[A few days later]

  Alex adjusted his gauntlets one more time and continued to listen in to the supposedly secure broadcast through his helmet. While the rest of his outfit had gotten an almost complete overhaul – including swapping the color scheme from red and black over to a purple and cyan look with a few touches of black here and there to ground it – his helmet’s interior was mostly the same despite the exterior sacrificing the subtle skull shape for a more geometric look. Still a cool look in his opinion.

  Unfortunately, that meant that if he wanted to be able to cycle between the dispatch network he’d tapped into to which the heroes used and the one tracking the armored truck’s progress, he needed to switch it over manually with an actual button as opposed to blink clicking with a fancy heads up display. Also he had to mentally map out where the nearest hero was. Nope, no fancy mini-maps with those blinking dots like he’d seen some supervillains show off in briefings when he’d been a minion or teamed up with them.

  Obviously, that would be something he’d need to talk with Celestial Scientist about. He wasn’t comfortable handing over his helmet to anyone else, but Alex was sure he could at least get the scientist to source him some decent eye tracking tech and programs to shove into this thing. She’d already done a fantastic job with the targeting system that the mounted lasers used. They had a fairly simplistic targeting system that ran when he tapped a button on the side of both of his pointer fingers which she’d said she’d be able to upgrade in the future, but all the tests had been smooth.

  Speaking of said lasers, he began to warm up a few of them as he listened in on the truck’s frequency. It wasn’t just on route and on schedule, it was practically within spitting distance of his hiding spot. He reached up and flipped the switch so he could keep an ear out for hero chatter. After a few moments of parsing their also supposedly secure line, the hidden villain confirmed nothing nearby – at least nothing that Amberheart was aware of. Vigilantes and heroes with poor radio discipline were still a concern, so hopefully everyone of note was just out of range of this section of the truck’s route.

  Alex fixated on the reflection of the nearby traffic light in a storefront window across the street. He noticed the numbers in the crosswalk disappear. He took a deep breath, holding it as he readied himself. Rolling his shoulders he watched the red light’s mirror in the glass. Last chance to back out.

  The red light disappeared, replaced with a green.

  He finished rolling his shoulders. Well, it was time to commit. Let’s go to work.

  Alex had managed to get the exact timing of this light months ago, learning that this was the one most likely to cause a stop. He’d found the route this truck took almost a year ago, and off and on had gone up and down it to find the perfect spots. And he had played with this heist idea the entire time, ever since he’d first learned about what this private security firm transported regularly. Such a tempting target.

  Previously, he’d come to the conclusion that he would need at least two other villains to pull this off, probably closer to four to ensure things went smoothly if he was hiring in his weight bracket, and honestly even lucking out and splitting the prize three ways wasn’t really worth it at that point compared to his usual targets, even if he went as far as to try and keep a larger cut.

  With his new upgrades though? This should be simple enough.

  The armored car slowly rounded the turn as Alex stepped out of the alley he had been crouching in and pulled up targeting reticles on the tires. The primed set of lasers on his shoulders immediately beginning to swivel to track the vehicle as it tried to accelerate up to speed while making a wide left turn.

  You might have a misconception if you watched any super powered fight which involved lasers or what you thought were lasers.

  You might see people like ArachNed or Flashfist pirouetting away from them and think it was possible to dodge an actual laser with reflexes. In truth, only the quickest of speedsters could actually dodge an actual laser. The rest were dodging the direction the emitter was pointing when the whir of the device powering up gave them enough forewarning.

  Otherwise, what they were leaping past were energy blasts that people mistakenly called lasers. Big difference. Lasers are focused light, and almost nothing outruns light – especially not a set of tires trying desperately to speed up a heavily armored car weighing four times that of the average commercial vehicle with an engine that was built for reliability and long term use as opposed to flooring it from 0 to 60 down a narrow city road. That said, it’s only once the laser is fired that it becomes impossible to get out of its way. It’s incredibly easy to miss with a laser because human reaction times and the minuscule time between a trigger being pulled and the electronics producing the beam actually matter when objects are in motion.

  This was why Alex was glad Celestial Scientist had put so much work in ensuring that the mounted beam emitters were hooked up to a targeting device stuffed in his helmet that let him pinpoint those vulnerable wheels while preparing his next move. To a casual observer, they would see a villain striding forward out of nowhere with two thin lances shooting from his shoulder and slicing the unsuspecting truck’s tires cleanly from the center of the axle to the edge of the wheel, all while this mysterious villain never stopped moving forward, unaware of how much their tech was working to make the whole movement seamless and effortless.

  Those tires exploded and the entire left side of the car tilted dangerously over, almost on top of the opposite side of traffic, the body of the car screaming against the pavement. Other cars nearby screeched to a halt as Alex strode forward, raising his right hand at the window as the guards inside the vehicle quickly brought it to a halt to prevent it from toppling or slamming into anything. They managed it just in time, the car barely avoiding colliding into several others parked against the curb, and Alex rewarded their quick thinking by activating his gravitor gauntlets and another laser.

  This beam cut a horizontal line just a little into the door, only enough for the pull of the beam from his gauntlet to yank the window out of its frame rather than bisecting the guards in the front seat. The reinforced glass and the remainder of the device used to move it up and down bounced off the pavement rather than shattering as he suspected. Most armored trucks these days were made so that their windows would only shatter when hit with a certain substance, marketed as Safeshatter, that was probably located in pockets on both of the doors and carried by fire-and-rescue first responders. That still made these trucks less safe to be caught in than your average car in an accident, but apparently the trade-off of making cars like these much harder for D-list villains to break into was considered to be worth it. Sure it would’ve been great to get a hold of a bottle of Safeshatter for this part of the plan, but that had been difficult to source without raising a bunch of red flags, so he resorted to the trusty beam of concentrated light.1

  Already the guards were beginning to react and draw firearms so Alex simply fired off one of the gas canisters in his gauntlet that he’d queued up in advance. The launchers were a fun new toy but yeah, that was another point to upgrade for this suit, as he currently had to manually queue up which gas projectile was next to fire. He’d definitely want an automated system in the next suit, but for now, he could make do.

  This particular one was Retch Gas, a staple for any villain who wanted to clear a crowd without a body count or any of the lasting hard feelings that a lot of “low lethal” gases came with. The gross cloud dispersed quickly in larger spaces, and didn’t cause much irritation to the respiratory system after exposure ceased. But it was absolutely atrocious to be around, especially in confined locations like the front seat of an armored truck with only one window open.2

  The guards did exactly what the gas said they would before fumbling at the door to escape. Alex began making his way towards the back of the truck as one of them flopped to the pavement, wheezing and coughing.

  “H-hey!” he shouted, stumbling to his feet. He’d lost his gun but seemed still willing to try and stop the robbery.

  Alex turned and saw why. The man’s skin was shifting to a bright red color and his eyes began to glow orange. He slowly began to grow, his muscles beginning to fill out his uniform more and more.

  Superpowers didn’t always mean you ended up as a hero or a villain, as there was a lot of private sector work for people who had limited amounts of super strength or other fun gimmicks.3 And honestly, several times Alex had to deal with unpowered threats for his jobs anyways. Unless you were known to go toe to toe with a whole hero team on your own, someone always thought they could take you down.

  Alex simply raised his hand and fired three gravitor “shots” his way. Suddenly hitting someone with a snap burst of those beams was a lot like delivering a quick punch, especially at the strength Alex had the gauntlets set at. The way it worked, with how the gravity was violently decreased between two objects in a localized area, it actually felt like a physical force was applied between the two objects, repelling them. Previously, Alex had been limited by how much force his arm could actually take on the kickback of this, but with the enhancement based underweave absorbing the shock as well as increasing the force his muscles generated, he was punching well above his weight class now.

  The result was that the superpowered security guard who was planning on turning this into a fist fight suddenly got three very strong, very unexpected hits to his leg, shoulder, and jaw, flipping him sideways and straight back to the ground. Thankfully, the way he twisted kept his head from bouncing on asphalt, but that was still going to leave some bruises. The fight had been over before more than two seconds had passed, and the villain was already continuing towards the doors at the back of the truck.

  He noted the other guard coming around the front and leveling a gun at him, quickly glancing down to make sure that his buddy was still breathing. Alex wasn’t surprised at how dedicated this pair was. If you signed on as a security guard in Victory, you were going to fight villains one day and were expected to at least hold out against D-listers and even make it a tough time for some C-listers. It was part of the reason Alex hadn’t done this job beforehand. If you didn’t deal with whatever unknown threat was on security detail quick enough, this job would quickly attract too much attention, and whoever was put in the front seat was definitely going to make that a hassle.

  Noticing that there were still a lot of bystanders nearby, he turned to present a wider target. Even with the underweave and power armor, getting shot wasn’t the best idea in the world. His suit, at least the areas covered by both the underweave and the actual armor plates, wouldn’t hold up to sustained fire for very long even from small arms like the pistol pointed at him, but most people tended to get tired after a few shots harmlessly bounce off you.

  So letting yourself take a few rounds stopped more people from pulling guns and actually testing how bulletproof you were. Importantly, it also meant that the bullets went your way and not into the bystanders. Admittedly Alex wasn’t too concerned about the fate of idiots that stood too close to a supervillain robbing an armored car, but casualties brought with them their own annoyance, and he was trying to avoid too much heat right away. Let’s save the “fools deserve their fates” approach to civilians for when we’re closer to step 6 or so on the timeline. Even then, he wasn’t one of those villains that actually enjoyed roasting the unpowered because he could and knew that those kind of villains tended not to get to enjoy time off between jobs since heroes actively would be hunting you down.4

  Regardless, Alex wasn’t willing to be target practice for however long it took to get whatever aspirations of herodom there were out of the guard’s system, already pointing his gravitor gauntlet at the gun as a few rounds cracked off and slammed into his chest armor. Okay, props to Celestial Scientist, he hardly felt that! He’d been shot before in his previous kit, which had only left him with a much smaller bruise than wearing a bulletproof vest would. With how light that felt, he doubted he’d even have a red mark on him. Still, time to take away this toy before someone’s luck runs out.

  The gun leapt out of the guard’s hand and flew to his as soon as the beam fired, a small orb seeming to be latched onto the barrel until he killed the beam. He barely caught it, but thankfully it didn’t seem too obvious judging from how afraid the guard looked. Alex smiled, and closed his fist, letting the strength enhancement of the underweave do its work. Sadly, like Celestial had said, he didn’t quite have super strength, at least not enough to ball the pistol up one handed, but there was a loud snap as some more delicate parts definitely gave way and something important-sounding bent. He let the slightly mangled mess drop to the ground and continued on, leaving the guard in shock.

  Alright, wishlist so far is better visual controls, automated ammo feeds hooked up to those visual controls, more powerful underweave, those light shields, and some plates to cover the legs. Gods, I just let him shoot at me with most of my lower body using my old armor and the remaining weave. Are these jetboots even bulletproof? Let’s not test that. Oh, and eventually that teleport beacon. I hate having to come up with an escape plan for these.

  Alex shook away his thoughts and looked at the door. While he’d hoped that despite Celestial’s warning, he’d be able to just punch into this and rip it open for the onlooking crowd, it looked like he’d need to be a little smarter. Thank goodness he decided to show off there with the gun or he might’ve just smashed his hand and ruined this whole performance. The lasers whirred up and quickly melted a small circle into where the lock should be on the door. Alex still decided to go with a big windup punch straight into the hole once the metal had cooled enough to not damage anything and wrench the door open in a violent motion. He had to have some style to this.

  Tearing inside revealed only a single object in the back of the truck: what appeared to be an odd waist-high obelisk bolted to the floor, with a handle on the top of it, vapor coiling around its base. If you didn’t know any better, you’d be tempted to think this was something arcane or magical. Alex unhooked a bag from his belt and leapt into the truck, checking around to see if there were any other goodies that someone had stashed along with this to save on trips. Not that he’d been expecting anything but it would be a nice bonus if they had. Sadly, no one had bothered to toss in a bonus, so the only thing in here was this one singular prize.

  Gripping the handle and depressing a built-in trigger, he twisted it, the industrial grade locking mechanism somewhat fighting his enhanced strength. As the handle turned, the pyramid-like box opened up, panels splitting to reveal a yellowish light. When it clicked to a stop, Alex pulled up on the handle now that the interior was no longer locked in place and the whole center of the obelisk came out as a glass tube on the end of the handle, several shining yellow orbs floating inside it.

  Iota Isotopes, an easy way to get powers. Also, for some reason their light made you bald. The radiation didn’t seem to do anything worse than that, just wherever their light shone would be hairless for a good three to four weeks.

  If you were willing to go squeaky smooth, eating one of these bad boys would give you a superpower. A random and often very low power superpower, but it was one of the few guaranteed ways to get something of note. It just meant that almost every other type of way to get super powers wouldn’t work on you and it didn’t work if you were already noticeably empowered. Still if you didn’t have any aspirations higher than those two security guards he’d dealt with, it was a good way to feel a little stronger than the average civvy. Alex had even worked with some villains that had these as a signing bonus for their minions, wanting a full base of low power help. He bet that the red guard had probably rolled those dice on a similar deal.

  Which meant that despite being on the lower end of the totem pole when it came to super power granting objects, Iota Isotopes always had a buyer. So these would be cash before the week was up, and it was almost the weekend already.

  Thankful that his suit covered everything as he didn’t want to have to draw eyebrows on himself, he stuffed the container in a bag and took a moment to listen to the radio chatter.

  His crime had definitely been reported, either by one of the many onlookers or by the remaining conscious guard, and there was a hero on the way within five minutes. Probably closer to three. Time to scoot.

  Stepping outside, he looked at a figure emerging from the crowd gathering to watch, and had to groan. Of course.

  Some kid, probably still in high school, was throwing a jacket aside to reveal a customized spandex shirt with a big E on the front, his face covered by a bandanna with holes cut out for his eyes.

  A new burst from the frequency he had playing in his helmet confirmed that the real heroes were still three minutes out. Nailed it on the timing. A scuffle with some fresh-faced newbie would definitely cut things close.

  “Alright,” he said, his free hand already dancing through some motions to load up the next few things he’d need. “Who are you and what’s your deal?”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “I’m-!” the kid dropped into a sloppy fighting stance.

  “Don’t care, actually.”

  Alex had already fired the smoke canister towards his feet with the ready gauntlet, and quickly tapped a button on the underside of his helmet to kick on thermal vision, dropping the bag to do so. The tube inside could take the few inches to the pavement while the fabric absorbed most of the blow, and he needed every moment to count, but even knowing that he still cringed as it let out a muffled thunk. The thick black cloud that erupted out the moment his projectile hit the ground wouldn’t last long so the seconds counted. Thankfully, this kid was new and was completely stunned by this, and he certainly wasn’t expecting Alex to aim at him from within the smoke cloud and fire off a cable.

  Whatever power the kid had, it wasn’t super reflexes, as the cable launched forward and swung around him, and a nearby pole right behind him. Strong magnets pulled it taut quickly, wrapping him to the traffic light instantly. It also didn’t look like he had super strength since his struggling didn’t seem to be freeing him.

  “Tough luck,” Alex scooped up his prize and exited the rapidly dispersing smoke. He actually meant it. Debuts were tough enough and it was a shame to end up out of your depth when you had yours. Most heroes and villains who ended up over their heads in their first fight quit.

  Alex would feel worse for the kid who looked positively devastated rather than afraid if said debut had been showing off his costume for the correct team, but, eh, if he drops out that’s one less newcomer to worry about fighting later on. He really didn’t need another teenager to pick a fight with. Huh, hope I’m not bitter about the Young Guardians.

  He activated his jet boots and soared off. He considered grandstanding for a bit to spread his name, but it sounded like the backup was due here soon and even though he hadn’t wasted too much time, he needed to be out of here before anyone actually equipped to fight him even caught sight of him. He had a few tricks left but didn’t need to test if he could shake a tail during a chase scene, especially if more backup kept arriving. These upgrades were good, but not really good enough to handle more than one real hero, if even that.

  Keeping low, Alex navigated a short distance away, dodging through alleys as much as possible, dodging a fire escape or two along the way. When he got close to where he wanted to be, he hit a button concealed in his glove. The devices he’d hidden nearby immediately sparked and in an instant this part of the city was cut off from any surveillance due to the EMPs he’d selectively placed earlier that day. They were arranged to knock out the buildings without frying his suit as long as he didn’t get too close, but he’d still been worried about this part. Dropping down to the alleyway he’d picked out earlier, he grabbed the stashed luggage and quickly threw all of his gear and his prize inside, withdrawing a fake ticket to wave around as a prop.

  Suddenly, Tech Crash, the robber of an armored car several blocks over, was replaced with a beleaguered businessman who desperately was trying to make his train on the other side of the city and needed to catch a taxi. Thankfully while this small part of the city was slowly realizing they were in a power outage, there were still a few rides passing by, one of which happily pulled over to help him get away. This part of the disguise hurt a little since it dug into his few remaining funds in order to help him flee the scene of the crime quicker, but all in all?

  The perfect job.

  Minus forgetting to say his name for the rep, but otherwise perfect.

  It had been a long, long time since he’d felt that in control of the job and even been able to effortlessly deal with a hero. Sure, it was clearly the new kid’s first day on the job, but damn it felt good to feel like he was punching down for once.

  Yeah, villains walked away with the prize more than anyone liked to admit, Alex’s entire career proved that, even if you did take away points for anytime a hero tossed him in a dumpster. However getting in and out before anyone from dispatch showed up, beating at least two other supes, and making off with everything you wanted as the prize? That was the mark of a villain that actually was going places.

  Pushed up in the backseat while a man who smelled like cheap cologne tossed over top of a greasy Gorvian meal and a pack of smokes drove him away faster than he flew with his jet boots, he mentally tallied his earnings and smiled. Even though he’d be dumping most of this straight into Starsilk Labs’ pockets, it felt good to be this rich for a bit.

  He’d give Starsilk a call later and get Celestial started on his next set of upgrades – or at least have her set aside what she’d already made for him – but for now, he let himself bask in his win.

  --------------------------------------------------

  Ned landed in a crouch, letting the force of his landing be absorbed by the mechanical legs on his back as much as the reinforced mesh hidden in his suit and his own enhanced muscles. You didn’t want to put too much strain on any one of those three, though he was partial to making sure that it definitely wasn’t his own body taking the lion’s share. Still, despite how it appeared to most people who watched him, the thin legs on his back couldn’t actually take him landing from free fall and gently deliver him to the ground. The fact that they folded up actually sacrificed a lot of strength for that convenience and he’d learned over the years how to move to compensate and have them avoid eating too much of an impact for his landings.

  Still, when arriving to the scene of a crime like this one, especially a couple days after the heroes had been bailed out by some unknown power in a battle against the League, it was worth doing a little bit of showing off to make everyone know heroes were still here to protect them.

  The messages he’d picked up on official comms had been worrying, but looking at the scene so far, you wouldn’t really have guessed it. Well, it still was a wrecked armored car with at least two other heroes already on the scene, but relatively speaking this wasn’t that alarming. Almost all the damage on the scene was solely to the 284 Ironwheel Armored Vehicle, a classic for its use by private security and transport companies like Lockwide. Even the guards seemed relatively fine, even if one was being fussed over by a heroine with chitinous skin wearing what looked like a stereotypical nurse outfit; an outfit that Ned regretfully knew from experience that no hospitals in the city or probably even the entire Amera Union actually had anyone wearing. Shame because between the fluffiness of the coat and the little hat on top with a set of gems in the shape of a cross, it came off as adorable and would’ve made being chastised by healthcare workers feel more like it came from a place of love and understanding rather than feeling like you just added to someone else’s busy workload.

  “Hey, Carrie,” Ned strode up to address the healer as she was raising glowing hands over a Lockwide guard with red skin and a nasty looking bruise on his jaw.

  AnomaloCarrie turned to smile back at him, the two long, segmented tendrils emerging from her hat – Ned was pretty sure those were just part of her costume – flipping around to frame her face. Well, her masked face. Despite being one of the few people Ned knew who had something between a carapace and skin, Carrie wore a half mask that only left her jaw exposed allegedly to conceal her identity. It remind him of what Terror usually wore when he was ruining her crimes, and he quietly wondered if the nurse would want him to try to ask Evelyn for the number of whoever turned her into a Delf. Probably not, but that might be another reason to figure out who was turning giant spider ladies into tabletop fantasy characters around here.

  “Hey, Ne-” she stopped and looked behind him, “I mean, hello Rac.”

  Ah yes, AnomaloCarrie was a fantastic heroine who helped all of the heroes of Victory City out and was a valued member of the community. She was unfortunately also a true fence sitter. One of many who, despite dressing up and going out to right wrongs, hated to rock the boat. Her using that name for him meant that the other hero on the scene that he’d caught a glimpse of was one of Ned’s “critics”. Also seriously, no one gave her any grief for going by Carrie!

  Ned just went ahead and set his eye animations to “manual” since this was probably going to be a whole thing for the next hour or so.

  “You alright? Manage to get in any good hits of your own?” Ned gestured to the bright red guard she was helping out, propping himself up against the Ironwheel. He decided it was best not to try and fight about how people shortened his name in front of civilians who could really use the “we heroes are all united to protect you” kind of vibes right now.

  It had the added benefit of making sure that Carrie looked back at the man, since she was more likely to recognize the gesture one of his hands was making to deploy a drone from the center of the backpiece which his mechanical legs came out of.

  Listening to the witnesses would give some insight as to what had happened, but the best and most reliable witness would be the Ironwheel’s onboard camera suite which would have immediately started recording the moment it had been attacked. While these cars were great for deterring lesser villains or the few unpowered gangs which would temporally pop up from time to time from trying their luck5, the true reason the 284 was beloved was for how helpful it was in tracking down villains that didn’t shout their names or learning that someone had just recently gotten a power-up. Sure, Ned could wait for the Arrestors to pull the footage and put it up for anyone at Amberheart to check out, but one of his many tragic failings was his impatience for waiting for procedures like these to play out.

  “Yeah, I’m good!” the man looked up at Ned in admiration, clearly a fan of his judging by the stars in his eyes. At least Ned had a few people in his corner here. A nod from Carrie told him that the guard wasn’t just putting on a brave face, even if he winced when she reapplied her healing powers. “And sorry, but it all happened so fast. I barely managed to shift before the guy knocked me out.”

  “Yeah, he was something else!” his partner piped up. “Lots of lasers and gadgets! Flushed us out and took out Ken with just three blasts! Stole my gun with a magnet too!”

  Given that they weren’t saying names, it sounded like a new tech villain on the block. People that shot looks like the ones the guards were giving him now to heroes tended to also know some villain names, even the ones that didn’t go “Beware the wrath of Laser Badger!” before every heist.

  Ned leaned over and caught a glimpse of the open driver’s compartment and saw an empty gas canister with what looked like “Retch” stenciled on it. It looked like one of the standard models on the market when it came to deployable gas canisters from what he could tell. Might be able to find some clues if he could find any modifications to it, assuming he was allowed to swipe it, but that one would definitely be missed and he had a feeling he was going to be closely watched here. The hidden drone scuttling its way into the open back to access the footage was already a tongue lashing if he got caught, no need to add anything more to the fire for now.

  “Anything stand out? Any emblems? Some motif to the costume?” Ned tried. Given how eager these two looked, he had a feeling if they’d gotten anything of note, they’d have started with that.

  “No, just… he was blue and purple. Wore a dorky helmet like a few of the nobodies you guys fought a few days back,” the bright red skinned one, Ken, offered.

  Tech villain in blue and purple… Not a lot of guys that could be that who were still into robbing armored cars carrying Iota Isotopes. And no one Ned knew that could manage this before backup showed up. Maybe someone had upped their game, or worse someone new had moved into town at the worst time. He wanted to sit down and chat these two up more, but A: he’d honestly get more info from the cameras, and B: he really wanted to go and chat with the other witness that the other hero on the scene was hovering over. And given who that other hero was, Ned really wanted to get over there before that witness was told not to talk to spiders.

  “Thanks for letting me know, and from what I can tell, you two did your best,” he reassured them. “Whoever they were, they’re definitely someone even we probably will have a tough time with. You did the right thing giving us a call. We’ll find him, don’t worry. Oh, and if you need someone to vouch for you on this, give Amberheart Tower a ring and leave a message for me there.”

  Ned watched as the two guards seemed to reinflate, his words giving them back some hope that they hadn’t realized they’d lost. It was inevitable that Lockwide and the labs they were contracted with would be scrambling to point blame at someone soon, but as far as Ned was concerned based off what reports he’d intercepted on the way over, these two guards had done everything they were supposed to in a situation like this. If he could, he’d try to help ensure that the heroes could at least have their backs if they weren’t here in time to grab the robber.

  He excused himself to go head over to the other side of the scene, where a hero in a monochrome costume was trying to help a teenager who was dressed in what was clearly his first attempt at a costume unwrap himself from a traffic light.

  Poor kid had tears running down his face, staining his makeshift mask.

  “Hey, Orbit,” Ned moved over to the wires, not waiting for the Starlight Squad member to acknowledge him.

  Orbit’s featureless spherical head turned to track him, the white frame that marked the sides of his head the only clue which direction the hero was facing. If it was me, I’d have added little glowing eyes to make myself less intimidating, Ned thought as he had his own animated eyes set to a cheerful expression.

  “Rac,” was the only acknowledgment from the hero. Truly the warmest reception here. The man spread his arms, and Ned saw the ends of the wires pull away from the struggling kid and heard Orbit’s frustration as his powers fought the forces constricting the wire.

  The kid looked mortified as Ned approached. This was hard to watch. Ned had one of his mechanical limbs reach forward and tap the cable, sending a burst of electricity into it. Immediately the metal wire went slack, and the parts of it not held up by Orbit’s power sunk to the ground. The hero grunted and let the rest of it drop as the kid collapsed to the ground. Ned turned to face the veteran hero, letting the newbie compose himself.

  “Looked like standard issue magclamp tech. Just sent a pulse into it that disabled it,” he explained.

  It was truly amazing how Orbit could showcase such a magnificent display of indifference without a single inch of his face visible. Ned knew that Wavelength wasn’t a fan of him but he hadn’t expected this much overt hostility from the rest of her team. He probably should have; after all hero teams were like family. Taking a quick glance down to ensure the still recovering teenager wasn’t paying too much attention, Ned leaned forward to whisper.

  “I get you don’t like me, but please let’s not fight in front of the kid. I’ll listen to my lecture in a second, alright?”

  Orbit, mercifully, nodded to that. Ned moved back and quickly took charge.

  “How are you doing?” he crouched down to help the newbie up before Orbit could respond further.

  “M-Mr. ArachNed, sir!” the kid’s eyes widened. “I-I’m sorry. I- Yes! I’m fine!” the clearly-not fine kid nearly jumped away once he was upright. “I just- I messed up bad…”

  Ned winced, “First up, please don’t call me Mister. My knees will give out if they know I’m too old for them.”

  Then he turned and looked back over his shoulder more for show than to check for damage, ignoring Orbit’s smug body posture.

  It’ll happen to you too, jerk!, he thought before saying aloud, “Doesn’t look too bad to me, especially for a first time doing this. Trust me, some of my first gigs had way more property damage and bruises.”

  That was true. Shortly after Ned had gotten his powers from the mysterious ring he found in a shoebox hidden at the spider exhibit of the zoo that he’d broken into after hours on a dare, his first few outings with those powers had seen a lot more broken glass, not to mention his earliest forays at actually trying to be a hero. He still remembered the hospital stay.

  “Yeah, but-!” the kid said, glancing down at his homemade costume, his face sinking as more of the scene played out in his head. “I didn’t even do anything. The guy just shot this at me and left. If I’d at least held onto him for a minute or two then Mr. Orbit here could’ve made it in time!”

  Ned watched as Orbit shifted uncomfortably. Not so funny now, huh?

  “Sadly, that’s just what happens when you deal with unknown villains sometimes,” he told the kid. “I heard from the guards that this guy seems new, so there was really no telling what he had up his sleeve.”

  “Indeed,” Orbit cut in, “that’s why one of the best things to do when starting out is to find a good team to watch your back.”

  Ooooooh, so that was why he doesn’t like me, Ned realized. Normally in these kinds of situations, Ned was more than happy to let little vague snipes at him go, but Orbit had to be upset with him over the one thing that Ned wouldn’t back down on.

  “No shame in team-ups, yeah,” Ned happily chirped, “but sometimes going your own way and learning more about yourself is the better option. Just need to make sure to check out the situation and learn what the bad guys can do before jumping in.”

  Orbit was very clearly glaring at him from behind that bubble of pure black. He was just about to say something when a very loud voice cut in.

  “I happen to enjoy working in a team myself! But I agree that often one must make their journeys on their own to fully learn the lessons life wants to teach them!”

  That booming voice froze Ned’s blood.

  With sinking dread, Ned turned to see the woman he’d been checking the skies for during his last few days of patrolling simply walking down the street towards them, the charms that hung from her bleached white leather armor clinking as the anachronistic Vikor happily strolled down the city sidewalk.

  “Stormdaughter!” Ned happily called out to her, thankful once again that he’d disabled his eyes’ animations so they didn’t look absolutely terrified.

  As an experiment, I'm attempting to use the tooltip function for annotations, but I'm still not sure I love it. I want your opinions though. Do you like it more than the previous way I've formatted these? Hate the new system? Feel like they're okay but still want the full list down here? Just breeze past them and would rather I use a spoiler tag down here to make the next chapter button come up quicker?

  1. In the 80’s there was a push for armored glass in most civilian vehicles due to a rise in supervillain activity, which led to a disastrous rise in traffic fatalities. These days, only a few vehicles use it, though Safeshatter is still prevalent in most first responder toolkits. Purchase of this chemical is highly controlled.

  2. Retch Gas was a revolution in non lethal armaments, which were heavily researched in the post Great War era, especially with the large scale disarmament of most nations. Remarkable in that it remains effective even underwater, dispersing as a cloudy liquid that spreads quickly, but with biodegradable and non-toxic components, it was adopted by Atlanthea quicker than most surface nations. Notably, the gas has far less effect on the alien respiratory system of the Junean people, which due to their heavier immigration in the post war, space age era, saw the gas’s popularity plummet over the decades.

  3. Despite recent lawsuits, it remains entirely legal for companies in Amera and most of Uropa to make hiring decisions based on super powers, though there are protections in place regarding discrimination against mutations. This leads to a lot of legal grey areas. There are high demands for low levels of superstrength in many blue collar fields, and slow flight or hover powers have numerous practical uses outside of crime fighting.

  4. Sadly, not every villain who has resulted in casualties has open arrest warrants, but the vast majority of them do. Due to the danger manhunts can cause when desperate superpowered individuals are on the run, typically Arrestors only issue warrants when they have significant proof of the crime committed, have the heroes ready and equipped to bring them in, have a specialized cell prepared for the villain’s containment, and have narrowed the search area enough that the arrest can be reasonably contained. There are unofficial “capture on sight” orders among heroes for certain villains known to cause civilian casualties, and there are several heroes that pursue justice on their own and will loop in the Arrestor organizations when they capture a dangerous villain on their own, but typically villains only earn official manhunts under specific circumstances.

  5. Gangs, especially those formed by non-powered individuals, aren’t as common these days as they were before the Great War. They tend to be targeted by both heroes and villains looking to either disband them or co-opt them. Larger criminal organizations which lack villain backing only rarely are able to deal with outside threats for long. Meanwhile, gang members with super powers tend to quickly find that they achieve greater success as full fledged villains or as part of henchmen or mercenary organizations, especially due to the influence of the League of Domination.