Paramount City was full of odd sights, as befitted a place where you couldn’t walk three blocks without running into someone with super powers. If you were an average person living there, it wouldn’t take long before flying capes and laser eyes stopped leaving much of an impression. In fact, it was generally agreed upon that it was exceptionally difficult to get anyone in the city to react to the oddities that tended to wander around.
In reality, that was only true to a certain extent. Civilians were used to weirdness, but only of particular types. Obvious super powers and ground-shaking fights were everyday occurrences. What was much less ordinary was to see three burly super types, spandex and all, standing around like common guards. It happened from time to time, but it was almost enough to raise an eyebrow or two.
The thing that pushed this particular instance over the line into being noteworthy was the location. The three figures were standing at attention, carefully guarding their position in front of a blank wall. It wasn’t even a brick wall that might look like it was house a secret door or anything like that. It was a slab of solid concrete without so much as a single crack or seam that would hint at something worth protecting.
And so, for once, pedestrians walking by actually took notice of an oddity in their midst. It wasn’t much; a raised eyebrow here, a single slowed step there, things like that. But people were taking notice of the odd sight. But the guards in question didn’t seem to notice. They maintained their stoic watch on the streets around them and ignored the unimportant NPCs.
After all, they weren’t ‘real people.’ In this world, the only real people had powers, costumes and, importantly, secret bases. Bases that could be placed just about anywhere without leaving any trace of their presence. That was what the trio was there to guard. It was something that the general populace didn’t know about, because that simply wasn’t how they had been programmed.
The guards, villains all, had clued into the truth of the world around them. The NPCs didn’t matter. With a handful of exceptions, the civilians would become obviously wooden and artificial after one or two interactions. They were little more than decorations meant to make the game world feel more alive without actually being alive.
This was the great truth that they’d realized within their first few days in this world. After that the choice of alignment had become obvious. Heroes had to fight real people, while villains only needed to attack the mindless drones that made up the majority of the city. When you thought about it like that, it was actually the heroes who were in the wrong. The villains were the real good guys.
It was a common sentiment among villains, and the three on duty had fully bought into the ideology. It was what set them apart from the fools who thought that there were actual people to save, instead of accepting the truth. In reality, the NPCs around them were truly less than human. Beneath notice.
If pressed, that would be their explanation for why they didn’t notice the young woman who walked by them in greasy overalls and sturdy work gloves. One of them might have recognized her if they’d cared to think about it, but they didn’t. Instead they simply ignored her as she walked past. None of them noticed that she was wearing a backpack as she approached, nor did they realize that the bag was missing from her back as she walked away.
It never occurred to them that a shopkeeper might be persuaded to make a delivery for the right price. That someone would actually attempt something so unsubtle and obvious as to drop a suspicious bag beside them while they were on guard duty. But even with that blindspot they would have noticed the package given enough time. Even a couple of minutes would have been enough for them to realize that something was wrong. That the street around them was a lot more empty than it had been a few minutes earlier.
Given time and any level of interest in civilians, the guards would have noticed. Unfortunately for them, they had neither of those things. And, as such, they didn’t notice anything right up until the moment that the bomb exploded.
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Lightforge was about a block away from where he’d left the portal to his hidden base. He had only chanced a single glance around the corner to confirm that there were people watching the gateway. He’d expected that; planned for it, in fact. Instead of running in and getting into a fight against unfair odds, yet again, he’d come up with something a little more subtle.
He was ushering civilians away from the street with the villains, gently encouraging them to take another route to their destinations. Well, as gently as he could, but some people were stubborn and didn’t want to listen to him. Those were the moments where he leaned into his titanic size and insisted. So far no one had been willing to push their luck and try to force their way past.
Sam was on the other end of the block, doing the same as him. He had no idea how she was persuading people, but it was clearly effective. The street around the guards emptied and soon they were standing alone. Just them and the little bag that sat on the ground beside them. The greatest risk of this little escapade was that the villains would notice things coming together before they were ready.
That wouldn’t change or even impede the plan, in reality. It would just mean that there would be unintended collateral damage. But that kind of damage was something that Lightforge found himself unable to stomach. It seemed that he was lucky at the moment, because the villains seemed caught up in whatever conversation they were having.
With the street finally clear, he took a deep breath and pushed the button.
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The explosion wasn’t like an ordinary bomb. There was no great fireball and it was oddly quiet for an explosive of its size. That meant that it was only as loud as a fighter jet passing just above your head. But such impressive displays were wasted energy that would have taken away from the impact of the bomb, and from its purpose.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
In this case, the bomb was meant to perform a single task: pushing. The explosion was a wave of concussive force that rippled outward so powerfully that it created a visible distortion in the air itself. The force rattled buildings, shook glass, and heaved parked cars from their places. And the three guards didn’t even have the chance to brace themselves for the impact. They were tossed halfway down the block where they fell into a heap of tangled limbs that would take a few seconds for them to free themselves from.
Just a few precious seconds. That was all that the bomb had been designed to produce. Its damage output was actually minimal, removed in exchange for greater pushing power. Of course, the impact with the ground was still bound to hurt quite a bit, but that was entirely separate from the explosion and the few moments that it created.
While the thugs were still wrapped up in a heap, Lightforge sprinted around the corner with all of the speed that he could muster. He uttered a silent prayer and pushed the button to call his gateway. There was a pause where his heart may have stopped completely before it finally opened.
He grinned wildly at the view. You couldn’t open the gateway if enemies were nearby, but what defined an enemy? Since the trio wasn’t attacking him and he hadn’t dealt them much direct damage, the range of their denial wasn’t very large. And for a few precious seconds, they were neither close enough nor aware enough to start fighting. Either one would have been enough to shut down the gateway, but neither had happened.
Lightforge darted into his not-so-hidden base as the guards pulled themselves to their feet. As he disappeared inside, he heard a single exclamation.
“What the f-[BLEEP]!”
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Lightforge burst through the gate into his base, not slowing as he ran the few strides that would take him to the back wall. Something moved to his side and he flung out a hand, a dagger appearing already in motion.
It dug into the wall as a man dove out of the way. Lightforge’s mind finally caught up with his actions and he blanched. In all the excitement of the last few minutes he’d forgotten the reason why he couldn’t move his base at the moment. He found himself looking at three people who were all staring at him, wide-eyed. Silverflame was on the floor, panting hard and flicking his eyes back and forth between the gadgeteer and the dagger now sticking out of the wall just above his head.
Lightforge’s heart was pounding, but he forced himself to take a single deep breath before turning to the Revival Pod set up against the back wall. He summoned glowing tools and set to work as he spoke over his shoulder to the villains that he was protecting.
“Sorry about that. There are guards watching this place, but they’re probably calling for backup right now. If anyone wants to have a chance of leaving this room in the foreseeable future, it’ll be in the next few minutes.”
The trio started to shout and talk over each other in their confusion and surprise. Lightforge ignored them just as he ignored the usual care and precision that he preferred when disassembling interesting pieces of technology. He was prying open the pod’s interior with hammers and crowbars, favoring speed over everything else. He hadn’t been kidding about the rush; if the guards outside were able to call reinforcements then it would be suicide to get back outside.
Part of him wanted to ignore that fact. Why not just work here in his base? He’d be nice and safe, with all the time in the world. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to leave for any reason without calling in an army. And some of the things that he needed for his current project were still outside. Staying here would only serve to have him hide, and he wasn’t about to do that.
He ripped through the last layers of protection and found what he was looking for. Deep inside the circuitry of the Revival Pod were five containers, each about the size of a two liter bottle. Four of them were full of a brilliantly shining liquid that lit up the inside of the base with painfully harsh green light. The final container had a small amount of the liquid in the bottom, but it was far from being full.
For all of the close calls that he’d had, Lightforge had only died twice since coming to this world. Once when he’d been ambushed on his first day and a second time when he and his friends had challenged a dungeon left behind by a mad scientist. And the first incident had happened so early on that the Pod had already regained that charge.
One of the reasons for his low death count was Cannoneer. The other man had gone above and beyond to help keep others safe, and now he was paying the price. Unlike Lightforge, the weapon specialist had no revivals remaining. But if everything went right then the key to reversing that bad luck was right in front of him.
He reached for the first bottle only to pause when a system message filled his vision.
WARNING: YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE A REVIVAL BATTERY. THIS ACTION CANNOT BE UNDONE. REVIVAL POD CAPACITY WILL BE PERMANENTLY REDUCED. DO NOT CONTINUE.
The warning gave him only a moment’s pause. He’d been lucky so far, so he would just have to push that luck a little further. He ignored the repeated warnings and pulled two of the batteries out, the mostly empty one and one of the full ones. He hesitated briefly before pulling out another full container. He halfway reached for a fourth before finding the limit of his resolve. His hand refused to move forward and take any more.
Turning away from the machine, he shoved the glowing bottles into his storage and braced himself. The villains were still arguing and trying to talk to him as he ignored them. He took another deep breath and spoke to them.
“I need your help. I can’t afford to have anyone stop me when I leave here. I’ll leave the gate open so you can get back in, but I need you. Stay as long as you like but I have to do this. It might help fix some of our problems. Please.”
They fell silent. They exchanged silent looks that spoke volumes. It only took a moment before they nodded and silently followed him to the door. And Lightforge found that he didn’t have the words to express his gratitude for their help. He simply smiled and opened the gate.
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The guards were back at their posts, but they were rattled. How had they been attacked? It must have been someone with invisibility or something like that, right? No one had been around, so that was the only answer that made sense. They were uneasy, but the hard part of their job was over. Their target was now trapped behind the gateway and they’d already called in backup.
It wouldn’t be long before it was completely impossible for anyone to come or go from the base that they were guarding. All they had to do now was wait.
The last thing they expected was for the portal to open from the inside. It had been a possibility, but they thought their target was smarter than that. If not, then that was his problem. They were ready for a fight, and they even had numbers on their side.
They believed that right up until the moment that four people came dashing out through the portal, weapons and powers already prepared for the fight. It came as such a shock that the guards hesitated for a single instant. And once again, that was enough.
The unexpected attackers threw them back as their actual target sprinted away down the street, ignoring them entirely. They tried to pursue, but they were held up just long enough that they wouldn’t catch up. They hadn’t been picked for speed or strategic thinking; they were a set of big bodies meant to wait in front of a door.
By the time the reinforcing villains arrived, the embarrassed guards were desperately searching elsewhere and the street was completely empty. Their target was long gone.