Chapter Text
Logan loves flying. There’s something absolutely liberating about being in a plane, his hands on the controls, him in charge of his destiny as he soars through the air of an F-22 Raptor. Well, as in charge of his destiny as a man can be, when he’s enlisted in the US Navy.
“Razor 1, what’s your position?”
Logan listens as the lead pilot in their squadron reports on their position and heading and Control advises them of clear skies ahead. He acknowledges and confirms where appropriate. But as they approach their target, he grits his teeth, then forces himself to ease up.
This is the part he hates about flying for the navy, the need to actually fire missiles at a target with intent to destroy. Fortunately, the target in this case is a supposedly secret weapons storage silo by known terrorists and no loss of life is expected. He’s never yet had to fire on a hostile base, but he knows it’s unrealistic to expect that he’ll go his whole military career without having to take a life, even if it is on orders for Mission Control.
“Razor 1, be advised, you have a bogey traveling at high velocity in your direction.”
“Copy, abort mission?”
There’s a pause, which is unusual to send both pilots on high alert. Logan hears Control advise a go-around if nothing shows up but to undertake evasive maneuvers if the bogey turns out to be hostile as it is reading as something too small to be an aircraft but too large to be a bird. He frowns. A drone, perhaps? He listens to his squad leader ask the same thing, but Mission Control has no answers for them and advises them of such.
Just then Logan hears the kind of swoosh he associates with other mach-capable aircraft, only at a much softer scale and without the roar of engines. He grabs the control yoke and holds his plane steady against a slight backwash as the other—whatever it is—streams past between the two jets.
“What the fuck?”
It’s unusual for his squad leader to be so unprofessional on coms but the unidentified flying object that passed them in a blur of blue and red has to be one for the books. Then it slows some distance away, stops, and heads back in their direction. And Logan’s jaw drops when he sees their bogey clearly for the first time as it changes direction again and keeps pace with them.
Or rather he keeps pace with them. Since their bogey is in a blue suit and sports a red cape.
Superman waves at his squad leader then turns to him and looks surprised for a second, before grinning widely and winking.
What the fuck? Logan thinks giddily. Superman just winked at me. He’s actually met the guy once, at Bruce Wayne’s house shortly after the Gotham billionaire and Veronica, his ex-girlfriend, current friend and forever love of his life, were rescued from being held hostage by terrorists about three years back. Is it possible the Man of Steel remembers him?
Logan dismisses the idea. He must see dozens, even hundreds of people on a daily basis. He must save that many people on a daily basis.
“Razor 1, report status!”
“Control, our bogey is identified as Superman. Repeat, bogey is Superman.”
“Razor 1, copy. We have received advice from Justice League HQ that Superman will be patched into coms. Keep all lines open, belay mission directives at this time.”
“I appreciate that,” the warm tones of the Man of Steel come over coms. “I’m afraid your intel is bad and apart from being a weapons storage silo, your target also contains holding cells for a human trafficking operation. We’d like you guys to belay your mission while we conduct rescue operations. It shouldn’t be above ten or fifteen minutes or so.”
“Copy that, Superman.” His commanding officer sounds awed.
“Or, you know, you could just abort,” another voice interjects over coms. “Once the area’s clear, I can blow the thing sky-high.”
“Razor 1, bogey on your six!”
“Relax, guys, it’s me. Uh, Tony Stark. Iron Man?”
And sure enough, another man flies up beside Superman, although he doesn’t wave as he’s obviously using the jets in his palms to stabilize his flight.
“Hi guys, is this a private party, or can anyone join?”
“Razor 1, report status!”
“This is Razor 1, confirming second bogey identified as Iron Man.”
“What does he want?”
“Yes, Stark, what do you want?” Superman has his arms crossed and is wearing a disapproving frown. “This is a JL op. We weren’t advised the Avengers would—”
“Don’t get those bright red panties in a twist, Big Blue, this isn’t an Avengers thing. I got a tip that silo contains SI weaponry my rat of a former CEO sold under the table to some terrorists. As you know, I don’t make that stuff anymore, and I’m trying to get rid of it when it falls into the hands of anyone outside the US armed forces and various government agencies. So what do you say? Wanna play?”
“Razor 1, Razor 2, stand down and return to Mother,” Mission Control orders them, calling them back to the “mothership,” the aircraft carrier he’s called home for the past few months. “No use wasting our ordinance if Iron Man’s got it covered.”
“Razor 1, Wilco.”
“Razor 2, Wilco,” Logan echoes, and initiates a roll to head back in the direction they came.
“Thank you, gentlemen. The Justice League will send a liaison to debrief you on our efforts and thank you for your cooperation within the hour. Superman out.”
Logan’s pretty sure he and his squad leader are gonna be the most popular guys in the Mess tonight, having had a close encounter with not just Superman but Iron Man as well.
“Hey, hey, hold up!” Stark calls after them, then flies in between the planes again, tilting his body so he can stare at Logan’s plane. “Dude, I know you. Jarvis says you’re Logan Echolls.”
“Ah, yes, sir,” Logan responds, flustered.
“Ha! No wonder Big Blue was grinning when I got here. Remember me? Pretty sure we met at Brucie’s zombie birthday party a couple years back.”
“Yes, sir. It’s an honor to see you again.”
“What’s wit this ‘sir’ stuff? Call me Tony! If I remember correctly, you were with Veronica Mars. Love that girl! She looks like she’d fit in your pocket, but boy does she kick ass. Saved my life once, and didn’t even charge me for the privilege.”
“Ah, yes, she does that.”
“Cool. Seen her lately?”
“Before my last deployment, sir.”
“Ah, ah, ah!”
“Mr. Stark.”
“What did I say? Call me Tony. Tell her I said hi when you see her next, won’t you?” He laughs. “We Californians have to stick together after all.”
“Stark, if you’re going to shoot the silo, it’s clear,” Superman’s voice came over coms. “You can come back and stop bugging Logan now.”
The use of his name makes Logan flush. And also groan inwardly as he will probably have to explain it in the debrief. Not to mention his squad will probably want to know all about his past encounters with the men of Steel and Iron.
“All right, all right, don’t have a hernia, Supes!” The red and gold figure gives the two pilots a jaunty salute that only had him wobbling a little, then headed back toward the target.
“Razor 2, did both Superman and Iron Man mention you by name?”
Logan grimaces. “Ah, yes, sir. I’ve… met each of them once before.”
“XO says proceed directly to debrief upon landing.”
“Roger that.”
Back at the aircraft carrier, they’re rushed into debrief not only with the Carrier Strike Group commander and any officers directly related to mission control and intel, but also with the carrier’s commanding officer, executive officer, and carrier air wing commander. The report on their actions is fairly quick—they didn’t actually do anything but fly there and then fly back, after all—but their XO and several other officers quiz them about every little thing beginning when Superman arrived on scene.
Of course, they had to ask him how he knew both Superman and Iron Man, so he had to explain to them about Veronica, and, well, that was a longer story than he was comfortable explaining to his superiors. He just told them she was PI who was a long-time friend and sometime ex-girlfriend who was known to occasionally work with certain members of the Justice League and Avengers.
Yes, he was still in contact with her. No, he had no knowledge of what she did for them, although since she was a private investigator, he imagined it was some sort of investigation work. No, he didn’t think their connection had anything to do with why this mission didn’t go as planned.
He is saved from further interrogation by the arrival of the deputy carrier air wing commander.
“Sirs,” the DCAG says nervously, “the liaisons from the Justice League have requested permission to land their jet on the carrier.”
The CO frowns. “Well, give it to them, then, and guide them in!”
“Uh, that’s just it, sir. Their jet is, uh, it’s invisible,” the guy blurts out. Logan has never seen him so flustered.
“What the hell do you mean, it’s invisible?”
“Uh, W-Wonder Woman radioed in to warn us she was inbound with one passenger. She’s been assigned a holding pattern, but her jet’s not registering on radar, and when she did a flyby nobody could see it even though we could hear it right on top of us! She says with your permission, she can land it without guidance from us.”
Since, with one or two exceptions, everyone in the room is a naval aviator or former aviator, this of course is the equivalent of mainlining sugar in a four-year-old, so everyone stands up, and when the CO says, “Well, then, let’s go meet them, boys,” only the dignity and discipline of their ranks keep them from sprinting to the flight deck.
As promised, once permission is given, they can all hear the roar of a jet engine as it lands, but Logan is perplexed by the lack of the usual sounds of wheels on the runway, and the wires, or arresting gear, remain slack the whole time. Even when the jet can be heard powering down.
Then obviously some kind of hatch is popped up because Wonder Woman—easily identified by her Amazonian armor, deep black hair, and possibly the most beautiful face anyone’s ever seen on a woman—can be seen. She waves to the officers and turns back to her passenger, seated behind her. Then she stands, one deep red boot resting on what appears to be thin air while her other leg just sort of disappears into the sky.
She offers an arm down to her passenger, and suddenly another form pops up. Logan, standing at ease, just barely resists the urge to gape when he sees Wonder Woman wrap an arm around a petite blonde dressed in head-to-toe tactical gear. He knows that blonde. She’s supposed to be half a world away, in Gotham.
The two women land in front of the assembled officers. They visibly study the faces of every man present, although Logan sees a Veronica smirk when she gets to him, before she moves on to the next person.
“Gentlemen,” Wonder Woman says, and her voice is warm and wise and amused and all the things anyone might imagine a benevolent goddess sounds like. “I am Diana of Themyscira, but I serve in the Justice League, where you may know me as Wonder Woman. With me is Veronica Mars, one of our strategic operations leaders and main liaison between the League and the United States government. She is here to report on our activities, which have intersected with yours this day. I thank you for allowing us to land my jet on your vessel.”
A round of introductions follows, which takes a while since so many officers are present. Then the CO invites them not to the mission control room where they’d had their debrief or even to a meeting room, but to his captain’s cabin.
Wonder Woman shakes her head in clear disappointment. “I am afraid I am needed to assist with the women we rescued,” she says. “Veronica will handle the debrief, and one of us shall fetch her when she is finished.”
“Please tell Green Lantern or someone with a plane I’ll catch a ride back with them, Di,” Veronica says. “I’m pretty sure your invisible jet must’ve freaked people out.”
“As you wish, Veronica. Although Superman said he’d—”
“No,” she says firmly. “You tell Kal, I’m not flying all the way to the States with him. You know how many bugs I swallowed the last time he flew me for more than a couple of minutes? And if he has to stop to save a cat from a tree, he deposits me wherever to wait while he coaxes the thing out of the branches.”
Wonder Woman laughs. It sounds like the first day of spring, or the kind of Christmas morning Logan used to have when his mother was still alive and his father would be off shooting a film somewhere. “Very well,” the Amazon says.
She bids everyone goodbye, then flies up into her still-invisible jet. It looks like she just disappears into a pocket of sky. There’s a roar of engines firing, and then the sound of a jet departing.
Logan’s pretty sure he’s not the only one perplexed by the jet that’s just obviously left the flight deck.
Veronica sees their faces and smiles. “Ah, she turned off the sound dampeners to give your crew some warning, but I’m afraid she can’t do anything about the invisibility. It was built that way.”
“It’s amazing,” the captain breathes. “What I’d give for an hour in that cockpit.”
She smiles apologetically. “Unfortunately, no man can fly that plane, as it was created by the Amazons on Themyscira.”
The CO’s wasn’t the only face that fell at the news. But he quickly regained his businesslike demeanor. “Ms. Mars, may I escort you to the cabin so you can debrief us in comfort?”
“Yes, please,” Veronica says. “It’s a fairly straightforward rescue mission, but Superman picked up the chatter when your Raptors took off earlier, so he moved to intercept. Mr. Stark also asked me to convey his thanks on his behalf. He has made it his mission to personally destroy Stark Industries weaponry sold on the black market whenever he learns of any stockpiles.”
The captain makes noises about being happy to accommodate the Justice League and the Avengers as they walk. The other officers follow behind them, and Logan knows he’s wearing a bemused expression on his face. His squadron leader is giving him funny looks, and tilts his head in Veronica’s direction, but Logan just shakes his head. He wonders what Veronica’s involved with now.
Justice League and human trafficking? Really?
He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised. It is, after all, Veronica Mars. She’d solved her best friend’s murder before she’d been legally old enough to vote. It shouldn’t surprise him that she’d upped the stakes since then.
He’s terribly glad he’s been asked to join the debriefing though. He wonders if she’ll have time to talk to him before someone—the Green Lantern, apparently—comes to pick her up.
The debriefing is an eye-opener into what her life is like. Veronica describes how an investigation of a pattern for missing persons in Coast City, Star City, and Metropolis gets tracked to a human trafficking operation with ties to the Gotham mob and the terrorist group Logan’s aborted mission targeted. She breaks down the op and the roles of various superheroes Logan has only ever read about or watched on the news with startling efficiency.
If he thought listening her plan an investigation or a prank back in their Neptune days was scary, hearing how she led an op that involved people with super powers yet still managed to sound like she’d been bossing around Wallace, Mac, and Weevil instead of core members of the Justice League is downright terrifying.
“What is Iron Man’s role in all of this?” the Captain asks.
She makes a face. “Iron Man’s op was completely divorced from our own. As he is not affiliated with the Justice League, despite occasional team ups as part of the Avengers for Omega Level events—”
“Omega Level events?”
“Sorry, that’s JL code for imminent worldwide catastrophes—alien invasions, robot apocalypses, that kind of thing. Outside of those, the major superhero teams rarely join forces, even if individual heroes will help each other out from time to time.” She shrugs. “Kind of like the different arms of the armed forces, I’ve heard?”
“Understood.”
“Anyway, it just so happened that your op coincided with ours and with his. Our primary directive was to rescue the hostages, all of whom are women and girls. We were also going to dispose of the weapons cache, but since Iron Man arrived and informed us that this was his main purpose in being there, we decided to let him take care of that, while we took care of evacuation and aid for the survivors.”
“And where exactly did you evacuate the survivors to?” asks one of the only non-navy officers in the room, a CIA agent who’d provided intel for the op. “We’d like to debrief them, if possible.”
Veronica frowns. “I’m not sure if that will be possible, though I will ask. What I can do is provide you with copies of our own debriefs. Our focus will be on helping these women move forward, though, ideally restoring them to their families.”
Logan isn’t the only one who notices she didn’t answer the agent’s question. The spook frowns. “Perhaps we can ask them ourselves? I would be happy to go with you to—”
“I’m sorry,” Veronica cuts in evenly. “I can’t let you go where we have taken them.”
“I really must insist—”
“Wonder Woman has been kind enough to offer refuge, temporary or permanent, to the hostages in her home. As they are a sovereign nation offering sanctuary, you would have to deal with the Themysciran Embassy and route your requests through there. As you must know, Paradise Island has a women-only policy that has been in place for centuries. I am only authorized to pass on information from our debriefs that might be relevant to your operations.”
“You can’t do that! I’ll—”
“You will drop this,” she says, a warning in her voice. “Or you can route it through the proper channels. Those are your only options right now. Trust me when I say that you do not want me to escalate this concern.”
The agent’s face, already red from when she’d cut him off the first time, is turning an alarming shade of purple. “Now see here, missy—”
Her face turns to stone at the word. She opens her mouth to speak, then stops. Presses a finger to her ear. And that’s the only time Logan realizes she’s got a com in there. She holds up a finger. “Hold that thought.” Then she walks to one side of the room. “Bats, what have you got?” She listens for a moment, the hums a response. “I didn’t really want to pull out the big guns for a little op like this one.” Logan is left wondering what a big op might be like for her, if she thinks of this as little. She huffs out a breath. “Fine. Have it your way. But you can’t growl at me if I meddle with your ops, after this.” She pauses. “Bite me, Bats. Mars, out.”
“Ms. Mars, did you just hang up on the Batman?” the ship’s XO asks hesitantly.
She grimaces. “He’s kind of a mother hen and prone to nagging.”
Batman? Logan isn’t the only one gaping.
The CIA agent doesn’t know when to quit, though. “Ms. Mars—”
“Look, you may not believe me, but I’m playing nice here. I could’ve sicced Batman on you, or worse, Wonder Woman herself. And then you’d possibly have a diplomatic incident on your hands if you tried to treat her like you’re treating me. Or have broken hands, if you tried this with the Bat. I’ve told you what we can give you. Anything else, go through the proper channels. I’ve been told to mention that I have the White House on speed dial, if that’s any incentive.”
Now Logan is outright goggling. The White House?! She meets his eyes briefly, and a smirk ghosts her lips. “The President’s a fan of the World’s Finest, both of whom have been involved in this case from the beginning.”
“Who are you, lady?” the agent cries in frustration.
“Veronica Mars. You can look me up on Wikipedia. Or if you want to go all shadowy governmenty on me, why don’t you give Amanda Waller a call?”
That name, whoever it belongs to, shuts the spook up quickly enough. She aims a genial smile at the rest of the room. “Now, do you gentlemen have any other questions about the op? Ones I can actually help you with?”
They do, although at some point it devolves into general questions that poorly disguise the officers’ fan tendencies. By the time they wrap up, it’s late afternoon. When most of the others have gone, the captain offers her an early dinner in his cabin with some of the top officers, but she declines with a smile. “If it’s all the same to you, sir, Lt. Echolls and I are childhood friends, and I would love to catch up with him a bit before I have to head over to Themyscira. That is, if he’s not otherwise engaged.”
The captain looks at Logan’s CO, who shakes his head. “Nothing on the books, and he’s off duty until 0700H.”
She grins. “Perfect.”
The captain looks at Logan. “Why don’t you give Ms. Mars a tour while she waits for her transport?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you, captain,” she says, beaming at him then shaking hands with and thanking everyone before hooking her arm through Logan’s as he leads her out of the captain’s cabin. “So, navy boy, you gonna show me around?”
“Those are my orders,” Logan says with a half-smile. “Seriously, though, I had no idea how involved you were with the Justice League. Strategic operations leader and government liaison to the Justice League?”
She frowns. “It’s the other way around, actually. Justice League liaison to various governments, including the United States. And where did you hear that?”
“Wonder Woman mentioned it when she introduced you.”
“Oh. Right. Well it sounds grander than it is, I think.” He asks all sorts of questions about her job as he shows her around the public-friendly areas of the aircraft carrier. He concludes the tour at the Mess, where dinner service is just about to start. “Got time for grub?”
“It’s like you don’t even know me.”
Of course, his squad leader waves them over immediately, and Logan introduces her to his squad, all of whom proceed to flirt with Veronica and/or tease the heck out of Logan, since his stories of home often involve a certain tiny blonde whirlwind. They fall in line at the food service station, still laughing and joking.
“You’re in luck, bobcat. It’s burger day.”
She grins. “Oh really? Well, then! Don’t tell Stark—he’s a burger monster. Did you know that’s apparently the first thing he asked for when he got back from Afghanistan? Or so he says every time we grab a cheeseburger.”
This sparks the first round of questions about the heroes she knows. Stark is a favorite among aviators, seeing as he’s known for designing some of the world’s coolest jets. But then again, so’s just about any hero who can fly, and Batman’s jets are the stuff of legend. Not to mention the invisible jet Wonder Woman dropped her off in.
As they eat, Veronica gamely answers their questions and actually ends up pulling out her phone to show them a video she shot flying from Metropolis to Gotham in Superman’s arms. The view is gorgeous, but what strikes Logan is the friendly banter she shares with the Man of Steel—and the way the hero begs her to make him a batch of snickerdoodles.
“Ah, I have fond memories of those snickerdoodles,” he says.
She rolls her eyes. “You, Supes, and Wallace. You’d think I put crack in them or something.”
He grins and bites into a chocolate chip cookie he snagged with his dinner. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“Too bad they don’t work very well for care packages. Did you get the shortbread cookies I sent before, though? And the beef jerky?”
“That was you?” one of the guys on the squad asks. “That jerky was awesome!”
She beams at him. “Yep! My friend Bruce’s butler is a terrific cook and he taught me his secret recipe. We’ve been changing things up a bit. I sent Logan here the original smoky beef flavor, but I’ve got a maple and brown sugar mix and a pepper and sea salt mix that’s really good too, plus a habanero version if you like the kick. I’ll have to include some of everything next time.” She eyes the group. “And make up a bigger care package.”
“The ravening horde here will take whatever you send,” Logan reassures her. “But I’d be happy with even just emails.”
“Awww,” everyone around them all says collectively.
Veronica blushes and Logan glares at them. Then she lifts a hand to her ear and rises. “One sec, guys.” She walks a couple of feet away. “What’s up, Big Blue? All done? Good. Have I got a ride back to the Watchtower? I can spend the night there and take a zeta to Themyscira tomorrow, give the docs a chance to work without me bothering them. No, I’m not flying Kryptonian Airways, thank you very much. I’ve eaten my quota of bugs for the month.”
She starts snickering. “He ran out of juice on his ring? Yeah, tell him to pick me up in the Javelin. I’ll even let him show it off for the flyboys. All right. See you at debrief. Mars out.”
She walks back to them, a rueful expression on my face. “So, my ride’s on its way. How do I get approval to land a plane on the… uh… air strip thingie?”
He chuckles. “Flight deck.”
“Yeah, the flight deck!”
“I’ll go and let air control know. I’m pretty sure the captain already authorized your pickup, so it should just be a matter of letting them know ETA.”
“ETA’s about five minutes, but if you need more time, my guy will hover wherever you tell him to.”
A whole squadron of aviators turns greedy eyes on her. “Hover?”
She smiles. “The Javelin is a single-space-to-orbit aircraft with hyperspace capabilities and a theoretically unlimited power source. Hover jets are a simple feature compared to that. I take it you’d like for a demo of its maneuvers?”
“Yes, ma’am,” all of them chorus.
“Bet the CO and XO would like to watch too,” Logan’s squad leader says. “I’ll go let them know.”
As a group, they walk toward the flight deck, but once there, Logan pulls Veronica to the side, where the noise of operations and the wind over the water offers them some measure of privacy.
“It was good to see you, Veronica.”
She smiles up at him. “Ditto, Logan. Sorry we messed up your op.”
He shakes his head. “If you hadn’t, and those people had still been in there, I would’ve ended up killing civilians. I’m grateful you and the Justice League stepped in.”
She wraps her arms around him in a hug. He hugs her back, leaning his cheek on the top of her head. “Then so am I. Write me when you can? I’ll do the same. And I’ll send you that beef jerky for your squad.”
“They’ll be grateful.”
“And I’ll see you when you’re back stateside?”
“Wild horses couldn’t tear me away. I’ll even feed you the first chance I get.”
“You do know me well.” She sighs and steps back. “Well. Back to work, I guess.”
“Veronica.” He lets his concern show on his face. “You’ll stay safe? I didn’t even know you did all this stuff for the Justice League. And while it’s awesome and I know you’re the best, I won’t be able to help worrying.”
She reaches for his hand, squeezes it reassuringly. “I’m as safe as I can be, doing what I do. I’ve got a team at my back. And some of the JL are even more overprotective than my dad is.”
“You bet, tiny tot!” Logan startled and turned to see the Green Lantern glowing and hovering a few feet away. The man shrugged in casual apology. “I told the guys in the tower I didn’t need to land to pick you up. I’ve got the Jav hovering about half a mile that way.” The green-clad hero gestures off toward the ocean. “Heard you promised them a show, though.”
“Like you weren’t going to give them one anyway.”
“You know me too well.” He turns to Logan. “She’s not joking, though. We’ve all got her six, Batman, Superman and GA most of all.”
“GA?”
“Green Arrow,” Veronica says with a roll of her eyes. “Together those three are the trifecta of mother hens.”
Green Lantern lets out a guffaw. “I’m telling Spooky you said that.”
“Nothing he hasn’t heard before. And I thought you ran out of ring juice?”
“Almost, so lets get out of here before I show the world I rolled into work in my jammies today.”
She snorts. “Only you.” She turns to Logan. “Guess this is me. Take care of yourself, okay? Come back to me.”
“Always,” he assures her.
She pecks him on the cheek, then steps back and waves to the guys on the deck as she is encased in a green bubble. In less than a minute, she and her teammate are specs in the horizon, and they seem to disappear into thin air.
A moment later, whatever cloaking mechanism is on their plane deactivates, and a sleek white jet is seen hovering over the horizon. Logan hears some of his teammates cuss under their breaths in appreciation.
The pilot does a flyby, then executes a series of super maneuvers a jet that big should not be able to do. Logan, like everyone on the flight deck, stares in awe as it does barrel rolls and J-turns, among other things. Then it flashes its lights cheerfully, then heads off into the horizon before doing a 90-degree turn upward and disappears into the upper atmosphere.
“That’s some girl you’ve got there, Mouth,” one of his squad mates tells him. “Hell, if that were my ex, I wouldn’t be over her either.”
“Yeah, she’s great,” Logan says distractedly, still staring out at the sky.
“Seems pretty into you too, if that hug’s anything to go by.”
Logan turns and focuses his gaze on his teammate’s. Then he smiles. “Yeah. What we’ve got, you know? It’s pretty epic.”