Getting through the elevator ride as quickly as possible, Nikola moved through the building until she came to the changing room. Getting on the suit and activating her radio, the sound of brief static before the device connected was the only warning before the hailstorm of shouting came in.

“Finally!” Scotty’s voice came in through the radio, Nikola almost able to hear the sweat coming down the young man’s head. “Prepare for a teleport!”

“I’m still in the-” Nikola began as she felt herself being ripped apart and then reassembled, standing in front of the Teleporter. “... Nevermind. Give me the details and make it quick.”

“We have an ongoing Villain Robbery on the International Bank downtown,” Scotty reported, words going off faster than bullets could ever dream of. “Most of the Branded Heroes are currently busy so we need you to stand in as the Defender of the day. Your main goal is to defend civilians from any metals flying around. The Villains are using devices that are allowing them to do short jumps through space. Prepare yourself for medium-distance Teleport.”

“Wait,” Nikola said. “Who is my Offence?”

“Umbra,” Scotty answered. “Good luck!”

As the second teleport hit the woman hard, Nikola briefly reminded herself what Hero held the name of ‘Umbra.’ It was not too hard, the woman remembering that name being plastered on every wall just twenty years ago. The man behind the mask had saved an entire Sector by himself through the work of shadows, banishing a solar-powered bomb with his powers. Nikola couldn’t say she remembered much else about the man in recent years. Even for a Branded Hero, he was unusually quiet. Perhaps he’d just stepped back out of the limelight. The woman knew that most Heroes who had worked for so long did something similar. Being in the eyes of the public for too long did nobody well.

Nearly stumbling for a moment, Tesla found herself on top of a smaller building. The other side of the street housed the International Bank of Commerce, one of the leading institutions in recent years. That somebody had been able to get through the defences worried the woman. Though… the fact that it wasn’t an emergency meant that they hadn’t been able to break into the actual vaults, instead holding the people hostage. It would be hard to get through without any dangers, but that was the reason she’d been chosen to assist a Branded Hero. Nikola might not have had the ability to take down stronger Powered beings but she certainly could stop bullets mid-air. It was useless against those with the power to shoot lasers but it worked on most mediums that regular humans could use.

It was like she was made to be average.

“I don’t suppose you’re the Hero who was meant to show up ten minutes ago?” an older man asked, coming out of the nearby shadows. Nikola noted the grey and black colouring scheme with a quite large cape. It was meant to be bullet- and nearly-everything-else proof. Nothing short of a nuke would get that man from behind.

“I was told I needed to be here three minutes ago so blame those above,” Nikola asked, reaching out a hand. “My name is Tesla.”

“Umbra,” the man said, shaking her hand as well. As they got close, the woman noticed the reek of alcohol on the man’s breath. Had he been drinking before he got called on? The woman hoped he had used a cleanser before moving out. “Do you know the plan?”

“We land in front of the bank, make a grand entrance into the bank to grant us a position of power in the social scheme, you distract them with a speech, and I put up the force-fields so you can take them out without risking the death of civilians,” Nikola summarised, knowing the standard plan inside and out. There were many possible variations but most of them didn’t work with her power-set.

“That works for me,” Umbra answered, walking to the edge of the building. With no real hesitation, the man just jumped off, letting the cape fly up in a grandiose fashion. Nikola was quick to follow, manipulating the electromagnetic fields around her body to let her gently land on the ground, right next to the Branded Hero. Even when she tried to make the manipulated fields contain themselves, the flickering street lights were quite annoying to see. The woman needed to work on her improv when she could. “Time to make up a speech.”

The Branded Hero's hands out towards the large metal doors. At the same time, tendrils of shadow wrapped themselves around the entrance, nearly enveloping it entirely. As it grew to its peak, Umbra pulled back, making the doors fly open. The creaking heard from the metal made Nikola wince. That would be half a million in damages right there.

From within, shots began to be fired at them. None of them hit, of course, as the two heroes’ force field was already created ahead of time. Each bullet that got within a metre of them merely stopped in the air for a moment before falling harmlessly to the ground. A grenade was thrown as well after the initial barrage was a failure but Tesla wrapped her will around it, letting it fly high into the sky before it activated with no consequences other than a few car alarms starting up.

Finally, the attacks stopped and those within just stared at the two, guns raised and ready to fire yet again. As Tesla and Umbra continued inside, shouts began to ring out. Looking around before that, however, Tesla could see the many hostages. There had to be around fifty people showcased of all ages and sizes. They sat beside the walls of the bank, the criminals standing in the centre with only a few guarding the hostages. That was something that could be used, though their ability to move quickly needed to be taken into account as well.

“Take a single step more and they die,” one of the criminals shouted, putting a gun to the head of the first victim. It was a child, a girl, barely over the age of ten. Nikola couldn’t say anything against it as she silently began to work her magic, manipulating the fields of the bank to envelop the citizens further out. She couldn’t let the girl get safe just yet, the areas not too close to the criminals being secured first. The shouting needed to step away before anything could be done.

“Then I suppose that this is where we’ll be standing for the next while,” Umbra said, clapping his hands together in a loud fashion. There wasn’t any single person in that room who didn’t flinch at the sound, the one criminal holding the girl nearly shooting her on instinct. “I must say, however, that I am very disappointed in you all.”

Nikola briefly stopped her task, giving the other Hero a side-glance. He wasn’t being careful with the wording and it was already showing on the criminals. Seeing the devices on their belts glitter, she was sure many were preparing to attack from a new side. She needed to be ready, enveloping them fully instead of only from the front.

“Why should we care what you think?” The criminal with the gun questioned loudly, throwing the young girl on the floor as he pressed a small button on his glove, disappearing briefly before standing right before the Branded Hero. His gun was raised, ready to fire. “I could kill you right now.”

“If that is what you truly want to believe, I admire your tenacity and will,” Umbra said with a smile. Nikola felt slightly stressed as she increased the power on their forcefield. If the man had fired right at the start, the woman wasn’t sure the bullet would have slowed down enough to not pierce the skin. They were wearing bullet-proof armour but too many parts were still exposed to possible damage. “What is your name?”

“Jackson.”

“Well, Jackson, do you feel that this is the best use of your abilities?”

“What?”

“You're the one who made that whatever-their-name-is,” Umbra continued, pointing at the man’s belt. “They’re quite well-made. I can sense their power even from here. Whatever you did to breach through space on a local scale while being able to move during it is exemplary.”

The Branded Hero seemed to have the conversation going well, Tesla able to focus on letting the forcefield drag itself out even further. The entire left row of hostages had been taken care of, only the right needing the same treatment. With the criminals so far away from them, it wasn’t too hard to move ahead.

“They’re called Switch-Vortexes,” Jackson said through gritted teeth.

“Sure they are,” Umbra agreed half-heartedly. “Now, these talents that you have are quite something but you need to understand that this isn’t the way to show them off. If you can make this much without having access to any good resources, just think of what you can do with a real position in a real company. I know several who would love a man with your talents.”

Jackson said nothing, though he stopped having his gun pointed directly at the Branded Hero. Nikola had to give it to the old man. He knew how to make an enticing offer. Putting her mind back into her role, Nikola neared the final stages. She had almost every hostage. She just needed another half minute and they would be safe from stray bullets.

“Listen, I know that it seems like you can’t get back from this,” Umbra said when there wasn’t any reply to his earlier words. “But you can! I’ve done bad things in my life as well. A lot of bad things, if you catch my drift. Yet I have always worked up in the morning as a free man. Do you know why? Because we are special. We have gifts that others can only dream of. And with a passion for work and a healthy attitude, people will love you. Now, what do you say? If you agree to come with me and see what the world’s about, we might be able to get you a job? Those Switch-Vortexes are some of the most interesting pieces of technology this year and I would love to see what you would be able to make with an entire laboratory for yourself.”

No words came from the other side for the next few seconds, the offer staying in the air. The others still had their guns raised, rifles ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Nikola could even hear the clinking of a grenade being pulled out of its pocket. If that was thrown, she would need to redirect it to the street but she wasn’t sure she could curve it into the sky when they were inside the building. And also maintaining the force field would be hard while doing that…

“Why are we special?” Jackson finally asked. “What makes the fact that it is me doing this alright? Am I meant to be special to the system?”

“Yes,” Umbra said with a widening smile. “With your gift to Invent, I don’t doubt the list of offers will be as high as a mountain.”

“And what if I wasn’t the one who made this device?” Jackson questioned. “What if I just found this in a scrapyard and decided to give a few away so we could rob a bank?”

“Did you?”

“Why does that matter? I’m meant to be gifted, whatever that means in your deluded brain,” Jackson said, raising his gun and firing it point-blank at the Branded Hero. Nikola trusted her force field but the Hero beside her didn’t. Even when the bullet stopped halfway, the created tendril of darkness still hit the criminal in the side, forcing them into the air. They teleported away but their momentum was still carried on in the new placement, the criminal falling to the floor as they gasped hard for air, clutching at their stomach.

Nikola tried to shout for them to stop, the last parts of the force fields not yet constructed, but the Branded Hero was already on his way to make every criminal around dead meat. The plan was going the opposite of well the moment two grenades were thrown at the woman, Nikola was forced to focus on getting both out of the bank. It took a massive force of will but she was able to isolate the explosions to open space, and no building or person was harmed as they detonated. Yet it was at the cost of the final parts of the force field not forming correctly. Tens of people had been saved at the cost of one losing her own, a stray bullet going through the young girl’s throat.

It was an act of pure will and commitment that stopped Tesla from running to their aid, focusing on keeping the rest of the hostages safe. The very least she could do was stop more weapons from firing at the girl, however. Nikola stood right next to the Branded Hero, watching as the black tendrils kept out of every surface around. The criminals tried to avoid them by teleporting but the sheer quantity and speed of the things won out in the end. Some were killed, and some dropped their weapons. By the end, Jackson was the only one who stood left.

“You should have given up at the start,” Umbra said, walking out of the forcefield that Nikola had made to protect them. Taking careful steps toward the wounded criminal, however, the Branded Hero seemed to be utterly uncaring of his mortality. “We could have avoided this.”

“You could have been what a Hero was meant to be and I might have listened to you,” Jackson said. Going down on one knee, the teleporter tried to grab a gun on the floor. He did so, just before a black tendril wrapped around the offending arm. The man switched hands, using the teleport to get behind the Branded Hero before firing it towards Umbra’s skull.

It wasn’t close to hitting. Even without Nikola’s assistance, a swatch of blackness came out of the Branded Hero, stopping the projectile before it ever got close. The woman came in from behind, sending electricity through the man’s body. It wasn’t close to enough to kill but that wasn’t the main purpose. Making the pulse of power destroy the receiver of the teleportation device, the man was utterly helpless. The criminals had been defeated.

With that taken care of, Tesla nearly flung herself through the air as she looked at the one hostage hit. She ignored the indifferent glance that Umbra gave her as the old man looked at Jackson’s fallen body.

“You youngsters have the potential for greatness yet you waste it away playing around with the weaklings. Why?”

Nikola cauterised the wound, seeing that too much blood was flowing from it already. The girl wouldn’t survive a Teleport in her current state and there was little chance she would survive a flight to the hospital. No Healers were currently in the city, making hope seem lost until Tesla remembered what she’d been granted just ten minutes earlier. Checking her pockets, swearing that she had put it into her costume, she finally found the injection kit. Loading up the needle, she stuck it into the girl.

With a gasp, the nearly dead child bolted onto her feet, a wave of green going through her skin. It disappeared as quickly as it came, however, leaving the girl unconscious but alive. Nikola was able to breathe deeply for the first time in several minutes.

Putting out all the created force fields, the woman finally noticed the phones pointed her way. It seemed that more than a few had recorded the entire thing. Not caring about the possible ramifications of that for now, Nikola went to speak with Umbra about how to handle the after-report that would come from the situation. Yet, the Branded Hero was already gone, not even bothering to say goodbye. How nice.

Staying around until the police force appeared, Nikola made sure that everything was dealt with. Somehow, she felt the next few days wouldn’t be fun. The protocol had been breached and it had all been caught on camera.