Damian arrived just in time at 11:30. The 7th district was where he lived, and he had thought he could pull a last minute arrival. He could, but was almost late that it was literally last minute. A girl in a black body-tight suit lied on the ground, a puddle of blood beneath her. Damian’s eyes widened and he looked around. She wasn’t the type to fall easily. He had seen what she was capable of. She couldn’t have just died like that. Damian knelt near her and shook her rigorously.

“Hey, Psycho, no Tina, wake up. Don’t be acting sleepy. Wake up, please.” He said.

“No use. She is already dead.” A man said from behind him. Damian recognized this voice. It was Clinton, but a hollow tint was in his voice.

“What happened?” Damian asked.

“I killed her.” Clinton said and soon the sound of a blade unsheathing reached Damian’s ears. Not even a second after, before Damian could even turn around, Clinton’s blade reached his neck and Damian felt a surge of energy. “But I don’t think I can do so for you and Elisa.”

“Why?” Damian growled, his sight tinted with red and temper shortening with every millisecond.

“Because my king ordered me to.” Clinton said. Those eyes were just like the person in the elevator. They were blank, and face expressionless.

“King?” He asked.

“That is none of your business. I have taken Elisa’s father hostage. Your friend Adam is also there. Fight Comet, or I kill both of them. I have sent a message to Comet saying so. Both of them shall die unless one of you do.” Clinton said, pointing at a surveillance camera hanging from a streetlamp. “I will be looking. Don’t even think about cheating.”

He then sprinted away into a hole in the ground, most likely going to the base. The lid was left open as if daring him to go. Damian wouldn’t. He released the residue energy onto the ground with a stomp. Adam was the first of his friends. There was no way Damian would endanger him. Then again, a parent was an important person to any person other than Damian who had a shitty experience with both. It was a hard decision. He couldn’t throw the match since one of them had to die.

It frustrated him, angered him. For the first time in his sixteen years of life, he snapped. He’d defeat Comet and show Clinton what hell was like. He’d show him what it meant to mess with him. Damian would take revenge, but first he had to win. Comet arrived at a little past 12, dressed in her superhero costume. It offered protection, and also served to protect her identity. Her eyes burned a bright through her goggles. It was her powers at work, Damian knew, but not technology.

“Have you heard?” Elisa asked. She sounded sad, but the helmet that covered her entire head didn’t let her mouth through to show her expression.

“Yes. And I fully intend to win.” Said Damian, without fear.

“I’m sorry, but I have to win as well.” She said, and descended to the ground. Without a second’s delay, she jumped at him. The Comet was true to her name, impossibly strong. Damian’s energy pumped up to maximum in one punch, and he returned one in kind, to her cheek. It moved her face a little, nothing more. Something inside Damian tugged against him fighting a girl, but his care for his friend overpowered it.

She shouted, and sent another punch at Damian. It was an average punch, without training or form. The sheer speed and power, however, made it a terrifying attack. Damian leaned back, letting the punch through. Elisa then followed up with another swing. She took the time to pull back her hands before she threw a punch, making it easy to read. Damian didn’t dodge. He took it.

His eyes burned a crimson red again as he sent another attack, this time to her solar plexus. It was easy to hit her without a proper guard in place. The breath left her lungs, possibly having it done to her the first time in her life. Then he followed up with an uppercut under her chin with every muscle in his body compressing the force behind that punch.

It wasn’t enough to budge her.

She groaned in pain, and Damian ran away, straight into a wall. Recharged, he walked toward the girl stumbling on her legs. Seemingly deciding flight was a better option, she took to the skies. Instead of fighting attacks from the front, it switched to fighting from every direction but the ground. She was fast, incredibly so in the air. She smashed into Damian with a flying kick, her superior strength and the kinetic energy of the flight compressed into a single heel of her foot.

Damian didn’t budge, all of the energy compressing .His energy container overflowed, and he exploded. A blanket of energy left his body, smashing away the girl with her foot still on his body. An intense pain filled his body, hurting every single cell inside him, even though Damian knew it did no damage he still abstained from doing such a painful thing. He groaned in pain and glared at Elisa.

Elisa was lying on the ground, holding her feet. Her eyes had stopped glowing, meaning her power wasn’t as active as it was before. Those impossibly fast punches would have to have be reduced in speed now, though she didn’t look to be in any form to fight.

“Sorry. No hard feelings, Comet.” Damian said and smashed into a wall, instantly recharging himself. She glared at him, Damian could feel the sting. “Please forgive me.”

If the speed was reduced, so would the invulnerability. This punch ought to do something now.

Tears left his eye. He really couldn’t kill a person, at least not a woman, not a desperate girl trying to save her parents. But what must be done had to be done. It was either kill or get killed.

He sent a punch with all his kinetic energy, aiming at her temples. But a familiar feeling washed over him, the power behind his punch weakening every millimeter it travelled, coming to a halt at Elisa’s temples. A hand was on his arm, grabbing onto it.

“Damian, you aren’t the kind of person to do this.” Said a boy, showing off his golden teeth – Richard.

“What are you doing here?!” Damian shouted.

“Stopping you from killing another one of our teammates, as a Red Comet.” He said, and slammed his fist into his face. It had no effect, of course. “Snap out of it, you moron! You kill one of your friends just because someone told you to? That way all the friends you can have are those idiots you hang out with!”

“They picked me up when I was alone. They are my friends. I have to protect them.” Damian said in return, hoping to justify his actions just a little bit. Justify trying to beat up a helpless girl.

“Adam, was it? He’s safe. The other new recruit should have got the ninja guy by now.” Richard said. “He’s safe, so is your father, girly. Damn that guy. He killed that girl over there? Shit.”

“Why are you in the Comets?” Damian growled, wrinkling his nose.

“As your failsafe just as you are that girl’s.” Richard said. “And also, the other new recruit I said that got the ninja? She’s also his failsafe. It’s dangerous to have so many gifted working without any leader, or so said uncle. That psychic girl was the closest to that and she’s no more, so he told us to come right away, even though I didn’t really agree. Either way, I arrived just in the nick of time.”

“How did he know?” Mumbled Damian, and was pretty sure Richard hadn’t heard him, yet he replied.

“He’s got all the cameras at your base at home, and also he’s in the group chat. It’s obvious he’d be looking out for you. We’re still teenagers, naïve and untrustworthy.” Richard said with a sigh. “Just like you, but I’m a little better off. Let me tell you as a former gangster, no, bad guy. There’s no way he’d let go any of the hostages. And you called me a moron, to boot.”

“B-but…” Damian stuttered.

“You see, we take hostages but we don’t give them back. That’s a rule of thumb, really. Girly, get up. Let’s get you away from this moron. And Damian, you go and rest.” Richard said, and pulled Elisa up. “So yours stops working when you’re hurt? Then we’re pretty similar.” He walked to the distance, leaving Damian alone.

He stood there for a while, looking at Tina’s cold body. The few tears falling from his eyes turned into a him bawling his eyes out. After an unknown amount of time, the sound of sirens filled the night and two cars pulled into the half-full driveway. Four cops walked out from their cars and stopped behind Damian.

In a cold voice, one of them asked.

“Sir, you are apprehended for being suspected of murder. Anything you say will be used against you in the courts.” The officer said and Damian looked back. It was the same officer that caught him after the fight with Richard. His expression was blank, just like the one in the elevator. Damian clenched his teeth and slammed his hands on the ground. The others were much like the first, all expressionless. For the first time, he drew from somewhere that wasn’t outside his body, or even corporeal. No, it was something different. A mix of regret and anger. They receded as his energy container filled to the brim.

“Violence against a police officer is high treason and the maximum penalty is execution.” The officer said.

“There, there and even there, you were there, with your goddamn expressionless faces. What the hell do you want?!” Damian shouted.

“We want you to come with us and be questioned.” The officer said.

“Then I fucking say no!” Damian shouted and slammed at him. He flew back, smashing onto his car and the glass cracked. Most surprisingly, however, the recipient stood back up, unbothered by the nose that had clearly been put to the same level as his skull.

“You are hereby arrested for high treason. Get him.” The officer said and the others obeyed. They tackled Damian to the ground, and Damian wanted to draw from that source yet again, but his anger had fled long ago, replaced by fear and uncertainty.

Only then did Damian realize, he had relied on his gift too much that he had forgotten to take tackling into account, fighting only people without official training had made him bold to what techniques other than boxing were. He was lying on the ground with both hands cuffed behind his back in mere seconds. They threw him into the guarded backseat of their car and it arrived at the central police department.

“Who are you people?” Damian asked. Even faced against Tinker-tech, he had a choice. This time, he didn’t. Helplessness showed itself to him.

“The police.” Said the driver.

“I know you aren’t. I met you a few days ago. You didn’t act like this then, and no one would change so much in such a short time. Who the hell are you? … I think something is happening. No, I’m sure.” Damian growled.

“Silence him.” Said the driver and the one sitting in the spare seat opened the hard glass and fired his taser at Damian. He felt the electricity crackle through his body for a second, and he lost consciousness.

≈

The next he came to was on a bed in what appeared to be the infirmary. His belongings were all neatly placed on a table, and on a chair next to it sat a young girlish boy or a tomboyish girl with white hair reaching his shoulders. He had a police hat on his head and was toying with a taser in his hand.

“Where am I?” Damian asked.

“The police department. They brought you-” The boy said, but the ringing of his phone stopped him mid-sentence. Damian stumbled to his phone and first he noticed it was already 1 o’clock in the morning and the second thing he noticed was it was Adam.

“Sorry. I really have to make this call.” Damian said, and the boy nodded his head with a smile.

“Sure, I can wait.” He said, humming a happy tune in his mouth.

“It’s me, Clinton. Don’t say no to him, please. Just run away now!!!” He shouted from behind the phone.

“Who are you to order me around?” Damian asked.

“If you don’t want to kill Comet like I did with Tina, get the hell out of there. Jump out the window, or do something. Just don’t say no to him!” Clinton half-shouted, half-growled.

“It’s true. Get out of there.” Said someone who could only be Richard. “Your friend is safe. I’m here.”

“Would you be as kind to take a seat, please?” The boy asked, pointing at the bed he was lying on earlier. Disturbed, Damian nodded his head and sat down. “Well then, let’s get straight to the point. Could you tell me who killed the girl?”

“It’s Cli-, the Shadow.” Damian said.

“Then would you be as kind to tell me his non-masked identity?” The boy asked with a smile.

“It’s-” Damian stuttered, and remembered what Clinton said. Don’t say no to him, please. “Clinton.”

“Oh, thank you very much. Then could you tell who the Comet is while you’re at it?” The boy asked once more.

“I… don’t know.” Damian said. Then something inside him steered and a feeling akin to nausea hit him.

“Aw, you lied. Well, don’t worry, you’re gonna tell it to me now.” Said the boy, and just as the strange feeling in his stomach reached his mouth, the name came out.

“Elisa.”

“Hahahaha. Now then, would you-” The boy said, but Damian jumped out the window, and using up all the kinetic energy he had, ignoring all the pain, he forced his body to move at maximum speed rivaling Comet’s if not stronger.

“Oh, hell. I forgot to tell Shadow to come here at 1.” The boy said with a chuckle. “Well, I have a feeling we’ll meet again. Especially since I have the police under my command. Guess I’ll catch the Red Band and recruit them as well. Need as much manpower as possible.”