“I’ve never felt quite so alive!”

- Dead. Shortly after setting the world record for most clinical deaths in a day at 49. Previously held by City at 17.

_____________________________________________________________

“Try not to trip yourself this time.” Blinker told me. “Start the timer.”

A pleasant ding sounded as Rosie started a ninety second countdown on one of the walls. At the same time Blinker flashed across the room towards me, using his power to cross the distance without moving. His leg was already raised to strike.

We were in one of the training rooms in the SRT. It was about twice the size of a boxing ring, had a glass wall for observation, and a padded floor that I’d become incredibly grateful for over the past week.

I was wearing the helmet and padded training gloves on top of my civilian clothes. The gloves were fingerless, so I could still touch things to use my power like I was with a metal staff that had been recovered from an elevator shaft filled with spider webs. There was a stark contrast between me in my thrown together ensemble and Blinker, who was in his Sentry costume.

I tried to guard against Blinker’s kick, but was too late to stop the attack and took the blow to my waist instead. Since the staff was already in motion, I stuck it out a little and put more force into it. The staff swung around to find nothing, and I had to struggle to maintain my balance. Blinker’s warning repeated in my mind.

He had blinked away back to where he started and was quickly moving towards me. As he traveled the short distance I gripped the staff like a baseball bat and prepared. Blinker reach swinging range, but instead of swinging I tensed and leapt to the side, dodging his first strike. But that wasn’t what I was worried about. He had flashed away to somewhere I couldn’t see. I immediately twisted, sweeping the staff close to my body.

Unfortunately I was too late to stop Blinker’s attack, but as I weathered the blow I was able to retaliate with a sweep that caught Blinker in arm. He unclenched and clenched his fist and flashed away before I could follow up.

This wasn’t the first time Blinker had sparred with me, and every time I managed to land a blow, he would flash away like that. When the session was done, he’d walk away as if he hadn’t been injured at all. I also noticed he also had a penchant for returning to the same spot after each assault.

Blinker’s power was short range teleportation. Or that’s what the public was told and what was online. It didn’t mention how Blinker made a flash of light wherever he disappeared or reappeared, and certainly didn’t talk about whatever it was that was letting him shrug off injuries. Another thing that I noticed was how Blinker always teleported in pairs. One to get close, another to retreat.

Right now he was a few paces away from me, not winded at all and with his fists raised. I was feeling the exhaustion of an hour of sparring and even more time otherwise training, along with the blows Blinker had hit me with today and yesterday, and the day before that as well. Cloud’s staff - now mine - was currently weightless thanks to my power, so at least that wasn’t slowing me down as I prepared for the next exchange.

Blinker watched me for a few moments and I realised he was waiting for me to go on the assault. I gave a grunt of frustration and advanced, swinging when I was close enough. Of course, the blow didn’t hit as Blinker flashed closer. I was expecting him to teleport behind me to land another blow, so I was keeping the staff weightless to continue the swing all the way around. Instead, he reappeared with one hand on my staff, stopping the swing easily and pushed it into my chest.

The blow wasn’t that strong because the staff didn’t weigh anything, but it still had Blinker’s strength behind it. Using my power I reduced the forces Blinker was exerting to zero, then swung it towards him with three times more force than I could physically put out. Blinker was surprised and teleported away, reappearing in front of me but outside where my current swing was going.

I zeroed the staff, stopping it, and swung back in the time it took for Blinker to hit me in the face twice. In my daze I put more force into the swing than I probably should have and felt it connect with a crunch sound.

There was a beat as I recognized Blinker was looking at his arm, which didn’t look right.

Then Blinker teleported in place, then teleported again and decked me from behind.

When I recovered I saw the big timer on the wall had frozen at 46. I’d almost made it halfway. That was a personal best. I panicked when I remembered how weird Blinker’s arm was looking and turned to find him perfectly fine.

“Well?” Blinker asked. There was a dangerous edge to his voice that hadn’t been here before.

“I didn’t trip myself this time.” I frowned. “Or did I do something else wrong?”

“You need to regulate the strength you use to strike at people.” He said briskly. “You managed to stop yourself from falling over this time, but you were off balance for long enough I could have taken advantage of it if I chose to.”

I recalled the precarious feeling. “Yeah, I see.”

“How is your head? I want to do another three rounds today.”

I used the staff to lean on as I shakily got to my feet and pressed a hand to my temple. There was an ache there, but nothing I couldn’t work through.

“Could you give me a minute?” My head was somewhat okay, but my knees were shaking.

“Fine.” Blinker crossed his arms and leaned against a wall.

While I was resting as best I could leaning on Cloud’s staff, the final exchange of the last fight replayed in my mind. “You’re power isn’t teleportation.” I realised.

Blinker didn’t respond, but I felt him direct his attention to me.

I kept talking. “If it was teleportation you wouldn’t be able to attack so quickly after teleporting, you wouldn’t be in the right stance. When you do teleport to attack, you always trade blows, then teleport right back to where you were. I thought it was some kind of mind game at first, but you always walked off the hits I gave you. Then I broke your arm just now.”

Blinker still didn’t say anything, but he clearly simmered.

“I feel like you’re actually walking forwards and backwards on your own timeline. That’s how you always appear with attacks ready to go, and erase wounds as they happen. Am I far off?”

“You sound like you’re ready for another round.” Blinker uncrossed his arms. “Rosie?”

The ninety second time started on the wall again with a pleasant ding and Blinker flashed across the room before I could react. Since he was actually travelling forwards on his timeline, if I was right, he could be attacking from any direction. Countering would be next to impossible. That meant my best option would be to protect my head and body, but Blinker was far too quick for me to react.

I took an array of hits to my left side before I could get into a protective stance. The thing about Blinker’s power was that I didn’t know how far along his timeline he could hop at one time. My head was spinning as I tried to count to five, maybe getting caught on four once or twice. Then I jabbed with my left hand, using my power to enhance the force on my glove. I felt it connect and there was an immediate flash as Blinker reappeared right next to where he was, an attack already travelling towards my now unprotected head.

There was a soft jingle and then, “Blinker.” A deep male voice resounded through the room and Blinker flashed away to the other side of the room.

“Yes, Theo?” Blinker replied as if he hadn’t been beating the shit out of me two seconds ago. The timer was currently paused.

“Metafore had a premonition that concerns Graceland.” Theo said, his voice barely distorted by the speakers. “Your presence is required in the meeting room. When can you get there for a briefing?”

“Less than ten minutes.”

“Good, I’ll meet you there.” There was a rustling sound and the call was ended.

“Should I stop the timer?” Rosie’s pleasant voice asked in the wake of Theo hanging up.

“Yes.” Blinker curtly responded. “Lock, we’re ending here today. Wash up. If anything still hurts, see the doctor, then I want you to use the gym and go through the usual warm down routine. Is that understood?”

“Yeah.” I said breathlessly.

Without saying goodbye, Blinker walked out.

“The second and third shower rooms are currently available.” Rosie told me after a moment.

“Thanks, Rosie.” I replied to the room.

So far today I’d been to school, come to the Sentinel-Regulation Tower for additional first aid and tactics classes, then spent nearly an hour having my ass handed to my by Blinker. The tactics classes were something of a joke, more common sense than anything else. My one good take away was to prioritise simple plans over complex ones, and in the week or so I’d been taking the class that one principle was enforced time and again.

In all, it wasn’t that much, but my body was aching and I wanted to lie down. So I did.

“Rosie, can you set the timer for five minutes?” I asked the room.

A three hundred second timer replaced the paused one from the discontinued spar.

“Can you start it?”

There was a pleasant ding as the numbers started counting down. I closed my eyes and let my various aches slowly relax.

~~~

It had been a week and three days since the attack on the SRT. The villains that had infiltrated the heroic headquarters were part of a group called the Racketeers, which was under the purview of the Entrepreneurs. I’d studied up harder after that event, and learned about the rest of the villain team. There were a few members that my sparring sessions with Blinker wouldn’t help me with. I was glad I didn’t run into them.

School was tense ever since I’d learned my aggressor that had sent me down this road went there as well, but there wasn’t much I was willing to do about it. I couldn’t exactly skip out on school since having a passing grade was a requirement for being an active Sentry. On the other hand, getting justice for what had happened would involve kicking a sleeping dog awake. That was one I’d rather let lie.

Fortunately we hadn’t crossed paths again since then and I spent as little time at school as possible. My breaks were spent at a sequestered spot without much traffic. I wasn’t taking any chances.

As for my Sentry life, apart from the classes and first aid a lot of it had been spent in the SRT in house gym. I thought hitting the gym was pointless for me, courtesy of my power to adjust weight. Blinker disagreed and gave me an exhausting routine that consumed most of my afternoons. There was one day where I’d been allowed to break the schedule in favour of meeting a Regulation fashion designer.

That’s what they called themselves, anyway. Their name was Charlotte. It started normal enough, then she got excited once I told her about my power to change the weight of things I touched. She got some design notes off of me and was gone like the wind. Or like Zephyr, now that I thought about it.

Charlotte had told me I’d have a concept sketch in a few days. That was nearly a week ago.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. Costume isn’t all that.” Sting waved his hand dismissively. The Sentinel was the last of the team that I’d been introduced to.

His costume was a rough and nearly ruined protective orange vest with dark long sleeved fabric underneath. Spreading out from the vest and curling around his limbs were long and thin chains of the same colour and connecting to other plates of light armour or bracelets on his wrists and shins. Sting’s mask was the carved likeness of a serious expression, but right now it was off as he we talked. Sting’s face was rugged in a handsome way, I supposed. I wasn’t one to judge that kind of thing.

“You walk around with your mask off.” I riposted. “I have an identity to protect.”

“You have it easier than most, considering your face.” Sting shrugged, referring to my power that was currently obscuring my features. “I’ve been around the ringer a few times, and I haven’t yet seen any abilities that are able to stop light in the way yours does. You missed the point, anyway. Where are we?”

“The gym.” The SRT had a floor dedicated to Sentinel Facilities. The reasoning behind it was that there was always going to be a Sentry or Sentinel on standby in the tower, and there were those that essentially lived in the tower. Elicia was one of them, and Muffle as well, though he hadn’t told me himself but he was always here.

“You missed the point again. Think wider.”

“Are you going to keep playing this like a game? Or are you going to tell me?”

“I’ll tell you. This is the Sentinel-Regulation Tower. Most people will tell you to be paranoid because one villain group or another has infiltrated the Regulation. So keep your mask on and be suspicious of literally everyone. I tried that and found it pointless. All the moves I made to keep my civilian self under wraps ended up pointless and my identity was revealed.”

“How?” I asked.

“I just told you.” A flicker of annoyance flashed across Sting’s face as I interrupted his story. “But it wasn’t as big as you think. I’m no Archangel and my power isn’t all that flashy. It’s great for what I do, but I’m not winning any popularity contests. Point is that no one cared, except for my family.

“Outside these walls, I have the mask on. Otherwise, the only people who get to see the face underneath are the ones that aren’t going to do anything about it. If a Smart Psychic wants to know what your identity is, there’s next to nothing you can do.”

“That’s pessimistic.” I commented.

Sting’s eyes shifted, looking somewhere that wasn’t here. “It’s what happened. Revealing another hero or villain’s identity without defeating them first is considered bad karma.” His eyes refocused and met mine. “Callback was the one that got me. He ignored the rules. I was the one that got him.”

“So you walk around without a mask because of a guy called Callback?” I checked.

Sting chuckled. “You could say that.”

“Lock.” Blinker said, getting my attention. I flinched. He’d approached without me realising.

Blinker’s oversight of my training was bare bones at best. I’d already been given a tour by Zephyr, so a lot of my interactions with Blinker went along the lines of “Go here and do this. You know where that is, right?”.

He hadn’t responded that well when I hadn’t known where the adept labs in the basement were, which was uncalled for. I wasn’t a techo, and the closest thing to an adept in the SRT was Lucidity. The techo labs weren’t exactly on the list of places that were important for me to know about. Apart from beating me up for an hour every other day, we barely interacted.

Sting gave me a nod and left to use a machine a fair distance away. I gave Blinker my full attention. “Blinker.”

“Matters have dictated that the majority of the Sentinel and Sentry be mobilized early tomorrow morning.” He went straight to business. “You are not fit for active duty, so you’re going to be on standby in the recreation room until dismissed from 0700 hours tomorrow morning.”

I digested that before asking. “What about school?”

“That’s being taken care of.”

I hadn’t known Blinker to ever crack a smile at a joke, or take anything lightly. This was no exception. “Is there anything I need to know about the situation?” I checked.

“No.” He stated definitively.

“Then if it’s all the same, I’m getting back to it.” I gestured vaguely to the room filled with muscle machines.

“I’m here to let you know two things.” Blinker said as I passed him, getting me to pause. “The first is that you are dismissed so you may have a full night’s rest.”

“Then why didn’t you say so?” I asked brightly, this being the first nice thing Blinker had said to me since… It might have been the first.

“The second is a warning.” Blinker paused, making sure he had my attention.His mood was unchanged. “When I said you weren’t fit for active duty, that meant you were not cleared for it. I can normally clear Sentrys for active duty, but for you, the decision lies in Zephyr’s hands.”

I frowned, any positivity vanishing with my smile. I had my mask active however, so it didn’t show. “Respectfully, that’s bullshit. Why?”

“Because Zephyr has not been impressed by you.” Blinker responded without pausing. “If that is because of a poor first impression, or a subpar performance when the Racketeers infiltrated the tower, I haven’t been informed. I was simply instructed to pass this on to you.”

“I took down Cloud and knocked out Zipline with Lucidity’s help. That was a two on two where we had the disadvantage, but we came out on top. Can you call that subpar?” I pointedly demanded. “Where are they anyway? The Racketeers. I haven’t heard anything about the number of Racketeers that got arrested or anything. Lucidity and me can’t have been the only Sentrys to win against the Racketeers.”

“Boss.” Blinker stated. “The number of successfully arrested Racketeers, Handiemen, and Collectors will always be zero. That is all.” Then, having accomplished what he came here for, started to leave. He paused.

“Your skill has been improving.” He said. ”Shortly you will be allowed out on sidekick duty.” Then he kept walking.

I had long since stopped being stunned by the amazing prospects Blinker said was within my grasp, or the passive aggressive tone with which he delivered them. Since we’d started working loosely together, I had become used to his demeanor that could only be described as the antithesis of jovial. His one word explanation for the current status of the Racketeers did help connect some dots in my head though.

Boss was the lynchpin of the Entrepreneurs, and by extension the smaller, subservient gangs at their beck and call. He had the ability to mark people. Once marked, Boss could teleport them at will. That meant at some point after the whole incident went down, the Entrepreneur had recalled them to some indeterminate location. I got a little dizzy when I started thinking about the implications of that power.

“I think I’m going to keep playing it safe for the time being.” I said to the room.

Sting, who was in said room, shrugged as he focused on his Vphone. “Suit yourself.”

“Bye.” I said, trying to make communication flow.

Sting responded distractedly. “Don’t wait up.”

The thoughts stuck in my head as I washed up for a second time and made my way home. I noticed the rumble of a motorcycle fading off into the distance as I went. That would be Sting’s. Idly, I wondered if it was related to whatever Blinker had pulled me out of school for.

“Michael! You’re home early.” Kathrine commented when I walked in the door.

She was right. It was still light outside. “Early finish for an early start.” I explained as I stepped into the chaos of the living room. “Did Rosie tell you anything about it?”

“I was sent a message, but not by Rosie.” Kathrine checked that the girls weren’t paying attention. Given the loud pop music, they would have a hard time eavesdropping anyway. “Zephyr sent a message.”

I recalled the message Blinker had passed on. “Zephyr, huh.”

“Can you get up by yourself? Or do you need me to wake you up?” Kathrine asked.

“I’ll be fine.” I glanced across the room and made brief eye contact with Sofiya. She had the tablet on her lap, and she was letting it rest as she stared at me. It was easy to tell she knew we were talking about hero business. At least her eyes weren’t judging me like they had after Sofiya had listened in to the initial conversation I had with Kathrine about the Sentry.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked.

~~~

Blinker had told me I was required by seven am, and I was nearly late. Traffic was less dense than normal before seven am, but not as much as I expected. Given that I was a hero without a car, bike, or anything really, I was bound to public transport. The bus routes were shit, as they were everywhere. If everything went to plan I’d be spending the day doing nothing, but it was still mildly stressful sitting on a metal whale while the deadline steadily approached and I wondered what my mentor might do if I failed to show up in time.

Of course, no one was waiting for me and I was greeted by an empty room. It was strange seeing it without Muffle sitting in the middle of the quiet space. I decided to sit in his spot.

There was a pleasant ding, indicating Rosie had something to say.

“Rosie.” I said.

“You have an incoming call from Orcus.” Rosie’s warm voice explained.

I considered answering using the system Rosie was using. “Put it to my phone please.” I requested as I fished said Vphone out of my pocket.

“Enjoy your discourse.” Rosie chimed and my Vphone lit up, the call already accepted.

“Lock.” I said.

“Hello.” Said Orcus from the other end. “Since Rosie put me through, I take it you’re at the Regulation Tower?”

“That’s right.” I replied, pushing down the urge to say I was actually at the Sentinel Tower.

Orcus gave the information concisely. “Go to the adept labs and find some gear. There are various pieces of generic equipment for Sentinels without access to their costumes there. Find what you need and then come to the back of the address I’ll send to you after this call.”

That was surprising. “The tower will be empty of heroes after I leave. Why are you calling for me?”

“It will be empty for a short while only.” Said Orcus. “Merethe is the one who normally takes your role, she will be arriving after eight. You are mobilizing as reinforcement to replace Sting.”

I recalled listening to Sting drive off yesterday. “What happened to Sting?”

“Sting is missing in action. It will be addressed once the present crisis has passed.”

“That’s… worrying.” I nearly said fine. “But Blinker told me I wasn’t cleared for action yet.”

“I have seen recordings of how you handle yourself sparring with Blinker. What I saw makes me comfortable in clearing you for duty, which I’m authorising now.”

I blinked. “Can you do that? I thought Zephyr reserved the right to make that decision.”

Orcus said. “I outrank Zephyr in matters relating to the Sentry. The matter has been taken out of her hands.”

That meant he had just taken all liability, which was fine by me. “I’ll get moving then.”

“Contact me when you arrive. Don’t forget to bring something to use your power with.” Orcus ended the call.

“See you…” I realised the call was over. “Alright then.”