I glared at the blonde teen through half-lidded eyes. She really had to pick now to show up? Three minutes earlier and I wouldn't have needed to get involved at all, a minute later and I would've teleported home already!

But, noooo!

I just had to run into the cliche highschool heroine instead.

I sighed and readied myself for what was likely about to happen. It wasn't actually Glory Girl's fault and if I was anyone else she might have been the reason the empire's victim lived to see another day. I could still be peeved by it though.

"Do you mind if we don't do this?" I called out. "I was only out here for groceries and would like to actually get them home."

Glory Girl, aka Victoria Dallon, famous throughout the city as a member of the New Wave superhero family of unmasked capes, sneered. "What, had enough attacking minorities tonight? I should just let you go? Yeah right."

I frowned. "I'm not a member of the E88."

"Then you're standing over a guy beaten six ways to hell, why…?" She made a show of cracking her knuckles.

"You want to chime in here?" I asked Paladin, hoping he would diffuse things before they went any further.

"Words can be misleading, let's let our fists determine what is the truth!"

That didn't…no, fine. Relying on that idiot was too hopeful of me.

My wings flared out and I rose into the air a tiny bit. At least I could take this where I had an advantage.

Before I forgot though, I grabbed the stuff I bought and focused. A ring of hazy black…stuff formed in front of me and I shoved everything inside. Thank G…that guy…that I decided to figure out the dimensional storage spell before I went shopping.

While I was doing that Paladin had deployed his Sacred Gear and joined Glory Girl in the air.

It looked like they were going to wait for me to come to them. At any other time I might have taken the opportunity to try teleporting away and not deal with the headache but, I glanced at the bodies all over the ground, if I teleported now it was likely I was going to end up bringing one or more of them with me accidentally. And the two heroes could probably interfere if they felt like it too.

"Alright I guess we are doing this." I said with a sigh. "Unless you want to be reasonable?"

"Hah, words won't get you out of this, Satan Lucifer! Our righteous light will free you from your dark shackles and deliver you to the side of Justice!"

"Yeah…what he said, I guess." Glory Girl suddenly looked a lot less certain about her 'partner' for this little encounter. That didn't stop her from launching herself forward ready to punch me though.

She was pretty fast, but it was obvious she wasn't actually used to fighting someone else that could fly. I easily dodged around her.

"Don't give her space and keep up the pressure!" Paladin called out as he began his own attack. "She's a mid-range fighter. And don't get hit! Her blasts can be really nasty."

"Got it!"

I made extra sure to avoid touching Paladin, if his Gear still worked the same then he needed to physically touch me to activate its effect. He was faster than Glory Girl but just as unused to flying opponents. He had no idea what to do when I dropped lower to avoid his charge.

To be fair, I probably wouldn't have done much better if I tried to punch someone. But as Paladin said, I wasn't limited to punching.

A crimson spell circle bloomed in front of my hand as I pointed it at Paladin. This was his fault so of course I was going to focus on him.

My own lack of experience came back to bite me as I took too long aiming the spell. By the time I cast a bolt of lightning at the jackass, he had already moved, making the bolt fly harmlessly through the air.

"She shoots lightning?! Yeah, I could see that being nasty!" Glory Girl exclaimed but I could see Paladin falter when I wasn't shooting pure Destruction at people. Too bad for him then, stationary targets were easy targets.

Another sigil formed and lightning shot out almost immediately. Paladin screamed as it hit and fell from the sky. I secretly hoped that was enough to knock him out of the rest of the fight, but I doubted I would get that lucky. He seemed to be that type after all.

The too stupid to stay down type, I mean.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Unfortunately, I had focused too much on one person and the first hint that Glory Girl was back was when she punched me in the back of the shoulder. I doubted she hit me as hard as she could, not without knowing if I could take it, but it was still a solid hit.

I tumbled through the air until I managed to flare my wings and steady myself.

Then I had to dodge immediately because Glory Girl was taking the 'don't give her space' part of Paladin's warning very seriously. She wasn't letting me dodge around her as easily and she was getting closer to hitting me as the fight went on.

'Maybe it's time to stop playing around?' Ddraig spoke up.

I grimaced.

This was supposed to be a shopping trip, not a grand battle! Still, might as well get serious before this became a bigger mess.

Glory Girl's next punch was stopped dead by the red gauntlet that formed over my left hand. Her eyes bugged out over that before my right hand slammed into her face. I felt like I had punched a steel wall for all the damage it did, but Glory Girl was sent rocketing off as a result and looked a little hesitant to rush right back in. I'd take it.

Another sigil materialized. Glory Girl's forcefield might protect her from a punch, but a sustained blast should overwhelm it.

Too bad that right before the lightning hit a bright blue shield popped up right in front of her.

I instinctively flew backwards just in time for a crimson beam of energy to lance through the space I had just occupied. I followed the path of the beam and bit back a curse. Two figures in white bodysuits with colored designs matching the colors of their powers were flying closer. Shielder and Laserdream, more members of New Wave and Glory Girl's cousins.

More heroes. Yey.

"Hi Cuz, having trouble?" Shielder called out. "Don't worry, we'll give you a hand."

"I had it covered." Glory Girl pouted. "It's not like she did anything to me."

"We saw her punch you half a block away." Laserdream said deadpan.

"And it did nothing!" Glory Girl insisted. "I'm invincible!"

I would have scoffed at the blatant boasting since I knew for a fact she wasn't, but before I could even think about taunting the younger hero, Paladin rejoined us in the sky and formed up with the other three. Four on one. Not the best odds.

The heroes must have thought the same thing going by their confident posture.

"So, wanna just give up now?" Shielder asked. "No way you can keep up with all four of us."

Surprisingly it was Paladin that responded. "Don't let your guard down. She's barely scratched the surface of her power. She's been playing with us this whole time." He said seriously.

"You're kidding right? How do you know?"

"That gauntlet. It's way more powerful than you'd think. And she hasn't even started using its abilities."

Laserdream stared at the Boosted Gear on my left arm. "I'm guessing it's not just a fancy piece of armor then? And you know what it does? I guess you really do know her."

"He really doesn't." I called.

"I know a good amount." Paladin said at the same time.

The New Wavers looked between themselves awkwardly.

"Look, the longer this goes on the worse off we will be. That gauntlet has an ability that is basically the opposite of my power. Instead of weakening her opponent, it doubles her strength." Paladin explained. "And she can keep doing that every ten seconds."

"Great, it's like Lung but somehow worse." Shielder commented. "You got a plan then, buddy?"

"Get me close enough to touch her and I can counter her boosts with my dividing."

"Alright, just follow me then!" Glory Girl said, then charged right at me once again.

[BOOST!]

And just like that I could tell this battle was going to be a lot easier than I was expecting. Even with my base strength and speed I was giving two heroes a tough time. Doubling that? Glory Girl looked like she was moving in slow motion to me.

I was in her face almost before she could react and buried my fist in her stomach as an opener. I could feel her forcefield tank the blow but once again she was blasted off by the force of the punch.

My next target was Laserdream. From what I remembered, she had the most powerful ranged attack here and was faster than the rest of her family. Another spell sigil focused on her, but once again a blue shield popped into existence before the lightning could hit. Apparently Shielder could deploy those at range.

I kept the spell going, at the very least I was going to occupy Shielder's attention and if Laserdream decided to hide out behind her brother's forcefield that was two opponents busy while I focused on Paladin.

Unfortunately it turned out Shielder was better than I gave him credit for. He was able to shape his shield so it was holding off my spell and still gave Laserdream a decent window to shoot at me from. So I had to focus on directing my spell, dodging Laserdream's attacks, and keeping an eye on Paladin. I was going to need…

[BOOST!]

…more power. Perfect.

More lightning poured from my sigil and I could see Shielder starting to strain to keep up. Paladin was still futilely chasing me but I had lost Glory Girl. I couldn't spare the time to look for her either because Laserdream was apparently capable of wide fanning attacks from her fingertips and it was a bitch trying to dodge around those.

Those attacks suddenly just stopped and I had half a second to wonder why before I figured out where Glory Girl wound up. She had been waiting while her cousin herded me with her attacks and moved in at the perfect time to hit me from behind…right towards Paladin.

I cursed and threw up a hand to block the punch I was coming and stopped it cold, but that wasn't much comfort when Paladin smiled.

"Alright, here we go Albion! Divine Dividing!"

[Divide!]

[Boost!]

It felt really weird to lose all that power only to get it back right away. But now it was a stamina game. Could Paladin keep using his Gear long enough for him and the others to beat me or would he be forced to stop and I could boost once more.

"Great, you got her!" Glory Girl cheered as she moved into a better position.

"Keep focused, I can't keep draining her for long." Paladin warned.

"What! Why?"

"I've never tried dividing so much power at once. I'm already at my limit." Now that he mentioned it I could already see the extra power he couldn't harness leaking out of the blue panels of his 'wings'. Was the gap between our bases so big that he couldn't even handle that much? Then again, besides his Sacred Gear, Paladin was a normal human. He wouldn't have had the time to do any sort of training to push his limits yet.

[Divide!]

[Boost!]

In that case, playing keep away was a waste of time. I should just try and knock him out of the fight!

I flew forward but before I could make contact another blue shield popped up in between us.

Shielder!

I glanced over to where my sigil should have still been keeping him and Laserdream cornered only to see a crimson shield shatter and reform in front of the blue one protecting them. Ah, Laserdream was using her own weaker shields to take the edge off my attack and letting Shielder focus on other parts of the fight for a few seconds. Smart.

Damn annoying, but smart.

I couldn't up the output on my spell anymore. Doing so would push it into the lethal range I had been avoiding so far and I wasn't all that eager to start killing kids. That didn't mean I couldn't just hit this new barrier harder.

My fist slammed into the blue shield again and again, and eventually I started to see cracks forming. Confirmation Shielder's constructs could be broken! And in that case…

I backed off much to everyone's confusion and even let my lightning spell fade away.

"What's wrong, getting worn out? You can give up if you want! We might even go easy on you."

"Don't relax! She still has more tricks up her sleeve!"

"Seriously? Who the hell is this chick?!"

I scowled as Paladin somewhat overhyped me again. I knew he was projecting what he knew was possible in the show onto me, but that didn't mean I was capable of doing them! If I had the Power of Destruction I sure as hell hadn't figured out how to use it. The letter my jackass of a patron left said I wouldn't get unique powers but I didn't know if that carried over to inherited abilities too. And I certainly wasn't going to pull off a Balance Breaker. Not in my first real fight.

I had one, maybe two, more tricks in me before I had basically shown them everything, yet this asshole was making it seem like I was a multi-stage boss they only forced to change once!

Still, I wasn't about to let him know that.

"If you want to stop here, that's fine~" I called out a little mockingly. Can't have them thinking I was beaten after all. "I had fun, we should play again sometime."

"You're not getting out of this that easily!" Glory Girl raged, an angry flush on her face.

I shrugged. "Well if that's how you want it to be…"

[EXPLOSION!]