Since he first discovered his superpower as a teen, Invisitor faced a constant struggle to rein in his paranoia. In those socially awkward years, he soon learned that using his invisibility to learn everything his friends (and enemies) secretly thought of him was more of a curse than a benefit. His actions ended many friendships...some from the damaging secrets he uncovered, but some from the mortifying guilt he felt from invading their privacy and abusing their trust.

As a result of these experiences, Invisitor had developed a strong aversion to going rogue with his powers. When he was accepted as a full-fledged member of the Heroic League, he welcomed being embedded in a structure and team that could keep him grounded. A key part of the appeal of the League for him was The Vigilante: While the group had no official leader, everyone recognized that The Vigilante's intelligence meant he led in times of peril. A big part of why The Vigilante was so well-prepared to lead in various crises was because he was always preparing for the next one. And a big part of what made The Vigilante's eternal vigilance so effective was the valuable intelligence gathered by Invisitor. If The Vigilante was the brain of the League, Invisitor served as its eyes and ears. For the last few years, if Invisitor was using his powers, it was almost always for the benefit of the League at the direction of The Vigilante.

Which is why Invisitor felt an overwhelming sense of unease as he huddled in the cargo hold of the Vigijet. He tried to tell himself that this time his paranoia was justified, but his anxiety and doubt formed a knot in the pit of his stomach. Over the last few weeks he had concluded that some members of the League were acting strangely. Unscheduled meetings, odd responses to routine interactions, long periods out of contact with no explanation... nothing especially sinister or actionable, but he couldn't escape the feeling that something spreading just outside his view. When he first confided in The Vigilante, he was comforted that he seemed to take his nebulous concerns seriously and said he'd investigate. Invisitor was relieved and felt validated, but his dormant concerns began to stir again as more and more time passed.

Part of Invisitor's increasing unease stemmed from his unspoken assumption that The Vigilante would include him in his investigation. Unexpectedly, though, The Vigilante canceled a meeting they had scheduled to plot strategy for the investigation. Then after several days without any updates The Vigilante messaged him to say he had conducted his own investigation with Starling and DupliciTy and there was no basis for any concern. If The Vigilante had intended the message to reduce Invisitor's concerns, it had the opposite effect. Which is why Invisitor now found himself huddled in the cramped cargo hold of the hero's jet, descending to an unknown destination. No matter how he tried to convince himself otherwise he felt like he was betraying The Vigilante... but he no longer felt he could trust anyone else to uncover the truth.

Soon, the jet smoothly landed and taxied to a stop. Invisitor could hear muffled conversations and thumping as The Vigilante and Starling shut down the jet and exited the cabin. Invisitor checked to make sure he was invisible and backed tightly against the bulkhead. Moments later, he was surprised to see an Air Force ground crewman pop the hatch to the compartment and begin unloading the cargo. As he carefully followed the crewman out onto the runway, he tried to get his bearings. Judging from the uniforms of the other ground crew and the markings on the vehicles and transport planes, this was clearly an Air Force base, but other than the temperature suggesting he was somewhere in the South, he had no idea where.

In the distance he saw a cluster of low, flat concrete buildings surrounding a large bunker. In the increasingly dim twilight, he could make out The Vigilante and Starling walking toward the bunker with three other figures. Carefully avoiding the array of ground crew and equipment surrounding the Vigijet, he jogged after the group.

The base was swarming with activity... but he again was unnerved by something about it that he couldn't really pin down. To his left, a dozen transport planes were arrayed on the flightline being fueled and loaded by a regular procession of trucks shuttling back and forth between the planes and a huge hanger filled with pallets of identical green crates. Curiously, on the exterior road running parallel to the runway there was a motley, seemingly random assortment of government and civilian vehicles lined up for as far as the eye could see. As he continued jogging forward, he could see that each vehicle in the line would stop at the big hanger and have several green crates loaded into it, then proceed to the next hanger and pause briefly as figures clad all in black--sometimes several, but always at least two--entered the vehicle. After that, the vehicle quickly departed the area, with the cycle repeating quickly for the next vehicle.

As Invisitor drew closer to catching up with the group that was even now entering the bunker, he was was able to see into the third hanger along the runway. To his surprise, he saw a civilian airliner inside. Although he was too far away to make out details, it looked like its cargo hold was being loaded with more of the green crates, and dozens of figures wearing the all-black uniforms were in a long line climbing the stairs into the waiting passenger jet. Invisitor felt a chill as the scene seemed off in some ineffable way he could not pin down, but shook it off as he realized he was in danger of losing track of The Vigilante and Starling if he did not immediately pick up his pace.

Trying not to push himself so hard that he would be gasping for air, Invisitor nonetheless accelerated as fast as he dared toward the bunker. Unfortunately, he realized that he was too late to enter the bunker hidden amongst the group, who had already passed through the security cordon into the building. Invisitor slowed his pace (and his breathing) and moved to intercept another group heading toward the same entrance. As he neared this group and prepared to silently merge with them, he was surprised to see they were naval officers. Moving into formation immediately behind the trailing officer, he began to overhear the group's intense, fractious conversation... but was exasperated when the topic turned out to be an earlier football game that had resulted in a loss by one officer's beloved alma mater. As the sad news resulted in a chorus of taunting abuse from his colleagues, the interaction seemed almost stereotypically normal and banal. But as Invisitor shadowed them carefully through the security checkpoint, part of him could not escape the feeling that something in the interaction felt hollow. However, the rational part of him worried that his paranoia was making him perceive abnormalities where there were none.

As the naval officers moved deeper into the bunker, Invisitor was surprised to see personnel from seemingly every branch of the military moving in and out, along with occasional suit-wearing civilians and (judging from their concealed holsters and comms gear), federal agents. While he was in doubt as to whether what he was observing was nefarious, it was by now becoming abundantly clear that whatever this operation was, it was massive and complex. His brain told Invisitor that--if anything--the relaxed and convivial conversations that he overheard as he prowled the crowded hallways of the complex proved these people harbored no ill intent. Even if he did not know what this operation was, it was clearly being done with the support of both the U.S. government and The Vigilante, so it seemed legitimate. But his gut continued to fight against that cheerful analysis, although he could not articulate a coherent justification for his unease. On that visceral level, he was becoming more and more convinced that something was deeply wrong.

As he rounded a corner, he saw he was approaching the entrance to the base command-and-control hub, which had two additional guards stationed outside. The guards opened the doors for the Navy officers and Invisitor was able to peer briefly into the packed room before realizing that The Vigilante and Starling were about to exit in his direction. He had a brief moment of surprise that they would leave so soon after arriving and indecision about whether he should tail them or enter the hub, but quickly decided to follow them down the corridor.

Annoyingly, now that he had finally caught up with them he realized their conversation was also about recent college football games. Starling was particularly animated describing how his previously winless university had just improbably toppled a top-ten rival. Invisitor felt some faint solidarity with The Vigilante in the moment, as he seemed just as bored by Starling's chatter as Invisitor did.

As they exited the bunker and headed back the way they had come earlier, Invisitor counted on the noise of the flightline and Starling's chatter to cover the sounds of his close surveillance. As Starling's football commentary shifted its focus to celebrating the embarrassing loss of his school's cross-town rival, Invisitor realized that the pair were not heading back to their jet, but instead were making a beeline to the large hanger. Now that he understood their destination, Invisitor veered off a bit to try to get a closer look into the other hanger.

Night had descended and the headlights of the vehicles picking up crates and the black-clad figures made it difficult to make out the details of what was going on inside the hanger, but Invisitor suddenly realized what had been bothering him on a subconscious level until now: The black-clad figures who were getting into the vehicles were not just similarly-dressed... they were identical. And not just identically dressed: they were the same height, same build, same hair color, and (now that he knew what to look for) they actually moved with the same mannerisms. "My God," he thought to himself. "They're DupliciTy. All of them!"

Invisitor knew that DupliciTy's superpower was the ability to create multiple clones of himself and control them as one coordinated unit. That power had come in handy in many conflicts the League had fought over the years, and beyond all that, Invisitor had always considered DupliciTy to be a great guy. But now he was confused, because in the past it had always seemed that both the process of creating a clone and the mental stress needed to control multiple clones was very taxing for DupliciTy, limiting the number of clones he could create and control. Even in the most dangerous battles, Invisitor could not think of a time where DupliciTy had created more than a few dozen clones. But right now, just in the hanger he could see, there seemed to be several hundred copies of DupliciTy lining up to board the vehicles. And that was on top of the dozens he was now fairly sure he had observed lining up to board the civilian jet. How was that possible?

Invisitor stopped and spun wildly trying to track all of the black-clad figures around him...but then realized that his distraction meant he had lost track of The Vigilante and Starling. He turned toward the larger hanger and managed to spot them just as they entered it and headed toward the line of ground crew that were loading crates into the line of trucks and vehicles. Invisitor took off at a full run to try to catch up with them, only slowing as he approached the bustling hub of activity.

The chaos inside the hanger was daunting, but Invisitor again marveled that despite the frenzied action, it seemed to be shockingly synchronized. Catching his breath, Invisitor caught sight of the two heroes, who were now talking with the workers pulling crates from the pallets. Invisitor ran across the hanger, avoiding numerous collisions by mere millimeters as he tried to understand what the heroes were discussing with the workers. Arriving near them, his deep sense of unease contrasted with the cheerful and upbeat demeanors of the group. Now, instead of football, the group was apparently discussing the various heroes of the League. Invisitor missed the beginning of the conversation, which by context he inferred was about The Vigilante's strength and weaknesses, but his ears perked up when the conversation turned to DupliciTy. The ground crew seemed especially interested in him, indicating enthusiastically that they had all met him in person recently.

"It's interesting that we only recently found a way to overcome DupliciTy's greatest limitation," The Vigilante said, "and it was actually a bit of an accidental byproduct of something else we were trying to accomplish. Important discoveries are usually like that: if a researcher is too fixed on finding one answer, they can sometimes miss a more valuable discovery that is just waiting for them. Great researchers--like great crime-fighters or detectives--always need to keep an open mind or they might miss the most important clues of all. It happens in combat, too: target fixation! You're so focused on pursuing one target that you don't notice vital information about the situation around you."

As the ground crew murmured their agreement, Invisitor could not shake the feeling that The Vigilante's message should mean something to him. The Vigilante paused to open one of the cases and continued, "But in fairness, obsession can be closely linked to greatness. If I'm avoiding the appearance of modesty for a second, obsession is the thing that took me from being interested in solving crimes to being a superhero. Obsession is what powered my drive to continually improve myself and my capabilities such that despite having no innate superpowers, I have improved myself to a degree I would never have thought possible. DupliciTy has now done the same thing now that we have made an important discovery that dramatically augmented his--and my--power and capabilities." Invisitor's ears perked up as The Vigilante seemed to be confirming that his suspicions had been right all along: something HAD changed, and it had secretly affected multiple heroes. Without really realizing it, Invisitor crept closer to The Vigilante as he continued his story.

"Right now, we are trying to figure out how to share the news of this new discovery. Everyone we have shared it with so far agrees that only by sharing it with the entire world can we truly achieve humanity's full potential." As Invisitor moved closer to The Vigilante, he was surprised by the hero's increasingly passionate delivery. In all his years working with him, The Vigilante had always seemed to keep an iron grip on his emotions, but now he seemed to almost vibrate and glow with excitement as he continued his impassioned speech. "Almost everyone on this base now shares the same goal, and almost all of the heroes in the League have now joined us in this supremely vital task Actually, the only one who hasn't is... you." Invisitor was shocked to see that The Vigilante was gesturing right at him, and was horrified when he realized that the workers around him had all stopped their activity and turned to face him. In a panic, he bent over to confirm his body was still invisible, but was further unnerved to realized Starling was right behind him and suddenly wrapped his arms around his chest to restrain him in a bear hug. Realizing that he stood little chance of escaping Starling by brute force, he decided to try a different tack. "All right, you caught me," Invisitor said as calmly as he could manage. "We're all friends here, and I think we all want the same thing. If you tell me more about what you're doing, maybe I can help?"

The Vigilante rummaged around in the open case as he responded to Invisitor. "Well, I'm certainly happy to tell you more about what we're doing, and I know you'll agree to help when I do. But first, I confess that I'm a little surprised that you aren't more surprised about what's been going on."

Invisitor realized he had transitioned from abject panic to stoic determination to deep confusion in just a few seconds. "What do you mean?" he replied, "I clearly had my suspicions that something was going on. I even told you about them, and then secretly hitched a ride here and spent the last hour or so running around trying to figure out what was going on."

As The Vigilante pulled a glowing blue coil out of the case, he again seemed strangely animated as he walked toward Invisitor and continued talking. "No, no. Obviously you realized that something was going on. Given how large our operation is getting, it's almost inevitable that some aspects of it would be noticed. Frankly, we realized early on that it was so inevitable that we should actually incorporate it as part of the plan. But that's not what I'm talking about."

Invisitor was now genuinely confused by the conversation's turn. "Wait, what are you saying I'm missing?" Invisitor felt like a student who had flunked an exam and was now being rebuked by his professor in front of the entire class. As The Vigilante handed the glowing coil to a worker over Invisitor's shoulder, he stood directly in front of Invisitor and said, "All right, let's just cut to it. How did we catch you so easily?"

Now Invisitor was genuinely stumped. In prior cases where his invisibility had been defeated by a foe, it had typically been because of audio cues like twigs snapping, or sometimes when he had done something sloppy like leaving footprints in soft ground. But as far as he could tell, that hadn't happened here. His silence apparently inspired The Vigilante to continue with his impromptu lecture. "I was actually initially pretty concerned when you approached me with your suspicions... with your superpower, your investigation could easily uncover our operation before we were fully prepared, which would have been disastrous. But soon after that we saw you in action and realized that of all the heroes, you were actually the least threatening to us and could safely be ignored."

Invisitor was gradually transitioning from being confused to being insulted. "What do you mean ignored?" he sputtered before The Vigilante lifted his finger to silence him. "I guess 'ignored' might not be the right word...maybe it's more accurate to say 'lowest priority.' Despite your suspicions, you were never going to be much of a threat to us because... we...can...all...see...you." The Vigilante continued, booping Invisitor's supposedly-invisible nose repeatedly for emphasis. Invisitor stood stunned for a moment as The Vigilante continued , "Well, technically I still can't see you because my eyes are adapted for visible light. But just imagine for a second that you were a parasite that evolved to survive by taking control of a host's nervous system in a completely dark environment. For such a creature, any human's nervous system lights up like a Christmas tree, even if your body would be invisible to our eyes. And fortunately, everyone on this base at this moment is lucky enough to have one of those wonderful parasites...except you!" The Vigilante paused briefly and nodded to the crew member to whom he had passed the glowing coil, "...until now." Invisitor felt sudden pain up and down his spine as the glowing parasite seated itself and began melding with his body. He tried his best to maintain control, but any resistance he tried to muster was quickly blasted away by the powerful mental bursts from the parasite. In mere seconds he lost control, becoming fully visible as his body shuddered in Starling's grasp. Then, with an ecstatic gasp he felt himself surrender totally to his new Master. As he turned, his eyes emitted a bright blue flash, which was echoed by flashes in the smiling eyes of everyone surrounding him.

The Vigilante, Starling, and the assembled crew all congratulated Invisitor on his capture, and then the three heroes walked through the hanger doors together. As they discussed the next steps of their important plan, Invisitor relished being useful and important to the League's plans again. Now that he understood the beautiful truth of his absolute servitude, he recognized all of his fears and angst had been misplaced. The entire time he had been worrying about his teammates' odd behavior, he should have instead been worrying about himself. His isolation and self-doubt had been poisoning him. He always did better taking orders as part of a team, and the team he had just joined was going to be unstoppable.

As he walked with his fellow heroes and felt his master flattening and concealing itself against his back, he joyfully realized he would never be alone again.