Nikola was on her second eight-hour shift of the day, even if the actual day of the month had changed during it, and was almost ready to go to sleep standing. Seventeen times was the count she had been teleported out to fulfil her duties as a hired hero, stopping attempted robberies and making sure that threats of death weren’t being fulfilled. Most had been minor crimes done by ever more minor criminals. So few of them had even required the use of her powers. A coloured suit was everything the current generation needed to see before they gave up. Saying she was disappointed by that wasn’t entirely right, the chance of not fighting brought along the chance of not wasting time, but Nikola wouldn’t have minded some amount of practice.

She had been awake for twenty hours straight. She was allowed to be grumpy.

But, time was finally coming to a close. After taking the sacrifice of working for another, the young hero had been able to bear through an entire shift for the second time in a row. Nikola had consumed more coffee than recommended for any body type but she was more than ready to spend the last ten minutes of her working hours in silence. Scotty had been replaced by another teleporter who sat in their own office, meaning she had the entire break room to herself. The other heroes currently on-call wasn’t doing too much, being sent out long-term in crowded areas to establish a sense of peace for the populace. Nikola couldn’t say she was unhappy about it. Some of the newly recruited Augmentation Heroes truly needed to learn the ways of taking baths. There was only so much that should’ve been allowed to accumulate after weeks of work but they truly were working towards pushing the boundaries.

Looking at the clock on the wall, another minute had passed. Nine more minutes and she could get up from the sofa, leave the room, and take off that damned radio piece. Nine moments of hell to reach the haven beyond. With how much time had passed, there was a chance the shops could even be open now. Wasn’t it already close to lunchtime?

Eight minutes left. Nikola noted that she had been getting hungry for the last few hours. Using her powers truly was too hard on her metabolism.

At seven minutes left she wondered whether or not she needed to stop by the shop when going home. She likely had enough for some greens on toast along with old cheese.

At six minutes it was decided that her dining options weren’t fit for a hero who had worked so hard. Nikola wasn’t entirely sure what to get instead, however…

With five minutes left, the woman was sure she needed something healthy. Good health was a good way forward. What counted as healthy?

It was at the four, three, and two minutes that an entire menu of possibilities had been imagined, some being simply rye bread with condiments while others were five-star meals only served for the dangerously wealthy. When the clock hit under a minute left, the woman raised her head and prepared to rise from her seat, having a list of things to buy at the grocery. Seeing the clock go from thirty seconds to twenty felt like an eternity but the woman stared at it nonetheless. At ten it felt like salvation could be felt on her lips. At five she tensed her thighs to let her body rise from the cushions.

And at two point five seconds, she felt the ringing from her radio. It seemed that the world was against her at every step. Pressing lightly on the side of her head, she felt the connection go through.

“What is it, Skip?” Nikola asked, sitting on the sofa again she prepared herself for another potential hour of work. Knowing her luck, she’d be saddled with a chase worth the history books. “I am meant to go off work in a second so be quick about it.”

“I am afraid you will have to wait a little while longer, Tesla,” Skip replied in the uppity tone Nikola had started to correlate with the shorter man. He was another teleporter the city employed, though they were a tad more powerful than Scotty. And also more of a brat. The man was more than a few years her senior but she certainly couldn’t respect the teleporter as that. “We’ve had an altercation in Sector 43 that requires a Hero to be present. Mind-Control of some form is being suspected so we need somebody out there that can resist the basic types.”

“Sector 43?” Nikola questioned. “That’s a bit far away.”

“You’re the closest one with the skills needed and you have a remarkable grade on long-distance teleports,” Skip answered. “Prepare yourself. You’re teleporting in ten seconds.”

Nikola took a deep breath, controlling her desire to cuss out the man on the end of the connection. Standing up and preparing herself to be turned inside out repeatedly, she felt the pull starting from her stomach before appearing at the other end in just an instant. Stepping off the prepared teleportation pad, she looked around to find a guard waiting for her.

“Where is the emergency and what are the details?” Nikola asked as she refused the bucket that the guard had on him. She had been pushed through those things enough times to know what they felt like. While some of the other newbies might’ve lost their lunches from such experiences, she wasn’t among that group anymore.

“A respected leader at one of the local farms seems to have gone berserk and is attacking every living lifeform that nears them,” the guard reported while putting away the bucket and giving one of the teleporters the clear to enter the room. Nikola couldn’t recognize their faces, though they certainly seemed more professional than the ones she usually worked with. “There are no signs of supernatural strength or speed and the man does get injuries, though there is no sign of pain working as a deterrent. The most probable cause is selective influence on the mind. The only suspected victim is the aforementioned leader, a man by the name of Markus Fletcher. Remember the face.”

Being given a small pad with the image of an otherwise unremarkable man in his forties, Nikola fused the face into her mind, making sure she would be able to hone in on it in an instant. Giving the picture back to the guard, a swift nod was given to the teleporter before she found herself in the wilderness once more, being sent right into a wet puddle of mud at the side of the road.

“They can teleport me to another sector but a few metres closer to the entrance is too much to ask for?” Nikola nearly shouted, paying attention to the fact that her radio transmitter wasn’t connecting. It seemed that the connection truly was terrible out in the middle of nowhere. She didn’t have problems when visiting her old teacher, making her worry about how people could live so far from normal city life. “This should be done quickly.”

Taking in the electromagnetic waves around her, she quickly harnessed them for her work. A quick wave of her finger was enough for her to rise from the ground, letting her gain altitude in just an instant. The gravitational force was quite pushy on her body but the woman wasn’t made of mere paper. Her power was perhaps Manipulation but the changes to her physical form were clear. She could run quicker, take more damage, and she could withstand forces that left the normal folks dead. Just the same, it was likely the only thing stopping her from wanting to puke as she rose to a height of fifty metres in the air, doing a quick survey of the nearby area.

Finding the farm she needed to be at without much hardship, she flew to the location in only half a minute. Landing a few metres outside the gate, another blue-shirted guard was quick to open it up.

“Where is he?” Nikola asked before she was able to look inside the farm fully. Seeing through her ability, she was able to spot peculiar fluctuations in the electromagnetic waves. It wasn’t exactly like what happened when she used her ability. No, it was more… subtle, not directly controlling it but having some unnatural influences. It wasn’t something that modern tech could do without supernatural assistance.

“He is over at the administration buildings. Do you think you can-” the guard began to say as he pointed to a small cluster of more modest structures. Nikola thought the entire thing was closer to a mismatch of welded trailers and domes but who was she to critique? Not letting the guard finish, she used her powers once more to gain speed, moving to the building in a quick fashion. The door wasn’t allowed to keep her from going inside, another flick of a finger opened up an electronic lock. It was entirely safe, of course, the hero having taken several courses on how to manage doors like that. Almost all of them had a safety mechanism in the event of malfunction and she knew just where they were.

Using her powers to see once more, the fluctuations in the air were so much more prominent. It felt like something was lashing out with the electromagnetic waves, trying to establish some form of connection and failing each time. The hero wasn’t sure if it was an attempt to infect more or if it was something else. She only knew that she needed to stop it.

Running through the hallway, passing a few injured people on the way, she noted the nail- and bitemarks on many of them. It seemed that the infected subject wasn't finishing them off but instead moving on to every new target it could find. At the very least, that meant no casualties for now.

“Get a hold of yourself, Markus,” a woman's voice came through the air. Nikola picked up speed, turning a corner and being able to see a lady trying to confront the man she’d recognized as Markus Fletcher, holding him to the floor in restraint. Only… the man had more blood on his face than the picture had shown. A lot more blood, only some of it seeming to come from the victims. “You’re better than this!”

The victim seemed quite determined to prove that wasn’t the case, finally forcing himself out of the lady’s grapple and biting into her shoulder. Nikola wasn’t entirely happy with that. Moving forward as the man tore off a piece of flesh using nothing but his teeth, the hero had her hands on both parties. Separating them easily, the woman sent a pulse through the man’s lower body, focusing on his leg muscles. He was on his knees in an instant.

Another pulse to the spine and the victim was nearly unable to move, the nerves not responding to the mind’s commands. It was entirely harmless in the long run, though the hero did use it often with those not able to stop themselves. Looking at the other woman, Nikola glanced at the wound. It wasn’t bleeding heavily, though it would likely scar.