Chapter 5

I stayed around in the base for a couple of hours afterwards, watching TV with Alexa and Poof, while waiting for my warm to grow back. You'd never think it could feel bad having your arm back, but it still hurt having it grow back, and the odd thing was, my other arm hurt as well. I went to the kitchen to get some water and snacks since i was hungry as hell, and it's hard to get pizza with one arm slowly growing back.

Standing there, i notice someone approach, and turning around i quickly notice it's Alexa.

"Hey, 'John', your arms are grayer then the rest of your body, any idea what that's about?"

She asks me, obviously concerned. "And your nails, they look longer and sharper then before. You think this might be your power, becoming better when hurt, adapting to the damage you've taken and growing from it?"

"Honestly Takeover, i didn't even know you were that perceptive, I barely noticed myself. Maybe this is my power, to grow stronger from defeat and learn from it." Then i straighten myself out when i realize something "Takeover, where is my arm? You got rid of it, right? Cause it would suck if my secret identity was busted after my first outing."

"Don't worry, we got it covered, threw it in the lake" she tells me, "so that's fixed."

"Good. Now, since my dear parents are out the entire weekend and my sister is spending time with her favorite youth group, i was thinking we could go out tonight and kick some serious ass, just you, me and Poof. Thinking we could track down some bad guys and break up some drug deals, stop some robberies, things like that." I turned towards her, and i see that she's smiling. "You in?"

***

Three hours later, we're standing on one of those damn rooftops again.

In front of us is a regular, if a little boring, apartment. Apparently, it's supposed to get a shipment of herobusters, weapons with the power to kill most supers. Designed by builders hired by the American government, they were made to put down renegade villains, people that broke the codes between hero and villan and did stuff like go after their families when they were off duty, or disaster class threats, cases where peoples powers took control of their body, their mind and made them into, well, walking disasters. Powers want to be used, and when the power is strong enough, it will make itself be used.

So yeah, we can't let stuff like this into the city and out in the gangs if we're gonna stand a chance, even if it's the lower yield stuff.

From where we're lying, we can see the people in the room. Two not-so-obvious sides, one delivering large cases, and the other bringing in duffle bags filled with something of value, money or otherwise.

Takeover takes charge, like always.

"This is our chance to stop both of them. Poof, 'John', you ready?"

We both nod, and Poof grabs onto my arm.

"There's only seven people in there, and from the looks of it, they agreed to come unarmed. From what i managed to scrounge up, there are not supposed to be any supers in there, so let's just kick their ass, call the Hero League, and get out of there."

Then she takes a deep breath.

"Go."

***

From one moment to the next, we're suddenly surrounded in smoke and inside the apartment. I rush the first guy i see and deliver a quick punch to his ribs. I feel a couple of them cracking and he exhales and drops to the ground. Since they decided it'd be a great idea to stand so spread out, the next guy managed to get a small crowbar up before i reach him. He swings towards me and i stop in with my arm, barely feeling a thing.

A smile appears on my face as he goes down, and i continue my assault.

"Surrender."

Takeovers voice. I stop my rush and see that all except one have stopped moving.

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Suddenly, the room starts heating up.

"A fucking super, just great. Takeover, Poof, you two back away, if anything happens i can at least recover."

They do. After three seconds, they disappear back to the rooftop on the other side of the road, and i charge the guy heating up.

The guy didn't turn into fire like so many others, but he produced weak flames whenever he punched, and punch he did. My balaclava was set on fire and i could feel my skin starting to boil, but somewhere in the pain, it felt good.

I went for his throat right away, punched him right in his windpipe. He started coughing, but on a normal person a punch like that should have them choking. I was no almost fully on fire, but i didn't focus on the pain and just kept going. A punch to the solar plexus, a kick to the balls and a series of punches to the stomach. He was on the ground in pain, but not passed out. If i gave him a moment, he'd recover and continue torching this place down to the ground.

So i went for his joints. Kicked downwards on his right arm shoulder several times until i felt something go loose, and then started on the other one. If he can't move his arms, he can't punch. And if he can't punch, he can't create any fire.

With this guy down for the count, i realized large parts of me were on fire. So i did what the adults always told me, I stopped, dropped and rolled.

Standing up, i could already start to feel things in my skin. When i say feel 'things', i mean pain.

Lots of pain.

***

When i came to, i was still on the floor in the apartment, but Poof and Takeover were there with me. They'd already started rounding up all the people we put down, and was carrying the last guy over to the rest.

"Jesus man, how are you doing? Recovering alright?"

I wordlessly took the hand Poof had offered me and had him pull me to my feet. I could still feel a dull ache, but nothing as intense as how it was earlier.

"Yeah, i'm doing fine, already starting to recover from my burns. How we doing? Called the Hero League already?"

"They are on their way, so i'll just get you and Takeover back to base when we've secured the criminals. And take this, you're naked." He extended a arm and dropped some clothes in my arms. A new balaclava, underwear and a suit.

"The underwear is mine, freshly washed. We got the balaclavas in a bulk since we figured you'd probably burn throught a lot after you showed reckless abandon in losing your arm, and the suit is from one of the guys that surrendered."

I nodded, and started putting my clothes on. The only part of my body that was still badly burned was my face, so i turned around and changed back to my normal form. Suddenly all injuries were gone, but i still felt a dull ache in the background. I put all my clothes on and then got back to Poof and Takeover.

"We ready to go?" I asked them.

"Just, i'm, uh, thinking that maybe we should take some of the stuff? We need money for our base and gear, plus, I bet Foldup could do some great work with those herobusters if she got her hands on one.?

"Yeah." I say, and their eyes are on me. "If we can do good with something that'll otherwise just sit in some evidence locker, we take it and use it. There's enough stuff here that us taking a bag of money and a couple of herobusters won't affect these guys getting jailed or not, so why not make our future chances better by getting some technology and funding?"

"You know" Poof suddenly spoke up "I never took you for the kind of guy that thought so far ahead. I'm on as well."

So we took some money and a couple of guns, and a poof later?

We're gone.

***

Once again, sorry for not delivering on time. Wanted to get this chapter out tomorrow, but i didn't find any inspiration to write yesterday.

And like always, tell me if something is wrong with the chapter.

Cya.