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

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 21

Styx's vision swam as he slowly dragged himself back to the waking world. The first thing he felt was the dull throb of pain all around him; the raw sensory input made him activate his power on reflex. As the sclera of his eyes turned pitch he was suddenly able to see clearly in his dark and dusty surroundings.

He was looking up into the face of Vigor, his face an odd mix of relief and concern. They were in what looked like a living room; almost every surface liberally coated with dust and pieces of drywall.

The second thing Styx noticed was that his helmet was gone and that he had his head against Vigor's lap. The standard grey mask from the DVA the only thing protecting his identity.

"You with me, kid?", Vigor said in a surprisingly gentle voice, the dark skin visible from his cowl freckled lightly with grey dust.
Styx made to answer, but quickly found the action more than he could handle. The first non-shallow breath he'd taken in had jostled something inside his chest. Bringing all the pain he'd been feeling in the back of his mind immediately to the foreground.

'Ah Christ, I think I can feel some of my bones poking through my skin…', Styx thought as his mind rapidly cleared due to the fresh wave of agony, quickly trying to compartmentalize the damage.

His right forearm and left leg were at least heavily fractured, while the rest of his limbs simply felt like they had been twisted badly. His ribs were comparatively mild in terms of pain, but were still most likely cracked in several places considering how much it hurt to breath.
Styx tried to ignore the fact that he could feel a wetness in certain parts of his suit where blood had pooled.

The anger that suddenly came over him must have looked just as surprising as it had felt, because Vigor immediately went to placate him. "Whoa there, buddy, you're not in critical condition; but you should probably just rela-"

Styx blocked him out, grabbed the darkness of the room, the shadows outside, breathed life into them and made them move.
He dimly realized that a lot of the anger was pointed at himself, as the darkness around them warped and solidified to encase both him and his savior in a globe.

The building they were in was unstable. Best that they were outside where he could keep them shielded rather than hunkered down in a structure that he suspected could collapse at any moment.

If he'd had his guard up then maybe he could've intercepted or stopped the attack. Why hadn't he been on alert and scanning the shadows for unusual movements? Angela wouldn't hav-

The Intern immediately snuffed out that train of thought as he lifted the globe out of the living room and down the hall towards what he guessed was the hole their impact had made. The light pouring through the opening had made it a beacon when he'd gone over the shadows around them.

Vigor looked upset, but wasn't protesting. Just had his arms folded as the makeshift platform formed moved them. He did, however, step forward and hand Styx his helmet back.

Pushing past the pain, anger, and shame; Styx gave the older Hero a grateful look before grabbing the helmet with his good arm and clumsily fastening it back on.

He staggered to his feet as they were lifted from shadow to shadow, the ones not actively shielding them swirling around like a cyclone. They finally made it through the hole in the wall and back to the outside world.

***

Gadreel was getting pretty sick of her perpetual shock right about now.

First it had been Styx being shot at while she and Obsidian Wraith were air-lifting some rubble from the upper floors. The staccato of gunfire made her drop the concrete she'd been hefting around. But she didn't even notice the shattering impact that came from below.

Vigor shielding her teammate from all the shots had been a brief, if strained, relief as soon as she'd caught site of them. Which was quickly shattered as the duo were lifted by some unseen force and flung into a half collapsed building.

Spectrum's response thereafter had been about as tame as anyone could expect.

He'd spun around and toward the source of the shooting with a snarl on his usually smiling lips, an unstable orange orb appearing in his hand.

The sphere of energy seemed to pulse erratically and was about the size of a human head. Spectrum extended an arm and let it fly–streaking toward the slightly open window in less than a second.

The impact and subsequent explosion of force had been devastating, but surprisingly contained. Leaving a hole in the building that looked big enough for a truck to drive through.

For a few seconds it was impossible to see anything through the dust cloud that was left behind.

All the Heroes around had tensed and were ready for some form of retaliation, save for the reports and Corpies that were still fleeing the area. But eventually some Hero in a green and blue suit, that Gadreel could barely remember was called "Rebound", stepped forward and waved at the cloud; dispersing it quickly.

What stood in its place was rather anticlimactic.

A rather shaggy looking man in a brown trench coat was kneeling in what was left of the room Spectrum had blasted, gasping for breath with both his arms outstretched as the air in front of him shimmered.

With almost contemptuous ease, Spectrum blasted forth a small sphere of crackling yellow energy. The globe went straight through whatever protection the Super had put up, smacking into and shocking the already exhausted man. He went down with a jittery gasp and so did his shield.

Rebound gestured again and the man began to float up from his position before gently gliding down to the construction zone; his longish black hair and coat fluttering in the brisk wind.

As soon as the man landed five different Heroes surrounded him, though only one was actually touching the downed criminal. A rather short Hero in a silver suit had a hand wrapped tightly around the back of his neck.

Gadreel didn't get to see anymore of the altercation, as Obsidian Wraith had begun pulling her roughly toward the hole Vigor and Styx had made.

"Stop rubbernecking, Gadreel; we've got a team member to rescue!", the older Heroine shouted as they rocketed forward.

Gadreel had shaken off her shock quickly and was flying under her own power now. Heading straight toward the hole and praying that her friend was okay.

Only to dash back with a yelp of surprise as a vortex of shadow blades poured from the hole in the building.

So numerous were the blades that she could barely get a glimpse at what they were centered around; a platform that supported a rather wary looking Vigor and Styx.

Vigor seemed no the worse for wear, save for some blood stains and rips in his costume, while Styx looked like he could barely stand up straight.

The platform was slowly lowered to ground level as the vortex of shadows twisted into a odd swirling dome.

"Sh- Styx, drop your shield! We got the shooter!", Gadreel stumbled a little with her teammate's name as she shouted over the commotion around them and the quickly approaching sound of sirens.

<I'd recommend against doing that. Several Heroes have already reported that the Super apprehended has no firearms on him. The real shooter most likely fled using as of yet unknown means and left there colleague behind.>

Gadreel nearly yelped in surprise, again, as the voice of Dispatch came through her earpiece. She'd nearly forgotten about the mysterious and disembodied passenger she carried with her.

<Though it is advised that Styx stop using his power, if what Vigor said about the extent of his injuries is true, and let another Hero handle shielding until a healing Super is teleported in.

…Defensive Dugout is on her way.>, Dispatch informed them as a Hero in a gray and sparkling suit jogged over, an uncharacteristic pause present in her usually confident tones.

The way the earth underfoot was "flowing" up and around her in a personal field was a pretty clear indication of why she'd been assigned the task.

Styx seemed to hesitate for a second, but quickly succumbed under the combined glare from both Vigor and Obsidian Wraith.

The shadows around them stopped swirling and spinning, snapping back to their origins. And was quickly replaced by the concrete beneath their feet becoming liquid-like and constantly flowing around both Vigor and Styx in a perfect dome.

The material turned see-through and glittery, letting Gadreel wave at her peer, smiling with relief. Vigor had laid Styx onto his back and appeared to be chewing him out rather thoroughly. Apparently Defensive Dugout's power blocked sound as well as physical attacks.

Nevertheless, with some visible effort, Styx lifted his non-crooked arm and gave Gadreel a slow wave back.

This made Gadreel smile even wider as the gloomy street was lit up with various police car lights and one DVA van made its way down the street.

'Momma was right; The Life is never dull.'

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 22

Simikiel pitied the Supers and Heroes that couldn't fly. She knew it was an arrogant thought, but just couldn't help herself. The ability to fly had been the one to come the most naturally to her. Hell, it was the first power she'd displayed when she'd first shifted at the age of ten; a bit of a late-bloomer in terms of power development. The experience never got old either, especially when you could fly with as much precision and speed as she could. And it always made her giggle when the humans saw her break the sound barrier in under three seconds.

Simikiel felt much the same exhilaration as she flew through Brooklyn with her mentor, Crusader.

They had to take some evasive routes to make sure their trail wasn't easily followed, as instructed by Pulp in her request—a relatively easy feat. Simikiel's shifted form constantly glowing wasn't as much a problem as one might think. It was cloudy outside, but the kind that seemed to cover the entire sky while still being to bright for most to look straight up.

The directions Pulp had given via the Dispatch system eventually lead them towards a loan apartment in the local abandoned district. Calling the structure "unstable and ramshackle" would have been an understatement.

'I knew a Hero's base wasn't always exactly glamours, but really?' Simikiel thought as her mentor walked in and she followed quickly from behind. The formation was familiar to them and matched their power-sets; Crusader could intercept and detect any threats ahead of them while Simikiel could react quickly to any attacks from behind. They hadn't had cause to use this strategy in any high-stakes situation as of yet, to Simikiel's frustration and Crusader's relief.

Wood creaked and loose bricks crumbled as the two super-heroines made their way through the small apartment. Until they arrived at a surprisingly secure looking basement door.

Crusader put her hand to the side of helmet again before nodding to herself and wrapping on the door five times with varying intensities. Two strong bangs, one regular knock, and two small knocks. The combination apparently satisfied whatever security system was there, as the wooden slid to the side with a hiss immediately afterwards.

Simikiel was slightly miffed that she was being left out of the loop in terms of information and was just being lead along like a child. Even if she could understand why a Subtlety Hero like Pulp was hyper-paranoid about secrecy; her own mother wa- had been one after all.

The red carpet that lead down to the basement was just as unusually clean and sturdy as the door that preceded it. Not even creaking as Simikiel and Crusader made their way down and stepped into the basement proper.

This behemoth of a basement was far bigger than any run-down-apartment basement had any right to be. Every surface of the large chamber was an impossibly smooth steel that was only broken by the equally shiny and smooth metal doors, three on both the west and east walls.

Pulp stood in its center, a cocky grin splitting her half covered face, costume as prim and proper as her surroundings. Though it's dark blue, bordering on black, costume was an odd contrast to their silvery surroundings.

"Impressive isn't, rookie?", she said with a good-natured chuckle.

Simikiel immediately tried to wipe the wide-eyed expression off her face as Crusader stepped forward.

"Stop trying to fluster my Intern and get on with the meeting, Pulp." Crusader said with a chuckle as she strode forward and gave the Heroine a fist-bump.

"Do you two know each other?", Simikiel asked, eager to change the subject.

"I met her when she first officially started Hero work in this city; around three months ago.", Crusader said as she and Pulp turned and strolled toward the desk and two chairs near the end of the cavern.

"Not even a day after I'd set-up my base and stocked up on spare costumes than did some psycho Super with the ability to blast things into glass went on a rampage.", Pulp said wistfully. "Little-shit nearly killed me too!" She exclaimed with mock indignation.

"After the battle was over, and there was a chance to mingle, I found out she was a solo and a subtlety Hero that was operating locally. So I decided to keep tabs on her; she's had semi-stable communications with our team ever since.", Crusader explained as they made it to the end of the room.

Simikiel and Crusader took a seat in the two wooden-cushioned chairs while Pulp sat behind the metal desk. It was just as minimalist as the room around them, with only a laptop and what she guessed was a server, perched on top.

"Why do you want to work with our team?", Simikeil asked, finally taking the initiative. After seeing that Crusader made no move to stop her, she continued. "We appreciate the offer, but why us specifically? There must be other subtlety Heroes you could work with.

Pulp leaned back, her finger-less gloved fingers steepled as she pondered the question. "Well, you're right about there being more subtlety Heroes than just me, even if there's only five in total. But I don't particularly trust any of them and they all seem to be focused on spying and tracking; while I'm more of a infiltration kind of girl." Her tone was smooth and assured.

"Alright then, why not just do it by yourself? You're already a Solo-Hero.", Simikiel asked.

Pulp let out a very unladylike snort. "Are you kidding? The DVA would be up the ass of any Hero that tried to do covert-ops without being under direct oversight from one of their reps. And for Solos' like me: That means working with an official Hero team and reporting to their representative."

Simikiel settled back into her chair, satisfied with the answers she'd been given. This felt like she was recruiting her very own team member; Even if Pulp was a bit… cruder than she'd expected from a subtlety Hero.

"And why exactly is our team 'ideal' for you to work with?" Crusader spoke up for the first time, managing to affect a tone sounded both accusatory and curious.

Pulp simply shrugged her shoulders. "Based on the types of Supers we've been able to suss-out that the White Boars have; a team like you would be excellent to strike at any targets I get close to and can point you towards. It's no secret that the Pristine Strikers has the most raw firepower out of any other team in Brooklyn; you are effectively a vanguard of destruction. Not exactly ideal for rescue, relief, or espionage work but you excel at what you're good at."

Simikiel's spirits lifted a bit at the unabashed praise. Of course, she'd already known this to be the case; there was some significant difference between inferring it based on research and having a fellow Hero acknowledge it.

Crusader made to ask another question when Simikiel's earpiece crackled to life.

<Simikiel, Spectrum has requested a direct connection through your comms, do you accept?>

Based on the Crusader's sudden "Yes." while pressing her hand to right side of her helmet, Simikiel guessed she had gotten a similar request from Dispatch. Pulp simply watched patiently as she also responded in the affirmative.

Then Dispatch let Spectrum come on the line and relay his information.

Their reactions were mostly hidden by their suits, but their tense postures and clenched fists were more than enough indication that Spectrum's news had been less than pleasant.

Some, as-of-yet-unknown person or persons, had put a hit on Styx and attempted to take him out. Opened fire on him with a rifle while civilians were still in the area; throwing him into a building with telekinesis when the shots had been blocked and their position was found out. They'd failed, but Styx had still suffered some significant injuries and was undergoing healing.

There was only one group that Styx would have garnered that level of attention from.

A worried look came across Pulp's masked face as she continued to watch the two Heroines that she was almost certain were shaking with rage, but no indications of grief either. "How bad is it?" She tentatively asked.

"The White Boars just tried to take out Styx in broad daylight. Suffered some pretty bad injuries too." Crusader's no-nonsense and clipped tone did little to hide the anger beneath the surface.

"Congratulations, Pulp; this just got personal. Infiltrate their ranks, point us toward the ones pulling the strings, and well be more than happy to act as that, 'Vanguard of Destruction', you want.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 23

"Sheer fucking incompetency is what it is!" The lanky man in a red suit raved while sitting at his desk, slick black hair matted to his forehead with sweat.

Brad looked on in silence, her tan suit as immaculate as ever and face impassive. Which did wonders to hide her annoyance at the raging child in front of her that was trying to play super-villain, "Immadesco". The dingy abandoned apartment they were in wasn't helping with her mood either, even if she understood the necessity of keeping a low profile. She briefly considered letting the slime-ball know that she had his name and even information on his family but that would reveal too many of her cards at this stage and she might not be able to play them more than once.

"It's no wonder other villains don't make it big when the pool of talent is this fucking abysmal." Immadesco near growled before taking several measured deep breaths.

He'd just finished getting the report from the teleporter he'd sent to take out Styx, Sam was his name and he had promptly teleported away in a plume of red smoke as soon as the meeting was over. The reason that kid was scared was one of the very few things Brad could respect about her "boss"; he came down hard on traitors and incompetents but didn't needlessly crush good help just because the mission didn't go perfectly.

Didn't stop him from getting pointlessly mad about it though.

Brad intentionally drew in her broad shoulders, the opposite of what she usually did, before saying. "At least they succeeded in putting the Heroes off-balance and they won't be able to trace any of it back to us." Her deep baritone of a voice nearly echoed throughout the large room but she paid it no mind, the only thoughts she could pickup around here were those of a few opportunistic squatters and druggies.

"Yes, at least they did that." Immadesco replied as he smoothed back his hair and glanced down to the red mask that was on the top of his desk. Brad knew he only wore it around the members whose loyalty he couldn't be completely sure of but not around her or the expendable ones that she had told him weren't particularly perceptive. "I just hope our investors are just as understanding."

Brad nodded both internally and externally with him for once but probably not for reasons he would agree with. If she got even the slightest hint that the investors were going to come after him or cut him off from his money than she would be gone and out of this city within the hour.

"Brad, did you secure the help of that Lily girl to keep an eye on the other Heroes?" Immadesco asked.

"I got her onboard yesterday and I told her to keep tabs on any Hero that passed by her neighborhood." Brad responded. "Just flashed her a few thousand and she fell in line pretty quickly."

Immadesco pulled open a draw and opened a dull grey laptop and powered it on, typing only a few seconds later. Brad would have tried copying the files from it long ago if she didn't know it would brick if anyone without his power tried to access it. "Remind me again what her power is? Want to make sure were using her optimally."

Brad quickly scoured Immadesco's thoughts and found out he was only looking over uninteresting finances before answering. "It's a pretty piss-weak one but it's good for recon. She can summon some weird mix between a bug and chameleon that can fly and turn invisible. It's about the size of a dog and can't fight for shit but she's got about three blocks worth of range."

Immadesco nodded in the affirmative after opening up and checking his own file on her. "Alright then, that should be all for today. Remember I want you to collaborate with Todd, Jerry, and Francis on the next big operation next week. It is imperative this one goes off without a hitch."

Brad nodded her head and stood up from the folding chair she'd brought with her, straightened out the wrinkles on her favorite suit, and strode out of the office. The dark and abandoned office building she walked through would have been scary to most people, especially those that actually lived in the neighborhood and knew how dangerous it could be, but she walked through with casual confidence and made it to her black sedan parked in front of the building.

She slid in to the front driver side, bulked her seat belt, and checked her rearview mirror for anyone sneaking up on the car from behind or squatting in the back. Both attempts had only happened to her once but the scumbags had come close enough to getting her that she had made a habit to periodically check. After that was done she decided to quickly look over her visage for any signs of degradation.

Dark skin, chiseled jaw, dark brown eyes, and broad shoulders greeted her just like all the other times Brad had looked. With a nod she put the car in gear and drove back to the accounting firm she worked in the less seedy sections of the city. Purposefully avoiding the streets that she new were close to where the shooting had taken place and the ones Lily had told her Samshiel and Terram were patrolling.

With a minor effort of will she used a bit of telekinetic force to grab onto the car to let her take turns just that little bit faster but without being too apparent to the untrained eye. She'd been ordered to not be too inconspicuous with her powers anyway, might as well take the time to save a little gas money while she was at it.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Very sorry about the delays guys; had a few life emergencies that came up and needed to make a proper backlog of content.

As the title suggests: this story will now consistently update on Mondays and Thursdays.

 

[Fabula Amanti]

So I just read through your work and I have to say I like it very much. Descriptive enough to get an idea of what's going on but not too much as to make me skip passages. And Shane himself is developed well enough.

However, one thing I felt was that the other characters are still don't really stand out as much. Perhaps its because the story is still early and lacks enough content to give more then a cursory glance at them.

Shane's thoughts on the others would actually be a good way to communicate a stereotype to the reader which you then can exploit, invert or expand on. His opinion on certain behaviors and quirks of the others he noticed on the surface, instead of neutral descriptions give a more opinionated one. That costume looks cool not that I would admit to that. Oh lord he's as stuck up as Roy was. Sis would eat her for dinner. I forgot Gramps School of Heroics Lesson No. 24, DOOODGE!!

Some missed opportunities are when you set up the conflict on leadership positions but not have the involved characters joust verbally or posture. A bit is a bit wasted I feel when they both know they want the same thing.

Also, you set up plot point of having a random guy have a specialized anti-super weapon and not have a discussion about where it may stem from or comments from the seniors advising the interns of dealing with being targeted using their own experiences as references seems like a missed opportunity of character development for the mentors.

To separate the Hero Mentors, maybe give them differing ways of advising: blunt, subtle, hints or physical.

To separate the Interns give them more varied ways of dealing with situations. An example would be different forms of Initiatives: Immediate action, quick reports or deference to superiors etc.

Umm, this is my opinion though, take what you will from it.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

So I just read through your work and I have to say I like it very much. Descriptive enough to get an idea of what's going on but not too much as to make me skip passages. And Shane himself is developed well enough.

However, one thing I felt was that the other characters are still don't really stand out as much. Perhaps its because the story is still early and lacks enough content to give more then a cursory glance at them.

Shane's thoughts on the others would actually be a good way to communicate a stereotype to the reader which you then can exploit, invert or expand on. His opinion on certain behaviors and quirks of the others he noticed on the surface, instead of neutral descriptions give a more opinionated one. That costume looks cool not that I would admit to that. Oh lord he's as stuck up as Roy was. Sis would eat her for dinner. I forgot Gramps School of Heroics Lesson No. 24, DOOODGE!!

Some missed opportunities are when you set up the conflict on leadership positions but not have the involved characters joust verbally or posture. A bit is a bit wasted I feel when they both know they want the same thing.

Also, you set up plot point of having a random guy have a specialized anti-super weapon and not have a discussion about where it may stem from or comments from the seniors advising the interns of dealing with being targeted using their own experiences as references seems like a missed opportunity of character development for the mentors.

To separate the Hero Mentors, maybe give them differing ways of advising: blunt, subtle, hints or physical.

To separate the Interns give them more varied ways of dealing with situations. An example would be different forms of Initiatives: Immediate action, quick reports or deference to superiors etc.

Umm, this is my opinion though, take what you will from it.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, really, for the well thought out criticism.

All of the things you mentioned already have arcs planned for them; but I may change how they form and pan out based on this.

You can look forward some more information about the local community next chapter(Thursday)

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 24 - Arc 2 Sisyphus

Styx stared up at the flowing dome above him and tried to quite the aches and pains that echoed throughout his body. He was a member of the Class of Nightmares, a little pain wasn't going to shake him too much, but that didn't make this exactly a picnic either.

He glanced to the side as Vigor kneeled next him pointed at the break between his body armor and helmet. "Dispatch just directed me to stabilize you before help came, just in case."

With a grunt Styx nodded in affirmation before letting out a sigh of relief as, at Vigor's contact with his neck, he felt most of the sharper pains and aches die away while his bleeding stopped all together.

Eventually there was a muted flash of azure light from outside of the dome, making the shadows around the area warp slightly, Styx had promised to not keep up the blade shield not that he would let his guard down, a few seconds later a hole in the field appeared and a woman in a flowing cloak made of golden-flames stepped through. Styx recognized her as Reverent Fire, one of the more recent members of the Remedy Squad.

She lifted a white gloved hand toward him and a pillar of flame as thick as a fist impacted the chest of his costume and flowed over him, immediately numbing the pain and suffusing Styx's body with a pleasant warmth.

"Hey, Vigor." Reverent Fire said. "You need any healing? They told me it was a pretty rough attack."

Vigor shook his head as he stood up and took a step back from Styx's prone form. "You should know me better than that by now kid. My suit got a little torn up, but it'll take more than bullets and a brick wall to break me."

Styx wasn't sure, because of the constant glow from the golden-fire that obscured features on top of her full-face mask, but he could have sworn he saw Reverent Fire roll her eyes. But then soon his thoughts became fuzzy as the fire dissipated and he suddenly felt incredibly tired, if in a pleasant way.

"Come on, I've been part of the team for a year now.", Reverent Fire whined, with no real annoyance in her voice. The pillar of fire connecting her to Styx flashed out in a small trail of smoke before she continued. "… Is this that Styx kid?"

Styx felt himself want to sit-up and object to being called a "kid" but felt his mind slip fully into unconsciousness, missing Vigor's response.

~~~

The first thing Shane noticed as he returned to the waking world was the soft bed he was laying on and the sound of someone talking above him.

"Kid? Kid are you there?" Jack's familiar and deep voice intoned.

"I'm getting really sick of that phrase." Shane groaned as he opened his eyes… and then immediately closed them as the sick bay's ceiling lights stabbed at his eyes. "Literally every Hero so far can't seem to help themselves. I'd honestly rather have to deal with being called a "rookie"." He finished, lips curled into a bit of a smile to show he was mostly jesting.

"Heh, sorry.", Jack said, chuckling a bit with Shane. "I saw you stirring and may have jumped the gun a bit." His face became more somber however as his intern sat up and looked over his form. There were no wires to elaborate machinery and bandages, even though they had some in stock in case of emergencies, but the jeans and t-shirt he was in spoke volumes all on their own.

"I'm getting benched for the day?"

"The event's cancelled and you passed-out after being healed by Reverent Fire. Elizabeth and Vanessa are retiring to their quarters, and we've got an impromptu meeting set-up tonight as well."

"Aren't Greg and Hugh still out on patrol?"

"Yeah, but it's unlikely they'll see any action today. Anyone smart wouldn't want to pull anymore unnecessary attention after an attempt like this."

"The White Boars don't seem all that bright if I'm being honest." Shane almost hissed the response but kept his tone in check. "Seriously; the only criminals with the balls to try and pull a move like this are either seriously smart and prepared or dangerously idiotic."

"Now Shane, don't go underestimating them. It's entirely possible that their gang as a whole is the worst of both worlds simultaneously."

* * *

Samshiel kept clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to watch every window on the street that he was walking down. It had been a few minutes since Dispatch had told them the news, yet he was still so nervous. He still maintained a group of ten mini-eclipses and two shields around himself in an erratic orbit, however. Like most interns, when panic set in, he naturally fell back on his training.

"You're distracted.", Terram's deep warble of a voice sounded out. He had told the public earlier in his career that even he didn't completely understand how he could talk in this form, though now that Samshiel was on the team, he was now privy to the fact that it was due to what could best be described as an oscillating knot of tendrils underneath his skin.

"Just cautious." Samshield replied in an unintentionally clipped toned. "I ain't particularly keen on the idea of getting shot."

"Hrrn." Terram grumbled as his ovoid eyes almost imperceptibly furtively glanced at the few people walking the streets of this neighborhood. "You should probably keep that under-wraps."

"Yeah, sorry. Just nerves I guess." Samshiel said before waving at a trio of teenagers that were taking pictures of them. Then he saw a group of children sitting with their mother and decided to pass the time with a little entertainment; some of them were already beginning to gawk anyways.

The children gasped and squealed as a series of mini-eclipses streaked over and flowed in a helix pattern overhead, one particularly enthusiastic girl with pink pigtails jumping up in an attempt vain to touch them, not that they would've hurt to touch anyway. Samshiel kept a few close to him just in case though; today had made it more than clear that danger could come at any moment.

A creepy, whinnying chuckle from Terram's shifted form drew back the intern's attention. "You sure are a natural at endearing yourself to the humans. Some Heroes like to look down at that stuff but that's mostly just bravado on their part."

Samshiel nodded his understanding. He wasn't stupid, he wouldn't let himself get to absorbed in PR work, but he also knew how important it truly was. Heroes weren't just another branch of law enforcement; they were the most well-known and judged representatives of Supers everywhere; It was imperative that they made a good impression as often as practically possible. "Yeah, it's a little something my mom inspired me to do. Speaking of; why don't you try it more often then? You've got the whole 'strong and silent' Hero persona going on."

Terram shook his head. "No amount of experience or gumption is going to make my form soothing to look at." The older man said, waving a massive grey hand at his alien looking face for emphasis. "Besides; you've already got competition with that intern that arrived here a year before you did. 'Goblyn', with a 'yn', I believe he's called. Interns on the Atomic Conjurers."

Samshiel snorted as they crossed over into an alleyway, skipping a block, and he recalled his orbs, much to the children's lament. "Wouldn't call it much of a competition, I'll have caught up in a month or two, easy." He said with some bravado and elbowed his mentor a little when he chuckled again.

They on kept their patrol like that, completely oblivious to the floating invisible thing that was watching them from afar.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 25

It was later in the evening that Shane found himself flipping through the channels on the TV in the common room he and his fellow interns shared, particularly focusing on the news-oriented ones. Most we're still playing clips of the Minotaur event or reporting on today's shooting; Shane briefly wondered how long it would take Lenny and his team to start selling merchandise for an intern that started their debut in such a non-public friendly way. Eventually he settled on a news station that was displaying one of the local senators giving a speech about the increased gang violence occurring in several districts.

Shane hadn't particularly kept on top of politics in recent years, the last two years of the HCP had practically consumed all of his attention, but he was knowledgeable enough to notice this particularly infamous figure. His name was Robert, a fairly old and liberal senator in his fifties that always championed for policies that either supported Heroes or would incentivize other supers to apply to the HCP. But he was most known for what he was rather than what he'd done: The first powered ever to openly take a position in government.

It'd had made him a bit of an idol among certain groups of Powereds and even some Supers, acting as a sort of role-model that represented how Powereds, despite their disability, could still be productive and successful members of society.

Of course, this was slightly undercut by the fact that his power was fairly benign if Shane remembered the news articles correctly, an NTC class if there ever was one.

Not to mention how hated he was by purists and Humanity First crazies. Shane thought.

The sound of three doors opening pulled Shane's attention from the androgynous senator on screen and he turned his head to see Amy, Vanessa, and Greg step out of their rooms. They had all changed out into their base-going clothes, which usual consisted of lose fitting jeans and t-shirts for quick and easy changes in case of emergencies. Though Amy was sporting a plain white blouse to go with her blue jeans in contrast to the greys and blues of her two friends. And it wasn't lost on any of the mentors how heavily it contrasted with Shane's black shirt and jeans.

"I told you guys I'm fine. I've been shot at before." Shane sighed, turning down the volume using the remote so that they didn't have to shout over the TV.

Amy took the lead, as usual. "We were actually thinking on how we'd spend our one day off for the week. Yes, I know, it's a little unusual for us to take one so early into our internship but our schedules are mostly free this weekend and I think a little stress relief might do us some good."

Shane quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not adverse to taking a day off but do you really think this is the time to do so? Feels like now we should be on high alert and learning as much as we can, considering how bold the criminals have gotten."

"That's… a pretty bleak sentiment. Being on mission twenty-four-seven seems like it'll burn us out." Vanessa said as she floated over to her favorite spot on the couch.

"Nah, he's right on target actually. We should be learning and getting some more local experience." Greg said as he relaxed into an armchair. "But that doesn't mean there isn't a way for us to do that while relaxing at the same time."

"And I think we have a very practical way of doing so." Amy said. "A certain kind of bar to be specific."

Shane's realization of what she was suggesting quickly overtook his growing suspicion that Amy had planned out this entire conversion. "You really think our mentors will go for it?"

"Funny you should ask." Rikki's voice suddenly rang out from behind them, making them all nearly flinch as they turned around. Jack and Rikki hovered a few feet in the air behind them, both in full costume, presumably just having finished their mid-day patrols. They dropped to the ground as soon as everyone turned towards them.

"Assuming we've read the room right and my conniving Amy was talking about going to a Hero Bar?" Rikki asked sardonically.

"It seems less conniving and more like a tactically sound decision to me." Shane spoke up.

"Not necessarily mutually exclusive but fair enough." Jack started off. "Shane's right that you all still have a lot to learn that can only be gained through experience and Amy is right about you lot needing to relax. So, a Hero bar does sound like the perfect opportunity: It's a place to drink and relax and you get a chance to mingle with the locals and get a feel for who stands where in this city." He smirked a little before asking. "That is assuming you all are of age?" Which was quickly met by a chorus of eye rolls that purposefully ignored before clearing his throat. "Now there is the more serious problem of convincing Elizabeth and Hugh. Those two workaholics are usually all about training and they're probably going to start working overtime considering how quickly the White Boars have been escalating."

"You really think she won't go for it?" Vanessa asked. "I know that Elizabeth can be a little intense, that's why I choose her, but she's always been down for a little rest whenever our shifts and training is over."

"Those may just get longer soon." Jack warned. "But no, I actually know what'll get them to tag along with us. I just worry for the state of my wallet afterwards; neither of them are prideful enough to pass on the offer of free drinks."

Shane mentally acquiesced to his mentor's decision and relaxed back into the leather couch, turning up the volume on the television once more. The young man hadn't been exactly crazy about partying or the club scene, not that the ones he'd attended in college hadn't been good. It was just that he was a little cautious of someone with a power as dangerous as his being intoxicated for any extended period of time.

He looked over at the others and was mildly surprised to see that Vanessa looked equally as lukewarm about the prospect, thoroughly unsurprised when he saw Greg grinning like an idiot, and was positively shocked to see Amy sporting a grin that would make his sister proud.

If nothing else, this outing might give him some more insight on the people he was expected to risk life and limb for and with.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 26

In stark contrast to how scarce Supers and Powereds truly were, Superhero themed restaurants, fast food places, and bars had practically oversaturated the market after the first decade of active Heroes. Supper with Supers, Capes & Cocktails, Masked Brunch, and Crunchy Champions were just a select few of the more nationally acclaimed ones out of the millions world wide.

Of course, actual Heroes, at least when their agents didn't schedule PR events there, avoided the horribly tacky establishments. Not out of any real malice of course but attending such an establishment had developed a stigma of looking self-centered among the Hero community.

Hero bars, however, were completely different.

To any normal person they looked like simple, if slightly below average, bars with bland signs and unusually spacious main areas. The flat beer, subpar service, and even worse food served to ward away anyone not a Hero.

Which was why when Shane, Amy, Greg, and Vanessa walked into Fox Copper, a bar with greying and cracked bricks that was only a few blocks away from their base, they felt over a dozen eyes immediately start sizing them up. They were all in casual clothes, arriving in costume would have pretty spectacularly defeated the purpose of the establishment. All of the staff could plainly see that they were all very fit, and that Greg's golden hair probably indicated he was a Super, but it wasn't proof that they were Heroes.

"Now what?" Vanessa mumbled as she tugged at the hem of her blue hoodie and looked around.

"J- Spectrum said to meet him and the others near the back in their usual spot." Shane replied as he ignored the stares and surveyed the patrons, trying to pick out the group's mentors. He pegged two other younger looking patrons as fellow interns, a young woman with a mousy face and auburn hair and a scrawny twenty-something male with forest green hair, before he finally caught sight of Jack. He and the rest of the team were sitting down with two other patrons, a stout and muscular man with dark skin and a muscular woman with a scar running from just below her eye to her jaw line.

"There they are." Amy pointed out before Shane could say anything and quickly walked over to the gathering.

The corner they were sitting near was barely lit by an overhead light, the dimness oddly calming to Shane, and the table was large enough to accommodate at least a dozen people and so all four of them were able join with no problem.

"You all took the route we suggested?" Elizabeth asked as she looked over their outfits, the corner of her mouth twitching a little at the pink bunny on Vanessa's shirt. They'd all been instructed to leave a few minutes after their mentors had; all of them walking and entering together as a group would have been a little too conspicuous.

"I believe some introductions are in order." Jack prompted and the interns picked up on it immediately.

"Samshiel.", Greg said with a wave.

"Simikiel.", Amy supplied.

"Gadreel.", Vanessa followed along.

"Styx." Shane said. "Recent sniper survivor."

"Aha, I knew it." The burly man said, a wide smile forming on his face. "You look like the kind of kid Jack would like."

Before any of them could question why this stranger knew their leader's name, Jack spoke up. "They don't have on the masks but these two here are Vigor, the leader of Remedy Squadron, and Defensive Dugout, the leader of Landscape Unit." He said, gesturing towards the dark-skinned man and pale woman respectively.

A waitress came by and the conversation was paused momentarily as the interns all ordered their own drinks.

"Thanks for saving my life." Shane said bluntly before glancing at the woman. "And thank you for taking up shielding duty, Defensive Dugout." He added on.

"Just call me Dugout, my full Hero name can get a little mouthy in regular conversation." She said before taking a small swig of the cocktail she had at her table.

The waitress returned surprisingly quickly and served the new arrivals their own beverages. Amy and Greg immediately took swigs from their cocktails while Shane and Vanessa toke more reserved sips from their beers. Their eyes widened at the surprisingly good taste and they all resolved to visit this place whenever allowed, only to let off steam of course.

Amy decided to press the sensitive topic after a particularly fortifying swig. "It is weird how bold they've gotten recently though."

"True that." Rikki agreed after she gulped down the rest of her drink. "The job has always been dangerous, make no mistake about that. But this reminds me of my mentor's stories of the old days."

"Old days?" Vanessa asked.

"Back when the entire Hero system was still in it's infancy." Vigor said. "I'm not so old that I could be counted among those first wave of Heroes but I graduated close enough to feel the after-effects in this city. We basically had to use guerrilla warfare when the criminals tried organizing, prioritizing the really nasty cases before picking off their underlings."

"My mentor, Grayscale, said that things started running a lot smoother when the Subtlety Heroes became more prevalent." Dugout spoke up before anyone of the interns could ask how someone as young looking as Vigor had been a Hero for so long. "Being able to take the initiative and track down targets more often really helped the DVA cement the system for good."

Out of the corner of his eye Shane thought he saw Jack frown a bit when Dugout had mentioned Subtlety Heroes.

"Speaking of Subtlety Heroes, I hear old Jack has been schmoozing with one recently." Vigor said. "What finally convinced you to change your mind?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Jack said simply before his eyes tightened a bit with anger, just for a moment. "I don't much appreciate people trying to assassinate my teammate."

'Ah… this could be problematic.' Shane thought as he noticed the tone in his mentor's voice. It was similar to the tone his grandfather would take when ranting about Subtlety Heroes and how they "didn't belong" in the Hero world. Despite his grandfather's misgivings, Shane had developed a healthy respect and appreciation for what Subtlety Heroes could bring to the table during his four years at Lander's HCP. If his mentor rarely even consulted them for advice though, then he'd suffer a lot more than just a few moments of annoyance like with his grandfather. He'd lose out on possible connections, experience in working with them, and possibly even extensive knowledge of the criminal underworld would be on the line.

Shane shot a glance over to Amy and when their eyes met he got the feeling she'd noticed the same thing. Greg and Vanessa looked confused at Jack's words but not as alarmed as the other two.

"To each there own but I've gotta vouch for them; Ever since Rancid joined my team things have been way easier." Dugout said. "And Subtlety Heroes that are also capable in high-end combat are in whole other level themselves. Trust me, that Pulp lady will definitely surprise you."

"You're damn right I am." A familiar, if slightly slurred, voice said from behind them. They all turned to see a tall woman with dusky skin, high cheek bones, and wearing plain slacks and a blouse stood just a few feet away with a vodka bottle in hand. Despite her slur, the woman's stride was steady as she drew closer. "Hey guys~" She drawled before taking a seat near the older Heroes while giving the rest of them a wave before focusing on Shane. "Congratulations on surviving. Can't very well have you die before you lot can thank me for taking down this gang."

"Pulp? What are you doing here?" Vanessa said.

"Mid-Mission drinking break." Pulp said simply before looking to Jack. "I've managed to make my way in and decided this was best said in person; haven't got any specifics yet but word is the gangs are planning to try something stupid soon. Something like a collaboration; I would suggest you spread the news around with Dispatch, keep everyone on their toes." Jack opened his mouth to respond, trying to not snicker at Pulp's obviously buzzed appearance like everyone else, before she spoke up again. "But that's enough work talk for now. Didn't you guys come here to relax for a bit?" She then loudly hailed over a waitress and ordered a truly concerning amount of vodka for the table.

Jack looked over at the interns on his team and their curious stares at Pulp in lieu of her sudden announcement. "She's right; we can talk about her advice later."

"And I can clear about anyone's system in case we get too smashed." Vigor said before looking at the two imposing bottles the waitress walked back with. "Probably."

* * *

"So, what about you guys?" Shane chuckled as he finished his shot. "Parents are pretty normal and grandfather was the world's first Hero."

"Marigold and Reaver." Greg said proudly. "Two of the most popular Heroes in Texas."

"Dian Mu and Mannequin." Amy eventually relented under Shane's curious stare. "Not exactly popular but they make up for it with efficiency."

"My dad's a DVA agent but I'm guessing you're just asking about Heroes, right?" Vanessa asked and then sighed at his nod. "Well, mom's the Hero in the family and her name is… 'Shake-o-rina'."

The table didn't quite burst into laughter but it was loud enough that the other patrons gave them weird looks and Vanessa started to blush before Amy put an arm around her.

"What are you embarrassed for? I know that name, and while she's not the most popular, her name still gets thrown around, has a lot of power, and is one of the only Heroes I know that can pull off being a quasi-comedian."

"Yes, I know she's strong, locally famous, and accomplished. I just wished wasn't basically the 'cool mom' of the Hero community." Vanessa replied, shoulders hunched. "The second-hand embarrassment has not gotten better over the years, trust me."

"Isn't Shake-o-rina the one that deflected a cruise missile down in Florida?" Elizabeth piped up.

"Don't you guys have anything to share?" Vanessa said in an accusatory tone toward their mentors, quickly trying to steer the conversation from her mother.

"I've had a pretty boring life." Hugh said quickly.

"Ditto." Elizabeth concurred.

"I don't think any of you want to hear about my teenage years when I used my power to flip skirts." Rikki snickered drinking down another shot.

"And I don't think any of you would believe me." Jack said.

"Try us." Greg challenged.

"Okay then; How about the fact that I'm pretty sure my powers are based on Dungeons and Dragons?"

Most snorted with laughter and disbelief. But Shane thought back to a certain Advanced Mind he'd met in the HCP who claimed to be a Jedi that could use "The Force" and seemed to be completely capable no less.

"Meh, seems plausible enough to me."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 27

The next few days passed in what Shane was beginning to learn was mundanity for the Hero community in Brooklyn. A small-time robbery of a convenience store involving two humans and one Standard Class strongman, not even gang affiliated. And another small skirmish between the Greens and White Boars that the Atomic Conjurers had squashed before anyone else could get involved.

His agent had been anything but idle in the short window of peace, though. With the intern's rising popularity Lenny had set up a few merchandising opportunities for Shane, and even did temp work with the team's own agent, Joel, for Amy, Vanessa, and Greg. For a standard cut of the profits of course.

The interns had seldom ever met Joel, the lanky red-head preferring to work in the background like most agents while giving periodic updates to Jack. Rather than frustrated, as Shane had suspected, the man had seemed down-right ecstatic to have an opportunity to work with a legend like Lenny. A stark contrast to the current state of nigh-immature dick jousting between Shane and Amy.

Shane got a poster shoot done that nicely complimented the slightly infamous and dark image he was currently cultivating as a Hero. Amy and Vanessa had gotten popular enough to warrant getting their own plushies designed for them, even if Amy wasn't particularly a fan of how they seemed to cultivate too "cute" an image for her.

Greg had hit the jackpot out of all of them though. He'd quickly become the unprecedented champ when it came to PR during his patrols. It was unfair really, his energy constructs were just so damn good at entertaining crowds, especially children. So, Lenny and Joel had sprung for a full-on action figure on top of a poster for him. Both being glow-in-the-dark just to fit his motif.

The break really had been nice, letting them all decompress and allowing Shane to formulate a sort of truce with Amy; the competition was nice and reminded him of his sister but it had long since stopped being productive. Even so, Jack heeded Pulp's warning and she, in turn, kept him abreast of any new developments that she thought might be cropping up. And he'd told every Hero team through Dispatch to keep an eye out for some ploy and to be ready to move quickly if any suspicious moves from the gangs popped up.

Very fortunate everyone was for Jack's vigilance, because had he not been than Shane and Vanessa's first night patrol would have had a much different, and far more somber, ending.

The call came in at around midnight, just as Styx and Spectrum were finishing up their patrol of the business district.

<Styx and Spectrum be advised; there is confirmed Super conflict that was reported in the shipyard between a Standard Class blaster and Construct Conjurer that seems to be restricted to self-protective spheres.>

Styx was a little surprised at the sudden stream of information. That was exceptionally detailed, even for Dispatch, the two Supers must have been fighting openly for civilians to get that good of a look.

<Gadreel and Obsidian Wraith are already flying toward the location with the intent to neutralize the threats.>

"Thank you Dispatch. Keep me posted on for any unexpected developments and warn any Heroes currently on patrol. This seems fishy." Spectrum said before abruptly changing the direction of their patrol toward the shipyard. "Is Maria still available for transport?"

<Affirmative.> Dispatch replied without a moments hesitation.

"This is suspicious?" Styx asked as he caught up and started to feel for shadows as far as his power would allow, following his mentor's cautious approach even as he questioned him.

"An easy looking fight when not a lot of Heroes are currently out patrolling to respond? Yeah, I've seen other criminals try similar things over the years. It is unlikely though, could just be a scarp that got out of hand."

Styx nodded his head in understanding and kept himself alert, he wasn't truly worried about anything happening but didn't trust his instincts concerning this city enough to let himself mentally relax. This sentiment was vindicated a moment later as Dispatch's voice crackled to life from his ear piece once more.

<Spectrum and Styx, prepare for transport from your DVA agent. The situation has escalated; Gadreel was ambushed by a teleporter hiding in wait, the original instigators are now displaying Demolition Class capabilities, and five unknown individuals are approaching the scene rapidly.>

The duo immediately stopped at the sudden message and Spectrum only replied with a curt, "Affirmative.", before snapping off another set of commands. "Dispatch, I want a team connection through the comms to Gadreel."

<Request received.> Dispatch said simply and there were a few tenser seconds of waiting before she responded. <Connection made.>

"Gadreel, report." Spectrum ordered.

"… It's been handled." Vanessa said, a strange tilt to her voice. "I was transported to the local park and three Supers were lying in wait. They're all down, one dead and two disabled. I've also been lightly injured but I can still fight. Just need to find my way back to the shipyard."

"Alright, pair back up with Obsidian Wraith as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir." Gadreel replied and then all either of them could hear was the whistling of wind as she took flight.

"End the connection, Dispatch."

"She sounds calm." Styx said after quickly deciding not to question Spectrum's decision to bring her back in.

"Mhmm" Spectrum said vaguely, not trusting the public venue to talk to extensively about team member issues.

Suddenly a misty, shimmering shard of light appeared on the ground in front of them, the tired and haggard looking form of Maria shimmering into view soon afterwards, her hair disheveled and with bags under her eyes. But in spite of her obvious tiredness she immediately reached forward and put a hand on both of their shoulders; their vision blurred for barely a second before they were dropped off some place that was pitch black.

The first thing Styx noticed as his vision returned to normal was what sounded like a mix between a generator malfunctioning and rapid claps of thunder, presumably from the blaster, and the grounds rumbling as something rolled across the earth with tremendous force.

It only took the barest of moments for his vision to adjust and see that they were behind a shipping container, and to connect all the new shadows around him. But it was enough that by the time he looked back Maria had already disappeared and Jack had taken off at a sprint, an orb of red energy in his hand lighting the way and was just turning a corner around the container towards the sounds of combat.

Again, Styx was thankful for the extensive endurance training he'd endured because he had to run hard to catch up to Spectrum while in full costume, even if the body armor only restricted and slowed him down minutely. He knew from experience that even being slightly out of breath could make all the difference.

What Styx saw as he rounded the corner was worse than any of the staged *Sim battles he'd had in the HCP.

A boat with half of it's hull missing was currently sinking into the harbor, most of the ground around there scorched and torn up, and he could see the two Supers responsible.

One was a man with long brown hair who was launching himself through the air with oscillating blasts of purple energy that arced with electricity, tearing up the landscape wherever it touched. The man was angling himself towards Obsidian Wraith, who was grappling with a partially-translucent marble sphere the size of a house with an obscured figure at its center.

Off to the north-east he could see five men taking pot shots at her with ray-guns, red beams of energy that lit up there general area while three shifters rapidly approached; one looking like a humanoid beetle with scales, the second a lanky figure rapped in flowing bandages, and last a hulking brute covered in matted fur.

With a steadying breath Styx breathed life into every shadow around them and focused, there was work to be done.

---

*Sims are combat droids in the HCP meant to simulate Super conflicts.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 28

Two Minutes Earlier

The night-shift had been novel and a little mysterious for Gadreel as she and Obsidian Wraith did their rounds together that night. It was harder to spot people on the ground as they flew overhead and there was significantly less activity to get distracted by, but not much else was different from her afternoon, and occasionally morning, patrols.

The fight Dispatch had alerted them to had been almost sub-standard as well, which would have set-off alarm bells in her head had Gadreel been more experienced. Luckily for her Obsidian Wraith was experienced enough to warn her to keep on guard. So, as they approached the slightly dented and scorched area the two Supers were fighting in Gadreel kept her guard up as she approached the blaster while Obsidian Wraith went after the one currently rolling around in a ball the size of a small car.

Unluckily for Gadreel she had no chance of evading the trail of smoke that lanced out towards her, as fast as thought, and completely enveloped her as they dropped onto the scene. A split-second before the silvery smoke completely obscured her vision she saw Obsidian Wraith hurriedly throw a hail of shards towards the source of the smoke, but she was too late.

The transition was blessedly quick, not even imparting slight disorientation as Gadreel crashed feet-first into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt, the transition through space seemingly taking only a second.

Gadreel quickly looked up and her panicked eyes locked onto an overweight man wearing a ski-mask, who's wide eyes gave away his surprise by her entrance despite the mask, and with red energy crackling at his fingertips.

Gadreel brought her arms up just in time to block a bolt aimed at her head. That single bolt turned into a continuous stream that gradually pushed her back even as she ramped up her defense.

'Must have some kind of kinetic property.' Gadreel franticly thought as the beam barely even singed her costume but pushed her back despite her significant strength, she planned to use her flight to quickly close the distance and disable this new threat. Just before she did, however, Gadreel took a glance at his eyes once more. A decision that saved her life as she saw the man's focus wasn't on her, but on something behind her.

In one motion Gadreel twisted and threw herself to the side in the same instance that she felt something effortlessly cut threw her costume, slicing three long lacerations along her shoulder blade and side. Acting quickly, instinct drilled into her from the HCP that anyone strong enough to hurt her so effortlessly needed to go down quickly, Gadreel lashed out with a practiced back-fist, combining the motion of her dodge with the strike to give it even more momentum while putting more power into her strength.

The pain that flared up from the wound at her side was quickly overwhelmed by the sudden dread that enveloped her as Gadreel felt her fist smash through something that felt like it had all the durability of papier-mâché.

She backed up rapidly as she felt something wet and slimy cover her gloved fist and finally took a look around herself. Gadreel saw that she'd been dropped in a desolate part of one of the local parks, a copse of trees to their west shielding them from view of nearby apartment buildings. The man with the ski mask had hurriedly backed up several steps, the whites of his eyes visible as they bulged through the eye holes of his mask. There was also a woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes that had serpentine vermillion blades for arms of to her right; she hadn't backpedaled, just stood there, her face a morbid mix of shock, sorrow, and horror. Then Gadreel looked at the person she'd… neutralized.

The side of his skull was completely caved in and partially exposed, clumps of brain matter and bloody blonde hair scattered about and soaking into the dark grass. Gadreel did her best not to look at his glazed over blue eyes, even as one dangled out from the impact, and refocused her attention on the two Supers and her own condition. She'd been taking rapid shallow breaths and favoring her right side due to her injury, she quickly composed herself and stood up straighter but the damage had been done. The two criminal Supers had seen her moment of weakness and she could see the resolve harden in the man's eyes. Gadreel was also surprised to see that the blonde woman now had tears in her eyes, teeth bared in something that definitely was not a smile; But after remembering the man on the ground also had blonde hair and blue eyes, combined with the bladed injury he'd inflicted, she made the unfortunate but logical conclusion. And considering that Supers within the same family tended to have abilities with similar affects, then that meant she was still in danger.

Gadreel saw that she only had a few seconds before things got ugly again, her near innumerable series of combat trials in the HCP making her uncannily good at reading the flow of a fight. In lieu of that she knew she needed to compartmentalize this new situation, stall for time, and get an advantage if she wanted to keep this from turning into any more of a shit-show than it already was.

The plan was surprisingly simple.

"Three assailants." Gadreel said suddenly, making the two Supers flinch. "One already mortally wounded. The others are a male Standard Class blaster and a female Shifter with arm-blades capable of negating my defenses. How do I proceed?" She finished as she felt blood trail down the inside of her suit and kept from showing her discomfort, lamenting the fact that her energy did not at all help with healing.

<Acknowledged.> Dispatch's ever calm voice responded from her earpiece. <Due to your proximity to occupied buildings, ongoing conflict at the shipyard, and the lethality of their attacks the lives of aggressors would be considered a low-priority.>

"You heard her, push past it and get the job done." Obsidian Wraith's voice suddenly sounded out, as her mentor she was privy to every conversation she had with Dispatch regardless of comm configuration, her voice calm despite the explosions and rumbles Gadreel could hear coming from her end.

Gadreel wondered why it had taken her mentor this long to speak before realizing the initial scuffle had only lasted a few seconds at best but didn't hesitate to immediately start speaking again to maintain her momentum. "Acknowledged. The lives of aggressors are low priority in lieu of other threats." She locked gazes with both the man and woman that were quickly getting their nerve back and said. "Last chance to surrender. You'll be entitled to healing if you don't force me to incapacitate you."

The man ignored her words and raised a hand to line up another shot, but she was ready this time.

With a burst of speed Gadreel rushed over to the blonde Super, almost within arm's reach, putting herself directly between the two of them. The man in the ski-mask hesitated to take such a risky shot, as expected, while the woman's tear-streaked face quickly turned from surprised to enraged once more as she lunged forward with everything she had, blade arm lengthening quickly and aimed directly at the tall Heroines chest. Only for Gadreel to nimbly twist out of the way and the blade instead cut deep into her compatriot's shoulder, definitely hitting bone, sending him to the ground with a scream.

Gadreel took advantage of the woman's momentary shock to close the gap between them once more and swept her legs, hitting hard enough to break the first and seriously fracture the other.

Then she swiftly flew toward the man and slammed a fist into the side of his knee, dislocating it completely. The shoulder cut would have taken enough of his concentration to disable his power, but she need to make sure he couldn't run away either.

With that done she scanned the area for more threats… but found this section of the park to be eerily silent now that the fighting was over, save for the groans and whimpers from the two living figures at her feet. The limbs of the trees around her creaking in the slight wind as the clouds shifted overhead and allowed a little more moonlight to shine onto the field, easing the intern's nerves slightly. She opened her mouth to report the fight then nearly jumped out of her skin as Dispatch's voice suddenly came through again.

<Gadreel. Spectrum has asked for a team connection through the comms, do you accept?> Dispatch requested.

"I accept." Gadreel breathed.

"Gadreel, report." Spectrum ordered.

"… It's been handled." She said, the calmness of her voice strange even to her own ears. "I was transported to the local park and three Supers were lying in wait. They're all down, one dead and two disabled. I've also been lightly injured but I can still fight. Just need to find my way back to the shipyard."

"Alright, pair back up with Obsidian Wraith as soon as you can."

"Yes, sir." Gadreel replied, then the connection ended.

She briefly looked down at her two opponents; the man had passed out completely while the woman just sobbed as she laid back on the ground, sorrow evident in her voice and definitely not solely due to her broken legs.

With a firm shake of her head after attempting to look at the corpse on the ground Gadreel took off into the air as fast as she could and rocketed towards the shipyard.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 29

Styx tried to cut down all of the ones rushing forward first, there wasn't time to try anything fancier than his blades, trusting his mentor to help Obsidian Wraith with the two bigger threats. Mentally timing his attacks to strike in between their shots so that the flash wouldn't disperse his shadows.

He got two of the gunmen with their own shadows, hamstringing them and cutting deep into their shoulders to make them drop the guns. Both of which he slashed and destroyed a second later. The other three had fired their blasts with more recklessness and had inadvertently dispersed the shadows before they could strike.

The three Supers weren't so fortunate, however.

There was an audible crunching sound as a blade of shadow lashed out and slammed into the bug-man, nearly punting him a full three meters back. The tall figure covered in bandages nimbly dodged the first strike aimed at his shoulder but left itself open to the shadow that cut deep into where Styx thought a calf would be; the wound erupted in a fountain of black ichor as the thing screeched and leapt away. The ten-foot-tall brute with matted hair was the most concerning however as he simply shrugged off the blades that slice at his surprisingly durable form, his hair acting as a unnaturally good buffer.

Reinforcements are en route; Simikiel is flying and the rest of your team is arriving via teleportation.

Styx couldn't pause to acknowledge Dispatch as he saw that the gun men had paused at seeing their Super muscle assaulted and capitalized on the opportunity, this time his shadows struck true and felled all of them, destroying their weapons in short order afterwards.

However, In the time it had taken him to attack, the three criminal Supers had looked between the fight over by docks and the much closer Hero clad in black armor and decided to take on what they thought was the greater threat. The bug-man, who now had a broken and cut leg, unfurled see-through wings from it's back and took to the air toward Styx.

'He must have had some training, that's usually enough to ruin a Shifter's concentration.' Styx thought as the bug-humanoid spit some viscous glob of slime at him and easily dodged around the projectile while noting how the ground sizzle as it splattered. He refocused and prepared to unleash a torrent of shadows to meat his charging assailants and prepared to dodge incase some launched another ranged attack, until another familiar voice rang in his ear.

"Styx stay right there." Simikiel instructed through his earpiece and Styx did so without hesitation.

So focused the three shifters were on Styx that they never saw Simikiel coming until it was too late. Suddenly there was a silver and red blur that seemed to barely scrape the bug-man but still sent him pinwheeling back down and into the furry shifter, sending them both to ground in a tangle. The figure in white barely had time to be surprised by the new attacker before three shadows rose up and stabbed at it's arms and legs, cuts going deeper than the wound on it's leg. With an even louder screech and further spurts of black liquid the from blurred and turned into a pale woman with long dark hair as she fell to the ground.

The shaggy shifter threw off the shirtless man on top of him, who had previously been the bug-humanoid shifter, and tried to charge Styx again after not finding the red and white blur anywhere. Only for a tendril shadow to wrap around his ankle and stop him short while another cut deep across his eyes and brows where the fur was significantly thinner. He grabbed at his face as blood flowed freely and quickly blinded him, stinging his eyes, before yelping as Simikiel rushed up from behind and slammed her batons ultra-dense blade into the small of the Super's back at super human speeds and discharged electricity into his body.

Simikiel impassively watched the creature jerked and twitch until the creature began to blur and she quickly withdrew the blade as the now entirely human-looking hairy man fell over. It took precision to not accidentally kill a shifter when dealing damage to them like that.

"Is that all of them?" Simikiel asked even as she used her alternate vision to look around the battlefield.

"Yeah, I can't feel anyone else's shadow." Styx affirmed before looking back at the fight their mentors were having.

Obsidian Wraith was still corralling the Super inside of the large marble orb while Spectrum kept the blaster busy, there shots rather explosively canceling each other out. Styx struck out with dozens of shadows, mentally commanding them to slice and stab at the sphere only to see them slide off harmlessly.

"Don't bother." Spectrum said through the comms as he dodged a blast and another one of Obsidian Wraith's punches failed to even crack the material. "It's got some kind of kinetic absorption. You two help me deal with the blaster."

Simikiel swooped down and picked up Styx at that command, flying them towards the action while staying clear of any errant waves of energy.

Styx saw that the Super noticed them coming but it didn't matter, he could barely keep up with Spectrum, he wouldn't be able to stop all three of them. Instead, the man did something unexpected: He launched an unusually large wave of energy that interrupted Spectrum's increasingly aggressive and powerful rhythm of attacks, if only for a moment. In that short window the man clenched both hands and energy began to emit from his entire body in every direction, carving a smoking crater into the ground while making him rise into the air.

Spectrum propelled himself back with two twin orange orbs of force to escape the increasing blast radius. This bastard had a lot raw power to throw around and he was stupid enough to use it as well. Just as he began charging up a red orb that would blow past that little technique, it'd probably slag a section of the shipyard but it was better than letting a Demolition Class escalate, the Super suddenly gasped and his power cut out. He fell to ground, wheezing and sweating profusely; not a second later two thin, almost needle like, handless swords soared through the air and impaled the man's legs, nailing him to the ground.

Spectrum ignored the Super's shriek of pain and saw his teammates Crusader and Terram rushing along the shipyard towards him. He couldn't help but to feel a little pride in how they'd effortlessly defeated an opponent he would have had to use overwhelming force against, though he wondered where Samshiel was- His small moment of revelry was interrupted by a rumble as the Super in a globe managed to knock Obsidian Wraith away and was rolling quickly back into the city at full speed.

Before the globe could roll any further though, the blue and gold form of Gadreel soared through the night sky and stopped it dead. She was surprised as that she hadn't even made the thing budge back inch with how hard she'd hit it but was glad that she had at least stopped it from moving forward. It'd been seconds away from ramming through a factory building.

Just as she felt the globe try to shift direction and move around her a series of bright balls of golden light, indistinguishable from a stream with how fast they traveled, burned through the grey material and hit the figure inside dead-on. The globe shattered an instant later and the figure inside fell limply through the air before Gadreel caught what she could now see was bald man that looked to be in his early twenties. She nearly dropped him when she saw the three cauterized holes inside of the passed-out man's torso.

Thinking quickly, Gadreel flew toward Terram and landed as gently in front of the large grey shifter. "He needs healing."

Without complaint Terram's eyes turned a luminescent green and the mans condition began to rapidly stabilize. It was a luxury most criminal didn't Supers get but Terram's ability allowed them to partially heal the mortally wounded to stability while still keeping them out of the fight.

"Styx, Simikiel, and Crusader; check for anyone else nearby." Spectrum said, grabbing everyone's attention.

Styx reached out with his power and felt for any unusual movements of darkness around them. "Not feeling anything out of the ordinary." He said after feeling nothing approaching them.

"Ditto." Crusader concurred.

"Same here." Simikiel said before holstering her baton.

Spectrum gave a nod of approval before putting a hand to his right ear. "Dispatch? The situations been contained. One aggressor fatality and some significant property damage but nothing else."

<Acknowledged. DVA containment squads are en route.>

After looking around one last time, Styx saw his mentor visibly relax and start looking around at all of the downed criminals, probably to make a mental checklist of everyone of their abilities.

Styx and Spectrum. Pulp has asked for a team connection through the comms, do you accept? Dispatch said suddenly into both of their earpieces, startling them.

"Yes." Styx replied simply.

"I accept." Spectrum nearly sighed. "What have you got for me, Pulp? I've already got a big problem on my hands right now." He said while glancing at Gadreel and her bloodied glove.

"Yeah, you bet we've got a pretty big fucking problem." Pulp replied. "These idiots are trying to kill the leader of every Hero team in the city."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 30

Something that most people, even a few of the younger Heroes, didn't appreciate about the art of subtlety was the amount of a patience required to get the real juicy stuff. An attitude Pulp could understand well since her Subtlety professor in the HCP had gone to great pains to teach that very concept to her; even though her power wasn't especially suited to the kind of work Subtlety Heroes did; though her mind was an entirely different story.

Which was why, after finding and infiltrating a little fringe and fairly non-social group of the White Boars, she'd had the patience to sit through an amateur hour meeting about a bank heist they were planning to do tomorrow afternoon, instead of just charging in as soon as they showed her their base. The infiltration was simpler than most people would think with how popular dark bandanas, ski masks, hoodies, and coats were among their ranks. And the fact that she had purposely scouted out a group that had members that didn't socialize much and had people dropping in and out frequently certainly helped.

It wasn't that it had been a bad plan either; they were aiming for one of the less popular banks but still busy enough to make the job worth it and far away from most Hero bases. They had some strong man muscle, an advanced mind, and even a plasma manipulator to "handle things" if any Heroes came by.

No, the real grating thing about this meeting was that their ring-leader, "Todd", had been a pathetic speaker. A scrawny stick of a man with stringy brown hair that tried way to hard to act like a boss and command authority. Pulp was pretty sure the only reason any of the thugs listened to what he said was because they got paid and he gave them Super protection from the other gangs. Though he'd been particularly zealous this time about how his goons could handle any Heroes that came to stop them and how they would soon "start cleaning up the streets".

Pulp shook her head as she fished out a small rectangular black-box from her costume's pocket and pressed it to the metal door's frame, there was no reason to keep on the disguise she'd worn during the little gathering to blend in, and disabled the magnetic lock and alarm system with something she knew was similar to an EMP. Then she simply touched and tore apart the ultra-dense metal bars barring her way. The doodad had been the results of a cashed in favor from Intuition, the guy was kind of a smarmy dick but all the connections he'd made over the years made it more than worth it to work with the guy.

She'd been at this job for seven years now, including her internship, and that sentiment had become a bit of a pattern; Some local gang lucked out with a moderately strong combination of Supers with a modicum of teamwork and decided that the rules didn't apply to them anymore, at least until they ran into Heroes which swiftly introduced them to an entirely new definition of "strong". Which would be happening to those three Supers soon as she'd notified Dispatch who had swiftly assigned a Hero team to be stationed in the area, hidden and waiting.

"Dispatch, are you sure Landscape Unit can deal with a plasma manipulator? Even a Standard Class sounds like more than a little trouble."

Affirmative. I would also appreciate it if you did not mine for power secrets through the comms system.

"Hey, you never complained when I did it as an intern." Pulp said with muted and mock outrage.

Back then you were upfront and not out to trick me.

Pulp snickered a bit before her thoughts drifted back to the meeting and Todd.

The only really unusual thing about Todd had been that he was a Tech Super, as evidence by the high-tech exoskeleton he'd been wearing and the laser gun holstered at his hip. The same kind that Gadreel had encountered a few days ago; something else she'd have to look into and possibly report on. She didn't want the Pristine Strikers, well, striking before the opportunity was just right.

Pulp picked the locks of three more doors before she made it to something unexpected; Todd's workshop. She hadn't expected to find much here, this was actually the third quasi-base she'd broken into to only to find nothing in the way of leads, but if nothing else her experience as a Subtlety Hero had taught her that persistent was key.

The place was what you'd expect from a young Tech Super with a lot of time and some material on hand; half finished machines all around, at least eight partially finished and modified versions of the laser weapons were lying on the two work benches she could see and one spare exoskeleton in the corner.

'At least the floors not covered in scrap and parts.' Pulp thought as she immediately went to work, careful of any traps, even looking at the ceiling. A habit she'd learnt to adopt the hard way after eating a blast from a pulse cannon the first time she'd infiltrated a criminal tech Super's base.

After a half-hour of searching, contemplating just calling in the weapons and all the Supers she had identified, she finally found something. Nothing of any real note had been found in the drawers, on or under the tables, or in the storage closet aside from just more weapons. What had helped her find the treasure was an old trick she'd learned in the HCP and refined with the help of her mentor, Gilda, for quickly searching for hidden compartments. She went along every wall and knocked to try and find any difference in sound, and with a subtle use of her power, she was able to tell how thick a wall really was. And on her first pass around the room after moving the tables out of the way she hadn't just found a compartment, but an entire room judging from the sound and size of the thinner wall.

Pushing down her excitement, instead of just tearing straight through, Pulp carefully felt along the wall until she found the well-hidden latch and flipped it, causing that particular section of wall to slide away; revealing a small room with a swivel chair and a micro-computer with a monitor.

Taking a deep breath Pulp checked the ceiling, floor, and walls before carefully stepping inside and approaching the computer. "Dispatch, I might have just hit the jackpot. Either I'm staring at a very well disguised bomb or this guy was dumb enough to keep a stationed computer."

Acknowledged.

With a nod she slipped out her small black box again and pressed a button at it's side, causing a usb to slide out from the top, which she quickly inserted into the small terminal. After a few tense moments the computer booted up and she was looking at the file system. After taking a moment to do a little fist pump she immediately set to looking through a file named "Archive" and was nearly blown away.

"Powers, names, contact information, it's all here…" Pulp breathed, half speaking to Dispatch and herself as wide grin spread across her face.

She'd gotten lucky, this kind of high-profile info usually took weeks to fully uncover, so naturally she began to doubt the what the file showed. This completed what she thought of as the "three P's of Subtlety"; patience, persistence, and paranoia. People, even other Heroes, had a hard time with following along with the last one. Regardless, she'd probably need to verify that this was accurate; better to be looked down upon than to give inaccurate information and get people killed.

Then Pulp scrolled down and was momentarily confused, then she hit the bottom of the page and her blood ran cold. The connections, names, and objectives; they were all here. And all of it spoke to something much larger going on, possibly on the level of the Sons of Progress; the first ever organization to attack an HCP.

"Dispatch, connect me to Spectrum. He needs to here about this." Pulp said before quickly downloading all of the data on the computer. Only a subset of folders had seemed to hold prevalent information but she couldn't afford to not comb over every scrap of data for something this important.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 31

Shane was where he usually stayed when not on patrol, doing PR, or filing after-action reports; training in the gym. His sister had always gotten on his case about how much time he spent just working out but he found it to be incredibly relaxing and it let him think things through. Though he had developed a fondness for competing with someone else while doing so.

Except the person he was competing with now wasn't his best friend Chad, but with his three new teammates.

He'd come in first for endurance training, second to Amy with Cardio, and now they were competing in, natural, strength. Two at a time of course, there was no need to be unsafe about it.

"And that's… how you do… that!" Greg grunted after lifting the bar of significant weight one last time, beating Shane by five reps.

"Damn." Shane breathed from the side, a thin coating of sweat on him like everyone else.

"He's always been stronger than he looked." Amy said. "The first time we met I almost thought he was a low-level strong man."

"Nope; just years of blood, sweat, and tears made these pythons." Greg commented as he patted a sweaty bicep.

"Boastful as ever." Vanessa said before flopping back onto to the matted floor, arm draped over her eyes as she basked in the cool air-conditioning. Shane and the others followed suit, sitting or lying down along side her as their muscles trembled with relief. After a few of moments silence Shane finally spoke up.

"You two feeling okay now?"

Greg snickered. "Subtle you are not, DeSoto."

"I'm not a very coy person, but the question was sincere." Shane responded.

"Having to detail over twenty times exactly how I bashed someone's skull in during the debrief definitely didn't help." Vanessa said.

"But it is a necessary part of the job." Amy supplied, giving her free hand a squeeze.

"I get V, but why are you guys worried about me?" Greg asked.

"Come on, we all saw what you did. Hugh got to him in time, but you were shooting to kill there." Shane said without pause. "And I notice that neither of you have really answered my initial question."

"It'd be a lot easier if we had any kind of frame of reference for this, I don't know if what I'm feeling is normal or not." Vanessa offered.

"Well, I can't speak from experience but my parents were especially proactive in making sure I would be prepared to do what was necessary. Supposedly, according to them I mean, I took well to their lessons."

"Hey Shane, didn't you mention that a friend of yours had close call a few days go?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, he's an Intern in Brewster called Intra. Not really comparable though." Shane said, before seeing all of them give a look of surprise. He'd forgotten how infamous that name could be. "Direct descendant, not the original."

"Ah, okay, but why isn't it comparable?"

"Primarily because his 'injury' was that his entire shoulder and arm got cut off and he reattached it seconds later." Shane revealed, careful to not tell anything more about Chad's power. Chad had the same ability as the original Intra, his father, but the DVA still kept a Heroes exact capabilities a secret even after death.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Besides; I have more direct experience with this kind of thing. You guys did better than me though, during Lander's crucible I chocked when the time came to do what needed to be done." Shane said honestly. "The other times when I cut down the Super guards at Adair's base, I didn't hesitate but I didn't exactly feel dandy afterwards. Mostly just sad that I couldn't find a more delicate way to deal with things."

The sentiment was vague, everyone could see that and both Vanessa and Greg could already understand why. Amy might be prepared to, and Shane had done the deed before, but there was one fundamental thing they didn't seem to resonate with them about.

But where could they find someone with that kind of extensive experience?

Greg and Vanessa realized the solution to before the question had even finished forming in their minds. They nearly smacked themselves with how obvious it seemed now, the perfect candidates had been, metaphorically, right in front of them.

At least… they hoped it was. Vanessa was willing to do anything to get rid of the constant feeling of inadequacy that had feel over her like a depressive fog ever since last night. Likewise, for Greg and his own self-doubt. Common sense dictated that things wouldn't stay quite in this city for long and they were in no condition to fight like this.

* * *

The spare, smaller meeting rooms were surprisingly just as comfortable as the main one. Chairs just as comfortable, air just as fresh, and a small television hanging from the far wall that displayed the local news. The only blemish on the otherwise silvery color scheme were the four figures sitting at the table in the middle.

"You know therapists usually do this." Elizabeth sighed.

"Yes, but this might be a more practical approach." Hugh said as he relaxed in his chair.

"I'll go first." Vanessa offered, just to get the ball rolling. Even if what she was about to say made her stomach feel like it was being tossed. "I guess I just thought when I would need to kill someone it would be out of, well, necessity. Not off of a half-cocked reflex and accidentally caving I- some guy's head in who didn't even have enhanced durability."

"Let me guess, you found out his name?" Elizabeth asked, not missing a beat.

"Yeah. His name was, 'Ian'. How'd you know?"

"I took up the habit too, dropped it after a while though. But it does help keep you grounded in the beginning." She explained. "But none of that self-doubt shit." Elizabeth followed up, voice quickly turning from relaxed to authoritative. "We were all at the debriefing; from what you said those three could and would have killed you if you hadn't gotten lucky with that reflex. And believe when I say that counter-attacking hard when someone actually manages to hurt you is going to save your life down the line."

"And to segway off of my good friend." Greg said. "I didn't really feel anything. I knew I had to stop that globe guy and I knew that aiming for center mass with my strongest shot would be my best bet, but I didn't hesitate." Greg paused for a moment. "Which I suppose is a problem all its own."

"Not necessarily" Hugh said, curiosity tinting his tone. "Most Heroes do struggle with it, true. But I've met a few that can manage just fine afterwards. So long as that apathy doesn't slip into zeal, you should be fine." Hugh reached over and gave his intern's hand a squeeze. "No need to doubt yourself."

Greg rolled his eyes as at the sentimental gesture but returned the squeeze nonetheless.

Elizabeth snorted a laugh. "What a pansy. I can't believe you're the same guy that keg-stands with me last New Year."

"I don't see how my softer side exempts me from wanting to appreciate some good beer." Hugh sniffed.

Vanessa checked her watch, an odd accessory considering her phone could tell her the time just as well. "Well, I do feel a little better and It's almost time to go out, so I guess-" She stopped mid-sentence as she looked up and caught what was being shown on the silent television. "Oh. They're doing the announcement already? I always figured there would have been some kind of warning or fanfare."

Everyone else in the room immediately looked up at the faintly glowing box at her words, almost in unison.

"What the fuck? How did we not know about this?" Elizabeth said in genuine bewilderment, unintentionally and crassly agreeing with Vanessa's sentiment. Hugh's reacted first, keen mind and reflexes fast as ever, grabbing the remote and un-muting the TV so that all of them could actually hear what was going on.

"- this speech was delivered mere hours after the Pristine Striker's had fierce battle at the docks. As of right now neither Spectrum, the leader, or the DVA could be reached for comment.

"If you're just tuning in; A gang of criminal Supers attempted to ambush our city's most famous Heroine, Obsidian Wraith, and her side-kick Gadreel. Causing considerable property damage before the rest of the Pristine Strikers arrived and foiled them.

"And then the very next day our state representative, Laurel Decker, just announced a new Hero Certification Program based in Detroit. We will now replay the clip for any new viewers.

The screen then smoothly transitioned to the image of a woman who was probably considered tall, but who was at least still a head shorter than Vanessa, with a wide smile of perfectly white teeth that was framed by glossy brown hair.

"It is with great pleasure and honor that I announce the official opening of a new Hero Certification Program. Based in Michigan, Detroit and currently housed by Vista University. Their very own top graduate, Simikiel, is now based in Brooklyn. Alongside Styx, the shadow of Lander, I'd say the criminal underworld just became a lot less safe."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 32

Jack was pacing. He was in costume, as any Hero would be while in a base. The pacing was a habit he'd tried to kick ever since his internship but had never quite been able to break when things got stressful. And the current situation with the gangs mobilizing with surprising speed, national level events being announced that even his DVA representative and agent didn't get any forewarning of, and the recent revelations of a plan to commit a quasi-purge all spoke of an incredibly stressful and dangerous situation just waiting on the horizon.

Sometimes, in spite of all of the people he got to save, action, and fame, Jack missed the relatively simple days of his fourth year in the Sizemore Tech HCP where his biggest worries were making a good showing during the monthly Sim battles.

"If you don't stop you're going to wear a groove into this nice floor." Maria quipped as she strode into the room and took a seat at the round-table, shifting through the stack of reports she'd requested from the DVA and every Hero team based in Brooklyn. "I know things are stressful but your time is better spent looking through all these reports rather than just pulling at what little hair you have left."

"Thank you, Zaria." Jack said, ignoring the playful jab as he settled in across from her and began picking through the reports set on the table. "So, how are Shane and Amy doing?" The mentors of the team had taken to keeping a close eye on the two as soon as their rivalry started, just to make sure it stayed at the "friendly" level.

"They agreed to a form of co-leadership early today." Maria said nonchalantly. "I was honestly a little disturbing about how logical they we're about. I'm too used to the young Heroes having egos too big for their cowls."

"Hmmm." Jack intoned softly as he read. They were the usual reports from Landscape Unit about the low-level White Boar members causing trouble but nothing too major, some sightings from Insight of white supremacist graffiti popping up in the seedier districts but with no concrete connections, and more mundane news of the smarter and non-violent criminals lying low. And most recent, and frustrating, were the incredibly spares reports about Laurel Decker, a senator who'd apparently seriously backed the decision to build the new HCP in Detroit. But nothing in her official records explained how she could have possibly gotten a chance to officially announce it before the DVA did.

Jack sighed once more as he finished. "I just wish we could get information faster than this without having to rely on the other teams too much."

"That… is probably our fault." Mari said with some hesitance before her voice firmed once again. "Complacency." She said the last word with conviction, however, making eye contact with Jack.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Jack wasn't exactly opposed to criticism, no competent leader could with how prideful most Heroes were, but he expected it to at least be specific.

"This team has become complacent. I was frustrated by the same lack of ease-of-access to information and decided to ask for advice while down at the DVA, and I got some from Graham DeSoto."

Jack's eyes widened at that.

Maria continued. "I shadowed the previous DVA representative for this team and then became its official representative four years before you became its leader. Under your leadership the Pristine Strikers has experienced it's most, relatively, peaceful years of service. The team's reputation for power and ferocity has kept the smarter criminals from trying to target us and we've been able to rely on other teams whenever a group of criminal Supers get a head of steam. But now that were being specifically targeted by a group with a lot of resources and Super muscle, our usual methods just aren't fast enough."

Jack looked like he would argue at first, but his face then transitioned to contemplative and then to pensive. "Fine." He could argue a few of her points, maybe even leverage Rikki's sparse check-ups on some of the local gangs, but he knew those would be superfluous at best. "Then what do you suggest?"

"That's the tricky thing." Maria admitted. "You haven't made any objectively bad decisions as leader, and neither has your team in their roles." She began listing off points on her fingers. "Exceptional combat ability, fast response time, squeaky clean records for all current members, and you've worked well with your agent to become a community icon. Your team even helped stop two Armageddon Class threats, one in progress and the other preemptively; All of which is largely why you've escaped a lot of scrutiny from other Heroes and the DVA. No, the problem is that we've fallen into a routine and lack of a previously key asset. You remember the last Subtlety Hero on this team?"

"Yeah, Graves, he went rouge during my internship and I helped take him down." Jack said, already thinking he knew where this conversation was going.

"Well, you need a new one and I think Pulp will make an excellent candidate. I can have paper primed and ready in less than a week, you just need to convince her.

That he hadn't expected. "I- It isn't that simple."

"How so?"

"We would need to dig up more about her, why she quit her last team, and what she has to offer power wise." Jack elaborated.

"Already taken care of, I've got her record and the report about what happened between her and the Shock Troopers." Maria countered before sliding over a thick folder. "Her power is something she'll have to reveal herself. Though I doubt it will be an issue, she is one of the most combat capable Subtlety Heroes I've heard off."

Jack decided to at least look over the documents before voicing anymore complaints and what he saw there was very concerning, his eyebrows climbing almost comically high as he went over each page. "Wow. That's really shitty. I'm surprised most of them only got a suspension."

"What they did was unethical and got them a metric ton of scrutiny among the local Hero teams and the DVA breathing down their neck, but not technically illegal." Maria clarified. "But now you know; Pulp isn't Graves and you've already developed a working relationship with her through your teammates. You've trusted her with heading an investigation concerning your team, differed to her judgement, and heeded her warnings to great effect." Then she slipped one last, single document out of her briefcase and put it directly in front of him; a recruitment request form.

"Now all you need to do is take the next step."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 33

Pulp thought over her relationship with the Pristine Strikers as she leaned against a wall of the dilapidated building that hid her base. They'd honestly been giving her more trust than she'd expected, especially considering Spectrum's not-so-secret weariness of Heroes like her.

Sure; Most Hero teams wouldn't mind the occasional nugget of information from a Subtlety Hero that happened to benefit them, such as information on a gang or new teams planning to come into town. But letting one not part of your team directly influence your patrol protocols, and indirectly vouching for her by cautioning other teams based solely on her info, was a step beyond. Shit, even her last team hadn't displayed that level of gratefulness.

She kicked the ground the little in frustration at the thought of Wave-Form, her previous asshole team leader, and looked around her. Taking careful mental note of all four of the bloody, broken, yet still breathing bodies that lay at her feet.

"Dispatch, the ambush has been taken care of." Pulp said before rubbing her partially dislocated shoulder. "Two standard class strongmen, one guy that had pistons for arms that can really pack a punch, and one fire elamentalist."

<Acknowledged. DVA containment units will arrive in approximately two minutes.>

Pulp nodded her head despite the fact that the gesture was completely unnecessary and looked down at her partially singed costume. She was lucky to have not followed the niche trend of certain female Heroes wearing nigh-skimpy costumes and instead went with the standard flame retardant and tech Super made material suits; the strongman curse of ruined costumes still ran strong, even with the women.

The flame elementalist, a scrawny man in baggy clothes and a shock of red hair, stirred awake then and she almost tensed before purposefully relaxing herself.

The young man looked around blearily before wincing as the pain of his fractured femur and the quickly forming bruise on his temple flared up again. Then his eyes got wide at the very visibly more broken legs of his friend who had formerly had pistons for arms. "W- what the fuck, you broke their legs?"

"He hurt my shoulder first. That's called equivalent exchange where I'm from." Pulp thought about kneeling down so that they were eye-to-eye for intimidation but decided against it. It left her a little too open to a surprise attack. "I don't get out much so I'd appreciate it that while you're in jail you spread the news; Pulp doesn't handle criminals with kid-gloves. Think more Styx and less Defensive Dugout."

Pulp couldn't quite help feeling a pang of pride and a little jealousy when the thug's eyes widened slightly at the mention of Styx. It was always nice to see an Intern get off on a running start, the Hero system relied a lot on fear and reputation after all. She just wished she'd gotten such an impressive start during her own internship.

"Y- you know him?"

"We're acquaintances." Pulp said neutrally before discreetly scanning her surroundings and making sure that the guy wasn't trying to concentrate to use his power again. She wasn't too concerned though; she could usually tell by watching someone's expression and his fire couldn't hurt her while she was reinforced like this. What did interest her though was his voice.

'That accent is maybe from New York, but definitely isn't Brooklyn.' She thought suspiciously. What she had planned would be a stretch but that often turned out to be the key when doing Subtlety work, so she went for it anyways.

"Did they at least pay well for this stunt? Even kids like you should know that ambushing a Hero wouldn't be easy, if not dangerous."

"My name is Derrick, not kid, and why the fuck should I-"

"Because the more you spill the faster you'll get healing." Pulp said. That was a lie, plain and simple; he hadn't given up before or during the fight which typically barred any Super criminal that wasn't in critical condition from being treated by a healing Super. She didn't often like lying flat out when doing deals, it could hurt her credibility among the smarter criminals if it got out far enough, but she needed to follow up on this hunch.

Derrick seemed defiant for a moment before wincing again at the pain he was in and Pulp could see the resignation in his eyes before his mouth even opened. "T- they paid us twenty-thousand grand for the job. We don't know who they were but they had some pills that made us stronger than usual."

'But didn't make you bloodthirsty like the Minotaur.' Pulp didn't let the surprise show on her face as she heard the price and responded with a curt "Thanks." As the DVA vans arrived and the personnel came out with their containment gear.

Pulp was starting really miss her, if limited by the nature of Subtlety, social life. Now she had to worry about, who she suspected were the White Boars, contracting outside criminal Supers. Keep track of, help figure out, and cripple whatever Super or machine they have that makes pills that supposedly enhanced a Super's power. Potentially clean out her current base and find a new location. All of that on top of squashing the nigh-suicidal team leader killing agenda they had.

And after getting just an eye roll after winking at the stunning DVA healer that had fixed her shoulder, she realized her romantic life had atrophied as well.

She gave a brief description of the fight to the unit manager and made sure to emphasize how forth coming Derrick had been with information; she couldn't guarantee healing but putting in a good word for him might go some ways.

After all the gang members had been rounded up and the vans had left Pulp looked back at decrepit building that had once hidden her base. Half of it had collapsed completely which, while it did stop the brief fire Derrick had started, did not help concerning structural integrity after his other friends had busted blown out several walls during their assault.

By that time Pulp had already seen and heard the destruction above with her hidden cameras, notified Dispatch of the threat, and snuck out an alternate entrance that lead to a near by manhole outside. The fight had ended rather quickly after she ambushed them, albeit with a not-insignificant injury.

Not really expecting an answer Pulp decided to try winging something else; might as well go for a twofer today. "Hey, Dispatch, you know of any good base locations?"

<Affirmative. There are approximately 34 different locations that would fit your needs for a new base.>

"Than-" Pulp started to say before Dispatch, surprisingly, cut her off.

<There is also another more streamlined opportunity for you. The Pristine Strikers's leader, Spectrum, has put in a request for you to join his team.>

"Spectrum? The Spectrum wants a Subtlety Hero to join his team?" Pulp said with a little incredulity. "I don't exactly dislike the guy, but I kind of find that harder to believe."

<That is what the report says.>

Pulp decided this was a conversation best held somewhere more private. So, after telling Dispatch to hold for a bit, she stepped over some of the rubble and through what was left of the building before going down the basement stairs and locking herself inside of her pristine base.

She relaxed into the chair behind her desk, booted up her computer, and began typing up a check list of the facts: One; her base location had been compromised. Which meant, despite her extensive efforts, someone had been able to either track or trace her back to the location. Two; It would take at least three days to relocate all of her stuff from here to a new base and even more time to properly fortify the new location. Three; Accepting the Pristine Striker's offer would significantly expedite the process of moving her stuff and would immediately net her a new base that would be substantially more secure and well-funded than her current one.

Her mouth twisted into a grimace as emotion raged against logic in her mind, momentarily surprising her that it wasn't just the later that tempted her to make the leap.

<May I offer some advice?>

Pulp sighed. "Go for it."

<Join the Pristine Strikers. They have resources and connections that would greatly help any Subtlety Hero early in their career. And you already have an amiable working relationship with some of their members and your power is strong enough for you to participate in the fights they usually get into.>

'Lord knows teams have been formed over less.' This was pretty much what Pulp had expected; straight forward advice based only on the facts, that was who Dispatch was after all, regardless of how horrific or mundane the situation was.

Except… Dispatch wasn't finished yet.

<Also, you need to stop half-assing your job.>

Pulp nearly stumbled as she was putting on one of her spare suits, spluttering slightly before responding. "Excuse me?"

<You heard me. Considering your power, experience, and skill in your specialty the Hero Pulp should be making way more of a difference in any city she chooses to be in. But ever since you've gone solo you have been performing well below what your records indicate.>

"I… yeah. I- You're right." Pulp felt her mind resolve to a decision after processing Dispatch's words. She was honestly a little ashamed of herself at the realization. Pulp hadn't gone through four grueling years of HCP training and two scary years as an Intern to act as mediocre Hero. How many people she could have helped should have been priority number one concerning this decision. And… Pulp may have felt a more personal need to help them, some may have called it childish, but she'd always had a problem with bullies; which was why she took particular interest in taking down gangs like the White Boars, people that targeted and hounded what they thought were weak targets.

And the high possibility that they had just tried to do the same to her lit a particular hot fire within her.

"Thank you, Dispatch."

<I merely did my duty and relayed all of the information relevant to the advice you requested.>

Pulp thought she caught a bit of sass in mysterious entity's tone, but it was impossible to tell. Regardless, she'd already made her decision.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 34

Styx sniffed and glared down an alleyway as he caught sight of more graffiti. It was the same racist trash they'd found more and more of around the city, especially concentrated around where White Boar members tended to congregate.

"Don't get distracted, Styx." Simikiel's voice crackled to life through his earpiece turning his attention back over the crowd in the middle of the park. Simikiel herself was floating overhead on the opposite side of the park perimeter.

"Yeah, sorry." Styx said before feeling all of the shadows around him, finding nothing but the movements of a semi-organized crowd, sporadic street traffic, and a few gawkers. He looked up at the banner that proudly displayed the name of the event; "Give Back". A prison reform charity organization for regular and variant humans that helped root-out corruption, improve conditions, and helped inmates after their time was served; headed by Senator Laurel Decker. It had gained traction over the years and even some attention from the DVA; Supers and Powereds weren't cheap to contain long-term after all, especially repeatedly.

Styx looked over the crowd and found the two reasons he and his teammates were there on guard duty. A young man with the marks of recently removed facial piercings that occasional zipped about in a blur and another man who was in a were-bear form. They were part of the group of released criminals with exceptionally clean records that served to make the events more "authentic", though they were the only Supers of the bunch. The charity even sprang for a telepath to screen them before they got to do public events.

Despite that, Heroes still needed to stand guard at these events. Even as reformed and productive members of society, Supers that were open about being ex-cons at public events simply attracted too much attention. Humanity First purists, Pro-Super extremists, and Super gangs looking to recruit were just a few of the reasons this place could get targeted. So, a few Heroes were always on stand by when Give Back did a special event involving a them.

So far, aside from the graffiti, the only potential problems Styx had encountered was staring down a large, bald man with some intricate tattoos that had been glaring at the event from another alleyway. He'd run off after Obsidian Wraith started floating over, but Dispatch didn't identify the man as having any warrants so they didn't pursue. The other potential problem was the fact that… people were scared of him.

It was a startling realization and it certainly wasn't everyone, not even most really, but the signs were stark. He hadn't noticed during the patrols, as his attentions had been on looking for concealed weapons and snipers, while the occasional comfortable fan approached him and Spectrum of their own volition. Some people in the crowd sped up when walking near him, others whispered while shooting glances, and a few even snapped pictures of him. But none approached to talk the Hero with shadows writhing around him.

It wasn't like he was doing it to be intimidating, it was just that it was easier to attack when he had a few shadows prepped for to go already. Lenny had warned him this would happen with Heroes that worked the "scary" angle. He'd just have to get used to.

"Hrnn." Simikiel accidentally intoned through the comms.

Styx looked up at the noise and saw that she was looking down at the booth about corruption and mistreatment. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering… Why does corruption seem so much more prevalent among the human authorities? My parents didn't talk much about regular law enforcement and the Vista HCP didn't help much either."

"In my experience; it's because of how thorough we get to be." If Crusader was concerned about being overheard, she didn't show it, she spoke clearly through the comms without even trying to lower her voice. "Each HCP only let's ten students graduate every year which, on top of providing only the best of the best, makes it much easier for vetting and; us Heroes get to be a little more… proactive in taking down our comrades that go rouge."

"Even with all of that though, the percentages aren't that far apart when you factor in DVA staff as well; the dumb ones just rarely get much of a chance to attract public attention." Obsidian Wraith surprisingly chimed in after waving and disengaging from a group of civilians. "Conversely, though, the corrupt scumbags we have to deal with tend to be a lot more methodical and clever about how they do it."

Styx had some scant worriers about talking about corruption in the Hero system in such a public venue, but not enough to voice it due to the general noise of the event and the fact that most of them were outside conversation range of the crowd.

But even if he had, Styx wouldn't have been able to as Dispatch's voice crackled to life in his ear a second after Obsidian Wraith stopped talking.

<Styx, prepare for transport. We have a teleporter anchored by a DVA agent that is hunkered down in a building reinforced by tech-genius equipment. A civilian had called the police reporting a man with blonde hair and a scar along his killing a civilian before simply disappearing. A Hero with tracking abilities traced the suspect back to a downtown residence which kicked off the current incident.>

By the way his teammates had nearly twitched Styx could tell Dispatch had let them know what was about to happen as well. "What about Spectrum? Shouldn't he accompany me?" He asked, his mind felt a little stunned from the sudden rush of information.

<There is no time to get him out of his meeting at the base, the damage the tech is causing is escalating by the moment and you are the closest Hero on hand with the power best suited to neutralize the threat.>

Before Styx could respond a man in a plain, black suit appeared next to him with a pop of displaced air and held out a hand towards him. Styx almost, almost, hesitated before grabbing the mans hand and feeling the bottom drop out of his stomach as he was whisked through space and appeared on the roof of a building. Defensive Dugout was there in full costume and she had manipulated the ground to rise up in front of them as a thin, see-through shield.

Maybe Styx had gotten a little too use to the structured nature of the HCP and the semi-controlled life of his internship, but he felt his resolve harden as he focused on the task at hand and remembered the numerous lessons his grandfather had given him. Hero work wasn't structured and often didn't have the courtesy to telegraph itself; it was wild and dangerous with only the continued vigilance of other Heroes allowing even the faintest of warnings. The fact that his mentor and team had been near by during all of his incidents had coddled him a bit, but he had to realize that they wouldn't always be there to cover for him.

And as he heard the first shots ricochet off of Defensive Dugout's shield and looked around at nearby streets, that sentiment was firmly planted into his mind.

The destruction itself didn't phase him as it might have other people, he had been toured through the aftermath of Demolition and Manhattan Class threats. No, it was the suddenness of it that struck him; the streets were basically rubble, there was a thick mist of dust billowing around half melted and flipped cars, and the buildings near what he guessed was the fortress were barely standing from how riddled with bullets and partially melted some of their walls were. And he hadn't heard a single bit of it until Dispatch had alerted him; it was unnerving to realize this kind of raw destruction could occur in the same city he was supposed to protect and he could completely miss it.

Styx tore his eyes away from the destruction though and focused on the threat in the epicenter of the ravaged city street. The building itself was bland, fairly old looking, and slightly isolated from neighboring buildings. Which made the sight of the story high electric fence, several turrets lining the perimeter that swiveled and shot at anything that moved, and more advanced looking weapons poking out of the windows.

"Are those pulse cannons?" Styx asked with some awe as he vaguely recognized the general design of some of the weapons swiveling at the very top of the roof. That level of weaponry either took a seriously talented Tech-Super or a lot of money to acquire.

"Yeah, but don't worry; my shield can tank a dozen or so hits before I need to reinforce it again." Defensive Dugout assured him. "Dispatch said you can clean this up quickly. We can't just have someone with enhanced durability charge in smash them or a blaster destroy each one of the guns; the idiot holed up inside already fired off an entire salvo of a warning shot while the street was only partially evacuated. So, all of these need to be destroyed almost at the same time to prevent nearby buildings from collapsing."

Styx nodded. "I can do that. Is the teleporter holding any hostages?"

"Rebound already did a sweep; there's only one human bodyguard in there with him. We don't know if he's being backed by a gang or if this is something else entirely."

<This has been classified as a Demolition Class threat and the lives of aggressors have been given a low priority. Though suspects for interrogation would be desirable.>

"I understand." Styx said, and he did. Suspects for interrogation were nearly invaluable if the DVA could get clearance to use a telepath. But innocent people were in danger, that meant finishing this quickly and efficiently, even if it meant potentially killing potentially valuable resources for knowledge.

He deeply tried to ignore how the prospect of throwing potentially lethal force around still made his stomach tighten a bit. It was easier in the heat of battle as a snap decision, this premeditated stuff just wasn't for him yet.

With a steadying breath he connected to the shadows of every machine surrounding the building, careful not to solidify or move them unnaturally so as not give any forewarning. Styx concentrated with his power, preparing to cut down the most destructive looking ones first and then hitting the smaller calibers a second later; like a directed torrent of shadows. The sensation was much like tensing a muscle, connecting all of those shadows, aiming them in his mind, and holding them a hair-trigger away from being solid in preparation for his strike.

Then Styx released it as he exhaled.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

I'm very sorry about the late chapter guys, I had to take care of some family business.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 35

Spectrum hadn't taken a seat for more than few seconds, recruitment papers and other documents neatly stacked in front of him, before the door to his office swung open and Pulp confidently strode in.

Spectrum hadn't noticed before but upon closer inspection he noticed something peculiar about Pulp's costume. Aside from the fingerless gloves and odd cape on a melee fighter, her blue and black suit was almost aggressively generic. Though he supposed, outside of his own odd color scheme, Spectrum didn't have much room to talk with his fairly basic costume design. He supposed that they both just valued practicality over style.

"I hope you didn't wait long." She said before taking the seat opposite him.

"Not at all, you were exceptionally prompt. Especially considering how damaged the main road to here is from that recent bank fight." Spectrum replied before setting his palms on the table. "Landscape Unit really dropped the ball on that one."

"I wouldn't be too hard on them. Who could have guessed that plasma manipulator would blast through the roof and try flying away when all his friends went down?" Pulp replied, her tone only slightly sardonic. "And, forgive me if this segue is a bit too obvious, but speaking of unexpected developments; Why do the Pristine Strikers want Pulp the loner to join their team? I'm a decently good Hero, if I do say so myself, but I'm not exactly the most well-known solo worker in town."

"We pick new teammates based more on ability and skill, rather than popularity. And don't bother with the 'decent good' talk; based on your exceptional record you would fit right in." Spectrum reached over and picked up one of the stacked documents. "You took down three drug and two arms dealers during your five years of official Hero work while with a problematic team, four of which you took down without the operation descending into a big brawl. You managed to snuff out a group of tech-genius Supers planning to take over a city with a Manhattan Class weapon." He picked up another page. "And your most notable combat accomplishment: While separated from your team and under ambush you single handedly defeated ten Supers. Eight standard class and two demolition, with only one being seriously injured; even Seamstress would be impressed by such a showing. That kind of raw fighting ability combined with a cunning mind is exactly what this team needs right now."

Pulp tried not to let the genuine and pleasant shock show on her face. She'd known that Spectrum had a lot of clout in the Hero world and definitely had more official connections than she did, but she hadn't expected him to dig up that comprehensive of a file on her so quickly. Although she doubted the file detailed how that specific scenario where she had to fight off an entire gang was due to a monumental fuck up on her teammate's part. "You're sharper than your team's reputation indicates. Everyone in town just thinks you're a modern version of the Gentle Hammers. The current team notwithstanding."

The Gentle Hammers had essentially pioneered the idea of a specialized team of Heroes, instead of the standard well-rounded team. Specifically; they'd been a team of heavy hitters, mostly strongmen. Another group of Heroes based in the city, Brewster, had inherited the team name from one of it's founding members, the legendary Hero, Titan.

"And if I'm not mistaken, your team had a bit of a falling out with their last Subtlety Hero and hasn't even attempted to reach out to others for the past five years." Pulp continued. "It's not exactly a secret amongst the community that you don't really trust the local ones."

"That's not without reason and you know it." Spectrum almost, almost, snapped at her. But managed to keep his tone to just a low disapproval before sighing. "But… I can't deny that you're right and now that decision is hurting my team and it's up to me to fix it. And I wouldn't be lying if I said that the past few years of seeing Rancid, Intuition, and you do some top-notch work didn't wear me down."

"I'd be giving you a lot of trust by doing this." Pulp said bluntly. While she may have been more skilled in the technical and physically demanding parts of subtlety work, she was no slouch in the social side either and Spectrum hadn't given the slightest hint of dishonesty with his admission. It was best to be straightforward from here on out.

"So would we; Subtlety Heroes aren't the only ones with secrets." Spectrum replied as he brought up two pieces of paperwork. "But I'm willing to chance that risk if that's what it takes to get my team back on track. We've had too many close calls in too short a time and I simply cannot abide by that. As things are; it's only a matter of time before innocents get hurt due to my lack of forethought as well. Please." That last word wasn't spoken as a plea for help or with desperation but with the sullen acceptance of a man who knew he needed help and would do almost anything to get it.

Pulp gave the older Hero a long look before saying. "...Let me see those forms again." She reached over and grabbed the dual sheets of documentation. The act of meticulously looking them both over and tracing certain lines with her finger was purely for show and just a way to give herself a little time to think, she'd already studied recruitment documents extensively before even coming here. Not that she needed much time to think about her choice anyways, Spectrum had already gotten her with his last line. Pulp reached down and pulled out a pen from a compartment on her utility belt but didn't start writing yet.

"Alright, before we start making things official we should put everything on the table to make absolutely sure you know what we're getting into." Then Pulp told him what her power was. Spectrum didn't exactly become gob-smacked at the revelation, but it was satisfyingly close.

"… Yeah, I think you'll fit in just fine here."

Without further ado Pulp speed-read the documents one last time before signing her name onto the dotted line. "Now we can get to saving this city. And by the looks of what I've seen around the city recently; we get to beat on some racists to boot." Pulp said with a grin.

Spectrum returned the expression with surprising eagerness. As concerned as he was about the safety of the people in his city and his team he hadn't become a renowned Hero because he didn't like a challenge. And a chase like the one he was on now just got his heart beating in a way no other activity could replicate.

That grin quickly faded away as his earpiece crackled to life and Dispatch gave him a rather distressing notification.

Pulp saw the look on his face and decided to venture an educate guess. "Is it your intern again?"

"It's fucking Styx again, yes."

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 36 - Arc 3 Minos

Senator Laurel Decker lounged in the comfortable arm chair situated in the middle of her hotel room as she rechecked her schedule. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyes with one hand, she'd have to get it cut soon, and finished up the last changes to her schedule, the vibrant green styling of the programs layout the same color as her eyes.

After having to waste a week with getting a prison warden, that she'd finally caught openly neglecting sexual assault in his facility, fired and replaced with one she'd personally vetted. That little jaunt had messed her schedule a bit but she was too experienced now to let little, unexpected detours rattle her. Besides, unexpected as it might have been, it offered her an opportunity take down an annoyance and get some good publicity, something that she had never failed to capitalize on. Some might look down on the second advantage, but Laurel knew how far good publicity and proper PR management could take someone.

"Your meal, Miss Decker." Came a gentle voice from her side before a woman with long red hair and freckles leaned down, pushed the little hinged table that held up the black and gold laptop aside, and placed a warm plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs onto her lap. A second later a medium glass of water was placed on the small table beside the chair.

"Thank you, Carol." Laurel said. She was quite fond of Carol, not in the romantic sense, that throne was already taken, even if she couldn't deny that the young lady was very pretty. But more in the way someone might like a very attentive and prompt employee. She'd been with her for a little over five years now and had proven herself to be one of her most loyal and valuable bodyguards. Even if the runny texture of the maroon field of energy she projected over the room was rather garish.

'Oh well, at least it blocks teleportation and telepathy.' Laurel thought with a mental shrug, there was no need to be especially picky when you got your hands on an exceptional Super. And Powereds might be on the table soon as well…

Laurel dismissed those idle thoughts of the future and went back to her late breakfast. As she began to dig in while Carol stepped back, she began to reflect on what she'd had to initiate a few months ago. The average, ignorant individual simply could not understand what had needed to be done to properly secure their way of life. The DVA and Heroes could understand part of it at least, their entire response system was geared towards saving as many people possible. But even they had been incredibly resistant when she had even floated the idea of holding back on the less physically essential parts of the HCP at Vista University.

And now the DVA was riding her ass hard for pulling more than a few strings to get to publicly announce the existence of the facility first; it hadn't been illegal per-say but she could bet it put more than a few people on edge. If they were so resistant to such mild suggestions and actions then she was absolutely right to not trust them with had needed to be set up next; an international coalition of Heroes wouldn't trigger by itself after all.

And she would do anything to help her perfect Robert achieve his dream.

After finishing her meal, and wiping her mouth with a napkin, she handed the plate back to Carol and resumed looking over her schedule one last time. Eventually though Laurel's mind wandered and she decided to surf the local news.

Laurel felt a little thrill of satisfaction and vindication as she saw how the news sites were talking about the recent attacks. There was alarm and concern at the sudden spikes of violent and powerful Super criminal fights but, thanks to the Heroes, it hadn't blossomed into full blown panic. And not for the first time she noted that the Pristine Strikers were mostly at the center of it, having weathered most of the attacks themselves. Which was to be expected; they were the strongest team in town, which made them both a target for criminals and Heroes that wanted to take their mantle. The sidekicks, interns really, made a little knot of worry briefly form in her stomach; despite being the main individual helping to push the DVA to build a new HCP even she didn't have the clout to get any information on who the potential graduates would be. Laurel hadn't expected them to be so strong or that, if her observations about Styx were right, the Pristine Strikers would take on a relative of Captain Starlight himself. Sure, it could just be someone who had an extremely similar shadow ability to the legendary Hero, but she found that unlikely.

Laurel's musings were interrupted by a notification popping up in the corner of her laptop's screen; it was the Super-Destruct app. It was a popular little thing that had popped up a few years ago that almost immediately alerted users to exceptionally destructive Super activity that occurred in their area by constantly scouring local news. There were rumors that the app had, at least, been tweaked by tech-genius Super but nothing official or concrete. The alert she had just received was about a city block scarred by a bunch of super-tech weaponry.

'Speak of the devil.' Laurel thought as she opened the article and saw that a live stream from a news station showed that Styx was on the scene. The perspective was from back and above, Styx was standing beside Defensive Dugout, one of her more translucent shields in front of them as they looked at the building surrounded by high-tech turrets and blasters. Laurel's expression turned from curious to cold as soon as she saw the precise location of the incident and recognized some of the weaponry she saw there, apparently, they'd made some changes since she last visited.

"Carol, tell the driver to have my car ready." She ordered the young assistant as she stood up, closing the laptop and gathered her things just as the sound of Styx shredding all of that machinery came through the speakers, and walked out of the hotel room. And after holding a hand to her right and talking in hushed tones, Carol followed close behind her.

This was bad but she had safeguards in place just in case things didn't go perfectly, you had to when dealing with Heroes. All wasn't lost so long as those foreign idiots weren't stupider than she thought and actually followed her instructions; she needed them to last much longer.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 37

Honestly, Styx should have expected the explosions and fire. While he technically had been around a lot of tech-genius inventions throughout his life, especially while training with his grandfather, he had seldom actually fought against many of them. (His friend and fellow graduate, Will, from Lander's HCP notwithstanding.) But the stereotype of Tech Super inventions being potentially explosive was pervasive enough that he should have at least kept the possibility in mind.

The previous, carefully arranged assortment of high-tech machinery that he had looked down upon was now a field of warped metal, sparking wires, and the scorched earth from the small explosions the machines had made. The areas where pulse-cannons were peaking out of the buildings windows were slightly less damaged, only a few scorched bricks to show after his shadows had cut them down.

Styx felt surprisingly… relaxed after wreaking all that destruction, almost refreshed. And now that he thought about it, outside of his extracurricular training before his fourth year and brief instances during Intramurals, it had been a while since he'd gotten to use his power like that. The obvious, and currently apparent, reason was that using his maximum potential was too lethal to use against almost anyone and caused far too much collateral damage. But he didn't feel invigorated by it for the same reason that most others, if they had his ability, would; the satisfaction he felt was more akin to stretching one's legs after sitting down for too long. The destruction itself held no allure and he had a strong feeling that his team would be volunteering for more construction help after this; they were known for helping every time Spectrum had to escalate, he suspected it would be no different for him.

<The Company has evacuated all civilians from the area.> Dispatch's report was clear and concise as always. With civilians out of the way they were free to engage the threats still housed within that building.

"Reinforcements?" Styx asked.

"Should be in route already- Oh, speak of the devil." Defensive Dugout replied just as there was another pop of displaced air, presumably indicating a small instance where the as-of-yet-unseen DVA teleporter released the anchoring, and suddenly another Hero was standing next to Styx.

The man was immediately recognizable as a shifter, wearing the same shimmery and form-fitting fabric that both Obsidian Wraith and Terram wore. Though his had a sickly yellow and white design that contrasted with the suited DVA agent that had a hand on his shoulder, ending in a swirls at the back of his gloved hands, the color scheme tempering down to a solid white for his utility belt.

"Rancid." Styx said as a way of greeting and extended a hand towards the senior strongman of Landscape Unit. "It's an honor to meet you, my name is Styx."

"Likewise." The man responded simply in a smooth baritone just as the DVA agent began to speak.

"We shouldn't risk letting down the anchoring again, the guy in there might start to notice the brief instances of freedom. The three of you will need to finish this solo."

Rancid nodded his head and without further prompting, shifted. It was a quick, little more than a second, blur of motion before Rancid's body had turned into a dense, swirling yellow gas that then quickly seemed to condense into stone of a similar color. "Anything I need to know before knocking down that door?"

"There's a neutralized teleporter and a human bodyguard inside the building who may or may not be legally contracted. If they have any other weapons in there it'll most likely be the laser weapons we've seen going around town." Defensive Dugout said.

Rancid gave a nod to his leader before leaping off of the building they were on and landing on the street below with a loud impact of cracking asphalt.

Styx knew from the fights he'd seen that Rancid was a high-end, unnatural material manipulator. With his material being gas that he could condense into an incredibly durable stone. Material and energy manipulators at level could generate, manipulate, mimic certain aspects of, and even embody what they held supremacy over. While a power like that wasn't exactly one of a kind, though certainly rare, with such versatile forms as smoke and stone it made Rancid an exceptional Super.

His bulky stone form easily stomped over and batted away the machinery as he made his way towards the buildings front entrance. Rancid stopped short, however, when the door swung open and a man with blonde hair and a gun dragged another man outside, holding it to his head.

"Back up now and drop that fucking anchor!" The blonde haired man almost slurred as he held the groggy and slightly bleeding black man up by the scruff of his neck and pressed the barrel of the gun to his head.

"Ah, shit." Defensive Dugout swore under her breath.

Styx saw Rancid stop his advance, but he thankfully didn't back up or un-shift either. This was a hostage situation and you were never, ever supposed to make yourself an ignorable threat in a hostage situation. The young Hero's mind was racing now that he saw the man's crazed yet determined eyes while the black man with blood running down one side of his head shakily returned to fear-stricken lucidity.

It didn't take much brains to figure out what had suddenly been sprang on the Heroes, and Styx was at least tactically smarter than most. Upon seeing that his defenses had been cut down the teleporter had decided to turn his, most likely unwitting, paid bodyguard into a hostage. Neither Defensive Dugout's or Rancid's abilities were suited for safely disabling him without getting the hostage killed, and neither was he with how the gun was pointed at point-blank range. Styx got the distinct feeling this man wouldn't hesitate to shoot either, the wild and panicked look in his eyes and the almost-slurring of his voice indicated that he wasn't exactly sound of mind. No, keeping things as a standoff and waiting for the Company to handle this would be the safer call.

Then, just as Styx had resigned himself to doing nothing, the man made a mistake. Upon seeing Rancid stand his ground, the man waved his gun in the Hero's direction in a fit of panicked rage and screamed another threat. "I swear, if you don't I'll shoot this fucking ni-"

Styx nearly hesitated out of sheer surprise, but his reflexes were too well trained for him to miss the opportunity completely. With a familiar effort of will he manifested a shadow blade and quickly impaled the man's hand, and consequently his gun, within the span of a blink; his shadows didn't move superhumanly fast but were certainly swift and precise enough to quick strike an unsuspecting target.

Just as the man began screamed in pain mid-threat two more shadows materialized, one slicing at his calves while another snared his uninjured arm and jerked it to the side so hard he let go of the hostage and went tumbling. The hostage immediately rushed forward towards Rancid after attaining freedom, temporarily blocking the Hero's ability to capitalize on the situation in his mad-dash for safety. Though Rancid needn't have worried, by the time the hostage was behind him the blonde haired man with crazed eyes was already entirely bound in a tendril of shadow.

With a curt, thankful nod towards Styx, Rancid went about counseling and tending to the bleeding man that was cowering behind his stony form.

Styx nearly jumped when a hand clapped onto his shoulder.

"Nice work, rookie. That was a pretty tight shot." Defensive Dugout said, her face beaming with a released smile.

"It's hardly the most difficult target I've needed to hit." Styx said as he reminisced about slicing rubber bullets out of the air by anticipating shots. "Regardless, I'm just glad I was able to quell this without any serious casualties." With that he focused his attention back on the scene below. Responding to praise in such a way was something he'd long gotten used to now. His grandfather hadn't often given praise for exceptional work, "Heroes are supposed to be exceptional by default.", he would say. But people outside of his admittedly bubble-like childhood years expected a response like the one he'd just given, at least amongst Supers aiming to be Heroes.

Something strange in the man's movements registered in Styx's brain as he watched, cutting off his train of thought. He was intimately familiar with the typical screams, shrieks, shouts, grunts, cringing, and flinching that cuts from his shadow blades elicited when he cut people and the differences in those reactions depending on where he cut. But the strange jerky motions the man with blonde hair he currently had bound were completely alien to him.

The pieces fell into place when he saw the man's neck bulge and foam start to bubble out of his mouth.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 38

Laura Gisela was trying to rally and corral a group of violent, super powered narcissists currently going through a fit of collective panic and failing miserably. Mostly because, even if she would consciously never admit it, the European woman had much the same mentality. For now, though, Gisela was content to attribute it to the three men's clear lack of rational thought compared to her.

"Calm down!" She yelled for the third time to finally get the overlapping arguments in the heavily reinforced metal room to cease, just as her power told her it would. "We all knew things could go awry when it came to this city. That's why we gathered enough forces to cement ourselves and win."

The live stream of the conflict between Aldie, there only international teleporter, and the three Heroes had already gotten their hackles up. The stream suddenly cutting off as soon Aldie used the inferior as a hostage and pointed his gun at Styx had put them into a full on panic.

"I'm not so sure about that anymore, love. They've torn through everything we've hit them with so far." Jan whined, the man's almost bleach blonde hair sticking to his forward with sweat. His rather disheveled appearance contrasting with the almost angelic glow of gray light coming from his skin. Gisela could respect the paranoia of always having one's power active whenever feasible, but that didn't make the difficulty in reading his expressions any less irritating.

"Those were probing strikes, nothing more, and the grunts we've sent have actually come close more than once. If we struck at them with a coordinated force we'd be seeing very different results. Right now, we should just keep focusing on reinforcing our position among the other gangs while sending out a few sacrificial lambs to distract the Heroes." Gisela finished all this and then braced for the retort she felt Stefan would make.

"Stop with the incessant coddling and give it to us straight." Stefan practically barked, right on cue, his broad shoulders hunched in agitation. Like the rest of them, there wasn't any visual indicators of when he had his power ready but the movements her power foretold if she attacked made it more than obvious.

Gisela let Thomas, by far the least fit among with a large beer-belly and long stringy hair, beat her to the punch. "Aldie is one of the fastest teleporter I've seen and has amazing range." His voice was filled with what most would call forced-confidence, his in experience in vouching for anyone other than himself showing. "They just need to drop that anchor for an instant while he's paying attention and he'll be states away."

"Unfortunately, that won't be happening." The familiar voice made them all jump as it emanated from the laptop's speakers at full volume.

"H- hello, Laurel." Gisela said as she dearly wished her power worked through technology.

"Hello, Gisela." Laurel replied. "As I was saying; Aldie is no longer with us."

"Shit. It was Styx wasn't it?" Stefan asked.

"You should've been worried about whether he'd been captured." The woman admonished the man, her tone pitched as if talking to a particularly slow child. "And no; he followed protocol and made sure to self-terminate instead of being interrogated."

A silence settled over the room as they all took that in, and everything it entailed for them.

"So, is that it? We're just stuck here now?" Stefan said, his words unquestionably rhetorical.

Thomas snorted at the shorter man's words. "The hell do you mean 'we'? As if little-miss-oracle over there can't escape even if everything completely went to shit."

"Stop whining." Laurel interjected, cutting off Gisela's retort before it could even form. "This wasn't some frivolous incursion. Retreat was always a worst-case scenario last resort option and I told you from the beginning that the DVA keeps too much of a watchful eye on international teleporters for me to grant you access to any you didn't bring yourself." Her voice dipped down from its normal apathetic and calm tone to something colder. "You came here, and I equipped you, to win; just fight and use your resources with any modicum of skill and things will start to go smoothly."

Even though none dared to say so; In spite of their cultural differences, varying toxic personalities, and slight distrust they all internally swore at the end of Laurel's lecture. Why did this damn American have to go and jinx it?

* * *

"You doin' okay, man?" Greg asked as he, Vanessa, and Shane walked down one of the base's many hallways. "They didn't show it on the news, censors got it, but I heard the report; that must have been rough."

"I should have guessed by the way he slurred a bit. It wasn't because he was on anything, it was the pill in his mouth." Shane replied, voice bitter.

It was a few hours after the teleporter incident and Shane had just finished his debriefing. The hostage was fine, after some healing and being put into custody, and was revealed to in fact be an officer from a private bodyguard service that didn't know about his client's criminal inclinations. The report on the now-deceased teleported hadn't come in yet, but Shane thought he could make a pretty good guess as to which gang he worked for. "That pill speaks to a whole other level loyalty we'd never accounted for."

"Sorry." Vanessa said, voice tinged with guilt.

"What for? What happened wasn't your fault." Shane replied bluntly.

"Yeah, but still… I feel kind of bad that, while you were out there dealing with real shit, Greg and I were playing Spells, Swords, & Stealth."

Shane opened his mouth, a reminder that taking periodic days off was important, before a better idea popped into his mind. "Oh, well then. I guess you should feel ashamed if you were playing that lame D&D knockoff." It took an immense amount of willpower to stop a completely amused expression from appearing on his face as he saw Greg and Vanessa's twist into supreme offense, though he couldn't quite suppress a small smirk.

"Woah, back it up there, Shadow Man. It's so much better than ole double D." Greg shot back, all compassion and understanding disappearing from his voice.

"I mean, I guess you see it that way if you couldn't appreciate the Shakespearian grace and deeper themes of the senior board game." Shane shot back.

Vanessa let out a sound that seemed stuck between a snort of derision and sqawk of indignation before putting a hand on her hip and pointing the other at him perilously; clearly intent on giving him a long lecture with Greg looking like he wasn't far behind.

Shane took the tongue lashing in stride as they made their way towards the meeting room, simply happy that they weren't wasting time feeling sorry about him or guilty for enjoying their own well-earned free time.

A minute of nerd jousting later and they arrived in the main meeting room to see everyone was already seated, with only Steve and Maria standing off to the side. Shane noticed that they'd been whispering something to each other before quickly stopping as soon as they walked through the door but shelved it away as just "odd" before going to sit beside his mentor. Despite the somber start to his day, he was looking forward to this.

With everyone seated, Jack cleared his throat and began speaking. "I'm not a particularly coy person so I'll be upfront about this: In light of recent problems, and the informative council of my comrades, we have elected to bring on another Hero of the more cunning persuasion. Someone I believe most of you have already met."

And then, with a familiar 'swoosh' sound, one of the metal door slid open and Pulp stepped through in full costume. "Hey, new teammates!"

There was some cheering at the confirmed arrival of a new member, exuberance at the prospect of a more permanent residence. As helpful and determined as the interns were, all of the mentors had noticed by now that Amy and Shane would most likely jump at the chance to form their own teams not long after their two years were up; most likely taking Greg and Vanessa along with them.

"So… what's your power?" Amy asked without preamble.

"Well, I guess I could deign to tell you all what my ability is." Pulp said with mock arrogance before straightening up when Jack gave her look. "Well, there's not much to say really; I'm a carbon manipulator."

"What?" Vanessa asked, her eyes wide.

"Let me finish." Pulp said before anyone else could interrupt, people always got carried away with questions when she told them. "I can manipulate the carbon element of anyone or thing I make skin contact with, primarily concerning where it's concentrated and intensity. Obviously, I can use my power on myself to be a strongman and I can use it to punch through almost anything by weakening the density of carbon in an area the moment I land a hit." Pulp relished the wide and astonished looks she got as she described her power; it was a rare occasion indeed that Subtlety Hero got to impress their peers with how combat capable a power they had on top of having a sharp mind.

Then her eyes flicked to the side at Steve for a moment before continuing. "I've got a few other tricks up my sleeves of course, mostly involving manipulating how loose or rigid the carbon inside something is, but we can cover that in a proper power assessment later; we have more important things to discuss today. Spectrum didn't call this big meeting together just to introduce little ol me."

"She's right; now that we've got the introductions out of the way we should move onto the more tactical side of this meeting: Pulp and Steve have some important information to relay to us." Jack said before gesturing for Steve to step forward.

"First of all, I'd like to apologize for the delay." Steve said first, expertly suppressing the urge to squirm under the attention of so many people. "Company business arose concerning a private military company trying to contract us for less than legal services… again. But being personally contracted by the DVA to help analyze technology made my employee's especially motivated get on top of things. Here is our report about the most recent laser weapons you've had used against you: They're trash."

"Uh, what do you mean "trash"?" Greg asked. "They aren't anything too fancy sure, but from what I've been told they've got a lot of power."

Steve shook his head with a smile. "I admire how much firepower you guys have, and it means you recognize destructive potential when you see it, but you smash through opposition so fast you don't notice the nuances of someone's defenses. Yes, their laser weapons are unusually strong but that's all they have; they're fragile, imprecise, unwieldy, and have an incredibly high recharge time." Steve said as a schematic of the very gun he was talking about appeared on the monitor mounted to the wall. And now that they got better look, un-warped by the heat of combat, everyone could see that he was right. Well, at least about the design, there a clear emphasis on looking intimidating over actual balance and ease-of-use.

He continued on. "This is why Police, soldiers, and Heroes have only been given gradual and nuanced increases to their standard gear and aren't running around in power armor or using laser weapons; anything of quality takes too much time and resources to mass produce. And where there is attempted mass production of tech-genius inventions, there is a lot of money and bluster."

Then Pulp stepped forward and picked up where his speech ended. "And the bragging and dealing becomes infinitely more blatant and uncontrolled when violent idiots are the primary consumers of such weaponry. The guys at the top of this gang might be more disciplined but the grunts and Super muscle they recruited are far less concerned about openly intimidating and showing off to the other gangs. And, most importantly, "

"Are just going to tickle our balls all day or is there a point your getting to?" Rikki heckled from her seat next to Amy, though both her expression and tone indicated that she spoke with no real malice. Amy, for her part, merely rolled her eyes at her mentor's crass outburst; she had long since gotten use to them.

"Well, since you asked so nicely I guess I've got no choice." Pulp said. "You all already know how to beat the common Super thug and occasional maniac with more power than sense. I'd say it's time you learned how to negotiate information out of, let's say, individuals of questionable relation to the criminal element in this city. And I hear you guys already know about some of the local ones, but I'm betting the interactions have been brief at best." At everyone's nod she revealed the two individuals she thought would be most useful; "Olivia" and "Kurtis", gun and drug connections respectively. "And if we put on just the right amount of pressure we might get something about this enhancing drug as well."

Shane felt his spirits rise past the somber mood that had settled over him after the day's events. This was a new opportunity, he'd never been trained in this kind of negotiation, he'd mostly focused on Close Combat and Control in the HCP. And, despite the increase in stakes and lethality, the fights he'd gotten into since becoming a Hero had actually been easier than the Sim battles.

"Of course, we'll have to wait until after Spectrum and Styx finish with their interview tomorrow. They'll be the ones I have tag along with me and record the conversation."

The groan Shane let out then wasn't terribly loud but the annoyance was clear to everyone that heard it.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 39

"You remember the advice I gave you?"

Shane looked up and nodded at Jack before going back to checking over his costume for the third time that afternoon. They were in the backstage of Neal Chandler's studio, Shane in his gleaming, black suit reminiscent of knights' armor and Jack in more traditional Hero garb with a cowl and his iconic rainbow highlight.

The advice Jack had given him was crucial, simple to remember, and took a clear mind to properly execute. Which had made all the weekend recitals leading up to this day, while not annoying, more bearable in Styx's eye.

There were three general pillars; Don't reveal team secrets, whether it be the mechanics of powers, security measures, identities, or planned operations. Be sure to obfuscate and deflect about the specifics of his own powers or techniques if he had the skill to. And least important of all; maintain his masquerade, or "Hero persona", whenever answering questions or initiating himself. The third one was of least consequence because, while a Hero's persona was important to maintain for selling merchandise and a better relationship with the public, it was ultimately not vital to the more immediately dangerous parts of a Hero's job.

"Yeah, I've got 'em memorized." Shane said after making sure every bit of his costume was firmly in place and looked at his surroundings. The backstage of Neal's studio was both darker and brighter than Shane had expected, if that made any sense; large spot lights and cameras were angled down to light the set while entire other sections of the building were left in complete darkness. An, admittedly large part, of Shane's mind took especial note of how conducive such an environment was for using his power.

"How's the rest of the team doing outside?" Shane asked.

Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "Why don't you just ask Dispatch to give you a direct line to them?"

Shane recognized that tone and, partial due to the mask, expression. "They're on guard duty in a very hot city for Heroes. I've been on guard duty before in the HCP; they don't need any more distractions necessary."

"Good answer." Jack said with an approving nod. "They're doing fine with Atomic Conjurers acting as support. Well… aside from Goblyn and Samshiel throwing the occasional barb at each other. I swear, those two have been trying to one-up each other ever since they met."

Shane took mental note of Neal going through his introduction on the stage before responding. "Is it a problem?"

"Not yet, but I'll probably tell Terram about it, just to be safe."

Before the conversation could go any further an anxious looking assistant gave them the single to walk on stage and take their seats.

'Here goes nothing except my entire public image.' Shane thought sardonically before walking fully onto the well-lit, wooden floor as Styx. He and Spectrum were immediately hit with a wave of cheers and hollers as the crowd finally got to see them. The name of the show hung boldly from the ceiling in confident silver and gold letters; "Variant Scoop". It was bit of an odd name but had captured the attention of a lot of people hungry for news about the world of Heroes and Supers in general.

"And here is the dynamic duo themselves!" Neal said with, if not faked, slightly forced enthusiasm. "Spectrum, and his newest intern, Styx, have deigned to grace our presence." The man had what Styx guessed would be medium length, black hair if it wasn't slicked back into a pseudo-mullet and was wearing an electric-blue suit over his slightly pudgy frame.

Styx decided to give the crowd a little wave when he saw a few of them look nervous as their eyes fell upon him, before taking his seat beside Spectrum in the plush chair set up for him. It was odd that Neal hadn't called him a 'sidekick' but not too unusual, it wasn't exactly a secret what the official title was anyways.

"So, Styx; There has been a lot of talk surrounding the Lander HCP for the past couple of years. And, based on what little we've been able to gleam from some of the other Heroes, the class you came from has a particularly fearsome reputation and nickname. You ever heard of the name, 'Class of Nightmares' or 'Shadow of Lander'?"

Spectrum chuckled a bit at that and Styx quickly answered. "It's a bit theatrical, but that's to be expected from a group that likes to professionally wear capes and cowls." After letting the light laughter subside from that comment he continued. "Yes, I'm aware of the name and how it caught on during our final year of training."

"And the other moniker?"

"I'll be honest; I'd never heard of it until I became an intern. You say you just very recently heard the nickname from other Heroes?" At Neal's affirmation Styx turned his head slightly towards Spectrum and, after getting the briefest of nods, continued. "Then it likely comes from one of my… extracurricular activities."

The answer was cheeky, through and through, but it got a nice reaction from the crowd and didn't reveal much of anything about what exactly his class done last year. Maybe this interview thing would go smoother than he'd expected-

"Hmm, as competent, and intimidating, those names suggest these new crops of Heroes will be, there are those who seemed concerned that such a violent name will glorify and embolden other Heroes to use violence when it's not necessary." Neal's follow up question squashed such idealistic notions before they could even fully form.

'Of course, things had to veer into controversial territory as soon as I got cocky.' Styx thought before answering.

"Well, you see…"

* * *

Immadesco, after walking briskly out of a room and letting the door slam behind him, immediately turned toward the small sink in the corner of the "lounge" and began washing the blood from his slightly coarse hands. The room was really only a lounge insofar that it was a room between his current office and adjacent to his disciplinary chamber.

Out of the corner of his eye Immadesco saw one of his enforcers, a large man with tattoos all over his body and decorating his shaved head, straighten up as soon as he had entered the room. "Good afternoon, Francis." He greeted, a small flutter of happiness appearing in his chest at the sight of one of his best enforcers remembering to show such respect.

"Nice to see you to, boss." Francis said, his voice smoother than his rough appearance would indicate. "Brad told me to be here as soon as possible."

"I only sent him that request an hour ago. Your promptness is appreciated." Immadesco said as he finished drying his hands of the water and special cleaner he used, a minor effort of will making his palms completely dry. "I want you and the others to up your recruitment efforts in the poorer districts of the city, focusing on any Supers or Powereds you can find as well. I understand that a town with such a 'diverse' rooster of Heroes makes it slightly difficult to do so without getting some push-back; but there are still brothers and sisters out there that are sympathetic to our cause and only need the slightest push to have hope that the Heroes aren't as indomitable as they seem."

"Ah, I gotcha, boss." Francis said. "I'll call up Gregory and the rest of us to get on it but, if you don't mind me asking. Why did I need me to visit just for you to tell me that?"

"You didn't." Immadesco said simply. "Brad sent you here because someone needed to carry Todd back to his apartment." The tall man said as he gestured towards the door he'd originally come out of. "He'll be on the table in there; he already knows what to do and don't fret about the wounds. He's in no danger of bleeding out."

Francis wordlessly got up and strode towards the room, offering a quick "Yes, Immadesco.", before opening the door and stepping through. He was thoroughly unsurprised by the warped and bleeding body his hazel eyes fell upon and quickly got to work.

His boss was smart, loaded, had a good power, and was apparently very well connected. And for that he had immense respect for the guy, and even agreed with the more brutal methods of discipline he'd become known for.

All of that in consideration though: Francis didn't want to be around the unstable freak any longer than he needed to.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 40

It had barely been two hours and the damn sky was already getting dark. The, now winter, season had pulled down the sun far faster than suspected, making traversal of the long alleyways vastly more difficult for the group, a light frost clinging to the sides of the brick buildings that towered over them.

Though reaching their destination was far from impossible; flash lights and knowledge of street signs were something any Super gang that navigated the seedier the of this city learned to use. When they heard screaming while walking up the final path, Francis signaled for the rest to stop while he inched closer and took a look around the corner.

What he saw were three shoddily dressed figures perfectly fidgeting in place. The three individuals with looks of terror seemingly stuck on their faces were repeating the exact same movement over and over as a man in a thick hoody walked between them.

"The hell do you want, Francis?" The loan man that was moving between the figures yelled as soon as he caught sight of the taller, tattooed man peaking at him. His voice was surprisingly gruff despite his lean form and overall sleek look.

Before Francis could even attempt to speak the man turned on his heel, slid a crowbar from inside his coat, and with one swift motion brought it down hard on the back of the neck of one of the stuck individuals. The sickening cracking sound reverberated throughout the back alley… before a sickening, wet crunching sound began as the person, now corpse, continued to move repeatedly. "We can talk while I take care of business." The man said before turning back and bringing down his crowbar onto another one of the figures. His blows were quick, precise, and brutal; starting at the neck before working his way down to either the back, legs, or arms.

"Uh, no need to be so distant, Stopper. Just came to offer you a job." Francis said as he readied his own power, prepared to take flight at the slightest hint of aggression.

The man, Stopper, let out an annoyed sigh before snapping his fingers, causing the three standing corpses to ripple before stopping suddenly and collapsing. Stopper than turned fully towards Francis, his completely silver eyes boring into the taller man as ran a hand through his dark hair. "Listen, Francis, I know we go way back and I'm willing to do some freelance work. But this new gang you're with is a little much, even for me."

This was the problem with Stopper. He was utter Hell in a fight when properly motivated. But the man wasn't what anyone would call dedicated or "loyal to a fault". Not that Francis could fault him too much for the attitude, such Nobel inclinations would have gotten him killed in their line of work. And besides, other than money, Francis could promise one of the few things that would make Stopper do almost anything.

"There's some cash in it for you, but just in case that isn't enough motivation, I'll also give you a chance to hurt Spectrum." Francis said, standing a bit taller.

And with that he'd gotten him. The short Super might protest a bit when he heard the exact details, but the look in his eye betrayed his decision already.

Stopper's eyes went wide with fury and excitement at the famous Hero's moniker before saying. "Alright… you've got my attention; How can you help me hurt that sack of shit?"

* * *

"So, why take the name 'Styx'?"

This question came after Styx had explained, in a rather convincing way he thought, about how aside from one other person in his class he was the most careful in the use force when fighting. And his mentioning that said other person had an ability far more powerful than his had served its purpose of diverting everyone else's attention.

Styx hadn't majored in Subtlety, but his grandfather had done his best to make sure that he knew how to handle the media. Aside from villains, it was the greatest threat any Hero would face.

The glint in Neal's eye did worry him a bit though.

"It's from Greek mythology and is the name of a dark river that runs through the underworld. Seemed to fit my powerset pretty well." Styx said before making a quick gesture with is hand and causing an inky black tendril to rise out of his own shadow. The manifestation was dismissed quickly afterwards, but not before eliciting excited murmurs from the crowd.

"Oh? No other reason?" Neal intoned. "Like, say, because it connects mythologically to Charon?"

Styx stopped short at that. How had this man known about why he picked his name? Sure, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the mythology could see the connection between the names, but that was a pretty thin connection to try and capitalize on live television and tons of Heroes had names derived from that particular belief system.

Then it hit him, the kind of proof that would cause someone to assume there was a connection between the Heroes Charon and Styx.

Noticing, and sending up silent thanks that, the crowd and Neal were hesitating with his reaction because his helmet hid his expression. He quickly took the initiative while he could. "I'm guessing you noticed the famous duality of our abilities?" It was best to not outright confirm things just yet.

"U- um, well, yes." Neal started off before quickly regaining his composure after unexpectedly having his decisive question met with a calm question. "Captain Starlight was the first and most famous superhero after all. And naturally his powers were the most heavily theorized about, both in the private and public eye. Two Heroes appearing within a relatively short time of each other, one with his light and another wielding his darkness powers wasn't hard for clever individuals to piece together and make the logical leap that you three are related."

Spectrum looked nervous yet resigned and trusting. Styx felt the respect he had for his mentor go up a few notches at the realization and decided to go forward from here.

"Those individuals would be right. Though I can't get into specifics for obvious reasons; I can confirm that I am a distant relative of Captain Starlight." Well, as distant as a grandparent and grandchild are.

"And that brings me to my next point." Neal said, his voice nearly cracking with excitement. "Is your senior's, Captain Starlight, legacy the reason why you've been going so ruthlessly after the new gang that's popped up in our city? It's become fairly common knowledge that some of the… regalia they've started to associate themselves with would greatly offend the old Captain considering the era he grew up in."

Before Styx's brain could properly catch up to his mouth he blurted out the most dangerous thing he could have said during this entire event. The truth; motivated by pride and indignation at the accusation.

"Oh no, it has nothing to with proving myself; I just really hate Nazis."

The young Hero realized what he'd blurted out just in time to catch the gob-smacked look on Spectrum's masked face before the crowd erupted with noise.

 

[Exejpgwmv]

Chapter 41

"Sorry, Lenny. I kinda screwed the pooch on that interview." Shane said into his cell phone without preamble. His blunt tone didn't mean his apology wasn't genuine, as anyone who knew him for long would be able to tell, the attitude was merely a product of his upbringing. Mistakes were to be handled upfront and as soon as possible when he was raised and trained, grandpa especially preferring apologies and explanations that didn't drag on.

"Not gonna lie to you, Shane; this could turn into a complete shit-show. As you probably already know, there's a reason Heroes don't get political often; say or promote the wrong thing at the wrong time and some people might refuse to be saved by you. And I know enough about Hero work that delays like that can be disastrous." Lenny said, the clickity-clack sounds of keys on a keyboard being hit signaling that his attention was split even as he talked to Shane.

"Yeah… I know."

"Up side though; that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, based on the reports I've read so far, you're going to be making an ass-load of money." Lenny replied.

"W- wait, what?" Shane stuttered in surprise.

"Yeah! Remember, I said it could have gone bad for you. But as it turns out; the idea of a descendant of Captain Starlight being a Hero that makes it his business to hunt down violent Nazis is incredibly appealing to the public. If I'm not careful you'll run out of merchandise before the end of the week."

That… wasn't what Shane had ever even considered. Sure, if someone had asked him straight if most of the public would agree with his brunt line during that interview, he would've said yes with absolute confidence. But, to his rather embarrassed surprise, he'd been too caught up on the fact that he had misspoken instead of on what he'd actually said. "That's… That actually makes me feel a hell of a lot better, and a little bit proud of the people in my town."

"If you think that only the locals have got their eyes on you and your merchandise then you are in for a very pleasant surprise in the next few days." Lenny said with a chuckle. "And that reminds me; we need something a little more physically iconic from you to sell as merch and it just so happens to coincide with the idea I've got for an amazing new addition to your costume." Lenny said. "Tell me; How do you feel about cloaks?"

"I'd need to think on that, it might be a bit-" Shane tried to say before being cut off by a call from out in the hall.

"Styx, are you ready? It's time to get going." Jack half-yelled from down the hall to be heard.

"I've got to go, we'll talk about this later." Shane said hurriedly before shutting off the phone, putting it on his desk, and picking up his Hero phone. He wasn't a close-range fighter, sure, but a flowing cloak might be a little much.

It was the day Pulp had said would be best for meeting with Kurtis and Olivia. His nerves buzzed a bit in anticipation of the upcoming trip as he met up with Spectrum and Pulp. But the sight of the rest of the team lined up near the entrance waiting for them eased them a bit.

"You guys here to send us off?" Shane asked as he approached them, Pulp and Spectrum flanking him.

"Yeah." Amy said with little enthusiasm.

"You bet." Victoria followed up.

"I wanted to just relax, but Hugh made me come anyways." Greg said dryly before giving Shane a wry grin.

Shane felt his spirits lift a bit at their answers, they'd all been honest in their own ways at least.

"It's a bit of a tradition with this team to personally see off any members that go on completely new kinds of missions." Rikki explained.

"It has been since the first leader, Prime, started this team. We've found that it can ease worries and nerves, always helpful for Heroes considering how things can get very violent very fast for us."

"Aww, Thanks." Pulp said before looking at each of the interns. "And don't you three worry, I'll be taking a different one of you, and your mentor, every time I go out for a 'visit'. I'm going to be asking a lot in these meetings without being able to give much in return. And while I usually wouldn't care about stepping on a few toes, some unpredictable and strong muscle will go a long way in stopping them from just telling me to fuck off."

"So, we're going to be thinly veiled bodyguards?" Hugh asked.

"I prefer the term; 'specialized diplomacy assets'."

* * *

The next two hours were quite peculiar as Pulp simply led them along as she traveled to different, slightly remote, spots in downtown passing messages along to seemingly innocuous people on the street. Until finally they were directed to a rundown theater, the old wood and metal of it's frame practically screaming every time it was buffeted by the chilly, not quite winter, winds.

Which was a sharp contrast to the relatively put together area they arrived in, past several very nervous looking guards, which was in fact the stage area of the theater where two people lounged on a leather couch.

"Well, if it isn't Pulp." The bubbly looking woman with short black hair, who Shane assumed was Olivia, said. "And you've got our resident paragon of power and Nazi hunter in tow as well."

The shorter man beside her was far less coy in his answer though. "This is quite bold of you Pulp. Honestly, if you hadn't give us forewarning, I would've assumed you Heroes would finally be coming down us." The man, presumably Kurtis, said.

Based on what Styx could see, they still considered that a possibility with how often the guards at the exits and around both Olivia and Kurtis glanced worryingly at both him and Spectrum. Though he did notice that a few of the eyes that lingered on his sleek and armored form were tinged with… not approval, but definitely less distrustful than the glances Spectrum or Pulp received. Interesting as that was though, he couldn't let oddity stop him from fulfilling his role. "We came to talk business." He said, his voice easily carrying to everyone in the room. Nobody would call it aggressive per say, but it definitely didn't seem like objections would be appreciated.

Pulp nodded and stepped forward, placing herself in front of the two Heroes. "A little blunter than I'd prefer, but he is right. We're not here for small talk or verbal dick jousting."

"A little presumptuous for such a green Hero, wouldn't you say?" Kurtis said, his hazel eyes watching Styx carefully as every guard shifted their attention a little more towards him.

Olivia cut threw the uncertain atmosphere though. "It's fine. You guys can go take a break or get some jobs done while we talk." She waved and the goons filtered out without pause. Her tone was calm, almost amused, and Styx had the inkling that of two individuals before them she was far more dangerous.

Kurtis huffed but didn't voice any protest. "Well, now that our boys are out of earshot: What can we do for you?"

"We need info on the White Boars." Pulp said without preamble, her mask partially gone now that the thugs weren't around.

Kurtis had relaxed too, loosening the tie on his suit and leaning back. "I don't give those fucks much attention, really. Couple of my boys keep watch over our territory and spotted them trying to recruit more though." He explained. "The tech weapons, zealous followers, and abundance of Super muscle makes it dangerous to confront them."

"Don't judge Kurtis too harshly though; he takes it upon himself to guard our people and business. While I've been able to setup someone undercover in my free time and recently found out something very juicy." Olivia said, her mouth twisted into a satisfied smile. "It seemed prudent to keep a closer eye on a group that's causing that much of a shit-storm, it was a little hard convincing Tom to take the job though. Anyways; The boss of their outfit came down pretty hard on his tech-super. Not enough to cripple him, obviously, but definitely enough to keep him well in line; word is it was because he kept sensitive information in his 'base' and someone managed to steal it."

Pulp ignored the look Olivia gave her and folded her arms. "Go on."

"Her point is that the tech guy is probably gonna be sloppier and a little less stalwart in his loyalty after catching a beating like that. I bet if you found him and put on a little pressure he'd fold like wet paper." Kurtis said, ignoring the pout directed at him by Olivia.

"That's pretty forthcoming for you. And you haven't made a single demand of payment." Pulp questioned, her tone more curious than accusatory.

Olivia rolled her eyes at that. "Come on, Pulp. If our skin color wasn't a big enough indicator; then our aversion to direct conflict and wanton violence should indicate that we both have a vested interest in getting such a recklessly violent gang out of this city.

Kurtis glanced over at Styx and Spectrum before voicing his own opinion. "And we got the feeling you might want something a little more comprehensive than usual. Besides, Tom does some work for both of us and he's exceptionally loyal too. Don't want a valuable asset like that getting any deeper into that cluster fuck of racists."

"Thanks for then help, I owe you one." The words Pulp said had a certain weight to them this time. Styx didn't know exactly what a Hero like her could offer people like Kurtis and Olivia, either with her connections or power, but based on how both of them straightened up a bit, it was probably substantial.

The meeting went by fairly quickly after that, Pulp pumped them for more information for a few minutes and things ultimately ended with them having a few places where they were seen recruiting the most and the knowledge that their tech guy was injured and possibly open to persuasion. Not exactly a smoking gun, but far then what they'd had before.

"So, what happens now?" Styx asked as they made their way back onto the street.

"Now Pulp goes back to base to inform the rest of the team while you and I go on patrol for the day" Spectrum said before turning towards Pulp. "And we'll need to discuss what exactly your favor entail."

Pulp gave a sheepish smile, but no apology seemed forth coming.

"All that being said though; good work today. We've got a relaxing day planned tomorrow with helping pitch in with cleaning up the street where you cut up all that Super tech. There won't be as many Heroes around but Corpies will be there to help out."

"We're gonna be babysitting Corpies all day tomorrow?" Pulp said, her tone decidedly not enthused.

Styx bristled a bit at that, "Corpies" was the slightly mean-spirited nickname PEERS teams were given and Pulp's question indicated that she didn't think much of them. The problem was that he'd seen how much good PEERS teams did over the past few months, cleaning up after almost every fight Heroes and criminal Supers got into. And their occupation and work ethic definitely helped with relations between humans and Supers as well.

"They've got a Hero liaison for that. Besides, I doubt it'll take more than a few hours with them helping us. We Heroes are better at fighting but rescue work and collateral damage relief is their specialty."