Walking down the corridor, Jim yawned in exhaustion. His wife had been nagging all night about moving out of their neighborhood. He was born and raised in the Low District, but Sharon wanted to return to the Middle District. Her family lived there for the first twelve years of her life until the first Titan attack.

"Jim! Finally!" Steven spotted him just as Jim entered the large gate room. Phil stood quietly on the other side of the giant door with his rifle in hand.

"Sorry, forgot to set my alarm and woke up late." Jim apologized. Steven had been stuck here well over thirty minutes after his shift ended because of him.

Jim glanced around the chamber he was in. It looked like an empty warehouse with two small doors, one headed to the entrance and the other leading down. A fortified bunker underneath this building held the equipment that generated our little protective bubble. The Titan attack taught us that we needed to keep it better protected.

"Any mistlings or titans?" Jim joked in hopes of calming Steven.

"Just get your ass over here." He was not in the mood.

Steven passed off his rifle to Jim, then angrily stomped toward the hallway to leave. All three of them froze when the gate began cracking open. None of them had worked here ten years ago during the Titan attack. Their first thought was, is it happening again?

Two arms shot out of the gap and flew toward Jim and Phil. Before reaching them, the disembodied limbs transformed into thick green vines. They wrapped themselves around their targets and restricted until movement was impossible. The rifles would have been jammed uncomfortably into their sides if not for the personal armor they wore.

Stephen was shocked but didn't hesitate to rush to the nearest alarm. He did not have a rifle, so he could only pray his warning got out. Mentally berating the fuckers that cut their department's budget last year, Steven activated the burst mode of his armor. If only he still had a sidearm, at least he would have a chance.

The extra bump in speed brought him right on top of the button, which he slammed his fist into. And nothing happened. "Fuck! Why aren't you working?" A few more punches, and he gave up.

Steven's nose felt almost torn off as some force yanked his helmet from his head. He was pulled backward by the sudden action, nearly landing on his noggin as he hit the ground. A moment later, he got swarmed by hands.

***

I fully stepped into the room as my arms brought over the helmets of all three guards. They were all pressed up against the ground to prevent them from catching a glimpse of me. My hands covered my face, but extra precautions might not hurt, especially after we hit an issue at the front door. There were only supposed to be two guards.

Getting a look at their faces resulted in nothing. I had wanted a clue about this place from what the people looked like. It was just three pretty generic white guys. That last guy also spoke English, but that helped very little.

A part of me wanted to interrogate these men while I had them, but hanging around here was asking to get caught. One question should be okay. "Are you military?"

Their power armor failed to impress, but all three had the same set. It looked professional.

I uncovered their mouths and waited for a response. Their armor and guns were too good to be given to a regular person. After touching them with my projected arms, I knew they were not superhumans. I got a copy of their limbs added to my mental library, and no powers were associated with them.

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"Fuck you!"

"We're gonna die!"

"It's not too late to let us go!"

Covering the mouths of two guards, I focused on the one most scared. "Answer my question, and I'll let you live."

"We work for the Science Council! T-They won't be very happy!" His answer was enough. Only a bunch of techie superhumans would call themselves the science council.

Hearing a swish, I looked up at a door that just opened. No one came through, so I took that as a sign from Jeanie. Dropping the helmets, I left the room.

Jeanie's voice came from the wall beside me a few steps into this corridor. "Those guards shouldn't be able to hear us now. Take a left up ahead. There will be a door immediately to your right. It's a locker room. You'll need to borrow one of the guard's clothes to blend in."

That brought my attention to what I was wearing, the skin-tight suit meant for the stasis pod. It looked like a gray wetsuit. The lack of shoes did not affect me. I used to run around the lake near my high school barefoot. Instead of sand, all we had was pebbles.

The door she told me about opened as I approached. A very classic locker room was waiting for me. A gym bag sat on a bench, so I started with the locker in front of it. A few minutes later, I wore blue jeans and a black shirt with my stasis suit underneath. Emptying the gym bag, I threw more sets of clothes into it from the other lockers. There were no extra socks, and I only needed one pair of shoes.

The wallets had photo IDs but no money, so I discarded them. This city, whatever it may be, was called Lighton. No state was listed on it, which was weird, but everything pointed toward this being a closed society created by superhumans.

"Take one of those IDs with you." Jeanie came out of a screen on the wall.

"What good is it?" Someone else's ID was not like to be of any use to me.

"It's sophisticated enough that I can possess it. I'll need somewhere to hide while in the city." We would need to deal with that, but this would have to do. Her lack of a physical body made me feel guilty. Every loss my team suffered was on my shoulders.

My new bag got slung over my shoulder as I left the room. Jeanie helped guide me to the exit, opening any locked doors in between. The staff here needed a keycard to pass specific points, but Jeanie could handle it.

There weren't many people that worked on the lower floors of the tower. From their looks, I guessed it was all security and maintenance. Jeanie maneuvered me to avoid as many as possible, and the few I did pass held no interest in someone clearly at the end of their shift. To them, I was just someone headed home.

"Last part before we enter the city. Ahead is a lobby that leads to the street, with four guards posted around the area. There's also a clerk at a desk, but they're in plain clothes." She warned me.

She would maintain control over this building's surveillance system until I got just out of sight, then she would find me. I would have to slow down in the city to give her time to catch up.

Just as I was preparing to step out into the open, a knife stabbed into a limb wrapped around one of the previous guards. I forgot to leave an eye behind, so there was no way to tell what was happening. Something very sharp rapidly cut through the rest of those limbs. I dematerialized them once it became pointless to sustain.

"Someone's freed the guards. They're on to us." I whispered it to Jeanie, stepped out, and hustled toward the door. A few glances from the guards and the desk attendant was all I got.

My confidence had soared once I made it halfway across the room when a man walked in. His costume told me he was superhuman. It was skin-tight, black, and had holes all over it. There was no tearing, and each gap was diamond-shaped. Parts of his abs, arms, legs, and chest were on display.

His entirely uncovered face was unusual. Whether they were a hero or a villain, most superhumans I had met tended to hide their identity.

The new arrival stopped at the door and began chatting the guard up. Asking him to move sounded like a bad idea.

Time to try the direct approach. "Busy day?" I said.

The superhuman turned to look at me and then smiled. "You know how it is. I got stuck with tower duty this week." He seemed happy to abandon his conversation with the guard but stayed still. The exit sat tantalizingly right behind him.

"Name's Steven. Gotta say it's a pleasure to meet you." I used the name on the ID I had snagged.

I prayed for the guy to notice I was trying to leave, but he must not have been very observant. "Always nice to meet a fan." He did reach out for a handshake.

"Too bad I'm in such a rush. Just getting the chance to meet was awesome." Inside my head, I was begging him to move.

I think he understood because he finally moved out of the way. I worried it might have been a little heavy-handed since the guy was now frowning at me. Thankfully, he let me go without another word.

"You guys have a good one." Waving at the other guards, I exited the building.