Chapter 4

Four days later on a Friday night, we were lying on the rooftop across the road from our target.

The building, a small drugstore, was a front White Light cooked, and sold, meth from.

Over the last few days, i'd been training, running and lifting by myself, something i never had the opportunity to do before, and psychic resistance training with Alexa. It was hard, but it was *fun* in a way i'd never experienced before. Every time i challenged myself, i felt overjoyed, and afterwards i could *feel* myself growing.

The plan was simple. Poof would teleport me, Takeover and Shocking inside the store, while the last member of our crew, a techie that calls herself Foldup whose power was making things incredibly compact, would be providing cover from across the road with a rifle she had designed that shot supercharged bolts that would paralyze, courtesy of Shocking. It was weird seeing her show the rifle for the first time, since before it was folded up, it was around the size of a cucumber, and afterwards the size of an assault rifle.

Once we got inside, we would kick some serious ass and capture the people inside, call the police and then skedaddle before they arrived, hoping the more legal part of the law could give a longer term solution. From what Takeover had told us, Purifier was not in the area for the time being because of business, so we took our chance to strike at their moneymaking while we had it.

Offering a polite cough, we all turned towards Poof

"Alright, i think i'm ready to teleport us down. Are you ready?"

After looking around at me, Shocking and Takeover, Poof closed his eyes.

"And by the way 'John', you really need a superhero name."

***

Next thing i knew, we were all inside the building, but because of the smoke, i was not sure just *where* we were. Running out of the smoke, i saw three thugs sitting around a table drinking with their guns propped up to the wall next to them, so i rushed them. During my life, because of my sickness, i'd never been involved in any real fights, but because of my parents profession, they had always insisted i'd at the very least learn. What they taught me was, when in a fight without rules, fight as dirty as possible. So i did.

When i came up to the first guy who had just started to stand up, i kicked towards the leg he had all his weight on, or more specifically, his knee. I could hear a noise, but i can't really place it. I'd put it somewhere between 'snapping' and 'cracking'. The guy stood there in disbelief while i turned to the next guy, delivering a punch to his solar plexus. Just as my fist connected, the guy i'd kicked in the knee started to scream in terror, and i saw the third guy training his gun on me.

We looked at each other for a moment, but if felt much longer. Then our staring was interrupted by a voice.

"Surrender." was all that was said, but the guy dropped his gun and sat down on his knees with his hands on his head. Turning around, i saw Alexa looking hurried, and Shocking was obviously all charged up. That was the real downside to using Poof, he'd discharge if was teleported while charged since Poof required body contact, so he had to start charging after we arrived.

"Holy shit you were fast John, when did you get so quick? When we got out of the smoke, you were already on the second guy, and if Takeover would've been any slower you could have gotten shot!"

"I don't really know, i just decided to rush them as quick as possible, but never mind that now, let's go into the next room. It's supposed to be the lab, right?"

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Turning towards the door into the next room, i took a quick glance behind me at Takeover, Poof and Shocking. They all looked ready, so i pulled the door open and ran inside.

What we found was two people in gas masks mixing chemicals, exactly what we expected. I rushed the first guy and clocked him in the back of his head, while Shocking went for the other one. It was a simple affair really, nothing to really worry about.

That's when it struck me - "Was there not supposed to three cooks? Where's the last one?"

And then i saw movement behind Shocking. A guy with a small, sawed off shotgun who just finished putting both shells in, and started taking aim.

Thinking about how i'd probably die soon anyway, i decided to at least try to save Shocking. I jumped almost two meters from standing still, pushing him to the ground and then i started to rush the guy with the shotgun. I managed to grab it with the palm of my hand when he punched me in the face while i did the same. The shotgun got aimed towards my left arm, and the last thing i remember before i passed out from pain was the sound of him firing and the look of horror on his face.

***

When i woke up, i felt weak. It took me a while to realize i was in our base at the warehouse and it took even longer to realize that my arm was halfway *gone*. When i sat up, i saw Shocking to my side with mask on, but form how deeply he breathed out, i could assume he felt relieved.

"Hey man, how you doing? You just took a hell of a hit last night, so don't stress too much."

I was surprised. "Last night? How long was i out for?"

He turned away, towards the TV where the others were sitting. Looking over, i saw the clock above it. "I've been our for almost eight hours? What the fuck? And why am i here and not in a hospital, i'm missing an arm here!"

I realized i was not as upset as i should be, and i felt just like i did after i got attacked at the store, or when i trained. I felt content, relaxed, *happy*.

"Well, we were gonna fix a healer, but, uh, your bleeding stopped by itself. Then it looked like it started knitting itself together, so we simply teleported back to base to let you heal up here. Man, were you even aware you had increased regeneration? Cause growing back half a arm in a night is awesome as fuck!"

"I, uh, no, i was actually not aware i had regenerative powers. I don't have a tendency to get my extremities blown off in hope they'll regenerate. But honestly, i'm relieved. Would've been hard to explain a missing arm to my parents."

And that's when i realized, my power was still on. I was currently in my changed form, the form i'd taken to using in my day to day life the last week since i met the gang, and i wondered how it'd work if i shifted back now. Pushing it to the back of my mind, i stood up instead and made my way over to one of the love seats. Sitting down i gave a nod to everyone respectively, and turned towards the TV.

Then Alexa spoke up.

"By the way 'John', you were brutal as hell when you fought those thugs, kicked a guys knee in? That's savage."

"Oh." I said. "Yeah, it was."

***

Sorry for being late AF with this chapter. As always, don't be afraid to comment if you find any errors in my way of writing, since i write to get better.

Mornin.