A lot of people thought of powers like some kind of slot machine or roulette. Whether your power was great or sucked depended on luck. Some people were luckier than others and got some very potent powers. Such as Rainbow, Bubbles, or Impact here. But on the other hand, if these powers were taken out of the equation, those lucky people were that much weaker. For Impact, Bystander showing up here was really bad news.

"And you two?" The power-negating villain turned to me and Phoenix. "You joined them? Pche, should have figured."

Impact didn't wait around for more chatting and made a wild swiping gesture with her right arm. But nothing happened. Her foe didn't even flinch.

"Not happening. And also..." He raised a hand and formed a fist. "Not gonna get taken out by a surprise attack either this time." His skin changed. Adapting a deep purple leathery look as claws grew out of his fingertips. His hairline receded in favor of two pointy horns that appeared on top of his head.

Tara hybrid. And he turned on his hybrid form right away. In combination with his power, that was a definite problem.

Impact glanced at us, perhaps asking us for help, perhaps wondering whether we were gonna book it now. Then, she returned her gaze to Bystander and tapped on her ear as she stepped forward. I assumed she was wearing some kind of communicator in her ear, but since she was mute, asking her teammates for help was kind of impossible. But knowing Lightshow, she must have thought of this possibility anyway.

Or... wait. I had half-confirmed Lightshow to be a precog of some kind. And if the man in front of us was immune to powers, did that mean he was immune to her precognition as well? Was he a blind spot for Lightshow? This situation might not have been accounted for in her plans.

My thought process was cut short by the villain lunging after Impact. My partner didn't wait for anything, grabbed me, and flew away from the building. We floated a fair distance away, but still observed the fight between the two.

Bystander viciously clawed at his opponent like a wild animal. All while Impact tried her best to dodge and clumsily threw punches back at him. They didn't do anything against his hardened skin, though. It was completely one-sided. Impact's efforts did nothing while her scales were torn off by the villain's claws.

Despite being so damn powerful otherwise, she was losing badly. Her opponent whittled away at her while her attempts at retaliation barely shook him. It wasn't surprising. If powers played no role, a Tara hybrid would overpower a typical Liz hybrid any day of the week. Both types were more durable, but Tara hybrids were also stronger and way more savage.

I didn't like it. If this was before our encounter with Lightshow, I wouldn't think of it as anything more than two villains duking it out with each other. But now? Now, my brain thought of Bystander as the bad guy and Impact as the good one. I couldn't help it. She hadn’t wronged us in any way, hadn’t acted aggressively at all. And now she was one-sidedly getting massacred.

"Phoenix," I said firmly.

"Ink, don't even think about joining that fight!"

"Look at it! It's like she's being bullied!"

"Ink!" she shouted in exasperation.

I was seriously torn on this. On one hand, I wanted to help. It just didn't feel right to simply watch, or worse, run away when this was happening. After all, hadn’t I become a hero to help others? So what if she had the villain label? Everyone had their reason for being where they were. And if I let her get killed, I would have never gotten to hear her side of the story.

But then, on the other hand, I’d promised my friend we would leave if things got serious. And things were undoubtedly getting serious down there. I didn't even know whether I could do anything to help. He was immune to powers, so would my reinforced punches work on him?

But it seemed like I was free to delay my decision. Backup arrived for Impact. The girl with fiery cat ears landed on the rooftop, the black shortsword still in hand. She didn't wait another second before leaping forward and slashing at the villain. But, to everyone's surprise, the sword's tip dissipated the moment it touched him.

Realizing her weapon was useless, Eruption threw it aside and resorted to hand-to-hand combat. But unfortunately, although she was quick, she wasn't any stronger than the little girl that she was, and against the hardened skin of the Tara hybrid, she couldn't do anything. Her kicks, punches, and claw swipes barely even registered.

Although it had turned into two on one, they still couldn't land a decisive hit on him. Bystander was like the perfect counter to everyone on their team, I realized. All of them had won the power lottery and heavily relied on them. But for someone who could nullify those powers, they weren't much stronger than regular humans. And on top of that, when empowered by his hybrid form, even attacks that didn't utilize powers were of hardly any use against the villain.

My feelings got even more jumbled about the whole situation. I’d really wanted to help Impact before, but with Eruption joining in, I simply didn't know what I wanted anymore. Part of me still feared and hated her. Another part of me wanted to forgive her. I felt like someone was playing a tug of war, and I was the rope.

And then the villain finally got a lucky hit in. His claws slashed Eruption's arm and sent her flying. She landed with a grunt, but immediately got up, and held her arm up while growling at her foe.

It was a ridiculous sight. Two of the most powerful hybrids in the city were getting pushed around like ragdolls while we just floated there and watched as it happened.

"Phoenix, we need to help them."

"Ink! Don't! You'll get hurt again!"

"We can't just watch and do nothing!"

"Yes, we should leave! We weren't even supposed to be here!"

"But--" I didn't finish my sentence.

My winged companion let out a scream of pain as something hit her on her back. A moment later, viscous liquid flowed around us and gripped both of us like a hand, completely entrapping us, and disabling my friend's wings. We were sent plummeting back down onto the rooftop, unable to properly move.

I acted as quickly as I could. Before we hit the ground, I spun us around and made sure my back would absorb most of the impact, shielding my friend.

A second later, we crashed. I felt something break in my back; my roots revealed it to be my ribs. A pained scream escaped my throat as it happened. But as always, I was already in the process of repairing the damage even as we struggled to get out of our predicament. Luckily, my body and the slimy substance cushioned my friend's fall and she looked to be mostly unhurt. The armor must have helped a bit too.

"Ink!” my friend frantically screamed.

"I’m... okay," I gasped out.

"What a coincidence. Our other targets are here too," a voice said from a neighboring rooftop. "Hey, you aren't dead are you? You're supposed to regenerate."

It took me a few seconds to recognize what and who we had been attacked by. And as soon as I did, I prompted my partner. "Phoenix. Boil it," I said just as my ribs finished regenerating.

"What?" she asked me, bewildered.

"It's water. Just boil it."

"Water? Oh! Right!" She seemed to realize what I was talking about and focused on her power. The solidified liquid tangling us together began to bubble and turn into steam.

As expected, I didn't feel even a smidge of heat. Temperature isolation was a handy power.

Once we were finally free, we quickly stood up and looked at the newcomer.

A woman in a dark blue skinsuit, wearing a pair of goggles. She had short spiky cyan hair and cyan scales all over her exposed skin and her reptilian tail.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Tsunami. From Dragon Maw. A hydrokinetic who could also change the viscosity and hardness of her water. Not the boiling point, though.

Why was she here? Was this a trap, after all? Were the Lightbearers conspiring with them all along? Dammit, I’d let my guard down, focused way too much on what was happening on the rooftop, and ignored my surroundings.

"Ah, dang. You figured it out fast. I guess if you were so easy to catch, the boss wouldn't want you, huh?"

What? Boss? Wants us? Crap. We’d barely started as heroes and we were already on their radar?

My thoughts were interrupted by a roar from the other direction. I turned around just in time to meet a large clawed hand swiping at me. I didn't have enough time to dodge and instead put up my arms on reflex. I didn't know what I thought was going to happen. The claws tore into my skin and flesh and even dissipated my roots on them as I was thrown back. As soon as I was out of Bystander's range though, I grew the roots back and healed my arms.

"Ink!"

"I'm fine!" I said as I stood up.

I looked at the people around me while gritting my teeth. Bystander at the front, Eruption, and Impact to the side and Tsunami behind us. There was no way we were getting out of here or escaping out of this situation. There were too many of them.

But then, to my mild surprise, Tsunami got hit by something to the back of her head and face-planted the ground with a 'blwueh' sound. I glanced over to Impact and saw her lowering her arm. She looked back at me and shook her head.

They weren't allies, that's what she was trying to tell me.

Right, it wouldn't make much sense to wait for Tsunami before turning on us. Impact could have easily pushed us around into a cage or something. And even before that, in our encounter with Lightshow, the irritating girl had basically captured us, and then let us go. They weren't our enemies. At least not at the moment.

That meant it was me, Phoenix, Impact, and Eruption against Bystander and Tsunami. Much better odds. Although, for a second, I couldn't believe I was actually siding with Eruption. My tactical mind simply pushed all past ire aside for the sake of winning the fight.

"Phoenix, Eruption, hold off Tsunami, she can't do anything to you." I snapped out commands as I dodged another claw swipe from Bystander.

Both Phoenix and the two Lightbearers looked at me bewildered.

"Ink, what are you talking about?!" my friend shouted.

"I have a plan! We'll win this!"

We briefly made eye contact. She looked hesitant, but upon seeing my determination, she caved in.

"Ugh, alright! I trust you, Ink!" she said as she turned to face Tsunami, who was in the process of getting back to her feet while rubbing her face. She began spewing out some curses, but I filtered her voice out, and focused on the problem in front of me. The rabid Tara hybrid was relentless, trying to tear both me and Impact apart.

"Impact, hit me, I can regenerate." I firmly looked at her.

She stared at me for a second but seemed to understand what I was trying to convey. She nodded in response.

I ran back a bit to gain some distance, then turned around and dashed straight at Bystander. I jumped off the ground and kept my feet close to each other while bending my legs. And just as I expected, something smacked my feet, propelling me forward even faster. Like a bullet, I flew in our foe's direction and wound up my fist, throwing it as I approached him. I didn't know whether it would do anything to him, but I used my power to harden my fist anyway.

And it worked. As I hit him, the roots on my fist dissipated, but my hand didn't transform back. For the first time in this entire encounter, an attack actually did something to him. He was thrown to the ground and let out a monstrous roar. But it still wasn't enough. He stood back up in seconds, fuming at me.

I didn't let him retaliate though. I jumped up and once again an invisible force smashed into my feet. Just like before, I healed the bruises instantly and then focused on my attack. I spun around as I flew and landed a kick in Bystander's jaw before he could even think about defending himself. Once again, he hit the ground with a growl but immediately stood back up, although his jaw seemed to have adopted an unnatural position.

We didn't let up our assault, though. Impact was the gun and I was the bullet, a reusable bullet. It seemed like Bystander could only negate powers used directly at him, and couldn't extend the effect beyond his own body. So, for all intents and purposes, he was basically powerless in this situation. He couldn't get his bearings for long enough to retaliate in any meaningful way. I was too quick, and with Impact's help, hit too hard.

Eventually, I landed a hit that sent him flying over the edge and off the rooftop. A few seconds later, a loud crash resounded from down below. I rushed to the edge and looked down on him. He lay there on the street, his hybrid form slowly coming undone. No blood.

I wasn't afraid that we killed him. Something like that wasn't enough to kill a Tara hybrid. But he sure wouldn't be getting up from that. He was out cold.

After checking up on him, I looked back to see how the other half of the fight was going. But to my surprise, Tsunami was nowhere to be found. Phoenix and Eruption simply stood there a safe distance apart, nervously eyeing each other. What happened? Had Tsunami run away? It wouldn't surprise me. Being pitted against two hybrids who could boil her water away was quite unwinnable.

Now that Bystander had been taken care of and Tsunami had booked it, that left just the four of us on the roof. With our common enemy gone, the tension between us quickly grew. My gaze stopped on Eruption. Even though I’d just sided with her, I still had no idea what to think. She had been the reason why my mom died and my dad and I had grown apart so much. Although it wasn't her fault. That’s what Lightshow had said, at least.

But there was still some sort of block in my mind that didn't allow me to overcome those feelings.

"So... what now?" Phoenix broke the silence. "It looks like your team is done over there."

I glanced over to the school building. The four remaining Liberators were lined up on the ground, restrained in metal. They were crying for some reason. Black Rose must have done something to them. I could also clearly see Lightshow, who had a hand to her ear and was saying something, although I couldn't tell what or to whom.

And that's when I got hit by something. Some invisible force smashed into my side and knocked me down. I hit the ground with a groan and tumbled for a second before stopping.

"Ink! Gyah!" Phoenix screamed out.

She was also hit by something, flew through the air, and landed right on top of me. When I looked up from my position on the ground, I could see the perpetrator. Impact had just attacked us. I didn't even have enough time to process why when someone else entered the scene. A huge beast resembling an overgrown dog landed on the roof. Its skin -- or fur -- had a texture of tiny black and blue spots that constantly flickered like static. Eyes glowed white. Mounted on top of it was a muscle-clad man in fur clothing and a wolf skull-shaped mask.

Beastmaster. The heroes were here.

Along with him, Prism floated in as Crust landed between us and the Lightbearers.

"Ink! Phoenix! Are you alright?" the adult hero shouted.

"Yeah," I said as Phoenix and I untangled from each other and stood up.

"You should get out of here! Those two are extremely dangerous!"

"You're right." My eyes met Impact's. "Let's get out of here, Phoenix."

"Right!" she said back, somewhat relieved.

She picked me up and carefully took off, keeping an eye on Impact to make sure she wouldn't snipe us out of the sky. But the person in question was occupied with Beastmaster's summons. Other than the dog, there was also a large bipedal creature with round ears, a bear, with the same blue and black flickering texture as the dog. Lastly, a large snake trying to coil around and dodge Impact's attacks. It also had the same texture as the other two.

None of them stood a chance, though. Impact easily dispatched them before they even got close to her. Neither the heroes, nor Beastmaster's beasts could ever hope to even scratch her. She was finally showing what she was capable of when her opponents didn't negate powers.

Eruption didn't even have to do anything. She just stood there and was looking in our direction for some reason. It made me nervous. I had no idea what she was thinking.

"Thank god we're out! That was way too dangerous, Ink!"

"Yeah, I didn't expect Tsunami to ambush us."

"And then they just turned on us! I knew we shouldn't trust them!" She frowned.

"No, she did it on purpose."

"Well, of course, she did! She wouldn't accidentally smack us!"

"No, I mean… she did it to make it seem like we were fighting each other." I looked at her. "It was a show for the heroes."

"Uh... wait, what? Really?"

"Pretty sure," I nodded. "She didn't shoot us out of the sky when we flew away."

"Well, she was busy...?"

"She could have easily spared a second to attack us if she wanted to."

"Right... I guess."

My friend seemed to fall into thought for a bit. We were already far enough from the action that we didn't see nor hear any of it, so we simply flew in the air peacefully. But that didn't stop me from keeping a lookout for more ambushes. I didn't want to get shot out of the air like before.

Luckily, no more nasty surprises awaited us and we safely made it to our hiding spot.

"Well, anyway, I don’t think I’m accepting any other party invites from a villain again." She sighed.

"I... well, I feel like that wasn’t supposed to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Lightshow probably had something planned, but she didn’t account for Bystander." I looked at my friend. "She might be a precog, but Bystander is immune to powers."

"Hmm..." She frowned. "I guess you’re right. But then, what was her plan about? Why did she want us to be there?"

I pulled out the paper Lightshow had given us yesterday along with one of the burner phones. "We can ask her."

"Well... I mean, we can. But would she even tell us?"

"Let’s try..." I slowly tapped in the number and put the phone on speaker.

It hadn’t been a trap in the end. But not knowing why we’d participated in that whole event bothered me. Surely, it wasn’t just to help beat Bystander? There had to have been more to it. I wanted answers.

And also closure. Even after meeting Eruption face to face, my feelings were still a mess. Still the endless tug of war. I didn't even know what I wanted from her. To apologize? Maybe? Not really. Perhaps I was just being really selfish. I probably simply needed more time to calm the emotional storm inside me.

The phone rang. I assumed they had probably already made their escape and left the Liberators for the heroes to arrest. The time it took for us to get to our hiding spot wasn't much, but I fully believed they were capable of disengaging the heroes much quicker than that.

But the phone kept ringing and it didn’t seem like anyone on the other side planned on picking it up. After a minute or so, I canceled the call and shared a look with Flare.

"Guess they are still fighting the heroes." She shrugged.

"I guess," I said, unsatisfied.

"Hey, cheer up! I think we did well, all things considered." My friend tried to lighten up the mood.

"Yeah, I guess." I forced a smile.

We finally changed into our civilian guises and hugged once again.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Yep. See you."

I watched her leave while trying to unscramble my thoughts. After a few minutes of standing there, staring out into space, I sighed and began walking to my flat.

And then the burner phone rang.

When I pulled it out and checked the number, I confirmed it to be the one Lightshow had given me. She was calling me back. I pressed the 'accept call' button and put it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ink! Sorry for not picking it up earlier!"

I didn't even ask her how she knew it was me. I simply fenced it off in the 'precog bullshit' area.

"Hello. So...? What did you want to tell me?"

"What are you talking about? You called me first! I'm just calling back!" she said in mock abashment.

"You invited us for a reason."

A few seconds of silence followed.

"Man, you really are smart, aren't you?" She sighed. "Sorry. Actually, the reason I invited you two to today's event was Eruption." I frowned. "I wanted the two of you to talk a bit, you know?"

"She can't talk."

"I meant figuratively! She can't talk, but she can communicate!"

"Well... but why?"

"Because," she started, stretching both of the syllables. "As I said, if you have problems, you should talk about them. It might be harder, but it's way more effective than just smashing things or beating people up."

Once again, I found myself getting lectured by a villain on how to be a person. It irked me.

"But anyway, there should have been plenty of time for you to properly talk to Eruption." She grunted in annoyance. "But for some reason, Bystander was out of their base, negotiating with Dragon Maw. And when we attacked them, they called him back. And Tsunami tagged along."

That explained a lot, why Tsunami had made an appearance, and why Bystander hadn't been inside that school with the rest of his group. Although it still seemed odd how he'd found the exact rooftop we had been on. Had he just been lucky?

"Anyway! I think you and Eruption should still meet up and talk. It would do you a lot of good!"

That threw me off for a moment. I had been annoyed that I hadn't gotten any closure, but the mention of actually meeting Eruption again made me uneasy. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted.

"So what do you say? Wanna come to meet now?"

Wait, now?!

"No pressure. I'm not gonna force you. But, as I said, it would be a good idea to have a talk with her."

I wasn't even sure whether she thought of this herself, or whether her power told her to arrange this. I didn't expect them to ambush me or anything. Not after letting us go so easily before. But I still felt pensive about actually going to meet them. The thought of properly meeting Eruption face to face made me anxious. And not because I thought she was going to toss lava in my face.

"Hey, are you still there?"

"Uh, yeah." I had completely forgotten to reply.

"So how about it?"

Part of me vehemently said no. But the other part insisted that I go with it. Christopher Dash, the gloomy dull coward, wouldn't go. But I wasn't Christopher Dash anymore. I was Christina Dash, a hero. I plunged myself into scary and dangerous situations and overcame them. Because otherwise, as Jasmine said, there would have been no point to this whole change.

"Alright," I slowly whispered. "Where do we meet?"