SteelStar lay on his back on a rooftop, staring at the clouds in his organic form. Things seemed to have quieted down in the city, but that was a relief by now. He was getting tired. It had been a long day, but he’d done some good. People were starting to notice him too, and he was quickly getting followers online. So far, this was set to be a great day.

Then he got an alert on his smartwatch. Something was destroying everything around it in the forest outside Partition City, some sort of red cyclone. It was first spotted by the crater sight, but it was making its way towards the city. SteelStar took a deep breath. This was a big one.

Wasting no time, SteelStar transformed into metal, levitated off the roof, and flew away, speeding towards the area.

***

The Silent Wraith stood in the forest with binoculars, his bodysuit blending in with the environment, making him nearly invisible. He was currently scoping out a building, specifically an E.H.O.D. facility a few miles from partition city. Facilities like this were placed near every city, as it was the E.H.O.D. that made holding cells for supervillains. This building would have chambers designed to keep power users sedated until a permanent prison could be constructed for their specific powers at New Tartarus Prison, the official supervillain jail. The Silent Wraith knew they at least did that for the world, but he also knew that the higher ups at the E.H.O.D. were as corrupt as they came.

Paramount didn’t know he was here, not that Silent had lied to him earlier. Silent fully intended to go to his lab later to inspect his samples from the crater site, but this place was on the way. Not telling Paramount was for his protection. As corrupt as they were, the E.H.O.D. was still an official government organization, and investigating it incurred no small risk, even to superheroes.

Suddenly, Silent got a message. Tapping a button in his mask, his view showed a head’s up display, revealing an alert about something glowing red destroying the forest as it headed towards Partition City.

“Oh no,” he said.

***

Paramount flew forward with his fist pulled back and then punched the giant bull in the side with all his might. The gigantic creature flew backward, tumbling over and ripping apart the grassy plain until it came to a stop. Around that same plain, six other gigantic bulls lay on their side, panting. Finally, the last one stayed down as well.

With that bull incapacitated, Paramount drifted downward until he reached the ground. He fell backward, laying in the grass as he took deep breaths. That battle had taken a lot longer than it should have. These mutants were pretty strong. He’d thrown everything he had at them, from punches to blasts of kinetic energy, but no matter how many times they went down, they seemed to get right back up. It was only now that they seemed to stay down. That was good. By now, Paramount was frighteningly low on energy.

A few minutes later, cargo helicopters from the E.H.O.D. arrived to take the bulls away. These helicopters were specially designed with massive tanks on their sides filled with a sedative. These could be hooked up to the bull's bloodstreams to keep them sedated until they could be taken to one of the few mutant reserves in the world. Paramount helped by rolling the bulls onto giant tarps tied to ropes so that the bulls could be carried away by the helicopters.

After taking a few minutes to rest, Paramount found himself flying back to the Redwell City crater site. He’d been gone far longer than he’d intended and hoped to make up for lost time. As he was flying back, he got an alert on his smartwatch. Realizing what time it was, he prayed silently that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

Unfortunately, it was exactly what he feared, and he pushed himself to fly as fast as he possibly could, though his low energy level meant that he couldn’t push himself at his normal top speed.

He could only hope that he wouldn’t be too late.

***

SteelStar flew as fast as he could over Partition City. He could see the edge of the city in the distance, forests stretching out beyond that. He couldn’t see any red light yet, but the alert was still ongoing.

Suddenly, SteelStar got a message on his smartwatch, a request for a video call. The sender was listed as “Paramount.” SteelStar saw that and had to look closer to make sure he’d read that right. It couldn’t be the real Paramount, could it? Only if the situation with the red cyclone was more serious than he’d thought.

SteelStar accepted the call, and his watch showed an image of Paramount himself, his hair whipping in the wind as he flew forward quickly. SteelStar, feeling like Andy again, suddenly felt overwhelmed.

“It’s you,” said SteelStar, a big smile breaking out on his metal face. “It’s really you. Sir, it’s…”

SteelStar stopped himself. He was about to say how much of an honor it was, but this wasn't the right time.

SteelStar cleared his throat, “Sir, is this about the situation outside Partition City?”

“That’s right,” said Paramount, his voice strong and serious. “You’re the only available superhero who’s anywhere close to him. Your profile says you have metal transformation, some magnetic abilities, and electricity generation. Is that correct?”

“That’s right,” said SteelStar.

“Can you do a nonlethal takedown with your electricity?”

“Yes, absolutely! Why do you ask?”

“Because the thing approaching your city is Spectramancer.”

“The superhero? What’s he doing?”

“His ability is powered by emotion, and right now, he’s stuck in a state of pure, unbridled rage. If you can disable him with a nonlethal shock, it should snap him out of it.”

“Okay,” said SteelStar, nodding and taking a deep breath. “Okay. I can do that.”

Paramount didn’t say anything for a moment and then said, “SteelStar, right?”

“That’s me.”

“I’ve never heard of you before, and you sound young. How long have you been a superhero?”

SteelStar said sheepishly, “A few hours.”

A moment later, Paramount said, “Oh, dear.”

***

Soon SteelStar saw the red glow for himself, shining from trees in the distance and dangerously close to the edge of the city as the last of the buildings passed under him. Flying closer, SteelStar saw a line of destruction trailing the red light with trees knocked over and fires everywhere. For a moment, SteelStar wondered how Spectramancer had gotten out here so fast. The original alert placed him near the crater site.

SteelStar got this answer the next moment. He saw Spectramancer flying through the air, traveling in an arc over the trees as two blasts trailed behind him and red energy spiraled around him. He used two blasts to slow his descent, but what alarmed SteelStar most was that it wouldn’t take long for Spectramancer to reach the city if he kept doing that. The red cyclone tore up any trees it came near, setting them on fire and blasting pieces of them away until they fell over, crashing to the forest floor.

“Morphic Man!” cried Spectramancer, preparing another leap. “Morphic Man!”

As the spinning aura blew away some more trees, SteelStar flew as close as he dared and hovered, raising his voice.

“Spectramancer!” he cried. “You need to stop!”

“Morphic Man!” cried Spectramancer, flying into the air.

“Why are you looking for Morphic Man?!” cried SteelStar.

“Morphic Man!”

The enraged man wasn’t listening, so SteelStar said, “I’m sorry about this.” And as Spectramancer landed, SteelStar threw out his hands to unleash a nonlethal takedown.

The lightning was deflected by the spinning red aura, scattering in the direction it spun. Spectramancer noticed the blast and threw a red wave of his own that struck SteelStar head on. SteelStar covered his smartwatch with his metal hand as the red energy washed over his entire body, knocking him back a little bit but otherwise not harming him.

SteelStar looked down and shouted, “I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to stop this.”

“Stay out of my way!” cried Spectramancer.

Spectramancer raised his hand and unleashed a narrow, concentrated beam that glowed brighter than the wave. This struck SteelStar right in the chest, making him grunt in pain as he was blasted backward. SteelStar smashed through a few trees before bouncing off the ground and rolling to a stop, kicking up dirt as he did. As the trees he smashed through crashed to the ground, SteelStar grabbed his stomach and groaned in pain. As he lay there, hugging himself, each of SteelStar’s breaths caused a wave of pain, making him breathe slowly. Clearly, Spectramancer had been holding back the first time.

“Morphic Man!”

Hearing him scream like that, SteelStar knew he couldn’t just stay there. Doing his best to ignore the pain, SteelStar stood, knowing he couldn’t give up now. SteelStar took a moment to get his breath back and flew into the air again. He then saw Spectramancer making another blast powered jump. He’d reach the city before long.

SteelStar brought up his smartwatch and contacted Paramount.

“Mr. Paramount…sir…uh…”

“Just Paramount is fine,” said Paramount. “What happened?”

“His power deflected my electricity,” said SteelStar.

“You’ll have to up the voltage so enough can get through.”

“How much do I use?”

It took Paramount a moment to answer, “I don’t know. He’s only lost it like this once, and we haven’t measured his full output in this state. You’ll have to ramp it up by degrees.”

“He’s getting close to the city,” said SteelStar, panic edging into his voice. “What if it takes too long to find the right voltage? What if I use too much and kill him?”

“Stay calm,” said Paramount. “You have to stay calm. I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can, but you have to try and stop him. Knock him out without hurting him if you can, but Spectramancer would rather you hurt him than let him hurt someone else. I can promise you that. You’ll have to use your own judgment for how much force to use.”

“Okay,” said SteelStar, and when he ended the call, he said again, this time with fear in his voice, “Okay.”

SteelStar flew after Spectramancer just as he landed. SteelStar shot more lightning, raising the voltage slightly. It seemed to penetrate the red cyclone, though not by much. Spectramancer rounded on him, his eyes glowing with red energy.

“You again?!”

Spectramancer’s spinning red aura grew as he stood there, knocking down a few more trees as it did. SteelStar was forced to dodge as Spectramancer threw more blasts at him, and SteelStar responded with another high voltage blast that still didn’t penetrate that aura. He dodged and weaved as Spectramancer threw red blasts everywhere, the blasts leaving burning holes in nearby trees and even slicing a few of them in half, making them fall to the ground with a crash.

SteelStar managed to shoot a lightning bolt big enough to penetrate a little further, but he didn’t feel like he was making any progress. Spectramancer was just unleashing too much energy, and the radius of that energy was getting bigger. Getting desperate, SteelStar tried to dive straight at him, dodging a few lasers and getting close as he pushed himself as hard as he could. If he could touch Spectramancer’s skin, he could transmit the nonlethal shock directly. He aimed himself at an angle, hoping to fly with the cyclone rather than fight against it.

He impacted the aura, and it was like being blasted with the strongest wind he’d ever face combined with sheering heat. SteelStar was blasted around Spectramancer, missing him completely before being ejected from the cyclone. Steelstar tumbled through the forest again, and when SteelStar finally stopped, he lay there for a moment, his head swimming.

SteelStar forced himself to stand, though he nearly fell a few times from dizziness. He looked at his metal hand when he stood, temporarily transforming his face back to his metal form. The reflection on the back of his hand revealed a few bruises on the side of his grey face. Lifting his costume and dismissing the metal there, SteelStar could see a bruise on his abs. Seeing the state he was in, SteelStar suddenly realized just how powerful Spectramancer was.

He took deep breaths, his body trembling until he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Get it together, Andy,” he told himself. “You can’t let him hurt anyone. You can’t let him hurt anyone. You can’t let him hurt anyone!”

He was almost screaming by the third time he said it.

He turned around, restored his metal form, and flew off, looking for Spectramancer again. He wasn’t hard to find. Andy just had to follow the destruction. SteelStar found Spectramancer making another leap and landing right next to a highway that went into Partition City. The traffic was light this time of day, so cars were mostly spaced out, but Spectramancer being around anyone right now wasn’t a good thing.

“No…no…no…no…no!” SteelStar shouted, diving down.

“Morphic Man!” cried Spectramancer, preparing another jump.

SteelStar threw as big a bolt of lightning as he could at a moment’s notice, but once again, it was deflected, and Spectramancer made his jump, landing right on the road. Three cars either stopped or swerved out of the way to avoid the glowing scarlet tornado. In the confusion, the cars hit each other, one of them flipping over just as SteelStar swooped down. Thinking quickly, SteelStar magnetized his hands to the flipping one, then flew to another car and touched it to the first lightly, magnetizing it to the one he was holding. He quickly flew to the third, magnetizing all of the cars together so he could push against them and stop them all as gently as possible.

Once he stopped the cars, he set them down gently and unmagnetized them so that the terrified people inside could get out. By now, vehicles behind these cars had slowed, causing a traffic jam as more and more cars were forced to stop. Seeing the two superheroes, people in the cars got out of their vehicles and ran in the other direction.

“Morphic Man!” Spectramancer cried again.

SteelStar turned. Spectramancer had made one jump down the road while SteelStar was stopping the cars. By now, the enraged man was getting close to the cars still heading into the city. The cars furthest to the back were speeding up to escape the destruction, but Spectramancer would still catch up before too long. As Spectramancer prepared to make another blast powered leap, SteelStar realized that he was still headed towards Partition City, so the electric superhero shot another big lightning bolt. This got Spectramanccer’s attention as SteelStar flew towards the forest. SteelStar dodged a few blasts and threw a few of his own, hoping Spectrmancer would follow him into the woods. Each of SteelStar's lightning bolts was deflected by the glowing cyclone, and the farther away he got, the less interest Spectramancer seemed to have in him.

Spectramancer turned back towards the city and made another blast powered jump.

“Oh, come on!” Shouted SteelStar, frustrated.

While the cars already driving into the city were far away enough that they didn’t get caught in it, Spectramancer’s aura was bigger than ever. Just being in the city could cause massive damage, and SteelStar could see the first buildings in the distance. SteelStar, gritting his teeth in frustration, tapped into his inner reserve, channeling electricity to his maximum output as he flew closer. Electricity danced over SteelStar’s metal body as he began to glow white. Gritting his teeth, SteelStar pulled back his hands before throwing them forward, unleashing as much electricity as he could. The massive beam of electricity drilled into Spectramancer’s spinning aura, getting halfway to Spectramancer before being deflected to the side.

When the electricity cleared, Spectramancer was already aiming a blast that caught SteelStar's chest, blasting him backward. SteelStar, his eyes wide and teeth clenched from the pain, flew through a few trees, knocking them down before he landed, rolling to the ground as trees crashed in front of him.

He lay there for a moment, straining to breathe as he hesitantly put his hand where he’d been struck. Once again, he had to take a moment to breathe heavily, but he knew he was running out of time. Yet again, he had to force himself to get up quickly and fly after Spectramancer.

Spectramancer landed on the road, leaving holes in the asphalt where the beams slowing him hit, and then prepared to make another leap. The red vortex around him was bigger than ever, and as he made another jump, it got him closer to the cars headed into the city. By now, the fleeing cars had caught up to cars unaware of the situation and thus were slowed down. When Spectramancer came down, his aura went right over the car furthest to the back, a black sedan.

“No!” cried SteelStar, reaching his hand out.

SteelStar tried to repel the car away from Spectramancer with magnetism, but the car didn’t get far before the aura enveloped it. The car’s engine exploded as the vehicle was thrown to the side, flying through the air and landing upside down between the roads, fire spilling through the windows. SteelStar made a futile effort to sense an electromagnetic signature within the car, even though he knew he wouldn’t find one. He hovered in the air for a moment, looking at the scene in horror.

“Morphic Man!” cried Spectrmancer. “I know you’re in there! Show yourself!”

At that moment, SteelStar knew he had to stop him, and he realized he couldn’t afford to hold back anymore. Spectramancer was dead set on getting to Partition City. He must have thought that Morphic Man was there, though heaven knew why he was so angry at him. Spectramancer’s spinning aura was so big by now that if he stood in the middle of the street, it would touch buildings on either side of him. It would be like hitting the city with a tornado. If Spectramancer started bringing down buildings, countless people would die. SteelStar had to act now before he reached the city.

At this point, SteelStar had only one attack left, and he really didn’t want to use it.

SteelStar put his left hand to his belt and magnetically pulled a switch that released a bullet into that hand. Slotting the bullet into the groove atop the wrist on his right gauntlet, he magnetized it there to use it at a moment’s notice before he flew towards the enraged superhero.

SteelStar flew above him and launched a lightning bolt in front of Spectramancer, blasting the road and getting his attention before the enraged man could make another jump. Spectramancer screamed and started throwing blasts at the other superhero. As SteelStar dodged, he aimed the bullet on his wrist, summoning as much electromagnetic energy as he could stuff into the bullet, making it glow white as electricity sparked off it. This would increase its penetration power dramatically and would hopefully penetrate the aura. He dodged left, right, up and down, all the while he kept the bullet trained on Spectramancer, his wrist shaking slightly.

For a moment, he considered trying just grazing Spectramancer with the bullet. Maybe enough electricity would jump over to stop him without harming him. However, as SteelStar checked his inner reserve, he realized he only had enough power for one more big attack. He’d used too much energy earlier, and if it didn’t work, SteelStar would lose his last chance to stop him. Besides, SteelStar didn’t trust his aim enough to do this accurately.

And so SteelStar made his aiming pose and aimed the electrified bullet just slightly off center, counting on the spinning red energy to alter its path and strike Spectramancer head on. As SteelStar kept Spectramancer in his sights, the other superhero’s face remained contorted with rage as tears formed under SteelStar’s metal eyes.

“I’m sorry,” SteelStar whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

SteelStar dodged a particularly wide beam and then unleashed the magcannon. The supercharged bullet flew through the air, striking the red cyclone violently. It practically drilled through the energy, the aura shifting its path to hit Spectramancer in the torso. However, despite the bullets' massive energy, the aura tore away at the electrified bullet, shaving metal off it from the side and making it smaller. By the time it reached Spectramancer, it was almost the size of a needle, and it barely struck the man’s chest in time. The electrified needle passed through him, instantly cauterizing the wound and sending electricity running up and down Spectrmaancer’s body.

The needle passed through, vaporizing as it came out the other side of him. Spectramancer stood there, convulsing from the electricity for a few moments. The red vortex faded away from his body, disappearing completely, and finally, the lightning ran out. Spectramancer stood there, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

“W…what?” asked Spectramancer as he began to fall over backward.

SteelStar, fearing for the man’s life, flew over and caught his costume on the chest, stopping him from hitting the asphalt. He set Spectramancer down gently, then reached under him to pick him up. SteelStar intended to get him to a hospital, but the moment he pulled up, Spectramancer cried out in pain, suddenly coughing as a few drops of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. SteelStar, his eyes wide with distress, had to put him down. Clearly, it wasn’t safe to move him.

SteelStar took a few deep breaths, trying to figure out what he should do next. He thought of calling for an ambulance, but when he checked his smartwatch, he saw that it was melted, fused to his metal wrist. He scraped the useless watch off his wrist with his other metal hand and then frantically thought about his next move. It occurred to him that plenty of people had seen what happened. Surely someone had called 911 or at least put out an alert on Dangerwatch. He flew up, feeling a bit unsteady as he did, being low on energy. Up in the air, he watched the city closely and could just barely make out the lights of emergency vehicles in the distance. Feeling some relief, SteelStar flew back down to check on Spectramancer.

SteelStar transformed out of his metal form and stood over the other hero hesitantly. Spectramancer, still groaning in pain as he lay on the ground, looked up at this strange grey skinned, white haired, and blue eyed superhero in confusion.

“What…” said Spectramancer, coughing. “What happened?”

“You…um…” SteelStar stammered, his voice quivering. “Well, you see, Mr. Spectramancer, sir…uh…”

Spectramancer closed his eyes. Now that he’d snapped out of his rage, he could sense the emotions around him, and this young man before him was feeling compassion towards Spectramancer, distress at what was going on, and a small amount of guilt. When Spectramancer remembered his conversation with Morphic Man, it wasn’t hard to figure out what happened.

“I went on a rampage, and you had to stop me, didn’t you?”

“Y…yes, sir,” said SteelStar.

Spectramancer coughed, and to SteelStar’s horror, a few more drops of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.

“Did…” said Spectramancer between coughs. “Did I hurt anyone?”

SteelStar didn’t answer but almost backed away, not knowing whether to tell him or not. He didn’t have to, however. Spectramancer could sense SteelStar’s distress spiking. Of course, if Spectramancer didn’t have that power, he would still have been able to tell. The distress was written all over SteelStar’s face.

“I did,” said Spectramancer, closing his eyes in shame as tears ran down his face.

SteelStar hesitated, not knowing what to do. Finally, Spectramancer opened his eyes.

“What’s your name?” asked Spectramancer.

“I…I’m SteelStar. I’m new.”

“SteelStar,” said Spectramancer. “Thank you. I’m…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for all of this. I…” he coughed. “I want you to know you did the right thing. Whatever else happens, you did the right thing. If you see…” he coughed a few more times. “If you see Paramount, tell him I’m sorry. And if you see my daughter, Passion, please tell her I’m sorry I didn’t listen to her, and that I love…I love…I…”

Spectramancer’s eyes glazed over, and suddenly the man went still. SteelStar even felt the energy of the other’s nervous system fade away. On some level SteelStar knew what that meant, but poor Andy couldn’t bring himself to accept it.

“Spectramancer?” he asked. “Spectramancer? Spectramancer?!”

SteelStar backed away, horror written all over his face. He wracked his brain, thinking that there had to be something he could do. Could he restart his heart? No, electricity had caused this. It could just make things worse if he used it now. SteelStar was hyperventilating now, feeling more helpless than he’d ever felt in his life.

He wasn’t certain how much time had passed, but SteelStar eventually sensed an electromagnetic signature in the sky. Looking up, SteelStar saw a figure flying towards him, a figure in blue and white. Soon SteelStar recognized him as Paramount.

Paramount landed beside Spectramancer and looked at him, shock written all over his face. He stood there for a few moments, just feeling the weight of what he was seeing, before turning to the other superhero in the area. SteelStar stood there, trembling in fear.

“I…” SteelStar stammered. “I didn’t…I mean, I tried…I had to…I…I…”

Tears ran down SteelStar’s face. Seeing that the young man was in distress, Paramount put his hands up nonthreateningly.

“It’s alright, son,” he said, keeping his voice soothing and calm. “It’s alright. Just take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”

SteelStar took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. As Paramount waited patiently, the Silent Wraith sat on his motorcycle at the edge of the forest, watching the scene unfold as he bowed his head in sadness.