I counted the minutes that passed, watching the action through my scope.
This whole section of the city had lost power, and the ocean water had spread far enough that I couldn’t see where it ended. It had taken a couple of minutes for the water to stop, and now every building for at least a kilometer around would have to be rebuilt. I didn’t even want to think about how many homes were affected by our backup plan.
Regardless, it was a sacrifice worth paying to take down one of the world’s most dangerous supers. The city wouldn’t be left to fend for itself either. The ECU had the resources allocated to help anyone who was affected in situations such as this. I did not doubt that other people throughout the city would be pitching in the rebuild. We would as well. I’d make sure of it.
Come on, Grim… where are you? Show me your head.
My tranquilizers were loaded, but I was considering whether or not I should switch them out for live ammunition. Sure, killing was a slippery slope, and tonight had already started with one notch to my pistol, but Grim didn’t count. I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if I put him six feet under. I’d even bet that the ECU would look the other way – claim that he had fought to the death.
Besides, there was also no guarantee that my tranquilizers would even work with him. There might be some aspect of his powers that made him immune. There was no way to be sure, and I wasn’t willing to bet on it.
I ejected the magazine and went to load the live ammunition. Just before I could finish, there was a displacement in the air next to me. Alice appeared in a flash, her eyes blazing neon pink. With a twitch, the glow was gone, replaced with gold.
“Unnecessary. With the time he’s spent underwater, he’s either unconscious or dead. Shooting him will just aggravate the ECU,” Gold said, holding my wrist. She twitched again and exhaled sharply. “Ooh, I’m all over the place right now. Jesus, what a night!” Alice laughed, rubbing her hands together. “Now it’s time to see if our efforts were appreciated.”
I grimaced as I holstered my sniper rifle to my back, surveying the damage once more. Without power, there were no lights, and this entire section of the city was in total darkness aside from the occasional glow of burning buildings. It wouldn’t last for long. From our spot on the roof, we could already see the ECU beginning to move. Transports were pushing through the flooded streets, and it wouldn’t be long until they arrived.
I felt a chill crawl down my spine and suddenly realized how compromised my suit was. It wasn’t just damaged. It was starting to flake off me in chunks.
[Charges: 19/25]
[Type]
* Multi-purpose Armored Combat Suit
[Durability 2/100. Repair Unavailable - Incompatible Components.]
I couldn’t believe how much further it had decayed. I was surprised it was even still clinging to my body. If I went down there into the streets now, the water would probably give me hypothermia.
“I need to repair but we’re too exposed here,” I said. “Have we got time?”
Alice nodded. “We can spare a minute or two. Come on.”
We headed to the edge of the roof and climbed down. I took extra care getting to the ground because I couldn’t get solid readings from my suit’s modules. It was all blank. For all I knew, my impact dispersal modules didn’t exist anymore. Best not to take the risk.
Alice broke through a window, which happened to be an antique tea shop. Regardless of what it sold, I took the opportunity to remove myself from any potential onlookers. Soon, people would be swarming the area and trying to find Grim or whatever remained of him. While they wouldn’t be looking for me specifically, I couldn’t risk being unprepared for an encounter. As much as I detested the thought of a fresh fight tonight, I needed to be ready for anything. My survival depended on it.
“I’ll keep an eye out. Try to be quick, I don’t wanna miss the finale,” Alice said.
I found the restroom and peeled off my suit the old-fashioned way. It was so decayed that bits came apart as I pulled it off. After paying three charges, the material turned to liquid in my hands, and I caught sight of my reflection in the bathroom mirror. It was dark, so I could barely see – but I could make out some of my reflection. My hair was disheveled, and my nose was swollen. No doubt I’d look even worse with a proper light source. Still, all that could wait.
I got back into the suit, and before I could even exit the bathroom, my suit reconnected to the call.
“There he is. Jesus kid, you gave us one hell of a scare.”
“I could still hear the call but my microphone was damaged. Seems like a bit of Grim stuck to me though, the whole of my comms suite cut out after a while,” I explained. “Doesn’t matter now. I’m all repaired. I’m good… I think.”
“You’re full of surprises, Upgrade,” The Old Man mused. “That power of yours will cause a bit of a stir…”
“He’s quite talented, isn’t he?” Alice intoned, sounding eager to change the subject. “Hey, Upgrade. Get out here. I’ve got some company.”
I left the building to find Domination and Comet hovering in front of Alice with expressions that were difficult to read. Neither of them had Alice in their hold, so it looked like they were under orders to leave us alone.
“You!” Comet looked somewhere between angry and stunned. It was like she couldn’t pick which one to stick with. “You survived Grim’s shadow!”
“Yeah, I'm still processing that, to be honest,” I replied. Domination had landed, but Comet remained in the air. Given her mother’s relaxed posture, it looked like starting a fight wasn’t their intention. “I hope I’m reading this right, but I’m guessing you guys aren’t here to arrest us? Figured we’d already be fighting if that was the case.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Comet sneered. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten how our last meeting went.”
“Enough,” Domination silenced Comet with a hand. “We have enough problems to deal with. It would be ungrateful of us to take you in after what you did.”
“But they’re right here,” Comet argued. Her aura even began to inch out to snag Alice and I, but a glare from her mother stopped her dead.
“I said enough.”
“But—!”
“Listen to your mommy, princess,” Alice smugly replied. “It’d look pretty bad if you tried to take down the people that just saved this city. Plus, we have some powerful allies that you really don’t wanna piss off. Save that passion for another time, I’m sure you’ll get another opportunity, eventually. Or perhaps…” she twitched, and Gold took over. “You’ll be too busy in therapy. It was quite gruesome by all accounts, oh what terrible dreams you’ll have.”
Comet went rigid, and I turned to Alice.
Was she insane?
Abby was one of my best friends, and Domination could wipe the floor with us. Why was she doing this now of all times?
“Hey,” I growled with an edge to my voice. “Maybe don’t fucking taunt the heroes after they just said they’re letting us go, Alice.”
I really didn’t have another fight in me tonight, especially not one we could easily avoid. My grudge with The ECU didn’t extend to picking fights with them, but apparently, Alice didn’t feel the same way – or maybe not all of Alice felt that way.
Alice twitched, and she was back to Blue. “Oh, sorry. Silly me, sometimes things just slip out. I’m sure we can let bygones be bygones, right?”
Comet looked like she wanted to pick Alice up and drown her like we did Grim. If I were honest, I wouldn’t blame her if she did. Thankfully, she refrained from doing anything rash, which had to be one of the most commendable things I had ever seen Abby accomplish. For a hero, she had surprisingly little restraint.
“Say that again,” Comet dared, her voice low. “Give me one good reason and I’ll take it.”
“You are treading thin ice,” Domination said, narrowing her eyes at Alice. “Use your powers on my daughter again and I’ll have just cause to make you an exception to the cease-fire.”
“Threats, threats, and more threats. Blah, blah. I’ve heard it all before,” Alice waved off like she hadn’t a care in the world. “See that, Upgrade? This is what the heroes are like. Say something they don’t like and suddenly all their morals don’t mean a thing.”
What the fuck is she trying to do?
“I don’t care,” my dismissal shocked Alice. I moved past her and walked in between Comet and Domination. “You two clearly aren’t going to arrest us and the last thing either of us want is to stand around trading insults. I’m going to find Anomaly and hope this is over so we can all just go home.”
“I’m glad someone has the right idea,” Domination said. “We’re here to check on your condition. We saw Grim smother you and by all accounts, you should be dead; but it appears your information about his weakness proved correct.”
“The water from the fire hydrant covered me before Grim got to me,” I reasoned as best I could. It was the only explanation that made any sense. The leftover water made it harder to kill with his power. Even with that layer of protection, Grim had managed to decay my suit to the point where it was falling apart. “I got lucky. I’m fine now.”
Domination nodded slowly. “Good to hear.”
“Surprising that you care,” Alice chimed in. I shot her a nasty look under my helmet. “In my experience, it’s a free-for-all after disasters like this. Can’t blame me for acting on prior experience.”
“I cannot speak for other departments, but that’s not how we operate in New Elpis,” Domination replied evenly. “In emergencies such as this, so long as they are currently helping or have acted to help end the threat, Villains and Vigilantes are entitled to medical care. You two fall under that category,” she paused and sighed. “I know you’ve had poor experiences with the ECU in the past, Split—”
“Do not call me that,” I heard her all but snarl. “My name is Alice. Use it.”
Domination sighed before turning to Comet. “Let’s go.”
“Finally,” Comet rolled her eyes. She sneered at the both of us before turning away and shooting off into the sky. Domination hovered for a bit, standing on her metal platform before carefully following after her. As I watched them leave, I couldn’t help but feel a tad bitter that this confrontation ended how it did.
I turned to Alice. “Well?”
She stared at me. “Well, what?”
“You told me not too long ago that if I felt you were steering us wrong, I could bash you over the head – your words, by the way,” I started, recalling the conversation a few weeks ago. “We just nailed Grim to the wall, and you’re suddenly picking fights with the ECU? What the fuck were you thinking!?”
She twitched, switching to Gold. She opened her mouth, and I half expected her to start grilling me, to explain that it was all to protect us and that it was all part of her calculated plan for me to respond the way I did so that things would ultimately work out. Instead, her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before switching back to Blue.
Alice said nothing and looked away.
“Oh, speechless. That’s a first,” I said, bewildered. “Come on, tell me how that was supposed to help us—”
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“I’m fucking sorry, okay!?” She snapped. I stepped back a bit, wondering where all that had come from. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Long, long night. It’s the first time in a while I’ve used my powers so much. I switched a lot and had to do it quickly too. It… it happens. Things get jumbled and… priorities change.”
Alice rubbed her forehead as she strolled closer to me. “As much as I want people to believe it – especially you – unfortunately, I’m not perfect. I fucking hate that I have to say that. Using my powers in short bursts over a few hours? Not a problem at all, but the city went to shit over ten hours ago and I haven’t stopped. I wasn’t lying when I said I was all over the place. I just meant it a bit more literally. I… I have a limit too.”
Silence lingered between us as she refused to meet my eyes. After a while, I couldn’t take it.
“You should have said something.”
“When?”
“Whenever. I don’t know. You already know my limit. Why not tell me yours?”
“Because it wasn’t necessary,” she hissed childishly. “It’s rarely a problem. I haven’t quite hit it yet. I’ve still got some fight left in me.”
“Enough to want to pick fights with the ECU, apparently,” I replied coolly. She met my gaze, but I was ready to keep going. “You can’t do that. Don’t ever do that, especially with Comet. Fucking hell, you know she’s my friend and that hurt her! I know playing your Mentalist mind games is part of how you operate, but I won’t let you do that with her. I refuse to be put in a situation where I have to choose between the two of you.”
There was a brief flare of rage in her eyes. Alice switched to Red, but I saw the internal conflict. Finally, after a tense few moments, she switched back to Blue, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah… yeah, that was fucking stupid of me.”
I sighed, taking solace in what little relief her admission brought. “Well, what’s done is done, so now you’re going to try and fix it.”
Her look turned incredulous. “W-What? Are you serious?”
“Do I sound like I’m kidding? Do you even realize how that’s going to affect her?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look, I fucked up okay but there’s no fixing that. How would I even go about it? She isn’t going to accept any kind of apology from me, I’m a villain in her eyes. Anything actually sincere is going to come across like I’m trying to trick her. The most I can promise is that I won’t do it again. I’ll… I don’t know. I’ll compliment her hair or something next time I see her.”
I felt myself scowl. Alice had a point, but I wasn’t satisfied with the outcome.
“Just… make sure you stick to your word on that. I mean it. Comet– Abby. She’s one of the better ones.”
“Thanks, and don’t worry. I will,” Alice said softly. “I mean it. I really am sorry. Even… even Mentalists have their moments.”
We both started walking down the sidewalk toward the flooded street. I could fetch the bike later, seeing as it wouldn’t do me much good here. The roads were too waterlogged to drive, and it would just damage it unnecessarily. For now, we’d either have to wade through on foot or go by rooftops, and seeing as Alice’s costume wasn’t waterproof, the last thing she wanted was to go trawling through waist-height seawater.
“I definitely need to take you up on that suit,” Alice said as we climbed to another roof. “It’s freezing and that water looks nasty. Who knows what else we’ll be crawling through in the future?”
“Good to hear you’ve finally come around,” I remarked. “We can get started on it after some rest. With this amount of damage, I don’t think we’ll need to worry about school for a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, they’ll be shut for a while,” Alice agreed. “Plenty of time to get to work. I have some ideas that might help you. I know your power can cheat, but with proper resources you’ll be able to save charges. We can fortify the apartment, turn it into something better.”
“It’s definitely on the list,” I replied, grappling to another building. We finally made it to where everyone was converging. It was a little off to the right from where the fissure was. Grim seemed to have been pulled down this way by the current. We saw his body caught on something black – Anomaly – while submerged. “He’s gotta be dead. He has to have been under there for at least ten minutes now.”
“You’d be surprised how long it takes to drown. Adding powers to the mix just muddies the waters,” she giggled at the pun. “Regardless, he’s no longer our problem.”
The ECU occupied the whole street to the right, while Pandora occupied the street to the left. It was like watching two armies lining up to clash. Their focus was on Grim, who floated lifelessly in the middle. I could see a few of The Queen’s Court lining the buildings opposite of us, but in comparison, their numbers paled to Pandora.
“What happens now?” I wondered aloud. Just like in the meeting called by Gaea, it was impossible to ignore the amount of power gathered here. “Feels like anything could happen.”
“Anything could happen,” Alice agreed. “But now we’ve just gotta wait and see. We’ve done our part.”
On cue, Anomaly sprang from the thinning water in the middle of the street. Part of him remained coiled around Grim’s body, but he quickly dropped him back into the water once he realized he was the center of attention. He caught sight of us and sprang up to our building. His body vibrated, and like a sponge, he purged the last of the seawater from his body.
He made a sound, a chilling and almost unintelligible noise. I could only imagine his complaining about being waterlogged and having to take a dip in the ocean. Nevertheless, he had enough sense not to switch back. Instead, he remained transformed, eyeing Pandora more than any other group.
I looked around and tried to spot any statues, but Mia seemed to be completely absent, at least to my eyes.
Then Liberation made himself known.
He began walking through the now knee-high sea water toward Grim’s body. For the first time, I got to see the man up close. He strode with purpose, his head held high as he gripped a sword that blazed with light. Part of Liberation’s look was a silver and black cloak with an illustration of a large box with two white crescent moons stitched to the back. The symbol represented the myth the group had taken their name from, Pandora’s Box. He wore a silver crown and a sculpted silver mask to add to his pompous look.
He had the stature of a King, which was the whole point. He was in charge of Pandora in New Elpis.
He was not the only one to start moving. From the ECU, I saw Sparrow and Ionizer advancing. As renowned as they were, Liberation carried himself with an aura that dwarfed the two ECU captains. It likely had something to do with the fact that Liberation was a titan of a man, standing at 7'10 and built like a brick wall.
“I’ve only ever seen that guy in videos. He’s something else,” I murmured.
Alice grumbled under her breath. “Yup, that bastard is something else indeed.”
Liberation stopped only a few short feet from the body. Ionizer and Sparrow did the same. Watching it felt like I was witnessing something out of a movie.
“It would be unwise to stand in my way,” Liberation’s warned.
Sparrow, dwarfed by the cult leader’s height, stepped forward. “You are aware this entire area is under ECU jurisdiction, correct? Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be, enough people have died tonight.”
“One more to the list is of little consequence. Everyone here has suffered because of this genocidal fool! Your organization cannot be trusted to deal with a monster like him when you consistently fail to contain our kind.”
“Execution is not how this country is run,” Ionizer replied calmly. “Grim is to be taken into ECU custody.”
There was an uproar of laughter from Liberation. “You think you are capable of holding him!? If you could he would have been dealt with years ago. No, I don’t think so. Every second we waste here is a second he takes to recover,” Liberation lifted his sword. “I will deliver his sentence swiftly.”
Ionizer and Sparrow looked ready to fight and prevent the execution, but a rumbling in the ground stopped everyone. Through the pavement, a tree root sprung. The tip opened like a flower, the wood cracking and splitting. A familiar woman walked out, looking just as unimpressed as the last time I saw her.
“Leave it to the Queen to make a dramatic entrance,” Alice mused.
Gaea regarded everyone with a cold look before looking down at the body. Grim suddenly twitched as he began violently vomiting up the seawater in his lungs. Nobody moved as he rolled onto his side, coughing and spluttering.
“What the fuck, she healed him?” I hissed angrily. Anomaly seemed to have a similar sentiment as his entire form shook violently, and an inhuman shriek escaped him. “After we went through all that bullshit?”
Alice’s lips thinned. “I… don’t think she healed him.”
We stared down, ready for Grim to make any sort of move. However, he didn’t. The man seemed to slouch on his knees, looking around with a vacant expression.
Then it hit me what Gaea had done. Liberation wanted him dead, and the ECU wanted him in custody, as per the law. As impossible as it seemed, he was to be tried by the courts and sentenced.
Gaea, however, had suddenly made it very simple.
“She lobotomized him,” I said, feeling a tad sick. It would have been kinder if Liberation delivered the killing blow.
“Problem solved,” Gaea’s voice rang out. “Now, I believe it would be best if you all started figuring out how you’re going to repair my city. There has been enough damage and I will have no more of it.”
Liberation snarled. “That tongue of yours is as sharp as ever, Melody.”
Gaea didn’t even deem it necessary to turn back around to address him. “Keep your cultists in line. Some of your fanatics almost turned my attention to your little branch tonight.”
She walked back into her tree root, and it disappeared back into the ground. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed by Gaea. I expected something more grandiose based on how she typically conducted herself. She was the leader of The Queen’s Court and one of the Trinity.
“That was anticlimactic.”
“It’s about what I expected. The fighting is all over and now the only thing left to do is to pick up the pieces,” Alice said with a sigh. “Time to go. We’re done here.”
“What about Grim?” I asked, staring down at the defeated man. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Maybe I wanted to see him dead after all the chaos he had caused. It would have been nice to see him repentful. Hell, I’d even take him throwing out curses and promising revenge. Seeing him go out like this was pathetic. “Everyone’s just going to leave him like that?”
Even Liberation was just walking away.
“It’s like Gaea said. The problem has been solved. In a state like that, he might as well be dead – and… well, nobody’s going to contest Gaea of all people. Sure, the ECU will criticize her methods but to her it's a compromise. If she can’t kill him, then she’ll make damn sure he can’t trouble the world again.” Alice explained.
Something didn’t feel right. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but something was missing. Grim was done for, rendered a non-issue now that Gaea had managed to get to him. What else was there?
“So that’s it then.”
Alice nodded. “That’s it.”
I exhaled slowly, looking down at the crowd of Pandora followers numbering in the hundreds. There was a mixture of supers and normal people, all outfitted with weapons and costumes. At a glance, it was hard to tell who did and didn’t have powers. Liberation addressed them, and from his body language, it looked like Anomaly was listening in.
“I was expecting a little more.”
“Like what, a congratulations? Upgrade, they all know we took Grim down. They aren’t about to come up to us and shake our hands,” Alice snorted. “We’re on the map now. We’re known to everyone in this city and it’s time to get out of here before what’s left of the cease-fire collapses. Really, we should be thankful we’re still alive after dealing with someone like Grim.”
“Alice is right,” The Old Man chimed in. “Time to hit the road.”
“You’ve been awfully quiet,” I noted with curiosity. “I take it you were listening in?”
“Mostly. I’ve also had some of my people pulling information out of Splicer. Regarding the Morpher Anomaly put down earlier tonight, Splicer claims it couldn’t have gotten free on its own. The Mechatech holding it was too sophisticated and the dosage of chemicals in its system would have kept it docile for at least another two days. We have taken samples and confirmed the presence of the drugs in the beast’s system.”
I shook my head, confused at what Francis was trying to insinuate.
“What does any of that mean?”
“Splicer claims that someone messed with its head and made it go feral. That’s what triggered it to awaken and break out.”
I wracked my mind for an answer, and a glance at Alice told me she was doing the same. It wasn’t long before the realization struck like a bolt of lightning.
–I also have somewhere to be, believe it or not. I just thought I’d take the opportunity to chat–
That fucking bastard.
“Mirage…” I growled under my breath. “It’s him.”
Alice turned to look around, as did Anomaly.
Everyone was still dispersing, and Pandora and what little of The Queen’s Court were present. The ECU was still locking the area down and prepping their new murderous vegetable for transport. At no point had the renegade Cain members made themselves known. They hadn’t even shown up to watch their former leader get taken down.
“Bonesmith and Banshee aren’t here either and Mia said the werewolf had attacked our place, they probably followed it back,” Alice hissed with barely restrained anger. “Fucking bastards! They’re going to be waiting for us.”
“Or they’ve left us a nasty present,” I murmured. “They know you have Mentalist powers and they’re crafty. They’re going to be prepared if we go rushing in,” a small part of me burned at the idea of those bastards messing around in my workshop. Despite that, I had no more energy to give tonight. I was not ready to go jumping into another fight. “We need to rest, Alice. We can’t go back tonight.”
Alice huffed and I could tell she agreed. “Yeah, you’re right. Going back is suicide, especially if Mirage is waiting there. We’ll get Mia to clear the place with her statues later. Right now, we need a place to hunker down in.”
Our radios crackled, and Francis’ voice came through.
“If you’re willing to accept it, I might be able to help with that.”
I sighed.
He had helped so far, and if I was being honest, I was too tired to weigh the pros and cons. When I met Alice’s gaze, I could tell she was in the same boat.
“We’re listening.”