Gus dragged the mop across the already spotless floor on the bridge of the space station. He had drawn the short straw and got custodial duty, again. Staring at the floor, he didn’t notice the increase in activity of the crew.

Just do your time. Three more months on the station then you can get back to your friends. He had only taken this job because he thought his three best buds would be onboard with him. When they didn’t get picked, Gus had been alone. He felt isolated as the new guy, and of course, all the worst jobs fell to him more than what seemed like his fair share.

A sudden impact made everyone stumble, shaking Gus out of his moping while mopping.

“Give me a status report!” station commander Graviton barked.

“Sir, it appears that we have lost stabilizers one through six and the remaining two are at half capacity,” first lieutenant Aurora reported as her hands flew across multiple view-panels.

“How is this happening? I thought having him here would prevent those types of malfunctions!” Graviton growled, jabbing a finger in Gus’ direction.

Gus tried to press himself closer to the wall in a misguided attempt to become less noticeable. His super employer was known for his hot temper, and despite his famous father’s connections getting him this job, he had no illusions that he wouldn’t be crushed in a fit of rage. Just his luck to be on custodial duty when something goes wrong.

“The stabilizers are showing no signs of mechanical failure, but there is something impeding their access to a sufficient gravimetric field to function as designed——”

“Is the disruption only below us or all around?”

“It appears to be a disc-like interruption slowly moving to eclipse the footprint of the station from Earth. Remaining stabilizers will be unable to function in 40 seconds!”

Gus slowly slid towards the exit as Graviton madly pounded at various panels. Adjustments made, he slid his arms into two sleeves in a crystalline box that resembled the type lab techs used to work on dangerous chemicals or viruses. Once his hands were inside the sleeves up to the elbow, the inside of the box lit up and a blue hue emanated from his palms. His hands began gesticulating and waving and then were pressed flat as if he was trying to keep the lid on a box with some wild creature inside fighting to be set free.

The whole floor tilted suddenly and the mop bucket began to slide when it suddenly stopped with a slight vibration as the crystal box activated. Gus was hoping to get off the bridge, but as his mag-boots engaged he couldn't lift his feet off the ground. He didn't know if it was due to his boots being typical faulty, low-tier henchman issue or that the magnetized floor was set for supers and he was just too weak.

So flipping close to the door! Gus pulled frantically at his ID attached to his retractable keycard holder, trying to stretch it to the sensor panel. Of course, it had to be on the right side of the exit door, a mere six feet away. Looking directly behind him was the access door to the escape pods.

Why not? he thought, pulling the ID to this panel. The panel flashed on:

ID: Gus Vannett

Rank: G.O.O.N

This pod is reserved for Tier 1 employees only, please access pods reserved for your particular tier.

Tier 1 comprised the highest ranked supers which comprised the bridge crew. Pods for regs were probably hopelessly far away on the extreme lower levels if they even existed, that is. One more reality that reaffirmed the distinction between supers and regs, as they were called--regular humans with no powers.

"Get ready!" Graviton shouted.

Gus turned back to the chaos...and was hit by a wave of nausea as his inner ear was overwhelmed, with the confusing maelstrom of forces, as it struggled to determine what was up and down. It felt as if riding a spinning teacup ride on a rollercoaster with a liberal amount of loop-de-loops. He held out valiantly for about 2 and a half seconds before throwing up.

The fluid projectile mass streamed away from him, combining with the levitating mop water in front of him which then hovered and began to coalesce into a ball. Gus watched in horror as it was stretched and contorted by the forces playing upon them all and the mass nearly hit Graviton. Luckily, it did not. Unluckily, it hit Aurora full in the face like a vengeful slime creature from one of the RPGs Gus and his buddies loved to play.

Gus’ jaw dropped and he redoubled his efforts to lift his boots. Slowly gravity began to reassert itself to its normal direction and things started to settle. His boots were still stuck to the ground and he was effectively trapped. This was not good, as his punishment for losing his lunch and probable death was only delayed by the confusion and urgency of stabilizing the station.

Why did it have to be Aurora? The blonde beauty was one of the few people who ever noticed Gus and was even nice to him. She was way out of his league of course, but there was a tiny part of him that fantasized that she actually liked him back. Reading volumes into a smile and glance where in reality there was probably only kindness, or pity.

Gus stopped trying to lift the boots and began to start removing them when he realized he was getting nowhere. He managed to loosen two of the ski-boot type latches on the back of his left foot. It had taken a while to get used to walking in the clunky boots, a mandatory part of the station uniform. He hadn’t given it too much thought until they activated and secured to the floor. The station stopped with a lurch and the display showed that they had anchored to the moon’s gravitational field.

At the same time, a pinpoint of light appeared near the center of the floor. Hooray! More distractions! The light brightened and the metal began to bubble and sink in an ever-widening pit.

Gus kept working, feeling like he was in cement shoes as he worked to finish unlatching the left boot and began on the right. Three supers flew in through the breach and executed perfect 3-point landings in a row, somehow managing to position themselves opposite Graviton and Aurora. They wore black uniforms, contrasting with the garish purple and white of those who were on the station. Graviton was Purple Faction, one of the three governing factions of supers on the planet. The fact that the invaders wore black spoke to their factionless nature.

The center figure pointed at Graviton, twisted his hand and made the 'come and get it' gesture Morpheus made famous all those years ago.

Is there a class supers attend called 'Dramatic Entry'? If so, they needed to expand the course curriculum. Maybe it was only a weekend continuing education class. Gus recognized the woman on the right to be Slipstream, a super who could wield solid light. She could also use existing forms of light as tethers to pull against and move around, both artificial and natural. Gus didn't know the other two, but thought the one on the left was a shapeshifter--Mercurio, maybe?

Graviton whipped his hands out of the interface pushing it to the wall as prepared for battle. His eyes stopped on Gus struggling by the escape pod.

“Don’t even think about it boy--that pod is for me alone,” he said through gritted teeth and Gus froze, feeling a bead of sweat roll down the center of his back. Graviton turned back to the invaders and Gus finally gasped, not realizing he had been holding his breath as his boss’ gaze fell upon him.

Aurora had cleaned herself somehow and flung out her hands shooting a blinding spray of ionized light and particles towards the invaders. Slipstream slid forward in front of her companions to meet the spray. She raised the back of her forearm to the attack, absorbing the light and energy into an invisible shield. Her feet appeared to be skating on mini Tron-like light cycles and she spun and flung the blinding blast back towards Aurora.

Mercurio took his cue, stretching and sliding, serpent-like, attacking from the other side. As he leaped, Graviton flung out a hand and Mercurio slammed to the floor. He vibrated there, losing cohesion slightly as the G-forces held him to the ground. While Mercurio was held, Graviton had to split his focus and keep his arm outstretched to maintain the localized gravity well. With his other hand he aimed at Slipstream, but she was too fast for him to target as she rocketed side to side in jerky angles to avoid being hit.

Slipstream pulled slivers of light from the LED panels above and began to fling them at all of the bridge crew, skewering one through the neck and another in the eye. Many were so intent on stabilizing the station that they were not paying attention to the battle going on and were mortally wounded. As they saw their comrades fall, others rushed to maintain the station's functions, but ducking and staying behind cover as much as possible. Slipstream targeted the bridge crew with dogged determination. Gus had assumed they were supers, but they made no attempts to retaliate or join Aurora and Graviton as they ducked out of the way. When they attempted to check a screen or panel, Slipstream would pick them off, one by one.

The invading leader was wearing a black suit with a red lion or scorpion, it was hard to tell the logo, stepped forward, exuding equal parts confidence and contempt.

“Factionless!” Gus said in shock. Those who were unable or unwilling to join a faction were looked down upon almost universally. Often they were mercenaries, willing to do anything for the right price. While the main Factions were Purple, Green, and Orange; most factionless chose to wear grey or black. The Factions were merciless with imposters, and few dared inciting their wrath. Gus stared at the spectacle, unable to control the covetous looks he gave even the factionless. Am I the only reg on this station?

Graviton intensified his pressure on the shapeshifter as the Factionless leader faced him and began hurling glowing lava balls, kudoken style. Panels were dissolved into black bubbly masses as the superheated material dissolved polymer plastic panels and displays. A lava ball hit the leg of a crew member taking it off at the knee cauterizing it and filling the room with an unbearable stench.

Aurora focused her intent and drained most of the energy from the lights, absorbing photons and robbing Slipstream of her deadly ammunition. The area darkened, Aurora left only the red emergency illumination, which had the least energy of visible light.

Graviton attempted to shift the direction of his abilities to immobilize the opposing leader, who responded by simply beginning to hover in the air. One of his sub-skills must have been flying and these supers were resistant to gravity attacks. Abandoning these techniques Graviton flung Mercurio against the far bulkhead to focus on the leader. Concentrating he began to generate a matter-less singularity at the core of the invader's chest.

Gus watched Mercurio fly towards the wall, changing his form into a ball. He hit the wall but rebounded off of it like then he was made of rubber and launched back into the fight. He slid behind Aurora and his elongated arms began to snake around her.

Glancing back to the bosses, Gus saw the lava super had staggered to a knee, clutching at his chest, then looking back in fury at Graviton. Stretching his hands out to the sides, tight beams of lava shot laterally and began eroding into the structure around him. One of the crew leapt out of the way as a console was severed in two as the beams melted through everything in their path.

Locking eyes, the two supers pitted their strengths against each other to see who would last the longest. Creaking of beams could be heard as the heat chewed through supports, weakening the substructure. The space station was designed more for functionality and lightweight by nature to more easily maintain orbit. Thus it lacked the durability of a typical fortress, as access was limited for most supers and soon began to succumb to the heat.

Gus could begin to see an indented deformation that was slowly growing larger in the chest plate of the lava super that resembled a crumpling soda can. Mercurio had wrapped Aurora in multiple bands of his stretched flexible arms while Slipstream was hitting her with what looked like a glowing cudgel of some sort.

With a loud groan the room split, buckling upwards in the center, separating Graviton from his enemy. There was a moment of weightlessness, the strain of damaged components stressing gravity tethers to the breaking point. Gus flew out of his left boot, secured in place only by the remaining latch on the right one. The station’s gravity field would stutter into effect then it would wink out into zero gravity.

"Critical failure! Hull breach. Please evacuate!" a voice warned over the speakers amidst sirens that began to ring. The door to Gus' right slid into the wall...the escape pod was open! Whether caused by a short or the station's imminent demise, the restrictions had been lifted. Gus strained to reach and remove the last latch on his right boot and grabbed the doorjamb pulled himself out of his boots and inside. The supers outside continued to struggle and crash about, pushing off walls to engage each other in the weightless environment.

The pod was an oval room that branched off the main bridge. It was about 25 feet in diameter and appeared to be designed for two individuals. The decor and technology appeared a lot older than the bridge for some reason. The fluttery-falling sensation of lost gravity returned and Gus hit the launch button. As the doors slowly slid shut he could see Graviton getting a face-full of lava as the other super straddled him and they both grappled each other as they floated by. Blinking in surprise, Gus numbly let his eyes drift and saw explosions through the portholes and main screen along the front of the pod. He was still in a shocked stupor when it was forcefully jettisoned away from the station.