Ever since the day his father died, Finneas Allister didn’t remember getting anywhere this quickly.

Adrenaline was a contributing factor, allowing him to run faster than he would otherwise.

His familiarity with the area also helped, knowing where the obstacles were in the environment meant he knew what routes and shortcuts to take.

Camouflage allowed him to slip by everything in his path unnoticed, even cars in the middle of the road.

The physical conditioning he’d been doing with Lyra and Jack wasn’t to be discounted, either. His muscles were now able to maintain far higher speeds without getting tired. He pushed for yet more speed, sprinting as hard as he could and then some.

But it was all still far too slow.

His mother was in danger, and he couldn’t get there soon enough. Worse yet, he still had to go home because he’d been too stupid to take his costume to school with him.

By the time he got to his house, he pulled the window open and dashed to his closet and yanked out his suit and gadgets from underneath his other clothes.

He was out of there in less than half a minute, already changed and shooting his barely-visible grappling hook at a nearby building. With a front flip, he carried his momentum into a roll and jumped straight off to another rooftop. As he rushed toward the scene, his mind raced with a million thoughts at a time.

This was it. The moment he’d been dreading would one day come. The fight had come to him, and the stakes were higher than ever.

He would face it with everything he had.

Was he ready? No, he wasn’t.

But that wasn’t going to stop him. He was going in there and saving his mother. No matter what.

Distantly, he realized he was breaking his promise to Jack. He’d agreed not to do anything rash, and here he was, doing exactly that. But it wasn’t really a choice. The moment Jack learned about this, he would understand.

Not that he would be able to do anything to help. He was too far away.

Lyra wasn’t going to be able to do anything either, she’d gone through intense surgery just a day prior, and she was in no condition to move.

Under ordinary circumstances, he wouldn’t have wanted to ask them for help, would’ve wanted to do everything on his own. But this was more important. He would have reached out, the issue was that he simply could not.

He was on his own.

And that thought gave way to a feeling he hadn’t experienced in quite some time: vindication.

From the moment he’d started this hero business, he often found himself wondering if he was making the right decisions, if he shouldn’t have been more patient, spent more time preparing for his long-term goal, but now he knew he had been on the right track all along.

For this upcoming fight, he was going to need every advantage he could get, and all his hard-earned skills and tools had prepared him for this.

If he had taken it easy, if he had been too cautious, too lax, he wouldn’t have been prepared for this current moment. And that wasn’t even considering what would’ve happened if he’d listened to his mother and simply done nothing with his power. If he had remained as weak as he was on that first day, completely useless, he wouldn’t be here right now.

Maybe, though, his current power still wouldn’t be enough. And if it wasn’t… Well, then he would have to do better. Somehow. Whatever it took.

Once he saw speeding police cars going in the same direction as him, he refocused. He could already see the building in the distance. But this far out, there weren’t any obvious signs that something was wrong.

When he got closer, he was reminded of that time where he came upon the café with those hostages in it, except on a larger scale. Police surrounded the building from the outside, while Homeland members patrolled the many floors. And he knew which one his mother would be on.

This was where he started sorely missing Jack’s assistance. If he were present, he would have gathered plenty of information while he focused on his target. Lyra would’ve also been able to overhear what the men inside were talking about, and point out the location of the individual hostages. But Finn was going in blind unless he went down to talk to the cops himself.

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He had a choice. Either go in there and free his mother immediately, or assess the situation and gather assistance. The first seemed far more appealing, the only problem was that announcing his connection to her was tantamount to blowing his cover.

Under the cover of his power, he shot his grappling hook at the building opposite to the Apexia Properties one to get a better look at the people inside. And when he did, he almost exploded with rage. His mother stood in a row of people lined up against the wall, with a few gunmen pointing their weapons at them. And behind them. No…

A pit formed in his stomach as he watched a man with a metallic, dark gray mask pace back and forth, his black cloak billowing as he did so.

Bodkin, district leader of Homeland, standing between Finn and his mom.

If he went in there now, he would die. Even if, by some miracle, he did survive, his mother certainly wouldn’t.

After agonizing for a few seconds about what to do, it suddenly hit him. There was a way for him to map out the interior, he simply wasn't used to applying it for practical purposes yet.

Why was Homeland here? He would have to scout out the building with his ability. He might not be able to sense the people, but he could spot the objects they moved.

If he could find out what Homeland was doing here, he might be able to lure Bodkin away and get his mother to safety.

Clearly, they weren’t taking hostages to collect ransom like petty thieves; they had some other goal they were trying to accomplish, considering the location lined up with their agenda. That meant this whole situation had to be a distraction for their real plan.

Or was it? Their leader was in the building, so they were either trying to convince the authorities that their presence here served some greater purpose, or they’d brought Bodkin because they actually needed him.

He got his answer a few seconds later when he spotted a group of Homeland forces in a computer room, presumably typing away hastily going by the keyboards. And, to his power, it seemed like there were guns floating in the air pointing at the walls, but he knew there were people behind the firearms. A plan began to form in his mind.

Casting a glance down to the gathered authorities, he saw three people in costume. Damsel, Warp, and Mountpin. The former two, he had met in person before, but the latter was one of the adult heroes on Mistral’s team, a woman whom he’d only seen in the media until today.

Although he didn’t know everything about the situation, he suspected this was all the DHD was going to send, be it because everybody else was unavailable or because Homeland was active in other places as well, he couldn’t be sure.

Whatever the case, them being here made things easier for him, assuming they were willing to cooperate with his plan.

To that end, he stretched his power even farther, though he had more than enough range to reach them. By now, his range had grown to span multiple blocks, at least. That was to say, his communication was rather clear.

When the colored letters started manifesting themselves beneath Damsel’s feet, she jumped back in surprise, then started looking around. Unable to spot the messenger, she went back to reading. Finn explained the plan to her, which she eventually responded to with a thumbs-up aimed at the wrong building.

As she told her allies about that, Finn reassessed the situation inside. All things were still in place for him to commence his distraction, and he didn’t waste any more time.

From one second to the next, all screens in the Apexia Properties building went dark.

The panic set in soon after, and just as expected, the typing in the computer room grew more frantic. What Finn didn’t see coming was that Bodkin would just up and leave the floor his mom was on right off the bat. The man walked off with a finger to his ear, gesticulating wildly with the other hand.

Originally, his plan had been to jump in while Bodkin was distracted, then black out the room and quickly get rid of the goons before luring him away. He hadn’t expected it to be this easy, but he wasn’t going to complain or stand there gawking like a moron.

He shot one grappling hook and swung down, diving through the open window and using his other grappling hook to swing his charged staff at the group of armed men who were only just starting to react.

Two of the guys were reaching for their dropped guns, but Finn kicked one of the weapons away and retrieved the other one with his first hook, having retracted it already before firing it again.

These rifles were heavier than people gave them credit for, he found. But the weight didn’t stop him from pointing it at the downed men. He wasn’t playing games here, and he couldn’t afford any of them trying something stupid. Not now.

Jack would’ve rattled on about how this brazen display of holding criminals at gunpoint was bad for his image or whatever, but he couldn’t care less, currently. He gave Warp the signal and waited for the portal to manifest.

Meanwhile, the office workers stared at the semi-invisible person holding a gun with wide eyes. A few seconds of heavy silence passed before Finn said, “Line up in front of that window, then walk through one by one.”

In answer, he got confused stares before the indicated space started swirling like water draining from a pool, dim flashes of light running through it. One of the men apparently recognized it, because he sprinted straight towards his escape. It took all of Finn’s self-control not to kick him in the stomach and toss his mother in first.

Both the guy and the portal disappeared, which prompted more worried looks, but seeing as their savior’s demeanor didn’t change, they slowly began to form a line.

He saw Mom take last place, and had to keep himself from verbally reacting. He wasn’t worried about her recognizing him that way, since he had a voice synthesizer on, but the only reason he’d gone through all of this extra trouble was to keep Shade’s connection to her a secret. Ostensibly, he was here to evacuate a group of innocent people, nothing more.

Needless to say, she was really testing his patience here. The portal opened back up, and he watched the agonizingly slow employees step through one after the other.

Then came the turn of Mrs. Allister. She turned her head in his direction, and he saw the uncertain expression on her face. It made his gut clench with rage. She wasn’t supposed to fear for her life like this.

It was almost definitely his imagination, but he was starting to feel like she was stalling on purpose. She wasn’t, of course. No way she would be able to tell it was him. That was the reason he hadn’t undone his power yet. He doubted she’d recognize him even if he just showed himself to her in the suit without camouflage, but there was no reason to risk it.

Finally, she stepped through, leaving Finn alone with the criminals. He practically deflated. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, and signaled to Warp that everyone on the floor was—

Glass shattered behind him, and he looked over to see a thick chord lodged in the ceiling. One of the Homeland guys laughed. “You’re done for now, kid,” he chuckled.

He heard the cable reeling something in. Finn didn’t wait to find out who was coming for him. He shot his grappling hook out of the building and got out.

In the air, they passed each other.

With his dark blue armored suit and visor, he looked like a taller, more muscular version of Finn in costume. But he knew this man was much more.

Trooper was much more. And he was coming for Shade.