I'm writing these as I post them, so don't expect too much. :)

 
"Why do you think your Daddy is Death Masque, sugar?" asked Lady Karma. She waved at Billy Blueblazes to stop laughing.

Tessie sighed. "Am I on thpeaker phone?" Her eight-year-old tongue persisted in giving her trouble with sibilants.

"Um, yes."

"Listen up, Billy, and quit laughing like a cartoon," said Tessie.

"Hey!" said Billy. But he sat down and started clicking at the keyboard of his terminal, pulling up a dossier.

Lady K smiled. "Go ahead, Tessie, we're both listening and I'm recording."

"Three things," said the child who had once been the Urban Commando. "One, I recognized him, we fought back in the seventies before Last Centurion formed our group. Remember, Masquerade was a bad guy group. Miss Glamour, Dr. Domino, Z9, that bunch."

"Losers," commented Billy. "Didn't he wear a mask?"

"Pretty much," Tessie agreed. "But just one of those Spirit-type masks. Not very good."

"That was before your time, Billy," said Lady K. Still in his early twenties, Billy Blueblazes ranked as the youngest of the active Centurions, not counting Tessie.

"And there's the other two thingth - things," Tessie paused. "Yesterday, when we were out on the deck, for jutht a second I could see the sun shining through him."

"What the heck does that mean?"

"It's in the dossier," said Lady K. "Death Masque absorbs the powers of anyone he kills. He killed all his partners in Maquerade; so he should have Miss Glamour's invisibility, which had the disadvantage that in a strong light you could sometimes see through her."

"I had a girlfriend like that," commented Billy.

"You had a girlfriend?" Tessie and Lady K said simultaneously. Tessie giggled but Kay only smiled.

"Hey!" said Billy. "So what's the third thing?"

* * *

After her report to Centurion HQ, and a quick trip to the bathroom, Tessie yawned like only a sleepy child can because an adult would dislocate something.

She tiptoed down the hall, to her own room, after glancing at her new parents' bedroom door. She left her own door open and crawled into bed, pulling her colorful dolly into a tight embrace. "Don't be afraid, Annie," she whispered. "I'll protect you."

Feeling only a little silly, she kissed the doll and went back to sleep.