“...And so my fellow Americans I ask for calm during these turbulent times. We do not know why these people have started gaining these abilities but we must deal with the reality that they are. To those that may be scared of these... superhumans, I remind you that they are people, just like you or me. To the superhumans themselves, I ask that you use your powers with discretion and, if it is possible, to not use them at all.

“Have trust in your local police and, by extension, in us. Troubling times are ahead of us and while we shall do our best to guide you through these turbulent waters, it is up to you to follow. Together, we shall weather this storm and come out stronger than before we entered it.

“Thank you and God bless America.”

Anna turned off the TV and leaned back into her coach. “Well, at least the world’s not exploding this time.” She muttered to herself.

The past week had passed by agonizingly slowly for Anna as she forced herself to stay out of superhuman business. Work had gone incredibly slowly for her as she couldn’t focus. Sleeping wasn’t much better, with her brain reminding her that ‘superpowers were real and that you could be out having fun with them right now’ every single time she closed her eyes. That’s not to mention the stress, the constant worry that the world might suddenly implode around her.

So, understandably, Anna was pretty tired right now.

Thankfully, the world had adapted surprisingly well to the new superhumans popping up. The worst incident by far had been the ‘Molts Massacre’ as the media dubbed it. The backlash from that actually hadn’t been as bad as Anna feared. Her intervention in her hero persona had curved the discussion away from ‘All superhumans are bad!’ toward ‘some superhumans are bad.’ This shift was also been helped by a few other superhumans as well.

Someone in the Central European Commonwealth has apparently gotten some sort of intelligence enhancing power and was going to town, pumping out revolutionary invention after revolutionary invention. Their actual name and face were unknown to the general public, but internet rumors stated that they’ve been contacted by some very powerful people and factions.

A man in the Warring States of China was recorded fighting against mercenaries that were burning down a defenseless village. He’s been seen to show the power of flight, super strength, and the ability to shoot lightning from his hands. Who he is and where the video was taken is unknown, but speculation has been rampant. People eventually began to call him Leigong, after the ancient Chinese god of thunder.

In India, an American actor by the name of Aaron Baccarin got the power to change his face. He could shape it however he wanted but he couldn’t change anything past his hairline or beyond the end of his jawline. He’s been the most open about his powers, stating that his power is [Face Manipulation] and that he could only change his face.

Anna knew that was wrong of course. He could change any face however he wanted, but she didn’t know if he knew that and was keeping it a secret or if he just genuinely hadn’t tried it on anyone else.

Back in the states, things have been a bit more chaotic. In Neo York, people were actively demonstrating against supers. In LA, however, people were praising supers after a mysterious stranger healed almost everyone in the hospital in one night. The government is split, as always, on how to handle the issue. It hasn’t become a major political point yet but it’s headed that direction.

Of course, this isn’t to say that there haven’t been a few bumps in the road.

Superhuman crime has certainly become a thing. Most of the time the police can handle it. A person with the power to make knives come out of their body robs a convenience store here. Someone with improved flexibility tries to go cat burglar and gets caught there. Simple stuff, thankfully. The world hasn’t had to deal with another Andrew Molts.

Not yet, at least.

Captured superhuman criminals are being placed in medical comas until governments can build places to house and contain them. If the criminal can’t be placed in a coma because of their power or for some other reason, they’re placed in a maximum-security prison and guarded twenty-four seven. These methods have worked for now but Anna knew it was only a matter of time before some seriously dangerous superhumans started showing up.

‘Case in point,’ she thought as she got an alert from her news scrubber app. Pulling up the related broadcast, Anna started to watch. It was all in french so she couldn’t understand any of it, but the frantic voice and waving arms got across the general message.

The screen was mainly dominated by what looked like drone footage, based on the angles that were being pulled off. The newswoman herself was relegated to only a small portion of the screen in the lower left-hand quarter.

The video appeared to be in some European city from the architecture of the buildings. Police could be seen in a few hundred feet away taking cover behind their cars. Even further in the distance, a roadblock could be seen with a few people crowding around it.

Of course, these weren’t the subjects of the footage at all. No. Those would probably be fuck-off giant metal man, the literal knight in shining armor, and the blue blur that was streaking around the scene.

It appeared that Metal-Man and Knight, as Anna dubbed them, were in a stalemate. Metal-Man was swinging his fists wildly, in an obviously untrained manner, attempting to hit Knight in front of him. Knight, on the other hand, was trying to get in closer to Metal-Man so that he could get a slash in with his sword but was being blocked by Metal-Man’s flailing. While this was all happening, bystanders and injured were being transported by the blue blur, presumably, to safety.

“Yes! They’ve finally started!” She said with excitement, all traces of sleepiness gone.

Anna had been mildly concerned when she hadn’t seen any new stories about super on super conflict. Plenty of stories about some stupid supers that thought that just because they could float a few inches of the ground, they could suddenly rob banks but none about any serious powered fights.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She grew worried that people were going to start to associate all supers with these idiots running around and robbing people in the street. It would become a Us Vs Them situation, instead of the whole Hero/Villain dynamic that she was hoping for.

It appeared her worries were for naught though.

Calming herself, Anna started pacing. ‘Ok, so, they’ve started, the question now is, what do I do? When do I start interfering?’ She hummed as she continued to pace.

‘I want to make my presence known fairly early, that way I can have all those veterans points and also avoid all that ‘newbie’ shit. Yeah, can’t have the whole mysterious knows-more-than-they-reasonably-should spectator vibe going on while being a complete noob. That just makes you look like a tryhard.

‘Anyways, so, I guess the question is if I want to show up now…’ She stopped and stared at the broadcast.

The blue blur had done a good job at clearing out at all the civilians and only a few were left. Metal-Man and Knight were still in their stalemate with each other but Anna could see that Knight and Blue were going to win.

Once Blue got done with transport duty he would come over and help Knight, basically sealing Metal-Man’s fate. He was already struggling with Knight, despite his huge size, strength, weight, and reach advantage. When he gets trumped in speed too?

It’ll be a slaughter.

“Yeah, I wanna see this in person.” Anna decided

<( o )>

Axel Meyer grunted as he dodged out of the way of another attack.

His grandson’s plan was working well so far. He would act as a distraction and tire out the enemy while David got the civilians out of the area. Then, once everyone was evacuated, he would come help deal with the big one. It was simple and flexible.

Axel had to hand it to the kid, while he didn’t invent gunpowder by any means, he had moments of brilliance.

Axel’s main worry was that he might crack under pressure, but so far he’d been fine. Getting people in and out without attracting attention, a surprising feat considering how much of a chatterbox he was.

“I’m done, grandfather,” David called as he seemed to materialize a few meters away.

“What did I say about names boy?!” Axel yelled back as he made some distance between him and the giant. “You're the one who said we had to have these names. I better see you using them.”

David cringed. “Yes... Neuschwanstein.”

Axel flashed him a thumbs up before turning back to his opponent. Taking a few side steps over towards David he asked quietly, “Now, what’s the plan to get rid of this one?”

“I don’t know, he looks pretty tired,” He did, just standing there huffing and puffing. “‘Course we don’t know if that’s fake or not. Have you managed to hit him with that sword of yours?”

Axel sadly shook his head. “No, he’s too large and fast, I don’t wanna risk getting hit by those fists he’s got. My armor is pretty durable, me, however…”

David hummed before nodding. “Alright, keep it simple. I’ll get his attention and then you go up and see if that fancy toothpick of yours can hurt him.”

Axel just looked at his grandson dubiously.

“You know I can’t see your expression though that helm, right?”

“Then how did you know that I was giving you a look?” He asked blandly.

He didn’t get the chance to respond as that’s when the metal titan decided that he’d had enough of watching them plot and charged. Axel just barely managed to roll out of the way.

“Hey numbnuts, over here! Pick on someone your much smaller size!” A small ping rang out as a David threw a pebble at the metal man. It didn’t damage him in the slightest but it managed to get his attention for a second.

A second was all that Axel needed.

There was a shrieking of metal as his blade made contact with the giant’s skin. A gash opened itself up along his back and he screamed in pain. Another slash, Another shriek, another scream.

The man tried to swing around with a punch but Axel was already inside his range and easily ducked under before coming back with a counter strike.

Again and again, Axel struck with his sword. The cuts were non-lethal, but they stung like a bitch.

As they were supposed to.

Axel had had a whole argument with David about the right kind of force to use. Eventually, the boy convinced him to be non-lethal.

“Our goal isn’t to kill them, it's to dispense justice!” he’d said with all the pomp that should be expected from a naive sixteen-year-old.

Axel didn’t know if he believed in true justice anymore, not after the war, but he was willing to give David's ideas a shot. He’d, well...

He'd had moments of brilliance before.

A final swing with the flat of his blade and the mountain fell over unconscious. Turning around he’d fully expected David to be there just behind him, waiting to talk about how ‘awesome’ that was. Axel had not expected him to be pale, shaky, and looking like he was about to throw up.

Looking back at the unconscious man, the many many cuts that had been made on him, and the slowly growing pool of blood forming around him, Axel thought he understood what had upset his grandson.

“Come on, let’s head home.” He said quietly, stepping between David and the body he cut off line of sight. Gently guiding him away, Axel tried to distract him. “You know, that was a really good plan, went off without a hitch really. We got him and no one got hurt real bad. Just a few minor injuries, bumps and scratches. Do you think we should get ice cream later? To celebrate? I think we should-”

“Hey, grampa?”

Axel immediately stopped and met his grandson’s eyes. David never called him grampa unless it was serious. “Yes?” He prompted.

“Do you… will it always be this bloody?” David asked softly turning his gaze away.

“I… I… I want to say no… but I can’t promise that.” Axel’s grip tightened on the boy’s shoulder. “Things are going to happen around us if we go down this path David. Horrible things, things I wished only stayed in the stories we hear or the movies we watch, things that are going to make you think ‘There's no way anyone would be messed up enough to do that?’ and then they go and do it.” Axel loosened his grip before he broke the boys’ shoulders. “I honestly want to lie to you and say that everything is fine and that this was a one-off... but it probably wasn’t and if I did lie, you would only feel worse when it happened again.”

Stepping around Axel got on his knee, eye-level with David. “But if you want to continue down this path, the one with heroes and villains? You need to steel your heart or leave the church in the village.” He stood up and looked at the police that were looking at them from the covers of their cars.

“Now, if you're feeling up to it, think you can take us home?”

David nodded silently, before grabbing his grandfather and disappearing on the wind.

<( o )>

“Damn, well now I feel like a creepy stalker or something,” Anna said petulantly.