Mike cut up the newspaper and put glue on the back of a story and a picture. He went to the wall up in his workshop and pasted the newest story about his kids – his kids – onto the wall. He stood back and regarded the headline, the picture of Starfall in full light in the middle of Vibora Bay. The picture was in color, from Heroes Today, put out by USA Today.
Mike smiled. This wasn’t the first hero that got photographed. Swoop was a favorite, Aries was pretty photogenic. Starcrowe was your typical dark mage; and he needed to get a costume for Angel.
The door chimed, as someone was using the teleporter. Mike came down from the workshop and stood at the balcony that looked out at the moonbase. He smiled again as the doors opened, and Mikael entered the base.
“Mikael,” called Mike, coming down the stairs. “Your sequestering yourself like you have been is starting to worry me.”
Mikael looked up and smiled at Mike. “I am sorry if I worry you. You know if you need me you can only call.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to catch you in the middle of anything.” Mike approached him and put his arms around him, then kissed him soundly.
Mikael said, “Maybe I should not stay too long from you if you kiss me like that.”
“There’s more where that came from,” Mike said. “C’mere, come take a look at this.” He put his arm around Mikael’s shoulder and guided him up the stairs. He brought him to the wall at the workshop. “Some people have a brag-book; I have a brag-wall.”
Mikael studied the pictures and articles. “They are doing well for themselves, aren’t they?”
“For all of us. Heroes Illustrated wants to do an interview with some of the kids and me.” Mikael looked at Mike. “I’m going to talk to Scott’s people first, get some pointers on what people do in interviews, pass it on to the kids. Like Swoop.” He chuckled.
Mikael smiled a little and looked back at the articles. “This is good. This is very good. You will be famous.”
Then the color fled from Mike’s face. “Shit.”
“What?” Mikael turned back to Mike.
“There’s a problem. If I’m famous, Hermes will know – and hell, so won’t all the gods.”
Mikael looked thoughtful.