5.02

The destruction was hectic. Buildings had been blown apart and were crumbling. Dead bodies lay on the ground and Hunter was pretty sure he saw missing limbs.

Green Thumb was tending to as many people as he could. He had two other teammates with him.

Turbo stood at the end of the street. His arms were crossed and his friend from before crouched down next to him.

Hunter and the others, including Stick, approached Green Thumb.

“Well howdy. I remember you lot from last time. This is Silencer and Freight Train.”

Silencer was a little taller than Hunter. They were covered completely in black with only a pair of orange tinted goggles that covered their eyes. The costume was covered in pieces of body armour. They nodded at Justice Punch.

Freight Train wore a chunky looking power suit that was not built to be subtle. It was bombastic in design, green and silver in colour. However, he wore no helmet. He had a mullet that looked like it was from an older age of heroes.

“Howsit going?” He waved awkwardly to the group.

“Are you here to help too? You’re Stick, aren’t you?” Green Thumb asked.

“Only if it seems too much for all of you to handle. But I think you should be okay. You’re all graduates of The Academy and this lot will be in at the start of the next semester. If you need help, just say so.”

Hunter, Silas, and Jimena looked at the carnage. They had never seen anything like this before. It was nothing like the dreams of being a hero looked like.

The street was washed with blood and Hunter could hear the calls of dying people who were desperate for help.

“You okay?” Stick asked.

“Its…so violent,” said Hunter.

“It can be.” Stick looked at her team and realised what was bothering them.

A super-charged car came speeding down the street and exploded just after passing them. Freight Train put up a force field that protected the group from the blast.

Jimena didn’t know what to think. She felt she was in over her head and she questioned if this was something she really wanted to do.

Silas looked at everything and locked eyes with a corpse. The head stuck out from under a chunk of cement. A chill ran down his spine.

“Stick. Does this happen often?” Hunter asked. “This level of mayhem?”

“More often than you know. We’re lucky we’ve got so many heroes here with powers to fix it, but sometimes it isn’t enough. Whether they are too busy fixing something else, or there’s just a bad day with all the destruction happening at once. It can’t always be helped.”

“Come on you lot, I’m getting bored!” Turbo screamed at them from the end of the street.

“Do you think he enjoys this?” asked Jimena. She stared down at Turbo.

“I think he does.” Stick looked at the other three heroes. Green Thumb continued to heal who he could and the other two stood there in silence.

“It can be hard. Seeing this and making the choice to continue or stop. I almost quit the first time I came across something so wicked,” said Green Thumb. “It’s a scary thing, being confronted with scenery like this.”

“I’ll take care of this,” said Stick. “We’ll talk more later.” She took a few steps toward Turbo and Silencer stepped up beside her too.

“Careful. His friend can teleport people away from a simple touch,” said Silas.

“We’ll be fine.” The teens watched as Stick and Silencer ran at Turbo.

“This is more like it. I was starting to get bored!” He shot out tiny cars that the two expertly dodged. Freight Train brought up a force field to keep them protected. The cars exploded on impact like raindrops of fire.

“They’ll be okay,” said Freight Train.

“All the dead people won’t be,” said Jimena. She could feel herself shaking slightly.

“Unfortunately, tragedy surrounds us. Make sure you look after yourselves.” Green Thumb had just finished healing another person. They coughed and spluttered, and Green Thumb helped them to sit up.

“Do you need help?” Hunter asked.

“No, we’ll be okay. Just move around with us, Freight Train will keep us safe with his force field.”

As Justice Punch helped Green Thumb and Freight Train with healing the civilians of Athena City, Stick and Silencer had their hands full with Turbo and his helper.

As Silencer and Stick closed the gap, Turbo’s friend rushed forward. Stick twisted out of the way just in time. However, Silencer got tapped and found themselves down the street off to the left.

“Oh, I think this is going to get interesting.” Turbo fanned out a few toy cars and they exploded around Stick. A few caught her off guard and the blasts knocked her about. Her skin immediately blistered.

Stick took her weapon and brought it in hard against Turbo’s collarbone. Turbo flew through the air and bounced along the road.

“This is exactly what I wanted.” Turbo pulled himself up and saw a car next to him. He revved up its engine and let it fly toward Stick.

Stick ran toward him and jumped through the explosion, singing her hair in the process.

“Goodbye,” said Stick. She cracked her staff at Turbo, hitting him with rapid strikes. At one point, his body was only standing because Stick kept hitting him.

Silencer snuck up on Turbo’s friend and brought about a bubble of absolute darkness.

Turbo’s friend, Julian Skaif, stood still in the darkness. He couldn’t hear anything; he couldn’t see anything. He brought his arms up and couldn’t see them either. Julian was taken over by a feeling of vertigo and didn’t know if he was standing or laying down.

Julian tried to walk but couldn’t move. He felt something hit the side of face and he stumbled over.

“This isn’t fair. I can’t see or hear anything.” Julian stumbled about, unsure of what to do. He was greeted by only silence. “The least you could do is answer me.”

A blinding blow struck the side of Julian’s head, and he was knocked out. The darkness disappeared and Silencer stood over their opponent.

“Come on, let’s go,” said Stick to the teens.