“Is everyone ready?” Faultline asked as she strode into the lounge where the rest of us were waiting in our costumes. One of Faultline’s shell companies owned this building, an abandoned mechanic gas station combo that housed an unmarked van the team used for local jobs. The perfect location to suit up and more discreetly leave town.

We all affirmed in turn that we were good to go, spare Labyrinth. Today wasn’t a good day, which was good for the mission if not her, and Aisha—Shade, we’re in costume, I reminded myself—and I had been entrusted with helping her suit up in her simple mask and dark green robe, which had a maze overlaid on it. Gregor and Newter weren’t really in costume, per se, but that’s because they’re costumes were essentially casual clothes. Gregor was wearing jeans and stocky boots with no shirt, leaving the entirety of his upper body free to expel his unique bodily fluids. Newter was likewise wearing jeans and no shirt, but he also wasn’t wearing shoes, exposing his unique, gecko-like feet.

“Meteor, Shade, there aren’t any problems with your costumes?”

“All good here,” Shade remarked with a smirk as her form twisted into shadows before growing until she was Gregor’s size. The plain black, long-sleeved spandex unitard she was wearing had been obviously a couple sizes too big on her normal frame, which gave it room to accommodate Gregor’s large frame. It was weird seeing his body stuffed into the outfit, and his shells made the unitard look lumpy. Newter’s thoughts seemed to be in the same vein, if his barely repressed chuckles were any indication. The outfit was paired with a plain black domino mask, rounding off the very last minute costume. Needless to say, we would have to put together something better later.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I assured her, channeling my professionalism. It was one thing to joke around with the team when we were off the clock or even training, but the moment we had arrived here, we were on the job in my eyes. It was all the more important with this being my first job with the crew and my springing the whole Shade situation on them last night. Needless to say, Faultline had been less than thrilled, but even she had to admit, begrudgingly though she did so, that having a power copier on the team was a serious boon. Shade had apparently been a cape for a couple of months using her powers for small-time thievery, and that meant she had a decent grasp of how her powers worked already. The way she explained it was she could ‘store’ a few people within her at a time, and she did that by being near them, by talking to them, by making eye contact with them, or some combination of the three. The more of a ‘connection’ she made, the better the stored copy of them was and the longer it lasted. That included their appearance, their skills, and even their powers. The only caveats were the change into the other person was obvious, using powers seemed to be a bigger drain on her stores, and once she became someone, they were tapped—she either used all of her stored copy of them then or otherwise forfeited the rest of it. Even with those limitations, it was a ton of flexibility.

She eyed me for a moment longer before nodding. She looked over us as a group once more. “We will be reviewing everyone’s roles while we make the drive. If you have any last minute questions, then we will address them after. Let’s go.”

The six of us made our way into the old mechanic bay where the van was waiting, gassed up and ready to go.

“Shotgun!”

No amount of professionalism could stop me from snorting at Shade’s outburst.

“No,” Faultline intoned without missing a beat.

“Aw, c’mon, boss!”

“Exactly,” Newter interjected, a hint of a smirk on his face. “Gregor’s driving, and she’s the boss. That means she gets shotgun.”

“Well I wanna sit in the back then,” she argued as he opened the side panel. Labyrinth, Shade, and I stood back far enough to avoid any accidental exposure to his skin.

“Nope, that’s my seat,” he replied as he leapt inside and lounged across the entirety of the back seat.

“Ladies first, I see,” I couldn’t help but quip. “Such a gentleman.”

Shade stepped up to the side panel and gestured floridly at the opening before joking, “Fret not, ladies. I can be any gentleman you desire.”

I snorted and helped Labyrinth step up into the van. “My hero. Just don’t turn into Newter. You’d probably knock yourself out when you changed back.”

“Hey, give a girl some credit. I know what I’m doing here.”

“I thought you were a ‘gentleman,’ right now?” Newter drawled from the backseat while I climbed in after Labyrinth and settled into the middle seat.

“I’m a person of many talents,” Shade retorted as she climbed in and took the seat next to me.

“Labyrinth, buckle up,” I said, leaning forward to watch and make sure the distracted girl mechanically completed the task. Once she was done, I buckled up myself, a task made easier by my backpack, hip mounted cases, and shield for my costume being on the floor on Labyrinth’s left.

At Faultline’s suggestion, we had elected to design my costume and plan my tools around the idea of a tinker whose specialty was magnetism in the hopes that, were I ever deprived of my tools, an enemy would make the mistake of thinking I was unarmed. The backpack, hip cases, and shield were all designed to look tinker-made, especially the shield, which I would use as a pseudo-hoverboard. The backpack did not contain my usual coins but rather tens of thousands of tiny ball bearings, and the hip cases contained caltrops and small metal spheres, half of which contained minor explosive powder and half of which contained powderized pepper spray. Still strapped on my body instead of up with the other tools, I also wore a bandolier of very sharp knives. Beyond the tools, my costume consisted of a metallic silver vest and skirt combo layered over a black bodysuit with segmented black metal wrapped around most of my limbs that doubled as my actual means of flight as well as protection against fists and knives. Under that I wore some minor padding to give the illusion of curves in the right places because I would be damned if I let PHO think for a goddamn second that I wasn’t a girl. For my face, I had silver tinted, single-frame goggles and a filter mask for under my scarf that would prevent me from choking on something like Oni Lee’s ash again and, as an added bonus, would distorted my voice somewhat. My high laced combat boots were spray painted a metallic silver, though I had unfortunately done a shoddy job of it. Arts and crafts weren’t really my thing. Thankfully the black, fingerless gloves looked good with their silver tinkeresque accents that, when combined with various hand movements, would contribute to the illusion that I was controlling my tools through magnetism.

My shitty boots aside, I thought my costume was pretty badass. With it on, I really felt like Meteor instead of June Fujiwara.

Gregor actually did a full inspection of the van, checking the air pressure of the tires, the oil level, and so on, and Shade and I shared a ‘really?’ look with each other. Newter seemed to recognize the unspoken gesture, since he leaned forward with a grin and whispered, “He does this every time.”

The only other guy on the team finally slipped into the driver’s seat a minute later. “Everyone has on their seat buckles?”

Shade and I groaned, and Newter jokingly replied, “Yes, father. Safety comes first!” Unphased by the comment, Gregor started up the car and pressed the remote to open the bay door. For the first time in weeks, I would be leaving the Bay, and by the time I came back, my first job as Meteor would either be a success or a failure.

It was time to show the world who I was.

“I see the convoy,” I announced over our comms when the armored truck turned a corner and entered viewing distance of the binoculars I had borrowed from Faultline.

“Copy that, Meteor,” Faultline replied. “Do you see any heroes or accompanying vehicles?”

“No obvious vehicles or people that I can see,” I confirmed, “but there’s a decent amount of traffic around them. Hard to say. Too far out for my power still.”

Though Faultline had deemed it too hazardous to assault the truck once it was on the highway, the location she had elected to assault it was an area by the bridge just before where it would have been getting onto I-95. There was a gas station directly next to the road where the van could wait without attracting attention, and there was a billboard nearby where I could keep watch while maintaining cover from anybody watching for anything amiss on the route. Beyond that though… there frankly wasn’t much in the area. I had been surprised by how small Brockton Bay seemed when compared to Brooklyn, but Providence was even smaller than that. It was a capital city, but when your state was as small as Rhode Island was, then so too was your capital it seemed. That meant I would be limited for the most part to the metal I had on hand, since Faultline wanted me to avoid using any cars and to especially avoid using any infrastructure. I had leave to use the former if necessary and the latter only if it would otherwise mean the death of someone, but otherwise the goal was to not cause much property damage. It was a balance, supposedly, that mercenaries aimed to strike.

Fortunately, we had an advantage. We had arrived much, much earlier that morning to give Labyrinth’s power time to establish itself in the area. Based off Labyrinth’s current lucidity and experience from earlier jobs, Faultline had made a conservative estimate the girl had control over roughly half a block. Even if that was still an overestimate, that would be significant control of the immediate battlefield—hopefully our early arrival would pay dividends.

“Hey, if I find Rubicon driving a car, do you think it’d be the Rubicar?”I joked. A snort of laughter from Aisha and a groan of exasperation from Newter carried through the open comms system, and I grinned.

“Switching the comms over to tap to talk. Use only as necessary.” Well fine, I see my jokes are appreciated here. A straight-laced professional I shall be. “Meteor, damage the drive shaft of the convoy to stop it as planned. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

I tapped my ear piece. “Roger, Boss.”

I kept my eyes peeled but nothing else stood out until the convoy finally crossed into my range. “ I can feel the convoy,” I reported. “Feels like there are six people in the back. Two of them are wearing what feel an awful lot like a scuba mask and metal wings, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the armor I feel on the one is Boudicca.” With one of them being Canary, that leaves two more. Who were they?

“Dammit, of course they’re in the convoy,” Faultline replied. “Verify whether you can grab the whole vehicle.”

“Not happening,” I confirmed. I didn’t even need to try—I could feel how heavy it was. “Way too heavy.”

“Can you isolate and extract Mcabee safely?”

“Doubtful. Two of them are right next to her, so I’d risk hurting her.”

“Then we stick to the original plan. Meteor, rip out the drive shaft once the convoy is by the gas station. Account for sliding. Get ready for combat.”

Despite my practice with the rest of the team, I felt my blood start to rush. I had only been in two cape fights outside of practice, and they had both been tight. I was anxious, but a part of me was looking forward to it. I wanted to prove I didn’t need luck to win. By the time the convoy approached the gas station and I ripped out the drive shaft, my heart was pounding in my chest. The resulting sound was horrendous even up here in the billboard. I couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like in the convoy.

I didn’t have time to wonder, since the doors of the convoy burst open and a man in red rushed out at speed. The figure paused for a brief moment, the patch of fire on the ground behind him fizzled, then he was moving again. I hadn’t needed to see the fire to know who he was—the metal wings I felt on his boots were the give away. Newter, Gregor, and Faultline started running for the convoy, and Rubicon ran a large loop around the convoy in a few moments, bringing traffic to a grinding halt. Some of the drivers tried to turn and flee over the grass median, but I paid them no mind as I turned my attention on the speedster. Now that there was no danger of him being hit by a car, I happily tugged on his boots and sent him tumbling to the ground. The ring of fire fizzled out, and the guards in the front compartment tried to exit the vehicle, so I fused the doors with the body of the car to slow them down. To their credit, the surprisingly whole windshield fell forward seconds later. A quick release mechanism, since it was bulletproof? I hadn’t realized that might happen and hadn’t been watching for it.

“The windshield!” I said over the comms while I yanked away their weapons and tugged them back into the vehicle by their fortuitously steel toed boots. Gregor caught my warning and tossed a large glob that splashed over the hood on impact. I didn’t see an immediate effect but trusted he had delayed them if not disabled them outright. Someone had tugged the van’s rear doors closed again, so I said, “Opening the doors,” into the comms then forced them open once more.

A wave of water shot out of the opening, though I would not have known if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I couldn’t hear the water at all. Was that where the reports of a silence effect came from? Or did the wave strike victims silent as well? Scuba dude jumped out after it into a roll and run, and yes, I knew what his cape name was, and no, I refused to call him it. It was stupid. A riptide is a strong current, not a wave AKA his whole shtick. Stupid, right? Gregor sent a glob of something flying at him, but scuba dude intercepted it with another wave, forcing Gregor and Faultline to dodge one way and Newter to dodge the other way. Rubicon dashed towards Newter, and despite my teammate’s quick reflexes, the hero easily kept pace, forcing Newter to dodge and weave jumps in between spots of fire.

Trusting Gregor and Faultline to handle themselves for the moment, I yanked Rubicon’s feet out from under him again and sent some of my balls—Oh, ew, gross! Never again!—my orbs flying down towards him. Newter leapt to take advantage of the opening, but Rubicon recovered much quicker this time, likely having expected it. I started to reach for the wings again, but my attention was quickly diverted away from Rubicon by a different red blur that shot out of the back of the truck. The mystery person? Whoever it was, they noticed the ball bearings still on their way from the billboard towards Newter and Rubicon, correctly intuited somebody was up here, and started dashing my way. I redirected my orbs to intercept, and the mystery cape jumped into the air and met the mass of metal halfway only to somehow hook around it and shove off towards me. The movement forward of my orbs strangely seemed to stutter for a moment before I regained control. What had just happened?

I jumped onto my shield and shot up into the air to put distance between us, and he alighted on the spot where I had been just a few moments prior. He wore all red body armor of some kind, and his mask consisted only of a red visor that revealed somewhat spiky blond hair. The only metal I could feel on his person were components of his visor, which I didn’t dare to fuck with, Faultline’s warnings about the rules in mind. “Well hey there, you’re a new face!” he called out, his jaunty tone disarming. “What’s your name?”

I stared incredulously at him. “You’re, um, not going to keep attacking?”

“Depends on whether you’re going to keep trying to free a criminal. Also, I’m not hearing a naaame.”

Oh lord. “I’m Meteor, and yes, that is what we’re being paid to do.”

“Meteor, huh? Nifty. I’m Assault. Pleased to meet you. I’m afraid I’m obligated to prevent any would-be breakouts of jailbirds, so would you mind terribly sitting this one out?”

‘Jailbirds,’ huh? I thought. Did he mean to make a pun?

“Labyrinth, Meteor, I need backup!” I heard Faultline furtively say into the comms.

I flicked my eyes over to the fight on the ground, kicking myself internally for losing focus. As expected from what I had felt in the back of the truck, Boudicca was here in her leather and metal armored costume, and she was rushing at speed towards Faultline. I yanked her sideways by her armor on instinct and only belatedly remembered to make a sweeping gesture with my hand. I noticed the ground was trying to rise up around Boudicca, but I had to bring my attention back to Assault when he started to bounce back and forth between the two sides of the double-sided billboard below me. I flew away before he could get his hands on me, and said into the comms, “I’ve got some guy named Assault over here. Mind sharing crib notes on his powers?”

“Kinetic energy manipulation,” Faultline replied before apparently remembering who she was talking to and adding, “He can redirect and reuse the force of being hit. Best you can do is try to trap him.”

“You know, it’s rude when you fliers just up and fly off like that. We were totally in the middle of talking!”

If Assault’s power was reusing force, then I could maybe see how he bounced between the two sides of the billboard, but how had he made the huge jump to get up here in the first place? Back by the truck, Boudicca was already breaking free from the stone cage Labyrinth tried to trap her in. Her offense had to already be boosted, which explained her speed from earlier as well.

Oh. Oh. They had boosted each other in the truck. Clever! I needed to keep them separate until I could stop Assault. I flicked my wrists while letting more orbs rush out of my bag then directed them with a gesture to flow towards the truck before sweeping back towards him. He didn’t miss a beat, already jumping to and fro amongst the swarm before launching towards me. Each spot where he touched my orbs, I felt their movement stutter before resuming. Presumably that meant he was stealing their ‘energy’ or whatever, but at least I had shepherded him somewhat away from my teammates and the other heroes. Still, I couldn’t afford to keep giving him more steam, so I would need to try something else.

I dodged him while preparing for him to change course midair, but to my surprise he kept falling to the ground. So he couldn’t really fly—probably why he had poked fun at flying capes earlier. He just… bounced insanely well. I sent my orbs to intercept where I expected him to spring off of the ground, but instead of rebounding into the air at a matching angle, he actually took off into a sprint at a blistering pace the moment his feet touched land again. Dodging my orbs, he reversed course and started towards the truck. “It’s been nice chatting, Meteor, but I’ve gotta bounce. I’m sure we’ll catch up soon.”

The puns were definitely intentional. “Assault incoming,” I announced over the comms as I raced to follow. Unfortunately there was no way my orbs or I would make it in time, not at the speed he was moving, so I grit my teeth and started searching for an appropriate source of metal.

Faultline glanced over, and Shade, who had apparently joined the fray and seemed to be mirroring Boudicca, moved to cover her. “We need to switch this up. Meteor, take over with Rubicon, and Newter, get over her to help with Assault and Boudicca.” Boudicca sent a probing punch towards Shade, who dodged but remained blocking the path to Faultline. Why not take the hit and get stronger? Was she using up too much of her stores replicating Boudicca already?

It was impossible to say, and I had other problems to worry about. I shifted course towards where my orange teammate was engaged with Rubicon some distance away from the truck, the area mostly covered with large swaths of burning ground. I sent the hero tumbling to the ground with a flick of my wrist, and a moment later all of the burning ground vanished. It was disconcerting to see so much fire vanish and leave behind perfectly fine asphalt, grass, and so on, but powers were weird like that.

“Go!” I shouted at him, and he rushed off towards the truck, not needing to be told twice. He was on the comms too, so he had to have heard where Faultline wanted from him. I kept my focus on Rubicon, who was already back on his feet and running circles around the ground I was hovering over. “So, Ruby, can I call you Ruby? Super, thanks. Is running around like a chicken with its head cut off really the only thing you do?”

If he was bothered by my taunt, he didn’t show it. “So the mercs are recruiting normal kids now too?”

Unable to help myself, I cocked my hip and planted a hand there before replying with mock indignation, “I’m just ‘normal,’ huh? You sure know how to treat a lady.”

“W-Wait, what? I didn’t—” he started to defend before being cut off by me gesturing up and lifting him into the air by his ankles. He let out a startled yelp, but I was already surrounding him in a cocoon of my orbs.

Unfortunately my concentration lapsed when something slammed into my back and sent flying head over heels. I grunted with pain but forced myself to focus before I fell to the ground entirely. Rubicon was watching me warily while standing still this time, and Assault gave me a jaunty wave from where he was dodging leaps from Newter roughly halfway between here and the truck. Faultline, Shade, and Boudicca were still scuffling beyond.

What the hell had he hit me with? “FYI, that isn’t how you treat a lady either, you jerk!”

“I’ll make it up to you by treating you to dinner later!” he called out to my surprise.

Ignoring him for now, I turned my attention back to Rubicon and found the golden wings on his boots were now laying on the ground. I could just barely make out straps—possibly of leather—from here. “Ooo, homemade costume, huh? Where’d you get the boots, the DSW?” I taunted. Even from here, I could tell he was gritting his teeth to not respond. “I’d love a pair myself. You simply have to tell me where you do your shopping!”

Apparently deciding he was in a bad match-up, he ran off towards where Gregor and scuba dude were still fighting, and I moved to follow albeit at a comparatively slower pace. Faultline had mentioned Rubicon couldn’t run anywhere nearly as fast as Velocity, who was apparently a speedster in the Brockton Bay Protectorate, but he was still a damn sight faster than my measly top speed.

“Incoming, Riptide!” he barked out as he neared the two’s fight. Scuba dude shot off two waves in succession and layered them to create a sort of wider version of his attack, forcing Gregor to do a surprisingly nimble dodge roll to move out of the way in time.

I didn’t want to give the two heroes any chance of double teaming Gregor before I got there, but my orbs weren’t anywhere near close enough. Like Assault, the only real concentration of metal on scuba dude seemed to be his mask, and I didn’t want to chance unmasking him. Faultline had said I should avoid damaging cars, but I had already been given permission to fuck with the drive shaft on the truck… A little more wouldn’t hurt. Probably. With a gesture, I tore the rear doors free and sent one flying on an intercept path for how I expected Rubicon to approach Gregor and the other hurtling straight at scuba dude. Both of them predictably dodged, but I bought Gregor time to right himself and start harassing both capes with his goop. My orbs and I were finally close enough to make a difference, so I directed them to swarm scuba dude. He predictably sent a wave flying at me, but I was far enough away to dodge without issue, and my orbs punched right through without issue unlike Gregor’s attacks. I quickly encased his arms in metal and tugged him up enough that he hung just shy of being completely off the ground. Not wanting to risk losing concentration again and freeing him by mistake, I brought his hands together and fused my orbs just enough that they were one piece before pushing it all into the elsewhere. Thinking I had neutralized him, I started to turn my attention to where Gregor had apparently caught Rubicon by spraying his body fluids at the circling cape instead of hurling them as globs. Scuba dude took advantage of my distraction to kick at the air, generating a wave that crashed into me.

A surge of panic tore through me as I was briefly submerged in the thick, somewhat briny wave. As fleeting as the moment was, the fear hit me hard and lingered, leaving me breathing hard and shivering despite the water not being cold. The heavy breathing was disturbingly completely silent, and that realization made my panic worse. I lashed out at him with more orbs, but in my haze, I didn’t swarm him so much as pelt him with a multitude of ball bearings hurtling at speed. He screamed in pain as several smashed into each of his knee caps, but his cries were cut off as several more hit him in the gut. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I whirled around with a silent shriek to find Gregor waving for me to stop. A few of my orbs hit him before I realized who he was, but I froze the rest. He winced at the blows, but fortunately his unique body structure made him resistant to most impacts. He covered his mouth and tapped his throat—he must still be silenced. Seeing my understanding, he pointed at me and pantomimed the okay symbol—Are you okay?

I silently but rapidly shook my head, not sure how to explain the panic without words. I had a feeling I would have had trouble explaining even if I could speak. My throat was thick with emotion, and I was starting to have a bit of trouble breathing. He hesitated, his body language making it clear, then he held his arms wide but slightly angled towards me with a questioning look an his face. He stepped closer once it became apparent I didn’t understand, and something about the approach with his arms held up like that made me realize he was offering to hug me. I don’t know what possessed me to step forward—I probably wasn’t thinking straight right then—but he gently pulled me into him, and I realized I did feel a bit better. Maybe it was because over the past couple weeks he had shown himself time and again to be such a gentle guy? My eyes watered up a bit, and though I wasn’t crying, I still had to push up my goggles to wipe at my eyes and clear my vision.

“You broke my fucking knees!” scuba fuck screamed at us. “You assholes, I might never walk again!”

I winced, and Gregor let me go before rearing up almost protectively. He moved towards the battered cape, and halfway there I began to hear his footsteps once more, only then making me realize just how much scuba fuck’s silence affected. “She has a trauma related to water. I must kindly ask you to stop harassing her.”

“Like I give a shit! What part of ‘I might never walk again’ didn’t you get?”

“It is very regrettable, but perhaps you can request Panacea’s assistance.”

“She doesn’t do requests, you fat fuck!”

Leave him alone, you douchsicle! I tried to snarl at him, only to find I was still unable to speak.

“Riptide,” Rubicon hissed at him from where he was struggling with being stuck to the ground by a sticky green substance. The effect made him look like a fly caught on fly paper. “People are recording.”

My head snapped towards where, unbelievably, some people truly were recording us and the ongoing cape fight. My first official cape fight as Meteor, and someone records me getting a hug from a teammate. Fucking great.

“Meteor,” Gregor said, bringing my attention back to him. “If you are well now, then we must help the others.”

Channeling his earlier performance, I covered my mouth and tapped my throat, shrugged, then gave him the okay sign. I’m still silenced, but I’m okay.

He gestured at scuba dicksickle and asked, “Elsewhere?” At my nod, he said, “Very well. Let’s go.”

Truth be told, I still felt pretty off, but time was of the essence—unwinding would have to wait. I still had plenty of orbs left, and I brought them to me while Gregor and I moved to the other fight. It wasn’t going as well as I would have expected when it was four versus two. Shade and Newter were still on their feet and fighting, but both of them were looking worn out. Faultline had retreated somewhat and taken a knee, her costume visibly damaged. The cloth had been torn in a number of locations, her breastplate seemed somewhat warped, and her fake ponytail—the hairpiece with its hidden spikes was quite possibly the strangest part of her outfit—was missing. All three of them and even the two heroes had glowing blue rings around their necks that had what looked like X’s of varying amounts on the line. Strangely, Assault seemed to have more of the X’s than I could count, and he and Boudicca looked to be in great shape and were moving blindingly quickly with brief periods of normal speed from Boudicca. No, not strangely—it made sense once I remembered she was providing him energy by punching him. Each of her punches had to be giving Assault overwhelming power now. The battlefield itself was twisting and warping all over the place from Labyrinth’s power, and it seemed like that was the only thing keeping the heroes from crushing my teammates.

“Good, you took care of them,” Faultline said into the comms, breathing somewhat heavily. She had been making me do morning jogs with her ever since that first practice session in the warehouse, and she had a ton of endurance. That she was even remotely winded spoke volumes of how rough it must have been keeping up with the boosted heroes. “Gregor, get over here and try to help slow them down. Meteor, we’ll hold them off while you get Canary to the van. Be prepared to fly the van and extract all of us.”

“Understood,” Gregor replied, while I gave a overly emphatic salute, hoping she was looking this way.

I quickly flew over to the truck and hovered by the open gap in the back where I had torn away the doors. I hadn’t forgotten there was still someone in the truck with Canary, but I had been half expecting another hero to be guarding her. Instead I was surprised to find there were two prisoners in the convoy, sitting side by side at the back of the truck. One was Canary without a doubt, her hair a bright banana yellow and interspersed with feathers of yellow and green accenting shades. She was bound and gagged to such an absurd degree that I definitely would have thought she was a brute had I not known better. The other was a redhead who had her hands bound behind her back and was wearing a standard orange jumpsuit but strangely had a high necked shirt on under it, was wearing tall boots and long gloves, and had a dark black, thick blindfold tied in place over her eyes.

“Is someone there?” the mystery woman asked, sounding scared. “Please, help me!”

Who are you? I tried to ask before grimacing. Scuba douchsicle’s power still hadn’t worn off.

“Please,” she wailed when I didn’t say anything. “They’ve kept me like this for so long! They won’t even let me look at anything!”

God, really? I couldn’t even imagine. That sounded like torture to me. I couldn’t bring her with—there was no way I was risking the operation on that—but I couldn’t just ignore her either. A quick attempt to talk showed I wouldn’t be able call Faultline to ask her opinion, not while I was still silenced, and we needed to get out of here ASAP. Boudicca’s power paired up way too well with Assault’s, and we were likely going to be overrun soon. With a negligent gesture, I broke the chain connecting Canary’s bindings to the truck, and I wrapped her in orbs from the chest down before lifting her up and out. I bit my lip in indecision for a moment but restrained myself from breaking the other prisoner’s bonds. The team was counting on me to get Canary and get us out of here. I couldn’t take the risk of—

Something smashed into my chest from in front of me, but nothing was there.

“Got ya.”

My voice came back just in time for me to scream.