In the twilight hours, I case the lab, walking on the street, checking it slowly with my mind map. I’ll have to get closer for more actual information, but all of my tentative scanning is making me think that we were right and that they’ve sold or gotten rid of most of the supers here.

  I just don’t know if that means we need to fight them now before they make more supers or if I should ignore them.

  When I start to shake my head to get myself over that thought process. “Amelia?” I ask quietly.

  “Yeah?” she responds.

  “About the lab, we’re right that they must have gotten rid of most of the supers they had along with making a ton more, and that’s what we’re dealing with right now,” I say, leaning against a wall to give myself a moment.

  “Sucks that we were right on this one.” She agrees. “Also, when I’m out buying coffee, do you want me to get something caffeinated for your migraine?”

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  “Beyond the overarching need to stop them?” Amelia says. “Well, I think that’s a problem we discuss with Asher ?after we’ve both recovered from today.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “Do you want me to come over and spot you while you’re sneaking into the lab to find out more detailed information?” She asks.

  “No, I’ve got this. If I don’t check in within twenty minutes, presume something abysmal has happened to me.”

  “If you don’t check in before nineteen minutes and sixty-nine seconds, I will presume it’s the end of the world.”

  Laughing to myself, I phase dropping into the tunnels so that I can start getting a closer look at the lab.

  Hopefully, none of the supers are going to be up, and I can be in and out in record time.

  As I get closer and focus my attention, the first thing of note is how much busier the lab seems to be. Despite the fact I’m not finding any supers in any form of storage, every testing room is filled.

  The pattern of everyone in the testing rooms quickly gives me an idea on who all is going to be in there.

  Skirting along the edge, I make my way to one of the farthest testing chambers, where I can hopefully poke my head through a wall and get eyes on the person in there so I can start building my theory properly.

  I don’t think they notice whatever I’m doing; neither the staff nor the guards seem to be reacting to me skirting around the tunnels, never quite intruding on their actual property.

  I think I’ve found where at least either Andromeda sleeps otherwise I don’t see why someone in the lab would need so many closets in their room. Duplicator obsessed with cosplay being the only exception I can think of.

  Once I’ve made sure the person in the testing room isn’t looking in my general direction, I push my head through, turning my eyes solid so that I can see what’s inside.

  The two words that come to mind when I look at the person standing in the room are scruffy and lanky. Clad in similar clothes to the guy who was trying to earthquake the city.

  As he goes to turn around, I pull back, trusting that he doesn’t have some kind of ability to perceive me through walls.

  Five more rooms and it looks like everyone I’ve seen meets a similar description to some kind of dude that if I saw walking towards me in the middle of the night before I got super powers I would have crossed to the other side of the road to avoid them.

  From that conclusion, it doesn’t take much for me to put the pieces together myself. They outsourced the supers they had to groups in the area, maybe even as far as the state. And in return they’re offering more people for them to test on.

  Now sure in my plan, I decide to get out as fast as possible, running away very rarely deeper into the tunnels so I can find a good spot to get up to the surface.

  Rather not join Amelia in the public persona thing so I can’t just come up anywhere and deal with it. Even if most people aren’t going to be up just yet, I spent a good chunk of time down there scouting, so we’re approaching proper morning.

  “And what’s my time?” I ask as soon as I’m positive that there’s nobody following me.

  “Long enough for me to get out of my armor, buy a dozen coffees and change back?” Amelia offers.

  “You weren’t timing at all.”

  “It was very difficult to get the iced coffee situated, and the straw dealt with.”

  I laugh as I ascend a building, perching on the roof like some sort of ugly gargoyle as I look out over the city.

  Without my mind map, I can almost pretend that the place is peaceful. Just the same skyline I’ve been seeing my whole life.

  “We need to take out the lab. Even if there’s tons of new supers, ones we’ve seen and ones biding their time, we have to try,” I say quietly as I push off the building in a random direction.

  “I’m going to turn off the communicator for a bit. I need to prepare mentally. But I do want you back in like an hour when I actually go out. I want you in my corner, please.” Amelia asks.

  “I’ll be there like a shadow.” I promise.

  With the communicator now dormant, I release the tirade of curse words I’ve been holding back since the gang fight.

  Catching a sword that can cut through everything hurts!

  In the exact same way I keep poking myself when I’m healing, I flicker my power in reverse, just in the hand, once more.

  Just like last time, it’s as if my hand is drinking in all the light. Flexing my hand into a fist, everything seems normal enough.

  When my hand returns to normal, the aching sensation increases, but no more so than it increased last time. Maybe it isn’t catching the sword that was the problem but more of using my ability like that?

  A sound distracts me from my thoughts, reconnecting both Amelia and I to the communication channel.

  Well time to deal with that.

  “Hey Asher, how are you feeling?” I ask as soon as the voice connected sound plays over the communicator.

  “Blegh.” He responds. “Looks like you two did a lot while I was out. Are you two sure you’re good to keep going?”

  “Nope, but I want to anyway.” Amelia scoffs. “Fractal is going to be out superheroing for most of the day, and I’ll sleep tonight after a show of force.”

  “I want to scout around a bit. I’ve already gone to the lab, so I just need to explore some other places to see if I can find anything out.” I say, trying to guess where a seedy underground gang would be hiding.

  “So just how much repair work am I going to be doing for the suits?” Asher asks, bracing himself for the answer.

  Amelia and I both elect not to respond since this has the feeling of we’re about to be lectured, which is entirely unfair since Asher wanted us to put the suits through their paces.

  We just put them through a whole lot of paces.

  “Just answer me already.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure all the stuff inside that’s supposed to keep me warm is busted. I don’t feel the suit warmers at all,” Amelia says after a moment.

  “For the most part, I’m good, but the entire left arm is going to be a little bit off, maybe.” I say, divulging my own contributions.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “What do you mean, maybe? And what do you mean you’ve frozen the suit?” Asher asks, voice strangled.

  “I’m not explaining; you said you would be calm about it,” Amelia pouts, though I’m pretty sure that Asher promised no such thing.

  “I managed to actually throw my power in reverse in my left hand and catch a sword that could cut through anything.” I answer. “Ever since then it has felt stiff and awkward, though I don’t know if that’s because of my own hand and how it’s feeling or the suit.”

  “Um, actually.” Amelia says before breaking down into giggles for a second. “It’s not the sword that could cut through anything; the sword is pretty dull. The guy had some kind of ability that made it so that it could cut through nearly anything. Destroyed a lot of my ice. That was till Jason went all dark abyss on the sword and caught it.”

  “Huh,” Asher says, mulling over the new information. “Besides your hand feeling off, is there anything else that came from it?”

  “Uh, nothing more than worsening my issues of using my powers lots.” I admit as I make my way through the underground in what I hope will be the direction of some kind of gang base.

  “Okay, enough of you two. I’m watching cute cat videos to build up my vibes before my patrol.” Amelia says before disconnecting.

  “Asher do you have a list of gang hideouts that I can go spy on?” I ask the moment Amelia is gone and can’t lecture me about my terrible plan.

  “I won’t have any help while I’m getting the drones ready for today, do you want to wait for me to be able to help you or no?” Asher asks. “But yes I do.”

  “I can manage. It probably is better if they’re all asleep. It’s not like anyone is going to care about the specifics. They’ll just see an armored man walk through an entire gang all by himself, right?”

  “Hopefully, there won’t be anyone that can actually hurt you.”

  “A sword that could cut through everything couldn’t hurt me, so I doubt anyone’s going to be able to harm me.”

  “Until you meet someone whose ability is to touch things that are intangible.”

  “Those are probably about the same odds as someone with a sword that can cut through anything meeting someone immutable.” I point out ever so helpfully.

  “Just be safe, okay?”

  “Always am.”

  With Asher no longer in my ear, I can finally start thinking about how bad of an idea this is and how much I don’t want to be the demon in this situation.

  All it takes is thinking about my family and how I need to protect them before my resolve is back to normal.

  Pushing my awareness out, I locate all the people in the building. This is about sending a message, so which is better coming in through the top and fighting my way down, or is it better if I blast through the front door and start fighting my way up?

  They’re mostly asleep, so I doubt that anyone’s going to be up either way. I change my search trying to find the biggest and most well-furnished room wherever that is. I’ll just come from the other side and leave a trail of carnage.

  It’ll be good for the optics if a trail of broken bodies is behind me when I reach the boss.

  Something, something about how he wants to be able to look down on everyone, but the nicest room I can feel is the one at the top, a giant penthouse seeming thing.

  Guess I’ll just go through the front door.

  I glance down at myself, trying to think if there’s anything else I need to do?

  With the suit I look imposing enough, though maybe I should think about softening my image if I’m going to keep working with Amelia.

  Reaching into the utility belt, I pull out a couple of painkillers and load myself up, moving around a bit in the hopes that my headache begins to reduce enough that I can function enough.

  Eventually, I’ve stalled enough, and I walk towards the building, going through the front door.

  The guard at the front desk stares at me stupidly.

  “I’m here to see your boss.”

  There’s no response, so I have to make the choice.

  I just start walking past him, aiming to go to the stairs and, more likely than not, start fighting my way up.

  The gun is aimed at the back of my head, and I pretend to ignore it as I keep moving in the direction of the corner.

  The bullet passes through my chest as I surge backwards, grabbing the shoulder of the guard and slamming him back into the desk. “Tell whoever is up there that it’s too late.” I say in a harsh whisper before throwing him back into the wall.

  Between the gunshot and hopefully something else that got everyone mobilized, I end up doing exactly what I thought I would have to do.

  One by one, I break every normal person I come across.

  Every super takes a little bit longer for no other reason than just like me they’re tougher but everyone breaks all the same.

  Thankfully, nobody is dead yet, and I can feel everyone breathing, but it doesn’t make me feel any better.

  Is this really what I signed up for when I said I wanted to make this place safer? That I would enter the homes of criminals and beat them up to send a message?

  “You know it’s pretty uncouth for you to come here for no reason and just start busting my boys' heads.” The man in the leather chair says as I enter his office.

  “And you are so boringly bland.” I shrug. “I need information about the lab, and I need everyone else who’s been getting supers from them to know I’m coming for them.” I say, stepping forward.

  There might be a large desk between the two of us, but I doubt either of us feel that it's an adequate distance.

  “Why should I give it to you?” He says defiantly, standing up. “I have powers just like you. You don’t scare me!” he says, getting to his feet and beginning to swell in size.

  I slam my fist into the oak desk, breaking it in two. “Do you really want to fight me?”

  He shirks back, stumbling into his chair. “Sorry, sir.”

  “You’re not actually in charge, are you?” I state, clicking my tongue against my teeth. “Where’s your actual boss, or are you high enough on the ladder he’ll listen when you tell him?”

  That struck a nerve as a fist the size of my torso flies at my head.

  My fist slams into his stomach, and he doubles over coughing. “Okay tired of this shit.” I say, stomping on his leg as he begins to shrink. “You are going to tell the boss to stop getting supers from the lab and turn over a new leaf. Otherwise, we’re going with a more permanent solution.”

  He does respond, doubled over on the floor, writhing in pain, so I pick him up so we’re looking each other eye to visor.

  “I am going to destroy the lab and anyone associated with it. You can run, you can hide, but I will always find you. Pass it along or I’ll pass along your corpse.” I say coldly.

  “You’re not a hero!” he spits out.

  “No, I’m not.” I agree the words breaking something inside of me. “But you’re going to do what I tell you. Understood?”

  He looks down at my hand holding him against the wall and back at his desk shattered in two.

  “Are we clear?” I ask, pressing him against the wall harder.

  “Crystal.” He wheezes out, barely able to get enough air in his lungs to speak.

  “Good. After you’re done being my harbingers, I would advise leaving my city.” I say, dropping him. “After all, you’ll never know what shadow I’m watching from.”

  I drop through the floor, letting myself fall all the way to the ground floor before reorienting myself towards the front door.

  Stumbling out of the complex, I drop into the tunnels and manage to take the helmet off before I start dry heaving. Being that person.

  I don’t want to be that.

  I can’t be that.

  But what if this worked? If we actually see everything slow down, what will happen? Do I need to wear that mask again and again?

  Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I move back to my tower so I can get some water and mentally prepare for shadowing Amelia’s patrol today.

  As much as ?I need to be the scary monster that makes them afraid of the shadows thing to go well, Amelia’s being the light patrolling our city and making ordinary people feel safe is more paramount.

  Though I don’t know if I’ll be shadowing to make sure I take care of any problem before it shows up or to limit what problems show up so that Fractal can have a chance to show the world just how strong she is.

  “So whatcha brooding about?” Amelia asks the moment I’m at the top of the clock tower.

  “You ready for today? You’re the star?” I say, changing the subject instantly as I grab a water bottle before guzzling it down.

  “Nah, I got this shit. We beat up tons of people, and most criminals aren’t a huge fans of mornings, and with your emo crusade, I’m sure they’ll be on good behaviour.” Amelia waves off. “What I’m looking forward to is the hot shower I’m going to have once we’re back home.”

  “That does sound nice.” I agree.

  “Are you… nah, I’m too tired for teasing right now.” Amelia yawns before grabbing another one of her iced coffees to begin drinking.

  She glares at me suddenly.

  “What?”

  “You were about to give me the you don’t have to do this speech. But I do. Everyone’s afraid with all the supers running around. I can help, so I’m going to, and you’re going to hide in my corner if I need you, and it’ll all go well!”

  I tentatively agree, though I have great doubt that this is going to go well at all.

  The two of us do our best to combat our various conditions that are beginning to plague us with pushing so long, but the time comes and we start patrolling again, though this is the first time I’ve done it all from the underground.

  I’m baffled though, hour after hour, the patrol goes without a hitch. The most disruptive thing was Amelia making a giant ice tower/playground that she cleaned up afterwards.

  We actually managed to get through it all scot-free.

  “I told you it’ll all be fine. We made it!” Amelia cheers.

  I mentally count to three before speaking.

  “Uh, guys?” Asher asks, and before he’s done speaking, I’ve already stood up, trying to prepare for whatever situation is next. “There’s been a kidnapping. Do you want me to direct people to it?”

  “Tell me where it is; I’ll take care of it.” I say, forcing my awareness out so that it’s fully cloaking the area.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “I can handle it if you want?” Amelia offers, but I wave her down.

  “You can’t even feel your fingers and toes at the moment, so you need to rest. I got this.” I say, stretching to bring some life back into my limbs.

  “You’re barely functional too.” Asher says before giving me the directions to where he’s tracked the kidnapping.

  “Doesn’t matter, I can still move and use my super powers right? This is what I need to do.” I reply as I begin running in that direction, moving as fast as I can.

  “Why though?”

  “Because it’s what’s right to do. They’re counting on us.”

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