Several years after the above stories – more than 50 years after the apocalypse.

There were five students loitering near the fence at Maureen’s, and the last parents had come and gone. Luke rolled his shoulders and pulled his wings close. There was nobody coming for them. There never had been someone coming for three of them — raised in the creche, the only time they’d been out of the Addergoole complex was on field trips. The last two had been dropped off by their parents four years ago. Luke had honestly thought those parents would come back.

It had been years since Cya Red Doomsday had stopped showing up, long enough that the rumors had almost stopped. She’d never have taken the girls, and he could only remember once that she’d taken two, but she could have done something. Luke stepped forward. He was going to have to have the talk abut the Village and Other Options with these kids. He was going to have to pull their Mentors in and ask why they hadn’t prepared their Students. He was going to have to growl if one of Mike’s old Students showed up, the way they did some years, offering snake oil and a slave collar.

A blue man teleported in front of him with a whiff of sulfur and an apologetic grin, followed a millisecond later by Cya Red Doomsday and… another woman. Luke didn’t recognize her, althugh her face shape remind him of someone else — black hair, golden-brown skin, and a ready and wide smile that looked ready to cause trouble.

“Usually I’d come earlier,” Cya was telling the other woman, “but I wanted to be sure that you saw what happens when we don’t come. sa’Hunting Hawk,” she bowed politely in his direction, “this is Sunitha the Bright Idea, my former student and current protégé.”

Protégé.. “Red Doomsday.” He returned her bow. “jae’Bright Idea. Are you…”

“It really doesn’t work for me right now.” Luke thought that Cya sounded apologetic. “And… i thought that the ones who didn’t look like Howard, Leo, or Cabal deserved a chance.”

“Ah.” There was a “Howard”-type among the five — broad-shouldered, blond, big horns — but he wasn’t one Luke was most worried about. He bowed again at Bright Idea. He shouldn’t feel as relieved about this as he did, but… “I trust Red Doomsday’s judgement, ma’am.”

Cya smirked at her protégé, but there was warning in the expression. “Don’t let him down.”

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