The police officers piled out of their cars, along with Lady Arcane, who looked a little scared and nervous.

I waved Lady Arcane over, and went to Officer Davis and Hoult, who were first on the scene. “Davis, may I make a friendly suggestion?”

“What is it, Guardian?” He asked.

“If you’re going to cordon off the area and wait for SWAT, I think that’s a mistake. Super-brawls aren’t like taking down normal criminals. I suggest evacuating the houses nearest us, and sending in Lady Arcane and I first, and use SWAT as backup to protect the civilians. Rhino is strong enough to pick up a police car and throw it at someone. A Roadblock isn’t going to stop him – and neither are 9mm bullets.”

“How the hell are we supposed to arrest him, then?”

“Use us the way we can operate best. Get the locals out of the nearby houses and away. Let us deal with Rhino and Trash Panda, or Rocket. If you send in SWAT first, they’ll probably get killed.”

“The SWAT boys and girls aren’t pushovers, you know.”

“I know that Davis, but people like them – like Lady Arcane and I – are on an entirely different level. They’ll die. Please… Let us help.”

“This is a bad idea, Davis.” Hoult replied.

“I heard some of what happened during the Emergence, Hoult. I’m not sure she’s wrong. Some of these freaks can level buildings. I’m sending them in.” Davis looked at me with eyes that begged “Please don’t screw this up for me,” and headed off to coordinate the other police officers.

A few minutes passed, as the police officers tried to evacuate the locals – and it was going slowly and poorly. The few people that were home argued with the police – and few were willing to leave. In the end, it was a waste of time – but then, things took a turn for the worse.

The front door of Rocket’s house opened up to reveal an angry raccoon man carrying what looked like a rocket launcher – amongst a collection of other heavy weapons. Before anyone could react, someone shouted “There he is!” and several police opened fire, and the enraged Emerged ducked back inside as the sound of gunfire filled the air!

Crap! Everything was going downhill! “Lady Arcane, can you erect a force field to protect the police if Rocket attacks?”

“Yeah! I think so.” Krissie replied, nervously. “Won’t you need my help?”

“I could use help – but it won’t matter if a bunch of cops or civilians get killed. Limit the casualties and damage and back me up.”

She nodded, and began casting her arcane spells – and a shimmering barrier appeared around the Police and herself. I could idly hear on the radio that Sabertooth and Impulse were en route.

“Hey! Rocket! It’s the police! Please, don’t make this harder than it has to be. Surrender!” I called out. “We’re from the MRT.”

I noticed Rocket peek out the door, and heard him growl in anger. “You! You’re the bitch that named me Trash Panda! I should fucking kill you!”

“Hey! It was a bad night – everyone was on edge, and I talked some trash. My Bad. What do you want me to call you?”

“My name is Rocket!”

“Okay, Rocket. I’m asking you to surrender peacefully, so we don’t end up trashing this entire neighborhood.”

“Fuck that shit!” Rocket called out. “I’m not going to prison!”

“Dammit, Rocket! I’m trying to help you!” I could hear Rhino climbing up the stairs – once he got here things were going to get messy. Messier? Crap.

“Yeah, well help this!” Rocket whirled around, and pointed his rocket launcher at me and fired…

Time slowed down as I amped up my super speed, and I accelerated towards Rocket and the missile – and felt it hit my chest and flatten, crumpling without exploding, and turning into confetti. It hadn’t armed yet – it was too close to the user. A moment later, I was in Rocket’s face, and I ripped the rocket launcher from his hands, and tore it to pieces. Rocket stared in shock at the sheer speed I moved, and I could see Rhino starting to charge.

I tried to move – but even with my speed, I was a bit too slow and Rhino careened into me, slamming me hard! I saw Rocket get flung aside as Rhino pushed him out of his way – and I felt myself flying backwards towards the far side of the street, towards where Lady Arcane and her shield were protecting the police.

Oddly enough, I felt Rhino’s blow, and it did sting a little – but it didn’t hurt a lot. I caught myself in mid air with my flight power – about half-way towards Lady Arcane’s shield – and readied myself to attack.

“Raaagh! I ain’t going to prison!” Rhino yelled. “Fuck all of you!”

“Everything here is good, Guardian! Shields are up!” Lady Arcane called out.

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“Good!” I called – and flew towards Rhino, throwing a blistering punch at his nasty face. He tried to dodge – and my blow caught him on the shoulder instead, and he yowled in pain as he smashed through the floor of the house and fell into the basement, leaving a ten foot wide hole yawning in the floor.

“Hey! You’re trashing my mom’s house!” Rocket screamed in anger. Before I could react, he leapt onto my back, and started yanking my hair and trying to claw me with his little raccoon nails. The claws didn’t hurt – but oddly, yanking my hair really stung, and I yowled in pain.

“That’s right, you bitch!” Rocket screamed in victory. “Who’s the trash panda now?”

“Aaaagh! Get off of me, you crazy raccoon!”

“This is for trashing my mom’s house!” He screamed, and the next thing I knew, he stuffed something down the back of my shirt, and jumped off me, running for cover. “Fire in the hole!”

I winced, realizing what was about to happen – and then the grenade went off, shredding and tearing my shirt and my kevlar vest to scraps, but not really hurting me much – it might have left a bruise. At least this time, I was still covered – but my uniform had seen better days. The shrapnel from the grenade rained off Lady Arcane’s barrier, and my body itself protected the house and Mrs. Raccoon… We still didn’t know who his mother was. As I felt the cool air of late fall or early winter on my back, I sighed. I hope Jimmy finishes whatever clothing or fabric project he’s working on soon. It would be nice to finish a mission while still having clothes to wear, dammit. Sigh.

Raccoon’s mom screamed in fear, and ran further inside the house – and as I cleared the bits of grenade shrapnel from my hair, Rhino climbed out of the basement for round two. I didn’t see where Rocket had gone to.

Instead of some witty bon mot, like “Durr, Hurr,” Rhino simply leapt into the air, and smashed me with his fist. This time, I felt it – a lot – and I grimaced in pain as I hurtled backwards, smashing into the shield Lady Arcane had erected. I think I saw a few stars too, this time.

“Need a hand, Guardian?” I heard my partner call out.

“Yeah, Lady A. If you can keep the shield up, send some fire Rhino’s way to whittle him down – or find some way to slow him down so I can deal with him.”

“You got it!”

I pulled myself together, and readied myself to fight… I didn’t see Raccoon’s house being livable by the time we were done. Sorry, ma’am, I thought to myself. I ran towards Rhino, and pounded him with a few swings – first a blow to his jaw – and then a kick to his thigh. He returned with a punch to my gut, doubling me over – and a knee to the face. I tasted blood on my lip after that one. Goddamn he must be strong!

As we traded blows, I heard the sound of a gun cocking – and then a sound from Lady Arcane that could only be described as “Pew! Pew! Pew!” Three silvery bolts of magical energy flung from her outstretched hand, and blasted Rocket Raccoon once, twice, and three times, causing him to yowl in pain. His return gunfire bounced harmlessly from her force field, harming neither her, nor the police – but he didn’t look like he was ready to stop fighting, either.

I swung once more on Rhino, catching him just under the chin, and sending him a good thirty feet into the air… His teeth clicked as his jaw was slammed shut, and he groaned in pain as he was flung up – then down. Rhino’s may be fast, but they aren’t good tumblers – and he landed hard. He groaned, and was still moving… What did it take to slow him down?

Meanwhile, Rocket was trading shots with Lady Arcane – eldritch bolts that looked kind of like magic missiles whizzing through the air against Rocket’s heavy gunfire. She had been keeping him busy – and was slowly wounding him. I vaguely heard a helicopter in the area, although at the moment I didn’t have the concentration to see if it was a news copter or a police copter.

Maybe brute force isn’t the way to stop Rhino? I wondered. Remembering Morningstar, I tried firing a blast of cold breath at the horned behemoth. The frigid air washed over him, coating him and the front of the house in a thick layer of rime and ice, and he looked stopped, for the moment at least. Lady Arcane had stopped with the magic missiles, and was using a wand to telekinetically move a trashcan into Rocket’s head. He went down in a heap, and groaned.

“Please, guys…” I began. “This isn’t going to end well for you. Please, just give up.” I know I’d taken a light beating – maybe even a moderate beating – but Rhino and Rocket seemed a lot more hurt than that. I didn’t like using them as punching bags, but if they wouldn’t surrender, what the hell could I do?

Rocket groaned, and crawled out from under the trash can, covered in household trash. “Dammit, I surrender.” He called out, throwing his hands above his head, and assuming the position. Rhino’s ice prison cracked once, then twice – and Rhino busted out, still obviously looking for a fight!

“Rhino! Rocket’s down! Stand down before we have to knock you down!” I called out. “More and more cops are coming every minute. Is this what you want? To be gunned down on live TV?”

Rhino looked around – and saw it was true. What had been three or four squad cars had quickly become six, then eight. A police helicopter with a sniper was flying above – along with a television news copter too. The eight police officers present had their guns – pistols and shotguns – trained on him, ready to take him down.

“I’m only doing this cause Rocket is hurt, you get me?” He said.

“I get you, Rhino.”

“This ain’t over, Guardian. You and me, we’re going to figure out who’s stronger one day.”

“I guess we’ll see. Until that day, then.” I replied. “Get on the ground, and put your hands on your head.”

Rhino knelt and did as I asked, and a half dozen police officers ran up to apprehend him. Paramedics were arriving on the scene too. A few minutes later, the police told him his rights, and escorted him to a waiting prisoner van; he was way too big for a squad car. Rocket was carried off by a pair of paramedics, surrounded by four other officers. The scene was a giant mess – the house was wrecked – and debris was everywhere. Hundreds of bullet casings littered the street, and dozens of emergency personnel were milling about – some controlling access to the scene, others gathering evidence, and others still treating any injured bystanders, of which there were virtually none thanks to Lady Arcane’s shield.

Officer Hoult came over to me, and offered me his nylon jacket. I wasn’t too cold – the cold didn’t bother me much – but I did appreciate the gesture, and I felt more comfortable without my back exposed. “Thanks, Hoult. Just once I’d like to finish one of these fights with all my clothes intact. You know?”

“Not really, Guardian. Most fights I get into, the clothes stay on, or at least in one piece. You okay? You look kinda beat up.”

“I guess I am, a bit. How do I look?”

“Let’s just say you might need a steak or two to put on those bruises.” He laughed. “You put him through the damn floor, and it didn’t even slow him down. There wasn’t anything we could do, was there?”

“Not really, Hoult. He and Rocket were just on a scale above what most cops are capable of. SWAT might have been able to hurt them, but they would have taken down a hell of a lot of you. I don’t know what to say.”

“I guess it’s a brave new world, Guardian. I can’t say I like it much, but then no one asked me anyway. I guess we have to do what we have to do to save lives, and worry about the bruised egos later. I’m going to go see how Davis is doing.”

“Okay. I’m going to check on Lady Arcane.”

“You tell her she did good. She’s what? Like sixteen, tops? She really kept her head. She did good.”

“I’ll tell her, Hoult. Promise.”

“Good. I’ll tell Davis you’re alright. I’m not saying he was worried, but I think he was a bit worried for you.”

“Gotcha. Thanks, Hoult.” I smirked, and walked over to where Lady Arcane was resting on a concrete ledge next to the sidewalk.

“Hey, Lady A.”

“Hey G-Girl.”

“I guess I deserved that.” I chuckled. “How you doing?”

“A little stressed out, but actually pretty good. Better than I did the night of the Emergence, for sure. I kind of panicked when I started tossing around spells – but this time it was more… I don’t know… more normal? Less weird? I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay. I’m doing okay too. Come to think of it, I feel a little shaky. Mind if I sit next to you?”

“Not at all. My ledge, is your ledge.”

“Thanks.”

We sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, until a paramedic approached to take a look at me. Some gauze and some bandages later, and copious amounts of antibacterial ointment later, I resembled a recovering person, rather than the walking wounded. I could feel myself healing – slowly – but I could feel it. Thank the sun!

“What now?” Lady Arcane asked.

“I guess once the scene is under control, we’ll either be back on patrol, or we’ll be here. I’ll find my boss and find out.”

In the end, I did find Davis – and he was glad to see me. We ended up corralling the scene for a few more hours – along with Lady Arcane’s unit and her handlers. Impulse and Sabertooth made an appearance, but by the time they got here, it was all over but for the shouting.

We finished our first day of patrol triumphant, and it felt good when Lady A and I got a round of applause from the rest of the police when we got back to the station. It felt like we were going to be accepted as part of the team – and it felt good.

I wondered how long it would last.