෴Doktor Midnight෴

෴Mark Walcott෴

෴Cindi Walcott෴

෴Jim Hunter෴

෴Chris Redding෴

෴Bill Redding෴

෴Paolo Garcia෴

෴Tiffany Kersey෴

෴Jill Davidson෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Helping Hands

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Midnight crouched down next to the man holding the tourniquet in place to examine Mark’s injury. “You’re Jim, right? Good job keeping your head under pressure. Speaking of, I’m sure you know to keep the pressure on that tourniquet.”

Jim nodded.

Midnight knelt down by Mark’s stump. The tendril of metal following his hand that connected to the entire dome lit up. He used the light to visually inspect the wound. “I think we lucked out a bit, that beam of hers had enough of a heat component that the wound is mostly cauterized.” The stump oozed blood.

Cindi looked aghast, her breathing fast and shallow. “Lucked out? His leg is gone!” she was starting to hyperventilate.

Midnight stood up and faced her, glancing just above her head for an instant. “Cindi, I need you to stay with me here. He’s alive, and if we move fast, I can keep him that way. I know what they call me but I’m not a medical doctor, so I—and more importantly Mark—need you to stay calm and focussed. This is a bad situation, but if we stick together here, I can fix your husband. Cindi, I can fix his leg, but we need to get out of here first.”

He took a cautious half step toward her. “But first we need to get out of here. The dome is getting overheated, right now it’s all I can do to convince the metals to hold their shape. So I need you to take a deep breath, stay calm, and cool down the dome. High temp oxidization is costing me a lot of metal up there. The dome is already very thin and it won't hold that incendiary mix out much longer at this temperature. We need to go now, and we can’t wait for it to cool on its own.”

The dull roar of the flames surrounding them on all sides. The whistling sound of air and flame above them was no longer deafening. Cindi clutched her husband’s booted foot to her chest and looked up at the glowing ceiling.

A soft sound of exertion came from the woman as she cooled the metal. The dome’s bright cherry red color dimmed to orange and then stopped glowing. Midnight grunted himself, working hard to keep the dome stable as the temperature of the metal plummeted. When the glow died down, the light inside the dome was reduced down to the three soldier’s weapon lights pressed firmly to the ground along with the soldiers.

“I need a rest, that's all I can do,” she gasped and sat down hard.

Midnight checked the dome. “That was good. You must have a truly powerful manifestation of that thermal control ability. It feels like pulling that heat out was enough to start killing off the fire that's on the dome itself. I’ll check it.”

A small opening appeared near the top of the dome, Dancing firelight shone into the dome. Midnight opened the hole like a slow giant iris while he verified the fire was not going to threaten anyone inside.

“Really good work there Cindi, the metal isn’t even hot anymore.” The metal dome collapsed into a ring that flowed like iridescent black water over him, covering his body in the familiar Doktor Midnight armor.

He activated his comms. “Norns, what’s the situation?”

“Chopper is still heading away from the target zone. No other missiles detected. If they see you out there, that could change fast.”

“Thanks, Paolo, and that's true, but I’ve got company coming back with me, and injured. Let me know if something changes.”

“Will do. I got that upload, what do you want done with it?”

“Send it over to intel. I didn’t meet any of these people last time and I need to know more about them before trusting them with more power.”

“Got it, I’ll set them up for a deep dig on all of them. Good luck out there.”

Midnight disconnected the call and returned to speaking with the group.

“Lost a fair bit of metal mass there. Too much heat over too much surface area.” He looked around. His gaze fell on the empty suit of sheet metal armor Chris had been using. With a gesture and a flex of will, the metal flowed to him and joined the mass that made up his armor. The surface rippled like liquid mixing in the new metal until it evened out and returned to its gloss black appearance.

“Low-quality material, and still not going to be quite enough.” He looked at the soldiers lying on the ground. “Gentlemen, I’d appreciate it if you would remove your sidearms, knives, and batons if you have them and set them all by your rifles. I don’t want any of you making a life-ending decision, so just do what I said right now, and for your own sake don’t do anything stupid.”

The three soldiers exchanged glances. The one that seemed to be in charge nodded to the other two. All three of them set their weapons and tools on the ground.

“Thanks, this might be enough.” Midnight put out a hand and looked at the gear. The pile of gear lifted into the air and crunched together as though in a powerful compactor. The entire mass of metals and plastics appeared to grind itself on itself, with chunks of plastic and other non-metal materials falling out of the grinding mass. “Oh, brass and lead, don't need that in the mix.” A small pile of ammunition fell out of the floating mass of metal.

Midnight looked at the Redding brothers. “Can you two work with nonferrous materials?”

Both brothers shook their heads.

“That’s too bad. I wouldn't mind the help right about now. Ferrokinesis is a good start, but too limited and force-based. You end up work hardening your material too fast, not to mention it's such an energy hog at that level. Once you get up to Metalopathy, that's where it starts getting incredibly handy. If you two work out, we’ll get you there.” Midnight said to the Redding brothers as he manipulated the cluster of metal into a smaller and smaller clump until it became a solid looking chunk.

Midnight inspected the ball floating before him. Even in the armor, his uncertainty was clear in his posture. “That might work,” he said, his tone dubious.

“I’m going to make a kind of sled. Everyone who is coming along needs to get on it, seated around Mark, who will be in the middle. It’s going to be a rough ride, but I don’t know how long we have before our friendly neighborhood government overlords send in another missile or worse.”

The mass of metal flattened out into a thin sheet with folded up and rounded sides. Material flowed from his armor to supplement the construction. Within a few seconds, the form of a wide trough-like cargo sled with a shallow raised indent in the center had formed and set down onto the ground.

“Jim, help me load Mark into the cradle.”

They loaded the injured man into the form-fitting bed as gently as they could. The ridges around Mark rose further, creating a protective barrier around him and forming rounded slots for handholds.

“Everyone that's coming, get in. Hold tight to the handgrips, we don’t have time for this to be an easy ride.”

Cindi and Jim got in first, taking seats near Mark’s injury. The Redding brothers took seats by her.

Midnight sat down on one end of the sled. He pointed at one of the three soldiers. “Lucas, are you coming?”

One of the other soldiers glared at Lucas. “How does he know your name?” his tone harsh and accusatory.

Midnight cut that line of questioning off. “The same way I know your name is Phil, and your sergeant there is named Matthew, but goes by Matty. Lucas, are you coming? The fire is dying down and we don't have much time before they check for weapon effectiveness.”

Lucas jumped up and got into the sled. The other occupants regarded him coldly.

Lucas settled in awkwardly. “Sorry folks, I didn’t want to be here either.”

The others in the sled remained wary, except for Cindi, who only had eyes for Mark.

A portion of Midnight’s armor flowed off him and formed a low windscreen at the front of the sled.

One of the soldiers spoke up. “Hey man, can you restrain us or something? We’re expected to resist to the last, but we all know that's not realistic.”

Midnight nodded. The bullet casings on the ground leaped into the air and pushed together into a ball. “Hold up your hands. This might be a bit uncomfortable,” he said.

The floating metal split into two small spheres, then flowed into two rivulets of floating brass. It formed into a thin pair of solid metal cuffs on both men.

“That’ll have to do. We’re out of here,” Midnight said.

The sled rose silently into the air. Hugging the walls and buildings, Midnight made his best time through the city in the flat black floating sled.

On the way to the safe house, he activated his comms. “Norns, what's the status?”

Paolo came back on the line. “Sir, no air pursuit detected. Our drones swarmed and eliminated a pair of military drones, but no manned aircraft in the area aside from normal civilian commercial flights. We tracked the first missile back to its launcher, and that location is marked and under surveillance. I’ll let you know immediately if it fires again.”

Midnight allowed himself a tiny breath of relief. “Well, that's a break. Ok, Paolo, I need Adele to get me a portal back home as soon as possible. Directly to the surgery would be best. If she’s up for it that is, I’ve made the vehicle able to pass through a six-foot portal.”

Paolo stammered. “Uh, sir, that, well, that. I’m not sure how-”

“This is an emergency. Just get her now!”

“Well yeah, that's what I mean, I uh.” he trailed off.

“Whatever it is, spit it out!” Midnight barked at the Norn.

“Well, sir, she isn’t here,” Paolo said in a nervous voice.

His tense shoulders relaxed inside the armor. “Oh, well that’s fine. Just call her now, tell her the situation and have her gate back to the base surgery room, and then call me when she’s ready to make me a door so I can stop and wait for it.”

“That's, uh. That's the problem. She can't be reached with a normal phone. She took Marcus and Javier and went somewhere,” he blurted out.

“Somewhere she can't be called?” His annoyed tone put every passenger in the sled on alert.

“Yes, sir. She said she left you a message about it,” Paulo said.

“Damn it. I haven’t exactly had time to check my mail. We don’t have anyone else with a gate ability nearly as good. Is there anyone who can make a stable human usable gate this far away?”

“I’ll check sir.”

Less than thirty seconds later he returned. “No sir, no one else is even close on projected gates. Emily’s sister, um, Sasha, can safely ‘port that far, but she’s only safe for self-transport right now.”

He gritted his teeth. “Fine, I’ll figure something else out.” The safe house, tucked away in the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta, came into view.

“Paolo, if you are able to get a message to her in any way, let her know I need her here ASAP. Got it?”

“Got it, sir.”

Midnight cut the connection and caused the floating sled to slip under the awning of the rear deck at the safe house. Once it settled onto the deck he stood up.

“Ok, everybody out.”

The passengers got out as the curved walls and windscreen flowed back into a large cube of metal and floated over to the concrete pad beneath the deck. Jim had cautiously let go of the tourniquet, but no blood appeared to be leaking.

The remains of the sled cradled Mark and lifted him to waist height.

The backdoor of the safe house opened and two women came outside. They recognized Doktor Midnight and hustled everyone inside.

“Ladies, I think I recall one of you is a nurse. I really hope you have a healing ability. We have a patient that's lost a leg to a thermokinetic beam. I’m running low on energy so I can’t help as much as I’d like.”

The younger looking one nodded. “Of course Sir,” she looked at the other woman. “Tiffany, why don't you take our other guests inside and let them get comfortable.”

Midnight snapped his fingers. “Has this building been faraday retrofitted?”

Tiffany nodded. “Yes, just last year.” She led the way out of the room. “If you’d all come with me, Jill will take care of this man.”

Everyone but Cyndi followed her. Midnight looked at her resolute expression. “You can either sit in the corner and watch in silence or go downstairs and relax, clean up, with them. You’re all safe from the explosives in here, and we’ll deal with getting them out once your husband is up and around on both feet again.”

Cyndi’s expression flashed from anguish to hope and then back to anguish again. “How? How can you even offer that?”

Midnight shook his head. “No more questions. Watch in silence or go downstairs with the others.”

Jill looked at the armored man with an expression of reverent admiration tinged with awe. “Sir, is anyone else injured? I can do minor things first, but once I do this, I won't have anything left for at least a full day. If I run dry I can’t even activate it until I have a meal and a night's sleep.”

“Got to get you on an energy regen path. But no, nothing worth mentioning. Feel free to use everything you’ve got on him.”

Jill knelt down next to Mark and placed her hands around the stump. “Waiting won't make this any easier, I’m going to get started now. I’ve actually never worked on such a severe injury.”

“I have confidence you can handle it. Aim for full recovery over fast recovery. Let me know if you run low on energy. I’m low on energy myself, but I can share some energy with you or help directly, at least a little.” Midnight dropped into a cross-legged seated position next to Jill.

She didn't reply. If anything her gaze at the wound grew more intent. An almost subliminal whining filled the room, like a high pitched sound just beyond what they could hear. The sensation that was not quite a sound intensified, growing heavy in the room.

“You’re leaking all over the place, focus on keeping the energy confined to the target area.” He murmured in a soothing tone.

The pressure and the feeling that was not quite a sound decreased. The feeling in the room relaxed a bit. Cyndi let out a breath she didn't realize she’d been holding.

Jill took a shaky breath. “Can you keep him from bleeding? I need to remove the belt.”

“I’ll get the belt and keep the blood in. It feels like he has four, no five arteries there. Ok, I’ve got them gently pinched closed. You just worry about that leg, and let me know when I can let go of the blood vessels,” he replied.

The metal belt buckle came apart and fell to the floor beside them. Midnight pulled the belt off and set it down.

Jill’s body stiffened. Her breath quickened. Seconds later sweat was pouring down her face. Without moving an inch she was clearly expending an enormous amount of energy. The surface of the stump seemed to ripple and then stabilize.

Tiffany bustled back in. She took in the two people working on the injury and then the woman sitting in the corner clutching a bloody foot in a boot.

She gently led Cynthia out of the room and downstairs to join the others.

On the other side of the world, Paolo wracked his brain for ways to get a message to Adele and finally had an idea. He signed off his post and went to look for Tony.

෴Reginald Martine෴

෴Candace 'Candy' Remington෴

Reginald Martine disliked quite a few things. Tardiness and sloth were both high on that list. This dislike explained the scowl on his face. His data report was late. That alone would have been intolerable. The late report making him late for his daily workout simply escalated the offense into the unforgivable. He sat at his desk alone in one of his offices.

The office looked stark and even spartan at first glance. Upon further inspection, a distinguishing eye might detect the exquisite craftsmanship in every item in the room. A deeper examination might reveal the assortment of concealed technology that ranged from high-end computers with advanced biometrics to incredibly overpowered anti-personnel defense systems and an escape tunnel. But probably not, it was all concealed very effectively, and no one would be allowed to survive searching that office.

Dr. Martine was vibrating with fury when his phone finally rang. He inhaled to begin the call by venting his fury before seeing that the call came from his assistant Candace. He closed his eyes, took a deep calming breath and did his best to drive the anger from himself before picking up the phone. She started speaking before he said anything.

“Thanks for the effort dear. I know you’re still mad, but don’t think I don’t notice and appreciate you trying.” Her cliched bimbo secretary affectation often amused him. Today Reginald found it grated on his already fraying nerves.

Showing why she was the best assistant he could have ever wanted, the ‘Candy’ persona vanished instantly, smoothly shifting into ‘Candace’. Her tone and had he been watching, entire body language shifted from playful and light-hearted to that of a cool and frighteningly efficient professional.

“I project that you’re going to get a call from listening post Delta. I’m aware that you’re upset about the late report. I’ll be blunt. I urge you to let that go and hear the poor man out. He’s sitting at his desk torn between your directives to track the communications, and preparing full reports for all unusual events, and doing all that while fully knowing that you expected a report 10 minutes ago. You should see how fast he’s working. It’s quite impressive.”

Reginald ground his teeth. “In everything you just told me, I did not hear anything in what you said that indicates why I should let this go. Punctuality in reporting is one of my top rules for these data-gathering sites.”

“Of course sir. I don’t have all the details, or I’d just tell you. What I can say, is that there were some significant events right before the normal report is to be sent in, and he knows you would not want to wait another day to hear about them. The other is that I already took the liberty of pushing your training session and your final meeting of the day forward an hour. In fact, as that final meeting is with me, consider it pushed as far forward as needed.”

Dr. Martine sighed. “Well, as usual, Candace, you have everything figured out. How long have I got till the report gets here?”

She chuckled, “Well, that is my specialty. The report is being decrypted now, and he is dialing your number right now. I’ll see you at our meeting, sir,” she ended the call.

Martine gently placed the phone in the cradle and held it there until the ringer activated a second later.

“Pardon my tardiness Dr. Martine. This is Jacob Vanson in signal operations.”

“Vanson. Your report is late. You know how I feel about that. However, today you can call me an optimist. I have the feeling your delay will have been well worth it, and you’ll make me glad to have waited.” Martine leaned back into his chair and waited for the reply.

The man on the other end of the line sounded completely flummoxed by this calm greeting. “Um, yes sir. I actually do have something you’ll want to see right away. Two main things. The first is that we’ve got the final signal trace to triangulate the source of the transmissions we’re looking for.”

Martine sat forward in his chair, his eyes widening. “You’re telling me you have a target location?”

Vanson swallowed audibly. “Well, he personally is far too mobile to track this way. But we’ve located what I believe is a base of operations for him.”

Martine clenched his jaw. “Damn. I hate to go after something with so much potential for innocent collateral damage.”

Reginald seemed to forget the phone was in his hand for a moment and just muttered to himself. “I have to weigh the potential cost against the whole of humanity. I can’t afford to shy away from hard decisions.”

He sat in the silent room, lost in thought for nearly a minute before Vanson cleared his throat.

“The location telemetry is included with the packet I sent you. The second information is related if you’re ready for it,” he said, his tone hesitant.

“It’s not in the report?” Martine asked brusquely.

“This information doesn't fit the report structure and is only tangentially related.”

Martine tapped at his desk, looking through the signal data. “Ok then, tell me what you’ve detected.”

“The unguarded anomaly in Africa just reached one meter across. The second it hit that size, it started releasing some kind of pulse that every other anomaly is responding to. To put it short and clear, all the anomalies are now expanding at a greater rate. We don’t have any way to know this, but our guess is that if a second one reaches broadcast size, as we’ve been calling it, the growth rate will be much faster than any world military can handle. Some of us are also wondering if the Africa anomaly will hit a second threshold size, and who knows what will happen then?”

Reginald closed his eyes and thought about this. “Wait, you said it was tangentially related to the triangulation duty. How so?”

“Well sir, as you know, the encryption in use by the target has proven unbreakable so far. However, now that we know where they are, we can track signal density and stream count.”

“I know the difference between triangulation based on emitted signals and decryption. What are you getting at?” Martine’s clenched jaw and terse tone made it clear that his patience was wearing thin.

“It was a stroke of luck. We’d triangulated the location minutes before the news bulletin revealed this information. This put us in a good position to watch the volume data in and output to this location greatly increase. We were only tracking the one location, but this is confirmation that the facility in question is at the very least more than it appears.”

Martine’s face broke into a rare smile. “Vanson, thank you for putting this together. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else from you.”

He ended the call and dialed Candace.

She picked up before it rang. “Hi boss, what can I do for you?”

“Must we play this game? Fine. I’d like you to get-” He paused, trying to recall the man’s name.

“I’ve got McAvoy on the line waiting for you.” She transferred to him to the held call.

“McAvoy here, what can I do for you?”

“I’ve sent you a target coordinate. I need to make an airstrike happen. How hard can you hit a single target on short notice?” Martine asked.

“I’ve got the file. Ok. I see the structure. As for how hard we can hit it, I’d need to know your acceptable collateral damage and anything else you know about the target. That building looks like it could easily be hardened and extend quite a ways underground. So how hard is a good question. How far are you willing to go?”

Martine rested his head in his hand. “Not all the way. Nothing nuclear, and no chemical. Short of that, whatever it takes to wipe the target from the map without any civilian cost. Whatever it costs to get the job done, but no collateral damage.”

“Ok, I can tell you right now, you’ve greatly narrowed the field. With nukes and fuel-air off the table, I’ll have to look into our options to see what we can deliver to hit the target as hard as we can. Lastly, you said short notice, so I’ll need your required time frame, and most importantly, the invoice I send over will need to be paid in full,” McAvoy said.

“I’ll get all that to you. Just be ready to get it done.” Martine ended the call.

On the way to his workout, Reginald couldn’t suppress troubled thoughts about this course of action.

෴Darby O’Cellan෴

෴Wilson Meyers෴

෴Hex෴

෴Roland ‘Rex’ Koenig෴

෴Cade ‘Barricade’ Williams෴

෴Jim ‘Blink’ Thorpe෴

෴Phillipe ‘Fugue’ Dormire෴

෴Frank ‘Ringo’ Star෴

෴Fidel Chavez෴

෴Lisa ‘Zoom’ Evans෴

෴Richard ‘Rhino’ Sanderson෴

෴Chris ‘Chrome’ Johanssen෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Assault

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Wilson finished setting up his primary and fallback Overwatch locations. His primary position was set across the empty lot from Rex. Both of the locations overlooked the area WD40 planned to attack. Between the two snipers, they had near-total visibility of the building and a view of all entrances.

Wilson watched his people moving into position, smiling as they moved with speed and precision. He was proud of them and glad for all the training and drills they’d all put in. He keyed the Overwatch channel that included Hex.

“Rex, how is it looking from there, need anything from me?”

“I wouldn’t mind a Coke,” Rex replied.

“Everyone’s a fucking comedian,” Wilson muttered without the voice comms enabled. He pursed his lips and waited another few seconds.

“I’m in position, view of the oblique side on my left isn't as good as I’d like, but I’m all the way at the corner of this building so it's not going to get any better. I have good visibility of the predicted engagement area all the way to the comms truck,” Rex said.

“Good deal. I can see the comms truck. I have the laser painter if things get really hot down there. Did you pack heavy?” Wilson asked.

“I did. Got my normal heavy rifle and Big-B with me, with enough anti-material ammo to put a hurting on just about anyone. If nothing else, Chrome and I have been working on something special. I hope we get to show it off to you,” Rex said with a laugh.

“Sounds good. Keep your eyes open for flanking or anything hinky. You see anything bad, go to town. Otherwise, wait for my order before lighting things up.”

“You got it, boss.”

Wilson keyed on Hex. “Questions?”

Hex didn’t miss a beat. “Sure, did you know that getting hurt or killed is a horrible experience and that at this point any of my selves that die won't be replaceable for quite a while?”

Wilson grunted. “I suspected that might be the case. I’m not sure why the change of heart, but being willing to take on more of the high-risk work is something we all appreciate. But that's not the kind of questions I meant.”

“I know, just don’t get used to it, and we’re good to go,” she answered.

Wilson shook his head and scanned the area. “Hammer, move in. Fugue, get to work on the guards. Cade, do your thing and get us fortified.”

Fireteam Hammer moved in closer. Wilson could see the effects of Barricade’s ability at work in several places. The parking lot concrete cracked and buckled then flowed upwards forming a series of cover points resembling K rails emerging from the parking lot.

“Hammer is in position. Not a lot of sentient security, putting the fog out over the facility now.” Fugue announced into the comms. “Um, just a fyi, there is a non-human intelligence inside. Fogging it along with the rest.”

Wilson gave Hammer another few seconds, watching as Rhino positioned himself at the far edge of a barrier.

“Darby, Chrome, Ringo, you’re our counters. Stay in cover and assist Hammer, but be ready to engage your target if and when they appear.”

Several radio clicks came in rapid succession, indicating an acknowledgment.

“Blink, plant breaching charges on both our entry points.”

Wilson struggled to keep Blink in view as he flickered into position by the front door, stuck some charges and then vanished to a spot Wilson didn't see but would have guessed to be somewhere that gave him a good view of the side door. A second later he was at the door planting the second set of charges.

Wilson felt a cool wave of displaced air from behind him.

“That's done Boss,” Blink breathed in his ear.

Wilson glanced back at Blink. “Good work, now stop being creepy.”

Blink smiled and vanished. His voice came over the comms. “Charges in place. Big and loud up front, surgical thermite gel on the back door.” Blink continued to talk, but his tone changed to that of someone talking to themselves. “Hope Razor gets well soon, she’d have been really handy for that back door.”

Wilson glanced at his comm control and activated a private line to Blink. “You’re on vox, turn it to PTT if you’re going to be talking to yourself.” Blink didn’t reply.

Wilson looked down at the side door, spotting two Hex’s getting to cover for the side breach.

“Breaching in five.” Hex announced.

Wilson watched everyone ducking a little lower into cover and on the count of five heard and felt the sharp crack-thud of the breaching charge going off.

Fugue came on the comms “Lost my grip on several minds. They know we’re here.”

Several members of team Hammer tossed flash-bang and gas grenades into the breached entryway.

Both Hex’s at the rear of the building moved to lower the now frameless side door to the ground before it fell.

A fast-moving streak bolted out of the building. Wilson struggled to follow her on the wider scope. “Darby you’re up.”

Darby clicked the radio and moved to engage. Several hits in a row from his rifle got her irritated attention. Zoom looked at the fireteam and then back at Darby standing alone with his rifle and charged him. With his hyper reflexes engaged, he sidestepped her charge with ease. Wilson could already tell she was too fast. Darby’s hyper reactions alone wouldn’t be enough.

Zoom tried to turn around for another charge. She continued on in her original direction and tripped at the unexpected inertia. She rolled across the pavement and smashed through the wall of a neighboring building.

“Got your back, Darbs.” Ringo’s voice came over the radio.

“Stay sharp, if she can shrug off the AP rounds like that she’s still in the fight,” Wilson said.

Wilson looked back at the entrance and spotted several forms running to get into cover positions within the building. A broad muscular man walked out through the smoke. He zoomed in and verified it was Fidel.

“Chrome, he’s all yours,” Wilson announced.

Chrome unbuckled and dropped his combat harness, leaving his metal form naked aside from a durable magnetic comms unit. He gently leaned his rifle against the barricade and advanced as Fidel shrugged off the rifle fire from the fire team.

“Hammer, leave him to Chrome and Rex. I see other guards taking a position inside.”

Hex came over the radio. “I’m inside the side door, we appear to be undetected so far.”

Wilson checked on Chrome to spot him sprinting at Fidel.

Fidel smashed Chrome with a two-handed upwards chop. Chrome flew back into a barricade and turned it into chunks of concrete and sand. Fidel rubbed his hands together like they were injured.

Wilson couldn’t hear it, but something about the way he popped back to his feet and gestured at Fidel made him think Chrome had just asked Fidel “That all you got?”

Fidel clenched his fists and charged at Chrome. Red flames burst from his hands. He struck at his shiny target. Chrome dodged and slipped past him, hitting Fidel on the back of the neck with a hard chop like a hit from a sledgehammer. Fidel staggered but didn’t go down. He whipped around to re-engage with Chrome.

Wilson checked back on Darby and saw the tide had shifted in Zoom’s favor. She had closed the distance on Darby and was using her speed abilities to make the fight a slugfest. Darby’s reactions allowed him to dodge the hits but his return strikes didn’t appear to fase the woman at all.

Ringo wasn’t helping, when Wilson checked on the fire team, he saw Ringo was having his own problems. Several guards were spraying his position with suppressive fire while one moved laterally toward a flanking position. Wilson snapped a shot at the security guard moving around to flank Ringo. The guard fell to the ground and went still. Wilson fired once more to be sure. “Ringo, took your flanker down, help the counters if you can.”

Darby took a glancing blow that nearly took him off his feet.

“Darby, gild her now.” Wilson barked into the radio.

Darby activated his ability at full power and Zoom’s attacks faltered and then stopped. She stood there looking at Darby with a wistful half-smile on her face as her world folded down into an intense internal experience. Wilson suspected she was having the deep epiphany that Darby was the love of her life, the sexiest man alive, and the hunk of her dreams who she’d been waiting and searching for her whole life.

Hex gasped into the radio. “Whoa” she panted audibly into the mic, “I’m getting that pretty hard way over here in the truck. Turn that down when you get a chance Darling, I mean Darby,” she said, her tone uncommonly low and throaty.

Wilson breathed a sigh of relief and looked over to Chrome. Aside from the damage to the parking lot where Fidel looked to have slammed Chrome into the concrete in several places, Chrome appeared unharmed and was grappling with Fidel. Fidel was clearly having a hard time holding onto his smooth opponent. Chrome was having no such trouble.

Chrome slithered out of Fidel’s grip. He climbed around Fidel and got behind him. Wilson watched as Chrome wrestled Fidel into a reasonable submission hold. Chrome whispered into the comms. “Ring the bell.”

Rex responded with a round to Fidel’s head. Wilson watched Chrome drop the limp Fidel.

“Stay on him Rex, he’s stunned but not out of the fight.” Chrome reported.

“Roger that. Switching to Big-B in case he gets back up.” Rex replied.

Rhino came on the comms. “Conventional security is thinning out. Frontal entry is a go.”

“Infiltration in progress, no sign of VIP yet.” Hex reported. “Wait, Blink found a downed guard. There may be someone else in play here.”

Darby was standing over Zoom’s kneeling figure. He let out a sigh and his shoulders relaxed a touch. Darby secured the last piece of the heavy custom restraint system, finishing securing her. She was still looking up at him with bedroom eyes and saying something Wilson couldn’t hear.

“Zoom is out of the fight,” Darby reported.

“We need a set of those that will work on this guy.” Chrome muttered into the radio.

“Watch the chatter,” Wilson said. Chrome was wrapping more chains around the stunned Fidel.

Darby jogged back to the armored command trailer.

The radio crackled. “Hammer falling back. We’ve encountered an enhanced. Could be Braithwaite, some kind of kinetic ability that includes absorption. He’s fast. Didn’t get a good look. Weapon fire totally ineffective. Hard countered Rhino. Flash and smoke grenades deployed for fall back. He’s in a lab coat, does not appear to be following. Landed a gps beacon on his last known position.”

“Hex, call in the client. Give him the beacon code or coordinates. We’ll let him do some heavy lifting for us,” Wilson ordered.

“Calling client now. Blink got surprised by a guard. The guard doesn't seem enhanced but he got Blink a good one with a stun baton. VIP may have slipped past us. If so, there is nothing preventing him from getting outside and getting caught up in the firefight.”

Wilson swore. “Blink, if you can handle the situation, let me know. I need Hex on the VIP. Chrome, can you help?”

Chrome didn’t answer. Wilson looked to see Fidel up and using the chains to choke the silvery man. The two were spinning and grappling but Fidel had the upper hand this time.

“Can’t get a shot for a bell ringer,” Rex reported.

“I got this, Rex, support Hammer.” Rhino’s voice came over the comms.

Rhino sprinted toward the grappling pair.

“I have dealt with the guard, but more have arrived. Hex, go check if the VIP got past us.” Blink reported.

Wilson checked on Darby and saw him at the command trailer grabbing some equipment near Hex four.

Rhino reached his fastest sprint and at the last second Chrome went limp in Fidel’s grip and left Fidel with the choice of letting him go or supporting Chrome’s massive dead weight.

Fidel kept his grip on Chrome and shifted so he had the silvery man’s neck in his hands and lifted Chrome as high as he could, leaving Chrome’s toes brushing the ground. Fidel glanced to his left just in time to see Rhino hit him.

Chrome fell and rolled to his feet. Fidel flew back in a shallow arc until he hit the concrete wall of a building a block away. Chrome got up and looked at Fidel’s still form before he turned to Rhino. “Rhino and I are heading over to see if this guy needs more persuasion. Rex, you still supporting Hammer?”

“Affirmative.”

Hex spoke up on the comms. “Client coming in hot. ETA 30 seconds. If you’re not Chrome or Trit-,” She paused for a fraction of a second. “If you’re not Chrome, get behind a barricade now.’