A Change of Pace – Chapter 67

The shrill ring of the phone cut through the dark, silent hotel room. Before the second ring the light beside the bed was on, and before the third a hand had already grabbed the handle.

“Yes.” Hunter yawned as he wiped the last bit of sleep from his eyes. He didn’t use his name because this was an unsecure line.

Like most Heroes he could go from asleep to awake in the snap of his fingers, or in this case, three rings of a phone.

“Uh…hello, Mr. Hunter, Sir.”

Hunter couldn’t stop a groan from escaping his throat. <I’m going to have to talk to Morningstar about operational security.>

                “No names,” Hunter reminded the young Hero on the other end of the line.

“Shit, yeah…sorry. Well the boss wanted me to give you a heads up that we bagged the guy that took a shot at us on that day we were working together.” Hunter could hear the excitement in Galavant’s voice.

“I’ll be right in.” Hunter didn’t wait for a response before hanging up.

He went straight for the shower, rinsed off, quickly shaved, and got into his costume. For the millionth time in his career, he was thankful that his costume was basic; shorts, t-shirt, a hunting jacket (all in the same theme), his mask, and his rifle. It was nothing fancy, and it was nothing that would get in his way went shit hit the fan; because shit always hit the fan in this line of work.

In less than ten minutes he was completely ready to go. He set the countermeasures for the hotel room, and vanished. He reappeared in the Protectorate’s headquarters, in a side hallway they’d set aside specifically for him. KaBoom was waiting for him.

“We grabbed him just a few hours ago,” the Protectorate’s number two quickly filled Hunter in.

The renowned teleporter had taken a few personal days over the holidays. It was always a good idea to take short breaks every once in a while, step back, and remember what you’re fighting for. That and the DVA mandated thirty days in an inactive status a year.

Hunter would have liked to take a legitimate break but he had to deal with Angela. Her second place finish in her first semester required some additional training. She’d performed well, but she still had a long way to go.

His time off meant that he was a little behind on the happenings in Orlando. So Hunter held out his hand and KaBoom handed him a thick file.

“His street-name is Dragon, real name Stanley Kursk.”

<Why is it the bad guys always have normal names?> Hunter frowned at the random thought, but quickly turned his attention back to KaBoom’s quick rundown.

“He’s got a rap sheet a half-mile long. We’re talking assault, battery, B&E, grand theft auto, possession with intent to sell, and after what he did at the bank attempted murder of a Hero.”

<So we’ve got room to bargain with.> Hunter knew the drill. Dragon as going to prison, but for how long depended on if he wanted to talk or not.

“Where is he?”

“In the cell room with Morningstar.” KaBoom pointed toward doors on the far side of the room.

Hunter cringed at the lack of security in the place, especially after all the attention the city had been receiving the last few months. <First the coffee shop, then the gang takeover, and that doesn’t even take into consideration that something big and bad might be headed this way in the near future. Plus, Wraith is still on the loose, and we’re all sitting here with less security than your average mall security office.> That wasn’t quite true, but when you were facing all the dangers that Heroes faced that was how it felt.

“Thanks for the heads up.” Hunter shook KaBoom’s hand and headed over to the interrogation.

“So you’re telling me that it was an accident?” Mr. Morningstar was lounging in a chair on the opposite side of the cell wall from the prisoner. “You didn’t mean to shoot all those police officers.”

Galavant was in the room, and he handed another piece of paper to Hunter. They didn’t want to interrupt the spell Morningstar had over Dragon, so Hunter played catch up based on Galavant’s notes.

So far they’d established that Dragon was senior in the Fist, a lieutenant just below the leader; a guy named Squid. The Protectorate had a file on him, but they didn’t know his real identity. Squid was smarter than Dragon. They’d also established that Dragon was at the police raid that turned into a shit-show. All the officers had been injured and one was still clinging to life a few weeks after the fact.

“They just kicked down the door to our house, what was I supposed to do?” There was another attempted murder charge they could add to the list.

A lawyer might fight Mr. Morningstar’s interrogation technique via his ability, but the Hero had been around long enough to have precedent on his side. Plus, on the surface level, Dragon didn’t even look like an upstanding citizen. In fact, right now, he looked like he’d gotten in a fight with a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robot and lost badly.

Galavant caught him looking. “KaBoom took him down like that.” Galavant snapped his fingers. “It looked like a man fighting a baby.

Hunter just nodded, glad his mask hid his exasperation toward the interning Hero.

“Yo, who that?” Galavant’s snap had alerted Dragon to Hunter’s presence. “I remember you!” He cried out angrily. “You killed Billy-B and Marco. Yo, I shouldn’t be stuck in here. That big mutha killed them guys like it was nothin’.”

“Actually, one of your boys shot the other while I was holding him.” Hunter regretted the loss of life, but he’d seen a lot of death in his career. He didn’t shed a tear for a couple of gangbangers who decided to fight instead of surrendering. “And all of that would have been avoidable if you’d decided to not rob a bank.”

“Not my choice.” Dragon crossed his arms angrily. He literally had smoke coming out of his nostrils. “Squid tells us wat to do and we do it.”

“The ‘I was just following orders defense’ didn’t work for the Nazis and it won’t work for you; especially not for you,” Hunter shrugged, and took a seat next to Mr. Morningstar.

“The big question is why’d you do it?” Hunter and the Protectorate leader seamlessly transitioned the interrogation. “From what I can tell you guys had a pretty good thing going. You had your illegal fronts, your protection racket, you’d cornered the market in drugs and women.” Hunter shrugged as he tried to build up the criminal’s ego. “Why give all that up?”

“Like I said,” Dragon spat back. “I don’t make the calls. Squid tells me to bust heads and I bust heads.”

“Well I’m sure Squid isn’t happy that you’re here talking to us now.” Hunter moved into a standard interrogation technique.

“I ain’t saying shit.” Dragon fumed, literally.

“Squid doesn’t know that,” Hunter smiled. “The next time we bust up something to do with the Fist we’ll have the cops on the scene bragging about how we broke the guy in custody and he’s spilling his guts to the Heroes.”

There weren’t many ways to hurt a guy like Dragon. He was big and dumb. He was nothing more than muscle, and he just did what he was told. But the thing about muscle was they always prided themselves on not being snitches. Taking that away from Dragon would undermine his entire identity.

“Fuck you!” Dragon proved Hunter’s suspicion by lashing out. He smashed his fist into the barrier. He only succeeded in breaking is hand, and receiving one hell of a shock.

“Urg!” The criminal made a gurgling noise as he fell over, clutching his hand.

“I think we’re done here for a while.” Hunter got up and stretched so Dragon could mentally acknowledge his lack of freedom. “We’ll let you think about what you want to do while we spread the word that you’re talking.” Dragon couldn’t see the smile under Hunter’s expressionless mask.

“…fuck…bullshit…stupid bitch…wouldn’t be a problem…Squid’s a dumbass…” Hunter caught snippets of Dragon cursing under his breath.

“If you’ve got something to say, speak up.” Hunter stopped walking toward the door and returned to the cell’s barrier.

“Squid’s a dumbass.” Dragon carefully flexed his hand and winced. “He shoulda never taken that bitch’s money.”

“Who’s this bitch?” Hunter sat back down.

It was obvious she was an outsider, or Dragon wouldn’t have been talking about her.

“Some skank ass black bitch who payin’ Fist for shit.” Hunter let Dragon curse the mysterious woman for a few minutes before redirecting him.

“Can you give me anything else other than her race; hair color, eye color, height, any distinguishing features?” Galavant was scribbling furiously in the corner, while Hunter was committing it to memory.

“Naw, she ain’t like African; Bitch just wears all black.” Whoever this woman was, she was a sore point for Dragon.

“Anything else?”

Hunter kept his anticipation under control. Dragon might not be willing to spill on the Fist, but this woman had rubbed him the wrong way at some point in the past.

“She armed like she gonna take over the whole fuckin’ city; guns, knives, all that shit. She also got those extendable things like you cops like to beat hood rats with.”

<Batons.> Hunter’s breath caught. <Could it be?> He had to force himself to slowly reach in his pocket for the grainy picture he’d been carrying around with him for the past few months.

“Is this her?”

Dragon had to squint at the photo with his one good eye. He’d resisted arrest when they’d brought him in, and one of KaBoom’s kinetically powered punches had swelled up his other eye so much the criminal couldn’t open it.

“This picture’s shit,” Dragon scoffed at the Heroes. “Use an IPhone 6 next time.”

“Is this her or not?” Hunter couldn’t keep the hard, seriousness out of his tone.

“I can’t tell a hundred percent, but it looks like her. We call her Shadow. Bitch got shadows she disappears into.”

That was all Hunter needed.

<Wraith is in Orlando…Wraith is bankrolling the Fist…Why?>

“You said Squid is taking her money.” Hunter recalled earlier parts of the conversation.

“Yeah, Squid’s being stupid and trustin’ this Shadow bitch. She told him to hit the power plant. Now he got all kinds of heat on him. Stupid!” Dragons started to curse up a storm again, but Hunter stopped paying attention.

<Wraith wanted the power down…why?”> The more Hunter learned about the villainous teleporter the more he realized she didn’t do anything without reason. <First the assassination, now this. Is she covering her tracks? Is this a whole separate operation? Where is she getting the cash? Why Orlando?> More questions ripped through his mind, and he didn’t have any answers.

Except maybe the last one. <This has to have something to do with Kemps and the coffee shop attack.> His mind was running a hundred miles an hour while Dragon complained in the cell. <Meyers said that it was Hellgate at the coffee shop. That would explain how she knows so much about teleporter counter-surveillance.> Pieces were falling into place, and Hunter did not like the picture it was putting together.

Another teleporter, trained by Hellgate himself, maybe working with the notorious villain, and setting up shot in Orlando. <Then there’s all the chatter and contingencies going around about an Armageddon level attack; which ForceOps is taking the lead on.> That meant international terrorism. The U.S. wasn’t loved internationally, but only a few Supers were powerful enough, or ballsy enough to attack America.

“I think we’re good for a while.” Hunter needed to get out of the room and think. “How about we get a healer in here and get you fixed up?” Dragon just grunted. “And maybe we’ll hold off on telling the Fist that your squealing.” Hunter’s good-will offering didn’t stop Dragon’s glare. “As long as you keep the information coming on this Shadow woman.”

“Bitch don’t mean nothin’ to me.” He shrugged. “All she cause is problems.”

Hunter nodded, and beckoned for Morningstar to follow him out of the cell room.

“Well, that was certainly interesting.” Mr. Morningstar was waiting expectantly for an explanation.

“I think the woman he’s talking about is a recent supervillain named Wraith.” Hunter gave him all the information he had on the up-and-comer.

“She certainly sounds like a terror, and you think she’s in my city?”

“At least part-time. We’ll get more information from Dragon, but I’m more interested in why Wraith wanted the power down.”

“That might shed more light on her motivations. I’ll get some officers to comb through the files of everything that happened that day.” Morningstar scratched his chin in thought.

“Look deeper than just what happened. She’s smarter than that. Look into false alarms, pay attention to anything around West Private’s campus, and look for anything out of the ordinary.” Hunter was pacing now, and it was getting attention.

“Any idea what we should be looking for?” Morningstar clearly didn’t like the lack of information.

“No idea, but we need to find something. If Wraith is already here, and she’s responsible for the blackout, then we need to know what she’s planning next.”

“Agreed.” KaBoom walked over. His face serious. He’d overheard part of the conversation. “There hasn’t been a supervillain active in Orlando for over a decade. Protocol states that we inform the HCP.”

“I’ll do it.” Hunter offered. “I spoke there not long ago, and I’ve built a relationship with the Dean.” Hunter knew the Protectorate had a relationship with the school too, but he also wanted to see how his daughter was progressing.

Her first week back was almost finished, and if she hadn’t challenged the number one ranked student yet, then she had some explaining to do.

 

***

 

“Uh…hello, Mr. Hunter, Sir.”

The voice was garbled with static coming out of the computer speaker, but Lilly got the gist of it. “Ok, you’re going to have to give me more to work with than that, Nano.” She lounged in the young villain’s office in the Willis Tower in Chicago.

Mika had phoned Lilly early in the morning nearly frantic with excitement. <I need to set more boundaries between us.> Now that she was with Seth, she needed to set barriers between her life with him and her life as an awesome villainess.

“Do you remember when you told me to keep an eye on things?” Mika asked.

It was the fidgeting that gave him away.

“No, Mika. I don’t believe I ever asked you to keep an eye on things.” A dangerous edge crept into her voice as she realized the teenage technopath was doing surveillance on her.

“Um…no… I mean yeah you did.” It was a feeble attempt to recover and it failed.

<What to do, what to do?> Her hand drifted absentmindedly to the knife on her back.

Lilly had come to this meeting without her usual ensemble. She wore a black half-mask that covered to top half of her face, tactical pants, and a black t-shirt underneath a grungy old bomber-jacket. She had one pistol strapped to her thigh and half a dozen knives strategically placed around her body. It was as casual as she was willing to go.

<He knows too much about me, Seth, maybe all of Dad’s plans. If the DVA gets him we’re all fucked. On the other hand, the guys a damn genius and an irreplaceable asset. I need to come at this from a different angle.>

                Lilly scrutinized Mika. He was defensive. His arms were curled around himself and he was staring anywhere but at her. He knew he’d screwed up. But there was determination on his face. His jaw was set in a stubborn frown, and there was a slight flush of embarrassment on his face. It all clicked into place.

<He’s jealous.>Lilly nearly laughed, but restrained herself. <What did you expect? You’ve been flirting with the kid of years. This is what you wanted to happen. You wanted loyalty and devotion from him as well as his hacking skills.>

                Instead of driving the knife into Mika’s skull, Lilly took a deep, theatrical breath. “Oh, Mika.” She sighed, walked over to the shorter boy, and ran her hand down the side of his face. “You realize what you did was wrong. My private life is my private life.”

Mika nodded fervently after every statement, and raised his eyes to meet hers. “I’m sorry, Wraith. I just thought…”

“You thought you were losing me,” she finished the sentence for him. “You thought because I shacked up with a boy at school that I was going to forget about you and everything we’ve done together.”

“Well, you haven’t been calling or talking to me as much as you used to.”

Lilly had to admit he had a point there. She had been devoting a lot of her extra attention to Seth, and for good reason.

“I realize that now, and I’m sorry. But you also need to understand I have different jobs, different missions that I’m working on. Orlando is one of them. So I need you to stop running surveillance on me down there or it could ruin everything I’ve been working toward. Do you understand?”

“Yeah.” Mika deflated like she’d popped his imaginary balloon. Then he seemed to straighten up, buoyed by some unknown force, to face her. “Do you like him?”

Lilly played it cool. “Him who?”

“The kid you spend every night with.”

Lilly found it hilarious that the small, young technopath was calling anyone a kid.

“He’s a way for me to get what I want.” Lilly smiled at Mika in what she hoped was a predatory fashion.

That threw the technopath off balance. “Don’t worry about him, Nano.” Lilly walked closer and bent down so her face was right in front of his. “You’re still my big guy. My one and only techno-nerd.” She leaned in, Mika closed his eyes with fervent expectations, and at the last second she veered to the right and planted a kiss on his cheek.

<Not as paternal as a kiss on the forehead, but it will keep him thinking about where we stand.> It was important to keep him infatuated, but surprisingly, she didn’t want to do anything that compromised her growing relationship with Seth. <That could be a problem.> But she forced the thought to the back of her mind. She needed to get Mika back on track for the real reason he’d called her in.

“Yeah…um…ok then.” He blubbered when she gently prodded him for more information on the call. He was blushing as a red as a fire-hydrant and couldn’t seem to get the right words out.

<Good.> Lilly waited patiently for him to get it together.

“So while doing my well-intentioned surveillance.” Lilly kept her face neutral at Mika’s statement. “I’ve been monitoring communications coming out of the known Hero bases. Just standard procedure.” It was anything but standard, but she let him continue. “This is a brief phone conversation that happened early this morning.”

 

“Yes.”

“Uh…hello, Mr. Hunter, Sir.”

“No names.”

“Shit, yeah…sorry. Well the boss wanted me to give you a heads up that we bagged the guy that took a shot at us on that day we were working together.”

“I’ll be right in.”

 

The conversation cut off and Mika grinned like an idiot. Lilly quickly realized why. She was grinning like an idiot too.

“Please tell me you have a location on all of this?”

“It was scrambled coming out of the base. They routed it through a few servers in three different states, but I was able to trace it to an unsecure motel phone line.”

“A motel.” From what Lilly knew about Hunter and Seraphim the Hero team wouldn’t be caught dead in anything less than the Four Seasons. “That sneaky fucker.”

It was a good counter-surveillance technique; be in the place no one would expect you to be. Plus, Hunter was a subtlety Hero. <I can’t believe I overlooked the possibility.> Lilly was pissed at herself, but she didn’t let it show. Partially because it would be bad form in front of Mika, and partially because she was too excited.

<I can do what dad never could.> She felt like she should be laughing maniacally, but instead she felt a calm focus falling over her. <Time to get to work.>

Working on it took a lot longer than Lilly thought it would.

For two weeks she plotted and schemed. Mika was heavily involved in the process; which helped his insecurity of being replaced by Seth. He ran constant surveillance on the target. That revealed the first problem.

Hunter didn’t always stay at the motel.

<If he’s smart he’s got a couple different places that he randomly rotates between.> It was a standard tactic. Lilly had safe houses all over the world that she could use if she wanted; all in nonextradition countries.

The problem wasn’t unsurmountable until you coupled it with other issues they discovered in their surveillance.

By hacking into the power grid, and isolating the motel room, Mika was able to determine that the room was drawing considerably more power than the rest of the motel; which meant countermeasures. And that was just the countermeasures that required an external power source. Lilly knew a dozen off the top of her head that were self-powered, and Hunter was likely to have a number of custom tech genius gadgets in use.

So at this point their setbacks were they wouldn’t be able to get into the room without spooking the Hero, and they couldn’t tell when he was even going to be home. A sniper shot like the one Lilly was able to pull off against the mafia scumbag wasn’t an option. She just didn’t have the time. There were multiple opportunities for a sniper’s nest, but with the increased surveillance in the city it was only a matter of time before someone spotted her.

<Damnit.> Lilly spent one too many nights massaging her brain. Stress relief activities with Seth only went so far, and he was growing concerned by her increased absences.

“Don’t worry.” She spoke sweet nothings into his ear post-coital one night. “It’s just the stress of the beginning of the semester.” It was partially true.

Lilly had to alternate assassination preparation with chemistry homework. It gave her the idea of poisoning her mark, but Hunter would never be that stupid.

They were running out of options.

Mika solved one problem. Social media could be a great tracking tool, and while Hunter didn’t use it, DVA employees and visitors to the police station did. Tweets and Facebook posts constantly put the famous Hero at the Protectorate HQ.  So Mika hacked into accounts and created an algorithm that alerted them to Hunter’s whereabouts every five minutes if someone posted it. But that was only secondhand information. They needed to get eyes on their target as much as possible.

Mika fixed that problem too.

He couldn’t hack into to the actual Protectorate HQ security system, the DVA would catch him sooner rather than later; but he could get into the police station surrounding the HQ. Luckily, they had a camera pointed right through the entrance of the Hero HQ that offered a solid view of seventy-five percent of the small space. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave them eyes on the target while he was working.

The countermeasures were more difficult because there was no real way around them. Nothing could enter that room without Hunter knowing; especially by teleportation, and they couldn’t see inside. Every way of trying to see into the room was blocked by the countermeasures; everything from the good old mark one eyeball to advanced optics.

The solution they came up with was expensive and risked blowing the entire operation.

“The room isn’t sealed.” Mika’s sleep-deprived eyes bulged.

“It would look a little suspicious if a seedy motel had a room environmentally sealed. Hunter is trying to stay under the radar.” Lilly snapped back, a little more aggressively than she intended. She wasn’t sleeping well. And things were on the rocks with Seth.

He was busy too, and he found time to hang out. She even suspected he was growing suspicious that she might be cheating on him. <It’s true, I am cheating on him with this op.>

She pushed the hurt down and dove into solving the problem.

The solution was to get something inside the room that wouldn’t draw too much suspicion. To do that they had to bring in a third party.

Lilly let Mika handle all of that. She didn’t want to be anywhere near this freelancer who didn’t even know they were participating in a crime.

The third party was a healer of sorts, and together with Mika’s tech they were successfully able to surgically plant a micro-camera inside of a fly. If the military figured out the procedure, then they’d have a hell of a surveillance tool. The nature of the implantation of the camera meant that the fly’s biology should shield it from any countermeasures looking for intruding electronics. “Should” was the operative word there. Lilly really hoped it worked. It cost them six figures to get the third party healer to spend a day working with Mika.

So now they had eyes on their target and a way to get eyes into the room, because Lilly highly doubted that Hunter was just going to walk up and unlock the door like a normal person. He was going to teleport in and out.

What they needed to figure out next was how they were going to kill him.

That was easy.

“It has to be a bomb.” Lilly put her foot down. That’s the only thing that’s going to spread fast enough before he escapes.

<And I want to entire world to figure out their renowned subtlety Hero met his maker in a catastrophic explosion.> Lilly started to cackle and stopped herself. She really needed to get more sleep.

Making the bomb was easy. Any third grader from a war-ravaged country could make a bomb. Lilly just fine-tuned a simple design, with parts purchased from all over the world, to make sure it didn’t fail. They only had one chance at this.

Finally, after two long weeks of work, they were ready. Or as ready as they would ever be.

<Phase one, get our Frankenstein fly into the room.>

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A Change of Pace – Chapter 54

“What the hell?” Daisy exclaimed as the lights died.

Instinctually she stooped into a crouch and started to move. If this was an attack, and the enemy had eyes on them, then she didn’t want to be in the same place when bullets or something worse started flying everywhere.

All around her screens that had been following the battling students winked out. The devices monitoring the vitals of the injured students went from their constant beep…beep to utter silence. Daisy had been in a lot of situations over her career, but this was one of the most frightening. It was one thing for her to be in the shit, but these kids weren’t ready for that, or committed to it at this point in their lives.

Daisy felt the fear of a teacher wanting to protect her students.

Overall, her students did a hell of a lot better than some of the DVA employees. All the Heroes remained calm and collected, but some of the DVA personnel started screaming. The clattering of someone running into something and smashing it to the floor met Daisy’s ears just as the power brought the arena back to life.

The HCP’s primary power source was the city power grid. It was the easiest way to power the massive complex, and it was already set up when the HCP was constructed. But this was a place designed by Heroes for future Heroes, and no one was stupid enough to put all of their eggs in one basket. An independent power plant served as the HCP’s alternative power source, and was capable of running the entire complex by itself indefinitely. The reason it wasn’t the primary source was cost.

As the power kicked back on, and all the systems started to reboot, all the instructors’ eyes were on their charges. It had only been dark for a couple of seconds, but they all knew just how much damage could happen in that amount of time.

“Get ready to move, Doc,” a gust of wind announced Criag’s run to the opposite side of the room. “Tell me where to go Daisy.”

“Come on…come on,” she grumbled beneath her breath as the computers booted up agonizingly slow. “Ok we’re back online…shit!”

“Craig, Sector 7, Jackson, Goodman, Schultz, and Shaw are all down,” Daisy called out the casualties as she watched Goodman fall ten feet straight onto her back. “Schultz isn’t looking too good,” she zoomed in and saw a lot of blood.”

“Hold on, Doc,” Craig was grinning, but Daisy saw the worry in his eyes as he braced Sanderson’s head with his hand and forearm.

The HCP’s lead healer would heal any whiplash that he received during the high speed run, but if they could avoid wasting the time and energy expense then they would. In a blurr Sanderson and Craig both disappeared, leaving the HCP’s healers leaderless and confused. Thankfully, one of the white-uniformed seniors stepped in and took command immediately.

“I want an update on every person in a bed,” Daisy ordered. “Especially Flynn.” The healers were already moving. They knew what they needed to do.

With the students taken care of, Daisy turned her attention to the rest of the people in the room. DVA employees were taking care of their coworkers who’d panicked. Only one guy and really freaked out, and he’d knocked over some medical supplies as he made a run for the door. Other than that they were all good. The Heroes were another story. Physically they were fine, but all of their faces were tight with anticipation. All of them had their head cocked slightly to the side, in a pose she knew a lot of people used when they were listening to Dispatch.

“On your feet Protectorate!” KaBoom was the first to act when whatever brief they were getting wrapped up. “Let’s move out.”

KaBoom gathered the troops while Mr. Morningstar talked quickly with John. “…terribly sorry…will have you over soon…” Daisy only caught fragments of the goodbye while she split her attention between them and the computer screens in front of her.

“Galavant what’s…?” she treid to get info as the rookie Hero jogged past her.

“Cities gone to shit, can’t talk,” the density manipulator didn’t stop to chat, but the few tidbits of information did make Daisy nervous about what was happening in her new city.

“I will accompany you,” Hunter announced as he jogged behind the rest of the Protectorate members. “I may be able to help.”

“And a big name Hero like you might be able to get shit settled before anyone gets any ideas. Between you and Morningstar we can probably end a lot of this without bloodshed…” the lift closed in front of the Heroes and the conversation cut off.

“John what the hell is going on?” Daisy asked, her tone tense. “Craig, Sector 12, Skylar just got a mouthful of the side of a building.”

“Focus on the students,” John replied.

“I can fucking multitask, John,” she snapped back. “Tell me what is going on.”

Daisy knew it couldn’t be good if the entire Protectorate was getting called to duty, which also meant that Topher was going to stumble into what was happening. She wanted to know that her boyfriend was safe, or at least that they weren’t fighting some Manhattan level or higher threat out there.

“The power outage we experience was city-wide,” John folded under the pressure. “Our secondary source activated as designed, but the rest of the city isn’t as well equipped as us. Gangs are striking, people are looting, and civil society is crumbling for the most part. First responders are having trouble communicating to each other and the public, and the pandemonium is going to cost lives if it goes on for too much longer.

“Thanks,” Daisy replied, wrapping her mind around the situation outside the HCP walls. “That wasn’t so hard was it.” She didn’t look but she could feel the dean’s disapproving scowl.

“Focus on the students. There are only a few left, so the final will soon be completed. If they require more assistance when that is completed I will contact Dispatch and see what we can do.”

“Thanks,” Daisy repeated, but this time she meant it.

“You’re welcome,” john’s gaze passed over the screens around her. “What’s the situation with Natalia, Anika, and Rebecca?” he asked.

“We still have them on lock down. Flynn’s still pretty fucked up, but as far as we can tell Anika didn’t do anything. Flynn just tried to bite off more than he could chew.”

“Understood. Have Robin lift the barriers once Craig gets the injured back here. The balls will compensate for what happened to them, so they will still be scored properly.” John gave Daisy a comforting squeeze of the shoulder and then headed over to the healers.

Daisy tracked the blur that was Craig until he’d returned all of the students. Sanderson focused on healing Schultz and Goodman, who had some nasty brain trauma for her fall, and then Craig picked them up and returned the to the waiting room. Sanderson was the last pick up before they were back on schedule.

<The blackout is still going to play hell with the evaluation,> Daisy groaned, knowing that she’d be one of the ones reviewing the data. <But random variables are part of the game. Better to see them now than when this shit is for real.>

“Robin, please drop the barriers in Sector 2,” Daisy asked the powerful Super sitting not too far away from her, and watching another batch of screens.

“Sure,” she replied, and the golden, shimmering barriers flickered and died.

Daisy watched the game resume, but found she couldn’t get into it as much as before. It was hard for her to watch people pretend when the real thing was going on just above her head. <Don’t get me wrong I love this gig,> she reminded herself of her good fortune, but it was still hard when she was purposefully kept from doing what she was great at.

Days like today were a reminder that although she was getting herself together there was still one thing that was eluding her. Being a certified Hero again was a year away at a minimum. She couldn’t help but the helplessness of that reality.

 

***

 

“Robbery in progress at East Church and South Magnolia,” Hunter listened to the calls on the police frequency with one ear and dispatch on the other.

“Mr. Morningstar, Hunter, and Galavant deploy to the robbery on East Church and South Magnolia,” Dispatch’s voice was calm and professional just like always. “A review of social media and reports of first responder on the scene indicates there are approximately a dozen members of the Fist have taken over thirty hostages. One Super is confirmed on site, the gang member known as Dragon.”

“I bet he breathes fire,” Galavant joked, as the black DVA SUV flew through the confusion of a powerless Orlando.

“Correct, Galavant,” Dispatch didn’t register the joke, or didn’t think it was funny. “Dragon is a limited pyrokinetic. He can only blow fire from his mouth. No other enhanced Super qualities are in his file.”

“Psychological assessment?” Mr. Morningstar inquired.

“He should be susceptible to your power, Mr. Morningstar,” Dispatch replied with what Hunter could have sworn was a hint of smugness. Or maybe that was his own imagination. It was always good to know going into a fight that your power can take down your opponent.

“We’re two minutes out. What’s the plan,” Galavant was behind the wheel, and he’d clearly taken some offensive driving courses since joining the team.

Hunter never worried about driving. He didn’t use a car more than a handful of times a year. It just didn’t make sense for a teleporter. Plus, his wife liked to be chauffeured if they were going to take antiquated forms of transportation.

“Hunter scout ahead,” Mr. Morningstar instructed. “Get me a visual, and if possible get inside and evacuate the prisoner, but only if you can do it without being seen. I’d rather talk them down than risk someone shooting because they get spooked. Galavant you’ll be with me. We’ll walk up and negotiate.” Hunter liked the way the old Hero said “negotiate”.

“Yes, sir” Hunter replied as they rounded the corner. He got a visual of the exterior of the building and picked a spot out of the way.

He teleported out of the air conditioned SUV, and onto the street. Police were starting to arrive and set up a perimeter, but his sudden appearance had a few of them spooked. “Dispath could you relay to the local police that there are three Heroes on site. I’d rather not get shot before I even get inside.”

“Already done, Hunter. They should be standing down.”

Hunter heard indistinguishable jabbering over a walkie, and the policemen quickly pointed their weapons in another direction. Hunter gave them a nod before taking a quick peak around the column he was hiding behind. The quick peak was all he needed to get a complete visual of the interior.

The bank, which was on the first floor of a larger building, had ten foot high glass window. The windows gave a perfect view of the entire lobby, and a good look down a hallway towards the back. That was where Hunter wanted to go. It was out of the way of the main body of civilians, all of which were standing in front of the windows as human shields, and away from where the criminals were centered.

Another quick teleport and Hunter was inside, but he wasn’t along. The hallway leading toward the rear of the bank just happened to contain the restrooms, and there was an armed man emerging from the men’s room just as Hunter appeared. The gang member froze in surprise; a reaction that hadn’t existed in Hunter for decades. If you hesitated you died.

While the man’s eyes were still going wide in surprise, Hunter attacked. His left fist shot forward in a jab, catching the armed man in the nose. It wasn’t enough to knock the man out, but it was enough the break his nose and stun him. The man stumbled back into the bathroom, and Hunter pursued him. Hunter dropped his left hand onto the muzzle of the assault rifle, keeping it pointed down and away from himself, while he brought his right fist into the man’s temple with a vicious right cross. The man crumpled in unconsciousness, but before he hit the ground Hunter teleported them both out into the rear of the police perimeter.

“One hostile down,” Hunter announced over his coms, as two police officers jumped on the unconscious gang member.

“Report,” Mr. Morningstar and Galavant were heading toward the front of the bank, the armored density manipulator walking in front of the much more vulnerable advanced mind.

“Slight complication on ingress,” Hunter was embarrassed that he’d almost blown the operation. But they were doing this on the fly, and that meant there were going to be unanticipated consequences. They needed to adapt. “They won’t notice he’s gone for a few more minutes, so work your magic.”

Hunter left Mr. Morningstar to grumble as he teleported back into the bank’s bathroom. There was no one there to greet him this time, so he quietly exited the tiled room at a low crouch.

The bank lobby was big and open. Cubicles were scattered around the rear of the room, which allowed Hunter to sneak into a good position, but then it opened up into the empty space. He’d have to cross over thirty feet of open space to get to the hostages and their armed guards. He was good but not that good, and teleporting all over the place was a sure way to get hostages shot.

“Sniper’s in position?” he whispered.

“Roger that, Hunter. Mr. Morningstar is engaging the subject,” Hunter peered around the edge of a cubicles gray, felt wall and watched the Protectorate leader and Galavant knock politely on the glass door.

“Heroes boss…Heroes!” the way they reacted told Hunter a lot about the criminals.

These weren’t bank robbers, or even professional gunmen. The way they acted was like a bunch of unorganized petty thieves. Nearly every weapon turned away from the hostages they were guarding and towards the door, and a lot stepped out from behind the protection those human shields offered. That was a critical mistake, and Hunter wasn’t the only one who noticed.

He saw it all happen in slow motion. The armed gang member heard his friend call out that Heroes were at the door. The man, who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, turned his rifle away from his charges and towards the door. His body followed the muzzle of his weapon, and so did his eyes; which took his attention off the prisoners.

Hunter saw the look in the hostage’s eyes before he started to move. It was desperation, fear, and courage all rolled into the need to take action. The man was fit, his hair buzzed short, and the way he moved told Hunter he had some training; probably ex-military or police. The man thought he was being a hero instead of letting the Heroes do their job. It might have been brave, but it was also stupid. And it ruined what Mr. Morningstar and Galavant were trying to do.

The man collided with the armed gang member carrying them both to the ground. The man punched the gang member in the face, and wrestled the gun away from him. It didn’t do him much good when the five other nearby armed assailants turned their guns on him.

“Snipers take the shot!” Hunter hissed, already moving.

“Hunter, wai…” he ignored Dispatch. There wasn’t any time to wait.

A short teleport took him to the armed hostage’s side. With one hand he grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, and with the other he released the small stun grenade he’d grabbed from one of his many pouches. The SNAP of rifle rounds breaking through glass and finding targets reached his ears as the grenade fell and he teleported away. They appeared behind the police line, and out of danger.

The man looked around wild-eyed and pointing his gun, but Hunter didn’t stay to talk him down. That was a job for the nearby cops. Hunter teleported back into the mayhem that was erupting inside the bank.

The first thing he noticed was that it was hot. <Fire,> Hunter’s eyes searched for Dragon. He found the Super bleeding from a bullet wound to the shoulder, and quickly retreating from a mace wielding Galavant. Despite the hundreds of pounds of dense armor the rookie moved with a deadly grace as he chased the criminal Super. Hunter focused his attention on a much more pressing matter, the remaining armed gang members.

There were still four left after the snipers took their shots, and all of them were focusing on Hunter. The Hero didn’t mind that, it took their attention away from the civilians. The stung grenade helped. Hunter was already on top of the first guy before his blurred vision cleared. The punch to the throat sent him toppling to the ground. Hunter kicked the weapon as far away as possible before he moved onto the second one.

They were starting to get their senses back now. Hunter had to bat aside a rifle swinging in his direction, and get in close. He brought his foot around the back of the guy’s leg, tripping him, and taking them both down to the ground. He sent two quick jabs into the man’s solar plexus, and smashed his nose with his mask when they hit the ground. The guy was momentarily stunned, but still in the fight. Hunter didn’t have time to sit around because the other two had enough of their wits back to track him. He easily overcame the issue by teleporting. The two remaining gang members were lucky they didn’t shoot their prone friend when Hunter disappeared so quickly, and reappeared behind one of the men.

Hunter saw the other man panic, and knew where this was going. This was where the groups amateur abilities really showed themselves. The other man was scared, but his body choosing the fight over the flight response and acted instinctually. He turned his gun towards Hunter, ignoring the surprised look in the other gang member’s eyes, and opened fire.

Hunter was already moving, and grabbed a hold of the other man in time to take cover behind him. Bullets tore into the man in front of Hunter as the gang member held down the trigger and roared defiantly. It probably looked impressive to anyone on the outside looking in, but it was a stupid move. The guy was going to run out of ammo soon, and he wasn’t running for cover.

Hunter ended the problem quickly and effectively. He grabbed his bullet-ridden man’s rifle, still clutched in his lifeless hand, pointed it at the shooter, and pulled the trigger. It was a short burst, only three rounds, but those rounds pummeled his chest and sent him falling backwards. The final few rounds from the slain gang member’s rifle smashed into the ceiling as he kept his finger on the trigger as he collapsed.

Hunter’s eyes swept the lobby as he threw the limp body he was holding to the ground. “Clear.” He announced after determining that there was no threats left. Less than ten seconds later police swarmed the building.

“Holy shit!” a patrolman gulped as he surveyed the carnage.

“We’re lucky,” Hunter pointed at the huddling hostages. A stray bullet had caught a woman in the leg, but paramedics were already stopping the bleeding and loading her up.

“Yes we are.” Mr. Morningstar approached rubbing his chest and wincing. “What happened Hunter?” the older Hero was pissed.

Hunter didn’t blame the man. They were supposed to talk down the criminals and get the hostages out once they surrendered. Now they had a dozen dead bodies and one injured hostage.

“It went sideways,” Hunter explained what happened, and Dispatch filled in any bits that he missed.

The Hero accepted that Hunter did what needed to be done, but he was still bitter. He’d taken a bullet to the chest from Dragon when all the shooting started.

“He got away,” Galavant answered when Hunter radioed the rookie to check his status. “Set fire to the entire back hallway and stole a car. Cops are in pursuit, but it’s mayhem out there right now.” Firemen were running into the building as Galavant explained.

“Good work, Galavant,” apparently the rookie had shielded the veteran from additional shots when everything went to shit. “Regroup at the SUV and we’ll head to the next call.”

“You’re leaving?” a police sergeant overseeing the extraction of the hostages asked.

“The whole city is getting hit like this with the power down,” Hunter explained. “We needed to be six different places at once right now, and even then it won’t be enough.” The police sergeant nodded his understanding. They were stretched thin too. “But do me a favor,” Hunter pointed at the two surviving gang member he’d incapacitated. “Get them fixed up and into an interrogation room. I want to talk to them when I get back.”

 

***

 

“That was weird,” Natalia stated in her heavily accented English.

Anika and Becca silently agreed. They would have voiced their opinions, but they were still paralyzed. They’d been sitting this way, behind the golden barriers, for quite a while now; and it was getting old.

Just as the thought passed through their minds the barriers shimmered and collapsed. Boring turned to fear in a nanosecond. They were completely vulnerable, and the temporary pause on the final was now lifted.

Natalia smiled, but hesitated. Anika knew why. Natalia’s power to paralyze people with her stare was good, but she was sorely lacking in powers that could actually do damage. She was great when facing people with human level durability, but both Anika and Becca were stronger than the average person. There was no way Natalia would be able to take down Anika, and Becca could take a lot of pounding on before her speedster physique failed.

“I guess I’ll just grab your balls and leave you for someone else to finish off,” Natalia shrugged and walked casually towards them.

“About fuckin’ time,” a voice called out from a shadowy space just beyond where the golden barriers had been. “I almost went off to pound someone else’s ass.”

Natalia spun toward the voice, but it was too late. The lightning bolt sizzled out of the shadows and detonated ten feet from the stuck up bitch. Hitting Natalia with a bolt would have killed her, and that would have gotten Anna Fletcher kicked out of the HCP and put in jail. Despite how much she disliked the Russian chick, Anna wasn’t about the throw away all of her hard work. Still, a lightning bolt hitting close to someone was more than enough to take them out.

Natalia didn’t even scream as her body seized up, and she was thrown away from her frozen targets. The air smelled of ozone and burned fabric as Anna walked over to the fallen freshmen and grabbed her ball out of the air. Despite the electrical discharge, the floating silver sphere was still working fine.

Thankfully, with Natalia out of the picture her power was staring to wear off. Slowly but surely Becca felt the tingles of sensation return to her extremities. She wanted to jump for joy, but stayed motionless. Judging by the way the tingling sensation was creeping along her body it was going to be a few minutes before she was back to her usual bubble self. Those were a few minutes that she and Anika didn’t have.

“What do you say, Kemps?” Anna placed the ball on the ground beside her and rotated her shoulders. “How about a rematch?”

Becca knew what was coming, and she couldn’t look away or close her eyes without the volatile electrokinetic knowing what was happening. Anna casually set herself up directly in front of Anika, took a deep breath, and fired a sustained bolt directly into her chest.

<NO!> Becca mentally yelled loud enough that any advanced mind would hear her, but Anika couldn’t hear over the pain coursing through her body.

<Come on body; for the love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; MOVE!” she strained against her paralysis, feeling the tingling crawl farther up her legs and arms.

But it wasn’t enough. This wasn’t something Becca could power through with sheer determination. It wasn’t something she could outrun. She had to sit there and watch Anna pump tens of thousands of volts of electricity into her girlfriend.

Anika took the first few seconds of the blast silently, but then her own paralysis began to wear off. She screamed as pain wracked her whole body. It was horrible to watch. Becca could literally see the paralysis crawling down her body because when Anika’s body became her own again it seized and shuddered from the electrical current it was suddenly assaulted with.

Anna executed her attack with quiet, dispassionate concentration. She didn’t revel in bringing pain to Anika, and Becca knew that deep down. They were all just trying to be Heroes. In the moment, the speedster still hated her guts.

After fifteen seconds of sustained blasting the bolt dissipated. Anna stepped back, breathing hard, and Anika slumped to the ground groaning. Becca’s girlfriend wasn’t out of the fight yet, but she was hurt.

<Come on legs. Gosh darn it go…go…go,> Becca was almost there. She could feel the tingling in the middle of her feet.

Anna stalked forward and snatched Anika’s ball from where it hovered just above the fallen woman’s body. Anika struggled to rise, but Anna put her foot in the middle of the stronger woman’s back and pushed her down onto the ground. Normally a car parked on top of Anika wouldn’t have been able to do that, but Becca saw her girlfriend crumbled under the weak push.

<Ani,> Becca held her position, but wasn’t about to stop the wetness in her eyes from leaking out.

<Becca,> the voice in Becca’s mind was faint and weak, but it was her Ani’s. <Ru…run.>

Becca knew why her girlfriend was telling her to take off. While stronger than the average human, Becca was nothing compared to Anika. All it would take was one blast from Anna and Becca would be finished. Anika wanted Becca to get as many points as possible, so she could climb the rankings, and make it into sophomore year. Whether Anika had come right out and said it or not, that was the plan they’d followed since the start of the final.

It was not a plan that Becca agreed with. It was a plan that had turned her against her friends. It was a plan that had led her to attack people weaker than her in order to gather balls and points by taking them out. It was a plan that made Becca feel like a coward. And now that she was faced with a more powerful opponent Anika wanted her to run.

<Sorry, Ani,> Becca was sure her girlfriend could feel the determination building. <No can do.>

Becca took a deep breath and activated her power.

She still couldn’t run since half her feet were still paralyzed, but she spent the remaining time she had developing a plan. Fifteen seconds turned into fifteen minutes, as Becca applied all the knowledge she’d learned from her coaches during the previous semester. She assessed her environment and looked for items she could use to her advantage. She developed a plan with those items in mind and then applied it to what she knew about Anna’s power. She nitpicked her own plan; discarding some parts, altering other, and tossing somethings all together.

She watched how Anna approached, taking note of the other woman’s body as she moved. The electrokinetic might be haughty and confident, but with time slowed to a crawl Becca began to see things she normally wouldn’t. Anna was favoring one leg more than the other, and there was a slight wince behind her triumphant smile. Anna was hurt from previous battles, so Becca used that information to alter her plan even more.

When she allowed time to resume its normal flow, just as the tingling left her body, Becca knew exactly what she was going to do.

“Any last…” Anna didn’t even get to finish her statement before Becca sprang into action.

The blue-haired speedster vaulted backwards, doing half a dozen super-speed backflips to a pile of debris nearby. Anna growled as fired several short electric bolts after her, but they all missed. Becca couldn’t move faster than the bolts, but she was moving faster than Anna’s mind could aim and fire.

Becca took cover behind the debris pile, shuddering as her enhanced speedster physique shrugged off the static electricity flying everywhere. She poked her head out quickly to judge Anna’s position, and nearly received a bolt to the face for her trouble. She pulled back and executed the first step of her plan. Becca scooped up pieces of debris, and like a machine gun she launched the manmade projectiles at Anna.

“What the shit!” Anna took a piece of stone in her injured knee faster than a professional major league baseball pitcher. She went down on one knee, roaring in pain and frustration.

That was the only projectile that got through as a latticework of interlocking energy appeared in front of Anna. Becca had seen this before, but not this complicated. Anna could form an electrical net that could stopped ranged attacks like the pieces of debris Becca was throwing, but Becca was counting on this. It was a good defense, but it wasn’t perfect.

Becca picked up the pace throwing multiple pieces of rubble a second. The debris hit the electric field and broke apart, but it didn’t completely stop. The field was tight enough that it could keep out anything that would hurt Anna, but a layer of dust made it through with every strike.

Soon Anna was coughing as a shroud of dust enveloped her. Becca threw on last projectile and ran from it. The world slowed as Becca pumped her legs. She needed to gain a lot of speed in not a lot of time, to get this next part to work.

<I just hope I have enough traction,> Becca prayed as her foot left the flat road and onto the side of a building.

She got a couple of step running along the side of the building before she felt herself begin to slip. <Crapola,> she panicked, altering her trajectory.

The plan was to come in from the side and body check Anna, grab her sphere, grab Anika, and take off. That didn’t seem like it was going to work now. The cloud of dust wasn’t going to last that much longer, and Becca just didn’t have the angle to get it all done. So she prioritized.

Becca’s next few steps took her back onto the flat ground. She barely caught herself from falling, which cost he precious time, but she kept on moving. She cut around the edge of the electric barrier, feeling a whole new tingle from the raw power Anna was creating. A split-second later she was past it, and with a little finesse she was able to grab Anna’s ball right out from above her.

<I need to thank mom for forcing me to do gymnastics as a child,> the maneuver ended in her going a cartwheel.

It slowed her down even more, and gave Anna a chance to react. Becca felt the attack before she saw it. This time it wasn’t forked lightning bolts that came flying at Becca, but an undulating wave of electricity. It moved slower than a direct bolt did, but that was still a lot faster than Becca.

<That’s new,> Becca did the first thing she thought of and hit the ground.

The electric wave passed over her, but still sent a shock through her. Thankfully, she was already sliding along the road on her side; and her uniform was holding up to the scraping. She smelled something burning, but she ignored it in order to stay focus on Anna. The electrokinetic was turned toward Becca, the dust was clear, and she was lining up another shot.

Becca’s carefully crafted plan was worthless. She hadn’t been fast enough to run along the building. She wasn’t able to get the right angle to take out Anna, and wasn’t fast enough to recover from the shock that the unpredicted wave had sent through her. Most importantly she wasn’t fast enough to save her girlfriend.

There wasn’t anything nearby that Becca could use as an improvised weapon, which meant there was no last stand. She was just going to get roasted like a stuffed piggy.

<Unless,> Becca had one thing she could use. <I just hope I still get credit.> She resigned herself to her fate.

While steeling herself to take the full charge of a lightning bolt, Becca aimed and threw the ball she’d stolen from Anna. The metallic ball soared through the air, passing the much faster moving lightning bolt. The bolt hit Becca dead center, and sent her tumbling farther down the road. Anna’s face was half formed in a triumphant grin when her own ball smashed into her face.

The high powered toss broke the electrokinetic’s nose, jaw, and cheekbones; but she didn’t feel a thing. She was unconscious before she hit the floor. Becca was also out cold from the electrical attack. The only one left conscious was Anika, and she had more in common with burned toast than a Super at the moment.

Coach McMillian showed up a few minutes later, a haggard look on his face. “Congrats, Ms. Kemps. You are the last one standing; standing being a relative term.” Anika was prone on the ground barely conscious.

“Owwwwww,” was the only word the once powerful woman was able to form.

“Don’t sweat it,” he patted her on the back, eliciting another groan. “We’ll have you fixed up in a jiffy.”

The close combat coach left Anika to transport the other unconscious and injured women to the healers before returning to her. Battleball was officially over, and after the beating many of the students had taken, they weren’t looking forward to doing it again anytime soon.

Previous                                                                                                                                                  Next

A Change of Pace – Chapter 48

<A line, really…come on,> Daisy grumbled as she walked down the hall towards her classroom.

The off-white linoleum of the hallway had been recently polished, so the light reflected upwards from the few sections that weren’t scuffed beyond repair. It reminded Daisy a little bit of a cloudy day. The sun was able to poke through the cloud cover occasionally, but for the most part people lived under the overcast sky. That summed up her mood, and the emotions swirling around in her head pretty much perfectly.

Daisy got in the back of the line and waited, just like everyone else. She ignored the stares she got. It was past the middle of December, so it was chilly out, but nothing compared to a New York winter. Since her body and mind still remembered the much more frigid temperatures of the north, she was wearing much less clothing than most of the other girls in line. She was still in a pair of jeans, heeled boots, and a thin sweater. That was less when the other girls were in parkas.

“What?” the single word sent eyes looking anywhere but at her.

“You’re in a mood today,” a familiar voice answered behind her.

A smile replaced the scowl on Daisy’s face as she turned to face Laurie. The middle-aged mother looked back at Daisy with a lopsided grin. Her hair was pulled over half of her face, but even that didn’t hide the shiner that she was sporting.

“What the fuck happened?” the brief uplift in Daisy’s mood vanished.

“It’s nothing,” Laurie waved it off.

Daisy could tell it wasn’t nothing, and judging by the bruise, it had happened relatively recently. The trained Hero’s mind assessed the situation and came up with multiple scenarios. It also revealed some saddening facts. Daisy had been taking 20^th Century History with Laurie for nearly the entire semester. Other than a few assignments here and there with other students, she’d exclusively spend her time with the older-looking woman. In all that time, Daisy realized that she didn’t know anything about Laurie’s home life.

It was an uncomfortable way to learn about someone’s domestic situation, but Daisy wasn’t going to let anyone push around a big part of her emotional recovery. “Did your husband, or boyfriend, do this?”

Laurie looked her dead in the eye…and laughed.

It was the kind of laugh that you’d expect to come from someone a little unhinged; not something from a possible victim of domestic violence. Laurie laughed long and hard, she even she even had to wipe away a few tears. Daisy ignored the stares they were getting from the other students in line, and watched her friend to see if she was deflecting. After a solid thirty seconds of laughter, Laurie finally calmed down enough speak.

“That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in the last ten years,” this subject wasn’t a joking matter, but Daisy was definitely off the mark on her assessment.

“I’ve got to get my husband worked up to spank my ass in bed, and then it’s a weak love tap at that,” Laurie dried her last few tears of laughter. “That man couldn’t hurt me if he tried.”

That put Daisy at ease a bit. She didn’t want to insert herself into a domestic situation, and to hear the confidence Laurie had was a breath of fresh air. That crossed the worst case scenario off the Hero’s list, but that black eye had come from somewhere.

“Your hubby is submissive,” Daisy gave the fact a nod. “So who smacked you around?”

“Some little punk jumped me in the parking garage,” Laurie showed Daisy her scraped elbows. “He shoved me down, hit me, and tried to steal my purse.” Laurie reached into the purse in question, and removed a sizable can of pepper spray. She shook it, clearly showing that it was near empty. “I introduced him to my good friend Mr. Jalapeῆo here, and he ran off like a little bitch.”

Now it was Daisy’s turn to laugh.

Laurie might be an older woman, and a weak Super, but there was a fire in her gut that Daisy wished some of her freshman students had. Here was someone who could totally be dominated by an opponent, but she kept a level head in an emergency, and came out on top. It was downright admirable.

“Did you file a report with campus police?” Daisy would need something on record with the campus if she decided to unofficially look into it. The DVA couldn’t get their panties in a bunch if she was doing a simple investigation for the benefit of the university’s student population.

“I’m headed there after the final if you want to tag along,” Laurie replied, replacing the large bottle back in her bag.

“Are you good to take it? I’m sure you could get an extension.” Daisy voiced her concern.

“I’ve got shit to do instead of waiting around for our wonderfully exuberant professor to work in a makeup test time. No, I know the material and my head doesn’t hurt too badly. I’ll take it now and get it over with.” That was that; Daisy wasn’t going to argue with a woman who’d made up her mind.

Five minutes later, the previously mentioned professor arrived and let everyone in. They all hustled to their assigned seats. Most sat down and tried to do a last few minutes of cramming. Daisy had been around long enough to know that it wouldn’t work. If you didn’t know the material already, trying to push it into your brain right before the test wasn’t going to get you anywhere. A person’s mind just couldn’t assimilate the information. It needed time.

Daisy and Laurie did crack open their books as they waited for the professor to get organized. Instead, Daisy thought about other things. There were several emotions whirling around in her head as the professor pulled out a thick stack of papers from his briefcase. The first one was anxiety. It had been a half century since Daisy had taken a final exam, and if she was being honest with herself, she hadn’t studied enough. Things had been too hectic for her to spend too much time preparing for a class she was only auditing as part of her therapy. She’d been able to get together once, for two hours, with Laurie; but that was it.

While Daisy might be anxious, she was also glad. She was glad that Dr. Johnson’s little experiment was coming to an end; and even happier that it was a success. Daisy honestly felt that her taking this class had reintegrated her more into the non-Hero community. Sure, most of the people in the class she wanted to strangle, or bash her own head repeatedly against the wall; but a few of them were pretty cool. The people she was protecting were less of an abstract concept now; she could put faces and names to those she would put herself in danger for.

Daisy was anxious and glad, but she was also a little sad. Spending time outside the HCP, coming to class with Laurie, had been a welcome change of pace; especially when things with her job got crazy. She was glad the experiment was over, but she was also going to miss it. They were contradicting emotions, she knew that, but that didn’t stop them from existing.

Lastly, Daisy was stressed. This was the last little bit of free time she’d have for awhile. It was the end of the beginning of the end. She’d had a romantic evening with Topher earlier; they’d talked some stuff out, and reaffirmed their commitment together. She still hadn’t jumped into bed with the man, something that must be driving him crazy, but if he was the right one then he’d suck it up and wait. All Daisy had left was this final, which didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, and a little extra time with Laurie. After that she was going to get buried alive under this HCP final. It might only be three hours for the students, but the professors would be analyzing, cataloging, and making decisions off those scores for the next few days. They were the types of decisions that would change young people’s lives, or kill their dreams. Then they had to talk to those kids, and build or break them. It was a burden that they were all ready to bear.

Once all the grades were in, and decisions made; Daisy had a little trip to take. She had an advanced mind to visit. Since he was about a hundrd years old, Daisy needed to make sure she didn’t get violent with the old fart. It was going to be a bittersweet reunion, but one that needed to yield answers.

“Ladies and gentlemen please put everything away,” the professor’s monotone was something Daisy had gotten used to over several months. “This is your final exam,” he started handing out the thick packets. “There are one hundred multiple choice, twenty five fill in the blank, and three short answer questions.” He explained how the test would be graded in a lot more detail than Craig and she had.

Unlike her students, Daisy would know exactly how she’d arrived at her grade on this test. It was comforting for her to be able to look at everything and deduce the reasoning, but she knew the HCP did it a different way for a reason. Uncertainty was a staple of the profession, and all the potential Heroes needed to get used to having things that were out of their control.

“You have two hours,” the professor looked at the clock. “You may begin…now.” Daisy noted the time and started the exam.

Two hours, one minute, and a whole lot of brain cells later; Daisy and Laurie walked out of the classroom with tired grins on their faces. Physical workouts were one thing, mental workouts were another. Since her episode during Hurricane Sandy, Daisy hadn’t undergone the grueling, multi-day long mentally taxing missions required of Heroes. Sure, her tasks at the HCP were still tough, but Daisy could usually count on going home and sleeping at least part of the night. The former Hero distinctly remembered earlier times in her career, going days, and on one occasion, nearly a full week by chugging coffee and popping stimulants. If there hadn’t been a healer nearby afterwards that mission could have gotten pretty ugly.

<I’m getting soft,> the lightheaded feeling she was experiencing from exercising her mental faculties told her as much. <Fuck me; I need to get back into the field.>

She knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, so she settled for walking with Laurie to the campus police office. A nice young officer ushered them both back into a small office to take her statement. He didn’t mind that Daisy tagged along.

“Did you know the person? Had you seen him before?” the officer asked some follow up questions after taking Laurie’s statement.

Daisy had been listening closely, cataloguing all of the information her friend was giving. The description she’d given was a young man, college aged, a few distinguishing tattoos, medium height and weight, and not much else. He hadn’t jumped in a car, so there wasn’t any license plate to follow up on, just the description.

“We’ve been having problems with gang violence; especially in the parking garages,” the officer looked ashamed at the admission.

The parking garages were on the edge of the school’s property, and that property ran right along the edge of known gang territory. Usually, the two communities didn’t interact much, but it seemed someone was getting some bad ideas about jumping people in a school with an HCP.

“We’re installing lights, and stepping up patrols,” the officer reassured Laurie. “But I suggest you travel in groups, and try to park somewhere else if you can.”

“Fat chance at that,” Laurie’s scoff caught the officer by surprise. “I’ve got the basic permit. If I try to park anywhere but the lot then I’ll get ticketed. You might be stepping up patrols in the garage, but I guarantee that if I sit in one of those coveted lots for more than ten minutes I’ll have the big orange ticket on my windshield.”

Daisy snorted, and tried to cover up her amusement with a cough. The officer just looked surprised. Laurie had always been a “take not shit” kind of person.

“Um…well…then I suggest you travel in a group until we sort this situation out. And please be careful,” the officer added as he closed up his notebook. “The gang is a Super gang. You might have run into a normal thug today, but it could be someone with powers tomorrow. We’re putting in a word with the local hero team to look into it, and this report will help.”

“I’m glad me getting my face messed up was worth something,” Laurie was a little miffed, but she nodded her thanks.

“Thank you officer,” Daisy thanked the man out loud for both of them.

<Jackpot,> Daisy thought as she left the office with Laurie. <If they’re putting in a word with the Protectorate I’ll have Galavant give me a heads up.> A regular gang might not fit into her job description, but a Super gang was fair game as far as she was concerned.

Daisy smelled a stakeout in her near future, but near was a relative term. She had the freshman final to get through before she could even think about sitting in a car with takeout food for an entire night.

<Maybe I’ll invite Topher,> doing police work in his time off was probably the last thing her boyfriend wanted to do, but Daisy had ways to talk him into it.

“Why are you grinning like you just got laid,” Laurie popped Daisy’s bubble. “Did you?” the older woman wiggled her eyebrows.

“No,” Daisy was proud that she didn’t blush. “Just thinking about my end of semester plans.”

“I hope they’re better than mine. The kids are back in town, so I’m back to housewife mode. Maybe you could stop by and rescue me. A beauty like you might actually be able to get my little hooligans to clean their rooms.”

Now Daisy blushed. “That actually sounds like fun.” After everything was done it might be nice to kick back and relax with Laurie.

“You’ve got my number,” they’d reached a Y-intersection. Daisy needed to head left to get to the HCP, and Laurie was going to go right.

“I’ll call you in a few days,” the two women exchanged a brief hug before heading their separate ways.

<A stakeout, time with Topher, a day with Laurie; this might not be such a bad winter break,> Daisy allowed herself a small smile at what lay ahead. <But I’ve got a job to do first.>

Daisy put on her game face as she headed to the nearby lift. She stopped being student and friend Daisy Meyers, and became Professor Meyers. The change was noticeable when she stepped on a lift that was already occupied by a handful of her freshmen.

“Gilford, Scarborough, Romanoff,” all three women involuntarily gulped when their alternative instructor got on the lift. “You ready for this afternoon?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they answered in shaky voices.

“You better be more prepared than that,” she shot all three of the girls stern looks. “This test is going to chew you up and spit you out if you’re not on top of you game. I trained you better than that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” there was a little more backbone in their second reply.

“Good,” Daisy kept her face composed, but she was smiling inside.

<Let’s do this.>

 

***

 

Mason stepped into the lift, and then forced himself into the back corner so everyone else could get aboard. It seemed everyone had the same idea as the strongman; get down to the HCP early, do some last minute prep, and avoid the rush. So now everyone was rushing down at the same time just earlier.

“Hold the door,” Mason’s recognized Becca’s voice as she came though the tech genius fake wall, and ran toward the full elevator.

“Take the next one, Whitfield,” Simon Skylar, who was barely able to fit inside stated.

“No I can fit,” Becca did just that, squeezing underneath Simon’s shoulder.

It looked like a master Tetris player had organized the lift when the doors finally closed. Hopefully nothing broke, because if it did they’d all be in for a claustrophobic, BO filled afternoon.

<It was still a good idea,> Kyoshi thought from where she was crammed up against him. They were closer now than most nights they slept together.

Most of Townhouse #117 was taking this lift down early; Mason, Kyoshi, Angela, and Becca had made it onto the ride. <You have a plan?> Kyoshi asked, shifting slightly so his elbow wasn’t jabbing her in the boob.

<Well I was thinking about teaming up with the really hot telepath. That way we’ll have brains and brawn to win this final.>

                <You might want to ask her soon. She’ll probably get lots of offers from other students who want to get on her good side.> Despite the angle, Mason saw the corner of his girlfriend’s mouth turn upwards in a grin.

<I have it on pretty good authority that I’m already on her good side,> Mason grinned too, but kept his eyes straight ahead.

Normally he wouldn’t have been worried about the physical reactions to his and Kyoshi’s mental conversations, but the last few days he’d encountered more paranoid HCP students then he thought possible.

<And Angela is on this elevator,> Mason thought to himself. His dorm mate had an unnatural talent discerning people’s thoughts from their body language. With him and Kyoshi both grinning he might as well be shouting to the shifter that they were planning on teaming up. Although, it was commonsense that they would be.

<Should we ask Becca or Angela?> Mason posed the question to his more insightful girlfriend.

<Becca’s going to be teaming up with Anika,> Kyoshi answered matter-of-factly. <Together they’ll have strength, lots of speed, limited telepathy, and kinetic blasts. They’ll be tough opponents if we ever come up against them.>

                <So you’ve been listening to people’s thoughts?> Mason asked.

<Of course,> Kyoshi replied quickly. <Normally I don’t, but this is our HCP combat final. We need to use every tool available to get as much information as we can on our opponents. This is going to be a chunk of our grade, and going to determine where we end up next semester. There isn’t much off limits at this point.>

                Mason saw Kyoshi’s point, and he even agreed with the logic, but that didn’t stop the feeling that it was an invasion of people’s privacy and borderline cheating.

<I haven’t been able to get a read on Angela, but I don’t think she’s going to want to partner with anyone; at least not at first,> Mason was about to ask why, but his girlfriend’s explanation beat him to it. <She’s already number one, and teaming up with anyone will only dilute her points. She’s going to want to test herself too. My guess is she’ll take on multiple people alone, see how she does, and then form a team once the amount of people gets whittled down a little. It’s not like anyone she wants to form an alliance with is going to say no.>

Kyoshi had a good point, and Mason silently agreed with it. He’d had the same line of thought when he’d thought about how he’d fare when teaming up Kyoshi. He was always going to team up with his girlfriend; to not do so was a betrayal Mason couldn’t deal with. As much as he wanted to do well in the final, he also wanted to protect her. He was the brawn, he could take hits, and she couldn’t. Even though her power was really awesome, one hit from someone with advanced strength and she would be down for the count. Mason wouldn’t allow that to happen.

In terms of points they actually matched up pretty well. Mason was still outside the top five in the number six ranking. Judging by the coaches’ explanations at the beginning for the year, there had to be a significant point difference for the top five ranked students. Or else why all the fuss about not being able to challenge them unless you were number six, and then only number six being able to challenge number five. It was a big assumption Mason was taking, but his gut told him he was on the right track.

Kyoshi was currently ranked nineteenth, so she was just above the middle of the pack. Together, they should be able to rack up a comfortable amount of points. <But so should Becca and Anika,> Kyoshi’s insights allowed Mason to think of them as a competing team for the first time. With Becca at number twenty-nine and Anika at number seven they’d achieve an even more favorable point spread.

<We might need to go up against Anika and Becca,> Mason voiced his concern, and got a nod from his girlfriend; a nod that ended with her resting her head on the top of his shoulder.

Thankfully, the door to the lift opened and disgorged the occupants into the sci-fi looking halls of the HCP. They all started on the long trek from the far lift to the gym. Mason peeled away from Kyoshi at the entrances to the locker rooms and gave her a quick kiss. They’d see each other in five minutes, but with the surprises the HCP had sprung on him this semester, that wasn’t set in stone.

Mason shrugged out of his civilian clothes and squeezed into the black HCP freshmen uniform. Throughout the semester that uniform and undergone a beating, but every day it was clean, shiny, and brand new looking. It always took a little work to stretch the tight fabric across his bulk, but it always ended up fitting just right.

“Interested in teaming up, Mason,” Carson Long approached Mason with number thirteen ranked Liam Garrison and number twenty-five ranked Isaac Mosley.

Carson used to be the highest ranking of the threesome at number ten, but now that he was number sixteen he fell behind Liam. The powerful boxer was still the leader of the group, even if he wasn’t the highest ranking.

Mason considered the proposal, but quickly dismissed it. Four ways was too many ways to split the points; especially with two people ranking above twenty.

“Thanks for the offer, Carson, but I gotta pass,” Mason politely declined. “I’ve got my own team already set up.”

Carson reacted better than in his previous conversations with Seth, but it was pretty clear the guy wasn’t used to hearing no.

“Do you really think you and your girlfriend could beat the three of us?” Carson’s fists clenched as he puffed up.

Mason was nearly a foot taller than Carson, and half again as wide; so the powerful puncher puffing up didn’t amount to a lot. “No,” Mason’s answer surprised the riled up rival. “But I do think I can hold off the three of you while she takes control of you, and then together your possessed body and I can kick the crap out of these two,” Mason gestured his thumb at Liam and Isaac. “Then when we’re done with them she’ll have you stand still while I break your arms.”

Carson paled visibly at the breakdown of his defeat. “Well…we’ll see about that,” Carson didn’t have a comeback, so he just walked away.

“That was brilliant,” Sean Perez, the number thirty-one ranked tech brilliance super, grinned. “I’d offer my services to you and Kyoshi, but I don’t think I’d be much good other than another body to split points between.”

Despite not being ranked at the bottom, Sean’s power was not combat-oriented. The tech genius’s biochemistry specialty was great when given time to plan and prep, but in a hand to hand fight, Mason’s classmate wasn’t going to stand much of a chance. Still, Mason liked to be nice to everyone that wasn’t blatantly trying to intimidate him.

“I’m sure you’re going to do fine, Sean,” the other Super smiled at the well wishes. “I’m sure you’ve got something up your sleeve that none of us will see coming.”

Sean just grinned as he zipped up his uniform. “I’m sure some people know what’s coming, but definitely not everyone.” The tech genius walked away, leaving Mason more fearful of what that super-brain could concoct than what Carson’s fists could dish out.

Mason shrugged it off, and made a mental note to keep an eye out for the little guy. He finished getting ready, closed his locker, and joined the group of freshmen heading towards the doors to the gym. The only problem was that the doors were locked.

“They’re locked,” Carson voiced what everyone was thinking. He smacked it with his fist, leaving a small dent and showering the guys near him with sparks.

“Please don’t damage school property,” every guy in the class spun to find Coach McMillian standing behind them.

“Um…it’s locked, Bro,” Oliver Carpenter, the number eighteenth ranked technopath who sat next to Mason in ethics answered lamely.

“I know,” the speedster rolled his eyes. “Everyone follow me.”

A semester of dealing with their coaches made them react without hesitation to the command. They followed Coach McMillian out of the locker room in a single-file line, but they stayed hyper vigilant in the process. They knew that the final was a free for all combat scenario, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t started the minute they left the locker room and they didn’t know it yet.

No black garbed instructors jumped out to attack them, and no signal was given for them to engage in mortal combat in the HCP halls. The only thing that occurred was they boys were joined by the girls being led by Coach Meyers. The two coaches led them in an awkward, nerve-filled procession to a section of the HCP that they hadn’t been to before.

Mason found himself wondering just how big the entire facility was when they came to a set of lift doors. They opened as the group approached. “Everyone in,” the coaches said in unison.

The two lifts were huge, easily able to fit the entire boy and girl congregation with plenty of room to spare. They were silent for the short ride, and when it ended their jaws dropped. The room the lifts opened up into was big. It wasn’t as big at the gym they usually trained in, but it was tall; definitely several stories of empty space that disappeared into blackness. But that wasn’t the surprise; the surprise was the amount of people scurrying around the room.

“This is the arena vestibule,” Coach Meyers stated, not bothering to pause as she strode toward a small section in the front where there were two set of bleachers. “This is where you will receive your initial briefing and where you will return after you are eliminated from the final. Everyone sit.” They’d reached the standard metal bleachers, and they quickly complied with the order.

Mason couldn’t help but let his attention wander. There were dozens of people running around. He saw the Dean, and the few other HCP professors he knew, but he also saw people with DVA badges, and the entire crop of healers the HCP was training. Last but not least, there were a small handful of costumed Heroes lounging over by a refreshment table. Mason felt his nerves immediately triple.

“Welcome to the annual Battleball freshman first semester final,” the Dean announced, his smile brighter than usual. “Today, you will display the skills you’ve learned over the past semester. You will be evaluated, and the course for your path to being a Hero will be charted.” The older Super’s eyes swept the crowd, and his face softened. “Don’t pay attention to all the people here. They’re here to make sure everything is conducted safely, maintain the integrity of the arena, and of course to see how you all perform.” He inclined his head toward the Heroes across the room. “But don’t let that deter you. Go out there and show us what you are capable of.”

With his speech completed the Dean went off to join the rest of the Heroes, and Coach Meyers stepped in. “We’re going to start by issuing all of you your balls. Please form a line and proceed to the racks over there,” the pointed where they needed to go, and they executed.

Ten minutes later they were all sitting with a silver, basketball-sized orb hovering above their right shoulder. For some weird reason, Mason got the image of himself dressed in a pirate costume and the orb was his talking parrot. He tried talking to it on the way back, but it only stared at him through its eyeless reflective sheen.

“Everyone protect your balls,” a juvenile grin escaped Coach McMillian’s lips, and Mason couldn’t help but smile. Even at the most important moment in Mason’s short life, the close combat instructor felt perfectly normal making a penis joke. The HCP was an interesting place.

“You know the rules from our last conversation,” Coach Meyers continued, ignoring the 6^th grade humor. “The ball is the most important thing you will take into the final beside your power. lt will observe, record, offer automated evaluation, deduce probable reasons for actions, act as a time keeper, count points, and be points in your final exam. The points are calculated based on your actions in a super computer much smarter than all of us combined; even you Perez,” the class chuckled as the coach singled out their smartest member. “This is a free-for-all battle, so anything goes. Lethal force is not authorized…” Mason listened intently to Coach Meyers’ spiel. It had the same substance as the information before a ranking match, but was just longer winded with bigger words. He wondered if that was because there were a lot of DVA people running around.

“That’s that,” a few minutes later the briefing was completed. “You all have ten minutes to talk amongst yourselves. After that time has passed you have another five minutes to find you door on that board and get there,” flashbacks of their first ranking matches surfaced in Mason’s mind, but this time he wasn’t worried. This time he was ready.

“Your time begins now. Good luck.”

As Coach Meyers walked away, Mason stayed exactly where he was. He didn’t need to be right next to Kyoshi to talk to her, and there was no use giving away any information to anyone who didn’t suspect they would be teaming up. It also gave them two views of what everyone else was doing, and allowed those who might be nervous to approach them individually.

People started moving, making plans, and changing plans when those plans didn’t work out. Kyoshi stood their silently with her eyes closed listening to a lot of those plans, while Mason watched to see who might be interested in an alliance sometime in the future, and scoped out the groups who could threaten them.

<Ok,> Kyoshi’s voice brought his attention fully to his partner. <This is what we are going to do.>

 

***

 

Dean Ditmar watched as the freshmen milled around before they started their final. It was always interested to see how the cliques and groups filled out over the first semester. He watched as those in relationships teamed up, ignoring others that would get them more points; or groups of friends moving off to one side to discuss strategy, and ignoring other students who would be powerful allies. He sighed as he watched all of this, but he wasn’t surprised. They were still first semester freshmen. A lot would change in the next few years if they could cut it.

“How’s it shaping up?” Daisy stepped up beside him, her back to the students.

“About how we predicted?” the Dean turned his attention away from his students and to his colleague. “And I assumed Jackson and Schultz are communicating.”

“I’d bet my paycheck on it,” Daisy smiled, accepting the bottle of water he offered her.

“Nothing is going to play out here that we haven’t already guessed, and the balls will pick up the rest. Let me introduce you to our guests.” The Dean led the way to the gathered Heroes, who all perked up when Daisy approached.

“Daisy!” Galavant was present, and had a big chunk of a Reuben sandwich in his mouth.

“Always nice to see you Galavant,” Daisy hugged the young Hero, but made sure to avoid getting any of the sandwich on her clothes.

Galavant was engaging in the time honored tradition of stuffing his face whenever possible. Heroes tended to get called when they were either eating or sleeping. It was a weird, unexplainable phenomenon; but it still happened.

“Let me introduce you to some of the other members of the Protectorate,” John motioned toward two other heroes standing behind Galavant. “Mr. Morningstar and KaBoom.”

“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Daisy,” KaBoom answered in a low baritone that would have sounded like his codename if he shouted.

John had only known KaBoom, real name Marcus, for a few years. The kinetic absorber was the newest member to the Protectorate beside Galavant. As far as power went, KaBoom was a midrange kinetic absorber; nothing even close to what Daisy was capable of. He’d only made it through the HCP due to his tactical acumen. Nevertheless, John was glad to have the talented strategist in Orlando.

KaBoom was also a good counterpoint to the second member of the Protectorate present. “A pleasure to meet you,” Mr. Morningstar gave Daisy a slight bow before extending his hand.

Unlike KaBoom who was dressed in a blue and black skintight costume that showed off his large, powerful muscles; Mr. Morningstar looked like was stepping out of a Victorian Era opera house. The older, leader of the Protectorate was dressed in a traditional black tuxedo, complete with coat-tails and a top hat above a white mask with a slightly bemused expression.

“Morningstar, that’s an original name,” Daisy cocked an eyebrow at the older Super’s bow.

“It’s actually quite old, biblical even,” John couldn’t see it, but he knew the Hero was smiling beneath his mask.

Mr. Morningstar was an advanced mind that rated fairly low on the telekinetic power charts. He was a decent enough telepath, but he wouldn’t have made it through the HCP many years ago without his special talent. The old Hero had the power of compulsion. It had its limits, and it wasn’t very effective against those with strong wills. But the Hero had saved many lives over his career by convincing criminals to give up. He was a good fit to lead a small town team, even if he was stuck in his traditional ways.

“It’s nice to meet both of you,” Daisy’s face remained polite, but John could tell she was itching to get the final started.

“Just one more person I want you to meet,” he deftly pulled her away from the three Protectorate members, and guided her toward the only remaining Hero.

The lone remaining Hero was a small man in a red and gray costume. It was baggy, the opposite of KaBoom, and the guy looked like he could gain a few pounds.

“Jackhammer,” John clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s nice to see you outside your shifted form. This is Daisy.”

The man smiled slightly, and it was obvious why. The normally pint-sized John looked downright intimidating next to this 5’4” skinny Hero in a baggy costume. “So you’re the one I lost the alternative job too,” Jackhammer gave her a head to toe assessment.

“I guess so,” Daisy did the same, and they both shared a good-natured smile that John knew Daisy wouldn’t have been capable of four months ago.

“No hard feelings. Craig tells me you’re a badass, so I won’t whoop your ass in front of the kiddies.”

“Jackhammer is a local independent Hero. He works the entire state, but I know he likes to hang around here the most,” John filled Daisy in.

“It’s all the tourists,” Jackhammer replied, but didn’t offer any other explanation.

“It was good to meet you, Jackhammer, but I’ve got to get back to work,” Daisy gave him a friendly nod.

The alternative instructor walked back toward the freshmen to get them moving to their assigned starting points. As she walked away, Jackhammer leaned in close.

“How good is she,” despite the pleasant exchange, John could tell the other Hero was a little sour about not getting the job.

“She’d destroy you, Gary,” John gave the slightly smaller man another pat on the shoulder. “So sit back, have some food, and enjoy the show.”

John left the traveling Hero with a frown on his face. He wasn’t going to beat around the bush when other Heroes asked about Daisy. Eventually they’d find out who she really was, and he didn’t want anyone thinking less of her when they did. But all of that was for future John to worry about. Right now he wanted to concentrate on his favorite time of the year.

<Battleball virgins stepping into the ring for the first time,> it always filled him with pride. <It never fails to be interesting.>

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