Mercury arrived in Streamrock from the west at nightfall. He parked his car in a mostly empty lot and stepped out to take in the city now surrounding him. The unmasked but costumed hero was unimpressed by the buildings visible in the fading light. There was a certain quality to places that could be ascertained from observing the quality of maintenance in their far reaching properties, and the old cinema he’d stopped by was decades out of date.

This place must have had lofty aspirations in the past. Of course, any aspirations relating to growth, as far as population and cities went, were well and truly dead all across the world.

That the last movie screened at the old cinema was Dangerous and Retired: Extraction seemed fitting. The thought of the final movie in a campy series starring old celebrities being the last movies screened at a shitty cinema in what may as well be butt fuck nowhere brought a small smirk to Mercury’s face. But that wasn’t what he was here for.

While the hero may have been alone, he was in territory belonging to a supervillain gang called the Bad Dogs. The name still made him chuckle. Mercury had taken part in, or more accurately witnessed a meeting where the decision was made to travel through this gang’s territory rather than risk going through where it was suspected the Courtesans were active.

Would’ve been better to come from the other side. Mercury complained tiredly to himself as he clicked the button to open the boot. More gangs means more chaos. And the Junkrats would’ve been a fucking joke. But no, he was to transport his cargo through the very well established gang with the most territory and manpower. Hopefully those numbers wouldn’t equate to coordination.

There was a briefcase lying on the floor of the boot. Next to it was a square container that Mercury picked up first, putting the earbuds inside on and hitting the button that keyed him into the network.

“We just got a new contact on the line. Mercury, is that you?” A burst of static at the start of that noise made Mercury wince, but he nodded to nothing nonetheless.

“Yeah, it’s me. Who am I speaking to?” He picked up the briefcase and found the cuff already attached. The thing was locked to his arm as the person on the other end introduced himself. It wouldn’t come off until he made the delivery or lost his arm.

The man speaking in Mercury’s ear introduced himself as Caligariman and moved on to provide the tactical support Mercury didn’t really need. “We’ve patrolled the area you’ll be moving through and found no more activity than normal. You’re cleared to approach.”

“So you’re telling me you put more activity than normal in the area I’m supposed to go through?” Mercury asked to no reply. “Great. Thanks, buddy.”

“GPS is not active.” Caligariman said, a burst of static making Mercury flinch again. “Turn it on before moving.”

Mercury gave an exaggerated sigh before thumbing the screen on the briefcase that would stop Caligariman from speaking to him. A small green bar filled, and it flashed blue, and Caligariman didn’t even say thank you. Something for Mercury to be bitter about while quietly being thankful to be left alone.

He did not even tell the hero on the other end he was moving after slamming the car boot shut and locking the car as he walked away. All Mercury did was sink down half an inch into the concrete of the carpark and suddenly he was moving faster than his steady gait would have suggested.

After passing two blocks with nothing happening, Mercury grew bored enough to initiate conversation with Caligariman, static be damned. “So who exactly is looking out for me tonight? They glossed over that in the briefings.”

A pulse of static preluded Caligariman’s dry explanation. “Out in the field tonight we have Ace, Last Card, Accrue, Inclined, and-”

“You guys have Inheritor, right?” Mercury cut in. “This is where she lives?”

There was a pause before Caligariman answered. Thankfully, he didn’t release the button he was using for push-to-talk, so no burst of static came through. “Yes, Streamrock is the city where Inheritor lives and works.”

“Well, pass on that I saw her work in L.A. Impressive stuff. I want to do some power testing stuff with her while I’m here as well.”

There was a prolonged pause before another burst of static hurt Mercury’s ear. “I have made a note.”

“Shit, thanks man. I’ll buy you a drink sometime.” Mercury hadn’t thought that would be so easy. It had been a shot in the dark, but it had paid off. “I know her power already. What about the others?”

Mercury wasn’t expecting anything to really occur. This was hardly the first delivery he’d done, and he’d already covered a big part of the distance his own GPS had told him to cover. He still wasn’t out of the bad part of town, going by the shambles of houses he was passing, but he also hadn’t passed anyone close enough to be pointed out. The hero was just a silhouette in the night, moving way faster than he should’ve been.

“Ace’s power enhances his self with increased speed, which increases further as he uses it. He is able to sacrifice some of his accrued velocity to generate a concussive blast in his vicinity.” Caligariman explained.

“You can just call his power green.” Mercury said.

“Last Card did not drink a vial.” Caligariman continued, making Mercury roll his eyes. “She is capable of imbuing tokens with her power, and prefers to use a deck of cards to fight her opponents. The effects vary depending on what she decides to use, and has found the most success using her namesake cards.”

“Let me guess, Accrue’s power involves gathering things?”

“Your guess is not far from the truth.” Caligariman said. “But the specifics are-”

Whatever he was about to say, Mercury was distracted when a bright red flashed off to his side. He whirled and pulled on his power, rising to stand on the pavement, and then making the pavement rise into him as a flickering red shape bounded towards him. Mercury didn’t have time to see more before the concrete finished spreading and he put his free arm in front of his face.

The impact was strong, but weaker than Mercury had been expecting. However, the attack clearly wasn’t meant to be physical, because whatever it was destabilised in that same moment and blew up, a wave of heat sending the hero staggering to one knee despite his concrete enhancement.

Another attack didn’t come right away, so Mercury released some of the concrete within and lowered his arm to see his attacker.

She looked as though she walked straight out of the third reich, with the only things separating her from a straight up nazi look being the lack of any swastikas and the dog like mask sustained by an obvious display of a red power. Also the fact that she was black. Her costume was mostly a long trench coat, left open in the middle, and decorated by the image of a flickering crimson dog head on each shoulder.

The symbolism was very clear. This one called herself Cerberus.

“Hey, you’re not one of the heroes that’s been skulking about.” The villain said, gesturing idly with one hand and conjuring another shape of red energy. The dog shaped creation heeled at her feet, ready to pounce. “Well, I suppose I’m mugging you now. Drop the case.”

“Not happening.” Mercury replied as he sunk down and ran away, his power allowing him to move much faster than the female villain. He ignored the indignant shout from behind him and started rapidly talking out loud. “I was just attacked by Cerberus. You fucks let slip that I was coming today!”

“No, we didn’t.” Caligariman responded severely. “Incline is closest to you. Delay until she arrives.”

“Nah, fuck that. I’ve already run away!”

“That works as well.”

“Foound Yoou!” Someone new shouted as Mercury rounded a corner and finally cut line of sight with Cerberus. This time it was a male supervillain, dressed in black combat gear and sporting a black mask that reminded Mercury of a german shepherd.

“Aw fuck.” Mercury swore. Surrounding the new supervillain were six men and women, all of them holding guns that they clearly didn’t quite know how to use.

“What’s happening?” Caligariman asked.

“I thought someone smelled weird.” The villain said conversationally as he approached. “I haven’t tasted the scent of flesh fused with concrete in so long! I’ll look forward to your smell when fused with lead!”

“Have fun with that!” Mercury shouted back. He hadn’t stopped running, or even changed course. Already he had passed the group of men, and they only seemed to realise he wasn’t approaching for the fight when he was almost around another corner.

“You can’t escape!” The villain shouted. “I have your scent!”

Mercury stopped paying the villain any attention. “Some fetish wearing fucker told me he has my scent. I just passed him by.”

“You didn’t stop to fight?” Caligariman quickly asked.

“No, why the fuck would I do that?” Mercury shot back. “I’m just here to deliver some shit.”

“If the supervillain you are talking about was wearing black and was wearing a dog mask, then that was Hellhound. His power is white, and involves tracking by scent.”

“Really? F-” Mercury flinched as the air around him popped. He was familiar with the sound, it was what he heard when bullets were fired. His power almost acted for him as he pulled the pavement into his body, trading the speed of gliding along for the safety of becoming mostly bulletproof. “Fuck! I’m being shot!”

“Inheritor has been dispatched.” Caligariman told him.

Mercury reached the corner and chanced a backwards glance. Three of Cerberus’ red creations had caught up with Hellhound, and one of them had paused to give him a ride. The villain raised a stolen rifle before Mercury could turn the corner, and with another pop, the hero found himself sprawled on the ground.

“I fucking hate bullets.” He groaned as he made himself sink partly into the sidewalk and moved without the illusion of walking. Mercury was actually faster this way, but the mental gymnastics of his power were different this way. He’d stand back up before long.

“Further expansion on Hellhound’s power. The longer he tracks his quote unquote ‘prey’ the better he becomes at doing it.” Caligariman decided to add.

“Why did they not tell me about that one?” Mercury complained. There had been six villains that he’d been explicitly warned about before coming to Streamrock for this delivery. Two of them were Courtesans, and nowhere near him at the moment. Another was called Agni, and was also based far away from his path. There was also the Swain, and his route would not take him near her mansion. The other two hadn’t shown up yet, but with how this had been going already, Mercury wasn’t holding his breath.

Suffice to say, if Tyr showed up Mercury wouldn’t even consider fighting him and go into all out escape mode. If he chanced upon Pistolwhip he’d just surrender immediately and give the villains what they wanted.

Until then, he had three red exploding dogs to deal with, and a gun toting maniac riding on one. Mercury flinched as more gunshots rang out when Hellhound had barely turned the corner. He turned over and looked back, his power stemming the blood that would’ve otherwise been pouring from the hole the bullet had made. It was almost cinematic how good the timing was, because Mercury got a front row seat to watching the supervillain get taken off of his mount by a flying shape that carried him all the way back down the street.

The shocked scream of pain was what made the moment so good.

“I think I just saw Incline tackle Hellhound.” Mercury told his audience.

“Inheritor isn’t far behind.” Caligariman told the hero, making him feel safe. “Incline mentioned hearing gunshots. Were you hit?”

“Yeah, it’s a non-issue.” Mercury said dismissively, still treating the sidewalk like a waterslide.

“I will call for a paramedic to wait for your arrival.”

“Bring a tree.”

Mercury felt satisfaction as he heard perplexion in Caligariman’s voice for the first time. “Can you please repeat that.”

“Bring, a, tree.” Mercury obliged. He decided that that was enough fun for the time being, and it was time to start taking things seriously again. The hero stood, running a finger over the divot in his chest. He’d need to keep that spot more concrete than man, which would interfere with the other aspect of his power and slow him down. Until he got healed, that was. “You don’t spend months fighting theta class threats without figuring out some tricks.”

“An explanation would be appreciated.” Caligariman paused. He pressed his push to talk twice, delivering two static shots to Mercury’s ears. “The GPS says you’ve stopped moving. Amend that. The Bad Dogs somehow knew you were coming. You being approached by two of their top fighters proves that.”

“Oh, so now you admit it!” Mercury shouted, but started moving all the same.

“Now we have evidence.” Caligariman said, “More reinforcements are on the way.” And that ended the exchange quite handily. Not that it stopped Mercury from grumbling.

Mercury moved slower now, and not just because of his injury. As he approached his final destination the city became more compact. What was once urban housing in disrepair became urban housing in a moderate state of repair, with the odd block of industrial warehouses and shops adding some variety to the mix. When Mercury encountered those, he leaned against the wall and sunk in before using his power to slide up to the roof, using the mobility granted to him by his power to avoid groups of people decked in blue that seemed to be looking for him.

The hero was long since regretting the way this operation had turned out. The whole point of him moving alone and on foot was because it would be covert. Mercury could move quickly and was durable enough to survive an ambush, as he’d already proven. But when a relatively covert job like this was screwed from the outset, the hero found himself sorely missing the public and large manpower of his normal occupation. This should’ve been done publicly, with a fucking row of policemen clearing a street for a heavily armoured convoy to travel down.

Of course, that wouldn’t have deterred the more insane villains. Streamrock seemed to have its fair share of those.

It didn’t help that said insanity actually seemed to be working in favour of those villains. Mercury avoided any incidents for fifteen fast moving minutes, listening to the gale sounds of Inheritor fighting someone behind him- probably Cerberus or Hellhound. His growing confidence was shattered when he was crossing a street, only to suddenly find himself in front of five men and women in costume.

“Hello Mercury.” An ethereal woman said airily.

“Screw this noise.” Mercury stepped to the side quickly and fused his foot with a manhole cover. One of the more muscly villains was closer than the rest, so the hero kicked the metal disk out of its hold and severed the connection to send it flying. His target held one hand out and a shimmering barrier sprung to life. Mercury’s attack hit the clear surface and fell to the ground, having harmed no one.

“Fuck.” The exasperated hero sighed and pulled the concrete underneath up to fortify from the coming attacks, of which there were several. Energy was flung about as four more powers sprung to life, all with the aim of incapacitating Mercury. Most of it was shrugged off, but not all of it.

The large man with mismatched barrier powers cornered Mercury between two cars, only for the hero to place one hand on the bonnet and pull himself to the side. He considered changing to metal, which would be faster, but the only metal he had contact with wasn’t strong enough. He needed the durability of concrete, and when he escaped over the top of the car he left indents where his feet fell.

“Is anyone else on the way!?” He shouted for Caligariman’s benefit.

“Hold on for a while longer.” Came the frustratingly calm response.

“How long is a while!?” Mercury ducked as the woman who was probably high shot what looked like a bola of energy soared through where his head used to be. Another villain’s legs transformed to anchor himself on the road and he picked up the car Mercury had just escaped over with a telekinetic grip. “Sorry guys. I’m more of a five on one kind of guy when I’m number four kicking the one.”

“Amusing.” The airy woman said.

Yeah. She’s high. Mercury ran one way while using his power to move much faster in the other, successfully dodging the thrown car. The barrier man had to crouch behind one of his barriers, Mercury noted. There was probably a maximum size of barrier he could make, and it was smaller than a full grown man.

The fourth and fifth villains approached in the wake of the other’s attacks. One brandished a bat that was obviously modified or even made by a power, and the other wore a harness that was decked with the telltale tinkered gear of an adept. Fortunately, whatever their powers were, Mercury didn’t find out. A man wearing what Mercury could only describe as a cross between body armour and silver spandex appeared between the two, a crack of sound appearing alongside him that shoved the villains to the side and washed past Mercury to a much lesser effect.

“Ace.” The hero said, pointing at himself and jogging Mercury’s memory. “Circle around. We’ll hold them off.”

“Thanks mate.” Mercury said, already sliding away from the airy woman. She really creeped him out. “You said we?”

His question was answered when a woman’s voice shouted something unintelligible and arrived in a similar manner to Ace, this time throwing the high villain to the side. She flourished a hand of cards and started throwing them as her target turned on the heroine, trading about three times as many projectiles as Mercury had received from the villain.

Ace vanished from sight, only for Mercury to realise he was just moving too fast to track when he turned. He distracted the stationary telekinetic and the barrier man, clearly already charging up another blast.

Mercury almost got away unscathed, but the villain with the bat blindsided him with a blow to the back of the head. The hero had his head transmuted to concrete, but the bat was swung with more than just strength. Suddenly Mercury had a headache, had seemingly teleported, and the adept was tinkering with the cuff connecting the hero to the briefcase.

There wasn’t much metal for him to work with, but Mercury pulled on his power and enhanced his leg muscles with metal. The adept paused, either instinct or his power revealing to him that something was wrong, but it didn’t let him dodge the kick that came his way.

“Fucking… Bat man.” Mercury squinted, and swore when he realised the man was actually a woman. “Let me… go away…” He was already scrambling backwards, using his power to swim backwards even faster. But something was wrong.

The damn bat was probably enhanced by a purple power. It hadn’t done much, but Mercury’s power felt sluggish. Still, the hero was the faster of the two, and the bat woman was more concerned about the adept. Then Last Card flung a card at the villain, which picked her up and carried her into the wall. With all the villains temporarily down or distracted Mercury was finally free to leave, and he did so quickly.

He passed into the city proper, finally leaving the explicit territory of the Bad Dogs. The problem with that was the Bad Dogs were out in force. Mercury quickly realised Streamrock had the problem of gang colours, because every unpowered person he snuck past or just forced his way past was wearing blue. Even the villains he’d faced had blue motifs, just less, but still there.

Multiple times Mercury staggered away from the route described on his GPS. He’d somehow held on to his phone while losing the earbuds connecting him to Caligariman. The bat woman’s attack still hadn’t worn off either, and what had at first been sluggishness had turned into a full blown migraine.

But Mercury was almost through to the end. He could see blue and red lights reflecting off some walls. A police car would be a good place of refuge. They’d bring him to where he needed to be. The only problem was it took him through an alleyway. He almost burst out laughing when he realised there were four silhouettes standing between him and safety.

They were children. The four didn’t even have costumes, just masks. Though to be fair that was more than most of the gangers he’d bypassed already.

“Out of my way.” Mercury said, striding forward without slowing. “You don’t want to do this.”

“More like you don’t want to make Me do this, quickshit.” One of them, a girl said. She raised an arm towards Mercury, and the hero had to pause when he saw the muzzle of a gun. “If I see any gradients, I pull the trigger. Capishe?”

Mercury raised the briefcase between his chest and the gun. “Do you really understand what it is you’re doing?”

“Pretty fucking sure, yeah.” Another one, a boy said.

“Safety’s off.” The girl with the gun added. There was no hesitation in her voice.

Fuck. Mercury stopped. He needed to go about this a different way. “You know it’s tracked, right? Tracked and locked?” He was banking on the fact that this last minute ambush was indicative of some actual intelligence gathering ability.

Only one of them seemed to react though. Another boy that swore.

“One of us didn’t, stud.” The fourth person, another girl said. “But now we all know.”

“Should mention it’s trapped as well.” Mercury pressed.

“Trapped how?” The girl with the gun demanded.

“Self destruction. To deny anyone that tries opening it without the right key.”

“Well that’s bullshit.” The second girl said. “But I think that’s enough. Loose, darling?”

She was talking to someone behind him. Mercury looked back in time to see a crowbar swinging towards his face. This time he wasn’t fully enhanced by concrete. The crowbar rushed towards his face, filling his vision until he abruptly saw no more.

~~~

“Oh god. Oh god. Is he alive?” Lucy fussed over the hero as soon as he hit the ground. He wasn’t bleeding, but Gracia had told her to aim for the head and Lucy hadn’t held back when she realised Mercury was turning around. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was clear that the hero’s chest was still rising and falling with breath.

“He’s enhanced darling.” Gracia gently chided. “Remember last weekend?”

Lucy slowly nodded as the nicer of the two boys, she thought his name was Paul, produced a wire cutter and started cutting the chain link connecting the hero to the briefcase. Inside were a number of power vials, Lucy wasn’t sure how many, but her heart was beating about twenty times a minute more than she felt comfortable with. It was difficult for Lucy to focus on anything at the moment, so she retreated closer to Gracia.

“That was fun.” Hanna decided, twirling the unloaded gun leant to her by Pistolwhip with her fingers. Lucy had been dubious about that part of the plan, but the other girl had pulled it off flawlessly. The whole thing had hinged on Mercury deciding to travel through this specific area, but everything had turned out for the best.

Lucy couldn’t help but wonder how many other teams like hers were still waiting at other parts of the city.

“Done.” Paul said, lifting up the briefcase.

“Fucking finally.” The other boy groused as he grabbed the handle. Lucy recalled his name was Lawrence. She felt he had a lot in common with Hanna, but the two seemed to hate each other.

“Alright. Masks off everyone.” Gracia said, pulling her own mask away from her head. A bright grin shone on her face. “What do you all say we go and get this thing open, huh?”