The plan was fairly simple, as things went. The Power Brigade had other squads waiting at different potential exits, though we couldn’t be completely sure we had all of them. We also weren’t certain that everyone was present, but a couple hours earlier I was fairly certain Handface was here, via scrying attempts. I did it early, so I could recover mana and to give everyone time to prepare. If Handface was actually away from the base we intended to try to capture him wherever he was wandering, but he’d been inside.

There were no official entrances to the old subway system anymore, but some were never sealed properly and some had been unsealed by various supers looking for a secret base location. We stood outside one that had already been scanned for cameras or sensors that might reveal us. I pulled baggies of diamond dust out of my pockets.

First was myself and Midnight. I was the most likely target, as the one who made Handface the way he was. I was also the one he’d already shot. Hopefully that rifle wouldn’t have a long tunnel to snipe us in, but it wasn’t something we were going to just risk. Next up was Ice Guy. Our captain was able to defend himself with walls of ice, but that didn’t do much good if you walked around a corner and got shot. Power Brigade outfits were tough, but there were limits to what could be done with light material. Shockfire was the third. Between castings of Stoneskin, I started absorbing mana crystals. I wasn’t going to use as many as before. I started feeling sick around nine or ten… so I’d do eight. That would leave me only a little bit low on mana, though it did mean spending around ten minutes standing here.

Acid Man assured us that he was unlikely to be seriously damaged by bullets, and previous testing with Stoneskin had made it unclear if it did anything while he was in acid form. Rocker was with us, but his sonic powers provided some level of automatic deflection for projectiles. He also had on a heavy bulletproof vest just in case. We didn’t want to get him killed if we could help it. Most villains were cognizant that mercenaries or even heroes who they had actually tried to kill would be much less likely to capture them- or otherwise leave them healthy- but Handface had directly tried to kill me already so we had to assume he would do it again.

“Time to head in,” Captain Senan stepped down first, pulling down some goggles and sticking a small breathing apparatus in his mouth. They weren’t as good as scuba gear, but also many times less bulky. From the information we had we shouldn’t even need them, but nobody wanted to be fumbling for air when they realized a corridor was slightly longer than expected.

We followed him down some stairs and into the water. I wasn’t super used to swimming, but I didn’t have any problem with it. I mostly just had to follow after the others anyway. Midnight was latched onto me, since he simply didn’t swim as fast. He had a special breathing thing since his catlike anatomy didn’t exactly fit the standard.

The captain had a flashlight that provided an obvious beam throughout the water. It didn’t leave many details hidden, though mostly there were old pipes and tracks and algae. A few fish too.

I felt Midnight have a moment of surprise before he pushed off my shoulder. I turned my head to follow his movement, seeing him dive to the bottom for something. The light wasn’t on it anymore, but I could see in the dark to some extent. A rat? It would be dead… but no, that wasn’t it. Midnight tapped it with a paw, using Storage. Then it was gone. Nothing technically stopped him from storing a rat corpse, but considering what we knew it was more likely it was some sort of mechanical device.

I awkwardly swam down towards him- I mostly went horizontal. He latched onto my shoulder again and I hurried to catch up with the others. We weren’t far from rising to the surface, but the little detour made me glad for my ability to breathe.

I climbed up some ice stairs in the water, finding the others on a sort of platform. Captain Senan was shining his flashlight through a wall of ice filling the corridor we stepped up into. “Don’t see any immediate dangers,” he said. “We can head in. Stay on your toes.”

With a wave of his hand he melted away the ice wall, and we hopped over the gap to the solid concrete corridor. Both Midnight and Rocker shook themselves to get the water off.

We quickly came to a corner, around which was a block of cheese. Or rather, a whole wheel of cheese that stretched about halfway across the corridor in the middle. Everyone just sort of gave each other a look. “Rodentia,” Ice Guy sighed. “This trap is… a little bit obvious? Rocker, can you blast it?”

“They’ll know we’re here,” he replied, “But I can.”

“Maybe we’ll hold off on that then,” Ice Guy crouched down and placed his hand on the wall near the floor, far from the wheel of cheese. A line of ice grew along the wall, passing over a not very well hidden hunk of metal. Then an icicle grew out of the wall, pushing on the wheel of cheese. When it moved off of the pressure plate, the giant rat trap snapped closed with a loud noise. “Guess they’ll hear that anyway. If there’s another like that, just blast it.”

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A few moments later we were further along the corridor, and we no longer needed the flashlight. There was plenty of light, presumably for the goons pouring out of nearby rooms. I wasn’t sure if the robo-rats needed light, but there were some of them too.

Battle broke out quickly. A wall of ice gave us cover from some gunfire, and Acid Man settled into the gap to head off the roborats and the thugs who wanted to get into melee. The roborats charged into him without fear, but the humans had a better judgment when it came to supers turning into weird goo on the floor.

Rocker swung his guitar out of cover, strumming a chord. Focused sound blasted down the corridor, sending people flying. Most of the thugs were returning to their feet almost immediately, but it gave us a chance to move forward without being shot. Acid man was still melting roborats, but we skirted around him.

Midnight was the first one in, using a lessened Shocking Grasp to swipe at one of those trying to stand up. The shock sent them back to the ground, hopefully down for the count. While they had tried to shoot at me, I wasn’t sure it would be appropriate to kill any of them so I didn’t return in kind. I did face off against a couple thugs with weapons. A couple had actual blades, while others had some sort of metal baton. They should be a step up from the punk fans of Stargirl. In weaponry, at least. They didn’t have powers though.

It was amazing how comfortable one could be reaching up to grab the hands swinging a sword at you when you weren’t concerned about getting your fingers chopped off. If you performed the technique right there was usually nothing to worry about but confidence in battle was important. Grab, twist, and slice on the backswing. That was along the ribs, so the guy would probably live. I used the sword to block the incoming baton and kicked that guy in the knee. They were definitely better equipped, but compared to anyone I trained with in the Power Brigade they might as well not have been trying.

Then I got shot. One was a glancing blow, and the other more direct. I staggered back… but they didn’t even break through my Force Armor. Pistols just didn’t have the punch required, though it wouldn’t last against that many more straight shots.

Everyone was lucky. They all got frozen in place or a little bit shocked or just battered around by sound waves. Maybe they caught on fire a little or their eardrums burst, but nobody had their legs melted by Acid Man. Except the roborats.

By the time that little skirmish was over, however, everyone else was on high alert. Handface’s gang wasn’t huge- the dozen thugs we’d laid out on the ground had to be most of it, though we knew a few had portal powers, and we hadn’t seen them yet.

Pleasant music entered my ears. Did we even need to fight? What was the point? We could just be friends. Like that large guy, Boyan. He was running towards me to hug me with that axe, right?

A moment later I couldn’t hear anything, but that was a step up. As my senses returned to me I cast Haste on myself- and Midnight, since that was just as efficient. This guy was not someone I could afford to hold back against, so as I was devoting my mana to Haste I whipped out my gun and shot him in the chest.

I had expected one of several options. First was him having some sort of armor underneath the top layer of cloth he was wearing. Second was that cloth itself being armor. I would have even accepted him avoiding the bullets by watching where I aimed. I didn’t expect to hit him directly and find out he was just wearing a normal shirt… and then not have bullet holes in him.

This guy improved way too fast. Barbarians were durable, but against a gun? Actually that wasn’t that crazy. My Force Armor could take it, so why not this guy? He did flinch, at least.

As the axe came down I dodged to the side. I grabbed at his wrists and along the haft of the axe, twisting. And twisting. And pulling. And spinning. But nothing I could do would get that weapon out of his hand. Even with the advantage of more time on my side I had to give up as a knee came for me. I avoided it and began to gather mana for my next spell- which felt sluggish within Haste.

It was trivial to make contact for Shocking Grasp, and against a guy like this I didn’t have to limit myself for fear of his heart stopping. Even against a new super, it was crazy to hold back. The electricity was much more effective than bullets, and at least he staggered back for a moment. He didn’t look like he was going to go down, though.

I had a second to look around. There were a few more goons I didn’t recognize. Sirine was down the corridor, but Rocker was doing something to block the sound around us and negate her power. That was half the reason we had him along, but it was still good to know it worked. And that he hadn’t fallen into her daze. I was fairly certain I could fight through it and it had merely caught me off guard, but that didn’t mean it was easy.

Behind me was an alarming scene I couldn’t do anything about. Two women holding daggers were stabbing them into Ice Guy’s throat. If I hadn’t seen that his skin was gray like granite, I might have considered him dead. But even with Stoneskin, a moment later I saw red blood trickling down his neck. But his hands had caught onto the wrists of the pair on either side of him, and ice was growing around them. Those two were portal powers as well. There was another pair fighting against Shockfire and Acid Man.

Then I got shot again. This time, it hurt. Force Armor shattered, and the impact on my chest made me whip my head up. Damn, that was going to bruise, even with several layers of protection. But at least I didn’t have a hole going all the way through me again. My eyes locked onto Handface, who was pulling the trigger again. I shuffled to the side so Boyan would fully cover me, then conjured up Mage’s Reach, skirting it along the top of the corridor. It might be noticed, but it might cause Handface to take cover, which would at least hinder his shooting.