CLAIRE

I stepped through the portal into the salted road, right before the steps of City Hall. On their top stood Mayor McQueen, Chief Owens, and Thornton Andersen, the CEO of Atomic Energy.

At the bottom of the steps were Tenebrous, Black Phoenix, and Titanio, and they were gearing up for a fight.

"Oh great, the vigilantes are here," Chief Owens muttered as we showed up.

"We're the New Crusaders," I corrected, looking straight at the villains. "Get back from them."

"Really, you're defending them?" Tenebrous demanded as he raised his ray-gun. "Heretic, I would've thought better of you."

"Yeah, well, I'm not letting the innocent civilians get hurt," Heretic said as she raised her own ray-gun back at him. She glanced at me. "Enough good people have gotten hurt because of me. I'm not letting that happen anymore."

"You forget that no one's innocent in this city," Tenebrous snarled. "They're all complicit, they all let this happen."

"You're wrong." Heretic shook her head. "You used to understand the difference, but you don't, not anymore."

She paused. "I'm sorry, old friend."

She then fired—but nothing happened.

That's when everyone's head turned to Titanio.

Aka, our biggest problem.

"Thank you, Titanio." Tenebrous drawled. "Renegade, Psyche, I thought you would stay out of this after how the last fight ended. You look ridiculous with that terrible patch job."

"It's Aegis now," I declared, planting my hands on my hips.

I'd thrown together my new costume over the course of the day. It was white and teal, with a silver mask. It still needed some work, but I owned it. There was just something about it that felt uniquely me, you know what I mean?

I was no longer just an heir to my mother's legacy.

I'd created a legacy.

"Doesn't matter," Renegade said. "We'll bring you to justice all the same."

I looked over my shoulder to the mayor and his aides. "Run inside, we'll come and find you when we've defeated him. Don't come out until then."

The mayor looked as if he wanted to argue, but a pretty blonde aide pushed him inside, noticing the severity of the situation unfolding in front of us.

This was going to be a fair fight— or at least, that's what I thought.

Henry, Mira, and Tristan went for Titanio, taking to the skies to fight in a blur of lights. Heretic and Tenebrous began fighting for control over Tenebrous's ray-gun.

And that left me to go after Black Phoenix.

She just smiled behind her elegant black mask with red rhinestones as balls of fire formed in her fist.

"You shouldn't be playing with fire, you're going to get burned, little girl," Black Phoenix sneered before launching the first in a series of fireballs at me.

I didn't want to use up my energy on her, so I dived to the ground and rolled, trusting my own instincts as I fought to get closer— only for her to launch off.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Guess we're doing this the hard way," I muttered, and I remembered what I had practiced the day before— and I flew, using my energy blasts to propel myself up into the air.

It was just in time, too, as Tenebrous then touched the stone of the steps and sent the projectiles hurtling at Tristan— some of which grazed him as he created the portal to disappear.

I was reminded of what was at stake when Black Phoenix flung one of her fireballs at me. I managed to dodge— but it was too close.

I moved back, and looked around for something, anything to fling at her— but there was nothing. For a few minutes, it was just us flinging powers back and forth, and the little timer in my head was ticking down.

I couldn't keep exhausting myself like this— plus there was the problem of what could I do? Black Phoenix was supposed to be invulnerable. That was how Tristan had described it, anyway.

Not to mention the problem of energy running out. I was exhausted, and it hadn't been five minutes, yet.

I glanced down at the fight happening below us. Heretic was holding her own against Tenebrous— but she wasn't making much progress.

The same went for Tristan, Mira, Henry and Titanio. With his magical powers, Titanio was proving to be an equal match to the three of them.

We were going to need the other heroes to hurry up and save us.

I looked back to Black Phoenix, just in time to swoop around another ball of fire.

I reached out with my energy powers, halting the fireball in its path before the increasing torrent of snow and wind could extinguish it completely.

It was taking everything I had to stay afloat and pull the fireball out of its trajectory. I was sinking, and the flame was only just flickering— but I managed to fling it right back at Black Phoenix.

The widening of her eyes told me that I'd found her one weakness. She reached out a hand, and the fire instead plummeted to the duck pond by City Hall, which was frozen now that it had snowed.

Before I could make my next move, I felt a shockwave of energy pass through me, turning my vision red. Agonizing, jolting pain filled my body and I was falling—Titanio had struck me.

For a few seconds, I think I was out of it in a blur of pain and darkness.

I remember lying in the snow next— exhausted, in pain— and I heard Renegade yelling for me as he touched down to the ground. But Black Phoenix dropped down to stand in his way, her hands ablaze.

I felt something else, something coursing within me that was different from the telekinesis, different from the energy I had once known.

That's when I recalled what Nimbus did.

Powers are genetic.

I reached a hand out before Black Phoenix could hurt Tristan— and lightning flowed out of my fingertips in a graceful arc, forking off to Black Phoenix and Tenebrous.

Down they all went, crumpling completely. Titanio had stopped my power with one of his, I guess. He then just took one look and flew off into the night sky.

Before I could question who lived and who died, however, Tristan had run over to me.

"We won," he realized as he embraced me. "I can't believe it— that was—"

"Lucky," I said darkly, getting up. "Henry?"

"They're alive, unconscious, but alive," Henry determined. "Can you get them into the hospital, Renegade?"

"I think so." Renegade looked back to me. "You have to get the mayor."

"That's right, stay safe," I whispered, my eyes fixed on the scratches on his face.

"I always am." He smirked, and started picking up the bodies of the supervillains and disappearing.

I forced myself to get up, and I limped into the lobby, where Mayor McQueen was waiting, a shark like look on his face.

"The Sentinels will be pleased to see that the antihero, the new independent, and their escapee are back," McQueen said. "I've summoned them to this location. Security!"

Nothing happened.

Mayor McQueen looked confused. "Where is security?"

"They're not coming, sir."

He turned to see that the clever-looking blonde aide had pulled an elegant-looking pistol on him.

"Trenton, it's alright, put the gun down—"

"No, I don't think we will," Trenton said, with a toss of her hair. "We've been talking about the leak, as we scanned the documents, as asked. All are legitimate— and we know that several of them reference a politician who allowed Atomic Energy to carry out their genocidal plans."

Mayor McQueen paled. "You can't do this—"

"Actually," offered a male Hispanic aide, "We can. Section 13.1 A. We, as the office that handles the majority of the actions of the office, anyway, can overthrow a mayor we feel is acting not in the interests of Kingsbury."

Mayor McQueen laughed, albeit nervously. "You can't—- this is ridiculous—"

"No, what's ridiculous is that you've allowed a corporation to amass that much power," Trenton sneered. "Leave the kid alone. She did more to stop this threat than you ever have. That was the plan, between the heads of Atomic Energy and you, wasn't it? Let the supers kill each other off— that's not how it's going to work anymore. The police are coming, and not the local ones. We're not going to stand for this anymore."

The Hispanic aide looked to me. "You and your friends should leave. You've received our thanks, Aegis."

"Thank you," I said, more in relief than anything else. I nodded, and I left into a snowy free new world.