“Spell it out for me one more time?”

  “Chanter, for the last time, don’t yell!” Flo snapped on the back of the moped.

  “I’m speaking normally!” Chanter shot back, shaking the moped by the force of his voice.

  “Fine, then just lower your voice to a whisper. We’re going to resolve a conflict at Hammerton Regional Park. One of their playgrounds, or something,” Flo explained.

  “We’re going to break up a couple of kids? Where are their parents?”

  “I don’t know. We’re just here to answer the call. Nothing’s too small for us, unlike those Freelancers or HUE.”

  Driving quickly, Flo had a confidence on the road that only matched the fact that she had a mix of Flight and Strength. Whenever Chanter was convinced that they would get in a crash, the moped would miraculously shift into the air and glide back to the ground, maintaining speed all the while.

  Flo herself was tall, nothing like Chanter’s massive frame, forcing the moped to lean back her way. Her short brown hair whipped in the air of the street, flailing dangerously close to Chanter’s eyes. Black goggles strapped to her own eyes kept her vision keen on the bike.

  Chanter looked up in thought, his periphery catching on the moped nearest to him. Predator and Nero, the top two members of the Equality Unification Entity, putted along on a vehicle beside him. Something about the fact they sent four Awakened to the scene felt a little overeager. Or maybe there wasn’t much going on in EUE.

  “You ready for your first deployment? Make sure to suit up,” Predator noted, looking confident.

  Predator was a stout but muscular man, about five feet tall and dark skin sculpted with brawn. Dark hair gelled back on his head and black goggles hug snugly on his eyes. In fact, everyone had black goggles, the only requirement for the EUE uniform.

  Nero was a pale man of total enigma. His arms were thin and his face shallow, like he was better suited to sit in a cubicle than out on the move. Just before the mission, he spent a good twenty minutes arguing about names for the organization, in which Predator shut him down every time. And for good reason.

  Chanter had a lot of problems with both the fact that the goggles were a bit tight on his bulbous head and the organization he was working for sounded like someone saying “eww” every time. Plus, he expected to be doing something like stopping a fire, not breaking up kindergarten arguments.

  Sighing loudly, Chanter snapped the provided goggles onto his face and resolved to give one mission a real try before deciding to quit and look elsewhere.

  But he wasn’t sure he could get over their weird vibes, like EUE was the only place for them. He wasn’t even sure they had a home life, but maybe it was by design because all of them were required to have a code name when entering the organization. More like shack than organization, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on all the cons.

  The mopeds pulled to a slow halt, looking out at a playground a few feet away from the curb. Flo popped the kickstand and rushed forward with Nero and Predator. Slowly dragging himself off the moped, Chanter stared with a large, gaping jaw.

  A colossal orb of wood chips spun atop the playground like a meteor threatening to crush them at any moment. Shards of wood flung out and whipped Chanter, scratching his face and deflecting off his goggles. Two children, about twelve-years-old, were shouting at one another under the massive display of power.

  Rushing in to look with his three team members, Chanter was at a loss for words.

  “Something’s attacking the kids?” Chanter asked.

  “Try a second guess,” Flo said, her face set serious.

  Chanter squinted, not understanding what she was getting at. Predator smiled at him encouragingly, and a new idea formed.

  “One of the kids is Awakened!” Chanter exclaimed, Flo pressing a hand to her ear.

  “Stop shouting next to me! Please!” she said desperately.

  “Might be both are Awakened,” Nero said. “Can’t imagine why one would stick around if the other is expressing this much power.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Some kids can be stubborn.”

  “I’ll go talk to them.”

  “All right, but be careful,” Predator said.

  Forearm in front of his face, Nero approached the maelstrom of wood, pale skin sprouting cuts as he approached.

  “Is he gonna be all right?” Chanter asked loudly.

  “He’ll be fine. Trust me,” Predator said confidently.

  Nero yelped suddenly, a massive wave of woodchips diving out of the sky and snatching him upwards. Screaming on his way up, the ball of moving particles consumed him. His voice drowned as soon as he was behind its wooden walls.

  “Not ideal,” Predator mused.

  Another swarm of wood chips swooped down and struck one of the two kids head on. Chanter winced, suddenly feeling like he was underpowered for the play yard scuffle.

  “Chanter, you’re up. Flo, can you get him in close?”

  “I think so, I don’t know if the chips will mess with my Flight.”

  “I’ll help from here. And be quick, before the kid is killed.”

  The wave of chips dissipated around the second child to reveal him surrounded by a tight wall of bricks. The child punched out and the bricks flew out and smacked into the dense ball of wood chips, joining the swarm.

  “You mean we’re going into that?” Chanter asked, pointing at the ball of violent debris.

  “I’m hoping you’ll take it out. I’ll help from here.”

  “You’re just trying to sit this out!”

  “Stop yelling! Save it for the ball of chaos!” Flo hooked two hands under Chanter’s arms and hoisted him into the sky, zipping up as though launched from a firework.

  Cheeks flopping through air, Chanter gained his bearings and looked at the meteor of crazed energy. Preparing himself, he breathed in deeply, then hacked and coughed when a splinter rammed its way up his nose. Struggling to regain his composure, Chanter felt Flo jolt him up and down.

  “Any second now! We need to either shut it down or get out of here!”

  Chanter waved an arm ahead of him, signaling that he just needed another moment to compose himself. Tears streaming from his goggled eyes and cuts accumulating on his cheeks, Chanter attempted an even deeper breath. His lungs expanded.

  “Stop!” he boomed.

  The blast of energy was so mighty that Flo burst back a hundred feet, straining to keep the two of them upright.

  Ahead of them, the entire ball of energy shredded apart and crashed away into the ground, all the debris dissipating and falling to the floor. As the ball faded away, Nero appeared and screamed as he fell to the floor hard, landing on his shoulder.

  Chanter blinked in astonishment. His Scream had always been formidable, but never so directed and powerful before. He thought he would shake the structure, not take it down entirely. But there was a focus that entered his mind as he prepared his attack, something that inspired precision and stability. Glancing down from the sky, he saw Predator give him a thumbs up.

  Whatever his power was, it enhanced his Scream enough to bring the situation under control.

  Walking briskly, Predator crossed the threshold to the playground and spoke to the two children, bringing down tensions and smiling. By the time Flo brought them back to the ground, the kids were laughing and excitedly reaching for commemorative black sunglasses emblazoned with “EUE” on the frames.

  “Good job today. I was expecting that to take a lot longer. I’m glad we have you on the team,” Flo said.

  “Thanks!”

  She covered her ears. “Seriously, we need to teach you how to whisper. Were you always like this?”

  “I think it has to do with my power.”

  “No surprises there. Anyway, I’m off to check on Nero. Maybe fly him home if he’s unfit for a moped ride.”

  Chanter watched as she gracefully spun in the air and drifted over to Nero, the conversation looking painful from his end. In a daze, Chanter looked over the jungle gym and swings left behind on the floor with sporadic touches of wood chips and bricks. Such incredible power in such small children. And he had been able to help de-escalate the situation.

  Much as it surprised him, he felt really good about the work he did that day. Even for such a short encounter.

  Predator moved quickly back to his side, a knowing smile on his face. Craning his neck, he had to look straight up to look at Chanter who towered at least two heads taller than him.

  “I take it you’re wondering why the kids were fighting in the first place?”

  “Not really, but now I want to know.”

  “One of them accused the other of stealing his lollipop. But he forgot it was just in his pocket.”

  “A misplaced piece of candy caused a small natural disaster?”

  Predator’s face scrunched slightly behind his goggles, lowering a hand. “Let’s keep our voices down when discussing these more embarrassing topics, huh”?

  Chanter nodded, keeping his mouth shut.

  “So what did you think of your first outing? Interested in running a second?”

  A smile stretching across his face, Chanter nodded eagerly. “This was a great experience. I wanna help more people like this.”

  Predator slapped him on the back. “Good to have you on the team. With members like you, EUE will be the talk of the town in no time!”

  “I will?”

  “No, not you, EUE.”

  “I don’t get it?”

  Predator sighed. “Just get on the moped, let’s head back.”