Heading toward the second ring, I take a short look at Bobby’s minimap which is also displayed in his HUD. There’s no longer a string of reinforcements arriving to the outer ring and most of the red dots on the space station have split into two groups. A smaller group of 8 is moving across a bridge toward the third ring, no doubt trying to penetrate deeper into the space station where a lot of the controls and more valuable tech components are. The other, bigger group of at least a couple dozen seems to be converging on one of the cargo bays which makes sense - raiders raid. How they think they’re going to get off this space station now that the Birchcombe is here is another story entirely. I wonder if there are cargo ships there to hijack.

  “I’ll hit them hard on the bridge and head for the outer ring. If they’ve got the capability to quickly hijack a ship to escape, we might not be able to make it in time,” I say, and just as I say it I notice the green dots of Brad and Kate heading for the group in the outer ring.

  “I think the Grivoni in the outer ring will have their hands full,” says Dalib. Bobby looks at Dalib questioningly - since I’ve got his HUD and wrist-mounted minimap, and mine was destroyed so I didn’t have one to give him, Bobby’s flying a bit blind at the moment. “Brad and Kate are closing in on them,” Dalib explains, and Bobby nods in response.

  “Best get going, Corvin.” I’m more than happy to leave them behind and take my anger out on something.

  I leverage my increased Attributes to push the PowerSuit far more than I was able to last time and sprint through the corridors at high speed, which gives me more control than I could achieve flying with the thrusters. Seconds tick by and I’m astounded at my physical recovery - I shouldn’t be able to do this right now, even if none of my injuries were catastrophic.

  Soon enough I pound up to the entrance to the bridge and see the Grivoni through the metal and thick glass of the door. They’re surging toward me in surprising time, almost to my location and I’m spotted immediately. Beam weaponry and projectiles splash off the intensely robust construction of the door and bridge itself, causing surface level damage, but no more. I hit the button to open the door and lay down some suppressing beam fire down the hallway then fire two of the PowerSuit’s rockets, which the Grivoni’s magnetic Powers push down into the floor before they can get much momentum. I duck back around the corner as the explosion sends rocket shrapnel flying past my position and into the bridge entry area.

  I take off and thunder forward through the last of the blast then engage the Grivoni in hand to hand combat, using the PowerSuit to its full advantage. The Grivoni’s magnetic Powers and the filaments from their hands and feet can’t contain the amplified physicality of the B Ranked PowerSuit and all their special attacks are neutralized. I crash into them and tear them apart in hand to hand combat, turning the tables and destroying them the same way they dismantled me not long ago. As I break their bodies and end them with highly focused intensity and anger in under a minute, I Reclaim their Soul Sparks and continue on with Dalib and Bobby trailing me. I glance at my minimap and see Brad and Kate have engaged the other Grivoni.

  At the end of the bridge I turn right and continue at high speed down the slightly curved hallway, darting past or smashing through obstacles with my amplified Agility and Strength. Within seconds I feel Soul Sparks form at the edge of my range as Brad and Kate get to work repelling the Grivoni and I pull the Soul Sparks to me from over 200 meters away, Reclaiming them. As I get closer zooming down the hallways, it’s no surprise more Soul Sparks emerge to be Reclaimed - Brad and Kate are in a different league. By the time I get to the clump of red dots, with Brad and Kate on the other side of them, only five Grivoni are left and I flail for a moment as my feet start to slide out from under me.

  I correct almost instantly at high speed with my superhuman Agility and the help of the PowerSuit and slide like a battering ram across the hallway on the ice that Kate must have formed. In fact, now that I have a proper view I can see the Grivoni aren’t moving because they’re frozen solid and the temperature I’m hurtling through must be close to outside the walls in the shadowy space between the station rings. I slam into them like a 5 pin bowling ball and they scatter, flying through the air in their frozen positions and ricocheting off the walls. Two bounce off Brad and spin down the hall past Kate as I emerge into normal temperatures again and sense the Soul Sparks collect from these last five Grivoni. I gladly Reclaim them and slide to a stop not far from my old ‘teammates’. They’re relaxed and not even breathing hard, though neither am I despite all the running. I check my Stamina - it’s still half full and ticking up quickly.

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  “Not as crazy as last time, Calrik,” comments Brad. “I’m disappointed.”

  “You didn’t feel like blowing them up?” asks Kate. I retract the helmet back into the body of the PowerSuit.

  “Not in the mood” I say, and it’s true. I don’t care if I understand it on some level, being attacked by your own teammates is fucked up. There’s carnage all around and nothing that looks that useful.

  Kate looks slightly concerned and Brad brushes it off. You couldn’t get two more polar opposite expressions on two people with vastly different personalities and heights. Bobby and Dalib arrive at an easy jog and nothing more is said about what happened, though Kate gives Bobby a bit of a look while Dalib huffs at the Grivoni popsicles that I feel like stomping on until they shatter. Fucking aliens attacking us - isn’t the Universe big enough for everyone?

  “PowerSuit please, Corvin,” says Bobby. It’s polite, but firm.

  I open it up right away and emerge, still covered in blood with rips everywhere in my jumpsuit. Brad laughs and Kate eyes me for a second like she wants to make sure my injuries aren’t going to cause me to collapse, or… maybe she’s just looking at the bloody, messy streaks I’ve left inside Bobby’s armor. Bobby holds out his arm to me, looking me in the eye, but I exit his armor without taking it. Bobby presses something on the PowerSuit and it closes for a couple of seconds, then opens again clean as if I’d never been in it.

  “Captain Reyes might have something different to say about it, but there’s nobody else on the Birchcombe that thinks you’re a danger to humanity,” says Dalib. I’m not sure if he’s trying to make me feel better about what Bobby’s done or not, but if so it doesn’t work. Dalib continues.

  “Now this space station is clear, the first part of the Birchcombe’s mission is done. We need to go protect a colony, but you don’t need to be there. I’m happy to recommend to Captain Reyes that you can stay on the ship.”

  I look out through the force field in the cargo bay at the stars and consider. My view of what I want to do and who I want to associate with has changed. I hold my tongue because everyone around me is so much more powerful, but I’ll never trust them again and I’m determined to find my own path; to grow my Power to the point nobody can do something like this to me again. Fuck - now I sound just like a Supervillain.

  I need to leave no doubt that I’m not a threat that needs to be watched, or taken out. I want to get on with doing what Heroes do, and not be caught up in all of this. And I need to find opportunities to build up my Soul Sparks.

  “I’ll go.”

  Aoife appears, rocketing through space in her full PowerSuit with a troop transport alongside her. Not far from us, metal screeches through the hallway as the breaching capsule we arrived on is pulled out of the space station and is launched back toward the Birchcombe in the distance.

  “You’re not really high Ranked enough,” says Dalib. “C Ranked, maybe. It will be dangerous. But if you want to go, I’ll watch your back. And this time, there’s no reason in the Universe I can think of to stand down.” As he finishes saying it, his eyes are on Bobby rather than me and I see both Kate and Brad slide a bit closer to their teammate. There’s a hardness there I don’t normally see in Dalib along with his oversized confidence. It wouldn’t be the first time ESF and EDF troopers have gone at it.

  “Our duty is to protect all of humanity,” Bobby says as the troop transport enters the cargo bay, its shield temporarily merging with the space station shield to maintain atmospheric integrity. I know it’s his assignment, but it sounds like an excuse for doing something he had no reason to. Dalib just grunts and turns to the troop transport. I follow him closely.

  “What the fuck happened back there?” Brad asks Bobby, confusion in his voice.

  I don’t hear the answer as Dalib and I step into the troop transport and the door closes behind us, leaving the rest to make it back to the Birchcombe with their PowerSuits.

  I sit down heavily on one of the metal benches as Dalib watches out the front window, arms crossed. I expect him to say something, but he doesn’t. Maybe someone like him has seen a lot of shit and this is just another thing - probably he would prefer to be back on the Horizon to babysitting me, but he doesn’t complain either.

  “Hey Dalib - thanks,” I say. He turns to me.

  “You’re inconsequential, Calrik. That’s the truth of it. But what Lieutenant Brookwell did wasn’t right and also, I owe Kaltor.”

  “You owe him enough to help me out in a way I think only you can?” I ask. It maybe crosses the line, but an idea has been forming in my head about something I want to try.

  “Other than a suicide mission, yeah,” he replies. “Kaltor taught me how to use my Powers in ways I never would have thought of, and he asked me to do this.”

  “He mentioned I could learn a lot from you,” I say.

  “Yeah, you could,” Dalib agrees, and turns back to the front of the transport where we are rapidly approaching the Birchcombe. It doesn’t take long for Aoife to use her Power to dock us to the Birchcombe and we disembark, ready to report to Captain Reyes.