Training with the others was quite the experience. Part of it, I completely adored. The feeling of being in a squad once more. The camaraderie and pushing each other to be better. Aside from that, however, was how difficult it was to organize these weirdos into a functional unit.
There wasn’t one of us who could take a full strength punch from Roxy. She hadn’t even had the chance to bring out the lava for fear of killing one of us accidentally. While accepting of this long established fact, she had soured a little on the training without being able to really exert herself.
Ren had shown off the true power of her artefact for the first time. It took a little while to power up, but on the outside of our home area, she had produced a small hurricane that whipped around the loose sand and got in everyone’s eyes. I had a feeling it would be something like that, but aside from this show and being a decent shot with her summonable arrows, she was the most fragile out of all of us.
Nobody could keep up with Roy. Even without his electric fists, the only one who could weather a flurry of his punches was Roxy. After nearly splitting him in half by kicking out in frustration, he had decided to go a bit slower. Something that soured him as well.
Belle had been working hard, no matter what was going on. Everybody needed a shield, and having to put them on Roxy while the others beat on her was tiring the supportive hero out. I could almost tangibly feel the desire to be more than a shielder radiating off of her.
Although I had organized and set them off, I had been rather hands off for this first portion of the training. I wanted to see what they were capable of when left to their own devices without too much direction. It was easy to see how they had fallen away from each other once Roxy’s leadership was dead and buried.
Left like this, they’d get disheartened once more.
[Roxy, could I borrow you for a second?]
The super nodded, hands on her hips as she walked away from where she had been standing. “What’s up, Dubs? You haven’t gotten very involved yet.”
I nodded toward the three remaining as they tried to come up with a way to make their powers work together.
[What do you see?]
“A bunch of disasters,” she said, pulling a face as she glanced back at me.
[Pretty close. I was hoping you would notice our new theme at some point.]
Her brow furrowed, and she looked between the others and me a few times. “Ahh, oh shit, Dubs. That’s something workable. Natural Disasters.”
With the new fist weapons, Roy was a rolling thunderstorm, quick as lightning. Roxy was an active volcano. Ren could bring harsh winds out from her artefact. Belle was the more awkward fit, but represented the resilience of nature. Yours truly? An earthquake, leveled by my gun-arm.
[League probably wouldn’t like that as a name, but it’s guidance, don’t you think?]
“Fuck yeah. I like that.” She nodded and narrowed her eyes at our team. “Would be great if the disaster part wasn’t so literal, however.”
[The good news is we won’t have to fight against each other in the field. This was more for the psychological effect of making them feel broken and awkward before I step in and correct them. It will help them develop unity under our guidance.]
She blinked and shook her head. “Damn, Dubs. That’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever heard.”
[Then you’re going to love the next part.]
I stepped over to the others as she followed along.
[Alright, great effort everyone. We’ll have one last competitive scenario before we move onto something different.]
The pep talk from earlier this morning had almost faded. I could see it in their eyes. It was as I had said - I couldn’t train them to be super killers like I was. There was too great a disparity in their powers. However, I would show them exactly who I was.
[For this next fight, it is you four against me.]
At first, they were nothing but glances of disbelief. Then bemusement. Even Roxy was giving me the side-eye, knowing how our last bout went.
“Like as a gauntlet?” Roy asked, scratching at his beard. “Not all at once, right?”
[It is not a matter of can you defeat me, but how long it will take.]
“Could I perhaps be on your side?” Belle offered. “I’d feel a lot better about the others attacking you if I could protect you.”
I considered that for a second. It might neuter the point I was trying to make slightly. Although she needed different lessons that the offensive supers, for this show I wanted it to be a group effort. So, I shook my head.
[Appreciated, but this isn’t about my survival. Roxy and I have already done this sort of thing, so she knows what my limits are.]
“Bullshit,” she disagreed, as she stepped away from my side to join the others. “You’ve not only improved since then, but this is all some setup for you to get off on fighting supers.”
Guilty. Although not entirely the reason for this little game, part of me deep inside hungered for it. I didn’t have all the anti-hero tech that I had envisioned, but in truth, I didn’t want to beat them just yet. This was a bonding session, after all. The idea was to give them as hard a win as I could, and follow that elation up with some joint training where we worked together instead of against one another.
[If you feel your power is beyond your control, you can sit this one out, dear.]
“Fuck you,” Roxy said, pulling a face. “You… fucker.”
Ren had her arms folded, bow floating in the air beside her. “What are the ground rules here, because I don’t want to accidentally kill you?”
[Don’t accidentally kill me. That’s probably the most important rule. Nothing that can damage the house. Lay on the floor if you want to tap out. I will be using Nerve shot, but I can’t promise you won’t take other minor injuries if you agree to participate.]
It warmed my heart to see them all look over to Roxy for guidance. She scowled at me after spotting the indecision on their faces.
“Fine,” she said with a shrug. “We can probably get him pretty quick, but be careful because he is a wily motherfucker.”
“And reckless in the pursuit of victory,” Belle added, her own scowl leveled my way.
So we went out further away from our property, into the sands. They found a decent spot without cover, and arranged themselves around fifty feet away from me. I preferred cover when I could get it. This was neutral ground, however. I was ranged, as was Ren. Roy and Roxy could get to me in no time at all, and Belle would want nothing to do with being in the firing line.
I gave my equipment a last once over, hoping the League would provide me with some new things. Some kind of personal shielding, for one. Maybe some grenades. I thumbed through my magazines and filled up my selectloader, before clicking the drum full of Nerve shot into place.
For those that didn’t know, Roxy explained what that would do. The supportive super was slightly more relaxed in knowing I wouldn’t really be risking blowing their limbs off or eyes out. That wasn’t the only ammunition I had loaded, however. They'd get what they deserved.
//Dubs: Hey Clara. If you’re not too busy, can you run a five second countdown in the new team chat?
//Clara: Might I ask what for first, Gunquake?
//Dubs: I’m about to fight all four of them.
//Clara: …
//Clara: The number of grenades I’ll get you will be determined by your performance set against the injuries you take.
//Dubs: Now you’re speaking my language.
I rolled my shoulders out and loaded the first shell into my gun-arm by hand. Any tiredness from the last evening had been scoured away, leaving only my desire to win. My first fight against a group of supers all at once. I was electric and felt at the top of my game.
As Clara signaled the countdown through our STARs, my muscles tensed up for the inevitably very short fight.
The countdown struck five, and just as expected, Roy zipped toward me. Even if they had arranged some manner of tactics beforehand, I knew that his ego couldn’t prevent him from wanting to stop me near instantly. I fired the Quake shot straight into the ground and activated Reflex.
He had circled around me, possibly to strike or grapple me from the back. With my powers pushed to the limit, I also fired Quickness through my synapses, finally deciding on a name for it. I spun in place and whipped my gun arm around in a wide arc. He had the reaction speed to raise his arms up to protect himself, but the Quake shot had all but frozen him in place. Belle’s shielding flared over him as I knocked him back, continuing my arc to face the group of heroes again.
Roxy had leaped through the air, intending to land a distance outside of my aura of V-Force pulses. Ren had an arrow leveled ready to give her cover, so that I didn’t immediately blast the strength super. More fool her, as I wouldn’t allow the threat of death to miss a decent opportunity.
As Roxy landed, I shot her left leg with Nerve. Ren’s arrow slammed through my right leg in response, piercing through to the back of my thigh. It reduced my mobility by far too much for my liking. Quake shot only had two more seconds left on the clock, so I turned to the speedster and put a Nerve into the shielding. It flickered and remained. Shame, as that blast would have made his arms useless.
“Dubs,” Roxy growled, flexing into a familiar position. Just as expected.
Triple shot loaded three shells in my selectloader. As I raised my gun-arm up to point at her, lava burst from her arms, causing a wave of heat to wash over me.
Before I could mentally press the trigger, Belle switched her shield over to the strength super. My body wracked through with pain as a ringing sound screamed through my ears, threatening to burst them. Snip. Dispel cut the shield away from Roxy, and I unloaded three shots of expanding Water shot into her.
Not enough to douse her raging spirit, but the amount of steam produced by the fizzling water was almost as good as temporary Smoke shot. Speaking of which, Roy was now recovering. I could even hear the crackling of his fists powering up.
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Just as the last pulse of Quake shook the sands, I dove off to the side, avoiding a second arrow from the ranged hero. Before I righted myself, Smoke shot billowed around me, obscuring further shots. As that shell bounced onto the ground, I loaded a new one in. Left hand topped the selectloader up in this brief reprieve.
Roy started running around me, intending to keep me in place. Either Roxy would break into the cloud and try her luck in finding me, or Ren would hit me with an air attack to disperse the rest of the smoke.
I didn’t have much chance to hit Roy when he was moving so fast, even being able to see the blur of his outline circling around. Maybe I didn’t need to hit him exactly.
Left arm came up, and I fired off the grapple hook out through the fog. Roy ran straight into the extending line, causing it to wrap around him before he could slide to a stop. I turned in place to prevent the line from doing anything weird to me, but by the time he had come to a standstill, the expanding foam has burst and covered him, pinning his arms to his torso.
Gun-arm came up as the line tried to draw him toward me, and I pegged him in the head with a Nerve shot. Too out of sight to be shielded and unable to see my intention to fire on him to dodge. As he slumped over to the floor, I hit the clasps to remove my gauntlet, just as a strong burst of wind almost flattened me to the floor. Armwear fell to the ground as I turned to face Roxy running toward me, arms still burning with molten rock. A slight sheen of renewed shield ran over her.
Part of me wanted to stand in place and see if she really would hit me full force with her lava up. But I knew she would, and that I would die. We both had to play the game in earnest, and I had to take her as seriously as she took me.
Her arm raised back, and I dove to the side, avoiding her swing. She followed up with a stomp that almost caught me, her boot instead cracking the dry ground. With my chamber clacking back and forth, I hit her left leg with another Nerve shot as I righted up into a crouching position. Roxy stumbled back, her adrenaline taking the hallucinogenic drugs straight to her brain, causing her to think her leg was now inert.
“Motherfucker,” she growled, fists dripping molten rock onto the ground. With her eyes now burning with fury, her faux-injured leg burst out of her outfit and glowed brightly with lava. “Shit, shit, shit.” Her brow furrowed, and she paused, trying to calm her power down.
I took that opportunity to load in a metal ball. Overcharge hummed into life again, and I twisted to face the two women still downrange. An arrow whizzed past my gun-arm as I turned, the elf only just missing me. Most likely, she didn’t want to hit me in the head while I was a smaller target in a crouched position.
With a sharp thunk, I ejected the sphere of solid steel. Belle held her book in the air and a dome of shimmering light bloomed into existence around the both of them. My metal ball struck the edge of it and ricocheted into the air at an odd angle, leaving a ripple in the magical barrier. It would have missed both of them, anyway. I was playing to win, but I wasn’t trying to kill them—I just wanted to see the skill in action.
As my chamber opened up, I loaded in another Nerve to disable Roxy further. It would be hard to cover the distance between my current position and Ren after, so-
I spun up into a standing position just slightly too late, a sudden wash of heated air rushing over me before something hard struck me in the head. The air knocked from my body as I landed flat on the floor, and my re-breather buzzed as I tried to fill my lungs again.
“You staying down, asshole?” Roxy loomed over me, still scowling. She had switched her lava powers off, gaining control of her leg to burst toward me while I was trying to pin the ranged supers down. Very good.
[Yes, I relent.]
“Thank fuck.” She sighed and brushed the dried rock off of her hands. “I didn’t fracture your skull, did I? I’m pretty hard-headed.”
I had a quick look through my status notifications in my lens. She must have been holding back quite a bit, as other than some imminent bruising, she hadn’t cracked me like an egg.
[That would have been anticlimactic, wouldn’t it? I am fine.]
Excluding the arrow through the leg, the headbutt was the worst they had done to me. I took her offered hand, and she helped me to my feet.
“Didn’t realize that losing mental control of my limb would cause it to turn into lava,” she said, looking down at her bare leg. “Another outfit fucked.”
[I apologize.]
“Eh.” Roxy gestured to the prone speedster. “If anyone deserves your apologies, it should be Roy. You might have bruised his ego there.” She paused and looked back at the other two heroes who were making their way over. “Fucking… good show, though. Like in more favorable terrain and shit, you might have gotten us all.”
[My dear sweet Roxy. I will not rest until I can beat you all handily, and I have a feeling that day isn’t so far away.]
She bit her lip and exhaled through her nose. “You always know just what to say to me. You flirt.”
I nodded in lieu of a smile, and we both turned to accept the other two into our ongoing conversation.
“I’m so sorry, Dubs,” Ren started, pulling a face. “I was trying to be as non-lethal as possible.”
[We will need to discuss your actual powers in detail soon. Forgiven. You all did very well given the circumstances.]
Belle didn’t look so convinced. “That’s the first time somebody has countered one of my shields. It felt terrible. Not just in a magical sense, but knowing my efforts in protecting the team could be taken away and they could be vulnerable again…”
[The point of this exercise was twofold. First, you need to understand that the criminals and basic villains the League puts you against are very simple threats. There is much worse out there and you need to be prepared to deal with problems like me. Second, overwhelming power isn’t always the best way to deal with a problem. Roxy knows this well, but in that fight I was actually most impressed with Roy.]
The speedster groaned, but hadn’t moved. “Glad I was conscious for the fuckin’ compliment, at least.”
[When Roy couldn’t best me with his immediate speed or melee, he switched to keeping me in place so the others could pick me off. Belle isn’t the only one who has to be a team player.]
It made some sense. He had served in the military. Had his own squad and those close to him he helped and received help from. Roxy was used to using pure strength to solve issues, and Ren was either out of the picture doing reconnaissance or firing arrows from range. Clara would soon take up the scouting position, so I needed the elf to step up.
Roy rolled himself up into a seating position and pulled himself out of the wound grapple wire. I had set the foam to melt as I took the gauntlet off, and it seemed to have a safety mechanism that would stop the automatic winding-in when it wasn’t on my arm. “I didn’t know you had this,” he complained.
“Our enemies will often have powers or strengths we don’t know about,” Roxy took over, shooting me a brief look. A very attractive look. “While we can’t prepare for every eventuality, what we can do is become a stronger team so that together we can answer any threat leveled at us.”
She liked to play off that she was a simple meathead, but she had clearly been listening and taking notes any time I talked about the team. It was easy to see how she had been picked to be the leader—not only was she a force to be reckoned with in a fight, but now that her confidence had been restored, she had a commanding presence that I entirely respected.
“As long as the threat isn’t Dubs, we should be fine.” The speedster rubbed at his head. “Did he win?”
[Not even close. You all had to hold back to ensure that I didn’t die.]
Belle rolled her eyes. “Bullshit. You were as well. If we were your actual enemies, at least two of us would have been dead.”
[The point is someone like me should be zero issue for a group like you four. That I even had a chance signals the improvements you must make.]
Roy pushed himself up to his feet and brushed his outfit down. “It’s an arms race then. We have to deal with you without breaking a sweat, but you’re trying to be above people like us.”
“Looks like Dubs knocked some smarts into you, then,” Roxy interjected. “This isn’t about competition, but for pushing the team to be our absolute best. We’ll know more soon, but it’s likely we won’t just be dealing with the usual shits the League assigns us to. Take Dubs’ advice as gospel, because we need to be better to survive.”
With her arms still crossed, Ren tilted her head. “That sounds rather dire. You two know something we don’t?”
We were outside our zone of protection, and my glance at the super had Roxy briefly nodding to show she understood.
[Let’s have a break for refreshments. I need to make sure my brains aren’t leaking out.]
And so we returned to the house and Roxy and I made a light lunch. After a bit of food and drink, the drab mood of the group from earlier had evaporated. They weren’t as fired up as the morning, but had settled into a positive contentedness. Tempered like a blade.
I explained to them what the Director had told me, to some degree. That there might be outside forces seeking to weaken Goldarch. I left out that it was the World Government for now. While they were keen to become the squad I had envisioned, expecting them to go against the organization that had an eye over most of the world was probably a big step.
The reaction to the possibility of us becoming a state-sponsored ‘vigilante’ group was rather warm, if cautious. They were more intrigued by the rebranding at first, eagerly discussing outfit changes and the like. After Roxy reminded them that meant we’d be more of a kill squad for the League, their excitement simmered down to a more reasonable level.
Of course, the League hadn’t told me that directly, but it was written between the lines. Whether Boss had been working with them or not, it seemed my destiny had been partially planned out. I was a weapon used against Goldarch now turned into a shield to protect it. Even if this was envisioned without my say, I had to admit I didn’t hate it. Aside from my forced cybernetics, I had a decent life now. A second chance.
As my speech died off, the others started up conversations related more to how they could fight well together. How we could deal with certain threats. They were primed and ready for the next step of my training, and I was content.
Roxy put her hand on my leg, her eyes twinkling as she gestured at the others with a glance before returning her gaze to me. “You know, if you pass tomorrow, then the League will give you citizenship?”
[Oh? I hadn’t considered that.]
“Well, you’ve been a nameless unknown for so long.” She tilted her head. “It doesn’t matter to me, but you can probably choose whatever name you want for yourself.”
It would put me on the World Government’s system for sure, but it was a calculated risk. I didn’t exactly look like the old me, or have the old name. Citizenship meant being real in the eyes of Goldarch. While I had used anonymity to skirt the law before, having an actual existence did have some benefits.
[I will have to give it some thought.]
Rest time was over. Now we trained for real. As a squad. Before we could even begin, Belle approached me.
“Can you dispel something while I try to detect it?”
[Be my guest.]
With Roxy as the willing test subject, the defensive hero stood behind me, one hand on my back, as she cast a shield on the super. I raised my gun-arm and concentrated, my mind working through the details of magic in the area so that I could find the right wire to cut. A quick snip, and the barrier vanished, leaving me with a pulsing pain in my temples. As Belle stood back away, I rubbed at my head with my left hand.
“Magic often requires a focus,” she explained, as she stepped back around to my front. “Something tangible to channel through. It’s not always the case, but for you, it is. Essentially your shotgun is acting as a conduit for your spell power, although it feels… forced.”
[A makeshift focus, not what I’d naturally need.]
“Perhaps.” Belle crossed her arms and chewed on her thoughts. “Clara has seen inside of you, right? There were no runes or symbols on your bones, or superfluous organs?”
[Nothing she saw fit to mention. She has dug around most of my torso. I do have… cables that run from my brain down through my neck, although I’m not sure where they end up going.]
“Okay. Your magic probably comes from them. Maybe some manner of nanite tech. I can feel the latent energy grow when you’re casting—but like I said, it’s forced. It’s supposed to come naturally, but it seems to cause you a lot of pain.”
Roxy, who had been listening from the side, clucked her tongue. “So your bardic instrument is your gun-arm.”
Belle nodded, a bemused expression on her face. “Implanted magic is often limited in some way. You may be correct that you only have three spells in your songbook. It could be that you have more, but can only use them a couple of times per day. Without knowing how you’re built, it’s hard to say.”
I grunted, unsure as to how to take this all in. There wasn’t any burst of realization I had from her diagnosis. Nothing from my past jumping out of the shadows now that they had been half revealed by the discussion. I couldn’t remember whether the magic started up at the same time as my synapse abilities had—after Clara had reattached my neck cables.
If I was a constructed super-solider, then it was unlikely I had any natural or divine magical capacity. My creator had some way of implanting the spells, just as Belle assumed. Whether that was something to do with my nanites, who could really say? It could be just as likely that the old canisters or stims Boss had been giving me had suppressed my magic.
[Thanks, Belle. Food for thought.]
“My pleasure. I’m invested in that side of your growth.” She looked over to where Roy and Ren were trying to devise a combo attack. “I won’t push you on the language thing today, as your brain might explode. Let’s get back into the action.”
She smiled as she walked off, and Roxy came to stand beside me instead.
“Look at our little group of weirdos,” she said. “I know this isn’t all your doing, but I’ll say it is so that you can correct me and praise me for my parts.”
[I take all the credit.]
“Ass.” Her smile widened. “C’mon, we’ve only got so many hours before your trial.”
As she wandered off, I stood alone for a moment and observed them. They seemed happy. Determined to get back on the ladder and climb. To be better.
There was a time in my old life where these people would have been enemies. Potential victims of my squad intending on weakening Goldarch’s control of the area, so that the World Government could usurp the League. While part of my brain still saw them as obstacles to overcome, the more pragmatic side of me saw them as tools. Extensions of myself, in a way. Strengths and powers to utilize to further my own goals.
Stronger than that, however, was something closer to a heartache. Allies. Friends. Something so close to normality that I wished I could just wake up with a normal arm and face and be done with this. Live having some peace. It was something I had to earn; I was sure.
My shotgun chamber clacked back and forth, loading in a new shell.
I was ready for tomorrow. But was the League?