It didn't take long for a couple of super-people to get the message.

The first to arrive snuck up on me from above and landed in a plume of dust, slowing to a stop as she alighted. I could tell right away by the bright colors of her uniform that she was a hero. I'd never encountered her on the streets before, but I knew she was part of the secondary hero-squad in New Marion at least.

It felt weird to be making eye-contact. I was used to being invisible even to the most mundane of people, let alone a larger-than-life superheroine dressed in very revealing spandex. For the first time in recent memory, I was acutely aware of how my eyes were resting. Besides her blue and white skinsuit though, she wore a mask embedded with a thick pair of goggles and kept her silver hair short. Classic look for an airborne hero.

She didn't waste any time at all in getting down to business now. "Who are you and what can you do? Hello?"

Silent as usual, I had to remember how it was I could speak without freezing. Projecting right to the auditory center of the brain was easier than choking out words. "Hi, hello. I'm Adrian and," Oh shit, I wasn't supposed to say that. I was screwing up this whole hero thing by breaking one of the cardinal rules already, and it hadn't even been ten minutes.

How can I mess up that bad that fast, I thought. That’s got to be a damn record or something.

It doesn't matter! Stay focused!

The superheroine continued to stare me down, but after a moment or two she decided the awkward silence was a cue for herself to respond. "Oh, I'm Zephyr, I can control the air. We've kind of got a situation going on right now though, Adrian. You were the one who sent out the message, right? You're some kind of telepath?"

"Yes!" I spoke. "I saw the heroes fighting from a distance with my power and decided to come help."

Dead, horrible quiet followed once again. She just looked at me like I was an idiot. "Okay? So, you called me over here to tell me that? And that's it?"

"...Yes." Well, there was more to say, but...

"I was on a fucking search and rescue mission with Wonder Boy, and you just wanted to chat!?"

"I... called everyone here."

"You what?! Jesus Christ."

"I thought we could group up to, you know, take this guy down," I said. Hearing it mentally projected aloud for the first time it didn't sound nearly as cool as it had within my private thoughts. It sounded downright lame, but I had to stick to my guns here. "A direct approach was clearly not working, so, uh, we've got to see what utility powers-"

"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!" she screamed at me, suddenly cutting off my sentence. She hung her head, and her shoulders started shaking as she tried to calm her breathing.

I was taken aback. I wanted to tell her to calm the fuck down, but my voice catching in my throat worked towards my favor for once. My kneejerk reaction was to get defensive and mirror her frustration. That was what my power always encouraged me to do. She was clearly already at her wits end, though, and she was taking it out on me. I wasn't the only one today who'd seen bodies thrown everywhere in the streets and with her in that costume, she no doubt lost friends as well.

A man called out from nearby. "What's all the fucks for!?"

He was clad in a black leather jacket with spikes and no shirt underneath it. The cheap plastic zombie mask that he used had to be sweltering in this weather, but he seemed not to mind. He had a dozen knives clipped loosely to his belt and a carelessness in his step that made no mindreading necessary to know; this guy was a rogue. Somebody who fought crime but refused to do it on the government's behalf.

He had rounded the street's corner just in time to hear Zephyr's yelling, and the two seemed to recognize each other immediately. "Ah, Stumblebum. Yeah... hi." She pointed to me and sighed. "This is Adrian."

"Not much of a name, Adrian," he said. "But I'm sure you're a very scary supervillain, right?"

Goddammit. I am never going to be able to undo that slip up.

I had decided to insert myself into a catastrophe, but this was not exactly what I expected. Since I couldn't just throw myself into the fight though, making friends was a necessity right now. "Yeah, I'm not really in the crime causing or fighting business. But I'm a, uh, I guess decently powerful telepath."

"Good!" Zephyr cried out with exasperation. "You can help on search and rescue then, right? God, some good news for once."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I nodded. "I can definitely do that but saving people under rubble can't be our top priority right now, I think."

"What? You want to go throw hands or something? What do you think this is, some kind of street fight?"

"Millions of people are in danger."

"Listen! Four of the best heroes I've ever known just died trying to stop the lunatic that's fucking up this city. My city. So, believe me when I tell you, nobody wants to get him more than I do. But if you really think you can do better than the best, then your arrogance is way out of fucking line." Her emotional aura was lit up bright red, and I could tell I was two steps away from a fist in the face.

This was why I hated people. They didn't think, and I knew that for a fact. I couldn't hold it against her though; God knew that I shut down the last time I lost someone. She was right that I was overstepping my bounds too, but despite all that... "It's not about power." I still had to tell her. "It's about utility. Waiting for more A-teams to arrive won't solve our problem."

If we focused on search and rescue now then by the time backup got here, there wouldn't be a city left to save.

Stumblebum got my back there. "If Adrian here can freeze 'em up or something, then we can get in and wail on the sucker. I got Torque's number. You said four, right? So, you call whichever one of those big-leaguers is left. We'll have enough firepower to level the guy. If only we could get Passthrough to stop acting like a retard for five seconds then-"

Again, Zephyr decided to interrupt. "That's not going to-! Wait. Wait a second, isn't Torque a villain? Why do you even have his number?!"

As he was taking out his phone, Stumblebum just shrugged. "He's a chill dude."

"Regardless," She looked to me. "Can you even do that?"

Could I really stop somebody in their tracks? I never tried taking direct control of the nervous system before, just sneaking in signals. I could create hallucinations, make people suggestable, or hit them with raw emotions, but beyond my invisibility command, mind control did not come naturally to me. Pain I could do though, which might be good enough.

"I could freeze him, but it depends on whether he feels pain."

Stumblebum laughed for some reason.

"I wouldn't know," was Zephyr's response. "As far as I'm aware no one has managed to even hurt him."

Somehow, someway, that was even worse than I'd imagined. Maybe she was right, and we shouldn't even try...

"Alrighty. I've heard enough! Torque is in the groupchat and he says his supertank is nearby. I'm sending him our location."

Zephyr went from anger to fear in a heartbeat. "Don't do that! We're not fighting this guy!"

"It's already done, wind-girl. My boy Adrian here is right. We gotta stop the rampager cold. You could spend weeks sifting through the rubble, but admit it, you'll do more good distracting him for ten minutes while evac goes on than you ever will doing that. Whether we can hurt this guy or not."

Zephyr was shaking from head to toe. Seeing the quick turn her aura made from anger to panic caused me to realize that, behind all of her bluster about keeping to practical heroics, she was terrified out of her mind, and she just couldn't admit it. That didn't qualify her as a liar, however, at least not one that was lying to others.

"Fine. We can join Bombardment in trying to slow him down," she said, resolve slowly coming back.

I couldn't judge her anyway, that was for sure. The only reason I was holding it together at all was because I knew that if I chickened out now, I was sure I'd throw myself off a bridge.

And besides, this was only the second worst day of my life at best. That fact kept me steady.

While we were waiting on our ride to show up, Zephyr was on the line with her hero friends, explaining the situation and asking for backup. Stumblebum did much the same, trying to hunt down anyone and everyone that he could get to come help.

This catastrophe had been going on for barely thirty minutes now. If you weren't a government hero, it could take you twice that long just to decide to crawl out of the woodwork and make sure there's a ceasefire. Only then would you even consider moving your ass in the general direction of class-A trouble. Yet, I had gotten them to cut that time down to half.

I had done that, and I could be proud to say it if I survived today. My parents would be proud too.

Finally, I heard crunching and squealing drawing closer from down the street.

"Here comes the madman now," Stumblebum said. He pointed down the road, and there I saw it. A box on four wheels.

When they had said supertank I expected something a little higher tech. But no, this was literally a deadweight chunk of steel on wheels, clearly welded together and spray-painted black. With no discernable exhausts or machinery at all, it looked more like a glorified tonka-truck with pincers than anything else. It had all kinds of cannons and levers attached to the top, but all of it was nothing more than cast iron and lead. Tech had nothing to do with it.

It came rolling up, crunching over cars and rubble without an effort until at last it was towering before us. There came a series of heavy clunking noises as latches and deadbolts were moved. An impossibly heavy vault door opened on the top of the vehicle and a man poked his head out to look at us all, smiling.

He was wearing a ski mask, a big bushy mustache creeping around the edges, and a pair of round sunglasses that gleamed in the daylight to cover his eyes. "Greetings all!" he cried. "I heard that we are in a ceasefire, correct?"

Zephyr nodded tightly. "Yeah. I've got the official go ahead from the DOD. Ceasefire is in effect. Normal rules will apply. Tell everybody to get on the open comms and sign into our network through their preferred apps, that way Processor can keep them updated and mapped-in."

"Now we're cooking with gas," Stumblebum clapped. "You said you were in contact with the Dastards, right Torque?"

"They're quite happy to come take a swing at things, although Rathole and his friend have opted to be cowards and hide. It's not sporting, I tell you!"

"It'll have to do," Zephyr said. "Everyone plays by Bombardment's rules while we're on lockdown, so make sure you're plugged into comms at all times, and you know how to take an order without hesitation. That’ll keep you alive out here. Let’s go."

"Into my supertank, ladies and gentlemen! We'll be there in a jiffy."

"You just stay close to ole Stumblebum new-kid, I'll look after you."

"Appreciate it. I'll try not to get in your way."

Without a moment to spare, we were off to the center of conflict to face the rampager head-on; and probably die trying.