“You understand how serious this is, right?” Toil’s eyes were facing forward, but he was projecting his voice to bounce his words off the windscreen and back at Glitter Bomb in the back seat. “I know you don’t like this, but I need to know you understand.”

“I understand.” Glitter Bomb answered breathily, barely speaking above a whisper as she looked down at the bleeding man in her lap. The spike had been shortened considerably, so now it only jutted out a short distance instead of being in danger of hitting the opposite wall. Enough to get a grip on, but not so much that it was dangerous to move him.

Sacred had been responsible for that. He used his power to set the spike on fire, then burned specific parts of it away over the course of less than a minute. It was actually still on golden fire, but it wasn’t burning anything. Then he’d retrieved the key for the other van from Forsaken and gone to drive that one. I was sitting in the front with Toil, as Glitter Bomb had insisted on being the one to look after Forsaken.

I had considered using my power to help keep him stable and avoid jostling him, but forces were changing in volume and direction too much for me to comfortably do that. If I had locked his coat, then he’d have just crashed through the wall of the van when it moved, and maybe through me.

“Please assure me that you understand.” Toil pressed. “I’m a very good judge of character, but I’ve been wrong about you more than once. Assuage my fears, Glitter Bomb.” He’d switched back to calling her Glitter Bomb after realising I was here.

“The rules say that I’m not supposed to break any rules.” Glitter Bomb said, her voice croaky. “So I’m not supposed to attack anyone, go out after curfew, encourage lawbreaking, supposed to do my homework, write in my diary as well as my journal every day. I’m supposed to be honest and not tell any lies or touch anyone, and-” Her voice caught. “And I’m holding Forsaken right now.”

Beside me, Toil’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “You’re not disallowed from giving first aid.” There wasn’t a response. “You’re giving him first aid, Glitter Bomb.”

“I don’t have a certificate.” Was Glitter Bomb’s quiet response.

“I do. You’re doing what I told you to right now, that’s fine. The rest of it, I can’t say the same.”

“But touching is the big one.” Glitter Bomb insisted. “I’ve jaywalked before and the agents questioned me because of it. Even though it wasn’t after curfew and the road was mostly empty and Forsaken was watching me. All I did was bump into someone after crossing and they still questioned me. I’m going to get locked up for touching Forsaken.”

She’d touched me as well. Grabbed my arm twice. It didn’t seem like the best time to bring it up, so I didn’t.

“That’s why I told you that.” Toil said. “First aid. Absolutely necessary.”

“They won’t care…”

Toil glanced at me, then turned his attention back to the road. “Fairy-”

“We didn’t get me back!” Glitter Bomb exploded. “We did it to get me back, but I’m still gone.”

I got another glance from Toil, much more calculating this time. “Our company isn’t in the know, Fairy.”

There was a choked laugh. “Lock’s really smart, he figured out Sedimentary was alive and used him really well. Hey, Lock, can you look at me please?”

After a moment’s hesitation, I turned in my seat and looked as Glitter Bomb removed her mask. Long dark hair tumbled down the back of her head, framing a reasonably attractive face. She had a nose that kind of reminded me of my own. Her a smile that was contrasted by wet eyes that hadn’t loosed any tears yet, as well as the fact that her lips were trembling.

“I used to kill people.” She told me, making my stomach drop.

“Fairy.” Toil warned.

“He’d figure it out, Ryan!” The woman in the back shouted. “He made buddies with Sedimentary! He’s basically a detective. He’d have searched me up online and gone through all the villains that disappeared around the time that I appeared.”

Toil cut her off, voice strong and dangerous. “Fairy, you’re making things worse for yourself.”

“So what!? Things are terrible already!”

“Exposing me was not on the table, Fairy.”

“You said my name first!”

“Lock already knew it. Forsaken never calls you anything else.”

“Still!”

“Fairy!”

“Toil!”

I was looking between these two like it was a tennis match. I very much wanted to get out at the moment, but since the car was in motion that was a non-option. Using my power was an option, but I was worried that would just make things escalate when I wanted them to calm down.

“Do you want to go to the Megahold?” Toil questioned after taking a breath.

“No, I don’t understand why you didn’t put me there in the first place!” Fairy shot back.

“There is a time and place for these discussions.”

“Yeah! Here and now!”

“There’s who to consider as well.”

“Yeah! I want Lock to hear this, and you are the one who made it worse by interrupting me you meanie! Lock.”

I looked at Fairy, afraid to open my mouth.

“I killed at least thirteen people.” She was openly crying now, but she wasn’t letting that interrupt her. “Thirteen because that’s the number of bodies that were found with red spikes through them that was released to the public. They don’t know how many they didn’t find, and they don’t know if I killed anyone else in a different way. So thirteen is the lower estimate. I killed thirteen people. Actual people dead by my hand. Forsaken is the one that stopped me.”

I was stunned, yet my mouth opened and said, “I figured.” My even tone belied the disgust I felt inside.

“See, Toil?” Fairy jabbed a finger at me. “I told you he was smart.”

“We need to have a discussion about this shortly, Lock.” Toil said, giving me another wary glance.

“Again, I figured.” I replied.

“How?”

“Glitter Bomb was-” I started to explain.

“Fairy!” Said woman interrupted me.

“Fairy,” I amended. “She was just as fascinated with the flail as Forsaken, even though it was a creation of his and not her’s. She shouldn’t have known as much as she explained to me. Specifically about the power of the flail.”

“A big old stabby stab.” Fairy reminded Toil.

“And then Felwyr’s law kicked in, stopping me from making the spear light, so…” The spear I was still holding pulsed. It was leaning across my body, the point going back behind the headrest. It wasn’t about to stab anyone. I glanced up at the wooden staff Toil was known for using, strapped to a corner of the van where it was out of the way. Maybe... “Made some steps in logic.”

“Like a detective.” Fairy bragged, apparently now my formerly murderous cheerleader.

“How is Forsaken?” Toil purposefully asked. Fairy changed tact quickly, rushing to check on the hero but holding back, being purposefully gentle.

“He’s still here.” She eventually told us. “But he’s colder now.”

“That’s good. We’re close to the hospital.” Toil told her. The drive continued in silence.

~~~

I watched Fairy follow Forsaken as he was wheeled away into a more private corner of the hospital. Now that Fairy had mentioned it, I was noticing her stay as close to Forsaken as she could while still staying well out of the way of everyone else. More than once she stopped entirely and watched Forsaken’s bed get further and further away until the hallway cleared and she ran to catch up.

Once she was out of sight I turned to Toil. “What’s really going on?”

There had to have been a reason that he and Sacred had been where they were to pick us up. Then with how Sacred had quickly commandeered the keys to the other van and driven off like he had somewhere to be while Forsaken was still bleeding. It had been telling.

Toil gazed at where Forsaken and Glitter Bomb had just turned around a corner. Glitter Bomb because she had her helmet back on. After a drawn out moment he uncrossed his arms and turned back to where the van was parked.

“A-13.” He said simply, expecting me to follow.

I had to mentally run through the information from Voidling’s USB to get what that meant. Fortunately, that topic wasn’t as out of date as the rest of the stuff that was on there. An A-13 was what was colloquially known as a Theta Class Monster. All capital letters required. The appearances of those things were relatively frequent on a global scale, about once every month or two, always somewhere populated, and were never good news. That being said, an A-13 was nothing compared to a Calamity.

The biggest point of difference being death toll. A Calamity always racked that number up high, with lesser encounters having casualties reaching three digits only while there were records of A-13s being put down without any fatal casualties. The second largest point of difference was that an A-13 appeared, while a Calamity arrived. The appearing process took a while, which gave some advanced warning. This would be the Heroes of Yesterday responding to that advanced warning.

Dealing with an A-13 was also a Regulation centric operation, and I was still suspended from duty.

“I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to help with this one.” I said.

“You will.” Toil responded, sounding sure.

“Is that a guess?” I asked. Silence answered for him. “I don’t even have my good equipment. I can’t use my power on the spear.” Which was still in the van, since that wouldn’t have been a good thing to lug around in a hospital. Thinking about the spear made me recall the other technically-alive things I was carting around. “And were we just in the emergency ward?”

“Yes.” Toil stopped. “You have more business to do there.” It wasn’t a question.

I pulled out the bullets of Joe and Nancy. “Two people in what I would call a pretty fucking critical condition. I have to shoot these to get them out.”

Toil held his hand out. “We can deal with them later. They won’t get any worse like that.”

“Uh, no.” I wrapped my fist around the bullets. “I’m going to get these guys to recovery as soon as possible, thanks. Then I’ll go to the hero operation that probably doesn’t want me.”

Toil met my gaze hard, then dropped his hand. “I’ll call over a good nurse.” He went off and found a number of orderlies that were quite shocked when I told them about the condition the two people in the bullets were. They wouldn’t have believed me, I don’t think, if Toil wasn’t there. But he was, and they prepared two beds with medical staff and equipment ready to take care of Joe and Nancy as soon as they appeared.

I shot one bullet at the ground next to a bed using my power, using the level of force I recalled from actually getting shot. Instead of ricocheting like a normal bullet would have, or making a hole, the bullet made a field of rapidly expanding triangles, moving in the reverse of the effect that put them in the bullets. That was Joe’s bullet, and I quickly learned that the spikes were long enough that getting him on the bed almost wasn’t feasible.

Needless to say, the emergency ward went into overdrive when Joe appeared. I caught Toil watching the mess with one hand covering his face, but splitting the fingers so he could keep an eye on things. Those red spikes jammed into him were telling. There were going to be questions.

The secretary wasn’t amused after everything had cleared out and I reminded her there was another person in another bullet. Nancy didn’t have any spikes through her, so she was cleared away much more quickly. Then Toil and I were asked to fill out some forms for the two new patients as best we could, detailing how we found them and such. I was honest, but vague. Naming Bad Valentine, but trying to avoid implicating myself.

Probably failed, all things considered.

Either way, Toil then drove me off to where the A-13 had started manifesting.

~~~

I did some research on my Vphone on the drive over, chewing through a not insignificant portion of my data. The area where an A-13 was manifesting was identifiable through a number of ways. Most times, there was electromagnetic disruption, resulting in spots where wifi and data just failed to reach. Other than that, there tended to be tremors, spontaneously forming cracks, and occasional expressions of minor powers. That included little fires starting, warped parts of floor or walls, and many other phenomena that just didn’t happen anywhere else, barring transhumans showing off.

A-13s had been appearing ever since the Hundred Hour Day kicked everything supernatural into overdrive. Consequently, the standard response to these things appearing was widespread, and there was even a branch of the Regulation whose job was exclusively to deal with these things. They were called Control. Probably short for ‘Beast Control’ or ‘Monster Control’ because of the colloquialism.

Theta Class Monsters were called that because there wasn’t any other way to really describe them. Back when they had first started appearing, scientists had given them scientific names that no one could recall or pronounce. Some rolled off the tongue, like Sexpedes, kind of, but the practice had fallen off because each A-13 was unique. None of them really matched. I passed over at least half a dozen papers that claimed as much, and more that claimed the opposite.

One useful tidbit I found correlating from multiple sources was that there was always a five hour grace period between the A-13 announcing its arrival and actually showing up. One scary tidbit that was similarly correlated was that the grace period could extend beyond thirty hours, and that the longer one of these things spent appearing, the stronger they were.

The area where this A-13 was appearing was on the busiest road in Graceland, King Street. Why a street on this side of America had such a name was beyond me, but that didn’t really matter here. The blocks around where the electromagnetic disruptions had started had been evacuated and quarantined, and the Regulation had moved in to enforce it. Toil parked as close as he could, which wasn’t that close, and we had to walk the rest of the way in. Thankfully, there was a detachment of Regulation troopers that were manning an entrance to the quarantine zone so we didn’t have to navigate through crowds.

Inside there were some E-Z Ups that had been assembled around the perimeter of the quarantine, and black plastic walls had been hung up so that the heroes and Regulation had privacy from the public eye. Beyond that, there was next to nothing closer to the centre.

The public eye had come in force. I counted five news vans parked illegally nearer to the cordon than we got, and even more cameramen, suggesting there were vans parked where we couldn’t see. It wasn’t quite the middle of the night yet, we were still an hour and a half or so shy of midnight, but there were still a lot of people here interested in seeing the monster. The cordon made it difficult to see what was inside from outside, but as heroes Toil and I were waved in without incident.

There were no people at the crossroads. No cars, either. All the shops were closed and the tables that were normally out for cafes even at this hour had been packed up and put away. Then, on the other side of the quarantine, more tents. It was a brief zone where every trace of human life had been erased. It was ruined by the camera flashes from the other side.

Toil walked ahead of me and met with Zephyr and Orcus. Also there was Mark from Scar’s Advent. His costume had clawed gauntlets that went back almost to his elbow. The green and yellow mask went back and out to the sides at two points reminiscent of cat ears. There were no sleeves to be seen, letting Mark show off his ripped arms. His costume also seemed to be a size too small for him, though that was probably on purpose. The guy clearly worked out.

As Toil arrived with the group there was a quick discourse, then they each glanced my way, one by one. First was Mark, surprisingly. He gave me a once over and returned to the conversation. Second was Zephyr, who stared at me and gave nothing away. The last time I’d been near her, I’d shoved her head into a mirror hard enough to break it, all because of accusations that should have been pointed at Satellite the whole time. I didn’t know where we stood.

Last was Orcus, who split away from the group and made his way towards me. “Lock.”

“Orcus.” I responded in kind.

Orcus appraised me. He said. “You were suspended from acting as a hero.”

I fidgeted with Sedimentary, which no one had thought to take off of me. “I was acting as a vigilante.”

Orcus was, as ever, entirely impassive. His voice inhumanely even and maintained a consistent pace throughout. “Your suspension ends early, as of this conversation. Toil’s review of your performance as a sidekick will determine your punishment, if you deserve any. You are to remain on standby until a crisis situation occurs, or you are relieved.”

I had forgotten how nice it was for someone to just get to the point. “I can do that. What about my gear?”

“It will be transported to you.”

“Even the costume?”

Orcus considered that. “We will determine if moving your costume is feasible. If not, you will be relieved so you may transport it yourself. I will not be participating in this crisis.”

That made me frown. Orcus’ power made him crazy strong and durable. He was an asset. Not having him help against a literal monster didn’t make any sense.

Orcus picked upon my confusion. He said. “The Regulation has weighed my worth against that of the Gray Apostles and have decided that their value outweighs my own. Because of the restraining order between us, they are not allowed here while I am present. I must leave.”

“Gray Apostles, huh.” I thought of what I knew of them, which wasn’t actually that much. They were a hero group that focused on raids and general one-and-done operations. They didn’t seem to care about the publicity angle that the Sentry supposedly pushed, and they were much less known than the Heroes of Yesterday.

Orcus’ voice maintained tempo, but the inflection changed. There was actual variation. “They were good people.” I frowned at him. “If you are lucky, they will be good to you.”

There was obviously history there, but I was at a loss of what to say.

“Your post is there.” Orcus indicated a shop that had been left open. I recognised a few Sentrys in there. When I looked back Orcus was walking away.

Another look at Zephyr found her still watching me with her arms folded. Not wanting to deal with that, I went to the open coffee shop I had been directed to.

There were four heroes inside, only two of which I knew firsthand. Snowflake was sitting near the entrance of the shop, so she had a view of the empty street. We made eye contact and I raised a hand to wave, but she’d already returned to watching the street. The area immediately around her dropped in temperature. Consequently, no one was staying near her.

Further inside Slingshot was lying horizontally in the air by a wall, with her back to said wall, and was holding a book in front of her that I’d seen her reading earlier that day. She still had her sunglasses on, and at this point I was comfortable calling power shenanigans. Other than the two Sentrys, there were two heroes from Scar’s Advent. The only other two heroes from Scar’s Advent.

The oldest hero in the room was Hangnail. She had a costume that matched Mark’s, which made sense since they were a literal power couple. It was sleeveless, had a similarly shaped mask, and had the same colour scheme, though this one seemed to actually fit. Instead of clawed gauntlets, she had wrist bands with the Scar’s Advent logo, three orange claw marks, and had a utility belt with a baton and taser openly worn. She maintained a professional image, from what little I’d seen and heard of her, but right now she was on her phone.

Last was a younger boy that wore a cowl over his mask, and had a breezy costume that billowed around him, even in the still air of the shop. It covered his arms and legs entirely, and it was a much darker colour than the other two in Scar’s Advent, so much so that it looked black at first glance. It was a strange blend of menacing and flighty, and had a similar effect to my Ghost power, which I saw as a blend of menacing and mysterious by virtue of communicating absolutely nothing.

His name was Papercut, which didn’t really fit the costume, and he perked up as I walked in. He must have been starved for conversation, seeing as how the three other female heroes were all ignoring him. I felt a little guilty as I walked over to Slingshot and cleared my throat.

“Hey Slingshot.” I announced my presence.

The heroine put her book down sideways. “Oh, hi Lock.” She frowned. “I thought you weren’t allowed here.”

That got Snowflake’s attention. I ignored it. It also felt like a gut punch, which I also ignored. “Back on duty as of a conversation I just had a minute ago. An A-13 warrants that, apparently. How long ago did all this start?”

“Nearly three hours so far.” Snowflake butted in. Slingshot recoiled and turned to face more towards her, but was still horizontal. “Thought you weren’t showing your face. What happened, meat?”

“I did something I shouldn’t have.” I answered hesitantly.

“And what’s with the spear?”

Sedimentary pulsed. I still didn’t know what that meant. “Unresolved.” I didn’t want to go blabbing about the matters of the Heroes of Yesterday. Sedimentary pulsed again.

Slingshot was holding back from participating, while Snowflake was putting up a hard front.

I decided to change the subject. “How long until Control gets here?”

“Not long.” Snowflake looked back outside. “Best prepare. They’re no nonsense kind of people.”

“Have you met them?” Slingshot tentatively asked.

“I haven’t.” Snowflake shot back. “They have a reputation.”

“Do you know which ones are coming?” I questioned. “The States roster, as far as I can remember, has Eden, Gracious, Overlord, Common Sense, and Brainstorm.”

Snowflake hummed. “Gracious got offed a while ago and you missed the techo. Unloaded got added last month.”

“Wasn’t he a villain?” Papercut piped up. I looked over just in time to see him get clouted on the back of the head by Hangnail.

“It’s not good to talk about things like that.” Hangnail scolded him. “Not everyone makes the best of a second chance.”

“Kid’s got a point, though.” Snowflake commented. “Bang Bang was a terror in Washington. Everyone was all nervous he’d try something on parliament. With skills like his, wall penetrating bullets can be taken for granted, even if those walls are marble blocks more than a foot thick.”

Hangnail crossed her arms, her phone forgotten for the moment. “Who is teaching you respect, Sentry? Because they aren’t doing a good job.”

Snowflake rounded on Hangnail and met her gaze for an uncomfortably long time. “I’m teaching myself el respeto.”

Hangnail shook her head in disapproval. “Terrible role model. Papercut, this is exactly why you aren’t in the Sentry.”

“Gee, thanks for batting for me.” Papercut moved his head expressively, communicating the eye roll through the mask and cowl.

Snowflake kept her eyes trained on Hangnail. “Do you know what’s better than a good role model?” She waited long enough that I felt like I should say something. “Making your own fucking decisions.”

I didn’t know what to say. It was clearly an attempt to get a rise out of Hangnail, but the heroine was cocking her head, trying to figure out how to take that. Snowflake looked away before anyone decided to pick up on that.

“Papercut is fourteen.” Hangnail said. “He’s not ready for that kind of thing yet. The show you’re displaying is just proving my point.”

Snowflake huffed, but didn’t pick up the conversation.

Slingshot glanced at me and righted herself. “You look better.”

Three words, and I was floored. It took me a moment to recover from the rush that Collage’s power gave me and at that point responding felt awkward. But it was my turn to say something, so I had to.

“Got some rest.” Is what I ended up saying and immediately regretting.

Slingshot nodded, also bobbing up and down a bit with her body. I noticed she was drifting a bit, leaning back to the side. “That’s good.”

Fuck, I hated this. I started stepping away. “I’m gonna sit while we wait.” Slingshot nodded her understanding and returned her attention to her book. Slowly rotating sideways again.

I ended up moving over to Papercut and sat at the same table, but moved my chair so I was facing out and keeping an eye on the busywork of the Regulation. Other than that, all that was left to do was wait. There were a lot of boxes that were getting carried into the cordon and the equipment inside being set up all around.

They didn’t know what powers the A-13 would have, so they were preparing for as much as possible. Going by the stories I’d read online, the monster would pull something out of the bag that would complicate everything.

“You’re Lock, aren’t you?” Papercut asked me.

“That’s me.”

“Have you rebranded or something? Your costume is different and you had Cloud’s staff on your debut.”

Sedimentary pulsed sharply for some reason. I shrugged. “Was doing some extra work with the Heroes of Yesterday, outside of Sentry time. Regulation didn’t let me have my normal gear for it.” In no small part because I didn’t ask.

“Thought that was a bit fast. You didn’t even have any articles from before the day you debuted.” That got me giving Papercut a sideeye. ”I actually have a question. How did you get Cloud’s staff if you didn’t even fight him on that day? The whole thing with Metafore didn’t put you and him against each other, so it doesn’t make sense.”

“Cloud and I had a fight about a week before.” I started explaining.

“The time the Racketeers got in the Regulation HQ!” Papercut cut me off, palming his forehead like he couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. “Oh course, that makes so much sense!”

“Cool it, Cutter.” Hangnail said, not looking up from her Vphone.

Papercut let out an embarrassed laugh, then scooted closer. He kept talking in a lower volume. “So you signed right up with the Sentry, right? You’re like, the only guy in Graceland that would go straight from manifesting to signing on with the heroes. Most people try vigilante or solo hero stuff first.”

“You could say I’m doing things a bit backwards, then. And I’m not the only one.” I jerked my head towards Slingshot, though she was just doing it for the boots.

“Good.” Hangnail joined in, but still didn’t look up. “Too many potential heroes try a solo act and get caught out by Queue. They always end up in one of the three employee gangs or killed. That’s why you joined the team right out of manifesting, Cutter.”

“It’s not Cutter!” Papercut rounded on Hangnail with indignance. “It’s Papercut. You spent so long arguing with me about this name, you could at least use it.”

“Cutter flows better in conversation.”

“Then I should have been Shadowblade, or Backstab, or Lies In Wait, or any of the other hundred names we wrote down on that whiteboard. I still can’t get over the fact that you didn’t let me call myself Edge.”

Hangnail shrugged, but dignified Papercut with eye contact. “Edge was taken.”

“Ugh.” Papercut turned back to me. “Please distract me so I don’t have to talk to my mom. She always gets like this on stakeouts.”

“Cutter.” Hangnail warned.

“Sorry, Nailer.” He paused, then continued when Hangnail sighed instead of continuing to tell him off. “Sorry, Lock. Hey, what are your powers?”

“I can move things with my mind if I touch them.” I answered after making sure Hangnail wasn’t going to jump in saying that it was irresponsible to ask someone what their powers were. “And I doodle.”

“You doodle?”

I turned and stared at Papercut. “Look at me.”

He did, from top to bottom. “Oh yeah. Cool. I’m a forcefield Disrupter, check it out.”

Papercut held out his hand and splayed his fingers. From the fingertips a number of faint orange lines extended, splitting and expanding in a fashion that almost reminded me of a circuit board, but also blood vessels. I should know, I could sense my own thanks to the blankness I felt within them, and I felt circuit boards every time I touched something electrical. The forcefields were see through, and none were wider than one of his fingers. Some were so thin that I could barely see them. It didn’t help that they were see through.

“Go ahead and punch through it.” He prompted.

“If you’re sure.” I said, and gently pushed my hand through the forcefields. They barely made any resistance, and the fist sized area I punched through winked out. The forcefields attached beyond where it was disrupted disappeared as well. My Smart power informed me of the continuous force, almost all the way back to the fingers, but that too vanished when the forcefield did and I wasn’t touching anything to transmit my power.

“Now, I know what you’re going to say.” Papercut told me with a hint of smugness. “‘Not very impressive, right? That’s because my power has another factor to it. Try moving literally anywhere. Actually, just stand up.”

I paused, having already figured it out, then attempted to stand. Papercut’s power had snaked under my clothes in bands and wrapped around my limbs. When I moved, the forcefields didn’t, and were much stronger than the ones I punched through. The difference in strength caught me off guard and I fell back into the chair.

Papercut spread his arms wide like a showman, the strands on that end growing so they maintained distance from his fingers. “Cool right?”

“What made them stronger?” I asked.

“Light. Or lack of light. More darkness equals more strength. Since it’s darker under your clothes than it is under these lights, my forcefields are stronger. I don’t think I’d have been able to pull that off with your normal costume.”

“So why the name Papercut?” The name didn’t really fit, in my opinion. I was looking at his power at the same time, trying to figure it out. It was weird to observe. The forcefields weren’t moving, but if felt like they had force behind them that shouldn’t have been there. It was directionless, but it didn’t cancel itself out. If anything, it felt like what happened when I applied forces to something I had locked.

Papercut shot Hangnail a look. It went ignored, unsurprisingly. “Well, I can make my forcefields real thin, see?” A thin orange thread grew past my eyes. It wasn’t moving too fast, about walking speed. But I was also tracking how it diverged, and each end was able to grow at about the same rate. “If you pressed a finger against that, it’d push back only so much, then break. If the lighting isn’t too good, it breaks skin. Like a papercut.”

“And that’s why you wanted to be called shadowblade.” I realised.

“Yes! Thank you!”

“Please don’t encourage him.” Hangnail asked me.

“I didn’t say it was good.” I replied. “All the names you mentioned seemed like you were trying too hard.

“Hey!”

I decided to distract Papercut by flexing my own power a little. All I did was add another instance of gravity to his forcefields and they all winked out. Papercut flinched back in surprise as more than half of his active forcefields were destroyed.

“You said you were a Disrupter, not a Traitor.” He said accusingly.

“It looks like my power trumps yours.” I shrugged. “Good thing we’re on the same side.” We talked powers for a bit, discussing the ways our powers were strong and ways they were weak. Mine were obvious, and a lot of the discussion was dedicated to Papercut suggesting ways to get around them, most of which I had already thought up.

Eventually someone approached where we were waiting and conversed with Snowflake. They left and Snowflake stood up to relay the message.

“Control is here. Mission brief in fifteen.”