Leader

I fixed my tie as I looked at myself in the mirror. On the smaller side with messy black hair. I smoothed out my dress shirt before walking out of my room where Guard was waiting patiently. If I didn’t know what his power was I would’ve assumed it had something to do with never sleeping considering he was dressed in a crisp suit with glasses and an obvious earpiece. He had a large stature and a muscular body. He looked every bit his namesake as a guard. I gave him a tired smile.

“You know I’m not making you do any of this? You could like, go out somewhere, or wear normal clothes?” He looked at me without responding. I let out a sigh. “Ok then. Let’s just meet with the others.”

Guard guided me to a car, which took both of us down to a warehouse on the harbor, a classic place for villains to hang out. And as I once again realized, that was exactly what we were. It all seemed so distant, hard to remember, but also a constantly hanging fact permanently posted in the back of my mind. We were villains. Criminals. Wanted by the state, and multiple power contracting companies.

I walked into the warehouse, a location chosen more of a joke then anything else, and saw ny people. Patience was lying on top of a crate, lounging without a care in the world, his sniper rifle lying directly next to him. Delinquent was sat against the wall, trying and failing to smoke a cigarette as he kept coughing too much for it to look natural. Tech was leaning back against the crate Patience was laying on, seemingly staring off into space though I knew her mind was a whirring of blueprints and ideas.

The team's attention shifted to me and guard as we walked through. I addressed them with a clap of my hands. “How we feeling team?” Patience sat up and I got a better look at him. A gray hoodie one size too big sat on him covering his frame, and glasses covered his eyes which he took off to show the eyepatch covering his right eye, he gave a lazy grin, he wasn’t aged by any means, only being roughly in his early 30s, but despite that, was tied with me for 2nd place in terms of age, the only one beating us being Guard, and only by 2 years.

“Tired, but that’s a constant for me. I’ve been teaching Delinquent over there all the pleasures of the criminal underworld.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and glanced at the teen still trying to smoke. “Meaning?” Instead of Patience, Tech answered my question.

“It means he and the kid got drunk, then high, then drunk again, before forcing me to make the god of all hangover cures.”

I let out a sigh looking at Delinquent, I got a good look at him as I was staring him down. He was a scrappy kid, barely 15 but covered in small scratches and band-aids. He wore a beat up varsity jacket with a blue and white color scheme, and ripped jeans. “What did I say about bad influences?”

Delinquent, ever the loud kid spoke up. “I thought everyone here was a good influence? Plus I can handle my drink!”

Tech's dry voice countered him. “If handle means throwing up a bathtub's worth of liquid while crying about how much you love all of us, I’d say you can handle it perfectly.” Delinquent's face got bright red. I looked at Tech scoldingly and she rolled her eyes. Tech was on the smaller side, though only because she hunched her back so much. She had messy black hair that was unevenly cut short. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt and jean shorts while managing to actually smoke a cigarette without coughing up her lungs. She was also still on the younger side, mid 20’s roughly.

“Patience, in moderation please? Delinquent, everyone except Patience is a good influence, err, everyone except Patience and Tech when she’s building. Tech, how are we on the next objective?” Tech stood as I had been talking and took the cigarette pack from the kid which he tried and failed to stop her from doing before she spoke.

“It’s going fine on the recon end but I’d like to make some more gear before we go through with it, especially for Delinquent. I ran into a small problem with that though. His ability is incredibly interesting, but also hard to work with, I can’t cover his hands or else he can’t use it but I also can’t leave them unguarded or he’ll tear his own skin off using it. It seems like those lab bastards had just been letting him tear his hand then waited for it to heal before going at it again.”

I thought for a moment, a few potential fixes running through my head but dismissing them quickly, me and Tech had done this exchange several times already, anything I’ve thought of, she had, in regards to equipment on hand anyways. Patience let out a sigh. “I know that look Leader, where are we breaking into now?”

I blinked up at him surprised he managed to read me so well, I’d have to look into that later. “Well, do you guys remember the facility we found Delinquent in?” Delinquent froze for a second but didn’t let it show. And Patience gave an uncharacteristic scowl. They all nodded. “I saw a P-gear company’s logo on some of the equipment they were using for tests, called Injuro industries, I figure at worst they’d have relevant files.” Tech’s eyes lit up immediately though the rest of her expression didn’t shift.

“Power support companies always have the best information. It’s a logical move.”

Patience looked away contemplating, before nodding. “Worth a shot.” His eye darted to his sniper before winking, he couldn’t actually considering he had one eye, but everyone knew that’s what it was. Tech rolled her eyes at his pun.

“I’ll get a base of operations for us to look into then we can start scouting it. Who’s on Delinquent duty this time around?”

“Hey! I can take care of myself!” Tech rolled her eyes but I stopped her by raising my hand.

“I agree with Delinquent.”

Delinquents eyes lit up. “You do?” Patience raised an eyebrow.

“You do?”

“I was roughly his age when I ran my first mission. And I don’t think many of you were far off. We will obviously be doing the planning and providing support, but Delinquent,” I locked eyes with the boy, he was bright, excited. ”If this is the life you want, the future you wish to have, then I want you to run point. This will be the last chance you have to pull out and try to live a normal life.” Delinquent was fully on his feet now, excitement coursing through his jittery body.

“My course was set when you guys pulled me from that hell. I’ll do it!” I smiled at him, a genuine smile, not the one used on jobs. Pride was a funny emotion, not one I was used to experiencing, but it was quite pleasant.

“Alright, Tech, work on getting us a facility or person to break into. Patience, I want you to work scout for Tech when needed. Delinquent, sit tight for now. Guard, you're with me, as always. Alright team, let's do this.” With a sharp clap of my hands, the team disbanded, with the exception of Patience who looked at me for a second.

“A word bossman?” I walked over to the crate he hadn’t left since the meeting started. He sat on it before hopping down to stand eye level with me, though he was a head taller so that meant looking down at me a little.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yes Patience?”

“You sure about the kid? I get that we all started pretty young, but you’re you, I’m half blind, and Tech only sees the light of day if a plan is going very very wrong, we aren’t exactly good comparisons, and Del’s just a kid.” I raised my hand placatingly. I had experienced many of the same worries.

“Trust me, I want more than anyone to stick that kid in a fancy apartment downtown and give him a normal life. But the kid won’t have that. The kid can't have that, not with the government and those lab coated freaks chasing him every step of the way. We could try, we could try so, so hard to give him a regular life. But the past catches up faster than any man can run, you know that firsthand. The kid needs to be able to handle himself, with or without us around.”

Patience let out an annoyed sigh. “Yeah, yeah I know. I just want him to be safe, yeah? He deserves more than this world gave him.” I clapped my longtime partner in crime on the back, wrapping my arm around his shoulder and pulling him in.

“He does. But so did all of us, and we’re only wanted in the U.S, so we can’t have been that bad right?” I spoke with a grin and laughter following my voice. Laughter that Patience joined in with.

Tech

A battery pack? No that wouldn’t work, not with how clunky it would need to be to support the energy intake. What's the alternative though? I could make it hold a charge so that way it could be more mobile but it would severely limit how many uses it could take, the circuitry would also be a bit more complex.

I let my mind keep going in the background as I typed on my computer. It wasn’t like I could really stop it if I wanted to. Powers are a finicky thing, and something as strange as unconscious invention had its uses. It was late in my small apartment, Leader had offered a bigger one but I didn’t need it. My computer was the only light in the small room as my fingers hit the keyboard. I still remembered the day Leader picked me up. I remembered the time when I was Leiah Kimberly, not Tech. I pushed my glasses back onto my nose where they had slipped slightly from. Leiah was weak. Leiah got pushed around in class and at home. I’m not her anymore. I don’t have class, not that I ever needed them, and I don’t have… Not important, now I’m Tech.

I suppose I could try inventing a new energy source? Something like a kinetic battery. How would that function? I think there was a contact on the market that could do something like that with his power, store kinetic energy before letting it loose. But It was limited by the boy’s lack of stamina which the power drew from. Maybe if I could convince him to go into a lab with me, I could study the way it functioned.

Tech can do a lot more than Leiah ever could. For instance, Tech just managed to force her way into a server for accountants of the Injuro company. And whew boy, they were moving quite a bit of money around! I scanned the file for any anomaly, but computers and accounting, while sometimes related, were very different skills. I gave up and simply found the biggest number, and then went down until I found one in our current area. Realistically the biggest number would be the HQ, but Delinquent was new to the game, and having him run point while attacking a massive companies headquarters was a recipe for more bodies than anyone cared to deal with. I wonder what Leiah would’ve thought of that. Probably that I’m cold, or heartless. But all I can think is that, now, I’m not the one who should be running.

Patience

I like my name. Not the one my parents gave me, but the one that defines me as who I am. Patience. I felt the breeze on my body as I was laying on a roof 3 or 4 miles from the building in question, belly to the ground as my eye was occupied with a telescope, scanning the massive multi-story building in ahead of me, it towered above its surrounding buildings despite being built into an incredibly inconvenient location squished between smaller buildings.I supposed It was time for my powers to get a quick run then? My sight split, as if I had two eyes once more. Then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. All my points of sight were anchored to areas in the sky around the building, all the point allowing me to turn around and perceive, much like a rotatable camera, just one I was always linked too, the main weakness of my ability was that it only worked with areas I could see with my normal eye, so no giant chain of sight through the city, I had tried that a long time ago. Though my actual eye also went dark, I could still see fine. Better than fine. I could see the accountants on the 5th floor arguing about something. I could see the executives on the top levels each sitting at their desks doing paperwork and going through other mundanities. I could see the girl walking her dog outside the entrance.

I sat for about half the day observing the building. It seemed painfully mundane. Sometimes I wondered if breaking in and robbing the place wouldn’t be doing the workers a favor, they looked so bored.

Patience. It’s a virtue you know? And it seems in this case it was rewarded. I saw an unmarked van, white, typical kidnappers, pull up and navigate through an alley to approach from the back entrance instead of the front. And then, without anyone seeming to notice, they dragged something, or someone, out of the van and into a backdoor on the building.

Shit. I needed eyes on that or, eye I supposed. I clicked my com on my ear, skin colored and small enough to be basically invisible. Tech was truly a godsend.

“This is Patience, over. I had eyes on something that may have been a person being dragged into a backdoor. I think these bastards are more in on the whole, human experimentation jazz then we thought.” There was silence, which was to be expected. The gang all had cover jobs and were probably doing them right now, not all of them could spend the whole day camped on a building watching office workers live incredibly boring lives. The comm had a “leave a message” feature so I could do this sort of log style calling in, Leader would hear it soon, I’m pretty sure the dude sleeps with it on. Guard as well, actually, he probably did hear and just didn’t say anything. I can appreciate loyalty, especially to Leader, but Guard still freaks me out a little bit, “I’m going to get a better view.”

I pulled my telescope up, closing it before grabbing a briefcase on my left. Snippy, not snipe-ey snippy, like a snip. I’d never leave my one true love behind, not even on a recon mission. I looked out and plotted out my route. I’d need to get all the way around the building to see through to the backdoor, and even then I’d need sightlines into it before I could spawn an eye. I activated my power once more and saw a suitable transportation route.

I retracted my power, feeling the weird tickle in the back of my head as my perception changed from a building two blocks away to myself. And I started running, and jumped, clearing the small gap between buildings. Parkour, an essential for any good building roaming sniper.

I cleared a small A/C unit before kicking off the ground, catching myself but losing some momentum as I reached a smaller building.

It was also, super fucking fun.

I leaped up, grabbing hold of the top of the building before hoisting myself up and picking up speed once more.

And a great way to stay in shape! Still, even with my amazing figure and sculpted abs, I was fairly winded as I reached the final building on my path.

I let out an undignified grunt as I lifted myself a final time onto the building before taking out my telescope and spying once more. I heard my comms crinkle to life. A young voice filled the noise.

“How old did the person look?” Ah, of course Delinquent would be out of virtual school by now, Virtual meaning a bunch of pirated textbooks that Tech would quiz him on later, but school nonetheless. As for him having a comm, the kid had earned our trust to a degree. We certainly wouldn’t be letting him off on his own anytime soon, less because we thought he’d kill himself and more because those lab coats are still looking for him, but he didn’t rush out and try to be stupid. And if he felt like the apartment was getting stuffy he had the decency to ask someone with him. Normally that person happened to be me considering my unemployed status, our outings were fun. So the kid had earned a comm link. And also honesty.

“No clue. Sorry, I was too far away and they were a little behind my perception. I'm here now though, I’ll report if I see anything.” Static filled the comm for a second, like someone hit it but couldn’t think of what to say.

“...Understood.”

I thought about Delinquent as I scouted the building, which really meant staring dead at the specific door without much going on. The kid was surprisingly understanding. I mean, the lab coats didn’t do anything that fucked up to the kid. But still, no one deserves being jammed into a cell and forced to do tests. The fact that the kid wants to be accepted, not to burn the world down is a testament to his integrity. Working as and for criminals, I’ve seen many men do insane things for much less and call it justice. I let a grimace cross my face as I thought of some of my less than savory employers.

Well, I had only failed on one mission given by those same people, so in the end, I supposed I wasn’t much better. Still, the kid had been through some stuff. I liked that about him. He may have been young but he wasn’t naive, he saw people for what they were. He also was smart enough to understand why we did the things we did. Why we didn’t let him out without a chaperone or go on missions on his own before this one. He just wanted to be acknowledged as an equal, or, he wanted a chance to earn that place more than he thought he already had it. I’m not too sure, trauma does weird things to people. I’d know.

My eyes drifted slightly, two large men had cornered a young man and were kicking him in the sketchy back alley the van had drifted through earlier. How stereotypical, I suppose a heroic young man should come save him? Though that wasn’t really how people worked.

People were cruel. A philosopher way back when, don’t remember who, and don’t remember when, said something that stuck with me.

I took out my suitcase and started to remove parts, a movement practiced enough I didn’t need to take my power off of the door or the beatdown. Seeing both the figures continue to deliver kicked to the side of the young man curled in on himself.

He said that man was the only thing that could truly do or be evil and we were inherently evil because of that.

I connected the stock to the base of Snippy.

That we are evil because we have a concept of evil.

The barrel connected to the base at the opposite point of the stock.

No lion ponders if it is moral to kill a zebra, it does so as that's what its instincts guide it to do.

The bolt, something Tech had offered to remove more times than I could count, was slotted into its proper place, the scope, with many fancy functions thanks to Tech, placed, and finally a silencer, to ensure i didn’t have the entire police force on my ass.

Our sense of morals is a curse, one unique to humans, as we see evil as wrong, we have that perception that things can be wrong, and yet.

I aimed down the scope.

We see evil as evil, and we do it anyway.

And I let a shot lose before reloading almost before the bullet had even landed, then firing a second, both impact inches from the attackers heads and managing to leave a small trail through their hair, one of my favorite tricks.

The bullies scrambled, and my power at the door saw it swing closed, with just enough time for my physical body to swing to look at it, allowing my perception to bleed into its entrance. Time for a show