Abby claimed the soundproofing installed inside the Citadel was the best money could buy. Whoever designed the materials didn’t consider a Transfiguration Case like Amelia.
All night, her vulpine ears twitched incessantly, picking up the sounds of fighting and destruction. Naturally, Amelia and the rest of the Rookies found themselves confined to the Citadel for their safety. Abby was the only exception to that rule because she had the most experience. Amelia knew her experience didn’t extend to an active warzone, but it was clear that Abby knew the ins and outs of superheroing.
Amelia tossed and turned in her bed, unable to get a wink of sleep with the whole Citadel in a state of emergency. There was only one alarm she needed to wait for. It would sound like a low-pitched whining, repeating over and over.
The city-wide evacuation alarm.
Fortunately, that alarm never came, and the morning sun rose over a desecrated Bayside. The Citadel’s emergency lockdown lifted at nine in the morning, letting Amelia finally see what had happened from the small window in her designated room. The sight of all the smoke and carnage made her heart ache.
A knock at the door tore her attention away from the window.
“It’s Jason.”
Amelia considered whether or not she should answer. It would be easy to pretend to be asleep, but if Seer was here, he came here for a reason outside pleasantries. Tricky and Copycat often came by to say hi, but she only felt comfortable opening the door for Comet. If Seraphim bothered to stop by, maybe Amelia would open the door, but the older girl felt distant. That was a sentiment everyone shared, so thankfully, it wasn’t because she found Amelia’s company undesirable.
God only knows Amelia had enough self-confidence issues to begin with. Her superpowers only made everything worse.
“I’m awake,” Amelia called, moving away from the window. “Do you need me for something?”
“There’s a meeting in the common room. Sparrow’s called it. I know Abby’s normally the one to come and get you but she’s exhausted. She’s resting up there as we speak,” Jason explained. “Are you… decent? It’s an urgent meeting, so we need to go now.”
Amelia opened the door, ignoring the need to dress in something more than sweatpants and a gray shirt with The ECU’s logo splashed across the front. It wasn’t very flattering, but Amelia could not care less how she looked after the restless night she had. Jason didn’t look much better. He wore trousers, slippers, and a loose-fitting jacket over a singlet. It might be the middle of Winter, but Amelia didn’t feel the bite of the cold with the Citadel’s superior heating and insulation.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” Amelia offered an idle shrug, pointing to her twitching ears. “I heard a lot of chaos outside.” When Jason continued to stare at her, she remembered that his powers blinded him. Feeling like a fool, she let her hand fall to her side. “I don’t imagine anyone got much sleep with everything that happened.”
Jason hummed as Amelia shut and locked her room before beginning to walk.
“Not me. I was tasked with helping some of the Mentalists. I provided support to our field operatives with my power,” Amelia noticed his hands curl into fists, a few of his knuckles popping. “Even with my brief foresight, so many died. I should have been out there. It’s hard for me to see the right lines when I’m so far away from danger. It's frustrating not being able to use my abilities to their fullest extent.”
Amelia huffed at his frustration.
“At least you got to help. I was ordered to sit in my room all night. I could have been out there helping people too,” Amelia thought back to the night when Ionizer took her out with Comet. Ionizer got an extensive reprimanding while she had received an avalanche of apologies. Despite that, Amelia felt like she was being locked up in the Citadel all day as punishment. “I know I’m not experienced enough, but I could have saved some people.”
“They don’t want us near conflict like that. We’re too young. It’s bad enough Abby is called on to contribute, but she is always assigned to Domination’s side. She might get to go out there, but she’s still got supervision. Her powers give her a wider defensive capability than the rest of us. All we have to protect ourselves with is Nanoforge’s armor.”
“I’m durable,” Amelia lightly protested. She knew this was a stupid argument, as Seer wasn’t the one to make the calls, but she felt like venting anyway. “My transformation has a pretty big enhancement rating, right? I can take some punishment.”
“You’re the least experienced of all of us. Every line I simulate with you going out last night ends with you dead, or brutally maimed.”
She grumbled under her breath.
Amelia knew that’s where the crux of the problem stemmed from. She had studied the different procedures well enough, but her field experience was lacking. An active war zone was not a good place to improve on those areas, regardless of how effective a trial by fire would be.
“Yeah, I know. I’m allowed to be bitter about it.”
“You’ve already come a long way in a short time,” Jason praised with a smile. “When you showed up here, you were more nervous than anyone I’ve ever seen. Now, you’re itching to get back out there and make a difference. Bit of a far cry from what I expected.”
Amelia thought back to the events of her first patrol. She was lasered by that guy in the black armor, accidentally set a building on fire, got swarmed by a bunch of drones, and experienced first-hand what Grim was capable of. If there were any apprehensions about her future, they were murdered and buried that night. Amelia wasn’t sure what else she had left to fear.
“As you might have heard, my first outing was one hell of an icebreaker.”
Jason sighed.
“Yeah, I heard about that. Messy,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Things around here tend to get quite tense when people start dying. There’s a lot of anger, and for good reason. The only problem is directing that anger and turning it into a force for positive change,” he took a slow, controlled breath. “Not everyone here is capable of doing that. A lot of the soldiers… things get violent.”
Amelia shuddered.
She wasn’t stupid. Police brutality had existed long before people started getting superpowers. There was no reason the ECU would be any different. They had more tools to prevent it, but cases tended to slip through the cracks when certain events spiral out of control, much like last night.
“You see that stuff with your power?”
Jason nodded.
“Bits and pieces, when I look for the right lines. There are already investigations underway. Sparrow and some of the higher ups have already asked for my testimony. It’s hard for them to gather solid evidence though, so all I can do is point them in the right direction – highlight the problems, so to speak,” he explained, his frown deepening. “It always seems to happen, and it doesn’t feel like the problem is getting any better.”
Amelia deflated at the admission.
“I’m sorry. That can’t be easy to deal with.”
“No, it isn’t. Then again, none of our roles are,” Jason reasoned with a shrug. “We’ve all been given these powers for whatever reason. We have to do the best we can to help the ones in charge keep order, otherwise everything will crumble. There’s no line I’ve seen where things get easier.”
The responsibility loomed over Amelia like a swinging pendulum.
When her parents signed her up with the Rookies, she understood that her old life disappeared. There was no way to recapture what she once had. The most difficult part was moving forward with the idea that soon, she would be endangering herself for the good of the people. The ECU would ensure Amelia’s services would equal stable pay, and the insurance plans her parents received were beyond what anyone could scarcely imagine. In the end, wealth piloted the decision making for people, and she suspected her parents were no exception to that rule.
When Amelia and Jason arrived, they found every hero on the roster present. The only one missing, strangely enough, was Ionizer. If they guessed, they would have assumed his absence was intentional. With a quick simulation from Seer, he would confirm that.
“You’re on time!” Sparrow called, expressing delight. She walked and handed them two dossiers that looked cobbled together in less than five minutes. Loose paper almost fell out of Amelia’s, and she struggled to catch them before they fell. “There’s a lot to go over, so find a seat and open those ears.”
Amelia laughed awkwardly.
“Well, that’s not a problem for me. See, I’m all ears!”
Sparrow smiled while Tricky called out from his seat on the couch.
“Hey, nice one!”
Amelia groaned and went to look for an open seat.
When she couldn’t find one spacious enough to fit her tail, she chose to stand at the kitchen counter next to Dreamweaver. On her way over, she caught sight of Comet and Domination. They were dressed in their armored costumes and appeared to have dragged half of Bayside’s filth with them. Comet’s expression was dead, the dossier in her hand hanging limp while her mother remained stern. Amelia tried to catch Comet’s attention with a friendly wave, but the girl’s attention was a thousand miles away. Last night must have been awful to have someone with Comet’s spunk looking like a squeezed wet rag.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. There is a lot to go over, but I hope I will not keep you all long. Myself and the rest of the senior heroes still have a lot of crisis management to do,” Sparrow informed, her tone turning serious. “The reason for this impromptu meeting is to catch you all up to speed on what’s happened so that you are aware of what’s going on during your deployment.”
“Deployment?” Copycat frowned. “Hold up, are we going out there?”
“The majority of the danger has passed. Upper management and Mentalist support decided it is safe for you to patrol and help with cleanup efforts,” Sparrow replied. “However, there is still significant unrest amongst many communities. Violence is… well, abundant.”
“Cool,” Tricky said. “Finally, we get to crack some skulls. Been tired of doing the same ol’ walk about. I was gonna start asking you if I could bring my dog along.”
“Tricky,” Sparrow said sternly. “Please remain quiet for the rest of the meeting, unless I prompt you with questions.”
His smile disappeared in a flash.
“Aw man.”
“Thank you,” Sparrow gave him a small nod before turning to the rest of the room. “As I have said, the majority of the danger has passed and in the coming days, we expect to see a shift in Bayside’s power structure. The Cains’ influence is expected to minimize with Nemesis' death and Grim’s capture. We also have confirmation that Gold Rush and Banshee have fled the city.”
Amelia had to stop her jaw from hitting the kitchen counter. She remembered not too long ago how quickly The Cains had established themselves. Grim’s arrival in Bayside had made headlines, and people expected unrestrained destruction to follow. When it didn’t, and The Cains rose to prominence, confusion gripped the city by the jugular. Grim starting a gang? People thought Hell was freezing over.
Now, overnight, they crumbled to nothing and vanished. The only thing that made them a serious threat was now in custody. How The ECU managed to contain the man Amelia had no idea, but it seemed to be working.
“We got Grim?” Seraphim’s voice sounded somewhere between hollow and shocked. “How are—” she paused and shook her head as if the idea were absurd. “How are we holding him? It wasn’t that long ago that we had Bonesmith in custody and he escaped. How are we expected to hold someone as powerful as Grim?”
“There is no need for concern,” Lich’s gruff voice intoned. “Gaea saw to it that he would never trouble anyone again.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“The details are classified,” Sparrow quickly interjected before anyone could ask. “I’m sorry, but we are not allowed to speak on specifics. I’m sure you can all use your imaginations, considering that Gaea was involved in his arrest.”
Amelia shuddered as her mind ran wild. She was sure her other Rookie teammates were doing the same, except for Comet. Maybe that’s why Comet looked so horrified. She saw what Gaea did to Grim, and it scared her. If that was the case, Amelia didn’t want to think what fate befell the genocidal maniac.
“So The Cains are gone. What of Mirage and Bonesmith? You haven’t said anything about what’s happened to them,” Seer asked. “Are they not capable of keeping what remains of The Cains together? I’m not able to model Mirage properly as my information on him is limited. My lines are blurry. Bonesmith is a similar case but his file notes that he was a leader of the armada that Ajax destroyed.”
Amelia watched Sparrow and the other senior heroes exchange concerned looks.
“You believe they might try to hold together what’s left of the gang?” Sparrow asked.
Seer gave a half shrug. “Like I said, my lines are blurry. I can see Bonesmith trying with varying degrees of success.”
Sparrow nodded. “Well, let’s revisit that in a moment. Everyone, please open the dossier I handed out.”
Amelia looked down and opened the first page. It was blank except for text splashed across the middle of the page that read ‘Madhouse.’ She flipped the page and lost her breath. This page contained various images of a black alien-like figure with disproportionate limbs. Some were screenshots of CCTV footage, others were photographs, while two or three were sketches. Amelia had encountered this Super before.
“This is Anomaly. He is a B-Class Morpher with tentative C-Class Enhancement capabilities. As of last night, his profile has been updated to include C-Class Cosmikinetic abilities,” Sparrow explained. “Until recently, we’ve considered him to be a low priority threat as his crimes only extend to petty theft with occasional aggravated assaults against various gangs. Now, he has joined a new rising group who are calling themselves ‘Madhouse.’ They’ve also been relatively low priority.”
Seraphim hummed. “That explains why we haven’t heard of them.”
Copycat scoffed.
“Small groups rise up all the time. There’s probably more than forty or fifty in the city. They all fizzle out and die at some point,” he flipped a few more pages on the dossier, and his brow rose considerably before turning back to Anomaly’s page. “I guess it looks like these guys are going to be the next big thing. Lucky them.”
Nobody missed the dryness in his tone. Abby had told Amelia that Copycat used to run one of those small groups before his recruitment into the Rookies. Lich and Dreamweaver had been the ones to capture him, and because of his age, he was allowed to dodge the charges against him if he joined. To Amelia, that felt like a cop-out.
“Anomaly is a powerful Morpher. We have confirmed solutions to deal with him,” Sparrow continued. “However, they are very specific. If you encounter him, I urge you to call for backup and do not engage.”
No one raised an issue or looked dissatisfied with that.
When everyone turned the page, Amelia stared at a figure she didn’t quite recognize. There were multiple images of statues. The primary image was a girl made of solid bronze. Her features weren’t distinct, so Amelia didn’t know who she was staring at. The only thing she had to go off was the name written at the top of the page.
“Vigil is another B-Class Morpher, but unfortunately we do not have much information on her. Mentalist support believes she is a newly Awakened and a victim of the recent experiments performed by The Cains,” Sparrow explained. “We have placed a tentative A-Class Enhancement rating on her statues, as they were recorded to be immensely durable when sighted last night.”
Amelia immediately recalled the unconscious girl she saw Madhouse rescuing on her first night out. She had to be the same girl. Didn’t the ECU have her identity? Her face hadn’t been concealed during that encounter. Surely, they would have figured out who she was.
Scanning the paper, Amelia found no civilian name. If they knew, they had redacted it.
“Her statues move when unobserved,” Lich pointed to the dossier. “That information needs to be recorded. It’s not stated here.”
“Apologies, an oversight on my end,” Sparrow said with a weak laugh. “Long night for all of us. I’ll correct that as soon as I can.”
Lich nodded slowly.
“Hang on, statues. As in, plural?” Seraphim’s eyes scanned the page, examining each photograph with a careful eye. Amelia did the same. While the primary image showed Vigil as a bronze statue, there were others where she was gold, glass, stone, and even wood. “She doesn’t just turn into statues? There are multiple?”
“Oh hell no,” Tricky shook his head, closing the dossier. “That’s some horror movie shit. I ain’t about that. You guys are joking, right? They can only move when you’re not looking at them? How fast can they go?”
The senior heroes exchanged worried looks, and Amelia felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The uncertainty wasn’t a good feeling for anyone.
“Fast,” Sparrow said. “Even with Mentalist support, calculating their movement capabilities has proved to be troublesome. They’re able to move instantaneously anywhere from up to thirty meters.” There was a distinctly uncomfortable silence as Sparrow followed it up with a short clarification. “When… unobserved.”
“Don’t blink,” Lich advised.
Copycat chuckled. “You ever tried not blinking?”
“We’ll have to try,” Lich said bluntly. “It’s the obvious solution until another can be devised. I imagine we’ll be commissioning our Mechakinetics to create something to lock her statues in place.”
On the next page, Amelia found a collage of smirking blondes staring at her. If there was one face that stuck in her mind from her first night out, it was this one.
“This is Alice, previously known as Split. She has ratings in most classifications which makes her a C-Class Aspect. A-Class Mentalist, B-Class Enhancements, C-Class Cosmikinetic, and an E-Class Mechakinetic. Yes, as you can see, she used to be a Rookie from the California branch,” Sparrow explained. “A lot of our information on Alice is outdated, but her recent involvements here have allowed us to compile more data.”
“Caitlyn Whiterose?” Copycat read aloud, looking up from the dossier. “Did you guys uh… forget to redact that? I thought we’re all about keeping their civilian identities a secret or something. You guys did the same for me,” he paused, giving Sparrow an icy glare. “Presumably.”
Sparrow offered an understanding smile.
“While that is her legal name, we have reason to believe she has taken up a new one to help her transition into a new life. She has done well to cover her tracks, and we suspect she has used her skills to help her associates cover theirs as well. Their civilian identities are unknown to us,” Sparrow said, her smile twisting into a frown. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with the series of security breaches we’ve had over the last few months.”
Amelia heard a series of frustrated grunts come from the senior heroes.
“Our IT department is doing their best,” Domination added diplomatically. “We are all aware it is not enough. There is no sense complaining about it.”
“Man, she has such a punchable face,” Tricky mused. “Please tell me we’re allowed to take a shot at her if we see her.”
“No,” Domination said, crushing his hopes and dreams. “We are sharing this information with you so you know who you’re supposed to call backup for.”
The bitterness on Tricky’s face was obvious to everyone. Amelia knew from her first meeting with him that he struggled with authority. He was the youngest of the Rookies, and his immaturity showed. His powers were quite impressive during the few team-building exercises she attended, but it was clear that his versatility and importance went to his head.
Finally, Amelia turned to the last page of the dossier.
When she saw the portrait of Madhouse’s last member, she felt phantom pains in her leg. Whenever she thought about him, he angered her. What if his weapon had crippled her? The wound might not have translated to her human form, but the pain was still real. Amelia still felt the searing pain from having a laser explode on her hind leg.
“Here, we have Upgrade. He is an A-Class Mechakinetic with a tentative S-Class Mechakinetic capability–”
“Wait a minute. S-Class?” Seraphim choked out a laugh. “Are you serious? We already have Gaea to worry about, and we just got rid of Grim. What makes this guy a tentative S-Class?”
Domination cleared her throat, drawing the room’s attention to her.
“Traditionally, Mechakinetics are easy to capture. Most – without exception – are forced to be daring to acquire the necessary resources to use their power,” Domination explained. “For this reason, we have every junkyard and landfill site monitored with twenty-four seven surveillance. We have weekly reports from every electronics shop in the city for suspect purchases, along with footage for who made what purchase.”
Copycat snorted. “So much for privacy.”
“The point is, Mechakinetics struggle to maintain secrecy during their earlier days,” Domination continued. “Upgrade’s presence did not go unnoticed. We saw him advertising his services online, and our Mentalist support deemed him a low priority. They believed he had no intention to escalate his activities.”
So far, if Amelia were to take anything away from this meeting, it was this: The ECU needed better Mentalist support as soon as feasibly possible. If Mentalist support misjudged Upgrade that badly, she wasn’t sure any of their predictions could be reliable.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Seraphim argued. “Why the tentative S-Class rating?”
Domination scowled.
“During his active period, he has developed impressive rudimentary Mechatechnology without the need of procuring the necessary resources. Normally, that would lead us to assuming he has a private supplier. It’s not unheard of for Mechakinetics in the past to already have connections to allow them to develop their own technology without leaving a trace,” Domination explained. “However, Comet and I witnessed what we believe to be a primary function of his powers last night. Turn the page.”
Everyone turned the last page to look at the back.
There were more images of Upgrade, specifically from the previous night. They were deeply annotated, overflowing with sticky notes. One pointed to an image obscured by darkness, highlighting in bold letters that read ‘SURVIVED GRIM’S SHADOW’ and ‘EQUIPMENT HEAVILY DAMAGED.’ Amelia followed the arrows drawn from the notes to more pictures showing Upgrade’s armor and bike in disrepair. Then she continued to find more images showing his armor and bike fully repaired. They were all timestamped, and the codes were minutes apart.
The notes were scribbled so messily that she struggled to put together what was trying to be said.
Amelia raised a hand.
“I um… don’t quite understand.”
All heads turned to her, and her Rookie teammates shared her sentiment. Domination gave a simple nod.
“From last night’s events, we believe Upgrade is a Mechakinetic who is capable of operating without the need for resources, making him the world’s first Mechakinetic with a supplement Cosmikinetic rating. To make things simplier, S-Class Mechakinetic.”
Amelia could only name one S-Class Mechakinetic, and they had a worldwide neutrality treaty because of their giant orbiting camouflaged space station.
“Uh, how long has this guy been active?” Tricky asked, all the humor and cheekiness gone from his voice. “Cause like, if you guys are serious, then how hasn’t he taken over the city by now? The picture you guys are painting makes him sound like… I dunno, the new Ajax?”
For once, Amelia felt like she could say she and Tricky were on the same wavelength.
“While he might not need resources, that does not mean he has no limitations,” Sparrow said. “What those limitations are, we cannot be sure.”
Seraphim rubbed her face and sighed. “Wonderful.”
“I would like to amend my earlier predictions,” Seer cut in, his tone grave. Amelia detected a sense of dread in his voice, which only made her fears grow exponentially. A quick look at Comet showed her dead expression had vanished, her focus locking on Seer. “Mirage and Bonesmith will not be able to hold the rest of The Cains together. With Madhouse here, they will fail with absolute certainty, this is assuming they even try.”
Sparrow let out a weak laugh. “Yeah, see I figured you’d change your—”
“I’m not finished,” Seer cut her off. Everyone saw how tense he was. He gripped the dossier so tightly he might’ve ripped it in half if he wasn’t careful. “I’ve simulated a line with the information you’ve provided me. How—” Amelia could have sworn she heard his voice crack. “How accurate can you claim this information is? To the nth degree, if possible please.”
Sparrow and Domination turned to look at one another before Domination answered.
“If it means anything, our Mentalist support believes these summaries to be ninety-six percent accurate. A full comprehensive understanding of their abilities can only be acquired by asking them, and we already suspect how that conversation will go,” Domination said evenly. She and everyone else in the room eyed Seer’s reaction. The corner of his mouth twitched as sweat rolled down his forehead. “Seer, what is it?”
“It’s not just The Cains. If things continue without intervention, it’ll be Pandora and The Queen’s Court as well. They’ll crumble,” Seer shut his dossier. “Us too. We’re all in line. The Bayside branch will be the last to fall. After that, there… there won’t be a city left.”
“What?” Sparrow sounded horrified. “All because of Madhouse?”
“No,” Seer’s features twisted as he looked down at the dossier. “I… I can’t say for certain, but they’re involved. Especially Upgrade.”
“How long?” Domination demanded. “How long do we have?”
Seer swallowed a lump in his throat.
“Three months.”
Amelia felt sick.
She should have bitten his head clean off when she had the chance.