=== Curt ===

“So, what are you going to do?” Des asked as she put up another blood bag. “Other than getting shot and bleeding on my floor. Again.”

“Getting shot seems to be working out for me. I think I'll continue to do that,” I said, groaning. After all of the action, I got all Marcelli's new product to where it was specified. The two morons who had tried to kill me on his team were incapacitated and gifted back to him with the warning that if they tried again, I wouldn't be so nice. I have worse places than the ocean to put them. “I don't know. I think I have an idea, but it'd take a long time for me to build and I can't work for Marcelli. That guy's a monster. I'm going to see if anyone is working on a concept and see if I can't borrow that.”

“Ah, your solution to everything. Stealing.”

“Gotta go with your strengths.”

“You know, with your acumen, you could probably just get a job at one of these places. Go legit,” Des suggested, softly. “If you did that, I wouldn't have to patch you up every . . . What? Week?”

“It's been rough lately, but I normally can go months without needing your help.”

“Yeah, and that's the only time you want to talk to me.”

“Don't want to screw up your thing with . . . uh . . .”

“Sandy,” Des said. “And it's a bit late for that. She . . . well, she's gone.”

“Oh, you guys were going strong there for a moment.” I grabbed their hand. “I'm sorry.”

“It's not a big deal.” Des pulled their hand away and shook their head. “So, what is the great and powerful Esvanir going to steal next?”

“An EMP generator.”

“EMP?” Des asked. “Isn't that the thing that nuclear bombs create?”

“They can, yeah, but that's not the only way of doing it. Basically, it'll just knock out all electronics for about half an hour within the radius. So, I snap her somewhere remote, snap out, she activates it, snap back in, and snap her to a surgeon.”

“A surgeon meaning me?”

“Meaning you, yes.”

“Damn it, Curt. I'm a doctor, not a surgeon.”

“Aren't surgeons doctors?”

“Highly specialized doctors! With years and years of training!”

“Do you have a better idea?” I asked soberly. They looked away from me, a frown overtaking their face.

“That doesn't make this idea good.”

“According to you, I have no good ideas.”

“That's not at all true. You chose me as a friend. Best decision you ever made.”

“I hate that that's probably true.”

=== Kari ===

I decided to go see Professor Mind. It had been a long while since I had been around him. Not since . . . I swallowed, trying desperately to suppress the images of the Grignau pulling him apart. That had been the worst day of my life. For so many reasons. Curt was a criminal. Chuck almost died. The world found out who I was. And I had never been so angry before. I had seen the videos and I was terrifying. I broke anything I touched that day. And I used the power right that day . . . But what if I become like those cops trying to arrest Harold. Or like Curt. What . . . What if I start abusing my power? The thought rattled in my head as I flew through the city. I found Chuck sitting up and reading in his hospital bed. The window was open. I flew through it and landed easily on the floor.

“Hey, Kari. How's the city?” He asked immediately.

“Still standing,” I said with a grin.

“Oh, that's good.” He frowned and stared out the window.

“What's up?” I asked, sitting on the end of his bed. He looked at me for a while before answering.

“I don't know. It's just . . . I don't seem as necessary as I guess I thought I was.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, with you and Bion and everyone else in the city, I just don't feel that useful. Everything is just fine without me.” He lifted his arm to gesture and winced in pain, dropping his hand. I laughed at him. I couldn't help it. He turned his frown to me, opening his mouth to say something. I held up a hand.

“You're an idiot, Chuck.”

“Thanks, very helpful,” he muttered bitterly.

“We need you, you goof. Firstly, there are things that I'm just not equipped to handle. I'm not your average dumb blonde, but I have my moments. You don't.” He smiled slightly at that. “And besides, I miss having you on patrol. You know where all of the best food spots are. And you always know what to say to calm people down. And besides, if we get you back out there, people will go back to wondering if we're dating and you can take half the questions I'm getting instead of questions about my costume or my workout routine or if I should start carrying a purse around to keep stuff in.”

“No one asked you about that last one.”

“No, but I'm thinking about it anyway.”

“So, you miss people asking if we're dating?”

“No! Well, I mean, a little. It's kind of cute and funny. And Jenny had a field day.” We both grinned at that.

“Do you really think people miss Professor Mind?”

“Yeah, I do. You need to get better soon. Avalare's safer with you out there.” He nodded and looked out the window again. And then down at his mangled arms and legs.

“This is going to cost a fortune.”

“You don't have insurance?”

“Insurance? Yeah, but no insurance company touches Grignau attacks. And even if they did, I'd have a ton to explain. Gods, I couldn't imagine lying that much.”

=== Curt ===

When I was back on my feet I was back to work. I needed to get that damned thing out of Cindi as soon as possible. Mostly for her. Mostly to see if . . . If what she said, what I had said . . . If it was still true when she wasn't under threat of death. But also so I could kick that prick Marcelli into a volcano. I checked a couple of the larger outfits that weren't EnGin or Wan En for schematics on an EMP Generator, but it was all a bust. It was also lonely. Since this was all just hacking and going through files, I didn't ask Cindi to come. Instead, I suggested she take a vacation. After the disaster of a mission for the crime boss and the fact that I almost sent him into a volcano anyway out of sheer anger, he gave us a couple of days to recover. So, I dropped her off in France, then Italy, then China. Each time I picked her up, she had more and more souvenirs. She did have great taste. While she was off making splashy headlines, I had gone through five companies to see if anyone was working on EMP technology. But when I came up dry, I decided that I had to do the stupid thing and break back into Wan En.

It was a profoundly bad idea. But at least this should be less flashy than usual. I was just looking for schematics. If there's a prototype, I might grab that while I'm there, but probably not. I teleported back to the first lab I had ever gotten into at Wan En. The lab tech there jumped at my presence and I put a finger to my lips. I was wearing a mask and gloves, but it was pretty obvious who it was.

“You can't be here.”

“And yet, here I am,” I responded. “I just need ten minutes on your computer. If you let me use your login. If not, it's more like 30 minutes and I have to keep you as a hostage.”

“H-hostage? Are you going to hurt me?”

“Not my intention.”

“But you will if you have to, right?” I nodded solemnly. She sighed and made her way to her computer, shaking it awake. I moved her out of the way and took out an external hard drive. I plugged it in and went through ongoing and past projects. It was faster for me to download everything and then look into it somewhere else. But there were a lot of files. Not surprising, given that it was a tech firm that employed tens of thousands of people. Still, that didn't make the waiting any easier. I set up an escape point to go to when it was done. Somewhere far away. But I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings. The lab tech had left and Bion burst through the door.

“STAY WHERE YOU ARE, ESVANIR!” The mechanical voice shouted. I sighed and looked at the pending download. Five minutes left. I have to stall one of the most aggressive heroes for five minutes. Fuck.

“No can do, Wan. I need your tech. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.” I said, punctuating the sentence with a snap. I was behind him. Which was a good move since he fired a laser at the chair I had been sitting in. I grabbed his arm and tried to move him. Despite the fact that he was hovering mid-air, I couldn't throw him at all. He was just too heavy.

“THE SUIT WEIGHS A TON, LITERALLY. NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO THROW ME AROUND LIKE MY GUARDS.” He slammed his arm into me and I went flying into the wall. I bounced off and landed heavily on the floor, groaning. As I pulled myself off of the floor, I heard something fire and snapped. I appeared next to the flaming chair. A rocket slammed into the ground and blew out part of the wall.

“I'm just stealing some files. You're the one destroying your offices,” I said, glancing at the computer. I hadn't burnt more than thirty seconds. Fuck!

“TO SELL TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER, PROBABLY. DESTROY MY COMPANY! MAKE SURE THAT I CANNOT HELP ANYONE ELSE!”

“Oh, bullshit!” I exclaimed, dodging under another laser. And then a blast of force threw me again, slamming me into the island counter in the middle of the room. My body groaned in protest as I pushed myself up again. I felt the stitches Des had kindly installed after removing all of the bullets rattling around in my guts start to tear. “I have never sold any of your fucking secrets, prick.”

“SOME OF THE THINGS YOU'VE STOLEN HAVE KILLED PEOPLE. THEY'VE GOTTEN INTO THE WRONG HANDS!”

“And people have lived because of what I stole, too. I can't control what people do with some of the tech, but unlike you, I don't try to release weapons into the world.”

“I AM A HERO, THIEF!” He charged forward and caught me by the scruff of my shirt. My feet dangled off of the ground. I gulped and grabbed one of the batteries I had and slammed it into the metallic exoskeleton. It actually wasn't too different from the EMP Generator I was looking for. Basically, it forced a spike in energy in an attempt to short circuit whatever it was attached to. I couldn't use that on Marcelli's bomb because the surge might cause the explosive to . . . Well, you know. And more than that, it might not work. Much like it wasn't working right now. With his other hand, Bion grabbed the battery and crushed it. I tried to think of something else. Anything else. He raised his hand and put it in my face. I feared I may die here. “DIE, THIEF!”

“Sorry, I really can't right now. Gotta try and help someone. Maybe in a couple of days,” I said, then snapped my fingers. We appeared over a volcano. The heat made the air more unstable and Bion took a few seconds to adjust his flight patterns to compensate. In that time, I squirmed out of my shirt and dropped into the volcano. After a few feet, I snapped. Unfortunately, Bion had grabbed me again and we popped back to his lab collapsing on the floor. I managed to get his hand off of me as he started vomiting. Teleportation was hard on the stomach. I had gotten used to it, but most others couldn't. The floor underneath the heavy exoskeleton cracked and I assumed the floor was going to give out. “God fucking damn it!”

The floor was not weighted for a ton. Not in something that was only marginally bigger than a person. I grabbed him again and teleported him to the parking garage. Unfortunately, that had maxed out my energy pull for the moment. I got up and started running back. I needed to find a place to hide for a minute or two while I gathered more energy for more pops. I got back into the building with relative ease. People are so willing to hold the door for anyone saying “Hold up!” I decided to take the stairs up to the office again, taking them two at a time. Which wasn't fast enough, apparently, since Bion burst through the door and started flying up the stairs at a ridiculous speed.

I took corners better than he did, though. He had to push himself off of walls, cracking them in the process. Once I got back to the floor I wanted, I burst through the door and started running. I thought Bion was on my heels until I looked back and he was standing there. His suit was targeting me. I could almost feel it processing data. Then he fired a fucking missile at me! I grabbed a piece of metal off of a cubicle and threw it at the missile. It was kind of slow-moving . . . for a missile. The piece collided with it and the weapon exploded. Throwing me back into a wall. I grunted. My ears were ringing. My head was pounding. My eyes wouldn't focus. This was bad. Bion flew over and loomed before me, raising his hand. “STAY RIGHT THERE. THE POLICE WILL BE HERE SHORTLY, ESVANIR!”

I looked up. His hand cannon was prepped for a blast. If I made a single move he didn't like, he'd kill me. “Wan, I'm really sorry. Ordinarily, I'd admit defeat and just be on my way . . . But I can't do that right now. And if I didn't bow down when fighting Smash Gal, I'm not going to fight you.”

He started to say something, but I snapped. Reality faded and reasserted itself before me. I was in the office again. I shambled to my feet and stumbled over to the computer. The scientist woman from before wasn't there. Good. No need to scare her anymore. The download had finished. Small victories. I disconnected the hard drive. Then popped back to Des' clinic and texted them.

< Des

12:19am

Popped my stitches. Currently bleeding on your floor. Help?

4:54pm

3rd time this week. Room 2.

4:56pm

=== Kari ===

After seeing Chuck, I went back out on patrol. I wasn't really putting my heart into it. I still didn't know quite how to feel about things. People would ask me to do any little thing they could think of. Get cats out of trees, fly their trash cans to catch up with the trash collectors, marry their sons, daughters, and anyone else. When I uploaded a selfie, I actually got fourteen marriage proposals in the comments. And some people were just as bold in real life. But that wasn't the only reaction. When I would land, people would stare. Some people would scatter. Criminals would shrink away during muggings, but so would normal citizens. Some people would look at me with fear in their eyes. I could hear the whispers. People talking about how dangerous I was. How scary I was. It was one of the downsides of being able to hear basically everything in the city.

But I didn't have a ton of time to consider it. In a city of five million people, there was always something to do. After retrieving one of the cats from a tree, I heard a scream. I handed the cat to the little girl who smiled and thanked me as she squeezed the poor thing tightly. I smiled and rushed off to the sound of the scream. There was smoke. A lot of smoke. I looked around and traffic had come to a standstill as a man who was on fire shambled through the city. When a car would move towards him, he'd hold up his hands, and fire would burst forth and melt the car into slag. Smoke and the smell of burning rubber filled the air. Another supervillain. Great. I thought, bemused. I zipped down to the flaming figure and put my hands out. “Please surrender and stop lighting everything on fire.”

“I can't!” screamed a voice from inside the flames, which burst out and scorched the asphalt around him. “St-stay away!”

I considered this for a moment. He shambled forward and I looked around. Cops had started tracking him as well and surrounded us. One shot a bullet. The flames surrounding this man whipped out and caught the bullet, melting it. More cops fired and tendrils of fire caught the bullets and then spread out further, slashing at the cops who dodged, ducked, dipped, and dived out of the way. Some were still caught and the tendrils started pulling them back in, but the flesh that was grasped was burnt away too fast for the officers to get anywhere near the source of the fire. He shambled forward more. I could hear him gasping in pain.

I charged forward and grabbed him. But the seemingly living flame around him grasped my throat and burned through the plastic of my helmet and melted it away as it wormed its way around my neck. I could feel my clothes start to burn away and I dropped him. I did not need another wardrobe malfunction in public. The last ones were still a little too fresh and viral and if I wanted to go that route, I could start an Only Fans. Which several people had been clamoring for. There were a lot of people who really really wanted to see me naked. I landed a few feet from him. More flames whipped at me and I dodged. The asphalt where I had been standing cracked and smoked under the attention. One of the tendrils managed to grab my wrist, burning through my glove in an instant. It pulled me closer. Well, it tried to. The light from the tendril around my arm got brighter and brighter. I could smell my flesh start to burn. It . . . It hurt.

One of the things about being me is that it is profoundly hard to hurt me. I resist just about everything. But this was burning through my flesh. Which was terrifying. Whatever is going on, this guy was profoundly dangerous. I pulled on the whip wrapped around my arm and he came flying towards me. Then I took off, gasping in pain. I wanted to go faster, but I really shouldn't. Going as fast as I wanted would shatter windows and doors and who knows what else. But instead, I flew him over to the nearest fire hydrant and slammed him down the ground, and punched it. Water came spurting up and I put my hand over it. Directing it just like a hose. The water slammed into the man and steam broiled up and filled the air. He screamed in agony and collapsed under the torrent. Eventually, there was less steam and as the reaction calmed down, I crimped the hydrant closed.

The police closed in, guns trained on the man who was lying, shivering, and crying on the ground. One got the big, metal, meta-gauntlets out and slammed them roughly onto the man. He groaned and the smoke and steam died away further. None of the cops lowered their guns. There was a spark that came from the man and five or six shots rang out, echoing throughout the streets. Blood splattered from the freshly made corpse of the man in gauntlets. His body twitched and convulsed. I stared in horror. There was so much blood from the wounds.

“What the hell did you do that for?” I demanded. “He was in custody. There was no reason to shoot him!”

“You saw that spark, Smash Gal. He was resisting,” one of the officers said matter-of-factly. I shook my head.

“Or it was the last spark of power being squelched by those gauntlets.

“It doesn't matter. He hurt some of our own. Maybe killed them. He got what he deserved,” another officer said. I stood there, staring at the body. I clenched a fist. This isn't right, I thought. I watched one of the police officers pull his weapon and train it on me.

“S-Smash Gal, stand down,” he commanded in a shaky voice.

“Are you going to kill me too?” I asked, staring the man down. “You think you can with that toy?”

“Officer Jenkins, stand down!” One of the other officers called out and put his hand on the other man's gun, pushing it down. A shot rang out and bounced against my stomach. Bullets are pretty powerful and it felt like a punch to the gut. Not the most powerful one I've ever taken. But I could definitely feel it. I clenched my fist even tighter. The officer that had interceded stood between us. “Smash Gal, I'm sorry. He didn't mean to do that. We'll file a report about it.”

The man didn't seem apologetic. Some of the other officers were looking down at their feet. Others were just avoiding my eyes.

“Of course, officer. Make sure to mention the five shots on the man in custody as well as the shot on me, the person who allowed you to take him into custody.” My voice was hard. A couple of the cops glared at me. I blasted off into the sky and went on my way to find more trouble to help with.