The Citadel is a place of mystery. It monitors, and in most cases, controls the activity of all Earthbound superheroes. When he first founded it in the ‘80s, Fennec the Fox did so with the promise of accountability and, to this day, makes certain that all heroes that pass through the doors of the Citadel live up to that standard.

With this in mind, Mara’s speechlessness upon being confronted by an agent of the Citadel is rooted less in shock and more so in uncertainty. After a long, awkward moment, Jefferson lets out a huff before butting his head into her, prompting her to finally say, “Agent Powers! What…What are you doing here?”

“Indeed”, Bramble asks, seemingly about as relieved about the Agent’s abrupt appearance as Mara. “What are you doing here? I thought I made my thoughts on the Citadel loud and clear.”

Agent Powers just smiles. “You have.” She lightly bats her lashes before she turns a dismissive stare upon Mara. “But several of our power readers informed us of the arrival of a necromancer and put their location at your Green House.”

“Well, that seems invasive.” Mara crosses her arms over her chest, a bead of sweat pooling down her temple. “And is that so horrible? There isn’t some rule that forbids necromancers from being here, is there?”

Agent Powers just tilts her head to the side, a sharp smile settling across her lips as she answers, “Not yet”. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a circular device, then passes it to Bramble. Curious, Mara leans in close before she frowns at the sight of the technobabble that greets her. She doesn’t know what it means, but if the smug smirk on the Agent’s face is indication, it’s bad news for her. “There’s been a surge in dark magic in Miracle City as of late.”

“Is that so?”, Bramble scoffs, and there’s a challenge to his tone, his hazel eyes narrowed as he shakes a disbelieving head at her. “If I were you, I’d be careful who I say that to, Agent. Because when I said that, I was written off as hysterical.”

Agent Powers just shrugs. “Because you were hysterical. This is Miracle City, the city where hopes are fulfilled, where dreams come true. Our chosen hero is a Cupid, our mayor is an angel. There’s nothing here that would ever allow for dark magic to take root.”

“Well, evidently not.” Bramble holds his ground, not moving an inch.

But Mara knows from personal experience that Agent Powers is not so easily deterred. She sighs and says, “Well, in any case, you can see why the arrival of someone like her at this time would draw undue attention”.

“...You’re saying you think I have something to do with this?”, Mara asks, incredulous. When Powers just continues to glare at her, she scoffs, bringing her hands to rest on her hips. “But I literally just got here. I still got portal lag for Hades’s sake.”

Powers just hums to herself. “Be that as it may, the Citadel isn’t keen on taking chances. Bramble may be a disappointment so far as we’re concerned, but the public still holds him in good regard. You have the potential to change that.” She raises her eyebrows at her. “I don’t need to remind you of what happened at the Grand Canyon, do I?”

“The Grand Canyon.” Amusement creeps into Bramble’s eyes. “And what exactly happened at the Grand Canyon?”

A fierce blush skitters across Mara’s cheeks before she stutters, “T-That isn’t important” When Bramble just continues to stare at her, she huffs before turning back to Powers. “It was an accident, okay, a one-time accident that could’ve happened to anyone and one that I don’t plan on repeating.”

“It doesn’t matter what you plan on repeating or not”, Powers counters with a satisfied smile. “By order of the First Council of the Citadel, you are required to receive permission for anyone you choose to conduct superheroic affairs with.”

Bramble just stares at her. “Yes. But I’m not affiliated with the Citadel anymore. Am I?” Powers takes a step back, a frown settling across her lips. “I’ve been acting independently for years now, and I’ll continue to do so with Tombstone as my partner.” 

“Really?” Powers turns an exasperated stare upon him.

Overcome with emotion, Mara stares as well and asks, “Really?” She lets out a shaky breath. “W…Why?”

 To his credit, Bramble doesn’t appear at all intimidated by the two women. He merely lifts his head higher, then, to Mara’s surprise, turns to look her in the eye. And there isn’t a hint of disgust or disappointment to be found within his stare when he says, “You didn’t want my autograph”.

“I’d forgotten your standards had fallen so low.” Powers shakes her head at him.

Bramble just shrugs. “I live to disappoint.”

“Obviously”, she scoffs before turning back to the portal from which she’d emerged. She pauses, then turns to look back at them. “You may not be affiliated with the Citadel, but she is. For her sake, you’d better hope this all works out.”

The portal closes behind her, and Bramble lets out a sigh. He turns to look at her, then says, “All right then. Are you ready?” At the bewildered stare she gives in return, he clears his throat. “For Gossamer. I’ve told him we’re coming, but he’s a busy man. We really shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

“Oh. Oh, right. The supersuits. Y-Yeah, I’m ready.” She passes her bag of civvies to Jefferson, then rolls out her shoulders. “Do you, uh, do you have an address?”

Bramble just grunts. “0506 South Silk Road.”

“Okay”, Mara remarks. She pauses, taking a moment to take out her spell book to look over her teleportation spell. And yes, this time, she reads it all the way through. She looks up then, the spell on the tip of her tongue when she notices the way he’s watching her. “What?”

He just shrugs before musing, “Nothing. It’s just…resurrection, teleportation. You’ve got some heavy duty spells in your arsenal”. He then turns his stare upon Jefferson and makes a noise low in his throat. “Maybe leave the jackal behind.”

“What, is he not a dog person either?” All the same, she offers Jefferson a sheepish shrug before waving as he trots down the hall without a care in the world.

Bramble just shakes his head as he goes. “No, he’s quite fond of them actually, that’s kind of the problem. The last thing we need is him getting distracted.”

“If you say so”, Mara says with a shrug of the shoulders. She takes in a deep breath, then draws a circle out of the air, a purple portal blossoming in its place moments later. “From here to there, I bid thee take me there: 0612 North Silk Road.” With a skip in her step, Mara steps through the portal. The crumbling cobblestone ground gives way to polished hardwood floors, the poorly-lit hallway traded for a large room illuminated by a massive chandelier. She lets out a long whistle, in awe as she lowers her hood from her head. “Man, this is fancy.”

A deep chuckle sounds out from behind them before a voice calls out, “Well, I must be doing something right then”. Upon turning around, she finds a man descending from the top of an imperial staircase. Dressed in a sleek pantsuit modeled after the ocean, the man pauses at the bottom of the staircase, his eyes captivated as they lock onto Mara. “Wow, you are just radiating with power. What’s your ranking if you don’t mind my asking?”

“We’re here for suits, not a power measurement” He plops down on one of the couches and turns a tired stare up at her. “Tombs, this is Gossamer. Goss, this is Tombstone. We’re going to be working together, so she’ll need a suit that can withstand…well, working with someone like me.”

All the while, Mara has wandered off, her eyes widening by the second as she comes to stand before a glass case of supersuits. She recognizes the likes of Pyra, Ebb, Milky Way, Thousand Man Sam. And of course, what she can only deduce is an earlier version of Cupid’s suit. She tilts her head to the side, humming to herself as she notes the suit Bramble wore in his infamous fight against the Mortician. “Man, these are great. Can you make my mask, my cloak, and my shoes the kinda blue you used for the Thousand Man Sam? Oh and something that can withstand portal fatigue?”

“The colors aren’t a problem at all”, Gossamer responds somewhat absentmindedly, his stare gone analytical as his eyes sweep over her. “But I was actually thinking we should stick with the lavender, what with your hair and all. That and purple always goes good with green.”

A quiet sigh escapes Bramble before he mutters, “Whatever you do, just make it quick, could you? We still have a few things to get in order, and I’d like to get back to them sooner rather than later”.

“Right.” Gossamer saunters down the hall as if expecting them to follow. Mara turns to leave with him, only to frown when Bramble settles comfortably on the couch. “Uh, aren’t you gonna come with?”

Bramble just tilts his head back and lets out a long sigh. “He knows my measurements and what I like. There’s no need. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

After a moment’s indecision, Mara follows after the famous designer, soon finding herself standing before the man as he approaches her with a length of measuring tape.

“Who designed your previous suit?”, he says after a moment, scribbling something onto a notepad before he turns back to her with some fabric made of spandex. He tosses it over her shoulders, and, at her curious stare, he smiles. “There aren’t many designers that work with superheroes, and we all have our thing that sets us apart from the others. Yours, I’m having trouble identifying.”

Mara affords him a small smile, arms held out straight as he fits the fabric to her. She tilts her head to the side, then explains, “Yeah, well, that’s because it’s a little bit of everyone else’s”. When Gossamer turns a curious stare her way, she averts her eyes. “When my old partner and I were first starting out, neither of us had much money. But he came from a family of superheroes, you know, so he had the name and-and the credibility. It made sense to go all out for his suit, and well, there was a bunch of perfectly good stuff in the Lost and Found bin at the Citadel-”

“Decay? You used to work with Decay?” He raises his platinum white eyebrows at her before he lets out a breath, shaking his head in exasperation as he turns back to her measurements. “Well, that explains a lot. And let me be the first to say congratulations. That guy’s a real piece of work.”

Mara just bites her lower lip, eyes locking onto the mirror before her. “He isn’t so bad once you get to know him. We just weren’t a good match.”

“You’re both necromancers”, Gossamer remarks, but, thankfully enough, he lets the matter drop. They spend the rest of the fitting on more comfortable topics, like the worst fights she’s had and the effects they’d had on her suits, as well as more entertaining ones, like how he first met Bramble. When at last he’s done, he gestures for the mirror across the way.

And it’s beautiful. As promised, her suit is purple, the same shade as her hair, as her powers, and she can tell from the weight that it’s imbued with some protective properties. When she turns to Gossamer, there’s a shit-eating grin upon her face. She claps her hands together and says, “It’s perfect”. She strides out back into the hall with a confidence she hasn’t felt in some time, pausing before where Bramble has fallen asleep on the bench. She kicks his bare foot with her boot, and when he stirs away, she has to stifle a laugh. “So. What do you think?”

“I think....” Bramble sits up some, half-lidded eyes widening ever so slightly before he coughs into his fist. “It’s not a bad look actually.”

Gossamer just laughs, a knowing glint to his eyes. “Like I said. Purple and green. Pretty good match, right?”

“I sure think so”, Mara says and gives a dramatic wave of her cloak.

An inquisitive hum escapes Bramble before he crosses his broad arms over his chest and muses, “If you say so”. He then turns to Gossamer, who passes him a pile of neatly folded black and green clothes. “You had them ready?”

“You’re one of my easier customers. Always like things to stay the same.” He then offers Mara a soft smile. “And it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Tombstone.”

With a playful curtsy, Mara smiles back at him. “As it was meeting you, Mr. Gossamer.”

“All right, all right”, Bramble mutters with a roll of the eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”

A delighted squeal escapes Mara before she opens a portal before them as she declares, “We should get something to eat”.

“...Do you ever walk anywhere?”

Unaware of the problem, Mara just smiles. “No, why would I? Ooh, I would kill for a sandwich right about now.” She steps through the portal and into a sandwich shop.

“Is this really necessary? I keep lunch meat and bread at the Green House for guests”, Bramble grouses as he ducks in after her. 

A shudder passes up Mara’s spine. She pauses at the corner, a hand on her hip when she retorts, “I’ve looked in your fridge, okay? There’s shit in there that I would not feed to Jefferson, and I once saw him eat a decomposed rat out of a dumpster”. With that, she purses her lips, turning her stare upon the menu over their heads. “Ooh, they got veggie sandwiches. That sounds promising, doesn’t it?”

“Excuse me, I haven’t had to buy food for people in years. And I’ll have to pass on the sandwich.” At Mara’s curious stare, his shoulders rise defensively. “What?”

She just shrugs. “Nothing. It’s just, I don’t know why, but I figured you’d be a vegetarian or something.”

“I’m made of plants”, Bramble explains curtly.

 Warmth gathers in Mara’s cheeks as she lets out a sheepish, “Oh. Sorry”.

“...It’s fine. I photosynthesize mostly, so I’ll just have some water.” An awkward silence stretches between them, the line agonizingly slow. “Was there anything in particular you’d like to eat?”

Mara wracks her brain for a moment. “I dunno. Grilled cheese maybe?”

“You mean to tell me you dragged me out into the public for some hot bread and cheese?”, Bramble scoffs, incredulous as he brings his hands to rest upon his hips. 

A lopsided smile climbs to her lips. She shrugs and says, “Trust me, they make it hotter and cheesier than anyplace else, okay? I’d trade my soul for one of these if it ever came to that.”

“Excuse me.” Someone clears their throat, and they both turn to find the line has finally moved. The sandwich maker looks between them both, an amused smirk upon her lips. “I’m ready if you are.”

“We are.” Mara braces her arms against the counter and smiles. “Can I get a grilled cheese and a cream soda? Oh and a water, too.”