With Whiteout's permission, Aaliyah was afforded the afternoon to go out with her bestie, Hannah, to a new restaurant. Heroes of the Pantheon do not have to display the badge when they go out, but they are more recognizable than the most famous of celebrities nonetheless.

Aaliyah neglected her make-up, adorned her black bonnet, covered her eyes with sunglasses, and wrapped in a green trench coat with lifted collars. Hannah, still in her dance clothes down to the leg warmers, had already reserved an outside table and ordered for the both of them.

The patio lay just across the street from the park whose claims to fame were the statue of a war hero from the Great Canadian Invasion of 1920, and that it was the one spot of green protected from the degradation of urban development in spite of the efforts of many.

The view was ruined nonetheless: in the foreground, parked cars obstructed where the deluge of traffic did not; in the background, even the smaller buildings overshadowed the trees with their lifelessness draining vitality from the scene. There were no songbirds here, only the drone of city bustle.

Aaliyah was never a naturalist like her closest friends—especially not when their beloved animals and bugs were involved—but the years tethered to Olympus and the Pantheon have left her longing for when they could go into the mountains together. With childhood long gone, this would have to do.

The food arrived soon after they sat down. Aaliyah had the Medley Biryani: a plate of chicken, lamb, and fish buried under a mound of long, fluffy rice doused in curry. Hannah took from the vegetarian options: Lasooni Palak Paneer, a bowl full of cheese cubes drowned in garlicky spinach paste; Malai Kofta, fried potato balls soaked in an orange cream; Baingan Bharta, grilled and mashed eggplant used as a dip for toasted flatbread. For dessert, Hannah had mango ice cream and rice pudding which she used to wash down the food she scarfed with vehemence.

“Rough day?” asked Aaliyah. Hannah pulled in a spoonful of ice cream from the bowl she was holding up before setting it down to make a strained gulp followed by a thunderous belch.

“I swear the other dancers are letting themselves fall just so I will catch them. It gets me sweating more than the practice,” said Hannah as she aired out her headband. Hannah was taught dance and gymnastics to practice fine control over her body, including her mutation. She loved it so much that she became an instructor herself.

“It must be stressful to have your hospitality tested,” Aaliyah punctuated with a loud sip of oolong tea.

“I’m so sorry about the other day,” whispered Hannah, “I didn’t think it through. He showed me the tickets and I was too ‘oh my gosh how did you get in my room’ and ‘holy mackerel, you’re back’ to question it.”

“No, White—it was no trouble at all. The results were satisfactory. Both of you, do text next time. Wait, did you actually say holy mackerel?”

Hannah paused, mouth agape in front of dripping flatbread. She put down the bread and swiveled her head to the park.

“Did you hear that?”

“Don’t dodge the question,” said Aaliyah.

“No, I really thought I heard—'' a second explosion cracked the air for all to hear. It blew out a small building's upper floors, hailed concrete chunks and ash, crushed cars and people, and convulsed traffic such that it careened onto the sidewalk and into the park fences. A bush of smoke covered the street and grew to the sky.

For those not in the immediate vicinity, there was a moment of shock where people stared blankly to process what just happened. Even the officer on patrol passing by the patio was too stunned to move. After all, Garrik was there to protect them from any danger. It had been so long since the city saw any violent crime that even the police had their instincts numbed by the lethargic peace; even now, Garrick’s drones organized a response to the incident with machine efficiency while the humans on the ground were slackjawed.

Aaliyah threw her sunglasses on the table and pulled the officer by the shoulder to show her identification. With her status reported, two Saber drones moved in to guard her while the officer proceeded to direct citizens and vehicles away from the area.

When Aaliyah went toward the explosion site, Hannah, one of those citizens, clutched her hand to stop her. The drones glared down at her but stayed their hand at Aaliyah’s signal and badge. She wanted to come with Aaliyah, but, given the consequences that would come to both of them, she would ask for Aaliyah’s blessing first. Aaliyah gestured a more elaborate signal with the badge. They scanned Hannah’s retinas to temporarily set her status to friendly. Instead of walking, Hannah lifted Aaliyah into the air and flew to the other side of the park.

When Aaliyah was set on firm footing, Hannah clapped to disperse most of the smoke. Through the lingering haze, a mess of shattered glass, rubble, and bodies strewn across the bloodstained pavement was revealed. The drones followed them to blare their bright lights and sirens. Most of those who could have fled already had, leaving those too injured to move and those trapped in their vehicles and in the first building. The buildings to the sides received some damage but a crisis was a time to prioritize.

First, Hannah picked up the injured off the pavement to put them on the nearby grass for Aaliyah to stabilize their condition. Aaliyah could heal wounds, but ailments like concussions, smoke inhalation, and lodged shrapnel had implications that were best dealt with in a hospital.

Next were the vehicles. A car had a chunk of rubble land on the hood. Hannah tore the driver's seat door away and pulled out the unconscious driver. She continued this with others who were entombed in their vehicles and put them with the injured.

With everyone out of their cars, Hannah set about clearing the street of vehicles and debris to make way for the arrival of emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and police. The smoky haze and dizziness of the situation could have obscured Hannah enough to plausibly deny her involvement, but when she held a van above her head as she glided through the air there was no room for doubt, especially with the drones recording and relaying the scene.

One victim opened his eyes to the sight of the angel that knelt in prayer next to him and the angel that soared in the sky; thinking he was in heaven, his dazed mind slipped back into unconsciousness but his head was caught and slowly lowered by Aaliyah.

As the pair worked on the ground, the area was analyzed by the drone network to accurately measure the needs of the situation.

The park would be the loading site where the injured awaited transport to trauma centers. Orders to stand by for evacuation were made to nearby areas and possible targets. The emergency response was well on its way as they had been coordinated and dispatched without confusion or delay. Hospital incident commanders were informed of roughly what to expect so that they could prepare emergency bays and hospital beds and mobilize clinical staff and medical equipment ahead of time.

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Garrick himself, with his vanguard of broadswords already sent to reinforce the scouting Sabers, has taken to don the Fatman armor once again. While the Fatman and his drones would secure the blast zone, forces led by Captain Force and Underdog would sweep the city for potential culprits and additional devices.

The firetrucks were the first to trickle in just ahead of the ambulances. The firefighters stomped out of their trucks with full mask respirators and reflective yellow turnouts. Initially, the teams were divided among the surrounding buildings to evacuate any remaining civilians before moving on to the collapse scene.

Aaliyah offered Hannah’s assistance once again and if it came from Aaliyah then it must have been trustworthy. Electroreception, the ability to perceive electric stimuli, was Hannah’s radar that would detect the remaining survivors to avoid time wasted scouring each building floor by floor and room by room.

With the new information, the firefighters reorganized smaller teams to the other buildings and set most of themselves to the collapse scene. That main building was too unstable for Hannah to enter, the risk of stress imposed by her own weight and strength was liable to take the whole building down. She remained outside with Aaliyah, now surrounded by paramedics—masked with respirators of their own—who carried the injured on stretchers. The police, with drones overhead, had cordoned off the area to keep traffic out and direct emergency vehicles in.

With all of the noise, Hannah was the only one to hear the rumble in the sky. A rustic engine roared louder and louder and hit its crescendo when the Fatman suit rocketed through the clouds as it dove toward the ground. Partway through its descent, the huge armor mass flipped over and used its boosters to slow its momentum.

It came to a hover in the air at a height parallel to the blast site at the building, its noise reduced to a dry growl. The same physics that prevented Hannah from entering also meant the suit could not enter either. Garrick was only then informed that the buildings were already scanned by an unknown variable. The suit went further into the park to touch down on the flagstone sidewalk around the statue, far out of the way, and allowed the known and unknown variables to come to him.

“You don’t have a respirator,” Garrick’s bass, metallic voice reverberated from the suit.

“I’ll live,” said Aaliyah. Garrick stared her down through the vision slit. The helmet made a slight turn toward Hannah who flinched. This was her second time meeting Garrick Iolcus himself and it was under some of the worst circumstances. Hannah was undaunted by the consequences until right then when the Fatman loomed over her. Aaliyah clutched Hannah’s hand to steady her. A hunk of steel in the shape of a hand dragged its lumpen mitts across the Fatman’s visor.

“We’ll deal with this later,” said Garrick, “you just stay out of the way and don’t do anything.”

The Fatman suit rocketed back up into the air. Aaliyah returned to tend to the moribund so that they could be brought to the hospital. The sight of injuries and anguish still made Aaliyah wince with nausea despite decades of experience and the worst was yet to come.

The firemen carried out people from the blast site that were dismembered, scorched, covered in ash, and had shrapnel snagged in their flesh. One man had lost his right arm from the elbow down: wood splinters jut around a fractured bone from the stump.

There was nothing else for Hannah to do but leave it to the professionals. She did not understand what came over her that made her want to go with Aaliyah. Even with the training she had, she could have somehow made things worse as her mutation had done so many times before.

There were other times when she could have intervened effectively if she used her mutation but held back because of the threat of repercussions—from Garrick and from herself. For some reason, she could not will her legs to leave with the rest of the civilians that were guided away by the officer back then—what made today so different?

Regardless of the reason why, there was nothing more for her to do. As she looked over the burnt, torn, bloody bodies that lie in the grass and struggled to breathe in the respirators held over their mouths, Hannah wondered what would have been different if she was not here to save precious time.

That’s when it happened.

Hannah alone could hear what was left of the building buckle. Finally, something snapped. The people on the upper levels could feel their footing lose its weight as the floors sagged. Dust drizzled from cracks in the walls and ceilings as the seams unraveled. Those close to the building had only a moment's notice to move away before the building began to visibly cave in.

The Living Saint’s bubbles could not protect them. The Fatman’s arsenal was useless. The final splintering gave motion to the fall and kicked up a black cloud of ash.

The smothering darkness was pierced by amethyst prances that sprang into pillars of undulating energy. Everything in the building, down to the fragments in the air, was paused: specks of dust were gripped by fluttering sparks while chunks of concrete and wood were held up by capering lightning. Fear and fatigue were superseded by magnetic waves that irradiated the bodies of everyone in the vicinity. For that moment the danger was forgotten about. The people suspended in the air could only gaze as the amethyst concert around them harmlessly danced across their skin and through their clothes. Those outside were lost in a trance at the sight before them.

The first to move was Garrick. His drones blared their sirens to refocus everyone’s attention on their duties. With open space now, he navigated the floating ruins of the building to push firefighters and victims to the ground to find their footing. Some had to carefully climb down from floating platforms. Soon enough everyone was being filed out in a manner that was downright orderly.

Oh gosh I’m really in it now thought Hannah. But it's fine, he’ll be fine with this. he’d do the same. Yeah, yeah, if he were here, he’d say something like “This trouble’s already over!” she said with arms that surged lightning in front of a trauma unit full of people and a Fatman that loomed over her. Aaliyah’s hand clutched Hannah’s shoulder, and Hannah realized that she was thinking out loud. Hannah smiled sheepishly and gave an ‘ok’ with a free hand.

Once the building was clear, Aaliyah contained it in a celestial bubble so that Hannah could safely drop the wreckage. The crash was neatly bottled so as not to release any shrapnel and give time for the dust to settle. Fatman, surrounded by his drones, tapped his heavy metal boot on the flagstone.

“Hello... Garrick,” said Aaliyah. She twiddled her fingers together and could not look the Fatman’s glare in the eyes. “This is Hannah. She is a friend of—.”

“Oh my gosh, it’s Fat Man. I mean I know I saw you before and I know this isn’t the best time but I actually did want to see the suit up close—” Garrick stomped his heavy metal boot and slapped his heavy metal gauntlet against his heavy metal face.

“You’re right it isn’t,” Garrick reverberated. He faced Aaliyah, “for now, Max wants you on Lazica street. They’ve got the culprit cornered but he’s taken hostages. Can this one get you there?”

Aaliyah wrapped her arms around Hannah’s neck and allowed herself to be lifted up. Hannah then floated high into the air and started glowing with veins of amethyst energy across her nervous system.

All Garrick saw was Aaliyah bringing one of her fingers to Hannah’s lips and Hannah powered down. Even without the full charge, Hannah still bolted off with a shockwave that shook her surroundings, at a speed the Fatman could not hope to match.

Police forces in the area converged on a bar where hostages had been taken. The culprit, armed with a revolver, took a woman in his arms and put the barrel to her head. Max Force arrived on the scene and had been talking down the hostage taker. From an unnatural angle, UnderDog was primed to pounce faster than a bullet.

The culprit was convinced to at least not hold the woman so close to avoid an accident he would regret. Not a moment sooner was the culprit enveloped in a bubble of light. He unloaded his revolver in a panic and every bullet shattered on the walls that imprisoned him. Once the hostages realized what had happened, they ran out of the building. Right after, SWAT teams entered and apprehended the attacker without resistance. UnderDog was disappointed to lose the chance at a new chew toy but something better just landed.

“You didn’t have your earbud with you,” Max said to Aaliyah.

“I was eating with my friend. Say hi, Hannah—”

“Oh my gosh, it's Max Force!” she squealed as she waved.

“Hi, Hannah.” waved Max who then returned attention to Aaliyah, “Garrick hasn't picked up anything else online or on the ground so it looks like we’ll be wrapping here. And you’re friend here… well, good luck.

You’re gonna need it.”