“Sethlana, Eury, to me!” Lyssa shouted in the mansion of her thoughts.
“About time you got angry!”
“If that is what you really want.”
They were under fire. Giantsbane’s clap had thrown them within the soldiers’ ranges. Students who were slow to recover were picked off. The chaos of so many gifts were hard to take in, like a thousand firecrackers each with different yields and colors. Familiar, loud, quiet, deafening, inaudible, alien. The battlefield was made of visages that instantly evoked, and confused at once.
A student whispered a soldier inside a mech suit to begin attacking his allies. Another froze the tires on an armored vehicle, flipping it on its sides. A pale silhouette of a girl in rags swam through machine and man alike, leaving a chilled wake of stalled engines and men writhing on the earth from a sudden drop in core temperature. She stood still for a moment, proud of her work. Paintballs flew in her direction and hit their mark, sure and true, but continued moving until they came out the other side of her body unperturbed, striking another student. Ecto grinned, wondering when they were going to catch on. The smile vanished from her face when she saw a soldier produce an old flash instant camera from his panoply. At a button press a swath of light washed over her like a flashbang. She screamed as her body was forced to become tangible, and she fell to the ground, ethereal froth falling off her skin like fog. She looked up at the barrels pointed at her. Shots discharged. She winced, closing her eyes, but no red impacts marked her suit.
A giant ball of quills had rolled over the enemies. Ironhog unfurled in front of her.
“Get up!” He said. He pointed his back to the enemy.
“Huh. You’re pretty accurate with that hedgehog move,” Ecto said.
“My helmet,” Ironhog said, tapping the side of his visor. “It orients me. How long does it take to get your mojo back?”
“A second.” Ecto grabbed the cask she had received as her gear allotment. She popped it open and inhaled the dense trail of white smoke within. Her skin stopped leaking, regaining its uncanny, negative light. “How is Lyssa doing?”
“She’s doing her zen thing,” Ironhog said. “She kinda freaks me out to be honest.”
Ecto looked.
Lyssa was standing straight in the air, the tips of her toes a few feet off the ground. She was staring into the middle distance, teeth bared and jaws clenched, concentrating. Stray paint shots that went in her direction were repelled by a shell of force-fire.
A wave of fire scoured the earth, forming an obscuring wall between them and the soldiers. Burnout landed beside them.
“We need a plan for how we win this,” he said. “Where’s Vortex?”
Ironhog pointed. Vortex sat in a heap behind her peers. She seemed elsewhere. Her hands trembled and her teeth chattered.
“I think that storm took everything she had,” he said.
“Looks like it took a bit more than that,” Ecto remarked. “Guess we have to hold her ground for a while.”
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“It looks like Giantsbane won’t do anything if you just take the bridges,” Burnout said. “But there’s only enough for a few teams at a time.”
“While the military is on our ass the whole time,” Ironhog said. “We were supposed to work together and take turns going across while the rest of us cover our allies. God, it’s so obvious in retrospect.”
“Our first instinct was to fight for it,” Ecto said. “Feel like that says something. Hm…”
The pressure wave of a fuel explosion swept hot air over them. A helicopter spun in the air, drawing closer to the ground with each pirouette until it crumpled on landing in a final plume of fire. The crew scrambled out, shaken but unharmed; they were protected by thick, fireproof suits. A white flag flipped out of their backs as they quickly left the battlefield.
“Let’s go!” Ironhog shouted. He curled into a ball and rolled straight towards the enemy that remained in the fight. Ecto sank into the ground. Burnout jetted into the air. Their abilities melded into the melting pot of power.
--
“That’s him, huh?” Henry said. “The rank two hero.”
“Giantsbane. Never quite understood the obsession with rank,” Paulo said. “How is it measured? Why does it matter?”
“I dunno? Popularity?”
Paulo scoffed. “That’s like having a second favorite sentient atom bomb. You people are ridiculous.”
“Might also be based on the amount of good someone has done.”
“Good can be quantifiable?”
Henry shrugged. His eyes were still on his enigmatic work.
“Theoretically. Utility can be measured.”
“What’s the utility behind what they did to my family?”
Henry pursed his lips and took a deep breath.
“Listen, Paulo, I have to know. What do you think you’re going to do with this?”
“The charges are set. Your customers are informed. We’ve-”
“I know the plan,” Henry said. “I just don’t know what you’re getting out of it. I dug up what info I could find on your case. Your home was attacked by a high-atmosphere stealth plane using directed energy. You only survived because of your gift. It’s beyond cutting edge. Makes DARPA tech look like a bow and arrow. Who knows who commissioned it? There are places in our government that don’t even have acronyms. How are you planning to get your revenge on them?”
“For someone so smart, you miss the obvious.”
Henry made a face.
“Enlighten me,” he said.
“You know what I found most amusing about your American ‘Sleuth Comics’?”
“I’m the wrong generation to ask about that old stuff.”
Paulo chuckled. “Well there’s this superhero character who goes out at night in a costume. Hunts criminals. Beats them to a pulp. Then leaves them alive so the law can put them in supermax prisons.”
“Oh hey we have those.”
Paulo ignored him. “This guy would use the most advanced tools of his time to do his work. Super cars. Jets. Tanks. But not guns most of the time. No, that was against his code. And he does it all in secret. Almost no one knows who he is. I always thought it was funny. I mean why not use your vast resources to actually make lasting change?”
“The world is a big and complicated place,” Henry suggested. “Maybe…”
“No, no, this guy worked in one city only.”
“What?”
“One city.”
“And he doesn’t deal with supervillains? Just leaves them to drain taxpayer money?”
“Yes. Sometimes they break out and kill innocents all over again.”
“Wow. Are you sure he was the good guy?”
“Leader of the so-called ‘Justice Legion’.”
“Fascinating. But I fail to see why you’ve brought it up.”
“You can’t keep anything exceptional a secret. What does one need to build super cars? Tanks? High-atmosphere weapons?”
“…Money?”
“Incentive. Infrastructure. Men. And of course money. Who has the most of all those resources in America?”
“Uh…” The proverbial bulb was beginning to shine. “That’d be Helena… Hegemon. Of Helena Industries. Tech giantess. Fingers in every technology imaginable. Computers, automotive, mining, manufacturing-”
“Military. It’s so obvious it’s not even a puzzle.” Paulo turned his head towards the windows of their warehouse. Soaring above the cityscape was a skyscraper made of pristine glass and steel. The building had no title, for the superstructure itself spelled one large letter ‘H’ on the side. That was all one needed to see. “That’s her tower. One of them, anyway.” He wandered by a side table, grabbed the newspaper, and tossed it on Henry’s desk. “She’s visiting. For the Annual, allegedly. And the last part of this silly game will be taking those superpowered kids straight into the city.”
“You want to use the cover of the chaos then? For what?”
But Paulo had already plugged in his ear buds and returned to his weights.