In the forsaken hour of three in the morning, the burner phone beeped. Phoenix bolted upright, the plot of his dream already fading, and reached for it. There was a text with coordinates and a single word.

Sunrise.

Phoenix stared at it, bleary-eyed, and blinked himself awake. Dawn wasn't for some time, but there was no use in trying to get some more sleep. He was already too anxious. He should be relieved that Sharmistha finally contacted him, but he found himself scared. It was really happening.

He was actually in the Nameless.

....................................

The sky brightened as Phoenix drove to his destination: the old, defunct section of the Jethro rail yard. He parked on the closest street, slipped through a hole in the fence, and walked until he stood in the exact spot of the coordinates. Rusty tracks littered with train cars stretched in both straight and conjoined paths, and the noise of the active section of the yard didn't reach all the way here. He turned in a circle, taking in a view unobstructed by the skyscrapers of the inner city.

"I'm glad you came," said a voice behind him.

Sharmistha was approaching with two people at her sides. The woman couldn't be more than a few years older than Phoenix, and the man couldn't be more than a few years older than her. They observed him with reserved curiosity.

"This is Evan and Liling," Sharmistha said. "If all goes well and you don't turn out to be useless, they're who you'll be working with."

She turned her back to him so she could face them. Phoenix had to restrain himself from leaning sideways to try and see if she was whispering something. She had to be, but Evan was looking down at the bug on his shoe, and Liling's expression never changed. Whatever Sharmistha was saying, they were either uninterested, or they had very good poker faces.

"I'll leave you to it," she said aloud, finally, and then she left the three of them alone.

Phoenix held his breath, waiting to be told what they planned to do now. Walker had given him plenty of examples of the unsavory things the Nameless got up to, and he knew he had to sabotage his task without them finding out, or, if that failed, he would use mind control to get out of it.

Evan and Liling walked around and then past him. He turned to follow, ending up in between them, as they likely intended. They were walking further into the defunct yard, loosely following a set of tracks.

"So, Nick," Liling said. "Why'd you join the Nameless?"

"Some friends of mine went missing," Phoenix replied. "I want to find out what happened to them."

"From where?" Evan asked. "I always hear about people disappearing in South Side. Never go past eleventh street—learned that the hard way."

Phoenix shook his head. "They didn't go missing in Jethro."

"Are they from Jethro?"

"No."

There was a pause. "Are you from Jethro?"

"No."

Liling raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you looking here?"

"I heard the people here know things."

"They know things if it's relevant to the city or generally important," she pointed out. "If these friends of yours are regular people from elsewhere, no one here is going to know anything."

"I don't know if they're regular people," Phoenix admitted. "I only know who they were, not who they turned out to be. Their disappearance was part of a big, complicated mess that was anything but regular." He looked at the sky, stretching grandly and blue in all directions. "If I can find even the slightest hint of what happened, I'll be grateful."

Liling still looked skeptical, but she made no further comments and held out an arm to stop him and Evan. They stood facing the side of the first train car in a line, all defaced with graffiti or damage.

"Sharmistha said you have telekinesis," Liling said, "and you told her not to go advertising it. Consider Evan and I your best friends in the Nameless—we're the only ones who know. Now." She gestured to the first car. "Prove it."

Phoenix held out one hand. The rail car creaked as he gently tugged it forward on the track, the blue appearing around his fingers and the wheels. Slowly, unsure of how much force it could take, he pulled the car until it detached from the one behind it. When the next track over was visible between the gap, he eased it to a stop.

"Oh." Evan smiled, a wicked glint in his eye. "You're going to be fun."

Liling walked into the space between the detached car and its former line. The side of the car of the next track was now accessible, and she laid a hand on its rusty but untouched surface. "Thanks," she commented, dropping her backpack and pulling out spray cans. As she painted, Phoenix realized it was the same art style as the graffiti on all the other cars. The yard was her canvas.

Evan climbed onto the detached car and sprawled out on its roof, one leg bent over the side and swinging lazily. Phoenix just stood there, waiting and wondering, is that it? Eventually, Liling looked over her shoulder.

"You seem disappointed," she sighed. "I'm sorry we couldn't do something more interesting. Sharmistha hasn't given us any tasks."

"She hasn't given anyone any tasks," Evan mumbled from above.

Liling froze. "Really?"

Evan sat up and shrugged. "Guess there's not much going on. She probably has to clear some things with Ladock."

"Huh." Liling was still for a second more, but she also shrugged and went back to painting.

Evan glanced down. Phoenix tried not to look relieved; he was grateful he didn't have to weasel his way out of committing a crime, but he didn't want Evan to see that. As far as they knew, he'd implied to Sharmistha that he was willing to do anything with the Nameless as long as he could do his research.

"No problem," Phoenix shrugged, too. "I'm in no rush."

.....................

"Ladock," Phoenix said, leaning forward on the table so he wouldn't have to see the tightrope in his peripheral vision. It was still up but not in use at the moment. "Who's Ladock?"

Walker flipped up his welding helmet. "Owner of the Nameless for about two decades. His family gained power and wealth through intimidation and crime. They've been in Jethro for a century."

"Do the police know he's the leader of the Nameless?"

Walker nodded. Phoenix figured he would know the ins and outs of gang activity, but the cops knowing it, too, surprised him.

"If they know," Phoenix said, "why hasn't he been put in jail? If he's been at it for decades, and his family's been at it for even longer, they've got to be able to pin him on something."

Walker shook his head. "Taking down a guy like that consists of dozens of steps. You have to find irrefutable evidence, a prosecutor who's willing to stick their neck out, a judge and jury who aren't afraid to say guilty, the list goes on. In a city this corrupt, any one of those steps is damn near impossible on its own."

Phoenix glanced at the framed newspaper. "Is that why you became a hero?" he asked quietly.

Walker took off the welding equipment and set it aside with a sigh. "I tried the proper ways first, to help. Philanthropy. Programs. But...like I said, those things don't work in a place like this." He sat down, rubbing his face. "I took matters into my own hands and ended up a superhero."

"But you don't work for the League, do you?"

"No. I've registered as a legal superhero, but I don't take orders from them. I only check in every now and then with the handler they assigned me, Agent Montgomery. Must be busy, I haven't seen him in a while."

Walked detached his project from the clamps. To Phoenix, it looked like two metal strips fused together. He couldn't even begin to guess its use, but he didn't need to, because Walker immediately threw it like a ninja star. The front half hit and dug into the wall, but the back half snapped off and dangled on the weld.

"Better," Walker murmured.

Phoenix helped him clean up the workspace. Walker had called him here for updates, but he didn't have any, other than asking about Ladock. His research plan hadn't yet begun. He would meet Evan and Liling at least one more time to solidify their partnership before he asked them for and got nosy with the Nameless' connections. So, there wasn't anything for him and Walker to do except talk.

"Are there supervillains in Jethro?" Phoenix asked.

"Sure. There's Ribbon Girl, Razor, Dirt Man—"

Phoenix laughed. "Dirt Man?"

"I wish I was kidding. All the man can do is conjure a handful—and only a handful—of dirt and throw it in people's faces. It's not very effective."

"At least it gives him a headstart for running away," Phoenix suggested, now wondering other reasons why conjuring dirt could be useful. A gardener would love it.

"Ribbon Girl, Razor, Dirt Man..." Walker paused, suddenly serious. "There's apparently a new guy in town. They're calling him the Shadow Magician."

Phoenix straightened, the smile falling off his face. "That might be Azure."

"The Snake the other Snakes are looking for?"

"Yeah. He can do this...thing. I don't know how to describe it, but shadow is a decent word. Any news on what he's doing?"

Walker shook his head. "I've only heard rumors. What they call him is as much as I know."

Phoenix nervously picked at a sticker on the table. Had Crimson and Violet figured out that Azure was here? They should be told, but he had no way of contacting them, and he wasn't even sure they were still in the city. They might've been the League's enemies, but regarding Azure and Ravager, they were on the same side.

Who knew—if things got bad enough, they might all have to work together.

.........................................

Sharmistha was so nervous, she would be sweating if it wasn't forty degrees in Ladock's office. The chill maintained his expensive collection of drinks, and it kept him from sweating through his thousand-dollar suit. She also liked to imagine that he was so, so pathetic that he would melt if not taken care of properly.

She sat across the desk from him. Ladock was in his sixties, short like Sharmistha, and didn't really look like much. His power wasn't in his suburban grandfather appearance, it was in his name, his wealth, his ability to order people around. She was his right-hand: she took his orders and got them done.

But ever since Azure's visit, things had gone his way, and Ladock was catching on.

"Manja's still getting notices from the eleventh precinct," he said evenly. "We have an officer there, don't we? Why haven't you taken care of that yet?"

"In due time," she explained. "They have a new captain. I'm being careful."

"Do you have a timeline?"

"A month, at least. I don't want to risk getting him caught."

It was sort of true. The eleventh precinct did have a new captain, and Sharmistha did have to be careful if she wanted to bribe her contact, but it could easily be taken care of in a day, not a month. This was Ladock's problem: while he was busy reaping the benefits of the Nameless' work, he didn't take the time to fully understand it. Such was the pitfall of mafia inheritance; the descendants, the receivers, were never quite as cunning as their ancestors who gathered the power in the first place.

"Okay," Ladock said, clueless. "Rick of the Red Tide wants to discuss something. Thoughts?"

"Rick is an idiot and I wouldn't risk it."

Another lie. Yes, Rick was an idiot, but Sharmistha still wanted to hear what he had to say. Azure warned against all activity, though, and so it must declined.

"Very well." Ladock nodded. "And everything else is moving along? All our contacts, deals, et cetera? There's been no...interruptions?"

An easy smile was plastered on his face, but his narrowed eyes showed a warning. Sharmistha knew he couldn't possibly guess what was going on, but he definitely knew something was up.

"Everything is going perfectly well," she said smoothly.

"Wonderful."

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. Sharmistha nodded at his bodyguards as she slipped past them and through the door, and once she was a few blocks away, she took a deep breath, grateful for the open air. Even though it smelled like rot and decay, it was better than the freezing, sanitized air of his office.

She made a frustrated noise and kicked a rock. If she told Azure that Ladock was suspicious, would he do something about it? She didn't know how he'd react, if he did at all, and she still had no idea how pausing their activities would benefit him.

What was Azure setting up?