Binding Oaths | Arc-6 Sisyphus | [Super Powereds] (Finished)

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Binding Oaths | Arc-1 Aeneas [Super Powereds]

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"Never fear, little Shane. There is strength in you that you'll never know until you call on it. I think, one day, you'll be the most fearless of us all."
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A/N: Spoilers for Super Powereds/Corpies, and both belongs to Drew Hayes. I own nothing except my own tales.

Synopsis: This is a Fanfic based on the web-serial, now book series, Super Powereds. It follows the story of Shane DeSoto when he graduated from the HCP(Hero Certification Program) and is going through his internship in the city of Brooklyn.

Chapter 1

The metro train rumbled as it made its way toward Western Brooklyn, the graffiti ridden stone walls flashing by as it shot past at blurring speeds. Most of the people seated in the moderately comfortable plastic benches of the locomotive were either looking at their phones, talking, or trying to catch some sleep despite the constant buzz.

The only real oddity in the compartment was a middle aged man seated near one of the centermost doors. The man's appearance wasn't particularly notable, but the two binders and three notebooks floating around him in a slow orbit certainly were. Occasionally, one would stop in front of him and open, seemingly all on its own.

Apart from a few furtive glances when he initially boarded, the man was largely ignored. Despite the fact that he was obviously a Super, and one that didn't care to try and hide it either. The people on the train were apparently content to mind their own business if he minded his, which was a pleasant surprise to the young-man sitting across from him.

But Shane kept his eye on the weathered-looking man regardless. He'd been reading up on the Hero teams and Super activity in the area—something he viewed as common sense—but had promptly stopped when the man had stepped onto the train with his lose orbit of office supplies.

The guy had short dark hair, graying at the tips, and was wearing a tan business suit, the skin of his head and hands a dark beige. Shane usually wouldn't have paid such a man this much attention, but this was a rather inconvenient time for a Super like him to be nearby. After all, he couldn't have an Advanced Mind overhear that he was going to a Hero team's base.

Thankfully he'd received training for the mind along with the exercises to hone his body and powers. Learning to marshal one's' thoughts against telepathy was one of the first skills a student had to learn before graduating. So while the man's presence wasn't ideal, it didn't merit any real worry on his part. But just to be on the safe side of things he decided to take his attention off of the man and put away his phone to get his mind off hero-related topics.
Shane decided it would be best to clear his mind and perform a simple exercise for the rest of the trip—a little more training never hurt after all.
He let his posture slump and tilted his head down with his eyes half closed, ensuring that people wouldn't notice when his sclera turned pitch-black. The young man could feel his senses warp as he filled every shadow in the compartment with life and his awareness. Shane could never explain exactly how this felt to others, but it was closets in comparison to touch.

With a part of himself in the shadows, and his sense of perspective warped, Shane relaxed. He could now feel the people, possessions, furniture, and even the very walls of the compartment of the train around him. This sense wasn't exactly accurate, but it did give a sort of three-sixty field of awareness and had saved him from a sneak attack on more than one occasion.

After a few minutes of flexing his awareness and control, Shane heard the call for his station and felt the train slow to a stop. The shadows on the outside of the locomotive suddenly becoming more stable giving him a heads-up.
He turned off his power, checked his pockets to make sure he still had his possessions, before picking up his mini-duffel bag and heading out of the sliding doors. Shane trekked his way through the crowd, back up above ground, and started off at a brisk walk. He had twenty minutes left before he needed to meet his contact in the Red Hook neighborhood. The brisk Fall wind howling against his windbreaker as his boots crunched over the fallen leaves were his only company as he half-jogged toward the ominous looking structure only a few blocks away.

Like most Hero bases, the Pristine Strikers' had originally been a large abandoned factory near the edge of the town they protected. The base was a steel affair, most likely the reinforced kind, sitting at four stories tall and with windows situated evenly but sparsely on each floor.
To be honest, Shane thought it looked a little odd; like something built purely for utility. He could respect that kind of mindset.
The entrance was a steel double door with a rounded marble staircase leading up to it, but Shane wouldn't be going there.

He couldn't very well just walk into the base, even with the security they probably had, someone walking into a base and never coming back out would be a rather obvious sign to the more astute criminals. The text from his Mentor he'd gotten in the morning had very specific details about where to go and how much he could bring with him. So, after one last look towards what might be his new home, he took a left turn down towards the laundry mat that should be exactly a block away and close to closing time. The place had a surprisingly modern look to it, the neon signs up against the front already lit, and the front window had an almost sparkling sheen to it.

A small middle-aged woman beckoned him in from behind a chrome green counter, obviously having expected him. The door opens with the light jingle of a bell and she quickly hops forward and leads him by the hand into the back room.

"You're awfully early, young man. But no matter, I quite like my employees to be punctual.", she says with a surprisingly cheerful and accented voice, her short stature and chubby frame pulling him along with surprising strength. The woman opened the door and lead him into a rather bare bones looking office with grey concrete walls, and a dirty tiled floor, the other exit being an emergency-exit door towards the back.

There was a woman with skin the color of cocoa that was sitting at a cluttered desk in the center, drinking what looked like tea. "My husband can interview you hear while I handle the register, dearie.", and with that the old-woman gave Shane pat on the shoulder before heading back to the front.

Turning back towards the lady in the suit, Shane found that she had already gotten to her feet, long legs bring her to eye-level with him. With the empty mug left on top of the desk, she smoothed out the wrinkles in her suit before addressing him, "Why do you serious types always have to get here so early?" She pushed her braided hair back a little before stepping forward with an outstretched hand. "The name's Maria Zaria, I gotta say it's nice to meet the grandson of the first official Super-Hero."

He didn't bother giving his name in return, she obviously already knew about him and his family, he'd gotten used to *DVA agents knowing him by name despite never having met him personally before.
"I can't help it ma'am, four years in the HCP will do that to you.", Shane replied with a polite smile as he shook her hand before stepping back and looking around the small room. "So, is this where every intern goes to get inside the base?", he asked absentmindedly.

The tall woman gave a short snort before patting him on the shoulder , "Of course not, kid. We've got more than a few stores for several blocks around that we picked at random for each of you.", before he could have responded or backed away she took a firmer grip on his shoulder and closed her eyes in obvious concentration as the world warped around them.

"Now get ready, I'm fast, but my power doesn't exactly make for the smoothest ride."

*DVA(Department of Variant Human Affairs)

Criticism and Discussion is encouraged.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Terminology

Powereds

A person who possesses abilities beyond the physical capabilities of humans, but has no conscious control over activation and/or management of their abilities. Power activation can be completely random, connected to physical ticks(Ex: sneezing), or spontaneously in response to intense emotions.

Note: Abilities that cannot be de-activated make the difference between a Powered and Super blurry. A Powered who has a naturally enhanced physique power would be indistinguishable from a Super with the same power.

Supers

A person who possesses and can control an ability beyond the physical capabilities of humans. Though seemingly straightforward, the exact definition for what constitutes beyond human abilities is always changing. An example of this are Tech-Supers, whose powers were not originally viewed as fitting the requirements to make them a class of Super.

Hero(es)

A Super who has been trained and certified to fight Supers engaged in criminal activities. These are the only people that are deemed as insurable and as such are protected from culpability over damage caused in the course of their duties. The process to become a Hero requires acceptance into and completion of the Hero Certification Program, followed by two years working under the supervision of a current Hero.

DVA(Department of Variant Human Affairs)

Government agency all American Heroes are evaluated by and report to.

HCP(Hero Certification Program)

System designed to educate Supers on the duties and strategies of being a Hero while simultaneously weeding out those who cannot handle such responsibility. Currently there are six colleges in the United States that offer Hero Certification Programs.

Sims

Simulated Super Automated Battle Droids(Sims), a tool used for training by HCP upperclassmen and Heroes.

These highly sophisticated androids come in a variety of builds, meant to emulate the powers of several basic Super categories. They can almost perfectly resemble ordinary human beings, variant humans, and have incredibly robust programming.

They are also prohibitively expensive.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Hero Certification Programs

1. Lander University.
Location: Lander, California.
Noteworthy Alumni: The Class of Legends.

2. Korman University.
Location: New York, New York.
Noteworthy Alumni: Shutterbug, Diamond Glance, and Maestro

3. Sizemore Tech.
Location: Chicago, Illinois.
Noteworthy Alumni: Titan, Deadweight, and Upturn.

4. West Private University.
Location: Orlando, Florida.
Noteworthy Alumni: Mary Gold, Pindrop, and Sanctify.

5. Overton University
Location: Overton, Texas.
Noteworthy Alumni: Stall Pass, Valhalla, and Skull Strike.

6. Vista University
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Noteworthy Alumni: Simikiel, Gadreel, and Samshiel.

Damage Rating System

The Damage rating is a classification system for Supers and Powereds that ranks them based on the amount of damage one can cause within the span of an hour. The Damage Rating is often mistaken as a power rating, even by heroes, and there have been attempts by the DVA to create one which ultimately failed due to the constantly changing understanding of variant humans and their abilities.

Non-Threatening Combatant Class

The Non-Threatening Combatant Class, also abbreviated as NTC Class, covers variant humans who have the same propensity of damage as a regular human. They are often just as frail, requiring only a "tap to the head" to incapacitate one. Many healer type Variant Humans and those with low-caliber display abilities. One example of this Class is Zero (A super with an exceptional nullifier power).

Standard Class

The Standard Class covers those who are capable of inflicting significant damage and can be a danger to life but are not a threat to a large-scale area. Like the name would suggest, most Supers fall into this category. Examples of Standard Class variant humans include: Nick Campbell (A luck/probability manipulator.)

Demolition Class

The Demolition Class covers those who, if left unchecked, could level entire city blocks.
Examples of Demolition Class variant humans include: Titan, probably the most physical strong super in the setting. (Although he has no other way of dealing damage. Which is why he will likely never reach the following rankings.)

Manhattan Class

The Manhattan Class, likely referring to the Manhattan Project that oversaw the research and development of nuclear weapons, covers those who are capable of inflicting damage of similar impact and scale to a nuclear bomb.
There are currently no confirmed examples of the Manhattan Class. (Though it has been stated that several have been fought throughout history.)

Armageddon Class

The Armageddon Class is the final and highest-ranking position of the damage rating. Those under this category are capable of destruction on a global scale.
There are currently no confirmed examples of the Armageddon Class. (Though it has been stated that several have been fought throughout history.)

Purpose of The System

It informs Heroes on how to prioritize protecting civilians, minimizing property damage, and escalating force. There's no need to try to cripple or kill a Standard Class threat if subduing is an option, for example.

It's not about weak or strong either, just about immediate destructive potential. For example, a good telekinetic can knock most strongmen out of a battle by lifting them off the ground, even if the strongman would be rated higher in terms of raw power.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Next chapter will be up later today: You get some insight into the world at large and on the members of the Pristine Strikers.

I'll be slowly explaining the rules and mechanics of the world Drew Hayes has created, so reading the original novels isn't required. (Although there will probably be some spoilers.)

Criticism and Discussion is encouraged.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Chapter 2

Shane tensed as he mentally steeled himself for whatever it was Maria's power was about to put him through. His mind cycled through the possibilities before the world around him warped suddenly, as if he was staring into a giant fun-house mirror. But he was pleasantly surprised to feel nothing at all as his field-of-view narrowed, along with the morphing environment. Shane had all of half a second to take this in before the world blurred by in sudden motion.

It ended as suddenly as it had started. He hadn't been able to make out anything except for a few flickering lights. Shane imagined anyone that wasn't a speedster would have had a similar experience. Aside from that though; he didn't feel any worse for ware. But could easily see how it might be a less-than-pleasant experience for someone susceptible to motion sickness.

He was about to ask the DVA agent where exactly they were, before he got a good look at his surroundings. The interior looked like the love-child between a circuit board and aluminum foil. Square indents ran along the ceiling harboring only what he could guess to be incredibly large light bulbs—the glare being too intense to make out any real detail. Shane gaped slightly before remembering himself and taking a calming breath, the air had a sterile hospital feel to it. And there didn't appear to be any windows in whatever section of the building they were in.

'Well then, this definitely confirmed my suspicions that they had a Tech Super.', Shane thought as he tried to examine traces of what looked like electricity pulsing through the walls.

"Impressive isn't it?", Maria called back; she was already heading down the hallway and toward an intersection. It was circular with four different paths, one of them leading off to what looked like an elevator. "But the team can explain the obvious Super technology later. The rest of the Interns aren't here yet; but your Mentor and two other team members are already back from patrol."

He'd caught up at that point and was following her down the second to right hallway. A smaller version of the front door awaited them at the end of it.

Without so much as a knock, Maria swung both doors wide open to reveal what looked like... a meeting room. Albeit one with weird futuristic walls and lights. The center of the room was occupied by an oval table surrounded by sturdy looking wooden chairs. What really drew the eye however was the massive screen placed front and center on the far wall.

Shane could hear the low hum of machinery coming from a doorway to the left of the room, but his focus was firmly on the three costumed individuals looking up at the screen. Which was displaying what appeared to be live footage of DVA operatives containing and setting up transport for a boy who was emitting a green gas from his skin. He couldn't have been more than twelve years old.

From the panicked look on the gaunt teen's face and there only being DVA operatives around; he was likely a Powered.

Shane had mixed feelings about Powereds; those that had inhuman abilities, but lacked the conscious control of a Super. They were dangerous, vastly more numerous than Supers, but Shane still felt pity for them all the same. As a Hero, Intern really, he would inevitably be called in to deal with Powereds that have completely lost control. So he thought his attitude of pity and sympathy would serve him well, certainly better than the blatant attitude of superiority he'd seen expressed by others; Supers and humans alike...
Shane banished his errant musings as he focused on the figures across the large hall in front of him.

The one on the left had on the classic skin-tight black fabric for Heroes that could shift. But even without the suit, his milky white eyes framed by almost bleach-white hair would have been an immediate give away to his Super status. Shane guessed that he was "Terram", one of the two known Shifters on the team.

The tall figure in the middle had on purple segmented body armor with black highlights and a lavender cape that flowed down to her calves. Shane would normally consider such a long cape to be a death wish for any Hero that wasn't a strongman. But he'd seen news clips of "The Crusader" fight and knew that cape was anything but a liability.

Last, but definitely not least, was the man to the right; "Spectrum". He was leaning against the table and bouncing an orange ball of energy between his hands. The tall Hero's costume was a minimalist white ensemble with cuffed gloves and calf-high boots, but no cape. The only exceptional part of it being the rainbow highlights which contrasted with his almost steel-grey hair.

All three of them turned toward the duo as soon as they stepped into the meeting area.

"Hey, great guardians of the city, your new Intern decided to be all dutiful and arrive a few minutes early.", she quickly ushered him halfway into the room before quickly turning back. "Try not to scare him off before the other three get here.", with a wave and slam of the double doors she was gone, presumably back outside to some other fake business front.

"So, is this the DeSoto kid?", the Hero in violet armor asked in an airy feminine voice. She floated through the air and landed near him without so much as a thud.

"Nice to meet you ma'am, you can call me Shane.", he reached his hand out and was surprised to see her glove unclasp itself and float off, revealing a calloused hand that gave a firm shake.

"And you can just call me Rikki for now, 'ma'am' makes me feel older than I already am.", she says as she pulled back and waved the others over.

"I'm Hugh, you probably know me as the guy that turns into an eight-foot tall alien.", his expression was surprisingly amiable despite his honestly disturbing looking eyes and sharp features.

"And you've already meet me, Shane.", Spectrum ended his shake with a hearty pat on the back, his considerable(although non-Super) strength almost making Shane stumble. "Now that you're on the team, you can call me "Jack" like everyone else.", he said before another sound came from the TV behind them.

They'd all finished up their introductions just in time to see the DVA operatives, currently decked out in Hazmat suits, finish clearing the rest of the gas from the area and guiding the scared kid into their signature black-and-white van. They looked plain, but those vehicles could hold almost any Super and they always had a Nullifier on-hand encase extra protection was needed.

After the action was over, the screen then switched to a detailed map of the city with police and accident reports scrolling down the side.

Shane was a little overwhelmed by the obvious wealth and resources of this team. He'd looked into them enough to know that they were one of the more well known teams in Brooklyn, but that definitely didn't account for all this. Unless he had seriously underestimated the average wealth of a modern Hero team. But he resolved to ask about that later, he was sure the other Interns would ask the same questions and he didn't want the mentors to waste time explaining the same things twice.

No, instead he would try and get some practical knowledge about what would be his new home for the next few months.

"Well, since my soon-to-be teammates won't be here for a while, any of you guys feel like taking me on a tour of the training room? It's where I'll be spending most of my time, so I might as well get familiar with it.", Shane was mostly kidding when making that proclamation. His time in the HCP had thoroughly broken him out of his habit of just burying himself in training everyday.

"Sure thing kid, but I think you should go with Rikki for now, she knows it best and should make for a good warm-up partner if time permits.", Jack gestured to the armor clad woman just as her gauntlet finished reattaching itself.

With no apparent effort, the lavender Hero suddenly floated a few feet into the air again and pointed to the door on her left. The door then swung open, supposedly, via the same force that moved her her gauntlet. "What do say, Shane? You feel like having a little sparring session before the rest get here?"

The eager smile that split the young man's usually reserved face surprised everyone but Shane himself.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 13, 2018

Next Chapter will be up tomorrow.
You'll be seeing the first "fight" of the Fic and you'll be introduced to the rest of the Interns

Criticism and Discussion is encouraged.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 14, 2018

Chapter 3

There was always a certain rhythm or flow to a fight, and anyone could see it. As a spectator it was easier but with enough training and experience you could see it even while you were the one fighting. If trained properly, a person could remove any discernible pattern from their own fighting style, make it variable and adaptable to an opponents.

This was something Shane's grandfather had mercilessly drilled into both him and his sister--training them almost since childhood. Other children may have resented him for it; but no one could argue with the results.

None of that helped however. While Shane was fighting Rikki in the training room--he could already tell he was going to get his ass kicked.

To an untrained observer it might have looked like they were evenly matched. With Rikki gradually wearing him down with superior tactics and experience. Shane even believed it a little himself during the start of the fight.

The way she able to dive down towards him and then pivot smoothly kept him on his toes and from grabbing her with her own shadow. Landing the occasional glancing blow when Shane wasn't quick enough. And small weights around the room would rise up and soar toward whenever he backed up too far. But Shane either dodged or used his own shadow as a shield for those.

When Rikki lifted an arm towards Shane, he felt his own shirt contract around his chest before being violently flung back. Her power and how much she'd been holding back had become clear after that.

She was an Animator.

If it was just standard TK then Shane would've just felt an invisible force push him back or wrap around him. Not his clothes suddenly contracting and dragging him around.

Animators were a little uncommon among Supers, they could control inanimate objects by infusing them with their energy and then giving them commands. It allowed for more fined tuned control than what most telekinetics could ever have. The really powerful ones could even use their objects as an extension of their own body.

Shane rolled with the motion and quickly got back to his feet. He didn't know her range but it was probably larger than the room.

So instead of trying to make some distance, he decided to set her up.

Four shadows leapt from under the training equipment near the edge of the room. Rikki easily weaved around them with her usual grace. But the few seconds she spent dodging was more than enough time for Shane to spring his trap.

He wasn't out to actually hurt Rikki, just pin or trap her. So when every shadow in the room came to life and rushed her, they were slowed ever so slightly after being thickened into tendrils.

Unfortunately for Shane, even one second was enough for a Hero like Rikki.

He felt his shirt constrict again right before being yanked up and forward--on a collision course straight for Rikki herself. The sudden movement almost breaking his concentration on the shadows in the room.

Just as his shadows were about to catch her, Shane was stopped not even two feet from Rikki as her cape flashed forward.

Shane was floating a couple of meters off the ground, only a few inches from in front of the armored hero. Her cape had him around the bottom of his head and neck, not choking him but squeezing enough to get the point across.

He might have kept going with his shadows; but Shane considered using such a deadly power blind far too dangerous for a training session.

"Death blow.", she said after letting her cape unfurl, her tone surprisingly light and breathing even. Granted, neither was he--one of the many advantages of having purely mental based powers. "Now come on, I think the others will probably be back in a few."

"Agreed.", with that Shane let his shadows shrink back into their origins. The relief visible on his face as the inky blackness in his eyes receded. It wasn't much, but pulling together and maintaining so many shadows at once still took a toll.

After being lowered back towards the ground, and letting him straighten out and tuck back in his clothes, they exited the sparring square. Heading out of the gymnasium and down the hall.

"So.. an Animator huh?", Shane questioned as they made their way back towards the meeting, "I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the chance to see what you can do, but why not just choke me out with my own shirt?"

"Hmmm.", Rikki placed her hand on the chin of her helmet in mock-thought.

"Probably the same reason you stuck with trying to grab me instead of just sending a torrent of blades my way.", her accent had a weird mix of Brooklyn and something else Shane couldn't quite place. "It was just a little sparring anyway, and we both still needed to be at least semi-presentable for the meeting."

"Meeting seems like a strong word, aren't we just going to do standard introductions before showing off what we can do?", Shane asked.

"Close, but no cigar, Shadow Man.", Rikki admonished as they turned another corner.

"Okay, first of all; my hero name is not, nor will it ever be, 'Shadow Man'.", Shane tried to argue before what he saw in the meeting room made him stop short.

Rikki's retort of something about, "The Silver-Age appeal of classic names.", fell on deaf ears as Shane focused on the three strangers now entering from the south door with Maria in tow.

The most eye catching of the trio was the unusually tall girl in quasi-army fatigues who was floating across the ground. Her arms folded and straw-brown hair tied into a ponytail.

In the middle was a rather stout guy with what looked like golden, not just blonde, actually golden hair that reached his shoulders. His bulky frame still visible despite his leather jacket.

The one trailing behind with Maria was the most average looking of the three by far. She had jet-black hair that was barely long enough to neatly frame her face.

The lean figure she had trained in the HCP not as striking as the young man in front of her, but still noticeable through her rather plain long-sleeve shirt and jeans.

"Alright, now that we're all here, things can finally get started!", Jack exclaimed with a clap and a little spark of yellow energy.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 15, 2018

Chapter 4

Spectrum, or Jack apparently, introduced Shane to the other Interns as soon as he saw him and Rikki get back from their tour of the gym.

"Shane, Rikki, I'd like you to meet the rest of the new recruits.", Jack swung an arm toward the tall flying woman, who Shane could now see was surrounded by warped air, not unlike a heatwave.

"This here is Gadreel, her Mentor is already on the way, so we won't have to wait much longer", she floated to the ground as the aura of distorted air around her faded away, her combat boots squeaking slightly against the floor.

"Hey, the name's Vanessa.", she greeted in an accent most of the people in the room couldn't quite place, and stepped aside to let the stocky young-man walk past before leaning against the wall.

The leather jacket wearing fellow walked forward with a confident stride before speaking. "You guys can call me Samshiel, and my civiy name is Greg", he said in a light southern accent, before four balls of what looked like mini-eclipses appeared around him in an orbit. "I'll be your resident ranged-combat Hero.", he finished with a practiced smile.

The last of the trio stepped forward in an almost regal manner, her posture straight and immediately made eye contact with Jack, Hugh, Rikki, and Shane in quick succession. "And you can call me Simikiel, my real name being Amy.", she reached out and gave the team's leader a firm handshake. "By now I'm sure you've noticed the theme between all of us--We're named after angels from certain mythologies. They obviously don't perfectly reflect what our abilities are, but we picked what we thought would fit us best.", she finished with a genuine smile.

Shane was impressed by the obvious leader of the trio, but he also noticed that she was the only one who had not given any indication of what her power was, "My name is Shane DeSoto and you can call me Styx while we're in the field. Sorry if the mythology I picked doesn't mesh well with yours". He decided not to try and press the issue, he could respect playing things close to the chest. "And I suppose I'll be the newest scorched-earth Super on the team.", there was, however, some merit to selling yourself a little.

All three pairs of eyes widen a touch at that, but before any of them could question him the main door slid open again. What came through was a cloud of gleaming black shards; It flowed through the air before stopping in the center of the room. Now that it was closer Shane could see that it was less a cloud and more like a swirling mass of connected shards that "pulsed" rhythmically. After a few seconds the cloud slowed and settled into the shape of a featureless humanoid form. But the numerous interconnected shards that made up its body still writhed and shifted, making it seem less solid than it actually was.

This was the fourth and final member of the Pristine Strikers, "Obsidian Wraith", their most senior member and resident Strong-woman.

The shards stilled suddenly, compressed, and lost their texture. A rather tall woman was left standing in its place, with dusky skin and short braided-black hair. She had a grey featureless mask in her right hand and wore the black bodysuit of a shifting Super. She immediately started toward the gathering of Heroes and Interns with a wave and apologetic smile. "Sorry for being late everyone, needed to take care of some thugs on my control.", she said with an obviously Brooklyn accent.

"It's fine Elizabeth, they all just got here a minute ago, and we've already taken care of introductions.", Jack turned on his heel towards the door that lead to the gym, "Now that we're all here we can get to the demonstration part of the Intern admission process. Enjoy it while you can kids; It's going to be the most exciting part of your day."

They all turned and followed the senior Hero through the door, down the oddly technical hallway, into the expansive space of the Pristine Stricker's gym. It's smooth concrete floor, dozens of sets of weights of varying sizes, and myriad of other work out equipment making it an impressive sight indeed. Although a more observant person would notice the almost hairline-cuts along the edges of the floor from Shane's sparring with Rikki.

After they had all entered, Jack pulled out a small remote from one of the pockets in his costume. It had a sleek black case topped with a series of buttons in different shapes. He pointed it toward the far wall and pressed a square button. To the Intern's surprise, a section of the wall extended outward and formed a stand of metal bleachers, big enough to house at least a dozen people.

"I'm going to be starting things off the same way it was done for me when I interned here. Vanessa will go first since her power is the hardest to explain out of the three of you.", he put the small remote back into his pocket before settling down onto the middle of the bleachers. All of the other Heroes following suit, apparently already aware of what he had planned for them. "Next will be Amy, then Greg, and finally Shane.", after that he motions towards Vanessa. "Go ahead and get changed into your costume, the changing rooms are on the far wall.", he finished with a wave towards a small door across from the bleachers.

Amy opened her mouth to say something, but Vanessa beat her to it. "I would, Jack, but the costume company the DVA employs had an 'accident' with mine. They say I won't be getting a proper one for the next few days.", she explained, her lips turned down in a tight frown.

Jack let out a short sigh before replying, with Elizabeth looking similarly put-out from the news, "Well, you wouldn't be the first Hero who's had to go out and fight crime in regular clothes." He points at the nondescript grey mask currently on Elizabeth's lap, "Luckily for you, we have several standard issue masks that can at least keep your identity a secret."

He might've said more, but it was then that Shane decided to step in, he wanted to get to know these people, and it was always good to start things off with an act of good-will in his, admittedly limited, experience. "Actually, I have a spare costume she can use.", he lifted up his duffel bag and shook it for emphasis, "It obviously doesn't have any specific designs, but it's definitely better than running around in jeans and a shirt."

Everyone looked a little surprised at the sudden declaration, the two exceptions being Jack and Amy, but Vanessa ended up being the one who broke the small silence, "Well that's nice and all, but I doubt your clothes exactly fit me.".

Shane shook his head in the negative, "The main pieces have either straps or zippers for adjustment and has the stretchy material of a shifter's suit; it was made to be form-fitting and adjust to most above average and fit body types." The suit was a gift given to Shane upon graduation--one of the many perks of having the DVA Head as your Grandfather.

Vanessa turned her head towards Elizabeth with a questioning look, but her Mentor simply gave an approving nod and gestured toward the changing room, "Don't look a gifted horse in the mouth. Go on and get dressed, can't keep talking all day now."

Five minutes later; Vanessa strode out of the changing room and into the sparring circle in her new hand-me-down Hero costume.

The suit had a rather dull white and grey color scheme, with sections of thin and flexible body armor covering vital areas. The mask was a standard full-face model, sufficiently hiding her identity. The cuffed forearm length gloves and boots that reached halfway up to her shins were the only thing indicating it was meant to be a Hero suit.

"Alrighty then, show and tell us what you've got Venessa." Jack said, as his, and everyone else's, full attention was now on her.

Nodding her understanding, Vanessa braced herself as the air around her became hazy. Not wasting anymore time, she leapt clear across the room, landing directly in front of the bleachers.

"My ability is Energy Empowerment.", she did a small jump and hovered several feet off of the ground with seemingly no effort. "The energy I use is generated from within and I can use it to give myself the speed and reflexes of your average speedster." Suddenly she shot forward, moving at impressive speed, before suddenly changing course straight up and doing lap of the entire room in one second flat. "But I'm most known for the strength and durability I get.", she let herself drop all the way to the floor with a thud, not even bothering to bend her legs on impact. She picked up two of the two-ton super dense weights and twirled them around in both hands before placing them back on their racks. "And then obviously there is the flight, I don't know exactly how my energy lets me fly, but I do know it's my most draining ability. Any questions you need answered?"

"How long can you maintain this state before needing to recharge? And how long does the recharge take?", Jack fired off immediately in his crisp, almost raspy, tone of voice.

"For eleven hours-straight If I dial it up all the way and effectively unlimited if I keep the intensity low. But that's while standing still. If I'm fighting at full strength and using all of my abilities in rapid succession then I can last for a little over 6 hours before I need to rest.", she didn't even hesitate before replying, as if she'd known this question was coming. Or she'd had experience answering similar questions in the past. Shane was impressed by the answer itself; several hours with that level of power was more than enough for most any Super fight.

"As for the full recharge time; one hour if I keep the intensity of the enhancement low. Twenty five minutes if I shut off my power completely and 10 if I'm asleep.", This was obviously the part of her ability she didn't like to share or let others know considering the noticeable lack of confidence in her voice.

"That's fine; two more questions. How much and what kind of damage can you take?", he asked, almost imperceptibly leaning forward out of interest. This was the most important aspect of a strong-man's power that a leader needed to know. Her role would be to go in and tank the hits others couldn't and it would be imperative to know exactly how much she could take and for how long.

"I'm… resistant to most conventional forms of damage. Physical force, fire, cold, electricity, etcetera. You know, 'the works'.", she hesitated a little at first, Shane didn't know if was because she hadn't been prepared or was about to say the word "Invincible". An infamous taboo in the Hero world. "When I'm at my strongest most tank rounds send me flying, but cause very little damage, and it drains my reserves in tens of minutes. I haven't had the opportunity to test against anything of higher power. But my biggest weakness is that I have no defense against mental attacks. Gases and poisons can still be dangerous to me in high enough quantities, my defense isn't as effective against things that don't cause immediate physical damage."

"Okay then, last one. You mentioned that you can change the intensity of your enhancement; go ahead and tell us the range of power you've got.", Jack had visibly relaxed during her answer on defense, satisfied that she measured up to his expectations of a strong-man on his team. Not that he had been too worried, he trusted Elizabeth's judgment after all.

"I'd be happy to!", Vanessa blurted out in a gleeful tone, before visibly composing herself and marshalled her words. "At my lowest level, I can shrug off bullets, lift half a ton, and move at 60 mph.", she still had more than a little hint of pride in her voice however, "If I go full boar; I can withstand tank rounds, strength limit is five tons, and my speed shoots up to around 400 mph."

Jack's face split into a happy grin before he responded, "Okay, if what you've just told me is all on the up-and-up, then you'll make a great new member of the team. And I don't exaggerate when I say you could rival your mentor in a few years if your power continues to improve."

Vanessa felt her spirits lift a little at the praise; It wasn't everyday that the leader of a professional and renowned Hero team commended you.

"Alright, now it's your turn Amy. I heard from Rikki that you're no slouch yourself, why don't you get down there and show us how you measure up."

Exejpgwmv · Jan 16, 2018

Chapter 5

Shane briefly considered hiding his feelings, but quickly found that he had no logical reason to; it was a surprisingly pleasant realization. The years he had spent keeping himself reserved and hiding the exact mechanics of his powers while growing up, except with his Grandfather of course, and the competitive nature of the HCP program had taken its toll. So, to finally be able to put complete trust in others without having to worry about competition too much was a welcome change.

With that brief rationalization; Shane let a wide smile stretch across his face and started clapping at the genuinely impressive display. After a moment of hesitation, Amy, Greg, and the Hero's joined in on the congratulatory gesture. Vanessa visibly stiffened in the face of the sudden enthusiasm but recovered quickly. With a quick bow she floated towards the changing room and entered, with Amy following close behind.

The two young interns returned not even a minute later, Vanessa back in her regular clothes and Amy in her costume. Her suit was a maroon-red with silver outlines and stylized blood-red sword on her chest, the small black cape that barely covered her back completing the image. The large grey baton fixed to her waist did seem a bit out of place though; It was situated in such a way that it wouldn't impede movement.

"I'll try to make this quick, my power can be easy to over complicate If I don't take things one at a time. First off; I'm a shifter.", she said as soon as she stopped in the middle of the ring. "But unlike most, my proportions don't change at all. So, my costume doesn't need to be made out of the same special materials that Hugh's and Elizabeth's are.", and with that said, she shifted.

Amy suddenly became a blank slate, her facial features blurring into one smooth texture, all of her visible skin turning into an unnaturally white porcelain.

And then she started to glow.

Even from up on the bleachers everyone could see the soft light and little arcs of electricity that seemed to come directly from her body, going through her costume without any apparent effect. *None asked her why she bothered with a mask if her shifted form had no face—all knew that being knocked unconscious or having one's power nullified were very real threats in the field.

All told, it was quite the impressive display and only took around six seconds. "Let's start from the top then. My main power is super-speed", Jack nodded in acknowledgement just as Amy promptly disappeared in a blur of motion. It was immediately evident that she had more raw speed than Vanessa. Most notably, she moved in an actual blur due to how fast she was running along the ground, walls, and even dashing across the ceiling for a few brief moments.

Jack knew from experience that, contrary to popular belief and depictions in movies, it was nigh impossible for any speedster to move faster than the naked-eye could see. Though the same could not be said for moving faster than any human's normal reaction time.

'Although', Jack thought, 'If she can get faster from training, or it just happens overtime, then she'll get pretty damn close.'

Amy finally stopped after bouncing from each corner of the room. Halting once again in the middle of the room… while floating a good five feet in the air.

"You can fly too? Is this going to be a theme with your group?", Jack asked with more than a bit of curiosity. "I won't bother asking exactly how much speed you have since you're clearly faster than anyone else on the team. Which means you'll be filling the role of a Speedster while out in the field."

"No no,", Amy chuckled, "We only have the speed and flight in common, that's where the similarities end between us." She turned her now featureless face toward Shane, "Can't speak for Shane though."

"Fair enough. Two fliers with additional abilities is still a good haul. But do you have anything else aside from just mobility?", Jack asked.

"Yep.", she said simply before her smooth face lit up with two orange spots where eyes should have been. Amy startles slightly at first, looking around distractedly before collecting herself. "Sorry about that. So basically; I can 'see' energy.", she explained. "This place was just a little distracting for me because of all the electricity running through it.". She flies a couple more feet in the air before stopping and looking over all the others sitting in the bleachers, "I can only see heat sources, strong enough electrical currents, and unnatural or Super-made energies; such as constructs, summons, energy blasts. The best way I can describe it is that it works similar to infrared vision."

"Alright, that one is pretty self-explanatory at least.", Jack says before leaning back. "Okay, last question; Anything particularly special about that baton of yours?".

With a flick of her wrist Amy unclasped the long and thick looking baton from her waist, twirling it through the air with little effort. "Nothing much to say here actually. It's made of denser material than regular stun batons, has a higher voltage, annnd...", she stretched the last word before pressing a barely noticeable button on the non-pronged end and a two-foot long blade slid out from the tip in a flash of gleaming metal. "And yes, before you ask, the blade can be electrified as well. Although it's more dangerous for obvious reasons."

Jack simply nodded in response, not having any questions about the slightly modified weapon. It looked like Hero-grade gear and complimented her skills nicely; Though it would still require some testing before she was let out into the field with it. "I can see why your interning under Crusader, you'll be excellent at suppressing groups of Supers just like she is. Especially after we train you to fight injunction with her.", He gestured for her to go back toward the changing room and turned his head to Greg. "I think it's about time Hugh's Intern put on a showing for us; and it better be good with how often he's been bragging about you these past few months."

Hugh only chuckles in response and gives Greg a pat on the back as he heads down to the center of the training facility.

Greg made his way down the bleachers and across the room with the same swagger to his step, eager grin plastered across his face all the way. He couldn't physically change shape and wouldn't be doing any superhuman feats of strength or speed, so he wouldn't need to squeeze into his costume for this. No, Gregory Austin was planning to dazzle these old-farts in nothing but his old hand-me-downs.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 18, 2018

Chapter 6

Greg didn't waste anytime. As soon as he'd turned to face his audience he flipped the mental switch that would activate his power. Five of what look like mini solar-eclipses faded into existence around him. Unlike in the meeting room, however, these were significantly larger, about the size of baseballs.

"This is my power, the Feds called it 'Energy Construct Manipulation'. Which basically means that the energy I'm using is unnatural and comes in solid form.", Greg said nonchalantly as he waved his hand, making the orbs around him expand outwards a few meters.

This intrigued every one of the team who hadn't seen his power before, not least of all Shane. Supers that can create energy constructs that emit light brought up.... interesting childhood memories for him.

Shane took especial interest in the motion more than the power however; It could mean that Greg's power worked similar to his. Although he could manipulate shadows through mental effort alone, hand gestures helped greatly for bigger displays of power. Displays like the killing technique he'd demonstrated during Intramurals. But if Greg needed one just to move his orbs then it could be a weakness in the field.

"Alright, it's certainly eye-catching, but what can you do with them?", Jack promoted.

Greg lifted one finger in response, "I can whip them around about as fast as an average sniper bullet. I say 'average' because It can be faster or slower based on my concentration." And just like that he has them whirling around him in a rotating blur. "And my control over them is nothing to sneeze at either.", the orbs stopped their irregular orbit and went through a series of complex patterns and shapes. From a simple pentagram to an infinity sign, "They can be all physical force, so hot it gives plasma a run for its money, or a mix of both. If you want to get a sense of how much damage I can do I'll need some targets." He finished and then made a show of scanning the room for anything he could destroy without consequence.

"No, that won't be necessary, we can get a feel for what kind of damage you can do tomorrow. But thank you for asking at least. It's more than I did when I first got here.", Jack replied quickly upon recognizing the look in the young man's eyes. "Now; is damage all you can do or do you have any other abilities we should know about?"

"As a matter of fact, there is.", Greg's eyes narrowed in concentration and four orbs split off from the rest and positioned themselves in the shape of a square. Not even a second later all four flared briefly before a translucent golden barrier popped into existence in that shape. "I found out I could do this while I was taking Focus in my second year.", the shield orbited and spun around him at impressive speed, but not as fast as the orbs could move on their own. "It can block just about as much force and heat as I can dish out, which is a damn lot.".

Hugh breathed a mental sigh of relief that the kid hadn't called it, "Damn near invincible", like when they had first met.

"Alrighty then, just a few utility questions before we move on to Shane. If you've got as much crowd-control potential as I've been told then you'll be invaluable when dealing with riots.", Jack said.

"What would ya like to know?", Greg prompted.

"How many orbs and shields can you summon and adequately control at once, how long can you maintain your constructs, and are you immune to or have any auxiliary abilities because of your powers?", Jack rattled off the list of questions quickly and with a practiced tone.

"I can keep good control of twenty orbs If I push it, and can do six good shields with them all. They stay around indefinitely until I dismiss them or they're destroyed. And, sorry to say, but I've got no other special abilities like the two shifters over there.", he waved his hand with mock disdain toward the two young ladies. "The orbs can't hurt me though; they become basically inert if they come into skin contact with me."

"Not half bad. We'll have the shooting range up and ready for you by tomorrow morning. Trust me, the bots will make the wait well worth it.", Jack turned his attention toward Shane. "Get on down their kid, we need to wrap this up soon."

Shane and Greg passed each other as they switched places, the former eyeing the black-haired young man with interest.

"You were right in saying that my power would be the least complicated of the bunch.", Shane stood, back straight and posture relaxed, as he talked to them. "And unlike Greg's power it's only really good for pure offense.", the sclera of his eyes turned pitch black and every shadow in the room rose from their surfaces and surged toward him with terrifying speed, even those of the people sitting down on the bleachers. Everyone, save for Spectrum, jumped slightly from the sudden movement coming from every direction.

The shadows stopped a mere few feet away from him, spinning around in a blurry whirlwind before settling into a veritable veritable sea of blades, twisting shadows, and dark tendrils.

"It's shadow manipulation by the way.", Shane smiled as he saw their slightly stunned expressions. He knew the display made him look like his sister, but sometimes it really did pay to show-off a little.

Exejpgwmv · Jan 23, 2018

Chapter 7

Greg, Amy, and Vanessa reflected silently on Shane's display as they settled down to watch all four of their Mentors. After his initial show of power they hadn't expected such a versatile, yet brief, showing from him.

~~~

Shane de-solidified and let all the shadows flow back to their origins, but his eyes still retained their inky hue. "I'll just run you through all the relevant aspects of my power first.", suddenly his own shadow lifted from the ground and made a few quick slicing motions through the air.

"All of my shadow constructs start off bladed; I haven't been able to change that no matter how much I concentrate or train. But once they become solid I can manipulate them into more versatile forms.", the blade suddenly stretched and thickened into a tendril. The tip then broadened into a hammer and slammed into the concrete floor, causing cracks to spider-web in every direction. Another shift, and the shadow was a large clawed hand, albeit a flat one, and scooped out two chunks of concrete—tossing them up and juggling them. "My influence isn't dependent on sight and the range has been increasing ever since I first developed my power. From my little demo at the start, you already know I don't have any trouble with multi-tasking."

"Can you take on aspects of shadows or turn into one? And I have to assume that you have some auxiliary abilities considering those eyes of yours.", it was obvious from his tone that Jack was asking for the benefit of everyone else rather than himself.

"Sorry but no, I'm more of a mid-tier energy or material manipulator; if you can even call solid-shadows a type of material or energy. I can remotely control and shape them, but that's about it.", Shane admits with a shrug, his shadow stretching into the exaggerated shape of a man and mimicking him. "Honestly, the most impressive aspects of my power is its precision, range, and damage output." He pointed his finger toward the east wall and a hairline thick length of shadow shot towards the wall but stopped just a few inches short before curling back to him in a corkscrewing motion. "I'm precise enough that I can paralyze someone by severing their lower spinal cord and my shadows can cut through most any natural material, even mid-level strongmen. And when appropriate...", A shadow from a nearby weight bench flashed forward and suspended itself in front of Shane, he hopped on and let it carry him around the room. "I can use them to give myself a little extra mobility."

"And your creepy abyss eyes?", Jack was genuinely impressed by his Intern's showing, but still couldn't resist just a little ribbing.

"I can use them to see through darkness but it's not traditional night vision, everything just looks grayed-out.",Shane ignored Jack's comment about his eyes and decided it was time to wrap up his presentation. "And I can 'sense' shadows before and after I make them solid—using them to feel around my environment. It's admittedly not very precise, but invaluable when sneaking around without knowing where an enemy is."

~~~

And that had been the end of it. He'd shown off a few attacks and a made a small vortex that could act as a shield, but nothing too lengthy. Jack had told all of them to stay on the bleachers soon afterwards. Instructing them to tell each other about their respective Mentor's abilities.

They squared off in four different corners, making an uneven square, and readied their powers. Hugh's shift was just as eye-catching as Elizabeth blurring into a flowing violet statue, mainly because he grew to the size of a small giant. His features blurred, skin turning an ashen grey and stretching over his increasingly bony and large form. It took all of three seconds before it was done and he was a little under one story tall with two giant reflective and ovoid eyes with no mouth. The skin was taut and unerringly smooth, hands disproportionately large.

The other two's preparations were decidedly more discrete. Rikki simply floated a foot off the ground and had a few chunks of concrete levitate around her. Jack clenched his fists, a translucent rainbow aura emanating from his entire body briefly before twin spheres of orange energy appeared around his hands.

Elizabeth moved first—bounding across the area and aiming a tackle at Rikki, but the animator deftly darted to the side before grabbing her teammate by the ankle and tossing her toward the charging Hugh. "Obsidian-Wrath primarily serves the role of a Flying-Strongman, all of her physical abilities are at least on par with mine.", Vanessa commented as Elizabeth reoriented herself mid-flight and slammed into the towering figure of Hugh head-on, pushing him back despite their vast difference in size. "And she can shoot out some of the shards that make up her body, using them as a ranged attack. But can't really manipulate them beyond that."

Twin thin beams of sparkling white energy blasted from Hugh's alien eyes and slammed into Elizabeth. She'd brought both arms up to block the energy and braced herself but was still gradually pushed back from the apparent force. "Aside from the basic strength and toughness from his shifted form, Terram basically has 'eye powers'", Greg said just as Hugh cut his attack off and leapt into the air, avoiding a blast of orange energy from Jack. The other ball of orange energy careening towards, but avoided by, Rikki. "He can do that eye-beam thing, his trademark Baleful Gaze, and heal most injuries with a glance.", Instead of falling, Hugh's costume tightened around him and he remained suspended in the air before slamming back down into the ground with surprising force. Rikki was stopped, however, as she avoided two more blasts from Jack while Elizabeth simply knocked away the one aimed at her.

"The Crusader is an animator, not a telekinetic like most people think. She has really exceptional control and range, and can animate any object within said range. This obviously includes other people's clothes and her own armor", Amy didn't get to finished before Jack blasted himself into the air with twin burst of orange energy from his feet, firing off another shot at Rikki before spinning in mid-air to shoot two at Elizabeth and landing in a crouch. Both volleys were dodged and blocked respectively.

"It makes her astonishingly effective at crowd control and let's her do some obviously otherwise impossible physical feats, not to mention the completely 360 degrees flight." Hugh's eyes took on an inky-black hue as he gazed at Jack and Elizabeth, there was no other flashy affect, but both Heroes were suddenly brought to their knees, gasping for breath. The only one spared being the airborne Rikki who slammed directly into the back of Hugh's head from above. His gaze turned back to its normal reflective sheen as he recovered from the hit, but not fast enough.

Jack blasted two more volleys at both Hugh and Elizabeth, but these appeared over the palms of his hands and looked more volatile, pulsing before their explosive impact. The concussive force knocked them both clear across the room. Barely taking the time to confirm his shots had hit, he blasted himself in the air again, angling himself towards Rikki. The armored Hero quickly moved out of his path, but Jack wasn't aiming for a clear shot. Instead the rainbow aura around him became a crackling yellow before exploding outward in every direction. Rikki convulsed in the air as she was caught in the blast, rapidly losing altitude before Jack changed his trajectory with a small orange blast and intercepted her. Both landing safely after a relatively subdued burst of orange from Jack's feet.

"And that's Spectrum's specialty; finding an opponent's weakness is only a matter of time with how much of a versatile Blaster he is. He can make them detonate early to give himself a boost, emit from his whole body for an area blast, and use his hands to line up precision shots.", Shane said as Jack and the rest of the Heroes dusted themselves off and started to un-shift or deactivate their powers."Unfortunately, due to the nature of his powers, what he can do is fairly public knowledge: Fire, Kinetic, Electricity, Ice, Rot, Erosion, and the last is just plain old Light."

"Alright kiddies, the fun part is over. It's time for you to meet Steve.", Jack called to them. He had scarcely finished his sentence before the gym entrance swung open to reveal a fairly unremarkable man.

He pointlessly tried to flatten the wrinkles of his flannel shirt and khakis as he made his way toward the Interns, dress shoes occasionally squeaking against the mostly smooth floor.

"Hello there. You can call me Steve, and I'll be acting as your tour guide for this fine establishment."

Exejpgwmv · Jan 25, 2018

Chapter 8

The Interns shared a feeling of awe as they were led through the sleek hallways of their soon-to-be new home and base. Steve leading them through the various rooms and facilities they currently had access to.

They were already familiar with the meeting area; the kitchen, bathrooms, and bed quarters looked pretty standard, if a bit posh. What actually caught their attention, however, were the rooms more directly related to their duties as Heroes.

The armory, server room, garage,extra training and personal-meeting rooms were fit out with futuristic looking computers, hidden compartments, and could all be adjusted in some way. Steve used a small remote with him to activate certain adjustments, similar to the one Jack used in the gym.

Eventually Shane and Amy decided to speak up.

"Hey, Steve. I've seen a few Hero bases when I was younger, but this one seems weirdly high tech. Any reason why?", Shane asked as soon as Steve finished showing them the emergency exits. Shane's grandfather had never taken him to many active bases, too many security risks and danger. But recently vacated ones had been fair game, although some cajoling with the Heroes who had owned it was always needed.

"Same here. This all kind of looks like something a tech Super would make, but I've never seen their technology on such a large scale outside of the HCP.", Amy followed up as they made their way towards their own personal lounge.

"Ah, yes, about that.", Steve suddenly turned to face all of them and visibly drew himself up. "You can all probably tell by now that I'm not a Hero, but I am a Super, a Tech-Super that that has always been fascinated by infrastructure to be specific. Of course, I wasn't the only one who helped upgrade this place.", Steve walked over and sat down in one of the armchairs. "A little over a decade ago this team saved me and a group of other Tech-Supers from a domestic-terrorist group headed by a villain named Polaris.", he explained with a far-away look in his eyes. "We were a group of five working with a small and private construction company. To make a long story short: Polaris took exception to our rather ambitious business aspirations and the Pristine Strikers saved us, me and my colleagues feel like we owed them. So, we decided to make the team our first customers.", he finished with a wistful smile.

"Wait, if you're not a Hero or with the DVA, then isn't it a problem that you can see our faces?", Greg asked.

Steve let out a nasally chuckle, "Don't worry, I'm under so many contracts on privacy and disclosure that I'm in danger by just thinking about blowing the whistle on any of you." He stands up, wincing a bit from the pain in his right knee, "Anyway, that about wraps up your tour of the base; It's about time you met up with your DVA agent again."

At that moment a shard of shimmering and misty light appeared on the floor right outside the lounge and Maria blurred into existence not a second later.

"Hey kids, who wants to have their first official DVA meeting?", she announced in a sickly-sweet voice.

It didn't take long after that for Steve to take his leave, citing that he didn't have the clearance to hear any of what Maria would be discussing with them. Maria herded them toward one of the three official meeting rooms in the base, the door sliding shut behind them.

They all sat around the oval shaped table with visible excitement; the opportunity to learn more about their new lives as Heroes appealing to all of them.

"Now then; you'll be learning about after-action reports, exemplary resource requisition forms, transportation requests, various readiness statuses, and, of course, scheduling."

Greg and Vanessa visibly shrunk back a little into their plush chairs.

~~~

The first half of their meeting went by smoothly, if slowly, as Maria explained the more mundane intricacies of Hero work. Handing out instructions for filling out forms and switching slides on the projector in the room for each topic.

Amy and Shane had kept themselves mostly at attention throughout the meeting, glancing occasionally at their respective handouts. While Greg and Vanessa did their best not to show any signs of dozing while they sat.

For her part, Maria kept up a steady pace with an almost clipped tone to her voice, quickly going over the material; at least until the end.

"Now that we've gotten past the boring paperwork, it's time for the really exciting stuff you'll be experiencing with your Mentors.", she said suddenly, and accentuated it with a clap of her hands, instantly bringing Greg and Vanessa to attention. "As Heroes of the DVA you can be under three active-statuses: On Call is the first and most common status you'll be under, this is for any Hero or team that is available to be called upon by the DVA to handle any Super or Powered related crimes or threats across the nation. Although the number of Powereds in the nation has been predicted to decrease rapidly when the formula from the Charles Adair ordeal becomes readily available to the public.", her eyes got a faraway look of plain frustrating at the last part. "Jesus, that was a cluster-fuck."

"Across the nation?", Vanessa questioned evenly.

"Yes. On occasion you may be called outside of your local area to deal with variant-human threats deemed appropriate for your team. There are only so many active Heroes in America after all, certainly not enough to cover every city or town.", Maria replied with practiced ease. "Now then, the second status is: On Duty. This status is for when you are currently involved in any Hero related activity that would be troublesome to call you away from. This can range from actively fighting a gang, chasing down suspects, or infiltrating a criminal organization's base.", she continued, switching to a slide of three different Heroes doing exactly what she listed.

"And what would be the penalty for a Hero not immediately falling in line?", Greg questioned with more than a little trepidation. "I'd hate to get suspended just because I took an extra minute to make sure some scumbag got put behind bars."

The agent nodded in apparent understanding. "We usually don't pull Heroes while they're engaged with immediate threats such as criminal Supers or chasing a fleeing suspect. In such a situation you are given the liberty of time to take care of any immediate tasks before being transported.", She said, smoothly placating the stocky young man. "But the status you should be most concerned about is the Inactive status. This one's for when you're either on your entitled one-day-per-week break, sleeping, undergoing surgery, therapy, or in an official DVA meeting. Just to be clear: You can still be called in even when listed as Inactive. When lives are in the balance anyone's relaxation time is expendable.", she took a breath and reached down to grab her suitcase before remembering something. "Also, you need to take at least thirty days off per year; we used to have a real problem with rookies burning themselves out early.", Amy and Shane nodded at this, they'd both seen and heard stories of Heroes being consumed by "The Life" early on. "Now onto exactly how you'll all be establishing your statuses and what is likely to be the most important person in your career…"

Maria reached down and laid her sleek silver suitcase onto the stainless-steel table, popping it open to reveal four small black boxes, "Say hello to Dispatch."

Exejpgwmv · Feb 11, 2018

Chapter 9

Everyone of the Interns leaned forward in blatant excitement. They'd all had some small amount of experience with the famous figure of the Hero world during their many mock-battles in the HCP.

"Dispatch will be your main means of communicating with the DVA while out in the field and for talking to other Heroes. She will also be your most reliable source of information about any threats you may be called into to deal with or run into.", Maria explained as she handed out all four of the small black cases. They opened to reveal tiny silver earpieces, all identical in design and none with the standard rubber hook that most wireless earbuds needed.

Shane tried his on immediately, not particularly surprised when the shiny piece of tech fit in perfectly. Staying that way even after a few experimental shakes of the head. It didn't even alter his hearing, unlike most other headphones.

"These things can hear anything going on around you within a couple of meters.", the agent rattled off with practiced ease. "They're waterproof, immune to EMPs, and ridiculously durable. "

"How do ya turn them on?", Greg asked, his southern twang creeping in slightly.

"They're always on. The internal power can last for a week and it charges wirelessly; so long as you are in the base it will automatically charge. You can go ahead and register with her now: Just identify yourself by your Hero name and set your status as 'On Call'.", Maria said.

Shane reflexively put his hand to his ear as he complied, "Dispatch, this is Styx. My current status is now On Call.", he said with surprising confidence. The others quickly following suit before they all simultaneously received a response from a calm voice on the other end.

<Your status has been confirmed, Styx/Gadreel/Samshiel/Simikiel.>, the smooth and slightly European accented voice responded crisply.

Before any of them had the chance to question how she had responded to all of them at the same time and with different words, Maria snapped her suitcase closed and announced that the meeting had officially come to an end. She held the door open for all of them, "Come on, your day is pretty much over now and you can all get more familiar with your new quarters."

***

Shane had only really given the lounging area a cursory glance when they'd gone through it originally. But as he riffled through the full-sized fridge that was practically stuffed full of healthy food and all kinds of drinks. Shane was able to truly appreciate how this place could ruin him for when he finally graduated from his internship and made his own base. He wouldn't have the luxury of being on a legacy team then, nor would he have a lot of money; new Heroes were pretty much expected to scrape by.

After all, Hero or not, a recent college graduate was still just a recent college graduate.

"Oh god, I could get used to this.", Greg remarked as he laid back in one of the bigger recliners.

"How can they even afford all this?", Vanessa wondered as she rested across the dark-leather couch, shoes off and hands behind her head.

"Steve and his buddies probably gave them a significant discount.", Amy informed as she looked through all the pantries fixed to the wall, "Besides; they're both a legacy team and one of the most popular ones in the city. The standard Hero salary may not be much but the money you can make from merchandise and advertisements isn't anything to sneeze at."

"Assuming you've got a good enough Agent to handle all the contracts and PR issues.", Shane commented after picking out a water bottle and plopping down on the couch opposite Vanessa. Agents were considered essential for most Hero teams, they made it significantly easier for Heroes to deal with the media and manage their personal image. "And that reminds me, I need to call mine before going to bed today."

"You already got one? Man, our school barely gave us the basics on the non-combat parts of this gig.", Greg bemoaned as he adjusted the chairs' angle.

"Which HCP did you guys come from anyway? I feel like you three definitely would have made it to Intramurals or I at least would've heard about rumors about a group of such powerful Supers.", Shane asked pointedly. Intramurals was a very closed-door event conducted by every HCP in the nation. Pitting their best students against each other in a gladiatorial-style competition. There was no way these three, with such high-caliber abilities, wouldn't have made it in. But he opted to ask them instead of making it seem like an interrogation.

Greg opened his mouth to answer before Amy flicked his ear, giving him a pointed glare as she moved forward, "We were hoping to put this off until later, so could you wait until it's time for dinner? Our mentors will probably be able to explain it better than we could.", Amy responded in a measured toned and with obvious authority.

This pretty much confirmed her position of a leader in Shane's eyes, but with his curiosity about their background semi-sated, he decided to let it go, "Well, in the meantime let me tell you about my school.", Shane took a swig of his water bottle before going any further, this was going to be a long story.

"I graduated from the Lander HCP, the first HCP to house Powereds-turned-Supers in human history."

Exejpgwmv · Feb 17, 2018

Chapter 10

The young Heroes eventually split off to their respective quarters. Some to recuperate from power use while others took care of personal matters.

Shane relaxed into the armchair of his new room before calling Lenny, his Agent, to notify him that introductions had gone smoothly. And about his suspicions of his fellow interns, but Lenny had been just as in the dark as he was.

After that the young man decided to reflect on the new team he was on.

The Heroes were about what he'd expected, except for Rikki's rather aggressive first impression and attitude toward training. No, his fellow Interns were the only real concern he had; this wasn't like the HCP where it was a competition to see who could graduate. They'd all become official Heroes as long they put in the work.

The only real potential problems were of trust and leadership. Trust was both invaluable and necessary for any Hero who wanted to last long in a team. Any hesitation toward a teammate or Leader while in the field could have disastrous and lethal consequences.

The problem of leadership among them was a bit more complicated, but he could already see that he and Amy would butt heads eventually.

~~~

Elizabeth simply lounged on her bed and searched the local news—finding herself surprisingly content with the day so far.

Sure, she was a little worried about talking about their "situation" at dinner and she could already see that Amy and the DeSoto guy might go at it over who would get to be leader.

But those problems could only end so badly; besides, she was beyond tired of having to hide so much from everyone. She'd done enough of that to last a lifetime while they were in school.

~~~

Greg lounged about on the bed in his room, watching videos of fights between gangs and Heroes—primarily looking at any recordings of his mentor's brawls. Hugh was just as deceptively graceful in the fights he was watching as he had been fighting his teammates.

In truth, part of Greg was doing this just to get his mind off of what would happen during dinner and the wild story Shane had spun for them. They'd all heard rumors, everyone had after dozens of Heroes and one of the richest men in the world, Charles Adair, had gone head-to-head.

~~~

Amy was planning. Writing every step down with a #2 pencil and a loose-leaf notebook, it had always helped when she wrote down her plans. Helped her remember what to do, where to be, and when to start something.

She wasn't worried about her internship, the shadow-boy's story, or having to reveal her team's secret at dinner. All she was really concerned about was keeping her position, and even that slight concern would be solved soon enough.

Or so she told herself.

~~~

A few hours later and Rikki flew through the halls, calling them up for dinner. Her costume was gone, in its place was a plain t-shirt and jean combo with a pair of running shoes. It was a surprisingly comforting sight to the Interns that all but rushed out of their rooms.

The walk to the kitchen was short and without conversation, the steady murmur of conversation getting ever closer as they approached.

"-till can't believe you just found a group of those kids waving around some semi-automatics.", Jack says before stopping abruptly as they all filed in and found chairs to sit at the round and large marble table.

On Jack's right Elizabeth was quietly eating a plate of steamed broccoli while Hugh's sat on his left and was currently turned toward his leader, a plate of half-eaten London Broil steak in front of him. Rikki sat down next to Hugh with a bowl of chicken-salad. While similar meals were laid out around the rest of the table for each intern.

"Welcome to dinner everyone!", Jack bellowed happily, the rest of the heroes echoing his enthusiasm. "Now, just to be clear, this is less about food and more about relaxing and building trust with your teammates, we won't always be eating together when things get busy or we're pressed for time. But before we get started, I think we have to explain a few things to Shane here.", he said with a gesture towards Greg, Amy, and Vanessa.

Shane was briefly surprised by the statement but quickly tried to school his expression. He straightened up a little in attention, eager to know what the deal was with his fellow graduates.

"You were right in assuming that if those three had attended any of the five standard HCPs, they would have been at Intramurals. But they weren't at any of the known ones. They are from a newly built one in Michigan.", Jack said in an even tone.

Shane blinked slowly and almost let his jaw drop before marshaling his thoughts, "Um, when exactly did this happen? I can't imagine building a new Hero Certification Program is easy.", he said while trying to process the news.

"Construction and security was finished up around six years ago, took another year to make it more like a school and less like a military base. Always need a careful blend of the two to make a decent training facility for Supers.", Jack says before gesturing toward the three interns apparently from this new HCP, "Anyways, it was built in Detroit and has only been open to students with certain backgrounds. Supers who are the children of either trusted Heroes or the children of DVA agents. The pool of eligible students was as exceedingly small as you might imagine."

Shane could plenty understand how small a selection like that would be available. Supers in general were already uncommon, Hero-grade ones even more so. And the children of Supers weren't inherently more likely to have Super-children either. He would be surprised if they had found enough to fill a single classroom.

Jack eyed the clock on the wall before looking towards his plate, "Now that that's been taken care of; I suggest you four start digging in. Hugh has some news from his patrol that you all need to hear.", he finished before taking a fork-full of his own meal. The Interns, along with Rikki, quickly following suite.

"A new gang has started turning up in down-town for the past few weeks; they call themselves the 'White Boars'.", Hugh began, his deep baritone easily understandable over the noise of their eating. "At first it was just small-time crime; theft, vandalism, and maybe a few brawls. But recently they've gotten a large influx of new members and some illegal firepower.", Hugh voice had gotten a bit somber at the end, but he kept going without pause. "The real concern for people in our profession however is that they've recently started recruiting Supers and Powereds alike…"

~~~

Rikki, now in her Crusader costume, was flying high over her district and was heading toward the east side, grim determination on her now hidden face.

After dinner discussion of this new gang had been concluded, all the Interns had been sent to bed with a warning that power assessments would start tomorrow. As soon as they were all back in their rooms Rikki had been the first to volunteer to get more information on this new gang while Spectrum and Obsidian-Wraith went out on night patrol.

Crusader wasn't a subtly Hero, neither was any of her teammates for that matter. But that didn't mean she had no contacts in the criminal world that came from over ten years of fighting organized crime.

She easily navigated the industrial area, her night-vision goggles helping just as much as her familiarity with the city. She landed with a dull thud in front of a seemingly abandoned warehouse. This was where her contact would be, 'Kurtis', the man who near regulated all of the drug trade on this side of the concrete-jungle.

Exejpgwmv · Feb 20, 2018

Chapter 11

Shane woke up at his usual 5:00 AM, the familiar tone of his phone's alarm bringing him out of pleasant dreams about shadows.

Back when Supers had first been officially recognized by the government at large, many had theorized that Supers having dreams about their abilities was a side-affect from frequent power use. Further testing over the years had shown the source of the pattern to be more physiological in nature rather than anything directly related to their biology or powers.

As he looked around his room Shane briefly hesitated before going through his morning routine. A series of stretches to limber up for physical activity and two minutes to brush, rinse, and floss. After all of that he pulled on some work out clothes and exited his quarters towards where he remembered the regular work-out room to be. Where he was pleased and completely un-surprised to see that he wasn't the only one to start the day off with a morning work out.

Jack and Rikki, along with all the other interns, were all just getting ready to start what looked like some low-intensity exercise. He decided to join his mentor doing jumping-jacks.

"So, power assessments right after breakfast?", he asked easily, the light activity nowhere near enough to affect his breathing.

"Right you are.", Jack responds just as easily, "You're gonna want to stick with the light stuff today, we want to test you at your best."

Shane nodded in understanding before transitioning to the next and least-favorite part of the routine: Squats.

Fifteen minutes and a quick shower later, everyone was sitting down for breakfast, the main meal being bowls of cereal and bananas.

"So, Shane, you will be the only one to actually go through power assessments today.", Rikki said as Jack was occupied with stuffing his face. "You've probably already guessed this from how oddly specific Vanessa was about her power but for the sake of brevity; the HCP they went to offered unique and exact reports about the limits of their powers."

"Yeah, they had a bunch of high-tech military armor, weapons, and vehicles for us to play around with.", Greg pauses for a moment before speaking again, "While under careful supervision of course."

Shane was surprised to hear Vanessa stifle a chuckle at that, while Amy simply nodded in agreement. "So, what exactly about my power needs testing? It's pretty straight forward."

A sly grin stretched across Rikki's face, "You'll be going through a durability assessment.", she says simply before going back to her bowl of rather fruity looking cereal.

~~~

Amy looked on nonplussed as another one of Vanessa's punches impacted harmlessly upon the shadow-blade Shane had made from the shadow of a Practice-Dummy. The now-material shadow didn't budge or even show any signs of damage from the increasingly devastating impacts.

They'd all filed back into the training area for Shane's assessment. After some experimentation with the denser weights they'd found that a shadow of average "strength" could lift 30 tons reliably, anything more and the shadows simply didn't budge, no straining or tension to be seen, it'd just stop.

After Jack stepped up to test how his constructs handled energy she decided to bow out and spend her time at the track in the basement; she'd be able to read the report later. Amy had been intrigued by Shane's power before; A controller that could shape, shift, and feel through a non-elemental material was plenty unique and versatile enough to get a Super to Hero status. But his display's during the assessments had her down-right impressed. He'd obviously had extensive training prior to the HCP, which came as no surprise considering that he was the grandson of the first Hero.

The track was a circular room a little over half the size of a football field, a standard red and green track was painted onto the floor of the solid concrete room. She started off her circuit at a jog but eventually worked her way up to a full sprint, after making ten-full circuits at this pace she decided it was time to change. She shifted over the course of 10 steps and assumed her glowing mannequin-esque form and promptly ramped up her speed to inhuman levels.

Shane was plenty impressive, and he was probably really something else while in the HCP, but he hadn't been out in the field yet. When they were putting their lives on the line to fight against criminals with god-like powers, she'd see what he was really made of.

She distantly felt herself break the sound-barrier as she thought about one of the direct descendants of the Hero, Captain Starlight.

Exejpgwmv · Mar 10, 2018

Chapter 12

Shane, Amy, Greg, and Vanessa were all lined up in the gym. All of them dressed in the Hero suits they'd received before they had even set foot inside their new home.

They stood at attention while Rikki circled them, scrutinizing their suits and subtly using her power to feel the structure and material.

Shane and Greg's costumes were of similar kind, more like full-body armor than traditional Hero costumes. Shane's being black with dull grey highlights while Greg's was a deep orange on his chest and legs, his elbow high gloves and boots a faded black. The difference was more than just cosmetic however; in contrast to Greg's reinforced cowl Shane wore a full helmet.

Even the composition of the armor was of noticeably different quality. Greg's thick yet flexible Kevlar combined with heat resistant material looking more like advanced swat armor, as opposed to Shane's metallic mesh and what Rikki recognized as a variation of Shifter-material made by Tech Supers combined with modern Kevlar; the whole ensemble making him look like a modern-Knight*.

Shane hadn't been expecting the knight-motif when he first got his costume, but eventually thought it too much trouble to change. And eventually realizing he may be a little at fault as well. His request for, "Black, grey, and sleek full body-armor with helmet.", leaving a lot to interpretation.

Amy and Vanessa's costumes were more in line with traditional hero gear, their powers making heavy body armor a non-issue for them. Vanessa in her almost shimmering gold and blue suit, and Amy in her maroon-red with silver outlines and stylized bloody-sword on her chest making it apparent they would be the kind of heroes who attracted attention and drew fire.

Although Amy's foot wear was made of noticeably tougher material, for obvious reasons.

"Alright, nothing to glaringly bad about these; but you'll definitely want to make little changes and adjustments as time goes on. Everyone does.", Rikki remarked, amusement tinting her New York accent.

"Changes like what?", Greg bluntly asked.

"Changes like the shape of your boots if they turn out to be bad for running; Something you'll be doing a lot of when you're fighting.", Rikki responded as Shane and Amy nodded in understanding. "Now go back to the lockers and put back on your regular clothes. You've got the rest of the day to yourselves and your first patrol starts tomorrow, so use the time you have left wisely; you don't get many free-days in this profession.", Rikki finished, apparently forgetting or not caring about the optional off-days every Hero was offered by the DVA.

After getting changed Shane decided to take the initiative and offer his fellow interns an opportunity that he knew would take up most of the day: Sparring.

Powers and without powers, the four interns spent the next several hours squaring off against each other; Sometimes one-on-one and other times one-on-two or three. Shane getting the worst of it when he went against all three of his new acquaintances, their practiced coordination and familiarity with each other's abilities very evident.

In truth, and one that Amy had noticed early on, Shane was using this chance to familiarize himself with how they fought and moved. It was a personal philosophy of his to always learn how someone fought before fighting along side them.

Before they knew it, the day had come to a close and they all dragged themselves to bed after another surprisingly good dinner with their mentors. Elizabeth's story of how she had broken-up a shootout and Super-fight between the local gangs and the new "White Boars" still fresh in their minds.

The morning after was mostly a blur. The interns and heroes simply going through the motions of stretching, teeth brushing, light exercise, and showering. The only noteworthy event being after they'd all finished eating breakfast.

"Alright, attention everyone, time for today's assignments!", Jack bellowed from the front of the table, his plate picked clean as per usual. Everyone of the interns was at full attention from his announcement, Greg having just swallowed the last bit of his cereal.

"Most of us will be going on regular patrol today.", Jack started, noting how nervous some of them were. "Me and Styx will be watching the north-western part of the city while Crusader and Simikiel handle the east side. Terram and Samshiel will handle the docks; don't worry about covering the entire area, there'll be a solo-hero called Intuition that patrols the area to help you out."

It felt weird for Shane to here someone else say his hero name, he'd chosen the name because he liked what it symbolized but it was still hard to imagine it being something he would or could make famous.

"Obsidian-Wrath and Gadreel will be doing some aerial coverage of the seedier industrial area where we've gotten a lot of reports of new gang activity. If they run into any trouble then converging on their location and providing back-up becomes a top priority.", Jack continued as he turned toward Shane and Greg. "I want you two to always have your powers active when on patrol and to look out for danger since you don't have any enhanced durability to protect you from sneak attacks like Simikiel or Gadreel do. And finally; Always listen to Dispatch, even if her orders contradict my own, her authority is higher than mine of course.", Jack finishes with sigh, clearly not liking to talk that much or long all at once

Every intern still gave him a firm, "Yes, sir!", and only slightly wilted under his light-glare from their insistence on being formal with him. Most out of respect, one out of amusement.

~~~

The suit felt tighter and heavier than all the other times he worn it in his room or when he wore it in the gym. The helmet felt nigh-claustrophobic as Styx looked around the alley that Maria had dropped him and Spectrum in.

"You doing okay?", Spectrum asked with concern in his voice but not quite visible from his white cowl.

Styx took three deep measured breaths before responding, "Fine, just the jitters. Let's get going already, no sense in delaying now.", he said as he stalked toward the end of the alley.

"Just remember to keep that 'shadow-sense' of yours on at all times.", Jack replied as he walked along side him and stepped onto the sidewalk ahead. Styx disliked the name, not because it offended him in any particular way, but because he found the prospect of naming parts of his powers to be… immature.

The streets weren't too busy under the excessively cloudy sky of the Monday afternoon, the mixture of cloud cover and sunlight making the sky an almost oppressive-grey for miles around.

As he felt and searched the shadows around him, Styx found himself needlessly tensed up, as if he was anticipating an attack. But all he saw were people in rather dark and regular clothes, some staring openly while others took a quick picture with their phones before walking quickly away. The people on their side of the street gave them an especially wide berth as they walked forward.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, even though it wasn't apparent through his helmet, Styx drew himself up a bit taller and took his mentor's lead after seeing him wave and pose for a few shots.

"I honestly don't know why I'm so surprised, I've seen Heroes patrol in my hometown before.", Styx remarked as he gave a thumbs-up to a trio of kids who ooh-ed and aah-ed as their mother ushered them across the street.

"It's just your nerves. Remember, a big part of patrolling is about exposure and reassurance. A lot of people see you as a sort of representative now, so it's best to appear amiable. Even if your power isn't exactly 'family-friendly'", Spectrum said easily, not fearing anyone would overhear considering the wide birth they were bring given. "Try to keep watch for anyone trying to covertly take a picture, it's good practice for spotting someone trying to sneakily pull a gun.", Spectrum said in a disturbingly casual tone.

The patrol went on like that for a little while. Just Styx carefully watching the crowd and waving or giving some thumbs up to anyone trying to take a sneaky picture. They occasionally passed by some unnaturally pristine and new looking benches, lamps, and sections of previously cracked and stained streets; something that Spectrum explained as a charity working Super that had the power to "renew" objects.

Styx had almost let all the anxiety and tension leave him when a ragged looking figure stumbled out of an alley and made a grab for him. Styx's ability gave him early warning and plenty of time to side-step the clumsy grab while also animating, what he could now see was a man's, shadow and wrapping it around him. Arresting his motion, keeping him in place, and pinning his arms to his sides.

The intern risked a glance toward his mentor and saw that Spectrum hadn't been any slower on the draw, already taking aim at the now obviously homeless man, a dim sphere of orange energy around his outstretched hand.

But as some people ran while others stared at the sudden display, Styx heard something from the man through all the commotion that made him realize this wasn't just some crazed and ill-planned attack.

The homeless man in ragged and torn clothing rasped out two words from his cracked and blood splattered lips, his sunken in eyes staring desperately at Styx all the while, "Help me…"

Exejpgwmv · Mar 10, 2018

Chapter 13

Styx used the shadow already wrapped around the homeless man to gently lay him down, noting how utterly malnourished the hobo looked. 'Jesus, how is he even still alive?', Styx thought before his mind started racing on about what he was supposed to do next. He wasn't a healer, far from it, and the man in front of him looked like he needed immediate medical attention. Suddenly, he noticed that his mentor was saying something and was about to turn around when his ear-piece crackled to life.

<The nearest Hospital is two and a half blocks away due west. Quick but gentle transport via your shadow-platforms is recommended.>

"Thanks for the tip Dispatch, we'll get right on it", Spectrum responded.

The calm, accented voice of Dispatch and Spectrum's reassuring confirmation cut through the Intern's panicked thoughts. Of course; Dispatch had to have dealt with situations like this thousands of times over the years, notifying her should have been the first thing he thought of.

"Thank you, Dispatch.", Styx said, silently admonishing himself as he unbound the sick man. He kneeled down and picked him up bridal-style. Ignoring the odd looks onlookers gave him.

"You sure you got this?", Jack asked as he stepped up beside Styx and made a show of looking out for trouble, and waving off any pedestrians who got too close.

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem, especially not with such a short distance.", Styx said as he easily hefted the sickly, and now sweating man and almost cradled him as he solidified the shadow of a near by building and stepped onto it. Spectrum following close behind.

After making one last check to make sure no one was in the way, Styx commanded the shadow to lift and stretch, easily covering the distance of the entire block. People below openly gawked and took pictures as the two Heroes rode the dark platform.

Then another building's shadow solidified and rose up to their level, both Styx and Spectrum stepped on and checked their footing before the shadow was willed to move again. Two more transitions later and Styx was in front of the hospital, two Nurses already there with a gurney ready, having been notified of their approach. Styx gently laid the gaunt man onto the gurney, silently noting the man's now labored breathing and feverish appearance. He'd been cold and struggling for breath only two minutes prior.

After answering some questions about where and how the homeless man was found they were back on patrol. Styx was more than a little relieved when he heard they had a Healer on staff for sudden patients in serious condition. Healers that could handle illness were rare, ones willing to work in regular hospitals even more so.

As they took more erratic twists and turns around town, Styx also realized he was all too happy that his first public act of Hero work involved peacefully rescuing someone and using his power for utility, instead of dismembering a criminal.

Not that he'd tell anyone that of course.

"Let's get some lunch.", Spectrum said midway through their patrol, near a particularly dirty and cracked intersection, traffic significantly slowing down due to the appearance of the two costumed law enforcers. He pulled out what looked like a flat-screen burner phone from his side pocket that displayed a list of restaurants. "Need to keep the locales we visit randomized, keeps us from being tracked easily and makes poisoning attempts a none issue.", he said casually before pressing a twin-dice symbol and letting the wheel of restaurants whirl, never completely taking his eyes off the street around them. Styx acting extremely vigilant at his side, even looking at the various windows and balconies. "Aww, crap.", Spectrum said as the phone settled.

Styx took a quick look over and saw that the screen had landed on what looked like a burger joint called… 'Hot Buns'. "It's got a bold title, I'll give it that.", he remarks.

"Unfortunately, that's the only thing it's got going for it, the burgers there are pretty meh.", Spectrum said before sighing and heading off down the street until they were out of earshot of anyone else. "I know a shortcut through some of the alleys near here, won't take more than five minutes."

Styx was on the verge of cautioning about how dangerous that was in this part of Brooklyn and with only two people. Until he realized how stupid that would sound from someone who was supposed to be a Superhero.

He was soon validated in how dangerous he thought it would be at least.

~~~

Halfway through Spectrum's shortcut they both started hearing shouting from an adjacent alleyway that lead into a more desolate street. Styx used his shadow-sense and let Spectrum know there were five people standing still as they both sped up and heard some more choice words being shared.

"You better back up before you get stomped faggot!" A gruff voice shouted as they just made it to the corner.

"What? You scared to come over here because your punk boss doesn't run the streets anymore!?" Another, younger sounding voice blustered back.

They turned the corner and saw a group of, what Styx assumed, thugs. Three at the entrance and two near the corner, the two corner ones wearing white bandanas around the bottom half of their faces caught Styx's eye especially.

Until he chastised himself and quickly looked them over for weapons, of which he found none.

"If were talking territory, then these are technically the public's street.", Spectrum said in a conversational tone as he and Styx came in to full view of the gangsters.

Every single one of them jumped at the sudden intrusion, the two bandana-duo turning around with anger in their eyes, before seeing exactly who was behind them and promptly back pedaling.

Despite their prior argument the two small groups seemed to have no qualms with gathering together at the entrance as a singular group.

"W-why the fuck is you here!", the shorter of the two obvious White Boar members called out.

"On patrol, obviously. Makin' sure the streets are safe for regular folk and keeping people out of trouble.", Spectrum took a moment to look all of them, making eye contact with each one. "You boys wouldn't happen to be causing any trouble, would you?"

"Who's the new guy?" A tall and lanky young man in the back called out, his pants barely hanging onto his waist.

"Unfortunately, we don't have time for lengthy introductions. Styx, why don't you take the lead?" Spectrum said, both ignoring and answering the question on all of their minds.

Styx knew an opening when he saw one. He started forward, back straight, and headed down the middle of the small group of scared gangsters.
At first, none of them moved, the taller White Boar member with a spider tattoo on his hand even looked a little defiant.

That lasted until they noticed the alleyway darkening as he got closer. Every shadow present elongating and creeping further along the walls and ground, slowly converging towards them.
As soon as the first one stumbled back the rest were quick to follow suit, pouring out of the alley and nearly sprinting away. The two wearing white bandanas sticking together as they went down the street while the three plain looking ones headed toward the alley across the way. And Styx saw that two other men joined up with them as they went further in.

"So, they had back-up? I guess we got lucky with our timing.", Styx said as his mentor stepped onto the sidewalk with him. "Should we try following them?", he asked. After over a decade of training he'd easily been able to spot the signs of them getting ready to start a fight, and neither group looked like the type to stand-down easily.

"Nah, couldn't really charge them with anything anyway.", Spectrum replied as he headed up the street, toward what Styx could now see was the burger joint. "If they'd taken a swing at us, pulled a weapon or powers, or had tried to block us from moving through; Then it might have been a different story."

Styx nodded in understanding. Unless provoked or they saw a clear and present danger; Heroes mostly left regular crime to the regular police. But just to be safe, he kept his shadow sense especially sensitive in case any of them decided to try and double-back.

~~~

Shane took off his mask and relaxed into the comfy chair as he breathed deeply, letting all the anxiety of the day bleed away.

The rest of the patrol had gone well into the late afternoon before Spectrum let him know that their shift was over and they'd made it back to base in short order. Now he relaxed in the main meeting room with his fellow interns, Jack, Rikki, and Hugh. Elizabeth having gone off to start night patrol.

None of them looked particularly tired, but Shane noticed that Amy was carrying herself a bit differently than before. "Anything happen on your patrol?", he asked conversationally.

"Things were going fine most of the time, but we ran into a speedster who was robbing a deli and I had to run her down.", Amy said as she finally relented from trying to lean against the wall and took a load off in one of the chairs.

"I had to transport someone to a hospital and scare off some thugs, but that was about it", Shane responded in kind.

"Same here; me and Obsidian mainly just scared off mooks whenever we flew over.", Vanessa informed them from her seat at the front of the table.

"I only got to deal with a mundane fist fight and the police handled most of it after we called it in.", Greg said with barely contained jealousy.

"Trust me, after a couple of months, you'll long for the days when your patrols were mostly low-priority threats.", Hugh says reproachfully. "And the main reason you didn't see much today is because a lot of the gangs have started lying low during the day and only really stirring things up at night. The White Boars have really started making a mess of things, especially the black-market deals."

"Oh, that reminds!", Jack suddenly piped up in an all too cheery tone. "Shane, after you get used to regular patrol I want to see about putting you semi-regularly on night-shift duty. After all, you did mention your shadows are stronger the darker it gets."

"Oh joy…", Shane remarked with more than a bit of sarcasm and a little excitement that only two other people in the room noticed.

Exejpgwmv · Mar 10, 2018

Chapter 14

Amy had grown, not annoyed, but testy with her first debriefing with the teams DVA agent, Maria. She considered herself a patient woman, but having to retell and wait for Maria to cross-reference the actions during her fight and time of said actions had gotten monotonous quickly.

Fortunately, the incapacitation of the middle-aged speedster had been relatively simple and was over in around two minutes. Amy was reluctant to even call it a fight; the woman had just been a standard speedster with what looked average acceleration and durability. A kick to dislocate her knee and a swift blow to the temple had been all it took to bring her down after Amy saw her race out of the deli with a gun in hand and people inside shouting "Thief!" after her.

But Amy took solace and pride in the fact that her first Hero battle had gone about as well as it could have and that she had probably garnered some good will with the public after such a performance.
After seeing Shane's power, she got the feeling he wouldn't be so lucky.

~~~

Shane found the team's newest strong woman lifting ultra-dense weights in the gym. The haze around her body from using her powers all the more obvious under the bright lights.

"Vanessa, do you mind if I borrow you for a second?", He called out as he approached, but stopped a reasonable distance away. He'd heard about and seen enough Supers with enhanced strength accidentally drop their weights.

"Oh, uh, sure. What do you need?", Vanessa almost stammered out, not quite used to being approached.

"I'd like to spar a little more with you.", Shane said upfront and without hesitation. "I may be more effective and safe at ranged combat, but it pays to constantly brush up on martial skill in case someone can get through my defenses.", He tried to not go on a lecture like he use to do when he was younger; he'd found out the hard way that it didn't exactly endear him to others.

Vanessa looked skeptical nonetheless. "Is that all?".

Shane thought about trying to politely brush off her question or cleverly avoid it, but thought better of it. He hadn't noticed at first, but over the course of the past three days he'd seen that she avoided being social with anyone that wasn't either her mentor or her two friends. After practically being forced to team up with and befriend multiple people during his HCP tenure he'd found that being up front with people like Vanessa was for the best long-term.

"Also, because I noticed that you have less martial-skill than me and that I would like the person in charge of going hand-to-hand against strongmen be better at fighting than I am.", Shane said and then steeled himself for whatever response she had.

At first Vanessa looked a little stunned, then introspective, then nodded in apparent understanding. "You're right, and I noticed that too.", she said before chuckling softly, "At first I thought it was a fluke when you flipped me onto to my ass the first time we fought one-on-one yesterday. But after seeing you beat Greg, Amy, and then hold off all three of us at once; The truth sunk in pretty heavily after that." Vanessa then put the weight's back on to their racks with a dull clang before going into one of the training circles and letting her power fade. She silently beckoned Shane forward.

Shane smiled and then strode into the same circle, facing her directly in a standard martial arts stance. "Ok then; let's work on you countering when someone gets inside your reach."

~~~

After a few rounds with Vanessa and with a not insignificant amount of soreness in his muscles, Shane prepared for bed. The dinner meeting and subsequent talk had been largely uneventful. The most exciting thing being Amy retelling her exploits and Rikki giving her, and by extension the rest of the Interns, some advice on how to better notice and capture criminal Supers.

Shane laid his head down and fell fast asleep. Then woke up what felt like five seconds later to the sound of an alarm.

He was groggy at first, but his mind quickly latched on to what the yellow flashing lights and high-pitched whistle meant. Their Mentors had walked them through what these alarms signified, the yellow one in particular meant: "Immediate and high-level Super related emergency in the city. Get down to the garage in five minutes or be left behind." The voice of Dispatch from his earpiece only served to further confirm what he knew.

<Styx, please be aware that you and your team have been called in to handle the high-priority threat that has appeared in the industrial district.>

He sprang up and slammed open the closet for his suit, silently cursing himself for not practicing getting dressed quickly. "Dispatch, what are we dealing with here?", Shane asked as he got halfway through putting on his gear.

<There are reports of a one story tall half-bull half-man going on a rampage near the local brewing companies. Likely a gifted shifter or the work of a high-end summoner.>

"Thanks!", Styx barked out as he ran out of his room and down the hall toward where he remembered the garage was. He was briefly worried that he wouldn't be able to make it in time; then he felt someone lift him up by his armpits and fly him the rest of the way towards and through the entrance. He looked up and saw that it was Vanes- Gadreel who'd given him a lift.
They arrived to find that all of their mentors were already there and ready to go, except for Obsidian-Wraith who was supposed to still be on patrol.

"C'mon, let's go!", Spectrum yelled from the drivers-side of what looked like a futuristic Humvee. Greg, now in his Samshiel costume, was blurred in by Simikiel seconds before Styx practically threw himself into the vehicle. Once everyone was secured and accounted for the garage exit snapped open with a loud clang of metal.

Rikki in her Crusader armor, Gadreel, and Simikiel flew out with Terram bounding along not far behind in his shifted form.

The Humvee roared to life and sped up onto the streets, taking off towards where Dispatch had said the threat would be.
An almost uncomfortable silence fell over them as they rode along, before Dispatch relayed more information that set the two Interns on edge.

<Be advised; The target has been identified as a high-end Demolition Class threat. First priority is neutralization of the Super before any more damage can be caused. Lethal force is officially authorized and the targets life is now a low-priority.>

Exejpgwmv · Mar 11, 2018

Chapter 15

Dave was surprised as he pulled his now massive and fur-matted form out of the apartment building's rubble. The tons of falling steel and cement had been the only thing to even faze him as he rampaged through the city.

If Dave was a more introspective person, or didn't currently have a mind-numbingly addictive drug burning through his system, that might have made him pause for thought. Instead, he simply shook off the debris and ignored his many injuries that were slowly healing as he let the exaltation consume him once more.

He'd been so unsure of himself before, so weak, even though he'd always been an exceptional Super; the mere thought of attracting the attention of Heroes had been terrifying. They'd seemed indomitable before, and his previous boss's nearly threatening warnings to use his power sparingly because of his size hadn't helped either.

But then he'd joined up with the White Boars. They were mostly just a bunch of wannabes and upstarts, which made it all the easier to rise up the ranks with his power. The pay being exceptional hadn't been half bad either.

It had still been just another gang back then though, with same exact shit excuses from the lieutenants: "Don't use your power in public.", "Don't stay changed for too long.", "Don't let anyone not part of the gang see your face when you change back.".
With, "Don't go out bragging or your dead.", being a terrifying new one.

This had gone on for months before he'd been recognized by the boss, guy called himself "Immadesco" and dressed in a pretentious looking red suit all the time. Dave kept his mouth shut during the meeting regardless though, he was a grunt, but not stupid. The rumors about what happened to those that disrespected or deserted the Boss was pretty much shared as dogma throughout the gang.

Boss had wanted to reward him with a new "serum" that had some weird Greek sounding name, meant to enhance a person's power without needing a true Enhancing Super on hand. Dave would have called bullshit on anyone else and told them to test their new drug on some other chump with nothing to lose. But it was made pretty clear that his reward was not optional. Besides, the dosage was pretty small anyway, barely enough to fill a shot-glass.

The one thing Dave hadn't expected when he was ordered to take it while in the warehouse with Immadesco was for the unassuming and small amount of liquid to actually work.

All the apprehension of being ordered to meet with his boss and the fear of having to test some shady drug melted away instantly. Dave's ever-increasing friction with his cousins in the south, his debt, the constant paranoia over getting stabbed in the back again; all of the usual and ever-present worries in his mind simply melted away at the feeling of the dull-brown liquid flowing down his throat.
But then he felt lost. He felt like he needed to do something, that he needed someone to help him. He should be doing something with his new-found freedom, shouldn't he? Then Immadesco had opened one of the larger doors and given him one simple order, "Go wild.". His thin nasally voice slid over Dave's mind and he was out the door and shifting into his Minotaur form, disregarding his clothes as they ripped from his expanding frame and muscle. Every citizen in the nearby harbor could hear him scream in rapture as he charged forward, but none were prepared for the destruction that followed.

Dave finally blinked the rest of the cement dust out of his eye's as he lumbered forward before truly getting into his stride again, surprisingly nimble despite the muscled and bulky appearance of his shifted form. His bovine red eyes flared in their relatively tiny sockets as he spotted a small car driving recklessly a few blocks away right before he dug his hooves in and gave chase.

He easily caught up to the speeding silver vehicle, his long digitigrade legs moved with unnatural speed as he prepared to charge right over and crush the screaming motorist, his gaze focused solely on the road immediately in front of them.

Which made it all the more surprising when a dark purple blur, barely perceptible against the night sky, streaked down and slammed into his chest. The blow actually managing to knock him unto his back where he could now clearly see the imposing form of Obsidian-Wraith herself glaring down at him.

"Alright, Heffer, give up now and- !", she started shouting before Dave rolled back to his feet, either ignoring or not registering the pain of his obviously broken sternum, and made a hasty swipe at the floating Hero.

She simply glided back from the awkward strike and waited in midair with her arms crossed as Dave raged and prepared to charge again. But was yet again sent stumbling as a similar but less powerful force cracked against the back of his head.

He spun wildly in response to the sudden attack and actually felt his elbow clip something as he turned and was just in time to see a figure in a blue and gold suit go careening through a house's shingles. Dave felt another blow to his left arm, but didn't deign to acknowledge it as he concentrated on the burning that built in his chest then quickly traveled up and through his mouth in a gout of violet-flame and swiveled his head every which way, melting off sections of masonry on a few unlucky buildings.

The experienced Heroine flitted away from the sudden and unnatural blaze, waiting for him to either stop or find an opening in his seemingly random attack pattern.

Dave spun his head once he caught sight of her and tried to concentrate his rarely used power on the flying figure right when, "*Gucck!*", he gagged upon having felt something small and hard go through the front of his neck and down his throat. He immediately clasped his hand around the source of the sudden sensation of a hole in his trachea as half-a-dozen solid black balls surrounded by halos of light shallowly punctured his chest and legs, leaving small but visibly bleeding holes across his front.

After realizing that the neck injury was nothing lethal or crippling Dave quickly brought his arms up to ward off the other shots and searched for the source of the nuisance and found a hulking grey figure clinging to the side of a nearby building.

The Minotaur snarled and a small part of his mind recognized the creature as a Hero named "Hugh" right before the famous Shifter's eyes flashed with a baleful light and he felt horrible. His body now ached and sweated as if he'd run a marathon and his mind felt strained and tired, barely able to stay on his feet, the criminal Super stumbled lightly and nearly toppled when a volley of bright yellow energy orbs slammed into his chest and caused him to spasm to his knees.

Still not registering the pain and injuries on him but feeling the affects of the precious liquid start to wane as the damage mounted faster than his regeneration could counter. He took a step forward then grunted in surprise as the joint in his right leg suddenly wavered at an unnatural angled.

He looked down and saw a small figure in a red and silver costume was on his knee and had slammed a gleaming blade into his kneecap while another Hero in orchid armor was directing a group of floating blades to try and cut his joints. The smaller one's masked face looked up and then she blurred away in a burst of speed before the Minotaur got a chance to grab for her. Instead he went for the more heavily armored one, but soon had to defend his face as she sent all of her gleaming spinning blades up to attack his eyes and nose, by the time he had batted them all away and looked back she was already gone.

What can only be described as a battle-cry was all the warning he got before the heroine in the gleaming suit that he had clipped came soaring through the air and landed a haymaker directly across his jaw, no longer concerned with holding back, and managed to knock-out more than a few fist-sized teeth.

For the first time in the whole battle, Dave screamed.

Not in pain, but in terror as the fear and anxiety the drink had taken away began to come back in full force. Suddenly his mind became focused on retreat and he remembered that he was part of a gang and angled himself toward where he thought one of the bases would be in this section of the city.

They could help him, they would help him. Help him kill these Heroes and then give him more of the bliss and strength inducing serum that made him stronger than ever.
The fact that Dave wasn't actually any larger or stronger than usual was a piece of introspection he wasn't presently capable of.

Dave crouched and tensed the muscles in his legs, the various injuries along them being exacerbated and bleeding more profusely. He jumped with as much force he could muster and sailed down the street, feeling various blasts and shots hit his back as he flew, before slamming into and cracking the street with his landing and running in almost a scramble on all fours.

He barreled down two blocks like a freight train towards where he thought the nearest White Boar base would be and dimly noted that a clog of traffic was coming up fast in his path. Dave eye's flicked to the top of a small apartment complex right at the edge of the traffic jam and saw a lone figure standing there. Another Hero clad in what looked like a gleaming black suit of armor just stood there with his arms out towards him, not moving or even making a sound, just standing there. Dave let out sound between a snort and a chortle as he got closer.

'No way he can stop me…', Dave's now less drug addled brain slurred in thought. 'That purple bitch caught me when I was just playing, but I've got real speed now.', with a slightly more solid thought in mind Dave squared his shoulders and increased his speed.

Then the darkness came alive and attacked him.

Dozens of shadows from parked cars, buildings, lampposts, and benches leapt forward as deadly blades that wrapped around and cut deep into the Minotaur's ankles, largely circumventing his momentum and causing him to slam face first into the street with a tremendous crash.

Before he could even gather his thoughts the shadows from six different alleys rose in the form of massive bladed hands and lashed out, latching onto Dave with deep lacerating and bloody grips before lifting him bodily into the air. More shadows came then and the ones already upon him began to widen.

The Minotaur tried to flail, but four of the six shadow hands easily arrested his motion, the others that had truly gouged his ankles had let go and were joining all the new ones in curling around him, swarming all around until his vision was filled with spinning blades of animated shadow.

Dave's last acts of defiance were to breath violet fire again and simply try to brute force his way out of the animated darkness containing him. Hope blossomed within him briefly as his fire burned a clear hole through all the shadow constructs, but soon died as a shadowy hand took hold of his head from behind, preventing him from turning his head and burning the rest or any buildings. His attempt at using pure strength to brake free proved to be just as useless, some of his muscles even seemed completely unresponsive as the storm of shadows continued to stab and slash.

Suddenly Dave felt something through the liquid in his body that had made him impervious to pain, a small but sharp tugging sensation in his lower back which was followed quickly by his entire body going limp and his fire-breath dying away as the shadows consumed him again.

'No, I won't fail. I can't fail. I'm… supposed to. Supposed to do?', were Dave's thoughts as the last vestiges of the serum began to wear off. 'Oh god... I'm going to die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.', he wept all the way into unconsciousness as his form finally shuddered and began to shrink and the shadows stilled.

***

Shane would never complain about guard duty for fleeing civilians being boring after tonight.

Styx had almost his entire being focused on maintaining the sphere of flowing and cutting shadow blades that contained his target. The criminal breathing god damned fire again had caused a small part of him to panic, but his plan to just hold the Minotaur's head still and keep cutting into any ligaments he could find had payed off.

So distracted Styx was that he almost doesn't notice his teammates traversing the rooftops towards his guard position, he snickered behind his mask as he saw Samshiel riding Hugh's back.

"You got him Styx?", his mentor asked with a surprising amount of concern in his voice as he watched his Intern hold his arms out, hands clenched into fists. The gesture was at least familiar, he'd noticed before that Styx used hand gestures when doing things that were both large scale and complex.

"…He's still squirming.", Styx's voice was visibly strained, but nothing that was immediate cause for concern, "But he can't break out and I think I can take him non-lethally.". Not three seconds later Styx suddenly un-clenched his hands and every shadow seemed to freeze in place, save for a few that were still shifting slightly. "…Alright, yeah. He's shifted back and seems to be unconscious now.", he informed his team as the sphere of deadly shadow constructs unraveled to show the ferocious minotaur was gone and a heavily built and completely bald middle-aged man had taken his place on top of a platform of shadow. His body was crisscrossed with multiple lacerations across his torso, arms, and legs; but the man seemed alive, nor did his injuries look life threatening.

"Holy shit.", Styx heard Samshiel whisper fiercely before Dispatch spoke up in all of their ears.

<Situation status acknowledged. DVA personnel with the proper containment gear is inbound. Watch over the target for signs of awakening and use proper amount of force to re-neutralize.>, Dispatch spoke in a calm and crisp voice that brokered no argument.

"You heard the lady!", Spectrum barked out in a tone that brought every Intern to attention, "Hughs and Obsidian; I want you two standing guard, weaken and knock him out again if he tries anything funny.". Both Heroes gave curt nods before jumping off of the apartment building they were all on and down towards the slightly raised shadow platform that Styx had moved next to the sidewalk for their convenience, and so that they didn't have to step in all the blood.

As Styx let go of all of his shadows and focused his attention on putting the criminal Super in a cylindrical shadow from the neck down, lose enough to not aggravate any injuries but certainly small enough to make shifting a very bad idea, he decided to take a quick look at all his fellow Interns.

Simikiel had a deep scowl on her face as her fists shook in frustration, Gadreel had her face downcast and seemed to shy away from them, and Samshiel was staring wide-eyed at the criminal's rather gruesome looking injuries, his face paling significantly when his gaze strayed too long on the veritable shallow-pond of blood that had come from the massive Minotaur's form, with bits of hacked off skin floating on its surface.

For his part, Styx merely felt unsettled at having mutilated another human being and was dreading the inevitable debriefing and the media fallout, 'Well, things could be worse. At least none of us died; it's more than some Interns in their first team battle could say.'

Exejpgwmv · Mar 11, 2018

Chapter 16

Debriefings were just as tedious, but obviously necessary, as Shane had been told and thought they would be. It definitely didn't help that they hadn't been able to sleep after their fight with the criminal Super.

Hearing everyone's first-hand account of events had been interesting at first of course, especially considering he hadn't been present to see most of it for himself, but it quickly became dull as it only took two retellings to get the general sequence of events. Though Shane suspected that, out of all of them, their DVA agent Maria suffered the most. She was the one stuck with having to take near constant notes and write down the sequence of events in what looked like excruciating detail. His teammates didn't fare much better as they went through the motions. All of their Mentors went through it with stoic expressions and practiced ease, with Amy and Shane trying to imitate them with varying levels of success.

Greg visibly slumped in his chair and suppressed more than one yawn but responded immediately when prompted by Maria with surprising clarity and recollection. Vanessa was much the same, though she did tend to grimace slightly whenever someone went over her initial clash with the Minotaur, who had now been identified as "Dave Jefferson".

After Greg finished telling of how, when, and what he saw Shane do to trap and incapacitate the Minotaur he finally spoke up, "Are we gonna have to worry about Shane getting in trouble for what he did?". At his fellow Intern's confused looks he quickly continued, "Not saying what he did was wrong, he saved a bunch of people after all, but I think certain groups might have a problem with the tactic he choose. What Shane did to that fella was pretty brutal, and I'm almost certain more than a few people caught the whole show on their phones."

Both Jack and Maria nodded in understanding while Hugh gave his Intern a look that was a mix of approval and appraisal.

"I was actually going to have a talk with Shane about his technique after the debrief was done and escort him personally to his agent tomorrow.", Maria said, her tone tired but not as annoyed as the Interns had guessed she would be. "Anyone with half a brain could tell that Shane wouldn't exactly be a 'family-friendly' Hero, but this was still a pretty bad public showing of what his shadow manipulation could really do; even if it was inevitable."

"If it makes you feel any better,", Jack began as he gave Shane a meaningful look, "I'm fairly certain that whatever videos been recorded has already spread to every criminal-Super with an internet connection and two brain cells. And neither Heroes, the public, or the DVA care about Heroes looking scary to them." He gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up that Shane returned after a moment of hesitation.

"I mean, it's not exactly a secret that Heroes sometimes have to kill. What Shane did can't stir up too much outrage, can it?", Vanessa said from her edge of the table.

"It's one thing to just know in the back of your mind that Heroes sometimes make life-or-death decisions. It's something else entirely for people to see graphic video evidence of a Hero iron maiden-ing another Super with a writhing mass of living-shadows.", Elizabeth countered with more than a little exasperation.

"We can debate how badly Shane may or may not get reamed by the Media later, point is; What he did wasn't illegal and we still need to finish this debrief.", Maria says before prompting Vanessa to re-tell what she saw once the Minotaur ran away.

***

A few hours later and all of the Interns lounged about in the common room, watching the news on the communal TV. It was the next day and a few hours before they needed to go on their new afternoon Patrol, so both Amy and Shane had decided to watch the fallout of their battle from last night and then get in some light *Focus training.

They all noticed that Shane had brought a nondescript brown leather-bound notebook, but none thought it worth asking about as the news-woman started speaking, "Early this morning a Super that shifted into what looked like a giant Minotaur went on a rampage through the Red Hook business area and caused widespread destruction before the Hero team, Pristine Strikers and their new sidekicks, stopped the monster.". She began in a professional drawl before directing the feed to another reporter on the streets. Leaving Vanessa and Shane briefly wondering if she meant "monster" figuratively or literally before listening to the rest of the broadcast.

All told; 26 people had died, unconfirmed amount of wounded, before their team had arrived. The brief fight with the criminal-Super had caused relatively minimal property damage and exactly zero injuries or fatalities.

They all visibly relaxed at the fact that their first Hero battle had been a textbook success as far as Super fights went; No property damage at all was pretty much a forgone conclusion when every Super involved had high-caliber display abilities.

Then the video of Shane capturing the Minotaur finally came up. There were actually just three videos of it, one from the back of a car in the traffic jam, one from someone's apartment window, and another from a traffic camera. The traffic camera was the steadiest but the one from the apartment window was the longest and caught most of the action, so that was the one the news broadcast choose.

"… Well, it's not as gruesome as we thought it would be.", Amy tried to appear optimistic as they all watched the giant Super be shanked into submission by Shane's power.

In fairness, it truly wasn't as graphic as they had thought would look, which Shane chastised himself for not thinking of since it was being shown on public television at all. The roaring and screaming was significantly muffled by the distance and wall, all of the lacerations were mostly concealed by all the shadows trying to restrain the Super. But the unnaturally dark blood and bits of skin that came from the Minotaur and pooled onto the street was still very much visible however.

The brief gout of violet fire was pretty at least.

The journalist and host Neal Chandler, who made an appearance any time Super fights broke out, looked on with morbid curiosity and awe.

"…I can see why you told me not to watch this before coming in live.", Neal adjusted his tie as he gathered himself again, cheeks slightly flushed. "This new Hero's name was 'Styx' you said?"

The male reporter, who's name Shane always forgot, answered first, "Y- yes. He was first seen using his power to transport a sick civilian while on patrol. But it didn't grab much attention, nor did his ability seem so... destructive."

"Speak for yourself.", Vivian, the female reporter with vivid orange hair, spoke up. "I knew from the start that he could wreck shop. The Pristine Striker's have a reputation to keep after all; Surprised they went for a Summoner of all things though. Not many of them work on a strike-force oriented team."

"Summoner?", Neal asked with no small amount of incredulity.

"Yeah, there's no way there were actually that many shadows on that street; I'm betting he's just a clever Summoner with a lot of versatility.", her assessment was said with surprising confidence and fueled by a history of seeing numerous Heroes hide the exact nature of their powers in various ways.

'She's not entirely wrong I guess.', Shane thought as he began to tune out the news and slip his notebook into one of his coat's pockets. 'There weren't that many individual shadows nearby, but there were plenty of big ones I could stretch and manipulates into multiple tendrils.'

"What's with that book, Shane?", Vanessa pointed blatantly at the bulging side-pocket of his coat. She tried to keep her tone light and conversational, but seeing him bring it and then just not use it all peaked her curiosity.

"Ah, it's my, 'Lives Lost' book, I guess you could say. Never really thought of giving it a name.", Shane said with an unusual hesitance to his voice.

"Sounds morbid. What, are you going to right down; all the people that get killed in every fight?", Vanessa decided to press the issue, even when Amy and Greg gave her wary glances.

"No, no, nothing so dramatic.", Shane assured her with a chuckle, "It's a habit my Grandfather told me about; a lot of the Heroes I've met use it too. You're supposed to write down the names of every person you weren't able to save. It's supposed to keep a Hero grounded apparently.". Shane neglected to mention that his grandfather had less "told" and more "ruthlessly drilled" the quasi-tradition into him.

Amy frowned sharply, "My parents never mentioned such a thing and they've both been Heroes for over twenty years.".

"It's a tradition among my family and the Heroes in my grandfather's circle of friends, but not really prevalent outside of that.", He briefly thought about asking who exactly her parents were as Heroes, but decided now wasn't the time.

"So, since nobody got so much as scratched during our fight?", Greg had apparently finally gotten bored of the argument still going on between the reporter and host.

"Then nobody gets put in the book yet.", Shane said as he took out and flipped through the moderately thick, yet empty, tome.

"What if I'd killed someone when I crashed into that house?", Vanessa suddenly asked. Everyone's attention suddenly snapped to her and the mood turned decidedly less amiable. "It wouldn't have taken much, he could've hit me at a lower angle and sent me through a window instead of skidding across a roof."

Shane decided to take his previous approach with Vanessa; brutal honesty, "I would have still kept my list blank. But, if you were so inclined, you could've written down and memorized the deceased person's name, learned from your mistakes, and even gone to apologize to family members personally if you felt up to it." What Shane said last wasn't the lie it would appear to be to someone unfamiliar with the aftermath of Super fights; It wasn't particularly rare for Solo-Heroes and teams to make public and private apologies after especially dire battles, even when they had done their best.

Vanessa took the hypothetical advice in stride, only grimacing slightly at the word "mistake", before letting her sharp features relax into a sad smile, "Thanks, Shane.", she said before giggling as Greg slung an arm around her shoulders and gave her a shake.

"Com'n V, you still moping about that? Do I need to give you another pep-talk to get your fine glutes in gea-!", Greg's friendly tirade was cut short as the air around Vanessa warped and she lifted him bodily into the air.

"No pep-talks necessary, Lil-G. And I'll thank you to not talk about my 'fine glutes' in front of my new friend.", she said before putting her stocky teammate into a fireman's carry and haul him towards the training areas deeper in the base.

Shane gave Amy an inquisitive look, his face a mask of barely contained snickers, "'Fine glutes' and 'Lil-G'? Seriously?".

Amy rolled her eyes and pushed off of the plush couch, "They're not dating, nor do they have some unknown crush on each other. You could call them… 'flirty-friends' I suppose." She grabbed her blank bottle of water and sauntered toward her room, "Now come on and get ready, I really want to work off the nerves from last night before going on patrol again. I'm still plenty upset I only got to stab that dick in his knee and runaway."

*Training in the HCP consisted of different specialties a student could prioritize: Weapons, Subtlety, Focus, Close Combat, Range, and Control. With Focus being, predictably more geared toward precision use and multitasking with your ability.

Exejpgwmv · Mar 11, 2018

Massive Update done to the World and Terminology guides.

Be sure to check them out!

Exejpgwmv · Mar 12, 2018

Chapter 17

'Can't believe I'm doing this.', Shane reprimanded himself as he dialed the dreaded number. He was sitting on the edge of his bed in full costume, save for his helmet, and listened to the ring-back tone as his call went out. There was a good fifteen minutes of free-time left after the light training with his fellow Interns was done, and Shane didn't want to feel like he was putting this off.

"Hey, little bro!", Angela's bombastic voice came over clear as day from his phone's speaker, "Sorry about not being able to call you earlier, it's been real busy here in Port Valins lately. But I heard about what you did; Gotta say, I'm a little impressed. I didn't think you'd actually swing such a good first impression.".

Shane nearly let out a bark of laughter at her words, but managed to stifle it down to a chuckle. After all; it was a rare day indeed when Angela DeSoto said "Sorry" to anyone.

"It's fine, Angela. I was planning on calling and letting the family know I was okay anyways, but I only had time to chat with you." Shane checked the time on his hardy looking wrist-watch that slid over his body armor, courtesy of Steve's team, before continuing. "And I don't see what's so impressive about me taking down that Super. I've always been your better in terms of sheer damage capacity." Shane was determined to prove himself as the better Hero, but unearned praise just annoyed him.

"Not that, dumbass; though I do want to talk to you about that. I'm talking about that evac work you did during your first patrol. It may have only made small-time news, but I know that having your first public act as a Hero be non-violent means a lot to you." Her words had softened just a touch near the end, sincerity slipping into her tone.

Angela's statement struck a chord with Shane, and brought his mind back to recent news he'd heard. The man he'd saved, who had been identified as "Brian Duke", hadn't been homeless as everyone had assumed. He was a business man who'd gone missing for several weeks, now presumed to have been intentionally kidnapped based on his horrible physical condition. Police suspected Super activity. Which had Shane hoping he be able to get a shot at whoever was responsible.

And she was right, his first official act as a Hero involving zero bloodshed had made Shane feel oddly… vindicated. Not that he'd tell her that of course. "Thanks, Angela, I appreciate it." Shane had been expecting a lot when making the decision to call her, but a semi-apology and sincerity hadn't even vaguely crossed his mind. 'Maybe field work is getting her to take things a little more seriously?', the thought filtered through his mind before asking. "And what do you want to talk about my team's fight?"

"Well, less about the about fight and more the aftermath." Her barely suppressed snicker was his first and only warning. "The news cameras caught how that Simikiel girl was staring at you, and I was just wondering if you'd already hit that or no-" *click*

"I guess it was nice while it lasted.", Shane grumbled before shaking his head with a reluctant smirk and sliding on his helmet, fastening it with a snap. "Dispatch, this is Styx, my status is now On Call" Styx said, changing it back from "inactive" during the debriefing and his sleep.

<Acknowledged.>

* * *

Styx silently thanked whoever the DVA hired to make costumes for having the foresight to make his cold resistant, as what he guessed was frigid wind hollowed around him and Spectrum.

They'd been dropped off in an alley in one of the less reputable parts of Red Hook, the nigh-dilapidated look of some of the buildings and sidewalks a stark contrast to the polished structures Styx usually saw.

"Keep your eyes peeled, this tends to be a bit of a problem area. Had more than a few dumb crooks think they could get the drop on me before.", Spectrum supplied as he waved at a man in layers of grimy clothing pushing a shopping cart down the road.

"Right.", in spite of his usually logical mind, a small part of Styx was half-expecting another giant Super to come barreling around the corner as they took a turn down a side-street.

This patrol was a little different from the first, but not so much as to distract Styx from his practice of feeling every shadow as he walked. Hardly anyone stopped and stared, most just hurrying past or away when they caught a glimpse of the two Heroes. One young man even yelped audibly after turning a corner and seeing them walking towards him.

Styx suspected it was because of how prevalent the gangs were in this area. Plenty of wannabes were hanging out on stoops and had scattered at the sight of them, and he asked Spectrum as much.

"You'd be right, Styx.", Spectrum said in a conversational tone. "The gangs have a lot of people here scared of being known as being a 'snitch' basically, so they tend to err on the side of caution when they see a Hero making the rounds. Try not to take it too personally; we can't be around to protect them all the time after all." Despite the fact that Styx was Spectrum's first Intern he sounded like he'd given this talk many times before.

For Shane's part, he hadn't taken any offense in the first place, but nodded his understanding all the same. 'I researched a lot about this place, but I evidently need to learn some local behaviors that doesn't show up in polling data.'

The pair briefly stopped their patrol in front of a small knick-knack shop and prepared to get some lunch. Spectrum spun the restaurant wheel on his phone, and even through his mask Styx saw his expression light-up at the selection. "Alright! Come on, rookie; It's time for some old fashioned lasag-" Spectrum's happy tirade was cut short by a shout from nearby.

"Hey, a fight's about to go down, I could use some help!" A gruff female voice came from the figure of another Hero clad in a blue suit with black trim, one they both recognized as "Pulp", running out of an alley and up the street.

They hesitated for all of one second before sprinting after the Heroine, with Spectrum muttering something about "injustice" before they fully got into their stride.

Pulp was a solo-Hero, only five years out of her Internship from Colorado, only having come to Brooklyn a few months prior to Styx's own arrival. She seemed to act the part of a classic Strong-Woman, though Styx suspected there was more to her abilities than what was shown to the media.

"Styx, care to verify just in case this is some kind of trap?", Spectrum prompted, breathing still even despite his full-on sprint.

Styx extend his senses and tried to parse out the shadows further away from them, his speed faltering lightly from the concentration needed. "She's telling the truth; two groups of about a dozen people are facing off in a courtyard down the street, some of them have guns and melee weapons." His analysis came out in a quick and confident stream of all the pertinent information.

Spectrum didn't have time to be impressed however, as he outpaced his Intern around a corner while following Pulp's flowing cape, and got to said courtyard, getting to see just how accurate Styx's senses were.

"Everyone, on the ground and hands behind your head!", Pulp shouted as she used the momentum of her run to perform a strongman leap, propelling herself forward rather than up, and landed just a few feet from the two hostile groups.

Both she and Spectrum took in the situation in an instant. At first glance, it seemed like a bog-standard turf war between some White Boar members and another local gang. With knives, bats, and small firearms being wielded brazenly by both groups. But their more experienced eyes recognized the higher grade semi-autos wielded by some of the older looking of the White Boars and the one loan member that stood with no weapons and bare chested despite the frigid weather.

"This is your one and only warning!" Spectrum followed up on the younger Hero's command as he let two crackling yellow orbs form in his gloved hand and mentally categorized the one shirtless member as a possible strongman. Electricity would be best for a large group with little protection, but he'd have to be careful not accidentally hit Pulp if a fight broke out.

Most of the thugs froze at the sight of two Heroes entering the scene, some of the younger and dumber members continued to still shout and approach each other though. Both Pulp and Spectrum saw some of the one's who looked like leaders start glancing at nearby alleyways, probably thinking that they could escape in the confusion of their members running away and fighting. A Blaster and a Strongman weren't exactly optimal for corralling large groups like this, and they knew it.

That train of thought lasted until both gangs saw Styx round the corner seconds after his mentor, sunlight gleaming off of his sleek armor.

Memories of what was seen on the news flashed through all of their minds before they noticed flickering movement from the ground beneath their feet. Everyone went quite as they saw that all of their shadows had risen up behind them as wickedly sharp blades, shadows from the nearby alleys also materialized, further dissuading any opportunistic runners.

"Drop your weapons and get on your knees. Nobody needs to get hurt." Styx didn't yell like the other two, his voice carried easily over the now silent courtyard.

He watched as one particularly gruff looking White Boar member, with what looked like a tear drop tattoo, turned toward him… and dropped his weapon before getting down to his knees, hands behind his head. His surrendered was followed quickly by a cascade of bats, knives, and guns hitting the concrete and others making similar gestures of compliance.

Styx wasted no time in capitalizing on their surrender, thickening their shadows into tendrils that restrained them in short order, lifting them bodily into the air and out of arms reach of their weapons. He ignored the few yelps of surprise as he informed Dispatch. "Dispatch, we've got… twenty disarmed gang members here, one of them a possible Super."

<Acknowledged, authorities are in bound. Please provide a description of the suspected Super.> She'd been listening the whole time, and had probably been preparing to call in reinforcement in case the situation had gone pear-shaped, but Heroes still needed to clarify and make official requests when they could.

"I know him.", Pulp said as she stepped forward and peered at the shirtless man's face, ignoring the myriad of glares on her. "His name's Derrick Bailey, just a basic strongman who works as muscle.", she said with obvious contempt before clamping a hand on his shoulder and giving a hard squeeze. The man grunted in discomfort before she let's go. "Yeah, just barely bullet proof too."

<Thank you; ID is positive and record of crime and power is found.> Dispatch's voice came clearly through all of their ear pieces before they heard the sound of sirens approaching and two DVA vans pulled up.

* * *

Maria was less than pleased to have to conduct another debriefing so soon, but thankfully it was a mercifully short one.

The only one to take any real actions was Shane, and even then, there were no injuries or other complications. Jack and the solo-Hero only needed to relay where, when, and how they got to the crime scene before she called the meeting to an end.
"Nice going, kid. You've got a real versatile power there, I'm almost a little jealous." Pulp said to Styx as he escorted her out of the base. "All I can do is punch hard." She seemed to prefer self-deprecating humor and had an almost disarming aura of unprofessional-ism about her.

Styx instantly didn't trust her claims. "I'll admit, I do like the utility of my power, even if it isn't exactly inconspicuous.". He pressed a button on the small remote given to him that unlocked the probably-not-steel doors that led outside. "But I don't believe for a second that you're just a strong woman. I've read up enough about you to know that you're a Subtly-Hero and I've seen news of you doing things that should be impossible with just physical force."

Pulp simply shrugged in response before giving him a wry grin. "You're sharp for someone still in their Internship, but as a rule, I only share secrets with Heroes I've at least had two beers with."

"Not asking for your secrets," Styx had the courtesy to swing open and hold the door for her, "Just letting you know that you don't have to waste your breath lying about your power to me."

She gives a flippant wave over her shoulder in acknowledgement before walking out of the base and into the afternoon gloom.

Shane closed the door behind her and took off his helmet, letting out a brief sigh of relief before languidly stretching, the little pops from his joints and brief strain on his muscles soothing him. Nobody knew- Well, nobody except Jack maybe, knew how nervous he got when in a fight. It never showed as physical ticks, he'd gotten past that long ago, but it still seemed to tire him mentally. Having to suddenly converge with a Hero not from his team, and stopping a gang fight not even a day after helping suppress a high-end Demolition Class threat, certainly didn't help matters.

"You might want to get that helmet back on.", Shane's reprieve was cut-short as the familiar voice of Maria reached his ears. "Now that your off patrol and not training for once, we can finally go meet your Agent." The DVA rep stood in the entrance to the civilian common room, clad in her usual black suit.

Shane gave a weary sigh before nodding his head in understanding and putting his helmet back on, the snug feeling around his head becoming increasingly familiar. "Alright, we going down to the garage for our ride?", he prompted.

Maria shook her head before stepping forward and putting a hand on his shoulder, "Why bother with a car when you've got the ultimate ride right here?"
Thankful that the helmet muffled his soft snort of laughter, Shane mentally prepared himself as Maria took them away in a whirl of bending space.

The odd thing about Maria's ability was that, unlike classic teleporters, she didn't just pop in and out of space. Shane could see they were indeed traveling, although at impossible speeds, to their destination; just in a different form. He could only really describe it as being condensed down to a pin-prick and then hurled through space towards their destination before changing back, all in the matter of a second.

The destination this time being the public office building Lenny owned, one of the best Hero Agents in the country. "I'm surprised that you're familiar enough with this place to transport us straight to it." Shane said after taking a few seconds to shake off the dizziness.

"Not really familiar. I've just been here a couple times before and decided to set-up a way-point." Maria then strode up the stone steps and through the old-fashioned looking wooden door without another word of explanation.

Shane was surprised by the sudden new information on her power, but not so much by her lack of follow up. Supers under the employ of the DVA were just as likely to hide the true nature of their powers as Heroes were.

The office was surprisingly empty and simplistic. Standard layout; a table in the middle of the room with magazines about Hero news, a row of conjoined chairs on each wall, and coat racks on either side of the door.

Both Maria and Shane skipped the pleasant accommodations and simply waited to be called on after sitting down in. The chairs were surprisingly comfy and durable, the material and design were reminiscent of the type of chairs made to accommodate Supers of unusual size and weight.

After a few minutes of patient waiting, someone else finally walked out of the office. It was a Hero who's costume was what looked like a navy-blue suit and matching mask. He gave them the barest of glances before striding out the door.

"Come on in, Styx." Lenny's robust voice reached them as soon as the door had opened.

Shane silently thanked his Agent for not using his real name before steeling himself and walking into Lenny's office. He made sure to firmly close the door behind him before taking a seat in yet another reinforced chair.

The meeting room itself was, while not messy perse, definitely dingier than the waiting room for clients. Abnormally large cabinets that loomed over them and a slightly off looking globe that smelled lightly of wine seemed to complete the whole image.

Though what was truly the most eye catching were the several posters all over the walls, most being of current and nationally famous Heroes, with a select few framed ones of legacy Heroes. Most of them Shane knew to be retired, while a small minority were very much still active.

The garish and clashing colors made Shane pause from the sheer contrast with the dull brown and grays he'd become use to in his new city.

"So," Lenny prompted once Shane had situated himself. "I hear your having some image issues."

"Not really," Shane felt a tad defensive now that he'd gotten down to talking about how he'd like the world to see him, instead of just focusing entirely on the fights and training like he'd been for the past few days. "I just want to know how to handle things when my more… controversial moments are caught on camera."

Lenny leaned back and laced his fingers over his portly belly, "Well there's your first problem; Styx the Intern isn't supposed to handle anything except for learning how to be a Hero. Handling the media and trying to sway public perception is what I'm here for." Lenny knew how to handle new Interns, all too often they tried to focus on both gaining experience while also trying to tango with the media; something that rarely ever ended well and almost never without undue stress.

"Secondly, what you did was more inevitable than controversial. I told you before; your power would scare people, but I can work with scary."

"Okay…", Shane breathed out, not realizing how nervous he'd been about this. "Okay, then what are you planning on doing about this?"

"That's a toughie because, regardless of how scary that display yesterday was, it was still damn impressive. And the poor guy surviving afterwards gives us some wiggle room to work with.", Lenny's was talking about this for Shane's sake more than anything else. He'd dealt with more than a few upcoming Heroes with terrifying powers, and the solution to nicely mitigating the fear at first was almost always the same. "What we need to do is get the public more familiar with you, make you seem like more of a real person. So far, you've barely been waving at people during patrol, but nothing else. So, I've made a few small time PR options available for you to participate in with the rest of your peers, along with one big event that's available next month."

The grin Lenny flashed then made Shane wary at the greed and cunning he could see in the man's expression.

"An exclusive interview: Neal Chandler with you and Spectrum. Broadcast and streamed live on every major network."

Exejpgwmv · Mar 13, 2018

Chapter 18

Vanessa's costume felt awkward and tight as she and her mentor, Obsidian-Wraith, stepped out of the alley they'd been dropped off in and started their patrol. She was profusely nervous. But at least she hadn't needed to be reminded to turn on her power like on her first outing. The downtown streets of Brooklyn were dirty and busy as always, the strong autumn wind ensuring that most anyone on the street were wrapped up in big coats. "Most", however, didn't include the two Hero's striding down the street.

People immediately made a path or quickly crossed to the opposite sidewalk upon seeing Gadreel's blue and gold costume and Obsidian-Wraith's dark violet form. In spite of that display, Gadreel still held what she knew to be an irrational fear of someone pointing and calling her out for her performance last night. None of her teammates had given her any grief over getting clipped, her mentor only giving some advice about "not overestimating your own strength", but she knew for a fact the public wouldn't be so kind.

She'd been sloppy, her mistake had caused unnecessary property damage, and possibly extended an already dangerous battle with a powerful Super. No way she wasn't going to get shit over th- The Intern nearly jumped as Obsidian-Wraith elbowed her lightly, pulling her arm back before anyone would notice.

"Look alive, Hero." She muttered harshly under her breath. She was waving at the people across the street who were snapping pictures of them both.

Gadreel didn't need anymore encouragement to pull herself out of her own thoughts and finally took notice of the gathering. She put a smile on her face and sheepishly waved at the small group of fans.

'Right, right. I'm on patrol, not the time to for being distracted with my own stupid drama' Gadreel thought as they finally made it out of picture taking range and back on to their regular route. She looked over the street with fresh eyes; trying to spot people sneakily reaching into their coat. It was a skill that Obsidian-Wraith had said was invaluable for any Hero going on patrol, even ones highly resistant to conventional forms of damage.

Before, Vanessa had asked her Mentor why she bothered with doing foot-patrol like everyone else when she could fly without running out of energy, unlike her. The answer had been as practical, and surprisingly simple, as always; visibility and publicity.

Obsidian-Wraith didn't have any kind of enhanced vision when she was in her crystal form, greatly limiting how far up she could be, and at a certain point it just made her a bigger target while reducing her ability to spot possible trouble. The second reason was much more image focused; Citizens felt safe when Heroes were walking down the street with them and criminals felt uneasy and not as confident.

Gadreel nearly missed a step when when her earpiece suddenly crackled to life and Dispatch's voice came through. <Gadreel, be advised; Spectrum, Styx, and a solo-Hero called Pulp have just interrupted a potential gang fight between the Greens and the White Boars.> Dispatch sounded calm and detached as always, no sense of agency in her accented tones.

She looked over and saw that Obsidian-Wraith hadn't even paused in her stride as she responded. "Where are they? Gadreel can be over in about a minute even if it's across the city." She was surprisingly gruff and didn't even hesitate about suggesting that her Intern should go ahead of her.

Meanwhile, Vanessa's head momentarily stuttered as she tried to sort through the sudden information and shift in tone. The Green's were one of the many, and larger, local drug gangs that infested the poorer areas of the city. But they were mostly made up of regular humans, hardly any Super muscle to speak of. They must be desperate if they were willing to get into an open turf war with the White Boar's.

There was a slight delay before Dispatch spoke again. <…You may resume your patrol. Styx has neutralize the situation.>

"Wha- Shit, really?", Obsidian-Wraith muttered below her breath.

"Uh, how'd he do it?", Gadreel tentatively posed her first question to Dispatch even as she kept an eye on the people around them. She felt uncomfortable as there was silence for a solid ten seconds before she got a response.

<There were twenty-two armed and regular criminals with one Standard-class strongman on the side of the White Boars. Styx boxed them in with his shadows and convinced them to stand-down peacefully—restraining all of the gang members as soon as all weapons were on the ground.>, Dispatch relayed.

Gadreel desperately wished there was time to talk while actively on patrol, she had so many questions about if she could do something similar one day. The only real time they had for lengthy talks was when they stopped for lunch halfway through their shift.
Regardless; She kept her eyes peeled, resolved to do her patrol properly.

That sentiment served Gadreel well; Otherwise she might not have noticed the man in an overly large winter coat stepping out of the crowd and level a strange looking gun at her.

Time slowed down for Gadreel as she rushed forward in the time it took for the man to properly hold his weapon, his expression turning from grim determination to surprise at the sudden charge.

Five years ago, her first instinct would have been to dodge out of the way and take cover. But her four years in the HCP had drilled and trained her in exactly what her role was; A strongman's job, or woman in this case, was to hit and get hit. Her job was to get in close to do damage and to tank the hits others couldn't.

So instead of running Gadreel charged the gunman and his strange weapon, desperately hoping to intercept whatever projectile it would shoot from the civilians she could hear running away behind her. She could actually see the man pulling the trigger as she got within point-blank range and went full power, not trusting her baseline defense to handle this. The "gun's" translucent sections lit up like a Christmas tree.

He fired.

Gadreel heard more than felt the multiple heat resistance layers of her costume melt off. Pain flashed across her stomach as the beam made contact with her skin, turning it an angry red. But the barely visible ray of energy of hadn't even made her stumble. Time sped up again and she was on the man in an instant, with her strength now dialed up so high she'd half to be relatively careful about this. Grabbing his wrist to keep the gun pointed at her and grabbing his shirt with the other, she "gently" slammed him back-first into the pavement. The impact drove the wind out of him and made the chubby man involuntarily squeeze the trigger again, but the gun only gave a weak fizzling sound in response.

Gadreel slowly applied pressure to the wrist in her hand, feeling the bones beginning to break and grind as he let go of the weapon with a yelp of pain. She flipped him over, placed a knee onto the small of his back, and forced his arms behind his back.

'Okay, okay. I've got him. Now I just need to… uh-' Now that there wasn't a clear threat to neutralize, Gadreel was drawing a complete blank on what to do next. The blood pounding in her ears and the people screaming around her, in what she hoped was terror and not pain, didn't help matters either.

Thankfully Obsidian-Wraith came to her rescue.

"Nice work Gadreel, now call it in." She said in a surprisingly calm tone as she stood over both of them.

Gadreel didn't need to be told twice, "Right! Dispatch; some guy just tried to shoot me with a ray-gun, it looks Super made, but I don't know if he's the tech Super." Her voice may have come out a little too high-pitched for her liking, but at least it came out clear.

<Acknowledged. DVA operatives are in route to your location.> Dispatch didn't even sound surprised at the news of another conflict their team had to deal with, almost back-to-back and on the same day.

"Fuckin' bitch…" The gruff voice from below made Gadreel re-focus her gaze upon the scarred and bald head of her aggressor.

"Are you actually surprised? What made you think you could get away with this?" Her voice held an incredulous tone as she made sure she had the man's hands secured. What had this idiot been expecting to achieve?

"The point wasn't to get away, it was to put a fucking hole through you.", the man nearly snarled at her.

All things considered, Gadreel didn't think she reacted too harshly to someone bluntly admitting to attempting to kill her. She managed to resist the urge to punch him in the back of the head at least.

Exejpgwmv · Mar 15, 2018

Chapter 19

When Shane came back from his meeting with Lenny, prepared to bare some significant news from said Agent, and possibly get backlash for it. He was incredibly surprised to find everyone was fretting over Vanessa. And after hearing about what happened from Elizabeth, he was too.

Vanessa was laid out in the First-Aid room on a large bed, even though her "wound" from the laser weapon had already healed. It also looked like she was being interrogated by Steve.

"-es, for the last time; It completely melted off pieces of my costume and hurt me without pushing me back.", Vanessa's exasperated voice was the first thing Shane heard when he was ushered in by Elizabeth.

Amy, Greg, Jack, Hugh, and Rikki were all surrounding Vanessa as she lied back, still in her now-tattered costume, sans the mask. Her exposed midriff only showing the barest hint of a light reddening of the skin.

"Can I go get my Debriefing over with now? I want to get that out of the way as soon as possible.", Vanessa grumbled. "Besides, I don't want to make Maria wait too long." She said, though everyone in the room doubted her urgency was out of any concern about Maria's patience.

Steve just shook his head before speaking. "If that's all you can remember about that weapon, then yes. It's still mystifying though; there's a reason regular humans aren't running around with laser cannons, the recoil should have shattered that man's arms. Not to mention the fact that something strong enough to go through your costume and burn you when at full-power should have at least made you stumble." Steve's expertise may have been all about building integrity and power sources; but he'd hung-out with plenty of the more "traditional" tech Supers to know some of the trade secrets.

Vanessa simply waved off his rambling and floated off the bed, giving Shane a quick "Welcome back!" before striding toward the changing area. Elizabeth was right behind her, and presumably they'd be on their way to the debriefing room soon afterwards.

Shane was still turning over what Elizabeth had told him back in the hallway. "That blast would have killed most regular strongman types. And even some of the Hero quality strongmen I know would have been injured significantly."

He was glad that his teammate had managed to take down a Super threat on her own, and make a good showing while doing so. She'd definitely needed the confidence boost of handling a situation solo. But hearing about how she could have been seriously injured if she hadn't noticed the guy early on had been… unsettling. Shane resolved to talk to the others about it, and probably Jack too. But now probably wasn't the time; he needed to tell them about Lenny's plans and get approval. And the First-Aid room probably wasn't the place to do so.

Luckily, Jack had his own news and apparently shared Shane's sentiments about appropriate venues for discussion. "Alright, while we wait for those two to get back from debriefing, I've got a few announcements to make." Jack announced as he looked around. "Come on, it's better that we discuss team matters in the actual meeting room. We have all those comfy chairs for a reason." He said pointedly to all the Interns present before leading them out into the hallway.

Soon enough they made their way back to the familiar walls of the main meeting room, the chairs as plush as always.

Jack gestured toward Amy, Greg, and Shane as soon as they were all seated. "I expect you three to fill Vanessa in after she gets back to her room, this isn't news I need to tell her personally." He said. "We are going to be doing some community work tomorrow to help cleanup the destruction that Minotaur guy caused a couple of nights ago and get a little good PR. Nothing too complex; the actual construction workers will be organizing us and any other Heroes that will be there."

"Not to sound like an elitist prick; but doesn't the city already have a group of Supers trained to help with that kind of thing?", Greg asked.

"Yes, they do. It just that Heroes with particular powers tend to expedite the process greatly. You should count yourself lucky; A lot cities only opt for getting companies that take care of the main stuff; like keeping buildings from coming down and clearing streets of large debris. While leaving all the little stuff to the citizens." Jack explained.

Greg's nose scrunched in disgust at the revelation, but he didn't say anything more though.

"Well, since were on the topic of PR, I've got some good news." Shane started off. "My agent is trying to set us both up for an interview with Neal Chandler, in about a month from now."

His mentor's reaction was less than promising, "Lenny is doing what now?"

***

Vanessa hadn't quite known what to expect when she got out of, what she considered, an overly long debriefing. But she definitely hadn't been prepared for all of her fellow Interns to be waiting in the lounge for her. Especially not Amy in the front holding a… tub of ice cream and a large spoon?

The tall young woman sighed, even as she kept moving towards them, "Guys, I'm fine. Really." Vanessa's statement and resolve didn't stop her from taking the offered comfort food before plopping down on the main couch. "But if you really insist, I guess we can sit down and talk about it some more." She relented to her obviously jittery group of peers.

All of their nervous, yet relieved, smiles brought a reluctant one to her own tired face as they sat down around her.

Exejpgwmv · Mar 15, 2018

Chapter 20

While under some heartfelt interrogation from her two best friends and one new one, Vanessa eventually opened up about the full extent of her feelings.

She was definitely a little shaken and had no desire to repeat such an experience, but she was fine to go out again tomorrow. In a shiny new suit and extra wary of anybody on the street moving towards her.

The next morning they all went through their usual morning routines. Stretching, power training, and a nice shower before attending breakfast/the morning meeting.

Which was when they got some rather eventful news from Jack.

"Rikki and Amy will be going out to schedule a meeting with another Hero today. She's a solo-Hero that goes by the name of 'Pulp'—specializes in subtly", Jack announced. "She has offered to help us crack down on the White Boars. We haven't got a official plan yet, but my bet is that it'll involve infiltration and information gathering. Greg and Hugh will be out on regular patrol today. Which just leaves me, Shane, Elizabeth and Vanessa to attend the construction event."

Greg simply shrugged his shoulders before going back to scarfing down cereal, evidently unconcerned that he would be missing out.

Vanessa raised her hand, almost immediately getting a nod of approval from Jack. "How often do Heroes work together outside of teams? I thought we'd see a lot more during our regular duties, but we haven't even met one besides this "Pulp" lady." Vanessa said, her voice tinged with curiosity.

"You haven't met many other Heroes yet because we're trying to gradually ease you into this lifestyle; it's why you've been doing mostly just patrols until now. As you gradually go to more events and do cross-missions, like the one we may be doing with Pulp, you'll get to know more of the local Heroes." Jack explained. "Elizabeth might even take you to a Hero bar on her off days." Jack laughed off the pointed glare he got from the statuesque woman.

Shane was content to keep to himself throughout the morning. Jack's disapproval last night had simmered down to a request to talk to Lenny personally about the details of any potential interviews. The young man was also silently mulling over all the potential Heroes he would get to meet soon. He'd read up on all the local teams in Brooklyn, from the Atomic Conjurers to the Remedy Squadron.

Yes, Shane would probably be staying with the Pristine Strikers for a while even after his internship was over. But it never hurt to see who else was out there.

***

Things had come to a crossroads of sorts for Styx, his duties as a Hero clashing heavily with his personal feelings.

On the one hand; Styx wanted to swat his teammate that was doing another loop-de-loop above the car he was being driven in. To mock him he was sure.

On the other; It was probably illegal for fellow Interns to fight each other while in public, or at least frowned upon. So he resolved to control himself until Spectrum finished driving him to the construction site.

The humvee-esque vehicle, that seemed to be standard transport for the team, was at least a rather smooth ride. And after a few more turns into the business district, they finally stopped in front of a series of partially destroyed apartment buildings, thoroughly taped off by the police. Spectrum stopped and parked just outside the barricade, stretching and popping a few joints as he soon as he had locked the vehicle, Styx not far behind.

The first thing Styx noticed was the buzz of activity surrounding them. There were at least a dozen costumed figures dashing around the site, debris of various sizes being either lifted or floated to various dumping zones. And no small amount of reporters hanging around the sides of the site, some of them beginning to look in their direction.

But Styx payed them no mind, instead focusing on something a little peculiar about some of the people in costume; though he couldn't exactly tell from this far away.

His musing was cut short as a tan skinned man in a grey suit, overlapped with a safety vest and wearing a hard-hat, approached them. "Gentlemen, right on time! My name is Derick and I'll be your supervisor today.", his voice was smooth and boisterous as he gesticulated excitedly. "You two will be working with Vigor for rubble removal and disposal over there. Spectrum will be tasked with removing rubble while Styx helps Vigor with the heavy lifting." Derick instructed as he pointed toward a man in a red and white costume that was lifting up chunks of concrete and collecting them into a pile.

"Understood." Spectrum said simply, his voice almost bored. "Come on, Styx. We've got work to do." And without further ado he began jogging across the lot toward the mesomorph Hero, Styx not far behind.

Vigor was the strongman from Remedy Squad, a team of healers. Or at least abilities that allowed for healing in some fashion or another. They were one of the more "family-friendly" Hero teams in town, rarely coming out of fights with anything more than damaged costumes show for it.

'He probably has some kind of enhancing power.', Styx thought. As they approached, however, he finally caught sight of why he'd thought something was off about some of the people here. More than a few capes around had company logos slapped onto various parts of their suits; they were Corpies. Well, officially, they were called "Privately Employed Emergency Response Supers" or "PEERS" if you didn't have the time. A decidedly controversial, if helpful, part of the Hero world that Styx didn't have time to worry about.

Vigor gave them a smile and a wave as soon as he noticed them, his red cowl showing a row of almost unnaturally white teeth. "You the new guys here to help me with clearing all this rumble?" He jerked a thumb back toward the mostly collapsed building behind him as he lugged another door sized piece of rock. He then did a double take as his eyes passed over Styx. "Hey, aren't you the rookie who strung up that Minotaur Super?"

"Yeah, he is. I'll be eroding all debris you two collect." Spectrum's tone was decidedly neutral as both of his gloved hands were surrounded by orbs of indigo light. He raised both toward the already sizable pile of rubble and let them fly; both hitting the top and disintegrating a sizable portion as they "popped".

"I'll be helping with moving more of the chunks. Maybe even cut apart some of the more unwieldy ones.", Styx informed, eager to avoid the subject of what he was currently most famous for as a Hero. He didn't know how to handle that kind of attention, so he opted to give Vigor a simple nod and thumbs-up.

Styx connected to the shadows beneath the piles of concrete. Four slithered out before twisting and thickening into more suitable shapes—two blade hands and tendrils. Eyeing a few chunks of crumbling bricks, with a quick hand-motion Styx directed the shadows to scoop them up and began adding them to the already rather impressive pile Vigor had made.

Vigor shrugged his acceptance of the odd greeting before setting down his own slab and going back to work; apparently not bothered by the fact that his red costume with white trim was covered in dust.

Things went on for a few minutes like that; moving sections of rumble into a rough pile and pausing to let Spectrum erode it from top to bottom. Styx quickly fell into the familiar monotony of routine as they cleared almost half of all the rubble for the first building.

It was then, of course, that everything went to shit.

On Vigor's ninth pass he stopped suddenly, head spinning so fast it looked like he might have given himself whiplash, before sighting on a terraced house down the street.

Styx was about to ask him what was wrong when the man suddenly lunged forward, the motion surprisingly graceful, and wrapped him up in a hug from behind.

"What ar-", was all Styx got out before the report of an automatic-rifle firing several times shattered the hum of activity around them.

Though Vigor did manage a shout as soon as the shooting started, "We've got a sniper!"

There was stunned silence for all of half a second before the world around them erupted with shouting and the sound of people running. Some drifting to but most away from the duo currently being shot at.

Styx had immediately stopped struggling against the man's clearly superhuman strength, thankful for the shielding from the hail of bullets. Vigor might not have been the toughest Super around, but it took more than regular bullets to take down a strongman of his renown.

This relief lasted until both men suddenly shot up into the air.

"Huh? Oh shi-", Vigor growled out just before they were flung forward in a blur motion.

Styx had all of a second to brace himself before they both rocketed through the wall of a partially collapsed building and his world explode into a cascade of pain and noise.

Binding Oaths | Arc-6 Sisyphus | [Super Powereds] (Finished)

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