Zack finished up altering his class schedule. He slipped his phone back into his pocket. He stretched his neck, cracking his wrist and back in the process, trying to relieve the growing tension all over his body. He checked his watch.

One minute behind schedule.

He needed to move.

Zack stood up and made his way to the stairs, hauling his backpack on his shoulder. Fortunately, Zack knew the floor plan perfectly. He could recall every boring inch of this drab building. It helped that he had the whole place to himself. In that regard, his plan had worked to a tee.

Except that he was behind one minute.

And one minute could make all the difference in the grand finale.

Zack tried to put the what-if’s out of his mind as he leapt up the stairs, two at a time. He huffed as his heart rate began to beat. It was a good thing Zack hadn’t skipped leg day or cardio. He continued to pound up the stairs, his heart beating faster with every flight.

The more he began to concentrate on his mission, however, the more thoughts of Scott Stephens seeped in. He hadn’t seen Scott in - what - two years? It seemed like another lifetime ago.

For all intents and purposes, it was.

He began to wonder what had become of the rest of Sideclique. Perry Adams probably had a PhD by now. He let his thoughts drift to Rachel Ducane at the homecoming dance all those years ago, how her dark skin melded perfected with her lavender silky dress. He still remembered the smell of her perfume after they kissed that night.

Zack hadn’t spoken a word to any of them since before his father died. He couldn’t afford distractions. They would probably just get in the way. They were better off without him. Besides, he didn’t even want to think what he would do if he found any of them…like he found his dad, covered in blood on the kitchen tiles.

Besides, he didn’t have time for this wishy-washy stroll down memory lane . The mission came first.

Several flights later, he reached the top of the stairs. He pushed out the door and made his way to the roof-top. The mid-afternoon sun nearly blinded him as he moved onto the rooftop. Zack immediately slid off his flannel shirt, tossing it aside as he dug into his backpack. He retrieved a small brick-shaped device from the confines of the backpack.

In the distance, Zack could spot the empty Promenade along with the desolate concrete pathways moving through the campus. He squinted his eyes as he focused on the parkway at the center of campus, barely a mile away.

He could see energy blasts and fliers circling around the area. He counted several dozen students entering the area to fight Icer. Zack just hoped he wasn’t too late. He wouldn’t be if he hurried.

And if this thing still worked.

Zack opened the module and began punching in data along the device's stiff rubber keypad. He closed the module just in time to see a washed-out electronic display. Zack had to squint even harder to see it in the fierce summer sun.

It’s looking for a signal.

Zack could hear the roar of explosions in the distance. Or they could have been footsteps from a size-changer. Either way, this didn’t bode well for his plan.

Still looking for a signal.

Zack cursed under his breath. This old piece of crap. In frustration, Zack held up the ancient brick, trying to force it to accept the signal. It shouldn’t be this hard to get a WiFi signal on a college campus. Of course, Zack had to remind himself Dad had Frankensteined this thing together five years before WiFi was even a thing.

A beeping sound alerted Zack the signal had been found and accepted. Zack quickly ripped off the velcro strap on the back of the brick and then fastened it to his wrist as he moved towards the edge of the roof. He stared down at the two-story drop below him.

Probably survivable but definitely not fun.

He really hoped Dad’s tech still worked. It had not inspired much confidence up until this point. But there was one way to find out - and time was growing short.

The explosions from the other side of the campus came with less and less frequency now. The fight was winding down.

Now or never.

Bracing for the moment of truth, Zack took two hesitant steps backwards, assumed a runner’s pose, and then leapt off the building. The wind rushed through his ears the moment he pushed off of the building. He felt gravity immediately tug him downward as his heart began to creep into his throat like he was on a roller coaster. Only this thrill ride would end with a bone-crunching thud on the pavement below if things turned out wrong.

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As his descent began, Zack saw several small dots in the horizon. They grew bigger with increasing velocity. Before Zack could blink, the black shapes crashed into him. Zack instinctively flinched for the incoming impact. When he opened his eyes, he no longer felt the wind rushing around him. A black segmented mantle had clung to his waist, and most importantly, he was no longer falling thanks to the boot jets now attached to his feet.

The helmet came last as the rest of the armor spread across every unprotected part of his body. Darkness covered his eyes for a bare second, before Zack was greeted by a heads-up display.

Knightbrand protocol activated.

Knightbrand fell somewhere between a medieval suit of armor and a Japanese mecha. The armor fit snugly against his muscular frame. The helmet’s jagged edges gave the Knightbrand his trademark name, along with sharp points along the elbows and intense, knife-like legs.

Zack still couldn’t believe his father made this in his garage, cobbling it together from anything he could find, ranging from car parts and computer scraps to jet engines and military surplus. Zack also knew Dad added some more exotic ingredients, salvaged from superhero battles all over the globe.

The result was one of the most capable armors in the world, capable of flying at speeds of Mach 1 while still engaging in precision hand-to-hand combat. Most supes were either fast and strong or nimble and precise, but the Knightbrand armor was all of the above, providing a versatility that made him a solo hero to be reckoned with.

Tears welled up inside the Knightbrand helmet. It was stupid. Zack had worn his father’s armor multiple times over the past two years, and he never got this emotional, but something about being in this place in this armor made him see things differently.

You didn’t need this place to be a hero.

I’m going to show them all what you can do.

Zack didn’t have time for distractions. Scott Stephens already provided enough of that, nearly derailing the mission in the process. Instead, he lunged forward, as if he was about to do the breaststroke in the sky. The armor adapted to his wishes, and within seconds the afterburners kicked in as Knightbrand soared through the sky.

Within seconds, he stood over the Central Parkway. Zack blinked twice, activating the armor’s magnification. It didn’t take him long to spot Icer. The supervillain looked slightly worse for wear, with patches torn from his skin revealed reddened skin beneath. The students surrounding him, however, clearly received the worst end of the fight. At least one or two were down for the count. Zack extended Knightbrand’s sensors with a raise of his hands, confirming the unconscious students had stable heart rates, and hadn’t suffered anything worse than a mild concussion. Usually Icer could be trusted to maintain some level of restraint.

Usually.

Still, Zack needed to end this fast. Things were already out of hand. He positioned the Knightbrand armor directly above the melee and then descended down.

Knightbrand landed in the middle of the chaos, his arms crossed. Most superheroes famously bend their knees in order to absorb the impact of landing, but Zack saw no need for such dramatic gestures as Knightbrand landed perfectly in place with all the calm and certainty of an elevator.

The students almost began to mutter under their breath the moment he arrived.

“Is that…Knightbrand?”

“He goes to school here?”

“No, he doesn’t go to school here….he doesn’t go to school anywhere….I thought he was a myth.”

“So. Freaking. Cool.”

Zack turned his attention to Icer, who had used his ice gauntlets to create two jagged icy blades, wielding one in each hand. Zack didn’t need to see his face to know Icer was grinning beneath that stupid mask.

“About time you showed up,” Icer said.

“Stand down,” Zack said. Knightbrand’s voice modulator boomed through the treeline.

“Not gonna happen,” Icer said. “We got unfinished business.”

Icer dashed forward, his blades spinning faster than Zack anticipated. Icer had closed the gap between them with frightening speed, but fortunately, Knightbrand was faster. Using the armor’s targeting system, Zack only needed to blink before the Knightbrand armor delivered a solid punch to Icer’s face, sending the cold villain spiraling to the ground. Zack brought his foot down on one of his ice blades, shattering them for dramatic effect.

“Icer is down,” Zack said to no one in particular. He liked how cool the suit’s internal voice modulator made him sound. “I repeat, Icer is down.”

The students around him were particularly gawking at this point. Zack scanned the crowd for familiar faces, but he didn’t see Scott Stephens among them, much less the blonde tour guide from earlier. He picked up on their internal chatter on his sensors.

“His strength has to be a ten, maybe even an eleven on the Kirby scale!” a nervous-looking freshman said.

“You gotta be kidding, he couldn’t be that high without breaking that dude’s face,” one of his friend’s replied. “It’s his speed. It has to be eight or nine.”

“What about agility? Did you see that landing…” Zack turned away, only to see Icer regaining his posture. He braced for another attack.

“We’re not done!” Icer said defiantly. “You haven’t seen the last of me.”

Icer tossed a round object into the grounds. Zack instinctively leapt in front of the object, but no explosion sounded from the object. Instead, only cold and thick smoke filled the central parkway as the students began to mill about in confusion.

Zack relaxed as soon as he realized it was one of Icer’s dry ice grenades. He scanned the surrounding area, confirming Icer had in fact escaped.

“Is anyone hurt?” he asked the students, all of whom shook their heads in the negative.

“Get yourself checked out,” Zack said before he, as Knightbrand, blasted off into the sky. He smiled as he heard the cheers and whoops of the students calling out to him. Amid the applause, he scanned the area for any sign of the supervillain.

It seemed Icer had escaped.

Which meant everything was still going according to plan.