zack, you still got the footage from his mansion, right?" Stella asked.
"Of him meeting with Target? Yeah, I left the camera in my bag before the fight."
"Then it's all set. Head by the police station and..."
"Police station? I thought we were handing this over to Print?" Zack said, wide-eyed.
"No. Not Print. I learned a long time ago he can't be trusted. Evil can't watch you if it doesn't have eyes."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kevin asked, smirking.
"Just something I learned from Print. It really helped me figure out why we shouldn't trust him. Luckily, I also learned about someone we can trust."
"And who would that be?" Kevin asked.
Stella turned on her computer and showed a picture to the two.
"Wait... I've seen her before," Zack started. "She's a captain in the police force."
"Commissioner now. Earned a promotion after her contributions in the Zone incident a couple months back. This is Commissioner Manson. Damn good cop if I've ever seen one."
"How do you know we can trust her?"
"A couple months ago, Mr. E broke into the station to break out a guy called Snek," Stella started, earning an odd look from Zack.
"Heard of him?" She asked.
"I'm... familiar with him. Continue."
"Anyway, she was the only cop to actually step to Mr. E. Granted, she got swatted away like a fly, but she still earned the respect of the community."
"I see. So she's brave? I don't know if that's enough for me to..."
"I also heard rumors, a lot of them actually, that she's somehow connected to Hawk Knight."
Zack gave another odd look.
"Hawk Knight?"
"Yeah. The vigilante guy. They used to work together, I heard. She'd track down criminals and he'd take 'em down for booking."
"I've... never heard of this, and I know..." Zack paused. "...knew Hawk Knight."
"Yeah. It was a pretty secretive partnership. But all I know is if she's willing to work with vigilantes, it shows she's extremely anti-establishment. We can use that to..."
"So you're putting our biggest chance at exposing this creep on a rumor?" Kevin said, sighing.
"Two, actually."
"Two?"
"Yeah. I heard that Target tried to call her over to his side a while back, when the other mayor was paying protection money to him. She decked him square in the jaw. Don't know how the hell she made it out of that."
"That's crazy," Zack said, a smile forming.
"So you're putting our plan on two rumors?"
Zack giggled.
"And a hunch," Stella added.
Now Zack laughed.
"This isn't funny, Zack. Do you really think we can risk the fate of the city on a hunch and a rumor?"
"Working with the Danger Squad has made me risk it for less. Honestly, if Stella trusts this woman, then I trust her too."
"Seriously?" Kevin said, standing up and approaching him.
"Yeah. Got a problem with that?" Zack said, doing the same.
Once the two were a few inches from each other, they stopped.
And Kevin smirked.
"This is not gonna end well," Kevin said, showing Zack his hand.
"We'll see," Zack said, shaking it.
Stella came from behind and wrapped around the two in an awkward hug.
"Okay, okay, dick-measuring contest's over. Let's get down to business," she said with a smile, which got Zack rolling his eyes.
"Dick-measuring? We weren't..."
Kevin laughed, causing the others to follow suit.
They laughed for a good few minutes before Stella got back to her computer and extracted the video footage. Once she was done, she transferred it to a pen drive and handed it to Zack.
Meanwhile, Kevin tried to educate Zack on other shit happening around the city, like their favorite comic shop getting a cute new clerk.
Just as Kevin was about to get into more detail about how he tried to bag her, Stella told the two she finished with a shout.
And their plan entered phase two...
To be continued...