“Come on Nate, don’t you gotta leave for work soon? Just lock in with someone so I can stomp yah like normal.”

“Yeah…. Why do I play this with you again?” I groaned and dropped my head back against the couch, flicking my selection across the roster of heroes and villains. “Besides man, you ALWAYS play The First. That dude is broken as all hell and you know it…”

“Hey it’s not my fault that they programmed him this way, the dude’s my favorite hero so of course I’m gonna play him. You’ve literally seen my comic collection,” Jon, my roommate and longtime best friend, shot back immediately with a laugh as he pointed to a stack of disorganized comics on his side table. He was the picture of dishevelment, with long scraggly hair kept in check under a red checkered beanie and clothes that even I thought could be ironed.

“Please, he’s everybody’s favorite. That’s like people saying Superman or Batman were their favorites before these guys all started to appear. The First was literally the first one to don the cape, of course he’s gonna be more famous than the heroes like Hazard Pay or Clothwhip. It doesn’t change the fact that his stats are literally broken compared to all the other playable characters.”

“I can give you a computer sidekick on World Savior difficulty if you think you need the help.” He snarked back and a new character icon popped up on the battle menu. I couldn’t help but let out a bark of a laugh.

“You’re a little bit of a dick, has anyone ever told you that?”

“It’s a badge of honor at this point, now quit stalling and just pick someone, you’re already cutting it stupidly close for someone who can’t even afford the damn subway.”

“Okay, fine,” I said and quickly settled on the one character I had even a minor bit of practice playing, “Rose Rot’s never been the strongest but I guess it’s better than just button mashing and hoping I get lucky.”

“Plus, you know… for being a Villain I’d totally let her step on me,” Jon laughed.

“No one needs to know your kinks bud,” I said as we both locked in. The AI character started to randomize, the frame bouncing around the screen until it landed on a hero duo that for some reason counted as a single player called Shake and Bake.

The loading screen popped up, starting the process and showing our stats as Jon dropped his controller onto his lap so that he could grab his phone.

“You know loading doesn’t take that long. Or are you gonna do that thing where you let me get you down to 10% before you just pull out The First’s bullshit Maximum Pressure ability.”

“Hey look at you remembering the skill names for once,” Jon laughed without looking up. “No sorry, just found a new rumor post over on the Infinite Ascension subreddit. Apparently there was a document that got passed around showing how character generation worked and it’s stupidly complex.”

“Dude, how many times have we gone over this? That thing’s a friggin urban legend at this point, it’s never getting released and yah got to get over it,” I groaned. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the game was interesting or anything, the concept totally was. A completely unique Super Powered based MMO where every player had a uniquely generated set of powers all set within a constantly changing in-game world. Hell, who wouldn’t think that was cool?

By all accounts and rumors it had everything a gamer could want. Stuff like a morality system, the freedom to choose your own path and actually affect the world around you. Hell, there were even rumors that if your character did well enough the company would even make official comic books and merchandise that you’d actually get royalties for. It was cool as all hell to read about, and about as totally fictional and never going to be released as Half-Life 3.

“How can it be an urban legend? We both donated to the Kickstarter, we saw the concept art.”

“Yeah, and that’s all we saw. Or did you forget about the part where we both chipped in a hundred bucks from our allowances only for the page to go dead like, three months later? Hell, AetherTech doesn’t even have an active web page or social media presence now. We were ten, it was like, thirteen years ago, you have got to let it go. It was a friggin scam to get Super nerds worked up for the game of their dreams.”

The game finally loaded in and though he was making an effort to throw in a few attacks, I could tell Jon had gotten distracted as he kept eyeing the phone he had placed on the edge of the couch. As I had predicted, I was able to get in with Rose Rot and take a good chunk out of his health each time he looked away from the screen.

“How many times have we gone over this! The Subreddit found the document trail, they got bought out by some obscure department of the NSA. They had been developing some AI that ran the mission system and-”

“And the government bought them out to hide the self-learning AI, blah blah blah, it’s a conspiracy theory dude,” I said, unable to hide the exasperation in my voice. Jon took the opportunity to launch The First forward, hitting me with a quick few attacks before I could counter. “Besides, we are literally swimming in Augment media and games, why are you still pining over some game that’s never going to come out?”

“Yah just don’t get it dude,” Jon said and in a flash he executed a combo that knocked my character out, the game showing a big KO as I dropped the controller on my lap.

“Guess I don’t. You gotta learn to play someone else man, The First is broken and it’s not really fun to keep playing if you’re just gonna steamroll me every time,” I said and looked up at the clock on the wall, my eyes widening as I jumped to my feet, “Shit, okay I really gotta get going.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Be careful out there, if you gotta head South of 43rd I’d recommend running a few streets over. Maybe even go down to 7th before heading that way. The Scanner App I got on my phone’s been going nuts about some fight going on over there, I really need to get an actual police radio or something,” he said as he fiddled with his phone before the mumble of chatter came out of it. He was just setting the phone down and returning the game to the main screen when I turned away. “Catch yah later bud.”

I went to open the door and jerked to a stop as I found myself face to face with the elderly Mr. Greyson who owned the building. His fist had been raised, just about to knock as he looked at me with just the faintest bit of shock.

“Um, Hi Mr. Greyson, it’s uh… it’s…”

“It’s the first of the month Nathaniel,” he said and a warm smile spread over his face. I looked over my shoulder at Jon who shook his head quickly.

“I uh, I’m getting paid when I get to work tonight, can we drop the cash off by yah in the morning?” I asked with what I knew had to be a somewhat pained smile. Mr. Greyson’s smile faltered ever so slightly and he let out a sigh. It only lasted a moment before he looked over my shoulder at Jon.

“Jonathan, could you assist me in the lobby? The building’s Wireless Internet seems to be acting up again and I could certainly use your expertise once again.”

“Come on in Mr. Greyson, I actually set up a quick link on my laptop last time you asked me for help, shouldn’t take more than a minute,” Jon said, tossing his controller to the side and hopping up from the couch to walk over toward the kitchen.

I stepped to the side as Mr. Greyson walked in. He turned to me and the warm smile returned to his face, “You just come see me when you have the time Nathanial. Your Uncle was a long time friend, I’m not going to kick you out just because you’re a few days late, you know that.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Thanks Mr. Greyson,” I said. Not wanting to push my luck, I walked past him, hurried down the stairs and out the front door.

Though I knew I should have listened to Jon, the dude was obsessed with watching half the shit going on in the city lately, that didn’t change the fact that the building my company assigned me to cleaning duty for the night was down on 39th and 9th, and I was already cutting my clock-in time close as it was.

That stupidity of course, was why I found myself in a crowd being held up at the intersection to 44th, a whole street earlier than Jon had predicted. The crowd was massive and I had to push my way through it as I ignored the honking of traffic being stuck due to the people blocking the street.

“Calm down folks, we shouldn’t be delayed for too long,” a burly cop with a thick mustache said. His hand was held up trying to calm a crowd that wasn’t actually in all that much of a panic. If anything they seemed more curious and eager to see what was going on.

Years ago, maybe the New York transit would have been delayed because of… well, traffic, or some sort of weird accident involving an olive oil truck, but those kind of mundane delays disappeared long ago at this point.

“Is that Pinneedle!?”

“No Pinneedle can’t fly, it's got to be Grand Strike!”

There was a rumbling through the crowd as the sound of a small sonic boom echoed overhead. I briefly looked up, seeing one of the thousands of blinking objects littering the sky around the world that had appeared just over a decade ago. The Augmentation Array, at least that’s what the world dubbed it, was the subject of millions of conspiracies and exactly zero tangible answers except for the one glaring one. Around a year after it appeared, people with superpowers started to crop up all over the globe. Honestly, I’m not actually sure if the name Augment came first or the name of the Array, but pretty much everyone agreed the two were connected.

I found myself staring at one of the nodes of the array directly overhead, watching as it pulsed a steady blue light every few seconds before suddenly it stopped midway through a pulse, turning red and then fading to black. I wasn’t entirely sure why it did anything that it did, but I’d be willing to bet the folks who really followed the Augments, people like Jon, had all sorts of theories as to what the blinking lights of the array meant.

Several car alarms started to go off and I sighed, taking a look down at my watch. This was going to be at least the third time I was late in the last two weeks.

I pulled my phone out and found my boss’s number before dialing it. It only rang once before he answered.

“Do not fuckin’ tell me you’re gonna be late again Mercer.”

“It’s not my fault this time, I swear Mr. Russo, there’s a blockade on 44th, some Augment attack-.”

“Yeah like that’s my fuckin’ problem. Hop on the god damn subway or buy a fuckin’ bike, I ain’t having this shit any more and I warned yah,” Mr. Russo growled back. “You're fi-”

“Wait! Come on Mr. Russo, I’m desperate, I’ll stay late tonight, I’ll pick up an extra shift, just work with me here. I’m literally only over on 44th, there’s a blockade on 9th but I can go around and be there in… in fifteen minutes. Tops.” I said frantically as I pushed my way out of the crowd and started to jog up 44th.

Though the road was blocked heading up 9th, there had to be an alley or something I could sneak through to get there.

“Fine. Fifteen minutes,” Mr. Russo said, “Not a damn second later.”

In the back of my head I made a promise to myself for the umpteenth time to leave earlier just in case of shit like this.

“Thanks Mr. Rus-” I didn’t even get to finish when he hung up the call. I quickly headed a block and a half up the street, bypassing another blocked road on 10th before I ran across the street and into an alleyway. Luckily there didn’t seem to be a police presence, nor the sound of sonic booms in the air either. At least… not directly overhead.

I started to slow down, feeling slightly more confident about getting to work on time when that reality was shattered.

A huge CRASH was the first thing that hit me before a wave of pressure and air expanding outward literally knocked me off my feet. As I hit the ground, the air was subsequently pulled from my lungs and I struggled to catch my breath. But as soon as the unrelenting pressure appeared, it vanished and I found myself gasping.

“What…. What the-”

“How many times are we gonna do this Firefist?” I heard the echo of a voice reach me and I slowly struggled to get back to my feet. It only took the flash of a familiar purple and gold outfit for me to jump behind the nearest obstacle. If he was here, then that could only mean this wasn’t some ordinary street fight.

“As many times as it takes to take this stupid city from your grasp,” A deeper voice replied. “You’re a puppet, you know that right? All of you goodie two shoes are but especially you first wave assholes.”

I could hear the roar of fire and a bright light filled the space on the other side of the obstacle that I now realized was a dumpster. Part of me seemed to register that there were more sirens in the distance, but it was impossible to not peek my head out to try and see who was on the other side.

It was exactly who I had thought it was. Jon would never shut up about him after all.

The First stood tall, with a sleek purple and gold outfit, complete with a violently violet cape that always seemed to flap, even when there wasn’t an obvious wind. His fists were clenched and on his hips, and if I didn’t know better I would have thought he was actually posing. It was weird as all hell if I was being honest.

Even with that bit of oddness, I knew exactly what I had to do. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone, poking it out from behind the dumpster as I dialed Jon on Facetime.

“You went to 43rd didn’t you and- wait where are you? What’s with the flickering light and-”

“Dude shut up for a second, you are NOT going to believe this,” I said, noticing my hand was shaking as I messed with the controls to flip to my rear facing camera. “That’s exactly who I think it is, isn’t it.”

“THE FIRST!?!” Jon practically shouted, his head blowing up on the screen as he pulled the phone closer. His eyes went from amazed to panic in a fraction of a second though and he pulled the phone back. “Shit, you have GOT to get out of there, his attacks can send out literal shockwaves-”

There was another loud BOOM as The First launched himself forward at a man that was practically built like a truck. He didn’t wear a fancy costume like his enemy did, though true to his name, his fists were literally on fire. Much to my surprise, Firefist didn’t try to dodge, instead stepping forward and punching, striking back at The First just before the legendary hero could land his blow.

There was another wave of pressure that swept through the area, though this time I was ready for it and jumped out of the way before the dumpster that took the brunt of the pressure could crash into me.

“You’ve gotten stronger, Firefist, I’m impressed. But how many times do I have to make this clear. This city is Paragon territory, you’d be better trying to take over a district. That seems more up your… heh… alley.”

I heard Jon snicker at this as I scrambled to get back behind the dumpster now that it had stopped moving. Though I probably should have listened to Jon and run, it was almost like I couldn’t fight off my own curiosity of seeing them up close. The two super powered men were locked together, struggling to get control over one another as their fists clashed again and again. Unlike the earlier attack though, these strikes, without the launch across the open space between the buildings, didn’t cause another wave of pressure to come.

“You should be running man… but I get it,” Jon said and I looked down to the phone to see he had set it up to stand on his own as he turned to his computer. “That joke though, stuff like that’s totally why he’s my favorite.”

“Seriously not the time for you to be fanboying dude…” I muttered, looking back up to the fight in time to notice as The First had looked over in my direction, our eyes meeting as a wave of realization seemed to hit him.

It only took that moment of distraction for Firefist to land a blow directly to the hero's face and even though it didn't even make The First budge, I could see a look that I would have never expected to see on such a powerful man.

Fear.

Firefist followed The First’s gaze as he too finally noticed me and a wicked looking grin cut across the man’s dark face.

“Okay, no more joking around, RUN, you have to-”

Everything that happened next should have been impossible to follow, but oddly, whether it was through adrenaline or something else, I was able to follow.

First, Firefist literally burst into flames, his entire body erupting into a blaze of green and blue fire that roared in my direction.

After that, I could see as large pieces of concrete debris were launched into the air, and a purple and gold streak blurred past the roaring fire. This blur of movement subsequently caused a sonic boom that I was sure would be causing me permanent hearing damage and the wave of pressure that accompanied it launched the dumpster toward me with the speed of a moving car.

I could feel the cold metal crunch into my body. I could feel myself flying through the air. But… before I could feel myself crash into a wall, presumably to break most of the bones in my body, it almost felt like time slowed. My eyes caught as one of the many nodes of the Augmentation Array above me began to pulse a steady, but distinctly blue color. And then, all at once time started up again, and I collided with the wall.

Darkness overtook me.

But the pain? The pain never came.