The damage to the building and the streets surrounding it was extensive, and it had been mostly produced by the Rogue that called himself Minotaur before we arrived. But that wasn’t going to fly as an excuse for Jose Peralta, the chief of police.

He wasn’t very scary if you took him at face value, stocky as he was, but he was scary. And the bald spot that he was covering with the green institutional cap made him look any more appealing.

“So you are telling me.” Said Chief Peralta. “That a trio of super powered individuals, paid for by the Government of Chile, and all of its citizens nonetheless, was unable to stop one measly Rogue?”

“It wasn’t any Rogue, tho…” Said Needle next to me, which got her an ugly look from the Chief.

“I’m not done yet, N-25…” Whispered the chief with voice thick with contempt before continuing. “And not happy with allowing a Rogue free pass through the streets of my town while we were busy dealing with the fire powered individual by the riverside, you let a second Rogue come and do your GOD DAMNED JOB?”

I could see Needle’s skin turn pale as the short man went on. To my left, I heard Brutus gulp in fear.

“If you excuse me, sir.” I intervened. “It wasn’t neither N-25 nor B-80’s fault that the first Rogue managed to overpower us.”

“Huh?” Said Chief Peralta. “You are trying to give me excuses?”

“No sir,” I said. “I’m simply trying to get you to understand… Brutus… Eh… B-80 is strong, but from what I could get from their encounter, the Rogue that called himself Minotaur vastly surpassed him in raw power, and I think it would be safe to assume that what we saw wasn’t even the total strength the beast could output. Between that and N-25 and myself having to deal with the beast’s followers’ firepower while trying to not hurt the hostages, it wasn’t going to be long for us to fall after the Rogue defeated B-80, we are more of the technique type.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘I would even say the second rogue saved us.’ I found myself thinking. Thankfully, I didn’t say it, we wouldn’t see the end of that one.

And you would never hear me saying out loud that a Rogue saved me.

“That only comes to reaffirm my belief that you three failed to fulfill your duty.” He answered, looking down and placing his right hand over his sidearm. “And I’m sure you know what happens to those that don’t fulfill their duty, right?”

Now it was my turn to gulp. I was barely able to keep a reflexive gust of wind from coming to my aid.

“But…” He continued. “I guess you three are pretty new to the team, and, in the end, no one was seriously hurt…” He looked at Brutus who held his broken left arm with his right. “No one important at least…” He turned around and began to walk away. “We’ll talk about the second Rogue later…” He stopped and gave us a gaze over his shoulder. “Don’t let this happen again, understood?”

“Understood!” We said at unison as a wave of relaxation passed through my body as we watched the man walk away. I felt the wind move and press against my cheek as if trying to comfort me.

“That was a close one.” Said Brutus in the rough voice of someone that had recently had their snot punched out of them. “And I’m not only talking about the Rogue.”

“Yeah…” Said Needle in a low voice before looking up at me. “Thanks from defending us… both here and… before…” She said.

I remembered how I had used the last of my wind to bring her and Brutus’ unconscious bodies behind me in an attempt to take them out of the bullets and the Rogue’s range. It had been useless in the end though, only the arrival of the second Rogue had managed to take Minotaur’s attention away from us.

“No problems,” I said. “That’s what teammates are for…”

Brutus and Needle nodded at me and went towards the ambulance that waited nearby. I stayed behind.

I brought my right hand up to my face and touched my face where the usual feeling of my green goggles was missing. I thought of the second Rogue, the one that had defeated the Minotaur with ease… the one that was wearing my goggles.

A dark grin formed in my face. Those Rogues had made me look worse in front of the people I hated the most, had made me look useless in front of the people under my commanded and had one of them had taken MY FUCKING GOGGLES.

They owed me one, and I’m not known to forget my debts.

Because that’s the thing with the wind, it just… never… forgets.