A good moment and a suspicious moment.

After a few minutes of flight, I finally arrived at my destination: Food Emergency Aid Shelter Training, or FEAST. It's a homeless shelter located in Chinatown. I hadn't heard of it until I got here, so I don't know if it's something original to this universe, something from the comics, or something from the MCU that I just don't remember.

The place looks a lot nicer and cleaner than I thought it would be. From the outside, it was a relatively small building compared to others in New York, but it was large enough to accommodate hundreds of people and that was enough.

"Wow, that's a lot of people," I said out loud, still not going down to the spot.

It seemed like I didn't really need to advertise to get more people to come to the place. Outside the venue, a bunch of people wearing coats covering their entire bodies from the cold temperatures were on the scene.

There were dozens of lines of people waiting to get their own share of food, as well as several spaces with electric heaters to keep the entire place warm.

Using my see-through glasses with Crystalclear I noticed that inside the venue it wasn't much different, and it seemed that the fact that there was a lot of preparation outside was less due to advertising, which was what I initially thought, and more about the lack of space.

At a table a little further back inside the building, I could see a section where donations of both money and food were accepted. The food was immediately taken to the kitchen by a bunch of workers and volunteers who were clearly identifiable by the way they moved around like headless chickens all over the place.

Looks like they need help… Good thing I'm here!

A quick little search and I was able to find May inside the building, she was in the thick of things. She seemed to be less in the role of a worker and more of an organizer who was giving orders while carrying a briefcase.

It seemed like she was talking to someone as she pointed at stalls here and there.

Wait… Is that Peter?

I guess it makes sense that he'd come to help his aunt with this. Oh well, I doubt that him being here would affect much of what I came to do anyway.

I decided to approach May to find out what to do more efficiently on-site, and without scaring everyone, but how can I…

I have it!

"Maaay!"

Everyone looked up at the sky as my scream drew the attention of the entire place. Some were shocked, others wary, but I definitely made the best entrance of all.

A dynamic entry.

Of course, May, who was inside, didn't hear me, so I flew over many heads while high-fiving everyone who raised their hand, and I entered the place.

Once again, I drew attention and all heads turned in my direction, including the head whose attention I wanted, May.

"May! There you are!" I already knew that, but she didn't have to know that, of course.

"Rogue?!"

"The only one!"

With that, I finally made my way down to the ground, where I greeted May with a hug.

She hugged me back a little confused, after all, we only met once two months ago, so I guess she wasn't expecting so much familiarity. Truth is, even though I did it to help calm the mood a bit, I would never say no to any excuse for a hug.

"Rogue, what are you doing here? Is there a problem?"

... A problem? Well, I guess if a superhero came to your charity event, you'd think there was something wrong, even though it is a little offensive.

"No! Of course not! I came to help!"

"Help?"

"Of course! What kind of hero would I be if I didn't help people in need from time to time? As soon as I heard about the event from a gentleman I helped earlier, I decided to stop by and help out with whatever you need."

May looked surprised for a moment before smiling softly at me.

"You really are a sweetheart. You're still as kind as when I first met you, Rogue, you don't see many of these superheroes doing things like this."

I smiled shyly at her words.

May gave me a quick hug, from which I noticed that Peter looked a little stiff when he heard May's words. However, I couldn't think much about it before May decided to put her arms around my shoulders and turn us to the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Good news! We have with us today the next great super heroine of New York and the world!… A big round of applause for Rogue!"

Most people were a little confused about what was going on, but they still started clapping, while I, of course, enjoyed all the attention.

To make a bit of a spectacle, a bunch of round pieces of glass, perfectly sanded to lose their edge, flew out of one of the pockets of my suit.

Using Shatterbird I made the pieces of glass form beautiful patterns that reflected the light from the window, which left everyone amazed, and this time a real loud applause resonated in the room.

I formed some figures with the glass to the amazement of the crowd and at the end to finish it off, I made the pieces of glass form what looked like a random shape, which confused my spectators a bit.

It was then that I turned on the flashlights on my enhanced gloves with various power levels and with a minimum power level controlled with Lightslinger I directed the light beams towards the glass mirrors. The light beams of different colors bounced off each other, forming a word in the air.

ROGUE.

The beautiful light show captivated the crowd and after a stunned silence, the applause returned, this time with cheers and whistles included.

"Thank you all so much! I hope you all enjoyed the show and that you do your best for yourself and everyone else at this wonderful event!"

I gave a theatrical bow before heading with May and Peter to the staff room, where I would receive my assignment.

While on the road, I reaffirmed in my mind what I already knew. PR is one of the most important things for any decent superhero's career.

One show, a few nice words and the recognition of one of the most influential people here and my presence is no longer a hindrance. No, sir. With this small move, the employees and people who came here for charity were no longer so focused on me as a threat to the event, but as a powerful helping hand that they knew for sure was on their side, which is not only good for me, but also boosts their morale and increases efficiency.

Pure victories.

When we arrived, Peter still had his jaw on the floor, May, on the other hand…

"That was amazing! With you here, it will surely be an unforgettable event!"

"He he he. Leave it to me, May!"

We both smiled at each other as if our positivity was feeding off of each other.

With a loud clap, as if to get our attention, May began giving orders.

"Alright! There's no time to waste! Peter, shut your mouth before the flies get in and continue transporting materials!"

Peter snapped his mouth shut before saluting and running off to do what he was apparently already doing earlier.

"Rogue! What can you do?"

Unconsciously, I felt my posture getting stiffer.

"I'm very fast, strong, I can fly and I can do this!"

I threw a dark liquid of what looked like ink at the wall to create clones with Seir. I could also make clones with Teem, but those weren't exactly capable of doing much, Jed Taylor's clones are equally useless for something like this.

May looked at the clones for a moment before simply nodding to herself.

"Those go into the kitchen and pantries to move things, away from the public eye. I need you to use your flight to be everywhere, not only to help where you are needed with your super strength, but also to be a deterrent to prevent fights and cheer everyone as much as you can."

"Understood!"

With the instructions received, I began flying around the place, using Dispatch to analyze the situation in seconds before helping whoever needed it most.

Mockshow to help to clean staff.

Trophy Wife with cat tail to help with balance while carrying boxes everywhere.

Jed Taylor's Ghosts are like hidden facilitators.

Even Rune and the new Snubnose help with the weight for the others without me having to lift the boxes myself and have better efficiency.

It was a whirlwind of activity where I felt like, for the first time in a while, I had to use many of my powers at once in order to properly cope with the situation.

When the midday rush hour came around, it seemed like even with my super help we would be outnumbered, but at that moment.

"Excuse me… Is this where Rogue is?"

My fans had arrived.

My social media ads were not only for those who needed the charity, but also for those who wanted to volunteer. So, in exchange for a few photos and autographs, we had a new army of helpers readies to do their best.

Funnily enough, from what May told me, this might be the biggest charity event they've ever had, and I'd like to think that ended up being the case thanks to my presence.

After hours of laps, cooking, stopping fights, shows, contests, autographs, and photos, the event came to a great end.

At the end, all the temporary volunteers went home, tired, but with satisfied smiles on their faces. They may have come here on a whim or because I was here, but I hope the experience will make them want to do it all again in the future.

The FEAST regulars and I, on the other hand, stayed for the subsequent cleanup, which was not exactly small, but an abuse of Mockshow to perform the Disney princess cleaning show, Seir clones, and even Shatterbird, I could increase the cleaning speed considerably.

It was almost night by the time we were fully finished, and May, Peter, and I found ourselves in front of the entrance to the building.

"Thank you so much for your help, Rogue! This wouldn't have been possible without your participation."

While I was honored by May's words, I didn't agree with her, and I let her know that.

"Of course not, May." I shook my head before continuing.

"It is true that I helped a lot, but this was only possible thanks to the efforts of everyone who was here, both FEAST employees and my lovely followers."

May smiled excitedly before hugging me with her eyes filled with tears.

Peter seemed uncomfortable watching me and May having our moment, though I couldn't blame him, he seemed a bit of a third wheel.

Just then, a deceptively plain black vehicle pulled up in front of us. A middle-aged man with a robust build and a clear Asian descent (Chinese perhaps) stepped out of the driver's seat.

The man smiled when he saw May before turning his gaze to me standing next to her, and stiffening slightly before returning his previous smile so quickly it might as well have been a mirage.

I had Effervescent turned off out of respect for May, and the fact that I wasn't exactly on patrol right now, but now I was dying to know what emotions this guy had right now.

May, unlike the no longer nervous man, became visibly excited about the man's arrival. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards the spot. Of course, I let her do so, because I knew it would help me satisfy my curiosity sooner rather than later.

"Just in time, Mr. Li! Rogue, this is Mr. Martin Li, he is the boss of FEAST and of course my boss too. Mr. Li, this is Rogue, a heroine who helped us a lot in today's event."

And I was right.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Li! You have a wonderful place here!"

I offered my hand to the gentleman, who did not hesitate for a second to take it before responding with a smile.

"Thank you, Rogue. May here told me over the phone how much you helped with today's event. I apologize for not being able to be here to help, but an emergency situation came up."

He no longer seemed nervous at all about my presence here, and in fact, said last bit seemed like genuine sorrow. Of course, I have no way of verifying this without Effervescent, but that's what it seemed like at first glance.

Maybe I'm being paranoid? It's not like he's the first one to get nervous in front of the flying-masked girl, but I feel like it's different with him for some reason.

"No problem, Mr. Li, I understand that such things can happen at any time. Here, these are the documents with the accounts of today's event."

May was the one who responded.

Li nodded, took the documents and put them into his briefcase without even glancing at them. A way to show how much he trusts May I guess.

"Thank you for your understanding, May, it's always nice to know I can trust you to be here to take care of everything when I can't. Sorry for that, but you can wait a great remuneration for all the good you've done today. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to a business meeting. Goodbye, May, Peter, and it was a pleasure to meet you Rogue."

We all said our goodbyes as we watched Li drive away.

When he's car was out of sight, May turned to me.

"We also have to go too, Rogue. I know I'm repeating myself, but I really appreciate you today."

"No problem! I might even stop by from time to time."

A few more goodbyes, and a refusing to let me give them a flying ride home (what a shame), and they were both on their way to their home outside of China Town.

And, It's time for me to do the same.

A chat message to Maddy telling her I'm on my way home and I took a direct flight to college while Miasma's invisibility covered me.

While I'm in the air, I happen to see Mr. Li's car stuck in a traffic jam on the road.

"Well… Technically, I'm on patrol right now. So turning on my intelligence-gathering powers to find some crime on the way home shouldn't be a problem, no sir."

But first of all…

Rogue_BHW: patrolling 15 minutes more. :D

Lady_Boss: No problem.

Done. It's not the first time I've stayed a little longer to patrol, Maddy has no problem with that as long as I let her know in advance.

I Active Effervescent and Jed Taylor.

With Jed Taylor I was perfectly able to feel Li's presence in the car, but with Effervescent…

I didn't feel anything.

No, that was wrong. It was like there was some sort of veil that made it difficult to clearly know what emotions Li was feeling. I could see them a little if I concentrated hard enough, but even then that were like a mess of contradictory emotions that I couldn't make heads or tails of.

There weren't many things capable of blocking emotional reading in Worm, but there was one general rule that Worm's emotional manipulators followed over and over again. One emotional Master blocks another's powers. That or someone with a sufficiently screwed up mind, the question is...

"Which one of the two are you, Martin Li?"

I was about to continue my spying patrol, when suddenly a feeling of fear for life entered Effervescent's range. Right next to it was another emotional mark that, although it didn't quite correspond to the usual, I had a relatively clear idea of what it meant, another robbery.

Just then the traffic started moving again, and I knew that if I left right now I would lose track of Li. There was no surface nearby to summon a clone with Seir so that wasn't an option either.

With a sigh I flight away from Li's car and began flying towards the heist while canceling my invisibility.

There was no consideration given to my decision, after all, I could always go back to FEAST and wait for Li another time. A heist where someone could lose their life? That's more important.

Luckily it wasn't that far away, so I was able to get there before it got too far.

A quick use of Kaiser to ruin the gun and trap the feet of the criminal in question, and a bit of Grue as I placed zip ties on his arms. And just like that in no time a criminal was packed and ready to take to the police.

This time I didn't feel like my usual grandiloquence, because now that Li was gone I simply wanted to go home at this point, so the poor guy didn't have time to say a word, before he could no longer move.

I turned to the victim, who seemed extremely relieved that I had appeared. In a strange way that I couldn't quite describe, though. He seemed less relieved that I had saved his life and more relieved that I had appeared.

"Hey, are you okay!?"

"Y-yes!"

"Okay, I'm going to call the police, wait a minut-"

At that moment I felt it again. This time a little further away than before. Another robbery.

Seriously? This is pointing to a new record or something.

I sighed. Now that I had seen it I could no longer ignore it, but I swore to turn off my detection powers as soon as I was done dealing with the next idiot. I turned to the victim, who still looked nervous.

"Do you have a phone?"

"Y-yes?"

"Okay, call the police and wait here, someone else needs me right now."

With that I once again began flying towards the next crime scene. For this I used Moonsong just before ruining his weapon with Kaiser, and then I simply make him faint with Effervescent. I eventually stopped using this particular combo because I wasn't comfortable with all that emotional shock stuff, but now I couldn't be bothered.

I turned to the new victim ready to deliver the usual speech when I felt it.

Another robbery.

This time basically at the edge of my detection range. This was getting more and more ridiculous!

Quickly, I formed some shackles to trap the thief with Kaiser.

I turned to the victim.

"Get on your phone, call the police and wait here for them to come pick you both up. Someone else needs me."

Flight, Kaiser to disable weapon, Moonsong, Effervescent.

Someone else wants to rob someone else with a gun today!

I could have disabled Effervescent, but this time I left it on out of spite. Three robberies almost in a row? What is this, Gotham?

I stared at the sky, as if daring it to send another mugging victim, and when nothing happened, after a few minutes I sighed with relief.

The victim next to me gave me a strange look, but at this point I didn't care enough anymore.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"O-of course. Thank you very much, Rogue."

"You know me? That's co-"

Another robbery.

This is not only ridiculous, it's bizarre. Something bad is going on here.

I looked at the victim in front of me, not believing he had anything to do with this. It felt properly frightening to my senses. Someone they dragged along for the plan of this Riddle Off?

I looked at the knocked out robber.

Shit, now would have been a good time to use Dredge, or it would be the death of me as soon as I lose track of what's going on around me.

I sigh. Well, there is nothing to be done and there is still some power that can help me find the information I need.

I tried to continue acting natural as I flight away from the victim towards the next heist. I wasn't sure if I was being watched, but I didn't want to bet otherwise. I didn't want to scare the perpetrators of this into doing something less obvious later.

On the way to the "victim" I received another star which I decided to quickly check out in case it might be of any use for whatever is about to happen.

Malin The Fox. Bronze.

Teleporter, within a medium range, 20 meters around me. Considering that teleportation is fast, accurate and with a fairly short cooldown, then it's not bad at all.

I focused back on the road.

Ready to meet whatever was pointing at me, I fell into the alley, but this time I couldn't help but notice that it was a dead end.

Look above me.

Wires with clothes attached. Coincidence?

I faced both parts of this show and once I checked the "thief" with my Kaiser senses I noticed what I suspected.

It's the same weapon.

These three guys all had the same weapon models. This was the nail in the coffin that confirmed my suspicions and without wasting any time, I teleported out of nowhere in front of the two using Malin the Fox (from now on summarized as Malin), my new power, and before they could react, I locked the three of us in Dispatch's small bubble.

The victim seemed genuinely scared, just like the others, but the robber the moment he entered the bubble seemed to hide all reactions from his face, quite professionally I might add. It might fool another, but not an empath like me. I could "see" his panic as clear as day. A normal reaction, but clearly different in his case.

Kaiser, to disable the same type of weapon for the third time, and Moonsong to make him float.

"H-hey, what are you doing? Why do you lock me in here with him?"

"A second sir, I know you are also part of this in one way or another."

The thief's feelings of panic reached a new crescendo when he realized that I knew something bad was going on. I took advantage of that moment to activate my power with the currently highest Tier.

Scanner.

I looked at the thief without saying a word, waiting for his thoughts to confess everything I needed to know, and they did not disappoint me.

"She knows? Of course, she knows, damn it! What is she going to do now? I can't see a fucking thing going on outside! Is she going to kill us?"

I wouldn't do it, but I watched him silently to feed his fears.

"Shit! Shit! Where's that damn shooter?! He was supposed to finish the plan now! Besides, since when could this bitch teleport so far away! That wasn't in the files!"

It worked.

Apparently, I was right about the plan, although… A shooter, huh.

I guess Chameleon told to this group, in particular, how I'm not actually bulletproof. I'm not sure who they are exactly, but I think I have a good way of finding out.

"So you work for La Maggia."

I said as if I was 100% sure of my "reasoning".

The man's face remained as hard as a rock on the outside, not saying a word. But on the inside…

"She knows it!"

The oldest trick in the book.

Good! That worked, now I need more information.

I know that La Maggia have their own snipers, but if they're smart enough after the two months of fighting between us, they'll know that a normal sniper can't do much against me. No, they'd hire someone better, beyond normal.

Now I just have to check it out.

"So that La Maggia is hiring mercenaries and also stooping low enough to hire someone like Deadshot."

"Deadshot? Who the fuck is Deadshot? Doesn't she know about Bullseye?"

No, but considering his name, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who he is and what he does. Honestly, people here can be pretty obvious with their powers here.

Still, I can't go into battle assuming they only have Bullseye with them; that was my biggest mistake against the Chameleon. It won't happen again.

I guess I'll have to continue with Tattletale-style shows and see what else I get...

"Oh wait, I think they know him as Bullseye now. Is he still going to team up with that bastard?"

"So she knows him, though I doubt it's the same one. Bullseye always works alone. That self-centered bastard thinks he's better than everyone else. I wonder what fucking roof he's doing one of his tricks from. He better does it fast. After all this time, I doubt this Girl Scout would hurt me even inside the bubble Chameleon told us about, but I don't want to find out the hard way."

And… That's all I need. One quick move with Effervescent and they both fell unconscious.

Okay, with that settled, now all that's left is to take care of that bastard.

As if excited by the action, my power sent another star to me.

I was still inside Dispatch, so I was in no hurry and since I was about to get into a fight with another one of those crazy bastards, having more tools in my drawer would never hurt.

Roulette. Gray.

The name is a bit ironic considering my powers; plus, it fits well with this one, I guess.

A Thinker who randomly looks into 6-8 unlikely futures. The fact information tends to be true, but the chains of things, less so. The length of the futures seen is also basically random, and the power works best in combat situations.

It's not bad, but it's so random that I'm not sure I want to keep it. It also seems pretty traumatizing.

Sounds useful for my current situation where I'm lacking information, but if there's one thing I learned at the bank it's not to test complicated powers in the field, so I'll save that for later.

Now, now I have a goal to reach. Then let La Maggia know that this is going too far.

I'm not casually fighting them anymore.

This is war.