It didn’t take long for the adrenaline to fade and for the pain to hit in full force.

There was swelling around the bridge of my nose and a dull throb from where it broke. I couldn’t diagnose it any further other than the fact it wasn’t shattered. There was still an intact ridge there with a solid foundation. Just… not straight.

“We’re not being followed,” Mia said as we turned into another street. “A few people just found the house and they look pretty pissed.”

Yeah… that tracked. I couldn’t imagine they’d be happy that I burnt down one of their houses and killed one of their own. They’d be out for blood, especially since Grim had already massacred dozens of their members.

“Keep your statues at a safe distance,” I said with a grunt. Even talking was painful. My nose was bad enough on its own, but pressure from the swelling and a searing headache that was only growing worse was starting to take its toll. Pain meds were becoming more enticing by the second. Sadly I don’t think anything over the counter was going to cut it. “We don’t want them spotting you, your power is far stronger when no one knows the specifics.”

“They won’t,” Mia reassured me. “I’m well hidden. You only noticed me because I wanted you to.”

I wanted to believe her, but she was still so new to all this. Hell, so was I. Besides that, Pandora had supers that had been around longer than we’d been alive. There was no real way of telling if they were onto us or not. I did, however, believe that no one was following us. Watching us, was another question entirely.

“So are you going to explain what happened?” She asked. My nose had thankfully ceased bleeding but my whole front was drenched and I could taste blood in my mouth. Needless to say, coupled with the pain I didn’t really feel like giving a rundown on what just happened. “Because it looks like nothing good.”

“I went looking for a friend. She’s been out of contact for a bit,” I thumbed over my shoulder. “Showed up at her house and then that happened.”

Mia made a noise which I likely meant she was frustrated with my vagueness. It wasn’t until we turned into another street that she pulled me into a nearby alleyway and forced me to stop. I didn’t resist, not having the strength nor will to do so anyway. We stood awkwardly out of sight from any nearby pedestrians, not that there were many at this time of day in this part of the city.

“Alright just…” she trailed off, staring me up and down. “…just stay here for a minute. I’m going to find you a shirt and something to clean up with.”

Mia didn’t move. Instead, we ended up hovering around the alleyway for around fifteen minutes. I didn’t bother asking where she was going to find that stuff as I was too busy nursing a migraine. As the time ticked on, I had to wonder if I had a concussion because my ears were starting to ring and my vision was starting to blur.

“There we go,” Mia said, moving past me deeper into the alleyway. I looked up to see that three different statues of her had appeared. One was holding a shirt, another a bottle of water, and the last a box of pain medication.

I took off my jacket and bloodied shirt and replaced it with the clean shirt Mia had so generously brought for me.

“Where’d you get this?” I murmured, uncapping the water.

“Swiped from a corner store,” she shrugged, pointing to the water and paracetamol. She then gestured to the shirt. “I just took the shirt from someone’s house. Broke his lock and then I was in and out in a couple of seconds.”

I wet my bloodied shirt and wiped my mouth. I gently dapped around my nose as it was still very tender, just touching sent a lance of pain through me. I moved my attention to the paracetamol and narrowed my eyes at the box. This sort of stuff was for mild or moderate pain and wouldn’t cut it.

I spent a charge changing the contents to Tramadol before then investing a few more charges in upgrading its effectiveness, absorption rate, and reducing the side effects. I’d still be a little out of it, but nothing like if I hadn’t upgraded it. The box changed along with the branding and the contents contained pills less than half the size of a grain of rice. I had never seen pills so small before.

Regardless, I took one and popped it in my mouth without much thought.

Powers work on over-the-counter drugs… noted.

“They said your power was weird,” Mia gazed at the box, confused. “You… made it better?”

“Hope so,” I muttered. “Thanks for fetching these,” I took a swig of water to wash the pill down before downing half the bottle. While the pain didn’t fade completely I did feel refreshed. The blurriness in my vision subsided and I felt like I could at least walk without the risk of falling over and passing out. “That’s better. How do I look?”

“Like you ran face first into a brick wall,” Mia said without any humor in her voice. “At least you don’t look like a murder victim anymore,” she lightly gestured to different bits of her face to show where I had missed some splotches of blood. I dabbed them away, lightly cringing at her choice of words. “How do you feel?”

“Probably exactly how I look,” I risked another prod at my nose. “What do you think, broken?”

“I’m not a doctor,” Mia stepped forward, a grimace crossing her face. “But it looks like it, doesn’t look like it’s life threatening or anything though. Sam could let you know for sure.”

“That would involve telling her about what happened.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “You weren’t going to?”

I shook my head. “No, I was. I just don’t like the idea. It’s hard to tell how she will react, but she needs to know, Liam too. If this comes back to bite us we need to be prepared.”

We’d need to be able to anticipate any moves against us. I was sure we didn’t have the kind of manpower to recover from a surprise attack, especially not one of the caliber that the other gangs could launch. Our defenses were minimal and I needed more time to develop them. If Pandora or Grim suddenly turned their focus to us, I wouldn’t get that time and we’d be chased out of town at best.

“You don’t think they’re going to attack us, right?” Mia asked, hoping that I would claim we had nothing to worry about. The worst part was that I had no idea. Pandora probably had more Mentalists to consult than I cared to count. Their resources ran deep, maybe just as deep as the ECU’s, and a slight like this would be enough to get them mobilizing. The question was if they’d even think to look into the incident or just assume it was Grim and leave it at that. “No one’s following us, they can’t know that you were involved. They would be chasing us otherwise!”

“Just because they’re not after us now, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually figure it out. You’ve seen how Sam’s power works. Granted, most Mentalists aren’t as powerful as Gold, but they’re looking into Grim and I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured it out, even if it’s by accident.”

I stopped myself and shuddered. I felt like I had dug my own grave. If I was feeling like this, then I could only imagine what Abby was feeling. The ECU would protect her but like Sam said, there was corruption everywhere. Pandora almost certainly had sympathizers on the inside, and that meant Abby would be in danger.

I had to trust that she could take care of herself. I knew my limits and I couldn’t help her, not yet anyway.

“Shit,” Mia ran a shaky hand through her frazzled hair. She didn’t exactly look like the perfect picture example of calm. “They’ll come after us.”

“Well, me,” I felt the need to pointlessly clarify. “And by extension, the rest of our group.”

“I’m really starting to regret sticking around,” Mia muttered.

I couldn’t blame her.

We resumed our walk to Groves Den with Mia giving small updates on the situation. The fire that my weapon had caused ended up burning Lucy’s home to the ground. Apparently, the fire had even spread to some of the surrounding homes until Chiller had arrived to put them out. That part surprised me, seeing as he had been present at the Pandora gathering that Grim massacred.

I recalled how one of Pandora’s supers acted out during the meeting when Gaea mentioned the massacre. Red Flare died, that much was certain but it seemed Chiller survived. How I wasn’t exactly sure, but it was something to think about later.

“They found a body,” Mia said, coming to a stop. I turned to see bits of her face screwed up like she had looked at something nasty. She then recoiled slightly. “They found another one! It’s all— oh God. It’s— it’s everywhere!”

“Abby didn’t mean to. She just sorta reacted.”

“Abby?”

“Comet,” I clarified. “We’re good friends but she doesn’t know I’m Upgrade. Like I said, we went looking for our friend and, well… this happened.”

Mia nodded slowly, still sporting an uncertain expression.

“And… the other body?”

I grimaced.

I didn’t exactly have time to process everything that happened. I knew that killing someone usually took a heavy toll. I had read interviews from Heroes all across the world detailing their experiences and how they affected them. So I knew that I should be feeling something. Yet, all I could feel was the slowly fading pain of a busted nose. Did that make me some kind of sociopath?

The guy had attacked me without so much as a word and then went straight for the throat. I couldn’t even try to talk him down. He had given me no choice.

“That was me,” I explained, absently rubbing my neck. “He got the drop on me.” Mia still didn’t look too satisfied with that so I felt the need to elaborate. “He hit me,” I pointed to my nose. “I fell over and then he tried to strangle me while I was dazed. I didn't have the time to consider anything else.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Oh,” her expression turned pained. “Have you—”

“No.”

I cringed at how quickly I answered that.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

I instinctively tried to wrinkle my nose but the excruciating pain made me keep a neutral expression. I knew Mia was trying to be respectful – trying to understand my position. We were still very much new to this life. I was only a month into it and I had already killed someone. Sam had been at this for more than three years and she had managed to keep her hands clean – assuming she wasn’t lying that is.

Murder was a slippery slope and not just morally. Pandora was notorious for how they “punished sinners against the cause”. Now, whether I liked it or not, I had taken one of theirs, and claiming self-defense wouldn’t get me out of trouble. No matter what I did, they’d be out for blood.

How’d they even get the jump on us anyway? I was alert, I should’ve noticed them. Abby too.

Had they been Supers? If that guy had powers, I hadn’t the slightest clue what they were. He hadn’t used them to save himself and he hadn’t used them to kill me. If Abby’s attacker was a super it hadn’t helped them either. Maybe they didn’t even get a chance to use them or they didn’t think it was necessary. There was always the possibility that they thought we were normal kids.

Maybe it wasn’t useful in combat, some kind of minor movement power. Sound suppression? Invisibility?

None of that mattered now. What was left of him could fit in a vase.

“I’m trying not to think about it. A lot happened very quickly,” I said. “I’m just trying to focus on getting back so I can sit down and get some ice. Is there anything else happening or has it calmed down now?”

“I wouldn’t say anyone’s calm right now,” Mia murmured, looking away. “There’s a lot of movement, not just at the house but everywhere,” she explained with a weary look. “It’s hard to explain but there’s this… buzz in the air. Everywhere, I can see people looking over their shoulders or in a hurry to get home. It’s like—”

“—Everyone’s waiting for something to happen,” I finished for her.

I stopped and looked back at the way we came. The smoke that was climbing high into the sky had stopped billowing, but the remnants of it lingered in the air like an angry cloud. The fires had been put out, but the fury would remain. It would need an outlet – something to be unleashed upon. If Grim’s massacre had placed a powderkeg within Pandora’s ranks, then what Abby and I had just done was light the fuse.

“How many statues are you working with right now?”

“Sixteen,” Mia replied. “Why?”

I thought for a moment before pointing east.

“Do you have any in that direction?”

Mia nodded. “Sam had me set a few up over there. That’s Cain territory, right?”

“Yeah. What’s happening there?”

“Nothing really,” Mia’s brow furrowed. “Hold on, let me just get to a better position,” she paused and crossed her arms. Her concentration deepened and I could tell by the look in her eyes that her head was miles away. It seemed if she really wanted to focus on specifics, she needed to direct them. “People are locking up their homes. There’s a couple of— HOLY SHIT!”

There it is…

We could barely see it from where we were standing. The top of an apartment complex had exploded and I could already see the smoke beginning to rise. The deep boom arrived several moments later.

“I didn’t—” Mia shook her head, shock and horror etched across her features. “I didn’t even see what happened. I just heard it through one of my statutes. There’s—” she lifted her fingers to her temple and narrowed her eyes. “There’s someone standing in the smoke on top of the building. I can’t see who it is.”

“We need to get back to the apartment,” I turned and started off again, quickening my pace. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

“What are you on about?” Mia sounded confused.

“It’s going to be a full scale gang war,” I replied. “Pandora’s already been moving against Grim. Chances are they’ve held back to stack the deck in their favor as much as possible. They’ve got their info and a guarantee that the other gangs won’t jump on them at the first sign of weakness. Now I’ve given them the perfect excuse to go scorched earth.”

I expected more explosions but all I got was more normal city ambience. If Pandora was carving a warpath into Cain territory, Grim would be forced to respond and the city would descend into chaos. That’s what I thought would happen. All my life I had just been a bystander to the conflicts Supers got into but now I was actively involved in one. I was about to get a proper look at just how bad it could get.

“Gangs fight all the time,” Mia said, looking even more confused. “What’s the difference here?”

“You didn’t see it, did you?”

“See what?”

“What Grim did to Pandora,” I said. “We talked about it briefly at the meeting. Gaea mentioned it and they got really touchy.”

Mia thought for a moment and nodded. “I remember that. What happened?”

“Grim walked into a Pandora church and killed everyone. There had to have been at least fifty people there. Sam and I watched a video from someone in the crowd. The phone must’ve been recovered later but Red Flare and Chiller were there. As far as I know only Chiller made it out.”

“He…” Mia’s expression reflected horror. “He what?”

“If Pandora retaliated, then I haven’t heard anything about it,” I continued. I knew I didn’t need to clarify. She understood exactly what I said. “But now they’ve been attacked again and two of their own are dead. Doesn’t matter who did it, they’ll blame the Cains – blame Grim. They’re done waiting now.”

“How—” she stopped herself and swallowed. “Nevermind, I think you’re right.”

I could only imagine what she was witnessing right now. A full offensive from Pandora, their Super’s rolling into Cain territory like a tide of death. The attack we just heard earlier was probably one of the more obvious strikes. The thought that there would be fighting going on in the streets churned my stomach.

Even worse, I was responsible for starting it.

By the time we made it back to the apartment complex, the sun had well and truly set. Darkness covered the city, the sounds of fighting and the occasional flash in the distance broke the peaceful atmosphere. With haste, Mia and I moved into the underground parking space and headed for the stairway. My head was a lot clearer now that the pain medication had kicked in, but I still felt less than 100%. As we climbed the stairs and headed to Sam’s floor, I realized that the place was eerily quiet.

“Sam?” I called out, pushing open the door. We entered the room to find it empty. I called her name again but she didn’t answer. I even tried Liam’s name and he didn’t answer either. “They’re not here.”

“They should be,” Mia huffed, sounding a little panicked. “Where the hell are they?”

We searched the room until a note on the table caught my eye. I picked it up and read the contents before exhaling in frustration.

“They’ve gone out. Sam’s saying to meet them at Browning Street.”

Mia’s eyes bulged. “That’s basically where all the fighting is. Why?”

“She’s taking advantage of the chaos,” I flipped the note over to see if there were any more details but found nothing. We’d have to meet up to find out what her game was. “It’s the perfect opportunity. Two of the biggest gangs in the city are taking shots at each other. Smaller groups like us are going to be circling like vultures while the ECU tries to do damage control.”

I wanted nothing more than to go lie down. The last thing I wanted to do was suit up and jump right into the thick of things, but it seemed like I didn’t have much of a choice.

“I…” Mia frowned, seeming upset. “I didn’t even see them leave. I have three statues standing watch around this place. How’d they get out without me seeing them?”

“Sam’s too fast to track with Pink and can teleport with Purple. Liam is…” I tried to think of a word to describe the way he moves about with his power. “...something. You were paying more attention to all the fighting going on anyway, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”

My words didn’t seem to have any sort of effect. She still looked sour but it didn’t take long for her expression to shift.

“We’re really going out there?” Mia asked, sounding slightly shaken. “I-I don’t know if I have it in me to hurt anyone. I’m not… like that – confrontational I mean.”

I did my best to look sympathetic, but considering she flinched, I don’t think it came across as sincere as I meant it to. I could understand where she was coming from. I knew some people like that, Chris being one of them. The rest of our friend group wasn’t really like that. Hard to be when Abby was around to give us a kick in the ass if she thought we were being soft.

“Not many people are, not naturally. Most people have to learn it,” I said softly. Then I thought for a moment, considering what kind of role Sam wanted her in. “You don’t have to come, not really. Just stay here and control your statues remotely. Probably best to follow Sam around and let her direct you.”

Mia thought for a moment before nodding, liking that idea much more than whatever she was thinking.

“Okay, yeah I can do that. Is there any way I can communicate with you guys without me just like, you know… taking over one of my statutes? I don’t want to be shot in the head, set on fire, or blown into tiny unidentifiable pieces.”

Oddly specific choice of words.

An idea sprang into my head.

“Follow me.”

We left the room and headed up to my workshop. The doors slid open and I made a beeline for a table with piles of electronics on it. Mia seemed to linger at the entrance, looking around in amazement at what I had done with the place. It wasn’t really anything special, but I suppose she hadn’t seen much Mechatech before.

“So this is a Mechakinetic’s workshop,” her voice was full of caution. It was like she was afraid that a single word would trigger a defense system and zap her into dust. “Never thought I’d ever get to see one.”

I resisted the urge to say that she had been inside one before, I was occasionally insensitive, not completely braindead.

“It's a work in progress,” I dismissed with an idle wave, the place was mostly filled with unorganized junk that had a charge or two thrown at it. The only thing remotely impressive were my 3D printers and the workbench I had my suit on. I reached and snagged an item off the table before heading back over to her. “Encrypted communicator. Sam has one and I have one built into my suit. This one was going to be Liam’s but I’m not entirely sure he needs it. I don’t even know if it would work with his power. Hell we don’t even know how his power works, something weird with space-time and I’d need to measure—” I shook my head, I was getting off track. “Point is, you can use it and he probably can’t.”

“Oh,” Mia stared at the earpiece in her hand. “How do I use it?”

“There’s a button on the side to transmit,” I said as she slipped it on.

“Okay,” she pressed the button. “Hello, is anyone there?”

“Sam might not be—”

“Oh! Sam!” Mia exclaimed her expression brightening. “I— OH! Sorry, Alice. Ma— er, Upgrade just gave me this thing to talk to you guys. I’m going to be staying behind and using my powers remotely,” she paused for a moment as Alice talked on the other end. “Yeah, I think it’s for the best too. He’s um,” she gave me a quick look. “He’s just getting ready.”

I grumbled and turned, walking over toward my suit. Mia continued to speak with Alice as I slipped into it and went through the necessary adjustments. I was exhausted, sore, and nursing a freshly broken nose. I wasn’t in the best state to be going out into the warzone that was Bayside, but I needed to fight through the pain. Besides, the drugs were doing wonders.

Once I pressed the button at the back of my neck, my helmet shifted and folded over my face. The L.E.D screens inside lit up and began running scans.

“Medical scans indicate mild cranial trauma,” a small x-ray of my skull opened as a window on my visor, giving me a pretty good picture of the damage that had been inflicted. It highlighted several points along the ridge of my nose where there were breaks. “Recommendations: Rest and recovery, at least two days. Biogel Grade 3 application.”

I scoffed.

I wish.

It was time to go see what kind of mess I had made.