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Jake knew that training was necessary to become a top-flight superhero, so he endured it patiently. When Marcia took his training into her own paws, however, he usually attended those sessions with enthusiasm. So it felt odd, on this late spring night, to be hesitating in the doorway of her bedroom as she slipped out of her jacket and blouse.

"Well?" she said. Her long ears twitched, satellite dishes

The coyote unbuttoned one button on his shirt, reached for the next. "Sorry, I just..."

"No, no." She placed a finger on the third button as the coyote was about to unbutton it. "Undress your way."

She stepped back from him, lowered her skirt to the floor and then tossed it into the hamper in the corner. Her short, fluffy tail rested against the vanity as she leaned back, folded her arms under her bra, and watched him.

He eyed the cleavage her pose created, and grinned. "You got it." He concentrated, extending his arms forward for dramatic effect. He hesitated only for a moment-toward her or away?-and then figured out how he could use the mirror behind her. He closed his eyes and pictured himself in front of her, and when he flexed his power, he contracted the 'field' as much as he could.

In the mirror, over her shoulder, he watched his clothes hang in the air where he'd been one second ago and then fall to the floor. That never got old.

Her paws reached out for his sides, fingers sinking into his tawny pelt, her thumbs rubbing at the border where the tawny dissolved into ivory. He returned his attention to her, fitting his paws neatly around the curve of her dark brown shoulders.

"You've gotten really good at that." She reached down to his sheath, full and heavy with his swollen member, and used it to pull him forward. "C'mere, now."

"Come in handy if I ever need to strip for a supervillain," he said. "Maybe like some evil woman I need to distract." He moved his large paws down to her small rear, shoving his fingers under her pink panties and pulling her hips against his.

Their muzzles met. Her long ears folded over to touch the tips of his. He pushed her panties further down and broke the kiss, licking up her pink nose and the gentle slope of her muzzle.

"Jake," she said in mild reproach, turning her head to the side.

His ears flicked back. She didn't let his sheath go, though, so he didn't stop pushing her panties down, crouching to finish the job. She stepped out of them and shook her head. "You canids with your tongues. Come on, onto the bed."

He licked at her exposed privates, but she stepped away from him, unhooked her bra and dropped it in the hamper. He watched her bare white rear sashay to the bed and plop down on it, bouncing with the springs. Her lithe form turned around, showing off the curves as she sat back and beckoned him with a finger. He wagged his tail and jumped up to the bed in a moment, burying his muzzle in her stomach fur.

She squealed and batted at his head, leaning back on her elbows. "Jake!"

"What?" He grinned up, and applied his tongue to the pink nipples now poking through her white chest fur, trying not to get distracted by remembering what she'd told him she liked: some pulling with his teeth, licking up and down, some attention to the breast itself. Marcia wasn't the first girl he'd slept with, but she was the first he'd taken instruction from.

She stopped complaining, then, slid her fingers along his erection, and trailed them up slowly. He was already dripping like a leaky faucet; at her touch he moaned and pushed her down onto the bed, washing his tongue up her chest and across each nipple in turn, taking them in his teeth and teasing them gently.

She shuddered, slipping her paws around to his rear to pull him down against her. He gasped in excitement and worked his hips to rub his hardness against her sex. He felt her moan building in her chest before he heard it, and wrapped his arms around her body while his hips worked back further until he felt the tip of his erection press down into her warm passage. "Don't forget to concentrate," she whispered.

"I know." For a moment he held there, making her wait, annoyed that she'd broken the mood, and then he pressed in slowly, all the way. She squirmed as he held her, bucking up against him, pulling his muzzle from her chest up to her mouth so her tongue could slide between his lips in a hot, wild kiss.

They kissed, while he thrust into her and back out, shivering, and that lasted a grand total of two minutes by her bedside clock until he felt the hugeness of his knot lock him to her, heard her high squeals and felt her body shake as the familiar surge of imminent release built in him-

-and suddenly he was in his own bedroom on all fours, moaning and shaking the rickety frame of his double bed as he spurted onto his sheets even though the warmth of the rabbit was gone. He panted, remaining on all fours, dripping onto his sheets, and then sighed, his ears flat. "Shit," he said to the empty room.

He blinked back to her bedroom, ears flat. She was getting under the covers, and if she saw him appear, she gave no sign.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Marcia shook her head. "You weren't concentrating." She lay back on the pillows and looked at the ceiling.

"I tried," he said. "But if you weren't so damn hot..."

Now she looked at him. "Don't try that, Jake, it's not going to work. A real superhero has to think fast and keep his power completely under his control. You had to have felt the power building up, and you should have been able to stop it. Do we have to look at the monitor record again to look at how long you had?"

He glanced at the machine in the corner, and tucked his tail between his legs. "No."

She sighed. "You know this is all for your career, right, Jake?" He nodded. "Well, look. There are worse things than having to practice that some more."

When he looked up, she was smiling. "I just feel like I screwed up this whole night. I really have been practicing."

"By yourself?" She arched an eyebrow and looked down at his dripping member, only now starting to retreat into its sheath.

"Well...yeah." He looked away and flicked his ears.

"That's cute. Do you think of me?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Nice to know you think of me at least then." She turned onto her side.

Jake started to collect his clothes. "Sorry," he mumbled. He pulled the briefs on, then stood there awkwardly.

"You can stay if you want to." She sounded tired.

"I was going to do my rounds."

"All right." She turned out the light. Just before he blinked to the rooftop, he heard her say, "Be safe."

Marcia's condo building was not tall, but there were few tall buildings between it and downtown Dunstown, so it gave him a nice view of the suburbs and the gaslamp district, and the cracks in between where dirty things happened. He lay on the edge, eyes closed, listening to the city below. The wind ruffled the dark streak of fur down his back and tugged his tail back and forth, slowly carrying away the glow and warmth of sex.

No noise reached his ears this night, and after ten minutes, he was feeling a little chilly even through his fur. Even his shaft, covered by his tail and no longer straining against the fabric of his briefs, was cooling down. He took one last look around this area and blinked back to his apartment, on the other side of town.

Back in his bedroom, Jake dropped his clothes and put on his costume, a tight black jumpsuit with a yellow eye logo in the center. He'd wanted it smaller and over the left breast, but Marcia had overruled him. "It has to be big. We want people to remember it so the brand takes hold. You won't be doing much hand-to-hand fighting or sneaking around. Pop in, pop out. We'll put a kevlar sheet behind this so if people aim at it, you can survive being shot. That's what I'm most worried about. Someone taking a shot at you that you don't see."

So Jake had kevlar on the front and back, a hood he could pull over his head to avoid exposing his identity if he needed to, and black gloves that had a well-textured grip, because early on he had a tendency to blink into someplace off balance and put his hands out to break his fall. He was much better now, but he still kept the gloves because he didn't know what he would be appearing next to.

His portable police scanner fit into the pocket on his right hip. He seated the earbud that was connected to it in his right ear before blinking to the roof of his building, his safe spot numero uno. From there he could see and hear several blocks into the Swamp, his low-rent, low-class neighborhood where he'd started breaking up small crimes when he first got his powers. As his confidence had grown, so had his beat, but he always began and ended in the Swamp.

It was quiet tonight, so he blinked over to spot numero dos, in the financial district, Dunstown's euphemistic name for the three buildings that housed the city's largest bank and four financial services companies. There he heard some activity, and turned up the volume until he caught the code: 211-S. Robbery in progress, silent alarm. 221 Redwood, cross street 3rd--that was only six blocks away, a small office complex. Someone after the computers, no doubt. That happened a few times a month. He blinked to the closest roof he could see, and then the next, until he was looking down at the intersection.

Jake knew that the four-story plain brown building with schoolhouse-regular windows was older than he was, but the collection of antennas on the roof and the black wire at each window showed him that the inside had been brought up to modern standards. He tapped his paw impatiently, itching to blink inside and find out what was going on. He hated having to wait for the police.

They pulled up ten minutes later, lights and sirens off. Two officers got out, and Jake sighed when he saw the six-foot-tall frame and huge rack of antlers. The presence of Officer Rosen meant he'd most likely be wasting his time, but he had to try. He put his hood up and blinked down to the street, in full view of both the large elk and his new partner, a young fox.

The fox clapped a paw to his gun in alarm, but Rosen barely twitched. "Blinky," he said. "Wondered when we'd see you."

"Just offering my services, Officer," Jake said, keeping his ears up and smiling, not reacting to the elk's condescension.

"We don't need the League butting in," Rosen said. "We've got this under control." He looked over his shoulder. "Collins, you have the building entry code?"

"I'm not here representing the League," Jake said. "When I am, I have to wear this red and blue armband, and I can only do that anyway if there are supervillains involved or if there are research laboratory thefts-"

Rosen cut him off with a wave as the fox tapped a code into the security panel. "I'm not interested in your accessorizing tips. We've got this under control. Isn't there a liquor store somewhere you should be staking out?"

"Sergeant," the fox said, "It would be helpful if he could pop in and..."

"Collins, just get that door open." Rosen didn't even turn, just kept Jake fixed with his eyes as though he could prevent him from blinking away. Jake glanced over at the fox, and saw a logo that looked like a circuit design and the word Intagrated on the wall at the far end of the lobby.

The fox's ears went down. "Yes, sir."

Jake shrugged, trying not to betray his disappointment. "Just call on the radio if you need me."

"Don't hold your-"

He was on the roof before the elk finished speaking. Keeping his hood up, he sat next to the ledge at the edge of the roof and rested his elbow on it, looking over as the two policemen entered the building. If there was gunfire, or if they called, he could get inside pretty quickly.

A breeze wafted past his nose, carrying a familiar avian scent. She was quiet and his hood muffled surrounding sounds, so he hadn't heard her, but she was good about approaching him from downwind. "Hi, Moxy," he said in a low voice.

"Rosen run you off again?" A tall, stately raven settled herself a few feet in front of him, leaning her arm on the ledge in a mirror image of his pose. Her beak clacked lightly as she talked. Like most avians, she wore no clothes, as all but the lightest garments made it difficult to fly. She had fingers on the ends of her wings and clawed talons at the ends of her skinny black legs, but when she had her arms spread out, she looked like a person in a bird suit.

"Yeah." Jake looked over at her bright black eyes. "I thought things would get better once I got in the League, but it's just gotten worse."

The raven clacked her beak and grinned at him. "They were threatened by a superhero horning in on their turf, and you thought that joining with a bunch of other superheroes would make that better?"

Jake shrugged. "I just thought, y'know, they'd see that I'm legit, that I'm not just some cocky kid out there who doesn't know what I'm doing."

"Cops have long memories. Why d'you think the cop beat at the paper turns over every year?"

"I thought it was cause most reporters are lightweights and once they see their first murder, they ask to be transferred to the society pages."

"Ha ha." She clacked at him again. "For your information, that was a promotion. I'm still on good terms with some of the cops."

"But not all of them."

"Do you want to trade or not?"

He grinned. "What'cha got?"

"Some info the cops aren't talking about on their scanner."

That perked his ears up. "Really? Why not?"

"Why do you think?" She fluffed her wings. "They don't want you and the League hearing about it and getting involved."

Jake couldn't stop his tail from wagging. "A supervillain? Here in Dunstown?"

"Maybe. But no, just a couple thefts from research labs specializing in supernormals."

"Which labs?"

"Tell me about your girlfriend," she countered.

He jumped. "How did you know..." Then he stopped, because her beak was open in a laugh. "Dammit, Moxy..."

"So you do have a girlfriend. That's sweet. How long you been going out? Does she know your secret identity?"

"One question," he said. "Since you already got a bit of info. She's gonna kill me anyway."

"Does she know your secret identity?"

He nodded. "Yeah." He hadn't really been able to hide it, when he'd blinked out during sex on their fourth date.

"So you trust her. Wedding bells in the future?"

"Which labs?" He was determined to hold her to one question. Moxy often dug up good information for him, and if he didn't parcel out the things she wanted to know about him, he wouldn't get far with her. She'd already asked about his family and once about the League in the four months since she'd first met him on a rooftop in the gaslamp district.

"Ling Scientific and the Mount Cedar government facility. The cops are really worried about the Mount Cedar one because it had state of the art locks. They think it might be a new gadgethead."

"Cripes, not another one. You know the League has a list of about a hundred of them?"

"I've heard." She cocked her head as he took out his handheld phone and started jotting notes. "You're just going to send that unsecured?"

"Oh, CryptoFox does all kinds of security on it," he said, tapping a quick message.

"Yeah, but if I pick that up, or knock you out and take it, I could just read it from there."

He grinned and tossed it to her. "Go for it."

It clattered to the roof as she swiped and missed, unprepared. She picked it up and stared at him, then down at the handheld. Her black eyes blinked, and she looked back up. "It won't turn on."

"Thumbprint reader on the side, keyed to me. I have to be holding it for it to be on."

"What if I sever your thumb?"

He shuddered. "Come on, Moxy."

She tossed the device back to him. "Hey, you have to think like a supervillain."

"Well, it has to stay warm. And I think it checks for a pulse too." He applied his thumb to the pad and watched the screen light up.

"Okay," she said. "So I just have to tie your paw to it and keep you in restraints."

He grinned. "You seen a restraint that could hold me?"

"If I'm a gadgethead, that's the first thing I try to build. Mount Cedar had a lab devoted to power negation."

"What?"

"You think the government likes the idea of you guys running around?"

"The League has a government contract..."

"Wake up, Blink," she said, now sounding cross. "The government defaults on contracts every day. You expect them to rely on the innate honor of anyone else? They expect in others what they would expect from themselves. They just want a way to control you guys in case...in case they need to."

"But why here? Why not in New York, or L.A.?"

"In the big two's backyards? Nah. Dunstown was a good, medium-sized town without a superhero, until a couple years ago." She laughed again, a breathy ah-ah-ah sound. "The radiation burst you got your powers from was a malfunction in a machine headed for Mount Cedar, remember? Hella ironic, eh?"

"I guess. I don't really go for irony."

"To each his own." She grinned. "This'll make for a good couple articles. 'Ms. Blink,' I think we'll call her. Probably a coyote, right? No, wait, cubs would be a big liability for you. So probably not a coyote." She tapped the ledge. "Probably not a canid. Oh well. I'll make up a few likely candidates and profile them. Should get me through the month. Hey, look. Your cops missed the guy."

Sure enough, Rosen and Collins were coming out of the entrance of the building alone. They got in the car, and Jake turned up his scanner in time to hear Rosen's gruff voice saying, "...no suspects found at the scene. Security company rep arrived and reset the alarm."

He turned the scanner down. "Did you see a truck from the security company pull up?"

"Yeah." Moxy pointed down to where the police car was driving away. "It's around the corner from here. There goes the guy." A bear in a dark uniform was tapping a code at the security panel and then walked off and out of view.

Jake watched him go, and looked back up at the building. No lights flickered behind any of the windows, no flashlight appeared now that the police and security were gone. Still...

"Don't go in," Moxy said, watching him.

Jake didn't take his eyes from the windows. "It just doesn't feel right."

"Alarms go off sometimes," she said. "But look, you go in there now and the best thing that can happen is you don't find anything, nobody sees you, and you come back here to this spot. So let's just pretend you've already done that, and move on?"

"What about truth and justice?" he said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"What about 'em?" She rustled her feathers. "Sorry, kiddo. You get caught snooping around in there, you're breaking the law. You catch a thief after the cops have already been here, you're making things worse. Just move on. Keep an ear to the scanner, and don't worry. You're a good kid and you'll get a break eventually."

Jake sighed and forced himself to look away from the building, working his paws against the frustration building up inside him. A few mistakes he'd made in the past couple years as an overzealous kid, and suddenly the cops wouldn't let him help with anything. And the League gave him nothing but petty assignments and food duty. "I sure hope so," he said sourly.

"I'll see to it," Moxy said, standing and stretching her wings. "After all, someone's got to be your Lois Lane, right?"

"You're first in line." He waved as she leaped from the roof, spreading her wings and soaring down over the street.

Sometimes he wished he could fly, more for the experience than anything else. He liked being able to hop from place to place in no time, though; he wouldn't trade gifts with Moxy. Besides, any avian or bat could fly around. Only he, so far as he knew, could teleport.

He watched the papers for the next few days, but saw no mention of a break-in at Intagrated. Moxy'd been right, as he was finding she often was. She'd reported on the police for a year with the Dunstown Herald, and before that she was covering the wires, so she knew her stuff.

Jake caught a car thief two nights later, blinking onto the hood of the car long enough to startle the driver and get a look at the interior, and then he'd blinked into the passenger seat and grabbed the horse's gun, blinked with it to the back seat, and held it on the suddenly terrified driver until he slammed on the brake and stopped the car. The police had grudgingly given him credit for that one, but of course nobody at the League meeting had noticed it except for Red Lightning.

"Nice work on that car thief," the whip-thin fox said, sauntering over to Jake during a break.

"Oh, you noticed?" Jake played with the League pen, doodling on the memo pad.

Red squeezed his shoulder. "I was the youngest once, too. Just be patient, 'kay?"

Jake glanced up at the narrow russet muzzle, encouraged by the smile. "You were? When?"

"'Til you joined."

Jake barked a laugh. "Really? How old are you?"

"I graduated from Whitford two years ago."

"You're kidding. You've only been a superhero for two years?"

The fox leaned against the table, looking down at Jake. "Now, who says I wasn't doing a bit on the side in college? I just went pro after graduation."

"But I read your bio! You collared the Dastardly Dingos, and brought down F.R.I.G.H.T. almost single-pawed, and-"

The fox waved him silent. "Ah, you know, the Dastardly Dingos weren't that dastardly. It was just the alliteration they liked."

"I thought I'd never get into the League. There's no criminal genius masterminds or organizations in Dunstown. I won't even get to investigate the Mount Cedar thing."

Red put a paw on his shoulder again and grinned down. "You'll get there. Just wait 'til the other guys get to know you a little better. The barbecue will be good. Bringin' anyone?" Red grinned. "I saw that article."

"Oh, that." Jake shook his head. "The papers, you know. They make up shit..." He flicked his ears. "Nah, not bringing anyone."

Red nodded, and rubbed his chin with a paw. "You'll meet my wife there. Those things are always kind of awkward, though. Tell ya what. Why don't you come by the house for Sunday brunch? We can sit down and just talk."

"Sure!" Jake wagged his tail. "Love to!"

"I do love my Sarah's biscuits an' gravy, and I bet dollars to donuts you will too."

"Doesn't show." Jake grinned, pointedly eyeing the fox's waistline.

Red laughed. He leaned closer. "I'm not 'llowed to talk about it around Vicious Vixen, but I just can't keep weight on. Anything I eat vanishes quicker'n a chicken leg at my mom's Sunday dinner."

"I'm kinda the same," Jake said.

"You could just blink off the extra weight, couldn't you?" Red cocked his head.

"Eww." Jake shook off the vision of a pile of fat lying on the ground. "I dunno, never tried."

"Crypto reckons you could. He's pretty excited about seein' the range of your powers."

"Really?" Jake looked across the table at the scruffy fox, lost in his laptop computer. "He hasn't given me anything to do. I wonder if he ever will."

Red rubbed his chin again. "Hold on just a tick." He patted the coyote on the shoulder and then navigated through the chairs and heroes to Crypto's side. The smaller fox jumped when Red tapped his shoulder, then perked his ears, looked over at Jake as Red talked, and finally nodded. Red looked up and gave Jake a thumbs-up.

"I swapped with you," he said a moment later, strolling back to Jake's side. "P.K.'s investigating the Mount Cedar research item you brought in, and Crypto'd assigned me as backup, but I convinced him to switch with you. I'll do that cleanup over in Millenport for ya."

"P.K.?"

"Psycho Coyote. Sorry, Power Coyote."

Jake stifled a giggle, looking over at the tall coyote engaged in conversation with Vicious Vixen, three pens twirling lazily in the air above his paws. "Psycho?"

"Psycho-Kinetic. But also, yeah, that." Red grinned. "Wait 'til the barbecue. Watch him try to pick out a fork. The tines all have to be exactly the same length. He's an okay guy, though. Just be flexible with your schedule."

Jake found out what he meant after the meeting, when P.K. came over to work out the schedule. The floating pens in front of the jarring red on black patterned uniform distracted Jake, so he had a little trouble following the conversation.

"I'm sorry, we can't meet there at noon?"

The pens twirled more quickly. Jake had to look away. "I have to eat lunch at 12:45 p.m.," P.K. said. "And I have to eat dinner at seven. So we'll have to leave the labs at five."

"I could just blink you home."

One of the pens nearly fell. "Oh, no no no. I can't do that. No, my private jet will be fine. We just need to be done by five so I can get home."

Jake caught the eye of Red Lightning, who was grinning at him over MultiWolf's shoulder. "Okay. If we meet at three, will that work?"

The pens froze in the air for a moment. P.K.'s eyes seemed to unfocus. "Three is bad," he said. "It has a bad resonance on that day." He focused on Jake again, as the pens started moving. "Three-thirty?"

"Two-thirty would give us more time." Jake watched the pens' reaction to that. They kept twirling calmly.

"All right." P.K. nodded. "Two-thirty it is. Meet out in front of the labs? I'll have Jumal call someone there to set up an appointment. The idea is to pick up reference points for us to come back that night and investigate further if need be."

"Got it." Jake grinned.

P.K. peered behind him. "I hope you don't wag your tail that much all the time," he said. "It's quite distracting."

"Sorry." Jake stilled it, but when P.K. turned away, he gave Red a thumbs-up and a huge grin.

His first real assignment had Jake excited enough that when he blinked into Marcia's place that night and saw her holding the Herald society page, he had completely forgotten about Moxy's article. "Guess what?" he said, bouncing from foot to foot. "I've got an assignment, a real one, with P.K. next week! I can't tell you what it is 'til it's over, official League business, but it's-what?"

Marcia held up the paper, open to a page 2 article titled "Local Hero Has Romantic Side." Beneath one of the stock photos of him, Moxy had drawn a generically canid silhouette with a large chest and a white question mark inside it. "Oh," Jake said. "That."

"Let's see," Marcia said. "I could be Genevieve Hightower, the kangaroo heiress to the Hightower fortune-classy, her internet sex video must be losing steam-or I could be Janice Margolies, high-powered criminal attorney-met her once or twice, she needs that long neck for looking down on people, plus she has no fashion sense-or I could be Adrienne Bazure, that slut of a lioness over at Macy's-and why do they have you linked to all these exotic women anyway? Oh, and listen to this: 'Rumors linking Blink Coyote to the Herald's own Moxy Nightwing are almost certainly untrue.' Almost certainly." She snorted. "Considering she just made them up, I'm sure they are. Aren't they?"

It took Jake a second to realize she was talking to him. "Oh. Oh, yes, of course! I mean, I couldn't tell her anything about you, but she tricked me into telling her that I have a girlfriend."

"I know." Marcia sighed. "It's just frustrating, doing all this work and being such a part of your career and not being able to take any credit for it. You know, yesterday all the girls at work were talking about that carjacking."

"They were?" Jake's ears perked up. "What did they say?"

"Oh, the usual." Marcia splayed her long ears and clasped her paws under her chin. "'He's so brave, I bet he's really handsome under that hood, and so mysterious!'"

"Was that that cute, um, what's her name, Crystal?" Marcia's eyes narrowed, and Jake flattened his ears, dropping the look of interest. "Sorry, sorry. So, uh, where are we going tonight?"

"Bertolucci's. My treat."

Jake wagged his tail as Marcia dropped the newspaper. "Is this my birthday dinner?"

"No, no." She smiled. "You get your birthday dinner next week on your birthday. I've got something special planned. No, this is just a dinner. Then I thought maybe we'd come back here and work on your concentration."

"Oh, if we have to." His tail wagged even faster.

She grinned. "Like I have to ask. Come on, stud. I'll drive."

That was their standing joke; Jake had a car, for appearances, but it barely ran. He preferred to walk or blink anywhere he went. He could get to places he could see, or get back to places he'd been, and having grown up in Dunstown meant he could get almost anywhere in the city within five minutes at most.

They were walking down to the car when his handheld went off. He flicked it on and skimmed the messages while Marcia sighed audibly. "Oh, for..." He tapped a message back. "Hang on. I can't believe these guys have never heard of Justin Timberwolf...I can't believe they don't know who sings 'Howl of My Heart.' Crypto really needs to go home and not be at the office all night. Okay, there." He flipped the device off and grinned at her. "Dinner?"

They had just gotten their drinks when the handheld buzzed again. Marcia glared at it. "What now?"

Jake's claw moved over the screen, writing in quick shorthand as he talked absently. "Another check up. They're worried about Dr. Malevola escaping from his cell, and they want me to pop in at random intervals."

"Can't they wait until after dinner?"

"Crypto says that might constitute a predictable pattern." He looked up, putting the device down on the table. "I'll be right back. Sorry."

"Jake, listen, don't-"

He didn't hear the end of her sentence. When he blinked back, she was sipping her beer. The lines of annoyance above her eyes smoothed out as she saw him. That was one thing Jake was learning to appreciate about his ability: the chance to see people candidly in the moment before they registered his presence. He made a note to be nicer to Marcia for the rest of the night.

"Dr. Malevola all safe and sound?"

"Yeah, he was, uh, well, kinda embarrassed to see me." Jake grinned. "I think someone's been sneaking him dirty magazines."

The rabbit shook her head. "You shouldn't do that, darling. The waiter could've come over."

Jake shrugged. "No biggie. I'd sign an autograph or two and we'd get the meal comped." He slid the handheld into the pocket of the yellow dress shirt he wore.

The rabbit arched an eyebrow. "That's never happened."

Jake looked off towards the bar. "I got a free salad once after I stopped a guy from robbing the Sizzler."

"But you did that in costume."

"Marcia, I'm fine, really." The handheld in his pocket buzzed again, and he took it out and started tapping on it.

The rabbit looked over the table. "Another follow-up?"

"Nah, P.K.'s asking me if I can take care of the potato salad for the barbecue this weekend. He was supposed to, but I'm the new kid, so they're dumping all the stuff they don't want to do on me. Red Lightning already asked if I could get the chips for him. I'm like, how long will it take you to run to the store? A minute?" He grinned and waved his paw.

"Oh." Marcia leaned back in the booth. "I didn't know we were going to a barbecue this weekend."

Jake's ears went back. He looked up at her and then back at the handheld. "Oh, I, uh, didn't think you'd want to go..."

Marcia folded her arms across her dark blue jacket. "What made you think that? All the times I asked if I could meet some of the other League members? The strings I pulled to get you an interview to get into the League in the first place? The huge poster of WonderWolf I used to have in my college dorm?"

"I never saw your college dorm."

"First the publicist position, now this."

"It's just a boring function. I don't know if anyone else is bringing their, uh, SOs..."

"Of course they are," she snapped back at him, and then softened her voice, giving him a smile. "But most of them aren't single. You just have to be more assertive."

"I just feel like I have a long way to go," Jake said after a moment. "I've only been doing this for two years. They've all got these great stories they swap. And my name..."

"What's wrong with your name?" Marcia narrowed her eyes.

"Blink Coyote? It sounds like I have some kind of neurological condition."

"We picked that name out together." Marcia's tone was growing frostier.

"You picked it. Anyway, I don't even have a nemesis yet."

"Oh, not this again." Marcia rolled her eyes. "Forgive my prosaic spirit, but I'm glad you don't have one of those."

"But I should! I'm the only big hero in Dunstown. The only one in the League, anyway. WonderWolf has at least three." Jake tapped the table. "I wonder if he'd give me one, if I asked."

The waiter returned then with their pizza. Jake took one of the pepperoni and sausage slices and ripped a huge bite out of it, while Marcia nibbled on the green pepper and onion side.

"You've got a lot to be proud of," she said after a bit. "I mean, crime in Dunstown is down thirty percent since you started working the streets."

"I know," he said, "but it's all purse-snatchers and liquor store holdups. Nothing really big. You hear that Night Wolf captured three terrorists and half a pound of weapons-grade plutonium last week?"

Marcia blinked. "No."

"I guess Stormy was going to release the news tomorrow. Yeah, he just got back from Kurdistan and he was in D.C. with the CIA all day yesterday and today."

"Stormy? Is that Coyote Rain?"

Jake finished his slice of pizza. "Nah, Stormy's the...uh..." He grabbed another slice and chewed on it, his ears back..

Marcia put down her pizza. "Oh. So that's his name."

"Her name."

"Cute. Sounds like she really fits in. Is she a wolf? Coyote?"

He chewed on the pizza, searching for an answer that wouldn't prolong the conversation. "Um. Wolf, I think."

"You think?"

"I only met her the one time, WonderWolf was introducing her and it was real quick, but yeah, she's a wolf."

"Of course she is. The League of Crimefighting Canids couldn't hire a rabbit publicist. Did you see the press release I did last week got picked up by two of the major networks?"

Jake started to shake his head, then caught himself. "Oh, yeah!"

"If I'm not fighting crime, I don't have to be a canid, right?"

"Yeah, but everyone else is."

"That's discrimination."

Jake sighed. "I did try to tell them...but I'm just a kid, you know, and I'm new..."

The rabbit picked up her pizza. "It's all right. I'm probably not qualified. It would have been nice to have been asked, is all." She paused, then visibly put it aside and chirped cheerfully, "I'm glad to hear things are going well there."

Jake took another slice of pizza and munched it slowly. Her dismissal of their disagreements made him vaguely uneasy, each one feeling like a cloud in their sky, a storm postponed until later.

They walked along the tree-lined streets back to her condo, a second-floor unit in an upscale complex just a few blocks from the Dunstown gaslamp district. The conversation along the way back was bland and neutral, friends of theirs going on trips, people in Marcia's office getting promoted, government initiatives. Nothing to add to the storm; nothing to dispel it.

Jake felt the tension, or at least thought he did. Best to cut his losses tonight and start fresh tomorrow, or even wait 'til his birthday, he thought. They'd reached her building, and she was waiting expectantly, so he said, "I'm kind of tired."

She tugged on his jacket. "You need to keep practicing."

He sighed. "Mmm. I really am kind of tired..."

She nuzzled up at the base of his ears and then a bit inside. His ears flicked. He was getting excited, and he could smell that she was too. She angled her hip into his arousal and sighed against him. "Why don't you stay the night and tuck me in?"

He gave in, of course; he was young and male. What else could he do? At least he would do his best to enjoy it. And while this time he managed to hold on until his climax, he still blinked out in mid-convulsion, returning contritely to Marcia's remonstrations. At home in his own bed, Jake thought he would rest for just a little while before making his rounds, but when he yawned and cracked his eyes open, the sun greeted him through the bedroom window.

Guilt over missing his rounds drove him to check the Internet and the paper for any crimes he might have prevented, and finding none helped only a little. He worked assiduously the next few nights, meeting Moxy once but getting no new information from her.

Marcia was unaccountably busy the entire weekend, leaving him messages with instructions to come to her place on Tuesday night at 6 pm. Making his birthday present, he presumed, with some relief, as it freed him from having to explain that he was going to meet Red Lightning for Sunday brunch without her.

Red's wife was a charming vixen, a little older than Red, and she told him they'd been married out of high school, since before the lab accident that had given Red his powers. He told Jake about that over beers (Red drank only one, saying "I'm a lightweight" with a grin), and Jake told him the story of discovering his power, the radiation burst from the machine he was unloading from a truck at his summer job. Jake envied the rapport he seemed to have with his wife, how they each knew each other's stories and kept taking small moments to look at each other or touch each other. They were so likable, however, and laughed so genuinely at his stories, that he couldn't let envy grow into anything else.

Their real names were Mike and Sarah, and as they were shaking hands, Mike said, "Well, now you've been here, I guess you can get back anytime, eh?"

"Just to the front porch." Jake grinned. "I never blink in uninvited."

Sarah smiled hesitantly. "Could I...see?"

Mike grinned at Jake. He pointed to a tree in the front yard. "Race you to the tree and back?"

"Oh, I don't know," Jake said. "I don't usually..."

"Come on. Don't worry about beating me."

"No, it's just..." They were both looking at him. "Okay."

"Give us a start, hon," Mike said.

Sarah held up her black paw. "Ready...steady...go!"

Jake appeared next to the tree and touched it just as a red blur slapped a black paw to the bark. He got his bearings and reappeared inside next to Sarah, a fraction of a second after Mike had skidded to a halt.

"I think Mike won," Sarah said. "But you did a very nice job."

"Of course you would say that." Jake grinned as he said it.

"Home court advantage!" Mike crowed, raising both paws in the air.

"Now let's try it with the door closed," Jake said, and they all laughed. "All right, I gotta get going. Thanks again for the great brunch, Sarah."

"Lovely to meet you," Sarah said, extending her paw.

"Likewise," he said, taking it gently. "You're a lucky guy, Mike."

"Oh, I dunno," he said. "I heard you're dating Jenny Hightower." He winked as Jake's ears flicked back in a blush.

"Stop it, Mike," Sarah said.

"Yeah, don't worry, you won't see me on the Internet anytime soon." Jake grinned. "So long, guys."

He blinked back to his apartment and spent the rest of the day doing mundane tasks: laundry, some housecleaning, grocery shopping. His mom called just before sunset to wish him a happy birthday in advance, and after an hour talking to both parents, the city was growing dark and he could go out on his rounds.

On Tuesday, he was woken up at quarter past seven by a phone call from his sister in Europe wishing him a happy birthday. He talked to her while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, went in to work, and found himself growing more and more excited as the clock inched towards six.

At 5:57 pm, unable to wait any longer, he blinked to Marcia's apartment. "Birthday boy's here!" he announced, dropping to the living room carpet.

Soft music played from the bedroom. Otherwise, the apartment was silent. Jake straightened his shirt with a grin. "Oh, some concentration lessons? Well, I'm all for that." He pushed open the door to the bedroom.

Marcia sat on the bed. It took him a moment to see that her arms were tied behind her back and her mouth bound securely with tape. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and she motioned him back with her head, straining to talk through the tape.

He heard a small noise to his right and felt a prick in his side. In an instant, he was back in his bedroom, landing unsteadily on the bed and falling to the floor. Dizzy, he got up and braced himself. He'd been shot with...something. And Marcia was caught.

The yellow eye logo stared at him from the open closet. Had to get his suit on and go back and rescue her, he thought. He fumbled for a moment with the buttons on his shirt, wondering why his fingers seemed thicker. "Hell," he said, and blinked out of his clothes, appearing naked in front of the closet and already reaching for the outfit.

He got both legs in it and then his arms, fastening the snaps up the side and pulling the hood over his ears. The room was spinning slowly. He pulled the gloves on. Had to save Marcia. Had to...

He blinked to her bedroom, intending to pop in, assess the situation, and pop out, like he'd done with the car thief. But he materialized a good two feet above the edge of her bed, landed awkwardly, and fell to the floor after getting only a glimpse of a white-robed figure striding toward him. Hands circled his neck as he struggled to keep his balance in the room, which was now not only spinning, but crazily tilted. He tried unsuccessfully to blink out twice before blackness rose up and swallowed him.

Awareness came back to him in a reddish haze on the inside of his eyelids. His mouth felt gummy and tasted horrible. He ran his tongue around his dry lips and tried to open his eyes, but they felt gummy as well. He couldn't bring his paws up; they were bound behind him somehow. His ankle hurt, too. The room he was in smelled sterile and antiseptic, but there was a person in it with him. Male, some kind of scientist or doctor, he thought. He could smell laboratory chemicals and the person's scent under it, a light musk, like raccoon, but different.

He forced his eyes open, letting in a bright white light that made him close them immediately. After several blinks, tears dripping down his muzzle, he was able to see the blurry outlines of what was in the room with him.

Directly in front of him was some kind of lab bench, with two metal stools in front of it and a shiny metal contraption, probably a faucet. He could see a yellowish rectangular object to his right, approximately filing-cabinet-shaped, and beside it a long flat thing that looked as though another filing cabinet had exploded on top of it, showering papers and folders everywhere.

His vision cleared somewhat as he looked over to his left, and saw the figure in white.

It stood just a bit shorter than him, and not only was its lab coat white, but most of the fur he could see was white. Only a grayish patch between the two small pinkish ears marred the otherwise ivory fur. Behind him, a thick and furless pink tail curled up from the ground, and Jake could see his feet, covered in shoes. The dark brown eyes behind a pair of round glasses held his when he met them, and the long pointed muzzle below them curved into a smile, showing a mouth full of small, pointed teeth. A possum. Jake had never met a possum before.

First time for everything, he thought, trying to clear his head. He'd find out what the story was, blink out of his bonds and subdue this guy, and then go rescue Marcia.

"Welcome to my laboratory, Blink Coyote. Or may I call you Jake?" The possum had a deceptively pleasant voice, with a bit of a quaver to it. Jake cursed inwardly. His secret identity was out, less than two years into his career! It had taken WonderWolf thirteen to be found out.

"Jake, then," the possum went on. "I'm sure you're wondering what you're doing here. I've been working on some projects involving you and your fellow supernormals, and I reached a point in my work where it became necessary to prove a hypothesis before I could proceed any further. I required the presence of an actual supernormal in order to conduct a series of controlled tests, with myself as the control subject, to follow proper scientific method..." He blinked, looked around, and cleared his throat. "That is to say, I have been indulging in some extra research of my own, that my employer is not aware of. For my own benefit. With your power at my disposal, I will build a weapon that will make governments tremble!"

Jake ignored the odd discontinuity of this exposition. "Who are you?" he croaked, and then immediately thought of a thousand better things to say. Why not, 'you have the advantage of me, sir'? Or 'you seem to know me, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with you'? Or even the classic, 'you're mad!'? But no, he had to come up with the most trite line ever, and deliver it badly on top of that.

"You will be the first to know me as Doctor..." He hesitated. "Doctor Defiance."

Jake frowned. "What are you defying?"

The possum blinked at him. "Um, authority. Governments! You know."

"It's not a very good name. I suggest you keep trying." That was better.

"Listen...you're not in a position to discuss this!" Doctor Defiance was clearly as uncomfortable with his name as Jake was with his, if not more. "We'll have plenty of time to compare names."

"Where's Marcia?" Jake demanded.

"Oh, she's down the hall. After she saw me, I had to bring her along. She'll be extra insurance to make sure you behave."

Fleetingly, Jake wondered how the possum had gotten them both to this lab. Must have henchmen, of course, so there'll be someone guarding Marcia. I'll be ready for them. He flexed his fists. "This has all been very interesting, but I think it's time for me to go." He closed his eyes and blinked...

...and opened them again to see the possum's sneer. "Go on, then," Doctor Defiance said.

Jake felt a sinking feeling in his chest that passed a rising panic on the way down, a feeling he remembered last from looking up two years ago and seeing the red glow even through the wood of the crate as he balanced it on his shoulder. He tried again, and again went nowhere.

"Not so easy, is it?" The possum clapped his paws. "It looks like my first hypothesis is proven correct! The collar works!"

"Collar?" Jake could feel it now, constricting the fur around his neck. If he swiveled his ears downward, he could hear a very faint, high-pitched electronic whine.

"Yes, my hypothesis about the mechanism of your powers was accurate. Once I had figured that out, it was child's play to create a blocker."

This was not heading in a direction Jake was happy with. "How did you..."

The possum waved a paw. "Oh, it's a simple matter of working out the displacement factor and the transference energy. After that, there's enough supernormal research to narrow it down. But perhaps I'm being too modest. It did take me six months, after all." He hid a small laugh behind his paw.

Jake felt his tail droop. Six months? This guy had come up with a way to negate his powers in six months? His career was over anyway. It didn't really matter if some idiot with a stupid name was going to keep him captive to do experiments on. If it wasn't this jerk, it'd be some other one.

No! He was a member of the League of Crimefighting Canids, after all!

Even if, he now realized, he had completely neglected to call the League and notify them of a dangerous situation. So none of them knew where he was, to come to his rescue, or even that he was in trouble. They might not figure it out until late in the week, when he didn't show up for the League meeting.

He still had his wits, though. Maybe he could trick the possum into taking the collar off. If he pretended to be choking, or something. Not right away, but...later, when his guard was down. His tail drooped further. Lame dialogue, lame escape plans. What kind of superhero was he?

"Let's start with a blood sample. I've been dying for that. Fortunately, you won't have to. Ha ha ha."

The laughter sounded forced, but Jake couldn't see how that would help him. He studied the possum for any sign of weakness, but without powers and with his hands and feet bound, he wasn't sure what he could do.

The possum tapped his muzzle with one claw, staring up and down Jake's uniform. "Now, how does this thing come off?" he wondered, and Jake kept quiet.

For all his supposed intelligence, it took Doctor Defiance a full minute to find the snaps down the right side of the chest of Jake's outfit. His delicate pink fingers pulled apart the first one, then another and another. He exposed Jake's shoulder and upper chest, and seemed to be staring for several moments to decide where to stick the syringe he held in his left paw.

The possum cleared his throat. "Okay. Now, this might hurt a bit." His dark eyes drifted up from Jake's chest to meet the coyote's eyes, and he blinked. "Not that I care!" He pulled loose several more snaps from the uniform and pushed the sleeve down Jake's arm, exposing his elbow and his stomach down to the top of his hip. Once again, the possum paused and stared.

"You go commando, huh?" he said finally.

Jake was very aware of the cool lab air on his privates. He said, "I was kind of in a hurry when I put the uniform on tonight."

"Right, of course." Doctor Defiance put one of his delicate pink paws on Jake's chest. "You work out?"

"Not really." This looked like maybe a sign of weakness. Or something. Jake wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"You should. It's important to stay healthy."

"That's your job, now," Jake said bitterly.

The possum looked genuinely startled. "What?"

"To keep me healthy. As your prisoner?"

"Oh. Of course! Yes, I'll do all that." His paw was curling in Jake's chest fur, his muzzle close to the coyote's. Jake searched his eyes for any sign of trickery, but saw only reflected curiosity.

Then Doctor Defiance leaned in and kissed him on the mouth.

It lasted only for a couple seconds. The possum stepped back, holding a paw to his muzzle as if horrified. The syringe clattered to the floor.

Jake blinked, trying to figure out what was going on. "How long have you been a villain?" he said. "Because I think you need some more practice." Hey, he thought. That was pretty good.

"Oh my God," the possum moaned, "this isn't going well at all."

Damn, Jake thought. Maybe he's got a secret crush on me. Maybe that's the weakness I can use. I can take another kiss if it'll set me free. Actually, even if it won't... "Maybe you should've asked me first," he said.

"Asked you?" The possum straightened. "Doctor Destiny does not ask!"

"Doctor what?"

"Defiance." The possum's shoulders sagged. "What did I say?"

"Destiny." Jake couldn't help but grin. If this guy didn't have him prisoner, he'd be kind of cute, actually.

"Well, uh, would you mind if I kissed you again?"

Jake knew he was going to say 'no,' but what surprised him when he did say it was the swelling in his sheath. And when the possum stepped timidly up and touched his lips again, Jake felt himself getting very hard, very fast. Good job, body, he told himself unconvincingly. Way to, uh, pretend that I'm aroused...interested...and then he stopped telling himself anything, because his long tongue was being rubbed by a shorter, thicker one and his uniform's snaps were coming undone one by one under a set of gentle fingers.

He felt those same fingers brush down his stomach and along his fully hard erection, only moaning as they curled around it and squeezed its hardness. "Mmm," Doctor Defiance said, pulling back from the kiss. "God, you're gorgeous."

Jake swallowed. "It's not really fair," he said, "I can't undress you."

"Oh, right." Smiling nervously, the possum stepped back and shrugged off his lab coat, then pulled off his shirt and slid his pants down.

Jake stared. "Oh, my God. Are you okay?"

Doctor Defiance reached down and brushed a finger along his half-erect member, purplish-blue and split into two forks, each with its own glans and slit. "Yeah, all possums are like this. You never saw one before?" Jake shook his head. "I got teased a lot in gym class."

"I bet."

The possum came back up close to him, sliding his fingers under Jake's sac and then holding his shaft again. "You sure you're okay with this?"

"Yeah." In a way he couldn't explain, it felt better than with the self-assured rabbit, where every sexual encounter provided her with a chance to teach him something or show him the right way to do things. He appreciated her expertise, but there was something about the shy, hesitant possum that made Jake feel like they were doing things together (together?? he's got you tied up and powerless! his rational mind shrieked) rather than him being led through every experience.

The possum leaned up to kiss him again, and he kissed back, and both of them nearly got the tips of their tongues bitten off a moment later when a shrill female voice echoed through the room.

"What the hell is going on?"

Jake snapped his head around as the possum flinched, then dove for his lab coat. Marcia walked towards the possum, a gun held loosely in her right paw. "Charles?" Her tone carried that sharp warning that Jake knew meant trouble. Usually it was enough to send him blinking home.

"How did you get free?" Jake asked, trying to distract her, but she held up a stubby paw to him.

"Charles, maybe you didn't understand your role in all of this. You were supposed to be Doctor Defiance, budding supervillain. You have captured Blink Coyote and are beginning to perform experiments on him." She eyed the lab coat he was hastily buttoning shut. "Of a medical nature."

"Marcia..." Jake started, and this time succeeded in distracting her.

"And you!" She whirled, pointing the gun at him. "I set up this whole scenario, and it was not cheap, let me tell you, all to give you a nemesis and an adventure for your birthday, and I walk in to rescue you and find you kissing your nemesis?

"Rescue me?" Jake said, just as the possum said, "Nemesis?"

"And," she said, pointedly looking down to where his shaft still hung hard and full over the flaps of his suit, "you're into it. Does your little feathered friend know about that secret romantic side?"

While Jake sputtered to reply, she turned on the possum again. "What were you thinking?"

"That you don't know how lucky you are. My God! He's gorgeous! Look at that body!"

They both turned to look at Jake, who squirmed under the scrutiny. "Hey, uh..."

Marcia ignored him. "If I'd known you cruised that side of the street, I never would have hired you."

"I, uh, don't really go out of my way to keep it secret," Doctor Defiance-Charles-said. "I mean, did you see the poster of WonderWolf on the wall of my office?"

"What does that prove?" Marcia waved the gun dismissively. "I've got that same poster. So does everyone."

Jake didn't want to draw attention to himself again, but he was talking before he knew it. "The one of him looking over his shoulder from behind, where he's naked?"

"He's not naked," Marcia said pointedly, looking down at Jake's crotch, which appeared to be enjoying the attention and begging for more. "He's got a speedo on."

"It's a butt shot," Charles said. "The speedo doesn't cover anything."

"That's what I say!" Jake said.

"Great butt," Charles said, and inclined his head as though he were trying to see Jake's. "Yours is too."

"All right," Marcia snapped, "enough. Come on, Jake." She reached up to his neck and unbuckled the collar. "Go on home. I'll be there soon. Though I don't really feel like celebrating any more."

She'd left his uniform unbuttoned. The possum noticed, and reached out quickly to pull the flap up. "Hey!" the rabbit said as he pressed one of the snaps together, restoring some modesty to the bound coyote. "Paws off!"

He looked at the gun and then looked at her over his glasses. "It's not loaded."

"I don't care! Get away from him!" Her voice echoed shrilly through the lab.

The possum raised his paws and stepped back. "Okay, okay."

"And you're wrong," she snapped. "I know exactly how lucky I am. Come on, Jake. Let's go."

He was almost afraid to try blinking, because the feeling when it hadn't worked had been so terrifying. He looked at the space just behind Marcia and just like that, he was out of the restraints and standing behind her. Before she could register his presence, he grabbed the collar out of her paw.

It was a black leather strap with small electronics embedded all around it. One light was on, burning green. Jake held it to his ear so he could hear the hum of the electronics, though it was hard to hear over Marcia's insisting that he give it back.

He dropped his paw to his side. "So," he said, "let me get this straight, because I know I'm not as smart as you. For my birthday, you paid some guy to create a device that takes away my power and then kidnap me?"

Marcia had dropped the gun to the floor, and now folded her arms. "I was doing it for us," she said. "I thought it could help with your...problem."

Jake couldn't find any words to make light of that. He could only look down at the strap lying across his paw, and back up to the rabbit's brown and white face, now bearing a more placating expression. The change felt wrong, felt too fast to be sincere, and then he realized with a shock what he should have seen all along. She wasn't just good at pushing away her hurt and guilt all those times they argued. She wasn't hurt at all, because she didn't care what he thought about her. She just wanted to keep him close and control him.

"It was supposed to be an adventure," she said. "Remember, sweetie? You wanted a nemesis, more excitement..."

"Go home," he said, interrupting her.

Her blue eyes narrowed. "I'm not leaving without you."

He closed his paw over the collar. "I said, go home, Marcia."

"Come with me."

Not only did he not want to go with her, he wasn't sure he wanted to see her again. The moment he let himself think that, he felt a huge wash of relief. To be able to live without being scrutinized, without being corrected, without being hemmed in, without having all his failings analyzed... "No. I don't think I want to see you again."

"You listen to me, Jake Kellin. You are not going to throw away everything we've worked for. All right, this evening didn't go quite the way I'd planned it, but that's no reason to...to..." He could see her trying to work up tears, but the build up was so obvious that when she squeezed one out of the corner of one eye, he was unmoved. "Please, Jake. I love you."

Jake shook his head. "No, you don't."

She wiped the tear away, and there were no more. Her eyes flashed now. "Fine. I won't beg any more. I'll be home, and if you're not there by midnight, then we are over." When the coyote didn't respond, she held out her paw. "Give me the collar."

"Oh ho ho," Jake said. "Not a chance."

"I paid for it!"

"You should take better care of your things," he said.

She lunged for it, and he tried to blink back without success. Damn thing, he thought as she grabbed the collar. He wrested it back from her without much trouble and pushed her back a foot. She glared at him.

"You do not want me as an enemy," she said.

"I don't want you at all," he said, which was a bit of a lie, but not much.

She glared for another few seconds, then turned on her heel and marched out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Jake let the reverberation from the slamming door die down before he exhaled and looked at the possum.

Charles stammered. "I...I was just doing what she paid me..."

Jake smiled. "It's okay. I know." He held up the collar. "Mind if I break this?"

The possum hesitated, then shook his head. "She paid for it. It's not mine."

Jake walked over to the metal stools and dropped the collar to the floor, where he stood and stared down at it. "What's the point, though? You really built this in six months?" The possum nodded. "No offense, but I assume you're not the most brilliant scientist in the world. So there's got to be someone else who could do this if they wanted to. So what's the point?"

Charles cleared his throat. "Well, actually, I was sort of exaggerating. You know, I was trying to be in character. I did it in six months because your, uh, friend kept monitoring devices in her apartment and fed me months of data on your ability. Anyone without access to that much data would have a much harder time replicating my results. So, uh, if you destroy that, then probably I'm the only one who could build another one. And you can have my notebooks if you want."

"Thanks." Jake brought the stool down on the collar over and over, until the delicate electronics were shattered. He picked up the leather strap and held it to his neck, then blinked across the room without any problem. "That's that," he said, and looked at the collar. "It's a nice leather," he said. "Maybe I'll wear it just to remind me."

"Of what?" The possum looked confused.

"Who to trust."

"Oh." Charles looked down and fidgeted. Jake waited until he looked up again, and saw the surprise come into his eyes. "You're still here."

"What's your name?"

"Charles," the possum said. "Goldstein. Dr. Charles Goldstein."

"So you really are a doctor."

"Oh, yes. Ph.D., electrical engineering. This isn't really my lab. Marcia, uh, thought it was more 'evil villain' than my office." He adjusted his glasses.

"Well, you know my secret identity now." Jake sighed.

Charles blinked. "Oh, I swore I wouldn't reveal it. I mean, I swear I won't...you don't have to worry about that."

Jake smiled. "You know the weird thing? I trust you."

"Thanks." Charles looked away again.

Jake studied him. The possum's tail was curled around his legs, and he was fidgeting from side to side. He tried to work out how he felt, himself. Even though his body was still warm from their kiss, it seemed like a long time ago. It would be easy to push it away and forget about it.

If he wanted to.

"So," Jake said after a moment, "since you're done working for Marcia, I guess you might have some time on your paws?"

"I do have a job at Mount Cedar," Charles said, then hurriedly added, "but yes, yes, I should. Um, why?"

"You'd be a pretty good gadgethead," Jake said. "I'd sure rather have you working with me than against me."

Now Charles let his muzzle slip into a small grin. "Is that a job offer?"

"I can't pay you," Jake said. "Marcia had all the money."

"Oh, I'd do it for free," Charles said.

Jake smiled. "I was kind of thinking of making you part of the team, eventually."

"Like, your partner?" Charles squeaked, and then clapped a paw to his muzzle. "I mean, um, sidekick."

Jake laughed softly at the possum's stricken expression. "Let's say sidekick to start. But you know...I can't believe this, but...I'd be willing to talk about terms, say, over dinner?"

Charles gaped at him. "After..."

"You couldn't tell I was enjoying it? Hell, it surprised me, too. I want to take it slow, but I'm interested enough to give it a shot. Even if it meant I would be the only guy in the League with a boyfriend."

"You wouldn't be the only gay one." Charles grinned when he saw Jake's eyes widen. "You didn't know about WonderWolf?"

"Really?"

"Well, he can't keep a steady boyfriend, but why do you think he does all those butt posters? It's advertising."

Jake giggled, and then his stomach rumbled. "How about that dinner? You might want to put some clothes on, though." He started to button up his uniform, then stopped. "And I should get out of this uniform."

Charles picked up his clothes. "I'll be here and dressed in five minutes."

"I'll be back." Jake paused. "You know, I'd much rather have a friend than a nemesis as a birthday present."

Charles glanced at the door. "I think you might have gotten both."

Jake's ears perked up. "Hey, yeah! You know, she was a lousy girlfriend, but I bet she'd be a great villain."

"Hopefully not too good."

"With you on my side, I'm not worried." Jake grinned, and impulsively blinked to right in front of Charles and kissed him on the nose. He answered the wide smile on the possum's face with one of his own, flicked his ears jauntily, and blinked.