MIRA

The stars and the falling snow and the city lights offset the gathering darkness as we emerged from one of Tristan's portals into an alleyway in downtown New Kingsbury.

I was the first to step out, to scout out any dangers. Henry joined me at my side. There was no one in the alleyway, there were no cars running about the city except for the sparse rule breaker and patrolling police car. No Sentinels and no villains lurked nearby.

I blinked, overcome by a sense of deja vu I couldn't explain. I looked to Henry—he nodded.

Suddenly I could recall where I'd seen the graffiti on the walls before.

This was the lair we had escaped from nearly a week prior.

Henry frowned, but said nothing. He glanced back to the portal and gestured for everyone else to come through, and made room for Heretic to come between us. Claire looked amazing in her all-white costume, like some kind of angel or something.

Aegis, Aegis, Aegis, I repeated in my head, trying to get used to the new hero name she'd declared to us.

She strolled right on through, her long black duster flaring out around her as she raised her ray gun over her shoulder.

She knocked a few times, then leaned close to the door.

No response came.

"Alright then." Heretic flicked a switch on her ray gun. "Time to rock and roll, then."

With that, she used her powers to fling open the door and extended her arm, aiming to shoot any of Dr. Electra's minions that dared to stop us.

But no one was there.

Not that that helped with the eeriness of the location. Lights flickered above us, and the sound of our boots' steps echoed through the sterile metal.

World Jumper closed the portal and the door behind us, like it was sealing us into a coffin. Overdramatic, I know, but there really was that grim sense of finality about it.

There was no going back. We'd made our decision and now we had to fight it through to the bitter end.

Heretic continued to one of the doors that I'd sprinted past, on the same hallway as the operating room. A glance at the wall-length of glass showed me that they'd cleaned up and fixed the machines, unfortunately, although there were places where the metal had obviously been strained by my powers emerging.

"Here, this should lead to the other bases and if I remember correctly, I can take us to the building they've got the device on." Heretic pondered it a moment. "Of course, who knows if they might have changed up or blocked off parts of the system?"

"How was Dr. Electra able to build an infrastructure like this beneath the city?" I asked.

"She didn't." Heretic opened the door and waited as the lights turned on, paving our way forward. She glanced back at me meaningfully. "Atomic Energy did. Who do you think was Dr. Electra's original sponsor?"

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I blinked. It was hardly the most surprising thing I'd learned about my parent company, obviously. Just another crime added to their rap sheet, another tragedy they were responsible for.

And yet. . .

"Why?" Henry's voice was pained. "Why would they let her do something like that?"

"To find out where superpowers came from, and if they could get rid of it," Heretic said, as casually as if were discussing the weather or where we would go get dinner after this. "Dr. Watson wanted volunteers, and to just understand the new phenomena. But naturally, not many people wanted to get near that. So Atomic Energy convinced her to make a few concessions in the name of progress, pushing her further and further down the line—then they snipped her funding when they became scared of the monster they created."

Heretic then laughed. "That's what really sent her over the edge. So she claimed their tunnels, their lairs—and by then it was too late. That was before the Sentinels, of course."

I looked to Henry—his hands were shaking, slightly. What surprised me, though was that he wasn't scared. He was livid.

Then his eyes found me. His expression softened a little, turning to a righteous simmering of anger, rather than the manic rage that had been there just a second before.

"They wronged all of us—we won't let them get away with this."

"One might wonder if it would serve them right, to let Tenebrous take it all," Tech Wizard muttered.

Claire smacked his shoulder. "Julien! Tenebrous is hurting people!"

"Not nearly as much as Atomic Energy, just saying." He held his hands up.

"We can turn our resources towards taking down Atomic Energy when the time comes," Nimbus said. "But Tenebrous cannot be allowed to take over the city, even if we do have a mutual goal. That's what separates a hero from a villain."

"Exactly." Heretic nodded. "Besides, Tenebrous could become an even bigger problem if he gets his hands on Atomic Energy's tech. He's gotten too powerful with the help of Dark Titan and Dr. Electra."

"And Dark Titan's kid, if he's anything like his old man," Renegade muttered.

"Which is exactly why we need to stop them now," World Jumper finished.

And so that was that.

Besides, while I had every reason to want to take my parent company down, just as much as everyone else, I couldn't ever forget that I was raised to save this city.

Even if I wanted to.

It felt longer than it actually took, to traverse the network of Dr. Electra's underground laboratories. Heretic stopped us right before a door marked with an X.

"We're here, this is their main headquarters now." Heretic rested the butt of her ray gun on her shoulder. She glanced to me. "Your job is to keep them away from the alarm while we attack, then give everything you've got to make it up to the roof before Titanio notices or anyone can ring the alarm, the rest of us will join you up there."

I nodded, preparing my.self to run at my true speed. Heretic opened. the door, and I was off.

The room around me slowed as I dodged past several of the minions of Dr. Electra's, Glitch and Menlo included in their numbers.

They hadn't been expecting anything like this, so they were panicked, reaching for their weapons and readying to fight.

Too bad I was too fast for them.

A minion I hadn't seen before was reaching towards a scarlet panic button on the wall.

I sprinted to her and vaulted over a table, sending myself flying at her.

She fell to the ground and I could hear a thud of her skull hitting the linoleum. I winced, but the rise and fall of her chest told me she'd be alright.

I mean, I didn't want to be like Powerline.

Still, I swiped her aluminum baseball bat off of her and surveyed the room for a second. The rest of my team spilled out of the door, on the attack.

They would be fine—I had a job to do and I would see it through.

I darted past the elevator doors and instead started up the staircase.

However, in the middle of the last flight to the top, I stumbled out of super-speed. Runner's pains surged up my sides, nearly bringing me to my knees. I tried to run again as they passed—but I only ran out to the roof at normal speed.

There, three figures were waiting for me.

In the front was Titanio, his mask lights twinkling like sinister scarlet stars.

"You turned off my powers," I realized.

That was a really strong power.

He said nothing, stepping aside for Black Phoenix to saunter forward. Her costume was beautiful, despite it having become a symbol of evil. A black bodysuit with flowing sleeves that looked like flaming wings with black opera gloves, she was elegant and deadly.

And now, hovering in the palm of her hand was a fireball.

My grip tightened around the baseball bat I'd confiscated. Luckily, I was still plenty dangerous even without my powers.