“Hold position until we arrive.” Voidling- No, Blinker told me through the radio. I was quite content staying on my hoverboard until it was clear what exactly was happening here.

Halcion stamped on Prism’s mask, sending shards of it skittering off across the ground. He hunched forwards and glared at his two remaining adversaries with a growl that I could hear from two properties away. Waterlad tapped his trident to get the attention of Halcion and Junk Mail, and gestured to the former. A shove towards the warehouse.

Junk Mail immediately ran, but Halcion snapped around and started chasing him. Instead of closing the gap, Halcion reached forwards with an arm and the colours on his clothes, and even the surroundings jumped into his palm. Once a fair amount had been collected, the colours jumped back to their original positions as a ray of all the colours that were collected darted towards Junk Mail.

The villain was normally good about erecting barriers between him and projectiles, but this time he wasn’t facing the right direction. The beam impacted Junk Mail and the colours wrapped him like a straightjacket. Then it all went into his eyes and Junk Mail veered to his right, then slipped. He scrambled at the ground like he was sliding down it when Halcion caught up to him.

Junk Mail screamed and Halcion let loose with another yell as he started curb stomping the villain.

“Hey!” Waterlad shouted loud enough for me to hear as he hurled his trident towards Halcion, pointy bits first.

Halcion didn’t even turn, he just swayed to one side and caught the trident. Then he turned his body to face Waterlad. Credit where credit is due, Halcion knew how to be a villain. Waterlad was stunned by how Halcion had flexed his new power, and he took his sweet time rounding on the other villain because of it. I was getting chills, and I wasn’t even the focal point of that move.

“I think I have a bead on Halcion’s new power.” I told the channel. Rather than wait for a reply to ask me what I thought it was, I just kept talking. “Halcion’s a ghost, like Prism. He can shoot beams of colour, just like Prism does. Halcion hit Junk Mail with one, and I think the beam distorts balance and direction, going by how Junk Mail reacted to getting hit. On top of that, I don’t think he’s using his eyes to see. Waterlad threw a trident at Halcion’s back, and Halcion just caught it without looking.”

“How is Prism at this moment?” Someone asked. Blinker.

“I think he might be knocked out. Halcion stamped on his mask after he was done draining him.”

“That makes things easier for us then.” Blinker said into the radio. Right, powers went haywire after Halcion. I remembered Voidling telling me that.

Waterlad had adopted a fighting stance and was now circling Halcion. I could see their mouths moving. Were they having banter? Halcion, for his part, was having none of Waterlad’s martial arts approach, and was making a beeline for the villain.

“You motherfucker!” Waterlad shouted before Halcion reached him. He punched out, but Halcion easily dodged the blow. No, the punch wasn’t even properly aimed. Waterlad was briefly bisected as Halcion swiped through him with the trident, allowing the villain to get an inkling on where Halcion was. The follow up blow was properly dodged this time.

A thought occurred to me. “Also, since Waterlad is now acting like a blind person with Halcion nearby, I think Halcion blinds people close to him.”

“Good.” Unshaken stated. Was that spite for Waterlad? I wondered as I pushed down the part of me that was jumping for joy.

Voidling decided to be constructive instead of spiteful, and asked. “What’s the range on that?”

“Hard to tell, I’m not close.” I answered honestly. “Definitely a dagger ability, though.”

I could imagine Blinker muttering ‘Where did he get access to that information?’

What he really said was, “Get down to the road. We’re here.” There was a gap in there. It was entirely possible that I wasn’t wrong.

I glanced at the slugfest that the fight had turned into one last time before moving down to the street, where Blinker, Unshaken, and Voidling were indeed arriving. Voidling brushed past while Blinker stopped and caught my attention.

“Anything new to report?” He addressed me.

“You’re here now.” I responded as I stepped off the hoverboard. “How far away are the rest?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“That’s fifteen minutes of a fight going on inside. I don’t think they’re going to make it.”

“Listen here-” Unshaken was cut off as Blinker raised an arm in front of her.

He said, “Now is not the time. We were conferring while you fed us that information. Voidling is going to launch a surprise attack and go toe to toe with Halcion. We think he’s the best match up in this situation. Meanwhile, we are going to arrest the remaining Racketeers and make sure that Prism stays under. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.” I said shortly. “How are you dealing with Waterlad?”

“You don’t always need fists.” He produced a taser and let it crackle briefly. I nodded. “You’re going to take that hoverboard and get the drop on Junk Mail. Do you have cuffs?”

“I do.” I tapped my pocket. “And spare zip ties in case the number of bodies is too much.”

“Good.” Blinker stated, then brushed past as well.

“Why do you have zip ties?” Unshaken bluntly demanded.

“I saw Risk had some in one of his attached pockets, it seemed like a good idea.” I shrugged as I started taking off again. Then I darted towards the warehouse, making sure I was above the street lights that had turned on sometime in the past ten minutes.

I got back in the air fast enough that I saw Voidling launch his attack on Halcion. The fight had devolved into a straight brawl when I went to meet with my team. Now, Halcion was backing up and drawing the colours back into his arm again. He kept backing up and eventually Waterlad snapped his head in Halcion’s direction, just in time to see the colours snap back to their original positions.

He dived to the side, but Halcion didn’t fire right away. He waited for Waterlad to land on the ground and come to a stop, then let loose with the colours. A line of black appeared from the darkness and impacted Halcion at almost the same time. Voidling’s attack.

I almost missed it thanks to how Waterlad reacted to getting hit by Halcion’s colours. Instead of tripping he exploded. It was like watching a balloon pop, only the water inside was blue and grey with patches of skin colour instead of clear and colourless. The resulting puddle would have blended in with the carpark seamlessly if it wasn’t for the smattering of pink.

When Halcion got hit by Voidling’s black line, he was hit back a short distance, but landed on his feet. He bared his teeth and looked in the direction the strike had come from. Instead of eyes, I caught a glimpse of dark shadows over Halcion’s eyes before he vanished.

Everything else was still there, but Halcion was gone.

I pressed my transmitter. “Waterlad is down and Halcion just vanished. Do we still go in?”

There was a brief quiet as I finished repositioning myself above the warehouse.

“Yes.” Blinker said across the channel. He removed his hand from his transmitter as he and Unshaken ran onto the scene, located where the disabled villains were, and started making their way towards them.

“Prepare, Blinker.” Voidling warned. A moment later, a beam of colour appeared from near Prism and hit Blinker. Blinker proved no more resistant to the effect than Junk Mail and veered off to the side before running hard into the truck.

Unshaken corrected to run towards where the beam had come from, leaving Blinker in the dust. Then Blinker did what I expected him to do, and teleported backwards before teleporting again and ending up next to Unshaken as if nothing just happened. They handed something off and split up with Unshaken started running towards Waterlad. Or what was left of him.

“Unshaken. Dodge left on my mark.” Voidling kept the channel open. “Mark.”

Another beam of colour appeared from closer to the warehouse. It would have hit Unshaken, but she was beside where she was before and the beam sailed past harmlessly. That made it click. Whatever Voidling had done let him sense where Halcion was and what he was doing. That’s how he knew to warn Blinker and which way to tell Unshaken to dodge.

They could have fucking told me that was the plan.

I started descending and Voidling issued two more warnings to Blinker by the time I got to Junk Mail. I lifted him under the arms and got an arm under both his armpits, then used my power to lift him the same way I had Rainbowfish.

“What?” He muttered, sounding incredibly disoriented. “Wh-?”

“Don’t struggle.” I told him, then I was up and away with a villain in tow.

“Lock. Stop.” Voidling warned. I immediately crouched, but that was the wrong input for the hoverboard. Crouching made it go faster instead, which was good because one of Halcion’s beams ripped by where I would have been without Voidling’s warning.

I pressed my transmitter, fumbling a bit because I was carrying a staff in one hand and Junk Mail in the other. “Sorry, finicky hoverboard. Thanks for the warning. I’ve extracted Junk Mail.”

“You wha-?” The named villain tried to put on an accusatory tone, but whatever Halcion had done to him was still messing with the guy.

I went to the roof of the warehouse because that was the nearest surface away from the fight and it was conveniently outside of Halcion’s line of sight, as well as flat enough to be stood on. I set Junk Mail down, who got right back to moaning and rolling onto his side.

“Hey.” I tried to get his attention.

“Shu-” He cut himself off and put a hand to his chest. Then he threw up.

I looked away, not that there was much to look at except the rapidly darkening skyline. I supposed that was nice. It’d have to do for a brief distraction, because I wasn’t about to poke my head where Halcion could notice and blast me if this was what happened to people he hit with his new power.

When I looked back Junk Mail was on his side with half of his face and mask in a pile of his own vomit. He had stopped moving for the time being, even if he hadn’t stopped moaning. I honestly felt a little bad as I maneuvered around him, pulled his arms behind him and locked him into a set of handcuffs. Though, considering what Junk Mail’s power was, handcuffs were probably nothing more than an inconvenience to him. This was just professional courtesy.

Once I was sure Junk Mail wasn’t going anywhere, I made to get back on the hoverboard when something Waterlad said stopped me. Being careful to touch the vomit as little as possible, I searched Junk Mail’s pockets. The guy had a lot of paper mache worked into his costume, and a fair amount of it was damp because of where he had chosen to lie. By the time I was satisfied that there was nowhere else to search, I had found one hundred dollars tucked into one pocket, sticky fingers, and that was it.

It seemed Junk Mail was smart enough to leave his wallet and endless credit card behind on jobs. I had been hoping to get the card and some identification in one fell swoop, but those would have to wait for another day. Instead of mourning my losses, I just tucked the one hundred dollars into my pocket and took off.

The entire time I had been searching Junk Mail, rumbles had been coming from inside the warehouse. Each was a reminder that however serious things were outside, they were worse inside. I was not looking forward to having to go in there.

Voidling had stopped giving Blinker warnings because he was either fast enough to dodge the beams in the first place, or could simply shrug off the effect using his power. Now he was only giving Unshaken advice, who in between evasive maneuvers was watching over Waterlad as he was slowly reforming from the puddle. I saw a spark fly from Unshaken’s hand and I realised Blinker had given her the taser. She was waiting for Waterlad to be in a healthy enough state to taze.

That was heartless, but understandable.

“Step back.” The warning came over the radio, and both Sentrys on the field obeyed. A beam of colour lanced by Blinker. Voidling still wasn’t on the field, he was running tactical.

“Again.” He told them. They stepped back but this time no beam came through. Then there was a click and the sound of electricity running. Suddenly Halcion appeared about halfway between where Blinker was standing and the truck. His arms were at his side, and he was jittering.

Voidling emerged from under the truck with a taser in hand, a ranged one. It was connected to Halcion and the Sentinel was holding down the trigger. He hadn’t been running tactical, he’d been setting up an ambush. Weren’t the two of those essentially the same thing? I put those thoughts aside since all the villains had been subjugated and I dropped down into earshot.

“Arrest Halcion.” Voidling was telling Blinker. His voice was strong, like it had been at the mall. “Maybe this time he’ll actually make it to the Megahold. Make sure to tie up Prism, too. Lock.”

“Here.” I announced my presence as I reached ground level, but Voidling was already looking at me.

“Get Junk Mail off the roof and gather him with the rest of the Racketeers, we’re going to make a pile by the puddle.”

“Right.”

“And Unshaken?”

The female sentry looked up from where she was surveying the puddle known as Waterlad. “What?”

Voidling looked at the two of them and seemed to struggle on the words, then eventually settled with, “Go easy on him.” Then he finally stopped electrocuting Halcion.

Unshaken looked back to the puddle, which now was more Waterlad’s shape than amorphous liquid. “I’ve let him get this far haven’t I?”

Then she reached forward with the taser active and electrocuted the villainous puddle. It quivered, reminding me somewhat of jelly, and it lit up like a firework before exploding back into the puddle it had been before.

“That feels pretty fucking easy to me.”

I had conflicting feelings over Unshaken’s treatment of Waterlad.

When I was part way through picking up Junk Mail, the warehouse started shaking. I had to rush and catch the subdued villain’s head before it cracked against the roof. We took off quickly and I realised that it wasn’t just the warehouse shaking from the fight inside when I got to where Halcion and Prism was propped up next to Waterlad.

“What’s going on?” Unshaken asked.

Blinker turned to Voidling. “Who is confirmed inside the warehouse?”

“The remaining Racketeers, as well as the Private Army and several Courtesans.” Voidling answered softly. “Two of the Mistresses, Amatoria, and Dubloon. We aren’t attempting entry until we get backup.”

I was dimly aware of them talking as I tentatively dropped a hand to the pavement and braced for an expansion in my awareness. Thankfully, this time I was only made aware of the carpark and Warehouse area, as the slab evidently didn’t join with the sidewalk. I could sense a lot of movement inside the warehouse, which I could sense the boundaries of, but it was a garbled mess that I couldn’t comprehend with the equivalent of a glance. It wasn’t what I was focusing on, anyway.

The tremors seemed uniform when observed with sight and touch, but my power told me it was happening in circles. I tried to cancel the forces, but they were timed. They lived quickly, and died faster. All I accomplished was stilling the ground for a fraction of a second. None of that mattered regardless. What was important was that at the centre of those circles was Prism.

I realised, “He’s waking up.”

Those very words seemed to push Prism across the boundary of sleep and wakefulness. He let loose a terrible moan and the tremors intensified. I pulled my hand away from ground as the forces became too confusing to keep track of. The other heroes advanced and the ground underneath them suddenly lifted as I descended.

At least, that’s what it looked like. My power told me nothing had actually changed.

“Knock him out. Now!” Blinker ordered.

I was closer. Then Unshaken was suddenly closer and I was so very far away from where Prism was. I grit my teeth and touched the ground again. When I did, the real layout of events appeared in my mind. At the same time, what I saw with my eyes became crazier as the world suddenly shifted at sharp angles.

My power couldn’t track people specifically because I wasn’t touching them. However, I was able to guess who most people were due to their weight and where I had last seen them. For example, I knew Unshaken had run wildly off course and ended up going through the fence next to the pile of villains. Blinker was closer to the mark, but vanished and appeared way off target. Voidling was running directly towards Prism, but wouldn’t get there anytime soon.

Halcion, Junk Mail, and Prism were all lined up, and Prism was thankfully staying still as he continued releasing his haunted moan. I also could observe a puddle nearby. That’d be Waterlad.

I leveled the staff in Prism’s direction and extended it until I came into contact with something. When I remembered to look with my eyes, I saw that the staff bent in about thirty six different directions but still ended up prodding Prism’s chest. I had to look over my shoulder to see where Prism appeared to be. Not wanting to lose my bearings, I locked the staff and ran my hands along it to ensure I was walking in the right direction.

Everything swam around me as I moved. It was like a kaleidoscope and what probably classified as a drug trip rolled into one. Feeling sick after only a few steps, I closed my eyes until I reached Prism. I reached forwards, even though it looked like sideways, and grabbed a hold of his mask before I unlocked the staff. Of the four of us, I was the only one to reach Prism and the floor was still shaking.

Now what?

Do I knock him out? Should I hit him in the head? If yes, how hard? What would happen if I overdid it? How much force classified as overdoing it? I didn’t know, I hadn’t knocked anyone out before. All the times I’d been knocked out I’d been gone in the moment the force had arrived, I didn’t retain that information.

Head blows aside, what else was there?

“Status report.” Blinker demanded over the radio, so I heard him twice since he wasn’t that far away. Once by ear, once by transceiver in ear. The sound roused a memory of us sparring, and the frustration of needing to do something but not knowing what vanished.

“Standing back.” Voidling responded.

“In the trees.” Unshaken said.

I was busy lifting Prism, so I couldn’t respond.

“Lock?” Blinker asked.

“Trying to put Prism in a sleeper hold.” I grunted, not using my radio. It was tough standing up. The tremors were amplifying by the second.

I heard Blinker and Voidling talking, but wasn’t close enough to hear what they were talking about. Prism was thankfully unresponsive when I started wrestling with him. I wasn’t comfortable using my power, given the scenario. One thing that I definitely wanted to avoid was damaging someone like that.

Ironic, given what I’d done to Killer Kage and, Clothesline. But I was more referring to the terminal kind of damage.

“Avoid the windpipe.” Blinker’s advice crackled in my ear. “You want to cut off the blood flow to the brain. Put pressure on either side of his neck, where the veins are. Hold until the power disables itself.”

That was some of the first good advice Blinker had given me. I had an arm wrapped around Prism’s neck, and adjusted it to suit what Blinker told me. I looked up to see what was happening around me. All that was visible were the two other unconscious villains, and half of Waterlad’s puddle. Beyond that there was nothing. It just cut off after that. Sometimes further away, sometimes closer, but always ending in a black void.

It was almost like looking in a mirror.

After what may have been twenty seconds of me holding Prism, he began to kick and pull at my arm. I cancelled the force of his grasp and locked my costume. He kicked more violently. The moans stopped and were replaced with a scream that made me wish I could block my ears, or had an ability that properly affected sound. The scream continued for a few short moments, then cut off as he started talking at a rapid speed.

“Endure. Change.

“Endure. Change.

“Endure. Chan...ge… L... L....rn... Com...”

Prism slumped in my hold and the effects he was maintaining suddenly stopped. Decidedly disturbed, I unlocked my costume and released him immediately. I picked up my staff that had been dropped at some point and quickly backed away from him.

Voidling was stepping forward to check on Prism. Blinker took me aside and stepped between me and Prism.

“Talk, Lock.” He said. It was just noise.

I ignored him and looked past him at Prism. Blinker grabbed my mask and forced me to look at him.

“Lock.” He repeated. “Talk.”

“What the fuck do you want me to talk about!?” I yelled. “That was some horror movie shit right there! I’ve broken an arm and a leg, neither of them my own, but that wasn’t anything like what I just had to do. He was going nice and calmly, and then he fucking screamed and started talking like a crazy person. Which he probably is, given,” I gestured wildly around us. “All of this!”

Blinker let go of my mask. “You’re in shock. You need to keep talking.”

“Can you please tell me what to talk about!?”

“Anything.”

“Anything!?” I repeated incredulously and loudly. “Thank you Blinker! You’re almost as good a console as you are a team captain! You’re being really fucking helpful right now!”

He looked over his shoulder. “Unshaken-”

“No!” I shouted. “Not her! Not after what Collage did to me. I can not talk to Unshaken right now, or I might end up throwing a fucking truck!”

Blinker turned back to me as I caught my breath. He paused for a long enough time that I calmed some and was getting interested in Prism again. “What did Collage do?”

“He fucking hazed me!” I immediately returned to my desperate energy level from before. “Pink beam, you know?” I didn’t pause, but Blinker nodded. “Said ‘Hi, I’m Collage. Think fast’ and that was it. Boom! Mindwhammied! Are you familiar with the sensation?”

Again, I didn’t wait for Blinker to nod. “I had just picked myself up and turned around and suddenly there were two new people making a first impression on me. I was in love with everything I could even fucking smell! The effect faded, but the impression didn’t. Now, I’m in a constant struggle with myself because one, what’s happening to me is fucked up. Two, I’m on the team with people I am incapable of acting like a normal fucking person around. And three, Collage did the same fucking thing to Lucidity and should face some fucking consequences for that. Am I talking enough for you yet!?”

Blinker was off balance for the first time since I’d known him. Not physically, the other way. It was satisfying. “Lower the volume, please.”

“I’m sorry! I just choked someone out!” I exploded.

Blinker winced, more at my volume than my words. He glanced over his other shoulder at Voidling.

“You told me how.” I told him, putting less energy into my words. I almost spoke as softly as Voidling. Fuck. Now I was feeling tired enough to fall over and sleep at a moment’s notice.

“You did what you had to do.” He told me. It was possibly the nicest thing he’d said to me so far. A reassuring hand on the shoulder confirmed my suspicion that this was an alien who had taken Blinker’s place as Captain of the Sentry.

“Prism is unconscious, but stable.” Voidling reported. He’d stepped away from the unconscious villain. “Lock, you should stay here and watch over the villains. You’ll need to taze Waterlad when he’s nearly reformed, that’s the only way you’ll keep him down for the time being. The rest of us ar-”

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a loud clang as the garage door next to the Truck dented suddenly, then split open as an honest to god APC rolled out of the warehouse. It had what looked like white sand trailing off of it, and there were several hand and foot shaped dents in the thing, but nothing that slowed it down.

“Scatter!” Blinker called out and flashed away.

Voidling quickly took cover behind a wall, grabbing the nearest villain- Junk Mail- as he went. Unshaken was running towards me while I turned and stared down the vehicle. I had seconds to act, and I wasn’t on my hoverboard or capable of getting out of the way now that I’d taken the time to survey the situation.

There was irony there I didn’t have the time to dwell on.

I knew my power had limits, but in the moment I didn’t have any other choice. I discarded the staff and stepped once towards the car. I blanked out the sound of Unshaken calling my name from too far away as I put my hands in my pockets and locked everything I was touching. Moments later the APC crashed into me.

I’m going to be honest, parts of my life flashed before my eyes. Faces of people I adored. Names I could no longer say, as well as one or two I was still able to. Places I could no longer go. The macabre notions were pointless though, the APC wrapped around me without successfully exerting any forces.

It made sense. I was an immovable object after all.

Or, my costume was.

I found the force that the vehicle would have been putting on my costume if I hadn’t been using my power and cancelled it. Then I unlocked my costume and pulled a hand out of my pocket. I placed it on the APC and felt it in its entirety. There were eleven people sized weights within. I ignored them for the time being and focused on gravity, which I made zero before lifting the APC off the ground.

It’s wheels, which were still spinning, screeched as they were lifted off the pavement. Since I had to lift the weight of eleven people, I ended up reversing gravity a little to accomplish that maneuver.

“There’re eleven inside.” I yelled to my teammates. Then I locked my costume again and let them do their thing while I balanced the APC.

This was the first time I’d seen Unshaken in her element. It was scary, at least to those who were the focus of her ire, making me incredibly relieved that she was on my side. Put simply. If I was an immovable object, then Unshaken was an unstoppable force. Only there was no ‘if’ about it. Unshaken’s power was that she was literally an unstoppable force.

Unshaken approached the APC and chopped a hand down where the door was attached to the rest of the vehicle, then ripped it off like it was made of paper. Blinker and Voidling took cover as the people inside were revealed and opened fire. Unshaken ignored that, reached inside and threw one of the occupants out before grabbing another one and throwing them on the ground next to the first. I had to adjust gravity so the APC stayed level.

Once she had two on the ground, Unshaken gripped their arms and yanked lightly. I heard the popping sound over the engine. The driver was still flooring it like that would change anything. Unshaken found the guns the people had been using and daintily kicked them, damaging the firearms beyond repair. Meanwhile more people piled out the other side of the APC and circled around me. As they did the driver stopped pressing the accelerator.

“Put down the vehicle.” One of them commanded.

I chose not to answer. I couldn’t move even if I tried right now.

They had made a mistake, anyway. I saw Unshaken lunge at the nearest one in the corner of my eye. There were the sounds of fighting as Voidling and Blinker joined the scuffle, and more popping sounds as several strong forces tried to act on the back my costume. It wasn’t until a hole appeared in the APC next to my mask that I realised they had been shooting at me.

There was a short scream, shortly followed by the sound of someone hitting another someone, and the shooting stopped. I just blinked, registering the fact that I had just been shot at. Soon the only one that hadn’t been subdued was the one in the driver’s seat. He had long since taken his foot off the accelerator and from I could see he was scared shitless. The man had retrieved a Vphone and was speaking into it, then vanished in a dark flash.

I put the APC down carefully as the rest of the men vanished in a similar fashion. Blinker and Unshaken sighed in unison. Voidling didn’t react. I was just tired.

The only people that were left included Halcion and a number of non-powered Courtesans that were already out of commission. Blinker and Unshaken went to take stock of the situation inside the warehouse while Voidling and I arrested the Courtesans. We didn’t have enough cuffs, so I supplied zip ties, which Voidling appreciated.

Somewhere inside, I noted how strange it was for a career hero to not be prepared for that kind of thing.

Now that the Entrepreneur’s Employees had been taken out of the equation, they deemed it safe enough for scouting purposes. They quickly reached the conclusion that while we had been dealing with the Private Army the Courtesans had absconded. I heard Unshaken reporting over the radio that she had found a door that was still swinging. We had just missed them.

Then Zephyr showed up with a menagerie of younger heroes in tow. The Police and Regulation forces not far behind. The first words out of her mouth were lost, then Muffle backed away.

Zephyr repeated her demand. “What is Lock doing here?”