What I'm about to say is abhorrent, so perhaps it's best that I be the one to voice it.

The Academy has two super-powered groups associated with it - Freedom Watch and the Next-Gen. One of these groups, possibly both of them, will be the fall guys for this. If we have any choice at all in the matter, I think Next-Gen is better suited to fight that struggle.

We have to have freedom to maneuver these next few months. We won't have that if we're vilified in the public's eyes. Penumbra, I think, is counting on that, but if we aren't a public enough target, it'll go with the ones who are. This means making sure we stay in the shadows and Next-Gen basks in the limelight. It means setting up our friends and allies to take a shot being aimed at us. But if we want to stop Penumbra, it may be the only thing we can do.

We have a few advantages that may help push the balance. Brian is currently the public's darling; he's almost untouchable at the moment. Durga is a religious symbol, and that's also difficult to challenge; you'll piss off a huge portion of the populace if you do. Steel Violet has a criminal lookalike, but they've faced off before in public, so the worst they could do is smear her true identity. They could use my background against me if they outed me - but so long as I stay a relative unknown it is harder to raise the amount of anger necessary against me. Similarly, Onyx's connection to Tommy One-Suit could be problematic if made public. Thus, fortunately, the two most suspicious members - Onyx and myself - routinely cling to the shadows. Out of sight, out of mind.

Next-Gen can weather this storm. There's a long history of Bowmen to garner him public support, and isn't Seven also related to an older superhero? That, and the fact that they have been an established, more public group of supers for a longer period of time will help swing public opinion back on their side faster than it would for us.

None of this may matter. They may have already picked a target and placed all the evidence they need to implicate us. But I think we have to think about this, now, while we still have the option.

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